“Hey, boss?” Aegir asked as I gave him a guest’s order.

“If it’s game related, ask me later.” I went back into the kitchen to resume cooking up more orders. It was a very busy Saturday.

“You’ve gotten pretty good at Iron Ring.”

“Thanks.”

“Have you been practicing the moves for real?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Maybe you could put them to the test in a season tournament?”

“Write it down.”

Aegir handed me a folded piece of paper with ‘Iron Ring’ written on it. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” I put the paper in the back of my neckline.

I flopped down onto my bed, still wearing my work clothes, later that night. A crinkle of paper against my neck reminded me of the note Aegir gave me. After fishing it out, I opened and read it.

Dear Yang,

A season tournament is starting up on Tuesday, and I think you’d do quite well in it. Its seven rounds take two weeks, one every other day, and once you’re in, you can’t leave without being disqualified. Missing a round also counts as being disqualified. Either way, you’ll lose most to all of your rings and have a five round exp gain debuff. Since the matches are at noon and rarely last more than thirty minutes, there shouldn’t be any problems for you.

I’ve seen how bored you’re getting in the game, and I think the season tournament would be a good way for you to wind down. One round every couple days is pretty good for that, or so I think. On top of that, you’d be able to say that you left having at least participated in a tournament, even if you don’t win.

Meet up with me in the game and we can talk more there.

-Aegir

“Hmm. He does make some good points. May as well.” I got back up, changed out of my clothes and into my robe, put the Gamer Driver on, loaded the Gashats, lay back down, and went into the game.

Aegir was doing some shadowboxing when I entered. “Hey, boss” he said as he made an uppercut. “You read the note?”

“Yeah, and you made some good points. That tournament does sound good.”

“Let’s get to it then. To enter it, just talk to Melody and have her sign you up. For now, let’s see if we can’t get you some more rings and consumables. Once we’re in, we won’t be able to get or make anything new.”

“Makes sense. I’m guessing there’s standardized rules?”

“All matches last for five rounds, defeat when down for ten seconds, the first four rounds are three minutes each, the last until someone’s down for ten, no kicks, and no blows below the beltline.”

“Standard rules then. I’m guessing they’re ironclad?”

“Yes. That being said, fancy acrobatics and shoves are allowed, and as long as they don’t turn into kicks or blows below the belt, you’ll be fine.”

“Sounds good. Well, let’s get to work.” Farming and levels awaited me.

At 11:30 AM on Tuesday, I went into the game and found myself in a room best described as a cross between a personal locker room and office. On the desk was a clipboard, certainly not mine, and I picked it up.

The papers on it looked like the kind on mine, but they all had bright red words on them, stating that they were the finalization forms for armor and Ultimate choices, along with one last chance to respec my freely spent stat points.

After going over everything, I confirmed that my stats were right where I wanted them, Second Wind was my Ultimate, and my armor (which looked just like my combat outfit, including the Ember Celica) was exactly what I wanted, and in pristine condition. I also noticed a little note on the armor finalization page that said I could change visuals and makeup freely between matches, which was interesting. I didn’t have any visuals or makeup items (sold them as I got them), so I disregarded it.

“Got everything in order?” Aegir asked, suddenly behind me.

“Ah! Oh, yeah. Everything’s good. Stats are set, Ultimate’s set, armor’s set, and I’ve got enough items for ten matches.”

“Speaking of ten, your first match is in ten minutes. Take a look at this.” Aegir pointed out a board with a bracket on it, containing 256 players, 254 of which were blurred out. Only my name and portrait were visible, along with my opponent, a minotaur called Railroad.

“Why are they all blurry?”

“To keep your opponents a surprise. The participants are the ones who know the least about the matchups. The audience, on the other hand-”

“There’s an audience?”

“Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. The audience is made up of other players. Friends of yours get to sit up closer to the ring and can interact with you between rounds, though can’t provide items.”

“Well then, that’s different.” I didn’t have anything else to say on that.

“Oh, and there’s also announcers. Anyways, get some warm-ups in while you can, and go out on cue.”

