Chương 220: FIGHT! HARVEY VS. REBEL

Like all training matches, it took a while to get started. Hank and the guys tried to decide who would go first. This was a ranking match, so there was naturally a lot of ego involved. And egos riding on wolves put on edge at the prospect of an imminent fight... Hank needed to tread carefully. Well, everyone did, but Hank more than ever, being the trainer in charge. Hank got it right from the start, though, ordering everyone to be seated around the fight area in our tiers. Only the competing tier may stand.

Now he just needed to calmly allow the first tier to arrange its own battle lineup. This should naturally lead to the correct ranking result. Wolves kind of knew where they stood in the pack hierarchy. The first match went to Harvey and Rebel. Harvey looked pleased, but slightly apologetic.

"Please forgive me, Luna. You're too strong for me to hold back." Rebel, the show-off, shrugged.

"Just give it your best shot, Beta." The training hall went quiet when both of them stepped onto the mat in the center. It was quite a large mat. About the size of four of our usual mats put together, about the size of a fight cage ring. At this moment, I knew the match was skewed in Mate's favor. Let me explain. Both wolves were about the same physical height and build in human form. Even in terms of wolf size, Harvey's wolf was only slightly smaller. (You and I know that Mate's wolf was a lot of fur anyway. Haha.) Anyway, the size difference was too small to actually tilt the fight in anyone's favor. It wasn't even the wolf's rank. Mate was the Alpha wolf. Harvey, only a Beta. I don't know what normal wolves feel about this, but as an Alpha wolf myself, and in my experience with other wolves and non-wolves, there was very little difference in the physical abilities of Betas to their Alphas. From a very young age, we learned in Lycan Study Group: A normal wolf was born to follow. A warrior wolf was born to protect.

A Gamma wolf was born to charge. A Beta wolf was born to support. An Alpha wolf was born to win. In any large pack hunt, the wolves run out, Alpha in the lead and a Beta close behind. The first one to show themselves to the enemy is the Gamma, startling it toward the desired direction. This was easily a dangerous job, depending on the size and number of the enemy. The Alpha drew the first blood. If the enemy was weak, that would also be the first kill, but what Alpha would go for the weakest?

The Beta would be quick to finish the kill the moment the Alpha took down the prey. If there were more than one enemy, the Alpha would move on to the next one the moment the Beta was by his side. Using his Alpha power, he would take down each and every enemy one after another, while his Beta finished the kill. Meanwhile, the Gamma organized the warriors. Taking down any enemy in his path, he sent the warriors to clean off the rest of the enemy around the perimeter.

If there were Deltas, they would run out front to secure the furthest perimeter. Preferably, the normal wolves would never have to fight dangerous enemies head-on. Hunting prey animals like deer or wild boar was okay. So from a very young age, I knew the ones who did not follow had to always be strong enough to protect the ones who followed. And no matter how strong a Beta wolf was, he was only strong enough to keep up with the Alpha.

If the Alpha took down three enemies in one breath, the Beta needed to finish the same number of kills in that same breath. If the Alpha was the lightning, his Beta was the thunder. You get the idea. Theoretically, though, this meant that a Beta was quite able to win a sparring match against his Alpha, given the right circumstances. But that was exactly the problem. Even before the match began, the circumstances were already in Mate's favor. Mate was a fight dog. Harvey was a wild pack wolf.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Mate's usual fight was in an enclosed space, with no weapons, within a short timeframe. Harvey's usual fight was in open land, usually with trees, rocks, uneven footing, and space to run and dodge, with weapons, and for a much longer timeframe. Gamma Endo lost his fight with me because of this same reason. He held back too much. Being used to long, drawn-out, multiple-enemy fights, he had to conserve his power for the long haul.

But a mat spar averaged about five minutes. You needed to go all out in a very short span of time. There was nowhere to dodge or trip up your opponent, no natural weapon you could pick up. Of course, there were no guns either. And only one enemy. The intensity was different. Hank whistled for the fight to start.

"Harvey, you can't hold back! You need to go full on!" I shouted.

"Whose side are you on, Princess?" Mate growled. Oh, dammit. I think I just made things worse for Harvey.

"I'm just trying to even the odds," I said.

"You think I would lose, Princess?" Harvey's tone was calm and cold. Great, now he's pissed too. Stoopid guys.

"Fine, just fight and kill yourselves. I don't care either way," I retorted. Was that childish of me? Yes. But if they wanted to get mad over petty little things, they could go bash each other's faces in.

"I don't think I ever saw Harvey so serious," Lola said. I don't care.

"Who do you think will win?" Jessica asked. Mate. Mate was going to win. I could feel it through our mindlink. It turned out that Mate was the easily-jealous type. Stoopid. The first hit went to Mate. He was fast to make contact, but Harvey was fast too, and managed to avoid most of the damage directed at his face. He even kneed Mate quite hard in the stomach. Hahaha, Mate was too angry, so he wasn't thinking straight. Oh wait, no.

