The Gauntlet

Chapter 06 - Basics

Standing in the middle of the line, Codi watched Vasco intently as he paced back and forth, examining his team with a critical eye. Max stood on her right, hands thrust awkwardly into the pockets of his loose black trousers, while on the left the twins – intentionally or not – struck identical poses; arms folded as they waited for the instructor to speak.

"Okay then," Vasco began. "This morning we start on the real grit of what we're training for: combat. Now, I've reviewed your application files and I know everyone's got their own preference, but before you specialise in anything there is a basic bloc of attacks, defences and stances that every Gauntlet fighter needs as their foundation."

Codi bit her lip. The others had applied for this? More importantly, if she interpreted Vasco correctly they already had some kind of fighting experience. And what did she have? Brawls in the school corridors.

"Once I've shown the initial techniques you'll work in pairs," the instructor continued.

"But there are only five of us," she interrupted.

"Six, including me." He flashed a wily smile. "First things first, I'll need a test dummy. Anybody?"

"I'll do it," Max said instantly, his voice soft and quiet, and Codi realised that was the first time she'd really heard him speak.

"Alright, Mr. Lannigan, step up." Vasco gestured for the young man to stand opposite him. Max obeyed silently, and when the pair faced each other they stood eye to eye. Codi hadn't even noticed Vasco's height.

"Alright," he said. "Max, I want you to punch me."

"You…huh?" Max's face creased with confusion.

"You heard. Punch me you lumbering excuse for a fighter."

The lanky teen bristled at that, dropping his stance with knees bent and hands held up, his left tucked close to his chest and the other out in front. Then, with speed that belayed his ungainly frame he darted forward and lashed out. Vasco's left arm moved like a blur and he deflected the quick right-handed jab with a flick of his elbow. Max hesitated.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Vasco demanded. "What's the matter, you don't want to hit an old man? Son, I assure you I can handle it. Get you're thumb out of your a*s and start working! Punch me!"

Whether galvanised by the insult or by Vasco's hammer-blunt tone, Max did as he was bidden. His fists flew out from all angles, left and right, pressing forward with each swing. And every time he did Codi watched in amazement as their instructor blocked every single swing, jab, swipe or haymaker with effortless movements. Eventually Max stepped back and simply stared, his brows creasing into a perplexed frown above narrow green irises. After a moment, he glanced at his team mates.

"Anybody else want a c***k at this?" he asked. The others exchanged looks but said nothing.

"Not surprising," Vasco chuckled. "Alright, Max, good work. Back in line, kid, and I'll explain."

As Max stepped back into the line Vasco faced them and held his right arm out in front of him. "This is the most basic and essential block you will ever use during the Gauntlet. It's simple, and mastering it is a necessity." Then he patted the outside of his right elbow with his other hand. "This is a point on your arm that, if you move correctly, can withstand a lot of impact. Keep the arm crooked and distribute the incoming attack across the broadest area." Then to Codi's surprise, he beckoned her forward. "Come on up."

"Me?"

"I'm looking at you, aren't I?"

Jaw tight, she walked forward and took up the position opposite Vasco, acutely aware of the eyes of the others following her. Although Codi had no real training she knew how to stand in a fight, how to keep herself coiled to spring, ready to attack or defend in the blink of an eye. Accordingly, she dropped into a similar stance to Max: arms up and knees bent as she faced her instructor.

"Right, arms bent," Vasco ordered. "Keep your elbows tucked in. You want to give a small target." She obeyed and he nodded approvingly. "Now, we'll take this slow at first. I'm going to take a swing at you, and I want you to block in on the area of the arm I showed. Simple enough?"

"I guess," she answered.

"Just jerk your arm out to meet the attack that's coming in. That way you repel your opponent rather than just taking the hit." Without giving her more time to think, Vasco swung.

It wasn't a particularly hard or fast swing and Codi reacted with plenty of time, snapping her right arm sideways to meet Vasco's wrist exactly on target. As advertised, his arm rebounded away under the resulting collision.

"Perfect!" He grinned. "Well, for your first go anyway."

Codi frowned at the backhanded compliment. "Well then take a proper swing at me and see what happens."

"I don't think so."

