Chapter 14: Duel in the Rain

The two men charged in and clashed! Maron led with an elbow that and ducked down low. He immediately felt the difference in himself as he delivered a solid shot to Craig's gut that doubled him over. Quick as a cheetah, he flung his knee upward and broke his opponent's nose open, causing him to back up and re-evaluate the entire situation.

For the first time, Craig looked shaken not because of the presence of another, but because of the presence of Maron. It wasn't just a game anymore – he didn't come to play. He rubbed his nose, not out of habit this time but to clear the blood away from his mouth. "So then…" he said, "Looks like I'll have to take this a bit more seriously!"

Without any other warning, the second he finished that sentence, Craig was all over Maron. It was back to the wild man that had beaten him down at his own house. Maron maneuvered himself move-for-move as best as he could. Even as quick and strong and revitalized as he may've felt, it didn't do much to lessen the soreness that reverberated throughout his body with each block. The only answer, he decided, was to counter in kind.

Patiently, he blocked blow after blow and waited. He waited for it… he waited just a bit more. Then the switch was flipped!

Finding a good moment to parry instead of block, Maron swung Craig's arm away and charged in. As with the most successful approach from before, he attacked the leg first. He landed a quick shot to the leg, though it wasn't significant. Still though, he stayed relentless in his approach. Whatever attack he tried, Craig found a way to stop it from landing solidly. He'd try double-kicking, only for it to be stopped both high and low. Stagger-stepping only allowed his attacks to come a little closer to connecting. He feinted with a right snap, only to stop halfway and jump around with a high roundhouse. It was to no avail.

His limbs felt stretched to the bone. Damn… the guy blocked hard too.

Growing frustrated, Maron stopped with all of the feinting and the fancy crap and just tried to dive right into an attack as hard as he could. Immediately, he forced himself to acknowledge his mistake.

His fist came to an abrupt stop as Craig latched on to it. The damned smile came back for a brief moment as he relished his advantage. Maron scrambled to recover, but his follow-up got caught too. Then Craig actually lifted him off the ground and threw him into the air. As Maron fell to the ground, he threw his arms up in defense.

Useless. A vicious sidekick clocked clean in the jaw and he knew right then and there, that he'd gone tit-for-tat and tried to knock out a tooth. He bounced off the ground and rolled over in pain. Quickly, he reached up to see if he did indeed have a tooth missing.

No time to check! Maron kept following up on him, stomping on the ground as Maron rolled away. On instinct a lone, he flipped around and swung his leg, tripping up Craig in the process. A shame it happened then, because instead of creating an opening, he only had time to recover and recollect himself.

Craig came right back after him, still as aggressive as ever. Whatever advantage Maron had before, he'd lost completely. Ducking another wild right, he swung up and knocked Craig in the gut. He grunted and leaned down, but immediately threw his head up and knocked the back of his head against Maron's chin, and then swung his head forward and cracked him right in the nose.

At this point, it started to become difficult to discern the rain trickling down his face from his blood. Where before there were clear cool and warm streams, now it all felt like one lukewarm mess. He could only wonder what he looked like.

They went back at it, full steam once more. Maron now tried a new approach and did his best to focus his Ki and bring it to his center. With luck, he may've been able to channel it and deliver a quick blow. The downside of this was that he felt himself weaken on his regular attacks and even slow a bit, and Craig once again found himself taking advantage of a prone opponent.

Being extra careful to not open up again, he brought his arms in tight and got close to Maron. This took away any possible extension, and he managed to get on the inside. Even as lanky as he was, he proved to be a smart enough fight to take advantage of the situation. He gripped the back of Maron's neck and dug his head into his chest. No matter how hard he tried to break free, Craig found a way to keep himself inward… until on one occasion, he leaned back and threw a quick shot into Maron's throat. He hacked and found himself desperate all over again.

Maron tried to deliver a headbutt of his own, but Craig leaned to the side and Maron fell forward. He felt a sharp jagged pain on his kidney as a swift elbow landed on top of him. Again, he lost the advantage.

At a loss so far as what to do Maron, lazily rose back up and stood defensively. Craig, much to his surprise, decided now would be as good as time as any to pause and gloat a bit.

"Maron, Maron, Maron…" he said, "I had so much faith in you. So much faith. When you tossed off that weighted shirt there, I thought you might've had a shot at me… not a good one, but some sort of shot is better than none, ain't it?" He nodded over to Saizu and laughed, "You see, Old Man? I'm not some lost cause… I'm better than this pathetic excuse for a fighter."

Saizu frowned, but responded in kind, "You insist this had nothing to do with me, but you try and mock me at every turn.

