Kegan.

Out of anybody in his family, it had to be Kegan that he was up to face?

None of the family’s younger fighters were the best toward him. Most of them were indifferent, ridiculing his weakness in secrecy.

However, this fighter actively disliked him and tried to his best to affirm his superiority over him during their childhood. Whenever their family would meet him, he would rile him up and use his greater power to almost force Cael to keep in line.

After his parents died, being liberated from any sort of the scummy Breckenridge family events was great, principally because he would be saved from Kegan’s mischief.

“Hey, cousin. Long time no see, eh?” A boy said from beside him.

Lazarro looked between the two fighters and was shocked by the resemblance. They had similar coloured black hair, but Kegan’s was scruffier and lifted, while Cael’s own was straighter and flowed downward.

He was clad in a dark black exosuit, with two shoulder-mounted energy rifles, and a wrist-mounted energy rifle on his right forearm. It was clunkier than Lazarro’s and definitely had much more firepower.

As he said this, there was sheepish smirk on his face.

“What do you want, Kegan?” Cael bluntly replied.

He was sick of this veil of kindness that he would place over himself in situations like this. Upon reading up on his attitude, he could confidently say that Kegan was a raging narcissist. Ready to get boosts to his ego wherever he could find them.

“Why be so rude, we’ve known each other our entire lives. I know we haven’t seen each other in quite a while but I was hopi-,”

Fwoosh!

Cael leaped up from his seat, standing in front of his cousin. After all his training, and stat increases, Cael towered over Kegan.

He was nearing 6’1, while Kegan was barely 5’11. His MP increase had also allowed for his body to naturally hold more muscle, which made him more of an intimidating figure.

“I’m tired of this ruse of yours. You always act this way when around others!” Cael said in an outburst, getting some looks from the surrounding participants.

“Why are you making a scene, I’m just trying to say hello.”

After saying this, Kegan leaned in closer, with a maniacal smile as he whispered in Cael’s ear.

“You better be careful standing there without an exosuit. One punch from me and it’ll be all over for you.” Kegan said, before pulling back with a wide smile.

There it was.

The shameless coercion.

What he just said here was true, and Cael knew that he couldn’t start a physical fight (no matter if every fibre within his body was urging him to).

“Woah, what’s going on here? Do you guys know each other or something?” Lazarro asked, standing in between the two fighters.

Any human could read the room and could tell that there was something off about that exosuit warrior. He didn’t like the way he was so polite, while Cael acted incredibly rude to him in reaction. There had to be a cause for his harsh reaction.

Kegan just gave off a overly exaggerated smile, before backing away. His mechanic was stood behind him, startled by the altercation, and had bright ginger hair. Cael took a good look at him and looked a little surprised by the rainbow-coloured socks that he donned.

Along with that, he was clad in a basic maroon hoodie with jeans, and bright white trainers that only made his colourful socks stand out even more.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The mechanic, along with Kegan Breckenridge, retreated then left the hall as their match was soon to begin.

“Don’t worry about him. I can tell that he’s a jerk.” Lazarro stated.

Cael just laughed in response.

“Oh, you don’t even know.”

The two didn’t want to meddle here any longer with so many eyes on them and left to continue the match.

Unlike before, Cael had all his hopes in Lazarro that he’d clobber Kegan completely. However, he knew his talent.

The Breckenridge family was known on Planet Saevis and even nearby planets. Many of them resided on TCP, and were successful, talented warriors. Kegan was poor talent for a Breckenridge youngster, but not overall.

Lazarro confidently entered the limelight of the indoor arena, shaking off his arms. Kegan confidently walked into the arena too, while the spectators were slightly more numerous than before.

They were further in the tournament, and many had seen the altercation between the teams beforehand. Eager to see how the conflict would advance, many cheered and clapped with excitement as the fight was soon underway.

Kegan’s exosuit was rather sleek, but not the same quality as Cael’s. There were some major gaps in the armour in places, while it looked a little clunkier. However, it didn’t seem to slow the warrior down in his rapid advance.

PEW! PEW!

He cackled as his three energy rifles hurled energy blasts toward Lazarro. The sudden barrage of blasts left him flustered, forcing him to move speedily and think tactically to continue.

Even with that, he was hit by a handful of blasts and forced back into a stagger upon taking these impactful blasts. Lazarro had entered the fight confidently but, just after a round, the difficulty in the match had climbed quite high.

He wouldn’t be able to breeze toward a victory any longer.

Just as the blasts ceased, he received a straight punch to his jaw before he could recollect himself. The force behind the strike was high, and Cael could immediately tell that this fight would be harder than he initially thought.

When they were younger, the gap between him and Kegan was quite big but visible. It seemed that that gap in strength only continued to grow as they got older.

Another sequence of attacks was hurled at Lazarro, who just about managed to block all of them by turtling up. The haymakers continued to land on his arms with power and speed, forcing him to remain in this position.

Each attack forced him to retreat a step to not fall over, and they were in such quick succession that he couldn’t throw in a strike of his own.

Lazarro struggled to find an opening upon watching Kegan intently. Each time he could see an unprotected part of his body, another attack soon came his way.

Instead of resorting to his fists, Lazarro managed to land a straight energy blast to his chest, as he confidently threw punches without worrying about attacks he’d receive.

Kegan grunted in pain, but also anger as he received that attack. He felt a surge of confidence from his flowing combination of attacks, and getting stopped in this manner infuriated him.

Swiftly throwing his next punch, Lazarro was now able to predict this incoming attack and parried it to the side.

Activating his powered gauntlet, he swung over the top of his extended arm and his knuckles crashed right into Kegan’s cheek. His hair was thrown out of order and the droplets of sweat previously on his face were thrown off his face.

Kegan wasn’t dumb enough to rush in again and blindly throw, while Lazarro felt the same way. He didn’t feel like trying to block a seemingly incessant combo again, while Kegan didn’t see the need to expend so much energy.

An energy blast was shot out from both of his energy rifles, and Lazarro only managed to counter one with his own rifle. However, the second one crashed into his chest, throwing him back significantly.

Kegan moved with immense speed, becoming a near blur to Lazarro. Even though he was aware of his advance, there was little that he could do. His arms were still by his side so even though he tried his hardest to predict what was coming, he could not.

BAM! BAM!

Two punches landed on his face, with the final causing blood to shoot out his fractured nose.

A miniature energy blast was shot at his face, from his wrist-mounted energy last a split-second later.

The crowd simultaneously hissed at this attack, that was generally seen as bad practice. It was looked down upon to use such heavy attacks on the face, but it looked like Kegan was merely here to win.

If anybody lacked the morals to take this into account, it would be Kegan anyway.

A smile cracked across his face as he could see the end was near. Lazarro held his metal-armoured hand to his cheek, grimacing upon feeling the burn now on his cheek. With his helmet deactivated, his body’s skin had to endure that blast.

People with mana were able to do so – certainly not painlessly, however.

The dynamic of this battle fell far in Kegan’s favour. He was simply too strong, too fast and too skilled.

He eventually beat Lazarro into a corner of the ring, and it didn’t seem like the battle was going to last much longer. The two fighters exchanged several haymakers, and Lazarro was doing better in that regard with the use of his powered gauntlets.

This forced Kegan to remain at range, instead of resorting to his usual flurry of attacks, but his energy rifles were simply more powerful. Lazarro struggled to evade and block the attacks, and his surface armour was gradually degrading.

Soon, a double blast of energy shot into his belly, piercing right through all the external layers of armour. He was launched into the ring’s wall behind him and looked down to see blood seaping out from his abdomen.