Leaping onto the wall of Litchfield’s last fort I found the King standing with his back to me staring towards an open rear gate where the last of his people were currently fleeing our forces. My first impression of the man was that of one who was in love with the idea of a street thug come up to be a “self made man”. Which meant the man in front of me was a contrast of pop culture imagery.

He wore a pair of pearl white pleated slacks that ended in a pair of cream colored italian leather shoes. A silver silk vest covered a coal gray shirt and darker gray tie. Tattoos covered the back of his head sliding under a carefully groomed short hair cut. The tattoos continued to reach out of his sleeves to cover his hands with the rather less than creative “LIFE” on his left, and “DEATH” on his right. His fingers clad in gaudy oversized jewel encrusted rings, Veep identified half as being System enhanced. My eye twitched as he turned to face me, revealing more tattoos in places I found excessively irritating.

With anger painting his face he reached into his pants pockets retrieving a pair of plain looking silver rods that fit neatly in his fists. He shifted nervously in the way that I had seen inmates do just before they took part in an assault on another, psyching themselves up for what’s to come.

“You the one they call King James?” I asked.

His lip curled in defiance, “Yeah, you the one they call the Warlord?”

I looked the man over once more, eyeing the tattoos on his face critically. Several teardrops under his left eye. Nonsensical script across his brow. A crown on his cheek. I expected this kind of foolishness, seeing it, however, stirred the Reaper in me. I nodded in response to his question as the rage building in me stole my voice.

“Then let’s get this over with.”

With that simple statement the rods in his hands glowed briefly before expanding to cover his fists in oversized heavy gloves complete with studded knuckles. The transformation extended to a stiff reinforcing brace around his wrists, then grew into flexible metal plating that encompassed his forearms.

The air around us shimmered with electricity as a barrier surrounded the small fortification, forcing out anyone that wasn’t me and the supposed King of Litchfield Park. The following notification confirmed that the man had the proverbial hard on for me. Kaia whined as he tried to leap into the quickly forming arena only to be shoved back out. Hmmm, guess the System doesn’t want my companion involved.

A Challenge of Destiny has been initiated by James King Wakefield against Karl Brunett…

… Initiating isolation and non-interference protocols, all parties not involved in the Challenge will be removed from the arena of battle.

“Really?” the Reaper’s irritation flooded my veins. In a single swift movement I drew my hand cannon, aimed, and pulled the trigger while activating an ability, “[Vital Aim]!”

The heavy twenty millimeter round left the barrel with a deafening thunderclap slamming home right between James’ eyes. To my surprise his head didn’t explode, though it did snap back violently, certainly causing a serious case of whiplash. His body followed as he tumbled backwards heel over head. He looked as if he was about to drop on his face, instead he managed to flip the rest of the way over landing in a crouch. Blood trickled from his forehead, flowing down around his nose and lips to filter through the stubble on his chin. He flashed me a grizzly smile as he stood into a fighting stance.

“WOOO! I wondered if I could take a shot from yo bitch ass! Now I know I can, you’re as good as dead!”

Energy flared around his gauntlets and then he appeared directly in front of me, a wicked glint in his eye. I didn’t realize he had hit me until I impacted a reinforced wall on the opposite side of the fort, the pain of ribs cracking forcing me to wheeze out a shallow breath. Ignoring the pain I rolled to my feet narrowly avoiding a flying knee from James. He impacted the wall I had, collapsing it inward in a shower of concrete and glass.

“Not quite fucker, but nice try. [Mag Dump]!”

I emptied my pistol into the room he had dropped into. Moments later he came charging out with the telltale signature blue glow of mana going to work on his torn and shredded outfit. Drops of blood splattered his body where my misplaced shots had liberally peppered him.

“Bitch! I ain’t even gotten started! [Collider]!”

James’ gauntlets briefly flashed a pale blue before launching from his arms. I was so shocked that he wasn’t dead yet I failed to move in time to avoid the pair of wild projectiles. Before I realized what was happening I had been knocked across the courtyard, skidding across the cement. I flailed for half a second before activating [Reaper’s Fluid Grace] and using the increase to my footwork to come up on my feet in the middle of the fort.

