thearena | Deathrolled!

Entry tags:

Deathrolled!

WHO| Neeshka and Ariadne
WHAT| Stalker turned stalkee
WHEN| Evening of day 7
WHERE| The north end of the big island, around S6
WARNING/NOTES| Somebody is dying!

Things were slowing down a bit, it seemed like. Neeshka was running across fewer and fewer other people in here, and was actively avoiding the ones she ran into. Well, not quite avoiding, but definitely not engaging. She'd taken out one of these Tributes, or whatever they were being called, and for the next few days, she was content to just watch and stay alive.

That didn't mean she wasn't bored silly, though.

So when she heard someone else moving around in the foliage not far from where she'd recently woken herself up from the day and made an attempt at finger-combing out her hair and smashing open a coconut to drink from, she dropped her find and shimmied immediately up the nearest tree as quietly as she could. It was no big loss, really, because she was very, very sick of coconuts, and was starting to wonder if the afterlife weren't preferable if it had drinkable water. Not quite wondering enough to let someone stab her just to find out, though, so she tried to shrink into the leaves as invisibly as possible.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Her close encounter with Revya had ended...well. Decently. Better than Ariadne had expected after being practically lunged at. It was lucky that Don had been there for her, otherwise she wasn't entirely certain she'd have made it out of that alive. All the same, her guard was up more than ever as she headed through the brush and trees, rock and spear both in hand and at the ready.

She wasn't taking any chances this time around. Her eyes scanned both the ground and the trees, pausing as she caught a glimpse of another Tribute high in the tree nearby. She slowed slightly as she walked, not wanting to let them know that they had been spotted just yet.

If Neeshka knew how easily she'd been spotted, she would've been furious at herself. True, wilderness was not exactly her specialty, but it'd been a whole week! She ought to be well-practiced enough by now to be at least close to her usual level of stealth.

As it was, oblivious, she just winced silently, looking down at the girl slowing. Surely she'd seen her cracked coconut. While she didn't feel badly about losing it, she was sure said girl would take it as a sign that she wasn't alone. She held very, very still, in the hopes that she'd just move on. Or take the offering of cracked coconut and go back the way she came, or something.

And a minute ago she'd been worried about being bored....

Ariadne, sadly, knew exactly where to look at this point: three Arenas in made one dead sure to check everywhere someone might hide. It helped that she too stuck to trees whenever she could.

Besides all that, she couldn't tell who or what was up there - all she knew was that there was someone up there. A bird, maybe, but something for certain. But then there was nothing, and she wasn't entirely certain how to take that. A cursory glance around showed her the fallen coconut; Ariadne dropped into a crouch beside it, briefly studying it before turning her eyes back upwards, searching intently again.

Cursing to herself, inside her head, Neeshka was pretty sure she had either at least been guessed out, or even spotted. Her hiding place was good, but not perfect, and the girl was looking up, so it was probably only a matter of time. The question now was: to try to escape, to attack and hope she had some kind of surprise, or to try and talk.

Her tail twitched behind her as she tried to think, rustling a couple leaves and giving her position away entirely. Stupid godsforsaken tail! Stupid godsforsaken foliage! Gah! There'd be nothing like that in a decent city, on a rooftop job....

She whirled, rock at the ready, aimed in the direction of the rustling. If that wasn't a dead giveaway, then Ariadne didn't know what was. She wasn't the type to taunt, thankfully - unlike some of the other Tributes she'd come across, who seemed more eager to wax on like evil villains in terrible movies than anything else - but she narrowed her eyes as they fell on Neeshka finally.

"Why are you hiding up there?" Ariadne asked, deciding to give the other Tribute a moment of time to determine her own fate.

Well, now she was down to two options. Attack, or try to talk. Neeshka didn't like the way she held that rock-- or that spear, for that matter-- so she decided on talk. There wasn't much surprise left, anyway. She gave up on hiding and stuck her head out of the leaves entirely, horns and all. She called down in answer, "Because I'm not stupid and I don't want to get dead!"

What did Ariadne expect? Neeshka was a rogue, not a fighter!

"Then why aren't you hiding better?"

No one could ever say Ariadne was known for her tact. She hefted the rock in one hand, testing its weight though she knew it already as well as that of her totem, still in her jacket back in the Capitol, waiting to be checked upon arrival. Sometimes she thought this might be some kind of limbo, that she was slowly turning into Mal.

"Most Tributes attack first and ask questions later," she continued.

