Start of a Rivalry

This was a fun place to be in, so far as Alicia was concerned anyway. Intriguing. She’d got Masuyo on top of her, which was less than ideal. But she’d got the other woman’s leg trapped, meaning that neither of them really had a great position all things considered.

She was just trying to decide where to go next when Masuyo took that decision out of her hands as the first elbow strike pounded into her thigh.

Alicia winced. Enough of that and the muscles would cramp.

It was going to take Masuyo some time, longer than she’d have, to seriously impact Alicia’s leg to any degree like that. But each hit was taking its effect and the last thing she needed was this woman having the freedom to bounce around while she was left limping.

On the other hand, their situation was such that Alicia couldn’t just abandon her hold and let Masuyo go either. That would be terminally stupid, fatal at the very least to any chance of her winning this little skirmish. Potentially to her hopes for the whole match.

Gritting her teeth, Alicia twisted her ankles together and squeezed Masuyo’s trapped thigh hard, taking the pressure she was applying from merely painful to bone-crushing levels almost instantly. If the Demon had thought the feeling in her leg was bad before, let’s see how she liked this.

She wasn’t looking for a submission, but she was hoping that the pain would distract Masuyo for long enough for Alicia to reverse their positions and scoot into a mount position of her own. Then she could start throwing punches, forearm and elbow strikes of her own.

Not to mention that, if Masuyo wanted to see whose legs could take more punishment, Alicia was happy to play that game all day long.

Masuyo, in the redhead’s opinion, was doomed to lose.

She wasn’t making quite as much progress as she was expecting from this, both from the elbow strikes and this whole takedown in general. Masuyo was stopped dead in her tracks and found her entire advantage being slowly turned against her.

Alicia’s prowess was a step above what she expected it to be. Not only did she have legs, but she knew how to use them. Knew how to harness that power to some impressive effect, if the next few moments were anything to go by.

First, she started squishing.

“Whoa.”

Then she started crushing.

“Whoa whoa whoa!”

Crap.

Her body acted before her mind, trying to find a way out of Alicia’s vise grip. One hand traveled down between Alicia’s legs, but almost immediately saw the futility the doing so. Not unless she had a whole afternoon to kill. Maybe some rubbing alcohol too. She gritted her teeth, eyes batting up towards the redhead’s countenance for a quick second before fixing them back toward her lethal lower body.

She threw down a couple more elbow strikes, but it Alicia’s iron thigh just bounced the strike right back. It may have been painful for the redhead, more so now that she was tensing her muscles and not letting them give way to the strike, but Masuyo certainly didn’t feel like she was getting anywhere. Not nearly as fast she needed to be before she lost her trapped leg, already feeling the blood flow being cut off from the shin down, her bare foot getting colder by the second.

The roundabout wasn’t going to work, clearly. She had to strike right at the heart of this problem.

Or close to it at least. She leaned forward and planted one hand against Alicia’s toned abdomen, just getting herself into position while keeping the woman down in whatever way she could. Then, she curled a fist and began striking the redhead right on her exposed side, digging her knuckles into her ribcage over and over again.

Strong as her legs were, keeping those scissors up must have been taking some effort on Alicia’s part. Masuyo was curious to see if she could keep it up on a pair of empty lungs.

A new twist found its place on Alicia’s smirk as Masuyo reacted to the growing pressure that the redhead was exerting on her leg. First slight surprise, then real shock, then…

Not panic. No fighter as well trained as Masuyo seemed to be or in fact as Alicia herself would so easily succumb to that. But the redhead could see that moment where her opponent reverted back to the most basic of instincts, that she was in pain and she wanted out, out, out now by any means necessary.

At least, that was her best guess because any rational person was going to see that a match between Masuyo’s one hand and her legs was only going to end one way. Masuyo seemed many things but nothing about the rookie so far made Alicia think she was crazy.

So it was no surprise when the hand faltered, balled into a fist and the Demon fixed her with a gaze worthy of her namesake.

The Brit for her part was unintimidated, choosing to focus on more important things like grinding her opponent’s thigh muscles to dust. The same was true of the elbow strikes. They were painful, would bruise but Masuyo didn’t have the angle or the position to get as much force into them as she would no doubt like.

Alicia could certainly tolerate them for more than long enough to numb her whole leg.

That seemed to have occurred to her foe as well, for Masuyo didn’t waste much time before turning her attention to a new target, one that was likely to get her considerably more rapid results. Alicia’s side. Solid, toned but far from invulnerable.

The redhead was able to tense her muscles enough to mitigate the first punch but she knew immediately that this was no longer a viable position to be in. Trying to grab Masuyo’s arms was possible but not reliable and being stuck under this woman, winded, was a sure route to serious difficulties she was sure.

