Chapter 7- Fight
Lucia's POV:
When Nova came back with our drinks about 10 minutes later I decided to take a break from dancing and let Nova take my place as she was getting bored watching our drinks while I danced. As I sat down I saw out of the corner of my eye, a few people shuffling a huge guy out of the main part of the club into what was probably the underground gym that the fighters can all use before a fight. I automatically knew that he was the one I would be fighting as unlike many other clubs, that club only put on one fight a day which was weird if you asked me. Wouldn't people get bored afterwards and leave?
He had a muscular build and was fairly tall, seemingly min his late to mid twenties with dark brown hair and amber eyes. He looked strong but slow as his muscle seemed to be heavy slowing down his movements even though he had only been walking. When I could get a better look at him he seemed to alleviate the pressure on his right leg when walking so that he would limp but I could see past his fake limp when he put most of the pressure on his right leg when wrapping his hands with tape. I started to observe him even more when for a split second I saw him retract his left arm and wince slightly as he moved the hand back down to his side. I made a mental note of that to make sure I knew when we fought.
Eventually, it turned quarter to 10 when I got up and found Nova to tell her that I was going to leave to get changed. She gave me one of her good luck hugs and told me that she would tell them I didn't feel so well to do her best to distract them and I put my full trust in her that she would.
I made my way slowly to the bathroom where I had stashed my bag in one of the loose vents above a stall. It took me a short while to change my clothes into a mesh sports bra and cycling shorts and take my disguise off but it all became worth it when I got to do my makeup. It consisted of black and red eyeshadow and dark red lipstick, but I got my name not only from my father but from the devil horns on one eyebrow and a tail with a point at the end wrapping around the other.
By then it was about 10 o'clock so I had to hurriedly stuff all my other clothes back into the bag and then back into the vent. I walked out of the bathroom and proceeded to look around to see if I could spot the group within the crowd but once I was sure that they were already at the arena I paced towards the training room where I saw the man that I would be fighting enter.
As I got into the room it was much larger than I would have expected it to be as it had multiple sets of gym equipment displayed all around the room and it was spotless, which was something that I definitely didn't expect from an illegal underground fighting club. The owners are most definitely very wealthy, I thought to myself.
While I got caught up in the pristine gym, I hadn't realised that I had been staring into space for the past 10 minutes before Mateo came barging into the room, disrupting my train of thought. Without saying a thing to me, he grabbed my arm, just like Mateo had but this time I didn't punch anyone, then dragged me out into the deafeningly loud arena.
There were blood stains splattered against the walls and security stationed at every window and door that a person could escape through. I smelt a putrid stench getting stronger with each step I took towards the ring. I could hear absolutely everyone become silent at the sound of the DJ starting to announce the man I had seen previously. When I was dragged to the left hand corner of the ring Mateo gave me a slight nod of his head, as to say be careful because of the size of the very large man and I gave him one straight back smirking slightly knowing that I got it.
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I hope no boys or girls, the main event is about to begin. To my right hand side is the reigning champion The Viper", the middle aged man sissed loudly as the crowd went wild and got out of their seats to show their love to their champion. The 'viper' stepped smugly onto the ring and spread his arms out widely to soak in the gratification. "But, to my left hand side is the one we've all been waiting for" he paused for a second, "the one, the only Lucifera" The crowd suddenly went quiet for a few seconds before they roared up cheering and banging on the wall much louder than they did for the other man.
I stepped up onto the ring basking in the moment before getting into my fighting stance while 'The viper' was relaxed and chuckling at the thought of fighting a girl.
"What? Too scared to fight a little girl" I taunted him as her got angrier at the second. Honestly, men and their fragile masculinities. Can't even take a little teasing.
As he got into a stance of his own he chuckled and responded "You're going to regret saying that sweetheart". I really doubted that.
We circled the ring a few times before he drew the first fast punch towards my stomach. I barely dodged is by swiftly jumping back, but in the process I lost my stance for a few seconds.
After dodging many unsuccessful hits, he was getting tired and I was getting bored so I decided to see how he would handle my attacks. I firmly approached him and faked a gut punch on the right side of his body. When he went to dodge it, I quickly threw a hard left jab to the point between his arm and chest, where he had winced when throwing punches at me.
I didn't want him to get anytime to contain himself so I threw a gut punch to his stomach, winding him in the process and feeling satisfied when he doubled over in pain. I expected him to try and catch his breath when I felt a kick to my abdomen shoving me back multiple steps. Adrenaline and anger coursed through me as I quickly stepped towards him, but he made an idiotic decision to try and throw a right hook to my face out of anger towards me.
I blocked the punch with my right hand and upper cutter his jaw with my left hand before reaching behind his head and bringing my knee up, slamming it onto his nose then upper cutting his stomach again sending him in a slump backwards onto the blood stained ground.
There were cheers from drunken crowds but the fight wasn't over yet. I got on top of him and started letting my anger out punching his face left and right. When I knew that he was fully unconscious I pushed off of him and stood up splaying my hands in the air like the man on the ground previously did as the DJ named me as the new champion of the underground, but when I looked around I made eye contact with Santo in the crowd. He looked at me as if he knew. That's impossible, I thought.
Before I left the ring I glanced at the man with no remorse. There were barely any rules in these types of fights. The only way to win is to knock the other out. The man didn't seem to be new at fighting but he made so many rookie mistakes that you would think that he was.
As I got down from the ring, an envelope was pushed into my hands roughly, most likely by 'The Vipers' manager. I opened it carefully and inside was over $50,000, all from the bets and the reward for winning against the champion, but it wasn't the highest amount I had gotten from one of my fights.
Looking for Mateo in the crowd of people trying to congratulate me, I caught his eye and he gave me two thumbs up and a large smile before walking away, probably heading home as that wasn't really his scene.
When too many of the viewers came to congratulate me, I saw the group of people that I really didn't want to see making their way over to me, so I narrowly dodged the drunken people smothering me and headed in the opposite direction, back towards where the bathrooms were located.
I got changed back into my old disguise and clothes before leaving the bag in the vent for the next time I decided to fight there again. The others were all getting ready to try and find me to leave so I slowly walked towards them.
Amalia was the first to notice me heading towards them. "Where were you girl? You missed the whole show. You should've been there," she questioned while hugging me from the side.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't feeling too well so I went to the bathroom", I replied not needing to stutter in front of her as she made me feel comfortable enough.
"Oh ok, I hope you're feeling better now. We're all leaving so you can always rest at home and I can see your stutter is getting better." She nudged me while rubbing my shoulder softly as I smiled up at her.
When we were done talking, Nova came up to me and took my hand leading me outside to where all the other were. We all said goodbye to each other and started to head off in the direction of our own cars, but Santo followed Nova and I to my car, probably to get his hoodie back. When we arrived to my car I could see him gawking, but he quickly got over it. It's always funny when I see someone fawning over one of my cars.
"Nova? Could I speak to Lucia alone please?" He asked suddenly. I could see Nova having an inner battle with herself but when she saw me slightly nod my head and throw her the keys she silently got into the car knowing that I could handle myself.
"W-what did you want t-to talk ab-about?" I asked causing my words to come out of my mouth shakily.
"Don't play dumb, I know who you really are." He said with anger lacing his words.
"What"....