Note: Credit to Meian16 for his help in writing certain parts on this chapter!
Chapter Eleven
Samuel took a deep breath as he approached the cage as the announcer addressed the crowd.
He had been gearing up for this, and this was his moment.
He had won many fights to get this far, and he was ready to take on whoever was up against him.
He looked over to see if he could spot Alexandra, yet because the lights were so bright in the cage, he couldn't see any further than the first three rows.
At the same time, his opponent entered the ring and Samuel took a moment to analyse him.
This fighter was tall and muscular with silver hair tied back in a tight bun, and he wore grey and white pants and matching tapes around his hands.
Samuel licked his lips and continued to observe him whilst his opponent did the same.
"Get ready to rumble as Samuel Ray Henry from Corsicana, Texas, and Michael Rayne from Ashville, North Carolina battle it out to secure a place in the next round!" the announcer shouted into the microphone and then stood back.
"3, 2, 1! Fight!"
No sooner did the command ring out to start the fight, the crowd went wild, and Alexandra leaned forward in her seat as she watched her boyfriend start his first fight.
"Go for it Sam!" she shouted.
Michael took the centre of the cage, establishing control as he kept his hands up in a tight upright boxing position.
Samuel stayed cautious as he started to circle Michael, slowly closing the distance with him.
As soon as Samuel was within range of him, Michael through a swift two-punch combination that Samuel was barely able to avoid and when he tried to counter with a leg kick, Michael stepped backwards and avoided it.
Seeing his chance, Samuel adjusted after missing his kick and rushed for Michael with a double leg takedown, managing to get his arms around his legs and starting to try tackling him to the mat.
"Good hit there!" Alexandra cheered yet she winced a little seeing how the fight went.
Staggering backwards from Samuel's takedown, Michael managed to stay on his feet until his back hit the cage wall.
He then began to fight back by landing a few punches to Samuel, one of them catching him above his eye and opening a small cut on him.
Alexandra gasped in worry when she saw that.
Even though she knew her boyfriend was used to pain, it still didn't stop her worrying.
Feeling blood beginning to run down his face, Samuel got to his feet, lifted Michael up off his feet against the cage, and threw him down to his back, immediately getting on top of him in a mounted position.
Despite being in a bad position, Michael fought back by throwing punches up at Samuel.
Catching one of the punches, Sam wrapped his legs around it, fell to the side of Michael, and pulled back on it as hard as he could, locking on an Armbar.
Yelling out, Michael tried to free himself from the hold, but Samuel responded by instantly arching his hips and pulling back on his arm harder, causing Michael to yell out and tap out, conceding the fight.
No sooner did Michael tap out than the referee stride over and grabbed Samuel's hand holding it up.
"Winner!" he bellowed, and Samuel grinned and punched the air with his other hand feeling elated that he had won.
Alexandra at the same time jumped up and cheered loudly.
"Nice work Samuel!" she screamed.
As that happened, Cam and Barry had moved closer to where the Mafia were seated so they could listen in on anything important.
Despite the noise, they were able to listen in as well as read the lips of the members as they spoke.
One of them, a tall smartly dressed woman with black hair in a bun in a black suit and wearing sunglasses addressed the other members before her.
"My brothers, sisters, we have done well on betting the fighters we picked to go through to the next round, and we can only hope they do well in the later fights, both to earn our favour as fighters to win us cash but also to join our family of crime."
Cam and Barry narrowed their eyes as they watched and listened.
"Swipe me." Cam said, "It seems that woman we saw earlier is the leader!"
"Surprised?" Barry asked.
"Not really!" Cam said, "There have been women leaders in gangs or higher ones, and I'm not ashamed to say that they can be more merciless than male gangsters!"
"I can only agree!" Barry said, "They always know where your weak spots are, and they take no prisoners!"
Cam nodded.
"I knew a few to say the least." He said, "Not leaders, but rather second in command and such, they were always whispering ideas to the leaders about how to run things, and how to punish the failures and traitors."
Barry looked at the woman then back at his friend.
"Yes, I had that too within my gang." He said, "This isn't something to ignore."
"So what now?" Cam asked.
"Nothing," Barry said, "For now these guys are just here to watch and bet on a fight, but let's keep an eye on them in case there's anything else we should report back to Tyroth."
"Okay." Cam said, "Let's hope this is their only goal for the night."
Another hour passed and before long all the fighters from previous fights had gone through their second and third rounds, and before long it was the final fight.
Samuel stood on his side of the cage, he was dripping in sweat, and it mixed with the blood that ran from open wounds he had received in his previous fights, but like he had done before, he pushed the pain aside and busied himself to get ready for the final fight.
The crowd was really heated, and he could see many were cheering for him, yet others were booing and jeering.
He could also see the Mafia not far away watching intently, and a couple of them were glaring in his direction.
