The Hopeful Conference ended with the Challenges.
The large gym had been cleared to make room for three sparring rings. In each ring, there were two referees dressed in black. Two Hopefuls would spar against each other, their opponent selected at random. The winner got into Stingray and the loser went home.
Of course, that wasn't entirely fair since no matter how strong you were, if you went against someone like Huraira or Kova, you were guaranteed to lose. To avoid this, losers were allowed to challenge one of the winners up to three times and if they won, they traded places.
Jase just wanted to go against someone easy in the first round. That way he could just relax for the rest of the day. And with his thirty-minute time limit... that could get nasty really quick. He knew he couldn't spar more than two or three times depending on the length of the matches. He hadn't told anyone about his time limit for this exact reason, hoping that no one would figure it out and then challenge him.
The Viper stalked into the room, holding her tablet with ferocious intent. "I hope you haven't been screwing around all week because today's the day!" she said, flipping through her tablet. "And we got ourselves a good matchup. In the first ring, we have Dolion against King." She pointed to the ring on the far right.
Huraira muttered something under her breath about being first and Bonnie followed her to the ring, her face white. Jase flashed both of them a smile, already knowing that Bonnie stood no chance against Huraira.
"Ring two, Brook and Miller," the Viper continued, pointing to the center ring as two forgettables walked towards the ring. the Viper said. "Finally, in ring three we have Malik and Williams."
Just great.
Well, that meant Jase was fighting at least twice today. However, there was something odd about all of these people. All six of them were in the top ten high scorers on the simulation. Were they making the best go first? That didn't seem entirely random to Jase.
He sighed and pushed himself out of his wheelchair and into the ring as Kova positioned himself on the other side. The referee walked in between them, old and scowling. "This will be a simple test of hand-to-hand combat," she said. "Either down your opponent for ten seconds or knock them out of the ring. No weapons will be allowed to gain an advantage. Please refrain from doing any lasting damage to your opponent or else you will be disqualified. Begin with the whistle."
The referee stepped out of the ring, raising a silver whistle to her lips. With a shrill chirp, the match began and Jase leaped into action. Jase's legs were his greatest weakness, but they were also his greatest strength. They made him fast and strong, more so than the average human. Huraira had been the one to teach him how to use his legs to their fullest potential when facing a stronger opponent.
Just because Jase knew he was going to lose, didn't mean he was going to lay down and surrender.
Kova was faster than Jase, but he was also a solid foot shorter and had twigs for arms. The only real chance Jase has was to use brute force and end this before he got tired.
Swinging a kick, Jase fully expected Kova to dodge. However, Kova grabbed Jase's leg, somehow managing to use Jase's power against him as he twisted violently, causing Jase to fall face-first on the floor. But he was back up in half a second, sweeping his leg under Kova's feet.
However, Kova just jumped over Jase's leg and the second he landed he managed to deliver a solid kick Jase was barely able to block. It was swift but powerful, knocking Jase backward. But Jase apparently hadn't learned his lesson and lunged forward once again. He wanted to get at least one punch in.
Jase kept his punches clean and swift, careful not to expose himself. Kova bounced around the ring, ducking and dodging before Jase finally made a punch that even he recognized as just a few inches too far open. Instantly, he felt Kova's hand beneath his arm, swinging Jase over his shoulder and out of the ring.
With all of the dancing around, Jase hadn't even realized that Kova was leading him across the ring, probably to do just that.
Groaning, Jase sat up as the old referee blew her whistle. Kova was still looking at Jase, the high of adrenaline glowing in his eyes. "Thanks for sparring with me, Kova," Jase said, with a smirk. "We should definitely do it again, sometime."
Kova just walked away.
Groaning, Jase picked himself up and pulled himself back to his wheelchair, before pushing himself to the opposite end of the room, where Bonnie was already standing, looking pretty well beaten herself. "Have fun?" she asked
"About as much as you had," Jase said.
