BXBX NOVEL Chapter 726
The first match was Kress against Irwin. Irwin had guessed Kat would simply go in to clean everything up and he was hoping to take her out. Kress however, insisted on having a good fight first. It didn’t really matter. Kress was good, especially for his age group. Being at this stage in the tournament already elevated him over many of his peers, something that shouldn’t be forgotten.
The issue however... was that Irwin was the bulwark for his team. He was the physical powerhouse with greater muscles, more dedicated training, and a height and weight advantage that made a big difference in the small arena. Kress didn’t really get any good hits in, at least nothing that pierced Irwin’s armour anyway. They managed to remove the bindings in about the same amount of time. Kress slashing it, and Irwin simply ripping them apart with pure muscle.
Irwin then quickly traded a few scratches on his armour for a decisive blow straight to Kress stomach followed up by a hammer strike, two hands threaded together into a large fist, slamming right down on the back of Kress’ unarmoured head. The rain hadn’t really mattered at all. It was enough to knock him out, and Thyme called the match there. Irwin of course chose to stay in.
Kat was ready to go, but Nixilei asked for her own chance. She handed her dagger off and said, “I doubt I’ll win, the chances are rather low. I would like to make the attempt though. It is a great chance to test my hand to hand combat skills against a brutal opponent without the risk of death,”
Gareth wasn’t going to deny her the chance, Kat was willing to let Nixilei try, Kress wasn’t back from the healing and Green, the only person who would have objected was asleep. When Nixilei entered the ring things moved quickly. Irwin had the bindings reapplied to him, but it was a simply matter to break them again. Nixilei took a different approach, abusing her flexibility to drop to the ground and roll the vines off her feet.
She jumped back up just as Irwin was regaining his posture. She jumped in, abusing her superior speed and martial training to make accurate strikes in the areas she thought she’d find his pressure points. Nixilei went for every single weak point she could short of the eyes as they were well protected and had an extra set of eyelids anyway. The armour Irwin wore covered a great deal but Nixilei was a rather cunning opponent.
.....
So of course, when Irwin stopped moving halfway through, some people were impressed by Nixilei’s prowess. Irwin was not one of those people and Kat could sadly tell why. Once Nixilei had exhausted herself Irwin took one easy step forward. “Fuck,” was all Nixilei could say before Irwin grabbed her by the neck of her robes and hurled her out of the arena. That was actually a scarier situation for Irwin then others might have thought though. Once again. The rain, and it’s strawberry flavouring didn’t matter one bit.
He didn’t want to brutally take her out. Nixilei was clearly exhausted after her assault and in no shape to properly fight. Taking her out in a way that made him look bad would be undermining a lot of his good work. It wasn’t like Kress in the heat of the moment, so that was out. He didn’t want to just barely knock her out either. Nixilei was too fast for him to stop, and it was only her lacking knowledge of his body that prevented her from actually doing damage. Well, that and the toughness of his skin.
So, Irwin settled for tossing her out of the ring. It was a good compromise. Irwin wasn’t breathing heavily, but he did know that he was going to be rather bruised after that round. Disabled he was certainly not... but Nixilei could still hit quite hard and he was in a bit of pain. He almost wanted to just yell out to Kat and challenge her now but he held his tongue. He had the odd feeling that if he woke Green, Kat would be extra brutal.
“Do you want to go in?” asked Kat.
Gareth shook his head and whispered back knowing Kat would hear despite being a few chairs away. “No. I don’t really feel the need to show of my fighting skill like the others. I get why Nixilei did it... but fighting Irwin wouldn’t really be a unique challenge for me. I have to deal with plenty of larger monsters as the tank. Keeping them under wraps either while the rest of the group deals with it, or with the other enemies. I could fight Irwin... but I think we both know what fight everyone really wants to see,”
*Can’t say I’m all that surprised. I guess I’ll go fight Irwin. I... I don’t know how this will go. I’ll probably be best using my sharp nails to try and cut him because jabs didn’t do much and I doubt punches will. I can take a hit but I can’t let Irwin throw me out of the ring in a moment of carelessness. I can probably take whatever he throws at me though so if I need to cling to him and take the hits I can.*
Kat was calm as she stepped into the ring and felt her right hand being bound to her back. It was with some kind of sticky good. It allowed for a bit of movement, and her hand was positioned under her wings so that those were still accessible. Perhaps overly generous, but not something she would complain about.
Irwin stared across the mat at her and prepared for her attack. The signal sounded and Kat was off. Irwin had to bend down to break the bonds, and Kat was more than ready for that. She pushed herself, full speed ahead, bracelet tax be damned. She was beside Irwin in moments and shoved her sharp nails straight into his eye.
Irwin didn’t see it coming, and only managed to reflexively shut his eyelids. It didn’t really help and her hand managed to dig deep into the eye. Growling in pain Irwin tried to backhand Kat but she was able to jump over that and slam a kick into his back forcing him forward. With his legs still bound and his whole word in pain, Irwin didn’t have a chance to avoid it.
There was a loud crash as Irwin hit the ground. Kat didn’t want to give him the chance to recover, as brutal as this beatdown was. She tried to go for the other eye, but Irwin was now keeping a proper eye on her. Irwin rolled and made it so his good eye was facing up at her. His legs were in close, and his right hand was on the ground ready to move if necessary. His left was held warily over his body while his legs were in close.
Kat made another jab for him but Irwin nearly managed to grab her arm. Only yanking it off course at the last moment prevented him from grabbing on and Kat was certain he could break her rest with grip strength alone. *Dammit. I wanted him out already. He’s down but very much not out. I can tell his watching me, waiting. Ready for just about anything I can throw at him. I wanted to get this done without having to just beat him up... but I think I’m left with no choice.*
Unless... Kat glanced at the soaking wet floorboards. “Thyme... if I pried up one of these floorboards and use it to beat Irwin like a drumb... would they count as weapons?”
Irwin’s single eye widened. He tried to use the distraction as a chance to cut his bindings but Kat raised a foot threatening, preparing to kick him in the head while she glanced back over at Thyme. Irwin got the message. While this was happening Thyme looked at Irwin and made the decision. Perhaps not an entirely fair one... but Kat didn’t need it. “I’m going to say that counts as a weapon.”
“Well I tried,” said Kat with a shrug. After that, it was a rather brutal beatdown. Even though Irwin was able to block her attacks, Kat kept wailing away. He tried to dodge a tail strike during it but that just moved him into one of Kat’s kicks. Eventually, Irwin was kicked off the edge.
Kat then went on to soundly trounce the rest of the team. There wasn’t anything they could do. She just threw them out of the arena with that one hand tied behind her back. It was no issue. Irwin was the last bulwark against victory and he was taken down.