Chapter 68: Confrontation
The blade pressed softly against Lucas’ chest, and he held perfectly still with his arms raised, his smile never leaving his face even though the steel was just a thrust away from piercing his heart.
Every other person in the nearby tables bolted upwards in alarm, worry etched into all their faces.
"There wasn’t any need for this," Lucas said, calm despite the weapon pressing against his chest. "If you truly didn’t do anything to the food, you should have just taken a bite. Would’ve saved us both a lot of trouble if you asked me..."
"Lucas—" Mark stepped forward, alarm plain on his face, and Eleanor moved a few inches forward after him.
"QUIET!" Ryker’s voice resounded across the hall, loud and heavy, loud enough to freeze both of them mid motion.
He pressed the blade at Lucas’ chest pushing it a fraction deeper.
Lucas laughed, though it sounded strained, carrying the weight of frustration bore across different deaths. The laugh came unbothered against the tension filling the room, and Ryker narrowed his eyes, pushing the blade so deep that it began to sting a little.
Lucas inhaled. "Funny thing, half our Faction’s been so against leaving the last few days. I tried talking to them about leaving but they don’t seem to like the idea of that— your people too. I even had an argument with Elle over it." He said that part in a pained scoff.
Then he held Ryker’s gaze and said again. "Wonder if that has anything to do with you too."
And with that, something in Ryker finally broke.
"Arggh!"
The blade thrust forward, aimed clean at Lucas’s heart, and Lucas didn’t try to dodge sideways.
[You have activated skill: Ignition.]
He raised his legs slightly, [Ignition] roaring to life around both feet, and he launched himself backward in a burning burst that sent the table in front of him crashing over in a spray of plates and spilled food.
He burst sent him flying backwards towards the other side of the hall, and Ryker stumbled forward and clenched his jaw.
"YOU—!" Ryker’s composure shattered entirely, fury twisting his features into something unrecognizable, way different from the smooth, charming host of the past few days. "Guards! Get him! And get everyone else that came with him!"
Chaos erupted....
Ryker’s fighters converged from every corner of the hall, their weapons drawn, and survivors scrambled from their seats in a panicked effort to flee. Tables overturned, dishes shattered across the floor as the confrontation that started as a single accusation had turned to something different entirely.
Somewhere near the entrance, Iris had already drawn her bow on pure instinct.
Then, a few guards rushed towards her, weapons raised and moving...
"What is happening?!"
She let loose arrow after arrow, covering the survivors trying to flee the escalating chaos. And trying to dodge the swings of swords aimed at her.
Lucas landed, sliding to a stop as he looked forward. Mark was already moving, gauntlets flaring bright as he intercepted the first guard to reach them, driving him back with a gut punch that sent the man skidding across an overturned table.
Ryker came at Lucas directly, blade flashing in a wide arc.
"Whoa!"
Lucas ducked beneath it, flame roaring around his fists as he drove a flaming uppercut into Ryker’s forearm, forcing the sword to veer off course.
"You’ve ruined everything!" Ryker snarled, recovering fast, his blade whipping back around in a way that actually made Lucas’ eyes widen in shock. The blade curved in a horizontal slash, and Lucas barely twisted clear of it.
"Do you understand what you’ve undone?! Weeks of careful work—"
"Poisoning people isn’t work, man. It’s a crime." Lucas caught the next strike, punching the blade despite his compromised position, sparks flying as they clashed two more times. "Save the villain monologue."
The fight moved out of the dining hall entirely, Ryker driving forward with increasingly wild strikes as Lucas gave ground through a side corridor. His head snapped to the left and he saw Ryker’s guards converging from every direction.
They burst into a the hall that joined the dinninghall and Lucas used the tighter space to his advantage, the best he could anyway...
He moved, ducking behind a heavy wooden pillar as Ryker’s blade struck deep into the wood instead of his shoulder.
"You think this ends with you winning? You think I’d allow you to win?" Ryker wrenched the blade free, chest heaving and looking more feral— his hear disheveled and his eyes dilated. "I built this place from nothing. Many months of careful control, and you think you can just come in here and destroy all of that?"
"I think both my and your own people are about to come back to their senses," Lucas said, flame roaring hotter around his fists as he struck again. "And if I had to guess, that tends to be a problem for men like you. If my hunch is correct that is..."
Two more guards flooded into the hall behind Ryker, and Lucas found himself fighting against three people at once, ducking a wild swing from the nearest guard while driving a burning kick into the second gaurd’s chest.
He ignited his legs and surged upwards blitzing from pillar to pillar, using the tight corridor to keep them from fully surrounding him.
"Never used this one in a fight before." He mumbled as he ducked under Ryker’s blade and skidded backwards, creating space between them.
Up until now, the [Ignition] on his feet had only been used to help him escape. He had never truly used it in a real fight before.
He caught the first guard’s blade and twisted as hard as he could, causing the man’s weapon to fly away useless, and drove a punch into his jaw that dropped him instantly.
The second guard lunged, and Lucas twisted low, sweeping his legs out with a flaming kick and giving an uppercut before he could recover.
Ryker used the distraction to close the distance himself, his blade driving in fast and almost in a blur, and Lucas barely caught his wrist in time, and the flame ignited hotter around his arm as he forced the blade away from his grip twisting with his full weight and forcing the sword out of Ryker’s grip causing the sword to fall onto the stone floor.
He kicked Ryker back with a flame enhanced foot and stumbled backwards.
"Okay, this is going to need some getting used to..."
Three more men closed in on him and Lucas jumped over one of them, kicking the second one aside and punching the third one on the jaw so hard some sounded like it broke.
Ryker rushed in again and Lucas dashed forward and drove a knee into Ryker’s stomach before he could react.
"Argh! you bastard!" Ryker’s voice cracked with fury and disbelief as Lucas brought his knee down.
"Says the guy you tried to poison me!"
Lucas said, grabbing Ryker by the collar and slamming him back against the nearest wall, the flame staining the wall with soot and coal. " I won’t lie though, you would’ve have caught me. But just poisoning my food and hoping that alone would be enough wasn’t really smart."
**WHAM!**
He slammed Ryker again against the wall causing a pained grunt to escape his lips. "I’ve had worse days than this. Considerably worse. I give you an A for effort though."
**WHAM**
The last guard, seeing his companions down and his leader pinned, hesitated at the corridor’s entrance, weapon lowering slowly.
Lucas turned his head ever so slightly, his golden eyes narrowing as he gave a side stare in a way that made the hair on his neck stand on end.
"You have one second."
Without a second thought, he turned and scurried away running as far and hard as his legs could carry.
"Hah, coward—"
**WHAM!**
"Arrgh!"
Lucas slammed him again, gripping his collar tighter.
Ryker let out a pained shout and tried to break free and Lucas grabbed his other collar with his other hand and launched both of them towards the ceiling.
**WHAM!!**
**BOOM**
A chunk of the ceiling came crashing down, and Ryker coughed up some blood as Lucas slammed him against another wall— his breathing ragged from barely contained anger.
"What? Aren’t you going to kill me?" Ryker wheezed in a pained smile, his body sagged against the wall.
"Oh I will. Just not yet." He pressed him against the wall.
"You’re going to answer me first. What were you planning? My Faction members suddenly don’t want to leave, and you tried to poison me. As far as I know, I haven’t done anything to deserve this..."
Silence fell over the hall, something that was broken only by ragged breathing and the distant, chaotic sounds of the dining hall behind them.
Ryker sagged against the wall, all the fight seemingly draining out of him.
"You want me to tell you?" he said finally, voice cracked and wheezing, "I’ll tell you..."