The Gang's Princess [COMPLETED]

Twenty-Six: Knocked Down A Few Pegs

**CHAPTER SONG: Tove Lo - Talking Body (Shift Key Remix)**

"Show me what you've got Princess."

"And here I was thinking that I was still a Queen."

"Being a Queen usually involves not being capable of killing every person in the room." Jay retorted, crouching slightly on the other side of the training mats, ready to attack. We'd got an audience of James, Charlie, Bones and Seb, of which James and Charlie weren't convinced I could beat my opponent but Bones and Seb were happy to cheer me on.

As if reaching a silent agreement, Jay and I simultaneously charged for each other and within a second were throwing punches and defence manoeuvres. Everything that had been drilled into my head in the past two months surfaced immediately and I suddenly flashed back to training, when I did everything and anything to avoid being taken back to the cellar for more torture.

"You'll almost always be smaller than your opponent but that isn't necessarily a weakness. You're quick, stupidly quick, so use that to overcome the brute force that your opponent will likely be using to their advantage."

I was suddenly back in the training warehouse and jumping over Jay's sweeping leg before throwing a punch into the pressure point in the side of his neck whilst he was distracted and following it up with with a knee to his gut before dodging his comeback attack. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as we continued to attack and defend, the entire situation feeling almost like a dance as the four other guys in the room watched on in complete awe.

As each of us pulled every move possible, I began to receive more and more blows which weakened me a little more every time. But I couldn't lose this. I couldn't let him think he still had power over me.

"There sometimes comes a time when you're in hand-to-hand combat where you'll realise that you're losing and being able to realise, accept and act on this is the most vital part of combat. You have to quickly come up with either an escape plan or a way fool your opponent into thinking they've already won." 

I came back to myself again and tried to assemble some sort of a plan so that I didn't lose but gained some time to give myself a break. What was Jay's biggest weakness? How could I make him give me a timeout without waving a white flag? 

We continued to fight each other and I managed to get in a swift punch to his jaw before dodging his next attack and getting behind him, kicking his lower back so that he fell forwards into a pile on the floor. I quickly crouched down into a position ready to throw myself at him again, like I'd been trained to do.

"Even when you think you've won, be ready to attack again because your opponent will get back up when you least expect them to."