Breaking in the New Guy

THWACK! Hikaru's leg smashes into Shido's defenses, hopefully rattling the guy enough to get him to let up. However, again he demonstrates his endurance by not only taking the hit but also using the opportunity to devastatingly twist Hikaru's knee in a direction it really doesn't want to go.

Hikaru howls in pain as Shido lets go, he really felt that last twist right in the kneecap. However, he's not one to let pain keep him down for long, so Hikaru soldiers up to his feet. The leg still hurts as he puts pressure on it, but for the moment he's more concerned at dealing some revenge damage.

"Alright, I'll admit you're not half-bad" Hikaru grins, holding his hand out to give him a congratulatory shake.

"Thanks, that means a lot coming from you! SEME is no joke, huh?" You guys must each be strong individually, as well. Shido smiled while resting on one knee. The damage he had suffered was apparent, but he still seemed determined to fight on.

He slowly made his way up to both feet and shook Hikaru's hand.

"Well, I was impressed till now" Hikaru deadpanned when Shido foolishly got up to accept the shake. He quickly yanked the boy in and spun him around so that he could clamp on a nasty little sleeper hold.

"Here's some free advice: don't let your guard till the match is over" Hikaru grunted as he squeezed on Shido's windpipe.

Shido was thrown off by the spin and quickly found himself struggling to breathe.

He paused for a moment to assess his options, making sure not to speak as it would only rob him of air. He would then try to wrap an arm around one of Hikaru's legs and another around his head, hoping to lift him up to fireman's carry position or at least lift him off the ground so that he could attempt to traverse to the ropes and break the sleeper hold.

Hikaru continues to readjust, tighten, and perfect the chokehold as Shido struggles. He starts to drag him backwards to keep him off his toes, and that's right around the time Shido implements his counter strategy. He reaches back to grab at Hikaru's leg, remembering which he had just targeted with the legbar and lifting it up. Hikaru hisses in pain a bit but keeps the hold secured tight.

As he starts to lose balance, Hikaru just goes with it and drags Shido down on top of him. He loops his ungrabbed leg around the newcomer's waist to secure his own position.

Shido sensed Hikaru's determination to keep the sleeper locked in. He felt himself beginning to fade as his waist was now being secured by Hikaru's good leg.

Falling back on his instinct, he would roll as fast as he could to get to the ropes. As, there was no other realistic way he could see himself breaking the hold.

Shido began to awkwardly roll to the side trying to escape, but all that did was land him on his chest with all of Hikaru's weight pressing down on him. "Oooh bad choice of move there" he taunted right in his ear. Shido budged here and there but he wasn't making much progress towards rolling again. "You can tap, or you can nap, either way I'm going to win"

Right about now, his only chance of getting free were reaching the ropes. But they seemed just so far, didn't they?

Shido chuckled a bit before punching the mat with both fists simultaneously.

He realized that being on his chest put him in the exact position he needed to be to push himself up off the ground. And punching the mat is a reasonable enough distraction. He knew that he couldn't hold out much longer, so it was all or nothing!

Pushing himself up with Hikaru's body weight on top of him, he'd kick off the ground and jump forwards, hopefully making it all the way to the ropes and finally creating the separation he so desperately needs at this point.

The way Shido was moving now, Hikaru could tell he was in his death throes so to speak. He was riding that last ditch burst of adrenaline you summoned right before it was lights out. All he needed was a few more moments of solid choke time and he'd put the newcomer firmly in his place.

But it was not to be. With his last ditch efforts, Shido rose up and threw himself at the ropes. The two landed just within fingertips reach, that is if Shido could stay awake and focus enough to get there.

There wasn't much more to do but reach for the ropes in front of him. Shido was barely aware of how close the ropes were. The last thing he could remember was that he jumped in their general direction. He couldn't look up to see their exact location. The effects of the sleeper were finally preventing much of his bodily movement, entirely.

With next to nothing left in him, faced down on the mat, he'd reach out with both arms, hoping to learn the feeling of what it's like to grasp that little bit of hope against the ropes.