[TOURNAMENT] Prelims - Bahama vs. Grum

[Daemn K'rryl]

OoC: All Round 1 fights will be against NPCs, so we can make this thing last longer .

The fighting spirit of the Riparians was not as strong as it had been on previous brightenings - for this day, the fourth of the tournament, was to see the last fight of the preliminary round, followed by a brightening of rest so the fighters could get their strength back for the next round. Thus, the eighth and final fight between Bahama the dracon and the unknown fighter known as Grum was not as populated as the others, as most had had enough of the regular rounds and were more looking forward to Round 2, when the wheat would be separated from the chaff.

That's not to say the stands were empty, though - just that it was not as crammed and jam-packed full of spectators as it had been on, say brightening one. The diehard fans were still there with bells on, and the beer wenches were still definately in circulation, but there were noticable holes in the stands.

This was not really a worry for Maeta and his comerades, as not only did they expect sales to pick up again in the next round but also the exhibition at yesterday's "halftime" had proved a huge crowd-puller. Who knew that seeing spectator after spectator fling themselves heedlessly into the pit to take on Goorg the Indestructible - a giant with a mean fighting streak - would prove so popular? It had been a challenge thrown out by Goorg himself, unknown to the officials who had just planned to dump water humerously onto the unsuspecting victims of the stands. But no, that hulking mountain of muscle had claimed himself unbeatable, and had wagered a precious and breathtaking necklace of pure mythril to any who could floor him. Of course, none stood a chance, but the line to get in had been backed up around the street...

But now, after the initial frenzied energy of the tournament, things were at a lull. This mattered not to Bahama Turner the dracon, who was slated this afternoon to fight someone called Grum. He entered the ring, recieving a quick caution about his talons and how they were not under any circumstances to be employed. The referee came into the ring to some desultory applause, giving the standard pre-fight caution about arcana and spectators interfering with the matches, before introducing the fighters.

[b]"Laaaaaadies and gentlemeeeeeeen... in the East corner, covered in scales and fangs but still legal, weighing it at one hundred and sixty pounds... Bahaaaaaamaaaa Turneeeeeeeer!" Cheers came for the dracon as Bahama stepped forward while the ref continued. "Aaaaaaaand in the West corner, the so-called whirlwind of destruction, the self-titled relentless fighting machine, weighing in at-" here he stopped, glaring at his reference sheet as though it had personally offended him, then glanced quickly up at Maeta in the judges stands who gave him a quick and almost imperceptible nod. Shrugging, he continued, "at the astounding mass of six and a half pounds... Gruuuuuum!"

The crowd did not cheer - there were a few claps from those who weren't really listening that were stifled when they realised that no-one was joining in, but everyone was staring open-mouthed at the West corner. For all of a sudden Grum had appeared, bouncing up and down on his hairy feet, fists balled and punching the air energetically. He sneered at Bahama, taunting the dracon with some rude gestures. "C'mon, hyeeeeh, let's see what ya got, eh?"

Grum was a gnome, barely five inches high.

The referee shrugged, leading the dracon back to his corner and making no move to protest this occurence. Bahama was left on his own as the ref strode back into the centre to call the match on.

Ding!

[Bahama Turner]

The young Dracon had been building himself up for the tournament, the regular exercise and upkeep building up for the upcoming match had seen him dedicate himself physically so he would be in physical prime before he entered this fight.

When matches were revealed to him he found himself last on the roster, unfortunate, being last meant that he had the lest break before engaging in a new round, hopefully his first fight wouldn’t be like the one that had happened between the orcs, they had managed to make a right mess of each other, but for now all he knew was that his opponents name was Grum and that seemed to be all anyone knew about the fighter.

The match couldn’t have came soon enough for Bahama, eager to get into ring again the brightenings dragging on. Eventually match time was finally here. For the fight he had stuck to practical clothing, wearing pants, having discarded his shirt with the other belongings that would not be permitted in this fight. Finding himself warming up as the pre-match routine went on, and after being chided about his talons and not using them to leave a lasting impression on his opponent, to which “Fair enough.” was the limit of his response, he doubted the ref wanted to hear much more as he seemed eager to get into the centre of the ring and do what he did best in heralding the upcoming match, on cue he steeped forward, having just being introduced to the crowd, giving the mob a raised hand in gesture of acknowledging the mass, as the ref moved to what should have been the conclusion to introducing the next fighter, only to suddenly pause, looking almost insulted as he glanced up, Bahama followed his fleeting look, recognising Maeta, who gestured nothing was wrong, the ref content to continue.

