One week before the Cyclopoulpe/ Storm Dragon fight

  -Here?

  -Yeah.

  -It's a gym.

  -But no. That's it. Next door.

  In their car Leo and Olivier look at their future HQ. In an abandoned street there was very little activity. Besides the factories and hangars, the distance to get here from the densely populated areas was long and frustrating with no real stores and more houses and warehouses for the port. Leo pointed to a hangar twice the size separated from the others with the only adjacent building being a gym.

  -Listen. I've heard it's coming soon.

  Leo looked at his colleague, more than a little skeptical.

  -Leo, I've done the widest possible search and this is the only one we can afford to take on in such a short time. No one will want to support us or we will be under unfavorable contracts again.

  -The neighborhood is just lovely.

  -Deserted, no one to bother us. Away from everything but the port. Fast transportation and available for fights. The port guarantees us enormous mobility. The more we can get out and exercise our creatures, there is a roadblock where we can pass even by walking. No more need for SPL, i mean super heavy truck to transport the creature we could do it. With our own.

  -Ok what's the problem?

  -The owner is also the owner of the gym. And as you can see, it's closed. We don't know the real state of the premises and the work that will be needed.

  -Why is this a problem? We go and make him an offer.

  -That's why we can't. During my research. I was approached by a certain group, a disreputable kind. And before you tell me, no we haven't done business yet. The fact is that the owner owes them money. A lot of money, and you have to pay for protection.

  -Oh no! It's dead! We're not going to be extorted for every penny by little gangsters. We'll manage, but not like that. If you give them your hand, they'll take your arm.

  -Hear me out. I'm not talking about drugs or extortion. I'm talking about illegal gambling/fighting. The owner inherited the building but had to go into debt to the only people who were willing because of his injuries. He works for them but that's it.

  -Oh he's a good samaritan who paid for his mother's care by making a debt. How would you know.

  -Look, I don't have enough.

  -What? Yet?

  -Yet, yes. I have enough to get us started. But until a league is created, until arenas are set up, until federations flourish, we need to live. Food, electricity, money to maintain the creatures. With money we can do everything. But not in the long run. Once the tap runs dry, it's over. The money we could make there would be immense.

  -The moment they see my face, goodbye to the public scene. Underground fights. I can already see the headlines "from the top to the bottom".

  -I didn't ask you to fight. I asked you to bet.

  -But you were going to.

  -Saving our asses buddy. People everywhere are saying great things about the boss of the place. No cheating, no backstabbing. He's built his reputation on every brig. We hide your identity the best we can, you fight and we make money.

  -Reputation? By the time we make him more money, we'll be screwed.

  -Like British Monster.

  The silence was heavy. After Leo's escapade, the company gave him an official reprimand. So official that the newspapers were strangely aware of it. The fun ended quickly when the company told Flint it was a mistake and everything was forgotten. But not for him, the damage was done, it had cemented Leo's conviction to leave this dead end and take a chance with after all, not really any other compelling options.

  It was starting to rain outside and evening was falling.

  -How long are we going to stay?

  -Leo before we leave I have to tell you... It's officially unofficial. Collins is going to replace you for the fight.

  Leo took a deep breath and close his eyes. His heart was racing, he was thinking of something to say, that he didn't care. But it wasn't true. It was as if he had been cheated.

  -So when you said it was coming soon, you meant right away.

  -Sorry.

  Leo was breathing hard, his chest heaving rapidly, unknowingly his fists were clenched with his knuckles turning white.

  -Are you okay?

  -No. How do you know this gentleman who does his matches?

  -You remember Triple.

  -The girl with the three piercings in the middle of his nose?

  -She gave me an address for the fights, so I went there to check it out. It's not great but I've seen much worse.

  -Wait a minute, you're talking as if I agreed.

  -No one will hire you back anyway. And I'm not talking about my situation. I don't know if Triple is working for him or if we're being set up as a media trap. But the fact is, we have an opportunity.

  -You've been targeted, yes. How much you bet they want me to fight in an arena.

