The cloud of silvery snowflakes was gone now. Luke could easily see the high leveled elvish lords as they battled to the death. They were almost moving faster than he could track. They fought back and forth, sometimes leaping fifty feet in a single jump. Every time one of them got a good hit in, thunder rolled across the arena.

  Edobar was covered head to toe in conjured silver, sharp edges and angles everywhere. His summoned metal armor was dented in several places, but was slowly healing itself. He was holding a long spear with a brightly glowing spearhead. Wisps of smoke curled up from the tip. He sent it towards Momoh with dozens of quick jabs, like a sewing needle. He fought like an acrobat, jumping up through the air to attack from unique angles. Every so often he would create a foot wide silver snowflake and send it spinning towards the other lord like a buzzsaw.

  Momoh was a much more grounded fighter, standing still and using his sword and mace to parry and riposte. His formerly pristine armor was covered with red and green blood and tiny bits of black chitin. A carpet of black beetles covered the ground with more appearing every second. Some insects appeared mid-air, just in the right spots to deflect the silver buzzsaws. That must be his Insect Aura.

  Luke slowed as he drew closer. He wasn’t sure if he could help. They were both moving so fast. He doubted Edobar would stay still long enough for any of his magnet spells to reach him, let alone break through his armor. He wanted to summon another vehicle, the JLTV would be perfect for this, its machine gun would make more than a dent on the lord’s silver armor. But he only had seven points of mana, not enough to use the skill.

  Neither of them had noticed him arriving yet, too absorbed with each other. Luke decided to risk an attack, even if it wouldn’t do much. Since Momoh only moved when he had to, there was little risk of hitting his partner.

  He kept jogging closer, waiting for a time when Edobar’s back was turned. Five lightning fast exchanges later, his moment came. The spear wielding lord pressed his attack with a dozen strikes in three seconds, finally stationary for long enough for Luke to attack.

  He fired his acid bolts, the only thing he thought might have a chance at eating through the lord’s defenses. Three bolts were in the air before the first hit. The first shot splashed across his back, covering a few feet of spiky silver. The second and third shots never arrived. A pair of metal snowflakes appeared in the air and the spells detonated prematurely.

  Edobar’s armor started smoking, the acid eating into the silver aggressively. The elf shook his shoulders and the back portion of his armor sloughed off and a new section appeared in its place. It was like Luke hadn’t done anything.

  “Wait your turn, Luke of Machines. I’ll get to you momentarily,” Edobar said dismissively, not even turning around.

  Momoh smiled when he saw Luke over Edobar’s shoulder. He gestured and a swarm of insects appeared, surrounding the silver clad elf on all sides. Spikes shot out of his armor and spun, turning the air around himself into a blender and negating the attack. Momoh used the distraction to disengage and dashed over to Luke, standing right behind him.

  “Well done. Hold him off for ten seconds,” Momoh said, his breath ragged. He sat down heavily and closed his eyes. The beetles across the arena disappeared, turning into a puff of mana that quickly disappeared.

  Luke wasn’t sure if he could do that. The gulf between them was too great. They might both be Platinum classers, but one was level sixteen, and the other forty-eight. Still, it looked like Momoh was betting his life on Luke being able to fend off Edobar. He started counting down in his head.

  Ten seconds.

  Edobar blasted forward, covering the sixty feet between them in a blur. His blazing hot spear led the way, aimed at Luke’s heart.

  Acuity flared and time slowed down. He was laser focused on the spear as it crept closer. Luke twisted and pushed himself out of the way. Muscles strained and he saw his body move inch by inch. It wasn’t going to be enough.

  Luke threw everything he had into avoiding the burning death headed his way. He fired acid, lightning, ice, everything but fireballs since the elf was already too close. Spells formed and magnets blasted forward, but the projectiles weren’t going to hit before he was skewered. Luke pushed mana into Machine Bond, willing his mech to move faster with every fiber of his being.

  To their mutual surprise, it worked. Eodbar’s incendiary spearhead scraped across his breastplate, but didn’t penetrate. As the spear drew back, Luke could see the elf’s eyes widen behind the narrow eyeslits in his makeshift armor. Then the spells hit, one after another.

