Dueling a Lioness: Momoi Satsuki vs Leonie Bowen

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Momoi Satsuki had a debut in LAW that one could certainly call interesting. A family's personal issues were laid bare in the ring as an already favorable match became a 2v1 in Momoi's advantage thanks to the no DQ nature of the fight. While Momoi would admit that she had a lot of fun in that fight, she was also happy for her next match to be standard.

For this match, Momoi's opponent, Leonie Bowen, was the kind of wrestler that the pinkette ate alive in the ring. An untrained, straightforward fighter who relied primarily on their impressive physical attribute to carry them. Momoi was quite the opposite. Having trained for more of her life than not, and having a very strategic, adaptive, and cerebral fighting style. And while she was no paragon of athleticism, she had the physical ability needed to keep up.

Theme Music: Brand New Season

Momoi's theme came on, and she began making her way to the ring. She was more subdued than in her debut, but that was owed to her not being on the high of her debut more than anything. She was still plenty high energy, smiling, waving, and high fiving crowd members. Momoi entered the ring and took to her corner. "Time for me to tame a lion!" said Momoi.

Ring Attire

[FreestylePoet]

It was finally time for Leonie to step into the ring for her second match here at LAW. After her first, it had been a bit of a wait, so she was understandably pretty excited. The matchday check from her debut had proven nearly eye-bulging, especially to someone like Leonie, and the royalties that filtered in from streams and other later broadcasts were pretty nice too. More than that, though, Leonie relished the chance to get into another scrap. She'd gotten a taste of just how badass all this was, and she couldn't wait to do it again!

Plus, she had a second reason to be stoked about this occasion. Her first match was a No DQ match that she expected might get quite bloody -- and rightly so. Because of that, she didn't want to bring out her fancy new wrestling uniform! Tonight, though, she didn't expect to face that kind of problem, which meant that she could fully debut her new digs! As her entrance music boomed throughout the arena, Leonie struck a proud pose, like a kid in a Halloween costume, before striding confidently down the entrance ramp.

Leonie Bowen, the Lioness of LAW

Leonie's Entrance Music: Phenomenal - Eminem

The first thing that Leonie noticed about her opponent was that she was small. Cute! But still small. Despite that, Leonie wasn't one to ever underestimate her opponent-to-be. If she wanted to be the strongest girl around, she'd have to face all sorts of tough opponents with all sorts of strategies. Leonie wasn't really one much for planning, but she'd be game for whatever this pinkette threw at her. She'd taken brutal blows from Skylar Jones, who was apparently one of the strongest chicks in the entire league!

Leonie ducked between the ropes, giving the crowd a proud wave before moving to the center of the ring. If her opponent followed suit, she'd smile. "Hey! I'm Leonie. I hate to lose, so I'm gonna give it my all! You better do the same!" She shot out her arm, sticking out one thumb with a dumb-looking grin on her face. Then, she tucked her thumb back in and rotated her hand, offering Momoi a fist bump. "Heh."

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Momoi had known Leonie for all of thirty seconds, and she already liked her better than she liked Alice. She wore a vibrant, showy outfit and wore a smile on her face that said she was truly happy to be there. And Leonie also greeted Momoi warmly and with a gesture of sportsmanship as opposed to cutting remarks and immediate prejudice.

All of this put an equally warm smile on Momoi's face. Even if everything about the fight itself went absolutely sideways on her, Momoi felt confident that it would still be a respectful, enjoyable, hard fought match from both sides. So with that in mind, Momoi eagerly stepped up to Leonie and returned her offer of a fist bump. "It's a good thing you want my all, because I wouldn't think of giving you anything else!"

Soon after, Momoi would back off and the bell would ring. As good of a first impression as Leonie had on Momoi, the pinkette still had to beat her. Momoi's strategy for this match would be highly deception based. Wrestlers with little training or strategy will lean heavily on feel, the instincts and intuitions that tell them what to do. Momoi's goal was to create openings my misleading those instincts and tricking Leonie into making mistakes.

Momoi would enter into a low, crouching stance that put her head at Leonie's chest level, and used a low guard that heavily protected her body. This was to make her head an appealing a target for Leonie as possible. She was a striker, so Momoi predicted that these factors would cause Leonie to open with a punch at her exposed head. Exactly what Momoi wanted.

