Jase stood up with less than five minutes on the clock and began to stretch. Dressed in grey robes and a matching half-mask that covered his face, he looked a little like Kakashi from Naruto.

  He came over and we bumped fists, no words needed; we all knew what time it was. Tucker poked his head up and offered a paw. Jase chuckled, shook it, and then headed down the corridor.

  The clock ticked down to one… then zero.

  The doors slid open, and the roar of the arena slammed into the room, electric, overwhelming, the loudest sound I’d ever heard. The floor itself seemed to vibrate with the force.

  Jase stepped through without hesitation, and the doors sealed shut behind him, cutting the noise to a distant thunder. I glanced around at the other competitors; their expressions ranged from barely contained excitement to outright nerves. I sat somewhere in the middle.

  My gaze drifted to the projection screen. It switched from a clock to Jase emerging into the arena. The crowd’s roar surged again but this time through disks in the walls that served as this world’s type of speaker.

  The arena floor stretched out beneath him, an enormous expanse, easily the size of three football fields laid side by side. Smooth stone plates interlocked across the ground, broken only by scattered pillars. So the ground would be open, not much cover to speak of, I thought.

  His opponents were already there, standing at the far end of the field. Waiting for some type of signal to begin.

  Vice Guildmaster Jason stood on the floating platform with his hands clasped behind his back, robes snapping in the wind.

  His voice boomed across the arena, amplified by magic. “Competitors and spectators, your current point leader enters the field. Jase, ranked number one overall.”

  The crowd erupted again, their cheers rattling the projection screen. Jase lifted a hand and gave them a casual wave, as if this were all routine.

  I leaned forward; eyes locked on the match about to unfold.

  Jason raised one hand. “Let the match begin.”

  The projection screen went completely dark.

  Tucker’s ears perked. Uh… Riven? Did the screen malfunction?

  “I don’t think it’s a malfunction,” I murmured, leaning closer. Something about the darkness felt intentional, controlled.

  No sound. No static. Just a void coming from the screen.

  Then, the screen flashed back to life. Every opponent lay defeated across the massive arena floor.

  Not a single one was left standing.

  Tucker’s tail bristled. What, how the hell?

  I answered him mentally, “Jase has grown more than anyone realizes. He blanketed the entire arena in darkness. They never even saw him coming.”

  High above the field, Jason descended from his platform, landing amid a confused mix of cheers and boos, half the crowd celebrating, the other half unsure what had even happened.

  He raised his voice again, steady and authoritative. “Jase is the winner.”

  The arena roared, even if I suspected most of them still didn’t understand why. Multiple guild members ran into the arena and carried the other combatants out. Slowly, the door opened, and Jase walked in. He looked around, gave me and Balt a small nod, then walked to his seat and closed his eyes.

  The clock started again. But this time at fifteen-minutes. Balt stood up and walked over to us. “Well, he has gotten frighteningly strong, and what’s worse, I can’t figure out how I’m going to follow that.

  I chuckled, “Just do your best. The crowd didn’t even see what he did. If you’re a bit more flashy, you will probably have them cheering your name for days to come.”

  Balt got a pensive look on his face. Then, he summoned his staff and started moving it from side to side and whispering to himself, “Oh yeah, that could work.”

  I waved a hand in front of his face. “Heyyyyy. Tutorial in another world to Balt.”

  Nothing. He didn’t hear a word. He was deep in his own head, ignoring me completely. I looked my buddy over; he was nervous. I smirked; I had the cure for that.

  I shot Tucker a conspiratorial look. The wolf-bear let out a long, put-upon sigh, stood up, and gave Balt’s face a big, wet lick.

  Balt was jarred out of his musings as he wiped off the slobber. “Dammit, Tucker! I told you to stop doing that, my mouth was open this time.”

  Tucker rolled his eyes and flopped back down. Balt wiped his face with the sleeve of his robe. I tried to go back to encouraging him. “As I was saying, do your best and have fun. Don’t let the…”

  Balt ignored me and turned to glare at Tucker. “You know, I think Riven’s been lax with your hygiene. With that breath, you should be brushing at least four times a day from now on.”

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  I was annoyed I didn’t get to finish my thought, but I couldn’t let a prime opportunity like this to tease Tucker pass. I put a hand under my chin like I was seriously considering it. “You know, that’s not a bad idea. Dental health is very important.”

  Tucker’s head whipped back and forth in panic. “Riven told me to do it because you were spacing out! Every lick for the last few months was at his request!”

  Balt’s glare snapped to me. Lightning crackled at his fingertips. “I knew it!”

  “You damn snitch,” I hissed. “Fine. I’m telling Wren you’ve been eating too much meat and need more vegetables in your diet.”

  “You wouldn’t!”

  I smiled dangerously. “Oh, wouldn’t I?”

  Fingers were pointed. Threats were made. Then I felt a large wolf jaw clamp onto my shin.

  I yelped and bent over, grabbing Tucker in an upside-down headlock. Balt saw his opening and jumped on my back, trying to pin me down. “I knew he had been licking me too often!”

  I was just about to activate Limit Break and show these two who the real boss was around here when a grey body shoved between us, breaking it up.

  It was Jase. “Damnit, knock it off, all of you. Balt, you’ve got thirty seconds left. Get in position. And Riven, look around. Everyone’s staring. You’re embarrassing us.”

