Best inventions come at twilight - Akiko Hoshi vs (D) Amber Addison

The match had reached a moment in which both contestants had made a little bit of assessment on their rival’s set of skills. Now the two women had an approximate idea of what to expect from the other, what their strong assets where and what strategies to exploit. However, the current position didn’t look good for Amber as both women were kneeling and ready for some grappling, which wasn’t the Inventor’s area of expertise and she knew it. Getting on her feet wasn’t an option either since that would allow Akiko to get a free hit at her legs, probably taking her down.

Amber couldn’t retreat so since forwards was the only way she could go she just lunged forwards in an attempt to tackle Akiko. Unluckily for her, the ninja had quite good reflexes and just managed to avoid being hit by rolling to her side. Before Amber could recover from her failed charge, the shinobi pounced like a cat and ended up mounting Amber as she hit the mat with her back. “*gasp* Damn! Get off me!” Groaning in protest, the Inventor tried to buck her body to make maintaining her balance difficult for Akiko, but she was in a clearly disadvantageous position at the moment.

Amber definitely wasn’t any good at grappling. That was the area of wrestling in which she would feel more defenseless and open to any good strike since she didn’t really know how to counterattack so well. Instead, the Inventor would favor moves that allowed her to make use of her good mobility and her agility. Being tackled by Akiko and forced on her back while the ninja mounted her wasn’t a good omen for Amber who got a little anxious about the idea of having a shinobi locking a submission move on her.

But that didn’t come to pass. Just when Amber was debating internally on how to approach that dire situation, Akiko got up and allowed the Inventor to try and get up. Amber didn’t really get why woulnd’t Akiko capitalize on that edge, but she used the window of opportunity to roll aside and kneel first and get on her feet just after.

Amber was still feeling the damage Akiko got on her with the last strikes, but she knew she had to use that opportunity she got to flip the tables and get the initiative and the offensive. In order to do so, she would quickly break the distance between them and throw a couple of darting quick knife edge chops at Akiko’s upper chest. Her aim wasn’t to hurt her since that was a weak movement, but to stagger her enough so she could start thinking in some bigger moves. “Hyaaah!”

For some seconds, just for a few instants it looked like Amber was getting back on track and retaking control of the match from Akiko. The Inventor’s chops were properly landing on her rival and making her relent. That was exactly the intention behind that low impact movement, to have so many repetitions adding their effect up to each other that eventually the shinobi would feel overwhelmed and at that moment there would be a window of opportunity for something bigger.

It didn’t come to happen though. Just when Amber was starting to feel comfortable as she threw a new chop, Akiko reacted with quick reflexes and catched the woman’s arm, whipping her against one of the ring’s corners. That alone wasn’t so bad, but before Amber could recover the ninja got a powerful dropkick going that hurt Amber’s chest and her back when she impacted against the turnbuckle with extra strength and momentum. As she stumbled on her butt leaning on the corner, only her hands supporting her body against the ropes, it was heavily established how it was Akiko the one in control of the pacing and the initiative in the match. Amber was in quite the pinch now!

Not even sure how it happened, Amber found herself against a wall almost in a literal way as she was downed resting on the corner. Akiko not only had managed to resist her chops without much damage, she also cut Amber’s offensive short by having control of the pacing again. For all or at least most of the match’s length it has been like that, with the ninja in control of the rhythm of the match and with Amber only struggling to throw some responsive moves, taking everything Akiko threw at her. If she wanted to succeed in her debut, the Inventor needed to tap on her rival’s mind and start seizing control of the match.

Amber wasn’t just going to do that right away since she was literally trapped against a corner, and Akiko was in a better position and also in a high morale to keep going with her punishing. From her position there wasn’t much Amber could do to prevent her rival’s knees from impacting against her face. A short groan of pain came out of her before Amber would just slump on the mat, her hands trying to cover her face and take some of that damage away, but she was undeniably in a dire situation.

There was a small hint of a silver lining in all the predicament Amber was in the middle of at that time. Sure, the Inventor was taking a good old beating by Akiko’s rush of strikes, but in the end both women were so close to the corner and the ropes that it would be so easy for Amber to try and achieve a rope break in case a pinning maneuver, or worse, a submission hold, were to happen. That wasn’t a big relief though, since Amber was feeling so drained at the moment.

And the small relief that could bring to Amber would suddenly fade as the woman noticed her rival grabbing her ankle and how she started dragging her to the center of the ring. Based on how punished Amber was that could mean the ninja wanted to attempt a pin. No matter how battered she was feeling Amber trusted her strength to escape from that, but she always had to think in the worst case scenario, and that one was her shinobi rival dragging her to the center of the ring so they were so far from the ropes she could easily go for a submission move. Ninjas were famous for their efficiency in taking down their targets, and the thought of that woman locking a submission terrified poor Amber. “N-nooo...” With a weak voice as she panicked a little, the Inventor started thrashing in an attempt to force a release out of Akiko now that she still was in time.