The Red Knight faltered as the the Warlord’s body finished deflating in front of him. Maxi tensed the muscles around his left eye, adjusting the telescopic part of his ocular enhancement. Tiny details obscured by distance became clear. There was no blood, just a pool of skin and flecks of ash that sailed on the currents of hot air created by the ring of fire.

A tremor ran through the ground.

Maxi’s eyes danced trying to pinpoint the center of the vibrations.

The sun seemed to darken and the ground rippled again in a violent spasm of shifting earth. A mighty groaning sound accompanied the quake and then- nothing.

Suspicious, Maxi cautiously approached the shell of the man that once had been the terror of Mesoamerica. Using the tip of an armored boot, he toed the skin. After a single breathless moment, he sheathed his swords and carefully rolled the remnants of the Warlord into a tube to be delivered as proof of a another successful venture.

Somewhere amidst the swirling ashes, the Ashen Warlord smiled.