The big bear rumbled to himself, eyeing his opponent with dim, dark eyes.

How had he gotten into this..? He'd wandered into all these Gembound, he knew that--but how had he ended up agreeing to a trial by combat? It sounded... fun, that much he could say, but it was all still rather a whirl of confusing events for the brown bear.

"We fight, yes?" he asked, his voice thick with accent. He drew one great paw over the floor, claws raking into the dirt. He wasn't sure about this opponent; it was large, but it was... silly-looking. But its colors would likely have no bearing, he knew, on how it could fight.

They'd just have to see.

@Glory @Azizos @Zeke

Glory stood in one of the higher places, right where the judges were to stay and watch. He was on the edge, standing tall and puffing his chest feathers brilliantly. He'd missed out on the last Olympics, it had happened just before he was born but he wasn't missing it this time! He was excited to judge the wrestling and eagerly took up his position, trying to remember all the match ups in his head.

As the bear lumbered onto the field, he remembered this particular match and breathed in deeply for the announcement. "Welcome, one and all, to the Olympics Wrestling competition! In today's matchup we have the brown bear, Sergei!" He opened a wing and gestured towards the bear. "And his opponent will be the dragon Zeke!" He opened his other wings, gesturing towards where Zeke was supposed to appear.

"I want a clean fight from the two of you! No claws, no teeth, no blood! None of that! I'll be watching you carefully! Now, when you are ready, BEGIN!" He leaned back his head to shoot a ball of fire into the air, announcing the beginning of the match, but just as the glob of flame was about to erupt, he accidently swallowed. He choked and cough, a spray of sparks came from his beak. Probably good enough.

@Zeke

Vladis sat near the judge’s table where he wouldn’t be of interference to them (too much), his familiar clinging on top of his head with an intense glaze. While the tanuki had agreed to assist in announcing the competitions for the fame and honor of it, Ratty was very much interested in all the activity and the swarm of gembounds that came with it. Her whiskers were aflutter in curious excitement. As her partner did not often associate with other gembounds, she was excited for the opportunity to learn from others.

One of the competitors had appeared and the eagle started the ceremony. Vladis couldn’t help but let out an awkward crackle of laughter at Glory’s failed attempt at shooting out flames.

“Ah right! Zeke and Sergei-boyo! S’long as y’all do better than Ol’ Glory up here, should be a nice fight for da masses, am’I’right?” he added with another laughing bark.

Speech. Thought. Ratty's Out Loud Ratty's Telepathy

Tag: @Zeke @Sergei @Glory
Notes:

OK uhhh, this is not what Zeke was expecting here as he made himself into this ring; what has he gotten himself into here? Kay, this, really was not what he expected at all, kinda like he has gone to a wrong classroom or something, and yeah he's pretty dang confused. Zeke is standing still and silent while he eyes this other guy in this ring and those two who are commentating this who helped him enter this, switching between them with such a confused and concerned widened eyes expression.

Uhhhhh... Is this supposed to be a fight...? Hoo boy, he musta not perceived words well here when he first arrived in this place, where it was hustling and bustling with so many Gembound there, about everyone was abuzz with their excitement about this event here they are celebrating, with these sorta activities for them all even Zeke himself to participate. With all this going on, with so many around, Zeke got a lil interested in all this commotion himself honestly, he kinda asked around, well more like he kept his ears open about all the goings on round here. Zeke mighta been a bit half-asleep and all this many talking to make it hard for his hearing to get what words are said, and when an announcement was yelled out over all this crowd noise. What Zeke did catch from this announcement, was some contest and he honestly thought from best as his ears could though it sounded off was how there was a 'resting contest' or something like it. It was a word he didn't quite recognise, and so, he guesses his brain tried to fill in those gaps and registered it being 'resting' since it was a word his vocabulary knowledge has. Soooo yeah, Zeke legit assumed there he entered a game where he and others have to take a nap, seemed like a good one for Zeke to win, the dragon sleeps a lot and, well, fluffy dragon, he's a perfect pillow for other entrees.

Soooo with all this, yeahhhh, not at all what Zeke was expecting he still kinda believes he was at a wrong place if it wasn't how his name got mentioned by this bird guy there. Said dude says nothing genuinely violent such as claws and teeth which he is glad about; stilll this sounds like something which requires a bit too much physical exercise for Zeke, especially when he is so tired and expected he was gonna have a nap with others here.

It's kinda too late to back out though, and it'll be so weird to wander off now.

Hmmm...

Well, heh, he can't back out and all but...

