08-05-2008, 12:05 AM
Rivals (part 2) written by Jeri
It had been several months since Crissy and Amber's first stomach punching contest to end their rivalry. After that more-or-less pathetic attempt at fighting, they both decided to take up kickboxing to gain some fighting skills. Originally, they just wanted to take it up as a sport. However due to their gymnastics background, they progressed very rapidly, and decided to go into competition. The only down side to this was that they had to give up cheerleading, as the load of three different sports at the same time was too much for them. It was near the end of their freshman term and the cheerleading squad had just disbanded for the year, so they could leave it without disrupting the squad.
Soon after they got the fundamentals of kickboxing down and had developed the new set of muscles that kickboxing required, they were defeating opponents who even had a couple years more experience than they did. They each also developed their own individual styles.
Crissy was the cool tactician. She was always studying her opponent, even while attacking. She preferred a more slow paced bout with more defensive moves on her part, at least until she had determined the strengths and weaknesses of her opponent. She would then select a strategy and attack using that strategy, but always looking for her opponent to change their own tactics. This strategy worked very well, as most of the opponents she was pitted against were fairly new to kickboxing and were showing this by being too aggressive. Her smaller size also made them think they had an advantage that they really did not have. Quite often, she would spar with her opponent defensively until she was sure of her attack, then end the bout in a flash of well-calculated punches, kicks and moves.
Amber, however, was the aggressive one. She would come out swinging, to match the most aggressive of her male opponents (which caused a lot of them to go immediately on the defensive). She used her size to her advantage, as she could easily get under most of her opponent's attacks. And due to her gymnastics experience, she could still place a kick almost anywhere on her taller opponent's anatomy, even well above her own head. Even though her favorite style was to be a wildly aggressive fighter, she had the sense to go on the defensive if the situation warranted it. Regardless, she was always right back on the offensive if the situation changed in her favor again.
Whenever the two of them were matched against each other, the bout was always exciting. The bout would have wild flurries of activity between them. Because of their completely opposite styles, one or the other was always attacking. And because they were matched in size and experience, neither of them had any advantage. Almost always these bouts went all the rounds, with the winner decided based on points. There were a couple TKOs, but never any knockouts.
Crissy and Amber continued their stomach punching contests, though there was no malice between them any more. They used these contests to try to hone their fighting skills, as stomach punches and kicks were one of the most effective ways to disable an opponent (or to be disabled yourself). Quite often in the middle of the contest, one or the other of them would pick themselves up off the floor and gasp out something like, "That was a good punch, but if you had aimed just a little more to the left, you could have doubled the pain and disabled me for a longer time," or, "Now that was the worst pain I have been in so far. Try hitting the same spot again a few more times, but harder."
Crissy and Amber sometimes used these sessions to practice punches and kicks that were outlawed in regular practice and competition, like kicking each other when they were down or punching and kicking well below the belt. They also practiced moves that would never be used in kickboxing, such as elbow slams and knee drops to the stomach that they had seen in Pro Wrestling on TV, though they did the moves for real. While they sometimes practiced kickboxing moves outside the stomach area (even some highly illegal ones, such as to the head and neck), they tended to concentrate on stomach blows.
Because they were using this as practice, they would let each other recover between the punches at their own pace. If there were any indication that there was any kind of a problem, they would stop and continue some other time.
It was after one of these practice sessions that Crissy said, "You know, we never did finish that first stomach punching contest. Why don't we try again with a full-out, no-holds-barred stomach punching contest to determine which of the two of us can take the most stomach blows? We've both learned so much that we should be much more effective this time. We're both in good shape, so I doubt we could injure each other too much." This was unusual coming from Crissy, as Amber was usually the aggressive one of the two.
Amber thought about it for a short while, and then said, "All right, we'll plan for next Saturday. This time however, we'll use a few rules to make it interesting. Other than the standard rule that any kind of punch, kick or such to the stomach is legal of course..." (Crissy echoed, "Of course...") "...we'll have the following rules. You first tell your opponent how to pose and your opponent holds the pose and closes their eyes so they won't see the blows coming. Then you can deliver five blows of any kind to their stomach, as fast or slow as you want, but no more than about a half a minute from the first to the last. Your opponent then has one minute to recover, tell you how to pose and then start their first strike. If they are not ready within the minute, you get a penalty blow to their stomach with them in the same pose. You get more free penalty blows without limit if your opponent is still not able to get their attack started by the end of the subsequent minutes. This goes on until one or the other gives up or can't maintain the pose as requested."
Crissy was surprised that Amber had come up with these rules so fast. Crissy asked, and Amber told her that she had been thinking along the same lines for some time. They set a time for the match and broke up for the day.
The next Saturday, Amber arrived at Crissy's dorm room at the agreed-upon time, late in the morning. She had brought an electronic timer with her that could be set to give out a piercing alarm one minute after hitting the button on top of it. They got into their "fighting gear" which consisted of them both wearing a thin sports bra and nothing else. They had decided to fight this way after a $75 bikini bottom of Crissy's was shredded and they both had bra-strap chafe marks on their backs in one of their more violent contests. Moreover, it wasn't as if they hadn't seen each other more nude than this in the locker rooms and showers before. And, neither Crissy nor Amber was ashamed of their bodies.
