“I’m gonna die!” Max said as he dodged a punch that left a crater in the ground that opened to the floor below.

“Come back birdman!”

“No!” Max jumped backward and sent a few sharpened feathers forward, only to watch them not affect the Ape Man.

“You try tickling feathers? Birdman stupid.”

Max looked at the walls he’d pierced with said feathers. “No, you’re just tough.”

“Thank you birdman!”

Brion sighed. “Resonance at eighty percent, hold him off for a little longer. Seems you’ve gotten stronger since the last time.”

Max ducked under a punch, moved around the large man, and continued to run.

The Ape Man grabbed a barrel and rolled it down the hall in frustration. “Die!”

“No!” Max turned and tossed a flash grenade at his opponent before ducking into an empty room.

A blinding light followed by a boom blinded and deafened The Ape Man. “Agg!”

“Ninety percent,” Brion added.

The Ape Man ran down the path and past the room, looking for us. “Get back here!”

Max waited a bit longer.

“Ninety five percent.”

Just then, a fist tore through the wall, and The Ape Man burst through. Covered in rock dust and woodchips, “No more running now!”

The Ape Man grew in size as fur covered his body and his form shifted. He continued to grow in bulk, his form filling the room in moments. This in turn limited his offensive capabilities in the tight quarters environment.

“Status!?”

“Ninety Nine percent.” Said an irritated Brion.

The Ape Man punched the ground, which caused it to shake.

Max jumped to the side, barely evading a blow that would have ended him instantly. The rogue fist traveled through the floor with ease.

“One Hundred!”

“Invoke Luck.” Max stated while in the air, closing his eyes as he swung Brion downward, followed by a flurry of critical strikes that left deep cuts in the Ape Man’s body as well as caused him to fall through the floor. Max floated as his opponent flew down two stories and landed with a loud crack.

“Golden Dragon Descends from the Heavens,” Max said as his eyes glowed golden and his silver hair turned blonde. Golden scales surrounded his eyes, covered his nose, and grew into gauntlets over his arms.

The Ape Man could have dodged had his spine not been damaged. He could have countered had his arms not been covered in debris. The warrior would have sent out a wave of explosive mana as a final resort, but that would have taken himself and many of his allies out instead of the singular opponent. Fate was his enemy, and it appeared he had been making bad calls since the battle began. Just like the stories every Etravonian heard of the Golden General, a man of nearly unmatched prowess, a living force of nature that had been steps ahead of many opponents.

The Ape Man met his defeat with a smile on his face as the Max landed with a crash, his blade embedded in the earth.

“Brion. I’m tapped out. You take it from here.” Max said as he fell back to catch his breath.

“You fought well Max. Get some rest, I’ll stand guard.”

“I’m sorry, Brion. But I have to fight you,” he said in a somewhat crazed voice. His eyes fogged over, and his mouth held a maddened smile.

“What in the Abyss Ander!”

Ander moved forward faster than a human eye could track as shockwaves traced his path. Brion dodged the lightning thrust and scowled as he wrapped both hands around his friend and stomped his right leg. “Sorry Ander. Omega Protocol, activate!”

“What for?” Ander seemed surprised as Brion pulled a switch on Anders’ battle suit, causing both Brion and Ander to be transported out of the arena through the wards. An explosion covered the area, causing a piece of earth to fall over Max and crush him.

“Bullshit! He put contingencies on his own allies. That Cecil is heartless,” said the woman with the 10-gallon hat.

“We need to go on the offensive now. We lost four in that attack, and staying on the defensive will lead to our team losing this bout. They still outnumber us.” Marigold said as she passed. A spear was currently being used as a walking stick, and a bandage was placed around her neck.

“I don’t like leaving our captive alone, but we really have no choice. We’ll need Sinbad for this.” The yellow-eyed woman looked at the debris with sorrow before turning forward.

The Trio left their castle and proceeded to move forward. They didn’t all have high-speed capabilities like the strike team Ander led, so they would have to pace themselves as they traveled across the battlefield.

As the group got a reasonable distance away, Max made his move from under the rubble. “Cecil, do you read?”

“Yes, it appears Ander and Brion are gone, what happened?”

“Mind control I think. Brion had to use the Ander contingency. The one you informed us about should Ander lose control of himself.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Ah, so they had someone with mind control capabilities. Status of the opposing team?”

“They essentially said that they have three more people left in the game. All female if I were to guess. One kind of sounded like Midas albeit hoarse. Potential neck injury.”

“So Ander took out the mage, and teleporter?”

“Correct.”

“Then you bested the ape?”

“Yes, but how?”

“Then Brion countered the Mind control with a sacrifice leaving you alive?”

“Yes.”

“That lines up perfectly then.” Cecil sighed.

“What do you mean?”

“I assumed there were two with mental-based abilities, one alchemical, the other magical. Gather your strength, drink your potions, push against the debris, and wait a few more minutes. I’ll tell you when to escape when I see the other three.

“Minah, only three are headed your way, intercept them,” Cecil said through a gadget in the helmet.

“Is Marigold there?”

