Fight!

Preparations

I knew it was time to fight him, and besides, I wasn't gonna be staying on the campus for long. With the guy forcing me to falsely confess that the story about him owing me money which he owed me by his lies and shit being a false statement to make him look bad, I thought he was a petty jerk, but I wasn't near prepared for the sheer amount of crap that would come from his mouth over the next few weeks, the wardens had already given up on this, they, and we, had no way to prove that he was the one who asked for my money in the first place. They had already given up on me, they said that I had to leave the campus, that I was in way too much trouble to continue safely, so before I had done that, we had organised an MMA event in the lane outside.

I had more help and support for this event than our opponents would like to admit. My roommate was a veteran of this incredibly crime ridden school in Patna, he had been in at least 30 serious fights throughout his school years, and often boasted that he could beat up anyone from any school. I was with him for hours at a time in the last week, he told me all the basic stuff about beating up people like my opponent, I knew it wold work if I carried it out, groin striking and eye gouging, joint locks to be used to great advantage, but all this stuff wasn't guaranteed to help me win.

I had another friend, his roommate was a national level boxer, I was sparring with him for a total of about 4 hours for the past 1 week, he taught me to keep my hands up and chin down, reminded me of the footwork needed in a fight against the guy I was up against, who was stronger than me, despite not being nearly as strong as he should be for his size. Boxing is way harder than it looks, I may have had strong intuition, fair reflexes (which were admittedly kinda slow), and the strength and endurance to keep up full contact sparring for several minutes before being put down, but that was nothing against the guy I sparred with.

My friend Aditya had grown up around the rough outer streets of Dehli, he had watched enough fights to know how to beat the guy or any of his friends, and his friend Tanmay was a graduate of a military academy, Tanmay was another sparring partner of mine, I sparred with him for a total of about 3 hours the week up to day. This guy could kick pretty effectively, and he was fast and agile as well. Sparring with him enforced in me the weakness of kicks, how they temporarily put the person who throws them off balance, on one leg, a good kicker would minimise this vulnerability, but we both were pretty sure that guy didn't even know how to throw a kick without leaving himself open. We knew as he had tried to kick me before. He also taught me a bunch of military style grappling holds, how to stay on one's feet, and how to take punches without being overwhelmed by them.

Last and greatest of all was the great Maninder, he was 3 years older than the rest of us, and was only in the first year as he failed to get into the third year at his previous collage, Maninder was said to be very strong and capable of taking on entire gangs at once. He was not a member of our collage hostels, meaning that he could simply walk away from beating someone up and face no consequences, and even if he did, he didn't care about whatever trouble the wardens would put him in, as long as he beat someone for a just cause. I had met this guy once, I tried arm wrestling with him, but he had the strength of a lion, with bulging biceps that showed up like covered rock through his long sleeves, and I heard that he was just joking when he beat me, that this guy could do 3 sets of 50 chin-ups (much harder than regular push ups), at his weight of 89kgs, though the guy who told me this was probably exaggerating, I could see his point. Maninder told me a few stories about fights he had been in in the past, including the time when he punched out a gangster with one solid blow to the temple, and broke another guys jaw, causing the third man to flee in fear. The budding gang was never heard from again. Maninder was also a competitive javelin thrower, and spent 18,000 every month on his gym trainer. Who was said to be a star bodybuilder and pro wrestler.

At the same week I was practicing my fighting skills, others were deciding the rules. It took some arguing, but they finally decided that anything went except for eye gouging, groin attacking, and intentionally raping your opponent, I didn't like the last rule, I wanted to put my shoe up that guys so bad, but if not, so what. The fight would take place in the corridor outside both of our rooms, at least 2 people would videotape all of the fights, and it the number of additional cameramen didn't matter after the first 2. The ones who were guaranteed to film our fights were my roommate, and Aditya (who had finally freed up space on his phone). Anyone who was not fighting at a particular moment was expected to calm down the scene and deter unwanted aggression.