Mako was speechless after what Leon had just proposed to him.
"You want to fight me, now? But what about everything that has happened to us so far, doesn't that mean anything to you?" Mako asked.
"Yes, I do!" Leon replied.
"Please try to understand that I am not doing this out of hate anymore. You have truly opened my eyes to see that you two have no ill intentions against me, and even now you are offering me to join you; however, I simply can't. I can't bring myself to join you guys when I know that I am weaker and will only slow you down." Leon added with a determined expression on his face.
"Leon, neither of us thinks you are weak. Please... don't do this. You have only just recovered and fighting with me right now will bring you more harm than good." Mako tried to reason with Leon but it fell on deaf ears as Leon had made up his mind.
"If you don't think that I am weak, then why don't you fight me? It should be quite easy for you to take me out then, don't you think?" Leon replied.
Bill placed his hand on Mako's shoulder. Mako turned back to see Bill have a serious look in his eyes.
"He has made up his mind, Mako. There is nothing you can do that will get him to change his decision. It is best if you honor his choice and fight or else he will leave." Bill recommended.
Mako was at a loss for words. He didn't believe that Bill would actually suggest such a thing but now he was also wishing for him to fight Leon.
Mako thought for a bit with indecisiveness clearly present on his face. Bill and Leon observed quietly as Mako was struggling to make a decision.
"Alright, fine! I'll fight you, but I also have a condition of my own." Mako said.
A small smile appeared on Leon's face as he was open to hearing Mako's condition. For as long as he would get to fight him again, he really didn't care about anything else.
"If we are to fight, then there won't be dealing any unnecessary damage. Once one of us is down for the count, the fight will be over," Mako explained his condition.
"That's fine by me," Leon said with a smile before turning around and using his super speed to quickly create distance between them.
Bill also backed away from the two of them. He had only just recovered enough to walk around and still wasn't back to his full strength yet. He jumped up and landed on the top of the smooth boulder so that he would be far away and safe from any rogue attacks.
Mako and Leon each took a fighting stance and began staring at each other with increasing intensity as both of them were waiting for the other to make the first move.
The staredown lasted for approximately 20 seconds before Leon decided to make the first move. He quickly sprinted forward at top speed and threw out a punch toward Mako's face.
Mako's perception had grown quite a bit and he was able to sense the incoming attack just in the nick of time.
[Phantom Shift has been activated]
It seemed as if Leon's fist had connected with Mako; however, Leon didn't feel any kind of contact. Soon the image of Mako disappeared and the real Mako appeared to his left.
With Leon's arm extended outwards and still moving with the same force as it had not actually hit anything, Leon wasn't able to block at all. Mako took advantage and got in close to Leon.
[Ten Palm Strike has been activated]
Ten continuous loud bangs echoed in the cave as Mako delivered a big hit to Leon's abdomen. Even though it was one of Mako's earliest learned moves with low attack potential. Mako's strength attribute was able to elevate the attack power of the move to deal some real damage to Leon.
The strike made Leon slide back a couple of feet but he was still standing strong.
"Heh, is that all you got?!" Leon taunted with a smile on his face.
A smile also appeared on Mako's face as he acknowledged the taunt and rushed in to start his own attack.
"Oh, this is getting interesting," Bill commented as he observed the battle from the boulder.
[Phantom Kick has been activated]
Mako's image was created which continued to show as if Mako was running forward, while Mako had shifted to the right with a horizontal kick aimed at Leon's face.
Leon continued to rush forward as well as he was about to engage with the image of Mako, but just as he was about to make contact, he suddenly turned to his left and held up his arms against his face to block.
Just as he held up his arms to block, Mako's image disappeared from in front of him, and his kick got blocked by Leon.
Leon used his own momentum to carry himself forward and break free from Mako's attack. He slid forward and came to a stop. Mako was shocked to learn that his phantom skill just got countered.
'This is the first time that one of my phantom skills got countered. How did he do it?' Mako thought as he came to a stop as well and turned around to see that Leon was approaching him once again.
Leon started throwing a barrage of attacks toward Mako. Even though Mako's agility was his second strongest attribute, he still was inferior to Leon's speed and couldn't block all of his punches. Slowly, more and more punches started breaking through and they were quite strong as well.
