A glowing crystal orb whizzed past my head, close enough that I could feel magical energy crackling off its surface. Where it struck the arena wall behind me, the thick stone turned to glass in a perfect sphere.

"Can the Iron Sentinel do it? Without the protection of a noble's favor, will the villainous Templar be cut down by the insatiable, the idiosyncratic, the insane artificer Garl the Incredible? Or. Will. The. Iron. Sentinel. Win?!"

The audience members screamed from the stands:

"You can do it!"

"Cut him down, Hero!"

"We believe in you!"

For once, far more of them were on my side than not.

Hell yeah.

I couldn't help but grin.

"Stand still, meat!" Garl shrieked from somewhere among the maze of barriers that cluttered the arena floor. The Pit really wanted this to be a good show today, so they'd put up a good forty barriers to carve up the battlefield and make it hard for me to fight. They wanted this fight to last. "Let old Garl show you what real power looks like!"

I ducked behind a rusted metal barrier just as another orb, this one glowing bright green, shattered against the barrier. There was a flash, and acidic smoke hissed where it hit, eating through the metal like it was gelatin.

"How many of those things do you have, Garl?" I shouted at him as I dove behind another nearby barrier.

"Enough for Old Garl to kill you with them!" The gnome started juggling several of the crystals, cackling all the while as he did.

I'd always thought Garl was putting on an act to ham it up with the audience. I was wrong. Garl was insane.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what a spectacular display of magical mayhem!" The announcer's voice boomed over the chaos. "And speaking of spectacular, have you tried Lucan Breig's Marvelous Malts? Nothing quenches your thirst quite like Breig's premium ales, now served by our lovely hostesses!"

Up above, I caught a glimpse of serving women moving through the crowd with wooden trays, distributing foaming mugs to the spectators. For a moment, the crowd seemed more interested in the drinks than the fact that a deranged artificer was trying to turn me into various states of matter. I couldn't say that I wasn't hurt. This was my fight! Focus, people!

A bolt of crackling energy sizzled over my head, pulling my attention back into focus. This wasn't the time for distractions.

"Garl!" I called out, trying to keep my voice calm. "When this is all over, you need to talk with me!"

He responded with high-pitched, broken laughter. "Promises? Oh, boy-meat, you understand nothing! Nothing at all! The ages turn, the crystals sing, and the flesh... the flesh is so very weak! When the heavens grow dark, only then will the skies sing!"

The fuck was he talking about?

I risked a glance around the barrier and immediately jerked back as a sphere of shadow barely missed my face. The crystal hit a barrier behind me and shattered. Instantly, everything within five feet of it was pulled into a black void and vanished. "Damn!" What kind of magic was that?

"You like the hungering dark, boy-meat?!"

I poked my head around the barrier again. Twenty feet away, Garl was standing atop a pile of twisted metal and debris, juggling his crystals and giggling to himself. "Crazy bastard."

"Come out, come out, boy-meat." The gnome was old, with wild hair and creased skin, but his age wasn't what stood out about him. It was his body. Barely anything remained of his original body. His arms and legs were rusted metal prosthetics, long and jagged and inhuman looking. Ingnoman? Crystals were embedded directly into the metal, glowing in a variety of colors as magical energy flowed through and between them. One of his eyes had been replaced with a faceted gem that rotated and clicked as it tracked my movements.

The guy was straight-up body horror.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he cackled as his gem eye found me. "Form follows function! The Academy said I was mad, but look at me now! Look what I've become!" He raised one mechanical arm, and a crystal orb materialized in his palm. This one shone in a rainbow of colors. "How about a little chaos for the would-be hero?!"

I dove to the side as he hurled it, but I'd nearly been too slow. The orb, this one forest green with hints of purple, exploded against the ground where I'd been kneeling. The stone beneath me cracked, fell inward, then surged, sprouting long thorny vines that writhed and reached for me with grasping tendrils. I hacked at them with my sword, but for every vine I cut, two more appeared.