Amber re-iterated the rules she had come up with and they tossed a coin to see who would go first. Amber would throw the first punches into Crissy's stomach. Amber told Crissy to go to their spot on the wall.
Crissy had redecorated her room a little, actually due to their contests. Their favorite place on the wall now had two narrow but long pictures hanging on it with large and very strong hidden picture hooks. Crissy took the pictures down and grabbed the throw rug from in front of the bed. She hooked the rug on the two hooks using the two strong loops coming out of it. They had learned early on that a strong stomach punch that penetrated through to the backbone usually hurt more from the vertebrae of the spine slamming into the unyielding solid cement walls than the actual punch itself. For a while, they had to restrict their activities to just the carpeted and padded floor until they came up with the idea of the rug on the wall. Crissy had to lie to the campus maintenance guy that she intended to put up a heavy decorative shelf for her trophies to get him to drill the two deep holes in the wall and to actually epoxy two very strong bolt supports there, instead of using the self-expanding plastic ones they usually used to hold screws. These "picture" hooks would be there until they tore the college down, and may even outlast that.
Crissy stood with her back to the wall and her hands clasped behind her head, as she had done many times before. Just before she closed her eyes, she tightly tensed all her stomach muscles. This was good planning on her part, as Amber attacked just after her eyes closed. Amber gave Crissy four hard straight knuckle punches to the solar plexus, fast in a row. They had been practicing these types of punches for quite a while, so they didn't feel too bad. Each punch hurt Crissy quite a bit as it made contact with the top muscle layer and the pain built up immediately after the last punch, but it quickly subsided to a general ache, as most stomach punches do. She was just starting to move and open her eyes for her turn when she doubled over from the pain and shock and dropped like a rock to the floor holding her stomach gingerly. Amber had just thrown a heel back kick very low in her lower belly, barely above the groin.
Crissy was in a lot of pain, and was barely able to think about what a fool she had been. She had not counted the blows, so she thought Amber was done. As she thought Amber was finished and it was her turn, she relaxed her stomach muscles. They had practiced blows to this area before, but since it was outlawed in regular competition, they had only done them a few times. They had practiced targeting the lower belly just enough to know what it felt like and to be prepared for it during competition. In all their practice, they had been expecting the blows and had flexed their stomach muscles for them. This time, Crissy received the hard heel kick in her completely relaxed belly (or as relaxed as a top gymnast's stomach muscles can ever be). The blow completely winded her from the pain and caused her stomach muscles to contract violently and spasm. She was still able to think about what had happened, as both of them had learned to separate their thoughts from the pain no matter how violent the pain was. So, it was a major annoyance when she heard Amber punch the button on the timer and heard the alarm ticking down, even though she herself could hardly move from the pain.
The alarm went off just as Crissy was pushing herself up from the floor. Amber helped Crissy up a little, and after making sure she wanted to continue (Crissy did), helped her to the wall again. Crissy flexed her stomach muscles tight again, concentrating on tightening her lower abdominal muscles though they hurt a lot when she did, and shut her eyes in preparation for the penalty blow that she so richly deserved for being so stupid.
Crissy wasn't the only tactician. Amber knew that the most effective blow would be to the same area that she had just attacked. She knew that two blows in a row to the same point had much more than twice the effect of two separated blows. She backed up a bit and delivered a spinning back kick with her heel to Crissy's lower stomach, directly to the same place she had kicked her before.
Crissy grabbed her lower stomach and fell to the floor again. She had also figured that Amber would target the same place, so she had concentrated on flexing this area tight. It actually had the desired effect. She was in a lot of pain from the kick due to the severity of it and the placement, and from the fact that this area was still extremely sore from the previous kick there. But her flexed muscles had saved her from the new blow. In fact, she was already starting to get up merely seconds after she hit the floor.
The pain in her stomach was subsiding to the usual warm ache as Crissy got up, barely 10 seconds after Amber punched the timer button.
Crissy had already planned her attack. She told Amber to lie down on the floor with her hands behind her head. For the first three of her blows, she did a snap kick with her heel to the middle of Amber's stomach, then another snap kick to just below her solar plexus with the ball of her foot. Then, while standing on Amber's right side, she did another snap kick, a cross-body kick to the left side of her stomach, landing her heel just at the intersection of Amber's abs and oblique muscles in a line with the navel. Amber winced at this blow and her knees jerked up a little for a second or two, before she again laid out flat. This was all right with Crissy, since she needed a couple seconds to set up her next blow. Crissy did an elbow drop with all her weight, into the same muscle intersection point on Amber's right side. Amber immediately grabbed her side at the point of contact and rolled up into a ball onto that same side. Crissy gave her a couple seconds and then asked if she was going to concede, as Crissy still had one blow left. Amber answered by stretching out flat on her back again, though her body was not straight since she was favoring her right side. Crissy then did another elbow drop, but this time to the middle of Amber's lower stomach, precisely where Amber had kicked her.
