PM to join [Anthonius Fighters' Pits] Another One Bites The Dust.

[Garland]

Of course Arch would go for him. He knew Garland's weaknesses, and strengths, and Arch would exploit that easily. He had to stay on the defensive, stay on the outside, keep Arch occupied while Ball does his thing.

He looked up to Ball and noticed what his thing actually was, using their 4-armed friend as a springboard. "Really?" He muttered to himself.

That was all the distraction Garland needed for Arch to knock him to the ground, but hopefully whatever plan Ball had would work. He felt a burning pain in his leg, where Arch attacked. He saw that Aventis was in the same position as he was, in pain on one knee. He fought back the tears, as held on to his sword tightly, there was no way he would be able to defend himself against an attack from Arch now.

Now he was hoping Ball wasn't going to double cross him too.

If Ball did get Arch with whatever plan he was doing, Garland would push himself up and try yo put some distance from Arch and Ball, which hurt his pride a tad bit, but last time he fought Arch he only got hit once, and that was through a sneak attack with his shield, he had no other way to surprise Arch now. So he had to relay on Ball's plan and hopefully learn from it, it looked like he won't be using his sword much.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

His attention spread so thinly, the movement out of the corner of his eye nearly stopped the squirrel in his tracks to engage in the threat.. but what he saw just threw him even more. In the chaos, Ball had turned on Aventis and struck him just as a rather well-timed rapier thrust thrust was in the making. Well, looks like this three-against-one just turned into a team battle. It was a relief, to say the least. Now he could focus entirely on Garland and ensure that he went down before turning back over to finish off Aventis. Just as well too, because it seemed that Arch wasn't the only one slightly stunned by the other Pycons change of heart, and in that moment the squirrel lunged forwards, slipping to four legs as he wove between Garlands legs and gripped tightly with his right front paw over the ground.

Twenty-three pounds of clay pivoted abruptly around that paw, swinging both of his hind legs around in a three-quarter circle and straight into the inside of Garlands left ankle. The squire would likely be lucky if nothing was broken. Once he was brought down, it was time to finish the job, and the squirrel quickly lowered himself back to two feet and bent his knees, ready to leap straight up into the air and slam his shoulder into the squires stomach while he was down on one knee - following up the first attack and hoping to further disable Garland and prepare him for another attack. He wasn't planning on going easy, after all - he wanted to make sure that when Garland went down, he stayed down.

However, his concentration slipping away from Aventis and Ball was his downfall - he was almost completely blind to Ball gaining on him, and only in the last moments managed to actually see what was going on. I probably should have kept my eye on the three of them, then. It was a pretty good trade, though. Ball had effectively weakened one of his own allies.. significantly, by the pain pretty evident on Avantis' face.. just to distract the squirrel in time for the hit. Both Garland and Aventis would probably be much less of a threat with their ankles and kneecaps throbbing so violently. Easier to hit, easier to evade.. Ball, on the other hand, was still going to be a major problem.

He could focus for a moment on the Pycon, though. Garland was backing off, and Aventis looked pretty worse for wear. If they didn't stand back and give him some space, he could still enact his previous plan - just put their larger bodies to his advantage and use them as shields while simultaneously hitting their weak spots to ensure that they didn't bother him again. This is going along better than expected. Well, given the fact that he'd pretty much completely turned away attention from Ball and couldn't possibly see the attack swinging towards him, he would think that, wouldn't he.

[Ball]

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

Archie couldn’t have been more accurate in regretting his need to keep an eye on Ball, as the small pycon had rocketed pretty quickly towards the squirrel Ball’s body took one more aerodynamic form, making it even faster and the tip that would impact would have far more weight behind it when it connected. The attack would be a unique blend of clay if the smaller pycon connected and the end result would be quite… Disturbing.

Seeing as both Archie and Ball were made of similar density of clay the smaller Pycon would be seen making contact and then not existing as his speed would be immensely slowed down by Archialist’s far larger weight to size difference. Ball would literally disappear within Archie’s body, appearing to become one with the squirrel.

