Xavier flexed his fingers, ensuring they had fully recovered, and cursed that mad woman. Pushing through the battered wooden door he stepped into the brightly lit control room for Haven. Monitors lit up showing not only the colosseum but flickered through thousands of cameras at breakneck speed. Those working the cameras were all high intelligence evolvers and monitored them with inhuman perception.
"Lord Commander!" A man practically jumped out of the chair he sat in and turned to stand in complete attention in front of Xavier. They wore a cuirass, helmet, and a pteruges, one of the armored skirts used in ancient Rome. It was the dress of the Haven's elite guard, though few wore it. The man in front of Xavier though was an exception. They were never seen without it. There was the sound of their fist snapping to their chest in salute.
"I keep telling you just to call me Xav, Brutus." Xavier snapped, still angry from earlier.
"Yes, Lord Commander." Brutus gave him the same answer as always.
"Fine. Whatever. Make arrangements. I want that Demon to fight Blue next." Xavier growled and flopped into a chair.
"But lord. You said not to pair them against any staff using magic types. We have him set to fight Sparrow next." Brutus responded.
"Fuck it. I want to see what really makes him so special. So far we haven't seen anything worth all this trouble. Besides, even if it does make him stronger. Our plan is already in place. He WILL be ours. Even if that disgusting woman leaves we can do things the old fashion way. One way or another we will bring humanity back to Earth."
For a few moments, there was silence. Then Brutus snapped his fist to his chest again. Before the armored man could even turn around Xavier watched as the screen showing the matchmaking changed. Replacing Sparrow with Blue.
**********
Jake slammed the door behind him as he entered the fighter's preparation area. Rose had clung to him all the way from the apartment. True to her word she had stood outside his door pleading until he had relented and let her in. Only Gerri followed her right in insisting that she was going to keep an eye on the other woman. They had almost seemed to build a friendship earlier in the evening over cooking. But apparently not. Jake wasn't that upset, it was a good excuse to keep Rose in check. Except for the racket of the two arguing all night kept him from sleeping much. Jake sighed again. He would need to deal with the problem soon.
Pushing off the door and turning the corner he let out a curse. "Bloody hell. You scared me. Where have you been?" Jake had almost walked right into Jon who was standing silently in the doorway like some creeper.
"Nowhere nowhere? Did you install it yet? Does it work? Have you tested it? What is this about your equipment reattaching limbs? Oh, look at those scars! Marvelous." Jake had to pull his right arm out of Jon's grip. He had been caressing the multiple scars covering his arm.
"I take it you are talking about the Overload skill?" Jake pulled it out of his pocket. "I wanted you to make sure it was…"
"You haven't used it yet? Go on go on install it!" Jon grabbed Jake's hand and tried to jab it into his neck.
Jake won the short scuffle that occurred and after getting as much of a straight answer as he thought he was likely to get out of the mad crafter did install the skill. They instantly regretted it when Jon exclaimed. "Excellent you didn't explode!"
**********
"Once again the Demon enters the arena. Twice now we have witnessed their brutal methods as they have defeated two of Haven's Heros. Not the cunning of the Maverick or the unshakeable fortitude of his sister The Dame could withstand such demonic might. No wonder he has managed to single handedly terrorize the wastelands with his murderous ways!" The announcer's voice boomed out as Jake again entered the arena. He had seen that for others the arena was often set up in different ways. But whenever he entered it was a wide flat tiled floor with nothing else. It didn't really matter to him.
Jake ignored the crowd, mostly booing and tossing insults. Here and there though he did hear others chanting loudly "Demon!" over the cacophony. Jake wasn't sure how he felt about that. After all, they were cheering what the announcer had labeled him.
"To challenge the Demon we have another Hero of Haven. The elegant sorcerous herself, BLUE!" The announcer roared and his cheer was matched by the crowd.
The woman that entered the arena did so with her hair held high. Her hair was such a pale blonde it was practically white. Her eyes were icy blue with such crystal clarity they looked fake. She was tall, very tall. Well over six feet tall and a deep sapphire blue robe of crushed velvet hugged her slender frame. She carried herself with such confidence Jake imagined it was the bearing an empress would have. He allowed his armor to erupt from his flesh violently before wrapping around himself as much to hide his reaction as to be ready to fight. In her hand, she carried a staff. It looked like a tall slender piece of coral with branches growing out of it. Only made of a semi-transparent blue gemstone material. As she moved into position Jake was sure the air around them dropped several degrees.
"So you are the Demon. Your reign of terror ends with me. I will see that you pay for what you have done." She spoke with a thick eastern European accent. Jake wondered how accents had survived so long in the dimensional spaces before realizing it didn't matter. Jake ignored her, he wasn't here to talk. This he thought would be an easy fight. Spell caster's greatest weakness was their lack of physical defenses. He would just Rift Jump over and destroy her as he had his first opponent. The announcer continued to prattle on before starting the match.
Jake did exactly had he had planned vanishing from where he stood and appearing above the spell caster. His oversized fist came crashing down intent on simply smashing her where she stood. Before his fist could make contact with the woman it slammed into a barrier. What appeared to be a shell of water became visible as his fist struck it. Ripples rolled away from the impact spot and passed through the bubble. When it the ripples traveled to the ground below the stone shattered and cracked. But not even a hair was out of place on the woman.
Her staff moved only slightly and several crests blades of water appeared hammering into Jake's chest. Still airborne from his attack he was sent head over heels back to crash to the ground. Rolling and then skittering he moved away to avoid the follow up attacks but none came. A quick glance at his health bar showed that the attack had depleted both his magical and physical defenses. More of the magical but still, that meant she was able to deal both damage types with that attack.
"Pathetic." She spoke calmly, her voice even. Yet, the sheer disdain in her voice was clear.
Jake gritted his teeth and glared at her from within his mask. 'Fine. If she can protect against physical, I'll use elemental.' His gloves began to smolder and crackle. But before they could ignite fully water appeared out of thin air and wrapped around his arms smothering them. Worse, the bubbles of water didn't go away but continued to smother his flames. Steam rose up from his arm in huge bellowing clouds that even more annoyingly seemed to hang around like a thick white fog slowly filling the arena.
Jake's hud had a number of alternate modes unlocked with the upgrade from adding the AI, allowing him to zoom in or even switch the spectrum he saw in. A few times he had used the thermal mode, giving him an infrared vision. Now surrounded by the thick fog he cycled through them but found each just as useless as his own eyes. Jake crouched and waited, they were just as blind as he was. Watery blades cut through the fog towards him and Jake rift jumped to avoid them while appearing where they had come from. His oversized fist swung at his target but passed through nothing but fog. A haughty laugh seemed to come from every direction at once.
"Pathetic. Are you really stumbling around blindly? Is that really the limit of your skill?" Jake tried his best to identify where they were. He caught the faint silhouette of the Mage and lunged only passing through them accompanied by another mocking laugh.
"My mists have blinded you. But more than that they are an extension of my senses. I know every move you make. You will never catch me. Nor will your little teleportation power help even if you saw me. I can sense where you will appear when you push back my mist." Another silhouette passed by with a laugh and Jake swung at it. Missing again only made him madder.
"Not that it would matter. My Water Shell can redirect any physical attack you might make." More Water Blades cut into him, again his armor's energy fields deflected the attacks. But if she decided to simply hide away and continuously attack he would eventually fall.
"My water snuffs your pathetic flames." A single water blade the size of a person hit him with enough force to send him stumbling back. The white vortex webs on the back of both gauntlets started to spin. Blue white flames flickered to life over his gauntlet even with the water smothering them. They lasted only a short time before going out, all his effort only adding more steam to the fog around him.