SS 16 hardcore Title Match: Adrian Kytes (C) Vs. Alicia Wells in the Sea Lion's Den

As soon as she shoved Adrian forward and felt the constricting arm vanish from around her head – which was good, she didn’t know what the champion had planned but it would likely have hurt – Alicia was back on her feet. She’d been on one knee already and it was the work of a heartbeat to turn that into standing straight. And this time, Adrian hadn’t been able to sneak around her. The brunette had shot out of striking range but that was ok.

She was coming right back again.

There was good news and bad news here, both because of the size of the ring. Alicia didn’t have much time to react but, equally, Adrian hadn’t had much time to build up acceleration or the ropes to bounce off.

Unsure where the other wrestler was going and unwilling to open herself up for another takedown, Alicia held her ground, waiting for Adrian to commit herself. Waiting…

She was going low. Short on time and options, the big redhead didn’t stop to think. She didn’t want Adrian to keep getting behind her, that was a recipe for disaster. Hoping she’d got the timing right, she went to drop down in an attempt to pin Adrian midway through her baseball slide.

If it worked, the champion was going to find herself in a dangerous position with Alicia astride her and with her weight solidly planted on Adrian. Worst case scenario, she was too late and had just conveniently planted herself on her knees with her opponent right behind her.

And there were a bunch more ways it could go too. But, high risk, high reward. And she had to try something.

Adrian's view went dark for a brief moment as Alicia got wise to her scheme and dropped down knees first to trap her as the former cosplayer slid past her but the initiative was on Adrian's side and her chest and head remained un-trapped. All she had to do now was stand up and take advantage of the new position, maybe go back to what she wanted to do with the cravat or something, just stand up...

...just stand up...

Something was definitely up, her hips twisted to roll her onto her front but something was preventing her from moving away or standing upright, and it was a profoundly long moment before she realized what had happened. Her body may have avoided getting trapped under Alicia, but her long ponytail sure hadn't. Momentum had been a bitch and got the end pinned down under Alacia's knee and the champion now stuck not between the kickboxer's thighs, but her shins instead.

Alicia’s move had been a serious gamble by any standard. She’d had a narrow window and, if she’d messed it up, she’d have given Adrian her back on a plate. But doing nothing would have landed her in the same spot and she’d always rather take a risk than do nothing.

So she’d tried to get the timing right but she’d missed. Not by a lot, really, but ‘nearly’ didn’t count. For a heartbeat, she was sure she was about to feel another headlock or something. But there was nothing.

Wait, what?

At that point, the kickboxer looked down and realised what had happened.

Under any other circumstances, Alicia would have laughed. Really. She’d got the champion by her long ponytail. She’d missed her entire body, all but, but caught her by her hair. You couldn’t make this stuff up, seriously. But she didn’t. This position wasn’t great for either wrestler but Alicia felt she’d got the slight edge and she wanted to make use of it. Taking care to keep her knee planted on Adrian’s hair, she spun around using that as the point around which she moved. Having Adrian between her shins wasn’t doing her much good beyond keeping the champion from running rings around her though.

If, however, Alicia could turn around and move forward, she could try and turn that into a reverse headscissors of some sort. At the least, she could get into position to start hammering her opponent’s torso and get some momentum going her way.

Adrian felt her hair be pulled as Alicia pivoted on her knee to face the prone champion, stuck in a very embarrassing situation on the mat without a lot of options beyond shuffling away from a potentially match ending head-scissors before she got pounded into the dirt underneath the pit. Speaking of which: "UGH!" Adrian grunted as Alicia's fist smashed into her chest, trying to press the already relatively flat-chested champion into an even smaller cup size.

Bracing herself for the pain, she curled her body up, rolling up onto her shoulders and kicking her legs up into the air, they may not have had the crushing power of the redhead's own formidable thighs but she could get her ankles around her head and pull the British amazon forward, rolling her off the former cosplayer.

Managing to get turned around, Alicia slammed a fist into Adrian’s chest in preparation. She’d landed a good hit to the ribs but, while she had faith in her ability to turn a headscissors into a win even this early in the match, she needed to keep Adrian still long enough for that to happen. Equally, she didn’t have the best of holds on her opponent, so she couldn’t exactly afford to sit around and pummel the champion. She had to move now.

The punch drove home with a comforting familiarity, earning her a grunt of discomfort from the champion, and she was tempted to try it again. But that’d be wasting time, so Alicia instead went to slide forward for the headscissors.

Before she could, though, Adrian jack-knifed her body up. If Alicia had been in a more secure mount, things might have been different, but she was still stuck with one leg back to pin the hair and the other forward as she shifted her weight. As it was, all she had time to do was throw a forearm at the champion’s midriff and, whether it hit or not, it didn’t make any difference at all.

Two trim ankles clamped around her skull and, unceremoniously, she was sent tumbling away to hit the side of the cage shoulder-first with a grunt.

Still, it could have been worse. Taking a moment to shake the cobwebs out of her skull, Alicia grabbed at the side of the cage, using it to pull herself up. Adrian was probably already on her feet, she didn’t want to give the champion a chance to capitalise if she could avoid it.