If the squirrel did dodge out of the way (which was entirely possible at the speed Ball was going and his ability to control it compared to Archie’s skill in acrobatics and his uncanny ability to dodge), Ball would attempt to lash out a tentacle of clay and wrap it around the squirrel’s body and pull himself close and around the larger pycon. The end result would be much like the results of if the attack did connect, except this time Ball would try and use his weight to his advantage and attempt to put the squirrel pycon on the floor and hard.

And if this final desperate reach failed due to Archie pulling too far away from Ball’s reach the small bean-shaped pycon would find himself flying pretty steadily towards Garland’s shin.

It would be here and now that Aventis and Garland had their chance to attack either Archie, Ball, or both… depending on the circumstances at hand.

Credit :

Created goes to Raus for aiding in the photo manipulation, Myself for color and transparency manipulation as well as box code. Character is accredited below

[Aventis]

Pain hurt, and there was no pretending it wasn’t there. Aventis felt as if his leg had swelled up to the size of a watermelon and couldn’t at all focus on the matter at hand. His weight, now, was on his opposite leg, but he might as well be carrying the world on his tired shoulders, and the pressure felt no less than that. The wound, admittedly, was most likely no worse than a bruise, but Aventis seldom sustained injuries. It was rare for him to, if at all, be hit, no less in a fight. He did not, however, expect one of his own to give him the injury. Before him, now, was a gamut of possibilities.

With Ball’s attack was something given. His attack on the curious squirrel was clever offensively, but it seemed as if that’s the only position the Pycon could take in a fight. Aventis had options. Ball, his target being the squirrel exclusively, left him open for attack, should Aventis choose to avenge the sensation in his leg. However, the squirrel’s target was also exclusive, his target being Garland. This could be easy.

Positioning himself as close to accurate as could be in short notice, Aventis kneeled near Garland, his injured leg resting on the ground and his rapier interjecting what Aventis could only guess was the squirrel’s trajectory. If Ball missed his mark and the squirrel kept flying towards Garland, he would most likely be impaled. Aventis had no idea of how skilled the little squirrel was, but he was fairly certain that he could not stop himself in midair. As long as Aventis had his trajectory correct, this was checkmate.

Aventis

[Garland]

Garland felt the pain shoot up his leg again, this time a bit more intense, since he needed to back away from Arch, though a little( or in this case, a lot) of pain wasn't going to keep the squire down, with a groan and a heave, he pushed himself up, he wasn't going to be much use in this fight, instead he looked and listened to the two Pycons about to either hit each other, or miss and probably his Aventis or Garland with Ball moving so fast.

It looked like Aventis was getting ready to impale Arch if ever he found himself hit and flying towards Aventis. It was highly unlikely for Arch to dodge this, but there was still a possibility. As an added insurance, Garland went behind Aventis and did the same, in case Arch missed Aventis' rapier.

He raised up his sword just like Aventis, but it wasn't as good at piercing as a rapier. He didn't have anything else to use, so here he was, just waiting for either Aventis to miss Arch, or get his butt handed to him again. This time with a bum leg, moving would be extremely difficult.

But otherwise, he had not given up hope and will readily stay and fight till he can't fight anymore, there aren't any Patrons to stop this fight if it gets out of hand, and Garland hoped that he had enough stamina to hang on to this fight.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The squirrel was posed with one arm raised to begin pummeling straight down into Garland's shin when a force slammed into his back and knocked him from his feet, and from Garland. Shyke... Now this was something new. In a moment, he could feel the shadows of Aventis and Garland hovering over him with their weapons at the ready, but his attention didn't even turn back to them. Something was.. well, he couldn't really describe it, but it was the same tingling sensation someone often got with goosebumps. Something was pushing about underneath his surface.

