After spending some quality time as a newly-christened father with his equally-newly-christened son, Svartis circled over Orion a few times and settled down in what appeared to be... well, just a big circle. Or, was it an oval?
Regardless, it was a flat stretch with few obstructions other than some stray gemstones and shimmering green insects nibbling on them. They paid him no heed as he waddled by, leathery wings billowing with each step. Icy eyes set on the center of the arena, his path carving straight for it as he willed up a bout of magic so strong each breath billowed like freezing fog.
Finding himself equidistant from any end of the forum, Svartis snapped his wings out. Their bony fingers beat against the dusty floor a few times as he ascended a few meters, ten, twenty, fifty - before exhaling all that he'd spent the past few minutes drawing in.
Frigid mist spilled from his jaws, dropping like bouts of dry ice and shooting up glimmering peaks of glacial ice some twenty meters across the forum. A sizable gout of magic, if you asked him. He descended upon the precipice, hauling himself up it and perching - not without an eager roar that traveled quite a ways through Orion.
Since feeling the thrill of battle against something even close to its own size - however brief (and efficient!) it'd been - Alpha had been on the prowl. It looked closer than ever at passing Gembound, picking fights where it could and attempting to learn from them. So far, there hadn't been that many fights picked - or any at all.
The orthoclase hadn't been looking for too long, if it were entirely honest. That war in Cetus hadn't been too long ago, and it did have to spend some time picking molt off of its carapace. Maybe, if it'd stop smashing it in every day of the week, the structural integrity could actually improve - but, no. There was momentum now, and Alpha was more than willing to smash any obstacle in the way of it.
Looking for spars had emboldened it to exploring other caves, though it primarily lurked in Orion. Logically, it had five tunnels connecting to it; that, and it was essentially a large bowl to look out over. Perfect for surveying when you weren't the stealthiest creature to walk the block.
So, when four eyes met a massive black shadow darting to the top of the tower - then off - and into the ruins, it was just destiny.
Keeping an eye on the skies (in case its spar-quarry flew the coop,) the kaiju had shuffled along through the ruins, calling every once in a while: "wing-beast!" Only when the dragon descended into the forum and distracted himself with his own magic did Alpha manage to catch up.
It watched for a moment, quiet awe of that blast of magic. This was just ticking all of the boxes, wasn't it? Winged. A beast. Magic from a distance. For all intents and purposes, this could be the very beast that'd bested an Overseer. Alpha gave itself a once-over, and marched ahead, quills already puffing up and toxic saliva dripping from its jaws, "YOU! Vargas sent me to fight you!" It pawed at the ground, squaring off, "spar with me!"
That was said like there was an or else, but there really wasn't.
Me? Svartis twisted, horse-like neck forcing him to turn most of his upper half to face the armored beast thundering towards him. He lifted a wing mildly, pointing the knuckles at himself, "me?"
It pressed on, screaming something about - "I don't know any Vargas."
The black dragon shrugged mentally, thoughts rationalizing scarily close to ah, what the heck. He slid down the ice spike, using the momentum to carry himself into the air and bark down, "alright! No killing or breaking bones!" Fair ruleset.
His fins ruddered up as he glided right for the massive - but surprisingly equally-sized - kaiju, scarcely a meter above. From the trajectory, it seemed like he might just straight-up try to catch Alpha in the neck with an elbow, but that was a terrible idea for many reasons. Svartis pulled up at the last moment, jaws cracking open to beckon forth a gale of ice and - maybe - freeze the monstrosity's feet to the ground.
Round: 1/?
Attempt: Freeze Alpha's feet.
Defense: Being in the air??
Injuries: n/a
"Fine!" it barked, bracing itself for some kind of impact... not the crystallizing of ice across the ground and up its legs. Alpha managed to keep one leg free, but the rest of its limbs were stuck. It'd have to pull them free in a deliberate motion, but...
The orthoclase was focused more on keeping this beast close to the ground.
Svartis blew past, and it snapped up at a tucked limb, rows of teeth angling for the flesh. Something caught, and it yanked down - eagerly listening to the roar of surprise above it.
Round: 1/?
