I looked at the date.
March 5th, a Saturday.
The PM was literally titled 'letter of challenge' in Japanese.
Could be fake. Might even be Oni-Lee looking for a rematch maybe...
I considered my luck.
Nope.
"So... I've got a punch out with Lung in six days," I commented. Lung: The strongest cape in the bay. The guy who's powers escalated over the duration of a fight without any known limit. The very same guy who was the head of the ABB, and hence a guy I didn't want to take out until I'd weakened the Empire a heck of a lot more.
"Crap," I summarized.
This was about the worst way I could end up having a showdown with the dragon like parahuman. One week was not enough time to hammer the Empire Eighty Eight into submission. Not with a bottom up dismantlement strategy and the balancing act I needed to keep on top of. I had to accept the duel, my reputation was vital to my efforts in crushing out the criminal empires I sought to extinguish, and to gather the renown I needed to accomplish the goal laid down by my otherworldly patrons. There were already rumors about the challenge. It wouldn't be long before 'confirmed' public statements sprung up.
More importantly, if I refused that would leave Lung nursing a grudge for when we did inevitably clash. Which was bad, as his power scaled directly on how much he'd been anticipating a given fight.
As it was, him having nearly a full week to 'charge up' meant that he was probably going to hit at least his winged form very early on. I'd need to end the fight immediately after it began if I didn't want to take things to a lethal level.
~Well, he'd make good practice for those Endbringer things then at least~
And the battle would likely be just as deadly. There was one final charm I could learn to ramp my combat capacity up to that kind of level. One final bit of 'low hanging fruit' that would suddenly push me up in weight class once again. Any other techniques would take to much time and effort in the time I had.
But using it would crank the actual battle up to that level as well. The collateral would be astounding, and it still wouldn't let me put Lung down without killing him.
~Got to break some eggs some time right? I mean, what else can you do?~
...I could admit defeat and retreat.
~What~
It was an option. I'd take a hit to my rep, but not an unrecoverable one. Lung had beateneveryonein Brockton Bay at some point. The guy has swung on a level field with Leviathan. At his apex, he was stronger then even I could really face over open combat.
Well at least for now.
~Hey are you sure that's a good idea? Throwing a fight like that? I mean yeah it'd be understandable, but if you actually won, you'd be a freaking legend. Heroes slay dragons here right?~
No, they did in my world. Or rather specific mythologies within it. Here, killing someone without a kill order on them was a bad idea and while Lung was scum among scum, it hadn't earned that label just yet.
Also if I botched things with golden boy... he was one of the few who could face the clinically depressed genocidal space whale and not just die immediately.
~I still think you're making a mistake~
It wasn't like I was giving up. Just considering contingencies in the place of failure. Lung could very well force my hand as well. I'd have to put that final trump card on the list of things I needed to hammer into myself.
Like that freaking surprise negator...
I was roused from my thoughts as the door slammed shut.
Ah, great, Eli was here. I needed someone with a bit more human of a mind set to bounce some ideas off of.