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

Manami was going to get her legs. Eventually. Sooner, maybe later. Oh, sure Valley was going to make her work for it and defy her every step of the way, but at the end of the day. She’d escape and use the ropes and make her pay for the privilege of bending her legs in the wrong direction - but it was going to happen. 90% of her opponents had the good sense to go for leg-based submissions on, and more often than not, they had some measure of success, no matter how small. Valley wasn’t nearly optimistic enough to believe she could play keepaway for an entire sixty minutes.

But until that time, she’d get as much mileage out of her lower body as possible and seize every defense, no matter how small. The leg trick was a small thing, just a simple matter of using her other leg to make the scissor untenable, but it served the purpose. Her ankle was safe. For now.

Oh, and she got to punch Manami in the face. Always a pleasure. In theory.

Valley realized her mistake right away, wishing she hadn’t taken the bait and just used her opening to make some space between them. The less time she spent on the floor with this octopus of a woman, the better, and the reasoning why became apparent as her legs closed around, her arm was thread through, and the pressure began to bear down on her neck. Merciless, relentless pressure.

Valley let out a sound that was half a cry and half a choke, her spittle scattering along Manami’s chest. Then came the struggling and squirming as she search for relief, twisting this way and that, desperate to get some level of relief. She wasn’t too big on the MMA, but even she knew how lethal this legendary hold was and how fast it could put her under if she wasn’t careful. She tried to reach out for the ropes, but the positioning was awful, couldn’t get the reach.

But the worst thing was the laughing. Manami’s smile was insufferable during the best time, but her laughing was worse than nails on a chalkboard to Valley’s ear. The pitch. The dark, vile twist to it. It didn’t sound like something that should be coming from a human’s lung, but from the sort of inhuman beast that she wanted to be.

Valley worked her way up to her knees, still looking to alleviate the pressure, and spoke with a grimacing growl. ”Shut...up…”

Oh...she swore, she could drink the frustration of Valley’s face like a fine wine.

There were so many subtle twitches and savory expressions that she and she only was privy to. This was one of the reasons a hold such as this was amongst her favorites. The connection. The eye to eye contact that allowed one to see the brightness fade from another’s countenance and the hatred overflowing through their pupils. Watching the light fade from another’s eyes was a truly magical thing.

Her smile stretched from ear to ear, sprouting a vicious fang and delightful chuckle at seeing the champion spit and sputter within the hold. The indignity of it all was irresistible, if a tad pathetic. But nowhere near as disappointing as her attempt at freeing herself, moving to stand and gain some elevation on Manami. The Wolf Girl had little intention of letting that defiance continue. She wrenched the arm further away, attempting to reel the Californian deeper into her the grip. Nowhere to escape to, little rabbit.

One of the Slamazon’s kicks must have damaged her hearing, however, because it almost sounded as if the woman trapped between her legs was attempting to make a demand.

How comical.

“Oh? And who will make me, Ms. Dolores? Do enlighten me.” She sneered over at her, leaning forward before snapping back to further crank the pressure between her thighs. “You? The inept has-been from some insignificant, backwater indie promotion that believed she could live up to championship gold? You, who are so close to the brink of collapse for the second time in these few minutes alone? You, who would take fame and glory over strength and pride?” She curled her fingers, snapping her arm forward and throwing a stiff punch to the center of Valley’s face. The distance may have nulled its effect somewhat, but the recompense was deserved. “How detestable. Accept what you are, Val. A failure of a champion. A frail, withering old thing better suited to cleaning arenas than fighting in them.”

Manami leaned in, canting her head further. Her eyes went to bore a hole into the woman’s pupils, peering into her soul and seeing its essence beyond those aqua orbs before the last light faded away. “Accept.”

”VALLEY DOLL!”

“TAP TAP TAP!”

“VALLEY DOLL!”

“TAP TAP TAP!”

“VALLEY DOLL!”

Even though the blood was rushing in Valley’s ear and her head was pounding like a war drum and she had Manami’s seething words to listen to, she could still hear the audience’s chants around them. It seemed more pronounced now, as the audience had coalesced into two distinct camps - one pulling for the old guard, Valley, the other howling for their mistress wolf, Manami.

