Luke ducked through his Vortex Door and kept moving as fast as he could. Both women, Bounce and Fever, were still firing arrows at the pillar, oblivious to the fact that they were behind them now. Luke and Bosa had a single chance to surprise them before they caught on that he had a portal power.

  Bosa peeled off and aimed for Bounce, trailing a dozen long strings. She was ready to tie up the elf in Red and hurl her off the stage. Luke stayed straight for Fever. Her ability to turn the floor into lava was a lot more dangerous than many kids games would lead you to believe.

  He decided not to get fancy and aimed his Ice Hammer at her center mass. Fever’s perception must have been high because she was turning even before he got within five feet. She twisted and ducked, dropping her bow and putting her hand on her ax, all in one motion. Luke marveled at her fluid movements. Even with Acuity boosting his perception of time, she was impressive. He adjusted the trajectory of his hammer and watched as it slowly turned and hit her under her left arm. Large icicles shot out from the impact point and he heard the sound of ribs cracking.

  Time sped back up and she finished drawing her ax. She stumbled back from the hit but caught herself. Luke danced back out of the way. Her dexterity was clearly higher than his was, so he couldn’t stay in melee long. It irked him that she was better than he was, even with his buff, but he had other options.

  The edge of her ax blade started glowing red. Luke didn’t wait for her to jump forward, instead he fired off two lightning spells from his left gauntlet and started charging his right gauntlet. He wasn’t sure if plasma would affect a fire mage like her, but he was going to try it anyway.

  She showcased her impressive dexterity by swinging the ax into the first lightning spell and shattering the magnet. Unfortunately for her, the spell still traveled down her metal weapon and shocked her, locking up her muscles and freezing her in place for the second lighting ball to smack her in the helmet. She seized up and tilted backwards onto the metal floor with a thump.

  Although her body was out of her control, her magic wasn’t. The tip of her ax touched the ground and started spreading heat and then lava across the ground. Luke tsked to himself. If she kept that up, the arena would be covered in lava in a few minutes. He raised his right hand to try out the plasma shot. Maybe if he knocked the ax out of her hand it would break the spell.

  An instant after he fired, his Perception screamed at him. Something large was flying towards his head. He pulsed Acuity and turned his head. Out of the corner of his vision, he saw what was coming his way. It was Bosa. She was flying through the air, flipping end over end. Shredded cloth and torn threads trailed behind like a comet’s tail.

  Luke used the last of his bullet time to fire off two spells, a Vortex Door behind himself and ahead of himself, out of range of the swiftly spreading lava field. He caught Bosa and fell with her towards the portal behind them. They popped out a hundred feet away from the top of one of the pillars. Luke easily landed on his feet and flicked his eyes towards the portal he had left near Bounce and Fever.

  Fever had recovered from the lightning spells and was slowly standing up. Bounce leapt after them, heading towards the portal Luke had just fallen through. Luke waited until the last moment, and then canceled the skill. The portal instantly closed and Bounce slammed into the low wall, falling into a heap.

  Luke pulled Bosa to her feet and behind the pillar. It was just in time for a blazing red arrow to miss them and whizz off into the distance.

  “Bounce is tough. She’s got a reflect skill and a movement skill,” Bosa said and peeked around the corner.

  “I hate fighting people like that,” Luke said. He had experience fighting Shepard during the duel to the death. His Retribution skill worked on every kind of attack but only one at a time. The trick was to make a variety of different attacks at the same time. That and overwhelming firepower, but Luke wasn’t trying to kill anyone today. “Ok, switch targets. You keep Lava Girl busy and I’ll nail down Miss Bouncy.”

  They both peeked around opposite sides of the pillar and frowned at what they saw. Bounce had taken out small metal balls from a bag at her waist. She handed them to Fever one at a time who made them glow fiery red and tossed them in different directions. The glowing red balls bounced high and every time they touched down they started spreading lava. In the few seconds they had been watching, six new spots were glowing red with magic lava. If they didn’t do something soon, they would quickly cover the whole arena.

  “Shit. Change of plans, target Lava Girl, go all out. I think she has to use her arms to activate her skill. Aim for her shoulders or hands.” Luke said. He tried not to flinch when a ball flew past his head.

  “All out? You mean...”

  “Yeah, all out. Can you reach her from here?”

