L'Epée, La Couronne, et Les Flammes

[Wolfs Ghost]

Gallic Occupied Space - Edinburgh
Magenta Battlegroup,
Battleship Villeneuve

"Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake."
-- Napoleon Bonaparte

Cheering, quite a bit of cheering to be exact.

She drew in a deep breath, slowly opening her eyes as a smirk appeared on her face. Having finished stretching she brought the boxing gloves in front of her and started shifting back and forth on her feet, staring down her opponent - a young female hot-shot that had called Julie out on her combat abilities, and rather than shooting the young woman, Julie decided it was best to put the girl in her place.

"Twenty credits on the Maréchal" Someone in the crowd called out.
"One hundred credits on Alison!" Another shouted.
"A thousand on the Maréchal!" A third shouted.

The betting only widened her smirk as she waited for the other woman to finish getting ready. She pulled her mouth-guard out briefly, "You can still back out, Lieutenant." She shouted across the ring of the recreation room - an act that set the entire room into a louder uproar. She grinned, showing her teeth as she watched the other woman, Alison, giving her a dirty look. Shortly after both women put their mouth guards back in, stepping towards the middle of the ring.

"Alright!" The referee shouted, "By royal decree, this will be a fair fight between Maréchal Julie Bonheur, and Lieutenant Zoe Alison. That means absolutely no cheating by either party." The referee raised his hand in the air, stepping backwards.

Julie's eyes were locked on her target as she brought her right hand out, hitting the glove of her opponent, a gesture of good sportsmanship. The moment the two retracted their boxing gloves was the moment the referee threw his hand down and blew into a whistle.

Instinctively, Julie stepped back bringing her arms up over her face as the hot-shot charged forwards with fists flying, though she took a hit just before her arms were brought up. This caused her to stagger backwards some. She stayed on the defensive as she stepped backwards, now blocking each strike that came in and letting out an annoyed sigh.

The crowd cheered on, although she was unsure who they were cheering for.

It took a few seconds for the strikes to slow down, her opponent clearly starting to lose stamina with each strike. Taking one more hit to her arms, she side-stepped and brought her knee up into the stomach of her opponent, of whom was caught off guard and staggered backwards, gasping for air. An opportunity had presented itself as her opponent wheezed and sucked in air. She took it.

A few seconds later, her opponent laid on the floor gasping heavier for air. Julie having landed one good punch into the stomach of the Lieutenant, the room fell somewhat silent with faint murmurs and people looking between each other. A few of those people - that Julie could see - started exchanging credits between each other.

"One... two... three..." The referee called, grabbing Julie's right hand and raising it in the air. "Maréchal Julie Bonheur is the winner!"

Spitting the mouth guard out, she started to unstrap the boxing gloves as she walked out of the ring, panting heavily and tossing the gloves to the side themselves.

"Everyone. Get your asses back to work. We have a war to win." She shouted, leaving the recreation room.

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