Yeah, just when I thought it was just gonna be a slow March in terms of writing, there went and had to be a pandemic goin' around. Even though my updates through March – or lack thereof – wouldn't really be much better with or without the COVID biz, I would've figured the creative juices would flow harder considering I've kept myself at home a little harder than usual – doesn't help that Michigan is one of the more affected parts of the states, so I feel like I barely have much of a choice.

Whatever. It's fine. Enjoy what I got.


Today, Moe Habana may have overslept a little bit – she only just heard about the backup bout that concluded minutes ago; her first thoughts on the matter were 'Who's Shiki'?

The second, went towards the fellow ladies she's started to hook herself around – but she had barely any success finding any of them. Something must've happened with Athena since she was nowhere to be seen in her room or much of elsewhere.

She had some time to lurk – up until she found one of what she sought, simply by bumping into it.

"Aoi!"

The red-clad biker walled off Moe's advance. "Sorry, Habana; you might wanna stand back a little bit."

"Why? W-where's Leona—"

BWMTH~!

A faint but strong echo of an explosion was not just heard, but also felt; it was about a minute or so away from behind closed gym-room doors, and there was still a little bit of a shake, a little bit of a shockwave through the room – and through both ladies' bodies.

Habana was a little rattled, simply presuming to the chaos with a face of slight worry that her wondering about Leona was at least partially answered.

On the other hand, Aoi responded to the faint boom... "Taking care of business. Hopefully." She may have known a fair bit about the Ikari Warrior by now, but nowhere near enough to fully know how she was going to deal with her opposition. "Think it's better off we just watch from elsewhere, just to be safe..."

"Aoi..."

"We'll be fine. "

Helping Moe in turning her hide the other way and heading back down the other end of the hallway, Aoi was only looking ahead – it was for the best that those not involved in the incoming bout scattered-

-but then, a brief stop as she glanced off to something, something seeming to catch her attention; in her eyes, in her mind, and in her soul. To her, she was caught by a somewhat familiar essence that she was better off not pursuing again, at least for a time dependent on how she was booked within this coming round.

To others, she was kinda staring off into space.

Moe stuttered in confusion, "Uhh... what's wrong?" The strawberry blonde would've thought the two of them would be getting a move on at Aoi's insist, if it wasn't for the Kusanagi's brief lapse in thought.

Aoi's stare faded real quick... "I-it's nothing. Something I could feel... but I don't feel like I'd give a shit now."

She was better off feeling that way; it wasn't exactly like the other end of things was giving a shit in return about the cursed Kusanagi, either...


Shermie didn't have an amazing morning at all. Between the separation from her Crimson boy-toy who in her eyes had pretty much gone missing, and, as far as we know, a bit of verbal (but hopefully not too physical) hazing from her more 'sophisticated' associates – rightfully in air-quotes simply because of how sophistication is considered alongside Vice and Mature's partially hidden cruelty – it was a lot less of a positive road for her as she made her way closer to the third round of the tournament.

"Mmnnn, hold me tighter~"

All she could settle with as the next best thing behind Ash was a reconnection with one of a few previous flings throughout her time in the mansion.

Unfortunately, Angel was too busy training up herself for the next fight – and also kind of the reason things have started to turn sour between Shermie and her fellow Hakkesshu – but on the bright side, one of Shermie's former opponents would suffice for the moment...

"Oh my~ you're as thirsty as ever..."

Luong was quite welcome in return – all the quote-unquote 'CPR' and the 'reaming-and-creaming' she had received ever since she had first contact with the beauty in pink, had definitely warmed her up to Shermie's touch.

Such a display of sporadic loving that, elsewhere, a certain red-clad Kusanagi had to pause to recognize...

Shermie only had so much time to spare her mouth from the spit-swapping and give her thoughts. "You're no Ash, but... merde, if he had curves like yours and mine, I'd hold onto him even tighter..." Her hands barely left the Taekwondo beauty's hips and thighs as she clung on for as much as she wanted out of this reignited flame.

The vacant hole left in her heart wasn't quite full yet, but what was being helped into the hole right now was almost satisfying enough...

"Appreciate the compliments, sweetie," a warmed Luong responded, leaning herself even further on her fellow dame. "Don't let all those thoughts get too deep in your head, though – I've heard it's been rubbing your friends the wrong way..."

"Ohh... hmhmhm..." Shermie let out a half-muzzled giggle towards Luong's advice. One word in there hung longer on her mind more than the rest. "I wouldn't say 'friends'..."

