It was quite the trek from Draco to Fornax, so Eleven was half relieved she had an excuse to linger outside a little while longer, resting and recuperating before her next challenge. If she won, she'd be going home with twice the amount to brag over. Maybe she'd even get two privileges from the Master.

She'd already picked them out: Roaming and reproductive rights. Not that Eleven was planning on spawning so soon, having been alive for only four cycles at this point. But hey, she had a neat looking gemstone, and she knew of someone who could find out what's cooking in there.

If it really wasn't up to scratch, she'd sell it. No hassle.

But most of this required her making it past this fight, which was its own ordeal. She had this in the bag. She was manifesting the win. Eleven bristled her quills, flexed her claws, and waited for her matched opponent.

ROUND 0/5

ATTEMPT: Assuming defensive position
DEFENSE: Irritating, venomous quills along back, crouching low to protect soft bits
INJURIES: None

@Abaddon

Cloven hooves hit packed sand as Abaddon leapt into the arena to face his opponent.

The bull's presence here was something anyone could and should question. He'd mostly kept to himself in the caves, and emerged only for battles. The Deathmatch hadn't... quite killed him, but his ass had been absolutely handed to him so why was he here now? Again? In the same stupid place?

The answer wasn't very exciting. Someone had said there'd be fights, and the simpleminded bull had seen red. He just couldn't walk away from that. But... what the hell was he fighting?

Abaddon stood uncertain, snorting, head low and ruby eyes trained warily on V-Chaos-Eleven. She was huge. She was SPIKY as HELL, and her eyes glowed. So did his, but hers glowed more, and her jaws screamed 'predator' to the admittedly aggressive herbivore. But something else had drawn his stupid eye.

Nostrils flared as his gaze flicked to her back. "Your spikes glow," he said, distinctly accusatory. Jealous? Angry that his did not? He had huge, black shards jutting from his back--bigger, thicker than the quills, like knife blades--but HIS didn't GLOW.

He wanted them to glow.

...He'd sort of forgotten, now, why he was here.

...feel free to start the fight. abaddon is Staring

@V-Chaos-Eleven

Eleven's stomach dropped to her ass (or the quadruped equivalent) when she saw who she was fighting. She didn't know Abaddon at all, for the record. She'd never heard of him - but he was big and innately intimidating - and he had much larger spikes. The worst she could do with hers is give someone a rash. His were as thick as his horns.

Horns that reminded her of the meadow deer, which didn't make Eleven feel better at all.

They both sized eachother up for a moment, longer than she'd anticipated. "Your spikes are bigger." A defense? A consolation? Who knows.

Uncomfortable with the silence that followed, Eleven was forced to take initiative. She darted forward, hoping to get past all the pointy bits and to slam into Abbadon's flank as hard as she could with a shoulder. This was a strength contest, right? So she'd better show the crowd what she could do.

ROUND 1/5

ATTEMPT: Shoving his side, hoping to make him lose balance
DEFENSE: Irritating, venomous quills along back, crouching low to protect soft bits
INJURIES: None

@Abaddon

He was not an agile beast--agile enough, but when he spun to face the oncoming charge he was just too slow. He couldn't bring his horns to bear before his quicker opponent had shoved him. And yes, he was big; he was squat, but he'd been mid-turn trying to twist to face her and--well, in a word, Abaddon went sprawling.

A stereotypical SNORT of bovine rage escaped him as he plowed down into the arena in a cloud of dust; his "counterattack" was an instinctive lash of hooves as his side slammed into the ground--a hope that he'd hit the one who'd hit him just as hard. Maybe... harder.

He hadn't had a chance to voice it (mostly because he'd been ponderously thinking Chaos-Eleven's words over and yes, the silence HAD drawn out), but he was glad to hear that his spikes were bigger. Later, he'd go back to wanting them to GLOW, but he wasn't quite as mad now. Not that he had time to be: he was flailing wildly, blindly, in the dust.

ROUND 1/5

ATTEMPT: Kick Chaos-Eleven's forelegs (from the ground)
DEFENSE: horny?
INJURIES: he fell down

@V-Chaos-Eleven

She'd forgotten about the hooves. Which was stupid of her, because ow they are easily the ow most dangerous ow part - aside from the horns, but they were ow not the problem at the moment.

Eleven needed to act before they pummeled her any harder, or in a place that'd actually fuck her up. Permanently, perhaps. She had enough on her plate.

She attempted to leap past the kicking legs and on top of Abbadon's side, hoping to press him down without having to worry about further injury.

