Someone will give in

[Damian]

As Damian walked the halls of the citadel, he passed by numerous doors with their own monks standing watch. Heartless bastards. He stared at every monk he passed, hoping they can fell the raw animal power he emitted. His shoes clunked softly against the hard tiled floor, he turned a corner and stopped abruptly after a few steps. No sound. Damian eyed the floor and noticed the hard tiled ground has turned to a soft yet firm carpet. He looked up towards where he was going and also noticed this was another hallway, it was a passageway leading straight into a giant metal door guarded by two monks. Damian quickens his pace toward the door, his white hair flowing behind him. He smiled to the monks, flashing his predator teeth to them.

The monks turned their heads simultaneously, “What would you like?” The monks said in unison.

Damian normally would have thought that as really creepy, but right now he doesn’t care. “Oh you know what I want.” Damian flashed his sharpen pearly whites again. The monks bowed their head, again at the same time, and the doors swung outward.

As he walked through the doorway he was enveloped in a white light, but as quickly as it came to be the light disappeared. The vision that replaced it was beautiful; Damian’s eyes widen to accept the serenity of the landscape. A field that was covered in tall grass, dotted with shady trees and small rivers. The grass rippled under the gentle breeze, but still blazed a golden radiance from a midday sun. Damian, smiling to himself, walked to the nearest tree and removed his duster and laid it on its roots. His opponent would come soon, but for now he was enclosed in spring.

[The Archer]

The Citadel.

Seth tended to find his way here when he was lost. The Citadel had been the first place he'd been to when he came to Corone from Salvar after he'd been bitten, and it was now the first place he came after returning from Fallien.

He wanted to run the entire way back to Ki's home in Akashima, to let her know that other than a few scars, he'd made it out all right. But he'd been gone so long he was afraid that his lover might have found someone new or have decided to go off on her own again for another adventure, however ill-advised. That woman had a wanderlust matched by very few people the were-fox had ever seen, and to be honest, while he loved her, it was annoying.

If he was honest with himself, though, that wasn't the real reason he had come to the Citadel. While in Fallien he'd fought in the Prahna'dyuta, a system of challenges to beasts or masters of Fallien fighting techniques. He'd been up against the Vajramushti master alongside a young Fallien warrior, and they'd acquitted themselves as well as they could.

He wasn't concerned that it had been a violent encounter. He'd been forced to fight then. What DID disturb him was that he'd felt the beast within him trying to tear its way out and kill both of the other people sharing that cavern with him. He couldn't go back to the kitsune family he'd come to love and cherish if he was becoming a monster that might hurt them. He needed to know if he was safe or not, and at least here if he bit someone, the damage could be undone.

The werefox stepped into the cool halls, walking through them and over polished stone with the briefest reflection that the Corone sun hadn't seemed to set his ebony fur on fire like the Fallien sun had. Of course, as a native of Salvar, he preferred colder still, but having been infected, he couldn't go back. He shook his vulpine head wearily. If not for his curse, there were a lot of things he'd never have left.

He stopped in front of a pair of monks, pulled back from his reverie by human presences. He tilted his head, looking at the monks curiously for a few moments before asking his question. "What's in there?"

"Your challenge," rang out two voices simultaneously as an intense white light enveloped him.

~*~

When the area darkened enough for him to see again, Seth was standing once more in the forest whose creatures he had hunted from the day he'd been able to string his first bow. Every detail was exactly as he remembered, from the thinly layered trees to the little brooks bubbling underfoot. They froze solid in winter, he remembered. It even smelled the same.

While looking at his surroundings, Seth had been wondering about the location of his opponent, and as his ebony and emerald eyes caught a glimpse of him, the lycan-fox's ears flattened against his head and he felt a growl rumbling in his chest as his instincts told him to hunt and kill.

Instead, he forced himself to be a human in a beast's form. "Hey!" If his opponent wanted a decent battle, he could come make introductions. And if not, Seth had plenty of warning time.

[Damian]

Damian scanned the horizon, losing himself in the hypnotic rhythm of the wind in the grass. He smelled the air that swirled around him, nature smelled sweet as her pungent fumes filled Damian’s olfactory senses. But some smell on the fringe of the air perplexed him. “Hey!”