I listened to the announcer from the hallway leading to the ring. There were a few audience members, but it didn’t sound like very many. “Let’s see here, uh...First off, in the gray corner, it’s Railroad...” The cheers went up as Railroad entered, then things got quiet again. “And in the yellow corner, it’s...Huh, kids these days, it’s The Solar Dragon.” I came out of the hallway to cheers and saw that the ring was nothing more than some ropes tied to posts around a bare dirt surface. The seating was simple wooden bleachers under the midday sky and the announcer had his own little box.

Railroad’s armor was dark gray mechmail and looked like he was wearing a steam engine, complete with vapor trails coming off of his shoulders. There were wheels on his arms, complete with pistons that also emitted steam.

An alicorn referee teleported into the middle of the arena, the stallion looking haggard and tired beyond belief. He even yawned before going back to announcing. “Standard rules apply here. Railroad, are you ready?”

“Choo choo!” Railroad shouted.

“Solar Dragon, are you ready?”

I took a breath and turned my focus to Railroad. “Ready.”

“Fight.” The alicorn teleported away with that lackluster statement, a bell rang, and we advanced at each other, though Railroad more charged at me than walked like I did and he threw a hook immediately, sending me off to the side and into the ropes, down almost 15% of my health from the hit.

When I got myself turned around, I saw him charging again with another punch, which I barely dodged before countering with a hook of my own to his head. It didn’t do much damage, but it still got him to back off a bit.

While I had a chance, I advanced with a series of jabs and lighter punches, whittling away at his health and armor with each hit. I was stopped shortly after getting him into a corner when he shoved me off and charged again, ramming his fist into my gut and running me into the opposite corner, nearly sending me down to 45% of my health.

I had enough wits about me to start attacking him again, and he went on the defensive, using the wheels on his arms like shields. After getting him out to the middle of the ring, I changed my pattern and ducked down a bit to land a straight punch on his gut, breaking his defense just enough for me to get back inside his range to deal more damage.

I managed to get him to the ropes, and I read his body language just quick enough to realize he was going to charge again, and dove to the side, avoiding the move. “Too close” I thought as I saw him land in the opposite ropes and turn his momentum into a roll to the side, facing me before charging again.

The rest of the round felt like a game of pinball with Railroad acting as the ball, and me dodging like my life depended on it. Railroad ended up in his corner right when the bell for the round rang, which I took as the cue to go back to mine.

“Sitrep, Aegir?” I asked as I sat down on the stool provided by my coach.

“He lives up to his name” Aegir said as he gave me a small bottle of water. “He’s like a train: hard to stop once he’s in motion. If I were to make a guess, I’d say he likes trains.”

“Got any plans to beat him?” I downed the water and felt better.

“Yes, but they both require him to be charging.”

“Gimme one of them.”

“Go for the gut. Or hit the dirt and make him trip over you. I’m not sure about the legality of the second one though.”

“First it is, then.”

After spending the rest of the minute breathing and healing, the bell rang. I got up, Aegir took the stool away, and I advanced at an odd angle. Railroad was thrown off by the angle and had to spend a couple precious seconds adjusting himself. Finally, he charged straight at me from halfway across the ring. I spun out of the way and saw him bounce off the ropes, aiming at me again. Once again, I spun out of the way.

It didn’t take long for me to simply stay spinning while dodging him. His use of the same dangerous move repeatedly made it very easy to avoid.

After what felt like the halfway point of the round, I changed up my moves. I stopped spinning after a close call, let Railroad bounce off the ropes again, and got ready. As soon as he was heading my way, I crouched slightly. Less than a moment later, he was already very close, so I launched my attack, leaping into an uppercut straight to his gut.

I imagined him going up and flying into the air for a full five seconds. What really happened was him getting sent back along his back, kicking up a small dust cloud in the process. While he was getting back up, shaky from the counter I’d used, I advanced. As soon as he was on his hooves, I was on him, keeping him going side to side with hooks.

