“I’m fighting on behalf of my employer,” Nara replied, also amplified. “A contract is a contract.”
They came together in a crash of metallic polymers, trading punches and kicks, blocking and parrying and dodging with tech-assisted speed but their own skills acquired from years of combat experience. Nara was much taller than Eva, and though her suit was bulkier, she’d had years to become acquainted with it while Eva had only worn the Protean armor this once. All the minute adjustments she had to make to compensate began to add up, and Nara pushed her inexorably toward the fence as Eva defended more than she attacked.
She could practically hear her old boss Tito shouting at her, “Stop using your fists and start using your brain, comemierda!”
Or in this case, Eva thought, my bombs.
Eva fired her palm propulsion units to push Nara back just enough for some breathing room, then launched the explosives from her armor’s shoulder compartments. Nara dodged sideways, jumping onto the fence and clinging there for a moment before leaping back toward Eva with her arm weapon already blazing. But Eva was ready with her own surprise: she had swiveled the laser cannon forward from her back, and Nara was unable to avoid its intense beam, taking it square in the chest and flying backward toward the still-recovering Jei in a tumble of sparks.
Unfortunately, that was the only time Eva got to use that particular weapon, so now she was back to just her own fists and feet unless she did something drastic. And she had less than a minute left to win this fight before sudden-death overtime.
Before Nara or Jei could go back in, a murmur swept through the previously cheering crowd. On the balcony over the pit, Rubin Hjerte had appeared, a pitiless expression on her face more or less directed at Miles. She didn’t raise a hand or say a single word, but Miles was clearly picking up what she was putting down.
“Step aside, you two,” he told Nara and Jei. “Let me show you what a real bot fight looks like.”
Eva rolled her eyes, causing a minor hiccup in her tracking display that quickly righted itself.
Miles’s bot—Pounder, Eva remembered with a snort—stepped into the main part of the pit, its huge frame towering over Eva by almost two and a half meters. Its spiked armor, while ridiculous, didn’t have any clear gaps that Eva could exploit with the minimal weapons at her disposal. If it were an actual human, as its absurd muscles suggested, she would go for the usual vital organs; but it was a bot, and she knew nothing about its features or technical specs.
Well, as Tito had always said: when in doubt, aim for the head.
Eva ran up to the bot and slid between its legs, barely avoiding an energy blast from its massive hands. Scrambling to her feet, she leaped onto its back with the aid of her palm boosters and proceeded to climb. Before she got high enough, a repulsive force threw her off, sending her flying toward Nara and Jei. The former took the opportunity to throw a few punches at Eva for good measure, dividing her attention when she could least afford it.
Thankfully, Sue also decided to help out, and darted forward to distract Miles with her flamethrower. She moved back quickly, before he could return fire, and the crowd roared approval on both counts.
So much for the noobs staying on the back line.
Eva disengaged from Nara and returned her attention to Pounder. Joints were also a common weak point for bots, so she proceeded to attack its knees in the hopes of damaging one enough to hinder its mobility. With a cruel laugh, the bot launched a series of energy pulses along the floor from one hand, knocking her into the air and allowing it to fire a huge laser at her from its mouth. Eva yelped as the Protean armor attempted to redirect and spread the heat and concussive damage, raising the temperature inside to what would have been deeply uncomfortable if she weren’t already wearing her spacesuit underneath.
Landing in an awkward roll, Eva struggled to her feet. She must have hurt something in her chest, because while her body wanted to suck in big lungfuls of air from her exertions, her ribs objected with a jagged pain that left her breathless. Her armor was also unhappy, throwing small but insistent status notifications in front of her face that suggested its structural integrity wouldn’t survive another hit like that one.
“Feel free to tag in, Number One,” Eva shouted.
“Hold him off for a little longer, Cap,” Min said. “I’m studying his form.” She’d pressed herself up against the fence around the pit, her lips pursed thoughtfully.
“You’re going to be studying my dead body in a minute,” Eva muttered. She assumed a fighting stance as Miles made Pounder pose for the screaming crowd, flexing as if its muscles were real instead of cables and carbon fiber.
Bueno, keep using your brain, then, Eva thought.
The bot had at least one weapon in each hand, another in its eyes, possibly more it hadn’t used yet. It was definitely slower than she was, so if she could keep moving, she might be able to dodge the worst of its attacks. . .
Just as Pounder flexed its biceps yet again, Eva used her palm boosters to give herself extra height and jumped toward the fence. She pushed herself off and flew up toward the bot, latching onto its arm just above the gauntlet that appeared to house one of its weapons. Activating her boosters, she grabbed the arm and triggered the propulsion units, hoping they had enough juice to burn through and do some damage.
Pounder tried to shake her off, but she clung tightly, and her efforts were rewarded by a shower of sparks from the arm she was attacking. The hand was still intact, but hopefully its weapon would no longer be functional.
Eva had to time her next attack carefully or risk losing some limbs. Before the other hand could grab her or knock her off, she swung her legs up and activated her gravboots, which stuck to the bot’s helmet. Using the rest of her momentum, she curled her body up, ignoring the pain in her ribs, and grasped the lower part of the helmet’s visor, trying to get her palms into position to burn away its eye weapons.
This time, she couldn’t make it, and she had to deactivate her boots and push off to avoid being caught by Pounder’s other huge hand. She executed an aerial backflip that would have made Tito proud, then landed hard on one foot and stumbled backward, skidding to a stop on her butt. The crowd laughed, and she waved as if she’d meant to do that, eliciting a ragged cheer that did little to ease the pain in her ribs.
“This ends now,” Miles said, raising an arm dramatically, and Pounder advanced on Eva with its eyes glowing red as dying suns.
“Min, a little help here!” Eva shouted.
Sue responded instead, tearing a piece of the floor up with her mech’s hands and throwing it at Pounder. It hit the bot square in the chest, but did little apparent damage, and Miles gave a gloating chuckle.
“Is that the best you can do?” he asked.
Eva shrugged and settled into a fighting stance once again, gesturing for Miles to come at her. Her suit protested weakly, and she turned the alarm sounds off, ignoring the other flashing indicators that suggested she had indeed done her best and should stage a strategic retreat.
“Showtime,” Min said suddenly. Her bot, Goyangi, straightened to its full height, running through a quick series of stretches in which its arms and legs extended past their normal range, then pointed at Pounder. “Game face: on. Number One, ready for combat.”
The timer rang out the end of the match. The referee returned, and over the cheers and jeers of the crowd, she coolly announced, “All combatants remain active. Sudden-death round initiated. First team to achieve a total knockout wins.”