Down to fifty-three percent health.
“That Volt Field ability of yours is annoying,” Supermassive said. “It only hits back on melee attacks, though, and the good news for me is I have plenty of range.” He smiled, then attacked again with another Kinetic Velocity.
Titus can’t take this beating forever. He needs to get in close and hit back. Put some of that charge to use!
Now in the red at forty-four percent health, Titus seemed to have the same idea. His shield came off cooldown and flicked back on. Titus wasn’t focused on it, though.
“You have plenty of ranged attacks?” he growled and reared back his hammer. “Then I guess I need to keep you close.”
Ability: Energy Grip
Titus struck forward and a lasso of energy burst from his hammer and wrapped around Supermassive’s leg. Titus pulled and his opponent was yanked toward him and dragged along the ground.
“No more running now,” Titus said then attacked with several hammer strikes. Rallying Cry’s effect had worn off but the big man was aiming for the exposed spots where Supermassive’s rock armor was already shattered. The first blow was glancing and didn’t deal full damage, the second missed, but the third connected full-on. All told, Supermassive lost thirty-four percent heath. The gravity slinger was squishy, and his rock armor was becoming less and less effective as he used more of it for Kinetic Velocity.
Supermassive climbed to his feet, health now reduced to thirty-one percent. Roughly even, considering Titus was at forty-four percent himself.
Ability: Shattered Shot
Sacrifices a small amount of armor to distract the opponent.
Kaiden’s visor read out details of the attack as a small piece of Supermassive’s armor broke free. Just like before with Conservation of Mass, the floating pebbles swarmed Titus’ face. They dealt another three percent damage and bought a much-needed moment for the gravity slinger to retreat outside of Titus’ reach. His right arm was still limp – apparently Mass x Acceleration had a very long cooldown – and his armor was shattered in several areas.
“Based on how he’s fighting, and how much damage Titus is dealing with each attack, this guy is like a ranged class with one really powerful melee attack,” Zelda said, analytical as always. But it seemed like she was right. As Supermassive and Titus continued their fight, the former constantly retreated, buying time to continue spamming his Kinetic Velocity ranged attack.
Titus went for another Energy Grip, but Supermassive dodged it this time – relying on his high dexterity stat, no doubt. Still, there was only so much arena to dance around in, and as Kaiden now noticed, Titus had been intentionally chasing his opponent into a corner.
“Nowhere to run now,” he said, closing in on his slippery opponent.
“On the contrary,” Supermassive said.
Ability: Render Inert
Uses armor to immobilize an opponent.
Several rocks pulled away from his armor and flew toward Titus. They were low, though; off target. Or—no, they were right on target, Kaiden realized as they slammed into Titus’ feet and piled up around them. The big man tried to step forward but his feet were rooted to the ground. Supermassive took advantage of the moment to slip by just out of reach and get himself back into the openness of the center of the arena. Once there, he loaded up for another attack.
Nothing Wasted
Deals damage based on percentage of broken armor.
Titus raised his shield to block the attack as all of the pebbles orbiting Supermassive launched forward in a piercing lance of debris.
The attack washed against Titus’ shield, but no damage got through.
“There we go!” Kaiden cheered. Several others in the audience booed.
The root effect from Render Inert wore off – the rocks at Titus’ feet flying up to rejoin Supermassive’s armor – and Titus was free.
He lowered his shield and smirked.
“With my shield back, I can do this all day.”
“Guess it’s time to end this, then.”
Ability: Gravity Well
A crowd-control ability that creates a strong gravity field around an object within forty feet.
Kaiden’s vision fed him information on the ability and he felt himself frown, not understanding what was happening. Why use a crowd-control ability on just one opponent?
A moment later, though, Kaiden swallowed hard as he realized what was happening.
A lightless pinpoint of black void had appeared directly above Titus’ head, so close it was almost touching him. Immediately, dust and dirt began to rise into the air. It rushed toward the dot, then gathered around it in a violent swirl. It wasn’t another second before heavier debris began to inch in closer. The orb grew and seemingly strengthened. As it did, the larger debris stopped sliding along the ground and launched into the air instead. Titus was lifted as well, legs kicking as the ability held him aloft. Supermassive wasn’t trying to move Titus around the arena; he was trying to move the arena to Titus.
Titus’ eyes went wide, then he curled into a ball as a chunk of broken wall the size of his torso nearly decapitated him. It missed by an inch or so, but from all around the arena, debris was zooming in now. Only Supermassive seemed unaffected by the ability.
Titus wasn’t done, though.
Ability: Improved Barrier
You stand still and become the epicenter of a large barrier to defend your allies, increasing in size depending on how much charge you use. During this time your shield does not absorb additional charge. 10% of all damage blocked during this time converts into a protective force-field around you once ability ends. Unable to use if your shield is already overloaded.
Cooldown: 10 minutes.
Titus made a small barrier this time, just big enough to protect himself. Conserving charge, probably.
Energy glowed around him, inches away from his body, and the flying debris slammed into it. Where it hit, the barrier flashed, but held steady. An entire stone wall smashed into the barrier, then a trail of rebar, and next some shattered armor from a contestant who’d been
