chapter 34: rematch and beatings

Without wasting time, Lion rushed towards Luke. He used his ability to hold him in place but immediately after, he pulled Luke towards him. The latter, ready to send some friendly dark slashes was not only caught off guard but also hit. Hard. Lion directly pierced through Luke's raised hand and almost pierced his chest.

As if it was a grenade, a blast came off the spearhead and hit Luke's chest. The fight just began but he was already heavily injured, coughing blood. He tried to use the small distance to his advantage by sending a dark laser but it was diverted from its path by a quick gravity pull concentrated on his hand.

With his eyes widened, Luke released a thousand dark blasts in Lion's direction to put distance between them but anything that came near him got diverted in a circular way, to the point that some came back to him. Incidentally, those that came back effectively pushed him off.

Using both haunting march and space run, Luke tried to flee from Lion's strike zone, only to be immediately pulled back by Lion's gravity. Not willing to lose this badly, Luke used his newly acquired spell: space cut, which he couldn't store, or in other words couldn't stack. It did its job as it bypassed Lion's improved gravity cloak and hit him but the damage was disappointing.

It only left a skin-deep injury. Slightly surprised but not perturbed, Lion thrust his spear a few times in quick succession, bombarding Luke's face and chest with concentrated repells. Successfully disorienting him, he tried to end the fight with a quick jab to the chest but Luke used dark slashes to the ground to propell himself the farthest possible while creating an explosion.

Being far away, Luke looked at Lion with a helpless face and admitted defeat. He knew he lost and losing points for naught was not something he even considered for a second.

To be honest, he thought of a way to beat Lion but not only would he need time to learn it as it wasn't something he could do yet, it was also only this: a single way. He thought that even if he was able to immediately learn it by some miracle, Lion would just counter him in their next fight. He needed to have at least three ways to kill someone to be sure that he was stronger, or, in his assassin career context, that he could assassinate.

Looking at the grinning Lion with frustration, Luke spat " Now, care to explain? "

" What is there to explain? In our fight, I found a few obvious flaws I had and corrected them. Furthermore, I also found that the versatility I was so proud about was clearly not fitting my ability, spells, and skills. There were a few application of gravity that I could use but overlooked. Thanks to you, my growing arrogance, which I wasn't aware of, got dashed. "

Not grinning anymore and with a wry smile, he continued " My defeat by your hands hit me hard. Too hard in fact. It was then that I understood that I was quite conceited and thought of myself as better than everyone else. "

To that, Luke replied neutrally " It's not exactly wrong though, at least from what I heard of you. Anyway, it seems like this lesson I gave you was returned right back to my face. " Smirking, he added " Now I have another reason to thank you. "

" You little... " Shaking his head, Lion looked at Andrea who just observed until now and said

" Now it's your turn. " Looking at Luke, he smirked " It's your time to suffer now. ,"

Nodding, Andrea smiled at Luke as she said

" Now, if princess Luke is willing, would she accept a bout with this poor knight? "

" What!? "

" Sorry about that, I tried to imitate your planet's noble way of speaking. "

With a tick mark, Luke stated " Not only did you get it all wrong, you are maybe a few hundred years too late to speak like that. Back to the topic, yeah, I accept your challenge. "

Finished talking, Luke drank a few potions for both health and mana and got into a fighting stance. Still smiling, Andrea pointed her sword at Luke and her plasma beam shot out.

Evading thanks to his haunting march, Luke stayed a few meters away from her as he searched for openings. But a plasma beam got to him. Not expecting it, he was almost hit and barely evaded by crouching down.

He was really stunned. He could accept that Lion could find him but even Andrea? It's not that he looked down on her, not at all, it's just that it's too frustrating. He just made up his mind to abuse his stealth skill and spell in order to terrorize other elites but he already encountered two people who could bypass it.

Still smiling, Andrea released what looked like a lightning net which not only passively electrocuted Luke but also dispelled his haunting march. Then, she disappeared and reappeared behind him with a speed that left him agape.

She once again shot her plasma beam while blinding him with an unexpected and brilliant flash of light. Cutting it in half thanks to his dark slash, Luke who only had three thousand dark blasts remaining hesitated on whether he should throw the towel or not.

Not letting him the time to think, Andrea once again disappeared from his field of view and slashed at him from the side, with her sword blazing. Countering with a dark slash as he couldn't evade, Luke's dagger encountered nothing as Andrea's sword came swinging at him from the other side. It was only an illusion.

Once again nuking the ground, Luke got propelled a few tens of meters away, with serious injuries from his own attack. Andrea was also harmed but she looked nowhere hurt enough to stop fighting.

Seeing as carrying on this fight would be meaningless as he would once again lose, Luke admitted defeat and sat down while sighing. He had shortcomings, Andrea and Lion proved that to him.

He had too many things to improve like his tree of roads, his other experiment, his understanding of his elements and in the short term, matching his fighting style to his elements. Up until now, it was as if he had a gun but only used as a mace. That's a pretty depressing matter and his dislike towards his superior, as Lion called him, grew again.

Grinning like an idiot, Lion tapped his shoulder and cheered him up " After our fight, I also got my ass handed over to myself thanks to her delicate methods. Ahh, and, I may be recognized as the number one genius but she is recognized as the second. Though, keep in mind that they only took potential to make this... ranking. "

Slightly depressed by his two consecutive losses, Luke asked " And, do I have a ranking? "

Tapping his free shoulder, Andrea answered " Yeah, curious? "