SS 18 Entropy Title: Valley Doll (c) versus Manami Kuroda (Iron Man Match)

Valley’s mind was a swirling caution of emotions, a chaotic mess as she tried to bring some rationality into her brain. The blood loss was combining with other things, things like dehydration and general fatigue, and the result was that she was having problems forming coherent thoughts. It was like she was breaking down to her most primal level, getting fiercer, wilder, crazier.

She didn’t hate it, she had to admit. Was definitely new, and maybe it was just what she needed. Fighting fire with fire. Beating an animal by becoming one.

It was paying off for the moment, anyway. The desperation was what pushed her to go for that kind of trick, and it certainly paid off, clocking Manami on the side of the face with a solid punch. Granted, it had the unwanted benefit of instantly numbing up her entire hand and probably cracking something, but it was all worth it. The look on Manami’s face, the sight of her reeling back, the opened guard just begging to be exploited...too perfect.

Moving hurt. Walking hurt. Even breathing hurt, as her lungs were worn ragged and her throat was sore. Every moment brought new pains, but Valley ignored them and centered on Manami, intent of making her hurt even more. As her foe stepped back, the Slamazon stepped forward with a raise boot, one that she was quick to shoot out, looking to get past her tattered guard and score a push kick to the chest. It was a wild, sloppy move, lacking her finesse, but it would get the job done if it connected and send Manami into the ropes.

Manami knew kicks were more Valley’s forte, but if what she’d just sampled were anything to go by, her upper body wasn’t all too bad either. She’d tasted worse, of course, plenty within this very promotion. But credit where it was due, she knew a good hook when she felt it. Bravo, that one hurt.

In hindsight, though, it could have been the intense agony her body was suffering through that amplified the pain far more than it actually was. Her movements were dull, slow, and it was taking a moment for her to adjust to that fact. It was an effort to simply breathe let alone react. That was all without an increasingly desperate adversary bearing down on her, refusing to give her an inch and cutting down her offense like their very lives depended on it.

Oh, she loved movements like these. The hot blood rushing through her veins and burning her skin would have brought a smile to her face if not for the knuckles buried in her lip.

Manami did her best to hide behind the haphazard excuse for a guard she’d put up behind her forearms, but it mattered little. The punch had screwed with her balance, enough to leave her dazed for what the Slamazon had next. Something closer to her, well, forte, as a kick buried itself into her chest. A bit of spittle left her lips as she staggered back towards the ropes, clutching her gut with one hand while the other draped over the top rope. She choked on a gasp that tried to make its way out of her throat after touching the ropes, feeling a couple of bites on her back flare up at the touch.

Part of her was already itching to stand up again. It was that animal instinct, the itch she felt in the back of her head. The rest of her brain knew a little better, that the lack of air meant she wasn’t going anywhere for a moment or two. She clicked her tongue. “Little more…”

The crowd, which had been energetic this entire match , was whipping into a frenzy now. As Valley would later learn, many of them had just assumed the match was over once the two women crashed into a pit of viper and were rendered unconscious. How silly of them.

Now they were back into it, brought running back from the bathrooms and vendors, torn away from their cell phones. Screaming and yelling and clapping as if they could transfer their energy into the ring and bring their chosen champion back to life. Which they couldn’t, sad to say. Both of them could’ve really used the boost.

Valley herself was only aware of them at the periphery, a little noise at the back of her head. Her eyes were locked on the staggering woman before her, and most of her other senses were devoted to crucial tasks. Like standing up. Breathing. Not passing out.

The push kick did its job almost too well, knocking her back from the recoil. Manami wasn’t a heavyweight, but she was a solid woman, built well, and even that wasn’t enough to take down. ‘A little more’? Good suggestion. The clock was ticking away. Punches and kicks were decent appetizers, but she’d have to bring out the main course to finish this.

Valley worked her way back up to a full stand, but only for a moment, right before she turned into a human missile and launched herself at Manami. She cycled through her legs as she rose, building up all the momentum she could find, and used it to explode in her opponent’s face with a bicycle knee.