A mischevious smile creeps on Zeke's lips as a fun lil idea for a joke or maybes prank comes to mind, may help lighten this mood here, said smile vanishes as he contorts it into a frown. Staring down at his 'opponent' here, which Zeke notes they kinda have a similar bulky build to his, well they're much smaller than him, nor having any wings, horns, whip-like tail with feather duster tailfeathers, or his bright colours, well OK maybes not similar after all.

Still, Zeke feigned an utterly intense stare at them, his pupils, aglow like they were fierce candlelights, the dragon was tensely silent, flawlessly managing to retain a false facade here on Zeke being some intimidating, dignified, unapproachable, no-nonsense, stoic beast they all must tread carefully around. Though when this bird guy yelled out for them to commence their battle made Zeke break character there a lil, eyes softening to a concerned expression as he glanced over to where bird dude is when they managed to choke on some fire they made with Magick there.

Uhhhh are they OK there...? Need some emergency help maybes?

...Well if this other lil bud who is another commentator alongside them is laughing at this lil mishap, maybes they'll be fine if so. Closing one eye as he gives a lazy wink to both judges as he turns his face back to his 'opponent' once again, silently glaring them down intensely to bring his facade back up once again.

Kay, he's collected himself enough from all this confusion here, kinda anyway, Zeke doesn't utter a word, cuz he knows, if he does, he will end up completely breaking his 'intimidating' persona by trying and failing not to break out in a hearty laughter for what lil fun trick he plans to do here. Zeke couldn't help but snort a lil through his pursed lips over how hard it was not even to giggle right now, well hopefully all will believe said snort was a growl or something. Still, to avoid a need to speak, Zeke tenses himself up into a defensive stance sorta to give all a signal on him being ready to go, he gives his 'opponent' a flick of his head to give the signal for them to make their first move now.




Pippy thinking. "Pippy speaking." Zeke thinking. "Zeke speaking."



Tags: @Glory @Sergei @Vladis

The bear watched dully. His brow and head were low, and he didn't really think anything about Zeke. The stranger was large, but his colors were pastel, and he was fluffy, so there was no intimidation. If anything, it looked a little bit like sweet food off of trees.

It was silent for awhile, and then nodded. The nod was enough for Sergei; it seemed to be an indication to begin.

The bear--a simple being--simply charged, aiming to throw his own heavy, focused bulk into a point at the dragon's chest in a lumbering charge, to knock into him as strongly as he could.

There were no claws or teeth involved--just weight and speed, and very little agility.

Round: 1/5
Attempt: Tackle
Defense: -
Injuries: -

@Zeke

Huh, kay this was kinda impressive with Zeke's opponent here, as previously for the dragon, lotsa encounters he has had, usually at first involve someone scared of him, which is an entirely reasonable reaction, he's enormous. While it always fills him with guilt and all when it does happen, he has successfully managed to befriend those who were scared in due time; it was still wholly surprising here with how they aren't deterred by his attempts at false intimidation when this time he was intentionally trying to appear scary here. Soooo this is new; his lil joke will come a lil later now he may play along for a lil before giving the punchline here with this dude here, kinda seems rude currently, to perform his prank right away.

He was glad they took his nod as a cue, so there was no way he was accidentally gonna ruin it all too early by needing to talk and failing not to give out some badly-disguised laughter. It's only how an idea on Zeke laughing might get misinterpreted as mocking by all instead of chuckling from his lil joke he is planning here is what's stopping him also from not laughing as well.

They made their first move with a lunge straight for him, Zeke didn't attempt to dodge it; instead, he planted his paws with a tight grip on the ground with such tense shoulders, his muscles essentially bunching up with him pinning his whole body to this spot as a way to brace himself. Zeke's chest muscles were tightening up in knots as his means for defence and his armour-like scales also as a means for lowering the impact from the strike which is bout to whack him.

A strike from his charging opponent made direct contact with his chest, and it made him let out a deep breath he didn't even believe he was holding, maybes something to help ease this blow on him. Zeke's grip on the ground got loosened as he was briefly stunned and was pushed back a lil with a stagger, but he successfully managed to hold himself up despite this impact landing on him.

Pippy thinking. "Pippy speaking." Zeke thinking. "Zeke speaking."



Tags: @Sergei


Round: 1/5
Attempt: Brace Yourself!
Defense: - Scales, briefly tensed muscles.
Injuries: -

Oof. He didn't knock the dragon flying across the rock, as he'd expected. ...Which perhaps was an unrealistic expectation, given Zeke's massive size, but Sergei was not the brightest among bears.

He slammed into Zeke only to find the dragon still standing--but it didn't seem to be doing much, which Sergei took as an opportunity. Before Zeke had un-braced himself, so to speak, he hauled all his energy back into his shoulders and then thrust forward with the flats of both his forepaws at Zeke's nearby left inner elbow. It was sort of all he could reach, but he hoped it would buckle Zeke's leg (with its natural curve--not break a bone!) and send the dragon, and all its great weight, crashing to the ground.

