Or so the Marine thought. It would be wise not to underestimate this opponent. Roderick tracked the marine, always facing him.

Although, beating the marine wouldn't bring the lizard man any fame or glory. If he was as strong and fast as was claimed the people wouldn't care that he won, since that's what he always did. If he lost however, they'd never let him forget it. The marine couldn't lose, either way, he would be applauded, for beating the reigning champ or for being brave enough to stand up to him. Both suited his purposes.

Roderick needed no praise. He had already recieved plenty of praise, and the happiness of all who had bet against the Marine, which happened to be the majority of the patrons. If the marine would lose, he would simply have his name added to the long list of those unable to vanquish Roderick. After all, all of those the marine had beaten before were previous opponents of Roderick, including the space marine. He had already obtained his fame for defeating the supreme human being that was the former. His respect would go unscathed, but Blackburn's would remain to his status of new member. However, he would remain known as the one who reached the champion, but was unable to defeat him. "Not taking a swing? I suppose I will, then. Someone has to get this fight started." As blackburn kept circling around him, Roderick brought his massive fist into his gut coming from the direction he was moving into, and he did so with impressive speed. Speed Blackburn hadn't anticipated in the least. He hit with the force of a tank shell, enough to knock out anyone who wasn't augmented. I can suppose Blackburn was lucky there, as his body was flung into the cables like a ragdoll after the crippling blow.

That had hurt, but had been revealing. His augmented body was already repairing the damage, the lizard man wouldn't be able to do that again, the marine ran forward and looked about to strike high, but the lizard man had seen him fight so he knew that the marine was bluffing. Problem was he hadn't known the marine was double bluffing, instead of targeting the legs of his opponent as he'd done previously, he kept his original target. The neck, the marine flung himself up to the lizards neck, avoiding the counter blow intended to knock him away. His boot hit the lizards neck with great force, more than the smaller man should have been able to summon. He kicked off the lizard and back onto the ground, a fair distance away ready for another attack.

The boots had struck him in the neck, but... Roderick barely budged. If anything, he had only moved his head forward an inch. He blinked. "Heheheh..." Roderick grinned, a gripping fear took hold in the Marine, as he realized his attack had done absolutely nothing to damage him. So then, Roderick began circling around him again. In a single step, he had already closed the distance between him and Blackburn. With a sweep, he grabbed him by the foot, hauled him into the air with his head pointing down, and he smashed him into the floor. The impact was devastating. Blackburn could feel his bones had been smashed from within, with some ligaments torn. His healing would take a very long time to heal all of it, perhaps a week, if he was lucky. The wooden floor had caved in where he had smashed him into, blackburn was firmly wedged into the floor.

Blackburn broke his own rib pulled it loose and slit the lizard man's throat. [spoiler]i too can write bs.[/spoiler]

He was too weak to get up on his own. [spoiler]if you want to fall to that level, I'm not going to follow you. You lost that match, not my fault you can't accept it.[/spoiler]