The doors to the pits groaned open to a roaring crowd and a red haze hovering over the sands with swirls of yellows and blues cascading intermittently through the space. After just a moment of exposure, Tony could tell that there was some vapor form of Hamaskyr lingering in the vibrant mist.

"And the Challenger... The Fallen... The Ascendant... Antonious KING!"

"Master..." Legion's voice and cold grasp announced his Dreadblade's manifested presence.

"Yes, Legion?" Tony asked.

"Why have you not used the souls we gathered for you?" Legion asked.

"I can't, this collar is keeping me from doing anything really meaningful, and if I try to take it off, it will probably kill me..." he admitted.

"I see..." Legion said. Something about Legion's tone said there was something on its mind. Tony trusted his intuition.

"Can you use them?" he asked.

The upper quarter of Legion's amorphous form tilted to one side as if in question.

"If I let you decide, could you use those souls to empower yourself?"

"Yes..." Legion answered, "I could."

"Do it then. We're going to need whatever edge we can get to win."

"We will need time, and I will need a catalyst," Legion answered.

"A catalyst?"

"Dhromoke’s Vow is what I require..." Legion said.

Tony's brow furrowed. He didn't know who he was going to be fighting yet, and doing so entirely unarmed sounded like a bad idea... but... if he could last the boost he got from calling Legion's invocation with the upgrades... it could turn the fight in fantastic fashion.

"What else do I need to know?" Tony asked.

"You cannot draw us until we are ready, though the ring you possess will allow you to borrow our power, it will extend the time you must fight without us," Legion answered.

Tony sucked air in through his teeth, "How long do you need?"

"We should only require five... minutes... yes, five minutes."

"That's without channeling your power, right?"

"Yes," Legion answered.

"Fine, better get started then. Consume Dhromoke’s Vow and use the souls you have gathered. I'm trusting you," Tony declared.

"We will not disappoint, Master," Legion answered.

Inky black and indigo tendrils sprung out of Legion and across Tony's back to latch onto Dhromoke’s Vow and pull the longsword in. The two weapons collided and started to hum against Tony's back.

Legion is Processing Dhromoke’s Vow and applying Upgrades

Duration: 5 minutes Effect: Cannot use Dreadblade or Dreadblade Exclusive Talents, Cannot use Melee talents without Melee weapons

Special: Use of the Dread Knight's Shroud Ability from [Dreadknight's Covenant Ring] will extend this effect by 50% remaining time

Tony strode out from the tunnel and into the sands proper. The crowd roared at his arrival.

"And now... the moment you've all been waiting for... the arrival of the Living Landslide... the Cyclone of Carnage... Sig Tyrjak!

Tony felt the blood drain from his face as the audience erupted into a frenzy. Maybe a part of him had known all along and he'd just been hoping for someone else, but there, as clear as could be in the crimson haze, was Jak.

If this had been a game, Tony probably would have seen something like this coming. Jak had been there for every fight that Tony had, given him advice, but Tony had never seen the man in action outside of their brief sparring session. He had no idea what Jak's upper limits were but Jak knew his... he'd seen them first hand.

"I should have known!" Tony called over the din.

"Yeah, you probably should have," Jak answered, "so this is the stuff you're hooked on?" he gestured into the haze. The audience mistook the hand wave as an acknowledgement and... somehow... got even louder.

Tony scowled.

"Makes sense... stuff feels good..." Jak admitted.

Jak clenched and opened his hands, pulling the sands of the arena toward him like a suit of armor. The glossy obsidian over all of his striking and places to be struck areas was swiftly covered by the swirling granules. The Ashtar man had already been taller and broader than Tony, that alone should have told him that he was some sort of obstacle. All of them so far had been bigger than him.

Tony flexed his hands and narrowed his eyes at Jak. He was using the announcer's continued babble as a time to apply buffs and defenses ahead of the commencement of their bout.

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The Padinus announcer had really pulled out all of the stops, garishly shelled and decorated, and hadn't stopped talking since Jak arrived. They'd been narrating the whole exchange to the audience, with some embellishments and omissions. Tony was grateful that one of the details left out was his current addiction to Hamaskyr.

Tony had no real buffs to apply before the fight started in earnest. If he had Vasna's Greater Invocation of Elements buffs active, this fight would go very differently than he predicted it would. This was going to be a slog.

"Hey," Tony called to the announcer, "I don't think all these people came here to listen to you talk. They want to see a fight. So shut up and start this thing."

The announcer stammered and stuttered for a moment before they looked over to the towering form of Jak "Champion, are you ready?"

Jak nodded.

"Challenger, are you ready?"

Tony slammed the articulated knuckles of his gauntlets together and took up a ready stance, "Ready and waiting."

"BEGIN!"

Tony activated Battle Rush and Bloody Haste at the same time, tearing across the sands at Jak like like a shot from a cannon. Fortunately, whatever talent or skill Jak was using limited his mobility, if only slightly.

The Champion thundered toward Tony and slid along the earth as he wound up a crushing haymaker. Tony slid underneath the compact car-sized fist and rolled away from the shin kick that kept him from getting at Jak's back before he sprang to his feet and threw a flurry of straight punches at Jak's exposed side.

