[Tables Hardcore Match] Charlotte Ravel' vs Amy Evans - The parable of the Lion and the Lizard (Apex Qualifier Match)

[skip-stop]

This was definitely not the course of events that the Sand Lizard needed. She could taste blood in her mouth, and her head ached as if she had been hit with a hammer. Despite the fact that she acted quickly, she was practically unable to do anything with the strength that her opponent possessed. And although Charlotte was sure that she was ready for such powerful blows, the consequences turned out to be much tougher than she expected.

Only her willpower helped her maintain her composure. Despite the pain and dizziness, she used her best weapon. Amy did not expect such a sharp counterattack and this time did not have time to protect her stomach. The Frenchwoman's foot crashed into the Lion's core with no less force than the blonde's fist a moment ago crashed into the chin of the Sand Lizard. With a groan of pain, Amy staggered back a few steps, wrapping her arms around her stomach.

This allowed Charlotte to put her foot back on the mat. The young woman swayed and closed her eyes for a moment. Even the adrenaline in the blood was no longer a good helper against such blows. Regaining her balance, the Sand Lizard raised her hand to her damaged chin. She still felt the pain there. Charlotte spat out the blood that had accumulated in her mouth, after which her gaze met the gaze of her rival. Charlotte's left eyebrow lifted slightly when she saw how coldly the Lion was looking at her.

"I have to stun her hard and then finish it in one move," Charlotte decided mentally. "Now."

She clenched her fists again and raised them to chin level. Together with a deep breath, she tried to gather all her skills into a single whole. She understood that such an exchange of blows as the one that had just happened would exhaust her strength faster than Amy's. So she has to finish it right now.

The Sand Lizard rushed forward. And this time she wasn't moving at a steady pace. This time she tried to take as much speed as possible, accelerating with each step. Her opponent was extremely strong and therefore now the pink-haired woman could only show everything she was capable of.

Bursting into striking distance, Charlotte moved her right hand, as if exactly this hand was supposed to fly forward. But instead, the Frenchwoman waved her left arm, sending it to Amy's head. This time it wasn't a jab, this time it was a powerful left swing. And although Charlotte was lighter than her rival, she knew that such a powerful punch would have an impact even on the Lion. However, this was only the beginning, because now Charlotte had no way back.

Last time, Amy managed to block a strike aimed at her stomach. But right now, the Sand Lizard wasn't going to lift her leg that high, instead she intended to quickly swing her left leg in order to send a low kick to Amy's knee joint. That way she wanted to upset the balance of the blonde and defocus her attention. This was necessary in order for Charlotte to be able to direct all available force into her right leg and send a roundhouse kick to Amy's head, thereby completing the combo that she called the hungry lizard!

[Fairy Dragon]

Despite the blonde having an early advantage it was Charlotte's constant attacks that proved to be a persistent obstacle to deal with, and was making Amy suffer from repeated strikes that had worn down her defense walls. Amy still had it in her to fight through the worst of all that, not wanting to give it up now when she knew that her attacks were wearing down Charlotte and she felt so close to a victory. However just when she thought she had an opening Charlotte was rushing her again, attacking her with a left that struck her face.

"Gnngh!" Amy groaned, head shaken from the punch to her face and staggered back. She had barely taken a few steps back her knee took a kick that stopped her in her tracks, causing her to jerk to a side in a rather uncomfortable fashion before Charlotte went for her roundhouse kick to her head. "Agghh!" Amy screamed, the kick cracked her across the skull and caused her body to turn at an undesirable angle before she fell to the mat, stunned and back to square one on any recovery.

[skip-stop]

Charlotte's stamina was at the limit. She felt pain in her muscles. Not only because her body was covered with bruises, but because the match was going at too high a pace, which took almost everything from her reserves. However, to stop now would be a real crime.

Despite everything that has happened since Amy arrived in the ring, this was the match that Charlotte enjoyed. She was a fighter and an easy match made no sense to her. The Lion turned out to be a damn tough opponent. To defeat such a woman is an honor. Therefore, the Frenchwoman could not stop. Pain and fatigue are obstacles. But a real fighter should be able to overcome such obstacles.

But it wasn't only Charlotte who was tired. It was hard to say exactly how much strength the blonde had left after everything that had happened. But she couldn't react in time to the punch that the Sand Lizard sent to her head. Charlotte would even be satisfied with the option if Amy blocked that punch, because she put a lot of strength and speed into it. But when the pink-haired woman's fist crashed into the Lion's head unhindered, it inspired her.

