Darknet Cage Match: Thephina Knight vs Scherezade DeWinter

[Jerec Asyr]

[SIZE=11pt]Deep in Sith Empire territory, the government controls the HoloNet with an iron fist. But outside Imperial monitoring, a patchy, furtive network swaps unregulated data, raw footage, contraband, and things that thrive in the dark. Two of those things are the Darknet Cage Match, and the betting attached thereunto.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]No Force. No weapons. No gimmicks, no gear. And no referees.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Tonight’s match: The witch [member="Scherezade deWinter"] versus the enforcer [member="Thephina Knight"]. The winner of this first-round fight will get a purse of twenty thousand credits.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]The arena is a square cage ten paces wide. The wire-fence walls have plenty of give but won’t break. The floor is a quarter inch of bloody sand over permacrete, offering both traction and treachery. [/SIZE]There are ysalamiri around, plenty of them.

[SIZE=11pt]A light goes yellow, orange, red -- and stays red.[/SIZE]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

Chit was tight since Taris.

They needed money.

Plain and simple. This wasn't about fame, Theph could give a kark about her name being revered. 20K though? Plenty of chow they could get with that. She had warmed up in the private rooms. Jumping, a few stretches, few punches in the air. Nothing fancy. There wasn't anything fancy about this. Once Theph stepped into the ring, she spit to the side. As if to underline that simple fact. She saluted off into the dark. There were only a few souls she cared about that were looking today.

The lady in front of her wasn't one of 'em.

Theph raised her fists, settled into a light fighter stance, then... then she waited. Became a resting mountain for the time being.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Witch? Scherezade blinked in confusion. It had been over a year since she'd been with the Mandragora; and the word witch was never used on her even when she was one. It was probably an error in the datafiles though, and she took a mental note to remind herself to have that corrected for the next matches.

She'd known what she'd signed up. No Force. No weapons. No armor. All she had were her usual leather pants and a top that gave her maximum flexibility. The yslamari weren't necessary, but she understood their purpose. Frankly, it was not the money she had come for. The Sithling's situation was vastly different than it had been prior to her shattering. Whereas once she had to take on the odd jobs as often as she could find them so she could eat or buy bacta, twenty thousand now was not even pocket change.

It was anger that had brought her though; anger and pride. Not too long ago she had lost her match in the Blood Games and not for any other reason but the jury being stupid about it. She had won her fight, despite breaking her elbow, but the other guy was still declared the winner. She had an inkling that she knew why and what it was about, but there would be no sympathetic ears for her plight.

So here she was now. Fighting. Dirty. Illegally. For money she didn't care about. It was almost like the good ol' days.

Her body al warmed and ready to go, Scherezade entered the ring, giving a nod to her opponent, who was already in fighter stance. Scherezade moved her head, getting a few knacks out of her neck, and grinned. Both women were large; both women, from visuals alone, looked like they were more than adept to do this sort of thing. Now remained to be seen who could win.

Taking her own fighter stance, left foot forward so that she twisted at her middle, her upper body facing the other woman, Scherezade brought her left arm forward, giving the other one a 'come here' motion.

[member="Thephina Knight"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

For a moment Theph just mountain'ed there.

Glancing down at her opponent and waiting. Then it became clear that deWinter wasn't joking, she really was expecting her to come to her.

Sure.

Right now it was expected from Theph to run head-first into the woman. Maybe scream a little bit. Hopefully even tackle her. That was just how these things went, no? The big barbarian woman, bloodthirsty, hungry for the fight and to crush her enemies. Not so this time around. Theph was conservative with her movements. Careful. Because every move she made? Was one that she had to commit to.... or land face-first in the grit. That was the schutta about being big.

It was hard to push you, but once you were running there wasn't much that could stop you.

That included yourself.

Instead of throwing a punch, Theph kept closing the distance between them. Step by step, tracing any step she made herself. Forcing Scherezade to either attack and push her back- or... to commit to a smaller area of movement.

Slow slide of a glacier.

It took everything in its path.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

In truth, Scherezade had fully expected the other woman to come running at her. However, when her expectations became unfulfilled, the only thing that decorated her face was a smile. So she was facing an experienced an intelligent opponent who actually knew what they were doing; it meant that regardless of outcome, the fight would be interesting.

As the other woman slowly shrank the distance between them, Scherezade held her ground. She held no objections to commit to a smaller area of movement; close up and personal without too much ground was how she fought on the regular anyway, the main difference being that this time she was without her blades.

On the balls of her feet, she kept herself light and ready to react to any attempt at damage that would come from her opponent, but it didn't come. Staying on her ground, Scherezade held her arms up, waiting for the woman to come within reach.

When she did, Scherezade decided to test her out. Something small. Still a warm up. Her right arm came forward, a punch aiming for the other one's torso. Something simple that ought to be easy enough to block.

[member="Thephina Knight"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

This wasn't the usual fight.

More often than not Theph had to deal with people dancing around her. Snapping in a kick, punch, whatever here and there. Hoping to tire her out at the long run.

This one?

Seemed more interested in a direct confrontation. Now that made Theph grin. She didn't say chit, but the appreciation was there in the expression. In a street fight folks didn't feel things out. No testing the waters, trying out limits. The difference between a first attack and a counter was the weight of a shiv down your throat. So, when Scherezade probed? Theph didn't block and retort. She stepped into the punch. Shifting the axis of her body just a fraction, so deWinter's fist would graze off of her shoulder.

Internally she registered pain. It was a distant sort of thing, suppressed by adrenaline and thrill, mitigated by her own momentum.

From there Knight was inside her guard.

One of the best places to be for a big hulk of a mountain. No time to waste an' Theph never wasted feth. She moved to hook her straight in the gut. Solar plexus. That fancy spot just above the belly that always hurt so much.

The ow-ow place, so to speak.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Her punch connected with the other woman, landing upon her shoulder. Scherezade remembered the first time someone had let her land one like that; she had been young and innocent at the time, and had thought it was a good sign. Of course, she was almost killed in that illegal battle not moments later, and the only thing that had saved her from the Trandoshan was a Force Scream that had caused her mind to explode. She would have no such mercies in her fight now though.

As [member="Thephina Knight"] 's fist went for her stomach, Scherezade moved swiftly, attempting to twist to her left and avoid it as her right hand went for the woman's wrist.

If her plan worked, she would grab the woman's wrist and use her own momentum to yank her out of place and land a kick behind her left knee.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

That was the thing about close proximity.

It was a schutta to get a good angle for a kick with actual strength behind it. Her hook only got air. Then she felt deWinter grab her wrist. A tug, which didn't affect Theph all that much, because she hadn't been moving with any real speed and there wasn't any room for a good pull. Theph didn't wait to see what Scherezade would do next. The moment she felt being grabbed? She used her other hand, which was ungrabbed, and cross-punched at deWinter's face.

Once, twice, three times?

Honestly, as many times was necessary to get her to let go.

A quick bap, bap, bap.

Now that was the beauty of being all up someone's face. Even being grabbed by them. There wasn't much opportunity to dodge.