Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

violence

Vicktor seemed to savor this, in a haze or simply a trance of something more. It was only until Porkchop started to intensify their attempts of kicking did Vicktor become slightly more aware of what he held in his jaws. While it wasn't squirming entirely, it was something that was still so very alive. He closed his eyes suddenly, a hoof managing to beat the side of his shoulder, small cuts being left from tiny and panicked hooves. Though it wasn't until Porkchop had also managed to move a cloven hoof close enough to his face, only then did he cut him across his cheek. His own blood trickling down his face, scarlet hue on stark black.

His fur raised, bristling now as a snarl built in his throat. Idling till he snapped again, it built, growing to a furious scream. Forcing what blood he had pooled and savoring in his mouth to bubble up and fall down the sides of his maw. A mash of fury and garbled rage that only grew clearer the louder he screamed. A white-hot fury snaked through his veins from the wounds his pig had applied to him so carelessly.

So he bit down, again.

Round: 4/5
Attempt: Try to bite hard AGAIN
Defense: Lots of teeth and claws
Injuries: Gored, small cuts across shoulder and cheek

"Clover Speech"
"Vicktor Speech"

@Porkchop

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

child death

And here was the inevitable end. It was destined to happen from the moment the matchup had happened: fangs cutting through flesh and piercing the child's skull, bone cracking and blood spurting from a punctured eye. Porkchop's squeals puttered out into choked gasps, and then, mercifully, the white sapphire was blooming from his tusks, spreading to envelope him in healing magic.

But the sapphire was attached to Porkchop's mouth: two tusks, and a thick band of clear gemstone connecting them like a massive unwieldy retainer wire. Maybe it would spread fast enough and Vicktor would back off, or maybe it could be severed from the piglet with enough effort. Either way, Porkchop wouldn't be conscious (or alive) to see the results.

So much for 'I win,' then.

@Vicktor
exit lmao

Juniper looked on in horror as blood sprayed and her father bit down into a child like they were just a rabbit for eating. She felt sick and horrified at the sight, her food falling to the ground in front of her.

It was minutes before she snapped out of her stupor, letting out a horrible wheeze as she stood up, letting out a bark as loud as she could, straining against the gemstone at her throat as she tried to scream to him.

"STOP! DAD STOP!!", she yelled, her voice straining, "DAD YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HIM STOP IT!!"

She never should have come. Maybe she could have kept living without knowing that her father was... this. What was all that he said to her about deciding what lives and dies? Was this what he meant?

Juniper turned and bolted, running through the stands before she saw another second of the fight. She couldn't take this any longer, it was a mistake to come here to this place of death and violence.

Exit

Now this was a show!

Blood arced through the air, scarlet and beautiful, and screams reverberated throughout the arena. A grin split the Valkhand's face and her massaging fingers intensified around Asher's neck and back.

The jaguar was doing wonderfully, and quickly the piglet had become nothing more in Aethril's eyes than meat, (though, had it ever been anything more to her?). One child in the audience cried for its father and Aethril felt a churn in her throat.

No, not jealousy. Contempt was the closest word; this was a deathmatch, and killing was the point.

"KILL IT!" the Hand bellowed from her seat, cradling little Asher closer as she lurched forwards and stood. "BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!"

A shot at another... persauive measure failed her in the excitement. Would the taste of blood and flesh be enough to keep the jaguar going, to keep it from tearing flesh from bone, leaving the piglet's gemstone discarded in the middle of the arena?

Damn, she hoped so. "EAT IT ALIVE!!"

His teeth sank deeper into the piglet, till there was but blissful silence. Their sounds no-more and he had half a mind to bite down harder, to pull the gem from its host and crush it between bloodied jaws. That was until he heard her.

Juniper.

Screaming for him to stop, that he was going to kill him. Why would she be cheering for him not to win- to not survive, didn't she know he would die otherwise- It hit him then.

Opening his mouth he dropped the young pig from his jaws, leaving their gem alone. Watching the white sapphire bloom over their form, a mercy. A bloody one, but a mercy when others would have eaten them whole. And even now as he stood over them in what many might see as a triumph- it was turmoil. He held that hunger even now- but it was dying down as time passed.