Close to the end of the round, I managed to knock his health down to zero and he fell. The referee teleported in and began the count as I backed away. “One, two, three,” There were signs of movement. “Four, five,” The signs turned into Railroad standing and immediately going into a charge.

For the rest of the round, I was simply dodging him. Right before the bell rang, I managed to jump over him, barely clearing his armor. We wound up in each other’s corners and walked past each other on the way back.

“You did good out there” Aegir said as I sat down. “Looks like he’s a one trick player. How did you keep him from charging you before you knocked him down?”

“He clearly has a one track mind, and trains don’t handle sideways movement very well. Apparently, he doesn’t either.”

“If that’s the trick, then use it.”

For the rest of the minute, I simply sat there and rested a bit. Sometimes, items weren’t needed between rounds.

Finally, the bell rang for the third round. “Make this the last round” Aegir said as I got up.

Railroad’s armor let off a huge burst of steam and a train whistle could be heard when he activated his Ultimate immediately. His suddenly increased speed told me it was Afterimage, and I barely managed to dodge his charge in time.

While I kept dodging his charges, the ring was getting filled with more steam, making it harder to see. “Weaponized visuals. That’s new.” As I looked and listened, I quickly realized that Railroad couldn’t see me either. “Let’s see what happens when I do this.”

I held an arm out with my hand in a fist. For a few seconds, nothing happened, then Railroad ran into my arm. It took all my game strength to keep my arm from giving under his speed, but I held and he fell. Knowing where he was, I was able to start attacking him again. I made my attacks fast so I could get in as much damage as I could before his Afterimage wore off.

A few seconds after the steam vanished, I managed to knock Railroad out again. Like the first time, the alicorn referee teleported in for the count. “One, two, three,” I held out hope that he would stay down. “Four, five, six,” There were a few signs of movement as the announcer droned on with his counting, “Seven, eight, nine, ten. Okay, so, Solar Dragon wins.” The announcer said with another yawn before adding, “Ugh, I need more coffee…”

The audience cheered and, after helping Railroad back to his hooves, I went back into the locker office. “He did have a good strategy there” I said once Aegir and I were back inside.

“How did you stop him?” Aegir asked.

“Held out my arm and had a bit of luck on my side. After that, it was just punching him while his defense was lowered.”

“Luck is a fickle thing, you know.”

“Yeah. Anyways, we’re done here, so I’m going to go for a run around Ponyville today.” I closed the Gamer Driver and sat up. I already had my camo athletic outfit on, and after a quick jump out of the window, I started walking, which quickly turned into running and shadow boxing.

It was time for match two, and I was in the locker office with Aegir again. Half of the previously covered names were uncovered, revealing all those who had lost in round one. It looked like nearly three fourths of them were minotaurs, but that didn’t account for those who had won and advanced like I had, except for the one who was my opponent for the match.

“In the blue corner, we have Iron Will,” the announcer for the match stated, still tired, and a cheer went up from the crowd.

“No matter the day, I’ll take on anything!” came what had to be Iron Will’s voice, since it wasn’t the announcer’s voice and the cheering increased after the line.

“You should make an announcement like that” Aegir suggested.

“Nah” I responded.

“And in the yellow corner, we have The Solar Dragon,” the announcer proclaimed.

I stepped out and saw a few things. The ring’s posts were palm trees, the ropes were made of sideways hammocks, the floor of the ring was made of wood, and there was more seating than before. All that was secondary to something bigger that I noticed: the place was on a beach, and the ocean was very visible from my path.

I had to take a moment to remind myself that it wasn’t real, and zeroed my focus in on Iron Will, a big blue minotaur who had no armor. The fact that he somehow made it to round two with no armor, not even cloth, was intriguing enough that I practically forgot about the ocean.

Once I was in my corner, the referee teleported in. “Iron Will, are you ready?”

“Bring it!” Iron Will shouted.

“Solar Dragon, are you ready?”

“Yeah” I said.

“Fight,” The referee teleported out and the bell rang. Driven by the presence of the ocean, even a virtual one, I decided to make the fight as quick as possible.

Iron Will and I met in the middle of the arena and I managed to land the first blow, a hook to his face. It didn’t seem to do too much, so I continued punching him.

