As Miguel had expected, Shawn immediately lunged at Miguel in offense, but Miguel expertly dodged him, before throwing a sweep at Shawn's leg. Any normal person would go down at that, but Shawn wasn't at all fazed, let alone tripped up. With Miguel off-balance, Shawn charged at him again, tackled him, and laid a vicious kick to Miguel's stomach. As he was about to continue pummelling Miguel, the ref quickly pulled him away and helped Miguel up.
Miguel 0-1 Shawn
As the fight restarted, Miguel was a lot more careful this time. Fighting Shawn was physically harder than even fighting Johnny and Daniel. At 6'4 and 6'3 respectively, both Johnny and Daniel were nowhere near Shawn's height and build. It was like Miguel was fighting a silverback gorilla!
Miguel glanced at the stands, and he saw his father grinning and clapping his hands for Shawn. Miguel closed his eyes and his father's sadistic, twisted tone came rushing into his ears.
"YOU'RE SOFT, BOY? JUST LIKE HER!"
That brief moment of distraction gave Shawn the opportunity he needed. Miguel had briefly lowered his arms, which allowed Shawn to send a crushing uppercut to Miguel's chin, sending Miguel flying backwards and landing in a heap on the ground.
Miguel 0-2 Shawn
"Oh, wow! Who would have thought? It's 2-0 in favour of our first time competitor. We are one more point away from definitely having a new champion this year!"
Miguel limped over to his corner, where Johnny, Jimmy and Hawk were standing. Miguel shook his head.
"I'm so sorry, Sensei. I can't do this. He's just sitting there, watching me. I can't... I can't. I'm sorry." Miguel whispered, his head in his hands in shame. The pressure from the past 6 months was all piling on him. Despite all of the expectations for him to do well, he was about to be knocked out in the first round!
"Hey, Miguel, listen to me!" Johnny said, holding Miguel up by his shoulders. "I have an idea."
"What is it? Anything." Miguel begged.
"As much as it kills me to say this, maybe it's time for you to take a page out of the Larusso Miyagi-Do playbook." Johnny said. "Clear your mind. Forget your anger and emotion towards Cobra Kai. Towards your dad. Only focus on the task at hand."
Miguel clenched his jaw, determined, and nodded.
"Got it." Miguel said, before walking back towards the middle of the mat. As he prepared for the fight, Miguel closed his eyes, tuning out everyone and everything around him. It was no longer the All-Valley. It was just him sparring with Johnny in the forest.
The fight restarted, and this time, with Miguel using a completely different strategy, he dodged every blow Shawn sent his way. He dodged, weaved, slithered, every tactic he knew to evade the attacks. However, he knew this couldn't last forever. He was quickly tiring himself out, and he knew that if he wanted any chance of staying in this tournament, he needed to attack too. But what to do? Hitting Shawn to the body barely did any damage. It was like a bee stinging an elephant - all it did was anger him. Suddenly, rather than his dad, this time it was Johnny's words rushed back into Miguel's head.
"It's time for you to take a page out of the Larusso Miyagi-Do playbook"
Johnny, you genius! Miguel knew exactly what to do! As Shawn sent a vicious hook punch at Miguel's head, Miguel intercepted it by punching him to the armpit, using Daniel's pressure point tactics that he had taught them while they were training together. He completely immobilised Shawn's left arm, and as Shawn sent a punch with the right, he immobilised that one too. However, his next move was different to Daniel's. Rather than taking him to his knees and punching him, Miguel sent his signature kick, the spinning Tornado Kick, right at the side of Shawn's head. It connected with a sickening THUD, and Shawn collapsed to the ground, knocked completely out cold.
As soon as Miguel hit the kick, he turned around and locked eyes with his father. The man's grin had completely faded, and Miguel sent him a terrifying look that said YOU'RE NEXT!
Miguel stumbled back over to Johnny's corner and he watched as Shawn didn't even stir for several moments. He was definitely breathing so Miguel didn't kill him, but there was NO way Shawn was fighting for the next little while. Eventually, the ref did the only thing he could and walked over to Miguel.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, by way of TKO, moving on to the semi finals, last year's champ, Miggueeeeeeel Diiiiiazzzzz!"
