Duel:Dasha v Gorzhageigk, Match 9 of the Frostmaw Tournament

Duelists: Dasha vs. Gorzhageigk.
Duel: Traditional 3 posts each, with final defense. 15 minute posting limit.
Stakes: Autohit post. Advancement in the Titans of Winter Tournament 2012.
Judges: Kuzial, Satoshi.

Frostmaw Colosseum

Kuzial wanders silently into the Colosseum. He returns to his usual seat and ignores those guards who eye him carefully. The drow seems relaxed, though his gaze never leaves the arena floor; he was watching this bout with interest.

Dasha was within the stands, twitching nervously.. A dragon? She'd seen them before, many of them now in fact.. They all seemed to have come from no where! It just.. Was she truly ready? Thoughts continued to rush through her mind, distracting her, she had to beat this thing! This gigantic creature without dying but.. So terrified was Dasha that.. The feline mustered up fake courage, her arms shaking as she hopped off the side of the stands, landing once more upon two feet. She slowly walked towards the center but couldn't help feeling like a cornered animal this fight.

Gorzhageigk appears out of nowhere, that is, if nowhere is the stands across from Dasha and appearing is equivalent to plodding lazily down one of the coliseum's way too large staircases and sorta... Bouncing over the rail to the battlefield below. The distance between the two is considerable considering (see what I did there? :D) that the two were on opposite ends of a literal Giant-sized stadium. Thus, the large not-so-gentleman starts waddling towards the center of the arena.

Satoshi is waiting at the railing of the booth for both combatants to enter the field, by which point she does the usual announcement for all those watching, "It's time for the match to determine the best of the Physical Fighters category! Will it by the wily feline, Dasha, or the thunderous dragon, Gorzhageigk? Let' the fight begin!"

The Match Begins...

Dasha looked upon her fellow contestant in the arena with an amused smug, she had been so worked up over this fat.. Thing!? Clearly someone had mistaken dragon with large human when it came to writing down what her foe was supposed to be! Never the less, the comical smile of Dasha drained as Satoshi began to speak, winner, best of the physical fighters? This was going to be where Dasha proved herself and she couldn't underestimate him, specially since he made it this far! Large or not. With less hesitation and her fears seemingly removed, Dasha started inwards to battle with Gorz, her legs to start into a fast paced sprint. As she closed the distance, she leaped off the ground into a spin, the back of her tail to swing about beautifully, the diamond clip on the end aimed to knock into his skull and daze him briefly. When finally she landed, hopefully behind the dragon, her leg shot fastly behind her, aimed to strike at the back of Gorz's knee. Her hope was that his weight would collapse the body on top of the knees forcing him to the ground and leaving him vulnerable for her next barrage of attacks.

Gorzhageigk staggers backwards, a large bead of blood leaving a generous trail behind as it trickles down from the gape in his forehead to the bulbous nose planted square in the middle of his equally bulbous face. He grits his teeth together and the corner of his mouth twitches upwards into a nasty snarl. He is far from happy. Luckily, this duel is far from over. Skin once stretched tight across copious amounts of fat now bubbles loosely as the man starts his transformation from a semblance of a gentleman to that great brown beast of the desert. Dasha successfully manages to knock him to his knees, though she may find it less effective to continue her barrage as hardened brown scales replace soft cloth and supple skin, each scale hard and sharp enough to tear at any unprotected knuckle or heel thrown haphazardly his way. His spine extends both upwards and down as his form takes on a more serpentine form than most dragons. His nose extends into a ferocious snout and those signature kite-like wings unfurl from his side. The great beast peers over his shoulder and snorts at Dasha, sending a light spray of supernaturally hot sand her way. Though largely harmless, it is his hope that it would suffice as a distraction as the tip of his tail, which had hopefully been dismissed as it unfurled around Dasha, heads straight towards her from behind in an attempt to impale her in one decisive strike.

Dasha found herself successful in the attacks, the backwards kick, the tail, all of it landed and she could feel the connections as her body made contact with his. Her success was short lived as she turned about to see her combatant begin to change into the massive form of a dragon, scales, claws, teeth, the whole deal. Fear was about to grip, her body seemed to grow terrified at first, and like a cornered animal she began to lash back. Her body leaped at his fastly reforming skull,aimed to latch upon his face with claws and dig in as tightly as she might. While one hand dug into the scales that were upon his face, the other began to lash at the changing dragon's eyes, the transformation near completion she nearly felt like she lacked control of her body.. The snort of the snout, the sand, to come only brief moments after her leap, the tail to entirely lack a target that was once there as Dasha didn't wait for the man to change.