Hm…

She...might have been getting the hang of this now. There was a lot of change around her body that Manami had to adjust to. She was...fairly certain that the snakes she’d picked out weren’t venomous, but her the numbing sensation coursing through her veins was there nevertheless. The static shock that bound her limbs made her everything feel distant and dull and seemed to work its way into her brain, as if she were moving two seconds behind what she actually felt. Hard to put up a decent offense under that strain, one could imagine.

But with each passing moment she felt herself becoming attuned to it. Each jerk and jitter was sharper than the last. She fiddled with it while she had a few seconds to herself on the ropes. First she moved her hand, then her arm, then cranked her shoulder, then shuffled her feet. Slow, subtle movement that seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever brought her mind and body in closer communion.

There we are...

A good thing, too. She was lucid for just long enough to see a human-sized javelin speeding towards her. There was something that came to mind. Whether it was a good idea or not, Manami wouldn’t know until afterwards. Her body was moving without her.

Her hands gripped the top rope, pressing her back against the rungs. As Valley shot her knee forward, Manami kicked off the floor and teetered her body over the ropes like a human wheelbarrow. As her legs came up, they’d move to snatch Valley’s leg out from under her, locking tight around her raised shin and pulling the champion along for the ride. Manami kept her grips tight on the ropes as she’d fall back, bucking her hips, putting her solid core to the test as she used her legs to throw the Slamazon over the ropes and catapulted her to the ground. Assuming her body didn’t give out through the process, Manami would be able to come down somewhat easily on the edge of the ring. Better off than Valley, at the very least.

Valley knew something was wrong, right from the outset. Her timing was good, about as good as it is going to get when the simple act of locomotion was a chore, but she didn’t like the way Manami was leaning, didn't like that look on her face, didn’t like the trajectory, and didn’t like the fact that she was so close to the ropes with this. It all boxed poorly, but she was in mid flight when these thought occurred to her. No choice but to go through with it.

It was going to be bad, she could’ve  guessed that much, but she didn’t know how badly gravity was going to screw her over until she saw Manami jerking back. Her leg was grabbed, she was hurled over the ropes, and she let her opinion on the matter be known.

”Shit!”

”God!”

The latter expletive came from a nurse, one of the one’s who’d been attending Valley, who just so happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Valley came down on top of the poor woman, and they went crashing into the barricade, spilling medical supplies all over the place.

The nurse looked like she’d just been hit by a car, and Valley didn’t look much better, even when all the snake bites were taken into account. Even so, she was scarcely on the floor for a couple of seconds, before she was crawling forward on her hands and knees, grabbing the apron and desperately trying to climb back in under the ropes. She was leaving herself open, she knew that, but she didn’t have much choice: she needed to get back in the ring. Fighting outside would only benefit Manami. She wasn't even sure where her foe was at the moment, it was a detail that she'd have to sort out when she was back on legal ground.

Manami wasn’t entirely sure where she was either. That was often a result of moving without thinking. Her intention was to cling to the ropes and recover outside on the edge on the ring, but she’d underestimated the numbness in her hands. She lost in her grip on the ropes and everything else followed. She remembered the whirl and feeling Valley let loose a moment after, with all after becoming a blur.

She came around a moment later on the floor beside the apron, her head still nauseous and the world tilting on a pin needle. The Wolf Girl pushed her way up to all fours, one side of her face splattered in blood as she scraped herself off the floor. Her head lolled from side to side, unable to bear the weight for a brief moment before she forced her head to rise. She still had a fight to finish, and if she could stand...surely Valley wasn’t far behind.

Her eyes found her prey straight away, limping and crawling away towards the apron. Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t fast enough. The wolven wrestler crawled forward, steadily bringing herself up to two feet as she hounded the woman attempting to crawl to safety. As the Slamazon went to pull herself inside, Manami came up behind her, sneaking an arm around her neck and pulling her close in a rear naked chokehold.

