Clara Gaster vs Nerissa Labong - Dark Shadows and Brutal Echidnas! - Apex Qualifier

[Vc0m]

Clara was literally seeing stars, tossing as she tried to get up, but only succeeding in turning on her front, bright lights of the arena blinding her as her brain attempted…and completely failed, to come up with a plan of counter offensive. The only coherent thought in the Brit’s mind was:

”Why is she taking so long to attack…?”

As the arena lights disappeared, she got her answer:

”AAAAAAUH!!!”

Clara would cry out as all the air was driven out of her body, Nerissa’s Shooting Star Press taking a lot of the fight from the Shadow Lord!

[skip-stop]

It was a nice feeling. Despite the fact that Nerissa could well be called a reckless woman, in fact, she did not like taking too much risk. Aerial techniques are certainly effective, but too risky. Having incorrectly calculated the probability of success, there was always the possibility that the opponent would evade the attack and then everything would become bad, very bad. Did Nerissa think about it? Yes, before she made the jump, such thoughts really crept into her head.

But after she jumped, all thoughts seemed to leave her. Gusts of air hit her face, sweeping away the drops of sweat. The Native American woman felt a slight pleasant coolness. She even closed her eyes because of the pleasure. That's why she liked wrestling. Such emotions could only be felt in the ring. That's why she was here and was striving to win at all costs.

The arena literally exploded at the moment when the Echidna collapsed on her opponent. The walls shook because of the crash of the fall, Clara's scream and the deafening cheers of the audience. Nerissa's face contorted with pain for a moment, she fell from a height of about three meters at an incredible speed and such a fall could not be painless. But right after that, her thin lips stretched into a wide smile.

During the scream of the British woman, the Echidna heard the air leave her lungs. This was exactly what she wanted. The Native American woman wearily rolled off the body of her rival and got up on one knee. Glancing at Clara, she was convinced that now the preparation was over. In most other situations, Nerissa would probably have decided to attempt a heavy move right after the takedown. But the course of this match made it clear to her that the brunette is able to quickly turn the tables. And although this was not Nerissa's style, this time she allowed herself to spend time preparing.

"Yes, now it's more like the beginning of a successful career," she thought, hearing the audience chanting her name.

Her breathing was heavy and every inch of her skin was wet. Even though she was ready for a tough match, it was somewhat of a surprise to her that she had to put so much effort into coming to this point. The Echidna held her breath, and then reached out to her rival.

She intended to grab Clara's shoulder and arm. The native American woman understood that most likely she would have to lift the brunette to her feet using only her own strength. But it was definitely worth what she had in mind, so she wasn't going to complain. Pulling Clara up, she intended to make her lift. However, the Echidna's plans did not include a long foreplay, so as soon as Clara was in a more or less vertical position, she was going to rigidly place the head of the British woman between her thighs wet with sweat.

Deciding to thank the audience, who were shouting louder and louder, the Echidna raised her fist above her head for a moment. And right after that, she was going to bend forward in order to wrap her opponent's waist. Even though Clara was far from the heaviest woman, fatigue did not make the task easy for Nerissa. She had to take one more deep breath. And then, straining the muscles of her arms and legs, she intended to straighten up to her full height, lifting Clara over the mat and turning her upside down.

"Exciting..." she would have hissed barely audibly.

The Echidna was going to join her palms on her rival's crotch. She could feel how fast her heart was beating. It was a great feeling, even more pleasant than the cool air after jumping from the top turnbuckle. Without further delay, Nerissa intended to jump up and spread her legs to the sides. Pulling Clara's body down, the Echidna was going to land on her ass and smash her opponent's head into the mat in order to finish her off with one of the most destructive moves in her arsenal, which she called the Echidna's burrow!

[Vc0m]

Clara would be fatigued after Nerissa's high flying manuever into her body, trying to breathe air back in, while the Echidna absorbed cheers from the crowd. In comparison, the Brit did not enjoy the idea of her rival winning, and getting success at her expense.

She couldn't do much as Nerissa forced her back up to her feet, however, besides letting out a small, angry muffled noise, before she had her head promptly stuffed between her rival's thighs...and turned upside down. Clara knew what came next...

...and she wasn't up for that.

