vrijdag 24 februari 2017

The Arena. Chapter 5: Aggression versus peace

It had not taken long for the fans to figur out that the next match would be Viking versus Shaolin monk, especially considering that the social media department had published the fight the day after.
If the first matches had caused endless debates, these were nothing compared to the debate that this upcoming match. Little time was spend at arguing about how realistic the fight between the Koa and the Aboriginal was, as most people were yelling at each other on the internet. Whole fora were full of discussions on who would win and many youtubers tried to give their own expert opinion on the matter.
Fred read one of the discussions with a broad smile. He had tried to read and watch as much as possible on the subject and it was all very entertaining. He had hoped that people would take these matches as serieus but only now could he see the effects that his show had on people.
The fans of the Shaolin Argued that the monk would win, because he was an expert martial artist who had trained his entire life to fight and was much smarter and calmer. Concensus was that the monk would get his opponent mad and then punish the warrior for the mistakes he was going to make.
The viking fans on the other hand thought that the small monk would surely be overpowered by the bigger and stronger berserker.
Fred looked at the camera displaying the cells. The monk had been silent the entire him he was inprisoned and now sat calmly in his cell. He had been no problem at all and would do whatever told with a simple nod. Fred could not say if he had just accepted his fate or was planning something. The viking on the other hand was a polar opposite. He had been aggressive when he was first captured and had tried to break out of his cell multiple times. Altough he now was less aggressive, Fred still did not trust him and always made sure that there were extra guards around if the viking had to be moved.
The big viking reminded  Fred of another problem that they were having recently. Several female staffmembers and a few males ones had asked for some alone time with a few of the warriors. Fred had said no every time but a few members of staff had been caught trying to get into some of the cells.
Fred was not sure what to think of it and did not fancy his warriors being used in such a way, but he understood peoples needs. Everyone on the island was forbidden by contract to leave without direct permission from either him or Atthe. He was so worried that people found out about what actually happened here that he did not allow it. Ofcourse there had been speculation on what happened was real or not and the fact that nobody on the show answered any of these questions made it more myserieus. He did not want people to actually find out. That would not only hurt the ratings but chances are that soldiers would enter the island again. First he needed to have ths island become its own little nation, under the protection of the US, then maybe it would matter less that people found out about the real fights going on.
'I should talk to Atthe about the urges of people on the island, maybe something could be arranged.' Fred spoke to himself. Then he could figur out the rest.

'Have you researched the possibilities?' Fred asked. At the table with him sat his wife Atthe, John, Omar and the maffiaboss Mr. Leono.
'Yes.' John answered.  There are a lot tv shows that once aired and that we could air. Some shows we even could continue. We can make it in some sort of warrior history channel.' He added. 'We also found some youtubers who could potentially host some of the shows, altough we either have to let them do that at home or bring them to the island.' Came the comment of Omar.
'How about financiall?' Fred inquired. This time it was his wife who answered. 'Looking at everything,  it would not be too costly and in fact would gain us money in the second year'
That was all that he wanted. 'What is your opinion?  The man asked the don. As one of the two moneyshooters, he also had a say in what was going on.  'Yeah I will cover the cost, sounds like a good plan.' Was the answer. Fred had expected the answer to be as such, but he still wanted to ask.
'Well then Atthe. Will you set it up with John?' He asked. His wife nodded, knowing that now she was full responsible for its creation.

'Fight four is about to begin and the warriors could not be different.' Seth started in the new episode of The Arena. 'Our first fighter comes all the way from the frozen north. He has been known as a pillager and a rapist. A destroyer of towns and a wildebeast against innocent people.' Seth allowed a moment of silence to fall before he yelled. 'It is none other then the Viking Berserker.' At moments like these, Seth would like to have an audiance as he wanted to see the reactions from the people watching. However they only could look at him, not the other way around. Not that it was a bad thing that they could look at him, he was dashing and handsome after all.
'Where the viking likes to kill monks, our other fighter is a monk who fights back.' The host started his introduction of the opponent. 'From the beautiful east, this monk is a martial art master who trains his entire life in the arts of kung fu. Fighting raiders and protecting the weak, this man of peace will be a deadly opponent. If you have not guessed it, I am talking about the Shaolin monk.


Han Liu looked at the weapons before him. Altough everything around him was weird ever since he had been kidnapped from the temple, at least these weapons were familiar. Han was no killer however and did not like to take another man's life. He had only killed bandits when the man had no other choise and had punished himself every single time. Now it seemed that fate had brought the young Shaolin in this arena, where he had to kill his opponent to return to the temple.
The monk did not know who is opponent would be and therefore was unsure what for weapons to bring. Han Liu decided on a spade for medium distance combat, a broadsword for close fighting and finally a Emei dagger for very personal combat.
With the weapons chosen and mentally prepared for what was to come, Han Liu stepped through the door and onto an open field.