ROUND 2/5

ATTEMPT: jumping past his legs and onto his flank
DEFENSE: Irritating, venomous quills along back
INJURIES: moderate bruising along chest and shoulders

@Abaddon

Someone else might've said some words or made a NORMAL noise of pain or discomfort or defiance. Abaddon went full cow mode and bellowed. Lowed. Moo'd, if one were to be blunt about it.

He was also relatively untrained despite his age, and his response to the Valkhounds bulk pinning him was just to try and throw her off. No fancy tactics, no brilliant martial arts riposte to use her momentum, no smart angling of spikes toward the leap. Just a loud, angry MOO, and wild thrashing.

The wild thrashing was backed by a ton of stupid bull muscle, though, so maybe he'd get lucky. He flung himself this way and that, struggling to get his hooves under him and buck V-Chaos-Eleven away. Rodeo-style.

ROUND 2/5

ATTEMPT: GET OFFFF
DEFENSE: horny?
INJURIES: he fell down and got JUMPED on

@V-Chaos-Eleven

When you're as stupid big as either Abaddon or Eleven, sometimes you can make do without tactics or training. Sheer amount of mass can carry you far - it's just a matter of who here could manage to use it better.

That was still up in the air. But Eleven was familiar enough with lessers shaped like her opponent to know how this was supposed to go. MINUS the killing and eating. That was bad sportsmanship, and she did, in fact, respect her opponent. They were in the same position here. Kind of. She assumed so.

With murder out of the question though, it was a little harder to figure out exactly how Eleven wanted to use her brief advantage. So she made the clearest, immediate decision: Hold on and pray.

ROUND 3/5

ATTEMPT: holding on for dear life. maybe he'll get tired?
DEFENSE: Irritating, venomous quills along back
INJURIES: moderate bruising along chest and shoulders

@Abaddon

The MOOOO was a full-on bellow now as Abaddon finally got his hooves beneath him. What had been wild thrashing in the dirt turned into a full furious, flinging, flailing rodeo. The bull threw himself to and fro with powerful violence, attempting to throw Chaos-Eleven away from him. If he'd been smart he'd have rolled, or thrown himself onto a wall, to try and force her to choose between hanging on and being impaled--but first of all, that might've broken the rules a bit and second of all, he was too... tactically deficient, to put it politely, to think of such a thing.

So Abaddon went staggering and whipping around, trying to throw her free so he could finally switch and go on the offensive.

ROUND 3/5

ATTEMPT: YEEEE YAW (buck her off)
DEFENSE: idk swords on his back man
INJURIES: he fell down and got JUMPED on

@V-Chaos-Eleven

Eleven can impale herself out of her own volition, thank you very much. #girl power.

Though she didn't want to hurt him too bad, the urgency of her situation asked her to get a little messy with it. She scrabbled to keep a hold, treating Abaddon as if he were a tree that just happened to be violently thrashing around, and not a mammal that did not have the benefit of being covered in bark. Expect cat scratches of varying severity. Sorry dude.

Said situation was getting dire. Half of her body was off - she was absolutely going to crash back to earth if she didn't do anything New or Interesting in the next five seconds. Eleven's frantic attention turned to the spikes on his back, and tried desperately to wrap her strong jaws around one of them. For every part of her body she could use, the more time she bought herself.

But she found she simply Did Not Have The Funds for that purchase. With her teeth meeting teeth, her balance was shattered irreparably, and she went thud onto Orion's dusty floor.

Her turn is over. She might not get a second one, unfortunately.

ROUND 4/5

ATTEMPT: grab onto a spike with her mouth
DEFENSE: Irritating, venomous quills along back
INJURIES: moderate bruising along chest and shoulders. fell down :(

@Abaddon

Abaddon felt claws tearing at his hide--not deeply, but enough that pain spiked through him. His eyes widened, and when the heavy weight clinging to him suddenly let go, he twisted to face it with a snort. Already he was growing weary, but rage fuelled his charge as he lunged for Chaos-Eleven.

At the last second his instinctive "stick your head down and gore it" hit his memory of "no serious wounds" being a rule, and in a half-assed not-really-tactic, he instead leapt into the air in an attempt to come down on Chaos-Eleven. He tucked his hooves up so they wouldn't hit, but it was still a heck of a body slam--if he actually hit.

It sort of looked like a cannonball into a pool, except he was a bull and his target was a massively spiked Valkhound that might impale him if he hit her wrong.

ROUND 4/5

ATTEMPT: cannonball!
DEFENSE: idk swords on his back man
INJURIES: he fell down and got JUMPED on

@V-Chaos-Eleven