The first hit drew a wince, the second a grunt and that was all Alicia was willing to allow Masuyo without opposition. Grabbing at her opponent’s braced arm and her side under her punching arm, the amazon went to roll the pair of them over to the side with a sharp burst of power, bucking her powerful hips as explosively and suddenly as she could manage at the same time as she unlocked her scissors and shoved up with her feet.

Ideally, it’d roll the two of them over, leaving Alicia on top where she could scoot up into at least a partial mount and take some control of the situation.

If not… Well, she’d have to deal with that when it happened. But oh, was she enjoying this. Every second of it.

Needless to say, Masuyo wasn’t thinking too far ahead with her leg trapped the way it was. She spotted Alicia’s legs as something to be wary of from the moment they stepped in the ring together, when the contours in her thighs were still freshly defined from the “spar” she just finished up with. But she wasn’t too wary about them. They’d hurt, sure, but Masuyo had been squeezed before. She was sure she could muscle through it when push came to shove.e

Boy was she wrong. By the Buddha, was she wrong.

There had been holds that made her limbs feel numb. Alicia was probably the first woman to make her feel as though she was going to actually lose that leg, as if it would just pop off like a broken toy with enough force. Sounded silly, but she’d seen plenty of crazy things in the octagon.

That’s more or less why she didn’t see the reversal coming. In her mind, Alicia would just release the scissors and back off, maybe shove the Demon off her with a push kick or something. Nope, the amazon was always thinking ahead. Always had her head in the game. As she wound up for the third strike, Masuyo felt her leg suddenly come free. Her relief was short-lived, of course, as Alicia exploded with a burst of power from underneath, flipping her onto her back and temporarily reversing their positions.

Nope. Not good.

Masuyo wrenched her arms forward, bringing her forearms together and her guard up as the British amazon moved to straddle her. This was probably the second to last position she would have liked to be in, the last one going without saying. Between the two, Alicia was the heavier fighter between them and clearly knew how to work the ground. She’d caught the Japanese fighter by surprise and that weight was making sure she wasn’t going anywhere. Masuyo was just going to have to work with it.

Didn’t mean she’d make it easy, though.

The second the redhead scooted off her leg, Masuyo would shoot her knee up, attempting to tap her spine with a quick couple of knee strikes. If she was able to get her by surprise, she’d throw a quick jab to her gut before retreating back behind her guard. Yeah, her shin was out for lunch, but her thigh was still as fresh as it was this morning. That was all she was going to need to keep that knee moving. To keep sending Alicia incentives to not stay where she was.

Whether the wounded leg prevented her from countering (and Alicia had rolled them that way deliberately) or she’d just been caught off guard, Masuyo wasn’t able to stop them moving as the redhead wanted.

That left Alicia on top, where she immediately postured up, splaying her legs to secure her own vertical base to prevent being rolled in turn.

That all went fine but then Masuyo proved that she might be underneath but she was no more helpless there than the British woman had been, starting with a brace of knees to the back.

Alicia bared her teeth as the knee strikes slammed home, the pain strumming up and down her spine as if Masuyo was playing it like a musical instrument.

That said, she was well aware it could have been worse – if the angle had been better, if Masuyo’s leg wasn’t wrung like it was, she’d have been knocked flat on her face.

As it was, it hurt, but nowhere near as badly as it could have done.

But she didn’t feel like staying there and letting the other woman pummel her.

Options… Alicia’s usual trick from this position was to secure an arm and use it to roll both her and her opponent over for a bodyscissors. Simple, if not elegant, and usually effective.

On the other hand, she’d just got the top position and was in no mood to meekly surrender it just yet.

So perhaps something a bit different was in order, while also building on the work she’d already done on that leg.

Taking a moment to parry the jab aimed at her belly out into the middle of nowhere, where it’d do nothing, but refusing to waste her time in battering down Masuyo’s guard, the redhead instead shifted back as if she was pulling away.

Only to twist so as to deliver a sharp knee strike to the Demon’s right side, in a shot aimed as close to the liver as their positions would allow.

It wouldn’t be anywhere near as incapacitating as it could have been but, if it landed, it should stun Masuyo enough for what the British amazon had in mind without taking enough of her weight off her opponent for the other woman to escape.

If not, another knee ought to do the trick.

Were Masuyo and Alicia in the same weight class?

She thought that may have been the case just looking at the British woman from a glance, but seeing and feeling were two different things. She was a bit thicker, but far from the largest Masuyo had ever tangled with inside the octagon - not counting the thigh area. Whatever height Alicia had on her had to be offset by the clear difference in definition. Masuyo sized her up as much when she first stepped up to her. They couldn’t have been that far off.

