THE KING'S TOURNEY

The day wore on, but the enthusiasm of the crowd only grew brighter. They rivaled the winter sun with their fervor, howling and jeering for the brave souls who spent the morning honoring Ragnar with their battles.

Blood was scattered across the icy field, a testament to the vital spirit that embodied the warriors (and young children) who decorated it with the marks of their battles.

Though the sun rode high in the sky, the spars wore on evermore. Adrenaline ran through the veins of the congregated wolves and beasts alike, spurring the combatants for another round of violence in the name of the late king.

Surrounded by the boom of cheers, two souls found their way into the ring they had only just left. Once the call to commence rose to the mountain air, the battle was on.

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SOLULFUR X AURELIA

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AURELIA is attacking first.

RULES

• Each spar is 3 rounds. Before typing out your post, place your dice roll in a post and then edit in your written post. If you are unsure how to roll dice, please see the fields below with each roll code!
  
• The entrant with the highest roll totals at the end of 3 rounds is the winner. They will progress to the next stage of the tournament.
  
• Maiming and death are disallowed UNLESS cleared with your thread partner first.
  
• Each player has THREE DAYS to post for their turn or they will be forced to forfeit the fight. This is imposed to help keep things rolling.
  
• Predetermined winners MAY be chosen, but it must be communicated and agreed upon by both parties in the fight. If you choose to do this, please denote that a winner has been predetermined, you do not have to signal who wins if you wish to maintain the suspense.
  
  
• This battle uses modifiers. Those modifiers are as follows:
  
  ► No Warrior Skills: 1d5
  ► Basic Warrior Skill: 1d6
  ► Specialist Warrior Skill: 1d8
  ► Expert Warrior Skill: 1d10
  
  
  Only ONE modifier can be used
  
  
• If you win a no-modifier fight and your next opponent DOES use modifiers, you will need to decide if you wish to continue or "forfeit" to your opponent. The same rule applies to off-screen fights. If your chosen preference is off-screen fights, you will need to decide between continuing on-screen or forfeiting to your next on-screen opponent.
  
  
• Off-screen fights will roll three d5 in the dice channel in Discord and the one with the highest roll result is the winner. (Command to use: /r 3d5) If you wish to predetermine the winner between yourself and your opponent, that is your choice!
  
  
• Please see the bracket document for a list of fights and progress.
  

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Roll Codes

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None

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Code:

[*roll=1d5]

Basic

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Code:

[*roll=1d6]

Specialist

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Code:

[*roll=1d8]

Expert

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Code:

[*roll=1d10]

Remove the *s to use the code!

Skill: Warrior

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Rolling 1d5: 4

A confusing medley of emotions roiled within her stomach, and they reached a crescendo when she saw Solulfur step into the ring as her next opponent.

She honestly hadn't expected to get this far - her last fight had seen the odds stacked against her, facing off against a wolf easily three times her size. Aurelia still wasn't sure how she'd managed to pull it off, or worse, if the whole thing had simply been a strange fever dream conjured up by her grief over the loss of Genghis.

Yet here she stood, utterly motionless, staring back at Solulfur with wide, startled eyes.

Thinking of sinking her fangs into the very woman who had saved her life was - well, it was awful. Unthinkable. Utterly wrong in every conceivable way.

But in her heart, she knew the Black Sun would not back down from a challenge, personal feelings be damned, and so Aurelia pushed back her discomfort and squared her shoulders.

Don't hold back, she called out. Some of the fur was still missing towards the tip of her tail, a mark left by Alduin during their match - she tried to consider it a badge of honor.

The fight was announced, and she took off at a full sprint.

Aurelia was only slightly more evenly matched against her newest opponent, although Solulfur likely had an edge over her both in muscle tone and experience. Alduin had been large, slow; it was easier to pit her only advantage against him as a result, stinging at his sides like an aggravated wasp until exhaustion had at last taken him and won her the round.

This could prove to be far more difficult.

Aurelia feinted to the right, hoping to trick Solulfur into guarding her left shoulder and trap her in the motion while her own blunted claws gripped the hard ground and suddenly lunged for the opposite side, jaws open as she aimed to take hold of Solulfur's scruff and drag her down.

