Lu Jiao Jocelyn Vs. Yi Lan

Jocelyn stumbled when her clothesline whiffed. She straightened up quickly, clenching her fists and gritting her teeth. But she stopped when she heard Lan's words in Mandarin. Her cheeks flushed red. Lan was just going to force her to tear her pride to shreds, wasn't she? She hated herself so much but how could she go back?

Jocelyn finally spun around, just to see Lan lift up her hands. She opened her mouth to speak when Lan came at her with a punch. Jocelyn's guard wasn't even up and the fist clunked into her cheek hard. Jocelyn's head was snapped tot he side and she stumbled again. She rubbed her cheek and growled at Lan.

<You throw a punch like a pussy!> She growled. <Why aren't you using Wu Shu!?> She demanded and slipped one foot forward, lifting up her hands and bouncing on her heels. <Like this!> She said and charged at Lan, turning her body and throwing her knee up to try and slam it into Lan's thigh when she was close.

Lanâ€s punch landed hard on Jocelynâ€s cheek, snapping the Chinese-Australian girlâ€s head to the side violently. Lan winced as she saw her opponentâ€s neck twist sideways due to the force of the blow. She had to try her best to win…even if every time she saw Jocelyn in pain it gave her a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. The primal, angry growl which emanated from the darker-haired wrestler after she took that blow unsettled Lan, as well, but for a different reason.

“Npph!” the blonde Chinese girl hissed in pain, as her opponentâ€s knee was driven right into her thigh. Her leg buckled for a second, but she managed to force herself back up to her full height, ignoring the dull throbbing just above her knee.

<W-why donâ€t I use Wu Shu? Because…because I donâ€t know h-how. I d-donâ€t know Wu Shu,> Lan explained timidly. With Jocelyn at close range, she would pull a fist back, then let it fly again, this time looking to connect with Jocelynâ€s chin for a painful uppercut.

Jocelyn grinned when her knee connected and drove Lan back. She would have pursued but the ashen haired Chinese girl answered her question. Jocelyn froze and her eyes widened in shock for a moment before she quickly furrowed her brow in anger. She was seething at Lan. This girl... she was no kind of Chinese woman! Jocelyn lived and breathed the Chinese way every day of her life. What did Lan do? She looked lie a westerner. She fought like a Westerner and her demeanor? That coy politeness was Japanese at best! And Jocelyn was contemptuous of them as it were.

The Uppercut came swiftly and Jocelyn was too focused on her anger to dodge it in time. It slammed in her chin and she was put back on her butt, sliding a few inches as she rubbed her chin and slammed her fist against the mat. "You suck! You suck at fighting!" She spat impetuously. "If I wasn't so arsed up mad, this wouldn't even be fair!" Jocelyn tried to get back onto her feet, opening and closing her mouth to try and soothe the pain in her jaw.

Lan winced a little as her knuckles drove into Jocelynâ€s chin. The impact between her fist and her countrywomanâ€s jaw caused a loud smack that seemed to echo throughout the arena. It hurt her hand, and it certainly hurt Jocelyn, as the darker-haired girl tumbled to the mat, landing hard on her rear end. Lan felt a sharp pang of guilt for having hurt her would-be friend like that. She needed to do it, though—if she continued to fail to break through to Jocelyn by talking to her, winning this fight seemed to be the only way Lan could earn the girlâ€s trust and respect.

“I…I…” Lan stuttered, as Jocelyn told her how much she sucked. Lan didnâ€t really have a way to respond, so she simply fell silent again. In the absence of words, she would just have to speak with her actions. When Jocelyn stood back up, Lan would hesitate for only a second before charging at her again, trying to ram her head into the Chinese-Australian girlâ€s solar plexus and tackle her to the mat.

Jocelyn noticed Lan's hesitation. She watched the girl dive forward at her. There was one BIG difference between Lan and Jocelyn that all their other shared traits couldn't hide. Lan was skittish and timid. Her shyness was built into her and even if she was a fighter with a good fighting technique, which Jocelyn still did not believe, she had the ever so slightest hesitation in her body language. Like she was always questioning, for a second, if she was making a good decision or not.

That was one thing Jocelyn had never had an issue with.

She would throw herself into a fiery volcano without a second thought if she thought it was a decent idea. Damn the consequences, there would be time to sort that out later. Her relationship with Allison was proof enough of that. So when Lan finally committed to a charge, Jocelyn took a step back and threw out her hands. She reached for Lan's ashen locks and tried to bury her fingers in them long enough to pivot gracefully on her heels and toss Lan to the mat like she was a bull and the Chistralian girl was a matador.

