Blood also dripped down the side of his face, and mouth. He could feel pain from cutting and blunt trauma across his entire body. He felt weak, clobbered and fatigued.

However, he inhaled sharply and masked the emotions. There was no time for meddling or complaining about his injuries. The reason he was in this state was due to his very own weakness. Who else could he blame but himself for not rising to the occasion?

He hissed, gritting his teeth and tightening his hands into vibrating fists.

Cael continued to watch this fight on, with trembling hands. He so desperately wanted to defeat Kegan for good, and felt powerless watching this fight continue from the stands.

Lazarro was just beside him now, down and slightly to his left as he faced Kegan.

The arrogant Breckenridge even lifted to view his cousin, giving off a gloating smirk.

They were seconds from loss, and all three of the spectating fighters knew it. Cael could see the ginger mechanic before from the opposite side of the ring, with a smile on his face.

Would he just go back to Carlo City after this? Kegan would get the last laugh -like he always did- and he’d have to run away with his tail between his legs.

What could he do?

There had to be something he could do, right? Even if there wasn’t, he couldn’t just sit here and lose without him trying at least anything.

While Lazarro continued to receive infrequent punches and energy blasts, Cael was brainstorming in his mind, searching for solutions.

Suddenly, his eyes shot open wide as he gasped. He even received a glance from somebody beside him, slightly creeped out by him.

“Mana stream!!” Cael realised.

From his events in the tournament where the boarman appeared, it didn’t seem like others could see the stream of mana that connected him and his bot.

Therefore, he could likely connect his mana to Lazarro’s and get by undetected.

Activating his skill, his light blue mana appeared in the form of a stream and threw itself over the edge of the ring.

Giving a quick glance to his surroundings, the spectators looked oblivious to what he was doing.

Go time.

The stream of mana had a maximum range of 15 metres but that was more than necessary for where Lazarro was right now.

The arena looked to be around 10 to 12 metres in diameter. Just maybe, he’d still be able to reach him if he managed to approach that 15-metre limit.

VRM!!

His aura had latched onto Cael, and he could immediately feel the exosuit drawing from his own strength like a parasite. It was like he was being physically pulled forward, making him use his legs to remain planted.

Lazarro’s exosuit lightly vibrated upon feeling this new power source, and Lazarro looked down as he felt this. It was like his exosuit was breathing with new power, and he smirked.

He assumed there was a hidden source of energy within the exosuit or something of that sort. Kegan looked down at his exosuit as this happened, and wondered what was going on with it. How did it seem to have just powered up significantly in a few seconds, and why at this specific moment?

He wasn’t bothered by it though - no simple trick would be saving Lazarro now.

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PEW! PEW! PEW!

3 full power blasts of energy shot toward Kegan, all hitting him right on his torso. The forceful blasts pushed him to the centre of the ring, where Lazarro soared forward with both of his powered gauntlets foolishly activated at once.

“Crap!” Cael cursed internally, feeling the mana being drawn from his body at a much higher rate.

If Lazarro continued this on for even as much as a few minutes, he wouldn’t be able to keep up.

BAM!

Kegan received a straight punch from his powered gauntlet, only to receive several more in quick succession. The punch that had landed on his melted armour cracked it, making him feel much more of its face.

It was a crushing punch, that made his ribs quake. Grabbing his chest in agony, Lazarro swiftly fired off with two more punches aimed for his face. To add insult to injury, his energy rifle aimed at the man’s head, and swiftly fired off before he could protect himself.

Kegan received an energy blast straight to the face, just like Lazarro had done before. The tide of the match had totally changed in just a minute or so, and Kegan was now fighting on the backend.

The Breckenridge had relied on his energy rifles to try and break Lazarro down near the start of their match, but he was unable to do so. The valiant warrior almost seemed invincible. No matter the blasts or punches he’d take, his legs never gave in.

Now, his energy rifles weren’t really an option. Fatigue was starting to set in, and he could tell that his mana stores within his exosuit were nearly totally depleted.

However, Kegan looked up to Cael, and swiftly changed his attitude. Cael could see that he wouldn’t be willing to lose, and was going to leave it all on the floor to try and claim victory.

The fighter roared and launched his energy rifles simultaneously, but Lazarro took them on daringly. Evading one, he used a gauntlet-augmented punch to strike one of the blasts.

This fearless strike drew the attention of the crowd, while almost totally negating the force behind the blast. All it did was char the outer layer of his finger plates.

Kegan stood there, struggling to maintain his ruse of confidence. His energy rifles were still cooling, and his wrist-mounted energy rifle wouldn’t be doing much if his shoulder-mounted ones were rendered futile.

With those blasts, he could also feel the rifles directly drawing from his body. Each blast felt like a chunk of energy was being forcefully ripped from him, leaving him more fatigued.

Gasping for more air, nearly out of stamina, Lazarro sprung on him and unleashed his full fury. His intense combination of punches along with energy blasts to mix in were destroying Kegan completely.

The Breckenridge was not stupid and had battled before. He tried his best to circle Lazarro, to try and regain his senses and calm down. However, he wasn’t given a break by this warrior. His attacks were ruthless and relentless; he was barely given time to breathe.

“What is he doing?!” Cael asked himself, grasping his chest as he could feel his mana being ripped out his body in this mana stream.

His breathing rate intensified, and he tried his best to act normal so it didn’t seem like he was just having a heart attack in the stands. He couldn’t even blame Lazarro since, for all he knew, there was some infinite power source that the exosuit was drawing from.

The fighter’s own body barely shared the negative effects of such power abuse.

COUGH COUGH!

Coughing into his hand, Cael pulled back his hand to see blood resting in his palm. Luckily, the noise of his coughing was drowned out by the cheering of the crowd and the fight at hand, so he swiftly hid the blood before he continued watching.

Lazarro now faced Kegan, who was left kneeling at the edge of the ring. He helplessly held his arms up to protect himself, receiving punch after punch that he couldn’t contain.

His face was now covered in blood, but he didn’t want to stop and be defeated. The referee edged closer to these two fighters, watching intently to see if he needed to intervene.

With a final devastating right hand strike, his head slammed into the wall of the arena, and he lost the strength in his legs.

Thud!

Dropping to the ground, he incredulously looked up to Lazarro that was now stood overhead, along with the crowd that their eyes locked on him.

The referee stood over him, before waving his hand overhead.

The match was over. Lazarro had won.

Thumping his chest with excitement, he shouted to the crowd who were also rather electric after this. The previous commotion from before only made this fight even more exhilarating for them.

Kegan continued to gaze into the crowd with a lifeless expression, mainly staring at Cael.

It took more than 20 seconds before he had the energy and stability to get back up on his feet and remain on them.

Cael took a gasp of air in relief, swiftly drawing the stream of mana back to his weakened body.

His gasp was followed by a chuckle. The pain in his body had taken his mind off the fact that he had won. He actually managed to win and beat Kegan.

Cael eagerly waved at Kegan, who was still being helped by the referee to exit the ring. He could see the growing desire to curse at him in his face even from afar. Kegan’s angry face was something that had been etched into his mind.

Seeing him in this state gave him a sense of satisfaction that he thought he’d never have. He really did have the last laugh.