Mate was just warming up, testing Harvey's strength, because half a minute in, Mate's stance changed dramatically. He shrugged a bit and grinned at the audience. Stretching, he walked from one side of the mat to the other. Then he threw me a wink over his shoulder. Harvey, who was watching, took the opportunity to strike.

"This isn't the time to flirt, Luna." Ah no, Harvey! It's a trap! But too late. Harvey had gone straight into the opening that Mate had left for him. And of course, if Mate had left an opening, then of course Mate was also ready with the comeback. Mate hit Harvey three times in succession, rather hard too. Harvey flew back. The other trainees gasped. Harvey got up. Mate waited. Okay, now Harvey was going to use his full power. Stupid. I told him to go all out at the onset. It's been two minutes.

I'll give Harvey five minutes max. At this point, I wondered if Harvey had realized he was in a losing match. His objective shouldn't be winning anymore. It should be hurting Mate as much as possible. Wait, we're talking about Mate, as in my Mate, right? But that was Harvey's last resort. He had to hurt Mate badly. If he was lucky, he might even win. But if it all played out without any sort of luck getting involved, it would deter Mate from hurting him and increase his chances of survival. Harvey raised his hand.

"I surrender." What? Oh yes, he could just do that and end the match without further injury to either side. That would be the mature and calmly calculated thing to do. Whether they continued the fight or not, Harvey's rank placement was obvious by now. And in the long term, if he wanted to be able to take on the next fight, e. g., against Ki, or get up and go to school and fulfill his patrol duties tomorrow, ending a lost match quickly would be the best thing to do. But arghhhhh....

My wolf bristled for the injustice of it all. I would never surrender. I would fight to the end. What a dissatisfying fight! What a completely dissatisfying outcome! I guess I liked to cheer for the underdog. Another difference between a fight dog and a wild pack wolf: Wild pack wolves wouldn't hurt other wolves (much less their Luna). They only fought to protect their pack. Fight dogs needed to be able to turn that part of themselves off and simply live for the fight. Ki stepped up onto the mat.

"Next match is mine." He turned to me.

"Sorry, Goddess, I'm going to beat up your Luna." Eh? He's challenging Mate? Harvey and Hank looked just as surprised. My Wolfie answered, "Hurt him and I kill you." Killion laughed at that.

"That's a deal, Goddess, so please don't interrupt this fight till we are done." Did he think I would run in and protect Mate? This was a sparring match in front of all the other trainees. As if I would do something embarrassing like that. And even if I did put aside my embarrassment, Mate would probably just hate me for getting in his way. Better to just let him get beaten up. Yeah. I was not going to interfere. I watched as the two wolves faced off.

"Oooo..." Jessica said.

"I think I'm going to swoon."

"I want to go snap his waistband," Marissa said.

"I mean Ki's, not the Luna's." She glanced at me quickly. I pretended I hadn't heard her. Jessica and Lola tittered.

"Mari, not in front of Savy," Lola said primly.

"I might tell Ki," Savy smiled angelically.

"You can tell him my number when you do," Marissa told Savy.

"Mari!" Lola scolded. Jessica laughed.

"Mari, you're impossible!"

"What? It's my last few months of freedom. I need to live it up! Once I hit 18, who knows what kind of wolf the Goddess would pair me up with?" Marissa shrugged.

"Maybe she'll pair you up with Ki?" Jessica suggested. Marissa laughed, but it sounded a little bitter.

"No way. Guys like him... I won't be so lucky." I looked at the two guys on the mat. Ki's pants were hanging unnaturally low. Seriously. He was like the prime target for pantsing. Hahaha.

"I don't think he's wearing underwear," Lola said after studying Ki.

"Definitely not. His pants are so low, where would the underwear be?" Marissa confirmed. Suddenly, I didn't feel pantsing Ki was going to be as fun and hilarious. That's right, we weren't kids anymore. Everyone around me had grown up. Even if I didn't believe he was going au naturel under those pants, it's not like Ki had cartoon boxers to show off. A lot of things stopped being funny when you grew up.

"They're starting," Lola said. I shook my head to clear out the distraction and concentrate on the fight. This one should be more satisfying. They were both fight dogs. Ki was the Beta, but he was also older and more experienced. But Mate was the Alpha, so Mate wouldn't lose to Ki... Well, actually... Hmm... I was starting to have a bad feeling for Mate. Mate, run away! Ki is a monster! If it were anyone else, I would have shouted that and expected general friendly laughter and cajoling all around.

But this was Mate, and I didn't like the idea of him getting pissed at me again. So I kept quiet and watched.