The Gauntlet (The Gauntlet #1)

Chapter 21 - Hung Out to Dry

The girl presented more of a problem. Another Battlecast fighter, that alone made it clear she was no slouch in the arena, and she was also entering her third competitive year. Vasco talked about experience like it was a drug, and it was something all the fighters from Brax-Delta lacked.

The second thing that concerned Codi was the girl’s preferred fighting style. She specialised in something called Krav Maga, a brutal combat system originally developed in the militaries of the twentieth century. The discipline focused on finishing a fight as quickly and decisively as possible, aiming for the most vulnerable parts of the body. A playback from her Mayhem showed Cassandra Riven wiping out a potential adversary in a matter of seconds with no more than three perfectly timed and perfectly placed attacks.

“Bottom line,” Vasco said. “Don’t be aggressive with this kid. You misplace one punch and she’ll have you for breakfast. Use all that power-boxing you’ve gotten so good at and stay light, fast and hard.”

That sounded good to her. That was two down, roughly speaking. However, the prospect of fighting Varlin still lurked in the back of her mind and she knew that neither she nor Vasco could ignore it. So when their examination of the other fighters’ styles dwindled, she brought it up.

“Are we going to talk about Varlin?” she asked bluntly.

Vasco sighed. “Honestly, I’d hoped we’d be able to avoid him for as long as possible.”

“We can’t hide forever. Sooner or later someone’s going to have to take him on.” She drummed her fingers against the desk and frowned as a thought occurred to her. “Seems to me like he wins his fights because everyone’s expecting him to. Everyone’s afraid of him, including you. Nobody fights him to win. They fight to survive.”

“Look, Codi, I just want you to get through the group stages in one piece.”

“It’s a one on one. I can’t just hide this time, and I don’t want to. Someone needs to let Varlin know that he’s not invincible.”

“That’s a point of view that will take some proving.” Vasco rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I get what you’re saying, but the group stage isn’t the time to try and take down the defending champion. Varlin is your last fight. Win the first two and then we’ll worry about getting you into the knock-out without any broken bones.” He gestured to the door. “Now go find Max. If there’s a downside to all of you making it through it’s that I’m going to be stuck in this damn closet for the entire day.”

***

One by one the members of Brax-Delta made their way down to the training centre, each of them carrying a fresh new burden of fighting tactics to burn into muscle memory before the group stage fights started in two days time. However, they were far from alone now. Virtually every other fighting who’d made it through filled up the cavernous space of the training arena, and more often than not they were joined by team mates who had failed to qualify, but nonetheless remained to aid their comrades in training.

The sparring the group undertook now was very different. No longer could they simply lay into each other with whatever style they saw fit. Each time they sparred one fighter could try their best to emulate the style of an enemy. Currently Codi worked with Lucas, her team mate doing his best to punish her if she got close enough for a wrestling grab.

So far things were about fifty-fifty. Codi did her best to dance around her team mate, landing hits and getting out before he could deliver a tackle, grab or throw in response. Training in full gear made the speed and intensity of the spars as close as they could be to the real thing. So when Lucas did manage to hook one of her legs and drive her into the ground Codi felt the full impact on her back.