Crash Course

Valley was trapped in Alicia’s steely vise. Maybe, if she had enough time, she could’ve wormed her way free and found some way to counter this hold. After all, as it was, Alicia seemed to be holding back a bit. She could probably find some give.

But she didn’t have time, did she? Valley had ten seconds, per the rules she’d laid down. By her count, she’d nearly lost half of that time, then Alicia won. That meant she had to get free and do so fast. Really fast. And there was really only one way she could see to do that.

Valley groaned as Alicia gave her another burst of power, torturing her poor ribs. Deciding it had to be now or never, she went into action and put her own leg strength to good use. She pushed over the floor and tried to roll on top of Alicia, forcing the two of them to go tumbling - with any luck, they’d hit the ropes, forcing her to break the hold and saving her from some back problems.

She’d entirely forgotten the ten second thing. Blame going ass over teakettle and it being a new rule, but the idea hadn’t consciously been in her head as she’d applied her hold. Either way, it came back to her about the time Valley started to roll them. Maybe a missed chance, though she was actually glad – winning this early probably would have been good for her career but she knew she could get a better fight out of this.

Alicia might have been new to wrestling, but she wasn’t so new to it that she didn’t know what a rope break was. As the two women went rolling towards the ropes, she gritted her teeth and put as much force into her bodyscissors as the situation would allow for the two or three seconds before she felt a rope brush against her arm. Instantly, the scissor specialist relaxed her grip, undoing her ankles and pulling away. Assuming Valley didn’t jump her, Alicia grabbed the rope and used it to yank herself up to her feet.

Once she’d stood, she lightly slapped the outside of one thick thigh with her hand before resuming her stance.

”When I was sixteen, I cracked someone’s rib with these babies.”

It was probably telling that she was still smirking as she said that, even if it had been an accident.

Oh, Alicia was enjoying this. Joining the AFW was already proving to be a great decision.

Valley breathed a long, deep gulp of air and relief as she escaped the killer hold. That one had been close. Closer than she wanted to let on. Alicia was talking smack her legs, and typically she wouldn't written it off to the usual bragging BS, but somehow she completely believed. She wasn't going to acknowledge it, but she believed every word that came from the redhead’s mouth.

”Really? Sixteen?” Valley mirrored Alicia’s smirk as she stood up, hissing as she rubbed her poor ribs. ”That late, huh? Guess you were a bit of a late bloomer.” She slapped her own thigh, which wasn’t short on muscle, either. ”Had boys screaming all the way back in third grade.”

Not exactly true - she once made a boy tap out with a figure-four when she got a little too overzealous on the playground. Close enough.

Valley moved back to the center of the ring and got her hands up, offering a collar-and-elbow tie up, wanting to see how Alicia would react.

”Nice,” Alicia had been making boys and girls scream from an early age too. Not that she was scared or anything, but Valley’s legs were definitely one of the better sets she’d come across.

Valley, however, took up a decidedly different position mid-ring.

The big redhead eyed her opponent for a moment, then shrugged and began to cautiously close the distance with her own hands up – she’d got a little wrestling under her belt, enough to recognise a collar and elbow when it was offered.

Besides, it wasn’t that dissimilar from a MMA clinch.

She had a pretty good idea of what she needed to do now. Keep after those ribs. Given the way Valley was acting, even the brief scissors had done its damage. So she needed to keep working them.

Presuming she got that far, the kickboxer would meet Valley mid-ring and accept the tie-up. Except, the second their hands were in place, she meant to twist and bring her knee up into the blonde’s ribs.

Much more her speed.

Valley had to be careful here. Very careful.

Alicia was a smart woman, and while it seemed like she had the leg up when it came to in ring experience, that MMA training was serving her well. Mistakes had been made before, mistakes that could not be made again. She’d lucked up with the ropes, and she probably wouldn’t be getting that lucky again.

Of course,  knowing a storm was coming didn’t mean you were ready to weather it. Valley really should have seen the knee coming when she close in for the lockup, but Alicia’s speed took her off guard, moving with an alacrity she just wasn’t accustomed to from bigger woman. It hit. It hit deep, with enough force to make Valley’s feet leave the floor for a hot second.

She gasped and retreated towards to the corner, backing up into it while she grasped her stomach. Hardly the most favorable position, but she could work with it.