Damian spun a little to his left and saw his opponent has arrived. Well, that answers that question. He squinted against the glare from the golden light, and saw a strange creature. The newcomer looked like a human sized fox walking upright. Slightly surprised by his opponents features, Damian smiled to himself and checked his body to make sure his equipment was all set. Claws in back pocket, knife and dagger in their hilts. Everything is set.

Damian walked a few feet towards the vulpine figure. “Damian,” he shouted pointing to himself. I am not even sure this thing can speak. Damian kept his eyes trained on the fox as he waited for his reply.

[The Archer]

Seth grinned as the pale man introduced himself, starting to walk over at an easy pace. The fight would start in its own time, and he'd prefer to catch the scent of his opponent clearly. He could already tell that the man was taller than he was by just a bit, and had a little weight on him as well, but that shouldn't matter too much in this fight. Seth wasn't here to hold back today. He needed to know. He needed to.

"Seth," he said in response as he drew closer. He could smell his opponent now, and recognized him as something somewhat akin to himself, although he appeared mostly human. This Damian was definitely Salvarian, nowhere else was there that tendency towards such pale skin and hair. Of more interest to the werefox was the odd coloration of his opponent's eyes. One was green and the other blue, as if in a taunt of his own black and green eyes.

When he was within six paces of his opponent, Seth stretched out and shook his thick fur out, limbering up before the match. He let his gaze linger over his opponent as he did so. This might turn into just the sort of match he needed...or it might not.

"Lycanthrope?" he asked quietly. "We're gonna have to chat about our experiences as lycans after this fight. Speaking of which..."

He gave a lazy yawn, still mentally prepping himself for combat. "You want to just brawl, or one runs and the other hunts him down after an agreed period of time? I haven't had a good hunt in months, but I'm up for a good man to man brawl."

[Damian]

As Damian side stepped to get a better look at his opponent, the fox-man relaxed himself and spoke. He introduced himself as Seth, and then continued to limber his body. Damian stopped now; he saw the full features of his rival, an entire fox body but built with a human skeletal structure. Damian even caught a glimpse of normal human hands. Damian smiled to himself once again, as soon as he figured it out the answer came out of Seth’s muzzle.

“Lycanthrope?” Seth asked, and Damian nodded in approval. Back in Salvar, his darker half was named many things, but he never heard the formal title until he moved out to the countryside of Corone. Lycanthrope. Damian has heard that word whispered by men, shrieked by women, and gasped by children, as he walked the streets of the nearby cities and towns. He hated his darker side, but he hated ignorant villagers even more, people who would rather see him burned than walk a life as a free man.

Hardly free at all.

Damian snapped back to reality as he caught the end of Seth’s question. Hunt or Fight? He tossed around the ideas for a second. But decided he needed to quell his boiling blood. As Damian decided, he flashed his predator teeth to Seth and dug his boot into the ground, nudging a good size rock loose. “I choose fight.” Damian kicked his foot straight out, knocking loose the rock into the air. Damian caught it with his right hand, on its ascent, and in one fluid motion sidearm threw the rock towards Seth’s head.

[The Archer]

Seth sighed as the rock was flung at him, lazily reaching up to catch it, and then looked down at the fist-sized chunk of limestone in his hand. He'd met another lycanthrope -- another Salvic lycanthrope, if he didn't misplace the accent -- but then his counterpart went and pulled amateur stunts like that. Seth had hoped for something much better than that, but this is what he had to work with.

"All right, man. No holds barred. Animal on animal."

It was really hard to be enthusiastic about a fight if he didn't have respect for his opponent. Hard to feel the same rage as when he fought for his life. He might need to find another opponent after this one, if he didn't find the answers he needed from this battle.

With another sigh, the werefox stretched his feet, gripping the soft loam beneath his paws as he eyed his opponent. Suddenly, his ears snapped back and he lunged for Damian with a snarl, swinging his massive fists with all the strength his form and his work with a longbow gave him. He wouldn't bite -- he'd do his best to not bite, and if he wound up trying for it, he'd know that he was too dangerous to be with his lover and her family anymore.

