Kinley’s presence loomed before him.

“Finally. Some kind of reaction from you,” Alex said calmly, standing up to a more relaxed stance.

His opponent turned his head to the side, his smile growing wider. Then, he mirrored Alex’s posture. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had any sort of challenge in here.”

“Then why stay? Judging by your reaction, you like a challenge.”

Kinley’s smile fell a fraction, giving the question a bit of thought. “I didn’t realize that I would be so excited for a challenge. But I… Have you ever gotten everything you ever wanted, and it’s nothing like you thought?”

Alex tried to think of which answer would buy him the most time. “Uhm, nope. I don’t think that’s really happened before. Why?”

Mist continued to roll off of Kinley’s body, swirling in the air around him before dissipating. The man’s smile fell further, and he shook his head. “Never mind, it doesn’t matter. I don’t want to talk. The only thing I need to ask is: What would you like to Stake?”

“What?”

“What would you like to put up as a Stake for the duel. If there’s anything that you see here, I will put it up for you, but you will not win.”

Alex’s mind moved quickly, thinking through the status screen he’d seen before. The information readout had shown one of Kinley’s most used skills was Stake, though he’d thought it was related to a spike of some kind.

Now he realized it was meant for betting on a duel.

Likely what’s keeping me in the arena?

“Most likely,” Maelis said. “But the fact that you’re already trapped here and haven’t come to an agreement means you likely can’t deny the offer.”

Alex shrugged, seeing no reason to hide his intentions. “I came here looking to fight you and take the Cadence Stone from you.”

Kinley’s features piqued with interest again. “The stone? Why? You also wish to see the flow of combat?”

It was Alex’s turn to look confused. “The flow of combat? I was told that the stone was a magic item that you used to adjust the Rift so it couldn’t be found.”

Kinley scoffed. “I’m no mage. I made the old chief do that before I took his place. It’s kept us in hiding for years!”

“Technically, it’s only been a few months. You probably could have gone longer, too, if your guys weren’t snatching up so many people from the Safe Zone.”

Kinley shrugged and reached into a pocket. “It doesn’t matter. The plan was always to leave and carve off a slice of the world for myself, but not just yet.” He held out his hand and a blood-red stone the size of an apple balanced on his palm. “The stone you seek.”

“Okay. What does it do, then?” Alex asked, glancing to his side for a clear direction to move.

“Enough of this. My blood boils for a fight. I’d like for you to stake your stats on the fight.”

“My what?”

“I want your stats. I’ll steal them during the fight anyway, but if you stake them on the fight, I’ll have them all.”

“Hmm. Yeah, no. Not gonna happen.” Alex shuddered to think of what someone like Kinley might do with his stats… and if he was right, what he might be able to do with the Cadence Stone with the magical control to actually utilize it.

“And that after I was kind enough to accept your request for stake? That’s rude, you know.”

Alex raised an eyebrow and gestured at the stands, where dozens of humans and Kuro’qai watched with held breath.

“Fair enough,” Kinley said. “It doesn’t matter, I’ll just have to drag out the fight then and bleed you for what you’re worth.. Just a shame I might now be able to do it for as long as I’d like.” He rolled his shoulders before pocketing the stone and picking his hammer up from where he’d dropped it.

The indent in the sand where the hammer’s head had rested showed a clear indent that told Alex the hammers were heavier than they appeared.

“Stake your life, then. You won’t get out of this alive. Surrender isn’t an option. I’ll warn you, if you deny a second stake, it defaults to betting your life anyway.”

Alex questioned whether that was the truth. Though he didn’t mind betting his life on the fight. He wouldn’t be surrendering to someone like Kinley.

“Fine. I accept.”

Kinley’s smile returned slowly. “I really hope that there are more like you out there. I’ve missed this feeling.”

Alex saw the faces of those of Kinley’s men who’d moved to the side of the arena, watching with a mix of anxiety and fear. He’d noted how they’d called out in fear and curses when Kinley activated his life force power.

How much longer do you think he’s got to keep burning that stuff? Do I just start draining or trying to destroy the pillar?

“Life Force is different for each person. His power seems to be domain-based, so that’s a good guess, that pillar in the center stores life force, and he’s able to burn a lot more than his own.”

