CHAPTER 27 – THE INFERNO ARENA
Johnny revved the engine with a furious grin. He looked out over the enclosed arena into the center for his first target. It wasn’t the Rambling Wrecker he needed to get to first. It was the sensor in the middle of the arena that rose up on a small circular incline.
Ever since Johnny had done duels in the Grave Pit. Hitting the color changing sensor in the middle determined most outcomes of a duel. Johnny needed to hit it first so he could lay claim to the arena environment, after he had a minute to prepare his plans. He planned on making it orange for a collapsing platform that got smaller by the minute. Beneath the floor the arena turned into a lava pit.
Johnny watched as the lights turned from red to yellow. He was even more persistent in hitting the censor now. He revved the engine even more as he gave the Exploiter a rude gesture from his car. The exploiter returned the salute back to Johnny. The light went from yellow to green. Both Johnny and the Exploiter floored out of their starting points, with their engines roaring at full power, driving for the center of the arena, where the sensor laid. The two were closing on it at very fast speeds. The Exploiter fired his plasma beams at Johnny hoping to deter him. Johnny ignored the incoming beams of plasma as they hit the car’s front armor. It left scorch marks behind as Johnny didn’t slow down. This only made Johnny increase his speed, using some nitro to boost ahead.
The Exploiter used another tactic hoping to screw Johnny up. He used the magnetic tow cable on one of the barrels of oil, picking it up, launching it towards Johnny. The barrel exploded into pieces landing on Johnny’s car causing him to slide in the oil, losing control. Johnny slid trying to overcorrect and overshot the sensor.
“Dammit.” Said Johnny gritting his teeth as he tried to regain control.
At the same time. The Rambling Wrecker made the jump and drove over the sensor doing a wheelie changing the sensor red. The tow truck came down the incline still on its back wheels, when it was struck by Johnny, who ended up t-boning the Rambling Wrecker, sliding on up the side of it. The impact was so great it caused the tow truck to up on its right two wheels. The missile launcher and rack of six missiles were knocked loose. The Exploiter had to make a hard right to avoid flipping on his side. When the truck came back on its wheels, the damage had been done. The missile launcher fell off with the driver’s door hanging freely open.
Both driver’s took off to assess the damage they had just received. Johnny was relieved he suffered minor damage after a quick assessment. The front axel had suffered very minor bending from going on the side of the Rambling Wrecker. There were only cosmetic dents to the plow on the front of his car. Johnny sighed with relief after checking the damage report. The Rambling Wrecker was in far worse shape circling back to deal with his foe, now that the clock was ticking.
The arena quickly changed after a minute had passed with Johnny getting in every hit he could, only to be repelled back by the gatling guns on the Rambing Wrecker.
The arena had changed from boring old arena with concrete walls to a volcanic hellscape backdrop. The walls that had aligned to the ceiling were now replaced with a ten foot basalt barrier, with erupting volcanoes beyond, ejecting lava with fiery meteors. The roof of the arena had been replaced with a fiery black out of cloud cover caused by all the volcanic eruptions, with occasional lightning strikes. The arena floor made Johnny nervous now it had been replaced with volcanic fissures and hidden traps that shot out random jets of flame from time to time, but it was another issue with the arena that had Johnny worried.
The arena that was chosen had Johnny concerned though. He would have to finish this fast. The arena would heat up as time went by. Both drivers could be roasted to death if the temperature got too high.
Johnny was thankful for the heat resistance on his car. He also needed to be wary of the traps. Jets of flames shot out of hidden holes in the arena floor. Another was triggered by running over pressure plates. The trap would follow an opponent with a vat of gasoline and dump it on them. This only happens after the field beneath the arena reaches 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Johnny may have lost the arena selection, but he had come out ahead. He disabled one of his tow truck weapons and caused significant damage. He noticed the Rambling Wrecker was having a bit harder time turning after just two minutes of the derby beginning. The left front wheel had been slightly bent from the collision. Johnny smirked at the Exploiter. Who was calling Johnny all sorts of prophetic words over the radio after he found that the steering had been compromised.
The Exploiter went after Johnny, who tried to hook Johnny’s car with its magnetic tow cable. Only to get the shock of his life finding out he couldn’t hook Johnny cars on every attempt, thanks to Johnny making his car nonmagnetic. The Exploiter was getting mad. “I took the liberty of making my vehicle nonmagnetic.” Johnny said with a taunting voice over his radio. The Exploiter then began to line up Johnny for shots with his gatling rifle and plasma guns with two continuing to circle each other.
Johnny occasionally would get a ram or two on the Rambling Wrecker, with his opponent filing back with the plasma beams and gatling rifles. Leaving scorch marks and bullet dents on Johnny’s car. The damage was starting to show with Johnny’s car losing bits of armor from the onslaught.
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The Exploiter by this point was getting desperate, not having done any real damage to Johnny;s car. The tow truck’s left front wheel was now flat causing more steering issues. The Exploiter decided to pull a dangerous gamble. He loaded five of his mines from the tow cable onto the remaining drums of oil. He then tossed one at Johnny’s car.
Johnny was just expecting to get hit by oil. His thought process changed when he saw the blinking light on the drum of oil. He realized then he made a fatal mistake with the barrel of oil exploding in front of Johnny’s car. Johnny tried to dodge it at the last second as he yanked the wheel to the left, gritting his teeth. The blast sent him rolling on his roof several times landing on all fours.
