Hardcore Tag Battle!

Fuck. Missed. The element of surprise never was Styx's thing.

She brought her foot down hard and fast, getting her balance back before Kaede had a chance to take advantage. She'd never fought anyone who used judo before, but she was familiar enough to know it revolved around a lot of throws, using momentum against the opponent, almost designed specifically to deal with people like her. Styx was expecting counters. Lots of them. 

So she was a bit surprised when she turned around and took a forearm in the face, something she was willing to bet they didn't teach in Kaede's class. It staggered her, made her take a couple of steps back, even hurt her jaw and left it sore...but it would take a lot more than that to put her on the mat.

Styx gave as good as she got and reached out, trying to grab Kaede's loose-fitting outfit by the collar with one hand and punch her clean in the face with the other.

Although she was forcibly taught Judo, Kaede preferred her usual brand of punishment of hard hits and stiff strikes to drive the point home that she was a striker rather than a grappler. Blasting Styx in the face and causing her opponent to stagger backwards, Kaede's smirk did not leave her face. However she soon realized that her judo garb did not benefit her this time as Styx grabbed it, something it was designed for in Judo combat, in a fight like this it was a glaring hole in her style.

Styx returned the blast to the face as Kaede's head whipped back, her face stinging in pain and her head resonating from the hit as she staggered backwards, however with her gi in Styx's grasp, she did not get far back. Tasting blood in her mouth, Kaede thought that she must've bit her lip from the hit or something as a bit of blood could be seen from the inside of her bottom lip.

However it was a fight she was in and it was a fight she would do as Kaede tightened her fist and shot it back at Styx's face, looking to match the other striker blow for blow.

There we go, that was more like it. Kaede had a good face for punching. Hard, unyielding, strong, made Styx really feel the impact all the way through her arm. Like a fleshy speed bag. And that lovely sliver of crimson on her lip was the perfect icing. Getting first blood didn't mean anything, really, but it was always a fun benchmark to reach.

Most wrestlers would be reeling from a blow like that, and that was about what Styx expected from Kaede, too. But even if she was shorter than Styx, that didn't mean she lacked staying power. That came through crystal clear when the judo babe returned the favor, thwacking Styx across the jaw once again, snapping her head to the side and drawing a little blood on her check.

Second blood to Kaede. Fine.

Styx pulled her head back around with a ragged snarl ripping across her face. She grabbed the other side of Kaede's collar, holding her tight with both hands, and tried to steamroll forward and drive her around the ring, slam her back into the same corner where she'd tagged in with Odessa just a minute ago.

Trading punches meant nothing if Kaede couldn't take the hits, though if she kept taking those unadulterated punches of Styx to the face, even she wasn't going to last that long against those brutal hits. However she did find some rejoice in making her opponent bleed from the cheek, at least her efforts weren't going to waste. Alas, this was not a time to relish in a minor achievement as Styx was on the move again, bracing for another hit, Kaede was taken off guard as Styx began to push her backwards as she stumbled to keep her balance.

Soon Kaede found herself on the wrong side of town. "Guh!" Kaede let out as she had a not so pleasant welcome to the opposing corner. Although Kaede liked to fight, she knew when the odds were against her and a 2 on 1 situation did not bold well for her as she knew she had to escape from this plight.

Lifting both of her hands, she would then swing them swift and stiff to slam both of her palms into the head of Styx, hoping that she was too preoccupied holding her gi. If she was successful, she would attempt to push her back and relieve her back from against the turnbuckle.

Odessa watched the two women fighting with interest. They were both very much to the point, wasting no time in swinging at each other’s faces with hard punches, over and over again. It was an impressive display of brutality, though not a hundredth as elegant or as enticing as the painful struggle which she and Isabella had waged just seconds earlier.

Odessa supposed she had to give the AFW management team some credit, though. They had lined up two very evenly matched teams for this hardcore bout. Odessa and Isabella were refined, cultured women, who just so happened to be able to beat other women to a pulp; River Styx and Isabella’s nameless partner were both pure brawlers, butch, almost masculine, and went after each other with no pretext.

It was going to be a very interesting fight.

