Reborn as a Mechanist with a God-Tier System-Chapter 314: A D Rank Duel [1]
"Can we spar?"
It was a simple question, but it was that simple question that brought a storm with it.
"...!" Sitting behind him, Talia and the others stared at him with stunned looks on their faces but Leon didn’t even react.
He kept his gaze coolly on the Colonel’s face.
Leon called it a spar, but truly it was a duel.
Colonel Alphonse stared at his mentor’s benefactor with a complicated look in his sky blue eyes. On one hand, Leon recognized respect and reluctance to fight in the Colonel’s eyes, and on the other hand he recognized the pride and confidence of a D Rank Ascended.
Every Ascended who built the guts to challenge the D Rank Ascended Trial and succeeded was either a genius, a psychopath who was unafraid of death, or a head-strong personality with unwavering willpower.
Whichever category Colonel Alphonse fell into, Leon was convinced that there was a 70% chance of the Colonel agreeing to his request.
Besides, it was not like he was just going to keep quiet.
Of course, he was going to fan the competitive flames of desire whose embers were already burning hot in the Colonel’s inner heart.
"You don’t have to worry about disrespecting me or anything," Leon smiled. "If Kai was still alive, he’d encourage you to give your all and give me a food fight".
He grinned and taunted. "At least before you lose".
Well, that did it.
That lit up a flame in the Colonel’s heart immediately, setting his pride ablaze as his sky blue eyes glowed subtly with neon green ADE, gaining a darker hue.
The moment it came to a matter of pride, it no longer mattered if Leon was his mentor’s benefactor or not. All that mattered was pride.
Colonel Alphonse stared at Leon for a few seconds and leaned forward, placing his hands on the table, then he grinned. "Why not?"
"Let’s fight".
...
A few minutes later, outside the walls of Canyon Hub.
Far beyond the city skyline where the air thinned and neon clouds stretched like an endless ocean hung the arena.
There were multiple floating districts in Canyon Hub, and just like there were floating districts there were also floating platforms.
The battlefield that Colonel Alphonse decided for their duel was one of the most high-profile floating platforms in the city, a reinforced floating arena that was as big as 3 stadiums combined.
It could float and fly and just for this duel, it was floated outside the city and high into the sky where the shockwaves and aftermath of their battle won’t be able to damage the city.
The floating platform was held and suspended by a network of gravitational anchors and anti-mass engines that hummed deep beneath its layered structure.
This wasn’t just 3 stadiums combined, this felt larger.
This was a gigantic tri-layered platform with a Primary Combat Surface at the top, a Shock Absorption Layer in the middle, and a Core Systems Layer hidden below where the gravitational anchors and anti-mass engines were located.
The surface of the arena spanned wide enough to make long-range artillery feel natural, and for close combat to feel intense enough, and for combatants to vanish from sight within seconds.
This was a platform arena that was designed specifically for D Rank combat.
This was a platform arena that was designed for creative freedom in battle.
The edges of the platform didn’t end in rails, they ended in nothingness. Beyond them was a sheer drop into miles of open sky.
The arena itself felt alive with segmented alloy plates shifting subtly beneath. There were retractable structures of cover walls and elevated platforms, with hidden vent systems to release smoke, steam, and thermal distortions.
Combined, this created a combat arena perfect with dynamic terrain to enable tactical repositioning and environmental manipulation.
And of course, it had a defensive system.
Not just to protect the VIPs watching in the VIP viewing booths of the arena, but also to protect the arena itself from the hazards of its surrounding.
A transparent cutting-edge multi-layered energy matrix dome shimmered around the floating platform, designed to absorb shockwaves and redirect excess force upward.
There were impact dampeners beneath the surface, making it so that explosions don’t shatter the arena. Instead, they sink into it like sponge or a towel soaking blood.
There was also an auto-repair nanogrid to slowly repair scorched sections of the arena in real time.
As for the energy powering all these advanced features? Well, it was connected to the current location of the floating platform.
The arena floated above the cloud layer, settled within the sea of neon storms in the sky. According to Colonel Alphonse, apparently, this specific floating platform and its energy matrix was designed with technology to absolve the dense and highly saturated ADE forming the neon storms in the sky.
At this altitude, the floating arena would never lack ADE to self-repair.
Also at this altitude, strong winds swept unpredictably across the platform even as outside the shimmering barrier, multi-colored clouds drifted through the arena edges while lightning flashed occasionally in the distance.
And of course, this battle was not being broadcasted, only a certain group of people sat in the safety booths of the arena to watch it live.
The atmosphere crackled with static electricity in the presence of 2 D Rank Ascended who were ready to go at it.
BZZZ!
Neon green on one side, grayish white on the other side.
Leon wore a black lightweight sparring attire, while Colonel Alphonse wore a dark green version of the same sparring attire.
Standing on the other side of the arena, the Colonel wielded a short black blade as his neon green ADE subtly curled around its sharp edges.
His eyes glowed neon green.
As for Leon...
The Zerphyr-7 Reconnaissance UAV quietly hovered above the floating arena; that was his entire arsenal of preparation. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎
Colonel Alphonse grinned as his ADE density slowly rose. "Are you ready?"
Leon chuckled, then he made a gesture at the sky and instantly, a compartment opened in the floating stealth aircraft as 2 tiny crates fell down.
Leon caught both crates easily, then his ADE flared.
Miniaturization!
Command Link Network!
Both crates expanded as their lids opened, and from inside stepped out 2 mechanical soldiers- Doom Rover v0.2s, Skirmisher Class.
10 drones also floated out of the crates- 7 sword drones and 3 C-5 drones.
With a grin, Leon dipped his hand into one of the crates and when he pulled out, he already equipped the modified VX-09 Emberfist Gauntlets.
He didn’t just equip the gauntlets.
After equipping both gauntlets, he rummaged inside both crates again as he equipped himself with combat Titanium Daggers, two Air Pistols, and then he equipped himself finally with a Terra Nova 71.
Leon nodded with a satisfied look on his face and kicked both crates out of the way, then he focused on the Colonel and grinned.
"I’m ready".
Instead of answering, Colonel Alphonse briefly focused on the 2 massive robots that stood beside the Mechanist, flanking him on both sides.
He focused on the Doom Rover v0.2s, Skirmisher Class.
