Another day of work was done, so it was time to go back to the Iron Ring. I’d been making loads of progress (level 41), and had gotten two more legendary cloth armor pieces made. The only thing missing from the complete look was the Ember Celica, which required an absurd amount of rings, mechmail, and platemail, along with a bit of leather. After changing to an athletic outfit, I put the Driver on, inserted the Gashats, lay down, and opened it up.

Melody was there to greet me. “Good evening, Solar Dragon. How was your day?”

“Busy” I answered. “How are things here?”

“They’re good. I got your emblem painted on the wall, just as you asked.”

“Sweet. Thanks.” I went into the gym and saw my emblem, painted in black and outlined with bright gold. It was beautiful.

Aegir soon joined me. “Looks good.”

“Thanks.” I shared a fist bump with Aegir. “What’s on today’s itinerary?”

“Aiming for five more points in both agility and durability. Now get to it.”

I was just about to start on the durability training when the door burst open. “I seek the Solar Dragon” came a cold voice that sounded like mine.

I turned around and, as I suspected, it was a human player, and she had a human coach. Her armor was light blue and black medium level platemail, except for the heavy mechmail gauntlets that ended in three fingered robot claws. She had a constant aura of frost going around her, coming out of gaps and vents in the armor. Her face was partially concealed by a clear blue faceplate with a long horn on it, under which was a lot of light blue makeup and facepaint.

“I’m the Solar Dragon” I said as I got into the ring. “You’re here for a fight, right? Tell me your name.”

“Indeed. I’m Blizzard Knuckle.” She grabbed the top rope of the ring with the claws and flipped into her spot.

Aegir stepped into the ring to do his thing. “Standard rules apply. Three rounds, with one and two lasting three minutes each and the last one going until someone’s down for ten. Ultimates are available in round three. Solar Dragon, are you ready?”

“Yep” I said, despite a small knot of dread.

“Blizzard Knuckle, are you ready?”

“Ready” Blizzard Knuckle said.

“Fight!”

After Aegir left the ring, Blizzard and I approached each other. I took the first blow of the fight, quickly finding out that the robot claws gave her an extended reach. I also found out that the frosty visuals were just that: visuals. There was no actual cold to them. I didn’t get much time to revel in that fact as Blizzard Knuckle continued her attack. After the third hit she landed, her frost effect turned into snow.

I managed to eventually avoid a swing and got in close. As soon as I dealt damage, the snow effect turned back to frost. I didn’t let that quirk stop me and continued the attack. As long as I stayed close enough, Blizzard’s extended reach would be less of an issue since it seemed she couldn’t move her wrists.

The platemail on her body was tough, which wasn’t too surprising. At least it didn’t hurt as much as the Gear King’s mechmail armor had. Uneven shapes aside, those gears moved, and dealing anything more than a fast punch or glancing blow had hurt me back.

After I dealt a number of punches, I felt a robot claw grab my left arm from behind, which swung me around to my right and into the ropes. I turned around just in time to avoid an uppercut, which unfortunately lead me into a hook from the opposite side, sending me stumbling to the corner. Before I could get trapped, I dove out of the corner to give me some distance.

Blizzard didn’t look much worse for wear, though her armor did have some dents in it. Not seeing many other options, I got back in close and dealt what damage I could. Without some kind of gauntlet, my best attacks didn’t even take a whole percentage off of her health. Factoring in the passive health regen everyone had, it wasn’t looking good for me.

The rest of the round consisted of bouts of me punching her, followed by her getting me off and dealing a good chunk of damage with a couple attacks. Finally, the bell rang for the round, we went to our corners, and sat down. I was down to nearly half of my full health while I’d only managed to knock Blizzard down by about a quarter of hers.

“Please tell me you have an idea, Aegir” I said.

“I wish I did. Apparently, there’s some high grade mechmail material at stake in this fight, so if you win, you’ll get it, I guess.”

“And then I’ll be able to make the Ember Celica after I get enough rings, which winning would also contribute to. Sweet!” Extra motivation was always good. A glance at my opponent only yielded a cold glare in return. “I’m glad elemental stuff is just visual here. I wouldn’t be able to fight her otherwise.”

“True. Hey, try pinning one of her arms.”

“You haven’t taught me that yet.”

“It’s simple. Just think of her arm like a piece of wood for the smoker, and you’re carrying it against your body.”

I took a moment to envision what he was talking about. “Ah, I see. And that’s a legal move?”

“Yes. Time’s just about up. See if you can end it this round.”

Aegir left, the bell rang, and I went back out to meet my opponent again. She opened with a wide swing, which I feinted from before leaning back in and countering with a punch to her armored head, which actually dealt more than 1% damage to her health. It still wasn’t much, but that and the goal of mechmail material was a good motivator.

