All the bloodshed had definitely stirred that hunger within her, she sat in the stands focused entirely on each match with a sense of starvation. After each fight, she was needing more, that twisted sweet tang of iron that clung in the air and stained one's nostrils was the perfect aroma. It was delectable and an experience, unlike anything she had had the pleasure of knowing so far in her life. And to think it was just the scent of the buckets worth of blood alone that made her feel like this!

She relished it, her ebony skin writhing just beneath. Though, even as she was perhaps getting a tad bit lost within the chaos that swelled and writhed beneath her own flesh, she was focused on another. Maximus. It was their turn to fight and she was rooting for them. Hoping to see someone dear to her crush the competition in good spirits and to claim a name and rank all their own. She cheered, screaming for Maximus to win; that feline had no chance. And it wasn't until a few motions had passed when...well nothing was really happening...everybody was dodging, and now it seemed the crowd was growing restless. They wanted bloodshed, and if she was honest, so did she. So she inhaled, her lungs feeling as if they were about to burst she let forth a bellow. She had never had to yell before, and well everyone would know she was fully capable, especially Maximus.

"Maximus, you can do it! Slaughter them! They stand between you and what is rightfully yours!!!! Do NOT let them take it!! There are healers for a reason!

She stood on her back legs, screaming towards the center of the arena, screaming in support of Maximus, hoping to see them the victor. What a sight to have your very own golden cheerleader!

Voices from the stands called out, barely discernable admist their own clutter. Two he managed to pick out were were completely unrecognizable, but the third..

Oh the third...

He glance up briefly into the stands to meet her burning gaze. "SHUT UP! He yowled at Elayne, before turning his focus back to the fight, before his opponent caught him off guard.

They wanted blood? Oh He'd hed them blood...

With the impossibly loud crowd roaring in his ears, he bounded forward. Ignoring her burning stare from the stands, and the pain of the spear now piercing his side.

All his attention was set on his target's throat.

He'd slam his paws against Maximus's chest, the momentum and force of it possible enough to knock him over. And then, unless he was managed to be shoved off, he would unleash a crushing bite onto Maximus's throat. His breathing was labored, from the effort, and the pain of the spear embedded in his side.

Looks like the fight would come to an end, one way or another.

@Maximus
Round: 3/5
Attempt: Go for the throat!
Defense: Thick mane
Injuries: Spear'd side

Maximus looked upon the lion coming towards them, their strike successful it seemed as the cat's lifeblood dripped down its shaft and onto their own hands, wetting them. It was a strange feeling, one they didn't actually know if they liked.

But now they were coming, and they had only a moment to react.

They threw their arm up, using the keratin plates their Master had given them to withstand the bites of much larger teeth. Teeth filled with poisons, teeth backed by strong jaws, anything. It was to their surprise when they strained and cracked, but at least their arm wasn't broken. It would heal.

"Nice try," they gritted out, fixing their grip on their spear in their other hand, "But I was created to fight much worse foes than you."

They would refrain from mentioning that such foes were actually baby monsters teething, but they thought that their goading was good enough as it was.

@Melinoe

ROUND 4/5

84%

ATTEMPT: Block Melinoe's bite
DEFENSE: Quills, arm plates, thick fur armor
INJURIES: Cracked arm plate

Instead of a mouthful of windpipe and jugular, all he got was an armful of hard armored plates. No matter, he tasted blood all the same. And his REAL prize was tantalizingly close. Close enough that more a moment he could ignore the pain of the spear in his size, and the swarming of shadows in the corners of his vision. He was unsure if it was vision from the altar, or he was beginning to black out.

He didn't react to Maximus's words, considering his mouth was full. But if he did, he would've spat something out about needing sticks and armor.

He'd spit out Maximus's arm, only to LUNGE upwards with both claws. Aiming for the face, but ESPECIALLY the eyes. But he only managed to land some scratches along Maximus's jaw and the side of his neck. Not that that still wouldnt hurt, but it meant his opponent could still see.

He'd have to fix that, soon.

@Maximus
Round: 4/5
Attempt: Go for the eyes!
Defense: Thick mane
Injuries: Spear'd side

- THE LEVIATHAN -

This match was one of the middle ones of the evening--not first, not finale, just a run-of-the-mill Arena fight. Elayne's demand for blood was picked up by Vargas, chanting with genuine enthusiasm (and bloodlust): "BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!" Ahh, the old refrain of the arena: the demand for violence, the excitement for death.

He didn't "cheer" for Maximus, as it'd requested. It had no real business being in here, and if it survived a loss he had no doubt that it would not do so with the normal scarred enthusiasm of the pitfighters. Its opponent-? The lion?

