Adrian Kytes vs. River Styx - No Guts, No Glory

There was that sound. That familiar crash, followed by a slight shake in the ring. It was unmistakeable, though this was the first time she could remember hearing it and not being the one making the noise.

The sweet sound of a chair thwacking against the canvas.

Even if she hadn't recognized it, the crowd would've clued her in as they went apeshit. She knew it was coming, but she might as well have been tied to the train tracks for all the good that knowledge was doing her.

The pain came soon enough, as Adrian swung the chair like she could've knocked Stxy's bones out of her body. She let out a hoarse cry as her back arched from the pain, and even though her shoulders took more than their fair share of the blow, her spine still wound up getting demolished. She fell forward and wound up with her chest dangling on the middle rope and her arms flailing, the only thing saving her from falling flat.

The crowd cheered as Adrian leveled River once again with her steel chair, the impact almost bouncing the chair out of her hand as the brunette delivered yet more punishment to Styx's spine, sending the big brawler down into the ropes as Adrian was once again on the hunt for blood. 

Rolling outside of the ring at the same side River was leaning on, the cosplayer turned back around with a manic grin on her face as she looked up at the bleeding bald woman, evil intentions running through her mind as she held up her chair, swinging the steel overhead as she looked to make her mark on the hardcore division, with a vicious chair shot to River's head.

Styx's eyes were shut tight with the pain as she tried to push off the ropes. Couldn't make it. Couldn't even get a solid grip of them before gravity got the better of her and she was sent right back against them. Her mind was racing, trying to come up with some sort of plan, some way to get back into what was left of the fight, but that would've involved getting back to her feet or at least getting off the goddamn middle rope. Neither seemed to be in the cards.

She opened her right eye just enough to see some guy in to the front row with what appeared to be a hastily-drawn poster for 'ADRAN KYTES'. Even with the mispelling, it was a good little indicator of just how poorly this fight had gone for Styx in the last minute. She should've been demolishing Adrian by now. Instead, she was the one on the guillotine, ready to get chopped.

That view was blocked when Adrian, with a crazed look that should've been on Styx's face, blocked her view. She glanced up right as the chair came down and crashed against her forehead, instantly splitting it wide open. That was enough to make her body jerk off the ropes, and she slid off them right to her back, groaning all the way down. Looking up at the ceiling once more, arms at her side, blood trailing down the side of her bald skull.

"Woooo!" Adrian called out as River slumped off the ropes, the cosplayer staggering around ringside giddy with sadistic excitement... among other things... painful things, but never mind that: she was kicking all the ass! "Do you see!?" She yelled, slapping her chest. "Do you see what happens when you mess with the Warrior!? Ahaha!" she continued to taunt as she moved to the steps, keeping her chair under her arm. She had a great idea of how to end it and River was oh so gracious as to flop into position.

Pinning the blood-splattered chair to her side, she walked up the steps onto the apron and started to pull herself up to the top rope, images of her Summer Splash match flashing in her mind as she stood up on the top rope looking down on the fallen Brawler with a smile on her face, jumping off into the air and kicking her body to the side for a big elbow drop, looking to drive the chair deep into River's chest.

Styx groaned as Adrian did her little showboating act around the ring. As if the predicament itself wasn't bad enough, she had to put up with shit like this on top of it. Playing around, yucking it up, Devil-May-Care. There was still plenty of pain all over Styx's body, but there was a deep-seated raged swelling up underneath it all. She wasn't done yet. She wasn't finished. Before this match was through, she was going to break the cocky little bitch in half. She wasn't quite sure how yet, but the opportunity would come, and when it did...

It was a lovely, warming thought, but a small comfort. She had to deal with the current reality, and that included the chair-enhanced elbow drop heading her way at  terminal velocity.

She didn't even have time to tense up before the blow landed, crashing into her and feeling like it drove straight to the bone. Styx's body moved on autopilot now, reacting without a single thought of consent as it went into a spastic fit. She flopped over towards the center of the ring, twice, until she came to a stop on her side, curling up into the fetal position. All she could manage to do was close her eyes tights, grit her teeth, and bring a hand to her chest in a weak effort to massage the pain away. Didn't work. Not by a mile.

