L.A.W. - League of Anime Wrestling

The feint elbow managed to strike, and it did seem to cause Grace some pain. Toshiko knew it wouldn't be enough to take her out, but it would be a sharp beginning to her offense. She wanted to take this taller girl down to the ground to assert her dominance though. Being the smaller of the two, the Japanese girl knew this was important for her future victory. She grabbed a hold of Grace's arm, but it appeared the girl wasn't as winded from the belly strike as she may have hoped. Strong abs. Toshiko would make note of that. So as she went to throw Grace over her shoulder, she felt Grace's other hand grabbing at her face, eliciting an angry grunt from the Twilight Edge.

A punch came after, but Toshiko knew better than to stand in place after both of Grace's hands were free. With a swift smack of Grace's forearm, Toshiko was able to duck and break the grasp, dodging the punch. She went down into a squating position, planting one hand to steady herself for just a moment before swinging her body around and extending a leg in an attempt to sweep Grace from the back of her legs. If she could just take this girl down, she would be satisfied with just that.

The fight was on and wasn't going to let up anytime soon, after Toshiko's hit connected Grace could only stop her from knocking her down to the floor as she connected with her first punch. Her second punch however was deflected by Toshiko as she changed her tactics backing away from her and trying to sweep Grace's legs. Her speed made it hard to keep up with her tactics but Grace was managing for the most part. Her legs came up just as Toshiko's foot swung past them, having jumped out of the way of the hit.

Once she was back on her feet grace would try and send out a kick to Toshiko's head while she was down there and try to knock her away. Any feasible tactics were limited at this range as Grace was mostly reacting on instinct but if she could keep up then she could still make this less meaningful method of planning work.

Toshiko was surprised that Grace could keep up her speed, to a point. The taller girl had leaped over her sweep, and she was already reacting to kick her in the head. However, Ito managed to dive over onto her side in a desperate attempt to dodge the kick. She had barely managed to dodge the attack, and she had actually assumed she would have hit that sweep. She underestimated Grace's quickness, which was something she wouldn't do again.

She was open, which was the last place Toshiko Ito wanted to be. So she did the only thing she could think on instinct. Before Grace could plant her leg from the whiffed kick, Toshiko would kick her foot from her proned position on the floor and attempt to hit Grace in the leg hard enough for her tumble over. She would then roll over onto her back to prepare herself for what would come, whether or not Grace's taller figure would be falling down next to her or not.

Grace's ability to dodge those first few hits sent Toshiko in full on retreat as she had to avoid the kick entirely though she did one last effort to upset Grace's landing by sending her foot out to kick at her leg mid reel. topping grace's footing as she topped back a little but corrected herself before she flopped on the floor. Thankfully that ended where it was but Grace knew she shouldn't get into extended little scraps with her opponent like that. She was too fast for Grace to keep up with consistently.

Instead she needed to try something else. Getting in close and throwing her off her game with some technical or impact moves and seeing how durable Toshiko was. Once she was back to a base she would start to circle around her a bit to find a chance to strike and reset herself for the fight to come.

The kick from Toshiko had worked, to an extent. At least it worked to the point that the Japanese girl wanted. Grace was taken off center, and as she did, Ito immediately did a kip-up, looking to be ready for what would come next. She noticed Grace was up on her feet and stepped back. In truth, Toshiko was surprised that Grace could have managed to keep up with her as much as she did. The Twilight Edge then took a pace back and noticed Grace was attempting to circle her.

Thusly, Toshiko started to circle her opponent as well, mirroring her movements, keeping an eye on her. Then she spoke, honestly, "I did not expect you to keep up. You have my respect for now. You will need to act to keep it." The two had been evenly matched so far, and they had effectively started the match right over again. Toshiko truthfully didn't know what Grace had in mind. Then, Toshiko suddenly ducked down and made a move to look as though she was going to cut the distance between them again, just to test her reaction, but stop herself and keep the same distance away. She knew it would be important to learn just a little bit more about how her opponent fought before making another assault on her.

