Black Market Merchant

"Grraaww!" The Golem roared as he charged at the Queen. His huge metal hands at the ready to grab the thin woman before him.

Queen was slightly surprised at the speed of which he approached. She had expected him to move more like a train, slowly at first then picking up speed. Fortunately, she was faster.

Jumping aside to avoid his charge, Queen made an experimental stab at his shoulder armor with her half-extended katana blade. As expected, the dull black sword pinged noisily as it glanced off the tough armor, leaving only a faint scratch.

The Golem reacted from the hit and lunged out at the Queen to catch her, but he only grasped air. Queen, for once, used her smaller size to duck under the attack. To the onlookers it looked as if a small girl was fighting a metal sumo wrestler.

Twisting her shortened sword upwards at his outstretched arm she struck up at his elbow joint. At the last possible moment Golem knew her intention and rotated his arm so that the elbow plate blocked the shot.

"Tch, you’re not as dumb as you look." Queen said jumping backwards out of his immediate reach.

"Grr, he-he." Golem replied with a wide grin. Then he turned to face her head on once again. This time, rather than charging in, he raised his hands in a boxing stance. His giant fist looked quite menacing as he started edging towards her. Apparently, he was going to be attacking much more carefully now.

Queen started to circle around the giant armored opponent, looking for an opening or weakness. The whole time Golem never took his eyes off her, giving her no chance to feel him out anymore. Then he took a rapid lunging step forward at the Queen and attacked at her giving an uppercut.

The Queen leaned and arched back dodging the blow, but that was what he wanted. Immediately after swinging past her head, he opened his hand and swatted downward at her. Like he was trying to smash her like an insect!

Instinctively Queen sensed the danger she was in and rather than trying to dodge she lifted her left knee upwards to collide it with his forearm. The force of the impact reverberated across the parking lot, telling of the power of the two Fighters possessed.

Queen reached back and planted a hand firmly on the pavement to balance herself. While the blow caused Golems hand to rebound and tingle slightly. The armor couldn't absorb all the shock. Shaking his hand back and forth he let out a laugh, he was now having fun.

Queen immediately moved backwards to distance herself one again. "I need to be careful. This guy’s battle senses are actually quite good, I'll give him that." Queen thought to herself.

Golem took up his boxing stance once again, giving Queen a moment to think. Eyeing her surroundings, she tried to think up of a plan. She had the slight speed advantage and so far, seemed closely matched in power. Yet that armor is definitely going to be difficult to deal with.

The parking lot where they were fighting had the fence to her left, behind the Golem was a shipping container and behind that was the Powerhouse building. Then on her right was another shipping container that was running long ways away from her.

The onlookers were also on this side watching anxiously in silence from the southern entrance. Only Saul and Zane seemed to be enjoying the fight. The three girls were watching with looks of awe and fear, it was completely different seeing a fight from this close and in person. Benny and Sadie both stood solemnly by, watching the fight play out. Sadie had hidden her face behind her tabloid and merely peaked over its top, while Benny just stood behind her with his arms crossed.

There was plenty of space between the fence, building, and containers for the two Fighters to move about. So, keeping them out of harm’s way wasn't an issue. In fact, it let Queen to come up with an interesting plan of attack.

"Let's try this again." Queen mumbled.

This time she took the initiative to attack. Taking a fencing stance with her sword, poised and ready, she approached the giant man in quick half steps. Golem switched from his boxing stance to a more openhanded one. Then rather than attempting to wait for her to come at him, Golem bounced on his toes lightly to stay mobile to counter her quick step approach.

“Twip, twip!”

Queens sword darted out at his open hands and chest. She struck at him like a viper aiming for any part of him in range. Whenever she made contact with his armor, sparks sheared off in brilliant sprays of fire. Through all this Golems face remained plastered with an excited grin. Her strikes didn't perturb him one bit. He nimbly warded off her strikes using his fighting experience to hold her off. The two continued their battle dance briefly, neither gaining seemingly no advantage over the other.

"Interesting." Benny murmured aloud in thought as he tapped his chin. Hearing it, Sadie stole a glance at the older man curiously.

"What is interesting, Mr. Benny?" Sadie asked looking nervously back at the fight.

"Miss Lisa, or should I say Queen, and that Golem man might seem to be even at the moment, but can't you see that she's actually maneuvering him towards that container and the buildings wall? I wonder what her plan is." Benny replied speaking softly, trying not to be overheard by Saul.

Sadie squinted at the two Fighters again. Then she noticed that they indeed were moving further away from where they had started the fight. The Golems back was mostly facing away from those areas and probably didn't notice.

"I didn't even notice." Sadie replied softly. "They are moving so much I didn't pay attention to the area around them."

"That's a normal mistake for on lookers. They get wrapped up in the action and forget about how the environment can make all the difference in a fight. As her manager you need to really pay attention to everything. Be her eyes in areas she can't see."

