Lorenza Saldano vs. Carmen Rodriguez - ¡Guerra!

It felt good hurting Lorenza, which was more than weird. Carmen wasn't sadistic, she never took joy in dealing out pain, and especially not when the one taking it was as good a friend as Lorenza was starting to become. But, all the same, as Carmen landed hammer blows into Lorenza's stomach and chest, she couldn't help but be satisfied. She was starting to see the appeal to street-fighting. It was good to just let everything go, restrain nothing, see what her power could do without a single restriction. She felt like a dog off the leash for the first time in her life, free and furious, and once this was over she'd definitely have to talk to someone about getting more fights like this.

But, for now, she stayed centered on Lorenza, who was more than a handful to deal with. She took the blows and covered herself, giving Carmen her back to play with instead of her face and stomach. Smart, but that didn't mean her was out of options.

Her wrestling training gave Carmen a whole host of new options in a fight, and while she still had a lot to learn, she figured it was enough to help her out here - she needed her full toolkit. She put her new lessons to good use, hopping up from the floor and coming back down on Lorenza's back with a short elbow drop, driving the point of her bone right on the spine. One of her new favorites.

Lorenza hated the fact that she had to make a tactical decision of this nature. She was not very keen on going on the defensive, but it was only for a few seconds. Show Carmen her back, stay low on the floor, protect all the vital, soft parts of her body and wait until she caught her breath. Once she did, she would come out of her shell and strike Carmen more viciously than the Puerto Rican boxer could ever possibly imagine. Lorenza would use all of her street fighting skills to win this decisive match against her good friend and ultimate rival.

Of course, Lorenza would have to survive Carmenâ€s withering assault. Her turtle-like position was intended to defend against a striking-based attack, the sort of boxing strategy which she had expected Carmen to continue to employ. When Lorenza thought about it, it had been a stupid move on her part. She had underestimated her friend, only a little, but enough so that she didnâ€t see that elbow drop coming. The bony joint slammed into her spine, seemingly threatening to sever the nerves that ran through it altogether. It was painful enough to feel like that, anyway.

“Gaaahgh!” Lorenza screamed, pushing up out of her defensive position, revived from her dizziness by that terrible blossoming of pain in her back. She would lash out instinctively, throwing a hard right straight at Carmen, trying to force the Puerto Rican to back up a little.

As vicious as this match was, Carmen still had to exercise some caution. She was getting dangerously close to 'rabbit punch' territory, the sort of attacks her father warned her against, drilled the dangers of into her mind. People often underestimated how dangerous a simple punch can be, but the right blow to the right spot with the right force could have devastating effects. Permanent effects. If anything serious happened to Lorenza, Carmen would never forgive herself.

But all the same, it was the risk they took with this sort of match, the risk they took as boxers and as wrestlers. the same risk they'd been taking their whole lives. Carmen wouldn't cross that line, and she knew Lorenza wouldn't either. They were professionals. Even now.

Carmen was reminded of that fact harshly, as Lorenza came bursting out of her shell and threw a hard right, a stunning blow that landed on her chest, just shy of her neck. Carmen went stumbling back into one of the dangling heavy bags, bouncing forward as it swayed behind her. She rubbed her chest, but didn't move forward - instead, she brought her stance back up and gave Lorenza some time to recoup, stepping to the side and starting to circle her while she kept ten feet away. That had just been about two minutes of insane fighting, non-stop, and they both needed a little breather.

She curled her finger, smiling crazy from behind her guard. "Come to Mama."

Lorenza was wide awake again, thanks to the pain of the hard elbow drop which Carmen had landed to her back. She was not quite at a hundred percent, but then, neither was Carmen. The punch which Lorenza landed to Carmenâ€s chest obviously stung, as it knocked the Puerto Rican boxer back into one of the heavy bags.

Carmen didnâ€t come after her right away, and Lorenza would mentally thank her rival for that. It gave her a chance to breath, and gave her back a chance to stop throbbing. It would give Carmen a chance to recover, as well, but right now, that was an exchange which Lorenza was willing to make.

She would put her fists up and begin circling Carmen, smiling back at her opponent as she caught sight of the smile gracing Carmenâ€s bloody face. As Carmen invited her to attack, Lorenza would snort, then take a few strides forward, covering about half of the distance between them before stopping. She would curl her finger in reply, inviting Carmen to come at her and make up the rest of the distance between them. “Mamaâ€s right here. Mamaâ€s got something for you, hija,” she retorted.

Carmen braced herself, preparing for Lorenza to close in, getting ready to meet her half way...then stopping. Throwing her own little taunt Carmen's way. Daring her to close in.

All right. If that's what Lorenza really wanted, she was more than willing to comply.

Carmen started to back up, looking for all the world like she was retreating. In reality, she was just getting some more running space for what she had planned. After a couple of steps, she bolted forward at full speed, getting some good momentum and ducking down as if she were about to charge right in Lorenza for a tackle. She had something much better planned, though.

