A new day means I've got new stuff to do.

 After I finished talking with Jessie yesterday, I got the location of the main gym, what I should bring, and a small encouragement.

 Talking about this with my parents, I've got Greg overexcited, with the fact that I made such fast progress. He probably was in high spirits when he was leaving for work today.

 After gathering everything into my bag, I said goodbye to Annie and promised to be careful. Taking a small amount of money, I went out.

 The building was in a direction opposite Birchland High. To arrive at the main gym in time I've got to use a bus.

 As I boarded one that was going in the direction I needed, I stood near the doors and looked around.

 It was the second time that I was visiting something except for Birchland High and my own home. The first time was at Carrin's Spire, Resort & Spa, where I spent a night with Violetta, and now it was the main gym of Brave and Bold.

 Oh, there was also a family restaurant with a trio of friends.

 I smiled wryly. At that time, it did help me out with not breaking into pieces. Right now, though, I think I needed to sort out everything faster.

 A good idea. However, when put into practice, I would feel pity for Joanne and Jet. While Elle is kind of a background character, I don't care about her.

 As I looked at the window, I soon turned my gaze to the interior of the bus. I had a strong feeling that winter was near.

 The trees outside that weren't so rare in the city had a few orange leaves that looked crumpled. People started wearing much thicker clothes. And the sunny, clean city I saw for the first time when I awakened here looked much dimmer and dustier.

 After a couple of hours of the ride, I got to the gym. As I was looking at it from the outside, it looked...

 "Big."

 A big building made of simple bricks that looked like the storage of a large hypermarket. Or something like that. There was a sign that said "Brave and Bold". It was a bit faded but still held a feeling of prestige.

 Holding onto my bag tighter, I went in.

 The insides were greeting me with a small lobby. A large door on the side of this lobby led deeper into the building. There was a couch and a desk with a female receptionist. She looked like she was in her late twenties. Attractive small face with a pixie haircut, clear, big eyes, slim bodyline with small curves in all the right places. Just like a majority of women I've seen in this world, she looked pretty.

 And right now, she was bored, looking at her phone.

 We were the only people in this lobby, and I've had no other option other than to talk with her.

 "Excuse me." I went towards the desk.

 "Sorry, all the applications will be looked into on the other days. Today we are busy," she answered lazily without turning her eyes to look at me.

 "Ah, I'm already a part of the team. At least I was told so."

 "Hm?" she looked up and raised her eyebrow.

 I squeezed out a smile. "I'm Erlig Grimes, ehm... Jessie told me that I'm qualified enough to enter the main gym."

 As soon as she heard my name, her gaze turned from dull to curious.

 "I heard about you. You are a new star of our team, aren't you? Reserving Patrice solely for yourself." She grinned.

 "I didn't mean to." I shook my hand in front of my face in rejection.

 "Don't worry. I'm not accusing you." She looked at me with interest. "You are not half bad." the edges of her mouth started curving up the more she looked at me.

 "Excuse me?" I felt a chill looking at this. It was like I was a lamb on a chopping board.

 "Ah, don't worry. I'm only talking about your fighting form." She leaned back into her chair. "I prefer guys that are a bit chubby."

 "Cough, okay." what the fuck is she talking about?

 "Anyway, you are here for the test, don't you?"

 I nodded.

 "You don't have to worry." her face turned a bit softer. "The guys from the Tiger's Den haven't arrived yet, so you can take your time to warm up." she shook her head towards the doors. "Come in, and don't worry."

 "Ah, actually, I wanted to ask about this. Who am I going to fight?" I Leaned slightly over the desk to gain the attention of the receptionist girl once again.

 "Didn't Jessie tell you?"

 "I heard something, but I'm not sure I've understood everything correctly."

 She looked up at me and then at her phone. "I guess we still have some time. Tiger's Den is the team that is on friendly terms with us."

 "Uh-huh."

 "They are mostly wrestlers, just like our team. And both they and our team leader are friends, so we have lots of friendly competitions." she tapped her chin with her finger, "Especially when we are testing our beginners." She looked at her phone. "Now, they will soon be here. Go on and warm up."

