Royal Stripper

by Sienna Valentine

  "You're up next," Amber was saying. "Should you head to the back now?"

  They were sitting in the makeshift bleachers, a set of temporary wooden stands that were set up for people to watch the fights. So far there had been two matches out of the six scheduled for round one of the tournament. There had been only 14 entrants, which meant two fighters went immediately to round two without having to fight. Unfortunately, Joel hadn't been one of them. He had been watching the first two fights closely, but so far hadn't seen anyone too skilled that worried him. But there were still nine other fighters he hadn't seen.

  "Yeah, I guess so," he said, just as he finished putting on the gloves the Dojo had lent him. He was use to bare knuckle fights in alleyways, but he'd worn these MMA style gloves before. Each fighter was supposed to be behind the curtain before their match so that they could be announced and make an entrance. Match two had just ended, which gave him five minutes before they called his name. Each first round match lasted only 10 minutes, and if there wasn't a submission or knockout in that time, the decision was made by the judges. The judges were apparently made up of MMA fighters, with Marcus being one of them.

  He made his way to the back, leaving Amber in her seat. Only fighters were allowed in the back while the tournament was on. There were only a couple other guys waiting, but he knew most of the smart ones would be out watching the fights. Always made sense to know your competition.

  Chapter 22

  Amber

  Amber watched nervously as Joel entered the ring. His opponent had entered first, and had gotten more cheers from the crowd than he did. Apparently he'd brought more of his own fans. Amber hadn't been the only one clapping for Joel, but she suspected most of the others had just been being polite.

  The man in the ring with Joel was Sam Slaughter, and although she knew that wasn't his real name, she didn't like the connotation. Joel needed a nickname, but she knew him well enough already to know that he would think that nicknames were stupid. But still, it had to add some psychological advantage, otherwise why did everyone else seem to have them.

  The bell rung, signaling the start of the match and she looked quickly at the timer on the wall. Ten minutes. He only had to make it ten minutes with this guy. He can do that. Sam didn't look nearly as big as Brutus had been. He was smaller than Joel, in fact.

  As soon as it had begun, Sam rushed towards Joel trying to catch him by surprise by grabbing hold of his midsection. Joel slammed a fist against his attacker's back, but he couldn't loosen the grip. From what Amber could see, Sam seemed to be trying to squeeze the air from Joel while kicking at his legs.

  With a sudden spin, Joel tripped and landed hard on his back with Sam on top. Both men scrambled around on the ground before Joel was able to fling Sam off and kick him in the chest as he tried to re-mount him. Sam flew backwards, giving Joel enough time to regain his feet.

  Both men began to circle each other again. Sam once again made a sudden rush at Joel, but this time he was ready for it. Joel caught the other man as he ducked to try to take Joel down again, and he was able to wrap one arm around Sam's head. Sam's hands immediately came up to grab onto Joel's arm to try to pull it off, and she could see the smaller man struggling.

  Suddenly, Joel began to slam his knee repeated into his opponent as he held him, causing the man to momentarily move his hands away to try to protect himself. She saw Joel's arm shift under the other man's neck and he began to lean back. Suddenly, Sam was slapping wildly against Joel's leg and the bell rung. The referee immediately ran between the two men and pushed Joel away.

  "What happened," Amber said aloud, unsure why they were separated.

  "That Joel guy just won," said a man to her left, thinking she had been asking him.

  "He did? How?"

  "Looked like a Guillotine choke to me. Sam tapped out."

  Amber had no idea what a Guillotine choke was, but she did remember that tapping out was the equivalent of surrendering. A big smile spread across her face and she looked over at the clock. There was still over 5 minutes left on it. Joel had won very quickly.

  The crowd cheered as the announcer declared Joel the winner via submission, and Amber anxiously awaited his return. When he finally emerged from the back, the next match had already begun but she wasn't paying any attention to it. She swung her arms around him immediately and gave him a squeeze. He brought his hands around her as well and she was ecstatic to feel him squeeze her back, although he pulled away pretty quickly, looking embarrassed at the public display of affection.

  "You did it!" she exclaimed.

  "That was only the first match," he replied. "But yeah." She was happy he allowed himself to smile back at her, even if it was very slightly.

  He settled back down beside her and quickly focused on the match going on.

  "That black guy favors his left too much," he said.

  Amber looked at the fight in front of him, but she had no idea what Joel was talking about.

  "But his opponent hasn't noticed, he keeps opening himself up to it," he continued.

  She did see that one guy kept getting hit by the other guy, the black man that Joel had mentioned. She hadn't noticed before, but now that he had pointed it out, he was using his left hand more often than his right. Not something she generally would pay attention to, but apparently it was an important enough detail for Joel to notice.

