Practice Makes you Perfect(ly sore). (Spar, IC observers welcome)

"...You think so?" She winced in the headlock. FOCUS AJ!

As Tomoko started to move, so would she... the problem being she had intended to shove Tomoko to the ropes, which may have worked had the girl done something else. As it was here, Alexa stepped DIRECTLY into Tomoko's leg and found her footing immediately kicked away. She let out a surprised cry as she fell forward flat onto the canvas with a grunt. her first instinct was to push herself up, but Tomoko was already there, her weight shoving her back to the canvas.Her back bent as her head was wrenched back painfully. Her hands grasped for Tomoko's wrists, trying to deadlock her pulling.

"Gah!" She kicked her feet a bit before coming to her senses. If she couldn't break the hold herself, she had to get to the ropes. Surely Tomoko would honor a rope break. She refused to give up her efforts to try and lessen the hold on her neck as she dug her sneakers into the mat, slowly inching them towards the ropes. It was only a matter of time before she got free.

Even as Alexa started moving towards the roles, Tomoko continued applying the pressure on her neck, wrenching her head back even as Alexa was getting closer and closer to the ropes. She wanted to see if she could endure the hold and reach the ropes or was forced to submit and tap out, surrendering to Tomoko.

Still, Alexa showed no sign of submitting, and even as Tomoko continued pulling Alexa's head back, the ropes started to be within her hand's reach. Knowing that she would have to honor the rules despite this being a spar, Tomoko reluctantly loosened her hold on Alexa's head, releasing her once she reached the ropes.

"Hah... you're pretty tough..." Tomoko said, panting a little after exerting herself to apply pressure in the hold. Still, she knew that Alexa would be affected by the hold despite managing to escape it. Tomoko would distance herself from Alexa to see what she would do next as she would get back ln her feet.

Alexa had to abandon trying to break the hold about half way on her journey to the ropes. It wasn't working and the pain was starting to become unbearable. She had to claw and kick her way to the ropes, twice nearly succumbing to the hold before fighting on. She had groaned, screamed, and maybe cried a little by the time is was over.

When she reached out and grab hold of the ropes Tomoko had let her free. A lot of damage had already been done though. She lay face down on the mat, breathing heavily as she endured the lingering throbbing in her neck and back. It took her a bit of time and the help from the ropes to gradually pull herself back to her feet. She turned to face Tomoko slowly, rubbing her neck trying to hide the fact she was in pain.

Them locking up previously in the center of the ring had nearly ended her just then. She was going to have to be more on the ball with her now. Clearly trying to be defensive wasn't going to work with Tomoko. Both times she had tried, she had been out maneuvered and paid for it. She supposed she was only getting as good as she got though. The other girl was watching her, waiting for her to make a move. Okay than.

She leaned back against the ropes bouncing once... Twice... On the third time she shot off barreling towards Tomoko. As she neared she raised her arm horizontal, looking as if she were intending to deliver a clothesline. However when she got in range, she'd stop short, attempting to grab for her shoulders. If she managed to get hold, she'd yank Tomoko to her, dipping down to slip an arm between her legs and one on her shoulders to scoop slam the girl on the mat before following up with a leg drop.

Tomoko could tell that despite her effort thaf Alexa was in pain after being released from the painful submission hold earlier. It was a move that her mother taught some time ago, a move that required great and precise timing to be carried out. It could deal devastating damage if done right, but it required many sets of moves that it could easily countered by the more experienced opponents.

Tomoko saw Alexa bouncing off the ropes, seemingly going for a clothesline. Sensing a feint incoming, she waited for the precise moment. She knew that the clothesline was a feint, but she had no idea what she would actually do, so she had to be fast in reacting to her move.

And when Alexa got closer, the girl expectedly stopped before Tomoko and went to pull her closer. Tomoko tried to predict what the new girl would try to do, and when she saw Alexa slipping her hand between her legs, Tomoko would try to counter, finally learning that Alexa was trying to do a scoop slam on her.

In her effort to counter, Tomoko tried to lash out one of her legs, trying to hook the leg around Alexa's head. Using the force of her being brought down with the scoop slam, she would try to pull Alexa along with her.

