“It’s time everybody! Get on your feet and let’s crank the level up to 11!” The crowd cheered and their energy surged with life as they began to stomp, stomp, and clap. The welcome made Pepper’s heart swell with pride.

  His mind flashed back over the past few years. The struggles he had gone through to get to this point. Every stage of life seemed like an uphill fight to him in that moment. But he remembered what his dad told him in the backyard… You get knocked down, you get back up. His hands formed into fists, his knuckles popping as they balled tightly together.

  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. You knocked me down last time Tamin… but you’re not going to knock me down this time! His eyes opened when the hiss of the smoke machines spurred with life. The billowing clouds of vapor washed over him. He smiled when the orange and yellow lasers shot out in their rapid pattern which danced in front of him and guided the path to the tunnel entrance.

  “Out of the south corner, we have Pepper Walker with Nightmare Mala!”

  He walked forward and greeted the crowd with a wave. His eyes shifted up to the big screen and saw his face on full display. We’re not going back… not today… not ever. He told himself. He quickly to his controller interface and had Mala’s hands come together in front of its chest, he followed it up with a martial arts style bow. The crowd seemed to appreciate the gesture and then chanted out his name.

  He stepped up and onto his platform, his eyes shifted down to the opposite tunnel. To his surprise, Tamin had gone all out with his entrance. The act seemed to captivate the audiences attention who immediately hushed in curious suspense. A loud gong rang out. The low resounding acoustic blared again, then again, and finally ended on the fourth blast.

  “Alright everyone, out of the north corner, Tamin Leonard with Horus!”

  The crowd didn’t cheer, not at first. They all watched on the edge of their seats as a small smoke screen gently flowed out of the tunnel entrance. A warm amber light illuminated the tunnel entrance and a loud song and chanting began to play over the speakers of the arena. The melody had a slight eerie sensation as it set the setting of being deep within a cultic ritual that was devoted towards a deity rather than a man.

  Two small golem’s then appeared, one on either side of the tunnel. Their hands were clasped around a giant rope which they pulled on. They were adorned in white robes with gold trim. It was a few feet out of the tunnel that Pepper could see there was another two small golems directly in line with the first two. By the time the presession had ended, eight smaller golems in total were marching forward. All of them acting as if they were pulling on the large rope within their hands.

  The low resonating chanting continued and surged with magnitude as the outline of Tamin’s golem appeared in the smoke. A second later Pepper could see a platform emerging from the entrance of the tunnel. An old and weathered wooden stage with ancient wooden wheels on both sides rolled forward. There standing in the center of the platform was Tamin’s golem Horus.

  Pepper was convinced the entire display was nothing but a timed and orchestrated performance. He didn’t even want to think of how long it took for the timing to be coordinated. The golem’s eyes glowed with yellow life, the metal wings lifted up and extended outwardly from the golems back. The falcon head tilted up and let out a loud screeching cry, the apex of its call synched perfectly with the melodic chanting.

  The golems, two humanoid and fine chiseled muscular arms rose up. Each hand firmly clasped around a Khopesh sword. There was a yellow light which arched between the two blades and appeared to ripple across the wings. As if prompted, the crowd surged into a loud and resounding cheer.

  The falcon’s head was a dark navy blue in coloration. The metal wings of the golem matched the same coloration but ended with white tips on the long extending feathers. A giant jeweled neckless hung down the golems neck and covered the upper chest. It had been painted gold in color and was embedded with some kind of decoration that resembled ancient gemstones.

  Beneath the necklace was a fine sculpted masculine figure. There were gold painted arm and wrist bands which maintained the ancient Egyptian vibe. A gold and gem studded waste band wrapped around the golem with a traditional white loin cloth that draped down and ended just above the knees.

  Pepper’s teeth grinded together and he felt his jaw clench in unison with his fists. He watched as Tamin appeared out of the tunnel and slowly made his way to the platform. The smug demeanor could be seen clear as day and his nemesis seemed to bask in the applause of the crowd. His eyes remained fixated on Tamin until he slowly turned and the two locked onto one another.

  The story of the gods told the most, is the one when they fall! He internally yelled to himself. His mind was focused on starting the fight that he ignored watching the countdown timer. His ears eagerly listened to the starting horn and when they caught the initial blast he launched ahead.

  Pepper sent Mala charging ahead and the crowd erupted in excitement. He had spent the previous day pushing himself in training to take the offensive. Having chosen to press the attack pushed Mala past the center of the arena and continued to charge straight at Horus.

  He grinned when he saw Tamin launched his golem forward. The two Khopesh swords lifted up as if they were preparing to start their initial slashes towards the approaching threat. Pepper had devoted some of his training specifically to timing his elemental expansion rune. He activated it in mid stride and watched as the metal staff quickly formed within Mala’s hands.

