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💀 NO MERCY WRESTLING LEGENDS 💀

Fiona had settled into a more effective stance after a few moments to recover, getting both hands on the handle of the kendo stick and keeping it in a basic guard in front of her. Tanya's feint nearly worked, but Fiona was able to keep enough focus not to fall for it. She let Tanya retreat back, willing to take the trade of letting them both breathe a second. Fiona just needed to get her breath and stamina back, while she expected the damage she'd done to Tanya's leg would take longer to wear off.

Tanya throwing the chair at her caught her completely off guard, as the shocked look on her face attested to, but she got lucky. Having the stick ready in front of her disrupted the flight of the chair, keeping it from making much of an impact on her apart from disrupting her balance. It clattered to the ground in between the two wrestlers, preventing Tanya from easy charging forward to capitalize until Fiona steadied herself again.

"Traditional tactics are going out the window, guys," Rhonda commented, sounding a little amused. "Tanya's clearly willing to try just about anything to get an advantage, but that didn't work out for her."

Having disarmed herself, Tanya moved to retreat into the ring, and Fiona matched her step for step, quicker on her feet and not forced to deal with a hurting knee. They rolled under the bottom rope simultaneously, back into the ring, and Fiona managed to get up a half-step more quickly. Seeing a good chance, she took the long step needed to reach Tanya and went for a big downward chop of the kendo stick, looking to let it crack right on her opponent's forehead.

💀 NO MERCY WRESTLING LEGENDS 💀

Fiona felt like she was trying to hold back a river to keep Tanya's momentum in the match from overwhelming her, and with each back and forth exchange, the dam was showing more cracks, because Tanya was clearly willing to do anything to inflict damage. Fiona was shocked by the elbow strike to the throat, completely stunned as her already heavy breathing was temporarily halted altogether.

She stumbled away, easily shoved and then thrown onto the floor for a hard landing in front of the announcer's table. She coughed and clutched at her throat and chest, trying to shake it off and rise, but she was completely out of breath, the attacks keeping her down for more than enough time for Tanya to retrieve the first weapon of the match and show it off for the crowd. A large portion of the audience wanted nothing more than to see Tanya destroy Fiona with the chair, and that wasn't helping her get up off the hard floor. She hadn't shown them enough to keep the crowd's support in the fight. Not yet, at least.

Fiona would have to show them her toughness just to stay in the fight, as the first steel chair strike crashed across her back as she was on her hands and knees, sending her right back face down with a cry, the sound of it causing all three announcers to recoil and grimace.

"Oh, that was a full impact!" Dan Rich shouted out. "This fight could be in over in a hurry!"

Desperate, Fiona forced herself up and forward, stumbling back to her knees near the apron just before Tanya's second chair attack slammed into her back again, pitching her forward and leaving her writhing in agony. Every hit she took like that was seriously worsening her chances of staying in this. Blindly she reached under the apron, her hand brushing against something wooden. She grabbed it, finding the handle of a kendo stick. Before Tanya could crush her a third time, Fiona rolled over and swung, her weapon impacting the side of Tanya's leg with a crack.

"And look at this!" Dan shouted again with surprise. "Fiona's got a weapon of her own! Can she turn this around?"

Tanya's strike was interrupted by a fresh flaring up of pain in her leg from the kendo stick's whack, and by the time she tried again, Fiona was able to roll out of the way and get to her feet. She stumbled back, Tanya's attempt to pursue hampered by her leg and giving Fiona precious seconds to put space between them and breathe. She supported her severely aching back with a gloved hand, the other clutching the kendo stick tightly, while Tanya watched her, furious at the beatdown being interrupted. Got to get her back in the ring and find a leg submission somehow. No way I'm going to outlast her brawling ringside...

The fans wouldn't like her fleeing back to the ring, though, and she needed them on her side. The kendo stick was quicker than Tanya's chair, too. Fiona pushed her fears aside as she and Tanya neared one another, weapons in hand. If I can just wait for her to commit with the chair, she'll leave herself open to a strike.