Adrian gasped for breath as she rolled Alicia off her, doing crunches like that after having her torso punched in was not the most comfortable thing in the world but it had succeeded in getting the red-head off her pony tail and stopped the punches, giving her time to get back to her feet in sync with the British amazon. It had been a pretty even early exchange but the bruises from the strikes gave Alicia a small advantage, and small advantages could add up fast.

Back to her initial plan then, work the legs. Getting back into the fray, Adrian got her foot up as she attempted to smash the redhead's knee between her boot and the steel cage, hoping to get her hobbling for at least a while.

Dragging herself to her feet, Alicia hadn’t take her eyes off Adrian in the interim. She’d already been caught off guard once already, she was going to try and make sure it didn’t happen again. It didn’t entirely help, because the brunette was already coming in and, while she got her guard up, it wasn’t fast enough.

Before the big redhead could react, her knee was turned into the meat in a sandwich between Adrian’s boot and the metal of the cage. The mesh gave a little, but nowhere near enough to soften the blow, and the kickboxer hissed in pain at the force. It was far from crippling, a long way from the punishment Valley’d put her leg through with the kneebar, but she’d have to take it gently on that one for a few minutes at least. If she hadn’t been supported by the cage, the leg might well have folded under her.

Well, she wasn’t going to let that stand without attempting some retribution at least.

Supporting her weight as much on the cage as her wounded knee, Alicia swept her other leg up and snapped it out again in a blurring, brutal side kick. She’d have liked to have aimed it for the champion’s skull, but that would be asking a bit much of her injured limb not to mention being relatively easy to duck. And she wasn’t going to give Adrian the chance to go for another snapmare. Instead, she’d gone for the side kick and she aimed it dead centre of mass, right where she’d already hit the brunette twice.

It was becoming increasingly clear that Adrian was going for her legs. That could be a problem, but it also gave Alicia some idea of what the champion might do next. That was something she might be able to use at least.

Adrian was fully committed to the running boot, smashing the Brit's knee into the steel as stage one of operation "Kick the leg out of her leg". There was a slight problem though: Alicia had two legs and the second one just crashed into her ribs for the second time, pushing her off center, and almost taking her off her feet with a "UGH!" as she recoiled away, clutching at her side. God freaking dammit that still hurt like a bitch. At least with one bad leg she couldn't get crushed in Alicia's scissor holds. No hanging on for a dragon screw this time, the chance to grab the leg had come and gone already.

Grabbing the cage with one hand, Adrian kept to her strategy despite the damaging kick moving to the side to stomp away on the knee that she already hit up from the side, but this time she wasn't just attacking the leg for it's own purpose. Alicia was a big woman, if Adrian wanted to hit her in the head she'd need some way to get elevation, and the muscled legs of the British amazon made a great launch pad for what she wanted. Putting the pressure down, the brunette pushed off the cage and jumped up into the air, pivoting and swinging her body around before lashing out her own leg to hit Alicia from the other side of where she'd started from in the head with a risky enziguri.

There was a certain vengeful satisfaction at catching Adrian entirely on the hop with that kick, not to mention the pained gasp she made as the champion was sent for a loop. But, vengeful satisfaction or not, Alicia knew that she was going to have to be seriously careful from here on out. Aside from limiting her offensive options, there was a significant danger that she wouldn’t be able to lay her hands on the brunette if she kept letting her at her legs.

As it was, she’d have to plan her attacks carefully for the next little while until that knee recovered and she absolutely definitely could not let Adrian hit it again in the meantime. It might be an obvious strategy but that didn’t make it a bad one; Alicia wasn’t surprised yet, but Valley’s words about Kytes were definitely proving prophetic.

She had a sneaking suspicion it was definitely ‘yet’. It was too early to tell if this was going to be a fun match but it was very definitely interesting.

Not that the big kickboxer had time to dwell on any of that. Kick to the ribs or not, Adrian was coming right back at her and clearly going for the leg. Keeping her hands up, Alicia shifted her stance so that she at least only took the boot on her broad thigh and not to the knee. It’d still bruise and too many hits like that could be a problem. But better that than to the knee again.

The enziguri was a bit more unexpected. But, more than a lot of the stuff Adrian had been throwing at her, this was more in Alicia’s wheelhouse. So she got her arms up enough to take a lot of the force out of it, but enough got through to send her a staggering step – wincing as her knee jarred – back.

As she went, the redhead threw a forearm to discourage immediate pursuit.

Damn, that didn't go anything according to plan. She'd had hoped that by making the sharp shift from one body part to the other she'd get past the kickboxer's guard. But even with the unorthadox attacks such as the enziguri Alicia was quick enough on the draw to get her arm up to block it. Even if the flying kick did knock her back it left Adrian falling to the floor and catching a forearm to the face for her efforts in scrambling back to a decent position. This time with no immediate charge back as the brunette seemed to take her time to just lick her wounds for the brief moment, her ribs still hadn't stopped hurting from the second kick.