“Well, not really, but... I was wondering if you would like to have a duel.”
“Sure.” Max supposed. Max switched off Sandalphon and followed TJ, to a cleared off table. TJ turned on his band and Max did as well. On Max’s band a request to duel popped up from TJ. Max accepted the request. Max copied TJ and left his right hand on the edge of the table, so as to allow line of sight with the hologram of the avatars.
“Let my light guide your blows, Calson,” TJ said starting the fight.
“I got the will, you got the power Sandalphon,” Max said. The countdown to the fight started. In the center of the table, above both avatars, a spinning hologram number counted down from five to one. Max had Sandalphon go on the offensive; charging at Calson. Calson pulled out his sickle and took a swipe at Sandalphon. Sandalphon did a tumble under the swing and slammed into Calson’s legs. The fire elemental fell to the floor, dropping the sickle. Calson kicked out at Sandalphon, pushing him away with his legs. As Calson was getting to his feet Sandalphon bull rushed him off the table. The avatar fell out of sight from both holographic-emitters on the bands and disappeared.
Max was a little uncertain what to do about a ring out.
“Aw, a ring out, I should have been more careful,” TJ said. “Your movements were much better during the fight. I think you should practice more on the obstacle courses we have here”. While the two had been playing, more kids had come into the room and TJ left to talk with them.
Max walked over to another table, it had holographic-emitters displaying a variety of constructs; much like you would see on a kid’s playground. There were swinging rings, a jungle gym for climbing. There were also some tight ropes and a weight set. Max turned on his band and linked it to the controller of the table’s. Sandalphon appeared on the board amongst all the constructs. The equipment could be interacted with, unlike the blocks on the other table. Max had Sandalphon swing back and forth on the rings. He also tried walking the tight ropes, but Sandalphon would always tip to one side and fall off, keeping balance on them was extremely difficult. Max had a way easier time crossing under the tight rope with Sandalphon hands rather than trying to walk across it.
Looking over the table’s controls, there were other fields that could be set up. Max switched it over to soccer. The training equipment disappeared, Sandalphon remained on the field and around him a soccer field appeared with a ball in the center. He had Sandalphon run up and kick the ball. The ball flew wildly out of bounds. These kinds of games with avatars had never really caught on. People always had more fun playing real soccer and preferring to watch real people play it. The amazing powers of the avatars made the Clash tournaments always unpredictable and exciting, more than anything a human could do.
“That is Sandalphon?” Max heard from a kid on the other side of the room. He walked over to Max and asked, “Are you going to be joining our club?”
“I don’t know I was just going to stop by today and check it out,” Max said. He remembered seeing the kid during the ranking tests.
“A lot of people leave after losing in the tournament. Ten of us, from the club, started, and now there is only Lizzy and April left in the tournament. Only the three of us, here,” indicating himself and the other two members behind him, “will be the ones showing up today I’ll bet. Oh, I’m Punter.”
“I’m Max.”
A girl then walked in the room followed by a teacher. Max recognized them as Lizzy and Ms. Roundabout.
“I see that not everyone is here, today,” Ms. Roundabout said, with disappointment in her voice.
“Every year they quit when they lose their first match,” Lizzy said. “Next year’s tournament will be cut in half again with only thirty-two people total I bet.
“Well, do you guys still want to have our in-club tournament, this week then?” Ms Roundabout asked.
TJ said, “What is the point? We all know Lizzy is the strongest. She wins it every week. It is always her and April in the finals. I would rather just play the other games. What I would like to see, is Lizzy fight with Max.”
Lizzy looked over at Max. Then after a moment said, “I’m not fighting him we are in the same bracket. If he wins his next match, then he can fight me.”
Max did not know that they were in the same bracket. He had not looked at all the people in the brackets too much, when he was at the stadium. He had been more focused on playing a good match against Gervasee, than looking up who he would fight in the future. He had left the stadium after his match, he did not want to deal with everyone wanting to talk with him about the upset win he had.
