Chapter 166: Phase One
Doom had clearly anticipated Gene’s response. Just as Gene finished speaking, the thrusters on Doom’s armor flared to full power, and a fist the size of a sandbag—gray and black—was already barreling toward Gene’s face.
Gene raised his arm to block, confirming what he’d already suspected: Doom’s strength had been massively enhanced by his infusion of dark energy. Doom’s other hand swept aside Gene’s guard, transforming into a clenched fist that slammed toward Gene’s shoulder.
Gene matched Doom’s tactics blow-for-blow. He deflected Doom’s strike, clenched his own fist—armor glowing with concentrated magical force—and drove it toward Doom’s abdomen. Doom mirrored the same move, his own fist wrapped in swirling black energy, also targeting Gene’s midsection.
Boom!
A thunderous explosion echoed from their clash, sending shockwaves rippling across the rooftop. The sheer force of their collision cracked the building’s structure, and the dimension shuttle—its mission seemingly complete—tumbled from the rooftop into the collapsing skyscraper.
Despite the exchange of blows, neither combatant seemed seriously injured. But Doom was the first to shift tactics. He launched into a flurry of attacks, techniques that didn’t match anything in Gene’s combat database. Doom’s neural network was evolving in real-time—calculating, adapting, countering—with trillions of computations per second as his body drew from the darkness within.
His movements were chaotic, almost unnatural—but Gene’s response was even more unpredictable. His leg swung up at an impossible angle for a human body, targeting Doom’s torso. Forced onto the defensive, Doom stepped back, his black-and-gold boots grinding against the concrete with a deep scrape.
The prideful Doom, drunk on his newfound power, could hardly bear the thought of being forced back.
In that moment, Gene seized the upper hand. All of his thrusters lit up, twin arms brimming with raw dark energy, launching toward Doom with devastating force.