The First Sacrifice

A feline's body became lighter and more agile after transforming. Its bones were less dense than a human's, and its muscle fibers were longer, allowing Lynx to unleash astonishing speed over short distances. But there was a price: more fragile joints. The capsules around his ankles stretched during transformation, while the ligaments grew thinner and offered less support.

Jack gripped both ankles, his hardened knuckles digging into the joints. He could feel the ligaments flex beneath his fingers and hear the joint capsules deform under the pressure. It was a faint sound, like rubber creaking as it was twisted to its limit.

He swung Lynx bodily into the air.

Holding him by the ankles, Jack slammed him into the floor. Lynx's back struck first, and the iron plates boomed under the combined force of his weight and Jack's strength. The cage floor shuddered. The tremor traveled through the supports beneath the stands and into the gamblers' feet, making every heart skip a beat.

Lynx's body bounced after the first impact. Jack did not let go. He used the rebound to lift him and slam him down again. The second blow shook the oil lamps above the cage, making the light flicker. The spectators saw blood spray from the corner of Lynx's mouth and arc through the air.

Jack did not stop.

He straddled Lynx and brought down his right fist.

The first punch struck the right side of Lynx's face. The instant his hardened fist met the cheekbone, it shattered. Bone fragments lodged in the muscles of Lynx's cheek, and his face caved in from beneath his right eye to the corner of his mouth. His head snapped left, and the back of his skull hit the iron floor with a dull thud.

The second punch struck the left side. Now they matched.

Lynx clawed wildly at the floor, throwing up sparks from the iron plates. He tried to push Jack off, but Jack's weight pinned him down. His tail lashed across the floor, a feline's instinctive response to overwhelming fear. He could not even scream. His jawbone was broken, leaving his mouth unable to close or open.

The third punch struck his temple.

The cage's wire mesh stood behind Lynx's head. The blow drove his head into it, bowing the wire outward and warping the openings around his ears and hair. The wire snagged the black tuft above his right ear and tore away a small patch of fur and skin. Blood ran down the rim of his ear.

The fourth punch.

A fist-shaped dent appeared in the cage mesh. It had not been driven inward from outside, but punched outward from within. Lynx's head lay sunk in the dent. Blood seeped through the mesh and dripped onto the floor before the front row of seats.

The fifth punch.

Jack's fist was covered in blood. Lynx's and his own had mixed into a sticky film over his Hardened Skin. When he lifted his fist from Lynx's face, a thin strand of blood stretched between them.

A system window lit up in the center of his vision. This was not one of the usual notices tucked into a corner. It filled most of his view, with a dark red border and bright white text.

Ability user near death detected.

Zoan · Cat-Cat Fruit · Lynx Form.

A kill will trigger the first formal sacrifice. Proceed?

Jack looked at the prompt for a second, then drove his fist through Lynx's temple.

His fist pierced the temple and skull, crushing the inner wall of the cranial cavity. Lynx's body convulsed the moment the fist went in. All four limbs sprang up as if he had been electrocuted, then fell. His claws scraped the floor one last time. The nails broke at their roots, leaving a faint white mark.

Then he lay still.

The system window changed.

Sacrifice complete.

Zoan · Cat-Cat Fruit · Lynx Form Lineage Factor extracted.

Heartsteel maximum +10. Current maximum: 40.

Random selection in progress...

A spinning wheel appeared on the screen. From the outlines of its icons, Jack could make out categories for champion abilities, equipment, runes, and talents, but it spun so fast that every image blurred into a streak of light. After a few seconds, the glow intensified until he had to squint. Then the wheel stopped abruptly, light burst outward, and three icons appeared at the center of the panel.

Option One

Category: Champion Ability

Name: Rook [Q Ability — Three Exorcising Nails]

Effect: Rook throws a holy nail forward to deal magic damage. This ability can be cast three times. Hitting an enemy applies a mark that basic attacks and his E ability can detonate. The more stacks of the mark, the greater the detonation damage.

Description: This new champion's core damage ability. Three hits plus a detonated mark make it extremely effective for wearing down opponents in lane.

Option Two

Category: Talent

Name: Aftershock

Effect: After you immobilize an enemy champion through a stun, root, knock-up, or similar effect, your armor and magic resistance immediately increase by a huge amount for 2.5 seconds. When that time ends, you deal magic damage to nearby enemies based on your maximum health.

