Ayero vs. Mardowlin

Spoiler:

By her sixth coliseum match, Ayero had begun to make a name for herself in the arena. Even with Kou’s approach, the Fanalis woman still made it a habit to enter matches regularly. It was easier for her to stay in the city than travel around felling bandits and thieves for a living, not to mention more stable work as well. There seemed to be no shortage of coliseum challengers in Remano, some even hailing from other countries to participate in a match at the famous arena.


Despite her victory streak, Ayero reminded herself to keep her wits about her. She was never one to go easy on her opponents, and she didn’t expect anyone to go easy on her as well. It would do no good to underestimate the person standing at the opposite end of the ring, regardless of how strong they appeared or how many wins they had under their belt. As she stepped into the arena, the Fanalis woman was greeted with the sounds of cheering from the spectators. It almost made her smile, to think that people were happy to see her in yet another fight.


She turns her attention towards her opponent, raising a brow as not one, but two figures appear from the other side of the coliseum. Once they come into view, Ayero sizes them up with a critical eye. The first was a man, roughly around her age. But the beast following him wasn’t something she’d seen before. She takes note of the beast’s fearsome teeth and claws, not liking the fact that she was going up against a beast tamer who also wielded a weapon as well. Humming in dissatisfaction, Ayero decided that it was what it was and unsheathed her blade.


As the bell rang signaling the fight to begin, the beast, Koronoe charged forward at the same time Ayero did, with the human opponent, Mardowlin not far behind. Koronoe was the first to reach Ayero with his superior speed, lashing out with one of his paws in an attempt to Swipe at Ayero. But the Fanalis woman saw the movement of the beast’s paw, raising an armored leg to meet his paw with her Thighs of Steel just in time to avoid taking the blow.

[Training for Thighs of Steel: 377/375 w/ training reduction from amulet]

While Ayero’s leg was still raised in deflecting Koronoe’s blow, the beast began to draw away his paw while lunging forward and sinking his teeth into the bare flesh of Ayero’s thigh. Startled at the sudden movement and the pain, Ayero cried out as she lost her balance as Korone used Fetch[1] and began dragging her towards Mardowlin who was several meters away. Grunting as she was being dragged, the warrior woman found her leg immobilized from the bite and unable to move it from the komainu’s grasp on her thigh. Ayero was almost too distracted from the pain to see Mardowlin hovering above her, his sword cleaving in a downward arc towards her. Despite the awkward positioning, Ayero was able to Parry his strike, finally able to wiggle her leg free of Koronoe’s jaw.


Focusing on Mardowlin, she lunges for his shoulder, attempting to bury the tip of her blade within him using her Devil’s Graze, but she was met with a Parry of the man’s own, sliding both of their blades upwards an away from his body. Shifting her body to the side, Ayero noted Korone out of the corner of her eye and decided to try and take one of them out quickly. She has dealt with other swordsman before, and though Mardowlin seemed to have solid basic skills, she could tell from the way his blade shuddered against her own that he still had more to learn in order to perfect his swordplay. The beast, with his sharp fangs and speed were a bigger threat to her. With this in mind Ayero delivers a heavy sweeping kick to Mardowlin’s side. The man grunts from the blow and is sent back 10 meters by Ayero’s Knockback[2].


Turning to the warthog-looking beast during her attack on his human master, Ayero jabs her sword forward just as Koronoe charges at her. The tip of her blade slices along the beast’s side, creating only a shallow wound[3]. Gritting her teeth in frustration at her near miss, Ayero knows that her mistake will likely cost her. The blow she dealt to the human male wasn’t very strong as her aim was to push him away in order to get a clear strike at his bestial companion. She wasn’t surprised when the man recovers quickly and makes a beeline for her, raising his large blade in preparation for another downward strike. Ayero raises her blade to block his in response, sweeping her arm above her head. Right before Mardowlin’s blade begins to descend, the Fanalis feels a sharp pain in her leg, this time in the opposite limb that Koronoe had bitten into earlier. The surprise pain causes her to gasp and break her focus from the sword in front of her to turn and see the komainu sinking his long fangs into her thigh. This mistake had been a costly one, as Mardowlin’s blade breezes past Ayero’s raised sword and lands a clean strike across the right side of the woman’s face from his Dicing Trickster[4]


