[Duel] Motivation (Azar vs Sagua Niu vs Sia)

[Kimaria]

Move 3: Hit

The words had the desired effect; cutting deep and driving her forwards. Sia might not have been your typical fierce fighter. Her perfect rank would probably lean towards something that involved more teamwork orientated tasks that weren't leaning on your physical strength. Sia could be a huntress, perhaps even a sentinel or water-seeker, looking out for her team-mates but in situations where she wouldn't be needed to fight off some raging intruder. Would she have come here if it were not for Sagua? Likely not. Maybe she would have wandered the rogue lands, using her birthplace as a base to come back to to refresh every now and then. But she was here now and she wasn't going to let anyone say that she wasn't being a good friend to him.

Her brow knitted tight between her eyes and then she was lunging again, swinging a fore paw up, straight at Niu's head.

Win or lose, she'd do this quickly and get Sagua that water he needed.  

[Hopefolly]

Sagua planned to intervene with some comfort that he was fine and to not let it distract her but, er, apparently Sia didn't need the pep talk. He gawked as she hit the Firekin so hard that the lioness turned and spit blood and saliva onto the sand.

Niu had lurched to get out of the way, but not fast enough, and Sia had scored a strong hit to the side of her face. Niu needed to learn to tighten her jaw better and keep from biting her tongue.

If it got her point across, she welcomed the sting.

In the span of seconds, Niu had cleared her mouth and throat and lunged at Sia again, hoping to pin her and knock the wind out of her in the process. This was not the patient style with which she had dueled Azar.  

[Kimaria]

Move 4: Hit

Sia's own bewilderment at having managed to land another hit - and one far better than her previous one - was shoved out of her a moment later. Niu's lunge hit with deadly accuracy (deadly if it had not been a duel) and Sia hit the ground so hard that the wind was forced out of her lungs with one painful whoosh. Gasping hard, Sia's reaction was one of pure panic. A strange sound burst from her parted jaws - something between a growl and a whimper - and she went wild, trying desperately to throw off her opponent but not quite sure how to do it. She'd had no training. She did not know how to calm herself. Did not know how best to manoeuvre her weight - or Niu's - to try and get herself out of this situation. It made her clumsy and vulnerable.

Horribly vulnerable.

And, it was by pure instinct alone that she pulled her head up to press her chin to her chest in order to protect her throat. It had seemed a smart move at first, but a second later and she was discovering that the position made it awkward to use her forepaws and limited her sight of her opponent. It was this, then, that led her to her last resort.

Using the ground to brace her back she kicked out and up with her hind legs, aiming her paws straight at Niu's underside. Unfortunately for her, the aim was off and though she landed a hit, it was too high, more against her chest than her stomach.  

[Hopefolly]

Ow.

Niu wheezed accordingly. There was no lion alive, not in the Firekin or anywhere else, who got kicked that forcefully in the chest and didn't cringe. The way she handled herself in the aftermath was the impressive part: Niu did not relinquish her hold and pressed down harder.

Her position was not completely protected from damage either. If Sia managed to smack her in the throat or get another hit to her chest like that, she'd fall off or at the least back up.

Niu had learned more than she'd thought. Where before, she'd have idled, waiting for the perfect opportunity, she now struck Sia with a series of hard-hitting blows that came one after another.  

[Kimaria]

Move 5: Miss

Sia was still pinned, breathing hard and fast as she struggled to free herself. But her stamina was failing and her struggles quickly became feeble. She was struck about the head. The first time hurt. The second more so. The third felt dull - like an echo of the ones that had been before - and her vision beginning to recede. Somewhere, amongst all of this, she had reached up with a paw to try and push the female away, but it never met its target, flapping uselessly for a moment before falling limp across her chest.

And as Niu continued to strike her, Sia expected to see the images of her life flashing before her eyes. It would be short and relatively boring (until the end) and she was only a little disappointed when it didn't come to her.

