The battleground hummed with an energy Rohan hadn't felt before. This time, his opponent wasn't just any executive. Pierre Douant from France stood across from him, arms folded, his face radiating confidence. The man was a puzzle—a dangerous one, wrapped in layers of calm and precision. Rohan knew this would be unlike anything he had faced.
"Are you ready?" Pierre asked in a thick French accent, his voice dripping with amusement. He had a slow, deliberate way of speaking, like a man who had already calculated the outcome.
Rohan stretched his arms, rolling his neck. "As ready as I'll ever be. I hear you're pretty tough," he said, trying to match Pierre's calm demeanor.
Pierre's smirk widened. "Tough? Oh, I wouldn't call it that. I'd say... efficient." He paused, his eyes narrowing. "Let's see if you can keep up."
Without warning, Pierre raised his hand and whispered, "Neutrino Nexus."
The air around him shimmered faintly, like a heat mirage, but instead of heat, it was a distortion—a subtle bending of the space itself. Rohan felt a strange tug on his senses, as though reality had shifted slightly out of focus.
Pierre gave him a small, almost polite nod and then vanished.
"Whoa, what the—?" Rohan blinked, looking around frantically. The Frenchman had simply disappeared. The ground beneath Rohan's feet trembled for just a second before Pierre's voice echoed from below him, calm and unbothered.
"I can move through anything, you see. Neutrinos pass through entire planets without a care. And now… so can I."
Rohan leapt back just as Pierre phased up from the ground like a ghost, his hand outstretched to grab him. "You can't touch what doesn't want to be touched," Pierre said coolly, his body still halfway submerged in the ground.
Pierre's entire form shimmered as he stepped through the arena floor, his molecules simply slipping through solid matter. He looked up, his eyes flashing with quiet arrogance. "What are you going to do now, Rohan? Your attacks won't land. I can phase through anything—walls, barriers, even your attacks."
Rohan clenched his fists. "Yeah? Well, let's test that theory." He sprinted toward Pierre, launching a punch aimed squarely at the Frenchman's chest. But Pierre didn't move. He didn't even flinch. Rohan's fist passed straight through Pierre's body, hitting nothing but air. He stumbled, thrown off balance.
Pierre chuckled, "You see? You're fighting an executive now. Neutrinos are everywhere, but they barely interact with anything in the universe. I'm just like them—untouchable."
Rohan took a step back, his mind racing. "Okay, so he can phase through stuff... Great."
He activated his own power, Ditto, feeling the familiar surge as he copied Pierre's ability. Instantly, the battlefield lit up in a way Rohan hadn't experienced before. It wasn't just about seeing Pierre—it was about sensing him. Neutrinos left behind faint, almost imperceptible traces of energy as they passed through matter, and now, Rohan could pick up on those signals. He could track Pierre's movements, even when he was phased out of reality.
Pierre blinked in surprise when Rohan dodged his next attack, slipping just out of reach. "You adapted quickly. I didn't expect that," Pierre admitted, his eyes narrowing.
"Yeah, well... I've got a few tricks of my own," Rohan shot back. His confidence was building. He could sense Pierre now. Maybe he couldn't hit him directly, but he wasn't as invisible as he thought.
But Pierre wasn't done. "You think you've figured me out?" He brought a hand to his temple. "Try keeping up with this."
Rohan watched as Pierre's hand hovered near his head, and suddenly, he realized something strange was happening. Pierre was communicating... but with who?
"You're not calling for backup, are you?" Rohan asked, half-joking but suspicious.
Pierre smiled without looking at him. "I don't need backup. But I can talk to anyone, anywhere, without saying a word." His eyes flicked back to Rohan, his smirk growing more insufferable. "It's a little trick called neutrino signaling. I can send messages through anything—walls, barriers, distance means nothing."
Rohan bit his lip, feeling the growing pressure of the situation. He couldn't allow Pierre to strategize while they fought. "Doesn't matter who you talk to. You're still going down."
