Standing at the far end of a dusty arena, Invicta sneered at the approaching mech, “So you didn’t chicken out? Good for you.”

The mech didn’t reply, moving over to its designated position.

“Too scared to speak eh? Well, you hole up in your tin bucket, you’ll need it.” He looked up at the stands, watching a line of robed apprentices and Mages filing in.

“You see, I’ve invited as many people as I could so that everyone knows of how weak and pathetic you are.”

Among the spectators were the lightning Mages and Siyla, who went right up to the front seats and glowered at Invicta. When Invicta sent a flowery smile to Siyla, she ran her finger across her throat. She looked as if she was about to take Fel's spot and fight Invicta herself.

“Heh, at least someone has confidence in you.”

Glancing at the stands, Fel nodded at Siyla, giving her the thumbs up. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the lightning and metal Mages at a stand-off, though most of the metal Mages hung back. It seemed that Invicta wasn’t popular, even in his own circles.

A referee walked into the arena, wearing a metal visor around his eyes. If you looked closely, you could see faint runes and lines flickering across its surface with blue circles that tracked the two contestants.

“I ask that the contestants remain quiet before the match begins.”

Ignoring the request, Invicta called out to the crowd, “I’m glad that everyone has arrived to this glorious occasion. Today is the day I, Invicta of house Silverwheel will demonstrate the difference between a noble Mage family and the common folk.”

Irked at this blatant disrespect, the referee extended his arm and emitted a terrifying aura, bearing down on Invicta and forcing him to the ground, “If you continue to ignore my rulings, I'll disqualify you.”

Not knowing his limits, Invicta tried to rise again, but the pressure doubled, smashing him to the ground.

“Last warning.”

“You’re just at peak Level 1, that’s nothing in my family. Wait till I catch up,” muttered Invicta internally, though he tapped his hand on the ground, signalling defeat. Soon after, the referee dispersed the pressure.

“That’s better. Now that’s over with, let’s get to business.”

“The rules are simple. Whoever can’t fight further, or surrenders loses. You can use artifacts and weapons as you desire and you can’t attack the loser once they’ve lost. Of course, you can’t charge any spells or techniques before the match begins. Also, don’t worry, I’ll shine a red light if I deem a party to be defeated.”

“The stake is a single, irrefutable demand of the loser. Are both parties in agreement?”

Both parties nodded.

“Very well, the match begins in 10 seconds.”

Fel clenched his fists. He wasn’t talking, not because he felt fear, but because of his current financial situation. While his prototypes performed excellently, his power armour was less impressive, as it only used the basic materials found in the workshop. With Mysvain's assistant, he substantively improved it, however, it came with a great cost. As of now, he had a grand total of 200 crystal coins, a far cry from his initial balance of 10,000 coins. He felt that if he spoke now, he would burst out in tears. But a soldier, especially in the face of battle and danger, must stay calm.

“The match begins in 3...”

“2...”

“1...”

“Fight!”

Before the referee’s voice had even faded, Fel gathered his energy and blasted a bolt of lightning at Invicta.

Yet, the sudden offensive didn’t faze Invicta, who remained calm and congealed a metallic wheel that drew in the lightning and discharged it into the ground.

Not missing a beat, Fel took out his sniper rifle and charged a shot. Yet unlike his previous tests, he allowed for the lightning to run rampant and spill out to his surroundings.

Invicta took out a crystalline vial and poured out the contents to the ground, “Are you stupid? You think using a tool to concentrate your lightning will do anything? Dream on!”

He waved his hands, levitating the pool of mercurial liquid into a large, silvery wheel that looked rather similar to a chakram, “Come, give it your best shot. I’ll defend with the most basic spell of my family!”

Seeing that Invicta would let him do his thing, Fel continued to charge his shot for ten whole seconds, kicking up a storm of energy due to the intense concentration of lightning and pure energy within the rifle.

Without warning, he fired the shot at Invicta, lightning still clinging to the bullet.

With an arrogant smirk, Invicta revolved his wheel, planning to use the same strategy as before. However, though the wheel drew away from the lightning, the bullet remained unaffected and continued to charge towards him.

The sound of glass breaking rung out and a cloud of dust erupted into the air. Not waiting to see the end result, Fel stowed away his steaming sniper rifle and took out his assault rifle, firing a few rounds into the cloud, while tossing in a grenade for good measure, before making a swift retreat. He didn’t believe such a simple trick would defeat Invicta, especially because of those wards he had.

Surely enough, the dense dust made way to a rainbow mist with Invicta safely nestled within, a sour look smeared across his face.

“That was a Level 1 ward I used there, do you know how expensive those are?”

“Nope, but I guess you’ll need another.”

“Huh?”

BOOM!

The sound of breaking glass rung out yet again, this time in a chorus, conjuring a dense cloud of rainbow mist though the grenade's blast and shrapnel stripped it away. Seeing that there was no red light, Fel saw nothing wrong with unleashing a stream of lead onto Invicta.

