The Second Step: Aizen Yuzuriha vs WYVERN II

[Hills]

Wyvern allows herself a brief surge of relief as she's able to pull away from Aizen. In her current state, she would never be able to protect herself or strike back against someone like him. Her greatest imperative in this moment, above all else, is resetting her shoulder to recover the use of her other arm. Once that was done, she'd at least have a chance. The moment her feet impact on the floor outside of the ring, the Irish wrestler grits her teeth together against the additional jolt of pain as her bones grind against each other unpleasantly and her flesh continues to distend in ways it was never meant to. Wasting no time, she grips her injured arm around the bicep and pulls, using as much precision as possible to reset her shoulder. The moment is a blaze of agony, but when it's done, she can already feel relief. The pain is still intense, but nothing compared to what it was before.

Now able to turn her attention outwards, it takes her only an instant to understand what Aizen is trying to do. The additional run-up time would give him enough of a power boost to do some real damage against her, and he would desire such an advantage against her greater strength and toughness. With no chance to get out of the way, the younger fighter takes the few moments before impact to loosen up. From her current position, she can't properly resist the incoming kick, but she doesn't need to. Not everything needs to be a contest of pure force. Indeed, when Aizen's boots impact his opponent, he can feel some of the force being dissipated as Wyvern accepts the blow, allowing herself to be flung backwards. This does send her crashing against the barricade, but this lets her brace herself and stay on her feet. For now, however, she's too busy reeling from the hit to respond in kind.

[BlackAkuma]

Pressure. Constant, unending pressure.

That was Aizen’s sole focus at the moment, as he launched his baseball slide dropkick, desperate to seize momentum while it was firmly on his side. Both of them were too good to let opening like this stay that way for long, so he knew that his time was short - she would find a way to cut him off, sooner rather than later, and he had to cut her off, grind her down, and take that away from her while they were still in the early stages.

The blow hit. Head on. A good strike, though it was clearly lacking a good deal of the oomph he was hoping for when he launched it. He wasn’t quite sure how Wyvern had managed that, but he supposed it didn’t matter much at this point. He had her right where he wanted her, up against the barricade, nowhere to go.

His feet had only touched the floor for half a second before he was on the attack again, leaping towards her with a huge lung, closing the gap right away. He brought his leg up as he moved in and flew high, aiming his knee right at her face and putting all the momentum and weight he could muster behind the blow.

[Hills]

Aizen's follow-up was exactly what Wyvern would have expected. Fierce, efficient, and unrelenting. Putting her on the defensive wasn't a simple task, but it was far easier to keep an opponent there once you had them on the back foot. And with her back pressed up against the barrier, she had nowhere to go. A more acrobatic or agile wrestler might have been able to use it to avoid the shot somehow, but those skills were out of Wyvern's wheelhouse. Moreover, with nowhere to go, her force-dispersal trick won't work a second time. She'll have to defend herself.

The elbows and knees are, in many ways, the most dangerous parts of the human body. They are harder and stronger than almost any other striking surface, and sacrifice none of the force that can be put behind a punch or kick. Wyvern is keenly aware of this, as her own primary fighting style, Lethwei, relies heavily on both. It has taught her to use other tools as well, however, and the irishwoman's nigh-inhuman durability enables options in this kind of situation that would be inconceivable for most. Even for her, they carry the risk of injury and other severe drawbacks.

Oh well.

As Aizen's leg closes in with her face, Wyvern braces herself against the barrier and snaps her head forward, driving her skull into Aizen's knee with extreme force. The backlash is instantaneous and disorienting, sending her reeling clouding her vision. At the same time, however, Wyvern's headbutts pack a hell of a punch, and the skull is even harder than the kneecap. Whatever pain Wyvern experiences, the end result won't be much more pleasant for Aizen.

[BlackAkuma]

It was a crazy stunt that Wyvern pulled. So crazy, in fact, that it took Aizen a few moments to realize what she’d done, exactly, and he could tell the crowd was likewise confused.

On the surface, he’d done everything right. Moved forward, struck hard, landing the blow on her head. It wasn’t a glancing blow, either - he’d hit her direct, straight on, better than he could’ve hoped. It would’ve been enough to knock some fighters out clean, and while he suspected Wyvern was too tough for that to happen, you could never be too certain with head trauma. The right blow at the right time could knock down even the biggest, hardest opponent.

Instead, though, he was the one experiencing pain, he was the one going down, he was the one reeling, and as he laid on the floor and cradled his knee, it dawned on him why - he hadn't hit her skull with his knee, she’d hit his knee with her skull. Clever. Dangerous and clever and maybe a little crazy on top.

There was no time to be impressed, though. He needed to make some space, before she regained enough sense to capitalize. He rolled over to his front and pushed up on his remaining good leg to make a break for the corner of the ring, trying to create distance.

[Hills]

There was a reason that amplifying the force of an opponent's attack wasn't generally considered a wise strategy, in either the short or long term. Wyvern's absurd durability allowed her to derive some benefit from the illogical counterattack, but she had still taken a full-force knee to the face. Hardest part of the skull or not, she was flirting dangerously close to a concussion afterwards, although the obvious effectiveness of the counter-attack against Aizen went a long way to mitigate her pain. It was painful and disorienting for her, but it had the desired outcome on her opponent as well. More importantly, it would put him off-balance. Aizen unquestionably had a large advantage in skill and experience over her, but proving that she could be unpredictable, and apply that unpredictability in ways that were actually effective, would hopefully slow him down a bit as he needed to consider unconventional responses to his future attacks rather than orthodox ones.

