The training started.
Before Sudais even moved his weight, Nisar and Rahman attacked Sohrab and Khalid with all their power. Rahman went toward Khalid, but Khalid, with flawless elegance and without effort, moved himself aside. On the other side, Sohrab and Nisar took guard facing each other.
In that fraction of a second, while everyone's eyes were focused on that chaos—
TAQ!
A hand hit Sohrab's elbow.
A deadly silence dominated the balcony. Sohrab's father, Sudais's father, and Yunus were frozen in shock. Sudais had hit Sohrab's elbow and right now was moving toward Nisar.
Sohrab was frozen from the شدت of disbelief. As he wanted to rush toward Sudais, the sound of the referee's whistle split the space:
"Sohrab! You are eliminated! Go outside!"
Sudais and Nisar immediately became engaged. Their movements were like a blurred image. Nisar attacked without stopping, but Sudais did not hit any strike. He only dodged; he moved his body only a few centimeters and allowed all the strikes to split the air.
Sohrab, from beside the mat, watched with a face ignited from anger. His father, Tahir, looked at him with a cold disbelief, although he tried to show himself controlled. In this between, Dafid (Sudais's father) could not take his eyes from his son. He had never seen Sudais in such movements.
At the center of the mat, Khalid threw a short and unimportant look at the eliminated Sohrab. Eliminated? This early? Rahman was applying pressure to him and his movements were fast, but Khalid was faster. Every time Rahman took his hand toward his elbow, Khalid with unmatched precision repelled his hand.
Nisar changed his speed and attacked toward Sudais with an explosion of energy. Sudais turned and retreated and drew everyone's attention to himself. Nisar applied a series of light strikes, but Sudais slipped between them like a shadow.
Suddenly, Nisar appeared exactly behind Sudais. He raised his hand and his eyes were burning from concentration. It was the last moment.
While Nisar's hand had only a few centimeters distance with Sudais's arm, Sudais turned. A lightning exchange of counterattacks was formed. Sudais repelled each of them one by one. Nisar's speed doubled; he hit a heavy punch which Sudais defended and was thrown backward. In a blink of an eye, Nisar disappeared and appeared exactly in front of Sudais's face, while his fingers were millimetric to his elbow.
Suddenly, Rahman was thrown toward them from Khalid's side with a kick. Sudais used this chaos. With a whip-like movement, he hit Nisar's elbow.
Nisar froze and with shock stared at his own arm.
Sudais said with a cold voice: "It is finished."
He did not wait. He turned toward Rahman. Khalid also joined them.
Only three people remained. 60 seconds until the end of time.
Sudais threw his body to the last wire. His speed rose to the peak and a three-sided engagement started. Khalid was still unreachable and without attacking, dodged everything. Rahman, who was caught between those two, at the same time dodged from Sudais and hit toward Khalid. Rahman, with teeth pressed together, grabbed Sudais's collar and threw him to a side.
Rahman, who immediately appeared in front of Sudais, growled: "You become a disturbance!"
Sudais, who was fighting to keep balance, hit his feet to the ground and attacked Rahman. His strikes were fast, but Rahman controlled all of them. Exactly when Rahman stretched his hand to take Sudais's elbow, Sudais threw himself to the ground. Rahman's hand followed him until on the ground, but at that same moment—
Sudais grabbed Rahman's arm.
Both of them locked onto each other and stayed in a deadlock. Sudais on the ground and Rahman above his head, both their hands on each other's arm. The hall sank into a deadly silence. Rahman looked at the timer. 10 seconds. Rahman released Sudais and made his posture firm to face Khalid, but in a blink of an eye, Khalid had disappeared. He passed between them like a spirit. Rahman's eyes became round and slowly he turned his head to see Khalid standing behind him.
SOOOOOT!
"Time finished!"
The referee's whistle pierced the air:
"Time's up! Hold your positions!"
Everyone froze instantly, as if time itself had stopped.
Khalid, with his usual calm, walked away from the center of the field without haste. His steps were steady and silent. He cast a brief but heavy glance at the referee and said, with a tone full of certainty:
"Referee… I think the winner is obvious, isn't it?"
The referee nodded slowly.
"Yes… the winner of this practice is Khalid."
Rahman, still reeling from Khalid's speed, exhaled deeply. He kept his eyes fixed on him and muttered under his breath:
"Once again… as long as he's here, these matches have no meaning."
