Bob and Ally had a basic plan worked out within the first hour of their practice session. Bob was going to provide a distraction for Ally to get behind them and do her thing. They didn't want to get very in-depth for fear of exposing too much information about themselves. They still had some time left so they decided to relax and rest. They didn't want to exhaust themselves for the fight the next day.

"Do you remember anything before creating your avatar," Ally asked.

Bob tilted his head in thought, he remembered the darkness. That was the only thing that came to mind. He felt like he should remember the time before the screen and the darkness, but there was a block there that he couldn't get through.

"I feel like there is stuff I'm supposed to remember, but I don't," Bob answered. "Do you?"

Ally shook her head. "I get that feeling also. Like, I feel like I lived a whole other life before this, I just, I can't remember anything. It makes me worry sometimes, I think I'm missing something important, but my memory is just blank."

"Maybe as we progress we will get access to more things," Bob said hopefully. "As long as we keep surviving our matches that is. I get a feeling from talking to the Boss, that things might have been different at one time. It feels like these matches should be different. I don't think we are meant to fight the way we do or live the way we do."

Ally didn't have time to say anything in response as both doors opened and their Pitbosses stepped in to get them. Bob waved goodbye to Ally and they walked to their respective doors.

"I hope you didn't just sit there the entire time," the Pitboss said to Bob. "It's not wise to waste these opportunities."

"We have a plan," Bob said. "Hopefully it doesn't blow up in our face tomorrow."

The next day had arrived quickly for Bob. He was up before the Pitboss came in, having already eaten his meal and bathed himself at the sink. He had spent the night going over different scenarios but decided it was best to stop thinking about it and get rest instead. The Pitboss came in and Bob climbed out of his cage to follow him to the changing room. Bob didn't really have much to say to the Pitboss today, and it seemed the Pitboss didn't have much to say either. Bob put on his gear starting with the leather cuirass. The Pitboss had to help him with the buckles, they were in an awkward position and he couldn't get to them himself. He put on his bracers and gauntlets and nodded his head to the Pitboss that he was ready. The Pitboss led him to the antechamber and opened the door for him to enter. Bob didn't see Ally yet, but then again he got ready fairly quickly. He summoned a smoke flask in his right hand. He felt like he could summon another flask without totally exhausting himself, so he did. In his left hand, he summoned a fire flask. He closed his eyes and tried to calm his nerves. Soon after, a different door opened to the antechamber and Ally stepped in.

Ally wore a dark leather cuirass. It was styled differently than Bob's. She also had a leather belt around her waist with a dagger in a sheath. Her hair was still tied up into a ponytail. She looked at him with curiosity.

"Three pieces of gear," Ally asked.

"I got lucky I guess," Bob answered. "You ready for this?"

"As ready as I will ever be," Ally answered.

They stood next to each other and waited for the doors to open.

~~~

In a private box, Pain, Mischief, and Luck, all lounged in their chairs. They were all relatively quiet as they waited for the match to start. Pain broke the silence first.

"Are all the wagers set," Pain asked. "I got Harmony to wager again, even though she doesn't have any favored fighting this match. I could only get her to wager one follower though. That should still be enough."

"I was able to wager five more followers with Strategy," Mischief said. "He seemed very confident in his fighter."

"I wagered five with Fertility," Luck said.

Both Pain and Mischief turned to her in surprise.

"You managed to get an ascended to wager," Mischief asked. "How?"

"I simply asked," Luck answered with a light chuckle.

"You are Luck I suppose," Pain said. "It makes sense you would be lucky enough."

"I hope you two are right about all this," Luck said. "We are risking everything on this avatar. We cannot allow him to fail."

They all turned to the arena. The match was about to start.

~~~

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"Ladies and gentlemen," the announcer's voice boomed. "We have a duo fight today, for your entertainment. Coming out now we have the favored of Pain, Mischief, and Luck, and his partner the favored of Shadow."

Bob and Ally walked to the line in the arena. The lines were further apart this time Bob noticed. He bounced on the balls of his feet and rolled his neck trying to get the nervousness he felt to subside a little. Ally shifted her weight from side to side and shook out her arms. The noise from the crowd seemed louder than the last two fights he had even though the stands didn't look like they changed much. He didn't bother with trying to find his patron's private box this time, he was too focused on the match to come.

"And now the challengers of this match we have two partners that have the favor of the same god. The Ascended god of War and the lesser god Strategy!"

"Oh fuck," Bob said. He had a bad feeling that the favors of higher-tier gods would be considerably better than the lesser ones. Bob and Ally shared a nervous glance as their opponents came out and walked to their line. They both wore identical sets of armor. Each one had a gladius and round shield, metal bracers, metal cuirass, leather pants, and a metal helm with hair coming out the top of it like a mohawk. When they got to their line they both turned in unison and saluted to a private box. This one only had one symbol on it. It was an eagle with a sword held in its talons. After the salute to their god, they turned back to face Bob and Ally and got into ready positions, shields up and swords at the high ready.

