"If I'm so out of the loop, why don't you start explaining," I all but snapped at Lara, fists clenched in anger. "The last thing I remember was you falling off a bridge into the ocean below, taking out a Null Space Invader in the process. Now, this? Make it make sense."

Lara gave me a small, pitying, smile. One that riled my anger up right away. 

"It doesn't matter why I'm doing it, human, only that I am," She said, "Now, be a good little monkey and die quickly." 

[[Quest Gained! 

The Big Bad I

Lara has made her play and is trying to take out the most well-defended planet in the entire galaxy. Her first step? Killing you. 

Objectives

Survive the confrontation with Lara 

Rewards: 60000XP, 50000CRED, +25 Stat Points

Failure: Death]

She blurred out of existence, and all of a sudden I was flying through the air. 

[-300HP] 

My corona shield hadn't stood a chance against what was basically just a normal punch in her base form. I hit the wall hard, smashing through the white manna resistant panels of the holo-grid and into the corridor beyond. 

I staggered back to my feet, rubble falling off of me in heavy chunks, and activated my [Enhance] to its max before drawing my sword and then activating [Item Enhance] on that. I wasn't taking any chances in this fight. I didn't want to see her strongest moves, I didn't want to learn what her true potential was or anything like that, I wanted to take her out as quickly as possible. 

I applied my [Anti-Gravity Fields] and rocketed back toward Lara with a massive burst of [Propulsion], moving perhaps faster than I ever had before. 

I slashed my sword ahead of me in a clumsy arc as I moved, hoping that my raw speed and power would be able to overwhelm anything that Lara was capable of. And yet. 

Usually, thanks to my enhanced cognition when moving at faster speeds, the rest of the world seemed to sort of move in slow motion. Lara was not moving in slow motion, if anything she was matching my speed exactly. 

Thanks to that, she was able to deftly dodge past my sword strike before lashing out with a punch of her own. I let my sword drop out of my hands, the weapon instantly disappearing into my inventory, to parry her blow. I was able to just about divert it to the side with my arm, though the attack still managed to hurt. 

[-50HP]

By the look of surprise on her face she hadn't been expecting me to be able to react to her movements that quickly, if at all. That meant we were closer in speed than she, or I, had been expecting. In other words, I might actually have a chance. 

Now that she was wide open I slammed her with a punch of my own. The blow was aimed at her face, I wasn't playing around, but she managed to move it out of the way just in time. Instead my punch came down hard on her shoulder, causing her to stagger slightly to the side. 

As I was throwing the punch I was already charging up a [Manna Bolt], and while she was still off guard I let it loose, the bolt of manna energy biting hard into her stomach and sending her flying away from me. I found myself, not for the first time, wishing I'd had a power like Yr'Arl or Vadton's instant teleportation. If I had been able to get across to Lara like they would have been able to do, maybe I would have been able to keep up the pressure. 

It turned out I didn't need to keep up the pressure myself. I'd completely forgotten that Akash was still around, my focus had been entirely taken up by Lara. As she flew through the air one of Akash's thick tentacle-like vines whipped out and wrapped itself around Lara's torso before throwing her straight down into the ground, where she lay in a colossal crater. 

I wasn't willing to allow her even a moment to recover. 

I started charging up two more manna bolts, and with another massive burst of propulsion I sped over to the crater. Without even looking at Lara, or waiting for Akash's vine to be clear of the blast zone, I unleashed my two manna bolts directly into Lara's face. The manna bolts hit home with a resounding crash, digging even deeper into the structure of the battle arena and sending up a cloud of dust and rubble. 

Surely that had been enough to at least deal some damage to the girl. 

Instead, all I heard was laughter. I sprung back, leaping through the air to create some distance between myself and the girl in the crater. 

She clambered out of the hole lazily, slowly, as if she didn't have a care in the world. Knowing her, after surviving an onslaught like that without even a scratch, she probably didn't have a care in the world. 

"The two strongest fighters in Prespian City. The first human to enter the Guard, with a level of power almost unparalleled, even if they can't access it all yet. The last of the Eldrani, practically a force of nature on the battlefield with the right resources… and yet," She laughed out loud again, cackling maniacally. "And yet, the both of you combined couldn't even land a single bit of damage. Pathetic." 

It was then that I started to realise that BB really hadn't been exaggerating when he said we didn't have a chance against Lara. Not yet, anyway. We were hopelessly out matched, woefully outclassed.

All we could do now… was run… 

"Akash!" I called out, "This isn't going to work, the plan is bust, we need to get the hell out of here." 

Lara cocked her head as I spoke, a deadly smirk growing across her lips. 

"But the people!" He called out in response, "We have to protect them!" 

I looked up into the stands, where people were desperately trying to get away from the onslaught of the null space invaders. There wasn't anything we could do to help them, not now.

"Even more will die if we fall here," I shot back, "We need to get the hell out of here… now!"