Tested (The Life of Uktesh Book 1)

by Aaron Hicks

“I can’t beat him. Pull me out of this fight.”

  “Ok, you’re right. You can’t win.”

  “I can’t!”

  “You are just a girl, after all, and there sometimes really is only so much a girl can do. Be happy with what you’ve accomplished.”

  “What? Are you serious?”

  “Of course. Girls are too weak for this kind of fight.”

  “How dare you! I’m going out there and I’m going to win!”

  Uktesh kissed her on the cheek, “That’s my girl. Now that your mindset is ready, he’s fast, so you have to be faster, which means using balanced attacks and defenses more quickly and more often.”

  “Can I win?”

  Uktesh paused, then said, “Yes, but never turn your back on him. Don’t get cocky. Keep in mind, that he’s going to bait you at some point.”

  “Are you going to bet against me?”

  “Hell no, I like winning money.”

  She smiled as she walked onto the sand and Larut asked, “So are we really betting on her, or was that for her benefit?”

  “We really are.”

  “Ok.” They quickly made their bets and raced back to watch the fight.

  They arrived just in time to hear the announcer yell, “Fight!” Laurilli used Cricket Springs and almost got the first point, but Baloce parried it and quickly struck her in the chest with his fist. She curled up and grabbed the right side of her chest while the referee warned Baloce about only using his sword.

  He nodded and quickly stepped back into the fight. Laurilli fell back against his attacks and blocked for all she was worth, but did not use any of the balanced defensive stances. Again, Baloce found a crack in her defense and struck her in the chest. This time he clearly let his hand linger into a caress. “Disqualify him for that shit!” Uktesh shouted in anger. He gripped the stone wall to keep from Rushing out onto the sand. She backed away from him and the referee told him that any more rule violations would take a point away from him. He quickly reached in again, but this time, when Laurilli instinctively blocked her chest, he hit her hip with his sword.

  She rubbed her leg and he lunged forward to lock swords with her. Quickly, he lifted both of their above their heads and while one hand continued to locked her sword, the other hand snaked out, grabbed her butt, and squeezed. The referee broke them apart and deducted a point from Baloce. “Don’t deduct a point! Eject him for that! That’s got to be unsportsmanship!” Laurilli was completely mentally beaten and Uktesh shouted, “Remember to be balanced!” But he could tell that she wasn’t able hear him anymore. Baloce quickly gained a point which brought him back to one, and just as quickly lost it again with another grope.

  It was clear that he was only toying with her to cop a feel, but Uktesh knew if she could clear her mind and start to use the balanced attacks and defenses she knew, she still had a chance. Baloce gained a point and this time he disarmed her and grabbed her bottom with both hands and started to grind against her. She brought her knee up into his crotch and he fell to the ground and held himself. “Knee his balls into his throat!” Heathyr shouted. He stood up as Laurilli found her sword. He sprinted at her, only to find that she was Rushing towards him. He blocked her Cricket Springs again and dodged her Moth to the Flame. He retaliated with a quick lunge that she blocked with Shield of Air and for the first time she hit him and earned herself a point.

  Like Larut, he attacked in a pattern similar to Bull Rushes Down, but unlike Uktesh, Laurilli didn’t have the knowledge or the skill to block them all and he matched her point. He repeated his attack, and as Laurilli back peddled, she tripped. He was suddenly on her once again and ground vulgarly against her, this time his sword rested on her chest which earned his second point. Uktesh felt the wall crumble around his fingers as he Rushed, then Soared, onto the sand. Either he sensed Uktesh’s approach or he knew it would come Baloce rolled off her and attacked where Uktesh should’ve been. But Uktesh adapted Cat Pounces to combine it with Crescent Kick and jumped over Baloce’s sword. His foot caught Baloce on the top of his head and knocked him unconscious.

  Laurilli flew into his arms as he landed. She sobbed into his shoulder as he carried her from the sand, while a stretcher carried off Baloce. “Why, why did he do that?”

  He didn’t answer right away and didn’t take her inside. Instead, he sat against one of the walls with her until her embarrassment faded. Heathyr joined them. “That bastard! I’ll kill him!”

