Section 4
Part VII 2nd round
Draxson pov
I'm going to recount the matches of round 2, starting with Sopheia. I will not be mentioning all of them here, for it would take me too long, and I find it unnecessary to recount everything on my journey. But regardless of all that, I will now tell you about Sopheia’s second round. With her assistance, I can accurately describe the fight from our combined perspectives.
Sopheia started the round, preparing her claws to strike her opponent, Rwarg, the one who bested Phantom. Since we weren't allowed to assist each other in any capacity, Phaz offered her best regards before the match started and nothing more. When the announcer started the match, Sopheia’s tail swung to her right side, wrapping itself around the handle of a dagger she kept on her waist. Focusing back on what her opponent could see, she shrouded her claws in Frost; her claws shone in the midday autumn sunlight. Rwarg, on the opposite side of the stage, prepared his fists to strike Sopheia down. He had one fist to his stomach and another poised at shoulder height. Sopheia, learning from Phaz’s interaction with the bear beast, immediately charged her opponent head-on. Rwarg laughed as the significantly smaller Ney-Ko cat beast woman charged him. I don't think I mentioned it, but Rwarg stood at roughly 7 feet tall and had the mass of a bear in human form; his biceps and triceps bulged as he stopped laughing and braced himself to take his opponent down.
He did not seem to have any other powers under his command other than that tremendous strength that caused the very stage to echo an overwhelming rumble with every strike, even the very air visibly gave way to his mighty fists, resounding a Fwooosh, Fwash, Ficch, with every punch. As soon as Sopheia reached where Rwarg still stood in his staring position, where the ground was cracked around his feet/Paws? It doesn’t really matter, though. Sopheia jabbed out at Rwarg with her frosted claws; she pierced an inch through his robe and flesh before her hand was caught by Rwarg’s. Rarg squeezed her wrist just like he had done to Phaz in their scrimmage; he gave her one of those twisted smiles he gave Phaz earlier today as he felt and heard the cracking of Sopheia’s wrist bones. Sopheia cried out in pain as her wrist was fractured and slowly broken. Sopheia, with her unrestrained left hand, slashed through the fabric of his robe from the right side of his waist to the other side, and slightly scratching the thick furred abs of his Stomach; She didn't even cut deep enough to draw a drop of his blood.
She panicked as shock overtook the fury on her face. Rwarg didn’t laugh this time. He looked at where Sopheia had stuck him a second time, examining the tear in his robe. With his left hand, he swiftly grabbed Sopheia’s arm and dug his claws into her, crushing the bones there. Sopheia cried out in pain again, tears pouring down her face. She choked on her overflowing tears as she tried to say something to him. I expected Rwarg to be smiling now that he had his opponent defeated, but when I was told by Sopheia, she said, ‘he wasn't smiling at me this time, no, he had a look of unfiltered rage directed at me. The presence he radiated was full of disdain and anger; it was suffocating. I thought if I spent another moment near him, his stare alone would wrap itself around my throat and choke me.’
Sopheia, with the stealth I still haven't gotten used to, drew her dagger from her waist with her tail and silently swung it, shallowly slashing across Rwarg’s right leg, which caused him to let go of Sopheia’s broken right hand to grab the blade- then with her tail, Sopheia launched it at her arm. The small blade cut through the air until a Frost-enforced hand caught and firmly gripped its rune-covered handle. In one fluid motion, she jabbed at Rwargs's left shoulder with her middle finger on the blade, covering it in Frost. She stuck him in the shoulder and the area near his well-muscled neck. Frost poured from where she struck onto the surrounding fur, effectively freezing up His shoulder and a part of his neck for a moment. Sopheia didn't stop there; she ripped the knife out of his shoulder, frozen blood and melting ice water dripping from the tip of the blade, and she stabbed him again, this time in his chest, right below his stab wound. At the same time, she was also grabbing another one of her daggers with her tail. Her tail wrapped around the handle of the dagger on the left side of her waist.
