60

LINDEN

I quickly took off my shirt, positioned my stance, and cracked my fingers. Honestly, I didn’t know how to defeat him. I didn’t know if I could. He was an MMA fighter but lost his chance of accidentally killing someone outside the ring. And this was an underground fight against killers, murderers, and gamblers— all criminal activities and ground rules didn’t apply. This was a dirty sport. But I was not going to die tonight.

Aleksandr advanced forward. Of course, he did. He wanted to end this fight quickly. I moved forward but maintained my ground, focusing on his possible move. His first jab almost hit my face, and I did a counterattack to push him back. But it was just a warm-up.

I took my own emotional and physical injuries in only three minutes. We had bloody faces, but I took the worse.

He struck me hard with a kick on my side. I had bruised face and probably cracked ribs. Sure, I endured a broken nose, bloody mouth, and my strength was draining so fast, and I hadn’t bea