With a groan of pain, Amy backed away. But a second later she was forced to stop, because Charlotte's foot crashed into her knee joint. Because of this, the blonde not only stopped, but also involuntarily leaned to the left side, thereby opening the best opportunity for Charlotte. Holding her breath, the Sand Lizard used all her skill to send a crushing kick to her opponent's head.

Four sounds. First, the click at the moment when the Sand Lizard's foot crashed into Amy's skull. Then the loud scream of the Lion. Then the noise of the audience. And finally the crash of the blonde's fall. Charlotte completed the combo by sending her opponent to the mat. Although literally the second Amy fell, Charlotte immediately dropped to one knee. Her breathing was ragged. She had so little strength left that she was no longer able to force herself to breathe evenly.

"One more..." she said, barely moving her lips. "The last one."

She couldn't lose the opportunity she had to put so much effort into. This match was definitely more intense than most of the ones she had been through since joining LAW. But this was the most important point, because Charlotte was striving for the top, and for this every new obstacle must be tougher than the previous one.

The Sand Lizard intended to lean forward and then grab the Lion by the wrist and shoulder of her right arm. Biting her lower lip in order to somehow distract herself from the pain and fatigue, Charlotte intended to lift her rival. And once Amy was in an upright position, she was going to wrap her left arm around the blonde's neck and take a step to the side, still holding the Lion's right wrist with her other hand. By doing this, she wanted to force Amy to lean back and thereby placing her in an inverted facelock hold.

It was hard to say whether Amy was the strongest of all the people Charlotte had managed to meet in the ring, since almost all of her rivals were incredibly strong. But it would be impossible to deny the strength of this American woman. Charlotte wasn't going to do that. She recognized her rival's strength. That's why she wanted to win. After taking what she hoped was her last deep breath, Charlotte intended to channel what little strength she had left into her arms and legs. Turning a hundred and eighty degrees like a corkscrew, the Sand Lizard intended to create an incredible torque. And the last thing she was going to do was abruptly fall on her back in order to transfer this torque to her opponent, sending her head into the mat with one of the toughest moves in her arsenal, which many called a rolling cutter, although Charlotte had another name for it, she called it the dexterous lizard!

[Fairy Dragon]

Amy was running out of options with how much this was dragging on. Stunned with Charlotte trying to finish things meant that Amy was in a dangerous position, feeling Charlotte was close to finishing things. Amy knew she had Charlotte close to defeat and that made the next few minutes important to how it would end, but right now Amy was being pulled up and placed in a reverse facelock to hold Amy back. Amy knew that it was time to act, despite her position this was not a move she could just take and endure. Amy forced her arms up to grab Charlotte's head and would pull it down while trying to force a knee up to hit the top of her head to surprise Charlotte and stop her from executing her move.

If that worked and Charlotte slipped up Amy would have one last trick to pull. Amy would fight to slip out of the facelock before going low and placing an arm under Charlotte and standing up while fighting her way through with a roar. Holding her in a fireman's carry with the Lion holding her opponent tightly Amy would try to put the Sand Lizard away with her best move before Charlotte found the opening to destroy her. Throwing everything to the wind, Amy would spin Charlotte off her shoulders holding her until she was fully down and falling down as well with an F-5. All the Lion could do now was push herself up on top of Charlotte pulling her into a pin to see if that did put her away.

[skip-stop]

Realizing that this was most likely the last chance to win, Charlotte prepared to give the Lion her last move. The heaviness in her muscles tried to stop her, every movement was given to the Sand Lizard with great difficulty. When she grabbed Amy and started lifting her, the blonde's weight was like the weight of an entire planet. This made the Frenchwoman clench her teeth. But she didn't stop there. Lifting her opponent and placing her in the hold, Charlotte took a deep breath.

And then something grabbed her head. It was Amy. Wrapping her arms around Charlotte's head, she forced the pink-haired woman to lean forward. At that moment the knee slammed into the Sand Lizard's forehead. A white flash appeared before the Frenchwoman's eyes. Yeah, she failed.

"Ghh..."

After she let out a faint painful groan, her body weakened. Charlotte dropped to one knee, barely finding the strength to not let go of her opponent's head. The martial arts master was desperately trying to force herself to get back on her feet in order to complete her move. But her body refused. The focus of her vision began to fade, the image in front of her eyes became blurry every now and then. She was too tired.

