"Halt, Freeborns! You are my prisoner- Star Commander Mia Bckwell? What is a Steel Viper doing here?" A deep yet feminine voice said behind them.

  John spun around, and a short distance in front of him was easily the tallest, most muscur woman he had ever seen in his life.

  Standing head and shoulders above him, she had to be nearly eight feet tall, with chocote skin and bck hair cascading down over her shoulders. She was wearing a tight-fitting bck tank top, combat pants, and heavy-looking combat boots covered in steel ptes. Her exposed skin was all corded muscles; her arms had to be nearly the same size as his legs. Her abs were a well-defined eight pack, and the only fat he could see on her was the fact that she had a pair of rge breasts at his eye level, though they looked rather average on the rest of her frame.

  She was quite beat up, with blood running down her body from several bad-looking cuts, and even had a piece of metal sticking out of her abdomen, though she didn't seem to be bothered too much about it.

  "Elemental Bryn? What are you doing with Cn Wolf?" Mia said, sounding as confused as the Elemental was.

  "I was made a Bondsmen shortly after our unit disappeared, then I was released a year ter to join their touman. I am actually Star Commander Bryn now. And you two are my prisoners. Put down your weapons, and you will not be hurt." She ordered again.

  "You know her, Mia?"

  "She was a point in my Star several years ago. We did not bring Elementals to fight the Jade Falcons, so she was not present when our ship misjumped." She replied, "Please, do not kill her, John Wayne. She has saved my life several times in the past; she is one of the few people I considered a... friend?"

  "Kill me? Him? Star Commander Mia Bckwell, you must be joking. How would an old freeborn MechWarrior kill an Elemental? He does not even have a gun, just that toothpick at his waist."

  John sighed, regretting leaving his shotgun in the bunker now. They didn't have time for this wordpy. He activated his Invulnerability spell, leaving him with fifty mana remaining, then drew his sword.

  *BOOM*

  The shotgun bst smmed into his shield, pushing him back slightly, but he stepped into it and sshed, cutting the woman's weapon in half.

  "Surre-" He started to say, but she had already moved, grappling him. It didn't hurt, but he didn't have control of his body as she smmed him to the ground and pinned him there.

  Jesus, she is fast! She might even give Brod a run for his money.

  "Is this man important to you, Star Commander Mia Bckwell? If you surrender, I will not break his neck right now." She said conversationally.

  "He is my bondholder and my family. You have been warned, Star Commander Bryn. John Wayne, do as you see fit."

  Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mia, but have you wrestled an ogre before? Because this is what I picture it would be like!

  Time running down on his invulnerability, he jammed his freehand upwards and covered her face. "Waterball!" Using the trick Evie had shown him a long time ago, he locked the spell on her face, blocking her airways. Her grip lessened from the unexpected attack, and he rolled away. Well tried to, she was on top of him again in an instant, swinging her fists against his head. He activated his armour, the sudden appearance of the ptemail pushing her off of him slightly.

  "Darkness!" He said, locking a second spell to her head. He rolled away again, then quickly scrambled forward as she pounced where he was. She shed out and grabbed his ankle, somehow finding him despite being blinded and having her head submerged underwater. He kicked his other leg into the ball of darkness, connecting with something again and again. Then she grabbed that leg too.

  "What in the fuck are you!?! A god damn tank?" He shouted, sitting up. "Dig!"

  "She is an Elemental, John Wayne. They are bred to be the pinnacle of melee warriors." Mia said nearby. For some reason, she hadn't joined in on the fight. Not that she was armed or could do anything against this wall of muscle.

  John growled and picked up the 120-pound stone brick he had just made, and smmed it into the ball of darkness that was rapidly coming closer. That seemed to stun the Elemental at least, and he managed to kick away from her again, reaching his fallen sword. His invulnerability wore off then, but the blinded woman had finally lost track of his exact position. She was kneeling, staying still as if trying to assess where he was by hearing alone.

  "Mia, let's go." He whispered.

  "John Wayne, can you not defeat her?"

  "I can kill her, but she doesn't seem to want to surrender. She is still fighting when she literally is unable to breathe and can't see me. Despite my best efforts, I can't seem to knock her out with repeated blows to the head. Short of... You know what. Just one second."

  He deactivated his armour and ran over to the old jeep, smmed it into reverse and floored it. He struck the kneeling elemental at nearly 40 mph, the steel bumper bending from the impact. He got out, and sure enough, the Elemental was finally still. He deactivated his magic, finally able to see the damage he had caused.

  Her face was quite banged up, with a broken nose, multiple cuts and gouges, and a huge bruise forming from where the jeep had impacted her forehead. She was breathing raggedly, but otherwise seemed to be alive and unconscious.

  "You were amazing, John Wayne. I knew you could do it!" Mia said with an intense, feverish look on her face.

