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

As her opponent moved in, the British amazon threw attack after attack at her. She went for sheer number over power, hoping that something would land, but it was really a question of how many jabs with the stick and kicks to the leg Adrian took as she moved in.

Seeing the punch coming the metaphorical mile away, Alicia discounted it. It’d never hit, it was clearly a feint meant to get her to counter, let Adrian inside her range and blow whatever it was in her face. Instead, Kendo stick in a two handed grip, she suddenly swung the weapon out in a horizontal arc at the champion, as if she was trying to bisect the brunette at the belly. If she caught her there, it ought to make her inhale sharply, hopefully making Adrian swallow whatever she’d got in her mouth.

And, if she’d got it wrong, it was still a Kendo stick to the belly. She couldn’t go that far wrong with it.

The big redhead had the strike arcing in when Adrian’s hand opened and she found herself with a face full of grit instead. She had just enough time to close her eyes, she hoped, but it still got everywhere. In her mouth, a little sneaking in under her lids and into the corners…

Hoping she’d at least got Adrian with the Kendo stick, she found one hand instinctively up shielding her eyes. And if not, Alicia swept out a leg, looking to slam a boot into the side of one of Adrian’s knees.

Now she was angry, and a little worried though she worked not to show it. She knew she was a good fighter. Very good, maybe. But she wasn’t anywhere near good enough to fight blind.

Not even the force of having all the air driven out of her lungs, and her breakfast going halfway back up her throat could stop the satisfaction Adrian got as her hand full of powder and sand got sprayed into Alicia's face. The former cosplayer may have doubled over and dropped to one knee from the full force of the redhead's kendo stick shot to her gut but at least her eyes were still okay. "P... pro tip." she coughed out, smiling for her own sake as Alicia shielded her eyes to prevent the dust from encroaching further into the ocular system. "I... I keep the mist stuff in my wrist bands... not my bag." the brunette explained, feeling smug despite her situation.

Well, she’d landed the shot with the stick, feeling the shock of impact shiver up the wooden weapon and hearing effects it’d had on Adrian. But she was still at a major disadvantage.

And Adrian was gloating, which was not helping her rising urge to shove the Kendo stick down the champ’s throat. Because, clearly, Adrian would be above reaching into the bag and using that as a shield to hide her grabbing the stuff out of her wristbands.

Biting back the urge to say as much or that she’d be sure to just snap Adrian’s wrists next time, Alicia did her best to focus. There had to be something she could do here. She wasn’t going to be able to wash her eyes out until after the match, so sooner or later she’d have to open her eyes again. She just needed a chance to scrub whatever of the muck she could off her face.

And Adrian was temporarily out of it, which gave her a chance Alicia was desperately unwilling to just let slip.

Ok. She couldn’t see.

She could still hear though and, with Adrian running her mouth right in front of her, she had a pretty good idea of where the champion might be.

Taking the view that it was better to try something than just stand there until the brunette shut up and attacked, Alicia stepped forward and brought her knee up in an attempt to ram it into her opponent’s face.

It’d certainly do a lot to make her feel better even if it really didn’t do anything to help her. And it had the merits of Adrian probably not expecting her to attack.

Adrian knew she was leaving herself open like this, but she always had to get one extra remark in, one last snarky comment before she moved in and it was costing her big time. Spending so much time running her mouth not only let the big redhead find her, but also let her drill her powerful knee deep into the champion's face, sending Adrian pitching backwards onto the canvas with a spray of red from her nose, legs buckling as she hit the mat. The referee immediately pouncing on the opportunity to get off the cage by starting the count at "One!"

It would take till 3 for him to get a response as the former cosplayer started to push up off the canvas, but the blind kickboxer was back in control.

That was satisfying. Very satisfying. Alicia couldn’t see it, but she snarled with pleasure as she felt the point of her knee drive into Adrian’s face. There’d be a smug security to the champion’s taunting, and it felt extremely good to throw that right back at her.

Just as importantly, given she almost immediately heard the ref start counting, she’d just bought herself some time. Landing that knee had thrown Adrian out of her reach and she wasn’t going to just go blindly hunting for the woman. In a match with pins, it might have been worth it.

With submissions or KOs the only options… No. Stupid idea. She didn’t know whether Adrian was getting up, on her back, right next to her, across the ring or whatever.

Instead, Alicia scrubbed her arm across her face, doing her best to wipe as much of the muck out of her eyes as possible. The blood helped, but she didn’t waste any more time than she had to. Instead, she made the best of a bad job and got the worst off.

