Higurashi Dojo-Taylor Parker & Julia Rogers vs. Jessica Wright & River Styx

Still dealing with the pain of her unceremonious drop to the mat, there wasn’t anything Julia could do to prevent Jessica from crawling over to tag her partner in. Before the cowgirl could even start trying to get herself back up off the ground, Styx was already heading right over with bad intentions.

“Gwah!” Julia spat out as a large boot suddenly stomped down and planted itself right onto her stomach. And in the process a good chunk of air was blasted right out of the dojo trainee. But Styx didn’t let up, and continued bearing down on the blonde with her foot. Julia’s hands moved to the boot holding her down and tried to push it off, while squirming around as much as she could. But the unfortunate reality was that Styx’s leg was too strong and heavy to budge so easily. So for the moment, there wasn’t much Julia could do but endure the pain and discomfort, and keep her shoulders up as much as possible to avoid a pin attempt. Though, she suspected someone like Styx would probably have little to no interest in trying to pin her this early on...

Styx kept the pressure on Julia for another few seconds, driving her into the mat as the referee called for her to move away. She ignored it, kept her eyes focused down on the struggling wrestler beneath her heel. She'd seen how quickly things could get out of hand if the cowgirl had some room to breath, so she just had to be crushed before she could get the chance. Bash her around, drop the hammer, get the pin before she can rally back or tag Taylor. Simple.

The whining got annoying enough for her to back off, but only a moment. Styx moved back in as soon as the referee was out of the way and reached down, grabbing two handfuls of Julia's golden hair. She yanked up, pulling the luchadora back to her feet, trying to get her vertical whether her body was ready for it or not.

Julia continued to grunt while struggling through the pain as River’s heel ground into her stomach, but fortunately she wouldn’t have to endure it for long. It was only a matter of seconds before the bigger girl finally removed her boot from the cowgirl, though the blonde was still left breathing heavily as she tried to recover.

But a pair of hands then took a strong grip of Julia’s hair, causing her to yelp as the locks were yanked, and her hands immediately went to grab onto River’s wrists as the cowgirl was brought up to her feet. “Ugh! Let go!” she shouted, before letting go with one hand and firing at Styx’s stomach with a series of quick punches, hoping this might be enough to get her hair released from the tight grip.

Styx was trying to play this whole thing as cold as possible, but she couldn't resist a little chuckle when Julia cried out to be let go. She always found it funny when people said stuff like that. Like she'd actually stop because she was asked to.

"Yeah, sure, I'll-" That was all Styx could get out before she was interrupted by a punch to the stomach, making her cry out with pain and some real surprise. She was expecting some resistance, so the attack itself didn't catch her off guard. She was even expecting Julia to strike as fast as she did. Just not so hard. Far from the strongest punch she'd ever taken, but it hit with way more force than she'd thought the cowgirl had in her. More than your average Friction girl could put out. Enough to really hurt, enough to make her lean forward as the wind was pushed out of her.

Styx snarled as another punch rammed into her gut, with another following right after that, before she finally did what Julia wanted and let her go. She put her freed hands to good use, though, and repaid those three shots with one of her own: a wild, fierce uppercut, aimed at the same spot she'd stomped.

Taylor put her palms to her forehead as after a brief glimmer of hope from Julia, their bigger, meaner opponents took over again. One thing was certain, when they got back from the gym, Julia was going to drill dropkicks and breakfalls until she collapsed on herself like a dying star.

"FUCKING MOVE!" She screamed. "WE DON'T STAY DOWN UNTIL WE'RE DEAD, NO MATTER HOW BAD IT HURTS! C'MON!" She clapped her hands and aggressively urged the crowd to make some noise for the luchadora.

The best and worst thing about training in the Higurashi dojo was that if you made a dumb mistake, they’d make DAMN sure it never happened again. Regardless what else happened tonight, the next training session was guaranteed to be a full demonstration of the meaning of “grueling.” But in the meantime, there was a different giant she had to deal with.

Hearing Taylor in the corner motivated and the growing claps and cheers from the crowd Julia to keep trying to fight her way out of River’s clutches. But those efforts were brought to an abrupt halt when River’s fist drove itself right into Julia’s stomach! “GWAHH!” he masked blonde gasped in pain before slumping to her hands and knees. She tried to breathe, but was finding the task extremely difficult.

Nonetheless, Julia started forcing herself up toward a vertical base again. Come on! Get up! She was inwardly screaming at herself. Her legs wobbled and shook a bit, but still the luchadora was gradually making her way up, unwilling to stay down so long as she could help it!

Styx stepped back and took a breather as Julia slumped down to her knees before her, turning into gasping, wheezing wreck. The crowd showed their appreciation by turning their cheers into jeers, like they were insulted that she'd had the nerve to actually attack their little masked heroine in a wrestling match. Styx simply rubbed her stomach with one hand and flicked her chin at them with the other. The more they booed, the more she knew she was doing something right.

Styx reached out for Julia's hair once again, wanting to drag her back up to her feet, but she stopped halfway. No need to - Julia was making her way up. Slow, yes, but she was doing it.

"Look at the balls on you." She muttered under her breath and capped it off with a snicker, before grabbing Julia by the wrist instead. The defiance didn't bother her. Maybe the cowgirl was tougher than she looked, but if Styx kept hammering her into the mat, she'd stay there. Sooner or later.

She pushed forward, forcing Julia up against the ropes, then pulled back with a sudden jerk. She swung around and sent her off her with an Irish Whip, making sure to get her body weight into the motion for added momentum. When Julia bounced off the ropes and came running back, she'd find a stiff arm waiting to greet her face, swung hard by Styx as she charged forward.

A running lariat. Not something she'd be getting up from anytime soon.

Taylor's fists clenched and her heart pounded like she was the one in the ring. She knew what River was going for, and it sent butterflies through her stomach. As loudly as she could, she screamed at Julia.

"DUCK!"

Julia didn’t let Styx’s condescending taunt or snicker get to her. The cowgirl was hellbent on making it to her feet, and showing she wouldn’t be so easy to put down. Not an easy journey, but she did finally make it, only for her wrist to then be grabbed while she was forced back against the ropes, then off across the ring she was sent!

As she was running into the ropes on the other end of the ring, Julia heard Taylor’s warning from the corner. And just when she turned and started to spring back toward Styx, she saw the big girl charging right at her and swinging her powerful arm. Heeding her mentor’s wise advice, the luchadora ducked down just in time to avoid the potentially devastating lariat, and kept running straight ahead.

Once near the ropes Julia threw herself forward into a handspring and swung her legs right into the top rope. They bounced back down, and the moment her feet hit the ground the high flying luchadora sprung into a backflip while swinging her right leg forward, aiming one of her signature Overhead Kicks right at River’s head!

Jessica held on to the ropes with an iron grip. It was nice to finally get a bit of a breather but it was only really a rest in theory. Despite her body's protests she was jumping and grimacing and biting her lip after every move. She would have thought it prudent if Julia had just stayed down. But she didn't and she deftly dodged the swift uppercut.

The Violent Violet sighed. Julia had slid under the hard swinging uppercut and managed to turn herself around. The athleticism she put on display was impressive, she had to admit. "Come on, miss, you little bitch..." Jessica muttered under her breath.