Straight through the Heart

Chapter 40

A/N my writing is so rusty. this chapter is choppy. I need to take writing lessons or something haha...my vocabulary and grammar is pretty limited right now....IM BACK YALL. I DIDNT DIE.

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"Guess who's joining us!" I raise my voice and present my cousin Lia in an elaborate manner. 

"Such theatrics," she laughs it off.

"I call dibs on the first match," My cousin Nicco calls out.

"Damn it man, but I'll go against Lia when she wins then," Lorenzo smirks at Nicco. 

"It's been way too damn long since we've sparred with you. I think it's time we had a new champion in this household." Nicco puffs his chest out . 

To be honest, the fight could go either way. Robin, Enzo, Roman, Marco, and Celeste are all strong fighters in their specific areas of expertise. When it comes to our sparring, we become way too heated and competitive. Thus, it's hard to completely finish a fight before someone gets hurt. 

Celeste has been traveling and away for a while, but I doubt Dante would allow her to forgo training. She's probably trained in some crazy martial art. I think she's more of an acrobatic, nimble fighter. The twins, on the other hand, love dirty fighting. They're very good at close-quarters combat fighting and prefer boxing. Thus, they tend to have an advantage in our sparring matches. The rest of us have similar training from our parents. Robin and I learned a bit of Elite Special Forces training and marine corp Martial Arts from our father. My mother learned similar martial arts that my uncles taught. In the end, we are all a mixture of several fighting styles though we have our own preferences in styles. 

"Alright, batter batter up. Let's see who shall be the winner of this match." Robin cringingly announces. Rather than say anything to Rob, we all ignore his stupidity. 

"Let's set some rules..." Robin looks directly at the twins. The two of them smile innocently back at us. 

"First to get their opponent to draw blood or yield is the winner. Let's not go over thirty minutes or I may just disqualify both of y'all...may the best fighter win." He ducks quickly under our sparring box ropes. 

"Fifty bucks for Lia." Lorenzo smirks. However, his joke falls flat because Lia and Nicco have both fallen into their concentration modes. 

Nicco makes the first move. He closes the distance between them swiftly. He has a powerful flying knee and covers so much ground. Lia, however, blocks it efficiently. Nicco immediately follows with another lower cut to her gut. She grits her teeth. Sizing up Lia's lithe frame against Nicco's muscular frame, Nicco definitely has the power advantage but I think she's got it. 

"Shit man," Marco gives a low whistle. "He's not leaving Lia any space to breathe." 

"I know...but Lia doesn't look any worse for wear." Celeste comments on Lia's incredible dodging and blocking techniques. However, Nicco's punches are lighting fast and pack quite an impact. I know that each impact is still very heavy. 

Nicco continues to look for a weak spot to her defense. He is focusing all his powers with his uppercuts. Lia's arms are going to get tired pretty soon if she tries to remain on the defensive for a while.Lia starts returning punches just as quickly. I cringe as some punches get through each side and the two of them back away. 

They watch each other carefully, almost daring for the other to land the next blow. This time, Lia goes straight at him. She feints and aims for a spinning back gut kick. The action is so fast I almost miss it. As the match continues, we all grow silent as we intently watch. The two of them increase their speed that sometimes a punch or two disappears. Nicco is prepared for the kick but I can tell that he is not expecting he power behind it. He stumbles just a little, barely even an inch. Just as quickly, Lia lands a very clean punch straight to Nicco's jaw. It connects and knocks him off balance. Taking advantage of this moment, she powerfully does a spinning outward kick for his head.