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

[BlackAkuma]

Bast wasn’t sure if she made that look easy or not, but she could confirm to anyone curious that it most certainly wasn’t. Senji wasn’t heavy by any real measure, but he was a far, far cry from ‘light’, either, and her lifting him up in that awkward manner didn’t help things. Her back was aching, and when you combined that with multiple punches in the skull, there was no hiding the pain. As soon as she brought Senji crashing down, Bast fell to a single knee and took a breather, cradling her aching head while she refilled her lungs.

”There! We! Go!” Cersei’s cries rang out nearby, as she clapped and cheered her on. ”Keep applying pressure! Stay on them.”

Bast muttered under her breath as she pushed up, rising high and surveying the damage. She’d wrecked both brothers, and she had the pick of the litter for now. Senji was the weaker one, and she was tempted to take him out first, but going after him meant that she might leave herself open to her stronger brother, the bigger threat. Clearing him off the map felt like the smarter play in the long run, and he was making his way up first, anyway. Fine, then.

As Hiro made his way up, Bast came in with a couple of long steps. Instead of taking him head on, she reached around his body and wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. It looked like she was going for a gutwrench suplex, and while was a fan of that move, she had something more methodical in mind.

She lifted Hiro up, whipped his body upside down, and threw his back over her shoulder, letting his legs hang behind her while she pulled down on his chest from the front, splitting him down across her shoulder.

It was a simple move, with a simple purpose, but she reiterated her desire just in case she wasn’t clear enough the first time. ”Tap. Out.”

[TheLoneWanderer]

Cersei's cries gradually grew clearer in Senji's spinning mind. Well, having a corner person belting injunctions could both be a detriment and a good thing. Senji got onto both his knees now, keeping his momentum going. He needed to get up. Now. Senji got to his feet in time to see something horrific, at least for him. Rapidly, his mind searched for a solution.

Hiroyuki, much to his chagrin - despite her focus having been turned to the more durable of the litter -, process the movements as she put him over her shoulder to stretch him out. A simple demand graced his ears in the accent. A pleasantish, commanding thing it was. He picked the better option for the team as a whole. He was captivated too for a second but the foreseeable future of Senji having to face Bast on his own dissatisfied him immensely. Sure, he always had faith in his brother's abilities. The juvenile had potential to grow to surpass him and his father in his heyday. Senji still needed more power. More training in due time. Bast was out of their ratings in conventional statistics.

"---It's too early.", Hiroyuki responded to her pressure. He just needed to hold out...

Senji approached her from the left side in the edges of her field of vision, launching from his left fist to go to drive his knuckles into her jaw. He hadn't did anything from behind because of a bad happening with Huan, his master in layman's terms. He retreated his fist while going to step off to the left. After this, Senji found the proper footing to launch a right hook. His intention was for her to let Hiro go so the sibling could land on his knees to begin the road for reaction. If the huntress didn't, she'd be a similar position that Senji had her in before the powerbomb even if she was above him literally. That is, getting peppered with repeated blows from the front to the cranium as retaliation for her choices.

Senji's eyebrows were quietly furrowed. It appeared he was volatile at several things in a restrained fashion. Keep a lid on the emotions, otherwise, they would only crush him in the end.

[BlackAkuma]

‘It’s too early’?

Those three words ticked Samira off more than anything Cersei had said so far. Too early? Too early for what, to get his back broken. She could understand, maybe, if this was for a title or something, but since this was just an exhibition match with nothing on the line, her stubborn refusal to just give seemed so needlessly forced. What was there to gain from having him and his brother battered in front of the world? Where was the upside?

She let her frustrations be known with a hard grunt, as she jolted him just that much harder in the hold, really putting his spine to the test. If that was the way he wanted things to be, very well. She would just take the choice away from him - all she had to do was go for the neckbreaker out of this move for her signature move, the Sandstorm, and that would put him down. Then she could finish his brother, go to sleep, and pretend this whole sordid affair was a dream.

That dream was crushed when Senji came back into the picture, recovering far faster than Bast had expected. The first punch was enough to make her stumble to the side, and the followup finished the job, landing a hook that came down right on her nose and forced her to drop Hiro. If she had to guess, it was all a ploy by Senji to get her attention.

Well, he was about to get it. He might wish he hadn't, but he was going to get it.

With her arms free, she brought them up to block whatever was coming her way next. Instead of trading shots with him, Bast ducked down and charged forward, ramming her shoulder into his stomach, lifting him off his feet, and driving him all the way back, back, back, until his back slammed into the corner, hammering him against the turnbuckle at full force in a move that came straight out of National Geographic - the devastating charge of a rhino.

