Left alone in a stone room, empty apart from a worn wooden bench, I did a few stretches, practiced a few thrusts with the knife, and a few blocks and jabs with the buckler before I sat down to conserve energy.

  The hour passed in a heartbeat, and before I knew it, the guards had returned to lead me to the arena doors.

  I stood, bouncing up and down on my toes, full of anticipation. What the fuck will be behind them this time? I wondered, reliving the moment I came face to face with a damn ogre.

  The doors swung open. The heat of the outside world flooded in, and I marched out. I expected the silent neutrality of my last fight from the crowd, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. If the arena was five percent full last time, this time, it was closer to thirty percent. At least twenty-nine percent of that crowed had decided to greet me with a huge boo, though the percentage might have been higher.

  Now this was something I was used to! As the resentment washed over me, I felt that familiar warm fuzzy feeling that came with the knowledge that I was alone against the world and now the Union! I raised my arms in greeting, and slowly raised my middle fingers.

  The booing went up a notch to a level that I didn’t think was possible. It energized me more than a six-pack of beer, so I kept my arms up like that, fingers extended for the entire walk to the starting circle.

  I was enjoying the crowd so much that I hadn’t even looked at my opponent until I’d almost reached the center.

  I raised an eyebrow at the tall, blonde woman who stood at least half a foot taller than me. She looked as human as they came apart from her muscles and her height.

  She carried her double-bladed axe like someone who knew how to use it.

  “Well, petal, I’ve always prided myself on not having beaten many women up. And definitely never in an organized fight, but you look like you know your way around a ring, so if you don’t mind, I’m just going to pretend you’re a bloke.”

  She hissed at me, which I took as agreement, then the announcer spoke.

  “Welcome, everyone, to a special event! One of our respected pool fighters, Talla from the planet Reth, has agreed to fight a promising hopeful from a dross planet. The prize? 500 Unitols to Talla!”

  A huge roar of appreciation went up for the woman, but she had eyes for me and me alone. Like a cat stalking a mouse.

  “If the dross fighter wins, they will be granted ascension and admitted into the pool.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Those words brought another huge boo from the crowd. I’d slipped my buckler into position now, so it was awkward, but I still managed to give them all the double middle finger.

  Talla spat as I did it, and when our eyes met, she said her first words to me, “Siroth scum!”

  I winked at her and set myself ready.

  “ARE YOU READY?” the announcer asked the crowd.

  They answered with a roar of approval.

  “FIGHT!” he screamed.

  She swung her axe straight at my head. I stepped back, not worried about her landing the first strike. I expected her to overbalance or overextend with the ferocity of her move, but she didn’t. With remarkable strength, she managed to control the axe’s momentum and bring it back for a reverse strike, moving forward all the time.

  I stumbled back with the second swing, and had to roll to the side immediately as the axe came down from above. It crashed into the ground by my head, and I was reminded again, inches, not feet.

  I lashed out with a kick to her knee. It was a sweet connection, and against a strong human, it would have broken the knee and dropped her. I was ready to follow up and end the fight.

  It took a moment for the reality of the situation to catch up with my expectation. It was like kicking a bloody lamppost!

  She stumbled slightly, but that didn’t stop her from yanking the axe from the ground to thrust at me with the spike at the top of the shaft.

  I rolled away again, this time coming to my feet before backing off to put some distance between us.

  Tougher than the ogre, came the desperate thought unbidden. And this was me at full health. I continued to back away from the swinging axe, trying to figure out a strategy for dealing with her.

  “Run all you want, runt. There’s only so much arena.”

  She was right, and I really didn’t like being pushed back. I wasn’t used to it. But I definitely wasn’t running. I was just biding my time, getting the rhythm of her moves, the timing of her swishes.

  It was regular, and it was consistent, so it was easy to spot when the change was going to come, the switch up in momentum to finish the running runt. There was an extra twitch on her right shoulder, the kind of tell a fist fighter has when they’re about to throw a big right hand. It showed both impatience and assuredness that she had me in hand.

  In the next step, she leaped forward an extra half foot faster. Her axe swung further back to her right, and she brought it around with extra momentum into an overhead chop that would have split me in two if I hadn’t seen it coming.

  A swift sidestep to the opposite side gave me space and I snapped out the buckler to knock her axe even wider of the mark.

  Overextended, she stumbled ever so slightly, and while she was able to recover her balance quickly, it wasn’t nearly quick enough. I followed up with a dagger thrust between her ribs, hooking her to stop her turning. She had no choice but to go forward, which gave me all the time I needed to go wild. I delivered a flurry of around ten or more stabs, targeting liver and kidneys as she staggered into the wall.

  I stamped into the pit of her knee, thus proving that lampposts can in fact bend. She sprawled face first into the wall and slid to the sand.

  I straddled her back and I went to work with my knife.

  By the time the announcer had called the end of the fight, my two guards had already hauled me off what was left of Talla. It was over and I had won.

  The crowd was silent. Apparently, they didn’t like what they saw. I soon fixed that by raising my arms in victory and extending my middle fingers again.

  As one, the crowd erupted into angry shouts and boos. Much better than silence.