10. Spike

“When did you learn to jump like that?” I asked.

“A few weeks ago,” she said. “I was training with Tyler, and he was trying to get me to think outside of my normal patterns of movement. He discovered I was afraid to jump, and I was very careful about lying down on the ground.”

I looked at her in confusion. Why was she afraid of lying on the ground? Annabeth saw my look and laughed.

“Jason, you’re young. I’m sure you can lie on the floor and look for something under the bed without ever having to consider how you’re going to get back on your feet again. When you get older, it’s not so easy. I’m seventy-three years old in human years. You’d better believe I didn’t do any jumping, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to roll around on the floor.”

It always shocked me when she mentioned how old she was. Seventy-three was ancient!

“Of course, I move a lot better now, and Tyler started working on my mindset. He made a platform out of sand that was only four feet high and told me to climb up on it. That would have been impossible for the old me, so I was so surprised when I just jumped, threw my leg over the side, and made it up there. I know logically that doesn’t seem like a big deal, but emotionally, it was huge.”

Her eyes shone with excitement.

“After that, I loved jumping, and Tyler helped me along by raising the platform a few inches every time. Now I can reach almost fourteen feet high if I have a solid wall to kick off of.”

She looked so proud of herself I just wanted to hug her, but she was covered in cherry-flavored blood, so I just gave her a high five instead. Then I discreetly wiped my hand on the floor to get rid of any nasty stuff I’d picked up from her.

“I’ll clean up once this is over,” Annabeth promised. I thought I’d been slick, but she’d seen what I’d done. “It doesn’t seem worth it at the moment. We still have a lot more monsters to vanquish.”

Vanquish. I liked that word. We weren’t killing anything. We were vanquishing them. That felt much better.

“Speaking of that, what did you like about your fight and how do you think you can do better?” I asked.

“The fight itself went well,” Annabeth said thoughtfully. “I thought I’d hit a lot more with the shillelagh than I did. I really just used it to keep the rat at a distance, and it was my knife that did all the damage. Now that I know how to beat them, I’ll be using my knife a lot more.

“My only problem is my knife isn’t as sharp as what I’d like. The rat’s skin was tough, and I had to punch hard to get through it.”

“Do you have a charm you’re using as a template?” I asked. Annabeth nodded, took it off her charm bracelet, and handed it over. The charm was in the shape of a tiny silver dagger, but that was just the protective coating. The real charm was the glass dagger inside it.

Annabeth had clearly formed it herself, as it was saturated with her lovely pink magic. She’d also obviously used a real dagger for a model because the dagger was perfectly proportioned and had lots of detail.

The problem was its tiny scale and that it was formed from blown glass. Glass itself can form a very sharp edge, but only if it’s broken. If it flows into shape, it usually stays more rounded. That wasn’t a problem with normal runes or the shillelagh, but the dagger needed some work.

“Do you mind if I try to sharpen it a bit?” I asked. “I can still use your magic as my own, so I should be able to modify your charm without breaking it.”

It seemed like forever ago, but she’d sworn to give me full access to her magic for the purpose of making a magic matrix for her. We hadn’t known how long it would take, so we’d set a time limit of three months. I could still feel her magic like my own, so we must still be inside that date range, even if only barely.

“I was hoping you’d suggest that,” Annabeth said. “Sharpen away!”

I held the charm in my hand as I zoomed in for a much closer look. At first, I used her magic to make all the changes. The knife was sharp, but nowhere near razor sharp, so I took the rounded edges and gently reformed them into a much thinner line. The glass was already magically saturated and eager to please, but there was delay when working with her power. It sort of felt like when the lip syncing was off in a video. I asked the magic to do something, and a moment later, it happened. But it never seemed to happen exactly the way I wanted, especially at this microscopic level.

I zoomed in again and sharpened the knife even more. It was razor sharp now, but Annabeth was going to use this for a template for a much larger knife. Even razor sharp wasn’t going to cut it.

I had an internal chuckle. Puns are so much fun.

‘You sure are one sharp cookie,’ my Analytical Side joined in.

‘Yep,’ I replied. ‘It’s always fun living on the edge.’

‘The edge of glory!’ he quipped back, and suddenly we were both singing Lady Gaga ‘I’m on the edge, the edge, the edge, the edge, the edge, the edgeeeee—I’m on the edge with you!’

We high fived, bumped hips, and then brought it back. Way back.

Omg—I have too much fun sometimes.

Now, back to business.

I zoomed in again, and at this microscopic level, Annabeths’s magic just couldn’t hang with me. I didn’t want to ruin her charm, so I added just the tiniest infusion of my own power. This time I sharpened it to the finest edge that blown glass could handle. If I wanted it to be sharper, I’d have to transform the edge into a different type of glass.

