Hammer and Tongs

Army didn't even bother to hide the sigh of relief as Alicia reeled from his elbow. Things were switching back over to his favor, looking like a good start to seize this thing. Felt good. Unlike his arm, which was only just now regaining feeling and felt like utter shit.

Now, he just needed to follow up with something. Preferably something that hurt her and gave him time to heal up. But options were low. He only knew a handful of moves that would work, and most of them required both arms. His first thought was a Boston Crab, but that hadn't gone so well last time when everything was in working order. At best, he'd only be able to target one leg, and-

A lightbulb went off in Army’s head, and an evil smile followed right after it. ”Heh.”

Army pushed her over like he was going for a Boston Crab. He mounted her back like he was going for a Boston Crab. He reached forward like he was going for a Boston Crab.

But instead of grabbing both of Alicia’s deadliest weapons, he only grabbed one and tucked the ankle under his good shoulder, going for the single-leg variation of the classic move. Targeting both legs would've been nice, but going for one meant that the way she'd escaped last time would be twice as hard to pull off.

Not that he'd be too surprised if she did. Alicia was kind of a scary like that.

Still dazed and wheezing for breath, Alicia at first didn’t resist when Army shoved her over. For one thing, they’d already danced this dance and she’d got out without too much trouble. And that had been when he’d had two arms. Given she’d wrecked one pretty comprehensively, she had no doubt in the fogged recesses of her mind that she could bust out of another Boston Crab without much trouble. So she didn’t panic.

Except Army was smarter than that. He’d learnt too. So, instead, Alicia found herself in a single-legged version of the move. It did wonders for her concentration – as the agony shot down her limb and spine, the big redhead snapped back to full focus with a moan of pain that she hastily cut off by clenching her jaw.

Immediately, she tried two things. The first was to do her best to yank him off with that leg, but she didn’t have high hopes for it working. The other was to scan for the nearest ropes and start doing her level best to drag them both towards the safety they promised as pain radiated up and down her leg and into her lower back. She needed to get out of this hold as soon as possible - even more than Army needed his arms, Alicia's chances of winning this would plummet drastically if he was able to really damage her leg.

Army didn’t suspect it would be easy getting Alicia into the single-leg, and sure enough, it wasn’t. When she tried to yank him off, he nearly wound up flipping over right on his head. He was over 200 pounds, trained all his life, had more strength in one arm than most men had in  two, and even still, one of Alicia’s legs was almost enough to overpower her.

Almost.

He hunkered down at the last second and managed to keep her anchored, leaning back with his weight thrown into the hold. A good break, and this was a winning strategy altogether, but there was the little wrinkle of the ropes.

They hadn’t nailed down what the actual rules were for this friendly spar/match/brawl, so he technically wouldn’t have to let her go if she reached them. It wasn’t like a referee would disqualify him or anything. Even so, if she did get that far, he’d have to honor the break. It’d be the sporting thing to do.

However, the smart thing to do would be to make sure she never got that far in the first place. He held onto the hold, peering over his shoulder and monitoring her progress, all the way until she was about to reach the ropes. Right before she could grasp them, he suddenly stood up with her leg still under his arm and started to squat-walk back towards the center of the ring, looking to erase all of her progress. ”Nope, not happening, sorry.”

Alicia’s back and leg felt like they were on fire. Not that she’d know what that literally felt like, but her spine and pretty much everything attached to it were screaming. She’d nearly gotten Army off with a repeat of what she’d done earlier but no, no such luck this time.

Instead, it was the draining need to drag herself and Army across the mat towards the ropes with her hands, while enduring the pain every time he cranked the hold. It was hard, gruelling work – Alicia was a strong woman by any standard. But she wasn’t built for this and, while she was more than stubborn enough, it was digging into reserves she’d hoped to save.

But it was working. She could see the ropes just ahead, stretched out her hand until her fingers almost brushed it-

And Army stood and started to yank her away.

Alicia snarled like a furious wolf. The intellectual part of her mind acknowledged it was a smart move, letting her wear herself out before dragging her back, but that didn’t mean it was any less frustrating for the redhead. And the taunting?

That just made her mad.

