Chapter #9: The Other Kind of Fisting

"Stop trying to hit me and HIT ME!" Sully took a mean body-blow, and punched right back. "HARDER; your mama didn't raise no PANSY!"

"Barely felt that one! You over-the-hill already old bags!?" Kjelle feigned a jab, but instead ducked under Sully's right hook and threw her full weight into a tackle. Sully and Kjelle fell to the ground grappling; Sully on her back and cursing up a storm (…in spandex gym shorts and a sports bra and nothing else), then Kjelle on her back and grunting through a ground-and-pound (…also in spandex gym shorts and a sports bra and nothing else), then Sully on her back and cursing again…

"Is it weird that I have a boner right now?" Ricken damn-near blew a load.

"…It would be weird if you didn't..." Stahl gawked and could not look away.

"What are you idiots doing?" Robin was discussing the Tanith v. Vaida fight with Flavia and trying to figure out strategies for knocking out the reigning champ when she found Sully and Kjelle punching each other stupid. "You do know you're not competing in boxing or wrestling, right?"

"To hell with competing!" Sully tucked and rolled out of a camel clutch and caught Kjelle in a scissor hold. "This is just part of our daily training regiment!"

"…I need to change my pants…" Ricken excused himself.

"Maybe they should compete," Stahl opined. "They're really good at this."

Flavia snorted.

"You got something to say, man-hands!?" Sully tightened her hold and Kjelle tapped out.

"…give me the gloves…" Flavia geared up and stepped into the ring. "You…woman…on your feet…"

"That's what I like to hear!" Sully toweled off and cracked her knuckles. "How you wanna do this; ring rules, street style…"

BAMF!

Sully went down for the count.

"OHHHHH SHIT!" Stahl's jaw dropped.

"…That's how you throw a haymaker…" Flavia took the gloves off.

"Yikes! Looks like we need more training, right mom?"

"…"

"Mom?"

"…"

"…She's not getting up…" Robin poked and Sully did not move. "Damn Flavia…use a dick next time…"

TANITH vs. SIGRUN

"…Did you really throw the match just so that you wouldn't have to fight Vaida again?" Sigrun gave Tanith an annoyed look (she knew for a fact that last punch hadn't landed hard enough to knock Tanith out).

"So what if I did?" Tanith didn't deny it.

"We're supposed to be fielding our best against their best."

"Go five rounds against Vaida and then tell me it makes a dime's worth of difference," Tanith grumbled. "But don't go six. That's when she gets mad."

"…I really don't want to do this…" Sigrun looked at the gargantuan crop-haired Elibean woman staring her down from across the stadium like she was a piece of meat. "Did she get BIGGER?"

"Don't drop the soap," Tanith offered in lieu of a more mundane good luck.

"Whats that supposed to mean?"

"It's what men say in prison before they…you know what…never mind…"

FLAVIA vs. L'ARACHEL

"Who's the feather-weight?" Flavia was unimpressed with her first opponent.

"I think Team Magvell is fielding someone just for the sake of fielding someone this year," Robin too was unenthused. "Do your thing, killer."

"We're going to fight in THIS?" L'Arachel took to the ring more concerned with how much skin her uniform was showing than with how much bigger her opponent was and put up her dukes. "I wasn't going to do this, but Eirika said I was so good I would be CRAZY if I didn't compete."

What did this poor girl to make Eirika hate her so? Flavia wondered. The opening bell chimed.

"The light shall bring me victory! Face my fists of divine justice, evil-doer; repent and..."

BAMF!

SIGRUN V. VAIDA

"I told you not to go six rounds," Tanith assisted in securing an icepack over what remained of Sigrun's face.

"…I hate you…" Sigrun managed to puff through the swelling.

"You lied to me!" L'Arachel cried from across the medic's tent. "Why would you do that!?"

"The next time you want to borrow my lingerie, ASK FIRST!"Eirika shouted.

"How much longer is this going to last?" the throbbing in the all places Vaida had hit her was making Sigrun feel ill.

"…You mean when does the throbbing go away?"

Sigrun nodded.

"It doesn't." Tanith patted the kink in her neck that still hadn't set right from last season's championship bout.

Sigrun sunk into her chair and groaned.

