Bounty (26 page)

J
oel paced in the back
, waiting for his name to be called. His first match had ended quickly, but he knew that the second may not be as easy since his opponent would at least be good enough to have won his own first match. He had been lucky that Sam had been so obvious in looking for a takedown, wanting to turn the fight into a wrestling match. Normally, Joel would have no problem with that, he was very comfortable on the ground, however with Sam so interested in taking it there, Joel suspected that his standing game wasn't very strong. He tested his theory with a couple of knees to the stomach, and was rewarded when Sam flinched enough to open his neck up for a choke.

Besides, when Sam had knocked him down the first time, Joel's head had hit the mat. It hadn't hit too hard, he had made sure to tuck his chin as much as possible, but it was enough to agitate his injury. If he could avoid doing that again, he'd be happy.

The dojo wasn't posting the bracket anywhere, so he wasn't sure who he was fighting next, but he had a pretty good idea about how at least six of the eight remaining fighters fought. Two of them had moved directly to round two, so he was hoping that he wouldn't end up with one of those. It may not be a massive advantage to have watched the other guys fight just that single time, but it was something. He'd take what he could get.

He heard his name being called and he took a deep and calming breath before pushing aside the curtain and making his way to the ring. He was first this time, and he was pretty sure that he was getting more cheers than he had during match one. Clearly his quick finish had won over a few fans. But there was only one of them that mattered. He gave Amber a quick glance as he manoeuvred between the ropes. She smiled widely and he wondered yet again what he'd done to deserve her attention.

"And his opponent, from Minneapolis, Minnesota... weighing 230 lbs... Jackson Daily!"

Joel glanced towards the curtain, and the black man from the fight earlier emerged to start making his way to the ring. The southpaw.

This second match, as well as the next one, were both also ten minutes however they were being separated into two five minute rounds. That made it closer to a real MMA style match. The final fight would add a third round. He could only hope to make it that long.

Jackson was in the ring, and the referee signaled them to begin.

The two men started circling each other, each one throwing out exploratory jabs that were easily blocked by his opponent. As with his last match, Jackson was favoring his left more often. In response, Joel stepped slightly to his own left, keeping away from Jackson's power side. As he hoped, Jackson didn't compensate by moving his own stance to his right to even them up again. Now, whenever Jackson threw his left, it was a lot easier for Joel to dodge, as well as opening his opponent up in the center. On Jackson's next attack, Joel ducked to the left and then threw a right, connecting right in between the guard of Jackson and clocking him right in the nose.

The black man stumbled back in surprise and Joel followed up with a forward kick right to the midsection. Jackson doubled forward but lifted his hands in time to counter Joel's follow up hook.

Both men stood and squared off again, but Jackson still wasn't paying enough attention to Joel's stance and he was once again able to get inside the other man's guard, delivering yet another blow to his face as he stepped and slid to his left. This time, however, he also used his leg to slam back into Jackson's calf, causing the man to buckle down. He recovered quickly, though, and threw a backhanded punch toward Joel as he passed, hitting him in the back of the head.

Normally, that punch wouldn't have even fazed him, but Jackson's gloved fist had landed directly on his previous injury and an instant flash of pain seared through his brain, causing Joel to stumble forward into the ropes and allow his opponent to recover and regain his balance. As he pushed off and spun, Joel glanced up at the clock. There was still over a minute left in this round. The back of his head felt like it was on fire, and a small trickle on the back of his neck told him the cut had opened up again.

Jackson sensed that something was wrong and immediately bounded forward, swinging his left again. Joel blocked it in time, but only because he knew it was coming. He threw a jab of his own to counter, but he was slow and it was easily dodged. Jackson threw a knee forward, connecting with Joel's ribs. He sucked in breath as pain shot through him, but he was able to deflect the follow up that Jackson threw by leaning forward and into it, and then grabbing the other man and holding his arms down in a clinch while he regained his breath.

A few seconds later he pushed off, his head no longer feeling as dizzy. The clock was at 30 seconds left. Neither man was able to land anything significant before the bell rang to signal the end of the match. Joel would have 2 minutes to rest before the start of the next round.

He went over to his corner and was surprised to see Amber there.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"The other guy has someone in his corner," she said, with a nod of her head. He looked over and saw someone applying a cloth to the back of Jackson's neck to cool him down.

"Well, that's probably his trainer. It's not supposed to be a social break."

Amber ignored him. "How's your head. It's bleeding."

"He got a lucky hit, square in the center of it. Hurts like a bitch, but I'll be fine."

"Turn around, let me take a look."

