Alex opened his eyes and took in a deep breath. Aether filled him, and he opened his gate instinctively before he could even take in his surroundings. Electricity pulsed out from his heart and through his muscles with every beat. His gate filled him with a tingling sensation as if he was moving an asleep limb for the first time in hours. He could sense metal all through the walls, and the building reminded him of concrete when he looked around himself.


    "Ladies and gentlemen!"


    The same announcement everyone in the arena heard started, and Alex saw the timer start and the screens light up. He quickly assessed his situation and guessed how Sayed would react when he found out what happened.


    "That''s not important," Alex said, focusing on his senses. "I need to gather as much information about this place as I can. If I can figure out how to get out, this fight doesn''t matter."


    He jumped through the window of his building and landed out in the street. Around him, he could hear the sounds of metal clashing, people screaming, and other general noises associated with fighting. He could even feel some of the fights in his senses. He focused on looking around the horizon. He needed to find a wall.


    He ran, holding his staff at his side as he picked one direction. Even if he couldn''t see the wall, if he ran far enough, he would find one eventually, right? There had to be an edge of the arena at some point.


    He didn''t use ''step'' to increase his speed but just took it at a steady pace. He heard more and more fights around him, and he saw them in his senses, but he ignored them. He ran past ruined buildings but could not see a wall. After a few minutes, he stopped. He could have sworn he had already run past one of the ruined sets of buildings.


    "That''s a lot of power to put in," Alex whispered, looking around in all directions. "You would have to change the setup''s gravitational pull as well. Negate all of it from the island."


    Thump. Thump.


    He tapped his staff on the ground. It felt as solid as it should. He dropped it and stood over it. He opened his gate, focused a repulsive magnetic force down toward the staff, and sent himself flying into the air.


    Back in his original world, there was a person in fiction who was called the ''Master of Magnetism.'' He could use the very magnetic field of the earth itself to fly. Alex wished he had that strong of an ability. Sure, he might be able to do something like that someday, but now, his curse wasn''t strong enough.


    As he rose to about the height of a three-story building in the arena and reached the limit of his curse, he felt what he was looking for. The wall that held the stands was in the sky above, curving around the arena. Whoever ran the island had turned the arena floor into a massive city-sized sphere and was using the island core to make something that would only exist in a story.


    He looked out over the ruins around him. Sayed had told him nothing about this, but Sayed also might not have known. Maybe this was just for one fight. He looked over the ruined and crumbling concrete rooftops around him. He had to find Sayed if he wanted to confirm what he knew.


    "What''s this?" The announcer''s voice echoed through the air. "Let me see. Who is this man?"


    The sound of shuffling papers scratched across the air as the announcer looked through information. Alex ignored him. Down below, he could see a boy running in the streets that he recognized from the night before. In the light of day, Jack looked like any street urchin, and he was running down a street away from a rolling ball of long spikes.


    "Oh, we have another celebrity in this fight. That''s ''Tin Man'' Ortega!" the announcer yelled. "Isn''t it amazing, folks? Look at him floating in the air like a leaf in the wind."


    Alex released his magnetic force against his staff, letting himself fall at a decent pace until he reached the ground. He kept in mind the direction Jack was running. It wouldn''t do to let Jack die.


    "Step."


    After reaching down and picking up his staff, he stepped again and again through the ruins toward Jack. Through his peripheral vision, he was aware that a screen was following him now, and the announcer was announcing what he did at each moment. It grated on his nerves.


    "Where''s he going, folks? Our visuals can barely keep track! Such blinding speed!"


    Alex heard Jack as he came to an alley and stopped to let the kid run by before walking out with his staff. He thrust it toward the spiked ball as it came barreling down the alleyway and whispered one word.


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    "Might."


    His muscles bulged, and he sank into the ground with a small crack. The spiked ball ran headlong into his outstretched staff, and he heard a faint metallic ding as his staff reached past the spikes and into the sphere in the center. The ball pushed against him with its inertia, and he was forced back, but it couldn''t get past his staff or his increased mass. It came to a stop. Behind him, Alex heard Jack collapse to the ground, gasping for breath.


    "You alright, kid?" Alex asked as he released his hold on the path, and the strength bled out of him.


    "Did ''Tin Man'' Ortega just save a kid? Doesn''t he know this is a fight to the death?" the announcer yelled.


    His breath came in ragged gasps, but he would be alright in a second. The Path of Might was more draining on his body than the Path of Step. There were times in his life on the nightsea that he wished he had also mastered the Path of Breath. It would have let him use both with less fatigue, but he didn''t have the luxury of that choice.


    "Watch out!" Jack yelled, and Alex felt the ball open up in his senses.


    "Pin-missile Explosion!"