Crissy had, of course, a strategy for the contest. She was going to make the final blow of the contest a hard knife-edge thrust deep into Amber's solar plexus. She knew that Amber's muscles were the strongest in this area and that they must be weakened to the point where they gave no real resistance for this type of blow to be effective. If she could deliver her planned blow, this would surely end the contest. Crissy also knew that the best way to weaken the muscles at this point was to attack the rest of the stomach. It is difficult to flex your muscles to ward off a blow when you can hardly think through the pain.
Crissy had set up her strike combinations to weaken Amber's stomach. She had seen in their previous contests that Amber was weakest at the sides of her stomach, just at the muscle plate junctions. She used this to her advantage. She did the first two kicks to Amber's stomach to get her off balance. The cross-body kick was to get Amber to favor her left side and to leave her right side more exposed. That set her up for the elbow drop to the right side to cause the maximum amount of pain, to cause her to loosen her flex on her stomach muscles. The elbow drop to the lower stomach was to Amber's almost completely relaxed stomach. Crissy actually felt the tip of her elbow contacting the back of Amber's pelvic bone. This was, again, designed to cause the maximum pain to weaken Amber's general muscle tone further.
Amber felt the first kick in the middle of her stomach quite a bit, and the kick to her upper stomach a lot less, since she was strongest there. The cross-body kick to her left side hurt a lot, as Crissy's cross-body heel kick at an angle into this area crushed her left oblique muscles into the floor. With her eyes closed, she had no idea what Crissy was planning based on the first three kicks she had received. So, she was completely surprised by the elbow to her right oblique muscles. The blow slipped right between the flexed abs and obliques, and penetrated deep into her internal organs. This hurt so much she lost her breath. When Crissy asked if she was going to concede, it took all her willpower to straighten out to take the final punch of the set, even though she was weak and in no way ready for it. The final blow to her lower abdomen caused her to almost completely black out from the pain. She didn't hear the ticking timer, though she heard the alarm go off. She didn't realize that it had been the full minute since that last blow, as she hadn't recovered sufficiently to even think about getting up. She heard Crissy asking if she was OK, and she heard someone say she was all right and to continue, though she didn't know who it was who would say such a thing. Crissy told Amber to get ready for the attack.
Amber heard a voice inside of her say to flex her lower stomach muscles, and she obeyed the voice. She knew that the pain was increasing at the same time as she was flexing her stomach muscles, but she didn't realize that the two events were related. So, she flexed her lower stomach muscles very hard. This voice was what saved Amber, as Crissy sent another punch straight down into her lower stomach.
Crissy had seen that Amber was very weak, almost ready for the contest-finishing punch to her solar plexus. Crissy planned one more attack to her lower abdomen, and then another punch to her solar plexus. If this didn't end the match, she would continue to punch down into the solar plexus until Amber gave up. However when she punched Amber's lower stomach, it was a lot harder than it should have been given her condition.
Amber had still not recovered from the first blow to her lower stomach, but the second penalty blow had not been too effective. So she was gradually recovering from both blows. She was pretty sure that she would not be able to get up in time to be able to start her turn, so she did something that took a lot of will power and nerve. She decided she was going to lie there and let Crissy take another penalty shot at her while she tried to recover.
Amber started to massage and stretch her stomach at the sides and lower stomach area, and thought about Crissy's tactics. She was sure that she would not have enough strength to flex her whole stomach for Crissy's next attack, so she decided to flex the stomach muscles only in the area she thought Crissy would attack. She decided on flexing her solar plexus area based more on instinct and a gut feeling than any real analysis.
Crissy was puzzled that Amber had not even tried to get up for her turn. But when the buzzer went off, Amber had put her hands again behind her head and closed her eyes, indicating she was still willing to continue the contest. Crissy punched straight down into Amber's solar plexus, and was surprised at the hardness she encountered there.
Amber grunted a little and grabbed her upper stomach, but her tactic had worked. She was now in good enough shape that she could once again go on the offensive. She stayed on the floor to help her recover as she counted 30 seconds on the timer ticks. She then got up, and told Crissy to lie on the floor with her legs spread.
Crissy knew what was going to happen next, and she was right. Amber came down hard between Crissy's legs, deep into her lower stomach with the point of her elbow.
Crissy had a pretty solid lower abdomen. It was a lot deeper and harder than Amber's. In their practices, Crissy had been able to take blows there that had doubled Amber over in pain. So the elbow smash to just above her crotch, while hurting a lot, did not immediately incapacitate her like it would have someone else. However, Amber followed this up with a second elbow smash to the same place. And this time, she actually kicked up her legs and did a little dive with her body held straight so the whole of her body weight was behind the point of the elbow. Amber actually fell back to the floor, pivoting on the point of her elbow still buried in Crissy's stomach. Even Crissy's strong lower stomach could not take this. She clutched her stomach and jerked her legs up almost to her chest, gasping from the pain. She then rolled onto her side, still in this position.