Partnership-wise, if anything, Yashiro and Chris could be considered her friends. Not so much with Mature and Vice, or even any of the other Orochi associates. In fact, this was one of the first few times she was ever set on working towards something with the murderous vixens – and it wasn't exactly going off on the best of terms.

Luong chuckled back, moving her hand lower and lower against the blind-banged redhead's body. "Pardon me; a little too forward, I suppose?"

"In some ways, yes. In others..." Shermie hissed welcomingly to the Taekwondo vixen's advancing touch, rubbing down on her strong thighs. "Mmmm... you can push on me like that all you want."

"You don't even need to ask..." Once again, Luong met lips with her temporary lover, continuing to provide the warmth that one would need at times like this.

All the while, Shermie's mind shared this loving embrace alongside the more important matters: the third round of this admittedly (in her opinion) commonplace tournament was only getting started beyond where she stood, but already she had plenty to think about.

About herself, and what she was willing to deal with in these trying times.

About her 'friends'. To reiterate, Mature and Vice were far from a great connection to CYS...

About Ash, the green light to her loving flame, and how she will inevitably find her way back into his arms, among other things, wink-wink.

About a certain few others as well, but that was known without asking...

Her mind was booked solid with thoughts to reflect upon before and after she mows down one of what would be three unlucky ladies by this point; overall, she knew, and she knew a lot more than most others would...

…Eventually, life finds anyone and everyone an eventual opportunity to bite back...


THIRD ROUND – MATCH #1
Leona vs. Lien Neville

FIGHT!

The battle kicked off with intensity, as you'd expect out of the messy and explosive build up – both on pretty much literal circumstances – that it was given:

Leona dove straight into Lien's close space with a ferocious tackle that cracked shoulders against ribs, prepping to push the blonde with figurative blood on her hands closer to the vicious flames burning on the other end of the gym room. However, she was only able to push so far before meeting resistance.

Lien locked her heels down on the ground where they stood, holding Leona down with a front necklock as she held out like an iron wall against the arms of the Ikari Warrior wrapped around her hips. She eventually tried to shove Leona away, planning for a big boot to give distance, but she had to change plans quickly when she felt her catsuit stretch slightly against the opponent's retaining grip.

Leona reeled herself straight back into uncomfortable close quarters, headbutting Lien beneath the chest as she continued to push onwards. Still very little budge to the struggle – the soldier eventually met, to her dismay, a retreat from such an offense, as she let her arms free, unfortunately letting herself get leveled with a kick to the gut from Lien.

The Ikari Warrior briefly dropped to her knees before making a quick recover, palm flat and fingers pointing like little knives as she rushed back in for a third time... this time slicing into the fray with one of her razor-sharp aura-slices!

The vibrant slash of light blue hit Lien at a close enough contact that it tore a decent hole in the stomach area of her leather, only managing to scratch at surface level of the skin left visible behind the cut.

Lien was very familiar to the feeling of just nearly getting slashed like a common weakling – and she wasn't going to take too kindly from the looks of her sudden grip on the hand responsible for such a lashing on her body, swiping with a sideways roundhouse around the back of Leona to knock her off her feet while she still held onto the hand.

"Think that's as much as you're going to get, opening me up like that." Lien's grin grew sadistic as she toyed with the fingers she handled on her rival, gripping with the ring and pinky fingers in one hand stretching one direction, and the middle and index stretching in the exact opposite way, in the other hand.

Leona tanked the uncomfortable pulling sensation splitting away feelings at her hand, her other hand shaking in a pain-facing fist for moments before she finally threw it outwards...

With a smack across her face, Lien's jaw was rattled by the swooping fist, blood flying out in place of saliva as she felt at least one tooth loosen from the receipt. She immediately let go to check her mouth for a moment – maybe a moment too long once she charged back in...

...and was tackled straight to the ground by Leona, spine splatting against the hard pavement of the room. Lien was not being given any leeway in the necklock she was attached against her opponent in, Leona wrenching hard and keeping the Brit grounded while connecting with further damage – kneeing Lien several times over in the back of the head, handing no forgiveness and pulling no blows, and why should she? If Lien wanted a war, she was going to get one she was bound to regret sooner or later.

Problem is, was Lien ever going to feel regret, for anything in the battle? She must've slept quite well after giving Mignon an L in the previous round – noted, partly helped by the inner conflict that shrill witch had with her sister – and there was probably even less of a fuck for her to give if accounting further back with the first round against King.

