The eyeballs lolled about, black ichor dripping out the openings and making a mess of a monster. "Eugh--AA!!!" Cruel judgement turned to a perhaps slightly humiliating shout as Balder was faced with the consequences of her actions directly. Her flight response kicked in and she attempted to turn this hit into a run as fast as possible -- or at least twist her body away so her whole face wasn't the thing getting munched on. The thing could have her tail, she could get that back. Probably. But the face would far too condemning to lose!

And this is the story of how Balder's tail becomes a fuzzy cheetoh for everyone's best girl Aurelia.

ROUND 3/?

83%

ATTEMPT: turn away so she doesn't bite your entire face
DEFENSE: no <3
INJURIES: IMPOSSIBLE.

@Aurelia

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

violence

She had lunged and Balder turned tail. Aurelia though managed to snap her jaws around something. But there wasn't quite the satisfying pop of viscera that she had expected. Balder evidently had eluded the worst of it, turning their head in exchange for a tail to be grabbed instead. Aurelia wasn't entirely aware as she snapped down upon it so eagerly, a snarl ripping from her throat as she pulled. Gnashing teeth together only to receive a tantalizing splash of hot ichor on her tongue. She had bit it off, a pity she had missed her mark but this, oh this?

She hadn't ever tasted the flesh of a gembound before. Something about the way the flesh pulled and squirmed in her maw the moment she had severed it. The way it thrashed on her tongue, spitting hot ichor down her throat that was so similar yet so different from a lesser's. It was invigorating! Something inside her lurched, skin writhing with newfound purpose and desire. An unknown but oh so familiar hunger coiled in the pit of her stomach, twisting and turning as the voices screamed in unison for more. To kill, to taste and devour. That she needed more.

She swallowed it whole, gnashing her teeth together as oil and crimson ran down her jaws. The false golden ichor still painted the front of her form, tendrils still bleeding in her brilliant display. She could only hiss, it was at first low, idling like an engine as her golden drenched tendrils rose in a mane-like display towards Balder as she focused on them yet again.

She snarled, licking her lips and teeth. The flesh along her face squirming as if her very veins wanted to burst forth and grab hold of the bat-cat themselves. There was little time for her to think, she knew just one thing she wanted. So she lunged again. Chasing them down in an attempt to snap them out of the air once more. All for that sweet sweet taste of victory and ichor.


Round: 3/5
Attempt: Catch them between jaws! Dont let them get away!
Defense: Size, teeth, and claws, look at her she's a lot gnfjsk
Injuries: Gouged Eyes(two minor, they kinda dangling there lol)

@Balder

The trick seemed to have worked, and Balder's life was spared, but at what cost? An audience cheering for the wrong guy, the humiliation of having to shout and bleed while her enemy remained unfazed by the injury she had dealt it. Would going for the wrong body part first move end up being a fatal mistake? Based on the way the beast of oil and gold now shot forward for the rest of Balder...

The gargoyle attempted to shoot forward as well, but moving through the pain and then in the air without the feeling of the tail there would be a definite challenge. Would Balder retain flight control? Would she even get into flight? But she had no qualms with challenges to begin with, and managed even fewer when her life was on the line. Did that make sense?

ROUND 4/?

79%

ATTEMPT: finish phase "run" by flying away from the jaws
DEFENSE: no <3
INJURIES: mortality exposed; eaten tail

Balder had eluded her jaws once again, something that was starting to prickle her smooth hide by now. They would not stand and fight! Only hit and run! Sure perhaps that was their tactic, was it valid- maybe so. But to run away in the face of battle!? Where was their bravado!? Their courage!? Their strength!?

Her eyes narrowed, she did not want this to go into sudden death; knowing very from the well the handful of battles she had seen before. Some had claimed a victor or two who was somewhat undeserving all for the namesake of the chaos that would no doubt be thrown into the ring soon enough. She did not know precisely how much time she had left, but this? All of this running around and flying away, that couldn't possibly be Nemean's idea of a good fight. It certainly wasn't Aurelia's.

She snarled, that false golden ichor spraying from the tendrils that decorated her neck the moment she gnashed her teeth together again- with nothing between them. Her tendrils shook and rose even farther all while she hissed, raining gold down across her ebony form and the blood-stained sand below.

A roar soon ripped from her throat as she seethed, oil and gold dripping from her jaws. She snapped again, rising to her back feet once more, gnashing jaws together with unseen hunger as she screamed.

"You flee!? Yield then, or die if you will not give me the respect I deserve!"

She watched them, calculating. Trying to figure out just how or more precisely when she could snap down upon them once more. She had already taken their tail and it was no secret she wanted more. So this time she would lunge again, jumping up into the air towards them. Jaws open, oil and gold spraying from her maw and self as she pressed onwards.


Round: 4/5
Attempt: Catch them between jaws! Dont let them get away! V2
Defense: Size, teeth, and claws, look at her she's a lot gnfjsk
Injuries: Gouged Eyes(two minor, they kinda dangling there lol)


@Balder

Yet again, the monster was snapping at Balder like a dog at a cat in a tree. At least she was in the air now, but safety would not be easily retained, not if that thing could help it. Not if gravity could help it. Flying without a tail was far too strange, Balder would have to adapt to the shift quicker than the eyes could blink. But she was safe, right? Safe, as long as she had the high "ground", as long as she could get away for enough time to attack again?

It was smart to challenge her verbally like that; Balder was as enticed by the duels of epithet as she was by the bloodshed of battle. The cat abdicated its skyward throne with a baleful retort: "RESPECT? YOU?! HAH, you're nothing more than a HUNGRY, ugly, &%#$-EATING DOG-THING--" Balder was cut short by the sudden explosion of pain caused by teeth cutting deep into their body. Or maybe it was the late revelation that Balder had just called his own tail a nasty word for feces-- no, it was definitely the teeth burrowing deep into his body.

