Chapter 925: Challenge Accepted

The big boss cleared his throat and spoke in a surprisingly smooth voice, different from his shouting voice.

"This warrior thinks that he has what it takes to beat the metal warrior Champion I lost to in combat. If he wins, he's the strongest of us. If he loses, he dies, and his spores will fertilize the soil to try again.

Now, get to fighting. I want to see someone chopped up today, one way or the other."

Nico raised her sword in a salute to her opponent, who raised his two-handed blade over his head and roared a challenge that echoed through the trees.

In an instant, they were on each other. Blade met blade, and the bulky Myceloid proved to be incredibly agile, well beyond the standard for humans. Even Huntress Khan was impressed by the early battle prowess of the second in command as his blade bounced off Nico's, and he used the momentum to spin around behind her with a hard chop toward her midsection.

Nico twisted her wrist, flipping her blade behind her back in a graceful arc that stopped the attack instantly. Then, she spun under her arm, keeping the blade in place as she turned to face the Myceloid, who was aiming a kick up at her face.

The fist of her Mecha met the mighty green foot of her opponent with a sickening crunch that let everyone know that something had broken inside the fleshy body.

The two opponents disengaged as Nico took the chance to judge her opponent's level of injury and plan her next attack, but only for an instant before she was on him again, thrusting forward with her blade to force him back and put his weight on the damaged foot.

The thrust was knocked aside, but an overhand chop followed it, then another thrust as Nico pushed her advantage and her opponent faltered, losing his footing.

For three more strikes, he managed to parry from the ground, and then he took the first real blow of the battle, allowing a deep cut down his left arm as he rolled back to get room to return to his feet.

Already, his foot was healing, and he wasn't limping as badly, but now he was bleeding heavily, and it was clear that the injured arm was not doing its part in his two-handed attacks.

His blade work had become slightly clumsy, and his recoveries slower, allowing Nico's next barrage to graze him two more times, with the blade cutting jagged wounds in his body.

The cruel blade made even a small scratch a major injury as it tore the flesh, and Nico was relentless, hacking away at the Myceloid as fast as her Mecha could move.

The spectators in the crowd were roaring in appreciation for the spectacle, even though their side was losing the battle by a wide margin. Max listened to their thoughts, making sure they weren't going to be ambushed once the fight was over, but the mood of the crowd was leaning toward survival of the fittest.

He had accepted the challenge in an attempt to one-up the leader, so it was his own fault if he lost.

Nico deftly dodged under a high strike, and everyone knew that the battle was about to end. Her Mecha rotated, tearing up the hard-packed dirt and grass, and her blade cleanly severed her opponent at the waist, dropping him to the ground in two pieces, with the upper half muttering unintelligible curses at her for a few more seconds before falling silent.

The crowd cheered for the end of a good fight and then turned to their leader for the official pronouncement.

"I hereby declare that you lot are the toughest and roughest, rowdiest fighters in town." He announced while the crowd stomped on the ground in recognition.

"Now Sod off, we've got work to do getting stronger."

[You heard the man. You've had your challenge. Now it's time to find another one. Huntress Khan, you are up next if we can get another challenge accepted.]

The Huntress had arrived in one of the smallest class of Hunter Suits, their equivalent of a Mobile Suit at five metres tall, so she was roughly the same size as the Line Mecha, though a bit more slender.

The Myceloids shouldn't get upset if she were the one who challenged them next. They took things like ranking very seriously, so letting a smaller and weaker opponent fight when there were better options for a challenge was a direct insult to their group and would result in a much larger-scale fight.

Max calculated the route to the next village with a good-sized Champion in sight and sent it to the others. They weren't out to bully the weak. They were thinning out the elite ranks of the Myceloids in a way that wouldn't change the day's new status quo.

That meant that they would pass by a few more villages before they got to their target, but from what he could see, the chance that they would be attacked was fairly low.

The first village that they passed only looked up to make sure that they weren't going to attack, and Max made detailed notes of the layout so he could compare it to others they saw. It appeared to be chaotic, but there might be some sort of pattern that he simply hadn't noticed the first time.

The second one didn't seem to have anything in common with the first. They had built a dirt and stone wall similar to the fortifications around the Hunters' Camp, and the tents were set up in concentric circles, making them somewhat more organized.

After that was one without walls but with a ring of warriors on duty and one that seemed to be just a farm, without any sort of defence system at all.

It all felt very normal and domestic until they got to their target, and Max started to see the pattern emerging. The biggest and strongest were the most warlike, and the smaller ones obeyed. But when separated, they all had different tasks to do for the long term sustainability of the species.

Max still had questions about logistics and hierarchy, but the thick stone walls in front of them said that it was time for Khan to call out her opponent.