Chapter 19: let the games begin...
Deep drums banged a steady tribal beat as the twenty some fighters walked out into the arena. The crowd erupted in a massive roar of cheers and thundering applause. The fighters looked back and forth around them at the huge crowd. There was a short ceremony as a couple of high class looking Yautja addressed the fighters and the crowd, making a special point to welcome the grand arbiter and someone from some Yautja council. The fighters retreated back to the room they came from, but the doors were not closed.
The fights began and progressed with surprising brutality. Vaughn watched as fight after fight became a bloody battle, then ended in death. These were all clearly meant to be death matches. Vaughn's turn came near the end of the first round. He stepped out into the arena and took his position. The other fighter walked out shortly after. A creature about the same height as Vaughn, light gray skin, and small black beady eyes. It had no nose to speak of and three fingers on each hand. Other than that it was relatives human looking. A thick tuft of black greasy hair sprouted from its head and reached down its back. It wore a long leather loincloth and wasn't very muscular. The two fighters stared at each other as a pair of Yautja rolled out two chests. One of the Yautja approached Vaughn with a chest and opened it up. Inside were most all the weapons of the Yautja. "Pick one ooman" Vaughn reached into the chest and pulled out a metal gauntlet. He replaced his right leather one with it, and with a flick of the wrist two, two-foot blades sprung from the top. The competitor attached a thick black belt covered in tiny throwing daggers to its waist. The two Yautja rolled the chests away and with a long loud horn blow, the match was on. The crowd quickly grew quite, as the two fighters stared each other down. Neither moved for a while, then the creature leapt into action. Daggers flew from his body at blinding speed, almost as if it didn't even touch them. This would have been a perfect opportunity for Vaughn to use the acceleration, but he didn't want to waste it so early in the games. One of the daggers tore through his shoulder and he winced as another nicked his side. Vaughn began to stagger forward blocking some of the daggers with his wrist blades as he swung them back and forth. The creature stood his ground and with blinding speed pulled more daggers one by one and they flew from him and into the charging synthetic. Blood splattered and Vaughn screamed; now running full tilt at the creature, wrist blades raised high into the air. The creature now frantically launched more daggers as fast as he could, still not moving. The crowd roared with excitement at the bloody rush. Vaughn screamed at the top of his lungs as he charged at the creature. It's arms moved at light speed as it flung more and more daggers. It threw one last one, which Vaughn blocked, then reached for another, and found none. Its beady eyes widened with fear as it found it was out of ammo, it looked up just in time to see Vaughn point blank. Vaughn dropped down to one knee as the blood poured from his body. The creature took a step back and almost turned to run, but Vaughn's left hand shot up and grabbed it by the neck. The creature struggled and choked, but Vaughn held tightly. And in one powerful arc, Vaughn brought the wrist blades up with force. The blades tore into the creature's abdomen and its black blood gushed out around them. It shook and sputtered blood out of its mouth as Vaughn stood, released his grip from its neck, and lifted it high into the air with one arm. The crowd exploded with cheers and yells as Vaughn held it high in the air, daggers still sticking out from his flesh in many places. His arm rippled at the stress and the creature shook one last violent time, then fell still. Vaughn threw the lifeless body to the ground, then thrust his bloody arm into the air and yelled as the crowd went wild.