My Infinite Investment System

Bianca Sato chose his ribs before the semifinal horn finished crossing the arena.

The Bronze Cup floor smelled of charged dust, fresh resin, and citrus disinfectant beneath the hot lamps.

Three scoring pylons stood across waist-high barriers, each lit for one and a half minutes before moving to a new position.

Each team earned one point for every thirty seconds of uncontested control inside an active ring.

Northstar needed eleven points, or the lead when the eight-minute clock expired.

"Nia holds, Jun finds, Amara preserves, Mika ends," he said as the match timer showed five seconds.

Amara tightened the pain-sink bracer and said, "Preserves includes you, try respecting the category."

Mika kept her gaze on Luca while catching Ryan’s cuff and said, "Stay where I can reach you."

Ryan checked the distance to the active pylon and replied, "That defeats the formation."

She released his sleeve with visible reluctance and said, "Then stay where I can become unreasonable quickly."

The horn sounded across the arena while every scoring ring changed from amber to white.

Every joke vanished as Bianca lowered her weight behind both folded blades.

"Jun, center route, Nia with him," Ryan said as Spark Sense opened gold lines across the shifting floor, "Mika, left pressure."

Northstar split.

Luca sent Darius toward the middle as Bianca vaulted the left barrier with both mana blades open.

"Hunter on analyst," Jun called from the same route.

"Seen."

Gold lines showed the weak joint, so Ryan dropped beneath her second edge as the first blade pierced resin.

’She expects me to run toward Mika,’ he thought as the striker turned her right hip, ’so Luca owns where I move.’

Ryan moved toward Apex, crossing behind Darius until Bianca stopped her third strike rather than open her teammate’s back.

"Center clear for two seconds," he called while pointing between Darius’s exposed heels.

Nia rammed her shield against Darius’s silver barrier and carried him beyond the scoring ring.

Jun stepped onto the pylon while the route lights beneath his boots joined the white boundary.

**Northstar possession**

The marker began counting as Luca redirected Emil, whose capture wire crossed Bianca’s attack from the opposite side.

Ryan saw both routes converge at his left ankle, one meant to bind while the other forced him into the blade.

"Down," he ordered himself.

He went flat as the capture wire crossed above him, nearly disturbing his hair.

Bianca changed the slash during its final half meter, turning the edge toward his spine.

Guard answered through his raised palm while the ache behind his wrist tightened into sudden heat.

Her mana blade struck the light, stopped within centimeters of his back, then threw her sideways as the heartbeat ended.

Ryan pushed upright while the ability vanished behind a deep ache in his wrist.

[Guard expended]

[Recovery unavailable during current exchange]

"Barrier artifact?" Luca called from across the field.

"File a complaint," she replied as she drove a quiet palm into his chest plate.

Luca caught her wrist as Bianca saw Ryan’s empty hand, understood the protection had ended, then smiled for the first time.

"Once," she said while closing the distance.

Ryan backed through the center lane as Jun’s pylon completed its first point.

**Northstar 1 | Apex 0**

Darius struck Nia sideways while Emil pulled Jun from the ring, allowing Apex to occupy center together.

"Right pylon in six," Jun called from the floor as he cut the wire against his boot plate.

"Nia, right on activation, Mika stay left."

Mika ducked Luca’s elbow while her eyes snapped toward him.

"He has two hunters on him."

"Keep Luca out."

She held his stare for half a beat, then obeyed.

Bianca came over the center wall with both blades tucked tight enough to conceal her landing angle.

Ryan used Spark Step before her lead foot landed, crossing four meters in one gold crack toward the right lane.

His stomach rolled while the eleven-second recovery began, putting a sour burn behind his tongue.

Emil predicted the destination from Ryan’s shoulders, firing before the gold trail disappeared from that lane.

The scout’s capture wire wrapped his right wrist at the instant he arrived.

Ryan hit the resin floor hard enough to lose the breath he needed for an order.

Bianca landed behind him.

One mana blade hooked beneath the wire while the second stopped beside his throat.

"Yield," she said as the audience leaned into one shared sound.

He looked beyond her at the right pylon, where gold routes showed its moving base.

It would emerge beneath the barrier after three more counts, within Nia’s reach without crossing center.

"Nia, now."

The bulwark did not look toward him as she shifted both armored boots toward the hidden mechanism.

She lowered her shield and drove Darius across the center ring, clearing Jun’s route through the right lane.

Bianca pressed the weapon closer until heat stung beneath Ryan’s jaw.

"You are the formation," she said, lowering her voice, "they break when you do."

"Test it."

Emil tightened the capture wire.

Ryan rolled toward the tension instead of away, which dragged the scout one step off balance.

He caught the wire between both hands, planted his feet against the floor, then pulled.

Emil stumbled across Bianca’s line.

Her blade lifted to avoid his neck while the scout blocked her clean finishing line.

Ryan drove one shoulder into her hips, scrambled free beneath both hunters, then ran without an ability answering.

Behind him, the pair recovered faster while Spark Sense drew two red paths across his back.

Mika saw both routes from the left pylon, where Luca had left his chest open beside the scoring light.

She looked at the point.

Then she looked at Ryan.

The performance disappeared from her face while the easy point remained exposed beneath Luca’s nearest boot.

Pink lightning crossed twelve meters with one sharp crack as she abandoned Luca, hit Bianca’s blade from the side, then landed between Ryan and both hunters.

Her boots skidded across resin while the current broke against the grounded arena seams.

"Move," she ordered without turning.

"You left the pylon."

"I can count."

Luca placed one boot inside the unguarded ring while his attention followed Mika across the center lane.

