Catch Your Breath

It wasn't often that Alaina hit someone and recoiled at their reaction. This was one of those times. Her punch hit right where she hoped it wouldn't and she gasped. "Ohhhh shit! I am so sorry! I didn't mean to hit ya there are you all right?" Alaina asked sounding clearly concerned.

Alaina walked up behind Valley and put her hand on the woman's shoulder, standing next to her and looking to her face, waiting for Valley to remove her hands. "I'm sorry, I just get so fired up when I train that I get carried away...."

Valley waved Alaina off as she backed away to the corner, snorting hard to suck up the blood. And there was blood. Not too bad, she was hardly having a fountain leak. Busted, not broken. Still, a wee bit embarrassing for what was supposed to be a simple spar. "I'm fine." She sniffed. "I think."

She brought her hand down, took a few more whiffs to test her nose out, then wiped the blood away again. "Think I'm gonna take a little time out, is all. Plug it up with some tissue." She looked over her shoulder at Haley. "You want back in, baby?"

Valley had barely finished speaking when a silver haired blur dashed past her, charging towards Alaina. Haley had been watching the back and forth spar excitedly, getting more and more eager to get back into the ring. Valley's nose being busted just fired her up more.

Heading towards Alaina at full steam, Ace leaped upwards as she closed the distance, kicking both bare feet out in an attempted dropkick at Alaina's chest.

Alaina was concerned about Valley and had honestly forgotten about Ace for a moment. However, she looked over and her eyes widened as Ace was already up in the air by the time Alaina registered what was going on. The big dropkick served as Alaina's reminder that Ace was still there!

Alaina was dropped by Ace like a sack of potatoes, thudding against the mat back-first. "ugh..." Alaina coughed out, as the dropkick hit her so hard that the wind was knocked out of her. Alaina laid on the mat, trying her best to get her breath back. However, right now in her state she was more or less cannon fodder for a fired up Ace!

Oh man that felt good. It sucked being eager to fight and watching from the outside.

Grabbing Alaina's leg, Ace quickly twisted herself around it, grabbing Alaina's other leg and placing it in position, bent and on top of her straight leg, draping her other leg over it and locking the hold in place by falling to her back, locking Alaina in a figure four leg lock hold, more than enough to last the 2 seconds...though it wouldn't be a fun couple of seconds for the Amazon.

Alaina was on her back when she felt Ace grabbing onto her legs.  Still worn and taken by surprise she knew bad news when she saw it.  Ace grabbing onto her legs for a hold of some sort was plenty bad.

"No no no!"  Alaina frantically muttered as she began to frantically kick her legs and keep Ace from locking in anything.  It was too little, too late. Ace had her locked in and Alaina felt a surge of pain. The dropkick was like a freight train and the hold was applied good and hard. Alaina wasn't sure if it was because of her causing Valley to bleed, or the chance she was getting in her triple threat match, or both. Either way Alaina felt like that might have been a bit extra there although she couldn't entirely blame Ace.

Alaina gave the mat a hard slap and let out a sigh as she got up. Sure she got better, but these two really got better. She put her hands on her head and walked around the ring a second before heading over to Ace and Valley. "Like, good job Ace. You really know how to kick off a match and keep the momentum." Alaina said before looking at Valley. "Val, you are OK right? Do you want me to take a look at that?"

Valley had just gotten back from a quick trip to the first aid box when Haley scored the pin, beating Alaina in record time. Even if it was a spar, that was blazingly fast, but that did seem to be the level she was at, these days.

”Hm?” She snapped back to attention and looked up at Alaina. ”No, I'm fine, just a little blood leak. Not the first time, won't be the last.”

Ace released the figure four almost as quickly as she had applied it, not wanting to actually damage the amazon.

"Glad to hear you're alright babe. So girls, wanna call a break, or keep going?"

As much as Alaina wanted to keep going she had to take a step back and look things over. Sure she got a workout, but each time she faced Ace she was slapped in a hold she couldn't escape right way in very short order. If you asked her before today which of them was a better wrestler she felt she could make a good case for herself. After stepping in there with Ace, she was fairly certain that Ace has pulled ahead. As much as it hurt her pride she was happy to see a younger woman like Ace moving up the way she did.

"I ah, I'm good I think." Alaina said, rubbing her chest where the dropkick hit her before climbing through the ropes to the outside. She was mostly over the embarrassment of a quick hold and out, but she always had stubborn pride. Swallowing that pride and walking away from a spar with friends on the losing end wasn't a horrible thing.... it just wasn't the best thing either. No matter, Alaina simply knew she had to put in more work and had learned today so she was leaving with more than she came in with. "So.... whats next?"

That was the question, wasn't it? What next?

It had been a good year for Valley, certainly better than the one before, and she hadn't done all that badly today, either. But, as she stood ringside and looked up at the two younger wrestlers - a former champion and a future one - she couldn't help but feel a little left in the dust. Like there was some key ingredient she still lacked that they had.

She brushed the thought aside for now, but it wouldn't totally go away. A nagging itch in the back of her head. "For now, I think I'm going to head home for the night, sleep it off and recharge for tomorrow." She rubbed her head and stepped back towards her gym bag, eager for a shower. "Catch you guys later?"