Deep Space Endeavor 3 Death Match (20 page)

“Well, that works out just fine,” he smiled. “Because I think I will always love to say it.” He kissed her forehead and put his arm around her. They walked all the way back to med-bay together. Bessa had a smile on her face the whole way. His words had melted her apprehension and she knew how lucky she was to have found a man like Collin.

______

Garrinoras leapt at Jesse as he sidestepped the attack. The pirate was faster than he had expected, but still not nearly as quick as himself. Garrinoras looked down at Jesse’s gloves in wonder and asked as he swung his metal-gloved hand at Jesse’s head, “How do you expect to hurt me with those?” He mocked. “Why are you not using the gloves provided by my people?”

Jesse parried his next three strikes as he smiled and answered, “You didn’t think I knew the rules, did you? I’m using my own weapons, too.” He back flipped in time to miss a powerful front kick. A cool breeze was blowing, rustling the leaves of the trees and the crowd was cheering loudly as the action began.

The surprise was evident on Garrinoras face. He had not been expecting his opponent to know the rules. He continued his assault as he replied. “How? How could you possibly know our rules?”

“Two Zinnebailan law students whose parents you murdered right before their eyes. Apparently, they don’t want you to win.” As he spoke, he connected with a hard kick to Garrinoras knee, staggering him a bit. The crowd grew quiet as the first blow had been landed.

Garrinoras responded with a vicious backswing, which Jesse blocked, but the force was still enough to take him off his feet. “Knowing the rules will do you little good. I am still going to enjoy killing you.”

Jesse landed on his back, but executed a kick-up to land back on his feet before his opponent could press the advantage. Garrinoras was still a little unsteady on the knee that had been kicked. Knocking Jesse to the ground had bought him the time he needed to find his balance as Jesse was now back on the attack, and he was ready. The pirate crowd was chanting something about Jesse’s body and bird food. Jesse couldn’t quite make it out, but he actually found it amusing, which probably made them hate him more. He never thought he would make a good villain, but he actually seemed to be enjoying it a little.

The temperature was still cool, but he was starting to sweat. There was a breeze swaying the leaves of the large, orange trees and he wondered if it was a real breeze, or if it had been manufactured like everything else in this stadium: the trees, bushes, hills, valleys, streams and small ponds. Jesse would have never believed that this was the inside of a stadium. The sights, the sounds, the smells, all of it were wondrous. This building truly was one of the marvels of the galaxy.

Garrinoras had the height advantage and a significantly greater reach. Jesse was having trouble getting inside his defenses, especially with the metal gloves waiting to connect. He imagined that one good shot to the face with those would leave him unconscious, and that would not bode well for him. He settled on playing defense and waiting for an opening. Garrinoras, however, was not quite that patient. Even after seeing him fight the Pandaran, and hearing the stories from his own men, he didn’t think Jesse would put up too much of a fight. He expected his opponent to be good, but it turned out, he was very good. They had been sparring for almost an hour now and he hadn’t landed a clean shot on Marcos. He needed to start doing some damage quickly.

Jesse had settled on playing defense until he could gauge his opponent’s style and skill level. He could see the pirate was actually an extremely disciplined warrior. He was very strong and possessed speed that was significantly faster than one would expect to see in a being his size. Jesse could see his claim of never being defeated actually being true. Jesse was still faster, though, and he had expended little energy. He knew the big Zinnebailan would be tiring soon, and then he would strike.

Garrinoras decided to wear down his opponents defenses. He began to throw hard overhand rights, while trying to slip in some stiff left jabs. Whenever he thought he saw an opening, he would go for a knee to the gut. Jesse parried every shot, but his opponent began coming faster and harder at him, and he was steadily moving backwards. His arms were beginning to tire and ache from being hit by the metal gloves as Garrinoras strategy was beginning to have its desired effect. Suddenly, he spotted an opening and landed a hard left to Garrinoras’ jaw with the gralium knuckles. Garrinoras had thought Jesse’s gloves to be purely defensive, and was shocked as the blow stopped him cold. The punch drew blood as it split the corner of his lip. Jesse pressed his advantage as he landed another hard sidekick to Garrinoras’ knee followed by a leg sweep. As Garrinoras teetered, a hard shot to the chest knocked him backwards, and Jesse landed a hard overhand right to his eye on the way down. As their champion hit the floor, the crowd grew quiet. As his enemy tried to rise, Jesse floored him again with a savage right to the same eye. He unleashed three hard kicks to Garrinoras’ ribs, and stomped hard on the knee he had targeted. He knew this thing had to go three more sessions. It would be better not to have to face his opponent at full strength again.

