John was surprised by Amber’s kindness and newfound faith in him. At a loss for words, he just nodded to her. He was going to say a prayer to whatever powers were listening and ask them to watch his battle and his great deeds, but he no longer had the time to.

John infused his belt with essence as he walked to his starting spot highlighted by the NCS. He would start the challenge well out of his manifestation range and he didn’t want his enemy to see what weapon he’d employ.

Since he could use all the manifestations he wanted, unlike in his last challenge, John cast [Multi-Enhancement] and [Multi-Shield]. He sent vital essence to enhance his speed and entered into his battle-mind.

The world slowed and John took a bow out of his ring. Gird had to be held to benefit from its enhancement, but he wished it didn’t. He almost wished he didn’t set his NCS to apply all the extra energy he collected towards opening NCU slots, as he could’ve used the NCS [Buff] to enhance his [Unbind Defense].

The bow was the same one he used during his previous Challenge of the Mighty Khaga. He could handle a much higher draw weight now, but no other bow made arrows of essence, and his essence was powerful.

A timer in his NCS began to tick down from ten. He looked towards his enemy, Ele Four-three. The Peerless was invisible, but his soul wasn’t.

John figured it couldn’t be easy to control the biosuit and essence at the same time. He assumed the more mobile his enemy was, the less dangerous he’d become. And the more stationary his enemy, the more dangerous he’d be.

The timer hit zero and John sneaked diagonally to his front left, nocking and loosing arrows of essence at the soul of his enemy as fast and accurately as he could, knowing his attacks removed his own invisibility.

Each arrow was intercepted by a swarm of small black discs, causing John to curse. After he advanced about ten paces, he was bathed in many green lights coming from a floating black disc much larger than the ones intercepting his arrows. It appeared out of thin air.

John slipped through the shadows, hoping not to find out what the larger disc did. As he reappeared, he slipped through the shadows again while trying to infuse essence into his belt. It didn’t work, so when he reappeared out of the slip, he loosed some arrows before slipping closer towards his enemy.

Reappearing in range of [Flashburst Pulse], John cast the manifestation and immediately loosed three arrows. The sparking balls were all intercepted by the swarm of discs, as were the arrows. Four-three was still invisible and had yet to move off the starting spot.

At least he didn’t even attempt to unbind my spell, thought John as he began to slip again.

Before John could enter the shadows, something tore through the ribs of his left side, something small, and it went through [Multi-Shield] like it was made of paper, and destroyed the automatic essence-shield of his armor on its way out. A message stating [Emergency Heal] was on cooldown flashed in his vision. All the small discs were zipping through the air towards him. He knew [Flashburst Pulse] wouldn’t hurt the discs, so he cast [Least Glyph of Darkflame Jet] at them as they approached.

The discs flew through the fire unharmed, and John batted the ones he could aside with his bow and his free hand. Many of them managed to hit his body. The discs hit hard and hurt more than he assumed mundane objects could hurt him, forcing him to use the essence-shield of his bracers, and the shield broke far too quickly.

As fast as the discs were knocked to the ground or off target, they flew back up or readjusted their flight to zip back at John. His orb-eye barely caught a white object speeding towards his back, and he managed to slide out of its way by the skin of his teeth. Thankfully, it didn’t slow or turn, and kept speeding along down the cement field.

John was flooded with the green lights of the larger disc as he ineffectively battled the smaller ones. He started to slip through the shadows back down the field towards his starting point. After two slips, he got very lucky spotting the white thing speeding towards him with his orb-eye. He dropped his bow and made a grab for it with both hands as he jumped backwards out of the way of its path. He lost a finger, and two other fingers were cut badly, but he managed to hold onto the thing.

It was a white triangle, and very heavy for its small size. The triangle tried to fly out of his hands, and it was powerful enough that John struggled to maintain his hold on it.

Accessing his storage ring during combat wasn’t easy, but John focused his tremendous will into doing so. Moments later, the triangle entered his ring and John’s focus went into retrieving his shield, Defiance. It took far too long, but Defiance finally appeared in his hand as the larger disc appeared in the air above him, bathing him in green light again, before he could even try retrieving Gird.

John dove out of the light while casting [Flashburst Pulse]. The three sparking balls of essence rocked the large disc but did no harm to it. The green lights tracked him. He dove again and cast [Flashburst Pulse] again.

John had hoped the white triangle he put in his ring was the only one, but he noticed a new one speeding towards him. He rolled on the ground, got his feet under him, and held Defiance out to intercept it. The triangle punched through Defiance as easily as it had punched through his essence-shield and body before.

Once through the shield, the triangle continued through his clavicle and back, breaking his shoulder blade painfully. He thought about casting a new essence-shield, but his was no help against the triangles, and a reflect-shield would be even more useless.