  “Mom I couldn’t beat him, what chance do you have?”

  Heathyr didn’t argue the virtues of an angry mother fighting for her daughter, she just nodded and said, “Honey what do you want to do?”

  “I want to fight him again! Next time I won’t let him get inside my head!”

  “Next time would be with real weapons.” Uktesh gently reminded.

  “I don’t care! I’d die trying then!”

  “I do care, and outside of here, we’re a team, no one fights you that doesn’t go through me first!”

  “You can’t fight all my battles for me.”

  Uktesh didn’t say anything for a while. Then finally he said, “Ok.”

  “Ok? Ok what?”

  “Ok, you can fight him next.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. They won’t let me take your place.”

  “I meant, I’ll forfeit and the next fight will be you in the streets, on the road, in a forest, I don’t care where, just the two of you. I’ll train you to be able to kill someone of his skill level in the meantime.”

  “I appreciate that, but we still need to win money for Myrtin’s family, so you need to keep fighting him and keep hurting him, I’ll settle our score later.”

  “That’s just another reason why I love you. You’re so level headed. I was ready to completely stop competing and start training you again.”

  “You know you’ll be penalized for interfering with our fight right?”

  “Not a problem. Are you ready to go back inside?

  “I guess.”

  When they walked in it was Basam who spoke first, “Basam is willing to castrate that boy if you wish.”

  “Thank you for the offer Basam, but I think I need to castrate that boy myself.” said Laurilli.

  “Basam doesn’t believe that you have the skill to do this. Basam isn’t sure Basam is skilled enough to do this.”

  “I appreciate it, but with training I will be.”

  “Basam, they’re calling you out to the sand.” said Tylor.

  “Basam is ready.” he stood and walked to the sand.

  “He seems a good enough person,” said Tylor.

  “Yeah, but I think it’s a measure of yourself when a man offering to castrate another man qualifies him as a ‘good enough person.’”

  Tylor laughed, “I believe it does, but that doesn’t say much about us.”

  Basam quickly return victorious, and once again the group waited on Tylor, Repus, and Esolc. Tylor and Esolc had to fight each other and Tylor won. When it was Heathyr’s turn, she didn’t ask for advice, but said, “Watch an angry mother get her some.”

  Everyone smiled and thought she had made a joke, but after her opponent, who wept like a child, was carted off, they feared to get on her bad side. Basam again broke the ice when he said, “Basam doesn’t want to be on your bad side, and Basam humbly offers you anything you wish.”

  She smiled and said, “If you would be so kind to get me a cup of water?”

  He ran off and quickly returned with a cup of water. It was quickly Uktesh’s turn, and as he entered the sand, the crowd started to chant, “Lightning Vengeance!” They quieted as the announcer shouted, “In this grudge match we have the pervert Baloce!” The crowd booed loudly, “and his rival, the god of lightning, the wind of revenge, the reaper of life and death Uktesh!” The crowd cheered and he held up his hands for quiet, “Due to his interference in the last fight with Baloce, Baloce is awarded one point and Uktesh is subtracted one. So Uktesh has to get three points to win, but Baloce
only has to get one! The betting will open for five minutes, then the fight will begin!”

  “I understand why you were so angry.” said Baloce.

  “Cause you’re a bastard?”

  “No, I know who my dad is, no, you knew that if I continued, she’d start enjoying the feel of a real man on top of her, and dump your sorry ass into homelessness.”

  “Oh? Cause she said your prick was so small she wasn’t sure if you weren’t actually a girl too.”

  “Those words are going to cost your girlfriend or her mom. You can’t be with both of them all the time, and when you’re not, then I’ll get her. You’ll know it was me, but have no way to prove it, and I’ll do whatever I want to her.” Uktesh couldn’t help but smile. “Why are you smiling? I’m serious!”

  “Do you really think if you hurt Heathyr or Laurilli and I knew it that anything or anyone would save you from my wrath? I killed a fucking minotaur by myself!”

