Chapter 3: 03- Kops & Combatants.
After agreeing to the mission, Kabal and I had to come up with some fake identities…
Which was surprisingly easy, as Kabal simply decided to reverse his name and go by 'Labak', and wore a simple bandana over his face to obscure his identity.
I, on the other hand, decided to do the same, and reversed my name as well, going by the stupid sounding name 'Rekyrts' and wore a fake mustache… which honestly kind of made me look like Tom Selleck, at least in my humble opinion.
With our disguises, the two of us quickly made our way to Hornbuckle's Arena, which on the surface was a small dingy bar by the name of The Scorching Torch, but from what the investigators found… it was anything but.
But when we went in, we were met with a few surly patrons and an aging bartender tending to the bar.
Kabal and I looked at each other and nodded, a sign to tell him that I would go first, before I walked up to the bar, and sat on a rickety old stool, gesturing over to the bartender.
"I'll take a scotch on the rocks, my good sir." I said with a grin, working on pure instinct as Stryker, as the bartender poured a bottle of scotch into a small glass, finishing his work with several ice cubes.
I took a sip of my drink, and mentally grimaced. While Stryker may have enjoyed the taste of whiskey, I was never really into it… though it'd be rather strange to order a drink and not drink it, and so I downed the drink in a single swig.
"So, what brings you here, sir?" The bartender asked, as he idly cleaned out a glass with a rag.
"I came here to… buck the bull by the horns." I said, using a specific phrase that the other investigators managed to learn. It didn't make sense to me, as the phrase was take the bull by the horns, but then again, it was likely a rather obvious phrase for a reason.
"Of course, sir," The bartender said, as he leaned slightly towards me, before whispering in my ear, "Second door on the right. Go down the stairs, and you'll be in the arena"
"Got it." I muttered, as I got off of the stool, and followed the bartender's directions, going down the stairs into what seemed to be a basement.
Contrary to my expectations, I was met with a series of tunnels with directions painted onto the walls, and the ever growing sound of chanting and victorious screams.
I continued walking through the tunnels, until I finally reached the source of the sound, and found a set of… gladiatorial pits, with various people beating the ever living shit out of each other.
Looking at the various combatants, a select few of them actually managed to catch my eye.
Firstly, there was a large, beefy man with what looked like hardened concrete over his fists, brutally bludgeoning his opponent.
He definitely looked like he'd be able to take a decent amount of damage, and dish out quite a bit more.
Then there was a lithe, skinny young man with long silver hair, cockily twirling a pair of silver swords before ruthlessly slashing at his opponent.
The way he smirked just managed to… irk me, made me want to knock that smug look off of his face, but I won't deny that he looked actually skilled with those swords of his.
Thirdly, there was a red-haired woman wielding a pair of jagged daggers, efficiently taking down her opponent while also dodging and weaving out of the way of their increasingly sluggish blows.
And finally, there was a young man with blond hair, wearing a white karate gi with black and gold trims. The man was beating his opponent with no mercy to his enemy, as he ruthlessly pounded his fists into the poor man's skull, until his skull was nothing but a messy pulp.
I vaguely recognized the last two as Kira and Kobra, purely because I remembered Kira being a hot red-haired chick, and Skarlet definitely wouldn't be in Earthrealm, and Kobra just looked like a Ken Masters ripoff… and I was fairly sure this wasn't a sudden Street Fighter Crossover.
No idea who the other two guys were, though… if they were even actual Mortal Kombat characters.
As I walked up to the pits, I noticed a man wearing a fairly generic 'bookie' outfit, taking various bets and putting various fighters in the pits.
I also spotted Kabal entering the 'arena', a few minutes after I had initially arrived.He was looking around the area with a rather serious look on his face.
He looked at me and subtly nodded, before I walked over to the bookie, who looked me up and down for a moment.
"You here for the fight, man?" The bookie asked, a slightly nervous look on his face.
"Yeah. Name's Rekyrts." I said with a serious look on my face, despite the inherently dumb name.
"Okay, okay… uh, how do you spell that?" The bookie asked, causing me to sigh and write it down for him, "Got it! Alright, hop into 'Pit 2', and we'll find a guy for you to fight."
I simply nodded, before walking over to where I would be fighting.It was a fairly large pit, around thirty feet long and fifty feet wide, there wasn't any real 'floor' to it, instead it was simply a dirt pit with a grate over the pit and a ladder leading down that would be pulled up during the fight. Rather simple, everything considered.
After a few minutes, a second man with a long mane of hair came down into the pit. thin and tanned, the wiry man wielded a simple sickle that appeared to be made out of copper.
"In the left corner, we have the mysterious Rekyrts!" The bookie announced, causing various cheers and roars to sound out.
I looked at the man, looking him up and down, as he too examined me…
"And in the right corner, we have the 'Sickle of Sorrow'! Somaht!" The bookie announced, causing a far more uproarious reaction.
"I look forward to our fight, Rekyrts," The man, Somaht said with a sickening smile, as he rubbed his sickle over his forearm, "I'm oh so fascinated in hearing you scream."
With that, the telltale sound of a bell's ring echoed through the pit, signifying the start of the fight.
I quickly moved out of the way, as Somaht threw his sickle at me, causing me to notice that it was attached to a chain, giving him the range advantage. Especially since I had elected to not take my pistol with me for this match.
An idiotic move in hindsight, but I shouldn't think about that right now.
He swung his sickle again, causing me to quickly duck down, barely dodging what would have been a decapitating blow, causing his sickle to sink into the earthen wall of the pit.
I quickly ran towards him, as he struggled to free his weapon and body checked him, sending him into the dirt floor of the pit.
With that, I quickly started to punch him in the face, managing to get him a few times before he pushed me off of him.
He ran towards his sickle, attempting to pry it out of the wall before I caught up to him and shoved his face into the wall.
With that, I quickly grabbed the chain that connected the sickle to the hilt and began to wrap it around Somaht's neck, tightening my grasp on it and choking the oxygen out of him before he ultimately passed out.
And when he finally fell unconscious, I pulled on the chain, breaking the copper metal in half with my sheer physical strength before letting him drop to the floor of the pit.
Looking up, I saw several men and women celebrating, while others looked at me with either despair, hatred or simple annoyance.
"Rekyrts has won his first fight!" The bookie announced excitedly, as the ladder came down and I climbed out, before the bookie handed me my winnings… 30% of the pot, which translated to $32,000. No wonder people were literally fighting each other to the death, if this was just 30%.
I then noticed that 'Labak' had also won his own fight, against an average looking guy with black hair, apparently named 'Yrral'.
The two of us looked at each other, and nodded ever so slightly, before heading our separate ways.
This was only Round One, after all… and we needed to get to at the very least, the 'Semi-Finals' of the Tournament, in order to get a good look at the head of this whole operation.
____
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, it was a bit annoying to write this using a different laptop due to mine breaking the other day.
Also, going to say now. The 'concrete fists' guy isn't Tremor, he and the 'cocky swords guy' are both OC's.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone