A stretch of barren, cracked earth on Terra had now become a battlefield.
The two sides did not exchange fire across a battlefield littered with trenches. Instead, they gathered into formations and faced each other.
One side consisted of tribesmen wielding all manner of high-tech melee weapons.
The other was an army clad in uniform Power Armor and armed with standard-issue rifles.
Numerous banners stood amid the standardized army. On the left side of each banner was the image of Terra, beneath which were the words "Terra United." On the right was a lightning pattern extending from an image of flames, beneath which were the words "Lord of Flames and Thunder."
The two sides were enemies, yet they had not begun fighting. They had agreed upon rules: each side would send one person to duel. Whichever side the victor belonged to would win this war, while the loser would retreat a hundred li and surrender the territory.
At the foremost edge of the standoff, the duel that would determine victory or defeat was underway.
Representing the Lord of Flame and Lightning was a warrior named Nagase Ken.
Representing the tribesmen was an incredibly muscular mutant nearly six meters tall.
Nagase Ken, representing the Lord of Flames and Thunder, knew he held absolutely no advantage in size, but he had an equipment advantage.
The Power Armor on his body and the Phase Saber hanging at his waist—those were his advantages.
In the first exchange, Nagase Ken dodged the mutant's hammer strike, severed both of its arms with a backhand slash, then leaped into the air and drove his long blade toward its head.
The phase blade looked as though it merely differed from metal in color, but in truth, it phased at a frequency completely imperceptible to the naked eye.
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