Talia saw it coming, but for the first time in years, she found that she was too slow to stop it. Just after the archer loosed his mana-enriched arrow, Talia reached him. She didn’t bother using any skills. Instead, she simply rammed her claws through his leather armor and into his ribcage. Bones shattered an instant later, but her hand kept going until she wrapped her fingers around his heart.

She yanked it away in a shower of blood.

But the damage had already been done. The arrow streaked through the air before slamming into Zeke’s back. It hit with such force that it knocked him flat on his stomach and pinned him to the ground.

Then, Talia saw a hundred more arrows take flight as just as many archers flickered into view. Clearly, they had been cloaked in some sort of stealth, which meant that she’d never had a chance to detect them.

The arrows fell, each one slamming into the motionless Zeke. A roar echoed from across the arena, and Pudge suddenly popped into view. Already, he’d decapitated one of the archers, but there were so many left scattered throughout the arena’s stands. The structure was large enough that even Talia, with her ridiculous speed, wouldn’t be able to get them all.

Fortunately, she was not alone. Not only had Pudge stationed himself in the stands with the goal of ensuring a fair outcome, but the Inashi were there as well. The shadowy kobolds swept out, killing with enviable efficiency as Talia accelerated to full speed. The archers nocked new arrows, but the vast majority of them never had the chance to loose their projectiles. Between Talia, Pudge, and the Inashi, they were able to slaughter most of the remaining enemy.

But a few got their arrows off, only to die before another second passed.

After that, a dense silence spread across the arena. Talia dropped her latest victim as she stared at where Zeke had fallen. She froze, unable to move. If he’d died…

No, Talia couldn’t let herself consider that. Instead, she vaulted from the stands, intent on going to him. However, she quickly hit a mana-based shield that stopped her cold. Falling to the front row of the arena, she briefly panicked as she saw someone approach from the entrance far below.

Someone she recognized.

Someone she hated.

* * *

Zeke struggled to breathe.

He’d lost count of how many arrows had pierced his back, but he knew there were a lot of them. That, coupled with the wounds from the battle against the brute, meant that he was wholly incapacitated. He tried to push himself upright, but the best he could manage was to roll free of the slain brute. When his back hit the ground, dozens of arrows splintered, their heads digging ever deeper into his flesh.

But he was more interested in the person approaching.

“Abby,” he coughed, spitting blood across his chin. “Come to finish what you started?”

She looked different than the last time he’d seen her. Both better and worse. Better, because she seemed to have had a weight lifted from her shoulders. But worse because she bore a mask of scars that stretched up across her neck and extending to just below her right eye. They were barely visible even in the harsh light of day, but Zeke’s vision had long since progressed past superhuman capabilities. So, he noticed them.

“I could, you know.”

“Last…I saw…you were running away,” Zeke said. If she was going to do it, then he wanted her to get it over with. The best way to ensure that was to provoke her.

“It’s not going to work, Zeke,” Abby said, stopping a few feet away.

“What?” he choked.

“I’m past this,” she stated. Squatting down, Abby went on, “You know, I was gone. Long gone. I’d settled down. I thought I’d left all of this behind. Then, about three months ago, Ignatius finds me. Oh, he doesn’t come himself. He’s too good for that. Instead, he sends a team of knights. I don’t know how they escaped your little siege, but they did. And they found me, directed by the Sun Goddess herself. Do you know why?”

“To kill me?” he muttered.

“Something like that,” Abby answered. “I think you really pissed her off, Zeke. She’s given them everything they said they needed, all in the hopes that they could kill you. And she wanted me to do it. She thought it would hurt more.”

“The contract...”

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“Doesn’t apply to me,” she stated. “Not to most of the Radiant Host in this city, actually. She cut them off – temporarily, she said – so that they wouldn’t be included in that contract.” She paused, tilting her head to the side. “You hear that, right? They’re attacking your pet monsters right now. And they’re going to hit a lot harder than you ever thought possible.”

Zeke’s stomach twisted into knots. Not from the pain. He felt that, but he’d long since learned to ignore it. Instead, his problems stemmed from the undeniable fact that he had lost. As injured as he was, he couldn’t even fight back. And [Hand of Divinity] was lost to him so long as he remained within the arena.

“Stop,” Abby said. “Come any closer, and he dies. I’m not as fast as you, Talia, but I’m fast enough to make good on that promise. I can assure you that much.”

Only then did Zeke realize that both Pudge and Talia had come to the arena. Vaguely, he sensed the Inashi nearby as well, but they felt further away.

“If you do anything to him…”

“You’ll kill me,” Abby said. “I know. You’ll probably kill me regardless, won’t you? You’ve always hated me.”

“You have earned it.”

