Chapter 6

  Bask not in the victory itself but the struggle required to achieve it. If you did not struggle in your task, then the victory that follows is shallow and pointless.

  -Collected Teachings of the Exalted Sovereign

  2 years ago

  Charon stood in the sands of The Ring, an arena surrounded by metal stands where Ignited faced off against one another in duels meant to test one another’s mettle. His eyes were closed; his helmet picked out the claps and cheers of the crowd surrounding him as the announcer introduced him and the man across from him. His opponent, Orius, had been someone he had known about even before becoming ignited when he would come watch the duels as a child. No one was a better duelist than he was, that is, until Charon stepped into the ring of course.

  Now the two of them were squared up against one another in a vast empty circle of sand. Charon opened his eyes, looking at his opponent. Orius wore standard ignited armor that seemed to shine brighter in the light of day with one important modification. The plates on his back could pull off by a hinge to reveal two sets of thin, long dragonfly wings. They came from the same insects that made up the rest of the ignited chitin plates, but from a rarer subspecies from Charon’s understanding. The benefit of these wings was that they could heal over time, much like the plates themselves. The man was spinning two pistols in his hands, psyching himself up for the duel ahead.

  Charon himself had gone to one of the Order’s smiths to put stronger jets into the metal skeleton beneath the chitin of his armor. It made his forearms and calves look more exaggerated than the usual sleek look the armor gave the wearer. When he bent his arms, the exhaust ports could be seen in the space between the plates. Charon brought no other weapons to the duel; he had always felt like the only weapons he needed were his own fists and feet. He looked up towards the crowd, spotting his younger brother and his father sitting in the stands. The former waved excitedly at him while his father sat with calm intensity behind his vibrant, emerald eyes. Charon had become ignited the moment he turned eighteen and had since been making a name for himself as a duelist. It took him two years for him to get to this moment. This was his chance to prove himself to be the Ignited his father hoped he could be. The weight of expectation settled comfortably onto Charon’s shoulders as he focused on the fire within him to ease his nerves while his gaze settled upon Orius.

  The announcer, an ikaroa who looked like a large toad that had decided it wanted to walk on two legs, was reaching the end of his speech, He wore a slate grey uniform, marking him as one of the Kindlings. He looked odd amidst a crowd of people training to be warriors. Charon tuned out everything else but the final words croaked out by the man.

  “Ignited! Begin!”

  The crowd roared one last time as the sound-off was signaled with a shot into the air. Everything that followed was in slow motion for Charon. He saw his opponent’s body shift down in the beginning of a jump while one pistol aimed toward him. The trigger pulled and there was a resounding crack in the air before the bullet landed where Charon was a split second before.

  The young Ignited was already on the move. If he had been a normal man his reaction would not have been fast enough to dodge a bullet, but as an Ignited with the suit assisting him? It was more than possible. Charon dodged to the side, boot kicking up dust as the momentum carried him into a slide on one foot mid step. He kicked forward toward Orius, creating a blooming cloud of smoke from the sheer speed and the jets at the back of his calves roared to life.

  Orius had already jumped into the air, wings springing outward with a loud buzz as he laid down a barrage of fire toward Charon. The shots forced Charon to leap, duck, and slide feet first through the dust, miniature explosions making the sky rain sand down onto him. He was mid-slide when he saw the opening he wished. He forced himself upright with a jet on his arm, before both feet planted into the dust beneath him and he launched into the sky. He could not fly, but with his momentum and the aid of his jets, he could soar through the air easily enough. Wind whipped at him and bullets cracked more plates. His armor flashed with warnings about the damage but he blinked those away. He twisted through the air right as he reached the apex of his jump and jets roared back to life, sending his leg whipping around to crash into his opponent like a hammer. It should have worked, but Orius was not Ring Champion for no reason. He flipped backwards just before the kick reached him. Charon sailed past, missing his mark and opening up his back to Orius’ hail of gunfire.

  The second Charon missed he knew he needed to move. He flipped through the air to reorient himself then rocketed to the ground, landing with both feet planted and one hand in front of him with his body sliding backwards and facing Orius. He threw his weight forward into a run. The first step didn’t carry him forward, but the second launched him. Orius dove after him, dropping his clips onto the ring’s sand and loading new ones in but Charon had now run past him, forcing Orius to swoop and curve low to the ground to chase after him.

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  To any of the observers who weren’t Ignited, the whole fight would have looked like a barely conceivable blur, the past exchange happening over the course of mere seconds. Through the corner of his eyes Charon saw Phaidros squinting hard to try and keep up with the fight.

