"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...…WELCOME...TO- "
The commentator stated as he entered the octagon ring, the crowd screamed and clapped loudly, which caused the building to shake slightly.
"THEEEE.... PIIIIIIIITTTT!!"
The crowd cheered even louder as if feeding off the commentator's energy.
As soon as he finished, the doors to the octagon cage opened, allowing the first fighter to enter the ring. Wearing red fighting gloves and athletic briefs to match, the tall, athletic black fighter entered the ring with confidence, doing some shadow boxing.
The crowd cheered seeing this. The commentator introduced
"In the left corner all the way from the depths of the Shadows…...fast, deadly, and silent as death itself, put your hands together for...SHAAAAADE!!"
The crowd cheered for the fighter as he was introduced. While the crowd focused on the ring, Alex approached the second fighter of the night. The guy was huge, his muscles rippling like they were filled with liquid steel.
The fighter noticed Alex approaching and got visibly agitated; seeing this, Alex smirked, enjoying the scene.
"You haven't forgotten our deal, right, Vinny.?"
Alex spoke with a voice filled with authority; this caused the man to frown slightly with displeasure, but he responded,
"Yeah, I know what to do."
Alex nodded, liking Vinny's attitude. He continued as he walked away from him.
"Good. We don't want your wife and child to end up on the street now, do we?"
Hearing this, Vinny's frown deepened even more. But with nothing he could do other than to complete his end of the deal, He made his way toward the ring, jaw clenched, thinking—
'At least I can earn enough money to retire from this.'
He thought as though trying to justify his actions. Immediately after he entered the octagon ring, the commentator's voice boomed...
"And in the right…. the beast, the breaker, the one-man army…...ladies and gentlemen, brace yourself for the Titan of The Pit...BURTHERRRRRR!!"
While this was going on, inside the VIP section of the Arena, a man sat in silence, observing everything happening through the glass panel separating the section. The man wore a perfectly tailored white suit, his hair slicked back, accentuating his perfectly handsome face.
As he looked down at the ring, he noticed Alex talking to Vinny before he entered the ring.
His sharp eyebrows furrowed slightly at the scene. He took a last sip of his wine glass, finishing it, and looked at one of the bodyguards in the room.
Noticing this, the bodyguard came closer and asked
"Anything you need, Mr Vance?"
Gesturing with his eyes at Alex, he spoke with a tone of unquestionable authority.
"Find out who that is."
The bodyguard nodded and left his side to complete his assigned task. Mr Vance continued to look at the ring in contemplation. After a while, he noticed his glass was empty and called out.
"Snowy"
Hearing her name called out, the bartender came forward. She wore a long-sleeve white shirt with the top buttons undone, showing her cleavage and black pants. The lady had beautiful, smooth black hair tied into a ponytail and light makeup on.
Mr Vance looked at her a little longer than necessary, admiring her. He spoke with his usual tone but had hints of something more.
"Fill up my glass, would you?"
Snowie looked at him with a neutral face and nodded slightly as she filled his glass with wine. Her actions were elegant and professional.
The fight was about to start, with both fighters in the ring, warming themselves with small, quick movements and waiting for the signal to start.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, let the fight.....BEGIN!!"
*DING*
With the signal given, both fighters approached each other. With his faster movement, Shade threw some small jabs at Butcher, trying to gauge his distance; after Butcher got closer, he threw another perfect one-two combo.
Seeing this, Butcher raised his hand to block the move but left his abdomen open for Shade's perfect kick.
Shade immediately backed away after his kick landed to create some distance.
The crowd cheered loudly seeing this, and some even stood on their feet cheering.
The fight continued in the same fashion. Shade had the upper hand because of his speed, but he was not dominating the match by any means.
In the crowd Alex and Lucian stood together while watching the fight. Alex observed around the area like usual, but this time frowned slightly. He spoke to Lucian as he shifted his gaze back to the ring.
"We'll have to leave immediately after the fight; someone is watching us."
He spoke with a grave tone. Hearing his brother, Lucian became more alert and looked around more. Even though he didn't notice anyone, he knew enough not to doubt Alex's words.