Gorzhageigk had not expected such a feral response. So ferocious was the counter attack that, before the transformation could be completed, the great beast found himself bleeding not only beneath the scales upon his forehead but also from beneath several scales on the right side of his head, one dangling rather haphazardly by a single shred of meat. Opposite those gashes, the feline's other hand had found its mark and, before the dragon could snap his eyelids shut, several sharp fingernails scrapped across the surface of his eye which quickly swelled shut, possibly sporting irreversible damage. Gorzhageigk releases a guttural cry which shakes the very air around them. With Dasha wrangling his head and, likely, still digging beneath his scales, he takes to the skies with two mighty beats of his wings. The dragon's tongue, as proportionately long as a serpent's, darts from between his teeth and curls up towards Dasha, hopefully slapping against her and pulling her into his gaping maw. The tongue itself made as rough as sandpaper from years of devouring and digging through sand, a simple touch against unprotected skin should be enough to rip through flesh and cause excruciating pain.

Dasha once more found her claws to meet their marks, the very eye of the dragon to become victim underneath the feline's attack. Her grip upon the dragon's scale suddenly became loose, as she attempted to hold on through the violent burst into the air, her claws were all that kept her upon the great beast. Finally! The ascension had seemed to calm momentarily, her other claw then sought to join itself into the scale of Gorz but just before it reached! The tongue grasped her, ripping through clothes and into the flesh of her back, only to drag her inside of the dragon's mouth! All felt lost! The feline was to be eaten and removed until suddenly she smashed into something! Her claws immediately moved to grasp it, the feline reflexes being a saving grace here! The uvula (Or that thing in the back of your throat that looks like a punching bag) was to be attempted to grasped onto so that she could not be swallowed! Or eaten! She didn't want to just.. disappear into the giant behemoth's belly. Her claws would begin to dig into it, latch upon it, once more so that she'd find sanctuary within Gorz's mouth!

Gorzhageigk drifts in midair as his tongue reaches, grasps, and drags Dasha into his mouth. What a tasty snack she would be! He begins to chew without a second thought. Once, twice… Wait. Haaaaaaaaack! The great dragon retches as Dasha clamps down upon his uvula. He retches again and shakes his head violently, attempting to extricate his opponent from that fleshy dangly thing that may or may not affect the way things taste. That thought sends him into a frenzy. He inhales sharply, perhaps inhaling his opponent which would, unfortunately, be the lesser of two evils in this case as, upon fully inhaling, he begins to *inhale the hottest, most blinding and burning blast of desert sands so far. Twer Dasha not to have found some way out of his mouth by then, she would find herself at the center of a sandstorm deadly enough to strip flesh and muscle alike from the bones beneath.

• exhale, zomfghs Gorzhageigk 16:37, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Dasha once more found herself safe, temporarily, as she hung there upon the uvula! The dragon had begun to retches about, as he attempted to remove her but nothing worked! As she hung there slightly relaxed, she began to look for an exit, though unless the behemoth landed she couldn't think of anything feasible. As she began to look about, a gust of air came past, her claws to dig in tighter, and then! Sand? At first it seemed even but then, then it got worst, soon her clothes began to break underneath the barrage and finally a cut? This didn't seem right! Sand had never hurt so bad before. It only got more and more violent, soon her clothes began to rip away, followed by more cuts and before Dasha knew it she leaped off of the dangly fleshy thing and towards the tongue. The draft nearly carried her away, her cut, bleeding, mass nearly carried away with the torrent of sand but not before she landed upon the floor of Gorz's gigantic mouth. Her body rolled for a spot underneath his tongue, a spot away from the barrage of sand, a spot safe once more where she'd be able to eventually get herself out of the mouth of the giant glutton.

Gorzhageigk is much more concerned with ejecting this... thing intent on harming his treasured tastebuds than he is with having such a hazardous snack. He retches once more and sends Dasha flying from his mouth and skittering across the snow-covered stadium floor. Fortunately, the dragon had lost enough altitude to make the collision less than fatal, though still quite painful. Gorzhageigk releases a final roar in her direction before landing, signalling himself the decided winner of the match.

Dasha landed upon the floor of the arena with a massive snap, the shoulder of the feline to take the brunt of the damage. That usual saying, cats always land on their feet? Didn't apply here. The saliva, sand, and massive amount of things that stuck to the feline weighed her to much down to allow her any proper save. She smashed into earth, arm shattering instantly into the snowy banks of the arena. She lay there, rather unmoving, perhaps a healer to move her eventually?

Satoshi, as per usual at the end of a match, signals the healers to tend to their wards. Although, by the looks of it, it's the feline that needs the attention and not the dragon proudly roaring his triumph in the center of the field. She can at least give the smaller of the two credit for tenacity, however.