Part one of getting back on his feet meant testing his mettle as a Pokemon trainer against someone objectively better than him. See part one in progress, elsewhere.

Part two was getting himself physically back into fighting shape. It wasn’t, necessarily, a difficult task: he hadn’t been down for long, and most of his physical limitations came in the form of wounds that really shouldn’t chance reopening.

Mostly, though, it was his eye. His right eye had been viscerally ruptured and rendered useless. He had a patch, now, but he had to get used to not having vision on the affected side. Onyx learned best through suffering, as his life so clearly illustrated. The fastest way back on his feet would be to jump into the fire with both.

He rolled his neck from side to side, feeling the tension in his chest wounds. They would hold. He needed to avoid getting hit in the lower back at all costs; the doctors all assured him that ruptured kidneys were a typical thing seen in sports medicine and could heal on their own, with time.

Onyx didn’t have the patience for time.

He stepped between the ropes into the ring. Mordekaiser just sailed over them. The once-Gabite had been responsible for failing to stop the Alpha Ursaring from savaging Onyx; he’d gained some measure of silent savagery, in his evolved state.

It was a dirty, underground fight. They didn’t really make dirty, underground referees-- and the only emcee was the roar of the crowd. He tuned it all out, locked eyes-- eye-- with his opponent, and cracked his knuckles one by one, waiting for her to make the first move.

blue murtagh

☉

She didn’t know a lick of information about the guy climbing into the ring, followed by his garchomp. And really, Blue didn’t care to find out just then. They were here to fight, to be a spectacle for those who craved gladiator violence. Not sit and swap chitchat.[break][break]

A quick once over, though, gave her the impression that the damage to his eye was fairly new. She could work with that.[break][break]

Pokémon versus Pokémon, trainer versus trainer. Though the people mostly came to see Pokémon brawls, fighting for herself was more her own personal style. They were just getting a little extra to what they signed up for. A little more bang for their buck.

A low click of her tongue sent Fang forward first, the lucario hurtling toward their opponent’s garchomp, fist clenched paws charging up as it came right out the gate aiming a METEOR MASH at the dragon-type. The crowd wanted a show? They would get one.[break][break]

Blue moved in tandem, moving low as Fang leapt high. First, a feint, and then a jab leveled at the man’s blind side. Hopefully he wasn’t expecting a clean fight or any sort of sportsmanship. Blue wasn’t there to offer as much. She’d been taught to fight with a dog-eat-dog tenacity, and honestly, she’d be a bit disappointed if he didn’t offer the same brutality.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] onyx straub | m: bare knuckle beat down[break]





[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-lucario"]

He could track her gaze to the hole in his head. That was fine. He wasn’t trying to hide anything. He was planning on turning her expectation of an advantage into an advantage advantage for him.

Okay, maybe he was still a little woozy from blood loss and punch-drunk off of the forfeiture of a major bodily function.

The woman gave her command nigh-imperceptibly and the Lucario launched forward with a ferocious punch. Mordekaiser charged into it, whatever semblance of technique he may have had thrown to the wind in the face of the lure of brutality. He took the punch off his left shoulder, rough skin savaging the Lucario’s paw, as he launched his massive body forward in a vicious take down, aiming to bear the Lucario to the ground and chomp at its head.

Onyx moved forward, too, though with noticeably much more control than his dragon. He didn’t fall for her feint and he knew she was going to be targeting his blind spot. Her fist connected with his forearm (a lucky block, honestly) as he deflected her jab outward, shifting to keep her in his field of vision. He went from a defensive position straight into a one-two punch shot straight at her face.

blue murtagh

☉

Whoever this guy was, he seemed like he had little to lose, despite being obviously set back by fresh injuries. Blue, in all honesty, could relate.[break][break]

Fang only momentarily flinched at the brutalizing of his paw. It wasn’t the first time that a tough hide had torn at the skin under his paws. As the garchomp charged him, the lucario anticipated the continued close quarters, countering the incoming pressure with an AURA SPHERE intended to blow the dragon-type backward.[break][break]

Even if it didn’t work, Blue wasn’t worried about her pokemon. The both of them had long learned to hold their own.[break][break]

Her punch was deflected, she rolled with it—fists tucking back close to her body as she bounced and rocked back on her heels. Her eyes remained fixed on her opponent, though, and her low center of gravity helped her duck back and away from the bap bap of his fist directed square at her nose.[break][break]

Stooped low and forward, Blue swung under next. Hoping to land two quick jabs at his ribs instead.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] onyx straub | m: bare knuckle beat down[break]





[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-lucario"]

The woman’s Lucario welcomed Mord in with a sort of feint, quickly capitalizing on the closeness with an aura sphere. The bright blue light made Onyx’s eye water. He felt the ghost of tears on his brutalized right cheek.

Mordekaiser took the aura sphere to the face and squawked, shaking his head and stumbling backward, thin tendrils of smoke curling off the sides of his jaws. Gods and fucking monsters, Onyx was going to have to teach him a different method of combat besides all in, all the time.

But he didn’t have the grace to worry about the fucking dragon. He had to stop this girl from pulling him apart by virtue of using his stitches like marionette strings.

He was taller than her, and that meant, while he had more reach, it took more flexion to guard his midsection. When she jabbed at his ribs he crunched, the first blow striking home-- only practice let him keep his breath as the pain shot through him, shaking his ruptured spleen, his burst kidney, even round the back of his body so they were. Her second he absorbed well and managed to shrug off, responding by aiming a cross-body swipe at the side of her neck, an attempt to stun her or grab her throat.

