Iron Heart (The Gauntlet #2)

Chapter 34 - Close Encounters

 The battle for the crown of the pairs contest was beginning to heat up.

Following Codi and Gareth's demolition of the pair from Zulu Forge, the next round continued to serve up no shortage thrilling encounters, and before long it was apparent that the field was tightening. Seeded pairs from big colonial rivals began to meet; crowds swelled around them, shaking the vast stadium with their feral support.

Despite one forfeit for the Academy as a whole, the number one seeds, Chris O'Leary and Ripple Thawborn continued to display their much vaunted pre-tournament form by smashing aside a pairing from Knossos City like a man swatting a fly. With them into the next round marched Joshua Bayden and Cardle North, the pair coming out on top of an intra-academy tussle with another Battlecast duo.

Codi noted with a small hint of satisfaction that Rokkie Thakkar's pairing from Firequake also advanced, carrying the standard for one of the fan favourites among the colonial academies. Despite his loss to her in the singles matches, Thakkar had rallied to win his next two, finishing second in the group to join her in the knockout stages as well. The brackets for the most highly anticipated event in the Gauntlet had yet to be announced, but she hoped she would get another chance to go toe-to-toe with the ferocious competitor.

However, it was their next opponents in the paired bracket that gathered Codi's full attention now. In a few minutes she and Gareth would take on the nineteenth seeded pair from Zazana Lake. A pair containing Arvin Lee.

Although the experts never paid much attention to that little colonial academy or its fighters, Arvin Lee had dug himself a special place in Codi's memory. He was the first person she'd ever fought in a Gauntlet match, and in that exchange she'd come of far the worse.

That was the old Codi James. Since then she had proved to a whole galaxy what she was capable of, but she'd never had a straight rematch with the kid from Zazana Lake. He and his partner had overcome their opponents from Thor's Wake Academy in the previous round, setting up a third round confrontation that she couldn't wait to get stuck into.

Good things come to those who wait, she thought as she and Gareth stood waiting at the Arena entrance.

The announcer's voice was already thundering around the bell-chamber of the main arena, generating surges of noise from the crowds contained within. Standing alongside them, Thradd folded his arms and leaned impassively against the doorframe.

"You two know the drill," he said. "Nothing fancy in there. These two got to where they are by fighting solid and straight. They'll come at you nice and simple."

"I like simple," Gareth replied, nodding slowly.

"Simple doesn't mean easy." Thradd jerked his head towards the Arena. "They made it this far. Don't take your foot off the gas, alright?"

"Would I do a thing like that?" Codi smiled sweetly.

The grizzled old coach chuckled. "I guess not." He looked at the Gauntlet attendant then back to them. "Good luck. See you in the next round." Codi nodded, bumped fists with Gareth, and together they loped out into the light of the Arena.

The familiar, benevolent thunder of the Battlecast crowds poured out over them, and Codi came to a halt, eyes flashing to take in the construct for the next match. The surface itself was a flat sheet of burnished metal, but littered with a forest-like arrangement of rectangular metal pylons, each one constructed of a lattice of metal tubes. Some were little more than stumps, others loomed over a dozen meters high. There were even some that hung in mid-air suspended by the invisible bands of gravity tethers.