A magical circle appears beneath my feet, and in the blink of an eye, I’m standing in the center of the Colosseum. The moment I arrive the crowd immediately begins to scream with excitement.

  “It appears a powerful challenger has arrived!” A female announcer’s voice booms through the arena, sending the audience into a fury.

  “According to my sources, the young man that stands before you is The Magician from the infamous Major Arcana, but who will his challengers be?”

  The crowd grows silent as three more magical circles appear all equidistant from me. On the first circle appears a young woman, who couldn’t be more than sixteen. Followed by a middle aged man who looks worse for wear. Lastly, a brute. A man so large that he had to be at least eight feet tall. His arms alone were larger than my torso, which is saying something since I did have some muscle on me.

  How are they my perfect emotional foils? Before I had time to even contemplate how, the announcer was answering my question for me.

  “Four enter, only one can leave. Whether you leave in a body bag, or knocked merely unconscious, that is up to you. Let the fight commence!”

  I didn’t even have time to think about what was happening, the moment the fight began the brute pushed off the ground and darted towards the young woman who stood opposite of him. One hit from him and her entire body would break. There was no way she could survive it.

  I don’t have time to move or think, only act. If if I sit and contemplate too long, he will kill them.

  “Hypergravity!” My voice booms as I increase the gravity on the brute, but he quickly rolls out of the way, the ground cracking under the spot where I increased gravity. His movement was too quick for someone of his size, the level of agility doesn’t make sense with so much muscle. He must be using magic to enhance his muscle and movement somehow.

  Several pillars of gravity rain down over top of him, but without missing a beat he dodges every one of them. He rolls out of the way, and immediately springs back to his feet to continue chasing after the young woman. Luckily, she has decided to run rather than just stand still in fear.

  Shit. I need to figure out a way to stop him. I was too distracted by the brute that I didn’t pay attention to the middle aged man. A club was now several inches from my face and rapidly approaching.

  Without thinking, I send a bunch of energy his way, creating a shockwave that shatters the club and immediately sends him flying and crashing into the wall behind us.

  “Oh my god.” I freeze as I stare at his broken body. The crowd on the other hand immediately gets louder and starts cheering and stomping their feet. The ground vibrates from the sheer volume of their stomping and cheering. This is a monstrous.

  I immediately run towards the guy, reaching out towards his throat to ensure that he still has a pulse. His eyes slowly flicker open, and they warp in fear as they see me approaching.

  “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” I ask, as I begin searching his body for any open wounds. I didn’t know any healing magic so I can’t fix him up, but I can at least try to stop any bleeding.

  Once he realizes I wasn’t there to attach him, his gaze shifts from fear to pain. He looks like he was trying to speak, but nothing but grunts came out of him. His face with covered with cuts, bruises, and blood. His body was broken from the impact. Please don’t die.

  “I’ll be okay.” He manages to whisper, “Save the girl. I forfeit.”

  A giant bell tolls the moment the words leave his lips.

  “One down, two to go.” The announcer declares. I turn back towards the man, he nods to me. Okay, I have to stop the brute now. As much as I would love to fight him from afar, I need to give this everything I’ve got. I already royally messed up this man, I can’t let the same thing happen to that girl.

  I stand up straight, pivot, and start running at full speed towards the brute who was still in pursuit of the young woman.

  On the journey here, I didn’t just sit idly by and soak up the sun, I practiced magic. I worked to increase my control over energy, and slowly work towards channeling that energy into magic. I haven’t quite mastered it just yet, but I have gotten a decent grasp on at least the natural elements and the world around me. I’m not ready to bend space time, but this world, that I can control.

  “I don’t need to know how it works, just that it works.” I remember out loud as I skid to halt, plant my feet, and get ready for my next move.

  The air begins to crackle around me as I draw in the energy, channeling it into a single point, specifically with the purpose of creating lightning. Once I was sure I had enough to do some serious damage without killing him, I released it.

  The bolt of lightning rippled from my body over the ground until it reached the brute, but this happens so fast that he doesn’t have time to dodge it. The lightning slams into him, lifting him off the ground, and sending flying into the air.

  “Gust.” I focus on the air above him, sending a giant gust of wind, pushing against him, stopping his upward trajectory, and forcing him back down towards the ground.

  He slams into it, a giant dust cloud plums up as he makes impact. It completely blocks the view of the entire Colosseum.

