Tested (The Life of Uktesh Book 1) (24 page)

Larut heard him and, in an impressive display of skill, threw three fast jabs and instead of a left hook jabbed a fourth time with his right, which was exactly what Uktesh had hoped for.  It still didn’t connect, but for the first time Riu could clearly be seen when he moved.  He caught Larut’s hand and tapped him on the head with his free hand.

Larut nodded his head to Riu who bowed slightly from the waist.  Larut jogged back, “That was awesome!  He’s as good unarmed as you are with your bow!  He’s a full step above even you Uktesh.” Who shook his head in agreement, “and he’s several steps beyond me.”  It was again Uktesh’s turn, but his fighter forfeited.  In fact, both winners of the middle fights and Riu’s opponent forfeited. The final would be Riu and Uktesh, and they both would fight each other in the finals on the third day.

Next was pole weapons and the first fight was Tylor versus Larut, and the winner would have to fight Repus if he won his first fight.  “Well ain’t that a sight. In two rounds, no matter what, only one of us will continue on.”

“At least that person will be in the final four competitors.” said Uktesh, which earned him three glares.

“Basam wishes Basam knew Basam could sign up for more than one competition.”  They all turned and started at him, “Basam has never fought in this before, and Basam is skilled in sword and pole weapons.”

Larut and Tylor walked onto the sand and after a flurry of activity Tylor came back the winner.  Repus won his fight, and soon he took the sand against Tylor.  Repus and Tylor were evenly matched, but Repus came out on top, possibly only because of luck.

The last competition mixed meant that the fighters could use whatever they wanted to fight with.  While they each made their bets and found the order of the fights, Uktesh saw that both Charis and Riu were registered. Uktesh saw that, unlike last time, he and Riu were not on opposite ends of the bracket, and would meet in the third round, and that Charis would have to fight Riu in the first match.  There were more fighters in this competition than any other, and that included sword. Once again Uktesh and his friends were split into different groups, but would fight each other in the later rounds, if they won.

“I don’t get it.” Li said.  “If you only get to use three weapons why do you have to choose six?”

Repus answered, “Each person has to pick six weapons and at the start of each round, three of those six weapons are randomly chosen. You could use all three of them, or none of them, as unarmed is part of the mixed category.  Uktesh chose sword, bow, axe, staff, knife, and a giant two handed great hammer.  I chose staff, shield, axe, sword, pole, and mace.  The reason behind it is that most likely a fighter would have one weapon that he or she was good at, but unless he or she was truly good at more than three weapons, the fighter had the possibility of weapons that he or she was not good with.” 

Li said, “I see, but what happens when both fighters get weapons they’re not good with?”

“If that happens laughter will abound.”  The first match was one of those where both fighters were unskilled with their weapons, but after a flurry of comical activity, the man with the longer weapon won.  Next was Larut, who had four weapons he was good with and easily beat his opponent with the sword.  Repus and Esolc each won their matches. Esolc had a tough time because he’d banked on being able to use a sword in his matches, but still came out ahead with a good attack pattern with the staff and shield combo he had to use.

Tylor, who sat with the girls and Basam shouted to Esolc, “Next time get a sword!  We almost lost money on you!”

Esolc smiled and shouted back, “I was going to go for sword, but then I thought, ‘nah I’ll make it harder on myself!’”  The crowd that could hear the conversation laughed as Esolc continued in where the rest of the group was waiting.  He sat down in a huff next to Uktesh and said, “That one was tough.  How would you’ve done it?”

“Well I would’ve waited for an attack, then I’d have blocked on my shield, thrust with my staff, and, if my opponent blocked that, he would’ve been in no position to avoid my kick that would’ve followed.”

“Yeah I thought it would be something difficult.” Esolc sulked.  He shut his eyes and leaned his head against the wall, “It’s not like I’m in it for the money at this point.  At this point, we’ve won more than we could ever spend,” he smiled eyes still shut, “well ever spend in a year.  I just don’t want to look foolish in front of Heathyr.”

