“Nice of you to notice!” he quipped back.
They took a step away from each other and raised their gloves, beginning to circle. Mackenzie had been nervous about the idea of Ammu watching her, but the ritual of the wai kru ram muay helped her focus. She forgot about Ammu entirely as she watched her opponent, learning who he was and how he moved. Nothing existed outside the ring, and here, within it, she was in her element.
She waited for him to take an experimental jab, and she blocked it easily. He jabbed at her again, faster this time, and she took the blow to her midsection on purpose. She tightened her stomach muscles and turned slightly to the side so it would be no more than a glancing blow, using the force of her own twist to slam her knee into his gut. He spun away at the last second, sparing himself the full brunt of its force, and he danced backward a few steps, raising an appraising eyebrow at the move.
He closed again, this time aiming two quick blows at her center mass. But Mackenzie could tell he was pulling his punches, not wanting to hurt her, and she used it to her advantage. Instead of dodging or blocking the hits, she took them straight on and surprised him by throwing a right jab as fast and hard as she could at his jaw. He took the blow and danced back again, shaking it off, but it would have been a solid point in her favor if there had been a referee watching.
“Enjoy it, Gray. I won’t underestimate you again,” he said, his eyes locking onto hers with a new intensity. Closer, she thought, grinning at him slyly. Closer… there! She winked at him and simultaneously slammed her right knee into his left side. She would have scored on that one too, but he outweighed her by too many pounds—the blow didn’t throw his balance despite landing squarely where she had intended it.
Miller laughed, but he was watching her like a hawk now.
“I bet that one usually works,” he acknowledged.
“Wouldn’t know,” she answered. “You’re the first guy I’ve ever used it on.”
“Sure, I am.” He laughed again, and she took advantage of the moment to fly at him with a flurry of knees, fists, and elbows, grinning wickedly all the while. He continued to dance away, letting her spend her energy on the attack while dodging the worst of it.
“Oh, you don’t like that, do you?” he said, taunting her now. “You want me to just stand there and let you hit me. Well, I’m smarter than that, Gray. If you want to hit me, I’m going to make you work for it.”
Her blows moved even faster in reply, and she could feel the energy between them changing now. He stopped trying to speak, focusing more intensely on the fight, and he dodged several blows before countering with a fast knee to her left side. She took it on purpose and threw another punch at his face. She was rewarded with another grunt from her opponent, but the knee had taken its toll, making her grimace in pain before she could mask it.
Miller didn’t say a word. She knew she had hurt him, too; the only question was how much. They continued to trade blows, Mackenzie only taking his hits when she knew she could connect her own, but as the seconds ticked by, he was slowly gaining the advantage. With his extra height and reach and weight, his blows were hurting her more than hers were hurting him. She couldn’t win this way, but she could make sure he didn’t walk away from it easily, and she flew at him with a renewed vigor that had him dancing away again.
“Time!” he called. “Hey, easy. Time out!”
Mackenzie came to a halt and flashed him a mischievous grin.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, her tone all innocence and sunshine. “Had enough already? We were just getting started.”
“Doc,” he said, ignoring her jibe, “I think I have something for you.”
“Yes? Yes! Good!” Ammu said. “What did you see?” It was the first time Mackenzie had heard him sound even remotely troubled. He had obviously not expected their sparring to be so violent.
“Well, first of all, this wouldn’t be considered a fair fight. She’s very skilled—that much is clear—but I outweigh her by a good bit.”
“Yeah, about that,” Mackenzie interjected, trying not to grimace at the bruising she had taken to her left side. “Maybe cut back on the protein bars, huh?”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
They climbed out of the ring as he continued.
“Look, the point is she’d be winning if she were up against someone her own size. She hasn’t taken a single blow she didn’t want to, OK? Every time I connect, it’s because she knows she can hit me back harder. The only problem she’s facing is that harder is proportional here. The fraction of the punch she takes is still harder than what she can throw back.”
Ammu looked to Mackenzie, but she only shrugged. It was certainly no fault of hers that a grown man in top physical condition outmatched her in strength and body mass, but that didn’t mean she wanted to say it out loud.
“I fought her on my own terms, matching my upper body strength against hers, where I knew I could win eventually. I had to. Because she knew everything I was going to do even as I did it.”
He paused, giving Ammu a moment to let his words sink in while he locked eyes with Mackenzie again, this time with a level of respect he had not shown her before.
“If she were my size, or if I were her size for that matter, she would have beaten me soundly. She just… she just knew everything I was going to do.”
“Fascinating!” Ammu exclaimed, his worry forgotten in his excitement. “Mackenzie, when you are fighting, are you aware of what Sergeant Miller is saying?”
“Staff Sergeant,” she corrected him automatically, making Miller crack a grin. “And yes, sorry. I always know. I mean, not ahead of time. Like, I don’t have any idea how the whole fight is going to play out. But in the moment, sure. I know where each punch or knee or elbow or kick is going to land.”
“Doc, if I might suggest an experiment?” Miller offered.
“Yes? What sort of experiment?”
“I’d like to get back in the ring and see how things go if Mackenzie stops trying to hit me back and just tries to avoid getting hit.”
“No!” Mackenzie said, more loudly than she had intended. “Look, no, OK? I don’t get in the ring to dance. I get in the ring to fight. I’m not going to run away like a damn rabbit.”
Ammu considered her quietly for a moment, while Miller just shrugged.
“Hey, it’s your party. I’m not trying to crash it. I just wanted to see. I’m not sure I could hit you at all if you were only trying to dodge me, and I’ve never run into anyone I could say that about before. I just wanted to know if it was true.”
He said this last bit sounding a little embarrassed, and Mackenzie found herself relenting. He didn’t think she was scared to get hit. He just wanted to see if she was as good as he thought she was. Maybe she should give him the chance to find out…
“OK,” she said, changing her mind. “Sure. Let’s try it.”