Log:Hell with a Kell
Hell with a Kell
OOC Date: February 21. 2019
Location: Nar Shaddaa
Participants: Contestants: Maireni, Artemis, Hadrix Rol, Drath, Xan, Tarion Tavers; Spectators: Erisi Auslese, Oozlevort, Lozen. Iggy Odessa, Caim; GM: Oran Arcantael
The short story: A bad man with too much money sponsors some gladiator brawling.
The long story:
Gladiators vs Creatures, Gladiators vs Gladiators, Creatures vs Creatures... the sandy fighting arenas in the Pit Fighter Palace soak up blood of every type and description. Multi colored lights shine garishly in the smoky, yellow-green tinged atmosphere here, while fighters and spectators crowd the passageways around fighter prep areas, stands, food and alcohol vendors. Bookies of a wide variety of species fervently secure betting in a dozen languages, and at any given time, there are at least three fights breaking out that have absolutely nothing to do with the evening's planned entertainment. The Hutt District can be a lawless place.
One of the main entertainment events for the evening is a Gladiators vs Creature fight, multiple gladiators facing off against a ferocious Kell Dragon. Caged and pacing at the end of the arena, like so many gladiatorial beasts, it looks like it may have seen better days. It looks angry. It looks hungry. Several cheerful Weequay in brightly colored clothing stroll around the sand of the arena armed with force pikes; rodeo clowns to distract the beast's ire onto their own selves as needed.
As the fighters take their place in the arena, a spotlight shines on a small, tough looking female Rodian in hide armor made from something that had attractive golden scales. Hints of light cast around the arena reveal small cylinders scattered around, sparkling with a metallic gleam where they are exposed in the sand. "Friends and gentlebeings!" calls the Rodian, in Huttese, with a delayed translation over the PA in Basic. "Today will be a fight of GREED versus GLORY! Will our heroes stand strong together and fight? Or will they fall one by one as they are distracted by their lust for money? Place your bets, choose your favorites, and let the blood run freely!"
The crowd roars in approval, the lights come up, and the durasteel bars of the dragon cage slowly raise up with a horrible clank-clank-clank-KACHUNK. At the top of the stands in a VIP box, a dark, shadowed figure who is probably under the influence of more than one substance steeples his fingers and gets ready to watch the show. Some people turn on the holo. Other people pay for blood sports.
Maireni Lash is here in armor that looks like it was, at some point, assaulted by paint and glitter, but it wasn't applied correctly so most of it has flaked off since application. She has a blaster with her, and roughly a dozen and a half rings on hands that aren't covered by her armor. It's been modified to allow for her tail, which is also adorned by several smallish things that look like bracelets. She's already jumping around, getting pumped as she pats a small satchel she's got on her hip where the credits she's definitely going to dive for will probably be kept. Or it might just be full of drugs. It's hard to say with her.
Artemis sweeps her gaze about the familiar confines of the arena, drinking in the litany of chaos as bodies froth and jeer with equal voracity. Behind her light helmet, a disdainful sneer is worn on her face, disgust for bloodsport that her companions may not necessarily share and she has chosen not to voice. The grinding clank of the cage snaps her out of her indignation. Immediately, as instinct and a lifetime of coordinated combat would dictate, her face flattens to its usual neutral cast and she quickly pivots her rifle to each side in one less haphazard confirmation that her weapon is in proper working order. It's as perfect as it can be as always.
<<Comm check, one two. Sound off and spread out. We're not facing something with blasters today.>> Artemis grumbles, taking little measure to hide her disdain for what they are doing. Rolling her shoulders to readjust her armor, she sighs. This armor is far lighter than her usual fair. Its durasteel alloy feeling insufficient and somehow not reassuring in the face of such a powerful beast.
Waiting in the ring, patient, plasma flamer unlimbered, and suited up in his cinnigar suit molded with Gohai imagery, Hadrix cares little for the blather of the Rodian, nor the spectacle. He is hear for the fight itself
<<"Copy lead, loud and clear.">> Moving on the balls of his feet, the big man opts to keep some distance, trying to keep just within thirty feet of the beast for the time being. He hasn't charged the thing, so that has to be a comfort to his comrades.
Drath stands nearby Artemis, having donned his full set of black S3 battle armor. Gazing out at the arena from behind his t visored helmet, the man carries an F-11D blaster rifle, currently held at a relaxed position in his grip. Turning his attention over towards the cage, he responds with <<Copy.>> into his comms, taking a few steps over in the opposite side of Hadrix as the trio form up what amounts of a firing line. He doesn't appear to have brought any sort of bag, only the compartments on his belt, nor does he seem to be glancing around for credits. His helmeted gaze is simply focused on that cage, as he lifts his rifle towards it.
