Part 26

June 9, 2155

Their mood was cheerful when they flew to New Delhi with Assan the next day for the round of eight. Since there were to be only four fights scheduled that day, two the next day and one the day after that, Nehru Coliseum would be the only venue used for the rest of the tournament. The park above it was again only a park, gone were the temporary grandstands, souvenir and snack booths, and V.I.P. flyer parking lot.

That being the case, they donned their football fan outfits for disguise. They found that Pabano had his own, since he really was a devoted fan of the Montevideo Blaze Football Club and had held season's tickets to their games for half a century.

They arrived early, and descended through a huge yellow-rimmed hole in the ground to land at a public flyer parkade. They walked half a mile to the great stadium through the corridors, having judged that they would be less congested around the stadium than the transit system's cars and platforms.

Their two fighters surrendered their tokens well before noon, and they took their seats. Since there were so few fighters remaining, they and their entourages were all seated at ringside. The tension in the huge room was already palpable, and it became positively electric at twelve o'clock, when it was seen that of the seven who had won the day before, two had not returned due to their injuries. With the Grande Champion, who had received a bye, that left six fighters who would fight in three matches that day.

"Look at that man! I did not realize he had lasted this long." Pina said, looking to Yabo, the self-proclaimed Wolverine Man. The rogue had no trainer or entourage, but had reserved the maximum number of seats for them anyway, so he sat by himself in the midst of a patch of empty seats at ringside, and they were the only empty seats in the stadium. He looked vaguely insane, holding his elbows and rocking back and forth, glaring at everyone.

"Has he killed anyone else yet?" Raz asked.

"Just last night." Pabano answered. "Brain injury. He stabbed his opponent in the ear, to the hilt of his blade. The blow was so hard he could not remove his knife, it was stuck so tight, and the Meds had to use electric tools to get it out of the man's skull. The rest of his opponents all got class five wounds, but the Meds saved their lives."

As Kimagme performed the draw she took extra time at every stage, prolonging the tension for the theatre of it.

The reigning Grande Champion, Tai Truong of the Tiger People, from the Doi Zone of the Cam Lam Region of the Jungles of Vietnam, was drawn for the first fight. He would face his bitter rival Shaka of the Lion People, from the Mweru Zone of the Kambove Region of the Great African Savannah, who had been ranked number two ever since Tai Truong had beaten him for the Grande Championship the year before.

"That will be an incredible fight!" Davdan exclaimed. "Those two have taken to exchanging public insults and ridicule over the last months, and I think they truly hate each other!"

"I'm surprised they're both pretty small!" Assan exclaimed as the two made their way forward to receive each other's numbered ball. Tai Truong stood five feet five, and Shaka was only an inch taller.

"But very fast, and that is what counts in blade fighting." Pabano said. "You must not follow the fights much."

"Nah, football's my game." Assan answered. "More than violent enough for me."

"Football? Violent?" Pabano asked in puzzlement.

"Not soccer, American football!" Assan laughed.

"Ah." Pabano nodded.

Shaka spoke to Tai Truong as they received each other's tokens, and their voices were picked up by parabolic microphones in the ceiling and relayed over the P.A. system.

"I had hoped to draw you in the last round, but I am glad I will have a chance at you here!" Shaka stated fiercely.

Tai Truong wore an electronic translator around his neck, with a wire leading to an earphone/microphone. He listened to the translation, then subvocalized, his face hard. "That is as it should be! If I had not drawn you, I would have challenged you after the tournament!" his device said in a voice similar to his own, and he turned his back on his rival and walked away.

"Yep, no love lost there!" Assan grinned.

"I am glad that only one of them can advance beyond today." Menak stated grimly.

"As am I." Tira agreed.

The next moment Yabo, who had been ranked at seventh the night before, was drawn with the fourth place fighter, Samuk, Tiger Man from the Skanda Region of the Great Indian Forest.

As soon as their balls dropped Tika stood with her fists clenched and said; "Crap! Double crap! Mega crap and giga crap!"

"What is it?" Slin asked.

"Do not be dense!" Tika yelled angrily. "There are only two balls left! Tira-Mother has drawn Menak!"

Then her anger melted at the look of horrified, guilty shock on Slin's face. "Oh Slin, I am sorry! You pricked me at a bad moment, I am not angry with you!" she cried over the rising crowd noise, and she deftly hopped up with one foot on the arm of Davdan's chair and onto the arm of Slin's in the row behind that, then settled gracefully into his lap and hugged him.

"It is okay, Tika. I understand." Slin murmured into her ear. "What will happen? Will your mother Decline?"

"I am not sure she can!" Tika softly cried, so only he could hear. "As of last night, she is the higher ranked fighter! I do not know what they will do, and I am afraid to ask!"

Samuk had been number four since a month before the tournament, and had always been considered a serious contender for the title. He was not phased by Yabo's fierce glare. As the judge handed him Yabo's ball, he laughed at the renegade. "You killed some good people to get here, fool, but your lucky streak is over!" he taunted. "Go kiss your brain goodbye, for after I have spilled it in the octagon I will spit in it!"

"Fuck you!!! I kill you now!!!" Yabo screamed, and he threw Samuk's ball at him and drew his knife, but Kimagme stepped between them.

"Or you could be disqualified for interfering with a judge!" Samuk laughed.

Yabo screamed in rage and tried to move around Kimagme, but the quick old official grasped the shaggy man by his knife belt, and Yabo dared not do anything more for fear of disqualification.

