[#1 Contender Match] Charlotte Ravel' vs Yumie Hayashi - Some you win and some you lose

[skip-stop]

Acting quickly, Charlotte did not give her opponent the opportunity to recover from a collision with the mat. Turning the white-haired woman onto her stomach, the Sand Lizard trapped her in a painful submission hold. She did not try to jerk Yumie's upper body because she considered it a dirty tactic, but she exerted stable and very significant pressure, which caused the Japanese woman to groan with pain in her voice.

However, even in such a situation, Yumie did not lose her fighting spirit. Using her free hand, she grabbed the Frenchwoman's palms in an attempt to break the hold. This made Charlotte grit her teeth due to the strain.

“Grrr...”

She had enough physical strength, at least she never complained about it, but she knew for sure that she was lagging behind most heavyweights in this. If Yumie had two free hands, she would surely have been able to overcome Charlotte's grip. But if she thought she could do it with just one hand, she was very wrong.

Clasping her hands in a death grip, the Sand Lizard put even more strength into her arms, thereby increasing the pressure on the white-haired woman and letting her know that she would not let her free herself so easily. This was also understood by the referee, who approached the fighters and then asked a very expected question.

“Yumie, you give up?”

[Sigma Morgan]

Yumie knew freeing herself from holds like this was already a hard task, freeing herself from it with one hand was even harder. Yumie found herself trapped in this hold relatively early in the match, she still had plenty of energy and had not taken much punishment, but Charlotte was quickly proving to be one of Yumie's toughest tests yet. As she tried to break her opponent's grip with one hand, she soon felt the woman putting more force into the hold, creating more strain on Yumie's body causing her eyes to clench shut and letting out a loud groan of pain!

Yumie reopened her eyes hearing the referee's voice and the important question. Yumie took a deep breath. "No!" she responded shaking her head side to side as much as the current hold would allow her to. Gritting her teeth Yumie put her legs to work, getting her knees beneath herself and her opponent while she planted her hand on the mat, to stabilize herself. This was going to hurt like hell but it was needed if she was going to free herself from the submission.

The long haired woman began to crawl inch by painful inch toward the ropes, her body beginning to scream in pain, more so than before but she did her best to ignore it as she got closer to her salvation. Getting close Yumie extended her arm, attempting to latch onto the bottom rope in order to break the hold!

[skip-stop]

Considering that it was still the early stage of the match, Charlotte did not believe that her opponent would agree to give up. However, you can never know for sure. Perhaps her successful attacks had weakened the white-haired woman enough that she wouldn't be able to keep the pain from the Sand Lizard's submission hold. However, a few moments after the referee asked the question, Yumie replied with a firm refusal.

At that moment, the corners of Charlotte's lips lifted slightly, although hardly anyone could see it. Even though she had only one goal in the ring, namely victory, it never stopped her from appreciating the determination of her opponents. Moreover, Yumie did not limit herself to just a refusal. As if she had discovered a second wind in herself, the Japanese woman decided to use her free three limbs to try to get to the nearest ropes.

By starting to move, Yumie made Charlotte's submission hold even more painful, the proof of which was that she was now groaning almost nonstop. Realizing that at this rate her opponent would definitely get to the ropes, the Frenchwoman faced a choice. She could start jerking her opponent's upper body violently up and down, causing her truly hellish torment and possibly even injuring her. But instead, Charlotte preferred to just lean back as much as possible, gradually increasing the pressure to the maximum.

This probably made the task more difficult for Yumie, but it didn't stop her. After traveling a long way, she was able to grab the bottom rope, which forced the referee to act. The striped shirt approached the fighters and…

“Rope br!!!…”

But Charlotte relaxed her arms and legs even before the referee finished speaking. Releasing her opponent, the martial arts master rose to one knee, looking at the white-haired woman. Right now, she could grab Yumie's legs, pull her away from the ropes, and continue her offensive. But those who followed Charlotte's career closely already guessed what would happen next.

“Admirable...” she said softly, paying tribute to her rival's fighting spirit.

