"HAH!" came her horrific, squealing laugh.

Draconua shook herself where she sat, prior animosity seemingly forgotten. Rather than submit to the mutability and power of Chaos, to find greatness where nature and Order boasted none, the beast was leaving. Turning tail away from what was destined for this nest. Signing themselves into those she'd bide her time to destroy in the end. An immediate would've been too great of a mercy to spare Maximus.

Instead, an arc of thunderous lightning made to strike just a foot or two behind a cloven heel. "Oh, I missed," she lamented lamely. Draconua leered at the retreating form. "Find the hope that I never catch sight of you again, and that I won't be following you forever."

Her head tilted in Vargas's direction, a crooked, lopsided grin on her face. "Watch your back, little Maximus."

Nothing like a good bit of paranoia. She hoped they would spend the rest of their miserable existence checking over a shoulder.

@Maximus (for vis.)

Maximus bleated in alarm at the strike of lightning, jumping forward and pinning their ears as they glanced back with wide eyes, flicking towards Vargas once before they stood up taller and snorted softly.

’God I hate them,’ they thought, and looked ahead with a plan in mind.

Vargas didn't need to know that they fully intended on ignoring him. They would meet with Khavur and they would figure out a way to be free without the Leviathan ever knowing what happened... and to do that, they'd need to die first.

One mutation and some dye would do to change their form, and a 'horrible accident' could make sure word got to Vargas that his pathetic spawn was dead. Khavur would be the only one to ever know. With these ideas floating around in their mind, they finally left to find their belongings and find a place to hole up in Orion until Porkchop returned, and then they'd flee to another cave.

Okay NOW exit

"Oooh-hoo-hoo, DRAMA--what? You're not gonna KILL IT? HA!" Nemean broke into a little fit of laughter, kicking her feet with amusement. "Just letting it go, just like that!? You've gone soft-?" She grinned at Vargas, and yelled after Maximus in her loudest voice--echoing through the arena, and across Orion--"TELL EVERYONE HE LOOKS GREAT IN A PINK LACY DRESS! BECAUSE HE DOES!" A wink to Vargas--who did not look amused--and she whipped out her clipboard and pencil. Out of where?

Who knew.

Magic.

"That's another one down. And not even any bloodshed. JEEEEZ." An over dramatic sigh, and she threw both pencil and clipboard down, hovering a little higher. "Anyway. NEXT FIGHT!" she cried.

The music and lights continued.

note: this post was supposed to be, uh, like 3 pages ago-- i just didn't get around to posting sorry-- (it would've happened after the first few gembounds trickling in)

Elayne arrived to the Deathmatch just in time, it seemed. By her side slunk Ultraviolet, looking half-starved despite her attempts to feed him on the way here. Clearly his time with the Creator had not done him any favors, the magic in his body-- His Magic-- was weakened.

It made him easy enough to manipulate. He was reliant on her at the moment, and the silly fool looked up at her with wide eyes when she told him his name before he even uttered his first word to her in his new body.

(She was ignorant of the meeting he had with Aethril, though if she knew, that would certainly change things.)

"Master Nemean!" Elayne called out, feeling a thrill rush through her veins. It wasn't her job to kill Nemean, but Master Farina was keen to see it done. Where was Hjalmar? Useless thing. "A pleasure to finally meet you," she smiled thinly, her porcelain mask of a face barely pulling the expression, and her molten eyes burned as they regarded the little fairy.

"I brought a challenger," she explained politely, reaching her paw out to gently nudge Ultraviolet forward with a hungry look in her expression. "Ultraviolet, Displacer of The Unholy Light," she offered a title and everything, sparing not even a glance toward the valkhound at her side. "Or whatever you'd like to call him, I suppose. He's not picky."

Was she throwing meat out to be devoured? Perhaps. But she liked to think this was a chance for Ultraviolet to prove himself. He wasn't going to get stronger without a bit of strife, was he?