Army standing up to move her back to the centre of the ring had the side effect of taking a lot of the pressure off the hold and thus her back. Her leg was too busy hurting to be able to pull him off but when he went to take his next step, Alicia went to grab his ankle and pull it towards her. Simultaneously, she’d do her best to straighten her leg, hoping to use the combination to get the boxer off her and preferably face plant him on the mat.

If it worked, she was keeping hold of his leg and going straight to see if she could lock in a retaliatory Achilles Tendon hold. It was more instinct than something she’d planned – he’d hurt her and mocked her. So now she was going to hurt him back or at least do her very best.

”And we’re walking, and we’re walking…”

Yeah, this was a little evil. Giving Alicia hope, letting her drag him halfway across the ring, then erasing all of her progress with a few pithy steps. Mean of him. But that didn’t make it any less of a good idea - hell, if the positions were switched, Alicia would probably be doing the same thing.

Or worse. Probably worse. Probably to his arm again. Hell, given the mood she seemed to be in, she’d probably try ripping the damn thing off and beating him with it. All the more reason to make sure she stayed in the Boston Crab’s pincers. Wouldn't be a problem. Army had this on lock, and once he reached the center of the ring, it would just be a simple matter of sitting down, reapplying the hold, and-

”Fuck!”

Army could feel something brewing in Alicia’s muscles, but he didn’t realize what exactly was going on from the onset. He thought she was just trying another struggle, something he could ride down. Instead, she bucked like a wild horse and sent Army rolling, dumping him right on his head.

That sucked. Compared to what immediately followed, though, it was a drop of water in a huge bucket.

Army let out a surprised shout when he felt the pain burst in his leg, and a long, agonized wail followed right after it. He instinctively pushed up, arched his back, trying to alleviate the pain, but it wasn’t happening. Alicia didn’t half-ass submission holds. This was hard, painful, tight, and there was only one way to get out of it that he knew.

Walking on his palms, Army attempted to do what Alicia hadn’t and dragged them both towards the nearest ropes, cursing himself for pulling her this far out to begin with.

There were three big advantages to the Achilles Tendon hold that Alicia was currently using to punish Army. It’d been easy to set up, something she could readily apply instantly. It didn’t need her to arch her back, letting her rest her wrenched spine and leg while still paying him back. And, best of all, he couldn’t take the pressure off either. The hold relied on her forearm pressing into his tendon so he could squirm all he liked. It wasn’t going to help.

Oh. Right. And it hurt. It hurt a lot as the ragged moaning cry she was wrenching out of him showed. Alicia generally wasn’t the vengeful sort in the ring but something about the way he’d acted had really pushed her buttons.

And now Army was taking the hint and doing his best to drag them both over to the ropes that he had just dragged them away from. Now that was more than a little satisfying. Not as satisfying as turning the tables properly and dragging him right back to the centre of the ring but Alicia, smarting back and ego aside, knew she’d never manage that.

She needed her hands for the hold after all. And, even if she didn’t, Alicia was tired and hurting from the Boston Crab. Even if she’d been fresh, it was anyone’s guess if she could have done it. Now? Not a chance.

That didn’t mean she had to make it easy on him. Picking her moment as best she could, the big redhead went to roll them both over onto their backs, looking to get Army in a position where it’d be a lot harder for him to pull himself to the ropes.

Army didn’t know whether it was true or not, but supposedly, his great-grandfather had served in World War I. If that was the case, he was siphoning from his history at the moment as he crawled forward, moving towards the ropes like he was soldier in the trenches. Just a little more, a little more, and-

His progress was halted all of the sudden when the world suddenly flipped upside down, courtesy of Alicia’s deft manuever. Now they were on their back - still hurt like hell, but more awkward. More than likely, that was the idea.

”Fuck’s sakes-” A string of muttered Spanish curses followed, as Army tried to kick at her with his free leg, frantically attempting to dislodge the killer limpet. The angle was weird, though, so he gave up on it and just started crab-walking towards the ropes, moving as best as he could with only three limbs to work with. Not easy. Alicia wasn't fat, but she was solid and heavier than you'd think, and she made him earn every inch. Every single one.

When he was close enough, he lunged out and attempted a wlld grab on the ropes, trying to get a tight grip on them and hold on for dear life.

