I was getting (as they say) "the hang" of these fights. It did help to fall back on my experiences as a gladiator before becoming the future king. I was even getting use to the guitar. Not perfect mind you, but doable. But, I knew something was amiss when I entered the ring for the next fight. It was quiet. Abnormally so. The crowd was hushed and my opponent was nowhere to be found.

I looked towards the commentator's booth. "Am I supposed fight myself?" They just smiled and giggled.

Suddenly, something hit me. I never saw it coming and it packed a punch. When I recovered, a man in a red and silver suit knelt in a pose. A helmet covered his face.

"Oh my gosh," I said. "You're Ant-Man. This is so amazing!"

Ant-Man stood and his mask retracted. "Wait, you know who I am?"

"Yeah, we know all the Marvel characters."

"I thought you were from a Dark Ages world."

"Just because we're from the Dark Ages, it doesn't mean we are uncivilized."

"Actually, that's like the main definition of the Dark Ages." Ant-Man put his hands on his hips. "How do you know about us? I thought most people couldn't read during the Dark Ages."

I dismissively waved a hand in his direction. "We don't read about you. We watch you in Wizard Brain's magic scrying bowl."

"Ah."

"So, you're the Champion for your reality?" I asked. "I expected Thor or at least The Wasp."

"That's really hurtful." He glanced at his feet. "Truthful, but hurtful."

"How did you get here?"

"I was minding my own business gathering energy from the quantum realm," he shrugged, "then I was here." He rubbed the back of his neck. "So...you're really a fan?"

"Indeed."

"Then I gotta be honest. I'm kind of conflicted. I don't want to fight you—you seem nice enough, but I got to get back to my reality."

"Spoiler alert: there's not much to go back to."

Ant-Man frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll find out."

His masked lowered. "Either way, this fight'll be a snap."

"That's an ironic thing to say."

Ant-Man took a step and flung something at me. A moment later, it enlarged to a oversized Christmas tree. I managed to dodge it, but barely. The tree smashed into the arena's wall.

"Where on Earth did you get a Christmas tree?" I asked.

"My last fight was with Santa," said the astonishing Ant-Man. "I picked up all sorts of things."

"That's slightly depressing. So no Christmas this year?"

In a blink, Ant-Man was armed with ornaments. He started flinging them at me. In response, I played a series of notes on the guitar. An energy wall appeared in front of me and took the brunt of the bulbs. Ant-Man shrank down. I scanned the area. He could come out of nowhere. My nerves rattled.

I then saw something similar to when you move your hand really fast and it leaves that trail, but in this instance, it was a figure growing. Before I knew it, Ant-Man on was top of me. He'd put his full weight on me, pinning me to the ground. "Give up," he said. "I don't want to hurt you."

If I was going to beat him, I needed to fight fire with Pym Particles. I wiggled a hand free and strummed the guitar. In a flash, I'd shrunk down. "I knew choosing the magical weapon would be useful."

A moment later, Ant-Man joined me. He leapt at me, fist ready to strike.

I struck a cord. An energy fist appeared from the guitar and plowed into Ant-Man's gut sending him airborne. I breathed a sigh of relief; but a moment later, Ant-Man returned riding a flying ant.

I raised my hand to drum another note.

"You think I won't go down further, Joseph?!"

I sneezed.

Ant-Man sprang from the ant and collided with me. Before I knew it, he'd stuck me with some kind of disc, and we both were shrinking. Within moments we both were spinning through the strange landscape of the quantum realm. Unfortunately for me, Ant-Man was a little more use to the distorted, surrealism of the realm than I. I was no more than a limp mass at his mercy. At least until he made a mistake: he said my name. The resulting sneeze snapped me out of my stupor.

I shoved myself free then played a note. Note to self: magic in the quantum realm--bad idea. The combination opened a hole in reality. Ant-Man was sucked in and spat back out in his world.

Oddly enough, the judges hadn't anticipated this "out of bounds" move and declared the match a draw. Ant-Man's world wouldn't be destroyed, yet. They would leave that up to the Avengers' endgame.

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Words: 800

The Round 3 "Knockout" prompt for action

https://www.wattpad.com/670489661-knockout-prompt-3-december-23rd-29th