"So, any rules I should know about?"
Rhys started stretching and rotating his only remaining arm; stretching his real leg and checking if his fake leg was working properly — after all, all he had done the past few weeks was sit and talk to people.
And right now, he was getting ready to fight in what could actually be his first official battle — official, because Maria was actually serving as their referee and Lance also had caras prepared that are currently broadcasting live.
They even have the cenleons and the others as their audience, surrounding the fighting ring that Lance summoned. The cenleons, of course, were now wondering if this happens with the humans often; just randomly fighting in the middle of nowhere. Sadly, the only one who could answer them was on the ring.
To those who were watching, it would seem like an absolute mismatch since Rhys towered over Lance by more than an entire foot; but to those who knew what Lance was capable of, the only thing on their faces was attentiveness.
"No rules," Lance finally removed his winter jacket, causing most of the people watching except for the cenleons to cover their eyes as he was completely naked. Well, that was what they initially thought.
Lance was not naked at all, but had on a flesh-colored armor which completely lded with his own skin—no. Rhys and Maria, who was the closest to Lance, were able to see clearly that it was not an armor at all, but actually Lance's body.
"...You're an android?" Rhys looked at Lance from head to toe.
"A cyborg," Lance shook his head as he started stretching his chanical limbs, "And I could feel you have so parts of yours that are not entirely organic too."
"Oh?" Rhys slightly raised his chanical leg as Lance looked at it, "Lost it in battle."
"That is very expensive. I could tell, made with materials not from here," Lance then smirked, "I will tell you what. I will let you keep your life if you lose, but in return, you will give your leg."
"Then there really are no rules?" Rhys squinted his eyes as he looked at Maria.
"None," Lance smiled as he finished stretching, "Since you don't really seem to care about the ranking of Explorers, then I'll tell you — people lose their lives trying to climb it. Of course, the Explorer Association doesn't really sanction the deaths, but it happens; especially with Explorers of higher levels, even more so with top rankers like us."
"Then can't I just give the rank back to you?" Rhys sighed, "I ant what I said, I don't care about the rankings."
"Why? Scared of being exposed?" Lance cracked his knuckles together, causing a clanging noise to knock in the air.
"No," Rhys shook his head, "I just got out of prison, I don't want to accidentally kill soone in front of millions of people — assuming millions of people are actually watching us right now. You do have millions of followers, right?"
"Ha…" Lance forced out a smile as he slightly licked his teeth, "...Are you seriously trying to taunt right now? What happened to your other arm, they lose the budget for it or sothing?"
"No," Rhys shook his head as he glanced at his empty right sleeve, "They said so complications ca up and the arm they were going to put was not compatible."
"Huh…" Lance nodded and shrugged, "...Well, enough talk then — Pst, Miss."
Maria squinted her eyes as Lance looked at her.
"Let's start," Lance winked at Maria, causing her to just quickly look away and scoff.
"Are the two of you ready?" Maria then said as she looked back and forth between Rhys and Lance.
"Not really," Rhys sighed.
"Yes," while Lance smiled.
"Okay, then just go," Maria just nonchalantly waved her hand to signal the start of the battle, and not even a millisecond after doing so, Lance launched himself.
Literally launched himself; his legs, gaining rocket boosters which caused skirts of wind to form across his body as he flew straight toward Rhys.
"...Close combat?" Rhys lowered his eyebrows as he watched Lance move close to him almost instantly. Rhys did not do anything, however, just following this human rocket with his eyes. Even with his sudden burst of speed, however, Lance was able to quickly change his trajectory when he was only a ter away from Rhys; disappearing from his sight like so sort of mosquito that was very hard to track.
Rhys had seen his fair share of fast creatures, but Lance would probably be the 2nd fastest one he had ever seen; even faster than Ayesha…
…but not even close to Arachnea.
Rhys then also disappeared from his spot, rushing toward where Lance would be; his fingers, ready to grip his neck.
Lance, however, could stop as quickly as he could move as he halted in his tracks just inches away from Rhys grabbing his neck. Lance then slid away; using his boosters to just gracefully glide across the tal stage with a smile on his face.
"You're fast," Lance tilted his head to the side as he looked Rhys in the eyes.
"Are you not going to attack from afar?" Rhys asked as he calmly stood straight up, "That is your specialty, right?"
"It is," Lance shrugged, "But I figure it wouldn't be fair to you — I want to reclaim my spot, and how I win matters. If I just defeat you so easily from a distance, then my fans would say that you weren't as strong at all — and that would an that I am also not that strong for defeating a weakling like you. After all, no matter how strong you are, most people still think of you as a Lowborn."
"And you don't?"
"I have a very special sense," Lance pointed at his nose and eyes, "I can see people for what they truly are."
"And what do you see when you look at ?" Rhys squinted his eyes.
"That you're about to lose." And as soon as Lance said that, he once again rushed toward Rhys; this ti, he grabbed a pair of swords that erged from the tal stage, dragging them across the platform, making small crevices which caused a loud crackle to hiss in the air.
The cenleons could really only cover their ears from the sound.
"Lance. That's your na, right?" Rhys, however, once again just stood in place as he waited for Lance to go to him, "You should probably switch to long-ranged combat."
And as Rhys said those words, he quickly swung his leg and entire body back, sweeping one of the swords that was ready to take his head; hitting the side of the blade to knock it away. He then grabbed the other sword that was aiming for his chest; locking it by pinning it between his thumb and index finger.
Rhys was not done, however, as he continued to spin in place; slamming his entire body on Lance; letting go of the sword at the sa ti and grabbing his wrist, using the montum gained to swing him in the air and then just slam him again on the tal ground.
And as soon as Lance's chanical body bounced, Rhys kicked it away, causing a loud boom to explode as skirts of wind ford around Lance as he was blown away.
However, almost as if he wasn't just literally manhandled, the boosters on Lance's body once again loudly snapped; allowing him to instantly recover whilst still in midair.
Lance then glared at Rhys for a few seconds before a small smirk crawled on his face, "You're right."
And with those words, Lance stretched his arms to the side; summoning several small missiles to just materialize around him.
"Boom," Lance whispered out as all the missiles flew toward Rhys, causing a loud whistle to sing in the air… followed by a series of deafening thunders that completely drowned everything; both sound and vision as it created a cloud of smoke.
Lance then pointed his arms at the cloud of smoke, creating so sort of large fan behind him which instantly blew away all the cover. And there, he saw the tal wall that Rhys created by literally pulling apart the tal platform he created.
He then saw the tal wall suddenly getting close to him in the air.
"Tch," Lance clicked his tongue as he summoned another sword to completely split the tal wall that Rhys threw at him, fully expecting him to be hiding behind it — Rhys, however, was not behind the flying wall at all… he wasn't anywhere.
"..." Lance squinted his eyes for a few seconds before he felt a breeze above him. He quickly looked up, only to see Rhys's arm already around his head. And without even any hesitation, Rhys grabbed his head and completely twisted his neck back.
"Hm…" Rhys then just let himself fall along with Lance, with him landing on his feet and Lance just dropping like a hard noodle on the tal stage. Rhys then looked at Maria, who was about to announce his win — Rhys, however, shook his head before she could do so.
Rhys then slowly turned around to look at Lance, only to see him already standing up; his head, rotating several tis before being fixed in place; almost like a doll or a marionette.
"Well, well…" Lance then stretched and cracked his neck; seemingly adjusting it to see if it was stable, "...Finally, the people would know that you're not just so weakling, Rhys Wilder…
…I can completely crush you now without embarrassing myself."
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