This was what helped the Lion to escape from the grip of the Frenchwoman with one sharp movement. Acting as quickly as possible in the current situation, the American woman pressed her shoulders to the front of Charlotte, and then lifted her onto the shoulders. Charlotte had enough experience to know that she couldn't handle it. She clenched her fists. She tried to raise her arms in order to hit the blonde's head. But those arms were too heavy, and the mind was too clouded.

Amy threw Charlotte's legs forward, and then the wind filled the pink-haired woman's ears. Her body rushed down like a meteorite. And a moment later, a deafening rumble filled the arena. Charlotte's body collapsed flat on the mat. The force of the impact was so great that Charlotte literally bounced off the mat and only then fell completely, turning over on her back.

Her arms and legs were slightly spread out to the sides. Her eyes were tightly closed. A stream of blood was flowing from her nose, because her face took most of the blow. It was hard to tell if she was conscious, because the only sign of life was the heaving and falling chest. And it wasn't hard to guess that for the Lion it was more than enough to just lie down on Charlotte, thereby pinning her to the mat. The referee did not take long to wait, after a second she lay down next to the women and slapped the mat for the first time.

"ONE!" echoed throughout the arena.

[Fairy Dragon]

Amy had placed herself on top of Charlotte and limply grabbed a leg to pull Charlotte in close while she laid on her. Feeling so worn down she only had to hold onto Charlotte and wait out the pin. Everything felt so slow and out of focus, the crowd sounded a thousand miles away, no sound was in Amy's tired mind and she felt like she could follow the ref's hand as it made its way down. Everything only came to her head again when the ref finally hit the mat to make the count, which seemed to bring the sound back in and make it sound louder than it actually was.

"ONE!"

With that sound Amy felt her grip on Charlotte tighten, it was the sound that brought every wrestler who could still think into focusing on what was important. After a hellacious battle that put Amy through tables she now had a chance to gain another win after her close call with Toshiko and now the middleweight Sand Lizard. Her shoulders were on Charlotte's chest and stomach and her head rolled over past her to rest partially on the mat, she was in a position that would allow her to hold the pin unless Charlotte really fought against it. After the F-5 Amy had little left to offer, but she would use it if necessary even as her body prayed for an ending to this match.

"TWO!"

[skip-stop]

"De nouveau..." sounded in Charlotte's head.

It wasn't the first time she'd been in this position. To be more precise, she found herself in this position in every match except her debut. Pain. Endless pain in every inch of her body. Considering this, as well as the almost complete lack of strength, only willpower kept the martial arts master conscious. And although she tried to force herself to move, her body refused to obey her.

When the Sand Lizard heard a clap near her head, she wanted to raise her shoulder above the mat, but she couldn't even move a finger. She made a big mistake. Considering how perfect her opponent was, developed not only in terms of strength, but also skill and speed, the pink-haired woman decided to work at the maximum possible pace. It exhausted her. But even this was not enough to defeat the Lion.

The conclusion was extremely simple. For better or worse, Charlotte never looked for any excuses. She was weaker. The blonde came to this ring and said that Charlotte would have to learn what she was capable of. Well, that's exactly how it turned out. Amy was really better in every sense.

The second clap made the pink-haired woman feel a lump in her throat. In a sense, she was back in front of the wall that she had seen in almost every match. The only difference was that before she was sure that if she could overcome this wall, then she would have a chance to win. But now, for the first time since she joined LAW, she realized that even if she could do it, it wouldn't change anything.

She had already forgotten this feeling, because the last time she felt it was when she was training at the Chinese monastery. The master ordered her to walk around the monastery, carrying a shoulder pole and two buckets of water on her shoulders. At the same time, she had to water every tree and not spill a single drop from the buckets while she was walking from one tree to another. Even if she had to just walk around the monastery with buckets, it would already be disastrously difficult because of the heaviness. But watering the trees and not spilling a single drop in the process was just impossible.

She tried. The weight of the buckets bent her to the ground even before she reached the first tree, and yet she coped with it. But as soon as she watered the first tree, the balance was broken. Another bucket pulled her to the side, because of which she had to not only walk with a huge weight on her shoulders, but also balance at the same time. Water splashed out of buckets with every step she took. Before reaching the second tree, Charlotte fell. Barely finding the strength to breathe, she heard the master's voice behind her.

"No wonder you can't do it, you acquiesce to defeat before you even begin."

