Hard Rock Stadium, Miami, Florida, New American Republic, January 1, 2037
“Any last words, Lanny?” Chip said.
“I think I’ve said all I’ve wanted to, Chip,” Lanny replied.
“Then it’s time to give the fans what they want. What they’ve been waiting for since day one of the Freedom Championships! All the analysis and predictions by our expert analysts are in. The teams are inside their locker rooms getting ready to come out to the arena field. It’s all been leading up to this moment. Two teams remain out of the original eight. Only one will leave the field today with their arms raised. For the losers, the knowledge that they were so close to the mountain top. For the winners, victory and all the glory and riches that comes with it. We are proud to bring you the final match of the Gold Division three versus three competition. The Furies versus the Heartfuries! Who will claim the name? Tune in and find out right after this short break!” Chip said.
“I can’t wait! It feels just like the Superbowl!” Lanny grinned. “Kids, ask anyone over forty and they’ll tell you what I mean.”
The screen went black for a moment before cutting to a man in a dark purple robe, he flipped his hood to reveal a red devil mask. Eerie chanting echoed in the background. A scream. Sobs.
“Hello, citizens of the New American Republic. I am Mammon, inner council of the Cabal. Do you think you have what it takes to delve into the mystical arts? Arts brought here by an immortal being from another world. If you do, come join us. For a small fee you can be initiated into our mysteries. Gain power beyond imagining! Take the very reins of the world into your hands!”
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The dark tunnel shook with the combined strength of nearly one hundred thousand people stomping and cheering.
“Remember, winning isn’t a hundred percent necessary,” Dayana said.
“Isn’t it though?” Jayde’s face scrunched up.
“No, it isn’t.”
“Yeah, but, actually, if we win then we get to, like, sit at the table closest to the king’s table at that post-championships dinner celebration thing,” Jayde said.
“Coming in second will get us close enough,” Dayana said, “Hayden, help me out here. I thought this was settled?”
“Look, I’m just saying that winning will give us huge rewards. The spires dropped that extra good stuff. We’re going to need everything we can get for later,” Jayde said.
“I’m starting to think those weirdos that say the spires can think are right,” Hayden mused. “It’s almost like they knew that we weren’t going to go for it so they dropped those last minute extra rewards on us just to force us to try harder.”
“Exactly!” Jayde said. “An extra level on top of what’s already been offered! A flat ten percent increase to my max mana and your max stamina! An extra Skill or spell that’s supposed to be a higher tier? Hayden’s getting an extra five distributable stat points! And a flat twenty percent increase to her electricity power’s max output! These things are too good to pass up! Think of the main Quest. Odds of success goes up alongside our strength.”
“It does represent potentially years of hard work condensed down to one fight,” Hayden said.
“What about keeping our true strength hidden?” Dayana said.
“The boss hasn’t contacted us to warn us off it or anything. That means, according to the plan, we can do what we want,” Jayde pointed out. “Plus, we win and we take our name back. I heard that’s a rule.”
“I don’t care about that. They can keep it… but, I want those new rewards. It’ll make us a lot stronger, practically overnight,” Hayden said.
“Our actual Quest…” Dayana tried, but her tone had wavered into uncertain territory as the conversation continued.
“You can’t argue that us getting almost instantly stronger will only make our success more likely,” Hayden said.
“And it doesn’t matter if we go all out. As long as we win, we pick up new ultimate abilities,” Jayde said.
“We won’t know how to use them effectively without a lot of practice and training,” Dayana said.
“Yo, that’s like an easy problem to fix,” Jayde sighed. “Quit trying to find holes. All them downsides aren’t that bad and they’re definitely not even worth considering with all the upsides. Right, Hayden?”
“Sorry, Dayana, but I’m with Jayde on this one…”
“Wow… such a ringing endorsement,” Jayde snorted. “Try not to look so defeated by it,” she chuckled. “Right, so that’s settled then? We’re going to go all out.”
“Yeah,” Hayden said.
“Okay… I’m all in too,” Dayana nodded. “We need to change the fight plan. Let’s get these chicks out of there quick.”
“Death from above?” Jayde said.
“Sounds good, but which one do I take out first?” Dayana said. “Not the lightning one. Hayden’s partially immune to magic electricity. So, that’d be a waste.”
“That’d be the one in red, Alecto, right?” Jayde said.
“Yeah…”
“Unless they change up the color scheme… that’s what I’d do. Mix it up randomly, keep everyone guessing,” Jayde said.
“They haven’t yet. And the surprise will only last until they use their abilities,” Dayana said.