If this was my own charm, I’d have kept pushing it, but for Annabeth, this was probably more than enough. I wasn’t sure her magic could see this small anyway, so going smaller would probably just be wasted time. I did spend some extra time on the tip. This was a stabbing style of knife, so the tip was the most important.

I zoomed back out again and handed back her charm. She put it back on her bracelet and then summoned her dagger.

“You’re amazing,” she said as she examined her weapon closely. “I don’t know how you do it, but I can hear the changes. It literally sounds sharper. I can’t wait to fight with it again. I think this is going to make a big difference.”

She was going to suck the magic back inside, but I stopped her. I examined her summoned dagger, and it was a lot sharper and it had a nice point, but it had lost its really fine edge because of scale.

“Can I try something?” I asked her.

“Of course!” she replied.

“I think that using a template for your weapon is certainly superior to trying to free form it, but I also think you can go beyond the template and tweak the weapon slightly when you summon it. Just as a test, I’m going to sharpen your summoned blade even more. See if you can feel what I’m doing.”

Annabeth nodded to show she understood, and I went to work. Using her own magic, I tweaked the edges and the point slightly.

Annabeth said she felt the change, but to her, it was really small. She unsummoned her dagger, then summoned it again. Parts of it were better; parts of it were actually worse. We did that three more times, and then I felt my connection to Annabeth’s magic fade away.

“What happened?” she asked, puzzled.

“I think your swear from the park just ended,” I said. “I knew we were coming up to three months. We were sitting on the bench in the early afternoon, so I guess it’s about that time.”

“Do you want me to swear again?” Annabeth asked. “You having access to my magic has been a big help so far. I really think that one of the advantages we have in this tournament is our trust in each other.”

“I think that would be a good idea,” I said. “I want to swear to you too. That way, if either one of us gets injured or needs help, the other person can use their own magic to help them. We’re both healers, after all.”

We talked about it a bit more, as swearing on our magic was a big deal. But the logic was sound, and I trusted Annabeth completely. The potential advantage outweighed the risks. We got our wording set, and Annabeth went first.

“I, Annabeth Matz, swear on my magic to grant full access to Jason Cole for the purpose of healing and magical support. He can see and use my magic like his magic, my body like his body, my aura like his aura. My power and my aura will assist him in every way possible in whatever endeavor we are engaged in. So long as he does no harm to me, he will have this ability for three months, starting now.”

Her body and magic sprang back into focus for me. Last time, I hadn’t sworn to her, so I was excited to find out how she could help me. She had a whole different skill set, after all. Maybe she could sing my magic in a whole new direction from what I was used to? This tournament was pushing our abilities, and I felt excited. Anything was possible.

“I, Jason Cole, swear on my magic to grant full access to Annabeth Matz for the purpose of healing and magical support. She can see and use my magic like her magic, my body like her body, my aura like her aura. My power and my aura will assist her in every way possible in whatever endeavor we are engaged in. So long as she does no harm to me, she will have this ability for three months, starting now.”

“Oh!” Annabeth looked at me with her new access. “Wow! Your magic looks so pretty.”

I laughed, but it made me feel good.

“It really is the color of sapphires and emeralds. And there’s so much of it. And it sparkles!”

“Well, I am gay after all,” I teased her. “We just naturally shimmer in the spotlight.”

Annabeth kept looking at me like I was her first My Little Pony and she couldn’t wait to play with me. I gave her a poke to get her back on track.

“We were working on your dagger, remember?”

“Oh. Right,” she said and summoned her weapon again. I got back to sharpening her blade and helping her feel the difference. I noticed that I could use her magic a lot better than before. Maybe it was because we’d sworn to each other now? Maybe there was some sort of feedback loop happening?

Regardless, we did that at least ten more times before Annabeth was consistently getting it the way we wanted.

“I can’t see things like you do,” Annabeth said, “so for me, it’s more like I have the intention of sharpness. I’m going beyond using my template. I’m adding the intention for the weapon in the first place.”

She looked down into the floor below, and a demon rat was sniffing at the edge of the hole in the wall.

“I know we haven’t talked about your fight yet, but I’m ready to try this out. Wish me luck!”

“You don’t need luck,” I replied. “But I’ll wish it for you anyway.”

Annabeth hopped off the floor and dropped to the ground below. For a moment, she looked like a character out of Final Fantasy as she summoned her weapons and charged the rat.

This time, her fight went much better. She used her “zoom” speed to circle the monster and stab it everywhere she could. Her knife was clearly a lot sharper, as it sunk into the demon like she was stabbing warm butter.

It still took a few minutes, but finally the rat keeled over and Annabeth vanquished it with a flourish. She jumped up through the opening and sat down beside me again as the rat disappeared with a pop.

“Three down, seven more to go,” she said cheerfully. “As long as we can fight the rats one at a time, I don’t think they’re going to be a problem. Now, tell me about your fight.” And that is what I did. When I’d finished, she looked at me thoughtfully.

