Hugo's rekindled speed left Iron Alchemist unable to react quickly. Remembering the weird weapons in that pitch white space, his desire to finish this trivial match was increased.
The mysterious black cudgel which lay on the ground from the impact of his fall suddenly floated up and spun back into his hands.
"Come!"
Iron Alchemist was glad that nothing happened to his sparring partner, but was also astounded by the amount of sheer power being exuded by this bratty adversary.
'Sheesh, wasn't my blow enough to incapacitate him?'
"I know what you're thinking, and no it really wasn't. Though, I really admire your amazing battle senses and uncanny wit."
Hugo stood in his original spot with a smirk on his face. Iron Alchemist didn't respond, knowing this would be the worst time to get distracted by words of praise coming from the one he identified as his opponent.
He stepped forward, his one movement moving him infinitely closer to Hugo.
"Oh, you're approaching me?" (For cultured people only PERIOD)
'This dude is weird, he told me to come just now. Whatever lemme just get back to fighting...'
The normal Iron Alchemist took over for a bit and he got distracted by the contradiction in both sentences.
There was no other way to beat Hugo except by using 'that' move. After making up his mind and strengthening his resolve, Iron Alchemist sighed and lifted all six arms from his side and adjusted them into fighting poses, each hand having different forms.
One hand was a fist, another was a palm, hook, claw, pincer and chopping motion.
'Hmm? Hand-to-Hand combat, that's even more futile than using long-range attacks. Ever since I was a little boy, my body has undergone gruesome training just so I could withstand the overbearing nature of the Black Matter, some of which include mysterious martial arts.
The end result of the fight has been decided if that's how it is.'
It was arrogant of him to determine himself the winner, but this was all based on facts and not just his brain feeding him lies.
Hugo took up a normal-looking stance and looked at Iron Alchemist with... pity?
'How sad. This guy was pretty strong, but unfortunately, he met me.'
It would be a lie if he said he didn't add that part to feed his own ego. He did and felt there was nothing wrong with that.
"Alright, are you ready to begin now?" He smiled and gestured slightly towards Iron Alchemist.
"No, not quite." Frowning a little, Iron Alchemist ripped his shirt apart, making it fall to form some sort of clothing piece around his waist.
Hugo wasn't quite sure how to describe it. If he paid attention more, he'd have noticed the entire chest and visible areas of the parts that were exposed had some sort of green metallic sheen to them. His shoulders and basically everywhere on his chest were also scar-burdened.
Long rifts abruptly appeared across his bare skin if one stared at it for too long, they ran across his chest and back in weird, unnatural patterns. Probably the results of constant upgrade surgery and training with high-end firearms.
At first glance, these gashes and scars were only normal, but on second, third, fourth and everything after that, you would start to throb everywhere on your body just by looking at these scars.
What bullshit scars?! More like power sigils instead.
"I'm ready now."
Bracing himself even more, Iron Alchemist rushed towards Hugo, his six arms held out.
It was nothing fancy, but what was more shocking was that the positions he'd carefully set his fingers as had started to switch. The fist became a palm; the palm became a claw; the hook became a chop; the claw became a pincer; the pincer became a fist, and the chop became a hook.
This was easy to catch on the first look, but the problem was that...
... Iron Alchemist kept switching the positions at neck-breaking speeds. So, one moment of failed judgement would result in a not severe injury, but an annoying ache. And judging from his insight into the future of this battle, it would not be 'this' ache, instead, it would be 'these'.
And a lot of annoying aches could do things to a man.
But could this be the thing he was hoping would defeat him?
'Of course not, all I have to do to nullify this kind of attack is just keep my distance and attack from a far distance. So there has to be something else to this.'
There were eyes watching him, his fans- admirers. If he lost, that would be a huge disappointment to them. His reputation would be tarnished, making it significantly harder to do his duty. So it wasn't just his pride that stopped him from losing, he had other things at stake.
"AHHHHHHH!"
Right jab, left jab, dodge up, uppercut, roundhouse kick.
After reciting the sequence of attacks in his head for the tenth time, Hugo was able to face his visibly less prepared opponent with confidence.
But Iron Alchemist wasn't going to stand for it. As if predicting his movements, he only took the first two attacks by raising his arms up into a cross before he flew backwards, nullifying the force of the attack.
"Hehe, how obvious." Smirking to himself, Iron Alchemist might have celebrated a bit too early.
Hugo with his unnatural speed was already in front of him, punching and kicking like the first failure never happened.
That was the key point in the martial arts he learned; never waste a single opportunity.
The man who taught him called it the Way of Merchants; just like a businessman, he would never let go of an opportunity that was in plain sight, the same went for those that were hidden.
Iron Alchemist bore the attacks with gritted teeth, silently waiting for his own turn to strike back. The moment Hugo let his guard down even slightly, Iron Alchemist went in for the 'kill'.
"*Whish*"
His hands pierced through the air gently, making swishing noises with every blow and slight thud sounds with every hit, it wasn't very spectacular, but that was all close-quarters combat was about. The only things one should be seeing in a fight like this are shock waves and dull yet intense action.
It was as simple as that; precisely what they were doing. Jumping back multiple times, he finally let go of the drained opportunity, but it seemed like all that did not matter, as Hugo was protected by an undulating shield of black particles.
"There wasn't a rule saying we couldn't use our abilities right?" He said smilingly, dissolving the shield into nothing.
After thinking for a while, Iron Alchemist nodded, not showing any shred of hatred.
"Well, my next attack is not something your ability can save you from."
"What?"
Not leaving Hugo any chance to ask any more questions, he activated his trustees and flew into the air. Once again his six arms formed into cannons, brimming with energy.
At first, Hugo thought it was just another one of his classic beam cannons. But he was dead wrong this time around.
"Kinetic Cannon Blast- Ragnarok!"
A formless wave spread throughout the entire park, reaching places miles away from their location. it was unbelievable, the energy from the cannon devastated everything in its scope range, namely Hugo.
'Shit, I have to stop that cannon before it reaches where the civilians are watching from!'
Summoning up a large, wide black matter dome, he covered everything that was behind him, in hopes he got to everybody.
But sadly, it was not every life that could be saved...