Avery sent full power to the Sterkur’s sensors the moment that the match started.
In a battle , information was key, and figuring out Ezra’s first move would allow him to not be surprised by his opponent.
’He’s moving cautiously to the west. Making sure to keep buildings between us as he closes in. But he must have some sort of cloaking device since I can’t get a perfect read on where he is. Just his general location.’ Avery thought, carefully analyzing the information he had gathered.
Still, he knew the general vicinity of where Ezra was, and had no intention of letting him take the initiative.
With a heavy step, he shot forward and charged towards his adversary’s location.
Using the Sterkur’s immense offensive and defensive power, there was no need to hide around and try to make an opening. Rushing in and using the power armor’s immense strength to finish things off quickly would be for the best.
Of course, his approach was far from stealthy considering he was running around in a three-meter-tall suit of armor.
Ezra could hear him coming long before they encountered each other.
’Does he really think hiding’s going to work.’
His opponent nowhere in sight, Avery used his armor’s sensors to figure out the building that Ezra had hidden in.
Then the instant he found it; he trained both his laser rifle and laser cannon on the structure and opened fire with abandon.
While he was not doing any actually damage thanks to his weapons being set to fire at a low output for training, the program they were using was sophisticated enough to calculate the actual destruction.
Should Ezra be determined to have been hit by a shot or if the building collapsed down on top of him, the match would be called in Avery’s favor.
Sadly, things were not going to be so easy.
As Avery unloaded blast after blast into the building, Ezra ran through it and out the other side with unbelievable speed.
Without missing a step, the moment he exited, he rushed around and took multiple shots at Avery before he could readjust his aim.
Avery completely ignored dodging and let his armor’s shield soak up the lasers streaking toward him.
Instead, he leveled his laser cannon in Ezra’s direction and opened fire. Even if he were to duck around the corner, the radius of the blast would still hit him and cause some damage.
Yet, to Avery’s utter astonishment, his foe did not move to dodge but instead grabbed the small circular device with a handle from his back.
"That’s impossible!" Avery shouted in disbelief as he watched what happened next.
The piece of equipment that Ezra was now wielding sprung to life and created a large shield of translucent golden light.
Using this shield, he caught Avery’s laser cannon blast and deflected it away from him. A truly inhuman feat possible only thanks to the increased reaction speed and strength Ezar had obtained from bionic enhancements.
Even though it was only for a moment, Avery stood rooted in place, stunned by Ezra’s display. During that brief window of time, his opponent fired off multiple shots with one of his hand cannons before dashing out of Avery’s line of sight.
"Damn, that really chipped away at my shields." Avery cursed, seeing the gauge representing the total energy his shield generator at around eighty-five percent now.
He had been caught off guard by Ezra’s rare armament. A piece of equipment capable of producing hard light energy.
Avery knew only a little about hard light technology, but what he had heard was that it stupid expensive to produce and ate through energy at a tremendous rate.
Still, even with these drawbacks, it was both durable and light, as Ezra had just demonstrated. He had been able to deflect Avery’s laser cannon blast with it and then counterattack as if nothing substantial had happened.
’I may just be essentially firing flashes of light on the current settings, but the program would have accurately calculated the damage. That means even if I had just launched a full power attack, he would have been able to reproduce what he just did. That’s crazy.’
Lasers moved at the speed of light, meaning the only way to block them the way Ezra just had was by following the trajectory of the weapon, and moving slightly fast than a person could pull the trigger.
That was pretty much superhuman, and it made it apparent just how skilled Ezra was.
"He’s also got that pole he hasn’t used yet. I’d bet a million Krenin it’s a hard light weapon to go along with his shield." Avery surmised.
With the physical capabilities Ezra had, it was easy to imagine that he was quite proficient in physical combat. Using a hard light shield and weapon, he really could go toe to toe with someone in power armor and come out on top.
Still, Ezra was being cautious. Avery had more firepower and strength thanks to his Sterkur,
However, the powerful but bulky armor left Avery lacking a bit in speed. He could move quickly in fast bursts going in a straight line, but he had yet to master the controls to the point of executing sharp turns and other dexterous maneuvers. But what could he do other than keep attacking.
Bounding after Ezra, Avery kept his eyes on his sensors reading to locate his hiding foe.
Fortunately, it did not take too long to find him. Sadly, it was only because several streaks of light from the veteran mercenary’s laser pistols rained down on Avery.
"Try this on for size."
Activating one of his power armor’s weapons systems, a compartment on the back opened up and reveled six tubes.
Inside each one was a micro missile that went flying towards the building Ezra was holding up in.
Except, without batting an eye of showing even a hint of surprise or fear, Ezra simply accurately took aim and shot the explosive projectiles down.
Avery attempted to blast his opponent away with his laser rifle set to full auto, but Ezra had already ducked back into the building and was dashing down the hall towards the other end.
’I need to bring him out into the open or get the drop on him somehow. At this rate he’s just going to drain my shields and energy reserves until I can’t fight back anymore.’
Having lost track of Ezra again, Avery took a few moments to rack his brain for what his next move should be.
If he just continued searching around and getting ambushed, then he would never break through his current predicament.
Ezra was fighting with an abundance of caution. He was going into buildings Avery was unable to thanks to his power armor’s size and using them to keep out of sight until he was ready to get the drop on Avery.
By the time Avery had located him, it was already too late. He took several shots to his shields and Ezra ran away before he could get a solid attack off.
’I thought that power armor would give me the edge, but he’s got more experience handling situations than I expected. Maybe I should just start blasting every building and hope I get lucky.’
Avery could simulate buildings being leveled by his laser launcher if he attempted to do so. In fact, all of the structures he had blasted had already receded back into the floor to approximate their destruction.
Nevertheless, Avery would exhaust his energy supply long before he could bring down every building. And there was a good chance that Ezra would make some kind of move while he was busy doing so.
Eventually, Avery came up with a new plan of action. It was reckless as could be, but he figured that it had the best chance of working. It would either lead to his overwhelming defeat or give him the chance of victory that he was searching for.