Test of Strength

Odessa recognized just how potent that armlock had been, and she knew she was not going to be winning this round by busting out something standard, something expected. She had to reach deep into her bag of tricks, close her eyes and think back to her initial training back in London, and all the different techniques she had learned. She thought about armlocks she had been placed in by opponents in England and in California. She examined every maneuver she could think of to find the perfect prospect which would break Alicia faster than Alicia had broken her.

The "few seconds" she had requested to stretch out her arm and loosen up in general gave her ample time to close her eyes and think. But even then, she did not know for sure if what she dreamed up would be enough to best her sparring partner. Still, when she opened her eyes and gave Alicia a smile, she had an idea of what direction she was going in.

"My head may be on straight, but this arm...my word." Odessa shook her head and laughed, swinging it once more to make sure it felt good. She would need it to be performing well for this lock. Odessa would slide down onto her rear end on the canvas, keeping her legs out, patting the canvas next to her to invite Alicia to get down, too. "On your knees, please, to start," Odessa would request.

Once Alicia had obeyed that request, Odessa would bring her legs around Alicia's torso from the side. She didn't squeeze at all—this was not a scissor contest. But she would keep Alicia in place with those legs as she brought her arms up and pulled the other wrestlers down onto her front...grabbing Alicia's left wrist with her right hand and moving her other arm upwards as she prepared the double wristlock, not tightening it quite yet.

"Ready?"

The few seconds Odessa had requested stretched out a bit more than that, but Alicia certainly made no move to complain. Whether the white-haired woman was doing it to give her arm time to recover, to think about her own choice of move or both – didn’t matter.

Either way, any way, she could take as long as she needed. Alicia was fine with it. She just sat on her haunches, watching ‘Dessa thoughtfully, until her countrywoman stirred with a laugh.

Apparently, the dark-skinned Londoner was maybe a tiny bit taken with that hold.

”Want me to show you that one afterwards?” Alicia offered with a chuckle of her own as she moved to comply with the request. Dropping to her knees where indicated, the redhead kept her arms up as Odessa’s legs slid around her waist and drew in. The elegant beauty wasn’t squeezing but Alicia could still feel those firm muscles flexing to hold her in position.

Nor did she resist as Odessa manipulated her arms, moving their limbs into position, her reaction a quirked eyebrow as the kickboxer tried to work out what she was about to be hit with.

”As I’m going to be,” Alicia acknowledged with a nod, taking a deep breath and letting it out. Given she wasn’t entirely sure where Odessa was going with this, she was probably being a bit optimistic there. After all, she had no doubt that the other Brit was more than eager to pay her back for the agony Alicia had just put her through.

A grip on her wrist could mean all sorts of things and somehow Alicia wasn’t expecting anything as simple as it seemed. Still, turnabout was fair play – Odessa had to have her turn too.

That still meant this was going to hurt. Bracing herself, the redhead waited.

Odessa shrugged, chuckling happily as Alicia offered to show her that hold. "Oh, I certainly wouldn't mind, though I'd rather you not bring it to bear full force on me again. Armlocks have never been one of my fortes, and it would be interesting to perhaps find a new method I could employ in torturing some of my friends..."

Odessa began her maneuvering, thinking back to some of her earlier wrestling training when armlocks had been more front and center in her mind. She went towards the double wristlock naturally, as it was one of the more potent holds she recalled, but took her time setting the hold up, as she brought Alicia down onto her stomach first. She would release the light non-scissor hold her legs had on Alicia and turn the other Briton over, still holding onto that arm, keeping it visible, keeping it where she could work with it as Alicia was now on her back.

Now, Odessa thought about how she could spice it up. And she thought of two ways.

She adjusted her hold slightly, maneuvering Alicia's left arm to bend upwards, towards her head, still not putting any actual pressure on any joints or muscles. She would go for an americana lock on that arm, simple but hopefully effective...and, while she was at it, why not work both arms? She would reach down and tuck Alicia's right arm between her thighs, just above the knees, where it could be squeezed while she was working on her hold. That would just be a little tease, a little arm scissor sideshow to the actual attack which might get Alicia a little bit flustered.

