Law of the Jungle! Bast vs. Hiro and Senji Takijima

[BlackAkuma]

The plan was a simple enough one. She would launch herself his way, hit him with the knee, take him down, and then work him over from there. She had already come close to finishing him off at different points in this match, only faltering thanks to his brother’s interference. With no one to save him, no one to make the rescue, she only had to get him down, put him in a hold, and wear him out. She wouldn’t even have to make it anything all that painful - he would submit, sooner or later.

The trick was hitting him and starting that chain, though. She had thought it would be easy enough when she launched herself at him, but it turned out he wasn’t quite the deer in her headlights that she’d imagined. If he was, he was a deer with no small amount of kick left him.

”God-” She winced hard at the strike in her liver, once again targeting the vital area. Not a coincidence, either - he was going for the same spot his brother had, and her powerful but hasty attack had left her open for it. She stumbled after the landin and came close, far too close, to falling down to one knee.

Careless. Stupid.

She caught him moving out of the corner of his eye, making distance between them, and she had to fight the urge to charge in. Big moves made big gaps, and he seemed to be the type to capitalize on that sort of thing. A slower pace was what she needed. She could grind him down. No need to rush.

Bast shook her head, patted her cheeks, and resumed her fighting stance, moving in after him with a slower approach this time. She didn’t rush, but she wasn’t going to let him dance around her all day either. She took long steps, trying to cover the distance and cut off his avenues of escape. She nearly had a foot on this man, there was only so much he could do to stay out of her range.

When she was close enough, she lashed out, leading in with a swift jab, going right for his face. She brought the arm down fast to protect her liver, and threw out a right cross straight down the center line, going right for his chest with the clubbing blow.

[TheLoneWanderer]

It was a gamble. One of the "open air" variety. Following her to the ground would likely end with him getting put in a submission. She wasn't a stranger to those nor throwing Senji all over the canvas. Senji could tolerate losing to someone. His tolerance wasn't so low for his self-respect to be beat down into the dirt. It'd take further harm. So long as his life turned out well, it'll be fine to move on. He couldn't afford to let her have her way with him as a result.

Senji would always do what he could. As long as he has the ability to try.

An epiphany from a while ago made Senji realize his flaws and that instead of letting them consume him, he should work towards minimizing them.

On the topic of the fight, if he did go to the ground, he had a desire to end up on top in the Scarf Hold position before going from there. She wanted to go after him on his feet now. The hunter and the agile prey kept this impasse, until the former made her move. Senji kept his spatial awareness up. He had the limited escape route of backing up available. That ended in a maximum of a dozen steps to the turnbuckle. Her fist crashed against his left forearm, Senji choosing to tank the blow due to it not being like the moves meant to spear him in full (Example: The Push Kick that forced him out of the ring). He stayed aware for kicks too. This girl could function as a multitude of fighters. Grappler, Wrestler, and Striker. If he were to make a guess...he'd put her between him and Hiroyuki?

The successive cross to the chest caught him and sent him skidding back a few steps. Quick to retaliate on his hampered but formidable foe, Senji fired off a right straight to attempt to hit her in the jaw, twisting into it to make use of his combined weight instead of simple striking power. His eyes blinked twice to refresh themselves. He was aware he'd be leaving his lower half at risk. What would she do about that?

[BlackAkuma]

Bast was starting to feel her momentum build, landing two good shots on Senji. They weren’t perfect - he managed to block the first one, after all, and she would’ve liked it if the second one didn’t knock him so far away. But they were general successes, she would say. The cross in particular knocked him back a fair distance and looked like it seriously hurt, making him show signs of real damage.

Almost there. He was withering, on the edge, just needed the right push.

Bast didn’t know if it was bravery, confidence, foolishness, or some combination of the three, but Senji found it in him to keep coming, meeting her head on as she charged in to close the gap. She had only started to reel back for a hook when he lashed out, swinging at her face with a disciplined punch. Despite the size difference, the strike landed with no small amount of power. Good form, perfect spacing, nice twist of the fist. It was textbook.

The only problem was that it required him to get deep into her range, and she had no intention of letting him leave.

Instead of moving back from the blow, she moved into it, pressing forward and reaching out to snag his wrist before he could bring the fist all the way back. From there, she ducked down and twisted her back into his chest, pulling his arm over her shoulder while the other arm reached under and gripped his bicep, pulling him in tight.

What came next was predictable, but effective - Bast jerked forward, yanked the arm in front of her, and attempted to send Senji flying head-over-heels with a seoi nage - known to most as a ‘judo throw’. A move that would put him on his back with her standing over him, the last place anyone wanted to be.

[TheLoneWanderer]

Senji saw that she had not taken the bait he set up. Next, she snatched his arm with a great amount of speed. To counter the throw, being of an improvised sort, Senji tried to hook a leg around her waist when he was lifted close her to the back. There was a crucial variable here. Her strength allowed her to rip the attempted hook off and still send him careening over the shoulder. His back SMASHED into the canvas with an abhorrent yelp combined with the effect of having his own weight turned on him. At having the wind knocked out of him another time, Senji wheezed his air out because he hadn't the time to break the fall.

