Arena: Rex vs Tehengu

[DerpRavener]

Rex was waiting in the bowels in the arena once more.  He was sure the crowd lost interest in him after his first defeat, but it looked like the arena didn't turn away a volunteer.  He had been surprised by his first match, in part because he was beaten so easily, in part because he was outright killed.  The arena's mages did their work well of course, and he didn't stay dead long enough for it to matter, but it still came as a shock.  He had thought this was a form of sparring, and in a spar killing your opponent was never, ever okay.  Heck, Rex had ended up leaving his pack over merely breaking a limb.

 

Still, the arena was probably the best place to be, Rex thought.  It was the best place for him to earn gold, and it was looking like it was a great place to learn about sorts of warriors he'd never seen before.  He though he was reasonably skilled, he'd been top dog in his age group back in the pack, but then he had only ever fought other diamond dogs.  Maybe it was a sign that he wasn't as good at this as he thought.

There was only one way to find out.

 

Rex was in the midst of thinking about this, as much as he ever thought about anything, when the door finally opened.  Rex waiting for it to finish clacking and creaking upward, before finally stepping out.  He wore a more muted expression this time, eager to see how the other fighter fought more than he was actually looking forward to the fight.  His attitude was in no small part to the fact that his opponent was a griffon, another flyer, though that was all Rex knew about him.  Or cared to learn, fighting the griffon would be a better way to pick up the important bits anyways.

This was the second time in a row he was up against a flyer in the arena.  So far it wasn't a good thing.  He looked ruefully at the small bag at his side.  It was more of a backup plan than anything really effective, and he was worried that at the rate these were going he would need to find something actually useful for attacking far away.  He frowned.  He might even have to give up his sword, at least while in the arena itself.  He doubted he could ever give it up entirely, it being the first thing he made and such a big part of his history.

He couldn't do that now though, it would have to wait until after the match at the very least, so he tried not to focus on it.  He wouldn't know where to start anyways.

 

Rex trudged out, silent save for the sound of paws on sand.  He took a position a few paces away from the centre, starting as close as he could while leaving his opponent enough room to have a safe start to the fight.  Speaking of which, he noticed he was the first one in.  Presumably that was because of disappointment, the crowd was bound to be more interested in who ever he was against at this point, though Rex could have simply been more eager.  He intently watched the door opposite, now open, attempting to analyze his enemy as best he could prior to the actual fight.

[PyroBlaze]

Tehengu had, frankly, been rather surprised at the medical abilities of those at this arena. His fight with Rose has rendered one of his wings unusable without considerable pain, and even then he couldn't get off the ground. Now though, he was feeling as good as when he had started that fight. Considering there had not actually been any lasting damage, and they had worked together, that battle had turned out to be a great sparring match.

This match was one he looked forward to less. He had no idea who this dog was, aside from the little he had been provided beforehand. He had decided not to cap his weapons this time, as that had proved to make them incredibly ineffective. At least the arrows were basically useless against Rose.

Speaking of the arrows, he had retrieved the ones he could and replenished the rest. His quiver was full again, and he was ready for another fight. He stretched himself out as the doors opened, his one eye focused on the dog that emerged from the other door. That bag likely held some surprises, he would have to watch for that. Other than that, the dog had a sword.

With his brief look completed, Tehengu walked out into the arena, tuning out the crowd that had gathered to watch them. His sole focus was his opponent, to whom he gave a nod of greeting, which was also his bow before the match.

"Ready when you are." He said, grabbing his bow and getting an arrow ready.

[DerpRavener]

Rex frowned.  A bow and arrows.  That could make things hard for him.  Unless the bird-cat was really, really good his aim would probably be worse in the air, but he could still attack without any risk from there if he wanted to.  Unless the bird-cat wanted to stay up close, and while Rex really wanted that even he knew he probably wouldn't get it, he'd have to find a way to deal with the arrows.  He could dodge them until his opponent ran out, or he could make them useless...

Neither seemed like an easy thing to manage.

 

Rex didn't have more time to ponder this though.  Well he kinda did, as the fight hadn't started yet, but he couldn't stall forever to figure it out.  And he would likely need forever if he wanted to sit and plan it out.  He returned his opponent's nod, and then with passed for greetings exchanged, it was time.  Their was a brief moment of quiet, as the two combatants sized each other up from opposite ends of the arena.  And then all of a sudden, Rex charged with a growl.

 

Rex's opponent fired off his readied arrow, but the two of them hadn't started the match that far apart, and there wasn't enough time to draw a proper bead before the diamond dog was almost on him.  To the cat-bird's credit, the arrow still grazed Rex, making a stinging if ultimately minor gash on one of his wound-back arms.

 

As soon as Rex reached his opponent's position he made a massive overhead swing with his weapon.  If the cat-bird tried to fly away, he'd probably get caught by it.  With the size of the sword that could cause serious harm, but chances are Rex wouldn't be so lucky.  While he covered a wide arc with such a large swing, the tradeoff trade-off was that it left his weapon stuck and in theory him vulnerable if his opponent decided to move under the swing.  Rex had seen this sort of thing in his last fight.

