1 The start of a new era
"What!"
"Why are the Free points here?!" A voice cried with indignation.
The loud cry caught the attention of everyone inside the mini stadium, thus leading everyone to turn their heads to the entrance.
A somewhat clumsy blue and red robot led by five young people entered with nervousness written on their faces. Out of the five, only a young man had a calm expression.
As Pablo stepped into the crude mini-robot fighting stadium, the dim lighting and thick smoke from nearby grills gave the place a gritty, underground feel.
The scent of frying oil and charred metal hung heavily in the air, and the cacophony of cheers and jeers from the raucous crowd drowned out any other sounds.
Pablo himself cut a striking figure as he made his way through the throngs of people. He stood tall and lean, with an athletic build honed from years of piloting his own fighting robots. His piercing blue eyes scanned the crowd, taking in every detail of the scene before him.
"What a place," he muttered with a fascinated expression.
He averted his gaze and followed his team to the obscure corner of the stadium as they waited for the match to start. He had followed the four out of boredom and loneliness to this tournament without any hope of seeing anything amazing.
But the scene and fighting Robot at every corner had piqued his interest. He could feel their zeal and seriousness toward the fights that were about to begin. And thus, he was expectant.
Meanwhile, Pablo's team was panicking as they looked at their robot with nervousness while they turned to look at Pablo, only to see him not looking at them.
"I'm nervous," Kaida said with a trembling voice.
"I'm both nervous and scared. I had to steal the money for us to register for this competition. If we give away Free points as always…. My father would kill me," said Fabian as he bit the edge of his lip.
"You don't have to worry… With the new changes to our robot…. We won't lose miserably like before," Isadora said with confidence on her face, even though she didn't even believe her own words.
She turned to look at Cedric holding the robot controller. "Did you study everything and memorize it?" she asked with all seriousness.
"You don't have to worry. He didn't make any changes to the fighting sequence. I could pilot this robot even in my dreams," replied Cedric.
"Hey!" Isadora called Pablo.
"Hmm!"
Pablo retracted his gaze and looked at Isadora with a questioning gaze.
Seeing his questioning gaze, Isadora didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"You are part of our team for crying out loud," she screamed in her heart but maintained her usual light smile. "You're one of us…. You support us. Besides, you're the one that knows this robot the best. Your attention should be here."
"Fine," he responded and moved closer to them.
"Is he good?" He looked at Cedric, their fighter.
Hearing Pablo's question, the three looked at each other before they looked at Cedric.
"Is he good?" they thought, but no one among them could come up with an appropriate answer.
Previously, they didn't last more than one second on the stage before they were sent flying out of the ring since their robot was just too weak to withstand a single punch.
They were not called 'Free Points' for nothing.
Thus, none of them knew how good their fighter was. Therefore, a bittersweet smile appeared on their faces while Cedric didn't dare to raise his head from the controlling device.
"To me, I'm good. I learned all my moves from the Internet. Who can defeat me if our robot could withstand a punch…. Don't worry, you'll witness my greatness very soon," he consoled himself in his mind.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to this year's Golem Pit," said a middle-aged man with a pot belly, holding the mic and speaking with a sonorous voice.
"Are you ready for the battle of steel?"
The crowd cheered with loud excitement, shouting,
"Yeah!"
"Let the fight begin," he announced.
The Golem Pit was one of the famous underground tournaments in Nightshade town, known for its brutality and easy money. The tournament had no rules except for winning, and only twenty spots were available.
The last spot was given to the Free Points because they gave out free points, allowing the organizer to make easy money.
In a couple of minutes, various intimidating robots fought on stage while the losers were left with scraps. This scene shocked Pablo to the core; he had never seen such a scene before.
'Awesome!' he cried in his mind.
Therefore, his boring life had a spark, so he was looking forward to the battle.
"Free Points vs Stone Fist," the referee shouted.
'What!'
The Free Points team had their heart in their mouth; their breath quickened, and they looked at each other nervously.
Cedric shivered slightly, and his hands began to sweat. The controlling device became exceedingly hot. He looked at the faces of his team and wanted to drop the device.