“It sounds like you’ve already made changes to your abilities. Are you going to stick with that or come up with something else?”

“I’d like to come up with some sort of piercing weapon like you have,” I replied, “but I’m not sure what to do. My creations are limited to about three inches, so making a knife won’t work. I’d have a wonderful handle, but not much else.”

“Why don’t you make claws like the rats have?” Annabeth suggested. I thought about it, then shook my head.

“I’m sure I could make some sharp claws, but I’d have to switch from punching to slashing. I’d lose my stopping power, and right now, that’s what is keeping the rats away from me. Punching is both my best offense and best defense.

“What I need is something like brass knuckles with spikes,” I said thoughtfully. I slipped into problem-solving mode and imagined what I’d need in my head.

Brass knuckles had a gripping part that secured itself against the meaty part of the hand. Then they flowed around the fingers and formed a solid striking surface, except now I needed them to have spikes.

‘That isn’t going to work,’ my Analytical Side spoke up. ‘Brass knuckles get their power from the extra weight in your hand as well as how hard their surface is. You don’t want extra weight, as it’s going to throw off your punching. Plus, it’s going to be really hard to relax and keep your speed up if you”re holding something.’

‘True,’ I replied. ‘So let”s switch that to something like Wolverine’s claws.’

I imagined hooked, shiny blades coming out between my knuckles. They looked bad-ass, but I already knew they weren’t what I was looking for.

‘Wolverine normally slashes with his claws instead of punches,’ my Analytical Side noted. So I switched them from claws to spikes.

‘I think we’re getting there, but I just thought of something else,’ he said. ‘If your first point of contact is two inches beyond where you normally hit, it’s going to throw your timing off.’

Hmmmm.

Spikes were the right idea, as they added puncture power to my blows. What I really needed was for them to work the same way as my force runes did with Red and the hexagons on my fists. Those didn’t trigger until I did the tense-on-contact part of my punch, and then they ramped up at the same speed as my regular muscles.

What I needed were spikes that started inside my hand. Then, as I started my tense-on-contact part of my punch, they would shoot out of my hand and into whatever I was punching. When I relaxed and withdrew my punch, they’d spring back into my hand again.

I visualized that in slow motion and looked at my Analytical Side for his thoughts.

‘That would work, but they would have to be very quick,’ he noted. ‘You already punch faster than most people can see. For them to extend and retract at the point of contact, they will need to be almost bullet-fast.’

‘I can base them off my Surfer Dudes,’ I replied. ‘They are the fastest as well as the most detailed creation I have.’

‘True,’ my Analytical Side said thoughtfully. ‘But they are made up of tiny cubes, like sugar. They won’t hold together enough to actually punch a hole in anything.’

‘Then I’ll make my cubes interlock like Legos,’ I replied. ‘Additionally, I’ll make it so the cubes are staggered and don’t line up with their neighbors. That way there aren’t any obvious fault lines.’

I punched in the air a few more times, looking for problems.

‘I think that just might work,’ my Analytical Side said hopefully. ‘Put it together and let’s see how it performs in real life.’

The wonderful thing about making imaginary creations was I could make just about anything. And I could make them quickly.

I duplicated my lead Surfer Dude and started making changes. First, he wasn’t a Dude anymore—he was a Spike. My Surfers could transform into just about anything because of their granular makeup, but I wanted to give this guy a different name entirely. Not only would he now have a specific function, I’d also be changing the basic cube itself.

I zoomed in tight and started with just one cube. I gave it two bumps and two dips on each side so it could easily interlock with its neighbors. I engraved the offensive, fast-version of the force rune in the corner. That way every particle of my Spike would be focused on speed and power.

Once I was happy, I commanded all the other cubes to transform to the same shape, and all three hundred eighty-six thousand cubes changed in one shot. I was very happy that worked, as changing that many cubes one at a time would have taken forever.

After that, I just needed to finalize the actual shape of the spike itself. I’d originally thought of something like a traffic cone, where it starts needle sharp at the top and then keeps getting wider and wider as it goes down.

I didn’t like how skinny the top part stayed, though. I’m sure it would have had wonderful piercing power, but it seemed so delicate. This was for battle situations. It needed to feel tough.

Next, I tried something like a nail, where the tip flared out fast and then formed a solid column for the rest of the spike. That wasn’t exactly what I wanted either. That seemed more like it was bashing into the enemy. I had the terrific detail to make a sharp point. I needed to use it.

Finally, I settled on something in the middle. I made the first inch taper out from a sharp point. Then the next inch was about as big around as my pinkie and provided solid support for the piercing part. The final inch flared out even more and formed a solid base inside my hand. I also marked it like it was a coiled spring to give it explosive power.

I went back to the tip, and although it was narrowed down to just one grain, I still modified it so it came to a point. This spike should have a piercing power that was insane!

