Chương 64: Intesnse heat

Ace and Max landed in another section of the ruined city. Broken buildings surrounded them, their streets buried beneath rubble and dust. Max scanned the area carefully.

"RoboX should be here somewhere..." Ace barely had time to react. His eyes shot upward.

"Look out!" Max looked up. A robot was already above them, arm raised toward the ground, a massive sphere of energy gathering in his palm.

"Too slow!" The blast came down and the entire street vanished beneath it. Buildings folded inward. Stone and metal were hurled into the air as a wall of dust rolled outward, swallowing everything in its path. Then, from within the destruction, a blue flame barrier flickered into existence. Ace and Max stood untouched inside it. Max stared at the flames surrounding them.

"A flame barrier?" Ace looked down at the tiny blue creature attached to his head. Meep was glowing brightly, its small body pulsing with light. Ace blinked.

"That was you?"

"Meep!" Max understood immediately.

"I see. So whenever you're attacked, Meep generates a barrier." The flames slowly dissolved. Ace looked at Meep with a mix of surprise and amusement.

"Huh. You're more useful than I thought."

"Meep!" Max allowed himself a small grin.

"Don't get too confident. We still have a robot to deal with." A shadow dropped through the settling dust. The robot landed several meters away, the ground fracturing beneath his feet in a spiderweb of cracks.

"Statistically, you should not have survived that." He straightened.

"Noted. Impressive." Max stepped forward.

"RoboY?"

"RoboX was meant to be here. Not you." RoboY's eyes narrowed with something almost like recognition.

"Max. Designation confirmed." His mouth curved into a grin that didn't quite match the flatness of his voice.

"Returning for another beating, I assume?" Max's fists clenched.

"This time it's different."

"Clarify."

"We brought allies. We're taking down every one of your forces, starting with you." RoboY was quiet for a moment, processing. Then he laughed, the sound too sharp at the edges to be entirely natural.

"Confidence noted. Unsupported by data." His body began radiating raw energy, the pavement beneath him splintering further as it built.

"Demonstrate it." Max's expression hardened.

"Be careful. These robots aren't a joke." Ace grinned, already reaching for the swords strapped to his hips. He drew both blades in one smooth motion.

"Relax. I've got this one." Blue flame crawled slowly along the steel.

"This guy is basically a toaster with a god complex. How hard can it be?" He dropped into a fighting stance.

"Watch and learn." RoboY's head tilted, calculating.

"Confidence: excessive. Threat level: to be determined." He raised both fists.

"Proceeding with combat evaluation." Ace's flames burned brighter. Then RoboY was gone. Ace's eyes widened a half second before impact. RoboY's fist collided with Ace's crossed blades, the force driving him back several steps, heels grinding into the cracked stone. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Ace grinned through the strain.

"Alright, this toaster's got some power in him." RoboY pressed the advantage instantly. A second punch came from the left. Ace blocked it. A knee drove toward his stomach. Ace twisted aside. An elbow followed. Ace ducked beneath it. Then RoboY's hand closed around his collar.

"Acquired." He slammed Ace into the ground hard enough to split the pavement around him.

"Ace!" Max shouted. Ace groaned, dust settling over him. He pushed himself upright, rolling one shoulder.

"That's more like it." RoboY gave him no time to recover, closing the distance again. Ace raised his sword to meet him, but RoboY shifted at the last instant, stepping around the blade and driving a fist straight into Ace's chest. The impact sent him flying backward. Ace twisted midair and landed on his feet, skidding to a stop. He studied RoboY, something sharpening behind his eyes.

"His movements are clean." He isn't just strong. He's precise too. RoboY vanished again. Ace's guard snapped up on instinct. A kick struck one of his swords, knocking him sideways. RoboY spun through the air and attacked again. Ace blocked. Another kick, blocked. A punch, dodged. Another punch, parried at the last possible moment. Then RoboY caught his wrist, twisted, and threw him bodily over one shoulder. Ace crashed through several walls, rubble raining down around him. Max's fists clenched at his sides.

"Ace, don't underestimate him!" Ace emerged from the wreckage, dust clinging to his hair, a slow grin spreading across his face.

"Trust me. I'm not." RoboY charged. Ace charged to meet him. They collided in the center of the street, fist meeting fist hard enough to send a shockwave rattling through the ruined buildings around them. RoboY swung again. Ace blocked, countered, and RoboY slipped beneath the strike, driving his shoulder into Ace's chest and knocking him backward. RoboY pursued without pause. Ace swung both swords. RoboY leaned away from the first blade, ducked beneath the second, and stepped fully inside Ace's guard.

A punch drove into his stomach, and Ace doubled over, breath leaving him in a rush. RoboY seized the back of his head.

"Remain down." He drove Ace into the ground, cracking the stone beneath him. RoboY raised his fist for a finishing blow. Blue flame erupted around Ace an instant before the punch landed, the barrier catching the strike and holding it inches from his face. RoboY's eyes narrowed.

"The shield. Again." Ace looked up from the crater, breathless but smiling.

"Yep." He nodded toward the small glowing creature still perched in his hair.

"Meep's got my back."

"Meep!" RoboY withdrew his fist slowly.

"Explains your survival rate." Ace climbed to his feet, wiping blood from his lip.

"There's still one thing I don't get, though." RoboY watched him, unmoving. Ace tightened his grip on both swords.

"Why aren't you using magic skills?" RoboY's grin returned, thin and sharp.