“The fire pillars are slow enough that we can just jump out of the spell circles. That’s Megaera, the one in blue. So, I vote for taking the cold aura one, Tisiphone,” Hayden said.
“She’s in green,” Dayana nodded. “That aura was pretty effective against that invisible skull mask guy. I’m pretty sure it’ll be just as effective against me.”
“So, her first, followed by the fire one, then lightning,” Jayde said. “I’ll set up death from above for you,” she nodded at Dayana, “while throwing up some distractions for them. Hayden, you stand there and maybe get the lightning one to throw a few of those discs your way,” she shrugged.
“I’ll spread us out some,” Hayden said.
The motors powering the sliding iron gate whirred to life with the great groaning sound of the chains protesting against the strain.
“Helmets on,” Hayden said.
“It’s go time!” Jayde clapped. “Heartfuries!” she whooped.
They strode out of the dark tunnel and into a cacophony of cheers and jeers rained down upon by the tens of thousands in attendance.
Jayde grinned and flashed the crowd a two-fingered salute.
Over a hundred yards away on the other end of the arena their opponents emerged from the tunnel with eyes only for them.
A brief thought flashed through Hayden’s mind.
What was their story?
How had they gotten to this point in life?
The search for power didn’t spring forth out of nothing.
What drove those three women?
How much did they have in common?
None of that mattered in the moment.
The only thing she cared about was victory.
For the fight, for the greater Quest.
Failure meant death or worse as these things tended to go.
Her and her friends had been lucky so far in continually coming out of horrible fights alive and stronger when so many others had fallen along the wayside.
She thought of Kath and the Hearts.
Their legacy she carried.
The spark that drove her forward more than even the source of her electric power.
“Focus on the moment,” Dayana said.
“I am now.”
“Just in time too,” Jayde pointed at the countdown hovering above the stadium in huge, glowing numbers, “pulling out the big magic for this, aren’t they?”
Hayden frowned.
Her mind had completely wandered. So much so that she had missed the announcer’s introductions and hyping up the crowd, not that it needed any.
Tens of thousands of people united in a near-froth for excitement and blood.
“We rush them,” Dayana said. “I’ll be ready for the launch.”
“Got it. I’ll hit them with the distraction first. Then send you up,” Jayde said.
“I’ll go wide to the right and try to circle around to their flank or rear depending on how they decide to start things,” Hayden said.
“I’ll go left in that case,” Jayde said.
The countdown hit zeroes and they sprinted forward just like the other team.
At 50 yards apart Jayde skidded to a stop and punched the ground casting a small wall of mixed earth and stone out of the arena’s dirt floor.
It forced the Furies to split their tight formation.
Two went right, while the last member, green-clad Tisiphone stumbled to the left.
With her other fist Jayde punched the ground and launched Dayana up high into the air with a small pillar of dirt that crumbled as it shot up at an angle toward Tisiphone.
Dayana scattered a spread of smoke grenades down. Then switched to her assault rifle firing several bursts before flickering and disappearing from sight.
She reappeared a second later behind Tisiphone slicing low with her long knife.
The green-clad Fury hissed as she fell hard on her knees both hamstrings cut.
She turned and lashed out with a whip sheathed in frost.
Dayana flickered behind the Fury and brought her bloody blade around to press it against the Fury’s neck. “Tap out,” she said flatly.
“You can’t kill me,” Tisiphone chuckled, “it’s against the rules.”
“Cutting your throat won’t kill you right away,” she drew her blade across the woman’s neck. Lightly, not too deep.
Tisiphone clutched the sudden red smile on her neck.
Dayana flickered to avoid the rapid stream of fiery bolts from Megaera.
The blue-clad Fury forced her farther away while Tisiphone murmured.
“You okay?” Megaera said as she reached her teammate’s side. She lashed her flame-covered whip menacingly toward Dayana and Jayde.
“Fine,” Tisiphone rasped. She moved her hand from her neck to reveal an ice covered wound. “Can’t move,” she gestured toward the ice-covered slices in her hamstrings.
“You don’t move much anyways,” Megaera said.
“Don’t worry… the black one is too quick… I’ll try… catch Punchy… freezing circles,” Tisiphone said.
“What are they saying?” Jayde said.
The two Furies’ lips where moving, but the crowd noise made it impossible to hear their words.
“Watch your feet. She’s going to try to get you in one of her frozen circles,” Dayana had read their lips. “Tch, should’ve used Bleed.”
“Watch out!” Jayde punched the ground.
An earthen wall sprang to life eating the blue-white beam from Tisiphone’s outstretched hand.
Ice and frost crystallized on the surface of Jayde’s wall.
They glanced down at the red-orange magic circle underneath their feet.
