"Finder's keepers, buzz off", said Lucas coldly, still staring at Andre dead in his eyes.
The tension in the atmosphere seemed to spike with the mention of just those words as everyone else subconsciously felt like backing away from the two. Judging from the bulging veins appearing on Andre's forehead, it didn't look like he appreciated Lucas' choice of words very much.
"Hey now, isn't there a much better way to decide who gets what, Lucas?", asked Warren both out of concern and also because he too really wanted the codex.
Lucas gave him a sideways glance and said, "As the one who contributed the most in the fight, isn't it only 'fair' that I get first pick of the loot"
"T-That's-", stuttered Warren hesitantly. It was true that Lucas had defeated four of the imps all on his own while everyone else had just beaten two or three in total, so Warren had nothing to refute his claims.
"That's a load of crap!", exclaimed Lucian angrily, who was also not ready to accept Lucas just taking such a treasure for himself, "So what if you beat more beasts than us?We all deserve a right to claim that codex!"
"Ha! Is that so?", asked Lucas dryly before he waved the book around, "Then by all means, feel free to come and get it"
"You little-!", Lucian growled but still seemed reluctant to go for Lucas' challenge. Instead he turned to the Avatar and said, "Hey! Aren't you going to do something about this?"
"It is not my place to intervene", answered the Avatar with a simple shrug of it's shoulders, "My role is to train you and make sure you are all capable of aiding the rest of humanity. Nothing more, nothing less"
Lucian muttered a curse under his breath and Warren shook his head as well, their final hopes of finding a middle ground to the situation now gone. However just as they were about to give up, Caitlin walked up behind Lucas and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Lucas…please just give Andre the book", she whispered to him, casting a worrying glance towards her Brother. Although Lucas had faired well against the imps, Caitlin didn't think he would stand a chance in a one on one fight with her older brother.
Lucas' expression softened as he patted Caitlin's hand softly, appreciating her concerns.
"Don't worry", said Lucas reassuringly, "It will be over soon, trust me"
For some reason, Caitlin did choose to trust him and the confidence in his words made her step back to watch how this all unfolded. Andre snorted disapprovingly at her actions and shook his head.
"I chose to wait a little longer to see if you could help your friend make the smart decision", Andre sneered in annoyance, "But it seems you're just as useless as always. You worthle-guak!"
THWACK!
Before Andre could even finish what he had to say, the air was knocked out of his lungs as Lucas punched him dead center in his chest. As Andre stumbled back, he lifted his eyes to glare at Lucas in surprise and outrage. However, he shuddered slightly when he met Lucas' piercing gaze locked right onto him.
'Has he always had that much power. Why was that punch so strong?' Andre asked himself as he wiped a trail of blood running from his mouth 'Did he use a lot of his mana or something?'
"Oi-", Lucas' cold voice shook Andre out of his own thoughts as he advanced slowly towards him. Lucas' eyes seemed to glow slightly as he said, "Don't you ever dare insult Cait in front of me ever again or I'll make you regret it"
DING!
[Chaos System: The name of one of your loved ones has been slandered. Rage meter at 30%.
+30% increase in all stats temporarily]
A peculiar message from the new system flashed in front of Lucas once again but his focus was completely elsewhere.
BOOOOOM!
"RAAAGH!" roared Andre in fury, his mana now surging through his whole body, "Don't get cocky just cause you have a little more mana than me, brat!"
WHOOSH!
Rushing forwards with the same frightening speeds he had displayed when fighting the imps, Andre reached Lucas' position in seconds and threw out a series of punches. Each one of his blows was laced with enough mana to flatten his opponent like a pancake but to his absolute shock, he couldn't touch a hair on Lucas.
Lucas parried and dodged every one of his strikes seemingly with ease, shocking both Andre and everybody else who could keep track of their movements. Caitlin's mouth hung open slightly and her heart raced at the sight of her friend going toe to toe with her brother. No, it almost looked like-
"Lucas has the advantage", Warren voiced her thoughts, as he carefully watched Lucas and Andre trade blows, "Lucas is faster and is able to track Andre's movements and at the same time, he's choosing to cover only his fists with mana in order to maximize on efficiency in dodging Andre's attacks because he has more strength"
Although Warren's analysis was mostly correct, what he didn't know was that because of Lucas' status boost, his strength was now on par with Andre's. If not even slightly above it. As for his speed-
'Slow…' thought Lucas as he calmly dodged another one of Andre's jabs. In his eyes, the attacks seemed to be coming at him in slow motion, making it child's play to avoid all of them with little effort.
'But it wouldn't be fun if I just dodged all day, right?' he thought to himself with a malicious little grin on his face.
As Andre went in for another kick to his ribs, Lucas hooked his leg with his left arm and punched with his right at Andre's chest. The blow connected, stunning Andre momentarily and leaving him winded. Before he could recover though, Lucas stepped inside his guard and grabbed his arm, flipping Andre over his shoulder and slamming him hard into the ground.
THUD!
"Kurha-!", blood spurted from Andre's mouth once again and he tried to get back up, "You basta-gah!"
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!
However, Lucas didn't even spare him the chance and immediately pinned him to the ground, throwing punch after punch at Andre's face. Andre tried to protect himself as best as he could but there was no sparing him from Lucas' relentless onslaught as his vision slowly went dark and he eventually passed out.
Even then, Lucas kept pounding at Andre's face and it was only until he heard Caitlin calling out to him that he chose to stop. To call Andre's form battered and bruised would be a grave understatement. His face was purple and swollen to the point that he was barely recognizable and his body looked like it had several broken bones here and there.
'He really beat Andre' Warren thought to himself in amazement as he stared at Lucas, who barely seemed out of breath once again. Even he had to admit that he would have had trouble fighting Andre head on, yet Lucas had made it look so easy.
'I don't know how, but one thing is for sure' thought Warren in conclusion 'The current Lucas is strong, maybe even stronger than myself...'
As if sensing his gaze, Lucas glanced towards him and asked, "You wanna go next?"
---------------------
A/N: Done and dusted...