💀 NO MERCY WRESTLING LEGENDS 💀

The momentum of Fiona's leaping punch was hard to stop, leaving her right by the ropes by the time she got the brakes on. That made it a dangerous attack to miss with, as she immediately found out. She turned around just in time to see Tanya flying at her, her shoulder spearing into her stomach and easily taking her off her feet.

Any breath she had left her in a rush. Tanya probably didn't intend on both of them going through the ropes, but Fiona was folded in half enough that the top and middle ropes didn't stop her. Her legs caught, tipping her backwards until her lower back smacked against the apron. Tanya got the worst of it, flipping over and landing flat on her back on the floor with a heavy impact, while Fiona suffered separate, smaller impacts of the apron and the ground, ending up face down.

Fiona gasped for air, clutching her belly, her first attempt to get up failing and ending with her rolling onto her back, reeling from the pain and the hit she just took.

"Fiona's clearly hurting too," Brent countered Rhonda, "shaking off a spear like that is no easy task even without the tumble to ringside."

Even so, Fiona found a way to focus and push through it, using the apron for support to get her back to her feet before Tanya. The referee waited in the ring, no countout beginning to force the wrestlers back through the ropes. The pinfall or submission had to happen in the ring, but they were allowed to fight ringside as long as they wanted. Hell, they could even go up the ramp and take it backstage, and the cameras would follow. Fiona found she wanted to avoid it as much as she could, though. She'd talked about being ready for extreme rules, but her focus on Tanya's leg was working in the ring, and trading blows with chairs and kendo sticks was only going to play into Tanya's hands... right?

Need to stop second guessing myself, and get her back in the ring! Taking a deep breath, Fiona charged forward, landing a running knee strike to Tanya's head and bowling her over onto her back again, the nearby fans cheering in approval at the up-close-and-personal action. Bending over to grab Tanya's wrist, Fiona hauled her up to her feet, pulling hard to start her running towards the ring. She intended to roll right after her under the bottom rope, and get back to the strategy that worked for her to start the match.

💀 NO MERCY WRESTLING LEGENDS 💀

Tanya's endurance shined as she caught Fiona, and she immediately showed that her leg was still more than healthy enough to heft her lighter opponent up and repeatedly slam her down. The whole building knew the match was about to shift when Tanya finally had Fiona helpless in her arms, and all Fiona could do was brace for it, hoping to find a moment to take the advantage back sooner rather than later.

She cried out loudly as she was dropped onto Tanya's knee and then dropped to the mat, rolling away and holding her side. Tanya was furious, not even letting Fiona get her bearings before she pulled her up, and in one smooth motion lifted her off the mat and slammed her down on her back, the impact rippling through her and securing Tanya's control for the time being.

The third slam was the highest of the three, starting with Fiona draped across Tanya's shoulders before getting pummeled into the mat on her back again. It was a fast, brutal assault, rapidly undoing the advantage Fiona had earned with her careful approach to start the match. She wasn't dazed or dizzy at all, but three consecutive slams put an immediate ache into her whole torso but particularly her back, the impacts leaving her breathless.

"Tanya's not letting up," Dan pointed out, as Fiona was pulled up to her feet again, this time by her hair. "What's she got planned now?"

Tanya stuffed Fiona's head under her left arm, draping Fiona's left arm over the back of her own neck. With her right arm she reached between Fiona's legs before lifting her up off the mat, flipping her upside down.

"Going for the Falcon Arrow!" Rhonda spotted with sudden excitement.

Fiona was just barely able to slip free, however, escaping Tanya's grasp and landing right behind her. She stumbled slightly, not the most graceful return to the mat, but was still able to land a swift kick to the back of Tanya's leg, forcing her down to her knees. Moving forward fast, Fiona flipped forward over Tanya's back, grabbing her head on the way and pulling it down fast to slam her face-first into the mat.

"Fiona dodged a bullet there," Brent said, "but Tanya's got plenty of ammunition left."