She drew it out while Rwarg stood there in utter confusion at the turn of events. Rwarg, a moment later, let go of the hold he had on Sopheia’s supposedly broken left wrist to grab the blade stuck in his chest, and the hand of its wielder. Using the opportunity she had now, without even wasting time reacting to the immense pain she was in she dropped her dagger right in front of her thigh; as it dropped to the ground, Sopheia, with all the might her slick frost-covered legs could muster she sharply rammed her knee into the handle of the dagger, sending it flying rappidly at Rwarg before a second later it buried itself deep in the middle of his torso. Rwarg violently tore Sopheia’s clawed paw, which was buried in his chest, away from himself and flicked her hand to his left, knocking the blade from her grip to the ground. The knife clattered on the ground, and oh, of the great matter, she cried, her tears dropping with a pitter patter, splashing and spreading all about its watery matter. Her whole body was jerked away from where she stood. In the brief moment that she was suspended in the air like a rocketing arrow, she swung her leg as fast as she could, kicking the dagger that remained buried in Rwargs's middle abdomen, even deeper into his torso. The large bear beast dug his claws into his side to take out the blade by its buried hilt; he pulled the dagger out of his side, and as Sopheia fell to the ground on her side, along with her hand dashing the stone platform, Rwarg threw the blade to the side, trailing behind it a splash of Sanguine blood. Her blade clattered off the stage as Sopheia attempted to lift herself off the ground where she lay; all the while, Rwarg briskly walked the few meters that separated them. Each of his footfalls shook the platform and produced the loud thuds that resounded from his steps, as if each were a mighty stomp. Sopheia lay on the ground, panicking as she desperately tried to scoot backward from her fearsome opponent. Rwarg continued his advance against her, with pure disdain in his eyes.
Sopheia commanded her tail to wrap around her left wrist to strengthen it while she frantically undid the clasp of her belt with her violently shaky and broken hands. When she got her belt clasp undone, she yanked it out of the belt rings on her shorts; it whipped past her, flopping to the left before she whipped it in the opposite direction. She prepared, with her left hand, which was barely moveable, but with the help of her tail, she swung the narrow part of her belt at her opponent like a whip. Rwarg, who was a short distance from grabbing her, tilted his body to the side to avoid her strike. Sopheia gritted her fangs and struggled to her feet to execute a roll to her left. She executed said roll and landed back on her undamaged feet in a crouch-like squat.
Sopheia whiped the end of her belt across the ground, sending a small metal case clanking and skipping over the stone surface. The removal of the small metal piece revealed a thumb-sized blue metal blade sewn into the end of the belt. Sopheia stood up slowly and balanced as ever before. She charged her opponent again, whipping the belt and the small blade affixed to the end of it at Rwarg, leaving lacerations in his arms, legs, and chest. Rwarg stood in a defensive position to shield his face from her belt blade. She swung her belt at him until Rwarg caught it with his claws and yanked it away from her. She let go of it as soon as it was torn away and ordered her tail to unwrap itself from her wrist and wrap around her waist in place of her belt to keep her slightly sagging shorts from falling any further as she charged Rwarg. She tackled Rwargs the best she could without the use of her hands, and she jumped to sink her fangs into Rwargs' neck.
She latched onto Rwargs' neck, hanging like a shirt on a clothes line, her hands dangling at her side as she bit with all her might into one of Rwargs' neck veins. Rwarg dropped the belt of his opponet and grabbed Sopheia with his right hand and attempted to pry her fsangs out of his neck, only resulting in him expericaning more pain as Sopheia sharpend her fangs with her Frost and bit harder while the Frost spreadthrotugh hsi blood causing Rwarg to lose hios balance for a second and sway to the side as he buried his claws in Sopheia’s braided hair and yoinked her head away from his neck, tearing her fangs from his neck with her as she was thrown to the ground and in angry yelled at her “You feral cat, I’m gonna strangl—-u” Rwarg said as a pool of blood formed at his feet, blood from the neck wound where Sopheia left deep bite marks, was flowing like a river. The sudden realization and sensation of bleeding induced a fall that Rwarg tried to resist, but failed, slaming agaisnt the ground, as Men and women in bunchy green and white outfits jumped onto the stage, the group of five were toting behind them a collapsable bed while a sixth crouched beside Where rwarg laid on the ground and began feeling his neck for the wounds. The battle doctor, the event host had on standby in case of instances such as this, began wiping away some of the blood with one hand as she covered his neck with a cloth.
