Test of Strength

Clearly, despite her focus on the strength of her legs, Alicia believed that she had a very good chance indeed to win this contest. And that may very well be true! Odessa was not known for using armlocks, though she had a few in her arsenal from her long time in the professional wrestling business. This would not be an ideal challenge for the chocolate-skinned bombshell, but then, she was confident in her ability to resist pain and to inflict it. She judged her own chances of winning this contest to be no worse than fifty-fifty!

Odessa kneeled down on the mat, as well, mirroring Alicia as the two of them still needed to decide who would be applying her hold to whom first. "I would be glad to allow you to go first, if you'd care to," Odessa would graciously say, dipping her upper body towards Alicia in something of a small bow. Allowing Alicia to go first would give Odessa a good sense of what she was dealing with and what sort of pressure she would have to apply to the redhead's arm in order to win this round. Even better, she could take a note or two on the way Alicia applied the armlock, comparing it to the vision of the hold she had in her head. No harm in learning from her opponent. That was, after all, one of the main purposes of their meeting here today, was it not?

"Though either way would ultimately be fine with me." While she would be glad to cede the first hold to Alicia, she did not want to unilaterally make the decision. "And I suppose you wouldn't be setting me up. Though the look on your face seemed positively guilty when you picked out this challenge. I understand bodyscissors are your forte, but I would have seen them coming a mile away."

Odessa would then stretch out an arm towards Alicia, raising an eyebrow and smiling. "So, would you like to?"

Well, it looked like she had the choice of going first or not. Pondering for a moment, the redhead cocked her head slightly at the suggestion she’d looked guilty. She didn’t feel guilty. This was why they were here, after all. But she was willing to accept that, yes, a bodyscissors would have been a predictable choice.

Alicia acknowledged Odessa’s compliment with a slight bow, as best she could while seated, grinning as she did.

”I mean, I’m pretty good at headscissors too,” She offered by way of a reply, ”But, to be honest, I’m betting you or me could make anyone in this company tap in… seconds. Easy. Maybe I’m being a bit cruel, but I prefer to see the look on their faces when they’ve got to tap.”

The big redhead shrugged, sliding towards Odessa and guiding the dark-skinned woman gently down to the mat to lie on her back. If she’d been feeling at all guilty, it was because…

Well, she knew some pretty painful armlocks. While she didn’t want to pick something too far outside the sort of thing the other British beauty would be familiar with, nor did she want to take it easy on Odessa by just going with a standard armlock.

Hmm. Ok, she had it.

”Like you said, it’s my forte,” She went on, shifting around to lay her legs across Odessa’s ample chest on either side of her arm, like she was going for that standard armbar after all, ”Mind linking your hands, like you’re trying to block an armbar?”

Odessa was ready for this contest of armlocks, though she knew that it was going to be a very tough one indeed. She was going to let Alicia go first, learning a little of the other woman's notions about armlocks and potentially having opportunity to turn those against her, but also having her muscles weakened in the process.

This was going to be fun. Alicia accepted Odessa's compliments and gave back a few of her own. Odessa smiled and nodded, and allowed Alicia to guide her down onto her back, not resisting as all as the redhead put her in position. "Between you and I, I do have some notably strong legs, myself. I'd almost rather you'd chosen bodyscissors...I'm afraid I'm a little rusty with armlocks."

And that was the truth, though Odessa felt it wouldn't hurt to exaggerate a little bit when it came to just how rusty she was. When Alicia asked her to link her hands, Odessa gladly obliged, bringing her arms up and bracing the fingers of the two hands together, looking to the redhead for any further instructions—and readying herself for when the hold finally snapped shut on her.

”Not doubting it,” Alicia agreed as Odessa noted her own legs were hardly weak, stretching over to run her fingertips down the outside of that ebony thigh, ”And don’t worry – I just want you at your best before I squish that tummy flat.”

Her grin was probably slightly unnerving, but Alicia was definitely looking forward to squeezing Odessa. Not to mention seeing how well Odessa’s legs could measure up.

Of course, first things first – they had a contest to settle regarding armbars before they could test each other’s bodyscissors or headscissors.

And so Alicia carried on with her application of the hold she’d chosen.

The obvious differences here would be immediately apparent to someone with Odessa’s experience – there was her being asked to link her hands together, which was usually the way to block an armbar, and Alicia was sitting up rather than lying back.

