20 Second fight
Zawis sat in front of me in the dirt and looked with wide-opened eyes at me. He shook his head and tried to stand up, but his feet gave in and he sat back into the dirt of the sparring ring.
I took some deep breaths, trying to get it under my control. That was terrifying and tiring. That last palm strike really hit well and Zawis must have something like a concussion, right? Well, it´s not like I am a doctor or anything...
Actually using my palm is a habit from my former life. I did train in self-defense for a bit and one teacher would always tell us, that using a fist is not something we should do, because if we are not used to hitting stuff with our fists we would likely hurt ourselves as well. The palm is better that way since there isn´t a danger of bleeding while hitting. The other reason was, that using a fist looks more aggressive and witnesses wouldn´t always see the beginning of a fight and could not understand who the aggressor is. So using open hands and holding them up is an effective fighting stance and closing the fists is faster than opening it and it looks more like pleading than and fighting stance. Witnesses would come to believe, that maybe you aren´t the aggressor, but the victim. That is important for later when the police ask questions. And we needed that sort of positive buffer because in my country someone who learned self-defense was considered practiced in, well self-defense and had a harder time in front of judges. Something like he should be able to defend himself adequately and not do extreme self-defense on the other party. There was an exception of course: If the attacker used a knife one of our teachers always told us, that those guys should only wake up in a hospital. Attempted murder isn´t a really fun thing... That always led to another point, as not to use weapons if we can. Bring a weapon and if you lose it the other party will use it against you. If you take a weapon of the attacker and use it you automatically become guilty of the same crime as him: Attempted murder. It's not a fun time in a trial... or so I heard... never experienced that myself... only met guys who tried to abuse that in order to get the other person to attack without knowing, that verbal violence is still considered violence and can justify an attack by the offended person... never came to anything either, though...
Right! Let´s get back to getting Zawis into a hospital. He tried standing up a few more times and I really should not play nice and let him recover. I went over to Zawis and got into a stance. A kick to his face should do the trick again, right. As I was staring down at him his face contorted in rage and disbelieve as his legs gave in again and he slumped back into the dirt. He clenched his teeth and looked really irritated, but would not say anything at all.
I cocked my head. Would it be rude to ask him to give up? That would probably enrage him even more, right? I mean he is stubborn enough to not surrender...
Alright, a kick it is. A roundhouse kick worked well last time, so let´s do it again. I took a short running start and started my kick to his face.
"Enough! Zawis has lost!"
As Elder Irvin´s voice boomed across the field, I tried to avert the kick, but the momentum of the kick carried over and I fell on my butt next to Zawis.
Great just great! I could only imagine my flushed face as I started to feel the heat rise to my face in complete embarrassment. I heard some chuckling from my side and I could see him trying to stifle his laughter at my inability to control the momentum. I stood up as Zawis´s father came to help him up and carried him to the edge of the ring. I also returned to my mother, who similarly to Zawis tried to stifle her laughter. I sat next to her and stared at the floor in embarrassment.
"A good fight!"
Elder Irvin applauded us by hitting his fist on his chest.
We weren´t evolved from apes in this world, right? Although... why would I think that? Religions always had a tendency to explain things that the people did not understand by saying the gods did it. I mean it might not be wrong... for example evolution could be triggered by a god or evolution was intended as it is in order to bring out intelligent life... most people would say that those are excuses for things that are not defined by religion, but you should try and explain evolution to someone from the stone or bronze ages... Good luck!
"Who will challenge next?"
The next few fights went by and I noticed that Athala was surprisingly powerful. I always thought that she would be placed more in the middle, but it seemed like she actually learned to dodge some of their attacks... surprising, that they would actually do that...
"I want to challenge Arn!"
I looked up surprised I did not think I would be challenged again this soon. I mean wouldn´t it be cowardly to attack a weakened opponent? So who would... Ah! Engilde stood there staring at me. I noticed, that her fights were mostly unsuccessful and she might actually be the weakest of our generation... after me, of course.
"I accept the challenge!"
I stood up and noticed my legs still burned a bit as my aching muscles carried my body to the middle of the ring. I really should finish the fight quickly. The saving grace was, that Engilde is not exactly strong. Well, still a lot stronger than me, but compared to Zawis it just might be like a fight of a teenager against a kid. Easy, right?
"Ready? Fight!"
As Elder Irvin gave his signal for us to go. I looked intently at Engilde waiting for her to rush me. That is what they do most of the time, so it should work if I throw her into the dirt a few times and then kick her until she gave up, or Irvin gave the time out.
She bend her knees and readied for her charge.
Yeah, come on! I am ready for anything you could dish out!
And then she jumped at me.