Luke walked into the large warehouse directly behind the portal building. It was the same room he had received his training from SPEAR, and it would be a perfect place to test his new addition to the Mark V mech suit.

  He had finally completed the creation, after a week of tinkering. The suit stood an imposing twelve feet tall with sleek lines and overlapping armor. It had a base coat of red paint with black highlights. He had made several changes since the Mark IV design. The final addition was a runic array cribbed from WikiRunes. He used the design and combined it with his mech legs to create Jump Boots.

  Or at least that’s what he was calling it in his head. He wouldn’t be caught dead saying something that cringe out loud.

  The runes combined with pistons to explosively launch his metal foot downwards. If that was all they did, he would be cracking the concrete and toppling over. But he designed them to connect with the Master Inertia rune in the middle of his back. It would flicker the rune for the briefest of moments as the boots activated. He would be sent rocketing forward in whichever direction he was leaning.

  At least that was the plan. He was here to test that theory. He focused himself and leaned forward. Just before he would topple over, he activated the runes in his lower leg. Mana flowed, pistons activated and the inertia rune flickered. He flew forward, arcing up over fifteen feet in the air. His legs drifted up above his head. Luke flailed around as he fell upside down to the concrete. Acuity slowed down time and let him appreciate just how badly he had screwed up.

  He yelled wordlessly as he fell to the ground, barely able to get a hand down so he didn’t land head first. The mech screeched across the concrete and he tumbled.

  Luke groaned in frustration. This was going to be harder than he expected. He climbed out of his mech and pulled out his tools. The timing was milliseconds off and meant his movement was uncontrolled.

  He tweaked the runes and powerflow and tried again. And failed again. The third time wasn’t a failure, but it wasn’t a success either. He had tucked midair and spun around so he could land on his feet. He realized that was as good as it was going to get. In his mind, he had imagined being able to reposition his body as he flew, but that wasn’t how physics worked. He grumbled to himself and tested the other improvements to his latest set of power armor.

  His next test was the new acid bolt spell rifle. He had avoided using the corrosive spell in the past because his barrels wouldn’t last more than a few shots. WikiRunes had provided him with the solution. He had added a rune that added a brief oily film to the inside of the barrel. It was designed to move hinges silently, but it would protect his equipment with every shot.

  Luke turned and fired his full complement of shots at the target dummy. All twenty-four acid spells ate through the reinforced metal target and left it a puddle of green goo. The first few spells would have been enough, but he wanted to fully test the design. He popped open the panel on his forearm and inspected it for wear and tear. There were small discolorations, but nothing too bad. Since he had a habit of using Repair Craft often, it would reverse the minimal damage he was seeing here.

  The other gauntlet held an oversized spell rifle loaded with Scintillating Fire. He had used the rune before, so he only fired a single large round to test it. A five foot conflagration roared across the warehouse. The impact burned the puddle of acid and sent splashes of liquid metal flying. Perfect.

  He had also made a change to the rear guns. The Mark V mech used the same pop out design, but had machine guns instead. He could put down dozens of magnets down range in seconds now. It did come with some limitations though. He couldn’t construct an air rifle machine gun from scratch, so he had bought some off the internet. The guns had a much smaller bore so he had to use tiny magnets.

  He used Machine Bond to pop up the new weapons from their casing on his back and aimed them at the puddle on the ground. He fired eight magnets in a second, creating two lines of glowing balls, one ice and the other electricity.

  The results were mixed. The spells were considerably smaller than normal, of course, but the quantity of fire made up for that. Unfortunately, the fast rate of fire was also to its detriment. Only half of the magnets had a spell attached to them. Luke adjusted the rate of fire and tried again. Better. Further experiments revealed that his most effective rate of fire was three a second. The result was still better than what he replaced though, so he was happy.

  The final thing to test was his new sword. It wasn’t as practical as the other improvements, but he couldn’t help himself. The five foot sword had a serrated edge connected to a metal band that looped around the entire blade. It was a chainsword. He pushed a bit of mana into the runes and the edge started spinning, a high pitched whine filling the room.

  He grinned manically and swung the sword down at his target, a metal box he had brought here for this purpose. The sword bit and dug into the crate, tearing up the metal with a screech. The chain dug into the material, pulling itself forward and through the crate. Luke had to pull back to avoid cutting the concrete.

