The Claw is a lone wolf and lets out another howl as he closes in. I hold the axe in front of me, ready for a strike. He is fast. I flick the axe into a strike, and he ducks lower so it only creates a small cut across his back instead of a deep cut in his ribs.

He powers into me, and one of his arms punches his claws into my axe arm, while the other arm and teeth go for my main body. He didn't try to grab my axe arm. He punches his claws into it. I drop the axe.

His other clawed hand punches into my chest, but the leather armour, my Tough Hide and Damage Mitigation all reduce it to shallow pin pricks.

His teeth were going for my neck, but that was anticipated. My free arm was coming up in a punch that connected with his jaw. I had not thought about punching with claws, like he did, but I had never done that. Even now, I am learning from a Beast-kin fighter. I just have to stay alive.

His head rocked upward as my punch was enhanced with a Seismic Smash to rock his brain. I then go for my own bite. I miss his throat due to his speed, and his tough hide is higher levelled than mine, but I come away with a mouthful of fur and skin.

He is not done, though. He is shorter than I, and his rear legs and feet claws come up and try to rip open my stomach. This is fascinating, and I only see what he is doing with my Void Sensing. He partially Transformed, turning his rear legs into a wolf's legs to better claw me.

His control over the transform skill is another eye-opener for me. I have never attempted a partial transformation in a fight. My Transform Skill is low Journeyman, and there is obviously a lot more I could be doing with it.

My leather vest is shredded, and my Tough Hide and Damage Mitigation reduce the disembowelling to deep lacerations.

I execute Fang Reversal to get the upper hand in the grappling session. He is wily and experienced, and partially escapes. I turn my Tooth of the Mountain into a Lunging Maul, my claws rip into his hide, and I rip another mouthful of fur and skin from his back.

He separates and starts circling me, growling. His rear legs are still in wolf form, so he stays on all fours. He shakes his head as if to clear it. I did rock his brain.

I use Blood Clot and Close Wound, and I notice his wounds are closing, but more slowly than mine. His are healing, whereas mine are just closing.

After that first exchange, we both have no serious damage. I checked on Jinx, and she was exchanging very fast blows with a very fast-moving rat. That is all the chance I get as the Claw seemed to sense my attention was elsewhere momentarily and leapt for me.

This time, I met him with a Rake and Roar, enhanced by Quick Claws and Swift Hands. The Dread, enhancing the roar, was almost automatic. He was skilled and fast. He was faster than I, although I might be stronger.

Blood and fur flew as we lay into each other. He was a brawler. My leather, Tough Hide and Damage Mitigation combined to reduce the damage I took, more than his higher-level Tough Hide. His Howl competed with my Roar.

It was too fast for my Savage Wildfang technique. The Savagery was there, but my technique was lacking.

Then he tried to disengage, and I had a fleeting chance, so I executed Tooth of the Mountain, accepting several claw strikes as the price. But the price was worth it when my jaws closed on his arm and my Crushing Bite broke wrist bones.

He ripped his arm away, but I wasn't going to let him heal. My footwork was right as I launched into a Lunging Maul and pinned him down. His legs came up and ripped at my belly and thighs as I bit a hunk of flesh from his shoulder.

Suddenly, his wolf legs changed to human, and they propelled me off him and backwards.

I was almost continuously using Blood Clot to restrict my bleeding. Then I noticed Jinx was down and bleeding a lot. The Rat was moving behind her to finish her off, so I spun with Swift Hands and threw a knife in the back of his neck, aiming to sever his spine.

He collapsed, but the Claw had taken advantage and landed on my back, going for a neck bite. I lurched forward into a roll as I felt his teeth against my spine. I have Jinx's Tough Bones to thank for not losing the fight then and there.

Fang Reversal was for this, as only one of my hands grabbed his upper jaw, to stop it from closing, and my other hand stabbed my claws into his shoulder where I had previously ripped out the flesh, and my claws hooked his collar bone, and I hauled him over my head and away. The bone snapped as I didn't let go.

He landed hard, but he kept rolling to make some distance. He was an experienced brawler, but a broken collarbone disabled one arm and a broken wrist the other. He stayed down and acted like a beaten dog.

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I was the last one standing. I roared my victory.

I then walked to Jinx and touched her. She had two deep stab wounds and a nasty slice in her stomach. I Extracted the Impurities and used Blood Clot and Close Wound. Her Regeneration was keeping her alive, and now she wouldn't bleed out before we could get a healing potion to her. The Impurities were mainly from her perforated bowel.

I looked at the Rat, and his dead eyes stared back at me. He was obviously better than Kiri/Jinx, but a knife from me in the randomness of the Melee killed him. I retrieved my knife.

The 'Healers' were coming into the Pit with potions for those who had prepaid for them. I was handed the four that Jinx and I had paid for, and I fed her first.