[Damian]

Well…that went smooth.

Damian smiled to himself as Seth caught the rock with apathy. The fox seemed to disapprove as he tossed the yellow colored chunk into the nearby stream. He looked back toward his wolf equivalent and tensed up his body for the imminent attack.

Seth crouched as he mentioned his interest to fight the beast inside Damian. Fine you want an animal. The demon inside his head howled with approval as it attempted to break down its mental cage. The white haired man willed his beast to shut up, the wolf snarled at his conscious baring its blood stained teeth. Damian focused on the battle; he reached toward his back pocket. He tried to grab his clawed gloves, but Seth already began his advance. The fox with his ears pinned back against his head, broke out into a full sprint, cocking back his fist ready to strike.

Damian was caught slightly off guard with his hands down in his back pocket. Wide eyed, he ripped his hands from his back pocket, having no time to produce any weapon he cursed to himself. The wolf’s eyes locked with the fox’s, as he stared at the oncoming attacker; a horrid memory flashed in his mind.

The mangy wolf racing toward Damian, the pale moonlight radianting off its demonic form. The animalistic stare.

The beast howled again inside his mind, it ripped a small measurement of the cage asunder. The flash of memory, still vivid in his mind, made Damian’s heart race spreading the fiery adrenaline through his blood. The werewolf screamed as he stepped forward and fell to his knees. The ground gave way under the falling weight of his body. He slammed his fists side by side and trusted them upwards at Seth's lunging body.

[The Archer]

Way...too...easy...

Damian had a little more reach than Seth did, but a lot less momentum, and that would work in the fox's favor. Seth let his opponent's fists connect with his belly, hurting a little, and then swung his fists, aiming for Damian's face. It was somewhat funny -- Seth had no doubts that if they both were in their pure animal forms, he'd be in a hell of a lot of trouble. As it was, he didn't quite think Damian knew how to fight.

Stepping back, Seth sighed and sat on a rock. This just wasn't a fight as it stood, not by any stretch of the imagination. In his last battle, he'd had his cheek sliced open just for touching his opponent. This one tripped over his own feet.

"Listen, man, this isn't a fight. You were reaching for a weapon or something, and I need a good fight right now, before I head home. No more of this sissy stuff. If you're not willing to kill me in here, I'm not gonna have a good guide to go off of. So do what you want, and let me know when you're ready."

It was probably bad sport to be such a good sport, but Seth didn't care right now. He needed real danger from a real opponent, and now. He'd much rather go into a Rage around a complete stranger than around Ki -- again, or her kits or the gentle Ai, who couldn't defend themselves.

[Damian]

The wind swirled around Damian’s body, kicking up small tornados that danced around his boots. The cool wind felt odd as it enveloped his warm body; dissipating the hot sweat that clung to his chest and legs. The wind also carried the musky scent of Seth, who has placed himself on top of a small jutting rock under the peaceful shade of a timothy tree. Seth’s scent ruined the prefect aroma of sage, timothy, and lilac that sweetly lingered in the noon spring air. Damian’s nose followed the foreign scent to Seth’s rocky perch, where the fox began his selfish banter.

The wolf ignored Seth’s soapbox lecture, his defensive move has worked. Damian finally was able to produce his gloved claws from his back pocket. He placed his hands inside the gloves; half listening to Seth rant, the smooth leather inside clutched his hand like a second layer of skin. He flexed his fingers into a rigid fist, the steel nails dug into the leather palm. The familiar nature of his “claws” and the oncoming bloodlust made the wolf in the mental cage actually wag its tail in glee, and made Damian shudder in disgust. You’re right, no more sissy stuff.

“Shut up you freak! You wanted me to fight like an animal, like a beast like you,” Damian shouted as he pointed a steel nail to his furry opponent on the rock. “Well I am not like you, I am a HUMAN with a god forsaken curse,” he stomped his foot on the ground, the adrenaline in his body was being pumped faster. “But if you want to be an animal, then I will kill you like an animal.” The wolf inside of his head fidgeted inside its cage impatient for the battle.

