Hey! Hope you guys like this chapter and the fight! I didn't think it was a spectacular fight but i hope that it was good! Thanks as usual to all my readers and reviewers! You guys always make me happy! And over 100 reviews wow!
Disclamer: I do not own the Hobbit.
Scar and Killer's fight was a knockdown, drag out fight. Both fighters traded blows that cracked across the arena. The crowd roared and shouted for their favorite but Kili and the other fighters were intent on studying the style of each of the fighters in the ring. Scar was faster and lighter on his feet but he packed a wicked punch. Killer wasn't so fast and his punch was harder than Scar's. And while he didn't land as much blows on Scar as Scar did to him, he knew how to use those punches he did land. It was only a matter of time before the damage he landed on Scar began to tell. When he finally stumbled, Killer moved in and delivered a brutal uppercut that had Scar's feet leaving the floor. He landed back hard on the mat and was summarily carried out. Killer's hand was raised as the winner and he cheered but Kili could see the way his chest heaved. It had only been matter of time before Scar's blows would have put him down too. The real fight between them had been a fight of endurance.
Troll took down Goblin with an actual suplex in the first two minutes of the fight. Kili had winced and sincerely hoped that Goblin's neck hadn't broken. It hadn't but it was obvious he needed medical attention.
Slingshot and Machine had been an interesting match that had paired up two out fighters with fast punches and kicks. Their match stretched out as the two circled each other, trying to alternatively corer the other person and deliver and barrage of blows sure to knock someone out and trying to escape being cornered themselves. Slingshot eventually won out though, cornering Machine, knocking out his guard and delivering upwards of fifteen crosses in about 7 seconds. Kili hadn't been able to count the exact number.
Graylin bumped Kili's shoulder good-naturedly as he passed him on his way up to the ring and gave him a grin. Kili grinned back. He knew Graylin from his first visit to a fighting ring. He had been the fighter in the match before him, had seen him freaking out as he was about enter and had told him to 'relax and fight idiot'. It had helped.
He watched Graylin hop the ropes with some trepidation because it hadn't escaped his attention that all the winners had been from the Dragon's Den. Knockout came out and apparently was a crowd favorite because the volume upped like fifty decibels. The referee started the match and the opponents started to circle each other. Thirty seconds into the fight it became obvious that Knockout's greatest factor was his strength while Graylin seemed to favour nothing in particular. They were both smart fighters though, and used what they had to the best advantage. The fight progressed to a stunning five minutes length before Knockout's attacks actually started to crowd Graylin enough that he had to pull out of the indifferent façade that he had put up. Then it quickly became apparent that what Graylin's strength was, was unpredictability and the ability to back that up with a variety of styles that seemed to be never-ending in number. From the time that Graylin really began to fight to the moment when Knockout was knocked out, was exactly one minute.
"Whoo!" shouted Kili grinning.
The next group started and Kili started to tense because he was the third fight and then had to remind himself to relax.
Unstoppable turned out to really be unstoppable. Uncatchable turned out to be catchable. In fact he was so catchable; Whiplash won by swinging him around by his feet and throwing him through the space in the ropes and out of the ring.
Then he was up. Kili checked to make sure his gloves was secure and then bounded up to the ring as his name was announced. The crowd went wild and Kili slipped in between the ropes and played up to them and then retreated to his corner to wait for his opponent. He appeared with an accompanying blast of music. Kili looked him over as he walked up to the ring. He had black hair that was a little curly and black eyes with a harsh angled face and thin lips. His body was lean and long and packed with corded muscle. He slipped between the ropes and Kili noted he shared a similar fluid grace with the Lion Prince. He glanced over the crowd and then returned his gaze to Kili. The two fighters stepped towards each other and listened to the rules, nodded to show they understood and then returned to their corners. Kili assumed his usual fighter's crouch and saw Ripclaw do the same. The referee saw they were both ready and the shouted "Fight!"