I had Penny save the template, then duplicated it seven more times. One for each knuckle. Finally, I filled them up with magic and set them in position.

‘Welcome to the team!’ I said to my new Spikes. ‘You are going to add a whole new level of offense. Up till now I could bludgeon the enemy and break them down. That doesn’t work for everyone, though, and today you are adding the pierce to my punch!’

They vibrated with excitement, so I kept going.

‘We will need to work on timing, of course, but once it’s set up, you are literally going to get your point across. You’re going to jab ’em and stab ’em. You’re going to prick ’em and stick ’em. You’re going to thrust ’em and bust ’em. You’re newbies, but your enemies will be Swiss cheese.’

I was running out of words that rhymed, so I figured I’d better wrap this up.

‘In short, we are going to do great things together. Now, let”s vanquish some rats!’

My Spikes were so excited I thought they’d start whizzing through my body at full speed. They were wound up and ready to go.

I focused back on the real world and gave Annabeth a big smile.

“Did you make some brass knuckles?” she asked.

“Even better!” I replied and told her all about it.

“That sounds amazing, Jason!” she said and went to hug me. Then she remembered she was still covered in rat juice, so she turned it into a shoulder bump instead.

“Are you ready to face another monster?”

“I’m going to do a couple test punches,” I replied. “But then, yes, I’m ready to get my Spikes on. Wish me luck!”

I slipped off the edge and dropped down to the floor below.

“You don’t need luck,” she called down to me. “But I’ll send it anyway.”

I gave her a cheerful wave and then took a quick look around to make sure no rats were lurking to ambush me. I’d already had a look from up top, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

The coast was clear, so I looked for a good patch of dirt to use for testing. I could have hit the rocks in the walls, but that seemed awfully hard to test on. I was going to be hitting monsters, and hopefully, they wouldn’t be as hard as stone.

I had faith in my soul creations, but I didn’t expect them to be able to punch through rock. I just needed them to get through tough skin, muscles, and things like that.

I lined up my patch of dirt, leaned over, and gave it a test punch.

Wow.

It was certainly different. Not bad-different. Just different.

The best news was there were four beautiful holes in the ground. They went about two inches into the ground and looked like someone had made them with a fat pencil.

The not so great news was that this certainly put a lot more stress on my hand and arm. I thought about dialing back the force runes a bit, maybe back to forty percent, but then decided not to. Both of my Marks were still working on me, so I should only get stronger and more resilient as time passed. If I could handle it now, then I needed to keep going.

I punched the dirt some more and realized my timing needed further calibration. That was easy to fix, and soon the Spikes were feeling natural.

I could have played in the dirt for another hour, but we had monsters that needed killing. I’d have thought all my pounding would have drawn their attention, but nobody was sniffing at the holes.

I called and waited, but still, no rats.

“I need a volunteer,” Annabeth said in a singsong voice, and just like that, a demon rat showed up.

“You’re a rat whisperer,” I called up to Annabeth as I started sprinting towards it. It stepped out of its hole and sniffed the air, but I was on it before it could charge.

Lightning Punch!

Lightning Punch!

The rat hissed like a snake and staggered a few steps. Blood was going everywhere, but I didn’t let up and hit it even harder. Its leg collapsed, and that’s when I realized just how powerful my Spikes were. They were going right through the bone.

A few seconds later and it was over. Annabeth dropped down to the floor and came over as the rat disappeared with a pop.

“I’ll take that hug now,” I said cheerfully and held out my messy, red-stained arms.

“Um, no. Hard pass.” Annabeth wrinkled her nose at me. I guess it was different when it was someone else’s monster blood.

“How do you feel?” she asked. “Are you ready to knock out this quest?”

“I feel great!” I replied. “Let’s do it!”

And with that, we got to work.

The rats ignored me, but they came when Annabeth called. She was careful and only pulled one or two at a time. With our new abilities, we quickly put the demons down.

It was messy work, though, and at one point I got a splash of rat blood in my mouth. Annabeth was right. It tasted a bit like cherries.

My new Spikes were incredible, and I felt like they were even more effective than Annabeth’s knife. I didn’t have any long-range attacks, but my fists were turning into powerful weapons.

It wasn’t long before we had our ten tails, but we decided to keep going. We’d put in a decent amount of time powering up at the beginning of the quest and we were already here. So we might as well take advantage of our preparation.

Who knows—maybe we’d clear them all out and get the bonus.

We were working on our second set of ten when we heard the sound of feet on the stairs. Was Otugh coming back to check up on us already?

We finished dispatching the rat we were working on and went to the center of the room to look up through the opening. It wasn’t long before we saw Otugh step into view, followed by another team of adventurers.

He was attempting to give them the history of the warehouse and the reason he’d started the seventh floor, but they wanted none of it.

“Whatever, old man,” the leader said dismissively. “We get it. Kill some rats. Complete a quest. Get a reward.”

