ToLaD: Chapter 13: The Tournament
Amato was amazed by the many spectacles before his eyes.
Luckily, he got to come to Braedon's big tournament, meeting the rest of the team as well. The two hyena twins both 'awww'd when they saw Amato taking off the collar from Braedon's neck. Braedon happily flicked his tail, enjoying his new temporary freedom from the wearable torture device.
Now, Amato was sitting up in the grandstand, next to Teagan Shieh, Braedon's mother, and little Blyde Reischer. Teagan was tapping away on her laptop, working on yet another book, only glancing up every once in a while. Blyde was watching intently and with fascination, always getting excited seeing Braedon fight. Amato was looking at the latest theories and discussions on the elusive 'humans,' watching when Blyde got really excited.
But there was someone else that Amato was keeping an eye on. And it wasn't any kind of crush.
A lupine, sinewy at worst and secretly tough at best, beat his opponent with his katana with ease. It was difficult to determine what his opponent's weapon was, since it wasn't there anymore. The lupine sheathed his katana and walked over to his own team, made of various species just like Braedon's. If Braedon's team were to go and attempt to win this tournament, they would soon have to face that team with their star fighter.
But, Amato didn't need to remained worried.
When Braedon came up the grandstands for a drink, he was panting. Sweat matted his fur and his tongue was lolling slightly. Amato stood and slipped past Braedon, earning him a curious look from the black fox. Amato got down to the floor and walked to behind the grandstands. A minute later, Braedon turned the corner.
"Not liking it here, Amato?" The black fox asked.
Said red fox shook his head. He ran a paw through the green stripe along his head, sighing.
"I was watching someone else fight and they won perfectly." Amato answered.
"Let me guess. Lupine, wields a katana?" Braedon asked, to which Amato nodded. Braedon looked away, "Shit."
"You know him?"
"His name is Hanz?. His club and mine are rivals, and so we are rival teams. It is even recognised by every official here. They always seem to win against us no problem before. They always send him out first, their way of getting a flawless win." Braedon explained.
"Do you think you can beat him this time?" Amato asked.
"I have a feeling that we will win this one. Not sure how, but I have a feeling."
"And do you have faith in your team?"
"We all have faith in each other. However," Braedon began to answer. He then stood close to Amato, making the red fox's cheeks blush underneath his fur. Braedon's paws soon wrapped themselves around Amato's back, their tails soon wrapping around each other as well.
Braedon leant in close. "All I want is for you to have some faith in me." The black fox whispered.
Amato smiled and pushed Braedon away. The black fox was confused, but soon smiled when he saw Amato smiling all the while. Amato soon began to grimace due to a familiar pain in his head, but his smiling kept overriding the grimace. Braedon soon ran back around the grandstands, allowing Amato to stop smiling and start grimacing fully. He clasped his paws just behind his ears, the location of the pain.
He made his way around the grandstands to where he kept his stuff, grimacing and holding his head on the way there. Amato opened his bag, fishing out a painkiller tablets and a bottle of water.
"You okay, Amato?" Teagan asked.
"Just the plate again." Amato answered, getting out a painkiller tablet. He threw it into his mouth, swallowed and drunk from the bottle of water. He breathed out after he was finished drinking. "I hate it."
Teagan closed her laptop and placing it in her bag. "I'm sorry if I sound a bit insensitive, but sometimes you have to live with what you get. If it means pain, then so be it. It pains keeping my maiden name, but it keeps everyone knowing who wrote the best books in Loscade." Teagan said. She stood up, hefting up the bags the Reischer family brought with them. "Let's find a different place to watch."
Amato placed everything back in his bag, zipped it up and hefted a strap over a shoulder. Blyde slid off his seat and skipped over to Teagan, placing his paw into hers. They went down the steps, Amato purposely walking behind them, and went over to where the team was currently fighting.
It wasn't against the lupine, Hanz?, but the ferret, his glasses replaced by contact lenses, used his trident to catch his opponent's halberd and twisted it, disarming his opponent, a raccoon, and stabbed forth, the blunted prongs stopping millimetres from the chest of the raccoon.
"Winner of this round: Modern Quester team." The referee announced.
The ferret pulled his trident back and placed the haft onto the mats at their feet, using his left paw to keep it from falling. The ferret and the raccoon shook paws and the raccoon picked his halberd up. The raccoon walked off and a female Siamese cat took on the mantle, wielding a pickaxe as a weapon. An odd choice, but to each their own.
