---
Moments before the chaos in the stands:
00:00:20:55
So, who's going to be the next to go down there? - Kilay
There are only two fights left before this group, as we know it, completely falls apart. - Lira
There's no way to avoid it anymore. We wouldn't even have time to try to bend the rules, and even if we did, so many have already been eliminated... would it be fair to try to come up with something only now? - Richard
If you want to fight me right now, just say it, Lira. - Kilay
Just as Lira was about to respond, Neale spoke up.
No, Richard, it wouldn't be fair at all. And I'm tired of trying to take the initiative only for someone else to act faster than me. I can't keep going like this. So even if it's a bit selfish... I don't want to be the last one to fight. - Neale
Do whatever you want. I don't think Lira would want to be forced to fight right now anyway. - Kilay
Are you okay with us stopping this torture and going down there now, Richard? - Neale
Of course. Let's go. There's nowhere else to go anyway, only forward. - Richard
Richard and Neale stood up and began walking down the corridor behind them, the one that led to the arena gates. With each step, their resolve hardened.
As soon as the two disappeared into the corridor's darkness, Kilay once again informed the instructor that the decision had been made, exactly as the clock read:
00:00:09:58
As the corridor stretched straight toward the gates, they could already see, from a distance, the two guards responsible for securing the entrance and explaining the main rule of the arena.
It is forbidden to enter the arena with any kind of weapon. If you are caught using weapons during the fight, you will be eliminated. - Guard 1
Please, if you have any weapons with you, place them in the chests beside you. - Guard 2
Neale unfastened the belt that held his two knives behind his waist, along with their sheaths, and placed them inside the chest next to him.
Richard removed his worn black leather bracers from his forearms, making sure to place them carefully inside his chest.
Are they important to you? - Neale asked, while untying the remaining half of his coat from around his waist and folding it just as carefully.
What? - Richard replied, sounding a bit lost in his own thoughts.
Your bracers. They seem important to you. - Neale
They belonged to my grandfather, before they belonged to my father... and now they're mine. It's kind of strange, you know? Back then they weren't that important, but as time went on... little by little, they just became part of me somehow. Does that make sense? - Richard
In a way... yeah. I understand. I really do. - Neale said, looking at the careful fold he made in his torn coat before placing it in the chest.
Are you ready? - Guard 2
Yes. - Neale
Of course. - Richard replied, taking a deep breath as if preparing himself.
The two guards opened the gate in perfect sync, allowing the two opponents to walk toward the instructor waiting at the center of the arena.
When they finally approached him, he spoke:
Please introduce yourselves clearly with your full names. - Instructor
Richard Krentz.
Neale Sanchez Rodrigues.
Very well. When I give the signal, you may begin. - Instructor
The instructor stepped away, returning to his position from where he would judge the fight. As soon as he arrived, he raised his hand high.
Ready? Fight! - the instructor shouted, bringing his hand down, signaling both by voice and gesture that the match had officially begun.
They circled each other, as if neither of them knew how to start.
Until Neale made the first move, launching a kick aimed at Richard's right side at a sixty-five-degree upward angle.
To defend himself, Richard had to raise his leg slightly above his waist, taking the impact with his knee.
Sharing a fraction of his pain with his opponent.
That initial exchange was the spark, the push both needed for what was coming next.
On one side, Richard believed Neale was stronger than him. On the other, Neale found himself trapped, taking a strange sequence of blows from Richard. They had barely started, yet Neale was already being beaten without understanding that bizarre fighting style. Every second, he took more hits. Even when he thought he had dodged, he was still getting struck.
"How...? I'm sure I'm dodging them. Sometimes with difficulty, but still... it doesn't matter. He keeps hitting me somehow, whether I dodge or not." - Neale
"Why... why are you holding back against me, Neale?" - Richard
It was at that exact moment that the chaos in the stands between Groups One, Nine, Thirty, and Fifty began. Even so, the fight in the arena wasn't paused or stopped. On the contrary, it continued, since neither the instructor nor the fighters received any order to intervene.
Richard and Neale could hear the noise of the chaos in the stands, but in that moment, they were focused, fighting like true opponents.
"You have to keep fighting, Neale. Come on, focus on his strikes. What didn't you see? What are you missing right now?" - Neale
"Don't lose here! Don't lose now!"
Then he began to remember a conversation he had with Kilay on the second day of training, when they were alone in the dorm, moments before Nuke showed up.
"- Neale, I'm going to tell you something I've already told the others, but you're the one who needs to hear it the most, I think. It's kind of obvious, but don't show everything you've got during training. - Kilay"
"- Why are you telling me this? - Neale"
"- Because even though we're in a 'safe' place where we train to maybe join the Order and chase our goals, we still don't know when, how, or who might turn things against us. - Kilay"
Just as Neale was about to respond, Nuke suddenly appeared at the dorm door, bursting in out of nowhere as always.
"- Bread! You... wa...nt... so...me... bread?! - Nuke"
Neale and Kilay stared at her, completely confused.
"- Bread? - Neale"
"- She said bread, right...? - Kilay"
Nuke stared at them for a few seconds with a serious expression while chewing the bread in her mouth.
"- They don't want any. We get to repeat dinner today. - Nuke said loudly, running back to the table."
"- What do you mean?! - Neale"
"- Q...?... she says that clearly. - Kilay"
The two ran after her, shouting for the others to wait for them to eat.
"Maybe if I had said something back then..." - As Neale thought, he kept getting hit, even when he was sure he had dodged.
"No... a tip wouldn't change anything now... I don't have any tricks up my sleeve... nothing..." - Neale
Neale tilted his head away from Richard's punch with such precision that even the audience couldn't believe it when, in the next instant, he was struck by the very punch he had just dodged.
It was a clean hit, landing almost perfectly on Neale's jaw, knocking him off balance and nearly unconscious.
The impact even split his upper lip.
"Fighting Richard for real is completely different from our training fights. It feels like I'm trying to fight while a cloud covers my eyes... no, more like a fog. I can tell where the attacks are coming from, but when I dodge, they suddenly appear somewhere else." - Neale
"Stop acting like a damn ghost, Richard."
Richard remembered those words, and for a brief moment, a trace of sadness crossed his face during the fight.
"I hate that about him... it's like he disappears even when he's right in front of me."