The Path of Ascension

Matt stood there with Aster in his arms. He looked at Liz like she was a completely different person.

He shook himself free, and walked over the smiling redhead. She had gotten the manacle off, and was examining her new spear with an air of affection.

That was the Liz he was used to. Happy and seemingly carefree.

He came up and congratulated her, “That was one hell of a fight.” He didn’t know what else to say.

She just waved him away, “Nahh. That wasn’t much. I just had to show someone that playing dirty has its consequences. That little trick with the bloodline shackle is incredibly underhanded. He’ll be spending the next few weeks unable to delve with the damage a slit throat does. Or I guess he can risk the chance of the healing not taking, if he doesn't give his body time to acclimate.”

That shocked Matt. “If that was dirty, then why didn’t the ref call the match? And why would he use it? There were so many witnesses.”

His methods didn’t make sense to Matt. If you had to do underhanded things, you didn’t advertise them, let alone carry them out in front of dozens of people.

“I don’t know. I can’t read his mind, can I? Really stupid of him. It really pissed me off in the moment, though.”

“It didn’t affect you, did it” A statement, not a question.

Liz shook her head and started walking to their hotel. “Nah, it did. But that shackle was a very limited one. Meant for impure, weaker bloodlines. I was playing it up for the crowd, but that thing only reduced my power by maybe two or three percent.”

“And the whole bringing him to his knees? How did you manage that?”

“That was his bloodline reacting to a larger, stronger predator. It instinctively protected him by submitting. He was sort of reaching out with his power at the same time, trying to flatten me. When he did that, I was sort of able to grab hold of it. Once I sunk my teeth in, he couldn't pull back or stop it. If he wasn't waving it around like a jackass, I would have never been able to do that much damage. I got a better sense of his bloodline during the duel. It’s some wolf type. That’s why I kept calling him doggie. Wolves hate that more than anything.”

Liz chewed on her lower lip before finishing, “Wouldn't have worked on a dragon bloodline, or even a pure and high Tiered wolf bloodline.”

“And that treatment won’t come back to bite us?” Matt was concerned that Damien or his father would try to get revenge. Matt didn’t think they’d be stupid enough to try while they were on The Path, but the Empire could only punish their killers, not reverse their murders.

“That bloodline skill won’t work on his father, will it?”

Liz was still smiling and walking, inspecting her spear.

“Nope! it only works around my Tier. Don’t worry. We are all under the Monster Kingdom. This is how things are done. If a weaker bloodline tries to throw its weight around without power, they get humiliated. If it wasn’t a duel, I would've had full rights to kill him, and demand resources from his father. When we get back, we’ll get a very sincerely worded apology for his actions, with gratitude for being lenient.”

She looked at him and punched his arm. “Relax. I know how far to push things. If his father does come and kill us, there’s nothing we can do. Besides, like my dad always said, if you’re gonna teach someone a lesson, make it one they’ll learn the first time.” Liz laughed, and it actually made Matt feel a little better.

It was true. There wasn’t anything a pair of Tier 4’s could do if someone above Tier 7 tried to kill them. It was a surprisingly comforting realization.

Liz immediately ruined his mood with her next words.

“Someone called my mom a broodmare once, and my dad ripped her in half in front of the entire Imperial Court.”

“That’s murder!” Then morbid curiosity got the better of him as he asked, “Umm. how did he rip her in half? Like a burger or a sub?”

Liz tittered, “More like a grilled cheese. Diagonal, shoulder to hip style. And he had to pay for her healing. Got slapped with an aggravated assault and battery charge.”

After a moment she continued “We got off topic. It’s far more likely that some of his guildmates will try and ambush us out of a rift. That, or we’ll get endless challenges while we’re in the city.”

She laughed while twirling her spear.

“This isn’t a joke, Liz. This could be trouble.”

She was taking this far too lightly for his taste.

Liz turned, and she was more serious when she addressed him. “We can’t do anything about what’s done. I’m not going to let people walk over us. And besides, this is more my area of expertise than yours. It’s all a game, to a degree. The higher Tiered people are watching after the show I put on. They might not have a bloodline to feel how strong I am, but the Tier 25 guarding this place should know what a bloodline like mine means. He’ll stop anything from going too far.”

Matt chewed on her words, and acquiesced that her logic checked out.

With a sigh, he let the worry go and asked, “What will they think your bloodline means? Seems almost...” he mulled over the word he wanted, “threatening.”

