Chapter 7183: Firecracker The center of the dueling ground had been cleaned up. This left the Dark Apostle and the Fiery Axe with nothing to look at aside from each other. As both of them stepped onto the center plaza of the frozen planet, they both created a very different impression. If the challenger had entered this duel with his previous gear, then he would have resembled the strategos of the Flesh Chopper Phalanx a lot more. His fire-aspected weapon and raiment would have blended in nicely with the Fiery Axe’s own fire hyper gear. Unfortunately, the Dark Apostle chose to approach this fight in a completely different fashion. His raiment may be light, but it cast him in a darker and more ominous light. The Dark Wing Raiment even exaggerated its moody look with a large flight system that on the surface resembled the partially folded wings of a bat. Paired together with the Dark Tooth and the Murder Knife, the Dark Apostle finally looked worthy of his moniker. Despite being steeped in negative energy, the Dark Apostle and his feline companion spirit looked completely comfortable at the moment. Both had great resistance against the negative effects of exposure to the darkness element. They also placed a lot of confidence in their D-arms. The Minor Demons that had been cast into the weapons and raiments had no chance to rebel against their maker. They could only bow their metaphorical heads and obediently toil for their masters. While the Dark Apostle made a strong impression with his exotic tech, the Fiery Axe managed to convey her own form of strength. Her red raiment looked awfully thin and no longer provided complete coverage. She had made the risky decision to remove a lot of the armor that previously covered her arms and legs. The female strategos only kept her bracers and a strong set of greaves which she could use to kick or maintain solid footing. At least she possessed enough sense to leave her helmet untouched, but it was questionable how long it would last once the fighting grew more intense. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢 One curious feature about her helmet was that a flaming ponytail projected from the rear. This gave the Fiery Axe a more aggressive look and demeanor. The glowing red eye pieces further enhanced this effect. At this moment, she held her iconic Fiery Axe against her shoulder pauldron. Ves and the Dark Apostle distinctly noted that she had changed her mind about her weapon loadout. She had left the Plasma Axe behind, choosing to stake this entire fight on her axe... and her fists if necessary. This was good news. The Fiery Axe was an impressive piece of hyper engineering, but it was not as lethal as the Plasma Axe when striking exposed flesh. The absence of the Plasma Axe despite previously borrowing it from its owner and current wielder served as tangible proof that the strategos no longer aimed to take the challenger’s life. That said, no fight was truly safe. Giants swinging around large and dangerous weapons could still cause a lot of damage. "Fiery Axe." "Dark Apostle." The female giant greeted back with obvious respect in her voice. "It is an honor to meet you on the battlefield. You are not the progenitor that I constructed in my imagination. You are something better. More authentic. You are a worthy founder of our race." The Dark Apostle smiled. No one disliked compliments. "Since you approve of me so much, how about you admit surrender the moment the duel commences?" "I am sorry, but I cannot do that. A leadership challenge is meant to test your limits and showcase how well you perform under adverse conditions. It wouldn’t be much of a test if you can breeze past us without putting in any genuine effort. Your duel against the Unshakeable King revealed much already. For one, we have taken note of your ability to develop spears that explode with the force of a battleship-grade missile when thrown. I will not give you a chance to throw your spear again. I will do my best to test how you are able to hold your own when I am constantly in your face." She did not hide her outlook on the upcoming duel and what she intended to do. There was not much point in hiding it anyway. Anyone with decent tactical acumen could figure out these basic truths. The Dark Apostle did not look too disappointed. "I see. I shall endeavor to show you that I can fend off high-speed opponents just as well as slow and more heavily armored ones. The Ascended Giants deserve to be led by a leader who can lead them from the front. Do not be misled by ’my’ origin as a mech designer. Just as my student Ketis can outfight any person with a sword, I am confident I can lead our units to victory against the native aliens and the mutated voribugs." "When outfitted with the appropriate wargear, I might add." Ves contributed to the side. The Fiery Axe pointedly stared at Blinky’s manifestation. "Your companion spirit... is unusually active when you are in a fight." "Blinky is the best companion spirit in existence." The Dark Apostle shamelessly boasted. "He may not be the strongest, but his capabilities are unique and he has endless potential to tap into. As Ascended Giants, we should never imitate exobeasts and rely overwhelmingly on our physical dominance and our biological endowments to win our battles. If there is one lesson that we should imitate from the mortal humans, it is that technology and gear can serve as amazing force multipliers. On a real battlefield, no one cares about your ideas in terms of purity and honor. What I have shown to you all in the previous duel is just a taste of what you will encounter in a serious battle against our real enemies." The Fiery Axe lifted her weapon and held it in a more combat-ready stance. "Then I look forward to seeing how you will fare this time! Let us give the rest of the Ascended Giants a good show!" The brief talk between the two duelists was a lot more