When Carter landed his chariot in front of everyone, they did not know what to make of him. Carter felt very uncomfortable with all these eyes looking as if looking at a new animal at the zoo. He had to break the tension.
“What are you guys staring at, do I have something on me?” The Flash, Elongated Man, and the CCPD felt a bit irritated because Carter just made the tense situation awkward. The Flash could only rectify the situation. “Who are you? And what are your intentions?”
Carter could only respond by introducing himself. “Oh right, I forgot to introduce myself. The name’s Rider and as for your second question, I bring you no harm as I will never harm the innocent be it intentionally or unintentionally. And I won’t harm defenders of the law.”
“If you’re going to ask why I helped you, it’s because I didn’t want to see anyone losing their lives. Well that, and I wanted to gauge your abilities, Flash. See, a buddy of mine told me that you’re only powerful because of your speed. Without it, you’re not that hard to handle. I wanted to see it for myself, whether or not, it's true. He also said that he is willing to have a civilized conversation with you because he has some information that you may find valuable.”
Carter placed his spear over his shoulders and proceeded to approach The Flash in a relaxed manner. Elongated Man, the CCPD that are on location, The Flash, and the people at S.T.A.R. Labs could only silently observe Carter as he was talking. Throughout the entire ordeal, the police had everyone evacuated to a safe distance because of the bomb threat.
“In case you were wondering, yes Assassin is my buddy. Just because he took on that name, it does not make him a bad guy. Some evils can only be stopped by less than legal means. If you catch my drift. Take a king for example, if he was a tyrant and oppressed his people, and there was no way to oppose him, what would be the most logical solution. Since he is the king, he could make it so that normal laws couldn’t apply to him. So you would have no way to dethrone him. The safest way to remove him from power would be to assassinate him, right.”
Carter continued to observe The Flash. “I have a proposal. The two of us will duel. The one who makes the other yield wins. If you win, I will tell you where you can rendezvous with Assassin for his information and I’ll go with you peacefully." Flash then asks, "And if you win?" Carter smiles and answers, "If I win, I'll leave and the people here can't come after me. Not that anyone here can try to match my speed though, much less actually, catching me. We will both fight it out. No powers, no third-party interference, and no one giving them any advice. I'm talking about the people in your ear. So, how about it, deal or no deal?”
Carter waited patiently by his chariot for Flash to make his decision. Flash and Elongated Man were listing to everyone at S.T.A.R. Labs for their input on this matter before deciding whether or not Flash should accept this duel because he was unsure of the ramification of his action. "Don't do it. We don't know what this guy is capable of. Especially since he somehow knows that we're talking to you." said Cisco. Caitlin chides in, "I agree with Cisco. If this guy is anything like Assassin, then you're just waiting to be back in my infirmary." Wells then gave his opinion on the matter, "Do it, Eddie. Accept his offer. This way, even if you get hurt, we at least get to know a little bit about this guy."
After much back and forth, Cisco told Eddie that they have come to a consensus, "Do it. We'll be here if you need us. As long as we're here, he can't try anything funny." Cisco also gave Flash a friendly reminder, "Don't worry buddy, if anything unexpected happens, we can have Ralph step in." Eddie nodded to the team’s advice “We accept your terms.” Carter was delighted by their response. “Splendid, I’ll send you to the nearest emergency room when we’re done”. Flash told everyone to step back several feet so as to not get injured during their duel. Elongated Man found what Carter said to be weird, "Why did he just say that?"
Carter smiled, then tossed his spear into the air at an angle at which it will attach itself to the ground. “Go! My spear, my belief. Diatrekhōn Astēr Lonkhē! “
The moment the spear stabbed itself into the ground, ripples formed around the spear tip and it was swallowed into the ground. It created a bounded field. This was Achilles’s Noble Phantasm, a Reality Marble. The ability to warp the space in a certain area and change it to his own personal dimension.
Eddie started panicking seeing what just happened because he saw that everyone outside this dome was not moving. Carter then proceeded to explain. “This is my Noble Phantasm, Diatrekhōn Astēr Lonkhē, the ability to create my personal dueling arena. A bounded field, an area separated from normal space-time. In here, all superpowers don’t work, even the earpiece and observational equipment built into your suit don’t work. You can’t depend on anything other than your own combat abilities in here. No matter how much time passes in here, only a single second would’ve passed in the outside world. So, now we can have our duel without any interruptions. So, let’s start.”
Carter immediately ran up to The Flash with a flurry of attacks. He used his fists, kicks, knees, elbows, and throws. “As long as you can attack, anything you use is accepted in Pankration.” Despite saying this, Carter’s barrage of attacks did not stop, he kept pounding on Flash. Carter punched Flash’s face, kicked his eye, kneed his abdomen, and elbowed his chin. His continuous barrage of attacks never ceased, Flash could not even get a breather.
Despite all the injuries he received, Eddie would not step down. He took Rider’s attacks head-on. He was able to land several hits, but Rider had a strong physique. Most of his attacks did very little damage to the green-haired man. Eddie used his fists, kicks, and grapples to subdue his opponent. However, none of his attacks were enough to disable Rider.
Eddie did not know how much time he spent dueling Rider. But, he knew that he was at his limit. He could not take any more of Rider’s attacks before losing consciousness. If he were to lose consciousness, it would be the second time that someone defeated him in pure combat, without the use of any superpower or high-tech weapons. This was the moment he realized the disparity of his skills in combat. He could not even put up a proper fight against Barry’s friend Oliver Queen the hero of Starling City, The Green Arrow, much less comparing himself to the likes of Assassin and Rider, who are martial arts experts. One was a master of Bajiquan while the other was a master of Pankration. While he was contemplating this, he began to lose consciousness. "I... have... to... keep... going... I... can't... fall." Eddie's vision became blurry before everything faded to black.
With The Flash unconscious, the duel had ended and Diatrekhōn Astēr Lonkhē disabled itself, Achilles’ Noble Phantasm ended and the bounded field disappeared. When Carter and The Flash returned to reality, time continued its progression and everyone saw that Rider was unharmed and that The Flash was lying on the ground motionless. No one knew what had happened, one second they were about to face off against each other, and the next The Flash was lying down on the floor, unconscious.
Everyone at S.T.A.R. Labs was shocked by this development. Caitlin observed Eddie’s vitals using the observational equipment they had at S.T.A.R. Labs to track the condition of the suit’s wearer. "He's still alive, but just barely." Caitlin looked at her friends and spoke through their communication devices to speak with Ralph “Eddie’s vitals are stable but he’s in pretty bad shape. It will take him a week to recover from this. The injuries he received were not as bad as the ones Assassin inflicted but it's still pretty bad. Ralph, you need to get Eddie back here as soon as possible. Ralph, I don’t know how long this condition will last before he starts crashing.”
Carter overheard their entire conversation and he offered to transport The Flash to S.T.A.R. Labs. "Hop on, Stretch. I'll give you guys a lift. I'm the one who gave him those injuries. So, it's only fitting that I send him to get treated." He even offered to have Elongated Man tag along, letting him know what it feels like to move at such high speeds.
