Valley Doll III vs Kyo Akamatsu — Iron Person Match

[Underdoggo]

Valerie was not the only one feeling the drain of this match. Kyo.had been thoroughly roughed up by Valerie for much of this match, and exhaustion was starting to tell on his aching body. It was sheer willpower and determination that was keeping him going at this point.

The ring shook as he introduced Valerie face-first into it, causing the crowd to collectively wince. Kyo had been hoping to then transition to a cross face submission, to wear Valerie down further and force her to crawl to the ropes again, but she was already rolling, trying to retreat outside the ring. Outside the ring, he noted, to try to recover.

In any other match, he might have let her. But this was not any other match.

He moved quickly, rolling out of the ring after Valerie. Grabbing for her arm, he would waste no time in swiveling his body, trying to whip her towards the barricade.

[BlackAkuma]

The moment Valerie fell out of the ring, she collapsed to her knees, overtaken by the weight of the momentum, her body getting the better of her. She hated retreating, and hated bringing this match outside even more, but there was simply not ignoring the necessity of it - Kyo was running roughshod on her.

It wasn’t much, but even these few seconds were enough for her to regain some semblance of normalcy. By the time Kyo was on her, she had enough energy to rise up and meet him, with a little more besides.

Kyo seized her by the arm, pulled her up and tried to swing her around with an Irish Whip, and she went along with it - at first. Instead of letting go, however, she held onto his wrist and attempted to twist her body around, trying to reverse the throw and put him against the unforgiving metal instead.

[Underdoggo]

Valerie was on the ropes. Not literally, of course, as they were both outside the ring, but she was reeling. He just had to keep hammering her, had to keep pressing the advantage. The longer he could stay in control, the better, given how this long bout was starting to tire the both of them out.

As Kyo moved to whip Valerie into the barricades, though, she clung onto his arm. Alarm bells rang faintly in Kyo's head, but he was unable to stop himself from being counter-whipped. He could only let out a brief cry of alarm before he went flying backwards, slamming back-first into the barricade instead.

He felt something give in his back, and then he was collapsing, slumping weakly against the barricade as he dropped flat on his ass. "Shi...shimatta.." he rasped as pain flooded his spine, and for the moment all he could do was sit there and try not to let that pain overwhelm him.

[BlackAkuma]

“2! 3!”

And now Valerie had a problem.

The good news was that she had managed to lay Kyo out for the time being. She reversed the whip, and now he found himself on the floor, trying to recover from the hard hit. Definitely an improvement over the opposite…

…but she needed to get him back in the ring. And she also needed to keep the pressure up. Doing both at the same time would be preferable.

On that, she had an idea. After taking a moment to refill her lung, she reached out, pulled Kyo’s head over, and tucked it tight under her shoulder with a front facelock, forcing him to stand and come along with her. She marched him over to the ring and stood parallel to it, judging the distance for a moment before she made her move.

Once she was locked in, Valerie planted her feet, lifted Kyo off the canvas, and proceeded to hurl him upwards with a vertical suplex. At the apex, however, she released him and threw him to the side, letting his body come down hard on the edge of the apron, a spot where she could easily push him back into the ring.

[Underdoggo]

Past the throbbing pain in his spine, Kyo was conscious of the countdown going on. Unfortunately, at the moment, his body was in no shape to move, and was responding slugglishly no matter how much he willed himself to get back up. Like it or not, whether he got back in the ring or not depended entirely on Valerie's mercy. She could, if she was so inclined, simply go back into the ring on her own and leave him out here to be counted out, and score an easy fall that way.

Of course, he knew Valerie wouldn't do that. And he was proven right when she started to haul him to his feet. Wincing, he felt his head being wrapped in a frontal headlock, forcing him down against her muscular shoulder. For a moment, all he could do was walk with her, trying weakly to pry himself free.

And then his world went upside down, and he went smacking down, back-first against the ring apron. His already sore back exploded with agony, and despite himself, he let out a ragged cry of pain before Valerie uncermoniously shoved him into the ring, causing him to flop over onto his front, facedown in an anguished heap.

[BlackAkuma]

Don’t think. Move.

