Spectacle

It was chilly in the testing chamber. A dry cool devoid of life, except for a certain test subject. The large, open space, brightly lit white fluorescent lights, the slight hum, and well hidden cameras were prepared to see the upcoming event. A large feedback broke the silence. The intercom spoke to him.

"Mr. Shultz, I see you found your way to the testing chamber. For this experiment we'll be doing something a little different today. We have been able to create an artificial intelligence for you to fight."
Shultz was morbidly anticipating the new changes.

The intercom paused, and responded, "The programs that you've been fighting up till now were usage calibrations to make sure that feedback and spectacle system were fully functioning. They were predetermined obstacles that were designed to test your endurance and our understanding of their effects on the human body."

"Mr. Shultz, this will be what you call our first AI that will mimic human behaviour. The test data that you've provided has allowed us to construct something of that sort. This will be a combat situation, please be on guard as your life depended on it. The test will begin in one minute."

A timer showed up on one of the walls, counting down. Shultz double checked his gear: that his spectacle eyepiece was on and recieving a signal, that his glove and foot pads were connected, and that the feedback system was connected.

Once the timer reached zero, the spectacle system began to construct walls covering around the test chamber. Only those who had such a device could see the effects. Lit trees, fountains, benches and walkways formed out of nowhere, all pristine and hollow.

A slight pain winged Shultz on his hands and feet; the feedback system worked.

Darkness obliqued where the white lights used to be and a sort of night effect was made. Shultz felt and heard the cold winds that didn't exist. The walls glowed black, that gave a false freedom of open space.
A traffic light shone across Shultz, showing red. Three rings later and it turned green and disappeared.
He dashed to the nearest tree to hide. It felt natural for him to touch the non-tree, and could press himself on it. Feedback compelled him not to press further. He sweat at the thought of fighting another humanoid.

His patience wore thin. He decided to move to a different vantage point. Moving to a bush, and another tree, something caught a glimpse in his eye. He quickly rolled to his right stopping mid run to dodge a missile. Quickly, he pressed onto another tree.

It sounded like a crossbow bolt. This was not a weapon normally used by AI, because there was no need. This was a player weapon.
Shultz drew his breath, and thought in his mind, “Shield!”. A bright round transparent blue shield emanated from his left hand, growing in diameter, to about the size of his forearm.
He quickly dashed out of cover to face the attacker. He stopped in his tracks.

He broke out in cold sweat, his legs aback. The attacker looked to be around his age, a little shorting than him, with long brown hair, with a gold aura shining around her. Her expression was dead as she looked towards him. She carried with her a lit crossbow, and was arming her next bolt.

"Sasha.."

Shultz regained his composure and sprinted toward her, shield forward.
The lit girl aimed her energy crossbow straight at him, and fired a shot. It bounced off the shield. Shultz came closer and closer to her and jumped. She manually reloaded another shot and aimed below his torso, hitting his knee.
Shultz jerked to the ground in pain, a visible crossbow bolt protuding on his pants.
The girl was ready to make another shot, just as Shultz forced the bolt of of his leg agonizingly. He lifted his shield up and blocked the next shot.

"Heal!" came out of his mouth and a numbing cool enveloped where the bolt was. He dashed towards a lit bush and hid in it, shield on.

The girl didn't hesitate. She kept reloading and firing shots at the bush while walking towards it. Each strike hit the shield but Shultz felt its power diminishing as the bolts hit. Luckily for him she was out of bolts.

Without them she discarded her crossbow in favour of something more melee. She clasped her hands and chanted in a monotone voice, “Sword!”

She came running full speed with energy katana in hand.
Shultz closed his eyes, and thought of his weapon, an energy knuckle.

When she was close enough, Shultz emerged out of the bush and shoulder rushed her. This surprised the girl and flinched back. Shultz took this opportunity to try and tackle her, but was countered back by a swift horizontal slice. The girl drew her katana, both hands clasped.

Shultz and the girl began a circle of death, watching each others moves. Shultz checked again, this girl could not exist anymore. They did not have the shine like he remembered them to be. But still, for the corporation to have mimicked her data, this was an insult to her memory he thought.

The girl started aggressively hacking at his direction, each time dodging them. Her movements were like that of the real Sasha.

He knew her agility could not be matched, so eyeing her crossbow on the ground, he pounced at it and roll dashed to get a few bolts stuck in the bush. He reloaded. The girl attempted to pierce Shultz with her katana, but his knuckle skinned deflected the stab.

He pointed the crossbow at her stomach, and fired. The image winced in pain, as did Shultz. The image collapsed into the ground, fresh with virtual blood of his one time partner.

The intercom spoke, “Excellent work. We will begin the trials again tomorrow. Thanks for your cooperation.”

And all that was left was the test subject alone.