Not My Best Idea

OoC: Reserved for brokenjoker.

BiC:
It was so smoky in the room, the people that weren’t smoking might as well have been. The drunk crowed cheered wildly at the two fighters inside the cage, occasionally falling/getting pushed off the balcony in their senseless commotion.

The sound of fist against face rang out, followed by yells of encore. The two large brawlers roared as they pounded away at each other, both to stubborn to stay down. Fights broke out at random and dancers danced on the tables as the chaos ensued on through the night.

“How much money’s in the pile?”

“What you say?” Asked a tipsy gruff man. He looked around to see a red shirt. He then looked up to see the tall young mans face. He looked quite out of place with his obvious non-drunkenness.

“I said, how much money’s in the pile?”

“Ha! Whhhy.. you wanna know, boy? You think you can take on the Champ?! Hic!” He retorted, poking the kid in the chest with his stubby finger.

“Well... yeah.” J replied with a smirk. The older man barked a laugh and slammed his hand down and the boys shoulder, almost causing the boy’s knees to buckle.

“You’re a real... fffunny kid, lad. The pots worth over 500 bones! Hic!” after that, the man wouldn’t stop laughing. J raised his eyebrows in surprise. That was much more then he thought they’d have for such an unorganized cage fight. The alcohol must have made their wallets do stupid things.

A ding rang out as one of the bodies finally hit the floor for the last time. This startled the announcer out of his laughing fit. He let out a booming cough before pulling himself up on the table in front of him. “And the champion stands still! Get that greasy weakling out of the cage boys! I’ve got the next contestant right here!!!” The gruff man giggled to himself and leaned down to put his face in front of the tall young mans. “Whaz you name, lad?”

“They call me J.”

“Josepheeeene the puny!!!” The man bellowed, pulling J up onto the table with him. The cage door slammed open and the unconscious man was dragged away. The leather skinned steroids sailor remained.

Clapping his fist into his open palm, he barked a laugh and stomped his feet. “Like squashing a bug!!!”

J rolled his eyes and tried to ignore all the people who were laughing at him, which was pretty much everyone. “Well what’re ya wait’n f’r, lad. You’ve got a death wish don’tcha?! Go on and make your wishes come true!” This was followed by another fit of booming laughter. J was then shoved roughly into the metal gate and the iron door slammed shut behind him. He mumbled to himself about being treated like this. He could probably wipe the floor of the entire tavern if he wanted to, but he suspected they would be less willing to pay him if he materialized his armor now. Probably think he was a demon of some kind and grab their torches and pitchforks. Or beer.

The undefeated champion downed a few bottles of rum the bar maids were pouring in through the cage walls into his mouth and roared obnoxiously for the entertainment of the crowed. The brown haired boy stood and brushed himself off, waiting for the brawler to finally get things started.

“Oi, this is ganna be over in two seconds!!” He bellowed as he turned and flexed his muscles at the tall kid. J closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. This idiocy was starting to give him a headache. All of the sudden, the brawler rushed forward, elbow extended to floor the kid. There was a small red glow on the young mans face as the muscular arm was deflected, and then a red blur as J struck the man on the side of the head with his forearm, sending him face first into the opposite cage wall in the blink of an eye. The large brawlers’ body went limp but his head remained imposed on the metal links of the wall. The entire bar went silent, which was a miracle in and of itself.

What the crowed had failed to notice was the young man had actually materialized armor on a section of his body for a brief second to both defend against the attack, and to knock his opponent unconscious.

“Zzb, duba...” the announcer stuttered, looking closely for any sign that his champion would be waking up any time soon. J merely scratched his head, sighed, looked around, and waited for someone to declare him the winner.

“I... I... Tha...” the announcer hit himself on the head, and when he was finally convinced that what he was seeing was in fact reality, he turned to the crowed and threw up his arms. “We-we have a winner!” He looked around the room nervously in hopes of a positive reaction. He received the opposite. The bar erupted into more chaos then there had been before, which was a tough act to follow.

