Surprise! Double chapter update just because the last few ones were really short, and there's not much relationship build up here. But this one was still really fun to write, so I hope you enjoy it. And as always be sure to like, share and follow to catch the latest updates.

Chapter 6: Cage Match

I was a little less graceful during my own cage match. My first 8 opponents weren't so tough— mostly just street thugs who underestimate my abilities. My 9th and 10th matches were the ones that gave me more trouble than I thought they would. The 9th fighter was a dinosaur raptor with boxing gloves. Unexpected, I didn't even know there were any dinosaurs left in this world. He looked silly, but he was much stronger than he looked. His reach was long and his punches were powerful. The damn thing even managed to bite my arm during one of his attacks. Despite his strength, I still managed to come out on top.

My final opponent was the toughest person I've ever faced so far. A young beautiful fighter stepped into the ring. She wore a tight white bikini top, flowy silver pants and no shoes. Her extreme beauty and revealing clothes almost made me question if she was a serious fighter or not. The fighter was obviously muscular but I can't imagine this outfit being too practical for any type of fighting.

"Next, Christie Monteiro!"

Christie bowed to me and reached her hand out. I hesitated for a moment, it's not usual that we do handshakes before a fight but she seemed friendly enough that I didn't think it was anything more than good showmanship.

"Ready? Fight!" The bell chimed and I quickly understood exactly why this fighter was so confident.

Christie charged at me with an array of flips and kicks immediately. Her punches weren't so powerful but she made very little use of her upper body attacks. Being stuck by her legs however, felt like being hit with a bag of bricks. Christie's defense was nearly impenetrable as she kept a low stance, and it was hard to predict her movements as she was constantly in motion. I thought I would be able to stop her as she jumped midair but quickly received a strong double kick in the chest knocking me back up against the cage wall as Christie landed on her back.

"Okay, ow." I wiped the blood from my mouth as a little blood drained from a cut on my lip. Finding my composure again, I gathered my resolve to get back into a proper fighting stance. Christie's biggest strength is in her lower body so I'm going to have to either find a way to throw her or attack her upper body. I moved off the wall slowly inching my way towards her. She came towards me and rolled into a handstand. Her leg span is massive but I took the opening to lower into a phoenix pose to avoid her powerful kicks and instead kicked her arms, making her fall into the ground.

The young fighter fell on her back and I narrowly avoided a hard back heel to the head as she landed. Once she rolled herself back up, we charged towards each other to deliver a final blow. The young fighter brought her right leg up for a powerful roundhouse kick and at the last second, I jumped over her to narrowly avoid the blow. After landing, I quickly changed momentum pushing all my strength into a final back elbow strike into her side.

The area fell silent as we both waited to assess the severity of our injuries. She stood clutching her side in pain for a moment before falling to her hands and knees. The referee started the countdown "10, 9, 8…" the fighter struggled to stand herself up.. "6, 5, 4…" her legs continued to buckle. "3, 2, 1…" On the final count, the fighter fell on her stomach.

The fight bell sounded off ending the match, "Winner. Ling Xiaoyu!" A mix of cheers and boos filled the crowd as I limped over to the young fighter. Despite losing, she still did quite a bit of damage to me as I had to hold my stomach from the pain. She looked up at me, wincing in pain from the fight. I smiled and held a hand out to her to help lift her up, "Good fight, huh?"

Her pained look changed to a soft smile as she stood up to me. "Yeah, good fight," she commented back. Two brown skin men in similar outfits approached the young fighter to help her away from the cage.

"Hey, good match Xiaoyu!" Hworang shouted, coming up to me hugging me from behind. "You qualified for the tournament!"

"Ow that hurts Hworang, pain, pain." He put me down and threw his arm over my shoulder to face me towards Jin. "Looks like it'll be the three of us."

Jin, with his arms crossed, smirked at me, "Not too bad. Might have to actually watch out for you both" I smiled at Jin's attempt at a compliment. This was the first time he's actually seen me fight at my full strength, and I couldn't help but feel a tinge of pride. "Don't worry Xiaoyu, he was totally worried about you." Hwoarang whispered in my ears.

The boys ushered me through the crowd to one of the bleachers to allow me to sit. Jin handed me a bottle of Pocari Sweat to drink. "Gotta admit," I started while drinking. "That was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Even with all the training I did. You guys made it look so easy."

"We've been training a lot longer than you." Jin squatted down and brushed a bit of my sweaty bangs out of my face. He observed the cuts and scrapes across face and body and let out a deep sigh, "but you didn't do too bad though." There he goes again showing that soft side he tries so hard to keep hidden. I had to bite my bottom lip to keep myself from kissing him.

"This is bullshit! I don't give a fuck about your rules!" A man with white hair started shouting. He wore combat pants with a black top and appeared to have an uncontrollable appetite for violence. He picked up the officiate, punched him in the face and tossed him over the table. Several Jack Bots and Mishima security moved in on him. Chaos broke out as other fighters started to fight each other. "I think this is our queue to leave." Hwoarng sarcastically stated. A group of fighters approached us, likely wanting a chance to challenge qualified fighters.

"Or not…Xiaoyu stay back," Jin commanded as he and Hwoarang stood ready to fight. I gathered the last bit of strength I had in me, and stood ready to fight alongside them. The group charged at us in an all out battle brawl. Jin and Hwoarang took a majority of the fighters as they mainly took to defensive attacks to conserve my energy and hide just how tired I actually am.

"Fine! Have it your way, but I'm not going down without a fight!" The white haired fighter shouted at the top of his lungs tossing a grenade into the crowd of JackBots.

"Shit, get down!" Jin yelled, and the grenade detonated immediately.

The explosion was loud and I covered my face with my arms to shield myself from the blast as much as I could. But the force was too powerful and it pushed me back slamming my head against the wall causing me to black out.

I slipped in and out of consciousness as I heard people screaming and footsteps around me. I opened my eyes to see a dark figure with red eyes hovering over me. I was scared but unable to move away from the shadow's embrace. It scooped my body up and I blacked out once again.