Twenty Cassids. Baxavius had beaten them all. Cassids in heavy armour, Cassids with robots, Cassids in giant mechs. They had all succumbed to Baxavius’s fiery harka-blade, his collapsatic shield, his elegant butterfly knife, his righteous Boson-Initializing Somatic Offensive Nuker. Admittedly, his BISON had done most of the work, but compared to some of the shit those other Cassids had, the BISON was considered rather weak.
All of them had been defeated. There was only one opponent left. All around the arena, the audience was cheering. They hadn’t seen such a large battle in a long time. The biggest turnout for a Cassid Only event ever. Fifty thousand beings watching live, and goodness knows how many watching at home. All eyes watching this plain, dusty arena, similar to that of ancient Cassid civilizations.
“Twenty, my fellow vok! Twenty Cassids! The twenty highest ranked Cassids to have ever graced this arena, and all of them defeated!” Above the arena, on a large, floating platform, was General Retvik Rethianos, a powerful Rethavok and the current administrator of the Dessaron Battle Arena. “But now Baxavius has one more battle ahead of him. Can he defeat the monstrous Lord Lydus the Terrible?”
Behind Baxavius, a stone door opened up, revealing his opponent. Lydus was the best Cassid to have ever fought in the Dessaron Battle Arena, a solo warrior with a single loss in his name. Twenty eight victories and one draw. The only being to have ever defeated him was General Retvik himself.
“Prepare yourself!”
Lydus was wearing some sort of custom body armour which made him tower over Baxavius. He must have been four meters tall without the suit on. Each piece of armour glistened with little sparks of electricity, the otherwise pitch black metal plates glowing with an unholy aura.
“FIGHT!”
Baxavius hadn’t even had a chance to assess the situation as Lydus roared and charged at him, the sort of attack one would expect from a feral Banikan, not a Cassid. Although Baxavius managed to get out of the way in time, he could feel an odd tingling in his arm. That electrified armour was going to make close combat impossible.
Lydus charged again, this time throwing his arms forward. It seemed that his tactic was just to make contact with his enemy and let his suit do the work. Baxavius wondered whether he had any ranged weapons, but a laser blast fired from Lydus’s left hand answered that question. Two rockets fired from a compartment on his right arm closed the case completely.
One rocket exploded somewhere near the crowds, its damage completely negated by the glowing forcefields around the arena. The other rocket made a crater behind Baxavius, knocking him off balance. Lydus took this as an opening and yet again charged forward, only for Baxavius to deploy his collapsatic shield, defending himself from what could have been a nasty blow.
Knowing that a head-on confrontation was not going to work, Baxavius rolled away, trying to put some space between him and the Cassid monster. A simple plan that wasn’t working as intended, due to Lydus constantly moving around. Just as Baxavius managed to finally get some distance, Lydus activated some sort of thruster pack and careered towards him.
With another nimble roll, Baxavius was somewhat safe, but in the process, he’d lost his shield. Lydus smashed it with his huge, clawed foot and laughed.
“How are you going to defend yourself now?”
Baxavius hesitated while Lydus laughed. With a roar, Lydus began firing more rockets, causing Baxavius to leap out of the way.
“YOU’RE WEAK! AND UGLY! AND STUPID!”
As Lydus taunted him though, Baxavius noticed something. His face was visible though his armour. Rolling out of harm’s way, Baxavius drew his righteous BISON and fired a volley of shots. Unfortunately, none of them hit. He needed to do something to distract Lydus so he could line up a shot.
“YOUR SILLY LASER WILL NOT HARM M-AH!”
Baxavius smiled as he landed a shot. While Lydus’s armour had absorbed the damage, the bright beam had distracted and temporarily blinded Lydus, causing to stumble.
That was when he saw it. The power supply. It was embedded on the suit’s neck, just underneath his jaw. That sudden blindness had revealed it, but Lydus had recovered too quickly. Lydus though was furious. He roared and charged once again. As he did so, massive arcs of electricity crackled in the air. Baxavius took a deep breath, reloaded his BISON and fired again. He needed just one shot.
Lydus closed in. Baxavius knew the BISON wasn’t going to do any damage. The last laser in his magazine burst forward, exploding across Lydus’s face.
“YOU LITTLE-”
As Lydus growled in pain, Baxavius drew his little butterfly knife and threw it at the howling monster.
The knife embedded itself in the power pack. Something fizzled. Then something hissed. Then something crackled.
Suddenly, Lydus froze in place. His suit was unresponsive. Baxavius walked over to the immobilised warrior and tapped gently. Lydus could do nothing but scream as both he and the suit collapsed.
The audience fell silent, taking a second to realise what had happened. Once they had worked out who the winner was, they burst into a cacophony of cheers and applause.
“Well, well, well!” The Rethan General’s voice boomed across the arena. “Lord Lydus the Terrible has been defeated! Congratulations, Baxavius, you are victorious!”
Baxavius smiled as the crowd roared around him, cheering for the new Cassid Champion.