Invicta, simmering with fury, congealed his mercurial metal into a dozen silver chakrams and threw them at the bullets, slicing them all to shreds. He retrieved the chakrams and cycled them around his person like a school of fish.

He twisted the school of tiny chakrams into a tornado, slicing apart the incoming projectiles. Though each bullet smashed apart half a chakram each, the tornado bought enough time for Invicta to congeal flying wheels under his feet.

Fel was just about to toss out another grenade before Invicta suddenly disappeared.

Aerl’s voice cried out in Fel’s mind, “Dodge!”

Leaping out of the way, Fel avoided being steamrolled by a mass of silver chakrams. Looking back, Fel saw a long line of white fire that lead to Invicta, who had a wheel of silver chakrams cycling behind him.

The flying wheels turned to dust, causing Invicta to drop to the ground, his face a pale white and eyes narrowed with contempt. It was obvious that the move took a great toll on him.

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“You fucking bug. Just sit still and let me crush you!”

He dashed towards Fel, fusing his chakrams into one and sending it flying at Fel. Seeing that the fight was drawing close, Fel exchanged his rifle with an SMG and dodged the person-sized chakram.

“Behind you! Get on the ground!”

Fel dropped to the ground, avoiding the chakram that had circled around like a boomerang to take another shot at him. While he jumped up, he began shooting at Invicta again, taking every opportunity to grind down his defences. Invicta’s defences were far more powerful than the one on the range. He couldn’t let up the offense for even a second.

Invicta stopped the chakram before his palm and flicked his wrist, dividing the circle into several parts, “Stop dodging and die already!” He screamed while sending the chakrams flying towards Fel. They orbited Fel and closed in, cutting off every route of escape.

Just before the chakrams descended onto him, they went awry and swerved off course, allowing for Fel to retreat and leave a few ‘gifts’ for Invicta, not forgetting to fire off a few shots.

Clutching his head, Invicta had lost control of his chakrams and only had his barrier protecting him. The perpetrator was in the stone on Fel’s forehead that was glowing with a subtle lavender light.

Invicta quickly regained control, conjuring a minimal defence before the grenades exploded, stripping it all away and triggering several wards.

Hair flying in the rising metal-wind and his face and clothes blackened, Invicta abandoned his arrogant demeanour, “THE FUCK WAS THAT? I’LL KILL YOU!”

This was supposed to be a one-sided fight. It shouldn’t have posed any problem. The fact that this peasant was giving him so much trouble was a humiliation.

He heard gleeful cheering from the stands. His rage muddled his senses, but he could tell they weren’t in his favour. The middle finger Fel was brandishing in his direction worsened his word even further.

“Very well, I’ll grant your request, I’LL FUCK YOU RIGHT UP!”

He took another vial of liquid that looked like pure silver and poured it on the ground, “CONTROL WHEEL, CONGEAL!”

The liquid rose and formed a circle around his hips that thickened out to form something akin to a platform. Blue lights flickered above its surface, merging into a slew of dense runes, buttons and meters. Though Fel tried to interrupt the sequence by tossing out several grenades, the spell had kicked up a dense storm of metallic energy that blew up the projectiles mid-air.

Invicta’s fingers flew across the ‘keyboard,’ metal in the air dancing to his beat. Suddenly, he slammed his hand down on the wheel and spun it, sending blue runes spiralling into the air.

All the metallic energy in the surroundings charged at Fel’s position who tossed out a handful of energy disruption grenades, escaping through the smoke.

Invicta slammed his palm on the wheel again, sending it spinning in the opposite direction while he inputted commands at a lightning pace.

The dispersed metallic energy clumped together and catapulted toward Fel. Invicta wasn’t about to let up the initiative any time soon.

“Aerl, do something!”

“I can’t, I barely have enough energy left to control the energy within the power armour, let alone launch a mental attack!”

Without another option, Fel flooded his reinforcement formations with energy, put away his SMG, and crossed his arms, hoping to ride out the storm. In the next moment, the train of metal energy crashed into him, dragging him along and smashing him into the arena’s wall.

Though he had charged his defence formations to a maximum, Invicta’s attack had mangled his gauntlet’s armouring that had taken the brunt of the damage. The spell scoured the rest of the suit with deep cracks and dents, some exposing the machinery underneath.

Fel got up and dashed away, expecting another attack. However, it didn’t come; the spell had dried up all the surrounding metallic energy from the first layer downward. Invicta had miscalculated.

Sensing an opportunity, Fel took out his assault rifle and charged toward Invicta, firing rounds at him as he went, though they were blocked by Invicta's barrier.

Invicta, on the other hand, stood still and spread his arms wide.

“Initialize phase 2.”

The control wheel split in two and the mercurial liquid covered his body, forming a thin, defensive layer that fused with his barrier. Now, didn’t care about eloquence, he only wanted to destroy this pretentious bastard.

