//------------------------------// // Chapter fifty three, Fiery Fights: Arizona Vs. Jock Hawk. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -The Volcano, Upper Tier, Coliseum, Arizona- “So… did you see the same things that I did during Pom’s fight?” I was asking Velvet, but Paprika leaned forward and nodded with a serious look on her face. I acknowledged her with my gaze and a nod, she smiled brightly. I just acknowledged that Paprika could definitely see Pom’s buried talent as easily as Velvet or I can. It was odd, but then again Paprika has managed to copy all the physical aspects of our fighting styles just by watching us go at each other. It was far too easy to underestimate our snuggle monster of a wife because of her lovable happy-go-lucky demeanor. “Yes, she’s got the same kind of natural talent that we do, but her experience is sorely lacking largely due in part to her cowardice.” What Velvet meant was that Pom had the talent to kick flank, butt and backsides if she really applied herself. “I’m quite certain she didn’t notice how fast she could move, how high she could jump or even her absurd reaction times given how fast and strong that puppy is. After taking care of those beasties of hers for as long as she has, she’s certainly a lot stronger than she looks with her frail appearance.” “Meep.” Why is it that Paprika sounded more eloquent than Velvet when she was being silly by making that cute noise? I lifted my head up to kiss Pap’s chin, then I turned to Velvet who was also snuggled into Paprika’s comfy grasp. “Yeah, Paprika has the right of it, it was fairly obvious when Pom tackled the puppy as it was coming at her with the same amount of force that broke one of those stone pillars in half. That she survived the impact by delivering an almost equal amount of force back and even pinned the little guy says a lot. I suggest we just let Pom be who she wants to be, even if she’s anything but frail and could actually put up a serious fight if pushed.” I wasn’t going to force Pom to be brave and I wondered what her next match would bring? If I fought her, then I would hit her with half my strength and then ramp up from there. “She’ll eventually grow into someone far more interesting than a familiar magnet on her own time and in her own way.” I would encourage the lambkin, but Tianhuo, Ollie and Fred were doing that well enough on their own. With weird friends like Ollie and Fred, people would pay far less attention to Pom or her canines. I watched the lambkin take a seat among her familiars. I knew Pom would be fine, but she could be so much more if she got over how big and scary the world was. I’m a small cow and yet I was trying to do big things all the time. -Thirty minutes later- Flamberge came down before the next match finished, but it was getting close to its conclusion. I had ten bits on the bull, but the longma was roasting him pretty badly. “How are things going here?!” Flamberge, I sometimes wanted to thrust my hoof down your throat and rip out your vocal chords. “About as well as you could expect, it’s boring and you’re brother passed his match easily.” The part of our groups that are not participating sometimes swapped out from watching the fights to go wandering the city looking out for signs of strange activity. Tianhuo was out there trying to keep track of everything that was happening in the city. That butterfly Belfry was watching things around the Ardent Survivor. As of right now it was Flotsam and Skelly walking around the city together. Nefer was still here because he wanted to watch the incredible friends of his captain fight. “Next up, Arizona ‘Earth Shaker’ Arid Paca La Perm, what a mouthful!” Finally, the referee told me I get to fight and I’ve been waiting for this for a while now! Time to go strut my stuff in front of a crowd and my wives. “Her opponent, Jock ‘The Rock’ Hawk!” My opponent’s name made him sound like a tool, I was about three steps away from my seat when one of Pom’s animals suddenly got up and let out a sharp bark. Pom’s reaction to the green dogs bark was to suddenly panic. “Everyone move!” Pom shouted as she heeded her own advice, as did the pack of canines that followed her immediately. Like anyone who’s lived around Jacky long enough or clearly had the instincts for danger and hears a warning like that, then you were bound to react to it as quickly as you could and faster than everyone else in the general area. Paprika gabbed the most important people to her, Tinsel, Velvet and me, then leapt away. Oleander, shielded herself with the book and a black barrier rose up in front of her. Gene carried Jacky away, his wing strength was quite good. Flamberge dove over the railing to hover beyond it. The bleachers, where we all used to be, suddenly exploded sending chips of stone everywhere. When the dust cleared, we were introduced to someone crouching and posing with his right arm in front of his face and his other arm held straight out. I think I hated this guy already. “From the sky he falls… Jock~!” The bleachers now had a fairly decent crater and it had been caused by a large six foot tall, moderately muscular, canary yellow Ornithian with an odd accent. “For it’s time to rock, yeah, like a high flying hawk~!” The parrot seemed strong, he had muscles to cause a lot of damage at least. He was wearing orange shorts and boots, there was also an orange wrestler’s mask on his head with yellow lightning bolts at his cheeks and a long cascade of wild yellow plumage sticking out the back of it. His screeching was annoying and I didn’t like him, but at least he looked interesting for someone who liked to show off his bare chest. With an entrance like that, he better have some fighting skills! -Shocking Awe- “Hmm… I could use a minion as awe inspiring as that. Even if he is a wimp, he makes a good entrance.” I sat back and would see how he did against that cow, I hoped to fight her again and real soon. “I can’t let Teatime have all the fun with his metal morons.” “I concur, maybe I should find some holy knights of my own to purge the world of all the things I consider unnatural and a waste of existence.” Dispel Grace considered out loud. -One minute later- “This… that… what is my opponent?” Jock slapped his talons together and smirked at me while flexing his overcompensating biceps. “Ha, at least this won’t take too long!” “You’re right about that much at least...” Rolling my eyes in derision, I think this guy seemed all