The premise that Jeth and I agreed upon is that our prize fighting history on earth is merely a reflection of some greater galactic scam in which the fix is in and the fighters are merely pawns in some big money, high stakes, social control game. In boxing and MMA, the first fighter: the victim, the Christian awaiting the lion, is introduced from The Blue Corner. The favorite, whose manager is associated with the promoter, whose home town this is, has the best appointed dressing room, the shortest walk to the ring. In addition, while the Red Corner fighter is coached by full-time professional trainers, often with international experience, the Blue Corner fighter may be coached by his father-in-law who has never been in a ring, or by some part-time amateur such as my damned self. Additionally, the Blue Corner fighter has likely worked at a job all week, while the backers of the Red Corner man have paid for his TIME in advance: training, rest, recovery, even his boxing shoes, all bought for him by his investors. [1]
Paul Vunak, as one of the most innovative martial arts instructors of the late 20th Century, which saw the rebirth of the Pankration in the form of MMA after a 1,500 year sleep, was also involved in training for weapon combat, like gladiators of old. How would one of Modernity’s empty hand/weapon gurus fare if transported to some alien gladiator planet as a trainer?
Interestingly, Doc Dread, for whom I was a hands and weapon coach for his MMA team between 2002 and 2009, and is a member of the same Jeet Kune Do fraternity as Paul. Doc once posited the idea of a novel in which warriors from history are pitted against one another in a kind of Roman Valhalla. This is one of the converging reasons why this novel was conceived.
Method
The outline exists only in the table of contents presented in the front matter of the novel and posted on my website as Vunak of Antares #0.
I, as the instigator of this novel, have written this, and will write Chapters 1, 2, 3 & 5 that set the stage, as well as a brief epilogue. Chapter 5 is based on a misadventure from Jeth’s training life related to me via skype. Jeth will write 4, and 6 through 14, carrying most of the weight.
Jeth is in charge of Vunak, as he has trained with men who have trained with Paul. In any instance where Paul Vunak is required by the thin plot to speak or have an internal monologue, or a moment’s reflection, I will leave a bracketed cue for Jeth to fill in in the final work. These posts on the site will remain with that cue. Only the final story, sent to Paul and those completed chapters behind Jeth’s pay wall, will have Jeth’s version of Paul, who is studying Paul’s training tapes and interviews for this purpose.
Jeth is the editor and has the final word on everything. For him, this is a developmental writing project. He lives in a country where people have been imprisoned for writing about self defense situations. Jeth wants to transition to writing adventure fiction, from his three self defense books, a transition I have made some time ago. To help Jeth in this quest he will write all of the fight scenes, which is most of the book.
We have agreed upon an ending for this book, and have also agreed upon the plight reflected in Chapter 4, which is the assignment of team captains. This chapter is our model for using a video call, and a single 6-sided die and note pad, to chart the course of a combat. The Red Team is staffed with four men from China and Japan, including a physician and an actor as corner men serving military men, even a king and a prince. One of the few imposed plot devices is that this team will elect a leader.
Conversely, as the Blue Team is exhumed from the mass grave of psychopathic history, to include two famous permanent inhabitants of the prison system, and at least three leaders of world genocides, the Blue Team will have to duel to decide on a Captain, which shall please the Mob of Antares and the Gods of Scorpio. This shall increase the already significant advantages of the Red Team over the underdog Vunakers, who will get to watch this duel in which one of their potential foes will be injured or killed and the victor, possibly injured, will have shown his ace hand. Jeth does all of the research, and will prepare the roster for both teams, as this will be written while I am on the road and mostly off line. Below is our model combat chapter, as the novel is generally an excuse to write about such things as, “Would Spartacus beat Musashi?”
Chapter 4
As I stood at the well-polished bar top in my host’s mansion basement, behind which I had just slept off a 14 hour drunk, Jeth and I agreed that two men of our crew would not be able to abide the other commanding him, and that satisfaction must be had in a duel. We decided that the more interesting perspective character, which could be written from a stronger point of empathy by Jeth, in that they are anachronistic countrymen, needs to win this bout to carry the story in a manor that can be tolerated by non nihilistic readers.
