CHAPTER 153

The Quarter Finals commenced that evening, and immediately, there was definitely a different feel to this round than the prior one. All of the fighters were known entities right now to the audience, having fought in all of the prelims as well as the round of 16. There was no discovery of new fighters. The audience already knew exactly who they liked and didn't like, and they made their support known. Not only that, but there was a very different feel to this round than the day before in the sense that today, from an audience perspective, every single fight felt like a prelim, felt like an undercard before the main event. The fans had packed to capacity, with not a single empty seat in the house, and there was a reason for that: all of them were eager beyond anything to see Marcos and Diego finally going at it, once and for all.

The buildup to the boys' fight - the press conference and the near-brawl directly afterwards - had already spread far and wide, all over the world. The power of social media after all. The two feuding competitors had gone viral, millions of people already seeing the footage of the press conference, those even outside the realm of karate seeing clips of it on Youtube, Tiktok and more, and from that deciding to tune into the Taikai on TV.

Even if all of the fights before Marcos and Diego's felt less important to the audience, that definitely wasn't the case in the eyes of the other fighters. They all had fights to win, fights that would determine whether or not they'd make the semi finals, the final 4 in their respective divisions. And once again, it was a stellar showing from the remaining Miyagi-Do competitors. Johnny made it through. Daniel made it through. Sam made it through. Tory made it through. Miguel made it through. Hawk made it through. The only person yet to do so from their dojo was Robby, who was preparing for his fight right now.

Although he didn't want to admit it, nerves were starting to seep into his body. It was inevitable. They were in the Quarter Finals of the World fucking Karate Championship! His friends had all already made the semis. It was now up to him to replicate, so there was more pressure on his shoulders than ever.

For this reason, when the fight began, Robby was a little bit wobbly out of the gate. He found himself doing things he wouldn't normally do - starting off on offense to try and score a point to ease his nerves. However, all that did was unbalance him, put him in a situation he wouldn't normally find himself in, far outside of his comfort zone. And his opponent capitalized, scoring the first point of the fight.

"Robby, you've got this." Daniel said, as Robby approached his corner of the mat, listening to Daniel and Chozen, who had chosen to be there to coach him for his fight. "Just remember everything we've taught you. Relax. Stay calm. Don't be afraid to wait for opportunities, as inevitably they will come. Be patient."

"Daniel-san is right. I've trained you well for this. Don't do anything you wouldn't normally do when training with me." Chozen said. "You wouldn't normally be the one to attack first. Defense is your speciality. It's what you're good at. Use that to your advantage."

The fight restarted, and sure enough, as Robby closed his eyes and pretended that he was back home, sparring on the Miyagi-Do deck with Tory, Miguel, Sam or Hawk, he found himself returning to his own skin once more. He found himself reverting back to his strengths, and returning to his normal fighting style. And once he managed to do that, Robby put on a near flawless showing. Nerves became a thing of the past as he scored point after point, his defense becoming an impenetrable rock and his offense scoring the much-needed points. He was fighting better than he ever had before, finding his form at just the right moment, and sure enough, less than 10 minutes later, Robby's arm was being raised in triumph by the referee, the entire 15,000 person arena chanting his name. Many of them might have been eagerly waiting to watch the final fight of the boys' division - the climax of Marcos and Diego's war - but that didn't mean they couldn't appreciate the elite performance Robby had just put on.

"Robby, that was amazing!" Daniel exclaimed, as Robby stepped off the mat and embraced his two senseis. "8-2! That was incredible!"

"Thanks." Robby couldn't hold back the massive smile that had spread across his face. That fight… it had felt so good. It was the first moment during this tournament that he felt like a genuine contender for the title. He hadn't just eeked through by the skin of his teeth, like he had in other rounds when he had been encumbered by the pressure. He felt genuinely dominant every step of the fight, and the sky was the limit for him now.

He was coming for the title. That much was for certain. Him, Miguel and Hawk made up 3 of the 4 semi final spots for the boys' division, a historic domination by one dojo in the competition. Despite fighting for the same team, all 3 of them fought in such different, unique styles, and that prevented any dojo from coming up with a plan to stop them. The 3 boys were on top form, prepared to face whoever came next, whether that be each other or the 4th semi finalist, who was yet to be determined.