A quick peek at the guards and their weapons discouraged Einar to attack them. It was so tempting with the weapons here but he knew that there were more of these guys and they all could kill from a distance without a bow. Growling, the warrior looked at the weapons displayed. He would kill this enemy and look for another good chance to escape. One thing was for sure. Einar would not die a prisoner, but as a warrior so he could join his father and brother and he too could dine in valhalla.
After picking the Dane axe and a Seax, Einar stepped on the grass of the open field,

A big brute, this could be interesting. Han Liu thought
The viking smiled. 'A monk, this would be easy.' He spoke to himself. With his axe ready he ran towards the smaller opponent.
The two met at the middle of the field and the weapons hit each other. Monks spade versus dane axe. Han Liu was able to hit his opponent several times, inflicting light wounds as he danced around the axe. As the axe hooked around the spade, Han Liu was able to move his weapon away and hit the chest of the viking, which was covered with wolfsfur and did little damage, The back of the axe however, flew towards the monk and hit him straight in the face, breaking the nose of the shaolin and sending him rolling in the grass. Seeing an opening, Einar charged at his target and moved his axe in a downwards arc. Before he could hit the monk, the other guy rolled away and jumped on his feet. Using the spade as pole, he kicked the viking away.
The weapons clashed with each other again. As Han Liu was able to dodge most of the attacks of his opponent, Einar was able to block the attacks or endured minor wounds on his arms and legs. Once the berserker overextended and Han Liu was able to hit the head, only for the spade to glance off the helmet.

'These two are really well matched.' Fred said to everybody in the room. The two have been going on for a short while now, with neither getting a good edge on the opponent or really dominating the battle. The viewer count was also on a alltime high at the moment as everybody tuned in to see this battle.

Han Liu had hoped to tire out his opponent by this point but the man might have been made of stone as the warrior did not show any sign of fatigue. Han himself was still ready to go as well but he feared that he might tire earlier then the other guy. If that happened, the Shaolin knew that he would lose.
The two clashed again and dealt blows but either blocked or dodged the attacks of the opponent.

Einar leaned a little bit too farwards, which have Han Liu the idea to smack the side of the head of his opponent. That helmet would stop damage, but the Shaolin hoped to disorientate his opponent enough to finish the fight. Just before the monk's spade hit the viking, Einar pulled his head backwards and blocked the attack with his dane axe. This did give the viking an idea.
He overextended his next attack on purpose, which the Shalin took advantage off.
The spade came in but the axe blocked the attack. At the same moment, Einar stepped in, grabbed the weapon of his opponent and pulled.
Instead of pulling back, Han Liu releashed his spade. The viking almost lost his footing due to this. Reacting as fast as he could, Han Liu pulled his broadsword and ran towards his opponent. A swift kick to the chest send Einar to the ground and the broadsword hit the helmet as the berserker tried to stand up. Only now Einar felt how tired he was, with the multiple smaller wounds burning. His opponent was holding a sword close to his throat and Einar was prepared to die. He was going to valhalla.

Han Liu was about to kill his opponent. His sword was close to the throat of the big man. He only needed to make a swift strike to kill. But Han could not do it. Years of living in the temple, praising life had its effect on the monk once again. He had already won. Why would he need to kill this opponent who could not fight back anymore. Then again, it was made clear that he had to kill the other man to claim victory and the Shaolin did not know what would happen if he did not kill.
This moment of struglle was enough for Einar to see a chance. Valhalla had to wait as he pulled his Seax and smashed the sword away. Einar then threw the monk on the ground and attacked with his seax.
Han Liu was suprised as the sword got knocked out of his hand. This opponent still was ready to fight it seemed. He then got thrown on the ground and saw his opponent above him holding a large knife. With only his emei dagger left, he thrusted the small weapon into the fur covered chest of the viking, as Einar stepped the chest of the Shaolin several times.

The viking lay on top of the small monk with neither moving and total silence in the room. 'Did they kill each other?' Someone asked. 'What do we do if they are both dead?' Someone else wondered.
Fred just looked at the screen intensly. People would think a double death would be a cop out even if this was not planned at all,
'Give them one more minute. If neither moves, declare a tie and they both lose.' Fred spoke. He hoped himself that one of them would move or give a sign of life.
A small movement could be seen on screen and then slowly someone rose. It was the viking who stood ip, a wound very close to the heart could be seen on his chest, with blood covered fur around him.

'You have seen it here people. Brawn won out against brain this time and the Viking Berserker continues to the next round as the Shaolin monk joins the losers.' Seth spoke. He still had to recover from the event he had just seen and was not prepared at all for this.
'The two were matched really well and I feel this fight could have gone either way.' The host then added.
'Now we have a victor, it is also time to look at the next match up. Who is your money on as the Inuit meets none other then the Aztec Jaguar in combat.' Seth smiled his usual self. 'Do not miss it as it will be another epic match.'







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