The knee to the ribs bit home with gratifying effect, though Valley was no slouch on her feet herself. Even wheezing for breath, the blonde was fast enough to back off before Alicia could follow up her success.

All the way into the corner. Might as well have put a big ‘come and get me’ sign up.

The smart thing to do would probably be to wait Valley out, see if the veteran would come out to play. Except that’d just give her time to recover and Alicia thought she could smell the first blood in the water with the way the muscular blonde was grasping her midriff.

And, besides, playing it safe was boring. That didn’t mean she needed to be stupid about it. So she didn’t rush in, she took up her guard again and closed in slowly, keeping as little of her profile facing Valley as possibly.

She had absolutely no idea what to expect and Valley was almost certainly going to get the first move off.

Valley was recovering fast, but Alicia was coming her way at a steady pace, and she knew what the redhead would be targeting. She smelled blood. She was going for the ribs, no doubt. The only question was how the Slamazon would protect them and stop her relentless for from hammering her into oblivion.

The answer was simple, really - she had to target Alicia’s best weapons, disable her legs and take them out of the equation. Make it more about pure wrestling, where she could excel. Which raised another, very important question: how?

Well, the first step would involve not getting annihilated in a corner. On that note, she needed to do something about the ever-approaching Alicia, didn’t she?

She stayed low, still holding her gut with one hand while the other rest on the ropes. She waited until her opponent was just in range, and then she acted, leaning back against the turnbuckle and shooting both of her heels out at the same time, this time aiming at Alicia’s face.

Alicia too was starting to spot the pattern here. She had an advantage in striking, if she could score mount or guard and some physical edges. Valley was better at fast moving stuff, using the ring to her advantage and just general experience.

Even if it hadn’t been her style anyway, she clearly needed to keep the momentum going her way, prevent the blonde from getting any speed back up. In that sense, her being in the corner was a good thing – she’d trapped herself there.

On the other hand, well, the redhead’s experience didn’t really extend to kicks using the ring for height and leverage.

Given the way she’d been approaching, it didn’t really matter how fast the two women were comparatively speaking. Alicia didn’t have time to turn her body, which meant she was only able to get her leading arm up in time to protect her face. And, given they’d already established Valley’s legs were no slouches either, that wasn’t ever going to be enough. Better than nothing, but never enough.

At least she hadn’t been rushing in or she’d have been repeating her earlier experience with the dropkick. So, this time, Alicia didn’t go flying. But she did go stumbling backwards at the impact, eyes wide and a little dazed, arms out of position.

She’d probably be able to keep her balance and stay on her feet, but only if Valley was completely stupid and didn’t follow up.

Yeah, she wouldn’t bank on it.

Ideally, this was the sort of move Valley would do if her opponent was running at her full steam and she could bank on the momentum to reinforce the double kick’s power. But then, if this were an ideal situation, she wouldn’t be in a corner in the first place, now would she? Regardless, the attack worked, and Alicia was stunned for a few golden moments, staggering away and creating some distance. Valley had space and she had time to work with, two thing she was adept at making the most of.

She stayed facing Alicia and jumped straight up, placing both of her feet on the middle ropes and standing tall. Timing was everything for what she had in mind, here - she needed Alicia to be in just the right spot. Almost. Almost...

There.

Valley dove forward, flying through the air and heading straight towards Alicia. She wrapped her arm around the bigger woman’s head right as they collided, locking in a front facelock, then let the momentum carry her around Alicia. From there, it was just a simple matter of jerking down at the right time, drilling her opponent’s pretty redhead into the canvas with a powerful tornado DDT.

Shaking her head furiously, Alicia knew she had to snap out of it fast. She was aware she’d lost track of Valley and, in this fight, she was aware at a bone-deep level that was a very bad idea.

But before she could do much more than begin to gather her scattered wits, she felt Valley cannon into her, her well-muscled arm looping around Alicia’s neck in a facelock. Bigger or not, the still-staggered kickboxer had no chance of doing anything to counter the momentum behind the blonde.

She just went along for the ride until the mat came up to meet her with a resounding thump.

For a bare instant, the force of the hit catapulted the redhead back to a sitting position – but she almost immediately slumped back to the mat, the only movement coming from the steady rise and fall of Alicia’s large chest as she lay on the mat and the twitching of her limbs as her brain metaphorically tried to reboot.

She wasn’t knocked out by any means but the strong kick to the head followed by the sheer force of that impact meant she’d be a little while getting up again.