Luke watched as the Apex Troll slammed its hands down. At the last moment, Shepard rolled out of the way, as if he had eyes on the back of his head. The impact shook the ground and sent stone shards flying.

  Mildly disappointed, Luke continued his attack. He had known that Shepard had Tremorsense, the man could literally feel the monsters coming up behind himself. He had hoped that the threat in front of him would distract him, but that clearly wasn’t the case.

  On the plus side, Luke could go all out with his overlarge fireballs. He started firing them at the troll, one after another. The ten foot wide fireballs hit the monster in its legs, blasting layers of troll units off the main body. Tiny troll parts turned to ash and flaked off, like burnt skin sloughing off. The Apex Troll shrunk from twenty feet down to fifteen.

  It was a nice side benefit. Luke had been aiming towards Shepard, only angling the fireballs away so he couldn’t trigger Retribution. The resulting explosions washed over Shepard and eventually knocked him down. He rolled to his feet, mostly unharmed under his layers of armor. Atticus hadn’t skimped out on the quality of the power armor he had given him.

  The fireballs had singed his visor and scorch marks obscured his vision. Excellent. While Shepard fumbled with his visor, Luke pushed mana into Summon Vehicle and created a Switchblade. He pushed a Machine Soul into the summons and sent the explosive drone rocketing into the sky.

  The Rust Drake hadn’t been idle while Luke was bombarding the other two combatants. Just after Shepard flipped up his visor, it unleashed a storm of rust shards. The charged up attack filled the air with a wide cloud of foot long magic projectiles.

  Luke saw the attack out of the corner of his eyes and leapt high into the air. He tucked his legs up to his chest at the apex of his jump and watched most of the shards fly by underneath him. One shard hit his upper arm and deflected away. Luckily, that part was monster chitin and the rust magic failed to take hold. Shepard and the troll were hit several times each. The troll ignored the projectiles piercing deep into its body, but Shepard panicked. He had been hit on his helmet, his left arm and his left leg.

  Even as Luke fell to the ground once more, he saw rust spreading across the other set of power armor. It was blooming out like a sped-up video of moss growing. Shepard ripped off his helmet and threw it away, then reached over and ripped off his stainless steel pauldron. His suit had been built with layers of armor, so his shoulder was still covered. The same thing happened with his leg, the affected panel was ripped off, but his armor was still functional underneath.

  Luke landed and stumbled. Machine Bond told him that his right shin connector had buckled. He looked down to see rust spreading across the surface. He hadn’t escaped the magic attack after all. He tried to do the same trick that Shepard had pulled off, but his armor wasn’t easy to disassemble like his enemy’s.

  While he was scraping his fingers across the shin and ankle joint, the Apex Troll slammed his hands down again. This time Shepard didn’t stick around, instead he flashed brighter and a gust of wind shot him forward. A second blast of wind turned him slightly, angling him towards Luke.

  Luke retaliated with a dozen small spells aimed at his head. Lightning and ice might be easy to shrug off when they hit his armor, but he bet that Shepard would have trouble if either spell hit his exposed skin.

  Shepard’s eyes widened and he ducked into a somersault, just barely avoiding the lines of fire. He rolled to his feet and lunged at Luke, his arms wide like he wanted to tackle him.

  Luke snatched the ice hammer off his hip and held it out in front of him. Would Retribution work if he ran into the glowing white hammerhead himself?

  He didn’t get an answer to that question because Shepard twisted his torso to the side, avoiding the hammer by inches. Then he hit Luke in the chest with a flying shoulder tackle. Luke didn’t budge.

  When a nine feet tall, three hundred pound mech hit a twelve feet tall, one ton mech, the result was a forgone conclusion. Luke chuckled as Shepard strained. He swung his gauntlet around, and aimed it at the man’s exposed head. As if sensing the attack coming, Shepard ducked down and slipped around behind Luke and gripped him firmly. There was the sound of screeching metal as the fingers dug in.

  Machine Bond told Luke that the only dents were on Shepard’s gauntlets. His own mech was pristine. Well, aside from the extensive lightning damage on his left arm and the creeping rust climbing up his right foot. Luke reached back to grab Shepard and yank him off, wary of an attack from the rear.

