The arena falls silent. This is what they have all been waiting for.
He raises his weapon above his head, arms fully stretched.
“Enough!” roars a thundering voice, echoing throughout the pit.
Everyone’s on the edge of their seats.
Xander hurdles the wall, sprinting into the pit towards us. “It’s me you want. I challenge you!”
Leon adjusts his footing, thinking about his next move.
He dropped his guard. This is my chance.
I dig my feet into the sand and launch myself into the unsuspecting mountain. My right hand collides with his jaw causing him to stumble back a step and causing my fist to instantly swell twice its usual size.
I quickly retreat away to the edge of the pit, noticing a few drops of blood spill from the corner of his lip. I’m too amped to immediately feel the sharpness shooting down the side of the bones in my hand.
The rage in his face ignites as his veins bulge from under his skin. He cocks back and heaves his spear straight at me.
There is no dodging it.
It’s too fast.
I’m too weak.
Seconds before his javelin impales me, Xander reaches out and snags it from the air. Slamming its nose down in the sand, he raises his fists to Leon.
Wasting no time, I race past Xander and dive towards Leon positioned for a form tackle. This is still my fight.
Leon squats down and uppercuts me with everything he has midflight.
My feet leave the sand.
My back is first to return.
Xander immediately attacks behind me, striking Leon in the jaw with a powerful right hook. His second punch is parried as Leon lands a kick to the body that makes the audience wince.
I try to rise back to my feet, but my balance is fighting against me. My ears faintly hear Jacee scream for me, but it’s too dark to spot her in the crowd. For some reason I find the image of her distraught, breaking down over my corpse front and center in my brain. The image becomes my motivation as I stand ready to fight against any reality involving that.
Xander blocks a solid punch and returns a counter strike knocking Leon to the ground. Leaping onto him, Xander attacks again, striking with an arsenal of right and left hooks.
Leon uses his legs to grabble Xander and manages to kick him away. Dazed and off-balance, he crawls in front of me, on all fours, searching for steady ground.
I grab my sword and stumble over to him, summoning what’s left of my strength. Taking a few short steps, I land my boot perfectly across Leon’s chin sending him motionless to the quaking ground.
Xander nods at me in approval as I fight to find my breath.
With both hands I lift my sword and drive it into the heart of the mountain, killing Leon.
The crowd, speechless.
A few long seconds pass before the pit explodes into wild screaming and cheers. Xander raises my fist high in the air. Bloody and beaten, the rest of my body falls to the ground.
Their cheers are for me.
My eyes find Jacee’s at last. The look of relief on her face stands unmasked as she rushes over the wall past Cyrus in my direction.
I actually did it. I survived.
Chapter 6
I’ve always admired Poth’s flat. Very open and styled, right beside the Lethe Tower, not somewhere you’d expect a guy with green hair and a dick upgrade to live by himself.
“You made it,” Selene squeals as soon as her violet eyes find mine, seizing my attention completely.
“I made it,” I reply, palms raised to my side.
She pauses a moment to smile before wrapping her arms around me tightly. With her purple hair in my face, I could easily get high on her smell.
“I’m sorry about what happened, Eros. I didn’t know he was going to-”
“It’s fine, just some stupid race to get the attention off the protests anyway. It’s not your fault though. I would’ve come back and won it if it wasn’t for…”
“If it wasn’t for what?” she asks, studying my pupils.
Making sure only she could hear me, I whisper, “I saw something out there. It sliced one of my wings before I lost connection.”
“What did you see? A droid?”
“A child.”
“Impossible. There’s no way a child can survive the Outlands, and there hasn’t been one born in Olympia in centuries.”
“I know what I saw. It was just standing there, looking at me. I feel I should report it to Lethe, to be honest.”
“You do that, you’ll be labeled crazy. They might even think you’re lying to have an excuse for losing.”
“I’m not crazy.”
“Are you sure you saw what you think you did? It was an extremely high-stress moment. The heat probably played a factor.”
“I know what I saw, Selene.”
“All I’m saying is you should have some proof before you go crying wolf. I’m supposed to be meeting my friend, Vulcan, tonight. You’re welcome to join us. He’s the guy you want to talk to about this.”
“I can’t tonight, already have plans with Poth.” Every year Poth and I continue our tradition of getting completely fucking trashed for the anniversary. This year, after the speech, we’re going to Pankration. Admittedly not the classiest, but definitely the most entertaining place to be tonight. The gladiator-style octagon is suspended in the air, center of a crowd that craves only one thing, blood. Two Machina that have trained their whole lives for this one shot at fame fight to the death, or their equivalent. The more organic the Machina, the better the fight. Tonight, Herc Saibot defends his crown.
“You fucking ready for tonight, E!?” Poth shouts like a maniac ambushing me from behind. He hands me a drink so strong I catch a buzz from just breathing the air around it. “I’m gonna try not to get too fucked up tonight,” he lies.
“Yeah. Fucking. Right.”
“No, really bro.” The doorbell buzzer interrupts Poth before I can tell if he’s fucking with me or not.
“Who else is coming over?” I ask as Selene
