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

The silence was making it worse.

The pain was excruciating, yes, Valley wouldn’t take that away from Manami. She’d been in this hold more than a handful of times - one of her old rivals in Slamazons had been particularly in love with it - but this was the first time she could recall it hurting this much, had an opponent who poured in this much pressure. It was taking a real mental effort to not tap, to override her body’s rising desire to end this torture by any means necessary.

But the silence that came along with it was the part that gave her shivers, shivers she could feel even through her pain. Manami wasn’t taunting her, wasn’t telling her how weak she was, wasn’t making her usual jibes. She was quiet, which meant she was thinking, which meant that, as bad as the pain was, it was about to get so much worse.

And it turned out that Valley was right on that front, though even she couldn’t have guessed just how right at the time. Just as the pain reached its zenith and she thought about breaking, Manami suddenly let up on the hold for no apparent reason - at least, no reason that Valley cared about. Her sole concern was scrambling to the ropes, but the She-Wolf was on her before she had the chance, flipping her over, and Valley had all of two seconds to see a knee heaidng straight twoards her head before…

Nothing.

Valley’s world went dark, knocked unconscious by the knee to her face. For one instant, a flash, she was out all the way. Unknowing, unmoving, a limp body for the wolf to chew on. It was the pain that dragged her back to life, and when it did, she came back screaming, thrashing about on the floor as an unholy pain came from her seperated ligaments. Right away, in a single second, it become clear that she wasn’t just on the verge of losing the match...she was on the verge of losing her career.

Valley tapped. She had to tap.

Manami was going to break Valley’s arm. That wasn’t her goal setting this up, but it was going to happen. An inevitability. A fact of life. Fate. Valley was fated to lose it the longer this hold went on, the longer she continued to fight with that pitiable resistance of hers.

And if the champion was smart, she would feel that animosity lingering in the hold, in the raw power that the wolf brought to bear as she twisted and turned her arm, as yanked and pulled at an ever punishing angle, as she buried her face into the canvas beneath her knee and squashed her like a bug. Manami pulled further and further up on the kimura. In only a few moments, Valley’s shoulder might turn to powder, the tendons sever, the muscle tear. In only a few moments, the audience would be watching a lifelong career die.

So, naturally…

“Submission! One point to Manami Kuroda!” The bell sounded out. Another mixed cacophony of cheers and jeers, more powerful than the last. It was a mixture of stunning surprise and shattering at how quickly the challenger had secured her next point. Although, with the brutality on display, there was little room for confusion.

Manami certainly didn’t share in it, she didn’t undo the kimura straight away. She only looked down, easing up on the torque as her sharp eyes lingered on the woman beneath. “Smarter than I gave you credit for.” She threw Valley’s arm away and went to stand up, purposefully digging her knee into the side of her skull a few seconds longer before she rose to two feet and made her way to her corner. The Wolf Girl didn’t appear all that enthused by her small victory, precisely because it was just that. “Small”. She knew better now, just how quickly her prey might turn things around.

She had to shatter that hope.

Valley didn’t process the cavalcade of noises coming from around her, not at the moment. It was all distant noise, like thunder over the horizon, a faint rumble following late after the flash. She didn’t really hear the referee, either, though there was anything to block her ears. The words came through the proper channels, but her brain just wasn’t in a good place to process them. She didn’t even really take too much notice to the way Manami’s knee was digging into her skull. Annoying, that was, but a distant concern.

In this moment, right now, all Valley could think about was her arm. The rest of the world didn’t matter.

When Manami - finally eased up made her way to the corner, Valley rolled over to her back and started checking on that arm, straight away. She flexed it. Opened and close the fist. Tried to bend it, tested the weight, got a feel for the motions.

It was all wrong. While Valley couldn’t say if there was any permanent damage, she could tell that the limb was going to be a liability for the time they had left. It wasn’t as dire as losing the use of her legs, no, but her options were limited all the same. Grappling would be hard. Getting a hold would be harder. The simple act of climbing the turnbuckle would be a chore. It was dead weight, and knowing Manami, it was only the start. This woman wasn’t out to beat her, she was out to dismantle her.

