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LI
Geran straightened his head to face forward, slowly, after Richard’s slap. “You have no right to challenge me.” From the audience, there was alternating stunned silence and cries of outrage.
“Are you deaf? Or just stupid? I didn’t say I was challenging you, I said I accept your challenge.”
“Preposterous. When did I challenge you?”
“Oh, so you’re stupid then.” Richard doubted he was actually stupid, but this was a time where he could get away with insulting him… In fact, it was highly appropriate. Richard turned to look toward Carl and Hiroshi, “The clip, if you please.” Within a few moments, the screen at the back of the stage was showing Geran pull off his glove and slap Richard. “Is your memory better now?”
—–
In the audience, Elena was panicking, “What is he doing?” She looked at Carl, “You’re helping him do this? He’s going to get himself killed!”
Carl held up his hands, “What? He asked for my help, so I helped him. I… didn’t actually think he was going to do this though.”
Elena glared at him, before turning to Jot, “You’re the one who got him interested in fighting. This is your fault.”
Jot’s expression remained almost neutral, though a keen observer might have seen a slight smile in his eyes. “I see that you are upset. However, it is highly likely that he would have done this whether or not he had training. Friends worry about their friends, just like you are worried about his safety right now.”
Elena sighed. She turned to Mr. Smith, “You’re his father, shouldn’t you stop him.”
Mr. Smith shook his head. “It’s too late now. Besides, if I stopped him, I’d just be a hypocrite. What am I going to say, ‘do as I say, not as I do?’”
Elena retorted, “You don’t get into potentially deadly duels!” At that, Mr. Smith raised an eyebrow, and Elena just looked around, confused.
Her mother the queen just patted her on the shoulder, “Come now dear, you know.”
“Know what?”
Carl coughed, “I… might have forgotten to tell her… about the thing…”
—–
Geran somehow managed to turn up his nose without tilting his head in any noticeable manner, “Fine, just let me have my weapons brought and I can kill you.”
“Who said we were going to use weapons? As the challenged, I have the right to determine the method of combat. We will fight unarmed.”
Geran looked momentarily confused. He looked over Richard. Then, he laughed. “Hah! That’s fine as well.” He took off his gloves, first the right and then the left. “Tell me, do you know the proper method to fight unarmed? We must abide by tradition.”
“Of course. I do know how to read.” Richard also took off his other glove, and then started on his jacket.
Geran just grinned maliciously in response, “Very well.” He turned to look out at the rest of the auditorium, “I trust no one will try to stop this perfectly legal duel.” He was glaring at the royal faction in particular.
After a few more moments, both Richard and Garen had their upper chests bare. Fighting unarmed wasn’t necessarily a less lethal method of combat, at least not among Noxians. As much skin was exposed as possible, so that the toxins on the skin would have the most contact with the opponent, and vice versa. This particular form of combat wouldn’t be lethal if one opponent surrendered early, but in some cases both combatants would die, and even if one of them ended up the winner, they could still die from their opponents toxins. Geran was perfectly content to fight in this manner because his opponent was a human, who had no toxins. Noxians were also at least slightly resistant to the toxins of other Noxians, but humans were not. Though Geran was quite accomplished with a number of weapons, this situation was quite advantageous to him as well. On the other hand, Richard didn’t look worried either. Geran supposed he was overconfident just because he hadn’t been seriously hurt by contact with his slap in the past, though that was only a minor application of toxins.
After selecting someone from a neutral faction as the judge, and having decided the stage as the combat arena, both participants walked to either end, and then the match started. Geran charged across the stage, while Richard only walked forward slowly and carefully. Then, Geran tackled Richard around the waist, and they both found themselves on the ground. Except, Geran was surprised to find himself flat on his back with Richard sitting on his abdomen. Then he no longer had time to be surprised as a punch came down directly toward his face.
The situation was disadvantageous for Geran, but not unsalvageable. He immediately set out hitting Richard, grabbing his arms and face, and generally attempting to spread the toxins on his body as quickly as he could. Eventually, Richard would weaken, and likely have to surrender before he died. That was the plan, but it became increasingly blurrier along with everything else as fists kept raining down on his head. Geran vaguely saw green blood on Richard’s fists, and thought that he should be weakening even faster. Then, the last thing he saw for some time was another fist coming for his face.
Richard’s fists didn’t stop immediately after Geran seemed to have been knocked unconscious. He was angry, and Geran deserved a few more punches. Richard didn’t worry about killing him… though not because a death in this sort of duel was almost expected. Richard could tell that Geran wasn’t actually used to fighting unarmed, though in most cases his toxins would have done the job just fine. However, Richard had been fighting and sparring against Xevaronians, so one little flip on a Noxian wasn’t hard to do, and he had felt like moving a feather in comparison to the normal ton of bricks that Xevaronians felt like. Then, Geran either hadn’t known how to get out of the mount or didn’t think he needed to. Richard gave one last punch, and it was not a light one. Geran’s head slammed into the stage, and Richard thought that he broke a cheek bone… though that could have been from earlier. Then Richard stood up. He started to say something, but then stopped to spit on Geran. After that he turned to face the auditorium. “Now that I have the floor, I have something to say. Enough of this farce.”
Wow, nice work!