Where the fuck had Vesp found this guy?
That was the most prevalent thought running through Bear’s mind as she raised her guard to block the next incoming attack. The guy’s fist hit squarely against her shoulder, and it stung. It was a mix of startling and annoying, Bear kept looking for any signs of augs on him, but every scanner in the coliseum came back blank.
Her gaze flickered at chat. They were going wild. A quick-poll put their entertainment value having doubled since the start of the stream, the number of viewers had hit the first hundred thousand and was steadily growing. A notification informed her-
“Where are you looking!?”
The jab came in too fast, a light tap against her nose that sent her reeling back more in shock and annoyance than pain. Her snarl was interrupted as the freak launched himself into another barrage of attacks he should not have had the stamina to sustain. He was strong, strong enough that Bear could feel her arms starting to bruise.
She hastily sent another quick-poll at the crowd. Was it time to put this barbarian into his-
“I said!” He lunged at her, entering her space before she could backpedal out. “Where!” He sent a right hook. It was telegraphed, yet even raising her arms to block, it was like getting hit by a train. “Are!” Another right hook, stronger, her feet skidded across the dirt. “You!” Another right hook, her legs shook. “Looking!”
Her knees threatened to buckle.
Instinct had her roll into the punch, skipping several steps away and finally buying herself some space. Snarling, she got a ping, confirming chat had agreed it was time to go a bit more into the offensive.
The moment he caught up, he tried another large right, and rather than take it, Bear ducked under. Then leaned away from the second punch, and weaved her way around the third. His gaze sharpened as, suddenly, none of his attacks were landing. The guy’s technique was clean, almost textbook, but he had such massive tells it was impossible he had any proper experience brawling.
At his next large swing, she parried the attack, slapping it upwards with one arm and throwing a punch squarely into his chest. Though not at full force, she couldn’t push things too hard. If she just up and broke his ribs, that’d be it for the stream.
And yet, as her fist slammed against his chest, she felt like she’d just hit something far tougher than bone. She tried to hide her shock, but all the hesitation got her was a headbutt square on the nose.
Bear’s ass hit the floor so hard she bounced, head spinning. She raised her arms to protect herself from a follow-up, but no further attacks came. Her stream-guest just stared down at her silently. He looked just as surprised as she was, blinking rapidly and taking a slow step back, giving her the room to get back on her feet.
The taste of blood reached her lips.
Blinking slightly as she touched her nose, she saw the tips of her fingers stained with her own blood.
“The last guy to headbutt me cracked their skull.” She muttered. A simple touch confirmed nothing had broken, but the pain was slowly starting to register. “What the fuck are you made of?”
He just shrugged. “Unga and Bunga blessed me.” His voice was thick with sarcasm.
Gritting her teeth, Bear cut-off the mics and ordered the AI’s to add a mask to the vids so it looked like they weren’t talking. The editors were already making jump-cuts and stretching out the silence to make it more dramatic, and the ad-break would start. “What’s your deal? Honestly. Is your ego bruised just because you fucked up the intro?”
He’d bungled the “shamanic ritual”, it’d been a pain to make-up for through the improvised “show of powers”. It was understandable. The teen was still wet behind the ears, a fresh streamer, and didn't understand the ins and outs of the business. But the more this went on, the more it looked like he just didn’t want to engage with the stream at all.
“I made a bet, I plan to win it.” He answered flatly.
Bear rolled her eyes, was this guy serious? Surely he was aware he’d lose the instant she got serious about this, right? “One final blaze of glory or something? Win against a meguca before you get cut-up by the Shadow Reaper?” The suppressed twitch confirmed some of what she’d said rang true. “There’s no shame in losing against a stronger opponent. You gave me a nose-bleed, I’m sure chat won’t ever let me live it down.”
That got a stronger reaction out of him than the taunt. Though he didn’t answer verbally, he raised his fists and tightened his stance. It was a familiar stance, though Bear couldn’t quite place it. “Where did you learn to fight?” She asked, relaxing her shoulders. “It’s got to be some academy or some shit, right?” Bear had heard that corpo-martial-arts emphasized survival and looking for an opportunity to run away, which didn’t fit the aggression he’d shown so far.
The guy didn’t answer.
“Doesn’t matter, I guess.”