“Shit! Move!” Dayana shoved Jayde out of the circle before diving.
Flame shot out of the ground like a pillar reaching for the sky.
The heat singed their exposed faces like standing too close to a forge fire.
“Give me a shield!” Dayana said.
“Here you go!” Jayde slapped her.
“I’m going to see about putting the ice one out for real,” she peeked around the earthen wall pulling her head back quickly to avoid the lancing blue-white beam. “The fire one can’t get too close to her because of that cold aura.”
“You sure?” Jayde said.
“I think so,” Dayana nodded. “I just need to move quickly enough to get back into knife fight range. I’ll stab the shit out of her until she gives up or the refs decide it’s enough.”
Stolen novel; please report.
“Good luck! I’ll stay here and try not to get burned. Shi—!” Jayde scrambled to avoid getting cooked by the second pillar of flame. “I hope Hayden’s doing better.”
She couldn’t see what was happening on the other side of the arena through all the smoke.
Hayden powered through the disk of whirling magic lightning.
She was immune to mundane electricity while only being partially immune to the magical kind.
Thus, she got a small taste of her own medicine as her body momentarily seized up. Muscles spasmed painfully for a split-second as the magic coursed through her body.
The red-clad Alecto lashed out with a whip crackling with arcs of magic.
Hayden raised her arm to block.
Steel was a good conductor, but that went both ways.
She willed the electricity within her to pulse out with violence.
Magical and mundane warred on the surface of her body.
Neither proved dominant, achieving a sort of stalemate that allowed her to continuing sprinting forward with only a little pain.
She got in range and drew her custom taser.
A squeeze of the trigger sent the tiny barbs flying into Alecto.
She sent a pulse of electricity down the trailing wires, into the barbs, into Alecto’s body.
The woman jerked and spasmed.
Huh? Hayden thought. You cast lightning magic, so you should have some kind of immunity, but apparently not enough to shrug me off. Are you only immune to your own? Or only to the magical kind? Her helmet hid her feral grin. Let’s find out.
She poured enough electricity to down an elephant through the wires as she closed the distance.
Alecto fell to the ground sending up a cloud of dust with her convulsions.
“Give up or I keep shocking you.” Hayden looked down at the sudden orange glow beneath her boots. She jumped back losing her taser wires to a pillar of intense flame.
Alecto gasped with a laugh fixing Hayden with a smirk before vanishing.
Only to reappear behind Jayde with a burst of lightning that fried the magic shield around her body.
The woman had made a bit of a mistake.
She had failed to take Jayde out with the burst as she had clearly expected to, which left her unprepared for the counter.
Jayde threw a lazy jab into Alecto’s breastplate.
Fireball from someone over Level 40 was the bundle of dynamite to the firecracker that was fireball from someone under Level 10.
Alecto was momentarily swallowed by the explosion of fire and smoke before being sent tumbling across the arena floor.
Jayde winced.
Some of the woman’s limbs looked to be bending the wrong directions.
Meanwhile, Hayden sprinted in an erratic pattern trying to avoid the barrage of fire Megaera shot at her.
“That’s it, Sparky! Zigzag! Zigzag!” Jayde called out. “Now… what to do? What to do?”
Tisiphone knelt in the middle of a frozen zone shooting beams of freezing cold at the flickering Dayana trying to get closer.
“That’s gonna be a pain…”
Jayde made a decision. She slapped another magic shield around her body before heading toward Megaera. With luck the blue-clad Fury would be too intent on burning Hayden to notice the attempted back attack.
The heat from the billowing tongues of flame stole the air from Hayden’s lungs.
“Give up or I’ll burn your flesh off!” Megaera said. “They might be able to heal you, but take it from me, it’ll be an agonizing time either way. You don’t want that pretty face of yours ruined, do you?”
“Back attack, bitch!” Jayde, propelled forward by a pillar of crumbling earth, punched the blue-clad woman. Her fist rang against the steel helm creating ice that quickly encased the woman’s entire head. “Best surrender before you—” she slapped the woman all over her body creating more ice, “die… of… uh… no oxygen. Seriously, tap out. I left your one arm free for that. C’mon,” she circled the mostly-frozen statue to stare into the woman’s face, “do you really want to risk leaving it up to the refs. These assholes are a bloodthirsty lot and they might leave it too late. I heard you can get real brain damage from being without air for just a few seconds.”
Megaera face grew bluer by the moment, glaring through the ice. Her free hand thrust a spray of fire forcing Jayde to dive.
The blue-clad woman turned her own fire on herself slowly melting the magically-created ice.