“Yes, apparently Ander managed to injure her and take two more out before he’d gotten mind controlled. Be on your guard and take out the Alchemist if you can.”

“Right.” Minah looked forward and scowled as she couldn’t see the three coming.

“Odd. I can’t seem to see any enemies approaching?”

“Is someone approaching?”

“Yeah, but no enemies.”

“Who is it?”

“I don’t know?”

“How are are they from your positon?”

“Three hundredish feet, why?”

“Minah, drink the clear potion now.”

Minah did so and scowled as the mental suggestion was countered. “The one on the left is very powerful and I can’t gauge them.”

“It’s fine, just take out the one with a hat.”

“Right.” Minah accelerated, crossing the vast distance moments as two fists embedded themselves in the Alchemist’s cloak and injected a concussive bomb that caused the Alchemist to explode when she was sent flying away, taking her out of the match.

Minah felt resolute when a light spear appeared in her torso, and she was sent out of the arena.

“Max, escape and find the captain. Minah has been taken out and we need to focus on defense. Good luck.” Cecil said through comms.

Max was angry, but he had to control his anger. With both of his practitioner-tier arms, Max pushed the stone board Brion made to hide him away.

“If I wasn’t here Brion could have fed Ander the potion. They could have fought back.”

“Ander is the only one here I don’t think anyone aside from Rion or I could contain if they were mind controlled. Taking him out with just himself was the best possible outcome plus they left you mostly unharmed. One ally in a fortress alone is better than none.”

“Fine…” Max walked down the hall and stopped, noticing a familiar rune type. It was one of Cecil’s specialized runes for mana gathering.

“Did you find something?”

“A mana gathering rune. One of yours.”

Cecil paused for a brief moment. “Open up your senses and throw a potion at the rune.”

Max did so and felt the man travel from there toward the top floor and flow a bit further south.

“Cecil! Goldilocks has just hit our first layer of traps!” Bella bellowed loud enough for the device to transfer her voice to Max.

Max, in turn, began running up the stairs, mostly unhindered.

Soreness filled Rion’s muscles as he watched that damned raccoon eat most of those strange circle-shaped sweets.

“I’ll get my revenge for this.” Kyrion said to the raccoon.

“I highly doubt that.” The raccoon started haughtily.

Just then, a surge of healing mana covered him, relieving the soreness and restoring the damaged muscles. With enough strength, he pushed himself forward into a leap, landing shy of the plate, which was enough for him to steal one of the cookies.

Comically, as he ate just one of the calorie-heavy and eggshell-filled discs, he felt his muscles swell, and his body was no longer destroying itself. From there, Rion slammed the gravity restraints on his arms three times, which caused the safety to kick in and the cuffs to fall off. He then moved onto the torso and leg weights, which left him out of mana. Hearing some footsteps coming, Rion got back to his feet and began walking back towards the sound. He could take his captors just like this if he needed to.

“You damned brat.” The raccoon looked at the boy walking away and invoked a spell that caused him to stumble.

Left was right, up was down, and everything was spinning. He walked forward but felt as though he had moved backward. The more he tried to approach the door, the further he seemed to get.

“What are you going to do now, Kid?”

Rion punched the ground, and the castle shook. He continued to punch the ground.

“Oi! Stop that!” The raccoon yelled, then eventually retreated after a hole in the floor nearly swallowed him whole.

“I can feel the ground, which means I can call for help.” Kyrion continued drumming for minutes before he stopped for a break.

Moments later, Max managed to run into the room, breathing heavily. His body and mana pool were exhausted. He looked at his captain and smiled. “We need to be quick. The other team is inside our castle.

“Let me loose and I’ll give you some mana. From there we can discuss strategy.”

Thus, Max began releasing the cuffs, choker, and crown. As he did so, he informed Rion of all the events that had taken place. The only thing that caught him by surprise was that Ander had been mind-controlled and turned against his allies, only for Brion to use.

“He should be resistant to regular mind control.”

“I believe they used alchemy ontop of magic.”

“Ah, something to lower his defenses and another to break in. But at least one of them was taken out.” Kyrion produced several wrapped sandwiches, which he consumed one by one in a gluttonous hurry.

“Shouldn’t you start running”

Kyrion grabbed the burger and sighed, withdrawing a purple vial from his coat. “Don’t tell Cecil about this as I’m not sure when I got it. I just know it contains liquid space mana.”

“Ok?”

“I need you to pour this right in front of the throne. Also you need to hold Sinbad back for as long as you can.”

“Won’t you meet him on the way?”

“I am in no condition for a drawn out fight. I need a quick and decisive victory. You are the key to this fight Max. This is your chance.”

“Are you injured?”

“Something like that. A direct fight isn’t what I need to win. Also you should be the one to hold him off. I trust in all that island training you’ve been doing.” Rion patted his friend on the shoulder before jumping through a wall and out the hole Cecil created with his mana cannons.

Through observation, Rion knew that Sinbad used hyper-lethal abilities, which can kill when they connect. Risking himself in a fight would just cause his team to lose, but trapping him in a place far away would mean that Rion was free to go where he needed to.