[CHAL] Back Again (Sukurys x Freyr)

[Princess_Feylin]

This time Sūkurys knew what he was about and he was determined that this time he would be victorious and win entry to the Stormborn. His cloudy coat had told him that he would end up here in this storm-tossed pride, for better or for worse, and so he waited for his injuries to heal and tried to teach himself some more about fighting. So now he was back and he was ready to fight and ready to win.

"Who is here to fight challengers?" he demanded after roaring to make his presence known.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Freyr was the reaver who ended up answering the outlander's call. He had never gotten to fight in an askorun but he knew the drill. He had practiced it, just as he had practiced most everything about being a reaver, and he had no doubts about his own readiness. He would fight, and if it turned out he was the more skilled fighter, he would win. Otherwise, the pride would have a new member who was worthy of membership.

"I will fight you," he said simply, once he reached the challenger, who had apparently done this before, judging by his knowledge of the procedure. "Let's begin."  

[Princess_Feylin]

Sūkurys knew it was silly, but he was momentarily distracted by the fluffy white eyebrows on the lion who had appeared to fight him. They were almost blindingly white. So was his mane. If anyone ever drew his blood, it must be shocking. Sūkurys decided he would try to find out.

"Let's," he agreed, rolling his shoulders to ready himself.

This time he did not wait around, but he did not charge in blindly. He darted to one side, attempting to slash the black and green lion's flank and keep moving before his opponent could turn and catch him.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Freyr side-stepped almost casually to avoid the blue swirled lion's rush. It wasn't a bad attempt, actually, but not bad wasn't good enough to get a person into the pride. Not nearly. Freyr had high standards for his pride.

However high his standards were, he understood well that the point of an askorun was not to kill his opponent, or seriously wound him even. It was to determine his skill level and whether he belonged in a pride of warriors. To that end he was willing to keep evading until his challenger dropped from exhaustion or laid a paw on him.

As far as Freyr was concerned, if his challenger could purposefully draw his blood, Freyr was willing to consider him worthy of entry.  

[Princess_Feylin]

The way his opponent moved startled Sūkurys. His previous experience with the pride had been different. That lion had been similarly confident and had also waited for him to make the first move, but he had also been vicious when he fought, and looking at this smaller lion Sūkurys did not get the impression that he was vicious, only that he was confident in his skills.

After another few failed passes, however, Sūkurys began to find himself getting frustrated by his opponent's cool confidence. The younger lion was making this look far too easy, and he was so much faster than Sūkurys had expected. The other lion had been fast, but not like this. Sūkurys got the impression that the striped lion was willing to dodge all day.

"Enough of this," he snarled and lunged wildly.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Freyr could tell almost to the second when his challenger began to lose patience with Freyr's evasive dodging tactics because that's when the challenger's tactics became more erratic and less careful. It wasn't really impressing Freyr, but it was at least making the blue swirled lion move faster. It was good to know there was more speed in him. Freyr sped up accordingly.

And then the older lion made one especially careless lunge that Freyr could not help reacting to with punishing claws. That kind of carelessness was inexcusable. His father was a rare kind of warrior, a berserker, who could get away with being careless in battle because he inflicted so much damage, his own injuries seemed minimal in comparison. Freyr could tell he was not dealing with that here.

"Do you want to stop?" he asked, stepping back. There was blood on his claws.  

[Princess_Feylin]

"No!" Sūkurys growled. "I didn't mean that."

Unlike the Stormborn, Sūkurys did not step back or make any motion to withdraw. He kept moving, but he had learned from the stinging slap the younger lion dealt him. He was being careless. That was why he'd drawn blood. It was still on Sūkurys to prove himself.

Sūkurys hoped that the fact he'd understood the message was a good sign, but he was beginning to be more concerned that he would not be equal to the task. What would the clouds say about his fate then?

He slipped sideways, evading an attack that didn't actually come. The younger lion was apparently sticking to his own evasive tactics and forcing Sūkurys to do the attacking. This was very different from his last fight.

"Why don't you fight back?" Sūkurys demanded, even though he knew the answer.  

[Princess_Feylin]

"I don't have anything to prove," Freyr answered.

It was not an unfair question, he supposed, although he was a little disappointed that he had to explain himself. There had been a moment where he'd thought that the challenger had understood, and that was why he had taken a moment to adjust his tactics. Evidently that hadn't been the case. Too bad, really.

"You're the one whose worth has yet to be determined. As far as I'm concerned, if you can draw my blood on purpose I will consider you good enough to be one of the pride."

He circled as he spoke, watching to see if the lion with the swirled pelt would try to attack him while they were talking. It would be somewhat predictable, but not a bad idea even so, if he could move fast enough.  

[Princess_Feylin]

"You Stormborn do think highly of yourselves, don't you?"

For a moment Sūkurys was staggered by the sheer arrogance the striped lion displayed, but then he realized that it was not unwarranted. He was clearly skilled enough to make that an acceptable standard for entry.

"I can do that. I will," he warned, only to be met with a lazy smile that said his opponent was unconvinced by his threats.

This time Sūkurys took a different approach, taking more care and actually attempting to lay traps, rather than simply move more quickly than his opponent, which had not been working particularly well up to this point anyway. He did not feel as though he was going to win this fight, even after changing his tactics but he knew he would learn from it.  

[Princess_Feylin]

"You're the one who wants to join the pride," Freyr pointed out with a smug grin that carried over through his opponent's show of bravado.

After that, Freyr found that his opponent fought differently. Obviously it was not a style of fighting that came naturally to him, and he was much slower, but he was trying and he was learning. That sort of adaptability would not be bad for the pride, Freyr supposed, but that didn't mean he was just going to let him in. He had set his opponent a challenge, and if he didn't manage it then he didn't get in. It was as simple as that.

So Freyr continued to move in evasive patterns, ignoring opportunities to attack which were blatant traps and waiting to be impressed.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Sūkurys was tiring.

He was not used to prolonged periods of combat like this. Truth be told, he was not used to combat like this. Or combat, period.

It was a lot more exhausting than he would have thought.

Of course he did not know that most real battles did not last this long, and even sparring matches did not tend to drag on all that long. Not knowing that, combined with the apparent ease with which his opponent continued to evade his attacks and his attempts to trap him, Sūkurys began to feel disheartened.

Then he saw what he thought might be an opening, and before he could give away that he'd seen anything different, he went for it.

Both lions were surprised when Sūkurys's claws came away bloody, but Sūkurys was gratified that there was no sullenness or condescension directed toward him. The black and green lion merely nodded and told him to follow him, because they were going to see a lawspeaker.

Had he been less tired, Sūkurys would have been delighted.