  The cut was jagged and the metal warped. It was the same crate he had used for component mana baths, so it was as tough as a monster’s skin.

  Hopefully he wouldn’t use it anytime soon. Tomorrow he was heading to Kalibutan to fight people. The chainsword would help him win the fight, but at the cost of killing whoever he used it on.

  ???

  Luke activated the first half of Repair Craft and nodded down to Vannessa as she stepped up to stand near him. Her negotiator suit of armor made her seven feet tall, but that was still five feet shorter than he was in his Mark V armor. Behind them were the rest of the crew, everyone from Monster Jaegers Inc had shown up to watch the Malamon. Even Allen had come along, wearing the spare suit of armor.

  The only part of their group not in attendance was Jinx. Luke was planning on fighting in a melee today and didn’t want to risk her life. He had paid his downstairs neighbor to cat sit and given her three tier-one mana cores to dole out through the day. It was probably the most anyone had ever spent on cat treats.

  Twelve people in huge power armor walking through the portal together might have been an intimidating sight on a different day, but not today. They joined a stream of people heading south from the portal. Humans, elves, orcs, and dwarves were all heading towards the makeshift arena where the final fight of the Malamon was being held. Since they were walking though monster infested territory, just about everyone was armed. Spears, crossbows, magic orbs, and circlets of power were protecting the crowd today, so their group was able to join in without much of a fuss.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Amphitheatre was too fancy of a term for their destination. This was a hole in the ground with seating. Someone had taken a natural basin and expanded it. Benches were roughly carved into the rock and dirt mounds made up the eastern edge. The inner and outer runewights of all three estate villages were carving large runes into the edges of the arena, presumably to keep the fighting contained.

  There was a manic edge to the crowd. Some were in a celebratory mood, as if this was a fall festival. But everyone knew that people were dying at the end of this contest, one way or another. A dwarf selling fried dough was shouting his wares next to a crying elf mother trying to comfort her despondent child.

  The Monster Jaegers were there an hour before things were supposed to start so that they could get good seats. Apparently everyone else had the same idea. Their group found a spot near the southwestern edge of the basin and sat down together. The size of the combat arena meant that it would be hard to see the far edge, but fights with magic were like fireworks, still fun to watch from a distance.

  Vanessa kept an eye on the wilderness behind them. She tried to be subtle about it, but Luke's Perception caught every movement. He didn't bring it up. She was still nervous about being on Kalibutan, but she refused to discuss it. Luke was starting to think she needed a therapist, but didn't expect that conversation to go well. Vanessa eventually calmed down, the presence of so many monster hunters must have calmed her down.

  Now that he felt like he could leave her alone, Luke headed down to the arena. He stopped in front of someone he recognized. “Kruro. How are you? Did the morning go well?”

  The naga straightened up and smiled. “It did. Every head of household in Lord Edobar’s estate made a good showing in their competition against their counterparts. I thought I had their inner runewrite beat when I carved an ice box within an hour, but the judge said that a sword with sharpness enchantments was just as good. We are going into the melee with the scores tied. As our lord expected, it will come down to these final two fights. Speaking of which, aren’t you supposed to be in the final strategy meeting?”

  “I didn’t know there would be one. Where is it?” Luke said as he turned and scanned the crowd.

  “It’s back at the estate village, in Lord Edobar’s court. You better hurry. I’m sure they are about to start,” Kruro said.

  Luke sighed and started jogging north. They really needed to establish a better communication system than passing messages through his favorite naga. He passed the portal again and continued north to Bona Urbo. As expected, the estate village was practically a ghost town. The only activity was in the lord’s tree tower.

  After today’s win, Luke was promised a spot in the aristocracy, so he went ahead and used the elevator reserved for them.

  The magic platform was near silent, so Luke’s arrival at the top was a surprise to the group waiting just outside the lord’s court.

  “What the hell are you guys doing here?” Luke asked.

  Shepard turned and gave him a crusty look. “Didn’t anyone tell you? The lord hired better fighters. He couldn’t trust your weak ass.”

