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

Adrian kept her guard up as best she could as Taylor pushed in, keeping as tight as possible before she saw her moment to strike back. It didn't look like she'd have much of chance to fight back from initial glance, with the blonde keeping as good of a guard as she had up, if not maybe a little better. She needed to focus, find the perfect opportunity and for a moment, she thought she had it. Taylors left arm was on the move, now if she could just get her with a right in time...

WHAM

The former cosplayer had apparently made a few more steps back when the light faded away, her breathing was a lot more ragged and her feet were all over the place. A combination of fear and embarrassment washing over her as she slowly realized what had happened. "Fuck." she breathed out, trying to regain some sense of composure, hoping that the bell would sound before the next blow.

Taylor smelled blood, and instantly swarmed on Adrian while she staggered back. At frightening speed, she lunged in and to Adrian's right, and threw down a fast right hook at her cheek, followed by a heavy left to her body. She stepped one foot behind her and shoved her back at the nearby corner with both hands. She didn't know how much time she had, and she didn't care, but even ten seconds would be an eternity for Adrian right now.

Adrian didn't get nearly enough time to regain her focus before Taylor was on her like a shark. Her hook rocking the former cosplayer back before the body shot finished the job, sending her falling back to the canvas. The brunette wasn't out out, but she was pretty out of it. Her head was spinning and her breath was short. This was probably the worst case scenario for her, getting knocked down in what was essentially the first round. She could imagine Carmen, her boxing teacher grinding her face into her palm. It all seemed so simple back when they were just practicing.

"...Wow." She coughed out, sitting up as the count started, slowly rising back to her feet. Taking deep breaths to try and get some sense of control back. If nothing else, it had bought her a little time to recover. Now she just had to not eat another few shots for... fuck.

The moment Adrian went down, Taylor turned and casually strolled away with a spring in her step while Lukretia began the count. She spread her arms out wide and took a deep, theatrical bow with a grin and a giggle.

"Oh, wow, you don't look so good," she said brightly, striking a sassy pose and cocking her hips to the side. "Maybe you should just stay down."

Slowly but surely, Adrian got back to her feet, and Taylor didn't waste any time. The moment Lukretia restarted the match, she was back in front of the girl, standing just out of range with her right hand at her cheek and her left hand low. She lunged in and flicked a fast jab at Adrian's face before quickly hopping back out.

"Winning at chess just isn't the same, is it?"

God damn it... Adrian cursed as her hearing returned to full clarity. Of course Taylor was going to take the opportunity to trash talk her while she was down, and probably for a while after that too. The former cosplayer barely getting her gloves up before the blonde lunged in with a quick shot to her face. "Ngghh..." She groaned as glove met cheek once more, her own gloves starting to feel heavy already. She was already slowing down while Taylor kept her pace up making it even harder to keep track of the punkette.

"Shut up and keep trying to hit me, asshole." She growled out, not realizing how bad that sounded out loud. Not that Adrian cared much at this point, she already looked bad enough that worrying about how she sounded was just going to make things work out worse. Just focus on the fighting part, it wouldn't matter how dumb she sounded if she could knock Taylor down in return, but easier said than done. If punching wasn't working so far and defending was going even worse, that kind of did limit her options a bit, but she plowed on regardless, trying to send a straight to Taylor's body, mirroring her stance by keeping her right arm high while her left shot low.

"Hrk!" Taylor grunted as Adrian's left hand dug into her abs, and she flung a looping left at her head in retaliation that was stopped by Adrian's protective right hand.

If Taylor was a boxer, she would probably have been able to keep up her defense while attacking, but she was only concerned at the moment with obliterating the mouthy brunette.

"Way ahead of you..." She hissed, keeping her left hand out and pawing at Adrian's head while she lined up her next shot. She threw her whole body into a tight, strong right uppercut at Adrian's chin, and followed along behind it to push against the girl, looking to plow her back to the corner like a linebacker while keeping her gloves up near her head.

Adrian grunted when Taylor's left struck nothing but glove, her mind eerily calm as Taylor pressed her assault, as though getting punched in the head had knocked out all the needless worrying and attempts at thinking out a strategy. Running on instinct, she ducked and threw her body right, bobbing past Taylor's uppercut that would have no-doubt ended with her seeing stars, she weaved back in, the former cosplayer tried to carry the momentum of the big shift into a looping hook of her own once more aiming low for the body, just as Taylor tried to shove her back after the uppercut attempt. Thanks to her trying to fight southpaw, she was the wrong side for a liver shot but she needed a few big hits in after being knocked down. She needed to show the blonde that she couldn't be shoved all the time, and she needed to show herself that she could adapt and fight back, instead of just taking it.

Taylor was left off balance after her recklessly heavy uppercut hit nothing but air, and she paid for it. She ate Adrian's hook, and it hurt, more than she thought it would. The jarring force of the punch punished her defined abs and made her grimace, made her want to buckle and back up a step, but she stood her ground. Rather than make an effort to defend it, she opted to take the punch and use the moment to return fire.

Standing in opposite stances made them each more susceptible to the other's rear-hand straight punch. Taylor didn't need to think about it, she could feel the opening, and she drilled a ferocious right straight down the middle into Adrian's mouth, just as the round bell rang.

Just when things were getting fun.

Adrian felt like her face almost disintegrated when Taylor fired back, the blonde's right glove burying its way into the former cosplayer's cheek as she turned her head to try and roll with the blow, making her all the more thankful when she found out it wasn't just her ears that were ringing, the second... well the first round of boxing had finished. It was back to the relative safety of the chessboard once she rolled out of the ring to be de-gloved.

"Be honest, how fucked up does my face look right now?" She asked Babd, guessing that she was probably going to start showing signs of damage sooner rather than later. Hopefully she had enough brain cells for the chess part, but something Taylor had said stuck with her. Winning at chess wasn't the same as winning at boxing, if she could knock Taylor down or maybe even out, she'd have to concede that the former cosplayer was a good boxer, even with what little experience she had. Winning at chess would be much simpler, and Adrian was pretty much half of the way there. But right now it felt like the cowards way out to quickly beat her at the board after being battered in the ring, yes winning it either way was good and there was supposed to be some prize on the line for this one, but it wouldn't really prove anything. Well not anything that Taylor, and by extension Adrian really cared about.

"Much better zis time, ladies." Lukretia said, smiling in approval as the two got out of the ring.

Babd was no cut man but she tried her best to keep Adrian's face pretty. "I wish that was me in there." Babd whispered with a bright grin on her face. "You're so awesome." Babd swooned.