'This'll be my first serious fight against an S-Ranker since Zeek, huh? I wonder if Greyfus will just freeze, or can I actually beat him? That's a stupid question I guess. Mental Destruction is too overpowered,' Lone thought to himself while he was sitting in a waiting area of Hope's fighting arena. He had concluded that very few beings would be able to resist his Mental Destruction making it hard for them to be unbeatable.
Greyfus had insisted that they made their battle public to increase everyone's morale upon seeing a new and strong challenger of the dungeon, even if he was confident in beating Lone, he knew that Lone would put up a good fight if nothing else. That was ignoring the money he could make from arranging a match, although Lone was the one who held far more confidence in that regard.
The currency of Hope was actually ruby-gold, a more valuable variation of gold than even white gold. It would seem that most people who entered Clicker's B-Rank dungeon were quite wealthy. Lone had exchanged several million regular golden coins, which shocked Alfonse since he was overseeing the whole financial side of things, to a few hundred ruby-gold coins which were worth ten thousand regular golden coins each.
Naturally, Lone had bet on himself to win with all of those ruby-gold coins, and after doing so, he was led to where he sat now. A waiting area on the eastern side of the fighting arena while Greyfus was at the western side.
Currently, Lone was just sitting with his eyes closed while Sophie sat on his lap as per usual and Breena was sitting next a corner playing with the shadows. It truly looked far too relaxed if you considered that the leading member of their party was going to be fighting a man five ranks higher than himself.
Unfortunately, this worry-free atmosphere was interrupted by the mechanical object in the top corner of the room. This object interested Lone very much since it looked like another Dwarven device like his glasses, but he had managed to hold himself back from stealing it... for now.
[Please head to the centre stage as the fight will begin in a moment] the crackly voice requested rather politely. Lone assumed it was Alfonse operating the device. He soon stood up and unsummoned Sophie before he began walking to the corridor that led to the stage. Breena quickly jumped to her feet and followed after her master.
Greyfus had said that the two could fight him together to slightly even the odds and Lone saw no reason to refuse. So long as Breena didn't die completely, he had the confidence to revive her from the brink of death, and even if she did die, it would just mean that he would wipe this city from the face of the planet and move on quickly to gain enough power to bring her back to life. Hence his nonchalant attitude to her joining the battle. The girl herself was feeling very anxious.
This would be her first time fighting with Lone, instead of her fighting with Sophie, who she was used to. She had naturally watched Lone fight before, but she wasn't sure how to assist him in combat. So for now, she had decided just to enter his shadow and wait and see. After all, there was little else she could do.
Just before the pair had reached the stage, Breena did as planned, and swiftly entered Lone's shadow. After seeing her do so, Lone walked out of the dark tunnel and into the light. What was displayed before him was a huge platform. Far bigger than the one back in Milindo's capital. Standing in the middle of it was the Golden Lionkin he was familiar with, Greyfus. He had a broad grin plastered across his hair filled face.
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"Impressed? Since a lot of powerful people live here, naturally a lot of them wish to fight each other, so my grandfather created this arena for them to use. It can actually repair itself, so feel free to go wild, I certainly will," he said to Lone in a friendly manner. It had been a while since Greyfus had had a duel, so he was looking forward to fighting Lone, even if he was sure of his victory.
"By the way, where's the Fox girl? I did say the two of you could fight together if you wanted to," he added after having noticed Breena's apparent absence.
"Oh, don't worry, she's here," Lone replied with a devilish grin. It would seem that his and Breena's shared skill, Shadow Melding, wasn't very well known for even Greyfus, the leader of a city full of powerhouses to be unaware of its existence. Or perhaps Breena's usage of it was unique? Either way, Lone was pleased.
"Really? Oh well, anyway, I think I'll give you the first strike, my pride demands that I let someone vastly weaker than me to be able to land at least one hit," Greyfus stated in a very arrogant way. Naturally, due to being a Lionkin, his pride was exceedingly high, so he felt that he had to do at least this much to even the playing field somewhat. However, Lone's next words shocked him.
"I'd rather not, can't you go first? I'm more reactionary that proactionary," Lone replied. 'Is proactionary a word? It isn't, is it?' Lone thought in distress. It would seem his Milindonian still wasn't quite perfect.
"I'm sorry, but my pride won't let me attack you until you've successfully hit me at least once. You should know better than me how important our emotions are as beastkin," Greyfus's stance remained the same.
"Ah... your awakening?" Lone asked, to which Greyfus nodded. "Fine. We'll do this your way. Don't complain afterwards, okay?" Lone had requested before he began to slowly walk towards Greyfus while the entire crowd of what must have been thousands of mixed races watched his every move. It would seem that everyone was interested in how Lone would attack the Lord of Hope.
"Thank you, even though it was a selfish request, I'm appreciative," Greyfus expressed with a content smile. He had decided to gift Lone with both of his requests when he defeated the Foxkin as thanks to complying with his selfish request.
Lone just remained silent and kept looking up at the open roof at the humongous crystal that illuminated the entire city, apparently trying to measure something. Lone was now a mere step's worth away from Greyfus, and he was still staring at the crystal. "Yup, the angle seems fine. Don't get pissed at me for this, okay?"
After saying so, Lone raised his hand and held it stable there for a few seconds. Everyone was confused as to what on Altros was happening. Why had the Foxkin placed his arm in the way of Greyfus's face? In fact, it almost looked like he had set it there specifically to block the light of the crystal.
But why would he do that? To let the Lord see his arm more clearly? Their questions were answered mere seconds later when two small hands holding dark purple daggers came shooting out of Lone's arm right into Greyfus's eyes. The result was messy. Both of Greyfus's eyes had been pierced, and he immediately howled in pain and clutched his eyes. The hands instantaneously shot back into Lone's arms.
"I told you not to complain, so deal with it, okay?" Lone said in a very amusing way. Even if he felt favourable towards Greyfus, watching the man make a fool of himself like this was an enjoyable experience for Lone. He felt like he had truly been considerate for denying his request at first, but since Greyfus insisted, Lone felt like he should let Breena have the honour of the first attack since he couldn't have done so anyway.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA PERFECT! VERY SLY! JUST LIKE A FOX, HAHAHAHA, WELL THEN, SHALL I SHOW YOU HOW A LION FIGHTS, NO, HOW A LION HUNTS?!" Greyfus had shouted before he removed his hands from his eyes. To everyone's surprise, they miraculously healed. However, now they were centred with a striking red that almost drowned out the gold that once dominated them. Greyfus had finally experienced his first awakening.