He shoved past my shoulder, but I chose to ignore it. I heard him outside the room, beating the crap out of the wall.

I knew better than to pry, better than to ask questions. I'm not stupid, I know abuse when I see it.

Once I couldn't hear pounding on the wall anymore I decided it was okay to go out.

Kai's head was pressed against the wall, his eyes closed. He was taking short, deep breaths trying to calm himself down.

This was a sore spot, and I wasn't one to press where it hurts.

I slowly stepped out and closed the door behind me. I leaned on the wall next to Kai and crossed my arms, "Hey, It's time for your fight."

He turned his head, still pressed against the wall and looked at me. He gave me a faint smile, "Thanks."

As he started walking I followed him. We went through the back along a dark hallway with no one else in it. There was only one door at the end of the tunnel. It was lit with very few lights and you could hear the echoes of the crowd chanting. It was almost surreal.

As we reached the end of the dark tunnel Kai turned to me and gave me a bright smile. Doing this seemed to really make him happy.

He opened the metal door leading him into the pit. The crowd grew louder, chanting the name "Furiae" (pronounced fury, singular of furies, the Roman name for the goddesses Erinyes). It must be the name Kai goes by down here.

Furiae... I knew the name. Whenever I came down here I would always hear people talking about some legendary fighter. Someone who has been training down here since he was 14, a true beast. Some even called him a demon, others called him a god.

I smirked at Kai. Although I knew he was a legend, the name is just so cheesy I can't help it, "Furiae?" I asked, a laugh dying to come out.

He stiffened again. He opened the large metal door and turned to me and said, "A Furiae is a god of vengeance."

Vengeance?

As he let the door close I heard him mutter something, "under earth take vengeance on men, whosoever hath sworn a false oath"

The door slammed shut. The echoes grew louder and louder. The announcer began his commentary. "Ladies and gentlemen..." I turned around and sprinted down the hallway, "The event you have all been patiently waiting for..." I turned the corner, nearly running into a woman with piercings all over and tattoos covering the majority of her face and neck. I ran and ran until I was amidst the rowdy crowd. "After three months of gruesome fighting, here we are..." I shoved my way down so I was in the front row, right above the pit.

"After all the bloody battles and the broken bones, we stand here with the two best fighters in the entire state! On our left we have GRIFFITH!!!" The crowd roared, mostly men, chanting his name. He's a lot bigger in person, but Kai still has several inches on him in height. "And on our right...." He paused, building up the tension, "We have... Furiae!!!!!" The crowd went wild, everyone was screaming and cheering.

This was mad. Out of all the fights I had ever been to here, this was the largest crowd I had seen. Opposed to the usual hundred or so people, this fight drew the attention of nearly a thousand.

The crowd started chanting, I could hear the countdown to the fight.

"3...2...1, START!"

I could hear the countdown starting. Draining out any surrounding noise, I could barely hear the cries of the crowd, "3...2...1, START!"

"So, old man. What brings you round' here?" I asked.

He chuckled at my question as we circled around each other.

"Money. You."

"Oh just, you know. Stuff."

I started to make small talk, he was starting to get distracted and I took that as my chance. I made a quick jab with my right arm clocking him right in the nose. I could hear a soft crack.

Griffith grabbed his nose and as he pulled his hand away, it was dripping blood.

He laughed again. "Like to play dirty now huh"

As he was still regrouping I took another step towards him, taunting him to make a move.

He lunged at me trying to get a hit on with full force, but Lucas was right, he might be strong but he was definitely slow. I quickly ducked behind him and kicked the center of his back, causing him to stumble and faceplant into the hard concrete floor.

I could hear the distant booing of the crowd. They wanted a bloody fight, they didn't want to see us simply messing around.

I glimpsed at the crowd to see if I could find Lucas. Once I saw him I felt a sharp pain right next to my eye. I was on the ground now, Griffith was on top of me. The vision in my right eye became red as the blood streamed down my face. I put my arms up to block Griffith's punches but they were too strong. He was hammering me.

I swiftly struck his ass with my knee and quickly switched our positions. Now I was on top of him. I was taking big swings, each time connecting with bone, going straight through his arm barrier.

He shoved me off with great force. We both stood up collecting ourselves, my vision still red. I could barely see Griffith taking another lunge towards me. He was desperate to get another punch. By now, I could tell the match was already over.