"Which was why I was hiding," Neeshka huffed. "So, you know, less of the attacking part!" She was offended at the insult, regardless of whether or not she had been hiding well, and glared down at Ariadne. She was a thief, and the best one in Neverwinter at that, and this little girl-- or however old she was; Neeshka couldn't tell from this distance-- was questioning that! She'd show her! ... somehow!

Annoyed enough now to not worry about her perch, she started climbing down. It wasn't like it was doing her any good, anyway.

"I meant that most of them would have killed you by now. The moment they realised you were there," she stated, tossing her rock up in the air and catching it. A subtle sort of threat that she hoped Neeshka would heed. Not that she was discounting the idea of killing her, particularly not since the other woman was now climbing down.

Really, that would just give her a better shot at catching her with one singular blow.

Jumping the last few feet, and straightening with one hand held up ready to block a throw, Neeshka pointed out flatly, "And you haven't. Are you not killing me just to make fun of me for a while, first? Am I allowed to run away now?" She'd take the running away part, if she had to. Even if she was bored to tears and sick of coconuts, that didn't mean she really wanted to die. "Or do you want to get on with it?"

Neeshka wasn't the best at a straight-on fight, but this gal didn't look any stronger than she was, and Neeshka was fast. Maybe she'd stand a chance.

Ariadne didn't bother answering the question. The moment Neeshka's feet hit the ground, she threw the rock with as much strength as she could get behind it. A sort of cheap attack, but she didn't really care. A Tribute running away could just as easily be a Tribute that came back and killed her and Don in their sleep. She was just protecting her own at this point.

Since she was half-expecting that, Neeshka did have her arm in place so she didn't get the rock on the head, like Ariadne was probably aiming for. It did give her arm a good whack, though, and she yelped, shaking her hand vigorously and glaring. "All right, so you want to get on with it. Fine, then."

She used her other hand to pull her dagger, and without further warning than that, she sprang.

Her spear was up in a flash, the moment the rock left her hand; she didn't doubt for a moment that it would be that easy, not here, not now. Neeshka had lived as long as she did for a reason, but so had Ariadne. And this time around, it wasn't because of her allies.

Assuming Neeshka sprang close enough to her, Ariadne would be able to bring the spear straight up, hopefully piercing the other woman's belly. Of course, the proximity would probably mean she took a blow of her own, probably on her arms, depending on where Neeshka was aiming. Her torso was protected, thankfully; she wasn't in danger of dying right now.

Spears were unweildy in general, but Neeshka had been living off of coconuts, fish, and occasionally chewed leaves for the past week, plus she was pissed and in motion. She twisted in an attempt to avoid the big weapon, managing not to skewer herself, but she did get a nice gash right across the side from the sharpened bone tip. That was going to be trouble, right there, especially since it immediately started pumping dark blood against her dirty uniform.

She, of course, was aiming for the throat, but wasn't likely to hit with that dodge in there. Maybe a shoulder, instead: she'd take what she could get.

Good enough for her. An injury like that couldn't be nice; it would sting and doubtless slow Neeshka down considerably in the fight to come. Ariadne was banking on it.

The other woman's weapon caught her shoulder in a skimming motion, slashing her sleeve open and catching the skin beneath, blood already welling up red. It went unnoticed and unheeded as Ariadne turned the spear in her hands, rotating on the balls of her feet to try and dance aside, thrusting the spear in Neeshka's direction for another potential blow aimed for her stomach again. The chest might have been a better bet, but Ariadne wasn't sure she could get a solid blow strong enough to impale. Better to aim for the soft flesh instead.

It would do more than sting, considering Ariadne had gotten a good artery, there. If she'd had time to tend it, she'd have been all right in the end, but whether or not she could get away to tend it was another story entirely. For now, Neeshka tried to stuff her free hand into the cloth there, to staunch it, and jumped clumsily back from the second swipe. That was the lucky thing with spears: they were big and clunky, especially when weilded by girls no bigger than Neeshka herself was.

"We could just call it a draw!" she suggested breathlessly, aiming a kick at the spear's shaft to try and knock it aside, maybe damage it. "I'll totally run away and let somebody else kill me, if you'd rather!" Not that she expected that would work. But she couldn't help trying.

And that was the exact reason Ariadne had wanted one of the machetes instead, or a stone knife. Something that allowed her to use her size and speed to the fullest. But she couldn't knock having gotten something when she remembered vividly the way some of the Tributes tried and failed to get anything at all; they were lucky to get away with their lives.

