Whoops and cheers ran through the crowd as the Earthling landed on the side of the rock and scrambled up the side like a little monkey.

  Ever since the detonation of the large log of poison, Eik had been blown up on the big screen for everybody to notice. With the image of following the action with stunning smoothness and clarity, they had been able to witness every second of of the poison user’s tense experience. From the moment he encased himself in a glowing ball and sent it flying through a maze of tunnels before erupting from the side of the giant monolith, the explosion causing it all to come tumbling down.

  The epic struggle as Eik sailed through the air back toward the obelisk, narrowly avoiding spears was arguably the most exciting scene to be broadcast thus far. It was like watching an action movie. You would say “that would never happen in real life. It’s just not possible.” Yet here they were, watching it happen in real time.

  “The creativity Eik demonstrates in tense and fast paced situations never ceases to amaze me,” Mikla said, unable to look away from the spectacle on the screen. “Where does he get the ideas and the determination to carry them out successfully.”

  “Pinball,” Michael said. “and if we’re describing the Eik I know, I think insanity is a more suitable term than determination.”

  “To me, he simply looks like a man with a will to protect and pave the way for his people to thrive;” Mikla argued.

  With a sincere smile, Michael nodded. “I’m not sure there is anybody I admire as much as I admire him. He worries and works himself weary for us.”

  “Oh,” Mikla said, realizing his misunderstanding.

  The audience, all eyes glued to the screen with unbreaking attention, would gasp in chorus every time Eik was almost ripped to pieces, laughing and talking among themselves about how they would have handled the situation differently. It was remarkable how so many people seemed to utterly convinced that they would have performed better under the same stress and peril.

  “What kind of idiot would just keep himself exposed in the air like that when someone shooting at him at range? The only smart move here would be to get to the ground as quickly as possible and approach the enemy under the cover of the trees,” a man sitting a couple of seats down from Heath remarked with a sneer.

  “Dude, that is so true!” his friend said with a chuckle. “How the hell did a moron like that even qualify for the Championships in the first place? His home world must be absolutely worthless.”

  “Alright, that’s enough!” Heath exclaimed, shooting to his feet, his face reddening with indignation. “Maybe your people ought to have evolved eyes that could actually perceive the world in front of you properly before you start shitting on other people’s abilities in!”

  “Heath…” Michael tried but the tank had already risen way into the red zone. Those remarks hadn’t been the first derisive ones of their kind to come from the pair since the event had begun. It would have been painfully clear to anybody even moderately observant that the man had been growing increasingly pissed with every comment he overheard. “How about we just—”

  “What the shit did you just say to me, you worthless bridge builder?” the guy said, clearly ready for a confrontation.

  “Bridge builder? Is that an insult here?” Sonja asked, leaning closer to Mikla who looked torn between the crazy fight on the biggest highlight screen and the conflict unfolding right in front of him.

  The fracture specialist just shrugged. “I honestly haven’t heard that one. It’s probably just an insult that requires some cultural context that the translation spell isn’t sophisticated enough to pick up on. Your brother sure has a temperament, huh?”

  Sonja rolled her eyes with a sigh. “Tell me something I don’t know. Sometimes he’s fine and sometimes it’s like an addiction.”

  “I don’t know what’s stupider, your insults or your stupid face!” Heath snarled. Luckily neither him, nor the guy he was arguing with had made any move to reach for the weapons they both had at their belts. “How do you have four eyes in your head but don’t know how to use even one of them?”

  “What, is the pooping guy someone from your home world or something? Is that why you’re so sensitive, huh? He’s pathetic!”

  “He just killed two people one his own! How is that pathetic?”

  “Yeah, right! We didn’t see the beginning of that. Anything could have happened before it was blown up on the big screen.”

  “Well, I saw it and it was legit!”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Uh huh, sure,” the guy mouthed with an enticingly punchable face. “Some chump from the same home world would obviously spout crap like that. Where are you from anyway?”

  “Earth,” Heath said.

  “What the hell is that?” he asked, eyeing his friend. “Yo, you ever heard of Earth?”

  “Nah.”

  “What, it can’t exist if you haven’t heard of it or something?” Heath spat, fists clenched tightly at his sides. It was a sensitive topic, not just for Heath, but for all of them. They had gone through a lot in these past ten years and being disregarded and insulted like that felt a lot like a blatant dismissal of the suffering of every person on Earth. Heath just happened to be the one with the shortest fuse.

  The guy held up his hands. “That’s not it. I just think I would have heard about you if you were important enough to care about, you know? There are plenty of worlds in the Nidafjeld Alliance that aren’t important enough to keep track of.”

  Heath was visibly resisting the urge to sock the guy in the nose. “Yeah, well, you will. That guy up there is going to make sure that he’s all you can see.”

