Test of Strength

Alicia made it clear, in response to Odessa's teasing little promise to show her more of her legs later on, that she meant she wanted to see Odessa use them on some other poor woman, to scissor her nearly out of existence, or at least until she ran out of air and passed out. Odessa thought it was very cute indeed that Alicia wanted to watch her apply a scissor hold to someone else, and thought that she could get out of suffering the punishment herself. If she wanted to know what Odessa's legs were capable of, Odessa planned to make her endure it.

And, of course, Alicia would have free reign to scissor Odessa's head, as well, between those mighty thighs that had just won the second round of their fight. And she would probably be the favorite in such a contest. But Odessa, when they came back around to a scissor contest, would not concede the victory right away. Anything could happen when they were as closely matched as she and Alicia.

But right now, they needed to get away from their limbs and compete on a different level. Alicia reiterated her limits on hentai holds, and Odessa chuckled and nodded, reaching out a hand to pat Alicia on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it, darling. I have a sense for those sort of things. I figured we wouldn't be getting particularly frisky. Though I wouldn't mind trying some smothering as we get further into this fight..."

She would step around behind Alicia right now, however. "But my idea for round three is abdominal stretches. And, if you're okay with being the victim first, I'll be more than happy to begin immediately...we can time it by that clock on the wall up there."

”Let’s put it this way,” Alicia said with an impish smile now firmly in place, ”If we’re getting frisky, you’re buying me dinner first, Miss Brock.”

She wasn’t at all surprised about the rest of what Odessa had to say; again, she’d watched the other Brit’s matches. She’d had a bit of an idea what she was getting in for and, well, there was some merit in learning how to take them, given some of the roster seemed to throw them around a lot in actual matches.

”I didn’t think you would,” She then muttered mostly to herself with an amused shake of her head, rising to her feet. Abdominal stretches… Not a move she’d ever employed or even suffered before so this was going to be a learning experience in more ways than one for the big redhead. And not one she was particularly looking forward to. While she was hardly flabby in any respects, Alicia’s belly was solid and toned rather than etched with the sort of abs some had.

Of course, given her background and move preference, her core muscles were definitely on the impressive side as they had to power her kicks and played into her scissors as well. But she wasn’t sure how this was going to feel at all. Alicia wasn’t afraid of pain but that didn’t mean she welcomed it either.

Oh well. Might as well look at this as a plus. This way, she wouldn’t get her first taste of the move mid-match with no time to prepare and no way out except by tapping.

”Ok is putting it a bit strongly,” she said after a moment, doing her best to stay loose and relaxed, ”But let’s go.”

Odessa chuckled and raised an eyebrow at Alicia's comment about getting frisky. She hadn't even been expecting that much, but it seemed a harbinger of plenty of surprises to come from the feisty redhead. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind, as well." Hopefully only a handful of those surprises would be the direct cause of Odessa losing one of their contests. She expected Alicia's legs to be powerful. She hoped that her redheaded antagonist's abdomen would not turn out to be appreciably more durable than it looked—because it looked quite durable already.

Actually, Odessa would have described their two bellies as being very similar in tone and purpose. They both had solid cores which provided critical support for all the other powerful parts of their bodies—midsections which were smooth and firm, but also very feminine—without having the sort of chiseled abs that a bodybuilder might. It made it very difficult for Odessa to tell who had the advantage going into this contest, but that only made it more interesting. If she only stuck to her strengths, this sparring session would hardly be any fun. She hoped they both would pick plenty of contests for which there was no clear victor beforehand.

"This should be an interesting one, don't you think?" Odessa would ask, giving Alicia's abs a very gentle pat, just to note how firm they were. "You've got quite a taut tum there, I'll tell you that. It should be fun to stretch it out a little."

Odessa stepped behind Alicia and shook herself out, readying her limbs to secure a tight hold on her sparring partner. When Alicia gave the okay, Odessa hooked her left leg around Alicia's, then grabbed onto Alicia's right arm and began to pull it back. She did not lock in the hold just yet, however. "Okay, I'll start on the 'twelve,' so brace yourself," Odessa would instruct, as the second hand of the clock came all the way around. Ten, then eleven...and, when it hit twelve, Odessa would yank Alicia's arm underneath her left armpit, then would press down with her leg and lean backward to put strain on Alicia's belly!

