I woke up and set Guinevere down; she murmured softly, and I gently kissed her. Her eyelids fluttered open, and a smile spreading across her face.
“Good morning, beautiful,” I said, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“You’re still here,” she said.
“I’m always with you,” I said, taking her hand and spinning the ring I had given her around on her finger. “As long as you wear this, I’m only a thought away.”
I kissed her and felt her response as she shifted under me, her heart beating faster with excitement. My hand ran down her waist, traveling to her thigh and…
Mordred! Ares shouted. Aisha’s come to see you at your tent. She’s talking with Kalin. You’re scheduled for a fight in ten minutes. They’re trying to rig the game again.
“Of course, they are,” I growled.
“What?” Guinevere asked, confused.
“It’s the adjudicator. He’s trying his shit again. I’m fighting in ten minutes,” I said, standing up and strapping on my head with telekinesis.
I opened a portal and Guinevere stepped up next to me.
“I’m coming with you,” she said.
“People will ask how you left the palace,” I reminded her.
“I don’t care,” Guinevere said. “I’m going to be there for you.”
Taking her hand, we stepped through the portal together. Aisha looked up as Guinevere and I stepped into my tent and she fell into a deep curtsey.
“My lady, I didn’t know you would…” Aisha began.
“Tell no one of what you have seen,” Guinevere said. “Now hurry, my champion needs to be in the arena.”
Aisha told me where I needed to be, and I opened another a portal, the four of us all stepping through. I strode into the arena, my blood seething. I looked up to find that the adjudicator wasn’t there. Instead, Merlin sat in judgement.
“So,” I said. “I see I’ve traced the corruption of this kingdom to its source.”
Merlin smiled down at me. “I am sorry, Sir Ismael. There appears to have been a scheduling conflict. Someone listed you to fight three knights all in the same time slot. You will have to fight all three at once or forfeit the match.”
---
Guinevere raced up the steps into the viewing booth, ignoring her father to run to the edge. Mordred stood in the sand in his dark gray armor. She heard her father speak as he discussed the blatant rigging of the game. She couldn’t see Mordred’s face behind his helmet, but his body language showed no frustration or fear, and he just shook his head.
“You think fighting me three on one is intimidating… when in fact, it is nothing more than an admission of weakness,” Mordred said, spitting out the last word as if had a bad taste.
“Send them in against me.”
The gates opened, and three knights stepped into the arena. Guinevere recognized two of them instantaneously as Lancelot and Kay. The third knight she couldn’t place. She didn’t recognize his heraldry or armor. Looking him over, his description appeared above his head.
Aramid the Comet-Born, Champion of Andelar, Gifted—humanoid/half-giant, Veteran: 458
Three champions against her beloved. Guinevere couldn’t let that stand, but… there was nothing she could do against her father’s political power. Against the arbiter, she could have killed him for that kind of cheating, but Merlin was third in line for the throne.
“Sir Ismael,” she called out.
Mordred looked up at her, cocking his head. Guinevere leaned over the side of the balcony, waving a white handkerchief, its gold embroidered edges extending down to him.
“Take this as a token of my favor,” she said. “Fight for me and my honor this day. I give you, my blessing.”
A radiant glow surrounded Modred. Technically, her actions were on the fringes of cheating, but her father could not call her out without his own actions, forfeiting him the match. Guinevere dropped the handkerchief and Mordred caught it as it drifted down. He examined it for a moment, reading its description before tying it around his arm.
Guinevere’s blessing would reduce all the damage Mordred took by one stage and her favor would boost all his attributes by ten percent of her highest attribute for the following hour. She looked at the new champion in the trio nervously. He was an unknown; she didn’t remember seeing him in the Event and Andelar was not a god to be underestimated. While part of the gods of law, the actions he had taken to become one made him as bad as the gods of Chaos. Andelar, God of Comets and Extinction, his ascension to godhood had wiped out all life on an entire continent.
Mordred cracked his neck, his gauntlet-sword slashing out as he tensed and released his arms, loosening his limbs. The ringing of chain mail sang out like the bells of a winter sleigh. The three champions fanned out and Merlin waited, the crowd silent as a mouse as they held their collective breath.
“Begin!” Merlin called out.
---
A war hammer spun past my head before snapping back into the half-giant’s palm. I didn’t know who the half-giant was, or who Andelar was, and I didn’t care. I could feel the strength from Guinevere’s favor flow through my veins, but I was not confident in my victory. Sure, I had beat Kay and Lancelot before, but that had been in life and death fights with the use of my abilities and Clarent. However, I had only the strength of arms and, while I was among the best, so were they, and they had trained a lot longer than I had.
