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 Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 5:08 am
Aesir's mandibular grip on Njal's mane was very tight, but it was difficult to hold a bunch of strands of hair when they were being pulled and shaken. There was also little point in trying, except to have some control over where Njal could and could move his head. Aesir was willing to let Njal have that one. Besides, the whole left side of his face was agony and clenching his jaw on that side made it worse. Something bad had definitely happened to that eye.
The warlord's ears already lay flat against his head, protection from attempts to tear them off in battle, so there was little more Aesir could do to protect them from Njal's claws. He didn't think about them, to be honest, even after Njal's claws found them. The actual hearing organs were located inside, where Njal couldn't get to them. The externals were just skin and muscle, as far as Aesir could tell, not knowing anything about how they were shaped to help gather sound and all that.
Since Njal's paw had come up on the side Aesir could actually see, he could tell that he had been presented with an opportunity, and he took it. He shoved his opponent with all his might but made no attempt to follow through on the attack. He didn't want to end up on top of Njal with the reaver tearing at his stomach. People survived losing eyes. Most didn't survive losing guts.
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Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 2:27 pm
Quote:  Bifrost was used to getting violent responses when he insisted on poking sore spots, so he was quick to duck. To a reaver it might be shameful to dive for cover, but to a big mouthed bard it could be a point of survival. He backpedaled a little, but couldn't resist the potential of the situation. It was a delightfully violent response to a sort-of innocent question. Bifrost filed this information away to use or abuse later. "Just making conversation," Bifrost said innocently, "This must be very hard for you." He glanced at the fight. The tension, the drama... The... What on earth was happening over there? He saw movement in the crowd, first Odd all but beating his way to the front of the crowd for some reason, and then Ormarr trying to get out with a large cub in her maw. Curious. "I forget," he said absentmindedly, "Is that even her cub?" His attention was focused on Ormarr now, and if Hroarr wanted another go at his face he might not be as quick to duck.  The feeling in the crowd had changed. He could hear roars of approval, as more and more lions realised that the outcome of the fight was all but decided. Torbjörn took his eyes off the fight for a moment when Odd forced his way through the crowd to collect Aesir's grandcubs. The fox coloured freeborn had a point, the fight could get gory from now on. Er... Worse than it was already. And the aftermath might turn unpleasant for those related to Aesir if the uproar in the crowd was any indicator.
He focused on the fight again, tying to ignore what was going on around him. It too was history, but his task tonight was to remember this fight. Any fighting in the sidelines would have to be recorded by one of the other lawspeakers, if it had to be remembered at all.
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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:22 am
It was a slight irritation as a blue lion with a rainbow tail passed in front of him. He humphed and gave a mild swat with his large paw to get the male to hurry it along before he lost something. Bousvor settled back down, though he rolled his eyes as he heard the exclamations of lions being stepped on. What an idiot. He should be watching the fight.
The tawny male turned his own attention back. Why was there so many lions roaming? Finally he guessed it had something to do with such a large gathering. His ears twitched as he saw Aesir shove Njal but refuse to try pinning him. What would he do now then?
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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:05 am
Though stumbling away made for a good irritation, the lack of a follow-up to pin or push him down meant there wasn't much consequence for Njal. He regained his footing quickly enough without actually hitting the ground, and Aesir had failed to really get through to his neck, or tear up his shoulders much more. All in all, it hadn't been so bad. He didn't lose stride, using the momentum from the push to get some distance between himself and Aesir, perhaps the length of a leopard's body. (Not too far, of course. Fighting form a distance would be ludicrous.)
He changed direction and kept on moving towards Aesir's left, circling, now that they a little bit of distance between them. He wasn't planning on immediately attacking, but making a nuisance of himself by constantly walking towards what was now the Warlord's blind side. Njal took care to keep his body at a bit of an angle, walking sort of sideways, so as to expose less of his flanks to Aesir, as well as leave him ready to move in at a moment's notice without needing to whip and turn around or anything like that.
