Tested (The Life of Uktesh Book 1) (23 page)

They started the line at one hundred yards away and Uktesh stood twenty yards behind it. When he took his three shots, each hit the center of the target. He easily advanced.  The eighteen left had to shoot from hundred fifty yards, and again Uktesh stood twenty yards further and again hit all three in the center of the target.  The nine archers left had to move back to two hundred yards and three would be eliminated. The final six would advance to the final day.  Uktesh again stood twenty yards further and again hit all three in the center.  His competitors struggled to hit the target.  Quickly there were five and the four that hadn’t hit any part of the target battled to make it to the final day.  After a few more minutes of this, one of the four hit the target and was given the final spot on the final day.

While they started to move the targets and arrows, wooden axes were added to the wooden swords that lined the walls.  As the sun started to ebb toward the horizon, the axe fighters started their battles.  Uktesh sat with Heathyr, Laurilli, Esolc, and Basam and together they watched Tylor, Larut and Repus fight their matches. Each of their friends handled themselves well. 

Again, they bet each time on their friends and as the four finalists in axe stood together to the cheers of the crowd, Uktesh and those who watched with him made their way down to the pitch to meet up with three of the four finalists.  The axe fighters were laughing when the two groups met up, and when asked what was funny they said, “We were just commenting that this fighting group will probably be our easiest, because Uktesh isn’t in it.”

They helped gather up everyone’s belonging, and more importantly everyone’s money, as they continued to talk, “Well that and pole weapons.” said Uktesh with a smile.

“Did we find your Achilles heel?  Are you weak in axes and pole arms?”

“Maybe, or maybe I was just being kind by not trying to win everything.”

“Why?  The prize if someone wins everything is the host city.  You own it.  All the taxes go to you.”

“What would I do with a city?”

“So you admit you could win them all!” said Tylor.

“No, but maybe I could, anything’s possible.” said Uktesh.

“It isn’t possible for Baloce to beat you.” said Laurilli.

“Well I guess some things are less possible than others.” Uktesh said with a smirk.

“Give us your money!”  A hushed whisper said, and Uktesh realized that the eleven other people who had hung back weren’t combatants.

“Really?  Again?” complained Uktesh.

“I know right? This is the fourth time we’ve been attacked and each time those who attack us get more and more hurt. The last guy was publicly humiliated first, before he was killed.” said Laurilli and she didn’t have to feign any fear.

“These aren’t toys!” said the would be thief, as he waved a short sword at the group, “Give us your money or we’ll kill you.”

“Now I can tolerate your trying to rob us, desperate times and all, but if you threaten my friends, mother in law to be, any fiancé one more time, I’m going to end you.  You’ve literally picked the worst group to try to rob.  Did you not watch the fights?  We’re basically all in the quarter finals.”

One of the thieves scolded the leader, “I told you we should’ve watched the fights!”

“Shut up!” the thief said and backhanded the complaining thief.  “They don’t have any weapons. We’ll just take the money off your corpse!”  He swung at Uktesh who caught the blade in an imperfect unarmed Wave Clap and twisted it out of the thief’s hands.

“Now I’m armed and you’re not.” He smiled coldly at the thief, “Flee.”  The thieves with him didn’t hesitate, they turned and sprinted from the coliseum. Suddenly alone, the thief leader turned and ran too.

“I can’t believe you did that with the sword and the whoosh,” Larut clapped his hands and pivoted them around his body, “and then you had the sword.  Plus how did he not see our weapons?  They’re clearly in our packs.”

“Never do that again.” said Laurilli, “I thought you were actually going to die in a stupid theft.”

“I was totally fine.” Uktesh started to explain.

“No, next time just side step or punch a hole in him, I don’t care, just not that.” She said and he saw she fought back tears.

“I won’t do that again, unless I have to, to save a life.”

Tylor spoke up, “We do seriously have too much money to walk around with safely. We should put it in a bank for safe keeping.”

