1 - A Taste of Metal

Have you ever felt one thousand pounds of force slam into your jaw like a blind eagle into a brick wall? I'm guessing you haven't, so here's how its going: the uppercut hit me right in the chin, a sharp pain as my upper and lower jaws clanged together, that was all it took for me to tumble backwards, black spots filling my vision, the pain going to the back of my mind as my mouth filled with blood, the salty, metallic taste filling my mind. Then I felt the sharp pain again, right on my eye socket.

The bastard had hit me whilst I was down. I could here jeers and screams from the crowd, as they shouted at him to back off. Even underground street fighting has some rules, such as not beating the crap out of someone while they're down. But I pushed that all away, I still had to win this if I wanted that prize money.

My eyes were watering, unfocused, dotted with black spots and my head was ringing as I focused on centering myself and my mind. Breathing heavily, I pushed myself up onto my knees, and then onto shaky feet. Staring into my opponents eyes, I spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground then pulled my arms up into something resembling a boxing stance and squared up to the man who calls himself Big Dave.

To be fair to the man, he was big, clocking in at two hundred and twenty pounds at five foot eleven, he was built like a hippo on two feet and he hit like a charging bull, however he had the mobility of a hippo as well, winging his fists around like a lumbering giant, I had been battering away at his fat until he blindsided me with that bloody uppercut.

I go by Hark around these parts and I wasn't too small myself, sitting at a solid one hundred and eighty pounds and six foot tall, and I was well built thanks to SysBlade practice. Of course, if I used the System now the fight would be over in seconds, but that would be cheating and then I wouldn't get my prize money, plus I wanted to beat this prick into the ground with me bare hands. I just needed to get into a rhythm, a flow of fighting, but first some good natured banter.

"Maybe you should lay off the RatPacks, fatso."

Okay, so maybe that's not my strong suit, whatever, I can't be a prodigy at everything. Big Dave glared at me, then stomped forwards and threw a wild haymaker. Wait, did that actually piss him off? Pushing that thought aside, I stepped to the left, around the uncontrolled punch, and retaliated with a left hook that left me with satisfyingly saw knuckles and Dave staggering away, hands up around his head in some blind attempt at a guard. 

Good, he didn't fall, I wanted to punch this idiot some more.

His guard was full of holes, probably used to catching people off guard and ending the fight quickly without taking any serious hits. Walking up to him, I slipped my fist right between is arms and slammed and a punch into has face. I felt his nose break like a stick of chalk under my fist. I pulled my fist back and grinned at the bloody mess I had made of his face.

Not letting him recover, I threw another left hook into his temple and that was the fight.

Big Dave collapsed to the ground, out cold, and I finally let the roars of the crowd wash over me, singing my praises in their vicious, drunken ways. Someone approached and held my hand up, shouting something at the crowd which I couldn't make out over the pounding of my head. That bastard really had hit me hard.

I shook my fist in the air, giving the crowd a half mad grin, then turned and walked off to the changing room, I needed to wash my mouth out.

As I walked back, I let the system switch from its observation mode to its active mode, and I felt the supernatural strength fill me again. Unfortunately, I was still at the bottom of the systems rankings, so the boost was minor. I wanted to change that, but unfortunately the system demanded something more impressive than knocking out Big Dave.

The system was accessed by a metal implant just underneath the skin of my right wrist, though if you were left handed it could be on your left wrist. Having it hidden under my wrist meant that no one here could tell I was a User just by looking at me.

Some Users had telltale burn marks around their wrists from overheating the implant, but I'd yet to get myself in that desperate of a situation.

I brought up the system interface with a single thought, and saw that I had two new notifications.

[Congratulations! You have incapacitated a mundane human!]

[Wow! You have unlocked a mundane skill: Uppercut]

After reading through the new notifications, I opened up my status.

Name: Regan Harkless

Username: Hark

Rank: Knight

Mundane Skills: [Punch] [Guard] [Uppercut] [Endurance]

Knight Skills: [Burst]

I then brought up the more detailed description of [Uppercut].

Mundane Skill: [Uppercut]

Type: Passive

Description: Provides a passive damage increase when performing an uppercut, although this skill is less versatile then the [Punch] skill it provides a greater damage increase.

Stepping into the locker room, I quickly made my way to my locker, taking out a towel and wiping the sweat off my face. The towel was red with blood after one wipe. Sighing, I picked up a water bottle and took a swing whilst walking to the toilet.

I spat the water out into the sink then glanced up into the mirror. I had the biggest black eye I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of black eyes, and my lips were covered in blood which dripped down my chin. I opened my mouth and saw that I was missing a tooth, one of the ones right at the very front as well.

That would be ugly, and I didn't have money for an implant, even with the prize money.

I quickly looked over the rest of my head, I had short, messy white hair, the discolouration supposedly caused by fumes my Ma had inherited working in a factory. I had blue eyes and what my Ma said was the most handsome face in the city. I seriously doubted I could compare to the genetically modified kids of the rich parts, but I wasn't bad, I had a fairly pronounced jawline and I'd never starved like a lot of the folks around here. Da had kept us fed, before the accident.

Sighing again, I set about cleaning myself off, trying to keep my mind on the money as I got ready to leave.