Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (Book 4)
Savage Vengeance (Book 5 - this story)
VIOLENCE WARNING: The two stories in the Savage Gang saga, and especially the second story, involve a gang practicing extreme violence toward everyone — women, the elderly, the protagonist, etc. The stories contain mature sexual content and violence as well. I am placing this warning on all chapters, including those without such violence, so you can choose whether to continue.
CHAPTER 21
With a confident smile, Sapphire Angel took a step forward, ready to confront the gang leader for the second time. This was her chance. Her chance to defeat Savage. To exterminate the gang. To end her doubts.
Her confidence seemed to manifest itself physically, with her angelic face and shimmering costume filling the room with an almost tangible radiance. Sapphire Angel's brilliance outshone any illumination coming from the candles, or from the street lamps casting stray beams through the windows. Physically, she stood in the same darkness as Maximus Savage. But it didn't seem that way. It was as if a spotlight shone down upon her.
As she stepped forward, her pristine white skirt brushed against her toned legs, and her long blond hair swished across her perfect shoulders. She scanned the room, her senses on high alert. Two men — one from each side — materialized from the darkness to either side of the doorway, lunging toward her with swinging fists. The heroine tilted her head back, avoiding the blows, before dropping to a crouch and sweeping her leg as she spun in a circle.
Her slender leg, whipping like a fan blade as she twirled, took both men off their feet. Sapphire Angel leapt to the fallen man to her right, driving a fist into his face. The thug’s mask protected him, but the force of her blow smashed the back of his head into the floor, dazing him.
As the other man rose and charged, the heroine lunged and grabbed the bust from the nearest pedestal, pivoting and heaving it toward him. The heavy object accelerated like a missile, slamming into his face and cracking his mask, before flipping him head over heels. He crashed to the floor and didn’t move.
The other man lay on his back and attempted to push himself up, moving his elbows underneath him, but Sapphire Angel was already on him, driving a knee down into his face. His teeth cracked, and she followed with a pulverizing punch to his jaw, finishing him.
She jumped to her feet and scanned the room. Only Savage was left. He stood near the desk on the far side of the room, rotating his neck, flexing his shoulders, and cracking his knuckles. He gave a mock clap, nodding his head. As she glared at him, he spoke.
"Nicely done, Sapphire Angel," he said in a deep voice with a smoker’s hard edge to it. “I didn't expect to see you again so soon. I ain't disappointed, though. You may have gotten through them, but you ain't getting through me.”
Sapphire Angel stood with her hands on her hips, her legs slightly spread. She glared at Savage with her piercing blue eyes, sizing him up. Damn, he was big — bigger than she remembered from their first encounter, if that was possible. His entire body rippled with muscles, straining against his black fatigues and body armor.
The heroine and the villain were a study in contrasts. Where he was huge and muscular, she was petite and slender, with legs and arms any supermodel would envy. He sheathed his powerful frame in fatigues and body armor, while she wore a skimpy costume that highlighted her lithe body, with its small, firm muscles. His black garb absorbed the light, while her white and blue costume radiated like a sparkling diamond, filling the room. He was an ugly brute, with much of his face hidden under his mask, while she wore nothing to hide her stunning features and luxurious blond hair. And he had eerie, mismatched eyes, while her blue eyes could captivate anyone.
He sneered. “Are you ready for a beating?” he asked. "Time to prove my dreams were right."
Sapphire Angel tensed at his words, remembering her own dreams. A coincidence! His comment had to be a coincidence. But as they locked eyes across the distance, she felt a connection with this evil man, as if she could read his thoughts, and he could read hers. And those thoughts conveyed mayhem and destruction. And pain.
But what kind of pain? Savage intended to hurt her, yes, but she felt a pain inside him. A suffering. Something, perhaps from his past, was fueling this man — hurting him, but inspiring him to cause havoc.
None of it mattered, though. He was here, now. She had the opportunity to rectify her earlier failure, when he had escaped at the rally. And she had the opportunity to show him he was no match for her. It was time to finish this man. To end his reign of terror.
The heroine scanned the room before somersaulting over the railing at the edge of the landing, her skirt and hair fluttering about her. She touched down twenty feet from the muscular fighter and returned to her power stance, hands on her hips, her coltish legs spread.
“You can surrender now,” she said, cocking one hip. “I don’t want to embarrass you again.”
Savage glared at her and sneered. “You got lucky once, little girl. Now you're gonna hurt. Bad.”
As he finished speaking, Savage charged toward the costumed beauty.