Oozlevort allows a vendor to set up his hookah and light charcoal in it, then places the marcan herb delicately on the top. He unfurls a thin flexible tube from his breathing mask and connects it to the hookah's pipe, and with water bubbling, he inhales deeply of the narcotic herb. Then great plumes of marcan-and-ammonia-tinged smoke are exhaled through the baffle of his breathing apparatus. His multifaceted insectoid eyes glitter in the palace's lights as he watches the initial goings-on, waiting for the creature to be revealed.
Lozen showed up good and early to the event. In part so there was less a crowd to navigate around on her crutches and also to ensure she is able to get prime seating in the front row right where the gore and terror splash zone. Even injured she has an axe strapped to her back just in case.
Xan isn't here. No. Some Ubese in their containment raider armor is here. A very tiny one...with stunsabers and vibrodaggers? Yep. A rudimentary voice obfuscater has been installed inside the helmet. The Ubese looks around at the other fighters who have prepared, but generally doesn't interact with anyone. She steps into the ring and gives herself some space from anyone who looks like they are wielding big spraying guns, trying to get opposite to give herself visibility. Then she watches the dragon. Then she starts doing something positively nuts...which is trying to get close enough to use those daggers without getting shot, burnt to a crisp, etc. This strategy seems to be implemented by getting in its perceived blindspot while other draw it's attention with their big flashy weapons while she /dashes/ in with two vibrodaggers in reverse grip.
Having never been this far out in the galaxy, life on Nar is an adjustment for Igancious Odessa who must learn to be soft and pudgy in the hardened turf of the Hutt District. What does one do when one is new to a city? See the sites of course! Armed with a bag of fresh fried nerf rinds, the lesser Odessa makes his way to the spectator's area, pausing only to clean his glasses when he decides this spot on the railing is juuuust right. So he parks there. Right in front of Oozlevort, who gets nothing but a lovely view of Iggy's soft, pudgy, generous ass.
Striding out from the gladiator pit as its own bars lower is a man armored up in a facsimile of gladiatorial accoutrement, his 4-pack abs on proud display, chest oiled with an exotic, strength-enhancing essence dipped from the deep fryer at the Meltdown Cafe. On the cap of one shoulder he's strapped what appears to be the tread of an old tire, complete with halves of food cans all taped in a string down his arm. The other is covered by a mixing bowl with the lids from the food cans taped to it, sharp sides out. On his head, an upside-down durasteel colander shines brightly in its perforated glory, almost covering Tarion's eyes depending on the jaunty tilt as it shifts around, but his bright, lopsided grin is always visible. The bottom half of his ensemble appears to be a familiar set of burgundy trunks with a sequined phrase 'Ra-Ra' across the seat. Don't worry, though, he's taped some metal chains to the legs for protection.
As he steps out into the arena, the man lifts his rifle high towards the audience and cheers for himself. "YEEESSSSS! BEHOLD!" Unlike the three serious talkers, he doesn't seem to be strategizing or remaining particularly aloof, not even looking at his competitors but focusing on jazzing up the crowd instead. "IT IS I, TARION TAVERS, DRAGON SLAYER-to-be!" With that done, he turns to face the others. "That's how you do it, punks. You guys need to get some flair up in here. You'll never get any fans that way."
Oran chills in the VIP box and closes one eye, holding his thumb and index finger over the Vanguard and idly making a pinching gesture as he waits for the proper fighting to start. Squish. Squish the tiny far away troopers. Squish.
As Xan begins her dash toward the beast, the beast begins its own dash toward the collected fighters with a ferocious roar. Toothsome and wild though it may be, it seems a little bewildered by the wide variety of targets, and its ability to only snatch one at a time... but it looks dead-set on snatching one, nonetheless, and it looks like it's going to smart if it does.
Others might go right for an attack, to gain glory and honor, and the title of dragon slayer, or whatever. Maireni Lash has never been concerned about honor, and she knows she's full on glory already, so really it's all about the credits here, baby. She dashes around the sand strewn ground away from the dragon, leaning down to snatch a tube out of the sand that she immediately tries to rattle to verify presence of credits. Rattle rattle. Yessss. "This is great!" she shouts out to the audience, a wide, pointy-toothed grin aimed at what are obviously her fans. (They're not.)
Artemis has nothing but a snort, vaguely reminiscient of a Kath hound, for the boisterous walking kitchen starter set. The flicker of mirth is a short-lived one as the quadriped beast charges forward and makes its presence known with its bestial roar, causing her step to falter in the loose dirt of the arena floor. The scream of her shouldered rifle is for naught, its super-heated plasma discharge finding little but but the duracrete wall on the opposite side of the arena.
