Part 22

As it turned out, none of the fighters in the first sixteen matches were particularly noteworthy, so the first fight was held in the great stadium, though neither of those two fighters rated such a venue.

The Green Band and Assan moved to the balcony twenty minutes before the match. The paddocks were being assembled on either side of the octagon, where blocks of thirty seats, ten ringside seats and ten from the next two rows directly behind them, were being segregated from the rest of the crowd at the sides and rear by transparent walls eight feet high. Fifteen of the seats in each paddock were then removed, and replaced with a massage table and a calisthenics mat for pre-fight warm ups and stretching. The rest of the first three rows of seats had been removed before work was begun on the paddocks, and those spaces were now occupied by two teams of trauma-specialist Meds and all their equipment.

Soon every seat was filled, and Kusmeth and Bimbutu took to their paddocks with their entourages and began their pre-fight routines. Their fans filled the stands behind their paddocks, already cheering for their fighter and taunting those on the opposite side.

At 12:57 a voice announced: 'Three minutes! Kusmeth verses Bimbutu, in three minutes!"

Thirty seconds before the match Kimagme mounted the platform and strode to the center of the octagon. "Take your places." she called.

Bimbutu took a fierce stance near the center of the octagon, which was the standard twenty-one feet wide, while Kusmeth chose to face him from only three feet within the line.

With ten seconds to go the announcer said: "Beware the barrier!" Eight foot high transparent walls slowly rose up out of the floor at the inside edge of the red line that marked the octagon, to prevent the fighters from falling off the platform.

Kimagme waited until the clock reached 13:00, then a moment more, and called: "Begin!

Kusmeth edged forward until he was within striking range, paused, advanced a bit more. Bimbutu's tall dark form suddenly launched, springing from his stance with a quick, straight stab at Kusmeth's throat, but Kusmeth blocked and cut the inside of Bimbutu's right wrist to the bone. He waited while Bimbutu backed up a bit and caught his knife with his left hand as it fell from his right, and glanced at his wound. Kusmeth bounced forward, faked a kick at Bimbutu's knee, and slashed the inside of Bimbutu's uninjured arm with a deft backhand move. He loosened a slab of meat from halfway up the forearm to the elbow on the African's arm, and Bimbutu's knife dropped to the floor.

Kusmeth backed up a step and grinned. Bimbutu, with both arms effectively disabled, had no choice but to bow his head. "I submit." he stated bitterly.

"Victory, Kusmeth!" Kimagme called, and the barrier around the octagon dropped into the floor with a thump as one of the med teams scrambled to treat Bimbutu's wounds. Kusmeth's fans cheered him mightily as he casually descended from the platform, waving with one hand and wearing a satisfied smile

"Dinmeechi versus Kepo, in arena L, in three minutes!" The announcer called over the P.A.

"Well, that was predictable." Tika stated as she turned away from the octagon and began working her screen.

"How so?" Assan asked. "From what Naz said earlier, none of these matches are that easy to call."

"Kusmeth was holding back this last year, and deserves to be ranked higher than eighty-eighth, perhaps in the top forty. While Bimbutu was ranked in the four hundreds last month, and barely won his challenge over the previous holder of the two twenty-four rank to qualify for the tournament. Anything can happen in a tournament, but this time it did not."

"Ah." Ali nodded, watching some of the event staff cleaning blood from the octagon. "The next fight must be at another site. There's no way they'll have that cleaned up in three minutes."

"There will be a fight in each of the sixteen venues before there is another one here." Tika agreed. "But the order of the uses of the venues does not stay the same, so the next fight here could be as early as the seventeenth fight, or as late as the thirty-second. The next one is outside, in one of the temporary stadiums. It will be on all the screens. And no matter where they are held, each fight begins three minutes after the previous one ends."

"Wow! So the fights won't be finished until, what, about ten o'clock?"

"You forget that the average duration of an armed combat match is eight seconds." Tika smiled. "The last fight should end at about eight p.m...

"And you know, all of that is in the guidebook, as well as on the tournament's website."

"I know. I'd just rather ask." Assan grinned.