The
pirate crowd
, as Jesse had began thinking of them, was almost completely silent by this point. It was obvious that no one on that side of the building had expected to see this sight. Their hero was lying on his back, and the hated human was standing over him raining down blows. Then they began to boo as Jesse went in for another attack. They were no doubt left wondering how a mere human could be beating their champion. The pro-human crowd was on their feet, although he suspected they were just as surprised as his opponents. Garrinoras was able to kick out with his good leg hard into Jesse’s chest in a desperation move that launched his opponent almost two meters. Jesse landed in a roll, came up at a run and tackled Garrinoras as he tried to stand. He hit him three more times in the eye, opening up a deep gash. By this point, the eye was almost swollen shut and blood was flowing freely down the pirate’s face. Zinnebailan blood seemed to be slightly thicker than human blood and was light blue in color. As Jesse hit his enemy, droplets of the light blue blood sprayed into the lush orange leaves on the ground. He also made sure to land hard on his enemy’s swollen knee. Garrinoras cried out in pain, knowing his knee was finished, but the tackle turned out to be an ill-advised move. As Jesse was landing another shot to his jaw, Garrinoras stabbed him right through the leg with the spike at the end of his battle gloves. Jesse rolled off him in pain as the blood began to soak through his tan BDU’s. There was now a colorful mix of blue and red blood littering the orange leaves and golden dirt of the arena floor.

One careless move had allowed Garrinoras to even the odds. The pirate was still lying on his back writhing in pain as the blood flowed from wounds on his lip, nose and eye. Jesse, meanwhile, was now the one trying to gingerly walk on an injured leg. He stumbled while looking for balance as he tested the leg. The
pirate crowd
, seeing the blood of the hated human, let out a loud prolonged cheer. Their hero had finally gotten on the board in the death match. That was all the pirate had needed to do. The pro-human crowd had now grown silent as they watched their hero gingerly moving about. Garrinoras would be able to use a weapon after the break, and the pirate crowd felt that their hero had regained his advantage over the hated human.

As Jesse limped almost ten meters from his opponent, he took out his canteen and took a long swing. He then poured a little on the injured thigh. He tore the sleeve off his camouflage shirt and tied it tight around the puncture wound. He was careful to make sure he would still have good motion as he cautiously tested the injured leg. It hurt when he walked, but it didn’t seem to be inhibiting him too much at this point. He knew that as long as he moved around, the injury wouldn’t get too stiff, although he knew he was going to be feeling it later. He tested out a couple kicks and tried to run a quick ten meters. He wasn’t running as fast as he was capable, but he could still fight. When he was finished tending and testing his injured leg, he noticed that Garrinoras was back on his feet and headed his way. He dropped back into a modified defensive stance as his enemy began to swing wildly, trying to connect. He kicked Garrinoras in the chest and was able to withdraw his leg before the spike came down. Jesse had expected the move and pivoted into a kick that caught Garrinoras’ arm while it was still on the downswing, driving the spike of his glove into his own leg. Garrinoras cried out in pain, and Jesse moved to his side before he withdrew the spike. The underdog hammered down blows to his enemy’s head and chest. He landed a hard knee to the face that he was sure broke Garrinoras’ nose, and sent his enemy flying onto his back. As he was falling backwards, Garrinoras connected with a grazing shot to Jesse’s face with his left glove. The blow didn’t connect full force but was still hard enough to spin him around and land him on the ground. Garrinoras’ parting shot had left him a little dizzy. The studs had left three cuts under his left eye. He slowly rose, wiping the blood from his face, only to see his opponent still lying there. He suspected that Garrinoras might be playing possum, so he took the opportunity to rest. He had been going hard for over two hours straight now, and he had just under an hour before the break. During the break, he could eat a ration bar, put on his battle suit, down an energy drink and get his wound field dressed. He would also be given his gralium Bo staff. Josiah and Kimi would be the ones coming out to help him in the contestant tunnel. He didn’t want Suzy to be at all vulnerable, because he had no doubt that the Zinnebailans would try something to take out his only doctor.
I would love to have Suzy treat these wounds, but I can’t risk it. She is the most irreplaceable member of my crew. This would be unsafe for her even if she had extensive combat training, which she doesn’t. I’ve tried to teach her, but she always laughs at me and reminds me that she’s a doctor. Still, I wish she had learned, then I wouldn’t have to worry so much about her.
He was amused to find that in the middle of this death match he was thinking about his ship doctor’s lack of combat training. He took another long drink from his canteen, thirstily slurping down the water as it sloshed about the opening of the canteen and dripped down his neck.

