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his eyes got hit by big kaijin claws
The leopard's eyes widened as Selenite's other fist came swinging at his face, this time with vicious talons bared. In hindsight, probably not the best reaction. The hand made impact, gouging fully into one eye and scoring a cut dangerously close to the other.

All thoughts and reason went out the window as Aspen's vision went blurry red with blood. He let Selenite tear its arm away from his jaws, opening them in a furious yowl. Claws scrabbled for the attacking arm as he craned his neck, chomping down blindly on whatever he could reach. If his bite was strong enough, he thought through a haze of pain and fear, those claws wouldn't be around to hurt him anymore.

@V-Selenite-One

ROUND 4/?

64%

ATTEMPT: exact revenge on Sel's fingers
DEFENSE: the threat of vengeance
INJURIES: his eye

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

(Specifically dismemberment. Festive!) (Also, trying to throttle a cat!)

Saline solution and blood slicked over its claws as they came away from an eye, nicked near another. It was a sickening feeling, passing through the muscle of a scelera and past a lens. The Selenite recoiled on the spot. It got up from the spot to babble a string of apologies from behind a curled lip—and it started to, now that its arm was free, but there was this...

... crunching sound. Like the ribcage of a carcass being broken apart to expose all those precious nutrient-dense organs to the open air. Tendons and joints snapping apart. Chitinous plates cracking beneath the pressure unyielding for even bone.

There was a sort of ear-splitting scream, too, and its throat hurt after that sound.

The world blurred, and it realized: oh. That's me.

Cyan eyes fluttered down as it jerked its arm away with a sickening tear, and it found a bloodied mess where fingers had once been. All signs of Aspen's natural red had been washed away by neon neon neon. Its index finger was but a stump, its middle finger reduced to nothing. The ring and last finger were mangled and crushed, the former hanging on by shreds of flaking flesh.

Panic flared hot at the sight of so, so much blood, and irrationality threw all reason out the window; because, really, it should have stood up and surrendered there. Perhaps fled from the cat.

Instead, V-Selenite-One stayed where it was, agonized tears spilling hot down its fear-and-fury contorted face. It stayed, and it grappled for a hold on the leopard. Combat experience or no, it knew that a quick kill came with a shot at the neck. The hands of its lower arms shot for Aspen's throat, claws unsheathed and fingers prepared to squeeze.

ROUND 4/?

65%

ATTEMPT: Squish Throttle that cat
DEFENSE: Panic mode
INJURIES: Bitten on inner elbow, (basically) missing four fingers on upper right hand

@Aspen

Maximus had come up for a break, their wounds tended to and feeling just a bit better. They walked down the stands and sat down heavily, startling at the sudden scream from the arena.

Not unusual from the death circle, but who it was from surprised them.

They looked on in horror as they saw the missing digits, doubting that even magic could fix that. Maybe if they were retrieved somehow, but...

"T-try to get your fingers back!!", they shouted, the best they could do to help in this instance.

Maybe they could just... shove them on, slap a bandage on there, and heal it? That might work.

He'd been rather distracted during the fights, it was true- he didn't even particularly recognize the name when it came about, either, so who was to blame?

But when he put his eyes on the Forge member, he knew. That was his child.

And his child was losing.

Heart jumping to his throat, Attikias completely forgot about the corndogs he'd procured, running to the edge of the pit and white-knuckling the edge, food dropped to the sand below. "shitshitshit- HANG ON! FOCUS, DON'T LET THE PAIN BLIND YOU!" Vargas had trained them, hadn't ne? Frantically, Attikias glanced around for the Master before leaning back over the pit, his heart racing.

"FINISH THE JOB! DON'T HOLD BACK!" His voice was going to be raw if he kept this up, but he would not let a child of his- interacted or not- fall to someone else.

"BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! WOOOOOO!"

The tiny chant was somehow deafening, magic blossoming up to fill it with impossible resonance. Nemean hardly seemed to notice, instead bouncing up and down with excitement as she called out, her eyes locked on the fight.

This was brutal. She LOVED it! Look at them GO! Raking out eyes! Chomping off fingers!

This was what the DEATHMATCH! was all about! "FUUUUCK YEAH, KILL 'EM!" she screamed, but at who? A grin swept toward Draconua. "Whaddya say, Drac--go make it interesting..?" she suggested, and winked.

@Draconua

What was a few missing fingers and an eye clawed into uselessness in the ocean of Chaos that Draconua was about to create?

