Mali´s boyfriend

"And Rayne Guerrero against her!" said an annoying voice to which I headed out the door straight into the already familiar ring.

Today was, once again, last day of the year and also my birthday. This year I was supposed to celebrate the wonderful event with a fight in the ring, which was quite unusual. But life is full of changes and surprises, I guess. However, it didn't end there, Mali promised to celebrate together, so she was supposed to come here to see this match.

I took a fighting stance opposite my opponent. It was tonight's final, a fight to win that I wasn't planning to lose. It was my birthday and the best present this year would be a victory, of course.

I watched my opponent's fighting style inside on the screen a while ago. So now, I was just waiting for her first step, which should probably come from my left. She was right-handed and forgot to protect her left side anyway, which could have been my advantage.

As expected, the person across from me attacked me with a right fist, so I dodged to the right, grabbed her wrist of the attacking hand and hit her in the neck, making her take a few steps back. However, I didn't let her go for too long, so I grabbed her by the shoulder and choked her to the ground in the front, kicking her legs and hitting her back with my right elbow. But it was clear to me that given that she reached the final and it was only the beginning of the match, this didn´t have to be the end yet.

My opponent got up almost immediately and it seemed that she might be watching her weak spots, but again she attacked rather hastily. With all her strength, she began to aim blows around my chest and head, which I defended with my bent arms. I let her for a while because that way she would lose her strength and energy.

It didn't take long until I finally decided to take action. As another of her blows flew at me, I quickly crouched down and punched her in the unprotected stomach. She stepped back a bit and crouched slightly in response, which I used to strike her shoulder with the back of my hand.

The fight continued for several more minutes, during which I managed to drive her into the so-called corner. I gave her a few blows that forced her to lean forward, which I used for another attack - I made a small arc around her and at her side I turned in a jump and kicked her in the back of the head with my foot. She then headed right towards the ground.

"...the winner of tonight is Rayne Guerrero!"

As I was catching my breath I looked up from the body on the ground just as the referees grabbed my wrist, which he raised in the air to signal the winner. Until that moment, I was really expecting that my opponent might get up, but it didn't happen. I won.

While getting praised, I scanned the audience and saw Mali in the company of an unknown male figure. Apparently she was going to introduce him to me tonight, so I just winked at her with a smirk and raised my other fisted hand. Since it's such a special day, why not enjoy it to the fullest, right?

In the next few minutes, I made my way back from the ring to the building as did my opponent with some help, where I headed to the deep blue locker room to change into something more comfortable that I intended to spend the rest of the night in.

However, before heading out of the building, I headed one floor up where the Wen family, for which Zhang Shuo had worked, had their VIP place to watch the matches. Huge living room with a bar and pool table.

There were two bodyguards standing in front of the high double doors, through which I easily got inside, where I looked around the room colored in deep red and black. And Zhang Shuo was sitting there at the bar, where I then headed.

"Rayne, happy birthday," he smiled at me as soon as he saw me. I won't lie, his words surprised me, but it was clear to me that he knew the information because of the contract I made with the Wen family through him.

"Um, thanks," I interjected, but immediately returned to my previous thought: "I can disappear for the rest of the night, right?"

Shuo made a sad look for a second but then smiled and nodded in agreement: "Yeah, enjoy your evening. We will send you the money. And happy new year."

With a nod, I headed out of the building as I gradually rubbed both of my shoulders - that girl in the ring was pain in the ass. I almost bumped into some people as I got outside into the crowd. Someone would guess that there would be less people tonight but surprisingly a lot of them liked to enjoy the last night of the year this way.

"You were amazing!" Mali almost screamed excitedly as she rushed to me as soon as she found me in the crowd. She must have forgotten that I wasn't very fond of hugs because she jumped around my neck and I just stood there stiffly.

"Uhm...," I made an unidentifiable sound, to which she pulled away from me with an apologetic expression on her face:

"Sorry. And happy birthday," after her words, the unknown person turned to me, and she hugged him casually by the arm: "Rayne, this is Elias."

I nodded in understanding and then gave a greeting to that Elias guy, to which he made the same gesture. I had this strange feeling that I had met him before, but I had no idea where. After all, I met a lot of people through the years.

Really, the best feeling to feel on your birthday is like a thirdwheel. Mali and her... new boyfriend were holding hands and I felt like evaporating. I should have guessed that she wouldn't want to spend the whole evening with me, when there's also the celebration of the last day of the year everywhere, but I didn't expect to be pushed to the second track right from the start.

I tried not to notice them too much and rather concentrated on the next match taking place with a cup of beer - yeah, I was a winner, but only in my category as today there were more of them, and more types. Now in one of the rings two girls were soaping each other with poles. Two maniacs were boxing next to them. But I was interested in the polefight. The style was really good... but not only that. It was just hot.

For a moment, my thoughts also wandered to my grandmother. She celebrated the last day of the year in a hospital bed with other long-term patients. I hoped that she wasn't sad and that she was having some fun. I tried to visit her a lot, but I had a lot of work too.

"Rayne? Shall we go up? To club before midnight, hm?" Mali suddenly spoke next to me, snapping me out of watching a good show.

And so the three of us made our way out of this... hole. The streets of the capital, and certainly not only here, were extremely lively. Families with children, couples of any age and gender, groups of friends. There was laughter all around and it smelled of food and not only that. Lanterns with wishes released by residents slowly floated over the city.

I quite liked this day, even if it annoyed me sometimes. And also the fact that it was my birthday, which I didn't like sometimes because people overrated it. I didn't need presents. It was enough for me that it was wonderfully dark and that I could sit on the roof and watch the sky with lanterns floating up to it, or buy some food that they sold in the streets. Nothing complicated.

With Dangos in hand, we walked through the crowd until we got to a club where they let us in without a problem. And there we were squeezed in by another crowd in kind of pink light, so I found myself between dancing bodies, trying to get to the bar where I was going to get rid of the Dango stick and get something good to drink.

After a while of suffering, I reached my destination, so I breathed a sigh of relief and scanned the offer of alcoholic beverages. "Twice Mead of Red Oaks ," was heard next to me just as the barman reached me. Not very enthusiastically, I looked at the person in question and surprisingly saw a familiar face.

"What a nice surprise, Rayne," the girl in the red dress smiled at me as she paid the barman who placed two glasses of golden drink in front of us a seconds later.

"Xia," I nodded in a greeting and took the glass in my hand, which the named woman handed me with a constant smile, to which she asked:

"Are you here with someone?"

I looked around the dimly lit room where some quite nice music was playing. I haven't seen a single bit of Mali anywhere. Not even her boyfriend, or what kind of relationship that guy actually had with her. So I shook my head: "It seems not."

Xia nodded her head in understanding, to which she held up a glass of the mead, as she called it before: "So for tonight?"

"For tonight."