Pierre simply smiled wider. "Am I? Let's see if you can keep up."
Before Rohan could react, Pierre's body shimmered again. This time, though, it wasn't phasing. The very air around him seemed to bend and distort. Pierre moved, but he moved too fast—no, not fast. Time itself was... different around him.
Pierre's smirk deepened as he strolled casually around the arena. "I can see everything, Rohan. Faster than you can imagine. Neutrinos oscillate between different forms—different flavors. So, I thought, why not oscillate between different flows of time?"
From Rohan's perspective, Pierre was blurring, speeding up, slowing down, and appearing everywhere at once. His heart pounded in his chest. It was like fighting someone moving at lightning speed, while Rohan was stuck in molasses.
Rohan gritted his teeth. "Damn it... How am I supposed to hit you when you're not even in sync with time?" His mind raced. Neutrinos. Oscillating between states.
That's when it hit him. Oscillation. "I can do this," Rohan whispered to himself. He activated Ditto again, syncing his own body with the neutrinos, forcing his perception to match Pierre's oscillations. The world around him shifted, time bending, speeding up, and slowing down all at once. He felt nauseous for a second, but then... it balanced.
Pierre's eyes widened as Rohan matched his pace. "What? Impossible!"
Rohan grinned. "Oh, it's possible."
The two moved at the same breakneck speed, exchanging blows that landed with impossible precision, every punch and kick dodged or blocked by the other. For the first time, Pierre seemed to be struggling, his smirk replaced by a concentrated frown.
But Pierre wasn't about to let things end there. "You're good... but not good enough."
Pierre's hands began to glow faintly as he manipulated the neutrinos and antineutrinos around him, forcing them to collide. "Do you know what happens when matter and antimatter meet, Rohan?" Pierre asked, his voice low and dangerous. "They annihilate."
Rohan's eyes widened as Pierre thrust his hands forward, unleashing a burst of annihilation energy. The ground beneath Rohan's feet vaporized in a flash of brilliant light, sending shockwaves through the arena.
Rohan barely had time to leap back. "He's... turning neutrinos and antineutrinos into matter-annihilation events?!"
The Frenchman chuckled darkly, "Like I said before, Rohan. I don't need to hit you... I just need to erase you."
Rohan clenched his fists, heart pounding. This was getting worse by the second. He needed to stop Pierre now, or the entire arena—hell, the entire city—could be at risk. But then, an idea sparked.
"Erase me, huh? Let's see who disappears first."
Rohan took a deep breath and activated Ditto one more time, but this time, he wasn't just copying Pierre's powers. He was taking them further. He tapped into neutrino decoherence—the process by which entangled particles lose their connection. Pierre had been relying on precise manipulation of neutrino states for everything.
But Rohan was about to flood the arena with chaos.
"Neutrinos might be tough to interact with," Rohan muttered, "but even they have their limits."
He focused on disrupting the delicate balance Pierre had created, using neutrino noise to sever the Frenchman's control over his powers. The air filled with a low hum as neutrinos became erratic, their oscillations chaotic and unpredictable. Pierre's once-fluid movements became jerky and uncoordinated.
"W-What did you do?!" Pierre growled, trying to stabilize himself.
Rohan rushed in, using his borrowed Phasing to slip through Pierre's shaky defenses. With a final burst of speed, he landed a solid punch to Pierre's gut, knocking the wind out of him and sending him sprawling across the battlefield.
Rohan stood over him, panting. "Looks like you lost control."
The crowd roared in approval as the announcer declared, "ROHAN WINS!"
Pierre lay there, stunned, his powers disrupted. He looked up at Rohan, disbelief in his eyes. "Neutrinos... shouldn't be beaten like this," he whispered.
Rohan extended a hand to help him up, a grin tugging at his lips. "Yeah, well... I've always been good at messing with the impossible."