Max Arena (55 page)

‘What’s he
doing?’ Joe asked into the communal comms system.

‘He’s getting
into
the fight,’ Abdullah said. ‘He needs to own it by
taking it away from
them
. This is how he wins.'

Up in her
private booth, Elsa listened to Abdullah’s comments and said
quietly under her breath, ''This is how he
lives
.'

Down in the
arena, Max's hardened glare held the three attackers at bay, the
trio slowly circling him like a pack of wild dogs on the savannah,
closing in to kill their prey.  Max kept his sword up in
front, his double handed grip like a vice.  Then, without
looking down, he slid his thumb up to the base of the hilt and
pressed the button.  A click sounded and the sword instantly
became something completely different.

The trio of
creatures suddenly stopped circling and watched as Max's sword
split cleanly into two identical weapons.  The powerful
magnets that held the two halves together as a whole were now
inactive, allowing Max to pull them apart and hold them out to the
sides in each hand.  Now he was twice as lethal.  Having
only a single blade before had slowed him down, allowing him to
focus only on defence.  With two blades, he could now take the
fight to them. The fight was now his.

Again, the
three slim creatures charged forwards as a single unit. Their
swords carved the air, but Max was up to it. With speed greater
than theirs’, he whirled and slashed, sending his enemies’ blades
bouncing away, not just in defence, but with aggression. Sparks
skittered through the air and with the first onslaught smashed
away, Max launched his own attack. Spinning and slashing, jumping
and slicing, his twin swords assaulted the three creatures, forcing
them to recoil and back away. Slowly, but surely, Max began to
corral the trio back towards the nearest edge of the arena, their
cohesion and alignment as a group deteriorating.

‘That a boy,
Max,’ Kris muttered. ‘Now start taking them out.’

Max drove
forwards, his left sword thrusting and his right sword slashing
away a feeble strike. Pivoting, he spun hard to his left and with
both swords slicing horizontally, he smashed away the blade of the
left hand attacker, knocking the creature off balance and stumbling
to the ground. The central attacker quickly leapt over its downed
comrade, its own sword raised overhead and arcing murderously
downwards, chopping to kill. Without looking up, in the blink of an
eye, Max crouched, planted and sliced upwards with his right blade,
evading the blow and striking his own contact at the same time.

Unexpectedly
to the crowd, but not to Max, the leaping creature’s hands
separated from its forearms, the shimmering sword spinning upwards
into the air with both of the creature’s hands still locked onto
the hilt. Purple blood sprayed outwards as the wounded attacker
stumbled to its knees. The crowd went nuts. Not even Max’s ice cold
concentration could keep the sound out. Twenty thousand screaming
human beings rejoiced as one, their hopes suddenly springing to
life as their hero drew first blood.

Up in Elsa’s
private booth, she remained silent, holding her children close as
their father stood stoically in the arena below them. She knew he
was now in control, but his life and theirs were still far from
assured. The night remained desperately dangerous.

Down in the
weapons yard, peering through the plexiglass, Kris silently
clenched her fists and her jaws, a fierceness she had never felt
before glaring from her eyes. Then another voice entered her ear
piece. It was Abdullah.

‘I see now he
spoke the truth,’ the Sheikh said quietly, ‘and we never had cause
to doubt him. He knows who he is and what he has to do. He shines
with belief and it humbles me.’

‘He’s our man,
Your Majesty,’ Kris replied, ‘and the show’s just started.’

Down on the
grass, Max ignored his downed foe and instead coolly turned to face
its remaining comrades, eyeing them off. Instinctively they backed
slowly away. The table had well and truly been turned. Now they
were the prey and they knew it.

Straightening
to his full height, Max held both swords out wide and began to pace
towards them. The remaining two aliens unconsciously stayed close
to each other, the natural herd mentality kicking in when a
predator is on the prowl. Max did not afford them the time to
regain any of their lost confidence. He had to end this and end it
now. He moved in.