Speaking off, as Daniel, Chozen and Robby walked away from the mat and over to the rest of the dojo, where they'd be watching the last quarter final fight all together, all of a sudden, the arena went pitch black. Everyone in the audience went silent, deathly silent, all of them knowing exactly what was coming. Sure enough, on the large screen in the center of the arena that had previously been displaying scores and qualified fighters, a movie began to play.

Loud, dramatic music blared through speakers all over the arena as the movie played. It was a promotional video for the final fight of the night, the one that everyone had been waiting for, the once-in-a-generation quarter final bout that was more than just a fight at this point… it was a war. The video was expertly made, and it cut between security footage of Marcos' beatdown the night before, to clips from the press conference that morning, to highlights of both fighters so far at the Taikai, as well as voiceover overlays from Taikai announcers and commentators, who were definitely doing their part in hyping the fight up.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!" The commentator screamed at the top of his lungs.

By the end of the short, 3 minute video, the entire arena were on their feet, stomping, screaming and clapping loud enough to cause an earthquake. They were ready for this one! "The biggest non-final fight in Taikai history" it had been dubbed by the commentators during the video, and neither of the fights had even stepped onto the mat just yet. That was the nature of the bad blood between the two fighters. This fight was a clash between two rival competitors, both vying hungrily for the crown and knowing that they could be each other's biggest threat to winning it all. This fight was a clash between two international sporting nemeses in Brazil and Argentina. It was also deeply personal, a clash between the boy who had been ambushed and the boy who had just had his previous year's championship stripped. There was one thing for certain: there was going to be no mercy in this fight. From either of them.

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While all kinds of chaos was taking place outside as the audience went mental in anticipation for the fight, inside the Cobra Kai waiting room, things were dead silent. Marcos stood, hopping from foot to foot, his eyes closed, picturing all of the things he was about to do to his opponent. He imagined the entire fight in his head: every strike he was about to land, every takedown he was about to throw. Knowing what he was about to do helped keep him calm before the fight, which was why despite the mammoth occasion ahead of the teenager, his heart rate had not raised even a little.

In the pre-fight room with him were only 3 other people: Kreese, Sarah and Silver. All three of them had already sealed their spots in the semi finals, and so it was only Marcos who needed to make it a perfect day for Cobra Kai, just like their rival dojo had had. That day, Marcos was different. There was absolutely no doubt about that. Whether it be the way he had exploded during the press conference, the way he had spent the entire morning egging his opponent into a brawl… Marcos was reverting back to the mindset he had had a few months ago, and it was terrifying to see. Sarah and Kreese had both tried to interrogate him about this, but Marcos had easily shrugged them off. They all needed to focus on their fights, he had told them. It was a great way to avoiding answering their questions, but it did nothing to stem the rising worry in both Marcos' sensei and his girlfriend. Silver, on the other hand, was delighted by the changes he was seeing in their champion. Not only was the boy a more deadly fighter than ever, but what better way to screw over Kreese than to allow him a front row seat to seeing Silver completely wreck the boy that Kreese had come to love so much?

"Listen to that." Silver remarked, pointing to the ceiling of the room. It was practically shaking from the sheer ferocity that the fans were stomping and yelling with. "Listen to all of those people. They're here for you. Along with millions of others on TV. Your fight is trending all over social media, so there's a record-breaking number of people watching right now."

"Ignore all of that." Sarah spoke up, shooting a death glare at Silver. "Forget about everything else. It's just 8 points to qualify for the semis. That's all you need."

Marcos looked up at Sarah and shook his head.

"No. It's good to know about everyone watching. All the more people to watch me humiliate him on the mat." Marcos snapped, and Sarah's face darkened with worry, but she didn't say anything. Not now. Anything she said right now, she knew would just go in one ear and out the other. But afterwards, there was definitely going to be a confrontation between Silver's side of the dojo and Kreese's, that was for sure.

Soon, it was time. An intercom message in the room informed the Cobra Kais that it was time. It was time for the talking to end and the fighting to start. Finally. Both of the boys were beside themselves with the hunger and eagerness to finally lay their hands on each other and tear each other limb from limb. Putting on his jet-black, sleeveless Cobra Kai gi, Marcos picked up his large Brazilian flag that he had brought from home, draped it around his shoulders, before leading his dojo out of the room…