Getting back home, I greeted Greg, who had already returned back from his work, and Annie.

 Eating reheated food, I talked to them about my fight, and then all three of us jointly decided that I will go there together with Annie.

 Washing up, I went to my room. Looking at the clock, I was usually going to sleep at this time, but today was an exception.

 Starting up my pc, I logged into my email and saw the mail from Brave and Bold. I also saw another mail that was sent not so long ago.

 Sending a short message, with a thank you in it to Jessie, I opened the older mail.

 There I saw a link to my profile in a worldwide association of MMA. There was also a lot of text, but I wanted to look into the profile.

 Clicking on it, I was redirected to another site. There, I saw a dark silhouette in a place where my photo should've been. There was some data like my age, weight, height, and so on.

 Double-checking every little detail, I made sure that everything is correct. Scrolling down, I saw my statistics. One-one. Further down, I saw the names of my opponents and how I won or lost.

 A rather informative page indeed.

 On top of even my name, I saw a number, 52687. My current place in the world.

 "Sheesh!" I shook my head. What was my number again? Looking at it, I shook my head again. Fuck I need to fight a lot to make it better.

 Looking through this site there was a lot of news about the fighting world. Promotions rankings, fighters ratings, highlights, interviews, and so on.

 It was too much to get into this in one sitting, so I went after the next mail I got. It contained a lot of text as well and another link to this site. Clicking on it, I saw a profile of my new opponent. I glanced through his name and team and blah-blah. I wasn't that interested in the info about feeder opponents. I only needed his record. How he lost or won, to whom, what's his style.

 He had one fight, and he won it via TKO. His opponent had one match as well, and he obviously lost it. The weight of this guy was approximately the same as mine, his height as well, he was a few years older than me. I couldn't see his photo as the same dark silhouette was used in his profile.

 In the mail that Jessie sent me, she listed the few crucial points I needed to do in the fight. She tried to be elaborate in her writing, but soon enough, her lack of experience was seen. Her writing felt incoherent as she started repeating herself.

 Reading through all of this twice, I let everything settle down. Only then did I look into the first mail I got from Brave and Bold. The long text contained different instructions on how the site with fighters data worked and so on.

 Rubbing my tired eyes, I looked at the time and saw that it was way beyond the time I usually went to sleep. I also saw one missed message. The time and place of my next fight.

 "It would be held in the daytime, huh." I looked up the place I needed to go and roughly estimated the time I needed to wash up, eat and get there. It turned out that I would be able to sleep for some more. Replying to Jessie and saying good night to her, I notified Annie that we should get up later and went to sleep.

 The next morning started late as I was woken up by my alarm. I was thinking about the upcoming fight, about Mara, Reid, Violetta, Jet, and everything else. At first, I was tossing and turning in my sleep. But after some time passed, I managed to fall asleep.

 Going to the bathroom, I was met with a slightly flustered Annie. She kept fussing around. Trying to hasten our departure so that we won't get late. She also attempted to make me look prim and proper.

 I don't know why exactly, but she started acting more and more like a mother as of lately. She was still somewhat shy, but her motherly instincts were slowly breaking through.

 Being a full-grown adult, I would lie if I say that I wasn't embarrassed. But seeing her getting out of her shell was a nice thing.

 I carefully put all the gear into my bag and put on my outdoor clothes. At the last moment, Annie tried to comb my hair and wipe my face. But after I reminded her how useless it was as I was going to fight, she gave up.

 By the way, her choice was modest clothes. A simple sweater and a pair of jeans with her usual coat and no accessories. She still had her low-hanging, side ponytail.

 I've remembered to give the address and time to Rose via a message from my phone as I took it to look up the route. Telling how we will arrive there, I reassured Annie and told her that I had the money for a ride.

 Finally leaving our house behind we went out onto the streets of Kibryn. It was a late weekend morning, and there were plenty of people outside. Despite the fact that it was winter, today was nice weather. No snowfall, less wind so that we were able to actually enjoy the chilly air. It freshened me up in no time, and my lack of sleep flew away.

 Slowly making our way using the public transport, an hour or so passed as we got out of the bus.

 What we've seen before us was actually a pretty small building. Squeezed between two other buildings that were probably office buildings. In the middle, we saw a simple red, brick wall with lots of large windows.

 Glancing sideways to Annie, our eyes met.

 "Hum." I shrugged and readjusted my bag.

 Walking inside, we saw that the first floor was actually something akin to a gym. And a front desk was missing.

 "Erlig, you sure it's here?" I felt a tug on my sleeve.

 "I am." Despite what I said, I looked into my phone. And I was right. The right place was here. Thinking of what to do, I typed the message to Jessie and waited for her reply.

 Yet instead of a message, I saw Jessie herself going down from the second floor.

 "Erlig!" She waved at me.

 "Jessie, nice to see you. By the way, where are all the people?"

 "All upwards. Let's go, you still need to warm up, and we should talk about your strategy." Taking my hand and tugging it, she finally noticed that I wasn't alone.

 "Erm, nice to meet you." Annie greeted Jessie shyly.

 "Oh!" releasing my hand, Jessie turned on her soles and rubbed her palms. "You are missis Annie Grimes, right? Hello, but why are you here?"