Valerie was mostly walking off instinct now, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. She liked to think she did her best work as a technical wrestler, not solely relying on her strength and athletic ability; however, she was rapidly reaching the point where slow consideration was no longer something she could afford. Kyo was a smarter wrestler than her, she was starting to suspect, and every moment wasted was another second he could turn the tide.

So when she rolled Kyo back into the ring, she didn’t waste any time following up with her next attack, even though he hadn't even rolled over to his back. She pulled herself up on the apron, grabbed the top rope, yanked it back, then leaped into the ring.

She wasn’t what anyone would call a ‘high-flyer’, but there were some more risque moves she could bust out for special occasions, and this certainly qualified. Valerie soared into the ring, flipped forward, and brought her back crashing down onto his with a senton bomb, using her full weight to drive him into the canvas.

[Underdoggo]

Kyo was now breathing softly against the mat, trying his best to shut out the persistent, throbbing pain in his back. Pain is just fuel for your journey, he told himself, repeating a mantra that had helped him a lot through his wrestling career. He took the necessary seconds to focus, clear his mind of all the background noise, and focus on other things-- the rough feeling of the mat underneath him, the soft vibrations, the sweat rolling down his back and forehead. As usual, it worked: for a few seconds, the pain was forgotten about, a fading, background thing.

Which was good, because if the ring's vibrations-- or lack thereof-- were anything to go by, then Valerie was climbing the top rope right now.

Still breathing hard, he saw Valerie launching herself off the top rope at him, arcing somewhat gracefully in the air to dive down at him in a senton. It was do or die now: gritting his teeth, he rolled, trying to not only evade her attack, but to bring his knees up so that Valerie would land against them instead...

[BlackAkuma]

Pain is just weakness leaving the body.

Valerie repeated that mantra in her head as she made her way up the ropes, even though she’d honestly thought it was a little silly. Her old wrestling coach had used it a lot, and she was 90% it didn’t mean anything, just one of those macho lines that sounded cool until you spent three seconds thinking about it.

She understood the spirit of it, though, as she forced her body to operate despite all the trauma it was going through, to ignore all the aches and pains that had been heaped on it so she could finish this. Just a little more, and she take a solid lead ago. Just a little more, and she could relax.

Kyo’s knees, as it turned out, had other plans, and they were waiting for her when she flew through the air. She came down hard on the bony points and drove hard into her spine. She shrieked at the impact, bounced off, and rolled away towards the center of the ring, and that was where she stayed as she buried her face into the canvas and kicked her legs.

[Underdoggo]

Kyo's last minute manouver worked. He was alerted as much by two sounds-- by the subtle crack of Valerie's legs across his knees, and of her shrieking as she bounced off of his legs and flopped to the mat like a broken marionette. The crowd collectively winced, and honestly, given the brutality of such a counter, Kyo couldn't blame them.

His own back was still throbbing with pain after having been slammed around by Valerie earlier. He tried to push himself up to his hands and knees, and felt his spine aching sharply in protest. He needed time to recover still. More importantly, he needed to do so while also still keeping Valerie on the defensive.

Crawling over towards the blonde, where she lay facedown in thrashing agony, Kyo dropped across her back, trying to clamp his thighs around one of her arms. If he managed this, then he would move to crisscrossi his arms across her forehead and and chin, wrenching back tightly in a crossface submission-- bending her neck and upper back at a painful angle while keeping his weight pressed down on her. He noted that they weren't too far from the ropes-- Valerie's legs could snag them with some effort-- but it would at least wear her down further while giving him valuable seconds to recover...

[BlackAkuma]

See? That was why Valerie didn’t like doing stuff like that too often. Should’ve just put him in a Boston Crab. Maybe an elbow drop. But no, she had to be fancy, and she wound up paying for it. ”Damn it…”

She smacked her fist against the canvas and tried to push up, but it was slow going, far too slow for Kyo to miss his chance at her. He was on her before she could even get a foot off the ground, trapping her arm and pulling her head back, further and further and further. ”No, no!”

A crossface. Valerie shrieked and smacked the mat as her bones cracked, and the referee was quick to come over. ”Valley, do you want-”

”No!” She shook her head and began to crawl forward, fighting for every inch towards the ropes. It couldn't have been more than few a feet, but it felt like a few miles, and all she could do was hurriedly try to touch the ropes with her foot when she was close enough.