At that time, Charlotte did not believe that such training could be handled. But from that day on, she tried to do it almost every day. It didn't get any easier. Sometimes her best achievement was just one extra step. The task seemed impossible, but she went ahead anyway. She knew that even if there was another failure waiting for her today, she would still do everything possible to do it. And when a year later she was able to walk around the monastery, watering every tree and not spilling a drop in the process, she realized that nothing was impossible. And that even if you are not going to succeed today, it does not mean that you should not try to.

When the referee's hand started to descend for the third time, the Sand Lizard jerked to the right side. The striped shirt had to quickly change the trajectory of the hand movement in order not to slap the mat. When she got up on one knee and raised her hand, the audience saw only two fingers. Charlotte was lying on her right side and did not move. She knew she couldn't win this match, she just didn't have the strength left to do it. But if a fighter is ready to accept defeat without even trying, then how can they be considered a fighter at all? Charlotte was a fighter. And as long as she has at least one drop of strength, she will keep trying. Because this is the way of a real fighter.

[Fairy Dragon]

Time and again she had been tested, people wanted to see if the Lion had the power she claimed she did or if she was toothless braggart who couldn't really back up her words. She took all of them for a ride and bested most of them, sometimes she took it too far but she had learned to put the worst things about her in the past. As long as she could still prove herself a powerful opponent it didn't matter, call it maturity or just getting older but she had learned that all she really wanted was to enjoy wrestling and get matches that made being the Lion worth it. So far Charlotte had been all over the place with her, personally she found the redhead to be a judgmental cunt who took one word of dialogue and clearly embodied it to mean something it didn't and take her anger out like she had something to prove, Amy wasn't sure if she had some grudge against someone and her words struck a nerve or if she was in the middle of a personal crisis but Amy found it strange that of all the actual vile things she had done someone seemed to take offense to a harmless boast about her Amy's famous durability. A durability that she learned Charlotte was capable of as well, by all accounts Charlotte's body seemed slack and beaten whatever strength she had left was keeping her awake not in fighting condition, yet that strength still helped the Sand Lizard get her shoulder up.

Despite being down by enough pounds that the two were a different weight class and still fighting even with almost nothing left had to be admired in spite of the things about her attitude that Amy would have adjusted. She knew the old her would have thrown a slight fit and began punching Charlotte in the back of the head over and over again until something snapped and considered that her just due. She now had enough humanity in her to stop herself from such a thing, it took her longer than it should have to reach that but it was there and thankfully the blonde wouldn't be mad that Charlotte was still trying to do something even if the kickout felt like a final act of defiance instead of a rallying call. Amy just looked back at Charlotte and slowly rolled on top of her pressing her chest on her back before she would bring Charlotte's far arm up and over Amy's head so she could lock in a cross face while her legs would wrap around the near arm. Amy didn't have much left and couldn't lift Charlotte up but she could pull on her body to try and bring it to it's final limit with her Beast Bite submission hold.

[skip-stop]

The pink-haired woman couldn't remember the last time she felt so tired. She is used to constant stress on her body due to almost incessant training. Sleep at the end of the day was always a reward for her body. But now it was a completely different feeling. It wasn't like muscle pain after a grueling workout, it was like her body was dragged through a sewing machine, because the pain was not only in the muscles, but in every viable cell.

Her weak breathing was barely enough to keep her from fainting. The sound of a turned off channel seemed to be stuck in the Sand Lizard's head. But even through this annoying to death sound, she heard something else. She was too weak and couldn't tell if it was one person or several, but she definitely heard her own name.

Somewhere deep inside, Charlotte felt something that didn't feel like pain. No, it was something warm. It was a strange feeling, it was too unfamiliar to her. Is this really the feeling when someone supports you? She didn't know the answer, but she wanted to believe in it.

The most insulting thing about it was that they didn't know the truth. Even the most ardent fans of wrestling do not always understand that any fighter has a limit. Charlotte has long gone beyond her limit. In a sense, now her body continued to function on credit. But what she felt was too pleasant.

She spread her fingers and pressed her palms tightly to the mat. A fighter should not give up. Especially when there is at least one person who believes in them. With a groan of pain, Charlotte strained her arms, causing them to tremble violently. A spasm of pain was reflected on her face, but she still tried to lift herself up and take a push-up position.

Her body collapsed onto the mat again at the moment when Amy lay across her back. At that moment, it was all over, even Charlotte, who always fought to the very end, knew it. Whatever her rival is up to, she won't be able to handle it. Just like the time she first tried watering every tree in the monastery.