  “Are you a new world or something?”

  “So what if we are?” Heath growled.

  “Then I know not to get my hopes up.”

  ***

  Another charged spear came his way at illegal speed, but the otherwise accurate thrower must have lost his balance on the toppling mountain as well, because it went wide to an embarrassing degree.

  Eik stumbled as the surface under his feet teetered and rolled. Triggering Movement Boost, he broke into a mad dash, leaping from ledge to ledge. Finally, he could move freely again. And with a clear path to the harasser, anger once more flared up inside his belly.

  Now close enough for a clear view, the spear thrower could be identified as some manner of insect-like being. Large, pupilless eyes took up half of their face with the rest of it consisting of a mean-looking set of clacking mandibles. It looked quite like the close up pictures Eik had seen of an ant’s face.

  These people were a common sight at the Gimleh markets, and Eik had even had pleasant conversations with a few of them before. He couldn’t help but wonder if those people he had spoken to in Gimleh would refuse his company after he killed this kin of theirs. He hoped not. He was beginning to feel at home there among the stalls, traders, and exotic wares.

  The spear thrower must have possessed an ability much like Frank of the Black Fang that allowed them to retrieve a thrown weapon at will — that, or something like an ability to conjure weapons out of thin air — because another deadly projectile raced through the air to take his life. But now that he had his mobility back, and a Potion of Mighty Strength class 2 along with a handful of home brewed poison running through his system, he could dodge properly.

  A javelin of his own appeared in Eik’s hand and he hurled it at the insect person with full power, causing the opponent to drop their own charge and dive to the ground. He laughed out loud when the conjuration flew out of range and lost connection, turning to liquid that splattered uselessly on the ground.

  As the spear thrower was getting back to his feet, scrambling to prepare another weapon, Eik gripped the handle of the wakizashi and created a coating of blue around the blade as he unsheathed it in a smooth and quick motion. Pulling it to the same length as the first javelin, he flung it with a grunt, a localized application of Movement Boost pushing the velocity of his arm beyond anything natural.

  Initially wary, the insect person ignored the javelin as it began to melt mid air. It was a breathless gasp that escaped them as the wakizashi emerged from its toxic vehicle and struck their face, the blade slicing off a mandible on one side. The head was an especially small target on this life form and had been a risky attempt, but the with the combination of an exoskeleton and light weight armor suitable for a ranged attacker, a body shot would have done nothing.

  Momentarily distraught by pain and the loss of a body part, the spear thrower fumbled the spear as an alien scream tore through their throat. As expected of a Championship competitor, composition quickly took the place of panic, but Eik was already coming in for the kill.

  Launching off a final ledge with a Movement Boost focused on his legs and hips, Eik blasted through the air like a bullet, the air screeching past his ears as he threw a third, much smaller spike of toxin.

  Although he was close enough to keep its shape this time, it still dissolved into liquid, only now Eik did the same, Toxic Liquefaction allowing him to blend in with the regular toxin. Confused, the spear wielder slashed horizontally through the air in the first melee attack of the fight, but Eik reformed his body below the weapon’s wide path.

  Revisiting one of his older ideas, the Dane spat a globule of poison up into the face of his opponent, the blue substance eagerly rushing into the jaw wound. The momentum of his flight carried him into the insect’s legs and brought them both to the ground where a sharp spear blade managed to rip a stinging gash in Eik’s side as they rolled.

  The fall of the mountain had been slow until now, the sheer size of it having supported it as the base continued to crumble. Now, however, it was coming down with a vengeance, threatening to crush the two competitors underneath.

  Activating some sort of movement skill, the arthropod disappeared. In less than a second, the surface he was standing on would become a rolling, rocky death trap so Eik followed the example and activated Movement Boost to launch himself into the air.

  Just as he had assembled the gliding wings on his back, a glowing spear crushed one side of the construction, sending Eik tumbling back toward the ground. Abandoning the wings, Eik dove like a bird of prey and caught himself on a tree branch on the way down, arresting his momentum enough to land without breaking his legs.

  With not a moment to waste, Eik dashed in the opposite direction of the literal avalanche coming down behind him. The view from the side of the falling mountain had not done justice to the absolute destruction it wrought as it flooded forth, trees several meters across annihilated like a gingerbread house under the front wheel of a Boeing 737.

  No more spears came so it could only be assumed that the arthropod was busy getting away as well.

  The cacophony of falling boulders and humongous trees being crushed deafened Eik as he felt Movement Boost begin to fail. It had reached its cooldown and refused to enhance his body.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Eik shouted as he ran, the sound of the rush alone telling him that the tsunami of rocks was swiftly gaining on him.

  He was about to die.

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