Four weeks before Hurricane Blacker was due to start, he interrupted the practice session between Marcus and the boy for the first time in all those months. He seemed happy. Marcus looked at him curiously.
"I have good news for both of you. The first and most important is that you can now try on the armor to make the final adjustments. It will still take a few weeks for it to be a glove worthy of a champion, but it is now complete and operational. And the second and even better, I have obtained the videos of the qualifying fights of the poop cleaners invited to Hurricane, at least from most of them. If you want, we can take a look at them."
"Wow, it was faster than we thought. Were you able to put the reinforcement on the left side?"
"Of course."
"And the impeller on the heels?"
"Yes, champion, just as you asked."
"And the tempered glass for the visor..?"
"I am an engineer, not a simple mechanic. Who do you take me for?"
"Well, I'm looking forward to it, thanks for getting the videos of those poop cleaners"
Everyone sat around the table and put the hole-graph player in the middle.
"Let's see what kind of shit you're going to have in front of you Mouse, do you understand what a huge advantage that is? Thank Mr. Blacker"
"Thank you very much Mr. Blacker, will the rest of the fighters have access too?"
"Sooner or later they will Mouse, what they don't have is the champion to analyze them, I myself would only be able to see the obvious..."
There were 64 opponents counting Mouse, the problem is that most of them were just brutes, some had won only by luck or because of an even more useless rival than them, watching their fights was a waste of time, as soon as Marcus saw an opponent of that type he moved on to the next video, according to him there would be time to watch the useless ones as Mouse had to face them.
"Champion, don't you think any of those kids will learn something in these months?"
"It's possible, but that won't change their nature, they are Blacker children, not warriors or fighters with years of experience, we have already trained Mouse to survive these, what I want is to see what the real dangers are in case we have to correct something"
Of all the possible rivals only thirteen caught the attention of the champion. Although really only six stood out especially from the rest.
The first of them was a boy called Tizón, with black skin and a much more worked physique than most, his blows were not clumsy or crazy, for his age he knew how to hit without slapping and he hit very hard compared to other boys. Against him, any concept of guard or defense seemed to be not suitable for him.
The second was a particularly big boy named Bear. Neither Blacker nor Mouse were impressed by his first fight. His opponent was giving him a good beating, but he seemed to be immune to pain. In the end, he grabbed his opponent and knocked him down with three bloody headbutts in a row. The young man thought he was just another brute, but in the next fight something similar happened. His opponent was giving him a beating, but in the end, this boy caught him again and strangled him to death. The third fight was even scarier. His opponent was fast, strong and talented. He was clearly far superior to Bear, but the minutes in the fight passed and he kept going, despite a broken nose, despite blows that would have knocked down anyone else. His opponent made a small mistake and slipped. Bear did not miss the opportunity to hit him with his knee, then with a clumsy and heavy blow that knocked the other boy down, then he began to stomp on his head until it split open like a melon.
"Shit, that kid is scary..."
"I once faced a guy like that, because of a genetic defect he barely felt pain, I had to tear off his helmet and smash his head so he would fall..."
"How am I going to face a guy like that?"
"Well, you can always pray that you don't have to fight him, attack his eyes, or strangle him, but it would be the worst fight, especially if it's the first one. If he accumulates damage in the previous fights, maybe you can have a chance, who knows."
"But if his wounds don't hurt, what would be the point?"
"One thing is that it doesn't hurt you and another thing is that your vision, balance or a rib about to puncture a lung isn't affected, you'll have to take advantage of that"
There was another boy similar to Mouse in terms of build, quite fast and skillful, he had managed to win his fights using his head and mind more than his fists, several takedowns, sweeps, and fighting specifically for his enemy, he hadn't won any of the first rounds. He called the boy Viper.
A redhead reminded Mouse of Torch, but with one difference: he wasn't as violent or not in an uncontrolled way, good physique, good hits and ability to read the fight and adapt, they pompously called him Dragon.
"Be careful if you cross paths with him, he's no fool"
The fifth opponent, to everyone's surprise, was a girl. At that age she was taller than the boys, which is what often happened when women developed earlier, and at the moment there was not such a noticeable difference in the strength of her arms, but nevertheless her kicks caught most boys out of range and she even had an advantage over the boys. She controlled herself quite well and moved better. They called her Witch, and seeing how she liked to hit her rivals, the name suited her perfectly.
The last of those especially singled out by Marcus was a boy, a class F. He was calm, even languid in his gesture, but his attacks were intelligent, precise, under control. He was blond, tall and it was noticeable that he was not as malnourished as other children. The only thing that distinguished him was a grimace of evil in his smile when he noticed that his blows had caused the desired effect. His fights were not as spectacular as those of other children, they were different. The name was also peculiar, they only called him Rubio unlike most of the names of the classified boys that had negative connotations or dangerous animals.
"Why this one, champion? He's not one of the toughest, nor does he know how to hit very well..."
"Haven't you seen him Blacker, that kid enjoys fighting, he enjoys controlling the situation, he's dangerous, but well we have a lot of work to do, I can think of things to try against the Witch, Dragon and Tizón, the rest are variables that we can't control in the time we have..."
The training changed in the following weeks, but as Marcus and Blacker had agreed, their deal lasted until the delivery of the armor, Blacker would go as a trainer to the Hurricane. The champion would stay until the tournament but would be among the public, he couldn't help or advise during the fights.
The last week Mouse didn't have training, they had put so much physical pressure on the boy that they only made him do a little exercise those days but at a relaxed pace, they wanted him to arrive at his best.
During those months the boy grew a little, the correct diet was noticeable, although his body was still that of a child, he could no longer be called famished.
The biggest change was in his legs and stomach, it is not that he developed superhuman muscles as Marcus's might have seemed, it was simply a small trace of definition, the mouse himself felt faster, and his blows born from the weight on his legs and transmitted through his trunk managed to leave marks on the spine.
Mouse did not know if he was ready or not, but he felt better than ever.