Chapter 927 Rico's Decision
Awesome.
That was the one word which was lodged deeply into Rico's mind, and even though it was simple, he vowed that he would never, ever use it for anything else.
And that was because… The scene that he was seeing in front of him had claimed it, and he was sure that he would never see anything else in his life which would deserve the word more.
All that was missing was some blood and gore, and this would be the exact scene of a conqueror who had marched into a place, single-handedly, and decimated each and every one who even dared to go up against him to finally take the throne of which only he was worthy.
Even without those things, though, the King of Lanthanor, at that moment, looked exactly like a dominating tyrant for whom the words "he came, he saw, he conquered" would fit in perfectly.
He sat on his throne made of bodies, and it was an homage to the exact scene that the Fortress had been treated to before, during the legacy battle when the king had made his name known everywhere.
In fact, if Rico blinked, he could see that image from back then. There was that same confidence, that same grace, and that same arrogance, but it seemed to have matured even more now, taking on a quality that was much greater then what any King could have, and reaching the realm which did not have any name in Rico's mind.
As soon as he got this thought, though, the word 'Godking' appeared to him, which was quite startling as there had just been a discussion that it was very presumptuous for this man to have taken on this name.
Coming back to the present, though, the images that he had just seen were still stuck in front of his mind.
At the beginning, it had looked as if it would be a one-sided fight, as no one had dared to take their opponent lightly. They had already seen what had happened before, when they had done the same thing, so no one was willing to make the same mistake - everyone attacked together, but that had resulted in the finest display of defensive tactics that Rico had ever seen. In fact, seeing this, even his instructor who taught defense, who hadn't gone forward to join the fight, had tears in his eyes, as it seemed that even he had never seen a demonstration of that level in his long life.
The king had the same power level as everyone, and everyone who was present could see that this was true, because they knew exactly how much strength he was exerting to do what he was doing.
So, it was the hallmark of his ability that he made each of them doubt this very fact, because they couldn't figure out for the life of them how anyone could be so effective.
Rico had also made the count at the beginning: the Fortress was one of the organizations in the Big Four which had the highest population, as there were always many more Fighters then there were Mages. Even with the high standards of the Fortress, there were many who could at least join and become a part, and even if they did not proceed too much, they would still be able to remain and render certain services.
Hence, the final count had been a 1000 to 1.
It was breathtaking to even talk of, and even if a couple of hundred could be removed because they were just the retainers and followers of those whose arrogance knew no bounds, the rest were true blue elite Fighters who had been trained in the arts of the Fortress for many years.
When the crowd had fallen on him like a deluge at first, Rico had thought that he was done for, but like a lone island in the middle of the rocking sea which would not move no matter how much the sea tried to swallow it, the king stayed afloat, literally stepping on the heads of many of those who had been too eager and had thus misjudged his speed, and crashed onto the ground where he was standing instead of catching him in his tracks.
That was how the fight began - and after that, each and every second was branded in his mind, and also on his communication eye which he had made sure to switch on, as it was his hobby to create videos and share them among his friends and others among the Big Four for a little bit of money.
Just that snapshot of his legs using the heads and shoulders of hundreds of Heroes as a path to walk on was filled with so much grandeur that Rico had felt the urge to bow right then and there, but he had been too tongue-tied by what followed.
Seeing the King's tactics, everyone had decided that they would focus upwards, because with Human level power, he would not be able to fly much to get out of their clutches anyway.
Hence, communicating through trinkets, they had quickly made squads which covered him from all sides, each of which comprised of a hundred and fifty fighters.
This was when the fight started to reach the next level - and when the King started to show that he had not given the challenge to keep running away and hopefully tire out his opponents.
Even now, Rico remembered that moment exactly - initially, he had expected that the king might transform into his Godbeast form by using his Bloodline, but it looked like he did not even need that to defeat this bunch. All he had done… Was take in a deep breath and shoot out a punch, and that punch still sent shivers down Rico's spine, as it had felt as if it hit him even if he was standing a few hundred feet away.
Like a giant that had descended from the Heavens to walk among those who were but puny insects to it, the punch blew away 50 people in front of him.
50 damn people!
It was a glorious sight, replete with shocked expressions on those 50, along with fear on the rest around them, while being accompanied by the relief in those in the other groups as they could hear the sickening sound of flesh being pounded until it would not heal for a long time, and bones becoming so broken that they would need at least a month to recover even if the most talented of Healers worked on them.
Rico knew for sure that all of those in the group must have been too busy to see how he did it, but he had been tracking the elementary particles, and hence, he knew: somehow, the king had used his footing to bring up power from the earth which went through his body from his feet to his chest and then to his hands, before sending it out like a tsunami which would not be stopped by anything known to man.
How… The f*ck was this even possible?
