Abattoir vs. Alicia Wells vs. Liberty - Here Comes The Pain

The strikes were coming hard and fast now, and not nearly predictably enough that Abattoir could grab onto a hand and neutralize them. Not good.

"...rghhh...fucking--" Abattoir winced as another punch got through her guard, hitting her right in the cheekbone. Most of them had been glancing off her shoulder, arm, and mask - make no mistake, they still sucked to get hit by, but not nearly as much as they could have - but every four or five punches, one would hit in just the right spot. If she were standing she surely would've been wobbled by the force. Accuracy didn't mean much with raw power like this. Clearly her opponent had learned from the first few seconds of the match, and wanted to inflict as much damage as possible before Alicia re-entered the fray. Smart.

It was just at this moment, though, that her hand closed around the rim of the trash can Liberty had dropped earlier, and despite the repeated blows to her upper body, Abattoir grinned under the mask.

She shoved with her legs in one concerted motion, trying to clear a little space between herself and Liberty - sort of like she was trying to get away. Banking on the idea that the other girl would dive back in and try to pursue her, Abattoir did a full-body turn from the hips and swung the trash can lid right where she expected Liberty's head would be. It was a gamble, and if she'd misjudged the situation she might not get a second chance, but you know what they say - no reward without risk.

Liberty would give Abattoir some credit - underneath the questionable fashion sense and weird mask, there was an extremely tough woman. Liberty wasn't the strongest striker in the AFW, but she could get some real power behind her blows. Abattoir was withstanding it well - she could put her down with the hits, but she couldn't keep her down, which made it all the more frustrating, which made her just want to hit harder.

”Gah!” She got pushed back a bit, then smirked as her opponent tried to retreat.”Going somewhere, huh?” She lunged towards Abattoir, eager to start the beatdown again.”Not done-”

There was a loud, raucous crash, and then Liberty lost control of her body for a moment as her vision went white. Her eyes glazed over, her body went limp, and she wound up flopping forward, with half of her body lazily laying on top of Abattoir and a fresh stream of blood leaking from her forehead.

”I...we...huuuuuuuuuuuh.” She muttered a few random syllables as her brain did a hard reboot, slowly bringing her back to the waking world.

Clang.

Dazed though she was from the series of hammerfists to her head, Abattoir had the presence of mind to sit up and catch Liberty as she flopped.  The former champ was...well, calling her big seemed like a kindly phrased insult, that wasn't fair.  She was heavyset, muscular.  If she went full dead-weight on top of the nak muay there'd be a lot of valuable time lost, and most of that time would be spent semi-helpless with Alicia having potentially recovered and presumably stomping on her.

Instead, her hands lashed out like a striking snake and she caught Liberty, using their combined momentum to roll both of them over, end up on top, and hook both legs in a single fluid motion.

"Surprise," she whispered in the other girl's ear, a harsh throaty rasp.

At last, the ref's cautious approach and diligence had paid off; with a pinfall being attempted, she dove in for the count.  "One!"

Given the way she’d been hammered – leg sweep, elbow to the chest and then a kendo stick that felt like it just missed cracking a rib – Alicia hadn’t really minded the other two taking a break to pound on each other. It gave her precious time to let the pain begin to fade, to clear her head and take a breather for a moment. Liberty and Abattoir certainly seemed to have forgotten all about her, busily pummelling each other into submission with a breath-taking lack of anything remotely resembling technique.

Under normal circumstances, this really wouldn’t be her style. But ‘normal’ didn’t include getting her head nearly taken off by a stick or her opponents wearing steel pads.

So Alicia wasn’t quite ready to step back in yet and, so long as nobody went for a pin or a proper submission, she was probably safe from one KOing the other just yet. As a result, it wasn’t until Abattoir delivered that clanging trash can shot that she really started paying attention. Standing up from where she’d been leaning against the ropes to gather herself, the big redhead prepared to make her move and the moment came shortly as Abattoir rolled Liberty up for the pin.

The ref’s hand had just come down on the mat for the second time when the kickboxer’s foot came slamming down in a stomping, inelegant kick. Elegant or not, it was aimed right at Abattoir’s head with enough force to seemingly put her head through the canvas. Hit or not, Alicia immediately went to drop both her knees hard on the nak muay’s belly – if she was lucky, Liberty would still be underneath and she’d get both at once. At worst, Abattoir would move and she’d just hit Liberty.

She could live with that.

One moment, Abattoir was waiting for the two-count; the next, the world had exploded into a spinning white mandala thrumming with the song that heralded the world's end.

In reality, she'd simply been curb-stomped right in the temple. The attack had come with incredible violence, and Alicia managed to not only hit her hard, but cause her head to crash into the mat on top of that. Dazed and seeing stars, the nak muay had no time at all to react, or even to realize what was going on, before the bigger girl leaped into the air over her and came slamming down with a knee drop on both her and Liberty.

