Title: Royal Flush

Summary: Nothing beats a Royal Flush.

"Emergency evasive maneuvers!" Luxion blared.

I felt my body swing forward against my harness as Arroganz immediately accelerated in the opposite direction. Looking at my screen, I saw a field of electricity linked together by spears embedded in the ground.

"Hoh? You did well to dodge my Thunderous Connection technique," Brad tutted with what seemed to be genuine surprise.

What was Brad doing with mid game skills already? I had thought that his skill levels would be much lower considering it was the end of just the first semester. A bit unexpected, but I suppose within the realm of reasonability. Knowing how awful the balance was, I could see Marie taking the initiative to ensure the boys were up to snuff.

Despite this miscalculation, it shouldn't be enough to close the gap.

But...

"Luxion, assume endgame skill levels."

"Master?"

"Brad is far beyond where he should be. There is a fair chance that he might have access to his ultimate skills. As well as the others."

Arroganz ejected a halberd from the backpack and caught it.

"Finally taking me seriously?" Brad said in a toying tone.

"You had one chance to take me down," I said before getting in an offensive stance.

"Still cocky I see," Brad said before pointing his spear to his left. A ball of blue flame emerged at the tip. The odd part was that it wasn't pointed at me.

My eyes widened as I immediately looked to my right. There was a spear drone there.

In an instant, I swung my halberd upwards in its direction. The next instant, a brilliant flash blinded me. Now, instead of an empty space, Brad's armor appeared with the ball of flame directly in front of me. Asshole pulled out one of his ultimate combos, and it was definitely one of those fatal ones.

If I had not know what was coming... No... While I had predicted the attack, I had misjudged the range. The halberd sliced through his left arm. The blue flame still connected with me and exploded.

I was rocked back as the force of the explosion launched Arroganz quite a distance. The temperature of the cockpit also skyrocketed. Warning signals flashed on my screen as Arroganz endured temperatures far beyond what the machine was stress tested for. The error messages indicated that my backpack had been soldered shut.

Then a thought ran through my head. If I was piloting any other machine, I would have died. Brad had gone for the kill without hesitation.

He had just tried to kill me.

No hesitation or thought.

No warning.

Nothing.

"You countered my Infernal Flash?!" Brad yelled in surprise as he unsteadily pointed his remaining arm.

Rather than respond, I threw my halberd as if it were a javelin. Its head pierced through Brad's remaining arm, causing Brad to fly back a distance. Angry sparks spat out of both of Brad's destroyed limbs.

"You brute!"

Brad could still fight armless. As a magic specialist, he could continue fighting until he was unconscious. I continued the assault by accelerating into a tackle. With the mass difference, Brad's machine was dragged along. We flew at near max speed until we slammed into the wall. The force of the impact caused the wall to crater.

It was still not enough to put the braggart down if the armor's kicking was of any indication. I soon began pummeling the bastard. With each punch, more cracks spiderwebbed across the wall behind Brad. Screams came for as the audience realized that they too were in serious danger if they stayed where they were.

"Enough, Bartfort! Heir Fields no longer has the means to continue!" the referee finally said.

Stopping my assault and looking at the referee, I saw the unit standing far back. His fear of retribution was palpable.

Had I truly gone too far?

Arroganz was then rocked back as a burst of water launched me away from Brad's machine. Dirty bastard had taken a cheap shot after the match was over. Of course, the referee said nothing about the foul play.

At least the damage was minimal, though I suspected the water likely introduced structural weakness, what with rapid thermal expansion and compression being a thing.

Dammit, I couldn't afford any needless damage. I scowled as I ejected my backpack. It would only be deadweight at this point. Sucks that the majority of my weapons were stuck in the pack.

"Don't get cocky just because you beat Brad! He was the weakest of the five of us!"

"Real classy to dismiss your friend like that," I bit back at Greg.

I was pissed at what I saw. Greg didn't walk out in the mass produced piece of junk he should've stubbornly held onto. Instead, he strolled out in the Asura model, the best armor series available to him at this point. It was an armor type that boasted the highest melee potential if one could get over the steep learning curve, given it had four fucking arms.

What was worse was that each arm held the highest level legendary magical spear available up to this point. There was Gae Bulg, Gungnir, Tonbogiri, and Ame-no-nuhoko. A weapon to guarantee a killing blow, a spear to strike any target without fail, a spear so sharp that the slightest touch was split the object in two, and a magical spear of creation.

"I'm not one to mince words," Greg said with a cocky attitude.

"Should I be flattered that you are pulling out the big guns?"

"Not that I need to. Brad may have overestimated you, but only just if your performance was of any indication."