Suddenly Jena stood. "I must go." she stated.

"I will come with you." Raz said as he stood and took her hand.

"All right." Jela smiled as she stood and hugged her daughter. "I will see you at home tonight."

"As will I." Naz smiled.

"I think it would be best if Menak and Tira-Mother stayed here." Tika stated, still working on her screen. "The comfort of being at home is not worth commuting twice a day for eight days."

"Or until we are taken out." Tira smiled tightly.

"Tira-Mother and Menak can have the bedroom." Tika continued. "And the living room there can be converted to a second bedroom with two huge beds that emerge from the walls with a touch of a button. Though if the beds are too soft we may prefer to sleep on the floor with some furs. So I will stay as well, and we have room for whoever else wishes to.

"I will." Pina and Slin said at once.

"As will I." Davdan nodded. "I have been checking the public cameras around the tournament grounds and corridors, and it is insanity out there! I tell you, I love India, but our techs will gladly pack themselves into a tighter crowd than any other people! It would take us an hour to walk through them to the flyer right now!"

"Hey, there's six billion of us civilized types in India!" Assan chuckled, a bit defensively. "Around here, if you didn't rub up against your neighbors a bit every now and then, you'd never get anywhere!"

"Raz and I are not yet so famous that we can't slip through the crowd to the tube station under this building." Jena stated in obvious irritation. "It is much closer than the flyer."

"I think you may be wrong about that." Naz smiled, tapping his screen. "Wait a few minutes, and I will have some basic disguise items delivered. Standard tech clothes, hats, and sunglasses. It is cheap insurance against becoming the center of a curious mob. Ah, there is a store in the football stadium that sells the local team's paraphernalia. You will be disguised as devoted fans of the New Delhi Typhoon football team. They will be here by mail tube in a minute."

Half a minute later Tira calmly announced: "Kepo over Dinmeechi, clean in four moves." The rest of them followed her gaze to the stadium's huge displays, and watched the replays.

Two minutes later Raz and Jena were attired in bright orange shorts and jerseys with swirling silver logos, with matching sunglasses and baseball style caps.

"We want to wear these caps a little sideways, as the young techs do." Raz snickered, as he twisted his hat a bit. "That's right." he told Jena as she copied him.

"You look a little incongruous with bare feet, but you will pass." Naz chuckled. "I would not recognize you myself, if I did not know it was you!"

"We go then." Jena declared. She shared out another quick round of cheek kisses, and left with Raz.

"Seems like something's bothering her." Assan commented as he watched the door close behind them.

"Jena and Jela's training as hunters was designed to peak between May nineteenth and May twenty-ninth, and they applied to be tested as hunters during that period." Tika explained absently as she tapped her screen. "As you know, Jela successfully tested on the nineteenth, but Jena has not been called to the test yet. By chance, no prey animals challenging enough for the test have come available to hunt since then. So she has waited seventeen days, she is seven days overdue, and she is also worried about her slight loss of ability as she is forced to reduce her training schedule to avoid burnout. It is hard on her, but she is bearing it well, and I am fully confident that her reduced training will not detectably affect her brilliance when the call comes."

"Ya, I can see how that could be a big ball of stress." Assan nodded.

"Makimito over Halgarsson, the hard way." Tira reported, her eyes fixed to the big displays. "What a mess. Makimito choked on the third move, and he is lucky to get the victory. He will not fight tomorrow though. He is gut stabbed for a class three, for sure, and the groin injury is a two at least."

When there were six fights remaining before his match, Menak began his stretches and warm ups. Suga Schwartz and his entourage were already in their paddock. When there were three fights remaining, Tika rose and the rest followed her example. They were joined by Menak as they wordlessly left the suite and made their way to their paddock. Over three hundred of their fans from their zone, and almost seventy more who were fans of Menak from the Brahman Region, were already seated behind the paddock, and they cheered him mightily, and mocked the pack of Wolf People opposite them.

"As we planned." Tika told Menak confidently when they were in place at ringside, as she massaged his knife hand.

"As we planned." he agreed.

The tension in the paddock rose perceptibly when the announcement came: "Menak versus Suga Schwartz, three minutes!"

