Luke came barrelling forward, aimed at Hawk. The gruff and muscled elf got over his shock at losing access to his magic just in time to see Luke bounding forward, his shoulder lowered to crash into him.

  Hawk reacted immediately, dipping to the left to avoid the charge. Luke planted his lead foot and pivoted, bringing his Ice Sledgehammer around with as much force as he could muster. He swept the hammer horizontally so he couldn’t dodge to the side. Hawk dropped to the floor instead.

  Luke aborted his strike and aimed his hammer straight down. Hawk held his hand up and closed it into a fist. A steel bar appeared in his fist an instant before the hammer hit. The hammerhead hit his closed fist and bounced off. Luke felt like he had hit the metal floor. Hawk pulled himself up, using the fist that was hanging in midair.

  With a growl, Luke moved in closer. Hawk still had access to his magic as long as it was within his closed fist. That meant he had immovable rods whenever he wanted, and all the physics defying nonsense that came with that.

  Instead of standing all the way up, Hawk pulled himself forward. He slid low and kicked out at Luke with both feet, like he was jumping sideways. Luke turned his left knee just enough that his boots would deflect off to the side.

  Hawk took the miss in stride and pulled himself out of range again and hopped up. Luke kept coming forward swinging his hammer one handed now, with his left hand. Hawk held up a hand again, positioning it right in front of the hammerhead.

  Luke shifted his attention to his right hand instead. The plasma shot had been charged for a few seconds and it was time to test it out. He thrust his hand forward as close as he could get it and fired. A tightly contained burst of superheated matter burst forward as fast as a bullet. The shot lost containment as soon as it passed out of his gauntlet barrel, turning into a rapidly expanding cloud of blazing gas. The air caught fire and the whole mess hit Hawk on his right hip, badly burning the armor and skin below it.

  Hawk howled in pain and stumbled back. He couldn’t put much weight on his right leg anymore. Instead he created another immovable rod, pulled himself to the right, and spun around a pillar. Luke followed with a grin. He swung his hammer again, aiming for just below the immovable rod Hawk was holding onto. At the last moment, Hawk let go and grabbed the hammer shaft. Luke grunted as the hammer suddenly stopped.

  The immovable skill worked on other things, not just his own creations. Luke let go of the hammer and slammed his left fist into the elf’s belly. The muscular elf grunted in pain from the hit, but Luke wasn’t done. He fired a lightning ball point blank. The spell hit him and made him twitch slightly. Ewaen’s Lockdown skill prevented the spell from delivering its full power.

  Hawk counterattacked by swinging Luke’s own hammer back at him, the sledgehammer slamming into his chest plate and cracking it. Luke reached for the hammer, but Hawk threw it away. It spun through the air and off the arena.

  Luke grunted in frustration and grabbed the man’s shoulders. He pulled himself down, slamming the crown of his helmet into his nose, breaking it.

  Hawk didn’t defend in time because he was making his own attack. While Luke was distracted, he had created a punch knife and slammed it up into Luke’s left armpit. His mech suit was weakest there for mobility reasons and the summoned knife made it through. The small knife pierced deeply enough to nick an artery and partially paralyze his arm.

  Both of them swore in their native languages and stumbled back a bit. Luke clamped down on his left arm with his right, trying to keep himself from losing too much blood. That was a bad hit. He had to put pressure on it or he could bleed out. Hawk’s hip was injured and his nose broken, but he was grinning.

  He created a quick series of rods leading up, like he was climbing an invisible ladder. Every time he opened his hand, the rod would fall to the floor, but then he just created a new one. He was trying to escape and wait for Luke to bleed out.

  “Where do you think you are going?” Luke growled.

  He ran to the left and used a low wall to parkour up and then leapt straight for where Hawk was hanging midair. Acuity flexed and time slowed down. Luke was able to watch the exact moment where Hawk realized that he wasn’t high enough.

  The elf had assumed that twenty-five feet into the air would be high enough, but he hadn’t accounted for all of Luke’s advantages. In addition to his enhanced strength and class buff that more than doubled that strength, his power armor added height to the jump as well. Hawk’s eyes were just starting to widen in shock when Luke reached him.

