Chapter 40: Reunion

As Rydel took his seat on the shuttle and engaged the magnetic lock of his container so that it won't rattle around when the shuttle truly took off from the sky, the pilot of the ship also started his briefing. Valerie has told him all about the procedure of the Test of Brawl, how the briefing of the planet is given to them and how everything works etc..

The hologram of a gas planet is shown, and Rydel raised his eyebrows to that sight. The worst possible type of planets for the life forms in the galaxy to live in is where he is going to have his fight? Patiently scrolling down the briefing, the layout of a man-made structure is shown. With his fingers spreading across the hologram map of the planet, the structure is shown to be the location of the fight, and it's shaped as a circular structure with a giant opening.

It's an arena, a proper one at that. Dolon do love her arenas.

Interesting...Valerie has told Rydel of her thoughts as she dashed across the maps and laid down various traps in multiple locations, but it seems like the upper echelons of Absolute Being wanted to prevent yet another battle like that, hence they have dropped Rydel in this location, and fighting Dolon straight up. Luckily, Rydel has also prepared for such a direct confrontation sort of scenario with the heavy insulation gears he had prepared.

Assuming that Dolon has underwent the same sort of enhancements Gold has went through, this is going to be an incredibly hard battle to fight.

Try to get a nice pre-fight nap if you can. That was also one of Valerie's advice, so Rydel simply followed it and started a sequence of breathing exercises in order to fully relax his mind and body. However, the practices that always worked before hand seemed to lose its magic here, when the thought of seeing Dolon again excited him to his core. It has been so long, since they separated on B1. Rydel wished the seven hour journey would finish as soon as possible, and he just wanted to see how she is doing.

When he talked with Zero, he did not reveal what has happened to Dolon, but Rydel can't really imagine her just following what they have told her to do.

Nobody tells Dolon what to do.

Thinking of all the lessons she has told him, Rydel actually managed to doze off.

The shuttle rattled, as it descends on the Rydel's arena planet and the maelstrom of gas and particles slid across the shuttle at varying speeds from varying angles. Rydel woke up from his quick nap, and looked outside the window. The planet is of color orange, reminding him of Jupiter of the old solar system in a way with its patterns and stripes near the supposed surface of the planet. In the distance, the man made structure is barely visible.

'I guess it's time to get ready.' Rydel stood up from his reclined chair and headed towards his cargo hold. Opening the lid and sliding it to the side of it, it revealed his modified tactical armor. Over the past few days, he has spent quite a majority of the time making sure his armor is good enough for insulation purposes, knowing how deadly Dolon's currents are and how it can most likely one shot him and overload the nanosized drones in his body if he is not being careful.

Rydel put on the tight fitting armor, strapped on his shield generator that he knew full well won't last through the fight, and also strapped on a origami inspired foldable hard plastic shield on his right forearm. Then, he looked down at his pair of modified maces, and two rectangular items wrapped in thick tape and a couple of the more conventional weapons like flash and smoke grenades and his rifles.

Rydel has come hoping for the best but prepared for the worst. If Dolon is just imprisoned on this planet, then all they have to do is to hold out until Zel showed up to take them both home. However, the worst case scenario would any scenario where he would have to fight against Dolon, for one reason or another. But that's why he came prepared. Making sure everything is ready to do, Rydel then brought the cargo along with him to the ramp and patiently waited for the shuttle to land in the station.

To his surprise, there is no other shuttle in range. As the shuttle parked in the docking bay, the pilot poked his head around to check out Rydel, and he asked, 'where is the other shuttle?'

'This individual is always doing to be here.' The pilot explained, 'so we are only taking the challengers here.'

'Challengers here? How many has come before?'

'...' The pilot didn't answer, and simply returned to the cockpit. Knowing that he could not get any further useful information, Rydel exited the shuttle when the ramp is lowered.

The entire structure is built like a modern day sports arena, with the shuttles parking in the empty car park area. It was quite a long and tedious walk from there to the entrance of the arena, though there is projected arrows on the ground that showed Rydel exactly where to go. As he walked through the dark and dimply lit car park, his mind can't help but reflect on what the pilots said. It is evident that he has definitely performed this duty many times before, and it seemed that Dolon has always been here. Is she being imprisoned here and forced to fight as a caged animal, for entertainment?