Getting to her feet, she wiped the sweat from her forehead, and then took three steps back, thereby creating a space between them so that Yumie could freely get to her feet. Charlotte knew she wouldn't have broken the rules if she had continued the offensive, but it was against her code of honor. Besides, with her willpower Yumie deserved them to start their next round on equal terms.

[Sigma Morgan]

It was likely a good thing the hold Yumie had found herself in was not locked in late in the match when her body had been thoroughly worked over and her energy had been sapped. That being said, the hold was still incredibly painful, especially when Yumie was moving and Charlotte leaned back, putting the pain at its maximum point. Yumie still managed though, her groans and grunts were writing the symphony of pain that was the long and agonizing crawl to the ropes.

Yumie gasped in relief as her hand gripped the bottom rope and her opponent immediately released her before the referee could even finish ordering her to. Charlotte was a professional in two ways, the politeness of releasing a hold as soon as needed, and locking someone in said hold. Yumie remained on the canvas for a few moments, taking long deep breaths of relief, hardly noticing her opponent's compliment as the pink haired woman got back to her feet.

"I have to focus. Come on!" Yumie thought to herself as she pushed herself up to a knee before grabbing the second and then the top ropes, using them to help herself back up before turning around and facing her opponent. With one last deep breath, Yumie got into a grappling stance, deciding to play to her strengths which was wrestling instead of trying to match her opponent punch for punch and kick for kick.

Kimiko meanwhile sighed in relief seeing her friend making it to the ropes, still having hope that Yumie could turn things around. "Come on Yumie, don't let her keep you down this time!" Kimiko shouted in encouragement as Yumie prepared herself for round two with her opponent, deciding to let Charlotte make a move on her so she could hopefully counter.

[skip-stop]

Charlotte's rival did not react to both gestures of the Frenchwoman. However, the Sand Lizard was not so naive as to expect even a simple nod in response to this. This was not the first time that her opponent did not respond to her actions, which were so unusual for the LAW ring. Most of the fighters here only care about their own ambitions, nothing more. Even the fans who had gathered behind Charlotte still not everytime understood why the pink-haired woman in many cases voluntarily refuses to continue to hold the advantage in her hands.

It didn't matter to her. Charlotte always put her own honor and dignity first, the rest did not matter to her, because otherwise she would be no better than all those who do not shy away from using the most heinous methods to achieve victory. Therefore, she calmly watched as Yumie regained her strength and got to her feet instead of attacking the white-haired woman.

It was only when Yumie got to her feet and took a confident stance that the Sand Lizard clenched her fists and braced herself. She was even ready to rush forward, but then she heard a voice from the side. That voice belonged to Yumie's friend, who was supporting her from the ringside. The martial arts master briefly glanced at this woman, after which the corners of her lips lifted slightly again. It's good when you have support from people close to you. How did she know that?

One notorious blonde sitting in the front row was supporting Charlotte with all her heart right now too. The only difference was that they didn't need words for that, because they were closer to each other than sisters. Astrid was openly smiling, looking at Charlotte and how dignified she was in this match.

After making sure that Yumie was ready to continue the match, the martial arts master rushed forward. On the first step, she shifted slightly to the right and simultaneously changed the position of her fists, putting her right fist forward instead of the left one. On the second step, she shifted slightly to the left, returning her fists to their original position. She did this in order to defocus her opponent's attention.

But it didn't really matter, because the next moment she intended to throw her right leg in a low arc, as if she wanted to use a hard low kick to the white-haired woman's left kneecap. However, instead of her foot reaching the target, this foot would have landed on the mat, allowing the Sand Lizard to begin a rapid rotation, while simultaneously throwing up her left leg bent at the knee, in order to then straighten this leg and send an unexpected spinning side kick from to the center of Yumie's stomach.

[Sigma Morgan]

Yumie not acknowledging Charlotte's comment didn't come from a place of disrespect, it was more or less her trying to recover and focus. Whether or not Charlotte saw it as disrespect wasn't exactly on Yumie's list of priorities compared to winning this match. She would have time to make amends later when another shot at a title was in her possession.

