Counterpunch

Elias didn’t argue. He didn’t fight. He just handed Vane a small, manila envelope. "What's this? A bribe?" Vane laughed, tearing it open.

The gym stayed. Vane went to trial. It turns out, in boxing and in life, the hardest hit is the one you never saw coming—the one you practically walked into yourself. Counterpunch

"Time to pack up, Ghost," Vane sneered. "The momentum is all mine." Elias didn’t argue

But the real "counterpunch" didn't happen in the ring. It happened two weeks later. "What's this

His opponent, a mountain of a man named Viktor, threw a haymaker that could have decapitated a bull. Elias didn’t flinch. He slipped the punch by a fraction of an inch, the wind of the glove whistling past his ear. In that heartbeat of overextension, Elias saw it: the opening.