Jamie sat there, ready to fight, when a thought occurred to him.
"If the Overdrive Function evolves Prime's abilities, does the smokescreen change too?"
Victor was still wandering the smoke, until he stepped into a puddle of some sort. Looking down, he saw that he stepped on a trail of blood, most likely leading to Jamie. He grinned, but before he could follow it, he suddenly gripped his throat and began choking, his eyes turning bloodshot and watery. He wasn't inside smoke, he was inside some sort of poison!
Unfortunately for Victor, Jamie could see him easily with Thermal Vision. Using his temporarily tripled Agility, Prime immediately reached Victor, who was too busy choking to react, and punched him in the face, the increased Strength sending him flying, the ground breaking from the force of the punch.
Out of the poison smoke, Victor was able to stabilize himself, electricity covering his heels as he dug them into the ground to stop his flight. He was breathing heavily, and was extremely wary of Prime now, as the left side of his face was crushed, turned to unrecognizable bloody flesh. Not even he knew how he was still alive. Perhaps it was the natural endurance of a Wizard in the Enhanced Realm.
He breathed out, ready for any attack, yet he was unaware of the next one. Prime appeared in front of him, already swinging his fist. Victor's remaining eye widened as he quickly cast a spell, exploding into yellow sparks as Prime's fist made contact.
Prime did a 360, looking for the Agent, when a slash of electricity collided with the back of Prime's head, not even leaving a scratch due to the tripled Durability.
"What is this sudden boost in power!?"
Far behind Prime, Victor huffed as his charged electrical slash achieved absolutely nothing. It was like he was looking at a different mecha from the one earlier!
Prime's head snapped at his direction, and Victor flinched, charging up his body with sparks to run to another location, only to find 3 missiles following him, being able to keep up with his speed!
"Shoulder Missiles." Back at the cage, Jamie grinned. The evolved Wrist Missiles became Shoulder Missiles, and came with a homing function.
Distracted, Victor failed to notice the steel fist flying at him from the front, noticing it too late.
BOOM!
A large explosion appeared where Victor stood, courtesy of the Shoulder Missiles and Explosive Punch, evolved version of Rocket Punch.
Prime stood with his arm outstretched towards the explosion, his right forearm missing. A second passed before a blue light appeared in the outline of his missing arm, and what was lacking was there in an instant, rebuilt from nothing.
As the smoke from the explosion faded, Victor could be seen kneeling in a crater, his body blackened and burnt. It was a far cry from his sharp, handsome appearance from the start of the fight. He moved his remaining hand and looked at it, patches of cooked flesh flaking off.
"Mana…" He croaked, his lips cracking open and bleeding.
Unable to escape the explosion, Victor has instead used all of his mana to wrap himself in a protective layer of electricity, which was why he was still alive. If only he wasn't out of mana, or about to die…
The hum of a generator interrupted his line of thought. His eyes widened as if he just received an epiphany. He jolted upwards to look at the power plant, ignoring how his burnt body complained. Jamie on the other hand, simply ignored Victor's actions. He saw it as one's denial that their death was coming.
Prime's shoulders popped open, tall compartments containing larger missiles sliding out. He aimed at Victor and quickly fired the same moment the Agent yelled, turning into a yellow blur that lurched forward, leaving a trail of blood and black flesh.
"Mana!!"
The missiles blew up the spot where Victor previously was. Jamie cursed seeing he missed, as he failed to activate the homing function as he was certain of victory.
Victor slammed into an intact generator, unable to control his momentum. Grunting from the pain of moving his body, he placed his good hand on the front of it, raising his head and biting the tesla coil.
In that moment, he remembered something that Griggs, the bald Leader in charge of this slum, told him. He wondered where that guy was. Probably killed by one of the rioters.
"Yes, I have some of the Fledgling Wizards insert their mana into them from time to time, to make it last longer."
That quote stuck in his head, Victor braced himself as he began to absorb the raw energy from the generator, focusing on extracting the mana from it to make sure he survives it. The generator began to whine and light up as Victor sucked it dry.
"What is he doing!?"
Prime flew to Victor and punched, only for the man to silently turn to ash as the raw electricity tore him apart. The punch ended up destroying the generator, but Victor was nowhere to be seen.
"I'm tired of this cat and mouse shit!"
Jamie cursed from where he lay, unaware that blood was currently leaking out of his eyes, nose, and mouth.
Behind the bars he leaned on, a young man with pale purple hair and purple eyes watched him anxiously, silently debating about something.
"Hello."
"GAH!"
Jamie jumped as he heard a voice out of nowhere, temporarily taking him out of the fight. Turning around, he saw the young man in the cage.
"C-Could you let me out?" The young man silently pleaded.
Jamie's jaw dropped. This guy couldn't see how he was busy? Missing an arm and all?
"Sure… just give me a minute."