  Acuity helped him time his kick just right and he whipped the tip of his metal boot into Hawk’s chin. The elf’s head whipped back and he immediately started falling. Hawk dropped to the ground and bonelessly bounced. Luke stumbled a bit when he landed, but quickly raced over to Hawk. Hopefully he hadn’t just killed the man.

  His breathing was shallow, but he was still alive.

  The best thing for both of them would be to end the match so the healers could come in. Luke spun and raced over to the north end of the arena. A buzzing and screeching sound was accompanied by a loud crack. He rounded the corner to see the dwarf called Harm pummeling Ewaen.

  Her skill must have been slipping. Harm had a slowly building exosuit of ice, one that was lending weight and length to his surgical strikes. Ewaen was bloodied and beaten and Harm had pushed her up against the northern edge of the arena.

  She smiled when she saw Luke running up and held out her hand. When Harm turned to see Luke coming, she dropped the hand. That was the signal that they had arranged before the fight. She was dropping Lockdown.

  Luke immediately fired off a pair of Vortex Doors. He was grateful for the precision practice from his train so he could use the skill without his arms. He jumped high and came down hard, right though the portal in front of him. He came out the other side of the portal directly in front of Harm with both feet extended. Luke hit the dwarf with his entire weight, right in the chest. It was enough to knock Harm back a half dozen feet.

  He stopped right on the edge of the arena, using his ice powers to lock himself in place. He laughed and leaned forward again, spewing a deadly cold mist from both hands.

  Ewaen appeared at his side and slammed her fist into his head. “Don’t forget about me, little one.”

  Harm shouted in frustration as he plummeted off the edge of the arena. The crowd erupted in deafening cheers, stomping and shouting with joy. Apparently, most of them had bet their glory on Luke and Ewaen this time.

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  Nice. Another level up. This arena fighting was perfect for training his skills. Maybe he would see if he could get into the singles tourney tomorrow.

  Another pleasant surprise hit him right afterwards.

  That meant he had hit level twenty-four after that fight. New skill choices and more class buffs awaited him. Everyone said that level twenty-four was special, so he suspected that meant something different and new as well. He selected to hold off on the level up now, but it was the first thing he would be doing once he got back to the apartment.

  “You’re bleeding quite a bit there. Did you run out of potions?” Ewaen said casually as she put away her own healing potion.

  “I didn’t bring one,” Luke said with an ill advised shrug.

  A healer ran up as he was groaning in pain. The man touched Luke’s shoulder and a dozen tiny white spiders appeared there. They scurried around his shoulder and then squirmed into his armpit. He could feel the healing magic start knitting him back together from the inside out. It didn’t take long before he was fully healed.

  The healer bowed and said, “Thank you for the honor of healing your glorious self. A good suggestion would be to eat and drink more than normal to restore yourself after that blood loss.”

  Ewaen chuckled, “He must think you're human royalty. Your glory is blinding.”

  “I don’t have a glory sense, but I very much doubt that. You are a Baroness, I’m sure your glory outstrips my own.”

  “Perhaps. It is gouache to precisely measure it. But on that subject, how will we divide the winnings from the tournament? I understand I only joined the final round, but I hope you can understand that my assistance was invaluable.”

  “I couldn’t have done it without you. What did we win anyway? I never bothered to find out.”

  “You don’t even know what you risked your life for?”

  “I didn’t risk my life for the treasure. I wanted to fight in a tourney, and this was the only one going on today. I already got what I wanted.”

  Ewaen stared at him and slowly blinked. “Of course you did. No wonder your glory is obscenely bright.” She slashed her hands down lazily. “Whatever. The two rewards are a trophy artifact and a bracelet artifact. May I please have the bracelet?”

  Luke considered it briefly. The bracelet was clearly the better of the two rewards, otherwise she wouldn’t be asking for it. On the other hand, he already had a bunch of artifacts back at the apartment. The idea of getting a trophy after winning an alien tournament really tickled his fancy. “Sure. You can have the bracelet. I’ve always wanted a trophy for my wall anyway.”

  “The trophy isn’t for display. You’ll see,” Ewaen said and pointed forward.