He threw a wide swing, which I was able to easily dodge before resuming my attacks. He didn’t seem to have much in the way of techniques, lacking in both defensive and offensive techniques.

After what had to be about a minute of me just pummelling on his body and head, he was down to zero health and went down. The referee teleported in for the count. “One, two, three, four...”

Iron Will got back to his hooves pretty quickly and with a shout of “When you’re knocked down, don’t let it get you down!”

“Oh hush, you” I said before going back to pummeling him again, not giving him any chances to attack me.

It didn’t take long for him to go down again and the referee teleported in again. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Solar Dragon wins.” Another yawn from him before he added, “Alright, show’s over. Wait until next round, kids.”

Cheers went up from the audience and I took a brief bow before going back to my locker office with Aegir. “That was a really easy fight” I said as we sat down. “How did he make it to this match? Can we find out?”

“I can” Aegir said before going over to the board, which hadn’t changed aside from showing my advancement to the third round. He looked at it intently for a while before turning back. “Okay, this is different. He beat an alicorn player called Chroma by just shouting out motivational lines until she kicked him between the legs.”

“So he won by enraging her until she forgot the rules and kicked him? You know, I’m not going to think about that and just be glad this was an easy one.”

On an anchored airship, a blue minotaur closed his Gamer Driver and sat up. “So much for that tactic,” Iron Will said to himself. “Back to flight prep.”

“He’ll probably be the only easy one.”

“Yeah. Hey, can you look at anyone else’s fights?”

“No. Only the fights that happened in your branch, so that’s the one you just won, the one I just looked into, and the one against Railroad.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah. I’ll see you at work later.”

“See ya.” With that, I closed the driver and started getting ready for the workday.

“Who is it today, Aegir?” I asked after appearing in the locker office, Aegir already there.

“A minotaur called Lights Out” Aegir said.

“Huh.”

Aegir and I just sat around the locker office until it was time for us to step out. The announcer did his thing. “In the Yellow corner, we have The Solar Dragon.”

“I’m first this time” I noted before stepping out and making my way into the ring. The arena was in a park, lush and green. The ring itself was made of wood, stained and polished to a light gloss finish. The posts were carved into very nice shapes, at least on the outside of the ring. Inside, they were plain and smooth. The ropes were also smooth, like they were newly made.

I also noticed that it, along with the beach ring, were noticeably higher up than the ones that preceded them.

“And in the black corner, we have Lights Out.”

A hefty looking minotaur came out, armored with heavy mechmail gauntlets and boots while otherwise covered in heavy platemail. It looked like chunks of dirt fell out of his mechmail components with every movement. He made his way into the ring and slammed his fists together, sending bits of dirt everywhere. The pieces of earth vanished very quickly, leaving no trace of their presence.

The referee alicorn teleported into the ring. “Yellow corner…” The announcer yawned again before continuing with, “...are you ready?”

“Ready” I said as I got into a stance.

“Black corner, are you ready?”

Lights Out slammed his fists together again and got into his stance.

“I’ll uh, take that as a yes. Now, fight. Or don’t, I’d like to get some more sleep too.” As soon as the referee walked out of the ring and teleported away, the bell rang, and Lights Out and I advanced towards each other.

Lights Out threw a powerful hook, which I managed to block by accident while going for an uppercut. I let the momentum from the collision spin me around, which I turned into a sideways fist slam into the side of his body. For a moment, I was worried about the legality of the move, but nothing happened about that.

“Huh. Solar Dragon seems to be getting creative,” the referee noted with a surprisingly interested tone in his voice.

During that moment of distraction, Lights Out hit my face with a very solid punch, sending me stumbling back, down just over half of my health. “Okay. Don’t get hit. That’s easy.” I collected myself as quickly as I could and kept an eye on Lights Out. Like a lot of other minotaurs, he wasn’t exactly fast, but he was certainly tough.

“Lights Out doesn’t seem to care for creativity, though,” the referee once more commented, before adding, “Or talking.” A yawn accompanied that statement.