A leg kick and a faceplant wouldn't keep Tanya down for long, Fiona knew, so she rolled to her feet as quickly as she could, getting up just before Tanya could. Deciding to take a shot of her own to regain the advantage in the match, Fiona charged forward and went for her signature Supergirl Punch, looking to knock the senses right out of Tanya before she could get her defenses up.

💀 NO MERCY WRESTLING LEGENDS 💀

Fiona knew she'd made Tanya angry, but she'd hoped that rage would make her reckless, and it definitely wasn't doing that. All she got in retaliation was an intimidating glare and a smirk, and an invitation to get close and try again. Fiona's mistake in letting Tanya breathe was obvious to her, she needed to keep up the pressure while she had the advantage, but she had to be careful not to try correcting an error by committing another one. Just need to find another opening, same as before. She's still slower than me.

She approached, lingering right on the edge of arms' reach between the two of them, staying light on her feet and trying to bait Tanya into a mistake. Head feinting in, Fiona managed to lean away from a grab attempt, taking a big step back towards the ropes before sending another swinging kick forward, striking the side of Tanya's leg again. It left Tanya unsteady enough that Fiona risked a lunge in close, smacking her elbow against the side of her rival's head, getting more cheers out of Fiona's supporters.

Time to take her down again! Retreating swiftly back, Fiona jumped onto the middle rope nearby and flew back towards the middle of the ring, tilting in the air and going for a punishing crossbody splash.

💀 NO MERCY WRESTLING LEGENDS 💀

Fiona started the match focused and patient, trying to put the strategy she and Kendra came up with into action. Her quickness was her biggest advantage over Tanya, and in this early stage before any weapons or furniture got involved, it was her best way to gain an advantage. She avoided a few of Tanya's lunges, almost committing to a counter-attack, but she was wary of picking the wrong moment to strike. Tanya wasn't masking her emotions, and Fiona could tell her defensive approach was frustrating her. Maybe she'd been expecting the same fearless, and ill-advised, approach Fiona took to fighting her before.

Getting as close to a corner as she dared, Fiona was able to bait Tanya into another lunge, thinking she had the younger wrestler trapped. Fiona sidestepped, landing a hard kick to the back of Tanya's leg and bringing her down to a knee. Fiona threw her own knee forward, slamming it into the side of Tanya's head and bowling her over onto her back.

"A strong opening hit in the match by Fiona!" Dan Rich commented. "She waited for her moment, and then pounced on it."

"Yeah, Dan," Rhonda agreed excitedly, "that was great patience from Fiona, seems like she's keeping a cool head despite everything that's on the line here tonight."

Fiona moved to press her advantage, stomping on the left leg, trying to repeatedly target near the knee. She stayed one stomp too long, giving Tanya time to rise enough to shove her back hard and create space. Fiona stumbled back into a corner, eyes wide as Tanya surged up and charged at her, looking to squish her into the turnbuckles.

She reacted quickly, grabbing the ropes and lifting both legs up, bending and twisting to slip through the ropes out onto the apron while Tanya whiffed on her charge into the corner. Fiona kept her hold on the top rope, nailing a high kick that cracked against the other side of Tanya's head, sending her stumbling out a few steps towards the ring's center. Feeling like she had a chance to go big early, Fiona vaulted up onto the top rope and springboarded into the air, soaring into a heavy dropkick that Tanya turned around just in time to get flattened by. Both wrestlers crashed to the mat on their backs, but Fiona quickly performed a kip-up to her feet, getting raucous cheers of approval from her fans.

"I think Tanya's been caught off guard here a little," Brent called out, before shaking his head, "and who can blame her? That was about as flawless an opening as Fiona could've hoped for."

Indeed, Fiona was feeling good about her start, but if there was one quality that defined Tanya Redd, it was toughness. She went right back to work, grabbing Tanya's left foot before driving her knee down into her opponent's leg. Staying on her knees, she lifted up the foot, bending Tanya's leg at a painful angle and continuing to work on sabotaging her base of power. The more damage she could inflict, the bigger her speed and quickness advantage would get, as long as Fiona could keep Tanya from exhausting her stamina.

