Match of the Millennium

Description: Another exciting match from SLAMFEST 2020!

[HONOKA INOUE]
Iiiiit's Slamfest! Everyone loves Slamfest, right?

Honoka, if she's being honest with herself, did not expect to have made it into the second round. This is her first tournament - not her first major tournament, her first tournament ever - and though she was nervous before, now she's *really* nervous. She wants to put on a good show and do well! She'd better give the crowd what they want.

Honoka vaults up into the ring. She's wearing the same outfit she wore to her last one, something that looks at least as much suited for a workout as a match - yoga pants with bright stars and web-like patterns, a belly-baring crop top, one elbow brace - and she still looks overawed at the crowd. There's, uh, a lot of them, compared to what she's used to (none at all).

She waves at them, as unease slowly starts to give way to excitement.

COMBATSYS: Honoka Inoue enters the arena, to the roar of the crowd!

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Honoka Inoue     0/-------/------=|

[BIG BLUE]
Last time 'El Diablo' entered, nobody knew what to make of him. But now, as the masked 'man' makes his way down the ramp, he is treated to a chorus of boos after his performance last time. There had been an online petition to get him kicked from SLAM altogether, but thankfully, it didn't seem to produce the effect they were looking for.

So, the undercover Oni is still walking out in his makeshift wrestling costume, the red ski mask with yellow flames drawn on with marker, with two torn spots at the top for his gleaming black horns to poke through. The yellow sweatshirt with the hood down and flapping uselessly, the yellow sweatpants with the red boxer shorts worn over them to give a cheap impression of a circus strongman, complete with construction boots and fingerless black gloves that let his dark blue fingers poke through.

Braving a hail of beer cans and other garbage, the big man quickly rolls under the ring and looks around warily, before turning his head and glancing over at the pink haired Honoka.

"Wait...yer my opponent? Get outta here, kid, I don't wanna hurt ya."

COMBATSYS: Big Blue enters the arena, to the roar of the crowd!

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Big Blue         0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0     Honoka Inoue

[HONOKA INOUE]
...

In retrospect, Honoka should have expected a power wrestler to be big. Very big. A lot bigger than she is, certainly, given she doesn't quite break five feet and he probably outweighs her by thrice or more. She missed his last match, so she doesn't know the details of why he's being booed, but heard about the electrical issues, at least.

"Um, wow," she mouths, more to herself than anyone else. Are those horns? ...those are fake horns, right? She doesn't say that part.

Instead, she draws herself up to her full height. This doesn't help. "I'm an adult," Honoka insists, and to be fair she looks like one despite being short and having a rather high voice. "I'm Honoka Inoue, first-year college student! And I guess I'm fighting you...?"

Honoka raises both hands. It looks like a joke - right up until the time the bell rings, and she's off. She's small but she's fast, ducking even lower as she gets close to him and coming in with a whirling series of kicks to keep him off-balance and off of her! She really doesn't want to get grabbed and lobbed across the ring by Big Blue.

COMBATSYS: Honoka Inoue successfully hits Big Blue with Tropical Storm.

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Big Blue         0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0     Honoka Inoue

[BIG BLUE]
Maybe Blue should have been paying more attention to the fight, and less focused on the crowd and the various skyboxes up top. By the time he notices the rushing Honoka, she's darting in and throwing a series of kicks battered the sides of his knees and shins, and the big powerful disguised oni was very not impressively hobbling around trying to escape the onslaught, until he was backed up against one of the turnbuckles in short order. Snarling, the big man immediately flew out from his trapped position, his right arm aiming to practically take her head off.

"Alright, yer an adult! I believe you!"

COMBATSYS: Big Blue successfully hits Honoka Inoue with Heavy Clothesline.

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Big Blue         0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0     Honoka Inoue

[HONOKA INOUE]
"Good!" Honoka doesn't know why that keeps happening. She's not a high schooler any more!

Unfortunately, pointing out that she is actually adult enough to go to college (though not old enough to drink) does not stop her from getting bowled over by a clothesline. She doesn't lose her head, but she flips end over end, making a full rotation and then some with a startled yelp before she lands with a heavy *thump* on her back. She seems dazed, the air knocked out of her from the impact against the ring, a rebound up from it and then another softer thump.

