Raging Minotaur (Part 4 of 7)

 

 

>Training day 33

>Dash is very serious about your training

>Each morning, she wakes you up bright and early to run so that you may gain more stamina

>After you finish running, you skip rope for 30 minutes to help make you more nimble on your feet

>After you finish skipping rope, you lift weights to strengthen your body

>After you finish lifting weights, you and Dash throw a medicine ball back and forth while you do sit-ups. She insists it will help you take punches better

>Then finally, you practice on the punching bag and on the focus mitts

>After doing that three hour routine every morning, you go to work

>With the fatigue from exercising every morning, You’re back to moving at your normal pace (that is to say, slower than average)

>Then after you finish your shift, you go home…

>… and you do another three hour workout of running, skipping rope, weight lifting, tossing the medicine ball and working on the bag

>Dash is sometimes more dedicated to your training than you are

>You know she’s trying to live goals that she couldn’t realize through you, but you don’t mind

>You’re just happy to have her back…

>…in one way or another

>One night, as you’re finishing your second workout routine for the day, she plops a newspaper down in your lap

>“The Black Eye Times” It’s called. You can only assume its about the boxing circuit

>“Look on page fourteen”

>You skim through the pages

>Landing on page fourteen, you find a promo for an upcoming fight

Raging Minotaur?

>Dash elaborates on what she read so you don’t have to

>“Yup! That’s a ten round bout with Iron Will fighting the dragon Diamondback in the ring. Wills done 49 fights. Diamonds done 45. Neither of them have ever lost a fight. Not once”

>You read through their scores: Will boasts 42 Knockouts, 7 Technical Knockouts and 0 draws. Diamondback stands with 23 KO‘s, 3 TKO’s, 19 victories by decision and also 0 draws. Dash’s zeal is almost tangible

>“They’re gonna be facing off in exactly 122 days! We have to go!”

>Your zeal has been spent for the day but you show some excitement for her sake.

Of course we’ll go!

>She reads over your shoulder as you continue to skim through the paper. The both of you completely unaware at this moment in time that not only will you be going but you’ll be the main event…

 

Round 4

 

>“Anon! You might win by a TKO!”

>Dash doesn’t even wait for you to be seated before she gets her hopes up

>“Look! They’re trying to decide if he should throw in the towel”

>Across the ring the referee administrates tests on Will.

Do you think this might be it?

>“Do you know how huge that would be? That would make you the first contender to ever beat Will!”

>Sadly, you’re not that lucky tonight. The referee gives a ‘Thumb up‘, signifying that the bout will continue. Dash grunts and smacks the rope in a pout

Its alright Dash. Maybe this round…

>With that said, Dash waits not a second further to start reassuring you

>“The ref may have said he could continue, But he’s still dazed from smashing into the post”

>With Dash having pointed that out, you realize that Will does look significantly less tensed up. There’s no doubt he’s still feeling disoriented and probably will be well into next week.

>Dash massages your shoulders as she resumes her reassuring

>“Not “Maybe this round”. Definitely this round! You have a level playing field now! And you‘re still good condition! You‘re okay, right? He didn‘t break you when he had you backed into the corner, did he?”

>You chuckle and respond with half-sarcasm and half truth

Nah, my body stopped the rest of me from getting really hurt

>The bell rings and you pop in your mouth piece

>Will’s balance has been restored, he’s not wobbling on his approach

>But his overall capacity is less than half of what it used to be

>You start the round by throwing three jabs right into his face. Each of them lands one direct hit after the next.

>He raises his arms to defend himself but only after you’ve finished your jabs and are well on your way to mounting your next attack.

>You throw a left handed hook straight into his ribs. His reflexes have recuperated slightly as he manages to not only block your hook but counter it with a two jabs aimed at your face.

>You take the both of them directly before dipping down and off to the side to avoid taking any more

>Right away, you can tell his jabs have been robbed of their brawn.

>He follows up his jabbing with a right handed hook at your ribs. Its slow and highly predictable, but through a carelessness on your part it does hit dead on.

>Unfortunately for Will, it isn’t much more effective than his jabbing. Just about any and every type of punch he could throw in his weariness hits about as limp as a sponge

>Nonetheless, you decide to see if you can’t get him to throw another haymaker for you to exploit

>You resume your ploy of acting slow and dizzied.

>You guard your face just as Will’s Jabbing resumes. His punches continuously prove to be one inaccurate, impotent and inept failure after the next but you’re still guarding for good measure.

>After absorbing seventeen jabs from either of his hands, he finally throws a Hook

>Again, a very slow moving and very easily anticipated attack that you manage to duck beneath and dodge once more.

>Its not the Wide swing punch you were hoping for, but it’ll do

>It sails over your head and thereafter you counter with a swift hook of your own:

>You prime your shot and aim it at his side, hoping to hit his liver

>Your fist impacts his ribs with a loud thud

>His body cringes but not in the debilitating and painful fashion most often caused by liver shots

>You’re confused. A liver shot nearly always makes a contender collapse writhing in agony and yet hitting Will with one doesn’t really hurt him much more than hitting him anywhere else

>Then it dawns on you. Will is not a human. His liver is most likely not where a human’s would be

>Thus what would have been a game ender to a member of your own race is simply just another slap to Will, indistinguishable from the countless others he’s taken throughout his career

>Your plan to take him out with one punch has failed and you don‘t have a backup plan

>You panic and do the first thing that comes to mind; Swarming

>Closing in, you Pummel him aggressively with one brutal attack after the next; Right Hook! Right Hook! Left Hook! Right Hook! Left Hook! Left Hook! Right Uppercut! Left Hook!

>Sweat flies from his skin as you hear the crunching of bones on gloves

>Well after you’ve finished your combo, the dazed Will replies by placing a glove on your stomach and pushing you back, disallowing you to continue.

>With the two of you having a brief moment of distance, You stand perplexed a second time. How could he be standing after a beating like that?

>With that question out of the way you regain your focus. You charge in to meet him at arm’s length and resume your jabbing just as he resumes his.

>The space in between the two of you grows cluttered. You’re trying to get your jabs out. He’s trying to get his Jab’s out. Punches collide in midair continuously as they fail to cross the no-man’s-land mediating the both of you.

>At this point, you’re no longer anticipating him to throw anything remotely resembling a Hook for the remainder of the round. His haymakers have turned out disastrous for him and he knows it

>The bell rings and the round ends.

>You contemplate Will’s defenses on the way back to your corner. Even though your “Liver shot“ wasn‘t quite the success you had hoped for, Anyone else would have dropped after being swarmed like that…

>…Yet he’s still standing and, apart from trying to recover from the aftermath of last round, he’s relatively functional

>It dawns on you; Will, Being a large, slow-moving, and predictable opponent has been trained to take a tremendous amount of abuse

>You realize that the lucky windows you’ve gotten thus far (Your shock and awe midair swing punch, him smashing his head into the post) were in fact just that; Luck

>You had simply made out with a few good counters and nothing more

>You cannot simply beat him by a direct and frontal assault. Its going to take more than just brawn for you to win this fight.