Uvio... Ultraviolet had followed Elayne like a loyal dog, halfway across the caves with a growing sense of unease and dejavu. Had he done this before? He couldn't remember. The name, the name felt familiar, felt right, but he could not understand how Elayne had known it. It gnawed at him, even in the moments where it was almost easy enough to forget. When she brought him to a deer carcass and let him eat the rotted meat from the bones until he could no longer... He had no choice but to trust her. Thus far, she hadn't forced him to do anything, and it simply felt like he was... supposed to follow her.

He had no reason to doubt her. He had only the vague fog of memories and the single crisp memory of Aethril, trying to beat his will out of him. He still had his will. He knew that he did, even as he tagged after Elayne to a different source of power in Polaris, even as she calmly told him about the Altar where they had met. He could leave any time, and he had the sneaking suspicion she wouldn't even stop him. Maybe that was why he followed her anyway. It was a good thing that she didn't force him, though. He would die trying. He was too weak now to resist, anyway, his magic was pitiful and his body felt heavy.

At the rumblings of the Deathmatch, Elayne had glanced to him with curiosity. It was a look that should have inspired fear, but she suggested that he might start feeling more like himself if he won a fight or two. And if he lost, and died? The way she said, You can always surrender, had his hackles raise. There was a chrysalis with his name on it. He followed her anyway.

The drumming had never stopped, after all. He heard it now, quiet and insistent, demanding blood and for his body to be scraped flesh from bone. He wanted to fight, and worse, he wanted to kill. He didn't believe that Elayne was the mastermind behind those instincts, or even that she was fully aware of them. He followed her in, and when she spoke his name with pride and confidence he felt his head rise and for a moment, his fatigue was forgotten.

Yes. He would fight. He glanced up at her as she towered over him, offering him forward like a prize, but her gaze avoided his. He would have wondered, perhaps, but the second doubt started to whisper in his mind, he banished it. He would not waste his breath on fears and anxieties. He felt a cold numbness rush through him like a shock, and his claws extended to dig into the stone under foot.

"Yes," he declared shortly, in case there was any doubt. "I'll fight." Let them try to kill him.

This post takes place several hours after the start of DEATHMATCH!, and marks the beginning of the second round. To reiterate, all DEATHMATCH! fights technically take place on the same (long) day. Posts after this point are considered as having occurred after the completion of all Round One fights.

DEATHMATCH

Nemean rocked back on her stone bench, satisfied with the day's bloodshed so far. Speaking of her bench, it had--at various points during the battles--slowly accrued new decorations. A string of popcorn, a gold paper crown. Now it looked more like a throne, if very gaudy; just the way Nemean liked it.

She had a clipboard out in front of her, and had settled tiny spectacles atop her little cat's nose as she examined the brackets thus far. She marked off the idiots that had thrown fits and left; the ones that had died, gotten their asses kicked, chrysalized; and a couple she just plain didn't like. The rest, well--she shut her eyes, and drew random lines from name to name. When she opened her eyes again, she matched up as best she could the random lines she'd drawn: never say Nemean wasn't fair.

Right. New fight matchups: complete. Next step-... She buzzed up into the air, and then down into the back room, where the fighters should (hopefully, at least) be readying themselves for round two. The medics had been working on them, of course, but a lot of the injuries had been... well, just about fuckin' fatal. Medics alone wouldn't cut it.

Luckily for Nemean, she had a secret weapon. Sort of. She wasn't sure exactly how it worked, and she was pretty sure it'd have some really awful repercussions down the line but that wasn't now so who even cared? "RIGHT! EVERYBODY LISTEN UP!" she shouted, then cleared her throat. A black velvet bag was lifted before her, swept away, held carefully beneath what it had contained moments ago: a glowing pink ball of some kind.

She peered at it, for a moment. "This thing on? Fuck it. HERE WE GOOO." A wash of magic spewed out, rapidly knitting the wounds of the fighters, restoring lost blood, healing broken bones... Its power pulsed, a strange, somehow sad whispering filling the air. Nemean grimaced--but whatever she'd done, had worked.

