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Ampere had never upheld the mantra survival of the fittest. What Ampere found valuable in others was a willingness to fight, something which in the very least she could respect Hotaru for (although it didn't change the fact this fight was stupid). In her youth Ampere had naturally taken fighting for face value, but time and experience had demonstrated to her that battles were waged in many different forms. Like it or not life turned everyone into a fighter, in their own way, and the desert enhanced this with its daily challenges. This didn't mean that the unfit couldn't participate, it just meant the unwilling couldn't. What did it even mean to be fit? It was the mortal design to have faults, an expected existence of imperfection, which was only helped to its demise among death when those flaws couldn't be overcome. Survival was what the Throat took pride in, fit or not. Only together, as family, could they wage war against their own nature, their own limitations, their own unfitness. It meant supporting each other, creating strength rather than taking it, as Hotaru chose to with her thievery and her deceit.
This wasn't hypocrisy, this was Ampere having her sister's back, which was decidedly bare after her armor was stolen.

It was that right in a world of wrongs that sustained Ampere's strength through this fiasco of a fight. By the Sun she hadn't come here to kill the stupid bitch! Hotaru was at fault, and Ampere blamed her for succumbing to the weaknesses of her spirit, but she did not deem death a worthy punishment for this crime.

It was not a realization that came immediately to Ampere, who was fighting tooth and nail against a storm encased in mare's flesh, but it was there in the back of her mind. It rung as their bodies collided, a chime of weariness that seemed to drone through them both. Though, Ampere would be relentless in her cause if needed, her excellence for endurance not just applicable to the battlefield (after all she had chased gaucho for years). If Hotaru got away today it would not end, she would not end - she was always whatching.

It didn't expunge the exhaustion that plagued Ampere now however. As assumed, the shield fell when they clashed, Ampere's concentration rattled. She pulled back instantly, her neck too jostled, her foreleg too weak, her body too achey from sores and cuts literally everywhere. As the circle of metal fell and her body lurched a half-step backwards, she was saved unintentionally from the retaliation of the wolf, though she was not blind to it. Tired as she was in body, thin as she was in mind, Ampere seemed to have bottomless wells of rage when it came to the topic of companions. As if she drew from the very source of her soul, the chamber for companions, she always found the ability to champion them. That Hotaru continued to fight with Alice kept Ampere in arms.

The snow around them crackled and snapped with this fury as blue sparks leapt into existence, leaving the husk of decayed material bodies to subsist as pure, raw energy - mirroring the way Ampere felt. The little balls of electricity gathered in a whirling, vicious hub of lightning. It was a quick manifestation, from snow, to sparks, to electric wolf on the opposing side of Ampere and Hotaru. Unleashed it charged, lightning snapping out in arcs which blurred the vague outline of the beast. The cold quickened it, and Ampere's mounting frustration and exasperation fed it. With a silent snarl it aimed to bite and explode alongside Hotaru's left flank. If it touched her metal armor, the material would surely help conduct its jolts all against her body.

"Then you must be a monster," Ampere said tightly, her lips thin with tired anger, her words worn out after all these years trying to explain. "Silence doesn't kill her. It frees her from the chains you've placed, from the battles you throw her into." Ampere spat at the ground, a harsh snort ripping in a visible cloud from her flared nostrils.

As she stood she could feel the chill of the north setting into her wounds. What had seemed a helpful numbing at first, a reduction of swelling, was now a dangerous stiffening that threatened to prolong the healing process. Neither of them could should go on, clearly Hotaru saw that? Was armor, was vengeance, was pride, really worth this much to Hotaru?

"Her life isn't yours. I'd have you give that up too, but let's start with mending just one of your mistakes, something easy to start with." Ampere leveled her with a steely stare. "Give back the armor," or keep fighting.

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A: 4/4
W: 800/800

Awesome fight Brit!