Main Event: GASTER vs Astrid Arvidsson (c) for the LAW Openweight Title

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GASTER's laughter was becoming more and more annoying for Astrid. Not because she had anything personal to her opponent, but because that laughter reminded her that she had already failed three times to regain a steady pace. Each time, Clara was a step or even two ahead, which led to the Golden Dragon ending up in a corner with such an unpleasant feeling in her head as if she had gulped down a glass of whiskey.

Astrid opened her eyes only when the British woman grabbed her by the head. Even so, it took her a few moments to figure out what was going on. She expected to get hit again or maybe be caught in a hold. However, this did not happen. Some might have thought it was a good thing, but her instincts told her that there was absolutely nothing good about it.

"Breathe... just breathe..." she told herself mentally.

She didn't want to waste time, but she just didn't have a choice. Her body was too weak, and her vision was too blurred. Therefore, the Golden Dragon tried to relax. She took a deep breath. Then another one. And another one. And when her blood got enough fresh oxygen, she finally regained some control over both her mind and her body.

It was hard to tell if it was due to adrenaline or not, but she understood the situation she found herself in as quickly as possible. There was a corner behind her, and there was a pumpkin between her and the corner. But, of course, the most important thing was that right now GASTER was rushing at her from the opposite side of the ring. Her heart started beating much faster than before. She still felt weak in her body, but the very thought of letting Clara smash a second pumpkin in a row infuriated her.

This fury was reflected in her eyes. This feeling literally overshadowed her mind, making her seem to forget about the pain and everything else. At the same moment that GASTER pushed off the mat and jumped on her, the Golden Dragon pushed off from the mat and rushed forward. A second later the brunette's body crashed into the champion and the audience gasped loudly.

But not because Clara's attack ended in success for her. Like a stone embedded in the ground, Astrid did not move from her place at the moment when Clara crashed into her. This time she was ready. And perhaps the best proof of this was that at the very moment when the contender crashed into her, she grabbed Clara's head and leg, holding her in a horizontal position above the mat.

"GRAAA!!!" The champion roared.

Leaning back forcefully, she intended to send Clara on a not-so-long, but certainly unpleasant flight. She wanted to throw the brunette over herself and send her straight into the pumpkin, using one of her signature moves, which emphasized the strength she possessed better than anything. Someone called it an exploder suplex, but Astrid called it the dragon's wing!

[Vc0m]

GASTER rushed towards her rival, running like she never ran before. Even though she was a lightweight, she was one of the slower members of her division, prefering a more methodical pace of control, and sudden counters whenever she was at a disadvantage. But in a No-DQ match like this, with stipulations different to regular single fall match, she had to have a different game plan. She had to utilize her skills to the best of her ability, and meet all of the stipulations of the match before Astrid. If she managed to break all of the pumpkins before the Golden Dragon, she could then get the match down to her pace, while Astrid would have to scamper to find a way to break the pumpkins to allow her to win the match…

Clara jumped, her run’s momentum forcing her further and further, Astrid coming closer… closer..

”TOO FAST!!!”

Clara realized too late in her jump that Astrid was rising, as the Golden Dragon literally snatched the Brit out of mid-air! For a second, Clara was shocked at reversal of fortunes… and that second was all the time in the world the Champ needed to get forward, to throw Clara backwards with a shout straight onto the pumpkin for an Exploder Suplex!

”GWAAAAAAAH!!!”

The Shadow Lord’s back exploded with pain, right as the pumpkin exploded into dozens of pieces, with some more sticking to the Shadow Lord’s attire. Just like that, GASTER’s dominion of the match was over, punctuated with the updated count on the titantron…

The pumpkin count. GASTER : Astrid Arvidsson. 1 : 1.

[skip-stop]

At the same moment that Astrid let out a battle cry, the audience supported her with a wave of noise. Despite the fact that there was no clear favorite in the match today, it was always a pleasure for the audience to watch when the ball moves from one half of the field to the other. And considering that Clara had put a huge amount of effort into keeping the Golden Dragon under control, they were clearly impressed that the champion was able to break her string of failures.

Sparing no effort, the blonde leaned back and threw her opponent right into the pumpkin. The flesh of the pumpkin flew in different directions, accompanied by GASTER's painful cry, which clearly indicated that even the Shadow Lord was not protected from the power possessed by the descendant of the great Vikings.

