The two men clashed a moment later, their weapons hammering into one another a dozen times over the span of a few seconds. They whaled on each other, but neither man had the upper hand, and Sam was starting to flag slightly. He was not as highly leveled as Manarox, and while his Dao was more powerful, he had less stamina and health than the other man, which meant that a battle like this was ill suited for him. He started to even the gap by using his Dao energy to empower his body, layering his Fragments on top of one another. His strength and durability suddenly skyrocketed, and he got in a lucky hit on Manarox’s jaw, rocking the man backwards and knocking out one of his teeth.
Manarox grunted and returned the favor, slamming the hilt of his sword into Sam’s face, bloodying his nose, even through the armor. Sam rocked backwards, stunned, and only got his senses back in time to raise his hammer to guard against an incoming strike. Manarox was relentless, but so was Sam. The two men fought for whole minutes like this, exhausting their stamina pools. Eventually, they reached their limits, and stumbled backwards, regarding one another in a new light.
“You are actually a match for me,” Manarox said, in disbelief. “Your potential would be wasted by dying in this fight. What do you say about an alliance?”
“An alliance? I have no wish to be one of your slaves. Also, weren’t we just fighting to the death?” Sam asked, wary of a trick.
“No. I respect your power for what it is, and I believe that our factions would be of great benefit to one another. You have the potential to ascend to E Rank, and we have untold billions of people within our ranks. I am guessing that your faction has less, seeing as I have never heard of Earth before the initialization?”
“Well, if this is truly an equal partnership, I have no problems with that. Your people have not done anything to me or my faction, and they only fought me because I attacked them first. Very well.”
“Good,” Manarox said. “The first step then is to mop up these accursed fish people, so that we can better create our compact.”
“So I’m not the only one who calls them that,” Sam said, laughing. He still remained wary though.
“In their language, their name means “Peak of Existence”. Calling them that tarnishes the pride of my people.”
Sam nodded, and waited for further instructions. He was still wary of this whole thing, but it seemed as if Manarox was being genuine. In addition, he did not seem like the type of man to double cross another. Sam and his faction needed powerful allies as the years went on and they started to expand throughout the universe, and this was as good a start as any.
Manarox and Sam traveled up to one of the ships that belonged to the former’s faction, using a beam of light that acted like a tractor beam. Sam was apprehensive of what might happen to him, but he was confident in his ability to escape, especially with his teleportation abilities. During the battle, he had only shown a fraction of his true potential in that field, which meant that he would be able to surprise Manarox if he turned out to be an adversary after all.
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As they ascended into the atmosphere, Sam tilted his head upwards, regarding the ships above. They were quite impressive, and very large, with the largest being easily the same size as his city back on Earth. It was towards that one that they were headed.
A few minutes later, they reached a hole in the hull, and they floated through, landing on a smooth metal floor. The bottom deck of the ship was filled with hundreds of technicians scurrying around, manning weapons and repairing parts of the ship that had been damaged from weapon fire from below. They snapped to attention when they saw Manarox walking by, and regarded Sam with suspicion. He ignored them.
They reached an elevator a moment later, and Manarox ushered Sam in first. The elevator was shaped like an ovoid, and the interior was sleek and smooth. There was barely enough space for the two men and their weapons to fit in, but they still managed.
Manarox pressed a button and the elevator shot upwards, pressing Sam to the ground. He was able to resist the pressure on account of his stats, but the elevator was moving at hundreds of miles per hour. It was almost as if they had been fired out of a cannon.
A few seconds later, the elevator came to a stop, depositing them on the bridge of the ship. As the doors slid open, a scene of organized chaos was revealed, with dozens of unformed lizardmen racing around, turning levers and knobs in order to keep the ship running, and to coordinate with the soldiers on the ground. Manarox ignored all of this and strode forwards toward a small door on the wall of the room, beckoning for Sam to follow him.
Sam went after him, paying no heed to the litany of states that landed on him as soon as he entered the room, and entered the door a few moments again, coming in right behind Manaroix. The room was small, and lined with weapons, and the center was taken up by a small training area, with what seemed to be a training robot standing in the middle, waiting to be used.
Manarox sighed and sat down on a large chair on the far end of the room, one made for his bulk. He pointed at another chair, and Sam quickly sat down, a bit uncomfortable in the giant seat.
“Now, I have some things to tell you about my faction. Consider it a gesture of trust, if you will,” Manarox said. “We span across two solar systems, and our people are greatly diminished, but still quite numerous. All of those who survived were trained in the arts of war, and our already warlike nature allowed us to fight well against the incursion of the System. My brother and I are the most powerful members of our faction, with him being a little stronger than I am. As for the rest, most of our people hover around the low F Ranks to late G Ranks.”
“That sounds impressive,” Sam responded. “I cannot say the same about my people though. We were not an especially advanced race, and we did not possess any natural advantages. However we did keep some of our weaponry, which was enough to even the gap somewhat during the first stage of the initialization. After that, our tournament started, and I assumed the mantle of the strongest man on the planet. However, there are few people left out of my race, and I came here to train.”
“Tell me, have you dealt with the coming of the End Heralds yet?” Manarox asked, acting as if the words should have some sort of meaning to Sam.
“The what? Right now my planet is going through a quest called the Rise of the Titans. We have to kill a few E Rankers to survive. Is that similar to yours?” Sam asked, wondering how the System had approached the initialization in terms of other races and planets.
“Something like that. In a few weeks, a pod of powerful space dwelling creatures will come our way, seeking the blood of our planets. If they succeed, there will not be much left of them. I came out here to train and gain as many powerful artifacts as I could. Look around you. All of these weapons were from the planets that my people have raided.”