Tam Tenderpaw vs. Raynare - A Battle of Grace and Wind

The cheering came to a sudden halt, as the audience went "OOOH!" at the counterattack Raynare had pulled off against Tam. Some of those closer towards the ring started yelling, "Get up! Look out!" at the scurio, trying to cheer her back up, while some more boos were hurled at Raynare.

Speaking of Raynare, she again came back to a deadstop still upside down, now looking down at Tam from where she was. Her wings flapped again, this time pushing her backwards again, but only a quarter of the way through a full revolution, her feet let go of the monkey bar, and she flew upwards, spinning and backflipping in mid air before straightening herself out, and started falling like a meteor towards Tam, both her knees stuck out downwards like a missile or a stalagmite falling towards the scurio. The closer she fell towards her target, the more the audience yelled at Tam to get up and watch out!

With a sad flop, Tammy’s tail drooped across her back, uncurling to lay limp. A muffled groan escaped into the ring as she practically peeled herself off the canvas to roll over onto her back sprawled out wide. Her vision was a bit blurry as he eyes adjusted, ears twitching at all of the cries from the audience. What were they yelling about? She blinked sight back into her eyes and wished she hadn’t. Raynare was coming at her like a rocket.

Tam’s hands frantically pat the ground around her, searching blindly for her tonfa as her eyes remained locked on the impending doom sailing down at her. Where the heck were th- THERE! Her fingers slipped around the grip of the weapons with raynare just about on her. She brought them up, arms outstretched to clang them together once again. She muttered an incantation under her breath, the runic sigils along her foci illuminating in a blue glow.

The crowd let out a scream as Tam seemed unable to get out of the way. The fallen Angel came crashing down and there was an explosion of light. The audience shielded their eyes or turned away from the scene for a moment. Camera’s crackled with static before flickering back to life to see Rayne suspended in the air over Tammy, her knees sparking against a curved veil of pink light that separated the two of them in a barrier. The magic hadn’t halted Raynare’s momentum though, all the force of her drop slowed to centimeters but still preserved.

Tam stared up through the pink barrier, taking heaving breaths, eyes wide, hair frazzled. It was like she was staring up at her very end, which that drop could have been. She lay in stunned silence until thin glowing cracks began to splinter from the barrier. With immediate urgency, Tam scrambled over onto her chest, wildly kicking and clawing at the ring to throw herself off to the side moments before the barrier of like shattered like a broken pane of glass and sending Raynare crashing to the canvas with all the force her dive had garnered without Tam below it.

As the big glow came, many on the closer benches would look away to prevent their eyes from getting hurt, while those up further back only narrowed their eyes, as many gasps and breathes were held. After the light dissipated and the camera screen static cleared, everyone stared in awe and then cheers burst open at the sight of Tam having stopped the attack with her magic barrier!

Raynare hadn't blinked at all when she came crashing and the big light flashed up when Tam brought up her shield. She could see right through it, and realized she had come to a magic halt, clearly her momentum was still carrying on but she was just floating in air like she was still falling! Raynare brought her hands up to the shield, dragging her nails across the magic shielding like as if wanting to tear up Tam's face. The shield started to crack, and Raynare's voice started to seep into Tam's head.

"Crik. Crik. Crik. Crik." Was the onomatope she started taunting Tams mind with, mimicking the noise of cracking glass. Luckily, Tam's quick thinking and getting her wits together allowed her to roll out of the way right as the barrier broke, causing Raynare to smash into the ground, kicking up dust and dirt. Blinking her eyes to prevent the dirt from going in, she saw she had buried her knees and thighs up till her crotch into the ground. She then looked in Tam's direction, then looked back at the legs she had buried, raised her wings up, and pushed with both wind draft and arm strength. The Servant of Pain came out of the ground with a cartoonish POP and did a spin before landing on her two feet, her side facing towards Tam. The hole where her knees had cratered was left there, and the strange broken golden band around her right thigh shone in the light. Her legs didn't seem hurt at all.

Again hands on hips, she did a "Bring it" motion with her hand, swaying her hips left and right as she did so.

