The Second Step: Aizen Yuzuriha vs WYVERN II

[Hills]

The hook rocks Wyvern, but she toughs through it with little trouble. She can feel the damage building up, but it will take far more before she's put down, especially for a ten-count like the match requires. As long as this keeps up, though, she'll be at the disadvantage. So she keeps moving with her original intentions, getting right back into her new stance as soon as she gets her balance back. It was clear she wasn't going to be fast enough to get this out suddenly, but it didn't need to be. She would trade the hits she took now for what was coming.

Wyvern doesn't even try to avoid the jab Aizen sends her way. She didn't know he hadn't put any force behind it, but the gamble on her endurance pays off thanks to his caution. All she needed was one chance. And Aizen beginning the spinning backfist is enough for her to strike. Coiled like a spring, the Irish wrestler's entire body launches forward, every muscle moving behind a single fist driven straight towards Aizen's midsection. The blow is far faster than anything else Wyvern has been able to unleash, enabled by her new choice of stances.

[BlackAkuma]

It wasn’t just the force of the punch that did so much damage. That was part of it, perhaps the largest factor, but there was more to it than that.

In the end, more than anything, it came down to timing. Perfect timing.

Aizen was halfway through the spinning backfist when he felt the sharp pain in his side, landing right on the kidney. The blow would’ve been damaging no matter when and where it hit, but on that precise spot at that precise instant, when he didn’t have the slightest clue it was coming, it was devastating.

A croak came from his mouth - a hoarse, harsh, bleating noise that didn’t have any business being made by a human. With arms flailing and the momentum from his spin still going, he had no choice but to keep the rotation, and wound up spinning out and falling to his knees as he grasped his side, struggling to bring air back into his body. It felt like his innards have all been scrambled by that blow, and all he could do was deal with the pain while he waited for the next hammer to fall.

[Hills]

It is Wyvern's oldest, most reliable strategy. Absorb her opponent's blows while unleashing her own, and hope they collapse first. It served her well for years, but her time in LAW has done nothing if not prove that it can no longer be relied upon as a winning strategy on its own. Her previous match with Aizen alone had been a stark, humiliating demonstration of that fact. Even now, though it was still a powerful tool. One that would always have its place in battle. Aizen's strikes would have kept back most ordinary fighters, but Wyvern's perseverance allows her to pull through and is rewarded as her fist drives into his side, striking him down in one blow.

The explosive burst of muscle movement through her body twinges her injured shoulder, but that isn't enough to slow her down. Winding one leg back, she aims a sharp but restrained kick at Aizen's forehead, intending to hit only hard enough to force him fully upright on his knees for a moment. If this succeeds, it's the second kick Aizen truly needs to watch out for; a brutal roundhouse kick to the head with enough force to blow him off his legs entirely and send him flat onto the hardened ground of the outside!

[BlackAkuma]

Move. Just move. Even if only a little bit, just move.

Aizen sent the orders out to his body, demanding that it do something in defense for what he was sure was coming next, but he received nothing in response but defiance. His mind still had the acuity to know what was coming next and what he needed to do to avoid it, but everything was so sluggish, as if his body and brain had parted ways for the moment. There was nothing he could do to protect himself, no way he could throw himself to the side, no chance of avoiding the kick that was coming towards his face at mach speed.

It hit him the face and snapped him upright, but bad as it was, it only served as the prelude for the real killer - a vicious kick that hammered him in the face and left him seeing pure darkness. Aizen fell flat on his back, arms stretched wide and eyes closed as the referee moved in to start an official count.

[Hills]

I'm still green.

Slow. Transitioning between striking styles had taken far too long to be practical in a real fight. Her exceptional endurance and her opponent's focus on technique over raw power were the only reasons she had been able to pull her reversal off. She'd taken quite a bit of extra damage in the process, and in this style of matchup, that could be the difference between victory and defeat. Aizen would win by grinding her down with accumulated damage over time, and she had abetted that nearly as much as she'd advantaged herself with the successful strike. If he recovered from this, she might not have gained anything at all.

Breathing deeply, the Irishwoman leans up against barrier, placing one arm on it for support to ease herself by even a tiny amount. Although the fight hadn't lasted exceptionally long, it had been intense, and she can already feel herself tiring. A chance to rest was necessary here, even if it provided her opponent respite as well.

Not interfering with the referee's count, Wyvern keeps her eyes on Aizen's prone form, waiting to see what happens next as her breaths slowly even out.

[BlackAkuma]

”1!”

Stiff. Everything felt unbearably, unflinchingly stiff. Like a machine that had grown rusted. He could feel everything from the neck down, but the reactions were slowed and delayed as if none of the commands were reaching the right limbs.

”2!”

He had to control his breathing. Get oxygen into his body. More energy, more possible, more movement. Breathe deep, take it all in and absorb it. Breath out, expel, and let it out.

”3!”

Aizen gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and forced himself up right, pushing his upper body higher, straining for each inch. It was slow going, but he fought for every inch, until he was up enough to lurch forward with his shoulders slumping. Good progress, but so much more to go.

”4!”

He rolled over to his stomach and found more strength for his arms, using them to push his way up, but he was still unsteady, wobbling with them. One knee pressed against the floor, then another.

”5!”

Up to one foot. Gritting his teeth he kept rising from there, straightening out until he managed to get the other one on solid ground.

”6!”

After a couple of quick breaths, Aizen rose up all the way, only to stagger back a few steps, nearly falling flat again. He was able to get his senses back to him in time to survive, but only barely, and his fists came up just as the referee was opening her mouth for the seventh count.

