Chapter 5: Only Human

“Welcome to my humble abode. I see you have passed my tests. That means you can learn any one thing you want from me.” I sighed and sat down. I told him what I wanted to learn. 

     “That is crazy. I can’t teach you that in 10 days, it takes years to learn!” 

     “I can do it.” And so, I started learning. I went there every day. I learned the traditional ways, the modern ways, the ways humans couldn’t even do. But I was just human. I couldn’t do everything in the art. I got so good at it, one day I beat the Shogun himself. But the shogun was human too. He couldn’t do everything either. 

     “Quick learner, eh?” he said. He sat down and told me I was ready. It had been 10 days, but I was more ready than ever. I knew Uncle Brody was training up, and I had to focus. So I thanked the Shogun, and I was on my way. The Round of 16 was in an hour. I went back to our hotel. Elise should have been home by now. But she wasn’t there. I left a note saying I was at the arena. I left to get there, and I made it 30 minutes before the match. Elise still wasn’t here. I started looking around, and saw a guy who was saying something in his breath. “It’s about drive, it’s about power, we stay hungry, we devour, put in the work, put in the hours, and take what’s ours by zombies.” This was starting to scare me. What were these slogans? There were only two minutes till the match started. Where was Elise? 30 seconds later, she walked into the room. 

     “Where were you?” I asked. 

     “Not right now. We have to fight.” We walked out onto the field. 

     “Hello, and welcome to the Round of 16! All the Round of 16 matches will be taking place here today! Here are the rules for this one: there will be a best of three for every two teams. The team that wins the best of three will make it to the Quarter-final. If you die, your team is disqualified. Good luck!” 

     I drew my bow. Elise took her fighting stance. The other bald guy I saw who was chanting that motto was up against us. His teammate was chanting something. “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down.” I was getting scared of these chants. The match started, and we were getting clapped by them immediately. I heard the bald guy yell, “Yo, Rick, get the girl!” Rick went after Elise. I got up, and saw the guy built like a rock coming at me, while the Rick guy was chasing Elise. The rock caught up, and started pounding me. I managed to land an uppercut, but he creamed me in the face, and I heard Elise get knocked out. When we got up, we saw Rick and Rock laughing. We were gonna get them good. Round 2 started, and I breathed fire at the Rock. His hand got scarred with some burns. I nailed him with an uppercut. He said something about something being in his veins, and charged. I sidestepped him, and he fell. I knocked him out. Elise was having trouble with Rick, so I charged him with my bow and knocked him out. Round 3 started, and Rick took me this time. I put up quite a fight, but he destroyed me. I fell to the ground, knocked out, and Elise was still fighting. She was good, but Rock was better. He took her down, and we were out for the count. As we walked off the court in defeat, we saw Rick yell. We turned, and saw the Rock arguing with Rick, and then going to a guard. He said something about extreme mana, and walked off. I guess that meant he quit, and we were moving on to the next stage. As we walked home, I hugged Elise, and assured her we were going to win. But she had lost her confidence. We breezed through the quarterfinal as well, but we had gotten news that Uncle Brody was dominating. In the semi-final, we faced a dynamic duo. The woman had machine guns and a cigar, and the man held a rocket launcher and was smoking a pipe. 

     “Welcome to the semi-final! These following rules are the same for the semi-final and the final! There will be a first to three, and death means permanent death. In these final three rounds, we will be adding what are called power ups. The first one is called Immense Power. It will increase the power of anything you are holding tenfold. The second power is called Immense Speed. This increases your speed and cuts the enemy’s speed by half, making it easy for a quick getaway. The third power up is undisclosed and will only be revealed in the final. FIGHT!” I drew my bow, and saw an Immense Power to my right. I quickly grabbed it, and felt a lot stronger. I quickly started walking down the path the enemy, but they had seen an Immense Speed, and grabbed it. My speed was cut in half, and I knew I had to end this with my bow. Elise was taking care of the woman, so I strung my arrow and lit it on fire. She fired her guns, but my bow out powered her guns, and she was knocked out. I ran over to help Elise, but she was knocked out before I could get there. I strung another arrow, lit it on fire, and the man saw fireworks. The second round started, and I immediately went for the man. He turned, but I strung my arrow really fast. Before he could blink, I punched his face, and when he got thrown back, I released my arrow full force and hit him square in the face, instantly killing him, disqualifying his team. I felt bad, but it was survival of the fittest. The final match was at midnight, so we had to train vigorously. We got to the hotel, and we were looking at the news. 

     “Breaking News just in, Brody Yertzu just qualified for the final, which means it’s him against the Black Mambas!” I groaned. It had come down to this. I had to use what I learned from the Shogun. Renzutzu. Renzutzu was an ancient Vurth martial art, and no one was fully able to master it, except for the ancient Vurth creatures. The closest to ever mastering it was the Shogun, and he had taught me everything he knew. We walked out of the hotel at 11:30 PM, me fearing our impending doom. But I knew Renzutzu. I could do it. Uncle Brody didn’t even have a partner. As we walked in, I saw Uncle Brody in the room. He smirked at me, and my look said it all. As we walked out, I knew I had to defeat him. 

     “Welcome to the finals, where Brody Yertzu faces the Black Mambas! Today, we reveal our third and final power up, the Immense Dark Matter power up! This gives you the Immense Speed, and Immense Power Powerups, and it also makes you invisible, like dark matter. It is very rare that it spawns though, and it has only spawned once before, on the match with the Shogun! All the other rules are the same. Once someone wins, the portal will open up. Begin!” I drew my bow, and strung an arrow. Uncle Brody got on his Power Board. I charged at him. He started to fly up, so I flew all the way up to his height. I threw a hook, but he dodged and went low. He threw a flurry of punches, and I fell back to the ground. He started coming at me with the board, so I cut my skin with a knife. I passed the knife to Elise so I could focus on my blood. I covered my arrow with blood, and shot. The board’s circuitry was cut, and Uncle Brody fell to the ground. I focused my energy, and let out a lot of fire. Uncle Brody got hit square in the head, and fell. I saw something to my right. An Immense Dark Matter! I picked it up, and went invisible. I felt my power increase tenfold, and Uncle Brody’s speed was cut in half. I threw a bizarre scale of punches, pulled out my bow, and strung an arrow. Before I could do anything, though, Uncle Brody tripped me from under and was standing above me. I grabbed his head with my legs, did a Renzutzu move, and I was back on top. Before he could get back, I put an arrow into his knee, and it was over, he was knocked out. The portal opened, and I fell on my knees, panting. We had done it. It was actually mostly me, because I hadn’t seen Elise anywhere. Suddenly, I felt an excruciating pain in my back. I fell to the ground, screaming in pain. A shadow was looming over me. I turned around, and standing there… was Elise. 

                                                                          Side Note: The Story’s catching on fire…