  The ice did less than nothing, the small lightning spell was enough to make Edobar twitch slightly, but that was it. The acid spell splashed across his chestplate, but Edobar ignored it eating into his armor. He could replace his armor before the acid got to him.

  He lunged forward again, and Luke moved aside again, gaining a deeper cut across his breastplate. This one took out his cell phone, sending shards of burning electronics flying. Luke kept firing spells at the elf, aiming for his face this time. None of them hit since he just ducked below the spells.

  Eight seconds.

  Edobar tried to spear him a few more times before giving up and stepping back. “How are you doing that? You can’t be that fast, even with your buff.”

  Luke was all too happy to talk it out. “Good question. It’s actually an interesting answer. You see-”

  He was cut off by a dozen impacts from behind. The elf hadn’t been pausing the fight, he was distracting him while he set up an attack. Machine Bond let him know he had been hit by several spinning blades. A few had been deflected by the tough Rock Beetle chitin. Others cut deep. His left gauntlet was cut off at the wrist, just below his actual hand. His back was perforated several times. Mark V armor had ablative armor, several layers saving him from injury. It wasn’t a perfect defense though. One of the silver snowflake blades had made it through both layers and sliced deep into his right shoulder blade.

  Five seconds.

  Luke cried out in pain and his right arm fell to his side. He couldn’t lift it again, his tendons must have been cut. Edobar paused slightly to see if that had been enough to kill him. The elvish lord was clearly trying to use the minimum amount of effort to get the job done.

  He was going to regret that. Luke roared and leapt forwards, using the blast boots to cover the distance in an instant. Edobar was surprised, but still managed to get his weapon up.

  The burning spearhead pierced through Luke’s left side, just below his lungs. It was like a hot poker and Luke felt every moment of it through the slowed down time of Acuity. He pushed himself forwards, sliding along the spear to get close to the silver clad fighter.

  Three seconds.

  Luke placed his gauntless hand up against Edobar’s chest and fired a Phantom Shot. The elf tried to jerk away, but didn’t want to abandon his spear in Luke’s gut. The insubstantial slug phased through his armor and into his stomach. He cried out in pain and let go of the spear. Luke fired off two more phantom slugs, emptying his mana.

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  Edobar yelled something in elvish Luke hadn’t learned yet. His cell phone couldn’t translate, but the elf’s next actions made it clear. A torrent of silver snowflakes shot towards him, an entire storm of blades flying at his face.

  Luke threw up his hands and he was blasted off his feet by the sheer volume of impacts hitting his armor. He grunted in pain as the spear tip hit the dirt and the spear twisted in his gut as he fell.

  A moment later he was on the ground and unable to move. The hundreds of blades had shattered joints and cut pistons. Shallow wounds covered his arms and legs. He couldn’t bail out of his mech because everything was pinned shut.

  Edobar dashed forward and grabbed the spear and yanked it out of Luke’s gut. He aimed the still glowing speartip at Luke’s head.

  An instant later, a scintillating brown ray of magic flashed and hit Edobar in his chest. He was knocked off his feet and out of view. The ray was accompanied with an eldritch screech that made Luke’s teeth hurt. A few seconds later, the magic stopped.

  A sudden silence descended on the arena. His breathing was loud in his ears. He still couldn’t move.

  “Is he dead?” Luke asked, hopeful that it was his ally that answered, not a spear to the face.

  The System of the World gave the answer first. It flooded him with notifications, indicating that the battle was over. The silver blades embedded in his mech dissipated into motes of mana.

  ...

  Luke swore, long and slow. That had been close. He had almost died so many times just now. And his Mark V armor was toast. At least he had gotten a lot of level ups from the fight.

  Great progress on three of his four skills, something that would normally take weeks or months. It was a bit confusing that he had leveled up so much with Phantom Shot. It went from six to twelve all in one go. He had thought that skill level ups came from understanding the skill and stretching it. But clearly he had done something special just now. Maybe it had rewarded him for using the skill perfectly, to bypass armor in a life and death battle.

