The Ring

Natalya Pov :

I practically dragged my feet up to the ring and stood opposite the boy, but not too close.

He was obviously staring at me like he had already killed me and won.

I give it to him. I mean, when I was in Base One, nobody stood a chance with me, because I always won.

But before I did so, I made sure I beat the living brightness out of your normal self so you wouldn’t have the nerve to come at me again.

But this actually seemed to be the same scenario, only reversed, I was the prey and he was the hunter.

The man in charge of us, I didn’t seem to grab his name when he introduced himself came closer to us and slowly gave out the instructions.

“The rules here state that you are not allowed to hit anybody’s sensitive parts, but you are allowed to attack the person when you find out their weakness. And finally, two don’t leave the ring. It’s required to have only one survivor, and that’s it. So as you two can see, I’ve got all the time in the world. We could stay here for a week if it means only one person gets off that ring and leaves a dead soul. Yeah, let’s wrap it here,” he said, and moved to a seat adjacent to us so he could have a clear view.

The game didn’t start yet until the man I assumed to be the commander came in, followed by the Tier Two inmates those who had already graduated. They took their seats respectively, and everywhere went dead silent when the man blew the whistle.

“Game on!” he screamed with joy all over his face. I stared at him and was disgusted by how he was happy putting two thirteen-year-olds in a ring and asking them to box to death.

Although I knew I would be the one to die, I just didn’t imagine myself dead in this kind of place.

Still in my thoughts, I felt something hard and very hurtful hit my head, and I zoned in immediately. It was the death-stare guy that blew me.

“Ouch!” That really hurt, no kidding. I faced him fully with my hands squeezed, ready to blow him, but I wasn’t too fast. I was just in my stance, and I watched him move from one angle to the other, hopping like a frog.

I have watched a frog hop, and I’ve calculated how far they go, but the difference is that a frog is a little slippery while he is just human.

He moved forward, throwing another punch at my.. what! my ankle. This boy just wanted to break my bones before he killed me, jeez.

Just as I was still groaning in pain, he aimed at my stomach and hit it. Bloody Mary… I felt my whole intestines leaving their comfort zone. Nothing is more painful than a hit to the stomach.

Still in pain, this guy didn’t even give me a chance to recover from the stomach blow. He hit me very hard on my shoulder. He was practically attempting to weaken me in places that would stop me from fighting back.

I stood up from where I was practically kneeling, trying to reduce the pain I was feeling in my stomach. That was when this idiot of a man blew the whistle, which forced the boy to halt in what he wanted to do.

“Princess, are you just gonna stay there doing nothing while receiving the end blow? Do you think this is a joke?” he shouted. The way he said it pissed me off, and I had to talk back.

“Sir, what the fuck were you thinking, giving a girl a death-stare-faced human to fight with? You wanted me dead in the first place.” What I said drew a hole from him. Yeah, that’s right you don’t mess with me and act like nothing happened, I muttered to myself.

“Who the fu..” Before he could complete the sentence, the commander shut him up. Yeah, that’s what I thought.

“What’s your real name, Princess?” he asked, which took me off guard.

“I’m Rose, sir,” I answered with an innocent look in my eyes. He stared at me for a little bit, then I heard what I never needed to hear in my life. Now I was starting to regret why I ran my mouth.

“Hey, get me one of our best inmates from Tier Two. I want the person to finish this dumbass off. Ain’t nobody going against me in my territory, do you hear me, Princess?” he said, motioning at my lifeless self. I just nodded at least now I knew they really didn’t want me alive here.

When I thought I had had enough, they brought in a very muscular guy. I could guess he might be fifteen already.

He looked proud as he walked. Yeah, he must feel honored to be running a stupid errand for this commander.

The new guy climbed into the ring, and they signaled the first guy to get off the ring, which he did obediently.

I didn’t need anyone to tell me to get into the ring. I just walked in and faced him. Let’s give this a trial. I stood ready to take him when I heard the whistle blow.

Before I could analyze where to hit him, I already found myself on the floor. My back was no good at all, but good thing I knew he was fast.

I jerked up immediately, and I heard chants of “woah… wow… she looks confident.” My head started to grow big, because I enjoy it when people think I’m cool. I aimed at his jaw and gave him a quick shot just when he wanted to avoid it.

I diverted the blow to his stomach and took him by surprise. He groaned a little, and I smirked.

