CWD: OE ~ Forty

The cook blinked as he stared in shock around the empty space where he and Arriod had appeared. An instant later, Johnny Meat arrived, and Nacho began to despair. If the Crux Terran’s Patron had arrived, that meant-

His concerns turned into confusion as Kronos also materialized next to him, the pair of mortals and Patrons staring each other down. Johnny was the first to speak. “Well, ain't this a pickle.”

“They went through at the exact same time. How long has it been since this happened?” Kronos chuckled quietly as Johnny counted up on his fingers. Nacho noticed that every time he used his fingers to count, another finger would appear on his hand.

“If I am recalling correctly, it's been eighteen thousand, seven hundred and twenty-one iterations since the last time this happened,” Johnny muttered with an unhappy scowl. “ Your boy there sure packs a punch. You sure you weren't cheating?”

“You saw everything just like I did, and so did they.” Weighty stress hung on that last word, as Kronos waved his hand into the darkness around them. No matter how hard Nacho tried, he could not see anyone else, and he had to assume that was for the best. These Patrons were not known for their kindness and cheery attitudes. They were known for callously gambling with life and doing terrible things to civilizations on a whim. It was best if he didn't see their faces, as some of them would likely have taken offense to his involuntary response to their presence. In fact, he stopped trying to look and focused all of his attention on the issue at hand. “You know what this means, right?”

“Sudden death,” Johnny Meat stated grimly, even though his lips turned up in a slight smile at the thought. “If I recall correctly, the theme of this death match is ‘home field advantage’, correct?”

“Sure is.” Kronos didn’t sound quite as happy as he had a moment ago, and a wide grin was taking over the sullen expression on Johnny's face. “You want to explain, or should I?”

“Here's how it works, players.” Johnny launched directly into an explanation without another word toward his peer. “All of the people that were in the dungeon with you are out and in stasis until your fight ends. Both of you are going to be restored to full Health, Mana, Hunger, and Thirst. At any given point during your fight, whoever has more current Health gets the home field advantage. That means that the fight will take place on their Starter World. Other people are not only able, but expected and encouraged, to help out their contestant.”

“The very instant that one of you has more Health than the other, you will be relocated to some random landmark in your own World, near something that is significant to you. That could be people, a place, or even monsters. Whatever pops into your head might influence it, or it might not.” Kronos took over the explanation, locking eyes with Nacho as he spoke, as if he were trying to impart as much unspoken meaning as possible. “There will be no warning; there will be no slowing or stopping. it will be a smooth transition, and all attacks will continue as they were. Abyss, you might only notice if you look around.”

“You will physically be unable to retreat more than twenty feet away from each other. The fight continues until one of you is dead.” Johnny stopped abruptly, earning himself a glare from Kronos.

“The fight is until death or submission.” Kronos looked at Nacho with a hint of worry in his eyes. “If there is no escape, there is always hope where there is life.”

“All rules are explained. The fight begins immediately.” Johnny Meat snapped his fingers, and instantly, the two enemies were facing each other in a field with a strange-colored sky, pollen dancing around them, and the shouts of troops training in the distance.

“What the…?” Nacho glared at the Paladin standing across from him. “There is no way that you have more Health than me. We should absolutely be on my planet right now.”

“Have you never heard of class bonuses? Items that give you extra health? Wait… you mean to tell me that you are working with only the amount of Health that your base characteristics give you?” Arriod attacked immediately, any smile on his face hidden by his cloth mask. “Excellent.”

Nacho cartwheeled out of the way as a glowing afterimage of the sword blasted through the air to his left, avoiding the Skill, but unable to account for the Paladin's charge. The CruxTerran had known that the cook needed to dodge to the right in order to avoid the Skill that would have otherwise been a one-hit kill. As soon as he had triggered it, he attacked, catching Nacho in mid-air with a vicious slash. Even though he blocked a good chunk of the blow between his own weapons and his armor, the cook took enough damage that it was able to pierce through his damage mitigation.

Health remaining: 51/70.

Landing roughly on the ground, Nacho used the momentum to roll backward into a handspring that sent him to the maximum distance that he could take from his opponent. He only discovered the limitation because as soon as he hit twenty feet, it felt as though he had stumbled into a wall, sliding down the open air as if a perfectly smooth physical object stood in the way. “Ow, and noted. Well, you know what? If the restrictions are off and everything is fair play, time for me to show you what a cook can do.”

Running alongside the barrier that continued to move away as Arriod came toward him, Nacho pulled a Rare Resent-o-Potamus steak out of his meat-filled storage slot and started taking huge chomps, downing it as quickly as he could. He smiled when the familiar option for him to add a buff to one of his characteristics appeared, and he chose to boost his Fitness.