“This is so lame,” one of the other adventurers whined. “Couldn’t they have come up with something better to do?”

“There is already another team working the floor,” Otugh said loudly. “You are welcome to stay right here until they are finished.”

He was practically yelling, and Annabeth looked at me in surprise.

“I think he’s trying to warn us,” I whispered, and she nodded in agreement.

“We don’t wait for anyone,” the team leader snarled. “Now go away, and we’ll handle this. Just make sure you have our pearls ready. I don’t want to spend any more time in this hellhole than I have to.”

“Most certainly, good gentleman,” Otugh continued to yell. “I’ve provided a lamp if you need light to see by, and here is the rope for you to get to the floor. The other team must not have dropped it for some reason.”

I heard the sound of little feet, and Ank’s anxious face appeared over the edge of the opening.

“Are you okay?” he asked worriedly. We both gave him a smile and thumbs up.

“There’s more adventurers here, and they seem to be in a big hurry. Maybe you should come up with us and let them have a turn.” He was speaking as fast as possible, and I got the sense that he was trying to come up with a good excuse for us to get out of there.

“I’ll get the rope,” he said, just as a hand reached down and grabbed him by the hair.

“Don’t hurt the boy,” Otugh yelled as the hand lifted the boy into the air.

I heard the sounds of Otugh getting punched as Ank shrieked and clung to the hand holding him up.

“Trying to warn them, huh?” the man who could only be the leader of the team sneered. Then he threw Ank back towards the stairs, and I heard the sounds of a body hitting the wall.

A look of pure rage came over Annabeth’s normally happy features. I felt its own echo in my soul.

Those bastards were going to pay.

“For the last time, get out of here,” the leader commanded, and I heard the sound of retreating footsteps. Hopefully, Otugh and Ank were okay.

The other team came over to the edge and looked down at us. There were five of them, all guys, and all wearing matching outfits. They had their team name on the front—Fists of the Desert. I glanced at the info over their heads and saw they followed the Path of the Withered Cactus, whatever that was.

“You two look rough,” one of the Fists chuckled maliciously. “And you’re already down to two members. That’s pathetic. Just pathetic.”

“I would have expected better, even from a rat team,” The lead Fist seemed relaxed and enjoying himself. “After all, rats should know how to fight other rats. Right?”

He laughed, and his team laughed with him.

“At least you’ve done some of the work for us,” He looked around at all the rat tails on the floor. “Now, why don’t you put your pearls, charms, and whatever else you have on the floor in front of you. If you make it easy on us, we might just let you stay in this game a while longer.”

“Or we might not,” one of the other adventurers quipped.

“Be quiet,” the leader snapped. “They might be stupid enough to do it.”

“Nah, they don’t have anything to give us,” the first guy said. “Look at them. They’re the House team.”

The whole team seemed to pause and really look at us. Then the leader swore.

“That’s just our damn luck to run across a shitty team like this. You’re right. They won’t have anything, and these rat tails are cheap. Well, we”re here now. Let’s get our points and move on.”

The team murmured in agreement, and one of them threw down the rope. The Lead Fist looked at us.

“Don’t touch the rope,” he commanded. “If you try to climb up and escape, we’ll hold you down and hurt you before we kill you. We’ll have to be quick about it, of course, but you can still scream a lot in a short amount of time. On the other hand, if you don’t cause any problems, I’ll just snap your necks and make it quick.”

Annabeth still looked like she wanted to rip off his head and spit down his throat, but I put my hands up placatingly and stepped back with a humble bow.

“Follow my lead,” I whispered to Annabeth.

I got the Look of Death mixed with a side of Hairy Eyeball, but she raised her hands and stepped back with me.

“You’d better have a plan,” she snapped as the first of the Fists of the Desert started shimmying down the rope.

“Oh, I do!” I said and whispered what I had in mind.

“I love it!” she said with a look of glee. “But, if any of them are still standing at the end, I get first crack at them.”

“Of course!” I replied. “You know I live to make you happy.”

She snorted, but at least I wasn’t getting the Hairy Eyeball anymore.

I sent two of my Surfer Dudes over to the light switch button on the wall of the sixth floor and two more up to the fifth. They arrived in plenty of time, as the team seemed to take forever to get down the rope.

With their matching outfits and logo’d name, I’d figured they were a mid-level team. They didn’t move like one, though. I’d have thought they’d have just jumped into the opening like we had.

Regardless, I sent another two Dudes over to the end of the rope—both to keep it steady for them as well as to be ready for the plan.

Once all five members were on the seventh floor, the leader turned to us with a gleam in his eyes. He looked satisfied, like we were trapped and everything was going according to his plan.

Then he looked a bit confused at how satisfied we looked. Everything was going according to our plan.

“Now!” I commanded, and we both jumped for the opening above us. I waited until I was sure Annabeth had a good grip on the lip and was swinging up onto the sixth floor before I turned out the lights.