Menak gave Tira and Jela a quick kiss each, and exchanged grins and arm-clasps with Naz, just before a slightly fat Chinese Elder mounted the platform, and called: "Take your places!" at the thirty seconds mark.

Many held their breath when 'Beware the barrier!' was called, and the clear walls rose around the octagon. Menak grimly took his usual three quarters stance near the center, and Suga Schwartz poised himself right in front of him, fully within striking range, and grinned.

The judge waited an extra two seconds before he called: "Begin!"

Suga launched a strike at Menak's knife hand, but it was one of three moves Menak had expected him to start with, and had prepared responses for. With short, quick moves, he simultaneously caught Suga's knife wrist with his free hand, and stabbed the big blonde Wolf man through the heart to the hilt of his knife, then instantly withdrew his blade and stepped back.

The judge knew a class five injury the moment he saw it, and was already calling: "Victory, Menak!" before Suga had even started to fall to the floor. The judge who controlled the barrier was just as fast, and the top of the clear wall sank into the floor with a thump that closely echoed Suga's impact, and coronary specialists from both med teams immediately scrambled onto the platform with their equipment.

Menak stepped out of their way, then bowed solemnly to the roaring crowd in each of the four cardinal directions. Then he jogged down the steps with a grin, to receive the hugs and congratulations of his group as Davdan cleaned his knife for him, and Tika accepted his ball from Suga's trainer.

As they left the paddock they were met by the designated interviewer for this bout, and his camera operator.

"Congratulations, Menak, on your convincing victory!" the reporter told him, having to raise his voice to be heard over the roar of the crowd's reaction to the replays.

"Thank you!" Menak grinned.

"That was certainly a masterful and vicious strike you used! The use of such a deadly attack so early in the tournament is certain to incite controversy among those who oppose the existence of blood sports. Do you have any comment on that?"

"This is not sport." Menak stated firmly, with a nasty smile. "And I could have twisted the knife. Those with bleeding hearts should remember that."

"Ha!" Tika laughed as they walked away from the interviewer. "Bleeding hearts! That is a good one!"

"Yes! I did not realize the pun at the time!" Menak laughed.

Once they were back in the suite Tika jumped into Menak's arms and gave him a big hug. "Perfectly done!" she giggled. "You showed the minimum about yourself, and the class five will make them think twice when they get you in the draw!"

"You know, I would not have been fast enough to do that before you began to train me, nor would I have thought of doing so. And if I had tried, I probably would have hit a rib." Menak told her with a grin. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"It was my pleasure." Tika giggled, kissed the tip of his nose, and slid from his arms to return to the balcony, and her screen.

Tira eased into Menak's arms, and they shared a sensuous kiss.

"Thank you for keeping it short." she then told him with a loving smile. "Every second sooner you finish it is a second I do not have to fear for you."

"Me too." Jela agreed, and hugged and kissed them both.

"I will thank you in a moment." Naz laughed as he checked his screen. "Right now I am too busy exulting in all the credits I have won!"

"Ya? I'd have thought you wouldn't get much odds on Menak to win, since he was ranked higher." Assan commented.

"True, if I had only bet that he would win." Naz grinned. "But since I was aware of both Menak's new speed and his planned strategy against Suga, I bet that he would win within three and a half seconds. Because of this, I made an aggregate eight to one!

"I was confident he would win within two seconds, but I was worried that a bet by one of his entourage on such a quick win might reach the ears of Suga or his team, and cause them to change their strategy. I did not bet until just before the match for the same reason. What was the time on it, anyway?"

"Zero point eight seconds." Tira smiled. "Damn, that was well done!"

Their mood was joyous, but over the next hour it calmed, and they were again quite serious when Tira began her preparations for her match.

"How will you bet this match?" Assan asked Naz as they watched Tira stretch.

"You will bet just before the match, as you did before?" Tira asked before Naz could answer, as she sank to the floor in hurdler's position and pressed her forehead to her knee while pulling on the ball of her foot with both hands.

"Yes. Bets will be concluded just as the barrier rises." Naz replied.