After nearly twenty-five minutes, he noticed that Garrinoras was still not moving. He slowly approached and the
pirate crowd
began to boo wildly. When he as within striking distance, Garrinoras began to rise. He swung wildly at Jesse and followed with a kick that would have connected if Jesse had over reacted to the wild swing. He followed Garrinoras’ mistake by catching the leg and bringing the elbow down hard on the knee. He then threw his enemy off balance and hit him in the chest with a flying sidekick. He landed badly after the kick, forgetting to compensate for the puncture wound in his thigh, but Garrinoras was on his back once again. Jesse scrambled to his feet and took immediate advantage, continuing to work on the damaged knee. He knew that when this was over, Garrinoras would need extensive surgery in order to walk under his own power again. The hateful
pirate crowd
continued to rain down their venom on the hated human, unable to understand how he was winning. Garrinoras was able to get his hands up and shove Jesse before he could hit the knee again. The shove was hard and he lost his balance on his injured leg. He went down awkwardly and took his time getting up. He saw his enemy still lying on the ground. As Jesse approached, Garrinoras started to rise. Jesse kicked him hard in his face as he rolled out of the way of his opponent’s spiked glove. The pirate went back down hard as Jesse rolled to his feet. Before Jesse could further press his advantage, the horn blew, signifying the end of the morning battle. He noted that the horn blew almost twenty minutes early. It seemed that it was beneficial to have hometown judges as well as a hometown announcer. Garrinoras was ushered back to his tunnel on the back of a hover vehicle, while no such luxury was afforded to him. He thought that might happen, which is why he hadn’t strayed too far from his tunnel to begin with. As he tiredly limped back to his tunnel, he doubted his opponent would come this far over in the next session.

When he arrived at the tunnel, he was greeted by the encouraging smiles of Josiah, Kimi and his entourage. They had him lay down while Josiah took his gloves off and Kimi began taking off his ruined, bloody BDU’s. His battle suit was lying on the ground as Josiah took off his camouflage shirt. He began applying some medicated cream to Jesse’s bruised arms. The cream would reduce the swelling while considerably numbing the area, so as to limit the pain he would feel for the afternoon.

“They stopped the bout twenty minutes early,” Jesse mused as Kimi applied the cream to his leg and dressed his wound. “I had him on the ropes; I could have ended any shot he would have had. I thought he was playing possum, so I waited. I was also really tired, but I came back at him strong. He would be in no position to even stand, let alone fight, if they didn’t cheat and end the session early.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Jess; we knew they were going to cheat in every way possible. It wouldn’t surprise me if they ended the next session early if you injure him again. But look on the bright side; you get the extra rest as well. You’re doing great, by the way. None of the galactic commentators can believe that you are winning. Good job, buddy, I never doubted you.” Josiah finished tending his arms and put his new shirt on while Kimi was helping him put his battle suit on.