The first timeout was in progress as Demi talked things over with his god and the judge. Stu sat watching him and talking to his gods. Chaos said, “You should just bring prosperity and I in to help. We can handle this together.” She put her hand on his shoulder reassuringly.

  Stu winced whispering, “Easy on the shoulder, he hit me a lot harder than I let on.”

  She pulled her hand back quickly saying, “Oh, your performance even fooled us.”

  Stu said, “You two can be destroyed if I bring you into this. I can’t risk your lives. Please just wait in the crowd, no matter what.”

  Unusually quiet, Prosperity asked, “Did you really decide that you’d die here today?”

  Timber yelled, “Ten second warning! If you are not fighting leave the arena now!”

  The girls reluctantly started back to their seats as Stu said, “We’ll discuss it ter.” Giving a soft smile.

  He got to his feet stretching, Timber walked by saying, “Kay wanted to let you know he expects something special from you today. He assured me that I needed to not doubt you, I believe he may be your biggest fan.” He continued walking toward his seat, Stu looked up at the crowd, and he saw Tom and Marrow. He gave them a nod of respect. They must have kept their word.

  Demi stepped up saying, “Alright, I thought that the losing control comment would get you disqualified. It seems that until you lose control, they can’t do anything about it. It looks like I need to just kill you and be done with this farce they call a battle.”

  Stu said nothing as he thought about the girls, Kay, really everyone that was watching. He didn’t expect to feel reassured about Kay. Demi appeared in front of him in a fsh, Stu grabbed him by the colr and the belt and threw him face down over his shoulder without hesitation. Demi crashed hard into the ground and Stu went to stomp on his face, but he rolled out of the way getting back to his feet.

  Rushing Stu, Demi drove his shoulder into his gut, carrying him across the way into a wall that stopped them solid. Stu raised his hands csped together, repeatedly bringing them down on the back of Demi’s neck trying to get him to let go. His grip wouldn’t break, pressing him harder he felt the concrete wall giving as his bones felt the same way. Stretching both hands out, he smmed them against Demi’s ears boxing them.

  Demi let go grabbing his ears, Stu threw punch after punch nding them on Demi’s face. Stu reached for his colr again, but Demi grabbed Stu’s wrist twisting it hard enough to hear the crack clearly. Yelling out in pain, he swept Demi’s feet out from under him, Stu stepped back holding his right arm. He realized his arm was broken, grunting through the pain he charged Demi as he tried to get to his feet, kicking him in the face splitting the corner of his eye and rolling him. Stu followed him as he came to a stop, delivering a kick to his throat this time causing Demi to colpse spitting blood on the ground.

  Demi looked up as Stu climbed on top of him while pulling his dagger out, bringing it down in a swift motion; Stu felt like a train hit him, sending him crashing into a cement truck and knocking it on its side. Stu id there trying to figure out what happened, two more broken ribs he thought to himself. Stumbling to his feet he looked up, and he saw a girl helping Demi up. No, not a girl, a god.. He grunted in pain yelling, “The fuck is up with that Demi? Need your god to fight for you?” Stu wiped the blood from his face taking a step forward he almost colpsed in pain. Looking down a dagger was sticking out of where his liver would be. He ripped it out looking at the design, it wasn’t one of Stu’s.

  The girl looked at Stu saying, “I won’t let you kill my worshiper, he didn’t ask me to be here, I came on my own.” She stood between Demi and Stu’s line of sight.

  Stu said, “My gods stood down, you need to as well. If you do, then I don’t have to kill you also. Only one of us has to die today, not all of us..” It was more a pleading of his humanity than a threat. Stu didn’t want to kill anyone he didn’t have to.

  The girl said, “I know about you, I’ve obscured my name to inhibit Miracle, Prosperity doesn’t concern me, and I do not fear Chaos.. If I were allowed, I’d end you where you stand, but Demi has requested that honor.”

  Holding his arm and bleeding most everywhere Stu yelled past her to Demi, saying, “Listen to me Demi, we are enemies, but don’t bring gods into this. Please don’t. if we do this, we both lose, there will be no winners.”

  The crowd was growing restless above as someone shouted, “Fuck that! Bring in the gods!” Another person screamed, “Yeah, we want to see some action!” The crowd wasn’t as amused as they believed they should be.

  Without looking over his god’s shoulder Demi said, “Kill him..”

  Stu’s heart sank; the god disappeared. Stu struck out with his dagger as she appeared in front of him, she took the dagger and threw him into the same wall he’d hit earlier, now it buckled but still held. Stu looked up ejecting blood from his mouth like a jet. The crowd roared to life. He looked at the girl approaching him, Stu peeled himself away from the wall preparing himself for the next attack. As hard as he tried, his broken arm wouldn’t raise, it was shattered. Useless, he thought.

  As she made her way slowly closer to him she said, “Where are the jokes now? Don’t you want to tell one more before you die?” She stood before Stu now.

  Stu knew he was fucked, he was taking too much damage, the two on one had flipped things on their head. Stu thought about it and decided there were worse ways to go out in this world. Closing his eyes he said, “Knock-knock.”

  The girl raised her dagger and bringing it down while saying, “Who’s there?”

  The sound of metal striking metal rang through the air. A voice said, “Prosperity, bitch!” she kicked the girl sending her flying back to Demi and crashing into more loose work equipment.

  Stu opened his eyes saying, “No, I ordered you to stand down!”

  Chaos said, “Yeah, I told her to ignore the order, since she serves you and you serve me, my authority wins..”

  Stu shook his head, “You can’t be here! This is going to get you killed!”