Njal was feeling confident because now he had one clear advantage, but still he was focused. The fight would only be over when he had Aesir down, now before. In the past he might have been more reckless, but there was simply too much riding on this for him to get stupid. Either Aesir would attack, and Njal would defend himself and fight back, or he'd work out something else soon enough.
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:29 am
Aesir kept his head turned and tilted toward the left so that he could at least sort of see Njal as he circled. He had never been in the position of fighting blind before, and unconsciously regretted that he had not paid more attention to those half-blinded fighters he had encountered in the past and how they had dealt with it.
In his peripheral vision Aesir noticed an orange pelt belonging to one of his sons move to the fore and then depart, taking with him two pale-furred cubs. What did that mean? He put it from his mind. Not the time.
With a snarl the warlord closed the distance between himself and his opponent, lashing out with his claws when he was close enough, aiming for the reaver's face and ears.
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Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 5:45 pm
Erykk The blow that caught Aesir in the eye had Erykk grinning. He was liking this fight, and he couldn't wait till he could participate. For now though, he was content watching the two lions. He had a feeling how this was going to end, and his suspicions seemed to hit home. He noticed that Odd was leaning behind his nephew and his neice. He wished he could hear what the male was saying.. But from what he gathered, they were being told to move away. Good. That would leave it open for he and his sister. They had no worries with this fight, as niether would fair any different with either winner. Finna When Canicah rushed to her, she didn't mind that she was wiping the blood off. She hadn't noticed that it didn't remove the blood, all it did was smear the crimson further into her fur. But she jumped when her brother growled at her friend. But she did nothing to defend her. She was too busy gazing in awe at what was happening. She was afraid. She was terribly afraid. This wasn't a feeling she had ever really, truly felt before. She was pulled closer by her brothers paw. She squeezed into him, her head hiding in his neck. She couldn't bare watching anymore. "Oh, Burzum.. He's - He's.." She couldn't manage to get the thoughts that were plaguing her into words. Canicah Cani flinched when he spoke, withdrawing her paws quickly. They were smeared with blood, though it was hard to see against her own crimson colored pelt. She was so confused. She wanted to be there for her friend, but she noticed that Finna was being consoled, and by her brother. So she had -someone-. Then a piercing pain hit the female. She put a paw to her head, crying out as she tried to make it stop. She wasn't sure what she was seeing. She felt dread, huge amounts of dread. Then she saw Aesir, and his face was matted with blood. He was alive.. But there was something different. Something.. Then the vision was gone, and she blinked back the pain. She knew what was going to happen, and she took off running. She couldn't be around here, not right now. Finna Finna pulled back abruptly when she heard her uncle's voice. She wasn't sure what to do, but she knew to listen to that tone. He was serious, and she caught a note of fear. Was it fear? SHe didn't know. Maybe it was her own fear that was so loud it was like a roar within her ears. Odd was one of the family members she respected, and so with a thick gulp, she nodded her head, eyes wide. She didn't say anything, not trusting her voice not to betray her. "Burz." She said softly, pulling at him. She wouldn't leave without him.
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Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 3:37 am
Oh, dear. It seemed the dark lioness was seriously considering becoming a Reaver. In a way, it was a good thing she had asked Akatta for advice first even though she had to admit the timing was somewhat inopportune. The Freeborn knew someone had to talk to their new fellow Stormborn and steer her on the right path and Akatta would gladly offer her assistance on the spot if only the circumstances were different.
“There will be no need for you to hunt again. That occupation is left for our Thralls. Even if you don’t have one, there are many of them that hunt for the pride.” Akatta had never hunted a day of her life but that was not something she was proud of as much as it was one of the many views that had been passed down from her parents regarding the role of a Freeborn lioness. She gasped suddenly as her husband’s blow left Aesir bleeding from an eye and the faith she always had reserved for her husband slowly turned into a more solid hope that everything was going to be alright for the two of them and the pride. “Perhaps, dear… we could… talk about this later?”
