A Visitor to the Future - 102 - Turning the Tables
The water level was rising rapidly, the waves coming harder and faster. It was really impeding mobility now, providing resistance against every footstep, and altering my sense of balance. Twice I nearly slipped, attempting to counterbalance myself with a forearm that wasn't there. Proxies could operate underwater, but it wasn't something we'd practiced at all, so I was reliant on my human experiences - wading through the shallow end of pools, or rarely in the sea. My opponent seemed to be having a much harder time with the water than I was, and they were losing ground by the second. I briefly thought about escaping, circling back later - but ultimately it was in my team's interest to keep their interest for as long as possible. Even if my gambit didn't pay off, there was the hope that Gatecrash and Tungsten managed to beat their opponents and turn it into a two against one. Besides, my idea wouldn't work if they disengaged - I had to keep them following me. I slowed my pace slightly to ensure that they weren't discouraged. Something in the remaining stump of my crippled arm gave out in a fizzle of sparks and it went entirely numb. Proxies were waterproof when intact, but my left arm was far from it.
The frequency of the waves was rising now, and the water was almost at chest height, despite how far we were from the wave machine. It was probably pretty intense at the other side of the arena. It was nearly time for me to try and execute my plan, which would give me a slim chance at turning the tables. As the waves had grown in size and strength, they broke against our Proxies and re-formed around us. The difference between us was that I could see them coming, backing away as I was from the source. My opponent was completely blindsided by them, the water impacting their back and buffeting them forward slightly. I was waiting for one thing and one thing only - the moment that the next wave reached head-height.
I saw it coming in the distance. It was a especially large wave, just after a short break in the waves before me. It had to be now or never. At five seconds out, I slowed, allowed my opponent to draw slightly closer. At four, I held up my arm, clenched the fist with the forearm raised defensively. My opponent responded in kind, arms that had been pushing the water loosely aside raised to target my head once more. Three seconds - I waited as they crept closer still, right arm pulled back, ready to strike and blind my Proxy for good. Two seconds - crouch slightly in the water, wait just a moment longer. One.
The wave hit my opponent's head and cascaded over the top of their eye lenses in a spray of water and foam, obstructing their vision. I leaned forward with all my weight, pivoting on the tips of my toes as I fell just past and under my opponent's reach. Then, with all the force I had in my legs, I pushed forward and headbutted my opponent square in the chest - right where I had rammed them earlier.
I wasn't able to see the result of my headbutt attempt, facing downwards as I was, but I felt something give. There was no time to celebrate though - I tried to push off my opponent and scramble away, but it was too late. They decided to simply pummel me in the lower back area, and facing down as I was in the water, I could do nothing to avoid it. One, two, three solid hits came rapidly, and I lost sensation in my right leg, something essential having been broken in the flurry of blows.
But blow four, five, and six were weaker, off-target. Seven was a glancing blow to my left hip area. And then I felt the displacement of water as the next hits missed my back entirely.
I continued to sink into the water, and rolled myself to the left as I hit the surface - now much easier in the water than the air. Looking up at my opponent I saw what had happened. They were trying to move and strike at me, but only the top half of the body was responding. Arms flailed uselessly to scramble towards me, but the lower torso was frozen solid, unresponsive to commands. It almost looked like a cartoon character with their legs stuck to the floor, now a dead weight pinning them in place. And with the heavy armour plating as it was, the chances of them moving under arm-power alone were slim to none. The water had done the job that I couldn't - wormed through the cracks I'd made the armour and found its way into some vital control circuitry.
Which meant that my Proxy, even though it was crippled, missing an arm, and unable to move a leg, was still mobile enough to end this engagement. Being careful to avoid my opponent's now limited reach, I used my arm to brace myself against the ground and push my opponent's lower back with my leg. They tumbled forward, uselessly landing face-first and settling on the surface. They made a few attempts to push off the floor, but quickly stopped, slapping the ground in frustration.
"Hey," I said to my team, "One down! Their waterproofing isn't too great, see if you can crack any of their casings, and they'll have electrical issues."
"Interesting!" replied Tungsten, "Noted!"
I hobbled away through the water, suddenly thinking about how calm and quiet things were beneath the surface of the waves, when I realized that my audio had probably been knocked out by my headbutt. With any luck, I might be able to find my teammates and help them to wrap this one up.