Stone Soufflé dropped his hand quickly towards the mat, signaling the beginning of the fight. Hera surged forward like a lightning bolt, eliminating the gap between herself and Diamond in a bullish rush. She had gauged no distance, tested no waters, and hadn’t begun to figure out Diamond’s plan of attack. Instead, she brought the fight to her recklessly but viciously. As she closed distance, Hera pivoted onto her lead leg during a step and snapped a head kick so quickly and fluidly that it was nearly imperceptible.
Diamond barely got her left arm up in time to block the kick. It cracked against the skin of her elbow and forearm like a whip and stung like a dozen hornets. The nerves along the ulna inside her forearm went silent from the absorption of the blow and it instantly felt dead. Her arm ricocheted off of her skull, knocking Diamond to the side, causing her to stumble to catch her balance. You never really blocked a head kick and Diamond was thankful her instincts had brought her arm up or else the fight would have ended with that strike. Even if Diamond had toughed out several wins in her career, she was far from immortal and a powerful, cobra-like strike from such a disciplined and fully energized practitioner like the Queen of the Gods would have been disastrous.
“Diamond! Get out of there! Move!” Flicker Jab cried as Hera brought a ferocious left body hook around as Diamond shifted to get her feet underneath her. The shot landed hard into Diamond’s right ribs, just above her liver. Hera was strong and the gloved fist clapped loudly. Pain radiated from the shot but that was nothing new for Diamond. She gritted her teeth into the mouthguard and pushed passed it.
Diamond had heard Flicker but knew she needed to move even without his help. She couldn’t stand toe to toe with Hera, fueled by rage, in the first round. The shots Diamond had absorbed were full force, killing blows. The Queen of the Gods was trying to smite Diamond for her insolence. Diamond’s eyes met Hera’s and she nearly froze. Only the repeated movements of diligent practice ushered her to duck the wide, right hook. It skimmed the air above her head, tearing the air audibly, and Diamond hopped back before Hera’s lead leg came up sharply, knee intending to collide with the ducking Diamond’s chin.
No, Diamond knew she needed to be mobile, bait Hera into throwing those big, explosive strikes and either counter them or make them miss. Putting that much energy into her strikes would tire Hera quickly. Even if Diamond felt like a child battling an adult, she didn’t want to get hurt too badly. She would lose, but she wouldn’t become Farnese Hera’s punching bag. Filthy Rich would mock her if she did and she didn’t want to see him smirking over her, telling her ‘I told you so’.
Feet moving gracefully, Diamond rotated back and around to her right, Hera’s left side. Rolling away from her powerful right leg and hand would minimize the damage if she got caught. Instead, she would force the rampaging Queen to chase her.
“Keep distance! Don’t let her get in on you and stay out of the clinch or she’ll knee you out!” Diamond could barely hear her coach as the crowd cheered, enveloping nearly all sound in response to Hera’s ferocious attack. She spun around Hera and took the center of the octagon, hopping on her feet, ready to move. Hera turned and threw out a long, straight jab with her lead hand. She wasn’t used to the distance yet and the strike stopped a couple inches short of the mark: Diamond’s face.
Hera stepped forward quickly, pumping another jab that Diamond slipped with easy head movement. Sudden pressure on the back of Diamond’s head told her the missed punch had transitioned into a clinch attempt and Diamond once again ducked and rolled to her right to avoid the other grasping hand of her opponent. Muay Thai styles thrived in a standing grapple with both hands locked around the head of an opponent, called a plum, that pulled the head down where venomous knees could make quick work of the consciousness of the victim.
Diamond was having no part of that and retaliated with a hard swing of her hips, launching her back leg like a baseball bat around to smack into the outside meaty calf of Hera’s lead leg. She showed no sign that the leg kick had done any damage and Diamond was forced to sway her head back to narrowly avoid another quick left jab.
Doing her best to imitate a matador, Diamond slipped a series of punches. The bullet train head kick snapped out again but Diamond was able to move in the same direction, lessening the impact on her high guard. The pink flesh of her forearm brightened to a deep red from the impact and was beginning to tingle as the nerves recovered from the trauma they had taken.
“Keep moving, Diamond! She’s all openings, let your hands go or she’ll take the round with aggression. Just touch and go! Touch and go!” Flick yelled from the corner. His words were barely audible over the crowd but the doubting voices in Diamond’s head were a cacophony of noise, louder than the most raucous of crowds.