That didn’t bother Valley too much, really.

Then there was what Manami was saying herself. It was the same stuff she’d been spewing in some form or another since they first met - when they really met, at least. It was the same song, but a harsher remix of it. It wasn’t something wholly new to her, she’d stumbled on quite a few things on the internet which repeated the refrain. She was old, she was washed-up, she was a has-been who didn’t deserve the belt. No matter how many times she beat younger wrestlers, it would never go away.

That bothered her, coming from Manami’s lips. But she could bear it.

The thing that pushed her over the edge was a small detail, a tiny straw that was just enough to break her back, something that wouldn’t have even rated as worth considering in a different circumstance. It wasn’t the taunting or the squeezing or even that annoying cheap shot in the face that pushed her to the boiling point.

”Welles.”

Valley planted one foot on the floor, still rising, fighting against Manami’s killer hold and gravity. With eyes screwed shut in pure concentration, she surged up enough to get her other foot on the floor, even as her energy continued to drain.

”My...last name is…”

Up. Up. Up. Valley continued to rise, summoning every ounce of power she had from her failing body. It all seemed like a futile effort - if she were a bigger wrestler, she could go for a powerbomb counter to the hold, slam Manami into the canvas, but she wasn’t anywhere near that level. Her fans cheered her on, anyway, even if the whole thing seemed desperate to fail. The She-Wolf hung on Valley’s neck like some insane piece of jewelry, wringing her dry. No chance of escape.

Right up until the moment where Valley put one foot in front of Manami’s shoulder, did the same with the other, then leaped forward  and drove all of their combined weight into her foe’s face. ”...Welles!”

Belly to Back Inverted Mat Slam. Better known as the Styles Clash.

Why wouldn’t this woman just go to sleep already?

Did this half-rate showboating really have to go on? Manami couldn’t resist the urge to roll her eyes as Valley merely went back to struggling between her legs, jerking this way and that for an inch of freedom that didn’t exist. Hardly a dignifying way for a champion to lose her second point.

Pride before the fall, Manami supposed. Oh well. All good things in time. She simply laid back, cranking on her leg a little further to tighten the hold and expedite the process. The whole way, she watched Valley’s eyes closely, seeing the fire fade away bit by bit, ember by ember, making sure to never miss even a second before it went out for good. Something...which was she was finding increasingly hard to do...

“Hm?” The wolf quirked a brow, watching the woman in her steady ascent, sputtering out some words that she was unable to make any clear sense of between the lack of air in her lungs and the rising bass of the crowd. At first, Manami paid it little mind. A desperate struggle, but one that would ultimately fail. The higher the Californian climbed, the further Manami reeled back her leg and tightened the walls around her. There was nowhere to go. Even as the wolf was forced into a ninety-degree angle with the floor, she didn’t see any cause for alarm.

It wasn’t until she felt Valley’s leg step over in front of her arm that her mind began to decipher the strategy at work here. Manami’s shortcomings in wrestling expertise were starting to come back at her. The roar of the crowd seemed to herald some force headed her way, but from where, she couldn’t tell. Not until the Slamazon shouted her plea to the sky and leaped forward. Manami’s eyes went wide, the sight of the canvas overtaking her vision as it came and closer and closer at a breakneck pace. “Kisam-”

A harsh and violent smack echoed out from the ring, reverberating around the amphitheater to the skies above. A round of applause and cheers of relief spilled out from the surrounding audience. The Wolf Girl didn’t share in their jubilation. Her legs untangled and went to fall to the ground, her arms to the side and her face buried flatly against the floor beneath Valley’s body. Barley moving, the wind clearly knocked of her sails.