”Guess that makes you a tiny bit of a sadist too – maybe it’s the Londoner in us,” Was Alicia’s reply, more amused than offended. She kind of thought anyone in this sort of life had to be at least either a bit of a sadist or a masochist. Not to an appreciable level, perhaps, and she was chiefly in it for the competition but she’d freely admit that there were times when making someone else tap or nap brought a little shine to the day.

She was definitely starting to appreciate Odessa though. Painful or not and promising to get more so, their time together had been nothing other than enjoyable and she was seriously hoping to spend more time with the ebony amazon.

As the other Brit hooked her into the hold, the redhead did her best to take note of where the various limbs went. It wasn’t the best angle but it gave her an idea of how to do it when her turn came around. She’d ask, of course, but some things were easier demonstrated.

At first, she didn’t quite see where the pain was coming from.

And then Odessa hooked the hold in properly and Alicia only just contained the startled shriek – even though she’d been expecting the pain, mentally braced for it, she hadn’t been ready for the way every nerve on the right side of her abdomen lit up like an agonised Christmas tree. Not by any means. Clenching her teeth together, she thought about squirming to try and relieve the tension but she’d got nowhere at all to go.

All she could do – all she was going to do – was stand there and take it for as long as she felt she could. The pain might not be fading but the scorching newness of it would at least. But the big redhead honestly wasn’t sure how long she could take this. She had a tough, taut core but it felt like Odessa was ripping her abdomen apart. And it wasn’t a picnic for her back either. Her free hand clenched and unclenched at her side, Alicia’s violet eyes screwed closed – she didn’t want to know how long she’d been in it.

That would just be depressing, painful on a mental level – she knew that a few seconds in the right hold could feel like a real eternity. But she could hold on for a little longer at least. A little longer…

Her jaw pressed tighter together.

"Maybe, indeed," Odessa would respond to Alicia's suggestion that their seeming mutual sadism stemmed from their shared city of origin. The white-haired beauty punctuated her reply with a light, happy laugh, though she would not have been surprised if it could be proven that there was indeed real truth behind Alicia's words. It was only natural for someone in their line of work to enjoy a victory, especially a hard-fought one. Odessa might have even admitted to being painted with shades from both end of that S-M spectrum—the idea of the contest, the mutual struggle and shared pain, excited her more than the idea of winning.

She had a feeling that Alicia probably thought along similar lines. They both had their strengths and weaknesses, but, even in a hopeless battle, they were going to honor each other by giving everything they had in pursuit of victory. Strength recognized strength, each warrior admiring the other. Odessa sincerely hoped that the two of them could spend some more time together in the future.

Odessa began to assemble her abdominal stretch. Her preparations were slow and methodical, relatively speaking. But one by one, each element fell into place. Hooked leg. Restrained arm. And then, when the clock hit twelve, she applied the pressure, and felt Alicia convulse and muffle a startled shriek at the pain in her abdomen.

Odessa did not like hearing a friend in pain, but pain, of course, was the point of this contest. Odessa would try to apply as much of it as possible, so that Alicia would have to endure it for as little time as possible. She pulled harder on that arm and leaned further back, increasing the pressure on Alicia's right side with each passing second. "Whenever you can't take it...give in...I don't want to cause you any serious harm because you were too stubborn...!" Odessa would insist in Alicia's ear, a combination of friendly teasing and serious advice.

She pulled back harder still.

There was that temptation to keep holding on. There always was, even for someone who thought the same way as she did. Other fighters she’d known would have denied it, fought the idea, viewed it as weakness and they’d be idiots in Alicia’s book for doing so.

Odessa had a point. Alicia had never been one to risk injury in a real match, let alone a sparring contest which was basically all this was. She’d fight to the end but there was no use whatsoever in winning at the cost of the rest of her combat career. That went double in a situation like this and with a hold like this, where she honestly didn’t know how much more the muscles in her right side could take. Tearing a muscle in her abdomen would shelve her for a couple of weeks and she just wasn’t willing to risk that.

Still, she held on a little more. The redhead gritted her teeth to stop the yell welling up inside, then reached up with her free hand to tap Odessa’s body wherever she could find it.

Enough was enough and she definitely didn’t trust her voice at this point. Pride wasn’t one of Alicia’s big vices but even she didn’t like to be caught screaming in pain.

Then she was just waiting for Odessa to unlock the hold. She’d need a moment of rest before she felt comfortable applying it herself but she was looking forward to it.

Not that she particularly wanted to hurt the other Brit but some payback would be nice (even if she’d asked for this). And it was always fun to learn new holds.

”How long?” Alicia managed after a moment, rubbing at her side.