The momentum of the low-ground struggle slowly turned over to Lien's favor after a little while longer, with the catch of a leg as Leona tried to swing it in for one more knee. Lien pulled the leg of her opponent past and away from its kneecap-intended target. The Brit's core strength was being tested against the pushing force of Leona's toned legs as they tried to fight back against its opposing force – Lien eventually rolled over on top before climbing herself off from her front, onto her knees, and then eventually onto her feet while she wrenched on the crossing legs of the soldier…

...before being brought straight back down with one overlook too many – Leona shifted her strength back in the other direction and took back control. The end result of the momentum shifting back and then forth, was Lien being driven into the ground face-first with the struggle-fighting strength of her blue-haired opposition – and it had drawn blood as a result. Out of one flaring nostril, and onto the ground, a withdrawal of red as Lien recognized the subtle change on the feeling in her nose. Almost numb, but the rest of the sensation seemed like a dulling pain rising, and a bothersome smell of iron.

When it came to being beaten in the race of truly 'drawing first blood' (at least more than a trickle from a shot hitting in just the right spot), Lien deeply considered respect – but a lot of other things came before; namely, frustration and a need for retaliation. Unfortunately, the retaliation would need to wait for Lien as she figured out her defense... For now, Leona had the fight in favor, intertwining Lien's legs over each other and pulling upwards at an angle to stretch her out. She was more than willing to show the newfound rival just what she'd be dealing with in this bout – that she was going to have to step far beyond the levels of her previous two opponents.

Of course, that went both ways by this point – even with the leverage and the motive to bend until she broke her in half, Leona had a noticeable struggle with keeping Lien in place as she continued to wriggle through the strain. Eventually, the wear-down found itself turned sideways as Lien was halfway back over in the ever-evolving phases of her eventual escape.

Leona's attempt to answer was to try and bend herself over on top of the femme fatale laying chest-down, trying to evolve the leglock into something more of a stepover-facelock – that was a no-go the moment she was smacked back with a skull-clocking hit!

"Bugger off!" With a thumping headbutt, Lien denied her opponent's attempt to go further beyond with her submission; Leona staggered back into a tall stance, legs still hooked around the opponent's even when she was briefly rendered groggy. She couldn't act quick enough to prevent Lien's final escape from the hold, and the kick afterwards that pushed on her, closer towards what remained of the room's stock of gym equipment.

Thankfully, she stopped herself short of smacking her head on one of the metal bars on a pulley-powered weight machine, and she carefully maneuvered around it, hanging onto her patience over her opponent's eventual recovery.

"Might as well forget submissions at this point," suggested Lien, working out the rough kinks rendered in her legs off the eternity-long contest of holds. "We know neither one of us is going to give up that way..."

The leather of Leona's gloves stretched within her clenched fists. "Would you rather I beat the life out of you?"

Lien scoffed. "You know they're not going to let that happen."

With that, the two hardened fighters went back into action, at a quicker pace with their as it became increasingly relied on their armwork and how well they could put it to use against each other. It started with a trade of attempted fists-to-faces, consistently blocked off by the forearm of the defender – Lien threw a punch, Leona blocked it off; Leona threw a punch, Lien completely denied it – until the blonde struck the azure in the gut with a knee too low from Leona's direct sight to catch before impact. Lien drove Leona further down onto that knee afterwards, ribs being targeted with too much of a consistence for the soldier to handle for too long.

Dragging the Ikari Warrior back up on her two feet, Lien followed in with an elbow to the right of Leona's face and a punch to the opposite side against the left of Leona's chest (around armpit-level), but she was blocked away in the third strike of the combo with a lucky reach on Leona's behalf. Lien simply retaliated with a rough shove, causing Leona to again land against the nearby exercise machine, and charged forth.

In the small window of opportunity, Leona settled herself lower, into a crouch – and Lien responded swiftly by stepping over the Ikari Warrior's back and climbing higher up the exercise machine up until committing to a backflip. She continued her momentum after that, before being quickly halted in her tracked with a tackle.

One swift, power-charged chop to the back of Leona's head stopped her attempt to halt momentum before she even got the plan off the ground – planting it straight down upon the back of the soldier's skull, almost as hard an impact as Leona's face against the pavement. Planting nose-first with a force that would definitely shatter that nose for anyone with less durability than Leona had after years of hardened military training, and threatening to loosen at least one tooth when the mouth and front of jaw clocked against the floor next, the momentum shift was showing its ferocity already.

Barely conscious, Leona was able to bring her head up from her face-down position on the floor, as she felt at her face with a gloved hand and could barely make out the dark red streaming across the palm of the black leather. It was, without her choice, her turn to start drawing blood, and now both ladies were primed to paint the room red if necessary.

"Get up." With a beckoning budge with the tip of her foot, Lien pushed Leona's face up even further to look upon the person that was flooring her. The rest of Leona's body eventually climbed her back to her feet automatically, regardless of her current gauge of stamina.

