HoH season 09. Source: valucre.net static Gaia dump.
Stage14: Guttpunch Farm
Hookgouge Freezer
The naming scheme seems really odd, but this storage facility seems fairly efective. Fighters must fight amongst the frozen carcases of... Something or the other. Whatever they were they looked big. Warm clothing is recomended.
Terrain
General - Ground slipery in places, freezing tempature conditions.
Weapons - Meat, chains, hooks, ice.
Bonus Effects - It's damn cold in there, so remember how cold you'd be by the third fight.
Duc found himself inside the freezer of what had to be a meat packing plant. Where ever he was there were lots of big hunks of meat hanging from hooks and it made him hungry.
He wore today a white sweatshirt, his typical blue jeans and still his sandals. Hopefully they'd provide some traction for him on the slick surface.
"This looks like it could be fun."
And here's Katie.
The seven foot woman was in her usual attire, which was pretty much all armor, save for a few spots. Her boots were covered in armor above the kneecaps, but that was just the front of her boots, so she shouldn't have too much trouble with traction either.
Her sword hung from her back, but from the looks of things she didn't foresee them getting a chance to have a swordfight, not in a meat locker anyway. All she'd probably be doing is stabbing frozen meat.
Her turquoise eyes settled on Duc. She made a face.. 
"You ready?" She asked, a fine mist fell from her mouth as she spoke. Yup, it was freezing in this joint. "Because I'm ready."
Someone needed to get these fights going. She hated to wait.
Duc smiled and looked up a little bit at the person he was to fight this round. It was the first time this whole tournament he had fought someone larger then him; but even if there was a height different of eight inches he wasn't concerned. Why else would he have been willing to enter this tournament with no armour and scant few weapons if he didn't think he have use for them?
Using the tools of the arena though was another beast.
From the wall, hanging from a hook, Duc grabbed a meat hook with his left hand. He tested it a bit and felt confident with how the T grip sat in the palm of his hand, the hook protruding between his middle and ringer finger. The hook gave him another fifteen inches of reach and was strong enough to pierce the frozen meat. It could probably do a number on her armour.
"I think I'm ready."
With those words steam coiled in the air and he burst through it. With careful strides he crossed the distance between them, running down a corridor of meat, and when at the apex of his reach swung underhanded with his left arm to catch any where between her groin and jaw.
Should he miss he would not care for his forward momentum would not stop and he'd be forced into a whole new series of movements.
-1-
"Good."
As Duc reached for a meat hook, well, Katie pulled a slab of meat off with hook and all. She was creating her own meat shield. Her right arm grasped the hook part, holding it up at the top of her chest while her left arm settled right in the middle of the slab of meat, just resting against it as she charged towards the man. Her arm guards created protection as she carried the frozen meat.
Her feet hit the hard floor with a loud thud.
THUMP
THUMP
THUMP
As he did an underhand swing he'd just get a slab of meat, and she jerked that slab of meat down to hopefully get the frozen slab locked in with the meat hook Duc was carrying. Then, she'd keep moving forward. If the hook was stuck, and unless he let go, he would find himself sliding backwards as that slab of meat connected with hook then probably his body.
That s**t was heavy and cold.
[1/17]
The hook met flesh; but the wrong flesh.
His movement didn't stop though and he torqued his body to hurl his right shoulder against the slab of meat. Katie might have been larger; but Duc had built up speed in his sprint.
So two forces collided together.
As that happened Duc yanked the hook downwards, it slid out easily enough for it had no barb to catch. He swung his arm over her make shift shield in an arc that moved left to right, top to bottom that would seek to stab at her upper back.
He would do this regardless of whether or not her forward force overwhelmed his, his hers or even if they cancelled out.
-2-
Katie wasn't going anywhere as Duc slammed into the slab of meat. She had been charging forward herself, so the momentum of both would just bring the two colliding against one another, and she made sure to keep that slab of meat pushing forward as a shield.
However, as the hook moved downwards through the meat Duc would find that Katie had let go, creating a whole new load of weight. It probably made it difficult for him to do the next move and swing his arm. Because even as the hook slid downwards, along with the frozen slab of meat falling, it should make it rather difficult for him to bring the hook back up and around. If he managed, she would just shove her right arm against his arm that's coming down. The hook would connect with the armor on her arm with a clang.
However, as he swung that hook her left arm would be free, so she would hook that arm across her chest to send a punch right near his Adam's apple in his neck. It probably hit with a thud and knock the wind from his pipes.
[2/17]
The hook scrapped on metal, now if only it would catch a joint. It was a good thing that arm armour had lots of joints. Drawing the hook back in an attempt to snag on something Duc was left pretty open for for the punch.
Only that as he had twisted his body to bring his right shoulder to bare against her impromptu shield meant that his same right shoulder acted as shield when she punched him.
So her fist first scrapped his shoulder and bounded up to strike him in the side of the face just beneath the ear. Skin tore and began to bleed both internally and externally, a welt appeared and wept blood.
This caused him to fall back to his left foot and with an even more violent reaction yank the hook back to his side regardless of whether or not it caught.
The side of meat would fall between them and provide another obstacle for the immediate area.
-3-
Katie's right arm came down as Duc's left arm came down quickly. The meat hook scraping down the armored arm while her left arm struck the right side of his face.
As her left hand struck and he fell back to his left foot she stepped in with her right, not giving him a moment to put distance between the two. Her right hand came out to grab him by the sweatshirt, just so she could hold him steady for two seconds, which was all she needed. Because as her huge fingers grabbed for his shirt she'd bring her right foot forward, swinging up between his legs for a nutshot.
And she was grinning as things started to get rough. This was her playing field.
[3/17]
She grabbed him with her right hand just beneath the collar of his sweater and he looked up at her and smiled.
Meanwhile his left hand was flying forward, over her right arm, in a left cross that would have drive the palm of his hand into her face. From there a simple bend of his wrist would hook the hook around the back of her head and he would yank downwards back towards his body.
It was amazing what could happen in two seconds.
But that was not the end of it as he did so he drove his right elbow up into where he was dragging her face. All in all it was a vicious combo.
If she still managed to kick out her leg he would take it with a grunt and only a momentary flash of pain as the nerves shut down in response to the stimuli over load. Had the attack been done shortly after the second round Katie would have found her boot covered with blood.
This was not the first time Duc had taken an attack to the groin.
-4-
Katie's leg would still manage that nutshot. Because one thing was for certain, Duc had brought his left hand up to go for a hook around the back of her head. A painful hit would land just at the base of it, but one thing she got lucky with was when he pulled down. The meat hook would come down on the armor that was around her neck. It kept her from getting too much damage.
His right elbow would be coming up as he yanked down, but her left hand was free, so she would sweep her arm in the inside of his reach and knock his right arm back.
"ARGH! SONOFA-"
Now she was pissed. He was yanking down and she was attached to that hook. Blood slipped from the wound at the back of her head. The room spun for a moment, so when he yanked it was obvious what was about to happen.
HUGE a** Katie fell forward. Her right arm still had his shirt while he probably was too stunned from the nutshot to do much of anything as she fell on top of him. Three hundred and twenty pounds would come crushing down on him, and her left arm would probably be pinning his right arm to the ground.
[4/17]
[Edited for clarification.]
His elbow had been knocked out of the way; but the damage of everything else had already been done. She still clung to him as she fell into him; but Duc wanted none of that.
He wasn't going to let a women take the top.
Duc sprawled, kicking his legs out behind him so that he took the majority of his body from beneath where she was falling to and used the hook around her neck as a leverage point to bring his head higher then hers.
Falling he would end up landing on her right arm, crashing his own weight into her hand. They would be head to head with each other with little to no room between their faces.
Duc spat in hers.
-5-
It didn't matter who took the top to Katie. However, she would definitely make some comment about that. It was just her way.
"Gettin' a little frisky, eh?"
The spit didn't bother her. She barely even flinched. He could hock loogies all he wanted. She was used to this kind of treatment from people she fought.
His weight had her right arm pinned, but she still had a nice grip going on his shirt. While he was spitting in her face her left hand came up behind his head, grasping the base of his skull and probably some hair.
Since the two were head to head she might as well make use of that. Her left hand held tightly and pushed his head down as she jerked her head up in one continuous momentum, as if she was sneezing, giving him a nice crack to the center of his face with her forehead.
This should probably leave him stunned for a moment or two.
[5/17]
The spit was just a distraction, or at least that was what its purpose was, for what Duc was really angling to do. At such close range he shift his left hand forward in a motion that would scrape the tip of the hook along her neck, and maybe even pierce flesh.
Of course, that little act was interrupted when she slammed her head into his.
Wide eyed with a newly broken nose Duc bled on her. This enraged him and he forgot his earlier attempt to scrape the hook along her neck and he just jerked his left out to his side as far and as rapidly as he could.
Maybe he would give her some whiplash.
His right hand would grab at her left wrist a moment after the yank as he attempted to get into a position of control over that hand.
-6-
Moments after the headbutt, Katie's head would jerk to the right as Duc jerked his left hand out to the side. The muscles in her neck bulged as she strained against the move.
She growled at him.
His move gave her a moment to free her right hand, which she immediately brought up to the back of his head to meet with her opposite hand, except he seemed to be grabbing for her left. This didn't stop her from using her right hand though.
When he grabbed her left wrist and pulled, he'd feel a lot of pain because she was holding onto his hair. That was coming out if he continued to try and pull that hand away.
Her right hand grasped the left side of his head while he tried to gain control of her left hand. He'd find a thumb digging into his left eyeball as she went for an eye gouge.