Odessa wondered what effect her words might have on Alicia. The woman obviously would not give up just because she didn't think she would be able to win this contest—Odessa respected Alicia a lot, and the two of them had both agreed to give these fights their all, every time. But it was only sensible to give up when one reached her limit. And Odessa wondered when Alicia would reach hers. The abdominal stretch could be a brutal hold. Even Odessa, who had quite a bit of experience with it, was not certain if she could last much longer than a minute in the hold, if that.

As soon as she felt Alicia's hand on her body, tapping on the smooth dark flesh, Odessa's eyes would go to the clock, and her muscles would stop constricting, letting Alicia go free. It was a respite for Odessa, too, as she had been putting quite a bit into that hold, and was glad for her muscles to have the chance to relax before they would be put into that exact same painful position.

Alicia asked how long, and Odessa would smile as she replied. "Sixty-one seconds. That's pretty impressive, especially if you haven't been put in the hold before," Odessa would explain. She thought about the time to herself. Sixty-one seconds...just a little over a minute...

Yes, she should be able to beat it. She should be able to...

Well, that hadn’t been pleasant. It hadn’t been the nastiest submission hold she’d been on the receiving end of, but the right side of her body still felt like it’d been put on the rack. As in the medieval torture instrument. Honestly, the faintly ridiculous part of her was wondering if she was a couple of inches taller on that side.

More rationally, Alicia put that one on the list of holds to avoid where possible. She could see that being a real pain, potentially very damaging to her ability to kick or apply scissors, both of which would be… less than ideal to say the least.

Fortunately, Odessa let her go more or less as soon as the redhead tapped and Alicia was very grateful for that. But she too managed a grin – not so much at the time itself as being told that was pretty impressive. That, even for her, was good to hear.

”First time,” She agreed, with a wince as she breathed in, ”So let’s see how long you can last. Mind walking me through this?”

Carefully, the British kickboxer straightened back up and stretched as best she could. Things were still tender but she thought she could pull the hold off. Taking her hint from how Odessa had started, she moved to get behind the dark-skinned veteran and went to wrap her left leg around Odessa’s.

”So it starts like this, right?”

Odessa knew that a hold such as this would inevitably be more painful than the simple tests of arm and leg strength they had put each other through prior, and so she made sure to let go of her sparring partner as soon as she heard the submission. Would she tear something in Alicia's side? No, the hold was not quite so effective, and no woman as experienced as Odessa would do that sort of harm to her opponents even if it was. Still, she did not want Alicia to hurt any more than was necessary.

It really was Alicia's first time being put in an abdominal stretch. She had survived sixty-one seconds—over a minute. Odessa made some mental calculations and felt cautiously optimistic. But one minute...that was right where things started to get a little bit uncertain in her mind.

This was going to be interesting.

"But of course. I'm always more than happy to help," Odessa would graciously reply, as her opponent requested to be walked through the application of the hold. This was good training for the redhead, on top of being a good workout and a test of strength for them both. Alicia hooked her leg around Odessa's, and Odessa could feel the light pressure of the incomplete hold already. She took a deep breath. "Very good. Do you remember what to do next? The arm?"

Nodding in thanks, the redhead went about applying the hold. Mostly, it came easily as she worked through what Odessa had done to her and it wasn’t as if it was some insane human knot technique. It was, at its base, a fairly straightforward if agonisingly painful move. Still, the prompting didn’t hurt at all.

”I think so…” Alicia replied, getting a grip on the mentioned limb – seriously, this was so much easier than experimenting in an actual match. That could be rewarding but it was just so… rushed.

Experimentally, she got the arm in position, immediately feeling what she’d have to do to lock the hold in fully. The arm went under her armpit, then she would lean back and press down with her leg. Simple enough.

Like Odessa before her though, Alicia glanced at the clock.

”Ok, ten seconds to go.”

She shifted her hold slightly, adjusting it so things felt a bit more comfortable and trusting Odessa to tell her if she accidentally botched something.

”And brace yourself – three, two, one…”

The second hand hit the twelve and Alicia leant back, pushing down with her leg as she did her best to imitate Odessa’s hold. It might be her first time but, so long as she’d got it set up right, it seemed a pretty straightforward lock to work.

She kept her eyes on the clock, curious to see how this one would turn out more than she wanted to win, if she was honest. New moves were fun, both learning and that first time applying them as well.

Plus, if Odessa had fun ‘stretching her tum out’, maybe Alicia could have some fun stretching Odessa’s equally taut tummy too. She’d have to see.