  The match ended with him continuing to commentate, noting each strength and weakness to her as he saw them. Most of the time she had no idea what he was talking about, but she wasn't paying a lot of attention anyway. She was mainly worrying about the next round. Before she knew it, the first round of matches were over and there were only eight fighters left.

  "Ladies and gentlemen," the announcer called out. "There will be a fifteen minute intermission before we start the second round of matches."

  Chapter 23

  Joel

  Joel paced in the back, waiting for his name to be called. His first match had ended quickly, but he knew that the second may not be as easy since his opponent would at least be good enough to have won his own first match. He had been lucky that Sam had been so obvious in looking for a takedown, wanting to turn the fight into a wrestling match. Normally, Joel would have no problem with that, he was very comfortable on the ground, however with Sam so interested in taking it there, Joel suspected that his standing game wasn't very strong. He tested his theory with a couple of knees to the stomach, and was rewarded when Sam flinched enough to open his neck up for a choke.

  Besides, when Sam had knocked him down the first time, Joel's head had hit the mat. It hadn't hit too hard, he had made sure to tuck his chin as much as possible, but it was enough to agitate his injury. If he could avoid doing that again, he'd be happy.

  The dojo wasn't posting the bracket anywhere, so he wasn't sure who he was fighting next, but he had a pretty good idea about how at least six of the eight remaining fighters fought. Two of them had moved directly to round two, so he was hoping that he wouldn't end up with one of those. It may not be a massive advantage to have watched the other guys fight just that single time, but it was something. He'd take what he could get.

  He heard his name being called and he took a deep and calming breath before pushing aside the curtain and making his way to the ring. He was first this time, and he was pretty sure that he was getting more cheers than he had during match one. Clearly his quick finish had won over a few fans. But there was only one of them that mattered. He gave Amber a quick glance as he manoeuvred between the ropes. She smiled widely and he wondered yet again what he'd done to deserve her attention.

  "And his opponent, from Minneapolis, Minnesota... weighing 230 lbs... Jackson Daily!"

  Joel glanced towards the curtain, and the black man from the fight earlier emerged to start making his way to the ring. The southpaw.

  This second match, as well as the next one, were both also ten minutes however they were being separated into two five minute rounds. That made it c
loser to a real MMA style match. The final fight would add a third round. He could only hope to make it that long.

  Jackson was in the ring, and the referee signaled them to begin.

  The two men started circling each other, each one throwing out exploratory jabs that were easily blocked by his opponent. As with his last match, Jackson was favoring his left more often. In response, Joel stepped slightly to his own left, keeping away from Jackson's power side. As he hoped, Jackson didn't compensate by moving his own stance to his right to even them up again. Now, whenever Jackson threw his left, it was a lot easier for Joel to dodge, as well as opening his opponent up in the center. On Jackson's next attack, Joel ducked to the left and then threw a right, connecting right in between the guard of Jackson and clocking him right in the nose.

  The black man stumbled back in surprise and Joel followed up with a forward kick right to the midsection. Jackson doubled forward but lifted his hands in time to counter Joel's follow up hook.

  Both men stood and squared off again, but Jackson still wasn't paying enough attention to Joel's stance and he was once again able to get inside the other man's guard, delivering yet another blow to his face as he stepped and slid to his left. This time, however, he also used his leg to slam back into Jackson's calf, causing the man to buckle down. He recovered quickly, though, and threw a backhanded punch toward Joel as he passed, hitting him in the back of the head.

  Normally, that punch wouldn't have even fazed him, but Jackson's gloved fist had landed directly on his previous injury and an instant flash of pain seared through his brain, causing Joel to stumble forward into the ropes and allow his opponent to recover and regain his balance. As he pushed off and spun, Joel glanced up at the clock. There was still over a minute left in this round. The back of his head felt like it was on fire, and a small trickle on the back of his neck told him the cut had opened up again.

  Jackson sensed that something was wrong and immediately bounded forward, swinging his left again. Joel blocked it in time, but only because he knew it was coming. He threw a jab of his own to counter, but he was slow and it was easily dodged. Jackson threw a knee forward, connecting with Joel's ribs. He sucked in breath as pain shot through him, but he was able to deflect the follow up that Jackson threw by leaning forward and into it, and then grabbing the other man and holding his arms down in a clinch while he regained his breath.

  A few seconds later he pushed off, his head no longer feeling as dizzy. The clock was at 30 seconds left. Neither man was able to land anything significant before the bell rang to signal the end of the match. Joel would have 2 minutes to rest before the start of the next round.

  He went over to his corner and was surprised to see Amber there.

  "What are you doing here?" he asked.

  "The other guy has someone in his corner," she said, with a nod of her head. He looked over and saw someone applying a cloth to the back of Jackson's neck to cool him down.

