ORIGIN

Since his disgrace under the Spire of Polaris, Louie had become even more paranoid. More withdrawn and cynical of the world. As he sat atop a sandstone boulder, he mused at the missing Twister which had previously given the cavern some life. Now, everything was still and only the occasional drip of moisture from the roof was any indication they were not frozen in time. Not wanting to do this in a place he associated with his work and relaxation, he had come down here to perform this in some sort of privacy. Removed from the centre of the area, he hoped he would not be spotted as he sat back on his haunches while leaning against the cliff face to put both paws on his face.

It was excruciatingly painful and he was forced to stifle his cries and screams as he began, pausing momentarily to catch his breath. Peeling off the dried clumps of lava in order to reveal the pink scar tissue beneath was not an easy task. Fresh blood began to drip out from where he had severed the connection between the skin and igneous rock and he watched with his one good eye as it dripped on the ground. Blind with fury at his own boldness that had caused this injury, he gave the rock one immense tug, as though ripping off a bandaid, but was instead met with resistance as the last of it ripped off his pointed face with effort.

More blood, though this time it was thick and fast and in a panic of potentially passing out from blood loss, he pushed the slab back onto his face. It leaked out the sides and already Louie was feeling the effects. Eager to try and prevent himself from being knocked out, he focused what energy he had on his magic as he attempted to heal his cheek. There was still a lump within his eye socket that required removal but he would dig that out next. For now, he just concentrated on healing the exposed and bloody skin...

...It worked, the bacteria and organisms within his skin were given a boost as well as his immune system and he could feel the blood clotting already beginning to form a thin layer of scab on the exposed patch on his face and he breathed a sigh of relief at the feeling. Warm and yet cool at the same time as it covered his raw flesh, it was still no where near being as thick as the scar tissue on the fringes of the wound but it stopped most of the blood from escaping. Now, it had slowed to nothing more than a gentle trickle as it worked slowly. Naturally, a wound clots within minutes. Louie didn't have minutes, the deepest area of wound was definitely his eye socket and he'd chosen to leave that as his spell wasn't near the extent of a full healing spell.

Stiff in his jaw, he couldn't talk too well either but if he was careful he could speak almost as normally was when he didn't have this painful injury. Huffing a sigh of relief, he didn't raise his paw to his face and instead cast the "phantom of the opera" shaped mask to the side. It would be a slow path to recovery, but that was stage one. Getting it out of his eyeball area would be a lot harder.

Laying down on the chilly stone floor, Svenna recovered from a day of travel. Rib cage rose and fell in a peaceful rhythm while the hell in her stomach rolled restlessly in the concealing guise. All morning she had this feeling like a belch would come and bring a fury of flames. Perhaps it was just something she ate. Or an itch for the abilities Svenna would one day possess. That blasted hatchling gembound had her feeling paranoid and desperate to level up on her abilities. Black tail flickered in annoyance, both from the moths that bounced off her charred fur and thoughts of incompetence. She would not be weak. She would not be small.

Eyelids fluttered open, having realized she was drifting off when the familiar scent bombarded her senses. It was metallic and strong. Close! Huffing in the , her thick legs had her up in a flash to investigate the smell of blood. Something was bleeding and she wanted to get a good view of the occurrence.

Creeping forward with the upmost caution and stealth, she rounded the bend in the wall and caught sight of a figure sitting precariously on top of a boulder. He was a brightly colored canine, red-orange like fire. What he was doing, however, was the truly interesting part. Paws were draped over his long, narrow face as the rest of his weight was distributed against the cave's wall. Whiffing in a taste of the air, Svenna double checked to see if the blood was coming from this gembound. The blood dripping from his chin only confirmed her suspicions.

A disturbance in the energy was felt and her spotted fur bristled in response. The fox was a gembound, Svenna discovered, still in the dark as to what spell he was conjuring. Her jaw ached from grinding her teeth in the suspense.

A spot of water dripped from high above and landed on her nose making her startle violently enough her black claws slid against the stone floor revealing her position (if the gembound hadn't already known she was watching.) "The hell!" she snapped, both a result of the surprise and the weird behavior of this stranger. Her black nose tilted upwards to analyze the ceiling to see what fell. Silence. Nothing to see but the swaying of bulbous lanterns that blinked in secret messages. Then quickly back to the company before her.

Relieved to have gotten rid of the worst part, he began to open and close his mouth to experiment with the elasticity of this newly formed layer. There wasn't too much discomfort to cause any real pain but it was an uncomfortable feeling. Getting up, he made to move away from the pool of blood he had created, to distance himself from the overwhelming scent of iron, but his one good eye managed to catch onto the site of another moving around, her protests only piqued his curiosity. But he was in no state to intercept.

After his encounter with Raheerah, he was all too careful when stationary in an area to long. In his travels, he always stuck to the side of the cave, eager to avoid detection and elimination. Louie's primary objective was to wipe out the group known as Maji Walezi and come out of that alive. The latter of that had become a whole lot more difficult. Instead of confronting Svenna, he merely remained still. Even though this plan of not moving could have worked, as movement caught the eye, the blood had given his position away ten times over and he gnashed his teeth together.

