Rise of the Fallen

Chapter 4: The Gauntlet

As we approach the entrance to the Nether Headmaster Jean stands near the door in a black and white suit with her arms crossed. “Congratulations on being the first ones back you two. You can wait here until everyone else arrives.”
Julius and I pick a spot under some trees to sit under and wait. “How many do you think will come back?”  I ask.
Julius leans back and says, “Not sure, but if I’m guessing I’d say half at the most.”
“How many did we start off with?”
“Not sure. Hey, Headmaster Jean, how many people did this phase have?”
She turns towards Julius and answers, “There were 300 potential applicants at the start of day one.”
“Three hundred people sent into this place.” I say in shock.
“Ah, speaking of survivors here is the third.” Julius says.
The third survivor is a light skinned girl with short black hair wearing a short white dress stained with blood.
“I knew I shouldn’t have worn white to this thing.” She says as she puts two gold curved knives into the sheathes strapped to her legs.
She has delicate features, but I can see that her deep brown eyes showed differently. She sits down under the tree next to me and closes her eyes. Not long after she fell asleep more and more people began to show up, and by the end of the day the number of people who survived and passed phase one is fifty.
Out of three hundred, two hundred and fifty people died. Just the thought almost made me sick to my stomach. “Congratulations to the fifty survivors of Phase One of the Academy’s entrance exam. Phase two will take place inside the Academy's arena and it will be testing your testing your individual skill in combat. Winners will be accepted into the Academy and the losers will be having to go back into the Nether for another month before you attempt the Gauntlet again. Needless to say, if you fail a second time there will be no third test. Is everyone ready?”
There was a moment of silence before she says, “Great. Follow me.”
As she turns to open the door towards the surface, we walk up the poorly lit stairwell. Looking around at the other survivors, they all look tired and run down except for a handful of people. As we approach the door a chill runs down my spine. Something doesn’t feel right.
The Headmaster opens the door to the arena, and it’s no surprise that they named it the Gauntlet for no reason. The smell of blood and iron fills the air and the cheers from the stands are deafening. “Welcome to the arena!” Headmaster Jean yells over the crowd.
“As you can see, you will have a lively audience watching you compete. Each of the spectators are one of the Academy’s finest. They have regular bouts and tournaments here.”
Looking down into the arena, I can two students fighting now.
  “I'll now explain the rules of The Gauntlet. Each person will draw a number from one to 25 and each the person with the matching number will be your opponent. Are there any questions?”
“How long are we going to be fighting for?” someone asks.
“Until one of you realizes you're inferior to the other.” She scoffs.
“Will weapons be allowed?”
“If you know how to use them.”
“What happens if it’s a tie?”
“You go to a tie breaker round.” She says as the match in the ring ends. “Well, if there aren’t any more questions let’s begin the drawing.”  She waves at a man in a black suit who's standing by some ring entrance. He comes over with a bowl of thin straps of paper. “I'll call you in the order you finished phase one.”
   She called Julius and my name first. Without a word Julius navigates his way through the crowd and puts his hand in the bowl. He pulls it out and takes a long look at the number. “I got one.” He says as hands Headmaster Jean back the paper.
“Ok, now Daniel.” She says in a rushed tone. 
My heart starts to beat faster as I begin to make my way through the crowd. All of the eyes are me. What if I have to fight Julius in the first fight? I can’t think like that. I just have to do my best. I look at the Headmaster and then into the bowl. Taking a deep breath, I put in my hand in without looking and just as quickly pulled it out. A sigh of relief washes over me as I look at the number on the strip.
“I got 10.” I say as I hand the Headmaster back the strip and walk over to where Julius is standing.
“Ten huh? Aren’t you lucky?” He says mockingly “Be sure to take some notes while you wait.”
Laughing I reply, “Just don’t be that guy that loses in the first round.”
“Tiana Ackerman! It’s your turn.” Headmaster Jean called out.