"Urgh!" Tomoko grunted as she landed on her back, but she hoped that her effort to counter was successful.

Everything seemed to be going good. She was surprised she managed to catch Tomoko with the feint again, but she wasn't going to complain. "Here!" She threw her arms around Tomoko. "We!" She hoisted the girl up into the air, twisting her within her arms. "GO!" She Huirled Tomoko down towards the mat with everything she had. But something had gone wrong. She was falling to, flipping in fact. She felt the tug of the other girl's leg behind her neck far to late and was sent tumbling to the mat. She bounced once before coming to a stop to stare up at the ceiling left confused and blinking over what had just transpired.

She didn't waste much time, unaware where Tomoko was in relation to her, she rolled off to the side, not wanting to risk getting grabbed again into another submission hold. She wasn't sure she'd be able to make it out of whatever that headlock had been a second time, not so soon after the first. Trying to shake out the cobwebs, she pushed herself up to her hands and knees, looking across the mat at Tomoko.

Tomoko also wasted no time getting back on her feet, grunting a little after her landing earlier. She looked at the direction of Alexa, and she noted that she didn't see her after being pulled down while trying to do the scoop slam earlier.

She decided to take her advantage there. Quickly readying herself to run towards Alexa from her blind spot, Tomoko would rush over to the new girl, with a move in mind. Once she was close, she would leap up and try to land a shining wizard on Alexa, first attempting to smash her knee onto the side of Alexa's head, the second right onto her face with her other knee.

Alexa hadn't caught sight of Tomoko right away, but her dash gave her away with not only sound, but the vibration from the ring. She turned her head slightly, catching Tomoko in her peripheral vision so subtly it was hard to tell if she even had a clear line of sight of the other woman. She was hedging her bets in what she was going to do. She wasn't too worried about anotehr submission, not this close to the ropes. her first thought was a drop kick, payback for earlier. She knew what she'd have to do.

She waited...

And at the last minute she dropped flat to the mat, letting Tomoko throw herself into kicking at the open air she she was safely pressed against the canvas. She would be ready to take advantage of it when the other girl landed, trying to scramble over to her on her hands and knees to grab for her ankles. rushing to her feet to ready to attempt a hold on the girl.

It seemed that Tomoko had underestimated Alexa's reflexes as her shining wizard failed to hit her. She planned to turn around to press on upon landing, but the moment her feet touched the canvas, Alexa went to grab her by her ankles, and her planned move couldn't be carried out.

Grunting, Tomoko would try to jerk her feet in her effort to release her ankles from the hold of the girl. She needed to release herself before Alexa went to take advantage of her current situation.

She stepped over Tomoko as she gripped her ankles, trying to wrap her legs up to turn her over, but the girl's struggling was proving to be too much. "H-hey, stop that!" She could have easily just stomped the fight out of the girl under her, but that wasn't her style. It felt dirty to hold someone in a position of weakness like this and just hammer them with cheap shots.She Fought with her all the same before surrendering the attempt and just throwing herself forward, trying to plant an elbow drop right below Tomoko's chest. If she managed to connect, she'd quickly scoot up along side her, attempting to scoop her into a grounded headlock from the side. She didn't have anywhere near the good positioning the other girl had had when she applied a headlock, but this would serve as a good transition while she stalled for time. Still, even not locked in Alexa's grip and precision with submissions was noteworthy on its own.

While her struggle might stop Alexa from proceeding with her plan, Tomoko was still exposed to danger. So, when she took the elbow drop to her chest, she gasped before she cradled her aching chest, leaving her vulnerable before the girl whom she was wrestling at the moment.

Still winded from the elbow drop, Tomoko was unable to stop Alexa drom picking her up and putting her in a headlock. Not wanting to let Alexa to put more leverage against her, Tomoko would wrap an arm around Alexa's waist, trying to steady her footing so that she could counter whatever Alexa had in her mind. But, the elbow drop earlier seemed to leave an impact to her, which required her to recover first, which would allow the new girl to so whatever plan she had at the moment.