Chapter 550: Chapter 550 Liesel Vs Dalton (2)
"Now, let’s see how good you are without your two goons backing you up."
Liesel flashed Dalton a confident smirk, and this just seemed to send the man further into a rage.
Still, it did not make him reckless or sloppy as Liesel had been hoping.
Her opponent was very old, but that also meant he was experienced. He had been a fighter for ten times longer than Liesel had been alive.
This made itself apparent once Liesel had thrown herself at him and attacked with relentless strikes.
Up until now, he had been fighting using heavy blows from his hammer. Each one meant to kill in one hit.
Yet now that Dalton was lacking his backup, he had switched to a more defensive style, using the long handle of his hammer to block Liesel’s attacks, and only attacking with quicker and more reserved blows that did not compromise his balance.
Of course, with his weapon being as heavy as it was, and the strength of his cybernetic limbs, every blow still had a great deal of power behind it.
’I’m obviously faster than him, but I can’t get a single hit in. He’s predicting my moves and keeping me from doing anything with the weapons in each of his limbs. And I don’t even know anything about his left leg yet. He hasn’t used it so far, so I’m assuming it’s something with limited uses but very powerful.’ Liesel thought as he attacks were continuously rebuffed.
Knowing that she was not getting anywhere like this, she jumped back to create some distance and decided to go with a different strategy.
"Why do you hate me so much? I’m pretty sure that this is our first time meeting. Also, why did you shout Kaizer when you first got a good look at me? I don’t have any relation to those people."
Dalton glared at her in response, and Liesel thought her attempt to change things up by starting a conversation was going to be a failure.
Except, instead of continuing to attack her immediately, the man opened his mouth to speak.
"Your deceptions won’t work on me. I’d recognize the features of your family anywhere. Those red eyes of yours are just like his." Dalton said, almost snarling. "As for my hatred, well, you only need to look at history to know that the Kaizer Mercenaries have made no shortage of enemies in the Zatis Consortium."
With that, he ended the brief conversation and launched himself at Liesel again.
Since she had given him enough space, he swung with a wide arc and brough his hammer down directly on top of her.
Liesel’s first instinct was to leap away to avoid the power strike that would see her blown away even if it missed.
However, she was not willing to pass up the opportunity this would give her.
’I’m already not getting out of this fight unscathed, so what’s a little more pain.’
With her hardlight buckler attached to her left arm, Liesel swung out and slammed the shield into the side of Dalton’s hammer as it was descending towards her.
Every bit of strength she had was put behind the blow.
Had Liesel been any weaker, she would have failed to divert the attack and ended up squashed.
Fortunately, Dr. Raiti did amazing work, and her augmented muscles were enough to match her opponent’s cybernetic limbs.
There was one little issue though.
Her arm had already been fractured earlier, and while an implant inside her containing medical nanomachines she had received before leaving the Kaizer Fleet to strike out on her own was already working to heal her, it had not come close to finishing the job yet.
A sickening cracking sound echoed as the bones in Liesel’s forearm and hand broke.
One ended up being a compound fracture that sent a sharp piece of bone piecing through her skin.
It hurt like hell, and she wanted to curl up into a ball and scream, but she did not allow herself to hesitate.
This was the opening that she had been willing to trade some heavy injuries for, so she was not going to miss her chance.
She was already swinging her sickle towards Dalton’s torso. The weapon aimed to slice him from shoulder to waist.
Naturally, he was not just going to allow himself to be carved up, and while his hammer had been deflected, his limbs still each had their own weapons.
The first to take aim at Liesel was the small laser turret popping out of Dalton’s left shoulder.
It fired two blasts in quick succession.
Both blasts had targeted Liesel’s head, but she had already expected this.
Everywhere else was protected by her combat armor, so it was the natural target for a kill shot.
Right before the lasers were fired, she jerked her head to the side and shifted her body a little.
This caused the blasts to hit her in the shoulder instead, but she tanked the attack thanks to her armor.
Next up was the flamethrower.
She had been expecting this as well, and though her plan to deal with the annoying weapon was not going to be pleasant, she did not hesitate.
As the opening to release the burst of flames showed itself, Liesel lifted up her left leg and jammed her foot right into it.
An intense heat followed, and she could feel her foot and then leg being badly burned.
At the very least, her sudden covering of the opening caused some backlash, and Dalton’s right leg ended up suffering some internal damage.
Liesel had been wary of what might come from his left leg, but nothing appeared even as her strike finally reached Dalton.
For the first time, she saw a bit of fear in his eyes, and Liesel felt assured of her victory.
Except, instead of allowing his body to be cut in half, Dalton made the choice to sacrifice his left arm instead.
He held it up to block Liesel’s blow, and while her sickle did slice right through the prosthetic, it slowed her attack down just enough that Dalton was able to jump back to avoid a lethal hit.
Nevertheless, the tip Liesel’s sickle still connected with his body and left a large gash from his collar bone down to his waist.
All of this occurred in under a second.
Liesel’s decisive actions had seen her finally breaking the stalemate, but it was difficult to say whether she had come out on top or not.
Her left arm and leg were basically useless now.
With all of the broken bones in her arm, the pain was agonizing just letting it dangle loosely. Even the smallest movements sent sharp jolts through her entire body.
As for her left foot, it might have been in even worse condition.
The burns were so bad she actually could not feel the extremity, and where her senses started about halfway up her shin, all she felt was blistering torment.
If not for the anesthetic agent being released by the nanomachines hard at work inside of her, the pain likely would have been too much to handle and caused her to pass out.
’Sh*t! Goddamn it this hurts! And I didn’t even f*cking kill the bastard!’
Liesel scowled when she directed her gaze towards Dalton.
He was not in great shape either, down two limbs just like Liesel was.
However, his pain was not nearly as intense as Liesel’s due to his arms and legs being mechanical prosthetics.
His left arm may have been sliced off at the elbow, and his right leg was malfunctioning, but he did not have to feel any of the damage.
The only wound that hurt him was the deep cut going down his torso.
Regrettably, Liesel had failed to reach the man’s internals.
The wound might have looked bad because of all of the blood gushing out of it, but it was far from fatal.
Tentatively, she hopped a little using her reaming leg, and immediately she regrated the action.
It jostled her arm quite a bit, a sent another spike of pain through her.
"I did not think that you would attempt such a reckless gamble. You fought so conservatively up until now that I never saw it coming." Dalton wheezed after collecting himself.
Liesel perfectly understood what he was getting at.
She had been doing her best not to take any hits during their fight. Then out of nowhere she was willing to trade two of her limbs just for a chance at a hit.
Had her plan failed, it would have left her completely exposed unable to fight back.
Things had not gone exactly as she had wanted of course, but she had at least managed to cripple Dalton as well.
While Liesel was trying to come up with how to finish this fight, her adversary seized the initiative.
Without hesitation, he threw his hammer at her with his one good arm.
It was too unwieldy for him to use now that he was down a limb, so he discarded it and used it as an attack at the same time.
Though she did not want to, Liesel dove to the side to avoid the incoming hammer.
The weapon flew past her without hitting, but that did not mean it did not do any damage.
Just moving now was enough to make Liesel’s injuries worse.
When she popped back up, she found that Dalton had his laser rifle leveled at her.
With her personal shield generator already exhausted and her left leg burned to a crips, her defenses against projectile weapons was laughable insufficient now.
"Die and quell even the slightest of my fury towards your family." Dalton said as he pulled down on the trigger.