 "Thanks, I will."

 I took a few steps, and I was in front of the doors. But unlike the doors to the gym in Birchland High that I was afraid of opening. I opened these doors without hesitation.

 Now that's what I was waiting for when I heard the word gym. And that was something I initially waited for from the branch gym.

 A gym probably took half of the space of this large building, if not more. There were a few cages, rings, tons of the most various exercise equipment. As well as lots of people. From young girls and boys to mature women and men. All of them were going here and there, talking, exercising.

 As I went in, nobody even paid me any attention, nobody, except for one girl. Standing in between a group of young guys and a few girls, Jessie noticed me and went towards me.

 "Hey, Erlig, you should go and change." were her first words before she even came close to me.

 I winced a bit from this, "Where is the changing room?"

 "It's over there. Go inside and don't mind anyone."

 "Uh, okay."

 "After you finish changing, go towards the cage that is marked as number one." I nodded to her and sighed.

 After Jessie finished talking with me, she went back to those with whom she was talking previously.

 After this, I did just like she told me. Went into the changing room while praying that it wouldn't be crowded, and seeing that there were few people, I hastily changed.

 Jockstrap, in combination with the protective cup and tight-fitting shorts, that I bought back with Mara. I thought that those shorts were embarrassing. But seeing videos of fights, almost every man wore a similar kind of shorts with protective cups and other stuff, I felt that it wasn't so out of the ordinary. I had a few wraps around my feet, wrapped my hands, took my mouthguard, towel, and gloves.

 While I was walking towards the cages, I was looking around. And just like I thought, nobody paid me any attention.

 Let's see. This is cage number three. After skipping one cage, I was right in front of cage number one. After looking around, I saw not a single soul near me.

 I should probably warm up. There was a single chair on the side of the cage. I decided to put my towel there. I put my mouthguard, as well as gloves, on top of it.

 I started stretching near the chair. Bending down and backward. Trying to do a split with my legs, stretching my arms.

 A few minutes passed, and I started feeling how the blood started circulating faster.

 "You can put the gloves on." a man's voice shook me.

 "Patrice!" I turned around. "Stop scaring me, please!"

 "Haha, sorry, but you always concentrate so much on the training, so it's hard not to scare you even if we don't want to." a tall man, who was a striking trainer in the team Brave and Bold was always like that. "Your opponent is already here, so you can go into the cage."

 "Oh, okay." as I was putting the gloves on, I looked around and saw a group of people. As well as a figure of Paul talking with a man. They weren't here before.

 "Paul will lead them here in a minute."

 I nodded to Patrice.

 "Ah, don't put your mouthguard on yet. The guy you will fight with needs to warm up as well."

 "Oh, yeah, I forgot this."

 "Erlig!" Patrice called me as he was standing beside the cage.

 "Yes?"

 "Don't get nervous. It's a spar, with no pressure on you. Just do what you always do in our training sessions. Okay?" He had the same kind face as always. "Okay?"

 "Yes."

 "We won't give you any advice. However, we will record the fight. The ref would be someone from their side. They can be trusted, so don't worry. They won't let the two of you be injured."

 "Yes."

 "Now, go and continue your warm-up." He gave me one last word of advice and went towards Paul.

 I tried to continue stretching, but I couldn't clear my mind and concentrate. The more I thought about this, the more nervous I became. I've remembered how Reid punched me, and I couldn't do a thing.

 I was standing in the cage, trying to shake off this feeling, when Jessie came.

 "Hey! Erlig!"

 "Hm?" I turned around to look at her.

 "Don't worry, take a few deep breaths. It won't be a full-force fight."

 "Jessie, make way for Cassius." Paul pulled Jessie to the side, and I saw a boy no older than twenty behind him, walking into the cage as well as another man with a striped shirt.

 The boy with the name Cassius looked grim. He was serious, and actually, it scared me a bit. His physique wasn't something that I would get surprised at, nor was his attire or look. There were no tattoos, no accessories, his haircut was extremely short.