“A little, yeah. The Dual Stars are a Tier 25 guild who want to become a Tier 30 guild. That means that they’re playing politics. They have to be scheming for a position in the fight when another Tier 30 world is found. Either that, or trying to get permission for a guild war with one of the existing guilds.”

She shrugged.

“They don’t know who my parents are, but with how I crushed the idiot back there they know to be wary. Even if my parents were Tier 5 weaklings, my bloodline strength guarantees that I’ve gotten attention from higher Tiered people. Everyones always looking for marriages to improve their bloodlines, or they simply attach themselves to anyone they see as a rising star.”

That boggled Matt’s mind. She was only a few months older than him, and had been given marriage offers? All for her bloodline.

He wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or a curse. It seemed reductive to her as a person. She was more than what her bloodline could do to benefit others. He thought it might explain her stance on her independence. As long as she stayed on The Path, the Empire would protect her. If she fell off before making a point of her power, her parents might not be able to protect her.

A Tier 25 did not have any more of a chance against a Tier 30 plus than Matt or Liz had against Damien’s father.

Once again, he tried to lighten the mood. “So what, you had the other kids all following you around?”

That got the smile back, “A bit, yeah. That was more because I was always getting us into trouble.”

Matt could easily imagine a young Liz leading other kids on all sorts of fool’s errands. He had seen those types at the orphanage, and had avoided them like the plague. Now he was stuck with one.

Practice and doing what he was supposed to do hadn’t gotten him into a guild or on The Path, taking risks and stealing the skill shard had.

Taking risks had also almost gotten him killed with the rift challenge.

Ok, maybe I won’t turn into a wildcard after all.

Optimistically, Matt said to Liz,“The auction was a success I’d say. We made a lot of money. Enough that we might even be able to buy a third skill, if it’s weird enough. Two Tier 7, and 26 Tier 6 mana stones isn’t anything to scoff at.”

“Yeah, if we’re lucky, we can look at the exchange tomorrow. But we aren’t the only ones who made it big today. And other people brought outside funds. Skill for skill is the best way to trade right now.” Liz had all but crushed his dreams of buying a third skill.

They reached their suite, and decided to lay low for the evening. The recording of Liz’s fight had spread all over the LocalNet, and she already had half a dozen people challenging her.

She ignored the provocations, and the next morning, they went to a blacksmith. Liz wanted to make a modification to the spear she bought.

The blacksmith didn’t even bat an eye at the odd request to put a metal cap on the butt of the spear, with a small chamber that screwed shut.

It had barely taken him five minutes to finish, and afterwards, Matt and Liz rented out a training room for the morning.

They practiced with the bonded rings’ swapping and teleporting features. The ring took 1000 mana to swap places, with a range limitation of nearly ten feet. The base teleport was expensive, with the price scaling with the distance the rings were away from each other. Every few inches after that, the price doubled.

They wouldn’t be using the rings to do anything more than dodge to the side.

It took Matt fifty seconds to dump a thousand mana into the ring at his full output. With [Cracked Phantom Armor], [Mages Retreat], and His AI, it would take twice as long, at best.

Matt became lost in thought while considering the adjustments he would have to make after adding [Mage’s Retreat] to his arsenal. He realized that he wasn’t sure how much mana the skill could handle. From what he read, it should be able to take anything and everything he could throw at it. There were lingering doubts deep in Matt’s gut that no one had the skill, and even more about anyone wanting to trade it for [Puddle Jumper].

Breaking free of the trappings of his mind, he refocused on their training. The next limitation of the rings was their mana capacity. They could hold 2000 mana, after that, any mana over the limit was slowly bled off. Liz said that was normal for rift items.

They theoretically had unlimited storage capacity, but there was still a soft cap. Matt, with his regeneration, could get the storage to a little over 3000 before the loss was greater than 10 mana a second. That number was half of his Tier 4 Mana Regeneration under his 1% total. In other words, this was the first time he’d need to budget his mana.

[Cracked Phantom Armor] was able to handle 8 mana a second, and his AI took about two mana per second in a combat situation. If [Mages Retreat] worked like he had read, it could handle the rest of his mana throughput with no problems.

Liz assured him that both aspects would improve as they advanced the ring. When they looked up some of the common items growth items needed, the price for even Tier 5 materials made Matt sick.

Tier 5 materials should never be sold for Tier 8 mana stones.

Liz, seeing his face, just laughed. She pointed out that they wouldn’t even know which materials the ring needed until they advanced with the rings. So really, it might need exotic materials that cost far more.

