"What? What? WHAT?!" Victor asked in confusion. "What did you just say?!"
"I said that I gave up. I resign, you won. I believe that you may have some hearing issues, or does your little brain not process it?" Ascalon answered.
Victor, alongside everyone else at the place, could not believe what just happened. The audience was whispering and booing. The Elementals stared at the fighters in complete shock.
Lyle was astonished more than anyone else, he knew his friend was not the kind to give up, especially when he clearly had the advantage over Victor, this didn't make any sense. Both Mistia and Stella were confused and wondering why Ascalon had resigned.
Trent was also very confused, he was not expecting this at all and wasn't sure what to say next. He was about to declare Victor's victory out loud but at that moment the champion spoke up.
"I don't understand! Why would you give up?!" Victor asked Ascalon, noticeably angered.
"Well, after that last hit you gave to me, the result of this battle seemed pretty obvious, so I decided to finish it off already to prevent us from wasting our time" Ascalon replied.
"What the hell is he talking about? He was clearly able to fight at my level, moreover, he had to insult me by purposefully lowering his defenses, what is up with him?! Wait a minute…" Victor said in his mind, realizing something.
"DID YOU JUST CALL ME A WASTE OF TIME?!!" He asked with a very strong and enraged scream.
"Did I? I may have…" Ascalon answered, a bit of mockery could be noticed on his voice.
The champion was officially out of patience and lunged in to attack Ascalon with a powerful fire punch, but the attack was dodged.
"Hey, I gave up, you won already. But before I get off the ring there is something I want to tell you" Ascalon said.
Victor was intrigued.
"The fighter that's gonna come after you defeat your next opponent is named Lyle, and he is my best friend. Don't be so rough with him, ok?" Ascalon asked before jumping out of the ring.
Victor stared at him as he walked to his squad, in shock. He could not believe what he had just asked, the amount of disrespect Ascalon had for him was just incomprehensible for him, it was so humiliating. Victor looked at Lyle, with a thought in mind, he was going to make him suffer.
"Uh… well, Victor wins… uh… he remains undefeated and… Diane, how long did the fight last?" Trent said as he snapped back after being lost in thought because of the surprise.
The woman made a sign with her hand, indicating that the fight lasted 4 minutes.
"Alright, so, everyone who betted 4 minutes, go for your gold" Trent exclaimed.
Those who had made the bet of 4 minutes completely forgot their disappointment for the fight as they rushed in to reclaim their prize. The rest of the audience remained angered and bloodthirsty. They wanted to see a real fight.
Ascalon, now standing next to his squad, began putting on his armor.
"What was that?" Lyle asked in confusion.
"Why did you give up?" Stella questioned.
"Look at how much damage he caused me with one hit" Ascalon said as he pointed at his broken lip "That hit was enough to make me realize that it wasn't worth continuing"
Stella heals up Ascalon's injury.
"That doesn't seem like a convincing reason on why you of all people would give up just like that" Mistia stated.
She had noticed Ascalon purposefully dropping his defenses the moment Victor punched him in the face. She wanted to ask why he did that but she believed that maybe this wasn't the moment to do so.
"Yes, you didn't even use the Dark Boost! Why give up just like that?!" Lyle asked, still very confused.
"Oh right, I can use the Dark Boost. Eh, next time maybe" Ascalon said, oddly calm as he grabbed his axe.
The rest of the squad could not believe what they were looking at, this was not the Ascalon they knew, they all wondered what the hell had gotten into him.
"Ascalon, you're acting very weird, are you feeling alright?" Lyle asked with concern.
"Yes, I am. But you shouldn't be really focusing on me, after all, it'll be your turn once Terrac is defeated". He replied, pointing at The Elementals.
Terrac was getting prepared for his fight with Victor, he was a bit nervous about it but his friends encouraged him after putting Dante on a chair.
"Come on man, I know you can do it!" Raphael said.
"Terrac" Elene said, as she put her hands on Terrac's shoulders.
