The tour ends when you leave the cove. The snarky insert earns him a barely perceptible smirk from Ambrose. His claw connects against the other's face with bone-rattling force, and the instant satisfaction of it quickens his blood. A daunting snarl scythes through the air before the earthen male drives his shoulder forward into Ambrose's chest. As a result, he staggers backwards, barely succeeding in keeping his balance.

Claws instinctively dig into the sand, but fail to find purchase in the loose soil. "Good to see hospitality is alive and well in Caladan." He manages to say, breathlessly. "Not excited by the view so far, though." Then something comes down on his paw, and the white-hot pain is so potent that it makes his head swim. He jerks the contused paw back towards himself when the larger male sinks his teeth into the left side of his face.

Pain blooms across his face—he anticipated it to be more a needle type of pain, but it definitely feels more like getting vibe checked by a rhinoceros. His lips peel back to reveal a glint of teeth as a snarled hiss leaves him, desperately shaking his head as half his vision remains obscured. Blindly, he lifts his paw, slamming it smack dab into the left side of his opponent's face. Unsheathed claws drag down his ear and jawline upon impact, hopefully taking a piece of earlobe with him.

@Kozrain vs. @Ambrose
For minor maim
Round: 2/4
Hits:

Rolling 6d20: 9 + 17 + 7 + 12 + 13 + 6

Dodges:

Rolling 5d20: 15 + 8 + 13 + 17 + 10

Luck:

Rolling 5d20: 6 + 19 + 18 + 1 + 8

BG — ART — CODE

+5 Observe a fight (Kozrain v Ambrose)
+5 Observe a fight (Bhaskar v Ronin)
+5 Observe a fight (Cirilla v Gauthier)

The last time he'd gone to a pride challenge hadn't gone well, so he hadn't actually been intending to go to this one... until he realized there were family members doing so. Say what you wanted about him and his laziness, but he would always protect the Savante. Considering what had happened last time, he had a feeling they might need the support.

By the time he caught up things were rapidly going south. There were some maim fights going on, which he kept an idle eye on as he passed heading towards the family he could see gathered. Particularly the fights erupting around @Lilliana and @Valerian, like the one Ronin got swept into. "Anyone know who tall, pale, and speckled is?" he asked in a stilted undertone, nodding towards the man who'd gone after Ronin. He didn't know either of the men who were fighting nearby but they were close enough that it seemed like they'd been sitting with the family as well so... And then of course there was the actual pride fight.

In looking that way, he spotted an unfortunately familiar face. "We might want to get out of here," he continued, nodding at Apollinaire. If he decided to start things again because he spotted them it wouldn't be good.

MARKUS RIKE

---

+5 Observe a fight (Kozrain v Ambrose)
+5 Observe a fight (Bhaskar v Ronin)
+5 Observe a fight (Cirilla v Gauthier)

Markus hears the call from Alaric and proceeds to make his way to where it had come from. Admittedly, he arrives a little later than what he had wanted, but when he did arrive, it was chaos. A grin forms eagerly on his features as he pauses at the edge of the clearing where blood was so quick to be spilled, looking around to see his cousin observing. Walking over to @Adalwolf, he takes a seat and quietly watches the war unfold around him.

Wofür kämpfen sie? Ich bin begierig darauf, mich einzubringen... Haut aufreißen, Blut vergießen. He remarks to his cousin with a smirk, watching as three - wait, no, four? - couples engage in battle over a game of politics.

Interesting indeed.

Markus is open to fights up to a minor maim - please DM me before initiating!

+10 Successfully stay hidden for the duration of a thread

+5 Observe a fight (Gauthier v Cirilla)
+5 Observe a fight (Bhaskar v Ronin)

She'd just come to call the Cove her home, and now this. She had faith in Gauthier's ability to defend the place, though, considering his size and obvious battle experience. So she didn't hasten back to the pride when she heard the challenge ring out, and when she did get back, creeping up on the gathering through the foliage to keep hidden within its shadows, she saw just how many battles had begun.

The sovereign was battling some woman she didn't recognize, and among the other fights were a pair of males going at each other, one of which was utterly massive. Actually, there were quite a few mountains of men scattered around, interestingly enough. She watched that fight with just as much interest as she was the main bout that would determine if she still had a home after this.