“We have to stop meeting like this.” She wrenched the hold back and attempted to bring them both to the ground. The moment she felt her back touch the floor, she’d up the ante with a pair of bodyscissors locking around Valley’s ribs. It wasn’t as firm a hold as it could have been, day and night from when they’d started this match, but it didn’t need to be. Manami didn’t have to knock her out. Just keep her here. Still, silent, complacent, outside of the ring, and watch her hope slip away from her inch by inch.

Not even five minutes. Simple.

The ring was so close. Only five feet away, if that far. Just a few steps. Less than her own height. If she were fine, if she wasn’t battered and bruised and covered in more snake bites than she cared to count, she could’ve made it in a flash.

If. Two letters that she was learning to hate more than ever. But it almost didn’t matter, did it? All Valley needed to do was get inside the ring to end this. She wasn’t sure on Manami’s position, but she wasn’t in the ring. She’d probably fallen out. If Valley could get inside first, she could either take advantage of the high ground and keep her out, or wait for her to get in and take advantage. Neither option really appealed to her from an honor standpoint, but she was reaching the stage where it hardly mattered. If she got the point, she got the point.

She reached up, grabbed hold of the bottom rope, and that was when she felt the arm wrapping around her neck. A noose, made out of flesh and bone. ”No-”

Valley’s protests were cut off as Manami clamped down tight on her windpipe and yanked back. She gripped the bottom rope hard, holding onto it for dear life, but she was able to keep that up for all of three seconds before the weight was just too much. She flopped to the floor, Manami’s legs wrapped about her midsection, and that was all there was to it.

”I...agree…” Valley hissed through her teeth, right before she sucked in a fresh supply of air. The fact that she was even able to do that much was a testament to how weakened Manami’s hold was - if this had happened earlier, maybe even before the fall, Valley had no doubt it would’ve taken her out. That didn’t mean it was a problem, though. With Manami anchoring her down, all she had to do was sit back and wait the clock out. A fact that she was no doubt aware of.

Gritting her teeth, Valley pooled her efforts into an escape, thrashing about like a fish on the hook, desperate to get free of the trap. One arm worked on choke, pulling at it, trying to yank her neck free, while the other went downstairs and made an attempt at pushing Manami’s legs apart. Far shots, both of them, but ones she couldn't afford to ignore.

Manami should have been enjoying this far more than she should. To the audience, it certainly appeared that way. The spasms, the struggles, the desperate hands searching for freedom. It was every inch the bloodbath the Wolf Girl so dearly desired. They couldn’t make out her mouth from behind Valley’s hair, but the majority could easily visualize the dreadful smirk hiding behind it.

If only. Her teeth ground together in a bout of frustration, a slight growl escaping her lips as Valley breathed in a wisp of air, one that Manami promptly shut down by redoubling her efforts on the choke. She knew that her body wasn’t entirely up to the task of ending this woman, but she must have been even more drained than she’d realized. Her wounds were starting to fester again, her body convulsed and her muscles jerked, her heart beat so hard and irrevocably against her ribcage it felt as though it would explode. Every inch of fiber burned with the heat of a thousand suns beneath her skin, threatening to tear apart in a fantastic burst of fury.

And some of the blood was getting in her eye. Delightful.

It certainly didn’t help when Valley started squirming about like a little rat, clawing at her arms and legs, aggravating her open wounds as her fingers slid over and pushed against them. That was all she was willing to tolerate.

“Stop. Now.” She demanded into her ear, locking her heels together, the contours on her thighs flexing as she cranked her legs harder around Valley’s midsection. “You’re done.”

She couldn’t hide the hint of desperation in her voice. It was too genuine, sincere. The Slamazon had fought hard, far harder than Manami could ever anticipate in a million years, harder than she’d ever admit, even to herself, but there wasn’t enough fight left to give to break free of this. Her struggles would get weaker, that battered body would fire off its last, and then Manami could finish it. She could beat the clock, she could.

Just hurry up and die.

Valley Doll was dying.

That was what it felt like, anyway. What she always imagined death would feel like this. This inevitable, unstoppable draining sensation, as your body began to shut down, little by little, closing for business. She could try to fight it, and she did, struggling with all she had, but there was no real way to avoid this kind of thing. Her body needed things it was simply not getting, and there was only one result from that.