Had Valley taken a Styles Clash before? She was fairly sure, though she couldn’t remember who’d done it to her, mostly because of the lack of oxygen making her brain kind of fuzzy. What she could remember of the move was fairly intense, though. Being upside down like that, the worst part of it was having your arms pulled away and restricted. It not only made you helpless, but gave you just enough time to realize what was about to happen, along with the fact that there was absolutely nothing you could do to stop it or counter it or even dull the pain. Your opponent jumped up, and then you had that terrifying moment where the canvas rose to meet your face, driven down with the combined weight of two women. If Valley had to compare the pain to anything, it would be getting her face slammed into a tree. Probably because that happened to her recently and it was fresh in her mind, but still.

Knowing all that, thinking about it, made doing the Styles Clash on Manami just that much more satisfying. Despite all the pain she was still going through and the ache in her throat and the ticking clock, she still found a smile for the moment. ”Gotcha. Ha”

The point was as good as hers, but that didn’t mean she could dawdle. It wasn’t like no one had ever kicked out of the move before, and Manami was hardy woman. The sooner she took advantage, the better.

With a grunt, she rolled over to her back and took Manami’s lifeless body along with her, pulling her over to come down on her back. She wrapped her arms around the same thighs that had been squeezing her to death a few moments ago, leaned forward, and got into good position for the pin.

The referee was quick on the uptake and dropped down a scant second later, starting up the count. ”1…!”

Manami had many questions whirling around her dizzied mind, but chief among them concerned what exactly Valley had just hit her with.

Her opportunities to properly wrestle inside of the Friction ring had been woefully limited, but she’d done her best nevertheless to keep an eye on the roving talent. She’d followed the more popular matches and well-known names, select from the lot of them which would prove the most entertaining. She’d analyzed the more renowned “faces”, scanning for potential threats when she decided to make her next move. It was needless to say that she’d seen her fair share of techniques, had a decent grasp on the mainstays.

And then the Slamazon hit her with...something, and without the foggiest idea of what to relate it to, she’d questioned the depth of her research to this point. Wrestling was a complex, if tame and unworthy, entertainment. Nevertheless, it was an industry Valley had mastered, and would continually employ against her. There was always one more thing up her sleeve, wasn’t there? It would be wise to keep on her toes from now on.

There was little time to ruminate, however. Manami felt a sudden weight fall on her, and her vision started to come back into proper alignment. Her eyes narrowed, just able to peek past her legs to notice the position Valley had put her in, and threw a glare her way. The world made sense again, just in time for her to register the first slap. Manami went to kick her legs, but found difficulty in mustering the strength. Her body was still dealing with the shock, still attempting to get properly oriented.

“TWO!”

Damn it all.

Her mind went into overdrive, activating every sense to try and sniff out a weakness to exploit, a fault in the positioning. Before too long, she found one. Valley had the pin locked in perfectly, impossible to break through, but she’d neglected the distance to the ropes. An error Manami made evident to her as she twisted to the side, shooting her left hand out as far as it could go, and clasped all five fingers around the bottom rung just as the official's hand came down for the final time.

“Sneaky…” She rasped, grinning up at the Slamazon from the corner of her eye. “Very sneaky…”

For the first time since the bell rang, Valley felt some rising relief, knowing she had one point in the bag. It had been a rough start, and her work was far from done, but evening things up would be a big help. Plus, she could tell that Manami was really hurting after taking the Clash, the impact leaving her shocked and stunned. Time seemed to slow as the referee dropped for her count, and Valley didn’t mind one bit. She wanted to savor this moment. She could feel Manami’s slackened muscles, knew she’d never kick out in time. She had this.

One, two…

...she got the ropes.

She got the ropes.

Her supporters threw up their hands in despair and her detractors threw up their hands in triumph, surrounding her with a cacophony of mismatched sounds. For her part, Valley kept her eyes forward, stupefied, staring blank at Manami and her shit-eating grin. All of that, all that effort and time and pain, and she still wasn’t able to put the alpha bitch down. Like some demented horror movie villain, she just kept getting back up.

And the worst part was that Valley couldn’t even wholly blame her. If the fault laid with anyone, it was her for not rolling the other way to secure the pin. She’d been so caught up in the moment that she hadn’t realized her position.

No surprise, but this realization didn’t ease her mood. ”Okay.” She huffed. ”Okay.”