"Make that son of a bitch beg for mercy, show him the worst of you , make him pay for what he did to Dante by ripping away every inch of dignity he ever had and shove his ego through his ass until he can't take it anymore and then-!" She said, creeping out both Raphael and Terrac, but she was interrupted by Raphael covering her mouth with his hand.
"Alright, I think that was enough, good luck Terrac" Raphael said as Elene tried to get free from him.
Terrac walked into the ring.
"I hope he can- AUCH!" Raphael exclaimed as he got away from Elene. "Did you just bite me?!"
"Don't do that ever again, you hear me?" She replied menacingly as she went to stand right next to Dante.
On top of the ring, Terrac looked at Victor, he seemed enraged and the blood from his nose and mouth didn't make this any less unnerving. Victor stared back at Terrac, he planned to finish this as soon as possible to proceed with the next battle.
"Hey… uh… brother, do you want a healing potion before the battle starts?" Trent asked in a whisper.
"Healing? I only got hit twice, DO YOU REALLY THINK I NEED HEALING?!" Victor replied with anger.
"Eh, no, I was just asking, you know? Just in case, I… Well… uh…" Trent responded nervously.
"Everyone, the fight is about to start, please make your bets before we can proceed!" Trent said out loud.
Soon enough, people were surrounding the betting board, Diane wrote down the bets, people seemed more fierce to bet in this one.
While bets were being taken, Terrac began stretching for his battle while Victor just stared at him, or at least what's Terrac thought, in reality Victor was staring at Ascalon, who looked calmed as always, the champion clenched his fists in anger, he was going to get it back to him, he was gonna make him wish he defeated him when he had the chance.
The Elementals looked at their companion, they both seemed preoccupied, Victor looked bloodthirsty. Elene was biting her nails and a drop of sweat went down Raphael's face. However, their worries got momentarily interrupted as they heard Dante's grunts as he finally regained consciousness.
"Ugh… wh-what… what happened?" Dante said as he opened his eyes.
"Honey!" Elene said as she jumped to hug Dante.
"Are you feeling better Dan?" Raphael asked.
Dante hugged Elene back. "Yes, I'm feeling better, my head is still shaking a bit but I'll be fine, what's going on?" He asked.
"Well, you got one-shotted, Ascalon gave up fighting against Victor and now Terrac is going to face him" Raphael replied.
"What? Ascalon gave up against him?" The leader questioned in confusion.
"Yes, although I'm not sure why, he didn't seem to be struggling against him" Raphael responded.
"Well, that's not important now, what matters now is that we support Terrac against that beast" Dante said as he struggled to stand up with the help of Elene.
The three of them cheered on Terrac who looked back at them with a smile and gave them a thumbs up.
The squad looked at them, although they had shown to be annoying before, they weren't bad people and it was kind of sweet how supportive they were of each other. Well, everyone but Ascalon thought that, he didn't really care about them and wasn't even paying attention to them.
"Lyle, I'd suggest you begin preparing yourself, even if Terrac isn't as weak as Dante, he ain't gonna win" Ascalon said as he looked at the fighters.
"Well, I guess I should be taking my armor off at the very least, it's not very easy to do so" Lyle said as he began to remove his chestplate.
Mistia stared at the ring, looking at both Victor and Terrac, and wondered if Ascalon was right, did Terrac not stand a chance against Victor? If Ascalon hadn't gone first she'd thought he had a fair chance of winning, but after Ascalon had insulted Victor, he was now in an enraged state and it was for sure that his attacks were going to be more brutal.
The four of them stared at the ring, waiting for the battle to start.
As the last person had made their bet at the betting board, Diane gave the thumbs up signal to Trent, indicating that the fight could start. The bets this time around were more against Victor, most people had betted for '4 minutes' and '5 minutes', moreover, some people had even dared to bet that Victor would lose the battle, it had been a long time since someone had thought that Victor could actually be defeated.
The champion looked at the betting, seeing that people believed that he could lose against Terrac only angered him more.
"Alright, all bets are done" Trent said, standing between Terrac and Victor.
The referee approached Terrac. "Do you mind sharing your name with us?" He asked.