Senji gazed up at her, unsure of how to approach this. It was his first time fighting the behemoth and she'd put him in the place he did not want to go. Senji could not scoot back to escape for her legs were in the way. The best response, in his mind, was to wait and see what she did. So far, counters were the way to go. He bit his lip in bewilderment. He couldn't shake off the Judo Throw either; the throw irritated his opened back gash too. He steeled himself for whatever came next, as the heat came back across his body. To help the resistance along, he put either the free arm or both arms in front of her face in case she went for a mount. This depended on whether she retained control of his arm. Senji was attempting to compensate for both general submissions and strikes.

Why didn't he roll? That'd make it easy for a Rear Naked Choke or Decapitation! If it brought Hiroyuki to a painful sleep, it would do the same to him. There'd be no doubt. The kick will crack his forearm bones if she hit him too hard and the position was too awkward.

Bast had forced her quarry into the figurative corner.

[BlackAkuma]

She could’ve pulled off the move even if he was heavy, but Senji being on the lighter side made it so much easier. She brought him over, dropped him down hard, and had him right where she wanted him. She didn’t consider herself a technical wrestler, but Cersei had been pushing her to widen her moveset since they started traveling, and the result was more options in a fight, giving her a wider array of ways to tackle problems. As irritated as she was by the training at times, there was no way for her to argue with the benefits.

Strange as it might have sounded, she had some relief now, knowing that the ball was in her court, putting her in a good position to finish this. But how?

He had his guard up, so that limited things, took striking away as an easy answer. With his arm in her grasp, though, she could’ve just stomp him into submission or put him out all together, but after pulping his brother’s face, she was more in the mood for making surrender. She had an inkling on how to do that, but the first step would be dragging him out of that shell.

With his arm still in her grasp, Bast stepped back, pulling him a couple of feet away from the ropes for good measure. She yanked his wrist up, forcing his upper body to rise, then dropped down, opened her legs wide and brought her iron thighs around his waist from the side, looking to clamp on a tight body scissor and squeeze away at his middle with raw, crushing power. She wouldn’t apply too much at first, not wanting to bear into him with 100%, but she would started at a third of full force and increase it at a steady pace from there, making sure he understood where this was going.

[TheLoneWanderer]

His body had been forced in a difficult fashion. The fighter, who was caught up this unexpectedly, was not completed prepared for her next move. Two pythons slithered around his waist, as she sat down to his right, presumably. Her feet crossed and she poured on the pressure.---By reflex, Senji gave a lengthy grunt.

"Hhrrnnngg...Basttt..."

It wasn't a pleasurable noise despite the mewl of her name. Not by a long shot. Senji, with his free arm, sent his fingers digging into the muscle there out of reflex but forced himself to stop. It wouldn't work. A time limit became known to him too. However, as she cranked up the strength, Senji scalp banged into the floor as he was coerced to fall against it as some humans reacted to tension or anguish. It was an instinctual coping mechanism when overwhelmed, most likely. Senji's eyes turned towards her crossed ankles. He could use the same principle as a guard break. It also followed that same guideline for a Guillotine escape. He was running low on options. He needed something to do if he had any chance of surviving past this bodyscissor.

Steadily and quite quickly, Senji's resistance faltered. Every breath he took grew more strained despite it not being a blood choke or air choke. But rather, it compressed his middle which had obviously affected his supply of oxygen. So, she was aiming for pain compliance...

His dominant arm needed to be the reliant force now. To commit to the escape, Senji reached across to grapple with the top interlocked foot - having to endeavor to twist inside her scissors to not torque his spine to a unsafe degree - and pull on it to try to break the grip her legs had by targeting the feet's connection. Naturally, a successful break would allow him to get out easier. Toe holds may be useful but they weren't a reliable option considering his position nor did he commonly use them.

[BlackAkuma]

As part of this Instagram stunt, Cersei had involved Bast in this watermelon crushing competition. She didn’t much care for social media things like that, and she’d been hesitant at first, but she had eventually caved to the pressure like she always did. This was one of the rare times, however, that she was glad she’d given in, because it turned out to be a lot of fun. Crushing watermelons between her thighs was surprisingly cathartic, and people seemed to enjoy watching her do it. It was nice to be able to do something fun like that, something that made people happy, made them money, and didn’t involve caving someone’s skull in.

Senji’s body wasn’t a watermelon. She wouldn’t take any joy in crushing it. But she knew she was more than capable of doing so, and if the pained, anguished noises he made were any indication, he knew it, too.

So why wasn’t he tapping out?

Instead, he was reaching for her ankles, trying to pry them apart and get free. It wasn’t the worst idea, really. Most of the people she’d put in this position were too busy panicking to see the easy way out. She’d commend him for that.

One problem, though - going for her ankles meant that he wasn’t guarding anymore.