“Hardcore,” Jayde muttered. She didn’t like people that were as crazy as she pretended to be.
“Watch up!” Hayden called.
Jayde blinked.
Shouldn’t that be ‘watch out’.
On instinct she looked up.
A swallowed curse then iron in her mouth as she tasted her own blood from biting her tongue.
Her body seized and convulsed as lightning coursed through her.
Magical lightning in the shape of large disk had appeared a few feet above her head.
Out of which dropped the red-clad woman.
Hand on Jayde’s helmet, Alecto grinned. “Same to you. Best surrender before the lightning fries your brain.”
Jayde saw nor heard anything beyond the pain and the slight stench of burned ozone. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t have tapped out even if she wanted to.
The pain felt eternal.
Until it wasn’t.
Jayde collapsed to the dirt like a puppet without strings as Hayden tackled Alecto.
She let the electricity in her body surged as she grappled with the other woman.
Alecto tried to jam a thumb through her helmet’s eye slits.
She twisted her head and heard the woman’s hiss along with the thumb breaking.
Electricity as a superpower versus magical lightning.
An age old question that the nerdiest mages she knew had always tried to debate and test with her.
A stupid pursuit that she’d never bothered with.
Perhaps, that had been a mistake.
Alecto’s magic lightning warred with Hayden’s power.
Each displayed an incomplete resistance to the other as both struggle to keep their muscles from spasming.
Smoke wafted from their bodies as they wrestled on the ground and tried to out electrocute each other.
Somehow, amidst the gouging and elbowing, Hayden ended up on Alecto’s back.
She cinched her legs around the woman’s waist.
“Should’ve worn a full chest piece,” Hayden hissed as she slipped an arm underneath Alecto’s neck, “and neck armor,” she squeezed.
Alecto tried and failed to pull Hayden’s arms off.
Hayden focused her electricity to her arms causing the muscles to lock up.
Alecto’s magic weakened as she lost air.
“Tap or go—” she felt the woman go limp. She kept the hold. It could’ve been a trick.
“Alecto is out!” the announcer’s voice rang through the arena drowning out the roaring crowd.
“Let her go!” a squad of mages in the zebra-stripped shirts of a ref descended from out of nowhere.
Hayden complied and pushed the limp woman off her.
“Stand aside!”
She stood and looked for her next target as the refs levitated up and away with the unconscious, but still breathing Alecto.
“Super-powered lightning, one… magic lighting, zero,” Jayde jogged over.
“Electricity.”
“Whatever… let’s go double-team Fire Fury.”
Hayden glanced over to the woman, Megaera, only just freeing herself from the ice.
Then she glanced over to the other end of the arena where Dayana and Tisiphone battled.
“I see a solution,” she said.
“Hmmm… I do to. Same as earlier?” Jayde said.
“Yeah, on thr—”
An orange-red light shined up from the ground.
“Oh shit! Move!” Jayde dived to the right.
Hayden went left.
Megaera, free of the ice, held hands out to them like talons, face twisted like an enraged tiger.
The pillar of flame stole the air from the lungs and the sound from their ears.
Jayde beckoned urgently as more pillars erupted from the ground forcing them to keep scrambling.
The one good thing was that there was delay between the magic circle appearing and the magical fire shooting up.
The two women wove their way through a forest of burning pillars that seemed to appear as fast as they dissipated.
“Mage Shield,” Jayde slapped Hayden on the chest, hard. “For the landing.”
“Right, on three,” she nodded and readied herself, knees slightly bent, ready to absorb the sudden force. “One—”
That orange-red light shined up into her eyes.
“No time. Three!” Jayde punched the ground before throwing herself out of the fiery circle.
Hayden left her stomach on the ground as Jayde’s earth pillar launched her into the air just ahead of Megaera’s fiery one.
The heat licked at her boots making the magic shield flicker.
Hayden swallowed a curse.
She needed it or the landing was going to hurt in a more permanent manner.
“Dayana!” she called down. “Switch!”
Dayana gave no indication that she had heard, but nonetheless she flickered and vanished from where she was shooting at Tisiphone.
The green-clad woman looked up and locked eyes with Hayden.
Bitter cold. Colder than anything she had ever known suddenly assaulted her.
It stole her breath.
Formed frost on her lashes.
Ice crept along her body causing the magic shield to flicker and finally fail.
Shit.
The ice began to form on her armor and sting the exposed skin on her face and fingers.
She flared her electricity, pushing her internal temperature dangerously high, melting the ice faster than it could form.
The problem was the landing.
Without the Jayde’s shield all she could do was try to roll and disperse the force.
She was stronger and tougher than she looked, but landing from over a few hundred feet away wasn’t within her tolerances.