Instead, Clara would try and summon her core strength to flip herself up. If Nerissa wanted to attack Clara, she would've had to think fast and go for a powerbomb...but she believed that Nerissa would be too new to wrestling to reliably switch tactics on the fly like this.

Instead, Clara would continue her counter offense, quickly trying to hook her legs around her rival's shoulders, and hope forward, trying to take Nerissa's legs from under her, and flip her forward, trying to slam her into the canvas with a swift and vicious Sunset Flip Powerbomb!

[skip-stop]

Everything ends sooner or later, especially when it comes to matches. Nerissa is used to living here and now. This principle applied to almost every aspect of her life. Therefore, the Native American woman has always tried to give her best one hundred percent in any match, regardless of who her opponent is and what conditions are in the match.

This match was no exception. It's not hard to guess that a newcomer is rarely a favorite, rather the opposite, most always consider a newcomer an outsider. However, the Echidna wasn disagree with that. She was really lucky that today her opponent was this Englishwoman who had gone through many matches. Nerissa wasn't going to break the wheel because it was simply impossible. But she had no intention of becoming part of the statistics saying that a newcomer should lose to a veteran.

So she decided to end it all with one of her most powerful moves. Placing Clara's head between her sweaty thighs, the Echidna wrapped her arms around the brunette's waist. Even though she was a lightweight, she never complained about the lack of pure physical strength. But, considering that she was very tired, now she was glad of the fact that her opponent also did not have significant weight.

Straining her arms and legs, she straightened up to her full height in order to lift Clara over the mat and turn her upside down. And a second later, what should have been her moment of triumph turned into a real disaster. The reason for this was that the Englishwoman suddenly discovered fresh strength in herself and pulled herself up, so that she ended up on Nerissa's shoulders.

For a moment, the Native American woman's eyes widened in surprise because she was convinced that she had spent enough time and effort to weaken her rival. Releasing Clara's waist, she wanted to grab her hips in order to use a powerbomb instead of a piledriver. But it was already too late. Not because she had little experience, but because she simply did not have enough time to do it.

Clara leaned forward, so that she rolled over Nerissa. The legs of the brunette played the role of hooks that caught on the shoulders of the Echidna. The impulse that Clara received at the moment of the roll literally tore the Native American woman from the mat. Her body rose into the air, and then began to turn over. She knew what it was. She had never experienced this movement before, but she knew exactly what was going to happen.

"GUUAAAH!!" she screamed at the moment when her head and the entire upper body crashed into the mat.

They say that we are constantly finding something and losing something. At the moment when she fell, Nerissa found pain, but lost almost all the air that was in her lungs. She involuntarily clasped the back of her head with her hands, trying to calm the pain after the unbelievably attack that her opponent made.

[Vc0m]

With a flip of both herself and Nerissa, the Echidna was flat out on her back, with Clara trapping her at her shoulders, and holding her legs. The ref would quickly leap in to try and count the fall...

...only for the Brit to quickly roll off her rival, and get closer to her face, forcing Nerissa to sit up.

With all the back and forth both women have gone through, Clara decided it was time for the finish. She would wrap her arm around Nerissa's head, and try and force her to stand up on her feet. Grabbing Echidna's trunks, the Shadow Lord would try and lift her rival's feet off the ground, before trying to drill her head into the canvas below with a Reverse Lifting DDT - her signature Shadow's End!

[skip-stop]

Shit happens. These are probably the best words Nerissa could come up with to describe the situation she found herself in. She had to spend a lot of effort in order to shift the scales in her direction. She could even say that she felt victory in her hands. But literally at the snap of fingers, everything turned into a complete failure.

After crashing into the mat, the Native American woman tried to gather her strength. Even though she was in pain, she felt that her opponent was still holding her, which meant that now she would have to break a pin. And considering that her lungs were completely deprived of air, she wasn't sure she could handle it. There was still a thick fog in her eyes, and her breathing was catastrophically weak.

However, her expectations were not met. Clara did not try to pin her, instead, the brunette first let her go, and then quickly forced her to take a sitting position. Because of this, Nerissa hissed, now any movement caused her great pain. However, the worst was yet to come.

"Gghhh..." Nerissa groaned in a strangled voice at the moment when Clara's arm wrapped around her neck.

