Spare a cup of sugar?

Lia did not try to dodge nor withdraw from his advance, not seeking more space between them as he managed to grapple at her antlers. Sharp teeth clacked against her rack of antlers as he secured his grasp on her, powerful jaws unrelenting in their hold. But in their close proximity, it was impossible for him to dodge away from her attacks either. Lia reeled back on her hind legs, now reaching him in stature, and Artorias felt the sharp bite of steel in his scruff. His thicker fur helped to cushion most of the blow, but she would still attain her grapple, the pair of wolves now locked together in a violent tango—a danse macabre of battle. Lia's ferocity surprised Artorias. She had been so reluctant to learn how to fight when she'd been living with them, so adverse to violence. Now she moved with a decisiveness and focus that had been missing before. What had happened to Lia in those years she had been gone?

Artorias growled around the antler in his jaws and toughed it through the pain, unwilling to let go of Lia's antlers, lest he give her an attack of opportunity on him. He fell easily into his rehearsed maneuvers and combat techniques, having to remind himself that even though this was his Idalia, she was still his foe in this moment, and he would not do her the dishonor of not treating her as such. She spoke amidst their fight; she had returned home and faced her mother, the source of her trauma's beginning. Artorias' fiery eyes locked with Lia's, recognition and understanding in their gold-flecked depths. He remembered. He knew the importance of that to her.

"Did you find what you needed?" he asked through growling tones as they struggled against one another's strength. She'd gotten stronger in her journeys, toned with lithe muscles that flexed and fought against his own rippling body. "Tell me you did." He was almost pleading with her to hear the answer he hoped for. He needed to know Lia had found the peace and closure she needed, whether she had dispensed justice to her traitorous mother or showed her mercy.

Amber eyes narrowing with a steely focus, Artorias' growl intensified and the dire brute surged his strength, pushing forward against Lia's lighter weight and build, seeking to use their size difference and his strength and momentum to force her back off her hind legs and wrestle her to the ground, aiming to push her to her back and pin her beneath his body in one decisive move.

Artorias vs Lia for Dominance
Round 2/2
Age: 1+ years
Size: Dire wolf
Build: Balanced
Offensive Battle Accessory: Damascus steel sword
Defensive Battle Accessory: Reinforced leather cuirass
Companion 1: Common raven, Male - Flying - Boosted
Companion 2: Silver cross fox - Battle - Boosted
*Companion 3: Common raven, Female - Flying
Mutation 1: Stronger teeth and jaws - Offensive
Mutation 2: Thicker fur - Defensive
Mutation 3: Enhanced vision - Perception
Skills: Master Fighter & Master Navigator
Specialty: Knight

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian"