“Pepper… babe what is wrong?” Andrea kept poking and pestering him until he finally gave her a side eyed glance. He motioned with his head towards the screen and watched as she quickly read down the list of names until she also saw it. “That son of a…”

  Pepper could see the others turn and look at the two of them. The curious look and concerned expressions left them waiting for an answer. He took a deep breath and finally muttered. “An old nemesis.”

  Their three companions all lit up and turned towards the screen. Andrea turned to them and whispered. “Tamin.”

  “Well, what’s the big deal P-Dub?” Marcus asked. “Like the lady said. There isn’t a guarantee you’ll have to face him. So you may not even have to worry about it.”

  Pepper slowly shook his head and felt his teeth pinch down on the inside of his cheek. “Oh, I’m not worried about facing him.” He paused and took another deep breath. “I’m praying that we do face off.”

  ***

  The group had headed back to the bay area and Andrea went to go and grab them some food and bring it back for their dinner. Pepper had just finished powering up his holocube. He was going to get another training session in, with the thought of being ready to face Tamin, but a welcoming voice greeted him.

  He turned around to see a guy approaching that appeared to be in his early twenties. His dark brown hair had a large shine to it from product and was slicked backwards. The man appeared friendly and had a friendly grin on his face and as he drew closer, Pepper heard a deep and rich voice great him again. “Hello there, I am not sure if you heard me when I entered, but I must say, I love the golem you have here.”

  Pepper was grateful to receive the compliment and smiled. “Well, thanks.” He hesitated and tried to analyze what possible angle the man could have wanted. He was leery to give away any details and assumed he was another competitor within his colored cohort and didn’t want to share too much information. “Yeah, I’ve spent a lot of time working on him and am quiet happy with the result.”

  “Wait… you mean to tell me that you, crafted this golem? Like, you-yourself?” The man had a surprised expression and pulled his hand from his pocket and pointed towards Mala.

  “Yeah, sure did.”

  The man’s face grew with an excited expression. He reached up and grabbed hold of his chin for a brief moment while looking back over his creation. “You don’t say.” Pepper then took notice of the mans jacket he was wearing. It was a back base coloration but had a hexagonal designed pattern that almost had a chameleon coloration which transitioned from deep purple to green and a deep teal blue. Underneath was a finely woven grey shirt that had a compression effect.

  Pepper couldn’t help but think that the clothing was customized specifically for the man now standing before him. He shifted his weight as his eyes narrowed in on the intricate details. Pepper then cleared his throat and asked. “I’m sorry, but, who are you exactly?”

  The man shook his head and sighed. “Ahh! My apologies.” He reached out his hand and gave Pepper a firm handshake. “The name is Salvator Argento, of the Argento Appraisal House.”

  “Nice to meet you Salvator.”

  “The pleasure is all mine, but please, call me Sal.”

  “Sal it is. So, what exactly is an appraiser doing at the SEC Invitational?”

  Sal smiled and looked at Pepper. “Well, you could say that I am something of a crafter myself. I can’t help it, I love to come down and look at all the golems and see how much the gladiator devoted to the build. There’s just… something special about it.”

  “Well, I would have never guessed you could put a price tag on it.”

  Sal chuckled. “I think the old saying of, everybody has a price, applies to this situation.” Sal’s gaze shifted back and forth between Mala and Pepper. “How about this. I am really curious about your build here and would love to take a look under the hood. I’d be willing to give you a free appraisal, if you’d like?”

  Pepper couldn’t help but pause at the request. He was still concerned about his build information being let out and available to his competition. Granted, after the first match, it wouldn’t really be much of a secret. But still, he had the feeling that he should keep his cards close to his chest.

  “I can see you seem hesitant about me taking a look.” Sal reached over and tapped his holodex awake. He navigated to a page where Pepper could see that a digital form was populated. “If it makes you feel better, all my appraisals come with a Non-Disclosure Agreement. I cannot share any of the runes or power core configurations with anyone unless you give me your explicit consent. All I do is measure the quality of your work, and a price tag of how much market value it would be to an interested party.”

  Peppers mind was more at ease and felt reassured by what Sal had just offered. “And, I get to be here the whole time you’re looking at everything, right?”

  A surprised expression came over Sal’s face. “Of course. I kinda need you to be because I like to ask questions as I go and get a better handle on the build.” He then turned and pointed towards Mala. “Would you like me to demonstrate?”

  Pepper chuckled. “Umm, okay?”

  Sal walked closer to Mala and ran his fingers against the surface. “Many gladiators will paint their golems from the traditional Midwest clay. But this isn’t that. In fact, this is abomination clay out of Europe, is it not?”

  He smiled and nodded. “Okay, I see what you mean. And to answer your question, yes, it is.”