She growled at Manami’s words, though it didn’t come out the way she intended. More of a wheezing, crackling noise, forced out through her constricted throat. The legs around her midsection were making her far mor away of her innards than she would’ve liked, torturing her to the point that every attempt at an exhale was agony.

The more she struggled, the more Manami squeezed. The more Manami, the more she struggled...but she had less and less energy for the effort each time.

Valley kept trying to pry at the arm, but only with one hand. The other was reaching for the ropes, as if they might magically start stretching and pull them both back into the ring. It wasn’t a good look, she knew that much, but it was born of sheer frustration. After fighting so hard, doing so much, putting everything she had into this, only for it to end like this, with her struggling on the floor, gasping for life.

She’d fought hard. Did everything she could. For a moment there, it seemed like she had Manami, that experience had trumped Manami’s youth and ferocity. Valley Doll had given her 100% and made her challenger work for her prize. That was what a champion was supposed to do. Right?

That was what Valley told herself. It was one of the last thougths that went through her mind, as her vision grew dark, the world grew quiet, and her body began to slacken. Fading away, fading away, until...

Seconds, minutes, hours...it all just seemed to blur together as the two struggled on the blood-ridden floor, breathing their last into the stale air. Manami forgot about their fight altogether, all the animosity and reason for them tearing themselves asunder. All she knew was that her prey was in her clutches. The taste of iron filled her mouth, the musky stench of death invaded her nose.


Manami worked her hand to the back of Valley’s neck, pushing hard against the base and tightening the choke with the last scraps of energy still coursing through her veins. For a moment, she wasn’t entirely confident that her efforts were getting her anywhere. The tension in her body was leaving her, her ability to hold the grip fading as the seconds ticked away on the clock just beyond her view. She pulled her closer, squeezed her ribs tighter, threatened to crush every bone in the champion’s body.

She felt Valley’s struggles winding down. Her movements were becoming less sharp, her body jerked and turned nowhere near as ferociously as it had before. She was getting weaker, which prompted Manami to bite down all the harder. She dug her fangs in everywhere she could, exploited every opening she could feel between her fingers and across her body until...


...she stopped moving. She rolled her limp body off of her, letting her face the stage lights for a few moments and take a couple deep breaths. It was tempting to simply rest there, let the fatigue and blood loss sweep her away, but she had somewhere to be. With whatever oxygen her blood still had inside of her, Manami breathed out and pushed herself over to the side onto all fours. She began the long crawl over the Slamazon’s still, strewn body, towards the apron, up the side of the ring, and through the bottom rope. From inside the ring, she looked back at Valley over her shoulder for a moment before slowly letting her head touch the canvas, closing her eyes as forehead brushed the floor.


“Oyasumi...”



The bell rang out as the audience erupted into a cacophony of cheers and jeers. The very air quaked as the vibrations carried across time and space, letting all of Rome hear their cries. The toga-clad woman climbed up the steel steps to the ring corner, the Entropy belt in hand and carefully eyeing Manami from behind the relative safety of the ropes before she fully dedicated herself to step through them. She stepped close to Manami...then a little closer, and raised the microphone to her lips before finally managing to bring her eyes away from the bloodied contestant to the raving crowds and flashing lights around her.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! PROUD SUBJECTS OF ROME! YOUR VICTOR AND NEW ENTROPY CHAMPION: MANAMI KURODAAAAAAAAAA!”

Her hand fell from the crowds to the woman at her side, but Manami kept to the floor with her forehead pressed to the apron. Her hands clenched into fists as she tucked her body closer together. She shook irrevocably as she felt the world shake and pound around her. She felt it all. Fenrir’s chains finally severed. Babylon set aflame around her.

Her lips parted and slowly sprouted a dark, cruel grin as her head rose from the floor, her glistening smile shining past the shadows and crimson painting her countenance. It stayed there, affixed on to her face as she stood tall on two feet. The local woman took the shining belt in hand and dressed it over the Wolf Girl’s shoulder, whom only looked forward, her blood-stained smile staring back out across the globe.