She suggested they visit a proper auction hall, which would have a collection of materials the growth items usually wanted. They'd have to bring the rings close, and wait for them to react to a material. It was a common testing method to figure out what a growth item wanted at each Tier.

Even with all of the limitations, the rings were still useful items that would let them surprise their enemies.

The teleport was unlike any of the planetary ones Matt had experienced. It was smooth, and as far as they could tell, nearly instant, with no disorientation from the magic itself.

Despite his complaints, he could see how even higher Tiered teams would want a growth item. Especially if they were as powerful as the rings, or the sword they saw at the auction.

As they continued training with their weapons, Liz began absolutely wreaking havoc with her new spear. Matt found her idea of creating a place on the weapon to store some blood to be genius.

It allowed her to recall the weapon if she threw it, and that along with the bleed effect was a deadly combination. He refused to let her play target practice with him, despite her insistence that it wouldn’t hurt.

Her last spear had a reinforced, hollow core along its length. That let her fill it with blood after each blow, at the expense of a bit of mana and mental concentration.

She couldn’t risk losing the enchantment on her new spear by hollowing out the inside. The simple recall was still a potent ability, especially considering it only took five minutes of work and few Tier 4 mana stones.

Matt also bought a small crossbow, so he could add to his ranged options, at least until he got a ranged skill of his own. Liz and Aster were good, but a mundane backup was a safety net that he didn’t want to leave the city without.

He had to dedicate a lot of time in the future for practice. He could hit a stationary target at ten feet, but if the distance increased, or the target was moving, a successful hit would be through luck more than skill.

That was even with his AI helping as much as it could, with predictive tracking and wind calculations. He still had to pull the trigger, and he jerked the weapon enough that even the best AI could only get him in the general vicinity.

The skill exchange was later that evening, and Matt and Liz were in their combat clothes. Armor for Liz and his usual form fitting clothes for Matt.

The skill exchange was both a place to get new skills, and a place to show off the ones you had.

Seven arenas would be available, with both referees and healers on stand by.

The event was more dangerous than Matt had originally thought, as it took place on a massive floating platform in the neutral lake. Delvers from both the Empire and Republic would be attending.

There were various competitions of both martial arts and crafting skills. Matt figured it was essentially a dick measuring contest between Dual Stars and the faction that the Republic sent.

They arrived at a large ship docked at the wharf. The ship consisted of multiple levels of furnished platforms, with large staircases connecting each level. After their identities were verified, they climbed on board and walked to the roped-off edge. The edge was serrated, and had clamps ready to bind the platform to another.

Matt and Liz and claimed a couch, and waited for their platform ship to fill and get moving. They watched and whispered to each other about the various teams and individuals that boarded.

The guild seemed to only be admitting the strongest examples of each Tier, from the factions they had power over. As part of The Empire’s Path of Ascension, Matt and Liz were exempt from their scrutiny. They watched with muted interest as a few groups were turned away.

When the bottom level of their ship was getting crowded, the Tier 25 stepped into the air so all could see him.

“I’m not one for speeches. Tonight is a night of trade and combat. Draw from that whatever conclusions you may. Don’t deliberately kill. Any deaths will be judged by the other faction. So expect any hostile actions to be returned.”

With that, he dropped, and the ship started moving.

Matt looked to Liz, who was playing with Aster’s paws.

“That was… ugh. Brief?”

Elizabeth didn’t look away from the game with Aster, “Eh, pretty standard from what I understand. Usually, we’d get a speech that lasted far too long about everyone and their mother’s importance. I liked his comment about conclusions, though. What do you take from this?”

Matt thought it over. There was something to be said about two massive political entities interacting like this, with rules so vague.

“I think it’s a comment about how power gets you more.” He paused, and continued after settling his thoughts. “If you have power, you can take from others, but the inverse is true as well. Also, there is only justice when two people have a strong backing, or are equally powerful.”

Matt looked out at the match to their ship.

“Maybe that’s the more important point.”

Liz nodded and hummed before saying, “Not a bad answer. Better than my first Exchange. Remember this though...” Her voice changed, like she was quoting someone else. “Perceived power and actual power are nearly indistinguishable at higher Tiers. That’s why the children fight. Powers and talents are clearer, and show the future of a country”

In her normal voice, she said, “The other empires are all nearly the same size as each other. Each is so big that they don’t really need to trade resources or technology. So to keep things from becoming insular, we have the Exchanges. At these Tiers, they’re practice, and no one takes them seriously. From Tier 15 to Tier 25, the stakes get higher. New Planets can be won or lost in a single fight.”

