Ryan looked around the room, stepping up to 'Arena 3', though it was really just a square sectioned off with tape. The monitor right next to it already read the names of the two Duellists; Maximus and 'Lightspeed'.

Walking up to the person he figured to be his opponent, Ryan stretched out his hand, "You Kit? Nice to meet you, I'm Ryan."

A pair of horizontal pupils stared at him as the Minogid in front of Ryan seemed to look him up and down a few times. The goat-man slowly stretched his hand out to Ryan, "Likewise. Ready?" he asked. Ryan looked to the side a bit awkwardly, glancing at the Duellist already waiting to get started. Kit didn't seem to be a massive conversationalist, so it was probably better to just start, as he suggested.

"Yeah, sure, let's do it. Whatever."

With a grumbled sigh, Ryan walked to the other side of the makeshift arena. As he was walking, red wisps flowed out of his pant legs and from under his shirt, forming Maximus body. Over the past few days the two of them had practised the exact conditions for stepping in and out of the domain, so that Maximus could leave more freely. That totally saved his ass with Simon earlier.

Kit seemed to stare at Maximus for a few moments. He had some kind of podium set up in front of him with what seemed to be a keyboard and a tablet propped up on it. That was probably how he was going to control 'Lightspeed'.

Similarly, there was one set up right in front of Ryan, with a tablet provided by Richie. There were just two buttons on the screen. One for the 'Knight's Attack' skill, and one for the 'Knight's Guard' skill. Since all the Duellists had their own gimmicks, Ryan and Richie decided that it would only be fair if Maximus was allowed to use skills as well, but since the strength and resistance boosts that came from this would change the point calculations, Ryan would need to press those buttons whenever either of those skills were active so that the data could continue being tracked properly.

Of course, since Maximus was currently using the 'Crusader' arm instead of the base 'Knight' arm, Ryan also let Richie know about the changed stats beforehand.

"Max," Ryan said, and the knight slowly turned around toward him. He nodded his head, showing that he was good to go. Seeing that the first three duels were good to go, Richie started the countdowns with a snap of his finger.

Looking at the countdown, Ryan took off his jacket and threw it over a chair, activating his Spirit Link skill. A thin thread formed between him and Maximus, and the two got ready. They'd have ten minutes, so depending on how quickly this and the next round ended, the skill would stay active for the first of two rounds, but would be inactive for the third. Because of the breaks between every duel while other people were going, Ryan should be able to activate the skill in that same way at the start of every new duel.

Ryan cracked his knuckles, and Maximus did the same, though his gloved hand didn't make the same sounds of course.

And then, the countdown hit zero, and the first round started. Basically the moment this happened, Lightspeed closed the distance between itself and Maximus. Barely able to react, Maximus raised his arms up defensively as a punch came in. Ryan glanced over at the 'health' scores on the monitor.

Lightspeed - 100 | Maximus - 97

It wasn't a strong attack, but the issue was the speed. Ryan clicked his tongue, watching as Lightspeed quickly moved around Maximus' body. Pulling back his arm to help prompt Maximus to move into the correct position, Ryan could feel something from Maximus. He was going to activate his guard skill. Ryan would have suggested this as well, so he was quite glad.

From the first seconds of the duel, it was clear how Lightspeed would fight. With many, fast attacks. Most of the small robot's weight was in its legs, and its design seemed to be something of a fusion between a rabbit and a frog.

Ryan reached out to the tablet when Maximus' skill activated and pressed the button to mark it for the score calculations. Meanwhile, the knight's body was being enveloped in a thin red aura that pressed tightly against the plates of his armour.

The next attack came in; a quick jab. Ryan threw back his elbow to retaliate, but Lightspeed already moved around. The robot was slightly jumping up and down, positioning itself and moving like a boxer would. Glancing over at the other side of the arena, one of Kit's hands was on the keyboard while the other was practically glued to the tablet, moving around rapidly.

It didn't take long until Lightspeed moved in again; jab after jab, while Maximus and Ryan could do nothing but block.

"Isn't he just being a sandbag right now?" Silvia whispered to Modak, trying not to distract Ryan or any of the club members. Modak slowly nodded his head in response.

"Yeah, kind of... But I guess they can't deal with that speed? I mean, Maximus doesn't even have the Agility stat. Speed really isn't his forte."

"Then what's he supposed to do?"

"Well... something like that, I guess," Modak looked over at Maximus with a slight laugh. During one of the attacks, he had managed to hold onto Lightspeed. Ryan was actually a bit disappointed; Lightspeed was fast, but its movement was insanely straightforward. It almost felt like some kind of trap; but no, Maximus was able to grab onto Lightspeed's arm, and the robot wasn't able to escape.

It was fast, but not strong; during the flurry of attacks that it threw at Maximus after he activated his Knight's Guard skill, the Maximus' 'health' only dropped by another twenty points. As he held onto Lightspeed, who was continuing to throw jabs at the knight's head and body, Ryan pulled back his arm as Maximus copied his movements.