[TheLoneWanderer]

What was to be gained? Simple. Payment, Credibility, and increase in their capabilities. Then again, Hiroyuki had also been buying time for Senji to regain his bearings as stated. Separate, they would be whittled down. Together, there was a chance. Besides, Bast could've refused the deal or trip for example. Perhaps her relationship with Cersei outstripped the doubt. Though, if she was aiming for LAW anyway, it was inevitable they'd cross fists with each other at some point. In a way, this was a time the two would have spent together as opposed to segregated.

Hiroyuki caught himself when he was dropped, ending up in a short crouch. Well, no back was broken. Good on him for fighting against the hold long enough. On Senji's side, he was dealing with the shorter stick. Senji's sights broadened at her charge. He nearly verbalized a rare swear but it never came. A shoulder rammed into him as Bast dragged him off to the corner.

Senji's rear banged into the turnbuckle, making Senji feel warm liquid creep down his backside underneath the rash guard. She'd broken skin. Several more extremely superior shots to the middle would provide bruising to him and snap his ribs if he wasn't careful. Senji sucked in the pain, having no positive or comeback reaction aside from a heavy growl at the prospect of injury. On the side where Bast's head was, Senji aimed to catch her neck after a holdup due to the slam. He went to swivel his arm on that side underneath her neck in a similar move to the Panther's Guillotine trap from earlier. Following this he hikes up the pressure by sliding his choking arm's fingers into the crook of his elbow similar to a Sleeperhold, resolving into a squeeze at the flanks of her throat. His arms were not trashed so they could still be used. Judging from that Dragon Sleeper from Geun for example, his back was just as weak as any other if one could pierce past the muscle. A spark of Adrenaline starting to run at the undertaking, he found the back pain to proceed to dull into a bitter ache.

It was now a question of how long one's body could last before its owner gave up, got knocked out, or submitted.

[BlackAkuma]

Even Cersei had to wince as Bast slammed Senji into the turnbuckle. It was impossible not to. All that force, driven so hard, by such a superior body. It was a small miracle that she didn’t slice the man in half, and she could only imagine all the internal damage such a hit would cause. He was probably on the verge of vomiting.

And, of course, she was loving it. Cersei just so happened to be nearby, in the perfect position to look up at the carnage. With her elbows on the apron, she signed and smiled up at Bast’s younger victim. ”Rethinking some life choices?”

Bast couldn't hear Cersei over the roar of the crowd, and she counted that as a small blessing. Despite fighting two on one, she was still getting most of the crowd’s ire, as she tore apart their hometown heroes. She knew that her sister preferred to be feared rather than loved, but maybe this was an unhealthy amount.

She was about to pull away and switch tactics, when she realized that she couldn’t. Senji’s arm came down around her neck, and…was he going for a guillotine choke on her? It wasn’t the worst attempt, he had clenched the arm in well, and while he wasn’t much on the power side of things, you didn’t really need a ton of muscle to make the move work. There was one, small oversight, however: He hadn’t crossed his ankles behind her.

That missed step meant that Bast was free to move out of the corner, even while he held on tight. She took a couple of steps back, dipped down, then reached up to wrap his arms around her waist, pulling him in tight. She planted her feet flat, arched her back, and carried him through the air in a wide arc, bridging her body all the way to slam him on his back with a thunderous Northern Lights Suplex.

[TheLoneWanderer]

Senji swore he had her. As he was closer, Senji could hear Cersei asking him a question. He gave her a response, strained but lacking malice due to both his exertion and that his hostility was not directed at her. He wasn't lying either. Senji finds himself reflecting on his life, mostly the downs, and how he would not mind a do-over.

"I do that a lot-"

Senji was forced off despite having the Guillotine locked in on the Hammer. The muscular female then cupped his slighter form in her arms, Senji feeling what was coming as per prior experience. Senji's scalp cracked against the canvas, the impact of it further damaging his back even if his body had been tempered to mitigate the devastation. Senji had been so occupied with recovery and the Guillotine that he'd neglected to embrace her between his legs. Senji wasn't sure what to do here amid the agony. Perhaps he could go for something defensive? In case she mounted him beforehand, Senji threw his battered forearms up to protect the vulnerable head. If not, he'd undertake another path.

Senji tried to reset his hands on her shoulders to apply a push motion. It was only meant to delay her since she'd be lower on his body following the Suplex. Senji went to put his right foot on the front of her hip. After that, he went to exert the potency from his intact legs as to give energy for the transition he was about to take. His thoughts continued to be a mess, the delay caused by his cautious yet adaptive way of fighting having to be avoided for a faster reaction time. Then, he turned onto the left side so that he could try to curl into himself and turn over onto his front. If she was too late stop him, Senji would enter the Turtle Position. That being, to where his overall form resembled a fetal position. However it was more consolidated in nature. He kept his hands over his head to defend against hammering or chokeholds. The legs? Folded. His body was as close to the floor as possible to prevent hooks, using her feet, even if he could not contort to press fully on the floor.

