He taps my glove with his and before I can react, he's on me.
Fuck, fuck fuckis all I can think as I cover up against his onslaught. His punches glance off my gloves and forearms, but he's throwing quick enough that he's not giving me a chance to catch my breath or retaliate. I'm left to shell up and start moving backwards.
"Move,Aiden, get off the fence!"
I hear Jax yelling but it's like my brain is moving in slow motion. I can't seem to make my legs work.
Especially when Red suddenly drops down and takes them out from under me.
"Come on, Aiden, don't let him bully you! Get back to your feet, we have to take this round back."
I manage to wrap my legs around his waist and secure him in my guard but it doesn't stop him from continuing to rain down punches. I try to grab a hold of his neck and arms to pull him down so he doesn't have as much room, but he's already too slippery to get a good grip on him. When he lands a big right hand to my jaw, it only makes me double down on my efforts. I blink away the ringing in my head and yank him closer to me with my legs around his waist.
I have no idea how long this back-and-forth goes. A few times I find a controlling position, sometimes even landing a few punches of my own, but then he overwhelms me again and puts me flat on my back, unleashing more ground and pound on me.
The sounds of our corners yelling that there's thirty seconds left in the round somehow injects Red with an even bigger burst of energy. In an act of desperation, I open my legs and throw them up around his head, trying to catch him in a triangle choke.
But it's sloppy and clearly a desperate move, because my opponent shrugs out of it easily and ends up in an even better position at my side. Now, not only do I not have my legs controlling him, but he also managed to get a grip on my arm during the transition.
"Watch the arm, Aiden,he's going for the armbar!"
With a muttered curse, I try to snatch my arm back before he can fall back and torque it. But I'm too slow, still moving through mud, and he's too good at being one step ahead of me. In a flash, he swings his legs around and falls back with my arm, raising his hips to put pressure on my elbow in an armbar submission.
"TIME!"
Now Red is the one cursing, begrudgingly letting go of my arm when the bell signals the end of the round. But by the time he stands up, he has a grin on his face and his hands in the air in a sign of clear victory.
Fuck, that was a bad round.
I climb to my feet and make my way to my corner. Coach and Jax are already there, shoving me onto the stool and putting ice on the back of my neck in an effort to cool me down.
"Give me three deep breaths, Aiden," Coach barks.
I do as he says, forcing my heartrate to slow down and trying like hell to get my brain to wake the fuck up.
"Forget that round," Coach says as he pours water over my head. "We still have two left. I need you to stay off your heels, Aiden. Do you understand me? I need you to be the aggressor this round. Get your jab in his face andkeepit there because he's going to give you the opening for an uppercut the next time he shoots for a takedown. ButI need you to stay on him."
"Okay," I say in a rush. Nodding quickly. "Stay on him. Lots of jabs. Got it."
"You got this, man, come on," Jax encourages. "Get your head in the game."
Get your head in the game.
Because of course Jax can see I'm not here mentally.Of coursehe knows why I was fucked up even coming into this fight.
"Seconds out!" The ten second clap sounds, telling cornermen to get out of the cage. I stand up off the stool and watch as everyone hustles back to their seats.
"Let's go, Aiden,let's go, Aiden!" I can make out Remy's voice clearly over the crowd. Normally I'm able to respond to it with a smirk and a wink, but for some reason I can't seem to recapture any of my normal swagger.
It’s been two weeks since I've had any swagger.
I shake that thought from my head as the bell rings and I stride toward my opponent. But then the thought is knocked from my head for a whole other reason, because it takes all of two seconds for Red to land a huge right hand to my jaw.
The crowdroarsin delight.
I stumble backwards, ears ringing and my sight blinking out. I vaguely hear Coach and Jax screaming at me to let my hands go, to hit back, to dosomething, but it's like I can't get any of my limbs to work. That mud I was wading through last round has turned into quicksand and it’s dragging me down so far and so quickly that I can't make sense of it.
So when Red shoots for another takedown and slams me down to the mat, I can't make a single move to stop it.