John sent some vital essence to heal. He needed to be as fast as possible in this fight, so he hastily enhanced his speed again. He tried casting [Heal] but had to give it up to dive out of the green lights, his damaged shoulder causing him to wince in pain.

There’s no room for pain. Not now. This is all or nothing. Suck it up, thought John as he slipped further back towards his starting point. Nearly immediately after reappearing, he noticed the triangle speeding towards him. He dropped his shield and made a grab for it as he jumped to the side.

John barely caught the triangle, damaging more fingers, making the triangle slippery with blood. He struggled to maintain his hold on it. When the larger disc appeared and bathed him in green lights, he pointed the triangle at it and let it loose. The triangle zipped right at the large disc before losing power and falling to the ground. John dove towards it and grabbed it before it could zip away again.

After diving out of the green light once more, John felt the triangle in his hand turn on. It hummed with power and tried to force its way out of his grip. He jumped in the air and drove the triangle into the large disc. It caused an explosion that resulted in his hand being destroyed, but the large disc and the white triangle looked to be destroyed too. Just in case, John picked the triangle from the wreckage and focused until it was in his ring.

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After grabbing his shield with his left and only hand, John slipped through the shadows towards the soul of his still invisible and unmoving enemy. The smaller discs didn’t hurt too badly when they hit him, and he needed a big play to end the fight immediately. He was damaged enough and had a lot of Golds to face still. And Platinums, Diamonds, and a Salt. He couldn’t spend more of himself on his current battle.

Continuing to slip, John bypassed the discs and got within forty paces of his enemy. As he prepared to cast [Least Glyph of Darkflame Jet] he had to dive out of the way of a new triangle. He rolled over a mine that exploded, sending him upwards, causing enough damage to his lower back that he yelled out in pain. The mine was completely invisible, and he sensed nothing in the spot it occupied on the ground.

As soon as John stood on his feet again, Four-three was visible and discharging many weapons at him. He blacked out for a moment and realized his face was pressed into cement.

John struggled back to his feet. He had no idea how damaged he was, but he knew it was bad. He cast [Flashburst Pulse] at the general direction of his enemy, having no idea if he targeted the Ele or the ground or what. He heard buzzing approaching and swatted his shield at the small discs. The discs seemed to hit harder and hurt more.

The fast-flying discs managed to hammer John enough he was knocked to the ground again, and he batted them as best he could with his shield while rolling on his back.

When Defiance was infused with essence it could damage the discs, and John whipped his glowing shield around with all the speed and strength he could muster while on his back, ignoring the pain it caused him. Too long after, spending too much more of himself, no more discs flew.

John struggled back to his feet. As he stood on shaky legs that could barely hold his weight, a new barrage of weapon fire from Four-three met him. He tried to dive out of the way and block what he could, but he still took many hits. A big part of the left side of his jaw was gone.

John struggled to his knees. He was going to throw Defiance at his enemy, but he no longer held it. A triangle sped towards him he tried deflecting with his bracer, but it tore right through it and his wrist and then his belly, causing a tremendous amount of pain. He managed to get to his feet and cast [Flashburst Pulse] at something. Or nothing. He tried to stand but stumbled and fell on his back.

Since about halfway through the fight, the crowd had been chanting John’s name, often cheering. They were silent now.

John rolled over onto his belly and tried pushing up on his one hand to get back on his knees. He fell back onto his belly. He tried feeling into Four-three and his enemy finally took notice of his manifestations and rejected him.

John pointed his hand forward and began casting [Least Glyph of Darkflame Jet] but that was unbound too. He decided to let the beast he constantly suppressed out, and the feral part of his mind took control.

John struggled back to his feet as the crowd looked on in horror. He hobbled towards his enemy. He stepped on a mine that sent him staggering as it exploded, but it didn’t completely take his foot off or stop his momentum.

A new but lesser barrage was fired at John. He didn’t even feel it and kept hobbling forward. The spider-legs skittered Four-three backwards, and the feral part of John’s mind noticed fear in his enemy’s eyes.

John hobbled faster, gaining momentum, closing the distance. A laser blast took his right leg off below his pelvis. He squirmed on the ground and clawed his way over the cement with one hand and foot towards his enemy. A mine ripped his only good arm apart. There was enough left of it to continue dragging himself forward slowly.

“What should I do? He won’t stop! I can’t subdue him” yelled out Four-three frightfully. “Kill him, Ele” called out the Oli, the brutes. “Go for the kill!”

John didn’t notice if either of the matriarchs replied. He did notice he was being bathed in green light. He watched the larger disc with his orb-eye, all the green lights circled until they joined together and made one thick light pointing at his neck. Finally, my nightmare ends, he thought.