My Surfers turned out the lights on the sixth and fifth floors and raced back to me. Most importantly, though, I turned off my Flashers. With my magic sight, I thoroughly enjoyed the shocked look on their faces as we launched into the air and the floor plunged into darkness.

One of the team members had enough sense to reach for the rope, but my Surfers had already hauled it up and away. They were now trapped on the floor in the dark, and it was only about to get worse.

“Pleasure and action make the hours seem short,” Annabeth called to the floor below us. “Come, my little demons. The hour is short, and the feast is prepared.”

I think she was quoting Shakespeare? Regardless, red eyes started appearing in the darkness. Lots of red eyes.

“Or, as I used to say,” Annabeth continued, “supper’s ready! Come and get it while it’s hot!”

I chuckled at her humor as we both crouched on the edge of the opening, ready to enjoy the show.

The Fists of the Desert might not have been able to handle a rope well, but they looked pretty in sync as they sprang into action.

“Circle up!” the leader commanded, and they quickly formed a four-person circle with the leader in the middle.

“Scorpion’s glow!” he called next, and they all started emitting an electric blue light. It helped that they could now see their opponents, but the eerie source of light made the rats look even more monstrous. I was very glad we hadn’t had to fight under those conditions.

The first rats out of the hole sniffed and charged. That’s when I saw the blue light was for more than just illumination—it was some sort of shield too.

As the rats got close, it seemed to slow them and drain them somehow. The rats started panting, and most of them fell to the ground twitching.

Not all of them, though. Some of them kept their feet and continued to charge. That”s when the leader in the middle went to work. He held up his hands, palms out, and what appeared to be a stream of sharp needles flew out.

The rats didn’t like it, but the needles didn’t seem to hurt them at all. The leader growled and tried again. This time the needles seemed much faster, and they started punching into the rats.

That wasn’t going to be good enough either as more rats poured out of the holes and joined the fight. The Fists were stopping the rats with their blue glow, but from what I could see, they weren’t actually killing them. Their leader must have thought the same thing, as he gave new orders.

“To the wall! Double the glow!”

The glow grew even brighter as the team started shuffling towards the wall. The extra glow seemed to do the trick, as some of the rats fell over and popped out a few moments later. The leader also changed his needles again. Instead of a stream of needles, he started shooting one larger needle at a time.

These new needles must have really been moving, as they sounded like someone was firing off bullets. I figured they were costing a lot of magic, as the leader was only shooting the most persistent rats and only until they fell to the ground. After that, he left them alone and didn’t go in for the kill.

“I think I’ve figured out their path,” Annabeth said as their team finally reached the wall. “The Path of the Withering Cactus is about what they do to their opponents.”

“How do you figure?” I asked.

“They use their blue glow to wither their opponents,” Annabeth explained. “Then they shoot them full of needles. So, at the end of the fight, their opponents look like dried up cactuses. Hence––the Path of the Withering Cactus.”

“You’re so smart,” I told her. Then we watched the fight continue. I was afraid we’d have to summon more rats or jump down and take care of them ourselves, when the first member of their team fell.

One rat ran along the side of the wall, resisted the blue glow, and made it within striking distance before the leader could needle him. He bit a mage’s leg, and then started pulling backwards as fast as possible, dragging the mage away from the others. The mage screamed bloody murder, but the leader couldn’t get in a good shot to stop the rat. The injured mage switched from blue glow to needles and tore the rat up. But before he could hobble back to his team, another rat bit him, and then another. It only took a few seconds, but the rats pulled him back into their pack, and then tore him apart.

Or, at least, they tried to. The mage popped and disappeared, just like the rats we’d vanquished. That made me feel a lot better. Nobody was dying here today. The Fists of the Desert were assholes, but they didn’t deserve to get ripped apart by demon rats.

I was sure the injuries were real, though. It looked like his leg was broken, and I knew I’d seen real blood. Even so, he would recover. I was sure the tournament had healers standing by.

The leader changed tactics and started focusing on heavy-injury shots. I think the blue glow was supposed to wear the rats down and kill them on its own, but it wasn’t working fast enough. Now the leader was attempting to pile up the bodies on one side of them to form a wall. I thought that was crazy. These rats tunneled through rock. A few rat bodies weren’t going to stop them.

To my complete surprise, it worked. If the rats couldn’t see the enemy, they just kept circling around until they could. A smarter enemy would have quickly taken the wall down. But the rats weren’t smart. They were sight attackers only.

Once one side was built up, the leader started on the other. The guy was a complete jerk, but he wasn’t a bad leader. He was keeping most of his team alive and coming up with a winning strategy on the fly.

After seeing them go down the rope, I’d wondered how they could be a mid-tier team. But seeing them fight, it now made sense.