The ferret and the Siamese both slightly inclined their heads as they noticed each other. Both readied their weapons, staring the other down.
"Commence!" The ref shouted.
The ferret lunged forward, hoping to get this over with quickly. However, the Siamese sidestepped and knocked the trident away with the wood of the pickaxe. Now off-balance, the ferret stumbled, only to get a small but noticeable poke in the back. He knew he has been defeated. Both went back to their original spots.
"Winner of this round: New Shield team." The ref announced.
The ferret walked off, removing his contact lenses and replaced them with his glasses and Braedon walked on. Both combatants inclined their heads and readied themselves once more. While the Siamese was leaning back and forth in stance, Braedon seemed more restless than her. His heels were rising and lowering, as if he was being impatient, his height changing as his heels rose and fell.
"Commence!"
Braedon faked a lunge forward, inciting the same reaction the Siamese did to the ferret. But Braedon was an opportunist, he lunged for real, swinging the sabre which the Siamese blocked with the haft of the pickaxe. The Siamese forgot about the shortsword in Braedon's left paw, however. But, when Braedon stabbed from underneath, the Siamese pushed with the pickaxe and moved out of reach of the small blade.
Braedon began to do small hops back, away from the Siamese. He could see the Siamese hissing, a common scare tactic amongst cats. Suddenly, the Siamese raised the pickaxe high and jumped towards the black fox. Braedon kind of wanted this to happen.
He suddenly rolled forwards into the Siamese's strike, making contact with the legs and tripping the cat. Braedon quickly stood and swiped down with the sabre, the tip almost contacting the windpipe. The Siamese sighed. Braedon removed the sabre from the cat and offered her his paw to help her up instead. The Siamese took it and both went back to their spots.
"Winner of this round and semi-final match: Modern Quester team." The referee announced.
The Modern Quester team erupted into quiet cheer. The New Shield team groaned at their loss. Azaz and the coach of the New Shield team shook paws. The New Shield team and coach left the mats and those from the Modern Quester had a small talk from one of the refs. When they came back, most of the team had their faces were drained of colour.
"We have to face the Tornado Blade team in the final." Azaz told the three onlookers.
Amato was the only one to look confused. Braedon saw Amato's confusion, and chose to clarify it to him.
"Hanz?'s team." Braedon told him.
"Take a rest. Everyone will need it for the final match in thirty minutes time." Azaz ordered.
The team dispersed, five heading off but the Reischer family and Amato stayed nearby. Teagan gave Amato and Braedon some pre-made sandwiches, to which the two teenaged foxes sat together outside against the tournament venue. They were pretty much alone.
"Well, if it isn't little Braedon." They heard a voice. It was deep, but light enough to be a teenager's.
Braedon stopped mid-bite and began to growl, but Amato was confused about why, though. A grey lupine walked out in a thick jacket, confirming Braedon's suspicious act and relieving Amato's confusion.
"Hanz?, just leave us alone." Braedon growled out.
"I will leave if you accept your team's defeat now. Both of us know that you won't win the final." Hanz? continued.
Suddenly, Braedon's features went from angered to an eerie calm. He looked up towards Hanz?'s smug muzzle. "And how do you know that you will win?"
"I will break that sabre of yours once more, as I did with the other three, so it can join the pile." Hanz? said.
"Run back to your team, wolfie. I'm pretty sure that they may pass out from fright with you gone." Braedon replied.
Hanz? smirked and, thankfully, left. The two foxes continued to eat without any more interruptions. When they got back inside, Braedon began to warm back up, since the wind from outside cooled him down.
After the really long warm-up, everyone in the hall went silent as the announcer, a bulldog, began the final round speech, a microphone in his paw.
"Men and women of all ages and species. The final round will commence in one minute, between the two rival teams. The Tornado Blade team and the Modern Quester team. Get ready, and be gathered at the centre ring." The bulldog announced. He put the microphone away, now finished.
Braedon walked over to Amato, where they embraced.
"I'll win for you." Braedon whispered.
"Hand Hanz? his tail on a platter." Amato whispered back.
Braedon quietly chuckled. "Yes sir." He replied.
They kissed and Braedon ran off for the match. Amato caught up to Teagan and Blyde, who were both kind enough to save him a spot and lucky enough to get a front row viewing of the match. The first of the two teams' combatants went onto the mats. The snow leopard with gauntleted paws from Modern Quester and, unsurprisingly, Hanz? with his katana from Tornado Blade. Both inclined their heads, one a lot more smugly than the other.