When dazed, Honoka runs entirely on autopilot. Her autopilot is actually surprisingly effective; she rolls sideways, ending face-down so she can pop back up to her feet. Unfortunately this puts her sideways to Big Blue for a moment instead of facing him directly, so she tries a single kick to keep him off balance long enough for her to clear her head. "Oww..."

COMBATSYS: Big Blue blocks Honoka Inoue's Short Kick.

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Big Blue         0/-------/-----==|======-\-------\0     Honoka Inoue

[BIG BLUE]
Immediately after landing that devastating lariat, Big Blue's first action was to check his legs, stepping around and walking off the pain as he slowly looked around to assess his opponent. Yellow eyes were studying the girl and he had to push away any guilt he felt seeing her on the ground working her way to her feet, reminding himself that she had just battered his legs so that they'd probably feel like linguini later.

As of right now, he pushed away any feeling of pain because he was seeing that leg come up again. This time, however, he was ready for it, and blocked its course with a massive left forearm even as his right hand instantly came up to grab her around the chest. (No, that was not code for anything, he was grabbing around her collar bone.) Moments later, with him still holding her leg up, he'd use just a fraction of his strength to lift her easily in the air...and try to S L A M poor Honoka down to the mat where she'd just been, in something that was a bit uglier than your standard wrestling maneuver. But, it'd get the job done. If it worked.

COMBATSYS: Honoka Inoue blocks Big Blue's Audacious Slam.

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Big Blue         0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0     Honoka Inoue

[HONOKA INOUE]
Honoka finds her maneuver interrupted when 'El Diablo' holds up her leg. She hops on her other foot, attempting to withstand being pulled off-balance, but the mighty hand gripping her collarbone means that Big Blue can get her up into the air.

But she manages to twist around in his grip. Levering her leg out of his hand, Honoka wriggles upward, planting her foot briefly on Big Blue's shoulder and going over his head. She has to wrench herself a little to do this to get out of the collarbone grap - it's not comfortable, she's going to worry about bruises later - but she does manage to bound over Big Blue.

Except... not quite...

Honoka comes down against the back of Big Blue's shoulders knees-first, then slides down slightly so that she can get both hands on his shoulders, in a position that looks almost like a piggyback. She uses the impact from her landing and the sudden addition of a hundred pounds of ill-balanced wrestler to try to pitch him forward, using inertia and body-weight to faceplant him with her on top, knees-first. She's still trying to catch her breath enough to *say* something, but at least she's moving.

COMBATSYS: Big Blue endures Honoka Inoue's Calf Branding.

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Big Blue         0/-------/----===|=======\-------\1     Honoka Inoue

[BIG BLUE]
"What in the hell-"

El Diablo's confusion cuts off as Honoka worms around in his grasp like a spidermonkey, barely feeling her knees on his broad shoulders. He looks around wildly just barely missing Honoka with those jet black horns of his, and when he is eventually 'ridden' down facefirst into the mat, the ring shakes from the impact. He stays there for a moment, not moving. Is he unconscious? Was that all it took to knock him out?

As it turned out, not exactly. Facedown, his right hand balls into a fist and his body tenses in clear anger, and Honoka might notice purple stormclouds gathering above the prone oni. And when he pulls his face up, loudly tearing apart the surface of that ring with his tusks and horns that got embedded from the impact, there's a bass in his voice that matches the sudden crackling of thunder that wasn't there before.

"Did you just...did you just ride me? Like a mechanical bull?! What the F$#@ is WRONG WITH YOU?!"

As rain came flooding down, a sudden fat purple streak of lightning came down without warning, and poor Honoka was right in its path it seemed!

COMBATSYS: Big Blue successfully hits Honoka Inoue with Stormclouds.

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Big Blue         0/-------/---====|=======\==-----\1     Honoka Inoue

[HONOKA INOUE]
That... went better than Honoka was expecting. She hangs on until El Diablo *slams* into the mat, and a moment longer to make sure he's not going to trip her up; then she starts to rise, though she only gets a step or two away before he stirs.

And oh boy is he mad.

