Diego watched the crowd below him roar in excitement with every blow, as the eyes of the marble-skinned woman next to him jumped from the fight to the audience. Just as a bird of prey would study its next victim, Dirtha watched in silence the performance of the fighters and how the people reacted to it, taking mental notes of what she deemed important. As for the revenant, his attention quickly followed the example of everyone else and stuck to the fight, and more specifically, to Lita herself. There was something about how she moved around and her stance that got his attention, how she threw out jabs like spears. It was something that got Diego's eye from the second he first saw the match. He was shocked when he finally recognized the reason why. She was boxing.
There was no mistaking it for anything else, and to the revenant it meant something crucial, that he wasn't as alone as he had thought. There were other people like him, people like the ones he knew back home, something to grab onto in that bizarre upside-down world. Diego followed Lita's every move with renewed interest as she circled around Umalda holding her guard up, covering from the daggers that the giant threw at her with her eyes.
"I'm actually glad you got up, I still got a lot of payback for you", The red titan said menacingly as she grinded her teeth in anger.
"One day you're going to have to let go of what happened at the Royale", Lita replied, "It's not a healthy to hold grudges like that".
"I was finally going to have a shot at the crown, I earned it. And you stabbed me in the back".
"Umalda's still furious about last year's Royale", May's voice echoed throughout the venue as he continued commentating the match, "She can't wait to take out her frustrations on Lita".
"Why wouldn't she be mad?", Misha quickly intervened, bouncing off her partner, "She's one of the hardest working fighters out there, and she finally had a chance to fight for the champion's crown. 100 women in a free-for-all and she was one of the last ones standing, and then Lita breaks their alliance, after so many matches working together, and throws her out of the ring. I'd be fuming if I was her, fuming I tell you!".
"Everyone's aiming to win, Umalda, it wasn't personal", Lita said calmly, a total contrast from the red giant.
"Well, this is", Umalda said as she advanced and used all the strength in her large body to slap her rival in the chest, faster than expected for someone her size. She quickly wrapped her arms around Lita to lock her in a hold once more, ready to crush her back. But the boxer wasn't going to fall twice for the same trick, and kept moving and wriggling to stop her fingers from finding any spot to latch on to.
The giant persisted with the same stubbornness of a mule, so much that she left her sides open. When she saw it, Lita sprang out of the hold and began to punch her in the gut, fighting harder than ever. Umalda turned her stomach into a wall, but every single one of the woman's blows dug deeper, with a last one that finally forced her to fall back.
"Look at her go, Lightning Lita just doesn't stop!", the male announcer shouted, "She knows damn well that if Umalda gets any chance she's going to regret it!"
But Umalda still stood tall, with fight left for ages. The boxer was now on fire, quickly switching her legs in a sort of dance to mock her rival. She then winked her eye. With a quick step, Lita jumped in a showered the red titan with a rain of jabs and hooks, pushing her closer and closer against the ropes. Umalda looked back while covering with her wide arms, trying to close any jap, knowing she'd had to do something now.
Lita threw another punch, about to finally push her against the edge of the ring, and Umalda made her move. The smaller woman lost her fire, as the red fighter had grabbed her fist tightly, and didn't notice her forehead coming in like a cannonball. Lita ate it whole, and only managed to dodge the following fist by a breath's air and unbelievable luck. The boxer desperately tried to tear her hand away from Umalda's clutches, and punched her in the jaw to make her go away. It only helped to make her madder and hold her tighter.
"Hitting Umalda is like hitting a brick wall, and now Lita's trapped and looking at a ticking time bomb straight in the eye", the male commentator said, giving a chance to her partner to bounce off of him.
"The question is, can she escape before it blows right up her face?", Misha said as she gladly accepted the offer.
With a twist of her body, she pushed Umalda against the ropes and slipped her hand free just in time. As the giant bounced back to her, Lita jumped in the air and punched her with all the strength in her body, throwing her down to the mat, just like when Goliath fell to David. The woman didn't waste a single second to pin her down, and her heart pumped as she saw the referee's hand move down to the ground.
"One!", the man shouted, prompting Umalda to suddenly wake up from her slumber and launch Lita helplessly in the air, kicking and screaming.