  “With that impact, has the Magician taken him out? Once the dust clears…” the announcer pauses as we all slowly wait to see the result of my attack on the brute.

  As the cloud dissipates, the brute slowly climbs out of the small crater had body made when it slams into the ground. He stumbles slightly as he makes his way to his feet.

  “And he’s alive!” The announcer screams out followed immediately by the cheering of the crowd. Their excitement for this brutal death match was deafening. I’m pretty sure we are nothing more than caged animals fighting it out to them.

  A magic circle on the brute’s chest begin to glow and all the cuts and bruises start to vanish from his body.

  “Just like that he is back in fighting form! Will the Magician have what it takes to take down this titan? Hold onto your drinks folks because this is about to get exciting!”

  “Fuck.” I mutter as the brute now rushes towards me manically. A grin is plastered across his overly muscular face. How can a face be muscular you ask? Yeah, I have no idea either, but whatever kind of magics he uses to enhance his body has disfigured his face in a way I didn’t notice until he was rushing straight towards me.

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  I could try to enhance my own body to fight him, but I’m not sure that would be enough. I figured hitting him with the force of lightning would be enough to knock him out, but nope. One of those strongest forces of nature didn’t even scratch him. I thought I would have to protect the other two from him, but now I have to make sure I have a face when this is all over.

  I really do have the worst luck.

  Well, at this point he’s almost on top of me, I don’t have time to think. So, let’s go with gravity.

  I rapidly pull in all the energy from the surrounding air into my self and start layering it all over my body. I specifically condense the energy around my fists and feet, making them more durable. In doing so, I also increase the rate of gravity when I make impact. If I time it perfectly, I should be able to do some serious damage.

  His first move is a right hook straight at my face. I lean to one side, just missing his punch, and immediately counter with my own. My fist collides with his torso, energy condensing upon the moment of impact. The magical circle on his chest flickers for a moment, that’s weird.

  He slides backward several inches from the impact of my punch. Good, I can at least make myself close to his strength, but holy shit that hurt. It was akin to punching a brick wall. Not as bad as Trevor, but pretty damn close.

  Unfortunately for me, his reaction time is just as quick as his body. I knocked him back several feet, but he immediately rushes me again. I’m met with a flurry of punches that I barely manage to dodge until a fake out allows him to land a right hook squarely on my chest.

  The moment his fist makes impact, I’m catapulted towards the wall, crashing into it. If it wasn’t for the condensed energy around me, I’m pretty sure he would have killed me with that strike.

  I’m currently sitting in a giant crater in the wall, but I still didn’t crash through it. The wall is so thick that even a hole several feet deep isn’t enough to make it through. They clearly planned for everything here didn’t they?

  Okay, I can’t focus on the architecture of this stupid amphitheater, I have a brute to beat down. Somehow. I may be stronger but I don’t have the fighting prowess to beat someone like. When we took Trevor out, it took all of us to do it, but now I’m alone. I have gained some skill in combat, but not enough to fight hand to hand with someone this strong. I needed a plan and quick.

  I crawl out of the hole, and onto the ground. Oof, my entire body hurts. Fighting freaking sucks, I need to learn some healing magic pronto.

  I raise my gaze to see the brute walking towards me at a glacial pace. It feels very much like a horror movie villain who walks slowly because they know they will catch you, so no need to run. He’s probably thinking I put up a good fight but that he is clearly stronger than me so the rest will be easy.

  He would probably be right, if it was strictly hand to hand.

  I push myself back to my feet moments before he arrives at my location and swiftly performs a roundhouse kick to the left side of my head. I immediately drop to my knees and punch him square in the balls, very Mortal Kombat first movie style. If it’s works for Johnny Cage, it can work for me…. I hope.

  The brute stumbles backwards, and this is my chance to gain the upper hand. I poor every ounce of energy I can muster into my fist and punch him squarely in the face. The force of my punch sends him bouncing towards the wall like a ball being thrown around by children with no sense of aim.

  He smashes into the wall, gets buried in the rubble, and the crowd immediately goes wild.

  “It appears the Magician has some fight left in him. With a one two punch to the balls and our big friend is down. Will he make it back to his feet?”

  I look towards the far end of the arena to where the announcer must be seated. She is joined by all twelve heads of the Zodiac, others in their family, and of course the Saint. As we fight to the death down here, they all watch over us like sadistic children ready to burn an ant with a magnifying glass. We scurry to their delight so as not to get burned by their beam of light.

