An explosion of blue light and shattering tempered glass filled the room. My gauntlets hummed, absorbing the residual energy in the air, as hundreds of tendrils sprouted from my suit.

Garthrust pounded toward me, all green skinned fury and metal enhancements. His power fist cycled up, its pistons locked into ready position. I smiled and stood as my spine got a replacement part slapped into place.

Tendrils swarmed around me, effecting repairs. I raised a fist to protect my head from the side as I turned to meet Garthrust’s charge. The elf pinged shots off from it, trying to shoot me from across the room.

Garthrust roared and swung his power fist as he closed the last few steps. I met it with my gauntlet, activating my power blow ability and sending the orc backward into the wall at speed. He smashed against the armored wall and bounced onto the obsidian conference table, leaving an oversized dark green bloodstain behind.

He did not rise again. The impact had crushed the back of his skull, and he lay in open mouthed shock, eyes wide and staring up at nothing.

A tiny bolt of plasma spattered through my stomach, followed closely by two more. I dropped and let the suit go to work. It had plenty of charge, thanks to breaking the window and then Garthrust, and the wounds were tiny.

“What is he doing, stop him!” shouted the Wizard.

My BuyMort pod arrived then, floating in through the floor to ceiling gap where the window used to be. It warped in Phyllis, who had a surprised look on her face, and Doofus in her arms.

“Doof!” I exalted.

The dog was wearing a new harness made of white composite material that extended down his spine and tail. I took a second to wonder where my dog kept getting morties to buy himself new stuff.

His shield was already active, and he bristled as he took in the room. A rain of plasma fire poured in around us, most of it striking Phyllis. The elf was firing with both weapons, as she stepped in front of the Wizard.

“He leapt on me when the pod arrived, I didn’t mean to bring him!” Phyllis shouted over the weapons fire.

Doofus barked, once, and sent the elf through the wall behind them. It appeared to be made of real wood, and she splintered through it as she vanished, her shield absorbing some of the blow.

Phyllis turned around and grinned at me, her bald head mostly healed. She had her customary joint between her lips and nodded at me as her gun arm began to form.

The mordren slammed into her, and they tumbled into the wall behind us. The radio brick Rayna had sent with Phyllis spun into a corner.

“Phyllis!” I yelled, standing up.

“Oh don’t worry about me, dearie. I’ve been looking forward to this rematch!” she said, her voice mechanically altered.

“Rematch?” I muttered. She was thinking of Drusk. I shook my head and shouted, “yeah, get him Phill! Fuck him up!” No reason to tell her about our spider ranchers at this point.

Besides, the Wizard himself was fixated on me. The night wind swirled his pajama robes dramatically and I laughed as I faced him fully.

“Wizard, huh? What if I told you there’s no such thing as magic?” I asked.

The old man frowned deeply and blinked. “From someone who punches people’s windows, I’d call it the ravings of the mad,” he said, before adding, “Lightning bolt!” and blasting me with a bolt of electricity from his staff.

I bounced against the wall and came to a stop with my head and right arm dangling out of the open window. My heart thumped wildly, and I felt tendrils moving toward it. I braced for the pain, but the suit was already generous with the painkiller.

“Damage detected user, hold on. This might be rough,” said my cartoon starfish, an instant before the suit ripped my heart out. There was a moment of gut-wrenching loss in the middle of my chest, and then the suit slapped in the new model. I groaned and sat up as my new heart came online with a thud, blood and charred muscle tissue ejecting from the turbine.

The Wizard peered at me, still holding his raised, glowing cane.

“Rova,” he started. When the Nah’gh at his side looked over and nodded, he gestured behind himself with a thumb. “Fetch Shilara, won’t you? And while you’re back there, bring me my spellbook?”

The Nah’gh woman lowered her yellow eyes and nodded. “Yes, sir.”

She turned and slithered to a door in the wall behind them, before slamming it closed.

Doofus stepped out from under the table and barked at the man, sending a wave of reinforced sonic force tearing through the conference chairs at him. He merely waved his cane, and the sonic blast dissipated in a flash of brilliant pink light, scattering glass in a tinkle of sound.

The Wizard was encased in a ball of brilliant pink light, which burned or turned away the glass before any could reach him. “Imagine a multiverse without magic, how deviant. I was right about you, young man. You’re unworthy of that relic you wear. Give it here,” he said. His tone struck me, he seemed to genuinely expect me to do his bidding.

“Oh okay, sure thing,” I groaned, getting up from the floor.

