Posted by Stunned was the only word to describe the feeling throughout the crowd. Did he really just shout “bring it on” to The Pit. Wasn’t he afraid hearing that he would be fighting 10 Kulga in a life and death struggle?
Finally someone from within the crowd laughed out loud and with a booming voice announced to everyone within ear shot.
“Screw it…I lost last time betting against the kid. I was going to bet against him this time too but standing out there unafraid of this crowd and whats coming even if I loose my money I won’t regret it.”
Hearing the man full of laughter as he placed a huge bet on the boy some of the people in the crowd had their face contort. With a thought they realized he was right. They had been so caught up in the money they had lost previously and the anger they were feeling they missed that this little boy was standing out there grinning ear to ear staring down this whole damn place.
Could they do something like that even as full grown adults much less as a little kid? No…there was no way.
“Ill take 1000 Franar on the boy.”
“Give me 3000 Franar on the kid, with odds of 500 to 1 I might just get lucky, hahahahahaha.”
“To hell with it, I’ve lived long enough give me 10,000 on the boy to win.”
The suddenly hostile crowd started having whispers and calls of bets in favor of Aker to win the fight. While the great majority of people were betting on his death at least a few thousand were betting on Aker.
As the bets continued to slowly come in favoring Aker to win One Eye heaved a sigh of relief.
He had thought up the idea of bringing Aker back in to fight right away without giving him enough rest. It was his idea to convince the crowd that 10 Kulga would be a fair fight. He even set the odds at 500 to 1 despite the fact that odds makers were telling him it should be 5 to 1. His reasoning was simple. Who would ever bet on that bastard kid if the odds were only 5 to 1?
He had to create a scenario wherein he was certain the kid would die while still drawing in some suckers to bet on the kid otherwise when he died if everyone betting on his death The Pit would lose a fortune.
He couldn’t help but acknowledge his own brilliance. This is what he was capable of all along. If he wasn’t being suppressed and blamed he would already be the most trusted adviser to his Majesty. The more he thought about the more he realized that once his plan was complete he would need to force Fastagio into The Pits as well. It only made sense, he held One Eyed back thus hurting the entire Underground Empire and his Majesty. Death in The Pits before thousands of cheers was the only punishment worthy of his crimes.
Upon coming to this realization One Eye couldn’t contain himself any longer as his laughter filled the entire room.
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As the first Kulga came rushing out of the door Aker took a deep breadth and started calculating the trajectory it was headed.
‘hmm it feels like I understand where this Kulga is headed and when it will get there’ Aker thought to himself. It was a different feeling he had never had before. He could approximate the speed and angle of the Kulga and could figure out almost exactly where it would reach him.
As he was pondering on this 3 more Kulga came rushing out of the door almost as if they were fighting each other to be the first to exit.
Seeing the number of Kulga increase Aker came up with a plan. Listening to Vance he needed to train with the Kulga but if he tried to fight all 10 Kulga at the same time the chances of him getting seriously hurt would increase exponentially.
As Aker was making plans again it occurred to him that the plans he was coming up with were getting created to fast. As he was watching the final 6 Kulga work there way out he had come up with 3-4 different potential plans and even started ranking them according to how successful he thought they might be.
He found himself questioning how it was possible for someone with no battle experience to formulate battle plans. It was especially confusing that as new Kulga were entering The Pit his mind was automatically calculating speed, size, distance traveled and angle to figure out where each of the Kulga would intersect, which one’s would attack together, which ones would attack alone and how he could use all of this to his advantage.
While for someone like Vance Aker’s battle plans could only be described as rudimentary the very notion that Aker was able to calculate and formulate was shocking in its own right.
Now that all 10 Kulga had entered The Pit it was time for Aker to make his move.
Holding one knife in a forward position while the other was held in reverse he took off running towards the leading Kulga. After seeing how fast it was moving and the distance from it to the next group of Kulga’s Aker decided he should attack it first with the hopes of killing it quickly.
Even if he couldn’t kill it quickly it didn’t matter as the distance to the ones behind it was to far to pose any risk to him at the moment. Basically this was a free attack going 1 on 1 with the Kulga. Had this been a couple of days ago there was no way he would have this thought but after his fight from a few hours ago a 1 on 1 fight seemed like it shouldn’t be to difficult.
While he was running it occurred to him that his previously used plan would probably work best and as he experienced it first hand it was highly effective against the Kulga. If it worked for the one a few hours ago why wouldn’t it work here again? Due to there short arms when he was low all he really needed to do was watch out for their feet.
