Tony didn't crash into Selene's drawn sword. Instead, he raised both palms while still hovering and fired.
Selene twisted sideways, a blur of black leather. The repulsor blasts shrieked past her shoulders, the heat of them palpable. As she moved, her eyes locked onto Tony's chest plate. The arc reactor was glowing brighter, the light within it concentrating. She knew that rhythm, that build-up of power. If she tried to tank those palm strikes, the unibeam would follow, punching clean through her torso before she could even blink.
The repulsor blasts slammed into the arena floor behind her. Chunks of brick and stone exploded upward in a spray of dust, the debris clattering noisily across the ring. The power behind those simple shots was no joke.
Tony landed with a heavy thud, thrusters kicking up grit. He watched her dodge, a flicker of disappointment crossing his face inside the helmet. Fine. He pushed forward. The suit's armor plating could handle a sword. As long as she didn't somehow thread the blade straight into the arc reactor itself, she couldn't breach his defenses. And if she tried for the reactor, he'd melt her arm off at the shoulder with the chest beam. He could patch up a gut wound. He doubted vampires could regrow limbs.
Selene didn't hesitate. She reversed her grip on the sword and slashed in a silver arc, aiming right for his chest plate.
Tony didn't bother to block with his arm. He fired a single, tight-beam repulsor blast directly at the incoming blade.
The sword snapped in half with a loud crack. The severed piece spun end over end through the air and embedded itself, quivering, in the arena floor with a high-pitched metallic ring.
In that split-second opening, Selene flipped the remaining hilt and jagged shard in her palm. She hurled it like a throwing knife, aimed straight at the glowing circle in Tony's chest.
The arc reactor flared white-hot, responding instantly. A laser beam, thin as a needle, lanced out.
The makeshift projectile melted mid-flight, liquefying into glowing droplets of slag that splattered uselessly across the stone.
The exchange left them close, barely three feet apart. Tony's thrusters ignited on all four points, launching him forward in a sudden, brutal burst of speed. His heavy, gauntleted hands clamped onto Selene's shoulders. His weight and momentum drove her down, grinding her back across the rough stone surface of the arena.
His other hand immediately lit up, the palm reactor charging for a point-blank execution shot.
Selene's hands snapped up, her grip inhumanly strong. She locked onto Tony's armored wrist, wrenching it to the side.
The blast went wide, firing harmlessly and cratering the ground inches from her head. She felt the heat and heard the stone crackle.
She pulled her legs in tight and pistoned both feet into Tony's midsection. The impact, amplified by her strength, launched the armored man backward through the air. Before he could hit the ground, Selene was already on her feet, a shadow closing the distance. She flowed into a combination, her strikes hammering against his armor in rapid, brutal succession.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Each hit rang out like a hammer on an anvil. The sheer force behind her fists made the metal shell sing, vibrating through the plates.
Inside the suit, JARVIS's predictive combat algorithms kicked in, guiding Tony's arms to intercept and block. The suit's movements became smoother. Tony stopped trying to use the repulsors. Instead, the chest reactor began to build power again, condensing into a sustained beam.
The moment a thin red targeting laser lit up on her chest, Selene grabbed his wrist and forced it skyward. The unibeam erupted, a solid column of white-hot energy, and cut harmlessly into the morning air.
Before he could re-aim, she drove her other fist straight into his chest plate. Tony staggered back three heavy steps, his HUD flashing red warning icons.
Selene pressed forward, not giving him an inch of space to recover.
"JARVIS," Tony's voice crackled inside the helmet, "set attack diameter to arena perimeter."
He dropped suddenly to one knee, crossing his arms at the wrists. Red targeting lasers appeared on both gauntlets. Twin, razor-thin cutting beams erupted outward, sweeping across the ring in a horizontal arc.
Selene's instincts screamed. She threw herself flat against the cold stone floor.
The beams passed over her with barely an inch to spare, a high-pitched sound cutting the air. Two small, non-essential chips mounted on her suit's back plating sparked and died, instantly slagged by the intense heat. The crowd sat oblivious, unaware of how close they'd come to being caught in the sweep.
Smith sat forward in his seat, his jaw tight. His fingers gripped the armrest hard enough to leave white impressions. Thank God Tony had controlled the range. That could have turned into a massacre.
Tony watched Selene dodge and cursed under his breath. Speed types were always a pain in the ass.
Before he could reset his stance, Selene was already moving. She left afterimages as she closed the gap, her form blurring to the naked eye.
She materialized in front of him, her hand a blur. Her palm was vibrating so fast it looked translucent, shimmering in the air. She thrust it forward, aiming for his chest.
Metal shrieked. The impact rang out like a struck bell, sharp and loud, but nothing penetrated.
Tony's voice came through the suit's external speakers, amused despite himself. "What are you doing, cosplaying as the Flash?"
He'd read enough DC comics to know the speedster's phasing trick. People had compared him and Smith to Superman and Bruce Wayne often enough in the press.
Then JARVIS's calm, synthesized voice cut right through his smirk. "Sir, chest plate integrity has been compromised. Defensive capability is reduced by 23%."
Tony's amusement evaporated instantly. She hadn't phased through it like the Flash, but she'd cracked his armor. Actual, physical damage. His expression hardened inside the helmet.
"JARVIS, analyze her attack pattern. Full combat recording. Now."
Selene saw it, too. A faint, spiderwebbing hairline fracture spreading across the chest plate. Her lips curved. She struck again, targeting the exact same spot.
She knew, logically, that going for the arc reactor itself would be more effective, but every time she even considered aiming there, her instincts screamed danger. That glowing circle could discharge faster than she could react. One slip, one millisecond of bad timing, and she'd lose an arm, flash-cooked at the shoulder joint.
Her palm blurred, striking three more times in rapid succession. Each impact hammered the same weakened point. The crack widened with each hit. Inside Tony's helmet, his HUD schematic lit up, the entire chest section glowing an angry red.
"Recording complete, sir."
"JARVIS, you've got the analysis. Start the counterattack."
Selene wound up for another strike, this one meant to shatter the plate. Tony's arm snapped across his chest faster than she expected, a solid, mechanical block. He intercepted her vibrating palm with his heavy forearm plating. The impact sent a painful jolt up her arm.
He immediately followed with a close-range repulsor blast to her gut that sent her stumbling backward, gasping.
The suit pressed the advantage. It pivoted and swung a heavy, metal backhand that cracked across her jaw, snapping her head to the side. It fired a palm blast with the other hand. Before she could recover, the suit lunged forward and drove a reinforced knee into her ribs.
The tempo shift was immediate and brutal. JARVIS's processing speed far exceeded human, or even vampire, reaction time, and it showed. The AI piloted the suit with cold, mechanical precision. Each strike flowed perfectly into the next without hesitation, without the micro-pauses a human brain required.
Selene tried to adapt, but her rhythm was broken. She blocked what she could, but the armored blows slipped through her guard. Her healing factor was working overtime, keeping her in the fight, knitting split skin and mending bruised bones. But she looked ragged. Blood trickled from her split lip, staining her chin. Her movements grew defensive, purely reactive instead of aggressive. The injuries weren't fatal, not yet, but they were adding up.
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