The referee cleared his throat and raised his voice slightly:
"Listen up! You all performed well. But based on the scores, I will announce the top three."
He glanced at the list and continued:
"First place: Khalid. Second place: Rahman… who fought until the last second. And third…"
He paused.
His gaze swept the hall and landed on one person.
"Sudais."
The hall fell into a heavy silence.
All eyes turned to Sudais—full of disbelief, full of questions.
Tahir, Sohrab's father, leaned back against his chair and sank into a cold silence.
But on the opposite balcony, Dafid—Sudais's father—had a soft smile; a smile that lit up his entire face.
He whispered under his breath:
"My son… I'm proud of you."
Sohrab could no longer endure. Without a word, he stormed out of the hall.
Khalid and Rahman slowly left the field as well.
Sudais rose to his feet.
He had taken third place… yet this was the first time in his life his name had been spoken as an honor.
Nisar, passing by him, paused.
"Sudais?"
Sudais turned.
"Yes?"
Nisar said honestly:
"Well done… you played really well."
A faint smile appeared on Sudais's lips.
"Thanks. You were great too… though I know you didn't give it your all."
Nisar shook his head with a short laugh.
"No, man… but seriously, you eliminated Sohrab really well."
Sudais chuckled briefly.
"Really?"
Then, side by side, they walked out of the hall—
while the heavy gazes of the others still weighed on Sudais's back.
The sun was setting, and streaks of orange had spread across the sky. Guests were leaving Yunus's apartment one by one.
Dafid, Sudais's father, sat in the car after saying goodbye to his brothers. Sudais, standing in the middle of the street near the gate, came back to himself at his father's voice: "Sudais! Come on, son, get in."
"I'm coming, Father," Sudais replied. He turned to Yunus and said, "Goodbye, Uncle, see you." Yunus kindly patted his shoulder: "Go with God, and say hello to your mother." Khalid, leaning against the wall, with his usual cold, curt tone, said, "Go safely."
Sudais got in, and they drove off. As soon as the car moved away, Khalid closed the gate. Yunus suddenly stopped and said to his son: "Khalid, did you see? Sudais was beyond expectations today."
Khalid approached his father with a small frown. "I know… but something's strange. I didn't feel any 'mana' from him."
Yunus looked surprised. "Are you sure?"
Khalid nodded. "Yes, completely empty. But… we can't judge what we don't understand. We need to keep observing him closely."
Meanwhile, in Tahir's car, the atmosphere was tense. Tahir sneered, "What a disaster! How could you not pay attention? Our reputation's ruined, Sohrab!"
Sohrab, staring at an unknown point outside the car window, remained silent. In his mind, he replayed the moment over and over: "I don't even know how I got hit by that strike…"
Night arrived. Sudais and his father were walking through the streets near home when Sudais said: "Father, can we stop here? I need to send my friend some phone credit."
Dafid stopped the car. Sudais got out: "You go ahead; I'll walk the rest of the way." His father emphasized, "Okay, but come quickly. Don't be late."
A little later, Sudais walked along the dark sidewalk. He checked his watch: 7:41.
"I need to hurry. They shouldn't wait for me."
He made a call. "Hello? Did it come or not?"
His friend, on the other end with an annoyed tone, said: "Yeah, it came, but you're stingy! You should've added a little more."
Sudais laughed. "Oh, come on, don't talk nonsense!" and hung up.
It was 8:30. At home, Sudais's mother, worried, said: "Dafid, why hasn't Sudais come yet? Call him."
At that moment, the door opened, and Sudais entered: "Hello, I'm here."
His father looked at him warmly, pride lighting up his face: "Welcome home, son."
At the dinner table, laughter and joy did not cease. Dafid enthusiastically told the story of Sudais's heroics to his wife and daughter.
His mother, eyes shining, said: "I'm proud of you, my son." His sister teased: "Well done, brother! But next time, don't be so harsh, okay? Haha."
After dinner, Sudais saw his father asleep on the couch from exhaustion. He told his mother: "I'm going to bed."
The next morning, Sudais woke up, a little sluggish as usual. He stretched his body and loudly said: "Good morni—"
The sentence caught in his throat. The TV news anchor's voice broke the house's silence:
"…Breaking news; this morning at 8:00, the police found the bodies of two more people on the street. This is the latest in a series of murders in this area…"