Rico had heard of many Fighter techniques which were so esoteric that they might even seem like they were meant for Mages, such as those that directly converted internal Energy into elements, or those that drew on an atmosphere to make oneself stronger so that they could show their prowess in a certain concept. Rico even knew of Champions being able to use concepts to elicit reactions in the World which would help them, and even though this power would be largely unavailable to them because of the restrictions placed on their bodies, they would still be able to stir the World and show everyone that even when Human, the Champion within them would shine through.
Seeing his actions, this was exactly what the Champions started to do.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Even now, Rico's heart started to thunder again as he remembered those sounds which had shaken the entire Fortress, which were the result of each punch that blew away more and more people.
Maybe, what was even more shocking was that the more the king used that technique by drawing the energy of the Earth, the more his power seemed to grow, until finally, each punch was sending over 100 people flying.
He stood his ground, and whenever anyone dared to approach from any direction he would simply bend as if he had no bones and shoot forward his power that simply had no opposition in this group.
He had clicked multiple photos of that, and already, he could see it becoming a classic wallpaper that would be painted by artists and hung all over the continent for many, many generations to come.
The king, in the middle of a sea of Fighters, showing his worth, and putting them in their place.
At this stage was when the Champions moved: congregating into squadrons instead of continuing to be mixed up among the others, they actually started to use the hidden training of the Fortress which allowed them to combine their Fighter powers to get to long-range targets who were usually Mages standing behind enemy lines.
Rico had only heard rumors about this, but it turned out that it was true: even in the Champion realm, one of the limitations of Fighters was range, and this was the secret plan of the Fortress to stop that from being the case.
Also, at that point, one of the Champions seemed to understand what was going on, leading him to shout that the king was using the earth below, and that they should target everywhere around him so that he would move, in which case he would have no power in the air.
Even though there were around 200 Warriors and Human still milling around him, the Champions prepared their attack, which was in the form of a beam of light, and shot it forward without caring for collateral damage.
And of course…that was when the actual beatdown began.
The beam of light impacted the earth with a loud sound, crushing the Warriors and Humans into the ground and flattening them in the process, thereby decreasing the number of opponents of the king.
If it would have resulted in his defeat, too, it would have been fine, but at the last moment, much to the dismay of the Champions…he escaped.
He had only managed to get out of the radius of the blast, and after that, in a move Rico swore he would use at least once before he died, the King kicked up 7 Fighters into the air, with each kick delivering a different amount of force.
A heavenly staircase which was, again, made of bodies was created for him, and taking quick steps, the King was among the Champions.
From the first second that he reached them, it was obvious that their hope that he would be powerless in the air…was false.
His first attack was like that of an eagle descending to catch its prey, and in a swift move, he used both of his legs to kick down 2 of the 180 Champions in the air.
Livid, the rest shot forth another attack, but they were treated to a rude shock: his positioning was so perfect that he was able to dodge, and in the process…the light beam took out 50 more Fighters on the ground, who had started to kick their unconscious comrades in an attempt to replicate the move of the King.
Rico, then, had thought that it was by fluke…but soon, it happened 3 more times, taking out 50-100 Fighters in each instance, and that was when it dawned on everyone that the King was able to keep track of everything even in the mayhem to make this happen.
It was on purpose!
As for what he did among the group of Champions…it was a sight to behold.
After the Fighter technique used by the Eagle, he went forward to show one based on the Phoenix, the swallow, the crane, the sparrow, and with each attack, he would send a Champion hurtling to the ground, unconscious.
Their force dwindled bit by bit, but everyone was clueless regarding whether they should be worried about this, or the fact that the King had somehow mastered so many Fighter techniques perfectly.
In a display worthy of going straight into the history books, he used 169 Fighter techniques in the air to send 169 Champions to their rightful place on his throne, but as he faced the final 11, it became obvious that things were different.
These 11 were the strongest in the group, and for the first time, he started to enter into short bursts of spars, instead of directly swatting them away.
The fight reached an impasse, at this stage, because for 10 seconds, he was hounded from all sides, and not allowed a single opening.
These 11 had the best Champion level Fighter techniques, and they put it to good use: victory seemed to be theirs…until the King pulled out one final trump card.
He had been watching them closely for all that while, and in a twist that made the Head and Chief stand up, agape…he imitated the techniques of each.
They were as stunned as the rest. The imitation was perfect, and using both the surprise factor and the weaknesses that could only be exploited in this way, they were sent to the throne, too, with their faces still fixed in shock.
And that…was how the King finally used a few kicks to create the mound, before sitting on top and continuing to bellow those words.
There was no one to answer, but one thing was for certain: he had found a follower for life, and Rico…would make sure that news of this fight would reach the very ends of this continent.
…
10 minutes later.
In the same hall that Daneel had first met the Chief, the two of them were standing together.
Clapping his hands, the Chief said, "Wonderful. Just…wonderful. We can talk about what happened later…but first, are you serious about what you declared? Are you going to do the same thing with the rest of the Big Four?"
The answer was given with an extremely satisfied smile, and his words made anticipation appear on the Chief's face.
"Yeap. The Sect of Hedon is next. Let's go- there's no reason to dally!"