Zed charged at Loran and Alexx, using his broken spear as an improvised weapon. The two moved to intercept him, Loran having a higher AGI got within range first. Zed thrust forward with the top half of the spear in his right hand, aiming at Loran's torso, but Loran immediately dodged to his left while also using one of his picks to deflect the attack. Unfortunately, deflecting the spear left Zed in an excellent position for a counter-attack, and he now swung the broken spear at Loran in a wide, sweeping strike. Loran dodged back, the spear tip missing him by a few inches. While the attack missed, Loran did not have the same nerves as Zed, and a bit of fear appeared in his eyes from how narrowly he evaded the attack.

Zed noticed Loran's surge of fear and felt a twinge of disappointment, 'not this one either huh.' He had hoped that at least one person in this village wasn't so afraid of death or injury, but not one person could meet his standards. Zed then turned towards Alexx, assuming that the slower player had reached him by now; however, what he wasn't expecting was to see Alexx's fist barreling towards him yet again. 'Hm? How did he get here so soon?' Zed had estimated Alexx's top speed after his first few steps; he had done this with every other opponent so far and hadn't been wrong yet, but for some reason, Alexx was an exception.

Fortunately for Zed, his AGI was still capable of letting him evade this attack by leaning back, and he even dodged the follow-up with a short leap. Landing a hit on Zed was going to be incredibly difficult for Alexx due to the more than 20 point difference in their AGI stats; the only reason he took Alexx's first attack with his spear was that he was curious about just how strong he was, and was now well aware that taking a direct hit was basically suicide.

Zed thrust at Alexx using the broken shaft of his spear. The attack was rather half-hearted since he didn't want the fight to end too quickly, but when Alexx effortlessly blocked the attack and even launched a counterpunch, Zed dodged and used the spearhead to attack at Alexx's face with a bit more intensity.

This attack was evaded just as easily, and not only did Alexx dodge the attack with less room to spare than Loran did, but there wasn't even a hint of hesitation in his eyes.

'Finally,' Zed felt both relief and excitement flow through his body, 'someone like me, someone fun.'

Once the attack passed, Alexx followed up with a quick kick to his shin, likely powerful enough to break his leg.

Zed hopped back to evade and then raised his spearhead to block an attack from Loran, who had attempted to bring both of his picks down on Zed's shoulder.

The attack was deflected, and the battle progressed, the three soon falling into a pattern. Having been flanked by his two opponents, Zed tried to reposition with his superior speed. Knowing this, Loran was doing everything in his power to keep Zed near Alexx at all times; although his AGI was half that of Zed, Loran was able to use his picks to not only threaten Zed with attacks but also hook him to slow him down and trip him up. He was still inexperienced with these weapons though, and Zed was much faster than him, so aside from limiting Zed's movements Loran only focused on defense.

This was all well and good for Zed because aside from the relatively few attacks he threw at Loran to keep him defensive, he simply had his hands full dealing with Alexx. Despite being the slowest player he had fought so far, Alexx had an iron-tight defense. No matter how many attacks Zed threw at him, every single one was either blocked or evaded by the barest of margins.

'Damn this kid's good.' It didn't take long for Zed to realize what was happening; simply put, Zed was a good fighter, but Alexx was too good. His every attack and block was performed with the smallest, most efficient movements possible. This was why Zed had miscalculated his speed earlier, even his running form was faster and more efficient than the other players.

Zed also realized that he was wrong in his earlier assessment of Alexx. He had thought they were similar because of how they dodged attacks the same way, but while Zed simply didn't really care about getting hit, Alexx was confident that he wouldn't be hit at all.

Zed dodged another punch from Alexx and went for another swipe with his spearhead, however, he quickly noticed Loran's pick swinging towards his elbow. He could only avoid the attack by slowing down, but of course, he knew that was Loran's plan. With the pick now hooked around his arm, Loran pulled Zed off balance. Ordinarily, Zed would've just accepted the damage and continued fighting, but he didn't like the idea of having his opponents fighting with the 'first blood' handicap, so he was holding himself to the same standard. Zed quickly unhooked his arm, but now Alexx was on him again.

'Maybe next time I'll just try fighting Tree Killer alone, the other guy's decent, but this is just getting annoying.' Loran's skill was about on par with that of the other players, and while the Spined Picks looked cool and had some interesting uses, they quickly lost their novelty. The most the silver-haired boy could do was defend himself while running interference.