"My name is Terrac, and I'm gonna make Victor pay for what he did to my leader" Terrac said, his teammates cheered on him.
The referee approached Victor. "Anything to say champion?" He asked.
Victor did not respond and just growled, scaring Trent a bit, who jumped off the ring.
"Alright… with that setted up. LET THE FIGHT BEG-" Trent exclaimed.
However, before he could finish talking, Trent got interrupted by a yell from Victor as lunged against Terrac, immediately surrounding himself with his fiery aura. Terrac would be able to react, he surrounded himself with a rocky aura and lashed out against Victor.
Their fists clashed, creating a small wave of energy. Both fighters began interchanging punches with speed and power. Terrac moved slower than Victor, which resulted in him getting more hits, but his rock hard body was able to resist the fast fire punches from his foe, but most of his attacks got blocked by Victor, however, they still hit hard and Victor was getting his arms damaged by Terrac.
The audience erupted in excitement, this what they came for, they began cheering on Victor and a few were cheering for Terrac alongside The Elementals.
Lyle looked impressed, trying to pay attention to each movement they did, he needed to study Victor's movements as much as possible. Ascalon wasn't paying attention to the fight, he already knew how it was gonna end. Mistia wasn't paying attention to fight either, but for different reasons, her gaze was fixated on Lyle, she was worried about what Victor could do to him, and after the way Ascalon had treated him, it wouldn't be a surprise that Victor might try to retaliate on Lyle.
A weird sound would temporarily catch Mistia's attention, she looked to her left where Stella was standing, paying a lot of attention to the fight, her face reddened and she was drooling, the lust in her eyes at that moment was immeasurable. Mistia normally didn't mind much about Stella's perviness, ever since she had joined the team Stella stopped perving on her for some reason and she usually did her lustful things away from her, mostly because of them not spending much time together, but right now she was next to her, and she was really disgusting to her.
"I wonder how…" Stella barely managed to say as she got lost in thought. "Having them both… at once…"
That was it.
"Ascalon please switch places with me" Mistia asked desperately, looking at her teammate with pleading eyes.
"Huh? Ok…" Ascalon agreed to switch, not really sure why but he really didn't care, so they switched places.
Ascalon now stood between Lyle and Stella, being able to hear Stella's lustful murmurs, but he didn't pay attention to her, meanwhile Mistia, now standing right to Lyle, continued to look at him, worried on how things could go for him when his moment to fight arrived.
On top of the ring, the two muscular men found themselves, their hands intertwined as they tried to overpower the other one, staring at each other with fierce determination. Victor leans in and headbutts Terrac, an attack that the elemental resists, but Victor continues headbutting, his eyes reddened out of the sheer anger that consumed him.
After several headbutts, Victor turned his forehead on fire and attacked with an even more powerful headbutt that Terrac was just barely able to react, managing to create a rock shield on his forehead that heavily reduced the impact on his part, but yet Victor was able to break through the shield and hit Terrac, but the power of the attack plus Terrac's defense ended up damaging Victor more than Terrac.
Blood began spilling from Victor's forehead, covering most of his face, but he seemed unfazed by it. Terrac was a bit horrified at how Victor could just tolerate such an injury, the amount of blood going down Victor's face and chin grossed Terrac a bit.
Terrac began taking the lead on the stand out, so, in response, Victor pulled out a little trick, he opened his mouth from where an orange shine could be seen, Terrac just barely noticed his intentions and stepped back before Victor began spilling fire from his mouth.
It was a close call for Terrac, just a second later and his face would've been roasted. Victor stood there, smoke coming out of his mouth as he coughed intensely, he could feel his insides burning hot. Trent seemed worried about him.
Terrac tried a different approach, he summoned small rocks that he began throwing at Victor, who tanked the hits as his anger increased and responded summoning a massive fireball that Terrac forced himself to tank as to not let it hit the spectators, he managed to create a rock wall in front of the fireball, stopping it completely, but creating a smoke screen that didn't let him see Victor lunge at him with his punches embedded in fire, managing to land two direct punches on the elemental's face, making him flinch.
