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

This was a bad place to be for anyone. Without a rope break, it was worse.  And her opponent seemed intent on tearing her foot off rather than letting her get to the kendo stick.

Alicia didn’t think it’d make any difference. But, as she felt Adrian begin to drop to take the ankle lock to the floor, she instinctively went to lend as much force to the fall as she could by kicking down from the knee and hip. On a normal mat, she really wouldn’t have bothered. On this harder one, well, she was slightly hoping that she could at least wind Adrian.

If that didn’t miraculously get the champion off her leg though, she was going to have to tap soon – either through sheer pain or because something would give in her ankle and no match was worth that.

With the hold now grapevined, it had got even worse if possible. It had given the other wrestler plenty more leverage and control over the leg. This was serious.

The only saving grace of her position was that, by dropping down to wrap her legs around Alicia’s own, Adrian had given up a ton of her ability to control the redhead. Clenching her teeth together tightly and vowing to tap at the first hint of real potential injury, Alicia began to drag them both forward towards the nearest weapon.

And when she got it, hammering it into Adrian’s own legs until something cracked. If that’s what it took to make the champion let her go, so be it. She had to at least try.

Adrian tugged and twisted with all her might, trying to snap the redhead's foot off her leg as the champion's grip seemed immovable. But the brunette's laser focus on Alicia's ankle had not been without cost. Dropping down roughly with the redhead's free leg kicking away at her didn't give her the best landing in the world, and losing her base for more damage just meant the work she had put in to pulling Alicia away from the Kendo stick was about to go to waste. The British amazon clawing her way to her weapon of salvation while Adrian hung on like an injury-intending koala.


As much as Adrian wanted to end the match there and then with this hold, even she had to realise that she couldn't keep it up forever, not with Alicia swinging that kendo stick at her knees like she owed the big Brit money. One strike was enough to get her to ease off the pressure, the second earned a cry of pain and the third was enough for Adrian to abandon her hold and crawl away, hoping that she'd done more damage to Alicia's ankle than Alicia had done to her knee.

Despite the agony wracking her leg, somehow Alicia kept dragging the two of them across the mat with grim determination. Adrian felt like she was doing her level best to damage her ankle and she was on the verge of just giving up when she finally – finally! – felt her fingers ghost across the Kendo stick. One more try and she had it fully in hand and then she turned as best she could to crack it across Adrian’s legs.

It was a hellishly awkward angle, made worse by the way she had to twist and the feeling in her ankle, but Alicia persevered. And she was rewarded as the first hit bought her a blessed loosening of the champion’s hands around her ankle. So Alicia did it again and again, until the third of her hits had Adrian let go of her hold entirely and back off. Hopefully to nurse her knee but the big redhead couldn’t worry about that.

And going after the brunette right away would be incredibly stupid.

Instead she rolled over onto her back and scooted away until she felt the metal of the cage against her spine. Alicia pressed her lips together in anticipation, grabbed at the cage to yank herself to her feet…

And stumbled back to one knee with a strangled curse as the ankle Adrian had targeted refused to take her weight.

Damn.

Grabbing at the cage again and using the Kendo stick as a prop, the kickboxer began her second try to lever herself to her feet.

Adrian had just about managed to shift herself clear of the wreckage that she hoped was what remained of Alicia's leg, pushing away to get some distance before she could attempt to start cradling her leg to ease the pain. Managing to crawl over to her little corner of the cage before flopping back, resting against the metalwork as blood continued to drip down, completely covering her chin.

It was only then that she got a good look at Alicia, rising up. Not cleanly, she was having to use that kendo stick Adrian gifted her like a crutch to avoid pressure on her twisted ankle, but it was more than Adrian was doing right now. "...dammit..." she groaned softly as she put her hands against the cage, trying to push herself up to her feet with similar difficulty. Her knee screamed in protest at any attempt to put weight on it, but pressed against the cage she was somewhat vertical. The blood loss helping her somewhat with the feeling of wooziness counter-acting the various aches and pains that Alicia had dealt to her.