Looking past Kinley, Alex saw the mana streaming from corpses and even a few of the guards that were still alive. His eye couldn’t see life force, but he knew it was tightly tied, along with mana, to someone’s aura.

His opponent moved without warning, clearly finished talking. The mana usage was the only warning he had.

Foot stomping the ground, a boulder rose from the sand, propelled by the mana of a skill. When it reached eye level, Kinley swung his hammer to shatter the boulder into hundreds of sharp fragments that flew at Alex far too quickly.

A barrier spell appeared in front of him, blocking the large majority of splinters. They shattered further before falling to the ground to rejoin the arena sands. The disc of force didn’t cover enough surface area to protect his lower legs, leading to his pants shredding and small nicks appearing on his skin.

He could feel the trickle of blood mixing with the sweat that already coated his skin.

“So it begins.” Kinley’s smile was vicious, and the power rising off his skin grew in size, visible to Alex’s left eye. He crouched and pushed off the ground to close the distance. The force of the leap was so powerful that a four-foot spray of sand flew up behind him.

Alex wove a Swift Spell, already moving in anticipation of the clash. The enhanced speed and perception of his mind allowed him to see the surprise register on Kinley’s face as he stepped into the charge, rather than away.

The moment Kinley landed, Alex was there, uncomfortably close and stepping within his reach. Holding his right arm to the side, he ducked and took a large step forward with his left foot before sweeping his right just behind Kinley’s legs. A quick shoulder check to his midsection sent the blood warrior toppling over his sweeping leg and to the sand.

He recovered quickly, rolling once with his momentum before rising in a small jump and slamming both hammers on the sand.

Following the mana, Alex saw power snaking out from where the hammers connected with the sand. It stopped under his feet before forming. Looking up, Alex mentally thought of his movement skills anchor point being near the wall of the arena before lightly hopping two inches from the ground.

Just as he cleared the ground, a thick spike breached the surface in an attempt to impale him.

Carefully, Alex used the middle sole of his boot to stand on the tip of the spike. His weightless nature from [Feather Step] allowing him to move easily with the deadly attack. Its force propelled him high into the air, further than he’d anticipated.

His anchor was too far behind him, leading to a backward movement that forced an awkward shift in weight. He flipped over as much as he could, not quite making a full rotation before he came into contact with an invisible barrier.

It worked out for him, three-quarters of a backflip, which led to his feet coming in contact with the barrier rather than his back. Still under the effect of his Swift Spell, Alex cast an anchor spell modified with extend under his feet to hold him in place.

“Holy sh—”

“Woooah!”

“What in the actual—”

Chaotic voices, cheering, and yelling could be heard below him. Glancing down and slightly further back, he saw the stands of people watching him with wide eyes.

That probably looked cool as hell.

He almost laughed, but took a deep breath and squashed the feelings. The momentary reprieve was a chance to strategize mid-fight that he didn’t often get.

Checking his mana, Alex clicked his tongue on his teeth in frustration.

He’s draining my stats, mana included.

“It’s your blood.”

Yep. Probably that [Arena Tax] skill he has. Smart of him to have a skill like those shards.

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“Just keep stalling, kid. You’re a better fighter than he is.”

I know, that’s surprising. He’s been running an arena for years, more powerful than anyone in the entire Broken World.

“Being at the front of the pack isn’t always the best thing. Remember what I told you about your Planetary Title? Being at the front early can lead to complacency and a loss of forward momentum.”

Realization dawned on him.

He said he hasn’t had a challenge in years.

“Exactly.”

“He’s on just as much of a clock as me, though,” Alex said to himself, focusing on Kinley. His opponent was looking at him in frustration, unsure of how to pursue or bring Alex back down from his perch on the side of the arena. “I’m a better fighter as long as I have mana. His draining my stats includes my mana capacity, and every spell I cast drains what little I have.”

As he voiced the two problems, two solutions presented themselves to him at once.

As clearly as he saw the problem, he saw the solution.

All three of his minds worked on the proper order of things, his eyes dancing across the wide arena floor below. Restless noises came from the crowd below him, and cheering turned to whispers of uncertainty as he continued to keep his distance.

He renewed the spell, anchoring himself to the wall, ignoring those below him.

Plan set, he raised both hands to allow dozens of threads of mana to spill from his fingers. They wove out into a large pattern. The spell circle that formed wasn’t nearly as big as the arena, but it was large enough to cover at least 60 percent of its diameter.