Uktesh paused and considered his words, “You need to cool it with the whole Heathyr thing.  She’s in love with her husband, who may still be alive, and if he is, sooner or later he’s going to come home.  If he isn’t, you won’t have a shot with her for a long time after she finds out.  I’d recommend, for now, just be yourself. Don’t worry too much about how you look in front of her and you’ll come out more ahead than what you’re doing.”

“But I love her.” he said dejectedly, and gazed at the ground.  “I love her so much that it’s hard to be around her without constantly shouting my love for her.  Spending so much time with her has only caused me to want her more.  She is so beautiful and kind, but she also has a fiery side and a fighting side.” He sighed and said to himself, “What am I going to do?  I don’t want to wish someone I’ve never met harm, but I keep thinking, and this is horrible I know, but I think, ‘what if Thulmann’s dead, then I’ll finally have a chance with her.’  Yet I know that Thulmann dying would hurt her terribly and I don’t want that either.”

“I’m not really the best person for this kind of advice, but I would say you need to be yourself.  Back off with the whole ‘needing to impress Heathyr’ thing. You are a genuinely good guy and if you’re meant to be with her, you’ll be with her.  Right now it’s funny, but too much and you’ll start embarrassing her.”

“What would you do if Laurilli was married?”

“I’d probably live somewhere else, cause I wouldn’t have been invited to stay with them. But I would probably think about her until I met the one I was meant to be with, if she wasn’t the one for me.”

“It’s your turn to fight,” he said in the same monotone.

“What?” asked Uktesh.

“They’re calling your name to fight.”

Uktesh stood up and jogged into the arena, speaking to his opponent he said, “Sorry, I was talking and lost track of time.”

“You sure you’re not just afraid of fighting me without your sword?” sneered Dekan.

Uktesh felt his jaw open, “You’re taunting me?  My fiancé beat you without much trouble. What makes you think you have a chance?”

“You’ll see.” he said with a confident grin.

Uktesh picked his three weapons and got bow and arrows, a staff, and a two handed great hammer.  After Uktesh had grabbed his weapons, he saw Dekan with the announcer who shouted, “fight!”

Dekan drew a stick with a metal cylinder at the end and pointed it at Uktesh.  Uktesh smiled, not sure what Dekan was doing, but suddenly his weapon exploded only it was Uktesh on the ground, his shoulder throbbed with sudden pain.  Dekan had abandoned his weapon and had charged at Uktesh to get his second point.  Uktesh struggled to his feet his right arm dangled uselessly at his side.
What happened? How am I so injured?

Dekan attacked with a flurry of sword and dagger combinations that against anyone else similarly injured would’ve easily scored him a point, as it was, Uktesh was barely able to avoid a loss in the match.  Uktesh saw an opportunity and scored a point of his own with a flying kick.  He landed on his back and heard a pop in his shoulder, then, after an intense pain, his arm felt much better.  He stood and found that he was able to move it again, but each movement was painful.

Uktesh threw his bow at Dekan. Then when he dodged that, Uktesh spun and kicked him again in the ribs.  Dekan stood up, clearly ready to continue the fight, but the announcer was there and stopped him.  Uktesh dropped his weapons and walked back to the group that waited to fight. He slowly rolled his injured arm to get some easy movement back.  Before he made it into the waiting area, Laurilli leaned down from the first row of seats and shouted, “Dodge left!”

Instantly, he rolled onto his left shoulder as another explosion sounded behind him and something ricocheted off of the wall now behind him.  He saw Dekan with the weapon again, and guards had begun to move in towards him. But before they could get to him, and before Uktesh could ready an attack in his mind, Baloce was there.  He disarmed Dekan, and shouted, “He’s just upset about the games. I’ll take him home. No harm no foul.” But the guards didn’t listen, they arrested him and Baloce followed as he continued to argue.  The announcer ran to Baloce and he stopped and came back to the center of the ring and picked three weapons randomly from his six choices.  Uktesh realized that Baloce was the next fighter.  Uktesh walked back into the waiting area, but not before he smiled and mouthed, “Thank you,” to Laurilli.

“That was a tough fight. I didn’t think that they’d allow guns to be used. You’re lucky that he was using a rubber ball or some other softer material than metal, because otherwise it would’ve tore through your shoulder.” 

