Smith’s fist flew, punishing the rebar beside its intended target. Then again, missing by only millimeters and wiping the sweat off of Kevin’s cheek. A right hook connected with Kevin’s side, which he managed to block with his arm. However, he was still slowed down enough that the Roid-racer’s grabbing hand connected with his throat. Smith lifted Kevin above the ground, choking the life out of him as his legs desperately grabbed for anything to kick off of.

  “This seems like it’s it,” Brenna announced. “I don’t see any way that Kevin can make it out of this one. Congratulations to all those who placed their bets on Smith. A video of this match will be posted on XouTube for your watching pleasure. Be sure to like, comment, and subscribe. ”

  Smith pressed Kevin against the walls of the cage. It was a mistake, a horrible one, and he knew it, but his arms were too tired to hold Kevin in the air without support. Kevin jumped off the wall to deliver a crushing kick to Smith’s face, sending him spinning to the floor.

  While gasping for air, Kevin leaned on the walls of the cage, happy for anything that could hold him on his feet. The circus theme had started overriding the theme of the cage a few moments ago. As he held himself up, He also felt the material of the bars behind him, looking for the exact boundary of rebar to rope, and following it as it expanded.

  Wiping the blood from his mouth, Smith came to his feet. In this one moment the world saw just how battered Smith was. His left knee buckled as he stood up straight, and his fists drooped far below a proper fighting stance, resting nearly at his hips. Any fighter has forward intention, leaning toward the enemy, in a fight; Smith no longer kept this form. His chest slumped far lower than ideal, unable to be supported by weakening core muscles. With one deep breath, he hid these signs of weaknesses once more.

  Seeing this gave Kevin some hope. He held his own against Smith, no one could take that away from him. Still, any hope of a victory in the cage has a far reach. While his opponent could still feign strength, he gave up on it midway through the fight. His legs wobbled like a top end at the end of its spin. He could not see out of his left eye, it was entirely swollen shut. Most frustratingly, the black holes that appeared on Kevin’s vision while he was being choked remained. Sure, they retreated to the outer edge of his sight, but they never left. The black holes raced around, following unpredictable paths, never reaching for the middle of the area they lived in. It served as a constant, undeniable reminder that Kevin clung to consciousness with only the tips of his fingers.

  The warriors made eye contact. A message of respect, indecipherable by all but the two participating, was relayed, received, and reciprocated.

  One last charge forward, Kevin ducked Smith’s colossal leg. Instead, its impact transferred to the cage. Had the blow hit the rebar, the bars would have simply broken, leaving a hole that was too small for Kevin to break through. If the kick had hit the ropes, newly transformed by the power of Oswin, then the ropes would have bent and absorbed the impact. The kick hit neither, instead landing in the transition area between the two states. The rebar broke on the right, and the ropes, now with nothing to hold them taunt, flew open. The resulting gap was just large enough for Kevin to scramble through.

  his dexterous limbs easily navigated on top of the cage, where many of the mindless savages that beat on the arena rested. They charged him, but Kevin easily avoided them. He leapt from the cage to the little cloud that supported Brenna, and managed to grab it by a hair. Unlike real clouds, the cloud platform was shockingly solid, as if it was a plank of wood surrounded by loose wool.

  “UUuhhh hello?” Stammered Brenna as Kevin hauled his ass onto the platform. “It seems Kevin has escaped the cage. I'll get him back in there. Somehow. Do not worry.”

  Now with the benefit of distance, and a moment to rest. Kevin summoned his bow. It felt heavy, way too heavy. This was neither the usual wood bow, nor the balloon bow of the circus. Rusted metal and shiny steel alike mended together to form the limbs of the bow. A poorly maintained leather grip bisected the weapon, and the drawstring was a steel wire. This was the bow of the apocalypse.

  The draw strength requirement was unusually high, but Kevin was just able to match it. Thankfully the muscles used in drawing a bow back were mostly exclusive to that single purpose.

  “Savages” Brenna commanded. “Get him back in the arena”. Brenna floated her cloud closer to the arena, as Kevin fired away with his new bow. Each Savage was met with an arrow to the vitals, which resulted in their disintegration back into dust. All except for one, which was shot through the chest, and tumbled to the ground below.

  I guess that one was a real racer. Concluded Kevin. With all the savages dealt with, only one opponent remained. He notched another rusty arrow. Sorry buddy, there are not enough tetanus shots in the world for this.

  Smith was ignoring Kevin when the first arrow hit him. He had been pounding the cage with his fists but he was unable to make a hole large enough for himself to crawl through. It tore through his leg and brought him to his knees. This bow was stronger, they both knew it.

