Black Belt Tried to Embarrass a Single Mom During Sparring—Then She Changed Her Fighting Stance
Chapter 5
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Derek laughed, clearly oblivious to the atmospheric shift in the room. "What's wrong, Mom? Had enough? Don't cry. It was just a tap."Diana didn't say a word. She looked at Derek, and the terrified, doe-eyed expression was completely gone. Her eyes had gone dead, cold, and predatory.Then she changed her stance.She didn't raise her hands into the panicked, wide guard she had been using for a month. Instead, her hips squared perfectly to her opponent. She sank her weight slightly, anchoring herself to the canvas. Her gloves came up tight, gluing to her cheekbones in a flawless, impenetrable Dutch kickboxing shell. Her elbows tucked tightly against her floating ribs, leaving absolutely zero space.But it was her feet that made Coach Brendan freeze in his tracks. Diana shifted her weight entirely to her back foot. Her front leg became feather-light, the heel hovering just millimeters above the mat, tapping out a rhythmic, hypnotic tempo—the unmistakable, terrifying metronome of a seasoned elite striker ready to fire.Derek stopped bouncing. The smirk on his face faltered for a fraction of a second. The woman standing in front of him no longer looked like a struggling accountant. She looked like a statue cast in iron."Oh, so you want to try now?" Derek sneered, stepping forward to reestablish his dominance. He threw a lazy, looping leg kick, expecting her to flinch.He had absolutely no idea what he had just woken up.Derek threw the lazy, looping inside leg kick, a mocking strike meant only to slap her inner thigh, off-balance her, and make her stumble clumsily for the amusement of his friends. It was the same bullying tactic he had used countless times on nervous beginners.But this time, Diana didn't flinch. She didn't close her eyes in panic. Instead, her hovering lead leg snapped upward with terrifying mechanical precision. She turned her knee sharply outward, creating a solid, impenetrable wall of bone directly in the path of his incoming shin.Derek's leg collided violently with her knee block. A sharp, sickening crack echoed through the gym, cutting sharply over the heavy hip-hop beat pumping from the overhead speakers.Derek gasped loudly, his eyes widening in sudden, sharp agony as he stumbled backward, instantly dragging his bruised leg. The smug grin vanished from his face, replaced by a grimace of genuine shock. He looked at the quiet mother, confused and furiously trying to process what had just happened. He had expected to see terror. Instead, looking back at him were the cold, dead eyes of an apex predator."Lucky block!" Derek spat, trying to mask his sudden limp as he bounced aggressively back onto his toes. His pride was wounded, and in front of an audience, a wounded ego always chooses violence.He rushed forward, entirely abandoning the unspoken etiquette of light sparring. He threw a heavy, aggressive one-two punch combination aimed directly at her face. It was meant to overwhelm her, to punish her for making him look foolish, and to put her back in her place.Diana barely moved, yet she moved perfectly. She caught his jab effortlessly on the thick padding of her right glove, parried the trailing cross with a microscopic deflection of her left wrist, and slipped her head slightly off the center line.