“Gentlemen! Ladies! W-Who will take on the new champion!?” The announcer bellowed in hopes of giving the people what they wanted.

J slapped his forehead with his palmed. Ugh. This was not my best idea.

OoC: w00t! Let it be done. Bijou, I choose you! x3!

BiC:

The horrendous screams and shouts caught Bijou's attention and she turned towards the sound with a distorted face of confusion and curiosity. As she drew closer to the door, the atmosphere seemed to tense, and soon her lungs were burning and she soon started into a small coughing fit.

Ugh, not this again.

Bijou stepped through the threshold and the sound was deafening. She looked around at the haze of smoke, and the many mugs of beer that were being tossed up in, what appeared to be, bitter protest. Something was going on that the majority of this group didn't agree with, and Bijou's eye scanned the area hoping to find out. Just then her eyes landed.

The cage was miserably small and reminded her of illegal dog fighting. Inside of stood a robust and tall man, who looked as though he was barely in his early twenties. Oh my, what's this kid got himself into?

All around her, Bijou could hear belches of ale, and could smell the vile body aroma and the sweat that seemed to be dripping off these men that occupied the fight scene and seemed to so strongly protest against the latest victory, or so it seemed. The announcer bellowed out a few words, "Who wants to t-take on the n-new champion!?"

Bijou hardly hesitated and walked up to the caged prison, looking up at the announcer with bright joyful eyes, "I will!"

The announcer looked around with surprise at the new voice. “Y-you???” He blinked at the young woman with the brown locks. “HA! You want to try your luck with the lad?” He asked, jerking his thumb at the boy in the cage. Bijuu nodded happily and wiped some spit off her face.

“A woman!” came the yell of one drunken fool. “Let’er fight ‘im!” This was met with a surprisingly harmonized yell of approval from a bunch of other drunkards. The announcer man giggled a little to himself, glad that something to appease the crowed had come along so soon. “Well you’re in luck, little lady. Turns out you’re just what we were looking for.”

Uuuuh... That’s... not...

... cool...

J frowned at the situation. Now he was going to have to beat up a girl for some money. That just didn’t sit well with him no matter how he spun it.

The young man watched idly as the cage door was opened and the former champion’s limp body was dragged out. He tried to get one of the men’s attention, tell them that he didn’t like where this was headed, but no one was paying attention to him anymore.

“In you go, little lady.” The gruff man said as he pushed her into the cage. She nearly lost balance, but stayed on her feet.

“Uh... I...” J scratched the back of his head, not entirely sure what to do next.

Bijou bit her tongue hard, trying not to lash out in a fiery wave of insults at the man for shoving her into the caged box, like she was some kind of dog, doing some unwanted traveling. The nerve of some people.

The cage door slammed barely giving her anytime to get out of the way, and a loud yelp into the mic sent a shock of pain through one of Bijou's ears to the next. This guy was a total jerk, and Bijou had plans to lay it on him after she was done with whomever this challenger was.

Speaking of challenger, Bijou turned to face her opponent. It was something she was used to; it was kind of her religion. It kept her going, gave her something to look forward too, and gave her a set of morals - whatever they were. She looked at the nervous glances the man was giving every which way. His nervous stance wasn't soaked with fear, but rather, what looked to be, a very deep feeling of uncomfort. Bijou had a strong feeling that the guy she was about to wipe the floor with wasn't really fond of throwing a fist in the general direction of a female.

"Don't be a pansy." Bijou called over to him, over the ranting crowds, "I don't fight like a girl."

Under certain circumstances, J wouldn’t have minded hitting a girl, like if he knew she could take it, or if it weren’t for money. He actually found it just odd when a man was too much of a gentleman to hit a girl... no matter what, but in any case, it didn’t look like he was getting out of this.

“Don't be a pansy. I don't fight like a girl.”

The crowed cheered at this and some of them fell silent to hear the young mans rebuttal. J frowned slightly and shrugged. There was no point dragging it out. The girl knew what she was in for when she decided to join a cage match in the middle of a bar full of drunken ruffians.