I stayed on my toes as we circled each other around the ring. After a good few seconds, I let him come at me again. I could see the telegraphed uppercut before he threw it, and I dodged with only inches to spare. While he was open, I started punching his body. The armor made him a lot tougher than Iron Will was, and I was soon able to throw a strong straight punch at his chest, sending him halfway across the ring. The punch took out about 5% of his health, a majority of what I’d dealt him at that point.

Throughout the rest of the round, I simply played it safe, keeping my distance, moving in close when I could, dealing some rapid punches, and then backing away. I noticed a pattern of him throwing mainly attacks that were easily telegraphed, but clearly had a lot of power in them. By the time the bell rang, I’d managed to heal a fair amount and take out nearly a quarter of Lights Out’s health.

“What’s your conclusion?” I asked Aegir as I accepted some healing items.

“Slow, tough, easy to predict. Kind of the norm for minotaurs, really. Just keep doing what you were doing and you’ll be fine. I’d be willing to bet that he’s got Payback.”

“If he’s running exclusively high power hits, it would make sense. That, or Fortify.”

“If you can win here, we won’t have to find out.”

“I’ll do my best.”

The bell rang and round two began. Lights Out opened with a hook, which I spun around so I could deliver a straight punch to the side of his jaw, which actually dealt a good amount of damage. While he was reeling, I got in close and threw a number of punches.

“Solar Dragon is on a roll, looks like, but…” the announcer gave another, more drawn out yawn.

I was on such a roll with the attacks that I didn’t notice Lights Out prepare another punch. All I knew was that I’d been hit, I was on the ropes, and I was down to around 25% of my health.

“...Lights Out just gave a heck of a counter. Woo,” the announcer finished.

Not much later, Lights Out got another punch in on me, sending me down. The referee came in to do the count. “One, two, three.” I got myself back together. “Four, five, six.” I got back up and immediately leapt to the side, avoiding another punch.

“Too close” I thought as I continued dodging Lights Out. I was a lot more wary of him, as would be expected of having been knocked out.

About halfway through the round, I noticed that he was slowing down and didn’t seem to be putting quite as much effort into his attacks. I let him get to the point where he was extremely tired, leaning over and panting, before I went on the offensive again. With him being as tired as he was, it was easy to land combos.

“Geez, Lights Out looks as tired as me. Here’s a tip, kid; don’t take a job like this. The hours are killer,” the announcer commented.

I managed to knock him into his corner and was only one punch away from knocking him down when the bell rang, signifying the end of the round. With a sigh, I went back to my corner and sat down. “So close!”

“You still need to be careful. After the break, he’ll be able to take more than one hit, but if he recovers enough, he could still take you down in one.”

“At least I’ll have Second Wind available if I need it.”

“And he’ll have his Ultimate as well. There were enough blows out there to have both yours and his charged up.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.”

“It also looks like he doesn’t have any healing items.”

“Yeah. Come to think of it, I didn’t see Railroad use any either. I wonder if that’s a trend.”

Once the break was over, the bell rang, and I went back out into the ring to face Lights Out, hoping it would be the last round.

As soon as I saw the signature glow that was Payback, I took advantage of his slowed state, ran in, and dealt as many punches as I could. I would have continued punching him, except for the fact that Lights Out went down pretty quickly, cuing the referee to teleport in. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Solar Dragon wins. It’s lights out for Lights Out.”

I left the ring and went back to the locker office with Aegir. “Well, that wasn’t too hard at the end there.”

“Thank goodness for that” Aegir said. “I’m sure you could have gotten up again if Payback had hit, but I’m glad it didn’t.”

“Same here. It always hurts to get hit by that. Anyways, I’ve got to get ready for today. Saturdays are never slow.” With that, I left the game and started getting ready for the day ahead.

Author's Notes:

Here's the first part of the end of the Iron Ring arc, starting off with Railroad, Iron Will, and Lights Out. Next chapter will reveal who's character got to fight Yang.

Announcer lines provided by the wonderful and madly skilled Timeless Celestial.