The three gladiators followed Eridris down an up-sloping concrete hallway that ended in sunlight. The crowd was getting louder as they approached.

  “Doctore, how deep is the sand out there?”

  Eridris looked over his shoulder at Shade with a raised eyebrow at the use of his title. “I'd say bout three inches. It makes it easy to clean up the various fluids,

  which can be gathered up for other matches and easily reapplied. Why?”

  Shade nodded. “Formulating a plan. Now, do you have a dagger before we get to the veiwed staging area?”

  “Yeah, but why?” Eridris asked.

  Shade addressed the other two gladiators. I need you to each knick a finger or palm, i need a sample of your blood so i can make sure you arent included in

  some of what im planning. Just wipe the blood onto either of my sleeves.”

  Benton and Rowley looked ill at ease, and this oddity didn't make it better. Eridris handed Benton the knife first. He knicked the meaty part of his palm and

  then wiped it onto Shade’s sleeve. Rowley did the same, but the other sleeve before handing the dagger back to Eridris.

  “I’m not going to elaborate in case we are being observed with a higher-tiered perception. Just know everything will be in place once the match starts.” Shade

  said mysteriously. With his mana sight active, Shade saw the translucent eyes that must function as cameras in the staging area. Shade looked around and

  saw racks with armor and weapons. Benton and Rowley rushed to grab their preferred weapons and whatever armor they could get on in the little time they

  had. Shade walkmed over to a stand of more exotic weapon and feined grabbing something when he actually pulled his Chakram out of storage. But he didnt

  grab any armor.

  “When we get out there, break to the left and right il take center. Try to spread them out as much as possible.”

  A buzzer sounded and a light began to flash above a portcullis. Shade followed Benton and Rowley to the gate, taking center. It was easily ten feet wide by

  twenty feet high. It began to raise and the crowd drowned out the announcer, until Shade realized that there was some form of obfuscation and only the crowd

  wasn’t blocked out.

  once the gate was just above his height. Shade imagined walking out onto the field clearing away the sand in several places he then used the Scrub spell,

  dialed down to the width of a pencil tip, and its parameters for what is filth set to concrete, to Etch several of the gravity arrays that the mid to high tier

  gladiators used to train, but with all of the limiters and safety features stripped out and dialed up to the max. At several other spots he etched augmented

  waste disposal runes, that had their parameters set to living biological matter. However with the samples hed collected from Benton and Rowley he included

  parameters excluding himself and them from the effects.

  ###

  Biron Briggs sat alone in his observation booth. He hated having to leave his lab, but a match between nobles needed Devine oversight. The ‘Emperor’ said

  this was because as a functioning noble, his opinion could be called biased. but no one would question the gods. He leaned on his hand and glowered out at

  the air. Gods… he hated the farce. When everything happened, it had all gotten away from him. In his self-proclaimed cowardice, he comforted himself that as

  long as he was one of the gods, he could try and mitigate some of the changes that happened, but he found himself outvoted with no friends at every turn.

  He'd been the only one who was close with the founders of the Expanse.

  The only reason he hadn’t been killed along with everyone else during the purge was because, as the highest-tiered artificer, he was crucial to advancing

  technology and his research alongside Arthur into the system and how it worked. Even after ten melinnea, Spark would only speak to him in an official

  capacity; the friendship that they built was gone in the betrayal.

  This match at least seemed like it wasn’t going to be an all-day affair, so soon he could get back into his lab. The Baron must really want the Marquess. He

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  pulled out all the stops to shut her down in the first half because she had such a strong mid to high-end stable due to her uncle who was tier 8 suppressed

  down to tier five. His body and spirit were still fortified to tier 8; it was his classes, skills, and abilities that were suppressed.

  The Marquess’s low-end stable was down to 3. But for some reason, they decided to do a stable vs stable battle royal. So this should end quickley. The all but

  Tier 3 berzerker cast his Talent ‘Your pain is my gain’ across all of his companions. Which would keep his berzerk going, they were all made to wear barbed

  vanbraces so he would effectively be functioning at tier 5. Those three never stood a chance.

  That was what he had thought. Anyhow, before the gates began to rise. He felt something that he hadn’t felt in melinea. It was faint and passed so quickly that

  he almost dismissed it. Biron pulled a time affinity gem from his storage device. As a tier 60 Artificer, he could manipulate forces that could definitely be

  mistaken for godly, especially since he'd long since hit Either condensing, and his domain formation was far ahead of the other gods. That didn't mean he was

  the most powerful. At most, he could force a stalemate. But the gods were barred from conflict or direct intervention in most cases. The Emperor was the real

  threat with his system canceling void powers. He was, in reality, the 8th god and most powerful of those that came before.

  Biron expanded his domain and infused it with the time affinity. And he found it a tight ball of hyper-condensed space time. Just like he'd felt. At this tier, he

  could easily project his senses outside of his body as if he were actually there. And that is exactly what he did. What he found caused a cascade of conflicting

  emotions, both positive and negative. What he saw was a man he did not recognize. Tall and athletically muscular, with dark brown hair in an unkempt undercut.