  "Why didn't you help me?" He asked, ignoring her intense look.

  "I know little of hand-to-hand combat; I would have just gotten in the way. She could have used me to make you surrender, or have just killed me outright."

  "She would have done that?"

  "Of course. Despite our past, we are on opposite sides of this conflict. But now that you have defeated her in hand-to-hand combat, you can offer to make her your bondsmen when she wakes up."

  The sounds of massive footsteps halted any further discussion as the Executioner came back into the cave, moving rapidly towards them.

  "Fuck me," John said, gripping his sword tightly.

  saKahn Garth Radick was confused at the sight in front of him, not that anything that had happened today had made much sense. There were two people and his former Star Commander Elemental, whom he thought was dead, standing near an old ICE vehicle near the exit of the cave. Well, the two people were standing; his Elemental appeared to be knocked out.

  What was her name again? Bryan? No Brenna... Bryn! That was it. How did she lose to a normal human?

  "Unknown warrior, I am saKahn Garth Radick. You seem to have defeated one of my Elementals in combat. For that alone, I will allow you to live. Were you the pilot of one of the Guard mechs?" He asked, his voice being transmitted outside of his mech.

  The man and woman spoke for a moment, then he stepped forward, carrying a sword of all things. "I am Lance Commander John Wayne of the Bckstone Guards. Yes, I defeated this Star Commander Bryn in one-on-one combat. I cim her as my bondsmen, as is tradition when a warrior fights valiantly."

  He was taken aback by that cim. Was he the person who seemed to know too much about cn ways? "I see. Well, that does not matter, as the Guards will lose this battle, Lance Commander John Wayne. Surrender now, and I will allow you to live."

  "Surrender? You are no longer part of this battle, saKahn! You willingly left this Circle of Equals, disqualifying and dishonouring yourself. Your wolves waiting by your dropship are already well aware of this fact. On top of that, there is a good chance that your remaining touman has already been defeated." The man said, his words causing Garth to sweat a bit. Indeed, he did travel a good distance outside of the circle, following that cave to the Brain cache.

  He shook his head. His warriors would be fine; his second-in-command's mech was literally designed to fight in the close quarters of a cave. Besides, he had issues with how the guards had acted. "This Trial was already sullied since the start. You Guards did not act in good faith. You did not warn us of the trapped ships, and you did not tell us that the Federated Commonwealth already had a cim on this pnet!"

  The man looked surprised, but quickly asserted himself, "I assure you, the FedComs do not have a cim here, saKahn. We have two agents from there who are exploring that Star League Cache, which is all yours if your Wolves win this Trial. Unless they managed to get in contact with our King in the st forty-eight hours, which would be impossible as we have no HPG communications on this pnet, they do not have any 'Cim' here.

  As for the dropships, they were powered down and clearly marked as unsafe. You have come to take our world, wolfpup! We are not going to hold your hand while you do it! Now, leave the field of battle before you disgrace yourself further, saKahn Garth Radick!"

  Garth admired the audacity of this warrior. Here he was, practically naked in front of an assault mech, yet ordering him to leave the battlefield. Though that audacity was quickly becoming an annoyance.

  "Good try, warrior, but I am afraid your words have little weight. Now, I have pces to be, so surrender, or I will end your life."

  "Not in this life, pup." The man shouted as he ran towards his mech.

  He thought about bsting him with one of his sers and ending it, but chose a more... direct method instead. He pushed his mech forward, his massive foot coming down on top of the Guard, ending the man's life. He looked at the woman and shrugged. He had to get back out of the cave and contact the rest of the Wolves. They could deal with her and his injured Elemental once they secured the tunnel.

  He continued forward, the people already long gone from his mind.

  The afternoon sun beat down on the cliff face, baking the rocks yet again as the fiery orb moved through the sky. An unassuming-looking tunnel was carved into the side, the light filtering in for a short distance before the bckness swallowed it up. The only sound that could be heard was the wind, a wind that blew nearly constantly through these mountains, occasionally sending eddies of dust along the mountain trails.

  *Thud* *Scrape*

  The sound echoed out of the tunnel, breaking the silence. It was quickly followed by several more footsteps of something rge, something gigantic even.

  Slowly emerging from the tunnel, like a battered titan who just fought the gods and won, a massive mech appeared. Its armour mostly destroyed, with only one arm remaining, the remaining green paint on the warmachine glistened in the bright light.

  It paused, surveying the valley below, where a drop ship and dozens of other mechs stood. They saw him and did nothing, watching as they were ordered to do. As if in a challenge to the assembled warriors, it raised its remaining arm, holding a beat-up, dented arm in its hand, and pointed it at the mechs below.

  Then it started to run, following the pathway around the cliff, charging its way down to the valley to drive off the invaders of its territory. It still had one invader to deal with in this Trial of Equals, and would not be denied its bloodlust.