She stayed out of Tanya's reach, leaning back on her knees away from her opponent's outstretched hands. It was difficult for Tanya to sit up at all with the angle her leg was held at.

"What a controlling start from Fiona," said Rhonda, clearly impressed. "Confident and decisive. I love it!"

"She had a plan, clearly, and she's executing it well so far," Brent admitted. "But we're in extreme rules here. Let's see if she can adapt when Tanya finds a way to throw a wrench in the plan."

Feeling like she'd used up her welcome on the wear-down hold, Fiona slammed Tanya's leg down and rolled away, back to her feet, while her opponent seethed and tried to push through the pain to get up. Backing off again, Fiona resumed her defensive strategy, looking to dodge more strikes or grab attempts so she could keep kicking at that left leg, and build her offense from there.

💀 NO MERCY WRESTLING LEGENDS 💀

Fiona's entrance by comparison was much less dramatic, and much more energetic. The nerves that were eating away at her all disappeared the second she stepped into the spotlight on the stage, white sparks floating down around her, baby blue lighting covering all the screens. Unlike Tanya, Fiona was all smiles, warmly greeting the fans offering high fives as she strutted confidently towards the ring. She was up against an intimidating challenge tonight, but she wasn't about to let it show in her intro.

The fans gave her a great reception, though Tanya had earned a nearly equal cheer, more than Fiona would've liked. She supposed that impressive win over Abby last week built Tanya some serious momentum with the fans. A loss to Fiona here, viewed by many as an even easier matchup for Tanya than Abby, would stop her momentum cold, and Fiona wanted nothing more than to make that happen.

"Fiona enters tonight's match with a two and one record in NMW," Dan Rich explained, "but I think it's fair to say she's still looking for that signature win to vault her up the rankings in the eyes of fans and her fellow competitors. A victory over Tanya Redd in a no-disqualification setting would be a huge boost for her young career, no matter how the rest of this tournament goes."

"She talked a lot this week about being ready to embrace extreme rules," Brent pointed out, as Fiona hopped up onto the apron. "I'm gonna have to see it to believe it. That kind of aggression is a hard thing to train."

Rhonda turned to her co-commentator. "For once, Brent, I'm in agreement. If Fiona hesitates at all with weapons or opportunities in front of her, you just know Tanya's going to make her pay for it."

After taking a moment to sit and bounce a little on the middle rope, smiling and absorbing the love from her fans, Fiona lifted her legs and swung around and through, into the ring. The time for being cute and playful was over, as she had no one left to interact with but her opponent, who stood about five inches taller than her, with at least twenty pounds of what seemed like straight up muscle advantage on her. Tanya might have gotten leaner from the last time they fought, but Kendra was right: if Fiona tried to slug it out with Tanya or if she picked a bad time to grapple, she was going to end up on the mat in a heap.

Taking a deep breath, Fiona backed into her corner, keeping her gameface in place as she eyed up Tanya. She looks confident, unsurprisingly. Hopefully a little overconfident. The referee came to check her boots and gloves, though it seemed a little pointless before an extreme rules match. Approved weapons only, Fiona supposed.

The intros done, the final checks made, the crowd settled in for their fourth extreme rules match of the night, eager to watch the carnage unfold between Tanya Redd and Fiona Chevalier.

💀 NO MERCY WRESTLING LEGENDS 💀

BACKSTAGE

Fiona waited backstage with Kendra, just moments to go before she'd be heading out to battle. It had already been a wild night of fights, and while Fiona was curious about the results and who was moving on to the semifinal round on both the men's and women's sides, she forced herself to ignore all of it, to stay focused on the task at hand. It was just the second extreme rules match of her career, and unlike last time, where Kendra ran out to assist her against the Beatifics, this time Fiona would have manage alone, against a rival that had her number so far.

"Remember, try to go for her legs," Kendra advised. "That's where her power comes from, and she won't be expecting it, it's not your usual approach."