  Sal smiled and snapped his fingers. “See! I knew it.” He paused and looked back at Mala. “I must say. You’re the first person I have seen use abomination clay on the entire eastern sea board. It just blows my mind that more people aren’t using it. But… this part of the US, granite is the way to go.” Sal then turned and rotated his hand back and forth. “I mean, for those who can afford metal, that is.”

  “I get your drift.” He replied.

  Sal then took his jacket off and tossed it over to the work bench. He took notice of Pepper’s status page for Mala and pointed towards in. “Okay, so just so we’re clear. You’re okay with me taking a look.”

  Pepper nodded. “Sure, go ahead.”

  Pepper watched as Sal’s face beamed with excitement. “Wait a minute, a modified Dark Matter – Hellion Light, and three modified runes?” He turned to Pepper with his jaw hanging down. “Did you modify these yourself?”

  “Sure did.”

  Sal was practically fast pacing over to the metal steps and started to climb up. “Okay, I really need to take a look inside.” He exclaimed. Pepper had not buttoned up the access panel that BJ used for his safety inspection, and Sal leaned in and immediately began chuckling which grew into an exclaimed laugh.

  “Pepper, this is excellent cable management!”

  Pepper couldn’t help but laugh internally as he thought about how he had redone all of that while working with Wilson. Thank god, that could have been embarrassing. He thought and tried to play into the compliment. “Yeah, well, you know… it’s just that extra little bit that shows how serious you take things.”

  “I couldn’t agree more Pepper.” Sal smiled and then leaned his head back in. “Holy shnizbucklers! You cross fed your Celestial Enchantment rune into your elemental expansion and you ran copper compression hex shielding around all your cables!?”

  Pepper couldn’t help but chuckle and nervously rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I figured it would be a good way to…”

  “Wait a minute. You have two cable lines running out of all your runes.”

  Pepper shrugged and started to answer. “Well yeah, I kinda took a page out of the military’s playbook and wanted to add a-”

  He didn’t get a chance to finish as Sal reappeared and finished his statement. “A level of redundancy in case one failed or was severed.”

  Pepper pointed towards him and smiled. “Exactly”

  “Brilliant… that is something you normally seen in the Pantheon or even the Immortal league, but never in the regionals.” Sal started to laugh with a slight tone of devious excitement. “Okay, this build, is awesome.”

  He plunged back inside and Pepper could see a faint illumination come on and guessed it was Sal’s holodex being utilized as a flashlight. The glow then turned to a purple hue and he knew that Sal had discovered his fae crystal. The light paused and left the indication with Pepper that Sal was spending a significant amount of time inspecting his custom work.

  Sal then appeared and started to walk down the steps. “I must say Pepper. Your mod on your power core is simply impressive. Your soldering is some of the best I’ve seen in years. You must have started a long time ago, because I can’t see a single error in your work. Heck! It practically looks like the cards left the factory that way.”

  Pepper felt his soul lift with pride over the countless hours he had devoted to building Nightmare Mala. “Thank you. That… that really means a lot.”

  Sal then motioned with his head. “Would you mind powering him up?”

  “Not at all.” Pepper then stepped over to the work bench, grabbed hold of his command module and initiated the power sequence.

  The power core immediately glowed to life and continued to pour out its deep purple coloration out of the outlets he had carved into the design. Sal leaned in and meticulously went over every inch of the golem’s paneling. He took Pepper by surprise by retrieving a red monocle from his pocket and placing it on his eye.

  “Impressive… mmhmm… most impressive Mr. Walker.” There was a more low and serious tone that time that caught Pepper’s attention. “I can see through my monocle’s analysis that your measurements and angles are within two degrees on either side. It’s not perfect, but to the common untrained eye it would be hardly noticeable. It actually matches the industry standard for complete and finished.”

  “Well, what exactly does that mean?”

  Sal removed the glass eye piece and placed it back in his pocket. He took in a deep breath and then exhaled with a smile. “It means that you could literally sell this build professionally and get top dollar for it.”

  Pepper couldn’t believe what he was hearing and his face contorted with disbelief. “Oh whatever, stop messing around man.”

  But the look Sal gave Pepper told him that he was serious about his statement. He lifted a finger for him to wait a moment and then started to tap on his holodex. A small spreadsheet like form seemed to appear and Sal went about filling in the different empty boxes with data.

  Sal finished typing his notes and then pivoted the screen around to allow Pepper easier viewing. Pepper started to scan over the page and started to smile at the notes left by the appraiser. He started to take a sip of his drink but wasn’t expecting to see the final value of his built. The shock of the appraised value sent his drink down the wrong pipe and he immediately went into a coughing fit.

  “You can’t be serious Sal?”