Miguel's hand was raised in the air by the referee in triumph, and Miguel smiled faintly. Thank God! He was through to the semi finals. He hugged Johnny as the four Eagles celebrated, and Johnny turned towards Daniel. The Miyagi-Do sensei had obviously seen what Miguel had just done. He had used his tactics to win the fight, and there was no way he could have done so without them. Johnny nodded to Johnny and mouthed 'thank you.' Daniel smiled and nodded back.
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The next fight of the day was arguably the biggest fight of the tournament. It was the long awaited rematch of Sam vs. Tory. The two had faced off various times before. Sam had won their first encounter in the school fight. Tory had won the second when Sam was too scared to face her in the laser tag arena. Sam had won the third in the Larusso house. It was round 4, hopefully the last one, of this endless war they were in.
As Tory got ready for the match, sparring with Barnes, Sam watched her and started to tremble. Seeing her and knowing that they were about to fight was sending her on the verge of a panic attack. Daniel noticed and he immediately turned to his daughter, taking her hands in his.
"Hey, Sam? Listen to me, okay? Listen to me. I'm not going to lie to you, this isn't going to be an easy fight. I remember full-well what it's like fighting someone you're absolutely terrified of from my time fighting Barnes. But here's what I want you to do. Whenever you start to feel fear taking over, I want you to stop and think about a good memory of karate. Whether it be with me, with Johnny's dojo, with... Miguel. Any good times you've had through karate. Can you do that for me?"
Sam nodded, calming down considerably, a determined expression now plastered on her face.
"Let's do it." She declared.
The first person to score a point in the fight was Tory. She lunged at Sam, straight out the gate, and took her down, punching Sam in the face and stomach several times before the ref pulled her away.
Sam wasn't out though. She quickly fired back, scoring a point with a single side kick to Tory's chest. It was 1-1 within less than a minute of the fight.
Johnny and Miguel sat next to each other in the stands, Miguel pressing an ice pack to his shoulder, and they watched the fight.
"Who do you want to win the fight?" Johnny asked. "Keep in mind, you're going to be fighting the winner in the semis."
"I don't know." Miguel murmured. "From a selfish perspective, I want Tory to win as it'll be easier to fight her in the semis than fight Sam. But from a team perspective, obviously I want Sam to win as it's one less Kreese soldier."
"Both not great options, huh? Your two ex-girlfriends?" Johnny remarked. Miguel chuckled.
"Yeah. It's almost as if someone rigged it to be this way." Miguel shot back. Johnny laughed and the two of them refocussed on the fight. Both girls had scored yet another point each, making the score 2-2 and causing a tie-breaker.
"I'm going to kill you, bitch." Tory growled in Sam's ear as Sam walked back to her corner to prepare for the final round. As Sam looked into Tory's eyes, she saw... nothing. No emotion. Just cold, unblinking eyes. She knew, in that moment, that there was no way in hell Tory was stopping at the win. She could feel stress and panic coming on, and it only increased as she scoured her brain for more good memories of Karate but coming up short. She had used them all up. As the panic crawled up from the pit of her stomach, up to her chest, up to her throat. She spun around on the spot, trying desperately to think of another good idea, and her eyes locked on Miguel. He was watching her intently. He could tell something was up. He smiled at her and mouthed her a silent message...
"You got this." He said. She smiled and suddenly, all of the stress and panic in her disappeared. Miguel had that effect on her. He could easily calm her down during even the worst of her anxiety. She clenched her fists into balls and prepared for the final round of the fight.
Obviously, Tory wasted no time charging at her with a flurry of kicks and punches. Sam dodged all of them though, and one minute later, the referee was raising her hand in triumph. Miguel, along with the rest of the arena, clapped and cheered for her. They all got to see Tory fighting extremely dirtily, and Sam coming out on top was heartwarming for all of them, even though a lot of them didn't know the deep history behind the 2.