Amber asked Crissy if she was able to continue the match. Crissy tried to speak, but had lost all of her ability to breathe. Amber gave her a few seconds, and asked again. Crissy responded by slowly stretching out again. She cried out from the pain as she raised her legs to spread them out again. Even though Crissy was in the position to take the remaining blows, Amber still asked her again if she was really going to continue. Crissy nodded yes, though she had a pained expression on her face.
On the next blow, Crissy almost lost her breath completely. Amber had performed an elbow drop to Crissy's solar plexus, but from between her legs. Thus while Amber's elbow hit her solar plexus, the rest of Amber's body came smashing down onto the length of Crissy's exposed stomach. Crissy did not roll up into a ball. She did not even have the strength to even raise her legs.
Amber saw this and was very concerned for her. Amber asked her if she wanted to continue, and Crissy nodded yes, though her eyes were watering from the pain. Amber asked her again if she was sure she wanted to continue, and Crissy again nodded yes.
Amber again did the identical elbow smash to Crissy's solar plexus and body, and Crissy passed out.
Crissy slowly started to see something, but she wasn't sure what it was. Slowly, her mind cleared and she started to make sense of her surroundings. The first thing she actually noticed was a very concerned Amber rubbing her hands and face to try to awaken her. The next thing that she started feel was a very intense pain somewhere in her body that was growing stronger and meaner with every second. She also noticed that she wasn't breathing at all. She took in a large, noisy gasp of air, and the pain shot up strongly. The pain shot up with every new breath she took. Eventually the pain leveled out at just under the completely intolerable level.
Amber breathed a loud sigh of relief when Crissy started to come around, even though Crissy was only out for a few seconds. She picked Crissy up and carried her to the bed.
Crissy hurt all over, though she knew she'd been hit only in her stomach. That's the effect the blows to her solar plexus had. The pain seemed to radiate outward to the rest of her body. She knew from previous experience that this was temporary, and the pain would soon contract back to the point of the blow, intensifying as it did so.
Amber very gently massaged Crissy's stomach at the point of her last blow. She was carefully studying Crissy's face while she did this to gauge when she was massaging too hard. Amber was also in a lot of pain, but she was stoically ignoring it until she was sure her friend was all right. From the expressions on Crissy's face, she was still very sensitive to any kind of touch to her stomach, so Amber stopped massaging her to let her recover a little on her own. The timer picked this time to go off. Both girls jumped at the sound and Amber giggled a little at the irony.
Amber looked at the clock, and saw that the whole contest had taken well under a half an hour, though it had seemed like hours. It was just after noon as she looked at the clock. Her stomach rumbled, but from hunger. Early on, they had learned in a rather messy way that you never have a stomach-punching contest if you have recently eaten. So she had not eaten breakfast, and had not eaten since the previous evening.
Amber turned to Crissy and said, "How about a Pizza?"
Crissy immediately came back with, "Get a large with double pepperoni and double cheese!"
They looked at each other a couple seconds and both burst out laughing, though it hurt. Evidently, at least one part of their stomachs didn't hurt.
Before they ate the pizza, they massaged each other's stomachs thoroughly. They took turns and massaged as deep as they could even to the point of pain, as they knew from experience that this was the best way to start the healing of their aching stomachs for the fastest recovery. They continued to massage each other strongly over the rest of the afternoon, until their stomachs were just burning all over instead of having the individual intense spots of pain.
It was early evening before they realized that the pizza was still sitting unopened. Crissy got dressed and took it to the microwave in the community room of the wing to heat it up. They ate the Pizza, the first food they had eaten in the last 24 hours, and then went back to massaging each other's stomach. Eventually they both fell asleep early, exhausted from the day's activities, both naked on Crissy's bed.
Sunday morning, after devouring the remaining cold pizza, they examined each other's body thoroughly for any signs of damage. They were both amazed and pleased that the only outward sign they saw of the previous day's activity was a small bruise on Amber's right side where Crissy had sunk her elbow deep into her tender oblique muscles. Crissy, who was majoring in sports medicine, did an examination of both of them to make sure they had no extremely sensitive sore spots indicative of internal injuries. This more-or-less assured them that no matter how far they went in future fights, they would probably do no lasting damage to each other. They resumed their deep massaging and continued it all day Sunday, skipping Sunday morning church services.
Both Amber and Crissy recovered fully over the next week. They were sore for about the first half of the week, and it hurt a little when they had a bowel movement during this time. They skipped the Tuesday night kickboxing practice session. However later in the week, their pain had receded except for an occasional twitch when they twisted their bodies the wrong way. By Friday's kickboxing session, the pain had almost completely disappeared, though both Crissy and even Amber were much more defensive than usual, taking great pains to protect their stomachs from any possible blows. They also decided to go easy on each other at the next Saturday's stomach-punching contest.
Epilog:
Crissy and Amber had a few more of these types of contests with one or the other winning. After each one, they thoroughly discussed why they had chosen each particular blow and what the effect of the blows they received had been. Both worked on strengthening their vulnerable points, and the contests became fiercer with time. However, the contests were becoming less exciting and even boring, since they were both getting to the point where they could take just about any blow that the other gave them. Most of the latter contests were actually draws, when both of them were exhausted and mutually decided to just stop the contest.