“Also, watch your own faction as much as the enemies.” Liz pursed her lips and looked up. “Yeah I think that’s all even my parents said about these things.”

“How many have you been to? What can we expect?”

Liz shrugged. “No clue, really. I’ve only been to one as an observer. It was my brother’s first Exchange at Tier 15, so the family went to cheer him on. I was, ohh seven, I think.”

Matt gave her a flat look.

“You just enjoy sounding knowledgeable and wise.”

She beamed at him, “You’re figuring it out!”

With that, Matt accessed the LocalNet, and found more concise information. It was fairly simple in concept.

Both sides could put their Skill Shards into a shared database, and list themselves as selling or exchanging. The sellers would take cash, or another Skill they thought was more valuable. The exchange was generally reserved for more valuable skills. People would come to you with the listed price.

Seeing that, Matt listed their skill [Puddle Jumper] as an exchange for both [Create Water] and [Mages Retreat]. That settled, he was directed to deposit the skill at the Exchange desk.

While it could be done in person, Matt decided to take the anonymous route. He didn’t agree with Liz’s notion that his chosen route was cowardice. If she had placed her bids anonymously, she wouldn’t have had to deal with that idiot Damien playing games with the price. Or the subsequent fight, for that matter.

If someone decided to target them and their skill, they could purchase all the skills they wanted to screw them over. Matt refused to take the chance. He needed the power the skill would grant him, and so did Liz.

As he sat back down, he observed the two approaching platforms. The three levels of the individual boats were rectangles that would come together and make a square. Inside was a six layer box with a cylinder from top to bottom.

The cylinder was where the arenas were. It gave everyone who watched an excellent view of the fights. Seven arenas were arranged in a heptagon, with the top arena bisected. It truly did look grand.

As the sides neared, Matt saw the faces of The Republican cultivators watching and observing The Empire.

He saw some with hands on weapons, seemingly ready to jump into action at a moment's notice. Others seemed more calculating, and Matt saw the flash of a few unknown spells.

When the ships touched, and the snapping of clamps locking into place quieted, Driver, the Tier 25, stepped onto a see-through platform over the center of the fighting circle. A woman in a robe mirrored his actions, and their sitting down singled both sides to break out in a clamor.

Liz looked to him and asked, “who do you think will get challenged first? I’m thinking some dumbass will challenge you because they saw my smackdown yesterday.”

Matt thought over the odds and chances and said, “That’s likely sure, but you made a large enough impression that someone might want to beat you to earn their fame.”

They got up, and moved to a newly placed standing table, each snagging a drink from a passing waiter.

They had a decent view of the arenas as they sipped. The show started quickly.

Someone in Dual Stars colors jumped into one of the circles and shouted, “I am Yan of the Dual Stars, Tier 5. I welcome any challengers brave enough to step up.” He kept his eyes locked firmly on the Republic side, his intentions clear.

His provocation worked, as five people jumped down.

Matt looked up to the platform with the Tier 25’s. They weren’t even looking down, just sipping their drinks quietly. Were they not worried about this escalating into an incident?

The fight was already starting when Matt looked back down. Before he could get a good look, Liz just huffed and pulled him away from the table.

“Where are we going? I thought we wanted to fight.”

“Pshhh, it’s just going to be weak fools who think they’re the best fighting now. The Dual Stars played their hand well. Now the fights will be useless for at least an hour. After that, it'll get interesting. Especially with the rewards they posted.”

Matt hadn’t seen any rewards, so he checked the LocalNet. The Dual Stars were co-hosting the event with the Republic faction called ‘The Deserving’. They had a point system for both the crafting and fighting cultivators.

The LocalNet spelled out a point system for fights and how they were won. The stronger the opinion, the more points you could get if you won. The prizes were vague, only that the top five scorers would get access to what they needed.

He wasn’t sure if that meant weapons or skills, but it was an enticing reward. He needed a lot.

His hopes were dashed when he saw there was no ascenders board, just a mixed board. Matt was confident in his strength with people of his Tier, but the elite who had wealth or backing would have skills and good gear. That realization shook his confidence in being able to counter everything they did.

Putting aside his daydreams of wealth, he looked at the tailor’s booth Liz was perusing.

Seeing nothing he thought was interesting, he wandered to the next store, where he found colorful bands that would act as covers for beast collars. Calling Aster, they tried on bands until Liz found them, and the two of them watched as Aster tried each and every color she liked.

They settled on a dark purple that Aster simply wouldn’t let them take off.

She preened with the new garment, and kept showing it off to the shops they visited.

