Absolution and Fragility

VIII

A Pyrrhic victory is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is considered a defeat.

Lexi squatted weight off to the side as she watched Kyla and a man twice her size fight in the ring. Kyla was quick as she moved in, hit, and moved out. It was a good tactic for the overly muscled man she hadn't put a name to yet. He was slow but his hits were domineering. If he were machinery, he would be a tank.

Each time she squatted down, Kyla went in for a hit or moved seamlessly out of the way. It was a graceful dance to her. Lexi only wished she looked half as good fighting as the dark-skinned goddess did every time she moved. It was flawless.

But, there was a cinch in her armor. Her right ankle was favored as the fight went on which meant she had injured her left one and wasn't up to par yet or it was a wound she wouldn't ever quite heal from. If they were to ever spar, Lexi knew where she would strike early in the fight and roughly.

Today, she knew she would fight. As she powered through the last of her reps, she watched the fight come to a close. The tank of a man crippled to his knees huffing as Kyla stood victoriously over him with a smile Lexi knew too well. She was not one to easily be defeated. The crowd faded as Kyla left to rehydrate and go about her own way.

A man much like the tank stuck around. He was smaller as if still growing to become something as formidable. Lexi knew he wanted a fight. She felt the air around her cool as she decided for sure with her first step towards him that today would be her grand entrance.

She was tired of being on the outside. She was tired of the stress and worry. She was simply tired.

Maybe this was her release.

Theo may be right about her need for a fight.

"I assume you want to go a round." She gestured to the ring once she was close enough to be acknowledged.

He scoffed, "With you?"

Her lips upturned wickedly as the challenge had been displayed as clear as day. And, he saw it. His entire body stiffened as he nodded once before allowing her to slide past him first onto the mat. They both readied themselves in different fashions: he pushed himself up to make himself bigger and she merely rolled her fingers into her hands before stretching them out again.

The crowd had reappeared. She could see it in her peripheral, but she made no move to see who was in it. What mattered most was the man in front of her.

Lexi waited for something. Anything.

"Rules are as follows," someone began, but she couldn't look away from her opponent's hazel eyes, "Don't kill each other. Tap out in traditional fashion if it becomes too much. And, that's about it."

He moved first. Heavy and slow. Lexi stepped into the hit but to the side to catch her elbow in the ribcage below where his arm would lay before rolling to her feet behind him. Her wrists and ankles would be too weak on muscle like this. She would have to hit him with areas that had no give.

She turned to assess him. He had recovered quickly with a certain malice in his eyes as he moved in once more to hit her with one fist. As she dodged in for another hit of the same caliber as before, she watched as his other fist came up. Quickly, she grabbed onto that wrist and swung herself around to bring both knees into his lower back. It was an impromptu move her grandmother had sworn by.

Lexi went down hard with him hitting down on his chest first. This was not the end. She could feel it in the way his muscles flexed beneath her, so she planted her feet where she had hit and jumped to the side out of his reach.