  He was using augmented system array forms, with an augmented spell form to etch traps into the arena floor beneath the sand, but what shook Biron most

  was the Weapon the man held. It had once belonged to the emperor. In fact, that was the very first weapon Biron gave the now Emperor when hw was still

  Darion, a new player to The Expanse when he was still Biron’s apprentice. The cascade of emotion must have leaked out because suddenly, the man’s

  head snapped around to focus on the spot where Biron’s Awareness was, and an all too familiar weight wrapped around his awareness stripped the time

  affinity from it, and snuffed it out like a candle. The last thing Biron saw from the condensed time pocket was an angry pair of familiar blue eyes.

  Birons head rocked back like he’d been struck, and his nose bled. He only just maintained control of his aura. As it stood, with the arena blanked in his

  Domain. If he flared his stats by even a bit, it would severely harm or outright kill everyone in the arena everyone except that man. “Spark!” He barked. “What

  have you done?!”

  A rainbow-hued ball of light popped into existence to Biron’s left. The system seed was omnipresent in this realm, but it used the rainbow orb to have a

  reference point for its avatar and attention. “I have done nothing outside my assigned tasks.”

  Birons hand pointed out through the glass where a small crowd of gladiators charged across the sand to die grusomly. “Who assigned that task?!”

  “ The caretaker, of course. I am to follow the council's directives except where they would conflict with an order given by the caretaker. I was ordered that: in

  the event of a catastrophe that would endanger earth to do all in my power to prevent, and should it prove impossible to prevent it. I should collapse the Demi

  plane and all it contains back into Aether to start fresh. But thank ‘Neo Ares’ for me. If he hadn't passed a petition to invade and conquer earth, I could neither

  speak of nor act on this protocol.”

  Biron ran his hands through his dense white hair. All the hens were coming back to roost. Biron smiled; one way or another, he could be done with all of this.

  ###

  A few minutes earlier:

  Shade stood as the portcullis raised, imagining his actions. When something that had never happened before occurred. He was pulled into the timespace of

  his technique. And someone was observing him there. He quested out with a tendril of will. It was strong. Perhaps the strongest auric force he’d

  encountered. Something about the signature reminded him of that older man he'd seen on the screen earlier. This supposed god. In a fit of anger that swelled

  from nowhere, he grasped the point with his will tendril, and he squeezed. Once it compressed, he sensed that time affinity was woven into this force. It was

  easy to strip the force and take it for himself. The auric construct collapsed and was gone. Shade finished his preparations and triggered his skill. The glyphs

  were all covered up, and the sand was excluded from their effect activation.

  Shade strolled out with Benton and Rowley. The 7 other gladiators left their staging area. The front runner wore red armor adorned with barbed hooks, and he

  held a spiked cudgel; everything about him was meant to inflict pain. Behind him were four other men arrayed with a variety of weapons and armor. Behind

  them were two men heavier than the others.

  The starting gong rang, and the berzerker took off at a run. Shade held his ground, and the other two followed suit, aside from fanning out to the left and right.

  Six steps in and the Berzerker crumpled into a gory puddle mid-stride. He was pulled to he floor and pulped. This distracted the other gladiators until they

  began disintegrating one man, leaving nothing but pristine gear behind. The rest had limbs or entire sections of their body peel away as they passed over the

  augmented waste disposal arrays. Shade held a hand up to halt his two teammates, who looked terrified and confused. The crowd was going wild, and in the

  stands, a regally dressed man was raging at his balcony. Shade walked casually across the sand and stood before the puddle that was the Berzerker. His

  hands clasped his Chakaram behind his back in a casual pose. One of the two Tier 4 gladiators blurred towards him, avoiding any lanes with screaming

  gladiators he approached. Shade pushed time onto his perception and saw the man closing with him. Some sense letting him avoid the traps. with a gesture

  for the audience, Shade targeted him with his scrub spell, augmented to strip Biological material. The approaching gladiator tripped and rolled when it set in.

  He began to scream as his body disintegrated. His armor and weapons were all that remained on the sand where he had previously lain. Shade glanced up to focus

  on the only remaining Gladiator on the Baron’s team.

  “I yield!” the man cried.

  A nother gong sounded. The crowd roared louder than ever, and now he could hear the announcer crying The Marquess’ victory. The ‘God had come out of his

  booth and now stood on the balcony. The Baron was no longer visible on his balcony. Suddenly, Shade felt a massive weight descend, then a pressure

  pressure on his arms. he now stood in a dimly lit but opulently decorated room. The ‘God’s’ hands gripped his upper arms, having clearly snatched him up from

  the arena floor, which was now a glassed and smoking ruin. The baron stood below, wreathed in an aura of power, but he was now being actively suppressed. A

  robed woman and three armored men stood at the four cardinal directions, the fingertips of their gauntleted hands rigid like knives to either sides and the back of

  his neck. The robed women had a palm on his chest. And two fingers up infront of her mouth like a shinto technique.

  “Don't worry, your teammates made were saved by holy knights. They are unharmed.”