I cracked him good in the nose and there came the blood. In thick streams it started from his nostrils, and the more he fought on without wiping it the more it coated down the front of his mouth, his chin, and eventually his neck.
My lip was bleeding too, so I also had blood smeared across my cheek and dribbling down my chin. This is the longest I think I've ever fought. This needs to end. So I tried to end it. But Andrei had other ideas.
This was the part where he decided to start fighting dirty, so he could be the one to end this fight in his favor. He rushed and half tackled me again, but this time I braced myself and folded into him. I started elbowing his back, which made him groan.
We were half on our knees, half standing up. Andrei grabbed a fist full of my hair and slammed the side of my head down on his bended knee. It made my ears ring and I stumbled.
He took the opportunity to start hitting me in the face. I felt the harsh smack of bare knuckles against tight flesh. He split my eyebrow right open by the third or fourth blow.
I couldn't let him end me this way. I was bloody and out of breath. I was in pain, but the adrenaline was too high now for me to feel the full extent of it. If anything the more he hit me the more it jacked me up for more. I wanted to make him bleed again. It's primal. The desire to bloody a man this way.
I elbowed him hard in the thigh, right over the muscle, which gave him a spasm. When he locked up I jabbed my hand into his neck, using the momentum to swing us around. I was on top now and I started punching down on him as best I could with him blocking his head and face from me.
I grabbed his hair, as he had grabbed mine, and yanked his head back on his neck until I had room to ram my fist into his face. Andrei punched me in the nuts, and I was rolling onto the concrete. We were both laid out on our backs panting for air and spitting blood side by side.
"COME ON!! KILL HIM" I heard all the rowdy men screaming their heads off. They were waving arms and stomping feet and whistling like crazy. I could feel the ground vibrating beneath my laid out body. I have to get up.
I willed myself to move even though I was exhausted. In that same moment Andrei had the same drive to get up too. We both stumbled to our feet and took our positions again. We were crimson all over, starting to swell in various places, and the fight wasn't even over yet.
When I swung Andrei grabbed for my arm, which brought us colliding into each other. We were glistening and slick with sweat and smears of red. From this close Andrei started to fight dirty again. He scratched down my neck with his nails until he drew blood.
I swung for his jaw and with a loud CRACK I got him down on the ground. When I finally mounted Andrei I told myself I had him. I tried raising my fist again to hit him, but he was already grabbing for my throat.
As he used both hands to start to choke me I was swinging to hit him. I reached, but not enough to knock him out, because his limbs were extended out to stretch his arms as high as they'd go, so I'd lose my own reach.
He wants to fight dirty. Fine. I grabbed a can of beer from a man's hand literally right there on the edge of the circle. I cracked it over Andrei's head then rammed my elbow into his, which made it buckle in the wrong direction. Not enough to break it maybe, but he hollered out in pain.
When his arms dropped from my throat I swung again. This time he was swinging too. BAM BAM BAM. My ears were ringing. The world spun on its axis and I tipped over.
No, Rizzo, you get your ass up. Don't you dare lose this fight.
I'm fighting to remember this time. If I lose I lose Lexi. I screamed out like a madman and grabbed for Andrei who had sat up to come mount me. I punched his nuts like he did mine, and we were both laying down trying to mount the other in a rolling, grunting, and bashing. Andrei grabbed the discarded can still heavy with half a beer leaking out and bashed my head.
"THEY ARE GONNA KILL EACH OTHER. REF?", "HOLY FUCK", "PULL THOSE ANIMALS APART", "NO! KEEP GOING. KILL THE BASTARD", "KILL HIM! KILL HIM! KILL HIM!" I heard the protests and the counter protests as they chanted 'kill him'.
Everything hurts. My ribs have been beaten in, my knuckles are already split wide open so that every blow I land is opening me deeper and deeper. My blood was all over him and his blood was all over me. We bled from our mouths, knuckles, noses, and eyebrows.
I could barely breathe, and my muscles were screaming out from exhaustion. To fight someone this long is literally so tough on the body. We both strained to continue on. To deliver the final blow first.
Suddenly Andrei's hand came up and instead of punching me his finger went over my shut eyelid and started to scratch deep. I hollered out but I wouldn't give up. I swung blindly, as I was forced to close my eyes so he wouldn't rip my eyeballs right out.
His thumb pressed into the corner of my eye and I felt the pressure through my entire head like it would burst. I felt Andrei's hair and grabbed his head, banging it on the concrete from my grip on his fucking ear, and the hair I had in my vice tight grip.
