The Hamaskyr hit Tony like a freight train.

  A couple things flashed through his mind as his vision hued red and a roar of fury and ecstasy boomed out of him. The first was that this was the first time he'd ever taken the Hamaskyr both willingly and intentionally; the second was that it kicked that much harder when he did… something finally clicked in his mind. The Hamaskyr counted as a potion, not a poison which is why his resistance never touched it.

  The sensation… taking the Hamaskyr on his own… was a step away from bliss. He was free in it… unfettered… unleashed. Deep down, Tony knew that it wouldn’t be enough to beat Jak. No one, in actuality, saw red and won a fight against a skilled opponent.

  What he needed to beat the Champion was time. He needed Legion at full power and with the upgrades it had selected. Looking at it strictly through the system, he’d done enough on his own to pass the “damage check” part of Jak’s fight, the Champion had powered up in response, and at a guess, he still had more up his smoldering obsidian sleeves.

  Tony surged at Jak and made it about halfway to him when all of his forward momentum stopped. Trapped in the haze of Hamaskyr it cost him precious seconds to realize that the very sands he’d been charging across had started to liquefy under the intense heat Jak was producing. Tony pulled and wrenched at the molten sand; he managed to free himself before the heat ate through his greaves and started dealing more damage than his Adamant Body Ascension could heal at a tick.

  The Challenger leaped, he wanted to close the remaining distance between himself and the Champion with the least interference, and damage from the molten glass. What he received for his efforts was both of Jak's fists, one slammed into his chest and the other into his gut in a u-punch that completely arrested his forward momentum and took a sizable chunk out his health bar.

  Tony staggered back, barely on his feet, and surged forward again. His health bar chipped down as he attempted to close the distance with Jak, whose rapid-fire punches broke the forming and floating globules of forming glass and sent the shrapnel hurtling at across the arena.

  The Hamaskyr would only let Tony advance. He wove in and out of the line of fire, but forward was the only way permitted. He reached Jak, and unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks. Jak simply put up his guard, almost a classic boxer’s block, and absorbed the attacks. In a moment of frustration and need for the tempo of the fight to change, Tony went for a tackle. Bringing Jak to the ground would do something to shift the stalemate.

  Instead, Jak used his left hand to latch onto the neck guard of Tony’s armor and hold him half upright while he threw right haymakers over and over again. All Tony could do was block. He tried to scuttle backward and under Jak’s grip, but the Champion moved with him, throwing bomb after bomb into Tony’s bracers.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “How long, Antonious?” Jak demanded. The brawler kicked Tony’s legs out from under him and followed up with a barrage of punches that sent Tony’s HP into the red and crunched him into the sands-made-glass of the arena floor.

  “How long what?” Tony spluttered as he finally managed to latch onto Jak’s molten wrists and position his feet on the man to keep him locked down, if only for a moment. His lips were cracked and bleeding from the heat and Jak’s rapid and body-shaking impacts.

  “How long until I see your best? You cracked my shell, but I’ve got to say, I’m not really impressed. You were supposed to be this big time challenger and all I’ve seen out of you is stalling for time,” Jak said.

  Tony’s eyes flicked to his status bars and then back to Jak, “Thirty seconds,” he said.

  Jak scoffed and plumes of flame shot out from his elbows “More stalling, no good Antonious.”

  An explosion rocked the stadium that caused Tony to lose his grip on Jak’s wrists and a second explosion sent both of his fists crashing into the ground where Tony had just been. If he hadn’t pushed off of Jak’s legs those punches would have killed him, no question.

  “Well, give me about twenty-five more seconds and you’ll see if I’m ‘just stalling’ more or if this fight will be worth it for the both of us,” Tony retorted.

  Jak rushed at him with alarming speed and Tony lurched to the side, picking up a piece of the recently formed glass that best resembled a bladed weapon and cracked off an Adamant Slash at the brawler’s exposed side. The improvised weapon turned to dust in his hand, but the crackling wave of indigo essence still caught Jak flat footed and unsuspecting. After all, the only times in the arena that he had used the talent were with his Dreadblade, or while his Channel Dreadblade talent had been active.

  Tony dashed backward, he slid along the freshly cooled glass and searched for more weapon shaped shards, expecting Jak to be on him again near immediately. He looked back and saw Jak nearly rooted in place, holding up his arms to guard against an additional attack. There were deep furrows in the obsidian coating his forearms... blood seeped from them and dropped onto the floor. It seemed that he hadn't caught Jak as flat-footed as he'd hoped. Tony also hadn't thought about how significant the damage from an Adamant Slash that didn't come from Legion would have been, but thanks to his Life Biting Essence and finally being able to use a melee talents at all, it had to have been a good chunk of Jak's HP as Tony's just tipped over fifty percent.

  Tony narrowed his eyes as Jak peeked around his impacted guard, then lowered it to reveal a menacing rictus grin.

  "Now we're getting somewhere, Antonious," Jak bellowed.

  The Champion brought his elbows down to his sides and roared. Smoke and then flame poured out of his elbows and open wounds, then twisted in the air and crackled with bolts of white and orange lightning. It was like watching a pair of volcanoes arm sized erupt and disrupt the atmosphere.

  Tony recognized the look in Jak's eyes, in his posture, he was bringing the rest of what he had left to bare... every last bit of raw power he could muster to win.

  I need to win too... Tony thought.

  Jak had lied to him in omitting that he was the champion... the person between him and regaining his Fatal Resolve talent... the key to his freedom from this damned place... what stood between him and getting back to his dog.

  Master, Legion's voice interrupted.

  What? Tony thought back, annoyed that his attempt to hype himself up had been derailed.

  We are ready.