Will

He and Sam watched the two men approach each other, each stepping into the circle of daylight let through by the hole in the cloud cover.

"He run from Greensby too?" Will asked.

"Something like that," Sam replied. She was stroking his face. Not looking at the impending final battle at all, he realized, but down at him. "Oh, what have they done to you?"

"Just a bit… banged up." He didn't quite have the heart to tell her he wouldn't be sticking around much longer. It wasn't useful information for her to hear at the moment, while the stakes were still high. It would just muddle her already limited decision-making ability. "So, if he ran all the way here, how come he looks sprier than you?"

"Because he was whining about how tired he'd be afterward, so I let him ride on my back."

"That's… so stupid."

Sam grinned. "Worked, though, didn't it?"

"Suppose it did, at that."

The two fighters squared off against each other inside the bright circle. Golden Boy's Illusory light show had begun to fade out of the sky,

"He said I had to buy him time for something important," Sam grumbled. "He was just trying to set up his epic walkout."

Will snorted out a weak laugh. "He does like to make an entrance."

"Who's he even showing off for? There's no one around but us."

"I don't know about that."

Brimstone fired off a twisting snake of fire at the Entertainer. Buck leaped up and out of the way, somersaulting, kicked off the air itself to change directions and land a ways off safely, still plucking at his instrument to produce happy little twangs.

"Well, I don't see any reason to beat around the bush here," Buck said, punctuating his words with stray notes. "We all know what the audience wants to see, and it seems like we're both good and warmed up. If it's all the same to you, I'll skip the main course and go straight to dessert."

"DIE!" came Brimstone's intelligent reply, followed by a roar of fire.

Buck danced away, laughing, kept his distance on swift feet as Brimstone leapt for him, the latter staggering and crawling and shrieking out of control like a rabid animal, sped along by random jets of steam and flame emitted by his armor.

Buck stepped away, away, away, until he suddenly stopped on a dime, teetering on one foot. "Here we go!" he shouted, and strummed out a bright chord.

"Semblance Art: Life of the Party [Dance Mode]!"

Will gritted his teeth as he saw nearly 10 AP wink out on Buck's arm, wasted into his semblance. There wasn't anything left for him to do other than watch and hope, though, so he set to the latter with all the enthusiasm he could muster.

The ground under him and Sam was yanked sharply away like a tablecloth from under a table setting. A huge black blanket rose up in the distance and unfurled with a whisper of fabric as it was tossed overhead, submerging them in a darkness deeper than that produced by the soot-stained clouds. A perfect blackness that left them with nothing at all to go by.

Will became vaguely aware that he was moving; separating from Sam, her arms slipping away. He tried to reach out for her, but found that he could barely inspire a twitch in the lumpy sack of smashed crockery that was his body.

Everything was dark. Everything was silent.

Then, with a progression of bright chords, a spotlight thumped to life overhead. Then another, and another, and a whole circle of them. Hanging from a slanted, concave ceiling of heavy tarpaulin, like that of a circus tent.

The lights shone down upon a large stage surrounded by a waist-high wooden railing. At one end of the stage, shirtless and playing his shamisen, stood Buck. At the other end, growling and spitting fire and curling his gauntleted hands into claws, was Brimstone.

The stage was surrounded all around by bleachers that consisted of ascending rows filled with many plastic, bright-yellow seats—hundreds, at least. He found himself sitting in one of these seats, on the third row from the bottom. Sam occupied the one beside him. Many of the other seats, too, had confused people in them, twisting and murmuring to each other as they tried to figure out where the hell they were and what the hell was going on.

A performance of some kind, evidently.

With great effort, Will dragged his slightly less mangled left hand over and tugged at a handful of Sam's sweat-soaked shirt. "Could you… do me a favor?"

"If it's not too much of a drag," she replied jokingly.

"I need you to relay a message for me."

He wasn't sure what Buck's game plan was—if indeed he wasn't just winging it—or what the function of his semblance happened to be, but Will refused to let the information on Brimstone's build that he had wrested with bloody hands go to waste. His voice was too weak to carry all the way down to Sheerhome's self-proclaimed champion, so he whispered it to Sam, and she in turn shouted his instructions. At first he worried that spectators and contestants would not be able to communicate with one another, but once she was finished Buck looked over his shoulder and gave a thumbs up before returning to his task.