Once, twice. I smashed his head. His hands faltered a bit, so I quickly moved my head to the side so he couldn't go for my eyes again. We were slippery with blood, and I slipped until my chest hit his face. Then the mother fucker bit down right over my pec and sunk his teeth in.
I grabbed for his head again, but with me hovering this close I couldn't lift his head enough to slam it down like before. I started kneeing him as best I could, and I brought my thumb against his eye just like he did me. It was a horrible feeling clawing at someone's eye like that. Shoving my finger into the corner that way.
I was feeling weak. Trembling limbs and slippery flesh. I wanted to give up. My body begged for me to give in, but I couldn't. I couldn't let myself. I pictured Lexi.
I pictured her sitting across from me at the table smirking. I pictured her naked in my bed leaning up on her elbows while she talked. I thought of her smile. It's rare, but when it happens it more than slays me.
Then I pictured Lexi in Enzo's house. I pictured him throwing a glass and shattering it. I pictured him shoving her until she fell into the shards. I pictured that bloodied towel she'd come to me with. It bled a lot. Just like this. How I bleed and soak through the fabric at the hem of my boxers.
I pictured further than that. I pictured Lexi with Enzo doing all the things she'd done with me. In bed naked and talking. Making a meal together. I can't stop fighting. I have to push through it.
My head throbbed, my skin cried out with a stinging and shooting pain. My face felt flattened out and raw. With his teeth sunken into me I couldn't sit up without losing that chunk of flesh, which was why I stayed so close.
I felt hot blood start to drip down from me onto him in a small pool around the base of his neck where it hollows. This needs to end. I grabbed for his open mouth, and wedged my fingers between the gap in his teeth. He couldn't bite clean down with my hard pec as his chew toy, so there was a little bit of space.
With my nails I gouged a chunk of his gums when I sliced into him and yanked at his jaw to loosen him at the same time. He unlatched. I clenched my shaking hand in as tight a fist as my split and swollen knuckles let me and I started to pound into his face.
BAM BAM BAM I wouldn't stop. I was grunting and growling like a wild animal. I was half falling over myself as I continued.
Andrei swung and hit me in the nose, and more blood came. So much blood. People were screaming, but I think some were actually screaming to stop the fight. We looked half dead already. My fists would slip, and his fists would slip with all the wetness of the blood and serious sweat. Even a little bit of the spilt beer.
We were raw. Beaten raw.
My body swayed as I stretched myself out to try and deliver the final blow. He was choking on his own blood and trying to roll on his side. He elbowed me as best he could, which sent me toppling over. Again we were side by side, bloody and disoriented and weak. We could feel it in our shaking limbs.
I crawled. I crawled on top of him as best I could, and finally with the very last of my will power and energy I cracked Andrei in the jaw and knocked him out.
His head lolled, but not for long. The mother fucker still wanted to hang on. He was relentless. But he couldn't get up. He muttered, and half heartedly tried to grab at me. Then he shut his eyes and the announcer started his count.
When Andrei didn't get up in time the crowd went absolutely wild. The whole place echoed and vibrated with the celebration. Men were throwing beer in the air like it was a champagne shower.
I couldn't last a second longer. I collapsed on top of Andrei from where I crawled my top half onto him to deliver the fist that ended this madness. We lay there two bloody beaten men. Slick with perspiration and crimson painted red. Raw to the bone.
I felt the hands come and grab me on either side. They pulled me up and my feet protested my weight. I leaned into their hold, dragging me off.
"Holy fuck, Rizzo" I heard someone say beyond the ringing in my ears. My eyes were closed because they burned from the scratching and gouging. They were also starting to swell. "Put him in an ice bath," one of my guys said.
"Fuck that. He needs a hospital dude" said the other. "Come on, man. You did good" I heard my cousin. Wait? Enzo. I tried opening my eyes and through the blur I saw Enzo hovering over me. I guess he came. He must have heard.
He's bruised up, but I bet I beat him by a long shot right now. I'm a fucking mess. I can feel it everywhere from my scalp to my toes.
"We've got that doc in our pocket. We'll take him in. Then he'll have an ice bath" I recognized Elio's voice now too. "Help me lift him up" they hoisted me up again. I stumbled onto my feet and helped walk myself off, but I kept slipping and their grips on me tightened.
I could feel drops of blood falling from my fingertips from where my arms were slung over two sets of shoulders. I spit blood from my mouth again. Who knows where it's all coming from.
I only know one thing. I won.
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Author's note: Who wants to read Andrei Petrov's story?