She'd make sure to put a lot of pressure.
While she went for this dirty move, she jerked her hips to the left, so that they would roll and she could get on top.
[6/17]
She was mad, that was good. People did stupid things when they were mad, even Duc.
With his grip on Katie's left hand he held her hand close to his head as he pulled his feet up under him. He managed to get to his knees when she went for an eye gouge.
All he could do was toss his head about, with limited movement as she still had a grip on his head, and open his mouth wide and attempt to chomp down her hand as she pressed it against his face. Duc would also shut his left eye rather tightly, it could still be forced open; but it wouldn't be as simple as an unprotected eye.
His left hand moved in such a way, mostly just reaching forward and bending the wrist back, to slip the hook from around her neck. The wrist would then twist so that the hook was pointing downwards and he would use his arm from the elbow down to bring that point into her neck; hopefully avoiding the armour as he aimed closer to the nape then the jawline.
-7-
Duc moved up on his knees. Katie's hands were up in his face, so her arms were pointed slightly upwards. He was also tossing his head about while closing his left eye to try and keep that protected.
This all would make his fish hook move towards her neck rather difficult. Most of the hook would clang against the armor on her neck, barely getting the easy reach he was looking for on her neck as he brought the hook back down. He'd have to bring his arm over the top of her arm to get a good swipe on her neck. However, the hook would graze just over the top of the armor, grazing roughly across the flesh and tearing it slightly open. Luckily, it was only a flesh wound. A small trickle of blood would burst from the scratch.
At that moment she dropped her right hand from his eye gouge. She was afraid he'd swing at her neck again and actually catch something vital. Her right hand immediately came down onto his left forearm, grasping tightly and holding it steady for any further attacks. Her left hand would relinquish its hold on his hair, only to give her freedom as they moved.
And she continued to jerk her hips to the left, which would cause them to roll, putting her on top.
[7/17]
It was true, his aim was not true and he had only aimed by memory and where he thought she was.
Then she grabbed his left arm, released his hair and roll. All the while he kept his grip on her left arm.
About half way through the roll, when they were both on their sides Duc leaned his head in close to hers; and thrashed at her with his teeth. It was an attempt to get a hold on her any where, be it her cheek, nose, lips, ear or neck. Any of them would due.
And then Duc was on his back and she was on top, maybe they'd have to do this again after the fight.
-8-
The world was spinning as Katie went rolling into the top position. She hadn't expected Duc to try and go for a bite at her face. His teeth would graze her nose as he did. Oh man, she'd have been pissed if he had managed to latch on and rip it off.
]=<
When his back hit the ground she leaned slightly up, still holding his left arm with the hook, which she was pushing against his side. She dropped her left arm down, the one he was holding, so that when she shimmied up his body to attempt at pinning his arms, which shouldn't be all that difficult. Either way, she'd have her right knee settled against the elbow of his left arm, squeezing it into his side to prevent him from using that meat hook. Her left knee would push against his right arm, whether it was against her body or not, she probably put the weight of it down on his arm.
[8/17]
Duc wasn't concerned about the hook, all he wanted to do was get her out of the mount. Katie's leaning forward would only help him.
Bringing his feet up so they were flushed with his own a** he bucked his hips upwards and bridged. Katie would likely rise up with this motion. Duc would twist his body so that his lower part was on its side. He did this rotation in a counter clockwise fashion.
At the same time he let go of her left wrist and shoved his right hand up into her left shoulder to give more pressure to the lift and create space.
Coming down from the bridge he'd scoot backwards on the icy concrete floor. Now the only thing Katie straddled were his lower legs. She still held his left arm though.
So Duc slapped at her face with the hand that had been on her shoulder, trying to stun her.
He wasn't completely out yet; but if all things went well he'd be freer.
-9-
Duc would buck then let go of her left wrist to shove Katie's left shoulder. It would bring her down his legs, just below the knees.
As he bucked, sending her sliding down to his lower legs. Her left hand now free went to grab at his sweatshirt. It actually landed right at the top of his jeans, which she grasped tightly. Her fingers were looped over the top of them, inside of his pants, so when he slapped her face she didn't get knocked back. Her head jerked to the right. Blood blossomed inside of her of mouth on the left cheek. The taste of copper hit her tongue.
At least she was still leaned forward because that's what would make this next move done so easily, which he would have little time to react to. Her fingers that were hooked onto his jeans would suddenly go sliding into his pants and grasp onto his manhood. This was no playful grab either. She was going for a grab that would leave him screaming in pain, fingers digging in and yanking if possible, or maybe he was the type that liked pain. It could possibly just get him very excited. Yuck.
[9/17]
It was about this time that Duc had wished he wore a belt; Katie grabbed him and would be shocked to find him already stiffening.
Sadly Duc couldn't focus on that. There were other more important things to do then focusing on any pain she might cause him. The most important one was inflicting as much harm on her as possible.
Never drawing back his hand from the slap he reached forward and grabbed her hair, coiled his fingers and yanked her head towards him. Towards him and to his own rising head as he did a sit up to slam his forehead into her face.
Maybe return the favour of a broken nose.
All the while his left hand was still held and he was forced to just try and force it upwards and towards her in an attempt to get her to loosen her grip.
-10-
GUESS WHO'S DONE BACK IN BUSINESS, BOYS AND GIRLS?
STRIKER OFFENSE
Yea, that's how Ebris Dhifi looked like as he stepped into the meat locker. Pretty much anyway.
The heavy steel door groaned with the arrival of the bounty hunter, whose massive frame filled the threshold so much that blotted out almost all the damn light coming from the outside. If it weren't for the fact that the freezing room had its own light sources, one would probably miss the disfigured, ugly as rathin' piss expression on Ebris' face. No, that wasn't due to some new wound - it was simply the sumbitch being so rathin' pissed off that the last three damn matches didn't go his Throne-damned way (ESPECIALLY them elimination ones), that it looked like the muscles beneath the leathery, gnarled skin of his face were tearing apart.
Oh yes, he was quite miffed.
Blue eyes danced erratically back and forth in his sockets, looking around for someone or something. Odd, guttural grunting noises were heard when the eyes locked upon two sights for a moment more than the usual: Goatsick fighting some big, faggert sandals Jimbo and a pile of large, nicely-cut ice blocks. The spheres darted back and forth between the two sights now, and it didn't take a psychologist to determine murderous thoughts were afoot.
Ebris then began to move, fog haloing his skull with each grunting step towards the pile of icy blunt instruments. During this, a meaty index finger jabbed the "STRIKER" indication button on his FIGHTER, indicating that grod was gonna go down. The gorilla-looking motherrather was upon the mass in seconds, his giant paws groping down to grab one with enough strength to nearly crack them with the grip. Ebris hefted it up and immediately went about-face, only to continue to stalk forward towards the scene of Goatsick playing grabass with the Throne-damned bigass hippie. Not even the swinging hulks of meat slowed his advance - his own frame simply pushed them aside and sent them swinging back and forth even more. HUEG pissed off b*****d was HUEG and PISSED.
And, at the apex of the two faggerts huckin' and jivin' next to each other, Ebris Dhifi came up behind the enemy faggert and slammed the block of ice down on the back of his skull.
The whole rathin' thing would just shatter on impact. Ebris had gripped the thing on its sides rather than each end, so the blow was from a vertical block. The ice was more structurally sound that way, due to the impact being a smaller part of the block. The Jimbo was lucky, though - he was a big sumbitch, though not exactly HUEG, and his skull would probably hold out under the assault. It'd still hurt like all of rathin' hell was skull rathing him, as well as make him dizzy as a Throne-damned hobo after dumpster diving behind a liquor store. Ebris'd know, that's for sure.
As the shards of ice lacerated the skin of his thick hands and showered everyone in the incident, it was revealed that with the hunter's right chambering back like a piston, the beat down was yet to be over.
And as Ebris' right side snapped back forward, sledgefist bursting forward in the process, it was revealed that the Jimbo wasn't the victim of this particular attack. No, that'd be Goatsick.
WHUD
"QUIT THE THRONE-DAMNED GRABASS, GOATSICK! OR YA'LL BE RATHIN' FIRED!"
Ultimatum delivered by facial cave in. Let's see what happens.
[01/02]
Oh, s**t was gettin' dirty now.
Duc was grabbing her by the hair of the head, pulling her forward for a headbutt, but by pulling her forward he only gave her that extra inch to really lock onto his gonads with her left hand because the distance between the two he would have to lift himself up slightly to get a good smack on Katie's head, and by lifting upwards her hand went farther into his pants. Her right hand let go of his left arm, about to go on the defensive, but things just happened to get really ********' interesting at this point.
That was about the time that a block of ice came down over Duc's head. Ice sprayed everywhere. Shards smacked the ground around them as it shattered. The Amazon barely had a moment to look up to see Ebris standing over them. She knew what was coming, no time to react, so she just gave him the death stare.
He released a punch, landing right at the center of her face with a crunch and knocked her clear off of Duc.
Duc wouldn't be feeling too happy right about now. There would most likely be the sound of things tearing because Katie had just managed to get a nice a grip on his manhood. st's gotta be painful.
She hit the hard, cold floor with a thud. That punch was painful too. Blood sprouted from her nose and upper lip.
"YOU STUPID a**, HONKEY TONK SONOFABITCH!"
She went to wipe the blood off of her face with her left hand.
