thearena | 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.

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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.

Deathrolled!

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