“Fucking bitch,” he spits out, but I haven’t got time to chat.
Standing, I gather myself for a second, and whilst he’s still caught off guard I bring my elbow down on his face, causing him to cry out.
Blood drips down onto the mat from his busted nose.
I hold my fighting stance now, ready for him to move my way. He doesn’t disappoint. He is too focused on putting me down and not thinking things through properly. His stance is poor and even after I’ve landed two blows to him already he doesn’t raise his arms to defend himself.
He charges low towards my waist, lower than I prep for and he’s toppling me over.
Fuck.
I keep the momentum going so he can’t hold me in place. I rise quickly and he just sneers at me. He comes at me and I can see by the hold of his arms he’s going to go for an uppercut. Fucking amateur. Before he can get close enough for that, I extend my left fist straight for his defenseless face. It ricochets his head back, but not enough to floor him.
I’ve caught him off guard slightly, so I continue to follow it up with a few jabs to his ribs.
He goes to make a swing at me, but I duck and punch him straight in the dick.
He’s not going to have any manhood left by the time I’m finished with him. He leans forward and this time I move quickly. My fist connects with the side of his head before I wrap my arms tightly around his neck and throw all my weight backwards. As we fall he’s not prepared, throwing his arms out to try and break his fall, exactly what I need him to do.
The second my ass touches the mat I’m wrapping my legs around his upper arms, pinning him down whilst I tighten the pressure around his neck. He bucks a little and throws his legs around, but it does nothing to help him out.
I can’t think about him now. I just continue to add as much pressure as I can until he goes lax. I’m not waiting too long, before he’s not moving. I slowly rise and stand back. Not wanting to see the damage I’ve actually done, I roll him off me and stand.
Shaking myself off I give myself a second to catch my breath and check my body over. My ribs are hurting, he’s likely busted whatever progress my recovery has made there, and my jaw aches but otherwise so far so good.
Not wanting to waste any more time I climb up to the next ring. I prepare myself for a blow straight off the bat again, so I’m surprised when I’m given the space to stand. When I do, I see why, there’s a referee here. Holding my daggers West had to take off me before I entered. He also holds a crowbar which must be my opponent’s choice of weapon.
Looking to the referee he holds out our weapons to us. My opponent is another guy but he’s shorter than me, not by much but his frame is small too. Probably why he’s chosen a giant fucking crowbar as a weapon so he can attack from a distance.
Fuck.
Once we take our weapons the referee leaves without a backwards glance, leaving me to stare down this guy. He doesn’t make a move. He just observes me.
“I don’t know what to make of you,” he says catching me by surprise. I just raise my eyebrow at him, if he wants to expand on that he can but I won’t push.
“I saw you talk to the girl, I don’t know what you said to her, but she suddenly drops her defense and lets you knock her clean out. Then you get a tutor to her before you move up.”
He still doesn’t move a step, he’s not talking to distract me, he’s assessing me out loud.
“Then you get in the ring with that guy, who doesn’t give a shit and you pummel each other. You didn’t even check him over before coming up here. You handled them both completely differently and I’m trying to figure out why.”
“You really want to have a conversation about this right now?” I ask bewildered.
He just nods in response, waiting for me to continue. I don’t know this guy and I don’t need to explain myself to him, but something tells me I should.
“Well that guy was a dick, coming at me before I was fully in the ring to get the advantage. He would have happily wiped me off the face of the earth without any care,” I sigh, “But Trudy was different. The fear in her eyes reminded me of my best friend, so I offered her a deal.”
“What was the deal?”
“I offered to knock her out as quickly as possible instead of death being on the table,” I answer honestly.
He stares me down, I don’t know what he’s looking for, but he eventually speaks.
“She’s my sister.” I frown, making him continue.
“Trudy, she’s my twin sister.”
I can’t keep the surprise off my face, they look nothing alike. He must know what I’m thinking.
“I know complete opposites right? Are you offering that same deal up here? I mean, I’ll do what I need to do to survive, but I can’t leave Trudy to survive this world alone.”
The stark honesty in his words surprises me, and I find myself nodding.
“If you don’t mind, I'd rather you use my weapon than yours,” he murmurs, extending the crowbar to me.
I slowly wrap my hand around it still expecting him to attack, but he doesn’t. I think this is me forming alliances in difficult situations, let’s hope I fucking survive to make good on my word.
Not wanting him to second guess his decision I swing the crowbar at his head, wanting to knock him out but not write him off. He falls to the floor with
