World Tree MUSH

     The arena is, as ever, filled to bursting with people of all walks of life, and now even some offworlders who have come for the tourist attraction of watching people beat the crap out of each other. Jacques is standing ready, as always, to announce the match, which he does with his usual gusto.

"Hey folks, who remembers those old bear boxing matches we used to do? Yeah, those were great, right? Watching random homeless people get mauled to bloody meat chunks by scared and confused wild animals, fun for the whole family! Well, today's case is a little special, you could even say smarter than your average bear! But will he be able to stand up to the cold professionalism of an assassin with more hidden blades than some of you have teeth? Give it up for... DROGO AND PIERAAAAAAA!"

As the crowd screams and applauds, the enormous black bear clad in purple lumbers his way to the ring, climbing in a bit awkwardly and taking his corner. Leaning against the corner post (which starts to bend from the weight), he snuffles a bit as a couple of his cronies follow up to massage his arms and whisper encouraging words.

    There's a lot of people here, Assassins are blades in the crowd, but here it's all in the open.

    "No matter." says Piera to herself, donning her cloaks hood and glancing at Aquila. The Shinki gives a thumbs up, then flits up to perch somewhere to watch.

    As the announcement goes out, the Assassin jogs in, mantles the arena in a fluid motion and stands with arms spread to the sides, her face obscured by the shadow of her hood. A little showboating even without any words spoken.

     Drogo watches Piera enter, his good eye flicking toward the Shinki momentarily. With a nodding gesture, his men follow his gaze, then break away from the ring and into the stands. The bear, in the meantime, stands up fully and reaches over the edge of the ring, grabbing a huge iron club from another minion who's straining to lift it.

Naturally, Drogo handles it like it's a toy, tossing it into the air where it spins around and around before catching it by the handle and resting it across his shoulders. "Let's get this show on the road." he says in his deep, guttural voice, stepping forward just as the gong sounds.

    Piera catches the subtle gestures and glances back at Aquila. She makes a sharp whistle which sends the Shinki flitting further away, perching further up the stands, out of range. "I warn you, amico. If your friends harm my partner, they will join you in the bloody heap." she remarks but doesn't draw a weapon despite the large iron club being brandished like a toy. Her arms come forward in a hand-to-hand defensive posture as she starts to circle around the approaching bear-man.

     "Do I look like the kind of guy who'd go that far? Me, the Laughing Bear?" Drogo says, feigning innocence with his free paw spreading out to show he's got nothing to hide. It doesn't take him very long to lunge forward and bring that club crashing down into the concrete floor of the ring though, causing shattered pieces to fly every which way. Is Piera still standing there when he does it?

    Gold flashes in the shadow of the hood, and Piera lunges in closer to the bear as he swings downwards. She uses his off-balance to drive her Hidden Blade into the big creature's thigh as she passes, dive-rolling behind him and bringing her arms back up again. "Yes." is her response when she's clear again, a smirk showing on her exposed lips.

     Drogo's thick hide prevents the blade from penetrating perhaps as deeply as Piera would like, but his purple pants nonetheless stain with red as he turns around to follow her, swinging the club in a backhand arc at her ribs. Maybe it's her ribs. With how big that thing is, it's hard to actually be precise about where he aims. "Tch, you wound me. In more ways than one." he growls, his other paw checking the wound.

Meanwhile, from above Aquila, a rope slowly descends from the open roof of the arena... tied around the waist of a half-naked man carrying a burlap sack. Definitely nothing to worry about.

    Piera can't win a test of strength, but that's what the training is for. She shifts her stands, drawing a curve-bladed sword from somewhere in her robes, and angles it as she swings to deflect that club, while also bending to dip beneath it. The Assassin rolls away again, throwing a trio of knives from her bandolier on the way up.

    Meanwhile, in the stands, Aquila /seems/ completely oblivious. She's kicking her legs and resting her chin on her hands, elbows on her knees.

     The club goes awry, but Drogo uses its momentum to swing up and around, bringing it slamming down once again with even more floor-shattering force. His free paw swats away two of the knives, but one buries itself in his shoulder, eliciting a grunt of pain from the bear and another patch of red staining his clothes.

The rope-clad bandit, in the meantime, has gotten just low enough now that Aquila is in arm's reach, and with a triumphant "Gotcha!" he swipes the bag at her.

    Piera grunts, hopping back, but taking a face-full of shrapnel from the impact of that club. She skids back a step or two, before darting in to stamp on the club, and launch herself up and over the bear while slashing with her sword at the wounded shoulder. "You're strong, amico, but that comes at the cost of speed." she mocks as she lands; already moving to evade another strike.

    Aquila is stuffed in a sack. This lasts for all of about a second before the sack falls apart from multiple structural failures caused by fiber integrity loss... probably caused by the multiple sharp blades currently being sported by a now fully armoured Raptias Air Dominance model. Her visor snaps away from her eyes, and those magenta hues glare balefully at the half-naked rope-dangling man. "Bad move." she says, before jetting in to slash the rope, sending the guy plummeting to the ground.

     Piera's blade cuts through Drogo's flesh once again, and with another roar of pain he drops the club and instead goes in for paw-to-paw combat. "Grrr, you're right. I shoulda used my BEAR HANDS from the start!" he growls, flecks of blood scattering across the floor of the ring as he swipes at her in what looks like an approximation of bajiquan. At least he's got the arm length for it.

The minion, unfortunately, doesn't have much time to realize how screwed he is before he's falling into the crowd, landing atop a friendly looking kappa. The turtleman is fine thanks to his hard shell, but the bandit's fall causes a chain reaction in the people around them, starting a brawl in the stands.

    Piera might just be in trouble, the club was slow and predictable while bare-handed brawling is a lot quicker, comparitively.

