On the day of the tournament, David and Chaz arrived at the Carmine Estate at about 7:00 AM. For the fighting event, the estate was almost as crowded as the annual Carmine Corporation party. After pulling over into the parking area and getting out of the car, David and Chaz had to hunt down directions to find the right stage for the Level Zero participants. After finding out the layout of the tournament, David and Chaz made their way to the gardens to find the competition stage.

When David walked up, he realized that 'stage' wasn't the appropriate word. The competition platform was a roughly 50 foot by 50 foot stone platform that sat in the center of a spectator area. The platform sat about 3 feet off the ground. There were no rails or anything to keep the fighters inside the ring. This was not the standard boxing or mixed martial arts ring that would typically be used in a fight. David was surprised seeing that this arena had been setup in the estate's garden area....it wasn't that much of a garden any more. David was also surprised by the large viewing suite that was setup behind one of the stands to overlook the battle platform.

Looking into the suite that housed the important figures of the Carmine Family, David only recognized a few familiar faces. In fact, he only recognized 5 of the 30 people in the viewing suite area. Karine. Mr. Lester. Sonia. Gabriel. Vincent. Everyone else must be new people that Vincent Carmine brought in to help run the organization.

Since it had been weeks since he last talked with her, David looked into the stands and waved to try to get Karine's attention. However, she didn't seem to notice him. However, Mr. Lester did notice David and whispered something into Karine's ear before waving back at David. Karine didn't wave. She just looked over and then started looking around elsewhere.

'Did she just ignore me?,' David thought to himself trying to figure out what was going on. David continued looking around and eventually met the grinning eyes of Gabriel.

The man was sitting right behind Karine, Sonia and Mr. Lester. As David watched, Gabriel leaned forward and whispered something into Karine's ear. Karine's expression didn't change but she uttered a few words in response to Gabriel's comment.

After decided to focus on the competition, David sat down with Chaz in the fighter seats to watch the fights until their names were call for their turn.

After a buzzing over the loudspeaker, an announcer's voice sounded to start the tournament, "I would like to welcome all of you to Round 1 of the Carmine Guard Assessment Tournament for the Level Zero Class fighters. This bracket will feature eight matches between the 16 fighters that qualified to advance to this round. The winners of these eight matches will move forward to the next round of competition. Those fighters that are eliminated will have the chance to challenge one another to increase their rankings. The rules for this morning's matches are as follows. Only practice type weapons. No armor is allowed. No killing permitted. Everything else would be allowed, but we do request that participants avoid inflicting severe injuries to each other. The match is over when one contestant admits defeat, is incapacitated, or is knocked out of the ring," a voice sounded over the loudspeaker.

"Fights will begin based on a randomly selected order. The first match of Round 1 will be between Gabriel Carmine and Issac Jefferson," the man said over the speaker.

Gabriel and the other man made their way onto the stage. After a few theatrics by Gabriel, the fight ended pretty quickly. Gabriel had performed an elaborate Combustion Skill and completely blasted the other man out of the ring. The attack was overkill for a competition when everyone is from the same organization. However, after thinking it over....David realized that it wasn't actually a competition from the same organization. The guard that Gabriel viciously defeated was an older guard that used to work at the gate of the Carmine Estate under William Carmine.

The beatings continued after Gabriel match. Although the first four matches were "random", every match had been one of Gabriel's goons matched with one of the old Carmine guards.

'So much for random.....that seems completely arranged,' David thought to himself.

"The fifth match of Round 1 will be between Chaz Brown and Jeffery Warren. Please take the stage," the announcer said over the speaker.

David looked over to see the guy that Chaz was fighting as they stepped onto the platform. To David's surprise, he was actually familiar with the man. It was one of the guards from original Carmine Family group. David had seen this guy around the grounds several times when he went to the Carmine Estate to see Karine.

After the fight got started, everyone soon realized that Chaz was going to be the victor. The man had several good skills but Chaz's strength was too much for him to handle. After Chaz landed a few punches to the man's abdomen, the guy had to concede the fight. Seeing the battle, David did have some sympathy for Chaz's opponent. David had felt the punch multiple times and knew exactly how much pain came along with it.

After Chaz's victory, the sixth fight of the first round also grabbed David's interest. The battle was actually between two of Karine's guards, Heather Rowe and Jasper Smith. Heather was the only woman that had qualified into the top 16 in the division. She was one of the most senior of Karine's guards and could be considered one of Karine's friends. Jasper was a newer guard that was placed in his position when Karine's guard Charles had died due to a cultivation deviation. He was a rather quiet man that never smiled. David had never really liked the man, but Karine had said that he had excellent skills for a body guard. Watching the match, David soon learned what those skills were. Jasper seemed to focus on both the Body of Strength and the Body of Defense. No matter how Heather attacked, she couldn't really deal any damage to the man. Eventually, she had gotten pissed that the man was hiding like a turtle in a shell and got too close to him. Jasper had grabbed Heather and made her pass out in a headlock. It was pretty intense to watch the woman struggle until she passed out. David even thought that he would have difficulty if faced with the same situation. The outcome would have probably been the same.