Craig chuckled some more and looked back at Maron. "Difference between trying and doing, isn't kiddo?"

Kiddo… kiddo… good lord, he could see why Johnny went to him in the first place. The penchant for mockery was thick with both of them, the only difference being a backhanded kind of distain from Craig. Johnny had always been an asshole, but this guy was a different kind of monster altogether. At least Johnny had, until recently, respected a certain sort of boundary. While he mocked Maron at every pass, his focus was largely singular. As Craig started rambling on about God knows what, Maron's mind started to wander. Johnny, Craig… Fido, kiddo… all of this started churning through his mind. Why had they both been so stubborn that they just couldn't let things lie? Johnny's dad, Craig's old instructor… they'd both thrust father figures into their reasoning. Well at least they had a father! What did he and Soaka have anyways?

Soaka… lying in that hospital bed, no doubt with Surrell, Mora and Carpenter all outside his door. All of them… he was failing all of them.

His cool started to slip as Craig wouldn't shut his mouth. Thunder started rolling with a dull roar echoing around them. What had Soaka done when he fought Craig? What had he done against every opponent that Maron hadn't? Faster and stronger Maron may've been, but Soaka proved to be the better fighter… hell, even in his first match, he'd found an opening against Torres, a guy Maron had some difficulty with just the other day. Heck, in Maron's first match…

The first match he ever had… who had he fought? Carssig… he fought him to a draw. An opponent better than him, and he fought him to a draw. All he'd done was avoid the blows of that brawling bastard and he'd found himself getting on even grounds… That was it!

He locked eyes with Saizu. His face no doubt looked like hell, and Saizu's gaze indicated just that. When Maron smiled, that gaze morphed into first confusion, and then into an assured, serious look accompanied by a nod.

Not knowing how the rest of the ridiculous speech went, Maron caught these words, "And now it comes down to this, kiddo: hope there's a bed next to your pal."

Maron exhaled heavily and relaxed himself as best as could. Suddenly, everything felt amplified. The rain bounced off the ground and he heard every single drop. The creek flowed and he heard the water's steady flow. Every breath he burst in side his head. Tunnel-like vision came over him as all saw Craig and only Craig. Deep within, he felt the warmth of the Energy stir. It was that little bit he left in reserve from earlier – dumb luck proved to be better than no luck at all. "You know?" he said, "I don't think there's a bed next to him. Even if there was, it's going to stay empty."

Craig's mouth twitched a bit and a hard, stone cold look painted itself on his face. "Only if you wind up in the morgue!" he shouted. He really laid the cheese on thick that time.

Again, he charged at Maron – good, just what he wanted. The man attacked so blindly and violently, how had he missed this before.

Making sure to dance around and stay light on his feet, Maron initiated his new strategy. Craig came at him full-force, swinging with his right. He moved to the side and quickly ducked a follow-up with his left. Craig threw a sidekick back at him, but Maron had already moved out of range and settled himself again. Hopping a bit, he saluted Craig as if to say, "Here I am, come get me." His opponent squinted in frustration, but charged in again, seemingly oblivious to the ploy.

This time he went after him with a wild jumping kick that he easily shifted to the right and avoided. Craig swung around and tried a hook kick that Maron ducked. He didn't drop the leg! With a quick attempt to tap him the face, Craig threw a roundhouse that Maron managed to catch at the last second. It still had some sting.

Maron again moved out of range and relaxed himself. He waved Craig on, again trying to egg him on.

He shook his head and waved at Maron. The jig was up, but that didn't mean it was necessarily over. Maron went back to dancing and nodded. He faked once, and Craig went to counter. He faked again – and again, his opponent bought it. Then in a moment that not even knew what went through his head, he faked one last time and stopped a half-step short. Craig remained absolutely motionless and actually growled at Maron.

"Fight back, damn it!"

He did just that, this time moving in and fully committing. Craig somehow didn't react to this one and delivered a deadly sidekick right to the ribs. His opponent stopped and gripped his side. Maron didn't want to let his advantage slip and moved in for a quick shot.

Now he'd faked him out! Craig ducked his kick and swung with a right cross. Maron ducked and immediately had to throw his palm up to catch an elbow that followed it up. His arm got caught and twisted and he spun into a hammer. On instinct, Maron whipped his head back and connected with Craig's nose once more, this time he heard the cartilage give way to the pressure.

Craig went from growling to hissing now, and grabbed Maron by the hair. In one swift motion, he swung his head about-face and threw his fist in the opposite direction. A gunshot went off in his head as it wrapped itself around his eye and sent him hurling away from Craig.

Stumbling, stumbling, no – he managed to catch himself and spin around on a single knee. Now that he had another gap, he confirmed it – they both must've been feeling the pain now. Craig started to look legitimately winded.