I blocked a spear thrust from Kay, stepping into backhand him, but Lancelot stepped in the way with his shield. I ducked under the swing of Lancelot’s sword and spun between the three knights. I could feel them moving around me and see the possible actions they would take. Unfortunately, most of those actions ended with me bleeding out on the ground.
“Merlin paid a heavy price for me to come here and duel you,” Aramid said. “What was it you did that angered him so much?”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“I fell in love with his daughter,” I said, ducking under his war-hammer.
“Aye,” the half-giant laughed. “She is a pretty thing. Perhaps she’ll take a fancy to me when I’ve finished pasting you into the ground.”
“Silence beast,” Lancelot snapped. “You’re here to fight, not make sport of our future queen.”
Lancelot finished by trying to shield slam me across the arena, but I spun low, hitting his legs with a double kick. I pushed up with my arms, sending myself ten feet into the air above the knights. I flung a handful of sand into Kay’s face, and he stumbled back. He had to rip off his helmet to rub the dirt from his eyes. A hammer swung and hit me on the shoulder, sending me colliding with the arena wall. The blow dented my enchanted armor and the stone behind me cracked.
I noticed Merlin frown at that and moments later, a dome appeared around the arena, keeping us all trapped inside. Kay lunged forward, and I dropped under his spear and shot forward. Kay tried to pull his weapon back, but I grabbed it and pulled forward. He dropped the spear and my attempt to KO him only cracked his jaw, but him spitting out blood was still satisfying.
The spear yanked itself from my hand back into his and the three champions rushed me to pin me against the arena wall. I rolled under the next hammer strike, stabbing Thorn into the gap behind his knee. Aramid roared in pain as blood spurted out the bleeding enchantments on Thorn, causing even more blood to drain from his body.
The spear stabbed again, and I kicked out, launching my body up from the ground. My sword blocked the swing of Lancelot’s sword, and I spun, maintaining my momentum. I used that momentum to Superman punch Kay into the wall. He hit and his helmetless head cracked against the wall, his eyes rolling in his head. I lunged forward, taking a massive hit across my back from the hammer and Lancelot’s sword, but my gauntleted fist landed, cracking Kay’s skull. He collapsed to the ground, blood from his head pooling onto the sand.
For his sake, I hoped they’d drag him out of the arena, or he’d bleed to death; I’d hate to be disqualified for killing one of my opponents.
My back ached, and I felt a massive dent and rent in the armor. The champions’ weapons were artifacts, and even the enchanted armor and hardness I could make with Hell-Dragon’s Armory could only withstand so much abuse.
“You’re good,” Aramid admitted. “But there was a reason they hired me for this fight. We can’t use our active abilities but our passives… they’re all good. Let me show you mine.” He raised his arms to the sky, going still as a statue.
A massive weight settled upon me. It was like I was Atlas, forced to bear the weight of the sky on my shoulders. I grunted and strained against it. Lancelot moved freely and rushed me, his sword coming down. I barely parried his attack. Luckily, it seemed Aramid couldn’t do whatever he was doing and also attack.
I struggled against the attacks Lancelot sent against me. For every one I blocked, two more struck me. Rents punctured through my armor and the chain mail along my joints ripped open, blood pouring onto the ground. With every second, the gravitational forces pushing down on me grew more intense.
We’re going to need to cheat to do this, I thought to my spirits. Any ideas.
You are a creature of the Void, Voidra said. Draw upon your energy. It suffuses your body even now. Reach out and take that power.
That could do massive damage to his body, Karnen warned. This will probably put you at death’s door… again.
“I admire your resolve, Storm Knight,” Aramid said. “But even all your strength cannot bear the weight of the world.”
“Try me,” I snarled.
Reaching in, I grabbed at my Eather energy and pulled. It resisted me at first, but the force with which I had brought it into existence was the same force I used now. My body lurched forward, and I grabbed the top of Lancelot’s shield. He hacked at my arm and blood spurted from my inner elbow.
Activate my regeneration, I ordered my spirits. We have to risk it.
I hauled on his shield, yanking his arm taught. He thrust the tip of his sword towards my throat, but I met it with a headbutt, turning the point of the blade aside. I slammed my sword down onto his inner elbow. Lancelot screamed as blood sprayed the both of us. I drove him to the ground and pummeled him with my fists. I tore his helmet off and hit him again and again, his arms going up to protect his head.