This was about to change.
But that is another story..
It had been several months since Crissy and Amber's first stomach punching contest to end their rivalry. After that more-or-less pathetic attempt at fighting, they both decided to take up kickboxing to gain some fighting skills. Originally, they just wanted to take it up as a sport. However due to their gymnastics background, they progressed very rapidly, and decided to go into competition. The only down side to this was that they had to give up cheerleading, as the load of three different sports at the same time was too much for them. It was near the end of their freshman term and the cheerleading squad had just disbanded for the year, so they could leave it without disrupting the squad.
Soon after they got the fundamentals of kickboxing down and had developed the new set of muscles that kickboxing required, they were defeating opponents who even had a couple years more experience than they did. They each also developed their own individual styles.
Crissy was the cool tactician. She was always studying her opponent, even while attacking. She preferred a more slow paced bout with more defensive moves on her part, at least until she had determined the strengths and weaknesses of her opponent. She would then select a strategy and attack using that strategy, but always looking for her opponent to change their own tactics. This strategy worked very well, as most of the opponents she was pitted against were fairly new to kickboxing and were showing this by being too aggressive. Her smaller size also made them think they had an advantage that they really did not have. Quite often, she would spar with her opponent defensively until she was sure of her attack, then end the bout in a flash of well-calculated punches, kicks and moves.
Amber, however, was the aggressive one. She would come out swinging, to match the most aggressive of her male opponents (which caused a lot of them to go immediately on the defensive). She used her size to her advantage, as she could easily get under most of her opponent's attacks. And due to her gymnastics experience, she could still place a kick almost anywhere on her taller opponent's anatomy, even well above her own head. Even though her favorite style was to be a wildly aggressive fighter, she had the sense to go on the defensive if the situation warranted it. Regardless, she was always right back on the offensive if the situation changed in her favor again.
Whenever the two of them were matched against each other, the bout was always exciting. The bout would have wild flurries of activity between them. Because of their completely opposite styles, one or the other was always attacking. And because they were matched in size and experience, neither of them had any advantage. Almost always these bouts went all the rounds, with the winner decided based on points. There were a couple TKOs, but never any knockouts.
Crissy and Amber continued their stomach punching contests, though there was no malice between them any more. They used these contests to try to hone their fighting skills, as stomach punches and kicks were one of the most effective ways to disable an opponent (or to be disabled yourself). Quite often in the middle of the contest, one or the other of them would pick themselves up off the floor and gasp out something like, "That was a good punch, but if you had aimed just a little more to the left, you could have doubled the pain and disabled me for a longer time," or, "Now that was the worst pain I have been in so far. Try hitting the same spot again a few more times, but harder."
Crissy and Amber sometimes used these sessions to practice punches and kicks that were outlawed in regular practice and competition, like kicking each other when they were down or punching and kicking well below the belt. They also practiced moves that would never be used in kickboxing, such as elbow slams and knee drops to the stomach that they had seen in Pro Wrestling on TV, though they did the moves for real. While they sometimes practiced kickboxing moves outside the stomach area (even some highly illegal ones, such as to the head and neck), they tended to concentrate on stomach blows.
Because they were using this as practice, they would let each other recover between the punches at their own pace. If there were any indication that there was any kind of a problem, they would stop and continue some other time.
It was after one of these practice sessions that Crissy said, "You know, we never did finish that first stomach punching contest. Why don't we try again with a full-out, no-holds-barred stomach punching contest to determine which of the two of us can take the most stomach blows? We've both learned so much that we should be much more effective this time. We're both in good shape, so I doubt we could injure each other too much." This was unusual coming from Crissy, as Amber was usually the aggressive one of the two.
Amber thought about it for a short while, and then said, "All right, we'll plan for next Saturday. This time however, we'll use a few rules to make it interesting. Other than the standard rule that any kind of punch, kick or such to the stomach is legal of course..." (Crissy echoed, "Of course...") "...we'll have the following rules. You first tell your opponent how to pose and your opponent holds the pose and closes their eyes so they won't see the blows coming. Then you can deliver five blows of any kind to their stomach, as fast or slow as you want, but no more than about a half a minute from the first to the last. Your opponent then has one minute to recover, tell you how to pose and then start their first strike. If they are not ready within the minute, you get a penalty blow to their stomach with them in the same pose. You get more free penalty blows without limit if your opponent is still not able to get their attack started by the end of the subsequent minutes. This goes on until one or the other gives up or can't maintain the pose as requested."
Crissy was surprised that Amber had come up with these rules so fast. Crissy asked, and Amber told her that she had been thinking along the same lines for some time. They set a time for the match and broke up for the day.
The next Saturday, Amber arrived at Crissy's dorm room at the agreed-upon time, late in the morning. She had brought an electronic timer with her that could be set to give out a piercing alarm one minute after hitting the button on top of it. They got into their "fighting gear" which consisted of them both wearing a thin sports bra and nothing else. They had decided to fight this way after a $75 bikini bottom of Crissy's was shredded and they both had bra-strap chafe marks on their backs in one of their more violent contests. Moreover, it wasn't as if they hadn't seen each other more nude than this in the locker rooms and showers before. And, neither Crissy nor Amber was ashamed of their bodies.
