There was another intermission. Hrig looked in on Jade for a moment, before finding herself a place to sit. “You holding up okay Dorsia?”

“I’ll be fine, Jade’s breathing is staying steady too,” she said, wobbling a little as she sat down.

Hrig shifted her attention to me. “You worried about the next fight?”

“A bit. What I saw of his fight was strange,” I shook my helmet, “Burias tired far too quickly.”

“He’s a strange one. My gut tells me he’s pretty harmless, but he won anyway.” she rubbed her chin in consideration. “There’s something odd going on with him, but you’ll probably have to find out exactly what in the arena,” said Dorsia.

“How about you? You worried about Donyin?” I asked.

“Of course. The man’s a beast,” she gave a wicked grin, “I’d love to cut him down though.”

I chuckled and stood up to pour a cup of water for Dorsia. She accepted it with a nod. There was little color left in her cheeks. I approached Hrig, speaking softly in case Dorsia was listening. “When do you think Kyren and Stone will return?”

“Soon, I’d think. Stone has a real talent for that kind of thing. I’m actually concerned with how long they’ve taken already. We’ve certainly been providing them a great distraction.”

“I’d agree with that. I’d say the crowd is quite taken with us.”

“Of course they are, we’re fantastic.”

I leaned against the edge of the pit while discreetly repairing small nicks in my armor and taking stock. We’d done our part, kept the arena busy and done quite well. I’d even enjoyed it. The fact that Talen was profiting pained me though. Something about him unsettled me, even beyond him being a violent and manipulative criminal. Those traits I could deal with, Hrig was violent, and Stone was a criminal and I was fond of both of them. Talen and his right hand Donyin were different though, inhuman in a way I recognized both in myself and in my former master.

Perhaps my still relatively new emotions and senses made me particularly sensitive to those like me. The fact that I disliked those that reminded me of myself seemed strange though. Was that a normal problem for people? It would probably be weird to ask.

I’d already raised enough suspicion with my knowledge of dwarvish and runic magic. Some of that came from Pebble, but the knowledge of how to invoke the rune had been something I knew innately. Between that and draconic I wondered what else my creator had put into me. Perhaps I was an excellent juggler, or I could perform a perfect pirouette?

The sound of the crowd dipped and I returned my attention to the arena. Talen stood to speak, “Everyone, please take your seats and get ready for the first of our semifinal matches! Sevald and Rock, come to the arena.”

“Good luck, not that you’ll need it,” said Hrig.

I nodded, clanking as I walked into the pit. I met Rock in the center and took an open, easy stance. He flashed a confident grin, raising his tower shield and mace in a defensive stance.

Talen leaned forward as we took position,“is everyone ready for a fight between our two most heavily armored contenders!?” He held for applause, “Good, then without further ado let’s figure out which of these two contenders is truly made of steel.”

If that was the criteria for victory, the battle was already solidly in my favor.

“Fight!”

I took the initiative, approaching Rock’s left in order to slip around his shield. I swung my sword, but Rock managed to adjust in time to block. My sword crashed against the shield. I recoiled, taking several steps back.

“What’s the matter?” He asked in a nasally voice, “Afraid?”

I ignored him. The strike felt strange. I couldn’t tell exactly what happened, but there was an exchange of some kind. I needed more information so I struck again, aiming for the shield on purpose this time. Rock raised it to meet my sword. The same sensation occurred. I struck again, and again, trying to figure out exactly what was happening.

Rock simply kept up his guard, absorbing my blows. After a few more I realized what it was doing. The shield was eating my energy, sapping my strength a little with each strike. It was like me, it fed off of people in order to sustain itself. That was how Rock had successfully won battles against those stronger than himself. He only needed to offer up a solid defence and his shield would slowly eat away at his opponents until they were too exhausted to go on. Unfortunately for him, I was his worst possible matchup. My energy, as far as I could tell, was infinite and my strength restored itself as quickly as the shield consumed it.

I placed my sword in the sand and leaned on it heavily, feigning heavy heaving breaths. Rock smirked, approaching with his mace gripped firmly in his hand. He raised it and brought it down, aimed for my helmet. I chose that moment to shift my weight, grabbing his arm as he brought it down to strike me. I flipped him over my head using his momentum along with some of my own, and smacked him into the sand. He wheezed, unable to breathe and I crouched over him, letting him recover. Once he regained his senses he started trying to stand, but the weight of his armor made it too difficult for him. He was like a turtle that had been turned upside down.

“It was well fought,” I said, offering my hand. He scowled at it, but offered up his own. I hauled him up and turned around to retrieve my sword. There was a hard impact on my back and I was knocked to my knees.

