Captain Vance didn't advance like a standard brawler. He didn't rush. He opened fire from ten paces, his plasma torch firing rapid, high-density white bolts that turned the air into a suffocating wall of heat.
Vanta didn't try to absorb the plasma with Kinetic Void. Plasma wasn't kinetic force; it was superheated thermal energy. Trying to absorb it would simply cook his internal processors before the dark matter could dissolve the molecular bonds.
Strategy: Thermal deflection via fluid dynamics.
"Spike, dump the coolant reserve," Vanta commanded.
The little drone didn't ask questions. It slammed its cutting laser into a massive, pressurized coolant line running along the base of the fabrication tank. A high-velocity torrent of liquid nitrogen erupted into the path of the oncoming plasma bolts.
CRACK-BOOM.
The collision of 5,000°C plasma and sub-zero liquid nitrogen created a violent, explosive flash of pressurized steam that instantly blinded the Captain's optical sensors. His red targeting lasers spun wildly through the white mist, unable to lock onto Vanta's pitch-black silhouette.
[Target Sight Disabled: 4.0 Seconds]
"Three seconds too long," Vanta deadpanned.
He moved through the steam like a shadow through a cloud. He didn't go for the head or the chest plate; Vance's silver chrome was military-grade, reinforced against frontal impacts. Instead, Vanta targeted the heavy, unshielded hydraulic pistons in the Captain's ankles—the ones responsible for stabilizing his massive weight during combat.
With a low, sweeping kick powered by the newly scavenged Enforcer servos, Vanta's right leg slammed into Vance's left ankle.
SNAP.
The chrome piston buckled outward, the structural integrity of the leg dropping to zero in a fraction of a millisecond. The Fabricator-Captain lurched forward, his white plasma torch striking the concrete floor and melting a deep, smoking trench into the foundation.
"System error," Vance's internal speakers chimed, his balance gyros screaming as he tried to adjust his stance on a single leg. "Structural imbalance detected."
"Your center of gravity was poorly calibrated," Vanta said, appearing directly before the Captain's silver face-shield.