Bringing the challenge

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"HELL YEAH!!!" Astrid screamed when the back of her opponent's palm touched the table.

There was a slight blush on the blonde's face, but not because she was embarrassed. Astrid was slightly drunk and in a great mood. This combination has always been liked by the Norwegian woman. As it was easy to guess, Astrid was at the bar right now. It's been a long time since she arrived in Tokyo. And although she still hasn't fully explored the city, she was versed about the bars quite well.

Astrid Arvidsson

There was a small crowd of spectators around the blonde. And right in front of her sat her defeated opponent. What was the matter? Astrid was the best at finding trouble on her ass. She was especially good at it in bars. Having argued with one man that a woman a priori could not be stronger physically, the Norwegian woman offered to solve this issue by uncompromising arm wrestling.

Pressing her opponent's palm to the table, she was greatly inspired. No matter what anyone thinks about her, but Astrid has always been able to have a good time. Therefore, she publicly began to offer everyone to try their hand against her. And to add a little more oil to the fire, everyone made a bet in the form of booze. And now, after she defeated another opponent, her eighth free glass of whiskey was waiting for her.

"Kampai!" Astrid said happily and drank her well-deserved prize. "Go to the gym and come back in a couple of years to try again, huh!"

A lot of things have happened recently. Since she joined the LAW federation, her life has started to fly forward like a real plane. And Astrid was incredibly happy about it. She announced herself loudly enough during her debut, because she brazenly stole the match from a veteran who was called by Alison Seong. As they say, as you name a ship, so it will sail. This was exactly Astrid's case.

After Alison, she was lucky enough to meet Karen Starring, and more recently, she and Kyoko Akan did everything possible to beat the shit out of each other. Such a life was all the blonde ever wanted. Striving to get to the very top, she was ready to come together in a fight with anyone who considers themselves strong enough.

"Does anyone else have any free money?" she asked loudly, looking around. "Because I know exactly how they can be applied! Maybe when I drink enough, the last lucky one will have a chance to beat me!"

Deciding to take part in the race for the world title, Astrid faced two strong women. Kyoko and Kanata were strong rivals. And these matches turned into something more than just an exchange of blows. They all put their principles and beliefs on the line. For Astrid, it was truly wonderful, because she lived in order to overcome the most difficult challenges.

But after the second qualifying match, she had some free time. Victoria said that if she wants to meet a really worthy opponent, then she will have to wait a little, because finding such an opponent is not always an easy task. Astrid was not very patient, but in any case, she did not want to argue with her manager. So she took the day off. And so far she hasn't regretted it at all. Matches are good. But she loved to have fun no less. And that's what she was doing right now.

"So what?" she asked, loud enough for the whole bar to hear. "Muscles against muscles, does no one else have the guts to dare to compete with me, huh?"

[Devastated]

Aurora had been invited out by a friend for some drinks. Spending the time in the bar with her companion for a few hours, drinking a bit of beer and drinks to pass the time. Friendly conversations and so on. She hadn't seen this friend of hers in many years, since the last time she had been in Japan before she joined LAW so they had plenty of catching up to do. As the night went on, the bar became more rowdy by the hours. More people showed up and after a while it seemed as if some young blonde woman had started to challenge people to arm-wrestling matches.

For the time being, Aurora had been ignoring it and wanted to continue her conversations with her old friend. Though after about the 5th or 6th arm-wrestling match she started to grow a bit annoyed at how loud and cocky the blonde was. The pairs focus turned towards the woman as another match ended. Aurora would look at her friend and give her a slight smile. "Sorry. Duty calls." Aurora joked as she would stand up and march her way towards Astrid's table.

Getting closer towards the woman, she recognized her. The New Up-and-Coming star in LAW. The Norwegian wrestler by the name of Astrid Arvidsson. A fellow Scandinavian wrestler...Aurora would smile and let out a soft chuckle.