Are there also guards in this arena that act like wardens?

Rydel clenched his fist and could feel his body shaking out of anger. If that's the case, then he will do whatever it takes to tear everything down and bring Dolon home! As he walked closer and closer towards the entrance, the arrows quickly changed direction and pointed him sharply to the left. He continued following them and went into what appeared to be the pre-game tunnel and through the changing room. The empty halls and walks ways made him feel uneasy, and all that he could hear is the sound and echos of his footsteps. Finally, the arrow made another turn near the end of the tunnel, and Rydel found himself nearing the exit of the arena.

There is no beacon of light from either of the fighters here, because none are needed.

He could see her, standing tall and proud on the other side of the arena. She is dressed in the usual Aquarian armor colored grey he vividly remembered from months ago and nothing stood out from her appearance, which is exactly what Dolon wanted. Their eyes met, and Rydel found his feet moving under him uncontrollably

'Dolon!' He yelled, and his voice was swallowed up by the vast empty space arena, 'is that you? Are you all right?'

'Welcome, contestant, to Dolon's Arena! Will this challenger finally succeed in challenging Dolon for her artifact and break her streak of forty nine victories in a row?' Almost instants after Rydel has ran onto the floors of the arena, a booming voice of an excited announcer is broadcasted through the loud speakers floating around the arena, and his voice is accompanied with uplifting electronic music that really should belong in a game. But this is not a game.

What is going on? Rydel stopped dead in his track and looked all around, throughout the giant arena, there are cameras allocated in all of the corners and all of them are pointing at him. The screens floating even further above showing his confused face.

'This particular contest seemed to have no clue what's going on! But let's hope he can give us a better fight than the last one!'

Is this some sort of a joke? Rydel turned his attention back to Dolon, and saw her marching quickly towards Rydel, her speed of movement much faster than when Rydel last saw her. As she came within twenty meters of Rydel, she waved her arm and pointed the Lightning Rod onto the ground, sending a massive jolt of electricity into it. The jolt of electricity seemed to have triggered a hidden mechanism right underneath the surface and a square column rose up from the point of impact right as Dolon steps across it, sending her high up in the air as she drew her blades and got ready to chop down on Rydel.

'Dolon!' Rydel yelled, but there is no response. Seeing this, Rydel knocked his cargo container to the side with a kick and ducked the other way, fractions of a second before Dolon landed and shattering the ground from where he once stood.

She is not responding to his calls. Rydel swore underneath his breath. Maybe there is some sort of mind control, some sort of hypnosis type deal? He wouldn't know. But whatever her reason for fighting is, it seemed like the only way to get her to calm down would be to incapacitate her and then figure something out.

If that's the case, then he came ready for a fight!

Right as Rydel has finally made his resolve to take down the Aquarian fighter, she swung her hand yet again and sent a jolt of lightning towards Rydel's feet, though he correctly read the motion of her body and moved out of the line of fire. The lightning bolt struck the ground beneath him and sent rocks splattering into his armor.

'Not so ea....ahhhhhh!' Before Rydel could even prepare his counter attack, the ground underneath him shoot up like before and sent him flying up high. Dolon sent a jolt of lightning underneath her own feet and chased after Rydel. There is no stopping her streams of attacks, and Rydel felt like he was swallowed up in a wave that continually tried to bury him underneath the surface and will not give him even an instant to take a much needed breath.

Then it dawned on him. Dolon has expanded the various principles of Aquarian martial arts into her fighting style.

This is an unwelcoming development, if Rydel was to survive for long enough in order to knock some sense into her. Reaching to his sides, Rydel's fingers rubs against the different surfaces of the various types of grenades attached to his belt, and selected a smoke grenade. In order to differentiate the different types of grenades, the manufacturers of the post modern age has implemented different textures to it. While he was still in the air and Dolon is now flying towards him, Rydel wound his body up and threw the smoke grenade right at her, the momentum of his throw completely twisting his body and caused him to spin around before landing hard on the ground.

