In the infirmary they kept me for an extra day. Not in the pod, but in a room with an actual bed. I hadn’t even known they had those here.Not that I spent much time lying on it, because the room also had a treadmill and a multi-purpose exercise station for bodyweight training: pull-up bar, parallel bars, wall bars. Zola made me work up a sweat on both, just to make sure my body had fully recovered and responded the way it should. All so I’d be ready for the fight.Tariq knew about my defensive amulet. After Harn’s death, everyone who shouldn’t have known knew. The demons certainly knew, so this time I expected Tariq to make some smart move — like neutralising the shield. As I’d tested on the arena more than once, the easiest way to deal with formations, amulets, and shields was to get inside their range and make physical contact with the opponent’s body.Simply put, I expected Tariq to try and grapple.Novak was expecting it too.Although I hadn’t spoken to the big boss directly, Bulsara had passed my words to him, and from him to me came another high-tech bracelet amulet. Now I had two: one against poisoning, the other a simpler model for delivering stimulants. Because of its design, made for concealed wear, the amulet could hold only three doses and didn’t take standard ampoules. I had no idea how to reload it. But when Bulsara handed it over, he promised to load it with my choice of drug. I could pick only one, since Hill Giant’s Strength Elixir and a painkiller were already in it.I didn’t think long, I picked Iron Shirt, but Bulsara said the Palm Qi defence would be provided separately.Choice number two was War God’s Fist, a reliable, proven drug.Once Zola had finished playing doctor, it was Adam’s turn. Adam went full general, well, at least colonel, giving a briefing to an operative before a special mission. I was the operative.According to Adam, over the next day or two, one of Novak’s disciples (...)