thwack!
whoosh~
thwack!
shooh~ whoosh~
“Is running all you can do?!”
Arnoult yelled angrily. He was 26; his opponent was a sickly looking child, a frail, black-haired boy just shy of 10. He’d been fighting for over ten years longer than this pretty little brat, so his win was guaranteed, decided at the start, even. Yes, his impending win was obvious.
So then why…
...
…why can’t I hit him?
whoosh~ thwack!
sheeooop~
whoosh~ pteugh!
thwack!
shooh~
Unfortunately for Arnoult, Haak wasn’t a normal 10 year old. After all, what kind of 10 year old was able to hold his own in a bare-fisted fight against an opponent sixteen years his senior? Though Haak was much younger and smaller than the man, smaller than the other boys his age, even, only reaching up to his collarbones, he wasn’t at a disadvantage whatsoever. In fact, he could see it all, every punch, every feint, every general move of Arnoult’s.
whoosh~
A hook to the temple
Jab to the gut next block!
Then upper to the chin! block!
thwack!
whoosh~
Now, Arnoult was by no means a bad fighter. He was great, actually. If this match had occurred just one year prior, Haak knew he would’ve been left sprawling on the floor with a split lip and a broken jaw, drooling a mixture of spit and blood. Or dead. That’s the kind of place this was. He smiled as he blocked a straight jab to his nose. He’d gotten better.
Haak was deep in thought when a bellow from the crowd broke through his nostalgia.
“Arrrnoooulllt! I put all my tokens on you, god dammit!! What are you doing??!” A gruff man screamed. The man’s shouts must have flipped a switch in Arnoult, as he immediately switched his stance and stiffened his face. Of course, this change didn’t go unnoticed.
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Knuckles now, to my left eye, huh.
Yes, the outcome had been decided from the start.
In an instant, Haak dodged under Arnoult’s wrist and readied an uppercut to his chin. Arnoult prepared to block it when Haak suddenly spun. At that same moment, he felt the force of a hammer strike him on the temple and his vision blurred.
Game, set, match.
This little shit… he used the momentum of his upper feint to land a backside heel kick… heh, pretty good… Arnoult thought as his consciousness faded and his body staggered backwards, hitting the ground with a thud.
“...It’s a Knockout!! The winner is, HAAK!!” the referee announced, “We have just witnessed the birth of Hamira Fight Shack’s second little monster!! Only 10 years old, trained by the champion himself, it’s only up from here!! One more time for HAAAKK!!”
“Whoooo!!” Most of the crowd cheered; the others, who were so sure of their bets like the gruff man from before, had just lost all their tokens and were now on their knees, holding their heads, praying to gods that would never answer.
The referee continued, “His next match is in three days, and with this win, tickets are now three tokens each!!”
Another round of cheers arose for Haak.
After thanking the ref and doing his waves, Haak slipped out of the ring and into the crowd. He was about to start running when he heard a familiar voice call his name.
“Don’t forget your winnings!” It was Yu. “You’ve gotten so much better so fast, Haak! Man, that Elli… he’s a real monster through and through, huh? Well, anyways, great job today! Rest up!” he said as he handed Haak a sack of tokens—his winnings.
“Mm, thanks! See you!” Haak nodded before running off with a smile.
Yes, Haak wasn’t a normal 10 year old.Why? Because he had Elli.
+ + +
Haak nimbly slipped and squeezed through whichever gaps he could find as he fought against the current of people exiting the fight shack like a small, black fish swimming upstream. It didn’t take him long to reach the cluster of haystacks by the backdoor—their post-match meeting spot. When he caught a glimpse of that familiar dirty blonde hair through the final gap, he broke into a huge smile.
“Elli!” Haak exclaimed as he jumped into Elli’s arms, hurtling him backwards into the haystacks. “Did you see me?! You saw me right?! I beat Arnoult the Armoured!! I didn’t think I could do it, but I did! And it was easy!!”
Elli laughed and patted Haak’s head, prompting an even bigger smile from him. Though Elli was younger than Haak by a little less than a year, he really felt like an older brother to him.
“I saw, I saw. You did great, Haak,” he said as he sat himself up and picked broken bits of hay out of his dirty blonde hair, “you’ve really improved, I’m so proud of you… but you can’t get too cocky. These matches are only going to get more dang–”
“Yes, yes, I know. ‘Just one moment of underestimation with the wrong opponent will get you killed,’” interrupted Haak as he attempted to imitate Elli.
“I’m being serious. Don’t underestimate anyone ev–” Elli’s lecture was cut short by a faraway scream.
“HEEEEYYYYY! You guuuuuyysss!!!!” Elli out the back window to see a bright orange dot slowly getting closer. He pointed at it to let Haak know of his friend’s arrival. “Rami.”
Haak followed Elli’s finger and looked out the window, but he couldn’t see or hear anything. But he didn’t doubt Elli’s judgement so he laughed, “How was Rami able to get past Miss Keluarga again? Ha ha ha, I can just imagine how she’s cursing him right now! Ha haa… how much longer until he gets here?” Haak asked, wiping a tear from his eye.
“Too long. Let’s go?” Elli replied, and with that, the two took off to meet their friend.
+ + +
The boys were stretched out on the grass, giving Rami some time to catch his breath.
“Phew, you guys, I really didn’t think I was going to make it this time!” Rami started through pants and wheezes, “wow, she’s getting crazier and crazier! I thought I was going to die! She grabbed my hair and everything!”
Haak laughed as he asked, “What happened?”
“Well, I stood by the window pretending to be thinking about something, and the second I made a jump for the door, a freaking spatula came out of nowhere and hit me in the face!” he explained, lifting his bangs to show off the new scratch on his forehead, “next thing I know, she’s running at me screaming and grabbing my hair while I’m crawling out the doorway! ‘Don’t you dare, Rami Keluarga!!” he recounted with his best impression of her, but exaggerated and demonic. “I only got away cuz Romina started crying cuz ‘mommy scawy’...” haaaa, he sighed, “she knows I’m just going to see you guys; I don’t get why she flips out every time…”
“It’s probably because of me,” said Elli looking up, “I don’t think she likes me very much.”
Haak looked up as well.
“Hmm I don’t think that’s it. You wouldn’t be allowed at my house if she didn’t like you. I think it’s just because you’re so good at fighting, she’s a little scared of you. Just a little bit,” Rami said as he slumped backwards, resting his burnt orange hair against the grass. There was a moment of silence after that as all three boys looked up at the island of dirt floating thirty feet above their heads. For about half a minute, nobody said a word.
Still looking up, Rami broke the silence, “Ah right! Guess what?!” he exclaimed excitedly, now looking at the other two.
“Hm?” said Elli.
“What?” asked Haak.
Rami took a deep breath and got all serious, allowing the silence to come creeping back. Maybe it was the tension, maybe it was the content, either way, the next words out of his mouth made the other boys widen their eyes and drop their jaws, eyes sparkling like a fire in the dark night.
“Cheese. My mom got cheese.”
The boys immediately jumped to their feet and cheered as they ran home as quickly as possible.