I swung my arm out, but Chancey dodged it, and I stumbled forward into the ropes. This fight was pathetic, and the crowd knew it, too. They were getting bored.
“I wanna see some blood!”
“Show him what you’ve got, Chancey!”
Captain’s voice broke through the roaring crowd. “Knock him down, dammit!”
Chancey jumped me from behind, tackling me to the ground. He punched me between the shoulders, conveniently between two bruises. He sat on top of me, pressing the side of my face into the floor. I bucked him off as quickly as I could, then kicked him square in the gut before he could get to his feet. The crowd cheered. We both jumped to opposite sides of the ring as we scrambled upright.
“You’re right,” Chancey said. “Your magic doesn’t make you weak. You know what does? Your hopeless attachment to Ava-Marie.”
My temper flared immediately. “Don’t cross the line,” I warned him.
“Maybe I need to!” he spat over the roar of the crowd. “You need to take this fight seriously!”
I scoffed as I rocked my weight between my feet. “Your lame attempt at trash talk is starting to piss me off.”
“Good,” he said. “Then I’m succeeding.”
I jumped at Chancey. I aimed for his face, but my fist landed on his shoulder. He cried out, but I suspected it was more for the crowd’s benefit than anything. I hadn’t hit him very hard.
“You’re a pathetic little child who needs a woman to give you purpose,” Chancey accused. “You’re devastated about Ava because you’re afraid no one will ever love you again. You have no idea who you truly are, because everything that was ever good about you is part of Ava now—”
I lowered my shoulder and threw myself at Chancey. My shoulder landed on his gut, and we went flying into the ropes. We bounced off of them, and he rolled across the ground, landing on his stomach. I jumped on top of him before he could move. I wrapped my arms around his leg and yanked it backward, pinning the other one under my knee. The crowd screamed in exhilaration.
“You’re an asshole, you know that?” I growled.
“I’m just telling it like it is!” He laughed.
I didn’t know if Chancey believed anything he’d said, but I didn’t question it, either. If I did, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to finish this fight.
Chancey hooked the back of his knee around my neck and flipped the both of us over, until he gained the upper hand. At this point, we were just trying to make the fight look good. He squeezed my neck tight with his legs, so much that I began gasping for air.
“That’s it!” Captain shouted from outside the ring. The crowd went wild as I struggled for breath. “Get him!”
I punched Chancey a few times in the leg, but he didn’t let up.
“Come on, Charlie!” he cried. “You can do better than that!”
Chancey punched me in the face, and one of my wounds from my last fight broke open. Blood trickled down my cheek and into my mouth. I spat it out, and the crowd went wild.
“Hit me harder, Charlie!” Chancey screamed. “Do it! Make me bleed!”
I panicked, because I was running out of air. I tried cheating, because I just didn’t care anymore, and I forced Air into my lungs with my magic.
But it wasn’t enough. Chancey had cut off my airways. He wanted me to play dirty.
And so I did.
I grabbed a handful of skin on Chancey’s leg and twisted so hard I was sure he’d end up with a bruise larger than my head. Chancey cried out in pain, which sounded real this time. His hold on me let up, and I shoved him off of me, gasping for breath.
“Finish him off!” someone in the crowd screamed.
The world spun around me as I drew in greedy breaths. Chancey had nearly knocked me out, and I stumbled as I got up.
“Chase me, Charlie,” Chancey taunted as he hobbled to the other end of the ring. I must’ve really hurt him.
I stumbled toward him and kicked, but I missed him entirely. It was more or less on purpose.
