Chapter 10 - Continue the tournament

Martin and Adrian woke up and exited from their separate rooms letting their girlfriends get a little bit more sleep before they go to college. They got themselves ready, eating some breakfast. Martin made himself a bagel and Adrian was making himself four eggs. After eating, the two friends got dressed and began their walk over to their gym. As they were walking it was still in the morning about 8:45 last time Adrian checked his phone, they saw a decent amount of signs hung up on poles, and they said "R.I.P the Chernys". Later on, they saw a young-looking man, looking around Mycola's age given his bigger frame and strong facial features. He looked to have multiple spray cans and was spraying them on a wall. Adrian walked up to the man.

"You enjoy graffiti art too man," Adrian said calmly, approaching the figure. He looks at the lines the man was making, it was a portrait of someone, looks like it could have been a woman. "Are you friends with the Chernys?"

The man looked up to Adrian and looked back at his artwork to continue his work. "I used to date the older daughter, Lilly before you know," the man began to cry a bit before Adrian wrapped his arm around the guy.

"It is ok man, it's ok," Adrian said trying to comfort the man. "We have all experienced loss in our lives. The best thing we can do is try to move on for the sake of the people that we have lost. They would rather not see us up in heaven suffering from their loss but instead be happy that we remember and cherish the time we spent with them."

The man seemed to have calmed down a bit and kept spraying his cans. "What is your name, giant?"

"Adrian, even though I do not know Lilly, I have met Mycola more recently and I feel bad to have heard of their death," Adrian said, glancing at the painting and then at Martin who was a bit distant but still looking at the painting.

"You fight for Mr.Syvone?" the man asked as he keeps spraying. "You look like you can beat up a lot of people."

"I do fight for Mr. Syvone, that is where I met Mycola," Adrian said as he realized something. "Wait hold on, what is your name anyway?"

"The name is Dylan," Dylan said looking back up at Adrian and noticing Martin. "I am sorry to have kept you two delayed, you guys should get going to your gym. Come back to this alleyway when I am done with my artwork."

"Will do Dylan," Adrian said as he walked out of the alleyway and back over to Martin. "Alright Martin, let's head over to the gym now."

As the two of them continued to walk down the street, they walked past the apartment to see some police cars still outside the apartment building. Martin faced the building and began to pray again. He was praying for about five minutes then afterward, he got back, gave a nod to Adrian, and continued their commute to the gym. As they continue to walk to the gym, they see a bunch of people making a little memorial to the Chernys. When they finally got to the gym, that street seemed to be where the support for the Chernys was the loudest. Signs across the streets say, "In remembrance of Mycola Cherny and his family." As Adrian and Martin walked down the steps to the gym's entrance, they that the feeling of this area, in particular, was different. From the rough and tough area where people would have to work hard to make a name for themselves to the place of sorrowing of a man that died. When they entered the gym door, they seemed to be the last ones to show up. Everyone else turned to stare at them, and then to look up at the cage where Mr. Syvone stands there like a general about to lead his troops into war. The other trainers stood behind Mr. Syvone, as they looked at the rest of the crowd.

Mr. Syvone cleared his throat and looked to be thinking about what he wanted to say. "I am happy to at least be able to mourn the death of our brother, Mycola Cherny." He looked at the rest of the people with mixed looks of sadness, pain, and grief. "We all are sad to hear of the death of Mycola Cherny. It was unexpected, misfortunate, and just flat-out horrible. Not only for him but the lives of his family members." Mr. Syvone stops talking for a bit looking as if he was regathering his thoughts about what to say next. "I understand that for everyone that knew Mycola and for anyone else that knew him it will be a hard adjustment but we still have a tournament that I want to get a bunch of guys in," Mr. Syvone looked at Scott and he walked up and from behind him was a bag. Mr. Syvone reached into the bag to reveal it was a pair of fighter shorts with the initial MC on the right side of the shorts. "We will fight in memory of our fellow fighter Mycola with his initials on our shorts. I know he would want us to keep pushing forward and to keep building our program into something not only respected in our city but also feared for how dominant we are." The crowd begins to look more excited as Mr. Syvone ended that sentence as if he awoke the killer instinct of his men. "I miss that man as much as anyone else here but that man would want use to fight till the VERY FUCKING END AND THE DESTROY EVERYONE IN FRONT OF US." Mr. Syvone started to scream and it caused to crowd to grow as he continued to scream. "NOW ARE WE GOING TO JUST STAND THERE LOOKING LIKE A BUNCH OF SAD, PATHETIC BASTARDS, OR ARE WE GOING TO CONTINUE OUR IN-HOUSE TOURNAMENT TO DETERMINE THE BEST OF THE BEST SO THAT CAN GO OUT THERE TO INCINERATE THE COMPETITION!" Mr. Syvone screamed and began to cough a bit as the rest of the crowd screamed in excitement. "Ok, the first match of the second round is Landon Harris against Branden McCullough. We will give everyone a ten-minute warm-up before we start these matches." As people begin to get ready for the matches, Mr. Syvone and the rest of the trainers walked off the ring. As the people were warming up, Adrian noticed a difference in the room. Everyone looked like they were ready to kill whoever they are going against. Martin and Adrian did their routine partner stretch, then Mr. Syvone got back onto the stage. "Alright, Landon and Branden come up to the ring, we are about to start the fight."

Both men walked onto the ring like they are ready to perform to hopefully have a good start to this day two.

"I am going to beat the shit out of you, man," Branden seemed to tell Landon as he was looking down at him. He was a tan-colored man that looked to be a little bit taller than Landon but looked not as strong as his opponent.

"Shut the fuck up, bitch," Landon responded as he looked too fake punching Branden.

Mr. Syvone stepped in between the men. "Save that shit-talking for before the match," both men walked to their corner. "Are both of you ready?" Both men nodded. "SET, GO!"

Both the men begin to move towards the center of the ring and Branden immediately starts throwing punches, Landon dodging them swiftly and then throws a couple of his own. Branden looked to have stumbled a bit but maintained his composure. Then they go into jabbing each other for a while. Both men with a look of determination on their faces, then Branden tried going for a kick to Landon's face. Landon ducked, stepped a bit in, and swept Branden's leg causing him to fall. Landon took his opportunities and ended the match with a knockout.

Mr. Syvone stopped the match and walked back to the middle. "For the championship match of Flyweight Division, it is between Landon Harris and between the winner of the next match, which is between Jamarcus Jeffery and Nicoluas Titan." The crowd gets excited as the two fighters leave and a different set walks back onto the ring. Jamarcus was a short lanky guy, kinda built like a twig with dreadlocks to match his branches. Nicoluas looked like the embodiment of the word "tired", his most definable feature is the horrible bags underneath his eyes. Both men stood in their corners and waited for them to receive a signal from Mr. Syvone.

Jamarcus turned to look into the crowd and signal out one man. "Hey, Knitter, what are the odds looking like?" Jamarcus asked as Mr. Syvone was checking on Nicoluas.

"Jamarcus!" Mr. Syvone yelled at Jamarcus. Jamarcus turned to look over at Mr. Syvone looking confused. "Are you ready or not?" Mr. Syvone asked. Jamarcus gave him a nod. "SET, GO!"

The second fight begins with a similar start to the previous one. Jamarcus starts immediately being the aggressive one between the two of them. Instead of it being a very skilled fighter like Landon, Nicoluas seemed to be more outpaced in this fight. It was as if he was just trying to survive for as long as he can. Eventually, Jamarcus landed a very hard punch on Nicoluas which caused him to hit the floor hard. Mr. Syvone stepped in to declare the match a knockout.

"Winner of the second match is Jamarcus Jeffery!" Mr. Syvone yelled into the crowd. "The finals for Flyweight will be Landon Harris vs. Jamarcus Jeffery! Next match we have Jeremy Gritham VS, Julio Bart."

The crowd cheered as Jeremy walked up onto the ring, closing his bad eye to remind everyone that he is fighting with only one good eye. Then Julio was doing somersaults into the ring and it got the crowd excited. Both of them stood in their corners.

Mr. Syvone walked up to the center of the ring and looked at both men. "Are you two ready?" Both men gave Mr. Syvone a nod and then Mr. Syvone looked back to the middle "SET, GO!"

Both men started staggerer moving to the center of the ring. Jeremy stands at an unusual angle allowing for his good eye to have a good view of the area. Julio kept moving to get out of Jeremy's field of vision. Jeremy kept adjusting and moving to get his position back. Then Julio started to throw punches at the half-sight man. Jeremy dodges them and then goes to grab at his opponent's legs. He swept himself behind Julio to get a grip on the other legs and then he took his opponent to the ground after a struggle match between the two of them. When Julio hit the ground, Jeremy climbed up his opponent and began to throw punches at the man he was on top of. Julio was trying his best to brace all the attacks as he is trying to work himself to get away from the wrestler on him. It was a hard-fought position but after some time both men were on their feet but Jeremy still had some control with his grip. Julio looked more beat up with minor bruising across his body. After some struggle, Julio broke his grip on Jeremy and began to throw his punches. Jeremy started dodging some but Julio tried to focus on his bad side, some of them resulting in some hard blows. After a while, Mr. Syvone checked his timer and blew his whistle.

