Humans were creatures of routine. Aries, riddle with faults, being human like any other man, had a routine of his own. This routine of his was engaging in mix martial arts. He often browsed the internet for interesting fighting competitions. And with quite some ease, he manage to register himself in this current tournament. Hence where we were now, with a tall, dark-skinned, brutishly handsome, twenty-something-year-old of an athletic middleweight build; entering the sandstone arena from the west gate.

The moment he paced onto the arena he could smell the calcium/quartz-y stench of the sand. It wasn’t particularly horrible, but nowhere near as pleasant as the invigorating aroma of let's say, a beach. The scent of freshness mix with salty wind and the tiny unfortunate whiff of wet creatures be it humans or animals was not there. The only sprinkle of extra upon the musty sand was faint iron. As if there was quite a bit of bloodshed over the years this arena existed. And as time continued, no matter how often they cleaned the arena, the scent never truly left.

The man came to a halt five yards in from his westside arrival. He remained dead center from the north and south ends of the octagon shaped arena. Aries began to take a stance. He stood side faced to the east gate, his right side being the side to face the gate directly. The east was where he presumed his adversary would make their appearance, since he arrived from the west. Unzipping the jacket of his royal blue tracksuit, the zipper sighed as it parted and revealed a tastefully hairy chest and belly. He slowly slid his feet elbow length apart, the sandstone beneath his black and white boxer boots sounded like loose gravel as they left one another. Next, he crouched and threw up his dukes, much like a boxer only with less arch in his back. Boxers also didn’t typically stand sideways, this was just something he learned from his exploration in mix martial arts.

From there Aries waited, shifting his head around to emit satisfying cracks from his neck into the air. His heart thumped with nervousness as he waited for the short period of time it probably lasted, but for him, he associated that feeling with excitement. All of his adrenaline left him in anticipation of the match's start.

@Doc Doctor

Aries found challenge in not judging a book by its cover. His opponent arrived with a rather sluggish strut into the arena. He was confident, a bit too self-assured considering he was a flabby war veteran. The man’s tattoos convinced Aries of this. ‘DE OPPRESSO LIBER’, that was the American motto of the military. It meant to free the oppressed if he wasn’t mistaken. Though, this man before him had the expression crossed out. His reason for doing so was none of Aries concern, only a distraction that admittingly fueled his interest.

Without notice, Aries allowed for a patronizing smile to creep between his lips. His head tilted up, smugly. He couldn’t help it. The cover of the book was criticized without even a skim through its back description. And Aries conclusion was that he already knew the book. If he was a military man himself, he’d be exactly the same as him. Their cocky attitudes were a dime a dozen around here. The only difference between them was that one of them never killed before, whereas the other had a murderous allure. One that wasn’t frightening, but left you with a charming curiosity even though you knew. You had to know. It was obvious. Of course, he took a life, it came with the job that the tattoos vouched for.

Aries welcomed the man’s approach. As he matched him for 5 yards in, then decided to take a stance, Aries knew things would grow stale if he didn’t make haste. His feet devoured the distance between them, leaving the already dusty light of the area to grow slightly thicker behind and around the two combatants when he came to a halt. There wasn’t nearly enough sand afoot to effect either fighters sight. Once close enough he threw out a couple right jabs at the man’s already guarded jawline while protecting his own with his left. These were simple pokes with no real harmful intent. If connected, the man's jaw might have been mildly sore.

“Got a name?” Muttered Aries, his face dark with intensity midst the sandy light. “Mine's Aries.”

Immediately after, he dropped down with his fists above his head and forearms over his face. Fluently, his right leg launched out a crunching swipe from under his opponent's knees. If this was a successful assault, the victim would have been left on their rump with a thump and a couple of red sore calves. Regardless of the outcome, Aries remained in his low guard that hugged the sandstone ground.

“War endures,” he read off his foes chest. “As you can imagine, with a name like mine, I like it.”

Aries was the name of the Greek god of war after all. The ink should have been on his body.

@Doc Doctor

Hot pain etched into Aries metatarsals.

“Fuck,” he spat out like venom as the surrounding muscles throbbed.

The man had slammed his foot into the heel of his now named opponent, Charlie. On the adversary's behalf, he used quite the deft maneuver. The technique deserved recognition. Aries had never experienced it before. Therefore there was only one thing he could do—vow to make it his own.

Fortunately for Aries, they both donned footwear to cushion the bone on bone collision that occurred between them. For if that wasn’t the case, one of them would have had a broken foot without a doubt. And Aries was doubtful that those odds would have been in his favor. Due to the sting within his foot, Aries didn’t dare rise right after such a devastating assault. Though, that didn’t mean he squandered his time either. Upon collision he did curse, then almost instinctually without thought, and all while remaining crouched, he limped hopped a pace forward with his left foot damn near instantaneously. And then continuing fluently, he swirled back around to create a backward sweep with his right leg. This sweep would have hooked his right knee back with Charlie’s right knee back in order to thwomp him backward into the rough sand.

Simultaneously with this second sweep, he brought his left arm from it’s guarding position to up under Charlies left leg. The goal of this was to catch the ankle in order to make sure it was more difficult for him to evade with one grounded leg. He also wanted to protect himself from Charlie’s notorious heel and to help flip Charlie back. If successfully caught, Aries was going to ensure that Carlie experienced a hard knockdown on the back of his skull. It would have been enough for the sand to completely bury away his consciousness. Unlike the first sweep the moved counterclockwise, this second one moved clockwise. Likewise, the reach of his left arm followed the clockwise momentum of his body as to not twist his back. Lastly, the right arm remained fixed to keep his guard up.

@Doc Doctor

Instinctually it seemed Aries had no taste for sand. He was indeed successfully tripped. Though, his fall wasn’t violent, but rather smooth instead. The moment Charlie’s foot reached Aries’, his weight had shifted forward, which stimulated Aries to innately bare out his forearms to protect his face. He was determined to not eat sand. Combined with the intuitive human reflex to guard his face, was also Aries’ training. While falling forward, it was revealed that his forward momentum was completely turned into a combat roll that steered to Charlie’s right. The man aimed to not only strike Charlie’s right leg and knock him over via his roll, but to offer the opportunity of a reset in position three mesley feet away from him. Aries' would have been still crouched, facing his adversary with his southpaw dukes up. This simple maneuver of his Aries' should have been tricky enough to evade since he was practically under Charlie.

Third time's the charm, Aries thought sardonically.

There was plenty of musty sand to go around. He already had his serving full with sand being sprinkled all over his tracksuit from his ground maneuvers. He had to of smelled like iron by now. The stench was almost enough to distract him from the throb within his foot.

@Doc Doctor

Midst his roll, Aries was caught and piledrived. With a bone shattering loss of consciousness, he felt no pain. Though the moment he would eventually wake in the hospital, it would surely don on him all at once. That pain would be a blessing, especially if it was all over his entire body. It would have meant that he wasn’t made into a paraplegic or a quadriplegic. The fever dream that would have lied alongside him until he woke, would consist of an endless hunger for revenge.