Tested (The Life of Uktesh Book 1)

by Aaron Hicks

  “Basam would you care to join us? After the bank we’re going to get something to eat.” asked Heathyr.

  “Basam would like to join you.”

  They walked to the bank closest to the coliseum and Tylor said that it gave him a bad feeling, so they moved onto the next and found it acceptable. They opened an account and deposited their combined over ten thousand gold coins and, now that they felt much lighter, went to spend some of their money on dinner. Tylor took them to a Jubain restaurant, a port town in the south of Sinai, which was famous for its spiciness.

  Uktesh already thought Sinai food was spicy, so he ordered a mild sauce over a twenty ounce steak. Each of the guys order the twenty ounce steak and both the girls ordered chicken. Only Heathyr joined Uktesh with the mild, everyone else tried the hot sauce. Only Larut, on a dare, after a boast that the hot wasn’t so bad, had the very hot sauce. No one tried the sauce labeled fiery death. They told stories and asked Basam share some with them until late in the night. As they walked back to the barracks, they noticed groups of hard, desperate men and women who lurked in the shadows, and a lesser amount, but still present, of guards who patrolled the streets. They made it to the barracks with no issues and, after they assigned a two man watch schedule, went to sleep.

  Day Two

  The next morning came too early, but Uktesh and the others moaned out of bed, and made it down to the coliseum with enough time to make their wagers and find out the order they would have to fight. Uktesh was unlucky and again had to fight first, in the unarmed group. Once again, he was favored forty to one against, but Larut was sixty to one against. The number of contestants was surprisingly small. He realized that he and Larut only had to win twice to be in the top four. Uktesh sprinted to the middle of the arena in an attempt to wake himself up and found a small, maybe four feet nine inches tall, but clearly well-conditioned man in front of him. The man had his shirt off and was very well muscled. He had a snake like dragon tattoo going from his left pectoral muscle and wrapped around his body a few times so that the tail was under his belly button. The only reason Uktesh knew it was a dragon was it was breathing fire. It spread out in two flames, with plenty of room for more flames, so Uktesh guessed it was a system of ranking.

  The rules were the same as sword and axe, two clear hits and you won. As the new announcer jogged onto the sand and looked up to the crowd, Uktesh’s opponent said, “I will make this painless, boy.”

  Uktesh knew that everyone who entered was confident, but this man was dangerous, and Uktesh suddenly realized, possibly better than him. Uktesh sat on the ground and started to loosen his leg muscles as the announcer shouted, “You know him from yesterday! The lightning reaper of vengeance, Uktesh!” The crowd cheered as Uktesh moved to loosening his back, sides, and abs muscles. “Next we have a simple man with a simple title, but, for those who don’t know, this man hales from a warrior clan that specializes in unarmed combat. They’ve won this tournament every year we’ve had it. I give you Chirus, who, only this month, reached the second flame rank of the dragon clan!” This time the crowd roared its approval and came to its feet and shouted “Chirus!”

  Uktesh started to stretch his arms and asked, “So you’re popular. How many ranks are there in the dragon clan?”

  “There are five classes, dragon is the highest, and five ranks in each class.”

  “So you’re probably one of the best fighters in the clan?”

  “No, they don’t ever leave the mountain, but if you beat me, you’ll meet one of our better fighters.”

  Uktesh started to stretch his neck, “But you don’t think that’ll happen.”

  “No I do not.”

  The announcer asked, “You two ready?” They both nodded and Uktesh took up a fighting stance, as the announcer shouted, “Fight!”

  Uktesh took the offensive and flowed quickly from Colt Springs into the Air, which was blocked, to the imperfect Rainbow Kick, with his other leg, which was also blocked, but barely. When he landed, Uktesh crouched low and moved to the perfect Sweep the Leg, which connected. As Chirus started to fall to the ground, Uktesh moved back down to a balanced Crescent Kick to his stomach and sprang away from Chirus’ punch. Uktesh backed away, already breathing hard, from both nerves and the incredible aura that Chirus possessed.

