Chapter 6

"Hey everyone, Where's Craig?"

There was some laughter "He's over there." Donovan said pointing "He wants to stay focus on his fight and not be distracted...or something like that."

"He really wants to win." Jace added.

I did believe it or at least part of me did, but not showing up to any of the practices didn’t give me that same feeling.

"Sponsers are also here." Alec also added

Surprisingly even with martial arts there are many companies that come out and look for potential fighters to sponsor. The sponsors started small but began growing once the publicity grew. There are many perks to being sponsored. They virtually take care of everything. The cost of training, equipment and any fees associated with tournaments. It also included money on top of any won during the tournaments cash prize. Exposure is asked by the sponsors of course, attending events, magazines, commercials among some of the things. It all sounds great but it isn’t something I considered. Being my rank the offers came in frequently. I don’t want the exposure, this whole thing with the robbery was enough, and at the end you lose yourself and become the company. My mentality has always been about the school and it’s easy to lose sight of that once one becomes a sponsor. From those who have chosen to be sponsors and lose their roots. I'm too attached with my life to get into that.

"You know how Craig gets when he hears there are sponsors." Jace said

"Yeah I know....you worried"

"I could care less."

 

I smirked. Craig wanted exposure, so he tried to impress sponsors as much as he could. It was his decision to make. I needed to stop thinking about it and focus on preliminaries.

The tournament is set up in three stages, prelims, bracket, and finals. The prelim rounds are the basic rules of tournaments. Fighters are randomly drawn against each other in a two minute round. Not much time to leave impression so the matches are pretty intense. Each fight is scored based on a point system; points are earned with techniques, location of hits, combos, throws and counters. The winners of each match are chosen based on points and the call of the three judges decision. These tournaments draw fighters from everywhere so they needed to come up with a way to cut down the field quickly.

When the field narrowed down to sixteen the next stage, brackets, begins. This is when the traditional rules change with the biggest one being the allowance of weapons. Not every match has weapons only the ones that get randomly selected. The weapons range from swords, staffs, spheres, but all are wooden. Sounds weird but it works, there is some weight differentiation between actual weapons but it keeps people from getting killed. Points are administered the same way in a five minute round.

The last stage is the final. The last two competitors fight in three rounds on the main stage. Weapons are free to use and a winner is chosen unless there is a knock out or forfeit.

This is the men version of the tournament, the women's are done a bit different, no weapons.

"All fighters please report to your division for fitting and rules. Spectators please find your seats as matches will begin shortly."

"All right let’s do this." I said to everyone.  

"Gabriel!" I heard my name but I couldn’t find who said it. The others acknowledging they too also heard.

 

"Gabriel you're okay!?" It was her, the girl from the banquet. John Ritz's daughter. Same features as I remember from that night. I almost caught my breath at the sight of her but composed myself realizing everyone was standing around us.

"Yes I am" I stammered a little.

"I saw you on the news about an attack and I wanted to see if you were okay." She looked me up and down, as if she was studying me again but this time confirming I was in one piece.

I heard giggles and laughing off to the side of us and Kyra confirming to the others that it was her from the banquet. It caught her attention and immediately I introduced her to them. "This lovable bunch is my teammates. Jace, Donovan, Alec, Kyra, and my sister Felicia."

"So you're the one?" Alec questioned sarcastically

She giggled "I'm the one what?"

"Aw she has a cute giggle" Jace followed.

I was pressing my lips and my face I could feel was reddening. "Everyone this is..." Then I realized I still didn’t know her name but luckily she stepped in and finished my sentence.

"Jessica Ritz" 

Their expression went from playful to surprising. Felicia mouth had even dropped. 

Donovan was the first to recover "Ritz as in John Ritz."

"Yes he’s my father"

"Oh wow that I didn’t know." Kyra said

A large man in a black suit came over to us. He didn’t say anything as he looked at Jessica but she knew what he was emphazing. She nodded and turned her attention back to me. "I can’t stay too long, my father is expecting me. Can we talk later? Win today so we can tonight at the banquet okay. See you there." She smiled at the others "Nice to meet you" and gave me one more look before going. 

I was still in dream land. She had her looks down to a science because I felt all weird inside. 

"Gabriel you lucky guy, she’s a hottie." Jace said after she left.

"I'm jealous" Felicia laughed.

Alec put his arm around me "Well charming, it looks like you have a date tonight."

Everyone laughed

"Not that I need the motivation, but I'm winning so I can see this date." Donovan said.