“Max, what are you doing here anyway? Hoping to see my Cleita’s special moves, before our fight? You should be more worried about beating Terry.” Lizzy got up from her chair and left the room, practically running out the door.
Max was a little dumbfounded. “What was that all about?” he said. “It sounds like you have fights between each other here all the time.”
“Lizzy was pretty pumped about fighting Jason,” TJ said. “She has lost to him a lot, and has been training to fight with him in the tournament. She was practicing like crazy. April won’t be coming today anyway, so I don’t think she’s coming back. Max if you are going to stay, we should play a game.”
“I’ll go grade some papers, see you guys in a bit,” Ms Roundabout said. She left, leaving the four boys to play in the room.
The four of them sat a table with a holographic-emitter that projected two raised circular platforms. There was a blue glowing ball on one of them. While holding the ball a player would stand on squares that randomly lit up all over the platforms by their feet. Once they touched all the squares that appeared they could throw the ball to the other player. The trick was that the ball was constantly growing in size and weight and the longer you take to hit all the squares the faster the ball grew. If you took too long to hit all the squares the ball would grow too big and your avatar would be unable to hold the ball up any longer. Dropping the ball causes you to lose the game. The idea of the game is to improve your avatar’s footwork while helping to maintain balance all while helping you to understand the limitations of your avatar.
There were many other games like that; Clash players use these games to improve their control of the avatars. The club members were impressed at how quickly Max improved his control of Sandalphon as the games went on. Games that focused on strength more than balance were much easier for Max. The guys, wanting to test his skills, turned on a program that was similar to the rank tests. They were all impressed with how much virtual weight Sandalphon could lift. Not being as nervous, all of the tests went much better than they had at the stadium. Max figured out how to make Sandalphon jump, finally. He had stopped thinking about the exact movements to jump and just imaged him flying through the air from a crouched position.
The games and training exercises really helped with his overall control of Sandalphon. It was frustrating that he still could not make Sandalphon’s wings come out, or his mace, or his armor. There seemed to be no exercises he could do that would allow him to practice using those abilities.
Chapter 11
Fight between the two avatars with the most muscle!
The rest of the week went pretty smoothly for Max leading up to his next battle on the weekend. He learned a lot from practicing in the school’s Clash club. Lizzy showed up once more to a meeting, but left after she saw that Max was there. Saturday came around and his parents dropped him off at the stadium, wishing him good luck in his next match. His mom and dad were not big fans of Clash. Clash was mostly for the younger generation anyway. He signed in and while he waited for his battle to start, he met his next opponent at the sign in area.
He saw Max, and walked over to talk, saying, “Max right? I’m Terry. I was expecting a good fight today against Gervasee. I hope you don’t disappoint me.”
“I’ve been practicing all week you won’t be disappointed,” Max said.
“Ha-ha, sounds good
kid.”
Terry had started playing Clash years ago when he was still in high school. He was one of the veterans of the Collis tournament. He had participated in every tournament since its founding on the island. He had never made it to the finals of the tournament. But anyone, who had ever played him before, knew how tough of an opponent he was.
They announced that it was time for Max’s battle to start. Max went over to the players prep area. He walked out onto the stage and linked his band to the station.
“I got the will, you got the power, Sandalphon!” Max shouted. Sandalphon materialized in the arena and Max noticed immediately that Medens was not on him, neither were his wings, or armor. Max began to wonder if that meant Sandalphon would have to fight bare handed. While he could beat the guys at the school’s Clash club barehanded, he was not sure about a tournament match. He had hoped that for this tournament fight Sandalphon would have some of his gear.
“Grind and pulverize, cut and chop, Abboud!” Terry shouted. His avatar, Abboud, was a mass of reddish brown rocks, that were constantly shifting around in a humanoid body; he was a rock golem. He had large feet that slowly narrowed up his legs. From his waist, he widened to a bulky chest and shoulders that extended to arms, as large again, as his legs. The golem’s head only had two facial features, a large gapping mouth and eyes that looked like 2 erupting volcanoes, spewing lava, in rivers, all down his face. The centers of those eyes were molten pits of magma.