[10/17]
A chunk of ice was slammed into his head. His brain rattled in his skull and some of the light of his eyes faded as his concept of the world was completely thrown into chaos. He wasn't sure what was happening; but there were noises going on and a sharp pain in his d**k, it wasn't the first time.
Katie wouldn't go flying too far, or if she did she'd find herself missing some hair as Duc had never released his hold on her hair. The hit to the head had only made him tighten his grip.
Unsure of what was happening he focused on the one thing he could control. He started to moderate his breathing to keep himself from going into a state of panic.
-11-
As they both went down, Ebris done gave them a few good, hard stomps/kicks, mainly directed at sandals Jimbo (though if Goatsick got in the way, then rath her). Afterwards, he thudded off back to the sidelines, grumbling some obscenities all the way.
[02/02]
Katie would lose a good chunk of her hair as she was knocked back. Pain blossomed on her scalp at the back of her head. Not even Duc's hold on her hair would keep her from getting knocked back from an Ebris hit. Ebris was HUEG and packed a punch, which Katie found out first hand as she was jolted from her position on Duc, and she had instinctively clenched harder onto Duc's gonads as she went back. It hadn't even stopped her, since the flesh in that area was soft and easy to tear.
Her left forearm wiped across her chin to rid the blood from Ebris' punch to her face when she realized she was holding a part of Duc in her hand. Her left hand immediately opened, dropping part of Duc to the floor. Then, she brought her right hand to the back of her head. She barely touched the area where her hair was missing and hissed, pulling her fingers back to show blood. This was the second wound to the back of her head and she was feeling it. Just her fingers touching it brought enough pain to make her feel sick to her stomach.
Her turquoise eyes settled back on Duc. She got off of her a and spit to her side, leaving blood on the floor where it landed. Then, she made sure to grab a weapon. She knew Duc was still holding that meat hook. She grabbed a chain off one of the meat lines. The time it took for her to take in what had just happened, along with getting up off of her a this gave Ebris more than enough time to do whatever kicking he wanted before she was within chain whipping distance of Duc.
Hope he hurried and got his a** up because she was about to do some senseless beating.
[11/17]
Wasn't the first time his d**k had been sorely wounded in this tournament. Was the first time it had been ripped off, last time it had just been some stab wounds. Thankfully due to his altered physiological state it would quickly coagulate. Still for the time being of being beaten by Ebris it bled.
Thankfully while this was going on his brain had regained enough function to begin shutting down pain receptors to prevent shock and to flood his body with endorphins and adrenaline.
Rising wobbly to his feet he leaned heavily against a side of meat. His vision still blurred and spinning as he slowly regained conception of what was happening in the wide world. There were many noises to accompany this chaotic vision and he didn't like it.
But he knew he needed to do something. There was a blur larger then the rest, standing where none other should have been if it were just meat. His vision spun and he charged at Katie.
Duc hoped to take her by surprise by acting aggressively when he should have been at a point of weakness. Blood stained his pants. He threw her hair back at her and swung widely with the hook.
-12-
Somewhere nearby...
The man was rising. Katie narrowed her eyes and forced a grin. She had already started to roll the chain around her left hand once then grasped another part of the chain with her right, so that the length stretched somewhat across her body, only about six inches of it. This would make it easy to spin the chain. The length seemed to be about four feet.
She started to spin the chain with her right hand. It looked like a chopper blade whirling at her side, but more importantly, she was going to use much like a lasso, except there would be no loop at the end to catch her prey. By spinning the chain at her side, she was getting her arms accustomed to the weight of the chain, and it was a good thing she had used a whip for many years. This would come in handy for her.
She hadn't expected him to start charging, but she was ready for anything. He tossed her hair, but she was focused on that left hand of his with the meat hook. She knew he'd do something with that. She had expected him to toss it at her or something crazy, so just as he started to swing widely with it, she snapped the chain out at his neck area with a snap of the wrist while taking one small step in with her right foot.
She wanted to give him a little jolt, possibly send him back a few feet, or maybe the chain would just smack against that arm he was swinging wildly with, possibly knock that hook free from his grasp. Either way, a heavy chain smack is gonna rough someone up.
There would possibly be the sounds of metal hitting flesh.
After the chain snapped forward it would already start to snap back the way it had came, along with Katie dropping her right foot back as it did.
[12/17]
OFFENSIVE STRIKER
Following Ebris's arrival (and probable dismantling of the door), Deitric had meandered into the freezer to watch his teammate fight. He stood off to wherever the 'sidelines' were, but eventually the warrior decided to just take it upon himself to intervene in the fight as the bounty hunter had.
The tribesman rolled his jacket sleeve back and prodded at the small FIGHTER strapped on his wrist, the screen's backlight flickering to life as the words "OFFENSIVE STRIKER: INITIATED" scrolled across it in the digital black-on-green block text.
Without too much cause for alarm, the warrior just started walking forward - he wasn't running, but he wasn't moping his way around into the fighting area. His stride was long enough to carry him quickly, but without all the thudding and shaking and juddering of running around something like a big freezer would make. Held in both hands like a baseball bat was his gunstock club - a flat club with a thin striking edge that hurt like a son of a b***h, complete with a curve in the wood that 'fit' around whatever he whacked with it.
With Katie loosing her chain at Duc, Deitric just came up behind her and, without pomp or circumstance, unleashed the beast all over back and top of her head with and two-handed overhead strike. It was pretty straight forward: raise club overhead, aim for head, swing down REALLY ******** HARD. He was striking with the inside of the curve so that it would vaguely follow the curvature of the back and top of her skull.
There wasn't much of an explanation to say how much that sort of thing was going to hurt. 'A lot' worked pretty well, though. What sort of lasting damage it would have on the woman was up in the air, depending on just how tough of a broad she was. It wasn't going to kill her, but whatever he'd just done sure wasn't a love tap with that club of his. It'd probably be a bit bloodied after it got acquainted with her skull.
Afterward, assuming Katie was busy with her actual opponent, or just unable to retaliate after getting brained with the club, Deitric would just turn and make his way back to the sidelines, satisfied with his work. Duc could probably take it from there anyways.
[1/2, assuming the second post is even needed.]
Duc was charging, the chain snapped out and it rammed into his chest; depressing the rib cage and cracking more then a few ribs and a large welt began to form. It caused only a slight pause in his rush to come to terms with her.
It was about that time that Deitric came up behind her to smack some sense into the women.
Duc would push forward after the chain hit him; but then he'd slip on some ice and go tumbling down to the floor after taking a few too ambitious strides. His forward momentum wouldn't be cancelled though and he would go sliding into Katie's legs if she wasn't falling to the floor already from Deitric's hit to the head.
His vision cleared some more and he could make out shapes but not yet colours.
-13-
The metal chain landed. She felt the moment of pressure, even heard the sound of something cracking. She almost grinned, ALMOST, until some assmunch came up behind her and hit her over the head.
Things went a little fuzzy. The room even spun, along with some flashes of light, and a warm trickle of blood slipping over her scalp. Hell, that really ********' hurt, and not to mention, made her feel very sick to her stomach.
About that moment, she threw up everything she'd eaten just before this match. It landed all over Duc as he came sliding towards her. The thick, smelling vomit would land on him and the floor around him. That was when she felt her feet lift from the ground.
For a moment, she honestly thought that she was passing out. She was suddenly going forward, falling towards the floor, but it was because she'd just been knocked over like a pin on a Friday night bowling league. Duc had slid right into her, and the hit to the head only made her tumble all too easily.
Instinctively, her arms shot out to catch her fall, but the moment they hit the hard, cold floor they slid out from under her and brought her chest down to the floor. Her armor clanged loudly as it met the concrete floor.
The chain had fallen from her right hand, but where she'd wrapped it in her left hand it still sat loosely in her clutches. Her left hand twitched, tightening her grip around the chain, and that was about the time that her adrenaline kicked in, inhibiting her pain receptors.
She pushed her hands against the floor and lifted, but just to a crouched position on all fours. Her chestnut brown hair was draped all around her face, partially wet in spots from the club to the head.
Also, she was seething right about now.
"SOMEONE'S GOING TO DIE!"
She yelled at the floor.
[13/17]
Happy with his handiwork, and managing to not get tangled up in the fight any longer, Deitric would go back to the sidelines and leave the two to their fight with a few seconds to spare.
He made sure to stay on the opposite side of the freezer though, because now they smelled pretty awful.
[2/2]
Blood and puke, too common things featured in a fight. Now where was the s**t and piss? Was Duc going to need to beat it out of Katie?
The vomit landed down his back side, making his sweat shirt very uncomfortable. The smell assaulted his senses and he had to resist the urge to take the time and take it off. First things first, he had a fight on his hands.
Duc had barrelled into Katie's legs and had knocked her down. She had tripped over him and he was now behind her scrambling to his feet as colours started to return to his vision.
From skidding to his knees he felt Katie's legs besides him and he got a wonderful idea for the hook was still with him. He reached for her leg and felt how the back side was not armoured as the front.
With a quick motion he tighten a grip on an ankle and attempt to impale her lower right leg with the hook. If he was able to do that he'd get up and start dragging her.
If not he'd angrily slash at her a** with the hook, even if it was armoured. Who knew, maybe he would get lucky and it would slip beneath it.
-14-
Katie went to stand. Her left knee came up. Her right leg was about to follow when she felt a hand grasp her ankle. She quickly lurched forward, trying to keep Duc from getting a good grasp on her ankle.
The hook hit the lower part of her calf and slid down. It cut into part of the skin, but luckily not too much since beneath her armored boots she wore leather material to keep from chafing, plus parts of the latches that reached around her leg to hold her boot securely on kept the hook from finding the purchase it was looking for.