He didn't really consider the fact that he was right in front of Zeke--he could deal with that if and when the time came.

Round: 2/5
Attempt: Knock Zeke's foreleg out from under him
Defense: -
Injuries: -

@Zeke

Be a challenge to knock Zeke back wholly with a head-on attack like so, more clever means will be needed to perform such a feat successfully.

Even so, Zeke was still a lil bit stunned and from him staggering a lil means his muscles have about entirely relaxed as they gave out from being pushed back like so. With all these factors, when his opponent gave Zeke's leg a push at a sensitive part at its back like so, which with how relaxed he got briefly, said leg buckled down without much resistance whatsoever and as expected Zeke went tumbling. Though it was oddly quite a graceful fall, kinda, he kinda more flopped down to the ground but didn't seem to have anything scuffed, all his legs buckled somehow, making him go into a laying down position, which he didn't bother to get back up from, he remained to lie there.

He has more than legs, Zeke's wings spread out wide from both sides when he unfurls them, both twitching in rapid motion as he readies his next move.

Zeke made a lousy attempt to get them to back off by making a deliberately weak attempt at flapping his wings to make a lil draft of gust pick up and push them back a lil. It was an apparent lazy counterattack here where it's at worst a gentle breeze buffeting his opponent, not much for one with a heavy build like his opponent.

Still... Wow, even this much is seriously tiring him out, as he let out a huge yawn and shook himself a lil.



Pippy thinking. "Pippy speaking." Zeke thinking. "Zeke speaking."


Round: 2/5
Attempt: Blow Sergei Away By Making a Gust With His Wings.
Defense: -
Injuries: - Uninjured for the most part but is on the ground.


Tags: @Sergei

The bear found a familiar sensation, now--the buffetting of feathered wings. Eythan had done this to him before, though then the wings had been fluttering irritatingly around his face, battering him, rather than creating a gust of wind that thrust at his body. This wasn't a bad wind; it was a breeze, but it staggered him back a few steps--and the memory of annoying wings filtered gradually up through the molasses of his mind, and he growled and shook himself.

...He'd hated those wings.

Sergei, being a very uncreative creature, responded by barrelling back in at a bear's gallop--another charge, though this time he did change things up a little. The dragon was on its belly, still--it hadn't bothered to get up--and though it was enormous, Sergei wasn't tiny. He was around ten feet tall on his own hind legs, so he aimed to rush in and grab a bear hug around the dragon's neck. Perhaps his much smaller, but still thousand pound-plus, weight could haul the dragon down in a wrestle if he did it right.

Sergei barreled in, trying to shove up on his hind legs and snag Zeke around the neck--then let all his heavy weight try and drag the dragon down, or at least, his head.

Round: 3/5
Attempt: Wrestle Zeke's head down
Defense: -
Injuries: -

Huh... Did better than expected, Zeke was honestly only barely trying here, with his wings there, was a kinda joke 'attack' if it can be called maybes, seemed like something for someone with this size would only have their fur ruffled or something. But, uhhh, guess they don't like wind or something as they seem a lil annoyed by this here, so much, so Zeke kinda slowed his wings to an eventual stop.

Zeke had a slightly nervous expression there as they went bolting to his face for their next move, maybes he shouldn't have used his wings like so...

Next thing his opponent's while smaller than his but still kinda large body anyway landed right on top his neck, effectively pinning it and his head down in an instant, all this pressure on his neck, made the said neck and his head touch the ground with such ease for one as big as Zeke. And yet, once again he doesn't seem to resist this at all, or it's genuinely a struggle for him to do so, only trying to lift his neck a lil, so it didn't give it a sensation like he was getting strangled a lil. He responded by yawning again as a smile crept up.

Time for his prank or, well, joke to commence it seems. Heh, but first...

He picked his hind legs up a lil, mustering as much strength as he can he picked his whole body up as best as he can and went to roll over to the side slowly, managing to drop his body back down with a flop to roll onto his back but continued with his rolling till he rolled back over where he was laying on his belly again, he dunno if his opponent fell offa his neck, but thankfully he get a sensation like he crushed anything, with this he wholly relaxed and curled himself up, tail curled to be in front his face and this dragon has actually seemingly to have closed his eyes, his breathing evening out a lil.



Pippy thinking. "Pippy speaking." Zeke thinking. "Zeke speaking."



Round: 3/5
Attempt: Roll Whole Body Over
Defense: -
Injuries: -


Tags: @Sergei