13 Chapter 12

Johan seemed to find himself in a much more impressive match up than mine because his next opponent was somebody who was over an inch bigger all of the way around. They even wielded a pole like he did, but their grip was more like a spear with a hand at the back and middle. Johan wielded his more like a staff at the middle but still forward with one hand near the end for leverage.

Like an ax.

If I had to arm Johan with an actual weapon, it would be with a crescent bladed poleax or a light halberd because of his obvious favoritism. While the crescent blade would allow for some stabbing attacks, his natural preference for chopping and sideways strikes would be more favorable to a broad but thin ax blade. Like a rounded guillotine or giant ulu.

True to his method of wielding their weapon the other boy initiated the fight as soon as the judge started it, repeatedly and rapidly thrusting with all of the reach of his weapon.

Because he was holding his pole with a shorter front end, Johan could relatively easily dip and raise and bat the fore end of his staff about to block these thrusts. After a few moments of these easy maneuvers, the other boy quickly switched to closing the distance. Something that came as a surprise even to me, tho, was how Johan allowed the boy to close in half of the way before meeting him in the middle with a solid thrust of his pole into his gut.

Dropping the end of his staff after stopping the other boy in his tracks, Johan swipes the fore end around, up, and then slams it down on the bows shoulder while he was still staggering from the blow. Whipping the back end of his staff around while lunging into a crouch, Johan sweeps the legs out from under the boy as he tries to distance himself from the continuing combo. Johan was a lot better than I expected and had probably been in these tournaments for years from the looks of it.

Taking a few steps back to let the other boy get back up on his feet, Johan simply waits in a lower version of his starting stance while holding the other boy's gaze. After having been blocked, parried, and sent to the ground, the other guy seemed reluctant to close the distance. Finally, he simply stood up while holding his staff beside him in one hand and announces, "I forfeit."

In my opinion, that was the best course of action. Johan not only had a more diverse list of techniques but also something of a unique method for using his weapon. That unique method made him hard to predict among fellow amateurs so it would probably take somebody with real talent to see through him.

Real talent was hard to come by, even I would have been wrecked in the first fight if not for months of familiarizing myself with my body and a lifetime of experience behind it. Of course, that giant tub of lard fought with his size more than skill or technique. The first thing he tried to do was run in and grab me to overwhelm a smaller body.

No tact or caution at all.

My tournament was soon to enter its third set of matches, then came the semi-finals. From the looks of it, though, the final fight would probably have three people in it from the uneven number of matches. Somebody would either have to step down, force a draw, or the main contender would have two separate fights in the finals.

"Now I know what you mean about easy wins," remarks Johan as he returns to his seat next to me. "Your fight is gonna be the first of the quarter-finals, right?"

"And I'll be up against an actual fighter this time," I reply with a brief nod, thinking back to the two kids who had been throwing relentless punches earlier. "They don't know as much as I do, but they have more experience and that should help make up the difference. Of course, they stronger than I am, but so was that fat-ass."

Laughing at my reference to my first fight, Johan asks, "What would your parents say if they heard you talking like that?"

"My mother would probably get mad at me but my dad would probably turn it into a chorus after the show his father put on," I reply casually, even smirking a little.

As if summoned by our conversation, an all too familiar voice from somewhere out of sight asks, "Is that so?"

Turning around, I found myself faced not only with my irate looking mother but also my and Johan's fathers. I could do nothing but smile sheepishly at my parents because I had been caught speaking inappropriately, but my father simply brushed it aside by asking, "What show did they put on, exactly? What are you two even doing here? We've been walking around looking for you for almost half of an hour."

"Uh..." I find myself saying lamely, wondering how I could safely explain away this situation.

Coming to the rescue, Johan stands up and bows his head both respectfully and apologetically to my parents before saying, "I brought him here and signed us both up for the younger tournaments. In his first fight, the organizers put him up against the second son of the Shining Compass chamber of commerce- probably because they wanted to give him an easy win. Well, he ran at Hugo to grab him as soon as the fight started and Hugo just dropped into his legs, sent that tub of lard face first onto the stage. His face was all bloody and his dad, who was right by the stage the whole time, started yelling at the judge and complaining about how the fight was already 'unfair'.

"Hugo called him a useless old goat because his son is twice Hugo's size and to just wait to coddle him once he was done with him," he carries on almost excitedly, barely pausing for breath throughout the explanation. "Both the father and son were FURIOUS about this, so the son actually did the SAME EXACT THING by running at Hugo. Hugo did the same thing, too, but the fat boy jumped over him. Before he even touched the ground, though, Hugo did not even bother getting up and just pushed off the ground to kick behind him! He ended up hitting the stage face first again and, for the record, between all of the youth matches Hugo's was the first in which somebody actually bled."

"But did he win?" My father asks curiously, earning himself an aghast look from my mother.

"That's the best part!" Johan replies, only too happy to continue his story. "After he got back up, Hugo started taunting him while circling him really fast and then he let the boy run away and then he took off after him. When the boy stopped to turn around and try to fight, Hugo was already jumping up and fell into this amazing punch that sent the bigger boy staggering. Then, the boy showed his family colors as Hugo was going to punch him again by forfeiting the match… and then attacking Hugo. He ended up taking a knee to the face before he could even touch hi… and that's how last year's third place winner for Hugo's tournament got knocked out in the first round."