I can’t beat her… She’s a legend and …
“You’re just a girl, Diamond,” Filthy Rich said slowly, as if Diamond couldn’t comprehend what he meant. “Girls can’t be fighters. Where did such a stupid idea enter your head?”
Diamond frowned and let the poster for a karate dojo Silver Spoon was going to attend drop to her waist. She knew that would be his answer. Though she hadn’t officially become a teen yet, Diamond felt some rebellious energy building within her towards Filthy. Neglect and emotional seclusion from her parents filled the bowl of teenage angst well before the natural hormones could. “Daddy, Silver Spoon is taking karate lessons and it’s not like I want to fight. Shouldn’t I know how to protect myself just in ca…”
“In case what, Diamond?” Filthy cut her off, shaking his head angrily at being talked back to. “Nobody would dare lay a finger on my daughter. Isn’t there a … I don’t know, ballet class or something you’re more interested in taking? Something more fitting for a girl?”
“I just want to do something with my friend, Daddy. And I’ve already taken ballet. Four years of it.” It troubled Diamond how little her father knew about her. He paid for the classes but Nanny Marie, Nanny Fae’s successor, had taken her to them three days a week for four years. He had missed every recital.
“Piano lessons, then!” Filthy roared. “ If Silver Spoon’s father wants to ruin his daughter’s chances of finding a wealthy husband, that’s his business but you will not join her.”
Stunned, Diamond must have made a weird expression because Filthy suddenly looked very harshly at her. It took a moment but she rebutted him resiliently, “Daddy, I’m 12! I don’t even like boys!”
One thin hand reached up to stroke back Filthy’s thick hair and he let out a frustrated sigh. “It’s never too early to look towards your future, Diamond.” He turned his back on her, dismissing her as usual. Her presence always seemed to be a burden for him. Why? All of the other children she knew were poor but had loving parents. Wealth was great but she would trade away her fancy dresses to be hugged by her father. She began to cry, the tears rolling down her cheeks like cumulus clouds in the sky. She couldn’t hold back the sobs that racked her small body and she wiped at her eyes with both hands.
Filthy made an unhappy grunt but Diamond could, through a veil of tears, see the discomfort in his features. He didn’t mean to upset her and didn’t know how to fix it. He awkwardly walked to her and patted her head lightly, the closest thing to a hug he had ever given her. “Okay, okay. Enough of that. No karate but you go find any other, appropriate, class you want and I’ll have Nanny Marie enroll you.”
Diamond’s heart ached but not with sorrow. She shook her head angrily as a red hot cinder grew within her. All her father knew how to do was throw money at a problem. Here, his only daughter was upset because of his inability to show her even the smallest affection and he tried to buy her off. Just like all of those business partners he had. She didn’t want his money! She wanted him to see her for who she was, what she was: his daughter. She wanted him to love her! Smacking his hand from her head, Diamond ran from his office; she couldn’t look at him anymore.
In the following days, she concocted a way to get back at him. She wouldn’t take karate. After searching flyers and posters advertising the different lessons she could take, she found one that would really stick it to her dad. She wouldn’t take karate with Silver, she’d take mixed martial arts. He’d never know. He didn’t care enough about her to know what she did as long as she wasn’t distracting him. He’d blindly pay for harp, gymnastics, or horse riding, she decided, but he’d really be funding something he would detest. The thought of a martial art didn’t really interest her back then, but making her father spend money on something he would openly resist her taking was too good to pass up.
Hera landed a stinging leg kick on Diamond’s lead leg, her hard, strong shin was calloused roughly from years of conditioning and it welted the inside of Diamond’s thigh. She had taken a number of those kicks just above the knee in their first fight and remembered the week of limping and purple bruises. Experience told her she could soak the kicks but they would slow her down if she took very many more. She fought not to show weakness but the blazing pain caused her to wince. Hera smiled.
“Stop running, rich girl. Come on, fight me,” the Queen of the Gods taunted. She feinted a left jab and pivoted as she stepped forward, bringing her power leg on a course for the outside thigh of Diamond’s lead leg. It connected with a sickening thwack and Hera chuckled. “Chewing those legs up, Tiara. What will you do when you can’t run away?”
Diamond attempted to sweep clear her mind of her father as the second shot nearly kicked her leg out from beneath her. She cursed herself for letting Filthy distract her. She bit down onto her mouthpiece. Why did he have to hurt her? Why couldn’t he love her like all the other fathers? Even Silver Spoon’s dad. He was wealthy but he had been there for Silver Spoon. He didn’t forget her ballet recitals! He was there when she earned her white belt in karate! He hugged her and told her he was proud. Had Filthy ever been proud of Diamond in her whole life?
