I--- Ararza Vol | 29 Young Female Fighter 314

The announcer's voice crackled: "Winner: i--- Ararza Vol 29 Young Female Fighter 314. Status: Combat Effective."

The explosion was small but surgical. 892’s core vented plasma in a single, directed burst that melted through its own spine. It went limp. I rode the corpse down when gravity switched off entirely, floating in the sudden zero-G, surrounded by the silent, stunned crowd. i--- Ararza Vol 29 Young Female Fighter 314

The arena that day was the Shattered Geode, a hollowed-out asteroid with gravity plates that flickered unpredictably. My opponent: a Vol 41 Warform, serial 892, a hulking thing with four arms and a core temperature that melted the floor beneath its feet. The crowd—wealthy patrons in private viewing pods—chanted for my death. They always did. Young Female Fighter was a genre to them, not a person. The announcer's voice crackled: "Winner: i--- Ararza Vol