Tempest Tournament Round 1: Gabbie Desjardin Vs. Neske Alapo

Neske's climb up the ropes to get herself standing was helpfully assisted by a hand grasping on to the back of her neck, pulling her up to her feet. Or, rather, it would be helpful, if Gabbie's grip wasn't there for the express intention of slamming a knee into her open tummy.

"Blech!" was about the most eloquent response Neske could muster as the knee collided, bending over again until her neck rested on the top rope. The fragile footing she had managed on the edge of the mat started to give way as a single foot slipped over the side, her grip on the ropes keeping her in place now.

Gabbie considered, as Neske hung rather precariously against the ropes, that giving her a gentle shove might be the best course of action. However, she couldn't win if Neske was outside the ring.

Gabbie used her grip on the back of Neske's neck to pull the girl up. She then hooked her other arm under Neske's and grunted as she rested the girl against her.

Gabbie would then try to heave Neske up, compressing their chests together. "C'mon..." Gabbie huffed as she tried to jostle Neske into position.

As the second knee landed in her gut, Neske was fairly sure that this was it for her. Sure, she definitely wasn't down for the count, but she could feel her footing slipping, and a count out wouldn't be that hard for Gabbie to secure once Neske was out and she wasn't. But instead the blonde seemed content to keep Neske around, and give the Dutch girl a chance to retaliate that she didn't plan to miss.

But not just yet. For now, she was slipping, winded, and in a fairly precarious position, when another arm went up under hers, pulling Neske's own modest chest against Gabbie's own more considerable breasts. A slight blush ran across her face as they were compressed together, accompanied by a growing smirk. "Hey, I know how hot it's getting in here and all, but I'm afraid I'm taken," she chuckled, hoping to get under Gabbie's skin again and maybe set up another opening.

Gabbie was about to try and pull Neske back into the ring when she heard Neske's words with a soft breath against her ear. Gabbie's cheeks went read instantly and she tried to wriggle and back away from Nesek and shove her as much as she could.

"W-what the hell!?" Gabbie barked as she tried to escape and shove Neske away, completely abandoning the offense she had just built up.

Again to Neske's surprise, her weird sense of humor worked, getting her opponent to back off and potentially give her an opening. In hindsight, she might have not wanted Gabbie to keep enabling the behavior that kept getting Neske into more trouble with any other fighter, but during the moment Neske simply felt accomplished.

Or rather, she would have, if she wasn't haphazardly shoved back and out of the ring. A simple "oof!" was all she could properly respond with as her backside landed harshly on the floor outside the mat. While by no means debilitating, especially compared to the majority of what she went through in this ring, it still stung, and she was slightly slow to get to her feet as the ref started to count her out, getting to the two count before she was standing and making her way under the bottom rope.

"What's wrong with you!?" Gabbie barked as she clenched her fists tightly. Her cheeks were a deep shade of red. "Does anyone here fight seriously!?" She asked. "Or does everyone get all weird when there's contact!?"

She paced back and forth, keeping an eye on Neske as she slowly crawled into the ring. She wasn't going to attack her until she was up and ready to fight, but she definitely wanted to! "I didn't come here for a date, i came here for a fight. Are you even capable of that?" Gabbie asked as she beckoned Neske to face her.

Neske was honestly kind of astonished at this point. For how serious she acted, Gabbie seemed to be pretty thin-skinned to the kinds of comments Neske heard on the regular growing up. But the important thing was that her tactic was working. Or, at least, it seemed like it did. It was always still possible at this point that Gabbie was just going to lay into her just like all these psudeo-sadists tended to.

Despite the success of her taunts, and very much to her embarrassment, Neske was letting some of Gabbie's comments get to her as well, although she would never be one to show it. While she certainly didn't pride herself on being some sort of prize combatant, it kind of stung that her... "unconventional" methods were giving the impression that she was completely incapable of fighting back. For all her lack of skill and strength, Neske was giving a genuine effort to come as far as she could, and for that to be so easily dismissed left her somewhat... disheartened.

More urgent than any of that, though, was the ref slowly counting to ten. It was certainly worrying, though by no means a death sentence, when she got to four before Neske had climbed in the ring, but after that point the Dutch rascal had made her way back into the ring and onto her feet, ready to capitalize on this lapse in judgement if she could.

Once Neske was up and on her feet, Gabbie charged at the Nederlander with full force. She wasn't completely incensed by the girl's words, but the blush still remained on her face. Now, more than ever, she wanted to kick the girl's head off and felt no need to gauge herself and fight with even the remotest bit of caution.

As Gabbie approached, she planted her foot and swung a wide, arcing roundhouse at Neske's head, hissing as she put a lot of effort into it. "Rrrgh!"

Climbing back into the ring, Neske couldn't help but give a little simrk at the furious blush spread over Gabbie's face. It seemed this was Neske's opportunity to make use of the faint advantage she had been working up for herself this whole time. Her blonde opponent was charging in for her, all she had to do now was pull back her arm and-

BAM! Holy shit that was fast! One moment, Neske was standing upright, readying her fist for a good jab to Gabbie's face, and the next instant she found herself lying on the mat a good two feet to the right of where she was standing with her ears ringing and her head throbbing in pain. It wasn't exactly a secret her Canadian counterpart knew what she was doing, but the levity of that was just not starting to sink in. Even when furious and diverted, she outclassed Neske by a mile, and here Neske had been spending the whole match just getting her more pissed off. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to get up at this point and press the attack as she crawled to her hands and knees, rubbing her throbbing skull with one hand in hopes of getting the world to stop pulsing.

Gabbie snorted as Neske dropped like a sack of bricks. She knew the match was over and She backed away on instinct, nearly retreating to a "neutral" corner. However, ashe stopped her backpedaling as Neske actually started to push herself up to her hands and knees.

"What." Gabbie said the single word in disbelief. She trudged back towards Neske and stopped in front of her, reaching to yank one of the girl's arms and pull her into a half standing position. "I don't know how you're not completely knocked out." Gabbie said with a furrowed brow. "I don't know if that's impressive or dumb, but, you should just stay down." Gabbie insisted as she tried to tug Neske into another painful knee to the gut.