I was also seeing a Path in action, and I had to admit, I was impressed. Their glow and their needles were unique and seemed to go well together. If they would have stuck with traditional weapons, they never would have come up with this. Well, the needles weren’t all that original, but the blue withering glow was.

Now that the rats were only coming in from the front, I expected the team to hold their ground and gradually wear the rats down. Somehow, it seemed like they were doing worse. Annabeth felt the same way, and then it hit me.

“They don’t know how to focus their glow,” I told her. “They are radiating their magic all around them, but since the rats are only coming in from one direction, the glow is a lot less effective.”

“Then they’d be better to all switch to needles,” Annabeth noted. It was almost like they’d heard her, because that is what they did.

One guy stayed glowing to provide light and some protection while the other three mages switched to heavy needles. They weren’t as good as the leader, though. Their needles seemed to have less penetrating power.

All that fighting finally closed off the only avenue of attack, and the Fists of the Desert took a breather. They pulled out some canteens and quickly drank their fill of water. They also seemed to be taking pills of some sort.

Wait, those weren’t pills. They were pearls. These guys were eating their own profits. I guess they were low on magic and needed to get it back somehow.

I told Annabeth what I was seeing, and she looked puzzled.

“Don’t they have to go through some sort of process to pull the pearl’s magic back into themselves again? I thought you told me that.”

“I thought that too,” I replied. “Although, now that I think about it, I got that impression from Bitty when he was talking about the history of the Bank. I don’t think he said that for sure. I do know that if those pearls weren’t their exact color, they just swallowed some contamination, and a battle is no time to deal with that.”

The Fists looked exhausted, and two of them sat on the floor and took it easy. That proved to be a mistake, as they had forgotten one very important thing. Once the rats died, they disappeared.

One mage still had his glow going, and I guess it was enough to finally tip the heavily injured rats over the edge. There was a series of pops, and the first wall they’d made just vanished.

The team recovered quickly and resumed fighting, but it occurred to me that their needles had the same problem as shooting arrows. Once the needles left their hands, that was magic they weren’t getting back. I could only assume the same thing with the blue glow. It was affecting the area around them, and that had to be a constant drain on their power.

I told Annabeth my thoughts, and she agreed. At some point, they were going to run out.

It happened sooner than I expected. The mage doing the glow fell to his knees and passed out.

I was shocked to see the leader summon a knife and stab his own fallen teammate. The guy disappeared with a pop, so I guess it was a merciful way to exit the game. Overall, though, that still seemed pretty ruthless to me.

Three mages were left, and one of them switched over to Scorpion’s glow. That left two shooters, and they would surely have fallen quickly, except the number of rats had fallen also. The guy with the glow didn’t last long, and he passed out too. The last supporting member of their team switched over to glow as the last few rats got to the fallen member and mauled him out of the tournament.

The leader sacrificed his fallen comrade so he could get in his final shots, and the last of the rats fell. For a moment, all was quiet, except for the harsh panting of the final two team members.

“Bring up the house lights, Jason,” Annabeth said. “It’s time I taught this team a lesson.”

“Before I do, you need to make sure your shield charm is up to full strength,” I said.

“Oh, right,” she said and started charging it.

“Also, you said you wanted the first crack at them,” I said. “Which one do you want? I’m assuming the leader?”

“I want both of them.” She looked fierce. Clearly, she had not forgotten what they had done to Ank and Otugh.

“I appreciate your sentiment, but let”s not lose sight of why we are here,” I said. “I know you’ll feel wonderful taking both of them out, and I have complete faith you can do it, but the risk of injury is a lot higher.”

I let that sink in a moment as I reached out to my Flashers and brought back the lights. The floor was a scene of carnage until the rats started popping out. Soon there were just a lot of tails lying around in pools of demon-rat blood.

“You’re right,” Annabeth sighed. “This team doesn’t really matter in the larger scope of things. Let’s just pop them, and then pop any rats that are left. I still want to clear this floor.”

“Okay then. As team leader, I’m taking out their team leader,” I said firmly. “I have the better shield, and he has the best long-range weapon. You shank his backup, and then come help me. Our only goal should be to finish them off as quickly as possible.”

I looked at her shield charm.

“All charged up and ready to go?” She nodded.

I looked at the other team. They were still by the wall, recovering. But they were keeping an eye on us.

“Let’s go,” I said and easily dropped to the floor below.

I thought the Fist Leader might do some more taunting or smack talking, but instead, he shot a heavy needle at me right away. Maybe he had more respect for our abilities now he’d fought the rats too.

His needles had seemed so fast when we were up top, but now that one was actually flying at me, it seemed kind of slow. It wasn’t any faster than I’d faced in the sand arena back at the House.

My Surfer Dudes were already in position, and they easily pushed it out of the way. I didn’t even bother to dodge. Instead, I raced toward him as he shot at me again and again.