"Do the challengers have to be male, or would I be allowed to step up to your boastful challenge?" Aurora joked as she placed her hands on the table and leaned forward a bit.

Spoiler

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Looking at the spectators around her, as well as at the other customers of the bar, Astrid was almost forced to admit that there were no more daredevils left here. Although she wasn't going to end the fun on that. Even without arm wrestling, she could still drink. As they say, even teetotallers drink at someone else's expense. But, nevertheless, she could not turn her tongue to say that she was poor, so the blonde was ready to get up from her seat and go to the bar to order herself some more whiskey.

But it seems her fun still had a chance to stay at the same gambling level. Before Astrid could get up from her seat, a woman's voice rang out. The blonde looked up and saw that another blonde was standing right in front of her. Sooner or later, habits are developed for each fighter, which manifest themselves even outside the ring. Therefore, the first thing Astrid's eyes ran over the long-haired blonde from head to toe.

Astrid never considered herself the biggest woman in the world, but, nevertheless, she rarely ever managed to meet a woman who was both taller and heavier than her. This case was an exception. Although the Norwegian woman was much more interested in something else. This woman was older. Much older. Astrid had a sharp eye and it was not difficult to notice that this woman was almost twice as old as she was. Although despite this, this blonde had a stunning appearance, time was clearly more than favorable to her. Astrid grinned back.

“We live in interesting times, huh,” she said, “even women have bigger balls than men, by the way, your face seems familiar to me, where I could see you?..”

Her manager constantly said that she should spend more time studying potential opponents. However, the Norwegian woman found it boring. She has always been confident in her abilities and therefore has always said and continues to say that she is ready to fight anyone, regardless of who exactly will be her opponent. The most important thing for her is that this opponent was strong enough to give her a good match. Because only really good and hard matches will lead her to where she aspired.

“Hey... that's... that's... Aurora Lund, right?” suddenly Astrid heard from one of the onlookers, who revived again when the long-haired blonde dared to accept Astrid's challenge.

Astrid's eyebrows lifted slightly, and then a smirk appeared on her face. Yes, that's right, as soon as she heard the name, she immediately understood why this woman's face seemed familiar to her. In fact, Astrid spent quite a bit of time watching matches of other wrestlers, finding it something excessive. However, there are names that you know about even if you live in a cave. Aurora Lund. She was very famous and strong in her younger years. And, most importantly, despite the time, she continued to remain so to this day, even Astrid was aware of this.

“Ah, so you're a big shot, huh,” Astrid grinned, leaning forward, and even despite the intoxicated state, her gaze became even more adventurous, “my name is Astrid Arvidsson, glad to meet my senior colleague.”

There was clearly a slight sarcasm in the blonde's words. Astrid has never hidden that she treats fighters of a respectable age with quite a lot of disdain. Experience has shown that most of them stay in business for only two reasons. Ratings and money. The fame gained in the past allowed them to stay in the game. They don't even have to show good results, the main thing is just to continue taking part in matches. And thus, these veterans who forgot to retire are simply stealing a place in the sun from other, younger and much more promising fighters.

Although recently the Norwegian woman began to treat such fighters as Aurora with a little more respect than before. Three weeks ago, she faced Kanata Yamamoto in a match. That woman's age was more than comparable to Aurora's. And when Kanata treated Astrid as a newbie. belittling her talents and aspirations, the blonde became really furious. She decided to kick the ass of this lady of respectable age and this made the match truly outstanding. But, nevertheless, Kanata managed to prove to her that some veterans still really deserve their reputation.

Right now, when Aurora stood in front of her and looked her straight in the eyes, Astrid felt the same way she felt at the very beginning of the match with Kanata. This blonde wanted to show who is the boss of this bar. Well... How could Astrid deny herself the pleasure of testing her strength against such a big shot?

“I think the answer is obvious,” Astrid grinned and raised her right hand, offering her palm for the competition, “the chair is right in front of you, Aurora.”

