The fight was about to begin. Everyone in the room understood that Damon had the advantage. He had received the most bets by far, and his entrance had made all of them afraid of his strength and skill.
The referee stepped forward and raised his hands to get the crowd's attention. "Now we come to what we've all been waiting for. Here are the rules. The two sides have each picked a champion to represent them, and their contest decides who rules the city of Baltimore. There is no time limit and there are no points. The only way to end the fight is through surrender or death."
"Ladies and gentlemen," he continued. "Get ready. Tonight's contest starts…" he paused, drawing out the suspense before finally crying, "Now!"
The referee stepped back and went out of the ring. The audience roared, and Alex and Damon stood looking at each other.
"You could just give up now," Damon said and looked at Alex with disdain. "Just kneel and admit defeat, and you won't get hurt."
Damon lived for fighting, but he took no pleasure in fighting Alex. When he looked at him, he saw a rookie and a weakling. The mere thought of fighting him was insulting.
"I'd say the same to you," Alex responded. "You could just stop boasting and back out. Have you ever heard the expression, 'the bigger you are, the harder you fall'?"
Alex respected Damon as a fighter. He had heard plenty of stories about the other man's skills. But when he had opened his mouth and spoken to him the way he had, it had only increased his urge to fight. Damon was too arrogant, and Alex was determined not to grovel before him.
"I gave you a chance, you little fool," Damon said. Alex's response had angered him. "I won't go easy on you."
Suddenly, Damon made his first move. He leapt into the air and straightened his leg as he came down on Alex. He looked like a javelin, and his foot was like a steel weight coming to crush its target.
Alex reacted quickly. He braced himself, held out his hands, and caught Damon's foot as it came down on him. He directed it straight downward in front of him, and Damon's foot cracked the wood as it went straight through the floor.
Alex was shocked. It was no wonder that this man had defeated Paul. If this first strike had come down on me, he thought, it would have crushed me.
While Damon yanked his foot out of the hole in the floor, Alex took the opportunity to step over to the other side of the ring.
Damon was also surprised. If this kid can so easily defend against that move, he thought, then he's a more worthy opponent than I thought.
He looked at Alex and smiled. "I'm glad. I thought this fight would be boring." His face grew darker. "But you should have stood still and accepted it. It would have been less painful. Instead, you decided to try to fight me. You're going to regret that."
He threw himself at Alex once again. As he came flying through the air, his legs moved in a frenzied pattern. Alex thought it would be impossible to defend himself against his attack.
So he chose not to do so. He decided to go on the offence. He leapt forward and met Damon in the air. As he passed over Damon, Alex parried his kicks and tried to jam his heel into his chest. But they were evenly matched. They passed safely each other and landed on opposite sides of the ring.
Damon was growing more and more perplexed. He still thought of Alex as a child. But now this child had parried to of his attacks. It was unacceptable.
"Take this!" he shouted as he struck at Alex with his left leg.
Alex caught the leg with both hands and twisted to redirect the force of its momentum. Then he used his body weight to force Damon to swing much wider than he had anticipated, and it caused him to lose his balance. He fell to the floor.
Art became nervous. The fight was not going as he thought it would. He gripped the edges of his armrests tightly and stared nervously at the combatants.
Damon stood up. "You little twerp!" he shouted. "You've just made me angry. Now I'm going to destroy you!"
He was deeply embarrassed. Alex had made him lose face in front of an entire group of people, and his honour was at stake. Not only his honour but the honour of the Blood Brothers gang he represented. There was only one way to fix it. He stared at Alex with murder in his eyes.
He readied himself to make another attack. But as he bent his legs to leap at Alex, the floor creaked loudly and gave way beneath him. He cried out as he fell into a hole, and he got stuck halfway down. As he pulled himself up, his trousers ripped, revealing his strong legs.
Alex could immediately tell how Damon's kicks could carry such force. His legs were thick and twisted with muscles. They were more like tree trunks than human limbs. He must have been training kicks every day of his life.
Damon readied himself for another attack. This time, he did not use his legs for kicking. Instead, he used the explosive power of his whole body to rain heavy punches down on Alex. His onslaught was like a tornado, and Alex could not help but go on the defensive.
Damon had practised this move often. It required immense skill and stamina, and he knew that it would drain his energy. But he had to finish Alex off quickly to regain his honour, and he could think of no other way.
The audience was taken aback by the sheer force of Damon's attack. Celeste, Selene, and Nelly cried out in fear. They worried that this attack would be too much for Alex to handle.
Alex concentrated all his strength on defending himself. He knew that if he made the slightest mistake, he would be seriously injured. When he was given a slim respite from Damon's barrage, he focused all his power on his legs and pushed himself off the ground.
Damon matched his move. Their feet met in the air, and all their combined power collided in a single point. The impact rushed through Damon's leg. It felt as if he had been hit by a tidal wave. He let out a blood-curdling scream and fell to the floor. His leg had been broken in several places.
Alex landed neatly on the floor beside him. He was not hurt at all. He could hardly believe it. It felt as if my leg was being torn apart, he thought. But I think my internal force protected me. It's all thanks to Georgina and Zora's power.
The audience was stunned. They stared in disbelief at what had happened, and then they broke out in an uproar over the unbelievable result. Art's face was gloomy and terrible. His neck was throbbing, and his heart was in his throat.
"Get back up and destroy him!" Chris shouted at Damon in desperation. He refused to believe what he was seeing. They could not afford to lose this fight.
Julian joined in. "Get up!" he cried anxiously. "You pathetic scum. We've bet the future of our families on you!"
"There's no point," Celeste told him. "His leg bone is broken. It's over. I told you he was no match for Mr. Alex. It was stupid of him to try."
Damon thrashed around on the floor in the ring. He held on to his legs and groaned painfully.
Alex walked up to him and watched him. He almost felt bad for him.
"Do you surrender?" Alex asked.
He hadn't forgotten the rules of the fight. It wouldn't end until one of them conceded or was killed. And he wanted to spare Damon's life.
"Surrender?" Damon asked and looked up at Alex. He tried to smile, but the pain was too much for him. He muttered through the pain. "Should I surrender to someone like you? You're nothing. You don't even understand what you've done. I could never surrender to you."
He forced himself to laugh, but it quickly turned into agonizing spasms. When they stopped, he started muttering to himself. "I'm nothing. Defeated by a nobody. My leg's been destroyed. I'll never fight again. But fighting is my life. I can't live without it."
He looked Alex in the eye, and Alex was struck with the terrible realization that he knew what was about to happen.
Before he could react, Damon rested his head against one of the protruding floorboards. The look in his eye was a curious mix of emptiness and determination. He took a deep breath. Then he raised his arm and struck himself as hard as he could on the side of the head. Blood ran down his neck and from his nostrils, and his body turned limp. His legs twitched slightly, and then he stopped moving.