Slowly Abboud rose its immense arms up above its head, letting loose a screech, “Crunch, crumble, crunch.” it sounded like rocks being crushed. It was the largest avatar Max had ever seen, Sandalphon only stood up to his shoulders.
“Five, four, three, two, one. LET THE CLASH BEGIN!” The announcer yelled.
Slowly, then faster, Abboud started moving towards Sandalphon. After he had a good run going, Abboud fell forward and curled up. He became like a giant boulder rolling towards Sandalphon. Max had Sandalphon jump to the side, a split second before Abboud came rolling in, it was a technique he had learned at the Clash club. Abboud kept going and crashed right into the arena wall, breaking into pieces. After a few seconds, the rubble condensed and a reformed Abboud stood there, back together again.
Abboud started moving towards Sandalphon again, turning to a giant boulder once more. Max had Sandalphon dodge the same way again. He was not sure how to fight an avatar like this, and hoped somehow the situation would change.
“You dodged, at just the right time there. Any earlier and I would have had Abboud change directions right after you moved, any slower and Sandalphon would have been crushed into a rubble pile,” Terry said, to Max. “Let’s try something a little different now.” Abboud raised both hands, reaching behind its back and pulled out a massive club, that looked like a stalagmite. “Now, why don’t you pull out your weapon and we can see whose hits harder.” Abboud moved closer to Sandalphon ready to strike with the massive club.
Max willed Sandalphon to produce something, to fight back with. Abboud moved within range and let out a wide swing of his club. Sandalphon jumped back away from the club, just out of range as it swung by. The club gave Abboud a lot of reach and Max knew Sandalphon would not be able to dodge it forever. Using Sandalphon’s bare hands to fight back, would never work against an opponent whose hide was made of rocks. Abboud raised the stalagmite over its head in what would be a massive crushing blow.
Max noticed that Sandalphon’s bronze bracers were glowing. In a flash the bracelets turned into golden steel gauntlets, running down Sandalphon’s forearms and up to his finger tips. As the club came down over Sandalphon, Sandalphon punched up into the stalagmite. The stalagmite was blown into a dust cloud and tiny pieces of it fell across the arena floor. The dust cloud had obscured the view of both avatars, from the crowd and the players. When it cleared, Sandalphon could be seen unhurt from the attack, although a bit dirty.
“Whoa kid, where did you get those shinny gloves?” Terry asked from across the arena.
Max did not know, but taking the initiative had Sandalphon charge forward and started his fists swinging; scoring hits on the rock golem. Terry was still a bit surprised at the destruction of Abboud’s weapon and Abboud stood there taking the hits.
“Oh, you want to have a fist fight, huh kid?” Terry asked shaken out of his stupor.
To Max’s slight disappointment the gauntlets did not shatter Abboud when they struck, like they had to the club, but the hits were making cracks in the golem’s rocky body. If that was causing any permanent damage to Abboud it did not seem to register on Terry’s face.
Abboud began to swing his massive rocky arms out at Sandalphon. Sandalphon ducked under one swing, but Abboud came in with the other arm. Sandalphon held up his hands to block it and was knocked back by the force of the blow.
“Sandalphon, hang on,” Max yelled.
Sandalphon stumbled back a ways, before regaining his feet. Max knew he would have to be more cautious regarding Abboud’s strength.
“Not too bad kid,” Terry said. “Not everyone can take a hit from Abboud and keep standing.”
Abboud moved in closer to Sandalphon and began swinging his arms again. Sandalphon dodged and parried the blows trying not to take a directed hit like before. At first Sandalphon was completely on the defensive not being able to make any hits on Abboud. Abboud was slow though, and Max was having no problem dodging and parrying. Slowly he was getting used to the movements of the large, sluggish avatar. The larger swings were ones he dared not block afraid the power would knock Sandalphon back again. Abboud would make smaller jabs that Max could have Sandalphon use his strength to parry; turning aside the weak blows.