Lying on her back, Astrid allowed herself to take only one deep breath, after which she clenched her teeth and pushed off the mat, rising to one knee. Yes, she still felt the effects of all her rival's attacks, but rest was an unaffordable luxury for her. She knew from the very beginning that Clara wasn't joking when she said she would fight until her last breath. Therefore, the Golden Dragon was convinced that in order to win, she must move forward without brakes.

Turning to face the British woman, the champion allowed herself to smile when she saw that Clara was lying on a pillow in the form of a crushed pumpkin. Now their score was equal, not to mention that now their suits were equally stained. Looking at Clara, Astrid remembered her last words between fits of laughter. And thanks to this, the Golden Dragon had an idea.

"Now you'll see..." she said, throwing both hands towards her opponent.

The blonde intended to grab Clara by the throat with her right hand and squeeze it hard in order to deprive GASTER of oxygen, with her other hand she intended to grab her opponent's leg. Starting to straighten up to her full height, she wanted to lift the brunette above the mat. When she fully straightened up, the audience expected from her a throw or something, but...

"The real Goddess of Thunder!!!" Astrid said through her teeth.

Her arms tightened so much that some could see the swollen veins. With one sharp movement, she intended to pull GASTER up, and then straighten her arms, thereby lifting Clara over her head in an overhead press position. Yes, perhaps it was not the most outstanding thing on Astrid's part, considering that her opponent was a lightweight, but you still can't see something this every day, so the audience filled the arena with cheers.

Probably many people expected that now Astrid had definitely thrown Clara to the mat, but instead the Golden Dragon turned to the side, and her gaze was fixed on the table outside the ring. There were all kinds of Halloween props on the table, and although it usually served for entertainment, it didn't bode well for Clara. In another situation, Astrid would have thought several times if she could do it because of the distance. But her opponent's weight opened up opportunities for her that she wasn't going to give up. With a furious growl, she intended to throw GASTER outside the ring, right onto the table with Halloween props with the help of a gorilla press drop!

[Vc0m]

”Mgggh…damnit…”

The Shadow Lord lied on top of the pumpkin, feeling her hair being coated by the orange-colored juice. She touched the back of her head. Though completely hollowed out, bits and pieces of the fruit were still on it’s thick skin. LAW prided itself on it’s authenticity, and that included the props...even if it meant that the champion and the challenger had to ruin their attires in the fruits' pulp…

By the time Astrid’s attention returned to Clara, however, the Brit was nowhere near ready to engage with the Golden Dragon. Her eyes bulged outside her eye-sockets (not that anyone would be able to tell with her mask) as she was seized by the throat, unable to draw a breath as she was lifted up, to her feet… and then, in the next millisecond, off of them, up into the air, parallel to the ground over Astrid’s head!

”AGHH!!!”, she coughed out. This was a painful deja vu of her facing much bigger women early in her career. This wasn’t her first time in the military press slam position… if she survived tonight, not the last either. Such was the fate of being a tiny woman facing much bigger rivals…

Clara expected to be thrown to the ground after Astrid milked the cheers from the crowd, the Brit trying to unbalance the blonde to little success…as she noticed where the champion was looking:

”Oh no…”, Clara said out loud, as Astrid rushed forward with reckless abandon towards the ropes ahead of her, and threw the Shadow Lord over the top rope:

”AAAAAAAAAAG—GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

Clara was screaming mid-flight, before finally painfully landing on top of the table straight on her back! The table and it’s contents exploded into pieces, with a bat flying over to a guy’s hair, a spider jumping over a woman’s feet, and a tiny fabric ghost doll sticking to someone’s shirt. And in the middle of the explosion of the ornaments and wood laid the Shadow Lord, breathing heavily, and exhaling air with a groan, her back feeling like it’s on fire…

[skip-stop]

Sometimes it may seem that the audience does not know what empathy is. The facts are that they go into the arena to watch the best fighters on the planet knock the shit out of each other. They like it. A special place in their hearts is occupied by something that they cannot see every day. The best helpers for them in this are hardcore and special conditions. Today was just such a day. Today was just such a match. When else will they have the opportunity to see how a champion throws a contender from the ring onto a table with a wide variety of Halloween props?

