Making friends and throwing punches.

[ThatPolishDude]

One advantage of the approach they both took was that Huan had time to react as the signal prompted her to stop and as she saw the angles and the foot coming off the mat she knew where it was aimed. Call it experience or intuition, she had plenty of both and the stance Alice took made the leg have to travel more distance though it also meant it would hit really harder.

Still, Huan managed to turn into the kick and take it on her chest with a loud exhale as she felt the sudden pain of the impact, it sure was no easy hit to take but she wouldn't be where she is if she couldn't take one. then immediately her arms wrapped around Alice's leg. The foot was quickly placed under her armpit in a manner not dissimilar to a guillotine, then she jumped up, her legs moving to wrap around Alice's leg and cross at her hip so that the pressure should force her down along with Huan who would now drive her legs down and arch her back to put pressure on the secretary's ankle.

[Hagen-Autem]

Alice had not expected that response from Huan Lei, nor did she have the opportunity to take any countermeasures to block the other woman's action. "Yaah, no!!"

The secretary couldn't help but arch towards the ceiling in pain as each of her fingernails scratched the canvas,but prevail on this to look for a way to respond. Huan was definitely a lioness even in rehearsals, but if Alice considered tapping every time someone pinched her hard, she wouldn't have accepted the proposal to get in the ring ever!

Alice leaning on her free foot and hands to turn in the direction her partner was twisting her ankle to lighten the pressure and get into a sitting position to plant her hands on one of Huan's legs and push it down to open the scissors. Then, she would then grab one of hers arms to have a foothold while with the other hand would give a few annoying blows with the edge of her hand to the other woman's face to loosen her ankle and conclude by kicking away at hers abdomen. She was determined to pull back for a breather.

"Definitely, you never make things easy, do you?"

[ThatPolishDude]

Huan had to quickly change her strategy from applying the submission to defence, a few strikes seeking past her guard. She already had a counter in mind when she felt Alice kick out and build distance to get a breather to which Huan would give space and get up to her feet.

"Not on the mats at least." Huan said with a slight chuckle as she circled the other women. She would keep her distance, giving Alice the time to catch her breath and waiting for her to start their next engagement.

[Hagen-Autem]

She snorted and rolled her eyes before being complicit in the giggle, It was a rhetorical question - and she will make space in her schedule to analyse her routines and restructure them.

She sat on the canvas for a few more seconds, stretching her neck from side to side while Huan Lei waited for her, prowling like a lion around hers.

She stands up and looks at her with a hard-to-interpret expression. "You had a counter in mind, didn't you?" She commented sagaciously, holding herself back from bursting the bubble with another spontaneous laugh; as flips her arms forward for a less stoic guard as prepares her footwork to orbit her.

[ThatPolishDude]

Huan shrugged and smirked. "Maybe" She said teasingly as she observed her opponent's movements.

Seeing her movements, Huan would get close and send an oblique kick to keep her grounded and make it harder for her to shift weight for the next attack. Then she would try catching Alice's hand and shift her own legs to make her trip when she was pulled. If it worked and Alice landed on the mat, Huan would then lay her leg over her opponent's bicep and shift her wrist to place it against her hip which would be followed by her hands interlocking under the opposing shoulder of the woman and pulling to lock in an omoplata.

[Hagen-Autem]

Alice's leg gave way under Huan's impact. Whether what would happen next was the fault of self-weariness, overconfidence or her inability to stop the banter and get serious, she couldn't tell; but the result would still be the same when her partner took hold of her arm, bringing it between hers legs and twisting in place to twist Alice's body downwards, chest-to-earth, to lock her into one of her favourite submissions: the omoplata.

But, although Alice swallowed a yelp of pain at the weight of Huan hyperflexing her shoulder, and it was clear that she was noticeably more tired, that manoeuvre has many ways to be disassembled. And the British is not yet at her limit.

The secretary would bounce her opposite shoulder to free it from the pincer while lifting one knee in order to remain kneeling on one only. Her strategy was to lift her own back firmly, pushing up with her legs in an effort to throw Huan off balance and knock her off her feet. If she succeeded, Alice would immediately pounce on her by seizing the moment, seeking to drive her own head under Huan Lei's armpit, driving her clavicle with her whole body into the joint so that the mma wrestler could not close a guillotine as a countermeasure, and to raise that arm as the secretary extended her arm behind the other's neck to clasp her hands behind hers head and close a Kata-Gatame.