James was already closing in to deliver another blow, though under the effects of my ability I now perceived his movements as rather sluggish. At ten meters distance he leapt into the air with both gauntleted fists raised high over his head. I pushed off hard to slide under him as he reached the apex of his jump while activating [Crack Shot] at the same time.

The round struck true, though it didn't seem to interrupt his own attack. He slammed into the ground with both fists, the result of which caused the cement pad underneath us to buckle and whip violently in a radius. Being only several feet away I was once again lifted off my feet to be tossed aside like a rag doll. Still under the effect of [Reaper’s Fluid Grace] meant I was able to land safely.

He glared over his shoulder, stumbling as he attempted to stand. Blood quickly spread from a hole in his stomach which he touched gingerly in concern. I quashed a moment of elation at landing the first significant attack of the fight.

James snarled in anger just before appearing in front of me, “[Shock Strikes]!”

A flurry of mana empowered punches caught me off guard, brutalizing my body and head. I stumbled to put up any kind of defense against the sudden onslaught of strikes, all of which seemed to impart a small electric shock that caused my limbs to involuntarily twitch and drop my pistols as I attempted to create distance. He in turn guided me away from my dropped hand cannon.

Not that it mattered. I violently reminded him as I drew and fired several hasty rounds from my trusty plasma pistol. The white-green plasma splashed across his torso before he brought his gauntlets up to protect himself. He hissed in anger as the hot plasma burned through his outfit to blister the skin beneath.

“How many more you got fucker!? You just going to keep running around!?” He barked while running to the side to avoid my continued fire. He slid behind a pillar that I lit up with continued fire, blasting off chunks of plaster to expose the rebar underneath.

“It does play to my strengths.”

“Heh, well fuck that!”

James surprised again in this fight by raising some kind of energy barrier and running straight at me. I backpedaled as he closed the distance, “Shit! [Mag Dump]!”

Rounds flew out of my plasma pistol, deflecting off his barrier. He reached my position with terrifying speed and thrust a gauntleted hand out to grab me. I raised my arm to deflect and was confused when he placed his hand over the barrel of my pistol. Before I could process his intent he squeezed hard, rupturing the plasma containment cylinder. The weapon exploded in our hands. I jumped back shaking a blister covered hand, shocked that he so handily disarmed me.

I whipped my rail pistol up in time to ping a single hypersonic round across the gauntlet that was already reaching for it. I swung my blistered first to knock his hand away, but he just blocked it with his other arm then proceeded to ruin my other favorite pistol. It happened so fast I couldn’t believe I’d lost half my overall firepower in less than a couple seconds.

“Mother fucker…”

“Come on bitch, pull that 9mm out. I’ll wreck that shit too!”

James stepped up to swing at me when the ground beneath us suddenly bucked violently sending us both sprawling backwards to land on our backs. We looked at each other in confusion. More tremors rolled through the arena, and a quick glance to the walls showed that everyone else had been affected by it as well. Although Kaia and Junipher were entirely focused on the battle below, Eli was talking with Captain Devers who had arrived sometime during our challenge. Both men had looks of concern on their face and seemed to be giving directions to their respective commands.

Then I saw them, Sam and Irene. Both looked haggard, with matted hair and tear streaked faces. They had both lost someone incredibly dear to them. While Sam just looked much as she did when I found her in the kobold dungeon, exhausted and apathetic. Irene fixed me with an accusing stare before turning her hate filled eyes on James. Woman, you already knew this would likely end in tragedy.

The man looked up at where I was looking and smirked, “Ah, looks like the gang's all here. Sorry bout your kid, Irene, but it was really all your fault. But you know that. Yeah, you know that.”

He looked back at me and cracked his neck, “That wasn’t you?”

“Nah, that’s something far worse than either you or me.”

I flexed my hands experimentally, the brief interruption allowing time for them to properly heal from the loss of my weapon. Most of his superficial wounds had begun healing as well. Listening to him taunt Irene stirred the Reaper inside me. His attitude, demeanor, and appearance disgusted me. Wrecking my two favorite pistols left me simmering with rage.