He focused back on Prime, realizing that nearly 3 minutes have already passed. He needed to find Victor and kill him before Overdrive ended. He didn't believe the guy was dead.
Sure enough, Prime heard heavy breathing behind him, along with a stronger aura. There stood Victor, his body still burnt black, and missing an arm and part of his face, but he had an aura on him, one of yellow sparks.
"It worked… the Superior Realm… Hah…"
He opened his bloodshot eyes, glaring at Prime. His gamble worked much better than expected, not only strengthening him but forcing a breakthrough into the next Realm. He could feel that absorbing that raw electricity made him more in tune with his affinity.
He raised his hand above his head, casting a spell he just learned.
"Compression."
All the generators in the power plant began to screech, all the energy from each one flying out to converge above Victor's palm, a massive ball of electricity beginning to form and light up the port.
Prime's Shoulder Missiles slid out, the compartments being emptied as all missiles flew to destroy Victor, only to be disintegrated halfway by bolts of electricity.
Prime threw all his attacks at Victor, only to be countered somehow.
Explosive Punch? Disintegrated halfway. Fire Blast? Protected by electrical layers. Wind Lance? Defended against. Poison Smoke? Victor burned away the toxins inside his body with electricity. Prime Tackle? Blasted away.
As time went on, the ball grew larger. At this rate, if Victor managed to absorb all the energy from the power plant, there would be no stopping the attack.
"What else is there!?"
"I must thank you, intruder." Victor's voice croaked as his eyes filled with superiority once more. "I would not have reached this power without you. Rest In Peace."
As Victor gloated, a lightbulb went off in Jamie's head. He knew how to win.
A sudden roar from the ocean startled Victor, grabbing his attention. As he turned to look, a massive creature rose out of it, waves of water spilling down its head, wetting the port.
Victor gasped as he recognized the creature and its spiky black carapace, countless legs that were larger than him, and the horns on its head.
The Killipede roared before charging at Victor, intending to run over the small thing with the threatening ball of energy. Victor blasted it with electricity that harmlessly rolled over its carapace.
"How!? Argh!"
Victor screamed in frustration. He had killed so many of these things during his search for the intruder, yet this one came out of nowhere to screw him over!
Out of options, Victor cancelled his energy absorbtion and lowered the ball, placing it between him and the Killipede, which charged through. A large blast appeared upon impact, the Killipede's head exploding while the rest of its body crashed into Victor and the headquarters building.
Jamie cackled where he was, looking at the evolved spell that just saved his ass.
[Summon Killipede (Teen)]
"I completely forgot about you!" He laughed while the man in the cage looked at him like he was crazy.
As the rubble cleared, the headquarters was revealed to have collapsed, and Victor was pinned to a pile of debris by the Killipede's horn that impaled him through the stomach. Prime slowly walked towards him as he struggled to push the dead, building sized beast off him.
"Damn it!" He slammed his fists on the Killipede's carapace before slumping back, defeated. "Looks like I lost."
He looked up at Prime, unwilling to keep going on any longer. He wasn't going to be able to free himself, short of tearing off his lower waist.
"Just fucking end me already."
Silently, Jamie complied, and Prime's fingers wrapped around Victor's head. The Agent, accepting his fate, closed his eyes as Prime squeezed.
[You have killed a Level 73 Awakened Victor]
[Mecha Core has leveled up!]
[You have gained Attribute Points.]
[Would you like to absorb the Awakened Victor's Affinity?]
Seeing the notifications, Jamie sighed in relief, glad that the fight was over. "Yes."
Prime touched Victor's corpse and absorbed his affinity right as the Overdrive Function's time limit ended, bringing Jamie back to normal.
[Magic Core has leveled up!]
[Magic Core has leveled up!]
[Magic Core has leveled up!]
[Magic Core has…]
[You have gained Quality Points.]
[Multiple upgrades pending]
[Multiple spells pending]
"My face!"
Now that he was aware of his surroundings again, Jamie immediately began wiping his face with his shirt, ignoring the stinging pain. The real problem was, he was getting dizzy from blood loss. It was time to worry about his left arm stump.
Prime flew over to Jamie, who already missed the tripled Atrributes. The mecha stuck his palm out, where a flame appeared. The heat blasted Jamie's face as he breathed in and out.
"Hoo, boy, this is gonna hurt. On 3… 2… 1…
AAAAAAAAGGHHH!!!"
After the countdown, he pressed his stump into the fire, cauterizing the wound, although he couldn't stop himself from screaming in pain. All things considered however, seeing the state Victor was in at the end of the fight, Jamie was lucky to get away with only a severed arm.
Jamie stood up, glad that he wasn't gonna lose any more blood. He could worry about anemia later.
"Ahem."
Jamie heard someone clear their throat behind him. Turning around, he saw the purple haired man in the cage waiting expectantly.
"Oh right! My bad, let's get you out of there."