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The next two fights were both breezes. First of all, Hawk took on Kyler in a long-awaited fight between them. Kyler always seemed to be focussed on fighting Miguel in the past, so he had often overlooked Hawk. But after their fight, Hawk did NOT let him forget who he was. Hawk won the fight 3-1, but in the process, he absolutely brutalised Kyler, almost as bad as Miguel beat up Shawn. Kyler wasn't knocked out by the end, but he was groaning in pain and rolling around on the ground in pain, blood dripping onto the mat from a gash on his head.
Robby's fight was even easier than Hawk's. He was fighting Xander, and although the boy was technically an All-Valley champion, he was a million steps behind Robby in the actual fight. Eagle-Fang and Miyagi-Do watched in shock and horror as Robby displayed all of his skills. He was a striker far superior than any of them. He struck faster and harder than any of them ever had, and he sure as hell wasn't showing any mercy. He won the fight 3-0, advancing to the semi finals against Hawk.
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"All right! Ladies and Gentlemen, the quarter finals of this year's All-Valley championship are officially over. We have our four semi finalists right here. Fighting out of Eagle-Fang, Hawk and Miguel Diaz!"
Ron stood next to Hawk and Miguel, who both raised a hand to wave at the crowd. The crowd were having an amazing time at the tournament this year. It had been the most entertaining tournament many of them had ever been to.
"And, fighting out of Miyagi-Do Karate, Samantha Larusso!"
Sam nodded at the crowd, still placing a tissue over the left side of her face, which contained a scar on her cheek.
"And finally, putting on an absolute clinic during his quarter final matchup, fighting out of Cobra Kai Karate, Robby Keene!"
Robby didn't acknowledge the audience any more than a mere nod. In all honesty, everyone was slightly scared of him, and what he might do. He was absolutely ruthless in the prelims and quarter finals, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, and everyone was wary and sympathetic of his next victim.
"So, next up will be our All-Valley champion, fresh off his TKO win, Miguel Diaz, against Samantha Larusso! After that, Hawk will be taking on Keene in what will surely be an absolutely class fight! But first, we're going to take another 10 minute break."
The dojos all immediately split up. It was the final 4 now, and it was the 4 they always knew it would be: Hawk, Sam, Miguel and Robby.
Carmen and Amanda looked at each other, slightly nervous, when they heard who their children were fighting.
"Oof. I guess our kids are fighting, huh?" Amanda remarked. "That's bound to be an awkward fight."
Carmen chuckled.
"Yeah, it will be. But I tell you, I'd rather Miguel be fighting Sam than fighting any of those Cobra Kais. I swear, they are trying to kill them! This is crazy!"
Amanda nodded.
"Yup. Welcome to the club." She remarked. Carmen didn't respond. She had suddenly seen someone in the front row of the stands who made her face turn crimson with fury: her ex-husband. Before she could control herself, she had stormed to her feet, Miguel's yaya close behind her, and she stormed over to her. He grinned evilly when he saw her.
"Aah. Carmen. Long time, no see. You still look radia..."
SLAP! Carmen sent a vicious slap across the face of an unsuspecting Mr. Diaz.
"HOW DARE YOU COME HERE!" She shouted. Quickly, the prison guard intervened, and All-Valley security came closely after, dragging Carmen and Miguel's yaya out of the arena forcefully. Johnny and Miguel watched as the event occurred, and Johnny turned to Miguel, who looked strangely calm.
"You good? You want me to go after them?" He asked. Miguel shook his head.
"No point. I can't think about them. I need to focus on this next fight."
Before Miguel knew it, he was being called to his feet, and he walked over to the mat, where he faced Sam.
"Okay, guys. You know the drill. Anything you'd like to say to each other before the fight?" Ron asked, hoping for some more fiery trash talk like in the first round. He got none of that though. Miguel and Sam had too much history behind them for that.
"Not really. I just want to say may the best fighter win, and whoever wins, no hard feelings." Miguel said, holding out a hand for Sam to shake. Sam nodded.
"Good luck." She said, not sarcastically but genuinely. Slightly disappointed, Ron left the mat, and moments later, the fight commenced...