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

Styx thought she knew pain, that she understood it well and completely. She'd become accustomed to it ever since she'd left home, both with dealing it and taking it. It was something familiar to her, and while soaking up damage could slow her down, it was rarely enough to stop her outright.

So, in a way, she had to thank Adrian. This match had introduced Styx to an entirely new level of agony, and she'd thought she had seen the height of it when her legs were being pulled out of the ring. She was expecting to just take a kneeshot on the post, or maybe get crotched on it if Adrian was in a particularly crazy mood - which she clearly was, so that was a near certainty. But what actually happened was more creative and a lot more painful.

Styx broke into screams. She didn't like it, but she couldn't help it, like her body was going off pure instincts now that it was taking such massive pain. It wasn't the first submission hold she'd ever endured, not even the first figure-four, but it was by far and away the most damaging. She could feel bone cracking, tendons snapping, and every little bit of pain shot through her leg like razor-sharp daggers.

Oh, and there was the referee again. In her face. "Do you want to give up? Are you-"

Styx reached out and grasped the referee's shirt, like she was just desperate for anything to hold on to. "I...I'm going to..."

She didn't bother completing the sentence. Instead, she jerked the referee down and slammed her face into the mat, drilling her hard right into the floor. The bitch wasn't unconscious, but the blow had made her groggy, taken her out oft he world for a moment. Which meant she wouldn't hear anything that came next.

Styx leaned forward and started tapping. Loud. Making sure that Adrian could hear it...

Adrian's head was turning purple as she hung on, blood dripping down and her teeth gritted as she kept her hold on River. She knew she couldn't hold on forever, she was already feeling woozy just from just this, but all she needed was just a few seconds more, a few more seconds and River would tap out and then she could go home. Just a few seconds more....


There! The sound of Styx's hand smacking against the mat, couldn't have been anything else. She had done it, Adrian had proved to the world just what it meant to be a Hardcore Wrestler. She tried letting herself down as easy as possible, trying to negate the pain in her everything from the landing as she rolled over on the outside of the ring, one arm raised in victory "Woooo...."

Styx breathed the loudest, longest, deepest sigh of relief in her entire life when Adrian let go off the hold. That had been close. Way, way, too close. If the referee hadn't gotten so close to her, she might've had to actually tap out instead of just pretending.

Luckily, though, phase one of her incredibly tenuous and hastily thought up plan had worked perfectly. She sat up and saw Adrian dazed, staggering around like she'd won the match, oblivious to the fans trying to warn her otherwise. Now she just had to capitalize.

That was going to require her body to do many things it just did not feel like doing. Such as rolling out of the ring and standing up, which was an incredible hassle. As soon as she put her feet on the floor, her legs buckled, and she had to use the apron for support just to pull herself back up. It also required her to move after Adrian, which she had to do with hobbling steps, hurting every bit of the way.

But she made it. Styx managed to come up behind and grab her by the back of the hair, securing it with a solid grip. She jerked to the side and brought Adrian's face down towards to the nearby announcer's table, trying to slam it with whatever authority she had left.

Adrian had already begun celebrating before she even made it too her feet, deaf to the world and all other things as relief and joy washed over her. "Wooooo! Beers on me, as soon as the doctors say I can drink again... maaaybe a little before then..." she slurred as she staggered up, using the ring post for support as River crawled away from the wreckage that was the state of her legs.

But Adrian's jubilation was a somewhat muted one, where was the ref to raise her hand? Where was the god damn ring bell? River had tapped out, clear as day: so why wasn't anyone announcing her victory. "Come on, make with the formalities!" She demanded from the time keeper as she reached for the microphone. If no-one else was going to announce her victory then she was going to do it herself and loopy as she may have been, she could still probably take the timekeeper in a fight. "Here is your winner via submission, from Philadelphia Pennsylvania: Adriaannn Ky-" She began before her whole party stopped, the bald brawler having managed to get up and slam her face-first into the announce table. "Sore loser..." she coughed out in defiance.

Just like Styx had hoped, Adrian was completely oblivious to the way things actually were. Truth told, she could harmly blame the Philly girl. After all the damage she'd taken, Styx was scarcely aware of what was going on, herself. She had a headache that could lay out an elephant, she was bleeding all over, and she had more broken bones and bruises than she would be able to count if she'd taken a straight hour just to do it.

But she could stand. She could finish this. Barely.

She was tempted to give Adrian some crap about the sore loser thing, but truth told, she wasn't wrong. Even if Adrian had won, this would still be happening. After that fight, there was no way she got to leave   on her own two feet. "You're half right."

