The Honor Circle Returns! (IC)

[TheGreyRonin]

 Risky stepped back to the bar, lighting another cigarette off of her fingertip and nodded to the fights wrapping up outside.

"Looks like old Smoky met something meaner than him. That's a surprise."  She puffed out a green cloud of faintly chemical-scented smoke, and pointed with her chin at Ian and Sylvie.

"Not very sporting, beating on a lady." Her eyes narrowed as she took a slug of her drink.

[Boog]

Boog looked down at Giles contemplatively, nodding a "good fight," to the nearby Orin. The issue was all that armor. The man probably weighed a ton, and the barkeep typically had all the lifting strength and stamina of a malnourished sea snail. He considered the problem carefully. Most of his core concepts originated in fairly human psyches, and a bit of that 'tool use centric' perspective clung to any problem he was faced with. Grant me a big enough lever and I shall move the world. Now where can I find the appropriate tool... Finally a solution came to him.
"Oi! Anyone gets this big lunkhead to the infirmary gets a free round for their trouble!" The proper tool having been located and put into service he turned his attention to other matters. The green girl and the rat's fight had ended (A shame; he'd so been rooting for the young lady), so that left two circles clear. However, both they and the bar had been filling up fast of late. He grinned; he had a couple things prepared in advance for this. Walking over to a long straight line he'd scratched in the dirt earlier the Boogeyman stomped once, right at the tip of the line. A wall rose from the marking, on the side of which was inscribed another circle. There were handholds in the wall, yes, in the same way there were cops in Vegas. An identical circle was inscribed on the other side of the wall.
Returning to his seat behind the bar his attention caught on the book labeled Stories again. It hadn't been so much as touched since the green girl had first taken an interest in it. This time, the tool that came to mind was a pen and a piece of paper. Procuring both from under the bar counter he made a quick note and placed it on the storybook.
Ransom: Rogue knowledge! Offering peace of mind, irrefutability, courage, free drinks... Randsom negotiable per bounty.

--

The incoming boulders were nice an straightforward compared to his last foe; like dodging trebuchet fire, way back when. Siolen ducked under the first one, the second one's nearby impact grazing one ear painfully. He continued his charge, running alongside the canyon wall in a bid to get around the device.

[Stygian]

His eyes downed and his lips at the highball glass in his hand, Stygian tapped his fingers a bit on the counter. 'I think that her being a woman is less of an issue than her being a pint-sized little furry thing. I had expected her to be charcoal by now from those flames,' he said, a small glance in Risky's direction. The next second though, the Boogeyman called up from outside. Both Stygian and Sahlena raised their eyes in that direction, but the android was the first one to respond.
   ':my call, i believe. sit tight, big-ears,' the machine said, slapping the table with a metallic hand, and then strolling outside with smooth, confident moves. She arrived at the 'undone' circle, planting one hand at her hip and glancing down at Giles' armored figure for a moment, before she shook her head and crouched down. a few odd movements of inhuman joints could be seen under her clothes, as she stretched out her arms and folded her feet in some eerie manner to improve grip and leverage. She grasped his shoulder first, rolling him around and closer. Then she put her arm underneath him, and spreading her hands from the middle and out, she lifted the massive man as if he were a child. Then she promptly slung him up on her shoulder, and stood straight, turning her gaze to Boog.
   ':another [Vodka]. and a tall glass of water with it, please,' she summarily said, and then walked back in, ducking a bit to get through the door and around Stygian, who by now had removed his glove and was sitting, running claw-like nails through his teeth. She proceeded through the back door to the infirmary, placing the goliath on one of the sickbeds with a quite noticeable creak.

