[Standard Match] Margarita Jorgensen (D) vs Eka Guramishvili - We Will Rock You

Eka was not really feeling it. She was a woman who relied on her takedowns, and her attempts at doing so had ended in failure, to say the least. The world above her started getting a little bit more distinct, which she was grateful for. She could see that her opponent was approaching, and that the crowd was really starting to roar. Eka's heart was beating faster now. It occurred to her that she didn't have the luxury of sitting back and resting a bit. The fight was coming to her, whether or not she liked it. But the Georgian girl was tough, and she prided herself on that. Before she even knew what she was doing, her body steeled itself against what was sure to be painful.

Sure enough, Margarita was on her in a second. She did not like being picked up off the ground, but she especially did not like being hauled to her feet by her throat. Inside, a fire burned. She was still too weak to really react to that, but the look on her face hardened to one of anger. She was already gritting her teeth when the blow slammed into her ribs. The ravenhaired girl did not particulaly know why, but she did not want to grunt when the blow hit, as if that were some small act of capitulation. The strike was a significant one, and it took everything that Eka had in her to not fall back down. But she was feeling the burn now, and told herself that she was not some skinny little girl who would just be pushed around like she was back in sixth grade again.

No, this woman had passion now. Instead of falling back, Eka took a half-step forward. Despite the ringing in her head and the fire burning in her rib cage, Eka stood tall in the face of the pinkhaired woman. This Danish woman had not yet earned her ire in any serious way, but Eka knew that she had to battle back if she wanted to have any shot of winning this match. Eka grabbed at the arm that was still following through, and got off her feet, but not in the way that Margarita may have wanted.

Her lower half folded up, around the arm that Eka had just grabbed. The Georgian girl was going for a flying arm bar. It was a bold move. But Eka knew that unless she pulled off quite a few bold moves in quick succession, she would not be leaving this arena with her head held high. Hell, she might be leaving this arena in a stretcher.

Eka's eyes should have been wide open with surprise. It was rare that she pulled off a move quite like that, and against a woman who had done nothing but pound her for most of the fight. The crowd had been very much on the side of the pink-haired girl, which was natural as she was a lot more charismatic than Eka was. But the audience had to appreciate that Eka had pulled off a daring and powerful move. It made the Georgian girl feel a little bit better that they were applauding her now, but that was not going to bring an end to the fight. The only thing that Eka was looking for was to make this woman submit.

That prospect was made all the more difficult by how much Margarita was moving around. The movement did not seem that focused, as there was no real pattern to it. It was up one moment, down the next, left and right and then all around. The look on Eka's face was that of pure concentration, but she was not entirely sure what she was meant to be fixating on, as the pinkhaired woman's actions were totally unpredictable. Sometimes the rodeo would come through her adopted hometown of Birmingham, and she always enjoyed watching the cowboys try to ride the huge bucking bulls. And right now, she empathized a lot with some of those riders.

But she was going to try and hold on. Eka was losing her grip a little bit, and knew that if it lasted for much longer, she would surely have to release her opponent. But if she could contain Margarita's upper half with her legs, she might be able to last that little bit longer...

Even as Eka was desperately hanging on for dear life, she was watching Margarita through the watchful eyes of a student, ruminating on what was going on through her opponent's head. If the situation were reversed, the first and really only concern Eka would have would be wrenching her arm free from the torturous hold. The Georgian girl would have started much the same way Margarita had, bucking and jostling and moving to test the opponent's will and her own strength at the same time. From there, she was not really sure. Maybe pulling away using her legs, maybe rolling through it to see if she couldn't get her arm free that way. The sweat on Margarita's head was not telling her much, nor was the look on Margarita's face. She felt a sense of disquiet as she watched the pinkhaired woman concentrate.

And then something terribly strange happened. Margarita said something that made zero sense to her. Eka loosened the grip a little bit, and one of her dark eyebrows rose. She was not sure if that was intended to be a threat, but Eka was feeling a terrible sense of unease. Before she could reconstitute the grip on Margarita's arm, the pinkhaired girl became a whirl of motion and Eka found that her body was leaving the terrestrial bonds of the mat, much to her detriment.