  He brought Mala’s hands forward and clasped the close end of the staff, a quick rotation of the hips and he snapped the long end of the staff around in a slashing motion. The tail end of the staff clanged against the of Horus’s swords as it successfully blocked the staff strike.

  But Pepper had anticipated that and kept Mala’s momentum in its rotation. The blocked staff continued to swing around and on the second pass slammed directly into the left side falcon’s face. Yellow sparks burst outwards along with fragments of stone.

  The impact was enough to cause Horus to stagger and the golem quickly side-stepped to try and keep its balance. Pepper continued to have Mala wield the staff as a bladeless sword. He retracted the staff in a large arc, pivoted the golems feet. He snapped the hips with a quick rotation and swung the staff down towards his opponents’ legs. His eyes watched as the staff slammed against the inside of Horus’s left knee and the golem buckled under the attack.

  Pepper was about to capitalize off the successful strike sequence. But was immediately diverting his attack when he watched what he believed was Tamin initiating a force blast. He kicked Mala’s left leg out, his golem dropped down into a half side-split.

  Tamin’s force blast initiated from the falcon’s mouth. The attack, however, pushed right over Mala and failed to land with any effect. Mala was so close to Horus that the cone effect did not have a wide enough dispersion to aid the golem.

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  Pepper chuckled and brought Mala back up to its feet. His eyes then noticed the right metal wing of Horus being swung around, the top edge of the appendage acted like a blade. Pepper shifted Mala around and widened his grip on the staff. The metal shaft blocked the incoming strike, but the force behind the strike had far more power than the Khopesh swords. The blunt impact shoved Mala back roughly a foot on the arena floor.

  He had no time to waste, as Horus’s left arm was slicing across the air, it’s sword coming straight for Mala. The tiger quickly shifted the staff across its body, the metal clang rang out across the arena. Another quick shift back to the left to block the left sword which was starting to swing down towards him.

  Pepper’s game plan was working. His initial attack sequence had not only caused significant damage, but had worked Tamin up and into a frenzy. He quickly saw that his energy had enough power to rapidly deploy his rune attacks.

  He took a quick sidestep back and deactivated the elemental expansion. The metal particles rapidly deconstructed and flowed back inside his golems body. His close proximity to Horus was right where he wanted to be. He flicked the icon for his force blast and watched as the wave of energy slammed directly into the upper torso of Horus. The large frame of the golem was carried off and flung backwards as Pepper felt the rune attack hit with maximum effectiveness.

  As Horus’s body was in midair, Pepper brought Mala’s hands close to its chest. The fingers formed into their semi-clawed form and the ball of energy quickly formed within the sphere shape as he activated his energy beam attack.

  Pepper couldn’t help himself, as the built up anger and frustration was growing within him. He found himself calling out into the heart of the arena as his attack sprang to life. “En-er-gy beam!”

  The purple beam of energy streaked across the arena. Horus was already starting to get back to its feet. In the last second Horus activated its’ energy shield. The forcefield caught the energy and dispersed it across the shields surface.

  Cute shield, but we’re not done here, Tamin! Pepper launched Mala back into a sprint. He watched as Horus stood up and lifted its right arm. A golden disc formed around the gold wrist brace and began to rotate around. A volley of five electric bolts shot out from the disc and flew straight for Mala.

  Pepper immediately reacted when he saw the golden disc appear. He activated his elemental expansion and called up his metal shield. The round disc formed directly in front of Mala and the battle tiger held it up while still charging ahead. The five electric bolts pelted against the shield, each one being successfully blocked and didn’t have a single negative impact.

  Mala was about to about to get within striking range of Horus when Pepper saw Tamin activate his force blast again. The shield caught the blast and knocked Mala back. He looked over and felt he could see the panic building in Tamin’s eyes. “Come on big shot, put your money where your mouth is!” He yelled out into the arena.

  His attention dashed back to Mala as he got his battle tiger composed and started to point it back towards Horus. The tiger took off in another run and slowly gained more speed with every step. Horus’s wings extended out and Pepper was confident he knew exactly what was coming next. He watched as the wings were instantly coated with a rippling wave purple energy.

  Tamin released his psionic wave attack. The purple energy launched itself from the wings and surged across the arena. Pepper couldn’t help but laugh under his breath, Mala charged straight ahead. The battle tiger surged straight through the wave of energy without any negative effect.

  Pepper dashed a glance to his nemesis and now saw a clear expression of fear come over him. “That’s right Tamin! Let me introduce you to a little rune I call celestial enchantment!”

  The fear appeared to have taken hold of Tamin and the slight hesitation was all Pepper needed to capitalize on. He ordered the metal to change and coat Mala’s arms. Mala leapt up and arrived with a superman punch.

