Leo stared at Kael's message, the glowing words a formal declaration of war. The hunt was over. The duel was on. A strange sense of calm washed over him, displacing the panic. The endless running, the constant looking over his shoulder—it was exhausting. Kael's challenge, as dangerous as it was, offered something Leo hadn't had since this all began: a clear finish line. An opportunity to end this, one way or another.
He typed a one-word reply.
Leo: Coming.
He didn't wait for an answer. He piloted the sputtering hover-platform into the shimmering portal, leaving the relative safety of the Traveler's Bazaar behind. The transition back to the Crossroads was as jarring as the first time, a punch to the senses. He emerged into the silent, chaotic graveyard of realities, his body protesting the abrupt shift in physics. He checked his radar. Kael's red dot was stationary, a few kilometers away, near the site of the antimatter explosion.
The journey on the rust-bucket platform was slow and nerve-wracking. Without Jett's powerful engine to propel him, Leo had to carefully navigate the debris field, conserving the platform's failing power. The silence of the void was absolute, broken only by the whine of his single thruster, a lonely sound in a universe of broken things. Every passing asteroid, every ghost-ship hull, seemed to watch him, silent witnesses to his probable last ride.
He finally spotted it: a large plain of twisted metal, the remains of a massive capital ship's hull, as large as a football field. In the center, Kael waited, arms crossed, a statue of patience and arrogance. Not far from him lay the wreckage of his 'Phantom' scooter, a mangle of black metal and exposed circuits, but with a faint blue light still pulsing from its power core compartment. It was the beacon that guided them, the prize at the center of the arena.
Leo landed the hover-platform at the edge of the metal plain, its engine dying with a final, pathetic cough. He was stranded here now, one way or another. He walked across the cold metal toward his rival, the sound of his footsteps echoing strangely in the silence.
"I was beginning to think you'd lost your nerve," Kael said, his voice calm, without the slightest hint of exertion. He was no longer wearing his pristine courier suit. He had stripped down to a black, form-fitting undersuit, designed for agility and combat. He held a single weapon: a short, extendable baton.
"Had to find a ride," Leo replied, his hand resting on the handle of a heavy plasma wrench he had "borrowed" from Griz's workshop before he left. It was clumsy, heavy, but it was the only thing he had that resembled a weapon.
"No more tricks, amateur," Kael said, his ice-blue eyes fixed on Leo, their intensity promising pain. "No more ancient forests or antimatter bombs. This is a test of skill. The Syndicate values results, and I will deliver them."
He pointed the baton at the wrecked scooter. "The objective is simple. The power core is still in its housing. The first one to retrieve it and hold it wins. The winner takes the core and the official victory in our Sanctioned Duel. The loser... well, the loser will have to deal with the Syndicate tow truck when it finally arrives. And they are not known for their gentle handling of renegades."
It was a test of close-quarters combat and technical skill. Kael was an expert in both. Leo was an expert in neither. It was an invitation to his own execution. But backing down was not an option.
"I agree," Leo said, his voice firmer than he felt.
Kael smiled, a cold, confident gesture. "Good."
He activated his baton. It extended with a sharp hiss, a blade of pure, vibrating energy forming at its tip, emitting a low, deadly hum. He settled into a low, ready stance, a perfectly balanced predator.
Leo hefted the heavy plasma wrench. It felt unbalanced, unwieldy. He had no formal training, only the desperate, brawling instincts of someone who had been in a few street fights. He remembered the contract with the Broker. The memory of his victory, if he managed the impossible, would be stolen from him. Maybe that was a blessing. He didn't want to remember this.
"Let's see what you're made of, chaos generator," Kael said.
And then he moved. He didn't charge. He flowed across the metal ground, a blur of black and silver, his energy blade a ribbon of deadly light. He was impossibly fast, his speed not just physical, but an expression of his efficiency, every movement calculated to cover the distance in the shortest possible time.
