Brawl 'til You Fall - Carmen Rodriguez vs Kurohime

It was tempting to come after her even in the dark, but Carmen decided against it - this one was too dangerous to be playing games with, and they seemed even matched. Best to not take risks, at least not until she had a better understanding of Kuro's measure and wore her down a bit.

Instead, she stood up and got back into position, softly walking after the sound of Kuro's movements, tracking her but not capitalizing yet, making sure her position wasn't given up. She'll hold, and the second the lights turn back on, she'll pop forward and hit Kurohime with a hard right, straight into her jaw, followed by a left hook to loosen up that jaw.

Kuro was starting to get used to the darkness, but she still hadn't really located where Carmen was. She slowly shifted herself to her knees, placing her arms in front of her for defensive measure. She kept moving backwards slowly, not wanting to make more sound than necessary. When your sight was hindered, sound became your best hint.

The lights came back early, and to Kuro's surprise, Carmen was quite ready to throw a punch towards her face. She wasn't fast enough to block or dodge it this time, and the first punch sent her tumbling onto her back, grunting. Kuro grimaced and rubbed her sore jaw, once again feeling a little dazed. This wasn't good, the sudden blackout did surprise her.

"Ow..."

The paler girl wouldn't stay down for too long, though. She'd try to roll to her side and got up to her knees where she could wait for Carmen to come after her again. Playing cat and mouse was necessary, although she'd rather not be the mouse. For the time being, however, her opponent had the momentum, and she had to bid her time.

Ah, the feel of a bare fist on flesh. Sweet chin music.

Carmen started to follow up, but she stopped short when Kuro rose to her knees - the girl was good, as good as any woman she'd faced in the ring, and she'd get the same courtesies, which meant letting her getting to her feet. Smart? No. By Carmen wanted Kuro on even ground - there wouldn't be any question who was the better, here.

She paced back and forth, twice, eyeing Kurohime with the glare of a prowling panther, hungry and fierce. She broke into her stance again, favoring a classic stance this time, with her right are lowered and her left held at the ready by her chin. She motioned for Kuro to stand. "Harder."

Tilting her head to the side, Kuro noticed that Carmen didn't bother to go after her downed opponent. Was she underestimating her? Perhaps, but she's not the one to be bothered by such thing. Going easy on Kurohime would prove to be the boxer's greatest mistake after all. Maybe this girl just want to be fair, like all those good athlete types. In any case, she gave Kuro a chance to recover, which she wouldn't mind having.

"I'll show you harder..." Kuro replied flatly while staying on her knees.

With that declaration, she lunged forward, saying low since she expected the boxer would be more prepared against high attacks. Spinning once, the paler girl would sweep her leg again, attempting to strike at her opponent's to disrupt her balance. Should she able to bring Carmen down, Kuro was planning to jump on top of the girl in order to straddle her midsection to keep her grounded.

Kurohime was coming at her low, probably trying to take advantage of Carmen's fighting style again and trying to turn her own training against her - very smart, and it would have worked,,,in fact, it did work, the first time she tried it. But Carmen was more ready for it this time - she wasn't the type to get fooled by the same trick twice. Not only that, but she had a few surprises of her own to throw out.

She jumped over the sweep, avoiding it completely, and came down on Kurohime with her knee pointed downward, aimed for the chest, looking to bring gravity and the element of surprise together for one vicious attack - not the most elegant move, but damned effective if she could land it.

Well, that didn't go as expected, but Kuro also thought that she shouldn't use the same move twice in the first place. At least not something this simple. She watched as Carmen jumped, ready to land her knee on her, clicking her tongue. This could be nasty.

"Tch..."

Fortunately she had an agile body, and there's the momentum of her spin before she swept her leg. The paler girl pushed the asphalt with both hands in an attempt to throw herself out of Carment's landing spot. There's no telling how screwed she would be if such attack connected with her chest.

It was a high risk move, but Carmen figured Kurohime wouldn't have the time to respond by getting out of the way - at best, she could block it, and from this height even that wouldn't help her out all that much. Seemed like a safe enough maneuver, low chance of it going wrong.

Not nearly low enough.

"Aw, fu-" Was all she had time to say at Kurohime moved to the side with catlike reflexes and speed, ensuring that asphalt was the only thing awaiting Carmen's falling knee. Cold, hard, unforgiving asphalt.

She hit and immediately skinned her knee, tearing off a good chunk of flesh, but that was hardly the worst of it - she didn't mind losing a little blood. No, the big problem was that it sent a shockwave through her leg; nothing broken, but definitely jarred, and she would need a few minutes before she could expect it to be working right again. In the ring, the ref would give her sometime to recuperate, and she could move back to her corner at the end of the round. Here? Here, she'd have to work through the pain. All of it.

Grunting and gritting her teeth, she raised her arms back up as she started to rise - Kurohime didn't seem the sort to let this opportunity pass her by.

That gotta hurt... Kuro thought as she watched Carmen landed unceremoniously on the solid asphalt, hurting her knee. No time or place for sympathy, though, not that her opponent would need one from her. Kuro stood up and took a breather, before she quickly went after her downed foe. The girl seemed to be vulnerable for the time being, but she had to be quick.

"Nasty place to jump around, no?" she said before reaching for one of Carmen's arms.

Kuro's plan was to twist her opponent arm behind the girl's back with a makeshift hammer lock. From there, she would attempt to press her knee onto Carmen's back to keep her down. A boxer's arms were her main weapons, which mean primary targets for her opponent. If she could weaken one of them significantly, it might be easier to defend herself from Carmen's punch.

Carmen started to stagger away as Kurohime stood, hopping on her injured knee, trying to stand up all the way but failing every time - pretty undignified, all things considered, but there it was. She saw her dark and handsome opponent closing in, and tried to pull away from Kurohime's hold, but the girl was too quick for it - her arm was yanked away and pulled behind, held in a vicious hammerlock, wrenched tight.

Making matters worse, she was forced to continue to put pressure on her injury, and the knee in the back was a stabbing pain that made every movement hell. As much as Carmen hated to admit it, the match was Kurohime's for the time being - the best Carmen could do was swing her spare elbow back, trying to hit her in the knee with a desperate and disparate attack.

"Nnghh...!" Kuro grunted as she felt Carmen's elbow hitting her knee, causing her to pull it slightly to give the girl's back less pressure. "Harder..." she hissed, repeating the girl's word to her earlier.

She wrenched Carmen's arm harder in return, paying back pain with pain. Kuro was grinning at the sight of her opponent trapped and desperate in front of her. It made her work the arm of Carmen slightly more, although before she could do something else, the lights would went off again.

"This again...?" she muttered to no one in particular.

Kuro suddenly had an idea and she backed away from Carmen, releasing that wrenched arm of hers after a sharp tug. If memory served her right, there was a car near them, and she would carefully move in the darkness to look for it. The paler girl was planning to hide behind the car, so she could launch a surprise attack to Carmen once the lights returned.