  His fear was realized as he started moving. Lightning coursed through his mech, rolling through him in waves. It was weaker than the first few attacks, Shepard must be low on divine power. It was still enough to lock him in place briefly.

  The timing of the stun must have been planned because in that brief window, Luke was hit in the legs, chest, and helmet, a sharp staccato of rust shard impacts. He looked down and cursed. He should’ve known the drake would keep attacking. With this many impacts, he wouldn’t have a working mech in less than thirty seconds.

  The first rust spot on his right leg progressed enough for his metal boot to buckle. Luke stumbled and then fell to his hands and knees. Shepard let go and took a few steps back. He unlimbered the spell rifle strapped to his side and aimed it at Luke’s head.

  “I was pretty sure my pop gun wasn’t going to make it through your armor. But it doesn’t need to anymore, does it? I just have to wait a second and you’ll open right up for me, won’t you?”

  Luke didn’t respond and looked up to check the position of the other two monsters. The Apex Troll had finished reforming from the fireballs and was stomping this way, warier than before. The Rust Drake had finally stopped throwing rust shards at them and was galloping towards them on all eight legs. They would likely arrive at the same time. Further north, the two elvish lords were fighting inside a cloud of sliver, with the occasional sound of thunder from heavy impacts. Perfect. Luke had time, he could stall for a bit.

  “You don’t have to do this, Shepard. You don’t really want to murder me, do you?”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “It’s not murder, it’s combat.” Shepard said. He glanced up to the monsters heading their way and took a step back. “I gotta admit. It feels different than I thought it would. The rush, it hits you behind the eyes. But my stomach hurts too. I was hoping that would go away.”

  As Shepard talked, Luke’s armor continued to degrade. His helmet had a hole in it, his chestplate was hanging open, his left knee was gone. It wouldn’t be long before he was exposed. The monsters were getting closer. He had been hoping to do this when they were all closer, but this would have to do.

  Luke activated Repair Craft and jumped up. He bolted towards Shepard, who fired his spell rifle at him as he ran up. The firebolt flattened itself on Luke’s armor, leaving a scorch mark but not even cracking the chestplate. He was in melee range before Shepard could fire again.

  Like a baseball player sliding into home, Luke slid into Shepard. He punched forward with both hands at the same time, aiming for Shepard’s knee joints. His left punch was blasted back by Retribution. The right punch connected. They had used Luke’s sabotaged mech designs, so the knee joint shattered with a single hit. He smiled as he got back up and started running away from Shepard.

  With a mental command, Luke sent his Switchblade plummeting from the sky. He ran directly towards the Apex Troll, who was only a few steps away now.

  Shepard reflexively fired his spell rifle, leaving more scorch marks on the stone beetle armor. He yelled in frustration and started charging up a lightning attack. Electricity danced across his armor, growing stronger and stronger as he poured his life force into the attack.

  Acuity flowed through Luke’s mind, giving him a half dozen seconds of bullet time. It was more than enough. Luke pushed his Dexterity to the limit and bent backwards to slide under the troll’s upraised leg. The monster was a second too late to stomp him flat. Luke grabbed onto the troll’s back and held tight. Metal fingers were easily able to dig between each troll unit. The troll roared and turned its head completely around. Its elbows inverted and fingers turned, ready to grab the unwanted passenger.

  An instant later, the Switchblade hit. Luke had his eyes screwed shut, but he still saw the bright flash of white from the explosion. As he expected it was twice as bright as normal. Shepard must have used Retribution when he sensed something hurling towards him from above. The summoned drone’s explosion was reflected back on itself. But since his attacker was touching him, that meant twice as much power directly atop Shepard. Even fifty feet away, the front half of the Apex Troll was vaporized.

  The explosion sent an echoing thunder across the wide arena, enough to light up the protective runes around the arena and briefly interrupt the fight between the lords. The field of silver snowflakes parted and they both glanced back to see what had made that booming sound. Then they went back to fighting, kicking off their own thunder with the impacts.

  The dust cleared, revealing a wide crater in the solid stone. The center of the new rock formation was empty, but bits of armor started plunking down from the sky. The remains of Shepard’s chestplate clattered to the ground a hundred feet away, twisted and warped.

