Fight!

The first few seconds passed by and the two combatants simply stared at each other. Dan’s eye hovered over to Miles. He saw the blond agent opened up his first move with a basic defensive stance, keeping his legs evenly apart while raising both his fists.

Rachel took the opportunity to charge Miles first, going on the offensive. Then it all went downhill.

With a sudden burst of speed that shocked even Dan, Rachel charged and got through Miles’ guard and delivered a punch to his chin. The blond agent staggered back and tried to recover and counter with a sweeping kick.

The Prime Sword stopped and held back, letting Miles’ foot swing through the space in front of her. Dan narrowed his eyes at Rachel, remembering how their first battle went. She showed a surprising level of restraint in this duel against Miles and didn’t recklessly push her advance.

Dan wondered when her abnormal strength would come into play just like it did back in the third round when she somehow kept up with Dan even with his berserk form activated. It didn’t take too long for the Prime Sword to end the fight.

After the sweeping kick that hit nothing but the empty space between them, Miles took the offensive and ran straight toward Rachel. He lept into the air, attempting a roundhouse kick. Dan stared with wide eyes as not only did the attack failed, but the Prime Sword had caught Miles’ ankle and grabbed the agent by the neck.

Dan’s eyes were glued to the action as he watched the blond agent get slammed down into the cold floor. It was a sight seeing a woman lift a grown man in full armor and choke slamming him into the ground.

Rachel finished the fight by lifting Miles with only one hand and tossing him to the side. Miles skidded across the elevated floor, almost falling out of the arena. The Prime Sword slowly walked over to Miles and simply kicked his body off the elevated arena.

Winner: Rachel Cutter!

“Oh my god…” Angie muttered.

“A bit petty, but a win’s a win,” Li said dejectedly.

Dan didn’t say a word as he immediately rushed over to where Miles was. He brushed aside numerous agents from the other subsidiary shards before he found Miles sprawled on the floor, face down. His other teammates surrounded him tending to him.

“That fucking bitch,” Zara seethed. Her twisted facial expression radiated with unbroiled rage that made even Dan hesitate.

Miles slowly opened his eyes and spotted Dan. The blond agent mustered up a weak smile.

“Hey brah. Looks… like we couldn’t have that match after all,” he said weakly.

“Rachel is stronger than the typical tier one. Way too strong for it to make sense,” Dan said. “Are you alright?”

Miles coughed a bit before continuing. “Don’t… worry about me. You got bigger shit to focus on, brah.”

“Everyone step aside,” a deep, commanding voice said.

Dan turned around and saw a trio of medical staff, two of them carrying a stretcher. As everyone made room, the staff swooped in and carefully moved Miles onto the stretcher and slowly lifted him up on both ends.

“Good luck brah,” Miles said, looking at Dan. He glanced over at Angie. “Keep your chin up, brah. Get the last word in for me.”

Angie rushed over to him and briefly grabbed his hand before the medical staff carried him away and out of the room. While Dan didn’t know Miles for very long, he was still an agent who befriended him and also helped him out during the previous round.

He looked over his shoulder and saw Rachel standing at the edge of the arena with her hands on her hips. She had watched the whole thing. A slow and quiet rage burned inside of Dan for another rematch against this chick for kicking Miles off the arena even when he was in no condition to continue the fight.

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The Prime Sword hopped off and planted her feet on the ground and turned to walk away, remaining completely silent.

Dan could only watch as Rachel confidently walked away from him, having taken the first match of the sudden death games.

“When we used to be a team, Miles would say that phrase to me as a joke,” Angie said somberly. “It came from when I used to bicker a lot with Nathaniel and I always had to get the last word in.”

“I see,” Dan said. “If or when I get matched up, it’s not going the same way,” Dan said.

Angie looked up at him and flashed him a brief smile.

Determining the next match…

Dan stared up at the holographic floating text above the raised arena as the system shuffled through more names before settling on the combatants of the second match. Dan felt his heart skip a beat when he saw the two names floating above the ring.