"That's the spirit!" Garl's voice came from a completely different direction now. "Dance for old Garl! Dance and dream and despair!" Lightning began crackling in the direction his voice was coming from.

I turned just in time to see him point his hand at me. A ball of lightning was glowing in his palm. "Holy shit!" I dove away from the vine, but the lightning caught me mid-leap. For the first time in two years, I remembered exactly what it felt like the day I was sent to Reial. The day I'd gotten struck by lightning. Twice. Every muscle in my body spasmed, my heart skipped a beat or twelve, and the smell of ozone filled my nostrils.

Then, everything went white.

For a long time, everything was a haze. The announcer was screaming something, but the words were indistinct. I could feel the rumble of the crowd, could just make out the screaming and shouting, but it was all distant. Foreign. The buzzing in my ears and the pounding in my chest were my whole world. As my vision began to fade, I heard words echo in my soul.

BECOME A KING, NOT A PAWN.

Shadows filled my vision. Rage filled my heart. I wasn't about to die here. I couldn't. I had far too much left to accomplish, and I had people waiting for me. Relying on me. Some insane gnome wasn't about to put me down.

[Second Wind]

Reaching out, I grabbed the nearest barrier and pulled myself up. My vision cleared, and my ears stopped ringing as I stood to my feet. Shaking my head, I lifted my sword and pointed it at the sky. The rumbling of the audience around me doubled. So did the screaming. That's when I realized the crowd was cheering for me.

"You can't lose!"

"I believe in you!"

"Stay up, hero!"

"Hehehehehe!"

Something moved in the corner of my eye.

[Iron Skin]

A glowing red ball struck my side and exploded into white-hot flames, but my metallic skin took the brunt of it. My armor... not so much. That shattered.

I looked toward the source of the attack, but he was gone again. A quick scan of the arena revealed nothing. I couldn't find him. The fucker could teleport, and he could use illusions. I'd have to wait for him to reveal himself.

"You feel it, don't you, boy-meat?" Garl's voice echoed off the barriers, making it impossible to pinpoint his location. "The darkness calling? The sweet whispers of power? Old Garl knows all about that song!"

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"I don't hear anything."

"You do! You feel it! I know!"

I shook my head. Tristan's words came to me. "I'm on my team, Garl. No one else's. And I won't go down. I'm going to win."

Big words, but how?

Ah!

I'd never used it to reveal people's positions before, but it just might work.

[Provoke]

The air shimmered to my right. "There you are!" I leapt over the nearest barrier and sprinted to the old artificer. Raising my sword, I swung with all my strength, aiming for his legs. If I could just end this fight without having to put him down... His magic would help us get out.

A wall of force appeared directly in front of me. My sword bounced off the magical shield, and, with a loud snap, the tip broke off and flew past my head.

Behind the barrier, Garl's mechanical eye whirred as it focused on me. "Trapped like a rat, Old Garl is!" he shrieked, a broad smile stretching across his ancient face. "But, the rat is safe! Now, let's see what this does to your pretty body!"

The crystal in his forehead began to glow white.

"No, you don't!" I raised my broken sword and swung at the barrier again. This time, it flickered, and my blade buried into it a little. Pulling it free, I struck again, then again. I watched as shadows rippled around Garl. They were deep in his skin and oozing out of his mouth. As the gnomes' magical power built up, I felt the Dark Lord's influence stirring in the back of my mind.

Not now, asshole! Not when I needed to think clearly.

"Not enough, boy!" Garl raised both arms, and energy began building around his mechanical limbs.

The darkness in my head whispered suggestions. Brutal, efficient methods to end this fight. Ways that would make him suffer.

No.

I could do this on my own.

I struck the barrier a final time, and it shattered. My sword continued in a wide arc, until it slashed across the gnome's chest and severed one of his metallic arms.

That saved my life.

A beam of pure white energy exploded from his remaining arm and shot past my ear. An instant later, the arena rumbled, and I could hear the sound of stones crashing to the ground. Several audience members screamed, and panicked shouting filled the arena.