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 6:14 am
Good. Frankly, Njal welcomed the opportunity to be chased this time around, especially now that he was sure he could take this. The blow to the warlord's eye was a turning point he fully intended to capitalize on. When Aesir came, the reaver dodged towards his right side, because the left simply would have been too obvious; if the Warlord overcompensated, as Njal thought he might, it would provide plenty of opportunity. His opponent's left paw met its mark on Njal's right cheek, but fortunately missed anything too important, like his eyes. It would bleed plenty, though, and probably leave a nice scar, aside from hurting a lot. Aesir's other paw ended up in his mane after tearing up one of his ears on the way. In comparison to Njal's cheek, it didn't hurt much at all.
He snarled and quickly angled his head to try to bite and grab onto one of the Warlord's wrists, intent on doing as much damage to muscle or tendon as he could. Disabling one of Aesir's paws would definitely be good for him. At the same time, Njal reached out with his left paw towards the right side Aesir's face. The idea was one attack might distract from the other.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 7:48 am
Aesir was startled by Njal's move toward his right side, but it made sense. Coming from his blind side all the time would be predictable and a half-blind opponent would be on his guard for attacks from that direction anyway. Nevertheless, Aesir might have underestimated Njal a bit in assuming that he would not have reached that conclusion so quickly.
He yanked his fore paws back to avoid having either of them mangled by Njal's sharp teeth, unbalancing himself with the action so that he nearly stumbled into the blow from Njal's left paw. It had been a mistake. He knew it as soon as he moved his paws that he should have taken the wound no his paws rather than expose his face to attack once more, but he could do no more than jerk his head back in an attempt to mitigate the damage.
There was no way to tell whether jerking his head back had been a good idea or a bad idea, or whether things might have turned out differently if he'd taken the blow without trying to negate some of the risk. As it turned out though, he once more felt sharp and bloodied claws scraping over his brow, this time with the claw actually snagging on the ridge protecting his eye socket.
He thrust forward, hoping to unhook Njal's claw before it could reach his good eye.
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Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 5:46 am
The initial disappointment at having failed to do damage to Aesir's paws was taken over once he realized the position he had managed to put his paw in. Or rather, Aesir had. While Njal had certainly been hoping he'd be able to hit, the warlord himself had made the attack so much more potentially dangerous.
Njal hadn't imagined his opponent would let this sort of thing happen again. His claws were caught on the other lion's brow, and with a growl Njal pulled his paw back towards himself and downwards, not one to miss an opportunity like this. But that was just as Aesir rushed forward, and Njal didn't have time to see if he had been successful in injuring the warlord's other eye, as he was pushed back a couple steps. Well, he would find out soon enough, his priority was not getting ripped to shreds! So instead of just continuing to back up he tried to push past to Aesir's side. This time he did go for the left, and tried to avoid getting caught in another grab.
Even if he had blinded Aesir, he still had to down the other male, and that was more easily done from the side.
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Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 11:34 am
To be frank, Aesir had been every bit as surprised by his stupidity as Njal had been. He knew better than to get himself into these sorts of situations fighting. He didn't like to think that domestic concerns were interfering with what was probably the most important fight of his life. It was embarrassing for a Stormborn warrior to be distracted by something as flowery as worrying about a daughter in childbirth. Lionesses had children every day and no one got upset about it. Some of them even died.
Kazul was not going to die. But Aesir might if he didn't start giving Njal and this fight his full attention. A voice in the back of his mind told him it might be too late for that.
Aesir's claws had been extended since the fight began, and so as he pressed forward and ducked his head, his foreclaws were still in a good position to make a grab for Njal, though he did not succeed in his hold since he could not see on that side. He could guess more or less where Njal was in most respects, but that was not the same as knowing. At least his right eye was yet intact, though still fairly useless to him with the blood streaming into it.
He shifted backward, taking the opportunity to shake his head and attempt to wipe away some of the vision-obscuring blood. For the moment he could see through his right eye, but he would only continue to bleed into it. This fight would have to end quickly, before pain and his ill-timed thoughts distracted him to a fatal end. The warlord glared at Njal with his good eye and feinted to Njal's left. He followed the feint immediately with an attack to Njal's other side, leading with his own blindside.