Description: A perfect fit for tanks who charge in first and start fights. Aftershock lets them withstand the initial barrage like a rock, then deal substantial area damage.

Option Three

Category: Summoner Spell

Name: Ghost

Effect: Your champion ignores unit collision while moving and gains 30% movement speed for 10 seconds.

Description: Activate it to slip through a crowd like an eel. Excellent for both pursuit and flanking, especially for champions who need to maneuver around their opponents.

Jack looked over the three options. Right. The classic choice of three.

Who was this Rook? Why had I never heard of him? The ability looked ranged, and it needed other abilities to work with it. Pass. Aftershock was good too, but Jack had no crowd control, so it would be useless to him. Ghost it was. Otherwise, he would never lay a hand on an agile opponent.

Jack rose from Lynx's body, his right fist hanging at his side as blood dripped between his fingers. His prison uniform had lost its original color. His blood and Lynx's had soaked it through, leaving the dark red fabric clinging to the muscles beneath his Hardened Skin.

He glanced at the blood on his fist, then past it to Lynx's corpse. The Executioner who had killed nineteen people lay in the center of the cage, his face smashed out of shape, a fist-shaped hollow in his temple. Blood poured from his ear and pooled on the iron floor.

Who's next?

The thought flashed through his mind without emotion, as casually as wondering what he would eat tomorrow.

The system panel appeared again.

Today's hardening complete. Heartsteel stacks +1. Current stacks: 4/40.

The Arena Master applauded from the stands.

He stood at the center of the second level, his short whip tucked beneath one arm, clapping loudly before his chest. The smile on his face was not a casino owner's practiced grin. It was genuine excitement he could not hide.

"Good!" he shouted toward the center of the cage, his voice echoing through the arena. He spread his arms as though presenting a newly acquired treasure. "See that? That's my new Executioner!"

The stands fell silent for several seconds. Then an uproar louder than any before it erupted. Gamblers stood on their chairs and shouted. Some flung their betting slips into the air, while others leaned far over the railings.

The Arena Master had struck gold. A pit slave who could kill an Executioner was a money-printing machine in Iron Cage City. Jack could fight, kill, and draw bets. He was valuable.

The men in striped suits beside the Arena Master stood as well. One turned and said something to him, and the Arena Master nodded rapidly. The other was already digging through his pocket for a Den Den Mushi.

The Arena Master turned to a guard and gave him an order. The guard nodded and jogged downstairs. He was arranging a new private cell. Even the large cell reserved for an Executioner was no longer enough. He would move Jack to the one deepest within Iron Cage City, the cell that had once held the previous Executioner.

The guards dragged Lynx's corpse away. One noticed a pool of blood on the iron plate beneath the mesh and crouched to wipe it up with a cloth. Another washed blood off the wire. Water poured from his bucket, ran down the mesh, and formed a dark red stream across the cage floor.

Jack did not watch them. He stood at the center of the cage, the system panel glowing quietly at the edge of his vision. The Lethal Tempo icon glimmered pale blue in his talent bar, like an ember freshly kindled.

His gaze passed through the mesh and across the stands to the Arena Master's face on the second level. The man was still clapping, still smiling, still talking to the people beside him. He had no idea what he was in Jack's eyes.

Jack looked away and lowered his gaze to his fist. The blood had dried into a dark red film over his Hardened Skin. He clenched his fist and opened it again. The film cracked and fell to the floor in tiny flakes.

He bent down and picked up a piece of claw Lynx had shed. It gleamed pale yellow under the lamplight, its hooked tip pointing straight at his eye.

The cage door was pulled open. A guard stood outside, head lowered, afraid to meet Jack's eyes.

"The Arena Master says you're moving to Cell One."

Jack tossed the claw to the floor and walked toward the door. As he passed the guard, he paused.

The guard's shoulders twitched.

Jack entered the private cell, and the iron door closed behind him. The metallic clang of the bolt sliding into its socket echoed down the corridor for a long time.

He sat on the bed frame, the system panel still glowing.

The face of his next target flashed through his mind. Not Lynx. Not the retired Marine, the three brothers, or the pit slave with the hammer. The Arena Master. Capone Bege. The people in suits applauding from the private boxes upstairs.

His fist tightened in the dark. His hardened knuckles cracked twice against his palm.