As the match before concluded, the maimed loser was rushed from the ring and a trio of coydogs quickly scrubbed the blood from the circle and laid a new layer of sand over it for fresh footing. Nitro pranced among the contestants, looking them over before picking out two of them. "We've got ourselves a battle between two stormclouds!" he crowed, ushering Tyranis and Justice towards the ring. "Let's see what kind of lightning the two of them give us! Don't step out of the ring, and remember the loser has to carry the scars of their loss for the rest of their life!" He cackled, then leaped nimbly back from the ring. "Get us started, big guy!" he called to Tyranis.

Tyranis entered the ring, rage rolling off of him in waves. He had been unable to vent since being separated from his children; still injured from fighting off a bear. Now he was healed but his fury had not abated. He said nothing as his raven swooped overhead and the black serpent around his neck coiled onto the ground with her hood raised. His breathing was hard and ragged and he knew only that he wanted to inflict pain as much as it had been inflicted on him. He set his defenses; his ears pinned back, his eyes narrowed, his arms and legs spread equally apart, his tail raised, his hackles raised. In his mouth, pointing toward the left he held the blade he had forged in Ruina while his lip curled upward and lifted his nose. He rolled his shoulders forward and scrunched his neck back to shield his throat while his paws dug deep into the ground, ready to kick off with his cleat-like claws. He waited for his challenger to approach then loosened his joints to activate his legs either to brace for an attack or to charge forward if he needed to. His strategy was simple; attack as much as possible with the blade, use his body where he could and take off whatever he could get between his teeth. Th cobra flicked her tongue while the raven cawed from above. Tyranis vs. Justice for Maim; tearing of tail Round: 1 | 2 | Size: Large Build: Medium Offensive Accessory: Femur blade Defensive Accessory: N/A Companion 1: King Cobra, Fighting Companion 2: Raven, Flying Mutation: N/A Fight Skill Level: Advanced Specialty:N/A Notes; Speech Thought

_________________________________________________________________________ Justice had been looking forward to the tournament since word had spread to Celestial that it was coming. Laisren had decided to come as well, and they'd brought two of Gwen's pups who'd been clamoring to join in the pup division. She'd been happy enough to oblige - heck, she'd have given her left leg to have that chance when she was their age. She herself had competed in her own age group, but when an additional, riskier bonus division had come up after the tournament's end she'd jumped at the chance. She was, as always, a bit of an adrenaline junky, and the bigger the risk the better the adrenaline high as far as she was concerned, so upping the ante to maims definitely upped her excitement as well. She stood among a crowd of others who'd decided to throw their metaphorical hats into the ring as the brindled coydog who'd called himself Nitro picked them out two by two to fight. Finally he indicated her, and she bounded into the ring with a fierce grin. The other wolf he'd picked out joined her, and she raised her a brow at the palpable rage roiling off him and the heavy breathing. "Got a problem?" she asked mildly. As far as she knew they'd never met, so his furious mien seemed a touch out of place for a tournament. He was certainly kitted out for a real fight, with his teeth gripping a sharpened bone and the snake oozing down to the ground and the raven flying overhead. She wondered how he could possibly hope to bite her with that bone between his teeth, but she supposed that was his problem. She bared her teeth at him, less in a snarl and more in a grin. "Got a bone to pick with me?" she punned. It didn't bother her, as she set her own defenses, that she was bare of any such assistance of her own - this was a tournament and she figured she'd stand or fall by her own merits without any outside help, and that was enough for her. The coydog indicated that Tyranis should start, but the taller male just stood there glowering with that cobra in front of him. Justice shrugged - if he wanted to chain himself in place that was fine by her. She was strong and fit and had the endurance to do all the moving for them. In a spurt of sand she took off around the edge of the ring in great leaping bounds, before pivoting neatly and leaping for the back side of his right hip, trying to put his body between hers and the snake. She sought midleap when her full weight was in it to slam the point of her shoulder into the muscle on along the back of his hip. Her jaws sought to scissor shut on the top of his tail, teeth looking to slide between vertebrae snickety-snack and bob it relatively cleanly from his rump. She didn't have anything particularly against the guy, so it wasn't like she was going to go out of her way to make a potential maim any more painful and risky than it had to be. She probably wouldn't offer to heal him up afterward, though - he didn't look like the type who'd take well to his opponent patching him up. Looked more like the resent-forever type. JUSTICE vs TYRANIS for MAIM (docking tail) Round 1/2 Size: medium Build: heavy Offensive Accessory: N/A Defensive Accessory: N/A Companion 1: N/A Companion 2: N/A Mutation: N/A Disability: N/A Fight Skill Level: Advanced Specialty: N/A ""

