Iron Heart (The Gauntlet #2)

Chapter 31 - Where the Wild Things Are

She was happy to oblige. Bursting into motion she raced effortlessly along the narrow beam, winding up a swing with her right fist. Waiting till the last possible moment, she saw Thakkar finally tense to avoid the blow. Instead of swinging, she dropped her arm tipped her body backwards, launching herself into a flying two-footed tackle.

Her opponent reacted with inches to spare, hurdling her with surprising speed. Codi slammed her boot against the beam, scraping a divot in the wood as she halted her forward momentum. Then she twisted and surged upright, crashing a violent uppercut into Thakkar's chin as he turned to face her.

His tattooed face twisted up with pain but he rode the impact, taking a step back and planting his feet. Codi followed up with another swipe, but before the blow could land her opponent darted forward into her reach. He blocked her strike with his arm then lowered his head like a bull. She couldn't get out of the way and took the full force of his head-butt squarely in the face.

A gasp rose from the spectators as the force knocked her down, her back slamming into the narrow beam. Blinking to clear her vision, she clamped her legs around the walkway to steady herself and braced herself for his follow up. Sure enough, the Firequake fighter made to stamp down on her chest.

Codi caught his descending boot, gritting her teeth against the tremendous weight added by the gravity fields of his exoskeleton. With a snarl of exertion she shoved his foot aside, simultaneously slackening her grip on the walkway. Using his leg as an anchor she pushed herself away and let her body swing around until she was hanging upside down beneath the beam.

Coiling her body up, she reached up with both fists before he could get out of the way and smacked his legs out from under him with as much force as she could muster.

Thakkar fell, bouncing off the beam and plummeting to hit the ground below. Twisting her body, Codi released her legs, instead catching the walkway with her hands and dangling there, looking down. As he got back to his feet she launched herself into the air with a single powerful yank, somersaulting on her way down to join him.

She slammed to the ground on one knee to the screams of the Battlecast fans. Slowly she raised her head to look at Thakkar, a predatory smile on her face. He returned the gesture and the fight reignited.

Minutes passed in a whirlwind as they pounded each other up and down the wooden construct. They hurled themselves around the arena in a chaotic violent dance, smashing through thin walkways and supports, kicking each other up and down levels, carpeting the ground with broken splinters. Codi relished the wildness of it; the almost total abandonment of calculation and technique in favour of sheer force. Something primal roared within her each time she flung her opponent across the arena or crashed a blow against his armour.

This was the real Gauntlet.

After another blizzard of back and forth strikes Codi drove her opponent back towards the corner of the arena, lining him up for what she hoped might finally put a dent in his resistance. So far she judged that she'd gotten the best of the exchanges on sheer impact, but that didn't mean she didn't want to win the fight outright.

She managed to hook Thakkar's arm and hurl him into a roll towards one of the massive pillars that supported the main structure of the arena. With her opponent lined up, Codi dialled up every gravity field in the exoskeleton and sprinted straight at him. He got up and turned in time to see her blazing towards him like a comet.

Codi drove a shoulder hard into his midriff and clamped her arms tight around him, not breaking stride. Her feet slammed against the floor plates like two jackhammers as she carried Rokkie Thakkar thirty feet across the arena. With a final surge of effort Codi increased her speed and rammed her opponent into the huge supporting pillar.