"What? You don't think I can do it?"

"I know you can't." His grin vanished. "Don't take it personally, but I don't think any of you can."

"Then let's find out," she hissed. "C'mon!"

Vasco turned his eyes to the ceiling for a moment and sighed. "Fine. But don't blame me for what's about to happen. You asked for it."

She took up her stance again facing him, and he held her gaze for a long moment. Then he moved like a blur. Codi got her arm about halfway up before Vasco was around her guard and his clenched fist clipped her across the jaw. A yelp more of surprise than of pain slipped out as the blow sent her stumbling. However, the stinging in her jaw brought her temper roiling forth and without thinking she lunged at the instructor with a snarl.

His face remained impassive as he sidestepped, grabbed her arm and wrenched it around behind her back so hard that she thought her shoulder was about to dislocate. Helpless, Codi found herself spun to face the wide-eyed members of the Gauntlet team and then heard Vasco's voice in her ear.

"Calm down, kid," he said quietly. "You wanted me to swing full speed and I did; no harm done. Now I'm going to count to three, then let you go. Don't try that again." She felt the pressure on her arm relax slightly. "One, two, three."

He released her and stepped back. She whirled to face him, smouldering with shame and fury, but checked her instinctive urge to swing at him again. In any case the blow wouldn't land. Taking a deep breath she let her fists unclench by her sides. Vasco looked at her, tight-lipped.

"Back in line, Codi." He inclined his head towards the others. As she obeyed he addressed them all. "Lesson of the day that all of you need to take on board: when you're competing in the Gauntlet you do not – you cannot – make things personal. You get angry, you stop thinking and you get hurt." He looked at her. "You got angry and forgot that I'm the one teaching you how to fight, the one who knows all the tricks of the trade. If you'd been thinking straight you'd never have thrown that punch."

As shaming as the verdict was, the logic behind Vasco's words hit her like a punch in the stomach. Codi looked at the floor, not wanting to acknowledge the existence of the outside world, ashamed of herself.

Vasco didn't press the point, however. The morning training session proceeded on as though nothing had happened, and for the rest of that time she made sure she kept reign on her unruly temper. Over the course of the next five hours the group worked feverishly on the basic bloc of foundation techniques, from the initial elbow block, to correct stances, moving footwork, manoeuvring, counter manoeuvring, grappling, throwing, taking falls, and aiming and landing basic punches and kicks.

All of them took part in impact tests, examining the kind of force they could impart with a clenched fist. Codi was gratified to find herself in the middle of the field, ahead of both Lita and Max, while the two burly twins, Lucas and Lazlo claimed the top of the spectrum with near identical scores.

By lunch time Codi's head ached from the sheer volume of information that had been dumped on the group, but she realised something else. She wasn't bored with any of it. Sitting with her lunch – a simple but filling meal of Manta-meat steak and something Vasco called "heavy bread" – she smiled to herself and thought of Mr. Barrow. At some point she should probably thank him for sending her here. How he'd wrangled her a place she didn't know, but it was already turning into a worthwhile decision.

"Is it okay if I sit here?" a soft male voice asked.

She looked up sharply to see Max hovering nervously over the chair opposite her. Upon meeting her gaze he seemed to flinch, but for the first time didn't look away.

"If you have to," she answered.

"If you don't want me to I won't," he said quickly. "I just…what I mean is…with us all being on the same team we should all try get along a bit more, y'know?"

"I suppose so." Codi made a noncommittal gesture with both hands. "Take a seat."

He exhaled as though relieved at her response, before sitting down. A few minutes later the others joined them; first the twins and then, albeit reluctantly, Lita. The other girl still seemed to harbour some resentment towards her, maybe because of her late entry or maybe because of her attitude, but whatever the case, she sat down nonetheless.

For the first time the five members of the team-to-be ate together. They spoke little, all of them concentrating on shovelling as much nourishment into their bodies as possible during the paltry hour respite, but Codi still felt like she'd accepted them – or had they accepted her? It was difficult to say.

After lunch they adjourned into Brax-Delta's theory room, a chamber that could hold twenty people. As a result, it felt very empty with only the five current members of the team present, but that didn't seem to bother Vasco. There could have been a hundred people in the room for the way he carried himself as he drove the information into the minds of his students.