Nevertheless, despite the fact that it was a truly mesmerizing moment, the audience proved that they are capable of empathy. Because when GASTER's body crashed into the table, they gasped loudly, and some even covered their faces with their hands. Halloween props scattered in different directions along with pieces of the table. If you add to this the height from which Clara fell... yes, for the British woman it was definitely not the most pleasant journey.

For a few seconds, the Golden Dragon just stood there and looked at what she had just done. Did she regret what she had done? No. It's true that she didn't enjoy being cruel, even when it came to her rivals. However, she never turned down the opportunities that hardcore could give her. She was firmly convinced that hardcore was a way to test a fighter in the harshest conditions possible. Especially when it comes to such a thing as the openweight championship.

Grabbing the top rope, the blonde pulled it down, and then pushed off with her feet from the mat. She jumped over the top rope and left the ring. With a loud sound, she landed on the concrete floor and those who were good with imagination could surely see cracks spreading across the concrete under her, accompanied by lightning bolts.

Spoiler

Next to Clara lying among the debris of the table was a large pumpkin, which literally beckoned the champion to increase her score. That's exactly what she was going to do. Astrid took a step forward, but…

"Hm?" The Norwegian woman lowered her head when her foot bumped into something. "Oh..."

It was a box. The descendant of the great Vikings blinked several times, and then sparks seemed to run in her eyes. LEGO The Addams Family 2.975 pieces. How can you not start believing in fate after that? The Golden Dragon grabbed the box and took out all the bags of blocks in one motion. It was at that moment that the audience began to make noise. But when the champion defiantly tore open the bags over the pumpkin, their noise turned into a deafening scream. Yes, of course, most of the blocks fell to the floor, but no less significant part of them remained lying directly on the pumpkin.

And although it was a great idea, it took a while. When the champion turned her head to the side, she noticed that Clara had already started to move. The fall clearly did not benefit her health, which was evident both in her eyes and in her slightly awkward movements. However, Astrid had taken into account her previous experience and she wasn't going to take any more risks. She intended to make sure that GASTER wouldn't stop her from taking the second point. Therefore, the Golden Dragon was going to step up to her opponent and grab Clara's head hard. But not in order to lift her to her feet. She only wanted to pull the brunette's head towards herself, while simultaneously lifting her right leg. Perhaps after that, the Shadow Lord will really be able to see the lightning around the Goddess of Thunder because Astrid intended to send a hard knee strike to Clara's skull!

[Vc0m]

”Mggggghhh…”, Clara groaned, laying on the broken table, barely able to move. Her entire body hurt… and even though she realized that Astrid was going to pull out all the stops, she didn’t think she’d resort to tossing her in and out of the ring this early on in the match.

Bad memories flashed through Clara’s mind as she recalled heavyweights manhandling her throughout her early career… she wondered whether the GASTER mask was actually cursed…

She shook her head. She couldn’t get a setback like this get her in a negative mood. Otherwise, she might as well shut herself off in the casket. The Brit grit her teeth, pressing her hands on the broken pieces of the table… right as Astrid hopped over the ropes out of the ring.

Clara saw the pumpkin to the side of her. She knew exactly what the blonde was going to do the moment she got her hands on the Brit. Clara tried to get up, but her body was still hurting, no matter how much she tried to pull herself together.

A moment later, Clara heard a sound that sent a chill down her hurting spine. A sound that normally would mean nothing to her… but in a wrestling ring during a hardcore match? Where opponents could deliver untold amounts of punishment and hurt on one another?

A Lego set of Addams family was the most terrifying sight to her right now.

She gave up on her attempts to get up, instead trying to scuttle off the table, away from Astrid, trying to buy herself some time to recover while the blonde turned her sadistic idea to reality. But Astrid would be done quickly, and she would grab the Shadow Lord just a moments later…specifically, her head, to ram her knee straight against it!

”AAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

Clara’s eyes watered. Though mask hid her features, it didn’t protect her from head strikes as Astrid nailed her straight on the nose! The Brit fell down flat on the floor, dazed, hurting…with the crowd’s volume reaching a fever pitch.