"Okay."
As the fight reached Round 3, the tension was high in the ring. Shade was exhausted from moving around too much and evading Butcher's brutal attacks. He knew from the few that he took from him that he couldn't take too many of those.
Butcher, on the other hand, looked frustrated from the outside. With Shades' movements, it was hard to catch him, and although his punches were not as fatal, they were still chipping away at him.
Shade approached again, looking for any opportunity to strike a fatal blow on this mammoth of a man. With another one-two combo, Butcher defended with ease and immediately threw a right hook towards Shade, knowing he would try to back out again.
This landed on Shade's forearms as he defended, but that didn't stop Butcher from further closing the distance. Seeing this, Shade panicked and tried to land a kick on his abdomen so that he can back out.
That was a mistake from him because as soon as it landed, Butcher held his left leg and threw a nasty left hook at Shade's Abdomen.
Shade was rattled by that and knew he had to get out and create some distance; otherwise, he was done. As a ditch effort, he bounced up with his right leg and did a roundabout kick.
He had little hope for the kick landing. Still, he knew that even if it didn't land, he'd fall to the floor, bringing Butcher with him if he didn't let go of his leg and having a grappling contest with him, which he was confident he could win. But if he did let go, then that would give him enough time to back out.
Seeing the kick coming, Butcher surprised everyone in the crowd, even Shade himself. He didn't move. The kick landed squarely on his right cheek, knocking him out.
The crowd went silent for a second, stunned by the results, but loud cheers echoed in the building immediately after.
Seeing the fight finish, Alex smirked, clearly enjoying the tension. He immediately made his move with Lucian collecting their winnings and leaving the building.
Their action didn't go unnoticed. Mr Vance looked at them with fury in his eyes and spoke to his bodyguard.
"Get them."
Alex and Lucian exited through the back of the building, trying to be as cautious as possible. But as soon as they opened the door, they were welcomed by three burly men who looked at them with a silent fury in their eyes.
As they thought of turning around and going back, the fourth man entered the alleyway through the same door as them. The four men circled Alex and Lucian; looking at this, Alex couldn't help but comment,
"Any chance you can let us through with just a 'Please.'"
His comment earned him a glare from Lucian, which he didn't miss.
"What?... I had to at least try…... Maybe they are nice Bad guys."
Lucian shook his head and chose to ignore his brother.
One of the men spoke to them.
"Leave the money behind and follow us."
"Now that's just being a bully. Unfortunately, we can't do that." Alex responded.
Without waiting for a response, Lucian dashed towards one man and jumped with his knee out. The knee landed on the man's chin, knocking him out cold immediately.
Seeing this, the other man came and confronted the two brothers. A brutal fistfight took place after, with sickening sounds ringing out in the alley.
Unbeknown to the two brothers fighting, a pair of eyes looked at them with disbelief.
As the fight continued, Alex punched the last guy in the face, and he fell down unconscious. After that, he let go of the unconscious man, picked up the briefcase filled with money, and looked at Lucian, who was facing him, stunned for some reason.
But that thought went out of his head as he saw one goon getting up and pointing a gun at Lucian's back, and without even thinking, he rushed to Lucian and dived, pulling Lucian out of the way.
*BANG*
Immediately, Alex dashed to the gunner and knocked him out with the briefcase. After a second, Alex turned, expecting to see Lucian… but what he saw stole the breath from his lungs.
Rebecca.
Holding her stomach with blood flowing down her beautiful white dress with disbelief and shock on her face, and then – she fell.
Lucian immediately ran to help her and held her in his arms before she hit the floor. Lucian's eyes looked frantically at her wound as he tried to put pressure on it.
"No...no, no, no, no, stay with me, Rebecca, stay with me."
Desperation was all over Lucian's face as he tried to save her. Seeing this, Rebecca smiled sweetly at him and weakly brought her hand to his face. He held her hand and looked into her eyes, which were slowly losing focus. She strained herself as she talked to him.
"I love you...My light."
With that, she faded and lost her strength.
Still frozen in place, Alex looked at his brother, and from that moment, he knew Lucian would never be the same.