They came upon an alchemists tournament, where they watched Tier 5 alchemists battle it out, concocting mixtures Matt knew nothing about. Liz understood some, and narrated what a few of the contestants were doing.

When the winner of the round was decided, Liz vehemently disagreed with the decision, along with a sizable portion of the crowd. He ended up having to pull her along, before they got caught up watching the unfolding drama.

They found a blacksmith who had a longsword Matt was interested in buying, but the smith was trying to sell at an outrageous price, so he and Liz walked out on the deal.

While a new sword would be nice, he wasn’t going to pay the price of an expensive Tier 5 weapon for a standard Tier 4 sword.

They were back down at the arena when Matt decided to place his name in the longsword melee category. Watching the fights was getting his blood humming, and he wanted to see how he matched up against others.

He was called up a few minutes later when an arena was free. A mage cast a spell to blunt the fighters’ blades as this was a test of ability, not a true fight with skills.

His opponent was a large woman, almost his own height. Her longsword was a heavier variant than his own, which was more neutral.

With a nod to each other after the referee had explained the rules, the fight started.

“First to three clean hits wins, or theoretical death blow. No head blows. Fight.”

He flicked his blade towards the woman. She stepped back and attacked his hands. Matt sidestepped, and returned the move with a thrust of his own.

He had always enjoyed this kind of spar in the orphanage. It was more tactical. More about the ability with the sword than a matchup of skills or Talents.

The mock battles at the orphanage were always interesting, as the randomly assigned skills and Talents could change the outcome. But when it came to sword skills, Matt excelled far beyond the others.

After a few more exchanges, Matt pushed hard. With a quick flurry of blows, he slipped an attack around her defenses, and thrust at her center of mass.

Feeling the blade pressed on her chest, she nodded and bowed slightly, then said in Republican. “Well fought. Your blade skills have shown me a weakness in my own. Thank you.”

Matt simply nodded and returned the thanks, “It was a good fight. If I had been even a millisecond slower, I would have been hard-pressed to end it.” He was exaggerating slightly, as he could have still ended the fight without much trouble, but there was no need to embarrass someone after a victory.

Her problem was that she was trying to string together sword forms, instead of letting the fight dictate her moves.

Matt looked to the referee and asked, “Anyone else on the docket?”

The man looked at a pad next to him and asked, “Are you willing to take other types? If so, yeah. We can throw a few more people at you.”

“If they’re willing to fight against a longsword, sure.” While he could use most weapons with at least some ability, he wanted to use his weapon of choice. He’d rather step out of the ring if he couldn’t at this point.

He fought a bout against an axe user that he ended after two blows. He assumed they were used to a skill or Talent to enhance their combat style, because the man had no feel for the weapon.

The next was a quarterstaff user. He held the weapon in the more traditional form, like a longsword.

Matt was interested in this fight. He’d only read about quarterstaff techniques that used them like a combination of spear and longsword.

The fight began with them testing each other with light blows. Matt noted that the quarterstaff was made from hardwood, or at least had a metal core, because the thing landed with momentum.

He was ready when the man transitioned into spear forms, and pressed his own attack, pushing the man to the more common center based staff forms. While he had never encountered this combat style, he had read up on it.

Matt was hard-pressed to land a blow, because the man was able to block with one side of the quarterstaff, and flick out quick blows with the other end.

He was pushed to the defensive when the man unleashed a flurry of blows. That forced Matt to grip his sword’s blade in a half-sword technique, and copy the man’s defensive staff techniques.

When Matt tried to catch his enemy off guard with a heavy downward strike with his blade’s pummel, his blow was parried, and they disengaged. Each fighter stepped back until they were out of easy striking range.

They nodded in appreciation to each other. Matt was impressed with the man’s range of styles, both offensive and defensive. He was using the quarterstaff to its full potential, and it left Matt with few ideas of how to end the fight.

Matt was tiring quickly. The three fights before this, while not full out brawls, were taking their toll, and his breathing became heavy.

When they reengaged, Matt purposely over extended slightly on a downward strike, and the man took the opportunity to sweep Matt’s leg.

Matt accepted the strike, and went with the fall. As he hit the ground, he was able to slip his blade behind the man’s quarterstaff, and thrust up under his ribs.

His opponent looked shocked, then laughed, rubbing the spot, and said, “Well shit. I wasn’t expecting that to be how I’d lose.”

He took it in good spirits, and helped Matt up before leaving the arena.