His muscles tighten and relaxed in a messy universal motion as he sprinted toward his opponent. His shock white hair flowed loosely behind Damian, bouncing with each hard stride. The man’s lungs were burning from the vacuum that was created, while Damian screamed his attack. As Damian approached the rock at full speed he changed direction with a small sidestep to the right. Just a meter away, he leaped and gripped a low lying branch from the timothy tree. With his added momentum Damian swung his body off the branch and toward Seth with his feet flying out in front.

[The Archer]

Seth stood as the werewolf finished pulling on his clawed gloves and ran at him, standing still while watching his opponent rush at him, letting his furred hands clench into fists. Briefly, he wished he had a knuckleduster like his partner in the Prahna'dyuta had owned, but he'd had to turn his rookie's version back in at the end of a very brutal match.

Suddenly, his opponent sidestepped and flipped over a branch, coming at him with as much momentum as he possibly could. The only problem was it was a highly visible move, allowing Seth to sidestep readily, and grab Damian by the leg as he passed.

"Listen, guy, we're both cursed. I just need to see how bad my curse is."

He yanked hard, trying to tear his opponent from his perch and fling him against a tree. It really was all too easy to see what his opponent was doing, and that irritated Seth. It had been the subtle viciousness of Idynstar, tearing him apart with his glass knuckleduster, that had brought out the beast -- almost into a Rage -- for the werefox. And now he was facing one of his own, and it just wasn't anything to write home about.

"I have a family to go home to...a mate and her two kits...but only if I can be sure that I won't harm them more by going home than my absence has."

The thought of being able to go home lifted his spirits, but he knew that if he was going to go home, he'd have to prove to himself that he was safe for them. He knew Ki could handle herself, and had probably taught Ryo and Chiyo well in his absence, but he needed to protect them. He'd gone away to protect them from potentially losing a mother. He was currently fighting here to see if he needed to protect them from himself by staying away from them forever. It would break his heart -- it might even kill him -- but he just wouldn't risk their safety. It was too important to him.

[Damian]

Damian felt the clamp of Seth’s hands as he kicked forward blindly. The wolf seized a hold of the branch with left claw. The nails slowly splintering the soft bark while Damian swung like a pendulum. With the fox’s unknowing assistance, Damian kicked his feet on top of the low lying branch and countered his momentum as he still gripped with his hand. He lied prone on top of the branch with his back angled toward his furry rival; his right hand draped over his chest, snaked its way to the hilt of his dagger. As his two fingers felt the handle he rolled off the branch turning slightly in the air, he landed on his left knee and right foot with Seth still perched on top of his craggy throne. The dust did not have time to settle before the white haired man side armed his dagger toward Seth.

The wind stopped and all life inside the artificial meadow ceased to be. Damian did not know if that is the way it was…or if it was just the monks screwing with them. The sudden stillness put Damian’s darker side on edge. The mangy wolf thrashed inside his prison, breaking down the mental walls faster than Damian could remake.

It is going to get out soon. A chill ran down Damian's spine as he sweated in the spring swelter.

[The Archer]

Seth had no idea how his grab and yank actually managed to help the werewolf somersault over the branch he'd gripped. He supposed it was a werewolf thing, and instead of dodging away from his opponent's blade, he reached out for his wrist to grab it, wishing once more that he had a knuckleduster. Then he could proceed to beat his opponent silly. But he didn't.

He just had knuckles and a really hard swing.

Now, his opponent's blade mere inches from his body, Seth stepped forward, bringing his right hand down on his opponent in a heavy backhand. He, too, heard the forest's silence, and unlike his lupine counterpart, he revelled in it. The forest was silent because inside it, HE was a titan -- no, he was a GOD. Any of these creatures, if he willed it, could be sitting over his fire for dinner, including the werewolf before him.

He smelled the unease of his rival, another hunter in his territory, and he knew that whatever happened today, he could outdo this creature. This wolf that wanted nothing more than to be human. Hadn't it been not long ago that he'd accepted that he was a fox? Now he could hardly imagine going without everything that made him who and what he was. NOW he was a person, even though he'd been shunned by the very people he had loved as a human.

