As soon as the obnoxious voice finished sounding out Alex's eyes turned cold.
"Speaking of the grandson of the elder..." Burr motioned to the youth, "It would seem the person in question is delivering himself up".
Alex gave him an almost feral grin, the desire to beat the boy who had basically just treated Kayla as a prize to be won and did it in front of a huge crowd practically radiated from his eyes. Then it clicked the reason why the elders had forced Alex into this prelim round, those sneaky bastards were setting this scenario. This thought gave Alex pause as it would mean one of a couple of things, either the elder was inordinately confident in his grandson's ability, or he hadn't researched Alex's background and had no idea who he was. Either way it was a bad move.
"Kayla is no prize to be handed around like some cheap present, she chooses who she is with, not some stuck up idiot with delusions of grandeur", Alex replied with a forceful tone. At his side Kayla smiled sweetly, then in a venomous tone called out, "At least have the common decency to show yourself to the woman you are marginalizing". Lucky her inner mercenary didn't kick in at that moment or that would have been a lot worse.
The words hung in the air, and a young man stepped out of the crowd and up onto the platform. He was good looking Alex gave him that much but even still he was defiantly wet behind the ears probably due to a sheltered upbringing. "My dear Kayla, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting before I am Branan, worry not I'll soon beat this piece of trash and you will be free of your bonds.
Kayla and Alex looked at each other confusedly then back to the idiot on the platform, "What bonds?", they chorused.
"The ones keeping you bound to this filthy pig of a man", he stated.
"Are you talking about our mutual bonds of trust, love and lust?", Kayla enquired, "Because even if you could beat Alex, I still wouldn't go with you", she stated in a resolute tone.
"Come now my dear surely this man must be forcing you into being with him let alone these other lovely ladies.
Rose burst out with laughter, "Its like he is acting out a scene from a romance novel with Alex as the evil villain who has dirt on each of us forcing to be his sex slaves".
Kayla quipped, "I wouldn't mind".
"Behave", Alex told her rolling his eyes.
The young man could tell he was rapidly losing control of the situation as the group started having a discussion amongst themselves, completely ignoring him. "So do you accept or are you too much of a coward to face me?".
Alex looked at him incredulously, "I accept the fight but Kayla is off the table if your fine with that then get ready for the beating of your life".
"I'm sure Kayla will see the light once she sees you broken and bloody at my feet". Banan sneered at Alex.
"We will see who lies broken and bloody very soon", growled Alex, a cold look appearing on his face.
Burr's face paled when he saw that look, "Honey, you may not want Michael to watch what is probably going to happen next"
"Why's that?", she responded.
"Because the last time I saw that look on his face was when he had his fourth and final death match where he flayed the enemy fighter alive" Burr replied with a queasy look on his face as he recalled that day.
"I thought that was a rumour, that really happened?".
"Remember that week where I kept waking up with nightmares? Watching that match was the cause of them". He shuddered at the memory.
"You don't think he is going to do something similar here do you?'".
Burr shook his head, "No Alex may be ruthless when it comes to his enemies but he is totally aware of the setting, this isn't an underground death match so it's unlikely that he will kill him but I wouldn't be surprised at multiple broken bones.
Alex sauntered to his starting point and stood there casually a cold look on his face, he waited for the referee to begin the match.
The referee began the match, Alex instead of rushing forward like many people assumed he would, started walking towards slowly towards the young man who had so brazenly challenged him and dared to set his eyes on Kayla. Alex eye shone with a fierce light as he steadily approached.
Banan looked at Alex has he approached, there was nothing special about him, he couldn't understand what Kayla and those girls saw in that brat. Banan wondered if he could get all the girls to follow him after getting rid the pesky bug, not putting Alex in his sights.
Alex stepped into Banan's attack range. Banan launched a blistering fast blow towards Alex but trying to show off with speed in front of Alex was like teaching a chicken how to lay an egg. Alex swayed and twisted around the blow stepping to the side almost as if he flowed there. Time seemed to stop almost as if anticipating what was to come. Alex left arm swung out and latched on to the offending arm with ease while at the same moment his right fist started its trip towards the self-same arm. A sharp snap could be heard when the fist met its mark on the arm, which bent in a way it wasn't supposed to. Alex didn't stop and a fist hammered against the mans jaw shattering it, followed by a vicious kick to the sternum, you could hear the ribs cracking. All this went down in the time it took to breath. If you blinked you would have missed it as Alex had flowed from move to move without pause, the sound of breaking bones blending together. Alex's opponent didn't even have time to scream in pain before the final kick had rendered him unconscious.
The people capable of observing the whole set of moves were stunned as it almost looked like a dance each move smooth and flowing but with unmistakable power behind each blow, Raul who was watching with Petra from the terrace gulped and gave thanks to his luck that he had fought Alex back then because after watching that he was pretty sure Alex would have beaten him to a pulp.
Alex looked over to the referee who had a blank look on his face as if wondering what the hell just happened, "So that's my fifth win yes?", Alex confirmed with him, the referee snapped out of his daze and responded immediately, yes it is congratulations on making it past the preliminary rounds, I look forward to seeing you in the games", he handed Alex a token that would allow entry into the games proper.
Alex thanked the referee and headed towards his group on the other side of the platform, as he walked towards them a voice yelled out, "Stop right there, guards arrest that man for inflicting such grievous damage to my grandson".
Alex rolled his eyes at the expected interruption, of course the old foxes were watching as the scheme played out of course they had plans in case the grandson couldn't defeat Alex, sadly for them, things were not going to go the way they expected. Before Alex had time to even twitch his pinkie finger another voice resounded out, "Hold your ground men, non are to make a move against that group without my express orders", Alex looked up to see Raul standing in the observational balcony issuing his order.
"How dare you countermand my orders Raul", Yelled the elder trembling in rage. Raul's countenance became decidedly frosty. "I dare because I see an elder of the beast kin stooping so low as to abuse his power to try take vengeance against a man who by all rights should have killed that prick of a grandson of yours".
The elder looked flabbergasted at the response he got from Raul, so used to getting his way due to his elder status that he didn't quite know what to do in this situation. Raul had everything in hand however, getting the guards to accompany the elder to a meeting room they waited guarding the door. Raul looked at Alex and just give him a nod, indicating to just leave everything to him. Gesturing back his acknowledgment he continued on his way to the girls and Burr's family. Joining them he hopped off the stage.
"Right then now that is all over with what shall we do with the rest of the day, "I think we should head the palace and inform the kings of what transpired here, It's not like beast kin to lay out schemes and plans like this, if anyone had a serious problem with you they would bring it up in person to your face, this applies even to the elders. His behaviour was well outside the norm and almost seemed like a clumsy imitation of a plot you would see among the nobles and merchants of the human provinces.