Knowledge Thief

I am the Champion

Elda started Bees around five years back. In those five years, she had handled a wide range of customers. Even the most rowdy customer never intimidated her, because she could crush him in minutes. So, she had never feared any of her customers until Souza showed up a month ago. When he became a regular at the bar, she learnt from a mutual friend that he had been banned from most of the bars in the city.

Even after hearing this, she wasn't afraid of him because she could counter destruction with destruction. During the first week, everything was normal. Souza came in, paid for his drink, drank and left.

The second week he brought in a rich friend with him. He got the friend fully drunk and made him break all her beer mugs because of a bet. Although she got the compensation money from the friend, she had to go and purchase new mugs within a day to keep her business running.

In the same week, he brought in a brawler and bet that he couldn't break the bar table. He broke it and paid a compensation. She again had extra work piles up on her. Last week, things got more out of hand as Souza single-handedly instigated a bar brawl that left most of her bar in shambles. But she couldn't blame him as he was supposedly innocent.

So, when Souza showed up with Lee, Elda was on the verge of banning him from her bar. 'This is your last chance!' thought Elda as she served him the beer mugs. She had one eye on their table while serving the customers, and was thankful that there weren't any issues. When Souza asked for the bill, she was almost ecstatic.

'Just two more minutes and everything is over' was her thoughts when she was reading out the bill. But all her hope vanished when she saw Lee and Souza argue over the money.

Elda was internally crying, 'Dude! How do you pick people like these. Were you sent by the gods to t*****e me. Can't you bring one normal customer to my bar.'

When Lee asked to go to the inn, she thought of letting him go because he looked decent enough. But the fact that he came with Souza made her utter, 'You can leave when you pay.'

Elda was apologizing in her heart, 'I am sorry. You look normal but you chose a lousy friend. So blame him for this decision' and that was when she heard Lee's epic statement.

She was startled for a moment, 'I take it back... I take it all back. You aren't normal. What sort of mental did this damned Souza drag into my bar?'

Souza on the other hand was astonished by Lee's statement. He thought, 'Dude! Aren't you going overboard with your act?'

In fact, none of the people in the bar believed Lee's words. They were all just surprised at how shameless he was.

Lee, who had all the eyes trained on him, was unaware of their thoughts. He was in his own world where he thought that everyone believed him and they are shocked by the revelation. However his mental castle was shattered immediately by Souza's giggle. Prompted by that giggle, the whole bar erupted into frantic laughs.

Sarcastic shouts like 'I am the champion!', 'All hail the champion!', 'The champion awaits' filled the room. While everyone laughed their heart out, Elda was frantic with anger. She shouted, 'Are you going to pay or not?' and banged the table, nearly breaking it.

Lee played mute as he didn't know what to say. Internally, he was thinking whether he had anything to pawn for the money but externally all he could do was smile.

That smile made Elda even more furious. Till this moment, her anger was not on Lee but on Souza, and she wanted to teach him a lesson by intimidating Lee and maybe giving him a light beating. She thought that would deter Souza from bringing more guests. But when Lee smiled, she felt humiliated. All her pent-up anger bubbled up and she grabbed Lee by his collar.

'Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!' the whole bar started chanting when she grabbed his collar. Lee was terrified and he turned to plead with Souza. But he was nowhere near. Almost immediately after Elda grabbed Lee, Souza seemed to have slipped out.

'Seems this is unavoidable. I have to fight' resigned Lee. Although a part of him wanted to give up and just leave after getting hit once or twice, his pride didn't allow him to give in. He was also thinking about his power. If he was a champion, he would have powers and this fight would help him understand it better.

Lee used his fingers to unhook himself from Elda's fingers. He then moved a few inches away from her. The whole bar surrounded them. The lean Lee stood on one side and the bulky & muscular Elda on the other side. Anyone who saw it would say it was David vs Goliath. He looked at Elda calmly and said, 'Let's fight.'

