It was one thing to talk about seizing greatness, it was quite another to actually do it. Now a boy grown, Öde had certain responsibilities he was due to face, chief among which was climbing the social ladder of ranks and proving his worth. He already knew he was worthy, but no god could rule without faith and followers. He could only descend heaven on the steps of their prayers, and at the moment his name was dead on the breeze.

It would be hard work, but he was ready to get his hands dirty, and bloody.

The crimson paint was sure to decorate the world today, given the sizeable claws and fangs that his opponent bore. Öde stood before her in their arena of summer touched tundra, wondering if his pairing with her as his first battle was meant as a challenge they didn't expect him to rise up to, or if she was at the bottom of the ranks with him, his first fight not even worthy of his own kind. Öde preferred to assume the former, because although she didn't boast the same weapons, he was certain she was more than capable. Untested, he thought highly of himself, but he wasn't certain of this outcome. Still, a mantle of scars was something to show, so long as he could take them like a man.

Smirking, he moved slowly through the sparse pines that decorated their ring, wondering if they might aid him in a moment of need, their wooden shafts a shield he could bear when her daggers sought him out. This was a friendly fight, but he wasn't eager to limit himself on his first round - he didn't want her to hold back either. That's what healers are for.

Building himself up, intent to crush her beneath the divine righteousness of his existence, Öde snarled into action abruptly. Childishly he ran straight for her, trying to angle in at her left side in the hopes of avoiding her fangs, his horn lowered towards her as a further deterrent and a natural weapon of choice. She would be fast though, he knew that, but he thought he was pretty swift too, especially on this cushy summer soil. In an attempt to intimidate her, and to solidify his wavering confidence, Öde unleashed a valiant war cry as he charged, hooves pelting the dry grass with gusto.

He did not relent as the space between them closed, his horn a tool he meant to sink into her side, his hooves carrying his might which he would bring into, onto, and past her body if she didn't move. It would be easy with how short she was; a nice rug on which he could wipe his muddy hooves.

If he killed her, would he be celebrated? Would they let him decorate his own cavern with her magnificent pelt? He hoped so.

---

A: 1/3
@[Saffron]

Aurora Basin during TALLSUN. You will need to mention the sparse pines, the hot springs, caverns, etc and if your battle moves around, you can see the unfrozen lake, sentinels in the distance, etc. The ground is dirt with no snow, and crunchy grasses. Afternoon. 3 posts each.

She didn't move fast enough to avoid the oncoming horn, but neither did she perish beneath it's might. It brought a strange sensation of both victory and defeat, and it left Öde with a craving to vanquish her in the dust, to eradicate that wavering sensation of failure beneath the overwhelming presence of success. He only understood the promise of his ascension to the throne and beyond - anything else was improbable to him. He had never done anything to have ever encountered the bitterness of complete failure. When Lena denied him of her teats he felt the sting of it then, and he knew the absence of greatness when he stood beside a horse which was bonded to a companion, but he had never truly applied himself to a task and lost.

He didn't even think he could. Not even death won over him.

Smiling, Öde embraced the enraged roar that she delivered in the wake of her ruination. That her spittle flecked his coat dis not phase the dark prince in the gritty moment of war. Still, Öde was little more than a child in a game intended for those much older, much more polished than he. He should have been playing at it in his youth, but he'd whittled it all away in the shadows instead. Now he had the height of his age, the strength of his years, the ignorance of his existence, and the dull tapping of his balls against his inner thighs; each strike a testosterone laced blade sunken into his veins, fueling him forward with stupid aggression and bravado. He lingered too long beside his cat, reveling in the glow of half-wins. She rose in a wave of fur and fury, her claws reaching for the folds of his flank as Öde drove first into, and then past her. The crimson wash of his eye flicked to the corner of his skull to watch her, and in that moment he saw the swift retribution she intended to deliver.

