Slump, neck twisting - claws slipped and lost their grip at last. Alpha didn't want to get dragged down a second time, and certainly not to be stabbed because it accidentally fell on the extremely pointy front half. Caves knew the monster had enough embarrassments in its life.

It knew, though, that this wasn't particularly fair - the trinoceros was downed, and clearly struggling for distance. A hefty foot smacked into a leg, and the monster stumbled back with a grunt. Another arm came up instinctively. Its claws were primed and ready, but - no, no blood shed, right.

Alpha paced to the side, hesitating before diving back into the line of fire. Letting her up would make for more of a challenge; but, she'd certainly prove what she could do with distance and momentum. She already had even with it pushing back. For once, it was the one tasked with being lighter and more agile.

Huff. It was wasting time thinking about it. Regardless of if Nemesis'd taken the opportunity to get up, it lurched for her backside, trying to hook its claws into the relatively sturdy-looking plates there.

Conveniently for the wulfenite, the kicked-leg decided to buckle then and there, sending it on a forward slide on its chin. Putting it... directly in the path of destruction - with a sore jaw to boot. Cue the frantic scrabbling.

Round: 4/5
Attempt: just use nemesis like a chaise lounge??
Defense: not distancing
Injuries: mi chin n shoulder :(

@Nemesis

Orthoclase-Alpha backed off, giving Nemesis enough time to heave her heavy load up to her feet, tail sweeping as she relocated her balance. She bore down the bigger, faster tank with her deep ocean glare, heaving a deep breath as she prepared for the next violent crash together. She turned as it circled around her, lowering her head with a snort.

The kaiju charged, and Nemesis lunged forward full tilt to meet it; at least... Until Orthoclase-Alpha crumpled into the ground and slid jaw first into the dirt. It was impossible to stop on time, but she slowed as she drew close. She might have even tripped over Alpha, if not for her quick reaction.

It would've probably actually hurt Alpha if she had just ran it over, after all. But she slowed her pace and stomped her feet down on the big fella's head as she came to a stop. Hold it down... And, y'know, not sending herself barreling over the head into the prickly thornbush of needles along its neck.

Round: 4/5
Attempt: Stepping on Alpha, but, y'know, gently.
Defense: head low and pokes forward
Injuries: oof my side, oof my head

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Dust sprayed into its face as the trinoceros slowed to a halt. Claws scraped and scrabbled, but it couldn't back up or sidestep quickly enough. Nemesis's foot came down on its face and - and - and its entire body went rigid. Its shoulders hiked up, and stayed put; fingers curled, gouging deep divots into the earth; quills ceased their rattling rhythm and devolved into a subtle clicking as Alpha began to shake.

That was too close and a flat, herbivorous foot was almost mistaken as a purple, six-clawed hand. Sweeping down, already on its face -

The orthoclase's hyperawareness of the faces watching amped up to a million, and its grip on that hair-trigger temper fell inversely. Click! went the chamber teeth snapping on thin air, but it twisted beneath Nemesis's pad. Once it had an arm free from its own weight, Alpha drew it back, claws bared this time...

... and made to slam it right into the wulfenite's throat. Windpipe or not, rupturing or not, bleeding or not, it didn't care. If it landed, it squeezed. It was being watched, it was shaking, every response was screaming get away get AWAY GETAWAY at once. Lashing out was the easiest method, and everything reacted to protect its throat.

Controls set to autopilot, the monstrous beast had no clue if it would stop there; only that it hated to feel weak.

Round: 5/5
Attempt: Grab Nemesis's throat quickly and aggressively. Not gently at all :[
Defense: Getting disqualified, probably
Injuries: Bruising on chin, shoulder, leg

@Nemesis

cw: GORE AND SWEARING

Did Nemesis realize that the fresh scar on Alpha's face came with a lifetime of trauma? No. If she had known, would she had been able to stop in time, regardless? Unlikely. It didn't stop the jolt to her heart as teeth snapped under foot, and it definitely didn't stop the bellow that escaped her maw as in a flash, thick hooked claws tore through her throat.

It wasn't easy to get past her frill to her soft throat, but she clearly had miscalculated the speed and hair-trigger of her opponent. Nemesis pushed off of Alpha's face, scrambling backward with a gurgling gasp as blood splattered the arena's floor.

Magic wasn't allowed, but Nemesis wasn't in a position to really be thinking. Every gasp of breath drew thick, hot crimson sputtering on her lips. Heat roared up through her body, but she couldn't concentrate enough to actually turn blood to char. She kept backing up, creating as much distance as she could from Orthoclase-Alpha, head held low and horns prepped in case it came after her.

She didn't really think that it would. She could feel her thoughts slipping, though. Nothing adrenaline couldn't fight back, but the life gushing from her neck and staining her front legs and dribbling down the back of her frill, wasn't nothing.

While she was up, though, she didn't want anyone else getting eviscerated by those vicious claws. "Careful," her eyes darted to the crowd, "I'm fine-- not fine, obviously-- but let it calm down. No one else needs to get hurt." Fuck, she needed a medic.

