The sun met Susi’s eyes as she was raised upon the platform to the sandy vorago floor. Many of the obstacles that had covered the arena on the previous day had been removed. It was just a large sandy field now.

  The removal of the field obstructions allowed the roar of the crowd in the stands to intensify through the air. She took a deep breath and brought silence to her mind amidst the noise.

  Susi didn’t like the carapace Sived had given to her to wear as both protection and somewhat as a fashion piece. The longer she wore it, the more constricted she felt. She thought about taking it off, but the Auctor began speaking.

  She couldn’t understand what he was saying. Everyone began booing suddenly, and then they started cheering. It was all so juvenile.

  The man she was to face appeared on the other side of the field. Susi couldn’t deny the fear she felt at the sight of him.

  He was a big man with beefy arms with big guns attached to them. It was strange because he appeared human in places, and machine at others.

  How could such a being exist, and for what purpose would they create this monster? For war. He’s a walking weapon. Why do they make any weapon except to dominate and destroy?

  Grafted to each of his arms was a six-barrel gun. Susi could see his hands within the mechanical apparatus clutching the handles and triggers that allowed him to aim and fire the guns that were made specifically for his figure.

  He marched toward the middle of the field to the sound of joy and applause.

  The Auctor asked the chancellor for his approval, and the man Susi had dined with just over an hour prior said clearly, “You have my approval, Auctor! Carry on with the execution!”

  Her jaw dropped in disbelief. Execution? She had thought of it as a tournament, but not an execution. She could have intuited as much…but to hear it spoken.

  Susi swallowed as the Auctor answered, “You heard him everyone! Let the games begin!”

  Remus V, her opponent and apparent executioner, smirked at Susi before raising his right gun arm at her. She went to move, but the bullet struck the upper left of the carapace. Her whole shoulder whipped from the slug as her feet left the ground.

  She fell onto her back hard on the sand as the crowd went crazy in the stands. The deafening sound of the cheering was nauseating. Susi had never been in the middle of such a maelstrom of cheers before.

  Remus raised his gun arms into the air, nodding his bearded chin as he strutted toward the crowd.

  Susi looked up to the royal box where Chancellor Marks was stationed. He was looking down his nose, pleased with the way the round had begun.

  But then Susi saw Marcus. He was mouthing, “Get up! Get up! You can do this!” She read that, but she could also see the desperation in his face.

  It was just…so cumbersome. She couldn’t move.

  Susi realized that she had to get out of the carapace. Yes, it was protecting her, but it was also preventing her from being able to maneuver properly against her enemy.

  She unclipped the back right clip at her lower back as she rolled to get up. She coughed from the wind being knocked from her stomach as she unclipped the front right and left clips.

  The moment Susi got up, Remus turned back around and shot her three times in the middle of the loosened carapace, sending her back to the ground.

  That’s all you’ll get! Susi thought as the crowd became ecstatic.

  “Oof!” Auctor Ralvese clicked his tongue. “It doesn’t look good for young Susi! We are currently preparing the next event!”

  Susi shoved off the carapace as Remus had his back to her for the crowd. It was when the crowd’s volume dropped in half that he turned around to see Susi standing with both swords raised. She glared at Remus as he squinted at her.

  “I like you.” Remus nodded as he took a few slow steps toward her. “It’s a shame I’m here to put you down, little lady.”

  “Take your best shot.” Susi said.

  Remus cocked his head to accept her proposal, and raised both guns. The moment he did, a wall of sand separated the two. It clearly surprised Remus, but he simply snorted and began firing through the wall at the place where she had been.

  He created an ever-growing hole in the sandy barrier, and maybe he got her, maybe not. He strafed his firing across his wingspan before him.

  The wall dropped, leaving Susi standing where she’d been all along.

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  The crowd was not cheering anymore. It wasn’t completely silent, but the ominous quiet had put a snarl upon the chancellor’s lips.

  “Impressive,” drawled Remus with a smirk. “Neat little parlor trick, but they didn’t create me to screw around!” He sent a barrage of bullets at the girl’s form.

  To him, she was there for a second, and then gone! The wind passed Remus’s face and when he turned around, Susi was upon the twelve-foot tall stone wall of the vorago arena like a spider. He couldn’t even line up his aim before she was gone again.

  The audience gave a collective gasp. Remus staggered in pain as he saw one of Susi’s short swords skewered through his chest and left bicep. Susi was back to where she’d been, standing in the same defensive position minus one short sword.

  Remus grunted and lowered his right gun arm to the ground. He hit the release on his gun apparatus and withdrew his shaking bare hand. With a tremoring grip, Remus closed his fist upon the sword hilt and slowly pulled the blade from his shoulder.

  Inch by inch, the sword recut as it sliced through the muscles in his arm. Remus gave a horrible, painful wheeze as he continued pulling the searing sword from his flesh.

