Chương 114: [The Round Of 16]

Leo and Shai reached the viewing step just in time to see Luka come through the tunnel. Gregor was already at the centre, an axe in each hand, rolling them in his grip.

"He's going to have the range advantage this time, not by much though," Leo said. Luka had already worked that out. He settled into a wider stance than usual, the maul held horizontally across his body, head drifting in front of him as Gregor tested his footwork. Every time Gregor tried to close, Luka jabbed it forward, not swinging, just driving the face of it into the man's space. The third time Gregor tried to get inside Luka's range, he shoved the head of the maul further.

Gregor wasn't expecting the extra reach and walked right into it, the red mark appearing on his collarbone before he'd finished the step. One.

"He must have baited him into thinking he knew the max range," said Sam. Phil nodded.

"Either that or the guy's just not very smart." Gregor backed off and changed tactic. He feinted at the edge of range, watched Luka start to respond with a low sweep, and jumped, both feet off the ground, shouting, coming in over the guard while Luka was mid-recovery. The axes came down across Luka's shoulder clean. One-one.

"Oh, that's nasty," Phil said. Gregor grinned. He reset with more confidence, and Luka let him have the moment, standing his ground, turning the maul slowly. When Luka started another wide low sweep Gregor had seen coming a mile off, he timed the jump perfectly. The sweep changed angle halfway through, Luka snapping the maul up and into Gregor's gut while he was still airborne. Two-one.

"He set him up," Sam said. Gregor got up working his jaw. He circled, watching Luka's hands, waiting. When Luka committed to a downswing, Gregor stepped back, let it drop past him, then stepped forward hard with both axes raised. Luka dragged the maul back up. The axes came down onto the haft and stayed there. Gregor leaned into it, both arms driving down. The haft didn't move. Gregor's eyes went wide. Luka front kicked him square in the chest. Gregor was sent flying and landed hard in the dirt.

The maul came down before he'd finished working out what had happened. Three-one.

"He Sparta kicked him," laughed Phil. Leo glanced over to the other side of the viewing platform. Gomir had both arms folded, nodding slowly. A huge smile on his face.

Luka made it back to the group before the next fight began.

"Nice kick, dude," Phil said, eyes already on the floor below.

"Proper put him on his arse."

"Cheers, man. Yeah, I don't think he expected it at all," said Luka.

"Klaus is next up," Sam said, nodding toward the tunnel entrance.

Klaus started fast and didn't slow down. His opponent, a spear fighter with decent reach, tried to keep him at range but Klaus knocked the spear tip aside each time it came as he closed the distance. What followed was short. Three powerful strikes, more in them than was probably necessary. Three-nil, Klaus barely acknowledging the result before heading back down the tunnel.

"He's angry about something," Shai said.

"Seems so," agreed Kai.

Ivaran's fight lasted longer than Klaus's but was no less one-sided. His opponent was good; quick feet, decent with a short sword, the kind of fighter who'd give most people in this tournament genuine problems. The net was the issue. It went wide on the first throw, a miss that drew a murmur from the crowd. The sword fighter pressed forward, thinking he'd found his window. The net wasn't a miss.

He yanked it back while the sword fighter was mid-step and took his feet out from under him before he'd registered what was happening. Ivaran had the trident at his throat before the man finished hitting the dirt. He followed up the next point with a net throw that blocked the fighter's vision before striking at his leg. The final point came from Ivaran faking a throw and jabbing out with the trident as the man moved to get clear of the net. Three-nil.

The next stand out fight was Yannick's. He planted himself at the centre and didn't move much from it. His opponent spent most of the fight trying to find a way around the poleaxe's reach and not finding one. The first time he thought he saw an opening, he swung. Yannick caught the man's sword on the hook of the axe head, yanked it out wide, and drove the butt end into his sternum with both hands behind it. The sound carried up to the viewing step. The crowd let out a collective 'oof' at the hit.

"Jesus, that must have fucking sucked," said Leo. After that, Yannick's opponent looked winded, his movement suffering for the remaining duration of the bout. The halberd landed twice more, leaving red marks in the fighter's knee and thigh. The fight ended three-nil. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"The fights seem a lot more one-sided now," said Phil. Leo agreed.

"They must have been holding back in the first round. Either that or their earlier opponents were a harder match up."

The fight following Ivaran's was Sam's. He was against a giant of a man.

"I noticed him earlier, but out there he looks huge. He's gotta be at least a foot and a half taller than Sam," Leo said as Sam's opponent walked out. Leo wondered if the man had a bit of orc blood in his family line somewhere, a few generations back. He looked entirely human, but his proportions were abnormal. He wasn't fat exactly, but he had a larger stomach than any other fighter; a layer of fat covering muscle, similar to some of the strongmen back on Earth.

Leo expected him to be slow but incredibly strong, a theory all but confirmed by the massive kanabo strapped across the man's back. He stood at the centre with his hands loose at his sides, waiting for Sam to enter. Sam came out of the tunnel, looked once, and rolled his neck.

"He'll be fine," said Nessa, arms folded. Sam opened carefully, staying at range and using his feet to make the man turn. The kanabo stayed on the fighter's shoulders for the first thirty seconds, the man tracking Sam's movement without chasing it. Then Sam stepped in fractionally too close. The kanabo didn't swing; the man simply lunged, using the length of the club like a battering ram. The end of the studded wood caught Sam's arm as he tried to side-step the strike, leaving a bright red mark behind. One-nil.

"Okay, I'm worried," Phil said as they reset. Sam stopped trying to close. He started moving in wider circles, making the man rotate constantly. The fighter wasn't biting on the feints; he was taking small steps, keeping his centre of gravity low. He was waiting for Sam to tire. It went on for a while. The fighter, finally frustrated, drove forward. Instead of a slow overhead, he flung a quick, horizontal sweep. Sam didn't retreat; he dropped.