"Have you ever been the target of an instantaneous strike?" I snapped back.

Something about Greg dismissing Brad's ultimate combo just pissed me off. Oh, I was pissed about being looked down, but something about Greg's dismissal of how damn unavoidable the skill was infuriating.

"Can't be that damn instantaneous if you were able to counter the attack," he scoffed.

"Only because Brad decided to prioritize dramatic flair over getting the job down. Should he ever get in the proper fighting mentality, I doubt you would have stood a chance."

And wasn't that the truth of the matter. In all actuality, Greg was the weakest member of the five. He had the best start, but he quickly became the worst by the end. Even if he wielded top tier equipment, Greg just fell off hard since skills were the optimized battle method of the game.

He was still likely to be a pain in the ass since this was real combat instead of the mess of gameplay mechanics that was the game.

"Begin!" the referee said.

Greg's machine was instantly within striking distance. How did he close the distance so quickly? Also, I believe it was Gungnir that was threatening to pierce my abdomen.

"Engaging reactive armor!" Luxion blared right before contact.

In the next instant, the spear pierced the outermost armor and exploded. The force was not enough to stop the strike, but it was just enough to redirect the tip so that it sliced the side instead of penetrate my center. As expected of a spear that could never miss.

At least Greg let go of his weapon and left it in my side out of reactive shock of my armor's outer layer exploding. Only a minor boon considering the in game version of Asura applied a self debuff for every additional spear.

Horrifying to know I just experienced the weakest he would be for this fight.

"Hoh boy! Never moved that fast in my life! Gungnir certainly thought you to be a threat!" Greg said a certain bloodthirsty tone.

"I'm surprised you didn't use Gae Bulg, or try to use Tonbogiri in conjunction with Gungnir to slice my frame in half," I cautiously said as I pulled out the legendary spear from my side. It would be better than my manufactured halberd. Luxion obviously didn't care for the use of a magical weapon, but I wasn't going to turn down a legendary weapon.

"You certainly know your stuff. For your information though, Gae Bulg doesn't like to play nice with the other spears, and as far not using Tonbogiri, I want to savor this fight!"

"Let me guess, you letting go of Gungnir was part of the hunt?"

"No, but now I'm glad I can face it in battle."

And he was in frenzy mode. Fucking great.

Insert section for Chris and Jilk.

Arroganz stood, albeit with most of its armor either severely damaged or stripped off cleanly. Fortunately, no critical wiring was exposed as Luxion's insistence on redundant armor had lasted up to the final fight.

Shame that my loss in armor didn't improve Arroganz's performance. A safety mechanism to cap off its performance had been instated to ensure that I would not have my insides pulped from the acceleration changes needed for battle.

Hefting one of the leftover spears that I had commandeered from Red, I pointed it at Julius.

"So what bullshit are you going to subject me to?"

Julius drew his blade from his scabbard.

"Worry not everyone. I shall not allow this fiend to have his way."

Great. He was ignoring me.

Probably had good reason to if these fights were of any indication. Despite having made it this far, I was being whittled down. Arroganz was on its last legs. It was running low on power and had no armor. Exhaustion was also kicking in for me.

Jilk was a real bastard for not allowing us to have an intermission. Cited that these matches were taking far too long. It was cowardly, but who would have disagreed with the five heirs. Anything to get in their good books

Could have really used the break to rest and repair Arroganz.

After the final exchange of blows, Arroganz was the first to fall. Its remaining arm had shattered upon contact with Julius's ultimate skill, Royal Reflect. The reflective damage had also damaged my armor's legs to the extent it could no longer support the heavy frame.

"Incomprehensible," Luxion said stunned as Julius's machine shakily approached us.

Its entire front had been blown off, exposing Julius's bleeding form. One of the machine's arm dangled uselessly. A leg appeared to be frozen as the systems must have failed. Despite how damaged it was, it could still be considered operational.

I didn't blame Luxion. The five had been far beyond my expectations. I had expected a fight against mere first years. Instead, I got a fight against hyper optimized protagonists.

This vaguely reminded me of how some gamers made certain games seem so simple with their seamless and flawless gameplay, but when played by normal people, it something impossible.

This was fucking bullshit! Was Marie some kind of professional speed runner to have optimized these boys?! It would certainly explain why these boys far outperformed expectations and were pulling out their ults!

Even with the most expensive cash shop item, I was unable to defeat Julius. Luxion should've outpaced even the best gear.

Well, technically Luxion did outpace the heirs we fought. The problem was we held back on the final blow. We couldn't risk killing the prince. Not that it amounted to much since the prince was in a pretty bad state regardless.

