From Bullets To Billions Chapter 616: The Shield Breaker

A sinister, burning anticipation gripped Stephen's heart upon discovering the massive scheme unfolding today. He fervently wished to be pitted directly against Jett in the assault, or at minimum, to seize a brief chance to clash with him amid the frenzy.

For weeks, he'd rehearsed this precise confrontation endlessly in his thoughts. He'd vividly imagined every step of how he'd ruthlessly break down and triumph over the colossal beast who'd crushed him shamefully during their prior clash.

Countless mental replays of the battle had unfolded in his mind. There, his velocity always overwhelmed; his ripostes were flawless, and in every scenario, he emerged as the unchallenged champion. Yet the brutal truth of real combat shattered that perfect, scripted triumph he'd built in his head.

Their earlier bout with Jett had merely grazed the edge of his horrifying, true power.

"ARGHH!" Stephen bellowed, his cry reverberating amid the wreckage as he surged ahead fiercely.

He slammed his lead foot down and unleashed a crushing, hydraulically boosted punch. Rather than striking meat, his fist collided savagely with a sturdy, reinforced car door that Jett had wrenched free and wielded as a makeshift barrier. The collision boomed like a gong, carving a massive, profound indentation in the solid metal, yet Jett scarcely budged from the mighty strike.

Seeing a frontal barrage wouldn't pierce the barrier easily, Stephen darted to his unguarded side. With his uncanny swiftness, he blurred into motion, shifting to a fresh vantage. Boots touching earth, he halted abruptly and lunged once more, fist primed to hammer Jett's vulnerable side.

Jett seemed gifted with an uncanny, otherworldly instinct. The instant he'd thwarted the initial assault, he'd foreseen the side attack. Before Stephen's streaking figure solidified from the dash, Jett had vaulted back, evading the peril.

This perfect dodge left Stephen barreling onward like a furious, charging beast, his potent hydraulic punch slicing through vacant air and striking naught but chill emptiness.

Emerging from the gloom directly before him, Jett raised the massive steel door overhead. With a savage growl, he swung the tons of ragged metal downward, aiming to pulverize Stephen's skull beneath the crude bludgeon.

’I simply can’t afford to use the power of my Vow too much right now,’ Stephen pondered swiftly, his strategic thoughts whirling as the door's shadow engulfed him. ’Although I can significantly speed up the cells in my fists and my legs to dodge this, if I use that supernatural acceleration too much, it completely tires out my central nervous system. If I can successfully stop this crushing blow without burning my Vow, then I absolutely should!’

In a flash of judgment, Stephen rooted his stance and trusted solely in the brute mechanical might of his cutting-edge Exoskeleton.

Arms thrust skyward at the last second, his fortified, plated palms intercepted the plummeting steel rim, halting the door from smashing his cranium flat. The hidden hydraulic actuators under his spotless white lab coat screeched in strain, knees buckling faintly beneath Jett's colossal downward thrust, yet the armor stood firm.

"Tense up!" Jett bellowed, his command thundering above the screeching steel.

Abruptly, Jett released the burdensome door. Seizing the split-second lapse as Stephen grappled the inertia, Jett slipped within his defenses and launched a pulverizing haymaker straight at Stephen’s unguarded torso.

Desperately, Stephen shed the steel slab and raised his plated forearms in block as the blow connected squarely. The thunderous, skeleton-jarring punch hammered his braced limbs, the raw force hoisting him airborne and dragging his boots scraping over jagged concrete.

The elite Exoskeleton dispersed the worst of the impact energy, shielding his vitals from bursting. Still, even through the premium plating, a profound, throbbing agony pulsed across Stephen’s frame from the strike's violent reverberation.

"This guy... he’s an absolute monster," Stephen rasped, coughing blood to the ground while hauling himself upright and fighting to dispel the residual paralysis from the hit.

