The Chief left for a time after that, allowing another hour gap between challenges. I watched briefly while the meat that he and I collected was butchered and cooked, though obviously the human was left out of that process. It was a waste, but I’d already toed the line with my comments about meat earlier, so I thought it prudent to keep that opinion to myself. I moved back to the tree where I’d been routinely napping, and sat down.

Before I could truly settle, Angela and Leandros approached me. I flicked the brim of my hat back off my eyes. “What?”

“Leandros here has been doing some digging around about the Chief, and he felt it necessary to hide behind my skirts to bring the info to you.”

I raised my eyebrow at Leandros.

He grimaced. “I just thought it may make sense for both of you to hear it at once.”

Angela shook her head. “His background doesn't matter to me. Donny here crushes him in the pit, then we can move on.”

I stayed quiet. It seemed Angela’s confidence in me had grown a bit since the last challenge, or she was just that much more confident in my ability to fight over my ability to eat. I couldn’t blame her, though the two activities had been pretty intermingled for me in the past.

“I just felt it may help to know more about him. Even if he joins us, the knowledge could have value.”

“Fine, I’ve gotten a good four-ish hours of sleep in the last two weeks. I can probably skip the nap. Shoot.”

Leandros swallowed. “Well, the majority of the Kaijin I’ve spoken with say that he came out of nowhere. He met with a few Elders in one of the most distant villages first, then slowly made his way down, village by village, winning them over to his banner until he controlled nearly all of them. By uniting so many smaller villages and communities, he was actually able to drain support from the Khan’s ex-wife and become the largest player among the Kaijin. Without her, the Khan lost his main support in these tribes.”

“I thought the Khan basically controlled all of this?” I asked, gesturing to everything.

“He did as much as one can control all these groups, but they're fickle, and not used to taking orders beyond their chiefs and elders. This is basically an entirely new faction at this point.”

I sighed. “Do we know where he came from?”

“The best guess anyone has, is that he’s from some isolated Kaijin shack in the middle of nowhere. Built himself up from nothing, and came into the first village with nothing, but immense strength, and a plan.”

I picked at my teeth, feeling them itch. “It sounds like Angela’s right. I’ll just have to crush him in the Pit and move on. I’ll leave dealing with anything beyond that to the Khan.” I pulled the brim of my hat down. “Wake me when it’s time to fight.”

“There’s one more thing. He wasn’t the only new player to emerge. Apparently dozens of young men and women from the furthest outskirts came in and started to make a fuss. He just happened to be the most successful.”

I kept the brim of my hat down, mulling that over silently until Leandros got the hint and walked away.

…

Before Leandros could rock me awake, I stood up from my place leaning on the tree. I hadn’t slept. I was too eager for the fight, and the lack of knowledge we had about Bastien was gnawing at me. I took off my gloves, coat, hat, shirt, and shoes, until I was wearing the same basic outfit as I’d first seen Bastien wearing fighting his gator. I didn’t want to be slowed down or over-encumbered as we brawled.

I stretched as I walked toward the same pit in which I’d first encountered the Chief. He wasn’t there yet, so I simply pushed through the crowd that had gathered, and hopped into it. As I finished my stretches, I heard some cheers, and commotion. I was able to see the top of Bastien’s head, then his shoulders as he walked through the group. He was answering their cheers with phrases in Kaijin and pats on the back. Once he reached the edge, he jumped down, doing a flip before he landed to another resounding cheer. He even gave a small bow.

I looked over to him. “We starting this, or what?”

He frowned. “You seem eager to receive a beating.”

I nodded. “Always am.”

“Fine, rules are simple. Whoever concedes or is rendered unable to fight any longer, loses.”

“Fair enough.”

He looked over to the edge of the pit where a man was holding a stone. “When that stone hits the ground, we begin.”

I nodded, and crouched down with my arms raised.

The man at the edge, threw the stone into the air, and it hit the ground with a dull thud.

