Within Shadows Part I - Enduring Pain (for RedShinigami)

[PrinceArjuna332]

This is the continuation of this thread

Shadow Fortress was a compound facility specifically made for training the students of Dana Ashford. There were dormitories where the students would reside in addition to the training equipment, lounge area, resting place and many more. The students were also free to do whatever they wanted, like leaving the compound to do things outside the Shadow Fortress, but they were required to stay in the dormitories.

Dana would lead Harmonia to the place where training would be held. It was similar to a warehouse, repurposed to become a gym, but there was no wrestling ring to be found. It was purposely made like that so that the students could use the entirety of the area to train. The floor was covered in thin mat to provide the students with slight protection, but that was it.

Dana Ashford

"As you can see, for early stage of your training, we won't be using a wrestling ring," Dana told Harmonia. She had already changed into her leotard for the purpose of training Harmonia. "I will be testing your resilience first to see if you can endure pain." She showed Harmonia her usual kindly and motherly smile. "So, I'll be slamming you around until you can no longer take it."

[RedShinigami]

Harmonia had packed some of her belongings from the Eagles Nest and drove off to the Tokyo HQ of Dana Ashfords "Shadow Fortress". Harmonia Edelstein, 23, Famous international Ex-Model turned wrestler stepped out of her car and took a deep breath. This was it. Here her new training would begin. After having trained wrestling in private for some time now and even having victories in LAW under her belt, the Austrian knew that it was not enough. If she wanted to step out of her own shadow, the shadow of the Model, she had to take every chance she got to becoming stronger and after her loss against the Toni Ashford, she had given her a name. Dana Ashford, the legendary wrestler whose matches Harmonia had watched with her sister when she was little. Now she would be training under her guidance. It was like a dream come true.

The Blonde stepped out of her Audi and walked, a big trolley in her left and a sportsbag around her right arm and looked at the building were she would be living from now on until she would graduate. The blonde womans stomach turned a little when she fought about it. This was maybe her only chance. If she did'nt impress Dana or if Dana saw her as not fitting enough, she would get banned and then? Harmonia did'nt knew. Going on with being stuck in the Midcard of LAW? This was hardly what she had dreamt of. No, Harmonia wanted to rise to the top, to fight the best of the best that were out there and living the life of a LAW Wrestling Athlethe.

Harmonia was greeted by Dana and brought to her room where she first unpacked and got her stuff into her locker before she met with Dana for a first testround, below in the place that was known as "The Fortress". Harmonia had researched the place, many, really sucessful LAW Wrestlers had graduated here and even more had given up. This was no laughing matter. She read interviews, articles. The Fortress seemed to be a torture chamber but if you managed to live through it you could face every challenge in your way.

Harmonia smiled politely and listened to her new sensei.
"Ja. Ja. I understand, sensei.", she said and looked up to the taller woman before taking a deep breath.
"I am ready. Let's do this!", she said, having stretched and warmed up before. She jumped on the spot and waited for whatever Dana had in store for her.

Spoiler

[PrinceArjuna332]

Nodding, Dana stepped forth as she smiled at her new student. "Good. Now, let's see what you are made of." Closing in to Harmonia, Dana would grab onto her, staring straight into her face before she lifted her up. The move itself seemed effortless as she lifted Harmonia up before she slammed her down into the mat with a body slam.

"Get up. Let's see who's going to tire out first." Dana considered this as her own training as well. She would wait for Harmonia to pick herself up before she repeated the same step as before. Dana had done this routine with many of her students before, so she knew that she could go for a while. And she wanted to see how many times Harmonia could take the slams before she became a whimpering mess.

[RedShinigami]

Harmonia had prepared herself, properly stretching, getting her body ready for this but what was about to come she could not have forseen.
The blonde grabber her back and bent it a little before waving her arms.
"I am ready Dana-Sensei!", she said, got picked up and thrown down with a force that shook her whole body, and sent the air out of her lungs.
"Khaaagh..."

Her flattened body desperatly tried to grab some air, she had been slammed before and it had hurt but this here...this was a whole new level of pain she never had experienced before.
Still her pride drove her and struggled up, shaking her head.
"Again...",she whispered.

[PrinceArjuna332]

Dana had been doing this many times already, and she took a look at Harmonia's face after body slamming her into the mat. Waiting for Harmonia to get up, she went to grab her again, lift her up and slam her down into the mat. She would then repeat the same steps a few times, seemingly not breaking a sweat.