Aker decided to take the shortest path angle towards the Kulga thus giving him the most 1 on 1 time he could. Sprinting as fast as he could Aker arrived before the Kulga within a breath and just as he and the Kulga were about to meet Aker dropped to his back and started sliding across the floor.
As Aker slid across the floor he switched both of his knifes to a reverse grip and aimed for the joints on both of the legs of the Kulga.
For some reason he was clearly able to anticipate exactly where the Kulga’s feet would land so he didn’t have any fear of accidentally getting stepped on as he slid toward the Kulga. As he had waited until the last possible second to hit the ground into a slide it didn’t give the Kulga any time to change its trajectory.
Almost instantly as Akers blades swiped across the joints the Kulga’s face planted straight into the ground losing its ability to stand or put pressure on its legs.
Without looking back Aker dug his right hand into the ground which forced his body back to his feet and began running toward the group of three Kulga’s that were behind the leading Kulga.
Just as he had thought going with essentially the same attack worked perfectly.
Initially the three Kulga had been nipping at each other trying to get out of the door first but now that they were in the open they seemed to be related to each other as they kept close to one another almost forming a small wall.
Sensing that it would be dangerous to attack the middle of the three Kulga’s Aker decided that he would try and attack one of the Kulgas on the wing. If he could injure or kill one of those it would probably impact the other two and certainly it would make them a less effective group.
As Aker was moving toward the three they were also running at Aker with a clear desire to devour not only his body but his soul as well.
Aker caught a lone Kulga approaching from his left flank roughly 200 meters away. The three Kulga were now roughly 20 meters away.
Without hesitation Aker immediately turned and started running toward the lone Kulga.
Seeing this, the trio of Kulga were enraged and immediately began the process of turning the same direction as Aker. However, as there three of them were close together and side by side they bumped into each other significantly slowing all of them down and creating a huge opening.
Seeing the three bump into one another Aker immediately turned back to the trio only being about 5 meters away at this point. His intention all along was to aim for the wing Kulga on the far left.
As the other two Kulga were beside the wing Kulga and couldn’t get past them Aker ran up and stabbed the left wing Kulga in the Neck. Aker had essentially created another 1 on 1 scenario despite the fact that there were three of them there. Getting stabbed in the neck the Kulga growled out and then started to fall back. As it started to fall back it pushed against the Kulga in the middle further blocking it out.
Aker knew there was a 50/50 chance the Kulga could fall backwards. If had fallen forward he would have ran back to the lone Kulga which was now roughly 150 meters away directly behind him. Since the Kulga fell backwards it would give him a chance to attack the Kulga that was previously on the right wing.
As the Kulga started to move backwards Aker spun around behind the Kulga in just a couple of steps. The right wing Kulga must have felt the presence of Aker behind it because it tried to turn around as it was snapping its mouth about wildly. As it wildly moved around it was further trapping the Kulga in the middle.
With a quick slice Aker could only aim for one joint on its leg. As his knife slid across the joint blood shot out indicating that Aker was successful in his attack.
Seeing the blood and without taking a look Aker ran in a straight line from here. He had injured or taken down three Kulga and was headed in a direction that had no predators in front of him.
As Aker looked back over his shoulder he could see the trio of Kulga hitting the ground. The Kulga in the middle had no choice but to fall over as the two Kulga surrounding it forced it down.
Just past the trio of Kulga Aker could see the lone Kulga who had been running at his left flank tearing away the skin of the first Kulga he had dropped. Even with the noise of the crowd he could make out the cries from the incapacitated first Kulga who was helpless and could only accept its fate.
Based on his count currently five of the Kulga were no longer able to fight for at least 5-10 breaths and three of them should be permanently out of the fight.
The door that all of the Kulga came through initially was to his left. Out of luck or coincidence none of the Kulga ran to the right out of the door so the area that Aker was headed to was free of any predators.
‘How many can I safely fight and practice against?’ This question had been running through Akers mind since the beginning. After fighting off the first wave he was no closer to an answer. In reality he hadn’t truly fought any of them face to face to know.
He had taken advantage of the fact that he could slide beneath the Kulga’s reach and disable it. He used the formation the trio were in to prevent them from being able to use there numbers or even successfully launch any kind of attack.
With the lone Kulga chowing down on the injured Kulga he was just getting lucky. While he had certainly put himself in a good position he still had no idea what would happen if he stood directly in front of one of these monsters and fought it out.
‘Maybe I should try and just go 1 on 1 all out. I don’t know how strong they are if I don’t use their weakness and I don’t know how strong I am. Just a couple of days ago was the first time I had ever held a knife. I should first figure out what a 1 on 1 fight is like.’
The more Aker thought about it the more certain he was that taking care of nine and leaving one was his best option for at least this time.