It was fair to say Bahama was shocked, he had to do a double take on what entered the arena before him, a gnome was to be his first opponent, disbelief overwhelmed him, the insults barley registering on the young Dracon who was glaring profusely at Maeta, he was only just short of taking this as some sort of staged insult until he remembered this was a random draw, looking back at the referee who had a adopted a mask of professionalism, finally looking over at his opponent who at the same time had given the young dracon a hand gesture that while miniature in size, was clearly out to insult.

*Ding* The match was on...He didn’t believe this.

How was he going to do this? He wasn’t going to go over there and belt up something that literally came up to his ankle, that would go down about as well as beating up an infant, an ill mannered infant yes, but that didn’t count for much, Maeta seemed content to let this fiasco happen, the little guy defiantly had the fighting sprit and looking at the little tacker’s attitude and the latest gesture the gnome offered, Bahama was wary about protecting certain vital locations of his body. But quite frankly he didn‘t want this thing to last long enough for that to happen.

Pending the gnome didn’t attempt to assault him and was content to continue his insults, Bahama walked over to the gnome, squatting, the right side of his body facing the irate gnome, now about his arms reach of the creature, listening to a final bout of insults, before making a lightning fast grab for the creature with his right hand. Shaasskah focused an fast attacks and this one was not going to be an exception, his taloned hands were opened, his goal to grab the little bugger, pin him to the ground, going for the submission count. he didn’t want to prolong this and he was happy to take a few bites to the hand to get this over with, the physical conditioning he had put them through would hopefully be more than what this thing could put out.

If the gnome's physical fierceness matched its attitude and he was the one who pre-empted an attack on the dracon, Bahama would still attempt the same thing, when the chance arose, lash out with his arm in an attempt to grab the small creature, pin it to the ground and go for a submission count.

The only concern that the young dracon had going in the back of his head was why would Maeta allow this to happen, he had a sudden bad feeling this gnome had more than boorish behaviour up its sleeve, unfortunately he had no idea what that could be, either way he would have to wait to find out to see if this was pessimistic behaviour or something more.

[Daemn K'rryl]

The crowd's noise bore up again in full swing, though this time it was markedly different to the normal frenzied cheers. Now they were screams of rage, disgust, confusion and anguish; no-one had come here to see a pint-sized wannabe get his arse kicked. Bahama could do literally that, just walk over and boot the gnome into the walls, should the desire come upon him; but no, the uncertainty was registered on the dracon's features as well, and the action stalled. This was chaos.

Grum jumped and bounded around the dracon, throwing shadow punches while keeping up a steady stream of insults. Even on his highest jump he did not reach Bahama's kneees, which infuruated the crowd to no end. Cries and threats were being hurled at Maeta for organising this farce, and to the ref to stop the insult now. However, the man in the black-and-white-striped tunic merely stood stolidy watching for unfair play, as he was being paied to do, though in truth he felt the whole thing was unfair to begin with.

Shrugging to himself, Bahama squatted near the gnome, peering closely at it. Grum bounded forward and kicked him hard on the shin - the impact was like being hit by a lazily-thrown chestnut. The tiny creature seemed completely incapable of hurting the dracon, so Bahama decided to try and end it now. Reaching out, he neatly squashed Grum under his scaled palm, holding the struggling figure down just enough to keep him pinned. The ref quickly crossed over and began the count.

"1!" the submission ring-out was 10, and it had begun only eleven seconds into the match. This was a disgrace.

Underneath Bahama's taloned paw, Grum squirmed and raged. "Gerroff me ya bastard, cummon, leggo I, fight like a man!" Ignoring the insults and the weakly flailing fists and feet, the dracon merely tightened the pressure on the gnome. Freeing a tiny hand, Grum managed to grab a scaly finger and bite down hard on it, actually drawing out a small pinprick of blood but nothing truly painful.

