Sun's Up, Blood's Out

"I must say, Nasira, it seems your skills have improved!"

"Thanks?" Nasira did not ameliorate her expertise since they last met. She had been...preoccupied. Even slaying Aladdin had been shamelessly shoved down a slot in her "to-do list." Life threw her a curveball, and for a while, she did not have time to do anything else, let alone refine her spell casting. If anything, Nasira was more cautious. 

"Come now, stop playing games and fight me like I know you can!" 

Nasira arched a pencil-thin eyebrow. I'm screwing around? He's the one who dyed a horse's mane pink! It was evident Clopin had meliorated his prowess, so assailing the gypsy king head on would be too impetuous."I guess," Nasira said lukewarmly, as if discussing what to have for dinner. Keep horsing around. In the end, I'll have the last laugh. Clopin may have all the power in the world, but there was one thing the outlaw can never do: kill her. Nobody can. Maleficent saw to that. That did not mean Nasira could not be defeated, nor did it mean she was more powerful than before. It just meant Nasira may have to wait for Aladdin and Clopin to die of old age before moving in, worst case scenario. But where's the fun in that? 

"Ack!" Clopin's sudden, uncanny move careened Nasira to the dirt. She spat out a leaf and rolled to the side in case he tried to get her while she was down. She sprang up and shot a melee of dark magic at Clopin.

"Cartwheel your way out of this!" 

---

"Hold up, Hakeem!" 

But Kaiser did not make it in time to stop Nasira's lab rat. Cinderbelle took Hakeem by the neck as if he were nothing more than a cheap chew toy and threw him at Kaiser, knocking him off his paws. As soon as Kaiser got up, he gave Hakeem a hard cuff on the nose. "Are you stark raving mad?!" he shouted. "Never rush out like that - ever! We fight as one! Pull that stunt again, and I'll see to it you never set a paw on the battlefield again!" 

Hakeem began to cry. Oh no. "Cut the waterworks!" Kaiser yelled, exasperated. "You're making us look bad!"

"Now then, where were we?" a wolf dog taunted.

Kaiser sighed. I guess I'm on my own - again. Bringing Hakeem here was a mistake. "Go home. I can handle the half-dog on my own. You'll only get in the way. Go!"

But before Kaiser could do anything to Dante, he saw Reggie clinging to Leila's shoulder. The wolf dog can wait. It looked like Leila needed a paw. So Kaiser jumped on top of Reggie and drove his sharp fangs into the nape of the bulldog's neck.

The deep red Irish setter bounded across the bloody ground her jaws parted as she panted, her long tongue lolled out as she looked around for someone to fight. Maggie finally spotted the young black haired woman and-was that a marshmallow? No...no marshmallows didn't wear armor or whatever the heck that thing was. Maggie gave a snort, her muzzle wrinkled as she charged towards Nani and Baymax, aiming to sink her teeth into the woman's leg.

Thankfully, no one seemed terribly interested in attacking her at that moment. That was some small victory Crystallene could walk away with. However, she soon spotted Nani and Baymax some distance away from her. They weren't alone, though. There appeared to be a unicorn nearby that was being attacked by one of her allies, and... Oh no. Crystallene saw Maggie headed right for Nani, and her dark eyes grew wide in horror. What was she supposed to do? She was an animal villain, and this dog didn't appear to be one of her allies, but if she attacked her then... What if someone realized she was doing it to protect Nani? That might not have been a good thing. But on the other hand... Nani was one of her only friends, strange as that sounded. She had to do something.

So, mustering all the courage she could, Crystallene decided to go forth with the idea. The worst that could happen was that she was injured in the process. Really, was that such a big loss in the grand scheme of things? Crystallene needed to do something to prove her worth, after all. If she could do that by protecting Nani, then so be it.

The odd-eared female growled as loudly as she could manage and started to dart forward in the hopes of intercepting Maggie. She wasn't the fastest Experiment around, but who cared? This was just something she had to try. Her growling got a bit louder as she drew closer, and she tried to throw herself at Maggie. With no real claws to speak of, her best option was to try and bite the Irish Setter somewhere. She didn't care where she bit. As long as Crystallene made the attempt, she would be happy with herself.

