Welcome to Gaia! ::

(sorry for double quote. I missed Davy's reply)

Tolui, victorious but worn, moved shakily into the crowd to make room for the next combatants. He recognised one, the pale-pelted Gael, but not the other. A new member, perhaps. Likely joining under far different circumstances than himself. Or maybe, he realised, he wasn't a member at all.

Gingerly, he came to sit down in a gap between Kimya and Maut.

"Did you both see the fight?" he asked hopefully, keen to gain some good attention for a change. He had joined as a slave and risen to rank of emkurcar when he had been unable to continue with the beatings. Even after he had risen he had been the butt of many a joke. Perhaps now his fellow lions and hyenas might treat him with a little more respect.

---

Mawasii, with a wicked grin, rolled her shoulders and cast an eye around to see if anyone had shown interest in the lion's challenge. Perhaps she would rise to it if the rest of these males proved themselves cowards. She could fight as well as most of those gathered here.

"One way or another, you'll have your fight. Nergui do so love to show off in combat."

She nodded her head in the direction of the new males mid-clash, "the pale one there has gained himself a bit of a reputation these days."

The shouting from the first bout had hardly dimmed when a new pair squared off, this time involving a male unfamiliar to Maut's eyes, though she could hardly clai the ability to recognize every member of the hoard on sight. He had a good physique for fighting, and a fascinating array of scars. Before, when both of the lions involved had been Nergui, she had added her voice to the taunting, but this time she was genuinely interested to see the result, and so was far less vocal.

Her attention so occuppied, she didn't have her full attention to spare for the emkurcar when he sat between her and a bluish, bubbly-babbly lioness and asked their opinion of the fight. Her mouth twitched into a tiny smirk as the chatty stranger gushed over the male, and she waited for a pause before she answered in her own lower, dry voice, "Yes, it was quite the pleasant little diversion."

Maut was not so easy to impress as some.

The cheers and snarls fueled the two lions, both of whom fought fiercely, moreso than the previous two to go. These were battle-hardened lions and Gael had to admit he was surprised at the tenacity of the rogue. This wasn't some lion with a large ego and nothing to back it up. The rogue could fight.

Zeki, too, was surprised at how this mostly unscarred lion could hold his own. He found himself on the defensive more than the offensive, but he made his few moves count. By the end they were both bloodied and panting, but it was the Nergui that held control of the battle. Gael stood over the fallen rogue who had tripped over a stick, leaving him vulnerable but not without a bit of fight left in him.

"We shall let others battle," Gael announced as he moved away to let the rogue stand. He knew better than to continue the fight - this would be a valuable member to the hoard should he choose to stay. Zeki rolled to his paws and pushed himself up, panting hard and honestly a bit surprised at the mercy he had been shown. In his pride once a lion was on their back, they were killed.

The look Gael gave him, though, spoke volumes. He didn't want to kill him. He wanted him to join them. He didn't leave the circle of lions in shame as a loser might normally do. He joined the gathered lions and hyenas with a sense of welcoming. Perhaps this would be his family after all.

Gael left the ring with his head held high. That rogue might have been a no-name before now, but if he proved to be as strong in battles as he had been today, Gael would surely be credited with his recruitment and defeating him as well. Not a bad way to earn a few scars.

The purple eyes of the blonde and white male had watched the fighting and was even more engrossed than before. It seemed it was all walks of life here. Though he was confused on how its rankings were. The male did not want to let it show that he was too confused and instead just kept watching the others fight. He did want to fight and show off his skills. Soon. He wanted to watch just one more fight and then he would enter in himself. He noticed the very red male. Well he was interesting sight to behold. Was... was he caked in blood? Oh my. If he was.

It was the dark hyena who instead stepped up. "I want to challenge." The male said. He had watched enough and he felt pretty confident. If he could best a lion, my oh my he'd feel very sure of himself. More than sure, he'd feel amazing about the encounter. This would be something he could talk about. if he lost, well he'd hand his head and try again. Or be completely down for the count.