Joel looked at her dubiously, but turned around nonetheless. He felt her press something up against it and he sucked in a breath as she pushed firmly against it.

"What are you doing back there?"

"There were towels here, I'm just applied a bit of pressure to stop the bleeding. Just hold still."

He knew it was the right thing to do, and once again he felt ashamed that Amber was constantly helping him when he could offer nothing in return. He felt her hand touch his shoulder in order to get leverage as she pushed against the back of his head. Her cool skin felt calming against his sweaty back. He almost felt himself relax, despite the situation. By the time the ref told them to wrap it up, he almost felt as if he were back at her apartment, relaxing.

The bell rang again though, and reality returned.

A
fter returning to her seat
, the man she had spoken to earlier looked over at her. "Are you his trainer?" he asked, his eyebrow raised. She could hear in his voice that he was pretty sure he knew that she wasn't, and so she was tempted to say yes just to see the look of surprise on his face.

"No," she finally answered.

"Ah. It didn't look like that blow by Jackson was enough to open him up like that," he said. "That was a lot of blood though."

"It didn't," she agreed. "He got that fighting the other day."

"Oh," the man said. "What club does he train at?"

"He doesn't," she said. "He fights... privately." She wasn't sure how legal what Joel did was, and didn't think it was her place to advertise what he did for a living to perfect strangers.

The man looked at her questioningly, but she ignored it and turned her attention back to Joel.

The two men were trading blows again, but it looked like Joel was back in form. Jackson had a cut over his left eye now, and was stumbling. None of his punches seemed to be connecting with Joel.

Jackson threw a swinging roundhouse which Joel ducked easily, but when the man came back around he left himself open and Joel pounced, swinging his fist upwards and connecting hard against his opponent's jaw. It happened so fast that Amber almost missed it, but she was pretty sure that Jackson's feet left the ground for a second as the punch hit him from below. He flew backwards and landed flat on his back. Joel jumped forward and landed on his chest, raising a hand in the air to continue his assault, but before he could land the first punch the ref grabbed his arm and stopped the fight. Jackson was out cold, and Joel had won again.

The crowd cheered much louder this time, but Amber wasn't sure whether it was because they were starting to root for Joel, or because the fight had ended in such a spectacular knock out. She suspected it was more of the latter, but she wanted to believe there was a little bit of both.

She leapt to her own feet and let out a holler, clapping her hands furiously. Joel's eyes scanned the crowd until they landed on her, and he gave her a big smile. Her own smile grew even wider - it was the first time he had looked that happy since she met him.

"That was a helluva KO," the man beside her said.

"I'll say," she agreed.

"Your boyfriend can certainly fight."

Boyfriend?
 She didn't correct him. It wasn't his business anyway, and although Joel was far from being her boyfriend, she kind of liked the sound of it.

The next match had already started before Joel joined her at their seats again. He had a new towel that he was holding against the back of his head. When he sat down, she took over holding it for him. There was ice in the middle of this one.

"That was awesome," she said to him. "You really knocked that guy on his ass."

"He was still leaving himself open," he said. "Lucky I noticed that earlier."

"It was a good observation, no luck about it," the man next to them said.

Joel just grunted noncommittally.

"How's the head?" the man asked.

Joel looked at him for a moment before saying anything. "It's fine," he said.

"Your girlfriend here said you had that going in, that guy just opened it up again. By the amount of blood that was coming out, it must have been pretty bad. I'm surprised you're still fighting with that."

Joel looked sharply at Amber, but she wasn't sure what he was angry about - the fact that she had been talking about his injury, or that he had referred to Amber as Joel's girlfriend. To her surprise, he didn't correct the man when he responded.

"Well, like I said, it's fine. This fight was today. I didn't think it was worth missing over this. Injuries happen. Part of the gig."

"It obviously isn't affecting his performance," Amber said defensively. "He's won both of his fights already."

"No doubt," the man said. He smiled and returned his attention to the ring.

After Joel shot her another look, he did the same and watched in silence. Within a few minutes, though, he began to comment on the action again. Amber took that to mean he had gotten over his annoyance.

"This guy is new, he must have been one of the Byes."

"What's that mean?" she asked.

"He didn't fight in round one because they didn't have the full 16 entrants. Big advantage for him. He's a lot fresher as this is his first fight."

Despite the advantage, however, the match ended shortly after with the fresh fighter eliminated.

Amber and Joel spoke quietly for the five minutes between rounds, waiting for the third match to start. They stopped as the announcer took his spot in the middle of the ring. The first fighter he announced was one of the ones Amber recognized from earlier. She recalled Joel saying he was quick, but seemed to lack power. He was a thin fellow with a short goatee and bald head. He had won his first round by what Joel had called an arm bar. Some type of submission.