"Round one has ended, both of you go back to your corners," Mr. Syvone said as both of the fighters walked back to their corners.

Jeremy was getting checked up by the trainers mostly to the areas near where his glass eye is to make sure it is still fine. Julio was on his side looking like he got hit a decent amount of times but the fire in his eyes was still there.

"Jeremy that was good keep it up," Tyson yelled as he moved over to Jeremy's side. Adrian and Tyson followed suit.

"Yeah, take him down again," Martin said to Jeremy as the trainers were cleaning on the fighter.

"END THE MATCH!" Adrian yelled to get excitement. The crowd followed, yelling for they wanted to see one of them win. It seemed like a decent amount wanted to see Jeremy succeed.

Mr. Syvone walked back to the middle of the ring, "Are both of you ready?" Both fighters nodded in response to the question that was asked. "SET, GO!"

Jeremy and Julio both began their movement back to the middle. It was slower, Julio looked as if it was because of some pain caused by Jeremy, while Jeremy looked like he was just biding his time waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Jeremy was throwing an occasional jab wanting Julio to react in a big way. Julio just kept moving to the side avoiding the jabs and trying to get himself in a better position. Eventually, after a couple of seconds of this slight back and forth, Jeremy finally found his opening. He faked going to Julio's leg, and when Julio tried to hit Jeremy's face with his knee, Jeremy moved to the side. He then got back up and delivered a strong kicked to his face. When Julio got hit, he immediately hit the floor and it was deemed a knockout by Mr. Syvone. The crowd roared in cheers and applause as Jeremy went over to help up Julio and assisted him out of the ring.

"The next match to determine who will face Jeremy is between Alfonzo Drummond and Zach Tubano," Mr. Syvone said as he walked back to the middle. As Alfonzo and Zach walked up to the ring, Adrian realized something about Alfonzo. He was the man that lasted all those rounds against the Asian guy. Zach was a guy who was built smaller than Alfonzo but he was a little bit stockier along with him being white. Both fighters got into their corners, and Mr. Syvone asked his normal question. Both men gave a nod and Mr. Syvone started the match.

The men were moving around to see if there was an immediate advantage to use to get a victory. Adrian looked over to Martin as the fighters were just moving around and jabbing each other.

"I bet this match will last a lot longer than we probably think it will be," Adrian said nonchalantly to Martin.

"Why would you say that, Adrian?" Martin asked as he was looking into the ring. Both fighters were mostly just circling each other, it was mostly Alfonzo that was doing mostly blocking, while Zach was the one mostly being the aggressive one in this bout. "I mean probably if he just keeps blocking and tries to throw some punches."

"I mean you are probably right," Adrian said as he turns back to observe the fight.

It was the same as what was happening earlier, mostly jabbing and movement. Then Zach looked as if he was getting annoyed with what was happening. He then tried to throw a reckless punch trying to knock Alfonzo out. Alfonzo stepped to the side and delivered a very strong punch knocking Zach out. Mr. Syvone stepped in to call it a knockout and Alfonzo calmly walked out of the ring.

After helping Zach up, Mr. Syvone walked back to the center. "The finals for the Bantamweight will be Jeremy Gritham VS Alfonzo Drummond! The next match for the Featherweight will be between Miguel Chachon vs Edwardo Espinso!"

Both Michael and Edwardo are Mexicans, the difference between them was that Miguel had longer limbs and was slightly taller than Edwardo along with having darker hair. Edwardo was shorter than Miguel, along with having dyed hair that was tied up in braids.

"Are you two ready to begin?" Mr. Syvone asked as he was looking at both of them. Both men responded with nods, "SET, GO!"

Both men immediately began to start throwing punches at each other with the aggression of lions. Edwardo was mostly able to dodge them due to his ability to duck through Miguel's punches and get a lot of chest shots into Miguel. Miguel was able to take a lot of punches and eventually was able to move out the way to throw a couple of his punches. Edwardo eventually was able to dodge the punches and got into Miguel to take him down from his legs. Miguel had a weak frame and then got put onto the floor. After that Miguel almost instantly took advantage of it and started beating the shit out of Miguel. After a while, Mr. Syvone stepped in to end the match and declare it a knockout. Afterward, Edwardo helped Miguel up and proceeded to walk him out of the ring.