“I never said I was yielding, idiot.” Another impact rocked me as his mace struck my back again. There was no third impact. I stood and twirled, slamming the back of my fist into the side of his helmet. The force spun him once and he collapsed face first into the sand.

The crowd roared with approval and Talen rose to speak. “The winner is Sevald! I guess he’s our man of steel after all.”

He didn’t know half of it.

“We’ll be seeing him again in the final round!”

Some attendant’s went to drag Rock and his things out of the pit, but I grabbed his shield before they reached it. I turned my helmet toward them.

“Tell him I took it. If he wants it back, he’ll have to take it from me.” They nodded, too apathetic to make a real effort at retrieving it, and continued on their way. I liked the shield, it was like me, though not sentient as far as I could tell. Rock wasn’t worthy to wield something that was, in a way, kin to me.

I made my way back to the common area. There was a flash of golden light that told me Kyren had returned. She was standing over Jade who was slowly coming to. Stone was huddled in conversation with Dorsia whose color was already returning.

“Spoils of combat?” she asked, gesturing at my new shield.

“It’s enchanted. Saps the strength of those that strike it. Someone like Rock shouldn’t have it.”

Hrig smiled, “Stone and I must be starting to influence you. Knocking a man out and stealing his shield just because you don’t like him?”

“He hit me rather hard with that mace. It’s hard not to dislike someone after that.”

Stone and Kyren moved closer while Dorsia helped Jade stand and started walking her out of the room.

“She’s taking her somewhere to rest. She’ll certainly need it after suffering injuries that severe,” said Kyren. Her and Stone’s return brought me immediate comfort. We were complete again.

“That’s understandable. What were you and Dorsia talking about, Stone?” I asked.

“Just trading some information, setting some things up. Dorsia used to pick pockets for me back when I was working here,” said Stone.

“Corrupting the youth? You? I’d never have suspected,” said Hrig.

“It’s important to give children the skills they need to succeed.” Stone looked at us both, “There’s something I need to tell you. The heist was a success, but I may have done things a bit off script?”

“How so?” I asked.

“He’s united all the opposition in the city against Talen and set up a series of hits by a mixture of law enforcement and criminal elements at his most sensitive operations to all begin occurring within the next hour,” Kyren said matter of factly.

I stood silently for a moment, dumbfounded.“Why? I thought all this was to help you pay off a debt.”

“This isn’t about just me and him anymore. He’s changed things, and not for the better. There used to be a way of doing things, rules of a sort. He’s thrown all of that out in favor of speed and profit. He’s killed entire families to ensure survivors wouldn’t rise against him. I can’t let someone like that rule the underworld here unopposed.”

“Well, how did you do it?” I asked.

“It’s not too complicated lad. Talen’s rise was too quick. He jumped over more established organizations, skimped on bribes to certain members of the law, and was too ready to let former opposition kiss the ring, leaving vulnerabilities in his hierarchy. He hasn’t actually consolidated his power yet. All I did was create a little network of people that are a bit resentful and slip them the right information. I did it all under the guise of preparing the heist. It was a good excuse to be near his remaining competition’s operations after all.”

“That’s brilliant,” I said.

“Thank you lad. Unfortunately he still has plenty of allies, particularly here in the arena. When he gets word of what’s happening we’ll be in great danger, but we can’t leave until the tournament’s over without him stopping us anyway,” he sighed heavily, “I’m sorry again for getting everyone into this.”

“Don’t be, Stone. It’s inconvenient, but just from what we’ve seen and heard here in the arena, Talen needs to be dealt with,” though a bit more honestly I simply did not like him and would sincerely enjoy tossing him off his little dais. "Will he try to speak with you now that you're back? Ask how things went?"

"I don't think he will. He had men tailing us and they saw what they needed to see. Besides, I think he likes the attention he gets up there. I doubt he wants that interrupted."

“Donyin and Hrig, please make your way to the arena,” Talen’s voice rang out over the crowd.

Hrig looked at the group, ”I’m going to finish this quickly. Maybe we can get out of here before there’s too much trouble.”

“We’ll be prepared either way. Just focus on the fight,” said Kyren.

“Be careful Hrig,” I said. She was a spectacular fighter, but Donyin’s annihilation of Jade showed that he was too strong to be taken lightly.

She nodded and gave me a smile before entering the pit and making her way toward its center. Her opponent was already there. Standing a head taller than her, his face still mostly obscured by thick black cloth, his gray tunic clean, but worn and thick cloth wrappings covering his hands.

As they squared up, Dorsia returned.

“Have they started yet?” She asked.

“No, but it should begin soon.”

