The Beatdown Read online

  The Beatdown

  BALOGUN OJETADE

  Copyright © 2017 Balogun Ojetade

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1979255512

  ISBN-13: 978-1979255516

  DEDICATION

  To all the fans of Role Playing games, Gamelit, LitRPG and gamebooks. Y’all keep writing an enjoyable experience for me.

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgments

  i

  Round 1

  1

  About the Author

  Pg 281

  Ki Khanga Map

  Pg 283

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I’d like to thank the members of the State of Black Speculative Fiction, Black Science Fiction Society and the Atlanta SOBSF Creators Groups, as well as NubiaOne and Blacktasticon for helping to make Black Speculative Fiction and Afrofuturism household words.

  ROUND one

  Atlanta, Georgia

  2023

  Remi Fasina leaned forward, driving the crest of her head into the sinewy chest of the tall, wiry man who stood before her. Her crimson rash-guard seemed to meld into his as she wrapped her lean arms around his waist and pulled him close.

  “No, Ray,” the man said. “Use the side of your head!”

  Remi shifted her gaze from the floor up to the wall to her left. “Like this, Kundo?”

  “Yeah, that’s it,” Kundo replied. “Now, lower your center and step with the hip-press takedown. Pull my waist to your torso and drive your head into my solar plexus.”

  Remi bent her knees as she pulled Kundo closer, until his hips were one with her lower abdomen. She thrust her head into the soft area just below the bone in Kundo’s chest.

  “Good,” Kundo said. “Now drive your head upward to bend me backward and then step deep between my legs.”

  Remi lunged forward, grinding her head up into Kundo’s solar plexus. Kundo’s back hit the red mats beneath him with a dull thud. Remi fell on top of him, her head bouncing off his chest.

  She shook her head. Deep lines spread across her forehead and her lips turned downward in a scowl. She rose to her feet and exhaled a strong breath. “It’s a lot easier to do this in The Beatdown.”

  “Everything is easier in the game,” Kundo said. “This is real life, though. For real life shit. Your technique is a little off today. You still hung over from my Beatdown Party or something?”

  “I did get torn up,” Remi chuckled. “Those Long Island Iced Teas were off the chain! But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

  “Watching other folks get drunk and act a fool while they play the game is intoxicating enough,” Kundo replied. “No need for me to drink.”

  Kundo grabbed Remi’s elbows and drew her close. “Now back to it! Thirty more throws. And keep your balance this time!”

  Remi sighed and wondered – as she had every session since she first started taking private lessons from Kundo a year ago – What, on earth, have I gotten myself into?

  ***

  Remi and the other students in Kundo’s class found spaces on the couches and floor in Kundo’s game room to take a break. Remi loved playing The Beatdown – one of the most popular games on the Universal Reality Engine – commonly called the U.R.E. As the receptionist – and a student – at the Afrikan Martial Arts Institute and a full time student at Georgia Tech, she often felt smothered by walls, but here, in the game – at Kundo’s virtual training camp in the city-state of Oyo-Ile in the nation of Oyo – she felt free; alive – as alive as in the real world.

  A lot of that probably had to do with the fact that the U.R.E. was jacked into a player’s nervous system, through a remote the size of a hearing aid that slipped behind the ear and beamed signals directly into the brain.

  Since the brain is incapable of discerning the difference between reality and fantasy, every, image, every feeling, every taste, touch, sound and smell in the game world was as real to the player as those in the real world.

  And games like The Beatdown, in which players competed to become the greatest martial arts fighters – or greatest coaches – in the world, had millions of players from around the globe jacking in every day to play.

  While most of the fighting took place in the rings and sand pits of Ki Khanga – the world where The Beatdown was set, training and the drama of the fighter’s life took place outside the ring, all around the fully realized world.