Amber re-iterated the rules she had come up with and they tossed a coin to see who would go first. Amber would throw the first punches into Crissy's stomach. Amber told Crissy to go to their spot on the wall.
Crissy had redecorated her room a little, actually due to their contests. Their favorite place on the wall now had two narrow but long pictures hanging on it with large and very strong hidden picture hooks. Crissy took the pictures down and grabbed the throw rug from in front of the bed. She hooked the rug on the two hooks using the two strong loops coming out of it. They had learned early on that a strong stomach punch that penetrated through to the backbone usually hurt more from the vertebrae of the spine slamming into the unyielding solid cement walls than the actual punch itself. For a while, they had to restrict their activities to just the carpeted and padded floor until they came up with the idea of the rug on the wall. Crissy had to lie to the campus maintenance guy that she intended to put up a heavy decorative shelf for her trophies to get him to drill the two deep holes in the wall and to actually epoxy two very strong bolt supports there, instead of using the self-expanding plastic ones they usually used to hold screws. These "picture" hooks would be there until they tore the college down, and may even outlast that.
Crissy stood with her back to the wall and her hands clasped behind her head, as she had done many times before. Just before she closed her eyes, she tightly tensed all her stomach muscles. This was good planning on her part, as Amber attacked just after her eyes closed. Amber gave Crissy four hard straight knuckle punches to the solar plexus, fast in a row. They had been practicing these types of punches for quite a while, so they didn't feel too bad. Each punch hurt Crissy quite a bit as it made contact with the top muscle layer and the pain built up immediately after the last punch, but it quickly subsided to a general ache, as most stomach punches do. She was just starting to move and open her eyes for her turn when she doubled over from the pain and shock and dropped like a rock to the floor holding her stomach gingerly. Amber had just thrown a heel back kick very low in her lower belly, barely above the groin.
Crissy was in a lot of pain, and was barely able to think about what a fool she had been. She had not counted the blows, so she thought Amber was done. As she thought Amber was finished and it was her turn, she relaxed her stomach muscles. They had practiced blows to this area before, but since it was outlawed in regular competition, they had only done them a few times. They had practiced targeting the lower belly just enough to know what it felt like and to be prepared for it during competition. In all their practice, they had been expecting the blows and had flexed their stomach muscles for them. This time, Crissy received the hard heel kick in her completely relaxed belly (or as relaxed as a top gymnast's stomach muscles can ever be). The blow completely winded her from the pain and caused her stomach muscles to contract violently and spasm. She was still able to think about what had happened, as both of them had learned to separate their thoughts from the pain no matter how violent the pain was. So, it was a major annoyance when she heard Amber punch the button on the timer and heard the alarm ticking down, even though she herself could hardly move from the pain.
The alarm went off just as Crissy was pushing herself up from the floor. Amber helped Crissy up a little, and after making sure she wanted to continue (Crissy did), helped her to the wall again. Crissy flexed her stomach muscles tight again, concentrating on tightening her lower abdominal muscles though they hurt a lot when she did, and shut her eyes in preparation for the penalty blow that she so richly deserved for being so stupid.
Crissy wasn't the only tactician. Amber knew that the most effective blow would be to the same area that she had just attacked. She knew that two blows in a row to the same point had much more than twice the effect of two separated blows. She backed up a bit and delivered a spinning back kick with her heel to Crissy's lower stomach, directly to the same place she had kicked her before.
Crissy grabbed her lower stomach and fell to the floor again. She had also figured that Amber would target the same place, so she had concentrated on flexing this area tight. It actually had the desired effect. She was in a lot of pain from the kick due to the severity of it and the placement, and from the fact that this area was still extremely sore from the previous kick there. But her flexed muscles had saved her from the new blow. In fact, she was already starting to get up merely seconds after she hit the floor.
The pain in her stomach was subsiding to the usual warm ache as Crissy got up, barely 10 seconds after Amber punched the timer button.
Crissy had already planned her attack. She told Amber to lie down on the floor with her hands behind her head. For the first three of her blows, she did a snap kick with her heel to the middle of Amber's stomach, then another snap kick to just below her solar plexus with the ball of her foot. Then, while standing on Amber's right side, she did another snap kick, a cross-body kick to the left side of her stomach, landing her heel just at the intersection of Amber's abs and oblique muscles in a line with the navel. Amber winced at this blow and her knees jerked up a little for a second or two, before she again laid out flat. This was all right with Crissy, since she needed a couple seconds to set up her next blow. Crissy did an elbow drop with all her weight, into the same muscle intersection point on Amber's right side. Amber immediately grabbed her side at the point of contact and rolled up into a ball onto that same side. Crissy gave her a couple seconds and then asked if she was going to concede, as Crissy still had one blow left. Amber answered by stretching out flat on her back again, though her body was not straight since she was favoring her right side. Crissy then did another elbow drop, but this time to the middle of Amber's lower stomach, precisely where Amber had kicked her.