'I can't take these punches for too long!' Mako said to himself as he tried to come up with a counter.
After deflecting one of the punches, Mako ducked down and using his feet, started to spin himself. He extended out his fist as he spun and flames started to erupt.
[Flame Wheel has been activated]
A ring of fire quickly formed around Mako and it extended outward. Leon could feel the intensity of the flames and was sure that the fire had become a lot stronger than when he last fought him. Leon performed multiple continuous backflips to escape the range of the flame wheel without getting hurt.
"Woah..." Bill commented as he watched Leon's lightning-fast reflexes to dodge the incoming fire.
'Impressive.' Mako said he acknowledged Leon's growth in fighting style. He was much more refined and sharp than he was when he fought against him in the battle royal tournament.
"Let's see how you handle this!" Mako said as his right arm lit up in bright orange flames.
[Fireball has been activated]
[Fireball has been activated]
Fireball has been activated]
[...]
A barrage of fireballs was quickly fired toward Leon but even this wasn't enough to remove that smile on his face. Leon quickly began to run in a circular motion around Mako while dodging all of his fireballs.
The fireballs collided with the cave wall creating small craters and shaking the entire cave itself. One rouge fireball was coming toward Bill on top of the smooth boulder. He instantly took a defensive stance and waved his hands in the air in a specific way.
The fireball was about to hit Bill but was suddenly blocked by an invisible barrier which deflected it in a different direction.
After the fireball was taken care of Bill held his right arm in pain which was the most affected as this was where he was stung.
'Using Wind Wall was a mistake. I am still too weak and should have just dodged the fireball instead.' Bill said to himself.
Leon continued to dodge fireballs as they were no match for his speed. He was slowly circling in toward Mako as he ran shortening the distance between them.
Mako knew the fireballs weren't going to do much against someone with superior agility but that was his plan all along. He was just using his right arm to fire fireballs at Leon as a distraction while his left hand was planted firmly on the ground.
As Leon got closer and closer, dodging every single fireball. Once he got close enough, he dodged the last incoming fireball by taking a giant leap forward and landing on one of his feet. All of Leon's built-up speed and momentum was being condensed onto that one singular foot. So much energy was being condensed that Leon's foot started glowing.
After all of the energy got condensed in his foot, Leon released all of it at once and launched himself forward toward Mako. The speed was so intense that the entire cave shook as Leon rushed toward Mako. Mako launched another fireball, but Leon didn't move this time rather he tanked the fireball head-on.
The fireball barely did anything as Leon continued to charge forward. Before Mako could do anything else, Leon appeared right in front of him and land a crisp left hook on Mako's face.
*Bang!*
A loud noise echoed in the cave as Mako was launched backward with great force. He wasn't able to stop himself and abruptly came to a stop as his entire body collided against the cave wall. The entire cave shook violently as an indent of Mako's entire body was made on the wall.
[-70 HP]
[User has multiple fractures in their skull]
[User has a concussion]
[Emergency healing has been activated]
Mako's entire face was covered with several cuts and was bleeding all over, but he still slowly began to stand up again.
Leon and Bill were both surprised to see Mako could stand after taking such a strong blow but what they didn't know is that Mako had maxed out his base fortitude which meant that he wasn't so frail that he could be done in by a single punch.
Seeing Mako rise again made Leon's smile even wider as he had forgotten his reasoning to fight. He was just happy to be able to go all-out against someone and fight someone other than Rhino.
As Mako rose up again, Leon started to light laugh.
"It seems you can't handle my new skills yet!" Leon taunted Mako once again.
Mako took a couple of deep breaths as he tried to get his vision to stabilize. Slowly he began to chuckle as well. Seeing Mako laughing was quite confusing but suddenly he stopped laughing as he lifted his bloody face to look Leon dead in the eye.
"And it seems you still fall for my old ones!" Mako shouted.
[Flame Pillar has been activated]
Before Leon could even realize what was going on. A circle lit up around him; 10 meters in diameter. Leon couldn't even move a muscle before a massive pillar of flames erupted from the ground and completely enveloped Leon in bright hot flames.