Quietly, he muttered to himself. "Stupid to dive in like that." He stole a glance at Saizu, who only nodded in response. Had he heard him? That was pretty much all of the advice Maron needed from him.

He turned back to his opponent, smiled, and started to dance-in-place again.

Craig actually looked shaken up by this. His eyes went to an odd shape and his mouth opened up, showing the bloody inside that the missing tooth had created. "Why are you so happy? I'm on to your strategy now!" Maron didn't answer. Instead, he simply waved him on again. The effect worked just as intended. "Screw this! I don't need to resort to pussy-footing bullshit to beat you. One shot is all it's going to take!"

He let out a tremendous yell and charged head-on towards Maron. As if the sky was watching, lightning crashed as the two collided. Maron had folded his arms in front of his chest, but the smack of the two colliding still floored him and knocked him over. Hard as it was for him to admit, it'd been a smart move to just dive into him instead of doing the old punch-n-kick routine that they'd been partaking up to that point.

As they hit the ground, he wrestled his way away from Craig and kicked from his knees. Again, he caught the guy in the face!

"Damn it!" he shouted. "Stop that!"

Maron somersaulted back and popped up to his feet again… that's when he realized just how much damage that spear had done to him. He could barely lift his upper body his ribs hurt so bad. He gasped for air, and then entered a fit of coughing.

Craig, for his part, had yet to get up, his left eye now swollen from the repeated blows. Slowly, but surely, he rose again, still holding himself from the pain he felt.

Quick as a scorpion's tale, he charged at Maron again. It'd been such a sudden spring that Maron found himself shocked at his ability to side-step it at the last second. Even moreso, he shocked himself by leaving his left leg in place, causing Craig to trip and fall, once again, flat on to his face. Sure, he'd managed to throw and arm down to absorb some of the punishment, but when he turned back towards Maron, his face was caked in mud, a bloody mess of dirt and pain. Only then did Maron realize that Craig's attacks had ceased being about gaining and advantage and more about getting one, desperate killing-blow in.

Luckily, either that, or the exhaustion mixed with the powder, turned him into a raging idiot. He lashed out wildly, trying to knock Maron with every limb and body part he had. He threw a right jab. Maron blocked it from the inside, and then threw his other arm up and struck the outside of Craig's elbow. A sickening crack emitted from his arm and he let out a squeaking, painful noise.

Then, even dumber than before, he tried it with the left. Again, Maron caught it and struck him from the exact same angle. Again, the sound of a breaking bone escaped his opponent.

Now completely open and prone, Craig stood there, his arms hanging pointlessly towards the ground. "You… son… of…" he breathed out.

Between the heaves he took, Maron managed to give his own retort, "It's over… Craig. Give up."

"But… I'm… stronger… faster… I beat… that stupid kid."

Then something clicked inside of Maron. That stupid kid? That stupid kid?! "Soaka…" he said, now being overwhelmed with anger. "That stupid kid's name… is Soaka!"

Blind from rage, he sprinted forward. Craig leapt and threw a snap kick that Maron ducked. He caught him out of midair, and then threw all of his weight down. Snapping downwards, Craig landed back-first on the ground, yelping as his head snapped back and struck it shortly after.

Grabbing him by the head, Maron picked him up and held him in place. Then, he let go and demolished Craig with three hard punches – all of his might went into them. One left to the ribcage, then a hard right cross and backhand to his stupid face. The second one spun Craig around, and again, Maron caught him, making he sure he stayed on his two feet.

Inside, he felt his Ki beginning to whirl again. He focused on it as hard as he could. The warmth came to him sudden as a bath of light, and he latched on to it. With all of the concentration he could muster, Maron pulled it from his gut and took it all to his right arm. Then, he reared back and said, "For each injury to Soaka, one for you." And he threw his forearm straight-on with all of the might left in his body into the spine of Craig.

The scream would not be drowned out by any thunder or lightning or pounding rain this time. Craig's back arched forward and he cried out as he fell to his knees. There he remained, for a moment, his arms still lifeless, his face still swollen. It was a pathetic sight.

Maron's head drooped and lowered, and then, out of exhaustion, he too, fell to his knees. What had he done on that last strike? He felt like any Energy he had before escaped from his body.

Around him, the world started to go black around the edges. Distantly, he saw Saizu running forward, and he dropped down beside Maron and grabbed him behind the neck, slowing his fall as began to drop backwards towards the ground.

As he lay on his back, staring at the sky, he looked at Saizu and asked. "Is it over?"

His master, frowning and yet proud of what he'd seen all the same, nodded and reassured Maron.

"Yes. It's over."