[Gabriel]

"I am sorry, Gabriel." Sura kneeled beside Gabriel, gentle amber eyes offering condolence. "There is too much death here."

Gabriel sat on the hard cell floor next to his cot, leaning back against a rock wall with his knees drawn up. His jaw firmed. "We have to stop this somehow."

"I wish there was a way." She shook her head as they both rose. "Others have tried and now they are dead. Like your friend."

An idea came to Gabriel. He touched his monitoring neckband and said, "Are these things AI controlled?"

"I think so. But how would that help us? Only a few can access it."

Gabriel grinned. "I think I could deactivate the security system. Could you get me to a control portal with a biometric scanner?"

Sura drew her lips tight. "You would not get close to an access port before the band shocked you." She thought for a moment. "But I may be able to steal a portable gateway."

"That would be awesome."

"If I get one, I want you to promise me something." Sura gazed into Gabriel's eyes as he raised an eyebrow. "Take me with you and help me get my son back."

He nodded with a smile. "Of course. Together."

"There is something else. I came to warn you." Sura turned her head down. "I heard the Gamemaster talking. You've made enemies of the Khan and they want you dead."

He shrugged. "Well, I've had some issues making friends here--"

"I'm serious, Gabriel!" She snapped her eyes up. "They are bringing back a past champion to fight you in the ring. They call him the Smasher, and the name fits."

"When?"

"Tonight. And I won't be able to get the portable gateway until tomorrow."

Gabriel firmed his jaw and pushed away the doubts that rose within him. "Then I will defeat this Smasher. I am undefeated." His mind drifted back to when he sparred with Eshe. "Mostly."

"Very well." Sura glanced around to see if anyone else watched, then leaned in to kiss Gabriel on the cheek. "This will work, won't it? If we get caught..." Her voice trailed off as her soft eyes begged reassurance.

"Sure, it will work, no problems." I hope.

*****

Later the same day, the two guards who brought Gabriel to his first match came to retrieve him again. The guard with a tablet viewer grinned. "I made good coin from your last match, Angel. It be a shame that you die tonight."

"What are my odds this time?" Gabriel said, peering over the guard's shoulder at the viewer.

"Sixteen to one. The crowd likes you, but no one thinks you have a chance."

Gabriel grinned. "I may surprise everyone. Surely at those odds, I am worth a wager?"

The guard nodded as he escorted Gabriel out of the cell toward the Ring. "Maybe."

It puzzled Gabriel that the Khan didn't just have him executed in secret. It would have been easy enough. But then he realized the popularity he won with the crowd made that option problematic. So instead, they brought in the Smasher to do it for them in the Ring, and everyone wins. Except me. There was power in public support, he realized, something he might exploit.

Coming to the arena holding area, Gabriel asked, "Why do they call him the Smasher?"

The guard laughed. "Soon you will understand."

Gabriel gazed out into the Ring. Oh shit, that's why.

Qaw, the Smasher, as the announcer introduced him, was a mountain of a man, standing a head taller than Gabriel with a massive girth. Thick black hair stood out in disarray above a low forehead. The jagged scars that marked his bare chest told of past fights. The Smasher was a crowd favorite, but Gabriel, introduced as Angel, also garnered a significant share of the applause.

Qaw huffed out a breath as he regarded Gabriel with narrowed brown eyes beneath bushy dark eyebrows. He plodded back and forth, carving a crooked furrow across the sand as he drug a battle maul behind him. With a massive gray metal block attached at the end of a thick wooden handle, it was a weapon worthy of this giant man.

As he did in his first match, Gabriel drew out a stylish sun figure in the sand with his staff, the mark of the Sol Way. He kneeled within the circle and bowed his head for a moment. Qaw halted his pacing and furrowed his brow.

Gabriel rose and held the staff up at ready. Gesturing to the giant, he said, "Shall we?"

The crowd came alive with a roar as Qaw stomped forward, the maul held high. He swung it down, only just missing as Gabriel jumped aside, instead pounding the ground with a thump. The giant recovered quickly and swung his weapon horizontally, again missing, bludgeoning only the air as Gabriel jumped back.

For a moment, the two fighters studied each other. Qaw's fighting style relied only on brute force. But then, with such size and strength, there was no need for flair. The impressive speed of his maul swings left little opportunity for counterattack. Gabriel recalled the old adage about using a stronger opponent's strength against him, but raw strength was still a substantial advantage.

The giant interrupted Gabriel's thoughts with a rumbling growl and charged. Gabriel grunted as he caught the downward swing of the maul with his staff, holding against the underside of the sledge head. Qaw flashed his teeth as he pushed down and forward, bringing the blunt metal closer to Gabriel's head, but Gabriel had an advantage of leverage over the long-handled weapon and held the advance to a stalemate.

Gabriel kicked hard against the giant's knees three times. Qaw yelped in pain, then shoved. After landing hard on his back, Gabriel rolled away just in time to avoid a hammered strike. Instead, the maul created a large divot in the sand. Gabriel jumped up to his feet and the crowd roared, most of them also now standing.

Attacking with a limp, Qaw let loose a fury of swings. Gabriel dodged, backing up toward the barbed cables. The next high swing he blocked with his staff, but the force of it sent him tumbling across the sand. Leaping up, Gabriel took advantage of a missed maul swing, twisting his body and sweeping the staff around to land a cross strike to the giant's temple. But Qaw hardly flinched.

A rock thrown from the crowd bounced off Gabriel's head. Stunned and dizzied, he dropped to his knees. But instead of the feared final blow, Qaw lowered his maul and roared at the crowd. The spectators behind Gabriel silenced and slunk down into their seats, fearing the giant's anger. Qaw stepped back and motioned to Gabriel, bidding him to stand.

At first confused, Gabriel rose on wobbly feet and bowed to his opponent. He fights me, but with honor.

The giant let out a battle cry and charged again. Gabriel's staff caught the forceful downward stroke of the maul, snapping the wood in half with a sharp crack. The hammer glanced off his shoulder as he tumbled to the ground and grimaced from an explosion of pain. The shouts of the crowd rumbled through the ring like thunder.

Gabriel narrowed his eyes as Qaw stepped over him, raising his maul to finish the fight. I'm not done yet. Grasping the two pieces of the staff like batons, he hammered against the giant's knee caps, eliciting howls of pain. While Qaw wavered unsteadily on his feet with the maul held high, Gabriel rolled to the side and twined his legs around the legs of his opponent. Twisting, he executed a takedown, flopping Qaw to the sand on his back. With two hard strikes from the broken staff to the giant's forehead, Qaw's eyes glazed and he let go of his weapon.

The crowd chanted "Angel! Angel!" as Gabriel stood. He picked up the giant's discarded maul and gazed down at the defeated giant. Qaw laid dazed across the sand, breathing in raspy breaths.

The chants grew louder. The people want blood.

Gabriel turned his eyes across the Ring to the large man with the gold head-wrap sitting in a high-backed chair, apparently a leader in the Khan family. Beside him sat the Gamemaster, a tall balding man with dark skin, wearing a purple suit and a deep frown. The Khan leader stood and extended a hand with thumb turned down. The chants grew louder still, becoming deafening in their blood lust.

Gabriel spun in a circle, swinging the heavy maul around and around, then heaved it into the air. The maul landed with a thump in the middle of the ring. The heavy metal head half buried itself in the sand with the handle extended upward at an angle, becoming a temporary monument to mercy. The throng quieted. He kneeled down beside his opponent and placed a hand on the man's shoulder, bowing his head in respect. "You fought with honor, Qaw. Death shall not come by my hand."

Gabriel walked away, accompanied by scattered hushed murmurs from the people.