The Frenchwoman's right arm was between her opponent's legs, and the other ans was twisted at an unnatural angle. There was a mist before the Sand Lizard's eyes, but even so she could see the palms of the American woman appear in front of her face. In just one second, these palms closed into a lock right on Charlotte's face. And after another second, Amy pulled the entire upper body of the Frenchwoman back.

"Mmmmmggghhhh!!!"

The very situation when you want to scream. To scream so hard that it's impossible to describe in words. But you can't. The scream literally stuck in her throat, tearing her from the inside. People perceive pain quite strangely. Sometimes you think it can't get any worse. But you should always remember that it can always be worse.

Charlotte involuntarily started kicking the mat. Even the lack of strength did not prevent her from doing it. If an electric current is passed through a dead body, this body will start twitching. Now, instead of an electric current, pain was running through the Frenchwoman's body. It seemed to her that the skin was being peeled off her face. Tears involuntarily flowed from her eyes.

"You give up?" a question that Charlotte genuinely hated.

Her body was exhausted like never before, she personally took care of it, spending all her strength on a series of attacks, which as a result were still useless. Her arms were securely locked. Rope breaks didn't work in this match. And the pain was so terrible that even death seemed a better option. One Englishwoman in their team, being a mathematical genius, quite often liked to say that there is no zero probability and that there is always a probability of an event, even if this probability is negligible. Now Charlotte wasn't ready to agree.

"Charlotte, you give up?" the referee asked more insistently.

Now the probability was zero. And no laws of mathematics could refute this. To submit was the only option. The only option for someone who is ready to admit defeat in front ot the inevitable, but not for Charlotte. She squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists with the last of her strength. An attempt at resistance? No, not at all. As already mentioned, she was not destined to win this match and nothing could change that. Why did she do it? That way she wanted to give the referee an answer before...

"To the very... end..." she told herself mentally.

Her body went limp. Her clenched fists relaxed, and her fingers hung lifeless in the air. Her eyes remained closed, but now there was no tension on her face. The referee girl had enough experience to understand what all this meant. The Sand Lizard lost consciousness. Patting Amy on the knee, she ordered her to relax her legs slightly in order to check on Charlotte. Taking the Frenchwoman's hand, she lifted it up a bit and then let it go. As expected, the hand fell down as if it was a rag.

"ONE!"

And if someone had counted on some kind of miracle up to this point, now even the most recent optimist would have no reason left. Why? Because Charlotte had nothing else to offer. The referee also understood this, so she raised the Frenchwoman's hand and almost immediately let it go.

"TWO!!"

[Fairy Dragon]

The submission hold would find itself tightening on Charlotte once it was locked in, making sure that the Sand Lizard would be trapped in the lion's jaw until the body broke. Amy didn't feel like she could sustain herself getting back up to her feet for another round of fighting when she was this tired but she also felt that Charlotte was at such an end that her getting up was unlikely as well, this had to do the trick her F-5 failed to do. Charlotte seemed trapped and her struggles didn't come close to anything Amy thought might free her, but she continued to turn down surrender as an option. Her arms didn't move to tap on her leg or arm, by all accounts her body didn't even consider surrender as an option until eventually she just went limp. Amy was told to ease up on the submission and she did, only keeping a slight grip on her head while the ref would take her hand to drop and check it for any signs of life.

Nothing the first time and soon the second time got the same result. With nothing left to do but wait Amy kept her arms around Charlotte's head while her eyes tried to concentrate on the hand. She could tell that nothing about this seemed to be faked and that Charlotte had toughed out the move to the bitter end just like Amy would have done and has done many times she's been stuck in an unwinnable situation before. But as a fighter she simply couldn't make herself relax, years of training and experience watching come from behind victories made the very slim possibility that the Sand Lizard could spring to action and jump on her again seem too real for her mind to be at ease until that and dropped one more time...

"THREE!"

With the final drop the ref called for the match to finish, finally allowing Amy to safely remove her grip on Charlotte's head and roll to her back where she could rest off the results of this match. It had taken a lot to do but Amy could feel excited that she had a win for herself, 2 now on the road to Apex that showed the kind of fight she was looking for. Amy's endurance had been tested before but now she knew what it was like when she was dealing with someone who was just as difficult to put away, even people her size didn't have this much fight in them, she was so tired she couldn't even stand up to enjoy her victory, simply laying on the mat while her mind processed the crazy fight she just had and the adrenaline worse off to allow the pain to proceed. She was going to be feeling that fall for ages, and the strikes she would feel longer, her back was going to be a mess. Didn't stop her form smiling now that it was over.