”He’s good! Fight!”

With the way cleared, Aizen brought up his guard, nice and tight, knowing that Wyvern wouldn’t give him any time to rest.

[Hills]

To Wyvern's mind, there's no point in even starting the count. She had Aizen's measure, at least to an extent. The injuries she had inflicted weren't enough to keep him down, no chance in hell. His body was well-trained enough, but his mind was the truly dangerous part. It was an iron will that drove him. So long as he could stand, he would. She hadn't broken him enough to make that impossible. She had inflicted pain and disorientation. He would be feeling this fight for days, if not weeks. So would she. But pain alone wasn't enough to stop either of them. His bones weren't broken. His tendons weren't cut. Within seconds, Wyvern can already see him controlling his breathing and marshalling his strength to stand.

She was doing the same. While she didn't need to concern herself with the count, she had taken just as much of a beating as her opponent. The last few strikes had gone her way, but during the match as a whole Aizen had more than proved his ability to keep up with and even overcome her. She might be stronger and tougher, but a broken bone would put her down no less effectively than anyone else, and an opponent of Aizen's calibur was certainly capable of such a feat. Wyvern forcibly steadies her own breathing to recover oxygen, gently prodding at her injured shoulder to determine its limits. It wasn't good, but it she could still use it to an extent. She would need to be careful, though.

As Aizen finally makes it to his feet, the Irish wrestler does indeed waste no time in trying to keep him on the defensive. She closes as fast as she can, aiming a quick flurry of punches and elbow strikes at Aizen's head before attempting to deliver a swift, spinning low kick to his shin.

[BlackAkuma]

Defend.

That word, more than any other, dominated Aizen’s mind at the moment, as the referee backed away and restarted the match. He wasn’t done, but he was in dire straits, with that last assault taking a lot out of him. His best recourse would be to back away and recover, gain his strength, but there was no doubt in his mind that Wyvern would be pressing her attack the moment she had the chance.

Sure enough, she came in hard and fast - as much as she could, anyway. Aizen brought his arms, forming a tight block, but he knew that would only do him so much good. Even the best guard could only absorb so much damage, and he expected an onslaught.

Wyvern didn’t disappoint, laying into him with a steady barrage. He took several strikes right on the arms, wincing as they cut into her bone, but the worst of it was a quick jab that found its way to the side of his head and nearly knocked him back down again. The kick to his shin only made matters worse, and he was forced to stumble forward.

Trying to turn the negative into a positive, Aizen opened his arms out and tried to capture Wyvern with a clench, looking to lock her down and force her up against the barricade. The size advantage was still his, and he could use it to make her waste energy - the more she wasted holding them up, the less she would have for pummeling him.

[Hills]

Attack.

This is the only thing Wyvern allows herself to think about at as she unleashes her devastating assault on Aizen. The Irish wrestler defaulted to aggression under almost all circumstances, and she could sense weakness like a starving predator. Aizen was clearly on the defensive, up but not fully recovered from the vicious beating she had dealt just moments ago. Not one to let a good thing go to waste, Wyvern applies enough pressure to keep her more experienced opponent on the defensive and prevent him from leveraging his own advantages against her. Inevitably, however, Aizen's enormous history of training and combat give him the ability to take advantage of even the slightest opening.

When Wyvern landed her kick to his shin, she was expecting it to unbalance Aizen. She had no way of knowing that he would somehow manage to weaponize that, stumbling into her and going for a clinch immediately after taking the blow. For another enemy she might have dismissed it as luck, but she'd learned better against this one. Not expecting the grab, Wyvern isn't ready to resist Aizen's advance and is caught up in the clinch and forced back onto the barrier. For a moment, Aizen's plan seems to be working.

Then, through their close proximity, he can feel a ripple of movement pass through Wyvern's body.

This odd motion is the only warning he gets before the Irishwoman's elbow, scant inches away from his chest inside the clinch, somehow rockets forward with intense force to drive itself into his sternum. The principal appears to be similar to a one-inch punch, using the whole body in conjunction to generate power without momentum. At the same time, Wyvern supports his weight just with her other arm, using her immense strength to leave the first arm free as it pulls back for what will no doubt be another such strike.

[BlackAkuma]

Aizen never cared much for pleasing the crowd, but he wasn’t deaf, either. The moment he came in for a clinch, the boos started pouring in, with scattered calls labeling him a coward, telling him to back off and fight straight, accusing him of using a delay tactic to stay alive.

And they weren’t wrong - he was stalling to buy time. But that was a perfectly valid strategy, and one he wouldn’t apologize for, even if their opinions had carried any weight. While it wasn’t often that he was put in a situation where clinching like this was necessary, it wasn’t often he faced an opponent like Wyvern, either. Someone as determined, dangerous and strong as anyone he’d faced before, someone who could take him out with only a few well-placed shots, and worst of all, someone who was clearly cognizant of those facts.

And it was working, too. Keeping her locked down, preventing her movements, keeping him safe. A viable, if not flashy, strategy, and he believed that right up until the moment where her elbow sliced into his midsection. It was hard to believe that she managed to land a strike like that with so little space, but there was no denying the resulted. The wind was driven out of him, his legs weakened, it felt like he’d been stabbed with a dull blade. He was going down.

It didn’t mean he was going down alone, though.

As Aizen started to slide down Wyvern’s body, his hands came out of the clench and reached for her face. It would look like mindless fumbling at first, until they came together around her temple for a solid hold. With that secured, he kicked his legs out, dropped down on his backside, and tried to ram her chin into the top of his skull with a sitout jawbreaker, letting his weight do all the work.