  It was actually while her Player Character – a digitized version of herself – was jogging in this same forest in the game that she met Kundo. Kundo, a former middleweight champion, turned coach, was sparring with Dahn Wali – CEO of the top fight promotion company, World Extreme Ring Kombat, or WERK. It was Kundo and Dahn’s routine every Saturday. They would spar, while Kundo’s students watched; something to entertain and inspire them. Afterward, Kundo and Dahn would regale the students with stories about growing up, the sons of rival women’s champions – Kundo’s from Oyo; Dahn’s from Mali – and how they both met at Torchlight Fight Nights in Mali – a small promotion company specializing in women’s fights – when they were both eleven and have been friends ever since.

  Of course, Kundo’s story – except for being childhood friends with Dahn – was real. He was – and is – a great martial artist in the game and in real life. Dahn, however, was an NPC – a character created by the game to be Kundo’s ring man when he was a fighter. When Kundo opted to have his PC become a coach instead of retiring and starting the game over with a new PC, like many players do, the game had Dahn go on to become a fight promoter.

  Remi happened to listen in on one of Dahn’s and Kundo’s conversations and, as the child of a Nigerian immigrant herself, she was attracted to the class – and to Kundo immediately. She joined Kundo’s virtual stable of fighters and a week after that, she joined Kundo’s real school. Shortly after, she became the school’s receptionist – because she needed money to keep up her monthly payments for U.R.E. services and Kundo needed someone to keep things in order at his school.

  Remi inched closer to Kundo and Dahn as they ran down the history and rules of The Beatdown to the noob fighters in Kundo’s Ile-Iwe Ogun – School of War.

  “The original inhabitants of the area now known as ‘The Cleave’ were the Utuchekulu – a race of dwarves – and their mortal enemies, the Rom – a race of stone giants,” Dahn began. “The eons old war between the Utuchekulu and the Rom was one of the bloodiest in the history of Agbaye – ‘the World’ – and both sides even stormed heaven in an attempt to murder each other’s ancestors.”

  “The Rom were probably the ancestors of your giant, professional wrestler-lookin’ ass,” Kundo snickered.

  The students laughed. Dahn glared at them and they fell silent.

  “Anyway,” Dahn said shaking his head. “Daarila – the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth – in His fury at the two warring races, and humanoids in general, for their assault on heaven – decided to destroy all of Ki Khanga.”

  “And He would have done it, too,” Kundo chimed in. “But Daarila’s wife – Eda… called ‘Odu’ here, in Oyo and considered to be Daarila in mortal flesh – pleaded and bargained for Ki-Khanga and its inhabitants.”

  Dahn nodded; his thick dreadlocks danced upon his shoulders. “Daarila complied, but demanded that the Utuchekulu and the Rom be destroyed. He struck the homeland of the two doomed races with His powerful spirit-axe, causing a devastating earthquake that destroyed the Utuchekulu and the Rom and carved out the island mass known as The Cleave.”

  “The raw anger and wrath of Daarila, which coursed through His spirit-axe, possessed the flora, fauna – and even corpses of the two destroyed races – creating many of the monstrosities that inhabit Ki Khanga today.” Kundo said, pacing back and forth in front of th
e students. “Since Daarila’s destruction of the Rom and the Utuchekulu, disputes in Ki Khanga are settled through one-on-one combat whenever possible to avoid any more wars that will lead to man’s extinction.”

  “Thus, fighters have become revered throughout Ki Khanga,” Dahn said. “Much prestige and power is promised to those who bravely do battle in the sand pits, rings and arenas found throughout the sixteen nations of Ki Khanga.”

  “And what about you Baba Dahn,” a student asked. “What do you, as a promoter, get out of us fighting?”

  “Rich,” Dahn said.

  The students snickered.

  “Who can tell me what the heart of Ki Khanga is?” Kundo asked, perusing the crowd of students sitting before him.

  The students sat quietly.

  Kundo looked toward Remi. “Can you tell us what the heart of Ki Khanga is, sister?”

  “Me?” Remi asked, pointing at her chest.

  “Yeah, you,” Kundo replied. “Sister—”

  “Oyaremi Fasina,” Remi said. “But everyone calls me Remi.”

  “I’m Baba Kundo,” Kundo said. “And this is Dahn Wali.”

  Dahn nodded.