Opening her eyes, as little as possible, she found Adrian was nearby, just pushing up off the canvas. The British Amazon promptly took a running step forward, looking to blast her foot into the champion’s skull in a malicious kick that owed more to football than to kickboxing.

Adrian didn't have much time to react as Alicia came charging back at her, the brunette's face marked by the red smear dripping down onto her lips from the mess of flesh where her nose used to be, breathing reduced to ragged pants as she propped herself up on one elbow to see the kickboxer take a running start for what Adrian guessed would be an attempt to decapitate the former cosplayer.

Gathering what strength she had, with a glare up at Alicia she pushed herself off to one side, leaving only her legs in the path of the British Amazon's foot. Kicking her legs up slightly she attempted to tangle her own legs with the powerful ones of the challenger before rolling along to trip her up with a drop-toe hold. Back to basics, no more smug expressions, no more taunting. This was a fight for survival now.

Alicia was angry. Her vision was still fogged by the cloud of dust she’d had thrown in her face. She could still taste it, feel it itching at her eyes and inside her nose and in the cut across her forehead. She’d had her head slammed into a metal bar. She wasn’t thinking entirely straight and all she wanted to do right now was kick Adrian Kytes’ head squarely into touch, pulp her neck with a match-ending triangle choke and toss that damned title belt on her opponent’s twitching wreckage.

And Adrian was right there, on her back and seemingly entirely helpless. She’d just taken a hit to the belly, then a knee to the head, so she ought to be still there for Alicia’s kick to the skull to finish the job.

Except the champion had learnt her lesson, didn’t bother mouthing off. Instead, she just rolled out of the way, entangled her legs with Alicia’s and the big Brit’s momentum did the rest.

All she managed to do was get her hands up, catching herself and turning her head just in time to stop her own nose joining Adrian’s in being splattered across her face. She was still face down, groaning at a hard slam down onto a harder mat than she was used to, her movements that much slower from accumulated punishment and the beginnings of fatigue tugging at her limbs. But Alicia still tried to push herself back up, fully aware that Adrian was behind her, had easy access to her legs and a bag of tricks.

Her brain might be full of cotton wool and she might be thinking through fog, but she knew she needed to get moving. If only her limbs were responding faster…

Leaving a trail of red on the mats, Adrian was still moving around despite the abuse she had taken at the hands of Alicia. If anything, the blood loss had galvanized her resolve: pushing her on past the point where others might have called it quits if their bodies hadn't already started to fail. The former cosplayer was crawling back to where she was before she got out of the path of the charging red-head, looking to reach out and grab the kickboxer by the leg.

It wouldn't be pretty, flashy or even smug, but with a hateful look in her eyes as she glared at the fallen amazon, she grabbed hold and started to twist at the ankle. She wanted to put the hurt on Alicia and she was going to do it the old fashioned way as she pulled herself up to her feet, still holding on to the redhead's foot, with an ankle lock.

She’d been expecting something. Kick. Some sort of lock. But she’d vaguely expected a degree of warning, because that’s how Adrian had been acting up till then. There’d been some showing off involved. Some theatrics.

She hadn’t expected Adrian to just grab her foot and twist. And, as a result, Alicia shrieked as her ankle was suddenly being forced to go in a way it wasn’t designed for. Biting back any further cries of pain, her first thought was to go for the ropes. Then she remembered where she was.

But with Adrian stood behind her, she had precious few options and the fog in her head and the pain made it hard to focus. Hard to think what she needed to do. Gritting her teeth, the British woman desperately scrabbled around her, hoping to lay hands on the Kendo stick she’d dropped only moments before.

With that, she might be able to do something.

There had been comparisons between Adrian and a Rat before, mostly years ago but a few of the comparisons stayed true over time. Despite managing for the most part to turn over a new leaf since her worst days she was never the cleanest fighter, always thinking of ways around instead of through, by AFW standards she'd never been much of a looker, but the most important one was that when backed into a corner with no sneaky way out. They fought. And they won.

Alicia was finding out the hard way that Adrian in desperate times cast away anything that wasn't bringing her closer to victory, and her sense of Drama was one of the first things to get chucked overboard. No theatrics, no taunts, her mouth stayed in a spiteful glare the whole time as she wrenched on the ankle lock, taking a few firm steps back as the redhead tried to scramble for the Kendo Stick. Adrian had already taken enough shots from that for a year and wanted no more, pulling the big woman out of reach before she started to wrap her legs around Alicia's and fall back, bracing for the painful landing as she grapevined her ankle lock. No need to worry about balance anymore, just needed to worry about how many twists it would take before all the tendons tore off.