Ball and Arch were both clay creatures. They could both morph to some degree, they could reshape themselves.. but having the smaller Pycon actually insert itself inside his body was beyond alien. His body reacted on natural instinct and immediately tried to push Ball out again, while the rest of the clay of his body reformed into a smooth orb around the nexus, though the rational part of his mind was screaming that it wouldn't work. If anything, this was a battle of the wills of their nexuses to see which one of them would be able to win out. That would be great and all, if not for the fact that there were still two people trying to fight.. and neither of them seemed to understand that two Pycons were inhabiting the same space they were prodding with their weapons.

After shifting into a ball, with Ball likely still held inside, the first stab by the thinner rapier brought all the wriggling in his body to a complete standstill. At least it'd missed the nexus - which was still where the head would be, and not near the middle. The second, thicker blade that followed suit also mercifully missed the nexus point. That one was more down to luck than anything. That could have killed me. Or him. Both of us. In addition to stabbing Arch.. they'd stabbed their own teammate as well. So much for a three-against-one.. they've done little more than hit each-other.. and they still are.

There were two outcomes, he knew. Either Aventis, Garland and Ball were going to hold their ground and keep him pinned until he surrendered, because there was pretty much no escape from this situation, or they were going to end up brawling between each-other until Syna's light faded from the sky.. ".. That hurt." The only thing really left to do was to sit there and wait for either one or the other to happen.. because with their swords pushing painfully into the clay of what would be his chest and waist, he wasn't going to be able to pull himself anywhere. He would, if not for Ball still pushing at his clay and making it difficult to reform himself around the blades.

[Ball]

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

The thinner of the two blades pierced both the squirrel and the spherical pycons and this was annoying and frustrating as now neither could remove themselves from the trajectory of the second blade, this one was close and due to Ball’s size missed him completely, unfortunately Archie wasn’t as lucky it appeared. Ball had stretched his foot down, while still inside the squirrel, and could feel the cold steel connecting with his foot.

Quick Ball, react. Think. Save both you and the squirrel’s arses.Roaring loudly, there was no sound beyond Archie’s body that Ball knew of and he pulled his foot first up into his body and then rocketed it down towards Garland’s weapon. It was a solid strike, as the weapon wasn’t going anywhere, and Ball could feel his foot connecting hard, this attack though would send a wave of force up through the blade into Garland’s shoulder and body, Ball was hoping that the kick was enough to jar the blade from the squirrel’s body.

The second attack was a less felt by the owner but the weapon would make a good appearance and that too would be pretty badly off. Ball grabbed a hold of the rapier that pinned both the squirrel and Ball together and using both hands he pushed it back the opposite direction, corkscrewing his body when he met resistance in the form of Aventis and then quickly released it, the release of additional energy caused the rapier to propel back and Ball followed the forced blade out. As soon as the blade and Ball was free of the squirrel he let go with one hand andmade an attempt to punch the piercing blade’s side.

Yet due to the pain he could feel from first the entry and then the extracting of the blade Ball’s strike was weak and Ball instead just heaved the blade from his presence and looked up at the two sword wielding squires.

Credit :

Created goes to Raus for aiding in the photo manipulation, Myself for color and transparency manipulation as well as box code. Character is accredited below

[Aventis]

OOCAs a note, Aventis as a character is ambidextrous. He is not trained in each hand but he can hold his own in either, albeit not as thoroughly as his right. Thank you.

And through the checkmate, through the tact, Aventis - yet again - found himself on the ground.

Luckily, the squire’s sword was still at hand, but he could very plainly feel the sting of the hilt on his palm from it being forced left and right, up and down, and considered himself lucky to have escaped the scenario with both his rapier and his hand fully intact.

When the mass of clay, that Aventis assumed to be both the man with a mouth larger than his fists and the squirrel, had made a counter against the move that himself and Garland had performed which, in all fairness, was as or more tactful than its opponent. However, it made Aventis feel like a sick and injured dog. Realistically, both his leg and now his palm were probably just minor bruises that could be healed in a few days, but as for the moment they burned and ached and stung in all kinds of manner.