 "I wanted to look after Erlig."

 "Oh right. But at the moment, we need to discuss the upcoming fight."

 "I understand." Annie smiled gently, seeing the nervous Jessie. "If there is any place where I can wait, please take me there."

 "Oh, that won't be a problem, of course. Just follow me."

 The three of us went upstairs, and we saw a large room with a few chairs, benches, and a cage in the middle of them all. Near the cage, stood a small table where an elderly-looking person was writing something. There were already people sitting here and there. Some of them were alone while others were in a group.

 "You can take any place here. While we will go there." She pointed to the farthest side, and there were a couple of doors. "There Erlig will change, and we will warm him up."

 "Mmhm, I will wait for you here." She chose a seat that was neither far nor too close. The moment she sat down, she took out her phone. Probably to call Greg.

 "Now, we can discuss the fight and change. Let's go." patting my shoulder, Jessie took me to the changing room.

 It was indeed a simple, changing room. It was made for one person, and it held a small clothes rack and a chair. Quickly getting into my gear: which consisted of ankle sleeves, tape, jockstrap, and protective cup on top. Over them, I had the trusty tight-fitting shorts that I chose with Mara back then. Taking my mouthguard from the small packaging, I had my gloves under my armpit.

 "Hey, won't I freeze over here?" Issuing my worry to Jessie, I looked around.

 "Don't worry, they have heating here. Don't you feel it already?" She looked me over and nodded a couple times.

 "Now that you mention it…"

 "Well, enough chit-chat." She clapped her hands and took a small notebook from behind her pants. "Let's talk about the fight."

 "If you say so."

 As we got into the discussion, I heard the sounds of fighting going. As it peaked my attention, I saw two guys going at it inside the cage. Two more people joined the elderly man and sat beside him over the table. Three of them were taking notes here and there.

 "Your fight isn't the only one. The judges were invited here by the team who provided this place and organized most of the matches. In every fight today, there would be one person from their team." I heard Jessie's voice.

 "So, I'm fighting one of their fighters?"

 "Uh-hum. Now back to the game plan."

It wasn't anything complex. The strategy she came up with was making him get used to my striking and then make a sudden takedown. Tire him out and in the end, go for a submission.

As she showed me different conditions I might end up with and how to proceed, the time to fight soon came. I got my gloves and mouthguard on.

I was led into the cage where my opponent stood. The guy was a bit bulkier than I, but overall his physique was close to mine. He was bald, while his facial expression was laidback. His choice of clothes was black and white shorts.

Someone from the staff came to me and checked my gear. After seeing that everything was according to the rules, my face was covered with vaseline. I went to the woman in a striped shirt along with my opponent. I listened to the usual rules and guidance from the referee.

When she ended, both of us walked to the sides of the cage. We now waited for the start of this fight. My opponent started stretching and probably did his pre-fight routine. I still didn't know what to do in times like this and started jumping up and down.

"Fight!" A single woman's shout signaled the start of the fight.

I quickly moved to the center of the cage, already in my stance, I was waiting for my opponent. He moved somewhat slower and had an orthodox stance. When he came closer, both of us started moving around.

"Thwack." I was the first one to punch him, and then I started hearing something except for his and my breathing.

"Control him with your jab, distance, control your distance!" Managing to glance to the side, I saw Jessie clinging to the cage as she shouted her advice.

"Don't let him control the pace! Strike him back!" I also heard a man's voice. Probably the coach of my opponent.

Following Jessie's advice, I started throwing fast jabs as we continuously moved in the cage. After throwing the third or fourth jab, he blocked it with his forearm and returned a jab of his own.

"TAKEDOWN!" I hear Jessie shouting.

My body moved on its own. I was already used to making takedowns. With my upper body leaning forward, I hugged the waist of my opponent. Due to the inertia and strength I used, both of us started moving backward. He tried to steady his footing.

Running through the whole cage, he managed to slip out from my hold by throwing me sideways. As I was moved sideways, I raised my upper body hastily.

"Thwap!" A body punch connected, striking him right into the place where his spleen was supposed to be.  As he tried to move sideways, my combination continued. After the body punch, I launched a swing to his face, but he managed to block it, and I grazed him lightly.

"Calm down!" Jessie screamed.

"Take some distance, distance!" was the opponent coach's shout.

As he was trapped against the grid, he tried to move sideways to make some distance. Seeing him going away, I went after him throwing punch after punch.

A few punches connected while some missed. As I was mowing after him, I couldn't gather enough strength in my punches, and my stance started crumbling.

In return, he stopped defending at all and started literally running away, finally escaping my onslaught.

As both of us changed our positions, we were near the middle of the cage once again.

I threw a jab with my left that he managed to deflect, so I added a body kick. As he ate the full force behind the kick, I almost jumped at him to perform a takedown.

When I moved my upper body down, I saw his fist coming. I tried to move away, but his fist still managed to land square on my chin. I saw stars sparkling, and the world around me rattled.

"GO ON! FINISH HIM!"

"ERLIG, GATHER YOURSELF, DEFEND YOUR HEAD!"

I heard someone screaming while I felt a few punches landing on my body.