Welcome, gentle readers, to our fortieth battle in the arena.

This week we had a mind for a medical story as we asked our authors to deliver us a tale in which a central character in the story was considered a healer.

We gave no other requirements than that, no limit to genre or time-frame. The healer could be a tantric yogi cleansing auras or a nanorobot altering DNA.

Which author has the medicine we crave?

Who will be our champion?

Let’s find out.

Tony Southcotte represents the arena with “Kill the Devil You Know.”

D.M. Slate is his challenger, chiming in with “Patient #5.”

The Medical Match-Up is on!

Read, comment, vote, enjoy!

We have two judges that will render their decision by Friday. The third vote comes from you, the readers. We ask that you read both stories objectively, and then leave a comment below or on the story itself. Authors are not allowed to comment on their own stories, but we’re sure they’ll be checking in here. We’ll tally up the totals and announce our champion on Friday.