At each of the ends of the underground waiting area, stairs rose up to the arena floor nearest the raised platforms 3 and 4 one way while the other came out between 7 and 8. The group of four continued to wait, Lau Luli was not far off and had figured out what was up, judging from the look of her slouched shoulders she appeared resigned to her fate. The sixth member of the Free-For-All match was nowhere to be seen. The Russian woman had by far the lowest ranking 26,616 so no one gave much regard for her absence.

Only a minute later Carly and her five opponents received notification they had three minutes to make their way to arena platform seven. The five competitors made their way immediately towards the closest stairs. No one talked as each of them focused on the task at hand. With the plain square central support columns and concrete stairs, the walk to the surface had more of an industrial feel vibe rather than something ancient Roman gladiators would have experienced. Which, if Carly cared might have been somewhat disappointing, the PURG staff did not concern themselves with the arena stadiums lack of underground ambiance.

As Carly paced up towards the square opening onto the arena ground the raised circular arena platforms came into view to either side and the two beyond. As the competitors rose from below, more of the platform's structure came into view, including the backlit signs labeling each one. The group of five stepped onto ground level, Lau Luli lead to the right. The platform sign read 'ARENA 7' and was beside the stairs which followed its curvature to the jutting concrete landing, marring the perfect circle that was platforms surface.

To be victorious, all any of the competitors needed to do was be the last one standing on the platform. At worst, the last one to hit the ground below. If the final two competitors hit the ground at precisely the same time, they would have to return to the top of the circular platform and fight it out once again until victory was clear.

Making the last step up onto the platform Carly mentally called up the time, it instantly appeared in her vision and read 4:54 am. While waiting for the start timer, she considered her current circumstance. The effort she put into her training, the honed perfection of her skills, her mental focus. Her cold, bloody-minded strength of character, began to asserted itself as she took several strides onto the platforms stone paved floor. 'Win, no matter what obstacles lay before me, I will be victorious and move forward to the next event,' she said to herself.

The arena platform she stepped upon was circular, with a radius of eight meters, so it wasn't small, made of solid stone with a textured finish providing excellent foot grip. 'The time that this round is being run is perfect, hardly anyone in the stands is watching at such a shitty hour,' Carly smiled to herself.

While she was thinking about such things, Carly walked around with a placid grin on her face looking up at the stands. By the time she had finished gawking she was closest to the center and closest to Lau Luli, who moved furthest away from the stairs. She did not look directly at the Chinese opponent. Instead, she continued to look around like a child's first time in a virtual fun park.

Iskra Tarasov appeared within the three minutes, and so all six were present and prepared for the fight. The other three who agreed to work together and quickly eliminate Lau Luli stood nearby but were not so forcefully centered in the stone circle platform as Carly chose to be. She had a quick look at everyone's position then, as the timer ticked down, Carly stared up near the light of the nearest arena and waited.

Carly had a plan, an entirely reasonable one at that, she thought. It would hopefully accomplish two essential objectives within the earliest and most dangerous part of the bout. With six people to fight, anything could happen. Carly had seen five people gang up on a single person, picking them up and carrying them over the edge before launching them to the ground below. She had also watched as six people grappling with each other in some bazaar human knot, where all six toppled over the edge. That one had been funny as hell since the last two landed on the bodies of the others before the eliminated four were ported away, the last two hit the ground the winner decided by luck.

Time ticked by, 3.... 2.... 1. Carly began dropping low as the large down light floating over the women's heads clicked over from dull to bright indicating the start of the bout.

Instantly, Carly snapped her hip and turned her feet towards Lau Luli. With her eyes used to the brightness from the nearby arena, she did not need time for her sight to adjust. Driving forward explosively from her pre-coiled legs, she invested everything she had to unleash a charging punch aimed at the center of Lau's chest. The Chinese woman blocked, catching the blow with both of hers. The force of Carly's initiative from such a low forward thrusting position forced Lau a step back.

Maintaining her forward momentum, Carly closed once more. She began a barrage of left and right strikes, these were lightning fast but had less weight behind them. This time Carly was wanting to force Lau back with the sheer quantity of assaulting blows rather than relying on a single more weighted blow.

Lau showed why she was so highly ranked, quickly reacting to the attacks successfully blocking or deflecting Carly's flurry of attacks. Carly gained ground, and that was precisely the result she was wanting. Lau on the defensive had to backpedal, with so little time between the score of attacks all she could do was maintain range and defend. Her opponent was like a savage berserking beast, unrelenting in her pursuit.