Aizen's retreat is a validation of this approach. Wyvern needs a few moments to recover from the impact. Even knocked flat, the more experienced fighter might have been able to do some damage while she was still disoriented. Instead, he backs up. Never one to back down, Wyvern pursues as soon as she can put one foot in front of the other, but her approach is slow, methodical. To an untrained onlooker, the situation might seem to be like a hunter stalking her prey, but the truth is quite different. Wyvern can't move much faster, and knows she needs to put pressure on Aizen before he can fully recover and begin outmaneuvering her again.

[BlackAkuma]

The was almost as confused as Aizen had been at the outset, misunderstanding what had just occurred - it wasn’t every that someone landed an attack cleanly and found themselves in retreat straight afterwards. But the sense of it dawned on them soon enough, and a swell of support came along with it, as he made his way around the ring and Wyvern closed in on her prey. They’d been going back and forth with their support since things began, but now they were leaning towards the huntress, eyeing her as she closed in on her prey.

It was all noise in the back of Aizen’s head, a distant concern as he made his way around the corner. He could tell that she had taken some damage in that exchange as well, but he was the one hobbled - without a good base to work from, his options would be limited. But he couldn't play keep away with a woman like Wyvern - she would just grind him down. He had to hold his ground.

As Wyvern neared, Aizen moved to face her head on as she neared, and brought his hands up in a tight boxing stance, planting his back foot and space wide for a solid foundation. When she was close enough, he threw out a left jab and a right straight towards her chest, coming at her with the classic, reliable combination, trying to keep her at bay with bare basics.

[Hills]

Wyvern's slow, stalking advance on Aizen is ultimately just a smokescreen for her own, but there's a definite pressure that comes with it. The irishwoman is intense at the best of times, and never more so than when facing down a strong opponent. Her head still rings a bit, and her shoulder is still agonized despite being reset, but the ignored pain only intensifies the blank-faced glare drilling into Aizen's eyes. Wyvern isn't inhuman, he's seen that for himself. But injury alone, it seems, isn't even enough to get her to pause. Pain and injury might slow her down, but not stop her. The real question is: what can?

Aizen is ultimately able to act first as Wyvern gets within range, his slightly superior reach and readied stance enabling him to strike just an instant before Wyvern does. The Irish wrestler's arms flash up to intercept the attack, and she blocks the jab with little trouble, but her shoulder slows her left arm down just long enough to allow the straight through. The clean hit pushes her back a step, but her stance is sturdier and less fluid than normal to keep herself steady and she is thus able to avoid being thrown to far off balance. The hit does allow Aizen to maintain the momentum, however, as he will be in a position to keep going faster than Wyvern will be ready to hit back.

[BlackAkuma]

Steady feet. Solid position. Good base.

It might’ve seemed like a basic, boring thing to do in a wrestling match when so many moves were on the table, but retreating back to basics was as solid a play as he could think of. It would reduce the strain on his legs, take away his dependence on them while he recovered, make things more of a straight up brawl, which wouldn’t favor her with that aching arm.

The logic seemed to hold up, too, as his blows struck pay dirt. The first one didn’t get much, but it was just the setup, anyway. The straight was a solid hit with a good reaction, sending her reeling away from the point of impact. She wasn’t down, far from it, but that was a good start. He had to make something of it.

Easier said than done, though. With his knee still hurting, Aizen couldn't close in with the burst he would’ve liked, instead relegated to a stuttering hobble. Far from his best moment, but he closed in all the same, delay be damned, and he looked to take her down again. This time he lashed out with a pair of hooks, left and right, coming in quick succession and going for her head. Wild, powerful strikes that would rock her…if they hit.

[Hills]

Wyvern's shoulder won't properly recover from the dislocation within the time frame of this match. As such, she is working with a handicap against a more skilled, more experienced opponent. Her efforts to keep him off his balance failed, as he was able to recover himself and strike out against her first. The situation, objectively, is dire. Given how their last match ended, and the current trajectory of this one, it would seem to most that the Irish wrestler has little chance to achieve victory.

None of this even occurs to Wyvern. She isn't blind to her disadvantages, but she has no time to consider their implications when her mind is so focused on the opponent in front of her and her possible paths to defeat him. Her brain races through every technique she knows, every strategy, every detail she has observed of her opponent's skills and abilities. As Aizen throws his first hook, she blocks with her good arm, then almost unconsciously begins to shift out of her kickboxing stance to set up a counter attack, moving to a more streamlined position with her side facing towards Aizen. The motion is fast, but not fast enough to elude the eyes of a master martial artist like Aizen, and it slows her down enough that the second hook connects, her left arm once again failing to respond in time due to both injury and her change of position. The blow momentarily puts her off balance, but she braces herself against the barrier and regains it quickly, keeping to her new stance and staring down her opponent with single-minded intensity.

[BlackAkuma]

Yes. This was the way.

The first hook was blocked well, showing that Wyvern was far from disabled up top, but the second? That landed well. Aizen’s opponent wasn’t expecting that one, moving in to hit him between blows, but he turned out to be a little faster this time. Not much, nothing big, but just enough in this particular instance to land a hit right when he needed to. The blow rocked her and she fell back, hitting the barrier. Not helpless, but hampered, with the shoulder paying him dividends.

It was a good time to strike. Couldn't have asked for better.

It was risky, but this was too good of a window for him to pass up, even with his leg still hurting. He eyed her over, head to toe, cautious, then moved in again with a slow step, only to push off her good leg and burst into striking range.

He threw out a quick jab, barely putting any force into it, then twisted around and whipped his arm out wide, attempting to bring a spinning backfist crashing into Wyvern’s face on her weak side.