With a swift and targeted punch, Maximus punched Lightspeed's torso. Since most of the focus seemed to have been put on speed, the robot very quickly received a lot of damage from the attacks, and had seemingly no hope of escaping. Maximus was strong; he had the strength of a grown man in that small body of his. And while these magically engineered robots were also particularly powerful, they were still weaker than Maximus.

And so, the battle ended with a couple more hits.

Lightspeed - 0 | Maximus - 59

Once Lightspeed's points reached zero, Maximus immediately let go and stepped back. He gave Lightspeed a quick nod before returning to Ryan's side.

Modak and Silvia came up to Ryan, "Congrats! That went pretty well!" the elf said excitedly, patting Ryan on the back.

"I guess," Ryan replied, frowning lightly as he looked at Kit, who was currently picking up Lightspeed to inspect the Robot's body. A bit annoyed, Ryan walked toward Kit, "Is this a good way to get data for you? By underestimating us?"

The Minogid turned toward Ryan and just looked up at him with a blank stare, "I did not underestimate you."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Then why didn't you use Lightspeed's 'gimmick'?"

Kit looked up at Ryan silently, as if he was trying to think about how to best respond, but Silvia seemed confused and spoke up, "What do you mean? Isn't the gimmick its speed?"

"No way," Ryan shook his head immediately, "They're trying to show off to big tech companies, there's no way this is all it is."

Ryan's gut told him so. There was no way it was as simple as that. Just a somewhat fast Duellist? Those were a popular thing even in the old TV show, and there were ones that were clearly faster than Lightspeed. Maybe it was just Ryan not wanting today to end up being as boring as that 'fight' just now, if it could even be called that. Kit walked back over to his podium, "I don't have to tell you."

"Fine. But in the next one, use that gimmick already. You only get two more tries," Ryan turned around and walked back to the other side of the 'arena'. Modak and Silvia were looking at him with concern the whole time.

"You sure you're okay?" Modak asked, worried about how aggressive Ryan was being.

Sure, he always had a somewhat short fuse, but today was particularly concerning. Obviously, he knew why; that encounter with Simon annoyed him, and it was understandable. Modak was also angry just having heard about it. But being angry at Simon or Bluesky in general for acting like that was one thing; directing that anger at other, completely unrelated people was another.

Ryan looked at his friend, and briefly nodded, "I'm fine."

"You don't seem like it," Silvia said bluntly, something that Modak wasn't able to get out.

Unable to hold back a groan, Ryan shrugged and slightly threw up his arms, "What do you want me to do? I can't just stop myself from feeling pissed off."

"Yeah, but that's also not the fault of anyone here."

"..." Ryan looked back at Silvia, locking eyes with her. He knew she was right, but it was a bit embarrassing to admit now that it's been pointed out, "Yeah, yeah, I guess so... I'll try to calm down a bit."

"Great!" A broad grin formed on Silvia's face, turning to Modak smugly. The orc smiled approvingly.

For now, Ryan and Maximus had to wait. They were ready to go again right away. So that the Duellists didn't end up too damaged, the value of the points each one had was actually pretty low, so it was really just a light tussle in the end. But of course, just to be safe, the robots had to actually be inspected. If any issue did pop up, it should be remedied as quickly as absolutely possible.

"What do you guys think?" Ryan looked at his friends, specifically Modak. He should have some unique insights.

After thinking about it for a moment, Modak glanced over at Lightspeed, "Honestly? I'm not sure. But I do agree that there's definitely going to be more to this. Those lines on the outside of Lightspeed's legs are crystal fibres. There's probably going to be a high mana output, but I've got no idea what that will look like. Crystal fibres are usually used defensively, so it could be some kind of barrier?"

"That's it?" Ryan replied, a little disappointed. A barrier would make it all quite straightforward, and that wasn't bad in and of itself, but Ryan was hoping for some more unique things here after the duel with Richie and Roxie. But then again, Richie was a Technomancer. Maybe he shouldn't expect the same thing from him as from the others.

Either way, it was still a good experience for him and Maximus. The most important part right now was figuring out good ways to work together; to maximize their combined powers. Maximus was good at fighting, but Ryan still had a long way to go in really *thinking* about fighting. He had the opportunity to oversee fights in ways that Maximus couldn't, so he should make as much use of that as possible.

"Let's continue," Kit called out to Ryan, who quickly turned around. There were only a little more than 3 minutes on the spirit link skill, so this was good timing.

Ryan and Maximus stepped back up to the Arena, and without another word, Kit started up the countdown. While he didn't exactly mind that he didn't make a fuss, Ryan almost felt like Kit didn't care about his presence at all.

'Let's just get this over with,' Ryan thought to himself. Before the round even started, Maximus entered a defensive stance while Ryan kept track of where Lightspeed was moving. Just like before, the moment the countdown hit zero, the robot closed the distance.