As he fumbled with her ankle, Bast released his wrist and reached under his shoulder with both her arms, snaking them around behind his head, trying to lock the fingers and secure a full nelson. As the same time, she tried to move behind him and shift her ankle up behind the crock of her knee, putting her legs into the figure-four position and exerting maximum pressure on his midsection. It would make for a brutal combination if it all came together, something that put her full power to good use, a move worthy of the name Cersei had given it - Heaven’s Wrath.

[TheLoneWanderer]

An impending sense of dread came over Senji. It was one of the instances where he looked very unsettled with his surroundings. The watermelon between the thighs-level carnage she'd introduced him to downstairs amplified this effect. Senji then found the source of what the feeling was caused by. His eyes darted to the right. They saw her arm shifting to under and over the shoulder. Soon after, Senji was embraced with both arms captured. The temptation of a headbutt to her nose came into the back of his mind. However, Senji refused to do it.

The fight had been drained from his body ever since the Judo Throw.

In pursuit of her goal, she'd brought Senji to his physical limits. And for that, she received her wish to come true. Only one issue...

His arms were cranked behind his head, threatening to dislocate both outright if too much power was applied. Setting one was an painful fix. Setting two wasn't child's play without help. Even then, he wasn't supposed to use injured limbs in a harsh way. Senji continued to be crushed against her body until he relented.

["I-I can't tap?!"]

Though, the maximum SQUEEZE and CLAMP motivated him to find another way promptly. Senji found that his weakened legs could be of use. Now that he was coming down from the adrenaline high, the exhaustion came crashing down onto him. His right foot raised since they were on their sides and he promptly slammed the sole into the ring floor three times. The signal was clear. Senji had submitted to the Pantheress known as Samira.

In case it hadn't been clear enough, Senji vocalized his indication of being done. He'd pushed all he could when given the opportunities. Hiroyuki had put faith into Senji to survive. But he could not WIN.

"I---give, Bast."

Once again. The outcome was predicted as to end with what she wanted but his body was in her hands. Still, it was all the more likely that she'd leave him alone. If she did, Senji let his bodily systems rest and slowly dropped onto his back regardless of if Bast was still there or not.

[BlackAkuma]

It might not have seemed like it at the time, but Bast was walking a fine line with Senji. She took care not to put too much pressure into the hold, increasing it but never going too hard at once. Monitoring his state, making sure she wasn’t pulling his arms out. Nothing too serious, nothing too dangerous, but not going so soft that he might as well have not been in the hold.

It was harder, much harder than just powering down the hold and torturing him. With all the power she could bring to bear, holding back just didn’t come naturally, but she put the extra effort in, here. It was the least she could do.

And it worked. Finally, finally, finally, Senji gave up.

The referee had been keeping a close eye on him, watching for any signs of release, and he called for the bell the instant that Senji started slapped her foot. For her part, Bast released the full nelson, letting his arms go free, but she didn’t let up on the bodycrushing scissorhold just yet, still applying pressure. The audience began to boo and jeer as Cersei looked on with a smug, satisfied smile, and she didn’t blame them. To the naked eye, it probably looked like she was drawing out his suffering.

It was a little more complicated than that, though. ”Don’t struggle, you’ll make it worse.” She leaned in, close enough to speak between them over the audience’s roar. ”If I let up on the pressure at once, your organs and ribcage will expand too fast, and it will hurt even worse. Just give it a few seconds.”

True to her word, she eased up on the pressure bit by bit, letting his body come out of the hold at a slower, natural pace. After a few seconds of that, she unclasped her legs, patted him on the chest and stood tall, just in time for Cersei to slide into the ring and raise her arm high amidst a chorus of hatred.

[TheLoneWanderer]

His submission received a mixed chorus. Clearly the two had made an impression. But Cersei hadn't gotten complete and utter domination. If she thought they were going to let Bast annihilate them then she was dead wrong. She expanded her vocabulary for a warning. She would find her orders obeyed without struggle. She'd respected his tap-out after all. His stomach expanded outward while the abs formed back to their normal shape. Senji kept on his back, laying there without much care. Then, Bast uncoiled her legs.

"Arigatou gozai-masu. T-Thanks.", Senji leaned into his native tongue, usually meant to add flavor to violent or passionate sayings, for this show of gratitude. It was a formal variation too, one he didn't show to often. For letting him get a chance she did not earn a grievance.

Her palm grazed his chest to give him a supportive pat for his actions. Senji, then, was quickly brought out of the ring just as his brother had been. Unlike the elder, Senji was still conscious. And quickly enough, the two were evacuated from the ring and its surrounded area for immediate first aid. Their membership to LAW and payment would cover medical expenses, most likely. All in all, the brothers could have ended up much worse.

A long duel stretching into the double-digit of minutes was what the crowd was given. And they digested the showing up in various ways. Injuries and favor were what the three fighters were returned. Was it worth it? That was up to the individual fighter....

The Predator and Prey had made their mutual appearances in this match at the brink of their current abilities. Incredible but exhausted, the three battled until only one was left standing.

- In the end, Samira truly proved her worth as The Hammer of Africa -

Winner: Bast (Samira) by submission via Heavens Wrath