  Kundo smiled. “Pleased to meet you Remi. Now… do you have an answer?”

  Remi’s smooth, brown cheeks reddened. “Umm… the heart of Ki Khanga is… us?”

  “Good answer,” Kundo said, clapping his hands. “We Archetypes are the heart of Ki Khanga. Archetypes are a fancy word for a kind of person, implying their skills, background, social role and more. Wizards, spies, chefs, smelly beggars… they are all Archetypes.”

  “So an Archetype” is the same as an occupation,” a student said.

  “Not quite,” Kundo said. “A smelly beggar is not an occupation – it doesn’t pay and you don’t have a set time to come to work, but it does define you. It tells us a lot about you – your needs, how you spend most of your time, how you dress, what you eat, certainly how you smell. You and others who share your Archetype fit certain significant and recurring themes. In our world – the world of the fighter, there are two ‘Master Archetypes’, if you will: a Fighter, or a Coach.”

  “Ain’t a Coach just a Fighter who couldn’t cut it?” a rather massively muscled student asked.

  “Ooh!” the other students gasped.

  “With that record of 2 wins and 5 losses, I guess you’re on the fast track to coaching, then, huh, Riki?” Kundo said, smiling.

  Laughter echoed throughout the forest. Riki lowered his gaze, blushing.

  “A Fighter does just that – fights,” Kundo said. “He or she fights other Fighters in the worldwide, eternal contest of skill and will called ‘Ijanla’… The Beatdown. Each Fighter’s reason for fighting may be different, but they all fight to win.”

  Kundo stopped pacing right before Riki. “A Coach… Riki – is a Fighter that has become champion and has defended that championship many times. He or she is now ready to hang up their gloves and move on to bigger and better – or at least more peaceful – things. A Fighter can either retire and start fresh with a new, mundane career and life, or become a Coach that teaches, trains and manages fighters, receiving 25% of their fighters’ purses and the pride and prestige that comes with helping to develop winners and maybe even champions.”

  “And you’ve got plenty of chances to become champion… if you want it bad enough,” Dahn chimed in. “Hell, if you aren’t doing well in one weight division, eat more egusi stew and go up a weight class or stop eating so much damned stew and go down one.”

  More laughter from the students.

  “You laugh, but what Dahn is telling you is true,” Kundo said. “Let’s look at the weight classes. This will be a perfect time for you to learn to summon your Iwe Itan – your Book of Lore. Now, breathe deeply… focus—”

  The students inhaled deeply. Remi did the same, focusing on the Weight Divisions in The Beatdown. She felt a gentle tug on her brow, right between her eyelids and then glowing words appeared before her. She looked around. She couldn’t see anyone else’s Iwe Itan, but she knew they were reading them. Remi studied the list of Divisions and the number of fighters in each division:

  Women, Lightweight: 115-135# [116, 205 Fighters]

  Women , Middleweight: 136-155# [80, 118 Fighters]

  Women, Heavyweight: 156#+ [73, 946 Fighters]

  Men, Flyweight: 115-135# [214, 015 Fighters]

  Men, Lightweight: 136-155# [264, 639 Fighters]

  Men, Welterweight: 156-175# [239, 863 Fighters]

  Men, Middleweight: 176-195# [376, 941 Fighters]

  Men, Light Heavyweight: 196-215# [298, 974 Fighters]

  Men, Heavyweight: 216#+ [384, 601 Fighters]

  At the time, Remi was a Middleweight Fighter, ranked #80, 117 – she had won her first, and only fight – without a Coach, but it was time to change all that.

  “My ranking is terrible,” a young man sighed. “I’m a middleweight… at the very bottom of the Division. I couldn’t fight 376, 940 fights in ten lifetimes! I’ll never be champion!”

  “You don’t have to fight everyone in your Division,” Kundo chuckled. “Just win your fights and gain omole – followers – and you’ll get bigger and better fights.”

  “How do we gain fans?” Remi asked, taking a seat with the other fighters.

  “We?” Kundo said, raising an eyebrow. “So, you want to be a student and a fighter in our camp?”

