LIGHTNING STRIKE!

TARGET MISSED!

Agni had darted aside the second before I connected.

I narrowly dodged another pillar of flame.

Stones pelted me, bouncing off the armor. Red hot stones.

FLAMING ROCK ATTACK! 80 FIRE DAMAGE RESISTED. 80 FIRE DAMAGE NEGATED.

Agni’s attacks were hitting me time and time again, but not hard enough to dent.

Mostly. I was at 4,670 armor points right now.

Since the knife attack, though, I hadn’t hit her even once.

She had shrugged off every attack with Mindstrike. She was teleporting between different parts of the stadium randomly, and fast enough to make it impossible for me to track her.

For all her power and versatility, Agni was like a glass cannon. She hit hard, but she couldn’t take a hit from me at full power.

I needed her to stand still for just three seconds, and I could finish this. Non-lethally or otherwise.

She wasn’t even still for one.

Hopefully she found me equally frustrating. My Fire Resistance and Damage Reduction must have come as a nasty surprise. She needed to wear me down, and that would take her time.

I just needed to get lucky twice. Once to wear her down, once to knock her out.

How long we’d been fighting for so far? Minutes? Hours?

It felt like hours.

I dodged another blast of flame, this one melting through a steel pillar. A section of the roof collapsed, narrowly missing me.

I pulled out another M22 assault rifle from Inventory and started shooting.

Three seconds later, the rifle was on fire, and Agni was unharmed. I chucked it aside just before the metal warped and cooked the ammo in the magazine.

I dodged as another spray of fire roasted the area I was standing in.

Agni couldn’t keep this up forever. Sooner or later, she’d tire. Slow down. Exhaust herself.

She was only human.

Then again, so was I.

The Greyhound Armor had enough power to keep going for three days without stopping. I, however, was subject to Hunger and Thirst - and the penalties that went with them. If this went on too long, I’d slip up and make a mistake - and die.

Who would screw up first? Me - or the woman who’d killed armies?

I wasn’t sure of the answer.

Steel splintered as I landed on a former goalpost and hurled another Lightning Strike at my foe, only to have her blink out of place again.

EXTERNAL TEMPERATURE RISING.

EXTERNAL TEMPERATURE NOW 120 DEGREES CELSIUS. WARNING - GREYHOUND ARMOR NOT SUITABLE FOR EXTENDED OPERATION IN EXTREME TEMPERATURE ENVIRONMENT.

AT TEMPERATURE ABOVE 350 DEGREES CELSIUS, COOLING SYSTEMS WILL BE OVERWHELMED AND ARMOR WILL INCUR PASSIVE DAMAGE OF 3 ARMOR POINTS / SECOND.

Ah.

She was planning to raise the temperature of the stadium high enough to melt off my armor?

That was just crazy enough to work.

Well, she could keep building up the temperature for a while - although once she got to 350 degrees, I would have maybe half an hour before my armor broke down and I roasted to death horribly.

Assuming she managed this without my hitting her…

Fire one Cryonic Grenade.

The blast of liquid nitrogen flash-cooled the area immediately around. For a few seconds, it was cool.

It was at that moment that I noticed the letters.

Great, big, floating letters in mid-air. Nanocloud’s letters.

AGNI, MARIA ESPERANZA WANTS TO TALK.

… What?

The villainess hadn’t noticed yet. She was still jumping across the stadium like a fly on crack.

… So let’s make her notice.

I used Powerjump.

The Greyhound Armor launched through the air. Right up to a height of forty feet, drinking up 200 MP in the process.

Exactly between Agni’s line of sight and the letters.

I fell.

Instinctively, I used Levitate on myself.

Possibly not the greatest idea, since it blew through 332 MP, even at Levitate Level 4. I slammed into an unexpected wall at a reduced speed, though.

FALL DAMAGE! 200 DAMAGE TAKEN. AP: 4,670/5,000.

FURNITURE DESTROYER ACTIVATED.

The wall exploded around me, splinters of cement flying everywhere. I tumbled forward.

Oh. I’d smashed through the wall of the squash court. Wait, why was that furniture?

INTUITIVE LEAP: FURNITURE DESTROYER HAS A RANDOM CHANCE OF EXTENDING ITS EFFECTS TO ANYTHING THE FURNITURE IS FIXED TO.

I looked at the wreckage of a plastic chair - apparently for the athletes to sit on - lying at my feet.

NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: DEATH FROM ABOVE.

Great timing, power.

I spun, facing my opponent again. Hopefully, my little maneuver had forced Agni to look in THAT direction.

It had.

The ultra was staring at the letters.

MARIA IS HERE, OUTSIDE THE STADIUM.

WE PROPOSE TRUCE SO YOU CAN TALK TO HER.

Fire flared in Agni’s hands. She stared at me.

“Is this a trick?” she yelled.

“I don’t need tricks to fight you,” I growled.

YOU’VE BOTH BEEN FOOLED.

“What’s with the messages?” yelled Agni. “Talk straight!”

“That’s not me,” I rumbled. “That’s Nancloud. My sister.”

Agni cocked her head. “You don’t seem like the type to have a sister.”

MARIA WANTS TO TALK TO YOU BOTH.

TEN MINUTE TRUCE. THE STADIUM WILL STILL BE ON FIRE WHEN YOU GET BACK.

“Maybe you do have a sister,” Agni commented. “Ten minutes. If I don’t like what I hear, I’m coming back for you.”