“SHIT!” A big furry fist came flying at my face. I was only able to avoid it by sacrificing my footing. Two people tonight had told me to keep an eye on my feet and literally the first move I made was to fall flat on my ass.

Course the other order I’d been given was ‘don’t get hit’ and given the sheer size of the arm behind that punch, that command took priority.

Unsurprisingly, my opponent looked even bigger from the ground. And he was a goddamn titan when he lifted his left leg to stomp my chest. I let out a shriek more appropriate for a seven year old hit by a joy buzzer and rolled to the left. The earth shook when he impacted. If I was half a second slower that thumping sound would have been my ribs shattering like glass.

In three second I was standing, staring at him with eyes the size of dinner plates. A very, very scary growl came from…let’s call him Magnus. With that squashed puppy face, he looked the part.

“So that’s it then? Second we step in we fight? No bell or anything?” I dropped into a fighting stance, trying to relax. I had to keep myself loose, ready to move any which way at a moment’s notice. That was something both Spike and repeated whacks with a stick had taught me.

“Yup.” Magnus was smart enough to give me zero breathing room. He came in fast with a heavy-handed strike intending to bludgeon the top of my skull. Kind of a stupid move considering I had a good three inches on him.

“Someone probably should have told me that.” I made a jerky, barely successful dodge. I could actually feel him graze the fur on my shoulder. This was just gonna be a blast.

“Probably.” He stepped forward, lining up another punch. This one aimed for my gut. I could already hear my organs screaming in terror.

“Honestly, you’d think it would have been one of the first things we talked about.” Again, I avoided it by a literal hair. This time with a quick back step. I actually had cat reflexes, not the cheap cat-like ones a lot of people paraded around, but genuine feline reactionary time, and I still could scarcely avoid this brute. Weren’t the thick guys supposed to be slow?

“Cat should stop talking and start hitting.” Magnus made his point very clear with another strike. This one looking to turn my face into a perfectly flat plane.

“If you say so.” With a bob and a weave that I swear I just pulled from mid-air, I was around and inside the fist. Perfectly positioned to deliver a quick jab to his big black nose. A target that was impossible to miss.

He yelped and backed off, clutching his muzzle tightly. I took the opportunity to put a little distance between us. And to put a smile on my face. Magnus on the other hand chose a scowl and I’ll give you one guess what it was directed as. He put fist to palm and his knuckles went off like fire crackers.

I took that as the starting bell.

He came in swinging. Heavy blows that, if connected with my head, would probably be enough to knock me out cold. Luckily I didn’t let them connect. Unluckily I was only staying ahead by centimeters. Even worse, he wasn’t giving me any openings to attack back.

An uppercut made me lean back which gave him a good shot at breaking my knee. I could only avoid that by rolling backwards into a crouch which left my face vulnerable to a kick. Jumping left just put me off balance which gave him time to line up a punch. He took ground the second I dodged that, forcing me backwards. It continued like this for a while and every single attack left me convinced that the next one would hit. Wouldn’t have been surprised if he won after I dropped dead from a heart attack.

I was about five feet from the wall when I realized exactly what Magnus was planning. Fighting a quick opponent? Just shove him against something and wale on him when he’s trapped. Of course quick of feet didn’t mean quick of mind and I’d stumbled onto this revelation when I only had ten seconds left to deal with it. Ten seconds with ninety percent of my faculties devoted to not getting hit.

Shouldn’t have wasted one deciding to never enter another tournament of any kind ever again.

I don’t really know what happened at that point. One second he was readying the next punch I would have to surrender maneuvering space for and the next we were both on the ground with me on top of him. Common sense would say I tackled him, but it would also ask why the hell I did that.

It would then answer that I should start hitting him. So I did.

My first attack was wild, a crazed swing that from the left did nothing but glance off his jaw. He yelped again, but it didn’t show sign of doing any real damage. The second strike was more focused and caught his full in the face. I tried for a third, but he caught my fist and yanked me down. Our heads crashed together with a loud crunch and then I was off him.

A unified grunt of pain came from the both of us. Stars and blackness crowded at the corners of my vision and I felt a sudden urge to lie down, grab the nearest object resembling a blankie, and have a nice trip to dreamland which was devoid of ugly talking dogs with hard heads. And while I would have loved to give into that impulse, part of me knew that I would take no end of shit if I blacked out after the first substantial hit I sustained. So I did the only logical thing I could think of at the time.

Push myself up on all fours and scramble the fuck away before Magnus got up and introduced my bones to his foot.

It would have worked too if not for that long piece of spine sticking out from the top of my ass.

I let out my most cat like sound yet while being yanked back by my tail. I was twirled once and hurled back first into the wall with enough speed to make my vision flash white for a second and my brain to become sure that he’d just ripped the whole thing off. I looked down and nearly collapsed in relief to see it sitting there behind my legs where it always was.

The relief went away when I looked back up to see a big foot flying towards my face.

Curling up pulled my head out of danger. There was a loud crunch as toes smashed into concrete three inches from my ears. A sympathy wince was called for. The howl from Magnus was assurance enough that it hurt more than every stubbed toe I had ever gotten combined.

It bought enough time for me to get up. And that took a lot of time. My vision was swimming, my ears rung, and my stomach wouldn’t stop dancing dammit! The sand seemed bright and stung my eyes so picking things out was difficult. I recognized one thing however.

Magnus had his back to me.

I trusted my instinct, or maybe it was the concussion, and lunged forward, leaping onto his back and wrapping my arms…arm and stump around his neck.

Yeah, it was definitely the concussion.

He stumbled even as I planted my feet and pulled back. The hand I had grabbed onto the elbow and pressed tight into Magnus’s throat. His hands started moving up and there was no way I could keep my grip if he started pulling. So I set into motion the first plan that came to mind and shoved a leg right up between his own.

Never really did see the value of fighting fair.

His hands froze in place as all the air went from his lungs in one pain filled wheeze. I only tightened my grip, not wanting him to get any more air. All I needed was for him to pass out. Just a little longer and then we could both…

There was a very solid sound and something hard hit my nose.

Everything was dark again. A thick dark to. There were outlines, but I could just barely see them. I knew I was holding something and I couldn’t let it go. If I did bad things would happen. I pulled tighter, not wanting to lose it.

Something touched my arm. It was nice and soft. It pulled, but it wasn’t very hard. I didn’t pay it any mind. Wasn’t hurting anything.

Was kind of tired. Maybe I should have slept. But I had to keep holding the thing first. Didn’t want to drop it. Might break something. Held it tight so it couldn’t get away.

It seemed to get a lot heavier all at once. Like it was pushing me. Actually, I think it was. Pushing me backwards. Maybe it was time to sleep after all.

I slipped and things got darker…

Author's Notes:

...This chapter was a bitch.

Took way too long and came out way late...this is the last time I make a chapter nothing but one fight scene.

So...yeah.

Also thanks to Kea for looking over this for me. And Forevermore for looking over the last one since I can't remember if I thanked him or not.