As Styx backed the judo girl back up into the corner, Odessa decided to have just a little bit of fun. She wasn’t going to wrap up the woman’s arms or anything—no, Odessa was an honorable woman. But she could amuse herself, and if her partner happened to glean a moment’s advantage from it, well, so much the better. Odessa would put her hands on the woman’s shoulders and squeeze, while moving her face close to the woman’s ear.

“Hello, darling,” she whispered. “I don’t believe we’ve been properly acquainted. What’s your name?”

Styx didn't much care to be in a tag match, which made it all the weirder that she kept getting dragged into them. The AFW only had a handful of tag teams, and she'd already seen more tag team action than half of them. Wrestling is weird.

But if she was going to do it, she figured she might as well reap the benefits and have a little fun in the process. Sure, she probably could overpower the judo babe if they wailed at each other for a few minutes, but why not just cut all the bullshit? She could be tactical, and it wasn't like she got bonus points for playing nice.

Styx took the palms right on the face and got pushed back, managing to shake the cobwebs lose just in time to see Odessa's caressing touch. Not exactly what she had in mind when she backed Kaede into the corner. Sexy, yes, Styx could admit that, but she doubted it would buy her more than a couple of seconds. Not much, but it would have to do.

She ducked down and charged towards Kaede like a maddened bull, coming at her with a spear that would fold her in half if it connected, with a little extra damage from slamming her into the turnbuckle. That was the trick, in Styx's experience: maximizing damage.

Successfully fending of Styx for a while, Kaede would soon feel another pair of hands on her shoulder as she soon heard the sultry voice of Styx's partner as she whipped her head to look eye to eye with her 2nd opponent. She was quite curious about her name for some apparent reason as Kaede quickly responded with "Kaede." and threw an elbow at Odessa's face to try and get her to back off, despite there being no apparent danger from her.

With that done, Kaede would turn her attention back to Styx as she broke her focus on her for a few seconds as she looked to see Styx just in time to watch the crushing impact that was barreling to her way. Unfortunately for her, it did hit with such impact as Kaede whipped back into the corner as she let out some spit as she was painfully sandwiched between Styx's powerful body and the unyielding corner as Kaede hunched over to cover her stomach, holding on to the ropes as she gasped for air.

Was it wrong that Styx took an almost-perverse thrill from seeing Kaede bust Odessa in her prim and proper face? Yes. Probably. Almost certainly. But Styx had never seen wrongness as a good reason not to do something.

Instead, she saw it for what was - an opportunity. It opened the way for her to plow into Kaede and plaster her against the turnbuckle, feeling her taut body give way at the impact, seeing the anguish on her face when she backed away to survey the damage. Kaede had a good face for pain, but Styx felt she could get just a little more out of it.

"That was gauche, hitting my partner like that. Apologize." With Kaede busy grasping her stomach, Styx reached up and tried to wrap her hands around her neck for a straight-up choke, looking to squeeze the life out of her and keep her trapped in the corner with superior bodyweight.

Gasping for air as Kaede almost crumpled to the mat, but held herself up with the help of the ropes as she leaned back into the corner. Things had taken a turn for the worse for the judo girl as Styx would capture her in a choke with her two hands, completely legal in their hardcore fight as she was being held in the corner.

"Guh....ku....Fuck.....off!" Kaede shouted as she has never apologized, and meant it, as she quickly reacted, being caught in this choke was only getting worse by the second as she resorted to dirty tactics as her hand scrambled up to Styx's face and tried to eye rake her fingers across Styx's face.

If that allowed her to escape, Kaede would quickly drop to the mat and roll out, quickly moving away from the corner to prevent being ganged up from the two as she dropped to her knees as her hand slipped under the ring...

Odessa loved the way her little tactic there had worked out. She had managed to slightly irritate the judo girl, managed to get her name—Kaede; a fine name, one that marked her as a native of these Japanese isles—and had also managed to give her partner a small, two-second opening in which to strike. It wasn’t very much at all, but Styx took advantage of it. Odessa’s partner crushed the Japanese woman into the corner.

Of course, Odessa wasn’t quite able to enjoy that to the fullest extent, because right before it occurred she was elbowed hard in the face by Kaede. The ebony beauty would groan and take a step back, rubbing at her beautiful features. For the time being, she would take a step back and simply let the two women in the ring go at it. She and Isabella would have their turn again soon enough.