Terrac quickly recomposed as he spitted one of his teeth, Victor began throwing several small fire balls at him in quick succession. Terrac blocked the fireballs, but even if they weren't too powerful, they were many and slowly his arms were getting burned by them.
An idea came into Terrac's mind, a little technique he had been practicing but hadn't mastered yet, he didn't know if it would result but he didn't have many options.
Terrac creates a wall of stone in front of him and pushes it at Victor with great speed, the champion blocks the attack but it creates a sand cloud that blinds Victor for a few seconds, just what Terrac needed. The elemental concentrated all of his power in his right fist, embedding it in iron. As Victor recovered his sight, he noticed Terrac lashing out towards him with his 'Iron Fist' technique; he could've done something about it, but he decided not to.
The elemental's punch landed right in the middle of Victor's face, the sound of cracking bones was heard all over the resto-bar, surprising everyone around, even Terrac himself. He stood there, his iron covered fist still in Victor's face, more blood spilled from his face, going down his chin and staining the floor of the ring with it.
For a second, Terrac thought he had won, but soon, an enraged and loud scream came from Victor as his fists got covered in fire and quickly made an attack that Terrac could not react to. Victor punched both sides of Terrac's head at the same time, creating a wave of heat that crossed through the entire establishment.
Terrac backed off, Victor's attack had made him lose his balance, he grabbed his head as he tried to recover from the punches, but while he did so, once again, an orange shine emerged from the insides of Victor's mouth as he slowly opened it. He charged the attack for a few seconds before throwing a massive fireball from his mouth that impacted Terrac at point blank range, creating a massive smoke screen that spread through the entire building, making everyone inside begin to cough.
The smoke was slowly dispelling, but a sudden magical wave of wind made it dispel even faster. The wave of wind was made by no one other than Trent, who had begun spinning in place as wind came out from his mouth; once the smoke had been dispelled, Trent stopped spinning as he recovered his breath.
As people regained their sight, they all looked at the ring, where Victor was standing, hyperventilated, his eyes completely reddened, his face drenched with blood, his nose broken, smoke coming out of his mouth and nose like a chimney, the pupils of his brown eyes extremely dilated. In front of the champion, Terrac lies on the floor, unconscious and smoke coming out of the several burns he had over his body.
Things remained in silence for a moment, Trent got into the ring and went to check on Terrac, after a quick revision he noticed that Terrac was still alive, unconscious, but alive.
"And the winner is, Victor!" He exclaimed as he stood up, pointing out at his brother.
The crowd began cheering on Victor, The Elementals jumped into the ring to check on their companion, Elene was quick to threaten Trent to heal Terrac, and the referee quickly did so, but before giving him a healing potion, he used a light blue potion that healed Terrac's burns and then he used the healing potion.
The Elementals dragged the still unconscious Terrac out of the ring, he needed some rest so they sat him in the chair Dante had been before. It shouldn't take long before he woke up like Dante.
"Alright, Diane, how long was that?" The referee asked, looking at his cousin.
The woman replied by lifting her right hand with all fingers raised up, signaling that the fight had lasted 5 minutes.
"Ok everybody, whoever had betted for 5 minutes go reclaim your gold!" Trent exclaimed as everyone who had betted for a 5 minute fight went over to claim the money.
"Trent" Victor said as he approached his brother.
"What happens?" The referee questioned as he turned back to look at his brother.
"Healing and energy" The champion barely managed to say as the smoke coming out from his mouth and nose reduced.
Trent was quick to draw a healing potion and an energy restoring potion, Victor drank both and got asked by Trent if he wanted to take a break to clean up all the blood but the champion denied as he turned back to look at his next victim.
Lyle looked nervous, he wasn't sure that he could beat Victor, he was a ruthless and furious fighter, unlike him who had barely fought against other people.
Mistia, reuniting her inner strength, put a hand on Lyle's shoulder to his surprise.
"Lyle, you don't have to fight if you don't want, he is way too much for you" Mistia said, promptly retiring her hand from Lyle's shoulder.