-Dysnomia is hiding-

Nero smiled at @Nazonal's gentle touch, wishing more could be exchanged but knowing all too well nothing was possible. He would love them forever, but this would be their limitation – to make glances at one another from the corner of their eyes, a smile exchanged in the shadows. He was glad they had Sparrow..

And whoever the fuck this giant was, he guessed. Nero stared at @Dragos with a frown. Did he think the pale man was incapable of protecting them, let alone himself? Because absolutely he was incapable at the pathetic size he was. Small, insignificant.

Angry.

And then a couple appeared and his eyes shifted towards them.

Brown fur, red eyes, Wolfbron, Apollinaire.

He didn't hesitate.

Nero attempted to bolt from his position, ears flattening into his mane. The lion was grateful that - for once - his opponent did not absolutely dwarf him, but that certainly didn't mean it would be easy.. or that he was guaranteed a win.

Nero attempted to barrel straight into the man head-on, attempting to slam his right shoulder square into the man's chest while also attempting to swing his jaws upwards to latch onto the lion's face.

Nero vs. @Apollinaire
Major maim (tbd)
Round 1 / 4
Hits:

Rolling 3d20: 15 + 3 + 8

Dodges:

Rolling 8d20: 4 + 6 + 1 + 9 + 14 + 19 + 7 + 3

Luck:

Rolling 5d20: 1 + 13 + 18 + 4 + 2

code by corvus

Her curiosity definitely got the better of her, and perhaps she did not need to be at this challenge and yet, when she heard the call- she couldn't help but come to see what was going on. Her arrival, was met with absolute chaos, but the welcome site of her Mother- @Cassandra and father @Myrkvi and her grandmother @Morrigan . She approached the group of them, noting the spiritual figure that was also present with wide eyes- @Saga, but said nothing, as she stepped up alongside her dad and stepped close to him, but her eyes went to the battles, the commotion- as she asked any of those present in the group. "Who's fighting who?" If she were to get better with her ambassador abilities, and better understand what her mother did- she needed to start being present at such things and asking about things.

OOC: Eisa is just observing, if you're character really wants to attack her, I'd prefer it stay to a dom match, as she's just a yearling.

eisa sigrún

code by corvus

So much had happened and so much had changed since the last time she had been to the cove or saw it's leader. He had been a steady sight at the Bluffs and she oddly found herself missing the lumbering male some days. She arrived to what seemed to be the normal now for challenges. Fights upon fights. She walks up near @Alaric as he had those around him make it clear who the challenger was. Amara didn't know her, at least not that she was aware. Her gaze flickers toward Saga who was back from the dead and on pride lands. How? Her puzzle gaze looked her over for a long moment before she figured it wasn't the time or place to figure out how she can call her husband to her more. Was hoping they had decided to stay away from the light and just disappear. Her golden gaze flicked toward the others as they showed up.

@Gauthier arrives and Amara watches him, her claws slip out and into the sand as he alerts those who aren't welcome they were trespassing. She watches as he plows into the lioness before she look's toward @Bhaskar who was fighting the new king Ronin who had announced to the leaders not long ago that they shared a mate. From the attack, it seemed that it wasn't something that the male she once knew agreed with. @Louve ♔ arrives and Amara's attention went to her swelling sides and a low rumble rattled through her. My daughter is pregnant @Alaric. Should anything happen to me, take her. She hoped that the lion, who had far more cubs than she, would understand what she was asking. Amara would lay her life down for her daughter and soon grandcubs and she wanted her safe. All of them.

She gave him and @Sláine a long look before she moved to @Helah and @Louve ♔'s side. Her focus would be keeping her safe and she expected that Helah would do the same without needing to be told. @Apollinaire arrived looking just as concerned but Amara only spared him a glance before looking back toward the fight. A blur of white moving toward her caught her attention and for a moment she thought that her once prisoner was coming to get that fight from her but it wasn't her. It was her son, Nero who was barreling toward them. Amara moved so that she was in front of @Louve ♔, forcing her way to act as a shield but it didn't seem that the lioness was the target. No that was @Apollinaire who would be able to handle the tiny white male. She stood with her golden gaze sharply looking around them to see if anyone else would be joining him.

