The three men geared up in helmets and light body armor as they made their way to the standard firing range, Arthur beginning to explain the weapon,
"She's a new energy weapon I created. I took the schematics of the Roakon standard energy projectiles and applied them to a lever action shotgun. Tight pellet spread and smooth to handle. The real secret lies in the special adjustments I made just for her using some Veverg tech that that pretty Sage lady let me in on."
The man aimed down the irons of the weapon and let loose a shot down one line, then strafed to fire down the next, and a third time. What Isaiah saw astonished him. The spread of pellets were charged with emerald energy, akin to the energy that he had seen Sage bolster a few times. On top of that, the glowing orbs were moving in slow motion. Isaiah went to touch them out of curiosity and Arthur's voice cut in,
"Those pellets burn at around 800 degrees within that energy field. I wouldn't touch them. Now watch this."
The man activated the lever of the shotgun with a snap, and like that, the pellets suddenly shot forward at high speed and burned right through several targets, striking the back wall several feet past the targets and searing through before automated fire extinguishers began combating the flames. Otto gave an impressed whistle and Isaiah had a wild smile on his face before asking,
"Can I please shoot Annica?"
Arthur approached and placed the weapon in the man's hands, it was surprisingly light and relatively small, Isaiah could probably wield her with one arm if it weren't for the lever. He then went to fire the weapon, going for the lever and watching the floating projectiles burst forward through the targets with a satisfying purr. Isaiah whooped at the feel and Arthur went further to explain,
"Gorgeous ain't it? She has three shots total in the chamber before you have to activate the lever to rechamber a clip. In total she holds nine shots before you have to start loading slugs."
The man walked them over to a table as Kenny started firing the weapon behind them. He pulled out ammunition for the weapon that came out to about the size of a shot class. The man showed what seemed to be a standard slug round of silver finish, he then went to twist the round, saying that was how to activate the delay setting. Isaiah nodded and replied,
"You planning on making a bunch of these for the Wolves?"
He responded,
"In due time, Annica took me a long time to create and her resources were costly. I could make more energy shotguns and weapons but her feature specifically would take time."
Isaiah nodded and they all went about practicing with Annica and other small arms weapons before bidding Arthur goodbye and heading to the boxing ring down the hall. Isaiah thought about how he would definitely need to shower after this prolonged training day. The gym would have to become an everyday routine from here on out, there was no way he was going to let himself be anything but prime for the events to come.
When the crew entered the locker room, they were greeted by a few others, Samson, Tek, and other Pack leaders were changing out of their work clothes and into their gym attire. Samson walked over to the group upon noticing them as did a few others, all exchanging handshakes and small talk before Tek asked,
"We got a lot of people in the ring today honestly, it's pretty crowded."
Kenny spoke with an air of nonchalance, but Isaiah could feel his competitive spirit swelling beneath it all,
"Well then how about we have a little hand to hand tournament? We haven't done that in a while and I'm still the reigning champion last time I checked."
Isaiah rolled his eyes and everyone began smack talking one another, in the end they agreed that the tournament was long overdue and would start texting other members to come join in. Kenny and Otto went to their lockers to change into their sparring attire, Kenny wearing a simple white tank top with loose fitting cloth pants colored black. Otto was bare chested with black cloth pants as well. Isaiah went shirtless as well, wearing red shorts. Everyone was barefoot and wrapped their hands and some feet with martial artist wraps. After grabbing water and heading into the gymnasium, they began warming up. Doing everything from speedbags to slow, light sparring and teaching between one another.
As time went on, people started packing into the gym, that included non combatants dressed in casual or festive attire who just wanted to watch what was about to go down. Someone connected to the speakers and started blasting music, getting Isaiah and all the combatants in the zone. Eventually the room was packed, Isaiah wondering where all these people suddenly came from when the usually busy halls were empty tonight. The fighting tournament was usually a big deal between the Wolves, as people loved to gauge one another's strength in a friendly environment. However this was impromptu as it could get, yet everyone was there, standing crowded in the limited supply of bleachers to the point where they were simply standing around the boxing ring, bunched up and chatting it up. Isaiah saw Bruna, Vicki and others and gave them a wave, Jasmine's voice cutting through the crowd,
"Go Kenny!"