[skip-stop]

Perhaps someone would say that Astrid did not the best thing at the moment when she threw Clara out of the ring, taking advantage of the fact that Clara is a lightweight. However, for the Golden Dragon her opponent's weight did not matter at all. GASTER came here for her title. The World Openweight Title. Openweight. The whole point of this was that any decent wrestler could knock on Astrid's door, regardless of weight. LAW management entrusted her with this responsibility. So she didn't care how much GASTER weighed. In order to defend her title, she was ready to break every bone in her opponent's body if necessary.

When the descendant of the great Vikings grabbed the brunette by the head and sent a hard knee strike into her skull, she could not see the contender's face because of her mask. But this mask could not drown out Clara's painful scream, which she let out at the moment when Astrid's knee crashed into where the British woman's face was. The champion let go of her opponent's head and GASTER collapsed on the concrete floor again, face down and unable to move.

This time, Astrid intended to do everything properly.

Accompanied by cheers from the audience, she was going to bend down and, standing from the side of Clara, wrap her arms around the waist of the British woman. If Clara thought that Astrid had chosen such unusual conditions for the match just for the sake of a joke, then she was very wrong. Yes, in most cases, the Golden Dragon used only her own body as a weapon, but those who closely followed her career knew for sure about her passion for hardcore and all the opportunities that it opens up.

Straightening up to her full height, she intended to lift Clara off the floor, holding the brunetter with her arms in a horizontal position. Until recently, many people believed that instead of intelligence, Astrid prefers to use brute force alone. However, if that were true, she would never have become a champion. The Norwegian woman has always drawn conclusions from both her own mistakes and mistakes of her rivals. Therefore, this time her stance was much more confident than last time. To avoid even the slightest attempt by Clara to stop her, the Golden Dragon strained every muscle in her legs and back so that no one and nothing could shake her.

Turning to the side, she was going to pull Clara up in one motion, thereby turning the brunette over and putting her on the shoulders. Lightning flashed in the eyes of the descendant of the great Vikings, she felt more motivated than ever. She remembered every word Clara had said during their meeting at the conference. And so, if managed to put Clara on her shoulders, she wasn't going to delay. In addition, it seemed to her that this time she could make a small exception and, adapting to the circumstances, slightly change the name of this movement.

"Victim for the Goddess of Thunder!!!" She would have roared.

Giving her signature move an updated name in honor of her current image, the champion intended to jump up and spread her legs to the sides, while forcefully directing GASTER down. The Golden Dragon was about to fall into a sitting position and thereby smash her opponent's body right into the pumpkin, on which and around which countless LEGO blocks were scattered!

[Vc0m]

With a hard knee strike to her face, Clara was left completely in the dark. Her limbs weren’t answering any of her requests to move, and her vision was completely blurry courtesy of the knee strike. At least it didn’t seem like blood was going down her nose. Small mercies to know that it wasn’t broken…

…but she herself was about to be.

In an already familiar feeling, Astrid lifted her swiftly up onto her shoulders by her gut. This time, Clara knew she couldn’t Hurricanrana her rival off her feet… even if she tried. Even if Astrid didn’t expect another reversal… the Shadow Lord was simply not in a good way to execute it. And with GASTER unable to do that, her fate was sealed.

The Shadow Lord was fated to become the Victim of the Goddess of Thunder!

And with that, Astrid drove GASTER downward, straight onto the pumpkin covered in LEGO pieces!

”GYAAAAAAAAAAGH!!! GUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!”

GASTER convulsed on the floor in the mix of the remains of the pumpkin shell and LEGO pieces, several of them jabbing into her back and arms, once that fell off leaving imprints on her skin. Having tiny blocks embedded in her back was one of the worst feelings Clara has ever experienced… and the match was not done yet…

The pumpkin count. GASTER : Astrid Arvidsson. 1 : 2

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If it seems to you that camel clutch, Boston crab or figure-four leglock are really painful, then you've definitely never stepped on LEGO. There was little to compare with the pain experienced by a person in such an unpleasant situation. There are legends that for some it was such unbearable pain that after that they were left with a psychological trauma for life. Whether it was true or not, GASTER had to find out what it was like from her own experience.

