Where Hammer-fists was fist and fury worn raw, Reef-maw was ritual grace carved from tide and tendon. Behind her, Queen Ryma pulsed softly in the gloom, her tentacles lazily circling the pool grates at her throne's base. The crowd hissed. Some mocked. Some bet loud. But a few—those who watched closely—went quiet. They saw Reef maw's breathing. They saw the stillness in her shoulders. They saw the storm she kept locked behind the gills. Reef-maw and Hammer-fists met in the center. Face to face. No words. Reef-maw extended her fist—clean, tight, calm. Hammer-fists bumped it with a bone-wrapped knuckle like she was punching a coffin lid closed. Then they turned. Walked to opposite sides.
Corners dimmed. Final checks. Crystal's pulsing. The beast net pulsed live streams activating in ten sublevels across Phoenix. Viewers from sewers to skin bars tuned in. And then—BONGGGGG.
The gong rang. The match was on. The bell had barely finished ringing before Hammer-fists charged. She exploded from her corner like a kinetic cannonball—arms pumping, shoulders flexed like living tectonic plates. Her first punch dented the tile where Reef-maw had just been standing. Reef-maw flowed. Back and down then juking Sideways. Her feet barely touched the mat, gills flaring as she slipped around the first storm. "She opens strong" Reef thought to herself as she dodged around Hammer.
"Just like Ryma said." Hammer-fists snarled, spinning into a left hook that cracked the air. "Stand still and FIGHT!" Reef-maw ducked low, then rolled beneath a hammer blow, letting the force crash against her absence. She moved like current, like something that knew how to yield just enough to survive.
Hammer-fists tried to clinch—bad idea.
Reef-maw slid up and hooked her leg behind Hammer's knee, twisting her hips and sending them both into a spinning fall. Reef-maw bounced out of range immediately, watching. "Come on, eel," Hammer-fists growled. "Hit me back." Reef maw didn't take the bait. She waited. Studied. The gills at her neck flared once, then stilled. When Hammer-fists rose, furious, Reef-maw struck low—a sweeping tail kick that caught Hammer mid-stance and threw her off balance.
The Hammer-fists roared and spun, her body pulsed. Bio-plasmic muscle expanded—her signature rage-burst engaged. She slammed Reef-maw with a forearm to the chest that sent the Amphibian clan member flying into the cage wall! Reef-maw coughed blood. Her shoulder screamed. The crowd howled. "END HER!" someone bellowed. Agony nodded once. Hammer-fists moved in for the kill.
She mounted—pining her. Four heavy punches rained down on Reef-maw's form. A fifth to the side of her head. A sixth. Reef-maw's eyes fluttered. Blood glimmered on her lip. "This is what happens," Hammer hissed, "when coral pretends to be stone." Then—water remembered how to rise. Reef-maw curled her spine—not up, but around—wrapping her legs around Hammer-fists' hips. Her tail twisted like a rope, anchoring to Hammer's torso.
Hammer-fists pulled back for the finisher. Reef-maw moved. She used the momentum to flip Hammer-fists over herself, transitioning into a rear body lock mid-roll, and dropped her back-first into the mat with a sickening bone echo. Hammer-fists gasped! No air left.
Reef-maw climbed her back—not for a choke, but for a double-shoulder clamp. Her gill-vents opened. A hiss escaped. Venom mist bloomed over Hammer's mouth and nose. "Breathe, brawler," Reef-maw whispered. "Feel what drowning tastes like." Hammer-fists thrashed once. Twice. Then her body locked. Reef-maw shifted, pressed her forearm into the jaw, forced the tap. One, two—three taps. Clear. Final. The bell screamed.
The crowd did too. Hammer-fists lay on her back, chest heaving, sweat running like streams down cracked skin. Her nose bled slowly. She coughed once. "You… damn sea bitch." Reef-maw crouched beside her, still catching her breath. Her left eye was almost swollen shut. Blood ran down her ribs like paint. She smiled faintly. "And you swing like a bag of coral.
Reef-maw reached down her fingertips brushed the embedded crystal—still pulsing, still warm. It rose from Hammer-fists' skin like heat from a memory, unmooring itself with grace and finality.