All his previous self-motivation talk had disappeared into thin smoke.
"Get the robot to the ring?" Pablo said, looking at Cedric.
"W-What… Y-yes. Y-es," Cedric stuttered as he controlled the clumsy-looking robot to the ring. Every step the robot took made the audience laugh their heart out.
Inside the ring, Stone Fist stood gallantly on the left side of the ring, shaking its intimidating brown stone fist toward the clumsy Free Points on the right.
"Are you ready?" The referee asked, looking at Cedric and the controller of the Stone Fist.
"Yes," they answered in unison.
"Fight!"
Humm!
A humming sound came from Free Points as it entered boxing mode, and blue light shone in its eyes while moving slowly toward the Stone Fist.
"Die!"
Stone Fist moved gallantly with a large stride toward the clumsy walking Free Points, sending a powerful punch toward its head.
"Dodge it!" Isadora and the others cried in panic.
They knew that if their robot was hit with such a powerful punch, it would be gone. However, it was too late. Cedric, the controller, was too nervous to move the robot out of the punch's way.
Bang!
Free Points was sent flying, crashing into the rope before falling to the ground. The blue light in its eyes dimmed at once.
"Yes!"
"Hahaha!"
The audience laughed hysterically as they watched the useless robot lying on the ring. Meanwhile, Cedric had his mouth agape, unable to fathom what had just happened.
"1," the referee began counting.
"Wake it up!" Isadora cried, tears hanging in the corners of her eyes. Fabian and Kaida were also screaming for the robot to wake up.
"5."
Cedric's hands trembled vehemently with the controller as he searched for ways to get their robot to stand up, but he couldn't come up with a solution.
'This is our last chance to shine. Please stand up,' he cried in his heart.
"7," the referee shouted.
"Hahaha. Free points as always," the Stone Fist controller looked at the Free Points team with ridicule. "Thank you for the free points."
"Give me the control?" Pablo appeared behind the trembling Cedric.
Hmm!
Cedric widened his eyes and looked at Pablo for a couple of seconds, not knowing what to do.
"What are you doing?! Give it to him quickly!" Isadora shouted with her voice echoing throughout the stadium.
"Y-Yes. Y-yes." Cedric nodded quickly and gave the control to him.
Receiving the rectangular touchscreen device, Pablo's hands moved quickly as he moved to the Free Points control panel and pressed a couple of instructions.
"9," the referee shouted while the audience had all lost hope of Free Points making a comeback. Though they didn't care if it came back or not. They were all looking for excitement, nothing else.
Humm!
Just when the people thought Free Points were already out, its clumsy body stood up slowly, shocking the audience.
'What!'
'Free Points are not yet out.'
'Who's that guy?'
Seeing Free Point on its feet, the referee stared at it for a moment before declaring,
"Match continues."
Meanwhile, Cedric, Isadora, Fabian, and Kaida couldn't believe their eyes. They had lost hope but now. Their robot was still standing, ready to continue fighting.
"You'd have stayed down." The controller of the Stone Fist said with fury. He controlled the stone fist robot toward free points and wanted to deliver a finishing punch.
"Death punch" He shouted with victory shining in his eyes.
In the presence of the dangerous attack, Pablo controlled Free Point without getting nervous.
"Lean back" He muttered.
Free Points lean back following his instruction, avoiding the deadly attack by an air. This simple action shocked Stone Fist.
This was the first time Free Points avoided an attack. Besides, its action was simple and efficient.
Meanwhile, the crowd opened their eyes not believing what was happening in the ring. The commentator was lost as they stared intently at the battle with their heart racing.
Stone Fist regains its domineering self and sends a couple of punches toward Free Points. And behold, Free Points dodge everything with a simple movement.
'This can't continue like this. Its energy is about to be depleted. I need to attack.' Pablo thought as he dodge another attack.
Just when Stone Fist wanted to deliver its Killing punch, Free Points attacked for the first time.
Bang!
'An uppercut.'
Stone Fist flew backward and crashed to the ground and smoke came out of its engines.
KO!
And then…
Silence!
