Right across from one another, the two were at the ready, prepared for the possible bloodshed that would ensue. The purple hewed robes of Gram and the shining white armor of the mysterious knight. Gram held himself with his usual smug superiority over his opponent, one hand on his chin while the other tap tapped his arm. The knight though, was completely tenacious, ready to start swinging with their heavy flanged mace. Which meant they were the first to take action, the knight lunged forward in a powerful overhead swing.

Gram didn’t even move from his spot, instead he held up his hand, holding up two fingers, and blocked the attack; a small, yet resilient, forcefield appearing above him. With a burst of blinding white light, the knight’s attack was bounced off, causing them to bound back before Gram could retaliate. “What’s wrong, young knight, you’ve gotten weaker. Slacking off as per usual? Before I would’ve have had to put effort into my shield.” With a snap of his fingers, his spellbook Voidsong, appeared in front of him. “Nevertheless, I’m giving you a warning before my next attack, make it easy on you.”

“I see you’re still an arrogant son of a bitch.” The knight said. “Can’t say I haven’t missed your taunting, but whatever, come on and hit me and I’ll return it back tenfold. Do your worst!”

“Oh I will.” Gram said with a nod. Voidsong, the so called book of 667 spells, passed down from the most powerful of warlocks. Gram being its wielder for the past few centuries, nowhere near ready to give it up. Out of all the spells he could use, calling down meteors, summoning a monster from the dimension between dimensions, or even sending his opponent to said dimension, what did he use it for. “Spell #200: Blood Drinking Spears!” He used it to summon a bunch of spears, each of them deep red in color, floating along side him. With his heavily magic imbued body, closer to an innately magical being like the Fae, he was capable of casting a number of minor spells without the need of a catalyst. But when it came to more complex, even he needed a spellbook or staff… Apparently, summoning a bunch of homing spears counted as complex.

“That old one?” The knight said, rubbing their helmet. “You always used that one?” Their tone was oddly casual, like someone going about their day.

Gram had no response, instead sending each of the spear to their target, the spears moving with great speed.

Yet, Gram wasn’t the only one with a few magic tricks up their sleeve, or pauldrons in the knight’s case. Swinging their shield in front of them, the normal, medium sized shield, flickered. Then, in a flash of light and sound, it transformed! A rampart, resembling a giant castle wall, made of a golden light. As simple as that, the spears shattered and bounced off on ceremoniously. “Just like old time, motherfucker!” The wall faded away, like soap bubbles, the knight got ready for their next strike… Only to be met face to face with Gram, already waiting for them.

The warlock raised his hand, over his spellbook, then instead of a spell, he simply gave the knight a strong backhand. Not horribly damaging, painful yes, but it was only strong enough to stagger the knight back, flat on their ass. “Hmph… So you haven’t been slacking off. I remember you use to struggle to use such a powerful defense.” Gram nodded, “You’re pretty good.”

“Damn right I am!” They said, raising they’re voice, as they removed their helmet. The knight, as it turned out, was a woman. A very short haired, feisty looking woman, wearing a wide grin on her face. Slowly getting up, Gram allowing her to take a few steps, she stuck her hand out as if to offer a hand shake. But then… “Hey, Gram, catch!” She shouted as she tossed her helmet at him, this shot catching him offguard, smacking him in the face with a solid THUNK. Quickly, the knight caught her helmet with her shield arm. The proud adventurer, while Gram was an icon to warlocks everywhere, she was what paladins didn’t want to end up like… As far as personality was concerned. As energetic and fast as the hummingbird that was her crest, the tenacious hero, known only by the alias Gatecrasher.

“Hm…” Gram remarked quietly. For a supposed paladin, she was never one to shy away from dirty tricks. With a few hand motions, he signaled another spell. “Spell #12-” Yet before he could finish the cast, he was struck in the stomach by the woman’s mace. “Guh!”