  "Well, that's probably his trainer. It's not supposed to be a social break."

  Amber ignored him. "How's your head. It's bleeding."

  "He got a lucky hit, square in the center of it. Hurts like a bitch, but I'll be fine."

  "Turn around, let me take a look."

  Joel looked at her dubiously, but turned around nonetheless. He felt her press something up against it and he sucked in a breath as she pushed firmly against it.

  "What are you doing back there?"

  "There were towels here, I'm just applied a bit of pressure to stop the bleeding. Just hold still."

  He knew it was the right thing to do, and once again he felt ashamed that Amber was constantly helping him when he could offer nothing in return. He felt her hand touch his shoulder in order to get leverage as she pushed against the back of his head. Her cool skin felt calming against his sweaty back. He almost felt himself relax, despite the situation. By the time the ref told them to wrap it up, he almost felt as if he were back at her apartment, relaxing.

  The bell rang again though, and reality returned.

  Chapter 24

  Amber

  After returning to her seat, the man she had spoken to earlier looked over at her. "Are you his trainer?" he asked, his eyebrow raised. She could hear in his voice that he was pretty sure he knew that she wasn't, and so she was tempted to say yes just to see the look of surprise on his face.

  "No," she finally answered.

  "Ah. It didn't look like that blow by Jackson was enough to open him up like that," he said. "That was a lot of blood though."

  "It didn't," she agreed. "He got that fighting the other day."

  "Oh," the man said. "What club does he train at?"

  "He doesn't," she said. "He fights... privately." She wasn't sure how legal what Joel did was, and didn't think it was her place to advertise what he did for a living to perfect strangers.

  The man looked at her questioningly, but she ignored it and turned her attention back to Joel.

  The two men were trading blows again, but it looked like Joel was back in form. Jackson had a cut over his left eye now, and was stumbling. None of his punches seemed to be connecting with Joel.

  Jackson threw a swinging roundhouse which Joel ducked easily, but when the man came back around he left himself open and Joel pounced, swinging his fist upwards and connecting hard against his opponent's jaw. It happened so fast that Amber almost missed it, but she was pretty sure that Jackson's feet left the ground for a second as the punch hit him from below. He flew backwards and landed flat on his back. Joel jumped forward and landed on his chest, raising a hand in the air to continue his assault, but before he could land the first punch the ref grabbed his arm and stopped the fight. Jackson was out cold, and Joel had won again.

  The crowd cheered much louder this time, but Amber wasn't sure whether it was because they were starting to root for Joel, or because the fight had ended in such a spectacular knock out. She suspected it was more of the latter, but she wanted to believe there was a little bit of both.

  She leapt to her own feet and let out a holler, clapping her hands furiously. Joel's eyes scanned the crowd until they landed on her, and he gave her a big smile. Her own smile grew even wider - it was the first time he had looked that happy since she met him.

  "That was a helluva KO," the man beside her said.

  "I'll say," she agreed.

  "Your boyfriend can certainly fight."

  Boyfriend? She didn't correct him. It wasn't his business anyway, and although Joel was far from being her boyfriend, she kind of liked the sound of it.

  The next match had already started before Joel joined her at their seats again. He had a new towel that he was holding against the back of his head. When he sat down, she took over holding it for him. There was ice in the middle of this one.

  "That was awesome," she said to him. "You really knocked that guy on his ass."

  "He was still leaving himself open," he said. "Lucky I noticed that earlier."

  "It was a good observation, no luck about it," the man next to them said.

  Joel just grunted noncommittally.

  "How's the head?" the man asked.

  Joel looked at him for a moment before saying anything. "It's fine," he said.

  "Your girlfriend here said you had that going in, that guy just opened it up again. By the amount of blood that was coming out, it must have been pretty bad. I'm surprised you're still fighting with that."

  Joel looked sharply at Amber, but she wasn't sure what he was angry about - the fact that she had been talking about his injury, or that he had referred to Amber as Joel's girlfriend. To her surprise, he didn't correct the man when he responded.

  "Well, like I said, it's fine. This fight was today. I didn't think it was worth missing over this. Injuries happen. Part of the gig."

  "It obviously isn't affecting his performance," Amber said defensively. "He's won both of his fights already."

  "No doubt," the man said. He smiled and returned his attention to the ring.
/>
  After Joel shot her another look, he did the same and watched in silence. Within a few minutes, though, he began to comment on the action again. Amber took that to mean he had gotten over his annoyance.

  "This guy is new, he must have been one of the Byes."

  "What's that mean?" she asked.

  "He didn't fight in round one because they didn't have the full 16 entrants. Big advantage for him. He's a lot fresher as this is his first fight."

  Despite the advantage, however, the match ended shortly after with the fresh fighter eliminated.