Page 25 of Bratva Butcher

That’s what this was. What the cameras were for. The small crowd. The commentators. It was all to entice those receiving an invitation and convince them to pay the buy-in. To show them what they would witness on a much larger and grander scale.

My opponent stepped into the ring, and the entire thing shook. He was a beast of a man with a body built entirely out of muscle. He was bigger than me, that was for sure. Taller. Wider. He was by far the biggest person there, and of course, Talon had chosen him to fight against me.

He was so predictable.

The man took up position opposite me. One side of his mouth hiked up in a cocky, arrogant smile. He thought because he was bigger, he would win. Despite what a lot of men liked to believe, size wasn’t everything. It was how one used that size that truly mattered.

My eyes involuntarily moved to the annoying redhead sitting behind him. Her smirk mirrored the man standing before me. She thought the same thing.

How disappointed they were both going to be. The man especially.

There was no bell to signal for the fight to begin. One moment, we were staring at each other from across the ring, sizing each other up, and the next, he was charging at me with all the grace of a raging bull, his feet thumping hard against the ground.

Thump, thump, thump.He raised his fist into the air, preparing to strike.

I didn’t move a muscle as he ran right for me.Waiting, waiting. Almost there…

I ducked under his swinging arm, spun on the balls of my feet and delivered a brutal roundhouse kick to the side of his head from behind.

He went down like a house of cards, the entire ring shaking from the impact of his body slamming onto the ground.

Casual as you please, I walked over and stared down at him. He’d landed on his back, staring up the ceiling with vacant eyes. I stomped down on his exposed throat with the heel of my foot, killing him instantly.

The neck was a complex structure, filled with blood vessels and organs that were detrimental to one’s survival. Damage it in the right spot, with enough force, and there was no coming back from it.

The entire room fell silent for a moment before the crowd broke out into a loud, roaring cheer. I turned. The look on Autumn’s face almost made me want to smile. It was fucking priceless. Thinned lips. Lowered brows. Snarled nose. Tense jaw. The anger and disappointment at me having won couldn’t have been more obvious.

Usually, I wasn’t one to show off or play games, but in that instance, the compulsion to rub it in Autumn’s face was simply too great, too compelling to resist.

Slowly, I lowered myself into a gentleman’s bow, wrapping one arm around my middle while the opposite leg swept out behind me. Proper etiquette dictated you also bow your head atthe same time to show respect, but that wasn’t what this was about. It was more like a bow someone would give to a crowd at the end of a performance, except it was for Autumn and Autumn alone. My way of saying, “I’m still standing, bitch”.

Based on the middle finger she threw up at me, she understood its meaning. I smirked before rising back to my full height.

I made my way to the edge of the ring, preparing to jump down and take my place among the winners, but a guard stopped me with a raise of his hand. I frowned.

What now?

His head was bent slightly to the side, his other hand up to the earpiece in his ear, as if he were listening to someone communicating with him. A moment later, he signalled for two more prisoners to be brought into the ring.

I looked to my left, staring down the lens of the camera.Fucking Talon. Clearly, he was hoping for a more entertaining fight, and he wasn’t going to let me leave without it.

Fine.

I took three steps back and waited, keeping my body loose and ready for action. That fight lasted a little longer than the first. Both men were cautious after witnessing what had happened during the first round, being mindful to keep a safe distance from me, though it did not last long.

Eventually, they came for me at the same time. One went high, the other low. Smart move, but in the end, they met the same fate as Muscle Man: death on the floor of the ring. Talon must not have been satisfied with the outcome because he issued another two prisoners to fight again.

And again.

And again.

By the fifth round, exhaustion was starting to weigh heavily on me. My movements slowed, my reflexes not as sharp as theywere when I’d first stepped into the ring. My body hurt all over from the strikes I’d been unable to avoid. Blood dripped down the side of my face from a brutal blow. Despite all of that, I kept going, refusing to show even a modicum of the pain I was feeling. I had enough in the tank for this fight, but if there was another? Who knew?

I was stuck in a grapple with my opponent, an athletic, dark-haired male. His partner lay dead a few feet away, his neck and several limbs twisted at ungodly angles.

We wrestled for supremacy, twisting, turning and ramming our blood-stained knuckles into each other’s sides; ribs, abdomen, kidneys.I just need one opening. Just one. Just—

Pain exploded in my head.Fuck!Looked like he’d gotten an opening first. A wave of disorientation washed over me. I did my best to fight through it, but some of his strikes hit home regardless.

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