<<Bith spit that thing is faster than it looks,>> Artemis complains as she stumbles, one hand scooping at the ground to help right herself. She dashes to the side, pirouetting to level her rifle at the lizard with little regard for the small fortune littering the floor.
Drath turns his helmet slightly to watch Tarion go about his showboating, the man scoffing slightly behind his helmet, but promptly turning his attention back to the dragon. "Not here for fans." he remarks over his externals, and as the dragon comes charging, he opens fire with his blaster, his stepping a bit off as the beast charges near him, causing his shot to go a bit wide in the process. Shuffling back from the creature, he keeps his rifle trained on its form, preparing to fire again with the hopes he hasn't drawn its ire by existing just yet.
"This is amazing." So speaks Erisi who is in the stands, a large drink held between her knees with a long twisty straw protruding from it, and a bag of purple and green purpkern held in her right hand while the left fetches the toasted kernals and presses them betwixt lipsticked lips. Her hazel eyes are bright as jaw muscles work the vendor food between her teeth. Erisi is SO a fan of Maireni, "YEAH! YOU HUSTLE GIRL! GIT THAT LIZARDS TREASURE!" Laughingly she rocks back on the bench she's claimed, nudging a Houk sat beside her, "You see that? Bahaha. My moneys on the chick with the wild tail. Lookit her." "ME BET ON LITTLE STUPID HUMAN." Said of Tarion, "HE LACKING IN BRAIN HOLE, HE WILL WIN." The big burly man beast says as he holds out his palm, politely, to Erisi, "PLEASE." With a heavy sigh Erisi reaches up to the much bigger Houk to shake shake half her kernels into his palm, "You beggar." "THANKS." Lips purse on the human female to bring lips around the straw, and she slurps up her drink as she watches, hooting here and there. Crunch crunch crunch goes the Houk, "GO PUNY HUMAN."
Oozlevort exhales a long cloud of silvery-blue narcotic smoke, scented with that fresh aroma of 22% ammonia. Then Ryo Odessa stands in his view. The Gand makes an annoyed sound. "Please excuse, this Gand cannot see past you to view the match. Move out of the way."
Lozen watches with wide silver eyes aggitatedly rising from the bench to bance and swing restlessly back and forth on her crutches, her expression one of absolutely rapt attention as her gaze tries to track both Xan and Hadrix around the massive creature.
The little Ubese looks like she's going to get a good angle on the beast as it rears, ready to attack, but as soon as she closes the distance, it bounds away. Her front attacks are worthless, total whiffs. So Xan just bounds back in the other direction after the monster, hot enough on its heels to whiff twice more like some kind of angry little cartoon. That said, she also gets missed by some of that flamethrowing madness, which is nice. "Kriff," the distorted voice barely gets picked up by the obfuscater. Xan drops down into a crouch, still 'close enough' to the beast where it's probably unwise.
"Look, it takes some talent, is all I'm- oh hello, what's this?" Like a crow or other distractible avian, Tarion's attention is drawn away by the glit and glimmer of a small, sleek metallic capsule sticking out of the sand. He jangles over that way, coming up on it a few steps at a time in a round-about approach, again birdlike, before dropping to his knees and digging at the thing until it comes free. "Why, look at you," he coos to the thing, rifle forgotten on the ground beside him as he depresses a button with rapt curiosity, a tiny beep announcing the discharge of a tidy sum of credits into the bounty hunter's waiting hand. "For me?! You shouldn't have." Tugging out his waistband, they're dropped into his trunks for safe keeping.
"Alright then, where was-" And the dragon is upon him. The spiked creature roars with sound and fury as it closes in on the idiot with the credit capsule, teeth clamping down on his colander with a shriek of protesting metal. "AHHHHH!" That shriek is protesting Tarion, the man's fists battering uselessly against the fangs caught in the cookware's perforations. Frustrated, a clawed mitt bats him across the exposed, aromatic belly, opening up pale skin and spraying his blood across the sand.
Coming in to the rescue, a Weequay in brighter clothing than Tarion's sequined arse distracts the beast away, leaving the man to lie there gasping, crawling towards the perimeter and chucking the capsule at the nearest other competitor as he goes, winging the object right past Xan's masked head. "AM I NOT ELIMINAINED?!" he shouts to the crowd then, propping himself up against the wall of the arena to jeer and bleed for the rest of the event.
The Kell Dragon seems interested in Maireni, at first. She's flashy, she's trashy, and she's got the look about her of a little rat about to steal its dragon hoard of treasure. It opens its maw for another roar, tongue out and teeth as long as steak-knives glistening with viscous threads of saliva. Fortunately for the little Ryn who so captured Erisi's approval, the dragon is distracted with a howl of fury by Hadrix's flame, and when it whirls -- it spots something else, something /else/ trying to steal the treasure, something even flashier. Something even trashier. Something louder. Something Tarion Tavers. Yes. Yes, this will do nicely.
