In the end, Lucy didn't let the blood rush to her head, but she decided to punish Sigma for his insolence. When she attacked again, she landed another punch on Sigma's right side… right on the liver. Sigma almost lost all of his air in his lungs, and then he was forced to heal himself… he couldn't let that girl defeat him in three hits. He had to at least concede that he was forced to use Heal against her since he wasn't that insane.
Still, soon she attacked his liver again and again until Sigma felt and heard the sound of his ribs cracking. He had yet to see her moving, so it didn't look like he could do anything against her.
That being said while sweating cold. Sigma took a deep breath and then closed his eyes… Lucy had a hard time believing in what she was seeing. There was no other explanation for that. Sigma had a death wish. Still, when she moved to attack again, at the same moment her punch hit his right side, she noticed his leg moving and then approaching her left side to hit her. The impact pushed him away, and he failed, though.
Sigma sighed… even though that was no good, but he still had another option. While Lucy was frowning since she didn't expect that Sigma would be able to react to her attacks at all, she still realized that he probably had some good sense. It would be better if she finished things quickly and made everyone realize the difference in strength that they had.
Lucy attacked again and a bit sooner than Sigma had expected, so he just clenched his teeth and endured the pain. He could endure the pain when he messed up with his fists, but it was annoying to get hit on the same spot over and over again, even more so when the spot was his broken ribs.
The frequency of Lucy's attacks increased, and then Sigma finally began to sweat cold due to the pain. Heal was recovering his health, but he was barely feeling any better. He got hit three more times before he did anything, but at least he was rewarded for it.
[You learned the passive Iron Skin.]
[Iron Skin: passively Increases your endurance by one point per level.]
Sigma smiled, which made Lucy frown. Getting a bit a few more times would do the trick and make the passive level up quite fast, but he would instead leave that for later.
When Lucy tried to attack again, using his senses and lighting reflexes, Sigma kicked the ground after charging Powerful Strike for quite a while. The area that Lucy was in trembled and even sunken a bit, and her balance broke. At the same time, Sigma used his Stamina Manipulation to enhance both of his hands, and then he hit her stomach with a double Palm Strike.
Lucy's body bent forward, and she has pushed away for several meters. When she stopped, she coughed a bit of blood and then cleaned her lips a bit, only to get more pissed.
"Now you have done it…" Lucy said, and then her aura began to burn the snow around her. "I was planning to let you suffer just a bit, but I changed my mind."
"You spoke like a true sore loser," Sigma said and then smiled.
The taunt only added more wood to the fire, so Lucy's aura got even more intense. Sigma knew that he was weaker than her in all aspects, but he knew how to win against her in spite of it.
Lucy charged at Sigma with all her might while melting all the knowledge around. For all intentions and purposes, Sigma wasn't fast enough to counterattack. However, he knew that Lucy would just attack him directly with all her might, so he knew what he could do… bet all his might on a single exchange of attacks.
The very moment Lucy charged, Sigma moved both of his palms forward while using his stamina to enhance both of them. Lucy ignored that and just tried to smash Sigma's face, and while she did it, to the point that she even cracked his jaw, Sigma hit her stomach again with his palms and then caused even more internal damage.
Sigma has knocked away and rolled on the ground for several meters, but he still got up… the reason for that was that he also used Heal at the same time he got hit. His jaw didn't heal, though. So, Eclair, Ed, and Sabrina looked at him while opening their mouths and eyes widely.
In the meantime, Lucy dropped to her knees and then fell unconscious while coughing blood. Sigma might have gone a bit too far, so he used half of his remaining mana to heal himself and then approached Lucy to heal her. Her underlings didn't try to stop him since they didn't think that the battle was over, and they still believed that their leader would get up.
Ed, Eclair, and Sabrina approached to confirm that a disaster wouldn't take place, and then they sighed in relief when they confirmed Lucy's condition. She suffered some damage, but she was fine and will be perfectly well in a day or two… Sigma's Heal had been more than a little bit effective.
"Was that completely necessary?" Ed asked while looking at Sigma, who was trying to put his jaw in place by using a piece of cloth to sustain it.
"Ah… can't… talk…" Sigma said while flinching due to the pain caused by the effort.
Despite his condition, Sigma still moved toward Lucy's underlings and called them to fight him as well. He had a long path ahead of him.