I reached behind my back for my axes, dark motes of energy began trickling off of them as soon as my hands wrapped around the handles. I hadn’t been neglecting my ax fighting skills, but during the fight to get here it had been a largely ranged one, so [Pistol Marksmanship] had broken into the Master rank, my first to do so. With half my arsenal lying in pieces on the field, I decided it was time to change tactics.

“Mmmmm, those are fucking sweet! I’ll be adding them to my collection.” James taunted as he lunged forward swinging a mana-infused heavy right cross at my head. I ducked the cross, but couldn’t avoid the left uppercut to my gut. The blow lifted me off my feet, but James didn’t allow me to drift away from him as he dropped a quick elbow on my overturned back. I kept my grip on my axes as he reached down to take Warlord, the Left Hand from me.

Instead of the weapon coming free, he stumbled in surprise when he tossed me through the air. I took the opportunity to activate the weapon's special ability [Grace of the Plains Gazelle]. With the added 100 agility it gave me I was able to land on my feet and charge back at the shocked black man.

I swung the right ax horizontally, attempting to bisect his abdomen. The clang of our weapons colliding rang out into the arena. When I brought my weapon back James scowled at the gouge that had been left in his gauntlet.

“I ain’t seen nothing yet that could damage my gloves. You gonna’ pay for that!”

I responded with a spinning back swing that caught the man in the chin with the spiked counterweight. His jaw twisted to the left as his body spun violently away. He quickly stood with his back to me, reaching up to set his jaw with a loud crack. Blood trickled from the corners of his mouth when he looked back at me. Anger flashed in his eyes and he launched a series of mana-infused attacks towards me.

We danced around the arena trading attacks and abilities for what seemed like hours. Our sweat and blood splashed across the concrete. Bones cracked or broken, mended as we fought, our system enhanced endurance doing its job to keep us alive, even as we attempted to land a killing blow on each other. Blue energy flared in his gauntlets while the Reaper’s dark energy dominated my axes.

In one of the frequent lulls of the battle, I noticed more and more people had retreated from the arena, a subtle vibration under our feet giving hints as to the equally epic battle that surely raged below us. At this point only a handful of my people remained on the wall, Junipher and Kaia had never left. They never would as long as I drew breath. Irene remained staring hatred at James. Sam too had regained some of her composure and shared a baleful glare to the source of Phoenix’s problems.

We clashed again, sparks of mana flaring repeatedly as we fought. The ground shook more as the battle below us intensified. He broke into another flurry of rapid jabs that I deftly deflected with my battle enhanced Agility. The ground buckled again as we fought, though we largely ignored it, adapting our combat strategies to the randomly fluctuating surface.

I dove forward with both axes raised above my head, the King did the same. Our power clashed mid air where we hung for a split ,stalled second. Energy warped where our weapons made contact, then we were both flung apart to violently smash against the Challenge barrier. Rather than sliding off the barrier to impact the ground below we both hung in the air.

It was then that I noticed that the walls had been vacated, except for Junipher, Kaia, and Irene. Rocks and dirt began to lift casually in the air around us, the air itself seemed to vibrate with power. I held my breath as my body began to drift higher along the barrier. Something was about to happen, something I wasn’t sure anyone here was prepared for.

BAAAAAWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A sound like nothing I’d ever heard before reverberated from below. It forcibly expelled the held breath in my lungs. Then the ground erupted in white light, followed by the walls of the fortification splitting apart. With the sound of safety glass breaking, the Challenge barrier shattered and dissipated. Around us as large chunks of concrete and stone floated free in all directions.

When the light cleared we both looked down into the abyssal maw that had formed below us. In all its multi-eyed, tentacled glory sat the besieged Eldritch Horror, the Old God Manifestation. Several baleful eyes swiveled up to stare at us, then returned to the distant fight below as a powerful magic attack crashed against its sickly hide.

“What the fuck is that!?!?”

King’s outburst pulled my attention back to him floating behind a chunk of the fort wall. When I looked around I realized everything including us was still floating above a mile wide sinkhole that reached into the bowels of the earth. For whatever reason it seemed that the laws of gravity had been voided in this location.

Warning! Challenge bounds have been violated! Challenge is still in effect, all conditions still apply. Any and all interference by outside forces will be met with severe penalties…

“Guess it’s time to wrap this up.”