The fairy peered over the combatants, and judged them ready for round two. "Okay, warriors! I'm about to read the newest matchups, in order of appearance. LISTEN UP, and remember: you either win, or you fuckin' die! YEAHHHH!"

__________

The new matchups* can be seen in the first post of this thread, but are as follows:

V-Labradorite-One vs Agate Two-Three-Six
Wolfsbane vs Erebos
Creosote vs Draconua
Kalama vs Hunter
Morganoth vs Pollen
Galleon vs V-Selenite-One
Catawampus vs The Sentinel
Aurelia vs Baokrish

* updated!

Players may make their threads at their leisure, and tag a GM for their link to be included in the main post. While their characters will experience any long-lasting effects that would have come from a slow healing process (scars, weakened body parts, etc.), they will now be mysteriously once again fit to fight!

@V-Labradorite-One @Agate Two-Three-Six @Wolfsbane (Erebos, Pollen, Baokrish) @Draconua (V-Selenite-One, Vakornol) @Terror @Creosote @Kalama (Galleon) @Faceless @Morganoth @Catawampus @Aurelia @The Sentinel

This post takes place near the end of the DEATHMATCH! evening, and marks the beginning of the third (and Finalists') round. To reiterate, all DEATHMATCH! fights technically take place on the same (long) day. Posts after this point are considered as having occurred after the completion of all Round Two fights.

DEATHMATCH

Nemean crashed into the back room of the arena with a trail of sparkles flaring behind her. "WOOOO! YOU GUYS FEEL THAT?! LET'S HEAR IT!" she yelled, into the middle of the few remaining fighters. "WE'RE ALMOST THERE! WE ALMOST HAVE OUUUUR CHAMPIONS!"

The pink glowing ball was whipped out once again: lifted into the dim light of the Understage, its eerie glow flickering over the few remaining combatants. "You've all done GREAT so far--three cheers and shit--but you've got one fight left to go! -Maybe two," Nemean conceded; she was a little drunk and counting was hard.

"Anyway, here's, uhh-" (tap, tap, and Nemean winced as her tiny fingers touched the surface of the crystal, which was honestly way too big for her anyway) "-fuck--healing! Woooo! REALLY I wish I could give you ALL rewards. But you gotta eliminate one or two more, y'know? Rockin' job so far, though, all of you. Especially you, spiky fish," and Nemean fired a wink at Galleon; "-but don't worry, Draccy, you're still my fave!" Nemean took a moment to blow tiny kisses at Draconua, and then at each of the other combatants: little pink wispy hearts formed in the air, bobbing and vanishing as they reached their targets.

They didn't do anything. They were just... pink.

"Right!" the fairy cried, snapping back to business, turning to buzz her way back out with a marching flap of wings. "Blood, blood, BLOOD, BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!"

__________

The new matchups can be seen in the first post of this thread, but are as follows:

Draconua vs Galleon
V-Labradorite-One vs Hunter
The Sentinel vs Vakornol

Players may make their threads at their leisure, and tag a GM for their link to be included in the main post. While their characters will experience any long-lasting effects that would have come from a slow healing process (scars, weakened body parts, etc.), they will now be mysteriously once again fit to fight!

@V-Labradorite-One @Agate Two-Three-Six (and Hunter) @Galleon @Draconua (and Vakornol) @The Sentinel

This post takes place after the DEATHMATCH! finale!

DEATHMATCH

The fireworks were fucking deafening. Nemean's greatest work, she thought: great gouts of bright red sparks, combined with black confetti, that plumed through the air and scattered down across the bloodied arena and the stands. The music was howling, and what had been a death metal growl became a genuinely discordant, completely incomprehensible cacophony of sound: clangs and roars and bellows, almost more like monsters trying to sing.

The spotlights swept around, and Nemean yelled down. "CAN WE GET ALL OUR SURVIVORS IN HERE? COME RIGHT DOWN, HEAD OUT FROM BACKSTAGE--EVERYBODY, EVERYBODY! -EVERYBODY WHO ISN'T DEAD! -Y'know what, though, if you're dead and you manage anyway-! Hooray for you!" Her voice, magnified a hundredfold by magic, filled the arena, overwhelming even the enhanced roar of the crowd.