It sucked. Abattoir was well aware of the pain that kind of move could cause - her penchant for double-stomps had to come from somewhere, after all - but the sheer force of the impact doubled her up like a matchbook, eyes wide with abrupt agony. She was rolling off Liberty a second later, having totally abandoned the pinfall, and it was quite telling that her attempts to scramble up to even a kneeling position were uneven and wobbly. That'd been a hell of a lot of punishment she'd taken in the last thirty seconds.

Fucking hell. She should've been watching for Alicia. A cursory glance had suggested the smirking kickboxer was still dazed at the time of the pinfall, but she'd just been hanging back and biding her time, like any smart person would in this kind of situation. Abattoir cursed herself inwardly; she couldn't afford to get overexcited and zero in on any particular tactic in this kind of match. She had to look at the big picture and think strategically.

Granted, before she could do any of that, she had to finish getting up, and that was sort of an uphill battle at the moment. It was going to hurt when she breathed for at least a few days, at this rate.

That was more like it. That was much more like it. Not generally a vengeful sort, Alicia was still plenty satisfied at the bang from Abattoir’s head slamming into the mat under her boot. More than suitable retribution for the beating she’d received. By contrast, the knee drop was back to business, though she couldn’t deny it was still satisfying to see the results as it was Abattoir’s turn to roll away. This time, Alicia didn’t pause to consider who she was going after. Liberty ought to still be dazed from the combination of the knee drop and the trash can to the skull, meaning she probably had a little time before she was back in the fight.

Even as Abattoir rolled off, Alicia snapped a quick kick at Liberty’s temple in the momentary pause, before going back to stalking the nak muay. For the moment, she was both the most dangerous opponent and the most vulnerable target and taking those skills off the table would be a good start.

So, waiting with a huntress’ patience for Abattoir to get to her knees, having moved out of line of sight of the dazed wrestler, Alicia lined everything up and then launched a spinning hook kick at Abattoir’s skull. Between that and the stomp she’d landed not long before, that would ideally daze the nak muay enough for Alicia to lock in a kneebar or something along those lines. In this sort of match, she was sure she wouldn’t be able to get a tap to it, but it was a really effective way of slowing someone down.

Abattoir could really do with slowing down in her opinion. Or maybe a bodyscissors - after she landed that knee drop, those ribs and belly had to be hurting. Yes, that'd do nicely.

It was hard not to notice that Alicia had very deliberately circled around behind her while she was getting up, disappearing altogether. A solid tactic - it was exactly what Abattoir would do if their positions were reversed - and it meant as soon as she turned around she was probably going to turn right into an attack for the second time in the match.

Okay. Realistically, from what she'd seen of Alicia so far, it was a high/low guess. Headkick or body shot. Probably not any incoming weapons; the cheering hadn't suddenly surged to new heights behind her, and despite having a few opportunities Alicia hadn't gone for any of the plunder yet. So: headkick or body shot. She'd chosen wrong against Liberty. Which one would it be this time?

It ended up not mattering, because as she was pushing up past her knees, the hook kick knocked her right back to the mat.

Abattoir actually laughed. Granted, it was a dazed, hesitant sound, and with how rough her voice was even a bitter chuckle was deeply unpleasant to listen to, but it was impossible not to admit the situation was kind of funny. Here she'd been, strategizing for a scenario that'd go down as soon as she turned around, and she hadn't even gotten to do that before getting dropped. Nice. She had to admit, as much of an unknown factor as Alicia had been coming into the match, this girl was legit.

Not that she was just going to lie there and muse on this, of course. If anything, the shot to her head had started bringing her back to lucidity after the stomp, and within a second of hitting the mat, she was dragging herself hand-over-hand towards the ropes, where a shiny white lighttube beckoned with promises of future carnage.

There was a familiar meaty thunk as her heel collided with Abattoir’s skull from the side, Alicia following through the spin to plant her foot back on the mat as the nak muay toppled back down again.

She wasn’t going to lie though – that laugh, if that’s what it was, was all kinds of creepy. Generally, that wasn’t the response to being kicked in the head twice, and that would have made it weird enough to start with. The way it sounded though… It was almost – almost - enough to make Alicia think she wore the gasmask for a reason other than psyching out her opponents.

Not quite though. Nor was Alicia planning to hang around while she had Abattoir on the mat on her front, her back vulnerable as anything. Casting a swift glance to make sure she wasn’t about to be hammered in the back by Liberty, she stalked after Abattoir – well, the two paces it took to cover the distance. While she didn’t know what Abattoir wanted over there, there were plenty of weapons by the ropes she didn’t want the nak muay getting her hands on.

So, with two quick paces, she went to drop onto Abattoir’s back, the big redhead instantly going for the sleeper hold. She didn’t really think she’d have the chance to choke her out here, but defending that would leave the other wrestler more vulnerable to Alicia rolling her over and scoring the bodyscissors right on the ribs she’d just hit with the kneedrop.

