Kyo Akamatsu Vs. Kara Vela

As Kara tries to get up, she doesn’t try to hold back a torrent of curses to distract from the pain spiking through her chest and body. Despite her hurry Kara rises to her knees with what feels like agonizing slowness, bracing herself for Kyo to be on her at any moment. But the blow doesn’t come. She sweeps her eyes around the ring and locks eyes with Kyo, himself only getting to his feet. Apparently even Kyo’s endless energy had its limits.

She heard his raspy compliment barely over the sound of the crowd’s cheering for the experienced wrestler nearly escape. She would have replied to his compliment, if she had the breath to do it. Instead she just nods in acknowledgement, and she hopes return the compliment. But compliments won’t win her the match, getting to her feet will. She hurries to stand up, not wanting to test how long Kyo is willing to wait for her. But to her surprise Kyo hangs back, circling her instead.

‘Must have done something with those last hits,’ she thinks to herself.

Instead of circling Kyo she opens her stance, bracing for the next blow. To make sure that Kyo comes at her, she points at gives him a “come at me” gesture. She also tries to put on a cocky smile but her sweat covered face and tired posture somehow lacks a cocky swagger.

The crowd was ecstatic now, chanting and stomping in unison as the two battered warriors returned to their feet, engaging in a tense staredown as they did so. Across from him, Kyo saw Kara nod in response to his comment. At this point, the two of them were both standing again-- wobbling a little, but standing nonetheless, and Kyo knew that they were getting to the point where getting back up would just get harder from this point on.

The Samurai circled, but was taken by surprise as the weary Kara nonetheless grinned at him and gestured for him to come at her. Normally, he would have paused, suspecting that his opponent was up to something, but any kind of planning was shoved to the back of his mind by fatigue. Instead, he obliged Kara, running forwards to deliver a hard forearm chop above her chest, hoping that this would tell her that he still meant business!

Kara doesn’t really hear the crowd chanting, or her friends cheering her from the sidelines. All she’s focused on is Kyo illuminated by the ring lights, and just how tired she is. Every move she makes feels slow and tiring, like she’s walking underwater. But despite how tired she was everything seemed so clear, so vivid. Like now when Kyo starts thundering across the mat towards her she watches each muscle pull and push him towards her. She has to remind herself to do something when he gets to her.

‘Well I got what I asked for,’ Kara thinks to herself as Kyo comes straight at her.

Just as Kyo swings Kara moves, but instead of dodging to the side she steps into Daisuke’s swing. Both to make the hit come at an awkward angle, and to catch Kyo by surprise.

Kyo’s forearm bites into her collarbone and stings, if not as badly if she had just stood still as she closes the distance. The thought crosses her mind that she should be glad to be in a fair fight, a less sportsmanlike wrestler might have aimed that blow a little lower.

But she didn’t intend to just stand there as a punching bag. She reaches up to grab Kyo by the shoulders like a boxer in a clinch. If she manages to tie him up she will wait a moment before trying to drive her knee into Kyo’s abdomen, once twice, however many times she can before her fatigue catches up with her or Kyo gets out of it.

Somehow, Kyo forced himself to get moving again, and somehow, he managed to close the distance to deliver a strong forearm chop just above Kara's chest. (Not against her chest directly, he still had principles after all). Kara simply stood there and took it, grunting as Kyo's arm slammed against her blue-clad upper body, flinching but staying standing. The defiant look on her eyes told Kyo that she didn't plan on dropping again any time soon.

Her response, however, surprised Kyo, as she grabbed his shoulders in a surprise grapple, a move that caused his own arms to tie up with hers instinctively. For a brief second, the two of them were eye to eye, face to face...just before Kara's knee ploughed into his midsection. "UUUGH!" Kyo grunted, doubling over so that his forehead rested against Kara's shoulder, before another knee slammed into him again. His body jolted with each blow, and his breathing became ragged. Gritting his teeth and breathing hard against Kara's shoulder, Kyo suddenly pushed away from her and twisted, trying to send a blind right hook across her face.

Once, twice, three times her knee buried itself in Kyo’s abs. Driving her knee into a solid wall of muscle wasn’t easy but Kara’s nothing if not persistent. With each blow she can feel Kyo’s breathing growing more ragged, and for a moment she hoped that his tank had finally been drained.

But of course Kyo wasn’t going to let her beat him into submission. After the third knee her grip on his shoulders comes lose as Kyo pushes her off. She tries to get close and keep the pressure up, but she didn’t see Kyo’s fist sweeping towards her. The hit connects square with her jaw, jerking her head sideways and sending her world tumbling into a dizzy confusing mess.

It takes Kara a good few seconds to keep herself from toppling over. Seconds she didn’t have with Kyo right in her face. Still dazed from the hit, Kara will lash out at Kyo with her left foot, aiming to drive the tip of her boot into Kyo’s legs or at least make him keep his distance.

Kyo felt his knuckles impact across Kara's jaw as he spun, the movement causing him to almost fall over as his aching body protested. He was forced to right himself, wasting a few vital seconds as he breathed hard and braced himself against his knees. After those repeated body blows, Kyo knew that he didn't have much left to go on. He had to end this match, and quickly.