Still unfair.

I scowled as I knew what would come next. It did not matter that I fought my way through four of the five heirs and had the prince on his last legs.

I was just a loser.

Exiting my battered armor, I looked back on Arroganz. It was to be turned to scrap since it was simply too damaged to be fixed.

Turning around, I saw Angelica despondently standing by Olivia.

"Sorry for falling at the end," I grumbled.

Olivia just rushed me and gave me a hug. Tears were flowing from her eyes.

"I'm just glad you weren't hurt," she sobbed.

I gently patted the back of her head. I couldn't blame her. The fights had been fairly nasty, and I had left four of the boys in fairly bad condition to secure the win. Recoverable but concerning nonetheless.

Looking at Angelica, who had yet to respond, I asked, "So what will you do now?"

"I don't know," Angelica said proudly but somberly.

"... I truly am sorry."

"... Would your victory have changed anything?"

"No."

"I thought so. Nothing more than a wretched woman grasping for the unobtainable, but too proud to notice."

"Neither of us thinks you are a wretch," I said softly.

"Thank you, but it is time for me to face facts," Angelica said before turning to leave. "Thank you again for stepping up and saving me the disgrace of pulling outside help. I do apologize for dragging you into this mess. I'll see what I can do to protect you, but I doubt I am capable of much."

"... Mind if I try something first?"

"Hmm?"

Angie, Livia, and I stood before the temple's reception. In my hands, I held the Saintess's bracelet.

I was a petty asshole. If Marie was insistent on becoming the protagonist, I was going to do everything in my power to instate Olivia as the official Saintess. Both to ensure Holfort survived and to get in Marie's way of a happy ending. Without the prestige of becoming the Saintess, Marie would have an uphill battle in securing her engagement to the five.

Still, the whole venture would be an ordeal. It was honestly a trial to get to the thirtieth floor of the dungeon, but I had done it with the aid of Angie and Livia. Well, more like it had to guide them through it to establish their legitimacy. Olivia needed to be part of the party for the Temple to even consider testing her ability to attune to the Saintess's staff.

The girls' low levels had also increased the difficulty, but I had little choice in the matter. I did not want to risk that speed runner getting the artifact first. With how high spec the boys were already, I believed Marie would have been able to acquire bracelet before the end of the break.

As the clergy examined the artifact, they excitedly exclaimed that it was the real deal. Of course they praised Angie for her endeavor as she was still a ducal daughter despite her fall in status. Livia and I were hardly given a second glance until Angie casually pointed out how I was the leader and Livia was the one capable of light magic.

It did little to change their attitude. The most it changed was that Livia would also be allowed to test for her ability to attune. After Angie of course.

It was the most the Temple would do. Not like it mattered in the end since I knew Livia was the Saintess.

Standing in the reception area, I waved goodbye to an annoyed Angie and a nervous Livia.

Angie was able to attune to the staff and bracelet before Livia even got a chance to. A result of this was that Livia was ignored by the clergy since a ducal daughter was obviously more deserving of the honor.

At least Marie wasn't the Saintess. I could still work with this.

AN

1) Justin clean Ming out my backlog still. So many half finished ideas.

2) As a gamer, I am actually curious about what a fully maxed party would look like.

3) Could also change this fic so that instead of being petty, Leon could actually face the repercussions of standing up against royalty.

Review Response

hnh058513: No hate, but I am getting the distinct feeling people think I'm a lot younger than I really am. I'm not familiar with power rangers beyond time force because I grew out of it. Also, I feel Mondo/Zeo works really well because of the Machine Empire being a thing, the number of rangers matches with the sixth using a black/gold color scheme. Also, Zeo does have the appearance of Rita, who is fairly iconic. Angelica... the Bulk/Skull character in terms of trying to find the identities of the Rangers? Side villain like Goldar? Idk.

Monkey D. Conan: I'm leaning on the Zeo crystals being fragments of their former self's due to growing too strong to use in their complete state. Would also explain why the rangers went turbo.

fangs of death: Personally wouldn't bring original rangers to talk down to the five. Vision quest seems more inline.

MastaofBitches: Pyramidas was definitely a design choice. Personally, I just treat it as the carrier Zord that it is and would call Arroganz Leon's true Zord.

babaga he who laughs at anime: IIRC, Rita didn't make a Ranger. She just had a power coin she stole from Zordon during her coin flip to determine the fate of the universe. So, I probably wouldn't have her creating any new rangers.

draconis ignitus: Honestly, that fic works better on its own than as a part of An Accurate Appraisal. Feels bad to me simply because it doesn't mesh with the first part very well.