Thomas and Noaki stared each other down in their respective stances. Thomas in his classic boxing stance while Naoki was in a Brazilian Jujitsu stance. Seeing that stance made Thomas sweat.
He is a boxer, and any boxer would tell you that a submission style is their Achilles heel. If they are caught, and unable to use their arms, hips, or legs, their style becomes hard to win with. Hence many boxers switched over to kick boxing to show that they can still fight. And while it makes sense, Thomas was a purist. A man who pursued his favorite sport of all ever since hearing about how his grandfather took out so many men in the ring as he rose through the ranks to become a junior champion. Thomas wanted to be the next championship boxer to bring home a trophy for his family.
His father became a coach as he had no talent, and his younger brother is still in high school and trying his best to make it as a track and field star. So it was left up to Thomas to become the next boxing champ in his family. And so what if he needed to help save his best friend Derrick, alongside his other best friend Evan, on the road to achieve this dream? He will do anything to show he can do the boxing his family dreams of!
He readies his gloves in his stance as he checks on Noaki, and grows nervous as he notices Noaki's stance being a Jujitsu stance. He was used to fighting Evan and sparring against Zoey, but those were friendly spars. This was a no holds barred underground fight. if he wasn't careful he could lose the use of half his body or even die.
He looks to Derrick, who is still beaten up and bleeding like crazy, then steels his resolve. He would gladly give up an arm to help protect his friends.
He waits for the bell only to startle as Naoki rushes towards Thomas without a bell signal.
Thomas raises his arms in defense, but is thrown off his flow so hard as Naoki crashes into his mid section taking Thomas to the ground. Thomas tries to get out from the sudden pin only to see Naoki begins to ground pound him. Thomas desperately puts up his arms only to feel bruises forming after the first few punches land. Thomas begins to flinch hard as these punches hurt a lot due to not feeling the familiar boxing gloves he has grown used to.
As the fight goes on everyone watches on with worried looks, while the gang members are cheering for the success of Naoki. Evan grimaces as he sees Thomas pinned so early into the fight. 'Shit, Thomas can get out of this, but his flow of the battle was interrupted. He needs to focus on what to do. Hmmm, the gang members are shouting encouragement, we can do that too. Heh didn't think I would need to channel Thomas's dad any time soon.'
Everyone around Evan flinches away as they feel his aura change from a fighter, to an irate coach. Evan yells out, "Thomas! What kind of weak defense is that? I thought we went over pins and counters in our gym son! Hurry up and show me what you can do!"
Naoki is actually stunned at that before going, "Gym? Son? What are you his dad?"
Evan grins as Thomas has a change over come his features, "Not exactly, but close enough for him." As Evan points to Thomas.
Naoki gasps and refocuses on Thomas only to see the formerly overthinking boxers face morph into one of a steel will and iron determination. Noaki gulps as Thomas does a point blank upper cut right into Noaki's chin. Making him leap off of the pinned boxer in a hurry to avoid serious injury. He backs up but this proves to be a mistake as Thomas rushes into the now broken guard of his opponent. Naoki goes to ready a defense only to receive a liver blow, then a kidney blow, then a sternum blow, then a hip blow, then a thigh blow, then the pattern repeats.
Naoki is slowly getting turned into a pinata as a children's birthday party. Naoki took a combo of at least 20 punches before he manages to fight through the pain and bring up his knee to try and strike Thomas. However Thomas shocks him and everyone else as he does an advanced footwork maneuver doing a spinning twist dodge that completely avoids the knee strike, and has him end up behind Naoki.
Naoki begins to turn but Thomas grins as he uses a style his father drilled into him should he ever be stuck against a criminal.
-- Flashback --
Younger Thomas is seen punching a bag but with a different style of boxing, "Dad? Are you sure I should know this kind of movements? I mean I plan to be in the ring, not in an underground tournament."
His dad looking like a grizzled old coach in a tracksuit is seen chuckling, "Yes I'm sure, after all you need to learn how to fight off a random criminal who plans to mug you or your family. I won't have you ending up like your uncle. he was on his way to the boxing circuit, before someone threatened him to dive with a gun and a knife. he fought them with his boxing style, but he wasn't used to street fights. So he was beaten up and thus unable to recover from those injuries. So this style of boxing will serve you well in those cases. Understood son?"
Younger Thomas nods before returning to the bag and hitting the small targets painted on it before twisting his whole body while doing a twister punch an dlanding on the highest target. He was practicing...