Kili and Ripclaw stepped forward and began to circle each other. Kili sent out an experimental jab. Ripclaw flinched to the side to avoid it but obviously wasn't fazed. They continued to circle each other for a moment before Ripclaw sent out an experimental jab of his own. Kili dodged it and the one after it and threw a punch of his own. Ripclaw dodged feinted and threw a lazy kick. Kili blocked it and then cocked an eyebrow at him. Ripclaw grinned and said,
"Well if you don't want the freebies…"
Kili smirked and said, "I don't need them."
Ripclaw's smile twisted into something very dangerous, "If you say so."
Kili was suddenly aware of the tension filled silence of the crowd, the viscous-like atmosphere as everyone held their breath and realized that the crowd knew Ripclaw as a fighter, knew that this bout just flipped into something way more dangerous. Then his attention snapped back into what was happening in the ring just as Ripclaw crossed the distance between them with breath taking speed.
Kili slammed his guard up in time to receive some truly punishing blows to his forearms. They rocked him back but then Kili dug in his heels and smacked back hard. Ripclaw parried it and kicked him in the side. Kili dropped his arm to block it, blocked it but then Ripclaw just shifted his foot higher to kick him in the shoulder and then once more in the head. Kili stumbled sideways and got his guard back up and looked up to see that Ripclaw had danced away.
"Maybe you should have taken those freebies," he suggested.
Kili shook his head to clear his thoughts and to get back in the game. He focused on his opponent, who was surely only playing him. Ripclaw was fast and strong and agile, he didn't favour either infighting or outfighting, he didn't intimidate easy and he was definitely dangerous. Kili suddenly grinned as the thrill of the fight finally flooded his veins. He was going to have so much fun.
"You should really only give away when you've got to give," Kili taunted back, "or you might lose something you can't afford to."
"Oh, I think my pocket's deeper than yours," Ripclaw said without missing a beat.
"Sorry," said Kili, "I think I'm going to clean you out tonight."
Ripclaw smirked, "Why don't we bet on it?"
"Sure," said Kili and tossed himself in a foot first dive across the ring. As expected Ripclaw sidestepped him. Kili pushed up with his hands as he was sliding and came up on one knee next to him and punched him in the knee.
Ripclaw crashed to the floor and instantly rolled away. Kili threw himself after him and then they were both grappling on the floor. Kili got him in a hold but he wriggled out and then rolled away and pooped to his feet and threw himself at Kili just as he got up. Kili blocked the first two blows, caught a shattering kick on his left and an elbow to the right. Kili hit out as he was withdrawing the elbow and hit him square in the face then ducked, coming up from beneath his guard and whipped a vicious upper cut to Ripclaw's stomach. He grunted and slammed an elbow downwards. Kili jerked back but it still glanced off his eyebrow and split the skin. He ignored the blood and snapped out a front kick which Ripclaw dodged gracefully and then stepped forward. Kili jabbed again with his left hand, only this time Ripclaw's hand also snaked out. Only he didn't go for Kili's head or body. He went for his arm instead. Kili let out a curse as Ripclaw's fingers scored down the length of his arm as he withdrew it. Ripclaw danced backwards with ridiculous grace to the other side of the ring and regarded Kili. Kili eyed him and then risked a look at his arm which was aching. He was unsurprised to see five red lines on his arm. He was surprised at how much they hurt though. He hadn't felt any nails as Ripclaw had dragged his fingers along his arm so that meant that he had some incredible finger strength. But still, it shouldn't hurt that much. Kili decided to shrug it off.
He staked towards Ripclaw who watched him amusedly and came to meet him. He jabbed at Kili, who blocked most of them and then tried to throw a left jab of his own and gasped as he did so. The pain was bad and his arm was moving too slow. Ripclaw ducked it with ease and then slammed a fist into Kili's face. Kili stumbled back then threw a right cross only for Ripclaw to drag his hand down that arm as well. Kili ignored the pain and dropped to the floor and spun sweeping his foot out. Ripclaw went down, rolled into a crouch and tackled him from there. Kili got hit over onto his back and was pinned. He bucked viciously and got an elbow into the space between Ripclaw's neck and shoulder and wiggled out. He got to his feet but Ripclaw came up behind him and Kili felt his fingers rake over his back. He hissed and delivered a back kick. It connected but Ripclaw's hand raked down his leg too. Kili hissed and drew back his leg and spun and planted his feet and then almost fell as his leg buckled. For a moment he was perplexed. Then he understood. And felt really, really dense.
