“Oh, what happened to all that swagger from a moment ago?” hardening loot said.

  T’balt wiped the blood from his mouth. “Tsk.. You all are nothing but a bunch of cowards. Five on one. You guys are real men, huh?”

  “You did it to yourself,” said neon. “Come into someone’s base and insult their king. I mean, who does that?”

  “People who’d like to die,” said the spider. “Well, we’d be happy to oblige.”

  “But wait,” said the shadow. “Who gets the loot when we kill him? That’s why I came. I’m reeeally into those gauntlets.”

  “It doesn’t matter, ya dumbasses!” Vikram yelled. “You kill him, and you get your pick from the stash, on me.”

  They all seemed elated by that news as the bloodthirst overtook their eyes. And they started to surround again.

  “Well, this is a tough spot,” T’balt thought. It didn’t seem like there was much he could do. The numbers were too much. Maybe he came out of the gate too cocky, and he brought this on himself. “Oh well.”

  He tried to catalogue their loot, adding them to his memory. They were different from anything he’d encountered before. Neon loot seemed to turn the user into a flash of light, making him invulnerable when he used it. That would’ve been tough on its own.

  Then he had a guy who could harden his skin to the point of being invulnerable. That’d make it near impossible to land solid damage on him since he could block most attacks without using his limbs.

  Then there was the shadow that could attack and bring the darkness in the ground to life and turn it into physical damage.

  The other had strength loot from what he could tell. He would be the easiest to fight, but T’balt would have to get to him through everyone else.

  The scariest was the spider. His flexibility was off the charts, and he could walk on walls. Who knew what else he had up his sleeve, but everything about him screamed a nightmare from the way he contorted his body to the creepy clown mask he wore.

  He couldn’t think of a clear way to take on all these guys. Not at once.

  They came at him with the same coordination as before, and T’balt played defense, trying to buy time. Maybe tire them out. But that wouldn’t work. They had five tanks of stamina when he had only one.

  He kept having to deal with strength and hardening in their frontal attacks, while the other three kept trying to sneak behind him.

  They poked at him with light attacks, wearing him down little by little. Neon hit him with a hard kick to the face. Then the two heavies charged with simultaneous punches that broke through his guard.

  The spider crawled at him on all fours. T’balt threw a straight at him, but he seemed to contort his body around the punch. He turned out not be the actual attacker. T’balt was grabbed underneath by the shadows and then flung around the pit until he ripped the tentacle-like shadow from his body. The break threw him flat against the wall, making a T’balt-sized dent in it.

  He felt his bones giving in. Pain was aching throughout his body. He wiped more blood from his face as his predators closed in.

  “Damn. I’m really gonna get taken out by these goons,” he said, huffing. But despite it all, he never felt afraid to die.

  Maybe that was just the Redeemer loot. There was no such thing as death for him anymore. He remembered the first few iterations. Even when he knew he would wake up okay, his body would still act on its barest instinct. He felt it when he fought, when he ran, when he was inching on death. But that feeling was gone, like his body had finally caught up to his new reality. He was surprisingly calm.

  He wondered if he’d accepted his death mentally. He always knew this one was going to end prematurely. He had screwed everything up from the start. He couldn’t save anyone here. This ending was scuffed from the start.

  Nrv was back playing on his game, having lost interest in the bout. Vikram was making fun of how the new guy acted like such a big shot before. “How the mighty have fallen.”

  And that worked to piss T’balt off. He felt his body gearing up for death. But when animals were backed into a corner, a natural superpower was activated within them. No loot required. He wasn’t afraid of death anymore. That fear was replaced by pure adrenaline.

  He chuckled… “You think this is the first time I’ve been kissed by the reaper? Each one of you is still shit. Sorry excuses for human beings. You want to kill me, then bring.. it.. on…” T’balt beckoned them with the swinging of his fingers, blood pooling below his chin. If he was going to die here, then he wouldn’t do it cowering and begging for life like he always did. This felt like his salvation, freeing himself of that fear.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  All five of them came for him at once, uncaring of T’balt’s speech. They had their reward, and they were going to claim it.

  T’balt deactivated his hypersensitivity and guarded himself with the little strength he kept. He heard the impact, each of their attacks clanking with metal…. Metal?

  “What?” he said.

  When he opened his eyes, he was covered in the shadow of a giant. A king. A wrestler.

  “Cannon?”

  Cannon was clad in his armored loot, holding his ground against all five of their attacks, pushing them back. With a large roar, he shoved each of them back with the might of his strength loot and his sheer willpower. A couple of them crashed into the wall of the pit, as the others were able to soften their landing. But they had all been caught off guard by the big man who was standing up for their enemy.