She began wrapping the cloth tightly around Rwargs' neck as one of the five who carried the collapsible structure dropped his portion of the collapsible bed, as did the others who set the stretcher on the ground. The one battle doctor aide that was first to lower the stretcher said something to the doctor who wrapped the cloth around Rwargs' neck, and in return the combat doctor replied with a brief response to their query. The combat aide opened a pouch that was affixed to her belt and retrieved from it a syringe and a vial. The aide removed the cap of the syringe, and by pushing up on the lid of the vial, she prepared it for extraction via the syringe. She held the syringe in her left hand, and with her right hand, she pulled back the plunger of the syringe and extracted the purple liquid from the vial.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The aide closed up the vial and quickly deposited it back into the pouch on her waist, closing it with her hasteful but skilled hands. She likewise dropped to the side of Rwarg and injected the syringe into the uncovered back of his neck, and injected fluid into a vein located there. The fluid worked wonders on Rwarg for he immediately began to rise but was pushed down by the chief combat doctor and held down by the other aides who squatted by and held Rwargs' legs. The chief doctor lowered her mouth to Rwarg's ear, and she, I assume, whispered a relaxation spell to Rwarg, because he immediately went limp. The combat doctor spoke an order to her aides, “Alright, now on the count of three, we're going to lift him up and lay him on the stretcher. Soajaz, grab him by the shoulder, some-other-name-I-didn't-quite-pay-attention-to, grab the other shoulder. One. Two. Three.” She said calmly as she and her team heaved him in the air, then walked over to where they could place him on the stretcher they had prepared. They gently flipped Rwarg so that he would lie on his back on the stretcher. The group of combat medics slowly squatted to gently set Rwarg in the stretcher. Once they set him down, they picked up the handholds and toted Rwarg away.
Rwarg wearily looked over at Sopheia and made a comment
“You violent kitten, you’ve bested me this time. I commend you on that. You are a true warrior, worthy of defeating me. You bring great honor to me,” he said as he ripped the cloth headband off his head despite the medics' insistence that he shouldn't move, and tossed it at Sopheia.
“The second match of the 2nd round has now come to a conclusion, brutal and worrisome as its results were only a few major injuries, but nonetheless, the competitors are both in compliance with the rules, and I commend the winner of the match. Sopheia Ne-ko is the winner of this match. Please congratulate your fellow competitor.”
Sopheia was cleared to advance to the next round of fighting and was given a half-hour leave to rest before her next match.
On the other hand, my fight wasn't as drawn out and intense as Sopheia’s was, but nonetheless, it riled up the crowd to an extent. My fight with my new friend Fennib was over in about a minute of the allotted 15 minutes we had to finish the match.
The moment we got on the stage, I was determined to eliminate my skilful friend from the tournament using an idea I got from our qualifiers match. The announcer gave us the signal to begin the match: “Competitors Fennib Flynn and Draxson ChoasWing, you may now begin Match A of round 2,” They said as the crowd cheered on, already excited to see how former members of a spectacular qualifiers team would fare against each other. I didn’t plan on wasting any of my time, so I immediately did as I planned. I, using all of my remaining Frost reserves, cast a cloud of Frost to coat the stone ground in front of me in ice. I held my spear in my left hand as I slid across the icy pathway rapidly making my way to Fennib; The icy path was just shy of reaching her feet, but that would suffice for my ambitions. As I rapidly slid on my knees towards Fennib I, with my right hand, bombarded her with a stream of flames erupting from my hands-they would be scarred and scorched after the stress I put them through today- But I wasn’t that concerned since it was my Dragon scales that would take pain. Scaring and scorching weren’t that big of a deal when my hands were transformed; they would repair themselves over time with some sleep. Either way, I would be fine as long as I took my opponent down as quickly as possible. I’m not going to bore you with the details of how my body works at the moment. So I’ll get back to the fight.
The flames pouring from my hand prevented Fennib from landing any of her shots; a few of them were really close to hitting me and binding me to the stage, but thankfully, my flames burnt the arrows before they could reach my fast sliding form. I slid behind Fennib about 13 seconds after I started carrying out my plan. I had struck Fennib in the leg with the wooden shaft of my spear as I got behind her. Fennib was momentarily off balance after my attack, giving me plenty of time for the next step of the plan. As she was turning around to whack me with her bow, she stumbled to her right a bit and missed me by a lot. I took this time to hold my spear in front of her armpits horizontally, and I pulled with all my might, grabbing the base of the spear's blade with my right hand and the other end of the spear in my left. I had managed to get my spear in between both of her armpits and pulled them up to her neck. My pinning her by the armpits and bringing my spear up to her neck startled her, causing her to lose her grip on her bow as I, holding my spear in the crook of my arms, pulled against her neck. Fennib reached for my spear, trying to pry it away from her neck to push it away, but I wasn’t planning on letting her overtake me, so I lifted her off the ground so she couldn’t leverage her way out of my hold, and slowly, I walked backwards, carrying her off the stage. “Sorry, Fennib, I knew you would make quick work of me with those binding arrows of yours. I have to take you out of the tournament right now, but I hope you’re not too angry with me.” I said as we reached the edge of the stage. “I don’t want to hurt you, so I beg that you would please step off the stage and eliminate yourself,” I said, losing my hold on my spear as she struggled to free herself. As Fennib was trying to kick me in desperation, I let go of my spear and let her fall to the ground. I pointed my spear inches away from her chest to dissuade any attempts she might make to fake me out and reverse our roles.