Lien recognized the little bits of red greeting the tip of her left boot, "Look at that~ looks like no one's coming out of this clean anymore..."

"I'd say 'a nose for a nose', but..." Lien chuckled as she looked down on the syrup-slow drips of blood falling off of the inflicted parts of Leona's face. "I'd happily make you bleed out of plenty more places – and make more holes if I have to."

THUMP! Lien drove a knee into the gut of Leona, pushing forth on her next target on the opponent's body. The leather was grinding roughly against Leona's abs, and in a matter of moments, old wounds were starting to reopen... The bottom end of the scar left from way back in Leona's first-round bout with Mature started to regain that rashy red color from when it was still somewhat fresh between rounds.

Through gritted teeth, Leona continued to express through unfiltered thoughts... "You get off on this pain, don't you?"

Lien chuckled. "Oh please. I was raised to endure it."

Leona was lifted and dropped immediately after, gut first onto another of the benches untouched by the explosion not so long before. She was left keeled over the bench, perpendicular to where it pointed, as Lien took her time walking by – taking a brief moment to continue provoking the Ikari Warrior with a lazy boot to the side of the head, just to make sure she wasn't in the position to think straight quite just yet...

It was the props off to the unburnt end of the room, that Lien had her sights on – she proved to have a strong enough lift to grab one of those long, sturdy barbells and carefully carry it close to her chest as she reapproached. That weight looked ready to come crashing back down, and Lien preferred it to do so upon the back of the neck of her rival...

The blonde femme fatale lifted the barbell up even further so that she could throw it down harder…

...but Leona caught the gym prop before the drop, flinging her body back upwards with a top-head strike upside Lien's jaw!

As she shared handling the central bar of the dumbbell with Lien, Leona lifted herself back up in a way that she positioned herself onto her knees on the work-out bench, her face up close with Lien's as she leaned in even further...

...and started to try and bite into the blonde! However, rather than catching any skin on her teeth, Leona only managed to grab the bandage on Lien's neck, and she absolutely succeeded if her intention was to rip it off.

Lien immediately retorted, as she roughly pushed Leona back, forcing her to take the barbell with her; the end result was that the soldier wound up tripping over the bench, being slammed down under the dead-weight of the barbell falling over her scar-irritated gut. Leona found herself laying on her front yet again, having rolled over from beneath the barbell after gravity had its way with her in the moment before.

Lien growled with further frustration. "Can I go one fight the rest of this tournament, without someone trying to bite me?!" She was sensing a theme with her fights since her preliminary bout, and she would rather buck the trend. She approached without caution towards what may have been to come...

Meanwhile, as she started to get back up to her knees behind the other end of the bench, Leona stared down at the barbell with a plan forming. At this point, she didn't mind needing to use whatever wasn't bolted down now, to get Lien out of her face as much as possible.

She decided to just simply spring back up to her feet with the strength she still carried being used to provide momentum to the barbell she grabbed – it went up for a split moment as Leona let go of it

…and Lien caught and reclaimed the barbell, thinking as though Leona had a stroke of stupidity letting that thing fall into enemy hands. It was until she felt the incoming slash out of Leona's palm only come so close without even touching the skin-tight leather that Lien started to get the gist of what Leona was trying to do, as she saw the barbell suddenly shift weight – as it was cleanly sliced in half down the middle!

Before she could properly adjust to dual-wielding the barbell halves, Lien was pursued dead-on by thrusting elbow strikes clocking her in the head, as Leona kept her occupied enough to not quite yet try to use the broken barbell for whatever needs necessary.

Lien lifted the right half of the barbell with an attempt at an overhead strike – but Leona caught it and wrenched the arm around, twisting Lien's limb with a consistent annoyance for the Brit to deal with.

The intention, as it quickly became clear, was to force Lien to let go of the barbell piece – resulting in it dropping right on her foot! With one targeted drop, she could be joining the collective pain of everyone who had dropped gym equipment on themselves in the past and will do so in the future.

Given her hardened status (one that could compete with Leona's), though, Lien hid away her pain under a growl beneath her tongue, bracing for long enough to keep her mind more on the lady continuing to twist the arms about with intent to hold down this well-endowed assassin.

Still held in Lien's other hand, the remaining chunk of the barbell came swinging up against Leona's face, the metal pole-end jabbing her in the eye – all that budged, however, was her head swinging back briefly as she tried to shrug off. Again, it slammed directly into her eye, so the resulting stinger there wasn't going to just go away quickly – unless the adrenaline of competition willed her with enough fighting spirit.