The whole bar immediately gasped. Elda had a reputation for thrashing even the most notorious customers, and here was a customer who was challenging her. Some of them admired him for his courage and some of them pitied him for his stupidity, and almost all of them prayed that he would live.

As Lee looked, Elda sighed and made her move. In one swift motion, she jumped across the table and decked Lee with a right hook. Before Lee could observe what was happening, the hook connected. He flew for a few feet and landed on the floor.

Lee felt disoriented and had a stinging pain on his left cheek. He stood up and steadied himself. He felt he needed a moment to process his pain but Elda wasn't gracious enough to grant him spare time.

As soon as he steadied himself, he saw Elda's fist nearing his abdomen. Much like earlier, he couldn't react and had to get hit again. However, he felt that his pain had reduced and that he was less disoriented. He steadied himself again and started to watch her intently.

He had learnt somewhere that it is important to watch the whole punch or kick to dodge it. Since it was his first fight, he couldn't properly watch and react the punches the first few times, but now that his body has started to negate the pain of the punches, he had the opportunity to watch and react.

Without the stress of pain blocking his brain, it started to notice all the small details to anticipate Elda's next move. As soon as Elda put her right foot down, Lee started dodging to the right side. His mind saw Elda put pressure on her right foot and her left shoulder drive back and warned him that a left straight is coming. And it came as soon as he dodged. For the first time in the fight Elda hit the air.

The whole room went silent, in all their years they have never seen anyone dodging Elda's punches. She had thrashed even people from the troops, who were well-known for their strength.

Even Elda herself was shocked. Although she was surprised that the lean and weak Lee withstood around five mean punches, it didn't shock her as much as when he dodged her punch.

'Is it a lucky fluke!', she thought as she punched again. Lee dodged to the left to avoid the punch proving to her that it wasn't a fluke. This made her grin as her fighting spirit was roused. She then charged in like a monster to throw stronger punches.

While the whole bar was shocked, none was more shocked at the development than Lee himself. He never thought that his mind would note the smallest details and send him instructions; or that his body would be able to dodge easily based on those instructions.

 After the first few dodges, he could read her more easily and perform them without any thought. It was something like riding a bicycle. The fight continued like this for a few minutes. Then Lee learnt to dodge and punch. Since he was lean and Elda was muscular, his punches failed to do any real damage.

Elda threw the right straight, Lee dodged to the left. Then came the left hook and Lee stepped back. 'Ha! You are trapped!' thought Elda as she used the momentum of the hook to go into a spinning kick aimed at his head. But she didn't feel it connect. What she felt was a sharp pain at her grounded heel. She fell down awkwardly from the spin. The bar went into deadly silence. Some people where even leaving the bar in a hurried manner like something devastating is going to happen here.

In contradiction to the mood of all the other people, Lee was ecstatic. Lee had consciously started observing Elda to see any potential weak points, and he could see Elda's complete routine. His mind projected that she would throw a right straight, left hook and then spun around to give a spinning kick. He dodged both and ducked when Elda's eye contact broke with him. As soon as he ducked, he sent a low ground kick to her heel which made her slip off balance.

Elda stayed on the floor for a few moments and then slowly stood up. As she turned towards Lee, he could see a menacing grin on her face. She unleashed a furious aura that frightened everyone present in the bar. Lee felt chills down his spine as he felt an enormous force pushing him back. He felt stifled and his whole body was shivering. As Elda approached him slowly, he felt like the God of death advancing towards him.

Elda stood in front of Lee and raised her right hand to slap him. Even though he could see the right hand approaching, he couldn't move a single muscle to defend himself. 'Am I going to die' thought Lee as he closed his eyes to welcome death.

'Elda! What's happening here?' came a loud shout from the entrance. Almost immediately, Elda stopped her hand and reigned in her aura.

Lee, who was at death's door just a moment ago, could feel his body again. He looked at the entrance to see Mana and Elvie.

'Oh, my saviors!' he thought.