Snorting, head tossed back and forth with energy and outrage that she might touch him, Öde fires out a low kick from his left hind leg. The swing of his head had been low, perfectly balancing his shift in weight, and the firm ground holds him steady even with his momentum. Yet, his speed, his motion, his delay in response all keep the kick short and weak compared to what he could manage. It would hopefully be enough to deter her pursuit, would probably connect with her body since it was so low and so close, but it was not enough to keep her at bay. In fact, he might have helped her tiny swords find purchase in his flesh, his motion jarring them further down the length of his left haunch, albeit the taut muscle and swift kick also helped keep it shallow.

The wet feeling of blood tickled his flesh as his leg retracted back beneath him, propelling him forward with a flare of fire and a weaker support than before. She had drawn four red lines from his left hip to his stifle, opening up the casing of his black hide to reveal the red that laid beneath. It would not be enough to truly affect him, much more surface based than it seemed, but even so it infuriated him. How could she make him BLEED. "FUCK HER!" his mother screeched in the back of his mind, her raucous cries like a crow echoing the alarm throughout all of his body. "SHE SHOULD NOT DEFILE A KING!"

Öde turned suddenly and sharply, guided by the retribution he and his mother sought. His haunches tucked into the melted tundra, sliding faintly, but held by the thawed soil. He turned into his right side, giving his left the break it needed, even if it would have been faster to turn upon it to return to the cat. His fore hooves shoved on the ground, spinning him in a roll back, as he about faced. He poised in mid-air for a moment as his energy churned within him, knees tucked and toes off the ground while his ass rippled with muscle (and pain). He bellowed out his own roar of defiance and blood lust. He landed with his neck bowed, horns aimed for her striped right side, or whatever of her was still nearest after his abrupt flip of direction. He charged after her, head sweeping up in a foolish attempt to lift her with his rack and toss her behind him. Although he was not actually capable of doing that, he was sure as fuck going to try, and at the very least he might eviscerate her.

A: 2/3
D: 0/1
W: 790

@[Saffron]
please do not tag me!

Her agony is like a balm to his pride, wounded to the point was it was inflamed and throbbing, engorged on assumptions of righteousness and arrogance. The blood which dripped from his horns and onto his head, freckling him with murder and mayhem, was his medicine. He hadn't even known how sick he had been until he took it, instantly soothed and coddled with the milk of the heart. Yet she doesn't die, Öde thinks, the red wash of his gaze snapping to the side as she twists just out of his reach, wounded, but alive.

Öde hasn't the self control to grip rationality and sense through this haze of war he's plunged himself into. Given more practice and time he'll have the refinement to step back and recognize that her demise does not necessitate his victory, that her pelt is better suited on the flesh of her body as a Baisiner fighting alongside him, then the decorative rug in his bachelor pad-cave. In this moment though, Öde only sees her as denying him what he wants, and like the spoiled child his mommy raised him to be, he was enraged by it.

Hooves hit the soil, supple with traction this time of year, as he sunk on his ass following the completion of his assault and its subsequent partial victory. Saffron was hot on his heels, literally, their matched agility and nearly comparable speed revealing themselves in this moment. Her teeth flashed, as ivory as the white walls that Öde's vision lost themselves too. Still high on his adrenaline-braced tantrum, his own speed was swift to rescue him.

Reacting rather than thinking, as only a fool would do, Öde shot straight up into the air, his body bowed against the curvature of his spine, all hooves free of the dirt as he crow hopped. It was enough to rip his leg from her aim and low stature, but she still nicked him on the way up, black flesh peeling away on his right front cannon. It was a long, but shallow gash that bled little, being mostly ligament and bone. As for her magic, well his magic trumped her on that, efficiently nulling her sorcery as it did all others. It was a double-edged sword which served him as a shield in this moment.