She wasn't though, on the contrary Carly was cold and calculating. It was time to start the next phase of her plan. Carly closed, closer than before, this was a power shot. 'Not a power shot but it sure as shit looks like it.' She started the unloading a heavy right-handed blow coming in over the top of Lau's defense, aimed at her temple. 'If this sucker lands it would do some real damage... to me as well as her.' Carly was not about to injure herself, as the blow closed she opened up her fist, just in case she connected. Lau ducked low and stepped back, to avoid the telegraphed attack, which was what Carly hoped. She continued with the attack, pulling down, overextending with her momentum as she opened her self up to an attack.

Reading the vulnerability, Lau could not resist taking advantage, turning her momentum from defense to offense. Lau let fly with an uppercut aimed at using her own crouched position to accelerate up. Likewise, Carly continued with her downward momentum, compounding the impact when it happened.

Carly was pleased, the initial over the top punch was never intended to connect, instead used to create this exact situation. Carly continued pulling down, though not straight down, she loaded up on her front leg reducing the forward follow through. Additionally, she fiercely contracted her stomach muscles inward while at the same time pushing her buttocks back. This linking of movements created a tiny variance in momentum.

With Carly's head was motioning and Lau's uppercut traveling towards each other that impact would have at least been a nose breaking. That is only if the fist and face continued to travel in static arcs. Carly had a plan, she pulled with her neck as well, accelerating her face down toward her own body while fractionally widening the distance the two women were apart with her contortion. There could only be one result, Lau was played. The uppercut fist connected with almost five kilograms of downward propelled cranial boned forehead. The resultant impact was magnitudes different to what Lau had expected. Carly's head won the impact battle most brutally, breaking several bones in Lau's hand.

Carly's plan at this moment was half complete. It was time to expose herself to the other three. It was only a verbal agreement of alliance after all. Not something anyone would put much faith in, especially considering present circumstance.

As Lau was crying out in tremendous pain, Carly snapped her head back. She sensed company arriving before she began that last attack. 'How will this play out, backstabbed or supported,' Carly was ready either way.

The impact appeared violent in the extreme, naturally with Carly snapping her head back up, from the impact. Forcefully pushing off with her front leg, almost like the start of a backstroke race, flicking out with her feet landing heavily on her back. “Ooof,” she released a loud grunt as if the air was knocked out of her. She stopped moving and waited. 'Look at me on the ground, I am so vulnerable, what will you do?' She was down waiting for a possible football kick into her side or a stomp to her head, chest, stomach; she really was open to all attacks at that moment.

Instead, all three rushed passed her aiming at Lau who was clutching her broken hand with a grimace. Versing three, the writing was on the wall, especially with one hand out of commission, she had no hope.

As Carly sat back up, she watched as Lau was bullied closer to the edge. Yet, despite her free ride into the next event, Lau Luli stood defiantly. She had her ladder ranking of 1,208 not just because she was a skilled practitioner in martial combat, she was gritty and determined and did not want to give up despite the odds. She resented finding herself in this untenable situation. She embraced the pain, that broken hand could be fixed instantly in medical after the fight. Lau raged and struggled with everything she had. It was not going to be enough, yet she was definitely not the type of person who would cower at such an impasse where things were a bit difficult.

Carly used this time to stand up while doing so she checked on Iskra Tarasov, that one was standing back and avoiding the current fight. 'The passive path to victory, good one.' Carly thought that most foolish, leaving clear opportunities to pass by without attempting to capitalise was truly unforgivable. Brushing her off, she used the next few seconds to encroach on Nadiara, who was attacking from the center, while Violeta was to the right, leaving Qaio to the left.

Lau was right on the edge of the arena platform by this stage. Carly silently strode in, there was a meeting of eyes and Lau seemed to accept her situation grabbing Nadiara's tunic with her good hand and pulling backward attempting to take one of her attackers with her. Enter Carly, with a perfectly timed right legged push kick into Nadiara's wide open backside. It didn't take much, just a little shove, enough to send someone standing flat-footed up onto their toes. However, with Lau pulling Nadiara was already on her toes just centimeters from the edge as Lau hung off her. That tiny little push propelled her beyond recovery.

