nothing, just make you look the fool you are.
Therefore, I give you back your worthless life." He drove the sword in the ground,
turned, and walked off.
119 He was well outside the circle when his opponent struggled to his
feet. "NO!" the man screamed, "NO!" He pulled the sword from the ground
and rushed forward, but two machine rifles spoke almost simultaneously,
their bullets making a neat cross on his chest, as they picked him up
and threw him backwards. The crowd roared with approval. The Young
Speaker just looked back sadly, shook his head, and continued on.
120 Bullet watched as the other second walked over first, kicked The
City Speaker, and then spat on him. The man turned to Bullet, Bullet
brought his weapon up in salute, and the other man answered. Then,
Bullet rushed after The Young Speaker. He overtook him just as he
entered the tunnel. When they were out of sight, The Young Speaker
stopped, leaned against the wall, and went, "Aahhh! He broke my good
hand!" A Healer was rushing up.
121 "You mean you flung that shield with a broken hand," gasped Bullet,
"and, the rest?"
122 "Didn't realize it was broken then!" admitted The Young Speaker.
"Didn't have time to worry about it. By the way, nice shooting!"
123 "We've got to get him to a hospital," insisted the Healer, "he's
losing a lot of blood."
124 The next day the newspaper headlines were almost all positive.
Though a few complained about old fashioned barbarianism, most
agreed it had been a fair fight, and honorably won. The World
Elections were only a few weeks away, and they went into a
heavy schedule of campaigning. Bullet was also busy
organizing The Black Watch, as it was beginning to be called.
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