"If you want to finish me now, better know that I will choke the life out of you." Snarling, Louie lashed his tail, his disfigured facial features creating an even more terrifying picture than before. At least he got to look bad ass despite his disability.

Svenna bristled, face contorting into a menacing scowl. Her company's temperament went from pained to savagery at breakneck speeds. Spreading her legs out into a defensive stance she waited for the injured red fox to take a lunge, but he never did. The Monoceros air twirled around the pair and blinded her senses with rustic, quickly growing stale blood. It made her stomach pinch painfully, not in hunger, but disgust. What was he doing to himself? Self-mutilation was not something Svenna could even begin to understand. It was down right foolish.

"Me finish you?" she barked back, "It looks like you've got it under control, freak." From her standpoint all she could tell was the gembound was... tearing his own face off? Was that right? The flickering of the lights above were disorienting, casting dancing shadows off the walls and boulders. Only for a few seconds would a beam of light would shine down onto his angled face, revealing the already healing wound that covered half of his head. She was relieved to see his eyeball didn't seem to be shredded just yet by his own claws. Svenna was convinced she'd hurl if his eyeball dangled from it's socket, split into pieces.

The wound. It was already healing? No way was it already scabbed and, the edges, turned to angry looking scar tissue all on it's own. Her nose twitched in thought, remembering the initial disturbance in energy she felt just before whatever fell from the sky and startled her. This guy must have had magic on his side. Magic she hadn't yet seen in the Cave.

Able to set eyes on the hyena woman, he admired her mottled pelt but the scowl on her face was hideous and he scowled right back at her with whatever eyebrow muscles he had left. Insults came flying and instead of addressing them, he just rolled his one eye, not really sure if that would get the point across. Eyes carried a lot of expression and he was sort of lacking in a lot of them now. Especially since he didn't even have muscles that indicated he was doing just that. God damn it piece of shit half face moron.

"Yeah well I didn't ASK for that fucking dragon to take off half my face now did I," well, he had been asking for something to happen but he didn't think it would be as bad as it was. Maybe irritate the dragon, but he thought his magic would have at least more power than it had had! Instead it just pointed out his position, which it wasn't supposed to do. Anyway, he stopped his inner monologue prattling and moved closer to the edge of the boulder, using his paws a sort of walking stick as he swept them in front of his body. Once at the edge, he stopped.

"What brings a laugh-beast such as yourself here anyway?" Though he was indeed curious, his monotone voice meant he didn't care much at all. The only upper hand he had here was his age, and he wasn't sure how strong a laugh-beast was at that age either. But it could make for a good fight and he let a smirk cross his lips. Damn it Louie you are such a cocky-ass bastard, "No matter. Do you think you can take me?" Not really sure whether he was asking for a proper fight to the death or just a "challenge" he kept it open for her to decide. Though he had been so focused on self-preservation mere seconds ago, he was now asking for a fight? Now that he thought about it that hadn't been the right move and he cursed under his breath slightly.

Definitely, she appeared hostile, but he couldn't help but think that she would stop before she did too much serious damage. At least that's what his wise, seniority was telling him. If it did get out of hand, he'd just drug her anyway.

"Dragon?" Svenna asked right away, thinking straight to the white and pink beast she had met during her first month of life. Had this idiot tried taking on a DRAGON? Being such a dainty seeming fox, she presumed he must be an idiot. Perhaps mouthing off to a stranger had been a mistake that he was willing to try again. She wouldn't make the mistake of underestimating him, however... The size of one's magic wasn't a visible thing. No matter, the fox made it out alive from his, assumed, spar with only a burnt face. It was gory and horrible, but it beat death.

Laugh-beast. The hell did that even mean? Svenna's wicked eyes narrowed at the speculated insult and her jaw tightened. But she tried her damndest to seem unaffected. "I was born here," she answered, unsure of what kind of response he was expecting. Her thulite chrysalis must be lodged in the ground somewhere nearby. It had been awhile since she last saw the nightmare that she was born out of. Her birthday wasn't the most pleasant memory floating around her thick skull. Svenna half expected the gem chrysalis to be gone by now, completely engulfed by the swirling dirt.

One moment this guy was leaking blood from his face, the next requesting spars with strange gembounds that walked by. Svenna really thought he had a death wish. No matter, she was curious about his invitation and a cruel smirk crossed her face. "Are you mad?" she inquired, "Nevermind. If you want a fight, let's go!" Not sparing a second, she charged forward towards the injured fox, jaws agape and ready for action.

Svenna was unsure about this whole situation. But then again, it wouldn't hurt to practice some combat with a... somewhat formidable foe. Running towards him, she approached with neck down low, ears pressed flat against her skull, and aimed a shoulder at his torso to try and topple him over. Her end goal was to pin the guy down. Svenna hoped he wouldn't try any funny magic on her (since she hadn't the slightest clue how his worked), and she'd do the same until then.

round: 1/??
attack: shoulder tackle (barely successful 9/20)
defense: throat protected, ears protected
injuries: none

No of course the laugh beast wouldn't know of the dragon and he merely snorted in amusement. Especially when she had to explain she was born here. Of course she was where else would she be? Though he was amused to see if she would indeed accept his challenge, despite his wariness over the whole idea now. Literally seconds ago he was bleeding from his face, the thin skin was certainly not going to be enough to sustain any hits to it and he would have to be careful not to pull it apart from exercise. Wanting nothing more than to poison the life out of her, he didn't want to play dirty immediately.