Left feral, wordless, and otherwise defenseless, the feline would finally attempt its attack: yowling violently and reaching out with extended claws in the attempt to slice the head that feeds.

ROUND 5/?

61%

ATTEMPT: slash the face while you're up close
DEFENSE: no <3
INJURIES: mortality exposed; eaten tail, C R U M N C H E D

@Aurelia

Balder turned enough to yell back at her, screaming at her call for respect to be in poor taste, undeserving even. She seethed, she was not like this gembound. She was a Valkhound! Under the guide of Master Vargas of The Chaos Forge and her Overseer Cain! She was raised by them, taught by them, and for this gembound to not see her nor their efforts worthy of respect. She snarled. How dare they spit in her metaphorical face.

Though she simmered from her sudden onslaught of anger to that of chaos the moment she felt her teeth sink into their body. Crimson pooling out on her tongue as it trailed down her maw alongside oil and gold. She savored it, the tang of iron on her tongue that mixed with the oil that rolled off her teeth so elegantly. That was until they scratched her. Their final attempt and she almost dropped them too. But she held onto them harder, snarling as black blood oozed from her face, trickling down her golden features the more Balder lashed out.

She smiled then, chaos screaming to take what was hers.

She bit down.

Round: 5/5
Attempt: CRUNCH THEM
Defense: Size, teeth, and claws, look at her she's a lot gnfjsk
Injuries: Gouged Eyes(two minor, they kinda dangling there lol) + scratches across face/snout

Maximus fumed too, at the insults thrown by Balder. Honestly!

"Make him EAT those words!!", they shouted, cheering as loud as they could for the young valkhound they'd taken under their wing.

They held their arms out and a pumpkin formed in them, big and heavy and perfect. They threw it as hard as they could, watching the squash spin around in the air on a trajectory towards Balder.

"GO AURELIA!!", they shouted wildly.

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

death

violence

Now this was a cruel and untimely end. So many dead kings in one day. Glad I'M not one of them! Well, anyways. At least this next step in Aleph's line was getting a similarly fitting reward for his pride and insolence. Aleph had lost their verve for life and had dwindled away like dripping wax. Always so sad to see something that could have been great, could have been regal or beautiful or worth something just drift away of its own accord... I'm sure Aurelia's mentor could understand the feeling.

But Balder was not quite beautiful, not exactly regal, and she had stored her worth somewhere in the Carnival, stashed alongside a weird feline cryptid child who now fought in this Deathmatch as well. Perhaps that had been a mistake, to bring that one with her, to make it join. Despite her grandiose intelligence, Balder had somehow underestimated the value of the word DEATH in Deathmatch. And despite herself, her own nature, she... she kind of didn't want to think about that kitten dying.

This would be Balder's only true accomplishment in this life: worrying for someone else, if only once, if only briefly. Every thought after was one of violence. Because Balder's death would not be sad like the closing of curtains. It would be angry, and slow, and painful, and destructive. Aurelia would bite through incompletely, leaving Balder to experience every livid fibre in her being cease function as her consciousness drained out onto the arena floor. Entropy was a battle Balder could never hope to win.

But he would scream and thrash as long as he was still fighting.

(And yes, he would "eat" every last expletive that lurched forth from his maw.)

[EXIT VIA DIE.]

DEATHMATCH

...Damn. Nemean's grin faltered, tiny fist slamming down on the golem's head. If it could be called a head. She'd liked Balder. A good underdog! Tiny, sparkly. Sort of reminded her of someone...

...Eh! Oh well!

A loud WOMP WOMP WOOOOMP sounded, resonating throughout the arena; the spotlights fixed on the tattered remains of Balder's dying body, then swept to illuminate Aurelia in their brilliance. Golden sparkles shot around her, exploding like tiny fireworks. Would Balder, in their dying moments, hear Nemean's narration booming through the arena-? Insult to fatal injury, and all that? Nemean didn't care.

"OH WELL, THE PLUCKY LITTLE UNDERDOG GOT FUCKING EATEN!" she screamed out, each word vibrating with the delicious drama of it all. "AND SO WE HAVE OUR WIIIINNER..."

The spotlights blinked between red and white and gold, flashing around Aurelia; the drums roared back into deafening thuds, the music screamed loudly back into a crescendo; oh, and a bunch of giant, glowing red arrows pointed down at Aurelia. Huge, shimmering Aurelias appeared throughout the arena, mirroring the real one's movement's, like big screen TVs showing off her writhing skin. "AURALAI, or something-! THE WRIIIITHING CHAOS! WOOOOO!"

Nemean chucked a cocktail glass a few feet down into the arena (how many of those had she had, by now?), and threw up both hands in a cheer.

"BASK IN YOUR GLORY! And then clear the ring, we got more fights and BLOODSHED on the list!"

_____________

DEATHMATCH WINNER: AURELIA

Character: Balder Age: +5 (6 Cycles - Capped) Magic Level: +1 (Fledgling) ROUND 1 Attempt: +19 Penalties: - ROUND 2 Attempt: 12 Penalties: - ROUND 3 Attempt: +15 Penalties: - ROUND 4 Attempt: +14 Penalties: - ROUND 5 Attempt: +17 Penalties: - Total: 83

Character: Aurelia Age: +3 (3 Cycles) Magic Level: +1 (Fledgling) ROUND 1 Attempt: - Penalties: - ROUND 2 Attempt: +17 Penalties: - ROUND 3 Attempt: +8 Penalties: - ROUND 4 Attempt: +18 Penalties: - ROUND 5 Attempt: +14 Penalties: - Total: 61

NUMERICAL WINNER: Balder

@Balder @Aurelia