  At last, the steel tip exited, and Remus dropped the blood covered weapon in the sand. He pressed the release on his left gun arm, and pulled out his big left arm, leaving half his arsenal in the sand.

  For a moment, he looked almost normal as there were only the bolt-like implants protruding from his arms for the gun mounts. He heaved a heavy breath, popped his neck, and picked up his right gun arm once more to attach it in place.

  Swallowing hard, he looked up to Susi. “All right, little lady,” he more moaned than said. “I’ll give that you’re pretty good, but I was freehanding it.”

  He pressed a button on the side of his green target sensor. The gun of his right arm instantaneously locked onto Susi’s form.

  As if she was suddenly hit with a kaleidoscope, Susi’s figure burst into at least thirty projections throughout the field, all in differing forms of motion.

  The audience was stunned as they too could see the different versions of the nineteen-year-old girl, but Remus didn’t know that. The process of vitiyakata had never before been seen by a multitude of people.

  She knew she was in so much trouble with the Talea order if she survived this.

  Remus’s gun aimed and fired at the projections, but none of them struck anything. Getting annoyed, Remus switched back to manual and aimed the gun in a strafe line across the diameter of the field.

  Nothing. It was as if the girl was just messing with him so he could waste ammunition.

  “All right, you little bitch!” Remus stopped firing. He wasn’t hitting her, but she also wasn’t attacking him either.

  “What’s wrong?” One of the Susi projections asked as she walked toward him.

  Another walked ahead of her, continuing as if she was the first. “Can’t find me?”

  A third cut in front of the second. “Are you seeing me everywhere because I am everywhere?”

  “Or maybe I did something to your mind.” A fourth asked. All of the Susies seemed to be crowding in on him.

  Remus turned and grabbed Susi out of the air with his free hand as all of her projections disappeared. The sword slipped from her grasp.

  The crowd awed as Remus walked the girl toward the middle of the field with his bare hand clutching her throat with a strength she didn’t think he still had.

  “They cloned me with a better sense of hearing than my original form.” Remus grinned as he tightened his grip on her throat. “And even at half strength I can still crush you like a butterfly.”

  Susi’s eyes began to hurt as she heard the sudden cheering of the crowd begin to fade in her ears.

  They all wanted her dead.

  In those long, painful moments as Remus squeezed the life out of her, Susi could see the excited faces of the individual crowd members. Men threw their ale in the air as children cheered beneath them.

  Wives and daughters who lived in the city were celebrating with their arms raised, praying to Omne that her head would pop in his closed fist. Even the elderly seemed pleased for an appropriate conclusion to an annoying problem.

  And then Susi saw Chancellor Marks. He smiled an evil, satisfied grin as he pressed his fingers together.

  Those eyes… Susi could see the Remel Orbs within the gray ones he normally displayed. She could see that the orbs saw her, and in that moment of their eyes meeting: Susi knew what she had to do.

  She choked as her lips mouthed something.

  “What’s that? Last words?” Remus asked.

  “Sorry to disappoint!” Susi had summoned her staff the moment Remus caught her. It was one of the earlier skills Grobeche taught her, and allowed the Talea monk to retrieve their telum at will.

  Since Susi’s staff was still in pieces, the sharp wooden stake of the remaining half soared across the field and slapped into her open palm. She slammed the point of it into Remus’s trunk of a forearm, causing him to roar in pain and release her, but Susi grappled her legs around his beefy bicep fluidly to swing up his arm like a monkey.

  She grabbed his wrist, positioned her knee against his elbow, and tore his arm against the sockets as his limb broke at the elbow and shoulder. Susi caught the end of her quarterstaff and yanked it free while kicking off Remus’s chest.

  Remus reared back and aimed reflexively at the girl, firing everything he had left at the place where she had been. Susi appeared at his side with her sword. Iron pain met his shoulder as the gun stopped firing as the steel blade tip whistled past his cheek and nose. His arm and the gun attached to it lay on the ground in front of him.

  Susi stepped on the nerve at the back of Remus’s upper left calf, causing him to drop to one knee. She raised both of her swords to the back of Remus’s neck like a pair of scissors.

  She looked to Chancellor Marks. In the stands, Marks’s forehead lay pressed against his fist as he stole a look at the scene.

  Thrusting both arms out, Susi did the humane act of releasing Remus’s disfigured spirit. His body fell upon the sand as his head landed on its side in front of him. Susi dropped the swords and stepped back from the gruesome scene.

  Her mind finally processed what had happened. It was like a red storm had taken over. She raised her shaking fingers to see them covered in Remus’s blood. She had not only lost Ulkindar, but she couldn’t even recognize what this was.

  Who had she become? And why did it feel like it cost a piece of her soul to realize this?