ORIGIN

Oh, sweet relief! Cancer felt the strangely satisfying 'pop' of skin breaking away, and the wet, sticky, moisture of blood down his nape. Immediately, part of that burning sensation went away, replaced with warm, but soothed, dullness. The rest of him still hurt, though, and his twist continued until he was on the ground, writhing. He rolled onto his back just in time for that bear to come down towards him. He felt the brush of fur against his cheek, and finally those eyes snapped back open- he hadn't even realized he'd been clenching them shut- and the cat felt a new sensation in his chest...

...and as the bear landed his weight on him, let that feeling explode, and explode it did. Suddenly the room was deafeningly silent. The air gave one loud, horrific POP before everything hummed, muted, the air bursting with white-hot heat, the kind that scorched flesh but left hair intact. He felt a push from his body, like something blasting away from him, but his vision failed him- he couldn't see what he'd just unleashed, he could only feel the devastation, the raw power. The cat howled in response, as he willed it to stop, his casting to end. It did, with another deafening POP, as the world came back into focus, counterpointed by a deafening ringing in his ears, a white fade around his vision. He felt the magic release, but shock overwhelmed the relief of tension... what had he just done?

---

Round 5/6
Attacks: General body-wide release outwards with DEADLY RADIATION YEAH
Defense: Back's on the ground now, belly exposed but burn injuries protected.
Injuries: Sore Pads, Headache / Bloody Nose, Severely burned back, Various chemical burns across his shoulders and face, Muted hearing/vision

Notes: Armor is now melted together, limiting mobility slightly, cooling off slightly.

"Speech"

Everything and nothing was buzzing through his mind, all at once. He wanted to kill Cancer. He had to put out the fire. He had to beat it into Cancer, the pain he had caused. He couldn't believe what he had done. He was a monster. They were monsters.

The bear came down on him, snarling, roaring, feeling everything all at once. And then the instant that he would have made contact, it felt like the air around him was blasted away. There was a deafening POP, and before Leon could make any contact with the cat, he was suddenly thrown several feet away. Flying and stumbling backward, Leon had no idea what had just happened until he landed on the ground again, his body thumping and rolling a few times - that obsidian spire clanging against the ground - and then fell still. But everything else around him was still going. That pop, the buzz, a deafening silence and stillness and a heat that burned everything. Everything. His skin crawled and sizzled, already burnt from his prior attacks; blood oozed from fresh wounds, burns, but burns that didn't come from fire. His eyes peeled open and were instantly met with searing ache, he squeezed them shut again, but it didn't help. The pain rang through every inch of him, through the nerves behind his eyes and into his brain. His heart struggled to keep up in his chest while every part of him burned.

The next second, Leon realized that he needed to get away. He writhed, he couldn't regain his composure this time. He struggled to get up until finally the only thing he could do was cover his head. So he did, he cradled his head and his ringing ears, his mouth suspended and finally a pained scream broke from his throat. It was strangled, choking, pleading. He screamed and yelled and for the first time, it wasn't out of fury, it was out of sheer pain.

Until the POP sounded and everything stopped. The heat dissipated, the burning in his skin - it was still there, but felt the reprieve of cold cave air again. He couldn't hear anything. He couldn't see. His scream had tapered into a choke until the bear lay still, unable to recover from the vicious blast.

Round 6/6
Attacks: None
Defenses: None
Injuries: Bruises, chipped stone, large open gashes across throat and up the right side of Leon's muzzle, LOTS OF PAIN, muted hearing, temporary blindness

It would be a full minute before either would move, and the first would be Cancer, less stricken by the blast. He rose to his feet shakily, blood oozing from his lips- though he couldn't be sure who's anymore. He locked his blurry gaze on the lump of charred fur ahead, and that was it. This was it. This was his day. He'd finally won... but at what cost? He'd lost everything else. Makyna would never forgive him for this. He wasn't sure if he even wanted her to. The lioness had hurt him in a way Leon never could. Fisher was just a pawn thrown into a game of kings and queens, the poor guy. Fuzzy thoughts went out to each and every gembound he'd ever met as he began taking silent, purposeful steps towards the bear.

"Ever since... that first day... you hated me." He spoke, voice raspy and choked, not his own. "Ever since I met you, I knew you'd hurt me. I knew it." He stood before the bear now, his eyes narrowed in an expression he'd never worn before- not that angry hatred, not that loathing amusement... no, this time, this look in yellow eyes stained red with bloodshot veins...

This time, he looked upon the bear and saw the devil.

"No more." He shook his head. "You can't hurt me anymore. If you... If you make it out... you'd better treat her like the goddess she is." And then, he reached back and took out that knife. Through teeth clenched around leather and wood, he spat one final curse. "Rest in pieces, shit bear."

He reared back for one final attack, aiming that blade for the bear's shoulders- that stone, so exposed, already damaged- he'd shatter it. It'd kill him. If not, it'd leave him half the bear he used to be... all he had to do was hit the mark, where skin met stone... and twist....