John knew this battle would’ve gone differently if the filthy Peerless didn’t utilize such awful tech. It was a good battle, a good way to end, and he didn’t go down easily. If he now went to stand before his father, he’d do so proudly, his head held high, having died correctly, having given his all in this battle. He hoped he’d get to see his children, his wives, his mother, and other loved ones, from back when people were true, and the world made sense, so he could tell them all how much he loved and missed them.

As John waited for his death, a horned bear covered in scales and ridged spikes smacked into the large disc as it discharged, and the bear took the full and powerful blast right to the top of the head.

Amber transformed into a demon and fell on top of John, covering him with her body. She yelled out, “Stop! He surrenders! Stop!” Foreign healing entered his body.

A deep and gravelly voice yelled out, “Sorry, my Alii. The Alu is slippery. I failed you.”

A feminine voice laughed and said, “You certainly did not! You performed correctly! I told you she was basically an Alii already! This challenge is over! What a fight, huh, boys?”

The crowd went wild. The Peerless stomped, hooted, and hollered.

As the cheers died down, John heard Amber suck in air and quietly say, “Jesus, this hurts so bad.” He pulled his orb-eye up and noticed she was gushing blood from a big wound on her head. He felt more healing enter his body. He tried to send vital essence to heal but couldn’t manage it.

A slightly higher feminine voice yelled out, “Boys, I need two volunteers with heals or Field-Healers to see to the subhumans, please.”

After a short pause, the voice continued. “Ele Four-three, future-sworn Mele of Kauwa Naau Pi, stand tall! A Kahaka offered my kauwa the Challenge of the Mighty Khaga! A subhuman, a three, but a subhuman and a three like none seen before! This Kahaka has two high-concepts! He has the [Multi-Record Holder] and [Multi-Trailblazer] [Titles]! He was blessed by a Magnus! He survived in the NetherRealm as a Wood long enough for the Nether to taint him as it tainted my great husband and father, Akua!

“We all stood witness. We saw this fight. The Kahaka wouldn’t fall! I’ve never heard of anything like what we’ve just witnessed! The stuff of legends! Akua himself blessed this challenge! And you fought so bravely! As a child and as an Ele, your job isn’t to fight, but to protect my honor and the honor of Kauwa Naau Pi, you still fought! And what a fight it was!

“Ele Four-three, I name you victor! Though you won’t officially join my kauwa until after you graduate, for performing such a wonderful feat on my behalf, bringing such great honor to your future kauwa, I gift you five credits and invite you to be the first Peerless to ever put his stamen in my untouched flower. I gift you my virginity, and we will gift each other with a child! A new legacy!”

The crowd went wild again. A great weight was removed from John as Amber got off him. Healers started to work on them both. One said, “Great father Akua, this Kahaka has some stones! No way he’s going to live though. How is he even still alive? We’re just wasting essence here.”

Another voice said, “Just do as our Alii asked. We’ll get a partial credit. No chance I’m saving up five. As soon as I have two, I’m sticking my stamen so deep in her flower, she’ll choke. I have the rest of my life to father children. I need to spray my pollen in her before I lose my mind. By the time I have two, she should have the experience to make it well worth it. I almost have one saved up already so I could be pounding her petals this Crazy Days.”

The other voice laughed.

Alii yelled out to the crowd again, “I know I’m not experienced in bed yet, but I’ll do my absolute best to make it as pleasurable for Ele Four-three as possible! I hope you boys enjoy watching the highlights of my first time! And I pray this kauwa performs many such deeds and all of you get so many chances to enter my flower, my highlights last for days and days! I pray so many mighty deeds are performed there is a queue to quicken me! We are Peerless, one, united! We are the mighty Kauwa Naau Pi!”

John’s heart was still heavy with sadness and darkness, but a new fire burned within it. The Peerless were like the g’athu. He’d have crushed his opponent with ease if not for their filthy and unholy tech. He hated them. He thought their culture was sick, and he had few details of it. The little he had seen and heard was enough. It was as if Lilly helped shape their depraved culture.

The Peerless healing him were wrong though. John didn’t know how injured he was, but he knew he had been injured worse before. He would live. And he was glad he would. He had a purpose again. A purpose that burned brightly within his soul.

Before unconsciousness took him, John’s last thought was, Sorry, Thomas, what I must do now will darken my soul like nothing has yet. My karma must wait.

Unlike the nameless Exalted that killed all his kin including Thomas and Maria, unlike Magnus Gar’tar, the Peerless were right in front of him. They were bringing him to their home planet. John wouldn’t just free Earth of their scourge. He’d free the universe of it. He would kill every last one of them. But he needed to be stronger. Much stronger.