    She sheaths her blade and grips her fists, showing off the cestas built into her gloves. Ducking under the bear's guard she goes to slam that metal-plated fist into her first wound on his thigh while diving through to maintain space. "I did warn you about your friends." she remarks, as the brawl starts up in the stands.

    Aquila follows the rope to where it terminates, seeking to add more bodies to the brawl below. She brandishes her twin blasters, the curved blades attaching to the sides of the barrels so she has a melee weapon and ranged weapon. "Anyone else wanna go a round with the Bird of Prey?"

     Drogo stumbles as Piera's fist digs into his thigh, but catches himself enough to lunge after her. No wild swings, this, instead it's an extended palm strike- or something like one, using the full extent of his considerable reach. "My boys will- grrrgh- be fine!"

Up on the roof are two more bandits, dressed in raggedy clothing and looking like they haven't bathed in days. Aquila will find them staring dumbfoundedly down at the chaos until she grabs their attention, upon which one tries to leap at her and grab her with his bare hands. The other... immediately books it, climbing down the outside wall as quickly as he can.

Piera sidesteps, just bearly avoiding the strike, though the passage does manage to shred some of her robe, revealing the gleaming chainmail beneath. "Your boys are likely already dead, or worse." she taunts, quickly bringing her fist into the elbow joint of the big bear, then twisting to drive an elbow into his midsection.

    "You forget, that Assassins are made of sharp objects." remarks Aquila, holding her blasters to the sides with those blades facing into the palms of those hands as they try to grab her. She fires the blasters for good measure then jets upwards before arching down. Blasters are dismissed and summons her Bident as her vernier jets kick in, driving her down onto the other bandit as he scrambles down the wall.

     Drogo stumbles back again after those blows, breathing heavily. He's actually losing a pretty fair amount of blood by the look of things, and it's certainly not making it easier for him to keep up the pace. "All of them are... are born warriors, with courage to spare. I... phew... trained them myself." he pants, though as the sound of an oddly high-pitched scream manages to pierce through the crowd noise, he turns to look at the brawl that is now spilling over the stands and into the grassy grounds surrounding the ring itself. "Wilhelm, no!"

The bandit that tried to grab Aquila topples over the edge of the wall as well, falling into the thronging masses where he is quickly lost amid the sea of angry bodies. The last one, seeing his doom coming for him, desperately tries to jump from the outer wall to the roof of a building next door... and just barely misses it, his fingers brushing the edge of the roof before he falls, arms windmilling, into a cart full of fruit. The owner of the fruit stall, not too happy about this, is shouting obscenities about people always getting into fights and destroying his business, angrily slapping the dazed bandit about the head with a bunch of bananas.

    Piera brings her fists up in a boxer stance, and uses the distraction of Drogo turning to look at the brawl to throw a haymaker at the big bear's head. She stomps down, and twists through the swing; putting all her weight into the strike and trusting the armoured gauntlet to drive the blow through. "I'm your opponent!" she says just before she, hopefully, connects.

    Aquila pulls up, turning her engines to slow her momentum. She huffs haughtily as the last bandit ends up dealt with by a grumpy fruit-seller... something about Cantaloupes. "Boring, and you made me miss the fight too!" she flits back into the arena, hoping to catch the finale.

     As Drogo turns back to his opponent, that gauntleted fist SMASHES into his cheek, a worrying crack accompanying the blow as blood and a tooth fly out of his mouth. He's driven back against the ropes, blinking as he tries to pull himself back together, then bounces off of them to propel himself forward at Piera in one big diving tackle. Whether he hits or not though, he stays on the ground for a good while, groaning painfully.

"Well, looks like Piera's got this one in the bag. Uh, are you girls good for the ten count?" Jacques asks his assistants, both of whom are currently busy maintaining a perimeter around their boss and the very expensive-looking gong. Violently. Anyone who draws too near is either dealt with by the blonde's surprisingly devastating physical blows, or set alight by the bronze-skinned beauty's likely magical command of flame. Taking this as his answer, Jacques shrugs and starts the count himself.

"One... two... three..."

    Piera put a lot of energy into that swing, but the moment of building tension on those ropes gives her time to recover and duck out of the way of the tackle. She keeps her guard up as the count begins, keeping some distance as she watches for any signs of movement from the bear.

    Aquila makes it inside just in time to see that fist connect, whooping a cheer for her partner.

     "Four... five... six..."

It's about here that Drogo starts to, very shakily, push himself back up. His entire frame shuddering with the effort, red staining the concrete under him from his wounds, he turns his single amber eye on Piera, practically glowing with fury. "I... am a bear... with the will... of a man..." he grunts out through his broken jaw, a mix of blood and drool spilling from his lips as he bares his teeth. The count pauses.

And then resumes, as Drogo can't quite make it all the way up and collapses onto his knees, then crumples into an unconscious heap. "Seven... eight... nine... ten!" Jacques finishes, picking up one of the mallets dropped by his assistants and bashing the gong with it to signal the end of the match.

"Your winner: PIERAAAAAAAAAAAA FORTAAAAAAAAAAAA! Now get the hell out of my arena you shmucks!"

    Piera lowers her guard, finally as Drogo goes down and stays down. She waits for the count to finish, then turns wordlessly to leave, lifting one arm to gesture for her partner to join her again.

    The pair leave the brawling arena, and vanish into the night.

     As more of Drogo's cronies come to collect him, taking advantage of the crowd to slip out, the chaos of the brawl eventually dies down. Most people in this town seem to respect Jacques to some degree, and none want to get on his bad side. As they slowly filter out of the arena, he heaves a sigh and looks around at the damage done to the grounds and the ring. "Gotta get this place fixed up before the next fight. Wish it didn't eat into the profits..."