Spoiler

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ClearcutLongD ... ricted.gif

[ThatPolishDude]

Alice managed to quite skilfully get herself out of Huan's submission and launched a counter-offensive with Huan being on the receiving end of an arm triangle. Chokes however were something that she knew inside and out and so she would waste no time. Instead of even trying to go for the guillotine which she knew would be countered she drove her elbow to the side of Alice's neck and swung her leg to add momentum to it and force the choke to dislodge.

That motion would already put her on the first steps of getting a back control so if it worked she would press in that direction by continuing the motion of her leg to swing over Alice while her hand, the one that was not trapped would follow and move to wrap around the secretary's neck as her legs would wrap together in the front. Her other hand would retreat and lock with the opposite one to create a sort of a laver that she would then pull to create pressure on her opponent's neck and lock in a short choke. At the same time, her legs would snake down to get behind her knees and prevent her from getting up.

[Hagen-Autem]

Alice was throwing more impromptu submissions as a further test to herself. Her performance was faltering from over-exercising, and Huan Lei was a heavyweight, perhaps one of the biggest L.A.W. now had, and was in better physical condition. The gap in experience and strength was becoming more pronounced, and yet the secretariat was trying to tackle her in hers area?

It didn't take long for the more skilled MMA fighter to leverage her legs, arching her body upwards to turn her body to the other's side and boycott the arm triangle, and her turn gave the necessary pressure to achieve it. But the smaller brunette knew she was pushing her limits, her body was more stained from her previous surplus with the punching bag and if this was more professional, maybe Alice would have lost by now or the counter would still be running up against her. But if she took a step back now and fell into fatalism, it would be too easy and not as cathartic.

When Huan Lei's leverage manoeuvre paid off, and her arm had already made contact with Alice's neck to start dominating her again in an avalanche from which Alice would have no choice but to surrender a second time, the secretary reacted by sensing in that instant what would be a takeover of her back. She grabbed Huan's arm and pulled it from around her neck, and before this woman could finish wrapping a leg around her and seal the back control, Alice also turned around as she pushed that arm from her throat, to lie on her back against the canvas without even thinking about it.

The secretary knew what a rear choke was, She had experienced its variants multiple times, and now she was drawing miraculous energy from the adrenaline of the moment to continue to hinder it, if she sensed correctly; but, though turning in time would prevent Huan from doing it to her, it would also lead to Alice being on down and that other woman on top of her in the mounted position.

Agitated and perspiring noticeably, she commented: "I see you like that perspective," while to raise her arms in a defensive gesture. Her hair was already in disarray and somewhere along the way she'd lost her garter. She seemed willing to try a little harder and accept whatever Huan gave her from that position - however... then she accepted it and succumbed. The Secretary let her head rest against the canvas on its own next to her disarmed arms and closed her eyes to gasp in peace. "Okay, you win." She accepted her tiredness at last. "At least give me this." Heaving her chest up and down hard. If there is a next time, she will make sure she doesn't come tired from before.

[ThatPolishDude]

Huan sighed and smiled before getting up and offering a hand to Alice. "You did good, really good, your ground work could use a little work but I bet you would have most people tapping in seconds." She said in an encouraging tone, this spar certainly worked to get her blood pumping. "So how about we grab some food? My treat."

[Hagen-Autem]

Alice almost went along with it. That woman would have pulled her whole body into this sparr, wheatering the fatigue from the disassociation prior to it, and stretching her every muscle to the limit in order to keep up with Huan Lei; or that would have been if that wasn't exactly what she had been doing from the middle of the sparring match.

The brunette had been overcome on the canvas, gasping face up with the other woman sitting on her abdomen. Huan was no joke, she really was a heavy and powerful fighter, with a highly developed technique even outside her speciality, while she herself lacks the gasp to regulate her time between the desks, with the papers; and in the ring, as part of the show, more so in Japan, they have exciting challenges.

She accepted the other woman's hand to get up with a mutual tug and also the proposal she gave her. "Agreed, but showers first, do you think?" She added between gasps.

Assuming they go to a diner after that, the secretary would go for a somewhat heavy breakfast, but without breaking her carbohydrate limit. Futhermore, today she has most of the morning free - Vin can organise others to follow her routines - and going for a leisurely breakfast is a reliable way to harmonise after that intense warm-up.

"So, that's the gym you go to a often, huh?" She took a bite of her bread and adjusted her glasses on the spot as she starts the conversation.