Taking a deep breath, he turned to face Kara again. Unfortunately, Kara was a fraction of a second quicker at turning to face him this time, and a white boot lashed out at him. He swerved to avoid it, but the tip of the boot still slammed against his thigh just above his knee. He winced, feeling his leg wobble and give way under the impact.

Dropping down to his knees, he realized he was in a bad position. Not able to do much else, he tired to propel himself forwards, hoping to ram a shoulder into her midsection. If that managed to stun Kara, then he would try to wrap his arms around her waist and stand up, lifting her up in a bear hug. He wasn't used to relying purely on upper body strength like this, and it wasn't like he had a strength or weight advantage over Kara...plus, the position would cause him to blush as he felt Kara's chest press up against the side of his head, but he would nonetheless try soften her with the bear hug, if only to weaken his tough opponent.

‘Good hit,’ Kara thinks to herself as her boot finds its mark. ‘Really good considering I was swinging half blind.’

But just a good hit isn’t enough to keep Kyo off as Kara finds that out the hard way. Just as her foot sets down Kyo surprises her by going straight from zero to bulrush. In the step and a half between them he charges from his kneeling position and straight towards Kara. She tries to backpedal away but her body only sluggishly responds. Too slow to run, too slow to block. Kyo’s shoulder dives straight into Kara’s stomach, folding her abs around the it and driving the air from her lungs. All she can do is try to gasp for air as she’s practically draped over Kyo.

But it soon becomes clear that Kyo isn’t content with just hitting her, as she feels Kyo straighten up and wrap his arms around her. She manages a desperate and pretty undignified yelp for air before he locks her into his bearhug. Immediately her tired body folds into Kyo’s embrace, her spine bends as she’s scooped up and her lungs are squeezed for every ounce of air left in her. Had she been in better shape she might have found the spot she found herself in exciting, or blush at Kyo’s head rubbing against her breasts. As things are all she notices is the pain.

She pushes desperately at Kyo’s shoulders, her mind too deprive of air and energy to think straight any more. She doesn’t think about laying into Kyo’s back, but she does it all the same. She will try to drive her elbows into Kyo again and again, no stopping until Kyo’s let go or she loses consciousness, whichever comes first.

Truth to be told, Kyo was fighting on fumes at this point: his head was still pounding from that earlier blow that had nearly floored him, and in his current position, he was pouring all of his available strength into the bearhug. He was beginning to feel the strain-- not just the muscle strain of holding up someone of Kara's weight, but also the feeling of Kara's firm abdominals resisting him even as his arms closed tightly around her waist. His eyes were closed at this point as he breathed through clenched teeth, and even as he heard Kara breathing hard and pushing desperately against him, he knew that he wouldn't be able to make her tap or pass out-- all he could do was soften her up while he tried to recover.

Breathing hard, even as he felt and heard Kara doing the same, he tried to push forwards, closing the little distance between them and the turnbuckle to inelegantly slam Kara's back against the corner post. He did that no so much to hurt her (indeed, he didn't build up enough momentum for the slam to even do that), but to brace her against the corner post in preparation for a suplex. Before he could even do that, however, Kara's elbow came hammering down against his back. "UGH!" he gasped, the first blow driving him to his knees. Kara hammered on with a second elbow, a third...each one driving the air from his lungs and leaving him gasping. After the third blow, he toppled to his hands and knees, breathing hard open to retaliation...

Kara doesn’t need to be told that she’s in a bad spot. Her breath’s gone, Kyo’s hold locked in and what’s left of her reserves nearly spent. That would have been bad enough for anyone, but when she feels Kyo push her back into the corner post she doesn’t try to hold back her panic. She doesn’t think about hitting Kyo the first time, or the second, she just hits him and keeps on hitting him.

She only stops when Kyo’s hold slips and he falls to his hands and knees, too beaten to stay standing. Kara gasps for breath the moment Kyo loses his grip, grabbing the top rope to keep herself standing.

But she knows she can’t give Kyo a chance to get back up. They’re both running on fumes and though she normally thrives when trying to outlast her opponent Kyo’s proven time and again he can match her stamina. So when she decides what to do next, it’s to finish the fight right here.

She grabs Kyo by the hair and hauls him to his feet. She will try to wrap her arms around his waist, turn around so her back is to the center of the ring, and brace herself to start her signature Death Roll.

Deep down, Kyo knew that it wasn't stamina, or resilience, or anything like that-- it was sheer, stubborn determination. And even that was starting to fail him: as he slumped to his hands and knees, breathing hard, and felt the leaden weight of his limbs, he wondered if it this point he had the strength or energy left to continue. As hard as he was hitting Kara, she was always hitting back just as hard, and he began to contemplate the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the new girl had him outmatched.

Pain burned in his scalp as his hair was yanked, and he groaned as he was pulled upright. The next thing he knew, Kara's arms were around his waist, and her chest was pressed up against his as she embraced him in a frontal hug. Despite himself, this time Kyo did blush at the close contact and the unexpected embrace. Breathing hard, he twisted in her grip as he tried to free his arms, the motion causing his forehead to press against Kara's and his eyes to lock inches from hers, though he was still too weak from that last hit to free himself.

"Nnngh...bearhug...won't work on me either..." he managed to gasp, although he didn't doubt Kara's strength. Even so, she wasn't squeezing him, which told him she had something else in mind...