"So, I've got a question for you all," Vasco began. "Do any of you know how the Gauntlet…happened, as it were? Do you know how we ended up with the system we have now?" A gathering of blank faces greeted his question. He sighed. "Well that figures. It's been around long enough now that the competitors don't even care anymore."

"Well, how much history do we need?" Codi interjected. "Isn't the point of these sessions to help us fight?"

"It is." He glowered at her. "And this will help you understand the kind of competition you're involved in. There used to be dozens of different combat disciplines, heck, they're still around, but the Gauntlet takes all of those and rolls them into one. You see, as a sport, specialising in say, boxing, is all well and good, but people wanted to know: what would happen if you took a professional boxer and put him in a room with, oh I dunno, an expert in Tae Kwon Do? After a while cross discipline tournaments started to be held.

"The people who ran these things found that having a tournament with more than one discipline competing made for better viewing, and that meant more money for people coming watch. Things snowballed from there."

"What exactly are you driving at?" Lita asked.

"My point is that the Gauntlet is the final stage of that process. You will be fighting people who know and specialise in a dozen different kinds of martial and combative techniques. That means not only do you have to be expert fighters yourselves, it means that you have to be able to recognise and contend with someone using a form of fighting you may never have had to face before." Vasco folded his arms. "In the Gauntlet you can't take anything for granted."

Codi found, again to her surprise, that Vasco had caught her interest. "So what about all the weapons? How did they get involved?"

"Just more of the same," he replied. "There is no separation anymore. Rules relaxed; now and again the supervisors throw in rounds of combat where the competitors are armed. They limit some of the equipment to avoid the possibility of any fatalities, so the most common is the Hacktor. It's a blunted carbon-fibre sword." At this point he pressed a button on the remote he was holding and on the wall behind him a slideshow flickered into life showing the weapon in question. Codi examined the picture closely. The slide displayed one of the training weapons she'd seen down in the basement, a satin black implement with a broad, rounded ‘blade' above a thick cross-guard and two-handed grip.

"They're about two feet long," Vasco continued. "And weigh about half as much again as a real sword of the same dimensions. This means a lot of blunt force, but they have no cutting edge. If one of these hits you, by God you'll feel it but it can't kill you when you're suited up."

"But anyway, we'll get to weapon training later in the schedule. Right now I just wanted you to have an understanding of the kind of competition you're getting into." He pressed the remote again and the slide changed, this time showing a massive cylindrical building rearing up from the middle of an urban jungle, it's silver bulk gleaming in the light of the photograph. "That's the Gauntlet Arena from the outside. Now pay attention to what I'm about to tell you, because this is important. You're probably wondering how the actual tournament works."

"Don't you just fight and see who wins?" Codi grunted.

"A question that shows the bare-bone level of understanding you have," Vasco returned smoothly. "I'll grant you that in essence, you've got the idea, but there is a good deal more to it. There are three competitive categories in the tournament; team, pair, or individual melee. We're sticking to one: the individual melee. It's the one people will be keeping the closest eyes on. It's the biggest, has the most entrants, and is by far the most brutal. They have so many individual fighters that they introduced a preliminary ‘screening' round if you like about ten years back: the Mayhems."

"What's that?" the twins asked in unison.

Another button push and an image of a group of competitors appeared, showing them standing in a loose ring at the centre of a massive open arena. "Twenty people get dumped into one arena to lay into each other. Last four standing go through. There are enough academies entering that they can spread the members of each one across several Mayhems to make sure nobody's cheating. If you make it through the Mayhem, then things get interesting. There's a group stage where the fighters are shuffled around again and then you'll fight the three in your group. Most points goes through to the knock out stages. From thereon in it's pretty self explanatory."

Vasco put the remote down and started pacing. "So let's not kid ourselves. This is going to be a long hard slog to make you all ready to even make it through the Mayhems, never mind the one-on-one fights. There are a hundred other academies out there, all of them with better equipment, better funding and more competitors. Keep that in mind for every second that you train here. The rest of colonised space is expecting us to sink without a damn trace. If you don't want to prove them wrong then you've got no business being here."