The explosion swallowed the intersection.
For several seconds, the entire street disappeared behind a wall of dust and smoke. The shockwave shattered nearby windows and sent loose debris tumbling across the pavement.
When the dust began to clear, Dreadclaw stood at the center of a massive crater.
His armor glowed with orange energy.
He scanned the destruction.
"Come out, little genius!"
Nothing answered.
Dreadclaw smiled.
"Did I finally kill you?"
A metallic sound came from behind an overturned delivery truck.
Clang.
Clang.
Clang.
Dreadclaw turned.
Madu Enoch emerged from the wreckage.
His tactical suit was torn at the shoulders, and blood ran down his left arm. A small section of his wrist device had broken away, leaving its internal circuitry exposed.
But he was alive.
Dreadclaw's expression hardened.
"How?"
Madu looked at the wrecked truck.
"Reinforced engine block. Steel chassis. Damaged concrete pillar."
He brushed dust from his face.
"I used the truck to reduce the amount of force that reached me."
Dreadclaw stared at him.
"You used a vehicle as a shield?"
"I used what was available."
Madu glanced at the crater.
"Although I wouldn't recommend doing it twice."
Dreadclaw roared.
He charged.
This time, he didn't begin with a massive energy blast.
He attacked with his claws.
His right hand slashed toward Madu's chest.
Madu ducked.
The claws passed over his head.
Dreadclaw reversed his arm and attacked horizontally.
Madu leaned backward.
The strike missed by centimeters.
A third slash came from below.
Madu twisted sideways, but one claw caught his shoulder and tore through the fabric.
Pain shot down his arm.
He retreated.
Dreadclaw followed relentlessly.
"YOU CAN'T DODGE FOREVER!"
The villain unleashed a barrage of attacks.
His claws moved with frightening speed. Each strike carried enough force to tear through metal, and his armor allowed him to absorb blows that would incapacitate an ordinary fighter.
Madu dodged the first five attacks.
The sixth grazed his cheek.
The seventh tore through his sleeve.
The eighth forced him to dive behind a vehicle.
Dreadclaw smashed the vehicle apart.
KRAAAAAASH!
Madu rolled across the pavement and struck the base of a streetlight.
His vision blurred.
For a moment, the sounds of the city seemed distant.
He forced himself upright.
Damage assessment.
Left shoulder: injured.
Rib cage: possible bruising.
Wrist device: partially functional.
Physical endurance: declining.
Current strategy: ineffective.
Dreadclaw walked toward him.
"Where is your intelligence now?"
Madu said nothing.
He studied the villain's movements.
Dreadclaw's attacks were fast, but they weren't random. He planted his left foot before powerful horizontal strikes. He rotated his shoulder before accelerating his claws. And after every major attack, he needed a fraction of a second to restore his balance.
Madu noticed something else.
The orange lines along Dreadclaw's forearm intensified whenever he changed direction.
The armor is distributing kinetic force through the joints.
The mechanism likely improves acceleration and impact resistance.
However, rapid directional changes may increase stress on the elbow assembly.
Madu waited.
Dreadclaw lunged.
His left foot planted.
His right arm swung toward Madu's neck.
Madu moved forward instead of backward.
He slipped inside the arc of the claws, where they had less room to accelerate, and struck the joint connecting the forearm armor to the elbow.
CLANG!
A metallic click rang out.
Dreadclaw's arm jerked.
Madu struck the same location again.
CRACK!
A small section of black armor broke away.
Dreadclaw staggered.
Madu immediately retreated.
He hadn't injured the villain's arm severely, but he had disrupted its mechanical stability.
Dreadclaw examined the damaged armor.
"You figured out my fighting style?"
Madu shook his head.
"I figured out how your equipment responds to movement."
He glanced at the damaged joint.
"There's a difference."
Dreadclaw's eyes burned with fury.
He raised both arms.
Orange energy erupted from his body.
The surrounding pavement cracked.
"THEN LET'S SEE HOW YOU HANDLE THIS!"
A gigantic sphere of kinetic energy formed between his hands.