Enough musing. Valley could see the referee looking her over, far too much concern in her eye, as if she was thinking about stopping the match for safety. That’d be bad for both of them, really - Valley would lose her title, but she doubted Manami would be satisfied. Last she checked, dogs tended to get riled up when you tried to take their bones away.

”I’m good.” Valley muttered, as she rolled over to her side and made an attempt at standing. It didn’t work well - she reached for the ropes for support on pure instinct, but her arm protested halfway and she wound up going back to a knee. ”I’m good.”

Doing her best to hide the pain, Valley stood on two feet and made her way back to the corner, turning around to lean against it and look back at Manami. She needed a gameplan, knew Manami was going to come after her hard to widen the gap, but her mind was drawing up blanks. The woman was twenty or so feet away, but in a couple seconds she’d be much closer, and then...

Manami certainly hoped that referee wasn’t suggesting to Valley what she thought she was suggesting. It was impossible not to notice the concern lingering in her eyes, the double takes toward the bell ringer off to the side. She’d worked rather hard to wear that left arm down. She didn’t come here to win by the mercy rule. She couldn't think of a greater insult to her character. It was all the worse that she had just managed to finally carve herself the opening she’d been waiting for. Seemed like a waste otherwise.

It was to her joy, then, that her fears were unfounded. Valley went to her corner, and the wolf didn’t once take her eyes off her. She took in her posture, her condition. She factored it all into some semblance of a plan. She had to capitalize on the advantage she had here, and Valley’s injury was the key. Although she was willing to bet the champion was thinking exactly the same thing. She’d have it under guard, no doubt.

Seems she’d have to find a way around that.

No sooner than after the bell sounded did the wolf stalk her way from her corner. She moved with slow, methodical steps as she approached and circled her opponent around the center of the ring, keeping low with her hands raised. She circled and circled, round and round, bided her time, waited for just the right moment, then sprung forward and-

...retreated. A feint. One that Manami sugarcoated with deriding smirk as she raised her right foot, stepping into the distance between them and shooting a push kick straight to Valley’s gut.

When the bell rang and the referee stepped out of the way, Valley couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d just stepped into a horror movie. There she was, the hapless heroine, cornered and alone. The Terminator, the Alien, the Predator was closing in on her, taking its time and savoring the moment. Why wouldn’t it? There was nothing to fear. This was all inevitable, and Valley couldn’t stop it from happening anymore than the audience.

But that wasn’t true, was it? She wasn’t some helpless waif, she was the Entropy Champion. Undefeated in two years of wrestling. Probably a hall-of-famer. Manami moved like none of that was true, and it was like she was infecting Valley with it.

The Slamazon did her best to push those thoughts aside as she moved out of the corner to meet her foe. She stepped with her arm away from the center, not even bothering to hide the weakness. No real point to it. Manami would be going for it hard, and all Valley could do was hope to make that as difficult as possible…

Sure enough, Manami pounced, and Valley readied a snap kick to dissuade her, one that would’ve left her loopy...if it hit. Which it didn’t. Instead, her toe sliced through thin air, leaving her wide open, her guard left lacking for want of an arm.

Manami’s push kick sunk deep into Valley’s gut, stabbing it, and the impact was nearly enough to knock her off her feet. She managed to stay up, but just barely, and not without the ropes’ assistance. She wound up leaning on them for a moment, pulling her way back up to a steady base with her good hand, waiting to see what Manami’s next volley would be.

Manami certainly appeared every bit of the focused warrior that she prided herself on being. Her eyes didn’t linger far from her prey as they circled one another. She stepped slow, watched for any sudden movement, made sure the Slamazon wasn’t going to sneak anything up on her to gain the advantage from out the gate. No, she was the one with the advantage. She was in control. There was a plan in place, and she was sticking to it.