Nothing left, but to—
She landed on her feet and rolled forward.
The stabbing pain up her right leg told her that it hadn’t worked enough.
She rolled, then slid across the ice.
Good thing that Jayde had good aim.
She headed straight toward the green-clad woman.
Tisiphone lashed that whip of hers.
Hayden raised an arm and took it on her steel bracer.
Ice burned as quickly as it formed.
Tisiphone thrust a hand toward her.
Too late.
The wave of cold struck her to the core, but the electricity in her veins fought it.
Hayden slammed into Tisiphone.
The green-clad woman lasted longer than most, but Hayden eventually shocked her into unconsciousness.
Another one down.
One to go.
Hayden stood, then immediately crumpled to the ice-covered ground with a cry.
Her leg had given out.
She cursed.
It was up to Jayde and Dayana to finish the fight.
The latter skidded to a dead stop just as a pillar of flame erupted in front of her.
The former slapped the ground creating a wall of dirt to absorb a volley of fire spears. The subsequent explosion spent her flying heels over head. She came out of the violent roll to punch the ground.
Megaera burned the jagged wall of earth headed her way to ash.
Dayana fired a burst only to see the bullets swallowed up by a pillar of flame. When it vanished Megaera stood unharmed.
The blue-clad woman cracked her whip twice forcing Dayana to flicker, evading two crescent-shaped blades of flame that burned despite not being close to hitting.
Should they wait for Megaera’s mana to run out?
Dayana thought hard even as she kept moving to stay out of the orange-red magic circles that chased her across the arena floor.
She glanced around for Hayden.
Found her sitting.
There was no sign of Tisiphone.
Good.
That meant it was three on one.
Except, Hayden wasn’t making an effort to get up.
Which meant that Hayden couldn’t.
Broken leg or legs, Dayana decided.
Hayden didn’t have Skills to handle death from above without hurting herself.
Which meant Jayde’s magic shield had failed.
There’d be no further help from Hayden and she was a liability if Megaera noticed her.
Which meant she needed to keep the pressure on.
Her assault rifle barked.
Bullets disappeared into fire.
Click on empty.
Reload on the move.
Flame erupted just a few feet behind her.
Intense heat singed her armor and clothing. Stole the breath out of her lungs. Stung her eyes.
Last magazine.
Quick bursts emptied it in seconds.
No hits.
Distraction.
Toss empty rifle far away.
Draw 1911.
Flash hand signals to Jayde.
See the acknowledgment.
Flicker Movement.
Orange-red magic circles surrounded Megaera, yet didn’t erupt into pillars.
She whirled her fiery whip over her head.
Jayde slapped the ground then punched the subsequent pillar of dirt sending hard-packed spikes shooting at Megaera.
The blue-clad woman ignited the magic circles to swallow them.
Dayana appeared on the other side, firing.
Impossibly quick, the magic circles on that side erupted.
The fiery whip lashed to keep her back.
She flickered again and moved even quicker to the opposite side.
No more magic circles.
The pistol barked twice.
Two bullets into the back of Megaera’s legs.
The blue-clad woman screamed in rage, spun and lashed with an inferno’s intensity.
Flicker.
The long knife flashed out of its sheath quicker than the unenhanced human eye could follow.
Slash across the wrist.
The fire-sheathed whip slipped out of suddenly weak fingers.
The flame died before it hit the ground.
Megaera hissed.
A pillar of flame centered on the blue-clad woman erupted.
Flicker.
Out.
One last flicker.
Back in.
Slashing. Stabbing.
All in the span of a second or two.
“That’s it!” the referee screamed. “It’s over! All combatants stop!”
Dayana stopped.
Jayde whooped throwing her fingers up to the roaring crowd.
“Huh?” Dayana blinked.
“Your winners! The Heartfuries!” the announcer’s voice boomed across the arena almost swallowed up the cheers.
The medical staff rushed onto the field to see to the badly injured Megaera, who glared daggers at Dayana.
She ignored the blue-clad woman and brushed away the medics hovering around her.
“Go take care of my teammate first!” she snapped gesturing toward the other side of the arena where Hayden sat.
“She’s being taken care of,” one of the medics rolled his eyes.
Dayana saw that medics were, indeed, clustered around Hayden.
“Now, are you going to let us do our jobs,” the medic sighed, “or do you want to keep your burns?”
“Give it up, ladies and gentlemen! Your champions of the Gold Division three versus three contest… the Heartfuriessss!”
Now that their part in the farce was over it was time to focus on the real reason they were here.
Time to heal up.
Rest.
Gather their rewards.
Get stronger.