CHAPTER 24: AN AMBUSH.

           Morales spent the night in a small hotel, they charged him only 5 Beiger dollars for a night. Though he had not converted his material loot to money yet, there were a few Beiger dollars among them.

           The next morning, he rushed back to the Pugilist dojo. He was not foolish enough to go there late, which translated to him forfeiting the recruitment tournament. 

           On getting there, the whole place was already boisterous as people of various backgrounds gathered to watch this rare public recruitment tournament.

           Morales did not stay with the horde of people, he went to the nearby guard and showed him his tournament pass. Before he went home yesterday, he was given his tournament pass.

           The guard thoroughly checked the pass to confirm that it was not fake before letting him inside.

           Dozens of Pugilists already came before him. They all had stony expressions on their faces as they prepped themselves for the tournament. Seeing him, they all directed hostile looks at him.

           All of them were competitors, there was no need in acting nice.

           “Which team?” A burly Pugilist who wore the trademark black and white uniform of the Pugilist dojo asked as soon as he entered.

           “Team F9”. Morales quickly answered.

           The man looked through his datapad. “Go to hall D5 to meet your teammates and get your briefing”.

           “Yes, sir”. Morales answered respectfully and left.

           It wasn't hard for him to navigate to the hall as there was a label at the top of all the halls. After locating hall D5, he knocked thrice before opening the door and entering.

           Though it was called a hall, to Morales, it looked more like a room that was enlarged about 3 times. It was not too wide.

           Inside, only 2 of his teammates were here. The female Pugilist who had the highest level of 22, and the male who was only level 15.

           Both turned to glance at him as soon as the door opened, it was brief though as they quickly turned their heads back. He smoothly walked to the front of the hall and located a seat.

           As soon as he sat down, he felt the prickling sensation of someone staring at him. Inclining his head, he saw the female Pugilist who was staring daggers at him.

           He smiled and waved. Unfortunately, she didn’t answer though, she kept her cold face and asked. “What’s your name?”

           “Your father”.

           “…”

           The girl kept a cool face. “I hope you’re not as incompetent as this bastard beside me. If we were not about to enter the tournament, I would have cut your tongue for what you just said”.

           It was at this moment that Morales noticed the boy beside the girl shivering slightly. When the girl referred to him, he almost tripped from his chair.

           Morales clicked his tongue. As he was about to lash out at her, the door opened again, their remaining 2 teammates were here.

           As soon as they entered, another male Pugilist wearing the dojo’s white and black uniform also entered.

           “Good morning, fellow Pugilists”. He greeted stiffly.

           “Good morning, sir”. Morales and the others quickly greeted.

           “For this tournament, you’re all in one team. As a team, you need a leader but that decision will be left to you. I just want to emphasize the rules of the tournament to you”.

           “For your group, 4 teams will battle and each team is composed of 5 participants. Only 10 participants will survive this, so if you’re hesitant this is your last chance to quit”.

           The man paused a bit. Seeing no one object, he continued.

           “For the tournament, you’ll all have to battle with your legs and fists. You are not allowed to carry any weapon inside, that is the number one rule of the dojo. Pugilists should learn to improvise and fight with their environment”.

           The man read a decent number of other rules for them before he finally let them go. “Go outside, there is a bus already waiting there to take you to the location of the battle”.

           “Thank you, sir”.

           Before going to the car, they all entered a room where they changed to a red uniform. This was the uniform assigned to their team to make it easier to recognize teammates later.

           Under the excited cheers of the people outside, they entered their bus and drove off. Their competitors also entered their buses, 3 other buses drove with them in the same direction.

           Throughout the journey, Morales and his teammates did not communicate with each other.

           From yesterday that he met them, Morales already knew that they each were proud of the power that they wielded, so none of them would easily let another become the captain. He didn’t care though.

           15 minutes later, their bus finally stopped.

           Getting out of the bus, they were stunned. They originally expected the location of their battle to be inside the forest or somewhere else, but they were still inside the town.

           The only thing was that they were in a part of the town that was deserted. The buildings here suffered various degrees of damages and the streets had numerous bumps, which left the town looking desolate.