And yet Aventis refused to give up the fight.

He was a couple feet back, seeing as he had stumbled after the hit, and a bit to the left due to the clay mass’ strike on his blade, which had only caught it at nearly the tip but was enough to entice Aventis in the direction of the blow. Once again, he struggled to get up, relying mainly now on his lower arms to push him and his right leg to force him. He tossed his blade from his upper right to upper left hand, and changed his stance accordingly.

But… Maybe it was better to just watch for a moment.

Aventis

[Garland]

With Arch getting the blunt of the damage, he was quite content with his bruised and aching ankle. He thought it was a fair trade, he looked over to the little clump of clay that was Arch and Ball meshed together, it was just disturbing honestly a clump of two pycons together. Is this how baby Pycons are made? The Pycon anatomy completely confused Garland.

As his sword connected with the clump of clay, he did not expect Ball to try to actually attack in that state. It was crazy, Ball was so tiny, in fact he was one of the smallest pycons in the knighthood. "Owowowo!" He felt the vibrations from his weapon shoot up his hand through his arm and then just shake his entire body. He even dropped his sword, but only for a moment, and after he recovered he picked up his sword with a slightly shaky hand.

He looked at Aventis. "Ready? Looks like Ball is down for the count. Give up, Ball." He said and aimed his sword at the tiny spherical pycon. "Ummm... Wait... Weren't we in the same team?" He asked and looked over to Arch.

He felt the throbbing pain in his leg and he backed up from the squirrel, even injured, he was still cautious around the squirelly squire, despite having a one-sided rivalry with the pycon, he still considered him a strong opponent, and also a possible ally, and he wouldn't really mind getting to know the squirrel. He heard that he's been here a while now, he might have a lot of stories to tell, and maybe teach him how to counter a Pycon, because everything about the Pycon race has baffled the young squire.

He shook away the thoughts, he needed to focus on the fight. He steadied his hand and tried to ignore the pain in his ankle. He got into his stance, although very shaky because of his injured ankle. It will heal in due time, though right now, it was just a hinderance in their fight.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The squirrel Pycon didn't even have to do anything - good thing as well, since he was pretty much pinned, unless he could push the blades out. Though he tried, it was pretty useless.. until Ball added his strength to it as well, tugging first the larger blade and finally the thinner rapier from both of their bodies so that they could split once more. The moment they could, they did; Arch practically leaped in the opposite direction, separating his clay and reforming it back around himself. Sure, there were a few holes.. but just as many as Ball had. It wasn't easy to get around.. the pain kept rising whenever he tried to move his right arm or his right leg, since the larger of the two swords had pierced a clean hole through a majority of that part of his body.

As Garland and Aventis prepared themselves, Arch reached down to cup the space that should have been a rib-cage and squeezed down around the hole, trying to compress his wound as one might do with a normal injury to stem the flow of blood. Pycons didn't have blood.. but they did have clay. With a bit of force and plenty of pain, the Pycon was able to squeeze the gap closed at least a little. It'd do, for now. He could focus on the fight.. more specifically, he could focus on punching the shyke out of the pair of those idiots for stabbing him in what was supposed to be a harmless spar! "I'm taking Aventis." That was all the warning he gave.

Sure, he wasn't as fast as before now that he'd been stabbed twice in the side, but that didn't mean that he wasn't going to throw everything he had. He might not know Ball too well.. but if the three of his opponents were all going to end up attacking each-other more than they were going to attack their common enemy, it was safe to say that he could leave the rest of the fight up to the three of them. For now, the squirrel dropped down to both hands and feet as he scurried straight for the Eypharian's ankles. Instead of going straight for the kill, however, he aimed to dart straight between them, swing himself around quickly and use the force to sweep the man straight off his feet by gathering force and weight behind his tail. The ankles would be perfect for it.

"Correct, Garland.. you were." Things were definitely taking a turn for the better.. at least, for some of them.