Odessa moved both arms back to the left arm, then, grabbing Alicia's wrist with her left hand, then threading her right arm beneath Alicia's arm above the elbow and grabbing her own wrist. When she applied the hold, her right would wrench Alicia's upper arm into the air, while her left would force her forearm down, threatening to bend the whole arm apart if there was no quick submission.

"Forgive my rustiness," Odessa would say, as she glanced to the side, to Alicia's face. "Let me know when you're ready."

Alicia could sympathise honestly. She’d had to learn that one the hard way too, not to mention a number of other slicer or crusher type holds that had left her joints and muscles aching.

”Oh, in that case, I’ll definitely have to show you some of those. Though you might find anyone you put in that isn’t your friend for long…”

Although maybe she wasn’t one to talk, not with what she did to Dmitri and her other boyfriends down the years. Still, she thought Odessa might enjoy adding those tricks to her repertoire. And Alicia liked the idea of making the other British woman even more of a challenge for when the two of them faced off in the ring.

It’d make things even more interesting. And even more fun.

In the meantime, of course, it was now her turn to be on the receiving end of Odessa’s armbar and the redhead allowed herself to be moved as Odessa wished even as her curiosity built.

Now she was on her back, with some ideas of where this was going. She had Odessa’s weight on her chest, the white-haired warrior wrapping up her arm in what was rapidly becoming apparent was an Americana. As her countrywoman applied pressure, Alicia could feel pressure rapidly building in her shoulder and elbow. And it was a situation in no way helped by Odessa simultaneously scissoring her other arm and squeezing it with her thighs.

Almost certainly not full power and the Americana was by far the more threatening hold, but it was still in no way fun to have her biceps mashed between Odessa’s rock hard quads.

If nothing else, it was distracting. And not in a good way.

Still, the whole point of the exercise was to hold on as long as possible. And Alicia was just getting warmed up. Taking as deep a breath as she could manage, she let her head fall back, teeth gritted and inhaling through her nose.

”Thanks…” She paused, wincing, ”But not… yet.”

Odessa wished she had more recent relevant experience, in order to properly impress her countrywoman in this round. It was clear that she was the underdog when it came to armlocks, seeing as how she last submitted a woman with one back in London...some three leagues and over six years ago. She would welcome the opportunity to learn some more of these potent techniques from her foil, and hopefully go on to use them against some of her rivals...she would enjoy watching Ceci, or Karina, or Isabella squirm.

Though her knowledge was more theoretical than practical, she would do what she could to put Alicia through her paces. And she had held out for quite a long while in the other woman's lock...if she got lucky, and really cranked up the pressure she was putting on her young friend, then she had a shot. She most certainly had a shot.

Odessa started applying real pressure when Alicia's body language indicated she was ready, and wrenched that left arm powerfully, putting more pressure on those joints by the second. Her legs squeezed tighter on Alicia's right arm, letting a slow, simple burn build up there...nothing much to sneeze at all by its lonesome, but, combined with the Americana, it could earn Odessa a submission a few seconds earlier...and maybe that would be enough...!

"Very well, then," Odessa would say with a nod, as she kept a close eye on the time. "Just let me...know." She punctuated that with a little push on Alicia's arm, aiming to send a twinge of hurt through it. Just a little coercing.

In a lot of ways, this whole thing went against some of Alicia’s more deeply honed instincts. Having had a seriously rough rival back in her university days, she’d long-since inculcated the idea that it was far better to tap than to take the risk of being injured and she assumed everyone else operated on similar principles. Being shelved for any length of time, even a day, because of her pride just wasn’t something she’d be able to stand.

If a hold was inescapable except by tapping or her only way out was to invite harm, she’d tap.

Whereas here, the only idea was to hang on for as long as possible. She trusted Odessa not to take it to the limit but that was the inevitable difference between conscious and unconscious. She consciously might know she was in no danger. Her hindbrain was still pretty sure her arm was about to be broken.

Between the Americana and the slow, steady crushing of her other biceps, giving up certainly seemed a pleasant alternative. But Alicia did have some pride and it wasn’t going to let her tap just yet.

She was still having to bottle up her groans, however. Simple or not, the Americana was sending a constant stream of agony up her arm, interspersed with occasional bursts that shut Alicia’s eyes whenever Odessa twisted in a particular direction.

Like that one. A hiss of pain slipped out and Alicia drummed her feet on the mat.