Max’s swords
instantly became a blur, their movements betrayed only by the
flashes of reflected light and the frantic parries and dodges of
his opponents. The two creatures immediately started back peddling,
shoulder to shoulder at first, but slowly Max started to drive a
wedge between them. Smashing their swords away, he steadily split
them apart and singled them out. Spinning and slashing, Max worked
his way in between the two of them, until he was effectively
battling one on each side of himself. The aliens thought they had
gained the advantage now, but that was false. Max had them where he
needed them.

Max found a
steady rhythm of sword play that kept both attackers safely at bay
and then with that equilibrium set, he ratcheted up the hostility.
His left side opponent hacked at him and with one sword, Max
blocked it and instantly followed through with his second blade to
smash his foe’s sword away, causing the creature to stumble off
balance. Without closing to kill, Max spun back to the other
creature and repeated the manoeuvre, sending it stumbling away too.
Spinning back to the first creature, Max leapt into the air, just
as the alien lunged at him. Again with one sword, he flicked the
attacker’s sword safely away and while still spinning in the air,
Max’s second blade whipped around at neck height and an instant
later, the alien’s head lopped upwards and clear of its
shoulders.

This time the
crowd went berserk, the noise absolutely deafening as all twenty
thousand human beings in the stadium launched to their feet and
screamed. Not just blood this time, but the first kill. It was more
than most had dreamed of and all of a sudden, hope flooded the
arena, if only for this moment in time.

Kris jumped
and screamed, punching the air. Elsa closed her eyes and a
breathless sigh passed her lips. Millie and Jason squealed. In the
private booth next door, Sheikh Abdullah, Joe and Peter silently
watched. As the dead alien’s body crumpled to the ground, Abdullah
nodded and said a silent prayer to Allah.

Down in the
arena, no sooner did Max’s feet touch the ground than he had spun
to face his final able foe. The creature stood almost aimlessly,
its sword wavering in front of itself. No semblance of confidence
remained in the alien’s manner. Max refused it any respite. With
the crowd roaring for more blood, he went straight on the
offensive. He did not want to take the chance that Macktidas would
cheat again and send down some more attackers to regain the upper
hand in the bout.

With one blade
up and the other angled out to the side, Max walked briskly
forward. The creature immediately started to shuffle backwards,
even before the first blow came. Max adjusted his line slightly and
forced his foe to change direction. Within a few steps, the alien
was back pedalling back to where its still living, but
incapacitated comrade was stumbling around.

Then, Max
tensed and both of his swords flashed into action. He tempered his
speed, forcing the alien to fend constantly and not be able to
attack. Max’s swords whirled in perfect choreography, keeping his
enemy exactly where he wanted it to be. With patience, he wheeled
the creature through one hundred and eighty degrees, placing it in
front of him and the third, wounded creature behind him.

Kris squinted
at the scene unfolding out in the middle. Max had the upper hand
and all he had to do was make a final strike and the bout would be
effectively over. Unconsciously, she muttered aloud into her
headset.

‘Kill it, Max.
Kill it
now
.’

A hundred feet
away, Max held his foe in place with his steady sword play and then
replied, ‘Whatever you say, Kris.’

Kris’ mouth
gaped. The man had time and awareness to talk back. In the middle
of a duel to the death, Max still found time to listen to her and
speak back and then it happened, almost too fast for her to see
it.

Max half
stepped back and allowed his enemy a little extra room to move,
inviting it to attack. The alien stepped forward and slashed
downwards towards his left shoulder, but Max anticipated the move
and with his left sword he cut across his body and knocked the blow
away, while quickly following with his right sword to smack the
opposing blade away even harder. Using his attacking momentum, Max
spun on his right foot and stepped forward with his left to close
the gap between him and his stumbling enemy. Lifting his left sword
up, Max speared it forwards using a backhanded grip to drive it
squarely into the chest of the alien, skewering it.