Now I liked the look of that. But just as I wanted to celebrate my victory a little bit, he hit my knee, and I stumbled to the floor. That one got me. It hurt like hell, man. I cursed under my breath.

He rushed to grab me from where I was still on the floor, looking pathetic. I stood back up immediately, but I was obviously limping, and he smiled at the sight of that. He really was enjoying this.

I looked around me and realized that I was on my own in this one, and nobody would save me. So if I wanted to die, at least I would die as a fighter, not a pathetic loser. I stood firmly, but my knee was seriously aching. Still, I held my stance and faced him.

“Princess, don’t waste your energy. At least you’ve had enough already. Just tap out or something,” he said with a teasing grin.

I wasn’t finding it funny, so I told him, “Not after I deal with you. I think you should be the one tapping out.”

The statement made him laugh hard at me, but not before saying, “Now I’m seeing why your dad ditched you off. You are nothing but trash to roll over.”

That one hit me real hard. I hate to admit it, but my dad really did hurt me, and I hate it when a stranger spits those words at me. It hits differently.

I didn’t want his words to affect me, so I ignored him and stared at him with my hands still in fists, waiting for his next move.

That was when I remembered what my coach once told me that if you strike an enemy and they seem stiff and strong, use their weakness, whether emotional or physical.

This joke of a guy thought he could get me emotionally, whatever he thought he was doing, but nah. I already passed that phase. I went through that shit back in Base One.

My dad ordered his men to beat me mercilessly when he heard that I was beaten through emotional stuff. The idiots almost beat me to death.

They always had fun beating me and leaving marks, so I don’t think this ass right here knew that I don’t fall for emotional shit.

He stared at me for a while, drifted to my side, then jogged backward like he wanted to hit me into a stupor. But he wasn’t quick enough this time.

I aimed at his side, just beside his stomach, and gave him a hard blow. I could guess his rib might have been broken because he groaned, trying to hold onto the pain, but blood rolled out of his nose since he didn’t let it out through his mouth.

I gave him an “I knew it” smile and ventured further.

I grabbed him by his leg and made him lose balance, and he fell to the ground. I didn’t let him take a break. I raised my leg as high as I could and threw it at his face. He curled into a circle in pain.

Now I liked the sight of that. The Tier Two inmates were so quiet, unlike earlier when they were all “woah” and stuff.

I stood aside and gave him the privilege to regain the remaining dignity he had left, at least for the sake of his fans, because he seemed to be the crowd favorite.

But I wasn’t done yet, because I wasn’t ready to die just yet.

He gently stood up, but he was visibly shaken. Maybe I really did break his ribs. He locked his hands into fists and aimed at me. I dodged it and changed position.

The crowd was cheering me, and I liked it. Then he did something that surprised me, he went on his knees.

“Wait, what… bro, what the fuck are you doing?”

I questioned him, just to know whether he was trying to lure me down or something. He hit his hand on the floor and said in a loud voice, “I tap out, please. She’s too strong for me. I can’t… I can’t breathe… please, Com..”

He said in a shaky voice, but the commander held his hand up in the air and motioned for the guards to take the guy out. Maybe I really did hit him hard for him to tap out in just two blows.

The commander motioned to the death-stare guy who left the ring earlier and gave him the sign to get into the ring. Okay, this was getting interesting.

“Now this one isn’t the one you tap out on, Princess. You face death. I was gonna ask him to go easy on you, but you just injured my favorite Tier Two so badly. If you kill this one, then I’ll give you a name no one would challenge,” he said with pride, because he knew there was a possibility that I wouldn’t win this next match. I mean, I didn’t want to die myself.

I stood and faced the death-faced guy. When I heard the whistle, I was a little weak because I had just fought a tough person.

The death-faced kid rushed me, but I was quick to shift to the side.

That made him stumble because he came with force, his back facing me. I hit his spinal cord real hard. That’s a major place that can paralyze a human.

He stood stiff immediately. Yeah, that one got him. I lifted my leg to the side of his neck and hit it hard. He fell to the ground and rolled in pain, it was unbearable.

I knew, because I had been hit like that before. Just before he made an attempt to move his hand to support his body, I raised my leg real high this time and struck his neck. It cracked, and his body became still without much struggle.

I went closer to him and shook his hand. Then I realized he was dead.

“He’s dead!” I screamed, and the commander took a close look at him and shouted, “Natalya,” which means **THE NEMESIS**.

I mean, my name sounded cool… and yeah, you wouldn’t want to face the Nemesis, would you?