Still, all would start to clear up as Alicia slid her own arm through the crook of her countrywoman’s elbow, settling her forearm in place with the inside facing towards her. She took her time, not dragging her movements out but giving Odessa a chance to see what she was doing step by step. With her arm in place and her free hand keeping Odessa’s forearm in place, the paler wrestler drew her legs back and up while falling to her back.

Now she had a loose figure four scissors around her new friend’s arm. The arm above the elbow was pressed between Alicia’s thighs while her big calf ran across just below the wrist. For the moment, the redhead didn’t apply pressure, keeping the lock loose.

Tilting her head as best she could, she glanced Odessa’s way.

”Ready, ‘Dessa?”

When the dark-skinned Brit confirmed she was, the redhead would pull the figure-four tight, tucking the foot right down under Odessa’s back. The biceps slicer, or short arm scissors as the white-haired beauty might know it better, would then be pressing Alicia’s hard bony forearm into Odessa’s tender biceps muscle as well as threatening to split the elbow apart.

Not a fun hold by any means and it was one of Alicia’s signature armlocks so she prided herself on knowing it inside and out. She was looking forward to seeing how well the more experienced wrestler held up. And maybe showing her something new, who knew?

Odessa raised an eyebrow and smirked when Alicia ran a finger along the outside of her thigh. The redhead was relaxed enough to get a little flirtier, and Odessa thought that that was a very cute thing. "It's obvious even just by looking at them how powerful your legs are, darling...you may be surprised, though, not only by mine, but by my abdominal endurance. You may be facing a case of mutually assured destruction even in your own best hold, hmmm?"

That was probably enough teasing about scissors for now, though. Odessa didn't want to get Alicia too fired up just yet, while they were still a ways away from actually applying the hold to each other. Right now, focus on armlocks. Odessa braced her fingers together as per her countrywoman's command. She noted the differences between this lock and a typical armbar, and was curious to see where Alicia was going with this. Soon enough, that much was clear: Alicia was going to be putting her powerful legs to good use with a figure four scissor lock on Odessa's arm, her forearm stabbing into Odessa's biceps!

Odessa took a breath and nodded. "Ready."

And, as the hold drew tight, Odessa instantly felt a burst of hot pain in her arm, a loud soloist of agony heard over top of a nagging general achiness as the chorus. Odessa couldn't help but shout as she felt that forearm digging into her biceps, and she would stomp her foot on the canvas hard, using that motion to try to channel some of the pain away as she did her best to endure the expertly-applied hold!

”I’d like you to surprise me,” Alicia agreed, taking a further moment to appreciate the muscle tone in the leg before pulling her hand back, ”It’s no fun when everyone taps out before thirty seconds. Though trust me when I say you’ve never met anyone who can squeeze like me.”

For what it was worth, the kickboxer’s tone made it a matter of fact statement rather than a boast, though of course anything like that was open to interpretation and to question. And she certainly respected the likely force of Odessa’s own scissors as well as her tenacity.

Still, her bodyscissors was her best hold and she was looking forward to that.

But the anticipation in this competition was just going to make it all the sweeter, meaning Alicia forced herself to focus on the armlock for the moment.

Which was certainly doing its job once the redhead locked it in, that was for sure.

While Alicia sympathised (as best she could) with Odessa’s shout of pain, it didn’t stir her to ease the hold. If anything, she tightened it, doing her best to simultaneously crush that tendon and take the elbow joint to the very brink of damage. She needed to be careful not to injure her countrywoman but the redhead felt her mastery of the hold was equal to the task.

Tightening her figure-four, she kept the pressure high and waited patiently for Odessa’s pain tolerance to give out. It was just a matter of time. Not that she doubted the dark-skinned Brit could take a lot of pain but joint locks were meant to break either an opponent’s will to resist or their body.

Armlocks, Odessa told herself, after nearly getting carried away and skipping ahead in their series of contests by going on about the scissor hold. It's time to focus on armlocks.

Of course, once the armlock was actually applied, Odessa's purposes would better be served by focusing on almost anything else. It was something of an intricate hold, one that Alicia had obviously put a lot of thought into, and it was particularly, acutely painful right in her bicep, an almost cutting pain which was not exactly an easy thing to just power through. The pain in her muscle was accompanied by a burn in her elbow joint, and the darker-skinned woman would thrash her legs, not necessarily in anger, but as a means to vent some of the pain. It was a tried and true tactic, and focusing on that—"How hard can I slam my foot down on the canvas at this angle?" or somesuch—was actually helping.

