Pepper was walking down the corridor on his way back to his bay. There were a few passersby who congratulated him on the win and he thanked them for the recognition. As he closed in on his area of golem bays, he saw Carlie weaving her way through the crowd. She appeared to be homing in on him and Pepper anticipated an altercation was about to pop off at any second.

  To his surprise, however, Carlie closed and waved her hand to ensure she grabbed his attention. Pepper gave her a nod and a smile, cautiously waiting for her to launch a verbal assault on him. Instead, Carlie extended a fist towards him and she smiled. “Hey there.” She started with.

  Pepper hesitated. “Hi.” He lifted his hand and returned the fist bump gesture.

  Carlie adjusted her hair and tucked it behind her ear. Her face scrunched and Pepper read her expression as being slightly bashful. “I wanted to say thanks.”

  The statement caught him off guard and he stuttered. “Y-Y-Your welcome, but I uhh…. Well, for what, exactly?”

  Carlie grinned. “For not destroying my power core in our match. Your axe’s severed some of my cables which caused my golem to fraz out. I was sure you were going to smash my power core into an oblivion, and I was going to be done for. This at least gives me another chance to get a sponsor.”

  His ears perked up and he was now more curious about the situation Carlie seemed to be in. Pepper pointed down the bay. “You wanna walk with me back to my bay?”

  Carlie immediately perked up and grinned. She turned to look down the corridor and shrugged her shoulders. “Sure, why not.”

  “Congrats babe.” Andrea’s voice called out from behind them. Pepper turned around to see both her and Amprage walking up. He immediately noticed Andrea narrowed her gaze in on Carlie. She leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips and wrapped her arm around his and pulled him close.

  Pepper motioned with his head towards Andrea and introduced her. “Carlie, this is my girlfriend Andrea.”

  The two girls smiled and Pepper did his best to move the conversation along. “If you don’t mind me asking, why are you more concerned with getting a sponsor than winning?”

  The group started their walk back towards Pepper’s bay while Carlie seemed hesitant to answer, but finally let it all out as if it was no secret at all. “Because the chances of me winning and being selected are slim to none. But, the chances of a sponsor seeing me and picking me up are far greater with the more matches I can compete in. If I can grab at least one or two sponsors here at the invitational, I would have a much better chance at a Season 12 run.”

  Their conversation carried on for the remainder of the walk. The discussion left Pepper realizing just how narrow-minded his vision had been up to that point. Granted, he and Tamin had gotten sponsors heading out of the KBVS club scene. Marcus also had great financial backing, and Wilson was… well, Wilson, and didn’t really have great ambitions within the traditional Golem League track. But once Pepper thought more about the exposure aspect of the competition, the realization just, clicked.

  It now made sense to him when the commentators talked about gladiators that launched up the tiers and ranks so quickly. The comparison to other gladiators who had been around since the very beginning, but were still slowly moving their way up or back down tiers. We may all daydream of being propelled like a rocket to instant success, but… there really isn’t a fast track at the end of the day. He reflected.

  “So, what was with that flame trap rune you used on me?” Pepper asked.

  Carlie seemed puzzled. “What do you mean?”

  “It just seemed out of place, like it wasn’t really planned out and just thrown in your build.”

  The clarification resonated and Carlie grinned. “Oh, yeah, well, you have to use what is available to you. I didn’t have anything else to work with, so… flame trap it is… yay.” She sarcastically finished. “Well, I have to go repair my knight, it was great to meet you and thanks again.”

  They ended with another fist bump as they reached Pepper’s golem bay. He saw that a notification was waiting for him on his control panel on the side of the wall. He clicked on the notification and saw that it was his point total from the match. The 85 points was a higher amount than what he had anticipated and he smiled. He navigated through the options which showed an overall point total for the 24 competitors within his cohort. A spark of excitement ignited within him when he saw his name within the top 10.

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  Sebastian – 88

  Mika – 87

  Levi – 87

  Lucas – 87

  Erynn – 86

  Alexa – 86

  Pepper – 85

  Tamin – 84

  Dana – 84

  Chase – 84

  Not at the top but I’m certainly not at the bottom either. Only 3 points away from the top also… I can easily make those up in the upcoming matches. He thought to himself before closing the screen and returning back to the control panel’s main display.