Landing from her action mover dive, Tam rolled on her shoulder, tumbling to the side. She put a hand to her heaving chest, her breath catching in ragged gasps. She could feel her heart pounding, everything sounded so fuzzy. Befuddled as she was, everyone standing ringside could see just how terrified the young Sciuro appeared to be. Shaky, fur standing on end as if had been charged with electricity. She had never faced something like this before in all her life.

When the dust settled and Raynare remained, simply rising from the crater that could have very well been Tam, she fell over onto her backside, kicking her boots into the canvas to scoot further away. The woman was becking her to come, to try again… Tam was slowly shaking her head ‘no’ despite not even realizing it. Fingers white-knuckled and clutching her tonfa as if her life depended on it… In fact, it may very well be the case. Did people ever die in unleashed matches?

Backed into the ropes, she reached back to grab hold of them, climbing back to her feet all the while inching further away at an angle as if that would help.

Raynare now properly turned towards Tam, her eyes narrowing at her, before she slowly started to make her way over to her opponent. One hand on her hips, and the other swaying as she slowly power walked towards the fist fighter. She didn't throw any taunts or jabs at her, no, she just let her presence and stature do the talking.

A lot of the audience was in uproar, giving out various mixes of yells and messages, when one particularly loud, young voice rang out from a small fairy at Tam, "YOU CAN DO THIS, TAMMY! TENDERIZE HER FACE IN!" Some of the other folks around the fairy started egging Tam on, trying to encourage the frightened fighter to stay strong and punch back!

Raynare strode closer and closer, and as she was about 4 feet from Tam, her narrowed eyes opened wide, and her wings again flapped backwards, pushing another gust to quickly close the gap between herself and Tam, bringing an outstretched arm aimed at Tam's throat, and a coiled up fist ready for a gut punch at the same time!

It was hard to focus, hard to breathe. Her mind couldn’t make sense of what was happening to her body as it reeled from suffering a momentary panic attack. She needed a moment to compartmentalize and get back on her game. Did she have that long though? He boots scrapped to a halt as she felt her tail brush one of the ring posts and stop before she inadvertently put herself fully in the corner. Her arms came up timidly as she flexed her grip on her weapons.

She could do this… this was the whole reason she was here. Tam gave her head a hard shake, unable to focus her hearing. Everything seemed so noisy all of a sudden. Raynare was closing in, a gaunt shadow with dead eyes. Tammy drew in a deep breath through her nose, bouncing a bit on the balls of her feet. Don’t stop, be ready to move. She finally worked the courage up to face her, she was ready!

Her chin lifted back, neck craning as fingers clawed into her skin, forcing her to bend backward. Her back arched, presenting a clear target for Raynare to drill her fist into. Tam’s eyes went wide as knuckles buried themselves into her gut, letting out a choking gasp as the air was knocked clear out of her.

Raynare's fingers wrapped hard around Tam's neck, the nails digging into it, forcing her to arc backwards, leaving her stomach wide open for a hard body blow! As the air got knocked out of her lungs, the audience reeled back in pain, with many hisses of the tongue and clenched teeth at the clean direct hit that had landed ringing here and there, mixed with some "OOOOOH!"s as well. The fairy who had cheered the scurio on, their face fell and turned into one of horror.

Raynare wasn't even remotely done, however, as her hand then shifted to grip Tam's chin, pulling her face closer to her own emotionless face, the angle of which caused dark shadows mostly to cast over Raynare and Tam's faces by blocking the lights coming over them. Raynare seemed almost towering in height with the stance she was taking, and just as quickly as she had made her offensive push, she wrapped an arm under one of Tam's arms, the hand that gripped her chin wrapping over her other arm. Raynare's legs wrapped themselves around Tam's waist, and her wings flapped hard, causing Raynare to lift off the ground with Tam still in her clutches!

Raynare did a spin in mid air before releasing Tam from her hold, throwing her towards one of the poles set up around the ring with her back aimed towards it! Raynare lay spinning in the air for a bit before doing a landing on her two feet and twirling around to see the results of what would happen.