He slowly maneuvered the circle to hang in the air over the center of the arena. Where the life force was gathering around the pillar to feed Kinley’s power. But more importantly, it was also where the mana was gathering and dissipating.

Whatever the tower in the center was, it was clearly designed to absorb the power Kinley wanted to use. So Alex saw no reason to let the mana go to waste.

Once the circle hung in place in the air, he guided it to the ground, only half paying attention to Kinley. The man had stopped yelling at Alex and instead pointed at several of his men. He barked a command, and several of them raised an arm in unison and cut their hands. Blood began to run down their arms.

Renewed life force and stats rushed to Kinley, but at the same time, more mana joined the mix.

He kept several long strands of mana connected to the circle as he activated it. The two runes powered it, and he used a combination he’d never thought to use before.

The first rune he’d ever used in a spell circle powered the spell’s Primary Rune. Draining had been used to siphon the mana from the Elven wards. He’d paired the Draining rune with one of the new ones that he’d been studying for the recreation of the Elven ritual.

Channeling acted as a Modifier Rune for the spell circle. Rather than pulsing his mana to activate the spell and allowing his threads to disconnect, he kept them connected and continued to channel mana into the spell’s formation.

Compared to the trickle of mana he used to activate the spell, a veritable tidal wave of mana crashed into him. The immense feeling of power coursed through his veins, causing his skin to prickle and his mana pool to fill in heartbeats.

That’s one problem down. Now for the other.

He mentally reached out to his ring’s spatial storage and retrieved the prototype mana battery. As soon as it touched his palm, he used [Mana Infusion] to begin dumping his mana into the stone.

The channeled spell refilled his core with mana almost as fast as he could push it into the battery.

Despite its inefficient transfer rate, he had mana times his own mana pool at his disposal and used it regardless of the lost mana while he stored it in the etched stone.

Kinley roared at him from below, finally frustrated enough to try something desperate.

Alex watched him closely, certain that there was something that would force him down from the wall, eventually. With his plan already underway, he wasn’t very worried. Without a limit to the mana he could spend or the reduction in mana pool size because of the unaffected battery, he knew the fight was his.

A hammer heavier than any of the earlier sections of rubble flew at him. Sighing, Alex let the mana from the anchor spell dissipate, and he pushed off, angling at the ground with his movement skill. He landed softly, but not a moment later, Kinley was there.

The warrior swung wildly with his remaining hammer, blows passing so powerfully that the flat head of the weapon created vuwummph sounds in the air.

Alex wove around the blows, only able to keep up with his speed thanks to the Swift Spell that one of his lines of consciousness kept renewing. The second directed the flow of mana and intent to weave spell circles, and the last focused solely on dodging and anticipating Kinley’s movements.

Knowing that his lightning hadn’t been effective, Alex took a slower, more brutal approach to breaking his enemy down.

Before creating space, he wove two spell circles; the first was an alteration spell base, with the first rune he’d ever learned from Evan. Activation was a control rune that would cause the spell to activate, and he used a modifier version of the Anchor rune as the second.

The activation rune would keep it dormant until something passed through the spell circle. The anchor rune was used differently as a modifier rather than a primary rune. IInstead of anchoring being the spell's effect, it modified the circle itself, keeping the spellwork anchored to something… in this case, Kinley's leg.

This spell circle set the foundation layer for the second.

The deadly combination of the second circle wove in his hand as he risked it all to dance in melee range of his opponent. Any time he attempted to create space, Kinley was there to close the gap and keep the pressure on.

Alex could see the frustration building on the man’s face, unable to hit Alex despite his continually reducing stats.

The second circle soon layered over the first as Alex landed a light punch on Kinley’s dominant leg while ducking under a blow. With a pulse of mana, he activated the second directional spell circle. This one is powered by both the fracture and extend runes.

While he was tempted to use Empower, Alex knew that this was a battle of attrition. Kinley’s constitution was so high, he wasn’t positive that he’d be able to break any bones in a single shot.

Instead, he’d planted an attached spell circle to the man’s leg, one that would continually pulse fracture spells directed at his femur.

Goal accomplished, Alex did everything he could to create space. His Mana stat, already one of his lowest, was growing small enough that he had to rely on the rapid refilling of his mana and the mana battery to cast his spells.

