'Since when did you–' Leo struck Zeta again before she could finish, but he got the general idea of what she was asking.
'Just today, actually.' Leo clapped his hands together and flames burst like red powder that scattered to the floor in sprays of ember. 'Oh, and you can see the reason I didn't bother with my lightning. We can only use a single sponsor's power at a time.' He did his best to keep close to Zeta. Giving her even a few meters would spell a blast to the face for Leo. He moved in for another strike, but was met with resistance. A tiny blue hologram blocked his flames, and another connected to it, then a third.
'A good defence would be best.' The panels enveloped Zeta in a shell, but all of her other keyboards vanished aside from one. She kept typing away as if sending the funniest message into an enormous group chat that was about to move on to other subjects. As funny of a thought as that was, Leo realised that Zeta had Nameless in hand. That wasn't the least bit funny.
'Give my sword back, Zeta!' Leo's hands burned until they were almost white hot. He jabbed at the translucent shell–fingers pointed like claws. Again and again he struck it, but it felt more uncomfortable than running his fingernails across concrete. Nothing changed and so he switched to slashes like some sort of mad cat, but that just made the sensation even worse. It was strange that his blade could pierce the holograms, but his hellfire couldn't lay a single mark on them. Was there another layer of intricacy at play here? Or was Zeta just that much stronger. She certainly felt more seasoned and confident. It dawned on him that he didn't know Zeta's ranking.
'Your lesser demon powers couldn't compare to what I hold. How about we end this the way it was supposed to, with my victory?' Zeta clutched Nameless in both hands, raising it above her head. She had a strange bend in her arm that showed Leo that she had no experience or understanding of making an attack with the blade, so he slipped out of the way of the strike and passed her by as she arced to the floor. He took advantage of her fumble and kicked her forward. She stumbled until her legs managed to push her upright again, but by then, he had scrambled away.
'This sucks.' Leo ducked into an alleyway and slipped around a bend. At least he had a moment to breathe. But any moment, Zeta would return to her ranged attacks and he would be back at square one. Now, his situation was worse than ever. She had his best weapon, his flames couldn't touch her up close, and his gun was nowhere to be seen. He wished he had enough control of his lightning to fire it at a distance, but still couldn't achieve that even when channelling it through Nameless.
Zeta was just one big puzzle that kept changing as he tried to solve it. When he got one part worked out, another part was ready to cover it and make it even more complicated. How was he going to get through the barrier? She was expecting him to get close, so she would probably use it sooner this time. He would need one hell of a surprise to catch her off guard, and an even stronger blow to knock her down for the count.
There wasn't much he could do except find Bellestar and rush Zeta, or maybe shoot with the hopes of getting through those screen panels without her noticing. Like that would happen. Even if he confused her sensors with his Key, she felt as though she had the experience to predict his movements.
'Think, man.' He smacked his own temples, trying to force the answer out of his brain. Hitting himself seemed to work last time, so hopefully it would help him think of the answer this time. There had to be a clue in this fight. Why did his blade get through and not his hellfire? It couldn't be that a weapon made the difference, because his gun would have split the screens at the beginning of the fight. If only that stupid little demon had granted him a weapon as well as powers, then he could test some theories.
'I know where you are, Leo Cadmus. You should know I can see you, by now.' Great, she was back to the ranged attacks. The wall at his back suddenly bent like foil, and rolled down to reveal Zeta on the other side. She was using bending Ruh, and that told Leo he was running out of time. He shattered another wall and escaped into a ruined apartment building.
Zeta seemed impatient. She lost her calm and calculating persona for a moment to roar in frustration. 'Get back here and accept your loss!'
'No.'
'Argh!' She stopped walking and gave chase for the first time in the entire fight. Leo dashed to the second floor and straight out a window. He took flight, then spied a nearby street post to bend beneath him. As he landed, his mind flashed with an idea. Bellestar, his Key, Ruh, a single brick wall and Nameless. He had a plan. This would use everything he learned, but he would only get one chance. Zeta might have been losing her cool, but she would still remember any attempt Leo made to catch her off guard.
Leo practically skated through the ruined city on bursts of lightning that propelled him from the soles of his shoes. Quickly, he found Bellestar at the base of a wall that looked far from stable. Perfect. He rounded it and hid until he heard Zeta's footsteps.
'Flame barrage!' He shouted. There was no fire involved, but he did cause a barrage. As he leapt up the wall and grabbed the topmost brick, he left his key behind to maintain Zeta's focus. Then, the wall burst with shattering Ruh, and she released blasts of light in retaliation. With his opponent distracted and the wall falling to pieces, Leo took to the air. He aimed the shotgun for Zeta. She noticed him in time to switch from her ranged attacks to the defensive shell, but Leo wasn't aiming for her.
'Gotcha!' Leo fired one shot that knocked Nameless out of her hand, then he fell to the ground beside her. In one fell motion, he smacked her hand away with Bellestar and swiped Nameless from the floor. With that, he plunged the blade into Zeta's side. The shell cracked.