The start of our fight felt like one of our sparring matches, not a life or death battle. Maybe that's why he seemed so irritated. Could he sense that I didn't want to kill him? He's been through so much, been here so long, I almost want to let him win so he can go back home. He deserves to leave this place.

"Again!" Saris said bitterly.

I raised my shield up again, waiting for the attack to come. This time, he came at me with more ferocity and power. I kept my shield in place, blocking the attacks as they came and striking when it seemed appropriate, but my heart wasn't in it. He dodged all of my blows easily and I was reminded of all of the times we fought during my training. He had always been difficult to hit with an attack. It was rare for me to force him to block. He was too good and too quick to let an attack hit him.

Our bout lasted a while. While his attacks were stronger and faster, he didn't seem to target me too far from my shield and it was easy to block him. At the same time, my attacks were pretty obvious and he dodged them with no trouble at all. Eventually, his attacks slowed. Was he getting tired? He did just finish fighting a huge battle, then climbed up here and did most of the work to push Fire King to the edge.

Suddenly, Saris backed away again. He looked away from me and I instinctively turned my head, trying to see what he was looking at. But with all the looking around, I saw nothing but a large rock sitting just by the edge of the cliff, beyond that was nothing but ocean. Then he turned back to me and there was venom in his eyes.

"You're not taking this seriously," he spat.

"Neither are you," I countered and he winced and tossed his sword to the ground. "What's holding you back?"

He didn't speak at first, looking at the same rock he had moments ago, "What year is it?"

The question seemed random and it caught me off guard, "Umm...I think it's 2019, unless a half year has already passed since the last cycle." Saris fell to his knees and mumbled something. "What?"

"I've been here for six years. What do I really have to go back to?"

I wondered what six years away would do to me and my friends, or even my family. Would they still have hope to see me again? Or would they have given up and moved on? Even though I could communicate with them, I wasn't sure if they would stand with me for that long without being able to see any progress. These two cycles didn't seem to last all that long. How could Saris have been here for six years?

"Saris...why did the last two cycles take so little time to finish?"

In a distant voice, he answered. "The last one was the size of the arena. This one, the war."

"What's the longest cycle you've been a part of?"

"A couple years, I think."

I nearly choked on my own spit, "How? What about the lions?"

"That's when they came. We tried to live as long as we could without violence. When the lions came, we didn't stand a chance. Tried to run, but...that only lasted a few more weeks at best. It was a big map, the time frame gets longer depending on the size of the arena."

The thought of Saris going back home sounded strange to me; now more than ever. I had never considered how difficult it would be to go back home, especially for someone like him, who's been here for over half a decade. Relationships would be gone, but that's only part of it. The government thought he was dead. His license would probably be expired. Who would take him for work? How would he get food or shelter? If he went back, would he be homeless?

On the other hand, what did he gain from staying here? I was always uncomfortable with change, but if anyone needed it, it was Saris. He had lived his life surrounded by violence and when he was ready to leave that life and start something new, he had been taken here. As much of a change this place was for me, and for most of the people who were taken here, it was probably pretty familiar for Saris. Sure there were differences, but I doubt he would've called it a change. I stood up tall and walked over to him, holding out my hand.

"Get up," He took it and I helped him stand. "You can't accept this place as your life anymore."

"Xander I-"

"No," I said calmly. "There's nothing here for you. I might've needed you, but you don't need me. You don't need Demi or Zack or Fire King or anyone here. Rayne is still back home and maybe she's not waiting for you anymore, but maybe she is. Maybe the message we sent her rekindled a need to see you come home. If you don't take the chance, you'll never know and then you're just letting her down and you're letting yourself down. You can make new friends. If you need to, you can meet someone new to love. It's not easy, but that doesn't mean it's not worth doing. There's a world outside of killing and danger and I think it's time that you find it."

Saris didn't say anything for a while. Again, he looked at the cliff's edge, then smiled. "You're right, Xander. I was feeling sorry for myself." He paused again, then turned back to face me, "But you're wrong about one thing, I did need you."

"Well, not anymore."

"Maybe. We'll see." He turned back to me, "Don't hold back this time."

"But, I was-"

"Don't pity me, Xander. Give me a fight to remember. Win or lose, don't hold back. I won't either; not anymore."

I nodded, "Okay."

It took me a minute to get ready. At first, I wasn't sure if I could fight him with everything I had. We had been through a lot in the past two cycles. He had saved me, trained me and taught me about the game and how to survive, but he had also become someone I looked up to. He was strong, smart and brave and upheld his morals while he was here. It helped me uphold mine too. Even more than that, he was my friend. We had played board games together and talked about life before all of this and what we would do after the game. We had shared personal things too. I learned about Rayne, someone I wasn't sure that he had told anyone about. I still planned to find him after this was all over so we could hang out like normal people.

But I also knew the kind of fighter he was. He didn't want someone to give him a win, he wanted to earn it. He had a lot of pride; maybe too much, depending on who you asked. I knew that he would never forgive me if I went easy on him, so I shoved all of my doubts aside and focused on my friend. I had to kill him. Not because I wanted to, not because he wanted me to, but because it was the way this game worked. You had to kill to survive. You had to kill to win.

I didn't wait for Saris to attack, this time, I lunged at him, bringing my sword downward, crashing the blade on the ground. Saris sidestepped it easily, as normal. Without pause, I spun with my sword extended. The quick action was too fast for Saris to dodge and he had to block the attack. I pressed my advantage, slicing at an upwards angle, which Saris sidestepped and made a strike of his own, which I blocked with my shield. Pushing the attack back, I kicked him square in the chest, shoving him backward. Then I used my power, extending my sword and thrusting it at Saris. I hit him!.

My attack connected with Saris' left arm, grazing it and leaving a large cut. The success shocked me. I was going for a bit of a surprise attack, but I thought he would have seen it coming. Before I could make another move, Saris was on my right, past my sword strike. He had taken a calculated sacrifice, getting cut so he could get past my defense. He attacked and I had to jump backward before I was impaled by Saris' blade. Instead of dying, I got a cut on my arm that mirrored his own.

He wasn't playing to my shield side anymore, this fight was for real. We were chipping away at each other, waiting for an opening to exploit. Even with his injuries, Saris was uncommonly fast and it was all I could do to block with my shield or get out of range of his attacks. Still, it wasn't like I was only defending. My attacks were keeping Saris on his toes too. He had to be careful, even at a distance, because I could strike him wherever he was. The cliff wasn't large enough for him to get completely out of my range.

Just when I thought I had him on the ropes, I saw a faint bubble exit from my chest and enter into Saris. Suddenly, I became extremely nervous. What did he take? I put my shield out in front of me, worried that he took my power. Then he came at me like a bullet being fired. He had taken my speed. I whirled around, blocking an attack that I only barely saw, but then it was too late. The attack came and bounced off of my shield, but it was a feint. He slid his sword across the shield gently and got behind me, plunging his blade into my back.

The pain was crushing and I slumped to the ground in a heap. Every nerve in my body screamed at me and I could feel the blood leak out of my open wound. I tried not to move; even breathing hurt. Black dots were filling my vision and the sound of the wind and waves were muffled and seemed far away. I let my weapons vanish and accepted defeat, wanting it to be over soon.

"Thank you," Saris said softly, kneeling beside me. I was in too much pain to respond, but I coughed once, blood came out. "You didn't go easy on me and I'll remember that. I'm sorry to be the one who has to do this to you. I'm glad I can call you my friend." And with that, he plunged his sword in me again and I felt a strange sensation as darkness overtook me.