Wow… they just keep on coming today. I think ‘fighting’ chapters like these are just easier to write, since they flow kind of naturally for me, and I certainly had a good time with this one. The next chapter will probably take quite a bit longer, though… there’ll be some tough dialogue in there.
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Chapter 7
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At the sound of a deafening horn, the fighters charged towards each other. Stronius’ club was over his head; he brought it down but Tahu side-stepped and dodged the swing, after which he spun around and slashed with both his swords into the elite Skrall’s side. His armor prevented much of it from having an effect, though, and Tahu had to back up fast in order to avoid the backswing of the club. Now they stood only a meter or two apart, both with weapons at the ready, circling each other and looking for a weak spot. Tahu was faster; he moved in and parried the club out of the way with one of his blades while moving in to stab with the other. Stronius leant into the attack, however, causing Tahu’s sword to glance harmlessly off of his large, rocky pauldrons. He quickly followed that by swinging his club upwards, nailing an uppercut right on Tahu’s chest, causing the Toa of Fire to stagger backwards. Confident that his foe was momentarily dazed, the Skrall moved in and swung again, but Tahu fell backwards on purpose, rolled out of the way, and was on his feet again less than a second later.
So they were facing off again, but this time Tahu increased the distance; his swords began to glow red-hot, and he planted them in the ground again, sending fire in Stronius’ direction that erupted all around the Skrall before he could react. That did something; clearly Tahu stood a better chance at actually hurting Stronius with elemental attacks than by trying to pierce or slash into his ridiculous armor, and he could outrun Stronius all day, hurling fire at him as he went. But amazingly, he didn’t do that. He moved in to strike with the swords again, leading to another quick exchange of blows that were equally blocked, parried, and dodged by both sides. That became the pattern: a quick melee bout followed by a short standoff between the two sides. Each time, they tried to attack from different angles, or with a move we hadn’t yet seen, and occasionally they landed hits; Stronius’ armor had numerous cuts and scrapes now, though few if any seemed to have had any effect on the tissue below, and one of Tahu’s pauldrons, his chest plate, and his right thigh armor were seriously busted. But neither side gave anything to the other. Eventually, time ran down to where the first round was pronounced a draw, although that one round had featured more action than the rest of the evening so far combined, and the crowd’s energy levels were through the roof.
While the fighters prepared for the second round and the announcer kept the crowd riled up, I turned to Kopaka:
“What did you think so far?”
“My brother has lost his edge,” the Toa of Ice said dryly. “Stronius would not be standing now if he was on form.”
“I think he fought well,” I observed.
“You have not seen him fight before.” That was true, but really, I thought Tahu had put up a sporting display, and at least this fight was a lot more evenly matched than most of what we’d seen so far.
The second round was almost a repeat of the first until the start of the last of the five minutes’ duration of each round. Tahu moved in again, this time trying a quite spectacular set of moves: he charged Stronius, jumped in the air and corkscrewed over him, trying to land on the other side to slash into his more vulnerable back. Stronius wasn’t going to let that happen, though: he jabbed upwards with his club, managing to hit Tahu’s leg and spoiling the maneuver to where the Toa landed on his back instead of on his feet. Though he managed to dodge the club now coming down on top of him, he was in serious trouble: Stronius kept swinging like a maniac, not allowing the Toa any window to regain his footing. So instead, Tahu stabbed his blade into a vulnerable spot in the elite Skrall’s armor right at the inside of his leg. Following that, he proceeded to set the blade alight, but Stronius took advantage of the delay by swinging his club down and nailing a massive hit on Tahu’s shoulder, completely smashing the remnants of the pauldron and visibly mangling the tissue below. Tahu was forced to roll back and try to get out of his opponent’s striking range while the latter’s leg was out of commission, which he did successfully.
Now the fighters stood and faced each other again, but Stronius’ left leg was weakened, causing him to limp, and Tahu’s left shoulder was messed up to where he couldn’t raise the arm much or strike at anything with it to any effect. Unable to charge effectively, Stronius endured the intermittent fireballs that Tahu threw at him by blocking them with his club until the fire warrior tried once again to move in. He followed closely behind one of the fireballs to try and take advantage of the elite Skrall being in a blocking as opposed to a striking position; with his club interposed between him and Tahu to block incoming fire, Stronius wouldn’t be able to see Tahu coming. But he guessed Tahu’s plan correctly, and after the fireball hit, he simply shoved the club forward. It wasn’t a very powerful or damaging hit by any means but like anyone else, Tahu quickly found that getting a spiky club shoved into your face is a disorientating experience. While he was dazed, Stronius managed to get another, more powerful hit in just as the bell sounded the end of round 2.
Because of the damage he dished out, though, he was awarded the win for the round. Tahu now had to either win the next round convincingly enough to be awarded a point or win by outright knockout to stay in the fight. The announcer worked up the tension with rhetorical questions like “Is this the end of Tahu!?” I was scared that he would lose; we’d already seen a loss could mean death, and this crowd was bloodthirsty to say the least. Kopaka didn’t seem the least bit concerned from what I could read.
“You know,” I told him, “this could mean the end of him, right?”