He cursed and threw himself out of the way of Ripclaw. He dodged again and found himself backed into the corner. At the moment Kili wasn't too bothered. Being in the corner gave him something to rest his weight on while his leg recovered and lowered the chances of any kicks which would send him off his feet in seconds. He blocked and occasionally landed blows with his elbows while working out how to get around what that son of an orc had done.
Because Ripclaw, wasn't an arbitrary name. That finger strength that Kili had shrugged off had been used to devastating effect by drawing those very painful lines in-between his muscle groups. Ordinarily Kili could take blows on his muscles. Everyone could. However between the muscles themselves, right in those lines which define all those nice looking bulges, were the sensitive spots. They hurt a lot and harming them specifically, caused reaction time to slow due to the damage And Ripclaw had targeted those points very specifically. Kili had to grudgingly gave the strategy some points. It was clever.
It was clear that he could recover from the damage as his leg was holding up a bit better but equally clear from the beating he was taking, he wouldn't recover fast enough. So Kili quickly took stock in the few moments he had before Ripclaw finally burst open his guard. Straight out punches he couldn't do, not without leaving himself open to attack and they wouldn't do the damage he want them to anyway. Grappling was out because his strength was compromised. Aerial stunts was out because of his leg and that made any ground work out too because he wasn't sure how fast he would get up. Chances are if he hit the floor he wouldn't be able to get back up. Going out of the open would be bad because then the kicks would return and he didn't have good enough balance, not yet, but staying in the corner wasn't an option.
Kili gritted his teeth and timed it right. In that split second when both of Ripclaw's hands were drawn back, Kili reached out and pushed as hard as he could. It was unexpected and Ripclaw stumbled back a half step. It was enough however for Kili to step forward and jab as hard as he could, hissing as he did so, while he was off balance. That earned him another step back which was really all he wanted because now he wasn't quite in the corner but there was still no good room for an effective kick. He stepped forwards, planted his feet and rammed his elbow into to Ripclaw's guard, blowing it open. He used the same elbow to deliver a glancing blow to Ripclaw's face. Ripclaw barely flinched from it though and used his left hand to punch at Kili. Kili blocked it, received a harsh blow to the face, grinned, because really the Lion Prince had failed up to meet Mr. Dwalin's strength and Ripclaw was strong but definitely not as strong as the Lion Prince, and grabbed his arm and pulled him forward and gave him and elbow to the chin. Ripclaw's head snapped back and as it bounce back forward Kili whipped another one of those elbows to the side of his face and then another on the other side of his face. Then while he was clearly dazed, Kili risked it and hooked his damaged leg around Ripclaw's lead leg and pulled. Ripclaw stumbled dropping and rocking forward and Kili delivered an elbow to the top of his head and then another and another and another. Then he grabbed his hair, yanked him back up and then delivered his final elbow and combined it with an upraised knee. Ripclaw's head was sandwiched between those to crunching blows and when Kili stepped back, he dropped to the floor unconscious.
Kili just stood for a moment breathing before the roar of the crowd rushed over him and brought him back to an awareness that spanded beyond the ring. The ringmaster came on screaming unintelligible things as usual and lifted Kili's hand proclaiming him to be the victor. Kili dredged up a killer smile from somewhere, somehow managed to raise his hands above his head in victory and then gladly stumbled out of the ring. He limped over to the doorway to the backroom where he had left his water. When he reached there, on some sudden instinct he turned and looked clear across the other side of the compound and met frigid blue eyes. The Lion Prince regarded him coolly from where he was leaning against the doorway of the Den fighters' waiting room and then he turned and disappeared into the darkness beyond the door.
Has someone ever dug their fingers into the the defining lines of you bicep muscles? That hurts!
R&R Please! Review junkie writer needs her fix!