Chapter 800: PUNCH ME!
"I told you to move, didn\'t I?"
\'I can\'t believe I fucking fell for that…\'
I just shook my head as I dashed forward, closing in the distance between me and Mr. Alvarez because even if I still don\'t have a solid plan to take him down, doing it from a few feet away wouldn\'t solve it either.
With that said, I tested the waters by sending a snappy one-two of my own but he easily avoided it by turning his head clockwise then stepping in to press me with his lead shoulder. Doing that brought us even closer but his face felt like it was still a ways away.
Despite that, his body was still in close proximity with my fists and I just placed pressure on my toes so I could twist my whole body and give him a compact bodyblow.
It\'s just that he turned the other side of his body a quarter of the way in to push me with his hips, simply making my punch slide to his oblique abdominal muscles and lose power.
"Oh-ho~ Aiming for my body, eh? You\'re not as stupid as everyone else who kept aiming for my head! But that\'s not enough!"
With a grin, Mr. Alvarez twisted his own hips the opposite way to send a body shot of his own. I easily blocked it with my arm but he wound it back again to send a left hook to my jaw.
I thought it was the most basic of combos but as soon as I avoided it with a headslip, his other fist was already close to hitting my face. Instead of a double hook that would start from the body then to the head, it was actually a triple hook where the last one would come from my blindspot.
Despite that, Mr. Alvarez still hit air as I ducked a few inches and tried to send a weird angled upper to his chin, which he casually avoided by stepping back.
"Wow~ You\'re really good, kid! Try hitting me again!"
Mr. Alvarez just had a huge smile on his face as he presented his face forward though he was just goading me for an attack. Despite his overconfident approach, his eyes were focused on my whole body, anticipating anything that might come inside his circle.
It was the combination of that plus his insane reflexes as to how he could dodge attacks like he could see one second into the future.
He had every right to be a champion and be this playful because he could back it up with his skills. In a sense, being slightly cocky was working out for him because it would make the majority of his opponents send one mindless attack after one mindless attack.
I, on the other hand, was cooking up ways to land a clean hit to his face because I still needed to pay him back for that sudden one-two earlier.
The moment the bead of sweat on my forehead fell to the ground, I suddenly stepped in with my left foot, ducked in and moved forward before I propelled myself up, sending a left hook in a wide arc—waiting for his reaction.
I used more power from my lower body compared to my upper body because the move was a variation of a gazelle punch, but this time, it was an experiment of mine to produce a certain chemical reaction.
From the way Mr. Alvarez was standing, he looked slightly confused and disappointed from my choice of attack but as soon as he ducked down and stepped in, I twisted my shoulder inward to change the trajectory of my punch mid-swing.
"Wha—"
It actually caught him off-guard for once but he was still able to put up a one-arm guard to protect his face. However, the amount of power I produced to send that blow almost made the arm he used to guard to smack his face and he actually lost composure for once.
It\'s just that once I drew back my arm, I completely relaxed it before sending a flicker jab which he barely avoided.
The crowd had never been so noisy because no one had ever been so close to hitting him in the face, but I was far from done with my combo.
Right when my fist slipped past his temple, he brushed it off to the side to throw a simple punch to gain some distance and get his footing back in order. He was trying to normalize his breathing but this time, I stepped in with my right foot and sent a couple of right-handed jabs before sending in another flicker jab that would come from below.
"You little—"
With each punch, I was getting closer and closer to hitting him square in the face but I stepped in with my left foot again to send a compact upper.
Mr. Alvarez tried to block it with his arm once more, but this time, I broke through his arm guard but he still managed to tilt his head to avoid the blow. It just scraped the side of his cheek before I tried to throw a straight punch but he tried to throw a counter by using a left cross.
Doing that would make my right straight deviate from its trajectory but I gritted my teeth and put pressure on my toes, twisting my whole body once more and half-stepping with my right foot to completely overpower this older gentleman.
To his fucking surprise, my right straight was now a right hook aiming for his face because since he changed the direction my initial punch was headed, all I needed to do was to curve it back—turning the straight into a hook—coiling my right arm around his left before leaning even forward and putting more pressure on my toes.
In essence, it was almost like an overhead punch—a dragonfish blow to be specific—but since I was taller than him by a few centimeters, it was still a right hook that had the power from my toes and my back muscles behind it.
I was so into hitting Mr. Alvarez just once—I made sure the one time I would hit him would fucking count—but I ended up putting a lot of power into it and it almost broke his neck and dislodged his jaw.
When my fist collided with his face, it didn\'t even feel real because he tried to make it brush against his cheek but I followed it through and he paid for it.
Mr. Alvarez took an actual solid punch for the first time in a while but not getting hit as much had its downsides. He didn\'t even think that he\'d get hit and when it did, he didn\'t even try to grit his teeth or brace his head for impact. He even lifted up in the air momentarily before sprawling on the ground and there was complete fucking silence for several seconds.
But despite that, Mr. Alvarez was fucking far from unconscious but if we would refer to his rules, he\'d declare his loss if I knocked him down.
\'People here doesn\'t get knocked out in one punch, huh...\'
It\'s just that this old motherfucker didn\'t think he\'d ever lose so he stood up before spitting out a mouthful of blood, "That wasn\'t the full 10 seconds."
"Seriously?"
"Boxing rules! If I get up in less than 10 seconds—"
"No way, you said \'Knock down\', not \'Knockout\'! D\'you want to see a replay of—"
"I misspoke! I meant knockout!"
"Are you really gonna do this?"
"The fuck— Of course, I fucking will! You didn\'t tell me you could use both fists!"
"Seriously? Am I supposed to tell you I\'m ambidextrous?"
\'Not naturally, I mean...\'
"Well— No! But— FUCK!"
"Word of advice, Mr. Alvarez… you should stop now."
"Huh? W-Why?!"
"Your knees are still shaking, I\'m sorry. I put too much power—"
"TOO MUCH POWER?! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! PUNCH ME AGAIN! I WON\'T DODGE THIS TIME!"
"Huh?"
"PUNCH ME AGAIN! LET\'S SEE WHO PUT TOO MUCH FUCKING POWER!"
"I\'ll definitely knock you out, Mr. Alvarez—"
"ARE YOU A FUCKING PUSSY OR WHAT?! PUNCH ME!"
Then I actually punched the old motherfucker.
With that said, he severely underestimated the damage he took and let\'s just say the championship for the male division had never been so anticlimactic. The rest of his cohorts carried him to the medical bay and the stragglers watching us had already climbed off to forfeit.
Mr. Cuervo on the other hand didn\'t know whether to laugh or cry and his hair was visibly turning white by the second but a very familiar figure was perched on the fence of the play area.