Screams and yells rose into the air, squeezing out between the thunderous crack of lightning and crackling flames. The roar of magic filled the arena all around Lee. A rock hurtled past her head, smoldering with some odd black magic, only to get blasted to smithereens by a hammer formed of brilliant golden light.

The ground bucked beneath Lee under the force of all the magic clashing above it. Well, that or the people that were literally tearing chunks of earth free to hurl at each other. It could have been either of the two. It really didn’t matter. Lee was a little bit preoccupied with other matters.

Her brow was knit in a deep furrow and she’d crossed her arms in front of her chest. Lee sat in the very center of the arena, pondering. A few mages had taken issue with that. The pondering, that was. Lee had to assume that to be the case, because she was pretty sure there was no law against sitting down during a tournament.

Or maybe it was the pondering that they didn’t like, and the sitting was actually okay?

Lee paused for a moment. Then she glanced to one of the severed limbs littering the ground around her. Some mages had left them behind after attempting to attack her. Unfortunately, nobody had left a mouth behind. Lee doubted an arm was about to go answering any of her questions.

Blowing out a huff, Lee snagged a hand. She took a bite out of it and chewed thoughtfully for a few seconds. She’d been working on that. Chewing. Not because she needed to, but because it made for more polite company. It wasn’t her favorite. Chewing gave other people too much time to eat food before she could get to it.

Something stirred deep in Lee’s chest at that.

A jerk, deep in her stomach. A flicker of smoldering emotion, ancient and ravenous.

I don’t share.

Goosebumps prickled across her skin. Her hair stood on end. Lee’s back stiffened as she ground her jaw shut.

There it was, again.

The power.

It wasn’t anything new. This magic — this depthless hunger — it had been there for as long as she’d been alive. There hadn’t been a single day when she hadn’t been aware of it. But never had she been more aware of it than now. Ever since she’d consumed Decras’ rune and drawn it into herself, the hunger had gotten louder.

It had gotten hungrier.

But her thoughts were still her own. No longer did her runes push her toward mindless starvation. And, in some ways, that was even scarier. The hunger wasn’t coming from somewhere. There was no enemy. No problem to be solved. Nothing to point the finger at fix.

There was just Lee.

The hunger was hers, and she liked it.

But that did not mean she had to bend to it. She was still in control. Not having an enemy was a double edged sword. There wasn’t anybody controlling her mind. Lee’s legs moved only to her own will. She was her own being. The hunger was simply a part of her.

At least… I think it is.

That was what she’d been testing.

She looked back at the ring of splattered mage parts around her. Then she nodded to herself in satisfaction. She’d done a pretty good job. Lee had only eaten a few of them. That was restraint. If some ravenous beast had truly been chained up deep within her, it would have eaten all of them.

Lee rose to her feet. She glanced at the arm in her hand. It was only half-eaten. It did seem like a shame to waste a good arm. It wasn’t like the owner was going to use it. He’d run off. And if you left an arm behind, you clearly didn’t need it.

She slid the rest of the limb into her gullet. Then she swallowed.

Ah, shit. I forgot to chew.

The hair on the back of Lee’s neck prickled. Her head snapped to the side and a sliver of metal screamed past her head, slicing so close that she felt the air against her nose. The metal snaked back across the arena to coil around the fingers of a young man in a river of liquid silver-gray, his features set in a cold scowl.

“You dodged,” he said, in an accent Lee couldn’t quite place. “I wasn’t expecting that. It looked like your head was somewhere else.”

Lee tilted her head to the side. “You attacked me when I wasn’t paying attention?”

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“It’s a tournament,” the man said with a smirk. “That’s the point. And if you’re going to sit around doing nothing, then you’re just asking someone to kill you.”

Then he flicked his fingers. The river of metal coiling along his arm snapped out like a striking snake. It slithered through the air toward Lee, its motion a hypnotic blur.

She dodged to the side. The river of metal just barely passed her by a second time, finding nothing but air and yanking back to coil around the man’s wrist once more.

“I wasn’t doing nothing,” Lee said. “I was eating.”

Disgust passed over the man’s features. “A limb. Yes. I saw. Filthy. I can understand tolerating demons… but one such as you has no place in civilized company.”

“Probably not,” Lee agreed. “But I don’t think any of that is here. You don’t really seem worth my time to fight. I think you should leave. I’d rather just think.”

A smile curled across the man’s lips. He flicked his hand forward again, sending his slithering metal magic striking out once more, but the blow once again failed to connect with Lee. Stress was starting to show in his features. There was no doubt at all that he was fast. It didn’t seem like he was used to missing so many attacks in a row.

“Your taunts will not work on me,” he snarled. “You hide behind words and feigned strength. But I haven’t seen you use any magic at all. You’re a body-enhancer. And against a metal-mage like me, you have no way to win. But you’ve already figured that out, haven’t you?”