Instantly, his speed, health, and capability to deal damage rocketed upward. His maximum health increased to one hundred and two, and his Fitness was sitting at a behemoth forty-four points. Regardless, the terrain around them didn’t change, which was a slight surprise to Nacho. Was this why the CruxTerran’s Patron had been so confident in their ability to survive and win in the Starvation Dungeon? Did they just have a ridiculous amount of Health and capability to keep it high? The possibility existed, but all that did was summon a manic grin to his face. “Finally… someone I can really hone my skills against. I haven't been able to properly practice in ages.”

Stopping his slow circling on a dime, Nacho whirled around and rocketed toward the CruxTerran, who could only flinch back in surprise and slightly angle his sword to defend himself before the cook was upon him. The cleaver chopped down, slamming the larger katana into its wielder and sending the Paladin skidding back across the ground. Before he could get his momentum under control, Nacho was in his personal space, plunging his chef's knife into an armored thigh.

Damage dealt: 47!

“Huh.” Nacho felt a jolt of slight disappointment. “I was expecting a little bit more out of that. Also, it's a kind of annoying that the System isn’t showing me your maximum health.”

“Proper armor is worth the cost,” Arriod spat out, reaching up and adjusting his sunglasses. That motion caused Nacho to realize that the light around them was different; they were on his planet.

“Looks like I’ll just need to go ahead and form a hypothesis on your maximum health based on that amount of damage, and test it. Over and over.” Nacho dashed forward, low to the ground, and swept Arriod off his feet with a rapid twist. Hefting his cleaver up over his head, he brought it down full force on the man in mid-air, the blade penetrating deeply as the force of the attack slammed the Paladin into the ground.

Arriod coughed and murmured something so softly that Nacho almost missed it. “Johnny, mend my meat!”

Red and gold fire flashed across his body, and the brand new wounds vanished. They were also transported to another strange location, this one somewhere on the alien world that was CruxTerra. Nacho *tsked* in disdain. “This place is so bizarre, you know that? Why is there so much pollen everywhere? Does no one on your world have allergies?”

Arriod used the moment that he was being healed to dash away using some kind of Skill, only stopping and facing the human once he had reached the maximum distance he could take. “We used to have citizens weak to the air itself. Most allergens are formed due to pollution, and after the world government took over and reduced the population by four fifths, we didn't need to worry about it so much. Our world healed itself, and we focused on sustaining and maintaining.”

“Cool story, but you just called out the problem with people in power. They have power. That means that they are not invested in growing, in changing, and being better than they once were. They just want to maintain the power they took for themselves.” Nacho shook his head sadly as he readied himself for the next round of combat. “No government that enjoys such firm control would ever offer an education, or allow access to the necessary resources, to progress past what they can control perfectly. That leads to a society of stagnation and eventual collapse.”

There seemed to be very little common ground that these two men could stand on, so no more words needed to be spoken. The cook dashed forward, knives held akimbo as he prepared to butcher the man in front of him. Arriod had seemed to realize that he wasn’t going to be able to win a close range battle, so he sent one ghostly slash followed by another hot on its heels. Even though he was forced to back away, Nacho didn’t miss the look of relief that crossed the face of his target.

“A-one priority mission! Assassin on CruxTerra!” The CruxTerran bellowed into the air. Nacho winced as the call was taken up by people around them, who had kept out of sight until that moment but began bustling through the underbrush in search of whoever had been shouting. “Looks like you just lost-”

The smug assertion was cut off mid-sentence, as Nacho brought his blades down and slammed both of them into the armored side. Just like that, they were standing on Earth once more, materializing in the center of the Armor Mountain fortress.

Now it was the cook’s turn to call for help, but he was able to manage it a bit more forcefully. “Guild Leader command! All available combatants, attack this CruxTerran! For the good of the Chips Guild, for the sake of humanity, take him down!”

The order went out, activating the geas that all Guild members were placed under as soon as they signed a contract to join a guild. First a trickle, then a battalion of humans rushed out of their homes, shops, and resting areas, weapons in hand and bearing down on the duo.

“So this is what it's going to be like?” Arriod snarled, preparing to send another ghostly sword slash at his counterpart.

“Hey, man, you were the one that tried to get your people involved first.” Nacho could only shrug.

“Then let's see what kind of a leader you are.” The ghostly strike went out, just to the side of the cook's position. “Either you take the hit, or that will cut through half a dozen of your people!”

Nacho simply watched as the attack passed him by, blasting through a trio of humans and sending gore fountaining into the air before impacting a wall. “Yeah… you picked the wrong guy to try to convince to make a sacrifice play. I need to win no matter what, and I will.”

He wiped a splash of blood off his face and prowled toward the now-trembling alien that was trapped in his world.