  “Yes, sir!” Remi said, confidently.

  The students laughed.

  Remi looked around, chuckling nervously. “What?”

  “Welcome to the Meat Grinder!” Dahn said.

  More laughter.

  “Meat Grinder?” Remi said, scratching her head.

  “Yeah,” Kundo said. “We chew you up and spit you out new. All you were before will be no more once your initiation into our camp begins.”

  “When does my initiation begin?”

  “It started five minutes ago.”

  Remi summoned her Iwe Itan, focusing on her stats.

  Her character sheet was blank.

  “Huh?” Remi gasped. “My stats… my fight. Where is it?”

  “That was the old you,” Kundo replied. “It is time to build a new Remi. Remi who is a Fighter, not some unskilled brawler fighting in dives for the entertainment of hooligans and fools. You can get easy fights that way, but you’ll never become a champion without a Coach. Steel sharpens steel.”

  “I… I’m ready!” Remi said.

  “Then, let’s get to it,” Kundo said. “First, let’s build your Abilities. We all have six of them. Three Physical Abilities – Strength, Reflexes and Endurance – and three Mental Abilities – Intellect, Wisdom and Presence.”

  “Got it,” Remi said.

  “Do you know what each of those Abilities do?” Dahn asked. “What purposes they serve?”

  “I think so,” Remi said. “Strength, or STR, measures muscle power, how far you can jump, and the amount of weight you can lift, carry and throw. Endurance – END – measures fitness, stamina and overall resilience. Reflexes, or RFX, measures hand-eye coordination, precision, balance, grace, speed and overall physical coordination. Intellect, or INT, measures how well you learn and reason. Wisdom – WIS – measures common sense, perception and intuition and Presence – PRE – measures force of personality, persuasiveness, leadership ability and physical attractiveness.”

  “Good!” Kundo said. “Ase – the life-force found within all creation – fuels our Abilities and everything else that makes us alive… and dead… and undead. You have 18 points of it to divide among your six Abilities. Human maximum for any Ability is 5, so that is the most Ase you can put into an Ability right now. Human average is 2. Now, get to it!”

  Remi thought about her options. She was very fit, with an average strength. So she put 2 points of Ase into STR and 4 points into END. She was quick and precise with a good sense of balance, so she put another 4 points into RFX.

  Remi was smart – 3 points of Ase i
n Intellect was perfect. She also put 3 points into her PRE because she was attractive and fairly charismatic. Finally, she put 2 points into WIS – she was a bit intuitive, but “she had “more book sense than street sense,” her mother would always say.

  “Ok,” Kundo said, staring her up and down. “Now, choose what type of martial artist you want to be.”

  “What type I want to be?” Remi said. “Isn’t a martial artist just a martial artist?”

  “Is every mother the same?” Kundo asked. “Every spouse, child, or even pet?”

  “Well… no.”

  “Exactly,” Kundo said. “Every Fighter has one or more Martial Arts Archetypes. Your Martial Arts Archetype gives you – as well as your Coach and others – a clear picture of what you are capable of, and what you are like. Each Archetype is evocative and informative, distinct from the others.”

  “And I can have more than one?” Remi asked. “Is that common?”

  “Very,” Kundo replied. “You have 36 points to purchase Martial Arts Archetypes and also to purchase Other Skills. Each Martial Arts Archetype contains several Skills and Descriptors. You can choose one Martial Arts Archetype for free. Each additional one costs 1 point. You must also put at least 1 point in every Skill and Descriptor under the Archetype – including your freebie. There is no limit to how many points you can put in a Skill or Descriptor, as long as each has at least 1 point.”

  “And what, exactly, do the numbers represent?”

  “The number of points you have in a Skill or Descriptor represents the numbers you add up to find how good you are at doing something. The total of one Ability plus one Skill or Descriptor represents how well you perform a task.

  In The Beatdown, a total of 2 points is a novice, 4 is advanced, “black belt”-level, 6 is professional or expert and 8 is a master. Summon your Iwe Itan and focus on Martial Arts Archetypes.”