I park my bike and everything before going inside and changing. I dress in boy's basketball shorts and my same black t-shirt under my school hoodie and quickly grab the other hoodie and wrap my hands.

I head out the door and stick my hands in my pocket as the cold air whips around me. Even through my hoodie, I am cold. I almost wish I wore long sleeves but I know that when I start fighting, wearing long sleeves would be a mistake.

I quickly make my way there and around the back, putting on the other hoodie Mason had got for me and hiding the other one.

"There she is." Mason's voice says from behind me.

I turn to them and walk over with a smile.

"What are you so happy about?" Alan says.

I shrug my shoulders.

"You know who your fighting yet? No one has said a word about it yet." A says.

I shake my head 'no'. It's usually whoever is ahead of me but Liam said something was gonna start changing so I have no clue.

We make our way around the corner and cheering booms as the guy in the middle has to forfeit from two swollen shut eyes. Sad way to go but it's pretty common. I walk over to Liam as him and the other coach talk. The guys go watch the fight while I stand a bit away from them so that I can't eavesdrop.

"Oh, Tori. Come over here." Liam quickly signals to me.

I walk over.

"This is Richard, the other coach. We were talking and he has his own gym for his fighters and the majority of his fighters are on top, so we were wanting to make a trade."

My smile drops. I have known Liam since I was thirteen and started fighting actual people. It was a slow climb to the top but with me knowing the basics of fighting, he taught me everything else I know about street fighting. I can't just be swapped for another fighter, can I?

"River, the number one fighter here plus ten thousand is what he's trading for you," Liam says.

I don't side with cheaters, sorry. I will fight on my own if that's the case, I never signed a contract.

"You will be fighting my top fighter, River,  you win and you stay with Liam, loose and I will get you there," Richard says.

I look between them.

"River!" Richard calls out.

I look over and a dark-skinned bald guy in tattoos walks over.

"River, this is Tori, the one without a single loss."

"Nice to meet you, Tori." He says shaking my hand.

His voice is extremely deep and hollow enough to scare me a bit.

"Not one for words?" He says looking at me, puzzled.

"Tori is mute, she doesn't talk," Liam says.

"Just out of curiosity, how old are you? You seem pretty young to be fighting." He says.

"She hasn't even told me, said she didn't want others to think less of her because of her age," Liam responds.

"I can respect that. Anyone who has the courage to fight me and not look phased has my respect. Pretty sure your the first one to do that," River responds.

I smile at him.

"Liam, I gotta ask, how did you come up with her fighting style, it is quite different from the others," Richard says looking to Liam.

"She's a girl, she is born with better leg strength so we tonned in on doing fast movements and stamina and being able to deliver just one deadly blow. She picked up on waiting for her opponents to make the first move to fix your fighting style on her own."

"Too bad River's a tank, he can take your hits for as long as you want. He can fire back too." Richard says with a bragging grin.

"Too bad he won't be able to land any, I kinda wanted to see this guys' power." Liam fires back.

"Anyway, your gonna fight in twenty so warm up." 

Richard and River walk off.

"Beth, don't let this be your first loss. You get five thousand if you win this fight," Liam says while handing me a mouth guard.

I nod my head. 

"Go warm up." He says walking off. 

I walk over to the guys.

"So?"

"I'm getting traded to Richard if I lose and I'm fighting River," I whisper over in a raspy voice that I'm sure Gray was the only one who heard since he is standing beside me.

"Speak up," Alan says.

"She's getting traded to Richard if she loses a fight against River, number one right now," Gray says to the guys.

"Good thing you haven't lost yet."

I sigh and put in my mouth guard.

"You nervous?" Gray asks.

I nod my head. I'm not gonna lie, I am terrified. I have been skimming to stay above in just the top twenty, now I am fighting number one out of the blue. I haven't mentally prepared for this. Plus even though he seemed like a nice guy, what if he rips off my hood and hat during the fight? What if on the most important fight is when I lose the guys?

I stretch my arm across my body and try to take long breaths to calm myself down. I need to go in level-headed to win this fight. Although, I feel like doing that is a lot easier said than done.

"You'll be fine, haven't lost a fight yet," Alan says calmly. 

I look over into the crowd as the guys are beside me and see someone that makes my identity being revealed even worse.

Leo and his girlfriend, a girl named Misty.

Ah, s#^&.

I put my hand behind my neck and put my head down trying to think of a way to win this.

"Hey, you'll be alright. In the end, it's still up to you whether you fight or not." Mason says while putting a hand on my back.

I smile at him and try to stretch out but I can't shake the feeling of a sickening sort of fear. My twenty minutes are soon up.

"For the final fight of the evening, we got a special deal between our coaches. Tori and River please make your way to the center."