She couldn't tell which came first: the Irish Setter, or the wolf whose jaws caught onto her flank. Without a second thought, the unicorn kicked out her back legs. Although she was smaller than her brother, Sophia did possess a certain amount of strength. She bucked the she-wolf off, before spinning around to face both Ze'eva, and the oncoming Irish setter. Sophia's mind raced, as the blood flowed down her flank.

What do I do?

She figured that Nani and Baymax could protect themselves...hopefully. If not, Sophia was sure she would be able to come up with another plan to help them.

With a loud whinny, Sophia reared up on her hind legs, before galloping directly at Ze'eva. If this wolf wanted a fight, that's what she was going to get. Her horn was lowered, and it began to glow with a blinding light, before releasing a series of small orbs directly towards the she-wolf. If they made contact, she would be cut up pretty badly.

Cinderbelle had an intense case of tunnel vision when it came to Nasira. The behemoth female didn't even realize that she was the object of yet another attack on the part of the Akita pack - not until a weight slammed into her head. The momentum of such a hit spun Cinderbelle about, diverting her completely so that her body followed her head and sent her sprawling. As the hit to her cranium had been a solid one the girl wobbled as she tried to roll herself upright. All the girl managed was a few half-rolls before finally slugging over onto her belly to search for her attacker with a dazed expression.

Such weakness would, unfortunately, create a very real opening as Cinderbelle attempted to regain her senses and look about for the shooting star canine.

---

Leila had underestimated the speed with which her foe would recover -- as she bit down through muscle and tasted the sweet iron of his blood she felt the fangs of another pierce her own flesh. With a pained yelp the Akita released her hold, unable to bite down and chew to further the damage upon her adversary. The force that was required for the dog to turn and grab her resulted in Leila being half-dragged towards the larger canine's front half where she could be more easily reached, more easily dominated. The brindled female thanked her lucky stars that the angle at which she'd been grabbed prevented the brute from grabbing too much flesh between his jaws. The angle was awkward, and while his considerable underbite was indeed piercing the swollen flesh of her shoulder, the damage was mostly superficial.

Calling upon her training Leila blocked the pain from her mind and considered her options for the second she was allotted. That moment of clarity gave a possible solution - Leila turned and immediately seized upon her now-attacker's foreleg, focusing her bite upon the weaker joint of the 'wrist' rather than the meaty flesh of his upper leg. There she crunched down and pulled, a multi-tasking attack that was meant to pull the leg out from under the brute and topple him while simultaneously damaging the fragile bones of his paw. Ideally the attack would cause him to flinch and subsequently free her from the prison of his jaw.

The medic's eyes widened when Sophia approached her and Baymax. Not really because she was a unicorn, she had seen her and her brother around camp a time or two, but because she hadn't realized her error. Sophia was right; standing out here in the open wasn't so smart, even if they were just medics. There was no law of war not to harm the medics, or those who waited to tend to the wounded, and this made them a helluva easy target. Nani dipped her head in thanks and gripped the bag of supplies, pulling it close against her chest. "Yeah...we should probably.." the Hawaiian trailed before being cut off by the sudden snarling and reciprocate whinnying of the unicorn next to her. 

Nani and Baymax both swiveled their heads, Nani's eyes wide with fear. Ironically how the one warning them about not being safe was the first to be attacked. A part of the girl felt like it was her fault. If her and the marshmallow medic hadn't been so reckless then maybe it wouldn't have happened! Heart pumping wildly in her chest, Nani struggled to find words. "SOPHIA!" she called out, turning herself around and trying to charge after Sophia as she chased the wolf that bit her flank, even though she had no idea what she could do to help, and called out behind her, "BAYMAX! FOCUS ON MALKIA." Only she tripped and fell face-first in the dirt feeling the sensation of a serrated edge cutting into the tender muscle that was her calf. The girl let out a blood curling scream and managed to flip herself around, also deepening the setter's grip in the process, and saw the setter that had bit her. "GET OFF OF ME!" she cried, desperately kicking at the setter, trying to shake Maggie off. 

The pain was too much, and she had no real way of protecting herself. No knife, hell not even a stick to whack her with. All she had were her pathetic kicks, which obviously was doing nothing. Tears streamed down her face and through her clouded vision she saw a streak of purple slam into the blur of red. Nani couldn't tell exactly what happened, or who it was at first, she was just glad that the pain of the puncturing teeth were out of her calf. The medic hastily crawled away, only finding herself to be picked up by Baymax. "You have been bitten," he pointed out obviously, "we need to disinfect, probably put sutures in, and wrap it up." Nani scoffed and shook her head. "No shit Sherlock!" she sobbed, grabbing at her wound, blood oozing through her fingers. With the back of one of her hands, she wiped away the tears and saw clearly her savior. "Crystallene?" 

