SS 17 Entropy Title - Valley Doll (c) vs. Alicia Welles (Total Victory Match)

There was no time limit to this match, this wasn’t Natasha Han and the Iron Man match all over again. Valley had no reason to rush this, and every reason to take her time. Yes, she’d effectively neutralized some of the raging redhead’s best options, but that didn’t mean she was out of all options. If there was a way to win, she’d find it. Valley’s job was to knock her out before that happened.

A good way to start that would be with a kick, one that would force Alicia back, make things painful and awkward for her. To be fair, that was precisely happeneed: Alicha had to move back on her bad foot, and the pain played out her face, the damage getting exacerbated. But was that enough to make her retreat? Stop? Even slow down? Nope.

Instead, she grabbed Valley’s leg, holding it tight and pulling her in. If this had happened earlier in the match, Valley would’ve countered with an enziguiri in a heartbeat, striking Alicia in the face before she could blink. Now she was tired, getting worn down, and her leg still hadn’t recovered from getting chewed by Alicia’s iron pair.

Too slow to retaliate. Too slow to stop the hellish blow to her face.

She went to the floor in a single second, hitting so hard that her legs flopped up and over after the impact, before finally coming down to leave her prone on the floor. Was that a clothesline? It looked like one, but she couldn’t remember Alicia ever using such a move, so there came the confusion.

If Valley wanted to drag things out, then Alicia…

Well, she didn’t want to rush it. Her leg denied her that option. But recovery time would do Valley more good than it would her, so the longer they spun this out, the faster Valley would be without Alicia’s leg improving anywhere near as quickly.

So she had to strike that precarious balance between speed and patience, taking her chances when they appeared. This seemed to be just one of those opportunities and she planned to follow through with everything she had left.

In an ideal world, Valley wouldn’t have been awake enough to wonder what hit her. In an ideal world, that wouldn’t have been a blow delivered by Alicia’s arm – it would have been courtesy of her leg instead, and that would have been an entirely different order of magnitude.

Still. She was too practical not to go with what worked and, to all intents and purposes, this had worked pretty nicely too. And, if she was going to win this thing, it was exactly what she’d have to do. Go with what worked.

Admittedly, there was that pesky moment afterwards when Alicia just swayed on her feet, teeth gritted as she fought down the pain roaring through her bad leg. But she couldn’t think about that now.

As quickly as she dared, the big redhead lowered herself to the floor parallel to Valley and went to wrap her arm around the blonde’s neck and one shoulder, doing her best to synch in an arm triangle.

She’d much prefer to be doing this with a scissor hold, where it would all be over so much quicker. But this would work, if she could get it locked down tight. Her arms were still plenty strong enough and it was a blood choke. All she needed was time and technique.

The main show with Alicia was her legs - long, thick, powerful man and/or womancrushers, which looked like they been developed in a lab somewhere, inhuman weapons designed for the breaking of bones. They were the first thing you noticed about Alicia. The second would probably be her breasts. The third, her slasher smile.

But if you looked at all that, chances were you would miss her arms, which, while they  couldn’t match her legs, were not too shabby by any standard. Valley knew that fact, but if she hadn’t, it would’ve became clear in the next few moments.

There she’d been, laying on the floor, trying to gather her bearings from the sort of move that wouldn’t have kept her down for three seconds at the start of the match. She thought she would have the time to recover, that Alicia wouldn’t be able to follow up quick without her legs being in useable condition. Should’ve known - Big Red was not the type to let openings fly away.

She yelped as the same arms that had put her down began to encircle  around her head and shoulder. Valley didn’t know what Alicia was trying, but she did know it wasn’t something she wanted to succeed, and she went into a mad panic, yanking about and trying to elbow her foe in the face before she could lock it in.

The thing about Alicia’s leg was… It hurt to move. Not as much as it had, but every time she did much with it, a pang of agony shot out from her knee as the joint objected in the only way it could.

So, even getting down meant both being as careful as she could with the attendant lost time – annoying anyway – and also knowing that however careful she was it was going to hurt. And it did. But that didn’t stop her.

Not at all.

Alicia dealt with the pain in the same way she always did, a subtle tightness at the edge of her wicked smile as she slid into position. Valley, for whatever reason, hadn’t moved in the interim meaning she could make this work. She could still make this work.