  -...

  -I'd never step foot in there.

----------------------------------------

******

  The crowd's screams were palpable as the smoke cleared. The audience in the club was a mix of generations and backgrounds, young and old. The smell of alcohol and humidity. The crowd was tight in the bar room, the music blasting, the band on stage was rocking the place. But in this tumultuous atmosphere. We could also see Leo and Olivier on two stools leaning against the counter. Olivier was slightly uncomfortable.

  -Do you want a pint?

  -Yes! Shut up and give me one.

  Keeping a smile on his face, Olivier ignored Leo and began to speak.

  -You'll see you won't regret it. The games are all paying but if you pay your entrance for the evening we can go drink between the games and see them all for free. The management of the public is rather well done for a more or less improvised organization.

  -I said, just to see a game, not to get drunk to know more about it.

  -The games are in 5 days, now we'll make predictions. Enjoy it, think of it as training, you're discovering another universe here you know. New monsters and creatures that will never see the official circuit are fighting here.

  -We'll see I said. But there's no way I'm working with hustlers.

  -Under what conditions would you agree to fight?

  Leo thought about it, taking the time to drink in passing. But Olivier was already answering for himself.

  -Let me guess, all your matches will be legal, in the sense that they won't be rigged, and the slightest doubt on your part, you're out.

  -And a lot of money.

  -And a lot of money. You know, I think it's negotiable. Since the war, safety regulations are not the main problem for people. More and more underground monster fights are taking place in private places like these. The only thing that is being asked for is the officialization of things and soon new stadiums for fights will be created.

  -The last one around here are not availble anymore. Yes.

  During the war, cities were used to repatriate the wounded, places like stadiums became open air hospitals. The stadiums of several cities were bombed in spite of the signs, a mistake in the shooting they said. The fact that some stadiums were turned into graveyards says a lot about the damage.

  -You'll see, I'm sure we can even make you anonymous if we get you in with a link helmet for the games.

  -Like we're going to listen to it in an underground monster fighting arena.

  -Mr. Lebeau. Can you follow me?

  A man in a suit had approached the two companions and guided them to a side door. Leo, completely surprised, looked at Olivier who was smiling.

  -Are you serious?

  Going through the corridors of a discotheque doing monster fights and being controlled by questionable people didn't seem to bother Olivier at all. Greeting and shaking hands with some people along the way, Leo was not fooled and clearly Olivier had done more than spend an evening watching the games. Keeping silent, he followed Olivier. The man led them into a room with different screens placed on the wall, each showing in turn different creatures. Inside there wasn't much except tables and sofas. Tables were obviously available, also guided by Olivier and this man Leo went to sit with him. Holding out one of the shelves, Olivier asked the man if their drinks could be given to them here. In the room, the rock music had been replaced by quieter sounds coming from the speakers.

  -How can you even bet in a place like this? How could a microphone not be tucked in.

  Olivier pointed to the door they had just passed through.

  -See that? The gray archway. It's a custom-made machine, it works like the airport gates except that it's for bugs, why do you think I made you leave your phone in the car? We are covered because we are not in a club or a disco, we are in a casino. At least officially. If any cheating were to occur we would be covered both legally and illegally.

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  -Okay, I get it. You gonna tell me everything now?

  Taking a deep breath. Olivier began to talk about how he got here.

  -To be honest, I've been preparing to leave the British Monster institution for a long time. A person affiliated with a controller. On paper it's okay, it develops the bond and dependency of both people. But here's the thing, if something had happened to you, that would have been it for me. Now I let you imagine how many people are interested in getting my job. But the unknown monster. The one you bully on screen, nobody cares, I'm sure his salary is ridiculous, I'm sure a lot of low cost teams don't even have someone like me. The only reason I have the money to do this project with you. It's because you've propelled me far beyond anyone else's expectations. The moment they replace you, I'm out. Period. I've been hurting you know, to the point where I've even come close to depression, while you were riding on the glory I could see myself losing everything. That's part of the reason I was hard on you. For that I want to apologize.