I managed to get two similar counters in before before Blizzard changed up her attack pattern, sending me back a bit. I got my wits about me and aimed to throw a straight punch at her, but she caught it in one of the robot claws before nailing me in the gut with the other one multiple times. She released my hand just before swinging across my jaw and sending me to the ropes. The combined assault had me down to 15% of my health and wondering yet again just why I hadn’t put time or effort into getting even just basic platemail armor.

I was pulled back from my thoughts to the fight when Blizzard was on me again. After a few hits to my face, I went down. “This is nothing new, Yang” I thought as the count began. “You somehow beat Gear King’s mechmail, you can beat Blizzard’s platemail.” I got back up when Aegir had gotten to five and immediately ducked under a swing from Blizzard before dealing a straight punch to her gut with all my power, causing an uppercut of hers to falter before it got to me. I pressed the advantage as best I could, getting inside her range of attack and keeping up with my own.

When I felt the claw brush against my left arm, I quickly pinned Blizzard’s right arm. Soon, we were in a bind, her right arm pinned while her left one held my left arm. This still left me with a free arm, and I capitalized on the situation to punch Blizzard’s face. Her attempts to pull me off of her weren’t working, as the robot claws actually made it easier to keep her arms in place.

Thanks to Blizzard’s refusal to simply try something else, I had all the time I needed to damage her helmet to the point where it broke and fell apart, making my punches to her head a lot more effective.

Eventually, she went down. As Aegir counted, I nursed my right hand a bit. Dealing punches against armor without some kind of gauntlet was never fun. It also felt weird every time I fought someone playing as a human, since that character model always resembled me. It was almost like fighting a mirror image of myself.

She got back up on six, and was clearly more cautious than before. Since I had just broken her helmet and knocked her down, it was understandable.

Before either of us could do anything, the bell rang and we retreated to our corners. “That went better than I expected” Aegir said as he joined me. “I don’t think she’ll let it happen again though.”

“I certainly wouldn’t” I said. “Aside from aiming for her head, do you have any other pieces of advice?”

“If you can break the body armor, that will make her easier to beat.”

“Obviously.”

“If she’s staying on the defensive, you could try to break her arm pieces as well. Those seem central to her strategy.”

“Noted. Energy shot?”

“Here you go.” I drank the requested energy shot (strawberry flavored) and felt better. “Almost time for the last round. It ends when someone’s down for ten.”

“I know. That’s how it is in all matches.”

“Just making sure.” A few seconds after Aegir left, the bell rang. Second Wind was available for me to use, and I assumed Blizzard’s Ultimate was as well.

I opened with some punches aimed for Blizzard’s head, which she blocked or dodged for a bit before punching me and sending me back. I aimed another punch on the way back, but she caught it with one claw. I tried for another punch, but she caught that as well. Then she started giving off a faint red glow.

My attempts to escape didn’t get me anywhere as the glow intensified. Finally, she let go of one of my hands, then swung her now free claw at me, letting go of my other arm just in time to deal her blow and send me flying into a corner. If the punch hadn’t killed my health already, the impact certainly would have done the trick.

Aegir came into the ring and began the countdown. “One! Two! Three! Four!” I tried to get back up. “Five! Six! Seven!” The dual impact had me hurting. “Eight! Nine! Ten! Match goes to Blizzard Knuckle!”

“Oh, that hurts” I said as Blizzard Knuckle left the ring, looking like she’d accomplished a mission or something. “Aegir, what hit me?”

“Payback. You know, that damage return Ultimate. I have to give her credit on how she pulled it off, holding your hands in place like that. If nothing else, you get points for breaking her helmet. That was pretty cool.”

“Yeah, I guess. If you don’t mind, I’m going to call it a day here. There’s getting defeated, there’s getting thrashed, then there’s that fight.”

“Fair enough.”

I closed the Driver and woke up on my bed. Asada was curled up next to me, though not asleep. After taking the belt off and setting it aside, Asada gave me a lick to my face. “Hey, thanks. I had a bad fight there against an icy robot. Oh, it was bad. I’m going to sleep.” After I got under the blankets, Asada readjusted herself to her usual position next to me and we fell asleep in short order.

Author's Notes:

Blizzard Knuckle is heavily inspired from Kamen Rider Grease Blizzard

As for Gear King, imagine this guy, but as a minotaur and with more gears

If you're still reading this, there's yet another aspect of character design introduced here: visual effects and makeup. Makeup is a free change that doesn't affect any stats at all and allows, essentially, painting of one's character. Visual effects are often best described as particle effects, and have more flavors than an ice cream parlor. Constant ones are always on and activated ones can be activated any number of ways (dealing damage, taking damage, not taking damage, whatever). Blizzard's frost effect is both, and escalates as well.

There are three slots for visual effects. If you've submitted a character, feel free to describe any visual effects and/or makeup that you want. If you have further questions, feel free to ask. This is also the last aspect of character design for Iron Ring, I promise.