That still left the problem of the Kendo stick. Alicia could out-strike the former cosplayer under the best conditions, but there wasn't much room for Adrian to try and tank any kicks, let alone weapon attacks. She had an idea, but it was going to risk an injury if everything did work perfectly and probably a lot worse if it didn't. She was going to need a knee brace for at least a year after this but it might be worth it.

Hopping towards Alicia, Adrian once again was the one to close the distance, this time looking to dive around the redhead. Rolling past her on the side without the kendo stick, and trying to sneak an arm in between the amazon's legs as she rolled past and attempted to pull off the last move anyone expected in this match, a schoolboy rollup.

There were no pinfalls in this match and Adrian knew it, but she just wanted to get Alicia back down, she had no intention of holding on past the point when the amazon's shoulders hit the canvas, as much as her knee hurt she pushed the redhead into a backwards roll, trying to get the big woman back on her knees before she pulled off what was for her the most painful superkick in the history of superkicks. With a bad knee, thrusting out to catch Alicia in the face as soon as her head popped into position. A desperate gamble but Adrian didn't get to be Hardcore Champion without risks.

Even with the bulk of her weight on the cage or the Kendo stick, Alicia’s leg felt like death warmed up. Her ankle groaned at the slightest pressure, but it’d also given the already bruised kneecap a new lease of painful life. Between Adrian’s boots and the stick earlier, the joint wasn’t feeling great either and now it was aching in sympathy with the ankle. Standing without some support wasn’t happening.

As for scissors? Alicia honestly didn’t think she’d even be able to close her ankles, let alone squeeze. Walking felt like a bad idea right now.

Her only consolation as she slowly, painfully levered herself to her feet again was that Adrian wasn’t even doing that well. But it wasn’t much of one. Given one leg would give out if the champion so much as looked at it wrong and both her arms were occupied with holding herself up, her ability to defend herself was in pieces and as soon as Adrian came at her…

The best thing Alicia could see to do was to put her weight on her undamaged leg and try for a lucky kick with the other. Which would hurt, and that’s if it worked. If it didn’t…

Alicia wasn’t going to think about that. Not that she had much time to think about anything as Adrian stumbled back to her own feet, wavered and came at her.

The redhead wavered in turn, straightened and tried to snap a kick at the knee she’d just pounded but the champion was already ducking and rolling and-

The challenger promptly found herself being rolled over as well, suddenly utterly disorientated as her shoulders hit the mat hard. And then she kept on going. For a moment, it crossed her dazed mind that Adrian was trying to pin her but no?

Instead, Alicia’s momentum kept her legs going up over her head, the British amazon turning a complete roll until her knees found the mat and her back found the cage.

Utterly unclear what that had been about, she straightened up right into a superkick from Adrian Kytes that snapped her head back hard into the metal bars behind it.

Instantly unconscious, Alicia still remained upright for a heartbeat, then another, before she fell forward to the mat.

Kicking out with a bad knee was never a good proposition for her health. The jolt of agony as she raised her leg up reminding her that this was indeed a very poor idea, Adrian thought it would be safer to put her weight on her good leg so she didn't collapse in a heap mid-kick but it also meant that when it did hit, she'd collapse straight afterwards.

And collapse she did, Newtonian physics (or at least what Adrian understood of it) meant that her leg was going to get it as bad as Alicia's head did, and since it was enough to send the redhead crashing into the cage. It also meant Adrian was left with the sheer pain as the reality of how badly she'd been hurt finally punctured through her mind as she flopped like a fish back onto the mat next to Alicia, whimpering in pain as the referee began the count. Neither woman looking as though they were going to get up anytime soon.

Flat on her front besides Adrian, cheek pillowed on the uncompromising surface of the mat, Alicia would be party to a whole new host of aches and pains when she came around. But, for the moment, she wasn’t even showing the vague signs of some sort of consciousness that the champion was offering. Alright, whimpering and writhing in pain as she clutched at herself weren’t exactly encouraging signs.

