Previously: Metalord was trying desperately to find a way to defeat the Cobalt Czar, while Twain worked to save Yi Fan. And now…
“Seven? What happened to eight?†Metalord asked.
“Six,†the Czar explained.
“Fine, Plan H,†Metalord said. With a flick of his fingers, he wrapped a metal blindfold around the Czar’s head.
“Plan H is a blindfold? Pathetic.†The Czar ripped the metal strip from around his eyes, only to find his opponent mere inches away. Metalord placed both hands on the Czar’s bare chest and hit him with a big shock.
This wasn’t like the random shock of lightning, which his uniquely dense skin could disperse. The charge went in and through him, flipping his heart into spasms. The Czar felt his chest clench, grabbed at Metalord with a left arm that had gone suddenly numb. He staggered, fell to a knee, tried to catch breath in a chest that suddenly felt empty. Tears blurred his vision as he grabbed his left fist in his right hand and hit himself hard in the breastbone, once, and then again.
The tension in his chest eased and he could breathe once more. He rose unsteadily to his feet. “Perhaps I underestimated you,†he gasped. “I actually felt that. Five.â€
Metalord had stumbled back out of the Czar’s reach. He smiled and tried not to show how his hands had begun to shake. The constant assault had taken a lot out of him. Behind the Czar, the tubing for Metalord’s ultimate attack was finished coiling into its final form. He needed to hurry and use it while he still had the strength to make it work. [blockquote type=”blockquote_quotes” align=”right”]“Plan I,†Metalord said, hoping his voice wouldn’t betray how unsteady he felt. “As in, I think you’ll really hate this one…â€[/blockquote]
He gestured and once more, a strip of metal wrapped itself over the Czar’s eyes. “Not again,†grumbled the Czar, reaching up to rip the strip from his eyes. “Don’t you have any imagination?â€
But as his fingers ripped the covering from his eyes, more metal appeared to cover them up again. He dropped the piece in his hand, even as more metal was clamping itself around his head. He ripped several pieces away to no effect, and felt suddenly sure that every piece he tore off and dropped was merely circling back to join the growing sphere of metal surrounding his head. And once more, he couldn’t breathe, though the panic reaction was less since nothing was actually pushing inside him this time.
He screamed as much as was possible inside the metal mache enclosing his head, and then cut loose with blue beams from his eyes. Metal vaporized and formed a hissing grey mist in the air. Within seconds, the mist had cleared enough that the Czar could see that he had completely disintegrated his foe.
He ripped the rest of the metal shell off his head, at which point he became aware of a loud humming behind him. He turned and saw Metalord standing at the far end of a long cylinder of copper tubing. “You ever heard of railguns?†Metalord asked.
Could this possibly be the weapon that will finally defeat the Czar once and for all? Join us for the next exciting episode!
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