Matt looked to the referee and held up one finger, singling that he would take one more opponent. The last fight had winded him, but Matt felt he had a bit more left in him.

The next opponent, who came in a minute later, was a member of the Dual Stars. He was physically a stockier man. He was wide, with bulging muscles that, combined with his large hammer, made Matt wary.

Fighting a heavy weapon user was like asking to get things broken, and Matt debated stepping out. He decided that he’d use his skill if he thought the man was going for a head blow. Anything else could be healed, but if his skull was caved in, he might live, but his personality would be toast.

Matt decided to play it safe. He was assuming he was faster than the guilder, and the first exchange proved that to be mostly true. The guilder had a veil up that made it hard to get a sense of his strength, but Matt thought he was a high Tier 4. Not quite at the peak, but close.

The man was clearly a front line fighter. He never took a step back, and tried to punish Matt for every strike. That would have been a winning tactic with armor, and if the rules didn’t count three hits as a loss.

The rules made it so Matt scored three blows within the first few exchanges, bringing the fight to a swift end.

The gilder got redder after each blow, and when the last one landed, the referee called the fight, and his frustration broke. “This is bullshit. I wouldn’t have lost with real rules. I want a rematch.”

Matt just looked at him, “Are you cracked in the head? You signed up for the rules.”

That just made the man glower more, “If I had known you’d fight like some flitting fairy, I wouldn’t have agreed. Fight me like a real man.”

Matt just gave him a flat look. He wasn’t going to get into a dick measuring contest with a random person over petty insults.

As Matt turned to the referee, the guilder called out, “I’ll wager a Tier 5 mana stone, normal dueling rules.”

“I don’t need your petty cash.” Matt was taking a page from Liz’s book. He might just be able to rile the guilder up and offer up more mana stones.

Keeping up the act, Matt started walking to the edge of the arena. As he was about to step off, the guilder growled, “Ten Tier 5’s.”

That was enough to make Matt pause and consider. The guilder was confident. The only question was, is he overly confident or justifiably confident?

Matt sized him up and asked, “What do you want if you win?”

That put a sneer on the guilder’s face. “When I win. And beating your face into the ground will be enough.”

Matt agreed. He had nothing to lose except a broken bone or two. And he didn’t think the man could get through [Cracked Phantom Armor] anyway.

The guilder quickly left, and came back in a set of full heavy plate armor. His hammer and weapon were all nearly black, and Matt had to conclude that they were high quality. Low Tier 5, or peak Tier 4 for the whole gear setup.

The fight started, and the man lowered his shield and weapon, saying, “Come and try to get your punny blows to be ‘effective’ now.”

Matt still hasn’t activated [Cracked Phantom Armor]. He’d see what game the man was playing at. His bet was on a heavy, crippling retaliation strike when Matt approached.

Assuming his skill was stronger than the man’s hammer, he rushed forward to thrust his blade at the weaker neck armor.

As he was about to land the blow, his blade was dragged down by an unseen force, and Matt tried to pull back the sword. When the weapon touched the breastplate, it was ripped from his hands like a magnet latching onto metal.

Matt stepped back. This wasn’t how he expected this fight to proceed, and he was prepared to surrender.

The guilder just laughed, pulling Matt’s blade from his chest. He inspected it, turned it, and ran his hands along the blade.

“See, this is why I hate you flitty types. Once you take their weapon, you take everything from them. What can you do without a weapon? Nothing, because you are nothing. If you beg, I’ll only break a few bones.” He was looking at Matt’s face, and when he didn’t see what he wanted, he smiled and continued, “Perfect. I’ll make this lesson hurt.”

At that Matt’s weapon warped and bent into a ball.

Matt’s anger simmered. He looked to the referee.

“Deliberate destruction of a weapon seems a little far, don’t you agree?”

The referee just looked down.

The armored man across from him laughed and said, “The weak have no right to complain. Now stand still and let me break you.”

Good. So that’s how we’re going to play this.

Matt grinned. This cocky little shit had truly pissed him off. The guilder, seeing that, smiled and charged.

The anger burned hot from having his weapon destroyed with no repercussions.

Matt quickly reviewed everything he had on him. As far as he could remember, he only had metal on his boots, belt, and the button of his jeans.

Rolling away from the hammer and taunts, he unlaced his boots, before throwing them off the stage.

The guilder stopped and cocked his head before laughing, “Go ahead, strip. It’s a good idea, and will make this all the more humiliating.”

Matt quickly dropped his pants and kicked them off as well. If he was going to do this, he would take a page from Liz’s book and make this a show.