He frowned as he started to wonder why, yet he didn't get the chance as he was called to enter the cage and he climbed inside as the announcers spoke up.
"Well, here we are folks! The final battle and once again we have Samuel Ray Henry from Corsicana, Texas, this relentless fighter has worked his way to get this far! And he ain't stopping now! He sure got the eye of the tiger!"
The crowds cheered again, and Alexandra clapped her hands.
"God luck hun!" she whispered into her hands as she made a silent prayer "You can do this! I know you can!"
"But Samuel's not the only won going for the big prize! As there is another ready to rock and roll this ring! Please welcome back Clyde Weathersman of Rehoboth, Delaware!"
As his name was called, an very muscular and olive-skinned dark-haired man with blue and white shorts entered the ring and punched the air to the jeers and shouts of the crows, especially the Mafia who sat nearby who were standing up and clapping and cheering.
Alexandra bit her lip nervously when she saw Clyde as she remembered how he fought in his previous fights.
He was a tough cookie for sure, and he was just as merciless and impervious to pain as Samuel, it was going to be a 50/50 chance with them in the ring.
"Good luck hun." She prayed "I don't care if you win or lose, just do your best and be careful."
The signal then came for the fight to begin, and the two fighters got into stances as the crowd went wild.
At the same time, Cam and Barry could see the Mafia were looking excited and were shouting out Clyde's name for him to win.
"Looks like the Mafia have bet the Delaware guy." Cam said.
Barry nodded.
"Looks like it, let's see how this goes." he replied as he looked back at the cage.
As the fight began, Sam and Clyde closed distance with one another, meeting in the middle of the ring.
Samuel opened up by throwing a Muay Thai Snap Kick at his opponent's body, but Clyde caught the kick, pulled Samuel to him, and wrapped his arms around his waist.
Using his immense strength, Clyde charged towards one side of the cage and slammed Samuel's body repeatedly into the cage, dropping him to the mat.
Alexandra watched in fear as she saw that.
Fighting through the pain going through his back, Samuel looked up just as Clyde rushed to get his hands back on him and rolled out of the way to the centre of the cage.
Alexandra felt relief seeing that and she hoped Samuel continued to be lucky.
Getting back to his feet, Samuel saw Clyde coming at him with a tackle.
Waiting for the right moment, Samuel was able to deliver a well-placed knee to the larger man's face, catching him in his nose but that didn't deter him.
Managing to get a hold of Samuel, Clyde tackled him down to the mat and held him down in the open guard position.
Samuel instinctively wrapped his legs around Clyde's waist to try and keep control of him, but the massive man kept his upper body free and began to land punches down onto Sam's head, face, and even chest.
Gritting his teeth, Samuel used his arms to block as many of the punches as he could and weaved from left to right underneath Clyde, trying to find an opening for a counterattack.
Thinking quickly, he unwrapped one of his legs from around his opponent and threw it up around the back of his head, grabbing it with his adjacent hand and holding Clyde down in the Rubber Guard position.
Gritting his teeth, Clyde managed to punch Samuel several more times in the face before he stood up, lifting Samuel up onto his shoulders.
Alexandra went pale as she watched.
"Sam! No!" she cried seeing how her boyfriend hung limply on his opponents shoulders.
Before Clyde could do anything further, Samuel maneuvered his body so that he was behind his larger opponent, wrapped his legs around his waist and locked his arms around his neck, locking on a Rear Naked Choke.
Clyde's eyes went wide, and he began to try fighting out of the hold, but Samuel held on tighter and squeezed around his neck harder.
Clyde turned so that Samuel's back was to the cage wall, and he began to repeatedly back into it, slamming Samuel back first into it harder each other.
Gritting his teeth so hard his gums began to bleed, Samuel tightened the hold more as Clyde mustered up all the strength he could before launching himself at the cage wall so hard it sent him and Samuel through it and into the crowd.
As that happened, the crowd gasped as they hadn't seen this before within the tournament.
"Holy shit!"
"He broke the cage!"
"First time that's happened!"
Alexandra also watched in shock, and she started to walk down the stairs to get closer.
"How in the hell?" she asked as she ran down the stairs.
Meanwhile, spectators watching nearby scrambled out of the way of the fighters and Samuel and Clyde ended up on the concrete floor.
Clyde continued to struggle in Samuel's grasp a bit longer before his whole body went limp.
Leaping out of the huge opening in the cage and down to the fighters, the referee noticed Clyde was out cold and ended the match, declaring Samuel the winner.
"He's done it! He's done it!" The referee shouted as he grabbed Samuel's hand and held it up "Winner!"
Samuel as he heard that, he beamed and stood up and threw both fists in the air as the crowd screamed and jeered.
"I did it!" he thought "I did it! By God! I did it!" he punched the air again with both hands as the crowd cheered and he looked around, wondering if Alexandra was close.
The final fight has been won! Well done Sam!
Is this all too good to be true?