Summer Splash Challenge! Taylor Vs. Adrian: Event 3!

Adrian simply rolled back in the ring, pushing herself up to her feet for what looked like another 3 minutes of doing nothing but holding her arms up infront of her face. This time however, when the two moved towards the centre, the former cosplayer would actually do something instead of standing around. Silently throwing out a jab at Taylor, for not much reason other than after the past 9 minutes or more, she'd really wanted to punch Taylor.

Taylor stayed put while Adrian approached. She was almost surprised when the girl threw a punch, but of course it was just a little feeler jab. She deftly slipped her head to the side, so that Adrian's glove only grazed her cheek as it slid past, and then circled away with a big grin.

"Whoooo! Watch out, everybody! Adrian just uncorked a tall bottle of boxing fury!" She taunted, with her hands still at her waist. "But seriously, are you trying your best right now? I promise I won't spit green all over your face or anything, so don't be afraid. Though..." She put a gloved hand on her hip and cocked her hips to the side. "You should probably work on sitting down on your punches a little more."

She skipped to the side in a broad circle, and then settled down, but never stopped moving. One side then the other, head fake in, step out, circle.

She probably should have put a little more oomph in that opening move, she felt a little bit contact, even if it didn't hit full flush but now Taylor was on to the fact that Adrian did want to fight her right now, and all of a sudden, she picked up the pace. But still kept her gloves low, as though she wasn't even trying to defend herself just to piss off Adrian more. Or something like that.

The blonde had done something similar when they were training together, Taylor would pace around, just outside Adrian's range, trash talking a whole lot while the former cosplayer tried swinging at her to little effect. That time, however easy the punkette was taking it, Adrian was still recovering from a serious injury. This time, she was at full speed, and Taylor wasn't about to lose her by moving around. Adrian got in a lot closer than she initially planned to and shot out a flurry of blows, trying to make her pay for keeping her gloves so low.

Taylor quickly moved back as Adrian rushed in, leaning slightly to her left side. When the first punch came, she skipped hard to the side, Adrian's left, and in tight, forcing Adrian to adjust in order to level more punches at her. She shoved her, hard, with both hands, and then skipped back two steps.

"C'mon, dammit! If you want to hit me, come hit me! Stop dicking around! Show everyone what they've got to look forward to at Summer Splash!" Taylor beckoned to Adrian with both hands, and still kept her hands way down low.

Adrian grunted with frustration. As soon as she moved in, Taylor moved back and to the side just out of range, again, and this time with small shove back to add insult to the lack of injury. She was making more progress by not fighting, at least that way she would't be giving away information like how long her reach was in practical terms or tiring herself out by throwing punches in the heavy gloves that weren't going anywhere. Why did they have to make boxing gloves heavy anyway? It wasn't hard to lift them up it was just annoying, and wouldn't less weight being thrown at someone's head be better for safety? Like there were more head injuries after people started wearing boxing gloves or something? Stupid boxing. Stupid Rocky movies too, make it seem interesting. Its was like "oh here's a fight, here's all the cool things that you can do in a fight, but we're only gonna let you punch because that's the only real way to fight." Stupid...

She couldn't just keep playing catch up with Taylor like this, the blonde didn't seem to be making any effort at all to dodge the former cosplayer's blows, and she still had her gloves down low just to add to that fact. Adrian was fast, but right now Taylor was just one step ahead of her and she needed to sort that out. Fortunately, Taylor not going on the attack gave her time to think this through. Taylor seemed to be dodging to the brunette's left a lot, going around the leading arm to make it hard for Adrian to get an actual shot in when she did pull in close. She wasn't allowed to back hand or elbow the punkette so that strategy worked out pretty well, but there had to be some way to get past all that and finally land a decent blow.

"Okay..." she said softly, desperately trying not to show how pissed off she was getting at Taylor too much, once again looking as though she was lead with another jab only to this time take a big step forward with her right foot. Trying to use the extra range she'd get from switching stances to hit with a strong right, leaving her fighting southpaw for a while.

Taylor kept her eyes on Adrian, expecting her to finally press the action a little, but the cosplaying-former-cosplayer took her time. Again. She rolled her shoulders irritably and stayed light on her feet while she waited. Adrian looked pissed, but she was smart. Taylor knew she was thinking things over, trying to come up with a plan, but Taylor already had a plan. She didn't have to think, she just had to be ready.

When Adrian did come in, showing her left hand, Taylor kept pace moving back. Then Adrian finally showed her lack of boxing experience with her awkward bit of footwork, resulting in a long, but slower, right hand. Taylor was moving at full speed as she slipped to the inside, ducked her body down and coiled to the left, her hands finally up and ready, and dug with a vicious, stabbing left hand angled up at Adrian's liver.

Well... that could have gone much better. "Mmpph!" Adrian grunted as her over-extension was quickly punished with a painful shot, making the brunette wince in pain before she could turn around properly face Taylor again. Now she looked ready to actually fight with her gloves up, as though she was actually taking this seriously. Small consolation though, that had really stung and now Adrian had to stop thinking and act fast before she ate a few more shots like that. Trying to get some response back, she spun around quickly, trying to get Taylor with a quick punch while she was still rising up from her own deep punch.

Adrian's glove thumped against Taylor's right cheek and turned her head, but she pushed forward threw her weight against Adrian to put her on her heels. She came up high and swiped a left hook across at Adrian's jaw, followed by a returning right that carried her upper body down and to the left, coiled before firing a second digging left hand at Adrian's liver.

A hit! It took until a fair bit in to the second round to get, but still. At least Adrian knew that Taylor couldn't just dodge every punch thrown at her, even she had some limits to moving her head out of the way... and now the former cosplayer was about to pay for it.

Bringing in her elbows close, she quickly turtled up against Taylor's rush, no real room to do anything but block and hope her arms could take most of the sting off the incoming barrage, dropping her right elbow down to protect her side from taking another liver shot, the first one was bad enough as it was. Even with the block, she was forced to back off to get some breathing room, unwittingly stepping closer and closer to her own corner.

Undeterred by Adrian's defense, Taylor aggressively pressed forward, staying tight to Adrian with her gloves protecting her head, elbows tucked, chin down. She shoved her weight against her opponent to keep her moving back, and then opened up with a left hook like a flash of lightning at the brunette's temple. Her instinct was to follow with a kick, but she stopped herself, and instead she dropped her gloves and skipped back a step, just outside Adrian's reach.