Since it moved in a straightforward way, Ryan kicked forward his leg which was quickly translated over to Maximus. The knight's foot impacted on Lightspeed's body; or, it was supposed to.

But Lightspeed wasn't running with the intent to attack Maximus. Instead, it jumped right before getting too close. It reached high into the air, getting up to Ryan's eye-level. Once at its highest point, it twisted around, and kicked the air. And it hit something.

Lightspeed was pushed down after kicking off some invisible force. A few more times, the robot jumped off other spots in the air and maneuvered around Maximus.

"What the hell?" Ryan muttered to himself, while Maximus started moving around the arena to get further away from Lightspeed, but the robot simply landed nearby, seemingly not aiming for Maximus at all. That was just a test-run.

Ryan stared deeply at Lightspeed, waiting for any sort of movement. And then, the robot leaned forward and once more started running at Maximus. This time, the knight ran forward as well to hopefully close the distance in case Lightspeed jumped up again.

Trying to jab at Lightspeed once he got into range, Ryan made Maximus push his arm forward, but the robot was almost pushed out of the way. As if it jumped off an invisible wall next to it, Lightspeed very suddenly dodged to the right, and its body twisted around. It once more seemed to create a foothold to use the strength of its whole body to strike at Maximus. The knight's helmet was struck perfectly, as Lightspeed built up distance again.

Lightspeed - 100 | Maximus - 86

Compared to the last round, Kit and Lightspeed might as well have been fully replaced. Though he hadn't noticed it himself until now, but Ryan's heart was beating strong in his chest. This was a duel to get excited about.

Ryan directed Maximus to move away, but Lightspeed was much faster. It closed the distance immediately, deploying barriers underneath its feet for just a moment to jump off from, navigating around Maximus at a speed that neither Ryan nor the knight were able to keep up with. It almost felt like losing track of a fly as it buzzed around the room. Having both the view from Maximus and his own inside his head was making things even harder for Ryan.

However, even so, Ryan was able to at least tell Maximus where to move to dodge and prevent much more damage. Lightspeed did scrape by the knight a few times, carefully whittling down at his points.

Just for a moment, Ryan glanced over at Kit. His eyes were focused on Lightspeed, but... he seemed bored. Bored by this fight as though he was just going through a routine that he couldn't wait to finish.

Of course, that didn't mean that he was underestimating Ryan and Maximus. Kit probably just wasn't as into the fighting aspect of Power Duels as he was about creating the actual Duellist. And it made sense; they were all working hard toward making something they could show off tomorrow when all those company reps came here. While Ryan was also trying to use this to get better used to his abilities in a combat setting, if he didn't find this exciting and fun, he would have just found another way. They were here for completely different reasons. Ryan knew that.

But he was still annoyed.

The Spirit Link skill only had another minute or so until its effect would run out. Lightspeed jumped around Maximus, without giving either the knight nor Ryan the opportunity to react. Maximus was slow, his focus was on power and defence. He wouldn't be able to catch up to Lightspeed, no matter what he did. But he didn't have to catch up. He just had to stand in Lightspeed's way.

Ryan's eyes closely followed the robot. Around its feet, small glisters of thin rainbow hues appeared and disappeared, as if soap bubbles burst the moment they came to be. Lightspeed kept jumping around, striking at Maximus as he was practically fleeing from the flurry of attacks.

But then, Ryan tensed his muscles for a moment, as Maximus was prompted to just stop moving. For about a second, Maximus just stood there, unmoving, until Ryan raised his arm to the side.

And just then, the impact came. Lightspeed ran into Maximus' arm, its upper body forcefully halted while its lower body kept moving, flipping it around violently. It hit the ground after making half a turn. Before it could push itself up, Maximus grabbed one of its legs, and with a swift motion that the knight mimicked from Ryan, Lightspeed was pulled into the air before Maximus slammed it back into the ground like a hammer. Of course, pulling his punches so that Lightspeed wouldn't be actually damaged. Ryan glanced at the monitor.

Lightspeed - 4 | Maximus - 43

As Ryan looked at the screen, he noticed a system window popped up in the corner of his eye, but he couldn't concentrate on that right now. He quickly struck back at the ground, and Maximus hit the middle of Lightspeed's chest, ending the battle.

Ryan looked at Kit, who was just stood there, staring at Lightspeed. He hurried over to the robot and quickly picked it up, sighing a breath of relief when he saw at that it was fine. Kit glanced at Ryan and the two locked eyes, before the Minogid quickly averted his gaze and moved back to his podium to inspect Lightspeed more closely.

But Ryan didn't even care about Kit's reaction. He had no idea why, but Ryan just knew when exactly he had to hold his hand out there. Like some deep instinct that he couldn't hold back. And then, Ryan looked at the system message that had appeared in front of him.

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