  Chirus flipped to his feet and attacked, feet, hands, knees, and elbows came in at Uktesh with a fury and speed that he wasn’t used to from anyone other than a Beletarian. He blocked and dodged for a time, before he had to make a quick retreat to avoid a particularly fast kick. There seemed to be no flow, no rhythm to the attacks. They seemed to come at random. Uktesh weathered the attack and made a few of his own, though each was blocked in turn. Uktesh slowly began to allow his blocks and dodges to come slower and slower. He played on the hunch that Chirus never fought someone outside of his clan with the level of stamina that Uktesh had developed.

  As the attacks came closer and closer Chirus became more confident, and, while he didn’t start to telegraph his attacks, Uktesh was able to pick up a little quicker where they were aimed to head toward. Uktesh blocked the first of two punches and knew the second would have more strength and speed, and also knew that in his haste to finish Uktesh off he would slightly over extend himself. As the second punch came, Uktesh flowed into the balanced Shield of Air, but adapted it to grab Chirus’s arm and pivoted his body in towards Chirus. Then flowed into the Imperfect Lightning Flashed and again had to adapt it so that he could punch sideways, instead of the forward direct that the move was designed to go.

  Chirus was lifted off his feet by the blow and looked at Uktesh in shock. “How?” he paused, “You,” he shook his head, “you baited me.”

  “I did.” Uktesh said and offered his hand, “You are a very skilled fighter.”

  Chirus allowed himself to be helped from the ground and said, “You, surprisingly, are more skilled. I look forward to your fight with my master, Riu.”

  With that they left the sand, “Wow, that was spectacular!” said Larut, “They always win! Now we poor schmucks have a chance.”

  “Do you know who you fight next?”

  “Well our match is the last of the sixteen, but I fight someone named Riu.”

  “Hmm,” Uktesh said contemplatively, “is it too late to change our bets?”

  “What! Ye of little faith! I’ll totally win, now that the dragon clan fighter is out of it!”

  “Yeah, about that. I beat him, but his master is here fighting, and he’s ‘someone name Riu.’”

  “What?” said Larut, “But they only enter one each year.”

  “I guess that they didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Or maybe Riu was bored, and was here anyway, so he decided to join.”

  “How many flames is he?”

  “I don’t know, but try to get him to show some of his best attacks, so I can preview them.”

  “Great, not only do I lose five gold coins betting on myself, but I have to get beat on too?”

  “Well we’ll all lose the money and,” Uktesh paused, “yep.”

  “So there’s someone here that’s better than that guy?” asked Laurilli.

  “It seems so.”

  “What are your chances of winning?”

  “I’d say slim.”

  “Should we bet on the other guy?”

  “That would be the safe bet.”

  Soon it was Larut’s turn and with a shrug he said, “Hopefully he won’t hurt me too badly.”

  Larut’s opponent was younger than Chirus maybe ten years older than Uktesh, his build was the same as Chirus, though his muscles seemed somehow deeper, more defined, without the bulk that big muscles cause and he was probably six or seven inches taller than Charis. His dragon tattoo had three flames that came out of its mouth. Larut, on the other hand, was full of big bulky muscles that ordinarily would’ve helped in an unarmed fight. After the announcer called out their titles and shouted for them to fight, Uktesh saw Riu blur and Larut was on the ground, a sho
cked expression on his face, one that must have mirrored Uktesh’s. “Did anyone else see him move?” asked Repus.

  “No.” everyone said in hushed tones.

  “It kind of looked like he blurred to me,” said Uktesh, “but I didn’t see him actually throw a punch.” Larut picked himself up and threw and impressive combo of punches at Riu who again seemed to only stand still with his arms clasped behind his back. “Larut!” Uktesh yelled, “three right jabs and a left hook!”

  Larut heard him and, in an impressive display of skill, threw three fast jabs and instead of a left hook jabbed a fourth time with his right, which was exactly what Uktesh had hoped for. It still didn’t connect, but for the first time Riu could clearly be seen when he moved. He caught Larut’s hand and tapped him on the head with his free hand.

  Larut nodded his head to Riu who bowed slightly from the waist. Larut jogged back, “That was awesome! He’s as good unarmed as you are with your bow! He’s a full step above even you Uktesh.” Who shook his head in agreement, “and he’s several steps beyond me.” It was again Uktesh’s turn, but his fighter forfeited. In fact, both winners of the middle fights and Riu’s opponent forfeited. The final would be Riu and Uktesh, and they both would fight each other in the finals on the third day.