---

Round 6/6
Attacks: General body-wide release outwards with DEADLY RADIATION YEAH
Defense: Back's on the ground now, belly exposed but burn injuries protected.
Injuries: Sore Pads, Headache / Bloody Nose, Severely burned back, Various chemical burns across his shoulders and face, Muted hearing/vision

Notes: Armor is now melted together, limiting mobility slightly, cooling off slightly.

"Speech"

Character: Leon Age: +3 (3 Cycles) Magic Level: +3 (Pupil) ROUND 1 Attempt: +6 Penalties: -0 ROUND 2 Attempt: +12 Penalties: -0 ROUND 3 Attempt: +20 Penalties: -0 ROUND 4 Attempt: +16 Penalties: -0 ROUND 5 Attempt: +3 Penalties: -0 ROUND 6 Attempt: +0 Penalties: -0 Total: 63

Character: Cancer Age: +3 (3 Cycles) Magic Level: +3 (Pupil) ROUND 1 Attempt: +4 Penalties: -0 ROUND 2 Attempt: +2 Penalties: -0 ROUND 3 Attempt: +4 Penalties: -0 ROUND 4 Attempt: +11 Penalties: -0 ROUND 5 Attempt: +20 Penalties: -0 ROUND 6 Attempt: +2 Penalties: -0 Total: 39

WINNER: Leon

Through all the commotion, neither the bear nor the leopard would have realized that they had been fighting so close to a deep pit in the gorge. The walls would shudder with echoes of their combat, the air fizzled with magic, a sensation so strong and overwhelming that anybody nearby would surely have felt it, even if they hadn't known of the fight. There was some nearby force, suddenly roused... suddenly awakened that did not like the fighting. There was the feeling of a threat, and suddenly, the ground shuddered.

Beneath Cancer's paws, the earth would suddenly begin to come apart. The ground shook and groaned and a deep crevice opened up beneath the feline, stopping just before the bear. A great darkness would swallow Cancer before his knife could reach the bear; the fissure tumbled and shook and carried Cancer far from the floor of the gorge until the ground would open up in the wall of the pit and spit the feline into it.

There, the tiny lamb began to move.

Leon was stunned. His muscles refused to move, even after the buzzing had faded away and he knew that the threat of the cat remained. It must have come from him - there was no other explanation for why it had blasted him away seconds before Leon would make contact with him. After he had realized what happened and that he was still laying on the ground, the bear slowly opened up his eyes. At first, all he saw was a fuzzy blackness, pain radiating through his skull from behind his eyes. His heart rate picked up, sides rapidly rising and falling with panicked breaths. He heard the feline suddenly get up, and his paw steps slowly bring him closer to the bear.

Leon clenched his teeth, straining to try and move his head, but all energy had left him. It hurt him even to breathe, what chance did he have of moving? Words suddenly broke the silence, the air still buzzing - no, it must have been his ears, he could barely hear what Cancer was saying. The words at first sounded garbled, distant against the sound of the humming, but over time they emerged through the background noise with clarity. His voice was vile. He was angry, he shook. Leon barely understood what he was saying; intrinsically, he knew it all. But he still didn't understand. It would have made Leon angry again, but he was... tired. He was done. He had no more anger left in him.

The bear's eyes searched, probing the darkness for Cancer's form. He saw a shadow through the fuzzy sightlessness, he watched it advance and he knew it was Cancer. Hot tears had begun to well up in the corners of his eyes. He saw the glinting of the knife, but he didn't have the energy to move. That death lingered just above him. The threat of it ending. His chest tightened and he squeezed his eyes shut, waiting, knowing that he had lost. It didn't matter how hard he tried, it didn't matter how powerful that fury was, it wouldn't be powerful enough to protect Makyna.

What he expected to be the searing of the knife hitting his flesh was a great shaking in the earth below. He didn't feel the hot pain; that life remained in him, unless... unless this was it. The shaking. Leon slowly opened his eyes, and though he couldn't see much, he had realized that the ground in front of him was beginning to shatter. The bear gasped and summoned the very last fibers of his energy to push himself away from it. He watched as it swallowed Cancer, and the earth continued to groan, shuddering and shaking until it slowed and everything finally came still. Leon was left alone, barely able to hold himself up and staring at the spot where Cancer once stood, replaced by a dark fissure.

All he could hear was his staggered breathing. Ragged breaths caught in his throat. Leon blinked a few more times, still rooted to the ground. Something had spared him. Something had let him live, while Cancer disappeared into the darkness. Was it his fault? Leon had wanted to kill the leopard. His intention was to destroy him, and now... he had.

The bear flattened his ears back and choked out a sob. He was leaning forward, still staring at the fissure as he searched and probed, hoping for some sign of the leopard. But Cancer was gone. "I'm... sorry..." He shook and cried mournfully, closing his eyes again. But there was nothing he could do. For a few minutes, the bear lay there as he struggled through his panic, fear, and guilt. Eventually, the fight and the resulting disappearance and the reality of near-deaths had become too much for him. Somewhere in the midst of shaking and crying he had passed out, falling unconscious on the floor of the gorge.