Honoka isn't the sort who usually gets mad about fighting; she's pretty easy-going. To her, that's just a way for her to apply her weight effectively. She was not expecting him to respond with purest rage. "I was just - "

*boom*

The skies - well, ceiling? Cloud? Anyway, it opens up, drenching Honoka in instants. She can feel the electricity building, a tingle down her back and a tension in the air, and she reacts in an instinctive way, electricity crackling as she moves. It glances, little arcs dancing across her back with another yelp of surprise and pain as she's showered in sparks.

It's probably not going to make El Diablo feel any better, because what Honoka does is leap forward to make up the distance she just stepped, spread her arms, and simply try a big body splash to press him back down against the mat. Though, if he can hold her up, she's just going to end up hanging on his back... but Honoka figures she's less likely to be lightning bolted again if she is actually *touching* him.

She may be wrong.

COMBATSYS: Big Blue blocks Honoka Inoue's Firebust Splash.

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Big Blue         0/-------/--=====|=======\===----\1     Honoka Inoue

[BIG BLUE]
The stormclouds are slowly dissipating and are still raining and crackling, but they aren't as actively dangerous as they were a second ago. That's because the 'man' under the mask is taking deep breaths and attempting to calm down even as he rises to his feet, with a strand of mat fabric still stuck to one of his horns as it stays attached to the mat itself. The clouds worsen and thicken before he aggressively reaches up and tears it away.

"Listen, kid, I...where are-"

Big Blue's initial attempt at an apology is interrupted by something bouncing against his shoulders and making him stagger out a few steps before he regains his balance and wheels around. Yellow eyes narrowing, the oni reaches out.

"Hey, knock it off toots!"

Reaching up to grab at her wrist, or her shirt collar or anything, he uses that strength to fling her toward the other side of the ring, either toward the ropes or the turnbuckle. Either or, he wasn't picky.

COMBATSYS: Honoka Inoue blocks Big Blue's Irish Whip.

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Big Blue         0/-------/--=====|=======\====---\1     Honoka Inoue

[HONOKA INOUE]
Honoka was not expected to get rained on today in the middle of her match. That was not fun. At least it wasn't as cold as it could have been, but she has an urge to wring out her hair that she can't really follow through with right now.

"I'm not giving up!" Honoka calls back, from Big Blue's shoulders for the moment. 'Knock it off'? Fat chance! "Wait, toots?" She sounds almost hurt. Toots, really?? That's new.

Grabbing Honoka's collar would be... dangerous.

Fortunately Big Blue doesn't grab it; he gets one of the sleeves instead, pulling hard enough to threaten to rip it (it doesn't, quite) as he whips her around toward the ropes. She stumbles, slamming into the ropes hard enough that she gets winded again and will probably have some brand-new bruises across the side of her stomach.

But she recovers well enough to use the rebound to add force and speed to her return, one arm raised to thump into Big Blue's stomach in a lariat. It lacks the power and sheer impact of his earlier clothesline, but every little bit helps.

COMBATSYS: Big Blue endures Honoka Inoue's Medium Lariat.

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Big Blue         0/-------/-======|=======\====---\1     Honoka Inoue

[BIG BLUE]
Honoka's return might not have had the sheer power that Big Blue possessed in his demon body, but the sheer impact of her lariat against his chest was loud enough to sound like a gunshot, and caused him to stagger backward three steps as everyone in the audience gave out a loud 'groan'. In almost frustration, 'El Diablo' reached out with his right arm as he spun around to stand with his back to the pink haired bruiser, trying to grab the girl in a side headlock as he grunted out.

"You're stronger than you look, you know that?"

As he said that, he suddenly shot out his legs so that he'd land in a sitting position, which given that he had her head in that headlock position, was not going to bode well for her. This was called a 'bulldog', and though Big Blue was showing mercy by not running with it and adding that momentum, even this variation was plenty devastating. If it connected the way he wanted.

COMBATSYS: Honoka Inoue fails to counter Flying Bulldog from Big Blue with Deep the Dragon.

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Big Blue         0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1     Honoka Inoue

[HONOKA INOUE]
"...I work out?" Honoka's explanation is almost questioning. And she does! She does work out. Just probably not as much as she should, compared to some of the other fighters around here... but it seems to be working out for her.