“Okay...” He said, as if making sure she wanted to go through with it. “Um... Sorry about this.” He then dashed forward, surrounded his right arm in metallic armor and took a swing at her head, making sure to pull his punch enough to not break her skull. He then dematerialized the armor again, moving so fast that an unaided eye would have only caught sight of a red blur.

To J’s amazement, however, the girl had dodged the punch completely. She was either extremely lucky, or wasn’t extremely human. The crowed made loud ‘Woooo!’ noises.

Through a lock of black hair, J caught sight of what appeared to be an unnaturally pointed ear. So she was an elf! It made sense now, what with the strange... yet, not bad looking... garb she wore. The young man smirked a little and held his fists at the ready as he took a few steps around his opponent. This could actually turn out to be pretty fun.

“Girls first.”

Bijou's chain mail rattled together as her body contorted to dodge the punch of the young man, that came a fearful speed. A lump rose to her throat and Bijou suddenly thought that this man wasn't going to be like the dozen of other drunken and incoherent men that were outside of the caged box throwing up their slurred insults and rare cheers. Her blood began to course through her vains, in undeniable excitement. It was about time she was faced with a challenge. This was going to be fun.

"Girls first."

Amusing; she was going to get dinner and a show. A smile danced across her face, from ear to ear, and she unsheathed her sword - the veteran that it was, and held it out at a 45 degree angle in front of her, her fingers tightening around the handle, the leather gloves squeaking in protest. Bijou caught the small glimpse of something appearing and then quickly dissipating from the young man's body as he made a retreat from his previous attack and she was curious as to what that was.

"You like fire, friend?" Bijou snapped her lips together, making a quick sound, and then proceeded to blow transparent flame from her mouth alongside the blade, engulfing it in a light red glow. You could tell the fire was there, but it wasn't appearing as though Bijou grabbed the blade from Diablo's Gates.

She brought her blade behind her, every inch of muscle attached to her body flexed, ready to sprite; and Bijou did just that. She dashed towards the young man with a quirky speed and used as much upper body strength that she could muster and pulled the sword in a semi circle towards the young man's shoulder. Upon contact, Bijou heard a dull thud and she felt the blade quiver in her hands - What was this boy made of? Steel?

Flaming sword. That was cool. It came unnaturally fast. That was not so cool. The tall man was barely able to activate his armor in time, just over his chest and shoulder. He then quickly materialized the metallic armor and silver claw over his left hand and pushed the blade away and dissipated the armor again as fast as possible, but maybe not fast enough. Chances were he’d have to show off the entire suit pretty soon, but he’d leave his opponent guessing until there was no point in hiding it anymore.

The flames from the sword had singed his face slightly, and eaten a little through his armor, but it was hardly a problem. J couldn’t help but smile slightly as he took a step forward and cast a silver blur as he swiped his claw at her, but the pointed eared girl leaned out of the way again, spinning with speed and grace as she brought her sword around to meet his ribs.

Without his armor fully activated, J couldn’t hope to dodge against the woman’s inhuman speed. The sword seemed to bounce off a barrier an inch before hitting him and J quickly countered with a sweeping kick. A metal boot (Or red blur, as far as the crowed was concerned) hit her thigh but she was quick to react and rolled with the blow, jumping to the side and bringing her blade in for another strike. The flaming sword came right for his neck as the boy attempted to lean out of the way. The weapon grazed his neck, the magical flames lapping harmfully at his flesh before he was able to cease the enchanted blades movement with his claw. The momentum of the attack, however, threw the brown haired young man back a little and off balance but he managed to plant a foot behind him and toss the sword back.

J didn’t bother deactivating the armor over his left arm this time and smirked as he took a step back, feeling his neck to assess the damage. There was a mildly deep cut that had been cauterized by the scalding flames, but he’d live.