Leo barely had time to raise the wrench to block. The energy blade hit the heavy tool with a deafening clang and a shower of sparks. The impact sent a vibration up Leo's arm to his shoulder, and the sheer force of the blow nearly knocked him off his feet. Kael was strong, much stronger than he looked.
"Slow," Kael said, his voice a cold whisper. He retreated and attacked again, this time aiming for Leo's legs. Leo jumped back, his movement clumsy and reactive. The energy blade sliced through the air where he had been, leaving a trail of ozone.
Kael was a fencer. Every move was precise, efficient, designed to incapacitate with minimal effort. Leo, on the other hand, was using the plasma wrench like a club. He swung it in wide, desperate arcs, his only advantage being the sheer weight of the weapon, which forced Kael to respect its impact zone.
"You fight like a farmer slaughtering an animal," Kael mocked, easily dodging one of Leo's swings, his body moving with an almost liquid fluidity. He countered with a series of quick strikes, his blade dancing in the air, forcing Leo to retreat step by step toward the wrecked scooter. Sparks flew with every clumsy block, the sound of protesting metal filling the silence of the void.
Leo knew he couldn't win this way. He was being systematically dismantled. It was only a matter of time until his stamina gave out or Kael found a fatal opening. He needed to change the game. He needed chaos.
During one of Kael's attacks, instead of blocking, Leo let his plasma wrench drop. He spun his body, using the momentum, and slammed the heavy end of the tool into the metal floor with all his might.
CLANG!
The sound was like a church bell being struck by a sledgehammer. The metal plate of the ship's hull, already weakened by old battle damage and the antimatter blast, groaned in protest. A web of cracks radiated from the point of impact, and the surface under Kael's feet became unstable, buckling slightly.
Kael stumbled for a split second, his perfect balance momentarily broken. It was the only opening Leo got.
He didn't attack Kael. He ran. He ran for the wrecked scooter.
"Tricks!" Kael yelled, his voice finally betraying a hint of irritation. He regained his balance and chased after Leo, his superior speed closing the distance rapidly.
Leo reached the scooter, his hand stretching for the power core compartment. But Kael was on him. Kael's energy blade came down, not to kill, but to pin Leo's hand against the fuselage, a precise move to incapacitate and humiliate him.
Leo pulled his hand back at the last second, but he wasn't fast enough. The energy blade sliced through his glove and the tip of his jacket, hissing inches from his skin. He felt the intense heat and recoiled, stumbling backward over a loose piece of metal.
They were now both next to the prize, the wrecked scooter between them. The duel had become a desperate struggle for control of a small piece of territory.
"It's over," Kael said, his breath coming out in clouds of vapor in the cold air. "You have nowhere left to run."
He raised his energy blade for a final strike. Leo lifted his plasma wrench for one last, desperate block, knowing it wouldn't be enough. But as he did, his gaze caught something. A power cable, severed by the explosion, was sparking near the open compartment of the power core. The core, though damaged, was still pulsing with power. Power that was leaking.
The moment Kael's blade descended, Leo didn't block. He dove to the side, rolling clumsily, and with a desperate move, jammed the tip of his plasma wrench into the sparking cable and shoved it into the power core compartment.
The reaction was instantaneous.
A wave of pure blue energy exploded from the core, not as an explosion, but as a massive electromagnetic pulse. Kael's energy blade flickered and died, his baton reverting to a simple piece of metal. The lights on Kael's suit blinked and went out. The pulse had disabled everything energy-based within a ten-meter radius.
Kael looked at his useless baton, then at Leo, his expression one of utter shock.
"How...?"
"I'm chaotic," Leo panted, getting to his feet.
Now, they were on equal footing. No energy weapons. No sophisticated tech. Just two men, tired and beaten, on a floating piece of metal at the end of the universe, with a prize to be claimed. And for the first time, Leo saw something in Kael's eyes that wasn't arrogance. It was a flicker of doubt.