The Echidna's back arched and at the same second she felt that it was hard for her to breathe. It seems the British woman decided to strangle her with a dragon sleeper. A very bad situation, even Nerissa couldn't deny it. Considering how tired she was, she wasn't sure she had the strength to reach the ropes. Getting out of a submission hold in such a situation is much more difficult than finding the strength to break a pin.

But never say it can't be worse. Why? Because it can.

Nerissa made a mistake for the second time in a row. Her opponent wasn't going to strangle her. Instead, Clara grabbed the hem of her sports panties. And the next moment, the Echidna felt that the brunette was lifting her above the mat. It wasn't a submission hold, it was a throw.

She didn't want to lose. Not after the shit that happened with her debut. Nerissa didn't want her career to start like this. She didn't want to become another one from statistics. She didn't want to become another confirmation that a newcomer always have lose to a veteran.

So she threw her hands up, clutching Clara's arm. She didn't want to lose. And she was ready to fight for the right to become a winner. But she was too weak at that moment. She had spent too much effort in this match. And she didn't have time to recover from her opponent's sharp counterattack. It was too late.

The last thing the Echidna felt was gusts of air in her ears at the moment when the brunette sent her head down. At the moment when her head collided with the mat, Nerissa did not even scream. The reason for this was quite simple. At the same moment, the light in her mind went out. Yeah, shit really happens.

[Vc0m]

Nerissa was a fighter. No matter what else Clara took away from her opponent in this battle, she knew it to be true. She fought back to her best possible ability under worst circumstances no matter what. Even now, half way up in the air, she could feel her clawing at Clara’s arm, too fatigued to do anything, but even the fact that she tried to avert her fate gave Clara a bit more respect for the Echidna.

That still, however, didn’t change the fact that her head would be impacted at high speed by her finishing move!

Nerissa fell limply forward, and Clara was onto her in an instant, covering her body with her’s, and hooking Nerissa’s leg.

”ONE!”

[skip-stop]

One of the strangest sensations that a person can experience. Nerissa was caught between a dream and reality. She wasn't unconscious enough to not feel or hear anything. But she wasn't conscious enough to think clearly, let alone try to move. But, of course, this did not mean that the whole world stopped, everything was just the opposite.

The best proof of this was that while the Echidna was lying without signs of movement, her opponent did the last thing she had to do. Clara lay down on the Native American woman and hooked her leg. The referee loved her job and therefore did not hesitate to fall on the mat. The striped shirt raised her hand and then quickly dropped it, slapping the mat near Nerissa's head.

"ONE!"

There was nothing good about it for the Echidna except that this loud clap near her ear brought her back to consciousness to some extent. However, it didn't change much, in a sense it only made things worse. When the Native American woman's mind began to return to her, her pain increased. Her first thought was that she should break the pin. But when she tried to lift her shoulder off the mat, she found that she couldn't bring herself to move even a finger. Therefore, nothing prevented the referee from slapping the mat for the second time.

"TWO!!" echoed through the arena.

Nerissa opened her eyes slightly. The bright lights blinded her. She gritted her teeth in an attempt to gather her strength. Victoria was a very meticulous woman, especially when it came to her work. One of the results of her work was a thorough characterization of every woman and girl in her team. And when the manager said that Nerissa was in third place in terms of the combination of skills and everything else, the Echidna felt a prick in the heart area. It didn't suit her. She refused to accept the fact that she was one step behind Charlotte and two steps behind Astrid. Therefore, she sought to prove to everyone, especially to herself, that the only place she deserves is the first one.

Barely restraining a groan of pain, the Echidna put all her remaining strength and aspiration into trying to avoid defeat. Her shaking left hand rose a few centimeters above the mat. It seemed that a little more and she would have enough strength to jerk to the side. But her hand fell back to the mat. She had spent too much strength and her body was in too bad a condition. And after Nerissa's hand, the referee's hand also fell on the mat.

"THREE!!!"

Ding-Ding-Ding.

Yes, it was definitely not the best way to start a new career. Realizing that it was over, Nerissa closed her eyes and felt the taste of decay in her mouth in all its glory.

[Vc0m]

Clara laid draped over Nerissa. The Native American woman managed to bring the fight to her. Clara was very tired, and had Nerissa managed to kick out, she did not know whether she had the strength to continue for long afterwards.