[Devastated]

While Aurora hadn't intended to cause any problems or arise any sort of headlines or the likes, she didn't even really want to make the waves on social media or anything tonight. She was only out to have a nice night out with a friend, enjoy some drinks and some jovial chatter. Though Astrid's loud antics and cocky behaviour had certainly gotten Aurora a bit triggered. While having her night marred with shouts and cheers and contests in the background was annoying. A part of her wanted to test the mettle of this girl, to see what she could do. Now that she knew it was the up-and-coming fellow Scandinavian wrestler, well Aurora couldn't pass up the chance.

She would let out a soft chuckle as Astrid called her a big shot. "Pleasure is mine. Astrid was it?" Aurora spoke out, she knew Astrid's name but she wanted to play it off for now as if she hadn't heard of her. She would see how good Astrid was and try and gauge what level this newcomer was at. Waiting for Astrid to raise her hand and offer her palm, Aurora would nod and take a seat opposing of Astrid.

Shaking her hand lose a bit, as she would place her elbow down on the table, moving her hand to place her palm against Astrid's. Her eyes keeping a firm level of eye contact with the fellow blonde, never breaking it. Slowly she would wrap her fingers around Astrid's hand, softly engaging in the preparation for the arm wrestling.

"Ready?"

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Judging by Aurora's reaction, she had never heard of Astrid. There was nothing to be offended by, because the Norwegian woman had joined LAW relatively recently. Although, on the other hand, to some extent it was another confirmation of a fact that not only Astrid, but also her close friends noticed.

Who are you at all? It was a question that almost every newbie had to hear from the mouth of any other fighter who had more experience behind them. Many veterans did not pay attention to the newly arrived fighters at all. Why pay attention to them if for the sake of ratings you can just take a match with another veteran? It seems that Aurora was no exception to the rule and fighters like Astrid were not in her sphere of interests.

However, Astrid did not come to this bar to think about her LAW reputation. She was here for fun and if this woman could give it to her, then nothing else mattered. Aurora sat down on the chair opposite Astrid. The Norwegian woman noticed that the other blonde was looking straight into her eyes. Ah, Astrid knew that look. She could see that Aurora was confident in her abilities. Another trait common to most veterans.

Aurora raised her hand and joined their palms. As soon as Astrid felt the other blonde's fingers wrap around her palm, she responded in kind. None of them had used physical force yet, but even so Astrid could feel that something very serious was waiting for her. The question from Aurora only confirmed this. The Norwegian woman's lavender eyes sparkled.

"From the day I was born!" she replied without a shadow of doubt. "One... two… THREE!!!"

Something told her that unlike half of those she had defeated today, Aurora's palm would not be pressed to the table after one second. However, that didn't mean she shouldn't try. Therefore, at the same moment as the start was given and the onlookers gathered around began to make noise, Astrid strained her right arm, directing her wild strength to the left and down in order to overcome any resistance and press Aurora's palm to the surface of the table!

[Devastated]

While Aurora had heard about Astrid, for the moment she wasn't willing to give this already cocky newcomer a reason to get an even more inflated ego. Throughout the years Aurora had come up against several up-and-coming newcomers, and many of them much like Astrid had shown so far came in thinking they were on top of the world, that they would conquer and defeat any and all. Usually they held a certain level of dislike for veterans, a chip on their shoulders that just meant that they felt like they deserve more. Though because of her experience, Aurora also knew that some newcomers weren't like that, some younger wrestlers were different. It was only a matter of time before she found out what sort of wrestler and what sort of rising star that Astrid Arvidsson was.

For now. She simply wanted to curb the enthusiasm and maybe also get some payback for having to listen to all the bragging and loud shouts that had come about from Astrid's little challenge she had been running during the night.