Lan had been hoping to catch Jocelyn by surprise a second time, but her secondâ€s worth of hesitation cost her. Her opponent stepped back and threw out her hands, catching Lan by the top of her head and latching painfully onto her dusty-blonde hair. “Kah!” Lan grunted, as Jocelyn spun around and tossed her to the mat. The blonde Chinese girl tried to stay on her feet, but her momentum was too great to resist and she plowed into the canvas face-first.

“Uogh…” Lan moaned, reaching a hand up and feeling at her face. Luckily for her, there was no blood. She had feared there might be after such a hard impact. Now, she would try to turn herself back over onto her back, and then, hopefully, back onto her feet before her opponent could attack. She was partially stunned after that fall, however, and she got up much slower than she would have liked.

Jocelyn felt good when she tossed Lan to the ground. She bounced on her heels and pulled her fists up in a fighting stance. She looked down at Lan and smirked. "You got no grace. Your fluidity is shite. With a clear head, my Wu Shu is more than you can handle!" Jocelyn gloated.

Jocelyn then clenched her fists and sneered at Lan, "I'M better! I'M more Chinese, understand!?" Jocelyn screamed and flung herself forward to try and knee Lan in the face.

Lanâ€s cheeks reddened and she looked off to the side when Jocelyn mocked her for her poor fluidity and lack of grace. Lan knew that her countrywoman was, in large part, just lashing out. Logically, she knew that. And logically, she knew not to take what the girl was saying to heart. But she couldnâ€t help but feel a little demoralized by those words, especially when they were coming from someone with whom, despite all warning signs, she was still desperately infatuated.

“I…Iâ€m not f-finished…yet…” Lan managed as she got up onto her knees. She looked back up at Jocelyn as the girl declared that she was not only better, but also more Chinese. A confused look crossed Lanâ€s face. “I…but I n-never…” She paused to gather her thoughts, then continued, in Mandarin: <Lu Jiao Jocelyn…if we are having a, umm, a contest of who is m-more Chinese…then I admit defeat. Y-you are more Chinese.> As Jocelyn rushed at her, throwing up a knee, Lan would bring up her hands to protect her face, grabbing onto her opponentâ€s knee as it came forward. <But…I still intend to win this match.> She would tighten her grip on Jocelynâ€s knee, then rise suddenly to her feet, pulling upwards on Jocelynâ€s leg and trying to flip the black-haired girl over backwards onto the mat.

Jocelyn growled when her knee struck true but was blocked by the slightly larger Lan. She couldn't believe what Lan was saying. Why couldn't the girl just... Jocelyn really didn't know what Lan should do anymore than Lan knew. Why did Lan have to be so... placating? Everyone she'd ever come across, mostly thanks to Jocelyn's own fiery temper, had been adversarial towards the Chistralian. Friends, colleagues. her own father. Allison. People she was supposed to love and admire. She only knew how to fight and pit herself against everything. There was one exception, though and maybe that's what pissed Jocelyn off the most.

Lan was acting much like her mother. That woman was so sweet. She didn't deserve her father and she didn't deserve a spitfire like Jocelyn as a daughter. Of course, Jocelyn didn't act that way around her but she just had no way of dealing with unflappable kindness.

Jocelyn grunted as she was thrown tot he ground and landed with a thud. She tried to use her free leg to kick at Lan hard and get the Chinese girl to back away. "I'm not losing either!" She spat. "I have way more to lose from losing than you and way more to gain! What do you even have!? Damn rookie sonnovabitch! Twatfaced... scungy cunt!" Jocelyn defaulted into her sailor's vocabulary, her cheeks flushed. What could Lan gain by winning? Nothing! That's how Jocelyn felt.

Lan managed to throw Jocelyn to the mat, standing up to her own full height in the process, her slate grey eyes peering down at the dark-haired wildcat she had just toppled over. Her lips parted as she tried to think of something to say, but she couldnâ€t think of anything before Jocelyn gave her a hard kick in the shins, eliciting a pained whimper from Lan and forcing her to stumble backwards a couple of steps, allowing her countrywoman a couple of meters†worth of breathing room.

Then, Jocelyn asked her what she could possibly have to gain from winning this match. “Umm…” Lan intoned, as she tried to think of a way she could explain to Jocelyn that she did, indeed, have something to gain from winning.

She was fighting for the possibility of becoming Jocelynâ€s friend. She had come to the conclusion early in the match that the only way she could win Jocelyn over was by defeating her and earning her respect. “Y…y-youâ€re wrong, Lu Jiao—J-Jocelyn. I do have…s-something…” she said quietly.