  Charon had never felt more alive. Adrenaline pumped through his system and the fire of his potential burned hot. The fire helped him keep razor focus as his mind processed the current situation and what he needed to do and the action following in the same eyeblink. His armor made up for whatever weakness might have remained. It kept track of Orius even when Charon couldn’t physically see him as he ran across the ring and considered his options. He knew a straight assault would not work again; he had foolishly ceded the initiative to Orius, so he had to create a new opening–somehow. He reached the edge of the ring, bullets pinging against the back of his armor and at his feet before launching himself upwards at the wall of the arena. With a twist and the sheer speed of his ascent, his feet planted against the wall against the will of gravity and pushed down into a squat. In the same breath of time he threw himself off the wall into the open air as Orius approached. He threw his arm to the side, engines screaming in his limbs as he spun around in a cartwheel of jet fire through the air. The suddenness of the maneuver had the intended effect as he heard a loud boom and weight against his boot. He had caught Orius right on the head, sending the duelist down and headfirst into the sand in a tumble with a shower of splintered chitin following. There was a roar from the crowd, but Charon knew this fight wasn’t over yet.

  Orius skid to a stop in the dirt at the same time Charon hit the floor with a loud thud before rocketing off towards the Ring Champion. He had seized the initiative and he wasn’t about to let his opponent get it back. Orius’s wings fluttered back to life and the jets on his limbs helped propel him forward. Charon saw that Orius’ helmet was still intact, but it had chunks of chitin missing from the thickly armored head piece, Orius was known for his thick head and his armor grew to match. The champion flew low to the ground with both pistols in his grip as he fired off two shots, one low to make Charon leap over it then one high to send him into another skidding dash before they were about to collide. Then, at the last moment Orius swung himself up higher, leaving Charon trapped mid slide with a pistol aimed right at the skull of his helmet. A crack filled the air and the bullet slammed into the face plate, splintering chitin onto the sands.

  Another roar resounded through the crowd as Orius rolled higher through the air, arms out at either side of him as he circled around to look at the crowd and bask in his victory before twisting through the air to prepare another swooping dive towards Charon.

  Charon’s armor had stopped the bullet, but it would not do so again. His head was ringing from the impact but he quickly steeled himself, fingers digging into the sand and twisting himself around to be on all fours, eyes narrowed at Orius. Another rain of bullets came for him and he dashed to the side then pivoted into a new direction, a second of his sheer momentum causing him to drag over the sand before he shot forward again, running away from Orius and going instead for another part of the arena.

  Orius arced behind him, firing shot after shot as Charon weaved through the fire again. Charon suddenly dropped to the ground, hands reaching out on either side of him for the discarded clips Orius had dropped earlier. He kicked himself up and off his feet, hanging in the air as the rockets in his legs turned off. He sailed through the air and spun around horizontally as Orius came barreling towards him. The jets in his elbows ignited and he threw the clips through the air. The sheer speed might as well have been a bullet for a normal man, the outlandish tactic catching Orius by surprise as he barrel rolled through the air to try and avoid the projectiles, now moving much faster than he was previously. He wasn’t fast enough however as the clip slammed into one of his wings, sending him into a flailing spiral as his speed overtook Charon.

  Charon grabbed Orius by the arm as all of his rockets roared to life at once, carrying both of them straight into the wall of the opposing ring. Charon held Orius on course until the very last moment before shoving himself away, sending him slamming into the wall so hard it left a crater while Orius speared straight through the wall headfirst under him and stuck.

  Charon felt his entire body ache, his visor displaying multiple breaches and broken plates. They would grow back in time but a new sound stole his attention away from the pain settling in his body: cheers. He forced himself upright, blinking in a daze up at the crowd that surrounded him, then to Orius still stuck in the wall beside him. He had incapacitated him quite spectacularly. Charon blinked one more time, the meaning of that dawning on him in a sudden wave that immediately made him forget about how much he was hurting right now. He won and now he was the champion of the ring.

  A wide grin spread on his face as he opened his arms to the crowd, his potential burning bright enough that he felt like the sun in that moment. The thrill of victory washed over him and pride swelled in his chest. This was how the Exalted Sovereign wished for them to live. To feel just as he did in this moment basking in the pride of his victory, the proof of how far he had come in his two years of being Ignited. He looked to his family, his father grinning with pride back at him as he clapped with the crowd. Phaidros was clapping along with him with visible excitement, looking up to his father and back at his brother. Charon felt so amazed in this moment that surely the Exalted Sovereign would come down this very moment and shape his potential. No divine intervention came, but it did not take away from the moment, a moment that he would be sure to burn into his mind forever.

  Little did he know that this would be the end of his glory for the rest of his days, and that after climbing so high so quickly, that he might lose what drove him to make the journey to begin with. All that mattered was that feeling of victory now and not the struggle that he had gone through to achieve it.