But... headlock.

Honoka makes an attempt to avoid it. She twists, trying to grab Big Blue's arm and pull him further forward, off-balance. She actually manages to get ahold of his arm, but he's enough stronger than her that it doesn't matter; she ends up with her own hand pressed into the side of her face, her elbow caught against her stomach or chest depending on how she moves her arm.

The bulldog slams her against the mat with enough force that she rebounds off it and then lands a second time. She has managed to land on her own arm - it's a wonder she didn't break it, but it certainly was not a comfortable landing, and she fails to do much else for a few moments but kind of lie there and flop onto her back.

[BIG BLUE]
Big Blue, currently in 'disguise', looks around at the ring and only now notices the referee in the corner, the one supremely unhappy that his black and white striped shirt is drenched. For his part, the oni takes a deep breath and takes this opportunity to gather his thoughts, before glancing over and noticing his opponent seemingly dazed and out of it. Looking over at the referee, glancing out at the fans, the blue-skinned oni gave a sudden shrug, as he dove over to lay on the girl in a sloppy pin, and noticing the ref starting his count. If he could win and go rest up in the back right now, that would be all the better right?

COMBATSYS: Big Blue gains composure.

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Big Blue         0/-------/-======|=======\-------\1     Honoka Inoue

[HONOKA INOUE]
Honoka is fortunate that it is a sloppy pin, because if it wasn't she's not sure she could get out of it. Big Blue has size and weight on her; any speed advantage she has is rendered moot by the fact that she is seeing stars and also not moving around very much.

But since it *is* a little less than perfect, Honoka can move around a little bit. She shifts, sliding along the mat; she doesn't really free herself so much as free one of her arms, pressing her palm into Big Blue's stomach from underneath.

And then -

There is a sudden burst of chi, a deep crimson blast with enough concussive force to literally pick Big Blue up and launch him vertically about three feet. That's enough time and height for Honoka to try to rise, turing her ascent into an uppercut to follow through with the explosion; of course Big Blue might clear out of the way, but at least she'll be able to *stand up* in any case. "Haaa!"

COMBATSYS: Big Blue blocks Honoka Inoue's Exploding Fist.

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Big Blue         0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1     Honoka Inoue

[BIG BLUE]
Well, that was unexpected. The chisplosion sent the bigger, heavier grappler launching upward into the air, his legs suddenly kicking and trying to find purchase on something solid, instead he was starting to fall while the pink-haired superstar was rocketing to meet him with an explosive impact. Unfortunately for her, the sudden shock and surprise caused the oni to react reflexively. His eyes were now burning yellow fires that spilled out into the world and singed his ski mask every so often, and though it was tough to see, his muscles bulged underneath his baggy sweat uniform. When she threw that uppercut it connected, but she might as well have been punching a boulder.

Instantly, the second he landed, he reached behind him, and swung out a giant massive weapon that wasn't there seconds ago. This massive metal-studded Japanese warclub, and a sign of his heritage that he swung around wildly like a baseball bat, and swung so hard that it flung from his hands and looked like it was about to launch into the faces of the audience members, though the impact mysteriously never happened. Oni magic was weird stuff.

"HRAAAAAGH!", El Diablo shouted out intelligently.

COMBATSYS: Honoka Inoue dodges Big Blue's Join The Club.

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Big Blue         1/------=/=======|=======\-------\1     Honoka Inoue

[HONOKA INOUE]
Punching a boulder is fine by Honoka!

Well, no, not quite. It hurts. But it does what she needed it to do - she isn't stuck under El Diablo anymore. And really, that's the important part in this instance.

Unfortunately, Honoka has precisely zero experience with oni magic. It's even further out of her experience than some of the other weird things fighters do. She sometimes has a feel for how a fighter moves and acts, how they're doing what they're doing - but in this case, she's just feeling completely lost. He's almost bigger than he was before - and where did he get that club??

Fortunately her reflexes are still pretty good and Honoka is short to begin with. "Aaah!" She ducks. The bat flies over her head, though just barely; it ruffles her hair, close enough for the wind of its passage to make a mess of it.