Tam let out a low whining groan as she was pulled closer, a faint whistle escaping her nose as she breathed out unsteadily. Her eyes narrowed defensively like a dog flinching in front of a rolled-up newspaper. She remained still, dangling like a ragdoll as Raynare puppeteered her limbs into position and wrapped her legs around her waist. The sudden force of valuing into the air with the fallen air turned her stomach like a long drop on a roller coaster. Up high though, there was a certain feeling of weightlessness, one that wasn't meant to be enjoyed as she was spun about and then sent hurtling away.

It was a short trip at a high speed to the towering post, her back slamming against it with a hard crunch that tilted the entire pillar slightly as she dinged off it. The impact sent her into a wild spin, end over end toward the ground about to make contact. In a stutter squeal, she cried out another incantation and held out one of her foci. A sphere of pink light wrapped itself around her in a bubble. It bounced off the ground hard, sending face first into the barrier she attempted to freely exist within, tumbling around it like a hamster that had been thrown across the room in its ball. She was plastered to the wall of her bubble as it rolled along the ground, coming to a slow stop at another post. Tam slowly slid down the wall of the sphere until she was face down for a few seconds and it *popped* dropping her into the dirt.

“Ugh…” Her tonfa clicked into place with a twist of the wrist as she planted her fists to push off the ground. Disheveled, but ultimately she seemed fine. Her barrier had cushioned the fall almost completely even if it had rattled her around inside it. She rubbed at her back, hissing through her teeth at the fresh pain. Her ears flicked up, tilting slightly in the direction of Raynare before her head had turned to look that way.

“Get your butt in gear Tammy…” the Sciuro girl muttered under her breath, bringing her hands together in a prayer position. She took in a deep breath, mouthing quiet words of power as a sheen of green light bathed her for a few moments. It pulsed a few times before dispersing into the arena air like scattered fireflies. Her stomach felt better, the sting in her back faded to a distant echo. She felt a bit lightheaded, but that was a side effect of healing magic in her experience. “Alright… redo. This time for real.”

The crowd again winced in pain, letting out noises and hisses of pain as Tam's back smashed helplessly into the pole at first, but a new wave of vigor returned into the audience when Tam summoned a magic pink bubble around herself! Claps and cheers resounded as Raynare watched the bubble bounce a bit before popping, dropping a disgruntled Tam onto the dirt rather unceremoniously. Raynare's head tilted, observing that her opponent, while disheveled, still seemed in standing condition somehow! Raynare closed her eyes and shook her head, tapping her foot on the ground.

Her eyes opened quickly when Tam gave out a bright green light, and the light dissipated around her, many kids in the audience wanting to bum rush the green lights spreading outwards. Now she seemed rejuvenated. Raynare cracked her neck, shaking it side to side, before taking one step forward, and brought one arm up halfway in a ready stance, her other arm turned the other way.

Raynare's voice again invaded Tam's mind, asking,"So was that a test or masochism? I can't tell."

Tammy was doing her best to pump herself up to get ready for a second, better, go at Raynare when the woman’s voice crawled through her brain. Her cheeks flushed red with equal parts embarrassment but also anger at the question. She shot an agitated glare to the fallen angel, making a show of adjusting the gold bracers that secured her Tonfa in place. This was a blessing in disguise… she could use this. Get angry, be mad… maybe then she wouldn’t be so frightened. Maybe?

“Gross, that’s gross. Y-you should feel bad about asking something so gross… and also stupid!” Tammy gave a firm nod, thinking her verbal salad was one hell of a comeback. It left something to be desired, perhaps even several something. For the crowd, one of those somethings was context. Only getting one side of what seemed to be an awkward conversation or Tammy screaming into the wind due to a concussion.

The young Sciuro didn’t dwell on how sick her burn had been, instead opting to kick off the ground and start hauling it across the ground back towards the arena ring and Raynare. She bounded from the ground to the ropes, coming off of them with a flying somersault directly towards her opponent. Her body balled up in a tight spin, gaining momentum until it was her tail that extended out, trying to flatten the other woman with a high-velocity tail slap!