Chapter 5: The Move No One Saw
Chapter 5: The Move No One Saw
The warehouse became so quiet that the faint hum of the overhead floodlights could be heard.
Hundreds of inmates stood frozen around the ring.
No one laughed anymore.
No one shouted Rex's name.
Every pair of eyes remained locked on the two fighters standing beneath the glaring lights.
Marcus hated silence.
Silence meant uncertainty.
Uncertainty meant fear.
And fear was only profitable when everyone feared the same man.
Right now...
They didn't.
...
Rex rolled his shoulders, trying to force away the growing frustration.
His breathing had become uneven.
His right elbow still tingled from Kate's first mysterious touch.
His left shoulder throbbed after crashing into the corner post.
For the first time in years, pain was distracting him.
Across the ring, Kate stood perfectly still.
Her hands rested naturally at her sides.
She wasn't posing.
She wasn't taunting him.
She wasn't even watching his fists.
Her eyes remained fixed on his center of balance—his chest, hips, and feet.
It was exactly as her grandfather had taught her.
"Hands can lie."
"Eyes can deceive."
"But the body's balance always tells the truth."
The memory echoed inside her mind.
She could almost hear the old man's calm voice.
"Never fight strength."
"Guide it."
"Never rush victory."
"Wait until your opponent gives it to you."
Kate took one slow breath.
She wasn't trying to defeat Rex with power.
She was waiting for the moment when his own power would betray him.
...
Rex finally snapped.
"Stop running!"
His roar echoed through the warehouse.
Without waiting for a response, he charged once again.
This time he abandoned technique completely.
Every punch was fueled by anger.
Every step slammed against the wooden floor hard enough to shake the ring.
He swung wildly.
Kate slipped outside the first punch.
He spun into a backhand.
She lowered her head just enough for it to whistle over her hair.
He immediately followed with a heavy kick aimed at her ribs.
Kate pivoted.
The kick smashed into the ropes instead.
The thick cables vibrated violently.
The audience gasped.
"He missed again..."
"Impossible..."
"I don't think she's guessing."
"No..."
"I think she knows."
Marcus felt sweat forming beneath his collar.
He didn't like the direction this fight was taking.
He climbed closer to the edge of the ring.
"Rex!"
"Enough!"
"Grab her!"
Rex growled and rushed forward one more time.
Instead of punching, he spread both arms wide, attempting to trap Kate against the ropes.
It almost worked.
The crowd leaned forward.
There was nowhere left for her to escape.
At least...
That was what everyone believed.
Kate took a tiny step toward him instead of away.
Her right hand lightly touched the inside of his forearm.
Her left palm rested against his shoulder.
She turned her hips.
Not fast.
Not violently.
Perfectly.
The motion lasted less than a second.
Rex suddenly felt the floor disappear beneath him.
His own momentum lifted his feet completely off the ground.
The giant's eyes widened.
"What—"
The sentence never finished.
His enormous body rotated through the air.
CRASH!
The wooden platform exploded beneath his back.
The impact shook the entire warehouse.
Dust burst upward.
Loose nails rattled across the floor.
For two endless seconds...
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Nobody even blinked.
Three hundred pounds of muscle lay flat on the canvas.
The undefeated giant...
Had been thrown.
Not punched.
Not kicked.
Thrown.
...
Marcus stared with his mouth hanging open.
"That's..."
"...not possible."
The guards beside him looked equally stunned.
One whispered,
"I didn't even see how she did it."
Neither had anyone else.
To the audience, it looked as though Rex had simply crashed into an invisible wall.
Only Evelyn understood.
Standing near the back of the crowd, she slowly removed her glasses.
"So that's what those movements were..."
she whispered.
"She wasn't practicing attacks."
"She was practicing timing."
...
Rex groaned.
His vision blurred for a moment.
No one had ever put him on the ground before.
Not once.
Humiliation burned hotter than the pain in his back.
With an angry roar, he slammed both fists against the floor and forced himself to stand.
The crowd erupted into nervous applause.
Not for Rex.
For Kate.
Only a few people clapped at first.
Then more joined.
Soon the entire warehouse echoed with astonished cheers.
Marcus immediately raised both arms.
"Quiet!"
The applause faded.
His face had lost every trace of confidence.
He looked directly at Rex.
"You are not losing to her."
It wasn't encouragement.
It was an order.
Rex understood exactly what Marcus meant.
If he lost...
He would lose more than a fight.
He would lose the fear that had protected him for years.
And in prison...
A feared man who was no longer feared...
Rarely survived.
Rex slowly wiped blood from the corner of his mouth.
His eyes changed.
The anger disappeared.
Something colder replaced it.
Something dangerous.
Kate noticed immediately.
She recognized that expression.
It was the face of someone who had stopped caring about rules.
Stopped caring about winning fairly.
Stopped caring about consequences.
Marcus quietly slipped something through the ropes.
It landed near Rex's foot with almost no sound.
Most inmates never noticed.
Kate did.
A small piece of polished steel.
Barely three inches long.
Sharpened to a deadly point.
A homemade prison shiv.
The official rules had just been broken.
Rex lowered his foot, carefully hiding the weapon beneath it.
Marcus smiled for the first time in several minutes.
"End it."
Rex gave the slightest nod.
Kate's expression never changed.
But inside...
She realized the fight had just become far more dangerous.
Because she was no longer facing only the strongest inmate in Blackstone.
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She was facing a desperate man...
Who was willing to kill.
