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

Still not moving, the challenger at least didn’t immediately react. Having her skull spiked into the mat like that, even without much softening up beforehand, was not something she could just shake off. Certainly, her reaction to the ref starting the warning count wasn’t anything as energetic as the champion’s. All she did immediately was raise her arms, before they flopped back down, her head shaking slightly as she tried to focus.

Alicia was just started to shake the stupor out of her eyes, spurred on by the count, when she felt her legs grabbed. Groggily, she managed to raise her head, looking down the length of her body to see Adrian with one leg between hers, crossing one of Alicia’s own around it. And then the brunette started to turn.

It was amazing the effect a potentially agonising submission hold could have as far as energising its potential victim.

She didn’t recognise the exact move Adrian was going for, but it was clearly something along the lines of the Boston Crab she’d been recently put through by Cecilia (and Army had had a go as well). Dazed or not, Alicia had no interest whatsoever in having any part of anything like that, particularly in a situation where there wasn’t the potential for a rope break. If she got turned over, this could get very bad, very fast.

She might be able to get out but her chances of winning would drop considerably.

So, as Adrian tried to step over her, Alicia did her best to twist the other way each time. The redhead writhed and squirmed, doing her utmost to try and sit up so she could throw some punches in the champion’s general direction. Anything she could do to stop the brunette getting that hold locked in.

"Stay still god dammit." Adrian hissed as Alicia writhed, twisted, struggled and even threw a punch up that smacked against the Hardcore champion's thigh with a smack that could be heard in the cheap seats. The rush of adrenaline that had gotten Adrian out of her own tight spot was now working for the enemy, and working well. It was hard enough getting someone Alicia's size to turn over in the best of situations, let alone when they were actively resisting as strongly as this.

It took a few attempts and a bruised leg before Adrian stepped back out of Alicia's legs, letting them untangle themselves naturally for the most part, but still wanting to keep one leg held up for a bit of leverage as she pushed away, cradling her side as she threw out a vindictive kick to the back of the Brit's knee for foiling her plans. She didn't just pull off a Tornado DDT onto what was essentially a solid wood floor just so Alicia could spend a little bit of time looking at the lights.

For whatever weird reason, Alicia’s struggles didn’t cease at Adrian’s instruction. If anything, they intensified, using the sudden burst of adrenaline to wriggle away and throw whatever blows she could back at her opponent. At least one of her punches landed, driving into the flesh of the brunette’s upper leg hard enough for everyone to hear.

Whether it was that, her refusal to let the champion turn her over and lock in the hold or what, Alicia didn’t know. But, after a few more tries, she felt Adrian let go of one of her legs at least. She was about to try and yank the other free but, before she could, Alicia took a hard boot to her already abused knee. It wasn’t as bad as before, because that was the way the joint was meant to go, but it still brought a lot of the sleeping pain back.

Hissing like a scalded cat, the redhead rolled over, cradling the battered joint for a moment. But she couldn’t linger there. While that could have been a lot worse, she still didn’t think it was a great plan to just lie there, waiting for the champion to try something else.

Carefully, she scooted back and began to pull herself gingerly to her feet, noticeably favouring the leg Adrian had been battering and resisting the urge to nurse the back of her skull.

Adrian let Alicia roll away without protest, as much as her leg stung by the amazon's punch, she still had the better position as she was standing while the redhead was trying to get back to standing up. With bruises across her body and a dead leg slowly getting some feeling back now it was no longer in the firing line she got into position side on with the Brit, waiting for Alicia to get into the right position.

Seeing her opportunity, she took one big step to the side and raised her leg up. Adrian had no intention to drag this match out and her attack showed it, trying to catch Alicia under the chin with a big Superkick, charged all the way to Fus Ro.

It’d occurred to Alicia that she probably wasn’t going to be allowed long to gather her wits. On top of that, she wasn’t even going to try and guess what Adrian was going to throw at her. The brunette was too unpredictable for that, even with the research she’d done. Taking a guess was almost certainly going to be the wrong guess.

Still, she’d watched enough videos that she recognised the wind-up to the other wrestler’s finishing move when she saw it coming at her.

She was going to try and take out a kickboxer with a kick.

Because that was clearly going to work well for her.

As Adrian’s superkick came screaming towards her chin, Alicia didn’t try to duck away – her leg wouldn’t like that at all. And blocking it wouldn’t help much either, saving her skull but at the cost of knocking her right back down again most likely. But with ten years’ experience behind her, she’d got other options.

So the redhead didn’t go to block. Instead she twisted, using her circular motion to push her arms against the champion’s shin, deflecting the superkick aside with the bare minimum of motion. At the same time, her own foot swept out in a crescent motion meant to sweep Adrian’s supporting leg right out from under her.

If all went right, Adrian would have just enough time to see the malevolent sneer on the amazon’s lips right before she went crashing down.

Aww, that would have been freaking sweet...Adrian whined to herself as her foot didn't find the sweet spot under Alicia's jaw, instead feeling the big redhead's arms press against the side of her leg to push it off center while the kickboxer moved to really make Adrian pay for her hubris. Sweeping the legs out from under the Hardcore champion with such force that it caused the already unbalanced brunette to do a backflip in mid-air before she crashed back down on her front.

If there was any consolation prize to be had it was that Alicia's sneer hadn't managed to burn itself into the back of her brain, because by the time it could have, Adrian was already wondering why gravity had suddenly inverted and why her leg, followed by the rest of her, hurt like a bitch.