  Next was pole weapons and the first fight was Tylor versus Larut, and the winner would have to fight Repus if he won his first fight. “Well ain’t that a sight. In two rounds, no matter what, only one of us will continue on.”

  “At least that person will be in the final four competitors.” said Uktesh, which earned him three glares.

  “Basam wishes Basam knew Basam could sign up for more than one competition.” They all turned and started at him, “Basam has never fought in this before, and Basam is skilled in sword and pole weapons.”

  Larut and Tylor walked onto the sand and after a flurry of activity Tylor came back the winner. Repus won his fight, and soon he took the sand against Tylor. Repus and Tylor were evenly matched, but Repus came out on top, possibly only because of luck.

  The last competition mixed meant that the fighters could use whatever they wanted to fight with. While they each made their bets and found the order of the fights, Uktesh saw that both Charis and Riu were registered. Uktesh saw that, unlike last time, he and Riu were not on opposite ends of the bracket, and would meet in the third round, and that Charis would have to fight Riu in the first match. There were more fighters in this competition than any other, and that included sword. Once again Uktesh and his friends were split into different groups, but would fight each other in the later rounds, if they won.

  “I don’t get it.” Li said. “If you only get to use three weapons why do you have to choose six?”

  Repus answered, “Each person has to pick six weapons and at the start of each round, three of those six weapons are randomly chosen. You could use all three of them, or none of them, as unarmed is part of the mixed category. Uktesh chose sword, bow, axe, staff, knife, and a giant two handed great hammer. I chose staff, shield, axe, sword, pole, and mace. The reason behind it is that most likely a fighter would have one weapon that he or she was good at, but unless he or she was truly good at more than three weapons, the fighter had the possibility of weapons that he or she was not good with.”

  Li said, “I see, but what happens when both fighters get weapons they’re not good with?”

  “If that happens laughter will abound.” The first match was one of those where both fighters were unskilled with their weapons, but after a flurry of comical activity, the man with the longer weapon won. Next was Larut, who had four weapons he was good with and easily beat his opponent with the sword. Repus and Esolc each won their matches. Esolc had a tough time because he’d banked on being able to use a sword in his matches, but still came out ahead with a good attack pattern with the staff and shield combo he had to use.

  Tylor, who sat with the girls and Basam shouted to Esolc, “Next time get a sword! We almost lost money on you!”

  Esolc smiled and shouted back, “I was going to go for sword, but then I thought, ‘nah I’ll make it harder on myself!’” The crowd that could hear the conversation laughed as Esolc continued in where the rest of the group was waiting. He sat down in a huff next to Uktesh and said, “That one was tough. How would you’ve done it?”

  “Well I would’ve waited for an attack, then I’d have blocked on my shield, thrust with my staff, and, if my opponent blocked that, he would’ve been in no position to avoid my kick that would’ve followed.”

  “Yeah I thought it would be something difficult.” Esolc sulked. He shut his eyes and leaned his head against the wall, “It’s not like I’m in it for the money at this point. At this point, we’ve won more than we could ever spend,” he smiled eyes still shut, “well ever spend in a year. I just don’t want to look foolish in front of Heathyr.”

  Uktesh paused and considered his words, “You need to cool it with the whole Heathyr thing. She’s in love with her husband, who may still be alive, and if he is, sooner or later he’s going to come home. If he isn’t, you won’t have a shot with her for a long time after she finds out. I’d recommend, for now, just be yourself. Don’t worry too much about how you look in front of her and you’ll come out more ahead than what you’re doing.”

  “But I love her.” he said dejectedly, and gazed at the ground. “I love her so much that it’s hard to be around her without constantly shouting my love for her. Spending so much time with her has only caused me to want her more. She is so beautiful and kind, but she also has a fiery side and a fighting side.” He sighed and said to himself, “What am I going to do? I don’t want to wish someone I’ve never met harm, but I keep thinking, and this is horrible I know, but I think, ‘what if Thulmann’s dead, then I’ll finally have a chance with her.’ Yet I know that Thulmann dying would hurt her terribly and I don’t want that either.”

