Private Finished Tournament Arc: Xera vs. J

There was some resistance, as expected. J threw a few hammer punches to the head while in the mount, but considering how much Xera was resisting... it was better to pull than push.

She brought down a heavy hammer-fist, and then loosened up her mount. Xera was trying to shrimp out of the mount, so she let go... only to catch Xera's right foot in a heel hook, with an immediate twist.

"Consider conceding," J said as dryly as possible, trying to not betray her concern. "This will only get worse."

J kept her her heel hook held, but she'd loosened a little. It didn't take much force in such a submission hold to cause pain, and she was holding back because Xera was resisting so much.

She didn't want to cause any permanent damage, and had hoped that the pain from lightly twisting on the hook would cause a concession. Her skills were there, but her resolve wasn't. If Xera kept resisting, she would be forced to let go to avoid breaking the knee, or possibly worse.

"I could have broken your leg," J said softly, almost apologetically. But her opponent didn't want to give up. Xera was reckless, and J had no choice but to let go of the hook. To take advantage of the hook however, she gave it one last twist to cause some pain before letting go, and used the distracting pain to return to form faster than Xera could.

She stood up and delivered a heavy soccer-ball kick to Xera's midsection while she was still recovering from the heel hook, and switched to a high-waist bökh stance. Blows would cause too much damage, and her submissions were clearly just going to do the same. That left... throws. Out of the ring.

"Do not be reckless, young lady. Be strong."

J couldn't quite deny it. She'd gotten better at not harming people, but the heel hook was still kind of questionable, even if all she intended out of it was to put on enough pain to force a submission.

The fight had turned currently into a posturing match. Since Xera wasn't moving and J was trying not to hurt her too bad, they reached a sort of standoff.

J took the opportunity to simply walk up to Xera, attempting to make her back off a little closer to the edge so that there would be better opportunities for a match-ending throw or push. She raised her hands, keeping up an open palm guard, ready to intercept any attempts to stop her from asserting her position.

There it was, the opportunity. Despite being in a stance for bökh, the attack came low enough that she went for a move from another style.

She didn't turn to face the coming jab. Instead, she let it come in from the side and hooked both her arms around the punch, lurching forward while sweeping her leg sideways for a tottari throw.