“You like plasma... er, girly? Sorry, I don’t know your name yet.” J asked with a half smile as he held up his claw, blue sparks of plasma and electricity escaping the barrel as the cannon powered up. The plasma would most likely rip through the cage pretty easily, so he had to be careful where he pointed that thing, but it could still prove useful.

The boy clone crouched down suddenly, putting his metallic arm compressed against the ground before fully extending the arm, throwing himself into the air as he rained bolts of plasma down on the his female opponent.

Her breath burned through her lungs as her body rolled, jumped and dodged every which way she could manage to escape to. Her chest was heaving, signaling to her opponent and the crowd that she had a bit of a challenge on her hands - and it still sent waves of excitement through her. Her sword fell to her side, which was a mistake as the young man seemed to take the opportunity to send in an attack. The next image that slid into Bijou's mind was a flurry of colored plasma rain. She was slow to react and got clipped across the face, shoulders and arms. She brought her sword up to deflect the rest, but a few managed to escape and a sent a sensation of burning pain across her body.

It hurts, she admitted to herself.

The boy seemed to follow in suit to the plasma rain, and Bijou, quick to react this time, noticed the silhouette of him just in time. His armored arm - whatever it was made of - clashed with the burning blade of her weapon. She clenched her teeth, her jaw looked and she glared at him through a wolf like stare. Without prolonging the moment any longer, Bijou slipped the steel across his arm, using the young man's body to push off. She came around, her foot in the mid air and got the man square in the back, sending him face first to the ground.

She stood, limp, for a moment as the young man came to his feet. He seemed to wipe away a tinkle of blood from his mouth and contorted his body as if he was putting his back into place again. Bijou was breathing even more heavier than before. They both managed to pull some kind of pain from each other, which was a fair start.

The place shook with upset waves, and the atmosphere was far from quiet. It all seemed like damaged sound escaping from a useless, lost radio signal. Bijou paid no mind to the things around her, as she tried to steady her breathing.

Her mind suddenly clicked, and she smirked, "Oh, by the way, my name's Bijou."

The kick hurt quite a bit. He hadn't time to activate his armor against an attack that was moving too fast for him to acknowledge that he should activate it. He was getting a little careless, but that's what he gets for going easy. Wiping some blood from his lip and attempting to pop his back into place, his breathing slightly labored, J looked back to the female sword wielder. She was breathing quite heavily too and had some pretty bad looking scorch marks all over her body from the plasma barrage.

He didn’t necessarily want to underestimate her, but from the look of things, she was having a hard time keeping up and he hadn’t even activated his armor all the way. He hoped this wouldn’t be over too soon. It was just starting to get good.

The girl took a moment to catch her breath and smirked at the young man. "Oh, by the way, my name's Bijou."

"Gesundheit" J joked, sticking out his tongue at the lame joke. The tall boy then winced slightly and put a hand on his side, trying again to pop his back to make it less uncomfortable. The crowed yelled and booed as their entertainment ceased to be entertaining for a few seconds. Some of them tried to get the young mans attention and convince him that he was a cheater for having an armored arm he didn’t have when he walked into the cage. J ignored them and spoke over the noise.

“Mine name’s J.” He stated, flexing his claws slightly. “Sorry about your clothes, by the way. I hear smoldering holes don’t come out very easily.”

OoC: Tell me if I'm using your character too much. ^^;

---

"Heh." Bijou breathed, taking her final deep sigh, soothing her racing heart and tired lungs, "You're pretty funny, you know that."

J shrugged the comment off, but Bijou picked up on his slight smile, and even though she wanted so badly to send this guy into a galaxy of dizzy stars, she knew that she would be more than willing to shake his hand in new found friendship after it was all over - and he came crashing back to earth, in heaps of pain, "I like you."

With that being said, Bijou turned her body slightly brought her blade close to her face and got every inch of her muscles ready for a dive. She was going to get this guy, and get him good. She pushed the heels of her feet back and pushed off them, suddenly but effectively. She moved with speed, and came in with another swing of her sword, which was only deflected from J's armor, sending another vibrate wave through her blade. She knew already about this, of course, and continued slashing at him, though he dodged mostly every one, but she kept going and picked up on his heavy breathing - or was it her own?