  Brenna wrapped her arms around Kevin, desperately trying to throw him off the cloud. He lightly shook her off, and she tripped of her own clumsiness and fell to the ground below.

  Kevin fired again, hitting his mark in the shoulder, then the center of the chest. With a bloody face, the caged competitor mouthed `next time` before the arena disintegrated, and his lifeless body tumbled to the ground.

  WINNER! Proclaimed a banner flying above. Swirls of sparkles spun around Kevin. His body was restored to its state just before he entered the arena, and his bike was returned to him.

  “Nice job” proclaimed Oswin, giving Kevin a high-five. He managed to get a long rest while Smith and Kevin fought, and now he felt ready to finish the race.

  “This is bullshit” shouted Brenna. She was being carried princess style by Annie, who was running fast enough to keep pace with Kevin and Oswin as they biked. “Annie you can do something right?”

  “Not really. No rules were really broken.” Annie shrugged. “At most I could argue that Kevin got physical with an announcer, but he hardly pushed you. The tripping and falling was all you”

  “Really? Comeon, bend the–”

  “However” Annie interrupted. “ The final leg of the race is a bit more urban, and racers are limited to class two abilities. And this” Annie gestured all around her “Might even be class four. We have been in the last stretch for a bit now. I’m just waiting to deal out your punishment” Annie’s legs glowed and whirrled as they transformed, becoming more and more mechanized as the rules continued to be broken. She seemed immune to all the theme changes around her.

  “I’ve also had enough of this.” Annie opened her portal back to the announcer stand and tossed Brenna in like a sack of potatoes. Before Brenna’s complaints could bite back, the opening was closed.

  With the source of the apocalypse theme gone, the circus reclaimed its territory eagerly. “Ok Oswin, time to turn this off right now” demanded Kevin, as he fearfully watched his bow transform back into the balloon bow.

  “If only it was that easy.” complained Oswin.

  “It's alright, we have something that can help us out right over there” Kevin pointed out to the horizon. Everyone present followed his gaze, so Kevin planted an arrow in the back of Annie’s skull. She crumpled to the ground.

  “What the— ” stammered Oswin

  “It was a preemptive strike, and I had to do something while I still had the good bow. Plus the solution to our problems is indeed in that direction. I was not sure what the announcer would do if she knew”

  “Really?” Oswin scanned the direction Kevin pointed in, looking for anything that might help him turn off his powers. Kevin hammer fisted his friend on the top of the head, knocking him out cold. He held Oswin’s bike upright as the circus theme melted away, and he let a smile escape onto his face. He dared for the first time this race, to hope. The finish line was only a few minutes away. All other racers must have already finished, or been disqualified by now. At least Kevin would be a finisher.

  —

  Miles back, where Annie’s body laid collecting dust, there was a sudden sign of life. Her left arm, broken in several places, began to assemble itself. Bones shifted, popped and transformed while her skin peeled off, revealing a new metallic structure inside. Her mechanical arm pushed her back up to her mechanical knees. She worked the arrow out of her skull with some wincing, but no other issues.

  Annie stared down at her new left arm. There were no signs of humanity left in it, simply dark steel. She would have loved to examine it all day, but there was work to be done. The two biggest rule breakers of the race were about to escape on her debut.

  She hopped and twirled to make sure her half-steel body still functioned as her normal human one. The center of mass she relied on to perform acrobatics and sprint was shifted left a few inches, which made her sense of balance inconsistent. In exchange, she could easily feel the untouched potential within the mechanical limbs.

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  With her rule-breaking sense, Annie pinpointed where Kevin and Oswin were, and opened a portal that followed behind them, silently.

  “--rroy man, it was necessary”

  “It hurts so much. And necessary, was it really necessary? Like how do you know? Perhaps I was just about to figure it out.”

  “The enforcers get more powerful the more we break the rules, I don’t like taking chances unless we have to.”

  “Enforcers? You mean enforcer. And the next time I see her will be in the hospital–– because I feel bad. She's a rookie just like us. I might start our conversation with a zinger like `what's it feel to have disinfectant poured through the hole in your brain’”

  “She signed up for this race”

  “She signed up as an announcer. They are technically no different than enforcers. If she had any actual ability to compete she would be a rider like us. All the professional enforcers hide away from the racers. Strike from a distance we can’t respond from. I’m guessing some moron told her a close-combat enforcer was viable.” Oswin sat back in his seat and crossed his arms. “She did not even attack us yet, it's like you shot a bystander.”

  “She looked capable”

  “Capable of fitting in a coffin?”