Sapphire Angel waited as he crossed the room, noting that he was faster than his enormous size would suggest. She didn't flinch, raising her fists in a defensive position as he got close.
Savage reached her, attacking with a barrage of fists and kicks. He was fast, striking with the speed of a viper. But Sapphire Angel was faster. She dodged a jab, a haymaker, a kick, and another punch.
Savage's visage darkened with fury after each missed blow. Each flash of his anger inspired the heroine to continue her technique. He launched another flurry of attacks — a left hook, a right jab, a lashing kick, and a chop with his meaty hand. Somehow, the petite woman dodged, ducked, and bobbed away from each strike, using the open space around her in a dizzying display of quickness.
Savage roared, losing his patience and unleashing a wild roundhouse punch. It was a mistake. Sapphire Angel twisted underneath the punch and came up with a powerful jab, smashing into his stomach and driving him back. He grunted and wheezed, his arms and legs spinning as he teetered and stumbled away from her. He caught his balance and glanced down, his face registering disbelief when he saw his body armor. A huge crack ran up the armor, over his stomach, where she had landed her blow.
With a snarl, he came at her again, lunging. She darted to the side, whipping her knee up into his damaged stomach. Savage wheezed again, and a moment later her right fist thundered down into the side of his mask, sending him tumbling toward the floor. He kept spinning when he hit the ground, rolling out of the way of a kick from the superheroine. He hopped to his feet a few feet away.
Savage stood across from her, glaring and sucking in deep breaths of air.
With an exaggerated sigh of disappointment, she said, "I thought you were supposed to be tough. Such a shame."
He sneered and charged at her again. She stepped back and to the side, only to find her maneuver blocked by one of the desks in the dark room. Before she could pivot, Savage leveled a blow like a sledgehammer, blasting the side of her face.
“Guhhhhh!” she gurgled, as pain seared her cheekbone. The impact twirled her away from the massive man, spinning her like a top and sending her skirt and silken hair whirling about her.
Savage charged, but even in her dazed state she reacted, using her momentum to go into a tumble, somersaulting and jumping to her feet ten feet away.
Savage stared at her with a malevolent grin and gave a knowing nod. She winced, shocked at the force of his punch. That hurt! Sapphire Angel blinked back involuntary tears forming at the corners of her eyes. The side of her face throbbed, as if a giant had hammered her cheek with a mallet. She remembered thinking Rocco Lynch was strong, but Savage’s power dwarfed the other man’s. Not as strong as she was, she believed, but still enough to hurt her. And, if possible, he seemed stronger than during their first fight.
“That’s just a taste of what’s coming,” he said. "Gonna put you in your place and shut that smart mouth of yours."
She didn't reply. Now wasn't the time for more cockiness. She eyed him, waiting for her necklace to do its work and the pain to subside. Except it didn’t. At least not yet. The pain in her face pulsed unabated, sending tendrils of fire shooting through her cheek.
Once again, he rushed toward her, feinting one punch and throwing another. As his fist got close, she dipped back, reaching behind her and bracing herself against another desk. His arm breezed past her face, and she lashed out with both feet, pushing off from the desk and driving a kick into Savage’s chest. He stumbled back, flapping his arms for balance.
She surged forward and slammed a thunderous punch under his jaw, lifting him from his feet and sending him airborne. He landed ten feet away, crashing onto a desk and flipping over it. She heard his body smack to the floor, but he disappeared from view.
She leapt, clearing the distance and landing atop the desk, her boots clunking onto the metal surface. As her blue eyes searched the floor for the gang leader, he rose, materializing like a ghost and lunging forward. He rolled across the desk and took her legs out from underneath her.
As he tumbled off the other side, she fell with a cry, head over heels. Her skull slammed onto the desk's surface and she careened off the side, smacking down onto the floor.
Dazed, Sapphire Angel rose to one elbow and one knee. Her hair dangled in her face and a long leg extended out behind her. She was breathing hard, her supple costume clinging to her firm breasts with each exhalation. She heard Conner in her head, warning her it would only take one unlucky turn of events for a fight to go against her.
Sapphire Angel pushed herself up into a squat, shaking her head to clear her vision. She rose, but when she was halfway to her feet, a fist crashed into the center of her face. A feminine yelp escaped her lips as her legs buckled for a moment and her vision went dark before coming back. The fist hit her in the face again, and again her legs buckled, if only for a moment.