Öde's airborne venture was shirt lived though, and down he came, but not with any aim for the cat, nor with any focus on the battle at hoof. He had gone into a complete rage, resulting in a quick succession of two more crow hops, and ending with a powerful buck which he dealt blindly. Perhaps Saffron was still close by, the rodeo he serviced quick enough to linger by her if she stayed, but certainly prolonged enough she could scuttle off.

When his energy finally faded into a dull thud, Öde landed back on all fours and released a thunderous snort. "Kill her," came the deadly calm of his mother's voice in the back of his mind, waiting out the tempestuous storm of his youth. "Reclaim your nobility in her sacrifice. Reap your vengeance from her innards." Öde's stare was hard as he directed it towards the cat, black lashes blinking against the backdrop of crimson vibrancy which claimed his skull. Beneath dark lips, the boy smiled, and it belonged to a crocodile.

This was the part of himself he hadn't yet learned to recognize - this black hole of desecration. It was why he bathed it in the name of his mother, though her corpse had since rotted, and her voice was naught more than his own consciousness pounding on the corridors of his being. This was the remnants of his wraith illness, the worms which had fed on his rotting cadaver, the testament to the DemonKing he was born worshiping. This was the emptiness he carried.
"Go," his mother bode, and with all the grace of a dog of war that thought himself the master, Öde obeyed.

He moved forward at a swift trot, horns hung low and head shaking them, like a trainer with a whip and a chair trying to stave off the beast. Öde moved towards the tigress, but did not resort to his dash and stab as he did before. Instead he tried to use the threat of it to drive her towards the hot springs nearby. He wanted her to fall into them, and there he'd try to hold her down until her breath exhausted itself. If not, well he always his hooves to strike her with, wet or not. If she bit, he'd bite back. If she clawed, he'd thrust his blades into her for the third, and probably last, time today.

Mostly he wanted to see her run.

---

A: 3/3
D: 0/1
W: 797/800

:: [Magic: DarkxLight | the magical abilities of characters fail to work within his vicinity.]
:: [Restrictions | Limited to a maximum radius of 30 ft; Ode cannot bond to a companion while in the possession of this magic]

@[Saffron] SORRY FOR THE WAIT ;-;

Yes, he thinks as she backs off, rightfully giving in to him.
"Yes," his mother coos in his thoughts, delighted at the forced defeat of the hunter.
"YES!" he roars, his voice like thunder rolling over this plain of perceived victory.

He feels fire inside of him with every step he takes that was once hers. The power burns through him, deliciously filling as it scorches away the marrow in his bones and replaces it with obsidian and greed. He can nearly taste her blood upon his tongue, practically feel the plushness of her pelt as he rests his head upon her ass at night... and yet, and yet it is too soon to be proud.

The battle has not ended, and she reminds him of this.

He trips on the very trap her laid for her, a hoof stepping off the even field and sliding down into a nearly boiling pool of water. His balance sways, and his head is thrown up, but it had already been down to guide here, and then is when she reached out to punch him back into reality. Both sets of her claws hooked on him. Her right tore though his nostrils, cutting off the fiendish smirk that had grown upon his lips, while her left paw gripped the edge of his eye and there, hooked and ravaged him. His eyes were red, but now they bled.

Anguish colored Öde's voice as he squealed out. His head had flung up to save himself as he stumbled into the hot spring, but it had also kept him from the full brunt of her strength. Thick lines drawn in crimson of his own making marked each side of his face, but the bony composition, however sensitive it was, of that region meant she was not able to go deep. His left eye was held shut as pain lanced through it, but once the dust had settled and the adrenaline faded, Öde would still be able to see through the swollen tissues. He had come close to losing it, but she'd caught him just above, and skipped down to below where she'd finally hooked in and raked the rest of her swipe down his cheek and jaw line.

Still, the surprise hurt of it all and the lack of clear vision slowed the ravaging beast that he had become, faltering the machine of war and the god of mortals. He lumbered, splashing around, tripping, crying out, before finally, stopping.

Silence.

---

A: 3/3
D: 1/1
W: 422/800

<3 awesome fight!