Jane continued her stare down of Lola. In return, the Kodak agent stared back with glee. Jane scanned her enemy up and down and didn’t see any weapons on her. Was she insane? Did Lola truly intend on fighting her without a weapon?
“Listen, honey, I love a good staring contest from time to time,” Lola said. “But I think we should cut this out and move on to the real good stuff.”
Jane still wondered what Lola’s angle was. Since Hailey was dead, she had no idea if Lola was simply stalling while more backup arrived. For all Jane knew, there could be snipers or heavy weapons units from Kodak or the resistance group getting ready to hammer her position.
“My goodness, so overly cautious,” Lola said. “You think I would do something cheap like call in backup? No, honey. I fight my own battles. I think I’m more than enough for you to handle.”
“Is that a fact?” Jane said.
She still didn’t know what Lola had planned. Kodak agents were foolishly arrogant in her experience, but only if they had a numbers advantage, high stats or superior weapons. A lone Kodak agent like her in Jane’s presence had no right to be this confident.
Lola tilted her head. “You don’t say much, do you? I was hoping for a bit more back and forth and to see you smile at least once. But I get it. You want to get straight down to business? Pull out your viper fang.”
Jane let her mouth hang open at such a demand. It wasn’t a secret that Jane was in possession of a rare powerful sword. But an enemy openly inviting the use of such a weapon was lunacy.
“Who the hell do you think you are?”
The Kodak agent grinned. “I’m Lola.”
“Knock that shit off,” Jane said. “Are you that arrogant that you would approach me and talk tough without a weapon?”
Lola’s grin turned into an ugly cackle. “And they said I was the one with an ego. I know your reputation, Jane. You’re not that honorable. I know you would still strike an unarmed agent if the mission called for it. So how about it? Take your viper fang out and end this fight. Go on, I’m waiting.”
Jane gritted her teeth at the agent’s haughty attitude. If she wanted a quick death, then Jane would oblige. She grabbed the hilt and activated her sword, extending the pink blade. Jane dashed towards her enemy even before the energy field had fully formed the shape of her blade. She didn’t hold back. She would end this in mere milliseconds once she executed her swing.
She grabbed the hilt with both hands and swung at Lola’s right side. The arrogant agent still stared at her with both her arms by her sides. In any other battle, Jane’s blade would effortlessly slice through what was in front of her. But she almost dropped her sword from an impact.
Something had stopped her blade.
She wondered if too much rainwater had gotten into her eyes. But both of her hands were occupied, so she couldn’t rub her eyes to make sure what she saw was real.
In record timing, Lola had drawn her own sword. She held it raised in the air with the blade pointing down. With only one arm, she had stopped Jane’s strike. Jane saw Lola’s sword hilt, which had a familiar ridged scale. But the blade itself was a glowing purple contrasting against Jane’s pink.
Lola kept her grin, staring into Jane’s eyes. “Do you understand now why I asked you to draw your sword?”
Jane still didn’t respond. There was no way Kodak should have the viper fang sword. Such a blade was designed by the Alpha Corp and only three models were ever available. Jane had one of them. How did this Kodak bitch have one?
“I mean, it should be pretty simple. I want someone who could match my sword. You like it?”
“You,” Jane seethed. “How did someone like you get your hands on such an elegant weapon. Only three of them have been produced by the Alpha Corp.”
“You’re right. It’s funny that you didn’t consider that Kodak didn’t develop their own equivalent. Let’s have a bet. My sword is better than yours.”
Jane had only another few seconds to check out Kodak’s version of the viper fang. Aside from the obvious difference in color, Lola’s blade was substantially longer in length, easily the same as a traditional Japanese longsword. Once the two broke from this stalemate, Jane would be at a disadvantage in range.
She pulled her sword back and quickly backpedaled. Before she could get her bearings, Jane brought her blade up and deflected a rush of purple that would have taken her head off. Lola had closed the distance between them in an instant.
