Apocalypsis 02 - Warpaint

to do. I was coming to the conclusion that this relationship stuff was not easy at all . I could see now for the first time very clearly why my dad had avoided it, spending most of his free time at the dojo, with me at home, or outside doing athletic activities.
    Once the groups were all set thanks to Winky and Bodo, I pulled the first one out. It had Rob as the big guy and two others who were quite a bit smaller.
    “The rest of you please move back. You, Rob, come over here. You, smaller guy, sorry I don’t know your name, go with Rob.” I left the smallest one on his own. I figured the smallest guys and girls would be the least likely to do well against the canners, so my goal was to pull as many of them out as possible in this first round. “Two on one. Little guy, you have to defend yourself as best you can. Last man standing stays on the final team.”
    “Who are you calling little guy?” said the guy standing by himself, obviously offended.
    Before I had a chance to answer, the medium-sized kid standing with Rob attacked, running at his partner full-out, leaving him no time to prepare. One minute the small guy was standing there looking at me, all pissed off, and the next he was on the ground on his back.
    He shoved his opponent off of him, quickly using his arms behind him and his incredibly well-developed ab and back muscles to flip himself back up onto his feet. His friend hadn’t been expecting that maneuver and was completely caught off-guard by the kick he received to his thigh that sent him to his knee in pain.
    “Finish him!” I yelled, hoping the small guy knew I meant to end the fight but not to actually damage his partner. I watched as he grabbed the back of his friend’s shirt, pulling him up and sending a few knee strikes into his chest before throwing his gasping form back to the ground. He’d obviously paid attention to my fighting before. Knee strikes were some of my best moves, aside from the ball crusher and eye gouges.
    I signaled Rob to move in, and he didn’t waste a second. I tried not to cringe at the picture of this big guy coming in after the little one. In the old, not-so-real-world of a qualified krav maga match, I wouldn’t even worry about it. Little guys took down big ones all the time, since they often moved quicker and had the advantage of surprise paired with the anything goes krav maga mentality. But here, I knew these guys were amateurs, limited by their lack of skill and knowledge. Odds were, Rob was going to pummel him.
    But surprisingly, the little guy held his own. He darted in and out, getting jabs here and there on Rob, sending him spinning around as he tried to get his hands on him. It was only after suffering a couple of punishing blows to the back and head that Rob was finally able to grab the little guy and then essentially sit on him to keep from being taken down, little by little.
    I called it a draw and walked over, offering my hand to help the very dirty and sweaty smaller guy up.
    “What’s your name, little man?”
    He grabbed my hand, stood up, and then spit off to the side in the dirt. “It’s Fohi . And stop calling me little man.” He let go of my hand, practically pushing it away.
    “What’s that mean? … Fohi?” I asked, unable to stop smiling. He was a little badass and I loved it, almost the same size as Peter but more muscular by far.
    “It means bee,” said Kowi coming up. He leaned in closer to my ear and said quietly, “Floats like a butterfly stings like a Fohi.”
    I turned around for a second so Little Bee wouldn’t see me laughing. A few seconds later I collected myself and got back to business. Fohi left to stand with Rob off to the side of the clearing.
    The rest of the session finished with no other surprises. The smaller guys and girls in the other two groups went down as I’d expected them to, and now we were left with only one more group: Bodo and Winky, who didn’t have a third member with them. They moved to stand opposite one another in the clearing, both of them looking to me for instruction.
    “We need a third,” I said.
    “I’ll do it,” said Trip, walking over to stand at my side.
    I looked up at him to ask him a question, but all his attention was focused on Bodo. He looked like he wanted to wipe the clearing with Bodo’s rear end. Oh boy. This isn’t going to be pretty.
    “Yeah, come on dare, pretty boy. Let me mess your face a little bit for you,” taunted Bodo.
    Trip moved out to stand next