Her neuralink pinged, confirming the ad-break was over. Bear sent the green light to start back up, glancing at chat to confirm they were indeed going wild. There were already several dozen variations of the headbutt clip doing rounds, and the moderators were agreeing that maybe she-
The only warning of the attack was a growl, Bear raised her arms and took the punch, feet skidding back. Another notification ping, but this one had to go unread because the aggression had turned back up to eleven, pushing her further back. “Fuck!” Hastily throwing a kick towards his unprotected shins.
There was a brief moment of concern she just might shatter the guy’s tibia, but it vanished when the tip of her steel-tipped boot met something solid.
“What the fuck are you made of?”
Her question was met by a clumsy kick at her knee. Bear just took a half-step to avoid it, throwing a second harder kick against his shin. This time he’d expected it, raising his foot into a frontal kick towards her gut. She snatched the foot and pulled, forcing him to hop along with the remaining one so he’d keep balance.
“You’ve never really fought before, have you?” She laughed.
Refusing to answer, he used his remaining leg to jump forward, with far more force than Bear had anticipated. The caught foot slipped her fingers and sank into her gut, with enough force to thrust her back. Her boots slid through the ground, crashing her into a pile of boxes and breaking her stability. With a squawk of indignation, she’d let go of the foot, toppling over into the pile. Laying on the empty boxes, the meguca flung her limbs around, trying to get back up on her feet. Several notifications pinged her way, informing her that chat was taking a hefty amount of clips of the whole thing.
With mounting frustration, she set her notifications to mute. “Fine.” She growled through gritted teeth. “Don’t cry if you break.”
Because once she loosened her chains, everyone broke.
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A sudden sense of danger overcame me as Bear dropped her right arm, letting it hang loosely at her side. I immediately backpedaled a few steps, cautiously watching. A thin silver chain coalesced around her wrist, shimmering strangely under the coliseum lights, ethereal in some way I couldn’t quite understand. A small burst of light broke the illusion, and with it the silver chain evaporated, I had the feeling I was about to see her get serious.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Here I come,” Bear said.
Tucking her right fist against her armpit in preparation, she jumped in. I barely had the chance to raise my guard to tank the hit, feeling more than seeing the impact. It was as if a bell had been struck, leaving behind ringing bones. But even as my feet dragged back through the ground, I pushed through the pain, gritting my teeth and throwing a hasty counter-attack.
Though not without a slight hesitation as my fist met her unprotected face.
Bear had just been staring at me as if I’d just grown a second head.
The tap-to-her-nose had forced her a few steps back. “What the fuck!?” She growled, holding her nose for a moment.
I didn’t give her the chance to recover, rushing forward and launching a new barrage of attacks. Though this time, my focus was on trying to gauge what was going on with her right arm. That punch had been far heavier than any previous one, so much so I’d hesitate to claim I held a definite advantage. It was for this reason that my assault focused entirely on trying to get Bear to block me with her right arm as much as possible. Worst case scenario, I’d get to wear her out before she could do more of whatever she’d just done.
Well, punching her in the face had been satisfying at least.
“How!?” Her question rang out, shocked, looking at me with wide eyes, not bothering to attack and instead focusing on defending. And she was damn good at it.
I didn’t answer. As much as I hated her taking this match as some sort of publicity stunt, my life depended on this whole match. It was still frustrating, however, how Bear’s toughness far exceeded her strength. Clearly my blows were doing some damage at some level, but it looked like the match was going to become one of endurance.
“How!?” She asked again, skidding across the ground as she’d expertly leaned into my hook. Her body had to weigh half as much as mine, and even then I felt like I was punching a reinforced wall every time.
Seeing I would not answer, she threw another punch with her right. It struck my shoulder hard enough to force me back, and though I was left wide-open for a follow-through, she just stared. “How the fuck are you alive!?” Her voice was genuinely surprised, and I couldn’t help but shrug.
No sense in lying, and I wasn’t about to tell her about my enhancements. So I just jumped straight back in to continue the assault. I kept trying to find ways around this, but nothing was getting through. And yet, each punch made her stagger a little more, she’d flinch whenever I landed a hit against her arms. Bear looked like she was either starting to wear out, or my attacks had done enough damage they were starting to hurt.
It looked like it would be an endurance match.
Then, there was a flash of light on her left arm, the tinkling sound of breaking chains.
Something hit my chest hard enough to kill my inertia and knock the air right out of my lungs. My legs wobbled and chest throbbed with pain, I gasped for breath, warily trying to keep my guard up while Bear just looked at me, then down at her left fist.