Mor'du's ears flicked down at the high pitched scream that was issued from the unicorn's mouth upon sighting him. The beast grimaced shaking his head, not liking the noise. He swiped at the unicorn again who easily dodged his massive claws. Mor'du bit back a curse as he growled at the equine.

"Oh, it's so on now, y'all!" he heard Bob say watching the unicorn’s rear; its front hooves slicing the air. As it charged at the massive bear, the horn on its head glew with a white light as Mor'du lunged intent on grabbing Bob with his jaws.

WHAM!

The blast of magic hit home as Mor'du was blasted back with a confused and slightly pained roar. Dizzy, the bear laid on his side trying to figure out what had just happened to him.

His eyes widened as Nasira sprang up rather quickly, foiling his second attack to get her while she was on the ground. Before he could come up with yet another witty response, a blast of her dark magic hit him square in the chest, knocking the wind out of him.

Merde.

No, he could not let her have the upper hand this time. Nasira was going to pay, even if he had to be reckless. The gypsy king acrobatically bounced back on his feet, as if every move of his was a long, extended dance. His eyes narrowed, as he locked his gaze on Nasira. His violet-hued magic appeared in the palm of his hand, and within mere seconds, blasts of Clopin's own dark magic barreled down upon Nasira.

-----

Bob, satisfied that his light beam had hit the bear right between his eyes, galloped at Mor'du, hellbent on finishing his job. Pink hooves pelted the ground, as he took a leap towards the bear. Bob's light magic acted as an extended limb, causing more damage as he landed directly on Mor'du's head. The unicorn heard a satisfying crack before he bounded away. As soon as he hit solid ground once more, he whirled around to face the bear, horn and body lowered.

Ze'eva allowed herself to be bucked off the unicorn, in fact she had been expecting it and let her throw her off. She didn't stick her landing all that well, however, and found herself skidding across the battlefield and found her paws only in time to save herself from colliding with some of the other combatants. Her ire was temporarily directed at the setter, instead of following her lead and attacking the unicorn she had instead chose to sink her teeth into the human. 

Idiot. Prey right in front of her and instead she chooses the human. 

Her attention was quickly back on her own prey now as the unicorn came charging at her. She spat out the small scrap of bloody fur that had been her only reward from her first attack and growled, showing off her now reddened teeth. Then Ze'eva charged forward too, ready to dart at any second to avoid the filly's horn. She had been so focused on not ending up gored that she barely registered the orbs flying towards her.

"Ah!" she gasped in pain as one struck her right shoulder and another caught her left leg. Was quick to leap to avoid being trampled but only just in time and instead was covered in dust for her trouble. That she had never seen before. Since when could prey animals do that? She had never seen a deer or antelope cast magic.

"What in Luna's name was that?" she demanded, turning to face the unicorn once more.

Sophia galloped right past Ze'eva, with a smirk on her face, as she watched her magic orbs cut into the she-wolf's shoulder and leg.

At least my magic hit her...

Her lavender tail trailed out behind her as she rounded a bend and came back towards the she-wolf, before skidding to a stop inches away from her opponent. Small dust clouds rose and settled around her hooves, as she looked down towards Ze'eva.

"Magic." Sophia said, as if it were something the wolf should have known. She stopped herself from going on a full speech about it, knowing that it would not be wise.

"Maybe you should think twice about attacking me." Sophia said, as she lowered her head with a small, taunting smile.

Nasira advanced, but Clopin recovered in the nick of time and countered as if he had no more than a slight cold. Nasira was annoyed. Again, how did he recuperate so fast? Was it his newfound powers? I may need to bail.

To keep the mauve projectiles at bay, Nasira expeditiously projected a defensive magical barrier around herself, but Clopin kept them coming. Come on; let up! The makeshift barricade did not hold up for very long. It only had enough mana to stay up for eight seconds at most. Sure, Nasira could have used a more durable shield, but that would have been a waste of mana - especially since she did not know the extent of Clopin's new powers. The shield ruptured and subsequently dispersed six seconds in. "See you!" To eschew getting skewered or worse, Nasira dematerialized again, but midway through her route, her body was hurled back into reality. The milisecond before Nasira disappeared, one of Clopin's projectiles landed a hit. It momentarily sapped the necromancer of her strength, thus putting her escape attempt to a halt.