  The four interlopers were wearing bulky power armor. It was polished stainless steel with green accents. The mechs were nine feet tall and had a spell rifle on a sling. Luke recognised the mechs as his own design, a few generations earlier than his Mark V. He took a careful look at the exposed gears in the joints. They were made with Luke’s shitty designs he had given Agent Brown. Shepard and his flock of sheep were wearing substandard gear that would move slowly, burn through their mana cores, and break at every joint.

  Luke rolled his eyes. “You wish. I bet y’all are his plan B in case I didn’t show up. I’m here though, so you second rate shits can leave now.”

  Shepard stepped forward and thrust a metal finger up at Luke’s face. “Listen here, you weekend warrior, the real businessmen have made a deal here and you aren’t part of it.”

  “I doubt it,” Luke scoffed. “I bet you are trying to make a deal right now. ‘Cus that’s what this is, isn’t it? Atticus saw how much money I was making and wanted it for himself. He hired you all to take my place. But then he found out the power armor you were using was mine. Then when he got you replacement suits, he realized I have exclusive rights for monster hunting. This is a last ditch effort to weasel your way back into business on this side of the portal. Or wait. You’re out here. Is Atticus himself in there with the head elf?”

  “No, I don’t know who’s in there with the lord right now. He just told us to wait out here and not disturb him,” Shepard replied.

  “Sure, sure. Excuse me. I think I’ll talk to the man himself.” Luke slipped by Shepard and walked up to the doors to the court.

  There weren’t any guards stationed at the doors so he let himself in. He shut the door behind himself while Shepard and crew yelled at him. The doors must have silencing runes because their shouts were muffled immediately afterward.

  In the back of the room was a sparkly silver barrier. Lord Edobar’s privacy wall was already up. Luke almost smacked his forehead. He should have expected that.

  If Atticus was really in there with Lord Edobar, Luke needed to be in there too. He walked up to the barrier and rapped it with his knuckles, like he was knocking on a door. Unfortunately, the privacy barrier did its job well and completely muffled the sound.

  Luke grunted in frustration and moved around the edges of the barrier. Maybe he could get around it. He walked to the left and stopped where the barrier touched the edges of the wall. The lord’s magic didn’t match up perfectly to the corrugated texture of the wall and left gaps. That should be enough to let sound pass through. He opened his breath to announce his presence, but was distracted by a faint voice. His Perception stat of twelve plus the additional eight from his class buff allowed him to hear the conversation inside.

  They were speaking in elvish, but at this point, Luke didn’t need his cell phone to translate. His Memory stat of twelve had helped him absorb the language. After months of listening to the language and its translation, he was basically fluent.

  “I don’t think you understand how a bribe works,” Lord Edobar said. “What did I pay you for if not to advance?”

  “Trust me, your facilitation payments have not been wasted. You will still be raised to Baron in one month during the next shuffle,” an unknown voice said. It wasn’t Atticus.

  “Then why do you want me to lose the Malamon?”

  “A shrewd royal such as yourself surely understands the complex web that politics weaves. Your money has allowed me to make deals throughout the Empire, including ones in strange places. One of those strange deals was with Marchioness Notayo. She has no love for your faction, but she does love her goddaughter Imalele. Little Ima is out there now, one of the sacrifices if your staff wins the Malamon. But if you arrange a loss, then she will be your sixth vote. One little loss and a month later you advance to Baron.”

  “You understand what you are asking of me, don’t you? If the Indomitable discovers I am not doing my best, the loss in glory would be immense.”

  “Then don’t allow yourself to be discovered. You are platinum, are you not? Surely someone as great as you can easily arrange a loss.”

  “Fine. I will arrange it. But first, tell me of the other five votes.”

  Luke didn’t wait to hear the rest of the conversation. He stepped back, shocked. Edobar was going to let his staff get sacrificed so he could get a promotion. Kruro, Cormac, Izekor, everyone was going to be sacrificed in the name of his ambition. Hell no. Luke wasn’t going to let that happen.

  First things first. Luke hurried out of the room so he wouldn’t be caught eavesdropping. Shepard shouted insults at him as he came out, but Luke ignored them. He had to come up with a new plan to save his friends.

  Today’s chapter title comes from Demolition Man (1993)

  Do you know how to use the three seashells?