Astrid made sure that her stance was confident in case the contender tried to interfere with her again, but this time Clara was unable to offer any resistance. It seems that that hard knee strike stunned the brunette quite a lot, so nothing prevented the Golden Dragon from first wrapping her arms around her opponent's waist, and then putting her on the shoulders.

Accompanied by the screams of the audience, the champion spread her legs to the sides and sent Clara down. Her opponent's body crashed into the pumpkin, which shattered into many pieces. But, of course, the toughest thing about it was that numerous LEGO blocks dug into Clara's body. The audience didn't hold back their screams at all at that moment, but Clara's voice was even louder, the British woman was screaming in agony. Pumpkin, concrete floor, LEGO blocks. A crazier mix could hardly have been imagined.

Removing Clara's legs from her shoulders, Astrid turned her head to the side and looked at the scoreboard. Two down, one to go. This was certainly good news for the Golden Dragon. On the other hand, she remembered well that after the third pumpkin she would have to put her rival in a coffin. And she was one hundred percent sure that Clara would rather really die than let her do it. Therefore, the first task of the champion was to make sure that after she dealt with the third pumpkin, her opponent would be in such a bad condition that she would not be able to interfere with the descendant of the great Vikings.

Astrid got to her feet, but her gaze was still fixed on her rival, who was lying among the remains of the pumpkin and LEGO blocks. The Golden Dragon pointedly bent both arms at the elbows and snapped her fingers twice with a smile on her face. This did not carry any ridicule towards her opponent, she did it exclusively for the audience, who easily recognized the reference and filled the arena with cheers. As a champion, she had to make sure that the audience would fully enjoy this match, regardless of the result.

Having fulfilled her duty, she walked confidently to the nearest table with Halloween props. She had a clear plan for how she could make sure that Clara's body would be lifeless by the time she had to put her in the coffin. Plus, thanks to their unique match type, she wouldn't have to waste time getting the table out from under the ring and unfolding it. Instead, the Golden Dragon grabbed the edges of the table, on which lay numerous toys from the fun store, and backed away.

"Huh!" she chuckled softly when she heard the audience start buzzing like bees.

Yes, they realized that Astrid was up to something very serious because she dragged the table with the props to the nearest corner and put another big pumpkin on it. Even though she had gained an advantage, she tried to act quickly. She didn't want to underestimate her opponent and give her a lot of time to rest. So as soon as she placed the table where she wanted it, she immediately went to Clara.

She was going to grab the brunette by the wrist and shoulder, and then forcefully pull her up in order to lift her to her feet. Still holding her opponent's wrist, she wanted to grab Clara by the back of the head. Perhaps this spoke loudly enough that after the hurricanrana she began to treat GASTER much more seriously, because now Astrid acted much more reliably than before. Holding Clara in a death grip, the Golden Dragon intended to take two wide steps towards the ring, and then forcefully press on the back of the contender's head in order to smash her face against the ring apron and thereby prevent her from recovering.

[Vc0m]

Clara knew from too much experience that the actual lego nubs was only the beginning of her troubles. Among the bits she landed in were sharp L shaped pieces that stuck in her like spikes. With what little movement her body allowed she tried to get the pieces off her arms, softly groaning in pain as she laid in the debris once more. With just two attacks, Clara felt like she was completely out of the fight. The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.

The next feeling Clara recognized outside of the pain was the sound, the click of fingers…

”…aaaaa-aagh…”, Clara would let out, first in understanding the reference (for all her theatrics, Addams Family was beyond her time, and Wednesday was not her type of thing), before the sound switched to one of agony.

She spent the few seconds of peace she was granted by trying to move her limbs. Her movements were sluggish, as if in slow motion... even though she recognized that the world around her was moving at a regular speed. She desperately tried to push herself back to her feet, wanting to mount a comeback against Astrid...only for the Goddess of Thunder to comeback.

On the plus side, Astrid helped Clara back up to her feet.

On the bad side, she was walking her towards the ring apron.

On the even worse side, Astrid would drive GASTER's masked head into the ring apron! With her limbs barely able to move, Clara wasn't able to avoid her head impacting the edge of the ring!

"GUOOOOGH!!!"

The world swam in the Shadow Lord's eyes. Whatever Astrid had in mind, there was very little chance of the smaller woman fighting back!