A great defense for a great opponent that the two had found. She could attack the fortress walls in a ground game exercise or stick to her guns. Regardless, Senji would need to compensate since he still had the energy to not sit there and be played with by the Huntress. The Panther had already cause pains that would last for days. Hazards of the job, to be fair. All three were trying to bring their A-game.

["If---I can keep her focused on me---Hiroyuki can come to help."]

Bast had divided, but could she conquer?

[BlackAkuma]

Bast liked to think of herself as a patient woman. Growing up as she did, it was practically a necessity - learning to live with a life that was constantly irking you, dealing with the craziness of her homeland, in a place where she could be dead at any second on any day. It was a hard way to get by, but she bided her time and it all paid off in the end, getting her where she was today. Life wasn’t perfect, but much improved.

She couldn't help but feel that this notion of herself was getting challenged with the brothers, though, as her patience was rapidly wearing thin. She knew this match wasn’t going to be easy, but it was turning out to be difficult in ways that she hadn't foreseen. It seemed like everything she did to them just made them more determined to fight back, which made her want to hurt them more, which made it more likely that she would injure them, which she was trying in earnest to avoid.

Stupid, stubborn men.

Bast thought that, after she brought Senji down for the suplex, that she would have an opportunity to close in and finish him. Sure, he had a burst of life at the end of it, pushing her away, but she was able to recover fast enough, move in and…

…nothing. Bast froze as her opponent balled up into a fetal position, covering his body as best as he could with the least threatening pose the human body could assume. This was new. This was definitely new. For a weird moment, she wasn’t even sure how to approach it, and the exchanged glance with the confused referee told her that she wasn’t the only one.

Cersei didn’t seem to share the problem. ”What are you waiting for?” She slapped the apron. ”Finish him.”

That was enough to snap her back into attention. If Senji was trying to keep himself from damage, this was a decent attempt, but only that - there was only so much the body could do to lessen a blow. Knowing this, Bast moved over his body, stood over his head, planted her elbows on his back and started unloading knee after knee into his skull, slamming it with battering ram blows, drilling into his guard. It might be enough to absorb some of the impact, but plenty of it would still get through, and there were only so many shots the human head could take, even weakened ones. She had no intention of stopping, either - he would either give up or tap, and while she preferred the latter, she could live with the former.

[TheLoneWanderer]

Senji quickly found that she had not taken the bait. He'd beaten someone he shouldn't have before. However, Bast didn't share the...relationship his father's killer and Senji himself once had. The elder woman was a rival. A wall to strive to stand opposite of and not break. Senji's guard was slammed into multiple times, knees cracking into the head at high speed. His arms were rubbed to a battle-tested raw even underneath the rash guard. Each one rattled his skull as he ran the defense. Even so, it was a faltering. The MMA fighter was going to push...push...and push until he was fully submitted.

By himself, in this position, he falters and he would be finished. As Bast had another opponent to worry about, Senji heard the cut of wind among the slams and he then found them to have probably been brought to a grinding halt. Hiroyuki, prompted by the urgency, had tried to come to Senji's aid now that he was well enough for another bout. If Bast was too focused on her prey, the valiant effort would not focus on behind her. It would be created in another form.


Hiroyuki darted across the canvas, slowing down as he sent his rear leg, the right one that could generate more power, soaring for its shin to bury itself at the appropriate location of her liver. The grounded move was meant to harm, very clearly. Should the muscle give from his stronger strike, Hiroyuki might be able to compel Bast to back off what was under his dominion. Best case scenario, weight combined with the technique's superiority to a lead kick into an organ's area left Hiroyuki to establish a good distance between Senji and his attacker. Senji lost the strength on his side, looking up at the sorrowful gaze his brother had. Was...was he sorry? Senji leaned onto his elbow...clutching his head in a bid to concentrate. Or rather, regain what sense he'd lost. His vision was blurry once again, and it took more stamina to even hold himself up. Should things go his way, Hiroyuki stepped over Senji to let the younger one sort his spinning head and aching pains out. His expression hardened as he glared at Bast.

"I wouldn't leave you alone, Senji."

He took the presumed opportunity for a breath. His next statement referred to the repeated hammering while Senji contributed to the circle of buying time. A nasty blast to the eye allotted a ring-shaped mark around Senji's left orb.

