Chapter 232 - Time [VII] (1/2)

Which meant they were holding up signs that expressed their love for Gorbin, sometimes with a simple declarative like GORBIN'S THE BEST, others simply with his name or a crude drawing of his face. Some children were in his line of sight, and many were carrying small dolls that bore Gorbin's likeness.

Jaing was standing in the center of the arena again. ”Tonight is a very special night here at the Pit, as Gorbin will once again take the arena—but against two new foes. These are vicious killers from beyond the wastes. You've seen them in the early fights, and they've won each and every single time. Now they'll take on the greatest fighter in the Pit's history—Gorbin.”

Boos for that. Nobody wanted to see Gorbin defeated. But the boos were surprisingly subdued.

And that's when it finally hit Gan what was wrong with the crowd noise. There wasn't enough of it. Last time he was in Urik, the seats shook from the din.

He turned to Feng. ”The crowd sounds quiet.”

”It's what they usually sound like,” Ju Feng said with a shrug.

”Yeah, when we're out there—but we're the undercard. This is the main event of the Pit of Black Death, and I'd swear to you there's not even a hundred people out there.”

Ju Feng shrugged again. ”Maybe people are tired of the arena.”

Gan scratched his chin. ”Or maybe they're tired of watching Gorbin win all the time.”

”Presenting Gorbin's first challenger of the evening: Ju Feng Feng.”

Ju Feng shrugged a third time. It seemed to be all he did anymore. ”Guess I'll have to take him down, then.”

The guards guided Ju Feng toward the gate, which obligingly rose with its usual metallic squeal. Ju Feng stepped into the arena.

Ju Feng and Gorbin circled each other. Gorbin looked kind of bored, which Gan suspected had something to do with the crowd's reaction. The last time he was there, the hairless mul had stared intently at his opponent from underneath the bone ridge on his forehead. He had looked fierce and intimidating. The crowd fed off that.

With nothing to feed off of, though, they were listless.

Then Ju Feng did something Gan had never seen his friend do in all the years they'd known each other.

He grinned.

Ju Feng didn't grin. He smirked, he smiled—especially if he was chatting a woman up—and he laughed sometimes, if the mood struck him. But he never grinned. In the arena, the two opponents circled each other. Neither took his eyes off the other, waiting for the other to make the first move.

The mul still looked bored, and Ju Feng was still grinning that damned grin, but otherwise they were focused.

Finally, Gorbin made the first move, swinging a massive fist at Feng. Ju Feng caught it in his left hand.

A gasp rippled through the amphitheater—and the holding area as well. Muls were quite strong, and Feng, for all his might, was only a human. There was simply no way that Ju Feng should have been able to Ju Fengst catch a mul's punch without any ill effects.

Yet Ju Feng looked as if he'd Ju Fengst caught a lightly tossed ball.

Gorbin looked stunned, staring at his fist in Feng's hand as if he'd never seen anything like it. And indeed, he probably hadn't.

Ju Feng then punched the mul right in the nose while letting go of Gorbin's fist. Feng's fist struck Gorbin's nose with a meaty thud, blood flying from his nostrils, and he fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. The crowd went completely quiet.

Walking over to the fallen mul, Ju Feng looked down at him. ”That the best you can do?”

Snarling, Gorbin wiped his nose with the back of his wrist, then leaped to his feet and started throwing dozens of punches. Ju Feng was able to counter some of them, and some struck full on. Ju Feng didn't fight back, Ju Fengst let Gorbin hit his arms, keeping his elbows in so that Gorbin didn't strike his stomach or c.h.e.s.t.

Then Ju Feng grinned again.

Gan's heart skipped a beat. ”What the hell is wrong with you, Feng?”

Ju Feng let loose with a quick kick that slammed into Gorbin's stomach, causing the mul to blow out a big breath and stumble backward. Not letting up, Ju Feng kicked him again and punched him in the face a few more times.

Gorbin's face was caked with blood from his nose and mouth, and he was breathing very heavily, spitting blood onto the stone floor. Ju Feng was still grinning.

Then Ju Feng grabbed Gorbin's arms and lifted the mul—who had to weigh twice what Ju Feng had ever been able to pick up before—and threw him across the arena floor. Gorbin hit the stone ground and skidded along to the obsidian wall.

Still the crowd was silent.

Gan looked at what he could see of the audience from the holding area. The signs had been lowered; the dolls of Gorbin's likeness were being clutched for dear life, as if to ward off the mul's apparent defeat.

Ju Feng ran over to Gorbin's prone, broken form, and stepped on one of his arms. The snap of bone echoed throughout the subdued amphitheater. Then he picked Gorbin up by that arm—causing the mul to scream in pain—and threw him toward the holding area.

Backing up instinctively, Gan watched as Gorbin slammed into the metal cage with a clang.

Struggling to get to his feet, Gorbin said, ”I don't understand—I'm the biggest and the strongest. I should be winning.”

Walking over to stand over Gorbin, Ju Feng spoke in a quiet tone that Gan could barely hear. ”There is no 'biggest.' There is no 'strongest.' Because there's always someone who's stronger and bigger.

And sooner or later that person finds you.” Ju Feng then kneeled down on the mul, his knees pinning Gorbin's c.h.e.s.t. Despite Ju Fengst wiping the floor with the greatest fighter in Urik, Ju Feng didn't even sound winded. ”When that person does find you, it's your time to die.”

Oddly, Gorbin's blood-caked face brightened at that. ”You mean I don't have to fight anymore?”