Down on her hands and knees, Alicia slid up until she was lying parallel to Valley. One arm went to loop around Valley’s head, in between it and the blonde’s arm. The other went around and under the opposite arm, all she had to do now was complete the choke and…

At which point, the veteran’s elbow caught her in the side of the head.

Alicia’s reaction was more one of surprise than actual pain, the angle sufficiently bad to take most of the power out of Valley’s hit. But it stopped her from clamping down, long enough at least for Valley to go wild.

Had she locked her hold in, or had she actually been on top of Valley with her weight added into the equation, Alicia thought in retrospect she could have still pulled it off.

But she hadn’t and she wasn’t and her wounded leg also made keeping her position harder anyway.

Hissing her irritation, Alicia pulled an arm free and went to punch Valley squarely in the face.

And would do that again and again until either Valley stopped her somehow or the blonde stopped fighting and she could choke her out.

Mat-wrestling. Never Valley’s thing. Not that she couldn’t do it at all, she’d trained for it back in her youth. But it was the antithesis of her best strengths as a wrestler, worked counter to her philosophy of free-flying, and even when she did do it, she only really garnered success when it was against a woman who was smaller than she was, which wasn’t often. Her mother used to twist her up all the time when they sparred. She probably still could.

So this little spat on the mat with Alicia was destined to go poorly. Sure enough, that was precisely what happened, as Valley’s resistance wound up with the reward of repeated blows to the face. They were not the hardest blows the Slamazon had ever taken to the head, but they weren’t love taps, either, and she knew well that they could knock her out if they went on for too long. Her head was starting to get fuzzy after the second blow.

She needed an out. Now.

Gritting her teeth, she squirmed in Alicia’s grasp, turned to the side, and went crazy, shoot her knee into the redhead’s stomach, wild and fierce. It wasn’t meant to hurt her so much as it was meant to put some space between them. Valley knew she couldn’t make her let go like that.

What could make her let go, though were the ropes, and that was what the Slamazon swung her legs back around towards. She whipped her body around, stretched her leg out behind, made full use of her flexibility and was just able to touch the bottom rope, giving her a quick escape and the chance to live another day.

Now that she had Doll down, Alicia was confident it was just a matter of time so long as she could keep the veteran on the mat. It wasn’t a sure thing but she had managed to neutralise Valley’s advantages for the moment and bring her own to bear. That meant it was simply a question of keeping the pressure up and, sooner rather than later, she’d sink a choke and Valley would go to sleep.

Punching her opponent in the face likely had something to do with that too.

Alicia had landed two hits so far and the bigger redhead could feel the fight bleeding from the blonde. She lined up another punch, ready to keep going at it, when Valley slammed her knee into her belly.

Once again, the angle wasn’t great, but it knocked her back and knocked her off-balance. For a moment at least, before Alicia was back on top, her fist flying down at Valley’s face for her third hit. Then she reset, getting ready for the fourth.

At which point, the referee’s voice promptly cut through Alicia’s thoughts, drawing her attention to where Valley’s foot was just brushing the bottom rope.

The redhead spat a curse, her frustration aimed squarely at herself for letting the blonde slip out again, but she broke the hold with no hesitation and pulled away to start the climb back to standing.

Now what? Well, on the upside, it had nearly worked but nearly wasn’t close enough. And Alicia really wasn’t confident she could count on getting Valley down again.

But she wasn’t going to stop trying. No chance.

Thank God for the ropes.

Valley had no shame in admitting that, if this match had taken place in an octagon or a pit or some other situation where she couldn’t count on them to save her, things would be going poorly for her at this point. She needed those ropes, especially in a situation like this, where Alicia’s size and strength were such an asset and she’d been slowed by fatigue. Ring awareness? That was something she could count on.

Alicia, to her credit, let go of the hold immediately, giving Valley Doll her breath back and stopping the onslaught on her face. Much appreciated. Her first priority was getting back to her feet, which wasn’t the easiest thing to do after the wringer she’d been put through. She couldn’t help but notice that Alicia was starting to feel the frustration, too, after coming so close and losing a good chance. Maybe she could work with that.