Jeth now plays this hero, whose second he will be in the novel, while I corner for the savage, whose language I do not speak at all, but Jeth’s man speaks fluently.
Combat is done in “rounds” that are abstracted at the outset, with no set time. Based on the results, we discuss how long each round would have taken and continue to the next round if that has not been decisive. It is possible for both fighters to die, and quickly.
The Hero and his foe, are both armed with a 5 Dominance [Hammer] and a 5 Monkey Wrench. The former is the combat ability to impose one’s will. The latter is the ability to deal with a more dominant fighter by some ruse or gambit. The example I used was of Francisco Pizzaro fighting three men by way of using a drapery as a shield. Two high dominance, low Monkey Wrench fighters, will have a quick and brutal fight. These two, though, have options.
The Hero uses his ability to speak insultingly in the foe’s own language, as well as the foe’s overwhelming ego buttressed by numerous genocides committed by his own hand and at his command, to bait him into a hard lead.
Jeth and I are rated in this story a 1 Dominance and a 2 Monkey Wrench.
Musashi would be a 5/5.
Achilles would be a 6/4.
We determine who initiates contact, which was easily done on personality. A fighter with a high MW might decide to start by baiting the other into charging by using that score. If he fails, he takes the bait and cannot use his MW again in that round of combat. If he succeeds the other fellow takes the bait and again, does not get to use his MW.
As noted above, our hero, a towering genius with relatively bloodless hands, has gained an advantage during the stare down.
When one has decided on the Hammer over the Wrench the die is cast, so to say, the Caesar in your soul having crossed his Rubicon.
The die is rolled.
High scores are good.
Low rolls are good.
The die difference is compared.
If one is monkey wrenching his result is subtracted form the other’s dominance result.
These results are demonstrated using a 5 score, which will be the most common score among the Gladiators of Antares.
6 = failure, any roll higher than the score fails outright
5 = [0 die difference] barely successful, no injury inflicted, but a minor advantage gained, reducing the foes dominance by making a roll equal to his score unsuccessful
4 = [1 die difference] marginally successful, inflicting a minor wound or gaining a subtle advantage for the next round, reducing the foe’s dominance by 1 point in that next round
3 = [2 die difference] clearly successful, inflicting a wound that impairs or a minor wound and an a subtle advantage, or a clear advantage [like subtracting a point each from the opponent’s abilities next round, or 2 points from one ability].
2 = [3 die difference] overwhelming success, a kill or a disarm, or if toying with the foe, assigning lesser results, like minor wound and clear disadvantage.
1 = [4 die difference] a masterful success, such as a kill, disarm or KO, depending on the nature of he who delivered the masterful stroke, which also permits a spectacular demonstration. While Harold Hadratta might lift the head to the gods while the corpse yet stood lost before him, a more refined swordsman might opt for a minor wound, disarm and submission hold.
This was the only fight that we have decided on a victor in advance. It went his way without need to redo it. However, if he was killed, we would have replayed it so as to avoid a scripted fight.
All fights henceforth will be given to cruel Chance. The final fight will be a brawl between the survivors on each side and will include the corner men, which will pair Jeth and I against heroes from history with slim to no chance of survival
For future reference, one should make note that the Scorpion Lords, are taken from the Epic of Gilgamesh. They will be described in the text of Chapter 2.
Scorpion Knights have a 7 Dominance but only a 1 Monkey Wrench.
Posting for Chapters 1, 2 & 3 will be for January and February. Chapters 4 through 11 will not post until spring and possibly summer, even if written before Winter’s end, as once I hand the project off to Jeth on December 5, I will be completing A Gaslight Knight which will post from February through April in the fiction slots. [2]
-James LaFond, Sunday, December 1 2024
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Notes
-1. See the red banner on the cover of the gladiator novel SPQR [linked in the casting Darts Publishing tab above] for the sacrificial symbology represented by the sanguine crimson color attributed to the crowd favorite.
-2. Chapters 12 thru 14 and the Epilogue will post o Jeth’s substack.
