left shot out and banged against the Flashâs nose. It was like hitting a door knob. Pain flared in Kellyâs arm and his jaw muscles went hard as he struggled to keep his face blank.
The B-seven feinted with a left and Kelly knocked it aside. He couldnât stop the right that blurred in after it and grazed his left temple. He jerked his head away and the B-seven threw a left that hit him over the ear. Kelly lurched back, throwing out a left that the B-seven brushed aside. Kelly caught his footing and hit the Flashâs jaw solidly with a right uppercut. He felt a jolt of pain run up his arm. The Flashâs head didnât budge. He shot out a left that hit Kelly on the right shoulder.
Kelly back-pedaled instinctively. Then he heard someone yell, âGet âim a bicycle!â and he remembered what Mr. Waddow had said. He moved in again, his lips aching they were pressed together so tightly.
A left caught him under the heart and he felt the impact shudder through his frame. Pain stabbed at his heart. He threw a spasmodic left which banged against the B-sevenâs nose again. There was only pain. Kelly stepped back and staggered as a hard right caught him high on the chest. He started to move back. The B-seven hit him on the chest again. Kelly lost his balance and stepped back quickly to catch equilibrium. The crowd booed. The B-seven moved in without making a single mechanical sound.
Kelly regained his balance and stopped. He threw a hard right that missed. The momentum of his blow threw him off center and the Flashâs left drove hard against his upper right arm. The arm went numb. Even as Kelly was sucking in a teeth-clenched gasp the B-seven shot in a hard right under his guard that slammed into Kellyâs spongy stomach. Kelly felt the breath go out of him. His right slapped ineffectively across the Flashâs right cheek. The Flashâs eyes glinted.
As the B-seven moved in again, Kelly side-stepped and, for a moment, the radial eye centers lost him. Kelly moved out of range dizzily, pulling air in through his nostrils.
âGet that heap out oâ there!â some man screamed.
âScrap iron, scrap iron!â
Breath shook in Kellyâs throat. He swallowed quickly and started forward just as the Flash picked him up again. Taking a chance, he sucked in breath through his mouth hoping that his movements would keep the people from seeing. Then he was up to the B-seven. He stepped in close, hoping to out-time electrical impulse, and threw a hard right at the Flashâs body.
The B-sevenâs left shot up and Kellyâs blow was deflected by the iron wrist. Kellyâs left was thrown off too and then the Flashâs left shot in and drove the breath out of Kelly again. Kellyâs left barely hit the Flashâs rock-hard chest. He staggered back, the B-seven following. He kept jabbing but the B-seven kept deflecting the blows and counterjabbing with almost the same piston-like motion. Kellyâs head kept snapping back. He fell back more and saw the right coming straight at him. He couldnât stop it.
The blow drove in like a steel battering-ram. Spears of pain shot behind Kellyâs eyes and through his head. A black cloud seemed to flood across the ring. His muffled cry was drowned out by the screaming crowd as he toppled back, his nose and mouth trickling bright blood that looked as good as the dye they used in the B-fighters.
The rope checked his fall, pressing in rough and hard against his back. He swayed there, right arm hanging limp, left arm raised defensively. He blinked his eyes instinctively, trying to focus them. Iâm a robot, he thought, a robot.
The Flash stepped in and drove a violent right into Kellyâs chest, a left to his stomach. Kelly doubled over, gagging. A right slammed off his skull like a hammer blow, driving him back against the ropes again. The crowd screamed.
Kelly saw the blurred outline of the Maynard Flash. He felt