With one hand still grippign Adrian's hair tight, Styx let loose with a fierce uppercut into Adrian's stomach, trying to get her to bend over and knock the wind out of her. Crucial for what was coming next...

Adrian wheezed out a horrible sounding retch as her stomach was smashed in by River's uppercut, sending the cosplayer reeling down on all fours with a nasty looking blood splotch on the announce table, a little memento as to where she'd headbutted the damn thing.

She was pretty much done, whatever happened next the chances of the cosplayer being able to do anything about it were slim to none. She'd burnt off the last of her adrenaline with her preemptive victory celebration and was now left with nothing in the tank, just lucid enough to get some last defiant words in. "You..." she breathed out, pushing herself back up to her knees. "Tapped.... Out."

Styx was done. Done with Adrian Kytes. Done with this stupid audience. Done with the match. Her body was begging for a rest, and she was very, very inclined to grant the wish. She'd never been to a spa before, but someway, somehow, that was exactly what was going to happen tomorrow. Just find a jacuzzi, take off her clothes, get in and soak.

But all the same, she was going to finish this. She had just one more move left in her tank, and there was no question on what it would be.

"Did I now?" She breathe out as well, sounding about as winded as Adrian did. She threw a quick glance at the English announcer's table and smirked. Time for the finale.

She grabbed Adrian's head and forced it between her legs, putting her in the familiar position. The announcers and the time keepers scattered, knowing full well what was about to happen, and hundreds upon hundreds of the audience members got their cameras ready. They might not like what was about to happen, but that wouldn't stop them from taking a picture of it.

She grabbed Adrian by the waist, lifted her up on her shoulders, took a step forward and brought her down hard on the announcer's table, smashing it to pieces with a thunderous impact.

Adrian couldn't do much but groan as she was pulled up onto River's shoulders, she knew what was coming next but her arms were too tired to try what had saved her early on in the match. No fists of fury from the cosplayer this time, just the brunette bracing herself as best she could for a very painful landing.

The table imploded with the impact, all the pieces crumpling into a neat pile with the newly unconscious Adrian lying in the middle, her face covered in a hideous mess of hair and blood as she remained perfectly still on her back, head resting on one side.

Adrian had put Styx's body through the ringer, there was no question about that. No way to deny it. It wasn't the first time she'd taken a pounding in a fight, but it was easily the most damage she'd incurred in a single match at the AFW, and a strong contender for the most she'd ever taken period. Usually, she would be feeling the pain from a fight for days. Weeks, with the worst of them.

This fight, though, would leave its marks for months. She would be thinking of Adrian Kytes every time she sat down or went up a staircase, for quite some time. Even with that in mind, though, she almost had to say it was all worth it, just for the thrill of putting Adrian through the announcer's desk. Almost.

Styx's first inclination was to beat on Adrian while she was down, to make damn sure she stayed down this time, but she saw there was no need. She wasn't moving. Hardly breathing. And as fun as it would've been, her body was done with this match even if her mind wasn't. She could always fuck up Adrian later. Why rush?

Styx limped her way back to the ring, reached in, and yanked the referee out, dragging her groggy body across the mat by her wrist. She brought her over to the decimated desk, dropped down, and placed her knee on the center of her fallen foe's chest. "Count."

The referee didn't look like she knew what planet she was on, but thankfully she still remembered her job. She brought her hand up and started to count, as the audience began a steady - and pointless - 'You tapped out!' chant. Styx gave not a single shit.

"1...!"

"Two...!"

Adrian didn't register the count had started... or pretty much anything at all from the world of the living. The referee could have counted to one hundred and the reaction would have been the same from the fallen cosplayer, much to the crowds dispear as they tried to will a second wind that was never going to come.

This match had taken a lot from the brunette, and depending on how vindictive River was feeling about it might not have finished taking stuff from her prone body, but if there was one thing she could smile to herself about when she woke up in the hospital it was she'd given as good as she'd taken. She'd faced off against one of the baddest bitches in the company and nearly crippled her, she'd proved that there was much more to hardcore matches than just taking turns to swing heavy objects and that River wasn't the only person who could mix it up like that. 

She'd be back eventually, it might take a week, it might take a month, it might take a year, but the cosplayer would be back for River. She wasn't going to forget or forgive the stunt she pulled to snatch what should have been Adrian's victory away from her, and when she did get back: River better hope her legs were fully healed by then, because otherwise she'd have a bullseye on both knees, against a woman who knew how to exploit it.

But for tonight, victory was Styx's. By hook or by crook she had won, and no matter how much the crowd jeered, the bald woman would at least be partially able to walk away from this chaos.

"Three! Ring the bell, it's over."