  Chaos was annoyed saying, “We’re not letting you die here without us. Get over it, stand up, and fight.. that’s an order!”

  Physically Stu felt it when she said that; it was like a million volts of electricity entered his veins. His blood was pulsating, he looked at her and said, “Say that again!”

  Now slightly confused and not so annoyed she said, “Get over it, stand up, and fight.. that’s an order?”

  There it was again, not as strong that time, but there was something to that. He looked through the blood on his face and asked, “Chaos, I need you to order me to kill Demi.. I need you to order me to win..” It was an epiphany in his mind; that was it, wasn’t it?

  Chaos shook her head as she looked at Stu barely holding his body together. She said, “Stu I can’t…”

  He yelled, “If you want me to live I need to hear you say it! I need you to order me to win! I need to hear those words! Say it like you mean it!”

  Unsure Chaos looked to Prosperity, and she was just as confused. She spoke with authority saying, “Steward of Chaos, I order you to win this battle, right now!”

  Stu could feel it, was this what the other blue bloods had been doing to be powerful? This shit was better than Godly Sushi.. He looked over at the other god; she was unsure of the situation now. Stu said, “Keep the god busy and any other interference, Demi and I need to finish this before anyone else gets hurt.” He may have a shattered arm, but he felt powerful, to say the least.

  The girl ahead gred, yelling, “Steward of Lords, I order you to win this battle!”

  The girls immediately ran for the god; Stu could see Demi now; he was covering the eye that had been damaged earlier. Stu saw it as he looked, that wasn’t it at all, Demi’s eyes were different now, void.. Had he lost control? Obviously not, or he’d be dead, right? His mind fshed an image of the heart being eaten. His eye had been like that, but not both, what was this?”

  Demi rushed Stu with new fervor. He came at Stu so fast that he impacted Stu hard enough to throw him a hundred feet into a work truck, and he still bounced off twenty feet away nding in a bunch of loose equipment. Stu got to his feet quicker than even he expected. Demi showed up in front of him again, but Stu jumped up grabbing his hair and kneeing him on the nose. Riding him to the ground elbowing his face repeatedly. Only stopping as Demi drove a dagger into Stu’s hip.

  Stu pushed off Demi, he’d had enough as he yelled, “Demi you could have kept everyone out of this, and we were the only ones that had to die.”

  Demi got to his feet spitting blood everywhere as he spoke, saying, “I don’t pn to die like you do. Your offer was unacceptable!” He jumped at Stu grabbing his colr and pulling him into Demi’s fist, Stu grabbed his fist with his good hand and bit into it as hard as he could. Demi cried out in pain, throwing Stu headfirst into a light pole. Stu stumbled to his feet getting ready again. Demi grinned with his bck eyes asking, “What’s the matter? Scared of dying now?”

  Confused, Stu felt something creep across his face. Putting his hand to his face he saw green fmes; he was crying those tears.. Those tears of Chaos. He looked up at Demi grinning, and he grinned back. Demi stopped grinning and rushed him, Stu and Demi both wrapped each other up trading punches, not allowing each other to get away. Stu’s arm started to glow, and so did Demi’s. They both threw a punch at each other hitting each other’s fists.

  The crowd experienced a shock wave as the air expanded from the release of thermal energy discharged that the fighters had created. The crowd roared with excitement and trash flying in all directions. The shockwave knocked both fighters across the arena from each other. They both were struggling to get to their feet, taking around twenty seconds. Stu looked at Demi and Demi gred back.

  Timber said, “The battle is over. We are ready to decre a winner.” He was between the two stewards. The gods stopped fighting each other and returning to their respective fighters. Timber asked, “Are we all, of the understanding that this fight is over?”

  Stu barely said, “Yes..”

  Demi barely said, “Yes…” Neither fighter understood why the fight was stopped, but neither fighter was able to question it currently.

  Both fighters were being held up by their gods, unable to stand on their own. Timber said, “The judgement for the battle at hand is being delivered, for one reason and one reason only. There will be no winner or loser in this battle, both fighters demonstrated precise control over their stewardship responsibilities, both fighters complied with the rules that were set forth for them, therefore it is the judges decration that if this test were allowed to continue both fighters would die. The battle for the stewardship test is to be recorded as a Tie; reason is to be recorded as we don’t wish to remove spectacur fighters from the tournament before they have a chance at the finals. Therefore, both Stu and Demi will be awarded Stewardship titles officially, they should receive all respect and amenities that go with this honorary title. Steward of Chaos Stu, and Steward of Prowess Demi you both have met the qualifications to enter the preliminaries, when they begin you will be brought up to speed on the particurs. Congratutions on a spectacur battle and we have high hopes for your futures.” Timber started walking out of the arena.

  Passing by Stu he managed to ask, “That’s it?” He was badly injured hanging onto Chaos and Prosperity, trying to get an answer while bleeding out. Timber sighed walking by him.

  Timber stopped, looking back he said, “For now, yes. Go home and enjoy some time off. Kay makes a convincing argument for letting you get to the finals.” He turned and walked away on that note.

  Stu said, “Girls, I’m going to get some rest now. I’m sorry.” He went completely limp in their arms.

  The two girls shared a concerned look with each other. Chaos looked over seeing the god carrying Demi off the arena as well. She said, “Prowess..” The god had been something else when they’d fought, she couldn’t y a hand on Prowess as hard as she’d tried. Chaos knew she’d remember this fight forever. Looking at Stu, he was lucky to have lived after any of her attacks nded, and he had no idea how lucky he was.