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ROUND 1

Rolling 1d5: 2

Raisa had been a fun warmup, but Solulfur was careful to try not to get too cocky going into her next match. The cheers received for her victory had fanned the flames of her sun-bright soul into a fevered frenzy she was not used to feeling, not with the weight of recent tragedies on her packmates.

The excitement continued to flicker and morph once Solulfur realized she was matched with Aurelia. Solulfur couldn't decide between glee and apprehension, knowing what a formidable wolf the Shakti-Vaes was. She was equally eager to be on the receiving end of a display of that prowess, and nervous that she'd reveal her own weaknesses as a fighter - embarrassing herself in a way unable to be ignored by Aurelia.

She swept into the ring with her chin held high and tail bannered, though. She had lost Kier's feather in the scuffle with Raisa, something she feared the bird's repercussions for. Still, her fur fell in glossy waves and her braids had not yet been shaken loose yet. She suspected this may be the brawl to change that.

Don't go easy on me. Solulfur snorted, a wicked grin dancing across her features. I would never commit such insult against you. She promised, widening her stance slightly and giving an inviting flick of her tail. Aurelia looked a little roughed up by the fights she'd already been victorious in - slightly mussed fur, and there was a notch in the silky plume of her tail. The sight made Solulfur feel vaguely...strange, coupled with an odd but faint impulse within her at the idea of colliding with the slender Shakti-Vaes the same way she had with Raisa not a few hours prior.

Was it...anger? Protectiveness? Jealousy? Indignance on Aurelia's behalf?

No time to unpack it all now, if she even wanted to. Aurelia was already moving. She was a ribbon of silver, like gravity didn't bother applying itself to her movements. And it was, if she were honest, a bit distracting.

Aurelia had never once bared a fang to her, not in anger nor in play. It almost didn't seem real, to see her muzzle wrinkled with a warning of violence now. And yet, a sweet-smoky scent she'd know anywhere wreathed around Solulfur It broke her from her brief reverie, but far too late - there were already teeth in her scruff, sending an electric thrill through Solulfur even as her paws slipped out from beneath her. The world tilted on its axis, and Solulfur tried to thrash free of the grip to little avail. A competitive, but good-natured snarl rumbled out of her chest in reply - and warning.

She wasn't going to be beat that easily.

Skill: Warrior

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Rolling 1d5: 4

Oh no, it worked.

Didn't she want it to work, though?

A fresh ripple of confusion clouded the forefront of Aurelia's mind as her fangs made contact with Solulfur's glossy, well-groomed fur, and with a start she realized just how... good her packmate smelled. They had been close before, briefly sharing a space in the same den during the early hours as they had tried and failed to unearth their own complicated emotions surrounding various events, but - not quite this close.

Now Aurelia could taste her.

At this revelation a panicked surge of adrenaline lent her the strength she needed to continue the fight, hurling the thought away as if it were burning her mind at a thousand degrees. What did it matter how she smelled, like fresh seafoam and winter's first snow, or how she tasted like -

The burning sensation came back and she threw all of her weight into pulling Solulfur down, down to the hard-packed earth, struggling to focus on the match at hand. She felt conflicted; her competitive nature ran deeper than her Shakti-Vaes blood, the ever-present drive to win pushing her onwards even as the cold fingers of guilt squeezed her chest.

This wasn't at all like sparring Genghis - but why? A few droplets of Solulfur's blood trickled into her mouth, and the horror of it surprised her.

Focus.

The Black Sun's snarl helped snap her back to the reality of the situation. Aurelia planted her paws, stabilizing herself as rigidly as possible - the ground was smooth enough this might work - and then, still holding Solulfur's scruff, threw her weight into a new motion and began to try and spin her opponent along the ground in several wide circles around her.

If she could disorient Solulfur enough, make her dizzy...

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ROUND 2

Rolling 1d5: 1

Pain bloomed in the thick skin that lay beneath her thick ruff, precise pinpricks that radiated an ache as Aurelia yanked on the grip she had on Solulfur. Feathery strands of charcoal and moonbeams fluttered in her vision, and Solulfur realized as Aurelia shoved her to the hard-packed dirt that she could feel muscles ripple beneath a pelt not her own, pressed against Solulfur for fleeting split seconds. Sol was sensitive to touch, a childhood glutted on cuddles and playfighting and simply existing in another's space completely and suddenly forgone upon her arrival in Mythris.