With all of the physiological enhancements he has underwent and all of the training he has done, Rydel was able to realign his body and land on his feet without much issue. The grenade he launched also connected with its intended target as it flew at a blinding speed and made contact with Dolon, who simply curled up and tanked the grenade which exploded upon impact and surrounded her in a patch of smoke before she landed on the raised column that Rydel was standing on moments ago. As the column slowly drops down back to normal, she was also clear of the smokes.

'Look at that counter attack! But it seems our contestant has picked the wrong grenade for the occasion! Come ooooooooonnnnnn!' Rydel didn't even notice the commentators during his intense concentration, and his high pitch voice tore through his intense focus for just a moment that Rydel finally heart what he is saying.

Taking the chance that Dolon was still engulfed in smoke as the smoke grenade fragments stuck to her armor and continued to create smoke around her through its chemical reactions, Rydel quickly ran towards his cargo box and pulled out the very first rectangular item and unwind it by pulling a strap apart. It looked like a sort of modern day military jacket with packets of blocks strung together with tough fabric.

He put that on as quickly as he can, and yelled out towards Dolon, 'COME ON!'

Dolon, now returned to ground level, pointed her Lightning rod at Rydel and sends yet another jolt of lightning aimed at his feet in order to get him in the air and create an opening where Rydel would have no room to evade, however, when Dolon was ready to send out another jolt of lightning, Rydel leaned forwards and pushed through the ground as hard as he could as he met the lightning head on. The bolt made contact with his body, and despite the thick layers of insulation he had wore underneath his new jacket, the unnaturally high voltage still send some current through his body and threw him backwards.

To Rydel, it was like a mild zap,but that's exactly what he planned to do.

He got up from his butt and onto his feet once again, and charged at Dolon, who sent him back with another jolt of lightning.

'What...what is he doing! Is he insane?' The commentator couldn't believe what Rydel is doing as he charged at Dolon again and again, only to be sent back by the lightning repeatedly.

'Get up! Get up! Get up!' As Rydel was knocked back and down again and again, the commentator started rooting for him, and thousands of special audiences across the Grey Wolf's region who are subscribed to this all started cheering for Rydel as he never gave up and simply kept on trying.

The entire set up was so that those in the absolute academy are baited to choose Dolon as their opponent as the list of details said she was a newly recruited member into the upper circle and didn't go through the formal training here. These give the challengers a false sense of power as they imagined Dolon to be an easy target. As one challenger after another went after her, the streaming of the fight became one of the premier source of entertainment for those that could afford it in the regions of the Grey Wolf, and with each winning fight, more funding is being poured towards Absolute Being. This is the reality, and the reality show that Rydel is now playing the antagonist in. However, it seemed that audiences and the commentator have taken a liking for this underdog, completely unaware of Rydel's real plan.

'Ouch that was a hard one...' As Rydel was knocked down once more, this time by a more powerful jolt as Dolon is starting to get bored of this game, he recalled to the very last conversation he had with Cellica in preparation for this fight. He took a day off and traveled to the nearest place where he could use the last bit of his unhindered communications, and that place was the very same space station when he met Valerie after Pilotmania.

It was rather poetic as the first and the last call is made from the same station. As Cellica got ready to call, Rydel cut straight to the chase.

'In the worst case scenario when I have to fight and incapacitate Dolon, what are some of the options?'

'This is a tough question to answer...' Cellica rubbed her chin as she recalled all of her past memories with Dolon, especially when she is still trying to figure the limits of her artifact, 'what ideas do you have?'

'Assuming she has gone through the same levels of enhancements that I have, I will get chopped up if I fight up close, and guns and rifles won't be much good either.'

'Chemicals?'

'We are pretty much immune to that...'

'So our only options left would be...'

'Like all that fight against artifact users, it seems...we have to exploit the limitations and mechanics of the artifact.'

'Right, that's actually really helpful knowledge.' Cellica acknowledged as she closed her eyes and really looked back to the time when they ran tests for Dolon to find out her limits. The range of the lightning generated, and number of lightnings at the same time, the maximum current...