Isaiah smirked as he looked over to see the man tying his bandanna on his head and placing his fox mask on his face. All the other combatants proceeded to place their masks on as well when to his surprise, an enthusiastic Arthur took to the stage and used his sheer volume to silence the crowd and speak,
"Well ain't this here a sight to see? All these Wolves gathering here at the drop of a hat to see some good ol' fighting between comrades. I won't keep you now, by flip of the coin we're going to decide on hand to hand or weapon usage. Heads will be unarmed, tails will be armed."
The man pulled a shiny gold coin from his pocket and flipped it in the air in silence before turning it over on the back of his hand reading,
"Heads, hand to hand it is Ladies and Gents. Now let's see here, how about we set this up nice and easy since there is no actual roster. We'll have half the contestants split into one room, and the other half go into the next. The contestants can banter amongst themselves who will be procured and the two that exit the room when I call for a match will be the fighters."
With that, Isaiah was swept with a group of people on the left side of the room towards the locker room with Otto while Kenny went to the right. They all arrived in the room and began talking amongst one another while listening to Arthur outside.
"Alright so the rules are simple, two rounds. One clean strike will give the contestant a point. Only abdomen and head strikes will be counted. Now let's get on with this folks, match one!"
With that, the room Isaiah was in called forth Samson, cheering him on dressed in a black long sleeve athletic shirt with matching shorts. They followed him outside and climbed the bleachers in order to get a good view of the fight. Arthur announced,
"State your names, sons."
One man spoke,
"Issac Thurston."
Samson replied,
"Samson Richards."
From there the two fighters met in the center. Samson was a hulking brute of muscle in comparison to the lethe Issac Thurston. Issac was dressed in nothing but blue speedos, his blonde hair having been tied up into a ponytail with his two arm sleeves and raven tattoo on his back glistening with sweat from the focused lights. Arthur gave his clean fight speech before calling the match to a start, a bell ringing.
Samson crouched down and began to sway back and forth in a dancing motion. He kept his arms close to his face as he swayed back and forth and always only rooted himself momentarily from foot to foot, allowing him to stay agile. Issac on the other hand rooted himself in a modified horse stance, toes pointed towards the man with his hands at the ready beneath his face. Samson had no mask as he was not part of a Pack, but Issac did, donning a curved 'V' on the mask to represent the beak of a Raven. The two went for the first exchange, Issac stepping forward with his forward right foot and bringing forth his left foot to kick the man head on. Samson's stepping and swaying allowed him top easily step to the left, on the outside of the man's extended leg. From there, Samson threw his weight to the ground behind him, rooting his palms onto the ground and lifting up his left teg to swing around behind him and up to strike the man clean in his face with his foot, sending him stumbling towards the right.
Arthur rang the bell and called out,
"Point, Samson."
The crowd cheered as the two disengaged and allowed Arthur to quickly perform a medical check on Issac before he called him good. The two stepped forward to the center again and Authur called,
"Round two. Fight!"
This time Samson looked like he was feeling the energy, after a few moments of nothing, the man swayed right then launched himself into the air to try and get Issac with a right handed superman punch. Issac had an answer though. The man stepped out with his right foot and used his left to sweep Samson's legs from under him and twisted his torso to use his right arm and push the man over onto the ground face first. From there Issac quickly stood over the man and gave a swift straight right punch to the man's back. The bell rang and everyone in the crowd followed up with more roaring applause, some laughing at how awesome it was to see Samson go for the punch like that.
From there, Arthur came forward again to make sure Samson was good to go before beginning the third and final round. When the bell rang this time, Samson and Issac stepped forward and gave one another a fist bump of respect before backing up to assume their stances once more. They exchanged a few punches and kicks, Isaiah feeling the electricity in the air as they went all out. Nothing connected thus far until the last exchange. Issac stepped forward and rooted himself, his right hand over his forward right knee with his left hand at his side. From there he launched himself airborne and forward into a kick with his left leg out to connect with Samson's low stance and currently unguarded face. Isaiah saw the bait at the last second and Samson answered by ducking low to the ground as the kick came forth. When Issac went to root his right leg on the ground, Samson swept his right under it, causing the man to collapse sideways, but not before Samson twisted and caught the man falling square in the chest with a left punch.
The bell rang and the crowd exploded into applause as music cranked up and Samson was announced the winner of the fight. The two hugged it out and parted way, the next fighters taking to the ring as Otto and Isaiah approached Samson and yelled into his ear over the crowd,
"That last move was a little unconventional huh?"
They laughed and Samson shrugged, answering,
"You gotta work with what you've got man."