The five Two Flighters looked at each other.
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“Come on, Eccles!” yelled Freddik. “Didn’t you have a decent sportsmaster at prep school?”
Dav, now in his athletics shorts and bare feet, his fists hastily taped up and ready to go, maintained his stance and tried not to let Freddik rattle him. He still couldn’t understand why he’d been railroaded into this fight, but he meant to pass whatever test this little dustup represented to these people in One Flight.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Medea, coolly watching him and Freddik as they circled each other. No help would come from her if this thing went totally bad. Dav realized she wasn’t interested in Dav himself; he was a way to make Freddik jealous or upset. She’d go for Freddik as easily as him, depending on who won the fight.
Jada, though, was whooping and working the crowd up to cheer him. “Get’im, Dav!” she screamed, “Knock his snobby, skinny, rich boy backend all the way back home to his nanny, Dav!” Her taunts actually gave Dav a lot more strength, and even a few of the One Flighters were chuckling at her words.
He also saw Bondo standing quietly behind her, his large hands flexing forward and back, ready in case this went from a match into a brawl. Little, skinny Norrin stood beside Bondo, also cheering Dav while giving the occasional wary look over at the One Flighters nearby who looked like they wanted to beat Norrin down for daring to speak too loud.
“You gonna fight or keep yapping like a rich lady’s lapdog?” Dav said.
“Oh, so you can talk?” Freddik said, leaning in with his chin. A classic baiting move, Dav knew it was designed to get Dav to lean in and swing for what looked like an easy hit. If he took it, he’d leave himself open and get slammed hard for his trouble.
So Dav did his own move.
Dav made a quick feint, looking like he was going to lean in, then did a quick pull-back move. Freddik took the bait, leaning in for a hit and realizing too late that he’d been tricked.
Smack! The crowd oooh!’d as the sound of Dav’s fist splatted against the flesh of Freddik’s cheek.
Freddik pulled back, holding his fighting stance as he circled Dav.
“Dav, take ‘im down! You can take him!” screamed Jada.
“Better shut your girlfriend up, Eccles,” said Freddik, “or maybe I’ll have to scoop her up too. She’d make a nice little notch on my belt.”
“She’s not my girlfriend. And for the record, she’d could eat you for breakfast and spit out the baby teeth.”
Freddik jumped forward, kicking in the air in a flurry of movement that caught Dav in the chest and on the jaw, making the world spin to the left.
Dav dropped to his knees and took a breath, hoping to stall for time. Blast! That was stupid! He was trying to rattle Freddik so he’d do something stupid. Instead, he’d been so focused on taunting Freddik that he’d let his guard down. “Is that the best you can do, Cadet Cityboy?” Freddik said, moving back with the small, bouncing jumps of an experienced fighter. “No wonder you’ve stayed in Four Flight!”
Dav pretended to take in another deep breath. If Freddik was playing by the rules Dav thought he was, Dav could expect a kick in the ribs right about...
Dav stuck out his arm and rolled towards Freddik. He didn’t see the leg coming, but he knew it was there, and it was going to be moving quickly. His experience in the ring had taught him to anticipate the moves of his opponent, not just react to them.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
And it paid off. Expecting a vicious kick to the ribs, he spun his body on his knee and brought up one arm. Freddik’s leg hit Dav’s arm and hurt it, but it bounced off of Dav’s forearm instead of his ribcage.
Dav’s forearm burst into a pain-bomb. It wasn’t the worst he’d taken in a fight, but he had no doubt that if Sportsmaster Tavin hadn’t been so diligent in making Dav hone his skill, Freddik would have cracked a number of Dav’s ribs with the blow.
And in the one second he had to react to Freddik’s kick, Dav lunged out. Despite the pain singing out of his arm, Dav reached out and grabbed Freddik by the heel. He gave it a good pull, shifting Freddik off balance for just a hair-split of a second.
But that was all Dav needed.
Dav sprang like a cat, going from an all-fours to a squat position on the mat. Then he pushed against the mat with all of his considerable strength, both his fists aimed at Freddik’s nose and jaw.
Both connected.
Freddik yelped in pain, jumped back and launched himself forward in a counter-attack.
Dav by now had identified the type of fighting Freddik had learned. It was a bastardized form of Echani, developed by a people who believed that fighting was the best way to know yourself or another person. kind of ‘know-thyself’ martial art. The people of Eschan had made their planet known for its near-peerless hand-to-hand warriors. People like Freddik would find an unscrupulous denizen of Eschan and learn the martial-arts moves from them for astronomical amounts of money.
Of course, someone like Freddik didn’t care a whit to learn about themselves or others. Fortunately for Dav, meant there were significant holes in technique for the opponent who knew what to look for.
And Dav did know. Oh, yes!
Freddik launched forward, his forefinger and pinky fingers extended, fully intending to gouge Dav in the eyes. Dav, however, was more than ready. Where an actual Echani would have given Dav a pause to ready himself, Dav knew that Freddik would launch an attack immediately after being struck. Such a move would work against an amateur fighter, or someone unused to fighting moderately trained fighters.
Dav was neither of these.
Dav pulled back, letting Freddik’s double-punch attack miss with his right and bounce harmlessly off Dav’s shoulder with his left. Dav, keeping his guard up, fired one solid punch at Freddik’s collarbone with the heel of his palm.
It connected, Freddik yelped and threw a counterpunch that Dav deflected with his left hand, and followed with another punch with his right.
Freddik knocked that punch aside, too, and threw a punch of his own. The crowd cheered, and cheered louder each time as Dav and Reddik through and deflected punch after punch, and kick after kick!
Finally, Dav made a critical error- he’d been using the deflect/counterpunch move to catch his breath, and forgot that the point of any fight was to destroy your opponent, not just keep him at bay.
Freddik finally managed to grab Dav’s wrist as Dav deflected a punch. Freddik spun around and dropped to the ground, with a move Dav knew was intended to hyper-extend, or possibly snap his wrist.
And an injury like that could end his career in the Academy; even if the medi-droid could fix it in seconds, he would be kicked out if his superiors decided it showed too great an error in judgement. And possibly open up his family to more threats from Narb and the slimy crowd the corrupt councilman ran with.
These thoughts and their consequences ran through Dav’s mind in a quarter of a second. As Freddik spun in the air, Dav took the tiniest moment to see which direction he’d flung his body, and matched it. Their feet landed on the ground at the same time, and Dav only felt the slightest strain on his wrist.
Dav windmilled his arm, breaking Freddik’s grip on him. He then lunged forward, slamming his forehead into Freddik’s face. Dav felt rather than heard the cartilage in Freddik’s nose break, with a sensation reminding him of the crunchy vegetables his mother had made him eat as a child.
Freddik, yelped, but stayed focused. He dropped to a crouch and spun his leg, sweeping Dav’s feet beneath him and dropping Dav to the mat.
Dav, surprised, hesitated for a split second- and Freddik took advantage of the moment’s lull to lea in the air, aiming his elbow at Dav’s ribcage.
Dav, seeing Freddik coming at him like an angry meteor, spun slightly. Freddik missed Dav’s ribcage, coming down hard on Dav’s arm just below his shoulder.
Dav grunted in pain and kept rolling, as Freddik made a quick somersault and stood, ready to take the next shot at his opponent.
“DAV!” Screamed Jada, “GET UP!”
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TO BE CONTINUED...