She jumped up before they could collide and came at Lorenza with a classic dropkick, a move she'd been practicing for the past few weeks. It still wasn't perfect - Carmen couldn't get enough air to the chest, it went for Lorenza's gut instead - but she was going for the element of surprise more than anything, bringing out another one of those new tools and seeing how she handled it.

Lorenza crossed five feet of the gap between herself and Carmen, then halted, taunting her rival right back and waiting for Carmen to make up the rest of the distance between them. She took a deep breath, feeling the injuries she had incurred so far slowly dying down to low, dull aches. She was ready for Carmen. Time to really get down to business.

Carmen seemed to feel it was time to get down to business, as well, but she decided to mix things up in a way which Lorenza didn't expect. As Carmen backed up, Lorenza watched her foe carefully. It looked like the woman was retreating, but that wasn't the Carmen Rodriguez who Lorenza knew. She was up to something...

As she rushed forward, Lorenza would hold her arms up, bracing herself for impact. Carmen leapt up, and Lorenza realized that she was dipping into her bag of pro-style wrestling tricks. She held her arms tight in front of her chest, expecting the kick to land there, but instead took it right to her gut. Lorenza gasped and stumbled backwards, falling down on her butt as the hard dropkick took the air out of her.

The drop kick missed. Sort of.

The only reason it went to the stomach was because she still wasn't good enough to hit the chest, but in this case, that worked to her favor - the blow knocked the wind clean out of her and instantly put Lorenza right down on her chiseled ass. The landing wasn't all that pleasant for Carmen, either, as the granite floor was a lot less forgiving than the ring would have been. She took the crash on her hip, jarred her and sent a dull pain into the bone. But Carmen still had her breath. Lorenza didn't.

Not wanting to take too much time to between attacks, Carmen scooted towards Lorenza and grabbed her foot, squeezing the ankle with both hands as she started to stand up, dragging the brutal beauty along with her as she started moving backwards, brushing against the heavy bags as she moved. "Liking it so far, hermana?" She couldn't but purr out, as the wild smile started to creep back.

Lorenza's breath had, indeed, been taken away by that dropkick. Her stomach had been smashed in by Carmen's boots, and, though no permanent damage had been done by that particular blow to any of her internal organs, she was still having some difficulty breathing in the aftermath of it. Her chest rose and fall heavily as she sucked in air, keeping her eyes on Carmen as the Puerto Rican boxer came down hard on her side. The move had hurt Carmen, as well. But not quite as badly as it had hurt Lorenza.

As Carmen scooted towards her, Lorenza would scoot backwards, dragging herself across the cement floor as she tried to keep some distance. It was impossible. Without air in her lungs, she got winded way too easily, and Carmen caught up to her within seconds. Lorenza grunted in frustration as she was captured by her ankle and dragged back towards the heavy bags. She did manage to smile at Carmen, though, matching the toothy smile that spread across her rival's face.

"Loving it. And is it good for you, mi hermana?" Lorenza retorted, using her free leg to try to kick at Carmen's groin, hoping to free herself.

Carmen's plan - if you could really call something you thought of in half a second a 'plan' - was to drag Lorenza over to the locker room and bring the fight in there, using the tighter space to make it more of an infight. Of course, it wasn't that simple. Nothign was ever that simple with Lorenza Saldano.

Carmen couldn't even remember being hit in the groin before - she was sure it happened, but it was probably an accident by whoever did it, not meant to hurt. Lorenza's kick, though? That hurt. That really hurt. Carmen let go immediately and wobbled away, grabbing her crotch and nursing it through the pain as she bit back her cry. Instead, it just came out a sizzling hiss through the teeth.

"Oh, it's great." She fell back against a heavy bag for support, wondering if Lorenza had just cracked all her eggs. Sure felt like it. She didn't plan on having children, but the option would have been nice. "Making me all tingly down below."

As much as she hated to admit it, Lorenza felt lucky that Carmen had released her. She had worried that her kick wouldn't have enough behind it to force the other boxer to do that. Thankfully, she had been wrong. Carmen did let go, and stumbled backwards into the heavy bags.

One other thing surprised Lorenza. She felt a very brief pang of regret in the pit of her stomach for hitting Carmen there. Nothing was off-limits in this match, sure. And she had never shown any mercy in any of her fights on the streets of Tijuana. But Carmen was her friend, her hermana, and it felt wrong, in some way, hitting her in that sensitive spot.

But Lorenza didn't have time to second-guess herself, and those thoughts were gone in an instant. She would turn herself over onto her hands and knees, slowly trying to rise up onto her feet. "That was the plan," Lorenza replied, running a hand across her abs. They were still aching after that dropkick. Her spine was worse. The elbow drop had really done a number on it, and Lorenza felt a sharp, pinching pain in her back that would be nagging her for hours.