Sandalphon fell into a rhythm, completely stopping all of Abboud’s attacks. Soon Sandalphon was throwing punches in on Abboud between the golem’s slow blows. The frustration of not having Abboud’s attacks connecting was showing on Terry’s face. Abboud was making bigger and bigger swings at Sandalphon, which Max found even easier to dodge.
Sandalphon was also speeding up and making more hits on Abboud. Max was making Sandalphon’s dodges smaller avoiding Abboud only by millimeters, giving him more time for more hits on Abboud. Sandalphon became a whirlwind of attacks, too fast for the slow Abboud. The attacks were crushing the rocks that made up Abboud’s body and he was falling apart. There were chunks of rocks falling off Abboud after every attack. Max then had Sandalphon put all of his power into a punch, right into Abboud’s shoulder; shattering the shoulder and knocking Abboud’s arm clean off.
The arm fell to the floor and Abboud backed away from Sandalphon. The stones that formed Abboud’s body were cracked and broken, all over gravel leaked out of his body. Max halted his attack, having Sandalphon stand back.
Abboud let out a screech, “Crunch, crumble, crunch”. The rocks that had fallen off the golem rolled over to him and up his body, rejoining making him whole once again. Before Sandalphon could move in to continue the attack on Abboud, the golem began to break off pieces of his own body, and chucked them towards Sandalphon.
“What kind of move is that?” Max asked, almost laughing at the ridiculousness of the attack.
Sandalphon ducked under the thrown stones. Abboud grabbed another chunk of his body and pelted Sandalphon with a shower of smaller rocks. Sandalphon could not dodge all of the smaller rocks and was bombarded by them. The smaller rocks tore Sandalphon’s tunic and cut into his skin. Sandalphon moved across the arena, away from Abboud, where he could more easily evade. Abboud moved to the middle of the arena and continued to break off chucks of his body to throw at Sandalphon. Most of the rocks were too small to do any real damage, but a few looked like if they were to hit, Sandalphon would be in trouble.
Abboud had diminished in size quite a bit from breaking off so much of his own body to throw at Sandalphon. Scattered around the arena were many pieces of Abboud. Max was getting worried that Sandalphon would trip on the loose rock. “Crunch, crumble, crunch,” Abboud let ou
t a screech and then all the scattered pieces began to roll and tumble towards the golem. His body reformed and he was back to his original size again, but among his body was much more gravel than solid stone that he had at the start of the fight. Max was unsure if this meant that the rock elemental was damaged or not.
Abboud raised his hands above his head and began to collect and form a giant ball of rock and stone from his body. After about half his body was collected into the ball Abboud threw the ball incredibly high into the air towards Sandalphon. Max watched the ball go up, but in taking his eyes off Abboud, he had fallen for the golem’s trap. Right after he had thrown the giant boulder, lighting fast, Abboud had summoned and spewed forth a river of fast drying concrete from his mouth. The concrete sped towards Sandalphon, engulfing his legs up to the knee. The concrete instantly dried, and Sandalphon was held in place with the deadly ball of rock and stone still coming straight down for him.
Panic set inside of Max’s mind, with no time to spare and nothing else to do he had Sandalphon punched out with his right fist at the boulder as hard as he could. The blow smashed the boulder, but still the broken stone rained down on Sandalphon doing serious damage. The quick thinking by Max may have saved his avatar from losing the match, but he was still in a serious jam.
“Crunch, crumble, crunch,” Abboud let out another screech and began to collect his stone body once again.
Sandalphon struggled to break free from the concrete. His right arm would not move, damaged from the boulder. Max had Sandalphon punched down with his left on the concrete, to free him. Abboud had finished collecting his body and moved to the other side of the arena, giving him more room to pick up speed. After reaching the arena wall, he started in a charge towards Sandalphon. Picking up some speed, he once again fell into a ball, and became like a giant tumbling boulder heading straight towards Sandalphon.