Hearts of Delmar 2... ( 2 many Nicoles)

Chapter 18: How to train your Dragon

"Okay." Jack said as they sat in the gym, Hyde feeling silly in the clothing. "First of Jack's lessons on how to fight something you can't beat. You play dirty and you cheat. Here's a syringe of drugs."

"Those are not only legal, but assumed."

"Déjà vu, I've heard that speech from Vinn. You'll get the compressed version. This is not like anything you've had or will have again, because I never gave you anything and you don't know what I'm talking about. What syringe?" he said giving him the dose in his bicep. "And this one too, you didn't see this either and when I call you before the fight, you take that, and I want the syringe returned. That's called evidence; we're doing something called trust, it's like we're friends now or something."

"Is this what you gave Vinn before his fight?"

"No. This would have probably killed him. It's a way nastier dose with some extra spices and secret herbs. In fact, the dose itself might kill you too, but you're gonna die anyway so..."

"Fuck it, YOLO?" he asked. "As Nicole says."

"Basically. Now the fight is gonna be different than you've done before. You're gonna get a sword and a shield and probably armor."

"Delmarians don't fight in armor in the pit. And no shield. The pit is a place of honor, where man fight with their bare hands and if they live to the first horn, they earned the right to carry a sword. A symbol for becoming a man."

"This isn't Fupar. This is war. You get body armor and weapons in warfare. Gizzy is not a Delmarian, she may only be 530 pounds, but she's 530 pounds of metal and nuclear powered synthetic flesh. She doesn't bleed, she has no heart, you can't kill her. She's basically living armor, and her own shield, and those claws cut worse than yours. They're retractable alloy and the nail you see is just the top cover, underneath that the real claw is sharp as a scalpel, and I work with those a lot. You go in fighting like a Delmarian Fupar match, you'll be dead in 4 seconds flat and everyone will boo. Not much respect there. You may call yourself the Hydra, but your head doesn't grow back, that name is a metaphor, and whatever head gets cloned back may not be you anymore, so consider trying to survive this even if you can't. Looks more honorable."

"What if I sever her head first?"

"You can't, her neck bones overlap like dragon scales, and they're harder than your sword, plus she can live without a head and still kill you back."

"What are her vulnerable spots?" Hyde asked.

"There aren't any. The eyes are sensitive, go for those, but they regenerate so that's more of a stun than a game changer, and it's gonna piss her off. She won't make the mistake a second time, so use it when you absolutely need the moments to rest."

"Sword between the ribs?"

"Armored. Any vital organ is armored too and there's never just one."

"Then what If I just break her spine? Bend sharply with brute force until something gives."

"She's stronger than you, if you get locked in, that close, she'll break you first." Jack explained, bringing up a diagram.

"Jack... Am I actually fighting a god?"

"Well, more or less. Some of the older ones had wings and tails."

"You're not joking." he said coldly.

"She's 15 thousand years old, Hyde, She's shrugged off weapons designed to kill cities. The goal is not to damage her, you just can't. The goal is to avoid death for a long time and make it look entertaining and brave for the crowd...and then you die. The longer you fight, the more you win the crowd over. Gizzy is calling this a beast fight, the old Delmarian tradition of a warrior capturing the most dangerous beast they can and fighting it to prove themselves. You don't understand that she's the beast, do you?"