The pinkhaired girl had grabbed her other leg and hefted the Georgian girl into the air. Both of her blue eyes were wide with shock and anticipation. The moment was fecund with potential, a potential that exploded in the worst way possible for the young Eka. She was thrust downwards into the endless white expanse of canvas, her arms and legs flying akimbo upon impact. She bounced once before coming to a stop a foot or so away from where she landed, her blue eyes still wide open from the pain and from the suddenness with which the vicissitudes of the match had thrust themselves upon the duo.

She did not really understand the power of the space guard of the future a few moments ago, but she was starting to reckon with it a lot more now.

Eka was still reeling from the force of the slam. Another jolt of pain shot down her back as Eka lay there. The Georgian girl was grimacing now. She had been riding terribly high due to the arm bar just a second ago, and now here she was having been sent crashing down into the mat after Margarita said something that must have been from one of her movies. The Georgian girl had very little time to consider that, however, as the pinkhaired girl was on the move.

The darkhaired girl was still on the mat when Margarita seized upon her. Eka could only react meekly as Margarita grabbed her leg and started contorting it. There were only so many things that Margarita could do from there, and Eka was pretty sure that she knew which one was coming. Sure enough, a figure four leg lock was quickly locked in on her. A cry of intense pain escaped her lips, and then bounced around the arena. Eka was gripping the mat tightly now. It did her little good. Margarita had this locked in nice and tight, and her leg felt like it was going to explode from how much she was suffering.

Her eyes were half closed now. Usually she was the one who had applied a torturous submission move on her opponent to try and grind them down, but now Margarita was giving her a taste of her own medicine. Sweat dripped off her brow. Eka had been around enough to face a very wide variety of submission moves, but there was a raw efficacy in the classics. And as she lingered in the hold, she was really starting to hate whoever it was that made this move popular.

The crowd were cheering. They usually preferred slams and throws to grinding submission moves, but I guess they liked her opponent. Eka had never been a fan favorite, but it hurt to have the audience be for her opponent to the extent that they were. Eka gritted her teeth, and tried to deal with the pain shooting through her leg as best she could.

Eka's hands could have crushed diamonds. There was something intuitive in squeezing as hard as you possibly could when you were in a lot of pain. In her home in Alabama, they had always written a lot about the Civil War. And when some poor unfortunate soldier's leg was cut off during that time, they would make the soldier bite down on a rag. She had no idea what it was like to have a leg excised from the body, but Margarita was giving her a fairly good idea what the pain was like now. So she clenched her fists, biting down on an imaginary rag, dealing with the pain as best she could.

Only, the pinkhaired girl was not content to just lie back and let the pain continue as is. Eka was looking up so she did not see Margarita moving, but she very soon felt it. Eka's hips were pulled into the air. The pain in her legs went from about a nine all the way up to a ten, and maybe a little beyond it if Eka were being honest with herself. The Georgian girl had a litany of submission moves applied against her in her time, but this one was taking it to the next level. The darkhaired woman let out a loud scream that was quickly drowned out by the din of fans howling their joy at watching the Georgian girl get sent through the ringer. It was the smart thing to do.

But Eka was a rather smart girl herself. She closed her eyes to try and manage the pain more, and her mind got to moving. This would have been slightly harder to pull off had Margarita stayed on the ground, but now that their bodies were slightly airborne it was a lot easier to get moving. Eka activated her deceptively powerful core with a powerful twist. She was attempting to roll the duo over, and get them both face down on the ground.

If she pulled the move off, she would effectively reverse the leglock, applying a ton of pressure to Margarita. If she didn't, well, she was going to be in a world of hurt. Eka kept her eyes closed as she went through with the move. She was hoping that she could feel her way through it, as opposed to relying on her sense of sight. And given how long Eka had been wrestling, she was quite confident in her decision.