Sam made his way to the Dao tree with a smile on his face, his hand twitching slightly as he anticipated the fight to come. He was slowly but surely coming to love the martial path, and the thought of being able to test his newfound strength was tantalizing. When he got there, Sarge was leaning against the wall, with a bored expression on his face. As soon as Sam approached, he lit up.
“Sam! Is it time?”
“Yes, I’m ready,” Sam replied. “Where do you want to fight?”
“Outside the city would be best. It lacks an arena or any sort of training ground, and our battle would pose significant risks to the structure around us. Come with me. I bet you can’t keep up.”
The robot pushed off the wall, and raced towards the city walls, his feet moving like a blur. Sam dashed after him, trying his hardest to keep up. The robot’s speed eclipsed even his own though, and Sam realized that the robot was directing all of his stats into his speed. Sam snarled and used Girdings of the Arbiter, pushing his speed to the limit. He slowly started to gain ground on Sarge, and everything around him became a blur unless he focused closely on it. People flashed by like streaks of beige, and houses turned into long rectangles of various colors. Barely a minute later, they were at the wall, with Sam’s stamina bar almost bottomed out. He stumbled to a halt, and took a few breaths to recollect his strength.
"If you can’t even keep up with me in my base form, then how can you hope to match my greater forms?” Sarge asked, gloating at his victory.
“You were changing your stat allocation. We both know that I cannot do that,” Sam protested, glaring at the robot. “We’ll see how well that suits you in a real fight though.”
“I hope you can back that bravado up. Now, for the fight.”
The robot bent down low, and then propelled himself off the ground like a rocket, landing on the top of the walls. Looking down at Sam, he leaped over the other side, landing on the ground below. Sam sighed, and pushed off the ground, using his skill to make sure that he made it. He cleared the wall in a single bound, but it was a near thing. Sarge raised one metallic eyebrow as he saw this, and then beckoned for Sam to follow him. The robot passed through the forcefield, and Sam did so soon after. This was the best idea for a fight of the magnitude that was about to happen. They would not have to worry about damaging the city, nor would they have to worry about marauding aliens, if any of them came. They would either fight them off, or retreat to the city.
“So, last time you were barely able to fight me on an equal level for each of my modes. Have you improved since then, or are you just a weak F Ranker?”
“No, Sarge. I’m about to beat your ass,” Sam replied, starting to gear up or battle. His body was seized by his iron will as he used Girdings of the Arbiter, and his hammer started to glow with power. Sarge smiled, and his own body started to glow too. Two wings sprouted out of his back, both made out of razor sharp shards of metal. With one mighty flap, he was off the ground.
“Last time I matched my weapon to yours, but this time let’s see how you deal with a ranged weapon!” Sarge called down, manifesting a small gun in his hands. As he fired it, the impact was revealed to be anything but small. Sam batted it away with his hammer, shocked to feel the power behind the small ball of mana. He almost dropped his hammer, but he steadied his grip with his other hand. The mana orb slammed into the forcefield, and dissipated. Sam snarled as he saw that Sarge was too far for him to strike, and too far up for him to hit.
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The robot fired off another ball, this one glowing a bright purple. Sam moved to the side, but the orb followed his movements. It had some sort of homing ability attached to it, and Sam would have to block or deflect it. Sam directed his energy to his hands and weapon, getting ready to send it flying. The orb came in like a mach speed baseball, and Sam sent it spinning away with his hammer. Such was the power that he put into the blow that the mana crumbled apart a moment later, unable to sustain its power. Then the second one struck him in the gut. His armor protected him somewhat, but the wind was still driven out of him by the attack.
“If you can’t even watch two attacks at the same time, you're not going to have a chance against any of the real powerhouses of the Multiverse,” Sarge taunted from his lofty perch.
‘Shut up! Why don’t you come down and fight me on the ground? Are you too afraid of losing?” Sam wheezed between breaths.
“The powers that be will not care about petty things like honor or fairness. They certainly will not respond to taunts.” The robot paused as he considered something, allowing Sam to get some of his breath back. ‘Well, I suppose that they would probably attack you, seeing as almost all of them are arrogant demagogues, but they would simply crush you into nothingness for daring to insult them. Now, did you notice the third projectile?”
Sam almost spun around, but then realized that he was being tricked. He twisted back to the front, and narrowly dodged another ball of mana, this one a dull orange color. It bored a hole into the earth like a hot knife through butter, and it would likely have done the same to Sam's body. As long as Sarge remained in the air, there would be no victory here.The problem was, Sam had no ranged attacks, save for throwing Mjolnir, which he had no intention of doing. The only way to beat his opponent would be to come up with one. Narrowing his eyes, Sam directed a spike of his aura towards the wing joint on the right side of Sarge’s body. It twitched slightly, and Sarge almost fell before he regained control of himself.
“Take a hint from me, Sam. You’re not going to be able to overcome a stronger opponent with your aura strength, not unless you are able to fight way above your rank. Remember, I can match my strength to yours, and that includes the abilities that your Dao gives you. Perhaps you might be able to overcome an F Ranker with a weaker Dao, but most will not give you that opportunity.”
"Are you trying to teach me something here?” Sam asked, reasonably sure of what the robot was trying to get him to do.
“Yes, you idiot. You need a goddamn ranged attack! Has all that power leveling gotten to your brain?” Sarge fired off two more mana balls, and Sam recruited for cover. “See how you run like a rat, too scared to take a hit? You need to hit me!”
Sam stopped in his tracks, and started to contemplate how exactly he would manage that. His Dao on its own was not enough, but if he mixed it with something, then perhaps he could make a difference. Sam had some experience with molding his mana from his shield ability, and he summoned a wall of mana to his hand, parrying the mana orbs as he thought about what to do next. He tried to make the mana move outwards, but all it did was form into a long spike. It refused to leave his body for some reason. Sam sent a drop of his Dao energy into it, and felt a greater level of control over the energy than before. It was still not enough to tear it away from him though. With gritted teeth, Sam pushed a full quarter of his remaining Dao energy into his fist. There was a tearing sensation, and a lance of red light shot up from his fist, straight at Sarge. Sam’s hand wept blood as the skin was torn off it and his bones cracked, but he watched in satisfaction as Sarge was impaled by the spear, falling to the ground. He ran over, ready to finish the battle, but Sarge raised his hands in surrender.
“Damn, you’re a really fast learner. You might want to have your hand looked at though, that amount of blood can’t be healthy.”
Sam looked down at his hand, seeing that it was pouring blood out onto the ground. Sam quickly shut off his blood vessels with Girdings of the Arbiter, but that was only a temporary fix. He would need some real healing for this.