AJ Shay vs Remi Tachibana - Determination vs Grace

Alexa leaned against the ropes as Remi moved away, leaving her to recover. She reached up her hand, rubbing the back of her neck to try to massage away some of the stiffness her opponent had cranked into hit. She hissed softly under her breath at the pain, slowly rising to stand upright again.

She didn't match Remi’s smile. While she had managed to escape this woman twice, both times she had been put in a hold to begin with. Sooner or later she wouldn't have the energy to reverse or escape to the ropes. She had to go on the offensive and make things happen. Her lips drooped in a slight frown as Remi beckoned her to come at her, clearly not threatened by whatever Alexa had to offer. It was a bit insulting, but perhaps that was the point. She took a deep breath as she slipped away from the ropes, inching closer.

Her hands raised up defensively as she worked to steady her breathing. She hadn't started the match intimidated by Remi, but slowly the woman's steadfast nature was starting to make her doubt her own abilities. “Oh, you’ll see…” She grumbled softly as she neared. Once she was in range, she decided to give her kick pads a try finally, snapping out a sudden high kick to try and catch Remi in the side of her head or her collar.

After being in control since the beginning of the match, Remi couldn't help but feel so sure of herself, knowing that her opponent would be someone to be so easy to beat. It was a bad habit that was hard to die, due to her considering herself to be a very talented wrestler. So, she would take on her stance, thinking that Alexa might go for another grapple again, and she was certain that whatever the rookie would try to her, she would easily deflect or counter it without difficulty.

She couldn't be any wronger as instead of coming closer to grapple with her, Alexa neared to her and unleashed a high kick right at the side of Remi's head, causing her head to whip aside. "Oughh!!" The impact caused Remi to stagger away from Alexa, and she had to retain her footing by keeping up with her footwork, regaining her balance to prevent herself from falling into the mat. Still, the kick left quite a stinging sensation on her head, her skull ringing thanks to the impact.

"Ouurghh..." Remi groaned, distracted at the moment as she tried to soothe the pain that she had. As a precaution to prevent more attacks from Alexa, she would lift up her other arm, hoping it could at least shield herself from her opponent's next attack, or at least lessen the damage that Alexa's attack might deal on her.

Alexa let out a hard exhale as her leg flew up, body twisting into the motion of the kick. While she wasn't the most skilled practitioner of these sorts of strikes, her snappy delivery was impressive for someone with no real martial arts background. The hit was solid, the dulled smack of Remi’s head bouncing off the lightly padded guards on her boots.

Alexa had to hop back to maintain her balance, seemingly wowed that she had actually managed to hit her opponent. She was grinning from ear to ear, brimming with pride. She couldn't help but wonder if Suzumi was watching and saw all their hard work paying off. Now however, was no time to celebrate. She had her foe on the defensive now, arms raised for the next blow… it was time to catch her off guard.

Alexa moved in much like before, presenting the illusion she was going to go for the kick again. This time however as she inched in, she suddenly dipped, charging in low to try to grapple in on Remi’s waist. Prior to joining AFW, she had a decent run on a national level with amateur wrestling in high school, latching on like this for a takedown came natural. If she could get this woman on the mat it would possibly lead to where her true strength was, her submissions.

Her arms attempted to hook around Remi's legs, trying to gain a firm a hold of her thighs. The rookie's palms would quickly move down to the backs of Remi's knees where she would try to pull the woman's legs out from under her to put her on her back. Alexa would remain upright, primed to convert the simple move into something far more painful if not stopped here.

Still reeling from the kick earlier, Remi was struggling to regain her bearing and put her focus back into the match. With her head still ringing, she gritted her teeth, feeling a little frustrated after doing such an amateurish mistake. Seeing Alexa closing in for a grapple, she would quickly step back, hoping to give her a bit of distance before they could lock up again. And again, she was mistaken as her opponent didn't seem to go for a lock up, but instead, she dipped low, focusing on Remi's lower body instead.

Remi hissed, clearly annoyed by this whole thing as she tried to pull herself away from this situation, but it was clear that Alexa knew what she was doing as she hooked her arms around Remi's thighs. This left Remi immobilized, unable to pull herself out of this.

And right after that, Alexa pulled her legs from under her, causing Remi to lose her balance and fall backwards. "Aaah!!" She yelped as she fell before she ended up landing on her back, causing her to flinch in pain. "Erghh!!" She ended up getting into a dangerous position, and she was helpless against it. All she could do at the moment was kick her legs out, hoping to make whatever Alexa was planning to do to her much difficult.

Alexa pulled herself upright as she pulled Remi’s legs up, scooping them out from under her. As her opponent dropped back to the mat, her own grasp shifted to grab hold of the woman's ankles or she tried. The moment the other woman went down she was struggling, making it difficult. While that should have been expected, she hadn't been fully prepared and as a result one of Remi’s legs broke free.