She was repeating the same strategy they'd gone over a number of times already, but Fiona found it helpful all the same. It kept her mind from wandering, kept her imagination about what was about to happen in check.

"Don't try to slug it out with her, don't trade blows," she continued. "If she gets her hands on you, if she hits you hard, try to get some distance. No countout rules, either, so you can go under the ropes if you need to, buy yourself some time."

"And that's probably where I can hit Tanya hardest, too," Fiona finished.

Kendra nodded. "Yup. We've been practicing with weapons all week. It's time to put it to use. Everything's legal, so do what you have to and get the win. You've got this."

One week of training for extreme rules hardly felt like enough now that the match was minutes away, but there was only one way to get the kind of experience Tanya already had: the hard way. It wasn't the way Fiona wanted to fight, but even she could acknowledge that trying to fight clean in an extreme rules match was a surefire way to get destroyed, especially against someone like Tanya, who wouldn't be holding back in the slightest. She'd promised her fans in her promos she was ready to get extreme. Now she had to prove it.

Her gear for the night was her fairly standard mix of bright colors and black, her booty shorts and top both an eye-catching metallic mix of light blue and violet, a thin silver chain with a few dangling elements fastened around her waist as a belt. The rest was black, from her semi-transparent, longsleeved spandex underlayer on her upper body, to her fishnet tights and usual tall boot covers, and sleek midlength fingerless leather gloves. She was expecting the usual tough, no-nonsense, military inspired look from Tanya, and expected her own look would contrast well by being more youthful, stylish, and a little sexy.

She knew many of the fans were dying to see the upcoming clash between Raven Veyn and Isabella Cadiz, two titans of the women's division in an extreme rules brawl to the finish, but she hoped just as many would be invested in the rivalry about to continue between Fiona and Tanya. Rivalry... probably need to beat Tanya once before she'll consider me a rival.

"Ugh," she groaned. "This commerical break is taking forever." She shifted in place, putting her weight on one leg and then the other, rolling her wrists, loosening her neck. "Network's gotta get their money's worth out of this show, I guess."

💀 NO MERCY WRESTLING LEGENDS 💀

THE FOLLOWING WEEK…

The excitement in the thriving young NMW fandom was reaching a feverish peak in the mid-August heat, as the first round of the Rubicon Gauntlet was completed, leaving six competitors standing for both the men's and women's titles. Isabella Cadiz rounded out the fighters heading into the women's second round with a victory over Keysha Wayne to end the show. Fiona had to admit she was seriously impressed by Keysha's performance, a fearless and gutsy display that pushed the former NMW champ hard, but experience and strength won out in the end, and Isabella was able to get the win by pinfall to punch her ticket to the extreme rules round.

Every day of the week was packed with activity and promotional work for the upcoming fights. Every afternoon Fiona was called into the studio for something, whether it was a new photoshoot, a meeting with social media managers, filming a promo, picking out and testing gear... it was exhausting. For the fourth time in her four matches, Fiona was going in as the underdog, and her two-and-one record in those matches didn't seem as impressive with the way Kendra and Choi Minji had helped her upset Shin Choon-hee.

Her promos were all about how she wasn't afraid of the challenge, how she was eager silence the doubters, to prove that she belonged even on the toughest stage, and how she was ready to get extreme and show the NMW fans a side of her they'd never seen before.

She might've considered going for an easier week of training to make sure she didn't burn out, but this wasn't the week for that. As long as the title was up for grabs, Fiona planned to push herself to her limits. She could rest when she was on the other side of this. That, and she knew she needed all the preparation she could get to have a chance against Tanya.

She wasn't lying in her promo about embracing the challenges, it was part of why she wanted to wrestle... but she couldn't deny Tanya Redd intimidated her. Fiona's previous two attempts to beat her ended in failure, though the second match snowballed from a tag team communication error, and for better or worse, Fiona would be facing her old NMWW rival completely alone.

