"Edge of Steel! Edge of Steel! Edge of Steel!"
"And now, let the match begin!"
Rytlock ripped Sohothin from its stone scabbard and stabbed it skyward. The blade added its hungry roar to the roar of the crowd. Logan meanwhile lifted his war hammer from his belt and swung it in a series of deadly figure eights. Caithe pulled the daggers from her bandoliers and twirled them before her. The three stared across the arena sands at the norn, her wolf, and the two asura.
The storm of cheers quieted, and a watchful hush fell over the crowd.
Edge of Steel stood, waiting.
So did Dragonspawn's Destiny. They didn't move a muscle.
"What's taking them so long?" Rytlock asked.
Logan said, "Probably terrified."
The members of Dragonspawn's Destiny still stayed put.
"Probably planning something," Caithe said.
An ugly rumble began in the crowd and rose like a wave.
"Don't they care that they look like idiots, just standing there?" Logan asked.
Rytlock snarled. "Don't we?"
With that, he strode forward and broke into a run. Sand flew up in a dust cloud behind him.
"Let's go," Logan said with a sigh, bolting after his comrade.
Caithe lit out as well, catching up to Logan, who caught up to Rytlock. Side by side, the gladiatorial champions charged across the sands toward their mysterious foes.
Dragonspawn's Destiny had still not moved. They seemed frozen in fear.
Rytlock roared a war cry, and his comrades took it up.
At last, the norn warrior moved. She nocked three arrows, hoisted her huge bow, and let fly. The arrows arced up above the sands and then came whistling down toward Edge of Steel.
"Dodge!" Logan called out, swerving to one side as Caithe and Rytlock swerved to the other.
The arrows swerved as well, falling upon them.
"Knock them away!" Logan cried, swinging. His war hammer cracked the shaft that angled toward him, but the head of the arrow sprung open, releasing a metal net. It spread over him and draped to his feet. He tripped and sprawled to the ground, seeing that Rytlock and Caithe were down as well. "Damn it!"
Logan struggled to get free, but the metal mesh clung to his armor. He fought against it, managing to drag the clinging stuff from his left arm. His right was still fouled.
The norn warrior rushed across the sands toward him, pulling a heavy mallet from her belt.
Desperate, Logan stood up, though the mesh still clung to his war hammer.
The norn was there, and her mallet fell like thunder.
Logan tried to leap aside, but the maul smashed his breastplate and sent him tumbling across the sand. He rolled to a stop and staggered up, finally yanking his war hammer free. The norn warrior was stalking toward him, her red hair gathered in braids.
This was not going to be an easy fight.
Rytlock, too, was in trouble. He had scrambled up from the metal net but had left Sohothin within it, hopelessly tangled and sending up metallic smoke.
Worse, the dire wolf was upon him. It leaped for his throat, its jaws gaping.
Rytlock crouched, curling into a ball.
The wolf's massive teeth closed over the neck piece of his armor. The fangs skirled on the metal as the wolf flew past, carried by its momentum. It pounded to the ground just beyond Rytlock and turned, snarling.
He rose and snarled back, his claws out.
The dire wolf eyed him and began to circle, looking for a chance at the charr's throat.
Rytlock laughed. "You look flammable to me. If I had my sword, there'd be wolf on the menu."
The dire wolf lunged, fangs bared. It bashed into Rytlock and knocked him to his back. Its teeth snapped just short of his throat. Roaring, the charr raked his claws down the wolf's neck, drawing blood. The beast reared back and brought its massive forepaws down to pound Rytlock's chest. Breath blasted from his lungs, and once again the wolf lunged for his throat. Rytlock rolled aside, and the wolf got a snoutful of sand. It sneezed massively and bounded off the charr.
Rytlock scrambled to his feet and struggled to regain his breath. The air around was thick with shouts. The crowd chanted, "Edge of Steel!" but also, "Des-ti-ny!"
They didn't care which team won. They only wanted a spectacle, and they were getting it.
On one side of the arena, Logan and the norn warrior traded hammer blows. On the other, Rytlock and the dire wolf circled each other, snarling. That left one other member of Edge of Steel, the one who always struck the killing blow…
Caithe, too, had escaped her net, and she stalked toward the two asura. They lingered near the arena wall as if petrified. She had a dagger for each one, and she could easily plant them from thirty paces. She was nearly in range. Flipping a blade in her hand, Caithe caught the keen tip of it and raised it to throw at the male asura.
But he threw something first-a handful of red sand. It flew out and whiffed down in front of Caithe.
Did he want to blind her? He would have to throw better than that.
Caithe took two more steps. In range. She threw her daggerExcept that the ground shifted underfoot, and the blade spun off-target, only nicking the asura's ear.
He didn't even flinch, focused instead on the sand beneath her feet. It was mounding up. The asura spread his fingers toward the ground, and it rose in response.
Caithe's feet sank to midcalf in the clinging sand. She tried to pull them free but plunged to her knees. Clawing the stuff only trapped her hands as well.
Quicksand! But it wasn't watery. It was firm-like muscle.
A huge sand creature was emerging beneath her. Its back arched from the arena floor and revealed a head with pointed ears. Caithe's feet were mired in its shoulder. Sand sifted away to reveal broad but stumpy arms and stocky legs. The golem stood to full height-a gigantic asura in the likeness of the older asura.
The golem moved as the asura moved. He lifted a hand to his shoulder and pressed firmly down, and the golem's hand lifted the same way, driving Caithe to midthigh in the sandy golem. She stabbed the thing with her daggers, but the blades only sank away, lost in the all-consuming sand.
Caithe shouted for help, but her teammates couldn't possibly hear over the roar of the crowd.
Why are they laughing? Logan wondered, but he had no time to look.
The norn's mallet thrummed the air. Logan leaped aside as the maul cratered the ground. He hurled his own maul around in a sudden, desperate stroke. The head missed the norn but struck the handle of her mallet, breaking it. The blow also jarred the norn's hands. She staggered back.
It was Logan's first opening, and he took it.
Spinning, he whirled the war hammer in a moaning circle.
The norn tried to leap away, but the hammer struck a glancing blow to her ribs. Crack! Breath blasted from her. She staggered back, fell to the ground, and gasped.
A cheer resonated from the crowd.
Logan turned and saw that Caithe was half-buried in the shoulder of a-what was that thing? A sand golem?
He ran toward the golem, raised his hammer, and brought it down against the golem's leg. Steel struck sand and flung away a divot of it. The remaining sand, though, grabbed hold of his weapon. Logan pulled it free and struck again, blasting more sand away. The leg was thinning, the golem tottering. Logan chopped like a lumberjack.
The golem reached its massive hand down to grab him, but Logan dodged away. He smashed one of the sandy fingers, obliterating it. Still the hand reformed and took another swipe at him.
As Logan spun out of reach, he glimpsed the little asura making the same motions as the big one: a puppeteer.
Ducking another attack, Logan rushed up to the asura, hoisted him off his feet, turned him over, and shook him. A golden laurel fell from his head.
Twenty feet behind him, the golem toppled onto its back and shuddered. Sand sifted away from Caithe's legs, and she clawed her way out of the dissolving monster.