She instinctively lifted the spear to block the kick, grasping it near the base and the tip; it cracked beneath the blow, and Ariadne winced at the loss of her best weapon. Never mind that they had others back at the camp; this was the one she was used to. Ignoring Neeshka's response to her, the petite brunette hastily snapped the spear's shaft the rest of the way over one knee, lunging at the other Tribute with the shortened spear, now slightly more manageable for this sort of combat.

"I'd rather not."

Well, that was a tactical error, wasn't it? Now Ariadne was a lot quicker. Neeshka tried to take advantage of the moment where she had to pause and break the end of the shaft off, but Ariadne was fast on the turn around, and while Neeshka's dagger was definitely in range of Ariadne's face, that half-spear's point was now buried in Neeshka's stomach-protecting arm.

She hadn't been thinking about Neeshka's dagger, catching a scratch to her face that wouldn't anything lethal, but certainly hurt like a bitch and bled like nothing else. Both of her hands were on her half-spear still, driving it into the flesh that the tip had found to further incapacitate. There was a wild sort of look in Ariadne's eyes, a drive to survive and actually get out of the Arenas for once.

A bit desperate herself, now, Neeshka flung herself back-- quite likely taking the spear with her, if Ariadne wasn't quick on the uptake and didn't leap with her. The bone point was stuck clean through her arm, and it was bleeding almost as copiously as her side, now, particularly as said arm tried to flail away at Ariadne to get her to back off, so it was no longer trying to staunch the first wound. Staying power in a fight was not Neeshka's strong point, and all she wanted right now was to get away before she passed out.

Not having seen the backwards move coming, she lost her grip on the spear, letting it go along with Neeshka; Ariadne stumbled a bit after the other woman, catching herself before she fell completely. She was without a weapon for the time being, but she knew there was plenty she could fashion something hastily out of.

Glancing around quickly, Ariadne moved around Neeshka - trying to block off the exit strategy - and ducked down to the ground to snatch up a nearby rock, larger than what she's usually used to. The goal was to take the other Tribute out immediately at this point, not drag it out. She rolled when she hit the ground, cradling the rock to her stomach when she obtained it, before shoving herself back up to her feet with a slow wobble.

It wasn't hard to keep an eye on where Ariadne went, considering all Neeshka cared about was getting away. And they were in the wide open forest; there were so many ways to escape it wasn't even funny. She just staggered around and tried to bolt the opposite direction from where Ariadne moved.

Of course, she wasn't going very fast given the blood loss so far and the thick jungle tripping her up half the time, and she wasn't stopping Ariadne from doing much of anything. With her back partly turned, the corner of one eye visible over one shoulder as the tiefling tried to make sure her assailant wasn't right on her tail, she was otherwise wide open for a strike.

One moment, she was rolling, retrieving that new 'weapon', and the next, she was on her feet. Kaidan's help in training her to use what she already had - rather than trying to make her fight like she was twice her own size. Ariadne was still surprised by her own drive to move so quickly, chasing after Neeshka with the absolute intent to just finish her off. She was right on the other Tribute's tail, but she was certainly close; not within arm's range, but enough to pose a threat. Leaping over a rogue root, she made up for lost time, landing virtually at Neeshka's side, moving to bring that rock down on her.

Neeshka tried to dodge aside when Ariadne appeared right there beside her, really she did. But even after a week in the jungle, she was still used to cobbled roads and dark alleyways, maybe a well-worn path or a rough-finished cave tunnel, not the tangle of leaves, vines, and roots she had to deal with here. Throw in the bloodloss, and she was just out of luck completely. She fumbled, flailed, and went down with a rock to the head.

She stumbled again, tripping over her own feet with the force of the blow. Neeshka fell, and Ariadne tripped around her, barely realising she had connected until she regained her own footing. Her heart was in her throat. But that kill was easier on her than some of the others. She was starting to get into a place that let her separate herself from the woman who killed so easily; it was probably a problem.

Not having heard the cannon fire yet, she dropped to her knees and delivered another hasty wallop to Neeshka's head with the rock held in both hands.

Stunned from the first hit, Neeshka was down for the count. All she could think, fuzzy and pained, as that rock descended for the second time was that she hoped Mask didn't laugh her right out of the afterlife for going down by tripping on foliage, of all things. Following the trickster god probably didn't make for the easiest afterlife homecomings.

Ariadne only sat back once she heard the cannon fire, distant and hollow sounding in her ears. It remained muffled by the sound of blood pounding, and she stared at the other Tribute a few long moments before finally letting her legs slide out from under her, letting her flop back against the cool ground, the rock tumbling from her hand to rest nearby. She was exhausted.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Deathrolled!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject