Countess Dante dashes into the Scorpion's Den! (for CaptainL)

[Vc0m]

"One...Tw---Oh!"

Countess would still shove Chika off of her, still eager to fight against her, still wanting to defeat Chika. Even if the Raven Knight didn't see her rival's strength...not yet at least, she did admire her spirit.

She grabbed Isabella's blonde hair, trying to put both of them into an upright position: "Then use your full power...or am I still not worthy enough of your full strength, Countess? Then it seems that I have to show you even more..."

Shifting her grip to her rival's shoulders, Chika wouldn't do anything too fancy...but harshly drive her knee straight into the blonde's gut as hard as possible, trying to force her to double over!

[CaptainL]

Isabella had made her move out of desperation. The very thought of being pinned down underneath Chika, of being defeated by an obviously inferior fighter who couldn't begin to approach the devastating power of Dim Mak, was too great an indignity to even begin to comprehend. She had to get out, one way or another! Even when she managed to kick Chika off of her, however, her relief was short-lived. When Chika dragged her up by the hair, that too left Isabella grumbling under her breath as she was hoisted back to her feet. The stabbing pain in her scalp caused her to hiss, but even the pain was nothing compared to the insult of being treated like the hapless target of a playground bully. Sure, Isabella saw no issue with pulling hair in order to control her opponents or cause some additional pain, but that was because she was using whatever she had at her disposal, not that she wasn't taking them seriously! It was different, okay?!

Nevertheless, Chika swung her knee into the Countess's gut, and the impact drove a gasp out of her lungs as she doubled over forward, coughing and sputtering. She clutched at her midsection as she drew back in a long, deep breath...but as she steeled herself, she looked back up to lock her eyes onto Chika, where her teeth clenched as she let out a growl. She hadn't missed how Chika was belittling her. How she was still accusing Isabella of not wanting to unleash her full power! Or, worse yet, she might be accusing Isabella of not possessing that ability in the first place! Her face was growing red, but Isabella knew full well that that redness was purely that of rage, and when she looked back at Chika, it was with her teeth bared in a hateful grimace!

"If I were to unleash my full power now... then you would be DEAD before you so much as had a chance to BLINK another time! I could kill you and every person on this city block with my little finger if I so wanted to! Is that the kind of person you want to threaten? Is that what you really want to contend with? IS IT?!"

Although Isabella firmly believed in everything she was saying, it was also her hope that Chika would be distracted by her rants enough to let down her guard. Because when Chika - hopefully - least expected it, Isabella would swing out with a cheap shot of her own in the middle of her speech. This time, with her knee aimed at the Raven Knight's groin!

[Vc0m]

With Isabella doubled over, Chika planned to follow up with quite a skull-rattling move - an Axe Kick to the back of the woman’s head…

However, right as she tried to lift her leg up, she saw Isabella’s reddened, growling face. The Countess was angry at Chika, likely frustrated at not managing to deliver a single solid hit onto the Raven Knight, as she ranted, and talked big about herself…even though to Chika, it was becoming increasingly clear that the woman in front of her was all bark and no bite. She lifted her leg up…

And Isabella lifted her knee up.

The blonde would land it right between Chika’s legs, into her crotch, for a dirty Low Blow!

”GYAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

With her on one foot, Chika completely lost her balance to the hit, toppling onto her rear as she cupped her crotch!

”<You…cheating…lowlife…PIECE OF SHIT!!!>”, Chika would angrily rant at Isabella in her native Japanese as she writhed on the floor in pain!

[CaptainL]

Sure enough, it had worked! Just when Isabella was staring certain doom in the face, she had been dealt a golden opportunity. Chika was stuck pondering over her rants - and that took her attention off of protecting herself, leaving her wide open for the Countess to ram a fist up directly between her legs! She'd been foolish enough to leave her weak spot unguarded, and in an instant, Isabella had been able to shatter her guard, bringing her off her feet with a single blow! However fortune had smiled on her, however, Isabella wasn't going to stop and be smug. She'd heard what Chika had said. And that was enough to make her look back at her with a glare. If Chika felt this way, she clearly had no understanding of what the teachings of the Black Dragon Fighting Society were all about! She was just another hypocritical weakling using "rules" and "fairness" as a cover for her own inadequacy! The fact that the seeming master of this dojo was so easily disabled, and how she cast such shame on the very act, told Isabella all she needed to know. She was disgusted by how pathetic her foe was to make such excuses!

But at the same time...she had proven her point! If Chika would call her a cheater, then this would only vindicate everything Isabella believed in. The beatings she had taken meant nothing to her now. Now, whatever happened, the Countess could call it a success, as long as she had demonstrated the power of her art!