Lyle considered his friend's words, he certainly didn't want or felt the encouragement to fight Victor, but Ascalon had some things to say to him.
"Look, Lyle" Ascalon said, as he took Lyle by the shoulders and looked at him directly in the eyes "I know that your trust in yourself is pretty unexistent, but you have to believe in me for this one, I'm aware that I may not be the smartest person but if we talk about fights, that's where I'm a connoisseur"
"Remember how I always told you that you had the potential to become a great fighter more easily than other people?" Ascalon tightened his grip "For years you didn't believe that but it turned out I was right. And it's the same with this, I'm 100% sure that you can beat that dumbass in a fight, so go up there, kick his ass and most importantly, DON'T. GIVE. UP!"
Silence reigned for a few seconds, Lyle thought of Ascalon's words as he made out his mind about this situation, but after some consideration, he acceded.
"Alright… I will fight Victor" Lyle finally decided as he gave his sword to Ascalon.
"I'm happy to hear that" Ascalon said with a smile.
"Good luck Lyle!" Stella said.
Mistia didn't say anything.
Lyle walked towards the ring, as he was about to get on it he was suddenly approached by Mistia.
"Lyle" She called out a whisper.
"Hmm?" Lyle said as he turned back to look at her.
Ascalon watched them with a raised eyebrow from a distance.
"If things seem to go bad, please, give up. I don't want to see you get hurt, and in this situation, it's not worth it" Mistia told him.
"I'll be fine Mistia" He replied with a hint of nerves.
Mistia walked back to where Stella and Ascalon were standing, no one bothered to ask what Mistia had said to Lyle, it wasn't necessary.
Lyle got on top of the ring, stepping on a little puddle of Victor's blood that had been left there, Lyle was somewhat disgusted. In front of him, Victor stood with a malicious smile on his face, that in combination with his reddened eyes and the blood in his face made Lyle feel even more nervous than he already was.
"Alright folks, the battle is soon to start, challenger, may you share your name with us?" Trent exclaimed, approaching Lyle.
"I-I'm Lyle Heiwane" He answered.
"You sound a bit nervous Lyle" Trent declared.
"W-Well, after the last battle, can you blame me?" Lyle said, letting out a nervous chuckle.
"That makes sense to me, now, my great audience, please go to the betting board and make your bets before this battle begins!" The referee exclaimed as he pointed at the board.
The crowd once again reunited at the betting board to make a guess on the result and try to win some extra gold.
On top of the ring, Lyle watched as Victor slowly walked towards him until being face to face. Having him this close was intimidating, he was almost a head larger than him and had muscles at least 4 times wider than him.
"You are friends with that bastard, aren't you?" Victor asked with a malicious smile.
"You mean… Ascalon? W-Well, yes, we are… best friends…" Lyle said, barely able to formulate his words.
"Well, you better start thinking how are you gonna thank him after I have disfigured your stupid face so badly that not even the greatest healer in the world could restore it. After that humiliation…" Victor cracked his teeth.
"This is gonna be so satisfying, and don't worry, I won't hit you too hard. It would be boring if this ended too quickly" Victor smiled.
Lyle was shaking, his hands trembled intensely but he tried to stay firm, he clenched his fist and looked at Victor with a determined gaze.
"I am going to win this" Lyle declared with determination.
The champion just let out a little chuckle as he walked to the opposite side of the ring. Lyle gulped.
At the betting board, Diane was almost done writing down the bets, they were mostly against Lyle, most of the people had made bets for the battle to be a one-hit, 30 seconds or 1 minute, some went for two minutes, almost no one went for 3 minutes and absolutely no one even made a bet for the battle to last 4 minutes, let alone last 5 minutes or to even think that Lyle could beat Victor.
However, one last person approached to make a bet.
"Hey… uh… Diane, right? I'd like to bet on this" Ascalon said, approaching the woman with a bag of gold. "How does this work exactly?"
The woman pulled off a board that was next to her and showed it to Ascalon, in the board said the basics about the bets, basically, one bets for how the fight will result and if they get it right they win their gold back plus an extra that is based on how many other people also betted for the same, the less people the more gold.