  “No, we’ll have to get closer.”

  A lava ball hit the pillar they were hiding behind and started spreading. The heat washed over them like a wave. Luke pointed to another pillar farther away. It was one of the few areas without growing spots of lava. They split up and raced towards it, taking different routes. Luke juked side to side as he ran and was rewarded with the sight of an arrow whizzing by his elbow and imbedding itself three inches deep into the metal arena.

  When they arrived, Bosa said, “I need closer, not farther. Oh wait, nevermind.”

  Luke smiled as she realized they would be using portals. This time he created smaller Vortex Doors so it would be less exposure for them. One small portal above their heads and a second one on a non-melted section of wall a short distance in front of them. Bounce sprinted forward, likely having seen the portal spell and wanted to ambush them as they exited. Unfortunately for her, no one was going through that portal.

  A whistling sound filled the air as a dozen large needles sped through the portal above them. They turned invisible shortly before passing through the event horizon, so Bounce didn’t see the volley of death zip past her. She flinched from the sound, but by then the needles had already found Fever. The elf in yellow jerked back as needles found the gaps in her shoulders, elbows and wrists. The glowing balls fell to her feet and she cried out in pain. It was the only sound that either of the women had made this round.

  She tried to move her arms to take the needles out. Bosa closed her fists and pushed them forward. Fever’s cry of pain turned into a shout of agony. The lava fields across the arena flickered and faded.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Bounce turned to her partner and rushed to help her. With her attention diverted, Luke quickly created another pair of portals, larger this time. Then, instead of using the portals, he ran from around the pillar and pointed to the side for Bosa to flank them from the other side.

  Thankfully, she seemed to know what he intended right away. Bosa quietly ran around to the left as Luke came at them from the right. His slim power armor had rubber soles, but he still made plenty of noise as he raced towards Bounce and Fever.

  By the time he got there, they had found and removed most of the needles. They were still invisible, but Fever’s blood had made them easy to identify. As Luke drew close, they both turned, ready to meet him. There was blood dripping from Bounce’s fingers and much more blood on Fever, but both of them held axes and seemed ready to use them. Luke fired off a lightning bolt and ducked behind a nearby pillar.

  An ax clanged off of a nearby low wall. Luke started to smirk at the miss, but then the ax bounced directly at him. He had just enough time to bend forward slightly before the ax impacted his back. It tore open a long gap across the back of his power armor. The strike didn’t touch his skin, but it did cut through two layers of armor, and most importantly, his life rune. The entire suit lost all the magical strength, dexterity, and power it had given him. But Luke still had his class buff, so he growled and kept going. His servos whined and metal screeched, but soon enough, he was moving almost as fast as before.

  Just in time too. The ax that had hit him was starting to move, rising up through the air to return to its master. Luke didn’t know if that meant it was an artifact or a new skill from Bounce. Either way, he wasn’t going to let her rearm herself. He slammed his foot down, trapping the ax beneath his armored boot.

  A peek around the pillar revealed that Fever was spreading her lava field across the ground again. Bounce was standing right next to her, so she clearly had a skill to protect teammates. Fever’s arms hung limp at her sides, the red blood dripping off her yellow armor. Bounce gave up on getting her ax to return to her and turned around to grab a different weapon.

  Luke took the opportunity to bolt forward, readying his Ice Hammer as he ran. With his power armor disabled he was slower and louder than before. It was no surprise that Bounce had a bow and arrow up and ready as he ran forward. He decided to risk getting shot and kept barreling forward. He held up the hammer in front of him, and flared his Acuity right before he thought she was going to shoot.

  His timing was good, she loosed an arrow right as time slowed down. The arrow spun through the air, wobbling slightly, but seemingly aimed right at his left eye. Luke pushed his muscles to move the metal head of his Ice Hammer to deflect it. To his delight, it worked. The arrow hit the large hammer head and shattered. Time sped up once more. She swiftly pulled another arrow out of her waist quiver to fire again, but she wasn’t going to be fast enough.

  Luke hit her like a freight train and they both bounced backwards. He grinned widely as he flew through the air. His half-cocked plan looked like it was working. Bosa had seen him racing forward and timed her own approach with his. Milliseconds after he bounced off the red elf, she struck with the Chainsword. She sliced through Bounce’s bow and into her hip.