But it would be a damn dirty lie to say it wasn’t ever so tempting to go for the arm straight away. Valley didn’t bother to hide her affliction. It just made it all the more enticing. Her eyes snapped to it inadvertently every few seconds or so, like a bone being held in front of a slobbering dog’s eyes. All in due time. She could see her moment approaching.

Valley bought the feint - hook, line, and sinker - and she was happily awarded punishment for it. Manami lashed out and sneered as her strike met home, sinking into the champion’s gut before sending her stumbling away. Hurt. Reeling on the ropes. Vulnerable.

A slasher’s smirk, tinged white with malice, stretched across Manami’s lips as she ducked low. Her thighs pulsed, her muscles quaked, and in a snap motion, she charged toward the Slamazon at a breakneck pace. For a moment, it appeared to everyone that the challenger fully intended to run Valley through. Maybe send her through the ropes with a spear.

Nothing so daft. Just a moment away from impact Manami would suddenly drop into a slide, her feet taking the lead of the charge as she slid past Valley and under the ropes out of the ring. As she went, she kept one hand out to grab Valley’s ankle so that, once she landed on two feet outside the ring, all she had to do was pivot on the spot and grasp the other, yanking the champion’s feet out from under her and pulling her out of the ring in the most brusque way possible.

Valley was hurt, with her back against the ropes, and encroaching predator at her front. She was wide open, vulnerable, and her opponent had already shown herself to be adept when it came to seizing on weakness. Like the animal she seemed so fixated on, she was all about sinking those fangs into whatever tender spot she could find, biting deep and never letting go.

And that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Not a good thing, either, but if she played things right, she could turn it into a small advantage. Or less of a disadvantage. If Manami was going to focus on her arm, that would make it easier to know where her attacks would be focusing, and Valley could react accordingly, in theory. In practice…well…

She’d thought she would have a good idea of what was going to happen, as Manami came charging forward. Her instincts and years of wrestling told her the woman would go high, and there were options she could make work with that. A leapfrog, a simple kick to the face, maybe even a Sunset Flip if she could make it work with one arm.

Before she could make a split-second decision, though, it all become moot. Manami was going low, she wasn’t ready for it, and the end result was only going to be more pain.

”What-” Valley’s words were cut off with a shriek as her legs were yanked out from under her, sending her flopping to the mat. She didn’t even have time to register that before she was yanked clear out of the ring, her nails scraping against the mat along the way. It wasn’t enough to stop her course, not even close, and she wound up getting dumped onto the floor, just barely able to get her hands up at the last moment to avoid a faceplant. A small consolation - it was a rough landing all the same, and one she’d need a few moments to recover from.

Manami even surprised herself at times. While she was far from adjusted to fighting in an orthodox manner, a wrestling ring was still a semi-new environment for her. That was the one, glaring advantage her opponent had over herself. But, this seemed to be one of those rare moments of brilliance. Her body was adjusting better than expected.

A good thing, too. The Californian was plenty of things. Dumb wasn’t one of them, she had to reluctantly admit. In the event she caught on, Manami didn’t intend to give her the chance to turn things about. That was why she made sure to grab the ankle as she went. This was little different cornering a wounded animal, clinging to its last vestiges of desperation. She had to keep her pinned where she was, make sure that any crafty ideas she had prowling around in her pretty little head went unfounded.

No, she wasn't slipping free from her grasp.

The Slamazon fell to the ground with an enticing splat. Manami spared herself a slight chuckle as the cathartic feeling came and went, but that was all. While she’d managed to bring her quarry out from the ring, Valley had done an above average job of keeping the pain to a minimum in spite of the surprise. She was down, but far from out.

A simple fix.

Manami reached down and grabbed her from behind, dragging her back towards the barricade and throwing her back-first against it. If she managed to do that with little fuss, she’d situate herself by gripping the top of the barricade, reeling her leg back, and ramming her knee straight into Valley’s head.