I laughed at his attempt as I grabbed his neck as he ran towards me and threw him against the hard wall. He staggered back up coming towards me. I ran towards him and gave a clean uppercut with my left hand which left him stumbling. Even though I was practically blind due to the cut right above my eye and the blood dripping down my face, I knew one more hit and I'd win this.

"What? Had enough already?" I laughed.

As he continued to stumble in my direction he said "Enough? What do you mean enough? I'm just getting started!"

This made me laugh even more because anyone could tell from the tone of his voice that he was on the verge of collapsing.

"Sorry, old man." With that, I did a tornado round kick. As I spun in the air I felt my foot connect with the side of his face. With a sudden thud, Griffith was on the ground, definitely not getting back up.

The sound started to funnel back in as the announcer ran back out into the ring.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! We have our Triple-O champioooooon!!!"

He grabbed my arm and held it above my head as the crowd roared.

Sure, it definitely wasn't my best fight ever, but that doesn't matter as long as I win in the end.

The announcer kept on talking and rambling. I patted his back as I began to walk away. As I was stepping through the door I heard him say "Looks like our champion has some business to attend to but..." He went on about the fight but I couldn't care less. What's there to talk about, it's already over.

I walked down the dim hallway. As I came up to my room I gave the security guard a nod. I threw off my sweaty shirt immediately, I hated fighting in it but it's better than people asking questions about my scars, I don't need those kinds of distractions during a fight. I took a quick shower to rinse off the sweat on my body, trying to avoid the large cut on my face since I knew it would sting.

I left the small restroom in nothing but some underwear and moved to the other side of the room to grab my water bottle. I heard the door open and Lucas walked in, not so subtly checking me out. It made me laugh.

As I grabbed my hoodie and jeans out of my bag I felt a hand touch my face. I winced, Lucas turned my face so I was looking in his eyes. He was checking all the cuts and bruises I had on my face.

"Well," He started, "It's not too bad. Nothing you haven't gotten from me before.

I shoved his hand, "I'm sure you'd like to think that." I retorted.

I quickly got the rest of my stuff together and took Lucas out the back door.

"Ahhh." I half sighed half yelled.

"That was a good fight. Makes me think that you hold back when you fight me." Lucas said as we began to walk.

"I don't think I would call it holding back, I'd think of it more as making it a fair fight." I smiled as I started walking backward.

"Fair my ass. You're practically a pro fighter."

"And you're not? Don't pretend like I'm the only one who holds back."

Lucas just shrugged his shoulders.

"You know..." I started.

"Yeah?"

"For some reason, I still want to punch your face."

We both paused for a second, then spontaneously broke out into laughter. This was such a weird situation that I don't think either of us knew what we could do besides laugh.

"Are you going home now? It's 11:56 right now.

"Actually, do you think I could crash at your place? My house is... occupied?"

I have no clue what he meant by occupied but I didn't want him asking questions about my life so I wasn't going to start asking about his.

"Sure, if you want to," I said, looking directly into his large green eyes as they looked straight back into mine.

I honestly really don't know what's going on between us. I don't know how you can go from hating someone and wanting to smash their head in with a brick to kissing them and letting them stay in your home, especially when that person is a guy.

I feel like part of my life was just flipped upside down. I don't know what to expect, but maybe, just maybe... this could be a good thing.

I changed Kai's fight name from Nemesis to Furiae

Nemesis the Greek goddess of vengeance, but I did some research and it is vengeance towards humans that commit hubris, which is like excessive arrogance or pride, which is not what I was going for.

So I changed it to Furiae which is the singular Roman equivalent to the Greek goddesses Erinyes which were goddesses of vengeance and retribution against crimes such as homicide and unfilial conduct, which is perfect for Kai and this story!

I liked the Roman pronunciation of Furiae (fury) more than the Greek pronunciation of Erinys (Erin-us) which is why I went with the Roman name. It also fits well since the goddesses are called Furiae on Earth and have different names in heaven and hell.

Also, the sentence "that under earth take vengeance on men, whosoever hath sworn a false oath," is a formulaic oath in the Iliad about the Erinyes and I thought it'd be cool to include it.

Also, I just want to say real quick that I know fighting is a big part of the concept for this story, but everyone should know that I don't know anything about fighting or boxing, at all, so I'm looking stuff up and simply trying my best to write fight scenes.

Anyways sorry for the long author's note, I just wanted to explain some things

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