He kicked out, throwing me off him. I pushed myself back to my feet, my bones breaking under the strain of resisting the titanic force pushing down on me. I lost my mediation as rage overcame me. The agony of my body destroying and rebuilding itself a second later, but it was as dim as the pain as I had experienced in the early days on this world.
I bent and met Lancelot as he tried to tackle me to the ground and I brought both my fists down on his shoulders, feeling the armor there bend inward and break his collar bones. I kicked his head, and he went down. Turning, my bones still snapping and reknitting themselves, I looked to Aramid who still stood, his arms raised high.
I stalked forward and Aramid looked at me with wonder. He lowered his hands and the force weighing on me ended.
“I yield,” he said.
“That was not the agreement,” Merlin called out from above us, his voice full of anger.
“The agreement was that I do my best to beat him, I have,” Aramid replied. “I fear if I push this man any farther, beating him would mean forfeiting my life, and you have nothing to barter with that is worth that price.”
Aramid turned and bowed his head to me. “You have my respect, Storm Knight; may we someday meet on the glory of the battlefield.”
The half-giant walked out of the arena, the only one not massively bleeding out, a slight limp the only sign he had even been in combat. Healers rushed to the field as the barrier fell and they dragged Kay and Lancelot away. I stumbled into the fighter’s tunnel and collapsed. Karlin shoved a water skin into my hands, and I drained it, barely stopping to take a breath.
Wiping my brow, I removed the blood and sweat on my skin, but my armor was still stained with it and beat to shit.
Guinevere burst into the tunnel and kneeled beside me. “Are you alright?” she asked.
“I’ll be fine,” I grunted unconvincingly.
My body might have been healed, but the eather energy was still raging, and I had to wrestle it into submission to keep it from liquifying everything in my body. I was pretty sure my Void Mage title was the only reason I wasn’t dead. Even being immune to Void exposure, the power of the eather energy was like trying to eat a star.
“I can’t believe my father would do something like that,” Guinevere snarled.
“Really?” I asked. “What part of that was out of character for him?” My slight smile and dark humor seemed to mollify Guinevere, the best sign I could give her that I was alright.
“I have good news at least,” Aisha said hesitantly from behind us. “Because of how he manipulated the tournament to place you against the two top contenders, you’ve moved to the very top. There are no other contestants for you to face.”
“You mean…” I wheezed.
“You’re going to face Arthur next,” Guinevere said. “It’s almost over.” She stood up. “I need to prepare; I will see you soon.”
She got up and left, and Aisha followed her with her eyes. “The two of you seem very… close.”
“You don’t want to know more than that,” I said. “Rember Aisha, my existence is a danger to you.”
I opened a portal back to my tent and collapsed on the cot there.
---
Vone approached Ishmael’s tent. She had missed the fight he had against three champions, but it was all anyone was talking about. Exar was outside the tent like a guardian beast. He looked up as she approached.
“He’s not up for visitors,” he said, his rumbling baritone voice sending shivers through her.
“Is he alright?” Vone asked.
“Probably,” Exar said, shrugging. “He’s had worse.” Exar looked down at the dagger he’d been examining, then looked back up to her. “Why do you care, anyway?”
Vone shrugged. “I don’t know. There’s just something about him.”
“There certainly is,” Exar agreed. “However, I suspect if you knew what that something was, your feelings would be different.”
Vone sighed. Conversations with and about Ishmael were always so full of riddles and double meanings she had no way to understand them. She looked Exar over and smiled.
“What are you doing right now?” she asked.
Exar shrugged.
“Great!” Vone said, taking his hand and pulling him behind her. “Then I can buy you dinner.”
Exar sighed but followed her. “If this is some manner of courtship you have planned…”
“What?” Vone sighed. “Are you in love with someone else, too?”
“Nothing like that, but I am not what you think I am,” Exar warned her. “There is something about you I do find strangely… attractive. But my life is not something you can just step into.”
“Why not?” Vone asked. “You say you’re not what I think you are, but what is that you aren’t? A great warrior, a hero-rank adventurer, a good man?”
“The last one,” Exar said. “I don’t know if either of those two words could describe me. Let these feeling you have for me die, or they will likely lead to your death.”
Vone dropped Exar’s hand and sighed. “What is with all the men I like being so cryptic and warning me away from them?”
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