And Valley bit her tongue. It wasn’t enough that she had a barely working arm, that she’d nearly face-planted twice in as many seconds, and that she was sore all over after being dragged out of the ring and dumped like an overweight trashbag - no, on top of all that, she had to inadvertently bite her tongue when she fell, too.

It was just a little, nothing too serious, not enough to pierce the skin and start any bleeding, but it was a painful reminder of the state she was in. This was starting to feel less like a match and more like a torture session, as if her sole purpose was to be an example for Manami’s future challengers.

No. Never that. She could handle losing, she could even accept losing to Manami with gritted teeth - for all the woman’s insanity, she was a worthy wrestler, skilled and strong. But what she couldn’t accept, what she refused to take, was being nothing  more than a stepping stone. If Manami wanted that belt, she was going to lose something in return.

That was the mentality Valley had as she started to push her way back up. Towards what purpose, she couldn’t say, but anything was better than just laying on the floor and taking Manami’s punishment.

Unfortunately, it seemed like her and Manami had about the same idea, as the She-Wolf pounced before she had the chance to rise, forcing her up the rest of the way. She was hauled up, slammed against the barricade, and a knee came flying towards her face in the next instant, one that she managed to get her hand up in time to block.

It didn’t matter. Manami’s knee brushed past her hastily assembled guard and cracked her square in the face, right on the nose, knocking the back of her head against the metal as a side effect. The world went starry, her vision turned to blur, and Valley was only really aware of one thing as she flopped to the side: the scent of blood, filling her nose.  It was busted, definitely, and already beginning to flow.

Manami delivered her next blow with the intent of splitting Valley’s head open. She wanted to see her splat against the steel post, wanted to see her body twitch as it fell in an empty husk off to the side. An unlikely goal, but one that wasn’t ambitious was no goal at all.

The end result was hardly a sight to complain about. Manami took a step back as the champion fell dazed to the floor. A tingle worked its way up her spine at the crimson trail that ran down towards her lip. Her mind lingered for a while, forgetting where she was or the sounds around her. The match, the ring, the official. They were all swallowed into a void around them. Her only concern was Valley.

She reached down and grabbed a fistful of Valley’s hair before, yanking her up by the top of her head. She turned on the spot and walked forward, pulling the champion along by the clump of her hair towards the steel steps. As they went, she spared a glance down at Valley, a thinly-veiled smile growing on her lips.

“You know...I really should be thanking you, Valerie.” She jerked the Slamazon forward along as she continued to walk, staring off into nothing in particular. “I came to this federation filled with nothing but forlorn hope. I expected little more than a pitiful sideshow, a world-class circus for the shameless and depraved, filled to the brim with refuse and wasted potential. And, for a while, that turned out to be completely true. I was so very disappointed. In all of it. I thought the time I spent here would be a complete and utter failure.”

Suddenly, as they approached the side of the steps, Manami would hoist Valley up, spinning her around before slamming her back first on top of the stairs. Her hand went from Valley’s hair to her neck to keep her pinned there, staring darkness into her sky blue eyes. “And then you came along, Ms. Welles. The woman that I left broken and beaten in front of the entire world before I stripped her pride and joy away from her waist. The woman that came back and took down two of my most trusted in the blink of an eye. The woman that stared me down as if nothing had changed. The woman that just won't get rid of that damn look in her eyes.” Her grip tightened unconsciously, her face wrinkling beneath the pressure. It faded an instant, a stark white grin overcoming her expression as her head canted to the side. “You taught me something that Belinda couldn’t, that Alania couldn’t, even River couldn’t. You, and you alone, showed me that AFW can’t be underestimated, that nothing can remain as it is. My intent will have to be smarter. Quicker. Deadlier.”

She leaned in close, enough to taste Valley’s scent on her tongue. “I’m going to take your belt. And I’m going to use it to tear and devour everything, bite...by...bite...” Slowly, her tongue ran over Valley’s lips, from the rim to the tip of her nose, taking in every drop from the river of blood. She made the gesture slow, wanting it to burn for as long as possible before her arms pulsed once again, squeezing what life she could from her eyes.