At that instant, Jett approached a wrecked, flipped car close by. Amid a gruesome shriek of rending metal, he seized the grip, braced his foot on the frame, and tore loose another full door from its robust mounts. Now he brandished twin colossal, unyielding steel barriers, one per arm.

"You have the absolute nerve to call me the monster?" Jett mocked, his tone laced with icy, justified scorn as he clashed the doors with a resounding metallic crash. "How is it that you Syndicate guys just keep growing stronger, faster, and more equipped every single time we see you?

"It’s becoming quite clear to the Chairman and the rest of us that if we foolishly leave you guys alone to lick your wounds again, you will inevitably become an overwhelming threat to this entire city. So, I’m making a promise right now. Once I’m completely done breaking you, I’ll personally make sure to get rid of every single one of your leaders, so you never get in the way of any of us ever again."

"Hey," Stephen replied, breath stabilizing as a grim, razor-sharp concentration overtook his features. "I think you’re arrogantly forgetting about the highly lethal opponent standing right in front of you. You should really focus on surviving the immediate situation here before you start making grand plans to go after the others!"

From his steady base, Stephen exploded forward anew. Closing the last stretch, he unleashed every shred of power; his fist rocketed out with unrestrained fury.

’If I already know for a tactical fact that he’s just going to block my fast strikes with those thick steel plates, then I need to completely forget about everything else,’ Stephen resolved, his psyche attaining pure focus amid the fray. ’I need to completely forget about trying to nimbly dodge his heavy counterattacks. I need to forget about meticulously planning what my next three moves are going to be. I just need to focus every single ounce of my existence entirely on this first, singular attack.’

Forsaking his typical rapid probe jab, Stephen shifted tactics entirely. He anchored his front foot, twisted from the core, and hurled a demolishing, arcing overhead smash.

The plated fist plowed into the shield's heart. Beyond a mere crater, the Exoskeleton's focused hydraulic might shredded the dense steel, blasting a ragged breach dead center through Jett’s hasty bulwark.

Instantly post-rupture, Stephen withdrew his hand sharply, extracting his knuckles from the serrated brink.

’I just used the super speed from my Vow strictly in my legs, combined with the raw pushing power of the Exoskeleton, to seamlessly cross the distance and create the momentum for that punch,’ Stephen assessed, gaze piercing Jett’s stunned visage via the fresh orifice. ’But now that I’m standing right in front of him, inside his optimal range... I absolutely won’t worry about getting hit on the counter. I’ll just put my entire soul into hitting him as incredibly hard as mechanically possible!’

Stephen dug both feet into the fractured asphalt, anchoring deep. Mere inches from the behemoth, he unleashed a ruinous, sweeping hook. Igniting his Vow, he turbocharged the cells in his punching limb, meshed it with the Exoskeleton's peak hydraulic surge, and whipped a ferocious side blow.

Jett thrust up the spare hefty door, hunkering behind the plating as cover. Yet Stephen’s boosted fist shredded through it effortlessly, mirroring the prior breach. Metal warped and split, propelling Stephen’s naked, armored knuckles into Jett’s guarding limb beyond.

A gruesome, definitive CRACK split the atmosphere.

Jett’s massive frame launched skyward from the energy surge. He cartwheeled rearward, scraping wildly over abrasive concrete and flinging aside both mangled doors.

Sprawled in debris, Jett sensed the torment searing his nerves. His forearm lay shattered beyond doubt. The bone had splintered beneath Stephen’s augmented onslaught.

Ere the titan could rise on his lone sound limb, darkness loomed above. Glancing up, he beheld Stephen towering over him, lab coat billowing in the breeze.

"Just like you, I also wanted to look past this fight and take you all out. I was looking at the grand overarching war, rather than just focusing my attention entirely on the man standing right in front of me. Underestimating you... that was my greatest mistake today," Stephen stated icily, gaze barren of pity.

Then he hoisted his plated fist aloft and drove it ferociously downward, embedding it squarely in Jett’s visage.