Fight:Kasyr v Satoshi, Caliginous Cat v Ophidian Fox
Part of the The Ice Plague Cometh Arc
Continued from Academy Altercation. Branched from The Ice Queen Cometh.
Forgotten War Fields
The town, that silent, broken ruin, is left behind as the land changes here. It becomes flatter, yet no more beautiful for it. Ice coats everything in sight, making footing treacherous in places. Where ice cannot be seen, it is only because it is buried under mounds of snow. The white powder is layered everywhere, and the gusting wind carries the crystals to slap stingingly against the face of any traveller. In this featureless white, the eye is drawn to irregular mounds, odd humps under the blanket of snow. A cold, still hand sticks out of one such, a booted foot out of another. Could they be bodies? But why were they here, left to lie in this lonely wasteland? Where were their loved ones to bury them? And why were there so many dead? Bending to touch a hand only increases the suspicion that these poor bodies have been long since forgotten by any in the land of the living, and you can’t help but wonder, “Will my fate match theirs in this place?”. This area leads north, south, west, and east back towards the ruins.
A jarring crash resounds through the frozen ruins, accompanied not moments thereafter by a furious keening noise which resounds through the desolation of that long forgotten battle-field. Still that Caliginous Cat-like beast clambers back up onto it's feet, heedless of the furrows of scorched earth left in in it's wake, or the brittle snap of long frozen limbs which erupt with each one of it's footfalls. No, that macabre symphony of desecration only picks up in tempo- as it begins to hurtle across those frigid plains towards the fox creature which rests opposed to it. For a moment, it's gait turns awkward, it's intending charge towards Satoshi looking altogether ill-fated as it's body contorts and twists- but just as quickly, that liquid darkness which rests coiled about it's form surges outwards like some vestigial limb- slamming into the ground to at once straighten out it's equilibrium and send it hurtling towards 'Satoshi's position just that much quicker, it's front paws poised to crash into the position she currently resides in, with it's Jaws snapping out just a moment thereafter, should she manage to evade that initial assault.
Where as Kasyr's movements are of a more awkward and heavy nature, Satoshi's paws move with a distinct fleetness of foot, a sign clearly showing her long adaptation to this bestial form. After blazing a path through the ruins with fox and cat entangled, she'd been swift to retract tooth and claw once they'd come to a crashing halt, allowing Satoshi to leap free and land a short distance away. Her thick mane bristles like a sea of needles as she snarls at Kasyr, narrow eyes watching him rise to his paws. His charge is met with the fox hunkering down as if intending to launch herself at him, muscles coiled and joints prepared. And perhaps that was what Satoshi would have done were it not for the abrupt increase in Kasyr's lunge. The surge of darkness from the revenant-turned-beast has the vulpine shifting tactics, claws ripping into the ice as Satoshi transforms pounce into dodge, a hasty, messy business that sends her leaping in counter-direction to Kasyr and along his left side. As she passes him, Satoshi can't prevent her fangs for snapping at his flank, in the same moment that his own passing claws and teeth catch along her side. With a snarl, the fox is sent tumbling along a bloody path to collide with a mound of snow, only to be promptly buried as it collapses atop her.
The very moment Satoshi's claws rend through unhallowed flesh, that bestial creatures features begin to contort further, it's features twisting into a mask of fury and hatred. Even as it heaves into the ground and begins to twist itself about to face the kitsune, it's teeth gnash and grind together- slathers of caustic black ichor pouring out from amidst it's clenched maw. A low guttural growl rumbles in it's gullet as it peers about the battlefield, momentarily at a loss for the absence of it's foe- until it catches sight of the trail left by Satoshi's tumble. Without another moment's notice, that great beast hurtles forward, moving to tackle into that snow pile- even as it's jaws part wide open, and allow a spray of caustic 'liquid' precede it; coaxing up a protesting hiss from the snow it connects with.
Satoshi is neither idle nor injured. With the raw amount of loathing pouring off Kasyr, the fox has ample fuel to regenerate the fur and flesh that had been torn open by his claws in the span of breaths. By the time he approaches, Satoshi has recovered and gathered her limbs beneath her, coiled like a serpent waiting to strike from beneath the snow. Despite a mind enshrouded in dark and violent thoughts, the ice still sings to the eidolon, whispering of Kasyr's hurtle, of where paws leave frost, of where his hulking form moves in the snow-laden air. It's enough to give Satoshi considerable accuracy despite being hidden beneath the snow, which prompts her to strike rather abruptly and without more than a tremor through the frozen mound as warning. From the snows a needle-filled maw erupts, lashing out from a lower angle than Kasyr's pounce was carrying him, thus putting Satoshi beneath him mid-leap as her jaws seek out the exposed underside of his throat. Angled as she is, the fox avoids the brunt of the caustic 'breath', leaving it to burn a sizzling path down her back and across myriad of roiling tails. Painful or not, Satoshi doesn't seem to react, hellbent instead upon using fangs and savage force to uproot Kasyr's leap, tackle him backwards, and pin him to the ice for mauling.
A choked yowl ripples out from the Black Beast's throat as Satoshi's frigid fangs shred into it's flesh. wrenching into muscle and catching on bone and scale. And yet, for all the vicious violence inherent in the feral foxkin's assault- it's not quite enough to fully knock the monstrous feline askew- with it's velocity and inherent weight resulting in the pair of them crashing to the ground in a sideways roll, frantically scrabbling at each other with tooth and claw. One such flailing motion brings one of the creatures forepaws forward, meant to rake into the vixens side, and hook viciously into it's flesh. And then a violent tremor ripples through the unhallowed feline's form- what might be mistaken for Satoshi's fangs cutting in too deep, were it not for the violent surge of sparks which begins to dance across the 'Black Beast's form. A light which begins to burn all the brighter, even as bits of it's peculiar scaling begin to fleck off and turn to ash- and which threatens to do the same to the creature mauling the rampaging 'revenant'.
Satoshi's fangs are unyielding for a time, they being all that keeps her smaller form latched upon the larger feline. Despite claws raking her sides and limbs, the fox does not let go, her hold grim and tightening. That is, until sparks begin to rise off Kasyr. As if burnt, Satoshi releases her hold with a yelp as she makes a limping, half-agile dance backwards and away. Her torn sides heave with the exertion of having clung on for a prolonged time, and forked tongue lolls from gaping jaws. Yet even still, the wounds are already beginning to stitch themselves closed as Satoshi recovers, bolstered by the ambient fury. The electricity coursing over Kasyr's form is regarded with an almost thoughtful expression before the vixen utters a low sound, a snarl that's almost sibilant laughter and leaves her fangs exposed in a predatory grin. Beneath the revenant's blood on her fangs, there is a glimmer of the faintest blue liquid, a single drop falling from them as Satoshi growls. In answer to Kasyr's static-building aura, the fox has taken a serpent's path, lacing her bite with the crippling frost venom she favors so often in combat. Claws flex once before Satoshi is suddenly dashing at Kasyr in what appears like a head-on body slam, only for the vixen to dart aside at the last second, using her smaller, lighter size to sidle up alongside the feline and snap at him with venomous fangs. Just as swiftly as she's moved in, Satoshi skips back away, and once again darts in from another direction. It's an agile dance, akin to a stoat's hunting tactics, meant to inflict numerous light nips all over Kasyr while never quite staying close enough to be caught in return, or suffer prolonged exposure to the sparks.
Kasyr 's form begins to lurch and shudder back up into a stand the very moment that Satoshi darts away, before one paw is slammed down into the ground to kick up a flurry of powder snow and a ruptured ruin of frigid flesh into the open air. And yet, rather than back away- that vile vixen's assault continues, its nimble fangs shearing through sparking flesh, secreted pockets of liquid frostbite throughout it's form. Another scream escapes that abberant felines throat, echoing throughout those frozen fields as frantically twists and turns, it's limbs crushing ancient remains into glacial pulp. Every so often, it's motions grow yet more sluggish, as the ice starts to take greater hold upon it's limbs; yet the sparks never die down, instead growing all the more intense, voracious even as they begin to strip away not only surface tissue, but chunks of muscle - - playing havoc upon the creatures motions as it wildly lashes out and attempts to shear it's fangs through the vixens flitting shape.
Satoshi is unrelenting in her dash-and-bite harassment of Kasyr. It is not a matter of inflicting considerable damage on him, but rather, wearing him down through the extended exposure of her arctic venom. And it seems to be going as planned, for the scaled cat appears to be slowing, which makes Satoshi overconfident, almost daring. She's willing to linger a little longer each time a nip is delivered, as if to gloat. Couple this with the fact that, despite being familiar moving in this vulpine form, she's not used to the swarm of newly acquired tails, and it's an accident waiting to happen. Which is precisely so, for when Satoshi goes to dart away yet again, it's a second too late, and her tails are too plentiful, providing an ample place for those snapping jaws of Kasyr's to enclose upon. A sound caught between whine and hiss escapes Satoshi as her paws come up short of their intended leap, to leave her dangling, upside-down and undignified, from the revenant's jaws.