  Sal nodded, “Oh, trust me, I am dead serious when it comes to my appraisals. The fact is that you hand crafted a professional grade golem and you forget to factor in how valuable your time is when doing so.” Sal motioned with his head out towards the other bays. “You don’t realize how many golems I see on a weekly basis. The vast majority are now being mass produced and lack the… the… passion.”

  Sal then walked over and placed his hand on Mala. “When I look at this golem, I see the dedication you have to the sport. It’s what this league was built upon and it is being erased more and more as time goes on.” Sal turned back and faced Pepper. “It’s this level of craftsmanship and precision that make all the difference and believe me, there are gladiators out there who would pay that price in order to have a golem like this.”

  Pepper looked down for a moment and took a deep breath while he reflected on everything that Sal had just shared with him. He slowly looked up and locked eyes, “Thanks Sal. I appreciate that.

  “Here.” Sal then loaded up and signed the non-disclosure agreement. Pepper shared his contact information with him and a second later, Pepper saw the notification of receipt for the document. “In the form you’ll find my contact information and a copy of my appraisal. Should you ever decide you’d like to place Nightmare Mala on the market, please let me know. I’d be happy to help send some interested customers your way.”

  The two shook hands and Pepper nodded. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in…”

  “Well, well, well… what do wee have here? Peepers deciding to sell his golem, cash in and head home with his tail tucked between his legs? Ha! I don’t blame you seeing how scared you were when you saw my name listed in the same cohort!”

  Pepper snapped his head over to see Tamin walking in and standing in the center of his bay. A bright sparkle caught Pepper’s attention and he noticed a giant diamond studded chain was draped down around Tamin’s neck. He reached up and adjusted his Golem League Season 9 ball cap and then crossed his arms in front of him.

  “I thought you had taken off to compete in another conference Tamin. Never thought I would even see you here.” Pepper said through gritted teeth.

  “Ha! Don’t you know how to read, loser. The rules state that any gladiator can compete in any and all regional invitational tournaments until they are accepted within one, and sign an exclusive regional competitive clause. I’ve decided to come down here and try out this invitational and what do I find? Little old Peepers just waiting for me to wipe the arena with his stupid panther golem all over again. I hope I get you in the-”

  To Pepper’s surprise Sal raised his hand and cut Tamin off. “Now I remember you.” Sal started to wag a finger and slowly walked towards Tamin. Pepper followed behind and was now anxiously waiting to hear what Sal was getting at. “Yeah… you were out in the PNW and the Southwest Regional Invitations a few weeks back.”

  Sal came to a stop in front of Tamin, but Pepper was more focused on the fear coming over Tamin’s face. His expression grew with concern with every word Sal said. “In fact… you probably don’t remember me, but… I was there, when you had your safety inspection and did an appraisal of your golem at the same time.”

  Tamin swallowed deep and remained steadfast while Sal continued. “You probably don’t remember, but who can blame you when you were so busy doing your interview for Golem Monthly Magazine and… what was that sponsored photoshoot again? Mountain Man Foot Cream, was it?”

  Pepper couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear as he watched Tamin’s jaw clench and his hands ball into fists as Sal continued. “Yeah, foot cream. But that isn’t the part that stands out to me. What stands out to me was how it was discovered that you were paying gladiators to take a dive for you. That… and I now specifically remember how you were caught swapping runes out and not getting a new safety inspection afterward.”

  Sal then turned and looked at Pepper and gave him a quick wink before turning back to Tamin. “The reason you’re here at the SEC is not because you have been accepted to the other regions, rather… you’ve been disqualified from the other regionals up to this point.”

  Tamin was about to blurt out a response, but Sal raised his finger and cut him off. “Now look here kid! I don’t know who you think you are, or what gives you the right to walk around here like you’re some kind of big shot gladiator. But let’s get one thing clear, and I mean crystal clear. I’m going to text my good friend BJ Wood and ask him to ensure he checks over your golem good, and I mean, really good. And if he finds so much as one cable cross connected into the wrong port or slot, I’m going to request a full deconstructed inspection of your golem. Because as the officially sanctioned appraiser of the Golem League, Gladiator Operations Manuel 36-2907, Chapter 5, Paragraph 2 states, ‘all workers of the golem league have the authority and obligation to investigate any and all indications of competition tampering, manipulation, and or unauthorized runes, equipment, or violations of build specifications.’

  There was a long pause and all Pepper could do was see Tamin’s face grow greater shades of red with every second that ticked by. Sal then tilted his head and raised his eyebrow. “Any questions?”

  Tamin could hardly get a word out and muttered through gritted teeth. “No.”

  Sal then smiled with a sinister grin of satisfaction and leaned back with a loud sigh. “Excellent. Well, I wish you all the best in the competition Tamin, and I should state, I don’t ever want to see you lingering around Mr. Walkers golem bay… ever, again.”

  (Author Note: The use of Salvator Argento has been approved by his creator, Brian J. Nordon.)