[techmaster-glitch]

Karazkt

   Karazkt was quite surprised when the gargoyle dodged the boulders and their shrapnel easily, as if he had experience in that kind of thing...And he kept coming. Karazkt -very- briefly considered filling the entire trench with a huge concentrated flameblast, it was certainly within the amplification abilities of the mech, but somehow...Karazkt didn't think that magical moving stone would be affected too much.
   Then Karazkt, with his Engineer mind, he was struck by another idea, one that wasn't too difficult either. It wasn't even that original, he'd done it before, as had many of his kin, though on a much smaller scale, and in different variations.
   Both Karazkt's antennae, in the mech's intake ports, flashed with magic, but the right one was in flames, while the left one was in brown earth magic. Manipulating levers in the cockpit, the mech's arms swung forward, the left one making a bunch of dirt levitate in front of it. Then the right one blasted the floating earth with a concentrated and sustained blast of fire. More, much more dirt flowed from the walls into the bunch that was being blasted. Then, the earth began glowing with heat, and then started melting, more nonstop dirt and fire being added. Now the mass filled an area in front of the mech, and filled up. The stuff was becoming...
   Lava!
   Karazkt was filling the small area directly in front of him with molten lava, using both earth and fire magic together. But he wasn't filling it out horizontally, no, he was filling it vertically, and it rose with frightening speed. Soon, the mech could no longer be seen, being hidden by a wall of lava. It continued to build up until it filled the trench from side to side, and thirty feet high. The view, for Karazkt, was nothing short of beautiful; his infravision couldn't see the light, but he saw the heat very well. It surged, spiked, flowed, shifted...it was like a kaleidescope to him.
   The heat of it may or may not affect Siolen; Karazkt didn't really know, but even if it didn't, he imagined that someone totally buried in thick, molten lava would have a tendency to be slowed down...
   He hit some more levers. The mech pulled back it's arms, then shoved onward.
   The tsunami of lava surged forth.

Mechangel

   The cloaked man head [The Boogeyman] call for aid to move the tank of a man, but before the cloaked person could oblige, the android he'd seen earlier walked out. She then picked up the man and carried him into the medical ward. the man shrugged, and looked toward the trenches...
   And his eye picked up some major activity, even through the multitude of walls. it looked like something massive and hot was building up...

[Boog]

Siolen's eyes widened at the torrent of lava that the mech's pilot had conjured up so quickly. Not good. On many, many levels extremely not good. But not unprecidented... The gargoyle scrabbled up the nearby chasm wall quickly, letting the lava rush by beneath him. He had run out of handholds by which to approach the machine... But he remembered a dragon, once, who he cornered in it's lair by the sea. He remembered what he'd done.
Typically Siolen needed a lot of space to fly. However, the heat from the lava below was creating an updraft. He launched himself from where he was and spread his wings, taking to the air.
And he thought himself impressive for moving through SOIL.

[techmaster-glitch]

Karazkt

   After the lava had flowed forward and flooded the trench, Karazkt scanned for his opponent. Not that there was much to look, it was straight down the trench. In his infravision behind his goggles, he saw all the heat of the lava, but he couldn't pick out the signature of the living stone...until something caught his eye up above.
   Siolen had scaled the wall to avoid the lava. Karazkt was quite dismayed that he did that so quickly. The air was filled with swirlings of heat, and as Karazkt watched, Siolen jumped off the wall...and spread his wings. He flew and floated easily, and Karazkt saw the heat giving his wings lift. Oh, for the Mother-Queen's love, I just HELPED him... Karazkt thought, and figured he intended to attack from above. But a second later, Karazkt thought some more.
   "You know, I don'T believe we are zo differenT, you and I..." Karazkt said; the first words he'd spoken since the match started. He hit some levers, and the 'hands' of the mech started rumbling strangely...
   "We are both creaturez with, I thinK, a natural affiniTy for earth and zTone, unlezz I'm miztaKen..." The metal plates on the brown-and-black mech's hands shifted, and things were extended.
   "BuT thiz iz the main differenze beTween uz..." The hands stopped shifting. They had become huge scooping claws.
   "You go up..." Earth magic flashed along Karazkt's antennae, into the mech's intake ports, and then, collected in the claws of the mech. Karazkt began pushing levers again.
   "I go DOWN!!!" The right arm of the steam-clockwork mech suddenly swung down, hitting the ground, and in a blast of earth magic, a hole appeared beneath the mech, which it promptly dropped into easily. Another swing, and the mech went deeper. Yet another, and the hole closed behind him.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cogidubnus absently raised an eyebrow at the machine-woman's ministrations to the unconscious Giles, picking him up with seemingly little effort and carrying the heavy, armor-clad man back inside and to the infirmary. The table creaked with the man's weight, and the wolf noted the woman's strength.
He turned to the russet colored wolf. "Well, now that that's out of the way..."