"Let the match commence!" The referee shouted, to which the crowd cheered loudly for.
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It was all down to Braedon now.
Their dragon teammate just got defeated by Hanz?, just as the other four have been.
While the referee was announcing the outcome, Azaz touched Braedon's shoulder and gained his attention for one last piece of advice.
"Remember. Use your gifts." Azaz whispered. Braedon nodded his understanding, and went up into the ring.
Both combatants stared the other down, both inclining their heads as was the custom. They readied, Hanz? had his katana pointing forward in front of him, his feet rock solid, while Braedon held his weapons in two different positions, bouncing his heels up and down in a practiced rhythm.
"Commence!"
Both combatants began to circle each other, both trying to get the other to move by fake outs.
Hanz? swung forth, hoping to end the round quickly. However, Braedon swiped along the same trajectory the katana was heading in while he hopped backwards. Seeing an opening, Braedon stabbed, but had it blocked by Hanz?'s left forearm.
This continuous block-counter-block pattern kept happening for minutes. And Braedon could see that Hanz?, as good a swordsman as the vulpine was, was getting tired and slowing down. Obviously not used to a drawn out fight. He could see the desperation in the lupine's eyes. And so, Hanz? decided for one last stab.
He stepped back, his blade following his right foot, and stepped forwards. Braedon reacted on instinct. He blocked the katana out to his right with the sabre, threw his shortsword out to behind Hanz?, used his now-free paw to knock the katana out of Hanz?'s grasp while releasing his own grip on his sabre, and did the most outrageous stunt he has ever done.
He leapt over Hanz?'s outstretched arms, pressing his back against the wolf's. He grabbed a good hold with his fingers on the back of Hanz?'s shirt collar and continued rolling. Hearing Hanz?'s confused scream, the wolf was flung over Braedon's head and landed face first onto the ring's mats, yelping at the impact. Lucky for Braedon, his shortsword was just where he wanted it to be. The fox quickly grabbed the hilt and sent a light tap from the tip to Hanz?'s back.
He heard his team, Hanz?'s team, and the entire crowd gasp at the spectacle. Hanz?, who has never been defeated at this tournament, has now been defeated.
Both combatants stood and gathered their weapons. It took the referee a knowing cough and a couple seconds to realise what he was meant to be doing.
"Winner of this round: Modern Quester team." The ref announced.
The crowd erupted into cheer. Hanz? walked off, not happy in the slightest, and a teammate of his took his place. A turtle, wielding a claymore.
They did the customary incline and the round started.
Braedon, the last hope of the Modern Quester team, swept through the other five of the Tornado Blade team with little to no trouble. The majority of people could only see a black blur of movement rather than a black fox. Dodge was met with a rapid change in position, followed by a quick push or a soft kick to annoy them.
When the match finished, the Modern Quester team revealed to be the winners of the tournament and had the chance to go to further up the chain of tournaments, the crowd cheered for them. Azaz shook paws with the Tornado Blade team's coach, who, like Azaz, is the father of their star fighter.
"Close match!" The middle-aged wolf yelled.
Azaz nodded. He couldn't put his agreement into words. But what they saw after that was beyond both of them. Hanz?, in front of Braedon, also shook paws while Hanz? half bowed to the fox's superior fighting skills.
When the cheering died down a lot, Azaz pulled his phone out and dialled in the number of his team's sponsor.
"Barry 'ere. What can I do f'r ya?" He heard the voice of the kangaroo say.
"Barry. Azaz here." Azaz responded.
"Oh, Azaz! Good news, I'm assuming from the sound of your voice, mate."
"Begin a small party in your cubicle. Your sponsored team is going higher."
He heard a loud cheer from the kangaroo, followed by someone else in a similar accent to his yelling "Can ya shut it, Barry?! Bloody 'ell," followed by an apology from the overexcited kangaroo.
"Aww, mate. That's awesome. When's a good time to see ya for this business?"
"As soon as you can after my team has had their small break. They've all earned it." Azaz answered, and hung up on the kangaroo.
When he looked back up from his call, he saw Braedon and Amato embraced with their noses touching and eyes closed, and the rest of the team holding up a trophy, their team's name permanently engraved onto the metal. He turned around, his youngest son hugging him from the waist with his little arms.
It was a good turnout indeed.