"4!"

By now the gnome was going insane, shaking violently and thrashing with all his might. It was strange, Bahama thought, that the body underneath him seemed to be getting bigger...

"7... what the..."

The crowd shrieked and cried as Grum erupted underneath Bahama's claws, swelling and growing rapidly in size. Within a second, the dracon was no longer able to keep Grum pinned, as he had incredibly stretched and inflated to a properly-proportioned nine feet tall. Jumping to his feet as Bahama backed away in shock, he crouched bestially and beckoned the dracon over. "Cummon ya bastard, try and pin me now..." his voice boomed, about four octaves lower than a normal human voice. The crowd almost launched themselves into the ring in rage but were restrained by officials. The ref came and stood in front of Grum, holding him back from Bahama as he yelled out to the mage-referees, who shook their heads. This was not arcana, it was simply a racial trait that was so rare it seemed that everyone had forgotten about it. A gnome expert would have seen Grum to be a korrigan: those with the incredible ability to grow up to ten feet tall for short periods of time when enraged. It wasn't traditional arcana, and thus it was wholly legal, but it still made a few members of the crowd more than a little cheesed, who tried throwing things at Grum.

The fight, it seemed, was being allowed to continue, and after the crowd was properly restrained the ref cleared the ring in order to let the combatants engage again. Grum laughed aloud, rampaging across the hard earth and unleashing a devastating right straight while still moving, his entire weight concentrating on the blow. It was enough to split tiles, had they been in the way...

[Bahama Turner]

This was an embarrassment. As the Gnome danced around him Bahama could only stare in disbelief, Grum kept going on like a five year old on a temper tantrum, only Grum was about two to three feet shorter than the average five year old. When he coped the kick in the shins, he again stared up at Maeta, his rage was similar to the level that was displayed by the gnome his eyes glaring venomously at the organiser of the match. His gesture however was almost pleasant compared to the crowd who were almost in riot about the situation.

If Maeta wasn’t going to finish it, he would. Like he had originally thought he pinned the Gnome on the ground, which only generated more insult from the creature squirming underneath, finally the referee could legally do something to call the fight by counting the Gnome out. All was going great until the young Dracon could swear that the Gnome was pushing him back, looking at his hand, Grum was no longer in his grasp, he was growing rapidly. Bahama instantly suspecting Arcana, backing away, happy to let the Mages detect it and the guards deal with it, even with the submission count gone the Gnome had clearly cheated.

But of course nothing of the sort was happening…

The mages gave the negatory to Arcana being used, this was something natural, the crowd didn’t care if this was a natural ability of the gnome or not, it looked magical to them and they roared their protest, outraged to the point where they almost threw themselves into the fray, the guards holding them back, the match was going to continue and Grum didn’t look all too impressed that he had been grinded into the ground, Bahama clearly the creature he wanted his revenge on.

As the Gnome kept his verbal assault going, now a boom instead of the quieter tones, the dracon’s physique had totally changed, now in a fighting stance, his left leg taking point his right going off slightly to the side, bending low and ready to move, his tail tense behind him helping to keep his balance, his left arm going across his chest his right hand trailing down beside his thigh, his hand tensely flexing his anger because he was part of a circus and not a regular fight was making him irate. His facial features were showing his disgust too, a clear snarl ran across his jaw line as the match was given the go ahead. The Korrigan laughed again before charging, preparing to unleash a devastating right hander from his 9 foot frame, Bahama doubted that Grum weighed 6 pounds anymore…

At least Grums brain didn’t appear to have gotten any bigger, Ironically a gnome was going to use his weight to beat his opponent, but Bahama was a fighter and his new goal in life was to beat the Gnome into submission, not through blind rage, he was going to do this with his head screwed on. As the Gnome came at him, Grum’s right fist primed to remove Bahama’s head from his shoulders, Bahama planned his own attack.