"Hey you have to get through me first." Alec shot back.

"Let's go." I said rolling my eyes.

Each division was separated into different rooms. Alec and Donovan left for their room; Jace, Craig and I were in the same room. Kyra and Felicia went to go look for seats.

"Have you seen Leon?" realizing I hadn’t seen him yet.

"No, he’s usually here by now, probably running late." Jace answered

"Yeah..."

We checked in and were moved to the fitting area. These are how the points are calculated. Each fighter is outfitted with a suit and helmet with sensors placed throughout. When a fighter is struck the sensors calculate where and how hard it was giving the fighter the amount of points determined for a hit. A solid kick to the side will give you five points versus a grazed kick which will give you one. It wasn’t perfect; the need for judges to choose the winner was still applied as the points were more used as a base.

"These things are always so uncomfortable." I said tightening the straps.

 

We walked to the waiting area where they went over the rules and regulations. Afterwards everyone in room stood for the national anthem. At the conclusion of it the promoter began. ”We have one hundred and thirty seven competitors for this division. Please pay attention to the boards above.” An electronic board hanged on the wall was names and ring numbers would be displayed. “Please proceed to the ring in which your name appears. If you do not show up in time you will automatically forfeit.” Names jumped on the board and I found mine next to ring six.

“Later”

Jace nodded as he headed over to ring thirteen. These moved pretty quickly. As soon as I walked over to the ring, the judges and my opponent were all ready to begin. I was in my zone, my mind was focused, and I didn’t even look to see what was around. If I had I would have noticed there was a large crowd at our ring. We went through the introductions, got in our ready positions and waited.

I didn’t think about who I was fighting. I only concentrated on what I was going to do. The buzzard rang and before my opponent was able to come in with his attack. I struck him with a reverse punch on his chest sending him outside the ring. The crowd showed their appreciation as the cheered on. He came back in more tentative. I moved, he reacted, I slid forward, he jumped back. The fight was over.

These two minute rounds went fast. So you have to be active to win. I won. The fights moved in quick succession. Fighters rotated in after each other. Points were tallied on the board and moved around. Jace was doing well and so was Adam. I hadn’t seen him in introduction but there he was in ring four. There were some other fighters I recognized doing well, mostly regulars.

 

After a short time one thirty seven quickly changed to sixteen. The crowd was loving it letting us know with the constant cheers. Most of the regulars made it through with a few new comers, including Jace and Adam but no Craig.

There he was. “Craig, you alright?” He was walking toward the changing area.

“Oh hey, Gabriel…yeah I made it through I just need to go get something from my bag.” And he went.

So good he made it through too. I wonder how the others were doing.

“Ladies and Gentlemen we have just completed round one of the tournament, give a hand to all the fighters. Now we will bring in the other divisions and begin round two here shortly.”

Shortly after Donovan and Alec came in the room. “Hey guess what Donovan and I get to fight each other right from the get go.”

“They paired you guys together?” Jace said with a excited look on his face.

“With weapons.” Alec finished

“Oh that can’t be good.”

Alec gave a sly smile and made his way toward the ring with Donovan shaking his head behind.

“Five bucks says they show off.”

“Way to take the sure bet.”

“I know a winner when I see one.”

And sure enough as soon the buzzard rang they were at with each other. They both carried kamas, flipping around with some fighting involved. It was entertaining, it was better than a staged fight. I could see the judges in a state of confusion. The crowd was loving it and I couldn’t help but laugh.

 

Jace knock me in the arm “Hey you’re up.” I looked and saw I was at ring nine against Adam. “That should be fun too.”

I laughed and made my way over there.

Adam was already there prepping himself, I went into the ring, bowed to the judges. Adam only acknowledge me with a bow. We sat back in our stances, I focused on him and my attacks, I scanned him imagining what technique he was going to execute and I waited for the buzzard to commence the fight.

I didn’t hear it happen. I got first-hand experience but I couldn’t tell you what it initially felt like except it felt like landing against a wall except the wall was the one throwing itself at me. I think I was airborne, it was hard to tell, everything looks the same when you black out. I was on the ground or so I hope I was. I heard ringing. From what, couldn’t tell you. It was surprisingly peaceful wherever I was. Where was I? Wasn’t I at the tournament? I could have sworn I was getting ready to fight. My body is too relax to be fighting; actually I can’t even feel my body. Maybe I should trying opening my eyes…nope nothing there. The ringing was starting to fade away, not much, no…not fading but being replaced by something louder. Screams, it was screams, not martial arts screams but fear for life screaming. My eyes flickered opening up enough for me to see. Yes…I was on the ground but there was a smoke, a lot of smoke and a whole lot of screaming.