 The way he looked was mundane. Yet his serious-looking eyes, as well as gloomy facial expression, scared me a bit.

 "Cassius, Erlig, come closer to me." I heard the deep voice of the man in a striped shirt, so I went towards him. I quickly put my mouth guard on. Doing so, I almost bumped heads with my opponent.

 "Listen clearly. This isn't an official fight. This won't be in your statistics as this is a spar. You must not fight at full power. You will react to my command and fight cleanly. Is this clear!?"

 "Yes!"

 "Uh-huh!"

 "Alright, then go back and stand in the starting position. The fight will start after my command."

 I looked at Cassius, and our eyes met. I involuntarily lifted up my arms, and he bumped them lightly from above.

 Was it a greeting?

 As we both took a few steps back, we continued to maintain our eye contact. Was I really going to fight someone I don't know? I was getting more nervous with each passing second.

 It was the same feeling as going to the dentist. Your visit won't necessarily be painful, yet the waiting time before you go is the most nerve-wracking.

 "Fight!" a hand was lowered between us.

 The very next moment, Cassius started walking to me. Almost like sliding, without taking his feet fully from the ground. His arms up, in an orthodox boxing stance.

 My arms were up as well. I started walking sideways from him. Eyeing his every movement.

 A few seconds later, we were close enough to throw punches. However, both of us weren't doing it. He twitched to his left side, and as a reaction, I flinched to the right.

 "Slap."

 His leg kicked me in the calf with a crisp sound, yet it wasn't as painful as I thought.

 I started walking backward slightly while moving sideways. My back was getting closer to the wall, so I tried to make some distance.

 However, he moved in the same direction.

 "Fwoosh."

 I made a simple jab without using the full force of my body. Cassius took this punch with his forehead, and It did almost zero damage.

 In a split second when I looked around the cage to assess my position, he made a quick combo. A simple one-two of punches, which I was able to catch with my block, and return a punch of my own.

 As he was still reacting to my previous punch, I almost reflexively dived forward while grabbing his sides.

 His feet were standing still at first, then they started sliding before he finally started trotting back, trying to maintain his balance.

 As we went past the middle of the cage, he finally was able to shake me off sideways.

 I was in a crouching position. Therefore I made a sweeping upper punch which he dodged easily.

 Making some distance between us, I started flinching and twitching, moving my hands slightly.

 I made a few punches, but it didn't bring me any benefit as he dodged them.

 As we were trying to probe each other without using the full power, I was oblivious to what I should do.

 I tried not to blink and maintain my gaze on his body all the time. I heard our breathing was roughened up slightly after this exercise.

 He threw a punch that I deflected with my hand, and I kicked him sideways in return. As I was too late to return my leg, he caught it and closed the distance in a second.

 I tried to jump away on one leg, but it was futile, and I was soon lying on my back with my opponent on top of me.

 It probably looked like we were hugging from the side. Yet, it didn't feel that way to me. From my training, I knew that the one in a mount position held an advantage.

 And I started feeling this advantage as soon as he began punching my sides.

 I was trying to do something and sweep him, but he held me tightly.

 We were in a stalemate as he couldn't damage me enough with his punches, so he changed his tactic and started dragging me towards the side of the cage.

 Every time I tensed my muscles to throw him away, he would do the same to stand on top.

 I felt the coldness and hardness of the cage after a few seconds of us fumbling around on the canvas.

 I tried to hold a cage and stand up. I was moving slightly sideways, so it would be harder for Cassius to grab me.

 I ended up in a sitting position. I tensed my muscles and tried to shake him off when I suddenly felt his arms shrinking around my neck tightly.

 Less than a second, and Cassius was already on my back with a sleeper hold.

 I felt that the hold was rather loose and tried to shake it off. I couldn't possibly lose on my admission.

 That's when I felt how my lungs started burning up. By the way, when will the ref stop the fight?

 Having this thought, I felt how my consciousness was switched off.