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I pressed my full weight onto him and hammered him in the face. The first blow brought a fountain of blood from his nose.
“Yield!” I repeated.
He didn’t. So, I slugged him in the face again.
“Yield!”
He hesitated, and I pummeled him again.
“Yield!”
“I yield!” he gasped through the river of blood. “I yield!”
It was loud enough for everyone to hear. The audience erupted into applause, stamped their feet, and roared with excitement. It had been a slow, unexceptional fight, but the fickle crowd always remembered how it ended.
I backed away from my opponent, my breaths snorting hard through my nostrils and my fist still clenched and bloody. I’d seen enough fights to know it didn’t always end when an opponent yielded.
Sometimes, driven by rage or jealousy, they lashed out again — sometimes with disastrous consequences. And there was nothing more disastrous than me being unable to defend Lily.
But I needn’t have worried.
The young sleejak got to his feet, bowed respectfully to me, and wiped an arm across his broken nose.
“Ignore the crowd, huh?” he said. “I’m going to have to bear that in mind next time.”
He turned and left through his side of the pit while I left through mine.
The first round was over.
Just four more to go…
19
LILY
I released the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.
Gpidod rubbed my back and rubbed her cheek against my arm in that soft way she often did to show affection. “Your mate is one step closer.”
I felt excited, relieved… and immediately put a lid on it. I shouldn’t expect too much, I told myself. Ohara wasn’t a natural fighter. He might not make it to the final, and even if he did, he would still have to beat the Champion…
Again.
I had to remind myself that he had, in fact, already overcome him once before. And if he could do it once, why couldn’t he do it again?
I liked that he didn’t play up to the crowd. I liked that he had a strategy and he stuck to it. I hated when his opponent managed to land a blow but I was relieved when it didn’t seem to have much of an effect.
Too many of the alien fighters played to the crowd, wanting to please them and their followers more than caring about the outcome. I was glad Ohara didn’t fall for the same trap.
In my stomach, I felt a tight fluttering sensation, as if maybe, just maybe, we could get to be together. And that thought brought a smile to my lips.
I wondered how long his sentence was and how many more times we might be able to see each other… It must be long for him to put so much effort into seeing me again.
I was disappointed when Druin passed through to the second round within twenty short seconds. He had something to prove, and was more vicious than usual.
The other Prizes came and went, busy with the task of making themselves look gorgeous for the Champion.
I spent every possible moment watching the fights, for once taking a keen interest in them. I wanted to see who Ohara’s next opponent was and do what I was best at — and analyze their strengths and weaknesses.
