Ftawwh 50)

I leaped forward, twisting as I went. To land on my side as I slid into his left ankle even as I was wrapping my arms around his right leg as I finished my slide underneath him, got my feet beneath me, and stood.

Lifting his leg up backwards as I went.

He shouted, “Hey!” and twisted around so that while I had his leg up to my waist, he was now facing me. But I kept lifting and got my shoulder under his ankle while lifting his leg up and then kicking his other leg as he went off balance.

Wide eyed, and with a look of angry disbelief. Irving went over backwards.

Digging my feet in, I managed to drag him halfway to the edge of the square, keeping my body to the off side of his leg to keep him from kicking me with the other. Until he pulled himself up from the waist, then threw himself back long enough to brace himself to lift me off the ground with his leg.

I let go and he rolled away, to keep me from getting his leg again, but opened himself up to a knee into his ribs as I tried to drop on his back. Then I had to push away from him as he tried to elbow me in the side of my knee.

He pushed himself up into the air with his hands, but I went inside his reach to grab his head with both hands and pulled my knee up into his face. I was trying for his throat, but he dropped his chin.

I felt the bone in his nose break under my knee and hesitated.

Grabbing me by the hips, Irving raised me above his head and threw me twenty feet into the air, and a good fifteen feet pass the edge of the square.

Gutya slid through my fingers ahead of me until I shifted my grip on it and grasped the end of the shaft.

I drove the tip a full foot deep sideways into the stone floor of the arena, pulled on the end of the handle, and braced my feet against the bending shaft as I threw my weight against the end of the pole before it snapped straight sending me flying back onto the square, nearly in the same spot I started in.

I nodded to Irving and took up a fanciful stance on one foot, and the tip of my toes on the other foot.

Grinning, I beckoned at him with one hand. “Nice, but we’re not done yet.”

He returned his grin and began to walk straight at me as a whistle blew. The female vampire stepped up between us. "Hold! Miss Caine left the battle square, but without touching the floor of the arena. We need a call from the Judges.”

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I straightened up awkwardly as me and my opponent exchanged disappointed looks. Irving waved his hand around dismissively. "I'm good. A real fight wouldn't be in a defined area to fight." He shrugged. "And I got to see a for real magic weapon.

"

The referee took her hand off her earpiece. "The judge's call is that since getting knocked out of the square rule was just to keep the fight in the arena. So if you can get back onto the square without touching the floor with your body, the fight continues."

She at each of us. “Ready.” We both took our stances. “Fight.”

I broke his thumb when he tried to grab me again. He busted a rib with a swift knee to my side. I got a hold of his arm and used it as a fulcrum to launch myself up to twist in the air and knee him in the face, before using his arm again to kick my way clear of his hands.

In the end, I was the better fighter. I was more skilled and just as strong. He was bigger and could take a lot more damage, but he was so focused on the fight that he didn't notice he had run out of room on the battle square until he stepped back to brace himself and found his foot dangling in the air.

I gave him an apologetic look as I jumped up and mule kicked him mid-torso with both feet toppling off the square.

As he scrambled to his feet still looking confused, I gave him a deep bow, which after a moment he returned.

Then he stepped up to the edge of the square with his arms out and I stepped forward to return the hug, with my head still barely reaching his chin. He spun me around, yelling. "Dammit, I'm aging out of the junior fights next year, how long until you're in the adult league?

I managed to yell “Four years.” Before we got chased off the arena floor by the officials so the next group could fight.

Heading into the hallway with the TVs, my family was waiting for me, I looked at them with a wide grin. “This is what I came here for.”

Of course, Uncle Dave and my Mom tore into me for “Playing around.” But my Dad just grinned and gave me a hug.

I managed to get a half hour to hit the girl’s room, drink some water, and take the time to focus on healing my rib and various bruises while eating an energy bar that Grandma Caine had made which my Dad swore by. Which reminded me. “Is Grandma back?”

My Dad shook his head. “No, but she’s fine. She started with the leader of the Cabal and is working her way down.”

I took a deep breath. “I don’t want anyone dead. They failed. I hurt them, and Grandma made the person in charge suffer. It’s enough.”

My Dad laid his hands on my shoulders. "She isn't killing them, Sara, that's not my Mom's way."

"She cursed them with sterility. They threatened a child, now they don't get to have any more of their own. By the time she’s done everyone in that group family’s will come to an end when their youngest children die out. If they want to be forgiven to have to ask you to accept their apology after you come of age. Each and every single one of them.”

My Mom hugged me from behind while she whispered in my ear. “When they come, make them pay. Cash. And lots of it.”

I blinked. It didn’t seem right to make a kid pay for what some nasty old person did. But then I was going to be the one to choose what they had to do to get Grandma to take her curse away.

A few years in the Peace Corps sounded good.

The remaining fights for the first round were done by the time I was out of the restroom. Forty eight fighters were now down to twenty four.

And in my next fight, I was up against a guy in full tactical gear. No weapons, but he did have some high tech body armor, and gloves made to concentrate force on the caps over his knuckles.

It helped him a bit, I had to start with some lighter hits until I got a good feel for how hard I could hit him without killing him, then a three hit combo of strikes to the gut, face, and finally a leg sweep was enough to put him down.

Twelve left.

Nina caught up with me. Pouting. “I won my first fight by doing just what you said, but I knew it wouldn't work on the next fight so I just tried to wrestle and punch on the next one. But I couldn’t get the right leverage to use my strength and eventually, I got tired of getting punched in the back of my head.”

I patted her on the shoulder. “You still got two years before you age out right? By next year you’ll know how to really fight.”

She forced a smile on her face as she thought that over. Then genuinely grinned. “Yeah, I can do that.”

They called the first contestant for the third round, then me. I was up.