"---Even I couldn't watch that."

His tone softened up as he stared...slowly getting more irritated at this idolater for wanting to go that far at her sister's behest, unknown to him. It had more came about due his current discomfort and the fighting at hand. Still, the closest to Hiro's proper equal would be out of fighting for the time being. He wasn't sturdy enough to shake that shit off.

[BlackAkuma]

Despite appearances, Bast hadn't forgotten about Hiro. She wasn’t so wrapped up in the moment that she was no longer aware that she was up against two people, one of whom was surely on the path to recovery and would, no doubt, have something to say about her repeated efforts to knee his brother into unconsciousness.

She knew that was a problem she would have to deal with any second now, but her goal, her hope, was to have Senji finished by the time he moved in. She was almost certain to take some hits in the process, but if the end result was making this a one-on-one match, she would consider that a fair trade.

If one fell, this was over. Just one.

That thought drove her with every knee, pushed her to summon more power for her efforts, trying to rattle him more and more. It was taking a toll, but that would come with a cost, one she wound up paying when Hiro planted his foot into her liver.

Bast cried out, the loudest noise she’d made in this match by a great degree, as she rolled away and cradled her side. There was no shielding from a shot like that, even with a body like hers. The liver shot swept through her, sending hot pain through her side and leaving with her with a queasy feeling. It was nothing that would stop her, but it was going to make everything that much more difficult from here on out.

She had the strong desire to roll into a ball and just let the pain go away, but it was overruled by her stronger desire to end this match in the most decisive, quickest way she could manage. Determined, she grabbed the rope middle rope for extra support and pulled up to her feet, rising with daggers in her eyes for Hiro.

Bast took a second to rub her side, favoring it, then went back on the attack, dashing back towards Hiro with her first raised and her fighting pose ready. She came in with a jab, throwing the quick shot at his face for a slight distraction, only to pull back and lash out with the main attraction below - she swung her leg at the side of his knee with a strong kick, twisting her hips hard to get that extra bit of impact.

[TheLoneWanderer]

The words he said fell on a struggling mind. Senji was thoroughly and utterly rattled since he did endure the knees before they caused him to black out. She wasn't regularly approaching him. The ways he could guard without too much difficulty. Ground game? She preferred standing? He was blocking? Senji had to "obstruct" powerful strikes from the goddess. This long war had smoldered his body down, reducing the muscles to feel a point between tingling and scorching hot heat. Senji struggled to keep himself centered. Amid the spinning arena, Senji attempted to slither backward so that he could back off from the conflict for now.

Morally speaking, neither were in the wrong here despite the enmity. Senji may have been young but he was an adult and had agreed to this since he had his brother to equalize the odds. Hiroyuki hadn't been a idiot, but he saw several errors with their approach and now he was stuck in a bad situation. It did not help she'd divided the two and constantly seemed to buy a few moments alone. Hiroyuki briefly felt a pang in his heart when the yelp came. Had he gone too far? Then, any worries were thrown out the window when he saw her gloved hand wrap around the middle rope. He had not felt his shin dig into ruptured organs or issues. It was a match, but Hiroyuki did not wish to cripple Bast. It would be a waste of a curious Pantheress.

Well, when Samira wasn't pursuing him with the energy of a devil on the hunt for sacrifices, that is. He had to keep a sound mind about these things. It'd be child's play for her to best him if he let too much rarely-seen anger corrupt his moves. Her actions weren't so piercing as to earn a long-standing grudge either. His plan had changed too. Samira would either need to be dealt with here or put the woman in a state where Senji could potentially handle her. The latter was more of a last-ditch effort. If they earned a loss at this time, that's the point where they should throw their hands up at the misfortune. Both of them had already made this fight stretch on for minutes at this point instead of the seconds it'd take for Bast usually. It'd be better to end before bones ended up broken. Hiroyuki hardened his muscles as she came at him, moving his right arm up to take the incoming jab. If her fist struck the interception or not, then Hiroyuki still tilted off to the left due to the kick that caused his right knee to curve by reflex. Hiroyuki tried to go with the force as opposed to pushing on it, determining a different approach. Hiroyuki pivoted on his injured knee, intending to swiftly turn around in a semicircle motion. After that, Senji's brother aimed to SLAM the ball of his left foot into her midsection for a reversed Roundhouse kick as to target her stomach and the middle there. As an ultimate action, Hiroyuki next went to follow through on the spin and reset with his hands up to guard the face once more should everything work out. That included starting to bounce on the soles of his feet.

It'll be fine, Senji, you just need to keep recovering. The numbers game was a distant memory, they had to work within the constraints of Bast's hard-to-deny rules.