  -Shit, I don't know what to say. I had no idea about this.

  -I know and I don't blame you. But I was lucky to have you too. Every time you win, you increase my confidence. You don't even realize how many ideas I've had because of you. It was also you who gave me the idea to go solo, or rather to recruit you if possible in the process. I knew that one day too close, Storm Dragon would get beaten or you would have an accident. Which would prevent you from fighting and thus get us both thrown out of the public fighting scene. So I started to create a network of people, in different places and groups. One of them introduced me here and since then I've been dropping by from time to time to make bets or find out about the latest bets.

  -You always bet on me, right?

  -No I never bet on any of your fights. I have a code of honor too. If I win, they'll say I'm cheating. But this time it's different. Watch this.

  Pulling out Storm Dragon on the tablet. Statistics start to appear. Including information like how long Leo has been logging on.

  -How did they get that?

  -A guy on the inside that's not me. But then you post someone outside your house for a month and he unknowingly makes millions for his employer for telling him you have the flu, I'm surprised you don't have more paparazzi anyway.

  -That's all very nice, but there's so much information out there, can you find anything interesting?

  -Yes for example the stupid decision not to sharpen the claws remember?

  -Yes and.

  -It's not mentioned for this week's game. Cyclopoulpe aka Poulpo boss is a grappler, he dominates his matches by winning in hand to hand combat, quickly gaining distance between himself and his opponent and then taking advantage of his immense power in his limbs to rip apart his smaller victims and strangle his bigger enemies. Did you see his match against the giant turtle?

  -Yes, I did.

  -Monstrous, don't you think? Well, I found something weird. I went through his fight history and look, doesn't this one remind you of something?

  -If I fought a creature like that not long ago.

  -You ripped its head off. Anyway, look at the members of Poulpo boss, in this picture and now in this one.

  The two pictures on the two shelves showed two different matches, one against the giant turtle called Snapper and the other against a kind of insect mix between spider and praying mantis. During the fight Leo had a hard time closing the distance between him and the creature because it kept slowing him down with the use of its web and its agility. In the two pictures we could clearly see two different things. The arms of when poulpo boss were although similar, totally different.

  -There are less scars between the two pictures, they are wider on one than the other.

  -Exactly. The scars, I don't mind the tentacles being different but that means one of two things, either they're different tentacles or it's a different monster.

  -But nobody's going to let something that big go.

  -Exactly that's why my hypothesis is this.

  Taking one of the tablets in hand, he went to a specific image before turning the tablet upside down. The result shocked Leo

  -But no, nobody noticed that. It's not possible.

  -And yet it's an octopus, I remind you when an octopus has feet. Imagine the complexity of the thing. Using tentacles as legs in one game and then reversing them in the other. So against the more agile ones you have more speed and against the bigger ones you have more strength. It's a fucking bluff based on appearance and secrecy.

  -The controller has to be a control freak.

  -Or we let him work on it 24/7.

  In both cases, you have to recognize the degree of control of the information on the part of the Cyclops team to be able to keep a secret like that for an entire season. Not to mention the controller, he must be a monster. So what is your tactic for the game.

  -Our tactics? No we're going to bet on the game, like I said we're unofficially fired, the company hasn't announced it yet but the day of the game they're going to... do something to you.

  -What?

  -So at this point, bang, we bet our money on Storm Dragon to win with the condition, great difficulties.

  -Stop! What's going to happen to me.

  Olivier tried to pass it off but no matter how you do it, it sounds bad.

  -I don't know. I don't have the details of the conversation, I don't know what it involves and I didn't want to tell you! But I do know that they will try in every way to keep you out of the fight. That's why I wanted to show you everything before we started.

  Leo was now scared as if knowing that his living environment was going to end, now there was a chance he would get killed. "By all means that means what."

  -So you were saying. We're betting on Storm Dragon to win.

  -No, we're betting on a hard win. With what I know, there's no way I'm going to get you close to Storm Dragon, we're going to spend the day as far away as possible and let Collins take your place like they want. The latter wins with great difficulty and we win the jackpot.

