After a hot shower and meal, Melbourne was feeling much better. After his rest day, his workout had gone significantly easier than previously. On top of that, he was already showing faint signs of growing stronger. Perhaps this feeling of unusual ease in recovery was related to the anger fueled adrenaline driving him to the fight on the deck in ten minutes.
Melbourne took a final sip of coffee and then walked outside with an eagerness that surprised himself. He always dreaded encounters with James Kurkoniff. How many times had he been caught alone on the way home by the high school bully and his two closest friends to experience a beating? That's why he had started training in martial arts. Even so, his training at the time of his graduation hadn't been enough for him to ever outmatch the bully. His hope upon leaving the graduation stage nearly a week ago had been to never have to see James again. Fate, it seemed, had different things in store for Melbourne.
The last time Melbourne had confronted James, he hadn't had the gift from the artifact that now permeated his nervous system. Melbourne hoped that this time, he would be able to win the fight. He had, after all, defeated three armed thugs that night in the forest. It was as though the Aclito System was designed to wire the brain to adapt faster to combat scenarios. If this was the case, surely he could defeat his childhood nemesis. Perhaps winning this fight was even to be his rite of passage into adulthood. This, at least, was what Melbourne Acliate entertained as he walked up the stairs to the top deck where a surprisingly large crowd had gathered to watch him.
"Great." muttered Melbourne to himself in embarrassment. "James must have informed all the passengers on the airship."
"You actually showed up, Melly!" exlaimed James, already waiting atop in the center of the crowd with his shirt off. His usual posse was standing on either side of him, all three looking eager to fight.
"Alright, everyone, settle down!" announced a security guard. "Now, this is information for you, Mr. Acliate, since Mr. Kirkoniff already knows as the challenger. Airship rides are long and passengers occasionally have problems getting along with each other. To prevent any serious violence such as unwanted murders from being too common, we have instituted a policy for legal brawling. The rule is that two people can fight each other in a duel of fists without legal repercussions if both the challenger and the challenged agree mutually to participate. The rules of engagement are that no weapons are to be used and that no fatalities occur. Should challenger or challenged offend any of these rules, they will be subject to being banned from the ship and legal consequences and escorted off flight by the onboard police chopper. It is to be a one-on-one fight. No competitor may bring a friend into combat. That would make the match uneven and unfair. The winner is the one who successfully knocks out his opponent or compels his opponent to surrender. James Kurkoniff has already agreed to the fight. Melbourne Acliate, do you accept the challenge?"
"I accept." said Melbourne calmly as the crowd of spectators fully encircled him.
James pulled off his shirt and tied it around his forehead to reveal a muscular frame. People looked at his six pack and then to Melbourne's comparatively scrawny build, many snickering. Many looks of insulting sympathy were shot at Melbourne as he raised his fists and prepared to fight. Numerous people made bets with their neighbors.
"Alright, then!" announced the security guard like a boxing referee. "Since both parties have agreed to the fight, we may begin the match! Three… Two… One… FIGHT!"
James and Melbourne rushed at each other against the backdrop of the sky. James made straight for a low punch to the gut. Melbourne blocked low and dodged a punch predicted by the Aclito's red lines. A green line suggested a punch into the left side of James' torso, which Melbourne followed through with immediately.
James staggered back, surprise clearly showing on his pained face.
"Lucky punch, Melly, but I'm just getting warmed up!" exclaimed James indignantly.
James lunged forward at Melbourne like a savage beast, throwing flurries of weaker punches at Melbourne in an attempt to catch him off guard before he threw a heavy punch at the face.
[HP: 8/10]
Melbourne staggered back in pain for a second as the health warning indicated damage. He quickly regained his composure as James came lunging at him with another series of punches.
Melbourne calmly followed the guidance of his system as he blocked every single punch then spun around with a sweep kick, knocking James off his feet onto the deck floor. He then got onto James' back and put his neck into a head lock.
"Do you submit?" asked Melbourne.
"Against you?" shrieked James, elbowing Melbourne heavily in the ribs to force him to let go. "Not in your dreams, Melly!"
[HP: 7/10]
Melbourne was caught off guard as James came at him with a spinning sequence of round house kicks and side kicks. Two kicks hit Melbourne in rapid succession and knocked him to the floor.
[HP: 5/10]
Another kick struck his back as he tried to get up.
[HP: 4/10]
Melbourne was shocked at the sequence of attacks that came at him. James had never used these types of techniques against Melbourne before. He rolled away before a fourth strike came from the now enraged James.
"Oh, that's right, I knew you were taking martial arts to get an upper hand against me, Melly!" yelled James. "I've been taking some Tai Qon Do lessons myself. Surprised? I've never had to use those skills on you before today because you were always so easy to beat. You've clearly improved, but it's not gonna save you from another ass whooping, and believe me, after those cheap shots, I'm gonna give you an ass beating so hard that the other times during school will look tame!"
Melbourne got back up, grunting through the pain from the surprising attacks. He swiftly regained his composure as James gave his little speech. Melbourne had sparred before in martial arts courses. The trouble he had with street fighting was that it took some adjusting to predict the movements of opponents that didn't use the same form. Sure, it would take years of training to achieve the mastery that martial artists required to be able to actually use their skill in real self-defense scenarios, but his first encounter with James after he had started training six months ago had disheartened him greatly. He had seriously questioned whether training would do him any good whatsoever. However, fighting against an opponent using martial arts was a more familiar feeling. This was a factor that James didn't understand. Not only did the Aclito predict the movements Melbourne should perform just as well against James using his full fighting techniques, but Melbourne could actually fight this type of attack better without the system's help. However, James had caught Melbourne off guard just then and so had been able to deal unexpected damage. Now the Melbourne knew of James' capabilities, he would no longer underestimate his opponent.
Melbourne caught a roundhouse kick and used it to flip James back onto his back. He then thrust a knife-hand strike into James' temple to knock the bully unconscious. This triggered a visual information prompt from his Aclito System.
[Mission Complete: Not Your Doormat
*+10 XP
*Level: 1
*50/100XP]
"And we have a winner!" announced the security guard refereeing the match.
The crowd cheered in pleased surprise at the outcome. Some people looked extraordinarily ticked off at Melbourne's victory over James. These were mainly the people who had bet money on the man who looked stronger.
James' friends gave Melbourne a sour look before dragging James' unconscious body back inside the airship.
As the crowd dispersed around Melbourne, one woman wearing a black hood stood there watching as Melbourne walked to the front rails to look over the horizon where the massive metropolis of Olympia was just becoming visible over the horizon where the great volcano Olympus Mons rose imposingly into the sky. She pointed a handheld X-Ray gun in his direction but got a negative reading. She frowned in surprise. That couldn't be right after the fight she had just seen. The untrained eye wouldn't have seen anything out of the ordinary in that fight, but she was not so untrained and she was sure she wasn't hallucinating.
"Victoria to HQ." said the woman softly into a small bluetooth speaker. "I found an interesting character aboard my flight. He was just in a top deck duel. He fought as though he were fighting according to external information. Only cyborgs fight in that manner. A soldier with an H.U.D. can't fight with those patterns because the human brain can't react that fast to output from tools without direct neural integration. I got a video of the fight. I'm sending it to you. His name, according to the security guard refereeing the match, is Melbourne Acliate. We arrive in Olympia this evening. Let me know by then if I should act. Oh, by the way, my X-Ray scanner is reading negative, so either my initial assessment is wrong or he has somehow received an augmentation beyond our ability to detect remotely. It is protocol to report any abnormalities we discover, though, so I'm reporting in as per directive. Victoria, out."