Caio Sagres- District Two male
Grande and I sidestepped away from the table so it wouldn't be in our way during the fight. He walked plainly, while I threw a little flair into it, twirling my spear and kicking out my legs to get my blood going and my spirits high. I threw up a smile at where I imagined the cameras might be and imagined the crowds at home going wild.
Neither of us wanted to make the first move. When Grande saw I was more than happy to circle around and enjoy the anticipation for an indefinite period, he came in for an exploratory attack. I retreated and we lightly parried, each gauging the other's technique. I hopped lightly from foot to foot to find my rhythm.
"I've come a long way to get here," I said. Bragging came naturally to me. It just sort of flowed out in a running commentary on my life. I wasn't even exactly trying to get into Grande's head. I didn't do it with him in mind. It was something I enjoyed for myself. "I bested the most ambitious fighters in Two, something a One can almost understand." We clashed again. We were still testing and making our plans, so our weapons hit each other and we threw each other away. "I faced a monster ten times what you will be." I slashed so close to his head that his hair was disheveled and thrilled at making the first mark.
"The one that gave you that limp?" Grande fired back. He leaned in closer as we clashed and threw me back with his shoulder.
My foot scraped a cloud of dust as I regained myself. I grinned at him. "Oh, you do hit back."
Grande St. Leger- District One male
When I started fighting Caio, I felt empty. I'd barely had time to process that Elissa was gone. In the fight, I knew I couldn't be distracted, but the lack of her presence was palpable. We'd fought together for years. Our styles grew into each other until we were entwined like trees linked by a network of vines. It was different not to fight with her. Awkward. It threw me off and I knew Caio would capitalize on that.
I made a mistake early in the fight. Every time Elissa slipped into my head, the pain distracted me. I tried to channel it and the emotion I picked was anger. I made myself angry with Caio and determined to make him pay even though he wasn't the one that killed her. But anger only equaled prowess in stories. In real life it weakened a fighter. And so Caio came close in the first minutes of the fight to killing me. I stopped myself there and redirected.
Caio had a distinct fighting style. It didn't take more than a glance to know he fought viper style. Volunteers learned dozens of disciplines and he probably wasn't specifically fighting kung fu, but the overall attitude of snake style fighting clung to him. Snake fighters moved smoothly and continuously. They were prone to preening as they fought and they would describe it as much a dance as it was a fight. The best counter to the snake was the mantis. The snake moved in large and rapid movements. The mantis was still and maximized force while minimizing movement. The snake retreated, the mantis stood still. Caio was mortal and his body had limits. Let him leap and circle and when at last he slowed, even for an instant, it was the mantis that could snatch that moment.
Caio Sagres- District Two mentor
I would not have believed it, but I was starting to admit that Grande was stronger than I was. Our weapons hit again and my knee buckled under the force of his downward strike. I started to dodge aside before he could press his advantage. Instead of going for the killing blow, he took the lesser but more certain tactic of batting me with his arm so I was thrown sideways. Something gave in my shoulder. I wondered by how slender a thread it was held in its socket- I could feel the weakness and slowness when I moved it. I rolled over to get up and was nearly cleaved in half when he ran after me and brought his sword down across my body. I rolled sideways, my feet twirling, and got onto one knee. As he was still raising his sword, I stabbed upward, aiming beneath his ribs. He saw it and pulled back enough to frustrate my aim and instead the spear stuck into him but deflected off his hip bone. He moved with the momentum and the follow-up strike I aimed at his leg as I stood was minimized to a scratch.
Grande was unhindered by his injuries. He carried his momentum through to the last and swung his body around. I was expecting a sword and was blindsided when it was his fist that struck my face so hard I was thrown off my feet and onto my back. There was a pain in my mouth like I'd bitten down on a mouthful of knives as bits of tooth were ground into my lips and tongue by the impact. In a daze I saw Grande running toward me to finish it.
Grande St. Leger- District One male
Caio was on the ground. And what is a dancer who cannot stand? I took my moment. I brought back my sword to let gravity give it the force to split him from hips to throat. His eyes were dazed as he watched me close on him. He rolled onto his stomach and pushed off with his legs just before I reached. It was a boy's scream that came out when my strike missed the fatality but cut into his thigh until bone jarred my hand.
