“Oi!” she said. “That’s not fair! Fight someone your own size! Or at least your own stench!”
She tossed up a speed bubble moments before Wax drew close enough to be within its perimeter. From his perspective, she became a blur of motion. Fortunately, he’d worked with Wayne long enough to know what to do. He changed his trajectory and shot the floor with an ordinary bullet. As she came out of the blur, leaping for him, he Pushed himself out of the way to avoid getting hit by a dueling cane.
“Oi!” she said. “Stand in one place so I can clobber ya in a fair-type manner, ya rustin’ sod.”
“Is that the best you can do?” Wax said, backing away — dodging her strikes but staying close enough to be inside a speed bubble if she made one. “Really, I thought you’d be harder than this.”
“Stop quotin’ lines from your wife last night,” she snapped, “and fight me!”
She tossed up another speed bubble, catching Wax — but making it appear that Wayne and the Coinshot were frozen mid-conflict. Wayne was wrestling the fellow for some reason.
Whatever. Wax shot the woman as she drew close, but she barely flinched. She seemed to have a lot of health stored up — and that made sense if she’d begun preparing to fight him and Wayne years ago.
He jumped back, floating on a slight Steelpush to the perimeter of the speed bubble, where the air shimmered. He had to separate her from her metalminds. Wax clicked Vindication to a chamber with a hazekiller round, though she’d healed from the last one of those he’d hit her with.
Where to shoot her? He’d memorized the Hemalurgy book Death had sent them, but it would be hard to blast her spikes off her, as she would be wearing them deep in her core. Her healing power came from her metalminds though, and many surgeries embedded those in arms or legs. A pin through the arm bones was easier to recover from than one in the chest, and easier to swap out if required.
She growled and dropped the speed bubble, then attacked — clearly trying to get him to dodge too far out. But his years beside Wayne had given him a gut instinct for the precise distance to stay from her — which unfortunately meant he had to stay dangerously close to her attacks. During his next jump to get past her, he had to stay low enough that she was able to get a solid hit on his leg. It didn’t break anything thankfully, but rusts did it hurt.
She saw that and grinned wickedly. “Oh, that pain. That pain is delicious. Get in here. That was just an appetizer.”
* * *
Wayne stayed wary, putting up a speed bubble and watching the Coinshot try to take aim at him. That trick with the button worried Wayne. His remaining stored-up health would probably let him survive a hit or two, but not much more. He felt so exposed.
I have to watch out for that super-metal he has too, Wayne thought. Or … actually … that’s probably my best way of beating him …
After gauging the direction the man was swinging his arm as he aimed, Wayne repositioned and dropped the bubble. A series of bangs sounded as the man’s shots missed. Then Wayne dodged in from the other direction and tackled him again. This time the man managed to keep his feet.
Wayne grunted. “You know, Stinky — can I call you Stinky? — I can respect what you’re doin’. Gettin’ into a man’s head to figure out how to beat him? That’s good strategy. But…”
The man Leeched away Wayne’s bendalloy, then shoved Wayne off and started punching, his face turning red with anger. Wayne dodged the blows, then leaped forward and grabbed him yet again.
“But weren’t you worried?” Wayne continued. “About contamination? Wax, you see, isn’t a complete waste of a person. While you obviously are. So by pretendin’ to be him, you might have accidentally ended up doin’ something useful.”
The man growled, shoving Wayne aside, then fired a few shots. Wayne took one of those — ouch — but managed another hit of bendalloy. That was the key. People expected a man like him to run out of such an expensive metal.
But the fellow didn’t know. He wasn’t merely fighting Wayne the amiable miscreant. He was fighting Wayne Terrisborn, filthy rich snob with way, way too much money to burn.
“You know I can heal, right?” Wayne said after dodging back out of a speed bubble. “Shootin’ me is kinda stupid.”
“Not if it hurts,” the man snapped, though he stopped firing. Mistake that, lettin’ Wayne talk him out of it. He couldn’t know that Wayne was running low on health — but then in general, you beat a Bloodmaker by makin’ them use up their metalminds.
Instead, the man fished in his pocket and brought out a pair of what seemed to be aluminum handcuffs. Wayne swallowed a wisecrack. That … was actually a good idea. If he could grapple with Wayne for long enough to lock him to something, then get away, he could shoot Wayne full of bullets at his leisure. The only way out would be for Wayne to cut his own hand off.
As he was considering, the man gestured at Wayne with the cuffs — which he didn’t need to do, but Wayne could admire the nice pose — and released a terrible wave of Allomantic strength, one that ripped the carpet up by its staples and sent Wayne tumbling backward.
Rusts. Even his metalminds — embedded beneath the skin of his thighs — felt those blasts. Still, Wayne had been ready for it. So he pretended to be dazed, but instead watched keenly as the man covertly pulled an aluminum flask from his inner coat pocket and took a hit. Wax had said every time the fellow used that super-Push, he’d have to replenish his steel.
Now I know where you keep that flask, friend.
With another speed bubble, Wayne rushed in close. The man groaned as — once again — Wayne grabbed on to him.
“You annoying little prick,” the man snapped.
“Oh, mate,” Wayne said. “You sweet mama’s baby.” He pulled in closer. “You ain’t even begun to learn how annoying I can be.”
* * *
“I’m supposed to like the pain,” the woman said, circling Wax as they continued their dance — him trying to stay just far enough from her to avoid being hit, but not so far as to give her a chance to back up and make a speed bubble. “That’s something I didn’t know about him. Learned it recently, ya know? In the tunnel? He likes pain. I have to like pain. Enjoy fear. Savor misery.”
Wax didn’t reply, focused on keeping the right distance.
“Do ya know why?” the woman asked, feinting in, making Wax hop backward. “I didn’t at first. Freaked me out! I hadn’t seen that innim. More I thought though, the more it made sense. He must like the pain. Otherwise he’d have ended things long ago. It’s the only answer that makes any sense.”
She lunged, and he dodged a little too far, because she broke and threw herself the other direction, rolling to the ground and becoming a blur. Wax cursed, dancing away — noticing something from the corner of his eye that made him feel comfortable backing up. A moment later, his back pressed up against Wayne’s.
“So, how’re things?” Wayne said.
“Could be better,” Wax replied.
“I hear you,” Wayne grumbled, giving them a speed bubble. “Wanna try something new? Shake it up?” He waggled one of his dueling canes in his hand.
“Sure.”
Wayne tossed a dueling cane into the air, and Wax tossed him Vindication, loaded with aluminum bullets. “Ignore the hazekiller chambers,” Wax said, snatching the cane from the air. “Lever on the top activates those.”