Duel:Soltinn v Sophie
Judges: Rheven, Jacklin, Kelovath
Stakes: Membership in Mahri's Lycan Pack
Winner: Soltinn, 3-0.
Venue:
Old Forest
The forest seems to only become more unruly now, as trees grow to gargantuan proportions. Their boughs reach to the sky, blocking out the twinkling of stars and the showering rays of the sun. The stocks of these plants are gnarled and menacing, in some places nearly resembling scowling visages. The twittering of birds is lost in the dense brush; the world so tightly compacted, so as not to echo at all. Faint light can be seen north and west, and far east of here. Southward is as dark and desolate as the surroundings, although the forest seems to have reluctantly parted recently, offering a small walkway, through which a noticeable amount of foliage has been ravaged.
Soltinn stands amidst the distorted trees, looking small indeed compared to the enormous trunks. A small smile twists at his lips as if at some private joke, and his fair hair is tied back from his face with a simple leather cord. The ranger is dressed as he always is; homemade leather armor, with the exception of the mithril shirt, four hunting knives of varying sizes placed around his belt, and a quiver of arrows resting on his right hip. In his left hand he carries a bow of beautiful craftmanship: yew heartwood smoothed and polished to a warm glow and strung with braided sinew and writ with runes to ensure true aim. Catching sight of Sophie, he smoothly places arrow to string, the smile remaining fixed on his face. Without so much as a word of challenge, the string is drawn back and released, the arrow snapping swiftly out toward the wolf. The iron tip, should one be able to see it, glows with a pulsating red light, telling of the magic crafted within it. The projectile reaches the top of its short arc and, as it begins its final plummet toward Sophie, the arrow seems to divide, splitting into three identical arrows which, as they near their target on the ground, as the case may be, are suddenly, blindingly connected by a crackling line of lightning, the raw energy easily able to render a strong man unconscious, if not dead. Heading straight for Sophie, this alone is an intimidating attack, but the lycan man is not yet finished. As the other arrows fly, he releases another, and another, each aimed for the ground a short distance closer to himself than the previous. These both mimic the enchantments of the other, creating a gauntlet of mind-numbing shock for Sophie to run, should she try to move forward.
Sophie is hardly recognisable from her normal gentle elf form, she is an enraged wolf, already feeling the effects of the new moon to come in a week or so, she is also angry, filled with rage, that Soltinn should put her pack at risk, including the weaker members and the pups, by deliberately picking a fight with a rouge wolf, causing said rogue to threaten to slay all pack members. He had then acted in a cowardly manner, refusing to give his superior a truthful report of his actions, out of fear of censure. When Sophie insisted he explian what he had done, that she might act to protect the pack, he had spoken very rudely to her. Despite Mahri having explained to the Beta that Sophie was to be treated with as much respect as Mahri herself, if not more, he told her that he was ignoring the pack hierachy and planned to treat her like a omega wolf in the wild, a weak creature, completely different from Sophie's Omega postion, where she is treated with respect and deference by all wolves.Despite Mahri trying to reason with the young upstart Beta, he continued to insist on treating Sophie disrespectfully. In the end Sophie thought it best to accede to his request for a fight, the loser to leave the pack, as Soltinn is likely to tear the pack apart if he continues in such an arrogant disrespectful manner. Sophie cares for the wellbeing of the pack above all things As the rain of terrible enchanted arrows fall around her she leaps and twists agilely, nevertheless, one lands close to her left foreleg, causing her a great deal of pain, and making the leg go numb, almost useless.Sophie lets out a howl of pain, yet, so angry is the silver furred lycan, so filled with adrenalin, that it does nothing to discourage her, it merely makes her more determined to fight, to rid her pack of this fool who threatened to destroy them.She curves around to make her attack from the side, to avoid the many powerful mind numbing arrows he has fired into the ground before him. She is used to attacking from the side, as on the nights of the full moon, Mahri, usually has the honor of a frontal attack. The experienced hunter growls aggressively at her attacker, her haunches quivering as she builds up power, her green eyes shining with righteous anger at one who would put his own pride above the well being of the pack. then she leaps, her sharp teeth, aiming to tear out the apparent human's throat.