Once more, I drew back for the final blow. Caio scuttled like a spider on the ground. He curled himself behind me and stabbed his spear into the back of my leg. I felt the tendon snap and at last understood the horror stories other students had told me. My leg dissolved into liquid pain and folded under me like paper.
Caio stumbled backwards to his feet. He leaned cocked to one side as I fell onto my back when my leg refused to hold me even kneeling. It was a man's battle scream that came when Caio took a final running step on his bad leg. He pushed off on his good leg and sprang at me like a spider. His spear hit before his feet, and all his weight was on it. Blood sprayed from my mouth. With it, the life drained out of me. I felt my life spattered on my face and welling up around the spear inside me. I was ruptured, crushed like an egg. All the king's horses... the thought came to mind.
I will accomplish what I have first begun. I had embraced Elissa's crazy faith in my last days. But we were not identical. Our paths were different, and even that difference was sublime. All rivers are different, but all flow to the same sea. The same sea where Elissa was, having arrived before me and awaiting our reunitement.
Caio Sagres- District Two male
It was not at all what I had imagined. I had gone into the fight expecting a perilous back-and-forth, throughout which I would never lose the upper hand and at the end of which I would triumphantly strike the death blow with a witty and crowning statement. Instead I stood swaying on a leg laid bare like a filleted fish, too weary and pained to think of a sendoff, much less say it. I had not won gloriously, but by the skin of my teeth. My hunt for Meenah had no glory in it. This had been my chance at a battle to boast about. I had merely a battle I had survived.
Meenah Turbine- District Five female
The cannon. It didn't matter who had died. Whoever remained was coming for me. They would search every tunnel and they would find me. If they could not, the Capitol would force me out. My time to hide was running out.
The dead thing lay beneath me. Every moment I was aware of the tortured body that lay some fifteen feet below me in the dark. It called me sometimes when I tried to sleep. Not in my ears, but in my soul. And once more I crawled to it.
There was hardly anything left. Just bones and scurrying insects looking for last scraps and an empty set of clothes. A spear far too large and heavy for me to use. I took the spear and broke it just below the point. Once more, I plundered Atticus. With the spear I cut into his clothes. I lay them out in strips and I braided.
3rd place: Grande St. Leger- Speared by Caio
When Grande was submitted, his "thing" was plainly supposed to be anxiety. And yet, I hardly wrote about that. It was deliberate. Anxiety is part of someone, but it doesn't define them. A person is more than a mental health struggle. Grande's anxious personality made him deliberate, and cautious, and nervous, but other parts of him were independent of it. It wasn't as simple as writing a character who sometimes got scared or had panic attacks. Those things did happen, but organically. There was also his friendship with Elissa to write about, and his ambitions, and his curiosity about religion, and his motivations to volunteer. The readers really liked him, which is why he made it so far, but they liked him for being him and not for being a token neurodivergent character, which was what I hoped more than anything. So thanks for Grande, who would have been a worthy Victor had I chosen that path.
Fun fact: as I'm sure was apparent to most of you, Caio is inspired by Oberyn from Game of Thrones. This has been interesting for me since I don't watch Game of Thrones (No judgement on those who enjoy it and I get the reasons, but I personally do not watch any media where women get raped. Sort of my meaningless but diehard boycott). However, I watched clips to get the feel of Caio. I procrastinated so long because I didn't know how to write this fight, so Oberyn fans will be glad to see I verbally rotoscoped his fight with the Mountain. It's exact for the first half. Then I added some hits on Grande's side because he was more competent than the Mountain. Then I shifted some things to keep the punch and have that totally wicked impale-jump be the finale. I'm still not watching GOT but Oberyn seems pretty cool. Too bad he died. And I definitely have been hearing all of Caio's lines with that accent.
To any Kung Fu practitioners: I did my darndest to find out what styles are vulnerable to other styles but I couldn't find anything on Google. I totally made up the mantis vs. snake thing and sorry if it's wildly inaccurate. I looked at the styles and it seemed to make sense so I picked that.