Haru Fujiwara vs. Carmen Rodriguez - Fool's Gold

If it works, it works, and Carmen's elbow drop definitely worked. Judging from the way Haru rolled over and the pained expression in his eyes, he definitely agreed. If he'd really thought she was just going to lay back and let him have the win, those thoughts were likely fleeing him, right now, and by the time they were all gone, she'd have the win.

Carmen popped up and started to move on him with another strike, even though he was facing down. A kick in the ass was just about what he deserved, but she pulled back before she could start. That wasn't her style, that was his style, and she wasn't stooping. Especially not when she had more interesting options. Submission holds weren't her style, either, but for him, she'd make an exception.

She sat down on his back, making sure to come down a little harder than usual to really let him feel the wait. She reached forward, grabbed her from behind at the chin, and tried to work her knees under his arms to lock in a camel clutch. She only hoped it hurt him as much as the ankle lock did her. She really hoped.

Haru had begun to push up on his elbows and started to get up when Carmen decided to plop down on his back unceremoniously. Her hands found their way to his chin and began to pull back, arching his upper body enough for her to sneakily slip her knees under his biceps and set up her camel clutch.

To say that it hurt was an understatement, hanging there awkwardly while someone tried to pull your head off your shoulders. But what Haru felt more than pain was anger, he was mad at the rate things were going. Here she was manhandling him to the tune of a roaring crowd, while he struggled to retaliate.

Haru wasn't about to tolerate that for long. At first he tried with his arms, but Haru had never been in a real clutch before, and maneuvering your arms was harder than it looked. He resolved to using his legs instead, trying to find some traction so that he could get his knees under himself and get that woman off of him.

The Camel Clutch was satisfying. A lot more than Carmen would have guessed. True, it slowed down the pace more than just beating Haru senseless, but weakening the back was an option she didn't usually explore. So far, she liked the results, and she pulled him back even further to test them, enjoying the knowledge that he was hating every second of this.

On a smaller opponent she might have been able to do it indefinitely, but against a guy like Haru there was only so far she could go. He was making his way up, slowly and surely, and there was no way her weight would be able to keep him down for much longer. Fortunately, it didn't have to.

As soon as he managed to get his knees up, Carmen tried to switch holds - she wrapped her legs around his waist, reached around his neck with both arms, jerked back and went for a rear naked choke, squeezing at the middle and the top.

With each second and heave of his chest, Haru worked his knees in closer and slowly gained ground. It started to relieve some of the ache in his neck and back and that's how he knew she was losing her control of the hold.

With a triumphant smile Haru made it up to his knees, regaining control of his arms as he reached behind him, trying to grab any part of Carmen he could get his hands on. But while his arms were searching for revenge, she was salvaging the situation and moving on.

The hands were gone from his chin and instead replaced with her arms, trading a painful hold for a dangerous one as she started trying to choke him out. He felt the heels of her foot dig into his waist and her chest press tightly against his back, and then a jerking motion as she pulled him back onto the canvas. Instantly his arms went to fight against Carmen's arms, trying to pry her arms away from crushing his throat.

"You....bitch..." Haru choked through gritted teeth. This was bad for him, really bad. It was already hard to breathe and her arms were making that task harder by the second. He estimated he had a maybe fifteen, twenty seconds till he passed out, and there was no way he was going to tap out to her.

Summoning his strength, Haru kept one hand fighting against Carmen's arms while the other he used to raise his elbow up and then ram it back down as hard as he could into her side, over and over, like an animal in a death frenzy.

Some people thought that, because Carmen was a boxer, she was short on lower body strength, that she couldn't put any real amount of force into a scissor hold. After all, boxing relied on fists, so why bother with the legs?

Those people were idiots. Even if she couldn't kick in a boxing match, her legs were just as important as her arms, maybe more so in some ways. A punch, a true punch, started below the waist, and she'd mastered footwork down to a science. She'd trained them well, pushed them like any other part of her body. So when it came time to use them and throw new moves into her repetoire, she was ready.

"Language." She gripped Haru even tighter in the hold and bore down. She was disgusted to even touch a pig like this and have their body's rubbing against each other, but the look of pain on his struggling face was more than worth the trouble. She'd be watching this a few times on Youtube.