"Control yourselves! You will get your chance soon enough!" Kimagme barked. "And Yabo, you had best find Samuk's ball, because you will need it to get into the round tomorrow if you win today!"

"He does not need it, as he cannot win!" Samuk laughed as he left the platform.

Yabo was forced to stalk angrily over to the edge of the platform in the direction Samuk's ball had gone. He did not see it on the floor beyond, and he glared ice daggers at Shaka and his entourage, who sat ringside there.

The judge walked over and stated; "If one of you is holding the ball, you will give it back now, or it will be considered interference in the process of the tournament."

Samuk's wife laughed, and tossed Yabo the ball. He angrily snatched it out of the air and stamped off the platform and out of the arena.

Though it was a foregone conclusion, Kimagme performed the last drawing with the same sense of grand ceremony she had used for the first two. The Green Band sat in silence.

It was well known at the tournament that Tira and Menak were betrothed lovers, and the implications were realized by most of the audience long before their two balls rolled into the tray, making it official. A loud buzz of excited and curious conversation arose.

After Kimagme had announced their fight with formal introductions, Menak stood first and held his hand out to Tira with a smile. "Shall we, my love?" he asked, as gently as he could and still be heard over the crowd noise.

She stood and hugged him fiercely, and he returned it, then she took his hand and they ascended the platform together.

"Do you have something to tell us?" Kimagme smiled gently as she handed them their tokens.

Menak and Tira smiled at each other, still holding hands.

"Not yet." Menak said, speaking more to Tira than to the judge. "Right now we are both among the last six at the Grande Tournament. We will savor every second of it."

"So be it." Kimagme nodded, and as Tira and Menak went back down the stairs she announced: "The first match begins at twelve thirty. There will be fifteen minutes between each match. May fortune smile upon you."

The Green Band were silent as they returned to the suite. Once they were all inside and the door was closed, Tika turned to Tira and Menak.

"Until now, the possibility of this happening seemed so remote that I did not feel comfortable with bringing it up. Do we need to talk about this now?"

Tira and Menak spent a long moment gazing into each other's eyes and reading each other's expressions.

"No. I do not think we do." Tira said.

"Pabano and I went through this twice, and it is a horrible thing." Davdan stated. "Once I Declined, and once he did, but our love survived. It is terribly difficult to just give up your chance at the Grande Championship, but keeping Pabano alive and in love with me made it worth it to me."

"I feel the same." Pabano grinned, holding her tight to his side with one arm.

"Our love is strong. We will be fine." Menak assured them. "Other than that, I would rather not discuss it further. We should order lunch before the fights start. I for one am really looking forward to seeing them! They should be two damn good fights!"

"Me too! Looking forward to seeing them, that is!" Tika laughed, obviously relieved at the change of subject. "And I will order giros, they are the second quickest hot food delivery available here. Unless anyone wants burritos again?"

"What is a giro?" Pabano asked as they went out to the balcony and seated themselves.

"It is tech food, a pita bread sandwich with some kind of sausage in it and stuff." Pina told him.

"Some people call them donairs." Assan provided.

"Ah yes, I have had donairs. And I will have another today, as they are good." Pabano chuckled. "A large one, if they have more than one size!"

"What is the third quickest delivery?" Raz asked.

"Vietnamese noodle soup." Tika told him.

"Good, we will get some of that as well." he nodded, and soon they were all busy on their screens making menu selections.

Tira and Menak would not have eaten a heavy meal so soon before a match they planned to fight in, but they ate as heartily as the rest.

The noise was deafening when Tai Truong and Shaka entered the arena. Both looked fierce, and neither smiled or waved to the crowd as they went to their paddocks. The crowd was about evenly split between them.

No one could even hear the announcer when he gave the three minute warning for the upcoming fight over the powerful sound system, though it did not matter since it was also announced in huge yellow text on the big screens above the octagon.

"Who looks good in this one?" Naz asked, of no one in particular.

"Tai Truong, but only by a hair." Tika stated.

"Yes." Davdan agreed. "He would beat Shaka about fifty-five times out of a hundred, if they could both live through that many fights. But this could really go either way."

"A hundred!" Tika chuckled. "I would say there is a one in five chance that one of them will kill the other here today! One in two for a class five injury!"

"About that." Davdan nodded.

Tai Truong and Shaka's fight was a masterful demonstration of skills, and the determination, courage, and stubborn grit shown by both fighters as they battled for hundreds of moves would make it a legendary match. But it was also a bloodbath, and no one there who was younger than eighty-six years old could recall watching a fight where so many wounds were taken. By the time the end came Tai Truong could only grip his knife with one finger and a thumb on his left hand, and Shaka could only raise his waist high because of a wound in the shoulder of the one arm he could still move, and they staggered around on bleeding legs with multiple abdomen wounds. Tai had one eye punctured by a diagonal slash that left half his face grotesquely sagging, Shaka had the bottom half of his face smashed in. Over a minute and a half had passed since the fight had begun when Tai Truong shoved Shaka away with his maimed right hand, and Shaka staggered back against the barrier, fought for his balance and gained it. Then he crumpled as he passed out from loss of blood.

"Victory, Tai Truong!" the judge called, and the barrier fell, but Tai staggered over to his fallen opponent, determined to prove he was still capable of finishing his enemy. Since the Meds had been waiting with increasing anxiety at the top of the stairs for over a minute, they intercepted him first. He raised his bloody knife in triumph, or at least he got it a little higher than his shoulder, then relaxed into the Meds' arms and let them treat him.