Carly did not stop there, with Lau out of the picture, all bets were off. She spun to the left, switching feet, building rotational velocity into a mid-height wheel kick. Violeta had nowhere to go, as close to the edge as she was. Her awkward position prevented her from making any attempt to block or deflect. Instead, with impeccable decision making, she jumped forward over the leg of the still toppling Nadiara. This movement weakened the blow by going with it rather than trying to absorb it. The impact was still substantial, Violeta skillfully turned it to her advantage as forward momentum. Aiming at Qaio, who was likewise on the platform edge, there was absolutely no possible way she could avoid the hit.

Violeta dropped low, shoulder charging the smaller woman, knocking her back. Somehow, Qaio managed to stay on the platform. However, it was an extremely precarious position. Violeta took advantage, moving fluidly into a spin clocking Qaio with a head-snapping, jaw-breaking, reverse elbow uppercut. Violeta then pivoted slightly into a diving forward roll to get away from the edge.

Qaio Tham's eyes rolled back, her legs turned to jelly, and she slid into unconsciousness dropping backward, head first into the ground. Two meters below her body was lying right next to the edge of the raised arena, dislocated vertebra leaving her head in an unsavory position.

Carly slid sideways, away from the edge her opening plan worked out exceptionally well, although she would have preferred facing the lower ranked Nadiara right now in preference to Violeta. Still, it was what it was, wishing was worth squat. Iskra still had not made a move, low ranked and missing chances but perhaps she was waiting for a winning opportunity. It was something to be wary of.

Carly continued to move away from the edge of the circular platform until she felt secure once more. How to approach Violeta Molinera, she was ranked 4,625 meaning she was a quality duelist. Carly had nothing to go on, the little tete-a-tete between Violeta and Lau was unusable data under the circumstances. With no idea of her preferred style, fighting patterns, signature moves, et cetera, Carly decided to get in her head.

Carly approached the woman and smiled. “So close, just two more people, one more event and however many days for that new world to go live. Can you feel it?” Carly centered herself while taking another step forward.

Violeta went defensive. “You attacked Nadiara from behind.”

“Yes, I ensured Lau was eliminated and reduced my competition.” Step. “With Lau gone the agreement ended.” Step. “You agreed, yes?”

“What? No.”

Step. “Yes, besides one of you was going out even if the other won.”

The two stood three meters apart facing off. Violeta with a more side on stance to Carly's more front on approach. Carly watch carefully, she did not know the woman in front of her, if the fight lasted any length of time, she would start to pick up on tells, favored attacks, and combinations. If, it lasted long enough. This woman that stood before Carly with her rank of 4,625 showed she highly skilled. Not that anyone in the MDP was not. After enduring the punishing lessons for six years even the last ranked woman and man were masterfully skilled, martial practitioners. After all, those bottom of the barrel trainees had well over 18,000 hours of hard work behind their martial skills. Carly began to approach slowly, while Violeta slid to the left keeping distance, looking for an opening. Carly just kept up the steady approach.

“Can you feel it Violeta?” The woman didn't bother to respond.

Carly took the initiative, closing the gap with three quick steps as she checked a kick meant to stall and then came in low under a jab. Carly countered with a solid blow to the gut, closed more burst into that reckless assault-style she used previously against Lau.

As before, it appeared wild and uncontrolled and like before, and like Lau, Violeta was also able to block and deflect most of the attacks. However, every so often at the last fraction of a second Carly would modify the trajectory of a punch and break through her defenses. The impact was less but effective. Carly focused on the area between the pectoral and deltoid muscle groups aimed at slightly reducing Violeta's punching power. If she defended high, Carly went for lower abdominal blows bringing her guard back down.

Carly disengaged, the wild assault lasted a mere 8 seconds and left Carly panting while Violeta gritted her teeth. With something in the vicinity of 80 punches being thrown and 17 landing she felt the pain somewhat but the bruising would not register so soon.

“Can you feel the difference between us? If you take her out,” Carly flicked her head towards Iskra. “If you take yourself out, I will assist you at some stage in the new world. Do you agree?”

“There is no way that, is going to happen.”

Carly smiled. “Good!”