I activated freeze as Bastien charged, but he adapted quickly. He raised a foot in an attempt to hit my groin. I kicked his foot down to stop the attack, and he shifted to throwing an elbow at my face. I dodged that, and threw a punch at his gut. He tanked that hit, and grabbed the side of my head, trying to slide his thumbs into my eyes. I twisted my head and body, and kicked at his knee forcing him to dodge backward.

The entire exchange was over in moments. Neither of us was panting, nor had we taken any damage. He was possibly as strong as I was, maybe even stronger, but not as fast. Unlike the First through, he had experience, recent experience if the first brutal salvo of attacks was anything to go by.

He charged at me again, scooping up mud and flinging it at my face as he moved. I marked him as under arrest just before the mud hit my eye, allowing me to keep his highlighted silhouette in my vision even as I was blinded. He went to grab the sides of my head and slam my face into his knee, but I blocked his knee, threw his arms to the side, and grabbed his shoulders. I went to headbutt the center of his nose, but he shifted his head's position and instead we slammed our foreheads together, throwing one another back.

I felt my brain rattling in my skull, and smiled as I wiped the majority of the mud from my eyes. I let red bleed into my vision, adrenaline flooding my veins as my adaptive empowerment kicked in. I was the one to charge this time.

I aimed a low tackle at his legs. He attempted to leap out of my reach, but I grabbed his ankle and brought him to the ground with a wet splash of mud. I moved to leap onto him, but he rolled out of the way, bringing himself to his feet so that he could kick at my ribs as I landed. I caught his leg and attempted to pull him closer. He brought an elbow down on the top of my shoulder, and I slammed back into the ground. I sent a flurry of punches his way. He raised his guard, blocking the majority of them, then let out a roar, and threw me off of him with enough force to slam me into the wall of the pit.

He stood back up and started approaching me, but I launched myself from the wall, slamming my shoulder into him and launching him into the wall opposite. He was dazed, and I ran to the wall and began raining blows onto him. Alternating between his face, gut, and kidneys. He wasn’t able to guard the attacks, and I alternated whenever he attempted to block my blows.

He managed to strike me in the chest, and chain together a long enough series of hits to push me back into the center of the pit. He held out his right hand, and I watched as the flesh of it rippled and changed, the tips of his fingers becoming points, and a blade of bone emerged from the edge of his hand along his pinky.

I had wondered what advantage he’d had under his sleeves. He’d built one into all of the other challenges, and I didn’t think he was stupid enough to think raw strength would be enough in this one.

He began slashing at me, forcing me back as I was unable to dodge his knife-fingered blows. He knocked me further and further back until I was against the wall, then he drove his hand through my gut, forcing me to cough blood.

He leaned in close. “You tapping out? There’s a chance you could survive this.”

I started laughing, blood spittle landing on his face as I did so. I began to concentrate, drawing all the radiation from the air around us, and even Bastien himself, concentrating intense heat where his hand was stabbed into me.

He cried out and pulled his hand from my gut as it started to singe and burn from the heat.

I could see my skin start to glow. I threw out a kick at his chest and heard a sickening crack. The wound in my gut started to stitch itself back together even as I got close. I kept laughing the whole time.

“Lou…loup-garou,” he muttered as he backed away from me.

“Come on! Tell me you’re not done? Heal from the broken ribs, start moving at enhanced speed, blast me with radiation! Don’t tell me this is all you have?” I could hear the desperation in my voice as I spoke. I’d hoped he was closer to what I was, closer to the First, that I wasn’t alone at this peak.

He didn’t answer, just continuing to back away, a hand raising to his chest.

I felt my smile dip, saw the fearful looks from the crowd, and fought to calm myself down. It looked like Bastien wasn’t quite up to the challenge I’d hoped he was. I took two quick steps toward him, and punched him once in the side of the head, feeling disappointment as I held the full force of the blow back.

He wobbled, and fell backward, muttering and disoriented.

I let the glow fade from me, along with what was left of my smile, and the red that had encroached on my vision. “I’d say we could call this one.”