"And next, originally from California but now a regular here at the Golden Dragon Dojo, weighing in at 245 pounds, Carlos Alvarez!" The crowd went wild as the tall Hispanic from earlier emerged from behind the curtain.

J
oel wasn't surprised
to see Carlos enter the ring, he was obviously a fighter and already a member of the club. He was actually kind of happy that he was fighting. The guy was a prick, and Joel was looking forward to being matched up against him. He wanted a chance to punch him in the face a few times.

He leaned forward in interest as the bell sounded to start the fight. The smaller fighter, Darien, seemed to run around the ring, back and forth in a confusing manner that seemed to have no real purpose. But after watching him fight the first time, Joel knew that was part of his game. Without warning, he leapt at Carlos and landed on him, wrapping his arms and legs around the bigger man after taking a running leap in an effort to throw him off balance.

Carlos stumbled, but the big man wasn't about to go down so easily. Joel saw him widen his stance and bend his knees to maintain his balance as the smaller man clung to him, and then he pulled his right arm back and slammed it into the side of Darien's ribs. The smaller man dropped off of him immediately and stumbled backwards, holding his side in obvious discomfort.

Carlos didn't waste a second. As soon as his opponent was on the ground, he pivoted on the ball of his left foot and swung his right leg around, connecting with Darien's head. The little man flew across the ring and landed on his back. He started to sit up immediately, but not quick enough. Faster than Joel would have expected for someone his size, Carlos leapt on top of him and started to pound into his head with his gloved fists. Darien started to try to defend himself, but too many blows had already slammed into him and his arms finally dropped as did his head. The ref jumped across Carlos to stop him from swinging and the match was called. He'd won in just over one minute. The crowd went crazy. Clearly Carlos had a lot of fans at the club.

Joel glanced over at Amber, and the look she gave him in return was wide eyed and full of worry. He reached over and gave her leg a little squeeze. "He's strong and fast, I'll give him that," he said. The words were out of his mouth before he realized they'd be of no comfort to her, so he hastily added "but so am I."

She just nodded, turning her head back to the ring to watch as the referee and medic sat with Darien, talking to him and making sure he was okay.

He hadn't expected Carlos to be that good. He did think he could still take him, but then again, he also thought he would win over Brutus. 
I lost my focus that time. It won't happen again
.

A few minutes later, the next fight started. It went to a decision, and while the judges were talking, Joel continued to analyze the fight, correctly predicting the winner. "That's the right decision," he nodded.

They had another 15 minute break before the semi final round. Just two matches left before the finale. This time he would be fighting second.

Carlos was up first against a man who called himself Punisher. It was another two round match, but like the first time, Carlos won in the first round. It took him more than a minute, this time three of them, but it was another ground and pound knock out and the crowd roared even louder this time.

"Joel," Amber said, as he stood up to make his way to the back. "Are you sure you're okay?" Her eyes flicked down to the towel that he was holding, a dark red spot stained the center of it, but the bleeding had stopped again. For now.

"Just two more fights," he said. "Then I'll take some time before I fight again. I promise." He smiled at her, and she gave a half smile back, but her eyes were full of worry. His hand reached up and touched her cheek, running his thumb across her smooth skin. He gave it a little pat and then headed to the back to get ready.

When he got behind the curtain, Carlos was there talking to Marcus. When they saw Joel, they stopped talking and Marcus nodded at him, giving him a smile. "Great fighting, Joel," he said. "Good luck with the rest of your night." He patted him on the arm as he walked past and through the curtain to take his place back at the judges table.

"You'll need more than luck if you beat this next guy, ese," Carlos sneered.

"Why? Is your boyfriend Marcus going to fix the finale?" Joel asked in return. "That's the only way I see you winning."

Carlos took a step forward, his fists clenching.

"Bring it," Joel said, stepping toward the other man as well.

The men were toe to toe and glaring at each other as the bell sounded and the announcer started to call Joel's name. He continued to stare Carlos down and then finally stepped back. "We can settle this in the ring," he said. Carlos wasn't worth him losing his chance in this tournament. There was just too much at stake.

"Maybe once I beat you down, I'll take your little girlfriend for a spin. I bet she'd like to ride a real man. One that doesn't make her pay for his fights."

Joel paused at the curtain, his teeth clenched as he fought internally to keep from spinning and knocking some teeth loose in the fool behind him. Instead, he finally just pushed forward and made his way to the ring.