 

And this time he would be counting on it.  Rex was ready to release the sword handle as soon as he finished his swing, and if the cat-bird did try to take the apparent opening he would immediately make a swipe with his paws, feinting toward cat-bird's body.  But he would actually be aiming to either grab or break his real target: that stupid bow.

 

[sorry this took so long, I had some other things I needed to get out of the way.]

[PyroBlaze]

Tehengu had aimed as soon as the dog had charged, though that gave him barely any time before he had to fire the arrow. At least it had left some wound, though it was rather minor. Maybe he should have coated them with something. Too late for that now though. The dog was going for an overhead strike, which would leave him open up close with a sword that large.

The former soldier followed his instincts though, drawing his knife with one hand as he stepped to the side, using the knife to help direct the sword away from him. It was a narrow miss, and he had lost some hair from it, but that was fine. As he had been sidestepping, he had thrown the bow into the air so he could better deliver a punch into the dog's face with as much strength as he could muster while still keeping his balance.

Whether or not he connected, he sheathed his knife and flapped his wings, taking off into the air. He intercepted the bow as it fell, drawing another arrow and taking aim at the dog's middle before releasing and letting the projectile fly.

[DerpRavener]

The cat-bird took an approach Rex never would have come up with.  Whether he'd picked up on Rex's target being the bow, or just wanting to appeal to the crowd (and they did seem pretty subdued right now), the cat-bird's first action was to toss his bow up into the air.  He then tried to parry Rex's 'sword' with just a tiny dagger.  Rex was a little surprised and impressed when he sort of succeeded.  Unfortunately Rex's sword wasn't really a weapon of finesse, and trying to parry it with such a small weapon was somewhat like trying to parry a small tree-trunk or boulder.  The cat-bird was able to avoid the bulk of the force, but a fair amount simply went through his arm, among other things knocking him off balance.  He wasn't able to put his full strength behind a counter punch.

 

The punch further caught Rex by surprise, weakening his next strikes.  But at the same time the cat-bird had been entirely unprepared for the sudden attacks Rex made with his claws.  Rex couldn't stop him from getting into the air, but the diamond dog was able to make two clusters of nasty gashes on either side of him, and Rex was left with two claw-fuls of feathers.

 

Unfortunately for Rex, his opponent made it into the air despite the diamond dog's best efforts.  Rex growled in frustration as the cat-bird caught his bow with a small flourish, and started to draw an arrow.  The one saving grace for Rex was that the whole manoeuvre took some time to pull off.  Maybe not a lot in the conventional sense, but in a fight a couple seconds could be a very long time.  So while the cat-bird drew a bead, Rex had enough time to plant his 'sword' in front of him and crouch down beside.  The 'sword' was an unwieldy and unprofessional weapon, but it this case one part of it really worked in his favour, it was very wide and somewhat thick.  He could hear the arrow, which had been aimed for dead centre on him, plink off the opposite side of the sword.

 

That only bought some time though.  Red still had a fundamental problem.  His opponent was now in the air, and so far every fight Rex in his life he'd won with his own claws.  He wasn't used to fighting flying opponents yet, and he hadn't figured out any good way to deal with them.  His sword could keep him safe from arrows for a little while, but it probably wouldn't take too long for the cat-bird to find a way around it.  It wasn't wide enough to cover Rex completely.

 

Rex only had one firm idea at the moment.  He didn't like it, her preferred to fight more honestly, just his claws and 'sword' against another's...whatever they had.  But he couldn't think of much else that might work.  He flashed a toothy grin up at his opponent, while calling out the cat-bird.  “You weren't afraid before you came into the ring, now you run away!  Did I scare you, tiny bird?”

 

One paw tightened its grip on the sword.  If this worked, Rex will have lured the cat-bird over, and into hitting-range.  But he would have to move fast, or it would turn out like the fight against the wing-pony all over again.

Then again, this cat-bird seemed pretty in control of himself.  He might not fall for it.  And if that was the case, there would really only be one thing Rex could do.  To that end he reached into the pouch at his side, and got a cluster of metal balls, which he was ready to hurl the moment his enemy gave him an opening.

[PyroBlaze]

Tehengu hissed slightly as he shook out his arm. That maneuver had cost him a bit. His arm was still tingly from the shock and his new cuts burned. He pushed those out of his mind though, they were issues for after the battle. He drew another arrow from his quiver, taking aim as he floated back from the dog.

"One, I'm not little. Two, I have a ranged weapon. Those are better when not right up in the enemy's face." He replied evenly, taking a breath before suddenly flapping his wings. He propelled himself to the side to get around his makeshift shield before letting the arrow fly towards the dog.

He didn't let up though, continuing to move as he aimed again and fired the next arrow towards the dog's chest again. He wasn't going to get close if he could help it. At least not without getting his sword out first.