Yumie relaxed herself, calming her mind, tuning out the crowd and her friend at ringside. 'Come on, come at me!" Yumie thought to herself as she stared her pink haired opponent down, ready to even their score from round one. Yumie remained calm as Charlotte rushed forward, watching cautiously as the woman repeatedly shifted and switched the positioning of her hands. "It doesn't matter until there swinging" Yumie thought to herself knowing she had to watch out for both her opponent's kicks and punches.

When the woman got close she noticed the movement of the woman's leg, knowing a kick was coming though with such a low angle Yumie predicted it was heading for her leg and quickly braced it only for the woman's foot to pull off and plant back down on the mat only for the woman's stance to rotate. "Nows my chance!' Yumie thought to herself, preparing her hands as the woman's leg swung, her own hands quickly moving to meet it, catching the leg right before the kick could reach her stomach.

"Not this time" Yumie said before attempting to use her grip on the woman's leg to spin her around. If successful Yumie's arms would quickly wrap around her opponent's waist, giving it a firm squeeze before quickly lifting her up and throwing her overhead with a snap German suplex before releasing her knowing she still had work to do, but the counter was a start.

[skip-stop]

As Charlotte rushed towards her opponent, she noticed that the white-haired woman kept her cool even though the Sand Lizard was moving from side to side, simultaneously changing the position of her fists. This made the Frenchwoman tense up to some extent, but not to such an extent that she changed her tactics. Therefore, when she got close to Yumie, the martial arts master swung her leg, thereby revealing the true deception maneuver.

And this time she was really surprised. A low kick should have made her opponent react somehow, but instead Yumie remained calm, as if she knew from the very beginning that Charlotte was not going to attack her knee. Moreover, she was even prepared for the Sand Lizard to target the white-haired woman's stomach. As soon as Charlotte threw her foot in Yumie's abs, the Japanese woman immediately grabbed that foot.

“Gh!” Charlotte expressed her dissatisfaction with the current situation through gritted teeth.

She tried to bend her knee again to pull her leg out of Yumie's grip, but her opponent was faster. With a sharp movement, she twisted the Sand Lizard's leg, thereby forcing the pink-haired woman to turn around. After that, nothing stopped her from taking a step forward and wrapping her arms around the martial arts master's waist. Charlotte, guided by her instincts, immediately threw her right elbow back, but by that time Yumie had already lifted her off the mat, leaning back at the same time.

“GUAH!” Charlotte screamed briefly.

The back of her head and the entire upper body crashed hard in the mat thanks to Yumie's German suplex. Due to the superior physical strength of her opponent, Charlotte's body literally bounced off the mat, causing the Frenchwoman to roll over and end up on all fours. Putting her left hand on the back of her head, she tried to cope with this rush of pain, at the same time trying to get to her feet faster than the white-haired woman to protect herself.

[Sigma Morgan]

As Yumie lifted her opponent up, the woman's elbow hit her face! "GAH!' Yumie let out but it was already too late as she was already in the process of slamming her down! Once her opponent's shoulders and neck hit the canvas Yumie immediately released her and rolled away, putting some space between the two of them before pushing up onto her hands and knees, rubbing the side of her face where the elbow had struck!

"Dont let up!" Kimiko shouted encouraging her friend, knowing she shouldn't waste time recovering from such a basic hit.

Yumie heard her friend and chuckled, for someone who didn't have the most in ring experience Kimiko certainly was smart. "Whats the rush coach?" Yumie shouted jokingly back toward her friend as she pushed back up to her feet, noticing her opponent was doing the same.

Yumie was the first to get back up though, and clearly in better condition, even though they were both on their feet the Japanese woman knew the ball was in her court and she intended to force her opponent to dance to her tune. Yumie rushed forward, aiming to force her opponent into a collar and elbow tie up, playing to her strengths but mixing in some new tricks as she raised her knee aiming to strike her opponent in the stomach a few times to soften her up as she attempted to push the woman all the way back into a corner!