  I turned my head. Sure enough, the entire room was watching us as if we’d lost our minds. I gave an awkward wave. To my surprise, a few people waved back, smiling. My face went hot, and me and Balt detangled ourselves, looked at one another and started to laugh.

  Balt looked at the clock counting down, and his demeanor shifted. That was Balt in a nutshell. He would worry, but when it was show time, he always rose to the occasion.

  We bumped fists. “Well, I hope you feel better. Go get ’em, partner.”

  He grinned, summoning his staff. “Oh yeah, this won’t take long at all.”

  Jase let out a long, tired breath as Balt headed down the corridor. “I swear, you three will never grow up.”

  I shrugged. “It was Tucker’s fault for being a rat instead of a wolf-bear.”

  “Keep talking, you just keep talking,” Tucker said, “and I’ll tell everyone how I peed over the curtain while you were taking a hot shower and you gargled it for three whole seconds before being able to tell it was not water.”

  “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “Oh, wouldn’t I?” The little bastard was throwing my own words back at me and I couldn’t help but feel a little proud.

  I squared up to him, and he stood ready to go again. “So it’s come to this, has it?”

  “It has.”

  I sat back down defeated and sighed. “Well played, I concede this match.”

  Tucker wore the smuggest expression imaginable as he lay back down and turned his head toward the screen. Three seconds remained on the timer. Jase took the seat beside me, and together we watched it tick down.

  The timer hit zero.

  Balt walked out the moment the doors parted, shoulders squared, staff resting across his back like he’d been born with it there.

  The projection screen flickered on, revealing the arena floor, his opponents already waiting for him. I took notice of the ones I thought he would have to worry about. A heavyset earth mage with stone?plated gauntlets.

  A wiry wind?caster whose cloak snapped even when the air was still.

  And a spear wielder in light armor, stance low and predatory. All three had their eyes locked on Balt. The rest were honestly fodder for him in my opinion, but I leaned forward in anticipation.

  High above them, Aaron raised a hand from his floating platform.

  “Begin.”

  The fight exploded instantly.

  A barrage of projectiles formed the fodder that was backing up the three I had pointed out. Stone shards, compressed air blades, and a spear of pure mana backed with arrows and mana projectiles shot toward Balt in a deadly crossfire. Balt planted his staff and conjured three shimmering shields in rapid succession, each one reinforcing the other as the strikes hit and dissipated, hardly denting even the first shield. “Alright,” he muttered, rolling his shoulders. “My turn.”

  He swung his staff in a wide arc. Orbs of lightning and raw force materialized around him, seven in total, launched outward like hunting hounds. They slammed into the seven opponents in the background, blasting them off their feet and leaving them all twitching on the ground.

  The remaining three fighters regrouped and charged.

  Balt spun his staff, gathering momentum, then slammed the butt of it into the arena floor.

  A massive wave of lightning erupted outward, rippling across the stone like a living tide. It swallowed the charging opponents whole, sending them tumbling in a crackling heap.

  Only one man remained standing, the spear?wielder, staggering but conscious.

  Balt vanished.

  A blink?step, clean, sharp, instantaneous.

  He reappeared behind the man and tapped him on the back of the head with the end of his staff.

  The fighter dropped like a sack of flour.

  For a moment, Balt just stood there, blinking at the field of unconscious bodies.

  Then the crowd erupted, cheers, whistles, applause shaking the arena.

  Balt looked around, startled, then broke into a huge grin and waved both arms enthusiastically, as if he’d just remembered he was supposed to enjoy this part.

  Me and Tucker whooped with the crowd cheering right along with them. It was a hell of a performance.

  Balt returned to us all smiles. We all high-fived, then Tucker licked his face, but this time it was with laughter and smiles. Balt slapped me on the back. “Your turn now.”

  I breathed out a calming breath and turned to the clock. I went through my breathing exercises until I felt a tap on my shoulder. After giving out fist bumps all around, I walked down the corridor.

  The doors opened, and the roar of the arena washed over me like a wave of heat. I stepped out, lifted a hand, and the crowd responded instantly, cheers rolling across the massive space as I made my way toward the center of the field.

  Wind rushed across the enormous field, the stands rising so high above me they felt carved from the horizon. It was a sight I would remember forever.

  I’d barely reached my mark when a voice cut through the noise.

  “Look at you, so proud.”

  A man stepped forward from the opposite side of the arena, dressed in flowing green robes stitched with lotus flowers that shimmered with enchantment. His expression was twisted somewhere between arrogance and fury. “Enjoy your moment, champion, because you’re courting death. I, Lee Don of the Floating Lotus Sect, will see you dead this day.”

  I stared at him for a long second. Something about his face tugged at my memory.

  “You look… kind of familiar,” I said.

  A system Identify flickered across my vision.

  “Oh,” I said, snapping my fingers. “Right. You’re that dead warlord’s son.”

  His jaw clenched so hard I could hear his teeth grind from across the arena.

  “Well,” I continued, rolling my shoulders, “best of luck trying to kill me and all… but I doubt you’ll have any more success than your dad did.”

  The crowd gasped. Lee Don’s aura flared. He looked toward the other combatants. “All of you follow me to victory as we crush this outsider!”

  I summoned Ember, resting it casually over my shoulder. “Can you do me one favor?”

  “Lee Don sneered If you're going to beg for mercy upon seeing my power, don’t bother!”

  I smirked. “Oh, it's nothing like that. I just wanted you to say hi to your father for me since you will be seeing him very soon.

  I settled into my stance and heard, “Begin!”