Beckett nods.
“He can’t use a weapon. Your job is just to run and tire him out. Get him frustrated. You aren’t going to be able to kill him this round. The more he swings and misses, the more exhausted he’s going to feel. Twenty-minutes is a long time to fight without a weapon. I’ll distract him if I can with snide remarks,” I say.
“I got this.”
I hold my hand out, and we bump fists. “I know you do, brother.”
He smiles and then steps into the ring with Felix. Both men remove their weapons, setting them outside the ring. Then face each other head to head.
I have no doubt that before Beckett lost his arm, this would've been a fair fight, but now I’m nervous. Beckett has a lot of rage built up about losing his arm because of this bastard. He has a lot of incentive to live and protect his niece and nephew. But I’m not sure if the will to live is stronger than skill and strength.
“Go,” Archard says.
The two men take their time, circling each other, and feeling each other out.
“Nice to meet you, brother,” Felix says. “Too bad it’s going to be a short meeting.” And then Felix swings, hard and fast.
He connects with Beckett’s jaw, and Kai screams as blood shoots from his mouth. I grab Kai and pull her to my chest, covering her face with my hand so she can’t see. Beckett doesn’t need her distracting him.
But when I see Beckett’s face, there is a grin there. I take a deep breath; he’s got this. He let him hit him. He won’t again.
Sure enough, that is Beckett’s plan. To let Felix know what it’s like to hit him. How good it feels, and then never give him the chance again.
For the next fiftee
n minutes, Beckett dances around the circle, never throwing a single punch, but letting Felix throw many. He misses every time, because Beckett is focused on avoiding and tiring Felix out, instead of connecting with him.
Felix is exhausted and angry.
And that makes me happy, but also scares me, because it only takes one wrong move for Felix to do damage.
“Not willing to fight, you pussy. I guess I wouldn’t want to fight either if I only had one arm,” Felix tries to goad Beckett.
It won’t work.
Four more minutes they fight, until there is only one minute left. But one minute is all Felix needs to do damage.
Beckett makes one wrong step in his exhaustion. And Felix takes advantage. He connects with Beckett’s jaw while grabbing his arm, making Beckett practically defenseless. Beckett tries to kick, to get Felix away, but Felix holds tight to his arm as he pounds into Beckett’s face, breaking his nose, a tooth, and doing serious damage to his eye socket.
Kai tries to look, but I hold her tight against my chest, knowing the sight will be too much for her.
Come on, time.
I look at Archard who is frantically counting down the seconds.
“Ten seconds left,” he shouts, almost egging Beckett on. He doesn’t want Felix to win either.
Ten.
Nine.
Eight…
I count down the seconds as Felix gets more punches in.
“You got this, Beckett!” I shout, needing him to hang on and stay alive for just a few more seconds.
One more vicious punch before Archard yells time. Felix drops Beckett to the floor, and then Kai and I are running to his side.