“It could be.” Yup. No concern whatsoever. I knew he liked to be detached and all that, but this was his own brother; did he really feel nothing or just show nothing? Over the mental noise of the crowd, I honestly couldn’t tell.
I was on the edge of my seat when the fighters stepped forward again for the third round. Tahu’d gotten a hold of a new pauldron and braced his arm, but it was still weak and he looked battered overall. Stronius appeared to have bandaged his leg, and his armor looked worn but the brute inside was otherwise fine. I’m not usually faithful, but I honestly prayed to Mata Nui that Tahu would come out on top. If he didn’t… that was it.
The final round began. Stronius, confident that he could finish the fight faster with fewer injuries to contend with, went on the offensive straight away, charging Tahu and bringing the club down on him again. Tahu in part dodged and in part parried the strike, after which he struck back, but the elite Skrall’s helmet easily deflected the hit. That set the tone for the round early on; Stronius had the initiative, but Tahu’s defenses were up so he didn’t really get anywhere. Tahu also threw in fire attacks here and there when he could. After two minutes, Stronius was beginning to show exhaustion; swinging that heavy club about really took everything he had by this point, and he was forced to back off. Now Tahu went on the offensive, though more cautiously than he had before, and like Stronius he accomplished little with it. More cuts, more scrapes, but nothing that would earn either fighter points or contribute to a knockout.
Then Tahu ramped it up. With two minutes left, he began making more daring strikes, increasingly rendering himself vulnerable in an effort to land more powerful blows with swords that now glowed red-hot. Still recovering, Stronius didn’t really have an answer other than to keep backing off; Tahu slashed right, then left, then brought his swords over in a kind of cross-chop… I wouldn’t say it was graceful; the Lady of the Frost had done basically the same thing in a much smoother, effortless fashion, but the way Tahu chained his attacks together was nonetheless very impressive and emphasized the power the Toa of Fire still possessed. By this point it was evening and therefore dark apart from the gloomy arena lighting, which made the resulting light show all more spectacular. Those bright red glowing swords and the shower of sparks created every time they clashed against Stronius’ armor were spectacular to behold, and Tahu’s assault was relentless. It was do or die, and the crowd loved it.
But Stronius wasn’t going to let that go on forever, and when Tahu began to falter with a minute left, he struck back, swinging the club in front of him with as much if not more energy than he’d done at the start of the match. Now it was Tahu’s turn to back up, and he did so quickly, dodging left and right while he tried to recover some energy. The fighters had almost made it back to the center of the arena where they started. Then Stronius made a mistake: with maybe ten seconds to go on the clock, he went all out and dove forward more while swinging the club down over his head two-handedly. This was the moment that Tahu had been waiting for. He ducked low and to the left, dodging the club again, then rolled right to get underneath Stronius. But Stronius had either been expecting it or he had quicker reactions that I thought, because he brought his foot down on Tahu’s chest, pinning him to the ground, then began to raise his club again. But the Toa of Fire had a plan too: while he was pinned to the ground, he could stab upwards with both of his swords, nailing Stronius on the inside of both his legs; the same vulnerable joint he’d hit on just the left leg the last time. And this time, he’d ignited the swords beforehand.
The whole crowd, myself included, was astounded by what happened next; with maybe four seconds left in the match, and Stronius about to bring the club down on his head, Tahu surged his fire powers through his swords, sending searing jets of flame upwards and into the elite Skrall’s body and armor. I can only describe the result as a furnace: white-hot flames burst out of every crack and split in Stronius’ armor: under the shoulders, by the elbows, from holes in the chest and abdomen, from his neck and, most frighteningly, out the eye holes of his helmet. A nightmarish scream erupted as the Skrall’s body was roasted, burned, then utterly carbonized inside his steel shell. That club never came down. The bell sounded, and Tahu managed to get out from under the foot of the Skrall, who seemed to be standing frozen in position, the club still raised over his head, dark smoke rising from inside his armor.
Tahu stood in front of him, seemingly sizing him up for a bit, challenging him, then stepped back and kicked the chest plate. Stronius fell backwards and when he hit the ground… he fell apart. I’m not kidding… I still shudder to think of it. He’d been dead by the time the bell rang, nothing but a carbonized statue inside of blackened armor, barely standing. The impact against the ground broke what remained, leaving the Lord of the Skrall literally in pieces. Tahu raised his swords in the air and ignited them again; his signature victory pose. To say the crowd went wild was an understatement; I was surprised my hearing survived.
“AND THAT IS THE POWER OF A TOA OF FIRE!” the announcer had found his microphone again. “TAHU WINS!”
Looking over, I saw Kopaka getting up and preparing to leave.
“Come,” he said. “Let us go and see my… brother.”
The cold, spiteful way in which he said ‘brother’ after that match… This was the first time that I’d seen Kopaka display a genuine sign of anger, even hate. This was not going to be a pretty reunion.
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#####author’s note: Honestly, my own characters sometimes surprise me, especially when I’m writing a chapter ‘on the wing’ like I did with this one. Things got a bit… gruesome in this one, but I seem to recall Tahu had promised not to kill his opponents at some point… what happened? We’ll see…
I’ll post more chapters as I finish them. Enjoy!