Johnny got a warning on the terminal that the car’s suspension had received moderate damage. A good portion of armor was blown off from the blast. Johnny groaned as he lifted his head up with blood coming from a cut down his right eye, to see another barrel flying for him. He floored the accelerator with a fiery explosion that left Johnny partially deaf from the noise. Flaming oil had splattered against the windows with the next barrel barely missing Johnny.
The Exploiter launched the three remaining barrels at Johnny, He managed to dodge them, but the flaming bits of metal did a number on the windows and remaining armor. The fourth barrel shattered all the windows with the fifth sending flaming hot chards of oily metal. Johnny was struck in the chest by flaming oil on his racing suit. He screamed in pain trying to bat out the flames only to get burning oil on his gloves. The fiery oil burned away at his gloves, which he yanked off threw out the windows. He was lucky none of the oil got on his skin.
Johnny did his best to hide from the Exploter for a time thanks to the burning oil and lava fissures. At the same time, he was worried where the Exploiter could be with all the burning oil. He scanned the area. He must be hiding behind one of those walls of fire. By this point Johnny was sweating nervously. Plus, the temperature was getting unbearable in the arena. He knew he had to finish this fast or he would be roasted like a toasted marshmallow over an open fire.
Johnny got over his wits and drove around looking for the Exploiter. He was caught by surprise with bullets from the gatling rifle piercing through the wall of fire. The bullets slammed into the right side of Johnny’s car. With most of the armor gone, the bullets tore right through the remaining armament on the right side of the car. Both of the right side tires popped from the barrage of gun fire. The car was now filled with so many holes the right side looked like swiss cheese.
Johnny gasped in pain as a few rounds shot into him. He had been shot in the abdomen, neck, and torso. He began to have a coughing fit as blood poured from his mouth and wounds. He was bleeding severely. Even with his injuries he kept going.
The damage to Johnny’s car was bad with the terminal giving off multiple warnings. The car was now leaking fluids and smoking. Johnny gunned it hoping to get away from the Exploiter so he couldn’t get more shots off into him. Johnny drove right past and saw the Exploiter positioning the Rambling Wrecker to fire at Johnny again. The man had a face of pleasure of killing others. The Exploiters face turned sour when he had run out of ammo. Johnny watched him curse under his breath. The Exploiter was so busy sulking he didn’t see Johnny make his next move.
The pressure plates had been activated and Johnny drove over one. The Exploiter realized his mistake as he now tried to chase after Johnny shooting beams of plasma at him. Johnny for his part sped up as fast as his car would go. The right-side tires tore apart in doing so. The right side of the car was shooting up sparks as he drove. When he was far ahead of the Exploiter. Johnny slammed the emergency brake causing him to fish tail, slamming into the Rambling Wrecker with his rear end. The Exploiter was caught off by the move. The tow truck was thrown onto its side as it slid. It eventually came to a halt with the driver's side on the ground smoldering.
Johnny’s car flipped over on his roof after making contact with the tow truck. It slid to a stop, right next to a volcanic fissure that spewed lava onto his wrecked car, igniting the remaining oil on his car, some of which burned Johnny in the process of escaping, making him scream in pain.
Johnny madly undone his seat belts, crawling out of the wreck, before dashing away, feeling fuzzy with his adrenaline pumping. His car exploded into a massive fireball just seconds before he escaped.
He could only collapse to the ground from his injuries and exhaustion letting the core fragment in his head heal him. Johnny lied there looking at what had become of the Rambling Wrecker. The pressure plate he had triggered homed in on the Exploiter who was trying to get free of the wrecked vehicle. He watched on to see the Exploiter struggling to get free. Johnny focused his head to the noise of a cable carrying a giant vat of gasoline. It took a few moments for the cable to position the Rambling Wrecker. The Exploiter broke the windshield in time to get free right when the vat was then dumped right on top of the smoldering Rambling Wrecker. The tow truck immediately ignited and exploded. Johnny watched the Exploiter roll out the way, getting burned in the process. The man screamed in pain getting back up, he was livid with Johnny cursing up a storm approaching.
“No more games, Johnny,” The man said, spitting oil out of his mouth.
Johnny climbed to his feet to face down the man who was severely wounded and bleeding. Johnny ignored all the pain focusing on finishing the duel with a bare fist fight. The core fragment at least had given some of his strength back.
The two stood face to face, by the erupting fissure, with the Exploiter making a last stand speech. “Only one of us can make it out of here alive, and that will be me.” The man charged at Johnny who fought back.
The two were weakened and exhausted from their injuries, with no one getting the upper hand, until the Exploiter decided if he couldn’t win he would take Johnny with him. He grabbed both of them, causing them to stumble right into the volcanic fissure. Johnny’s eyes widened with horror trying to get free of the man’s grip who was laughing maniacally. “If i can’t win, I’m taking you with me,” The Exploiter said.
Johnny was quick to use the core fragment to summon anything to push him backwards. The Exploiter fell into the fiery inferno with Johnny who screamed in pain with his right hand completely burned off while falling backwards. He only got a look at a radiant spear along with a dark orb the size of a bowling ball coming out of the flames, before he passed out from all the pain…