With Riley’s connections, the Arena could be used without an audience in attendance. This suited Lexx fine. Chel and Maenae were the only two there, to watch from the safety of the sidelines. Chel had at first been apprehensive about Maenae watching, but Lexx assured her that this wasn’t going to be a bad fight. They had no intentions of hurting each other. Besides, where would they send Maenae?
Chel leaned against the railing, watching as both Lexx and Riley had stripped down to nothing but their pants. For a moment, she wondered about what kind of dice Riley would use against Lexx, … then took a good look at Riley. He wasn’t as muscular as Lexx, but he obviously spent a lot of time working out. He took a moment to stretch, making sure that his hair would be out of his way.
Down, the golden curls looked far different from when they were tied up. They bounced effortlessly as though they weighed nothing, but because of being tightly wrapped most of the time, were clumped together. Riley waved to Chel and gave her a toothy grin, fully aware that she didn’t know what was going on, “Don’t worry about Lexx. There’s more than one way to play the Master Set and memories of a battle well fought are worth more to me than capturing a dice.”
Chel stared as Riley crossed the arena toward Lexx. No words were said. They scattered dice at their feet and immediately launched into the battle. It was amazingly fast as the pair danced around each other, jabbing and dodging each others blows. It was so quick that Chel could barely make out if anything was actually connecting.
For several minutes, the display went on. Then Riley viciously attacked Lexx, slamming his fists hard enough to be heard into Lexx’s chest. Two times, four,… six. Lexx staggered backward as the blows knocked the air out of his lungs. Grappling and sparring was one thing. That had actually hurt! Lexx found his balance and lunged at Riley, pushing him back and growling over the relay. ‘I thought you said I’d win, Riley,…’
‘You think I’d go easy on you?’ Riley responded, skillfully wriggling out of Lexx’s arms and twisting his arm. ‘It’s not like I get to fight you very often. I can enjoy a good fight just as much as anyone else!’ He laughed through the relay as a smirk crossed his face in reality.
‘I don’t particularly enjoy fighting and you know I don’t, Riley! How long are we going to do this?!’ Lexx resorted to a whine. He really did not want to fight any longer than he had to and Riley played rough. Hadn’t his ribs had enough punishment without the possibility of being accidentally broken or bruised again?