”Nope.” Her tone was firm, ”Keep… Ugh… Going…”

Odessa understood what was going through Alicia's mind. There was no reason to put one's wellbeing on the line in a friendly little contest such as this, and the focus had to be on going right up to the limit of pain with little to no actual injury being involved. Odessa was not out to tear any of Alicia's muscles apart—hell, even in an actual, competitive match, Odessa would never try to end a woman's career, and most of her fellow AFW wrestlers, Alicia surely included, would agree with her on that point.

Even when she was trying to beat someone like Cecilia into a bloody pulp, she wouldn't want to cripple her.

Right now, as Odessa just had to keep her holds as tight as possible and occasionally wiggle slightly in order to tweak Alicia's limbs and send a wave of pain through them before they could acclimate to their original positioning, she had time to think about such things. Hopefully not too much time. But Alicia was quite resilient, and Odessa found her brain had a surplus of idle time here for her liking...

She jerked her body to the side, briefly pulling on Alicia's limbs within the confines of her Americana and her little arm scissor, after that first refusal. "Are you quite sure about that?" she would ask.

Was she sure about that decision?

Honestly, not really. Certainly, every time Odessa tweaked the hold even slightly, that tiny motion led to a full scale orchestral version of the 1812 overture going off in her brain complete with real artillery.

Then there was the arm scissors and the near constant chewing pain in that bicep.

So, when Odessa further twisted to the side, yanking on both her arms at once…

Yeah, that was enough for her, thanks.

One hand was trapped but Alicia did her best to rap out her submission on the mat with the other. Just in case she couldn’t reach or it wasn’t clear…

”Ok, ok. Enough.” Her feet drum on the mat again, pounding out a pained rhythm all their own, even though the redhead trusted her countrywoman to release the hold as soon as she realised.

It might not have been the most complex or technically effective of armlocks but it had been substantially effective nonetheless.

Which raised the question in Alicia’s mind after a moment – which of them had taken that round? Would it be Odessa or herself choosing the next move for them to try out on each other?

Not that she minded, it was going to be interesting either way, but it was something to think about to take her mind off things while the pain in her arm hopefully receded.

”How’d I do?” She managed after a moment.

Alicia tapped out. Her hand motion was clear enough, and Odessa eased up right away, but the verbal confirmation that she was done was helpful, too. Odessa's arms and legs came away from Alicia's, freeing the woman, and giving Odessa's muscles a bit of a break, too. It had taken a lot of power to really crank that hold up to devastating intensity, and the ebony beauty was not in practice with those sorts of arm locks. Maybe she needed to put in some more time on them in spars like this one. Maybe she could get a tip or two from Alicia.

Especially since, according to the clock, the other woman had managed to beat her time. Odessa figured it only made sense, since she was so woefully out of practice. When Alicia asked her, she would inform her without hesitation.

"It looks to be that you managed to beat me, darling. By a good...ten seconds or so," Odessa would say with a little smile, as she laid back, shaking out her arms, and kicking her legs in turn, too, trying to keep herself warm and loose. She took a deep breath, then let out a loud, long sigh. "Well done, there. I was just thinking I may need to get a few tips from you on those sorts of holds."

Fortunately, Odessa might be competitive but she was also in no mood to mess around. The hold was released as soon as Alicia could reasonably expect, falling away so that she could slump on her back and take stock.

Now free of the agonising holds, the redhead was alternating rubbing at both her limbs, trying to keep anything from stiffening up at the same time as she tried to rub some of the aches out. It was a losing battle – for all she’d lasted ten seconds longer apparently, her arms were still feeling the effects.

Exactly how it should be, of course.

”Anytime,” Alicia agreed easily to Odessa’s half-request, sat upright as she continued to stretch, ”Not that I’m a black belt or anything, but I’m happy to show you anything I know.”

She grinned. ”I mean, it’ll just make a proper match more fun, right?”

That of course was for later and, with Alicia having taken the win this time, that meant it was Odessa’s turn to pick their next contest.

”Thanks. Now, what’s up next?” She had to admit, she was more than a little curious to see what the white-haired woman might have in mind. So far, things had been distinctly interesting and Alicia was hoping that would continue.

She was also hoping that, whatever it was, it wouldn’t be aimed at her arms but Odessa didn’t strike her as the type.