A silvery sheen passed over the man’s entire body, running beneath his clothes to cover every single part of his skin. Even his eyes turned glossy and cold.

“Shiny,” Lee said. “Looks dense.”

The man’s lips pulled into a sneer. “Just surrender. I don’t really care about killing you. Death brings me no satisfaction. My only target is passing farther in this tournament by taking out the weakest enemies and winning in the easiest manner possible. That’s what life is about. And you’re an easy target.”

Lee stared at the man for a moment. Then she sighed.

“Do you know you just need one?” Lee asked.

“What?” The man’s eyes narrowed. He’d picked up on the fact that Lee didn’t seem concerned by his transformation. “One? One what?”

“Yeah,” Lee said. “Just one. But it has to be the right one. They only pull you out of the tournament when you can’t fight anymore.”

“Don’t screw with me!” The man exploded into motion toward Lee, letting out a scream as he slashed his hands through the air before him. A rippling wave of silvery metal carved out toward Lee.

She blurred.

The man stumbled, suddenly finding Lee standing a foot to his side. He spun. Then he stumbled, tripping and falling flat on his face with a loud crash. There was a ringing clang from behind him as one of his legs fell in the opposite direction, severed at the knee. No blood emerged from the limb. It was, after all, solid metal.

“Wow,” Lee said, picking it up. “That wasn’t just skin-level? You turn your whole body to metal? That’s a pretty cool technique.”

Disbelief exploded across the man’s features. He shoved himself to the side, slashing at Lee with a whiplike strand of metal—

A rending shriek cut through the air.

Lee stood on the mage’s other side, holding his left arm.

“Two,” Lee said. Her head tilted to the side. “See? If I’d taken both of your arms, then they’d probably have ported you out already yet. But one leg and one arm — that’s still enough. You can still crawl a bit. And you can also still punch. That’s enough. Right?”

The confidence on the mage’s features was gone. It had been replaced by horror. His lips worked, but it looked like he was in a state of partial shock. It didn’t seem like he’d yet registered the fact that his defenses meant nothing at all to Lee.

Then a splash of anger washed across his fear. Metal bubbled at the sites of his severed limbs. It exploded out from his body in thick strands, winding together to reform muscle and metallic flesh. His limbs had reformed within instants. The man thrust himself back to his feet, teeth bared.

“You were holding back. You didn’t move like that before.”

“Isn’t that the point of a tournament? I hadn’t met anyone strong enough to make me try harder yet,” Lee replied. She looked at the limbs still in her hand. Then she tossed them to the side. Metal wasn’t very tasty in the first place.

“So this is what you’re capable of?” The man ran his tongue ran along his lips. Then he smirked. “I underestimated you. I’ll back off. We’re too closely matched. There are easier targets.”

Lee stared at him for a moment.

“You said you only wanted an easy way forward in the tournament,” Lee said. “Right?”

“Right I did,” the man replied with a cold smile. “And I reckon we could find a way to do some real damage to each other at some point, but it ain’t going to be anytime soon. Not worth the effort, wouldn’t you say?”

“I also want to get farther in the tournament,” Lee said with a nod. “But you’re wrong.”

“About what?” The man asked.

“You said isn’t worth the effort,” Lee said.

She blurred, slamming into the man in a blur. Lee planted her foot on his chest as her hands clamped down on his arms. Metal shrieked. Cracks raced down the man’s arms as he struggled beneath her. Then, with a final screech, Lee tore both of his arms off.

“Are you an idiot?” The man snarled. “You can’t hurt me! This is just—”

Lee’s hand clamped down on the man’s head, warping the metal beneath her grip. Then she chomped down on the side of his neck.

Metal warped beneath her teeth.

And then they met something else.

Magic.

Lee’s jaw closed down. Blood spurted into her mouth, mixed with a river of stolen energy.

The man let out a scream of pain. He staggered back, eyes going as wide as saucers as he looked at the fountain of blood spurting out from his neck. There was no metal left around the area where Lee had bit him. All that remained was plain flesh.

“It’s worth the effort,” Lee said. Her tongue ran along her lips. “Because it’s easy.”

The man took a step back. His lips trembled, terror bubbling up in his features. Then his eyes rolled back in his head, the immense blood loss overwhelming whatever words he may have been hoping to say. He pitched backward. A pillar of light crashed down, swallowing him before he could hit the ground.

Lee stared at the spot where he’d been for a moment. Then she looked at the two metal hands still in her grip. They hadn’t changed back to flesh.

Deep in her stomach, the hunger bubbled.

She still wasn’t satisfied.

“Damn,” Lee said.

Then she turned in search of her next target.

These meals weren’t satisfying at all. If she wanted a proper meal, she was going to really have to make sure to win her bet with Brayden.