In the fight with Raisa, all Sol had been able to think of was the crowd roaring with cheers and shouts to encourage the fighters. In the fight with Raisa, Sol had been alight with a showman's grin and a warrior's focus. In the fight with Raisa, Sol had been able to think of her counterattacks and the crowd beyond, how she could further show off for them and what they would be watching.

The crowd could have been smited off the face of this world by the gods and Solulfur wouldn't have noticed. Whether they were still there, whether they were watching her, any of it - she had no ability to consider anything beyond her efforts to grapple with the steel sword that was Aurelia. Her attention was as pinprick precise as the fangs in her scruff, locked on to the body moving in the same space as herself.

It was exhilarating. It was terrifying.

Solulfur tried to get to her paws, her instincts in a fight centering mainly around keeping her normally unshakable footing. She kicked out, heaving in a breath drenched in spiced, woodsy vanilla and seafoam. Aurelia's fangs sunk deeper into her scruff, hot breaths huffed through thick, wooly fur.

Aurelia spun her, the world spinning out of control around Solulfur in many more ways than physical. The flip was swift, but violent, leaving Solulfur on her back, breath knocked out of her lungs. She stared up at a blue sky that framed a familiar slender face and bright green eyes.

Solulfur brought her paws up, a weak effort to brace them lightly against Aurelia's chest to keep her from lunging for Sol's throat - but the Black Sun's face split into a grin, full of fangs and fondness, glinting in the sunlight.

She was absolutely petrified - every shred of control she'd learned to wrap around herself, her body, the performance she put on every hour of every day physically shaken off of her and Solulfur didn't know how to put it back, not in front of Aurelia's expression absolutely stormy with competitive drive. In the seconds that would follow, when Solulfur would remember where she was, who was watching her, that she'd just publicly and horrifically lost, she'd feel stripped bare and terrified - frantic to clothe herself in the glacial armor she had worn since her earliest days. But her head still spun from Aurelia's relentless attack, and her ribs ached, and a force far greater than those worries had gripped her for however a fleeting second it would be.

Sol thought she might simply die, her spirit would simply fail to survive within this body that felt so many things at once. She burned with it, and her molten gaze searched Aurelia's to see if she burned with it too.

Skill: Warrior

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Rolling 1d5: 2

It was a mystery even to Aurelia how it had happened. There was a goal and a tentative plan with which to execute it, but she hadn't actually anticipated its complete success.

The crowd around them erupted in a cacophany of various woops, boos, and howls, their noise blurring together into something closer to a steady, unending roar that rang almost painfully in her ears. Somehow, against all odds and perhaps even the laws of physics, the Shakti-Vaes had managed to completely upend her opponent and slam her flat upon her back, and now the pair stared at each as if from two different planes of existence.

The crowd carried on, but Aurelia found that she could no longer hear them.

Solulfur's paws pressed firmly against her chest, and she wondered if her pulse could be felt hammering all the way down the length of the Black Sun's well-muscled limbs. Her breathing was hard and ragged, eyes narrowed and lips set in a firm line while only the tips of her fangs poked through - and then Solulfur smiled.

She felt her heart stop.

She had looked worried, panicked, and then - suddenly happy?

Her fiery gaze met Aurelia's pine-green, and the intensity of that look threatened to burn the forest down entire.

She could have finished the match decisively in that moment, landed one final, dominating blow to seal her victory - but instead she faltered, and remembered Tiberii as she realized the gravity of her actions.

Aurelia had just flipped Solulfur.

And Solulfur was smiling after the fact.

Tiberii and Shiloh had performed this ritual themselves, and now they were all but an item in name because of this sacred performance.

Something else flipped inside her chest.

She was completely frozen, and Aurelia felt her competitive scowl soften into an expression of curious bewilderment as she struggled to understand whether this maneuver had been employed only in the spirit of the fight or if, subconsciously, it meant something more.

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ROUND 3

Rolling 1d5: 1

Solulfur's paws were rough, the pads hardened to block out the freezing snow and provide her grip on the slick mountainside in all weathers. But she could still feel, beneath the layers of silky silver fur, Aurelia's chest heave with the force of her breaths.