He wouldn’t move from his spot, allowing Grum a straight charge, he wanted Grum overextending himself, his pose altered however, now leaning very forward his legs digging into the ground as he prepared to launch forward. As Grum would swing Bahama would spring forward aiming for his body to go just to the left of Grum’s left leg, but as the Dracon leapt forward, his upper right leg would be sticking out, he was aiming to strike Grum’s left knee with his thigh, his objective was to make Grum’s joint go in a direction it’s not meant too, Bahama’s theory was if Grum was punching with his right hand his left leg should be supporting the weight and if he pulled this attack off, he might be able to deal some significant damage to the oversized Gnome.

Bahama had amazingly lost his height and weight advantage to a gnome, now he would have to keep thinking on his toes and use his head to win this fight, as long as Grum didn’t put too much thought into this brawl, convinced that bigger is better, Bahama might just in fact wake up tomorrow in one piece. However he could think of a few other situations he could be in where he was more likely to be alive the next day.

[Daemn K'rryl]

The formerly enraged crowd began to subside a little as events progressed - indeed, the fickle mob was now cheering this fight. They seemed to have realised that, arcana or not, Grum's transformation had thrown an entirely new light on the meaning of "entertainment". Not only were those present witness to a rare and astonishing visual extravaganza at Grum's new appearance, they also began to see that now that the gnome was about nine feet tall he could throw a hefty punch. In fact, now the crowd - so recently baying for Grum's blood - were roaring their approval at the prospect of seeing a hapless dracon get his arse walloped by a gnome. It would be something to tell the grandkids, that was for certain.

Grum came belting in to Bahama fist-first, throwing the entirety of his weight into a crushing blow powerful enough to drive a nose right through one's head. One thing was certain - unless Bahama got himself out of the way in time he could be dead in the next few seconds. Fortunately for the dracon he had a level head and some training and experience in unarmed combat, and thus did not stall, panic or hesitate as most would have done; instead, he launched himself towards the foe with a flying dive-cum-kick to the gnome's knee. Unfortunately such a move was difficult to aim, and while the evasive maneuver was successful the added kick was noticibly less so. While it managed to connect with Grum's leg, it hit him on the shin rather than the knee.

The after-effect was two-fold - Grum, already over-balanced due to the brutal momentum his punch had behind it, had his favoured leg swept from underneath him, and the gnome tripped forward heavily. He landed flat on his stomach, slightly winded and confused. As for Bahama, he had gone spinning wildly as his leg caught Grum's, and what should have been a neat dive turned into a sort of crumple, with the dracon landing painfully on his right wing. As he picked himself up a little dazedly, he checked to make sure everything was OK - nothing was broken, but his wing ached a little. He looked up to see Grum back on his feet and launching his next attack.

One thing was obvious - the resized gnome was not a strategic fighter. Now that he had the height and weight advantage his aim was just to utilise them both to crush his opponent bodily. He jumped into the air, arms stretched towards Bahama in an effort to bear the dracon to the ground.

[Bahama Turner]

The crowd was indeed fickle, but they weren’t here for a fair fight but entertainment, and it looked like they would get it. Bahama’s attempt to end the fight fast had failed but his head was still on his shoulders, Grum was flat on his face, but the young dracon had spiralled out of control, his leg not connecting where he had intended, his wing smashing into something during the tumble jarring it and sending a jolt of pain through the Dracon, between the uncontrolled roll and the unexpected pain his vision gave a confused whirl as he rose to face Grum whose extra bulk appeared to be no problem to him, already rising and ready for more action. At least the scathing comments had left for the time being.

No sooner had Bahama got his feet again was Grum running and leaping into the air ready to attempt a type of body slam, simple but effective if all that mass that was Grum landed on him, his throbbing wing would be the least of his issues, again he would attempt to use the oversized gnomes weight to his advantage, however this time he wanted to stay out of Grum’s way, again getting himself in a position to spring away.

As Grum committed himself to the leap, Bahama leapt to his right, with Grum in the air there was not much he would be able to do once he was airborne.

Bahama’s plan was straight forward, he figured a one hit knockout would be out of the question, he had to make the little, recently become big guy run out of steam, slowly work him down, maybe this transformation was only a short term thing, he had never really heard about 9 foot gnomes before, and if you actually had the choice to be 5 inches or 9 feet, the option to him was a fairly easy guess.