  Luke had been knocked to the ground with the explosion and rolled to his feet to see the Apex Troll had reformed, only much smaller. It was only five feet tall now, less than half the size of Luke’s fully repaired mech.

  Almost contemptuously, Luke fired a pair of acid bolts into the monster’s body. The acid splattered and sizzled, seeping deep into the troll. Luke put it out of his mind immediately. Even if it didn’t die immediately, it was no longer a threat.

  The real threat was barreling towards him at mach oh-shit. The eight legs of the Rust Drake churned, throwing up fragments of rock as its long claws dug in. It would be on him in seconds. It turned its head and opened its mouth wide and raised its tail for a follow up rust shard attack.

  Time slowed as Luke stared at the ten foot wide mouth and foot long jagged teeth. It was moments away from clamping down on him and crushing him within his power armor.

  Luke didn’t jump out of the way, the Rust Drake was certainly expecting that. He had jumped over its attacks again and again. It had its tail raised and poised to send a storm of rust shards at him should he attempt it.

  Instead, Luke pointed his arms forward, the limbs moving agonizingly slowly in the Acuity enhanced bullet time. With Machine Bond, he commanded his suit to unload everything. Ice bolts, lightning bolts, acid bolts, and a huge fireball. While the spells were still forming, Luke added a Phantom Shot to the mix.

  The five shots impacted the monster’s open mouth just as time sped back up again. The Rust Drake flinched as the explosions hit and Luke dropped to the ground on his back. He was treated with an up close view as its huge mouth snapped shut inches above his face.

  The drake howled in pain as it continued forward, inertia driving it forward. All eight legs stomped near Luke’s mech, only missing it by a few feet on each side. He didn’t move, suspecting that even scraping one of its scales would start spreading rust across his whole mech. He didn’t have another Repair Craft loaded up so the damage would be permanent this time.

  Moments later, he saw the clear sky once more. The drake slid to a stop somewhere out of sight with the sound of claws scraping on stone. Luke activated Summon Vehicle before he even stood up. A copy of the M10 Booker tank settled onto the ground between himself and the drake.

  A staccato of shards hit the tank’s armor a moment later. Luke grinned to himself and pushed the second of his three Machine Souls into the gray and violet tank. “Use everything you got to attack that Rust Drake!” he shouted.

  He didn’t need to say the commands out loud, but it felt good to shout. He rolled to his feet as the turret turned and started firing. A sharp crack announced the first tank shot, followed by the machine gun’s angry buzzing, like a titan sized wasp. The guns were firing nonstop, throwing up dust from the ground and peppering the Rust Drake with shots. Even without gunpowder, the sounds were deafening.

  Each cannon round put a hole in the monster’s hide, red blood pouring from the gaping wounds. The machine gun’s conjured lead mostly bounced off the monster’s natural armor, but occasionally would get through the scales and open up more wounds.

  The Rust Drake roared in pain and juked to the side and retaliated with a flurry of rust shards. Luke ducked behind the tank and the projectiles plinked harmlessly off the summoned armor. The next cannon shot missed, but the machine gun rounds continued to track the monster as it failed to evade.

  Luke added a few acid bolts to the mix, burning through the monster's natural armor to help the machine gun. The drake was staggering now, blood loss and a dozen large injuries took their toll. It would have fallen over if it didn’t have eight legs to keep it steady.

  It refused to give up despite the pond of blood forming at its feet. The drake started running towards the Booker, roaring in defiance.

  The open mouth was a perfect target. The next cannon shot went into the roof of its mouth and into the brain. Its roar cut off with a strangled whimper and collapsed to the atop the tank in a tumble of limbs. The summoned armor groaned under the weight of the apex monster. A moment later, the tank disappeared in a puff of gray and violet. The Rust Drake fell to the ground and stilled.

  When it didn’t twitch, Luke sighed with relief and checked his mana. He only had six points left now. He fired a few more acid bolts into the Rust Drake’s head to be sure it was dead. He heard the sounds of cheering in the distance as some of the spectators saw he had won. He allowed himself a victory wave and then turned and started sprinting.

  This fight wasn’t over yet. It had been a few minutes, and both lords were still alive. Momoh’s decay beam must not have worked. Luke was going to have to join the fight and tip things back in his favor.