Madu's mind accelerated.
High-output attack.
Large effective radius.
Insufficient time to escape the predicted blast zone.
Conventional evasion: low probability of success.
His gaze moved across the street.
The delivery truck.
The reinforced concrete divider.
The damaged drainage channel.
A construction crane.
A ruptured water main.
He needed a countermeasure immediately.
Dreadclaw thrust both hands forward.
KINETIC DOMINION!
A colossal wave of force swept down the road.
Madu sprinted toward the delivery truck.
He pulled a magnetic anchor from his utility belt and attached it to the vehicle's steel chassis. Then he fired a cable from his wrist device and connected it to the anchor.
The cable tightened.
Madu dropped behind the truck's reinforced engine block.
The kinetic wave struck.
KRRRRRRRRAAAAAASH!
The vehicle slid violently across the road.
Its tires burst.
Its rear section crumpled.
But the engine block and chassis absorbed part of the impact, while the anchored cable prevented Madu from being thrown into the open street.
The truck crashed against a concrete pillar.
The force stopped it.
Madu remained behind the wreckage, gasping for breath.
Dreadclaw stood in the distance.
His chest rose and fell heavily.
"That should have killed you!"
Madu emerged from behind the truck.
His legs trembled.
His shoulder burned.
But he was standing.
"You have tremendous power," he said.
He pointed toward the damaged vehicle.
"But your attacks aren't free."
Dreadclaw frowned.
"What?"
"Your breathing becomes heavier after each major discharge. Your shoulders drop. Your right arm trembles."
Madu looked directly at him.
"You're exhausting yourself."
Dreadclaw's expression changed.
Madu continued.
"How many more times can you use that attack before your body begins to fail?"
"SHUT UP!"
Dreadclaw charged again.
This time, he attacked with short bursts of kinetic energy between his claw strikes.
Madu ducked beneath a slash.
A burst exploded behind him.
He rolled away from a second attack.
A third shattered the pavement near his feet.
Dreadclaw was adapting.
Instead of repeating the same attacks, he alternated between physical strikes and irregular energy bursts.
Madu found himself under increasing pressure.
He could analyze each attack, but his body could not move infinitely fast.
His mind could calculate a perfect dodge, but his injured shoulder limited his ability to change direction.
His intelligence could identify a weakness, but identifying it did not automatically create an opportunity to exploit it.
Dreadclaw struck him in the chest.
THUD!
Madu flew backward and crashed against a concrete barrier.
He slid to the ground.
Dreadclaw approached slowly.
"You're finished."
Madu tried to rise, but pain forced him onto one knee.
The villain grabbed him by the front of his suit and lifted him into the air.
"You think you're special because you can solve little puzzles?"
Dreadclaw raised his free hand.
Orange energy gathered around his claws.
"Let's see you solve this!"
Madu's mind raced.
His opponent was preparing another attack at extremely close range.
He couldn't outrun it.
He couldn't overpower Dreadclaw.
And he couldn't afford to absorb another direct strike.
Then he noticed the water flowing across the road from the ruptured main.
He noticed the exposed steel reinforcement beneath a broken concrete slab.
He noticed the damaged joint in Dreadclaw's right forearm.
And he noticed that the villain had placed most of his weight on his right leg while lifting him.
An idea began to form.
It was dangerous.
It required precise timing.
And failure would probably end the fight.
But it offered a path to victory.
Madu smiled faintly.
Dreadclaw frowned.
"What's so funny?"
Madu looked him in the eyes.
"You've made a mistake."
The villain tightened his grip.
"And what's that?"
Madu's right hand moved toward his utility belt.
"You think I'm trying to predict every attack."
He pressed a small button.
A high-pitched electronic tone rang through the intersection.
Dreadclaw's armor flickered.
Madu twisted his body and struck the damaged joint in the villain's forearm.
CRACK!
Dreadclaw released his grip.
Madu dropped to the pavement and rolled away.
For the first time, the villain looked genuinely concerned.
Madu rose slowly.
His next move would determine whether he survived the fight.