However the was neither here nor there, what was however, would be the fact that he was attempting to land on his right hand side of Grum and as Grum hopefully landed, hopefully as clumsy as he had been previously been acting, Bahama might just get off his latest attack. Putting his weight on his left foot the young Dracon brought his right foot around, this time a more practiced shot aimed at the back of Grum’s leg, if it connected the Gnome should fall to that knee. bringing down his right foot to the ground the young Dracon would waste no time to deliver an attack with an opened palmed punch at what should be the back of Grum’s head and after connecting bringing back his hand and with a now closed fist into Grum’s back to where his kidneys should be if a gnomes physiology held them where the average human would.

However that would be more than enough for one encounter, hopefully he could deliver the combo before the Gnome could react, after delivering the kidney punch he would use his footing to leap backwards and hopefully away from any hap hazardous flails Grum might offer as resistance by this time, now intentionally keeping his distance waiting for another opportunity to arise.

[Maddyn]

It was an interesting series of events and one that led towards a situation that was to once more create a series of cheers from the crowd of onlooking spectators. They were after all fickle and the only real care from the majority of people other than getting the most entertainment out of this spectacle was those who'd actually bothered to lay wagers on this particular fight. Which hadn't been very many at all given the lack of prominent names from the compeditors.

Rushing forwards to bear hug the smaller Dracon, it wasn't all that hard for Bahama to break line to the side and avoid the Gnome's assult. Counter attacking with a kick towards the back of Grum's leg however was something of a double edged sword given the reach Grum had in his enlargened state of being. Impacting solidly with Grum's leg, and with no chance of being able to 'check' the kick properly given the angle the Gnome gasped in pain as his leg twisted inwards from the impact. Grum's body automatically compensating for the lack of balance by twisting his upper body to the side and towards Bahama given the series of movements.

Continuing the combination though wasn't quite possible however as Bahama was to find out as while Grum was rather uncoordinated in his current state one couldn't deny that the Gnome had a rather impressive reach. Bringing his hands closer to his body now that the bear hug had failed, the strike was a mixture of an inner block and a rather unconventional backfist aimed directly at Bahama as Grum twisted his body. Unbalanced still and subject to this yet again being abused, Grum's fist impacted nearly using the back of his knuckles against the side of Bahama's head. Not hard enough to cause unconciousness or anything delibitating, but then being hit in the head was rarely considered a pleasant matter anyway.

OOC:
I'll be continuing things given Daemn's a little busy.

Cheers, Maddyn

[Bahama Turner]

As the white spots danced in front of his eyes, slowly clearing to the side of his vision he realised while not a particularly good fighter, Grum had a lot of vital advantages. He had acknowledged the extra weight, height and strength of his opponent but had underestimated something as simple as flailing. Keeping his distance blinking the last spots from the front of his eyes it dawned on him that if an accidental slap to the back of the head felt like that, he had doubts how many aimed hits he could take from the colossal Gnome.

Well he would have to just not let Grum to get such a chance, he would have to think like that if he had a chance to win.

Maybe it was the blow to the head, or perhaps what had just transpired but Bahama decided that he didn’t want to keep trying to foil Grum’s attempts to trample him or squeeze the life from him. From his position he would take the fight to Grum, however he would have to be slightly more creative than the attacks Grum’s bulk would allow him to get away with. His first attempts had been focused on bringing Grum down to his level, with that plan gone south he was going to aim higher, if for any reason it was to mix up his fight a bit.

Instead of waiting for Grum to charge he made the move to close the gap between himself and Grum’s head, springing off from his position he closed in fast on the Gnome, he didn’t know how the giant Gnome had taken the hit to the knee but hopefully it had left Grum Hunched, depending on how Grum was positioned but he was aiming to get a haymaker style shot to Grum’s head. The Dracon’s preferred angle of attack would be to come in from the side where he had landed the kick then jump to get the required height to smack Grum in the face. If that angle of attack clearly didn’t look like a good idea he would look for any gap or opportunity to get a hit on Grum’s head.

Going through this exercise he knew he had to remain calm, looking at the fight logically and so far his angle of attack hadn’t worked, now was the chance to see how he reacted to different attacks.