[OOC:: How do we roll to see who wins? Would it be here or in another thread?]

Mawasii had finally had enough of watching the boys have all the fun. And, when the hyena uttered his challenge she shoved herself forward into the circle - ignoring any annoyed jeers. If they didn't want her to fight than they should have stepped forward sooner!

"I'll fight you!" She called out, puffing out her chest and drawing up her head in as fierce a manner as she could muster. Then, with a roar, she charged forwards, throwing out a paw in an unrefined manner. She did love to fight, but her style was messy. Mawasii was a brawler.

"You better not let me land a hit!"

--

"C-c-congratulate?" Kefir stuttered, backing up further and praying that someone would leap to his rescue and divert attention from him. Perhaps he wanted to fight? Oh..no...more challengers were already stepping up. Maybe the next one? He wanted to maybe try and distract him that way but wasn't sure he had the nerve to attempt it. What if Ovu realised what he was trying to do and punished him for it?

He took another shaky step back.

"The h-horde is good now."

((OOC: you can roll 1-5 and highest number wins! The greater the difference between the numbers, the greater the defeat/victory.))

DavyJnah

~Masamune~

Maut was immensely pleased to note the victorious male's change in posture once he got a better look at her. She could recall a time in her youth when her looks and the way they had of unsettling others had bothered her, but that was a lifetime ago, before the Nergui, before she had learned to embrace it and use it. At his question, her skull-like face split into a grin, showing a glimpse of the real fangs lurking under her markings.

"Oh, I may," she answered, glancing again to the excitable newcomer. "What about you, Blue? You have a taste for watching blood spill, but do you have a taste for blood?" It was hard to imagine that she did, but some lions were quite cheerful about violence.

Her gaze was drawn away when a hyena stepped forward to fight and was met by a lioness. A risky stunt, but would it pay off?

The battle had been quick but fierce, just the way Zeki liked it. He didn't like that he had come out the loser, but he felt as though he had shown the strange gathering of hyenas and lions his strength. Limping away but not hiding, he climbed a rock to watch the other fights as he licked his wounds.

Gael didn't leave the other lion alone for long. He moved to the rock, bearing his own bleeding wounds with pride as he looked up at the lion he defeated. "That was a good battle," he said, no care for hiding the impressed tone in his voice. "Rogues are not usually so skilled in fighting."

"I haven't been a rouge all my life. I was born and raised in a pride that valued battles heavily," Zeki said, keeping his gaze on the other male just in case he was going to try some underhanded way to win. Gael, however, had no such intentions.

"Ah, that makes sense. You speak in the past tense," the Nergui added as he rolled his shoulder that had a decently deep cut on it. "If you're looking for a new pride, the Nergui would be happy to have you. The only thing you'd have to do is learn the language."

"Easily," Zeki said with a little smirk. His name meant intelligence, after all. "I'm sure if I'm surrounded by it it won't be a problem."

Gael chuckled at the confidence of the other lion but nodded and turned away. He'd be more than happy to fight alongside a male like that in a fierce battle.

He very much trounced her in every way that had to count. He had watched lions and even skittered away from them and found that his speed was a force to be reckoned with. Head low when he needed it to be and then snapped at her a few times. His paws flashed and clobbered her with his paws before going for her throat and pinning her to the ground. Vsevolod didn't let her up until she stopped squirming. With his jaw upon her throat as such he was the one in control. With his powerful jaws he could end her life but this was not that kind of fight. He just wanted to hear the lioness say he won.

Ochieng could see the hyena was clearly the winner and part of him wanted to butt in and maybe tear them apart from each other but he did not. Instead he waited to see what was going to happen. He had to congratulate the dark lioness on he battle, it was actually pretty good. The blonde colored lion knew that hyenas could be deadly but he had never actually seen one do that before.

Then the dark hyena let her go, "Maybe work on your footwork and readability. You are giving all your telling signs out." Not that she needed to listen to him but maybe she'd at least appreciate it.

The blonde male headed away from the fighting and went to one of the other males who had just won. "Good fights going on."