Cog took a step back, and precisely bowed to the red wolf, his hand grasping the hilt of his sword as he did so.
"It would honor me to face you in the ring of combat, good sir." Cog said, formally challenging Brinald. "We fight until the yield, or until we cannot continue. The field of battle is your choice."

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

The jackal nodded in a perfunctory manner as Sahlena introduced herself. Original anxiety at meeting a mechanical woman aside, Keaton seemed quite inured to Sahlena's appearance and the shock-factor she was initially trying to provoke out of her. "Right, so, Sah--" Before Keaton could continue talking to the android, Sahlena volunteered to be the one to assist Giles out of the ring, and left after addressing Keaton with a comment regarding the slightly unnatural size of her ears.

Aforementioned ears flattening defensively and expression fixating into a pout, Keaton watched the android leave with a noncommittal nod, the hand in her pocket methodically rolling something round and sleek between her fingers beside the box of cards. With a flick of her wrist, Keaton surfaced her hand from her pocket, scooping what appeared to be a luminescent, vibrantly-colored marble out of her pocket and perching it on her thumbnail. Since she had been discouraged from continuing her card fortress-building, she decided to entertain herself with her more beloved keepsake.

---

...Piix:

After she had called for help, Piix waited fearfully next to Giles's body, still irritably stirring the livid taste of blood lingering in her mouth and rubbing the charred spots on her arm from where the flames had touched her. Her scalp ached as well from where Giles had grabbed her, but she was more concerned about the blackguard's survival at this point. As a space pirate, her ethics were ambiguous at best, but there was always one brutally-reinforced rule which remained intact. Ever sine she had met Dimitri, she had promised not to kill someone. If the situation couldn't have been avoided, that was excuseable, but Piix had behaved in a stroke of instinct and impulse. Nothing more, nothing less.

The Boogeyman arrived in the Circle, along with the android-woman who had scared the living daylights out of Piix previously. With no ostensible difficulty, the android-woman scooped Giles up and departed, hopefully to deposit him in the infirmary. Piix spent a moment staring after both the man-like entity and the android-woman, sighing, and, wiping the thick and malodorous blood staining her muzzle away with the back of her hand, forced her body into motion once more. With a thought, she deactivated Discus, which flickered and shriveled down into a spherical apparatus and rested obediently into her hand, and retrieved Orpiment, trudging back to the bar. Piix probably needed a visit to the infirmary, herself, to have her burns treated.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

Knowing that Giles wouldn't be able to speak, and would probably have nothing very pleasant to say after that sort of defeat, Sahlena walked back out of the infirmary as soon as she was relieved of him. Strolling up to the counter, she reconfigured the fingers on her right hand, extending and twisting them and having the tips open up into three-sectioned little gripping digits of their own. She extended her hand with a sweeping, precise movement, and four fingers pinched around the two waiting tall glasses, which she gripped and lifted along, walking back over to the jackal's table. Setting her drinks down, she fell back into a chair which also protested with a little creak, held her hand out as her digits transformed back to their human-like form, and then kicked her vodka back.
   ':a bit shameful for the... oh,' she said, not completing the sentence quite before she turned her head around to gaze at Piix. She froze for a couple of seconds, still as a statue, and then returned to the drink in her hand with a content whirr. ':maybe it was a fortunate ending after all. i should not judge from what i would have done.' She seemed to make a bit of a shrug, and then turned to Keaton. ':and how about you? you fought before this, or...?'