Keeping her hold on Manami’s legs, Valley slid about and scooted out of the ring. The second she got her feet on the floor, she gave her opponent a hard tug and yanked her out of the ring, giving her what would likely be a rough landing on her back.

Manami felt inclined to laugh if it weren’t for the fact that her lungs had been thoroughly compressed not two seconds ago. So much comedy in such a little span of time, it was hard to keep her smile from stretching too far and splitting her mouth in two.

She could see the morale shatter in Valley’s eyes, the flame of hope flicker a tad at her efforts coming up short. Manami certainly hoped the message was getting through. No matter how hard she struggled, this outcome wasn’t going to change. The weak were meant to lose. If that basic tenet was having trouble staying in the veteran’s feeble mind, Manami was content to continue enlightening her.

Valley got off of her, but it didn’t take very long at all for the Wolf Girl to smell a rat, noticing that her legs hadn’t earned their freedom along with the rest of her. The reason became apparent in the most abrupt manner possible, as the Slamazon rolled down to the arena floor, dipping her boots in the sand as she wrenched the she-wolf out along with her. Her eyes shot wide as she instinctively went to grasp the bottom rope, but it all happened too quickly, far too quickly while she was still recovering.

The results were hardly a surprise to anyone giving the match even half their attention. Manami crashed to the floor with a harsh smack against her back, the back of her head banging against the ground the next instant. Her back arched as one hand went to her back to soothe the pain, the other moved to the ground as she canted to the side, mustering some effort to stand again. Her grin was never far removed from her face, however, despite the word the followed next from between her gritted teeth.

“Bitch.”

Evidently, her patience was waning. Just a smidgen.

That smile. God, was Valley coming to hate that smile. It was kind of amazing, really, like it took true talent to make something so innocuous so infuriating, but God, the Wolf Girl could pull it off.

Maybe it was a Pavlovian thing, like every time she saw that smile she was reminded of all the pain she had suffered in that park, of having her head crushed between her lapdog’s thighs, of having her face rammed into a tree, of being put through a table and nearly having her career cut short.

Or maybe it was just the way she looked, like she had this entire match won already and the entire...how much longer did they have, anyway?

|48:52|

Valley looked back from the clock to Manami as her foe writhed about on the floor, still smiling, all smug and satisfied, as if the match itself was just a formality to getting the belt. The belt she’d stole. ”Sorry.” She leaned down and grabbed a handful of Manami’s brown hair, gripping it tight between her fingers. ”Here, I’ll help you up.”

And she did, too, lifting Manami back to her feet with rough tugs of her hair, forcing her to stand if she didn’t want to lose a clump. Granted, she grabbed her by the arm and threw into the steel steps with an Irish Whip a moment later, but she did help her up in the first place.

It likely should have occurred to Manami to actually do something after breaking the pinfall, even if it was something as simple as just bracing herself for the fall. But that was more or less the issue with being slammed face first into the ground, flipped, and curled up all at once. It worked havoc on the mind, flipped the priorities around while the rest of her body recovered.

She was still feeling those effects as she attempted to rise again. Her back throbbed from head to toe. One would have assumed the mostly sanded floor would have provided some cushioning, but it was fairly consolidated. No better than pavement, by all accounts. The tinge of frustration lingering in her expression, however, had little to do with the pain and far more with the boorish manner of being yanked out of the ring like a bound animal in a snare. Manami was already thinking of

That was the true motivation running through her mind. That distraught look on Valley’s face when her chance to crawl ahead was snatched away from her, the pain her eyes betraying that blank expression. There was a longing to see that flicker again.

That would have to wait, unfortunately.

Manami let out a growl, forcefully being yanked up to her feet and glaring up at Valley past her hand. With an unsteady step forward, she was suddenly whipped in the opposite direction. She slammed into the steel steps with a violent clash, enough to detach them from the ring and split them from the middle, leaving them on their side. The Wolf Girl laid hunched over them, one arm draped over the side and a hand clasped against the back of the steps, seemingly attempting to rise, making little progress as her chest barely rose off the steel.