Abby sighed. “I suppose I have,” she admitted. “I don’t mean to be, if it makes any difference.”

“It does not.”

“What do you want?” asked Pudge.

Abby shook her head. “I wanted to be left alone,” she answered. “I thought I had escaped. I was building a life. Not one of importance, but the little community I found…well, it was good. I could have been happy. But they dragged me back, and well…here I am. The question is what I do now.”

Zeke shifted a little, though he couldn’t move much more than that. He was not accustomed to being helpless, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Instead, he looked inward. Not at his core of power, which was held behind the cage wrought by Oberon. Instead, he looked at himself. At the essence of who he was.

And he realized something extremely important.

He was not the sort of man to die helpless in some forgotten arena. He was more than that. He was stronger. He just needed to harness his power in a different way, and one that didn’t necessarily conform to the system.

Once, Zeke had heard stories about monks who could control their own heartbeats, who had such command over their bodies that they could accomplish all sorts of amazing feats. And if those monks back on Earth could do such a thing, then why couldn’t Zeke? Only then did he realize that, for months and months, he’d been training for that very thing. Not explicitly, but rather though his extensive time in the Hunting Grounds.

During countless hours training against innumerable enemies, Zeke had developed a level of body control that far exceeded anything that would have been possible back on Earth. It went deeper than controlling his muscles – or his physical being – and dipped into the spiritual. Recognizing that unlocked something within him, and suddenly, he felt his wounds begin to mend.

It wasn’t as fast as if he’d used [Hand of Divinity], which could mend him in seconds, but it was enough to stem the flow of blood and reverse some of the damage that had been done.

His fingers twitched.

“What do you want?” he asked, his eyes boring into Abby.

“The same thing I wanted when they came for me,” she answered. “I want to be left alone. I want to go back to the little village where I’d settled and live my life. And I know the only way that’s going to happen is if I help you. So, the question is – are you going to try to kill me the second we get out of this arena?”

“I could never kill you,” he breathed, strength already flooding back into his body.

“I believe you,” she said. “But I’m also going to need some assurances against her.”

Zeke’s eyes flicked to Talia, who looked like she was almost vibrating in her eagerness to rip Abby apart.

“You hear her, Talia?” he asked.

“I heard. I don’t like it. She’ll just betray us again.”

“If she does, feel free to tear her to pieces,” Zeke said, his voice stronger. Then, he glanced at Abby and asked, “Deal?”

“Deal.”

Only then did Zeke pick himself up. His body still played host to dozens of arrows, many of which had been broken, but he had recovered enough of his strength to regain his feet.

Abby’s jaw dropped. “What? How?”

Zeke didn’t have the energy for a proper shrug, so he just said, “A lot has changed since we were together.”

Then, he stepped past her and began the long, hobbling trip back to the arena gate. Along the way, Talia stepped in to rip the arrows free. It was not pleasant, but it was necessary. After he’d gone a few feet, he looked back and asked, “Are you coming?”

* * *

Abby’s heart was beating out of her chest. She knew precisely how dangerous Zeke could be, which was why she hadn’t dared to approach until after the fight against the battle slave and the subsequent volley of arrows. But he’d never truly been down. She had never really been in control.

She took a deep breath, pushing those thoughts aside. As she’d learned of late, nobody could control everything. It had taken nearly dying in the Emerald Expanse, then being rescued by Renou, before she had accepted her own fallibility.

The thought of Renou sent a pang of grief through her mind. She hadn’t known him that long, but he’d taken her in and cared for her as if she was one of his family. As such, she had been accepted by the rest of the village where she’d been taken. What had followed was the happiest stretch of time she’d experienced in her entire life.

Then, it had ended when the Radiant Host had found her.

They hadn’t even considered asking nicely. They’d simply slaughtered everyone in the village, then informed her that her presence was required. She wouldn’t have gone if they hadn’t spoken with the borrowed authority of the Sun Goddess herself. That had forced Abby to go along.

But now, she had managed to wriggle free of those restraints – probably because so much power had been expended to subvert the dueling contract imposed upon Zeke – and she could do what she wanted to do.

And she very much wanted to bring the entire Radiant Host down. Everything else she’d said was merely in service of that goal. She needed Zeke, and not just because she knew that he – or Talia – would kill her given half a chance. No, it was also because without him and his army, the Radiant Host would persevere, and she would once again become enslaved.

If that happened, she would never get her vengeance for what had happened to Renou and the other villages. They’d been primitive people, but they had been kind to her. And then, they’d died.

Abby was hellbent on getting justice for that act.

With that in mind, she nodded at Zeke and followed him out of the arena. It wasn’t the first time she’d followed him into battle, but in the back of her mind, she hoped it would be the very last.