She gave an inhuman snarl and quickly got up, abruptly foiling any possibility of a sneak attack. "Now you're really starting to piss me off." She shot a second melee of dark magic at Clopin and proceeded to use an ice spell on his legs. "What's got into you, Clopin?"

To say that Copper had missed the thrill of battle would have been an understatement. The prickle that crawled up his spine at the sense of danger, the thick, musty scent of blood filling the air as the warm crimson liquid seeped from the wounds the struggling bodies around him inflicted upon each other. The sounds of gunshots and the clashing of metal against metal that left ringing in his ears. The sensations of charging magic causing his fur to stand on end as if by static electricity. Oh yes, he had missed being on the battlefield.

Large tan-colored paws flattened a few stalks of golden grass as the hound sidestepped the forms of a couple battling soldiers. He didn't recognize either of them, so, it was doubtful that they were from the Outlands. Though nowadays, it was becoming harder to tell just who was on which side of the war and Copper didn't much care to really try and remember. All that mattered to him was who he took orders from and which side Dixie remained loyal to. For the time being that side was with Zira and as far as Copper was concerned that was where he'd stay.

With his nose to the ground, Copper had been so immersed in the scents around him that he didn’t even take notice of the other hound that trotted toward him until a voice cut into his concentration.

“Oi! You!”

As Copper's ears perked at the sound, the bloodhound cross looked up, trying to find the owner of the voice. At first, he wasn't sure just who it could have been among the forms around him or if the voice had even been addressing him in the first place. Apparently it had been, as whoever it was spoke up once more.

“Yeah, wanker, I’m talking to you! Fancy a scrap with another hound?”

Now, Copper was far from being English(one of the farthest things from it actually), had he been, however, he likely wouldn’t have responded to the other dog’s insult. But, seeing as he wasn’t British, nor did he have the faintest understanding of their language/slang, the term was lost on the country hound’s ears. Slightly mis-colored brown eyes turned to gaze at Edmund, taking in the smaller canine’s form. Needless to say, Copper wasn’t that impressed, he’d seen kittens that looked like they’d had more bite than this fella. Still, Copper knew better than to judge one by their looks alone.

“Eh, why not.” Copper smirked, lowering his head slightly. “Been awhile since I had the chance to fight someone on equal grounds as me.” Shifting his weight back and forth slightly between his shoulders, Copper let out a low growl before lunging toward the other hound. For the time being, he wasn’t aiming at any particular part of the other dog, all he wanted to do now was watch his opponent and see how he would react. If he were lucky, however, he was planning on trying to grab hold of any part of Edmund’s upper body that he could get to.

Now he was trapped. Trapped between his brother’s scolding and Dante’s teeth. Dante had snapped at him again, sending him rolling back. As he rolled over on the wound he’d received, his tears stung his face again as he let out a choke of a yelp. He looked up at Kaiser with wide eyes.

What Kaiser said was “Go home. I can handle the half-dog on my own. You'll only get in the way. Go!" But what Hakkem heard…was…



“YOU’RE A BAD DOG.”



His ears flicked upwards and he let out a loud whine. “But-“ But Kaiser ran away, leaving Hakeem wallowing in his own blood and self-pity. No. He wasn’t going to let his siblings down. He would show them. Show them that just because he was a piss poor student didn’t mean he was a bad dog.



Dante seemed distracted. By Leila no less. That got his fur prickled even more. “QUIT OGGLING MY SISTER YO!” He slipped a bit due to his messed up leg but was able enough to grab a tough but not fatale hold on the male’s scruff. A warning hold. He’d learned about those!
He was gonna show them...show his siblings he could fight for them.

(Let's try this again ))

"Grrow?" The monstrous bear rose back to his feet and then-

CRACK!

The unicorn's hooves slammed as hard as a wrecking ball into the demon's skull and the bear's chin was driven into the hard earth, stunned once more. Now with a massive headache, Mor'du let out a growl a small trickle of blood leaking from a cut from the balding spot on the bear's head something that no human could do.

Bob had made the demon bleed. Mor'du was now eye level with Bob, his one burning eye at great risk to be gored out by the long horn on the magical horses head.

