Revenge Match

It was a privilege of the loser and it was an opportunity to ask for another match. After each fight, an app in the phone stored the match data that included a photo of the rival, time the match lasted and if you won or lost. In case you lost, you had the opportunity to challenge the other person by betting at least 10 points and if you won, you also get 30 points(10 you bet +10 victory + 10 extra)

Unlike normal challenges where the challenged could refuse and nothing happened, if you refused, you had to pay 10 points to the other party. The challenged didn't lose any points if he or she lost the revenge match, and even gets 20 points after if he or she won, plus whatever extra points they bet

By the way, if you went in the red, you would have to pay half of all your earnings until you pay the debt. Well, at least, you didn't have to pay interest

But going back to me, I was in a pickle. There was no way I would pay 10 points to get out of the fight, so I had to fight even if I didn't want to. The problem was that I didn't feel confident I could win

I managed to go to 1 boxing class, and I managed to spar relatively well against Meg, but that didn't mean I was ready for a serious fight. For starters, most matches were all out so you could get killed if you were unlucky. In a spar instead, you could get a little hurt at most

Remember that I watched a lot of fights, so I knew how bad it could go, and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. The funny thing about fear is that knowing the result of something can be worst than not knowing nothing at all. That is why they say "ignorance is a blessing"

Since I couldn't pretend not knowing how bad it could go if I wasn't careful, my second best option was to learn how others cope with the fear and how could I beat a speedster fair and square. Now, can you guess what was the best place to learn all that?

The place that gave me the fear in the first place, the "recreation room" with all the recorded fights

There was also the option of asking someone older or even my "helper" that explained everything the first day, but I found it a little intimidating to talk to someone older so I decided to go to the simpler solution

I even took Meg and Mei with me to the "recreation room" since they allowed up to 4 persons, but since it was for me that we went, I spend the points

In the "Recreation Room", you had one smart tv with 3 categories. TV, Movies, and Fights. When choosing fights, the program chooses some for you according to past search, and you could either search according to tags, fighters name or fighters type

First, I wrote Sara Mars to see my fight against the other guy, and after seeing everything that happened, I couldn't help myself and smiled a little bit. Meg and Mei, that knew what happened, couldn't stop laughing for a few minutes since it almost looked like a comedy sketch

What did I learn from it? I was really really lucky the guy was an idiot

I even tried to look for the guy other fights, but it was the first one, just like me

So I went to plan B, see fights against speedsters. The way they usually fight was simple, newbies would run to the enemy as fast as they could and try to land a punch in the face before the other could react. The pattern usually went with a good hit or a dodge from the other guy follow by a counter

If it landed the first hit and the other didn't fall and if the speedster didn't fall back or dodge the counter, the speedster usually lost, if it did fall back and repeat the attack, his chances improved

What I did notice was that most of those that resisted the first punch, followed the trajectory of the punch, meaning that they would either turn their head or jump backward. Later I would learn that it helped diminish the impact of the hit but I did notice it helped at the time

After that, I saw other tactics most speedsters use like zigzagging before approaching or running around the enemy and attacking his back but the scariest was also the simplest. The guy would simply run at full speed, make a small jump and kick

Let me tell you, of all the guys that took that kick, only 1 managed to keep standing, and only because he had a full cyborg body. So yeah, it was dodge or die

Not that it was impossible to dodge, it was actually slower than a normal punch since having to jump slowed down the other guy a little, but it was 10 times as scary since you were done for if it hits you

Did seeing all this help having an idea on how to beat the crap out of that guy? yes

Did it help decrease my fear for the next fight? absolutely not!!!!!!!

Before I only imagined what could happen in a fight against a speedster, now I knew....

I even saw one of the guys that took the kick die!!!!

Come on! that is trauma stuff!!!!!

So yeah, I was screwed. I knew how to fight the guy, but in the process, I learned in how much deep sh-t I was

Have you ever play one of those games where you have to follow a specific set of instruction to beat a boss? Even if you saw the instructions online and follow the steps, if you screw up you are dead. In the game you can try again if you fail, but here.......

Broken bones, broken arms, broken legs, punctured lung, lost an eye, a few teeth and even dead, and I saw it all happen on video

Nice, right?

Like I wouldn't panic after seeing all that!!

Still, at least, I paid attention to what everyone did before a fight, and I realized some would start breathing deeply in a rhythmic way with their eye close and would focus again just before the countdown ended

I didn't know how effective it was at the time, but with no other alternative, I decided to give it a try before the fight

Actually, I also learned that you could attack someone before the countdown started and nothing happen to the attacker afterward. It seems that following the countdown time was more like a sportsmanship or gentlemen rules than an actual rule with consequences if you didn't follow them

Not that knowing that would stop me from actually trying the breathing exercise. Like it or not, I don't think I would be able to calm myself unless I tried that, and even I wasn't even sure it was going to work actually

So, after watching violent videos for 3 hours with my points, I was as ready as I was going to be for the fight the next day. We ate something, discussed a little about the fight, went to sleep, went to school, ate again and the fight was just around the corner, so I went to the Teleport that the phone indicated

I was getting more nervous by every step I made, so I tried the breathing exercise and it helped a little

I got on the teleport and waited while still breathing deeply and shortly after, I was teleported to the same place as before, with the same guy I fought before, only now a little angrier instead of being confident

If stares could kill, I don't think I would be alive right now. I could see the hatred the dude had against me for some reason, he looked really really pissed, and considering how he lost the last fight, I could understand

"Battle Start in 5"(Voice) started the countdown

Breath In, breath out

"4"

Breath In, breath out

"3"

Breath In, breath out

"2"

Breath In, breath out

"1"

Breath In

"Go"

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Note: Cliffhanger, yay :D

Thanks Neiden for the grammar help ::) and good point with the zigzag. I didn't think that far when I wrote it, but they probably do small jumps when they zigzag, taking advantage of their leg muscle(like a gazelle)