"Uh, alright. Then I'll bet on 'Victor Losses'" Ascalon said.
Diane seemed a bit surprised but it wasn't her job to give advice, just to take the bets, so she took the gold and wrote down Ascalon's name in her book where she kept the registers of the bets.
Ascalon walked back to where his companions were.
"Where did you go?" Stella asked.
Mistia turned to look at Ascalon, she had been looking at the ring and hadn't noticed Ascalon walking away.
"Just doing some stuff" Ascalon said as he turned to look at the ring.
On top of the ring, both fighters were getting prepared for the incoming battle, just waiting for Trent to speak up so it would begin. While Victor thought of the different ways he was going to beat up Lyle, the latter repeated Ascalon's words in his head, most specifically the 'DONT. GIVE. UP'.
"Alright everybody, the fight is about to begin, I believe that this is gonna be the last one for today, I know it sucks but, you know, we can't just let everyone get beaten up in a single day" Trent exclaimed, the nerves in his voice were crystal clear, he was afraid of what Victor would do to Lyle, but he tried to calm himself, after all, if things went too far Lyle could just give up, right?
The people of the crowd weren't expecting much of this fight, if someone like Terrac couldn't win, what chances did this seemingly weaker guy have?
The Elementals had their eyes fixated on the ring, they wanted to see what Lyle was capable of to be left at last considering how well Ascalon had performed. As for the group, Mistia was worried sick of what Victor could do to Lyle, she was biting the nail of her right thumb because of the nerves, Stella also seemed worried, as much as she liked watch men fight, in this case one of them was her friend and she had already seen what Victor could do. Finally, Ascalon, he just smiled as he had his gaze fixated on the fighters.
"Diane, is everything set and done over there?" The referee asked, looking at his cousin.
The woman responded with her usual thumbs up sign, everything was set and done.
"Alright… then, LET THE FIGHT BEGIN!" Trent exclaimed as he jumped out of the ring.
Victor immediately lashed out against Lyle who was quick to dodge his multiple attempts of attacking him, he was very agile. However, this quickly began to anger Victor, seeing him use that same cheap trick that Ascalon pulled off during the entirety of the fight.
However, while Ascalon had been dodging to mock Victor, Lyle on the other hand was actually trying to do something. Hand on hand combat was not Lyle's style, his style was swordfighting, but he could not use a sword for this battle, at least, not a conventional one.
In the meantime that he had before the battle started, he had been thinking of a way to fight against Victor, and something came across his mind, or rather, someone, Sylvana. She could make weapons entirely out of magic, so he thought that he might as well give it a shot.
But it wasn't as easy as it seemed, he needed not only to concentrate the magic on his hand, but also to shape it at his will, which was complicated because he had never done such a thing before and also he had to also concentrate on Victor and dodging his attacks.
Already getting tired of Lyle's constant dodges, Victor decided to stop holding back and unleashed his fiery aura, his speed increased considerably and Lyle was forced to use his Dark Boost to keep up with him, even though his control over the technique had significantly improved in past 2 months, it still required a lot of energy to keep it active. Lyle continued dodging Victor's punches as he tried to focus his energy to create a magic sword, but after a few moments it was clear to him that trying to do both things at the same time was not going to result, so he decided to stop dodging.
A powerful punch landed right in his face, sending some of Lyle's teeth flying off his mouth and his nose to begin bleeding, Victor looked at him with a smile as his fist, still in his face, opened and grabbed Lyle from the face.
"Did you get tired of running, little bitch?" The champion asked rhetorically as he punched Lyle on the face again.
Lyle tried to ignore the pain as he continued to focus his energy on his hand, Victor continued to punch on the face with his other hand, the crowd cheered as Stella, Mistia and The Elementals watched the scene in horror. Ascalon continued smiling.
After some more punches, Victor moved the hand he was grabbing Lyle with a bit to see his face, his bleeding and the purple eye he now had, from where a small tear fell. He began to laugh, thinking about what he was gonna do next.