Evolution has crafted this beast to be the apex of the wild on some stars-forsaken world of origin, and and it's quicker than one might expect. Evading Xan's daggers completely, it jumps forward and catches hold of the fan favorite, Tarion Tavers! The crowd screams in approval, and the Weequay 'arena clowns' dive in to jab at the dragon and distract it with their force pikes. They manage to do this long enough for Tarion to escape and drag himself to the arena edge, where he's out of the action, but may yet prove a burden to others.
In the VIP box, an insufferable Coruscanti voice drawls, "/Ridiculous/," in tones of abject approval.
Feeling the impact of the creature's heavy steps and smelling his awful breath, Iggy squints hard through his lenses to get a better view of what these sad little contestants were up against. But when he does catch a good glimpse, the human could hardy believe what he's seeing. So shocked by the creature, he practically jumps out of his boots when this Gand asks him to get out of the way. "Oh sorry, I-" Iggy inhales just a bit of that ammonia smoke and it's a pure sucker punch to his poor, virgin lungs. A coughing fit commences, where he leans forward a bit to catch his breath. This, of course does, nothing to improve Oozlevort's view, and Iggy ends up missing Tarion becoming dragon food.
Caim makes his way to the front row with Lozen and smiles. "You look like you would rather be down there." He says as he sits by the woman. "I know I would rather be down there myself." He says with a smirk. "So what did I miss?"
Lozen looks up and blinks owlishly at Caim, she'd been watching so avidly like a cat watching squirrels outside it taks her a moment to register she's being spoken to, "Oh, yes. Very much so. I would very much like to fight alongside my friend." She smiles in clear chagrine and shrugs her shoulders "Some other day! How are you, Doctor?"
Maireni is really into this style of fighting, where she leaves all the fighting to everyone else and instead digs for buried treasure that she doesn't have to share. This is the best fight. She spots another of those shiny tubes that are her new favorite thing ever, and she dives for it. Unfortunately for her she dives at about the same time that the dragon dives at her, but it's all fine. It's fine. "AAAAHH!!" She shouts as she's picked up around the middle and shaken like a rag doll, still clinging to that tube of credits as though her life depended on it. It doesn't, her life actually depends on getting away from the dragon, but that only happens as she's flung away, to land in the sand in a bloody heap. "Ow, I hate those things,' she protests, rolling out over to the edge of the arena, and then trying to crawl all the way out. Must. Protect. The. Money.
Artemis' breaths are heavy with the swift exertion, clouds briefly obscuring her vision as the humidity tries desperately to cling to the helmet's visor before being whisked away by the acrid air around the fighters. She sweeps her rear foot back for balance. A crescent moon is left in the wake of her boot, grit and refuse tossed aside.
<<"I had indicated I was not going to be here.">> Artemis growls. The woman's pupils dialate as her renal glands pollute her bloodstream with a muted chemical medly, twisting her temporal perception and softening the scrabbling claws of acid build up even before she begins to notice the first shades of fatigue. It does little to help as the beast's celerity puts it in a place that her following shot is not.
<<Two.>> Artemis grunts, her eyes sweeping about the arena. <<Ideas? I've got cryos.>>
The sweep of the tail, the charge of the beast. Hadrix is forced to dive for cover. Hadrix is forced to take cover and dip into everyone's favorite maneuver. The combat roll.
Yes the combat roll, pinacle of maneuvers to both evade detection and attack. Leaping into a half-assed no-hands sommersault, hitting on your shoulder and making sure you don't flop like a lamebrain on the ground. A brilliant tactic with no other like it. Grace and grunting.
Hadrix does land correctly, rolls, ends up on his hunkers, but his aim is thrown off, spraying liquid fire onto open ground, turning sand into extraordinarilly wicked looking glass.
<<"Do it lead, see if you can lock it up for a moment.">>
"BIG LIZARD CHEATS." The Houk immediately grouses, rising up out of his position and nearly knocking over Erisi as he calls out, shake fisting, "BIG LIZARD CHEATS. LOOK. IT IS HATCHING COINS!" A big fat finger juts out from his balled out fist, the Houk looking ready to storm down the rafters to get into the ring himself to square things proper, "Whoa - whoa, whoa, big buddy, big friend, huge dufus, no no."
Quickly, delicately, Erisi sets down the purpkern and her drink to the side, rising up to huge the Houks non-jabbing arm to hug it, "Hey, hey. The sun is ...not going down on this stupid moon, but you gotta calm yer tits brother! Whoa ...c'mon, you want me to show you that hilarious photo of that dumb chick I got taken down for you? Huh? Would that make you happy? Yeaaah ... I told you, getting a nice fancy copy made for you, now you're making me miss the fight so c'mon.." Gently she pulls the Houk back down, gentle and slow like, like a beast tamer.