Alicia had to give Adrian credit where it was due – it had been a nice kick. Crisp. Precise. Good economy of motion. Professional, in short, which made her glad she hadn’t taken it on her chin. That would have been a serious problem.

As it was, her parry worked to perfection – she got the kick off course and knocked the other leg out from under the champion hard enough to spin the woman around in mid-air before she hit the mat. That looked like it’d hurt, sounded like it too judging by the thump of impact.

Still, Adrian would probably be back up shortly.

Under normal circumstances, this would be the time to follow Valley’s advice and go for the body scissors. Drop on her, get her legs around the champ and go for the win. But no, not with the way her knee felt right now. She needed another minute, two maybe, before she could get enough pressure on to make Adrian tap.

Still, she could still slow the brunette down and they did always say that turnabout was fair play.

Doing her best to keep the momentum going, Alicia went to drop onto the small of Adrian’s back, facing her feet. Not sit down – drop her weight on her hard. If that worked, she’d go straight for the kneebar on the leg she’d punched not that long ago. Roll down, scissor the thigh lightly, grab for the ankle and try to pull the leg in a way it wasn’t meant to go.

If nothing else, grounding Adrian would keep a lot of those weapons out of reach – a definite plus in her book.

Adrian barely had time to groan out in pain and annoyance before Alicia put 140lbs on the base of the brunette's spine all at once, giving the kickboxer a nice reward in the form of the sound of Adrian wheezing and squirming while she tried to get to work, turning Adrian's own strategy against her and moving in to squeeze and pull her leg in ways that legs were not meant to go.

Unlike when Alicia pulled this exact same hold off on Valley doll in their match, Adrian didn't have the luxury of crawling along to the ropes to force a break, and she really needed her legs. Even more than the redhead, she still probably had enough upper body strength to block and punch effectively even if her powerful legs got mangled, but Adrian would just be a sitting duck without them. She actually had to properly escape the hold, not just survive it, and with how bad a position this was it didn't give Adrian a lot of options.

Rolling with the big woman as she wrapped around Adrian's knee to get them both on their side for a brief moment despite the pain in her back telling her to stay laying down, Adrian reached up with both hands and grabbed hold of Alicia's own leg as she tried to pry open the powerful vice just enough to get some wriggle room. Sitting up like this was painful enough and Alicia's legs were strong enough that she could only get the smallest bit of pressure off but it was better than the alternative.

There was very little technical about dropping your weight on your opponent. But it could be surprisingly effective, particularly when the mat was as solid as this one. And particularly when you weighed in at 160 odd pounds of muscle, like Alicia. Either way, Adrian clearly hadn’t enjoyed that part and it kept her still for Alicia’s next move.

That didn’t go quite so well. She was able to secure the leg but the champion was clearly not minded to just let her lock the kneebar in. Given the lack of an obvious escape route, she’d have been stupid to do anything else but it was still posing a bit of an issue for Alicia in terms of wringing a submission out of the champ. In terms of her position, it was fine but Adrian hadn’t quite let her sink the hold properly. It probably wasn’t any fun at all to be in but it wasn’t a match ending moment.

Admittedly, even with her wounded knee, she was probably tenderising the trapped leg nicely – Alicia’s practice at this was limited but she’d made a trainer tap like this since trying it on Dmitri. Adrian was naturally significantly tougher but she could still numb her thigh if she kept the pressure on, even with the brunette’s hands prying almost futilely at the kickboxer’s own leg.

Still she wasn’t going to get a submission like this. Fine. She wrenched back on Adrian’s leg, clamping down with her thighs and doing her best to pop the knee, working the hold as long as she could. But she didn’t linger too long, aware that her own feet were potentially exposed if Adrian didn’t tap soon. Instead, the redhead worked it as much as she thought best then released, keeping a hold of the leg but scooting back.

Then she’d spin around quickly and shoot back in to try and wrap Adrian’s thigh up again, this time with them both facing the same way so that her ankles and feet would be safely tucked out of reach behind the champion’s body. At the same time, Alicia would try to get the champion’s foot tucked in her armpit as she went to hyperextend the foot itself and simultaneously squeeze her forearm into the Achilles tendon.

If she could score that one, she’d get to see just how tough Adrian Kytes was. Because that hold hurt like hell. And with no rope break, Alicia could very well tear something in her foot or damage the tendon. But mostly it hurt like hell.

Adrian was really feeling the pressure as she held on to Alicia's knee for dear life, it wasn't nice and her leg was already starting to go completely numb, but numb was preferential to agony, which the brunette had guessed she was in for if she let the kickboxer sink in her hold properly. Unfortunately for the champion, she'd put so much effort onto trying to defend the kneebar and hoped she'd just step back and try something else, that she hadn't left herself much time to respond when Alicia transitioned into a much more painful hold.

Immediately Adrian bit her own bottom lip hard enough to draw blood as she flopped back down on the solid canvas, doing what she could to avoid screaming her head off. She wasn't about to submit despite how badly her foot was being twisted and crushed, but god damn did she want out fast, it was a good thing that her boot was rigid enough to take off some of the edge, but not nearly enough to make it not hurt like hell. All she could really do was kick away at Alicia's head with her spare non-trapped leg, hoping that she could do enough to push her off or something.