She wasn't sure what she saw within Aurelia's eyes. A thousand emotions moved in sync within the depths of that jade gaze, and Solulfur could only meet it evenly, trying to catch her own breaths. The roar of the crowd blotted out the sound of her own breathing, but she could still hear her pulse rush.

She waited for Aurelia's next move - something decisive and fierce to claim the victory she'd so swiftly procured. But instead, Aurelia's fangs disappeared and a puzzled look formed on the Shakti-Vaes' face. Solulfur's grin was wiped away, a softer and considering look overtaking the gleeful, adrenaline-laced smile from before.

She wasn't sure why Aurelia hesitated. Did she think Solulfur weak, for submitting to the obvious victor? But it wasn't disdain or coldness on her friend's features, and Solulfur was sure if that was what Aurelia felt, she'd had simply taken the victory that was deserved and left Solulfur there, ignored and cast aside.

Instead, Aurelia waited.

Solulfur found that losing didn't hold the same sting it would normally.

She wanted Aurelia to take what she had earned, and what Solulfur was offering. Aurelia had put Solulfur in this position, and Solulfur would not see her walk away - not when what she wanted was for Aurelia to have what she desired: Victory. A friend. Someone to brave the cold waters for her, and someone to cheer when the sun shone on them once again. All that, and more.

She wanted Aurelia to - Some things were not meant to be contemplated, surrounded by strangers, her blood matting dirt into her fur.

I yield. Solulfur breathed. Not quite a plea, not quite a challenge.

Take it.

It's yours.

I yield! Louder, once more, for Solulfur realized the witnesses surrounding them needed to hear it too, for formality's sake.

Skill: Warrior

The world stood still, and Aurelia was trapped in her own mind.

Spiraling. Spinning.

She'd already waited too long - now it was awkward - the crowd's raucous noise had begun to settle, and Aurelia was still standing on top of Solulfur, utterly motionless save for the heaving of her sides. The moment seemed to last an eternity, and she couldn't escape.

As Solulfur looked back with her liquid-gold gaze, the girl wondered (startlingly) if she even wanted to.

"I yield."

The world began to turn again. Aurelia felt herself blink for the first time in a year and returned to the present.

"I yield!"

She was waiting for her now, staring defiantly, breathlessly, excitedly from her position below, and Aurelia felt the faintest ghost of a smile etch itself at the corners of her lips. Even in defeat, the Black Sun had a commanding presence; how she admired the fight in her soul, the way she ceaselessly plunged forward into every next moment without fear or remorse.

Aurelia knelt closer and brought her maw to the soft space at the underside of Solulfur's neck, and then gently - but firmly - placed her jaws around it in symbolic victory.

It wasn't necessary, and it certainly wasn't for the crowd - it was for herself and for Solulfur, an exchange that demonstrated both vulnerability and trust.

It also rather mischievously displayed Aurelia's dominance over the situation, something she would smile about later.

She lingered for several moments this way, her breath heating the dark fur at Solulfur's neck - and gave her a coy look out of the corner of her eye, the closest thing to cheek Aurelia had yet displayed in her young life.

She was enjoying it.

And then she released her.

I know you'll thrash me next time, she said, Best to get my win in while I can.

Aurelia leaned in closer, closer still. Solulfur offered no resistance - even her paws which had once braced Aurelia away from Sol in theory only now crumbled beneath the movement to settle against Sol's chest. It was the softest part of her throat that the Shakti-Vaes focused on, with all the merciless efficiency Solulfur had come to appreciate about the trained hunter.

There was a coy glint in the woman's vibrant sage eyes, mischievous and victorious and as potent as any fermented berry Solulfur had ever indulged in. Sol offered a smirk of her own, as smug and self-satisfied as a cat who had glutted itself on the cream. She felt like gravity had shifted, and she was weightless and no longer knew which way was up or down.

And then they were separated, and Solulfur rolled to her paws as quickly as possible to mask any shudder that passed through her at the sudden loss of warmth and buttery caramel that had once enveloped her. She tucked her chin, swiping her tongue over a stray tuft of fur on her shoulder with forced nonchalance.

I know you'll thrash me next time,

Solulfur couldn't stop the smile that graced her features if she'd tried. I look forward to our rematch, then.