Kill The King (II)

Tension was the air.

As Michael and Reyy's stare lingered upon one another, anticipation hid behind everyone's silence. The two kept staring blankly at each other, and within soft grumbles from the crowd, it was obvious that they were running out of patience, demanding for blood.

"Why aren't you coming at me?" Reyy demanded, observing Michael's stance skeptically.

"I should ask the same."

"You want me to? Be my guest then." The king skidded towards Michael, heading to make the first attack. He threw at fist at him, one fast enough that Michael almost couldn't dodge.

Instead, with his palms, he parried off the punch.

After he did this, Michael felt his wrist become sore. At first he had been carried away by the fact that Reyy had actually made the first move, but he had grabbed for mental purchase in a split second, throwing off a mighty punch that could've compressed his face.

And still that wasn't all. Reyy had quickly retrieved his arm, reaching for his jaw to land an uppercut. Michael dodged this time, his head moving over to the side.

But that was a wrong move. No sooner had he done that than Reyy's knee jabbed into his temple. In reflex, Michael shot his head upwards, his brain tingling as his head had just been hit.

However, his eyes wasn't that quick enough to notice a wild punch that landed hard against his nose, earning him an immediate nosebleed.

But he refused to falter. His legs still maintained stance as he blocked the next wave of Reyy's attacks. This was only Reyy fighting physically. He hadn't yet activated his powers, and there was no way he was going to lose just yet.

His plan was to fully enable his stamina until the king was all worn out from throwing punches, but he still wasn't sure how long Reyy could keep up these punches.

Reyy was fast. So fast that it almost reminded him of Griffith's slasher attacks. But he was quite sure that the samurai was way faster, and he too was.

But it wasn't just about being fast anymore. Reyy's moves were unpredictable. Michael had been able to discern a person's move from the direction of his eyes, but the king's eyes were deliberately giving him wrong answers, making him open to severe attacks.

This was battling experience. For someone who had battled almost everyone in Wisteria High to attain the throne of the top dog, he couldn't just be compared to some highly powerful student without experience.

POW! Michael felt his guts sustain another hit. Normally, life had given him so many wounds to his stomach that he was supposed to be used to it now. But Reyy's blow felt like it accompanied a well of fire, one that consumed him internally.

The blow made his legs quiver, and slowly he felt himself dropping to the floor. But to make it cinematic, Reyy issued out his legs and smashed it against Michael's.

"At this point, he'd kill the cripple." Someone said from the crowd.

"This is you holding back, isn't it?" Michael asked, now kneeling before Reyy.

"I should ask the same." Reyy replied with a shrug. "You haven't made your move yet."

Michael scoffed. "Yeah right. It would such a shame to lose without making a move, won't it?"

He regained to his feet, maintaining his usual stance once again. He also seemed to have absorbed every pain he had just felt again.

He dashed towards Reyy with a speed way faster than the king's. Michael's fist swung in all direction in the air with force, his punches likened to a counterattack.

Reyy dodged them all, but it was taking all of his focus. He couldn't be playing this game for long. While Michael was too distracted allocating punches, he gave him another hard knee jab to his guts.

Michael was thrown back for a second, but the king still followed, accompanying the kick with punches. Micheal blocked some, but the few he sustained added to the fiery pain he felt in his guts.

Reyy paused, throwing a questioning look at Michael as he still stood, withholding the effects of his attacks like it was nothing.

This was an odd case for Reyy. Usually, while fighting in even his normal state, his opponents' mana had to be completely full to withstand the effects of his attacks.

But Michael's case was different. He was clearly tanking all these punches, and his mana was still at its lowest, which meant that he hadn't activated his talents yet.

How long are you going to keep resisting? He thought.

"Don't make me think that's the best you've got." Reyy raised a eyebrow at him.

"I'm glad I did not underestimate you." Michael threw off with a different reply. "But I won't be able to overestimate you either if you chicken out with your talent."

"I see." Obviously, like Reyy, Michael was also trying to push him to an edge where he would need to use his talents.

But Reyy hadn't found a need for it yet. If Michael's attacks were going to be the same cripple-mode efforts, then he could just take care of him without talents. After all, he was strong enough to defeat another A-rank without using his talents.

But...since Michael was so desperately asking for it, it seemed like the perfect motivation to make him use his own too.

"You want me to use them right?" A fierce light began to swirl the air, and Reyy's blue eyes became brighter. His mana became stronger overtime, evident by the way his aura almost consumed the room whole. "Fine, I'll make that exception for you."

"He's activated his talents?"

"I have never seen him do that in a fight."

"Shit is getting wild."

He brought his hands up, and from it burned the brightest, reddest fireballs Michael had ever seen.

"That's more like it." Michael smirked, a tone of satisfaction accompanying his words. "Full recovery."

[FULL RECOVERY USED]

Immediately, his body got back to shape, every wounded area he had sustained suddenly disappearing. Reyy's eyes widened in shock at this witchery. How? He was quite aware that Michael secret talent wasn't healing, and even most times, a healer's talents couldn't work on the themselves.

That only happened on rare occasions.

But of course, nobody had observed how he'd done that. Everyone had been awe-d by how he had decided to use his talents, and gazes had been fixated mostly upon him.

It was going to be hard to expose Michael to them if they wouldn't even look at him!

"Let's do this dance for real now." said Michael.