She grabbed one rope, then another, then another, tugging herself back to her feet, faltering once, then pulling up all the way. Valley made it to her feet a little after Alicia did, looking over to see her foe getting ready to try again. Though she was hurting, though she was reeling, she knew it was crucial that she keep taking to the fight to this woman. Keep up the pressure. The more time she gave Alicia, the more chance she’d have to recover.

Valley gripped the ropes tight for one more moment, then pushed off, making a stumbling run to Alicia. When she was close enough, she lashed out, sending a wild chop towards the redhead’s chest. It might not have seemed like the most tactical move, but she knew well how much a stinging blow to that particularly section of the body could hurt, and how clouded it could leave your brain.

If Valley was struggling up, that was little consolation to Alicia.

But it was all she could do to get herself up and steadied and ready for what was coming next. It was gratifying and promising that the blonde was so unsteady and clearly worn down, maybe enough to slow her down. But Alicia too was tired. Frustrated.

Not at her best by far.

As Valley came stumbling over, Alicia was on her feet and as steady as she was likely to get. Which was far from as steady as she’d like, but a good deal steadier than she had been. She certainly wasn’t about to rush at the blonde, but she had a solid base for now and it was getting solider.

She got her fists up, got ready for whatever the veteran was about to throw at her.

She was thinking a kick.

Which was why she was surprised as hell when Valley reared back and cracked a knife-hand chop into the redhead’s full chest. It wasn’t what Alicia would call agonisingly painful for sure, but it was a shock, it stung like anything and she really hadn’t seen it coming.

All of which saw Alicia stagger a step back herself, eyes narrowed with a mix of pain, humiliation and anger, before the kickboxer went to punch Valley in the midriff.

It wasn’t exactly her best shot, her base suddenly being a lot less secure, but she was at least looking to take the wind out of the veteran’s sails. Give her a chance to steady herself and then put Valley down properly.

It had been two years since Valley had her breast reduction surgery, but even so, she could still remember the pain from a well-placed knife edge chop to her ‘girls’, how much it could sting. People always got the weird idea that her breasts acted like pillows, protecting her chest and reducing damage. Maybe because they so often though they’d been fake. Whatever the case, she could say from extensive experience that they did not, in fact, work like natural body armor.

So, was it a little cheap to target Alicia’s pair like that? Kinda.

Did it at least do what Valley intended? Kinda.

She was never going to knock Alicia out with that move, but she could work her back, get her fired up, make her lose focus, and she was willing to seize any advantage she could at this point. It pushed the redhead to do something she wouldn’t have normally been inclined to do, intercepting her with a gut punch that hit square center in Valley’s stomach, right on the bellybutton.

Valley gasped and stumbled forward, her face flopping towards the breasts she’d just assaulted, seemingly stunned...but this, she could work with.

As she moved in, she reached up to grab Alicia’s shoulder, in what looked like an attempt to steady herself. In reality, she was just trying to get her hands behind the Scissor Queen’s neck, so she could grab hold of it, drop to her knees, and drive Alicia’s chin into the top of her head with a swift jawbreaker.

That certainly felt good. In close proximity, so long as she could keep Valley there, Alicia still felt she had the edge. Which begged the question of why Valley had let herself get caught in this situation but she was too tired to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Instead, with Valley falling towards her, she focused on what next. Which, so far as she could see, meant tossing Valley either into the corner or to the mat away from the ropes and choking her out.

Mind dwelling on that scenario, Alicia thought nothing of the arm on her shoulder or even the way it linked with the blonde’s other hand behind her neck.

Maybe a more experienced wrestler would have. Maybe not.

As for the kickboxer, she was still somewhat on the new side. More importantly, perhaps, she was also tired, battered and in pain. Her instincts were still good but the gap between her realising the danger and Valley hitting the move was just… Non-existent.

She’d have to have been a speedster to pull that off. Reactions far faster than she had even at her best.

And, again, she wasn’t at her best.

So she just had time for her eyes to widen in awful anticipation before Valley dropped and the base of Alicia’s head bounced off the top of Valley’s.

Now, a jawbreaker wasn’t about to do that much damage, particularly not that one – the blonde wasn’t bringing anything to the party beyond momentum and she’d need more than that to KO Alicia that way.

That said, the move easily took the steel out of Alicia’s legs, the redhead falling back and only remaining standing because the ropes caught her. She half-lay there in their embrace, dazed, shaking her head. Clearly vulnerable.