  “Sorry to steal your spotlight, kid. But I can’t stand an unfair fight.” Cannon stood straight in the sky with the might of the hero he always saw himself as. But now he had the look and the strength to go with it.

  “So all your standing up for the little guy promos weren’t all talk,” T’balt smirked.

  “The hell are you doing, muscle head!?” Vikram shouted, near foaming at the mouth. “You tryin to die, you idiot!”

  “Hey Vik… You can consider this my resignation. No one fucks with my fans…”

  Vikram spat.

  Cannon stuck a hand back at T’balt, not taking his eyes off the others. The hand glowed, and T’balt felt his strength slowly returning to him. “Healing loot. Since when were you a healing type?” T’balt asked, surprised.

  “Ha.. definitely not a back liner. But desperate times, I guess. Had to cash out all my points for this.”

  The whole ordeal had left a poor taste in Cannon’s mouth. Ever since Vik had thrown T’balt in the pit. He had a feeling it was always meant for the guy to lose. Five on one beatdowns weren’t something a real man could ignore in Cannon’s eyes.

  Plus, T’balt was serving as a role model for himself. Despite all of it, he refused to take a single life. Even though they were all trying to kill him, and he had the means. No one else likely noticed, but Cannon did. He’s had the fire loot the whole time, and the flame attacks never connected with a single person.

  T’balt had started feeling better. A lot less ache in his bones, though it wasn’t a full healing. Those took more time and more attention to detail, but it was enough to get his limbs limber again. He stretched to make sure.

  The opponents surrounding them were taking a mental stock of the new situation. All of them were afraid to jump at Cannon the way he stared them down. “Try it, candy asses… I guarantee I ain’t going without two of you with me.” That was enough to make them cautious.

  “Two on five still isn’t great odds,” said T’balt.

  “I’ve faced worse.”

  “This isn’t exactly a wrestling ring.”

  “Ha… I ain’t talking about wrestling.”

  That was when the shadow appeared underneath them. T’balt leapt away. Cannon thought it simpler to just punch the shadow on the ground. The shadow squirmed and retreated back to its owner.

  T’balt pushed off the wall, trying to break into their back lines, but neon jumped to cut him off. He expected him, blocking his kicks midair. They started trading blows as neon kept trying to find ways to zip around him, but T’balt was sensitive to every movement. There was no sneaking by him now that he could center his focus.

  Even when the spider slithered across the wall. T’balt was able to throw neon right into the man, blocking his path.

  The two heavies were occupied by Cannon, who held them both in a stalemate, matching their strength. Then, when they came to blows, he matched those as well. But with the added protection of steel-like armor, he got the better of the exchanges and was hardly affected by loose punches, even those augmented by strength.

  He bounced one attack off of himself, blocking with his shoulder, which disoriented hardened loot. Then he met the other head on, matching strength for strength. “We both have strength loot. You’re stalemated here,” the other said.

  “Heh… I don’t think so.”

  The man felt his feet start to struggle and lose ground. “How..”

  Cannon was stronger than the other man before the loot. A better-trained body. A better capability to use his strength. So the loot canceled out. They were fighting man to man now, and Cannon had always trained to be a real man’s man.

  So his opponent felt the ground sweep from under him and found himself over Cannon’s shoulder, unable to believe that someone was able to outmuscle him.

  As the hardening man came back around, Cannon planted his legs, veins bulging, and used his strength to leap several yards in the air and throw the man down in a powerbomb for the ages.

  The shock wave literally broke the floor beneath them, cracking it like the scene of an earthquake. The other four had to fly around for cover. So did T’balt, who was smiling at the strength of the man, glad that he was on his side.

  As the other four opponents were gaining themselves. T’balt sped to get behind the hardened loot. He spun around him, wrapping around his waist. “I always wanted to try this.” He dug deep into his heels and pulled, arching his back and slamming the thug on his head, in a picture-perfect German Suplex.

  The man hardened the back of his head to lessen the impact.

  “What the heck was that supposed to do?” The man seemed to be gloating. But T’balt held him firm in perfect position for the heaviest elbow drop of all time.

  The man saw the beast barreling down towards him, screaming, “CANNON BUSTEEEER” and screamed himself. Cannon landed that elbow right into his head. And no amount of hardening would protect him from that much weight and that much pressure. In fact, if it wasn’t for his hardening, his head probably would’ve cracked in two.

  T'balt moved out of the way just in time. That was two down. Surprisingly, it was a lot easier with just one more person on the team. Unlucky for their opponents, that one other person was the ultimate pro wrestler, Cannon Valkyr.

  The other three frowned.

  “What's the matter?” T’balt said. “What happened to all that swagger from a moment ago?”