Lucy Kage vs River Styx - Hardcore Match

Lucy (girl on left):

River Styx:

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Her debut hadn’t gone to plan. Bunny had been a bitch to her. But now it was time to get things back on track. While it was not her debut, it was her official hardcore debut. Finally, she was in territory that she was familiar with. While she had spent some time training in the gym and sparring before this match, Lucy was opting to play this one by ear. She had heard of the woman she was facing, and if even half of what she had heard about this woman through various online articles and discussions with wrestlers in the gym, then no amount of training was ever going to prepare you for the steamroller that is River Styx.

Backstage Lucy was busy doing some stretches. Getting her body into the prime condition needed for what was inevitably going like a brawl to the death. Hardcore matches never ended well for either both, or just one of the competitors. But there was no point in trying to back out now. If you didn’t appear in a hardcore match, not only would you be laughed out of any future match, it was not uncommon for your opponent to come out and find you. So with that in mind and with a final deep breath, Lucy would come out, while it was a hardcore match she was still going go ahead with her entrance.

The arena would suddenly go dark, the darkness enveloping the arena audience. Her theme – sort of theme; a rippling deep bass guitar riff would rumble from the arena speakers. A single spotlight would turn on, engulfing the area between the entrance ramp and the ring with a circular cone of light. One by one, the lights would come on, light by light, leading up to the top of the entrance where the final spotlight would reveal the dark clothed wrestler standing there, staring towards the ring. Staring at the ring for a few seconds, Lucy would then start walking forward, shoulders swaying backwards and forwards, as she walked out of the circle, it would turn blood red, each circle she cleared did the same, a trail of blood red light following her. She loved this entrance. It never failed to scare the audience, and in one rather strange and weird way, it pumped Lucy up before a match started. It made her feel invincible, and while she was fighting a woman like River, that feeling would come in handy.

As Lucy Kage made her way down to the ring, Styx waited in the gorilla position. Seething. Breathing hard and heavy. Waiting.

The funny thing is, River Styx liked Lucy Kage. As much as she could stomach to  like someone she’d never met, anyway.

The AFW’s hardcore division was eternally teetering somewhere between relevancy and outright oblivion, so any fresh talent was welcome. She liked the woman’s look - sexy, sure, but not cutesy like so many of the waifs around the place. She looked solid, and if her entrance was anything to go by, she was serious. A little showy for her tastes, but she could appreciate theatrics. Hell, she’d seen some of her work with the Skull Vixens. It had been a while, but she remembered some good matches.

Any other day, she would’ve gladly had a match with Lucy and taken her straight on. The only problem was, she was absolutely not in the mood today.

When she’d put Silver Ace on the injured list, she’d expected to be moved to the front of the line, maybe even given the title straight away. It was what they should have done years ago, when she won the tournament for a shot at the hardcore title. Back then, Lukretia had screwed her over, instead making her fight Brittney - who hadn't even been in the goddamn tourney - for her spot, a match that eventually saw her getting screwed over by Adrian Kytes.

But Lukretia was gone, fucking off to wherever dumbass bitches go, so she figured that maybe, just maybe, management would see the sense in handing over the belt to a real hardcore wrestler, and not the current flavor of the week. Not the case as it turned out - Silver Ace was still the champ, and there were no plans to have her vacate the title after the beating Styx laid down on her.

All this meant that River Styx was in a bad mood, even by her own standards. So it was going to be a bad day for Lucy Kage.

Styx didn’t wait for her music to play. Instead, she came barreling out from the back as Lucy made her way down to ring, charging straight towards her from behind and coming at her head with a wild lariat, swinging her arm with all the force she could muster. She would either hit the back of Lucy’s head with it, or her opponent would turn around just in time and get clobbered in the face, instead. Styx wasn’t too picky, truth be told.

Lucy had been looking forward to this match for quite a while, and now that she was getting closer to the ring she could feel that excitement inside her build up. She had been itching for a true hardcore match since she signed up at the AFW and the while spars in the gym were nice, they could never quite compare to the sheer brutality of a Hardcore fight. Lucy knew that there was no way that nothing would top this moment. While her old league had it's moments, nothing could seem to compare to the sheer size and cheering of the crowd that the AFW could pull together.

