Taking Down the Alpha

15 He Might Be

One moment, the two fighters were standing on opposite sides, and the next, the announcer spoke and the two launched at each other. Blow after blow, Nemesis rained punches and kicks on his opponent, but the one I couldn't take my eyes off of blocked and returned the favour with equal fervour. The crowd roared their excitement.

Over the shouts and cheers, Andrew was explaining the sport to Denise and Liana. Denise looked enthralled with her mate's words, and Liana looked relieved to have an excuse to look away from the violence. "The fight can end a few ways. If the rounds go the full time, those three judges over there score their points. It ends early if there's a knockout or a fighter can't break out of a submission hold. And the ringside doctor can call the fight if someone is too injured to continue. Or—"

Another ear splitting wave of excitement roared up as Nemesis landed a solid elbow against the side of the Troublemaker's face, blood spraying the mat, and followed it up with a kick that landed hard in his stomach. I cringed, not used to this level of violence. Stumbling back a couple of steps, he started returning the blows, finally knocking Nemesis off his feet. He followed him down the ground, grabbing him in some sort of hold and punching him with his free hand while Nemesis blocked and tried to get out.

After a minute of that punishment, Nemesis's face was bloody, but he managed to dislodge himself and struggled to his feet. Both were splattered red, and the sight of it made me cringe with disgust and sympathy, but also contradictorily filled me with satisfaction. There were so many good possibilities here for our champion. For some reason, probably instinct, the Troublemaker was my favoured candidate, but a lot of the other fighters were looking great as backup plans. Once we figured out how to get back there and—

Nemesis almost landed another hard blow, but the Troublemaker went under it and got him in the side. They began to circle each other, ready to launch their next assaults, when the buzzer went off, startling me out of my reverie.

With the round ended, the opponents retreated to their corners to get patched up. With the amount of blood on both of them, if I had met either of them in that condition in Huntstone, I would have assumed they'd either just shifted after a bloody hunt in their wolf forms, or that they had just finished a murder spree.

I was on pins and needles by the time the round started up again. The two ran at each other and started beating on each other again. With a punch, Nemesis got the Troublemaker again and he righted himself before kicking Nemesis's knee and following up with a punch. They went down to the mat again and began grappling, trying to overpower each other or land a finishing blow, at least if Andrew's narrating explanation that I could barely hear held true.

Every time that one of the fighters seemed to have the other, my heart jumped with worry and excitement, but each time they just managed to escape, to the dismay or delight of the crowd. And me, because for no good reason, I had picked a side.

Finally, the buzzer went off, without a clear winner. The Troublemaker released Nemesis and got to his feet before holding out a hand to drag him up. Nemesis said something and the two laughed, as if they hadn't been beating each other half to death a moment before.

"So, who won?" Liana asked, although I could barely hear her with all the noise around me.

"They looked pretty evenly matched, so it's up to the judges," Andrew explained. He seemed to be enjoying the way Denise was looking at him more than he was enjoying the fighting, and he was definitely the one most enjoying it out of the four of us.

The time it took the judges to decide seemed really long, but finally the announcer shouted. "And the winner is, The Troublemaker!"

I cheered along with a portion of the crowd, to my surprise as much as my friends. I shrugged, feeling like I needed to explain my weird behaviour. "Hey, getting caught up in the moment.