in which i rp yet another fight between my own characters lmao
set after never one to complain and before parallel universe!

Tunnel K had been a bust, Orion a bust, Tunnel J a bust - Alpha was praying that this wasn't going to be another cave free of centaur silhouettes. Its magicka had been strained considerably, its stone growing almost... heavy against its chest. So much modification to its eyes and seeing was starting to make them hurt, too.

Huffing a breath of hot, hot air, the orthoclase closed its eyes for a beat. That darkness was nice. Open back into the brightness of Monoceros. Not so pleasant.

It moved ahead a few paces, shaking its quills out in a rattling motion. Feeling out for magic - and nothing.

Vargas saw nothing, as he trailed indifferently along behind his child.

"When you find her, I will stay back. You will fight; I will watch. Do not kill her," he added; "She may be useful to us."

...Depending moreso on whether Alpha turned out to be a useful design; but that remained to be seen.

So far, so... good? Mediocre, bordering on good, perhaps. A good appearance, strength, enough intelligence--but as he'd suspected, its agility, thus far, was lacking.

He hoped that experience would shape it, strongly, toward power. Today would see whether that was indeed the case.

Vargas would follow, and he would watch; but he would not, unless things went drastically wrong, interfere.

Alpha glanced back at the Overseer's voice. Find, fight, don't kill, it summarized internally, nodding in acknowledgement.

It squinted into the wind with a huff, quills rattling as it took another stab at it. This time - finally! - red blossomed into view, signatures roaming all around even as it scanned. Some odd ten or so moved to and fro in the nearby gorge, while others lay high and low. Acidic eyes narrowed as its gaze honed in on a bulkier figure, four limbs - and two reaching out as if carrying something.

The orthoclase sulked forth, maintaining that magic even as a cream-and-brown figure rose into view, its height at the shoulders and hoisting armfuls of rusted material towards some more inconspicuous hole in the wall. Bright eyes shifted towards it on the approach, and it barked out, "Elyon!"

A blink from her, a shuffle of hooves to face it.

It gave her an appraising glance, before crouching in a battle stance. "My designation is Orthoclase-Alpha. You are my stone-giver," it barked over the high winds, "and I came to fight you!" Alpha thought of its Overseer in the backdrop, "no killing. Only a test of strength!"

There, it waited. Waited for her to accept.

Fire was - less than pleasant to be around ever since Orion literally went up into flames. That was one less cave that she liked to be in, and that'd inadvertently trapped her in the confines of Tunnel J and Monoceros. The heat was still stifling, but Elyon enjoyed it enough to stick around. That, and the pleasure of having some mindless tasks to put herself to use doing, like gathering up stray pieces of metal and weaponry strewn around the tunnel so Glory could melt them down for alloy-making; or, testing out any larger pieces he made.

As a result, the alien'd become quite proficient in numerous forms of weaponry, but she hadn't brought any with her on this scrapping venture. Extra weight to carry, really.

Extra weight she wished she had, to be honest, when some beast up to her shoulders started barking her name.

"Oh -" Elyon chirped, pivoting slightly to deposit the scraps in her arms by the wall, kicking it closer, "you're what that bit of m'rock came to be?" She furrowed her brows, is that Vargas back there? This was a big piece of work, but - damn, she was expecting... bigger. Maybe it was for the best - or maybe it just wasn't full-grown, from the way it was barking simply at her.

"Well, I can't say no to to a good fuckin' fight," the centaur strafed slightly, putting herself in front of Alpha, "c'mon, then."

She was leaving the first move to it.

Equally as defensively oriented, then - Alpha squinted as another gust of wind rattled through its quills, shoulders pushing them around as it stalked forwards. Attacking from head-on might prove to be a foolish endeavor, but...

The orthoclase charged forwards, six limbs pounding heavily on the floor as it picked up momentum, barreling towards Elyon in an armor-clad frenzy. It slowed at the last possible second, making a sort of half-hearted leap with both forearms extended, claws curled and going for a... strange, aggressive combat-hug.

Round: 1/?
Attempt: Get forearms around Elyon's middle
Defense: n/a
Injuries: n/a

Oh, shit, that's a lot faster than I thought - Elyon squatted slightly, bracing for the two-ton impact that struck her midsection, the mess of quills pricking at her joints and the arms interlocked behind her back. She took a few halting steps back to take the force.

In that same vein, she grappled for one side of that triangle-head and reared an armored fist back.

She swung for Alpha's forehead, not looking to shatter the plating on her own fingers but stun enough of the one brain cell it had that it might falter in its grip.

Round: 1/?
Attempt: Punch Alpha's face
Defense: n/a
Injuries: n/a

Carapace struck carapace, but... not really with all the strength required to do proper damage. It growled at the hit, grip faltering but catching on the smallest of its arm-spikes. Pausing for a few precious moments to recover from that, it stepped in time with the centaur, just trying to maintain balance.

Then, it was time to say goodbye to that nonsense.

Alpha grunted as it tucked its head up beneath Elyon's armpit, twisting and shoving its weight onto the centaur. It tempted its own center of gravity to completely fall out of alignment as it pushed, shaking in starts and stops to send the two of them toppling to the floor.

Round: 2/?
Attempt: Shake and shove Elyon down
Defense: n/a
Injuries: n/a

Down they went, Elyon harshly on her shoulder with a surprised gasp, then another - more wheezy - gasp as Alpha briefly collapsed on top without the aid of its arms to stay aloft.

"Get off," she twittered involuntarily as she grunted to shift a leg up enough to get the space needed... Her knee came up, driving straight for the beast's sternum (or what she assumed to be exactly that.)

Round: 2/?
Attempt: Knee Alpha in the chest
Defense: n/a
Injuries: n/a

It gave low hiss and shriek as something smashed into its chest. Involuntarily, its grip loosened - the centaur shoved its legs off and scuffled back to her feet - and it stood back up. That brief grapple was enough to give it the bravado to make another attempt, except...

Maybe not one so head-on.

Alpha shuffled forwards and swept an hefty forearm for Elyon's own front legs.

Round: 3/?
Attempt: Knock out some legs
Defense: n/a
Injuries: n/a

Just as she'd steadied herself, here came altogether too long of an arm.

Elyon danced to the side to outpace it and jump over like it were a skip rope, but the length of it smacked into her forelimbs. She reared up slightly and, balance lost, lurched forwards to grab the beast by either side of its triangular head and bring it down with her.

There was a bit of deliberate downward motion, hopefully to snub its nose on the ground.

Her hands slipped.

Round: 3/?
Attempt: Grab Alpha's head and pull down with her
Defense: n/a
Injuries: n/a