Jane’s eyes darted as waves of purple arcs slashed at her. She was desperate to block and deflect every single lightning-fast strike. Based on such an attack speed, Lola was far above second tier. Jane was losing ground and forced back another dozen paces trying to prevent Lola from getting a hit in. She could barely see the Kodak agent’s arms move as her limbs blurred in the heavy rain.
“Good reflexes,” Lola taunted. “Just as I was warned.”
Jane didn’t respond, as she was occupied with redirecting another series of strikes and slashes.
“I was told you weren’t the conversationalist. But I assumed you would talk more than this,” Lola said. “I guess you’re too busy trying to keep up with me. I know, I’m amazing.”
Jane continued defending herself. All she could see was her opponent’s grinning visage and glowing purple arcs of her sword all with intense rain hammering everything. The fight wasn’t going well. Jane had been forced on the defensive as Lola casually kept the pressure on with her rapid attacks.
It wasn’t just the speed of Lola’s strike, but the power too. Lola was at least just as strong, possibly stronger than Jane. And she felt every strike wearing away at the endurance of her arms. Lola fully leveraged her sword’s longer blade and kept a solid distance between them. Her blade reached Jane just fine, but because of Jane’s shorter blade length, she couldn’t threaten her enemy. Lola could attack comfortably while keeping Jane at bay.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
This is ridiculous.
Jane reached for her submachine gun and fired a burst at the ground in front of Lola. The Kodak agent quickly jumped back. She was unscathed, but Jane had managed to give herself some breathing room and a break from defending.
Lola looked at her with bewilderment before returning to her grin. Jane wondered if Lola’s facial muscles ever got tired of smiling so much.
“Wow, you were really desperate there, weren’t you? I thought this was supposed to be a sword fight. I guess you really can’t measure up to me. Lola one, Jane zero.” Lola cackled. She laughed so hard that Jane wondered if she might accidentally injure herself with her own sword.
“This isn’t a game, bitch,” Jane said. “You think this is funny? Your forces are working together with terrorists stealing our supplies and this is all just a joke to you?”
Lola stopped laughing, if only to wipe her face of rainwater. “Oh stop it. We both know you’re more pissed at me making you look bad. Do you honestly care about these poor schmucks? Why do you think these so-called terrorists are hijacking your supplies and giving them to the people of this region? I’ll tell you: your shard doesn’t give a shit about these people.”
Jane stared at her enemy without a response.
“Alpha trash like you like to act like you’re these people’s saviors. In reality, you are just as power-hungry and ego-driven as we are. Face it, honey, we’re practically sisters. Even now you don’t give a shit. All you care about is your next move to defeat me. You couldn’t care less what happens to these civilians.”
A Kodak agent trying to argue morals with Jane was disgraceful. Jane could feel her own facial muscles twitching at hearing this garbage.
“I’ve had enough of listening to you,” Jane spat. “I’m going to end this, now.”
“Oh, so scary,” Lola said. “Since you’re losing the debate, now you want to get back to the fighting. That’s two for me.”
This time, Jane rushed her opponent. Lola might attack fast, but Jane was quick too. She feigned a strike from the front before sidestepping and attacking Lola from the side. Jane lunged for a stab towards Lola’s midsection.
At the last possible moment, Lola moved her arm, and the flat part of her blade intercepted the tip of Jane’s sword. The Kodak agent swatted away Jane’s sword and knocked her off balance.
Jane’s head whipped back from a sucker punch. One second she was on the ground, the next she was in the air, upside down. She quickly regained her bearings and attempted to position her feet to land.
Her enemy had other plans. Lola’s ridiculous speed allowed her to move underneath Jane and she delivered another punch right to her gut. The powerful attack forced the wind out of Jane’s lungs and left her momentarily stunned and paralyzed. She briefly saw a glowing outline surrounding her body flash and vanish. It was her energy shields.
Lola grabbed her by the neck and threw her in the fountain at the middle of the roundabout.
More water and shattered concrete flew in the air as Jane crash-landed.
Warning. Energy shields depleted.
Jane forced herself back up. She had to be on her guard. Without her shields, any additional attacks from Lola would be even more damaging. She ignored the warm blood dripping down her left eyebrow.