Her teeth ground into the rubber of the mouthguard as ire built within her. Anger clouded her mind and the pain of her left leg was a drop in the bucket of her broken heart’s anguish. She wanted to hit him. She wanted to punch him right in his sexist face!
Diamond’s left hand clenched as she threw a jab. A right handed cross followed after in a swift combination. Diamond had put a lot of steam into the right straight, too much. She wasn’t thinking correctly, should never have put that much power into a shot on a fully charged opponent.
Hera, a little surprised, managed to slip the punch enough that it only glanced off of her cheekbone and didn’t connect solidly. Recognizing the right was coming, Hera stepped into Diamond Tiara as she slipped the right hand. Catching Diamond’s overextended arm in one fluid motion and turning her left leg out, pinning Diamond’s lead leg with her right thigh, Hera hooked her right arm around Diamond’s waist and let her own momentum carry her forward as Farnese put little effort into the judo throw that sent the rich girl sprawling onto her back.
Following Diamond to the mat, Hera locked her hands together behind Diamond’s head, pressing the top of her cranium into Diamond’s chin. Hera’s left arm wrapped over Diamond’s right shoulder to meet her right arm coming up from beneath Diamond’s left armpit. She bore her chest down on top of Diamond’s as she took side control. Quickly, Hera got to her knees and used the force to crush down onto the rich girl’s chest, making her carry as much of Farnese’s weight as she could. “Got you, Tiara,” she grunted into her opponent’s ear. “Two minutes on the clock, plenty of time to break your arm.”
Diamond froze but knew she couldn’t let panic seize her up. She had made a mistake, fueled by rage, and was now on the ground with a superior grappler. Her own skills weren’t weak but Hera was a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. While that honor wasn’t the highest in BJJ, it was very respected and Diamond’s purple belt, which she had only just earned a few weeks before, was a league below brown belt skill. She needed to get back to her feet. She couldn’t afford to stay on the mat with the Queen of the Gods or else she’d find herself tapping out to a choke or joint lock.
Hera knew how to make her weight seem far heavier than it was while she was on top and Diamond struggled to get a good, deep breath. It was hard to carry Hera and Diamond made an effort to get her right arm inside of Hera’s body but was denied. She knew that Hera was slick in her jiu jitsu and she had failed in their previous match to escape when she had been taken down. Diamond would have to survive for the rest of the round on her back, watching for the set up for an armbar or americana, joint locks that would force her to submit or break something.
Hera pulled her head from beneath Diamond’s chin and brought it to the side of her head, right beside her ear. “Too easy. It’s not enough. I want to punish rich old Daddy too. When you go home tonight, I want him to see how messed up you are,’ she whispered and suddenly released her grip, popping back up to her feet.
Amazed, Diamond lay on her back defensively. She watched as Hera shook her head, turned her back and walked a few steps towards the center of the octagon. She gestured for Diamond to get up and Stone Soufflé likewise motioned and commanded Diamond to stand.
Diamond rolled forward to her feet and stood. The searing heat in her lead leg reminded her of the damage it had taken but it was still functional and mobile.
Diamond fell into her stance and Hera grinned, the green of her mouthpiece had white, jagged teeth designed into it. It fit her, a beast reclaiming her territory. Diamond glanced at the clock. A minute thirty. Round one was drawing to a close and she was losing in strikes and takedowns. It didn’t surprise her, she had nothing for Hera. She didn’t deserve to be in the same cage.
Hera now stalked the center of the octagon, watching as Diamond bounced on her toes. Fleet of foot, Diamond tried to retake the center with her mobility, giving herself more room to work with but Farnese Hera moved at an angle and cut her off. Hera couldn’t quite stop her movement but she could protect the center and keep the cage only a few short steps behind Diamond.
Diamond understood that’s what her bestial opponent wanted, to trap her against the cage and unload bombs.
To hurt her.
To embarrass her.
Diamond already felt embarrassed. She could deny the rumors but…
Hera dropped to one knee in a trice and lunged forward; a takedown attempt. Pulling her feet back and squaring up to catch Hera on the back of the head or shoulders, Diamond prepared to sprawl and push down on Hera’s upper body in order to force her to the ground and thwart the takedown. Hera, however, grinned and put her feet under her, rising up from the takedown feint with a heavily loaded right uppercut.
