Darla's advance was cut short as Dell was magically back on his feet. Looking as innocent as ever, she stared straight at her opponent, analyzing the fight so far, searching for any weak points she could instantly take advantage of.
This time, it was Dell who made the first move. Covering the space between them both in just three long strides, he swung his axe in, Darla immediately stepped back, the attack missing her by just inches.
But Dell wasn't letting up, he swung the axe continuously without giving Darla any chance to attack, his goal was to keep her on the defense and try to tire her out.
Dell might have thought that due to his opponent being a female and her small figure, she would tire out on time if he kept attacking.
Darla on the other hand did not make any attempt at attacking and stayed on the defense, she kept on weaving and blocking his strikes.
With every attack, she was pushed further and further until she was at the end of the stage. At this point, Darla had stopped moving back.
She stood at a spot and began to block all the attacks from the axe. Dell towered over her like the executioner, swinging his axe from the same spot there was a look of satisfaction on his face.
'Just a little more and she will tire out or fall off the stage' he thought. He could almost taste the victory.
Gripping the axe a little bit more tightly, Dell swung harder this time, aiming to finish her off with the strike
Darla waited until the last moment, just before the blade on the axe was supposed to make contact. Then she deftly side stepped and spun on her left foot, bringing her to the back of her opponent.
With the force behind the swing, Dell's body tilted slightly forward. Darla using the swing to her advantage, kicked Dell on his back.
Almost as if played in slow motion, Dell stumbled and fell off the stage. His brute strength had been used against him.
The crowd erupted in another bout of cheers. Considering the fact that Darla was second place in the last competition, the fight lasted quite a while. Three other fights had already been rounded up before hers.
But the crowd didn't really mind, Darla had just provided them with top class entertainment. No one could have boasted of a more interesting fight since the competition began.
A few people had become slightly interested in another match up. The fight with the Rothschild had ended quite quickly, the few people that had watched the fight had become interested in the Rothschild.
Slowly, he was being added to the list of favorites in the competition and those who had seen his first fight were looking forward to his next.
After a few minutes, there were x marks carved out in red over the faces of the contestants that had lost their first fights.
Drake quickly came up to the stage to say a few words of appreciation and encouragement to the spectators and contestants. And as usual, when he was done Nicki took the stage.
"With that, the first round of this year's competition has come to an end" Nicki announced. The crowd having enjoyed the display of prowess in the first round cheered and clapped, the thrill was unmatched.
"The next round is going to start almost immediately" that was all the crowd was waiting to hear. The excitement needed to continue as soon as possible.
"The rules for the next round was almost the same for the first round, we are still sticking to the weapons for this round. In this round, even if a contestant is knocked out of the ring, the game still continues. Your opponent has to surrender or a win by KO is acceptable"
"The referee also has the right to declare a winner if he decides the fight can't go on any longer" Nicki added.
The new rules felt weird but exciting, each person would have to be able to hold their own to advance to the next stage.
This time everybody would be fighting at the same time, there was no chance to gauge and analyze the strength of the other opponents, to do that you would have to end your fight quickly and to do that you'd have to be considerably stronger than your opponent and nobody registered in the competition was a pushover.
Even though everyone could never have equal strength, everyone was going to fight like their life depended on it.
Derek stared up at the screen displaying the contestants, just at that moment the screen changed, eliminating the knocked-out contestants and pairing up the contestants in the round of 16.
Derek wondered what was going to happen to the blond who had gotten severely injured during the earlier fight.
Tracing his picture on the screen, he was going up against David DuPont. Derek thought he was better off injured, because judging by their previous fights, the blond would be a walk over for the DuPont.
Everyone else felt the same, no one really felt bad that the blond would be missing his fight. They already knew the outcome of the fight, they only regretted not watching how the DuPont was going to win.
After the fights had been announced, the contestants walked to the stage and picked up their various weapons. David did same, he only had to stand in the ring for a few minutes then it was a walkover if his opponent failed to turn up.
With everyone already in the stage, seven out of eight fights had already begun. The big five had all made it to the second round and as if by chance, none of them were pitted against each other.
Derek noticing this was beginning to think the match ups were rigged, but he didn't really mind, he was not in the competition and the big five getting knocked out too early would dampen the excitement of the competition.