"What was that?" I watched as the gem in Garl's head went dark. Raising my sword again, I slashed at his other arm, but Garl winked out of existence before the blade hit.

Turning, I saw the damage the gnome had caused. The beam had veered wide, carving a molten gouge in the arena ceiling. Massive stones had dislodged and fallen, crushing one of the nobleman's box seats. The one directly next to Elise's. That was the nobleman named Jorik's box.

No real loss, then.

[Provoke]

Garl shimmered again to my left.

"Stop that!"

I burst into action. Vaulting over a low barrier, then sliding under another just as a crystal nearly struck my face, I closed the distance in five loping strides. My sword sparkled in the air as I brought it down toward his metal leg. But at the last second, he flickered and vanished, reappearing twenty feet away. This time, he wasn't invisible.

"Almost, almost!" he cackled. "But Garl is too clever for your simple mind!" He vanished again and was standing fifteen feet away.

I was pretty sure I was making him use too much mana. If so, I could do this. It was almost over. "Yeah? Well, this simple mind's going to kick your ass!"

"Hehehehehe!" The gnome cackled. "The pain makes the crystals sing so sweetly! And when the dark days come, when the great wheel turns and the shadow falls across the land... Will they be ready, boy-meat? Will these creatures be ready?!"

Crazy bastard. I took a step toward him, but he teleported again.

Mechanical fingers wrapped around my throat.

"Kkkkk—" I tried to pry his metal fingers off my neck, but they were shockingly strong despite their rusty, rickety appearance. His crystal eye whirred as it focused on me.

"You smell like Him," Garl whispered, his voice suddenly quiet and far too lucid. "Like the Dread Lord's touch. You spoke to him, did you? Did you accept his offer? Did you?" He squeezed tighter, cutting off my blood flow entirely.

"N-no..." My vision went hazy, and my sword slipped from my fingers.

"Good. Good! Better than Old Garl, you are. He accepted the offer. It didn't help. Didn't save him. So now, Old Garl lingers, but he's not alive..." He smiled. "Do you want that? When you lose everything, too, will that be your choice?"

"Hell no!" Rage flooded through me, hot and pure and perfectly focused. I grabbed Garl's mechanical arm with both hands and twisted.

His metal arm screamed as I tore the limb from his arm. Sparks flew as the magical energy connecting him to the thing was severed. Without thinking, I lifted his sparking arm into the air and clubbed him across the face with it.

The impact sent him flying into a nearby barrier. He hit hard, his head slumped, and black fluid began leaking from his mouth.

"I won't be anyone's bitch." I pointed his own arm at him. "Now, stay down and listen to me."

Instead of staying down, he started laughing. "Strong-willed! And strong arms! Strong, strong, strong!"

I stepped toward him, still holding his severed arm. The weight felt good in my hands. Solid. Substantial. Perfect for breaking things. "Listen..." The shadows coiled around my heart. I tried to shake them off, but they wouldn't let go.

It would be so easy to win, now...

"More!" Garl gasped between fits of laughter. "Yes, yes! Show old Garl what it's like to be alive again!"

I raised the mechanical arm over my head, ready to bring it down again. I could pound him until nothing remained but scrap metal and pulp. That would be a real victory. The crowd would love it.

"You like it, don't you?" Garl's voice was thick with blood, but his real eye gleamed with joy. "The violence. The power. The way it feels when you stop pretending to be good. Even if it's a trap, it's intoxicating."

What was I thinking?

Part of me was horrified, but the other part, the part that'd been beaten, the part that had nearly broken, was thrilled.

"Show me."

I brought the arm down. Hard.

Garl's laughter cut off abruptly as metal met skull. But it started up again almost immediately, even wilder than before.

"Again!" he shrieked. "Again!"

"Crazy asshole!" Again and again, I struck him, until his laughter dissolved into gurgling sounds and his magical eye went dark. Black blood pooled beneath his broken body, sparking wherever it touched his ruined prosthetics.

When I finally stopped, breathing hard and dizzy, the audience was roaring.