"Because unlike you, I require no magic to fight efficiently." He dropped low into a stance.

"Confirming that now." He vanished again. Ace barely raised a blade in time to catch the first punch. A second came immediately after, and Ace blocked that too. Ace cupped his hands raising them to his mouth"Magic skill: Flamethrower!" A torrent of blue flames rushed at RoboY. It was avoided as the robot landed infront of Ace.. RoboY swept low. Ace jumped to avoid it, only for RoboY to anticipate the motion perfectly, catching his ankle mid air and hurling him across a few city blocks.

Ace tore through multiple walls before finally skidding to a stop. Max stared, stunned.

"That's insane." How is Ace not dead yet? RoboY rolled his neck once, mechanically.

"Your flames are impressive. I will not dispute that." He began walking toward the wreckage.

"But the ratio between your magical output and your physical capability remains severely unbalanced. An exploitable weakness." Ace pulled himself out of the rubble, wiping dust and grit from his face.

"Quiet, you overgrown toaster." He spat to the side. Then, despite the blood on his lip, he grinned.

"If that's the problem, guess I'll just have to get better on the spot." Ace surged forward, and this time he didn't reach for his flames at all. He met RoboY head on, blade for fist, using nothing but footwork, timing, and the years of swordsmanship drilled into his body. RoboY's physical skill was staggering. Every opening Ace created, RoboY closed. Every attack Ace threw, RoboY redirected. Every defense Ace raised, RoboY found the angle around it.

Forced to abandon brute force entirely, Ace adapted, weaving through the exchange on pure instinct. RoboY landed a punch. Ace caught it on his forearm and pivoted immediately, aiming a kick low. RoboY intercepted it and Ace stumbled, only to spin behind him a half second later. RoboY turned to meet him and their fists collided head on, the shockwave throwing both of them backward. Ace slid several meters. RoboY dug his heels into the pavement to arrest his own momentum.

For the first time, both of them stood breathing hard. Ace's grin widened despite the bruises forming along his jaw.

"Now that's a fight." RoboY wiped a thin line of damage from his cheek, studying the mark on his fingers with something like curiosity.

"You are finally taking this seriously." Ace raised both swords, blue flame curling back along the steel.

"Yeah." He smirked.

"But now I want to show you something." RoboY's eyes narrowed, recalculating. Ace surged forward.

"Magic skill: Inferno Roads!" Twin streams of blue fire tore free of his blades, carving two burning paths across the ruined street straight toward RoboY. RoboY didn't attempt to block them. He moved, twisting between the flames, leaping clean over one and dropping beneath the other before launching himself directly at Ace through the gap between them. Ace's eyes widened.

"You dodged both?" RoboY appeared in front of him, fist already pulled back.

"Your magic is formidable." The punch landed squarely against Ace's flame barrier.

"But speed is not exclusive to you." The barrier cracked under the impact. Ace's grin faltered. RoboY struck again. Another crack split through the flame. Again. The barrier fractured further, spidering apart at the seams. Max's eyes went wide.

"He's breaking the barrier through raw physical force alone." Ace gritted his teeth.

"Meep."

"Meep!" RoboY drove one final punch through what remained of the shield. It shattered completely, and the force behind it sent Ace flying backward, tumbling across the broken pavement before rolling to a stop. For a moment, the street went silent. RoboY stood over the wreckage, unbothered.

"Your shield was not invincible after all." Ace pushed himself upright slowly. His clothes hung in scorched ribbons, his breathing ragged. He was smiling.

"Just as I needed." RoboY's head tilted.

"Clarify." Ace rose fully, raising both swords, fire already gathering thick along the blades.

"Means I don't have to hold back anymore." Blue flame erupted violently from both weapons, spilling outward until the entire street glowed with it. RoboY's expression shifted, calculations visibly running behind his eyes. Ace lowered himself into a new stance, sheathing both swords across his back in one motion.

"You showed me what you can do with your fists." He cupped both hands together in front of his chest, flame condensing rapidly between his palms into a small, blinding sun.

"So let me show you what I can really do with magic." RoboY's fists clenched.

"Proceed." Ace grinned, wild and utterly certain of himself.

"Magic skill: Solar Extermination!" The condensed flame between his hands ignited into a roaring column of white hot fire, and Ace thrust it forward with both palms.

"I'm going to blow you into oblivion!" The blast tore down the street like a collapsing star, consuming rubble, stone, and steel in its path. RoboY crossed both arms in front of him and braced. The impact hit him head on. For several seconds, he was driven backward through the ruined street, his heels carving twin trenches through solid stone, plating scorching black and buckling under the sheer heat. When the flame finally dispersed, RoboY was still standing, though barely. Smoke rose from his blackened arms.

Cracks ran along one side of his face where the plating had warped. Ace stood at the other end of the street, breathing hard, sweat and soot streaked across his face.

"Huh." He lowered his hands slightly, his breathing heavy..

"Didn't actually think you'd still be standing after that." RoboY straightened with visible effort, servos whining beneath the damaged plating.

"Structural integrity compromised." He flexed one scorched arm, testing it.

"Functionality retained." Ace remained quiet, settling into his fighting stance. He rolled his shoulders and reached for his swords again, flames already curling back to life along the steel.

"Guess I'll just have to hit you again." RoboY's eyes locked onto him, something colder now beneath the mechanical calm.

"Recalculating strategy." He settled back into his stance.

"Proceed." The next clash shook the entire city.