"Oh? Is that so?" Isabella rose to her feet before taking another step, planting one foot on Chika's chest while she jabbed a finger into her face from above. "Am I a cheater? Or rather, are you so foolish as to not even bother preventing an opponent from taking advantage of your HOPELESSLY unguarded vital areas!? It's just what the Dante family has ALWAYS known about today's so called 'martial artists!' You hide behind fair play to disguise the fact that, in a true life-or-death situation, you would be USELESS to defend yourself! Is an attacker with a knife going to stop because you point out you're unarmed!? If a loaded gun is aimed directly at your head, is it beneath you to kick your opponent in the groin? If you try to make excuses for your IDIOCY, then you have NO GROUNDS to claim ANY knowledge of the fighting arts! You're just a fraud and a charlatan who a TRUE WARRIOR would LAUGH AT before DISEMBOWLING YOU WITH THEIR BARE HANDS!! And believe me, I could do that to you RIGHT NOW!"

[Vc0m]

To Chika, sparring was different than fighting in the ring. She was never going all out against her opponent’s in a spar, following all the rules of wrestling that existed…while in the ring, that was out of the window. She fought to the finish, like her life depended on it, and if she had to bend a few rules to get there, so be it…

But low blows were a special case. A height of disrespect meant for not just the worst of enemies in the ring…but for scum. Someone who Chika only expected to use against people she didn’t even respect as pro wrestlers…and only expected that to be used against her with similar feelings towards her.

And as Isabella ranted on the still hurting Raven Knight, that was indeed the impression of feelings she got from her rival, as she ranted about battles of life or death, using anything for victory no matter what, and doing anything less is not being a true warrior.

At Isabella’s words, Chika grabbed Isabella’s finger.

Pulled her towards herself.

And rammed her forehead straight into the Countess’s nose!

[CaptainL]

Isabella had plenty to say to Chika. Her comments, grumbled and half-coherent as they were, had struck a chord with her - she was well aware that the Raven Knight had scorned her as a dirty, underhanded cheater. To Isabella, though, the very thought that Chika would criticize her for her tactics was a sign that, for as hard as she could hit and for as quick and snappy as her techniques were, her opponent was just another fool who had lost sight of the purpose of martial arts. She didn't care about doing whatever she could to win - she was willing to look past perfectly valid and effective strategies out of nothing but a misplaced sense of honor, when all that really mattered was how well she could save her own hide. If Chika was going to claim to be a martial artist, Isabella wouldn't let her walk away without receiving a harsh reminder of how she let the very concept of martial arts down. This was something she was passionate about - and she was going to speak her mind!

But Chika wouldn't take that lying down. She had her own words to say to the Countess's invective. But they wouldn't be words at all - but something that would get the point through in Isabella's own language. Without another word, Chika grabbed Isabella by the finger, while she was in the midst of her rant. The Countess had gotten lost in her spiel, and she wasn't watching her opponent for her next move...not until it was too late!

"Wait, what-!?" Isabella only realized what was about to happen to her as Chika pulled her closer - and then, threw her head forward to slam her forehead into Isabella's face! At once, her words were drowned out by a shrill scream of pain, and her hands shot up to clutch at her face as she went stumbling backward. Her balance veered from side to side, threatening to give out on her, before at last she toppled off her footing and landed on the mat with a thud, her head still spinning as she slumped over in a seated position!

[Vc0m]

Chika rose after headbutting the Countess…staring daggers into her foe. There was no early bravado of looking down on her opponent…Chika wanted to see her foe bloodied and bruised:

”You want to talk life-or-death situations?”, Chika would say, winding her arm as hard as she could, before unleashing as hard a hook as she could to her rival’s jaw!

If her punch reached…and if Isabella lost her footing because of it, Chika would grasp her foe’s blonde hair, pulling on it to drag the arrogant woman into the corner!

”Sixteen…”, Chika would say… right as she rammed her knee into Isabella’s gut!

”Fucking…”, she would say, with another knee to her gut!

”YEARS!”

With the last word, Chika drove her foot upwards, trying to pay her rival back for the earlier low blow, still keeping her hair in her grasp as she moved her face closer to the Countess’s:

”Not knowing whether I’ll wake up with a stabbed gut…not knowing if the next step I’d take would be my last…leaving in constant fear until I found this!”, Chika would finish with a hard slap to her rival’s face!

[CaptainL]

Isabella had already been taken to the ground, panting and groaning, her head spinning. But for the Countess, the punishment was only beginning. Before Isabella even had a chance to react to what was happening to her, Chika had already struck again, sending a fist to her jaw that sent her head cracking to the side as a trail of spittle was flung from her mouth. Crying out in pain, she reeled over to the side...but she had barely been down for more than a few seconds before Chika grabbed her by the hair, hauling her back up to the corner!

As her back landed against the turnbuckle with a thud, Isabella let out a yelp. When she looked up at Chika, she could see the fire in her eyes, and the look of pure, unbridled rage across her face...and it was at that very moment where Countess Dante knew she had made a big, big mistake. There was only so long that Chika could tolerate being talked down to and mocked and her rightful place as a fighter challenged. Now, all of that pent-up aggression was exploding to the surface - and Isabella was caught dead in the middle.

"Ackh! Gahh!! OW!!" Again and again, Chika rained knees into Isabella's gut. Each time, the Countess sputtered and gagged, bending over forward into the path of the strike. Beneath her gi, a bruise was spreading across her entire torso. Soon, tears of pain began to form in her eyes. She hadn't realized she had touched on a nerve - or that Chika, as it turned out, knew far more about fighting for her life than she ever could, no matter how much she boasted of her family's proud legacy in top-secret underground deathmatches that 100% definitely happened. But Chika was going to pound every bit of that into her - by force.

Chika's foot swung upward between Isabella's legs, and as her kick drove its way into her groin, the Countess screamed in pain. Her entire body grew numb, her legs trembling beneath her as she wavered uneasily atop her opponent's leg. Everything hurt. But even so, when Chika pulled back up on Isabella's hair, the self-proclaimed Grandmaster looked straight into the Raven Knight's hateful gaze, and the color drained away from her face - because she understood everything as clear as day. She knew that a torrent of self-righteous anger had been unleashed at her dead-on, and she was hopeless to resist it. Her eyes were wide, and her mouth fell agape. But Isabella had no words she could possibly say to her defense. Nothing could begin to summarize the sheer dread she felt - that, for perhaps the first time in her life, she might have picked a fight she couldn't win.

Either way, Isabella wouldn't have the time to say anything. Chika soon smacked her across the face, and with a squeal of pain, she fell over onto her side, clutching her aching cheeks. There, she tumbled onto her back, her whole body trembling. Her chest rose and fell as she gasped for air. She hurt too much to get back to her feet; even if she could, what else could she possibly do?

[Vc0m]

Chika looked Isabella straight in the eye, to see whether she had any response towards her, whether she actually knew what it was like to live not knowing whether you would live or die the next day, not knowing whether the odd job would result in either police catching her, or a rival yakuza gang ensuring that a knife found it’s way to her heart…

…but before she slapped the Countess, Isabella’s mouth was agape, trying to find the words…but unable. This confirmed it. No one who actually lived through something like that took it as a point of pride.

She let Isabella crumple to the floor, as she desperately gasped for air, Chika truly looking down on her rival: ”Once I found this, people who could protect me… I could practice wrestling and fight to improve and challenge myself… I wasn’t fighting for survival anymore. So if you want a fight to the death, go fight in the streets.”

With her final word, Chika exhaled…and climbed the top rope. She wasn’t going to give Isabella what she wanted, she wasn’t going to fight on her level. She was going to finish it with her wrestling skill, not her want of violence…

After measuring the distance to Isabella, Chika jumped, and flipped in midair, aiming her feet for Isabella’s body as she tried to finish her rival off with a powerful Moonstomp!

[CaptainL]

With Chika delivering her parting words, Isabella was left laying there, in shock, staring blankly up at the lights above. She tried to think of the right thing to say, but nothing came - she had been left outright dumbstruck. She had come into this dojo looking to brag and boast and build herself up, hoping to find an opponent she could quickly defeat to prove the rightful superiority of her Black Dragon Fighting Society. But Chika had far surpassed her expectations - not only in terms of skill, but in her dedication and her commitment, and in how much wrestling truly meant to her. When Isabella saw how much she had underestimated her foe, she didn't even know where to begin. She wasn't fighting some washed-up dojo trainee at all. She was fighting someone who lived and breathed the sport, who at every moment was burning with the desire to set the matter straight - and, in a rare moment of humility, she herself recognized how much she had gotten in over her head. All that was left now was for Chika to land the finishing blow...

And when it came, the Countess could only await her fate.

At last, Chika hurled herself from the top rope. As Isabella looked up, she could see her display of acrobatic grace, flipping over in the air with the motions of a well-practiced gymnast. It was enough to make her eyes grow a little wider - perhaps even she could appreciate the beauty in Chika's daring, and how long she must have practiced to perfect such a move. She knew, too, that for as fancy as it was, it was far from meaningless. Chika was putting her all into this move, and when her heart burned with passion, her strikes could only land harder than ever. But either way, Chika just as soon came down. And when she did, it was her feet that were driven hard into Isabella's chest!

"GAAAHH-!!" The impact sent a shock through the Countess's body. Her limbs flailed and spasmed, and her legs kicked into the air. She coughed and gagged as the air was driven from her lungs. And then, just as quickly as it had all started, she sank back down into the mat. Her body sagged low into the canvas as the weight set into her limbs, and her eyes rolled back in her head as her jaw dangled limply open. Isabella was out!