- -

Hissing through his teeth as she entered, Stygian eyed Piix's black-burned form with a pained look over his drink for a bit, before his face shifted into a grin. The little creature had just jumped a good few notches on his scale of respect. He had expected her to be cindered by now.
   'Good going, little one,' he said, a bit sarcastically, raising his glass at her. 'I'll buy you a round for the stylish finishing move, if you want,' he then added, before looking her over, head to toe. 'But I think you had better patch yourself up first...'

[SpottedKitty]

Brinald grinned fiercely at the silver wolf as he spoke, his ears perked forwards and his tail held in a high curve. "It would honour me to accept your challenge, sir," he replied as he stood a little straighter and raised his right hand to make an odd clawing gesture over his chest. "Your terms are most acceptable. Now come! Let us take a circle before they are all claimed again!"

He turned, strode outside and approached one of the empty circles. On the way he passed the brightly coloured victor in the jungle fight, covered in ashes and scorched fur, and with a bloodstained muzzle. "That was a brave fight... er, lass," he proclaimed, coming close enough just in time to notice from her scent and looks that the little creature was in fact female. It had been hard to tell from inside the tavern. "Allow me to offer a toast to your health and your victory once I have finished my business out here!"

Brinald paused at the edge of the circle. "So, the field of battle is to be my choice, hah? I wonder..." he mused, his ears flicking back and forth thoughtfully. He put one foot forward, the paw-pad lying half inside and half outside the circle's boundary. A greyish haze filled his view, vague shapes half-forming here and there. The wolf nodded in satisfaction and stepped completely into the circle. The haze shifted, swirling like ink in a stirred bucket of water, then abruptly cleared.

The scene chosen by the russet-furred wolf was a ruin: the ancient remains of walls, few more than waist height, outlined rooms, corridors and halls in what had, long ago, been a mansion fit for a noble house. Stones lay scattered here and there, and in one corner the stub of a tower supporting a spiral stair, once hidden inside the building's structure, rose little higher than the next floor up. One side of the ruin, though, was gone: in a wide stretch between the remains of the tower and a chunk of wall, there was only empty space bordered by a ragged cliff edge. Hazed by distance, a matching cliff edge stood at the other side of what must be a truly impressive hole in the ground. Brinald stood in the remains of a large hall, or perhaps a large courtyard, with plenty room to fight... and many obstacles underfoot, from individual stones to intact chunks of fallen wall. Off to one side, a thick rope fastened around the moderately intact-looking base of an arched doorway led across the open space and over the cliff.

Brinald reached over his shoulder to loosen his sword in its scabbard and turned to look at where the other wolf could still be seen just outside the circle, perhaps by virtue of its magic. "Come, Cogidubnus, the arena is prepared! Join me!" he called.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog stared into the hazy arena, the ruins of some castle long-forgotten and long abandoned. It was spacious, true, but the floors were treacherous, filled with rocks and debris and waist-high walls - and at the far end, a cliff was poised at the edge of a very precarious drop. A mist seemed to surround the arena as well, making one's peripheral vision perhaps unreliable at best.

Cog took a deep breath before entering, seeming to grow larger and then smaller in one go, and set a hand upon the hilt of his sword. With a languorous, almost somehow feline grace, the swordsman walked into the arena. He stopped when he was about equidistant from the other, russet wolf, and with that same, almost unnatural grace he slid his feet into a ready position. Both of his feet faced slightly outwards, heels not quite touching, and one hand firmly grasping the hilt of his sword.
He stared forward, staring at the other wolf, but not quite - almost as though he was looking at the cliffs and scenery beyond him.

The wolf broke the seal on his sword, a small, metallic chink echoing through the ruins.

[SpottedKitty]

Brinald settled himself as Cogidubnus entered the circle, very slightly crouched and with his arms a little out from his sides. For a long moment he stood like a statue, returning the other wolf's gaze with an impassive expression, even his ears, whiskers and tail stilled. Then his right hand went up, over his shoulder, and he drew his sword, the faint hiss of oiled steel sliding over leather the first sound since Cog released the seal on his own blade.