But only the rise and fall of her shoulders and the soft sound of the big redhead breathing actually showed she was still alive. That and the odd involuntary twitch, but – as the saying went – there was nobody home right now. Please leave a message.

That said, as far as the ref and the rules were concerned, it didn’t matter. Conscious and in a lot of pain or unconscious, both contestants were currently down and out. That meant she counted, so count she did.

”2… 3… 4…”

Amidst the audience, there was a certain hushed awe mixed with annoyance. They’d cheered Adrian’s last move, they’d cheered Alicia’s escape before that and now they were facing the possibility of a double count out.

They wanted a winner. As the referee’s voice echoed out over the ring, however, it was anyone’s guess if they’d get one.

With one leg completely out of commission and her agony induced writhing managing to land the brunette as far away from the cage as possible, Adrian didn't have a lot of time or options to respond to the count. She couldn't even call out "I'm still awake you asshat!" without cutting herself off mid-sentenced for another scream of pain.

"...5! ...6!"

There was no way she was getting back up before the count of ten unassisted and the cage was so far away to crawl with only her hands after the long match. However: there was still something she could use to pull her head above water, arguably the main cause of her current predicament in the first place. The Kendo Stick that Alicia had battered her with had been scattered away when the red-head got rolled up. It had been enough for the Amazon to prop herself up with on her bad ankle, hopefully it would be a start for Adrian to start standing up.

"...7!"

Crawling over to the stick, she grabbed hold and pulled it in, trying to use it as a post to put all her weight on while she tried to get her one working leg to co-operate with the plan of getting up. She wasn't vertical yet but the champ was able to push herself up, move a bit faster, and get to the cage for the count of "...8!" as her back slammed into the mesh, allowing her to really use the stick to push herself back upright (somewhat) and break the count to the cheer of the crowd. All that was left was to see if Alicia was also going to recover fast enough.

While Alicia’s amateur ‘career’ had been marked by giving more knockouts than she’d received, she’d still been on the taking end more than once. She had a pretty thick skull but being Superkicked into a metal cage wasn’t something any normal person shook off even when the leg delivering the kick had been as busted up as Adrian’s.

So she wasn’t moving as the count rapidly ascended its way to seven and beyond, even as the cheering grew as Adrian clawed her way to her feet.

On the count of eight, Alicia started to stir. Her limbs twitched and jerked in the unmistakeable signs of someone recovering from a violent knockout, her eyes fluttered and opened blearily. The world around her started to come back into some sort of vague focus, but she couldn’t work out what was going on – the sounds were all blurring one into the other, roaring like the sea in waves.

Her body wasn’t doing what she told it either. And it was all the big redhead could manage to roll over onto her back as the ref counted ”…9!”

But that was all and, despite the crowd holding its collective breath for the longest beat of the count, the ref’s barked ”…10!” passed without any further movement from the British amazon still splayed out on the floor.

From her position on the platform, apparently deciding she didn’t want to risk dropping down into the ring just yet, the referee pointed down to Adrian where she clung to the cage.

”Here is your winner and still Hardcore Champion… Adrian Kytes!”

Adrian breathed a sigh of relief as the referee finally, after what seemed like an age, counted to ten and had the former cosplayer announced as the victor. "Woooo...." She let out, her head resting back against the cage as the crowd cheered their champion, having gone through hell and back to keep the championship around her waist. Speaking of her championship. "Belt!" the brunette coughed up, spitting a small portion of blood that had dripped down from the mess of her nose. "Gimmie the belt, gimmie the belt gimmie the belt..." she mumbled as the cage door swung open and the various medical staff came to the rescue: two to attend Alicia, two to carry out Adrian from the cage, handing the Brunette the championship belt on her way out through the door.

"Yisss..." Adrian purred as she felt the metal and leather back in her hand, raising it as high as she could for the crowd in Alaska. Her second tour of the States since joining AFW had gone as well as she could have hoped and now all she needed was some medicine and a microphone. She was going to talk the ear off any interviewer she could find once she got patched up enough.