"Switch to rapid mode."
A flat voice sounded as the belt at the Justice Sentinel's waist flashed red and the emblem flipped to an S. The blue of his suit bled to crimson.
His top-speed configuration. Three hundred times his normal movement rate.
He burned that speed at once to meet Vincent's charge.
"Pretty quick," Vincent said with a small smile, watching the cyborg turn his head just enough to slip past a straight.
"Bolt Raider, I'll pin him," the laser-eyed robot called. His spring-loaded arms shot out, coiling for Vincent's left leg.
"Out of my way."
Vincent's heel snapped across the robot's chest. This model had no evasive routines and no real bulk. The kick blasted him backward.
"Bolt Raider... I'm done for..." the robot wailed, already spinning up auto-repair.
Vincent didn't spare him a glance. His focus stayed on the Justice Sentinel.
"You injured Bolt Raider. By the laws of justice, I will bring you in," the Sentinel intoned, reciting his canned line as his colors shifted again. Yellow surged over red. Muscles swelled across his frame.
"Come."
He punched. The inflated arm carried a heavy pressure and drove straight for Vincent.
"Good."
Vincent met him clean, fist to fist.
Boom.
The impact thundered. Dust boiled up from the floor. Cracks spidered out under their feet.
On a human body, that hit would have turned bone to paste. Here it was even. That alone shocked the Sentinel.
Vincent looked relaxed. "If that's all, how exactly were you planning to 'bring me in'?"
"Ahhh!"
The Sentinel stared at the man in front of him and felt like he was ramming a mountain. His body shifted again. Purple energy, like a fake version of a Destroyer's aura, wrapped him before shattering outward.
"This is my ultimate mode. Triple speed and triple power. Be careful."
He vanished and began circling Vincent in a red blur.
"That it?"
Vincent dipped and drove a straight into the moving ring. With the Byakugan open, there was nowhere to hide.
The Sentinel's eyes widened. He threw up both arms to block.
Boom.
The blow hurled him away. He skidded with legs split, gouging two deep tracks as he fought to stop.
"Horrible power... stronger than my tripled output."
He shook his arms loose and set his stance again.
"Bolt Raider, hammer strike!"
Auto-repair finished, the spring-armed unit came screaming back in. His optics flashed red and his twin coil-arms whipped forward, each capped with a spiked maul.
Vincent didn't flinch. He had read every cue already. As the hammers fell, he raised one hand. Contact snapped his tempo higher for a breath. In that instant, both heads sat in his palms.
Armament Haki flooded his grip. He squeezed. The spikes wore down to nubs. He squeezed harder.
Crack.
Both mauls split down the face.
"Tch."
Vincent kept hold of the coils and heaved, slinging Bolt Raider aside, then flinging him toward the edge.
"Bolt Raider!"
The Sentinel burst to full speed, caught his comrade mid-flight with a leaping back-toss, and dropped him in a safer zone.
"Your crimes end here."
The voice twisted harsher, colder. Something unseen began to gather around his arms. A second later it turned visible, a pale glow sheathing both fists.
"Come."
He drove those charged hands at Vincent.
Vincent did not get cute with unknown energy. Armament Haki flared to full.
The fists met.
An explosion snapped between them. The Sentinel's energy shells blew apart on impact. A red shockwave rippled out and shoved both men back.
Vincent's striking hand ignited. Flame crawled up his knuckles, drawing in the remnant pulse he had just felt. The fire sank. Across from him, the Sentinel's fist looked wrecked.
"A suicide strike?"
Vincent's eyes narrowed. Against a machine, self-detonation wasn't off the table. One good feint and that could be that. He'd give this more respect.
"Again!"
The Sentinel roared. His undamaged fist swelled with an even darker charge and raced for Vincent's chest.
Vincent did not take it head on. He flared his arm to living fire, pulling the unstable energy off the glove like iron to a magnet.
Boom.
The charge ignited. The blast jumped, then vanished into the blaze sheathing Vincent's forearm. The flame winked out a heartbeat later, calm as a tide.
The Sentinel shook. He looked down at a ruined fist, then up at Vincent, untouched.
"Damn it..."
The gap was clear now. If the man wanted to, that searing flame could melt him to slag in seconds.
Numbers ran in the Sentinel's processors. Could his ultimate finisher hurt this target at all?
He glanced at Narirama behind him, still charging.
"To hell with it. Test it."
He straightened. The damaged left fist gathered power again, brighter and meaner. A lattice of data-characters spun into a magic-circle pattern above the hand and widened. His visor dimmed.
The move dumped everything he had into that arm for a single, annihilating blow.
Behind him, Narirama's voice sounded. "Ready."
The Sentinel paused for half a beat, then spoke, ice-cold. "Execute. Erase the target."
----------------------------------------------------
The deeper he goes, the more the truth unravels. Don't wait read ahead and witness Vincent's rise before the world catches up!
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