“I guess I should be thankful that the first time I saw that weapon wasn’t during the final day when real weapons are used.”

“Yeah, but a good lesson learned for you. If you don’t know what it does, don’t give them enough time to use it.”  Uktesh nodded

Larut walked up and said, “Riu’s fighting.”

Riu and Charis squared off against each other. Charis had two sticks in his hands each about two feet long and about a thumb size thick.  Riu chose not to use any of his weapons.  The announcer shouted, “Fight!” and as the sound echoed around the arena Charis charged Riu, who again seemed to blur.  Uktesh didn’t hear any cracks that Charis had connected and from his expression the announcer had no clue how to judge this match.  Uktesh saw Riu’s leg flash up, and Charis flew away to land and roll instantly to his feet.

Riu started to walk towards Charis, who took a step back in fear, then gathered his courage and readied his weapons.  Once Riu was within his weapons reach Charis made a desperate attack that aimed both sticks at Riu’s head. With a snap that was heard around the arena. Charis was again on his back. This time he didn’t stand.  “Did he kill him?” asked Larut.

“No.” said Uktesh more hopeful that sure.

Charis sat up and looked at his broken sticks and shook his head in wonder.  He stood, bowed low to Riu, and walked back to where he and Riu had waited previously.  Soon it was Larut, Repus, and Esolc’s turns.  Larut and Esolc won their matches. Repus lost when he didn’t get any of his choice weapons; sword, axe, or a pole weapon.  He angrily left to sit with the girls, Tylor, and Basam.  It was Uktesh’s turn to fight and his opponent was Sorn, Dekan’s father, who had already picked his weapons and had a huge grin on his face as he held the, “magic,” mace that Li had sold him.  Sorn towered over Uktesh my more than a foot and he had even more muscles than his son. But compared to a minotaur, Uktesh wasn’t too worried.

Uktesh drew sword, knives, and his own giant hammer.  Sorn walked confidently to stand six inches from Uktesh and made sure that Uktesh had to stare up to talk to him, and said, “Now, boy, you’re going to be beaten with the same magical mace you sold me.”

“Wow, you had it enchanted!  How?” asked Uktesh.

“What?  No, I bought it from you. It already had magical properties.”

“Not when I had it.  It was just a mace.”

“But when you sold it to me you said that it had magic!”

“No I didn’t.”

“Then your girlfriend did. I don’t care who said it, you lied to me.”

“No, she didn’t lie either. You said something like, ‘How else could a boy like me beat a minotaur’ and we just didn’t clue you in to the idea of skill.”

“We’ll let our weapons do the talking!”

“Really?” Uktesh asked incredulously as he wondered if Sorn hadn’t watched any of Uktesh’s past fights.

Uktesh nodded and as soon as the announcer shouted for them to begin. He allowed Sorn to attack first and, as slow as it was, he simply side stepped away from the attack.  Sorn slowly halted the weapon’s progress when he realized he’d missed.  Again Sorn slowly brought his weapon around to swipe at Uktesh. Again and again, Uktesh barely needed to move to avoid the hit. This time, though, he kicked it as it passed to add speed to it, which was too much for Sorn to be able to hold on to and his weapon spun away.  Sorn backed up to where his two other weapons waited for him.  Uktesh said, “Giving up on your weapon of choice so easily?  Go get it, I’ll wait.”

Sorn walked to where his weapon was and as he bent to pick it up Uktesh Rushed, then Soared, and attacked in the perfect Woodsman’s Work.  He brought his hammer down on the mace and with a crack like thunder split the mace head in two.  Sorn backed away holding the remains of his mace and then threw it on the ground and shouted, “I yield!”

Uktesh won, rejoined his friends, and watched as the fights continued. After two fights, it was Riu’s turn against another person with a gun.  He attacked Riu, who again seemed not to move, but the ball missed him.  Riu started to walk forward and the man dropped his gun and pulled, what looked like a much longer gun that had been hanging over his shoulder, “A rifle?  Where are these people getting the money for these weapons?”

“How much are they?”  The man fired and again missed, but this time Riu clearly sidestepped, and the others gasped. “What?  What did I miss?” asked Uktesh.