  “Ladies and gentlemen, the time is up and the fight is about to start, but first, this just in, Uktesh, to add to his many titles, shall also be added minotaur slayer!”

  The crowd went silent in disbelief, then one voice shouted, “Hell kid, what can’t you do?” Which cause the crowd to roar with laughter and applause.

  “Announcer, I have a quick question. If I kill him, will I be disqualified from the sword competition, or from the whole tournament?”

  The announcer swallowed hard as he realized what Uktesh was asking, “Um, you’d be disqualified from the tournament and there’d be a hearing to prove it was in self-defense, or justified.”

  “I guess it’s your lucky day Baloce.”

  “Fight!”

  Baloce flew at him and tried to end it as quickly as possible, but compared to Larut his attacks were amateurish. While Baloce was still mid-rush, Uktesh counter attacked and scored his first point. Baloce fell back and clutched the right side of his chest, and the crowd cheered on. Baloce came back at Uktesh more measured, but Uktesh used Dances with Bull and slashed Baloce’s left butt cheek. Baloce turned crimson and lunged at Uktesh, but he spun again in Dances with Bull and this time kicked Baloce in the ass. The referee warned him to only use his sword, Uktesh nodded and executed a perfect balanced Cricket Springs, and brought his knee straight to Baloces’ crotch.

  The crowd realized that Uktesh only hit where Baloce had grabbed Laurilli, and they knew there was only one attack left. Baloce’s eyes crossed and he fell to his knees. As the referee was giving Uktesh his second warning, Uktesh Rushed forward and combined Sword Raises the Sky and Cat Pounces to flip into a full body vertical slash that started at Baloce’s shoulder and ended again at his crotch. Baloce’s eyes rolled into his head and he fainted. Uktesh walked off to the sound of the crowd shouting, “Slayer!”

  “Uktesh,” said Heathyr when he stepped off the sand, “that was unnecessary, cruel, and brutal. That being said, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. Don’t let it happen again.”

  Uktesh tried not to smile, because Laurilli stood behind her with her eyes crossed and bobbed her head in circles like Baloce had been doing before he passed out. “I swear next time I’ll just hurt them without being cruel, but this was necessary, and I will always be brutal to those who hurt those I love. Hell, Irtith learned that the hard way.”

  “Very well, you’re not my child. I can’t make you do anything, but if you want my blessing to marry my daughter you need to stop being so violent, or viciously violent.”

  “That, I can promise. I’d do anything for Li.”

  “Basam thinks what you did was funny, eye for an eye, changes to grope for a beating. Basam needs to fight now. Please don’t do anything else funny until Basam returns.”

  While he fought, Heathyr tried to keep an angry expression, but finally burst out with a laugh, “Eye for an eye becomes grope for a beating!”

  Everyone joined in the laughter and Basam ran back, “What did Basam miss?” This only caused them to laugh harder. Tylor had to leave for his next fight unable to stop his own laughter and came back victorious despite the tears of laughter that streamed down his cheeks.

  Next Esolc had to fight Heathyr. Esolc fought and won, but each time his sword hit her skin, he looked fearfully at where the friends watched, and when they came in Esolc asked, “I didn’t make you mad right Uktesh? Please tell me you don’t have something you need to take out on me now?”

  “Ha ha, funny.” But even though Esolc laughed he still raised his eyebrows in question, “No, you don’t have to worry about me, but Heathyr might not appreciate the fact that you were going easy on her.”

  “You were what?” she said from directly behind him.

  He yelped and jumped away from her which caused everyone to laugh again. “You know if we all win our fights we move on to the quarter finals.” said Tylor.

  “Basam is thankful that he isn’t fighting any of you.”

  “Heck, Esolc is thankful none of us are fighting each other.”

  They each won their fights and made it to the quarter finals, which would take place on the third and final day of the tournament.

  Next, they started to set up the archery range and Uktesh grabbed his bow. They made sure this time that Myrtin wasn’t called to come out and participate. The targets were set up and, as there were only thirty six people, each person was given three arrows fletched with different color feathers. Uktesh was grouped with five other people. They were told to stand at a line and the closest three in the group would advance. They’d move the line back and repeatedly halve the competition until there were only six left.