Mordekaiser, meanwhile, couched his skull and roared a furious dragon breath at the Lucario, purple fumes lighting the ring up vibrant lavender.

blue murtagh

☉

She could feel her hits land, that was good. It was clear enough to her that he was guarding what she could only guess were prior injuries. That could be used in her favor if she continued to batter his sides, his back. But in trying to plan for those next moves, she allowed herself to get distracted.[break][break]

Her opponent did manage to snag Blue by the throat. A snarling grimace filtered across her face as she tried to twist away, hands coming up to clamp down on his wrist. Slightly lifted from their height difference, she swung out with her legs instead to try and drive the wind from his diaphragm instead.[break][break]

On the other hand, Fang also failed to avoid the attack sent his way–limbs locking from the initial stunning effect of the dragon breath. Conjuring his inner focus did little to will his arms back into movement. The lucario snarled at the garchomp, forfeiting the time to failing in retaliation to send a quick heal pulse through his system–unfortunately leaving a short, open window of time.


[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] onyx straub | m: bare knuckle beat down[break]





[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-lucario"]

Onyx’s fingers clamped around her throat, wrist flexing to press his palm tighter, directly on top of her windpipe.

He didn’t expect the way she contracted her legs and struck out at him, and her blow hit him in the chest-- higher up than she probably expected. She was successful in knocking the wind from his lungs, and the seam of one of his chest wounds split, soaking the front of his shirt with blood.

He felt himself going down and so he tried to take her with him, dragging down on her neck and throwing all of his bodyweight into pulling her down by her throat, hopefully then to scramble on top of her and really choke her out.

Mordekaiser used the window of opportunity granted to him by his opponent’s healing to, once more, charge face first into the canid, using take down to attempt to bear him down to the ring floor and more easily savage him.

blue murtagh

☉

A sudden cut from the air to her lungs forced Blue to recalculate. If she could’ve twisted her head to bite down on the curve of his thumb and forefinger, she would’ve. But his hand was nested just enough under her chin to make the angle impossible. The bloom of blood through his clothing was good, though.[break][break]

Maybe not good enough to win, but enough to know she’d left a mark as they go down in a flurry of flailing and tangled limbs as she attempted (and failed) to twist free like a hissing, spitting meowth.[break][break]

The headbutt doled out by the garchomp hit Fang straight in the center of his chest. Momentum drove him back, but his hind legs dug into the floor of the ring and he pulled in tightly to maintain his center of gravity. At that range, the lucario unleashed a fury of blows–once again using CLOSE COMBAT to his advantage as Blue herself went down.[break][break]

Back against the mat, her face twisted in a snarl as her fingers pried at his grip on her throat. Size wasn’t advantageous for her at this angle, pinned as she was. The best she was able to do as her vision began to dart and spot was an attempt to drive her knee up–be it gut or groin or ribs where that blunt bone made impact like a battering ram.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] onyx straub | m: bare knuckle beat down[break]





[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-lucario"]

At such range-- or lack thereof-- the close combat was devastating, striking Mord in all the right places with bone-crushing precision. The dragon screamed, stumbling and flopping as he hit his knees and keeled to the side.

Onyx was on top of his opponent in a heartbeat, though he could feel his blood rolling down the skin of his chest and abdomen. Any pretense at a fair fight had fled and he was just focused on squeezing the life out of her as he, himself struggled for consciousness. He bore down on her throat with all of his weight.

Then her knee came up and drove into the meat of his inner thigh, deadening the nerve and making him grit his teeth against the pain. She’d managed to slip her leg somewhat between him and prise up off a bit, and he wobbled, vision tunneling from blood loss.

blue murtagh

☉

The moment his close combat landed, Fang followed through. There was no hesitation or retreat for the lucario–just as there was none for Blue. His momentum carried him to crash into the fallen dragon. Ready to pummel him with spiked fists.[break][break]

There was nothing clean or friendly about this match. Sportsmanship had flown out the window the moment Blue had stepped into the ring. But this was what she lived for–being on that precipice and straddling the line between safety and danger. There was a thrill when those fight or flight instincts kicked in. And by the time the two of them went down in a heap, the flush of adrenaline had taken over.[break][break]

She thrashed under his weight, relishing in the connection of her kneecap with his inner thigh. As her hands scrabbled and clawed at his where they were still latched like a vice around her throat, Blue arched up and then drove her knee at whatever she could land a hit on again.[break][break]

A wheeze rattled up her constricted throat, and her lungs burned. Blackness flickered in her vision. Even then, on the cusp of unconsciousness, she grinned up at her opponent. Wild-eyed and bloody-mouthed. Triumphant regardless of the actual outcome.


[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] onyx straub | m: bare knuckle beat down[break]





[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-lucario"]

He held her throat until she stopped moving. Dark blips of red dropped against her clothes and skin, having finally coalesced enough against his shirt to slip through, like he was a cloud of crimson rain.

Arms shaking, he blinked his eyes rapidly against the darkness that careened in like a train. Instead of standing, valiant, he toppled, prone on the ground, the fall of his body making a wet splat against the ring floor.

The woman’s Lucario no doubt had enough common sense to collect her and take her to safety. Likewise, Onyx’s Gardevoir, Amplexus, eventually came out of his Pokeball and did the same with his own trainer-- after the arena staff had dragged both their sorry bodies off to the side and hurled them into the tunnel to make room for the next bout.

blue murtagh
i turn in 4 us

☉