Chapter 21: intermission
Vaughn sat with Ka'jeal in the waiting area. Two more rounds would pass before the final, and Vaughn dominated both of his matches, with one injury, a relatively light cut across his chest from a spear that he underestimated the length of. He watched as Rhal flawlessly beat his opponents to a bloody pulp match after match. Bare knuckle boxing each fighter until they could hardly stand, then finishing them off with a swipe of the wrist blades that he hadn't unleashed until then. Ka'jeal explained to him that Rhal was the four time champion, a feat surpassed by none, and matched by few. This was a big year for Rhal, it was his fifth year in the tournament, and he hoped his fifth win, which would give him the title of longest running champion. Vaughn thought to himself "no wonder the guy is such a prick, he's nervous as hell." Vaughn watched as the champion won his semi final match with a particularly gruesome and spectacular wrist blade uppercut to the jaw. The roar from the crowd drowned out Vaughn and Ka'jeal's strategizing.
After the crowd died down, Rhal re-entered the big waiting room, and sat on a bench on the far side. The loud speaker came on again, announcing that there would be a short intermission before the final bout, which would be between the current champion from council member Ark'ha's clan, and the ooman from the Arbiter's clan. Apparently one of the most exciting matches in recent history. Ka'jeal informed Vaughn of both the prestige, and awkwardness of this match-up. On one hand, this was the championship match in the games and Ka'jeal was very proud that someone he had trained made it this far (as he told Vaughn every minute or so) and on the other hand, Vaughn was fighting the representative of a council member's clan. And the Arbiter was the council's enforcer so to speak, so this made it quite the delicate situation if Vaughn won. Since both him and the Arbiter would have to restrain their enthusiasm until they returned to the ship, something at which neither of them was good at. "this is a very dangerous fight Vaughn, you will have to watch him closely, study his moves, learn his weaknesses, and the speed of the gods couldn't hurt" Vaughn looked at his trainer and laughed. "Ka'jeal, I figured that you would have given up on that by now?" And gave a tiny punch to the Yautja's arm as he stood. "What do you mean?" But Vaughn just laughed again as the deep horn blew and the drums banged, signaling the beginning of the championship match.