Artist | Coding by Analese

WE'RE BORN INTO THE GRAVE

All that unfolds around them is lost to the crash of the ocean and the howling gales that tore across the beachside scarp, peeling the spines of the dunes and quivering the coastal brush. In their tangle arrived those ranks of unheeding bone-pickers with their greedy eyes, their parched tongues - their presence means little to the collision of bodies that met now beneath a citrus sky and its red fringes.

A joy to be wise or cunning, Gauthier casts a brief pleasure in the discovery that his intuitive measure to avoid vagrant spills of sand pays off - it spatters across his cheek and eyelids, no more a fret than those days the wind is heavy upon the coast, sandblasting anything in its path.

Though his mark is not made as deftly as intended, a piece of meat is a piece of meat and the taste of blood that spools across his lips is no less sweet. He will not delight in this violence because he loathes her ambition; this is the way of sovereignty, the way of wills and the way of fate. He delights in it because it is just so, his nature and his bull-headed wants, simple tastes. The mere inches of size that separated them owed him no outstanding pride or delicate analysis. His fight with the Scilla King had taught him a smidgeon of waging war against smaller, faster foes, and this one was not quite as petite.

As they are already in close quarters, her lunge luckily does not have the momentum to direly wind him, though the batter of her shoulder causes warmth to sprawl and a following chill to signify some coming bruise. As her teeth rake into his right shoulder, he attempts to heave forward and shove that shoulder hard into her teeth intending to work against the chance of a vice-gripping jaw-hinge, while trying to reach his right paw along her left side (beneath the ribs) to rake his claws deep along her belly. Maintaining the ground of his three other legs and keeping a balance with his tail remained a priority.

Gauthier vs @Cirilla
CC Leadership
Round 2 / 5
Hits:

Rolling 9d20: 14 + 11 + 7 + 9 + 8 + 3 + 19 + 12 + 1

Dodges:

Rolling 4d20: 6 + 3 + 9 + 16

Luck:

Rolling 5d20: 19 + 15 + 10 + 20 + 13

Aideen does not miss the chance to follow those of her pride that go towards the challenge, and upon her arrival, she moves to come stand near @Louve ♔ - placing herself close to her, as close as she can manage, around Helah and @Amara. One male, is already drawn into a battle against a smaller male, and she watches with wide excited eyes before she looks back to the main fight occurring, her tail flicking. She had no real protective instinct, towards the cubs that her chosen mentor was carrying, but more so- the need to be close to her, to learn from her. "Est-il un allié?" She would ask Louve in the native tongue that she had been learning. With a hungry grin, she fixes her eyes onto Louve- seeking direction, instruction. "Who do I fight?" She asks- wanting an enemy, because the desire to test herself against another, to prove to herself again, that she was the best was coursing through her.

GOD KILLS INDISCRIMINATELY AND SO SHALL WE

Much of this was becoming quite delicious. Drama rising along the sidelines like always! He loved attention but oh, he loved to watch too! He beamed steadily at the unfolding scene upon the morning sand and the waves that throbbed endlessly. Nature was completely unaware how awesome lions were. Nature was amoral, incapable of war. Nature had no expectations so to nature everything made sense. He wouldn't like being amoral when being bad was so fun. But he would like for everything to make sense. Hmm. Decisions.

The bad poet was spared the burden of heavy thinking as more defenders arose from the Cove environs. Like a nest of fire ants, sending spray and venom indiscriminately. One large male, a worthy adversary @Keligan, arrived with great bluster and great shouting and great error. The merle-maned male met his eyes as though he knew halfway who Verm was, but not really. And that was terrible. To be only slightly known? Better no-one than a B-list celebrity. The confluence of circumstances stirred the scarred gargoyle to his paws. He moved not like stone but like a spurned rooster, his mane all flustered and neck arched and back poised, stallion-stature. "Leave? Moi?" How terribly offensive. To ask one of his position to leave? This was a crime scene and he was the god damn law.

"But I help." With a grin that said everything but. Entitled. Instigating. Plainly not moving his paws from their established location. If the other male backed down then Vermier's ego won, and if the other male fought and Vermier won then Vermier's ego won too, and if the other male fought and Vermier lost (a very low probability but being as smart as he was he had to account for it) he could still spin it in his favor for some good revenge down the line. So basically whatever happened, Verm's ego won. Had he ever mentioned to himself how awesome he was?