Azar, by this point, had stopped pretending not to watch and actually turned to look; stunned. It was good, then, that everyone's attention was on the battle and not on him because it wasn't an expression he would have been proud of. Perhaps he ought to be more careful about annoying that one...Note for the future: do not ever, ever duel Niu again.

And, at last, through a fuzzy haze. Sia attempted to lift up a placating paw before lapsing into brief unconsciousness.  

[Hopefolly]

Move 5: 2 - Bide

They said victory tasted sweet.

Liars.

Niu only tasted blood and some bile from the back of her throat. She jumped off Sia and landed none too gracefully, almost slipping and falling right on her face. She had spent so much time practicing acts of violence she had never stopped to consider how she'd cope with it.

Gods, she'd knocked someone unconscious.

This wasn't a zebra. This wasn't a hare. This was one like her -- a lioness, a rogue. And it didn't go the way combat on the training grounds did or her duel with Azar had. If she'd wanted to, she could have killed someone that day. The time might come when she would have to, she realized, and that felt a lot closer to home now. Everything Azar said before -- wars and things, dead Firekin -- made her stomach twist to remember.

Niu had never hurt anyone this bad before and was going to need a lot of time to think about all this in private.

She turned back around and was not surprised to see the male from the swamps had found his way to Sia and was helping her to stand. Friends, huh?  

[Kimaria]

Firekin; two. Rogues; Nil. All in all it had been a pretty good day's work for the pair of guards.

Azar'bijan pulled himself ungracefully back to his paws and stomped forwards to get a closer look at the damage. The rogue was down and out. He had to admit that it was sort of impressive - though totally hypocritical. Hadn't Niu just been yelling at him to reign in his anger? And, only a few minutes later she was flaunting her unrestrained rage in front of all of them. Oh well, there was no denying that Niu was a Firekin now. Her training had clearly paid off. She fought much better than she had against him - though he wouldn't say that, of course.

He grunted, curling a lip and watched as Sagua came to revive his friend. He was curious to see how long it would take and was thus disappointed when she came to a few seconds later.

A crimson eye cracked open and, still lying on her back, Sia peered up at Sagua and asked in a thin voice: "Did I win?"

Azar gave an amused snort - the closest thing he ever came to a laugh - and shook his head in utter dismay. These two...they had their work cut out for them if they had any hope of joining the ranks of Firekin.

"You know." Azar muttered under his breath. "That was pretty underhanded of you."

He sort of liked it.  

[Hopefolly]

Firekin be damned. Everything ever be damned if Sia didn't open her eyes. Sagua was stable enough to keep calm where appearances were concerned, yet he was in an internal frenzy and when Sia asked him if she'd won he had to laugh. Had to. Chemicals were balancing themselves out or... something like that.

"No," he replied, and sounded so relieved with that one word. "Can you stand?"

Niu had found her way to Azar and hovered at his side. "Loyalty is a good motivator, so I'm told." By the end of it, she was staring at him, accusing him of something. Not necessarily something bad...

Niu redirected her gaze to the couple -- of friends. "I'm a seer," she said bluntly, hushed enough only he heard.

Might as well get all the sick feelings out at once.  

[Kimaria]

"I think so." Sia replied, managing a shaky smile before releasing a long breath and throwing herself over onto her front. It took her a moment but she was eventually back on her feet - stabilising herself after a moment of swaying. Then, when confident that she could stand without collapsing, she turned to Sagua and threw him a grin. "Oh well, I guess we can be losers together, right. On the plus side we are both still alive." And that was the main thing, she supposed, although it did also mean that they'd have to come back and try again.

Maybe they could find some smaller, weaker Firekin next time...

What was this? 'See How Many Times You Can Surprise Azar Day', or something? She was a seer? One of those crazy people that saw weird stuff when they slept? That was how it worked, wasn't it? Oh great, that was just brilliant. He didn't even want to think about all the stuff she might have been seeing about him (and clearly her dreams would be about him because he was the only one that mattered in this pride). "Well, aren't you just full of surprises today." He grumbled, feeling a little bit outclassed at this point.

