Haruna Saitou VS Irene Inger: Low Blows Match

Haruna made no secret of her desire to inflict some payback on Irene, and she moved with haste to stop Irene's retreat. The elbow smash nailed her in the cheekbone, resulting in a grunt from Irene and a sore spot that would turn into quite a bruise later on. Then, the match began in earnest, as Haruno landed the first successful attack on the space between Irene's legs, nailing it with her knee. At once, Irene grimaced and gasped for air as an intense cramping sensation invaded her lower body. The low blow hurt, a lot, and there would be many more to come.

However, Irene was able to maintain her resolve, and when Haruna's knee planted itself between Irene's legs, the scientist reached out with her arms and grasped the leg firmly, attempting to keep a hold on it to put Haruna off balance. If that worked, Irene would fire a kick of her own, aimed at the woman's upturned and exposed thighs. Following that, the girl would push forward in the hopes of unbalancing Haruna enough to send her falling backwards onto the mat, where she would be in prime position for Irene to exert a groin attack of her own. Unless, of course, Haruna was able to counter her strategy first.

A rush of sadistic satisfaction filled Haruna as she felt her knee strike connect. Surely Irene would regret having stepped into the ring with her now. However, that would not be the case. Much to Haruna's chagrin, the girl seemed to endure the blow, grabbing her leg and retaliating with a stinging blow to her thigh.

"What...!?" Haruna winced, completely taken off guard by Irene's seeming resilience. Though slightly flustered, her superior sense of balance helped her remain of her feet as Irene shoved her. It was, however, somewhat tenuous and a bit shaky as she staggered backwards, leaving her guard wide open.

Haruna managed to stay on her feet, but Irene was determined to break the girl's balance and send her down to the mat. Stepping forward, Irene positioned one of her legs behind the one Haruna had on the ground, keeping the other leg tucked under her left arm. With one free hand, Irene would shove Haruna's chest and try to push her forward while pulling her own leg back to sweep Haruna's other foot out from under her. If everything worked as hoped, Haruna would finally lose her balance fall backwards, a dangerous predicament for her since Irene still held one of her legs.

“I'm not some fragile plaything, Haruna,” Irene chided her opponent as she worked on getting her down to the mat, “you can't land a single blow and expect me to crumble in front of you.”

Haruna quickly tried to stabilize, but Irene wouldn't let that happen. With her planted leg hooked, the simple shove would be all it took to send the proud girl crashing to the ground a second time. Furious she had been dropped down on her back once again, she just glared back coldly as Irene taunted her.

"You... you'll regret that..." she growled, with a seething rage in her voice. This indignant mongrel was making a fool of her, and Haruna was never going to forgive that. While she currently was in an extremely precarious position, unable to get back up with Irene holding one of her legs, Haruna was not completely helpless. Drawing up her free leg, she lashed out, aiming to kick Irene in the shin.

Irene smiled down at Haruna, relishing the woman's impotent rage. “Oh, stop it,” Irene scoffed, “this match is just getting started, it's too early for either of us to be getting huffy.” The young scientist reached down and tried to grab Haruna's other leg, but the woman kicked out with it, striking the lower half of Irene's leg and causing her to stagger backwards. “Damn!” Irene shouted as sharp pain coursed through her leg. “You can kick, I'll give you that. Nevertheless...”

Charging back into the fray, Irene bent down and tried to get ahold of Haruna's legs again, hoping to set her up for an interesting submission hold she had just cooked up. Unfortunately, this would leave the shinobi diva with a few seconds to counter or retreat.

Haruna was quickly starting to get irritated at Irene's continued chatter. "Stop blathering with your voice so much, you're gonna need it when I'm making you scream!" she spat viciously. Though still in her disadvantaged position, Haruna had no intention of letting this scrappy scientist have her way.

Haruna didn't want to spend time down on her back like this a second longer, but first she needed to get some space. As Irene came for her once again, Haruna lashed out again with her powerful, toned legs, throwing a sharp kick aimed at the young girl's face.

Irene tried to move back into position for another attack, but it was no use. The woman's sharp kick struck Irene right on the nose, bruising the delicate facial feature and eliciting a stifled yell as the girl tripped backwards. She only stopped when her back bounced against the ring ropes, and she was visibly shaken by the power that her opponent's legs wielded.

Haruna still had too much energy for Irene to simply try overpowering her; hell, she'd just demonstrated that fact when Haruna failed to overpower her seconds earlier. This time, Irene waited patiently for her opponent to get up as she mulled over a possible strategy. She decided to stay close to the ropes, daring her angry opponent to come over there and knock some sense into her. Irene liked using the ring elements for extra leverage when she could, and with no ref to stop her, an attack utilizing them could deal some serious damage to this girl. Depending on Haruna's fighting style, it was possible that she'd have a similar desire. Either way, Irene was willing to play this game of chicken with her, betting that she could get control of Haruna before the reverse occurred.

Blasting Irene back, Haruna now had the breathing room to hop back on feet. Though quite angered, it hadn't yet reached the point to inhibit her clarity of mind. Noticing her irritating foe had backed up against the ropes, a small grin crept up her face, believing Irene to be trapped.

Not about to let herself be subjected to any further ridicule, Haruna approached cautiously, readying herself for any possible attack. As she finally got in range, Haruna thrust forward with an open palm strike towards Irene's chest, and then trying to follow up that by sending a low punch to the girl's nether regions.

Irene had been hoping for Haruna to engage herself in another easily countered charge, but the girl was clever enough to avoid making the same mistake twice. As she edged closer, Irene started to worry that her act of pretending to be cornered, might not be pretending for long. Still, the nimble girl was savvy enough to catch Haruna's first strike, and as she got a hold of the woman's arm, she even started working the wrist to hyper-extend it and punish the girl. Given the circumstances of this match, however, it would have been a better idea to tank the first attack and block the followup, as this one was aimed somewhere more vulnerable than her chest. The punch landed, causing Irene to grunt with pain as she released her foe's wrist and sunk back into the ring ropes, with her head resting against the top one. It was by no means a very strong or clever strike, but these low blows were starting to have a cumulative effect, causing Irene's insides to cramp up uncomfortably whenever she tried to exert herself. This left her exposed against the ropes for a short time, and since Haruna's punch had no recovery time whatsoever, the girl had a golden opportunity to try something mean.

Though her first strike was blocked, it was merely a feint for her true target. Quite satisfied as her fist slammed into Irene's tender area, Haruna wouldn't make the same mistake of letting her guard down. With her score now of two low blows to Irene's zero, Haruna wanted to extend her lead.

"I want to hear you really scream this time."

As Irene reeled from the blow, Haruna grabbed her shoulders, holding her in place while she thrust upwards at full strength, bringing her knee crashing up between the little scientist's legs once again.