[DerpRavener]

The 'sword' could function as a shield, it had the size and durability for it, but it was a clumsy thing to use. Rex was able to stop some of the arrows in the cat-bird's next volleys from striking him, but 'some' was not 'all'. Fortunately, the couple that landed hit him in the torso. In other circumstances this would have been a very bad thing, likely needing months of rest to heal, and even then he still might have died or been crippled for life. In the arena though, such things were not really possible. What's more, the fight up until now had been passive enough that Rex wasn't really tiring yet. So while the puncturing of his middle caused a lot of pain and put him on a time limit, he was a long way from out of the fight.

 

Still, his taunt hadn't worked. He thought he annoyed the cat-bird, but apparently it hadn't been enough. The cat-bird's reply was too calm, and he shortly just went back to firing arrows. Rex needed something else.

He didn't spend long thinking about it. He readjusted his makeshift shield, causing his opponent to shift positions again. This time though, the moment Rex saw this he reared his arms back, gripped his sword, and then with a mighty heave he let fly. The sword suddenly flew through the air, aimed right into the cat-bird's flight path. He saw it at the last second, and started to swerve to avoid, but it was a sudden attack and he'd gotten too into his pattern. His efforts kept the sword from outright crushing him, but just clipping him was enough to knock him out of the air.

 

It worked! But it would be for nothing if Rex gave him time to recover. Rex charged over, hobbling a little because of his injuries, and made it over in time to deliver a swipe aimed at his opponent's wing. The cat-bird wasn't out of the fight either though, and realized Rex would be trying to keep him from the air. So he switched tactics, swiftly drawing his knife and plunging it into Rex's outstretched arm. The diamond dog recoiled and yelped in pain, costing the cat-bird his knife but giving him a moment to recover.

He tried to get airborne again, to regain his earlier advantage. The moment wasn't long enough though, and Rex hadn't ended up that far away. With a growl Rex lunged up and grabbed him by a wing with his good arm, letting his weight and momentum drag his opponent forcibly to the ground. With a faint crunch, the wing bent at an unnatural angle.

 

Now it was a fight more on Rex's terms. The cat-bird was still in the fight though, and on finding his wing non-functional, he immediately drew his sword. A few precise swings kept the diamond dog's initial aggression at bay, and marked up Rex's arms in the process. Rex was hold back his swipes to avoid losing a paw. For a moment they were at a standstill.

When Rex took a moment to hang back and consider, the cat-bird found his chance and suddenly lunged forward. Rex tried to twist out of the way, but all he could manage was keeping the blow from being lethal, and the blade bit into his shoulder. Rex growled in pain. When his opponent tried to wind up for another swing though, he found the blade stuck. The action hurt Rex, but also gave the diamond dog an opportunity. Grabbing his opponent's let with his good arm, Rex lifted, whirled and them slammed the cat-bird back into the ground. The cat-bird tried to rise to his feet, but Rex started pummelling him, the diamond dog alternating between his strong and weak paws. The cat-bird never had a chance to recover.

 

Rex didn't stop until his opponent stopped twitching. Rex stood still for a moment, savouring the victory with a smile on his face, in the relative silence that occurred after a fight finished. He nodded once to his opponent. Even if he didn't enjoy fighting flyers, the cat-bird fought well, and with energy. That deserved some recognition.

Then the diamond dog turned, and started hobbling toward the medics who entered the arena at the end of the fight.

[PyroBlaze]

The dog's sword worked for a shield, at least somewhat. The arrows that got through though, they were obviously taking their toll on the dog. Tehengu smiled to himself as he continued emptying his quiver into his opponent's chest. His opponent was getting slower, the blood loss taking it's toll along with the pain.

"Had enough?" The griffon asked, stopping for a moment as the dog dropped the sword, several arrows sticking out of his chest. Unfortunately, that was a bad decision, as the dog launched himself, tackling the griffon out of the air. He grunted as he hit the ground under the dog, thankfully able to keep his wings and bow from breaking.

Tehengu tossed the bow away to keep it safe, focusing on his struggle against the dog. He blocked a few punches the dog weakly made, then returned with some of his own. He easily got the dog off, growling as he got back into his feet. The dog groaned as he tried to get back up as well. He didn't get far though before Tehengu put a claw to his throat, keeping him down.

"Good fight, but now this is over." He growled, his other claw grabbing the sword on his back. He drew it out and narrowed his eye at the dog. He plunged the sword through the dog's midsection and released his throat. He drew his knife next and finished off the dog with it. He pulled out the two blades and sighed slightly.

"You were a good opponent." Tehengu said, giving a small bow as he came down from his battle high. He then flapped towards the exit of the arena, leaving the medics to do what they did. He would let them take care of the dog first, it was the least he could do for a worthy opponent like that.

[Bellosh]

After some overdue discussion, we declare Rex the winner of this match. Congrats!