6 - Ix's death
The wooden door that opened to the ring was a direct view into it but it was blurred with the crisscrossed woods on it, ensuring a square shape. A fight was going on, chants were high in the air, and Axena could hear grunts and stumps coming from the ring. There was no dust, affirming Somba's description of the ring; she inferred that the sand had been made denser by bloodshed.
She wasn't in the front but she hoped she had, to see the fight and particularly the ones involved in it. She prayed it won't be their men, that it won't be Culix or Socx. After a thud, the shout grew to the highest she had heard and that depicted that a depopulation had occurred. Next, there was Blood!!! chant, followed by a roar of expression.
"Brace yourself with candour," Axena tuned to see the origin of the voice, it was the chief of the whip guards. "Breath in and out as you may. There may never be a next time. Hug your friends and families if they are here, you may need to prevent your brain from falling off soon. Hold your friends, tell them what you've always wanted to. Send them if you can, to your loved ones. Say them farewell. It's the best moment for it. When we open the bars, you all step out and when the drums rolls, the competitors should step forward. There it begins."
After his words, the women turned to face the exit into the ring. None said a word, even the fighters had been displaced from each other. Axena's blurred vision could see men with shovels in the ring, turning the sands and adding more. She predicted that the blood was being cleared. Suddenly, the door was raised and rays from the sun landed on her eyes. Drum rolled, it was with a rhythm, not the ones coming from the crowd to depict their excitement. She heard whips landing on bodies and a push pedalled her forward. Her eyes closed, she proceeded with the crowd and felt that she was in the ring when her feet felt the hotness of the sands. There she dimly opened her eyes.
She saw the sands, widespread on the ring and darkened as Somba had described. A part towards the right flank was darker - the part where men with shovels worked on earlier. The wall that enclosed the ring had dents and depressions that were scattered on it. But none was deeper than the other. As she looked around, she found a deeper and accessible dent which was probably made by a heavy weapon on the wall, but in it was iron - Tipotha's most available resource. She reckoned that it was to safeguard the spectators from assaults that might erupt from the competitors. . She looked at the people as they extended from the first segment of the ring wall and higher to an end that her eyes could see. There were kids, men and women that had come to be entertained and she sighed.
"May the contenders step forward," the chief of the whip guards spoke and immediately, Lixxini walked out of the group and took her place in the middle of the ring. There was silence in the crowd as well as in Axena's mind. She was not thinking or hoping. Lixxini looked fit but according to Somba, the ring is not for the fittest. That was the only thing that was in her mind, her hope. Slowly, Ix walked to join her and Axena watched as the chief of the whip guards walked towards a gigantic figure with a helmet with pants that were tattered and stained with blood. They conversed and the one with the helmet inserted a key into a lock that seemed invisible, he went in and soon walked out with bats like Somba's. He handed them to the chief of the whip guards and he walked towards Ix and Lixxini and handed it to them.
"Men and women of Tipotha. Men and women and kids enamoured in the ring. I present to you today women of RebelHood. They have decided to have a raise in their position and while I think it's too early, I agreed that it can't go unconsidered. One thing they claim they are known for, absorbing pain and inflicting pain. Whichever way, there will be blood," an announcer said from the high porch that extends into the ring and there was chatter from the crowd. "Let the game begin."
Axena had thought that they would be unshackled but they weren't. This made her sigh. She sensed the bondage they were into, one that wouldn't allow a free fight. Sounds of rhythmic drums came from the royal flank and she knew what she would do if she were standing amid the ring. She would bow. But there, in the middle of the ring were Ix and Lixxini looking up to the royal dais. The RebelHood bow to none, Axena understood that change as simple as it sounds was not simple in terms of compliance. Slowly, the women bowed and she sighed in relief.
A clang came and as though Ix and Lixxini knew the rule, they became livened to the air in the ring and turned to face each other, bat in each bounded hands. Ix took a step closer and Lixxini retreated. After the third step towards Lixxini to which she retreated, Ix aimed a strike which Lixxini ducked. She did another and another, Lixxini ducked and bobbed - all was aimed at her head. Ix stepped closer and Lixxini retreated, a foot before and the other behind, stepping carefully on the sand with a soldiery gaiety as though her heels had eyes. Ix followed. Thier eyes fixated on each other.
Again, Ix aimed a stoke and this time Lixxini countered and their bats were married in the air, making an X. Lixxini headbutted Ix and Ix retreated. Axena saw blood and the cheers from the crowd told her that Somba was right. Blood awakens them, and death satiates them.
As Ix retreated to the effect of the headbutt, Lixxini stoke from the right and aimed at her head, Ix blocked it with her bat; she did again, from the left and it was blocked. Then, she feigned another from her right which Ix intended a block to protect her head, but the bat went below and hit Ix on her ribs.
Ix bent and fell to the floor. "Get up," Lixxini sharply said and made gestures with her hand. Boos came from the crowd, Axena felt it and she saw that Lixxini was feeling it too, she looked to the crowd and faint chants of 'more blood'!!! filled the air.
Ix made it to her feet and traipsed herself to a safer distance from her antagonist. When Lixxini who had been observing the crowd turned to face Ix, she hurled herself at Ix and her first stroke made Ix's bat fell off her hand. A hard stroke landed on Ix's exposed knee and the knee cap broke out with the muscle tissue hanging out. Ix screamed and fell on a knee. Another landed on her shoulder and Ix sank the more. The next went on the other shoulder and Ix's head limped like an inflated balloon.
'Death!!!' the crowd seemed to have been filled with the suspense and chanted an end. Lixxini savoured the moment by walking across the ring and looking at the crowd. Axena could tell that she was passing a message. She was sure that if the crowd knew Lixxini by her name, they would chant it at the instant.
Lixxini went to face Ix, and when Ix raised her head, a heavy stroke, weighted by a quick and lashing swing of the bat landed on Ix's head and her eyes popped out. Axena saw it all, the gash on Ix's head which separated her skull, the eyes popping out, and the blood that splashed on Lixxini's face as well as on the ground. A decapitated Ix shivered and when fell with her face on the floor when another hit broke through her head, smashing it and rendering the grey content of her skull scattered on the floor. There did the crowd scream at their highest pitch. They rose to their feet and drums rolled, applause and shout filled the air when Lixxini raised her bat in victory and walked around the ring.
Just as Axena predicted, a soldier had fallen and a look across the other face was deadened with hatred. She wondered who among them would step up soon if Lixxini was offered just what Somba had preached. She shook her head when her mind offered that she was next.