"Huraira's... something else," Bonnie said, rolling her shoulder. "I mean, I've sparred against Kova before, but she's... something else." She shook her head. "You're so lucky to have her as a friend. She's strong and smart and can do all sorts of cool things like throw me ten feet without breaking a sweat!"
"She is pretty great," Jase said, nodding in agreement. "If only she had better people skills."
Bonnie giggled. "You two are close."
Jase looked away. "We've been friends forever," he said. "She taught me how to fight when no one else would. She's... she's the first person who really felt like family after my mom died." He shrugged. "She's practically my sister."
"Your mom?" Bonnie asked. "Is she... does the thing with Red..."
"'Course," Jase said. "No person in their right mind would go up against Red without a reason. I'm still shocked I managed to convince her and that was two years ago!"
"It's what family does," Bonnie said.
Jase smiled but he didn't say anything. The idea of family was something he had abandoned after his mom died. Here he was calling Huraira his sister and Bonnie was rekindling that foolish hope. Instead of trying to nurse the open wound in his chest, Jase focused on assessing each person sparing.
He wanted to go against someone who would make him look good. Someone whose ass he could kick like Kova had kicked his ass.
By the time the initial matches were done, Jase finally decided on a mousy girl with hair like hay and thick glasses. Being the second one to get his ass kicked, only Bonnie was in front of him and she took a different approach, challenging a brutish-looking boy who had two feet on her. Jase pointed at the girl from across the room.
She had only won her fight by chance. A lucky blow and a clumsy opponent. The two made their way to the second ring and a referee repeated what the first had said earlier before he blew his whistle and it began.
And just like with Kova, Jase showed no mercy.
He kicked the girl in the stomach and she stumbled backward, falling down. She bounced back up, though, and managed to throw a couple of halfway decent punches, but they were slow and she left herself open. Another punch and Jase kicked her once again.
The girl stumbled, tripping over her own feet and falling out of the ring. The whistle shrieked and Jase smirked, but he bent over nonetheless, offering the girl a hand up. "Nice sparring against you," he said. The girl accepted the hand, pulling herself off the ground before the two parted ways. Jase once again returned to his wheelchair and pushed himself over to where Huraira was watching Bonnie spar.
She was doing pretty well considering the height difference.
"Congratulations. You beat up someone you knew had no chance of winning," Huraira said, her gaze still fixed on Bonnie.
"That's how the Challenges work, Huraira," Jase said. "If I wanted to show off, I could've kicked your ass, but you deserve to be here more than that girl." He shifted slightly. "Besides... she probably would have only gotten herself eaten, so technically, I just saved her life."
Huraira scoffed. "Whatever helps you sleep at night," she said as Bonnie knocked her opponent out of the ring. Bonnie was out of breath, but she was grinning. "You see, that's how you look good," Huraira said as Bonnie bounced over to them.
"I... I did it!" Bonnie said.
"Nice job," Jase said. "I didn't get to see much, but what I did see was pretty badass."
Huraira rolled her eyes. "You didn't see shit," she said. "I actually watched your match and you impressed me." Huraira extended her hand. "Let's spar again sometime."
Red-cheeked, Bonnie accepted. "Yeah, definitely."
"What's this?" Jase asked in mock surprise. "You're being nice to someone? Are you feeling okay? Should we take you to the infirmary?"
Huraira punched Jase's shoulder, scowling. "Shut up or I'll send you to the infirmary."
Bonnie - for some sick reason - found this funny and laughed. She had a snorting laugh that was cute, but not when it was being directed at the idea of Huraira beating him up. "Both of you are assholes," Jase grumbled, stalking off. Well rolling off, technically, but it was totally like the wheelchair equivalent of stalking.
"Where are you going?" Bonnie called.
"Away," Jase snapped.
[author's note]
things are looking up for jase,,, sure would be a shame if something happened to ruin that,,,,,