She went to watch back her singles match against Tanya. It was her first match back from time off due to her ankle injury, and she went with a similar strategy to what she'd just tried against Shin Choon-hee, targeting the shoulder and arm and trying to work towards a submission. She did a decent amount of damage to the arm, but couldn't withstand the swings in momentum; Tanya's offense targeted Fiona's body with knees, slams, and elbow drops, leaving her vulnerable to an abdominal stretch submission that proved to be too much, and forced a tapout. Fiona expected a similar approach on Friday, a straightforward battering and trading of blows that she wouldn't be able to match. Tanya wasn't subtle, and unless Fiona adapted, she wouldn't need to be.

Her best opportunity was in the extreme rules, and she knew it. For better or worse, the weapons on offer would give Fiona the firepower she would need to break through Tanya's toughness, and that was how Fiona and Kendra trained all week. They didn't beat each other with kendo sticks and metal chairs, using softer approximations instead, but Fiona knew she needed to practice striking with them, and defending herself from the same, as well as maneuvering outside the ring. Not a lot of it came naturally to Fiona, with Kendra repeatedly striking through her defense, usually with the kendo stick. The chairs needed long windups to do real damage, usually enough for Fiona to roll away or intercept them.

And then there were tables, and that was just what they knew about. There was always the potential for surprises. Fiona's confidence was shaky as the week went on, despite Kendra's frequent encouragement. The extreme ruleset was just as likely to demolish her as it was to help, she knew. Still, she made sure to keep the negative thoughts from overwhelming her, and she was extremely thankful for her tag partner's help. Tanya was strong and tough, but sloppy, and far enough in her career that she wasn't likely to change. Fiona was tougher and had more experience under her belt since their last match, evolving with every fight, and she was confident she would have the fans at her back, willing her on.

Fiona knew she'd need every bit of that support to weather the storm that was coming on Friday.

💀 NO MERCY WRESTLING LEGENDS 💀

If there was a moment for the usual Beatific shenanigans to come into play, this was it. Tanya landed a second devastating finisher on Abby, who was clearly out of it, rolled up nearly into a ball by Tanya's pin.

"One! Two! Three!"

And that was it. Tanya pushed Abby's legs to the side as she stood up, leaving the Beatific in a barely-moving heap on the mat. Tanya's fans cheered wildly at the result, but Fiona could tell through the wide-angle shot they switched to that there were more Beatifics fans, and they were less than enthused at the result. Not just because their favorite lost, but because Abby had been put on the back foot from the very beginning, and never really recovered to make a match of it.

"And that's a statement win by Tanya Redd," Dan Rich commented, as the referee took Tanya's wrist and lifted it high, declaring her the winner. "She may not have the same fan support as some of the other competitors in this tournament, but I think she just proved herself to be a dark horse contender for the title."

"You've got that right, Dan," Brent agreed. "That was a beautiful, no-nonsense beatdown, and I see no reason why she won't do the same to Fiona Chevalier next week."

"And look at that!" Rhonda pointed out. "Tanya's clearly thinking about it already."

Tanya was quick to find the camera zooming in on her from the crowd after the referee left her to check on Abby, giving it an ominous, unblinking stare, and then pointing straight ahead. It was a clear, wordless message right to Fiona, enough to make Fiona shift uncomfortably in her seat, suddenly feeling like thousands of people were looking right at her.

It wasn't the result Fiona wanted, in more ways than one. Judging by the fan votes, she'd have equal if not greater fan support than Tanya, but she'd need more than that to get her first win over her veteran rival. She hadn't come particularly close to winning either time against her so far, and the extreme rules were another wrinkle that seemed to favor Tanya more than her. Aside from that, she couldn't help feeling another flare-up of self-conscious suspicion that her match had caused Diana to deny Aubrey ringside access for her sister's fight. She could already see the sisters finding a way to blame this loss on Defiant Dream, and using it as an excuse to make their lives hell, as if they needed one.

But she couldn't afford to think about Abby and Aubrey now. She had a week to prepare for Tanya Redd, and she knew she needed to make the most of it if she wanted to prove the doubters wrong and keep her title hopes alive.