Phelan watched in both fear and excitement. Just like the gravity-well demo at the Nagelring! I'd levitate my coin higher if I could, but gravity is like death and taxes.Somehow he was sure his coin was winning the race, thereby ceding the decision to Dean. Then, as the coins started their descent into the post, they slammed into one another in a ringing collision and dropped from sight.
The two coins clunked down into the plastic pipe. Ulric carefully slid the clear section free, holding it out so all could see no sleight of hand had changed the outcome of the choice. His slender fingers plucked the top coin from the vessel and flipped it over to read the name. "Dean, you are the hunter."
Dean cracked his knuckles and grinned confidently. "The hunter sees no reason for an augmented fight. This pup has boasted beating an Elemental in a fist fight. Let us see how he does against a Ward."
Ulric looked at Phelan. "The style has been decided. Where will you be hunted?"
Phelan swallowed hard and saw his chances for victory getting sucked down into a gravity well. He started to open his mouth, then snapped it shut. He gave Dean a savage stare and smiled slowly.
Ulric watched him closely. "Phelan, where will you be hunted?"
Without breaking eye contact with Dean, Phelan raised his right hand and pointed upward. "Out there."
* * *
The DropShip's hold had been stripped of every last bit of equipment, leaving it a tall, empty arena for his fight with Dean. Aside from the exterior bulkhead, which gently curved inward to where the ship narrowed at the upper decks, the walls were normal and the angle's all 90 degrees.
Only scuffed-paint markings on the deck and oddly shaped stains from 'Mech-coolant spills hinted at this area's original function in the DropShip.
Never seen a 'Mech bay this empty.Standing there, clad only in a pair of the shorts he'd normally use in a 'Mech cockpit, Phelan had also never felt so naked. His choice of fighting in the zero gravity of space certainly helped neutralize the Elemental's strength, but it brought a whole array of other variables into play. All things being equal, he still wished they'd have let him wear the pistol he usually did when in a 'Mech cockpit.
Have to remember, equal and opposite reactions.As a child traveling with a mercenary military unit, Phelan had spent much of his youth bouncing around in the holds of DropShips in zero gravity. He couldn't remember ever fighting for his life in zero-G, though he did recall a couple of fierce wrestling matches that gamboled otterlike through the air of a hold. Not quite the same, I fear.
Phelan felt the ship tremble as the pilot fired the forward retrorockets. Grabbing a nearby stanchion, Phelan fought the tendency to float up off the deck. A second blast of retros brought the ship to a standstill in space.
The droplet of sweat that had collected at the tip of his nose jumped off and floated ball-like toward the upper deck.
It still amazed Phelan that the Clans would go to the incredible expense necessary to create this battleground for Dean and him. Here they were in a combat zone, preparing to invade Hyperion, and they cleared the 'Mechs from a deck of an assault DropShip. They detached the ship from the Dire Wolfand let it burn tons of fuel just to accommodate a one-on-one brawl by two men scrapping for a title.
But it's more than a title,he reminded himself. He knew the Bloodname held enormous power for the Clan Warriors. Winning one would assure the use of the Warrior's DNA in the Clan breeding program. It also gave the victorious Warrior a seat on the Clan Council and made him eligible for election as one of the two Khans of the Wolf clan. And, as in Cyrilla's case, a Bloodname could even provide a way to be useful to the Clans when one's military career was long over.
The Captain's voice crackled through the loudspeakers mounted in the interior bulkhead. "The ship is at zero acceleration. You have your battlefield. Skill, Warriors."
"Phelan Wolf, I will make this fast for you." Dean floated gently above the deck, drifting toward him like a ghost. The Elemental balled his fists, tensing every muscle up and down his arms into hard knots. "A freebirth like you is a disgrace to House Ward. Cyrilla must have lost her sense long ago."
Phelan bristled at the derision in Dean's voice, but forced himself to smile. "Is that so, Dean?" The MechWarrior opened his arms wide. "If you want me, come down and get me.
It took Dean about three seconds to fully comprehend his situation. He looked impressive floating there, but without propulsion gear, he could do little to affect his course of travel or speed. In a frantic effort to do anything at all, Dean began to flail about, but that only started him in a slow roll up and away from Phelan.
Pushing down on the stanchion, Phelan squatted with his legs coiled beneath him. With the swiftness of a striking snake, he kicked off and drove both his fists into the thick muscles over Dean's kidneys. The Elemental groaned with the impact, but was too intent on twisting his body around to pay much attention.
Using his opponent like a vaulting horse, Phelan spun around at an angle and drifted back down toward the deck. Most of his momentum had passed into Dean, sending the Elemental careening, but he maintained enough of it to get near the deck and bulkhead. Bending his legs to cushion his landing, Phelan prepared himself for whatever strategy Dean decided to employ in counterattack.
The Elemental smacked into the upper deck on his right side, but Phelan thought it probably made Dean mad more than it hurt. The Elemental grabbed on to a ribbed girder with a vise-grip, then snarled at his foe. "That is the sole attack you will launch on me."
Sidling over to another bulkhead support, Phelan shrugged again. "I am all yours, Dean."
The Elemental launched himself at Phelan, his powerful legs accelerating him smoothly. Fists cocked, he came in like a rocket. His grin grew as he sailed in, then faded when Phelan sprang up and away from the floor. With no target to cushion his charge, Dean crashed into the deck.
Phelan retained his grip on the reinforcement girder and his leap took him up and to the right. He let himself swing all the way around so his feet his the bulkhead on the other side of the girder. Clinging to the wall, he pushed off again and reversed his swing, snapping his heels down into Dean's shoulder blades. He jammed the larger man into the deck, then kicked off from the Elemental's broad back and twisted into the air.
Dean pounded a fist into the deck, but grabbed the reinforcement bar as he started to drift up. He spun quickly, spraying blood globules from his nose and mashed lips through the air. "Damn you, Phelan. Stand still and fight like a Warrior."
Reaching his hands above his head to soften the impact with the upper deck, Phelan laughed aloud. "Stop thinking of me as a freebirth, Dean. I am a Warrior and a member of House Ward. Think any less of me than you would think of Vlad, and you don't stand a chance."
"I will crush you!"
Phelan pointed at him. "Put it this way, Dean: I outbid you and now you have to fight at a disadvantage."
Part of that taunt got through to Dean. He slowly began to ascend, keeping one hand on the reinforcement girder. He reached out with his free hand and clawed menacingly at the air as he worked his way upward. "When I get my hands on you, it will be all over." Dean's derisive snort blew a spray of blood down his chest.
Phelan's mouth went sour. His early attacks had taken advantage of Dean's ignorance of the battlefield and his lack of respect for Phelan's fighting skills. Evantha had put Phelan through his paces in unarmed combat training, but most other MechWarriors disdained fistfighting. Though he had hoped, especially with Dean's dive, that the Elemental might knock himself out on the deck, he knew that was unlikely.