Everything was about to end. He would end this rivalry for good, Leon would return to his stone, and he would leave the known caves for good- leave everything behind... maybe even return to his own stone forever. Anything to escape it. Anything to end it. Then, just as his knife came down, the ground opened up with a mighty quiver, and he felt the earth beneath his paws give way again. He yowled as it swallowed him down, the knife tossed away amongst the rubble, and he slid from the gorge, and from his broken rival. He felt the rush of rock and earth around him, and then, his vision went dark.

Moments later, all was still. He felt a painful sting at his side, and as he stirred, his head moving groggily to the side, that pain lanced up his side and down to his hip. He winced with a growl, and woke in that moment. What happened? Where... where am I? Those eyes blinked open, but his vision was blurred. Barely, he registered shapes ahead, and the color red. His stomach turned as the scent of blood hit him, but he pushed the faintness back. He couldn't black out now. He had to be strong.

The cat forced himself to his haunches, but that was it. His hind legs refused to move accordingly to stand. With a turn of his head, Cancer realized with a heavy groan, why. There, jammed into his hip, the blade he'd almost killed Leon with sat hilt-deep. It shifted under the skin painfully, but upon inspection, the wound wasn't as bad as it could've been- it didn't cut through muscle, only skin. He left it for now. Better to have a knife in the back than blood on the ground...

Then, those eyes shifted back towards the area he'd fallen into. The shapes alarmed him, and in response, those horns flickered to life, and he reached out with frail magic to get a feel for his company...

...two beating hearts came back to him- one larger, heavy, slow, the other smaller, quicker. Cancer felt a sense of dread come over him- the larger heart was bigger than he'd been as a cub- what sort of monster had a need for something that big? Big heart... big teeth? His eyes lingered on the larger shape, further away... then movement across on the other side, and he snapped his head around painfully. That tiny heart was beating faster, less regular. It was waking. He considered it carefully- tiny shape didn't seem threatening, but then... he didn't seem the type to blind and deafen the world, either, but he did. He had, and he'd almost destroyed Leon...

Leon. Was he alive up there. His head craned back to look up, but the ledge above was too high, the crevice barely a crack now that the earth had settled. He'd never get out that way. Fear gripped him. He could yell, call for the bear- but then what? What could Leon do to help? Why would he help? Hadn't he tried to kill him a few minutes ago? Hours? How long had he been out? His mind began to race- that final moment of red sense faded without Leon's pulse within reach- he was gone? Or too far away. Either way, Cancer was on his own down here... and that little shape was waking up. His attention turned back to the lamb. Now what?

---

Injuries: Burned back, Bloody Muzzle/Nose, Knife driven into his hip, just under the skin, Various bruises and scrapes from the fight and fall. Exhausted. Temporarily half-blind.

"Speech"

It wasn't the terrible sound of the rocks sliding deep in to the pit that woke her. It wasn't even the chaos in the vibration, because nothing could permeate the crystal shell around her body. Somehow the lamb could sense them - the two enemies in direct conflict. Perhaps it was the conflict she could taste within her dreamstate; it was all too famiiar. As the rocks came raining down, and then a body collided with the floor of the pit, the lamb did not move. She couldn't move, not within her shining shell. It wasn't until Cancer's magic reached out and grasped for her that the lamb's eyes opened. In the darkness it would be impossible to see the misty white across the iris - just as it would be impossible for the lamb herself to witness Cancer in his ruin. But she felt him. She felt his physical pain, his anguish, and that was enough.

The crystal surrounding her tiny form began to shine, but not in any ominous manner. The glow from her shell was different from the eerie tones cast by the glowing gems around Origin; her light was purer, with a calming effect. There was a small crackle like the sound of an egg being prodded open - and then as the light faded, it was as if the gem prison had never been there. The lamb still sat in one position, as if afraid to move a muscle, but she stared straight ahead with her unseeing eyes. Her gaze lingered on the hunched form of Cancer, although she did not truly see him, and then she spoke.

You.. The lamb all but whispered, yet the sound carried in the darkness. What have you done? The sleepiness in her voice faded quickly, and with a few rapid blinks of her pale eyes, the lamb seemed to grow increasingly worried. It was only a matter of time, now.

Cancer snapped his head around to look towards the light and crackling sound, and to his bewildered surprise, the little lamb freed herself of a glass shell he'd not noticed before. When the light faded, her eyes bore into his, but both were sightless- staring at nothing but a feeling, a ghost of vision. The lamb spoke, a whispered voice, an accusation, like horror alive. Cancer felt the fur on the back of his neck stand up, despite the slick blood across it, the charred curl at the ends of each hair. He lowered his head defensively, and after a moment of silence, finally found his voice.

"What... have I done?" There was more meaning than just the obvious- he echoed her, but also, he thought of the horrors that had led him down here. The terrible fight... Leon was far out of his reach- but was he alive? The knife sat painfully in his thigh, not Leon's back, but had the bear survived the quake? He vaguely recalled movement, Leon had escaped the fall into the pit, but had he escaped death? Had he killed the bear? He never looked away from that locked stare. He held it, sightless for the most part. "...what now?"

---

Injuries: Burned back, Bloody Muzzle/Nose, Knife driven into his hip, just under the skin, Various bruises and scrapes from the fight and fall. Exhausted. Temporarily half-blind.

"Speech"