He held his sword in a low grip, the blade angling up across his body. The diffuse light in the ruins — there was no sun visible in the hazy sky —  still managed to glitter on the wavelike patterns in the steel. Brinald smiled just enough for his fangs to show between his lips, raised one foot and took a single step forward.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cogidubnus gave no reaction, although he was moderately surprised at the man's reticence. He'd struck the wolf as more of a berserker-style swordsman, or at least not one that might hesitate with an apparently unprepared opponent.

His grip was low, and his sword was angled across his body. Cog gave no reaction, even when his opponent took a single step forwards. The wolf seemed to wait for half a step, and then leaned forwards, grabbed the hilt of his blade with his other hand.

The wolf continued to leave forward, until it almost seemed that the wolf was going to topple over - and at the last moment, the wolf caught himself, taking a step forwards and then another. His feet seemed to only be catching up with one another, and in a flurry of half-steps the silver wolf crossed the distance with surprising rapidity.
It wasn't that Cog was fast, but he moved with an unnatural grace, the smoothness of his movements giving him an almost eerie speed. In mere moments, the distance between them was closed.

The wolf stopped, and in a movement to fast to see, he drew his sword, merely a silver glitter just on the edge of perception before turning into a silver arc, aimed to rake across the other wolf's chest and sever the muscles there - even as he did so, he pulled the sword back in the opposite direction, a flowing, blindingly fast block bringing the sword overhead, striking out in a spiraling diagonal cut.

[SpottedKitty]

Very slightly, Brinald's eyes narrowed and his muzzle creased in a voiceless snarl as Cog rushed forward. His stance, and his grip on his sword, shifted subtly, then as Cog drew, he finally made a move. His extended leg pushed hard, his back leg folded, forcing his body down and back as his sword arm dipped even lower... just barely far enough to clear the arc of Cog's strike as it passed his chest. Brinald threw himself into a dive to the left to avoid the return strike, bringing his own sword up right behind Cog's, aiming to push the other's blade out of line.

[Cogidubnus]

 To the red wolf's surprise, Cog's sword barely stayed in the same spot for more than a moment. The spiraling nature of the wolf's strike, instead of a diagonal line, had kept the wolf's hilt on his center the entire time. Combined with the wolf's natural speed,  the simple twitch of his wrist that it took to bring the sword back up allowed Cog to recover from the strike in the blink of an eye. He brought the sword up, sliding one foot back and twisting on the base of his heel just as Brinald struck, the red wolf's strike just barely hitting the bottom edge of the wolf's blade.

The wolf struck again, flicking his wrist in a strike aimed at the red wolf's head and stepping forwards.

[SpottedKitty]

If Brinald was disappointed to hear only a faint ting of contact from the two blades barely touching, he didn't show it. As he recovered from his dive to the side with a quick hiss of breath between clenched fangs, he spotted the slight movement of Cog's wrist just beginning. There was no time even to think this is a new faster style, one I haven't faced before, he only had time to react. He ducked, flattening his ears, bringing his arm up in a block to hold his own blade in a protective arc over his head just in time to meet Cog's strike. His tail and free arm swung to keep his balance steady as his legs tensed for a leap backwards: retreat so early in a fight was not to Brinald's taste, but he needed a moment to think.

[Cogidubnus]

 The two swords met with the jarring sound of steel on steel, the red wolf's blade blocking Cog's strike. Brinald's arm and tail flared out to help him keep his balance, and the red wolf tensed.
Impassive, the silver wolf paused, seeming to absorb the situation in half a second.

In a silver blur, the silver wolf's sword came back, and in less time than it took to blink Cog struck again, in a seemingly overhead strike - but at the last second, the wolf's hands tilted, striking in a spiral cut yet again. It was aimed at the hilt side of Brinald's block, with a deep, deep angle on it, low enough to come under the red wolf's sword.