Both of them pushed back and stared at each other with intensity, but that moment didn't last much longer, for J sent another blast of plasma in her direction, which she deflected to an extent, but got burned by the escapees. It was like both of them were stuck in a bubble sized world, totally ignorant of the sounds and things around them. It was as if the metal cage even ceased to exist. Bijou's skin crawled, for she couldn't remember the last time she was in this deep. It was nice.

Bijou's mind must've slipped, because the next thing she felt was a force of a thousand bricks going across her face. There was a stinging sensation reaching from her ear, across her jaw, to her mouth. Her hands fumbled, and her sword fell to the floor with a clank. Her hands immediately went up to her mouth as she felt the oozing of blood spreading throughout her mouth. J just punched her across the face. Lovely.

She swished her tongue around her own mouth, picking up the blood then spitting it to the crowds, it dividing as it hit the web of metal. She could still feel it coming, but that didn't matter anymore. It was going to take a bit more than a mouthful of blood to stop her.

"Damn it." Bijou cursed under her breath, looking feverishly for her sword, but was in vain as her head quickly turned to the image of J coming towards her at full speed. Her mind resorted to the quickest resolution it could muster, and Bijou unleashed a fury of fire like she had never before. It wasn't exactly third degree burn material, but hopefully it would stop J in his tracks. She felt her own skin crawling with intense heat waves, bringing beads of perspiration throughout her body, but she was only hoping it was effecting J tenfold.

"Burn, baby."

OoC: Not at all. It was a lovely post XP

That's it. He was activating his armor now.

The fireball came just as he was almost upon her, and he had barely time to react. A metal boot struck the ground hard as he attempted to change his direction at the last second, and threw his armored arms over his visor shielded face. The magical flames burned and scorched the metallic plating more then normal flames would have, eating away almost completely some areas of the leather like armor that covered his biceps, waist, and neck. J faltered from the unnatural pain that usually came from such magical attacks and ended up plowing into the cage wall behind his opponent.

“Ow, ow, ow..” He mumbled as he fidgeted from the pain. His armor was still smoking slightly.

Bijou turned to face him, it was obvious that her attack had taken a toll on her as well. “Love the tights.” She commented with a smirk, still breathing heavily.

J winced, partially from the physical pain, but mostly from the ego pain. Still, he couldn't help but snort at the comment. “You just... wish you looked this good.” he said as his visor slid open and he pulled himself back up to his feet.

The young man stood to his full height and rolled his shoulder. While he was still in a decent amount of pain, he could easily feel the added power that his fully equipped armor held. The surrounding crowed was hardly noticeable to the young man. All his attention was on the girl across from him. “No more foolen. It’s serious time.” he stated with a smirk.

J leaned forward suddenly and dashed forward with more speed then before. Bijou brought up the sword she had recovered and blocked the attack just in time. Locking his claw around her blade as she skidded backwards, J forced the weapon up where he pinned it against the chain link wall above her. The girl quickly blocked a punch with her forearm that came from J’s right hand and pulled her legs up to her chest, holding herself up with her sword as she kicked out with all her might. The air was pushed right out of his lungs as the armored man skidded backwards across the ring.

Bijou was quick on the follow up and clashed sword against metal before J had time to recover, knocking his arm out of the way as he attempted to block, and following it up with a powerful swipe to his chest, slamming him into the opposite wall. J winced and coughed as she had disallowed him to catch his breath. She held the blade against his chest, nearly cutting him to the skin, and dangerously close to one another.

“That’s just... rude, you know that?” The hazel eyed boy wheezed as he gripped her blade with his claw and her shoulder with his other hand. J smirked as he thought of the perfect one liner.

“Jest let me know if I’m going too fast.” With supernatural strength, J twisted her head over heels in a clockwise fashion, reeling her into two full cartwheels before delivering a powerful kick to her stomach that sent her bouncing off the chain link wall opposite.