"Is that all? Because it's not enough to put me down", Umalda cleaned her mouth and spat on the ground as she got up, visibly angry. Goliath had nothing on her, "Only good enough to make me mad".
After those words she rushed towards Lita, and mercilessly kicked her in the stomach while she was on the ground. The boxer screamed in pain, only for Umalda to shut her up when she grabbed her by the hair and slammed her face against the mat over and over. Once she was satisfied, the red giant threw her against the post by the corner, making Lita crash like a car out of control.
"This looks like bad news for Lita, Umalda's about to give her the knee!", Misha's voiced echoed through the whole venue, bringing all eyes to the same corner of the ring.
"You know what she's planning, and so does Lita", May joined in just as the red fighter began to run against his victim with a vicious glare on her face, "Will she get back to her senses and escape once more, or are we about to see the end of the match?
Lita's whole body was hurting, but she could still see the red blur coming at her like a train out of control. If she didn't move away, Umalda would smash her knee against her and flatten her with the post, and that would be the end of the fight. Taking all of her will, every single bit left, she pushed through the pain that showered her body like a rain of needles and jumped to the side. She couldn't help but smile when she heard the giant scream after hitting the post, now rolling on the ground and grabbing her knee in pain.
"Oh my god!", the commentators' voices washed over the venue like a tidal wave.
Lita struggled to stand up, keeping an eye on Umalda at every moment so that she wouldn't get up first. She leaned onto the ropes to stand on her two feet. Her legs were shaking, and she could feel blood slither down her face. She raised her hand towards the public and smiled, as if saying that there was nothing she couldn't handle. However, she couldn't fake it any longer and fell onto the rope, trying to catch her breath in case she wouldn't have the luxury again.
"Take your time, no rush", the boxer said in between opening her mouth to grab as much air as she could, "I'm in no hurry".
The giantess stopped rolling and tried to get up, forcing Lita to put her head back into the fight and ran towards her to stomp her back to the floor. She desperately kicked her down like her life was on the line, but the red woman managed to overpower her and push her away. To her surprise, the sudden burst of strength made her stumble around, giving Lita the chance to charge once more and push her against the very same corner where she'd planned to end the boxer.
The smaller of the two moved back and shouted from the top of her lungs, so the whole audience could hear her.
"You know what comes next!"
Lighting Lita slashed her arms together and pointed her finger at Umalda like a gun. Blue sparks shoot across her arms, until they were covered in lighting. First, she ran, and then she jumped and flew against the titan, to punch her in the throat. Electricity rippled across Umalda's body, as if she had been struck by Thor's hammer.
"It's the Storm Drop! Lightning Lita's Storm Drop!"
The people roared, but Diego was left speechless, his mouth hanging wide open. What he'd just witnessed was against any logic he'd knew, and looked at the marble skinned woman trying to get some answers, "What the hell was that?!"
"Magic", Dirtha's answer was as dry as sandpaper, "It makes for a good show".
"That can't be true, magic doesn't exist".
"It's normal here".
Diego fell on his hands, confused after witnessing a new layer of the crazy world he now found himself trapped in, "Fuck, magic is real", his head raced, trying to make sense of the new information, and without control blurted out one of those thoughts that were nagging at him, "Do you use wands?".
"What's a wand?", the marble skinned woman asked, now being her the bearer of confusion.
"Never mind".
Meanwhile, on the ring, Umalda remained defiant, though her knees flaked, and fell on top of the other fighter as she could barely stand on her own. Both of them were exhausted and held onto each other, but the giant's weight falling over the boxer felt even heavier than it actually was. As if it was a bomb, Lita tried to get her off and pin her, but her body didn't respond. Umalda managed to push herself further and grabbed her opponent by the face, lifting her with one hand like one would a prize.
"She's going to do it!", May screamed as he leaned forward, "The Fall from Grace!".
Umalda raised Lita as high as she could, and then slammed her face first against the ground with a loud impact that reverberated through the whole venue.
"There's a lot of punishment coming back and forth, but I think Umalda has taken the cake there!", May said as the red fighter limped towards the ropes and began to climb them.
"I don't think she's done yet, May", While Misa answered to her partner, the giant raised her fist towards the audience. Then, she jumped against Lita, "She's out for blood!".