Momoi was sitting dead red on a punch to the head. So if Leonie took the bait, she would be more than ready to raise her arms to catch the punch. The Momoi would leap up from her crouch and try to wrap her legs around Leonie's head, and then lean back to pull her down to the ground and into a triangle choke. But Momoi wasn't so shortsighted as to ignore any other possibility. If she saw Leonie go for anything besides what she had predicted, Momoi would immediately bail and try to retreat back.

[FreestylePoet]

Leonie's beam went even wider at her opponent's promise. "Good!" After bumping her fist against Momoi's, Leonie stepped back and crashed her own fists together in prideful gesture. Then, as the bell rang, she stepped into a wide, sidelong stance. An amateurish blend of stances used in boxing, karate, and hockey fights, but consciously drawing on none. All Leonie knew is that this felt right, as it would allow her to unload some dynamite onto Momoi as soon as she got the chance!

And as the pinkette drew into her own stance, Leonie all but smirked with glee as she realized that Momoi was gonna let her do just that. That low stance of hers might have protected her from a tackle or some other takedown, but it left her head ripe for the picking! She stepped forward, cocking a fist back and letting it fly up and over for a big right hook, straight to Momoi's dome! "Rrrah!"

"Huh-wha..." But instead found her arm quickly corralled within both of Momoi's! In that moment, she felt as if the grab alone wouldn't be much of a problem beyond just powering through it, but then her opponent leapt up, pulling Leonie down with her momentum and wrapping her legs around her head! "Yah!"

The Lioness fell to the mat, but just before Momoi locked in whatever hold she had planned, Leonie jammed her left arm right into the crook of Momoi's knee. It was an instinctual block, not unlike what you'd do to block a punch. But with one strong flex of her biceps, Leonie would be able to use her prodigious strength to guard against one-third of Momoi's triangle choke!

"Hrr..." Leonie growled. She wouldn't be able to ward off Momoi's thigh for long, so she needed to figure something out. "Nice trick. What's next?" Slowly, Leonie tried to move her knees forward, hoping to have enough time to get her legs under her.

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Hook, line, and sinker, thought Momoi as she saw Leonie send a big right hook aimed square at the side of her head. Momoi had practiced the triangle choke takedown who knows how many times in her life, the execution on this one was seamless. And Momoi got her legs around Leonie's head and pulled her down.

But the farmgirl had a trick up her sleeve of her own. From what could only be pure reflex, Leonie shoved her left arm between Momoi's leg and her own neck before the pinkette could close her thighs around it. Momoi would still be choking Leonie and had pressure on her throat, but not nearly as much as she normally would have.

Couple that with the fact that Leonie was trying to shuffle her feet underneath her, and Momoi realized that she would need to transition out of her triangle choke earlier than she would've liked. "How about this, Leonie?" said Momoi as she pulled away the leg that was getting blocked off and brought her foot down onto Leonie's upper back with a heel kick.

Then Momoi would stand up, bringing Leonie's arm up with her, and planting the foot she had kicked with down onto Leonie's back. Then Momoi would try to grab her other arm so she could pull them both up behind Leonie while Momoi pressed down on her back with her foot for a surfboard stretch. "If you don't like this trick, I've got plenty more," Momoi said.

[FreestylePoet]

Leonie continued to growl at her opponent, flexing her arms to keep that damn leg of hers as far away as possible. The hold was still constricting, though not nearly as much as it could have been. A few seconds later, though, it came fully loose -- a situation Leonie cheered, then became confused about, then lamented as her opponent's foot swiftly smacked into the small of her back!

"Guh-!" Leonie caught herself palm-down on the mat, looking up wild-eyed. But it was too late, as Momoi had already stood, taking her second arm along for the ride while keeping her foot where it was on Leonie's back. In just seconds, the pinkette had quickly transitioned into a basic surfboard stretch! Momoi would find Leonie's back to be firm and muscular, in a manner belied by her relative lack of toning. While her muscles weren't toned, they were certainly dense.

That dense steel flexed beneath Leonie's skin as, like a supervillain prisoner, she pulled forward, as if to break the chains that Momoi's arms had become! While she couldn't do this all day, her muscular endurance was more than solid enough to make such an early show of force possible. "Graah... When's the... 'let go of Leonie so she can bash you upside the head' trick...?"

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Momoi's tricks seemed to have Leonie stumped, as the pinkette's transition from triangle choke into surfboard stretch went off seamlessly. As expected of someone who grew up on a farm, Leonie's back did not have much give as Momoi stepped down on it. But that was fine. The foot on the back was just meant to keep Leonie in place while Momoi dealt the real damage through her arms and shoulders.