Dorsia shook her head, “She should’ve conceded like I told her to.”

“You told her to concede? Why?” I asked.

“That feeling I get. I know she’s going to lose. When I think about fighting her, I feel as if there’s a raging river between us. I could never beat her. She’s just too strong. When I think of fighting Donyin though, it’s like there’s an ocean between us. The man doesn’t even seem human.”

I stood silently for a moment, watching the pit. "What feeling do you get when you think of fighting me?”

“The same as Donyin. The difference feels almost monstrous. If I hadn’t seen you act so mercifully in the melee, I'd have never stepped into the pit with you.”

Being referred to as monstrous gave me a slight uncomfortable twinge, though it was certainly fair in any context. I returned my attention to the arena where Talen seemed to have just finished one of his crowd pleasing buildups.

“Now let’s watch these titans of the arena square off. Fight!”

Hrig and Donyin moved toward one another and began trading blows immediately. They didn’t bother feeling one another out or trying to determine the range and speed of each other’s strikes. These were professionals, and that showed immediately.

Hrig was raining down blows on Donyin who was deflecting them with his hands or dodging with deft footwork. Donyin attempted multiple times to switch to the offensive and Hrig would have to dodge his blows, but she always pushed her way into being back on the attack. I could tell she was trying to reduce his movement and avoid letting him pick up any momentum. She was playing it smart, but after several minutes of non-stop striking and dodging, she was tiring. In spite of that she quickened her pace, pushing even harder until Donyin started losing his ground.

Donyin was slowly pushed back until he was just under Talen’s dais, where Talen couldn’t observe them. Suddenly, his dodges and blocks grew clumsy, and he stumbled back. Hrig didn’t hesitate and she brought her axe up to his neck with all the might she could muster. As the blade made contact with his throat instead of the splash of blood I expected, sparks flew and for a moment, in the spot where the axe had cut the fabric at his neck, I saw a flash of gold. Armor was my first reaction, but gold made for poor protection. I looked closer. They were scales, shining bright and gold.

Hrig hesitated, surprised by the sparks. Donyin took advantage and raised a tree trunk like leg, slamming it into Hrig’s chest and knocking her back toward the center of the arena. He then got out from under the dais and began a series of quick, but savage strikes. Hrig couldn’t recover and Donyin’s movements regained that same sharpness they’d had before he’d been under the dais.

The impacts were so heavy that I could actually hear them. Hrig took another hit, but used the momentum to back away. Her face was bloody and she was covered in bruises. She spat on the ground.

“I thought this was a fight, not tea in the garden. Why don’t you hit me like you mean it?”

Donyin scowled and closed the distance between them. Hrig managed a strike at his chest, but again where I expected blood was only another rain of sparks and flash of gold scales. He grabbed the blade with his bare hands and hauled it toward himself to strike her, but she moved with the momentum and headbutted him in his mouth, the one area that was exposed.

He stumbled back, roaring in pain and holding his mouth. He pulled away his hand and several teeth came with it.

Hrig laughed, wiping blood away from her forehead. “Guess you’ll be covering your mouth from now on too, eh?”

He clenched his fist and closed the distance again. Hrig managed a few more strikes, but her strength had clearly left her, the injuries of his previous strikes and the intensity of the combat had taken its toll. He smashed his fist into her gut making her cough blood, but she held on and spat in his face. He then grabbed her by the hair, held her up and began pummeling her with his other hand.

The crowd was completely silent, their hunger for blood was matched by a hunger for sport and there wasn’t much sport left in this match. After a particularly brutal strike the hair that he’d been holding Hrig up by tore and she was knocked back several yards.

The railing I was holding shattered under my grip, sending splinters all around me and breaking the silence. Donyin stopped his movement toward Hrig.

“The fight is over!” Yelled Talen from his dais, “Donyin is the victor!” The crowd managed some tepid applause and I made my way into the pit. I walked over to Hrig and gently lifted her, holding her close.

“Sevald,” she coughed out as we made our way out of the arena.

“Save your strength.”

“I’ve got plenty to spare,” she smiled in a flash of bloody teeth, “but Talen, Donyin is seeing through Talen somehow. It must be magic of some kind.”

That made sense. Under the dais outside of Talen’s view was where Donyin had struggled the most during the fight, and he was clearly able to see somehow. Between that and those scales there was something going on that reminded me very distinctly of my encounter with the goblin leader. There was a thread there, I just needed to follow it.

I laid Hrig on Jade’s former bench and backed away, letting Kyren tend to her. She grabbed my hand as I moved away.

“Kill that bastard for me, will you? Don’t go soft on him like you did the others.”

“He’s as good as dead.”