  “You have enough energy to petal yourself’

  Kevin pushed away Oswin’s bike and he slowly drifted behind Kevin, despite trying his hardest to petal just as fast. Oswin wanted the last word.

  “And let's even say she was capable. Enforcers get stronger with every encounter, since fighting back is breaking the rules. What's the plan when she returns?”

  `She looked capable`. The words echoed through Annie’s head. Carefully, she stuffed them into memory for analysis later. She bent down and summoned her weapon: a neon katana, which formed in her left hand. Oswin stretched his back, which involved turning and looking behind him. He locked eyes with the enforcer.

  “Oh shit”.

  Oswin jumped out of his bike as Annie leapt through the portal. The neon katana sliced through Oswin’s bike without noticeable resistance, cutting it in half. Oswin flipped before landing on the back of Kevin’s bike, landing each foot on the steel pegs attached to the hind wheel. “She's here. I'll hold her off.”

  Annie assaulted Oswin, each strike of her neon katana parried by the quarter sock. Sparks flying with every connection. Both weapons were damaged in each exchange, but Oswin’s broke first. His pathetic sock, riddled with holes and leaking quarters, was dispelled and resummoned to repair it. Annie took this opportunity to stab forward. It was a large, slow motion the likes of which Kevin would often advize Oswin against, so he was able to dodge it. Kevin was stabbed in the shoulder.

  “Ahhgg” He cried out. “Oswin you better be dead right now.” Upon observing Oswin was unscathed: “Is that really all you got?”

  “Some idiot concussed me,” Oswin retorted.

  Annie saw the argument as another opening. She brought her katana to her side to prepare for a massive strike to slice them both in half. For once Oswin found himself in Kevin’s shoes. His quarter sock quickly lashed out and connected with Annie’s chin, snapping her head to the right. She collapsed to the ground once more. So this is what it’s like to spar me, thought Oswin.

  “Jump coming up.” said Kevin. “Biggest and bestest,” he questioned himself. “Bestest?”

  “It’s bester than all the others,” Chuckled Oswin.

  “Its the last jump.” Clarified Kevin.

  “Double superman?”

  “Too safe”

  “Hungarian party bus?”

  Kevin nodded. “Lets get it”

  Kevin and Oswin sailed hundreds of feet into the air off a rock ramp. The idea behind the last jump in any race was to be the ultimate set piece for the last leg in the race. As such, it was always the largest jump on any track. This one in particular sailed over a car junkcard. The creator of this track labeled it as his biggest regret. While cool in theory, in practice it was just frankly ugly, and spoiled the beautiful red tinted landscape.

  Kevin climbed over the handlebars of the bike and grabbed the pegs on the front wheels and continued his crawl to the back pegs. Oswin followed the same path. Eventually they both completed one full rotation around the bike. It was the Hungarian party bus, widely considered an easier trick, but with two people on the bike, easy tricks still paid off with plenty of RAD. They missed the best part of the landing ramp by about 30 feet, resulting in a flat landing that shook both riders.

  Oswin held out his hand “Give me all the extra RAD you have, speed has diminishing returns. So does raw combat power I guess, but I think our odds are still better with me” Kevin clasped his hand and transferred all the energy he could spare wordlessly. Oswin’s eyes glowed blue with power, and the lightning arced between his arms, chest, legs, and ground once more.

  He summoned his quarter sock and channeled his power into it. Exercising power was as much imagination as practical skill. He pictured the quarters coming together in a line, resulting in a quarter sock with the quarters fully erect. More similar to a fuzzy baton than the flail he was using. Through his will, and familiarity with his weapon, its new form was manifested. He gave it a few test swings. “Lets see her get through this” he stated confidently.

  Oswin did not wait long, Annie’s portal opened up just behind him. Once more she was a few steps closer to a machine. Her right arm as well was entirely mechanical. He summoned his ball of nullifying socks and shouted “Put a sock in it”. The laundry ball connected with Annie, the socks sticking to her mechanical exterior. The lights and whirling mechanisms on her body halted. The portal closed.

  “Ha!” Oswin pumped his fist in the air. “I think we will be ok”

  Kevin ignored his friend and continued petaling. There were only three more turns until the finish line now. Upon entering the 3rd to last turn, the portal reopened. Annie stood, now with a metal abdomen, ready to strike.

  Pouncing forward, she rained blows upon Oswin, who began to panic. At the current rate, he was going to lose, and soon. He channeled RAD energy into his weapon. It crackled with an electric glow in response. Now with every parry lightning danced from Oswin’s weapon into Annie. The nullification from his abilities was too much for her to handle, so she collapsed once more. However Oswin hardly had any time to catch his breath before she was upon him again.