"It REALLY hurts," L'Arachel would not stop whining. "I just wanted to see how I looked in lace!"

"THEN GET YOUR OWN!" Eirika would not relent.

"I don't think I can even sit a Pegasus like this," Sigrun tested her stance and found her body too sore to tolerate it. "How do you function?" she asked imploringly of Tanith.

"…weed helps…" Tanith discreetly transferred a bag of Matthew's finest.

"Hey losers!" Naesela poked his head in the tent. "The champs are fighting. Come on out if you want to see a REAL punch-out."

"No more punch-outs," Sigrun groaned again and pressed down on her ice-pack.

"HA! There's more black-and-blue on your face then in my hair and feathers…"

"Shut up, crow."

"If Sanaki asks how you both got mangled by one Elibian and I beat three of them for the gold, do I tell her that ya'll suck the big one or that I'm just insanely talented? And good looking. And a generous lover…"

"Tell her that your father was a pigeon and your mother reeked of bird seed," Tanith made a run at the Crow King.

"LLLLLosers!" Naesela taunted with an exaggerated "L" and flew away.

VAIDA vs. FLAVIA

"Now THIS is a fight!" Hector whooped from the sidelines as for the fifth straight round, Vaida and Flavia punched the ever-living shit out of each other.

"Is she getting tired?" to Eliwood, it looked like Vaida's punches were getting sloppier.

"…She's getting mad…" Heath knew better.

DING-DING-DING, The bell chimed and the round ended. Vaida and Flavia returned to their corners.

"Feroxi lass bluntin' yer fangs cobra-woman!?" Sir Wallace heckled from the sideline.

"...I'm going to kill this bitch…" Vaida spit out a tooth and wiped blood out of her eyes.

Vaida exploded into Round Six, pummeling away with the old one-two. A jab-uppercut-left hook-cross combo broke through Flavia's guard, and then Vaida connected with her haymaker.

Flavia went down like a stack of bricks.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4- Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Flavia got back up and the crowd roared.

Vaida hooked and jabbed, but Flavia slipped to the left and counter-punched with a body shot that combo'd into an uppercut to the jaw and a…

…Vaida was having none of that and broke Flavia's combo with a forward push that ended in a grappling match against the ropes, both fighters turning and punching and trying not to get rope-a-doped.

DING-DING-DING

"…hits so hard…gonna die…" Flavia collapsed into her corner and rasped between exhausted pants.

"BULLSHIT you are dying after six rounds!" Basilio barked. "Get in there and fight, maggot!"

"...hate you…hate you so much…" getting the words out took an obnoxious amount of effort.

"She used up all her strength on the finishing combo; you've got this," Robin assured. "None of Vaida's fights lasted longer than six rounds. Her stamina is going to be shit going into Round Seven."

"…dying…"

"If this were my fight, I'd have won three rounds ago."Basilio taunted. "With one hand tied behind my back. And my eyepatch. You got NOTHING without your sword and armor, cupcake!"

"…and there's my second wind…" Flavia was suddenly feeling more annoyed than exhausted.

Round Seven saw the fighting resume with Vaida again pummeling away. But her punches did not have the power that they had at peak-stamina, and were not doing damage to Flavia's body.

Flavia kept her guard up and took Vaida's punches in stride, recovering her energy while letting Vaida exhaust her own.

DING-DING-DING

Round Eight found Vaida running on empty and Flavia well-rested. Flavia busted out her finishing moves and went for the knock out.

Vaida wobbled but did not go down.

DING-DING-DING

Round Nine saw both fighters tapped out and throwing punches that would barely wind L'Arachel; both seeming to be of a mind that Round Ten would be make-or-break and that going into it they would need all the strength they could muster.

Round Ten was a rumble for the ages. Both fighters went all out and combo'd into their haymakers…but Flavia's connected and Vaida's didn't.

BAMF! went the closer. And down went the reigning champ.

That was the moment when Team Ylisse won its third consecutive gold medal.

And that was the moment when Team Elibe (sporting a seething Vaida), Team Magvell (sporting a seething Seth), and Team Tellius (sporting a seething Devdan) collectively decided that it was time to take Team Ylisse down a peg.