Crissy had, of course, a strategy for the contest. She was going to make the final blow of the contest a hard knife-edge thrust deep into Amber's solar plexus. She knew that Amber's muscles were the strongest in this area and that they must be weakened to the point where they gave no real resistance for this type of blow to be effective. If she could deliver her planned blow, this would surely end the contest. Crissy also knew that the best way to weaken the muscles at this point was to attack the rest of the stomach. It is difficult to flex your muscles to ward off a blow when you can hardly think through the pain.
Crissy had set up her strike combinations to weaken Amber's stomach. She had seen in their previous contests that Amber was weakest at the sides of her stomach, just at the muscle plate junctions. She used this to her advantage. She did the first two kicks to Amber's stomach to get her off balance. The cross-body kick was to get Amber to favor her left side and to leave her right side more exposed. That set her up for the elbow drop to the right side to cause the maximum amount of pain, to cause her to loosen her flex on her stomach muscles. The elbow drop to the lower stomach was to Amber's almost completely relaxed stomach. Crissy actually felt the tip of her elbow contacting the back of Amber's pelvic bone. This was, again, designed to cause the maximum pain to weaken Amber's general muscle tone further.
Amber felt the first kick in the middle of her stomach quite a bit, and the kick to her upper stomach a lot less, since she was strongest there. The cross-body kick to her left side hurt a lot, as Crissy's cross-body heel kick at an angle into this area crushed her left oblique muscles into the floor. With her eyes closed, she had no idea what Crissy was planning based on the first three kicks she had received. So, she was completely surprised by the elbow to her right oblique muscles. The blow slipped right between the flexed abs and obliques, and penetrated deep into her internal organs. This hurt so much she lost her breath. When Crissy asked if she was going to concede, it took all her willpower to straighten out to take the final punch of the set, even though she was weak and in no way ready for it. The final blow to her lower abdomen caused her to almost completely black out from the pain. She didn't hear the ticking timer, though she heard the alarm go off. She didn't realize that it had been the full minute since that last blow, as she hadn't recovered sufficiently to even think about getting up. She heard Crissy asking if she was OK, and she heard someone say she was all right and to continue, though she didn't know who it was who would say such a thing. Crissy told Amber to get ready for the attack.
Amber heard a voice inside of her say to flex her lower stomach muscles, and she obeyed the voice. She knew that the pain was increasing at the same time as she was flexing her stomach muscles, but she didn't realize that the two events were related. So, she flexed her lower stomach muscles very hard. This voice was what saved Amber, as Crissy sent another punch straight down into her lower stomach.
Crissy had seen that Amber was very weak, almost ready for the contest-finishing punch to her solar plexus. Crissy planned one more attack to her lower abdomen, and then another punch to her solar plexus. If this didn't end the match, she would continue to punch down into the solar plexus until Amber gave up. However when she punched Amber's lower stomach, it was a lot harder than it should have been given her condition.
Amber had still not recovered from the first blow to her lower stomach, but the second penalty blow had not been too effective. So she was gradually recovering from both blows. She was pretty sure that she would not be able to get up in time to be able to start her turn, so she did something that took a lot of will power and nerve. She decided she was going to lie there and let Crissy take another penalty shot at her while she tried to recover.
Amber started to massage and stretch her stomach at the sides and lower stomach area, and thought about Crissy's tactics. She was sure that she would not have enough strength to flex her whole stomach for Crissy's next attack, so she decided to flex the stomach muscles only in the area she thought Crissy would attack. She decided on flexing her solar plexus area based more on instinct and a gut feeling than any real analysis.
Crissy was puzzled that Amber had not even tried to get up for her turn. But when the buzzer went off, Amber had put her hands again behind her head and closed her eyes, indicating she was still willing to continue the contest. Crissy punched straight down into Amber's solar plexus, and was surprised at the hardness she encountered there.
Amber grunted a little and grabbed her upper stomach, but her tactic had worked. She was now in good enough shape that she could once again go on the offensive. She stayed on the floor to help her recover as she counted 30 seconds on the timer ticks. She then got up, and told Crissy to lie on the floor with her legs spread.
Crissy knew what was going to happen next, and she was right. Amber came down hard between Crissy's legs, deep into her lower stomach with the point of her elbow.
Crissy had a pretty solid lower abdomen. It was a lot deeper and harder than Amber's. In their practices, Crissy had been able to take blows there that had doubled Amber over in pain. So the elbow smash to just above her crotch, while hurting a lot, did not immediately incapacitate her like it would have someone else. However, Amber followed this up with a second elbow smash to the same place. And this time, she actually kicked up her legs and did a little dive with her body held straight so the whole of her body weight was behind the point of the elbow. Amber actually fell back to the floor, pivoting on the point of her elbow still buried in Crissy's stomach. Even Crissy's strong lower stomach could not take this. She clutched her stomach and jerked her legs up almost to her chest, gasping from the pain. She then rolled onto her side, still in this position.