[SpottedKitty]

Brinald grunted a little as he absorbed the shock of blocking Cog's strike. The silver wolf's blade flicked away almost too fast for him to see the move, then it was coming back, and this time Brinald barely saw the subtle movement of his opponent's hands. He had already decided on his next move, though. A powerful thrust of his legs threw him sideways, away from Cog's sword, as he twisted his arm to rotate his own blade down in another block.

thip

The faint sound was almost lost in a second screeching clash of steel against steel as Cog's blade hit Brinald's and slid down its length, trailing sparks. The russet wolf was already in mid-leap, a glance to the side confirming what he was looking for. He twisted his body slightly so that his paw-pads came down precisely on the taut rope stretched across the makeshift arena. He hung there at an angle for a moment as the rope stretched under his weight, just long enough for anyone looking very closely to see a cut on the sleeve of his jerkin, in the middle of his forearm. Then the rope sprang back, launching Brinald into the air right over Cog's head. He bared his fangs in a fierce grin as he tucked himself into a slow tumble, howling at the top of his lungs and throwing all his strength into an overhead blow down at his opponent.

On the dusty ground, beside one of Brinald's footprints where he'd jumped for the rope, there was a small splash of red.

[Stygian]

A grin and a toothy hiss, and then a deep chuckle, signalled Stygian's approval of the fight taking place between the two canines outside. It was much less flashy than the one between the angels had been, but both much more technical and more intense. Two swordfighters like that were always a pleasure to watch, supposing they were somewhat evenly matched in skill, so that the the fight could gain at least some length. And when the styles and techniques were so distinct as they were between these two... The russet had a classic, almost free-schooled swordsman's moves, his guard and strikes utilitarian simplicity and effectiveness, but a very good response time and edge no doubt earned from hard practice. He also had an intensity to him, and a sheer strength and prowess that allowed him to at least keep on dodging those viperous blows from Cog's side. That probably meant he had talent as well, and a will to exercise and fight. However, at least in Stygian's impression, he was the weaker of the two fighters, and for clear reasons.
   Anyone who could not distinguish between the hard, forceful movements of Brinald, and Cogidubnus' perfectly balanced, fluid motions knew nothing about swordfighting. That simple. It was obvious that the wolf was skilled, of course, but his sheer speed was what gave him that extraordinary edge, turning his moves from simple fighting into something fantastic. Stygian recognized the Iaido style, but he wasn't used to seeing it employing that sort of variety of moves, nor that sort of breakneck speed.
   'Enough to excuse them getting at it so quick and stealing a circle... Ah, where's the...? Hm...' he said, looking around a bit. He then turned to Boog, raising an eyebrow. 'Hey, do you have mulled wine? Glögg, specifically?'

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

Keaton watched with some amazement as Sahlena easily carted Giles's unconscious body into the infirmary, her expression affixed in one of bewilderment. Well, the woman was a machine, it made sense that she'd be able to carry someone so large and encumbered with armor... but it was still interesting to witness. Once the android returned, Keaton nodded her approval, then leaned against the wall, feeling somewhat lazy. Flipping her marble one last time back into the air, she masterfully caught the flying sphere as it returned into her hand, then pocketed it.

Sahlena approached her again. Keaton nodded noncommittally in response to her question, frowning slightly when she mentioned the poisonously-colored creature's victory. Deep down she had hoped for the freak to face a painful incineration, but ah well. No problem. "Nah, I fight all the time," Keaton answered Sahlena's question rather flippantly. This facade diminished when she flashed Sahlena a toothy smirk. "And I'm great at it, too.

"How about you? You do much fighting here? You seem pretty damn strong, being able to carry that big lug..."

---

...Piix:

On her way into the bar, Piix's movements became more languid and burdened, her body visibly struggling beneath the increasing irritation of her singed skin and scorched fur. Flaky crusts of blackened, ashen detritus chipped off of the fibers of Piix's fur as she walked, each shuddering step shaking away more of the dried substance encrusting her injuries. Pushing against the door was a bit of a challenge for Piix, as she had to use most of her body to angle the door open enough for her to be granted entry. Staggering into the bar, Piix just barely managed to catch her balance by driving the edge of Orpiment into the floorboards and steadying herself.