A large medallion floated out from his vest and pumped out a never-ending tide of metallic energy into his armour and control wheels. The thin layer of metal grew out, forming stylish plates with blue runes flickering on its surface while metallic twisters spiralled around his split control wheels.

On the stands, Mysvain stood up in shock, “How are there runes? There should be an insane amount of will traces on that metal! Dammit, that’s not the strength of a middle Level 1 Mage, that’s bordering on peak Level 1!”

“This, this is why us noble Mages are far superior to you commoners. The fact you people could become a Mage in the first place is a miracle.”

He gazed at Fel, like an immortal looking down on the dirty world below, “Your achievements are formidable, for a peasant at least. But this is where your journey ends.”

Fel switched out his assault rifle with a shotgun and pointed it at Invicta’s distorted face, speaking his first words since the beginning of the match.

“Shut up.”

He pulled the trigger and fired a wave of metal fragments at Invicta. Invicta didn’t even try to dodge, taking it head-on. The fragments shredded apart the armour. However, Fel was met with an inner layer of armour underneath.

Before Fel could continue, Invicta absorbed the metallic energy from the medallion and instantly regenerated the damage. Without a care in the world, he locked onto Fel, “Now it’s my turn.”

He rose his arm, the control wheel segment hovering along with it, and cycling the twister around it at increasing speeds. After the spiralling metallic energy had reached its peak, Invicta brought down his hand, sending down the segment like an executioner’s glaive.

Under his thick visor, Fel was smiling like a madman under the pressure of death, “Aerl, release the stored force energy.”

“All at once?”

“I’ve no other choice. Do it.”

Grimacing, Aerl let loose the pent-up energy. The capacitors were almost overflowing with the stuff, being hit with a freight train of metallic energy did wonders for it, however, if he released all of it at once, the force would injure Fel. Inertia dampeners can only go so far.

The force blasted the power armour off-course, flying clear of the descending cyclone of metallic energy. Fel dug his heel into the dirt and kicked off toward Invicta. Although the insane inertia strained his bones, and a trail of blood leaked from his lips, he ignored it with grim determination.

Surprised that Fel dodged the attack, he swung his other segment at him and retrieved his other segment from the massive trench it left in its wake.

Resorting to his own reserve of energy, Fel blasted force energy from his back, driving him near the ground and allowing him to avoid the incoming segment. From his low position, Fel exchanged his shotgun with an armful of grenades, all he had left, and tackled Invicta to the ground.

He injected his arm guards with force energy and shed them from his arms, letting the stored force energy to press Invicta down. Dropping the grenades on Invicta’s person, Fel took heel and legged it.

Invicta tried to struggle out of the gauntlet’s grips, but even though his spells and techniques were exceptional, he neglected training his body. How could such a ‘noble’ Mage sweat blood and tears like the peasants below him?

“What are you doing? What is this?”

As Fel ran out of range, the pile of grenades erupted behind him. Half a dozen bouts of rainbow mist burst out, yet even those were instantly blasted apart. A massive cloud of dust and grit erupted out, consuming half the arena in an instant.

Yet no red light was in sight. Instead, a golden glow emerged from the cloud. In among the billowing dust clouds, Fel could make out a floating figure emitting a harsh golden glow, whatever the symbol was, however, Fel couldn’t tell.

The golden glow expanded and drowned out the dust cloud, melting them apart. Now that Fel had a clearer look, he could make out a golden knight, made up of ancient runes, hovering above Invicta’s body. It lacked a lower body and held a massive, two-handed sword by its chest. Behind it were nine golden rings, one behind the other, each larger than the last.

The knight gazed at Invicta’s devastated body before plunging its sword into his chest, injecting waves of divine energy into him, stitching together his deep wounds and replenishing his energy.

“Whoa whoa whoa, isn’t this a bit unfair? I went through all that effort for nothing?”

Fel took a quick inventory of his equipment. No gauntlets, damaged suit, no grenades and low assault rifle and SMG ammo. He felt like he really should’ve added a handgun in the lineup, it would’ve come really useful with his current situation. But you get what you get, so Fel took out his sword, gripping it tightly in both hands. His arms couldn’t withstand the force of the sniper rifle or shotgun.

The golden knight turned to Fel and locked eyes with him. Though the knight's aura made Fel apprehensive, he could only sense great sorrow from its eyes, it had no intention to harm him. Soon after, the knight dissolved and vanished to the winds.

“What was that?”

Invicta rose from the middle of the small crater, clutching his head. Although his clothes were shredded, he had no wounds on his body, looking as strong as he was at the start of the battle.

“You… actually made… me use my, cough, lifesaving artifact? And how… how are you still, argh, alive? My ancestors' projection should’ve… killed you!”

With a final insult, Invicta’s eyes rolled back into his head as he fainted. It appeared that while the projection healed his wounds and regenerated his energy, it didn’t do anything for the worn mind.

Half a minute later, the referee gave a deep nod and waved his hand, bathing the arena in a warm, red light.

“The victor is lightning Mage Fel Evenstar!”