"Then bet that I will win in one second." Tira told him, and snickered nastily.

"That I will, my dangerous love!" Naz laughed.

"Can I pool my capitol with yours? For the rest of the tournament?" Assan asked him. "It'll only be a drop in the ocean of cash you're working with, and I'll give you ten percent."

"Certainly." Naz chuckled. "How much can you have ready in ten minutes?"

"Ah ... I can have maybe three million by then." Assan stated.

"A healthy drop indeed, but I will not bet your credits if you cannot afford to lose them. You are sure those are all expendable credits?"

"I'll be cleaned out if we lose, but I still have a pretty lucrative job, and my expenses are minimal." Assan grinned.

"Assan, you do not have three mega." Tika stated without looking up from her screen.

"I will in ten minutes!" he laughed.

Tira's party made their way to their paddock just before Nort and his entourage entered the stadium. The Grizzly Bear People had obviously waited in the corridor by the V.I.P. entrance until after Tira was in place, determined to not be upstaged by the lower ranked fighter.

The members of the audience who had declared themselves to be Tira's fans filled most of the seats on her half of the arena, and when Tira's group had entered they had burst into a cacophony of cheering, screaming and whistling that was almost painful in its volume to the sensitive ears of those used to the forest. Their number included those who were seated directly behind her paddock; over five hundred Tiger People from their home zone as well as almost four hundred Elf-Mothers and their families.

The group of two hundred Grizzly Bear People and other North Americans who had declared as Nort's fans all burst out with the loud screams of an enraged grizzly when their fighter had appeared, but they were almost totally drowned out by Tira's forty thousand fans.

"Great Gods!" Tira exclaimed, glancing at the sea of people who were cheering her. "Why have so many more declared for me than Menak?!"

"You have as many here who are actually your fans as a fighter as Menak did." Davdan chuckled. "The rest are Tika's fans. Notice that most of them are young. To them, you are Tika's mother, while Menak is one of Tika's mother's fiancés; an extra step removed. So, more come to see you than Menak, and they are more strongly for you than they are for him."

"Well, as Tika would say, that is just weird!"

"Perhaps, but do not let them make you lose your focus." Tika smiled. "I will try to quiet them a bit before your match. Besides, I am sure they are bothering Nort more than they are you."

They had the same Elder who had judged Menak's fight, and as he called for the fighters to take their places, the noise from the crowd grew even louder than it had been before.

After Tira and Nort had ascended to the octagon, Tika stepped forward to the ring of bare floor between the paddock and the platform. She turned her back to the platform and faced the crowd with her arms held up for attention, and gave them a big smile. The burst of cheering they gave her was deafening, and her image appeared in a few of the huge screens overhead. Many began chanting her name. She held two fingers to her lips, and went 'shhhh', though they could not hear her, calling for silence, and gave them a wink and another smile. Near-silence fell immediately, and she closed her eyes for a moment as she smiled and nodded her thanks, then rejoined her group in watching the combatants.

The tension in the huge room was electric as the warning came and the barrier rose.

Tira took a sideways stance like a fencer, while the burly brunette Grizzly Man took a full stance just out of striking range, facing directly toward her with one foot forward, flexing his fingers, his chrome claws glinting on the second knuckle of each, and on the first knuckle of his thumbs.

The judge called 'Begin!', and before he had finished pronouncing the g in that word Tira had completed her move, having lashed out with a backhand strike that looked like a boxer's jab, and slashed a three inch deep wound across her opponent's throat, severing the windpipe and some major blood vessels.

"Victory, Tira!" the judge called immediately as Nort sank to his knees, slapping one hand to his gushing wound, and the crowd went insane. The barrier fell and the meds scrambled, and Nort's trainer was already screaming at his screen, calling for a Judgment on whether Tira had struck before the call.

The rules stated that the fight was officially begun as soon as the judge's lips had separated while pronouncing the b phonic in the word 'begin'.

A slow motion synchronized split-screen comparison of the judge's mouth and Tira's strike was then shown on the big displays. It showed that though Tira's motion had been among the best of human reaction times, it had indeed begun after the crucial split second, and her victory was confirmed.