In his head, prokaryotic magic was a game changer, it wasn't like a physical attack it would drain the life out of anyone it affected. There was no shrugging this hit off and that was why he used it, playing dirty was his best card. Immediately, she charged towards him and he awaited her to get close enough for him to jump out of the way. Nervous of his inhibited vision, he hoped he would time it correctly. Though he was supposed to be going for self preservation but his mind was so focused on the battle he would probably end up a lot worse for wear in this.

Barely, she managed to catch his own shoulder and he was pushed to the side, hitting one of the rocks and able to regain his balance by ricocheting off it. It tweaked his injury and he tried his best not to let that affect him. Gritting his teeth yet again, he pushed himself forwards as he attempted to latch onto Svenna's back from where she had run past. Immediately, he remember the fact he did in fact have depth perception issues and whatever miracle he would have being partially blind in doing this, but she wasn't too far away so he had a good chance of landing on her where ever she was...

---

Round: 1/6
Attempt: jump onto Svenna's back and latch on with teeth
Defense: none
Injuries: facial burns
Other:

Her ambush had not worked the way it was planned. She had been meaning to knock him down but only managed to brush against the fox's shoulder and cast him sideways into a boulder. Skidding her nails against the stone floor, Svenna tried to slow her momentum and rear around to attempt another assault. The loose gravel pained her burnt paws and she cringed internally as the searing pain that shot up her legs. It was meant to be a simple spar, but the hyena was beginning to feel rage boil her blood.

How does one fight without anger?

Svenna clenched her jaw and a growl rattled through her throat and was muffled against her clamped teeth. Just as her lunge was slowed she felt his counter-attack... Fangs grazed the left side of her back as the fox tried to get a good hold. From what Svenna could tell his latching wasn't quite solid enough to be unshakable. Standing up onto her powerful hind legs, another internal cringe as it lifted her sparring partner with her (his teeth dragging the wound) she tried another maneuver. Using the weight of her body, Svenna toppled back to slam herself into him. She arched her neck in preparation, being careful not to smash her skull against the ground.

---

round: 2/6
attack: body slam! (barely successful 13/20)
defense: protecting head
injuries: shallow shoulder bite

Success, but at what cost as he felt the hyena woman's body position shift as she fell over backwards to smack him into the ground. Eye wide and round, he let go but was too late as her significantly larger size crushed him and with a yelp he wriggled free. Spasms were running up his front leg at the angle that it had been forced into the ground and he hissed as he circled around her once again. All this strenuous activity was beginning to make his eye wound tingle and he could feel that it was being damaged.

Didn't stop the little shit head.

As he had been injured, he wasn't sure whether to resort to chemical warfare or not. Whatever magic she possessed he wasn't aware of and he didn't know whether or not she could best him in a spell match. Snorting, he was spending far too long considering this decision but his processing time had slowed as he was still weak from his fight. Not entirely sure whether this would work, he merely ducked behind her (careful not to step on his leg as he hopped awkwardly) and tried to nip at her back legs, potentially grabbing on and throwing her back to the ground with him on top. Using his body weight would do no good for him...

... It failed, due to the fact he was so weak, vision being off and the fact he had just been body slammed, he merely stumbled sideways and used a rock to catch himself on with his shoulder as he braced himself for the coming attack that was merely seconds away.

---

Round: 2/6
Attempt: bite her heels and bring her down
Defense: none
Injuries: facial burns, sprained/crushed front right leg
Other:

Dust flew up to halo around the dueling pair, Svenna's nose burned with an itching desire to sneeze but she held back. She didn't want to get lost in the seconds it took to blink, a fox could move fast in that second. Rolling quickly over, she cringed again forgetting the bite. The wound on her back was now beginning to clot as normal, the stickiness of the blood clumped the fur and felt awkward with some movements as it pulled apart. She wasn't sure if the dirt from the backwards fall was helping her cause in stopping the bleeding or would bring problems down the line. It wasn't sanitary like it needed to be, infection was probable if not cleaned soon... After the fight.

Her pale rust eyes narrowed as the red figure went out of sight for a moment, to swiftly move behind her just as she rose to her paws. Twirling around she prepared to face a clash again, but her opponent merely fell back and caught himself against a boulder for support. Her lips twitched in the amusement that took hold. It was short lived, she saw an opportunity and hastily tried to take advantage of it.

Lowering her neck for some protection, she stampeded forward with open jaws to try and latch onto... anything. Her desire was more to cripple than critically wound. Svenna's aim was directed a little lower, towards the base of a front leg instead of his already torn face and slightly exposed jugular.

---

round: 3/6
attack: nom on leg
defense: protecting neck
injuries: shallow (crusted) shoulder bite