“Aubrey” Leona whispered “before we set sail, I have something to tell you. This is the Order's commander, and he hates Cogs. I wish you luck.” She then picked up Kenji, and the two disappeared from the stadium.

  The audience was terrified, murmuring, as Kassidy slowly approached. His steps were light as snow, and while it was cold, a divine aura also accompanied him, like some sort of “prince charming.”

  My heart stopped for a second—this man has killed Cogs before and would kill again. But I couldn't help but admire his beauty, with his long, almost bluish, white hair tied in a topknot, his delicate face and graceful manner, as if the snow itself had decided to turn into a person just to kill me. And the way the cape of his knight's uniform fluttered in the icy breeze, ahh, so gorgeous…

  "You!" His firm voice brought me back to reality, along with the terror of the situation. "No Cog shall stand before the Order of Prevalence—whether already created or yet to be born!" he said, sword pointed at me, which resembled an icicle.

  "Then you're the one who's wrong," I retorted, pointing my finger at him. "I'll never back down! You have no idea what brought me here!" I growled, clenching my fists tightly.

  Your death will not be in vain, Thomas!

  As Kassidy entered the arena, the announcer returned:

  "My dear audience, it seems we have a new combatant, Kassidy Winter, commander of the Order of Prevalence, who just kicked out our dear chief to make way for his duel with Aubrey—it seems to be personal!" the audience exclaimed, intrigued and discussing amongst themselves.

  "I don't even know who this guy is!" I yelled at the announcer, but I was completely ignored.

  "Given that this is unexpected, we must also change the format. We will now leave the best-of-five format behind so that this fight is a duel to the end, whether by knockout or worse!" The audience was more excited than ever, but I fear this format will prove too tiring.

  Condemnation or redemption… fight!

  Kassidy stares at me with that cold look for a second before immediately attacking—ice shards flying where my feet were as I jumped aside, but he strikes me right after with another blow from his blade, this time hitting my arm, which I had raised to defend myself, opening a thin cut along its length. It's not enough to bleed, but it burns like hell.

  A crowd in the audience was chanting something in unison, “Rust! Rust! Rust!” Yeah, right—I’ll show you who’s going to rust here. So I ran toward him, stopping at the last second to avoid being impaled. While the sword was still extended, I grabbed it and pulled Kassidy toward me, headbutting him—his hair is so soft.

  He was disoriented, but still managed to trip me while I was lost in thought. Instead of attacking, Kassidy slowly walked towards me, hitting me with piercing gaze with those icy blue eyes as said coldly:

  “Your motivation will lead you down the same path as the one who preceded all of you.”

  "Something tells me that your hatred also comes from a deeper place than you let on." I said, maintaining a smile. But something tells me I'm going to erupt any minute now—my fist is trembling with rage.

  Recklessly, I lunged at that pretty boy, grabbing him by the collar and delivering punch after punch to his stomach until he couldn't take it anymore. My heart was boiling with rage, each punch only making me angrier, ending with a throw to the floor.

  "Exactly the aggression I expected from a future Cog." Kassidy coughed with a hint of fury in his voice as he stood up. "Now, prepare for your end, scrap!" He thundered.

  And then, as he raised his icy sword, it began to glow a light blue with a loud bang. With that, he shouted:

  “Absolute Zero! May the cold freeze your hopes of cogfication!" And the audience roared in celebration. Whatever kind of install this is, I'm screwed.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  The first thing he did was attack the ground, causing several ice spikes to erupt from the floor, headed straight to me. I barely dodged, but one of them grazed my leg—my skin burned from the cold, but my foot still twitched.

  Boy, I think I'm going to turn into a cactus popsicle… wait—remember what Leona told you: “he hates Cogs.” It would only make sense if his blade was specifically designed to kill Cogs—it might still be sharp, but it won't interfere with my nerves.

  I'm not a Cog... yet.

  No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't move forward, because he kept bombarding me with ice shards and blocking me with spikes. I stood there in the corner, blocking every blow, the pressure rising, heating up…

  You know what? Fuck it! I dropped my defenses and charged with everything I had, tearing through all that ice like a runaway bull, tanking the incoming frostbite.

  I could see those beautiful, fiery eyes open in shock—what a limited mind.

  As I came into range, I landed a clean uppercut on his chin, but Kassidy used the momentum to pull me by the wrists straight into his knee. I felt dizzy as the air left my lungs.

  "It seems our fighters are nearing their limits, folks!" Thanks, announcer, wasn't that obvious?

  Kassidy wipes his bloodied lips “You have some quick reflexes… it’s a shame that they’ll be wasted on one of them.”

  I retorted with what little breath I had left “And you're too fixated to see your mistake, bastard!” hatred tends to cloud reason.

  I lunged toward him, sliding along the ground to avoid a horizontal cut. As he recovered, I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him to the ground. If the previous beating hadn't eased my anger, this one certainly will.

  And then I started stomping on it with all my might.

  My blood boils and my vision turns red. I don't want to kill him, but he doesn't deserve mercy!

  “Fall.”

  “Fall.”

  “Fall.” With each step I felt the impact of his back, his breath becoming shallower, and the sounds of the audience being drowned out by my fury.

  “Fall!”

  “Fall!”

  “Die!”

  “DIE!!” I repeated with each step, with increasing intensity, my voice trembling.

  Then I heard a loud, sudden noise:

  "Enough!" Shouted the announcer, the hissing of the loudspeakers interrupting my near-carnage.

  “It's decided!”

  A deafening silence then fell over the arena, the stands anxiously awaiting the result.

  "The winner of this conflict is... Magnum Aubrey!" The audience then erupted in applause like never before, which brought me back to reality—I won.

  To bask in the glory of a champion is an unparalleled experience; all my effort has led me to this point, and I've had the privilege of meeting some great people here, except for him.

  One last time, I turned to Kassidy and said:

  “You brought the wrong toy, twink.”

  "This isn't over," Kassidy said, leaning on his knee, "you'll be begging for mercy once you're changed."

  "Shut up, I still have an upgrade to get, drinks to have, and most importantly—people to protect." I may have failed Thomas, but I still have plenty of people to defend, isn’t it, Lotus?

  Speaking of which, where is she?