  This time the lighting had less of an effect on Annie, only slowing her down briefly. Even that was slipping away. We aren't going to make it, thought Kevin. If I had the scrap bow from before I could alter the result. But all I have is my common bow– I have to try. Kevin retreated inside his mind and pictured an endless apocalyptic landscape, littered with sand dunes and wrecked cars. Inside of a rusted metal temple laid his bow, he reached for it. He attempted to summon it into his hands. The wooden bow materialized.

  But no, its different. I can feel the tarnished surface. He rubbed his hand on the bow and made note of some metallic rough patches. He was getting closer.

  Oswin was tiring on the defense. With every exchange Annie seemed to gain power. The only shred of humanity left was her face now. Everything else peeled away to reveal a harrowing and deadly machine. Her eyes glowed dark crimson red and as those eyes glowed brighter, Oswin’s began to fade.

  Sensing the change of momentum, Annie surged forward, her opponent unable to stop her this time. With a flick of her wrist, she detached Oswins right hand from the rest of his body. In an animalistic response He summoned RAD energy into left hand and blasted it in the general direction of Annie. It did nothing to damage her, and was an incredibly inefficient use of energy, but it still blasted her backwards. This was no war of attrition, it was a sprint to the finish.

  “Give me everything you got.” Oswin demanded, he held out his hand expectantly.

  But I think I can summon the scrap bow, thought Kevin. But deeper inside, he knew he had made pathetically little progress. His actions betrayed his true feelings, as he grabbed Oswin’s hand and transferred all the RAD he had to him.

  “Thanks, now when I squeeze your shoulder, slam on the breaks.” Oswin summoned a white glove and put it on his bleeding stump of a hand. Once attached, it flexed and moved as if flesh inhabited it. Of course, it was filled with nothing but energy, and Oswin kept pouring more and more in.

  His target was approaching at an unbelievable speed, and for once, this worked to his advantage. His glove sizzled and crackled with potential, to the point that he even began to fear it. Having a bomb as a hand is no easy task.

  He squeezed Kevin’s shoulder, and the bike brakes screeched into effect. Annie’s rampaging slash was too wide, meant for a target far further from her. In close quarters, Oswin delivered an uppercut that scarred even the landscape; The surrounding asphalt was ripped up from the ground in large disorderly chucks.

  The dust cloud from such an impact was immense, and the bikers emerged from it having no idea what became of their hunter. That did not stop them from jumping to conclusions.

  “We did it” Oswin shouted and attempted to pump his right arm in the air, but it was entirely destroyed. He only remained on the bike because Kevin grabbed him right before he punched Annie. The finish line was only half a mile away. They were dead last, but still finishers. Of course, that assumed a certain enforcer did not have the strength to get up one last time.

  The machine (for that was what she was entirely) was on the ground again, splayed out in the warm sunlight. As her fingers flexed to regain feeling she felt an object in her hand. Goggles. A very strange set of goggles at that. Some cross between military night vision and an insect’s compound eyes. She put them on, but nothing seemed to change. A little piece of hope in her died.

  But even hopeless, she returned to her feet, and chased after her victory. When she emerged to the other side of the dust cloud, she knew that even by sprinting the entire distance to the finish line, tying Kevin and Oswin was the best she could hope for. It gave her enough time for one slash. Just one final strike.

  Oswin spotted her approach and summoned his sock in baton form. He beamed with joy. Even if he had to lose his other arm, he could block one more strike. Victory was assured. They met 10 feet from the finish line. At that moment, Annie’s goggles turned on.

  For her, time stopped. Movement was strange, like swimming through glue, but still possible. By waving her sword around, she observed the green trail of light it left behind. There was no rush anymore.

  She gingerly walked between the riders and their destination. Oswin froze in a fit of euphoria. Kevin stared forward determined. There was no hint that he had granted himself even the smallest break or gratitude. That’s not a bad face, thought Annie. I hope it heals alright.

  Her first slash decapitated Kevin and severed Oswins spine. The second slash divided the duo’s abdomens in two. The third through 10th classes diced up their legs. The 11th through 25th slash worked on their arms.the 26th through 57th slash– the 58th through 98th – the 99th through– the 151srt– the 205th– the 357th– the 489th – the 643rd– the 822nd– the 1121st–

  Annie stealthed her sword, the butcher’s work complete. Time resumed. Oswin and Kevin evaporated into red mist and unidentifiable viscera. The bike crossed the finish line…

  riderless.