  They started the line at one hundred yards away and Uktesh stood twenty yards behind it. When he took his three shots, each hit the center of the target. He easily advanced. The eighteen left had to shoot from hundred fifty yards, and again Uktesh stood twenty yards further and again hit all three in the center of the target. The nine archers left had to move back to two hundred yards and three would be eliminated. The final six would advance to the final day. Uktesh again stood twenty yards further and again hit all three in the center. His competitors struggled to hit the target. Quickly there were five and the four that hadn’t hit any part of the target battled to make it to the final day. After a few more minutes of this, one of the four hit the target and was given the final spot on the final day.

  While they started to move the targets and arrows, wooden axes were added to the wooden swords that lined the walls. As the sun started to ebb toward the horizon, the axe fighters started their battles. Uktesh sat with Heathyr, Laurilli, Esolc, and Basam and together they watched Tylor, Larut and Repus fight their matches. Each of their friends handled themselves well.

  Again, they bet each time on their friends and as the four finalists in axe stood together to the cheers of the crowd, Uktesh and those who watched with him made their way down to the pitch to meet up with three of the four finalists. The axe fighters were laughing when the two groups met up, and when asked what was funny they said, “We were just commenting that this fighting group will probably be our easiest, because Uktesh isn’t in it.”

  They helped gather up everyone’s belonging, and more importantly everyone’s money, as they continued to talk, “Well that and pole weapons.” said Uktesh with a smile.

  “Did we find your Achilles heel? Are you weak in axes and pole arms?”

  “Maybe, or maybe I was just being kind by not trying to win everything.”

  “Why? The prize if someone wins everything is the host city. You own it. All the taxes go to you.”

  “What would I do with a city?”

  “So you admit you could win them all!” said Tylor.

  “No, but maybe I could, anything’s possible.” said Uktesh.

  “It isn’t possible for Baloce to beat you.” said Laurilli.

  “Well I guess some things are less possible than others.” Uktesh said with a smirk.

  “Give us your money!” A hushed whisper said, and Uktesh realized that the eleven other
people who had hung back weren’t combatants.

  “Really? Again?” complained Uktesh.

  “I know right? This is the fourth time we’ve been attacked and each time those who attack us get more and more hurt. The last guy was publicly humiliated first, before he was killed.” said Laurilli and she didn’t have to feign any fear.

  “These aren’t toys!” said the would be thief, as he waved a short sword at the group, “Give us your money or we’ll kill you.”

  “Now I can tolerate your trying to rob us, desperate times and all, but if you threaten my friends, mother in law to be, any fiancé one more time, I’m going to end you. You’ve literally picked the worst group to try to rob. Did you not watch the fights? We’re basically all in the quarter finals.”

  One of the thieves scolded the leader, “I told you we should’ve watched the fights!”

  “Shut up!” the thief said and backhanded the complaining thief. “They don’t have any weapons. We’ll just take the money off your corpse!” He swung at Uktesh who caught the blade in an imperfect unarmed Wave Clap and twisted it out of the thief’s hands.

  “Now I’m armed and you’re not.” He smiled coldly at the thief, “Flee.” The thieves with him didn’t hesitate, they turned and sprinted from the coliseum. Suddenly alone, the thief leader turned and ran too.

  “I can’t believe you did that with the sword and the whoosh,” Larut clapped his hands and pivoted them around his body, “and then you had the sword. Plus how did he not see our weapons? They’re clearly in our packs.”

  “Never do that again.” said Laurilli, “I thought you were actually going to die in a stupid theft.”

  “I was totally fine.” Uktesh started to explain.

  “No, next time just side step or punch a hole in him, I don’t care, just not that.” She said and he saw she fought back tears.

  “I won’t do that again, unless I have to, to save a life.”

  Tylor spoke up, “We do seriously have too much money to walk around with safely. We should put it in a bank for safe keeping.”

  “Aren’t you worried about someone robbing the bank?”

  “During the tournament? I’d be more worried if I was the betting house, most people lose money here, and we’re just exceedingly well informed.”