Lyle continued to endure the pain as he finished focusing his magic, he lifted his right hand a little and it appeared, a blade made entirely of darkness was summoned from Lyle's hand, piercing right through the forearm of the arm Victor was using to grab Lyle's face. As Lyle retracted the sword, Victor stepped back, grabbing his bleeding wound, screaming in pain.
The blonde looked at the blade in his hand, it felt weird but he could get accustomed to it.
Victor writhed in pain, he had let his guard down and the dark blade had injured him really badly, the bandage on his hand fell out as the bleeding continued, he wasn't gonna let the pain take him down.
"If you think this is enough to take me down, YOU ARE WRONG!" Victor yelled as he turned his other hand on fire to cauterize the wound.
The champion screamed in pain as he cauterized the wound, both of his hands were now covered in his own blood and he was enraged, he wouldn't let his guard down again. He lunged against Lyle once again, this time making sure to give his all at all times, Lyle began fighting back, at first his movements were a bit slippery, unlike his normal sword, the dark magic sword wasn't heavy at all, which troubled Lyle a bit at first with his balance, which led to him receiving many hard hits from Victor but he managed to get over it.
The fight continued, Lyle using his magical sword while Victor used his fists and threw a fireball from time to time, despite the damage Lyle had managed to cause Victor at first, following hits he had managed to land on him didn't pierce through him, with his power at it's max, Victor was able to tank the hits, although he was still getting noticeably damaged.
The fight went on for many minutes where it didn't seem like any of them was getting the top, the crowd was excited and cheering for the fight, the emotion was to the ceiling. The Elementals were impressed at Lyle keeping up with Victor, and so did Stella and Mistia.
However, pretty soon, Lyle was noticeably being overpowered, the energy that the Dark Boost drained was getting pretty heavy and he was getting slower and his hits weaker.
And suddenly, the Dark Boost, alongside the magic sword disappeared, Lyle couldn't keep it up anymore and was left defenseless against Victor who ruthlessly attacked him with all he had.
After several fire hits Lyle was taken down, he fell to the ground, bleeding and barely conscious. He tried to support himself with his hands to stand up but Victor stepped on him and began stomping him as Lyle tried his best to get him off his back.
"What happened? Did you get tired already? What a shame, I'd prefer you to be more awake for what I'm about to do to you" Victor said as he grabbed one of Lyle's arms and stretched it more than Lyle could handle as he continued to make force on his back with his foot.
Lyle begins to scream because of the pain, the audience continues to cheer on the spectacle before their eyes.
"LYLE! GIVE UP! GIVE UP NOW!" Mistia screamed, but it seemed like Lyle couldn't hear her above his own screams and muffled hearing because of the many punches to the head he had taken.
Stella watched the scene in horror, while Ascalon maintained a serene expression on his face. Meanwhile, The Elementals also watched with despise and horror what Lyle was experiencing, thinking of interfering but fearing what Victor could do to them.
Mistia lifted a hand, preparing to attack Victor with a worried and hateful gaze on her face but she was turned down by Ascalon who just looked at her and told her to trust. She doubted for a moment but decided to listen to him, at least for a moment, Ascalon knew him better than her after all, but if this dragged on for too long she was gonna interfere no matter what.
As Victor continued to pull Lyle's arm, he began insulting him, to insult Ascalon, and to insult his family, a great mistake.
"I feel so sorry for your parents, to have such a pathetic son, I bet they must be crying right now just because they had you!" Victor said, not really thinking on his words, just wanting to insult.
Something inside Lyle got ignited at that moment, hate, even though he hated Esteller and his demons for what they had done to his village, he had never met them, but Victor, he had him right next to him and hated him, both for what his had done and for his attitude, a snooty and childish asshole who could not bare taking some stupid insults.
He disliked him, he despised him, he hated him. And in that moment, that hate was all what filled his head. A dark wave blasted from Lyle's body, causing Victor to let him go and be taken back by the magical wave.