harmonious than the previous one. The Unshakeable King had to die. Ves had no doubt about this decision. As for the Fiery Axe, he was a lot more ambivalent about it. Sure, she would have tried to take his life without any hesitation if he was weak, but now that he and his alter ego proved to be a lot more skilled and stronger than she initially expected, she had practically converted into becoming his fan. It was a drastic change of opinion that did not really make sense to Ves. Only particularly emotional people such as Gloriana were capable of making such extreme swings. It was exactly because Ves had experience with dealing with people like Gloriana that he was not able to place his full trust into the Fiery Axe. Since she was able to swing from one extreme position to another extreme position, she could easily reverse this change later on! The Fiery Axe could never be truly relied upon if Ves and the Dark Apostle ever faltered and showed enough vulnerability! Therefore, even if the Fiery Axe sounded cheerful, respectful and willing to subordinate herself to him, Ves was seriously thinking whether she should meet her end during this duel. It may be better to remove an unstable factor from the board and put a more reliable and consistent Ascended Giant in her place. "What do you think?" Ves privately communicated with his other self. "I do not fear her." The Dark Apostle confidently responded. "If I have grown weak enough that she decides to turn against me, then I deserve what is coming. I like her. I think I will keep her around, if only to motivate me to constantly improve my strength and make sure I will never make myself vulnerable to a leadership challenge from her. We all need a rival by our side in order to keep us on our toes." As his other personality, the Dark Apostle may possess completely different stances on many subjects, but he also inherited a lot of traits that were undeniably derived from Ves. Blinky’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I hope you aren’t thinking about what I am suspecting right now..." "We made a deal, mortal. You have your own life, while I have mine. You have no right to meddle into my private affairs. Besides, it is far too soon to make a choice. There are 360 Ascended Giants excluding myself. Even if a minority of them are of the right stock, that still gives me plenty of choice. If that is not enough, then I expect your support in expanding our numbers. We need more Ascended Giants in order to create a viable enough population for our fledgling race." "That is assuming that Ascended Giants are even capable of biological procreation, which I very much doubt is the case." "Do not dismiss the possibility before we have conducted even a single experiment. There may be something special about us ’human’ phase lords that sets us apart from the weirder alien ones. It may even be that the native aliens always had this capacity. Most of them never chose to do so because of cultural reasons or excessive demands. Where do you think new phase whales come from? A gestation chamber?"\ Nobody knew how the phase whales reproduced when they never really had any ’mortals’ among them in the first place. Perhaps a few of the native aliens managed to discover the secret, but they were doing a good job of hiding the truth. However, if the phase whales were able to reproduce naturally, then human phase lords should be able to replicate the process, though that was not a guarantee. As Ves continued to think about how the phase whales increased their population, a countdown appeared above the central plaza. He immediately shoved aside all distractions and focused on the situation at hand. [10] This time, the Dark Apostle chose not to taunt his opponent. He merely stared at the Fiery Axe with a challenging gaze. [9] The female strategos met his eyes with her own confident stare. [8] Sparks seemed to fly between the two as they grew more and more excited about the fight to come. [7] Their light gear and their powerful arms would definitely cause the duel to start and end relatively quickly. [6] A single critical wound could decide the match already. [5] Ves would have to pay careful attention to his true body and make sure to admit surrender as soon as it suffered a serious enough injury. [4] In order to win the leadership challenge, it was already enough to win 2 out of 4 duels as far as Ves was concerned. [3] There was no need to take excessive risks at this point as the first duel had already proved the Dark Apostle’s fighting qualifications. [2] It should still be easier for the Dark Apostle to secure a win for the third duel, but the fourth duel should still be hopeless. [1] Then again, winning 3 out of 4 duels would save them a lot of trouble. [FIGHT!] The two Ascended Giants immediately exploded into action! Instead of charging straight at each other so that they could land the first blow onto each other, the Dark Apostle had made the sensible decision by turning around and trying to put as much distance between himself and his adversary! He was not being a coward. He was trying to be tactical. He needed to know how fast he was relative to his opponent. Who could move faster would determine the entire dynamics of this duel! The Dark Apostle initially smiled when he saw he was able to slightly accelerate faster than the Fiery Axe on a linear trajectory. While that did not necessarily mean he would retain his advantage when he started to maneuver around, this was already a good sign. However, the Fiery Axe quickly disabused him of the notion that he was faster. "It seems like I need to put in a little more effort, haha!" The Fiery Axe activated a phasewater organ that surprisingly reduced her mass! Even if she only became 10 or 20 percent lighter, that was a significant reduction in mass, which meant that she was able to accelerate notably faster! She was catching up to the Dark Apostle!