  -Okay I'm with you, but I have two questions. The first is how you know all this and the second is why you're so sure of yourself.

  -One goes with the other. I'll tell you when we're out of British Monster. But until then, I need you to trust me.

  Leo remained silent. In his head, thoughts raced back and forth between his desire to believe and his fear, he couldn't afford to make a mistake. He couldn't believe that the company he had dedicated years of his life to bringing him glory could betray him like this. While Leo was deep in thought, Olivier tried to chase away the bad thoughts by concentrating on his task of changing the visual screen. He was now in the betting room section where the monsters were divided into three categories and three types of creatures and three levels of dangerousness.

  The creatures were judged and treated. in order of viability and their ability to live normally. And the other of the type of creature itself, going from natural, to mythical to the category called abomination.

  Once divided into its three categories. A creature is judged as: Sick, viable or perfectly healthy.

  And finally the classic measure of dangerousness: Low, medium, high. To show the possible threat of the creature.

  Rudimentary, but well used, it allowed to sort out all the creatures that geneticists were constantly feeding the market to finance their research.

  In the entries Olivier compared rates, types based on the creatures and videos taken for the punters. Some of the creatures were miserable like a kind of three-legged creature like a spider it stood on long legs that seemed to be a hybrid mix of king crab and spider, the three legs joined in the air to the body that was no bigger than one of his yoga balls. Very original but Olivier could already see at least dozens of defects. Any creature will aim at one of the legs during the movement of this one unbalancing it and putting it on the ground at that moment there is only to hammer the ball which serves as its body.

  Class: Sick; abomination; Weak dangerousness.

  You amaze me, thought Olivier. Just the thought that this thing had a chance of survival scared him, and yet it wasn't the most revolting one on the list.

  The next "Two mouth" monster was a nightmare creature, two mouths with four extra long tongues, black teeth like sea urchin quills, a white and hairless skin reminiscent of a flabby and jelly-like skin. Its limbs were six two feet with hooves and legs of bull, four arms which at the level of elbows became black needles of the size of human legs and of the same color as its teeth. If you look closely, he had two small holes above his head, nostrils? or Ears?

  Class: viable, abomination, strong dangerousness.

  Once again he could see the qualities but the flaws were still there. But the biggest one was the shape, the closed mouths looked like a penis. No head, nor eye, just its funny nostrils, I don't know if it does echolocation but the fact that it is viable must prove that it has a means of defense or recognition of the environment.

  Anyway, not dwelling too much on it, he looked at his opponent. Olum the boar.

  Olivier opened his eyes to the monster. On the shelf a colossus of an animal stood, its body a mass of pink muscle covered in part by brown hair all over its body, its big belly hid without a doubt muscles as large as those of its pectoral muscles, or the rest of its body. The thing was a bodybuilder of 3 meters high and more of width. Standing on its hooves the creature was more than intimidating, anthropomorphic in shape, its two huge arms ending with three-fingered hands framed a boar's head. Two red eyes gave the beastly look a new kind with more than scary horns, two on top, small and curved towards the snout, and two huge ones pointing to the sky from the lower jaw. Olivier wondered if the creature could even close its mouth with its monstrosities.

  Class: Perfect health, natural, strong dangerousness.

  OK, at that point the question was why this match. Going back to the "Two Mouth" info he looked at the previous matches he fought. Olivier realized that the creature had survived more than ten matches, gradually moving into a higher category. At first the movements were undisciplined but gradually the stakes that his arms were, became more and more deadly as the videos went on killing the weaker prey. But while his arms were fighting he was reserving his jaw for the biggest and strongest, watching very carefully a scene shocked Olivier.

