The First Step: Aizen Yuzuriha vs. WYVERN

[BlackAkuma]

Wyvern wasn’t all that heavy - a solid, well-built woman, yes, but he could tell she weighed less than he did, if only by ten or twenty pounds. He was no powerhouse, but he’d lifted heavier, and she shouldn’t have been a problem. Most time, she wouldn’t have been.

Then again, most times he wouldn’t be groggy from a headbutt. That did make something of a difference, here, with his upper body having to compensate for the slight wobble in his knees. It made the whole effort more taxing than it needed to be, which would be a problem in a match like this, where he had the strong feeling he would need all the stamina he could spare.

So it wasn’t the best execution he could’ve hoped for, but his move did the job. He came down on his back and looked up, just in time to see Wyvern hit the turnbuckle, with gravity doing the rest to pile on the damage. It wasn’t as if he’d scored some huge hit, though - she was too tough for that to have any lasting damage. He needed to pile on.

He had just the tool for it, too.

Aizen slapped himself in the face for some much needed clarity, then rolled to his feet and took off into a hard sprint - away from her. He ran straight across the ring, turned around at the last second, and let his back hammer into the pads, hitting them and coming to a dead stop.

Without a beat missed, he took aim and charged straight back towards her at ramming speed, tilting his head forward, feet scarcely touching the floor, gathering all the momentum he could as he flew forward. The second he was in range, he leaped up, reared back, and shot his legs out with a defiant roar, aiming a powerful dropkick at Wyvern’s chest to send her flying back into the corner - his signature dropkick, the Shotgun.

[Hills]

Agility has never been Wyvern's strong suit. While she has incredible raw power for someone of her frame and build, and is inordinately skilled at striking for someone of her age, this level of specialization has cost in her other areas. As a result, she knows it will take far too long to get back on her feet to prevent Aizen from continuing his attack. Wyvern drops all attention on her opponent, putting her full focus behind coordinating herself and getting back up. She knows she'll likely take a hit, but Aizen's options for inflicting lasting damage to a standing opponent pale in comparison to what he can do if she remains on the ground. It is due to this lack of attention, though, that she fails to see that staying down might have been better this time. When Wyvern finally leaps to her feet, she's able to look only just long enough to see Aizen's body rocketing towards her before his feet drive into her chest, slamming her backwards into the turnbuckles.

"Kch!"

A pained hiss is blasted out of Wyvern's mouth by the powerful impact, and she instinctively reaches out to the sides in order to grab the ropes. This grip is the only thing keeping her standing in the immediate aftermath. It felt like she had been hit by a truck. Her chest radiated pain with every breath, she is forced to endure it as she desperately attempts to refill her lungs with air. Her legs are only half-able to support her, buckling every time she tries to bring herself to her full height. For a moment, she can't even see straight, but her vision quickly recoves and brings the canvas below into focus.

As Wyvern lifts her head up again, the intense glare she directs towards Aizen promises furious retribution. For now, however, her body is unable to deliver, leaving her open to his next move.

[BlackAkuma]

Aizen hadn't done poorly in school, but he’d never had an eye for mathematics, and he was about as far from a physics major as you could get. But even he could understand a fairly simple equation.

Force equals mass times acceleration.

His mass was great enough to do some real damage on its own, and when you combined that with the speed he was able to pick up from dashing around the ring at full tilt, you had a deadly combination. There was no restraint, no hesitation, and when he came back to Wyvern, he was moving with all the speed he could muster, taking aim, firing, and hitting her with a move that was worthy of its namesake.

He landed bang-on, sent her flying, and while he wasn’t in a position to see the immediate result, he could hear it ringing through the air, the unmistakable sound of a body slamming against a turnbuckle. He dropped to his back, kicked his legs up, and rolled over to his feet, rising up to see her hung out to dry on the turnbuckle, with a look that could freeze hearts directed towards him.

He redirected that look right back at her. He had no doubt she would do the same to him the moment she got the chance, but he wasn’t about to make it easy for her.

Rising to his feet, he moved into the corner and pressed against her, getting close, mashing their forehead together and bringing his arms up to clench her tight. He had a good, hard look at the fiery look in her eyes, matching it with his own, before he drew back his leg and shot it forward with shattering force, shooting it into her stomach. Another one would come soon after that one if everything worked out, as he attempted to keep her from fully recovering from the hellacious blow she’d just taken.

[Hills]

Wyvern can feel strength rapidly returning to her limbs in the brief moments of reprieve following the impact of Aizen's kick. While the attack had rocked her, it also inherently prevented him from immediate follow-ups. She'll be feeling that hit for weeks, but it won't be long before she can stand under her own power. If she can stand, she can fight. Unfortunately, Aizen simply recovers faster than she does, needing only to right himself rather than recover from being struck. The debuting wrestler pounces on Wyvern's continued display of vulnerability, pressing in close and bringing her into a clinch. Wyvern grinds her forehead back into Aizen's own, ignoring the growing pain that results, but lacks the space to give him a full headbutt when she's already pressed up against the corner of the ring. Knowing what's coming, Wyvern braces herself.