He blinked in surprise and raised his cane again.

I held both arms in front of myself, shielding my bare chest and exposed head.

“Fireball!” the Wizard shouted. I braced myself.

Flame and force struck my gauntlets and exploded. The fireball encompassed Phyllis and the struggling mordren too, and they broke loose from each other momentarily.

I lowered my gauntlets and sneered at the Wizard, while fire crackled and burned around me. The suit went to work, and I charged.

Doofus barked again, from under the conference table at the Wizards side. His shield dissipated the sonic blast, and he turned to glare at Doofus.

I charged, rushing to stop the attack on my dog I knew was coming, but Breach grabbed my leg and I slammed onto the tile.

My burnt skin came loose in the mordrens grip, and he roared in pain when Phyllis grabbed his tail and hauled him back. My suit sprayed flesh foam and the room glowed with moonlight. The painkiller in my system revved up a notch.

The larger combatants behind me began trading blows and grappling up close to control Phyllis’ weapon arm, so I turned to deal with my own foe.

“Lightning bolt!” shouted the Wizard, and he blasted under the table with one. Doofus yelped and I heard his paws scrambling as he ran. He appeared on the far side of the room from beneath the conference table, his shield active and glowing.

The tip of the Wizard’s cane glowed with intense light, and faint wisps of smoke rose from it.

“Wizard!” I roared, rushing to the table. He turned to face me, and I slammed my fist into the obsidian slab’s side, activating my power blow ability.

The heavy stone table blew apart into high velocity shards, all flying at the Wizard.

The old man stood at the window’s edge, his long beard whipping in the wind as his shield flared dozens of times. I kept running, following the shards of obsidian as they flew, my fist raised.

He swore under his breath and started to raise the cane at me again, but I slammed my fist into his shield, using my last power blow ability and activating the breaker gauntlet at the same time.

Blue light erupted between us, followed by another burst of vibrant pink. I was blown back by the explosion of pink light and bounced off the same wall Garthrust had hit.

My increased strength saved me from his fate, and I landed on my feet with a laugh. “Sic em, Doof!”

My dog raised his head to bark, but a blast of plasma struck his shield from the splintered wooden wall behind us. He turned and blasted the wooden wall with another sonic blast. Shilara, the elf in green leather, spun through the air over the blast and landed gracefully, both weapons raised.

The Wizard was doing something to his cane, flexing his fingers at the glass orb atop it like a jellyfish. Light pulsed and grew from the center, and I felt the air tingling.

“Doofus, with me!” I shouted.

The dog scrambled back as the Wizard shouted, “Wall of force!” and waved his hand at the center of the room.

A shimmering wall of warped light popped into existence and separated us from the Wizard and his elf.

Waves in the light between us, like heat on the blacktop, were all that showed the wall, but it extended out the broken window several feet. The elf Shilara holstered her weapons, light and cold vapor emitting from the holsters. She never took her eye off me.

The Wizard frowned, staring over my shoulder at the scuffling mech and mordren.

“Hmm. Deal with them, Breach,” he said casually. Rova appeared from behind the wooden wall, carrying a large book with gems set in the cover. “Ah, my book, excellent. I’ll show you magic now, young man.”

“Go help granny, Doof,” I said. My attention was captured by Garthrust’s body. He had flopped again when I destroyed the obsidian conference table, something small and square tumbling just out of his robe’s inner pockets. A mortblock.

I ran over and grabbed the block. The standard message of an ownerless mortblock arose in my BuyMort interface and I happily clicked yes when it asked if I would like to claim it. Vast swathes of desert surrounding Silken Sands and spreading west lit up on my BuyMort interface’s map. A triangle of land spread from Yuma in the south all the way to Lake Mead in the north, with only my stubborn tumor of resistance to mar it.

Garthrust had owned roughly a fifth of Arizona, including a tiny sliver of Prescott itself, which suddenly belonged to me. I grinned and pocketed the mortblock.

The elevator door behind me pinged, and I sighed as I turned to face the squad of Dearth mercenaries arriving. Six of them had crammed into the luxurious elevator car, and they piled out in two rows, weapons raised. They were orcs, all wearing a silvered version of the typical black Dearth armor.

They didn’t bother shouting for surrender, they just opened fire. Doofus’ shield lit up as he took fire, and several slag rounds sunk into me. They were ready for me this time and aimed at my legs.

Partially molten rounds tore away muscle tissue, cracked and burned bone, and filled the room with the smell of my burning flesh.

I crumpled to the ground.