'Ah, there was something that happened!' Cellica opened her eyes quickly, and light reflected off her jade colored pupils, 'when we were testing her maximum power output by letting her output as much power as possible, the measuring circuit was experiencing so much current that it was overloaded and it burned through the diodes and sent a massive surge of power back to Dolon.'

'And then what happens?'

'Then there was electricity everywhere, as the electricity fed back into her system and it was let loose, The entire base was taken down in a massive storm of electricity. Thankfully all of us were wearing protective suits and didn't get hurt too bad, but the base was blacked out for three days after that.' Cellica said, 'she was knocked out cold for a few days after that too.'

'So by sending electricity back into her system, it could cause some sort of trouble?'

'That's at least the theory.' Cellica replied with a shrug, 'but if you could replicate that set up somehow, that could work?'

'Well, it had better work now.' As Rydel murmured quietly to himself and checked on the level of charge on the batteries he is wearing around his body, Dolon was staring down at him and waiting for another of his reckless charge. It's almost there, and Rydel's counter attack is almost complete. By this point, his limbs are already feeling extremely numb, and his body tired. All of the nanotechnology enhancements seemed to be affected somewhat by the constant jolts of electricity entering his body, and he is in the worst shape he has been in for a very long time.

This better work.

As Rydel willed himself to stand up to Dolon once again and started walking towards her, he started talking, perhaps to Dolon who isn't listening, or to himself who is having some hearing difficulties after all the falling and electrecution.

'You know, I have come a long way to find you and take you home.' He said, 'You taught me how to control my artifact, and how to use it for good. I am not sure I have done that, and I don't think I would have been able to be here today if I had.

'I looked up to you as my teacher, and I have been training so hard since you were gone months and months ago. Now, I am here, strong enough to stand against you, fight against you unhinged. So why don't you knock yourself out of it!'

'DOLON! WAKE UP!'

As Rydel yelled out, Dolon raised her arm without a single reaction, and fired off yet another jolt of lightning. However, this time he didn't back down. Instead, he simply took in all of the electricity that Dolon is giving him and taking it all into the battery back pack he was wearing. He eyed on the percentage point as it creeps up towards 100 per cent, and then sent it all back to Dolon!

The charges traveled along the jolts created by Dolon, but it contained the energy from all of Dolon's previous hits, the previous jolts that looked like serpents creeping through the air to bite into Rydel is now turned into an electricity dragon as it roared towards Dolon. The flashes of light given off was so bright that almost everyone was blinded for an instant, and then the dragon rammed itself into Dolon.

Her armor and her body was turned into a brilliant white figure, and then as sphere of electricity began to form around her and expand outwards like a supernova, Rydel sprinted backwards as quickly as he could to get out of the way and ducked behind the now empty container. The storm of electricity Cellica is talking about is now being unleashed upon the entire arena as it exploded and spread to every single inch of space around here!

Now, Rydel is witnessing the full force of Dolon's artifact, and despite all of the preparation he has done with regarding to his insulation suits and even the container itself, the intensity of electricity around him is simply so great that nothing is really able to protect him.

As the stinging sensation grow every more intense from all around his body, he couldn't help out but scream out in pain as his body was sizzled and burned by such intense energy.

It felt like minutes before the intensity of the storm has subsided, and Rydel was barely conscious as the pain temporarily overloaded his brain and almost knocked him out. There was a strong pulsing sensation radiating from his left hand as his artifact seemed to have been protecting him from the worst of it. There seemed to be some level of enhancements coming from the artifacts too.

Rydel crept his head above the container, and saw camera drones being rained down from the sky, dropping and splattering on the ground into a thousand pieces as the storm of electricity overloaded their circuits and turned them into useless pieces of junk.

He could no longer hear the sounds of the commentator, and all of the lights in the arena is being shut off.

Rydel put on his infared goggles, and saw the figure of Dolon standing alone and far away. She wasn't moving, but she was still standing.

The Dolon of the past might have been knocked out cold, but with all of the enhancements coming from the artifacts, who knew what impact that attack could have on her. With the clubs held in his hand, Rydel approached carefully.