Chapter 11 - The Bond between brothers

-Step...Step- They slowly walked toward the central ring and the moderator. In contrast to the hyped up audience, the apex's looked bored. Only Sam Tag put on a smile and waved his hand letting the viewers break out of their silence. "Come on guys! Cheer up! A big tournament is about to start and you are just looking gloomy! This will be fun." "No reason to be so excited... Those are just the regionals and there aren't any interesting persons... No one of them has peaked yet. They are just normal." Hannah said emotionless as always. "There are a few newcomers though, so let us just wait and see." Laura said curious about the new faces.

...Suddenly I felt a lot of pressure trying to drive me down and almost making me collapse. The fighters near me also seemed really startled. I looked towards the apex's and got terrified. I saw one of them looking me right into the eyes. He was simply smiling as if he found an old friend.

"...You might be right..." Adrion said and finally moved his gaze away from me looking at the moderator again. "Did you discover something interesting Nacht?" Sam asked cheerful and excited that something made his rival so energized. "For the last time, just call me Adrion." "Ok, Nacht." - Even though it might not seem like it, the big 5 always had contact between them and they had held internal tournaments quite often, so those beings knew each other since their childhood, they sparred, had fun together and often saw one another on tournaments. They are not only life-long rivals but also childhoodfriends.

- After some greetings they went up to their predestinated seats and planned to watch the fights today.

"We will now announce the first fight-pairs: The first 5 fights will be between Chronos and Marshall, Ashen and Bona, Winter and Stone, Bush and Amber, Spark and Crystal! Remember that those fights are teambattles, so it will be family vs. family. Everything is allowed, besides sharp weapons. The first one to give up or becomes unable to fight loses! Who is ready to rumble?!"

The crowd immediately went insane and just couldn't hold themselves back anymore. The cheering and tumor got louder and louder, drowning the moderators voice.

"We are already up, Mark. Let us do our best and win this fight." John tried to encourage me after noticing my startled expression and tenseness. "I am ready!" 'Just as predicted! This is what I trained for all this time. I won't lose! I won't disappoint them! I will step out as the winner!' I breathed in a few times to calm myself down, not letting the nervousness overwhelm myself and show my best game.

"To the rings fighters! The uninvolved, go to the edge of the arena and wait for your turn!"

The moderator tried its best not to scream but still overcome the uproar caused by the excitement. "There are already the first Newcomers for this year. Mark from the Ashen-family and Don from the Spark-family. You may place your bets now. We'll start in 3 minutes." After hearing this everybody pulled his phones or betting devices out and began tipping some random numbers. You could also hear a lot of people discussing between themselves on who has better chances to win.

- While I patiently waited in front of my designated ring with John, the gong sounded meaning that the betting phase was over and we could step into the ring.

"Mark, we got this. Just stick to the plan." He just smiled and all the tenseness left my body. I felt energetic and excited. Giving him a nod, I entered the ring and saw our opponents on the other side - The Bona brothers - They were identical twins and looked completely alike.

Both had big frames and were very buffed. Black hair, gray eyes and a young eager gaze decorated their faces.

"Everyone to their corner!... 5!... 4!... 3!... 2!... 1!.. FIGHT!"

Everyone bursted into action and you could hear the ground getting stomped on, partly leaving marks on it. Ignoring every unnecessary thing around me, I concentrated on the solely important thing. There was no noise just this fight here and now. I saw John sprinting beside me towards the centre like planned. But the Bona brothers just stayed in their corners completely unfaced and indifferent in this situation. From both corners they jumped almost in a straight line, like they anticipated our move and tried to pincer John.

Seeing this I immediately warned John to step out of there and wait for their move: "STOP!"

John bent backwards and retreated after seeing Justins fist flying against his face, almost scratching him.

'That fist is pulsating! I have no time! JUST RUSH!' After the first attack Kevin, came to support his twin. I rushed and jumped just to reach John before he gets hit.

- BOOOM - I heard a loud crack and felt the impact on my lower arms. A stinging pain entered my body, spreading through it and making myself open for another attack.

At least I got in front of John at the right time, giving him a moment to collect himself and being able to push the assaulters back. Before Justin could hit me John stepped beside me and hit the unprepared attacker right into the spleen. "UARGH!" Justin spat some saliva out and his expression changed from suprise to rage. "YOU LITTLE-" Before he could speak more I hit him in the face with my right fist. He launched into Kevin, who tried to lower the impact and held onto Justin while getting into a lower stance and grinding his feet into the ground. John and I looked at each other. There was no need for words so we dashed toward the startled twins and overwhelmed them even more. Hit after hit landed on Justin, binding Kevin behind him and him having to push his own brother against this assault. Justin held his arms up but they loosened more and more. His energy was leaving the body and he was near collapsing. "Br-Brother..." Kevin mumbled, sad of being unable to change the course of the battle.

The battle just turned into a one-sided beating! No one expected the first fights to already be this exciting! - STOMP - Justin couldn't hold his guard up anymore and stomped on the ground hoping to scare us away. John and I punched onward unimpressed of this desperate move.

- BOOM - Justin fell unconcious and just fell with his massive body on the floor. Kevin lost his will to fight after seeing his brother, but then the rage took over. He didn't think and tried to defeat us using his strength. He released a strong killing intent startling me but John just sprinted and hit him 3 times into the liver.

Even a beast like Kevin couldn't take that and fell down next to his brother with a face full of sorrow.