Tiana steps forward out of the crowd and walks gracefully in front of the Headmaster. She looks up at the ceiling and without a word picks a number from the bowl. She hands it to the Headmaster and walks over and stands next to me. “Her number was four!” she says as she continues to call names one after the other in the first group of twenty-five. As the head mistress began to call names for the second group the air begins to become tense. “Anthony Grier.”
As his name was called a tall but solid white kid steps forward and takes a strip from the bowl. “Four.” He says after a breathing a sigh of relief. He hands the strip back and walks towards the second group of kids.
“Henry Lockwood.” The Headmaster calls to no reply. “Henry Lockwood.” She calls again with poorly hidden frustration.
“I'm here. I'm coming.” A male voice called out.
He steps forward from behind one of his friends with a bag of chips balled up in his hand. He was around my height just an inch taller. He put the chips into his bag and took out a strip from the bowl. “I got ten.” he says as he goes his group and started talking.
“And last is Justin Grier. You'll be going first against Julius.” The Headmaster says and she turns towards the ring.
One of the men in black suit handed her a microphone. She direct Julius go down the staircase to the left and Justin to the right.
“Ahem.” She starts, “Welcome to the final phase of this year’s admissions the, The Gauntlet.”
The crowd roars with cheers. Headmaster Jean waits until the crowd to settle before speaking again, “Our first match will be between Julius Drake and Justin Grier.”
The crowd starts to cheer again as Julius and Justin make their way towards the ring. Head mistress Jean turns on one of screens so we can get a closer look at the fights. Julius stretched his arms and his legs. The referee approaches him and says something to him, but the crowd starts to drown out the volume of inside the ring. Julius shakes his head and put his hand over his fist. The referee nods and walks over to Justin who points at a metal bow staff. The referee hands it to him and Justin begins to swing it around in a set of moves will skill and precision.
The referee steps in the middle of the ring and gestures both of them to him. The crowd cheers even louder. “Right side are you ready?” the referee yells.
Justin nods and assume his stance. “Left side are you ready?”
Julius nods and starts to bounce up a down.
“Alright you all know the rules anything goes and stop when the other person gives up.” The referee says
They both nod and as soon as the referee signaled the fight to start Justin lunges forward with the bow staff. Julius slips and darts in to close the distance. He throws a low jab into Justin’s abdomen, but he manages to maneuver the staff to block his fist by hitting him on the wrist. He immediately follows that up by hitting him in the stomach with the end of the staff.
The arena began to rumble with the cheers of the crowd.  Julius shakes his hand and charges in again. Justin sweeps at his feet hoping g to trip him up, but Julius jumps lands and kicks Justin in the chest in one fluid motion.
Justin is sent flying across the stage. The crowd feel silent as some medic’s rush to Justin. As we all wait anxiously on the referee's call. The medics bring in a gurney and place Justin on it. The referee waves his hands and just like that Julius passed.
The arena fills with cheers from the crowd. Julius walks out of the arena and comes back through the tunnel.
    “Ok that was fun.” He says as he walks over to where I’m standing. I shake his hand and say, “You didn’t have to hit him that, hard did you?” 
“I tried to hold back… he was good.”
I nod my head and look at the screen. The second round is pretty much over. The third round is between two brothers.  “So, you have a plan going in?”
“I haven’t thought about it. I was just going to see what he could do first.”
“So… no plan?”
“When you put it like that,” I says as the third fight finishes.
“Tianna Ackerman and Anthony Grier, you’re next.” The Headmaster says.
They step through into the tunnel leading to the ring. The referee asks Tiana if she needs to use a weapon. She nods no and unsheathes matching gold karambits. The referee gives her a thumbs up and walked over to Anthony. He declines and wants to use his fists. The referee nods and walks back to the center of the ring and signals them to him.
“Ready?” he asks. They both nod and assume their stances. “Fight!” the referee yells.
Anthony rushes forward and starts to throw jab after jab at her face as she’s avoiding them by bobbing her head while moving back. She swipes her knife from side to side and cuts the outside of his wrist. He pulls back in pain as Tianna takes the opening and runs towards him. Anthony puts up his guard to protect his face, but she kicks him on the side of the knee and a loud pop echoes through the arena. “Ooh.” Julius winced, “I know that hurt.”