-- Flashback ends --
Thomas punches forward with his whole body twisting into a twisted corkscrew punch that lands right into Naoki's head. Thomas was a practitioner of Dirty Boxing!
His whole group cheers while Derrick barely manages a smile at the sound of a body falling and his friends voices cheering.
The Russian group all fall silent in disbelief that a boxer would use the dirty version of their style so easily. They all glare holes into Thomas but he shrugs them off and grins at Naoki who has fallen to the ground.
He struggles to rise to his feet, but his head is ringing, his ears are feeling numb, his eyes are seeing stars and spots, his brain feels sluggish, and his limbs won't listen to him at all. He manages to turn over before he sees Thomas standing over him looking down on him with eyes as cold as a winter storm.
Naoki begins to feel fear before he looks into those eyes and something snaps inside, "AAAAARGH!!!!" He shocks everyone there as he rants hard, "I don't get it! I have talent! I trained to a new level! I made sure to endure so much to reach where I am as a fighter! You are just a basic, average joe, from a basic family! I have a long line of excellent practitioners in my family lineage! We have been training in my family for 4 generations! We are superior to your family! We have the talent! We have the genes! So why does everyone look down on me with that same cold calculating look of superiority! I couldn't make it at Zara's gym! I couldn't have Zara! I was beaten down by a newbie who had been there for only a few days! Why Can't I win?!?!"
After a harsh panting follows the deafening silence, Thomas doesn't let down his guard but he does look at Naoki with something else, something that Naoki has received only a few times in his life, a rare mixture of pity, and empathy.
Thomas looks at his gloves then back to the fallen fighter and says, "It isn't all about you all the time man. In fact, everyone has their own story. I was born to a family of boxers. my dad is a boxing coach, my uncle is a failed boxer, my grandpa was a junior champ. And my great grandfather was a mid tier champ. I have a lot to live up to. But you know what the difference between us is?"
Naoki grits his teeth that a commoner would try to empathize with him like this but shakes his head.
Thomas looks at him with pure conviction, "You rest on your past laurels and think the world belongs to you just because of genetics, or talent, or because you have put in 'some' effort. We all struggle to reach our dreams. You hope they would fall into your lap. I am training not just to reach a dream of a championship belt. But I am also reaching for a dream that allows me to protect my friends, and be there for my allies. I will be able to defend my family from any bastards like you who think they are dirt to be stepped on and forgotten about. So either realize how wrong you were, or get the f**k out of my way man. I am saving my buddy Derrick. So choose."
Naoki grits his teeth so hard you can hear them grinding as his gums bleed slightly from the pressure. He stands up quickly despite the light concussion he is suffering from and rushes at Thomas. He readies his hands for a neck submission grapple and roars out, "Then go ahead and die with your dreams here! Dreams are just that! Dreams! They won't be there for you forever! Now die having failed your dream!"
Naoki rushes towards Thomas, who is now just standing there with his arms down at his sides, and Noaki grins in a crazy way thinking he got to Thomas. Right before his eyes go wide in shock and he gasps in wonder. Thomas suddenly disappears from his view.
As he wonders where the boxer went he suddenly feels a powerful punch to his gut that folds him in half. He bends a solid 180 around his middle to where his upper body was parallel to his lower body and sees a hyper focused Thomas staring him right back in the eyes. Naoki sees not anger, or pity, or even fear in those eyes, he only sees determination and conviction.
Thomas then said, "Then I'm sorry your dreams were so fragile that you couldn't keep them." Then his finishes his blow by lurching his whole body into the twin punch that Noaki just had endured. This sends Naoki flying into the crates by the group of gang fighters. They are all shocked at this display of strength and ferocity before they begin to plan who will fight next.
Thomas stumbles back to his friends while swaying slightly while Evan pulls up a crate for Thomas to sit on. He hands him some water as Thomas sits and Zoey begins to massage his shoulders and arms while Zara massages his back. Evan grins at him while saying, "Nice work man! And glad you held onto your dream so well! We will be here to support you as best we can!"
Thomas smiles tiredly as he sips the water and Evan glances and analyzes the group before them going, 'We have a hard battle ahead of us. And a long time to stall for our back up plan to activate. But we can do it. Besides I think this will be a good evolution experience for everyone involved.'
He looks at the notification he got for Thomas.
*Congratulations! Your friend Thomas has managed to hold onto his ideals and reinforce his dream! He has broken through to Enhanced Human race! Evolution successful!*
Evan smiles at this news and grins at the enemy group. he knew they had more to fight, but this would be a good chance to grow all of their skills in the coming fights.