Bijou hit the web of metal, pain seering through her stomach. It was almost like the kick had gone through her abdomen and she wrapped her arms around her stomach tightly, feeling no scarlet moist, but rather feeling as though her insides were slashed. Her forehead landed on the ground in front of her, and she whimpered. She regretted it fully, letting her opponent hear the pain escaping from her lips.

She was silent for a moment there after, her hands clenching painfully into fists, her teeth biting down into her lips. The pain was horrible, and it seemed to scream inside of her. The flames she seemed to spit out at J took a toll on her as well, and her joints and muscles felt deflated. She thought she'd never recover.

"Jest let me know if I'm going to fast."

He wasn't super human, but things about him were defiantly super natural. His speed must of over clocked Bijou's, sending her into a spinning world of burning pain, and yet more spilling of blood, even if it was internal. She lifted her head, and stared up at J with dark eyes. She moved her arms and another shot of stiff pain went through her. She learned to master her pain throughout the years, and lifted herself up, slowly, swaggering like the crowd of drunkards that surrounded the caged box. Her sword was beside her, and her tired fingers groaned in reply as she wrapped them around the handle. An ear slicing sound echoed from around the arena, as her blade dragged across the arena floor.

Bijou looked at J, her eyes tired, her breathing heavy, trying to fight the collection of blood forming in her body. It was bad to continue fighting when you had internal wounds, especially those which were inflicted by unnatural blows to the abdomen. Blood was forming in her mouth again, and she simply discarded it to the crowds, who howled in anger. She felt it dripping down her chin, but she didn't care.

"This time, it'll hurt." Bijou sighed, lifting up her sword. Her body didn't feel the same anymore. It was like she ignored it's aches and pain, and instead went full force like she was made of unstoppable diamond. She breathed across her smeared blade and an eruption of flames covered it, much more intense than the last time.

J took no minute to examine, but rather took the intuitive and ran towards Bijou, who met him halfway, slicing and slashing for all she was worth.

J was shocked to see that his attack had taken such a toll on his opponent, and even more shocked when she came at him moments later with such fire in her eyes, and on her sword. He admittedly felt bad for putting her in so much pain, but he knew that it was an unavoidable consequence of the duel. Still, this was just about the worst thing about having to fight a girl.

J leaned to the side quickly, dodging the first strike, and brought an arm up to guard against her blade as she quickly redirected the attack. The magical flames quickly ate through the armor, forcing J to slide his arm out of the way before her blade could get too deep. He stepped back and to the side but was forced to duck as the enchanted sword cleaved over his head. The hylian woman then delivered a poweful knee to the side of his head, causing the young man to falter but he managed to catch himself just in time to guard another strike from her searing blade.

"Yeesh." He cried as he withdrew his branded arm again and attempted to catch his barrings, but Bijou was already upon him, striking relentlessly. Pain and exhaustion were starting to take hold as he strained his mind and body to get out of the way of the flaming sword, no longer able to deflect the weapon for fear that he'd lose an arm in the process.

A deep cut spread across his abdomen as she had cornered him and delivered a powerful strike. J contorted his face in pain as he stumbled away from the next strike, narrowly avoiding the slash as it tore clean through the cage wall.

He couldn't let this go on too much longer, as he wasn't positive he could outlast her unbridled assault. It was time to pull out all the stops.

"Sorry..."

Thruster erupted from the souls of his boots and he rolled around her next attack, coming up on the other side of her and firing his grapple hook at Bijou from behind. The cable wrapped around her middle and he quickly spun in place, flinging Bijou back into the metal link wall. She seemed virtually immune to pain now as she quickly ripped her magical sword through the cable that held her, but J was already upon her.

Grabbing the enchanted sword with his right hand, he quickly ripped the blade from her grip, embedding the weapon in the ground as he spun around and slammed his left arm up under her chin, pinning the dark haired girl to the wall.