But then Alicia started to get comfortable on top of her, really tried to work for that mount and settled her weight over her hips, and Masuyo found herself second-guessing herself. She could feel the density, the power latent in every fiber of muscle looking back down at her.

It was an idle thought, one that just brushed up in the back of her mind between the various knee strikes she fed into Alicia’s back, but one that reasserted a fear she’d been having since they first came to blows.

She did not want this woman on top of her.

Masuyo didn’t let it distract her too much then, keeping the pressure on with one strike harder than the last. She was trying to get some height into her strikes as well, but Alicia wasn’t the type to make things easy. Nevertheless, the redhead clearly wasn’t enjoying her stay. As upset as she’d like to be that her strike to the larger woman’s belly had missed, there was a greater comfort in seeing her retreat. Didn’t need to give up the high ground just yet.

Or so she thought.

At first, she assumed Alicia had been going to reposition, work from a new position, preferably out of the range for her tender back.. And there was some truth to that, she just left out one detail: the vicious knee strike to her side. For a moment, the Demon’s mind lagged behind her, curling her lip as her body bent to the side. She wanted to counter, but Alicia was too far out of range. After that one, all Masuyo could do curl her fists and keep some semblance of a guard, attempting to endure whatever came next.

As with the similar attacks thrown her own way, the knee to Masuyo’s side had been at a bad angle, with decidedly limited power and sloppy form.

On the other hand, as with Masuyo’s, it had done what it needed to do. So, really, did any of the other problems matter that much?

Alicia didn’t think so.

She’d got the Demon moving where she wanted her and the beat she needed to move on to the next stage of her game plan.

With another knee strike superfluous, Alicia didn’t bother wasting her time.

Instead she twisted back onto Masuyo, bearing down on her with the weight and power of her hips as if the redhead thought she could literally crush the smaller woman down into the mats. Putting her mass and strength to work as weapons in their own right, looking to keep Masuyo right where she wanted her.

But more prosaically that and the raised fist that Alicia proffered as though to bash through the guard raised sloppily before the Demon’s features were an excellent distraction from the Scissor Queen’s true intentions.

With her legs outside Masuyo’s, the British fighter struck as fast as she could, going to coil her limbs around her opponent’s, locking her feet inside Masuyo’s ankles. If she succeeded, she wouldn’t waste a moment before wrenching at the grapevine with all the monstrous power of her lower body, going to jerk Masuyo’s legs apart as far and as fast as she could.

It must have been quite a sight, her own massive quads next to the other woman’s, dominating them, but Alicia only had eyes for her opponent’s face.

Staring down, her lips split in her signature slash of a vicious smirk. Eyes meeting the Demon’s as Alicia planted her hands flat on the mat, pushing up on them to add extra leverage (as though she needed it) to her raw strength.

All the while waiting and watching for the move she was sure would come.

Patience was a virtue, one she did not exercise too often – but for now the huntress waited poised, her trap set.

Liver shots, huh? Alicia’s boxing experience really did speak for itself.

With enough force in the right place, a shot to the liver could knock someone down just as well as a hit to the back of the head. That was something you saw more in a ring with four ropes than three, but Alicia clearly didn’t have any qualms about being a pioneer in that regard. If that move had had any more power behind it, maybe been a bit closer to the mark, she would have had a lot worse to deal with than some momentary shock. She needed to be careful from here on, as if she needed any more evidence of that.

She was quick to bring her guard up, then, when the British amazon secured herself back on top of her. The Demon tightened up, seeing the fist from behind her guard, preparing for the strike that came her way. Alicia’s legs were unreal, but the definition in her arms didn’t slip by Masuyo’s attention either. The hit that came her way wasn’t going to be pleasant…

...if it ever came, that was.

“What-” In an instant, a slicing pain split down the middle of her lower body. All at once, it felt as though her legs were being pulled apart by two steel cables. Masuyo went to fight back against the sensation by closing her legs, but almost immediately saw the futility in it. The kickboxer’s massive thighs overpowered her own with seemingly little effort. The leg Alicia caught earlier sung the loudest, searing with pain. It only got worse as she upped the torque, raising the pressure up to eleven, threatening the muscle underneath, turning the bones to powder.

And yet, all Masuyo could think to do was smile. She looked straight back at Alicia’s slasher-esque smirk with an equally excited, glistening white smile. She drank in the electricity, fed off the tension between them, threatening to rip her body apart from the waist up.

This was awesome. So damn awesome.

Her brows furrowed a bit, her expression wincing as the grapevine kept tearing away at her legs. Not good. Her mind raced for an escape route. Fighting against these legs was a death sentence, but the same couldn’t be said for the rest of her body. And the redhead ever so helpfully left an opening for her, shining brighter than the morning sun. “Anyone ever tell you...you've got a beautiful smile?” Slipping her hand out, she reeled a fist back and shot a sharp hook across Alicia’s jaw.