As she approached, he rose onto his hind legs and turned his upper body toward the right, his hips swinging with the motion, pulling his tail and hindquarters out of her reach while he extended his paws forward to push her hips and knock her off balance. As he moved he twisted his neck pointing his nose toward the girl’s shoulder but only with the intention of swinging his head to the opposite side to swipe at the end of her flowing tail with the end of the knife. His heart thumped wildly in his wars as the cobra slithered between the king’s legs and sprang toward the girl with her hood raised and her mouth agape, ready to sink her needle-like fangs into the girl’s body but with no assurance that she wouldn’t simply latch onto thick fur. In the brief seconds that passed between the movements Tyranis reset his defenses while the raven above croaked encouraging cheers and observations. Tyranis vs. Justice for Maim; Tearing of tail Round:1 | 2 | Size: Large Build: Medium Offensive Accessory: Femur blade Defensive Accessory: N/A Companion 1: King Cobra, Fighting Companion 2: Raven, Flying Mutation: N/A Fight Skill Level: Advanced Specialty:N/A Notes; Speech Thought

_________________________________________________________________________ The male reared up and pivoted as the cobra flashed out from between his legs (she couldn't help but think that sounded an awful lot like a euphemism for getting a hard-on) and Justice leaped up and to her left like a scalded cat to get away from the long thin teeth of the venomous serpent and the slashing knife. Even though she'd pretty well expected it since he'd brought the thing into the ring with him, the treachery of being attacked by a deadly snake during a friendly tournament match infuriated her, white-hot rage at it burning the amusement from her. They were just supposed to take his word, or the snake's word and everyone knew how well snakes kept their word, that it wasn't going to just "accidentally" inject his opponent full of venom? She certainly wasn't going to docilely take a hit to find out, that was for sure. It made her wish that she was indeed wearing some of the leather armor she'd seen others in the tournament wearing, but for now the only way to not be bitten, and not find out the hard way if the snake was feeling particularly murderous, was to simply not be anywhere the serpent's teeth were. Thus, she hopped into the air, the force of pushing off aimed in propelling her to her left, and she twisted in midair with an assist from his shove to her hip so that as she landed perpendicular to her previous heading, facing towards him, with her hindquarters coiled beneath her ready to push off again. Which she proceeded to do with alacrity, seeking to slam the point of her shoulder into his flank this time, the open unprotected area between his hip and his ribs. Her jaws flashed out again, a vicious slash intended to flay open the muscles over his spine without gripping so she could leap away again before the cobra could strike. JUSTICE vs TYRANIS for MAIM (docking tail) Round 2/2 Size: medium Build: heavy Offensive Accessory: N/A Defensive Accessory: N/A Companion 1: N/A Companion 2: N/A Mutation: N/A Disability: N/A Fight Skill Level: Advanced Specialty: N/A ""

And the winner is...

JUSTICE

TYRANIS must give up by submitting, fleeing or passing out. JUSTICE's maim is successful. Totals: Tyranis: 179.78 Justice: 257.85

- Judged by Nyx

The fight was halted, she was declared the winner, and justice stood panting, spitting out blood and fur. She wasn't too tired to appreciate the surge of triumph that followed the fading adrenaline, and she straightened, grinning. She had been doing an awful lot of leaping about though, and she did need a moment to catch her breath. She eyed her opponent as she did, now tailless and unfinished-looking without the bushy adornment, and she felt suddenly very guilty. This wasn't like the raid, where Dragon had deserved her fierce anger and gruesome retaliation for his attack on her home. This guy had just been in a tournament. While he knew what he was signing up for when he had stepped into the ring, she still felt a bit like she had wronged him somehow by taking so much from him in the heat of the moment. She shifted her weight back and forth, shuffling her paws in the sand guilting, then spoke up abruptly. "If you come by before my next fight I can stop the bleeding and put something on that for you." She said it all in a sharp rush, then bounded out of the ring, where she paused and turned her head back to him. "Probably," she added with obviously begrudging honesty. Well, she didn't have much training but she surely knew enough to stop bleeding and sterilize the wound. "Just ask for Justice." With that she bounded away, clearing the ring for the next pair.

Black curses filled his head in an endless stream as his eyes locked on his severed tail sitting like a dead ferret in the sand. He had given her one heated glance at her offer to heal him but remained silent. He was a failure, and always would be. His familiar Raanee lifted herself to peer into his eyes, her tongue flicking from her mouth as she tasted his fury, then bumped the end of her mouth against his nose. It had been a small gesture, but was uncharacteristically affectionate for a snake. He closed his eyes tightly, willing his anger to subside, until eventually he could stand again. He picked up his tail with a sigh and broodily left the ring, blood spattering the sand as he walked. Speech, Thought, You