The soldier's chest heaved and blood dripped freely from multiple wounds across his body, his right hand rendered almost useless, and his head feeling light from the pain.

"Are... you done yet?" He asked through gasps of breathe, his eyes sincere.

Bijou's eyes were too busy moving along with her rapid swings of her sword, so she failed to notice just where she was hitting, but she knew that she had gotten J in a few soft spots, and started to draw the burning sensation of weariness from his body. They were entering an equal battle ground, and this gave Bijou a small hope that she might still have a chance in defeating this guy.

Their eyes met as Bijou felt his strong arm pin her up against the webbed steel. Both were grasping for breath, so no words were exchanged, but Bijou could tell that he was beginning to second think this battles outcome. The crowd, by this time was going berserk, feverishly throwing their empty mugs at the cage walls, rattling them. Bijou ignored the slithering pain that was making it's way from her toes to her head. She took no chance to let the young man recover, so she kicked him hard under the rib cage. She felt the painful temporary loss of breath, and his grip loosened. Bijou's feet hit the ground and she brought her shoulder into J's throat. He fell back a few feet, and Bijou brought her leg up and nailed him in the chest. His back hit the ground hard, and he lay, momentarily paralyzed.

The elven lady noticed her sword embedded into the ground, but didn't care for it anymore. She wasn't going to need it to finish this battle. The pain exploring her body fogged her eyesight, but she continued to move regardless. Faint flames of fire licked at her hands, arms, legs, and face as she bent down to pick J up, the pain striking her with a wave of dizziness. He was heavy, but she managed to pin him against the cage, where he previously had her. She pulled back her fist and drove it towards him, but he managed to grab her fist and send a elbow across her face. She retreated, some what flustered, but came back with a fists of fury.

"Where is this coming from?" Bijou blindly thought. Her body was exhausted, and she wasn't sure how much longer she was going to be able to take of this.

This wasn't good. J had caused too much damage to himself in hopes of subduing the woman once and for all, but she seemed to be running on will power alone at this point. He was going to have to take it even farther.

The young man panted as he weaved his way around her fiery fists, occasionally blocking one and throwing a claw slash of his own. He was almost on autopilot as his body moved through the actions, hardly noticing when he actually got a hit in, for J was busy thinking on other things.

He could take out her legs, and that would render her mostly useless, or attempt to knock the wind out of her with such force that she had no choice but to stay down, or he could try hitting her in the head hard enough to knock her unconscious, but that was probably a little too risky. Holding her down until she said uncle was another option, but she might melt him if he got that close. He could also keep up what he was doing now in hopes of wearing her down finally, but there was a chance that she could gain the upper hand with a critical blow.

The two warriors separated momentary and J took the initiative, quickly firing off a few plasma bolts at her legs, but Bijou managed to dodge mostly out of they way, only leaving a gash across her thigh. She then dashed forward, fists swinging. J dodged the fist and caught the second with his claw, moving forward and bringing her own arm in front of her as he attempted to kick her leg out from under her, but the Hylian managed to twist her body around and used his own momentum against him, flooring the armored man instead.

Pinning him to the ground quickly, Bijou pulled back her fist and delivered a powerful blow that broke his helmet where it covered his face, and smeared his cheek with his and her own blood. She swung again but the young man managed to deflect the strike before slamming his open claw against her ribs and fired a plasma shot, point blank. The black haired girl flew backwards across the cage ring and rattled the walls as she struck them.

The armored warrior spit his own blood on the floor as he struggled to his feet. Before he could even fully balance himself, there was a flash of red light from the other side of ring and a sword promptly imbeded itself in his side. The wound let out a black smoke, numbing his senses with the searing pain, as he stumbled back and collapsed against the chain link wall. Bijou remained crouched on the other end of the small arena, panting and holding her wound, but she just might have gotten the critical strike she needed.