  Acuity had activated bullet time on its own as Luke tumbled through the air. It gave it time to think about the limitations of Vortex Door. At the current level, it could only appear on flatish surfaces where nothing was impeding it. For example, he couldn’t create a portal midair or have one appear directly beneath their feet. He had to plan things out to make full use of them. Case in point, his upcoming impact.

  He had angled his attack on Bounce like a cue ball, bouncing off her and into Fever. The elf yelled when she saw him coming, but the speed of his flight didn’t give her time to react. Luke hit and knocked the injured elf back into the portal he had placed there before they ran over here. She fell through with a squawk.

  The other side of the portal was right on the edge of the platform. She tumbled through and into the air, plummeting to the ground a story below. Luckily for her it was runed for a soft landing, because her arms weren’t working well enough to catch herself.

  With her out of the fight, he turned to see Bounce absolutely pummeling Bosa. Bounce was hopping around with one leg, but with her kinetic skills it meant she could zip around the arena with ease. She was ricocheting off of walls and pillars, coming at Bosa from a new angle with every impact. Luke swore and raced over.

  He fired off a trio of lightning spells, aiming them all around Bosa. There was no way he could aim to hit Bounce with how fast she was going, his best bet was for her to run into one of his magnet spells as she whizzed by.

  He would have kept firing, but after three shots, his gauntlet fizzled out. With the life rune broken, his suit wasn’t supplying mana to the gauntlet anymore.

  Luck was on his side. The third spell caught Bounce, a glancing hit that was enough to shock her skill into deactivating. She slammed into a low wall and flipped end over end. She landed hard and slid several feet. While she was still recovering, Luke rushed over, charging his plasma shot. It should work long enough for a single shot.

  Before he fired, Bosa recovered and attacked with a vengeance. She sent a dozen threads wrapping around Bounce. Before the threads tightened, Bounce regained her control over her magic and tried to reflect the attack. The threads wobbled, but weren’t blown away. Bosa grinned and yanked her hand to the side.

  Bounce yelled in frustration as she was unceremoniously dumped off the edge of the arena. Bosa ignored her and thrust her hand into the sky. Luke followed suit, the crowd cheering them on. This time, he thought he might have felt something. The sudden rush of glory gave him a little tingle in a budding sixth sense. Maybe. He might have been imagining things.

  Luke’s grin grew wider. He threw up his hands, riling up the cheering crowd even higher. Leveling up his skills always put him in a good mood.

  A short while later, the attendant extended the bridge and bowed low to them. Luke clomped over, his power armor seeming much heavier now that he wasn’t in the middle of a fight. Thankfully he had a full set of tools in his larger mech and he would be able to repair it between rounds.

  The orc attendant bowed low and said, "Congratulations on your glorious victory. Your impressive win has earned you a boon. You have been invited to the top observation deck to mingle with some of our Empire’s elites.”

  “Can it wait? I need to repair my power armor first.”

  The orc’s face flushed, his green skin getting darker and its whorls lighter. “Most people are honored to be invited. I... wouldn’t recommend refusing this offer.”

  Luke sighed. Navigating Kalibutan politics might cost him the tournament because he wouldn’t have time to repair his armor. But he didn’t actually care if he won. He hadn’t even checked to see what the prize would be. It would be best if he played nice with the aristocrats in their owner’s box. Besides, it would probably help Bosa in her infiltration mission.

  “Alright, fine. Lead the way.”

  “Excellent, Luke of Machines. And if you want to remove your armor, I will ensure it gets cleaned and set to right. You too, Bosa of Domestic.”

  That set off bells, loud clanging bells in Luke’s mind. He didn’t want anyone stealing his designs. “No thanks. I’ll put it away myself. I have security runes that will kill anyone that tampers with it. I wouldn’t want anyone to be injured.” He smiled to give the threat a soft edge.

  The attendant’s eyes went wide and he backed up. “Of course, of course. I will ensure no one enters your preparation room.”

  Luke kept smiling as they swiftly walked back to their locker room. He placed the damaged suit inside the Black Mamba and pretended to activate a security system. He made a mental note to make that a real thing for next time.

  Then they were whisked off to an elevator. Luke smoothed out his clothes, glad that he was still wearing his nicest Kalibutan outfit from court. The elevator stopped at the top level and the two of them stepped out into the lion’s den.