           Seeing the destruction before him, Morales easily deduced that this part of the town was attacked and run over by mutated beasts.

           “You have 2 minutes to enter the district. This black line is the boundary, if you cross here, it means that you’ve automatically forfeited the tournament. Good luck”.

           The Pugilist that escorted them explained briefly before re-entering the car, the driver quickly drove off.

           From his position, Morales could see the drones that were hovering above them. He deduced that this was how those people who were at the dojo building would watch them battle.

           He quickly crossed the black line first, which indicated that he already started the tournament. The others followed and crossed it also.

           “We have to stick together to have better chances of emerging victorious”. One of the females in the group suggested.

           As Morales didn’t know their names, he distinguished them through their hair color. The one that just spoke was brown hair, the other blonde hair, while the one who he exchanged words with back in the hall was black hair.

           Everyone nodded. Even if they were proud of their power, they knew that going solo was committing suicide in this tournament.

           “Let’s look for our opponents”. The black-haired girl suggested.

           The others agreed, so they finally started moving forward.

           The district seemed to be fairly big as despite walking for 5 minutes, they still didn’t meet anyone from the other teams.

           Despite this, they were cautious. Due to the holes in many of the buildings, you may not even know if an opponent entered through a secret opening and ambushed you from behind.

           They were now before a fence; they were in the process of walking around it to access the other side. This was when a change finally came as a swift figure rushed into their midst.

           They all reacted and reflexively jumped to various sides due to the figure’s speed. The black-haired girl was the target as the man reached her side in a second and threw a punch at her face.

           The figure finally became clear. He was wearing a similar vest to theirs, but its color was yellow which indicated his team.

           The black-haired girl reacted fast as her hand struck up to parry the blow. The fist no longer reached her face but the momentum pushed her backward. She quickly grabbed the man as she fell backward.

           Whoosh!! She launched a swift kick at his side in the process, breaking a few of his ribs before slamming him on the floor.

           Before the man could fall completely, he placed his hands between her legs and tackled her down. Morales’s teammates finally reacted as they rushed forward to help.

           Morales didn’t move though, he smelled something fishy. “Where are this guy’s teammates”.

           Bam!!

           The fence suddenly collapsed outwards as bricks and debris flew rapidly at the Pugilists that were rushing forward to reinforce their teammate.

           The opponent who rushed at them reacted fast as he used the black-haired girl as his meat shield. The girl felt dizzy as a brick hit her hard on the head, others flew at other parts of her body.

           All Morales’s teammates suffered a certain degree of injury.

           “What a vicious move!”. Morales exclaimed as his eyes quickly shifted to the still intact parts of the fence. He found his target there; the Pugilist climbed the fence and was peeping at them like a thief.

           This slippery man was the reason they were caught off-guard. Yellow soon filled their sight as 3 opponents in yellow rushed out to wipe them off.

           Morales finally rushed forward to confront them, he still needed his teammates so saving them was a must. They already mostly recovered from the ambush, he just wanted to help them get used to the tempo of the battle.

           A fist quickly flew at his face but he bent and dodged to the side, his powerful right leg kicked upwards in retaliation.

           The Pugilist reacted and blocked the kick but Morales's hands already complimented the move. The man coughed blood as a fist fiercely struck his abdomen.

           Before he could do anything further, Morales carried him up before slamming him down hard.

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           -46

           Critical hit -79

           Back slam: You performed a back slam skill on your opponent. Your opponent has entered the mildly dizzy status.

           ----------------------------------------------------

           Morales did not continue beating the Pugilist, he quickly turned, picked a brick, and threw it at one of the opponents.

           He knew that if he did not help, there was a high tendency of him losing a teammate first because the only other boy in his team was currently being trashed by a female opponent.

           The brick flew very fast, but the target reacted faster and dodged at the last moment. She threw a hateful glare at him before backing off, all her teammates followed suit.

           “Where do you think you’re escaping to? You ambushed us first, and now you want to run. When did bullying become so easy?” Morales laughed before running forward in pursuit.

           His teammates wiped the blood off their mouths, gritted their teeth, and ran after him.