“You’re alive.” She whispered.
Two more flashes of light, this time from her legs, I didn’t have time to recover my breath, tightening my guard when she pounced, faster than before. The blow was heavier than any before it. Pain shot through my arms as I grit my teeth, standing my ground even as a second blow came, then a third. Bear didn’t bother to feint or attack any unprotected area, instead punching into my guard with increasingly powerful swings.
My legs threatened to buckle, but I held fast until I found my opportunity. With her lower half completely exposed, I took a page out of her own handbook and kicked at her legs. Much to my surprise, it was as if I’d just kicked a piece of rebar, embedded to the ground.
“Your timing’s off.” She chuckled.
I kicked again, harder this time. She tried to keep her leg steady, but I aimed at her knee, bending her leg inward. The meguca quickly tried to compensate, and I threw a wide swing from the opposite side, making her stumble. I pressed into her space, feinting a quick jab at her face but reaching out to grab her hand instead.
The academy hadn’t just taught lessons on pugilism.
With a spin, I yanked her arm and shoved my hip into her, throwing her whole body up into the air and smashing it against the ground with a textbook judo-throw. The blow shook the ground, and the meguca became very still. A moment of concern passed through me before she let out a hacking coughing sound, one that turned into a fit of giggling laughter.
“You sneaky bastard.” She cackled, getting back up to her feet and dusting herself off.
No more was said as she threw herself right back into the fight. I was quickly back on the defensive, doing my best to block her blows. Something had shifted in the meguca, her eyes were sparkling in delight as she attacked wildly. Though the laughter had died out, the smile on her face was ecstatic. The meguca wasn’t even bothering to get around my guard, hammering away at it as if I were nothing more than an anvil. Despite feeling like a punching bag, there was a feeling of exhilaration within me as I sought for an opening.
One of her swings came a bit too high, and I countered with a hook into her ribs, putting everything I got into it. Something cracked, and Bear let out a groan that turned into laughter.
“You motherfucker.” She hissed through gritted teeth, a mile-wide smile nearly splitting her face in two. “Now you’ve done it.”
A gold chain appeared on her right fist, thicker than the previous one, cracking and breaking in a flash of light.
I only had a split-second to throw myself away, raising my guard before impact.
It was like getting hit by a flying telephone pole, the ground suddenly blurred beneath me and I bounced as a pebble might skip across a still lake. My fall was thankfully mitigated by the empty boxes I’d crashed into along the way, though the pain in my arms warned me I definitely could not take many such hits.
Mind racing as I hurried to get back up, I quickly sought a new plan of attack. A slug-fest couldn’t work anymore, my best bet would likely lean into grappling, otherwise-
“You won.”
I blinked. “What?”
“You won.” Bear sighed, lowering her fists. “I used lethal force.”
I… won?
I won… because she’d broken the rules.
The sense of disappointment caught me by surprise, and for a split second I very nearly did something stupid like saying I could go on. And I had the hunch that Bear felt the same way. The meguca gave me a long glance before raising her hand and making a waving motion. At her command, the drones that’d been flying around the coliseum took off, the lights dimmed slightly, and the autocannons overhead pulled into their housing.
“Ok, mic’s are off. I need to know.” Bear crossed her arms, giving me a once over. “I’ve broken borged out assholes with a lot less than that last punch.” Suspicion flashed across her face. “You should be dead.”
I just shrugged. “Like I said, Unga and Bunga blessed me.” I offered a hand. “It… was fun.”
Bear looked at my hand. “I guess it was, huh.” With a nod, she reached out and shook.
The moment our hands clasped, a shudder ran up my arm, a jolt that ran through my whole body, a pop-up surging out with an intense soundless s
Bearer of bad news (1) SUCCESS!:
Defeat meguca Bear in single combat (didn’t use guns but still cheated).
Rewards:
Max AP Bonus: 200 -> 400
Strength: 5 -> 7
New Quest! Bearer of bad news (2):
Defeat meguca Bear without her titanium-chains Failure Conditions:
Meguca Bear’s death.
Win through Technicality (cheater).
Using guns (don’t cheat!).
Bear’s grip abruptly tightened, eyes wide, mouth parting and opening slightly in surprise. “You…” Her brows furrowed. “You’re a meguca.”