"Hnph!"

Readiness can only do so much to mitigate the impact as Aizen drives a knee expertly into her stomach, forcing out a small exhalation as it painfully compresses her lungs. It is here, however, that Wyvern makes her counterattack. The instant Aizen's knee lands, Wyvern pushes herself forward, bracing against the turnbuckles and relying on the moment where Aizen is standing on one leg and withdrawing the other to force him back. For the first time in the match, Aizen gets to feel the full force of Wyvern's incredible strength; the woman is far more powerful than her frame would imply. If she's able to push him back, Wyvern reaches her own arms forward in an attempt to reciprocate the clinch before responding with a knee strike of her own, no slower and no less painful than Aizen's was.

[BlackAkuma]

Close. Tight. Hard.

Those three words summed up Aizen’s thinking at the moment, as he brought the fight in tight and drilled into Wyvern from point blank range. It was clear that she could operate well from just about any range, but he wagered that, like this, her options would be limited, that he could continue to drive the nails in and keep her from recovering. She was tough, but she couldn't be that tough, right? Time would come down on his side.

It was a good way of thinking, and it would’ve been the right way to approach things…against most of his opponents. Wyvern was different, and while he was already figuring that out, Aizen hadn't yet come to appreciate just how much of the mold she’d broken.

He had a better idea when she not only tanked his knee, but had the strength to push back and push back hard. It didn’t help that he was on one foot when she did it, but he couldn't shake the feeling that, even if his footing had been solid, she still would’ve won out and forced him away. There was power in that body, far more than he would’ve expected, and it made him realize a crucial point - she was stronger than him. Not be a small amount, in all likelihood.

That was a tough fact to grapple with, but the knee he took in response helped him wrap his head around it. She brought it up in a similar manner to the one he’d just given her, the result was far more explosive. It lifted Aizen’s off his feet, took all the wind out of him, and he might’ve fallen flat if he hadn't been in the clinch. As it was, he held on tight to her, kept his balance, but the best he could do was stay in the embrace and throw a quick, weak knee back in retaliation, one launched more out of reflex than anything. It was a bad spot to be in, and he knew it wouldn’t be getting better.

[Hills]

As she successfully pushes herself out of the corner and forces Aizen back on the defensive, Wyvern finds herself comparing her skills with those of her opponent. As is often the case, she comes up short. No amount of dedicated training can overcome the value of real experience, and while Wyvern has wrestled for years, she never faced an opponent capable of fighting on the global stage until her first bout in LAW. Well, one, perhaps, but the circumstances had been exceptional, there. And it had taught her little, regardless.

Wyvern herself is only barely good enough to justify her presence in LAW in her own view, and she owes that more to her exceptional physical abilities than her actual skill. Thus, meeting another "rookie" already more skilled than her is disheartening, but not altogether unexpected. As per usual, her strength proves to be her key advantage. As she pushes back against Aizen, Wyvern determines what she had already suspected; the man is skilled and fit, but not especially strong as far as such things go in competitions of this level. That will be a key advantage, but only if she can make use of it. Brute strength is a valuable tool, but increasingly less likely to be a deciding factor the more skilled an opponent is.

With that in mind, Wyvern's immediate concern after freeing herself is separating from Aizen once more. A clinch this close could easily turn into a grapple, and she had no illusions about who would end up on top if the battle moved in that direction. Aizen's retaliatory knee strike barely registers. Without his feet on the ground, the older fighter simply doesn't have the leverage necessary to make an incapacitating hit. Before Aizen even hits the ground, Wyvern whirls around, tightening her grip and trying to push him away to break the clinch. If she succeeds in doing so, the powerful wrestler simply throws him back towards the center of the ring, trying to reset the fight back into a contest of strikes.

[BlackAkuma]

Aizen had been here before. Not in this exact position, but in similar ones. Having the wind knocked out of him, taken hard by an opponent with superior strength. He’d taken hard shots that the one Wyvern gave him - not many, so that was no small statement, but he’d taken them. It was just a matter of getting his breathing under control and keeping his focus. Even with her power, he still liked his chances against her, there were still strong avenues he could turn into it, but none of that would matter if he didn’t have the wherewithal to see them in the first place.

That being said, he couldn't help but marvel at the power. Easily the strongest woman he’d encountered, and he’d come across some bruisers.