Her initial plan was out the window as she focused her efforts on one of the woman's limbs, quickly trying to make something of this before Remi could boot her with the wild and free limp. Alexa spun, kicking a leg up and over Remi’s as she twisted, winding the one captured leg around hers. She grasped the base of the woman's boot and ankle as she remained standing, wrenching Remi’s leg around hers in a spinning toe hold. She had positioned herself to be on the opposite side from the woman's free leg in an effort to protect herself as her hands were busy maintaining the hold.

The urge to say something snarky was pretty high for the way Remi had been treating her up until now. She kept it to herself though. She was trying to be one of the good girls, like her personal idol the Black Fang. A bit of heroic banter was one thing. Gloating was another. She instead chose to remain steadfast and focused as she cranked the hold for everything it was worth.

While Remi might momentarily stop Alexa from keeping her hold on her legs, she still wan't out of danger yet as she was still on her back, vulnerable against anything her opponent would try on her. Still dazed from being brought down, she tried to regain her composure, but Alexa was quick to take advantage of her situation as she held one of her foot.

Frantically trying to scramble away, Remi then found her foot trapped in a spinning toe hold, feeling intense pressure on her leg area. "Uwaah!!" She cried out, a little too late to escape the hold. It was just a simple hold, but like many simple holds, this one was effective in dealing pain on the victims!

Still scrambling and scraping against the mat, Remi grew more and more desperate as the hold slowly became unbearable. "Nnngghh...!! L-let go!!" She yelled at her opponent, glaring at her as she arched her body, trying to find a way out of this position. She needed to find a window of opportunity to retaliate, but so far, she hadn't seen it yet, which meant she had to endure this hold for a little while.

It was a struggle for Alexa to stay upright as Remi struggled, her thrashing threatening to break her balance and free her opponent from the hold. She could maintain it though, working over her leg now like this would more than pay for itself later in the match of that she was certain. Unlike her foe’s namesake, Alexa was far from the most graceful woman in the world, making sure her footing and positioning her braced enough to keep punishing her opponent was incredibly difficult.

“Heh… hah! Not a chance!” She breathed out a labored huff at the request to be let loose, taking a few half steps further in the opposite direction to apply added torque to the hold. It was enough that twisting Remi’s leg around hers was actually starting to hurt herself, she could only imagine the agony she was inflicting on the other girl however.

She would try to keep up the pressure as much as possible until Remi’s struggling became too much to bare. Rather than risking being dragged to the mat, or falling in an unfavorable way her opponent could use to her own advantage, she opted to break the hold herself. She pivoted on her foot, rapidly spinning in the opposite direction to unwind Remi’s leg from around hers while keeping it held. One she was done, she jumped up, kicking her legs out horizontally to perform a leg drop on the leg she had just been savaging.

Remi kept on struggling, knowing that Alexa wouldn't be able to keep the hold for long. The pain on her leg after being put in such a position was getting more and more unbearable by each passing second. Her brow scrunched up into a scowl as beads of perspiration started to appear on her face. Even so, she continued her struggling, hoping that Alexa would eventually let go of her. She shouldn't be able to keep it up for long, after all.

Eventually, Alexa did let go of her leg, unwinding the leg from around hers. But, soon after releasing her leg, the girl then got up before she delivered a leg drop right onto her aching leg, and Remi let out a pained cry as her leg was abused even more. "Uaaaghhh!!!" She threw her head back as she cried out. She would try to curl up, grabbing her own leg to soothe the pain, leaving her vulnerable against whatever Alexa would try to do next. It seemed that she had paid the price for underestimating her supposedly rookie opponent.

To say things were going well would have been an understatement. She had never really had this level of control over her opponent at any stage of her previous matches and spars. She seemed to always have the answer for what to do next, catching her opponent off guard. There was no way she was going to give up this momentum if she could keep it going.

On her hands and knees she crawled around the side of her writhing opponent, slipping her hands under the woman to roll her over onto her stomach. From there, she crouched, giving a small hop to drop her weight down across Remi’s back, kneeling on top of her. From here, she attempted to move swiftly to cross the girls ankles and grab hold, then hooking a hand around the woman's neck.

Rocking slowly at first, she soon through her weight back to try and drag Remi along for the ride. Hoisting the woman up, she extended her knees while wrenching down on the girl's head and legs in a compact bow and arrow hold. She was unrelenting, locking Remi into hold after hold with seemingly no stop in sight. The purple clad girl was going to have a rough time in the ring tonight if she didn't start mustering some offense of her own.

Still trying to tend on her hurt leg, Remi was exposed to what Alexa would try to do to her, and sure enough, she was then rolled over onto her stomach before she felt Alexa pressing her knees right on her back, feeling her weight on it. And then, she had her legs and neck grabbed by the rookie before Alexa fell back, hoisting Remi up in a bow and arrow submission hold, bending her back as her head and legs were wrenched back.

"NggyaaAAAHHHH!!!" Remi cried out in pain as her back was bent in such a way, feeling pressure building up on her spine and neck. She would try to escape by struggling in the hold, hoping that Remi wouldn't be able to keep it for long. But, even if she managed to escape, the damage was already done. She could only hope that she could last this hold before Alexa decided to stop applying pressure on her back. She needed to mount her offense as soon as possible, or else it would be impossible for her to win in this match.