'Friend, you are a curious proposition.'
Sos considered it, but discovered nothing inherently unfair about the terms. If he won, he had the tribe. If he lost, he was still free to try for Sol at a later date. It did not matter whom he fought; he would have to defeat the man sooner or later anyway, to prevent resurgence of the empire under some new master.
And it seemed that Tor did not recognize him, which was a private satisfaction. Perhaps he had worried too much about that.
'Very well I will meet this man.'
'He will behere in a couple of days. I have already sent a runner to fetch him. Accept our hospitality in the interim.'
Sos got up to leave. 'One thing,' he said, remembering.
'Who is this man?'
'His name is Bog. Bog the club.'
Trust wily Tor to think of that! The one warrior not even Sol had been able to defeat.
It was three days before Bog showed up, as big and happy as ever. He had not changed a bit in two years. Sos wanted to rush out and shake the giant's hand and hear him exclaim 'Okay!' again, but he could not; he was a nameless stranger now and would have to meet and overcome the man anonymously.
This selection made clear why Tor had arranged the terms as they were. Bog was entirely indifferent to power in the tribal sense. He fought for the sheer joy of action and made no claims upon the vanquished. The messenger bad only to whisper 'Good fight!' and Bog was on his way.
And Tar had chosen well in another respect, for Bog was the only man Sos knew of who shared virtual physical invulnerability. Others had tried to prevail over the nameless one by skill and had only been vanquished. Bog emplayed no skill, just inexhaustible power.
The day was waning, and Tar prevailed upon Bog to postpone the battle until morning. 'Tough man, long fight,' he explained. 'Need all day.'
Bog's grin widened. 'Okay!'
Sos watched the huge man put away food for three and lick his lips in anticipation as several lovely girls clustered solicitously around him and touched the bracelet upon his wrist. Sos felt nostalgia. Here was a man who had an absolute formula for perpetual joy: enormous power, driving appetites and no concern for the future. What a pleasure it would be to travel with him again and bask in the reflected light of his happiness! The reality might have been troubling for others, but never for Bog.
Yet it was to preserve the goodness in the system that he fought now. By defeating Bog he would guarantee that there would always be free warriors for such as Bog to fight. The empire would never swallow them all.
They waited only long enough for the sun to rise to a reasonable height before approaching the circle in the morning. The men of the camp were packed so tightly Tor had to clear a path to the arena. Everyone knew what the stakes, were, except possibly Bog himself, who didn't care; but the primary interest was in the combat itself. Only twice, legend said, had Bog been stopped-once by the onset of night and once by a fluke loss of his weapon. No one had ever actually defeated him.
It was also said, however, that he never entered the circle against the net or other unfamiliar weapon.
Bog jumped in, already swinging his club enthusiastically, while Sos remained outside the ring and stripped to his trunks. He folded the long tunic carefully and stood up straight. The two men looked at each other while the audience studied them.
'They're the same size!' a man exclaimed, awed.
Sos started. He, the same size as the giant? Impossible!
Nonetheless, fact. Bog was taller and broader across the shoulders, but Sos was now more solidly constructed. The doctors had given him injections, in the underworld operatory to stimulate muscular development, and the inserted protective materials added to his mass. He was larger than he had been, and none of the added mass was fat. He probably weighed almost twice what he had when he first set out in search of adventure.
Each man had enormously overmuscled shoulders and arms and a neck sheathed in scars; but where Bog slimmed down to small hips. and comparatively puny legs, Sos had a midriff bulging with
