Brace!
This series of unfair trades lasts forever. Of her fighting the space I once occupied and me hammering in a strike that would put the best fighter into a coma. But every hit strikes me back just as hard, and she's not showing any signs of stopping. She's eating every hit like it's nothing! I'm just fighting a steel sandbag!
The audience's white noise gets another, more colorful voice that demands my attention. "It looks like Rosa has the giant Vilma on the ropes!" The announcer's either lying... or blind. The only one on the ropes here is me...
Every finger except my right pinky is pulsing with suffocating heat. My arms are aching with exhaustion. Sweat breaks away from my head when I heave for air. I've been beating on her head, giving her as little time to recover from my assault as I can. But she seems unbreakable
It's torture, being locked in this cage with her. Wearing down every sense I've honed for years. Forcing me to dismantle myself until she's ready to brush away the scraps. I've never faced an enemy like her before. But that's all the more reason I need to win. Beating her will change me, and evolve me to a state no one can challenge me in. I can do it. I just have to keep my pressure on her head, maybe apply some precise blows in some unusual spots on her body in search of some weak point. Maybe then I'll-
Why are her eyes like that? Where'd her pupils g-
Something... something fast, and blunt, like a metal bat brutalizes my face before I can react. Everything goes out of focus and the crushing force sandwiches my nose into my face. The force shoves my head into a bouncy, stitched wall. The cage warps under my body. From near center stage she punted me here.
She hit me. That- whatever she hit me with was ten times faster than how she was moving before! And her titanium body! Her stone hands sting me twice as much when backed by those cannons hanging off her torso. Her offense is as deadly as her defense! I have to get to my feet. I need to protect myself from another- Shit.
I must be too dazed to hear or feel her footsteps because I don't notice her coming until she's on top of me. Her knee stabs into my stomach, pushing out a wretch from my core. I almost throw up but I catch the bile right before it passes my throat.
Then another arm hammers into me, and another, and a third. My vision clouds, then black, then pain, then clouds again. Where's the crowd..? All I hear is ringing.
A punch flashes me back into consciousness, I see another strike raised above her head. My arms instinctively shield my head from the blow, but the weapon stamps pain into me. Stop! Stop please make it stop! Not again!
I crawl along the ground, praying that I can get away for just a moment, just a second where her blunt weapons aren't battering me! My left arm and nearly useless fingers rake the canvas, dragging me away. Then my right arm carries me further. And for a moment, the blood running down my cheek and the cries from my stomach are the last of my pain. Then something grips my ankle. No no n-!
Some kind of force carries me into the sky. She's swinging me over her head! My body splats on the ground, and I scatter into a million pieces.
The impact pushes my breath out, and I lie still hoping to recapture some part of myself. But the hand is still latched onto me, and I fly again, slamming against the ring floor. And then again, and again she manhandles me like a ragdoll. My hair comes loose, parting my already dazed eyes.
The slams don't hurt so much because of the malleable floor, but I can't breathe! Every breath I take gets pushed out moments later! It's agony, having my lungs filled and then emptied repeatedly!
I desperately swing for her head, but the compromising position makes it impossible for my arms to reach her. So, I draw my foot back, lock onto her demonic face, and mid-swing, drive my foot into her cheek.
The kick is enough to get her to release my leg! I tumble to the ground, and air finally flows back into me. The little bit of relief gives my muscles strength again, and I crawl to the other edge of the cage, hiding as far away from that animal as I can.
This is the first time I've gotten a look at her since I got punched. What happened? I thought I was fighting a person. Her white stare is freezing my fighting spirit numb. She's grown to fill the entire cage, her shadow's blacked out the ring. No matter where I go- she'll get me. Dodging is pointless because she'll crush me in her rough palms no matter where I run.
I-I can't win! I need to forfeit. I can't beat her, she's invincible!
My cracked lips open to tell her I want to quit. Then, a memory flashes into my head. A memory of the last time I felt this helpless, this pathetic, and the promise I made to myself the same day. If I forfeit now... I haven't changed. Everything they thought about me would be true.
I hold onto the gate to help straighten my frail legs, and I finally take one long interrupted breath in and out. I can do this. The air bolsters my knees, giving me stability, and turns red hot when it reaches every broken finger and fractured bone. I can do this! She might be fast, maybe even faster than me, but all that means is I have to improve now!
I won't lose! I'll reach their level, exceed it, and this bitch isn't going to stop me!
If I break my arms I'll beat her with my legs!
And if my legs break, I'll split her head open with my damn skull!
I spit out the wad of blood that was pooling in my mouth, leap up to her eye level, breathe in ice, and strike her face with fire from my leg. Her head moves with my firecracker kick, and the opening it creates becomes apparent when I land and twist my entire being into an uppercut meant to split her jaw in half.
It hurt her, and it doesn't hurt me. It wouldn't hurt them so it can't hurt me. Nothing hurts me! I'll go past my limits, then past theirs!
I will win!