When Tai finished eating, he swung by the bathroom and headed straight to the armory to prepare himself. He still had around an hour but putting on the armor was a bit time-consuming task, especially when doing it alone.

He stepped into the arena first, wearing his battle attire with pudao in hand. He had to wait a few minutes, but not that long, for his opponent to appear.

At first, I thought it was a fucking robot, but with a bit of observation, I figured it was a living creature, but heavily modified by mechanical parts. It was quite large overall, reaching more than three meters, with a set of six crab-like metal legs. Three on each side. The torso, connected to this moving platform, was also armored. Covered by thick plates. The head was covered by a helmet with two pipes connecting it to a device on the creature's back.

It was something completely different from what I saw on the goliath-alien back.

The hands were completely hidden inside robotic parts. Large mechanical arms clearly armed with guns and energy blades surrounded by a pulsating aura. They looked like bayonets but were mounted both to the top, and the bottom, with a set of few holes of different sizes in the middle. It all was heavy, and also connected to the device on the creature's back.

Everything was painted black with a few accents of dark green here and there, just for the decoration.

The legs were operating as you would predict robotic parts would do, but the creature's head motions were more fluid, and the unnecessary moves, mainly looking around a lot, was what was suggested to me that this was a living thing.

- Is that allowed? - asked Adam.

AI popped over the holoprojector.historical

- Participant's Tai opponent, participant - the robotic voice changed a bit - 'unknown', is meeting all the criteria, thus is allowed to participate.

It vanished immediately after answering the question.

- I have a weird feeling that Zor'xal is bending the rules - the fire mage added.

- No shit - said Gavriil, as he got closer to the holoprojection to have a better view.

- We just have to deal with this, and win despite the double standards - said Edward. - I doubt we could do anything about that anyway.

- I'm gonna find that Atri and asked her if there is something we could do - said Semenov and headed straight to the door leading to the corridor.

I had no idea how possibly he could find her in this enormous complex if he didn't even know where to look, but that didn't stop him from going.

I was brought back to watching the holoprojection by the sound of the gong announcing the beginning of the fight.

The half-robot didn't wait and just started shooting immediately. The projectiles sprayed from one of the guns were leaving a green afterimage, as they started to hack the air. Tai immediately went to a full sprint, but he still got hit by a few that couldn't penetrate his armor but left bright green marks on it.

With 'Step of the wind' he was able to quickly gain speed and despite the alien trying his best to shoot him down, the human remained one step ahead. He was just dragging the pudao behind himself with the blade directed towards the ground, but his left hand was in constant motion.

Using other shills he was enhancing himself and got even faster. His weapon also changed, it got covered by little discharges jumping up and down and especially concentrated around his hand grasping the handle firmly.

He did half a circle around the alien, who changed ammunition and started shooting explosives at Tai, but it didn't change the fact that he just couldn't hit him.

In a blast the human accelerated even faster, crossing the barrier of sound, and slammed into the half-robot trying to pierce him with a powerful thrust, but a translucent blue shield formed around the creature and blocked the entire impact that send the sand into the air.

The alien laughed mechanically. Something clicked in his left arm, and he sprayed flames all around Tai who shielded himself with a burst of air and retreated swiftly leaving a mark on the ground. He started running in a zigzag, heading further and clearly wanting the crab to step into the trap he left.

The creature clearly didn't notice and stepped into the symbol which erupted into flames that surrounded it completely but didn't do a thing, and the half-robot emerged dragging the fire and black smoke after himself, trying to aim at Tai.

Something again clicked into one of the arms, and a larger missile went after the human. He saw it as he glanced over the shoulder and immediately swung in the air creating an air blade that collided with the small rocket and made it explode in the air, sending still burning parts all over the place

Another click and the crab shoot a blast of energy after Tai, but he dodged in a blur, and continued moving, as his left hand again became creating signs.

We all watched like hypnotized the clash full of action. Zor'xal couldn't take his eyes off the arena, and even Ashal Kal Anur was looking at the duel for the first time in a while.

Another energy blast was released, and it also missed the human, leaving sand melted into a glass where it ended up hitting the ground.

But just as Lim mentioned before, Tai had many cards hidden in his sleeves and could do much more than he showcased during his previous fights. Now he presented another one of his cards, as the discharges from the weapon now were covering all of his body. For a moment he disappeared and showed immediately after above the crab with his weapon high.

He brought it down, again hitting the barrier that appeared to block the blade, he returned to his previous position, and out of the blue, a thick lightning bolt from thin air, struck the crab blinding us all for a second.