  “I’m not really the best person for this kind of advice, but I would say you need to be yourself. Back off with the whole ‘needing to impress Heathyr’ thing. You are a genuinely good guy and if you’re meant to be with her, you’ll be with her. Right now it’s funny, but too much and you’ll start embarrassing her.”

  “What would you do if Laurilli was married?”

  “I’d probably live somewhere else, cause I wouldn’t have been invited to stay with them. But I would probably think about her until I met the one I was meant to be with, if she wasn’t the one for me.”

  “It’s your turn to fight,” he said in the same monotone.

  “What?” asked Uktesh.

  “They’re calling your name to fight.”

  Uktesh stood up and jogged into the arena, speaking to his opponent he said, “Sorry, I was talking and lost track of time.”

  “You sure you’re not just afraid of fighting me without your sword?” sneered Dekan.

  Uktesh felt his jaw open, “You’re taunting me? My fiancé beat you without much trouble. What makes you think you have a chance?”

  “You’ll see.” he said with a confident grin.

  Uktesh picked his three weapons and got bow and arrows, a staff, and a two handed great hammer. After Uktesh had grabbed his weapons, he saw Dekan with the announcer who shouted, “fight!”

  Dekan drew a stick with a metal cylinder at the end and pointed it at Uktesh. Uktesh smiled, not sure what Dekan was doing, but suddenly his weapon exploded only it was Uktesh on the ground, his shoulder throbbed with sudden pain. Dekan had abandoned his weapon and had charged at Uktesh to get his second point. Uktesh struggled to his feet his right arm dangled uselessly at his side. What happened? How am I so injured?

  Dekan attacked with a flurry of sword and dagger combinations that against anyone else similarly injured would’ve easily scored him a point, as it was, Uktesh was barely able to avoid a loss in the match. Uktesh saw an opportunity and scored a point of his own with a flying kick. He landed on his back and heard a pop in his shoulder, then, after an intense pain, his arm felt mu
ch better. He stood and found that he was able to move it again, but each movement was painful.

  Uktesh threw his bow at Dekan. Then when he dodged that, Uktesh spun and kicked him again in the ribs. Dekan stood up, clearly ready to continue the fight, but the announcer was there and stopped him. Uktesh dropped his weapons and walked back to the group that waited to fight. He slowly rolled his injured arm to get some easy movement back. Before he made it into the waiting area, Laurilli leaned down from the first row of seats and shouted, “Dodge left!”

  Instantly, he rolled onto his left shoulder as another explosion sounded behind him and something ricocheted off of the wall now behind him. He saw Dekan with the weapon again, and guards had begun to move in towards him. But before they could get to him, and before Uktesh could ready an attack in his mind, Baloce was there. He disarmed Dekan, and shouted, “He’s just upset about the games. I’ll take him home. No harm no foul.” But the guards didn’t listen, they arrested him and Baloce followed as he continued to argue. The announcer ran to Baloce and he stopped and came back to the center of the ring and picked three weapons randomly from his six choices. Uktesh realized that Baloce was the next fighter. Uktesh walked back into the waiting area, but not before he smiled and mouthed, “Thank you,” to Laurilli.

  “That was a tough fight. I didn’t think that they’d allow guns to be used. You’re lucky that he was using a rubber ball or some other softer material than metal, because otherwise it would’ve tore through your shoulder.”

  “I guess I should be thankful that the first time I saw that weapon wasn’t during the final day when real weapons are used.”

  “Yeah, but a good lesson learned for you. If you don’t know what it does, don’t give them enough time to use it.” Uktesh nodded

  Larut walked up and said, “Riu’s fighting.”

  Riu and Charis squared off against each other. Charis had two sticks in his hands each about two feet long and about a thumb size thick. Riu chose not to use any of his weapons. The announcer shouted, “Fight!” and as the sound echoed around the arena Charis charged Riu, who again seemed to blur. Uktesh didn’t hear any cracks that Charis had connected and from his expression the announcer had no clue how to judge this match. Uktesh saw Riu’s leg flash up, and Charis flew away to land and roll instantly to his feet.