Lucy could not expect what was about to happen next. It hadn't crossed her mind that River despite the hardcore type, would even bother to attack her before the match even started. Several audience members tried to shout out, to warn Lucy of the approaching danger that was locking onto her. At first Lucy didn't register what people were trying to tell her as River got even closer towards her. It was only within the final few seconds did Lucy stop and take note of what people were trying to warn her about; the horror that was marching up right behind her. It is hard to tell whether or not Lucy should have turned around or not. At least if she stayed where she was, she would have taken the incoming lariat to the back of the head, sure it would have surprised her, but at least it might not of hurt as much. Turning it around might have made it worse, as the incoming arm smashed into her face, knocking her backwards with full force.

Hitting the entrance ramp with a loud thud, Lucy would let a shrill yep as she impacted, holding her left hand up to her face, shielding her nose, at first, she thought her nose had been broken, her nose feeling warmer than it normally did. It was true that her nose was bleeding slightly, small streams of blood streaking from her nostrils. Looking up, she could now see River in her entirety. She looked pissed, but Lucy looked equally pissed now. "Oh i see how it is then bitch! Couldn't wait a few more minutes to get your arse kicked!" Lucy would raise her leg, locking it into position by bending it inwards and then firing forward like a cannon, aiming right between her legs. Crude, nasty, effective. It was a low blow, but as far as Lucy was concerned, respect had gone out of the window one lariat ago. "Right, you ready to die now then!"

Styx rarely thought more than two steps ahead with anything she did, but this was an exception. When she clobbered Lucy Kage, she fully expected her to get laid out from the sneak attack and be wide open for whatever came her way next. Styx would hammer on her, smash her into the floor, run wild and be done with it. Couldn't have been easier.

On paper. In practice, things were a little bit complicated.

Styx had moved over to the side of the ring after landing the hellacious blow, fully expecting to see Lucy laid out after the opening blow. Instead, she was getting back. Slowly, sure, but it was happening. And not just that, she was talking smack, which was the absolute worst thing she could’ve been doing in this position. Either she was suffering brain damage from the blow, or she had a strikingly poor survival instinct. After what came next, Styx was leaning towards the former.

The low blow surprised her, so much so that she just barely got her leg up in time to block it, letting it crack against her knee - which sucked, hurt, but not as much as it would have on the intended target. For a moment, sheer surprise took over the rage on Styx’s face, but rage came back a split-second later, hotter than ever.

”Oh, fuck right off!” Styx stepped back, then lunged forward as she raised her own leg high, though she wasn’t going tit-for-tat. Instead, she was trying to plant her heel in the middle of Lucy’s - admittedly hot - chest, to knock her down with a Big Boot.

Lucy wasn't going to go down without a fight. While she was new, and she knew that a loss here wouldn't have a huge impact on her. But still. Lucy wasn't going to concede to this bitch. While the attack didn't land where she originally wanted it to, an attack was a attack. Sadly however it wasn't as effective as she wanted it to be. She wanted to topple the bruiser, make her go down and let her know how it felt, instead she got a glancing hit that still hurt buy was nowhere near as stunning as the original intended hit.

It still gave her ample time to try and get up onto her feet. However Styx recovered fair too quickly for Lucy's taste ad came at her, bringing her boot down onto her chest. Lucy would cough and splutter, her body being shoved back onto the floor, getting both a nasty blow from the boot and the impact on both sides of her body. She also had most of the air knocked out of her. At this point, Lucy would normally go for a counter attack; maybe grab onto the ankle of the booting leg and twist it, but the boot had winded her so much that she couldn't summon the energy to react that fast. Though deeper inside she knew that was a critical mistake, she knew all too well that Styx was here to prove a point and that she wasn't going to be allowed to get away so easily. This woman was on a mission and it looked like Lucy wasn't going to be able to stop her from this disadvantaged position.

River Styx was not really the best person when it came to feeling sorry for her opponents, but even if she were, she wouldn’t have had much sympathy for Lucy Kage at this point. After all, she’d made it clear from the onset that she wasn’t in the mood to suffer any challenge to day. All Lucy had to do was stay down and live to fight another day.

But no. She had to be the hero. So Styx would show her just how she responded to that sort of thing.

”So you want a fucking fight, huh?” Styx strode around her, keeping her distance until she was ready. ”Okay, bitch. Have it your way.”

She reached down and grabbed Lucy by the hair, forcing her up to her knees with vicious yanks. In one rough, merciless movement, she stuffed her would-be opponent’s head between her legs, reaching over to grab her by the waist, lifted her up on her shoulders, then took a step forward and brought her shoulders down hard on the apron, slamming her into it with all the force she could muster.