JAMES VS FUNAKI
543 Words
Adrenaline dulled the pain but sharpened his senses to a fine edge. James parried a blow that a moment prior would have buckled his knees upon contact.The young man pressed forward with a renewed sense of single-minded focus. He countered with a short uppercut that glanced off his opponent’s chin and forced the other man to step away from James for the first time.
James feigned a punch to the body with his left hand then immediately connected with a straight right to his opponent’s eye. Any remnant of anxiety was replaced by a sense of urgency to do more than just impress the judges. He had to knock this guy down to have the best chance of improving how he would be ranked.
Minoru Funaki was good; much better than anyone James had fought up until this point in his life. James was reminded of those bold proclamations made by superior fighters in the martial arts anime he often watched.
“You are ten years too early to challenge me.” The words could have been easily spoken by Funaki without a hint of bravado. The shoot fighter was that good.
Funaki was every bit as good as the ten pounds of gold proclaimed him to be.
James was mostly self-taught with rudimentary training from his uncle; mostly boxing with basic takedown defense. After observing a fighting technique, James would practice it until he was ready to implement those new skills against any opponent he encountered during the complimentary week- long trials at various gyms.
There skill gap between the two men was obvious to even the most casual observer. For the briefest of moments, his mind wandered as he thought about the one observer not present. Dismissing that disappointment, he instead focused on the prospect of bridging the gap between himself and Funaki..
Funaki let loose with two quick jabs. The first ruptured something inside James’ mouth and the second James intentionally took to the forehead. Before he could register the metallic taste in his mouth, James bobbed and weaved away from the right overhand punch and tagged Funaki’s ribs with a right hook.
James smiled as the two men exchanged hard kicks to one another’s legs. As Funaki slammed another kick into James’ thigh, James temporarily disrupted Funaki’s balance with deceptively quick left cross to the temple.
Funaki managed to block most of James’ next flurry of punches but not all of them.
Lungs burning, arms as heavy as any post workout routine, James made a final push to score a knock out blow. Funaki had other plans.
In what felt like a blink of an eye, James was suddenly staring into a pen light. He scrambled to a seated position but discovered that his view of Funaki was obscured by a second body.
It took several long seconds before he realized that an EMT trainee was questioning him about his condition. After a brief recap, James learned that he had been knocked out cold for just under fifteen seconds.
Funaki lifted James to his feet and pulled him close enough to whisper words of encouragement into his ear.
“I’ll be waiting.”
- Writer