“Aren’t you worried about someone robbing the bank?”

“During the tournament?  I’d be more worried if I was the betting house, most people lose money here, and we’re just exceedingly well informed.”

“Basam would you care to join us?  After the bank we’re going to get something to eat.” asked Heathyr.

“Basam would like to join you.”

They walked to the bank closest to the coliseum and Tylor said that it gave him a bad feeling, so they moved onto the next and found it acceptable. They opened an account and deposited their combined over ten thousand gold coins and, now that they felt much lighter, went to spend some of their money on dinner.  Tylor took them to a Jubain restaurant, a port town in the south of Sinai, which was famous for its spiciness. 

Uktesh already thought Sinai food was spicy, so he ordered a mild sauce over a twenty ounce steak. Each of the guys order the twenty ounce steak and both the girls ordered chicken.  Only Heathyr joined Uktesh with the mild, everyone else tried the hot sauce. Only Larut, on a dare, after a boast that the hot wasn’t so bad, had the very hot sauce. No one tried the sauce labeled fiery death.  They told stories and asked Basam share some with them until late in the night.  As they walked back to the barracks, they noticed groups of hard, desperate men and women who lurked in the shadows, and a lesser amount, but still present, of guards who patrolled the streets.  They made it to the barracks with no issues and, after they assigned a two man watch schedule, went to sleep.

Day Two

The next morning came too early, but Uktesh and the others moaned out of bed, and made it down to the coliseum with enough time to make their wagers and find out the order they would have to fight. Uktesh was unlucky and again had to fight first, in the unarmed group.  Once again, he was favored forty to one against, but Larut was sixty to one against.  The number of contestants was surprisingly small. He realized that he and Larut only had to win twice to be in the top four.  Uktesh sprinted to the middle of the arena in an attempt to wake himself up and found a small, maybe four feet nine inches tall, but clearly well-conditioned man in front of him.  The man had his shirt off and was very well muscled. He had a snake like dragon tattoo going from his left pectoral muscle and wrapped around his body a few times so that the tail was under his belly button. The only reason Uktesh knew it was a dragon was it was breathing fire. It spread out in two flames, with plenty of room for more flames, so Uktesh guessed it was a system of ranking. 

The rules were the same as sword and axe, two clear hits and you won. As the new announcer jogged onto the sand and looked up to the crowd, Uktesh’s opponent said, “I will make this painless, boy.”

Uktesh knew that everyone who entered was confident, but this man was dangerous, and Uktesh suddenly realized, possibly better than him.  Uktesh sat on the ground and started to loosen his leg muscles as the announcer shouted, “You know him from yesterday!  The lightning reaper of vengeance, Uktesh!”  The crowd cheered as Uktesh moved to loosening his back, sides, and abs muscles.  “Next we have a simple man with a simple title, but, for those who don’t know, this man hales from a warrior clan that specializes in unarmed combat. They’ve won this tournament every year we’ve had it. I give you Chirus, who, only this month, reached the second flame rank of the dragon clan!”  This time the crowd roared its approval and came to its feet and shouted “Chirus!”

Uktesh started to stretch his arms and asked, “So you’re popular. How many ranks are there in the dragon clan?”

“There are five classes, dragon is the highest, and five ranks in each class.”

“So you’re probably one of the best fighters in the clan?”

“No, they don’t ever leave the mountain, but if you beat me, you’ll meet one of our better fighters.”

Uktesh started to stretch his neck, “But you don’t think that’ll happen.”

“No I do not.”

The announcer asked, “You two ready?”  They both nodded and Uktesh took up a fighting stance, as the announcer shouted, “Fight!”

Uktesh took the offensive and flowed quickly from Colt Springs into the Air, which was blocked, to the imperfect Rainbow Kick, with his other leg, which was also blocked, but barely.  When he landed, Uktesh crouched low and moved to the perfect Sweep the Leg, which connected.  As Chirus started to fall to the ground, Uktesh moved back down to a balanced Crescent Kick to his stomach and sprang away from Chirus’ punch.  Uktesh backed away, already breathing hard, from both nerves and the incredible aura that Chirus possessed.