He went into a sliding roll beneath the strike, the wind of the kanabo ruffling his hair, and popped up inside the man's reach. He buried a dagger into the man's ribs before the big guy could bring his elbows back in. One-one. The man adjusted. He didn't swing wide for the next point; he kept the club vertical, using it like a shield. Sam had to work for two minutes, darting in and out, eventually landing a strike on the man's lead leg by lunging forward just as the giant stomped down, ready to swing.

The stab left its mark on the man's calf. Two-one. The final point came when Sam's opponent lost his patience and tried to end it with a double-handed smash. Sam slipped the blow, but instead of just hitting the chest, he used the man's own forward momentum. He grabbed the man's belt, pivoted, and used a trip to send the giant face-first into the dirt, tapping his back as he went down. Three-one.

"Honestly, it's pretty scary how well Sam fits the whole assassin thing. Who'd have thought," said Leo.

"I know, right? Guy's a menace," agreed Luka. Torren laughed.

"Well, you're going to have to figure out a way to beat him if you both win your next fights." Nessa smirked, her eyes fixed on her student as he walked back toward the tunnel.

The next round was Phil against Kael. Leo was looking forward to this one; Shai had told him a little about Kael earlier. Apparently, he was a good student, dedicated, always first to training and last to leave. He wondered if Phil's overconfidence would lead to an early loss for his friend. He smirked. I hope so, he'll never live it down. Phil walked out with a cocky spin of his swords, expecting a few cheers from the crowd. Kael was already there, standing ready with his longsword.

He, much like Klaus, was a local favourite in Stonehall, so Phil quickly found the reception he had been expecting was not there. Instead of frowning, he played on that, and mimed cutting his throat while smirking at the young wolf-kin. The crowd booed.

"Looks like I won't need to worry about being the villain after all," laughed Leo. Shai shook her head.

"He's an idiot. If people start asking me if I told him to do that, I'm going to kick his arse." The group laughed. One way or another, Phil was in for it now. The match started with an explosion of movement. Phil went in aggressive from the start, a blur of dual blades aimed at Kael's centre. Kael didn't flinch; he stepped back with measured discipline, parrying the flurry and snapping out quick stabs to keep Phil at range. He was waiting for the initial burst of energy to fade.

Phil slowed his pace, waiting for Kael to commit. When the longsword finally flashed forward, Phil caught the heavier blade in a crossed-parry. The force of it surprised Kael, but the young wolf-kin didn't let his guard break. Instead, he forced Phil to move, stepping laterally and forcing Phil to turn with him or lose his leverage. As Phil adjusted his footing, Kael stopped his rotation and lunged. Phil tried a desperate one-handed parry, but he wasn't fully squared up yet. The longsword found the mark.

One-nil, Kael.

"This is going to be harder for Phil than the others," Shai said, her eyes fixed on her former student.

"I taught Kael before I ever met Phil. I've sparred with him dozens of times. He knows most of the moves Phil is trying to use because they're the same ones I used to test him." Phil reset, his smirk gone. He started taking his time, watching the way Kael shifted his weight in response to certain strikes. He threw a series of testing cuts, baiting out a specific defensive rotation he'd seen Kael use twice before. When the opening appeared, Phil stepped forward and hard to the side.

Kael reacted instantly, bringing his sword around to deflect the attack he thought was coming from his flank, but it was another feint. The movement left Kael's chest wide open, and Phil drove a blade home. One-one.

"Nicely done," Shai murmured.

"It's going to take more than aggression to win this one." The fight reset. This time, Kael went on the offensive, using the superior range of the longsword to poke at Phil's defence. Phil stayed light on his feet, stepping back and parrying as he worked his way toward the edge of the circle. Kael saw an opening and lunged, putting more reach into the strike than he had previously. Phil had been waiting for it. As the blade hissed toward him, he ducked into a tight roll beneath the strike.

He came out of the move behind Kael's guard, his blade snapping out to leave a mark on Kael's Achilles. Two-one. The final point was a grueling back-and-forth. Kael pressed hard, lunging with a stab that looked perfectly timed to end the round. Phil pivoted at the last second, the blade missing his ribs by an inch. Before Kael could retract the weapon, Phil reached out and grabbed Kael's lead hand, yanking him close so the longsword was trapped uselessly along Phil's side.

Kael tried to let go of the hilt to switch to a one-handed strike, but he wasn't fast enough. Phil reverse-gripped the short sword in his free hand, spun his torso, and drove a clean stab into Kael's chest. Three-one. Phil held out a hand to Kael, who took it and smiled. Both fighters knew this was a close thing, the crowd cheering despite their home favourite losing.

"That was the closest fight of this round so far. Could have gone either way," said Luka.

"Yeah, Kael's good. I wonder if Phil comes back as cocky as he left," said Leo. As if to mock the statement, after Kael had walked away, Phil began raising his swords in the centre of the arena.

"What's he doing?" asked Torren.

"ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?"

"No way," said Sam.

"Did he just..." began Luka.

"That fucking show off," said Leo with a laugh.

"Trust Phil to imitate that."

"What did he say? We can't understand him," said Shai. Luka laughed.

"He's quoting a film, the fucking nerd."

"Man, he must think he looked so cool. Imagine if Tony saw him pull that shit. He'd never hear the end of it," said Leo, holding his stomach. Sam grinned at Shai.

"When people realise he's your student, you're going to have to try and explain that to them." She groaned, he was right.

"When we get back to Monkhaven, he's in for the worst training of his life." A few minutes later, Phil came up the ramp smirking.

"How'd you like that? Nailed it, right?" The group looked at him for a second before the three lads couldn't take it and started laughing again.

"What's so funny?"