Umalda crushed Lita with all her weight. The strength of the impact was so great that all air left the boxer's body, and she could only manage to let out a mute scream. Lita's spine arched and she tried to desperately catch back the air that had run away from her, before the titan grabbed her in a lock and pinned her down. The referee came running to the side and started the count that seemed would finally end the match.
"One!"
"Two!"
Before the referee could end the match with a final count, Lita grabbed Umalda's head and used her to lift her shoulders up in a gamble, breaking the pin. The red woman reluctantly let her go as she cursed away in frustration.
Lita could barely stand up, her arms weighting like cement blocks that pulled her down. Umalda was sick and tired, and ran against the boxer with her arm extended, aiming to throw her to the ground with a clothesline. However, just as the flesh guillotine came for her neck, Lita ducked below it and punched her rival in the gut, digging deep inside her stomach.
Now that she had a chance, the boxer kept attacking and threw out her left hand and baited the giant to protect her side, only to suddenly change and strike with her right, surprising her rival. Tired and confused, Umalda decided to forget about everything and just slap her in the ears as hard as she could. Lita's world blacked out for a second and came back as a disorienting maze, but she kept fighting back, blindingly hitting Umalda's large frame while enduring all the punishment raining against her in retaliation. Finally, the smaller of the two threw one last uppercut that managed to shake the red titan and bring her to the ground, without any more energy to ignore the pleads of her body.
Unable to hold any sort of technique anymore, Lita just let her body fall on top of Umalda to pin her down, waiting for the referee to start the count once more.
"One!"
The time before every number felt like ages. The boxer knew that if the giant freed herself once more, she wouldn't be able to do anything against her anymore. She could only wait now.
"Two!".
Umalda still remained down, her heavy breathing mixing with Lita's as she braced herself for another burst of defiant strength.
"Three!"
The bell rang, filling the building with its echo and ending the match. A wave of peace rushed through Lita as the referee declared her the victor, though to her dull senses, it felt like he was far away. She rolled to the side, and still laying on the ground, weakly lifted her closed fist to the skies, claiming her victory in front of an audience that roared her name.
"And Lightning Lita takes the fight! What a fight folks, these two ladies never disappoint!", May said, his voice trying to break through the sea of applauses.
"I'd be watching my back in Lita's place, who knows what Umalda might want to do to take her revenge", Misha retorted, as the giantess threw hateful daggers to her rival from the ground.
"Let's go", Dirtha said as she got up from her seat and abandoned the balcony. Diego had no choice but to follow her.
As they could hear the murmur of the people leaving the building and talking between them, the couple traversed the less populated hallways, were only the fighters and workers had access to. They went deeper into the gut of the edifice, until they arrived at the changing room, where they found Lightning Lita applying ice to her bruises.
"Good show today", the marble-skin woman said as she stopped next to the fighter, who raised her hand to salute her.
"Thanks boss", she answered without letting the ice abandon her skin, "Glad it was worth it, because I'm going to feel sore for a week".
"An occupational hazard, nothing to worry about", she moved her arm towards Diego, so that the boxer would give him her attention, "This is Diego, he's our newest addition".
Lita got up and extended her arm towards the revenant in a welcoming gesture that filled him with warmth and security, "Fresh from the corpse pile", she said in a playful tone, brandishing a wide smile that shone like the spring Sun, "Nice to meet you, I'm Emma".
Without any of the doubts that had been harassing the young man without end, he accepted the gesture and stretched the hand in front of him. He gave her his first smile since his untimely demise, "Same".
But the meeting ended abruptly when they heard heavy footsteps coming their way. Umalda's large frame loomed over them as she was barely capable of fitting through the doorframe of the changing room. She walked straight towards Emma and looked down towards her before finally addressing her with her deep voice.
"Hey Emma, could you share your water with me?", the giant said with a hint of embarrassment, "I forgot mine".
"Sure, no worries", the smaller woman answered merrily before passing a glass bottle to the other one, "Nice work today".
"Thanks, you too", Umalda answered back before finally quenching her thirst, "I've been holding my thirst for a while now".
Diego looked at Dirtha after watching the scene, looking for a confirmation to his suspicions, "So, I guess wrestling's a show here too".
"No", the businesswoman answered the same way a teacher would to a student, "It's a business. And a very lucrative one".