"Right." Sadie replied. She felt slightly embarrassed hearing him explain her short comings. She recalled learning that at the MFA academy, yet she had failed to remember it until now. "I need to be better." Sadie spoke in her mind.

However, Saul did notice that the flow of the battle was moving away from them, even if he didn't overhear the others conversation. As a seasoned manager he saw the potential danger of being backed against either of those areas.

"Golem, watch your surroundings. Wall to your left, metal container behind. Get back out in the open!" Saul called out the quick directions over the sound of metal striking on metal.

Hearing his call, Golem stole a glance at the immediate area. Queen saw her chance then. Normally this would mean that her ploy had been discovered and then the plan would fail. Yet she was counting on this. The moment Golem took that glance would she react.

Her right ankle suddenly and unnaturally twisted sharply and pointed directly at the wall. Then in a shift of power, pushed off with her other foot and her body seemed to whip sideways towards the wall. The odd shift of motion surprised Golem, who noticed her movements from his peripheral vision. He reacted off guard and faltered unsure how to react.

Queen dashed towards the wall and jumped onto the wall. Planting both feet on the wall she reflected off it and in a streak of motion, bounded towards the container. She was aiming for the area behind him! Her actions appeared to move like a pinball in its machine game bouncing off the bumpers.

Seeing her streaking by to get behind him, Golem balled his fist and blindly swung, in an arced twisting fashion, at her estimated location.

“Pung!”

The sound of his fist striking the wall of the metal container sounded like a gunshot! The on-lookers jumped in surprise at the sudden noise. Hanna and the girls inhaled in unison, surely Lisa had been hit by such a powerful swing!

But Queen had been missed by a hair’s breadth. Golems fist penetrated the wall of the shipping container just above her head. As if she knew he would miss, Queen didn't hesitate.

Her sword flashed up just as his momentum stopped. The blade sunk easily up through the gap in between his elbow pad and arm. Golem let out a roar of anger upon feeling and seeing the blade sticking through his arm.

Twisting his torso, he went to kick at the Queen in retaliation. Seeing the attack coming Queen braced her body and prepared to absorb the kick with her left arm and shoulder. The kick landed heavily on her right arm just below her shoulder. The kick sent her body flying like a football, and she made two somersaults in the air.

Queen landed heavily on her side and rolled once. Then striking her palm onto the pavement she launched herself upright and skittered to a stop landing neatly on her feet. Raising her sword up she held it between her eyes and glared at the Golem. Blood dripped down its blackened blade, highlighting the red liquid even more.

"I barely felt that kick, but I know you felt my sword." Queen taunted him.

"Grrawww!" Golem roared again. He then ripped out his hand, with a viscous squeaking of metal, from the container. He looked at the wound in his arm and wiggled his fingers. Though it was bleeding a good bit, his hand was still functioning correctly. Letting out a defiant snort, he resumed his open-handed stance and approached the Queen with heavy stomps.

"She's so fast!" Zane said finally speaking. He had now joined the others and though still clutching his side feeling the throbbing pain, he wanted to watch. This fight was more than he had expected.

"Get him Queen! Woo-hoo!" Rachel yelled out seeing Queen land a hit on the big man.

"She's really good. Now I wish I'd have gone to see her other fight." Clair said a bit disappointed. Then looking at Hanna next to her she asked. "Are you doing alright?"

Hanna didn't dare take her eyes off the fight for even a second. She simply nodded vigorously. The color had started to return to her cheeks and Clair felt relieved slightly. Then looking back, she watched the rest of the fight unfold.

Golems heavy stomps left cracks in his wake as he charged at Queen. He was reaching an unprecedented speed in his metal armor that none expected. As he reached Queen, who still had her sword raised up near her face, Golem swung out at her with his left hand. The meter sized metal hand whizzed as it tore through the air at Queens body.

In a blurry motion Queen ducked the attack and stepped forward under his arm. In that same step her blade glimmered as it slid under his right arm plate and into his arm. Yet the strike didn't feel quite right.

Suddenly Queen felt a heavy force crashing into her ribs. The impact once again sent her flying across the parking lot and tumbling across the pavement. Golem landed a solid hit, and this time it dealt her some damage!

Golem had faked the swing of his left arm in a semi-sacrificial attack. He twisted his hips at the same time Queen ducked. Then with his right knee, kneed at her exposed middle. From the massive width of his leg, there was no way he could have missed Queen from this close.

As soon as Queens body came to a rolling stop, she quickly scrambled up on her feet. She patted her side and breathed a slightly labored breath.

"Well, no broken bones at least. But it will leave a bruise." Queen mumbled.

However, she didn't have any time to lose. Golem was already bearing down on her with his fist raised, ready to pound her to dust!