"Grrrr- C'mere!" Mor'du crouched shooting his arm out to swipe at Bob.

Sol flew a couple lengths away from where Cinderbelle had rolled over, as the impact of her attack tossed her farther than she had expected. She hit the grass with an audible thud, before rolling over a few times. Her world tilted sideways as she gazed out towards the grasslands, with a dazed look. They seemed to stretch on forever, and for a brief moment, she could not hear the sounds of battle.

A bear’s roar brought her hurtling back to reality, and the Akita rose to her paws, shaking her head as if she were shaking off water from her fur. She was raised to hunt the things, but she had to ignore that for now. Her focus was the giant of a dog who was threatening to kill her handler. Sol looked around, her silver head turning left and right as she tried to find where Cinderbelle had fallen.

Then she spotted the other girl.

“Time to finish you off.” Sol muttered, as she broke into another gallop towards Cinderbelle. She leapt towards the other, landing on her large head. From there, Sol bit down onto the chimera’s head, as her paws held onto the sides, claws digging in.

-------

The unicorn pawed the ground, as he attempted to think through his next attack. The only thing left open was the demon bear’s eye. If he could use his horn to blind the other…perfect. The pink-maned unicorn’s mind was set on a vile deed, something only his father would have been proud of. The son of Conquest, finally following through and proving his worth. Bob’s pink hooves pelted the ground once more, sending small bits of dirt and grass flying into the air.

His ivory horn was aimed towards Mor’du’s remaining eye, sparkling slightly in the sunlight as he ran with extraordinary speed towards the bear. Bob then leapt up into the air, and like an acrobat, he began to spin.

A grotesque squelching sound resonated through the unicorn’s ears as his horn pierced the bear’s eye. But because of his spinning, his horn bore deeper into the bear’s head, only stopping when it was lodged somewhere deep within Mor’du’s brain. Blood and other fluids splattered back in his face, matting his pink hair. Before the bear could throw him off in pain, Bob yanked his ivory weapon out with speed, flipping backwards through the air. He landed on his hooves, but one foreleg stumbled, sending him to the ground. As he kneeled on the opposite foreleg, the unicorn watched the bear’s reaction closely.

With a wound like that…and with the amount of blood loss, Bob knew it was only a matter of time before the bear dropped dead. He would not be making it back to the Outlands.

-------

Clopin’s smirk fell as Nasira summoned up a shield to protect herself from his melee of dark magic. He gritted his teeth, hoping that at some point, the shield would break. And to his unusual stroke of luck, it did. One of his projectiles found its way to Nasira, slamming right into her. For a moment, the ghost of a smile crossed the gypsy king’s face. But his moment of triumph was short-lived, as the necromancer rose up again, with magic to retaliate.

The demons’ voices were really starting to give Clopin quite the headache, as their grating tone uttered suggestions from every direction. He could barely register the spells coming straight at him.

Shut up, will you? Clopin shouted inwardly. And as quickly as they came, the voices died down, allowing him to finally concentrate. With their power enhancing his magic, the gypsy king dodged the ice spell, but the dark magic grazed his shoulder, slowing him down once more.

”What’s got into you, Clopin?”

The gypsy whirled around, as he finally showed signs of mild exhaustion. He held a gloved hand to his shoulder, as he locked eyes with Nasira.

“Why Nasira, whatever do you mean? I haven’t changed at all.” Clopin said, drawing out the last syllable. He straightened his posture, and smiled, as if nothing were wrong. The purple aura surrounding him grew fainter, as if to show that perhaps his inhuman magic was not real. It was enough to put anyone at ease, if only for a brief moment. His lips curved into a devilish grin, as he danced around innocently.

“I’m still the same gypsy king you’ve always fought against! Nothing has changed!” Clopin said, bending backwards to look at Nasira upside down. He then turned back around to face her properly, before looking to the palm of his gloved right hand, as if he were merely inspecting it. His fingers slowly curled and uncurled. He laughed, and the tone was chillingly foreboding.

“Ah Nasira, mon ami.” Clopin began, as he took a step towards her, shaking his head slowly.

“Perhaps you’ve forgotten that justice is...swift!”

His scythe appeared from thin air, and within the blink of an eye, Clopin swung the blade out towards Nasira once more. The dark magic surrounding the blade extended further from its reach, enough to slice the necromancer wherever it happened to land.