Mr. Syvone walked back onto the middle of the ring. "The next match is going to be between Edwardo Espinso and Aaron Levi, but Aaron's fight was going to be against Mycola Cherny. So for it, we will have Aaron stand up here. We will take a moment of silence and then declare Aaron the winner."

Aaron Levi walked up to the ring and stood in the middle. Mr. Syvone counts down from three to zero so all the fighters in the gym can begin the moment for their fallen fighter. Everyone then became so quiet that it became eerily quiet. It was to the point where someone's breathing sounded very loud. Everyone else just stood there being quiet. It looked like some of them became lost in thought, for what reason was unclear to all except themselves. Others, like Martin, began to do a silent prayer for Mycola. Other people just stood there quiet without any thought, just blank as if they died standing up.

After a while, Mr. Syvone cleared his throat to signal that the moment of silence was over. "I like to thank all of you for being respectful for Mycola, moving on in the Lightweight, it will be between Demetrius McCoy against Jonothan Bane."

Demetrius and Jonothan both walked into the ring. Demetrius looked like he was ready to absolutely murder his opponent. Jonothan looked like he was already done with this whole fight. Mr. Syvone asked his usual question to the fighters and both of them gave a nod. "SET, GO!" Mr. Syvone yelled.

Both fighters moved and Demetrius immediately started throwing a lot of punches. Jonathan tried his best to avoid them but he got overwhelmed and got knocked out in less than thirty seconds. Demetrius did not even acknowledge what he just did. He just walked out while Mr. Syvone walked to help out Jonothan.

"Demetrius will be in the finals for Lightweight, his opponent will be the winner of this match," Mr. Syvone said as he was shocked by how quick the match ended. "Next match will be between Darren Odom and Octavion Jaquavious!"

As Darren walked over to the ring, Martin looked over to Adrian. "I can not believe there is a motherfucker named Octavian, this motherfucker better be built like a great god." Then suddenly both Adrian and Martin felt a strong presence behind him. Then they were moved by a shorter but surprisingly slimmed-looking man.

"There is no way a guy that small can be that strong," Adrian said to Martin. "He is probably either got shit muscle development genetics or he is just not natural."

Octavion walked up to the ring and jumped to clear the metal cage. He lands down ready to go. "Mr. Syvone, I am ready to fight," Octavion says as he stares directly at Darren.

"I am going to beat your cocky ass!" Darren said as he looked at Octavion. Under the light, Martin and Adrian got a better look at the surprisingly strong man. He was a tall lanky looking man, he probably was a track star in high school, Adrian thought to himself but did not share. Octavion was a light-skinned man that had a floral tattoo on his right shoulder. "Just start the match," Darren said, staring directly into Mr. Syvone.

"SET, GO!" Mr. Syvone said as he started the match.

Both Darren immediately wanted to be the aggressor in this match, while Octavion seemed to be just dodging around his punches. Darren just kept pursuing his target. Octavion kept dodging and moving, occasionally throwing a fast jab to get Darren to put his guard up. Darren was not falling for it and just kept moving his head to narrowly avoid these hits. After a constant game of cat and mouse between the two fighters, Mr. Syvone stepped in to end the first round. Both fighters went to their corners and Darren seemed to be more tired in comparison to Octavian.

"Dumbass," Adrian said as he looked up to the match. "The motherfucker is just going to tire himself out so that Octapus, Octavion, whatever the fuck his name is can just swiftly end the match."

Both fighters seemed to be getting up and Darren looks very mad. "I do not know man, Darren could end this," Martin said with confidence.

"Is that a bet?" Adrian asked trying to fuck with Martin. It seemed to work as he just looks dumbfounded. Martin just looked back to the ring shortly following Martin.

Darren immediately began to start striking at his opponent. Octavin tries to dodge them but seemed to be hit a couple of times, one of which was towards the stomach which seemed to knock the wind out of him. Darren grinned as he seemed to have found his opening and proceeded to lay waste to this fight. Striking fast and hard till Mr. Syvone stepped in to end the fight.

"Our Lightweight fight will be between Darren Odom and Demetrius McCoy! We will take a small intermission to conclude the rest of the necessary semifinal fights.