The Tournament

As I got ready for the tournament, Bradley came into the dressing room. He had something in his jacket for me. "Brother, Hallz, and the commander gave me this for you to have." I took a look at what he had for me and It was a pair of gloves custom made from material from my sword and a handgun. I put them on and changed into my workout clothes, I was ready for my time and waited by the door till I was called. Bradley smiled at me and said, "Do your best brother, and don't overdo it, you still don't have your enhancements."

I laughed a bit and then the announcer called for me to start my match soon. The tournament was comprised of individual matches based on rank and years of the academy. I was still considered a cadet till I got my enhancements. So this was going to be hard and with my rank, I was going to be targeted based on all my reputation.

I came to the doors of the arena and saw the crowd of people cheering and booing for the fighter. "Introducing this young man, He comes from the backwater planet called Earth and is known as the Demon of U-F. Please welcome Sargent Jacob Zero our newest member of the force. " The announcer said as I got focused on the fight before me. You could feel the air around me get cold as I tighten the fist. My opponent was huge, over a foot taller than I was, and his muscles were on his muscles.

Right as the bell rang, the guy charged right at me, I watched him closely till he got right to me. Everyone has heard the sound of a loud pop then the guy hits the ground. I had used my cheap trick of an uppercut and hit the guy right on the chin. What Hallz had taught me in training was this, "Every person can muscle up, but we all have weak spots find it, and exploit it. This is a war, not playtime. "

Those words went through my head as I fought through all my matches with fast times, I was trying not to use all my energy of the day. After a while, you could hear the crowd cheer for me as I climbed through the ladder. Every time I looked up at my brother and Swan I saw they were excited and I could hear them over the crowd. Then after that one day of fighting, we had a break for rest and the tournament was to resume in the morning

I was getting out of the fighting clothes and into my street stuff when both Swan and Bradley came into my dressing room. Swan gave me a kiss on my cheek and Bradley gave me a fist bump, "A hell of a fight brother, do you have more for tomorrow? " Bradley asked me laughing a bit when I stood up. I rested for a while till my mind kept waking me up for the fight, which made me go to the arena hours before the tournament was to restart. I sat on the bench for a bit, rubbing my hands, I was trying to get ready for this day.

Before each match, I would usually scout out my targets to see what weaknesses they had for me. This time, however, my opponent wasn't on any of the recordings so I didn't know who I was fighting. I got into the ring almost blind to what was in front of me, but this has never stopped me before. My opponent was a girl and was faster and swifter than I was, I knew this fight might be one-sided.

"I need to be fast and attack first If she gets a chance to do anything I will lose," I said whispering to myself as I got ready. Right as the bell rang the woman darted off the ground right at me. She came at me with only kicks and I blocked each one without throwing my one kick or punch. People in the arena saw I was doing this on purpose and I was ignoring their boos'. I was waiting for an opening of some kind, any kind of opening would do. As her back up for a millisecond I saw she slipped on a waxed part of the stage.

She fell to one knee and I gave her a huge hook to the gut knocking her a bit. She looked up and I and I gave her a final tail kick I made up and knocked her out cold. It was true, I had gotten stronger and faster, but with my extra training and my enhancements coming up will I be too strong?

I sat on the ground looking out to the crowd as I saw I had won the second to last match of the tournament. I hated that fight, I never like fighting women because of how I was raised. I was raised to protect them and keep them away from danger. With this thought, I was taught to respect those who challenge themselves with hard tasks.

I went into the hall for a moment to hear the voice of my future wife, "You did good my sweet hero, now finish this tournament." Swan gave me a kiss and the next and the last match was next, it wasn't even ten minutes. I headed back to the ring and I saw the last guy was already in the ring. Swan was behind me when she saw how tired I was. "Do you think Jake will be alright, he might be out of energy," Swan said to Bradley said when I stepped back on the stage.

The guy I was to fight was made of stone and he has been just as tall as I was. He spoke to me for a moment, "Good luck Sargent you'll need it." He smiled at me and then the bell went off, I went into my earth boxing stance right away and waited for the rock guy. We around a minute not doing anything, we started to trade blows and started to really brawl. I was not doing much, but chipping at his skin with every punch.

It was going good only for a moment, then the fact I hadn't gotten my enhancements was very clear for this moment. The guy grabbed me by the shoulder and slammed me to the ground and I blacked out. I had lost a fistfight for the first time and you could see the worry on everyone's face as Swan and Bradley rushed to me.

I woke up to the guy standing over me and my brother with Swan running on the ground. The guy saw I was waking up and held out a hand. I grabbed it and he stood me up, Everyone was in tears with me getting up. You could hear the cheers and Swan yelling at over everyone else. "Sargent you fought outstandingly with not having those enhancements. You're going to be a scary fighter in the future, my man." The guy said to me laughing as we waved to everyone, I was on the verge of collapse when I felt my brother's hand on my shoulder.

I was going to my dressing room when I got an update from Swan about my enhancements, I was being delayed till after I recover for a couple of months. I had gotten a couple of broken bones and a concussion. So Just accepted it and waited to leave with Swan and Bradley.