A vehicle came hurling right towards Jane and she quickly dived out of the fountain and onto the wet pavement. She narrowly avoided eating alloys as the car smashed into the already decimated fountain, further splashing more water and debris everywhere. Jane brought her arm up to shield her eyes from the flying debris.
It proved to be a mistake.
Lola charged her and crossed the distance in a near instant. Jane felt sudden excruciating pain in her abdomen, so much so she didn’t have enough air in her lungs to scream. She looked down and saw Lola had landed yet another gut punch. Without her armor, Lola’s fist would have impaled her for sure.
Jane dropped to her knees clutching her stomach. She didn’t have the luxury of taking in the pain as she swerved her head out of the path of Lola’s incoming sword.
The purple blade left a gash on Jane’s cheek. Even near misses from a viper fang were a special kind of painful. The cuts left by a blade that was as lethally sharp as a viper fang felt like a deep laceration combined with inflammation plus salt and lemon juice poured onto it. Jane held back tears as the gash on her cheek boiled.
“Oh, you might want to see a medic about that,” Lola said. “You wanna see a neat trick?”
Jane struggled to stand. Even with her enhanced physique and endurance, that nasty gut punch proved difficult to recover from. Her legs were still shaking by the time she got back on her feet.
Lola lowered her sword and curled her other hand into a fist. She clenched her teeth and her body emitted sparks of red bioelectricity.
Jane’s eyes widened, and she knew she was screwed if she didn’t stop this.
Warning: Enemy agent is increasing their power level.
Lola’s eyes began leaking blood, as well as her nose and even ears. She let out one guttural scream before she charged Jane again. If her speed wasn’t already ridiculous, now Jane had no hope of keeping up.
Jane’s head snapped back again from an elbow to the chin. She swung her sword in front of her, hitting nothing but rain-soaked air.
“Fucking bullshit,” Jane muttered. She rubbed her jaw and looked in front of her. All she saw was red electricity darting around the environment as Lola flexed her vastly increased speed. Jane suddenly felt the same boiling pain from her cheek on her left shoulder. She glanced and saw the long coat and even the armor underneath was slashed.
She cursed under her breath. Lola had tapped into her berserk stage, a form only available to Kodak agents. An agent received a brief but massive boost to all of their stats at the cost of great fatigue and strain.
Jane took a kick to the back so hard she was knocked off her feet and flew forward. Lola was so fast she intercepted Jane on her brief flight in the air and landed a kick across Jane’s face. She knew Lola did that on purpose, as the Kodak agent’s boot smashed into the gash on her cheek.
Jane’s neck took another round of whiplash from that kick, and she eventually smashed into the wall of a building. The impact sent Jane’s senses for a loop and her limbs flailing in all directions.
Warning messages and injury diagnostics ran down the side of Jane’s HUD. This time, she struggled to even get on her knees as she lay face down, slumped over a collapsed wall.
Jane lifted her head, much to her neck’s protest and watched as Lola walked towards her. She had lost this fight and it didn’t help that the Kodak agent’s nasty laughter, even muffled, assaulted Jane’s ears.
Lola was a few paces away from her when she stopped. She began swaying from side to side, clutching her forehead as if drunk. The red bioelectricity she emitted disappeared, and her stance became even more unstable.
“A fucking hangover at a time like this,” Lola shouted. She coughed, and a spurt of blood forced its way out of her mouth.
She stumbled her way towards Jane, who still couldn’t get up. Lola grabbed her by the hair. Jane’s strained neck didn’t appreciate that.
“Did you enjoy watching my moves? I hope you did, because I overdid it,” Lola said, almost hyperventilating. “Fucking Colleen is going to kill me. I’ll be back to carry you away once I recover from this shit.”
Lola released Jane’s hair and stumbled away.
Jane tried to move her arms to reach for one of her submachine guns but felt a series of sharp pains.
“I guess my arms are broken,” Jane whispered to herself. As Lola walked further away and left Jane’s sight, the only thing accompanying Jane was the rain around her.
I hope Allen and Dan are having a better time than me, she thought.