  It’s fucked up.

  But if they want a show, I will give it to them.

  I sit down on the ground, cross my legs, and close my eyes. So, my current method of using magic has been working quite well for me. I focus on the end result rather than the journey of how to get there. I have no idea if that’s the best way, but hell, it works.

  Right now, I want to rain hell on this stupid Colosseum. These fuckers have dug up some shit I didn’t want to think about, and it‘s only the first trial. I can’t even imagine what the rest will look like. So, right now, I just want to crush what’s in front of me. I should also note, I won’t be able to control it.

  I learned out at sea, and in Sirius, that I am very capable of summoning big magic but I royally suck at controlling it. So, I’m pulling out all the strings for this one.

  My goal of today, the apocalypse. Well, what I imagine the world to look like during the apocalypse anyway. Not like a fire and brimstone kind, just the natural disaster kind. So, I’m just visualizing all of it.

  It doesn’t take long for the ground to begin to rumble beneath all of our feet. The epicenter is directly beneath me, buy within a matter of seconds, it ripples outward to the entire arena until it’s a full blown earthquake.

  Above us in the sky, black clouds rapidly begin to form with a circular motion towards them. Seconds later, rain and hail begin to pelt the entire arena, and everyone in the stands.

  From my. viewpoint, the Zodiac and their guests are protected by some barrier, but the audience isn’t so lucky.

  The brute crawls from he hole in the wall and stands frozen in fear as he watches the scene unfold before him.

  Slowly several circular clouds begin to form multiple tornadoes that threaten to touch done at any moment, lifting everyone in the arena off their feet. The brute grabs a hold of the wall with dear life, while I float in place, using a pocket of gravity to keep me from flying away.

  Next, several bolts of lightning shoot outwards from the clouds, hitting their targets indiscriminately, including several people in the crowd. I stare up at the Zodiac, whose eyes are all fixed on me in the center of the arena. The magic is completely and completely running wild, at this point, I have no control over any of it.

  What happens next is up to the natural order of things, and what nature decides it wants to do now that I’ve pushed it along. I realize this could end very badly, but I’m banking on them interfering. They want a show, and if they have no audience, they have no show. So, I’m really hoping that they will stop this before I accidentally kill half the population of the city.

  A giant crack begins to form in the center of the arena, until it rips completely open, pulling the two sides apart from one another. The weather has turned into a full blown storm with multiple tornadoes, hail, lightning, and everything that comes with that.

  As the audience scampers about like ants who have had their colony invaded, Guy stands up and makes his way to the edge of the balcony. He nods at the announcer, she nods back.

  “I daresay that is enough.” Guy’s voice booms through the arena as he claps his hands and raises them up towards the cloud in the sky. “I think we all know The Magician has won this round. How about a round of applause for our first victor?”

  The crowd immediately erupts into cheers as the storm dissipates rapidly and the earth once again stands still. If you were an outsider looking in, you wouldn’t even know they all feared for their lives moments ago. With the snap of his finger, Guy has returned the world back to normal.

  No one else noticed, but I did. I didn’t notice before when we were with Godrick, but since it was my magic this time, I did. He didn’t undo my spell. He didn’t dispel it, break, nothing. What he did instead was shift the balance of energy towards himself and away from me and the surrounding area. In doing so, his goal superseded my own and basically balanced the world to his will.

  I’ve never seen anything like it, but the sheer amount of power it would require to do such a thing is terrifying. He made it look so easy too. If I thought I could take any of them, I have been gravely mistaken.

  “Congratulations James, you have done well. Please do join us in the champion’s box to watch the remaining battles.”

  Guy motions and a door appears just beneath their balcony and I am motioned towards the entrance. At this point, I can’t say no.

  As I walk towards the entrance to the balcony, I notice the young woman cowering in the corner balling her eyes out, soaking wet, and genuinely terrified. I did that. I am the one that caused such fear in her. I am once again reminded that we have the ability to be just as terrifying as any of the villains in this world. All it takes is one wrong move, and we could be seen just the same as them.

  As I pass the brute, he was knocked unconscious by the storm and looks like nothing more than a feeble man at this point. It appears as though his entire physique was manipulated by magic.

  As I climbed the stairs to the balcony, the only thought I could muster was, the world I’ve entered is truly just as fucked up as mine.