Shabaka's Pride - Round 3: Match 2

             Vito leaped up in victory, the smile on his face illuminated in the rising sun in such a way it made the smiles of a thousand children high on candy look depressing. His personal celebration lasted so long, Amare had gotten up and exited to the sidelines.

            “I have to apologize,” said Vito with a big sigh once he had finally calmed down. “To Smalls, Shabaka and obviously Amare.”

            “Why?” asked Shabaka. “This game is the same for all of us. You don’t need to apologize to the one you beat, and certainly not to the ones you lost to.”

Vito made an evil sneer. “I used the two of you to beat Amare.” A dead silence fell over everyone. Shabaka wasn’t quite surprised that Vito would do something like this, but she thought she was immune to his tricks at this point of years knowing him. “I knew going into today that I was the weakest amongst us. So, I would need to use my mind. It would be hard for me to win one match, let alone the tournament, so I decided to focus entirely on winning ONE match. I devised my plan while we were out picking weapons and even while I was watching the first fight. I would purposefully get squashed in my first match so hopefully, my second opponent whichever one of you it was, would let their guard down for step two of my plan. In my first match I made it looked like I only had one plan I was counting on working perfectly. So that when I asked opponent two for advice, they would give me the simple answer of ‘have a backup plan.’” Vito looked directly at Shabaka and gave a gentle smirk. “I did actually try to beat you in that last moment though, if that makes you feel any better.” It did not. “Anyway, after asking for advice, I figured my third opponent would only expect me to have two plans. That was when I would enact a plan-c they would be caught totally off guard!” Vito bent back, held his arms out like claws, and let out a maniacal laugh.

“I don’t buy it for a second,” said Bard, whacking his son across the face with the open fan. Vito fell flat on his ass. “Great bluff there, but you absolutely worked on the fly. Which honestly is more impressive, you should be just that, honest.”

“I don’t know dad,” said Smalls. “When I was fighting him, it seemed like put up no fight at all.”

“Have you considered it only seemed like that because of your overwhelming strength?” Amare asked, his eyes closed and sitting in one of his meditative positions.

“While that is true, Vitoroy’s plan is also one that is perfectly feasible. If he is bluffing well enough to lie about ever having had a plan, then he could certainly perform the bluffs needed to enact this plan,” said Tilian with a pondering glare.

Shabaka was totally clueless. Both seemed like totally plausible actions for Vito to take. He was the boy who always seemed like he wanted to go home, curl up into a ball, and just be left alone until he wanted to see people. Shabaka felt this was the reason for his often rude, malicious, or at least had a stand-offish attitude. Something that he could turn off if he wanted, but also direct it at whomever he needed. It reminded her of Bard. It reminded her of herself, it reminded her of all her siblings. The same way that Bard kept a literal fire contained within him, she and her siblings all had a violence and bloodlust within them that they constantly kept bottled up, as it built and built. What would happen the day any of them let it all out for the first time. Perhaps Omakaze already had, and that was why she wasn’t here this summer.

The arguing continued until Smalls made a gigantic thunderous stamp on the ground.

“Time to fight,” he growled in his deepest orc war voice. Shabaka was surprised but did not hesitate to face him in front of Bard. They waited for Tilian to call the match, and once he did, the match that followed only lasted a few seconds.

Shabaka was conscious of her strength, but she also had a consistent thought process in her actions. Any sneaky tactic she could do with just her body and a single straw clawed hand could easily be overpowered by her larger orc brother, so she kept her tactic simple and quick. Smalls charged at her. She threw a faint with her right clawed fist. Just as expected he ducked and weaved, right into her oncoming left hook. But Smalls just kept charging forward, such force was his charge, that he knocked Shabaka’s fist right out of the way with his shoulder.

A huge green steam train was barreling towards Shabaka, before she could begin to even have a modicum of a thought on how to deal with it, she was thrown around like a ragdoll. When she hit the ground, she felt like two hollow pieces of metal being banged together. Her ears were ringing, but otherwise she was all too aware of what was going on.

 

	Amare	Vitoroy	Tilian	Smallblade	Shabaka	Points
Amare	~	L	W			1.0
Vitoroy	W	~		L	L	1.0
Tilian	L		~		L	0.0
Smallblade		W		~	W	2.0
Shabaka		W	W	L	~	2.0

Smallblade vs Shabaka: Winner, Metalleg’s Smallblade, Match time, 0:03.