Exchange after exchange, Arin and Bat Shit fought.
The lhorza Paragon gave slightly better than he got, and he was up three lives to her two when Arin's AK finally made an appearance.
That was when she finally understood the full implications of the nano suits Paragons wore, as she emptied two full clips into the man's suit - which deflected the rounds but recorded the damage as the suit's running lights went red - only to watch as the final bullet sent him flying with way more force than it should have under normal physics.
As was becoming frustratingly usual, Arin had barely a moment to rush the next capsule into her grasp when Bat Shit came down almost right on top of her.
There is no fucking way that's a coincidence, she said to herself as she beamed him in the head with the capsule, putting his teal runners into dark green with how much she used her magnetism to accelerate the toss.
It fell to the ground and opened, and Arin was full expecting another dud like the capsule that had been filled with glazed donuts of all things.
What popped out of this capsule though was something that made her immediately regret the decision to throw it away...
Bat Shit chuckled as the contents of the capsule revealed itself to be a coruscating, pearlescent orb that pulsed with the promise of energy.
"Oh shit."
There were many alien names for the item she'd just given away...
The Orb of Ultimate Empowerment. The Champion Maker. Distillation of the Gods - though the translation on that last word was up in the air.
Arin had her own term for the thing.
"A fucking smash ball..."
The moment she confirmed this to herself, the lorzha Paragon crushed the orb in his grip.
In that moment, the lights on his suit turned brilliant purple as energy surged throughout his body.
The man wasn't psionic. Nor was he imbedded with any technology designed to channel the enormous energies that entered him... except for his Paragon suit. What the suit did for him in that moment was amplify every bit of strength and speed he put into it.
One moment, Bat Shit was across the stage, and the next he was right in front of Arin, one amplified fist slamming her from yellow to orange before the rest of his combo put her past the hundred-percent amplification mark and into white. The only reason she stayed on the stage was that he started to concentrate his punches down, maximizing the damage she would feel as her suit failed to absorb the forces bulldozing their way into her tiny body.
She had no idea how she was still intact as she landed on her belly meters away from her opponent. And for once the stage did her a favor by raising her up and away from his reach as the last of the powerup faded from his body. But he couldn't counter herself entirely safe as he stepped back to retrieve his ball and chain before casting it hard at the pillar she was presently raised up on.
Arin felt the rattle of its impact in her teeth.
This is bad... if I jump he's going to tetherball me out of the stage... but if I stay here...
A massive crunching noise and the whining of the servos responsible for the pillar announced that her Bat Shit just broke the stage.
A portion of her aching mind found it weirdly humorous that she was clinging to the pillar like a cat in a tree. And like any cat that wanted to stay in a tree, she dug her claws in and waited, hoping she could come up with a plan or-
Nope. Now he was jumping.
Bat Shit held his big lead ball in one hand like a basket ball... and she was the "basket."
At the last moment, instinct kicked in and she pushed herself backward, magnetically tethering herself to the stage as she tried to put some extra distance between herself and her opponent.
Only, the moment his weapon landed, he landed on top of it and jumped, both hands coming up for a double-fist punch that would send her straight down.
Her leap had taken her past the lip of the stage, and Bat Shit could afford to waste a life on...
Wait...
As his swing came down, Arin magnetically jerked herself to the left before tugging with everything she had to bring herself back onto the stage. She had only a moment to turn as he followed her with his body, his trajectory set to land him right on top of her.
There was no time for anything complicated, so Arin tucked her arms in and pushed as hard as she could, headbutting Bat Shit in his chin as she spoiled his landing - and pulling back on her magnetic tether point the moment she felt the impact. She spent a long, dazed moment just wobbling as she watched his enraged face plummet away.
She came to just as a phoonk! sound announced the latest capsule.
Bat Shit's newest re-entry brought him right on top of her again, but she rolled away and kept rolling until she got up, holding the capsule in one hand as she spun in place a bit from dizziness.
She opened the capsule to find... A handle?
What the hell is this? She pulled out the empty handle, only to have it suddenly jump to life as a sword of pure, magnetically confined plasma burst into being with a screech.
More importantly, the whole thing was made of metal.
"Still two on two, Bat Shit," she taunted as she held the sword with an overhead flourish. "And it's fucking lightsaber time!"
An enraged snarl grew on Bat Shit's face. Instead of reaching for his weapon, he grabbed the whole damn pillar, letting his signature weapon fall off as he literally wielded the stage against her, putting his suit into purple as he strained himself.
"DON'T CALL ME BAT SHIT!"
Suddenly a lightsaber just didn't have enough reach for her needs...
"Bugger..."