CH_4.10 (110)

CH_4.10 (110)

Takuma sat on the sole bench in the fighter's tunnel. Beside him stood a Ring employee standing, and one look told how tense he was— anyone would be tense while standing close to Takuma as he was now. Even though his face was hidden behind a mask, and the dark tunnel obscured his eyes, the vibe coming from the body language was heavy and oppressive.

It couldn't be clearer that Takuma wasn't in a good mood.

"... The fight will begin shortly," said the employee.

Takuma nodded without looking up.

His debut in the 2v1 category was supposed to be a 'momentous' day, and he wished to be in peak condition for the fight, but for the past three days, his mood had been in flames ever since his last fight.

If given a choice, Takuma wouldn't participate in the Ring. And while aware of his feelings towards the Ring, he was cognizant of the fact that, as it stood, his life revolved around the Ring. His fights were arguably the most important part of his training, the majority of his income source, the reason behind why he sold drugs, and why he had to be so careful with everything about his personal life. Life could've been so much easier if the Ring wasn't part of it— but he still did it because of his future.

And perhaps it was because of that that Takuma took the Ring quite seriously. Every victory brought money, but every fight also carried the risk of injury and death to him and the opponent— even though every fighter knew not to make mortal strikes, anything was possible in the heat of the battle.

Strangely so, Takuma had developed a sense of pride in what he did. For him, it took a lot of work to perform in every battle. He had to train for it, ensure he was in tip-top condition for the fight, and then actually fight while keeping in mind to minimize injuries to reduce future risk and expenditure. Which made every win precious— making it hard-earned.

So, when he realized that Tsubura had rigged the fight against Fall Hornet to get him an easy win, that pride of his had been hurt. When he should've been happy for the quick and easy no-injury win, he felt the win was cheap. Takuma told himself he was needlessly caring about it too much, but no matter how much he repeated it to himself, he couldn't convince himself not to feel absolute shit.

He didn't think he had been angrier in his life.

He felt insulted.

"It's time," said the employee.

Takuma stood up from his bench and walked to the exit. The announcer was finishing introducing the duo fighting him. He closed his eyes and focused on the crowd's noise and cheers— it was larger than usual, perhaps even larger than when he had fought Ironbull, his biggest fight in the Ring.

The hype surrounding 2v1 was huge. The arena chosen for it was also one of the larger ones to accommodate the capacity. He hadn't been to the Ring since last week, but he had heard one of his clients that he would watch and bet on the fight.

Takuma heard his 'stage name' called and walked out of the tunnel sedately. Immediately, the noise levels rose and hit him like a wall. He didn't look at anyone no matter how much they rattled the mesh walls around him, calmly walked into the arena, and only then did he look around and the crowd was indeed larger, people standing around banging shoulders against each other, screaming their throats out in anticipation of a bloody battle.

Takuma had done public speaking a couple of times, and the eyes of the crowd had bothered him, but strangely enough, the crowd in the Ring didn't do anything for him. He had fought in front of a paltry group of few and a packed crowd— they were both the same. When there was a person in front of you trying to break your bones or stick pointy metals in your body, there was no time to worry about crowds.

He then finally looked at his opponents for the day. Seeing two people in the arena other than him was somewhat strange. He hadn't seen a 2v1 fight due to their rarity; the few times they were held, he wasn't free to go and watch them. Adding one more person made the large arena feel smaller, which was true when you considered how much distance an average person could cover and command.

But he did know his opponents. The Ring informed the fighters about their opponents beforehand. When Takuma was new, the competition he was fighting was bottom of the barrel, so not much information was available about them. However, as he collected wins and the fights got more formidable, the opposition also rose in quality and thus had more details about them due to their popularity.

The Ring staff also got friendlier when he signed his second contract, giving him tips and tricks when he dropped by the offices after every fight. Takuma was genuinely able to understand why Ring fighters joined teams.

He squatted down as he stared at his opponents.

Two men. One of them had a simple red circle on the plain mask where the nose was supposed to be, and the source of his name— Clown Nose. And his partner for the fight— Stonehands, a name that allegedly came from abnormally large hands, disproportionate to the man's height and better-suited someone seven feet tall— big enough to palm a basketball comfortably.

Both of them were on their second contract, each having more fights than him— but they had records worse than him. From what the announcer had announced, it seemed both had a sub-50%-win record.

Clown Nose had enough time to gather himself and was ready when Takuma came at him, and within an instant, they exchanged strikes with speeds that blurred their arms to the untrained eye.

Clown Nose screwed a punch into Takuma's side, but not without Takuma striking a palm strike behind Clown Nose's ear. Takuma stumbled a few steps due to the pain in his side, but he bit the inside of his cheek when he saw Clown Nose grabbing the side of his head in pain.

He skipped a step forward and launched a taekwondo-styled high side kick that dug Takuma's clipped Clown Nose's chin before digging into the throat.

Takuma felt a wave of exhilaration shoot through him that erased all the anger he was feeling from before the fight. He never knew the feeling of landing a satisfying strike before coming to this world, but after over two years of learning combat, he cherished every time he got to experience a perfectly executed strike. There were few things that could match that experience.

Even before Clown Nose collapsed to the ground, Takuma knew that he was done. And as he expected, Clown Nose crumbled flat down on the arena floor.

Takuma turned away from Clown Nose and faced Stonehands. He didn't rush towards, and neither did Stonehands, whose arms were now trembling. Both of them knew that the dynamics of the fight had changed— with Clown Nose out of the game, the fight was no longer 2v1.

It was now a regular fight— but a regular fight between two fighters who weren't on the same level.

Takuma didn't take the foot off the pedal and charged for Stonehands, who shook his hands and got ready for the clash. Takuma took to the air with his leg stretched forward, but before it could hit, Stonehand's giant claws grabbed onto Takuma's leg, and he swung Takuma around with surprising strength. The giant hand wrapped around Takuma's ankle like a cuff.

Takuma had his entire balance and momentum stripped from him, but while he was being pulled mid-air, his eyes were trained on Stonehands, giving him a place to focus. He bent his knees, and before he was slammed to the ground, he snapped a kick into Stonehands' upper chest.

Stonehands' grip loosened around Takuma's ankle, but the momentum was already enough to slam Takuma into the arena floor, knocking all the air out of his lungs. He freed his foot from Stonehands' grip but was left in a worse position than him.

It took a moment for both fighters to recover before they were back into the fight. Stonehands went for a stomp that Takuma avoided with a roll to the side and immediately struck out with a sweeping kick to take out Stonehands' legs, getting him to the ground.

Takuma immediately rolled to the side and jumped on Stonehands' back, and the next moment, one of his arms snaked around Stonehands' neck while the other arm locked the head in between two arms before Takuma began applying pressure.

Stonehands must've felt the danger from what was happening as he started to thrash around while trying to get Takuma off his back, but Takuma wasn't going to let the opportunity go as he kneed Stonehands in the back while increasing the pressure around Stonehands' neck.

"Rargh!"

Stonehands tried to stand up, and with his superior strength, he was able to stand up with Takuma on his back with legs wrapped around his waist. But the moment Stonehands was able to stabilize himself, his eyes partially rolled up, and he stumbled back for a couple of steps before falling again with Takuma, not letting the pressure around the neck go.

Stonehands hands clawed for Takuma's arm for a few moments before the entire body went limp.

Takuma let go of Stonehands and stood up with labored breathing while looking down at Stonehands and then at the unconscious Clown Nose in the distance.

And then he raised his arm, which the crowd took as the signal to go cause an underground earthquake.

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