10

You try to stay calm and ignore all the eyes on you. Hopefully nobody notices that you're sweating up a storm. Well, the air conditioning in here sucks, so they probably won't. Nor is it possible for them to hear your heart's beating, which is going as fast as a machine gun's shots. The air is so thick you feel like you may choke on it, but that could be just the smoke.

Maybe hyping up the crowd now would be a good idea to help calm your nerves. If they're hyped up, they'll bet more, which means more cash, so it's obvious you need to get them ready for this fight.

You quickly perform ten push-ups exactly, ignoring the knot of nervousness in your stomach. Your endurance makes this nothing for you, and so the crowd feels more energy from this.

It doesn't take long before a clean-cut young Irish guy walks to the other side of the ring. He's clean-shaven with short red hair, and he has a ratty black hoodie on. He looks like he'd be more at home in a classroom. His jeans are ripped, but not in a fashionable way, and he seems unable to look you in the eye despite you being about ten full feet apart.

You don't know what you were expecting, but it sure wasn't this. He's even more nervous than you are! You feel your breathing slow down to normal speed at this—you can win this!

His shoulders sink. Seems you've managed to effect him.

The owner of the venue walks up into the middle of the makeshift ring before he motions for everyone to be silent. Since no one was really talking, it is a bit of an out-of-place gesture.

"Hey, fellers, today we have an interesting matchup. A newcomer named Candleshaper looking to debut in the circuit up against everyone's favorite fighter. Will Paper Poe win his first match here today, or will he meet with his twelfth loss? We're about to find out! Go!"

Paper Poe just stands there and looks at you for a moment before slowly edging toward you. He tries to get into a fighting stance, but his posture is terrible. He has one hand up to protect his face, but it is so close to his face that he probably can see very little. Or actually, maybe the point of it is that he can't see anything so he can stay calm.

His other arm is tucked back by his side but is far too low to do any blow other than an uppercut. It looks like you know what his first strike will be.

Alright, now then, what do you do?