  Before he could think too much on the implications of this for the future, Luke was interrupted by another system popup.

  Hell yeah. Third threshold already. He couldn’t wait to see what his buff would be after the Ascension. And new skill choices were calling his name. He couldn’t wait to see what he was offered.

  Sadly, he had to select ‘No’ on the pop-up. He didn’t have sacrifices ready. He needed an appropriate mana core and enchanted object. Maybe even an artifact, he wasn’t sure. Everything he had heard said that a System created artifact wouldn’t be needed at this level, but he had already seen how platinum classes were different from the other classes.

  Regardless, right now he needed to figure out how to get out of the perforated remains of his black and red Mark V power armor. After the silver snowflakes had disappeared, he could move again. That didn’t mean it was easy. He was bleeding from dozens of wounds. His gut wound was radiating pain in waves with his heartbeat. His right arm hung limp by his side and he couldn't feel it at all. He was starting to feel faint from blood loss. He would be in trouble if he didn’t have at least one of his healing potions still intact.

  Luke flopped his left arm over and unlatched his chestplate. He pulled, gently at first and then harder. It groaned in protest and popped open. Then he pulled his arms in and pushed himself out, like he was his mech’s chestburster xenomorph.

  His hands trembled as he opened up his left waist compartment. Only shattered glass in there. Climbing over the mech to the right side was too much for him, so he walked around. The right side was blessedly intact. He pulled out the small potion bottle and downed the entire thing in one go. He felt the magic slide down his throat and absorb into his gaping gut wound. The pain lessened and his bleeding slowed.

  Now that he wasn’t in eminent danger of dying, he surveyed the arena. Cormac and the rest of Edobar’s retinue were all kneeling on the ground, holding their heads and moaning in pain. There must have been some backlash from the object of their oaths dying. The people who had come to challenge the estate staff were standing nearby awkwardly, unsure what this would mean for them. Momoh’s people were standing at the edge of the arena, just outside the magic dome the Indomitable had erected. They were all cheering their hearts out as Momoh stood before them with his arms wide, basking in the glory.

  He hadn’t even spared Luke a glance. Asshole. Luke had just risked his life for the elvish lord, the least he could do would be to check on his partner.

  Vanessa and the rest of the Monster Jaegers were standing at the edge of the barrier as well. It looked like they had been in a fight. Cracked armor, scuffed visors, a slight limp. Jinx was there too, sitting on Sandwich’s wide shoulders, licking her paw. Luke blinked slowly. He had left his cat on Earth. How did she get here?

  The Indomitable floated down from the top of the arena, standing atop one of his barriers. He dismissed the dome as he landed. He walked over to the dry and withered corpse of Edobar. He reverently extracted the medallion, careful not to disturb the body. The divine object was glowing brightly now, a pure white that didn’t hurt the eyes.

  He walked over to Momoh, giving Luke a respectful nod as he passed.

  Luke returned the gesture and followed him over. Slowly.

  The Indomitable cleared his throat and loudly said, “Lord Momoh Evbusogie, by the power invested in me by the Triumvirate, I declare you the winner of this duel. You have fought well and earned your glory fairly. Half of Lord Edobar Falodun’s capital and holdings are now yours. The remaining half will be returned to the empire to help train up another lord. Lord Momoh, do you have a worthy successor in mind to rule over the Bona Urbo estate until the next shuffle?”

  “I do. My nephew, Imohi Minoho, is an honest man with glory outstripping his fellows. He will make a fine ruler until the shuffle in a month.”

  “It is so decreed. Imohi Minoho, you are a temporary lord. Serve well and the shuffle may make you permanent," the muscly elf said and stepped away.

  The challenger’s representative, Advocate Onioni, raised his bejeweled hand and said, “Finger of the Gods, Arbiter of Life, and Indomitable. May we please have a ruling on the fate of the challengers? Today’s events did not go their way through no fault of their own.”

  “Are you suggesting we hold the Malamon anyway?”