Chapter Forty-Six

I didn’t even bother asking what he did as it was fairly evident by my lack of ice powers. But, I didn’t know what this meant for the black ice. Could my regeneration out speed the deteriorating effects of the ice? There was only one way to find out because I only had one method of winning this fight now: brawl. 

I knew Vital had martial arts training which made him even more dangerous now that he was wielding my powers, but perhaps the playing field could be leveled if I could find a way to permanently take out his partner-in-heroics. 

“This is game over,” Tyfuse taunted, and I spun around and swung at him first. He barely dodged in time as my fist brushed up against the side of his face. While still in a dodging motion, he jut out two fingers charged with lightning to try and zap me in my rib, but I spun away, then sweep kicked, water splashing all over as he was knocked into the air, parallel to the ground. I sent my fist into his gut before backpedaling away from an icicle from Vital.

“You switched roles?” I asked.

“Mm. Not exactly,” Vital responded as he crafted an ice sword and an icicle from thin air. I was pissed off with how quickly he became acquainted with my abilities. 

He then charged at me swinging with great discipline and precise movement as he tried to land a devastating blow. However, I was too agile for his precise, yet stiff movement with the ice blades as I continuously dodged, looking for an opening. I heard Tyfuse getting to his feet, groaning. And for a split second, Vital diverted his attention to his partner, which allowed me to send a right hook into his jaw. He skirted across the scattered, rocky ground and his back almost connected with an electrical panel plant. I saw Tyfuse eye Vital before changing his game plan completely as he shouted and ran at me full force, lightning bursting from his eyes. 

He swung and missed as I was careful to dodge any residual lightning sparking from his fist, but it was way easier to counterattack him now. I started with a gut punch, then a straight jab with my right arm. The jab caused him to stumble, but he regained his footing and screamed as he went in for more attacks. At this point, I just stopped dodging entirely and began hitting him in places that would cause him to stop fighting. Crevice of his elbows, shoulders, chest, thighs. I was using some of my super strength so I know these blows were affecting him as his attack seemed to slow, but it was like he wanted me to hit him. Then it dawned on me.

I sidestepped out of the way of Vital’s ki-charged ice fist and the hero was forced to stop right before his punch connected with Tyfuse’s face. That split second of relief they had I used to my advantage as I grabbed Vital’s arm and snapped it, shutting down any power he had flowing to it. Tyfuse tried to grab my hand and electrocute me, but I stepped back and spun, landing a kick to the back of his head that sent him flying into Vital. 

Before either one of them could get up, I grabbed Tyfuse by his ankles, dragged, then lifted and slammed him onto the ground on the other side of me. I didn’t think Vital would be up so quickly as he finally landed a shot with my own ice at my feet. I immediately broke off the ice, but it was too late as it already began to creep up my leg. 

“Now it’s over, asshole,” Tyfuse said, lifting his face off the rocks.

“That what you think?” I said. My regeneration was slowing the creeping ice, but it wasn’t stopping it. And man was it painful. It was a cold burning sensation that you couldn't touch or cover with anything or it’d make it worse. And it would only spread. My only out was to get back what was stolen from me.

I backed away from Vital and mashed Tyfuse’s face back into the rocks before he could get up. Unfortunately, I saw the plants around us sparking and decided it was best to back away from him as he drew electricity to charge himself up.

Tyfuse rose to his feet and sent a hot streak of lightning through my stomach. I looked down to see a smoking, blackened, burned hole and tried to back away as they approached. Vital sent another chunk of ice at me that I was too injured to dodge, so it connected with my forearm. Another place the ice would begin growing from.

I was trying to count my advantages in this situation, but the only one was that I had broken Vital’s arm, but not even this seemed to slow him down. I did the only thing I was capable of doing at that moment and ran. I ran into the maze of electrical plants and lost them. 

I stopped and caught my breath with my back to a plant facing away from where they’d be coming from. I heard the crunch of footsteps approaching as I placed my hand over my mouth to stop from breathing heavily as my body finalized the healing around my stomach. Then the crunching stopped. Then I heard a grunt, followed by electrical surging noises, followed by an explosion. They were close, but not near me yet. 

“We will blow up every single one of these things until you come out!” Tyfuse said. “So…if you want the city to lose power, that’s on you!”

If wasn’t a very good plan, but they knew they had me cornered and I was running out of options. I heard another plant spark then explode. This one was closer. And from the corner of my eye, I saw black ice inch out just a little past where I was. I heard another grunt, spark, then explosion, only this time, I noticed a little crunch of footsteps just prior to the explosion. Tyfuse must not have been capable of surviving an explosion. My guess was if he were to try and overload it with lightning from a distance, the other plants would be connected to the lightning stream as well because of the proximity. I came up with a strategy to kill at least one of them, but it was risky. 

I lucked out as Vital didn’t find me first. Instead, Tyfuse sent his fist through the plant I had my back to. When he did, I spun and hammer-fisted his forearm, snapping it so it hooked on my side of the plant. He cried out in pain and I tried to get away in time to minimize the damage from the explosion, but the bastard wasn’t a graceful loser as all I heard him say was “I’m sorry, Chris” as he let lightning surge from his body setting off all the plants. Everything went white.