She breathed through it.
The round ended. She went to her corner.
Foss handed her water and said three things, quietly and specifically. One about Dara's left shoulder. One about controlling the center of the mat. One about her own right hand, which she had been dropping slightly when she moved backward.
Mia drank. Nodded. Her breathing slowed.
She was aware of the crowd. She was not distracted by the crowd. There was a difference. Connie had taught her that years ago.
You can hear the room and still live inside yourself.
The second round was different.
She came forward from the start. Small change in posture. Small change in weight distribution. She watched Dara register the shift and adjust.
Good fighter. The adjustment was quick and smart.
Mia made her work for every position. She started using what she had been holding back. Not the full range yet. Just the early chapters of it. Combinations that suggested more than they delivered. Setups before the finishes.
She was looking for the tell. The thing Dara did just before the move she favored most.
She found it at 90 seconds.
The shoulder. The left shoulder dropped a fraction of a second before the takedown entry. Not much. Not enough for most people in the room to catch. But Mia caught it the first time. And the second time. And by the third time, she was already moving when the shoulder dropped.
She used Dara's momentum. Let it come. Redirected. Reversed the position.
For a moment, she had an angle that surprised even Dara. She could see it in the fighter's eyes. The brief recalibration of someone who has just been read correctly.
The crowd shifted. A different quality of sound now. Less certain.
She didn't press the advantage hard. She released, reset, came back to center. She wasn't trying to end it here. She was communicating.
I'm here. I see you. I have been here all along.
The round ended.
Foss met her at the corner, said nothing for a moment, handed her water, and looked at her with an expression that was not quite satisfaction and not quite relief. Something more settled than either.
"She's starting to figure out you're different than she expected," Foss said.
"I know," Mia said.
"How do you feel?"
"Present," Mia said.
Foss nodded once. "Good."
The third round was when it happened.
40 seconds in, Dara made her move. The best move she had. The one Mia had studied in the footage, but had not yet seen in real time. She closed the distance fast, got inside, and locked up a shoulder control that her footage showed she could maintain for a long time.