After watching Heather be carried off the stage on a stretcher, David knew that it was now his turn as he waited for the announcers call.

"The seventh match of Round 1 will be between David Knox and Nicolas Harvick. Please take the stage," the announcer said over the speaker.

David walked up on stage to see a large man that he had never seen before. The guy was at least 6 foot 5 inches tall and looked like a professional football player.

'Damn, did Vincent decide to send out his biggest guy to fight me,' David thought when he saw the man. It had to be one of Vincent's men because David surely would have noticed this guy hanging around Gabriel.

Once both men made it to the stage, the announcer initiated the fight right away, "Ready. Fight, Start."

David had expected the man to run forward to attack, but he just started moseying on over like he was going for a stroll.

Based on the size of the man, David assumed that he would have ridiculous strength, but would probably be a bit slow. Sure enough, David learned that his assumption was correct after the first exchange between the two fighters. After Nicolas had walked to within 6 feet of David, he suddenly charged forward like a linebacker. David had to roll to the side to miss the Nicolas' attempt at grabbing him. He separated from Nicolas and decided to keep a good distance.

After a few exchanges, David realized that his opponent seemed like a one trick pony. The man's entire fighting philosophy consisted of rushing forward and trying to tackle David. While the fighting approach seemed simple, it was a perfect for dealing with David who had a shorter reach and couldn't risk being grabbed. David knew that if this man grabbed a hold of him then the fight would be over.....and David would lose.

After dodging the grasps of Nicolas a few times during the first minute of the fight, David developed his plan of attack. Nicolas' attempts to grab David had a similar cadence each time. David could use this cadence to initiate a counterattack.

The next time Nicolas launched himself forward. David swung his wooden knife forward into the back of Nicolas' hand as he rolled away. Although this wasn't a large blow, it focused all of David's strength onto Nicolas' hand. David could tell that it hurt Nicolas because the man shook his hand a couple of times after the impact.

The counter attack worked a few times, but Nicolas must have realized the pattern. On David's third attempt at smashing his hand, Nicolas flipped his hand over and grabbed David's knife. Trying to break the Nicolas' grip on the knife, David swung the pommel of the other knife towards Nicolas' fingers to losen the grip. The impact was successful and Nicolas released his grip on the knife..,,,but he had made a counter attack in the process. Since David was close in, Nicolas had kicked out with one of his legs right into David's knee. The kick didn't land perfectly but the strength behind it was enormous. The impact almost took David off his feet, but he managed to roll out of the way to avoid Nicolas grabbing him. David realized that while he was trying to destroy Nicolas' grip strength so that he could move in close safely...Nicolas had been focusing on damaging David's legs, so that David couldn't dodge his attacks any longer. It was like the two men had been playing a chess match in a fighting ring.

Feeling that something was wrong with his knee, David had trouble standing from the roll. Understanding his venerable situation, David managed to force himself to an upright position with some effort. He was currently standing with all his weight on his left leg when Nicolas tried to make another grasp towards him.

Realizing that he needed to end the fight, David fainted that he was going to strike the mans hand again and rolled to the side. Coming up to a knee stance on the side of Nicolas, David assulted the back of the man's leg with both knives. The large impact to the leg also made Nicolas drop to a kneeling stand. Taking advantage of the now lower head height of his opponent, David jumped up from his kneeling position and brought both knifes together in a pommel clap to both sides of the man's head.

Hearing a groan, David saw Nicolas fall face first down into the stone platform. He had managed to pull off that move off perfectly, but quickly realized that his own knee wasn't doing well as he also tumbled to the ground. He had barely won that fight. If David hadn't succeeding in this one attack, then he would have lost. After an announcement of David's victory came over the loud speakers, David worked himself up off the ground.

Although David won the fight, he sustained a pretty bad injury to his right knee and limped off of the platform.

As he was limping off, he could hear Gabriel Carmine taunting from the viewing box, "Look at this guy. He can't even make it past the first round without getting crippled."

David turned to look at Gabriel and caught sight of Karine sitting in the seat under him. She had a grimace on her face and David could tell she wasn't happy. With a smile, he turned around and started hobbling toward the stands.

Chaz came up to David's side and said, "Hey man, let's go over to the medical tent. The healers can help that get better before the next round.

"Thanks pal," David said as Chaz helped him walk towards the healing tent.