Not that Odessa's conscious brain could ignore the agony in her arm. She tightly clenched her teeth and growled, powering through the hold for second after long second, focusing on anything but the armlock. The kicking. Her favorite seafood restaurant here in Tokyo. The image of Alicia's head tucked between her thighs, the other woman's eyes widening in shock as she realized just how painful a headscissor from Odessa could be...

It must have been almost a minute now. More, maybe? But the armlock was getting to be too much. Survival instinct, on a subconscious level, would soon kick in. Odessa knew that she had resisted it for long enough already. She would start getting crazy if she didn't submit.

One more second...

And then, Odessa would bark: "Enough!"

Whatever else she had to say about Odessa, Alicia couldn’t and wouldn’t deny that the other British woman had pretty incredible pain tolerance. From both reputation and personal experience (on both sides of the hold), she knew that the biceps slicer was a move that could bring the toughest of fighters to tears, screams and a rapid tap out.

Odessa, by contrast, was still holding on moment by moment, through what appeared to be sheer force of willpower. Admittedly, the redhead wasn’t going all out, not wanting to make it a choice between the dark-skinned woman’s pride and her arm, but still. There was no denying how impressive this was regardless.

Time ticked by. Alicia kept the hold tight but not too tight, staring at the ceiling. Unlike Odessa, she was silent except for the steady hiss of her breath in and out, in and out.

It was she knew just a matter of time. Odessa would know that too. In a match, that wouldn’t matter. Here, it mattered a lot but there was literally no more that Alicia could do unless she wanted to risk damaging her new friend’s elbow. And, for once, that was a possibility she was actively seeking to avoid.

She was just as oblivious of the actual passing of time, but it was a definitely relief on one level when Alicia finally heard the other woman call it quits. Gently but swiftly, she uncoiled her legs and pulled her own arm out, flexing and stretching it to ease the stiffness – though she knew it’d be nothing compared to Odessa’s pain.

Scooting away, she favoured the other woman with a grin.

”Longest anyone’s lasted in that. Need a minute?”

Odessa held out for as long as she possibly could. Longer than even she would have thought she could when the armlock was first applied to her. Ultimately, she had to take it one second at a time. If she was tough enough to last through one second of that pain—and, of course, she was—then all she had to do was survive that one single second. Then survive the next. Every time her arm sent an emergency signal to her brain, she would admit that, yes, now was the time to submit. But one more second would be nothing at all, really.

And then she would do it again, and again. And keep it up until, when at last she could bear it no more and her arm began to feel as if it might actually soon be seriously injured, her time was a true testament to her endurance. It was a time worthy of a woman as powerful and proud as Odessa Brock.

Alicia uncoiled herself from around Odessa's arm, and the darker-skinned woman would groan as she brought her arm around and shook it slowly, gingerly trying to flex it and see how hurt her elbow was. No doubt about it, it was going to ache for a while. Even now, it was still throbbing. Odessa was not always subject to enduring such punishing holds, and she was not exactly warming to the experience after that painful interlude. Still, she managed to smirk at Alicia.

"Not a minute. Perhaps a few seconds. I should really get my head on straight and figure out exactly what kind of torture I'll pay you back with, hmm?"

However Odessa had done, the results were impressive. Perhaps she had lasted less than a minute but, compared to most of those Alicia had submitted with that hold, that was twice, three times, four times how long most lasted. Nothing to sneer at.

Certainly there was no reason to judge if Odessa wanted to stretch out a few kinks before resuming their contrasts.

Alicia hadn’t been looking to be so literal minded about that ‘minute’ but she certainly wasn’t about to complain about keeping things moving. She’d shown Odessa her cards – in a manner of speaking – and she was eager to see how the darker-skinned Brit would respond. In an academic sense because, while Alicia’s pain tolerance was well above average, that didn’t mean she enjoyed it. Could tolerate a lot of it, yes, but she certainly preferred to be the one dishing it out.

Resting on her haunches, the redhead waited patiently, for Odessa to finish stretching, for Odessa to decide ‘what kind of torture’ she’d be throwing Alicia’s way in retaliation.

And how long she’d be able to take it for. Here, the type of armbar mattered a lot – the one she’d used was one of the worse ones. If Odessa broke out a more standard lock, she felt she had a good chance of exceeding the white-haired woman’s time. If not, well… She’d just have to see.

”Head looks pretty straight to me,” she joked, leaning in closer to take a good look, ”So let’s see what you’ve got up your sleeves.”