Tony got exactly what he expected, the feeling of punching a stone wall. The Ascendant danced and hopped backward away from Jak's fist-led advance. The arena shook with each missed strike that slammed into the ground, altering the landscape as the Champion pursued the Challenger.

The speed that Tony gained from Bloody Haste kept him just ahead of Jak, and until it ran out, he would be able to dodge effectively... once it did, he'd have to shift his strategy.

The timer on Legion's Processing was only down fifteen seconds.

As Tony looked back, Jak pulled both hands overhead and clasped them together before bringing them both down like a sledgehammer. Tony activated Battle Rush again and streaked underneath the crushing blow to deliver a soaring uppercut to the underside of Jak's jaw.

Again, Tony met solid resistance, but he pressed on, demanded more from his muscles and his armor. There was a booming Crack! that rang out from the impact as Jak's gaze was forced upward. Before Tony's feet hit the ground Jak's arms slammed around him and squeezed.

"Not a bad hit, Tony, but I can tell that you aren't packing any talents for brawling or you'd be using them," Jak observed, "I didn't think you'd go for the chin, off of the overhead strike, but this works just as well for me."

Tony had barely managed to get his arms and knees up in front of him to brace against Jak's chest and stomach, the Covered Back effect from his cloak hard at work. He could hear his armor groaning under the immense pressure of Jak's grip. With the duration of Bloody Haste spent, the time to change tactics was now. He activated Invincible Will+ and it's upgraded effect from Indomitable Self. Fortunately, Jak's sand-encased-form counted as "restraints" as he was actively attempting to crush him.

The pressure on his back lightened just enough that Tony could press against Jak's arms and stretch his legs out to make just enough room to throw punches. Tony hammered away at the dirt covering Jak's chest until a crack spiderwebbed on it.

Tony's heart soared... into his stomach as Jak dropped and punted him across the arena. He skipped across the sand like a flat pebble across a lake before he crashed into the far wall. The temporary HP that Indomitable Will had given him, and 7% of his own HP were spent.

"You're a scrapper, Tony. I can respect that," Jak shouted to the, apparent, delight of the crowd, "but you didn't get this far by scrapping, you got here by fighting, getting angry, using that blade of yours... so I have to wonder... why aren't you using your weapon?"

The crowd fell into hushed whispers and conspiracy.

Tony hefted himself out of the Ascendant-shaped-hole he'd made and got to his feet before rolling his shoulders. He couldn't tell Jak "Oh, I'm just trying to stall until my weapon upgrades itself," he also couldn't bluff and claim not to need it to win. He did need Legion to win.

"I figured we could pace ourselves, y'know, give these people the show they came for," Tony answered. His tone... wasn't convincing, it was the opposite in fact, monotone and unenthused with a sprinkle of condescension and sarcasm.

"What do you think, huh? That with your fancy ascension and armor and talents, that makes you better than me? Huh?" Jak roared.

Tony's eyebrow shot for his hairline and a sweat broke out across his back. For a second, he felt like he needed to clarify that what Jak assumed wasn't the case... then he remembered that he was in a fight that he needed to win to gain his freedom. Jak was his opponent, not his friend, not his mentor, nothing but his enemy.

But... he could use this... "drama" to buy time.

"Maybe I do, and what about it? I beat Locusnettle without my real weapon, same with everyone else in this gods-forsaken Pit but Rania.. and hell, maybe I just busted out the Blade on her because I wanted to see what it could do now that I have this "fancy armor," shit, you're the Champion and you were slumming it in the barracks with everyone else, playing along like you're everybody's friend when what you really are is a fucking snake in the grass. Watching everyone fight so that on the slim chance in this whole rigged competition that they do challenge you, you've got everything you need to know. I'm a Competitor, Jak, that's how I got here. You? You're complacent... comfortable... until someone shows up that can kick your ass," Tony monologued.

The crowd gasped all at once, Jak broke his stance and stood up straight, and Tony heard Serketzi say "Oh... my..." from her perch above the rest of the attendants.

Tony's eyes flicked to Legion's Processing.

Three minutes left... probably about to shoot up... Tony thought. He hadn't wanted to use Dread Knight's Shroud, but he'd just lobbed a firecracker into the hornet's nest. He didn't know much about Jak, but he didn't know anyone who would take that level of smack talk and like it.

To Tony's surprise, the sands covering and protecting Jak's body began to slough off in molten heaps.

"Shit..." he muttered.

Plumes of black smoke erupted from Jak's shoulders as the temperature in the arena grew increasingly hot. Tony further lamented the loss of his neck slot as Temperature related debuffs decorated the underside of his status bars.

"And you think that's you, Antonious? You think you can kick my ass? Serketzi's discarded fuck-puppet?" Jak demanded. The formerly black obsidian was glowing red hot in every section except his jaw. The only Ashtar Tony had thought he'd seen with multiple aspects was Vasna, but that was just a manifestation of her specialization. Jak, clearly, had access to more than just the Earth aspect that he'd displayed so prominently.

Tony bared his teeth and growled, wishing for a moment that he was under 10% HP so he could activate Pact of Spite. Since that was not the case and he wanted to hold onto as much HP as he could, Tony reached into his vambraces and drew the three microdoses of Hamaskyr that he'd stashed while the attendants that helped him before the fight weren't looking, popped the corks on all three, and downed them.