Chirus flipped to his feet and attacked, feet, hands, knees, and elbows came in at Uktesh with a fury and speed that he wasn’t used to from anyone other than a Beletarian.  He blocked and dodged for a time, before he had to make a quick retreat to avoid a particularly fast kick.  There seemed to be no flow, no rhythm to the attacks. They seemed to come at random.  Uktesh weathered the attack and made a few of his own, though each was blocked in turn.  Uktesh slowly began to allow his blocks and dodges to come slower and slower. He played on the hunch that Chirus never fought someone outside of his clan with the level of stamina that Uktesh had developed. 

As the attacks came closer and closer Chirus became more confident, and, while he didn’t start to telegraph his attacks, Uktesh was able to pick up a little quicker where they were aimed to head toward.  Uktesh blocked the first of two punches and knew the second would have more strength and speed, and also knew that in his haste to finish Uktesh off he would slightly over extend himself.  As the second punch came, Uktesh flowed into the balanced Shield of Air, but adapted it to grab Chirus’s arm and pivoted his body in towards Chirus.  Then flowed into the Imperfect Lightning Flashed and again had to adapt it so that he could punch sideways, instead of the forward direct that the move was designed to go.

Chirus was lifted off his feet by the blow and looked at Uktesh in shock.  “How?” he paused, “You,” he shook his head, “you baited me.”

“I did.” Uktesh said and offered his hand, “You are a very skilled fighter.”

Chirus allowed himself to be helped from the ground and said, “You, surprisingly, are more skilled.  I look forward to your fight with my master, Riu.”

With that they left the sand, “Wow, that was spectacular!” said Larut, “They always win!  Now we poor schmucks have a chance.”

“Do you know who you fight next?”

“Well our match is the last of the sixteen, but I fight someone named Riu.”

“Hmm,” Uktesh said contemplatively, “is it too late to change our bets?”

“What!  Ye of little faith! I’ll totally win, now that the dragon clan fighter is out of it!”

“Yeah, about that. I beat him, but his master is here fighting, and he’s ‘someone name Riu.’”

“What?” said Larut, “But they only enter one each year.”

“I guess that they didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Or maybe Riu was bored, and was here anyway, so he decided to join.”

“How many flames is he?”

“I don’t know, but try to get him to show some of his best attacks, so I can preview them.”

“Great, not only do I lose five gold coins betting on myself, but I have to get beat on too?”

“Well we’ll all lose the money and,” Uktesh paused, “yep.”

“So there’s someone here that’s better than that guy?” asked Laurilli.

“It seems so.”

“What are your chances of winning?”

“I’d say slim.”

“Should we bet on the other guy?”

“That would be the safe bet.”

Soon it was Larut’s turn and with a shrug he said, “Hopefully he won’t hurt me too badly.”

Larut’s opponent was younger than Chirus maybe ten years older than Uktesh, his build was the same as Chirus, though his muscles seemed somehow deeper, more defined, without the bulk that big muscles cause and he was probably six or seven inches taller than Charis.  His dragon tattoo had three flames that came out of its mouth.  Larut, on the other hand, was full of big bulky muscles that ordinarily would’ve helped in an unarmed fight.  After the announcer called out their titles and shouted for them to fight, Uktesh saw Riu blur and Larut was on the ground, a shocked expression on his face, one that must have mirrored Uktesh’s.  “Did anyone else see him move?” asked Repus.

“No.” everyone said in hushed tones.

“It kind of looked like he blurred to me,” said Uktesh, “but I didn’t see him actually throw a punch.”  Larut picked himself up and threw and impressive combo of punches at Riu who again seemed to only stand still with his arms clasped behind his back.  “Larut!” Uktesh yelled, “three right jabs and a left hook!”