A giant cat? That one, Vargas liked. If it had been offered him, he'd have recruited Melinoe in a heartbeat. And it was going for the eyes. Vander had chucked a banana--Vargas spotted that from the corner of his eye--and he attempted to follow suit. That was a good idea. No magic came--no magic banana--and with irritation Vargas upended his popcorn onto the bench beside him and instead threw the empty red-and-white cardboard container out over the arena.

The best part of it all was, if they didn't end it decisively, Draconua would. And given her hatred of Maximus, and Maximus's inability to handle Draconua's violence (it had only emerged from its chrysalis a couple days before), he doubted much would even be left of the combatants, then.

This would be fun.

"BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!"

Nemean had joined in on the chanting, louder than even Vargas as she lobbed a balled-up wrapper into the pit: "BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!"

One of them had a little bit taken out of their arm, and the other one had been stabbed one time, and there'd been some dramatic license taken here and there, but that wasn't enough! "WE'VE GOT A SCHEDULE TO KEEP HERE, PEOPLE!"

The sprite zipped up to hover above the center of the arena. "READY EVERYBODY? CHECK IT!" She threw her hands up, and eye-searingly bright sigils blasted into existence, spinning like letters on a Jumbotron. "For those of you who can't read—HAHAHAH! ALL OF YOU!—that saaaays..."

"IT'S SUPER ULTRA SUDDEN DEATH TIME!!!"
"Otherwise known as the Get Fucked Hour," she added informatively after the show of blood red fireworks. "Get 'em, you horrible lovely!"

Then it was back to lounging on her pet's head and nearly choking on her popcorn.

________
Draconua has been called upon to present an arena hazard! The magic attempt will be considered a success, and the roll will indicate the severity of the hazard. Maximus and Melinoe must now double-post each round: one roll to continue the fight and then a second roll to avoid the hazard. The first to be struck by the hazard before fight's end will be returned to their chrysalis or killed by it, and loses. (Should both fail to dodge, the lower roll will be struck and eliminated.)

Please wait for Draconua to post.

Far ahead of Nemean's call for a little spice, the Sleepless Chaos was pacing the stands. A few seconds spent going one direction, a few seconds spent going another... the sanguine of her mask never once leaving the pit.

More specifically, perhaps, never once leaving that of Maximus—or V-Chaos-Two, as they were still in her conscience. Wearing pelts and brandishing a spear, and given the go-ahead to kill without consequence, and still they held back, and for WHAT reason? There was no magic to backfire into their face, to reduce themselves to a pile of flesh and idiocy? As Melinoe sprung forth, the Nemean lion speared by Hercules, Draconua had started to howl for "BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!" in kind. To howl to "KILL IT!"

Fireworks crackled through the air and the faux audience grew louder and louder.

To continue the motif of Greek mythos, Draconua reared upwards as Zeus would priming a lightning bolt to smite a mortal with; and with a bellowing roar, unleashed it upon those down in the pit.

She, of course, aimed for the valkhound, but the electricity's lancing forks moved erratically over such a distance, darting this way and that for the best conductor. Ozone burned at her nostrils as she readied another entropic volley.

Of course, too, there was an Oilstained grin across her face. So what if one or both of them perished?

@Maximus

"I LOVE YOUR WORK!" Nemean shrieked toward Draconua from behind cupped pa—hands? paws. "FUCKIN' GET 'EM YOU BIG LUGS! PUSH EACH OTHER INTO IT!!! I WANNA SEE SPASMS! HAHAHAHAHA!" If only she had a noisemaker to go with her being a living noisemaker. That'd really be the icing on the cake.

But, hey—she hadn't given credit where it was due quite yet, huh? The sprite zipped over to Vargas, settling herself casually atop his ginormous forehead. She knocked on the scales there, and whispered loudly into his eardrum, "she's my favorite of all your Forge or whatever you call them. I'm gonna invite her to Girls' Night after this."

@Vargas

Maximus snarled as claws raked up their chest and neck, adding to the scars riddling their body. They pulled their spear back to thrust it into the lion's exposed belly, his upward movement giving them an opportunity. This wasn't for Vargas anymore, though they could hear him crying for blood.

This was for them, to prove that they weren't a pushover anymore.

Well, it might have been, until Draconua entered the fray.

Rolling for the fight

ROUND 5/5

73%

ATTEMPT: Stab Melinoe in the stomach
DEFENSE: Quills, arm plates, thick fur armor
INJURIES: Cracked arm plates, scratched up chest and collarbone

Maximus's head whipped around in horror, their eyes widening as they pulled away from the lion. Draconua was here... and she was here to kill them.

"Run if you know what's good for you," they said to the lion, and gritted their teeth.

They bolted to the side and rolled, sand flying up just off to their side as lightning struck. It sizzled through the air and they could feel their hairs stand on end, but they hadn't been struck. Just barely.

"YOU MISSED!", they shouted, ears pinned against their skull.

In disbelief? Oh definitely. Would Draconua take it that way? Hell no.

@Melinoe