Amber asked Crissy if she was able to continue the match. Crissy tried to speak, but had lost all of her ability to breathe. Amber gave her a few seconds, and asked again. Crissy responded by slowly stretching out again. She cried out from the pain as she raised her legs to spread them out again. Even though Crissy was in the position to take the remaining blows, Amber still asked her again if she was really going to continue. Crissy nodded yes, though she had a pained expression on her face.
On the next blow, Crissy almost lost her breath completely. Amber had performed an elbow drop to Crissy's solar plexus, but from between her legs. Thus while Amber's elbow hit her solar plexus, the rest of Amber's body came smashing down onto the length of Crissy's exposed stomach. Crissy did not roll up into a ball. She did not even have the strength to even raise her legs.
Amber saw this and was very concerned for her. Amber asked her if she wanted to continue, and Crissy nodded yes, though her eyes were watering from the pain. Amber asked her again if she was sure she wanted to continue, and Crissy again nodded yes.
Amber again did the identical elbow smash to Crissy's solar plexus and body, and Crissy passed out.
Crissy slowly started to see something, but she wasn't sure what it was. Slowly, her mind cleared and she started to make sense of her surroundings. The first thing she actually noticed was a very concerned Amber rubbing her hands and face to try to awaken her. The next thing that she started feel was a very intense pain somewhere in her body that was growing stronger and meaner with every second. She also noticed that she wasn't breathing at all. She took in a large, noisy gasp of air, and the pain shot up strongly. The pain shot up with every new breath she took. Eventually the pain leveled out at just under the completely intolerable level.
Amber breathed a loud sigh of relief when Crissy started to come around, even though Crissy was only out for a few seconds. She picked Crissy up and carried her to the bed.
Crissy hurt all over, though she knew she'd been hit only in her stomach. That's the effect the blows to her solar plexus had. The pain seemed to radiate outward to the rest of her body. She knew from previous experience that this was temporary, and the pain would soon contract back to the point of the blow, intensifying as it did so.
Amber very gently massaged Crissy's stomach at the point of her last blow. She was carefully studying Crissy's face while she did this to gauge when she was massaging too hard. Amber was also in a lot of pain, but she was stoically ignoring it until she was sure her friend was all right. From the expressions on Crissy's face, she was still very sensitive to any kind of touch to her stomach, so Amber stopped massaging her to let her recover a little on her own. The timer picked this time to go off. Both girls jumped at the sound and Amber giggled a little at the irony.
Amber looked at the clock, and saw that the whole contest had taken well under a half an hour, though it had seemed like hours. It was just after noon as she looked at the clock. Her stomach rumbled, but from hunger. Early on, they had learned in a rather messy way that you never have a stomach-punching contest if you have recently eaten. So she had not eaten breakfast, and had not eaten since the previous evening.
Amber turned to Crissy and said, "How about a Pizza?"
Crissy immediately came back with, "Get a large with double pepperoni and double cheese!"
They looked at each other a couple seconds and both burst out laughing, though it hurt. Evidently, at least one part of their stomachs didn't hurt.
Before they ate the pizza, they massaged each other's stomachs thoroughly. They took turns and massaged as deep as they could even to the point of pain, as they knew from experience that this was the best way to start the healing of their aching stomachs for the fastest recovery. They continued to massage each other strongly over the rest of the afternoon, until their stomachs were just burning all over instead of having the individual intense spots of pain.
It was early evening before they realized that the pizza was still sitting unopened. Crissy got dressed and took it to the microwave in the community room of the wing to heat it up. They ate the Pizza, the first food they had eaten in the last 24 hours, and then went back to massaging each other's stomach. Eventually they both fell asleep early, exhausted from the day's activities, both naked on Crissy's bed.
Sunday morning, after devouring the remaining cold pizza, they examined each other's body thoroughly for any signs of damage. They were both amazed and pleased that the only outward sign they saw of the previous day's activity was a small bruise on Amber's right side where Crissy had sunk her elbow deep into her tender oblique muscles. Crissy, who was majoring in sports medicine, did an examination of both of them to make sure they had no extremely sensitive sore spots indicative of internal injuries. This more-or-less assured them that no matter how far they went in future fights, they would probably do no lasting damage to each other. They resumed their deep massaging and continued it all day Sunday, skipping Sunday morning church services.
Both Amber and Crissy recovered fully over the next week. They were sore for about the first half of the week, and it hurt a little when they had a bowel movement during this time. They skipped the Tuesday night kickboxing practice session. However later in the week, their pain had receded except for an occasional twitch when they twisted their bodies the wrong way. By Friday's kickboxing session, the pain had almost completely disappeared, though both Crissy and even Amber were much more defensive than usual, taking great pains to protect their stomachs from any possible blows. They also decided to go easy on each other at the next Saturday's stomach-punching contest.
Epilog:
Crissy and Amber had a few more of these types of contests with one or the other winning. After each one, they thoroughly discussed why they had chosen each particular blow and what the effect of the blows they received had been. Both worked on strengthening their vulnerable points, and the contests became fiercer with time. However, the contests were becoming less exciting and even boring, since they were both getting to the point where they could take just about any blow that the other gave them. Most of the latter contests were actually draws, when both of them were exhausted and mutually decided to just stop the contest.
This was about to change.
But that is another story..