"I'll even buy you those fancy fried cakes they got over there, soon as this rounds ends." "HMPH. AND A COOKIE?" "Dude ..did you -see- cookies? No, but ..you know what, how about a deep fried sweet cake on a stick." "OKAY." CRUMPLE. Down back to the bench he goes, and as he does so Erisi is reaching into the left pocket of her coat to take out her datapad, handing it to him, "Go on, it's the lock screen." Boop. The Houk laughs as he views the image of two men with boots on a prone woman on some street, "HA HA. THIS IS PLEASING." "Cost me fifty five thousand credits for the bounty, baby, nothing but the best for momma's friends." Erisi says distractedly, drink and 'kerns taken back up, "NO. LADY WITH THE TAIL! AUGH!!!" Cried out by the short woman, "C'mawwwwn, damnit. That lost me -twenty- credits. Such. Nerfshavit." A soft throaty grunt, rising up to leave to the food vendors, "Man ..lemme go get your food." Begrudgingly stated as the Houk laughs heartily, showing the datapad and holo-image to others around him, "LOOK. VERY PLEASING. SHE IS LAID OUT LIKE DEAD BANTHA. HA HA."
"I am fine." Caim says as he looks her over and pulls out a scanner to check on her injuries. "So how did you sustain these?" He asks curiously as he gestures to her and her crutches. He then goes to look at the fight going on in the arena. "Looks like they injured it."
Drath turns as the dragon focuses on the other combatants, rushing around it in an arc and opening fire again, only for the shots to go wide. His armored boot skids across the sand of the arena as he comes to a stop, arranging himself on the other side of the beast from Artemis and Hadrix. <<We'll keep the fire up, cryos sound great right now!>> he calls back, a quick glance over both of his shoulders ensuring he has space to maneuver in case of attack as he continues to fire on the beast. Not that he's done much thus far. <<"I don't think it cares whether you were going to be here or not, though.">> At least he manages to crack a joke, even if his voice is strained by the battle at hand.
Lozen sucks in a sharp breath as Hadrix dives and then exhales slowly. She turns her gaze to Caim then, silver eyes made brighter in contrast of twin black eyes. She smiles warmly and looks almost giddy, "An axe match with Hadrix. His skill with the weapon has improved tenfold since we last fought with Vibro-axes." no chagrine now just pure pride!
Oozlevort rises up to his feet as Tarion Tavers is manhandled and gutted like a junk-encrusted armadillo. "Yeah!" He shakes a fistful of credits in the air. "Kill them ALL!" His view is still partially obstructed by Iggy Odessa so he says, less politely, "Move away, this Gand cannot see past you, human." The Gand then makes a shooing motion with his chitinous three-fingered left hand. Shoo shoo.
There's no discernible outward reaction to capsule that goes flying right past her helmet...given the helmet disguises her completely, but inside the helmet, Xan blinks and grins. It delays her instinctual attack for half a moment, and either that's just what she needs or it ruins part of her initiative...it's unclear, but the Ubese lunges low, slashing with the outside of one blade front, back, and when she hooks around to outright stab the thing with both daggers at once, but her attack totally misses as she's dislodged in positioning by the power of the beast. She hasn't even /looked/ at the money capsules in the sand it seems, but it's understandable, since...she's been busy. "Hey," she says to the dragon so nonchalantly it's like a 13 year old boy having to sit down for dinner with his family.
When Xanbese takes the time to strike up a nonchalant conversation with the dragon, Tarion launches a rock he's pulled out of the sandy arena floor at her head. "SUCK ON THIS, YATTO YATTO! YEAH, TELL YOUR COUSIN ROSH I HATE HIM TOO!" It's unclear exactly who the man is referring to but for some reason the dagger-wielding person has raised the ire of the cleanup on Aisle 3.
With Tarion out of the way and apparently heedless of the outright flames burning along its spine -- that just makes the beast look more enraged and more ferocious -- the Kell dragon turns its gaping maw toward the first thief that had captured its heart: Maireni, who only just manages to snatch up another tube of credits before the beast snatches her, and shakes her about like an akk-dog puppy with a new toy. Bet this one squeaks, too.
The dragon releases its prey when the Weequay rush in to jab it with their pikes again, and as they dart out of the way, Xan finds purchase with her little daggers. Stab! Stab! She makes deep cuts, and the dragon bleeds. Right after she says 'Hey,' however, a rock says hi back, and hits her in her helmeted noggin. Bonk!
