Chapter 17 - Nowhere To Go But Up

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It seemed the challenges were going to be hurled at her in many forms. Codi considered this as she strode out into the arena to face the number one contender from the home academy, Darien Fallow. The dark-skinned boy waited opposite her, bouncing lightly from foot to foot in a way that looked almost comical because of his brick-like physique.

So far in the practice tournaments Codi and her companions had enjoyed the lions' share of support, always buoyed by the swelling roars of the Battlecast crowds. The crowds were still there, but they weren't on home turf anymore. On the Red Planet, Olympus Mons were the top dogs and it showed, as huge swathes of the spectator stands were streaked with screaming red.

Trying to block out the noise, she focused on the task at hand. Both of them had a lot on the line in this early stage of the knockout rounds, both being heavily favoured to go the distance. Being drawn now meant that one of them would be going home very disappointed. But Codi had another motivation in mind. She wouldn't get her rematch with Dustin Morto unless she made it through, being drawn in the opposite bracket from the fighter who was fast becoming her new nemesis.

The central Mars arena looked deceptively flat and featureless, but Codi knew better. At the touch of a button whole sections of the black-metal floor would shift and slope, creating peaks, troughs and pits for an unwary competitor to be clouted into. The fights tested situational awareness as much as they tested the combatants' fighting prowess.

She took a calming breath as the noise from the spectators rose in a deafening crescendo, and she could hear the voices of her own supporters cutting through the wall of the Mars contingent. Then the starting klaxon ripped out over the thin Martian air.

Although every fibre of her body was tensed to spring, Codi resisted the urge to go flying headlong into combat, watching and waiting for a few precious seconds. Sure enough, the grind and hiss of machinery mingled with the noise of the crowd as the arena floor started its mad dance.

Only once she saw where the floor plates were going did she then shoot forward as though fired from a slingshot. For his part, Darien Fallow was already halfway toward her, moving with speed that belayed his hulking frame. Codi locked on and turned to meet him.

They met atop one of the gently rising segments and he immediately made a wild, scything swipe at her head with one rock-like fist. She slid under it, carrying her momentum and driving he soles of both feet hard into his right leg. Her tackle landed with such force that she upended her unsuspecting opponent completely, leaving him to crash the ground.

Skidding to a halt, Codi whirled, feeling her blood thundering in her veins as the adrenaline of Gauntlet combat flooded through her. Before he could get up she bolted back towards him, looking to get a serious hit in before he could recover.

She never got the chance. Darien Fallow did something painfully familiar. Guessing her move, he planted his hands against he moving ground and bucked, lashing out blindly with both legs. Caught off guard, Codi couldn't get out of the way and both his feet smashed into her midriff like a battering ram.

The sheer force lifted her bodily and sent her flying across the arena to the accompanying screams of the Mars supporters. Cursing inwardly, she tried to orient herself in mid-air to see where she was going to land.

The view wasn't good.

Dialling up the gravity fields in her exoskeleton Codi sped up her descent and soon hit the ground with a heavy thunk, rolling across the burnished black floor plates towards one of the pits. Gritting her teeth she twisted her body and slammed one hand down against the metal so hard that she put a dent in it, and at the same time gave her fingers something to dig into. Her tumbling slide came to an abrupt halt and she hauled herself upright, smouldering with anger.

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