The count rose to 2, and Nerissa was showing some signs of life:

”N-no…”

Clara’s would try and get Nerissa’s arm with her left hand, but it was unnecessary. The moment it came in close, Nerissa’s, as well as ref’s, arms were already hitting the canvas, with the 3rd count being declared shortly afterwards.

DING DING DING!

”Aaaaaaaaah…”

Clara would fall off of Nerissa to lay beside her. The match was intense, but Clara was the one who came out on top.

She laid on the ground for a good short while, before slowly trying to find her way back to her feet. Once steady, she would outstretch her arm towards Nerissa:

”Need some help?”, she would say in a friendly way…

[skip-stop]

The ringing of the bell sounded like a sentence. Nerissa wasn't one to lament about anything. However, some circumstances have a strong impact even on such a strong and independent woman like her. She left America in order to continue going forward, because nothing else was waiting for her there. But what was waiting for her here in Japan? First that shitty debut, and now this…

"Fuck..." without noticing it, Nerissa said out loud in a low voice.

Defeats are a part of any fighter's life, Nerissa was not a little girl who believed that there would be only victories on her way. However, there are matches that you have no moral right to lose. This match was one of those. At least in Nerissa's opinion. When you start a new career and lose to a veteran, a stigma immediately appears on you, which is then very difficult to get rid of. Many would say that this is nonsense. However, these people have most likely never found themselves in such a situation.

Completely unwilling to open her eyes due to pain and fatigue, the Echidna was still forced to do it, because she was not at all happy about the prospect of lying here like a dead body. The spotlight blinded her for a moment, which made her hiss softly. Focusing her vision, she noticed that her opponent had already risen to her feet. And something told the Native American woman that she knew what would happen next. Therefore, she hurried to get out of here to avoid this.

However, when she started to move, the decreased level of adrenaline in her blood made itself felt. Every movement was like torture, because her muscles seemed to have turned to stone. Nerissa wanted to get to her feet, but instead she only had enough strength to take a sitting position. In addition to the pain in her muscles, she had a terrible headache thanks to the last two attacks of the British woman, which brought her victory.

Due to the fact that the Echidna hesitated, she could not quickly get to her feet. And it led to exactly what she thought. Clara came up to her and kindly extended her hand. Nerissa looked up at her opponent straight in eyes. The subsequent scenario was as simple as a champagne cork. Nerissa should take a helping hand, Clara will help her up, then she will pat her on the shoulder and tell her that Nerissa has done a good job and that she is looking forward to the next match. Yes? That's how it should be, right?

Despite the pain, Nerissa clenched her right fist. Surely many at this moment assumed that now she would just hit the brunette in the face. And, there was nothing to hide here, Nerissa really had such a desire. Because she didn't give a damn about this scenario. Yes, Clara won, but if she was hoping to earn herself extra points with this kind gesture, then she can go and fuck herself. And the best way to let her know that was to punch her in the face. And yet. Don't fight when the fight is done. Even Nerissa thought so. She lost and if she were to hit the British woman now, it would only show her weakness. So... she unclenched her fist.

"Spare the sympathy," she said, looking away.

Nerissa lay down on the mat again, and then rolled to the side. Slipping under the bottom rope, she landed with her feet on the concrete floor. For a moment, her face contorted in pain. But she took a deep breath and headed up the ramp. She tried to walk steadily, doing her best not to let anyone see the pain she was experiencing right now. Not physical one. Someone was shouting her name to support her, she was lucky enough to hear it. But, of course, these rare cries literally drowned in the name of her rival, because most of the audience honored their winner at that moment.

They say that after a series of failures, there comes a good moment. However, only very naive people believe in this. Life doesn't work that way, especially when it comes to the ring. A series of failures at the beginning of a career is like an ink stain on a white T-shirt. Maybe someday you will be able to wash off this stain, but at the same time you have to ask yourself a few questions. How long will it take and what will be left of the white T-shirt by that time? So far, Nerissa had no answers to these questions. Right now she needed a shower and rest. Next on the list was a visit to some BDSM club. And only after that she was going to start training so that the next outcome would be different. Sounds like a plan. It was with this thought that the Echidna disappeared behind the curtains.