Another cry of pain leaves Ayero as the enemy blade cuts a path from her forehead, through her eye and down to her chin. Blood begins to stream from the open wound and would have obscured the vision in her right eye had it been functional. She had been weakened, but the Fanalis woman believed that she had enough strength to push through to victory as this wasn’t the first time she’d been in a tight spot. With a primal yell, Ayero gathers her energy and forces her blade through Mardowlin’s shoulder in a Fierce Jab[5] as she feels the komainu’s grip on her leg release. A look of surprise appears on the swordsman’s face, and he stumbles backward as Ayero withdrew her blade from his body.

An ear splitting screech tore through the coliseum, causing Ayero’s remaining functioning eye to go wide as she turned to find the source of such an awful noise. Mardowlin collapsed to his knees behind her, his sword on the ground and holding his wounded shoulder with his good hand. Koronoe, witnessing his master falling in battle, fell into a rage directed at the Fanalis woman. With another enraged scream, the beast leaps at Ayero, aiming for her sword arm. Startled, Ayero stumbles backwards and Koronoe catches Ayero’s left arm[6], sinking his fangs into it and snarling viciously. Cringing in pain, Ayero grunts and tries to shake her arm free of the beast’s fangs, but Koronoe wouldn’t budge and Ayero only succeeded in causing the sharp teeth to dig deeper into her skin.

[Training for Knockback: 764/750, trained with amulet reduction]

Upon seeing his own partner in such pain, Kabu, the snake wound around Ayero’s body let out a violent hiss of his own. The serpent was often quiet during battles, not wanting to get in Ayero’s way as her methods of fighting were often messy. But now that she could use his help, the snake was driven to defend her. Rearing his head back, Kabu spits a Poison Shot at the beast that had attached himself to Ayero. As the poison projectile made a sharp impact and sank into Koronoe’s skin, the komainu yelped and weakened his grip on Ayero’s arm. Freeing herself from the beasts grip, Ayero stumbles backwards and breathes heavily, trying to formulate a plan to take down this beast.


Keeping her good eye trained on Koronoe, she noticed that the komainu began to breathe heavily as well and stumble, before groaning in pain from the poison effects of Kabu’s attack. That should…slow him down…long enough for me to… Ayero suddenly tenses, her thoughts interrupted as Kabu snaked his way down her body, vomiting a portion of his healing saliva onto the wounds at her legs. What was startling to her was that they did not begin to sizzle with the effects of the healing as her wounds usually did when coming in contact with Kabu’s spit, but the pain nearly vanished while the wounds were still present. Finding it strange yet useful, the Fanalis woman realized that with the pain gone, she’d be able to move around better thanks to Kabu’s Numbing ability.

[Training for Numb: 256/250]

Desperate to finish this match, Ayero digs both heels into the ground and springs upwards in a Great Leap, arcing her body towards the injured beast while keeping an eye on him the best she could with her current injures. The poison seemed to be doing its job at distracting Koronoe by reducing his speed and causing unpleasant effects, so Ayero hoped that the beast wouldn’t look upwards to take note of the airel assault. Descending towards the komainu, Ayero held her breath as she swung her scimitar in a wide arc[7], slicing along the beast’s side where she had made her previous wound. Koronoe cries out in pain and shock, his legs buckling as he collapses to the ground and onto his side. Landing in a kneeling position with her injured arm hanging loosely at her side, Ayero lets out her breath as she is announced the winner and collapses to her knees.


[Stamina: 70/250]

Damage Count:

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