Chapter 14

“Isn’t this a nice surprise?” Hemon asked first as he walked on his team’s designated starting point.

On the dais, Kai had recovered from shock and hugged her father tightly whispering “Thank you , thank you, thank you, I love you, I love you, I love you!!! Best gift ever!!”

She turned around without looking back to her father, who was smiling from ear to ear. Her friends had quickly gathered around her and started whispering among themselves excitedly.

Wardho waited for the applause to subside before continuing his announcing the best part,

“Now that we have learned about the participants of the first bout, ladies and gentlemen, you have exactly five minutes to place your bets”.

Niko’s house servants promptly went to every section of the guests and collected the bets for this match. Niko watched as his daughter and her friends bet a large amount of Rais on the fighter named Hemon, her favourite and from the looks of it, he was a favourite of many of her friends as well.

In the mound, all six fighters were engaged in final preparations for the upcoming match.

Hemon’s entry certainly made Sasa happy.

Sasa replied to Hemon’s question “Oh, it’s a very big surprise. I’m very happy to see you and very much looking forward to fighting beside you, Hemon”.

“Me too!” he replied, feeling relieved.

He turned his attention towards his other teammate, the one who was looking at him very angrily, clutching her fist tightly.

“Hello, I’m Hemon. It’s nice to finally meet you”. He introduced himself in an effort to lessen her anger.

Hemon knew exactly why Charlot was angry with, but personally he didn’t care all that much, but for the sake of their upcoming match, he had to try and lessen that anger in order to properly fight as a team, or atleast try to.

“I know who you are” Charlot finally said.

“You messed up my plan and a chance to further my winning streak” she added.

Hemon just smiled at her and shrugged his shoulders.

“I happened to be the better fighter that day… It happens sometimes” he replied.

Charlot just stood there thinking about what to say next.

“Oh cut it out you bitch!” Sasa finally started expressing her thoughts.

“With a spear you are better than us but as he showed me and you… he’s better than us in hand-to-hand combat. You lost because you had no answer to his offence once your spear was out of the mix. A glass fighter… proficient with a singular weapon, but lacking in close-combat” she finished saying it to Charlot.

“I know!I know it too!!” Charlot snapped at Sasa.

“Then why are you here in a hand-to-hand combat match?” Sasa asked her.

“To prove that I too am willing to work and improve in areas in which I lack” Charlot replied to her.

“In a sanctioned match!” Sasa asked incredulously.

“Yes… yes in a sanctioned match where if I fail… it may very well be the end of the fate I was dreaming of and that’s why I have to be in this match” Charlot clarified herself.

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“We can’t certainly trust you to maintain pace with us. Under pressure I’m tenacious while his ability to fight through pain is massive which makes us both perfect for this match while if you get hit hard enough it’s over for you as well as us” Sasa replied.

“That’s not true” This time Hemon spoke.

He explained further, “To be proficient with a spear, you need to have a great sense of balance, quickness of arms and feet, and power for strikes. All of which she has”.

He turned towards Charlot and explained further

“You have long arms which will give an advantage for you to strike from long range. So keep yourself out of your opponent’s reach, and you can shower them with your powerful strikes easily, just like you can with a spear.

As for defense, this is not the place to start learning. So you have to keep your opponent within our reach, and be outside of theirs”.

“In teamwork, they have the advantage, but if we can isolate one of them and isolate him, then we have a chance to gang up on the other two and limit their team play” he said.

“I think so too. I think when we square up and the signal is given, that’s the best time to take one of them out” Sasa agreed with Hemon’s assessment.

“That big one needs to be put down first. It’s highly likely they’ll think that way and be prepared as such. I say we start with a feint right at the beginning” Charlot added her views too.

Wardho continued with his announcement “Alright ladies and gentleman, the bookie has indicated to me that all bets are in and it’s finally time for the match to start.

TEAMS!!! TAKE YOUR POSITIONS!!!” he screamed for everyone to hear.

Both the teams walked up to the middle of the circle and faced each other with Charlot on the right, Sasa on the left and Hemon facing the perceived powerhouse of the opposing team in the middle.

Hemon just before squaring up for the match whispered to Charlot “When I move, you move on the opposite”.

Wardho “ORPHANS!!! SHOW THEM YOUR SPIRIT!! BEGIN!!!” screamed.