Around her, she was greeted by the congratulations of the various occupants of the bar - an anthropomorphic canine and a... oh hell, she couldn't make anything out. Her vision was starting to get sort of blurry and the others' voices were starting to sound eerily amplified, as though they were emitting from numerous directions, yet being distorted drastically. Piix's eyes were slightly glassy as she looked wearily around the bar at the assortment of multicolored blurs, watching as a tall gray smear departed with the canine-looking blur who had spoken to her earlier.

At the time, Piix couldn't address all of them. She felt too heavy-headed and disoriented. She assumed she had hit her head when she fell to the ground...

Limping a little, Piix walked over to the door to the infirmary, practically stumbling in. But before she left, she was sure to poke her upper body out the door and wave her victory to the now very-much-blurred people within the bar, then retreat back inside.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog felt the telltale, slight resistance in his cut that told him he'd hit the mark, and as the russet wolf leapt back, Cog saw the thin cut in his jerkin. His hands twisted on the hilt of his sword, watching Brinald jump rather impressively onto a section of rope behind him, landing with impeccable timing and balance and with barely a glance behind him.
He's been here before. Cog thought, watching as the wolf used the rope as a springboard to launch him into the air. Brinald's sword glittered in the misty sunlight, arcing up and over for the silver wolf's head. At the rate he was going the red wolf was going to be flying low over Cogidubnus.

Brinald hadn't struck yet, and Cog reacted in what seemed to be a silver blur. His sword came back, again resting over the wolf's head, and as the red wolf sailed over the silver wolf's head, Cog again struck, his blade arcing high into the air.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel watched the fight between the two wolves with appreciation. First because they were both very good and it was very impressive to see them and second because they chose a field that gave the observers a decent chance to watch. No midnight rooftops, no dense smoke or trees, no giant glaciers, no dirt walls. She spoke to the thought entity. "Boog, this place needed some good monitoring magic and viewing panes if you want to keep people inside and drinking." She set down her empty glass, "Speaking of which I would like another." She pulled two items from her pocket, one a normal coin, the other a sort of flat gem of the type her family stored information on. She kept her fingers on both as she set them on the bar. "Which one for payment?"

[Angel]

As soon as Sylvie spoke, the circle environment disappeared, and she was left standing with Ian outside the bar again. She pulled herself out of his grip and smiled at him. "Thanks. That was a good fight." Glancing at his arms once, she added, "You might wanna get those bandaged before you get into another one, though." With that, she turned on her heel and walked back in the building. The sun was going down, and she needed a drink.

Once she stepped inside, she looked in wonder at the many new arrivals - all sizes, shapes and species she'd never seen before, except the one human. "Exactly how long was I out there, anyway?" she remarked, glancing around once before taking the nearest empty seat at the bar.

[lucas marcone]

Ian followed her in. "Thanks for the warm up. I'll be fine after seeing the doc." As they entered the door Ian was as amazed as Sylvie. Ian sat down at an empty table and took out a tin wistle.

[Stygian]

Looking after the charred little alien, Stygian blinked, then grinned, and downed the rest of his drink. Rugged little creature, it seemed. Not one he'd want to keep as a pet. But burns like that could lead to pretty nasty infections, and who knew what was around where they were right then? He wouldn't be surprised to hear some pretty bad noise coming from the infirmary soon either, considering what she and that armored hulk had done to each other. He took the big clod for the more probable to incite a fight though, and would be more attentive to that one, in case he had to put his foot down. I shouldn't really do anything until Boog asks me, he thought, quite sharply and on purpose. But I'll still keep an eye open, just in case... He knew that the thought entity wasn't usually capable of catching what was going on in his head because of... certain circumstances. But it wasn't impossible to make himself heard, even if it might come off as a bit distorted.
  That was when Sylvie came back in. Setting down his glass, Stygian opted not to drink any more until after a couple of fights. The elvish-looking woman asked for the time, and as he seemed to be the only one keeping check on the time, the man was the one who was in the best position to answer. He slipped a hand into the coat laying next to him, and one of the pocket watches into his hand, giving it a short glance before letting it just drop back. 'Almost half an hour. Two more minutes until that. I'll say that you two seemed to be trading blows forever. But then again, you just went at it with fists and feet,' he said, turning slightly on his seat and looking between the girl and the rat. 'That's what made me wonder a bit. Why didn't you go harder on him? I thought it looked like you could have used those... vine-things a bit more creatively. And you had guns up your coat, didn't you, rodent?'