She roared with a fury. Duc had already gotten to his feet, but he had to lean down in order to go for her ankle, along with swinging the meat hook at her leg.
Well, he was in good line for a HUGE boot to the face. She pivoted just slightly enough, while leaning slightly to her right side while she brought her left foot out behind her and probably slammed it directly into Duc's face.
That boot would be hitting something from where he was leaning down, even if it was to the chest. It'd still hurt like hell and send him packing, especially if it got his chest instead of face. It wouldn't feel good to get another slam into broken ribs, but if it landed on the face it probably wouldn't feel too good to have a HUGE bitches boot slamming into that either.
[14/17]
The hook caught, at least part way. Katie wore too much in the way of clothes and armour for it to slip cleanly through her leg. And as he did this while on his knees he didn't have to bend down all that much to begin with.
He could see her begin to lift her left leg to perform a donkey kick.
But as soon as Duc felt the hook snag her in flesh he took a step out and up to his right. He'd drag her right leg out from under her with the hook and the kick would land very much weakened against the outside of his left leg, just bellow the knee.
It did check his own balance for a moment.
This angered Duc and where before he had pulled with his whole body this time he yanked his arm so that it would drag her closer to him.
At this point Duc was only in a crouched position; but was on both feet. Positioned behind Katie and a bit to her right.
-15-
James was somewhere nearby.
Katie's foot snapped against something, but now that she had one leg in the air when Duc snapped back it brought her back to the ground. Her hands landed out in front of her once again, sliding rather easily against the cold floor.
She gritted her teeth as her fingers dug into the floor. Sadly, she couldn't stop herself from being yanked. Not with the hook stuck, along with him being on his feet and yanking back.
Her muscles tightened in her arms and legs. She was going to probably be in a lot of pain at any moment with what she was about to try, but no less than what pain that Duc could cause her.
When she was dragged the farthest that Duc could possibly drag her, she would drop her left shoulder and twist her hips, so that her right hip would face upwards. This would probably make that hook gouge at some more flesh in her leg, but where Duc had dragged her towards him her right leg was slightly off the ground and even if it wasn't she'd make sure to lift it slightly some. It was enough for her left leg to go sweeping under her right leg and try to knock Duc off balance.
No pain, no gain, right?
She felt like she might puke again.
[15/17]
Once he had yanked her he did something he had not done in all of the fight. Duc released his grip on the hook. As she twisted and rolled to her left side Duc went on the offensive.
She might have tried to sweep his legs out from under him; but Duc went from where he was to on top of her with a pounce. He'd slam both knees into her, not caring if she wore armour he relied upon concussion force to do the work for him.
His target though was her head.
As he pounced and landed he would swing his now clenched right fist at her face as he reached forward with his left.
If he was able to Duc would grab her neck with is left, then grab her hair with the right as a follow up to the strike and proceed to bash her head against the frozen concrete floor.
From start to finish Duc would smile like a kid in a candy shop.
-16-
Katie was basically on her left side, so as Duc pounced that's where he'd land. Her leg sweep was all for nothing. Her right arm was across her chest, her left slightly out.
When he came crushing down on her, she groaned from the pressure. Then, a fist hit the right side of her face. The left side of her head smacked against the floor. At least it wasn't the back of her head where all the damage had been done. She would have probably puked again.
But, that might change. His right hand went for her hair to bash her head against the floor. It'd hit with a thud, jarring her brain. Now, she thought surely she might puke again.
Both of his hands were doing something, so she would send her right elbow smashing against his ribs, along with a jerk of her hips to the right. The hit with her elbow along with jerking, should be enough to get him off of her.
[16/17]
Leaning over her he'd just drive himself into the elbow, some of the cracked ribs broke; but Duc wasn't finished, not quite yet.
He kept his grip on her throat and put his weight into it, all the while using his grip on her hair to smash her head against the floor as many times as he could. If he was left to himself he'd do it tell he painted the floor with blood.
Then she jerked her hips and he slid from being on top of her to being besides her on the floor; kneeling next to her he beat her and wondered about inviting her out on a date.
"Want to get a drink after this?"
Duc was an odd man.
-17-
If it was up to Katie, oh wait-
Her head thumped a couple times off the floor, but the jerk with her hips sent Duc off of her. She clambered to her feet, about to stand when she realized Duc was at eye level when she came to her knees.
"A drink, eh? Is that a date?"
She wondered if he could really handle her. She was the rough you up type, even in the bedroom.
Her right hand reached for her sword and pulled it free. She brought the blade towards the man's neck, but stopped shy of actually doing anything, not letting anger get the best of her.
"You'd have to be worried about losing your other head."
Oh, the puns.
[17/17]
"Sure, why not?"
Duc smiled as she drew her sword and mentioned losing his other head.
"You want to take the chance?"
With that he got up, and began to walk away. Then he paused and turned to look at her.
"I'll send you my cleaners bill."
Duc was dirtied from a combination of puke and blood. He needed a bath and medical attention. So he was done with this round.
Katie grinned, sliding her sword back into its scabbard.
"Nope."
She went to look for the medical team as Duc walked away, tossing up a hand when he mentioned a cleaners bill. Her left hand still held the chain in it. It slid across the floor as she strolled off.
"Good luck with that."
Honestly, good luck. She was piss poor.
And while Goatsick and sandals Jimbo finished up their grabass session, Ebris Dhifi stomped around the sidelines, freezing his rathin' balls off.
The huge as grod hunter slapped his shoulders hard and vigorously, muttering curses while glaring at anything that he happened to look at, whether it be living or inanimate. While he had ridiculously thick skin, Ebris was never one to favor the cold too much. His homeworld was temperate and all the planets he moseyed on over to afterwards were like spending vacations in a plasma reactor. He was used to the heat - he could deal with the heat. Rath, Jimbos tended to have an obsession with trying to set his old a** on fire for whatever Throne-damned reason their retarded meta minds could think up, so that was even more hot grod to deal with.
But cold? He rathin' hated it. Made his perpetually-angry self even more pissy. And that didn't bode well for a certain Injun that was wandering around the place.
Ebris had spotted him as he came in to striker Goatsick, and boy did that get his goat. No, not the fact that the Injun laid out the broad - that was rathin' hilarious. It was the sheer sight of the brown-skinned rather. Ebris had unpleasant memories of constant electrocutions and just seeing the sumbitch caused some muscles to twitch uncontrollably. However, as the first match came to an end and Ebris began to thud over to the Injun with a grod-eating grin plastered over his mug, as much as he hated the Jimbo, he loved the fact that he was here now to get his a beaten in all over again. Best thing? This time, there was almost no rathin' room for his dumb a to run all over the place.
"HEY BOY! Remember me?"
Hunks of frozen meat were beaten aside with the heavy, powerful swings of arms, revealing the advancing frame of Ebris Dhifi. Even with those carcasses getting in the way, it wouldn't be long before he could get up in the Injun's grill. Nothing was in his hands at the moment, as if the brown skin didn't draw any weapons, Ebris was content to pound his minority a** into extinction with his sledgefists alone.
"Yea, I betcha do, Injun. C'mere and warm my a** up - it's rathin' FREEZIN' in here, heh-heh."
[01/17]
THUD THUD THUD THUD
It wasn't hard to tell there was someone angry making his way around the freezer - the stomps reverberated in the room beneath the rankling sound of meat and the like being shoved out of the way. Motes of coalesced frost fell from the ceiling, shaken loose by Ebris's approach.
The warrior turned to face the bounty hunter, who was on a beeline to his position. At the sight of his opponent the faint, scratching buzz that thrummed to life in his head came to life and began to spread through his body. Unlike his HNG counterpart, Deitric didn't mind the low temperatures. He didn't hate the chill, anyways. And his little run across the freezer had warmed him up, for the time being. On top of that, the ignition of his powers sent a tingling sensation down his spine and spreading outward, warding away the impending numbness of spending too much time in the freezer.
"No strikers," were the only words he offered. He didn't have much else to say - after all, he hadn't come here to talk, and wasting his breath with idle banter didn't appeal to him. If he wanted to talk, he'd be elsewhere. Obviously, he did remember Ebris, as the only man that had ever knocked Deitric out - even if he had returned the favor. To be fair, it was hard to forget a face that ugly and full of rage. One look was probably enough to scar small children for life.
No matter what answer Ebris gave, the tribesman just stood in place, hands at his sides, letting the man talk all he liked. That was fine for Deitric - he'd started generating, and the longer Ebris took, the more the Khasmin man could manage to gather before fists started flying. In the year prior, Deitric had managed to use external sources of electricity to power himself. Now though, he didn't need the boost. If his opponent gave him the time, he could put it to use.
His fingers curled up and his hands balled into fists, but he didn't take any outward action - he just waited for the ugly b*****d to keep coming closer, stomping away all the while. It wasn't the most immediate strategy, in terms of getting into the fight, but that had rarely ever suited Deitric's purposes, even against other opponents. And here, he had one that was more than willing to run headlong into battle, so the tribesman had no reason to match the potential aggression.
He could afford to wait and watch.
[1/17]
No strikers, huh?
"Heh, yer rathin' funeral."
The guttural, cocky tone filled the chilled, confined room as much as the bounty hunter's own physical bulk did. One other Jimbo had thought of the bright idea of attempting a no-striker match against him, and at the end of that, he was getting smacked into the arena's walls like a rag doll. The sumbitch was rathin' lucky to have survived. Of course, Ebris knew the Injun was made of tougher, meaner grod than glamorous leader had been, but it was still a rathin' bad idea. Ebris was confident he wouldn't need any outside help to deal with this sumbitch - was the Injun nearly as confident back? There was also the fact that the hunter had grown tougher himself over the year, and this year he wasn't held back in terms of being forced to play nice.