Already crouched, Honoka goes for a short rush. Her hand is still glowing, wispy deep crimson chi swirling around it; when she goes for a grab, trying to pull Big Blue off-balance more than he already is and get him stumbling away from her the fighting aura adds to the force - especially when she tries to use that hand to give him a solid slam in the small of the back to send him tumbling!

COMBATSYS: Honoka Inoue successfully hits Big Blue with Big Bang.

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Big Blue         1/---====/=======|====---\-------\0     Honoka Inoue

[BIG BLUE]
All forms of technique go out of the window, as Big Blue actually stepped into that violent swing and made it easy for Honoka to slip behind him suddenly. Looking around wildly with eyes made of flame, he goes staggering forward from that palm strike right to the small of his back, scrambling forward until he smashes chest first into the turnbuckle pads. It appears that despite their size difference, there's nothing wrong with little Honoka's power and attack speed, she can still take him down, david can take down goliath in this match.

But Goliath is not going to make it easy. Suddenly spinning around, that massive tetsubo he sent flying is back in his hand, this time swinging it up like a golf club in an effort to send the pink-haired bruiser flying up into the sky with all of his Oni strength!

If that happened, Honoka might notice that the purple clouds were back, this time in full force, raining, thundering and hailing in a show of violence and anger. And as they became more and more charged with the masked oni's rage, massive purple bolts of fat lightning energy would come down, in an effort to violently bring Honoka back down to the mat...with authority.

COMBATSYS: Honoka Inoue blocks Big Blue's Ace Of Clubs.

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Big Blue         0/-------/------=|=======\-------\1     Honoka Inoue

[HONOKA INOUE]
Honoka is running on fumes, and it shows. She hurts, she's tired, she's breathing hard -

And yet she's still going. She feels energized despite everything. Like she's still ready to go, even if her body wants to fall over for a while and recover. Honoka follows Big Blue as he staggers forward, apparently preparing a follow-up, but she's moving a little slower than she wants to - even if her fighting spirit is as strong as ever, she's pushing her physical limits. She's inexperienced. She's still finding those.

The tetsubo slams into Honoka as she tries to jump it. She actually gets her feet on it, not that that helps; it still tosses her upward in a high arc thanks to the wonder of physics - and she's flying right toward the violet stormclouds.

The lightning bolt is what does it. It spikes her straight down with enough force that she does not bounce off the mat; she descends directly toward Big Blue in a rather uncomfortable-looking (for her) belly flop, accelerated by the force of the chi against her and trailing sparks. She is actually still conscious. There's an intentional part of her movement that suggests it's an attack, using the only weapon she has left: inertia.

But hit or miss, she rebounds onto the mat, and though she shifts a little bit, she certainly isn't getting up after that.

ow

COMBATSYS: Honoka Inoue can no longer fight.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  <
Big Blue         0/-------/------=|

COMBATSYS: Honoka Inoue successfully hits Big Blue with Bear Crash.

[                       \\\\\\\  <
Big Blue         0/-------/---====|

[BIG BLUE]
Breathing heavily, club long discarded and once again mysteriously vanished, the masked El Diablo originally did not realize that danger was headed his way...until he looked up wide-eyed at the last minute. The 'splash' connected, smashing El Diablo into the mat with such authority that it bent and warped slightly in from the impact, the big blue masked fighter out entirely as he twitched.

Previously unnoticed, the referee was huddling and trying to avoid the rain and hail, but when he saw the cover, he made the count, everyone watching.

1!

2!!

COMBATSYS: Big Blue takes no action.


COMBATSYS: Big Blue can no longer fight.


[HONOKA INOUE]
'One!'
'Two!'

All Honoka has to get up and she'll win, if she's the only one who can stand. She is aware of this, at least in a vague way, even though things are spinning. She's not actually sure if she's still on top of Big Blue enough to count, so all she has to do is show that she's up and he's not and it will do. Right? Right.

'Three!'

Honoka flops a little.

Good luck figuring this one out, judges!

Log created on 20:50:07 02/02/2020 by Honoka Inoue, and last modified on 11:47:58 02/08/2020.