  Rock particles shattered off the falcon’s face again as he landed the direct blow. Horus back peddled, but Pepper continued to press his attack sequence. Mala dipped down and rapidly punched away with a jab sequence and ended with two strong haymakers blows to Horus’s midsection. Tamin seemed to regain enough bearing to try and bring forth a defensive effort. The left metal wing started to sweep and angle itself forward to act as a shield.

  “Oh, I’m just getting started!” He yelled.

  He twisted Mala around and grabbed hold of the metal wing. Using the momentum, he swept his right leg back and through Horus into a side toss. The golems back thudded down onto the arena floor. Pepper immediately brought hammer fists down upon the Egyptian god. He watched as Horus’s golden neckless chest-piece was being chipped away with every blow. The crowd roared and the energy of the crowd felt like the match was about to be over with.

  Pepper couldn’t help but smile, he could sense victory within his grasp. But he was quickly brought back to the situation at hand. Horus’s mouth opened up and launched another force blast. It hit Mala square on the chest and his battle tiger was flung off his opponent. Pepper watched his golem health analysis indicator. It had changed to a lime green coloration. The force blast, though more of a defensive attack had slowly been doing minimal damage to Mala over time.

  He started to chuckle but kept his thoughts to himself. Use all the force blasts you want. It’s gonna take you a year before you make any impact on Mala! He turned Mala around and stood in a readied position. He wasn’t afraid of what Tamin was going to throw at him, but he was curious to see what exactly Tamin was going to try next.

  The crowd started to chant out Pepper’s name. All he could do was chuckle and form a devious grin on his face as he watched Tamin suffer from the reality he now endured. Horus’s wing was damaged from being thrown by Mala, but both wings still extended out. Horus began to twist his hips and Pepper knew Tamin was trying to line up his attack.

  “Oh… so you’re gonna throw a winged furry attack huh? That’s cute! Let me show you how Mala and I like to deal with pathetic attacks such as that.” Mala’s hands quickly formed the sphere in front of its chest. “En-er-gy beammmm!”

  The golden yellow light had run along the top edge of the metal wings. The golem twisted and flung the two wings forward. Each one launched a large arching blade of yellow energy that streaked across the arena and were aimed directly at Mala’s center mass.

  By the time the two yellow energy blades launched from Horus, Mala had already formed his sphere of energy. The blast surged out from Mala and flew straight towards Horus. Pepper watched as his attack had the same effect it had when he faced Franchesca. The energy beam shattered Horus’s two blades as it continued its’ path.

  Pepper watched as Tamin had tried to close Horus’s wings at the final second. An effort to block the energy attack, but he wasn’t able to complete the action. The purple beam slammed directly against Horus’s chest and knocked the golem back.

  Tamin’s golem arrived with a thud and Pepper couldn’t help but smile as he saw the wafts of smoke start to lift off Horus’s chest surface. He watched as Horus was slowly twisting and shifting. The golem clearly struggling to get back up.

  “I’m finishing this once and for good!” Pepper yelled. He looked down and saw the rune icon representing his Warlock Energy Bomb. The moment he saw the rune card he knew he wanted it for this exact moment. He lifted his hands up over his head and activated the rune. “En-er-gy…” Pepper started but then paused as he let the rune activate.

  Mala reached its hands up and began to pour pure energy from the core into the sphere that now formed overhead. The purple orb started out small, roughly the size of a basketball, but quickly grew by the second as more energy surged within the attack. Dark swirls of purple energy swooshed throughout the inner sphere, while electrified waves of neon purple sparked around the edges of the orb. It grew to the size of a beach ball and then even doubled in size. His control interface warned him that the runes would not be able to control the attack unless he launched it within the next few seconds.

  Pepper shifted his gaze off of Mala and looked over to Horus. The golem had just staggered back to his feet and faced Mala. He poured out every ounce of emotional energy and rage he had built up over the past year. He screamed at the top of his lungs and finished the rest of his sentence. “…BOMBBBB!”

  Mala flung the purple sphere forward. Horus stood there and Tamin appeared to accept his fate as he watched the attack slam into his golem. The arena was immediately changed as the entire area was bathed in purple light. To Pepper’s surprise, the arena’s safety energy shield rippled for a quick second and he felt his heart skip a beat when he realized how powerful his attack had actually been.

  The crowd roared to life and the victory horn blared so loudly Pepper’s ear drums vibrated. He watched as the overhead screens displayed a close up of him standing on the gladiators platform. He smiled and waved to the crowd, but quickly looked back to the arena. His energy bomb and left a giant dust cloud over the arena, and Pepper waited for it to dissipate.

  He remained there until he finally saw the remnants of Horus. His nemesis’s golem was completely scattered across the entire arena and looked to have been blown into thousands of tiny pieces. It was a complete and under destructive event. He embraced the wave of excitement, peace and vindication that came over him.