- -

The machine shook her head a bit and then put her 'chin' in her hand, leaning forward with her elbow on the table a bit. Her central red eye held a dull gleam as she sipped her drink slowly.
  ':truth to tell, i don't fight much directly. not like this either way. that's just not the procedure in my average day,' she said, a bit boorishly. ':i am a machine, so the things i do would mostly not seem very fun to a thing like you. honestly, not all of them are fun to me either. i came along here because [Styg] saw it fit to go. otherwise i would probably have been back home by now, or out hitting town.' She made a curious little gesture and a shift of her face, which together with the lightening of her tone suggested a shifting toward a more pleased expression. ':not that i don't think this should be fun. i don't learn through practice quite like you organics do, and data on the combatants partaking here is pretty much useless when you get back home. not to mention it's pretty costly to come here. but it's very interesting anyway.'

[lucas marcone]

"We were practiceing melee. I'm pretty sure if we were useing our full arsenal that we'd both be a little less than standing right now." He started playing basic tunes on his tin whistle.

[SpottedKitty]

If he could have spared the time, Brinald would have blinked in disbelief at the sheer speed of his opponent's moves. He was committed to the attack, but that silver blur seemed to be heading right between his eyes like a bolt of lightning. Desperately, he threw his body into a muzzle-to-tail twist in midair, trying to bring his sword arm down and round in time to parry...

A simple clang would do no justice to the cacophony as the two blades met again, and Cog's strike slid up Brinald's sword with a ringing screech to smash into the russet wolf's crossguard. The shock of the contact catapulted Brinald flailing and tumbling out of control, then he crashed muzzle-first into the ground a little closer to Cog than he'd intended. He kept his grip on his sword, barely, and rolled as fast as he could to his left, keeping his ears turned back for sounds of footsteps.

[Cogidubnus]

 To Cog's infinite surprise, the other wolf somehow managed to create a parry from nothing in midair, and with a cacophony of metal striking metal the two swords met. The force of the blow sent Brinald spiraling out of control, the red wolf landing rather roughly on his face. He rolled to his left.

Cog turned, his feet twisted from ball to heel and back, bringing him around one-hundred-eighty degrees almost instantly, and pausing just a moment to take in the situation again, ran the few steps towards the rolling Brinald.
There wasn't really any need for anything fancy. Cog simply brought his sword up to his temple and struck down in a tight arc. If he missed, he was in a prime position to simply stab the red wolf.

[Stygian]

Snorting, the man made a smile in response to Ian's statement, and shook his head. 'That says nothing about your choice of weaponry. I would say that if she had just cut loose, you would have been in a bit more trouble,' he said, looking over at Sylvie, and then at Ian with a coy grin. The punk seemed down and loose, but if he had a temper, better to know it. 'She did use magic on you, for example. And while I commend you for fighting as dirty as you did, I'd have to say that my favor lies with the lady.' He gave the elf a sly look, making an indicating gesture.

[SpottedKitty]

Brinald rolled over onto his back just in time to see Cog advancing again with that silver lightning bolt of his already flashing downwards. Too late to try for a parry, but maybe... continuing his roll, Brinald arched his back and launched himself sideways with a powerful thrust of his legs and his free arm. His sword arm came up, and he slashed over the top of Cog's descending blade with as much speed as he could manage, aiming at the silver wolf's head.

The dodge came just too late, though: Brinald felt a tug on the side of his jerkin, a moment before Cog's stroke drove into the ground. His breath hissed between clenched fangs, and he continued his roll with barely a glance up to see whether or not he'd managed to hit anything. Blood spurted from the slash across the side of his ribs, but only for a moment: by the time he'd tucked in his legs and rolled to his feet, the bleeding seemed to have almost stopped. At least, the red stain on his side wasn't getting any bigger.