The two women were now ready, eyes staring into each other as they had clasped their hands together. The emerald eyed Veteran would wait for Astrid to count them down and when it begun she held firm! Astrid came at her full force but Aurora was a powerful woman. One of the stronger ones out there and she would hold her ground. Her bicep flexing under blazer sleeve covered arm. She felt her arm shaking a bit from the effort at keeping Astrid at bay. It was clear that the fellow Scandinavian was a powerful young woman....but Aurora was planning on showing her a thing or two. The Swede would begin to ramp up her own power, looking to push and try to force Astrid's arm down!

[skip-stop]

"Oooohhhh!!!" sounded near the table.

It was more than a fair reaction. In half of the previous cases, Astrid's opponent's palm was pressed against the surface of the table literally a second after the start of the competition. And in the other half of the cases, it took no more than ten seconds, because the blonde overcame any resistance in her way.

But this time the palm of the Norwegian woman's rival was in no hurry to start going down. And even after the first ten seconds, the palms of both women remained in the center. As soon as Astrid took at least one centimeter, Aurora returned everything to its original position almost immediately after that.

It wasn't hard to see that the other blonde's arm was shaking under Astrid's pressure, however, the fact remained that she really turned out to be stronger than everyone who dared to accept Astrid's challenge this evening. And, apparently, it would be fair to add that she was stronger than all of them combined, because she was able to stand the power of the descendant of the great Vikings.

"Hoo..." Astrid drawled. "Finally, a worthy opponent."

She never gave up on winning. Astrid did not feel any remorse if an insufficiently strong opponent got in her way. If someone is ready to accept her challenge, then she will do everything necessary to bring the matter to an end. The feeling of victory gave her pleasure, so she thoroughly enjoyed every victory she received today. But at the same time, the Norwegian woman has always known that a truly worthy victory can only be a victory over a worthy opponent.

For the first time that evening, Astrid's palm began to move to the right side, which caused even more noise from onlookers who were standing around the table. Astrid felt that Aurora began to gradually increase the pressure. Oh, this woman really had impressive strength. The descendant of the great Vikings was still looking into Aurora's eyes and, seeing that her palm had moved a few centimeters to the right and down, a smile appeared on Astrid's face. It really seems to be a real challenge.

The blonde's fingers tightened, squeezing her opponent's palm harder. Swollen veins could be seen on the part of the arm that was not hidden by the clothes. Investing more and more strength, Astrid was going to stop Aurora's onslaught. She hadn't had to use enough strength yet today, as she didn't have a reason to show what she was really capable of. But she was ready to show it to Aurora. Slightly tilting her head forward, Astrid was about to stop the trembling in her arm. Repeating Aurora's actions, Astrid intended to gradually increase the pressure, first in order to even their positions, and then in order to shift the scales in her direction and this time force Aurora's palm to start moving down.

[Devastated]

It looked as if Aurora was impressing the onlookers. As she was able to hold her own against Astrid for the moment. The longer this went on though they became more and more intrigued. Seeing someone who could hold their own against someone like Astrid was without a doubt impressive and Aurora did more than just hold her own. She was starting to force Astrid's arm down, pushing that arm further and further down and making Astrid's hand slowly start to make its way down towards the table.

A slight smirk appeared on Aurora's face, she narrowed her eyes a bit and would feel how Astrid began to fight back against her. Forcing herself back up as that arm of hers would bulge, those muscles really showing off how well defined they were. Aurora's arm was forced back up into that center position and now she was the one who was slowly being forced down.

Aurora would nod her head. " Oh...just worthy?...let's see if we can't change that." The blonde let out as she would start to push herself even further. Her own arm would flex even further, bulging muscles forming through her sleeve. The veteran would start to push her way back up, trying to force her arm up to the center position. She aimed to force Astrid back onto the defensive and try and start forcing the arm of Astrid down again!

[skip-stop]

The noise around them was growing at the same rate as Astrid's excitement was growing. The Norwegian woman was born to seek out the most difficult challenges and overcome them. Tonight, she found a new challenge. And that's why a flame lit up in her soul. When Aurora began to take the lead in this confrontation, the descendant of the great Vikings felt a real passion.