  Two mouths against the Stone Hedgehog "Stone eyes". As its name suggests, it was a creature with spikes all over its body. Standing on all fours or standing upright, this lizard-like creature mixed with nothing known, was a real fighting machine that had itself gone the distance in more than 5 fights before this one. Its scale-covered skin covered its entire body, but protrusions mixed with bone and minerals gave it a stone-like look. Whether on his back, his forearms, his knees. From the base of its neck to its tail the horns or spines were both a formidable defense and an offensive solution. His head was perfectly symmetrical, in the middle of his forehead a horn wider than the others separated the rest of the protuberance on his face below it five vicious yellow eyes and concentrate look Two mouth avidly. No nose but a mouth once again wide open with apparent fangs composed only of canines. Added to that a pair of fawn claws reinforced with stone scales and you would have a killing machine.

  The odds were against Two Mouths, Stone Eye, his opponent was one category above and had fought stronger opponents at the time and survived.

  But just as Olivier was about to watch the match, he heard Leo moving beside him. He looked up and saw Leo finishing his second drink and ordering a third. Clearly the news of what was happening had shaken the young man and even if he denied it a little, Olivier was throwing himself into work to avoid thinking about the darker possibilities, that the business had for them. Putting his hand on his shoulder, Olivier began to recall memories.

  -You know, before the war I had a leader who was all muscle and sport. He had climbed the ranks of the army with the strength of his arms and years of experience. Great teacher for the recruits with a lot of good words. But unfortunately with some bad ones too. I remember him explaining to one of his men that he was a piece of shit because he had not passed a physical training to pass to the higher rank, that all the people of his promotions were ahead of him and that he had to stop being a failure. The reason for this was the training formation he had to undergo. Yet he was neither fat nor weak, he had proven that he could succeed more than once. But never at the time when it was necessary aka when the formation took place, he supported all the bullying and the remarks that some gave him, with the seniority he had less but always this small remark to spoil him the day to which he must smile. He endured in silence the end of his mandate to return to the civilian world. Alas the war struck. All the men were requisitioned, but this is the best part. While everyone went to the front, the group was bombed in the first weeks of the war. All but three people died in the bombing. The leader, the driver of their truck and the soldier. The truck received no impact, except for dirt and small splinters. The driver was stuck and the soldier went back to help him. A shell had the misfortune to fall into the hole where their comrades were hiding. All were dead except the leader. When the bombing finally ended, he returned after to the two survivors.

  Leo looked at Olivier. Not knowing what to say about this story.

  -And what happened.

  -The girl who was driving got back behind the wheel and they turned around. The chief remained under medical observation to see if the shock waves had caused any internal bleeding. The girl was assigned to another company, and the guy requested a transfer to a new unit where his schooling would be better utilized.

  -I guess that was you?

  -Yep. Do you want a joke? The girl in question was afraid of heights and she too would never have made it through training. Of all peoples the only ones to survives where us, who didn't had the formation.

  -And your boss?

  -Never saw him again. Must be basking in the glow of his native island for all i care. The conclusion of this story is that we do not control our destiny but we choose what to do with it. Requesting my transfer to the Biological Weapons Corps was the best decision of my life. I met some amazing people and was amazed by my personal discoveries. Do I advise joining? No, not in the least, but changing your situation is not strange and even natural, because nothing lasts forever. It's normal to have the blues, you're going to leave Storm Dragon behind. I too lost a lot of friends in that explosion, it's going to be hard I know, for weeks you'll feel the differences in your body and mind, if you don't reject it completely from your subconscious. I bet if we try a new beast partener for you, you be seek and vomit after.

  -I know I will. But I can't give it up. It's a part of me.

  -It's okay, buddy.

  The waitress decided to return at that point with cold drinks and Olivier served the two glasses himself, toasting Leo before passing and fixing the tablet on the table to transfer and enlarge the image. On a screen suspended above their table. Nudging Leo a little, Olivier winked at him.

  -Now, we forget the future and the past, I need your instinct and your sense of sight to observe, we will bet tonight and for that I need an expert in the fight of monsters you are in.

  Leo pushed a big sigh before having a smile in the corner. Finally releasing the shoulders, he smiled completely before taking his glass.

  -I don't see why not. Show me his games Gripsou, it's time for the dragon to win some gold.