“This is very boring, Draxson. You should have at least shown me your archery skills. I’ll step off the stage on the condition that you give me a real contest of skill, with no assistance from your friends.” She paused a moment, staring back at me sourly. The serious face she was making was hilarious. I struggled to hold in a chuckle. Think calm thoughts, calm, don't laugh, she’ll surely strike you, like that one time Sopheia’s fur and hair were so poofed out that she looked like she had a lion's mane. Of course, she didn’t find it funny, but I needed to laugh regardless of whether she would bonk me on the head. Aww, dim lights, I thought. I couldn’t hold it in; I burst out laughing at the pseudo-pouty/serious-faced Fennib. Ha ha ha heh heh. For a moment, she trailed on. Do you accept my offer, Draxson? If not, this is going to make for a boring day, but I know someone as honorable as you wouldn’t refuse a girl's request,....Why are you laughing so much? Did I say something funny?” Fennib said, looking at me even more seriously, which still didn’t have the intended effect on me. She looked like she had eaten something sour when she tried to intimidate me. I held in my laughter this time, and instead smiled down at her.
“Hmph, Fine if you don't want to tell me what you're laughing at, I’ll just continue. I hope you will agree to a rematch; hopefully, you’ll at least be smart enough to take this opportunity to show off your archery. Hopefully, it's better than your skills with women.” Fennib said in a delicate, almost mocking voice, tilting her head at me and awaiting my response. “I accept your terms, and I’m sorry that I didn’t give you a real fight. Once I win this tournament, I’ll show you my skill,” I said, then added, “Here I’ll tell you what was so funny since you at least deserve to know.” I offered my hand to Fennib and helped her to her feet, and then whispered in her right ear, pointing at Sopheia of the other stage. “The face you were making as you looked up at me was super funny and to keep my self from laughing I tried to remind myself of what happend when I called my friend Sopheia over there a Lioness” I then proceded to tell the story of how Sopheia once came out of her room, her hair being so poofed out that it formed into a lion’s mane and "I Smartly commented on it ‘Moring Sopheia looking Fierce Ms Lioness, Roarww’ I had said before she swiftly smacked me on the head. Later, when she was sitting down across from me at the breakfast table, she bared her teeth every time I began to chuckle at her lion-esque appearance."
Fennib chuckled at that before backing up, looking back at me, she shook her head in acceptance of her defeat and probably what I told her. She stepped backwards and flipped off the stage, landing safely on her feet out of bounds. The match was declared over, and my name was announced as the winner of match 2A. With my match over, I walked over to where she dropped her bow and picked it up before walking off the stage to give Fennib back her bow. Fennib and I walked over to the other stage to watch Sopheia land on the ground after being tossed by Rwarg.
You already know how Sopheia’s match went, so I’m going to pick up where I left off at the end of her match. Sopheia slowly picked herself off the ground, first crawling to pick up the silk headband Rwarg threw at her feet. She shifted her weight onto her left knee and rose up until she could plant both feet on the ground. Sopheia unclenched her right hand and laid the headband that was in it across her hands as she looked at it, contemplating what it meant, until it made sense to her. She brought the headband to her forehead and tied it around her head. She turned to me, wearing the headband with a fire rune in the center of a bear paw print. She gave me a determined smile and later told me, “I was happy to have won, but I was also determined to honor my opponent by winning the tournament for them.” It was common practice for the Cat-nye to honor their opponents by assimilating their techniques; they thought they honored their opponent the most when they used their fighting style to defeat another adversary.
In the next round, she was able to honor Rwarg, but she did not get the desired match result.