Bleeding and hurt Anthony crawls away from Tianna as she’s walking closer to him. “Just give up.” She says as she yawns. The referee looks over to the incapacitated Anthony and waves to signal the end of the fight in Tianna’s victory.
“It was a pretty quick fight.” Julius says as stretches his arms.
“It was just as quick as yours.” I noted.
Julius laughs as we continue to talk about the matches, and soon enough it was my time to step into the arena. “Daniel Ross and Henry Lockwood, you’re next please step through the tunnel.” The Headmaster says as she looks at me with a hopeful gaze.
With my heart beating fast and my palms beginning to sweat, I take a deep breath and then wham, Julius smacks me in the back and says, “You got this.”
I nod my head as I walk through the dark tunnel to the arena. The closer I get to the end of the tunnel the lights get brighter and brighter until I’m face to face with the ring. It was a giant raised platform with no ropes. I stepped into the ring and I could already feel the heat from the lights and the eyes of the crowd ready to analyze my every move. The referee walks over to me and asks, “Are you going to use a weapon?”
I shake my head. “No.” I answer.
“OK, wait here.” He says as he walks over to the opposing side’s corner. After asking my opponent the same question he chooses to fight unarmed also.
The referee walks towards the center of the ring and motions us to him. Henry and I meet in the center of the ring and size each other up for the first time. Besides the fact that he is a little bit taller than me, he has a longer reach.
“Ready?” the referee asks.
I nod then Henry nods. “Alright. Fight!” He yells as he waves his hand to start the fight and immediately Henry steps in and throws a fast right jab to my face.
I slip his punch by a thin margin and step back to get some distance. Henry steps in again with a monstrous right hook. I move my head back and he just barely misses.
I think I have his reach down. The moment he stops throwing those useless punches I start my attack, not giving him time to think. I step in and throw a right jab to his face, but it just barely grazes his cheek. Henry grabs my arm before I can pull it back and sweeps my legs from under me with a kick.
He then unloads a flurry of punches down on me. Each punch makes it harder and harder for me to concentrate. I sweep my leg against Henry’s and he lost his balance. I got up quickly and stood over Henry and threw punch after punch to his face and body.
I’m hitting as hard as I can right now and he’s fighting through the pain just to win. My heart starts to beat even more.  I break through his guard and land the first solid punch of the fight into his nose. With blood gushing from his nose, he still manages to tighten his guard back up and blocks punch after punch.
I throw a powerful right jab to try and break his guard again, but he catches my arm and puts my arm in an armbar. As soon as he locked it in, a sharp pain shoots through my arm. It’s like I can feel it slowly breaking. Taking a deep breath, I link my free hand with my trapped hand and push his knee off of my neck.
Henry tries to regain his advantageous position, but I lift up and roll over and in one smooth motion I have him back on the bottom of the ring. While he still has my right arm, I land a thunderous left punch straight down into his gut. His grip loosens and I immediately snatch my arm back and slam it back down into his stomach again.
As he gasps for air, I can tell that I can finish the fight with one more blow. I cock back my right arm, but before I can land the punch the referee moves in between us and tells me to stop. “The fight’s over.” He says as he looks back at an unconscious Henry.
The crowd erupts with cheers. I stand back and look around the arena, my arm is throbbing, and my hands are numb, but I feel the better than I’ve ever been. “I did it…I did it.” I say to myself as tears begin to roll uncontrollably down my face.
“Yo D! Stop crying and come here.” Julius yells from the tunnel that leads back to the waiting area. Wiping my tears, I smile and met Julius at the tunnel.
“That was a good fight, and the way you got out of that armbar…genius.” Julius says wrapping his arm around my shoulder as we walk back through the tunnel.
As we enter the waiting area the Headmaster is already sending the next fighters out. The rest of the fights were pretty good and went by pretty fast. So, it wasn’t long until twenty-five people went back into the Nether and Julius and I went on a tour.