The thing about Ryn that most people who come within smell range of them is that they're gross, and Maireni is no exception. She's laying on the sand bleeding, opening both the tubes that had credits in them. The credits have been shoved down the front of her armor so it's safe, which means the tubes are free to be used as weapons. She scoops some of the bloody sand (did i mention gross?) up into the tube and closes it again, then lobs the metallic cannister at Artemis. "If I don't get credits, no one does!"
"Sir...," Iggy wheezes out, hunched over the rail in front of Oozlevort. "Mr. Gand, sir ..." The crowd around him ERUPTS in glee as Maireni is captured betwixt the teeth of the beast before being spit out like a bag of bones. Their sounds only drown out the soft man's violent coughs. "Mr. Gand your...thing." He gestures weakly to Oozlevort's toxic hookah. "I think I'm having an allergic reaction ... please stop." Feeling the last of his throat close up, Iggy pulls a panic move and run to push over Ooz's hookah to STOP the smoking!
Behind the anonymizing sheen of her helmet, Artemis' expression is grim. The roar of the crowd and dragon alike drone on with the annoying buzz of a Can-cell harassing her for her lunch or perhaps more like Oozlevort's continual nattering on about missing fuel. Shifting her weapon to her off-hand, the grenade is clipped from her belt and brought to life with a quick flick of her finger. It beeps, signalling its eagerness rip apart the heat in the air, devouring energy in a polar vortex and pulling the ambient temperature down to subzero levels in the span of a heartbeat. She winds up and her arm twists forward rapidly.
CLANG! The pallidly skinned midget's tube smacks her in the side of the head and the grenade soars off course, careening towards the portly Flying Sphagetti Monster worshipper. Artemis stumbles and falls to her rump, landing hard. There's murder in her matte-blue eyes but it's no longer directed towards the lizard.
Seeing the little ubese stabbing at the dragon and not getting stomped or chomped is quite impressive. Hadrix definately notes it. He also notices the carking space gypsy getting tossed like a rambuncious pets' chew toys.
Rock throwing as well! Savages. Kriff, these people are frizzing savages!
Then the dragon is chomping at Xan, and the little bugger is getting clear of the beast! <<"Ubese has some moves, too bad their too old to recruit I bet">>
Hadrix shifts and continues to try and circle the creature, flame spraying again but the dust and the beast's movement keep it from being engulfed again, the fire already on the creature flickering and guttering now. <<"Good shot, Ninety One">> is noted as Hadrix spies the shot from his squadbrother... and the off-position throw by Artemis. It's been an unlucky night... But here's hoping for just a little more fortune.
Drath notes the other getting tossed about, as well as the things being thrown from the injured participants on the sidelines, but none of that distracts him from the fight at hand. He'd flanked it for a reason, after all. <<Who says we turn our attention to the ones throwing rocks after this?>> he asks over the closed circuit helmet comms, the man rushing forward a few feet and sending a bit of sand flying as he comes to a stop. Spotting an opening, he fires just as the dragon's head rises, hitting it between two armed plates of the neck and melting into the armored hide.
Oozlevort splutters out another cloud of mixed marcan smoke and ammonia as his hookah goes tumbling. Burning charcoal goes flying into the stands. The apparatus disconnects from his breathing mask with a hiss. "You foolish human! You are disrupting Oozlevort's recreation time!" Oozlevort's floating security droid makes a series of chirps and beeps as it floats behind him.
Plunk! A rock hits the side of Xanbese's helmet. "What fuck?" Xanbese says in that distorted weird voice, not realizing the jeering is aimed at her from Tarion till after the fact. What did he say? But she knows better than to turn around or ask. She rolls forward and to the side to evade the incoming dragon's attack with one blade out to slice along the way. It's opportunistic and ever so close to the dragon's side, but no blood comes out. A miss. Xan crosses her blade over in an unusual move to stab the creature's back foot as she turns over to get back up into a squat. The beast reacts, naturally, sending her next two slashes into air as the sand kicks up around them. Breathing couldn't be easier with that filtered mask, but this Ubese is sort of playing with fire for way too long.
"So who are you rooting for, Lozen?" Caim asks as he watches the goings on and smiles as the people seem to be jeering. He then looks to Oozlevort and he looks back to Lozen. "Seems the natives are getting restless." He says softly.
Lozen gasps again at her sister's close call, grip white knuckling on the grips of her crutches causing the wood to groan in protest of the force of her grip. She exhales slowly then as Xan escapes to continue the fight "Why isn't she fighting with a real kriffin weapon?!" She points towards Xan, "My sister..." she then points "And Hadrix, off course."