Putting in more and more strength, she began to return them to their starting position. And then, when their palms were in the center, Astrid's pressure turned into a real offensive. Now Aurora's hand began to descend closer to the table. Both women's arms were shaking from the onslaught and resistance, and their eyes were still glued to each other.

Astrid wasn't in the habit of looking into other people's souls. However, she clearly saw that there was absolute calm in Aurora's eyes. And Astrid would be lying if she said it didn't hurt her. Aurora's calmness spoke very loudly that she seemed to be sure in advance that victory would be on her side. It was as if the outcome of this confrontation had been decided from the beginning. And Astrid didn't like it at all.

However, it was pointless to deny the facts, because after a sharp phrase, Aurora first slowed down Astrid's offensive, and then completely forced the Norwegian woman to go on the defensive. The blonde's hand gradually began to return to its original position and when this happened, Astrid bared her teeth. She tried to exert enough effort to prevent Aurora from gaining an advantage again, but gradually her palm began to approach the table.

"Yeah, let's see," Astrid said, after which her smile widened a little.

The blonde tilted her palm to the right side, which is why the outer side of the palm was almost completely parallel to the surface of the table. Block. One of the few ways in arm wrestling to slow down an opponent. Putting pressure on the hand because of such an angle of the palm was very problematic. However, Astrid was not going to exhaust another blonde in this way. It was only necessary to stop the movement of her hand. Astrid closed her eyes for a moment.

And when she opened them, they could see that her look had changed. If before they could see excitement in her eyes, now you could see seriousness there. Astrid took another deep breath. She was going to straighten her palm, and then turn it to the left side, thereby putting pressure on Aurora's joint. This was supposed to create a gap in the other blonde's defense. And if Astrid really felt the slightest weakness on Aurora's part, then she would take advantage of it.

This time she wasn't going to hold back. She'll be damned if she loses to a veteran with an inflated ego who is confident of victory from the very beginning. She is the Golden Dragon and no one can extinguish her flame. It was this flame that she intended to put into her muscles in order to send Aurora's hand to meet the surface of the table with the most rigid pressure!

[Devastated]

Aurora aimed to force Astrid's hand down, pushing further and further as she sought to force that hand down towards the table. She saw that smile on Astrid's face widen. Then she tilted her palm like that, creating a block for the veteran. An act that caused Aurora to click her tongue. She should have expected something like this, but it still had taken her a bit off guard. Next though Astrid seemed to re-engage in this contest with a renewed sense of seriousness.

It seemed as if she had awakened something in the young fighter as Astrid straightened her palm and then turned to the left. Then came the push from Astrid. It was a most impressive display and one that got Aurora on the back foot as well, forcing their hands back into the center position and soon enough began to force Aurora's hand down. Slowly but surely the back of her palm was being forced closer towards the table.

Aurora herself was forced to resort to the same means as her foe. If she wanted to stop this onslaught from Astrid then she would have to make the outer-side of her palm parallel to the surface of the table much like Astrid had done, and go for a block. Though after putting a sudden stop to Astrid's advance...Aurora would put on a strained smile. Letting out a sigh before taking a deep breath. " You're quite impressive..." The veteran would compliment Astrid... She didn't know if she could beat the woman in a straight up contest of strength...but sometimes that wasn't necessary. There were plenty of strategic ways one could pull out a victory...even in an arm-wrestling contest!

The older wrestler would have to bet it all if she wanted to pull out a win, but she was confident it would work. She would suddenly ease up the pressure, loosening her grip for but a split second and attempting to have Astrid loose her momentum, if it caught the fellow blonde off guard then Aurora would suddenly jerk to to the side and throw all the weight and power into one final push, trying to swing Astrid arm up to the neutral position and beyond in one fell swoop! Trying to slam the back of Astrid's palm into the table.