As she tried to steady herself, a hand grabbed her hair from behind, pulling, bending her backward at the waist. She fell, crying out when her back slammed onto Savage's outstretched knee, sending a jolt up her spine, and electricity shooting down her limbs.
Savage dropped to a partial squat, pulling the superheroine down over his outstretched leg, forcing her spine into a painful arch as she stared at the ceiling. The sadistic gang leader, who crouched with one leg bent in front of him, had one hand wrapped around her delicate throat, and the other enveloping her slender thigh, pushing her down over his knee.
She brought her arms up, planning to wrench his hand from her throat, but his other arm came free from her thigh and shot down, as he drove his massive fist into her exposed stomach.
Sapphire Angel convulsed and wheezed, her arms falling away as she stayed draped over his outstretched leg. His fist powered down five more times, like a jackhammer, and she convulsed and wheezed with each blow into her tender stomach.
As she struggled for air, trying to process the pain short-circuiting her senses, his hand momentarily moved from her throat. His other fist came, hammering under her upturned jaw, which was just in reach for him as her head angled back. Her teeth slammed together and her vision went dark, before light came back. Three more times his fist swung down, mashing the underside of her jaw, and sending spit flying from her mouth. Only her necklace saved her teeth from cracking, as his had done in their first fight. When he paused, her arms dangled below her, useless. She blinked and moaned, staring up at the ceiling — not directly above her, because of how she was bent, but further back, toward the other side of the room.
Savage returned his grip to her thigh and throat, and pushed down, bending her body even more. He leaned forward and angled his head to the side, staring down toward her face with his sadistic eyes. She was bent so far she could barely see him, and it took her mind a moment to register his face.
“You thought you could keep dancing away from me, bitch?” he asked. “Looks like the spider caught the fly.”
His eyes traveled from her face down to her breasts, which, with her back arched at an impossible angle, strained against her costume. His eyes lingered, before taking in her limp legs and then moving back up to her slender arms, which dangled below her. Her gloved fingers brushed against the floor.
"Nnnnnnhhhh," she moaned, barely able to make a sound. She couldn't breathe, his blows having driven all the oxygen from her lungs. She couldn’t think or even react, the crushing blows to her face scrambling her thoughts. And she felt like her spine would snap at any moment.
"Time to break this angel in half," he said, his words oozing with malice.
He grunted and pushed harder, arching her back even more. A new sound came out from her lips. A scream of pain. He was trying to end her.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (Book 4)
Savage Vengeance (Book 5 - this story)
Amazing confrontation, CJ. I find myself reading it over and over, in awe of how Savage has turned the tables on Sapphire Angel, having her on the verge of defeat!
Dang. I could literally picture every aspect of this scene from every last angle thanks to all of your thorough descriptions. How much Sapphire’s form contrasts with Savage’s……it’s literally “good vs. evil” at its finest and I am LIVING for it. In fact, that whole description did a lot to keep me optimistic throughout the entirety of the fight scene that followed; even at the end when Savage (seemingly) has Sapphire on the ropes, I ended my reading of this chapter thinking “Oh, heck yes. She’s going to get a second wind next chapter; she just HAS to.” On another note, I’ve personally never really been the best at describing fighting moves in combat scenes in incredible detail (I don’t know what a “haymaker” is, for instance), but you seem to have it down just fine.
(jokingly) On the other hand, I’m salty at you for ending the chapter at such a crucial point within their skirmish, particularly when it doesn’t currently seem like other factions (FBI, Sapphire’s allies, and/or the Justice Seekers) are involved at this point. Maybe one or more of them will come in to escalate the duel between Sapphire and Savage, or, like I said in the last passage, she’ll get herself out of it in some way when the next chapter drops. The Justice Seekers did have an unintentional hand in setting up this thanks to Stanley’s intervention, but……yeah.
…..Maybe Stanley will come bursting in out of nowhere inside that security vehicle that he helped Sapphire with at the climax of the previous novel and just send Savage flying like a ragdoll. Or Wayne Steele and the Justice Seekers could seize this chance to prove that they ARE effective vigilantes on par with Sapphire Angel by bailing her out of Savage’s hold.
For the first time in a while, I’m actually not that worried for our heroine at the “end-of-chapter cliffhanger” segment this time! The writing near the beginning and how much it detailed and uplifted Sapphire was just that good. One thing’s clear, though; no matter how much Savage beats down on Sapphire, she has a defense that no one, not even he, can break……PLOT ARMOR. (dramatic music sting)
Time to see how effective it is, come the next chapter!