237 Challengers

Markus leapt to one side as the paw came crashing down again. The ground shook as it landed where he'd stood a moment ago, causing him to stumble as the Golden Lion Lord tried to paw him once more.

Half-panicked, Markus dropped his sword and his shield, giving up on blocking entirely and focused on running. He dodged the paw, leapt aside as the ground shook from the impact, rolled as far and as fast as he could, only to fail to escape the next slam. Pieces of Frame went scattering across the field.

Astonishingly, though the veteran legionnaire had the wind knocked clear out of him, as far as injuries went, Markus wasn't all that hurt. Was his armor really that good? Markus had a moment of doubt before he glanced at the Golden Lion Lord and saw the big cat actually yawn.

Looking at it from the lion's point of view, Markus suddenly had a burst of insight and felt all the more miserable for it.

The Golden Lion Lord was just toying with him! The big guy was just pawing at him lazily without being serious in the least! If he'd been serious, Markus would probably be dead by now, but as it was, he wasn't even seriously injured. He was just tossed around like a cotton yarn for entertainment…

In a moment, the outcome became clear as day.

"I'm not going to win this…" Markus figured out immediately. "But… but if the fight drags on long enough… maybe I can qualify as a Challenger!"

All he had to do was play along… as the toy of a big cat. As long as the lion didn't get too bored, he should be able to survive without losing anything important, like a limb or an eye.

Except his dignity. That was already gone.

[There's a big difference between a regular Tier 6 Wild and a Lord Challenger.] The Golden Lion Lord yawned again. [Though it's not as big a difference as the one between a Challenger and a ruling Lord.]

The equipment Markus had could help him hold off a regular Tier 6 for some time, but a Lord Challenger was something else. An actual, ruling Lord was again something else entirely. This was a Lord who successfully defeated every Challenger out there or otherwise scared them away. Comparing the Golden Lion Lord to a regular Tier 6 was just laughable.

Markus regretted it now. Tossed around like a plaything, pieces of Frame and armor flying every which way, all Markus could do was hope for the best.

***

Joshu was similarly hoping for the best as he took aim at the High Crown Stag Lord from his hiding place in the bushes.

There on the steppes of the Speckled Highlands, he hunted the Stag Lord and laid an ambush at his favorite drinking spot. After hours of waiting, the time had finally come; the Stag Lord was drinking, unawares, as Joshu readied his mini-ballista and took his shot.

He did not hesitate, did not think twice about striking down the Stag Lord in such a manner. Was it dishonorable? Would it even be acceptable to the Lords that he hunted his prey like this? Joshu didn't know, and this wasn't the time to second-guess the plan. His entire focus was on his aim, and the heart of the Stag Lord in front of him.

Joshu fired.

Abruptly the Stag Lord raised his head suspiciously, sensing something. But it was too late. The bolt already hit him in the chest…

And stuck. Three inches into the Stag Lord's rib cage, the bolt halted, failing to penetrate deeply enough to reach his heart.

It was a good shot, Joshu comforted himself. It was well-aimed, well-fired, and the ambush had been perfect. He had done everything right.

But despite his best efforts, despite succeeding in all his endeavors, he failed to kill the High Crown Stag Lord. It was through no fault of his own. The Stag Lord was just that tough.

"Now what?" Joshu grumbled to himself.

The Stag Lord stared at him with reddening eyes.

Joshu gulped, dropped the mini-ballista…

And ran for his life.

***

Song Chen, on the other hand, had a great many doubts and did a whole lot of second-guessing.

"Why did I ever get myself into this?" he roared as he slammed George's glaive into the scaled body of the Cyan Python Lord.

Did he ever mention how much he hated marshes? Yet here he was in the middle of the Bog Marshes trying to cut a Tier 6 snake with a heavy weapon.

While the glaive itself might have been modified and upgraded to Tier 6, there was another factor in determining whether or not it would successfully deal harm to its target; that is, the strength of the wielder striking with it.

Song Chen himself was pretty strong by human standards. His martial prowess had attained the initial stage of Body Qi, that is, the seventh level of his family's cultivation method. This was enough power to kill a Tier 4 Wild bare-handed. Given good equipment, he could even take down a Tier 5 Wild alone, or fend off a regular Tier 6 for a short amount of time.

But to challenge a reigning Lord of the Wilds?

It was ridiculous! The Cyan Python Lord hissed as the glaive chipped at his scales and then practically slid off without even drawing blood. Then the Python charged at Song Chen.

"Get me out of here!" he yelled to the corvette that had dropped him off.

Thankfully, he still had a hand on the rope that had lowered him, and it was still tied around his waist. Without further ado, his supporting crew hastily hauled him up.

The Cyan Python Lord snarled, and lunged from below. Song Chen twisted, delivered as strong a mid-air kick as his martial training could manage, and managed a direct hit on the snake's chin. While it didn't seem to harm the Python Lord, Song Chen at least managed to kick himself a safe distance away from the snakes maw.

Between that, the rapidly ascending corvette and the efforts of the rope-pullers, Song Chen managed to escape the reach of the Cyan Python Lord.

"Whew." He breathed.

[DIE!] the Python below suddenly spat out a glob of venom.

"Dodge!" Song Chen grabbed two of his crew and pulled them down as the glob sailed overhead. "Since when did pythons have venom!?"

Usually? They didn't. But this particular Python Lord appeared to have unusual abilities outside of the norm of his species. That was somewhat common for higher Tier Wilds in the Wildlands.

"You'll pay for that!" Song Chen yelled downwards. "I'm going to come back and throw my own stuff at you and see how you like it!"

"Are you sure…?" one of his crew asked.

"It's only fair." Song Chen grouched. "I went at him hand-to-hand, and he tried to kill me at long-ranged. In that case, I'm going to respond in kind and hit him from afar too! Call Kara-Goth and have them ready the fleet for battle. We're going to rain fire down on this guy and see how he likes it!"

"Isn't that sort of… dishonorable? Would you still be able to qualify as a Lord Challenger if you fight him with a whole fleet?!"

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"Probably not. But It'll definitely be satisfying."

***

"So, basically… you guys all failed?" George summarized.

The day after Remian defeated the Flaming Salamander Lord, Markus, Joshu and Song Chen faced George with nothing to show for their efforts but broken equipment and sad faces.

In Markus' case, he could claim to have fought the Golden Lion Lord for the better part of an hour and came away with his limbs still intact. Or, he could just as easily say he'd been toyed with and pawed around for fun because the Golden Lion Lord was just too lazy to fight seriously.

In Joshu's case, he almost didn't make it to his airship. The corvette that brought him back had suffered a good many sonic attacks from the Stag Lord and was going to be in drydock for a month.

As for Song Chen, he was still mobilizing a strike fleet of twelve corvettes and sixty members of the Frontier Defense Force to bombard the Cyan Python Lord. Even if he didn't win his qualification, he would at least exact his revenge!

"But weren't you the one who attacked him in the first place?" Markus objected.

"Whatever!" Song Chen didn't care. He just wanted to bomb the stuffing out of the snake.

"This isn't good! At this rate, Remian and Phoebe are going to have to fight the team battle on their own!" George frowned. "Unless…"

"Unless…?" Markus prompted.

"Hmm. I need to call Fal'Herim. We're going to need help for this one."

"Fal'Herim?" Markus blinked. "What's in Fal'Herim?"

"Mindy." George answered shortly.