Peals of thunder cracked in time with a wheezing screech, but there were no clouds to signify the arrival of a terrible, terrible storm. A (somewhat minuscule, compared to other bursts) lack lightning jumped from the vaguely seizing Valkhound and into the arena, lashing every which way like coiled vipers who've administered their own venom.

@Aspen

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

violence

gore

Aspen felt Selenite's fingers caught in his jaws and bit down. He felt the resistance from chitin and bone before they gave way, cracking and folding between his teeth. It felt no different from the bones of prey. Then he heard the Selenite scream.

Some modicum of horror at what he'd done managed to pierce its way through the pain and panic. Aspen spat out the mouthful of fingers and blood, gasping. He still couldn't see anything but streams of red and neon blood, but—oh god, what had he done to Selenite's hand? They'd both mauled each other—what now? He might as well die here, rather than starve to death or fall down a mountainside while blinded and break his body on the rocks below. What was he supposed to do without sight?

The leopard suddenly gasped, making a vague gurgling noise as claws hooked around his throat and squeezed. Blood streamed down his throat, choking him with its coppery tang. They squeezed tighter and tighter and oh god he couldn't inhale he couldn't breathe—

Pure, instinctual panic took over and Aspen began to flail, claws unsheathed and slashing at anywhere he could reach. The face, its flanks, hell, even getting a paw stuck full of quills would be worth it if he could just get the Selenite to let go.

ROUND 5/?

53%

ATTEMPT: claw Selenite anywhere he can
DEFENSE: furry, pointy bits
INJURIES: clawed face, getting throttled

Don't hold back, called a helpful audience member. Yes, yes, couldn't he see Aspen WASN'T holding back? He obviously wasn't going to consider doing that when someone was currently STRANGLING HIM! At least, that's what Aspen would've yowled back if he had the presence of mind and spare oxygen to do anything but flail at the Selenite.

Thunder cracked and void-purple lightning split the air, a stray bolt smashing the sand by Aspen's head into branching fulgurite. The snow leopard jerked, ears ringing—had that shockwave of sound broken anything? It didn't matter if it did. All he had to do was keep fighting. Don't hold back. He would. He had to.

@V-Selenite-One

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

violence

gore

Any words shouted to and at it fell into a pool of muffled static around its ears. It crawled around the edges of its vision, a vicious TV snow falling over all sense of reality. The pixels blurred and shifted, though it quickly realized that was because of the tears still waterfalling down its face.

A frantic swipe of claws later, and soon blood wept down the full extent of its face, too. The neon of it dripped from the ends of quills dislodged and broken by another strike—because they were never meant to be removed. Yet another ripped against the chitin of its thigh, nearly striking a tendon there. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, all while it struggled to keep the writhing and flailing cat down; completely unaware that he was truly choking and dying.

The selenite all but peeled its eyes open where they'd been unwittingly screwed shut. Blackness and brightness alike clouded one, and it was a damned blessing its adrenaline was so high that it hardly registered the total absence of an intact eye. Its lip curled awkwardly, too, but it was... quivering.

It could see the whites of the cat's eyes as he clawed at it. As he made it yelp and scream atop him. They were going red red red and did that mean something? There was so much blood on its hands, so much soft, beautiful fur sullied by its own doing. But, it felt like its fingers were locked into place, paralyzed. If it let go, if it gave even a second, that could turn it all around and—

"P-please," it whimpered—lowering its head to the leopard's chest despite whirling claws—muffling its voice in bloody, bloody fur, "p-please s-st-stop. Surrender, p-please."

ROUND 5/?

45%

ATTEMPT: Sometimes you just cry while you continue to throttle that cat
DEFENSE: Panic mode... part TWO!
INJURIES: Bitten on inner elbow, (basically) missing four fingers on upper right hand, blinded eye, scratched-up face, some quills dislodged from neck, clawmarks along entire body, The Works

And all the while, there was crackling thunder and lightning, the trumpets of Heaven heralding the end times. Selenite did not so much as budge from where it was, only just then parsing what one of those in the stands had shouted down. "DON'T LET THE PAIN BLIND YOU!"

A bolt struck near Aspen's head. Another blasted into the sand just shy of its ankle, the searing cold burn of its residual electricity coming altogether too close to it.

Still yet, it did not heed Attikias's advice, still murmuring and begging for surrender without relinquishing its hold for fear of a well-earned retribution.