Iron Heart (The Gauntlet #2)

Chapter 28 - Wrecking Crew

 The Gauntlet was in full swing now and as the days unfolded Battlecast Academy's heavy hitters found their warpath. After Codi and Gareth crashed through their opening paired bracket the others seemed to take it as a challenge, and the Battlecast stampede took hold.

It began with them; next came Jaxo Samas and his partner laying down their intent in no uncertain terms, dispatching an unseeded pair from the East Spiral Gauntlet Academy with frightening efficiency.

Not to be outdone, the veteran pairing of Joshua Bayden and Cardle North joined forces to blast the twenty-first seeded team from Orion Academy into oblivion. In the first day of the paired matches all three competing Battlecast teams marched comfortably into the second round.

But the onslaught was far from over.

The next day saw Cassandra Riven and Prissa Alder carve a path into the second round at the expense of an unfortunate pair from Cobalt Storm. Hot on their heels came one of the most daunting displays that Codi had ever seen when the top seeds took to the Arena.

Chris O'Leary and Ripple Thawborn's opening match was far from a walkover on paper. Pitted against a highly regarded pairing from the Atlantic Academy, seeded twelfth, many expected this first foray to be a violent back and forth encounter. Instead, Battlecast's most effective double-act set to work and saw off the challenge in record time. Watching it unfold, Codi felt conflicting emotions fill her. On the one hand Battlecast's bid to take home another first place at the pairs looked secure. On the other, it didn't look like she would be the one doing it.

But if it wasn't enough to see the big names from Battlecast taking care of business as expected, things got even better for the top academy in colonial space. One of the last opening matches featured a pairing nobody had really given any thought to, but when Leela and her partner – a boy named Mica Samper – overcame a duo from Holdfast to send yet another Battlecast pair into the second round, suddenly the other teams had even more to worry about.

While a handful of the least experienced fighters in the group were eliminated at the hands of highly seeded opposition, the first two days showed one thing: Battlecast didn't have soft targets.

Though she noticed that Dustin Morto's massive bulk was conspicuously absent – presumably they couldn't find anyone to match up with him – Codi did spot some other familiar faces in her bracket. Max and his partner powered through their opening bracket for Knossos City; so too did Darien Fallow's pair from Olympus Mons. Then another group caught her attention one half of which she knew all too well from last year.

Arvin Lee was back and this time he'd found a friend. He and his female team mate emerged victorious from a long, drawn out slugging match to send Zazana Lake Academy's first pair into the next stage of the bracket. Codi hoped they would make it one more round – she and Gareth would be waiting for them.

Finally, she saw Lucas and Lazlo in action for the first time and the highly touted twins didn't disappoint the crowds. She realised just how they'd scored their impressive fourth place, higher than her and Gareth. They moved almost as a single unit, so in sync that it seemed impossible. Despite both of them being short, sturdily built individuals their combat choreography was like a dance. Every twist, jump, turn and strike flowed into the next. They'd spent their whole lives together and it looked like that proximity would pay dividends in the Gauntlet.

It made for grim viewing and she remembered Thradd's prediction that the twins would be their opponents if they reached the semi-finals. So far that looked like one of the safest bets going. She watched the fight end and looked at Gareth expectantly. He simply nodded. Both of them knew that if they wanted to reach the final it would be a long hard slog.