All of this meant that Injun was in for a world of hurt this time around.
As soon as Ebris had replied to the Jimbo, he was off. The Injun was straight ahead and the scum was at his fastest with straight-aways. The pounding force of his boots, coupled with the high level of traction their soles provided, meant that the thin layers of ice wouldn't be too much of a problem for him. There wasn't much in the way to prevent Ebris from slamming into the poor b*****d, carrying him forward and slamming him into the wall and putting nice Injun-sized dents in it. In fact, there was only one thing that stood in his direct path: one last hanging chunk of frozen meat.
And that was all part of the plan.
WHUD
When his charge brought him close enough, the bounty hunter's arms rose up into the air, meaty paws clenched tight, and slammed down hard on the bulk of beef with a mean double hammer blow just before his body could slam into it. When it comes to situations like this, something's gotta give - it would have either been Ebris' fists, the hook/chain/support rack or the meat itself. Obviously, it was the meat. 100+ pounds of hardened carcass was torn right off the hook holding it up and was sent flying forward at reel skurry speeds at Injun right up ahead. If it were to hit, it wouldn't be a really rathin' pleasant experience, what, with it being pretty damn heavy and almost entirely frozen.
Of course, Ebris was never content with giving Jimbos time to deal with just one painful event. After the blow, his fists continued to come down, arms still angled at the elbow, and began to pump with his continued charge. So, not only did Injun have to deal with the airborne mass of meat, he had to worry about something even bigger and far, far meaner charging his a down for an a whoopin'.
[02/17]
With a slaughtered carcass of beef waving around all on its lonesome between them, it at least offered a pretty good reference point. It wasn't as if Deitric had to worry about some other beef-based projectiles, the rest were behind Ebris, or knocked off their hooks. He hadn't really expected the bounty hunter to attack the side of beef so vigorously, but he was used to the idea that people were going to throw strange things at him in this tournament. Shoes, sides of beef, who knew what else.
So when this one came flying at him, the black haired warrior took the initiative and pushed off to his left, hurling himself a couple of meters before he touched down again. His opponent would of no doubt seen him dodge, but if Ebris had just continued his charge to follow after the beef, he wasn't going to get a hold of Deitric just yet - he'd have to turn and face the man's new position, first. When the brave leapt, he didn't stop there, but instead kept his feet moving, circling around Ebris out into the open divide that the workers would have used to move the sides of meat. Like the bounty hunter, he wore boots too, and they afforded him enough traction to get around safely.
The other man was like a bull in a china shop - he could buck and throw his weight around and crush plenty of things around him. But he was also like a bull on the charge - pretty fast in a straight line, but probably not so great with the whole "turning" bit. The tribesman was a bit more mobile than his adversary, and he was going to use that - getting out of the way of the charge and circling around into that empty divide, aiming to draw Ebris along to fight there by playing 'keep away', all the while trying to gather as much energy as he could.
There was no doubt he wanted to fight Ebris in hand to hand - but he wanted it on his terms, which had first involved keeping the distance between them until he could get into the open space between the two sides of the freezer used for storage. His fists were up now that he was (presumably) in the divide, and a barely audible buzz filled the air, the lights above his head flickering and weakening a little.
The tribesman wouldn't have to wait long, that much was probably certain. The bounty hunter wasn't one to shy away from jumping into the fray, and now he had the chance.
[2/17]
The Injun wasn't just darn tootin' - Ebris did have a rathin' b***h of a time changing directions when going full blast, especially when a Jimbo jumped outta the way at the last second.
Problem is, the Jimbo dodged outta the way of a projectile, whereas Ebris still had some wiggle room to change direction. So, when Struck by Mustang hurled his body out of the way of the zooming hunk of beef, the hunter's right boot slammed down with vicious force, spreading small fissures through the concrete floor as the foot pivoted to begin the diversion of his forward momentum into this new course - which would take his rampaging a more in the direction of the Injun. It wasn't perfect, as there still was a lot of rathin' force to direct, but it was actually possible in comparison to trying to turn after the sumbitch if he had dodged Ebris and not the beef. It was clear that the meat projectile was not so much a weapon but grod to get the b***d moving, which made it harder for him to full-out evade the bounty hunter.
Hur hur, Ebris done gone used some strategery.
Swerving heavily, the scum came back around far quicker than Injun had hoped and was once again barreling down on him. The piston-like legs suddenly began to slow, though, to more of a large, powerful loping. It wasn't as fast as a charge, but it gave him even more control over his turns and was still able to move rathin' fast. Ebris' fists also unclenched at this point and poised into something claw-like, as if ready to grab something shiny just off to either side of him. If the Injun continued to try and circle strafe him, he'd find out that Ebris' method of running was more than enough to change course and close the distance even easier. And if he tried to do a last-moment dodge?
Well, let's wait and see what happens.
[03/17]
Ebris might have managed to turn, but Deitric had still gotten the chance to move - and as long as he had gotten to jump to the side, he didn't need to do much else. Most of the circling would have been to try and draw the hunter along, but the larger man was more than eager to fight; the extra bait wasn't really needed.
In the divide used to cart meat in and out of the freezer was where Deitric stood - not quite as deep into it as he would have hoped, but away from any pointy implements or sides of beef, for the time being. Ebris might have wanted to get him moving, but that was what the tribesman had wanted to do anyways - the same idea, but probably for different purposes. Deitric just wanted to fight in the open away from any strange tools or meat products.
But now that he was in the divide, he abruptly stopped the trailing ruse and stood his ground, gloved fists up and at the ready. Of course, there wasn't exactly a lot of time for him to prepare, Ebris was practically a second away from bringing the fight to him.
khsh
Electricity crept along the ceiling and burst a light off to the side, sending a spray of glass and tiny, blue arcs that dissipated into the air. The area around the tribesman began to hum like someone had dragged a generator into the room, and the air seemed to heat-warp a little as snapping jolts leapt over the man's body.
At any time, he could have reversed himself and tried to go on the offensive - but he hadn't. At least now, he wasn't moving anymore, and was set to let Ebris bear down on him and attack. It might have seen strange to the audience at home that the brave had purposefully avoided combat until now, and even so wasn't actually moving in to commit, but instead just.. standing his ground.
But there was a method behind the apparent madness. At least, there was some vague reasoning behind it. Now wasn't a good time to ask, though. Interviews could wait until after they finished beating the everloving crap out of each other, which was about to happen any second once the two fighters finally met toe to toe.
Cameras should be turned on, now.
[3/17]
Runnin', runnin', runnin'.
That's all the Injun seemed to be good at, Ebris thought, his temper flaring with each heavy footfall that seemed to bring him closer to the sumbitch with every passing moment, only to find that the Jimbo was able to play keep away time and time again. Old teeth gritted together loud enough to almost be audible over the thundering movements of the bounty hunter, making it pretty rathin' apparent just how chipper he was. Ebris knew this punk could duke it out pretty well - rath, he had been the only humanoid to have ever knocked him out in this damn tournament, although he returned the favor with much love - but he was acting like one helluva CHUMP by twinkle toeing all over the rathin' place.
If this grod didn't end soon, the Injun might come to find that Ebris really didn't rathin' care about that whole "no killing" grod the tournament waved over all the fighter's heads.
So, instead of keeping it cool and grod, the floor began to quake once again with a HAET TRAIN charge. Ebris had been denied kicking the grod out of Jimbos and Jimbettes for the PAST THREE RATHIN' MATCHES, and by the rathin' Throne, there was no way he'd be rathin' denied of stomping several mudholes all over the Injun. When Struck by Mustang decided to end this chicken grod bullgrod and turned around to face the rampaging hunter, he'd realize that antagonizing the geriatric madman really was not too smart of an idea, as he'd be getting a clear shot of the b*****d's ugly, pissed-off mug nearly right up in his face. Not even the light bursting above seemed to phase his rage.
"MAN-"
THUD
A left boot rocketed down, bringing him just two outside of sledgefisting range as the Injun began to turn to face the bounty hunter.
"-THE-"
THUD
There went the right. The distance was almost closed, and with that, the rathin' pain would come a rainin' down.
"-RATH-"
THUD
Another left, and with it, his right arm began to pull back and under, bent at the elbow with its hand tightening into a massive sledgefist. This wasn't gonna be rathin' pleasant.
"-UP!"
THUD
And there it went. Ebris' right arm shot up as his right brought his mass well within range of striking the Injun. His hips swerved in with the blow for added power, and rath, would it have a rathton of it. It was a body blow, aimed to travel up like a massive uppercut into the sumbitch's solar plexus if the blow hit dead on. It could easily cause the stomach to rupture for a normal Jimbo, but the Injun fortunately was muscled well-enough to probably avoid that mess. It'd still hurt like all rathin' hell and possibly send him flying backwards, but it wasn't full strength.
No, that'd come in a wee bit.
[04/17]
Deitric's eyes narrowed as Ebris bore down on him, finally putting them toe to toe. They were only a few inches and fifty or sixty pounds apart - not nearly the same gap as between the bounty hunter and other fighters - but the different was clearly noticeable. Ebris was a much thicker, broader built man, while the tribesman actually looked smaller than he really was. The difference was enough to set them apart, both in fighting, and otherwise.