The blows in her side were a different story. Those she could only take so much of, and after about four good hits in the ribs, she was done. Carmen let Haru go and pushed him off so she could lay on her side and nurse her battered bones, hissing as she ran her hands over them.

Haru's vision began to blacken a little when Carmen began to squeeze tighter after his comment about her. Gradually his strikes began to weaken as he started to fade mentally, and he started to panic as he considered the fact that he might actually lose.

However he didn't have long to fret however, he was thrust back to reality when suddenly he found he could breathe again. Haru gasped for air like a fish stranded from water, taking long painful gulps.

That had been way too close for his liking, way too close to letting that woman beat him. She was not to be underestimated again, there'd be time for gloating and showboating when she was for sure down for the count.

Shaking the cobwebs from his head and spots from his vision, Haru pulled himself over to the corner post, dragging himself up from there. His last ditch efforts seemed to have stalled Carmen for now, giving him time to collect himself. Enough playing around, it was time to finish things.......after a few more seconds of rest.

The good news was that Carmen's holds did their job and weakened Haru enough that he couldn't immediately follow up and pay her back for the damage she'd done. He was the sort of guy that liked to bring as much pain as he could as often as he could, so if he wasn;t hammering her into the ground, it was because he was physically unable to, not because he'd suddenly gotten a merciful streak.

The bad news was that she knew that familiar, sore, stinging pain in her insides. A couple of her ribs was broken.

She couldn't tell which for sure and it hardly mattered. Maybe an injury from an earlier fight coming back to bite her, maybe something he'd just gotten lucky with and hit in the exact right way. It was besides the point - he had a distinct advantage now, and if he found out about it...

She stood up as quickly as she could, eager to put him away and end this before it got even nastier. Carmen moved towards him and lashed out with a kick, trying to plant her boot in his stomach and hammer him into the corner post, right where he belonged.

Haru saw that Carmen was coming at him again, damn this chick was relentless. He heaved himself up just in time for Carmen's boot to smack his stomach, slumping him over into the corner again. Or had it? Haru looked up with a gleeful expression, for in the process of taking her kick he had also gotten a hold of her foot. Quite the worth the pain he thought.

Haru rose up from the corner lifting Carmen's leg up high, past the point that was probably not comfortable for anyone who wasn't a gymnast or at least extremely flexible. He stared her in the eye while he backed her up closer to the center of the ring, far from any pesky ropes or hopes of escape. His lips curved upward into a smirk and he winked at her before delivering a harsh uppercut to the back of her knee, shoving her leg back at her. That certainly put a bit of pep back in his step, now her knee was decimated just like his own.

"Karma's a bitch, aint she?"

There was a moment of relief when Carmen struck Haru with the knee and sunk it deep. The plan was a simple one - hit him until he fell down and couldn't get up anymore. Punches, kicks, headbutts, suplex and submissions, whatever and however and whenever she could get them in..

That plan was shot to hell when Carmen realized she couldn't pull her foot back.

Carmen had to hop back as he pushed her towards the center of the ring. She knew how to do an enziguri reasonably well, but her leg was up to high for it, the positioning was awkward. All she could do was try to pull away while he pushed on, and she knew he wouldn't be content with just that for long.

The uppercut struck the back of her knee right in the tibial nerve and sent shockwaves up and down her leg. Carmen fell on her back, hard, and grasped her leg as a string of muttered Latin curses dropped from her lips.

Having your knee blasted wasnt so fun, was it? Seeing Carmen's pain just added fuel to Haru's fire, and having learned from his last mistakes, he knew exactly how to proceed. Pain, pain, pain, pain, then gloat. He still owed her a few elbow drops and a nasty sleeper hold, but he had other ideas he'd rather try out.

But the most important part was not to give her any time time to rest and make a comeback. Haru hobbled over and took a fistful of hair, dragging her up to her feet. He pushed her head down between his legs, took a few seconds to gather strength, and then lifted Carmen up so that she was practically sitting on his shoulders. Carmen had a few seconds to retaliate as Haru found his balance and got a good grip, but then she was falling from the sky to the mat in a powerbomb.