  He turned to see Andrea was sitting up on the workbench with her back leaning against the wall. He was about to ask her a question when he saw her gaze narrow in on something moving behind him. His ears picked up on someone clearing their throat and when he turned he saw a middle aged man walking towards him. There was a slight grin on the mans face as he approached. He reached up and adjusted his glasses and then reached forward offering a handshake.

  “Hello, you’re Pepper I assume?”

  He firmly shook the man’s hand. “I am… and you are?”

  “Jamie Holland.” The man replied.

  Jamie retrieved his hand and quickly ran it through his brown hair which was parted to one side. His hand then lowered down and he placed both in the front pockets of the heavy navy blue jacket he was wearing. He formed a slightly judgmental and smug expression on his face when he looked past Pepper.

  “Yeah… guess you’re golem will do.” Pepper picked up on his British accent as he continued. “Right, so, whatcha got under the hood?”

  The question left Pepper baffled. “Excuse me?”

  Jamie shifted his gaze back to Pepper and his coat flared slightly as his hands extended within the pockets and stretched the fabric out. “You know. What runes you using? I was able to catch a quick peak at your match there. Looks like you got a force blast, gravity, and that thing you do with the metal.” Jamie shifted back to his normal stance and he sarcastically made a playful expression. “I will say too, mate. That whole metal shifting effect, pretty cool if I do say so myself. So, what else you got up your sleave aye?”

  Pepper leaned his head back, even more surprised at the strangers persistence. “I’m sorry, but are you with the Golem League or something?”

  Jamie took a deep breath and then heavily sighed. His eyes widened and he blinked slowly at Pepper. “Nah mate. We’re facing off next. Not fancying yourself with checking the notifications yet, are we?”

  He could feel the confusion quickly forming on his face. Who in the world would think that I would… “Jamie was it?”

  “That’s what I said, mate.”

  “Jamie… if we’re facing each other next, what makes you think I would tell you what my build is?”

  “Mate… you know what this is?” Jamie motioned his head around.

  “Uhh, yeah. The SEC regional-”

  Pepper didn’t get a chance to finish before Jamie cut him off. “It’s a show mate. A business. Entertainment, yeah? Ain’t no one coming to this event to cheer us on like we’re some big, grand thing. Our golems are just jesters in a court, clowns in a circus, actors on a stage. At the end of the day, mate. It’s all about putting on a good show for the crowd. We make them happy, they make the bosses happy, and we move along trying to eventually make it up the latter, aye. Some come on, tell me what’s cooking so we can plan out our match.”

  Pepper stood there stunned and took a second to let everything sink in. He reached up and rubbed his face. “On what planet would I be okay with this?”

  A baffled look was on Jaime’s face and after a second delay he started to laugh. “Are you serious mate?” He brought his hand out and pointed it at Pepper. “I’m sorry, is this your first time playing with your little tiger golem there? You seriously must be new, because… I’ll tell you what mate. This is how the business works.”

  Pepper could feel his heart start to beat faster and his patience now wearing thin. “Spare me. Nobody else...” He didn’t finish his statement as he saw Jaime’s eyes grow wide and a smug smile formed on his face.

  “Look mate, it’s cute. Your hole noble, moral, I wanna be the very best bit, but it’s all shite at the end of the day. Okay? This is business, and we are here to earn a penny or two, just like any other bloke. How do you think Tamin got his points there? He and I planned our match all out. The same Sebastian, Mika, Lucas, Erynn all did.”

  Pepper’s hands balled into fists and his teeth grinded down. “You’re… serious… aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, mate. So… you wanna make this look good or not? I gave Tamin the win, yeah. You got yours against all Carlie there, so what do you got and what are you willing to give up so I don’t set you back too bad?”

  “How about… nothing.”

  Jaime laughed and shook his head. “Come on mate, let’s be serious now, yeah?”

  “I am serious! How dare you come up in here and try to get me to rig this…”

  Jaime’s smug expression was now firmly set in. “Spare me you little wank. I’m trying to do us both of favor. Would do you some good to wake up and…”

  Pepper stepped forward and leaned in towards Jamine. “Let me make something clear, and I mean crystal clear. I had better not catch you coming anywhere near me, my golem, ever again. And… you can go ahead and tell all the others who are involved in this plan, to not waste their time in trying to get me to rig anything. You want to get ahead in this invitational, then you can do it by beating me, fair and square.”

  Jaime huffed and nodded while he pressed the inside of his cheek with his tongue. “Right… Well, you don’t worry about bringing your A-game to our match then, cause it won’t matter one bit.”

  “We’ll see about that.”