Deviation Actions
Description
With an unsteady, decidedly uncharacteristic stumbling step to her left, Naoko rode the wave of Esmeralda’s fiery combination. Shaking her head quickly to normalize her clouded vision, The Sniper once again set her sights on her target, realigning as she slid back into a defensive stance.
“Eh? Dancing in the ring?” Naoko thought, eyes narrowed as she observed the hulking Spaniard resume her approach. The flourish that Esmeralda applied to that last hit was not lost on the studious cop, despite having her jaw rocked by it. “Nice try at mental warfare, Montoya-san, but I will not be so easily discouraged. Let’s see how much you feel like dancing after this next part.”
As Esmeralda closed in once again, gloves raised, Naoko remained light-footed, careful not to let her too close. Becoming aware of her nearing proximity to the ropes and neutral corner, the Senshi took a couple steps to her right, in an attempt to improve her ring positioning and give herself more room to work with. It seemed that was exactly what Esmeralda must have been waiting for, as she went from a pensive forward step to a full on dash with alarming speed given her physique. Forced to react, Naoko hopped back, flicking a few preemptive jabs from a backward lean as she did so. Unblinkingly, Esmeralda was not put off by the warning shots, smoothly transitioning her dash into a low step-in by pushing off her rear foot, dropping her upper body and leaning forward. Once more, Esmeralda successfully breached Naoko’s protective perimeter, this time using her inertia to shovel a drilling right uppercut into Naoko’s navel.
Realizing she could not defend it, Naoko grit her teeth, sucking air in as she flexed her abdominals, still sore from the last body blow only moments earlier. She gasped sharply as it hit, its force making her wince and cough up a small amount of saliva. With Esmeralda this close, and only a bit of canvas between her back and the ropes, evading probably wasn’t going to work out for her in this situation, not without suffering at least a few more hits in the process. She knew she needed to do something immediately before things got worse and her opponent could proceed to overwhelm her, a scenario which seemed highly likely unless she prevented it now. As Esmeralda prepared the windup for her next swing, Naoko sprang into action, grimacing as she slammed a strong right hook across the Shadow Rose’s jaw.
“…Hhgk!”
Unprepared for such a bold move given the circumstance, Esmeralda took the hit in full, letting out a surprised, hurt gasp as her head whipped to the right.
“SORE!” The Sniper yelled as she clamped down, following up the brisk hook with another one from her left glove. This one tagged La Rosa’s reddened cheek, lurching her neck and head violently to the opposite side, a splash of red mixed with her sweat in the air a sign that one of the cuts in her mouth had been reopened early this round by her opponent’s focused attack.