Our 'healer' helped us out of the pit into the recovery area. I kept up the Extraction of Impurities, but I could see the Healing Potion and her Regeneration combining to close the wounds.

I sat as my Healing Potion went to work as well. The Melee was a chaotic fight, and a lot of luck was involved. I thought about the Orc spear person who was clobbered from behind by the Smasher, who in turn was stabbed in the back by Jinx and the Rat that I knifed. The feeling that a passing person could have easily killed me was not nice. The feeling of chaos was unsettling. My Void Sensing mitigated it, but I could only concentrate on one thing at a time. I could have been stabbed in the back.

I was collected and taken to a stage and presented with a bag of coins for winning the Open Melee. I gave both Jinx and me a shot of Revitalise before I left.

When I returned, Jinx was sitting up. "Thank you," she said.

"I am not doing that again," I replied. Risking my life for a few coins was not worth it.

"Did it work?" she asked.

I nodded. My Guard Class had moved to 9, and Field Medic had moved to 5. I had two spare points to allocate. "Still not worth it," I said.

Jinx just grinned.

I looked at my skills. I had done enough to get Savage Wildfang to Level 1. This was a very powerful skill as it enabled me to beat the Claw, who was faster and more experienced than I was. I know Damage Mitigation and Kiri's Tough Bones played a big part, but without Savage Wildfang, I would have lost. It gave me structure and moves in a brawl that was out of my depth.

I had learned a new skill: Formidable Roar, which struck fear into my enemies. It combined my Dread aura skill with my Roar. It seemed natural to me, and now I have a skill for it. Dread was a mental-based skill, but Formidable Roar was partly Mental and partly Spiritual. My Spiritual was a lot stronger than my Mental. Mental Strength did counter it, but the opponent also needed Spiritual Strength. Many fighters possessed strong mental strength but were weak in the spiritual realm, allowing me to have a wider attack range than Dread. Combining the two would be even better.

There are a number of other Skill Increases. Seismic Smash is now nine and ready for the push to Journeyman. Close Wound pushed through to Journeyman, and Blood Clot was on the cusp. There were several other skill rises, including Knife Throw and Damage Mitigation.

Wait a minute. A Close Wound is now a Journeyman-level skill, allowing it to work on internal organs. I moved to check on Jinx's perforated bowel, but her Regeneration and the Healing Potions had mostly fixed it already.

It was certainly a beneficial fight, but I am still not sure it was worth the risk.

We left the Pit and met Kevin, Kahz, Pānihi and Felix and headed home. I almost took Felix with me to the Pit. People know who I am, and therefore, they know about Felix. It is not like I can hide with my features. I left him with Kevin and Pānihi as the Pit was not a safe place, with too many violent people who don't usually suffer the consequences of their actions.

"How much did they give you as the winner?" Kiri asked

I shrugged and tossed her the bag of coins. She whistled, "Wow, that is worth a golden mammoth tusk. No wonder people fight in the pit and backstab each other." At my neutral look, she said, "You didn't even count it, did you? I bet you didn't even check the gold/platinum mix." She shook her head, "Get that into your Treasury House account. You are so much like my father."

"We should go and meet him once we are done," I said.

"I would like that," Kiri said, "You and he would get on well together."

"I have a question. When you were fighting the Angel, he was about to surrender, but you cut his head off. Why did you kill him?"

Kiri looked at me, "because he was a sneaky bastard and I wouldn't trust him to stab me in the back, but also because he was the last high-level enforcer of the Gutter Saints."

I looked at her carefully, "Doesn't that mean the Gutter Saints won't last long now?"

"True," Kiri said, "Especially true if I had perhaps organised someone to take over their territory." I raise an eyebrow. "It was too good and an opportunity, and there are other ways to make a fight like that worth it."

"You are involved in the gangs?" I asked.

"Not directly," Kiri said.

"Not directly," I repeated. Then things clicked into place. "Your aunt, the Black Butcher, still has an organisation here, doesn't she?"

"After this long, they are more like affiliates," Kiri said. "They are putting out information requests where official channels won't go, but certainly where Auntie B operates. In return, I am doing them a few favours. Decapitating the Gutter Saints was one, and the Open Melee was too good an opportunity."

I thought about it. "Please tell me next time," I said finally. She was not going to change. She would always have many reasons to do something, especially something as dangerous as the Open Melee. "I am your bodyguard," I said. "I need to know where the threats are coming from. The gangs are a significant threat. What about the Rat guy? Was he part of the deal?"

"No. He was just part of the melee. He was much better than usual around here. I think he was possibly a master of the small blade." She shuddered. "I now know what it is like to be outclassed and made helpless."

"I hope you will choose your fights more carefully," I said.

Kiri grinned, "I learned a lot, though."

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