When Ebris's fist came in, Deitric didn't choose the obvious path of getting the hell out of Dodge like most other warriors would have opted to do. Instead, he rolled his shoulders up and tucked his guard down--
--And took the punch nearly dead on, with his arms taking the brunt of the force, and the armor 'neath his jacket taking some more. Even then, the punch would have sent a reverberating thud through his entire body - you didn't just stand still and take that sort of punch, even intentionally, and not come away with some pain. But with Ebris's strength, came the chance for the Khasmin man to use it against him.
Lifted off the ground a little, he kept his shoulders hunched up and head tucked down, almost 'balling' his upperbody a little to protect it, while his legs tucked up for a split second, bunching up like tightly coiled springs. But only for that split-second.
Then he straightened them in the next split-second - aimed right for Ebris's leg, a good hand's length above the knee or so. It was somewhere between a double mule kick and a dropkick - not entirely planned, but hey. Deitric was going to work with whatever hand he was dealt, and try his best to turn an advantage out of it.
Of course, with his penchant for traps and tricks - even those not quite planned - it wasn't any surprise that it would just be any sort of normal attack.
Abilities Wrote:►Thunder Drum - Easily the most simple (and versatile) attack Deitric can perform, he channels a small amount of energy into an arm (or leg, even) before loosing a single, strong attack with it. This attack generates a stunning amount of force in comparison to his normal ones, more than enough to drop someone regret it should they try and take it on the chin. Once the strike lands, an outward explosion of force is generated, along with a small "blast radius" of electricity [roughly the size of a basketball].
If Ebris had sledgefists, he'd be feeling double jackhammers to the thigh, right about now, not to mention a healthy dose of electricity. Even with his arguably tough-as-nails bones, the big man had to be hurting at least as much as Deitric was, after the exchange. The attack, with the supernatural force supplying a lot of the physical power, was enough to really damage someone smaller and not quite as tough - hopefully, it'd help slow the bounty hunter down a bit.
Hopefully, with it aimed low on the thigh, it'd force him to lose his balance and bowl forward, while at the same time the black-haired brave was rebounded off his opponent with the combined force of the punch and retaliatory kick-off, sent a good ten or twelve feet back, a little bit off-kilter as he flew (flailed) through the air to hit feet first and stumble back.
He managed to keep his hands up, but the sound coming from his breathing was the "Hoooooor" of someone trying to catch their breath, with the racking cough of someone about to be violently nauseous. His metal bracers had bit into the flesh of his forearms and drew blood beneath his sleeves, and his entire ribcage ached something terrible, but he didn't have any bones poking into anything vital.
So at least he wasn't dead. Hopefully he'd left Ebris in a similarly painful condition.
[4/17]
Blow fer rathin' blow.
That's more Throne-damned LIKE IT.
As satisfying as it felt his sledgefist WHUD into the Injun's gut - regardless of the fact that he had some grodpacked armor there - Ebris knew that the sumbitch went and took the blow head on on purpose. Not even someone as tough as that damned redskin would take a full-on blow from him, especially not after being on the receiving end of that kind of grod last year. Ebris' blues narrowed viciously and prepared to deal with what he figured the Injun was gonna do - release some of his favorite kind of goofy woowoo grod: electricity.
While the bounty hunter's right sledgefist ground into the sumbitch's solar plexus, his left was off doing other grod. Namely, it was still in grabby-hands mode, ready to lash out and latch onto something nice and tight and make sure it wouldn't go no where while Ebris learned it up something rathin' fierce. Meanwhile, Injun was carried up partially from the force of the blow, which allowed him to go and tuck his legs up into himself. Warning bells started to raise rathin' hell in the scum's single-tracked mind and instinctively he began to slide his right leg forward. During this, his left arm began to shoot inward, crossing over. There was no time to move the leg outta the way of what the Injun was telegraphing, so by moving it in, it would make sure that the sumbitch didn't rathin' go and -
WHU-WHUD
"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-"
So, it wasn't the knee - it was the Throne-damned thigh. The move he had done had inadvertently made him an even bigger target, but rath, it'd have been worse if the sumbitch had tried to buckle his knee in. That wouldn't have been fun at all. The b*****d's legs were strong as all hell, and coupled with the sparkly blue grod that shot out of the damn things like a smashed droid - revealing that the Injun could grod electricity outta almost every orifice, it seemed - it caused all the muscles in the limb to seize up all painful-like. Grod, if it weren't for the fact that Ebris' bones were so stupidly hard, the contraction would have probably shattered the Throne-damn femur. Nature boy done got his wish - with Ebris' weight supported by the stunned leg, coupled with the beginning of the vaulting maneuver, the hunter would begin to teeter forward and begin the quick, painful descent into faceplant hell.
Except...
Snatch!
HEH HEH, rathin' gotcha, ya sumbitch Injun!
Remember that grabby-hands left arm? Well, it had been sent in earlier and it was gonna make it DAMN certain that the sumbitch didn't get away with this goofy grod one way or another. And how did it do this? By catching hold of the redskin's right boot as he pushed himself off the scum's own right leg. As soon as the gnarled hand found purchased, it instantly clamped shut around the thing like a rathin' Otharian Devil Snapper's maw and refused to let go. So, an interesting situation began to develop between the two HUEG fighters. Ebris was already falling forward due to his leg giving out, so when the Injun found himself suddenly stopping in mid-air due to the grasping hand, he'd also find that he'd be carried to the ground with even more rathin' force than normal. And boy, it wasn't a graceful thing.
THUD
"RRRNNNGGH!"
The bounty scum's room-shaking fall caused him to land on his stomach all sprawled-out like, whereas the Injun would probably find himself on his a and back. And with this situation, the Injun was thrust into some deep, deep grod. Being on the ground with Ebris Dhifi was NOT a good idea - sure, the huge sumbitch wasn't gonna dry hump your leg and twist it into a pretzel (well, he might do that part), but he had no qualms about jumping up and down on top of grounded Jimbos and pounding their squishy bodies in like an enraged, gorilla-looking motherrather. And, if the Injun didn't react quick, that's what was prolly gonna happen to him, which would be confirmed by his a suddenly getting dragged closer when Ebris' left arm yanked hard on the leg. As this happened, the right side of his body lurched up and somewhat into the air, arm arcing up with it while crossing over in front of his face/head. Kinda resembled some rathed-up land whale that was desperately trying to flop around, and as rathin' funny as it might have looked, it was just as rathin' terrifying, because-
WHUCRACK
That enraged land whale was gonna bring the rathin' hurt on.
That's the noise that would fill the freezer, anyway, if the brute's fist collided with its intended target: the Injun's right ankle. The force behind it was easily capable of turning the joint into crunchy-laced jelly, especially with Ebris' left grabby hand torquing the foot in the opposite direction to pull the redskin forward and make the thing easier to hit. Even if it didn't ruin the ankle, it would cripple the foot just as bad as the Jimbo's kick had stopped his leg, if not worse. It'd mean that both of 'em wouldn't be able to huck and jive around like faggerts for a nice bit of time, and Ebris was peachy-rathin'-keen with that, as he wanted to spend some nice, comfy-cosy time with the b*****d.
[05/17]
Eh?
Deitric didn't exactly expect a grab - he'd expected the other hand to try and punch him or something while he was still there. Stopping flight in mid-air wasn't what he had in mind, and his only immediate response was the first thing to come to mind when something grabbed at your foot.
They both smacked down onto the concrete floor with a thump, neither landing being altogether nice. And when they hit the ground, the tribesman's survival instinct kicked in - when something grabbed you, you got it off of you as quickly as possible. Without any hesitation, his free leg hiked back, knee towards his chest, launched down like a stomp. From afar, it might of looked like he was going to use Ebris's head - or face, if the hunter had the misfortune of looking up at Deitric - as a stepping stone with his free foot.
That wasn't going to feel good, even if you had a ferrocrete skull like Ebris probably did - especially with the steel heel-cap the brave's boots had. For most fighters, or just athletes in general, the legs were the most powerful limbs, easily able of pressing or moving several times their own bodyweight. With his back supported by the ground, Deitric was loosing a rabbit-kick from hell, right into Ebris's face and/or skull.
But that wasn't all - the darker skinned fighter couldn't just leave his chances of escape up to fate and the off-hand possibility that his kick would hurt enough to make the bounty hunter release his grip. Instinct drove him further than that - to do whatever he needed to do.
Normally, he used the Hawk's Flight technique to fly into or towards an opponent, and strike with the intent of doing some serious damage. However, given the piercing nature of the attack, Ebris would be happy to find that portion of the attack wasn't being used, since trying to pierce your opponent's skull was generally a no-no.
Instead, Deitric was relying heavily on the serious boost to propulsion it gave him, aiming to literally blast off from with the kick as the jumpstart to his movement. The use of the ability wouldn't harm Ebris beyond the physical force of the rabbit kick - he just wanted the sudden movement the technique gave him.
FWOOSH
Assuming he'd been able to react fast enough (and one would hope, given no one wanted something as ugly as Ebris clinging onto your ankle like some sort of crazed demon), Deitric would be sent skidding backwards on his back with enough force that Ebris would be left holding the tribesman's boot and greave in his hand. That seemed vaguely familiar - Gamma had been in the same position last year.
Deitric lost boots quicker than he lost pieces of armor, it seemed.