Flipping Army over onto his back turned out to work quite nicely. It didn’t change the hold itself, it just made it a hell of a lot harder for him to get to the ropes and that suited Alicia quite nicely. He tried throwing a few kicks but the angle was horrific, Army didn’t know what he was doing and he couldn’t reach anything important. So he stopped.

While Alicia didn’t speak Spanish, she did speak fluent agonised cursing. So, while she didn’t know what Army was mumbling, she didn’t need to. The big redhead just kept hanging on, curling her uninjured leg across the top of his to immobilise it further and making him drag their combined weight halfway across the mat if he wanted to get to the ropes.

On his back.

With a dead arm.

It would have been impressive if Alicia had been in a less vengeful mood. Even so, when he reached the ropes, the British amazon did still relinquish her hold and scoot back. Admittedly, that was after she had cranked his foot back as far as she dared. Alicia pressed the blade of her forearm into his tendon with crushing force as if she actually wanted to leave the man with a ruined ankle.

But she did let go before the imaginary count hit five, scooting back so she could rise to a crouch from where she eyed Army. Turning the tables on him had given her wounded leg and back a chance to rest but she neither wanted to stand too quickly or give the boxer a chance to get the jump on her.

So she paused a moment to take a breath and clear her head, as well as to see what Army would do now. Could he put any weight on that leg?

Army wasn’t sure why, but for some reason, he’d thought that, when he grabbed the ropes, Alicia would immediately let go and stop twisting his ankle into putty. So, when he latched onto them with his good arm and held on tight enough to white-knuckle his tanned skin, he was a little surprised when she kept holding on. Yeah, he didn’t think Alicia was out to snap his bones in two for real, but, well, she did seem pretty pissed off, and if she wanted to there’d be little he could do to stop her like this.

Thankfully, she wasn’t that crazy. She let up. Eventually.

When she did, she left Army with a searing pain in his ankle, one that rivaled what had been going on with his arm a few minutes ago. It was wrecked. How wrecked? Only one way to know for sure.

Biting his lip, Army planted his good foot on the floor and grabbed onto the ropes, using them for much-needed support as he rose. His tortured arm was good enough to move now, but his other one still wound up doing most of the work as he straightened up.

He got higher and higher, putting more and more pressure on the ankle, until-

”Shit!” He tried standing on it full, and that was when the pain came in. He stumbled and managed to catch himself before he went down, but it was close. His forward leg would have to do the lion’s share of support for now, while his bad leg hung in the back, sliding along.

Two limbs facing serious damage, options running out, and this wasn’t even an official match. The smart thing would’ve been to call this off, not risk being injured in fights where something more than pride would be on the line. No one had ever accused Army of being too smart, though.

With his good arm up and his bad arm hanging down, Army limped his way from the ropes, staring her down and waiting to see where they’d go from there. Blood was in the water, but he wasn’t done yet. That’s what he told himself, anyway.

Carefully, very carefully, violet eyes watched the boxer doing his best to stand. Watched him grab the ropes, pull himself up to one foot, put the other down…

Put more weight on it…

And then nearly collapse right under him.

That was what she thought.

There was a decidedly sinister smile curling Alicia’s lips as she slowly, purposefully rose to her own feet, staring her opponent down in turn. She was not the sort to trash talk, but the way her eyes flickered from his arm to his leg and back to his face was almost certainly a giveaway as to where her thoughts were going. Her leg and back felt – well, less than their best. But she was willing to bet she was in better shape right now than Army.

Really, he ought to quit. Part of her wanted to tell him to quit but she was still feeling mean. If he wanted to risk injury over this, well, that was his lookout. She wasn’t here to hold his hand and, well, it was down to him.

That said, she wasn’t going to rush in. Army was a big, strong guy and Alicia was smart enough to know that he was getting desperate. And that meant he’d be dangerous. She’d got the upper hand and this time she was determined to keep it. She didn’t want to give Army any chances to aggravate the damage done by that Boston Crab.

So, she slid forward into the attack, arms up in a high guard version of her kickboxing stance. Again, the redhead kept trying to circle around to get at the weak side, but either way she led with a right-left-right salvo of jabs before twisting to deliver a crescent kick to Army’s knee.

She was thinking she needed to get him down on one knee. Then she could throw a knee to the chin, daze him and go for the finish.