"Suck an egg!" Tarion yells at the foul-mouthed Xanbese, cupping his hands around his mouth before chuckling dryly and settling them back over his bleeding stomach. "Ah, krif. This hurts. I don't like this." Popping his waistband up with his thumb, he glances down in at the new family creds and the sight brings him some small joy, but a beeping sound distracts him from this, and looking up with a bad-tempered squint he spots a small orb hurtling towards him. "Well, that can't be-"
BOOSH, a frosty wave washes over him as cryo-freezing liquid sprays out in all directions, pattering down on his skimpy outfit. "COLD! AHH! /COLD,/ do not like!" Without much thought other than how displeased he is by being this cold, he pries the mixing bowl with its serrated can-lids from his shoulder, slicing open his own finger in the process, and hurls it back the way the FrostyOrb came, straight at Artemis.
With the airflow to his lungs dwindling, Iggy still manages to pick himself off the ground. Every breath is labored and uncomfortably whistley. One hand, still clutching the nerf rinds, pushes himself up. Another hand reaches for a bench only to knock over some glass which shatters, and causes Iggy to fall into it. "Gahh!" Unable to get himself fully up, he crawl in desperation to Oozlevort, clamping down on his ankles while he whispers out feebly to the Gand, "Get ... haalp...."
The dragon is a mighty creature, but it's slowing, tired by the fight in all directions. In truth, if anyone had a heart for nature's beautiful and terrible creations, it deserves better than this. It deserves the wild, and death-matches only against those who would defy its hunt and its fellows who would dare encroach its territory. That's the end it deserved, not being blasted, cut, burned, under the polluted light of an alien world. But it was bought and paid for, and the galaxy is not known to reward what's deserved.
Hadrix's fire is dwindling, but still burning. Drath scores the most damaging shot with accuracy and firepower, and Xan follows it up with a new cut. The dragon roars, and tries to snap up one more assailant before its view of the ghastly green-lit arena grows dim...
Erisi comes back in time for ash and the like to fall from Oozle's hookah from the stands above, two bags of purpkern hugged in either arm, her Houk friend coughing as he waves a hand in front of his face, "Hey buddy, what's wrong?" Asked as Erisi hands off the purpkern bag to the dude, turning to focus on the fight, "What'd I miss?" "DRAGON GETTING LAZY. BLOOD LEAKING." "Oh, no way - hey, see that idiot white dude down there you were cheering for?" Asked as she sets back down, grinning as the sound of broken glass erupts above them as Iggy goes down. The Houk nods as a fistful of his snacks are shoved into his maw, "That was the jerk who was trying to get the bounty on you -" Jaw-drop, "NO." Erisi nods slowly, continuing to watch the scene, "Mmmhmmmm. But don't worry, I got back at him /and/ I got /him/ to take my bounty on that other chick who tried to help him. She's the one in the pic." Quietly the Houk nods, staying firm in his seat, "You good friend." Murmured mid-chew, Eri nodding with a half smile as Ooz calls out for security to help Iggy on out, "Mmmhmm."
Maireni has but one cannister left which she's spent the last couple of minutes filling with sand, which she lifts up to lob at the people left in the fight who didn't serve as meat shield enough for her money-grubbing. Except as she lifts her arm to lob it, her fingers are sticky enough with blood and sand that the thing slips right from her fingers, and slaps her right in the face. On the forehead. "AUUGH STUFF-FLUPPIN MUTT THUMPER," she... curses? It hurts, she's gonna have a knot on her forehead as a result. She still has the weapon, but the spirit of the fight has gone out of her, and she just flops where she is, letting out a sad, low whistle through her weird instrument. Sad-nose-toot.
Artemis rises to her feet and bats away the hurtled lid with a violence that is only matched by the brutality with which she drives the piece of metal in to the ground with the heel of her boot. Tearing off her helmet, the trooper is incensed, flesh rouged with adrenaline and faux-blonde hair matted with sweat. With wide eyes, she leers at her pair of assailants.
Then the dragon distracts Artemis as it assaults her squadmate. A sin more mortal than harassing her as she and her squadmates stare down a beast.
"Shut the kriff up!" Artemis snarls and twists her weapon, gritting her teeth with a wolf's menace as she rapidly drill's through the reptilian's beast with searing bolts of plasma. Gushing eye, crushed skull, exposed brain. The trooper does not stop until she can peer clear through the grisly tunnel to the other side. Then she whirls on the Ryn.
"You!" Artemis levels her rifle at the shorter woman, striding forward with menace.
Iggy Odessa would yelp in pain if only he had the air too. Oozlevort kicked him in the glass shard hand! He inches his body forward on the floor, progressively unable to crawl further. One last attempt, and the human grabs on again to the Gand's ankle. "Mr ... Gand ... sir ...," his doughy cheeks growing progressively blue whilst the nerf rinds are crushed in his spare hand, which is slowly losing grip.