Soltinn, as he sees Sophie move to the side, abandons his bow in favor of a pair of identical daggers, their straight edges gleaming with poison, a bale cunningly crafted from a root, designed to sap the strength from whatever creature, animal or human, it enters. These are held in opposite directions, with the right one held with blade pointed up, the other with blade down, resting, blunt edge first, against the lycan's forearm. Thusly he stands, ready and waiting for his enemy. All the same, her teeth tear into the meat of his shoulder as he attempts to spin, a gashing blow that bleeds freely as the man twists away, the force knocking him to the ground. With a truly ferocious snarl, Soltinn heaves himself to his feet and launches himself, headlong, at his enemy, the right arm hooking around to nimbly thrust the blade at Sophie's ribs, hoping to slip it between two of them to pierce the soft organs beneath, while the ranger's left arm crosses protectively over his chest, the blade, born forward in the charge, on a course for the female's mouth in a preemptive strike, intending to keep the wolf's sharp teeth away from his body. Even as he does this, however, he can feel the pain pulling at his control, driving him further and further away from humanity as the lupine side of his being struggles to emerge.
Sophie 's wolf heart is pounding, with anger at Soltinn still, for sure, but also with an incredible exhiliration, a bloodlust that she normally only feels when hunting with her pack. This is what it means for a lycan to truly be alive! She revels in it! The joy, the wildness of being a wolf the taste of her prey's blood in her mouth, she continues to hold on to Soltinn's shoulder for a while, before releasing her grip, the blade aimed for her mouth, catches her instead on her very sensitive nose, causing the wolf to yelp in pain, and bleed profusely from her snout, doubtless the poison will soon start to sap her strength, but not just yet, she is already, moving limping, due to her numb foreleg, around to try to attack his ankle, when the second dagger catches her, luckily it is only a glancing blow along her ribs as she is no longer in the position Soltinn planned on, yet a little more of that incidious poison enters her bloodstream. Her attack on his ankle is designed to bite around, and some way into, his achilles tendon, she hopes to cripple him and to keep her teeth dug deep into his ankle for as long as she safely can.
Soltinn, with the clash of body on body, loses all semblance of control. Pulling back, desperate, claw-like hands tear at his armor, managing to pull the shirt over his head and cast it aside, and to rip the rest off, heedless of the tearing of the leather. However, in the middle of this, Sophie attacks. The hardened leather of his enchanted boot deflects the teeth upward to skid along the bone of his shin, tearing the skin badly. Howling now, Soltinn tears away to complete his transformation which is, as is soon obvious, a full and complete shift, leaving a lean grey wolf in the ranger's place, tongue lolling from his mouth and slaver pooling beneath him. With a grinding growl, the lycan darts past his attacker, swift as the wind despite his bloodied leg and shoulder. Pearly teeth slash at Sophie's injured side as he runs by, intending to widen the wound. Once behind her, he spins expertly, dirt and leaves flying from beneath his feet as he leaps forward again, his powerful jaws now aimed at his prey's back leg, a bite fully capable of hamstringing the other lycan, leaving her a cripple for life.
Sophie is completely astounded by Soltinn's ease and speed of transformation, she has never in her life met a turned lycan, as he claims to be who can change from humanoid to wolf form, without experiencing a great dear of pain, and some minutes of disorientation. Born lycans find their transformations easier, but not those turned. She begins to wonder if he is not a lycan at all, if he has decieved them, if he is, in fact some evil spirit intent on destroying their pack. Her body is begining to weaken, due to the poison on Soltinn's daggers. Yet her spirit is undaunted, her desire to fight undiminished She must protect her pack from this selfish man, if man and not dark spirit he be, who calls himself a lycan, but will not act like one, will not behave in the best interests of his pack. Soltinn's teeth's dig into Sophie side, the wound over her ribs bleeding profusely. He also suceeds in digging deeply into her hamsrtring, causing profuse bleeding and a serious injury. Sophie, moves however, even though it means her hamstring is torn more as she swivels, his teeth are at her rear legs, and her teeth are at his. She cannot move with her normal agility, she is drugged by the poisoned blades, yet still she attacks, aiming to dig her teeth into his already injured leg, Now that he is no longer wearing boots, she aims once more for his achilles tendon, in the hope of downing him, like she has downed so many prey anmials in past hunts, that the pack may dig into their soft underbelly, and feast. Sophie does not intend to kill Soltinn if she gets him on the ground, she is not so cruel, even in her wolf from, but she will certainly try to teach him a lesson in humility, as he seems in dire need of one.
Soltinn is swift to release his enemy as she begins to twist around, his subsequent backpedaling serving to protect his leg, although her teeth rip a nasty tear along his side. Still, despite the pain, no yelp escapes the grey wolf as he shoves back at Sophie, then rips away, effectively freeing himself form her teeth. Moving a few steps away, Soltinn circles, growling ominously as he awaits an opening to attack once more - or his foe's surrender.
Rheven said, "ooc: Soltinn wins, unanimous decision."
Sophie will leave the pack, probably start her own pack. Hope everything goes wel for you and Mahri, Soltinn.