In the same
spinning movement, Max whipped his right sword around and flung it,
the blade glittering as it spun, hilt over tip until it hammered
into the chest of the third, injured alien behind him. The hapless
creature flew backwards as the weapon buried itself up to the hilt
in its torso. Meanwhile, the alien in front of Max dropped its own
sword and stood dumbly on its quivering legs, looking down at the
sword sticking out of its own chest. Feebly, it reached up with
both hands to touch the blade, almost as though it needed to feel
the weapon to believe it was there, sucking its life away. Finally,
the creature fell backwards to the ground, dead.

The crowd
surged again and now there was aggression in the combined voices.
Surprise at one death had been replaced by bravado that their
champion had now tallied up three deaths and a duel score of one to
nothing. The crowd knew two more bouts were coming, but Max had won
the first fight, even when the bad guys had cheated and now surely
nothing could stop him?

Max stood
still in the centre of the human maelstrom, allowing the jubilation
to wash over him, but not be absorbed into it.

‘Thanks for
the tip,’ Max said to Kris.

Kris smiled.
‘Never doubted you. Not for a second.’

Suddenly, the
dead alien in front of Max, shimmered and vanished. He looked
around and found the other two bodies already gone.

‘Here comes
round two,’ Max muttered.

‘Get those
swords up,’ Kris replied, an edge in her voice. ‘I don’t think
you’re getting any rest time.’

Max turned
round to look at Kris and nodded. He then looked directly up above
to Elsa’s private booth. Max stood motionless for a moment, staring
at his wife and their children. He then raised his left sword up
and tapped the hilt against his chest, directly over his heart. Max
watched as Elsa stood up, her silhouette framed against the
backdrop of light in the booth. Delicately, she placed her own hand
on her own heart. Neither of them smiled. Neither of them dared.
Death still lurked in the shadows.

11:20pm, 31
^st
December.
Impenetrable

Suddenly,
another blue column of light shot down from the night sky to drive
into the very centre of the arena. Max spun to face it, his sword
whipping up. The crowd gasped as the electricity in the air amped
up again. Sparks fluttered in space, but Max ignored them, his
focus lasered in on the shaft of light and the shape forming inside
it.

Then the blue
column snapped off and a massive figure remained, still shrouded in
a shimmering golden haze. Slowly, the aura faded and Max got his
first look at the creature beneath. His eyes squinted as he took in
the gargantuan beast.

Like an ogre
direct from a fairy tale, the creature was gigantic, standing over
seven feet tall and bearing the bulk of an elephant. Two tree trunk
like legs supported its obese mass, while two stumpy arms with no
hands protruded from each side of its torso. On top of that, it was
ugly. Pale grey skin hung off its loathsome form in great craggy
folds, its skin tone mottled and patchy like mouldy bread.

Then Max
looked up at its bald, pale head and found above its wide,
slavering mouth, only one eye staring back at him. The eye was
central, but oblong in shape, stretching from one side of its face
to the other like it had been pulled across the front of its
skull.

Instantly Max
knew what that meant. The creature did not need peripheral vision
as it could probably see clearly across a wide field of sight with
no blind spots. There would be no sneaking past this thing. He
would be fighting this foe head on in all directions.

Max stepped to
his right, but the alien did not move. Max continued side stepping
and as he moved further sideways, the creature finally turned its
head to track him, but still it made no move to attack. Daring a
quick look down, Max found his second sword blade lying on the
grass where the previous alien had perished. Without removing his
focus from the being, Max bent down, picked up the second blade and
deftly put the two weapons back together.

‘Javelin,’ he
said into his comms. ‘Toss it out.’

Immediately, a
portal opened in the wall nearby Max and out flew a fist sized
metal cylinder. It hit the grass and rolled to a stop near his
feet. Max took two more careful steps and then inverting his sword,
skewered it into the turf. Still without removing his gaze from the
alien, Max bent down and picked up the metal object. Feeling it in
his hands, he found the etchings over a small touch pad and pressed
it.

In a blink,
telescopic, metal extensions shot out from both ends. One end
thickened to a blunt finish, while the other end tapered to a
lethal pin point. Max hefted the missile out to the side with his
right hand and then raised it to shoulder height. At the same time,
Max pulled his sword clear of the turf and held it ready too.