"IT LOOKS LIKE THE SENTINEL HAS DONE IT AGAIN!!!"

"Finish him!"

"End it!"

"Make me money!"

I dropped the mangled mechanical arm and staggered backward, staring at what remained of Garl and feeling a wide range of feelings. This had been a death match, and he had tried to kill me from the start. It wasn't wrong to win, and death was part of the game. Also, I'd killed people before, and I'd do it again. It was my life here, my job... but...

I'd gone too far. I'd indulged in the violence for its own sake, and I'd enjoyed every moment of it. That was the bridge I didn't want to cross. I wanted to be a shield for the weak, not a sword to cut them down.

"Boy..." The dot of light within Garl's cracked magical eye gazed up at me. "You did what I asked. Thank you for that. I felt alive again."

The guilt vanished. Kneeling beside the broken gnome, I whispered, "I'm going to get everyone out of here, Garl. We're all going to work together. Can I count on you, too?"

The gnome laughed. "Nowhere left for me to go. This is my home."

"Surely there's somewhere."

His prosthetic leg fell off. "Look at me, boy..." He nodded to his ruined body. "I'm a ruin."

I placed a hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure?"

He nodded. "I am. End it." He lifted his neck, opening it up for the strike. "Set me free."

Dropping his arm, I reached out and picked up my sword. "Okay."

He grinned. "When you lose what's yours and the choice comes," he whispered, each word accompanied by thick droplets of blood, "stand tall, boy. Be strong..." His smile spread. Then, it grew wicked. "..for... for.... for the Master of Shadows comes! And WHEN HE DOES, THE WORLD WILL BE RENT ASUNDER!" His broken cackle filled the arena one last time.

"I can't free you, but I can save you," I said quietly, as much to myself as to him. I swung.

His head fell off in one clean strike.

"It's done."

I went to sheath my sword, but a wave of magical force threw me backward, into a nearby barrier.

Groaning, I stood to my feet and looked back at the gnome's body. His chest was glowing under his ripped shirt, and I could just make out a large crystal embedded there. It was glowing volcano red. As I watched, heat washed over me in waves, and the air started to crackle with chaotic magical energy.

"Oh shit."

I turned and ran, sprinting toward the edge of the arena as fast as my legs could carry me. With every step, the heat grew more intense, until the air itself rippled.

Diving behind the thickest barrier I could find, there was a wave of fiery energy, the air ignited, and Garl exploded.

The ground shook. The air burned white hot. The barrier beside me smoldered, and the wooden beams ignited like tootpicks. Even the stone crackled under my body. My barrier and I were thrown backward, where we slammed into the arena's wall and were held there. When the flames finally faded, I fell to the ground atop the smoldering metal barrier. My skin and armor sizzled wherever it touched the red-hot metal. Crawling off as fast as I could move, I teetered to my feet and cautiously peered toward the source of the explosion.

Where Garl had been, there was nothing but a perfectly circular crater, maybe fifteen feet across, lined with glass. Bits of cooling metal were scattered across the arena floor, and not a single barrier was left standing. There was no sign of the old gnome.

I shook my head, trying to process what had just happened. I had far too many thoughts running through my head to think well, but one single thought rose to the surface and stayed there: Magic was scary.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" The announcer's voice cracked slightly. "Your winner... the Iron Sentinel!"

The crowd erupted as words appeared in my head:

You complete the Fighter task [A Good Fight]

You reach Fighter 7★

You reach level 30

You gain the level 30 talent [Paragon]

+1 Strength, +1 Resilience, +1 Agility

I raised my sword, to the delight of the crowd, but all I could think about was the look in Garl's eye when I'd been beating him with his own arm. The way he'd smiled. It was so unnerving. Would that be what I'd become if I chose that path?

I decided I didn't want to find out.

All I knew was that his death wouldn't be in vain. He'd taught me something important: I couldn't save everyone. Especially not those who didn't want to be saved. All I could do was honor their wishes and keep moving forward.

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