With hands back up, the few seconds of chat helped Carly's breath recover, again, closed the gap. This time she looked to be loading up on heavy right-hand blow, which was exactly what she was doing. Carly torqued from her ankles through her legs, torso, back, shoulder and right arm. Violeta leaned back easily avoiding the blow, while Carly followed up with a roundhouse kick into Violeta's upper thigh. It was an extremely damaging crack of impact on Spaniard's exquisitely toned muscles. Carly maintained the spinning momentum propelling her forward enough to land a heel kick in almost in the same spot. With such velocity impacting from the small point of her heal. If slow-motion cameras were involved, one could see the rippling waves made through the muscle both above and below that impact point.

Violeta released a stifled groan from the fire she now felt passing through her now weakened left leg.

Carly took up her basic fighting stance once more; she was carving opponent into submission, reducing her speed, power, while creating vulnerabilities.

Iskra, by this point, had realised, by not acting sooner she was now in an extremely precarious position. She was definitely not great at fighting against other people. She lacked that killer instinct, others had. Even so, she still wanted to put her best efforts forward. She did not expect to win, but, to not attempt to win, even she had her pride.

With Carly turned away, Iskra decided to charge. If she could injure the woman in a surprise attack sufficiently then maybe Violeta and herself could push her off the platform. With Violeta injured, there might be a tiny chance of actually winning.

It was currently 4:58 am, there was almost no movement or talking in the stadium and those raised arena platforms were a decent distance apart from each other. Due to these vital factors, Carly heard the slight noise of foot padding on stone. Dodging to the right with a spin Carly caught the sight of Iskra flying through the air, knee raised. Her knee would have taken her right in the spine if she had remained standing there.

Iskra had so much speed moving through the air that Violeta had to sidestep too. Unfortunately, while her right leg was fine to push off to the side, her left leg was now extremely hampered for the landing. Lacking the strength to catch her movement, Violeta was forced to take a stumbling couple of steps she half spun to cease her momentum.

Carly had not considered any of this at the instant she decided to dodge. She just happened to move the only direction Violeta's body would allow her to avoid the collision. Carly read the gift of opportunity these actions presented her. As one should with a surprise gift, she gratefully accepted hacking a low kick into the back of her right leg, Violeta could only go down on her knees, the other leg unable to support her weight.

Carly came down hard with a palming slap on the top of her head further disorienting the woman. She spread low and to the right while gripping Violeta's hair keeping her head in place from behind. Loading up, she burst up and to the left, right knee sickeningly connecting to right ear. The sound was shocking as ear split, eardrum burst, skull fractured and neck snapped.

Three seconds later, the hair ripped from Violetta's head disappeared from Carly's hands, along with her body, transported to medical where she would be immediately revived.

Carly turned towards Iskra going into her basic stance and moving towards her. “Thanks for the assist, although I totally had it handled.”

“How did you know I was coming?”

“You didn't think I was so caught up in fighting that I lost awareness of you being behind me, did you?” Carly smiled at the young Russian woman. “I simply listened, you ran too noisily.”

As Carly kept approaching, Iskra kept back peddling. “You might as well face me, or take a dive. I don't care, so long as I move forward, past this event.”

Iskra stopped for a moment, thinking. “We are paid to fight, so I will fight. Although, I think you have been foxing quite a bit 13,122.”

Carly was still approaching. “You are mistaken there young one; you're paid by PURG to be supplicant to their power.”

Accelerating, Carly looked like she was attacking low. Iskra dodged to the side, Carly grabbed the woman's wrist with one hand then both, before opening it up toward the downlight. Carly twisted placing her back towards Iskra. She lowered the arm on her shoulder at the elbow join with all her arm strength, as quickly as she could. Tendon and cartilage tore from the bone as the elbow dislocated. Again twisting that same arm she ripped, pulling Iskra by the mangled thing before reefing it behind her back. It happened so quickly Iskra was just starting to scream from the pain while Carly grabbed the elbow on the humerus side slamming it up again dislocating the brutalised arm at the shoulder.

Iskra was quietly screaming winded from the attack and panting from the pain, unable to catch her breath. Not knowing which way to hold her arm, she broke into a sweat and began feeling faint.

Carly grabbed her clothing from behind at the waist and collar and marched her over the edge with a shove beside the stairs. Once Iskra hit the ground, Carly received her notification of victory and took the steps off the platform as Iskra's transported to medical.

Carly took the stairs down from the raised arena platform and walked across to the ground level exit. 'Eerhk, I have to go back to my seat in the stadium to collect all my gear,' Carly sighs. 'I really want a hot shower, hot food, and a decent bed right now. This stadium sure sucks to sleep in, stupid flashing lights and uncomfortable seats.'