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Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 4:50 pm
The rude blue lion with the penchant for slanderous gossip was wiped from his mind as the fight grew more desperate. Heart in his throat, he rose unwillingly and unknowingly to his paws, muscles tight and expression strained. Strike after strike, his father was failing! It couldn't be! Could this be one more lofty ideal come crashing down? Surely.... surely Aesir couldn't lose? Surely he couldn't die in the losing?! Agonized, he groaned and averted his eyes momentarily, squeezing them closed for a moment's prayer before the crowd's various noises of reaction dragged his gaze back to the two powerful lions locked in battle.
With a sinking heart, he realized their father was not doing well at all. He couldn't bring himself to sit down, but he shifted closer to the half-sister he now felt as a treasured ally in this roaring, jeering, gasping crowd. If Aesir lost the fight, they'd need the comfort of another who shared the pain. If he died... she would need someone to turn to for sure. Hroarr, however, might need her to hold him back.
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Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 7:24 am
 Bifrost tucked this little gem away for later, and started pushing through the crowd again. It was very interesting that cubs related to Aesir were being extracted, and the fight might soon come to an end from the looks of it. The gossip potential of a crowd this big was tempting, but Bifrost did want to see the end of the epic fight. He pushed and shoved and was soon in a position where he could see the fight properly. Both lions were bleeding, but the defending Warlord was bleeding a lot more in the face. Oh, the drama. He couldn't have come up with better himself (Oh, who was he kidding, of course he could. But this was still pretty good) Quote:  No reason for her to hunt? That was bad... Aruná had kind of counted on that as an excuse to leave again when the time came. And then there was Cythraul... She'd promised to meet him when things calmed down a little, and this would make her task much trickier. He had been very against her going here in the first place for some reason and she intended to tell him that she was doing perfectly fine. She'd find a way.
"Sure," Aruná said with a small smile, "We can talk later."
She wouldn't mind talking to Akatta more, in a calmer environment. It might help her fit in better until she could find and rescue Udongo. But for now she watched the fight in silence. It looked as if there would be a shift in power.
It was with a sinking feeling Torbjörn watched Aesir struggle. It wasn't finished yet, but it felt as if an old era shattered. He didn't like it much.
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 9:46 am
The failure to permanently take out Aesir's other eye when he had a chance was a bit disappointing, but Njal would take what he had gladly. Even if not really blind, his opponent would still have trouble seeing. He was rather impressed Aesir insisted on keeping this up now, but in retrospect he shouldn't have expected any less.
Aesir's paws scraped on his shoulders, painful, but mostly due to the injuries already there. So for a few moments there was a bit of distance between them, and while Njal failed to capitalize on the moment where Aesir tried to clear up his vision, it was good to see. It was even clearer to him now that the Warlord was failing. Time to end this.
Aesir came at him again, and Njal was briefly fooled by the feint, so he failed to properly block an attack on his right. He managed to avoid getting into too compromising a position, but in felt Aesir's claws drag painfully across his right flanks. That also meant that Njal was on Aesir's bad side, didn't it?
Not one to let this opportunity slip by, he turned as quickly as he could to slam into Aesir's side, hoping to unbalance him and to follow up with a few good swings of his paws to the shoulders and head of his opponent. Provided Aesir didn't manage to turn too quickly himself, of course, in which case they might just end up in another standoff.
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 11:08 am
Aesir had done his best to brace himself against anything Njal might do while presented with his blind side, but the fact was that Aesir was not prescient and he could only predict what Njal would do up to a point. Another reaver, he might have had a better idea what to expect, but Njal had spent a while away from the pride and Aesir had not had time since his return to learn his tricks.
The force of Njal's body slamming into his sent the warlord stumbling to one side, only barely keeping his footing. It was much harder to balance with only one eye working. He might almost have an easier time of it if he closed his other eye and found his balance that way, but he couldn't afford to be totally blind.
There was no time for him to recover and avoid or block the strikes Njal directed around his head and shoulders so he could only tuck his chin to his chest, lay his ears flat, and take the blows while he looked for an opportunity to return fire. He lashed out when he could. Meanwhile the blows continued to fall on his face, some of them only barely missing his eyes.
Enough of this. He leapt forward with his jaws open wide, heedless of the damage he would take in the process.
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