Surprisingly, Kinley allowed Alex to create space.

He realized that they’d switched positions in their last clash, and the large warrior moved to retrieve his hammer from near the wall.

“I have no idea how you’ve been able to keep up,” Kinley admitted, scooping up his thrown weapon. “Every time I’ve fought, the loss of stats has been enough to cause others to make critical mistakes within a few exchanges.”

“Lucky for me, I’ve been training on a quarter of my normal stats for the last few months.”

Kinley gave a laugh. “Amazing. Truly amazing. It doesn’t matter, though. I’ve never had to use this skill before, but you’ll see why I’ve become the god of this little world. Nothing can stop me.” A tinge of madness could be heard in his voice, the delusions of power and misguided perception of his reality breaking through as he tucked the hammer into his belt.

Alex watched, happy to stall longer and allow his spell to do its work.

Kinley raised a hand while grabbing a dagger from the back of his belt and bringing it to his palm. A quick pull sent his own blood dripping to the sand.

“Oh… shit,” Alex said.

The life force around his body swelled, and the sand around him hardened in an instant before cracking with a deafening pow.

Kinley yelled as if in extreme pain, dropping the knife and rolling his head back.

The misting force around him condensed into a red light, growing jagged and sinister as his power spiked higher and higher. Drained stats of the others siphoned to his body, cycling out and back into him in a cyclical manner.

The cost of the skill was immediately apparent, as his muscles shrank and bulged in time with the fluctuating power. His face aged by a decade before Alex’s eyes, and his hair began to turn white, billowing out in all directions.

Holy shit.

He took another step back and prepared two spells, unsure of which he’d need. Kinley’s transformation was more than he would have anticipated.

“Ready or not…” Kinley said, his voice hoarse from screaming. He pulled both hammers from his belt and slammed his foot to the ground again before bashing the boulder mid-air.

Just as before, jagged rocks flew at Alex, though this time he changed his approach. He used a spell Mage tested at the house before leaving. The targeted barrier spell created a full-body shell that protected him. It was more fragile than the smaller discs and consumed more mana, but it stopped all the incoming shards, preventing any more small cuts from bleeding out his stats.

The debris cleared his vision just in time to see Kinley crouching for another explosive leap.

Only, it never came.

As the warrior pushed off the ground, his dominant leg snapped in half in a gruesome display. The way his off-kilter momentum carried him forward, sliding and rolling across the ground with his broken leg twisting unnaturally, made Alex wince.

Kinley screamed in pain.

Alex dashed forward, drawing his sword from his storage for the final blow. He stabbed it down, not willing to give Kinley a chance to recover. The sword met sturdy resistance, but Alex’s own strength and weight gave the blow the momentum it needed to sink into his chest.

It was startling how long Kinley cried out for, despite being pierced through the chest and what Alex was certain was his heart.

Fuck. Maelis, is he healing through the stab?

“His vitality is likely mountainous. I’ve heard it’s not uncommon for Vitality-based C and B Ranks to be incredibly hard to kill.”

Alex felt a bit queasy as his adrenaline and battle nerves started to fade with the end of the fight. Kinley screamed on for another minute, his leg healing and re-breaking every few seconds while a sword pinned him to the arena he’d created.

Taking two steps back, Alex wove strands to create his first ritual in some time. Once it was in place, he removed the necessary reagents from his spatial item and dropped them into place. The deafening ritual fell into place, and the screams from within could no longer be heard.

The arena was so silent that the shifting rubble of a nearby wall could be heard. No one spoke, one made a single noise as they looked on at their nearly decade-long tormentor lying thrashing and dying.

A moment passed as everyone processed his end, and the crowd went absolutely berserk. The Koru’qai began to sing the song of victory he’d heard a week before, and the humans attempted to jump the wall and yell their cheers.

The invisible walls of Kinley’s skill kept them at bay, but didn’t keep them from cheering and pounding their fists against the barrier in time with the Koru’s song.

An agonizing minute later, Kinley finally fell still.

Stepping into his own ritual, Alex retrieved the Cadence Stone from his pocket and looked around at the crowd. He held it aloft, claiming his victory and acknowledging their cheers.

Windows appeared in his vision, causing the euphoria he felt to soar even higher.