She didn’t think that’d net her a tap either, not even with the monstrous power her thick, muscular thighs could bring to bear. But the more damage she could do, the less of a threat Abattoir would be later. And just battering away with her fists and feet probably wouldn’t cut it.

No, going for a weapon herself still hadn’t occurred to her.

No sooner had Abattoir reached the ropes before her back was taken, complete with the familiar feeling of a bicep trying to slither around her neck. The nak muay tucked her chin, getting a hand up by her collarbone in an attempt to either pry Alicia's arm loose or keep it from properly cinching the sleeper in. Ideally, Alicia would either be trying to flatten her out or roll her over for ideal choking purposes, and as the bigger girl's weight shifted abruptly to one side, she knew what was coming.

Here was where practice paid off. Despite being the last person a lot of the AFW trainers wanted to see in the gym, Abattoir had spent an incredible amount of time since her debut coming in to work on her grappling. The temptation to just posture up and throw elbows was an eternal torment, but she'd gritted her teeth and obsessively rolled anyway, and the end result was that she'd become surprisingly well-rounded this year. As such, with all their momentum going to the side, Abattoir twisted in place and rolled with the motion, turning around to end up both out of the sleeper and on top of Alicia, more or less - in her guard, at the very least.

Legs with the tensile strength of tree trunks wrapped around her waist, and Abattoir realized she'd made a huge mistake.

Her ribs still hadn't totally recovered from the knee drop, and now Alicia was squeezing them relentlessly. The power in her kicks should've probably tipped Abattoir off that her legs were alarmingly strong, but even that wouldn't have properly prepared her for the searing pain in her core. Hoooolyyyyy shit, the only thing that'd been even comparable in her time at AFW was the calf slicer that Lucky Uchida had put her in - and that was a joint-destroying hold.

Abattoir took a second to center herself, inhaling steadily to push her chest and ribs out against the hold (it was actually forcible enough to be audible through the mask), and then forced herself up to a kneeling position, then stood all the way up, stacking Alicia up and basically forcing her to balance on her shoulders. The pressure was still on, but hopefully it'd keep the other girl from applying maximum torque on the scissors.

More importantly, it put her in prime position to throw an elbow strike down at Alicia, and Abattoir postured up and did so immediately. Time to see how the new girl's chin held up.

.....Hopefully not great, because this body scissors was a serious fucking situation.

While Alicia was a little disappointed she hadn’t been able to get the sleeper in, she had come out of that the winner anyway. For one thing, she’d learnt that Abattoir knew how to roll a bit. She’d known how to counter the sleeper like a pro and, while it hadn’t been her endgame there, Alicia had definitely been looking to get that neck. Abattoir had tucked the china and she’d rolled over when given the chance. Pretty smooth moves there. Not that it mattered because Alicia’s endgame there had been the bodyscissors and she’d got those locked in. Well, kind of – she’d got Abattoir in closed guard and that was close enough.

Again, she didn’t think it would happen here but she’d scored tap outs like this before and the way Abattoir’s eyes widened as she powered down was a good sign she hadn’t lost her touch.

The big redhead focused on tightening the hold, looking to eke as much damage out as possible. Judging by the way Abattoir had dealt with the sleeper, she probably knew the counter to this as well and – knee drop or not – Alicia didn’t think she’d be able to finish from here right now. The breathing was a new trick but it was just buying time because, in a contest between Alicia’s solid thighs and Abattoir’s ribs, she was pretty sure which would win.

And there she went. Ideally, Alicia’d have the arms under control and standing up wouldn’t be an option.

Still, there wasn’t any reason to make it easy for the nak muay and Alicia fought to keep her down on the mat every step of the way. She made her work to get to her knees and did her best to keep her there but the angles weren’t right. Alicia was too experienced a user of the hold not to see where this was going and she hammered Abattoir’s ribs with one long crushing constriction of her legs after another, looking to do as much damage as possible in the time she had.

But then the nak muay was on her feet, Alicia was stacked up on her shoulders and the redhead let the pressure subside to merely agonising, seeing no use in tiring her legs out. Besides, if she was posturing up like that…

The elbow to the face was expected, because it was the obvious move, but it was hellishly fast and rocked Alicia’s head back like a shot. The vice of her scissors loosened still further, her legs almost resting for a moment around Abattoir’s hips before the kickboxer pulled them back and shot them upwards. At the same time, she made a swift grab for the arm before the nay muay could pull it back. With her other arm, she went for her opponent’s leg looking to yank that support out from under her. Her movements weren't as smooth and fast as they might have been before she took the elbow to the head but it was worth the try.

Ideally, she was hunting for a triangle choke. If she could get the arm, pull Abattoir down and score that, she could win this here and now. But she’d settle for a figure-four headscissors.