It didn't help when Sia chose that moment to pipe up: "Sorry to interrupt, but can one of you direct us to the water?" And then her voice became teasing, though still weakened from the duel: "And if you're talking about which one of you did better in the duel..." She trailed, smiling, fixing her gaze on Azar. "Sorry buddy, but I think your girlfriend beats you there."

Azar sputtered with rage. How dare she! He was a far better fighter than any girl. "Let's hope you don't bump into me the next time you come sniffing around for a duel." He snapped, bristling. "Or I'll make you regret that."  

[Hopefolly]

Sagua was going to fall with her if he had to catch Sia. Good thing she managed to steady herself right when she did. "I guess we will be." Rather than thinking of their next duel, he thought of water and rain and waterfalls and lakes.

"I'm telling you because -- " Niu had started to explain herself and never got to finish. She'd expected him to take it more... offensively? Call her a liar, get mad she had hidden it. Something. This wasn't the serious repercussion she had been expecting. He didn't even care enough to pay attention over their visitor's taunts.

Figured.

Niu tried to correct the romantic misunderstanding (kind of hypocritical to get huffy Sia had assumed that), but she never got to finish that either. "I'm not--" Azar was having another tantrum and getting the other male all worked up. The swamp lion took the threat to heart and bared his teeth.

Honestly, boys! Honestly.

Niu reached out and swatted Azar on the nose. Just like that. "Stop."
 

[Kimaria]

It was quite possible that Azar would have been more bothered if he'd truly understood what a seer was capable of. For him, who had no seers in his immediate family - of that he was aware - had really not much of an idea of what they were capable of. Or that each seer could be quite different from another. He didn't even really know that the trait could be linked to having a god in one's family tree. After all, he had Firekin blood in his veins which meant (if the stories were to be believed) he also had Finar-Si's blood in him and he was definitely not a seer.

Still, a smack to the nose was enough to snap him out of his anger; jerking backwards and whipping his head around to glare at her. It was totally official. Getting smacked on the nose was the worst thing ever.

Wrinkling his snout in distaste, he clamped his jaws shut and settled on glaring at Niu.

Sia, who was on the verge of saying 'you have him well trained', quickly decided that it was better not to push her luck. Some males, it seemed, did not like to be teased and had no sense of humour at all! Where was the fun in that? Azar definitely was not the sort of lion she'd be seeking out for a duel any time soon. Or anything else for that matter.

Still feeling slightly dizzy, the lioness sat herself back on the sand and drew in another deep breath. "I hope," she mumbled quietly to her companion. "That they're not all going to be like that."  

[Hopefolly]

If he didn't use his words sparingly, Sagua worried his tongue would dry out, crumble to dust, and blow away in the wind. He could only offer Sia a sympathetic look for now.

Niu buried all the worry and guilt under a need to fulfill her duty. Right now, that meant getting these two to the outpost where they could recover. The male would be a good solider and the female could be useful in another area. Cub-sitting or storytelling or anything where talking was valued more than fighting.

Maybe.

They'd have to prove her right by coming back.

"Azar and I will show you the way," she confirmed.

In other words, Azar would and she'd tag along, since Niu had no idea where to go.  

[Kimaria]

What?! Him, too? Why did he have to go!? Oh, wait...right. Niu hadn't been there before and neither had these rogues -- obviously. Seemed like they were going to be going a little further than first planned. The exercise would do him good...

...or something.

He just didn't like going that far, truth be told. He liked his nice little border patrol, following that line and never stepping over it. Now, because of this, he was going to have to go that extra mile. Maybe they should have just let the rogues win. That would have meant less work for everyone. But no, his pride would not have allowed for that.

"You'd best follow me then." He grumped, kicking off at a hastier pace than perhaps necessary.

Sia, with a weary smile, pulled herself back to her paws, hesitated a moment to wait for her head to stop spinning, and then started off after him at a much slower pace than she would have liked.

It was going to be a long trip.