This lupomorph wanted to be just like them. Just like everyone else, and it angered something deep within Seth's core. This Damian had been cursed the same as he, and yet still looked human enough to pass. He could still BE human, if that's what he wanted, and he cowered like an omega, with his non-existant tail between his legs.

So be it. I will have no omega hunting my ground.

Seth's thin lips pulled back from his sharp teeth as he let out a growl, punching at Damian again and again. He hadn't yet lost control, and he didn't intend to. But he would claim this territory as his own and drive the intruder from it.

[The Archer]

Eh, I doubt Damian's coming back, so I'm gonna wrap this up and milk whatever EXP I can get out of it.

Blow after blow landed, and rage filled Seth's eyes, mind, and heart. He couldn't see anything beyond the damage that was happening to his opponent's face and body under his merciless assault, and he smelled the blood, bitter blood that flowed out of one predator so that another might have his territory.

A wicked grin was plastered on the were-fox's face. The werewolf had been weak, so weak, despite his grand notions. Beast to beast, he'd been beaten, when the natural order of things stated that wolves were bigger and stronger than their vulpine cousins.

Most of the time, when faced with a scenario like this one, the victor let the loser slink away with his tail tucked firmly between his legs, but most situations didn't have lycanthropes pitted against each other. The fact that he had a werewolf at his mercy, rather than a human or other creature, made his blood run hotter and faster through his veins. He was the more powerful, and he wasn't going to let the wolf forget it.

In one fast motion, he ripped the other man's throat from his neck.

All of a sudden, the battle ended. His opponent vanished from under his fists so that the monks could heal them, and the landscape itself started to vanish so that the next challenger would have a different field.

Seth began to come back to himself. He'd bitten. He'd sworn not to bite, but he had. He staggered, shaken, out of the room and down the steps of the Citadel, reflecting on what he'd done and what it meant.

I'm a monster. The thought reared its ugly head in full force for the very first time, and he shuddered as it ran its course. I'm nothing but a monster.

The sweet scent of the evening air held no meaning for the vulpine archer as he sat heavily on one of the cold stone benches. He could still taste the salty, bitter flavor of Damian's blood on his tongue, could still feel the flesh and bone giving way under his fists, and it sickened him now that his head was clear and he realized the ramifications.

I'm a monster...and I can never go home.

[Call me J]

The Archer’s score is one of those cases where a good writer, despite everything else going on in a thread, can still eke out a 60. That said, I really feel that you might have had some things going in terms of this battle. It felt much more like a story than many of your other battles I’ve read.

The Archer Total Score- 61

• STORY ~ 14/30

Continuity (7) ~ This was surprisingly strong for a half aborted thread.

Setting (4) ~ Seth’s acute awareness of the Citadel saved this from being a very poor score in this category, while I know battles and physical descriptions don’t always go hand in hand, you could have done a much better job, especially since this battle took a while to get started.

Pacing (3) ~ The conclusion killed this score.

• CHARACTER ~ 19/30

Dialogue (6)

Action (6) ~ Good work in acknowledging relevant physical features of your opponent.

Persona (7)

• WRITING STYLE ~ 23/30

Mechanics (10)

Technique (5)

Clarity (8)

• Wild Card (5) ~ It’s a shame this battle didn’t go anywhere, it seemed like one of the few battles I’ve seen from you where I always had a sense of a real purpose as to what your character wanted and how this mattered to your character’s story.

Damian Total Score- 47

• STORY ~ 12/30

Continuity (3)

Setting (6)

Pacing (3)

• CHARACTER ~ 15/30

Dialogue (5)

Action (5)

Persona (5)

• WRITING STYLE ~ 15/30

Mechanics (5) ~ There weren’t a lot of mistakes, but there were a lot of mistakes considering how little text there was.

Technique (3)

Clarity (7)

• Wild Card (5)

EXP and GP
The Archer gains 550 EXP and 250 GP
Damian gains 100 EXP and 100 GP

[Karuka]

EXP/GP added! The Archer hits L1!