The battle continued for another few minutes in much the same way; Zed and Alexx battled directly and Loran remained a constant nuisance for Zed, who was becoming amazed at how persistent yet useless this opponent was. Eventually, the former spear fighter managed to create an opportunity. By throwing his spearhead at Alexx's legs, he created a moment where the brawler was in midair as he leaped back to dodge. He was in the air for less than a second, but for Zed, who not only was expecting this but also had an AGI of 30, this small window of time was more than enough for him to land an attack on Alexx with the broken shaft. As he did this, he also noticed Loran now moving to charge directly at him, having activated [SPRINT] to match Zed's movement speed.

'I guess he knows his friend is more important to winning this fight than he is.' In that split second, Zed changed the course of his attack to go for Loran. 'Once I deal with him, it'll just be me and the Tree Killer.' Zed rammed the jagged shaft of his broken spear into Loran's shoulder, carrying enough force to throw the shorter player back despite his forward momentum. Pulling his weapon back, Zed turned to face Alexx, who had been momentarily stunned by his friend's defeat. The two stared at each other for a moment as they caught their breath. 'Now for the real-'

"We win."

Just as Zed and Alexx were about to continue the fight, Loran's voice rang out, silencing them as well as the audience.

"Hm? Have you gone delirious or something?" Zed asked, irritated by this mediocre fighter. "You're on the ground bleeding, how have you won?"

"Look down." Loran was still splayed out on the ground, breathing heavily, but the eye contact and self-satisfied smirk made it look like he was looking down on Zed.

Still unsure of what Loran was getting at, he looked down, noticing two things that seemed out of place.

One of Loran's Spined Picks was jammed firmly into the ground, and caught on its spike was a piece of grey cloth. Additionally, there was a tear in his pants along his inner thigh revealing a small but fresh cut. A moment passed as his mind recognized the meaning behind these two things, and with sudden realization, Zed checked his menu.

{HP}: 71.8/100

.2 points of damage, not even a whole number. It was the most insignificant amount of damage he had taken that day, so minimal that he hadn't consciously felt it, but it was more impactful than all of the rest put together.

"That... that... that," Zed could only sputter in stunned realization.

"You did agree to my condition right?" Loran's grin only grew wider as he watched Zed's reaction.

"I- you... fine, you won!"

A new round of cheers and groans went through the audience. While they all understood that Zed had lost due more to a technicality than to actual combat prowess, after watching Zed demolish opponent after opponent many were simply satisfied from knowing that he suffered a loss at all.

As the commotion died down, Alexx offered a hand to his friend. "Damn, not gonna lie, I didn't see that coming."

"Yeah? Well, don't go doubting my skills again," Loran joked as he was pulled to his feet.

"Oh shut up," Zed shouted, unable to contain his frustration, "you were basically useless throughout that entire fight! It wasn't even fun, just a huge waste of time."

"Well sorry," Loran said, rolling his eyes, "I would've ended it sooner but I wanted to get some more practice in with these things before we head out tomorrow."

Zed was about to retort, but then remembered how Loran had landed that one attack, by using an active Skill that was completely absent throughout the rest of the fight.

'Was he actually holding back?!' Zed's mind immediately began thinking back on the fight. Every time Loran had managed to hook Zed was by putting him in situations where he had no choice but to slow down. Using [SPRINT] he could have easily landed those attacks without issue. 'No, if he could predict that I would slow down to evade, he could've just as easily changed his trajectory at the last second. All those times he hooked me, he could have dealt some damage, but he passed up on it to get more practice in.'

How many openings had Loran given up on, how many times did he make a conscious choice to let the fight continue.

Zed then remembered how disappointed he was to see the fear in Loran's eyes. 'Was that fear of pain....' It couldn't have been; Loran had left himself wide open to create that opportunity to win, he had to have known that Zed would attack him.

In truth, Loran was at no point afraid of getting hurt, only afraid of losing the opportunity to fight and train.

As the two players walked off, going to grab a quick bite to eat, Zed found himself beginning to chuckle, then laughing, and after a moment he was almost doubled over. Just as the audience was starting to feel uncomfortable, the laughing stopped. He then stared at the backs of those two who beat him.

Loran was being suppressed by Zed's attacks, but that was because this wasn't a normal fight. Loran needed to be paranoid about every single attack, basically making any stats besides AGI and PER utterly useless. He didn't know what Loran's other stats were, but the uncertainty made him want to have a real fight with him in the future, even more than he wanted to fight Alexx.

'I knew that NEO was going to be fun, but I had no idea that I would find such wonderful entertainment so soon.