Annabeth “zoomed” by me as she targeted the backup mage, who was just starting to get his glow on. She didn’t even summon her knife. Instead, she did a couple “pow” punches and bounced him off the wall. Then she “boom” punched him and knocked him out of the tournament.

I think she’d been hoping to help me with Fist Leader, but I already had him well in hand. His needles never landed, but when I reached him, my punches certainly did.

I’d forgotten I still had my Spikes going, so I not only broke things, I poked holes in him too. Have fun recovering from that, asshole.

Fist Leader popped out of the tournament, and as he did, I noticed something fall to the ground. I picked it up and showed it to Annabeth. It was a little pouch. Almost like an old-fashioned change purse. I popped the snap to open it, and inside were a bunch of pearls.

“Looks like they completed some quests before they came here,” Annabeth said excitedly. “And now, in a way, we did too.”

“In a way,” I agreed and handed her the pouch.

“You’re the team leader,” she said and tried to hand it back.

“I always seem to get into trouble,” I said, refusing the pouch. “My clothes get trashed, and all sorts of nasty stuff seems to happen. Of the two of us, you are much more likely to get our pearls back to the Palace safe and sound.”

“That is true.” Annabeth nodded thoughtfully and put the pouch in her pocket.

We looked around, but it was just the two of us. No rats and no teams. Although there were an awful lot of tails on the floor.

“At least the Fists of the Desert were useful for something,” Annabeth noted. “We could have taken these rats out ourselves, but it was a lot more fun watching them do it.”

“For sure,” I agreed. “Although, after watching them fight the rats, I’m a bit surprised at how easily we took them down.”

“Don’t get cocky,” Annabeth said seriously. “They”d just done a lot of fighting, and they were down to only two people. If we’d fought them when they were still fresh with all five members, it would have probably been a lot harder.”

“Oh, believe me, I’m not getting cocky at all,” I replied quickly. “I was just thinking how their powers were better suited to battling lots of lower level monsters—rather than fighting a few high level targets like us. I don’t know how they would have fared against the rat king, but I’m thinking they wouldn’t have done very well.

“I’m just thinking about us and what we can do. I don’t want to make the same mistakes they did and take on more than we can handle.”

“Well keep figuring it out, puzzle boy.” Annabeth gave me a gory half hug. I was pretty gross myself, so I half-hugged her back. “Now, are you ready to take on the rat king?”

“Sure!” I replied in my best team-leader, enthusiastic voice. “Let’s do it!”

I almost broke out into a cheer. Something along the lines of:

“Rats! Rats!

Going down

We gonna beat’cha

Into the ground.”

That sounded a little too bloodthirsty, though, and I couldn’t come up with anything else fast enough. Plus, I was afraid a full cheer was just a little too gay. After all, if you’re gonna do the chant, then you’ve gotta jump in the air and wave imaginary pom poms at the end.

Annabeth looked at me questioningly, like she expected something more.

“The moment has passed,” I sighed and waved it away. “Call the rats and let”s get to poppin’. We have tails that need collecting.”

Annabeth put on her game face, started calling, and five regular rats showed up to play. I thought that might be a lot to handle at once, but both of us had plenty of energy to burn and we tore through them almost as fast as they appeared.

Then the rat king showed up.

Otugh was right—he was a lot more powerful than the other rats we’d faced. He was at least double their size, and it wasn’t just his eyes that glowed red—his teeth did as well. It certainly upped the demon factor a lot. It also made me think that a bite from him would do more than physical damage—it would also curse me in some way.

Rat king sniffed the air, and then decided Annabeth was the tastier choice, so he went after her. She “zoomed” away, and the chase was on. The king had to have weighed at least three hundred pounds, but despite its mass, it could still stop and turn on a dime. Its low center of gravity and powerful legs made it a formidable foe.

Annabeth led it on a merry chase around the floor, making sure to pass by me more than once. I punched the crap out of it as it ran by—drilling holes down the length of its body. After I did that a few times, it decided that I was a much better target and came after me.

It ran at me, hissing, with its mouth open—ready to take a big chunk out of my cute self. I liked my body just the way it was, so I targeted its two massive, glowing incisors and punched the crap out of them.

I really thought that teeth would be just too hard for Spike and his crew to handle. But they punched right through. It didn’t take many holes before the teeth shattered.

The rat king hissed like a tea kettle and backed up, right into Annabeth’s blade. She started stabbing away, like she was trying out for the lead in a Scream movie, while I went all Bruce Lee Fist of Fury on its front half.

Between us, we knocked it down to size. The rat king tried to get its momentum back, but we weren’t about to let that happen. We were fast and deadly, and before long, the rat king fell over and the glow faded from its eyes.

“Are you okay?” I asked as we both stepped back. She was covered in so much blood, it was hard to tell if any of it was hers.

“Not a scratch,” she replied. “You?”

“I’m good too,” I assured her. Then I heard the sounds of voices and the clomping of feet on the stairs. We were about to have more visitors.