2nd match: Dan Orion (AC) vs Samuel Flash (AC).

Combatants, please enter the arena.

“Huh, sooner than expected,” Dan said.

“So it’s Sam then,” Angie said quietly.

“You know this guy?”

“Yeah, he’s on Miles’ team,” she said.

“Geez, I hope Miles doesn’t hold it against me that I had to fight against one of his boys,” Dan admitted.

Angie patted him on the shoulder. “No, he’s not like that. I’m sure he’ll joke around about it once he recovers.”

Even while under a debuff, Dan still casually got onto the raised fighting arena in a single hop.

“Hey Dan? Good luck!” Angie said, waving at him.

“Thanks,” he said. He turned his head over to Li who hadn’t moved from his spot. The stealth specialist gave him a respectful nod.

To Dan’s right side, he saw who he presumed to be Samuel who climbed onto the arena. The agent, wearing the full standard Alpha attire consisting of a dark long coat with sleek armor and a helmet strided over to his opposing end of the arena before stopping to face Dan.

“Our squad leader has said a lot of good things about you,” Sam said. “Don’t disappoint me.”

Dan smiled beneath his mask. “Don’t worry, I won’t pal.”

He could barely contain the excitement he felt at his turn in the sudden death games. The anger he felt at Rachel’s victory from the first match had been washed over by his current match. Since Samuel was in good spirits and simply wanted a good fight, Dan was glad to match the energyu of his opponent.

Fight!

Both of them had the same idea as they rushed in a straight line toward the other combatant.

Great minds think alike I guess, Dan thought.

It slipped Dan’s mind that he didn’t scan Samuel’s stats first to get a read on how tough his opponent was. Considering the constriction placed on him and his teammates, he was put at a disadvantage with a substantial debuff.

Dan and Samuel clashed in the middle of the arena with Sam throwing the first punch. Dan smacked the punch away and aimed for a quick jab to the agent’s throat. While he knew exactly the move he wanted to execute, it seemed as if his body wasn’t quite catching up with his intentions.

The intended jab to Samuel’s throat didn’t land as Dan’s other arm was intercepted by his opponent. Samuel grabbed Dan’s wrist before the jab made contact.

Dan knew he should have been fast enough to execute the attack. But he guessed the debuff has impacted his speed. He attempted to yank his arm away from Samuel’s grip but failed. Either Sam was already stronger than Dan naturally or the debuff and weakened him enough that he couldn’t break from his opponent’s grip.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Samuel taunted.

“You sure about that?” Dan replied.

Dan stuck his right foot between Samuel legs and hit the agent’s ankle. Samuel staggered and his grip loosened enough for Dan to yank his arm free. He rushed his opponent and tackled Samuel to the ground.

His movements felt so sluggish that he might as well be moving through mud. Dan failed to capitalize his opportunity and Samuel delivered a punch to Dan’s gut and simply tossed him aside.

Dan knew he could use his berserk mode and end the fight immediately regardless of his debuffs. But he had to save his strength for Rachel and members of her team, who proved to be a match for him during their last combat encounter. Plus, Dan wanted to respect his opponent and win this on his own without the asymmetric advantages of the arctic serum.

As Dan got back up, so did Samuel.

“Come on,” the agent said. “I know you’re better than this. Stop fucking around!”

Samuel charged him and Dan immediately saw an opening he didn’t expect. His opponent was rushing in too soon. Dan narrowly ducked underneath a punch from Smauel and returned the favor by ramming his fist into the agent’s abdomen with as much strength as he could gather.

Dan pushed his body as hard as he could even with the debuff and followed up with a solid haymaker right to Samuel’s face, punching so hard his helmet came off.

While crude, Dan had one last attack in mind as he grabbed Samuel by the coat collar and abruptly pulled the agent closer to him. Dan smashed his forehead against his opponent’s nose and Samuel flopped back as Dan let go of his collar.

Dan swayed a bit from the headbutt before he regained his bearings. Samuel remained unmoving as he laid on the ground.

Winner: Dan Orion!

Bonus experience rewarded.