That blackened beast might be a feral mess of murderous intent in feline form, but that doesn't mean it's unaware of that vicious biting chill which spreads through its form unbidden. It's teeth click together again, narrowly missing the fox, whilst the rage and frustration left in the wake of that failure are diverted towards coaxing that surge of sparking power into yet a higher peak still. All until that moment when fox slips up, it's tails flaring out before the beasts visage like a nest of snakes- their writhing shapes swaying before the beasts eyes in that taunting manner. What issues forth from the monsters throat is only the beginning of a roar, as not a moment after it begins, it's drowned out by an overwhelming buzzing noise, and the sonorous thunderclap which ensues. That noxious din serves as the sole warning of the abrupt manner in which the Tenebrous feline's energies turn inward- in the manner that they ravenously begin devouring those tissues which were tainted by the vixen's venom, sacrificing all of that damaged tissue if only to empower the beast. When it strikes, it's not the sluggish movements from a moment prior, but something far grimmer, a fluid speed which defies those attempts to keep track of it; leaving sparking black after-images in their wake as those hulking jaws spread wide and come clamping down upon the space those tails flickered. The intention is simple, to take hold of the vulpine fiend and slam it against the ground, before the Black beast begins to charge forward- using it's bolstered alacrity to begin grinding the foxkin apart the ground through friction. ...And to begin the beasts journey back towards -easier- prey, so that it might begin to replenish itself.
Satoshi might be caught, and may be being flayed upon the frozen earth, however she is far from helpless. With Kasyr occupied with keeping fangs buried in her tails while charging at supernatural speeds, the vixen has other matters to put her mind to. Such as using the revenant's own momentum to shove herself upwards where she's being dragged along the ground, claws and teeth alike striking for Kasyr's shoulders to latch herself on. Satoshi is heedless of the agony of missing fur and flesh inflicted by friction as she claws her way further upon Kasyr, crawling from muscular shoulders to neck, her tails pulled taut where they're still clamped in his jaws. But she doesn't care, pain is irrelevant to the fox in her fury. All that matters is finding the base of the cat's skull and biting down with all the savagery she possesses, through muscle and tissue to the spinal cord beneath.
Kasyr || The beast's teeth grind together at the fresh feeling of pain, as the foxs' claws hue through flesh and fur alike- with the angry furrows that they leave behind only growing more pronounced as that invocation of dreadful powerful continues to cannibalize it's form. And then all at once it's movements turn erratic- darting, bounding, twisting and changing direction in mid-air through that unnatural exertion of electrical energy, All in an attempt to subdue or -slaughter= that damnable demonic fox. And then the beast hears the siren song of steel at play, the delicious scent of tumult and mayhem - - and it bounds forward once more. It's feet never quite reach the ground however, it's body twisting in the air as it's further engulfed by those electrical energies, before it promptly hurtles forward in a spiraling mass of electric energy. Poor Satoshi's too be dragged along for the ride, to be briefly kept pinned by the centripetal force generated by the storm-riding aberration- until it's maw abruptly relinquishes her tail, and it comes to a crashing halt amidst a group of soldiers. There's flesh that demands to be consumed, and amongst that hateful tide of chattle rests an odious familiarity. One which reeks of the same ominous magics of the academy.
Between one blurred moment and the next, the vixen finds her fangs and claws no longer able to keep their hold upon Kasyr. She's not entirely sure when her form is torn off his, mind and body temporarily paralyzed by the surge of electricity so that when Satoshi becomes aware of herself again, she's lying alone in an empty field of snow. Scorch marks litter her fur as liberally as the patches of ground, exposed beneath melted snow and showing Kasyr's lightning passage. As with the chimera she had encountered before with Hildegarde, the fox finds herself blinking awake as if from a trance, no longer wrapped in a miasma of blind rage. Without Kasyr or the battle being present, there is no fuel source for Asorial's frenzy, nothing drawing her into further attack, and nothing numbing the last of her--now slowly--mending wounds. Shakily Satoshi climbs to her paws and gives a shake of her head, causing her fur to bristle as her mind fumbles to regain its control. A huff escapes her then as the fox sits down on her haunches, only to revert to her smaller form a heartbeat later while blinking owlishly at the scythe still firmly in her grasp. "You're trouble," is all Satoshi says to Asorial before opening her hand to let the weapon clatter to the ground, relinquished. Satoshi's other hand is lifted then to be run through her hair as she glances around. Where was Hildegarde? Something, a flicker, a touch, at the back of her mind tells her the knight is not far off and in the company of couatls. Yet another touch of the mind, this one dark, volatile, and closer, weaves for the magus the tale her husband is presently in. Which should she heed? Go to her husband, try to pull him out of this monstrous state? Or go to Hildegarde, bring an end to this war and the slaughter of her people? Satoshi presses her hand to her stomach with a grimace of pain. She knows what choice she has to go with. She cannot put off the safety of her city. She just has to hope that ravenous beast that is Kasyr can wait a little while longer for her.
Resumes in The Ice Queen Cometh.