Will breathed a shallow sigh of relief. He'd done absolutely everything he could have. Now to hope that Buck would actually be able to make competent use of the intel.

He was sliding, drifting away against Sam's shoulder when a sudden scratchy blare of music brought him back. So loud it set the floor thumping and the high ceiling flaps vibrating. More something you'd hear in a nightclub back on Earth than anything indicative of the Frontier—or a circus for that matter.

Letters of glowing neon light flickered to life in thin air high above the stage, numbers ticking up or down until they settled on specific scores.

[Contestant 1: Audience approval // 32%]

[Contestant 2: Audience approval // 0%]

Brimstone was trying to lunge for his opponent, but finding little luck as his feet were somehow glued to the ground.

"Hold on there, mister!" Buck called. "The game hasn't started yet—you gotta be patient."

Brimstone wasn't listening, thrashing as he tried to pull back this leg, then that, then just expelling fire plumes in screaming frustration.

A peppy female voice spoke over the din, perfectly audible even with the blaring music as though the words were projected directly into Will's head.

[Both contestants ready?]

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[...]

[...]

[...]

[Okay! Dance your hearts out!]

[...]

[Take it awaaay!]

Brimstone staggered free of his invisible confinement and immediately set into a jet-powered sprint straight at his opponent. Buck, meanwhile, was shuffling his feet to the rhythm and plucking at his shamisen. He laughed melodically with a gross lack of concern for the bundle of fire and fury rapidly headed his way.

The music thumped away. It had no apparent source, though it sounded like it was coming from every direction at once. Jarring enough to set Will's teeth rattling. Though there were no lyrics, Will almost thought the crashing instrumentals came together to form words.

Or one word, at least, over and over again.

[dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance]

Brimstone hurled a fist-sized fireball mid-run, and Buck slid effortlessly out of the way. The hissing globe carried on past its target and hit against an invisible barrier above the railing that split stage from seating area. It splashed into a large burning patch that guttered there for a few moments before winking out.

Brimstone tried to catch Buck in a killing hug, and the latter ducked into a low limbo arch under the lord's flaming arms, still hopping in time with the music until he jumped up laughing behind the lord's back, spinning his instrument around his neck.

Howling, Brimstone kicked off the barrier and came around swinging. Buck evaded. Swing, swing, fire, kick. Buck dodged it all without missing a beat.

"Come on, my friend! You're not dancing!" Buck laughed as he jumped high over a flaming swipe, then jumped again off the air when Brimstone aimed an explosion. He soared clear from the smoke, laughing and strumming the shamisen, and skidded to a halt on the floor some distance off. "You're being a real buzzkill about this, you know."

Based on his anguished, inhuman scream, Will guessed that Brimstone might not have been in much of a dancing mood. He kept after Buck, and he kept missing, which was a good thing because Will was pretty sure one solid hit would be enough to turn Big Deal Buck into pretty paté.

Aside from the headache-inducing music, Will had a hard time gauging the point of the Life of the Party semblance. At least until he became aware that the music was speeding up, and Buck with it, until his feet were moving so fast as to defy explanation.

[dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance dance]

That was enough information to make an informed guess. Symmetrical field semblance. The effect was to arrange a contest—in this case, a dance-off where the contestants were meant to hold the rhythm. Since Buck was continually speeding up while Brimstone wasn't, it seemed that successfully keeping to the beat would cause a contestant to gain momentum, something like an artificial Haste score boost. Based on the percentage counter, it seemed that there was a popularity component to the scoring as well.

It was good. Since Will could not see Brimstone breaking it down anytime soon, he imagined that Buck would be enjoying a purely one-sided benefit from his semblance. The upper limit of its effect was still unclear.

"Who's winning?" Sam whispered. No conclusive moves had been exchanged yet, just Buck doing a lot of running away.

Will didn't have the energy to reply. He just gave Sam's shirt a tiny squeeze and let his hand fall.

[Contestant 1: Audience approval // 32 ^57%]

[Contestant 2: Audience approval // 0%]

Even if he had been in a chatty mood, he still wouldn't have been able to offer anything insightful. The fight was completely up in the air at this stage.