I smile at them before walking off.

"Go get 'em Tori!" Trever says as I walk to my corner and they push their way to the front.

"For tonight we are gonna need a bigger ring because we have, rising champion Tori fight the top dog for two years, River!"

The crowd cheers and backs up giving us a lot more space.

"The coaches have said if Tori wins this she is staying on her team while if River wins this, they have decided to trade off their fighters and Liam will coach River as Richard will coach rising champion, Tori. All bets are in on this one. Fighters, thirty seconds to prepare." The announcer calls out.

I turn to Liam.

"Hey, focus. You got this. He has nothing on you, and if you lose, oh well. Prefer it if you won this." He says as I look around.

"Hey, calm down, focus, you got this, don't let this be your first loss." He says putting his hands on my shoulders.

I nod and he turns me around as I face the ring.

"Alright, fighters touch hands."

I walk in and we fist bump before heading back to our corners.

"Fighter you ready?"

He nods his head.

"Fighter you ready?"

I take a deep breath and nod my head.

"Go."

I walk forward and he gets into a stance, moving towards me. He quickly throws a punch and I quickly dodge underneath his arm and go behind him. He quickly turns and I get into a stance and go to throw a punch but he returns with his own and is just as fast making me have to abandon my punch and instead dodge his punch.

I change my stance, this is going to be a long-term fight.

He and I exchange punches and I land as many as he does but for every punch, I throw it costs me getting hit myself. After five minutes of fighting, they call a timeout. I go to my side. I have blood coming from my nose and spit out some blood in my mouth. He only has a single bloody nose and just that took a lot of hits to do.

"You are gonna need to tire him out before you start throwing those sorts of punches. Are your eyes okay? Can you see alright?"

I nod my head.

"Alright, let's go." He says as I turn back to the big ring made up of people and a wall.

The ref signals for us to go again.

He comes at me and I put up my arms blocking his hard punch but as the rounds continue both of us have done no more damage.

We quickly come back to the center after the ninth time of going out. I quickly throw a few body shots but it does nothing.

But as I go back up he puts a foot behind me and pulls making me trip as he throws a punch and sends me flying into the wall. 

My back hits it before my head and makes me gasp out in pain as I fall. The ref begins to count as pain shoots like electricity up and down my body. I wince as I grab onto the wall and stand myself up. I push off of it and get my head back in the game like it didn't affect me.

Cheering sounds throughout the fight. But River plays dirty.  I go to dodge a punch but he quickly puts his foot behind mine and pulls to make me fall and throws multiple punches.

For the 12th time, we come out of the ring. Blood falls from my mouth and nose as well as my jaw and cheeks. My eyes aren't too bad but I know the rest of me is covered in bruises.

"You're tired I know, next time your down, just stay down, let them count you out, you have enough wins, it's not worth suffering over."

I go stone-faced to him and turn around.

"Tori!"

"Go!"

"Tori stay down!"

I look at him and put my hands up.

"You got guts, I'll give you that but I wonder how much brain you got." River says quietly.

He throws multiple punches to me till one comes and lands right in my face. I go flying back and land next to Liam.

He kneels beside me as the counting starts.

"Stay down! Don't get up!" He shouts but it's just as muffled as the counting.

My eyes feel heavy and my entire body hurt. The counting gets to six. 

"Stay down!" 

I turn and glare at him as I grab onto the wall and push myself up. My vision is blurry and disoriented as my hearing is muffled.

I push myself up and stand up on my wobbly legs which are scrapped up and bruised all over. The ref says I'm up at nine.

"Alright, let's-" River begins to say.

I stop him as he turns to me and I throw an extremely hard punch, I think I broke my knuckles. He falls backward and I watch him look around as if confused or dazed. It doesn't matter which it is because the ref begins to count.

I lean back into the wall, holding my hand I punched him with as it stings and burns.

I look to the guys as they cheer me on and I smirk at them. And the ref counts to ten

"He's out!" He yells.

I slide down against the wall and sit down, exhausted and barely able to stand. Liam comes over to me and smiles as he picks me off the ground and helps balance me so that I don't fall over.

He brings me to the center and River soon get's up bring me to the center. The ref holds both our hands as Liam leaves me in the middle making me have to focus on standing up.

"And your winner and new champion, Tori!"

The ref raises my hand up and cheers sound. Liam quickly rushes over after announcing the winner and puts my arm around his shoulder to keep me from falling. Our medics soon come up and set down a chair for me to sit down as they do the same for River.

They quickly hand me a water which I drink only half of so I don't throw up. I unravel my hands and they check over my knuckles while cleaning up my face. The guys soon come over to me with smiles on their faces.