After a few slams, Dana looked at Harmonia's face and asked, "You're still good to continue?" She might be strict, but she wasn't heartless. She wanted to see if Harmonia still could stand on her feet after seven consecutive body slams. Dana was barely feeling it because she wasn't the one who was slammed, though the same couldn't be said about Harmonia, the one who got slammed.

[RedShinigami]

Harmonia did'nt knew what she had expected but none of heir matches, no slam she had to take was even closely comparable to Dana Ashford. Harmonia landed for the seventh time and by then her screams already were silenced already as her voice had no power anymore.

The Ex-Model turned and got onto wobbly feet, trying not to go down again as she looked up to her sensei.
"One... More...", she said defiant and held her indexfinger high.
And fast as the others she was grabbed and slammed a final time, coming to laying sprawled out on the canvas, her pants for air were laboured. But her fire had been ignited and Harmonia Edelstein was ready to go!

She turned around on all fours and got up, slow and with gritted teeth but finally she was upright in front of Dana.
"N..next.",she said.

[PrinceArjuna332]

If anything, Dana was impressed by Harmonia's willpower as she refused to stay down even after being slammed down into the mat for the seventh time. Smiling at Harmonia, Dana closed in and grabbed onto her again. "Are you sure? This will hurt a lot. More painful than ever. Don't say I didn't warn you."

This time, instead of a normal body slam, Dana would hoist Harmonia's body a bit higher than normal, giving her body more elevation before she threw her hard onto the mat. Then she would check on Harmonia to see if she still could pick herself up or not.

[RedShinigami]

Harmonia managed to get up on her feet, coughing and sputtering as she grabbed for the ropes to give her leverage, looking at the taller and older woman in front of her. Her whole system had been shaken and she needed to get herself together before the lessons could continue. Could she take...one more? She did'nt even know what would follow so how wise would it be to get all worn out now? Did Dana count on it to come up with this solution? Was this more then a test of strength and durability...did she test her will too? Harmonia looked at Dana, pushing herself away from the ropes and getting in position before the Legend. She locked her eyes with the Ashford Matriarch and then shook her head. "I am done. I can't take anymore.", she said and hoped that this was the right answer and if not, it was'nt a lie at least. The outlook of getting scoopslammed right again by this powerful woman was a dire one and the Austrian was intelligent enough not to press her luck with it.
"I am ready...for the next...lesson.", she said while panting, trying to compose herself...

[PrinceArjuna332]

It seemed that Harmonia had reached her limit after being slammed multiple times. Dana nodded to her pupil, now getting a much better picture on how much she could take. "Well, it's good to know your own limit." She smiled at Harmonia. "While determination and willpower are important, they are all useless if your body cannot take further punishments. Always remember your own limitations if you wish to have a long career in wrestling," Dana reminded Harmonia.

"I've give you five minutes to catch your breath. Next, we'll see how much you can handle submission holds." Dana said, giving Harmonia an opportunity to rest up a little and recover.

[RedShinigami]

Harmonia Edelstein was not without proper training and she definetly was tough enough to stand her ground against many opponents. Her background as a girl living and working on a farm did a tremendous job for her strength and stamina, handling bulls, horses and walking up and down Mountains day in and day out to get to school, surely helped to get her body in shape. She began to give wrestling a try when she was 18 and her uncle could'nt influence her decisions anymore.

She never made public appearances but rather concentrated on her training and sparrs, her career as Model did'nt allow her to come as herself into the ring...and so Harmonia had invented a persona, based on a song by her sisters favourite Band Motörhead. A loudmouthed, cheating, masked heel character called Ace of Spades, hailing from parts unknown. Harmonia had fought in this gimmick for some time, no one ever expecting her to be behind it.

When she joined LAW and made her wrestling career official she did'nt really needed the gimmick anymore but from time to time she came back to it when Ace was needed. So Harmonia was not without a background and had strength and endurance to show but what Dana did with her this day was a whole other experience. After the seventh landing, her back and spine felt as it was ready to break in half when she grabbed the ropes and slowly pulled herself up.

She looked at Dana and sighed in relief as she nodded.
"Thank you, sensei.", she said and grabbed her bottle of water. As she took a big sip, she saw Dana getting ready for the next round. Harmonia looked at her in awe and decided to use the pauses to get to know her new trainer a little better.
"Sensei. You still enjoying being in the ring yourself?", she asked.
"I can imagine it gets harder by the year...or do you have a special kind of trick to pull through?", she asked the Legend interested.