Immediately after the woman flees, the ten young men are ordered to get into the ring to entertain their white audience by fighting each other, blindfolded. The narrator feels a “sudden fit of ____” in the darkness and hears shouts like ' 'Let me at that big nigger!'' from a voice that sounds like the school superintendent's. The fight is anarchic, cruel and bloody. At one point the narrator is able to begin peeking through his blindfold and is able to move carefully, avoiding blows and pitting one group of fighters against another.