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The bigger they are, the harder they fall.Or so I hoped.
“Begin.” Bjorn signaled the start of the fight.
The Bone Clan wolf wasted no time hitting the mat. He charged forward, meaty hands clenched into fists in front of his face and elbows tucked in, in guard position. We danced around the ring, circling each other as we sought out an opening to land the first strike.
Yosef swung with a looping right that any experienced fighter would have seen coming. I dipped my head and dodged out of the way. He stepped in, keeping me on the defensive and swung again. I dipped left and avoided another headshot, but missed the incoming body blow. His fist found its mark and connected with my side. Ribs cracked on impact and the freshly healed scar threatened to rip open.
I tucked my elbow in, held it tight against my ribs and kept my guard up as I backpedaled around the mat. Yosef charged again, but I was ready for him, and unleashed a short right hand to his solar plexus. The punch would have dropped a lesser man to his knees, but Yosef was unphased.
He rushed in, wrapped me in a crushing bearhug and pinned my arms at my side. He rolled his hip and threw me to the floor hard enough that my body bounced off the mat. Yosef pounced, took the fight to the ground and used his body weight to keep me there. He assumed full mount, centered his mass on my chest and dropped hammer fist punches to my face.
Blood gushed from my nose, mouth and a gash along my brow bone, but I refused to yield. I threw body shot after body shot, lasering in on the lower back below his ribs. My eyes had almost swollen shut, but I kept punching.
Yosef howled. The relentless kidney shots had taken their toll. He slid to the side and gave up his full mount position. I bucked beneath him, knocking him the rest of the way off. We grappled on the floor until I worked my way behind him. Slipped my right arm around his neck and clamped my left hand around my wrist.
The warrior from the Bone Clan blacked out and went limp in my arms.
I rolled out from under him and pushed to my feet. The room swayed - or maybe it was me. Either way, I was minutes from joining the sleeping giant passed out on the mat.
The Blood Clan wolf jumped in swinging, eager to prove himself to his clan and his alpha watching from ringside.
Full of energy and injury free, my second opponent had the upper hand. Literally and figuratively. He rocked me with a right uppercut that smacked my jaw together and chipped three teeth.
I’d underestimated the wolf from the Blood Clan and made a tactical error by fighting Yosef first. My plan had been to take the bigger, stronger fighter out of the equation, but in doing so, I’d taken bigger punches and a hell of a lot of damage.
My second opponent moved with the experience of a trained fighter. He was comfortable in the ring and knew how to use every inch to his advantage. Had there been ropes like a traditional boxing ring, he would have had me against them.
For every punch I landed, he landed two. I struggled against his defense and when I did manage to work my way inside, I was punished with more body shots. The scar on my side may as well have been a bullseye. He found a soft spot and targeted it, landing jab, after jab.
When I pulled back out of the danger zone he rocked me with a left haymaker to the temple. Vivid colors danced in front of my eyes, my knees buckled and legs went out from under me. He dove, but I rolled to my side and scrambled to my feet before he could pin me to the floor.
The fight felt like it went on for hours. I was exhausted, but gaining ground. My opponent wore himself out and looked as tired as I felt. I rallied and seized the window of opportunity his slowing pace provided.
I doubled my jab, knocking his head bag like a speed bag in a sparring room and then took the attack to his body. I switched it up, landing punches up and down his body, leavening him bloodied, bruised and swollen.
The bounce was back in my step. I felt good, like I could go another eight rounds, but my confidence was short lived. I got sloppy, and left an opening. The Blood Clan wolf saw it and jumped, lunging in with a superman punch that landed on my jaw, fracturing it in two places and dislocating it in another.
Blood welled in my mouth and dripped down my chin.
I was spent and in danger of losing the fight. Worse than that, if I couldn’t beat two wolves from the Deofol pack, there was no way I could take on their alpha. Not in the condition I was in, injured, dehydrated and malnourished.
Bjorn had done the bare minimum to keep me alive and I played right into his hands.