<<"Once this thing is down? I say we stun them, collar them, and take them for Ravelyn to ply her trade on...">> Hadrix replies to Drath over the private comms, when he sees Artemis get knocked over. <<"Moving on your position lead, providing cover">> Hadrix puts action to word as he shifts kit and hustles in Artemis's direction, and then she's up, and she's coring the dragon's head. A thrill rushes up his spine - victory! Whether an aid or the killshot matters not. But she rounds on Mariani and Hadrix's ire is re-focused now on a new personage. The Ryn. His plasma rifle is brought up, pilot light flickering back to life.
Caim moves to iggy and begins to pound on the man's back. After a moment fo that he grabs his arms around the man and begins to perform the heimlich. Hopefully he is aimed at Oozle so when the man coughs something up, it will be on oozle.
No good plan goes unpunished, or in this case, the dragon was simply too fast for the flanking Drath to escape it. The shot to the back of the neck draws its attention, and it turns to slash at the man. Attempting to dodge to the left is unfortunate, when the claw being used happens to be coming from the left, leading Drath directly into its path. The grat claw slams into his chest plate, sending him flying like a rag doll back from the way he was coming. Miraculously, the heavy durasteel plate of the suit absorbs a large amount of the blow, and though the claws sink deeply into his chest, he doesn't appear to be completely out of it.
<<Kriffing hells, am I dead?>> he calls out into his comms, his head lifting off of the sand and gazing over as the dragon is felled. <<Yaaaaay.>> he manages through his comms, the injured man pushing himself to one knee as he watches Artemis turn her attention to those in the crowds. Propping his rifle up, he hefts it towards the other target, flipping a hand over the side as he fires a near miss of a stunning round towards the man.
Xan scrambles and stares at the dragon in one of those hanging moments, her blades ready. This won't be good. Then suddenly Artemis takes out all (okay not all) of her ire on the beast and it practically melts right in front of Xanbese. "Right." Then she pushes herself up and sprints toward Tarion. Sucker punnnnch-MISS! But she doesn't miss again. "UP!" BAM! "SHUT!" SLAM! Her small armored fist punctuates each word by jamming into Tarion's mouth.
Suddenly, Iggy feels a rough punch to his back. It causes him to exhale his last bits of air even more. If he could whimper, he would right about now. But before he knows it, he's hoisted up into the air just in time to see Drath take a claw to the chest. The overhwelming violence is the last thing he sees before Caim's futile Heimlich, crushes his torso and knocks him out completely. Too bad he's not actually choking.
Tarion is busy watching Artemis blow the dragon away, and then threaten Maireni after leering at him as well. "Hot," the bounty hunter mutters to himself, shifting around to get a better view while he holds his wounds because that's all you have to do to keep your insides inside, and the movement causes his head to not be struck by Drath's stun bolt. It's all covered though because here comes Xanbese punching him in the face while he's laying there, half-naked and covered in blood. Reeling from the blows, his face turns towards the mask and the garbled speech, eyes confused and fuzzy. "What the krif is your problem," is dazedly demanded, a finger dabbing at his now-split lip, still trying to peer around the weirdly dressed figure to see what's going on with Artemis. "Maybe she'll kill the tooter," he croaks, attempting to latch onto Xan's clothes if she's not quick enough to get away from him, spitting blood on her in the process regardless. "IS THIS NOT WHY YOU'RE HERE?!" the woozy man calls to the sky. "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GODS!"
Oozlevort doesn't really care if Iggy Odessa dies choking. He kicks his groping hand away and shuffles aside to watch the end of the match. Iggy is left to the incompetent ministrations of Dr. Caim. "What, is it over? Is the reptile dead? Oozlevort is disappointed."
Caim sighs as he takes out a scanner and begins scanner the man. He then drags iggy away from Oozle and he mutters something in Mando'a as he begins the slow and ardeous process of treating the man's injuries, including an injection to reduce the swelling from the allergic reaction and begins to pull the glass shards out of his hand and begins to bandage the man's chest.
<<Play civilian games, win civilian prizes.>> That's Oran's voice over the coms to certain of the combatants down there in the arena, tone dry. <<Do not fail to uphold a higher standard. Please and thank you. I don't know if Artemis is on coms, but if she does something stupid I'm holding you responsible, so consider that.>>
The dragon is dead, some guy is trying to kick it in the stands, the rest of the combatants are now trying to kill each other on the arena sand. Really, it's a typical day in the pits. Confetti is falling from the ceiling while Drath tries to shoot Tarion and Xan punches him and Artemis comes at Maireni with the white-hot fury of 10,000 burning suns. Mouse-droids with special sand treads scoot around picking up the credit tubes, returning them to the Rodian from the beginning of the event, who nonchalantly hands them to the fighters, or tosses them in their general direction. A bonus to them all!
"Let's have a cheer for our heroes!" she chirps, like this is all normal. Maybe it is.