Diamond realized too late that she had been baited and had fallen for the trick. The uppercut caught her square on the chin and straightened her bent posture, popping her head straight up into the air. Her ears rang and vision blurred as if something had exploded near her. Her legs felt weak, like jello and barely responded to her mental calls. She didn’t even feel the following left hook that sent her careening to the cage wall. Her senses were wonky and sent a jumbled mess of information to her brain.
Diamond didn’t know where she was. Her body went quiet and left only her flailing, misty mind to float into the gray haze of purgatory. It felt as if her skull were filled with gravy. Such a wild thought, she almost laughed but it sank into the thick paste of confusion before she could register it.
She lolled in the haze for what seemed an eternity but something scratched at her back. An itch maybe? She wasn’t sure but it was aggravating her. It was hard to focus but she managed to isolate the feeling and it spread like the light of a lighthouse. The brain-gravy dissipated in an instant and she remembered she was in a fight. Her heart thrummed to life in a moment of panic and she found herself returned to her body.
She was in trouble and she knew it. If not for the cage, she would have fallen. The fencing was rubberized over the metal mesh but it still dug into her back and shoulders. Her world wobbled and spun as the fog filtered the rest of the way from her mind. Her thoughts caught in a web of confusion and her body wrestled with the limited information, attempting to rectify her predicament without clear instruction.
Her hands were in a peek-a-boo defense, locked together from elbow to wrist and protecting her face and head that she couldn’t recall forming. She jerked back and forth and only realized after the fourth or fifth time that it was Hera raining powerful punches into her arms, trying to break her guard, that caused her to sway. Her arms hurt, she realized, so her brains were unclogging. Her legs stiffened and answered her cries. She was still hurt but surviving.
“MOVE! The ref will stop the fight if you don’t do something! You can’t just cover up, Diamond!” She heard Flick and Dempsey yelling. She didn’t know how long they had been instructing her but it felt like they were desperate so it must have been longer than she thought.
Diamond felt a hard knee connect in her left ribs and then a gloved fist ripped into her abdomen. The tightened muscles of her tummy burned and she understood that she had taken more than just the two blows that she had felt.
How long had she been out on her feet? How was she still standing? She didn’t have time to answer those questions as her mental faculties restored and snapped her fully awake.
Stone Soufflé was watching closely, his stare intent and he looked as if he was preparing to stop the fight. “Defend yourself, Diamond. If you keep covering up, I’m stopping it.”
She ate another body punch to the sternum followed by another hard blast to her peek-a-boo guard. She could hear the Queen of the Gods breathing hard, the time between her attacks was growing. She had piled the damage onto Diamond’s arms, grown frustrated, and went to the body when Diamond refused to fall.
Diamond peeked through her guard, the clock was high above the octagon but she didn’t need it as she heard the wooden blocks clapped that signified the ten second warning. The round was about to end and she didn’t remember the last minute. Her body pulsed with pain from head to toe. She had absorbed a lot of punishment and done so while technically out. Her conditioning had paid off, her natural toughness was taking the abuse well but she wouldn’t be able to absorb forever. She would be limited coming out for round two but Hera, who was gasping in gouts of air with her mouth wide open was tired.
Diamond watched the slow, sloppy technique coming from Hera and disengaged her guard as Hera went high with a right hook. Diamond propped her left foot up onto the cage and kicked off of it, propelling her forward while closing the distance between the two. She sliced forward with the elbow of her right arm, catching Hera off guard, and the superman elbow connected violently with Hera’s forehead. Diamond saw it in slow motion, the blade elbow slicing the skin of her opponent and tearing a bright crimson line at the hairline.
The bell rang and Hera snarled, bringing her hand up and coming away dripping with fresh blood. She breathed hard and bore a hole of hatred through Diamond with her eyes. “You‘ll… fall … next round, Tiara.”
Pain was nothing new to Diamond Tiara but they weren’t friends. It was more like an annoying family member you had to put up with but couldn’t ask to leave.
She made her way back to her corner, a grimacing teammate and an annoyed coach waiting for her. She still felt light-headed and her gait was far from fluid as she made her way to the corner.
She felt warm liquid dripping down her cheek and only then realized as she touched it that she had a nasty cut beneath her left eye. Not as bad as Hera’s, but it sizzled angrily and belched hot, red crimson.