I couldn’t process what was happening around me, people running, confusion, panic. I felt something on my back, good I was scared that something serious happened to me. I was able to feel my legs and arms coming back. I was still in a good amount of pain but now it was bearable. I tried looking past the noise and found myself staring at someone in a mask. It was still blurry but I didn’t need to guess who it was. He didn’t say anything, as soon as he realized I was alert enough to recognize him he ran in the first group of people and started fighting. I was still out of it but I was able to sit up.

“Gabriel holy crap, Are you okay?”

“Going to go with no on that one.” I answered as Jace holstered me up.

“We need to get out of here”

“Where are Felicia and Kyra, the others?”

“They’re already out. Come on.”

There was a bunch of questions I wanted to ask like how did I end up on the ground but looking around my questions were being answered. We were in a middle of an attack. Martial artist, spectators, everyone was running, bodies on the floor, some were moving others weren’t.  There were a number of others who stood out, attackers had to be, they were attacking security but for the most part was just scaring everyone causing mayhem. The unknown was helping those being attacked causing others to join in.

I never seen the unknown but he fought exactly how I pictured in my head, it was like watching art in motion. One attacker would go down and others came but it didn’t matter they were no match.

“Gabriel!”

I scanned, it was Jessica, I knew the voice. She was in danger. Where was she? Find her.

Jace pointed “She’s over there”

I followed his point, she was being pulled away, not by her guards but the attackers.

“I gotta help her.”

Jace didn’t agree given my current condition but I knew he wasn’t going to argue about it. “I’m coming.”

I didn’t have time to disagree. Jace let me go, there was pain but I ignored it. I ran, my body once again taking over. My mind racing, she wouldn’t be calling for help if it wasn’t serious.

Jessica was struggling with one of the attackers trying to slip from his hold. She managed to knock him in the head giving her a chance to get away. She didn’t get far but it was enough time for us to catch up and for her attackers to notice. Nothing needed to be said. I was aware of my intentions and based on their response they were too.

There were only four of them including one holding onto Jessica.

“I would stay away if I was you.”

I looked at Jessica and fear showed in her eyes. No way was I going. I went after the closest one. It was unexpected giving an opening so wide my foot connected with his jaw easily. My mind raced with my body right behind, next one, he was already a few steps away. Jace stepped in and took him on. Two left, I focused on the one holding Jessica as he motioned the other to attack. He threw a series of punches but I saw them coming. I dodge without trouble, stepping to the side of another but I sent a swift kick into his abdomen causing him to double over as air was leaving his body.

The last one suddenly aware there was nothing between him and he tried to move but Jessica kept trying to escape. Suddenly others came and our advantage was diminishing. I didn’t think I just attacked hitting anything and everything. I spotted open areas and connected as fast and as hard as I could. Jace was behind me and fighting just as furious, I didn’t know how long we could hold on, even in our state I was still hurting and I couldn’t keep this pace forever. One after another kept coming in, how many of them were there? I was hit every so often but I kept pushing, I had to keep going.

Another small wave was coming across our right, I didn’t like our chances now, Jessica was losing her fight as they were finally able to subdue her down, and we were in danger of being flanked. This wasn’t good.

I like to think time froze or I was in shock when it happened. I actually thought about pinching myself when it did. The unknown, cloaked in a black outfit, filled with an assortment of weapons and items, face covered by garbs, jumped in stopping the flank from reaching us.

It gave me a second wind. With the focus shifting to the unknown I went after Jessica. She was being dragged out of the room. I took out one more attacker before I made my push. Jessica saw me and did something I didn’t expect her to do. She bit the arm of her attacker. He was surprised by it and it must have hurt because he let go as he yelled in pain. I jumped and threw my elbow before he had a chance to turn around.

I was on the ground again. I could see Jessica; she was over me checking if I was alive. I couldn’t tell at the moment but I think I was.

“I’m okay…I’m okay.”

She had tears in her eyes and her makeup was smudged. “Oh good…Thank you.” Squeezing tight. It hurt but it was welcomed.

Jace came around the corner, stopping when he saw Jessica and me on the ground. He looked a little worse for wear but I was willing to bet I was no better.

“It’s over.”

Yeah for how long? What was this attack for? How did the unknown know it was going to here? I had time to ask later, Jessica was still holding on to me, I needed to get her to her Father.