So this was a bit different.

Grapevines were normally seen more in the vein of a pin, even Alicia knew that, but she was more than a little intrigued by the prospect of using it as a submission as well. Her own flexibility was surprising for someone of her size and her formidable leg strength meant that she’d be able to turn what was often merely a trap into a deadly weapon.

It wouldn’t work well against every opponent, the more flexible likely to be able to endure beyond her ability to stretch their legs apart, but she remained curious and Masuyo had seemed an excellent test subject for the idea.

She also had an excellent idea of how the Demon was going to try to get out of this, partly down to how the other fighter had behaved so far and partly because she didn’t exactly have a whole mountain of options. That left Alicia waiting, waiting, waiting to see if Masuyo was going to do what she expected or if she’d come up with something more… spontaneous.

The British woman hoped she did. But she wasn’t all that disappointed by what she got either.

A beautiful smile for one and, had Alicia had the time or interest, she could have easily and happily returned the compliment in kind. But she was not one for idle banter as she fought. Even if she had been, there was a fist headed her way before she could have even begun to speak.

Perfect. Alright, she could have done without the hook to the jaw, but she’d taken worse; even if it snapped her head to the side, her smirk didn’t falter. And it set up her response exactly.

Alicia arched up, keeping her upper body hovering over Masuyo with the power of her hips and abdominal muscles alone, to free up her arms from holding her in place. Moving as rapidly as she could, her hands snapped out in an attempt to clamp around the Demon’s wrist before she could withdraw it back to safety.

If she could, then the redhead would promptly try to add to her opponent’s distress by going to twist that arm to breaking point in a savage Kimura joint lock. While it was perhaps the lesser part of Masuyo’s issues, it should ensure against further attempts to punch her way free as Alicia went about doing her best to rip the Demon’s hips and legs apart at the joints.

And it certainly wouldn’t be enjoyable.

For Masuyo, that was. Alicia’s smirk just widened further, almost to the point of seeming wider than her face.

Come on, Demon, she demanded in her thoughts – show me how you earnt that name!

Come on. What the hell? It seemed unreal that the kind of power in those legs, that kind of shape, came from practice alone. They were versalite, deadly. Masuyo could feel every inch of that as she went to peel her legs apart.

The straightforward path wasn’t working. Alicia was strong, but she had the skill to match. Every move the Demon made seemed to only end up sinking her into deeper trouble. This definitely wasn’t the kind of talent you found in Shibuya. Was this seriously the kind of competition she had to look forward to at AFW?

It was getting her excited.

That may have been the reason for the shot she threw at Alicia’s face. It was as close to a literal shot in the dark as she could get with the gym lights still on, but she took it all the same. Maybe it would be enough to rattle her just enough to turn things around. Bring her head into range and lock in a choke. Maybe get her to take some of the power out of her legs. She threw a punch, one that clocked Alicia on the jaw, snapping her head off to the side...and did nothing.

Well, it did do something, just nothing that would help her out of this predicament that only got worse as the seconds clocked by. Alicia grabbed hold of her arm and leaned in, close to smothering her with her above average assets, before locking in the hold Masuyo knew was coming.

A slight yelp of pain punched its way out of her throat as the kimura locked in. It wasn’t half-assed either, something just to supplement the grapevine. She had the grip on her wrist tight, torqued it at just the right angle. This was definitely one of the most solid kimura's she’d been in. Masuyo found herself being torn between two hells. Her legs were rapidly being pushed to the brink and her arm was quickly working to join them. She was pinned, immobilize, and she couldn’t punch her way out. Not good, but not quite the worst spot she’d been in.

Masuyo bit down and closed her eyes, looking past the pain. Think. She had one free hand. Alicia didn’t. How could she get out of this? Where did Alicia not have absolute control? Where could she work an opening? She was willing to bet she couldn’t focus on the grapevine as well as she was now that she had a kimura to work on. With legs like those, that difference wouldn’t be large, but maybe...

“Eh heh heh heh...ooookay. Might not have been...taking you as seriously as I should have. My bad...” She reached her free down, getting as firm a grip as she could on the back of Alicia’s knee. There were just some problems you had to tackle head on. “I'll make it up to you once I'm out of this, Alicia-san.” She finished, smiling back with her trademark grin.

Tugging back on the woman’s leg with all the strength her free arm could muster, Masuyo worked to free a bit of tension from the leg locking her from underneath. The instant she felt it, she’d straighten her leg out over Alicia’s and quickly reel it back out of the woman’s grapevine in two snap motions. Once she had it free, the Demon could use her foot to push down on the heel of Alicia’s other leg and free that one as well.

The kimura could come later. She had to take this slow.