The bounty hunter had a serious grip, though, and forcing himself loose by other means than breaking said grip imposed some penalties - namely, his ankle was very nearly pulled out of socket, and even if Ebris hadn't gotten to punch the Khasmin man like he wanted, his sheer grip strength combined with Deitric's sudden jettison of force to oppose the grip would lay down some hurt anyways, putting them back at equal footing (no pun intended). Nothing broken, but definitely rolled and in pain. If it weren't for the immediate cold in the room, it would have probably started swelling.
Speaking of cold, Deitric's bare foot - covered only in a thick thermal sock - wasn't exactly liking it, besides the immediate numbing sensation that helped ward off a little of the pain. Assuming the two had been blasted apart, Deitric would use his backwards movement to roll and come up in a half-crouch, favoring his injured leg a little with a wince. Blood misted into the air from his nose as he breathed - a small price for the abrupt exertion of his power, and one that would probably continue to grow as the match wore one.
With any luck, he'd left Ebris with a boot, a bootprint, and one giant ******** headache in payment for the gut punch and swelling ankle.
[5/17]
WHUTHUNK
Jimbo done hit something alright with them thar feet, but it wasn't the brute's thick skull.
Steel toes met synthflesh and durasteel bones as the Injun's boot collided with Ebris' right forearm. As it had come down and crossed over his face to try and nail the b*****d's ankle, it was directly in the path of the defensive kick. Ebris' fake arm began at the elbow and went all the way down, meaning that that limb was even more durable than his ridiculously-hard bones, as well as extremely numb to pain - it had synthetic nerves to allow motor function, but they were deadened to pain in comparison to what a real limb might feel after getting the grod kicked outta it. It still hurt, but what came next actually hurt even rathin' more - since the arm was in the way, the boot forced it brutally forward to smack right into the bounty hunter's ugly mug with a resounding CRACK.
"AUUNGH PIIITTTTTHHH! NHOT RATHUNN AGUNNN!!!!"
The bellowing, nasal and near-comical noises that erupted from the gaping maw of Ebris Dhifi confirmed that his nose had been broken...yet again. Blood began to trickle down the horribly-bent piece of cartilage and flesh at a rapid pace, causing the scum to spit ropes of it out. He didn't pay too much attention as the Injun went rocketing off, leaving Ebris with a crushed boot in his left paw. After a moment, the hunter turned and blinked at the piece of footwear before snorting off a nasaly bit of profanity and hurling the thing aside. He then began to get up, slowly at first, testing the injured right leg out some. Fortunately, it was getting better by the moment - it still hurt like all rathin' piss and would so for a good long while, but most of its functionality would return within this actual fight. For now, Ebris figured as he stood up and cracked his shoulders with some rolling motions, some pissed-off, very quick limping would have to do.
The huge scowl on the scum's face began to form into a feral grin as his blues eyed down the sumbitch right on ahead. Both of Ebris' hands began to rise up at this point, coming around to envelop his bent, red-soaked nose.
"Hegn-hegn. Had enguff yet, Nnimbo?"
CRIKK
"Ahhh...'cause I'm just gettin' started."
And after Ebris re-set his nose and finished his grodtalk, he started up them pissed-off, very quick limps towards the Injun, and with each step, a noticeable increase in speed could be perceived. Things didn't look too good for Struck by Mustang. Mmm-mmmh, nosireejimbob.
[06/17]
Swears and odd, nonsensical curses abound from the bounty hunter, Deitric at least had to grin - he'd managed to hit something with his rabbit kick. Hell, Ebris probably looked a little better with the flattened nose. Better being a relative term, of course.
The warrior picked himself up, testing the now shoeless right foot on the cold floor. A spark of pain shot up into his calf along the back of the ankle, but with enough pressure and movement it would be able to support his weight enough for him to fight without much hindrance - sprinting around full speed would hurt like a sonuvabitch, and most certainly make the injury worse in the long run, but the ever-creeping cold managed to sap away both warmth and pain in equal measure.
Deitric began to breathe deeply through his nose. It was bleeding pretty heavily - not quite like Ebris's snog, but still impressive for what must have seemed like a bit of dry skin in the cold air to those who didn't understand the sort of backlash the tribesman could begin to suffer under heavy use of his powers. The end of each breath had a hackling sound of phlegm and blood.
Of course, after getting gut-punched, and then slammed back-first onto the ground, it was pretty important to get his breath back. Deep breaths would help his breathing regulated and under control again. The nauseous feeling was still there, but at least he was sort of breathing normal again. Or, not suffocating or choking.
In response to Ebris's taunts, Deitric only smiled thinly and made a quick, curt motion of his left hand, as if he were daring the bounty hunter to come back into hand to hand range again. As one might expect, he remained ever silent, though - the need for talk was long since gone.
[6/17]
Both of em were hurt - enough to sober most men to the point where they calmed their asses down and limped back to their homes to lick the wounds inflicted upon them...but not these sumbitches. Broken nose? Horrific gut punch? Severe muscle craps? Torn ankle ligaments? Haw haw. Rathin' funny. Grod was just barely starting, but Ebris Dhifi was getting tired of that fact. It was time to kick this rathin' party into high gear.
Despite the limp, it didn't take long for Ebris to close the distance between himself and the beckoning Injun. His steps were thudding anymore, but they did fall heavily and ominously, which were punctuated by the dull clinking of chains throughout the chilled arena. As he made his way forward, both of his thick, trunk-like arms swung idly at his sides and not bothering in the slightest to be put up into a defensive or even offensive stance. The bloodlust that shone in his intense blues suggested of pain and murder yet to come, but he made no move to reflect such moods.
That is, however, until his right came down, bringing him into arm's reach of the Jimbo.
Whooosh!
The scum's arms, once gently swinging with each step, shot up suddenly like grease lightning. It was hard to tell what he was going to do with the hands - whether it be some sort of strike or grab - but both seemed to aim towards the Injun's head. Regardless of what he did, letting them hands get that close to something as necessary as a head was probably a pretty rathin' bad idea.
[07/17]
Deitric watched Ebris approach calmly, his features setting into a grim mask. His jaw tensed, a twitch of a flaring nostrils touching off on what might have been a hidden snarl - the sort of thing that was usually a rarity for the tribesman. But there was no doubt of some level of ire between the two warriors, who were hunters in their own rights, but differed in methodology and technique as much as night and day were different.
Open up your veins and splash the blood
and hit the power lines.
The bounty hunter stepped into relative arms' range for both of them, and the tribesman's response was immediate - and probably wholly unexpected. Why? Because Deitric didn't spit at people. He was largely a straightforward warrior, something even Ebris probably realized, and the sudden action was almost out of character for the brave.
BLOODROCUTED
But he wasn't spitting in disrespect. And it wasn't just saliva.
BLOODROCUTED
When Ebris's arms started coming up he might have seen a flash of red as Deitric suddenly spewed a mouthful of blood at the hunter's face. Leading the way was a small gobbet of pink flesh; a bit of the inside of the black haired fighter's mouth, bitten away to draw forth even more blood for his plan. That explained the grimace and set of his jaw moments before, and some of the blood was no doubt from the nosebleed he'd gathered. There was nearly half a mouthful, and that was more than enough.
You'll be BLOODROCUTED
The blood in and of itself wasn't an attack, it was the medium for the attack. The tribesman could have never explained the science behind it himself, but he'd figured that it acted about the same as the rain water in his previous Elimination match against Lazenca. That is to say, it could carry a charge - he could strike with it. And when he spewed blood right into the bounty hunter's face and possibly eyes, he forced as much of his power as he could into it. That was going to spell trouble for Ebris - it was going to be like Olympian Zeus had just jammed a lightning bolt right into his face.
You'll be BLOODROCUTED
Whatever damned painful and adverse effects that sort of attack was going to have on Ebris, it was going to have a hefty toll for Deitric. Spewing from his mouth, the backlash didn't target a limb like the arm or leg. No, the tribesman's lips bubbled with blisters and burns, and when his lips curled back in pain to reveal bloodstained teeth, they split and dribbled blood over his face. Ruby red droplets ran from his right ear as a ringing sound took precedence over all others, and his view of the world tilted a little to the left.
You'll be BLOODRUCTED
He could stand, but right now he was stumbling - backwards, away, fast, and unsteadily. If Ebris continued to bring his hands up (which was likely, since they'd acted at nearly the same time), he'd find there was no one there to grab. Deitric was stumbling off elsewhere, leaving them both in a whole lot of pain. Hopefully, the surprise and sudden attack was enough to leave Ebris reeling and blind from getting his face, if not laid low for a moment, while Deitric was nearly in the same position as he tried to regain his not-quite-right sense of equilibrium.
You'll be BLOODROCUTED RIGHT NOW
Pain train has pulled into the station. Passengers: Deitric Jocasta, Ebris Dhifi. Destination: PAIN CITY.
[7/17]
Ebris was thunkin'. Thunkin' hard, at that.
See, the Injun really held a special place in the bounty hunter's heart. The only other person besides him to have actually KO'd him in all of these Throne-damned tournament was a rathin' DRAGON; and, with that fight, he managed to mine the sumbitch's jaw right off for a souvenir! But this...this grodpacked redskin had managed to get an honest-to-rath double KO against him. Sure, he'd been tied in some fights, even KO'd, like against the Cole Jimbo or being shocked with enough electricity to down an elephant when Goatsick decided it'd be a bright idea to fight the mutie asswipe Jimbo. But neither of those fights had been a direct KO against him.
Ebris Dhifi didn't take too kindly to that grod, and therefore he was thunkin' hard - thunkin' about what the rath to do to this sumbitch.