    Alex had a fraction of a second to react. He dropped his staff and threw out a repulsive field behind him as he spun and rolled to grab Jack. Pinpricks of pain ruptured along his back and up his arms as he stopped in front of the boy. Alex grunted as more and more spikes pierced his back, cutting into the leather duster and sticking into him.


    "Oh, that had to hurt, folks."


    His eyes flashed white for a brief moment before the pain was over. His back was alight with pinpricks of fire as if it had just been stung by thousands of fire ants, and he could feel blood soaking through his duster as he looked down at Jack. Jack looked up at him in horror, and Alex had to imagine that he was pretty banged up. Alex smirked down at Jack.


    "You alright, kid?" he repeated.


    Jack nodded, and Alex stood up. The fact that his repulsive field had done nothing meant that the spikes themselves weren''t metal. As he turned to face the thing that had once been the spike ball, he saw a small man dressed in metal armor that curved around his body. A helmet covered most of his face, and red goggles obscured his eyes. Every part of his body seemed to be covered in brown metal plates, even his mouth.


    Alex started walking in a circle around the man as he examined the man until Jack was no longer in the line of fire. He didn''t want to have to take another hit like that one. The repair cost to his duster would just be astronomical.


    The repulsive blast Alex had thrown pushed the man back, leaving him splayed out. He no longer had spikes covering himself, but it didn''t take much for Alex to guess that the spikes were his curse. Even now, he felt the spikes in his back fade to nothing, leaving just the holes from the attack to bleed out into his duster.


    "Who''re you?" the armored man demanded, his voice echoing in his suit.


    "''Tin Man'' Ortega faces off against Ned ''the Needler!''" The announcer answered that question before either man could say anything. "What kind of fight are we going to have here?"


    "You could be ''the Bull'' for all I care!" Ned yelled, holding out one hand. "Pin-missile Volley!"


    "Step."


    All along Ned''s arm, spikes appeared in a blending of dark mist before shooting out in a stream where Alex had been just moments before. Alex appeared just a few meters away and looked at the circle of spikes in the wall. It was an impressive ability, to be sure. Alex reached out his hand and pulled on his staff. The staff whirred through the air before he grabbed it.


    "Ortega dodges the strike faster than the eye can see!" The announcer''s voice again rumbled through the fight.


    "This is a bad match-up for you," Alex said, keeping his gate open as Ned followed him with his eyes.


    "Shut up."


    "Try it again," Alex said, holding up one hand and waving for Ned to do another attack.


    "Pin-missile Volley!"


    Alex pushed with a magnetic field right before Ned struck, using the metal armor to push his attack up and to the right. The attack drew a line up the nearest building until the volley stopped. At the end of it, Ned stood stunned, gawking up at his attack.


    "Another disappointment, folks," the announcer said. "Looks like Ned is out of gas. Will he pull out a victory from defeat? Will he be able to overcome Ortega''s overwhelming strength?"


    Alex walked forward as Ned took in the problem. His attack had missed entirely, and Alex understood his frustration. The man cried out, slamming the ground with his fist over and over again.


    "It isn''t fair! It isn''t fair!"


    "Yeah," Alex said as he loomed over him. "Life isn''t fair, buddy."


    Thump. Crack.


    He swung down with his staff and hit Ned''s helmet as hard as he could. Ironwood was as hard as metal, and with his strength, not even the armor could stand up to it. Ned went down like a sack of rocks and lay splayed out on the ground. Across the building, his spikes disappeared from his most recent attack.


    "Oh, folks. We have an upset. Easily beating Ned ''the Needler'', ''Tin Man'' Ortega survives to the next fight. Will he make it, folks? We''ll find out! Now, look over here..."


    Alex tuned the voice out. He couldn''t take the announcer anymore. Sure, it did make him feel a little pride that he had won, but having someone announce your every action was obnoxious. He had never been a person who liked that much attention being focused his way.


    Alex nodded to himself as he walked away from Ned. At least now he could focus on finding Sayed. He walked over to Jack and reached down to help the boy up. Tears ran down his face, but Alex just smiled at him. He could only imagine how traumatizing the experience had been.


    "It''s alright, Jack," he said, reaching out a hand to the boy. "Let''s go find Sayed."


    Jack took his hand and stood up. He rubbed the tears out of his eyes briefly before looking up at Alex. When he was ready, Alex reached out with his senses, looking through the ruins around him. Sayed had a gauntlet and sword, so Alex should be able to sense him. Alex just needed to keep going and fighting, and he would eventually find the man.


    With the entire world descending into battle around them, Alex and Jack set off to look for Sayed at a run. Alex couldn''t go his full speed without leaving the boy behind, but that was alright. Alex already knew Sayed was strong. He was sure the man was burning his own path to find the people from his camp.