6 months later

There's a quick montage of Infinite training by a hitting targets from far away, parkour through a bunch of obstacles that include left over badniks, cannons, lasers, and gunfire, and battling multiple opponents in the squad who were easily read and defeated by Infinite.

Maximus approaches Infinite on the training grounds in Luminous Forest, with his hands behind his back in his usual authoritarian manner, as Infinite knocks down his training partner.

"Well, well, well. Looks like I was wrong about what I said months ago, Infinite. How you've grown over the course of these 6 months is inspiring! But don't get ahead of yourself. You will never be a powerful as I."

Infinite smirks.

"Is that right? Well, then..."

Infinite walks over to where he layed his silver, with a blue sapphire in the middle of the handle and a straight tip on the blade, sword into ground and pulls it up then points it towards Maximus.

"Why don't we make a wager? You & me."

Maximus raises one of his eyebrows in interest.

"Are you challenging me, boy?"

"You can bet your ass I am, 'chief'. If I win, I become head of the jackal squad while you serve under me. If you win, all the work I've put myself through will be all for nothing. Therefore, you get to kill me. First one that falls down loses."

The crowd of jackals begin murmuring and mumbling things like "this guy is nuts", "has this guy lost his mind?", "He can't be serious", and things of that nature.

Maximus tilts his head down and closes his eyes as a grin begins to form on his face and begins to chuckle. he then takes his arms from behind his back and puts them to his side.

"Infinite the Jackal. You crazy son of a bitch. Fine. If this is how you choose to spend the last moments of your life, who am I to deny you?"

Maximus pulls his sword out of its holster on his waist, similar design to Infinite's but the silver part is red and the end of the blade is curved, and points it towards Infinite.

"I will make sure to grant you a warrior's death. Be grateful: falling to the hands of the Ultimate Mercenary is indeed an honorable death."

The two combatants glaring each other down, both swords drawn and pointed at each other. The crowd watches on in silence as a breeze ruffles the leaves and trees.

Maximus eyes grow wide and Infinite slides his feet forward across the ground, bends his knee, and like a flash of lightning, dashes towards Maximus and swung his sword diagonally with his right arm; aiming for the neck, but Maximus bends backwards slightly while dodging to the right side of Infinite. In slow-motion, Maximus throws his leg backwards a little, preparing to send a powerful kick to Infinite's gut, but is interrupted when Infinite sends a kick into Maximus's left ribs with his right leg; causing Maximus to slide and twirl forward in front of Infinite before catching himself. Maximus holds his side in curious confusion.

Infinite has his backturned from Maximus before facing him and says:

"What's wrong? Is that all you got? Are you still underestimating me?"

Maximus grins with his eyes still looking at his side.

"Heh. I'll admit, I came into this fight thinking you were delusional, but seeing how you've actually managed to strike me, a feat not many have performed..."

Maximus turns his eyes towards Infinite and moves his hand from his side.

"...I know now that you are indeed an opponent I can't take lightly."

Infinite looks at him in absolute boredom; one eye half open and a straight face.

"Blah, blah, blah. Don't you ever shut up?"

Before Infinite could finish that sentence, Maximus dashes behind him and swings his sword horizontally, but Infinite dodges it by ducking then retaliates by going for a leg sweep that Maximus jumps over and sends an axe kick towards Infinite which Infinite avoids by jumping backwards. Maximus's foot strikes the ground causing a lot of it to break up into pieces; creating a small dirt explosion that leaves a small crater. Infinite lands 4 ft away and slides backwards before stopping himself and dashes towards Maximus once more.

"Who knew a single ring could give me this much power?" Maximus thinks to himself.

His thought gets interrupted as he parries Infinite's diagonal strike. Infinite & Maximus start swinging their swords at one another while moving across the battle field; parry after parry, clash after clash, as wind from their swinging begins to pick up and blow away some of the jackals as well as the trees. Infinite goes for a punch to the jaw, but gets a palm strike to the chin that lifts him off the ground long enough for Maximus to deliver a kick to the gut that sends Infinite flying backwards before he plants a heel into the ground and another planted firmly on the ground with the knee bent. Infinite winces as he holds his gut.

"Impressive, boy. The average person would've been knocked unconscious by those blows."

Infinite grits his teeth and looks up at Maximus with fiery rage. He then starts dashing around the field in an attempt to stay out of his line of sight. Maximus chuckles as he watches him move.

"No amount of tricks is going to save you, boy!"

Maximus reaches out to grab Infinite with his left arm as if he was trying to catch a knat, but misses as Infinite suddenly appears on his right. Maximus's eyes widen and Infinite goes to slash his chest, but Maximus jumps backwards; seemingly as he's dodged the attack. When Maximus lands, a bloody red scar appears on his chest and Maximus looks down to notice the damage caused by Infinite's blade.

The crowd of Jackals look on in disbelief. Murmuring phrases like "I don't believe it!", "Infinite damaged the captain!", "How did he get so good?!".

"Ha! Looks like I got one in with my blade!"

Maximus puts his hand on the scar then looks at his palms in disbelief someone actually pierced his skin. It's a feat that hasn't been done in a long time. For the past few years, Maximus has always been dominate against any and everyone he has ever battled against, but Infinite, after training for months, actually damaged him.

Maximus looks up at Infinite with fiery eyes and barely containing his rage.

"You bastard. How could someone like you be able to damage someone as strong as me?!"

"Did you really think you're the only one that can tap into the power of a ring?" Infinite says as he grins joyfully.

Maximus pupils constrict in shock and anger.

"So that's how you became this strong, you traitor!"

"Not entirely. A power ring and gruesome training is such a good combination. Kind of like what you've done, captain." Infinite corrects.

Maximus glares at Infinite and grits his teeth.

"I WILL NOT BE REPLACED BY SOME WEAKLING!"

Maximus lets out a battle cry as he rushes at Infinite. Infinite doesn't let out a battle cry, but repeats the movement.

In a moment, both fighters are facing each other in mid-air. The crowd has suspense written all over their faces one thought running through each of their heads: "Who is truly the Ultimate Mercenary?". In a flash of light, both combatants appear on the opposite positions of where they once were. Nothing but dead silence. The silence breaks when Maximus's head detaches from his shoulders as his body falls front first. A large gasp comes from the audience as they look on in shock as their former leader has fallen.

Infinite winces as he holds his chest, looks at his palm and takes note of the blood on it. He stands up, still holding his chest, and turns around to look at the captain's decapitated body.

Infinite grins slightly, but in pain.

"Heh... Looks like I'm the leader of Jackal Squad now. But not just that..."

Infinite walks over to the late captain's red sword and lifts it into the air.

"I... am the Ultimate Mercenary!"

The crowd roars and cheers as a small group picks up Maximus's body and tosses it into the river.

"What do we do now, boss?" a jackal asks.

"You start taking orders from me from now on. For my first order as captain..."

Infinite buries his sword into the ground.

"...we celebrate my victory."