Mari Fuuma vs. Mei-Li Zhu

It was to Mei's great relief that she managed to escape this time, avoiding another power move. Catching herself in a kneeling position as she landed, the nimble girl quickly rolled off to the side where she could hopefully get back on her feet before Mari could get a hold of her again.

Turning around, Mari saw that her opponent had rolled away from her and placed a good amount of distance between the two. This amount of distance was not going to serve Mari in any positive manner as she needed to be close to continue placing the pressure on Mei before letting the girl regain her breath and balance.

Racing forward, Mari attempted to close the gap that Mei had just gotten as she attempted to raise her foot and attempt to big boot, once again trying her luck with striking after having so-so luck with grappling.

"Eeeep!" Mei-Li squeaked as she barely avoided a brutal kick, Mari's foot just grazing her head. Having still not regained enough posture to counterattack, she had no choice but to roll away again. Back up on her feet for real this time, she was panting heavily, but still wore a rather playful grin on her face.

It had been so long, but Mei had been so busy since coming to Japan she never realized how much she had missed this. It was fun testing her strength against a new and unfamiliar opponent, really getting her adrenaline pumping. Lunging forward once more, she launched an elbow thrust, aiming to try and break Mari's guard.

Mari let out a grunt as her foot barely missed Mei-Li's face, stomping it on the mat as her opponent rolled away. Her opponent was giving her much trouble as she continually reminded herself that the smaller opponent would have the speed advantage over her. Bringing her arms up as she saw Mei Li closing the gap, Mari knew better than to try and block the coming elbow strike as she brought up her arm to try and deflect the shot away from her body.

Mei staggered off to the side as her attack was deflected, surprised how Mari seemed to be adapting very well to her attacks. Of course, it was a pleasant surprise, just meaning she could fight even harder. Bringing herself to a firm stop by planting her back foot, Mei spun around, swinging her arm about to try and catch Mari with a backhand strike.

Successfully managing to smack the elbow strike out of the way, Mari managed to keep herself safe for a while before her opponent kept pressing the attack. Watching her opponent spin around, not wasting the momentum of the deflected blow, a spinning backfist soon flew at Mari's face, which smacked her dead in the cheek. Rattling the larger wrestler, she stumbled backwards into the ropes. However, Mari was just as stubborn and determined to stay in this fight as her opponent as she would try to launch a rebound big boot at Mei's face.

The back of her hand striking Mari's face made a very satisfying smacking sound, raising Mei's excitement even more. Stopping to face her foe and ready her next move, Mei-Li had unfortunately failed to consider how fast Mari could bounce back off of the ring ropes. Caught flat-footed as her larger foe came flying towards her, Mei took the boot right to the face, sending her crashing down to the mat on her back in a total daze.

Blasting Mei in the face with her boot as she sent her crashing to the ground, Mari would soon find herself following her opponent as the burst of ignorance of pain died down as she collapsed onto one knee before falling on to her stomach. Panting as the backhand's effect took hold, Mari's head was spinning on it's own axis as the silver haired wrestler attempted to roll over and get herself on top of Mei. However, her twisting mind caused her to roll the other direction and soon found herself near the ropes and almost falling out of the ring, still having little idea where she was.

Slowing coming to, Mei-Li sat up, looking around groggily. "Uuuuuuuuuhgggggg..." she groaned, holding her hand to her throbbing forehead. Mei spotted Mari off to the side, seemingly not in much better shape, however she was not in any position to capitalize. Still a bit woozy from that hit, the Chinese martial artist would try to push herself back up to her feet before her opponent could.

Laying on her back underneath the bottom rope, Mari would soon realize where she was as she turned her head to look at her opponent. Shaking her head to try and clear the cobwebs, Mari knew that she needed to get some time to catch her breath as she would then shift her body to slide out of the ring and lean against the apron as she brought her hand up to her jaw, still rattled from the vicious backhand of Mei's as she would attempt to walk it off around the ring, slowing the action even more between the two.