Attempt: Bite onto Svartis's leg as he flies past
Defense: n/a
Injuries: Feet frozen to the ground
Svartis roared first as teeth snared into his leg, the crooked fangs latching in at the outer part of his calf. He groaned second as his momentum was halted entirely, nearly sending him tumbling onto the ground and on top of this very poisonous-looking beastie.
His wings worked overtime just to keep him in the air. The dragon yanked his leg here and there, but that just made the kaiju start to tug harder. A limb was reaching up, perhaps to grab his other leg. Svartis snapped his fins out, jaws opening but not unleashing a burst of ice as one might expect: "LET GO."
For a moment, it was like his magic was working in opposite - rather than forming ice, he looked to burn away the ice around the kaiju's feet, make it into a cloud of boiling-hot steam. Hopefully the pain would be enough to get this thing to let. go.
Round: 2/?
Attempt: Shift that ice to boiling, babey!
Defense: n/a
Injuries: Fairly deep bite on left calf
It started as the ice started to give way, flexing its claws involuntarily to grip at the now-slippery floor. Suddenly, it was dry, and then - hot, hot, HOT!
Alpha steeled itself, trying to step out of the impromptu sauna with its grip intact, but it felt like its feet were literally boiling. There was a soft hissing noise from somewhere down there, perfectly in sync with the pulsating flashes of pain lancing through its jaw, threatening to loosen.
Round: 2/?
Attempt: Don't let go!
Defense: n/a
Injuries: Boiled crab legs.
Trying to stay aloft with this big bastard attached to his leg was, apparently, proving to be futile. No way was he going to carry the both of them into the air, and it was dead-set on keeping that grip and looking to grab his other leg even with boiled-purple carapace.
The only direction was down.
Svartis landed rather awkwardly, one gangly wing braced against the kaiju's exoskeleton while his other was on the ground. The leg currently not being bitten was planted flat, too. Strained by the shortness of his own neck (damn you, Dread!) the dragon wheeled around, hobbling slightly to fit his serpentine snout and sharp teeth into some part of this one's hindquarters.
Shit, he winced, feeling the heat of steam against his fairly sensitive wing leather.
Round: 3/?
Attempt: Bite Alpha's ass
Defense: n/a
Injuries: Fairly deep bite on left calf, steam burns on right wing
Idiot, Alpha thought dully, continuing to shuffle through the dissipating cloud of steam and... almost dancing from foot to foot - keeping contact with the floor to a bare minimum for a moment. The winged beast was basically draping an entire wing on it, and while that obscured a good half of its vision, it wasn't enough to keep it from noticing that other leg was within arm's reach.
The orthoclase yanked with its jaws, stretching out a forelimb in the process, hooked claws looking for a nice and available ankle to snatch out from underneath Svartis.
Round: 3/?
Attempt: Yank Svartis's other leg
Defense: n/a
Injuries: Boiled crab legs
One second, he was snapping blindly on his feet.
The next? Hauled right off of his feet and smacking painfully onto the floor.
Svartis twisted before anything else could be done, wings flailing rather uselessly as he curled up, neck bulging with the effort. He made a panicked reach for magic again, breath fogging even though it wasn't that cold in Orion. Icy eyes glowed harshly and he aimed a torrent of sleet straight for the kaiju's face.
Round: 4/?
Attempt: Get a face full of sleet, dickwad
Defense: n/a
Injuries: Fairly deep bite on left calf, steam burns on right wing
Sleet shot across its face, which it could've ignored if some hadn't shot straight into its eyeballs. Alpha hissed, inhaling sharply and shifting - its jaws loosened up to let the sound out, but its grip around the dragon's other ankle tightened to the point where an equally pained noise started to ring out.
Without any regard for any bones it might be crushing, it put weight on that foot and reached up to scrub at watery eyes with the other.
No use complaining about that when it could glare furiously - a bellowing roar of challenge ringing as it teetered forwards, weight shifting slightly as it lifted both arms. Rearing up slightly, Alpha yanked its one arm closer to itself, reaching with the other to get a grip again and continue yanking the dragon underneath itself.
Watch him get out from under it without too much damage to his wings.
Round: 4/?
Attempt: Yank Svartis underneath itself
Defense: n/a
Injuries: Boiled crab legs, chilled eyeballs