Page 102 of The Mentor
Champion
Archer
The tournament was in a place called Green Acres, two hours northeast of Victoria’s Island. When I arrived, my first impression was that the small village, which normally offered a quiet home for its some three hundred residents, was under attack.
With no hotels near the village, the area had been surrounded by men camping in tents or sleeping in their drones. I estimated at least ten thousand men, which wasn’t too bad, all considered.
Only a fraction would be competing, and most were there to support their friends or simply to enjoy the entertainment that the fights offered.
For those men too young, old, or weak to fight, the huge media event made it possible for them to watch from home.
The whole country was buzzing about the rarity of three tournaments being held so close together. Normally it could take years between tournaments, but only a year and a half ago, Laura and her twin had turned eighteen and Magni had brought Laura back to the west coast while her twin had stayed with her new husband on the east coast. And then the chance to win Christina in a tournament had popped up out of the blue, leaving Boulder a married man.
With Lori Ann now up for marriage, that made four brides and four lucky husbands in only eighteen months.
Back when Christina originally chose me as her champion, I felt like I had won the lottery. That joy had been short-lived when I understood that she had been tricked into the whole thing.
At least Khan had honored his promise from that day that I didn’t have to fight in the next tournament. This time I was preselected to be one of the five champions that Lori Ann would choose from tomorrow night.
I met up with Magni to watch some of the fights. Being a married man himself, Magni wasn’t participating but seemed to enjoy the excitement and brutality of the games.
“Did you bet any money on this game?” I asked when we were watching the final in one of the four leagues.
Magni’s eyes were locked on the two men fighting when he muttered: “More than you want to know.”
He gave a grimace when one of the men took an elbow to his ear.
“I’m guessing you have your money on Kennedy?”
“Uh-huh.”
Kennedy took another punch to his face and from the way he spit out blood and teeth, I wasn’t so sure Magni would ever see his money again.
“Come on, you miserable piece of shit,” Magni shouted angrily. “Stop being a wuss and kick his bony ass.”
“You look like you want to go in there and help him.” I chuckled and found it a little amusing to see Magni so upset.
“If I was in there, this fight would have been over long ago,” Magni declared. “I saw Kennedy fight earlier, and he was much better than this. I don’t know what the fucker is doing but he’s wasting my time, and more importantly my money.”
A roar from the audience sounded when Kennedy jumped his opponent and started biting his neck.
“What the hell is he doing?” Magni’s eyebrows gathered closely.
“I don’t know, but with all the teeth he spit out before, I can’t imagine that it hurts much to be bitten by him.”
Magni threw up his hands and spun around in a full circle before he shot another round of curses at Kennedy. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Sucking his goddamn blood out like a vampire or something, you sick motherfucker?”
Kennedy’s opponent finally managed to push away and held a hand to his neck, barely covering the blood that poured down. He was so disoriented that he didn’t see Kennedy jump forward and use his entire weight to punch the man right between his eyes.
The way Kennedy’s opponent fell backward and smashed the back of his head into the ground looked like something from a movie.
Because of Magni’s position as the second most important man in the country, we had an excellent view from the first row, and I didn’t have to be a doctor to see that the blood running from the man’s ears and neck surely wasn’t a good sign.
Kennedy was announced the winner of the league and stood with his hands in the air and his mouth open in a large grin that showed off his lack of front teeth. His face was smeared in blood, and the audience was loving it.
“The man fights dirty but he just won me a shitload of money,” Magni said and leaned against me. “Come on, I’ll buy you a beer.”
We found a beer tent where a large brawl had just cleared the tent. Quickly we grabbed a table, knowing that it wouldn’t take more than ten minutes for the tent to fill up again.
