Chapter Thirty-Seven
“All right, big man,” Kaiden said, patting Titus on the shoulder. “You’re on next. You ready?”
“Itching for it,” he grunted back. His eyes were trained forward, down the narrow tunnel to the blinding light of the arena. Other competitors waited around them, double checking weapons or equipping armor as the first fight of the day wrapped up. Explosions and crashes left the tunnel shaking back and forth as the fight drew to what sounded like a dramatic conclusion.
Kaiden found himself suddenly glad it wasn’t him that was about to step into the ring for a fight to the death.
There are other ways I can help, though. He turned his eyes to the player standing just across from them. The player the officials had made it clear Titus was paired with.
Ham Slamwich
Class: Cybernetic Knight
Faction: Maximus
Level: 50
She was a cybernetic knight, as most of the Maximus guild members seemed to be. Evidently, that class was well-suited for PVP combat. In her hands she held a massive two-handed axe. Combined with her lighter armor, she painted quite the picture of an all-attack class. She’d been glancing over at Titus for the last minute and making what Kaiden assumed were supposed to be intimidating faces.
“First opponent’s a cyber knight,” Kaiden relayed to Titus. “We’ve fought them before. Basically the civilian version of a power warden. High-damage attacks, poor defense.”
“Right, right.” Titus nodded along, taking in all of the info. He looked at his opponent. There was no malice in it, though. No intimidation. It was purely analytical. Studying and making a game plan.
“She’s probably going to have decent mobility, and you can expect her to try to toss you around with moves like Thorne’s Gravity Sledge.”
“She’ll hit hard,” he said with a nod. “But my larger health pool will help even that out.”
“You’ll just need to squeeze every point of damage you can out of your attacks,” Kaiden said. “Gonna need to punch a bit above your weight class.”
“Heh. I think I can make that work.”
From the end of the tunnel came a deafening boom, and then silence. The fight was over.
“Next fighters!” an official called.
“You got this,” Kaiden said and gave Titus one final slap on the back.
The space for fighting was a circular patch of what looked to be some sort of Astroturf about forty feet in diameter. The remains of past fights – too much broken armor, destroyed robots, and sagging stone and rebar walls to be just from the today’s fighting – were scattered around the space. There was enough debris to make the field of combat interesting. All around the perimeter transparent force fields hovered. Presumably, they’d stop any attacks from leaving the arena, but were mostly invisible until something hit them. Beyond the force fields, the bleachers wrapped around the arena, raised slightly so everyone had a good view of the carnage to come.
From where Kaiden, Zelda, and Thorne were watching in the first row they had a good view of the competitors; Titus on the side closer to them and the cyber knight on the opposite.
“Good day to bash each other to death, isn’t it?” Titus’ opponent said with all too much cheer in her tone. Her voice was amplified for the audience due to some unseen tech in the arena.
Titus’ only reply was to grunt.
Kaiden wanted to give him some words of encouragement, but per tournament rules, the big man had been forced to leave their party temporarily. No communicating with him via comms, then. It was going to have to be old-fashioned shouting or nothing.
“And we’re back!” an announcer’s voice blasted through the stadium. “You all ready for the second fight of the day?” The announcer paused a moment to allow for applause before continuing. There wasn’t much. The majority of the stands were filled with Maximus guild members in red and black armor. They cheered the loudest and the longest at the prospect of another fight. Initially, Kaiden had been worried they’d sell Titus – and everyone else – out to the Warden Corps., but assurances had been made by the tournament organizers. Maximus didn’t cooperate with the Corps. or the Party, period. It was said Maximus’ members were loyal to a fault. Seemed that was going to be put to the test now.
“All right, all right. You know the rules,” the announcer said. “This will be a one-on-one contest. Stimpacks can’t be used, and the fight ends when one of you dies and stays dead. Combatants ready?”
Titus drew his hammer in response.
Across from him, Ham Slamwich laughed and hefted her own two-handed axe.
“Begin!” the announcer’s voice boomed across the arena and the crowd burst into a cheering roar.
“Woo! Let’s go, Titus!” Kaiden shouted, trying to sound encouraging.
“You got this, big guy!” Thorne joined in. “No holding back!”
Titus eased back into a fighting stance and flicked his shield on. Its energy field glowed a bright blue as he positioned it in front of him.
His opponent shook out her shoulders and smiled. “Never killed a warden before. This should be fun!”
Titus opened his mouth to respond but Slamwich was already in the air, a puff of dirt flying up from the arena floor as she launched upward.
Ability: Meteoric Launch
Player launches into the air. Landing deals AoE damage and next attack deals additional damage.
Kaiden read the limited info his visor gave him on the attack, then looked back just in time to see Slamwich come crashing down. She swung her axe as she landed and Titus caught it directly on his shield. The energy field flickered, but absorbed the hit, giving Titus charge. At the same time, crackling electricity lashed out from Titus’ armor to nip at Slamwich’s shoulder.
Improved Volt Field, Kaiden knew.
Her health bar took a small hit, but