"If that happens, then I think that means you'll have figured out the trick. And I can't have that," Momoi replied to Leonie's question. Leonie started trying to pull her arms forward and break Momoi's grip to free herself. She was able to resist Leonie's escape attempt fairly well on account of her massive leverage advantage making up for the difference in strength. But Momoi quickly realized that Leonie was setting herself up for another hold quite nicely.

Momoi would pull her leg back and allow both gravity, and Leonie herself to pull her down knee first into the orange haired girl's back. Then, with Leonie's arm's still under her control, Momoi would sit down on the farmgirl's back and pull the arms up over her knees, and lock in a camel clutch. "Your back feels like it's really strong. Let's see how long it lasts."

[FreestylePoet]

"Really, now?" Leonie grunted out. "Are you sure? I think that'd be way more fun, at least for meEEEE!" Suddenly, Leonie wasn't pulling on anything anymore, and she flopped face-first onto the mat, with Momoi's knee soon following! Then her opponent clambered atop her, locked her hands underneath Leonie's chin, and pulled back for a smooth transition into a camel clutch!

Leonie's back stretched like an old rubber glove, sending growing pangs of pain across the muscled surface! Her chest heaved as she breathed deeply in an attempt to soothe the pain. "Haaargh!" Leonie groaned, despite her opponent's backhanded compliment. After all, that same compliment came from someone who was currently bending her back in half... But wait. It was then that Leonie realized:

Momoi had messed up.

During her triangle choke to open the match, Momoi had leverage and gravity on her side. For the surfboard stretch, her leg and both arms fought against Leonie's strength. Now, though? Leonie wasn't the most tactical fighter out there, but even she knew that a camel clutch relied mostly on arm strength to keep it locked in. While the pinkette's lean away from her head added a bit of insurance, there really wasn't much there.

"I...It's not the only part of me that's strong!" Leonie gutted out her response before grabbing both of Momoi's wrists. Then she tried to pry them apart, hoping to free herself while she unbalanced Momoi enough to roll both of them over onto their backs! If she succeeded, she'd know that Momoi still had her back, so she'd then attempt to quickly scoot over, hook her strong right arm around Momoi's neck, and attempt to gain side control with a scarf hold!

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Momoi was able to use Leonie's escape attempt against her to come down onto her back and lock her into a camel clutch. She was continuing to put pressure onto Leonie's back when something unexpected happened. Normally, someone in a camel clutch can only use their hands to escape when the person applying the hold neglects to restrain them, and Momoi had. But Leonie was trying to muscle her way past Momoi's arms to grab at her wrists and pull free.

This was a rare surprise for Momoi. Her first instinct was to try to maintain her grip. She had her fingers interlocked around Leonie's chin, and was willing to pit her own grip strength again her opponent's pull strength. But then Momoi also had to contest with Leonie trying to throw the pinkette off of her and rolling onto her back.

Leonie was eventually able to throw enough raw force into her escape attempt that she did manage to roll both herself and Momoi down to the mat. When Leonie tried to slide off, Momoi threw an elbow down into her abs, but the orange haired girl still powered threw and got her arms around Momoi's head. In response, the pinkette threw her leg up over Leonie. Both to block her attempt at taking control, and to try to get on top of Leonie to take control herself.

[FreestylePoet]

Unbeknownst to Leonie -- even at this point -- she'd been matched up against quite the analytical technician tonight. So bringing this match from a standing position to the mat very much played right into her opponent's strengths.

Of course, that didn't matter. All that she needed was her own greatest strength: strength! It was what won her the previous exchange, forcing both herself and the wily pinkette down to the mat. It was what allowed her to tank through the surprise elbow to her abs. And it was what, hopefully, would lead to Momoi's downfall!

Unfortunately, she couldn't quite lock in the scarf hold (something she'd have to work out with Julie later). More than that, Momoi managed to post one leg up and throw the other over Leonie's body, clambering atop instead. Still, Leonie had a solid grip on her opponent's neck. From here, she could tighten the grip, putting some pressure on her neck while probably also slightly smothering the girl out... But even Leonie could tell that this wasn't the most effective position. So she quickly let go, hoping to flip her grip, using her other arm to attempt to shove Momoi's head underneath Leonie's arm instead of hooking it atop.

In that moment, Momoi would have a split second to slip out of the Lioness's grasp once more. But if she didn't, then she'd find herself locked into quite the guillotine choke!