Chapter 551: Fairness denied
Just as Reptar was going to chomp down onto the unguarded Reena, a rustling bush echoed out into the forest, and alerted them of an incoming individual. They looked cautious, wondering if a certain curly blonde woman had finally found them and was about to hunt them down.
They looked at the shoes, and saw that it was far too small for Beau to wear.
And as this person finally revealed themselves, they realized that they got half of their guess right. The person was blonde, but it wasn’t Beau.
It was Michael.
When Reena looked up and saw him, her heart stopped. Why is he here? She had been fighting Reptar and Erlos exactly so that Michael could run away from them in time. Did he not hear them fighting?
Instead, he came here right where they wanted him.
"Why..." she muttered out in defeat, thinking that everything she did was for nothing.
Michael looked at her. "You asked for help. I’m here," he said with a natural tone, as if it was the normal thing to do in this situation.
Reena and others couldn’t believe what they heard. He was also going to suffer a defeat just because Reena asked for help? It didn’t make sense at all.
"You shouldn’t have come here, Michael," said Erlos. "We were going to hunt you down, but seeing as how much Reena wanted to protect you, we wanted to at least honor her wishes and let you continue with the game a little bit longer."
Michael shrugged. "It’s fine. I’m not just here to help Reena, I’m here to avenge her."
Seeing the confidence and bravado that Michael said those words, Reptar, Erlos, and the other people watching from above were stunned into silence.
"Just to let you know, I am in the 5th stage of Body Formation. And Erlos is in the 4th stage," warned Reptar.
He was trying to tell Michael that just their individual strengths alone would be enough to defeat him. And once they worked together, then he would most probably become exactly like Reena in the end.
They could have stood a chance if they had fought together from the start, but now, Reena was completely out of the game. She didn’t have her Mithril Relic weapons, nor her Aubility Red Dust. If he wanted to fight them, then it was already too late.
Everyone thought this was obvious. But from Michael’s confidence, it seemed that he didn’t believe them.
After all, he didn’t say he was going to escape, or that he was going to escape with Reena. He said that he was going to avenge her, meaning that he would defeat both of them in the same fashion that they defeated Reena.
"I can’t believe you said that. Now, my pride won’t allow me to let you go," said Reptar as he slapped his gauntlets together, with the Giant Crocodile above him roaring in anticipation.
"Wait, Reptar. He’s just a kid. Maybe he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about. Let’s just let him go," said Erlos.
Michael shook his head. "Nope. Come on. Let’s fight. Me versus the two of you."
Reptar and Erlos looked at each other, not knowing what to do. They knew that this was just a game, and that there was nothing personal in it, but this was a challenge that they couldn’t pass up. Their pride was on the line.
"You can’t blame us if we go hard on you," warned Reptar. "You asked for it."
"I’ll step away for now. Let you have a fair fight," suggested Erlos.
"Nope. You didn’t give that same courtesy to Reena. Why? It’s because you respect her strength. You see her as someone that you need to defeat. Does that mean that you think you can defeat me just by yourselves?" Michael asked, a bit offended.
At this point, Erlos and Reptar didn’t know what to do. They were giving Michael all the excuses he could have, but he just wouldn’t accept it.
They just didn’t know why he was that confident. They sensed his fight against Reena a while back. And from their estimation, he was also in the 4th stage of Body Formation.
If he was in the 6th stage, then they would have accepted his confidence. But he wasn’t.
"In fact, I’ll let you guys have the first strike. You’re Erlos, right? You use your whip on me and drag me in towards Reptar."
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...
"What is Michael thinking?!?!?! Why didn’t he just run away?"
"Not only does he want to fight the two of them at the same time, but he also wants to give them the first strike?! Is he crazy?!"
"Does he want to get out of the game? He can just say surrender and he’ll be escorted out of the Pocket Dimension safely."
"I just don’t understand. Reptar’s Crunch Aubility will work on anyone that is below the 5th stage. There’s nothing that it can’t crush. Literally."
Everyone was rooting for Michael, but all of his decisions at this point seemed like he was purposefully sabotaging himself. Reptar and Erlos were even gracious enough to fight him one on one. But no. He chose to fight them together.
Unfortunately, no matter how much they screamed, Michael and the others wouldn’t be able to hear them.
So, when Reptar began to position his gauntlets like that of a crocodile’s jaws, they braced themselves for a quick defeat.
Erlos began swinging his whip around, with the skeletal alligator skull slithering like a snake above him.
Finally, he cracked it towards Michael.
The whip elongated just enough to reach his wips and wrap around him tightly. The image of the elongated nose of the alligator manifested around the rope, as if it had Michael locked in its jaws.
With a single tug, Michael was pulled forwards with enough force enough to make him fly a few feet above the ground. His hands were still caught under the whip, making it that much harder to escape the whip’s grip.
Just a mere 10 meters away from him was Reptar, who had his gauntlets ready to chomp on his body and crush his bones.
As he continued to fly into their trap willingly, the audience above were biting their nails with worry. Even though Michael was already on the halfway mark, there was still a carefree look on his face and no indication that he was actually trying to break free!
"He’s not moving? He’s not moving!"
"Why isn’t he panicking?! Does he think that Reptar’s gauntlets are a joke?!"
"I don’t think he’s planning on attacking at all!"
As Michael reached the threshold of Reptar’s Aubility, the giant Crocodile Diva manifested itself around the gauntlets and readied itself for a meal.
Not even a blink of an eye later, the jaws closed in on Michael with a force and speed unexplainable to physical and magical terms.
Everyone closed their eyes, not wanting to see the brutality that was about to unfold.
But a few seconds later, nothing happened. The sound of bones breaking and flesh shredding was nowhere to be heard.
They finally opened their eyes, only to see an impossibility in front of them.
The Crocodile’s teeth were just a few inches away from Michael’s body. But it stopped there, as if frozen in time.