Bijou felt her body give up, and she couldn't protest much against it. Her mind was still running at a million miles per second, but her body just couldn't keep up anymore, and Bijou had a sinking feeling that this was the end - whatever happened in the next couple of seconds was the conclusion of this long tiring battle.

Bijou could see the dumbstruck expression tied over J's bloody face as her sword made one final attempt at attacking, and had succeeded by embedding itself snugly in his side. She could smell the fire charring his now exposed flesh, and an almost victorious wave came over her. She wasn't afraid that her opponent would come out dead - thus far J only looked tired, and that if he pushed himself hard enough he could probably do this battle all over again. Bijou saw J's hand move slowly to his side and with a winch of pain he began to inch it back out, where it's steel blade clanged with the ground upon impact.

J fell to a knee, but he continued to hold himself up as much as possible. Bijou saw the pain in his eyes, and the discomfort in his face, and they both exchanged painful glances. J didn't look like he was about to lift off his feet suddenly and attack her again, but there was no room for doubt.

She broke the stare with J and looked down at her arms, as they were wrapped tightly around her new wound. She unwrapped them slowly and her eyes rolled up into her head as she noticed the thick blood decorating the underside of her arms. suddenly, she became rather woozy, and her eyes traveled all over the fainting surroundings, and finally her body fell.

The last thing Bijou felt before fading into a world of unconsciousness was her cheek resting on the cool steel floor, a small pool of blood thickening around her.

Had he done this? Was it his fault that this had been taken so far? The young woman on the other side of the cage could very well be fatally wounded, and for what? The skirmish had actually been fun at first, but had taken a sudden serious edge when J had crossed the line, and had wounded her too badly. At that point it turned into who could outlast the other, and Bijou had fought spectacularly, but it wasn’t enough. It took a supernatural fighter to keep up with J.

Maybe he should have stopped the fight then, humbled himself and taken the defeat. He knew how this was going to end otherwise. The girl was just too stubborn. He should have seen this coming. The only thing that mattered now was making sure the poor girl didn’t die on him. She was probably too stubborn to die anyway, but things certainly wouldn’t get better for her if she was left there to bleed.

Holding his palm against the large wound on his side, J slowly pushed himself to his feet. The crowed very well could have been louder and more chaotic then before, but he couldn’t care less. Everything faded into background noise as he took a knee beside the unconscious girl and scooped her up into his arms. Standing back up to his feet with a groan, J took a few steps forward and kicked the metal gate right off its hinges, probably knocking out a few men in the process. He walked out from the blood-splattered cage and into the hoard of drunkards. Most of the people had enough sense about them to part before him, and J merely brushed past or stepped over the ones that were too debilitated to know better.

The soldier glanced down at the unconscious girl in his arms. Her clothes were damp and turned scarlet. Her face looked paler then before and her cheek was swollen and purple. A trial of blood traced their path as J made his way upstairs. He couldn’t help but feel bad for causing so much injury to the woman, who looked so frail in his arms now. But there was no sense in beating himself up about it. Bijou had done a good enough job of that already.

The stairs weren’t very kind to the genetically enhanced clone. J was panting heavily by the time he reached the top. The many wounds he had accumulated and the laceration on his side that was still bleeding freely were starting to eat away at the last of his energy.

Stumbling into one of the open rooms of the tavern, J set down the wounded girl on the fancy, yet trashed mattress. The entire room looked that way. It had at one time been a luxury sweet, but had at some point, maybe even that same night, been reduced to a hobo hole that smelt of beer. Quickly ripping a few usable rags out of the curtains, J deactivated his armor finally to better suit his needs. The armor wasn’t exactly easy to keep up when he was this drained, although it did help him keep his balance, reflexes, and of course, his defenses. In any case, the tall young man set about cleaning the sheiken woman’s more serious wounds, carefully removing the chain mail from off the open soars and fixing her up with somewhat crud first aid. He could have done better if he wasn’t about to pass out any second, but for now at least, the young woman would diffidently make it through the night. Satisfied that he had done all he could in his current state, J collapsed into an armchair and finally let himself passed out.