By just getting his hands on his redskin face and head alone, he could crush him, maul him, fishhook him, gouge him, tear him, rip him, smash him, throw him...the possibilities were pretty much rathin' endless! It was so Throne-damned hard to choose what kind of fun things to inflict upon the Jimbo, as Ebris wanted to make sure it was rathin' good and that the Injun would remember it DAMN well. The scum was so wrapped up in thinking about this grod - as well as getting his hands on him - that he barely had any time to react when the sumbitch's mouth moved and something red shot at him. So, he did something instinctive:
He closed his eyes.
"WHUT TH' RATHIN' P-"
BLOODROCUTED
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT
"-ISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"
It was like when glamorous leader threw a fireball right into his face in round one, only it was the entire face this time, he wasn't numbed to pain by being rathin' nuts, and it had the bonus effect of acting like a taser right to the face. Ebris would have thrown his hands to his face in pain if the electricity didn't cause immediate, temporary paralysis, but the sheer willpower he had, driven by the insane pain, was causing them to slowly move towards it. Flesh was charring from the attack, but there was one certain area that the damage was at its worst - the eyelids. By closing them, they were subjected to the most of the electrocution going on. The fact they were also the thinnest piece of skin on his face didn't help - it was so bad that they were literally charred by the currents running through his skull. Even still, that wasn't the worst part. When Ebris reflexively shut his eyelids, a small bit of blood was able to get in - not touching the eye, but right between the bottom of each eyelid and where they met the socket when they closed. So, when the shock died down and he stood there, twitching, Ebris tried to open his pain-filled eyes and found that they refused to obey him, and his voice began to fill the room in its rage.
The flesh of his eyelids had been fused shut to his eye sockets.
His voice died down, turning into ragged grunts and his form hunched, as if looking at the ground in contemplation. It only took a moment - his mouth suddenly formed into a rictus of fury and pain and his hands bolted up, clawed, to his face.
SSSHHHHKFFFLLLP
"RRRRAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGHHHH"
The roar shook ice off of carcasses and vibrated the walls. After it ended, Ebris' hands slowly fell from his face, opening up and allowing two small pieces of charred skin float to the ground like ash. His breathing was heavy, harsh - fog poured from his mouth. And then he began to look up.
The man needed to see, after all.
"Rathin...rathin' KILL YOOOOOOOUUUUUUUU!"
And then Ebris moved. It was a sudden, immense burst, as if his leg had never been hurt at all. The Injun had driven him into a rage far, far too early in the match - in other instances, he had been stopped due to sufficient injury or bleed outs. As agonizing as the injuries were, they were rathin' flesh wounds to someone like him. Bloodshot eyes glared insane murder as they locked upon the redskin warrior and a howl reflecting those intentions erupted from his maw continuously. The lack of blood pouring down over his lidless eyes revealed that the flaps of skin had been so charred that they had been essentially cauterized, thus removing all blood flow, meaning that the berserking scum wasn't going to be slowed down by being blinded by his own blood. His arms were thrashing around madly, nearly ripping any hunks of beef that got in the way right off their chains. He was going to be right on top of the b***d in seconds, and not even the Throne could save his doomed a when that happened.
[08/17]
Errgh?
In his wild, backpedaling-stumble, Deitric had bumped into the wall near the exit of the freezer, and something was poking into his back. Thankfully not a meat-hook, but it didn't take too long for his pain-hazed mind to put two and two together and figure out what the thing was. Besides that, he managed little else - except to notice the door to his right, the exit.
And a haze of pain wasn't quite accurate; it was quite a bit more than that. The bottom half of his face was blotched with black, burnt skin around his mouth and chin, which spread out and slowly lessened the further it got, without going past his upper lip while nearly reaching the end of his jawline. It gave the warrior the appearance of wearing a half-mask, with the upper half of his face being normal, and the lower something dug up from a pit in the depths of Hell - burnt, with his lips pulled back into a permanent snarl.
His world managed to right itself, or else he was just in too much pain to be bothered by a off-kilter view. The brave could still hear a ringing undercurrent in one year, but that didn't do anything to deafen Ebris's roar of anger. At the very least, it gave him something to focus on. And even he had to cringe - or, at least knit his eyebrows a bit in what was a half-cringe, since the lower half of his face didn't bother moving to show the full expression.
Ripping off one's own eyelids couldn't of felt good. Deitric had wished he'd been able to shoot a more potent attack off, but as it was, he didn't have the focus or energy. He'd used it liberally just beforehand - otherwise, Ebris would probably be having someone re-attaching his face, as opposed to him pulling off parts of it.
With the bounty hunter's full attention on him, he only had a few options at hand - most of which involved going back into direct combat. As it was, that didn't seem very prudent - the Khasmin man had more than enough determination, but he didn't have any sort of rage or righteous anger to make him ignore the throbbing in his face or the fact that the skin around his lips was crackling like dry leaves in the wind any time his face twitched.
As soon as the raging Ebris began to THUD THUD THUD his way towards the tribesman, he did the most viable thing offered to him.
He leaned back into what was poking him in the back, and crouched. Then, with a click, the entire freezer went black. What Deitric had been leaning into had been the row of light switches for the whole freezer, and when he crouched, he turned every single one of them from ON to OFF.
Of course, whether or not either of 'em had eyelids, neither of them could see in the dark, and the only other source of light was the outside world - and the door to the freezer was closed, at least for now. That didn't worry the tribesman very much, though.
Without pausing for even a moment in his new position, he lunged off beneath the low-hanging racks of meat to his left and disappeared, using his relatively uninjured arms for further leverage to hurl himself away from the last position he'd been in when Ebris has seen him.
Neither of them could see, but they could both hear. If Ebris had stopped running, there would be little for either of them to use to find each other - without sight and sound, they weren't going to be fighting directly for a few moments. Even if he hadn't stopped running, the likelihood of Deitric getting to him was pretty small, since the brave was setting himself in an entirely different direction. The only light source was the big EXIT sign above the door, but it offered little more than a faint glow.
Hopefully, the bounty hunter wasn't scared of the dark.
[8/17]
THUD
THUD
THUD
THUD
The haet/raeg/pain train roared along its one-track destination like a bat outta hell, chugging right for the Injun. Slobber flew from Ebris' mouth as if he were rabid, and for all intents and purposes, he might has well have been - minus the whole rathin' infection part. The scum was pretty much past the "smash face in" phase and more into the "RIP AND TEAR" phase of his raging. Just what he'd rip and tear would be found out as soon as his mitts managed to wring around something that belonged to the redskin's body.
That is, however, if the sumbitch stopped being so SKURR'd and stopped running all over the place.
Normally, Ebris' problem in these situations was turning to catch the dodging sumbitches, as charging made it really rathin' hard to do them quick turns to continue right after them. Howver, a new problem reared its ugly head as the Injun ducked down like a pansy: with a series of clicks, the lights flickered and the whole room faded to darkness. Ebris' phantom eyelids blinked a few times and his vocal chords rumbled up some odd, rage/confusion-filled noises, and before long, his charging mass met something just as hard as it was.
WHUNNKKK
"RAAAAGH!"
EBRIS NOT HAPPY.
The concrete wall was met with enough force to crack it thoroughly, but not enough to actually plow through it - not even Ebris could bust through a couple feet of solid concrete and rebar. His whole skeletal structure wasn't too keen with the impact, groaning heavily from the pain. In fact, the whole rathin' experience sobered him up some. He was still raging, but not mindlessly berserk. Grunting, Ebris began to pull himself up, wondering what the rath to do about this damn darkness, when he solved it right then and there himself.
Click!
While rising up, his bulk brushed against the switches, which had been pulled down. Most of the lights flickered for a bit and then hummed to life - however the lights in the upper right hand corner (to Ebris' direct right) did not light back up. The reason for this was due to Ebris' right side hitting the wall, which in turn slammed into the rightmost switch and snapped it, leaving it stuck in the off position. Still, it wasn't enough to keep that area in total darkness, as all the other lights made it so that it was like some sorta rathin' twilight in the area.
Grunting heavily, Ebris rotated on the spot, his bulging, bloodshot and lidless eyes glaring around furiously for the Injun. As soon as he'd see him - which would be very easy without the former darkness - he'd go loping after him as fast as he could without charging. This time, however, his right leg lagged behind in comparison to the strides of the left - it seemed his returned sanity reminded him that his rathin' leg was still in a lotta Throne-damned pain. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to slow him down just a tad. Ebris would thus hunt the Injun, who was probably hoping to have turned the tables in the darkness or some grod. Sucks to be him, hurhur.
[09/17]
The sound of Ebris getting personal with the wall shook the freezer a little, knocking off a few loose racks of meat. That couldn't of felt very good for either of them, though the wall probably came out of the exchange a little better.
It wouldn't take long for Ebris to see Deitric; he was standing down the opposite side of the divide, facing the bounty hunter down again. He was a little closer to the side of the freezer that had lost his lightning, and it cast an imitation of dusky shadows over his body, giving him a clear outline, but his features were steeped in shade and blurred from a distance. The brave stood with his right side leading, and both of his hands hanging down at his waist.
It was hard to see his face, but if someone had shone a light at him, the Khasmin man wouldn't of looked any better, but at least his features had shifted back to looking stoic and calm. Whatever adrenaline or pain fueled rigor mortis had kept his face locked earlier had fled, and if you ignored the burns, he might have passed for his usual self.
Regular, rhythmic puffs of foggy breath blew from his nostrils, but aside from that he could have been mistaken for a statue, until the long-haired warrior started walking towards his opponent.
There wasn't anything special about it. Just slow, measured steps. One foot after the other.
[9/17]