Wrath lowered his stance and prowled around the outside of the ring. The dead eyes of the lion atop his head stared at me with the premonition of what my own future could look like.

  His own face was hidden as he moved lithely. It was like meeting a wild animal in the woods; a predator that knew that it could overpower you and would do so in one bite. There was only a primitive intelligence behind his eyes that only gave the simple commands of killing in the most effective way possible.

  Wrath’s foot planted into the ground and rocketed him towards me like the night sky itself was going to swallow me. There were no magical effects as the soil ripped out of the ground from the sheer forces and created an explosion of dirt and grass behind him. He crossed the gap in the blink of an eye as he pulled his weapon back. Nothing sparkled in his stone club. It was just an attack made with a body crafted out of material that man could never replicate.

  Maximum speed allowed me to bow and have the club swing over my head. The air itself was torn by the swing. It sounded like a lion’s roar as a gust pushed me even lower. My eye’s turned upwards and I saw that the clouds above had been torn in two.

  One.

  I immediately primed myself for a counter attack. My lowed body hid my fist under my torso. I sprung up and landed a fully-loaded [Bomber] directly into the center of his chest. White hot flames screamed out in every direction and turned the savanna into an inferno.

  It felt like I had punched a steel beam bare-handed. Every bone in my hand flexed and threatened to break as my blood vessels popped.

  Mana sizzled and steamed off of his bare chest. I could not detect any damage done. His night-colored skin hid even the scorch marks.

  Two.

  Wrath did not stop. As I attacked him, he was already shifting his club around to deal a downward strike. I kept up my speed and strafed to my right before dealing two more quick punches to his side just in time to bend backward and avoid another strike aimed directly at my head. The wind that carried off of the swings oxygenated the fires and made them burn brighter. It swarmed over the circle of painted people, but did not stop the rhythmic music from rumbling over the ground.

  I was not free from the assault. With his other hand, he threw a low punch directly at my midsection. I had to brace my arms and maximize my defense. My arms felt like they were going to turn to mush as I was sent sliding several feet away.

  Three. Four. Five. Six.

  I had already lasted more moves than my Master did against Wrath in his first bout. At the very least. I was pleased with myself for that.

  But, I knew that it was a hollow victory. Wrath was only feeling me out. Even a predator knows better than to swallow a poisoned frog carelessly. I was being prodded until every secret was shaken out of me and he could go for the kill.

  I didn’t have enough time to be celebrate. I was already moving out of the way of another smashing blow. The club went all the way down into the soil. A wave of earth and air pressed against me. I braced myself and held my ground as the soil tsunami washed over me as though I stood beneath a dump truck that upended its load of dirt right on top of my head.

  I threw a return punch in the direction of Wrath. The heat from my [ICBM] torched all organic matter inside the soil and left it as nothing but ash. The sound of a rocket breaking off on takeoff scraped through the sky.

  Debris poured off my body to form a pile around me. I was already taking big breaths from the exertion. I looked over to see Wrath standing there, seemingly unaffected by the attack that struck him. The sheer heat of the attack bent the air around him and made the sky hazy. But, it did nothing to deter him. He only took another step forwards and tried to bash my skull in with brute force.

  I ducked beneath of the attack and grabbed Wrath by the right arm. Disarming him seemed to be my best option. I maximized my strength and gripped his wrist with my hand. I wrenched down and his arm moved slightly.

  A hand gripped on my right shoulder and we locked in a test of strength. Our feet gripped into the ground and tilled the soil. We were locked in the most ancient game of wrestling, both trying to find the proper leverage to move the other against their will.

  It was like being trapped in a hydraulic press. The forces against me were slowly winning. Inch by inch, my feet were losing traction. I scrabbled against the ground to regain my footing but I was only spinning my wheels on a patch of ice. The efforts made things worse and I saw the world spin around me as I was lifted up and slammed on the ground flat on my back.

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  I rolled around on my back, avoiding a club attack that slammed down like a meteor. The air was moved so quickly and so violently that it burned for a split second.

  I had lost the battle of strength. There wasn’t even any abilities behind it; just thousands upon thousands of years dedicated exclusively to fighting and killing with only a simple club and his own body. I was a creek trying to subsume a river. Impatience crashed against the wall of experience.

  I decided then that I had learned enough about the Aspect of Wrath. This was not the time where I could afford to hold back. I lashed out with my axe tail. It glowed with dark magic as it slashed across Wrath’s ankle. The mana from [The Great Decay] flowed into Wrath’s body.

  I hopped back on my feet. I focused my own mind and started to turn the arena from the grasslands into my volcanic cave. The rock walls formed overhead as the furnace-like heat started to choke out the last bits of comfort. It felt like breathing in fire.

