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Salem struggled desperately to get the blinding tonic out of his eyes, going so far as to claw at his eyelids with a blood-curdling wail. Despite having experienced this torture once before in the match, Salem was no less prepared for the searing burn that ran from his tear ducts to the deepest recesses of his sinus cavities, causing his head to ache and throb.

Dragged up to his feet, Salem barely managed to get his puffy, bloodshot eyes open. Holding his head with one hand, clutching his hair to stifle the lingering pain from the vodka, Salem tried to keep his balance with his opposite arm. Staggering, Salem shook his head in fright as the black object in question came into sharpness - an appropriate way to describe the bed of nails that currently stood before him.

"No...NO!" Salem shouted, weakly trying to get free from Three's grasp.

Try as he might, Salem couldn't free himself in time. Three picked him up, putting his beaten body on display for the cheering fans who had been given a gladiatorial duel instead of a wrestling match. Truly, Salem could only try to ride out this first assault from the Champion with hopes of turning the tides of war at some future point.

But the present point on Salem's mind would undoubtedly be the sensation of nails, numbering in the hundreds, being driven up into the bruised and swollen flesh of his back as Three planted him against the table, causing Salem's spine to arch as though from a bolt of lightning. Howling in absolute pain, the peck marks that littered Salem's back would begin bleeding in unison, provoking a raucous response from the audience as Salem's face told a story of horror.

As Salem collapsed onto the barely padded concrete of the arena floor, he chewed into his bottom lip - savoring the sting to gather his composure in the brief moment Three had paused to survey the damage he'd sewn. Though it'd felt like he'd fallen into a pile of burning glass, Salem's eyes and senses were alight from the sudden surge of pain the table provided. In a way, the high-impact move was a blessing in disguise.

Planting his hands against the floor, Salem tried to conjure his resolve...weakly straining to get up to his knees as the hard crack of leather was brought down against his broken, torn back. Falling to his forearm with a painful scream, Salem struggled to push himself back up once again, fighting through the hurt by focusing on the sting coming from his now-bloodied lip.

Salem could feel the adrenaline in his veins, causing his pupils to dilate and heart to thump harder in his chest. The noise from the stands was loud enough to shake the floor beneath them, or perhaps it was only Salem's nerves causing his hands to tremble against the mats as he struggled to get back to his feet. As Three reached over him to grasp for Salem's wrists, however, Salem would seize his moment of opportunity...

Reaching up, Salem would suddenly seize the Champion's exposed neck, using the heavyweight's own body to pull himself up back to his feet in a surge of energy. Without wasting a moment, Salem would take off from the ground, keeping a hold of Three's neck as he flipped over top the veteran's back, looking to drive his shoulders and back into the bed of nails behind him with an Over Castle.

As Three was brought down hard onto the unforgiving bed of nails, Salem got back up to his feet, legs wobbly for a moment as he was lost in the euphoric buzz of adrenaline. The crowd went wild for the unexpected turn of events, and Salem slapped his fist across his bronzed and beaten chest, jolting himself 'awake' to the tune of a ferocious howl.

Wasting no time, Salem lashed off his leather belt with one hand, wrapping it around his knuckles with the other. The spiked studs that lined it shined similarly to the nails along Three's back, his head dangling off the end as he was momentarily stunned. Looking down with a glare of rage, Salem would look to batter Three's face with a volley of blows from his belted fist as he fought to keep the champ off his feet for just a few moments longer.

With every punishing blow that Salem dealt to Three, a little more vigor was restored to the lad's body. It was as though he got a sick sensation off of dealing out pain, whether to others or even to himself. He rained down stinging fists to his opponent's skull, working to get Three back down across the bed. Slowly, the tides started to sway in the opposite direction as the Champion known as Three was momentarily concussed from the belted strikes from Salem's right hand.

Once it seemed Three was sufficiently pacified, Salem would unfurl the studded strap from his knuckles, lashing the belt through the buckle to create a noose. Collaring Three with the belt, Salem would climb up onto the bed - and Three - and try to plant his feet into the fallen champion...attempting to use his leverage to force the nails deeper into Three's back while creating a constrictor-like choke with the belt.

As Salem stood atop Three, he'd wrench the belt tighter and tighter, using his weight and leverage to inflict as much pain as possible to the stunned champion. It would take more than this to subdue the savage Three, but Salem wasn't without gas left in his tank.

"Yeargh!" Salem grunted as he jerked back on the belt, trying desperately to choke the champion out as he lifted off the ground, attempting to execute a painful Leg Drop down onto Three's oxygen-starved skull...hoping to sway the pendulum in his favor a bit more.

Salem would waste no time as his leg came crashing down onto Three's skull, not even bothering to check on the battered veteran's state before rushing over to the ring apron. Tossing the curtain up, Salem would look beneath the ring for something. While it wasn't known what he was looking for, nothing good could come out from the shadows beneath the dusty canvas.

Grasping at something heavy and metallic, Salem would quickly drag out a twelve-foot ladder, which he'd immediately set up like a bridge between the ring and the security rails that lined the perimeter of the arena. Climbing up onto it, Salem would stand atop the metal rungs and watch for Three to get up, waiting for his moment to strike.