**Apex control**

His first point began.

Mika met Bianca’s twin blades barehanded, coating each palm with current thin enough to redirect rather than discharge.

Emil circled toward Ryan until Jun’s route marker struck his sensor lens.

The scout flinched.

Jun caught his own marker on the rebound and said, "Those cost eight dollars each, so please appreciate the sacrifice."

"Right pylon!" he called as its gold light rose.

Nia reached it first, shield angled across the narrow entrance.

Darius hit her barrier with enough force to move both armored boots, but Amara stepped from the medical lane.

She placed one hand between Nia’s shoulder blades while the white bracer opened another empty chamber.

The white bracer absorbed the fracture pain traveling through the shield harness, filling its first indicator with red light.

"Thirty seconds," the healer said as her mouth tightened, "then I stop."

Nia lowered her weight.

"Twenty is enough."

Jun slid into the control ring behind her while route lights spread from his boots.

Ryan tracked the field from beside the right wall, one arm bleeding through a shallow blade line.

Guard remained absent.

Spark Step needed three seconds.

Apex held left while Northstar contested right, leaving the center pylon open for its next activation.

Luca saw the same future.

He pointed toward Ryan again.

Darius disengaged from Nia so quickly that her shield met empty air.

The barrier specialist crossed the center with his silver wall raised, creating a moving corridor for Bianca.

"They want him out before rotation," Jun said.

"Then take the rotation," he replied, mapping the center pylon’s rising mechanism, "leave me."

Mika turned with pink current trembling at every fingertip, then bared her teeth and said, "Absolutely not."

He pointed toward the next mechanism and said, "That is the score."

Her attention caught on his torn sleeve as she said, "You are bleeding."

"One centimeter, no depth," Amara called after one clinical glance, "keep arguing while mobile."

Darius’s barrier reached him.

Ryan stepped left as the silver edge slammed down, then crossed right when Bianca cut through the forced exit.

They adjusted together.

No gold line offered safety.

Spark Step returned behind his ankle, but the nearest clear landing sat five meters away.

He remembered the nausea after his six-meter overstep, the wall that had nearly taken him apart, plus the core weight against his chest.

The four-meter safe range would work only if he moved directly toward danger.

Ryan fired through the narrow gap between Darius and Luca.

He arrived inside Apex’s formation, close enough to see Luca’s public smile fail.

"Center in two," he called.

Jun left the right pylon before its point finished, trusting the route call more than the half-count he surrendered.

Northstar surrendered half a count, which meant nothing beside the new objective.

Route boots carried him through the path Ryan had opened.

Nia followed with the shield across his back while Amara withdrew her hand at the exact limit she had declared.

The center pylon rose beneath Jun’s boots while its control light painted both soles white.

**Northstar possession**

Bianca turned on Ryan again.

Mika intercepted her at the first step, shoulder hitting shoulder while both women crossed beyond the scoring ring.

"You do not get him twice," she said as the current around her palms became white at the edges.

"You gave up a point for him."

"I gave up one."

Luca struck Ryan across the mouth with the back of his glove before he could clear the formation.

Pain flashed behind his left eye while blood touched the split inside his mouth.

He stayed upright, caught the second wrist, then used Luca’s forward weight to turn him away from Jun.

It was ugly fighting, learned from avoiding alleys rather than winning arenas.

The Cup leader recovered with a knee against Ryan’s thigh, then drove him into the nearest resin wall.

"You should have stayed behind a desk," he said as his forearm pressed across Ryan’s chest.

Ryan looked past him toward the scoreboard while Luca mistook the shifted attention for fear.

**Northstar 6 | Apex 6**

Thirty-one seconds remained in the round while both outer mechanisms woke beneath opposite walls.

The final rotation lit both outer pylons at once, forcing teams to divide.

"Jun, left, Nia right," he said while Luca increased the pressure, "Mika choose free."

She heard what he meant.

Protecting him again would surrender one whole side before either objective completed its first count.

Mika knocked Bianca’s blade beyond her hip, then ran toward the left objective with Jun.

The choice hurt enough to be correct while Luca’s forearm remained pressed across Ryan’s chest.

Ryan trapped Luca’s wrist against the wall, slipped beneath his arm, then took three unassisted steps before Darius’s barrier caught his legs.

He fell across the scoring boundary as Apex claimed right.

Northstar held left for one point, lost it after Bianca reached Jun, then regained the circle through Nia’s cross-field shield throw.

The horn ended the exchange beneath a scoreboard that left both teams staring without celebration.

**Apex 8 | Northstar 7**

Cup medics crossed the arena while Amara reached Ryan first.

She took his chin between two fingers and inspected the cut along his mouth.

"Guard?" she asked quietly while cameras crowded the rail.

He flexed his aching wrist and said, "Spent once, then nothing."

Amara checked the swelling with her thumb and said, "So your emergency miracle has opinions."

He watched her bracer stay dark and replied, "Currently negative ones."

Mika stopped in front of him with her chest rising too fast.

The easy point she abandoned replayed on the stadium wall, followed by Bianca’s blade stopping at his throat.

Commentators called it emotional indiscipline.

Her hands disappeared from the conversation as she watched the score remain one point behind.

Ryan touched two fingers against her wrist, away from the regulator.

"You saved me," he said, "now we win the exchange you bought."

Luca raised one glove from the opposite side while the final-round timer appeared above them.

Sixty seconds appeared above the floor as officials cleared every medic beyond the rail.

Northstar entered those final seconds one point behind while Guard remained silent beneath Ryan’s aching wrist.