Adrian landed on top of River with a sickening crunch as her elbow crashed against the steel of the chair to drive it into Styx's chest, she regretted doing it instantly, it might have been one thing with the leg drop much earlier, but she had been able to roll straight off of that to the floor, negating some of the impact back on her. No such luck this time. It felt like she had landed arm-first on concrete or a steel beam for how solid it all felt, the pain of the impact snapping the cosplayer out of her giddy rage and leaving her cradling her arm on the mat, trying to fight back the tears as she shuffled herself, trying to lay back on top of River desperate for that to have this all finished.

Styx needed a breather. Desperately.

The bleeding was getting bad. Not quite as pressing as the time when Odessa opened up the back of her skull, but rapidly approaching that point. A little red pool was starting to gather under head as she laid on her side, and some of the blood even managed to seep into her eye. It stung like blazes, but she hardly even noticed it. Just one more drop of pain amidst an ocean.

"1...!"

It wasn't any surprise when she felt Adrian move on top of her and go for the pin count. Styx was  a broken, bloody, bruised, battered, beaten mess on the floor, smashed under her repeated assaults. The audience counted along, anticipation clear in their united voices, eagerly waiting for the moment when the foul beast was slain by their conquering hero.

"2...!"

But this wasn't some fairty tale, Adrian wasn't some knight in shining armor, and Styx wasn't a fire-breathing dragon. It was real life, and in real life she wasn't losing like this, to a woman like this, in front of a crowd like this, in a match like this. She refused.

Styx's hand shot up and broke the pin, with only inches to spare before the referee's hand hit the mat. The crowd roared in frustration, and she made her feelings clear with a middle finger aimed at them all. No matter how much damage she took, there was always one emotion Styx could count on to pull her through a match.

Hate.

The shock resonated throughout the arena, every fan looking on in disbelief as to what they were seeing, Adrian had put away champions with her diving elbow drop without the chair, and now River hand somehow managed to survive an augmented version? "Fuck my life..." Adrian groaned as she rolled off River, still cradling her arm in pain as she tried to put a bit of distance between herself and the bald brawler. 

What could she really do more at this point? She'd pretty much mangled a steel chair on Styx's everything and it only got her 2.99999, which might have only been a 0.00001 count short of a victory but it was still short. What else was there really to do? She'd busted her open badly so maybe wait until she passed out from blood loss? The cosplayer had hurt her own arm so she wasn't about to try and dunk the bigger woman head first onto something any time soon, "Guess I gotta think of something..." she mused to herself, that's what hardcore matches were all about really. Finding the most creative way to do enough damage to put down someone who would probably shake off a gun shot.

Styx tried to laugh at Adrian's aggravation, but she was cut off before she could even get in a good chuckle. Her innards were not in a position to laugh. In fact, they were hardly in a position to breathe. Something was broken inside. A lot of somethings. She tried to take a mental tally of the damage she'd incurred.

Her leg felt sprained or broken or some shit from the stupid guard rail.

Her spine wasn't broken, but something felt out of place back there.

Ribs were broken. She couldn't tell how many.

Oh, and her face still ached from eating that stupid dropkick at the start of the match.

Styx hadn't been inside a doctor's office for years, but after this, she'd have to consider making use of her AFW insurance plan. Crap like this, she couldn't just shrug off. She didn't have much of a plan, but she knew that any comeback she  made was going to have to be on her feet, so with that in mind she tried rolling towards the ropes. Tried.

What actually happened was that she didn't have quite the strength to lift up, so she wound up bouncing towards the turnbuckle. Probably not the best position with Adrian.

Adrian shuffled her way over to the ropes, gripping them with one hand to try and help herself back to her feet, no adrenaline fueled kip-ups tonight, things hurt too much for that to be within the realm of possibility... until of course she got hit in the head hard enough that she forgot to feel pain, but that would probably have other issues, like concussions. "Nggh..." the brunette grunted as she pulled herself up to her knees, still leaning against the ropes as she turned to see River stumble and scramble her way to the corner. "Okay... let's do this..." she wheezed, pulling herself back up to her feet and over to the bald brawler, ideas popping off like fireworks in her mind as to what to do next.