Brimstone blasted himself forward with an explosion at his back that saw him rolling out of control across the floor, but also cutting the distance between him and Buck much more quickly than the Entertainer had expected. Just landing from a leap, Buck threw his shamisen high in the air and crossed his arms over his chest as his eyes widened. Flipping onto one knee, Brimstone held out his hand and let loose a fiery blast.

Buck flew smoking away from the blast—distinctly un-vaporized, so he might have gotten a timely Flash Step in—and was still wriggling his body until the moment he leveraged his momentum into a careening cartwheel that carried him into the invisible barrier and up its dome-shaped interior. He kicked off the highest point with a whooping laugh, caught his falling instrument out of the air as it was on the way down, and spun himself feet-first while bobbing his head and bouncing his shoulders to the music.

Brimstone's head snapped up, alerted by his Danger Sense but unable to move fast enough as Buck's boot heel collided with the sword hilt sticking out of his head, driving it in deeper. The demon-face helmet cracked wide and shattered, pieces scattering over the floor along with Anathema's remnant. Buck leapt away half a second before Brimstone's blazing retaliation. He landed on the other end of the stage, looking none the worse for wear except that a good portion of his tight leather pants had burned off, leaving him… indecently exposed. Will could not muster the enthusiasm to be scandalized, but there were certainly a few less-than-horrified gasps among the spectators.

[Contestant 1: Audience approval // 57 ^75%]

[Contestant 2: Audience approval // 0%]

Based on his increasingly horrific vocalizations, Brimstone was aware that he was being hopelessly outsped, the challenger running circles around him. Rather than slowing down and figuring out a strategy, the lord doubled down, crashing around the stage with explosions and steam jets, slamming into the barrier on this side, then that, then the other as he chased Buck around in circles. Without his helmet, his head fried and crackled and fully caught on fire until it was little more than a screaming, flaming skull.

Buck kept on speeding up until his movements became hard to follow. Despite the sickening speed, he still did not miss a beat.

[dancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedancedance]

Faster, faster, faster until the music was nothing more than hammering noise. Flying. Bouncing off the walls. He was spreading trails of glittery sparkles around himself now.

Brimstone couldn't keep the pace up for long. He stumbled, fell, got back up again, exploded himself wrong so he ended up on his hands and knees. He still did not stop, releasing even more waves of heat around himself. Maybe trying to crank up the temperature inside the stage enough to fry Buck out, waves of dazzling superheated air spreading out around him.

But if that was his strategy, he'd thought of it too late. He tipped back on his heels with a long, blood-chilling shriek. His head was almost completely charred black now, and flames were shooting uncontrollably out of every crevice in his armor.

"DIIIIIIIE!!!" Brimstone howled into the air, vomiting fire from his mouth until his teeth were beginning to crack and disintegrate.

[Contestant 1: Audience approval // 75 ^100%]

[Contestant 2: Audience approval // 0%]

[Wow! Great job, Contestant 1! You're on fire!]

[Now, let's see how you finish it out!]

Buck came out of a leap by landing feet-first against the barrier. Twirling, he bent low, and strummed his instrument one final time before kicking off, shooting for Brimstone in a dazzling starlight streak.

[finalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinalefinale]

Brimstone raised his hand to counterattack, but his arm fell off at the elbow and tumbled to the floor, carbonized chunks spilling out of the empty gauntlet. Buck wielded his shamisen as a club, letting his incredible momentum carry him. The body of the instrument crashed into Brimstone's face. The shamisen smashed into pieces, and the head puffed into a cloud of ash. Smoky fragments smattered across the floor and the inside of the barrier.

All at once, the music cut out—replaced by an abrupt silence that somehow felt more deafening than all the noise before it. Brimstone's headless body slumped forward, breastplate hitting the floor with a light thunk.

Arms over his head, Buck skidded to a picture perfect stop, arms thrown up over his head. He threw the ruined neck of his instrument aside, then sketched out a perfect bow to his audience. Then he turned ninety degrees and bowed again, and a third time, and a fourth.

Buck barely had a scratch on him. He was also completely nude aside from a single smoking boot and a scrap of leather clinging to one calf.

[Contestant 1 wins!]

[...]

[Please clap.]

Did they ever.

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