"By the will of the gods," the announcers yelled. "Let this match begin!"

Felix and Indareal charged, they ran straight towards Bob and Ally. Bob and Ally didn't move at the start signal, instead, they waited for their opponents to get a little more than halfway to them. As soon as they crossed that distance, Bob threw his smoke flask, he aimed his throw to put the flask a couple feet in front of them. His timing was a little off but it still hit in front of them. Felix and Indareal skidded to a stop when the smoke burst in front of them. It was a dark grey cloud that billowed out quickly. It covered a roughly ten-foot diameter sphere. Ally made her move, she vanished from sight and dove into the smoke cloud. The only trace of her movement was the smoke moved a little when she entered the cloud.

Felix and Indareal charged forward again. They were having trouble breathing in the smoke cloud. Felix broke out of the smoke cloud first and spotted Bob immediately. He didn't charge, but moved quickly in Bob's direction, still with his shield raised. Bob moved his fire flask over to his right hand and feinted a throw. Felix flinched back a little trying to cover his upper body with his shield. As soon as Felix lowered his shield and started to move again, Bob hurled the fire flask at him and sprinted to the left in an arc toward the smoke cloud.

Inside the smoke cloud, Ally managed to find Indareal. Indareal was on her knees coughing, she looked to be choking on the smoke. Ally took a little more time, got behind her, and lunged. Her blade plunged into the top of Indareal's shoulder, she missed a killing blow, at the last second Indareal moved her head like she was expecting the attack. Indareal spun around in a flash bringing her shield up to smash into Ally's face. Facial bones crunched and blood spurted from her face. She fell to the ground clutching her face. Indareal pounced, driving her gladius into Ally's chest. The only noise that escaped from Ally was a gurgle, the gladius pierced her lung and heart. Indareal withdrew her gladius, she didn't want to pull out the dagger still in her neck but she knew if the match didn't end quickly she would still bleed out. She stumbled around trying to find her way out of the smoke cloud.

The fire flask exploded on the inside edge of the shield sending shrapnel flying into Felix's helm. Some of the shards made it through and blinded him in one of his eyes. He screamed and dropped his shield and gladius as he was trying to claw his helm off. Bob made it into the smoke cloud and called out for Ally. He had heard screams coming from in the smoke cloud but wasn't sure who they came from. He frantically looked around and spotted a shape on the ground. He moved towards it and saw that it was Ally's body, she was covered in blood, she was stabbed from the side where her leather cuirass didn't cover. Before he had time to fully comprehend what he was seeing, he heard a noise and whipped his head around. Indareal was on her knees clutching the dagger in her neck. She had dropped both her shield and gladius. Bob rushed her quickly, stretching out his foot, and smashed it into her face with a brutal front kick. She fell backwards and Bob pounced on her. He straddled her chest and pinned her arms down with his knees. He reached down and savagely ripped Ally's dagger from Indareal's shoulder. He had the knife point down and drove it into the eye hole of her helm. Her body twitched and convulsed in its death throws. The smoke had started to thin at this point.

Felix thought he was completely blinded but once he got his helm off, he realized he was only blinded in one eye. He cleared his good eye and reached down to pick his shield and gladius back up. He grabbed his gladius, but before he could grab his shield he heard the kick to Indareal's helm. He looked up to see Bob drive a dagger into Indareals head through the clearing smoke. He screamed and charged Bob forgetting about the shield. He lunged with his gladius trying to stab Bob in the neck, but his scream gave him away. Bob rolled to avoid the strike and got back to his feet. He didn't have time to get his footing and slipped when Felix came at him again, this time with a diagonal slash. The slash caught a little of Bob's chin. The rest of the slash dug a grove into his armor. Bob recovered quickly and got his footing. He avoided a follow-up diagonal slash coming from the opposite direction. Felix still enraged lunged forward, practically frothing at the mouth. Bob wasn't able to fully dodge this attack and the sword cut through his armor and into his side. Bob managed to grab Felix's arm before he could withdraw the gladius from his side. With his other arm he there a backhand swing at Felix's head. Felix was trying to get his sword free and didn't see the attack coming for him it came from the side of his blinded eye. The back of Bob's hand landed on Felix's chin and dropped him. Felix had his bell rung and let go of the gladius as he fell to his back.

Bob stumbled a little bit, the gladius still in his side, but righted himself quickly. He summoned a fire flask which was a mistake, he fell to one knee having completely drained his mana. He was already breathing heavily from the stab wound in his side, but now it felt like he couldn't get enough air. His vision started to blur, but he was able to see that Felix started to stir. He watched as Felix rolled and got himself up on his knees. With the last of his remaining strength, he threw the fire flask, as soon as it left his hand he collapsed on his noninjured side and the world went black.