Then, the strike was followed by a strong headbutt, her helmet blinking from her hand, back onto her head. She actually had to hop quite high in order to be at eye level with Gram. The knight has actually overpowering the warlock! Leading to cheers from the audience!

But Gram was not out of it. This was for nothing. He had been impaled, crushed by several tons of weight, eviscerated, set on fire, dismembered so many times, had holes blown through him, and even launched into the vacuum of space. A cracked skull or busted rib cage? As if… So Gram finished up with his incantation. “Spell #12: Hateful Updraft!” Raising his hand up, a burst of wind erupted from underneath Gatecrasher’s feet. With great force, she was launched upward and into the air. Quickly Gram cast another spell. “Spell #5: Linked Gates.” A portal appeared right over Gatecrasher, one below her. Then… She started her descent. No longer in control of her place in physical space, she fell through the floor below her, then out from the one above, then through the one below, then through the one above, below, above, below, above, etc.

The words that Gatecrasher was able to utter during this was distorted and cut off by the constant portal hopping. “Fuck…… You……. Shitty……. Old……. Man!”

Gram, watching this, snapped his fingers, causing a chair to appear behind him. He sat down, casually. But, soon, he got bored. Plus, he would get scolded by the owner here if he kept this up. “Alright… Dispell.” He dismissively waved his hand, and the two portals disappeared, allowing Gatecrasher to fall all the way down towards the bloody sand. The warlock wondered if she could survive this… She was at terminal velocity at this point. Delirious from the G-force. He had seen her survive all kinds of brutal stuff in the past, injuries almost comparable to his own. With a sigh, he held his hand out, and Gatecrasher stopped right before she hit the ground. “Alright, I’m done here.” Then, she let her fall, hitting the floor hard, with thankfully much less force than she was going just moments before. “Get dinner maybe?”

Such an action got a few groans and curious remarks from the audience. Many of them already asking the most obvious question: “Aren’t they suppose to be long time enemies?”

Lying on the ground, Gatecrasher rolled over, sitting up, the whole room spinning. “Yeah… Long time no see, King Nothing.”

“King Nothing?” Gram said, leaning forward in his chair. “Is that what they’re calling me around here?”

“Yup,” She said, removing her helmet, her typical smug grin on her face. “You, Gram, you were the warlock of your era! You were the biggest most infamous icon of all of Aesir! People wanted either to kill you or serve under you! Then you decided to throw it all away and live in the suburbs! The most powerful warlock in Aesir, ruling over nothing… King Nothing.” With one solid motion, she got back up on her feet. “But forget that, we have a lot of catching up to do! I haven’t really been living around here for the past 100 years after all!”

Rubbing his chin, Gram nodded, “Hm… I see… The title is meant to be an insult.” He chuckled, “But I can get use to that title, I’ll put it on my speeches with the others!” Motioning for her to follow him, ready to head towards the food stalls.

But, they were cut off, by the shouts of someone running into the arenas. He was a scrawny, bewildered hobgoblin. His large ears and stout figure made him practically comical in his anger. “W-wait! I’m the ref here! You guys are just gonna call it quits here? These people want to see blood! You’re gonna end it as it was getting good?”

“Yup… We’ve tried to kill each other so many times in the past. I remember like it was yesterday that I sorta stuck her to a wall with a giant spike.” Gram said, shrugging, “When you’ve fought each other and tried for each other’s lives as many times as we have, it gets really boring to do it with arena regulated rules.”

“If I had a free meal for the times I’ve been impaled to a wall while a warlock makes a speech in front of me, I’d have free breakfast, lunch, and dinner… that isn’t much but it is more than most people. It became sorta routine after a while.” Gatecrasher snickered, “I’d show up, we’d fight, he’d give an evil speech, I’d dismiss it through some power of friendship speech, that sorta thing!”

“You guys are enemies though! You’re not seriously just going to go eat together like friends?!” The hobgoblin shouted, his floppy ears flopping about. “Right…?

Gram and Gatecrasher looked at each other silently, then back to the hobgoblin.

Then they both laughed.