  The two of them stepped off the elevator on the top floor and strode towards the edge of the observation deck. A semitransparent platform stretched out past the deck now, and two artifacts hovered over the edge, a glittering purple bracelet, and a spiked orb, like the head of a war mace.

  Countess Notayo stood nearby, adjusting her metal robes and hair. Viscount Osifo was intently arguing with her, his hands gesticulating wildly. As Luke and Ewaen walked up, Osifo turned and pointed at her.

  “Baroness Ewaen, please tell me you are taking the trophy. We cannot allow it to touch the human’s hands.”

  She smiled and said nothing.

  Luke put his hands on his hips. “What is your problem with me? You saw I won fair and square. Just give it up, man. You are embarrassing yourself.”

  Osifo’s face turned bright red. “This isn’t about me. This is about you. I asked around when I saw your first round. You have sworn an oath to no one. You cannot be allowed to touch the trophy, it will be a loss to us all.”

  That was actually kind of a funny subject. He had sworn an oath to SPEAR, but then used mana manipulation to break it stealthily. As far as humans were concerned, he did have an oath. But as far as these elves were concerned, SPEAR didn’t exist. So he was back around to admitting that he didn’t have an oath.

  “What does that have to do with anything? So what if I don’t have an oath?” Luke fired back.

  “This is the problem.” Osifo said and pointed. “These young races don’t know the dangers they are stumbling into. You never should have allowed him to compete, Countess Notayo.”

  The countess sniffed imperiously. She slowly said, “And yet I did. Luke of Machines has defeated his competition and may choose any reward he wishes.” She turned to Luke and said, “To answer your earlier question, oaths are a conduit for glory. When you accomplish something great, a portion of your glory is threaded up through that oath to strengthen the Empire. Viscount Osifo is so concerned because this artifact is a trophy called the Well of Acclaim. The reward is to touch the well, not to keep it. When you touch it, you will absorb the glory the artifact has collected over the last month. Since you do not have an oath, none of that glory will be reabsorbed into the Empire.”

  “Exactly,” Osifo said and pointed at her.

  She rolled her eyes at the interruption. “Anyway. It would be best for the Empire if you do not touch the Well of Acclaim. Baroness Ewaen would be a better choice. The other prize you may choose is the Bracelet of Fitness. It allows you to mould your body into a state of fitness without the months of work usually required. It is very valuable so you may sell it if you don’t want it for yourself. But again, you have won and may choose either reward.”

  Ewaen bit her lip and turned away. She didn’t want to influence his decision. Luke understood why she wanted it now. She was voluptuous and sexy in his mind, so that meant she was probably chubby according to the elves.

  Luke’s decision was to either make her happy and get a bunch of a resource he couldn’t even sense, or to take a bracelet he had no use for, but could sell for a lot of money. The second option seemed like the better of the two. He had no reason to make her happy, he might not even see her again.

  Then again, he had already agreed to give her the bracelet. And she was the boss of the three lords around his portal. Maybe if he made her happy, she would give him more concessions than he could normally get from the three lords separately.

  Another factor was the glory. If he could get a bunch of it and sacrifice all of it during his next threshold ascension, he could test his theory that more glory was better. Maybe only a little bit of glory was needed for the ascension, but maybe not.

  “I think you are worried for no reason, Osifo,” Luke said as he walked out along the semitransparent bridge above the crowd. They started cheering when they saw him. “I’m not taking the Well of Acclaim.” He reached out and touched it. “Like you said, the reward was only touching it, not taking it. Next month’s glory will go to the Empire as usual.”

  This time he thought he felt something. He wasn’t sure if it was the artifact’s magic he was feeling or if he was starting to get a glory sense. He motioned at the hovering bracelet nearby. Ewaen’s eyes lit up and she hurried over and claimed it.

  She slipped it on her wrist and gave Luke a serious nod. “Thank you. I knew you were an interesting human.”

  Luke nodded back at her and they walked back to the observation deck together. The countess seemed resigned and waved them away. Osifo was irate and clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

  They kept walking without engaging with him. Luke was sure that the jerk would hold a grudge, but he hoped that aligning himself with Ewaen would offset that danger. He couldn't bring himself to care about the politics of the situation though. He had hit level twenty-four. He couldn’t wait to get back to the apartment and pass his threshold.