Lyle slowly stood up to the stunned sight of everyone in the place but Ascalon, who just smiled. A dark aura surrounded him, it was even darker than before, now standing up, Lyle slowly turned around to look at Victor with a hateful gaze.
"That power… that darkness… is that… the Dark Boost at its maximum power?" Mistia said in her mind.
Even though Lyle had used the Dark Boost several times, his negative feelings never had been intense enough to allow him to use the entirety of its capacity, but this time was different, Lyle had been cornered, and the mix of desperation, repressed anger and hate had allowed him to unleash all the power the Dark Boost had to offer.
Despite the exhaustion, despite the pain, Lyle lunged towards Victor. The champion barely manages to react, resulting on their hands clashing, they both exert strength, trying to overpower the other, but as soon as Victor opened his mouth to say something, Lyle quickly shut him up with a knee strike right to his crotch, Lyle didn't intend to target his balls, but due to the height difference, that's where his knee landed.
"I DON'T WANNA HEAR YOUR STUPID VOICE EVER AGAIN" Lyle said, spitting blood as he slowly removed his knee from Victor's crotch.
Victor fell to his knees because of the immense pain he was feeling at the moment, he leaded his hands to his crotch in a reflective act to try to soothe the pain, being left completely defenseless.
Lyle quickly began to punch Victor in the face several times without measuring his strength, each hit hitting harder than the last one, after many punches, Lyle suddenly stopped, his dark aura disappeared.
Victor fell to the ground, his face disfigured and completely knocked out.
Trent slowly entered the ring and went to check on Victor, confirming that he was still alive despite the huge beat down he had just taken.
"And… the winner is, Lyle Heiwane!" Trent exclaimed as he pointed at Lyle.
The crowd cheered for Lyle, the first one to ever beat Victor in a fight, the blonde fell to the ground unconscious, so Mistia and Stella quickly rushed in to check on him. As soon as she put her hands on him Stella healed his wounds, but with the amount of energy he had used during the fight, he wasn't going to wake up for a good while. Mistia hugged him, relieved.
At the same time, Trent poured one of his healing potions on Victor, healing his wounds, but like Lyle, he wasn't gonna wake up any time soon with how much energy he had used. Trent patted his brother's head.
Ascalon walked into the ring, holding two bags full of gold that he had got because of his bet, he had a smug smile on his face, but even though he had been right about Lyle being able to win, neither Stella or Mistia really liked the way he handled it.
Ascalon approaches Trent, who's kneeling right next to Victor.
"Hey, I believe that the poster said that there would be a reward in gold for whoever won against Victor" Ascalon reminded the referee.
"Oh right, give me a second" Trent said as he looked for something in his many pockets.
The referee pulls out a bag of gold that he lends to Ascalon who stores it with the rest of the bags of gold and walks away alongside Stella and Mistia, who's carrying Lyle.
The squad leaves the ring and approaches The Elementals, who are attending a just woken up Terrac. The Elementals apologize and congratulate them for their performance in their battles.
"I'm enough of a man to recognize when I'm wrong, and I can say that we are not as great as we said, but you are, and I respect that" Dante said in name of his whole team, who nodded.
"Hey, I believe that you didn't tell us the name of your group" Raphael said.
"Well, we don't have a name, we aren't that kind of group, no one leads between us, we just roll along together" Ascalon responded.
Dante chuckled. "That sounds fine, but I think you should consider getting a name, it will make you look cooler"
The Elementals and the squad said goodbye to each and left the place, before leaving the Beefy Beef Stella gave a little wink to Terrac.
"That girl looked at me very weirdly the whole day" Terrac whispered to Raphael.
"He wanted to fuck with you" The short man said to his friend.
"Why would she want to mess up with me?" Terrac asked, confused.
"I meant sex" Raphael clarified.
"Now that you mention it, that makes more sense" Terrac said, finally getting it.
The squad walked without fear through the streets of the capital, even though they were on the bad part, they knew they had nothing fear, they walked out of the bad part of the city and headed to Mistia's place, where Lyle could take a well deserved rest and they begin to think what do with all the gold they had obtained this day.