Leona's head swung back in the other direction to collide with the back of Lien's, throttling the Brit forward while Leona pulled the rest of her body backwards – with a lift-over, Lien was dropped on her shoulders onto a nearby bench behind the action, and smacked back up onto her feet after the rollover, with a seismic punt up her face, courtesy of Leona.

As soon as Leona grappled her with a close clinch, Lien shoved her off and tried to swing herself in on her own terms with a spinning elbow...

Shling! Lien was interrupted by a familiar sound soaring past her ears, as Leona vanished from out of Lien's sight. Another sharp sound indicated Leona's slicing offense, this time zipping past Lien – and now the left side of the blonde's leather suit received a new opening around hip-level.

Lien barely acknowledged it as she continued to try and catch up with Leona's increasing speeds, zipping in circles around her. With each punch Lien threw, however, she simply could not catch the adoptive daughter of Heidern with any of those knuckle-busting strikes, and as a receipt, it was another notch on her costume, in the form of another blue slice through it.

How she continued to prioritize trying to throw punches at the moving target, over her own safety, was anyone's guess – other than the possibility that there truly was starting to be a vendetta built through just this fight, and how much further the rivals were capable of heavy blows before it all systematically fell apart.

Slice, slice, slice~! Leona continued to encircle with continuous blue slashes of her sharp might, outrunning the speed of Lien's flying strikes – until she put in the conclusion to her spiraling session of slices with one more deep strike into the front of Lien.

"You soldiers just don't stand still, do you?!" Lien grunted. Her left hand seemed a little too close by her right wrist around this point. "At least give me a chance to make you cry...!"

"Just give up if you value your life," demanded Leona. "You can't even consider catching up now..."

"You... are an absolute... dumbass... if you think I value my life over this petty tournament!" On the apex of Lien's retort, she ejected her left hand from her other wrist and slammed it down on her rival's back.

Something thrusted straight into Leona's back, causing her push-to-shove against her opponent to completely stop as she simply just pushed Lien away. She staggered away, completely breaking away her offense – and the opponent seemed to be letting her off in return, for the moment.

Her top was sliced down the back-end – as was some of her bleeding skin beneath it, as she felt behind and recognized the handle of a knife, the blade halfway into her back.

"I'm never without my tricks, soldier," Lien bragged, watching as Leona's steps slowed to a stumble, trying to examine the literal knife in her back. "What else were you expecting from me?"

Leona stared up with pained intensity, an approach staggering off from her usual course of stoicism, emotion-wise. "Don't get cocky..."

"I'm rarely not," said Lien. "You haven't even seen my worst yet..."

All the while, she found herself grasping at her gear – or what was left of it beyond the fabric lacerations. "...ugh, fuck... My gear's barely holding up anymore..."

She gave up on keeping up with the clothing damage building up, and she simply started tearing off the upper half of her leather. As one could easily acknowledge just from looking at her on an average day, she didn't have a bra on – so she was now pretty much half-naked. Outside of the few cuts and bruises she had received through the match so far, and the healing wounds from past bouts, Lien certainly had a welcoming body to look at.

"You might as well suck up your dignity, too, Leona," Lien suggested. "That top won't be able to hold up now, will it?"

Leona was definitely in a bit more of a different league when it came to facing off with Lien Neville. A slight couple of notches above her usual expectations in pain endured... but a bout like this was none like Leona would've gone through in the tournaments. There was more regulations then. This was just pain. And it was probably going to get worse from here.

As soon as the knife was ejected from her back, Leona gave in to the slow bloodfall from the deep cut – and her tanktop ultimately gave up holding itself together, falling to the ground. It wasn't any day where she had to bare her chest under brutal circumstances – even less days to have to share this half-nakedness with her opponent, one she built up a feeling to hate so goddamn much.

Lien giggled in fascination – even she couldn't help but acknowledge that Leona shared quite the good build to eventually expose. "See? Was that so hard, Leona?"

Leona slowly shook her head. "I was right... you are getting off on this. Disgusting."

It took a brief second for Lien to notice that Leona was trying all she could not to directly acknowledge the hardened nipples of the blonde assassin.

"I see," Lien acknowledged. "Hard to find subtlety in these times, eh? We'll have time to contemplate each other's bodies later if you want. If we both make it out of this without permanent damage, of course..."

Leona adjusted her gloves... "I'd rather just break you."

Lien grinned sinisterly. "Good luck with that..."


Next Chapter: Blood and clothes have been lost – but only one of these fierce ladies are going to falter in the climactic outcome of this Round 3 opener!