Staying so close might’ve seemed like a bad idea, but it was actually one of the better plays he could make in this situation. At point blank range, she wouldn’t have the space to summon all of her power for those strikes, and he could see how well she did against submissions and more technical wrestling. It was worth a try, bare minimum, but she seemed to sense his intentions, shoving him off back towards the center of the ring before he could get anything going.

Aizen stumbled at first, then found his footing and raised his fists, taking a tight guard as he locked eyes with her once more. Back to this? Fine. He’d fought his way in once, he’d do it twice. Three times. Four. However many it took.

[Hills]

Having finally recovered from being backed into a corner, Wyvern gazes evenly over at Aizen. Her face gives away nothing, and she is silent as she scans her opponent for any signs of weakness or openings. Finding no obvious vulnerabilities, she begins edging forward, keeping most of her weight on her back foot in order to leave her front leg free to launch snap kicks if Aizen tries to get in close. The onlooking crowd grows quiet. While the previous segment of the match had been quite exciting, the measured tact taken by both fighters is far less engaging no matter how good of a choice is might be from a strategic standpoint.

Wyvern's possible next moves rapidly play out in her head, simultaneously processing with how she could react to possible attacks from Aizen. The debuting wrestler had been totally defensive at the start of the match, but the two had tasted blood and had better understandings of each other now. That would change any competent fighter's way of dealing with an opponent. And despite the many other unknowns that Aizen still represented, he had proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that he was far from incompetent.

After reaching a distance a bit outside of either combatant's reach, Wyvern ceases her approach. Rather than going in again, she begins circling around him, expecting a reciprocation but ready to be surprised. A few times in the loop she suddenly switches her weight forward with vary degrees of subtlety, something that has previously heralded an attack, but each time pulls back just as fast, testing Aizen's attention and reflexes. This goes on for some time if not interrupted, but still Wyvern refuses to close in further and commit to another exchange.

[BlackAkuma]

Wyvern was coming.

Aizen tightened his grip, expecting her to close in at any moment. Most opponents would when they managed to land a solid hit, and with good reason. That knee had done its job well, and he would be feeling it for a few minutes, so she could take advantage of his state and press her advantage. That would be a mistake, she’d give him an opening that he could exploit so long as his defense was tight, but she wouldn’t know that.

And she came in with…nothing.

Aizen’s granite expression softened for a second, surprised by the sudden shift. She was holding back? Good instincts. She was a pragmatic woman, not giving him any rope to work with. He wasn’t sure whether or not that was a thing in his favor or a problem to deal with, but it did give him an opportunity. She wanted him to make the next move, clearly, and he would do so…but he needed to think.

Striking wouldn’t work well, but what about submissions. She might have been stronger than he was, but he was heavier, and that could get him far on the floor. He just had to get her there.

He circled around with her for a moment, tracing her steps, before he took his chance and moved in, closing the gap with a long step. He drew his fist back, looking like he might toss a straight, only to abandon it halfway through, duck down, and throw his shoulder into her stomach while his arms pulled at her legs, an attempt to drop her with a double-leg takedown.

[Hills]

Despite a fighting style of brute force and heavy strikes, it quickly became apparent early in the match that Wyvern is no unthinking berserker. There's a consistent intelligence behind her moves that has guided her actions through this fight, and many others. Having seen Aizen's considerable skill advantage over her, Wyvern's knows her largest trouble in the match will come from his versatility. While she could no doubt win in a battle of strikes, that wasn't what this match was, and an an unpredictable opponent was a dangerous one. With this in mind, Wyvern aimed to narrow down Aizen's choices, giving him an obvious path to take.

Having returned the fight to a solid neutral, Wyvern closed in but refused to attack. In so doing, she pushed the burden of offense onto Aizen. While he hadn't been willing to make the first strike earlier, now that they knew more about each other he would be able to formulate a better plan of attack to press his own advantages on her weaknesses. A frontal assault leading into a takedown would be the most logical, given the match's progress so far. Wyvern is quite aware of her own vulnerability to grappling and submissions, but has chosen to deal with it by learning how to apply her own strengths against it. If she can predict it, she can counter it.

As the saying goes, however, Wyvern's plan does not survive first contact with the enemy. Despite her own frequent use of feints, Wyvern is far less adept at reading them. Aizen's false start doesn't catch her completely, but it causes hesitation for long enough that he is able to get too far forwards for her to fend him off entirely. Absent that, however, she can still mitigate. As Aizen's hands shoot forward for her legs, she does nothing to avoid them, knowing it won't do any good. Instead, she curls her abdomen inwards, blunting the impact of Aizen's shoulder. With the same motion, she drives her elbow down, bring a vicious hammer strike onto Aizen's shoulder. At the same time, one leg launches up in the direction he pulls in, driving into the other side of the shoulder like the jaws of some predatory beast. The extra damage, however, is far from enough to halt his motion, and the heavier wrestler is able to bring her down to the floor with little additional difficulty.