What had he just done!? He had almost killed a child. Luckily, but still, with regret, he had forced them into a chrysalis before an entire crowd who cheered and craved the death of the piglet just moments ago- and something...something primeval overtook him just moments ago. He knew he shouldn't have come here, it was all in the fucking name. He fucking knew it!

He staved off being ill as what felt like ice slithered through his veins. Firenze-his friend had assured him it would all be fine-but this...all of this was all real there was no smoke and mirrors. Death was here, and he had brought his daughter. She had watched it all.

His daughter, where was she!? Where was his pup!? Was he done here!? He had to go find her.


"Clover Speech"
"Vicktor Speech"

Maximus had been beneath the stands helping the other wounded. They were still a medic after all, and did their best to heal who they could.

The familiar, angry squeals of a piglet had snapped their attention to the ring, and now they were here, having sprinted as fast as they could up to the stands. They watched as the little piglet they'd seen hatch and then fed be mauled nearly to death, their head and heart pounding.

"Porkchop...", they breathed, and his name would have made him huff in amusement, but not now, not when their heart was breaking.

But a chrysalis meant life, meant that their child he would be okay. In two weeks they would return for him, whether Vargas liked it or not.

Paternal rage filled their body and made their quills rattle dangerously, their teeth and jaws gnashing as they growled lowly. They'd thought logically, now it was time for them to emote properly, and the first one their overwhelmed brain landed on was anger.

They whirled around and stalked back down to the rooms below to wait for Vicktor to appear. Either they'd find Porkchop's chrysalis first or the leopard, and if they found the leopard... it wouldn't be pretty.

DEATHMATCH

And true to form, it was GREAT!

Vicktor had grown a pair, knuckled down, and absolutely shredded the competition; and even if Nemean had been aware of the outer influence put upon the jaguar, the amount of sniffling and crying (and cheering) in the stands made up for it. The sprite cackled and jeered from her spot, and she yowled. "KILL IT! KILL IT! IT'D BE DELICIOUS!!!" Who didn't love a bloodbath? It was just a damn shame there wasn't a nice campfire to cook the thing over.

... and that it was chrysalizing!

"NOOOOO, BOO!!! SOMEONE GET THAT MESS OUT MY ARENA—" A beat as Vakornol jumped down to do just that. "... anyways!" Nemean fluffed up her mane, and set off an excess of fireworks with the flick of a pointer finger. "THERE'S OUR VICKTOR (PU-HAH!) THE SHADOW OF THE ILL-FATED FORTUNE—AND THAT'S FOR SURE!" Congratulatory music blared over the arena.

"Now clear out! We've gotta get on with the next DEATHMATCH!"

_____________

DEATHMATCH WINNER: Vicktor

Character: Porkchop Age: +1 (1 Cycle) Magic Level: +1 (Fledgling) ROUND 1 Attempt: +20 Penalties: - ROUND 2 Attempt: No Attempt Penalties: - ROUND 3 Attempt: - Penalties: - ROUND 4 Attempt: +16 Penalties: - Total: 38

Character: Vicktor Age: +5 (72 Cycles - Capped) Magic Level: +5 (Master) ROUND 1 Attempt: - Penalties: - ROUND 2 Attempt: +17 Penalties: - ROUND 3 Attempt: +6 Penalties: - ROUND 4 Attempt: +12 Penalties: - Total: 45

WINNER: Vicktor

Porkchop will awaken from his chrysalis with a new eye—albeit a blind one—on one of his cheeks (player's choice!)

Oculi (Minor) - Eyes may duplicate.

@Porkchop @Vicktor

He looked not to the stands, but that of the chrysalis before him. The sounds of the audience both cheering for blood and some even booing for the lack of true death. He could have so easily killed that child. He would have, had it not been for Juniper.

What was happening to him?

He stood there, listening to the blaring sounds of Nemean who also booed these turns of events only to shift to congratulating him on his victory. Going so far as to scream out the title he had so long ago. But it did seem that title was still standing...still fitting for him if any of what just happened was concerned.

He left, not before watching Porkchop's chrysalis be moved. He'd be back for them- not to kill but to apologize. To offer his own aid and protection. He did not want another cycle of pain and fear to start again in these caves, by his own jaws no less.

[exit]


"Clover Speech"
"Vicktor Speech"