Solomon half considered tossing a bomb over to finish things off. Just to be sure. He balked at the cost, though. His handmade bombs had used up an enormous amount of beast cores. He hated to use them when he wasn't going to reap a similar harvest of monster cores, when his life wasn't in danger.

Not to mention that he'd feel like a real moron if he ended up killed by his own bomb. With the manual dexterity Kanmi had shown earlier, catching the bomb and tossing it back before it went off would be easy as pie. No, the best way to finish this fight off was with another bullet.

He walked closer to his downed opponent. While the bleeding had slowed, Kanmi had made no move to regain his weapon or take his feet. He was still scratching at his armor. Solomon could only imagine how it felt to have the system trying to heal around a mess of bullet fragments.

Solomon stopped about ten feet away. He was still well out of reach of his opponent, but he had a decent angle to aim at his head. He even had a reasonable prospect of hitting where he aimed. He started lining up the shot while Kanmi was still cussing up a storm. If he missed, he would need a few minutes to reload in the face of an alerted enemy.

Either the motion or some sixth sense caught Kanmi's attention. He looked up and his eyes widened.

"Fine!" he spat out, raising his hands, "I give!"

Solomon almost reacted to the sudden motion by taking a shot, catching himself with his hook halfway to the touch hole. The gun was still only pointed in the right direction, not dialed in for a killing shot. It seemed a little unfair to shoot someone who wasn't resisting, but the whole arena setup was hardly fair to begin with.

A system dialog appeared while Solomon was debating with himself what to do next.

Would you like to accept the surrender of KANMI CRITONIA?

"What?" Solomon asked. He had been caught wrong-footed both by the act of surrender and by the system butting in. He had never seen any previous indication that the system knew of any way to resolve a conflict besides death.

"Just accept the surrender!" Kanmi said. "You're going to want me by your side."

Solomon glared down at Kanmi. He couldn't help but feel like he was being sold a bill of goods. He'd already suffered plenty at the hands of an arbitrary and capricious system. He didn't see much attraction in setting up some kind of long term relationship with an alien who had come to Earth bent on conquest.

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"Want you by my side?" he scoffed. "Don't tell me you're a hot alien chick under all that armor."

"I'm whatever you want," Kanmi said, "as long as you're pointing that thing at me."

"Yeah, and what happens when I stop?" Solomon asked. "I wake up with a knife in the back?"

He had no illusions about his ability to take Kanmi in a straight fight. Setting aside weapons and armor, the alien clearly knew way more about what he was doing in a fight than Solomon did. Couple that with a lifetime of learning the ins and outs of the system and Solomon didn't see how he could come out on top any time Kanmi decided to renegotiate their relationship. And that was assuming he didn't just wake up dead one day.

"It doesn't-" Kanmi began, before he had to pause as a series of wet, heavy coughs forced their way out. "Fuck! You can always banish me if you want."

As he started to come down from the excitement of battle, Solomon felt a twinge of regret. He had clearly won the duel. He had his opponent laid out helpless on the ground. And he was thinking about killing the guy just because it would be convenient.

The system had already driven Solomon to desperate acts before. It probably would again. But right now, he at least had the breathing room to show some humanity.

"Fine, whatever," Solomon grumbled. He hated making decisions when he didn't properly know what was going on. If he wasn't going to kill Kanmi, though, the only thing he could do was mentally click the "yes" button in the system dialog. There was brief bit of fanfare before a new system dialog appeared.

Congratulations on defeating KANMI CRITONIA by surrender!

4000 dungeon coins have been deposited to your account!

You have been awarded a Zone Command Token (3/3) for your victory in this challenge!

Solomon noticed as he dismissed the message that his MP pool had been refilled. At the same time, Kanmi let out a gasp of relief before beginning to breathe easy. It seemed the healing at the end of an arena fight didn't discriminate between winner and loser.

"Oh, System's mercy," Kanmi said, before climbing to his feet. "How did you afford a weapon like that in just one day?"

Solomon didn't answer, though he filed the information away in the back of his head. Did most people not make their own weapons? It made sense that a gun that worked in the face of the system's interference would be a big ticket item. He'd certainly charge an arm and a leg if he started selling any.

Solomon lowered his pistol, though he didn't put it away. He wanted to be ready to fire on a moment's notice, just in case. He didn't want to murder anybody in cold blood. That didn't mean that he was going to let himself be played for a sucker.

"Let's talk surrender terms."

He'd never negotiated anything more important than a car purchase before. Then again, he'd never personally killed anything before the system showed up. This was turning into a whole day full of new experiences. During a supposed grace period, too. Solomon hated to think of what might be lurking out there, waiting for the training wheels to come off.