Round: 5/5
Attempt: back off and SEAL THE WOUND
Defense: BRUH
Injuries: BRUH

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Character: Orthoclase-Alpha Age: +5 (age cap) Magic Level: +5 (Champion) ROUND 1 Attempt: +7 Penalties: -0 ROUND 2 Attempt: +12 Penalties: -0 ROUND 3 Attempt: +13 Penalties: -0 ROUND 4 Attempt: +1 Penalties: -0 ROUND 5 Attempt: +5 Penalties: -5, breaking the rules of the match! Total: 48

Character: Nemesis Age: +5 (age cap) Magic Level: +5 (Champion) ROUND 1 Attempt: +4 Penalties: -0 ROUND 2 Attempt: +13 Penalties: -0 ROUND 3 Attempt: +6 Penalties: -0 ROUND 4 Attempt: +19 Penalties: -0 ROUND 5 Attempt: +3 Penalties: -0 Total: 55

WINNER: Nemesis

Tupu didn't do much during the match. She sat there with her leaves. Chewing obnoxiously. Eyes hauntingly blank as she watched the gembound. She would occasionally pause in her chewing as she watched the gembound fight. But as the fight went on things ramped up. Got tense at the end. Too tense. And then the end came. Not with a clean victory. No, Tupu saw a red liquid spill out.

The gerenuk's instincts first went to berry juice. But that didn't smell like berry juice. It smelled metallic. It took her a solid minute and a half to react. Her eyes blinked once that entire time. Finally, neurons fired in the gerenuk's brain. There were two red liquids she knew of. That red liquid was blood. She shot up. Half chewed leaves fell from her mouth. Her gaze hung on Nemesis for a long moment. With a single drawn out bleat, Tupu shot off, first on two legs, then on four, racing off the stands and back into Orion.

@Shengxiao

He shot up, letting out the longest honk he probably has in a while, more sounding like a brozen buzzer than an actual animal noise, running into the ring, dividing space between the two.

"ENOUGH! someone get a medic for the lass, immediately!" he hissed, running over, to make sure she didnt DIE before medics got there. "rounds over!"

@Orthoclass-Alpha @Nemesis

Wait--hadn't the rules said something about no blood? Well, he'd thought that silly, and this was a far better test of ability. He'd seen bodies littering this Arena's floor more times than he could count. Blood had been spilled so often that the cave beneath its floor was probably half goop.

"That is more LIKE it," he growled, his voice carrying, loud. He had no way of knowing Alpha's reasons for its reaction, its thoughts, its lack of control. He had no idea what its motivations were.

He did, however, notice that Nemesis was bleeding fairly badly. She looked useful--large, strong, armored, and at least a little tactic-oriented--despite the blood now pouring over her body. Though he doubted it would work--it rarely did--he idly reached out his magicka to attempt to direct the blood flow of her body away from the worst of the wounds. It did not. Mental shrug.

"YOU ARE BOTH STRONG! Worthy creations. Good representatives of a better quality for this nest!"

Oliver was on standby as a medic, but as he crouched watching the fights the worst he'd expected was maybe some bruising or a broken bone. He'd intended to go around and check on each combatant after the fights but this-...

There was far too much blood pouring off Nemesis, little rivulets that dripped into the dirt, and he bolted down with a rapid flap and glide of his little wings. "Shit--are you okay?!" (which probably wasn't the best thing for a medic to start off with, but)--"I'm a medic, hold on! I can help." -he hoped. The fickleness of magic was never good when health and maybe life relied on it, though Nemesis was insisting that she was okay.

What might have come across more odd was the fact that Oliver, as he sprinted and stumbled up to Nemesis on three legs, was using one hand-wing to delve into his pouch--and then he withdrew it with a fistful of grass, and threw a bunch of it at her. "Just hold still-!" he said--and anywhere the grass hit blood and stuck, he focused on. He skidded to a halt just a foot or so away, eyes wide and darting over the wounds, and he aimed to bring it all together--the grass weaving to suture the worst few wounds together.

It would probably hurt. And it would undoubtedly get infected or the grass might just fall away if not further treated, in the next few days. But as far as emergency measures went, well... it worked.

"I'm sorry if that hurts--sorry--but you're bleeding pretty bad-" he apologized, worry in his tone.

Claws found home, sanguine staining them and running down its arm even before Nemesis pushed off of its face and stumbled back with a gasping bellow. The monster left its bloodied arm hanging in the air. Toxic eyes, glowing wild with fear and the rage it was using to cover it up, flickered towards the hooks for a split-second. The trinoceros kept moving, but she was ultimately a bleeding herbivore. Their battle was over. If the orthoclase wanted to kill her, it would only have to wait patiently. If...

It did not regret lashing out at the wulfenite - it hadn't been given reason to, yet - but it knew, even in a frenzied state, that it would regret backing off, running away. It'd reigned superior, even as it was visibly vibrating with neurotic fury. The kaiju was going to stand right here. It was going to stay in place, barely parsing any of the uproar surging around it or the Leviathan's eager attitude. The Leviathan, Vargas-threat-to-its-being -

Two bodies entered the arena (the apparent judge fled,) and only one of them was smart wary enough to keep their distance.

Shengxiao - poor guy - dove into the space between and the orthoclase took two quick strides towards him before swinging its already bloody arm towards him without much aiming. Perfectly punctuated with an almost - anguished screech-roar. Desperate. In the moment, though, it might not be anything but terrifying with six hooked claws heading for home.

GET. AWAY.

@Nemesis