Lights ignited like blue fire, illuminating paths down into the arena floor. All Deathmatch! survivors were being invited down. Anyone else who tried to enter would be thrown out by magical means, tossed over the walls of the arena hundreds of feet and out of sight.

"FIRST OF ALL, THANK ALL YOU NERDS FOR COMING! This DEATHMATCH has been a LONG time waiting... and y'all made it great! And BLOODY! WOOOO! I think we've got a new meta in the works, folks! NOW TO ANNOUNCE OUR WINNERS!" Overhead, for each winner named, a giant fake billboard of light illuminated an image of them--and flashes of their battles. "IN FIRST PLACE, the SENTINEL OF DRACO! In second, THE HUNTER OF WILD BEASTS! And in third, stuck in her fuckin' chrysalis thanks to the sand-shark--honorable mention there, like, damn--DRACONUA! Those three, come talk to me or Vargas to get your SPECIAL rewards!"

"BUT ALL OUR FIGHTERS are winners, in the end! Here's all your rewards... watch carefully, now!" Nemean buzzed over to the first person in line, then to each one afterward. She held out tiny hands, and offered a rapid, overcomplicated series of gestures so complex as to genuinely be ridiculous. It was somehow possible to replicate without fingers, and knowledge of this technique was somehow granted even at a first viewing of the motion. Nemean was, though, careful only to show the combatants! "Use THIS shit at the backstage gate any time you want, you badass battlemasters, you. There'll always be FREE FOOD, FREE DRINKS, AND AWESOME MUSIC!* Party on! YEAHAHHHHH!"

The sprite spiralled into the air, higher and higher, the fireworks raining down again.

"THAT'S IT! YOU CAN ALL GO HOME NOW. UNTIL NEXT TIME!"

The music swelled to a climax. It was genuinely awful, really.

* The music is generally terrible.

_______

This concludes the first-ever DEATHMATCH! A big thank you to all participants! The following achievement has been handed out to all characters who participated in any way, as combat, audience, medics, etc: - Took part in DEATHMATCH! 2021! The following achievement has been granted to those who took part in the combat: - Fought in DEATHMATCH! 2021! The following achievement is for those who DIED HORRIBLY: - PERISHED in DEATHMATCH! 2021! The following achievements have been granted for first, second, and third place: In addition, a Secret Handshake has been taught to all surviving combatants, and will be taught to those who wake up from their chrysalis later on: Secret Handshake - Low Intensity Manipulation. A mysterious and over-complicated gesture known only to veterans of the Orion arena matches. Grants access to the "backstage" area of the arena at any time. Those who know the Secret Handshake can use it to invite friends at any time for a sick party! The Handshake itself, however, mysteriously cannot be taught to those who haven't survived a DEATHMATCH! fight. Those using this at the gates to the arena's preparation area will find the massive stone doors sliding open to reveal the huge inner preparation pit. It is always stocked with plenty of party food, drinks (alcoholic and otherwise), and music. While this music is usually growling metal, it's often more relaxing or party-oriented, too. Everyone who perished in DEATHMATCH! 2021! has been marked Deceased, and older DEATHMATCH! threads have now been archived. If you have a character who is missing any relevant achievement, spell or Deceased tag, please post in Update Me with links and your request for updating! Participating characters are free to post in and exit this thread if players like. Thanks again for attending, folks!

@Kalama (Galleon) @Baokrish (Pollen, Erebos) @Nemesis (Merrow, Agate Two-Three-Six, Hunter, Ultraviolet) @Edric (Aspen, Porkchop, Faceless) @Terror @Twisted (Matthieu) @Abaddon (The Sentinel) @Khavur (Balder, Pratap, Alrik, Catawampus) @Vicktor (Firenze, Sabor, Aurelia) @V-Labradorite-One (Melinoe) @Draconua (V-Selenite-One)