Grace would keep herself on her feet watching the women start to circle with her as the two of them were getting ready to restart this match. Though this time Toshiko seemed to be a bit more respectful, though she also carried a bit of arrogance in telling her that she could lose it pretty fast. Grace just scoffed and instead kept putting her guard up in case the women tried to attack again. Toshiko did, though this time she started to move in and stopped as Grace made sure her arms were up and at the ready. Seemed she was messing with her.

Well if she wanted misdirection Grace could play that game. Moving in after Toshiko and trying to throw a right towards her face. Though she would then follow it up with a left to her face as well that turned out to be a feint as she would go for another right this time Grace was aiming for Toshiko's toned abs to test out the women's core.

Toshiko noted the guarded reaction from her own false attack and was satisfied with the information it gave her. She would know exactly how Grace would react to something like that in the future, which was her full intent. Grace finally made her move though. She threw a punch towards Toshiko's face, and the Japanese girl stepped to the side slightly, using her forearm to deflect Grace's arm from hitting the blow. Ito then went to duck the following left punch and went down, but it was a false attempt.

She had fallen for it and as she sprung, ready to hit Grace Kenning with a stiff elbow shot, she was hit right in her tight stomach with a blow from the right. Due to her momentum, Toshiko flipped up and over Grace's fist and landed right on her back on the mat. She instantly turned over onto her side and stifled a grunt of pain, not wanting to show any sort of weakness to her opponent. She had trouble breathing immediately from the shot and she masked her pain with a determined look in her eyes, but couldn't muster the will immediately to get any higher than lifting her upper body up with a hand while the other went to hold her stomach.

Grace was able to get a good test of her opponents defenses this way, as she expected her first punch was too predictable to get Toshiko while she was watching her like that and she knocked it aside, but she thought her attack was very straightforward which allowed her to surprise her with the feint and drive a powerful punch into Toshiko's belly. The fighters abs were firm but the surprise seemed to allow Grace's power to overcome that and send her down to the mat with the one hit Toshiko surprised once again by her abilities.

"As you'll probably figure out. I have a killer right." Grace said to the downed Toshiko. Her instincts told her to get back on the attack and try to wear down the injured midsection of her opponent, something she tried to follow up on while Toshiko was down by going low to grab at her legs and try to pull her in closer before driving her boot down on Toshiko's body.

If Toshiko's face wasn't masked, Grace probably could have seen the scowl under it after her remark. Her abs were hurting from the blow, and she cursed herself for her error in not playing it as safe as she should have. And for her to make a comment like that, such a worthless comment she thought, it was something that had irritated the martial artist. She felt her legs grabbed and she could see a stomp was coming.

Toshiko used her great core strength to shift her body over to the side, despite her legs being held, to narrowly dodge the stomp. Partially, she didn't want Grace to get the satisfaction of such a mundane move, and because she knew another stomp like that may make it even harder for her to catch her breath. However, when she managed to dodge that, she put a hand to her stomach. Doing that had a toll on her, but less than it would had she actually taken the stomp. Unfortunately for Toshiko, her legs were still in Grace's control, and she didn't have the immediate strength after that dodge to follow up or escape.

Grace didnt want to waste time gloating. It wasnt exactly a skill set of hers and to be frank it was just a waste of time, save the showboating for your victory lap. And it seemed she gave Toshiko a bit too much time as though she pulled her in the women still found a way to roll out of the way of her attack and keep from being stomped on. Though Grace knew she could do something with the hold she still had on her legs.

Instead of trying to step on her and give her time to rest grace went for something she couldnt avoid. Pulling the rookie in closer Grace would seek to get a better grip on her legs and attempt to lift her up in the air before slamming Toshiko back down. Hopefully flattening her with that one attack Grace would seek another cause of se got that off she would try and throw herself down on her elbow first to keep her that way.