  I summoned [Obsidian Spikes] beneath him at the same time as I threw an [ICBM] in his direction. An explosion rocked the inside of the cave and left a deafening roar as the sound waves endlessly bounced in the chamber. I threw another explosive punch as my mind formulated the next moves.

  It turned out to be a weak attempt to slow him. He skin still appeared to be unmarred. The lion’s mane of his headdress was singed and burned wispy smoke like incense. He then stomped downwards and broke all of the spikes apart like a kid knocking over some blocks. He swung his club into the ground and shook the entire cave. It didn’t even survive a second before it disappeared into dust and brought us back to a burning field.

  There was something different about him as his head turned from the wound on his ankle back to me. I could not see his face, but I could feel disgust exuding from him as he observed me like he had just stepped in shit. His body seemed to steam in indignation. The music grew louder to a fever pitch.

  “Magic,” the word slithered out of his mouth like the lowest curse he could conjure. It writhed in my ear like a grub before it died. “With your body, with your mind; you decided to poison it with magic. I felt like you were above such weakness. Cowardice.”

  My twitched. The music seemed to taunt me, telling me that I was always going to be the loser of this fight for sinking so low. Somehow, there would be a hideous mark on my record because my win was cheapened with magic.

  “What is this place if not magic?” I asked in return. “You seem to be using it as well, despite the restrictions you placed on me.”

  “Creation of Follies,” Wrath quickly explained away. “They fear the damage I could do to their precious city in the clouds. We are not the same. You rely on Follies for strength like a fool. I only have myself and my club. I am a human, you are beneath me.”

  “It’s true,” I heard wispy voices in my ears. “There is not a trace of mana dwelling within him. His own ability is the one that keeps it away from him.”

  My body rumbled in anger; I had not felt so outdone in all of my life. My Master’s words of advice tried to enter my ear, but there was no room in my boiling brain for reason to reach me. This man did not compromise with his way of fighting, his refusal to use anything but his own body.

  I knew that it was foolish to fall into his pit and fight the way that he did. I had to use everything; I had to win. But, would I feel anything if I didn’t win by crushing his head with my fist? Could I accept that crown if I turned my back on myself and allowed my opponent to have the honor?

  A beacon of light shone down in my mind, reminding me of something that had been floating around inside. A tournament without abilities, a war fought and won only with what you took with you to the grave. If there was anyone that would willingly delve into that hole with me, it had to be Wrath. If even he would not be willing, there would exist not a single soul that would.

  “You are not as free from the Follies as you’d like,” I answered.

  “How?” He questioned with a growl.

  “You still have stats, do you not? If I abandon my magic and lose, will it not be because there is too wide a difference in our stats? Would it not mean that you benefitted from the unnatural gifts of the Follies?”

  I expected the Follies to bristle at me spitting on their gifts. But, the energy in the realm ratcheted up. I could feel Passion burning right behind me, their face contorted into something of pure joy.

  Wrath looked struck by what I said. He looked down at his unnatural body, he scratched at his arm and glared angrily at it.

  “You are right,” he seethed. “We are cursed.”

  “We don’t have to be. If we are to do away with magic, let’s do away with all of it,” I suggested. “No stats, no abilities. Just flesh and bone and blood.”

  Wrath stood silently in the middle of the ring. The song of violence was still pounding relentlessly in his head. He started clawing at his impenetrable skin with greater and greater fervor before an explosion of energy fired off of him, flattening everything in the vicinity.

  “Do it,” Wrath ordered the Follies.

  The grasslands were reverted to what they were before the fighting began. The ring of people came back into view. They thundered on their drums and chanted out desperately towards the sky. The drumbeat matched my heartbeat.

  I felt my skin crawling. I looked down to see my scales fall off my body, revealing the skin of my human form beneath. It felt foreign, blurry, to see the tattoos that covered me.

  Wrath’s skin had barely changed in color, but it no longer had the quality of night and rock. It now looked like flesh. Beneath the lion’s headdress sat a blurred face. We were not allowed to know each other as people, even if we temporarily were.

  Without my abilities, without my stats, without my transformations, without this game; I felt alive. For the first time, I felt like I could actually die.

  Wrath hefted his club in his hand. His fingers gripped tightly around the weapon and sapped some color from the skin. He patted his hand against his chest with the rhythm of the drums and joined in the chanting. His voice hollered out into the great open sky. There was nothing but us and only one of us would be leaving alive.

  “We fight to the death as men,” I said as I readied my stance.

  Wrath stomped the ground. The music stopped and his voice went quiet. He stared directly at me as he pointed his weapon at my skull.

  “As men.”