pizzazz and no substance. Sure those muscles were real enough and he did make a crater in the stands, but could he really keep up with me and win? My highly compacted muscles were screaming a big fat no on that, Jock had nothing on me. He let out a bark of laughter that turn into a shrill shrieking noise that a crow would make, okay this guy was far more annoying than Flamberge. At least Flamberge keeps his decibel levels to something safe. “Do you seriously think a scrawny little dog like you can take me?!” Jock, you earned yourself a mortal enemy this day. An enemy that can and will pummel you all over the arena’s fighting area. “I’m a cow.” I answered blandly. Was it that my udders were so small? It must be because my udders were small and it was fairly irritating to not be recognized as a cow sometimes. Other cows noticed me for what I was, but is it really that much of a difference to not be more pronounced? “Even better. You should be a dairy farmer, because I bet you fight like one!” No, I’m quite sure that I didn’t Jock, but you were definitely asking for me to snap off the pointy tip of your hooked beak. “If you knew the kind of cows that I do, then that’s not much of an insult and is actually a pretty decent compliment.” I knew Grace could take this guy if she wasn’t being airheaded and didn’t feel like being peaceful that particular day. My mother and Callie could definitely knock this guy down a whole order of pegs from what I know, he wouldn’t be able to crawl out of the hole they’d put him in. “Also I’m in the business of smashing rocks with my skull.” “Hmph, whatever, hey let’s get this show on the road!” Jock shouted at the referee and waved a talon at him to hurry things up. “Ready…” The referee stated and I lowered myself down, I was already predicting what Jock’s first move would be. It wasn’t hard to see it coming, especially with his wrestler motif and the fact that I was smaller and was already presenting a lower profile by crouching. “Fight!” Jock leapt up and over with his arms wide open, his blazing white eyes and grin on his beak as he came down on me with a flying press said that I made the right call. He could jump pretty high, so he might have thought he had an advantage on me. I’m much faster on the ground than in the air and this was practically slow motion for me, Velvet and Paprika were much faster when they bounded and leaped through the air. I leapt to the right and then shoulder charged to my left as Jock caught himself before he hit the ground and was already standing up, I rammed straight into him sending him flying into a pillar. He got up from his spine cracking the pillar in half, he just grinned. “So you know how to break a rock, but can you handle the hawk!” He flexed and then charged for me to tackle me like I had him. I braced for his next move, an obvious haymaker as he brought his right arm back… or was it? I narrowed my eyes on him and watched his movements as he got closer. My instincts proved correct when he swung his right arm, which by all rights I could already tell was a going to be a feint, for my head. I stepped back three steps as he instead tried to kick out with his left foot to catch me in the chin while I was paying too much attention to his arm. I thrust both my hooves forward and caught his foot, the shocked look on his face was quite telling and I grinned at him. I jumped back and slammed his back against the ground as I unbalanced and dazed him. I heaved his dazed form up into the air and spun him around with all my might. -Velvet- “A hammer throw, seriously Arizona?” She’s tried to do that to me numerous times, it worked better on Paprika and overrode her defensive fluffmancer abilities with the raw force of Arizona’s muscles. “Our wife is such a brute, a brutal bovine, a bullheaded bash master… and quite beautiful when fighting.” Such a move could only work on fully dazed opponent and those who don’t have a counter for it, it seems Jock didn’t have said counter and was about to suffer an egregious amount of pain. I would just ice one of my hooves to the ground and either counter throw Arizona with a switch in momentum or I’d stop her with a sharp one legged buck to the face depending on what my condition is at the time. I believed Arizona learned her lesson after that when it came to trying to hammer throw her most beautiful wife around. Our most loving wife actually loved getting thrown around like that. “Meep.” Paprika intoned with an excited smile. “Why yes, I think so too Paprika.” She kissed me on the cheek and went back to watching the tornado that was Arizona slide to the center of the arena. -Arizona- And… now! I twisted Jock’s ankle and aimed his face for the first pillar to enter my sight. He slammed into the pillar with enough force to embed his beak, the pillar itself embedded into the wall behind where it used to be. I waited for the referee's call or for Jock to pull free. He pulled himself out. I’ll actually acknowledge the guy was actually pretty tough, but he didn’t look like he had much left in him. He still came at me and we traded a few attacks, his hits were pretty much negligible and then he jumped away from me. “I guess I should unleash my special move!” Oh, great words, for someone who’s taking a beating Jock. “I’m going to rock~!” Jumping up high and kicking off an intact stone pillar, he spread his arms out wide and then came down with one foot with a surprising amount of speed. He struck the arena with a thunderous enough force to launch me a foot or two into the air, then I felt him grappling me by the barrel. “I’ll do it, just add hawk~!” He pushed us both off the ground and we went spiraling upwards. “One hop and a… Skull Buster Drop~!” I was turned upside down and we spiraled towards the ground, I looked at the smug smirk on his beak and then gave him one of my own just before we hit the ground. -Velvet- The arena filled with dust and I just shook my head, to think you call me a drama queen Arizona. “Um… aren’t you worried that your wife just got smashed into the ground?” We didn’t know you very well Ollie, but you would learn soon enough how tough the Paca La Perm herd was. “Winner, Arizona!” The dust started clearing and there was Arizona sitting there looking bored, behind her was a smoking hole in the ground. “What in the world?!” Yeah, that’s why you never drop your guard around her Ollie, Arizona knows fighting and she’s so stupidly strong that you ignore her impossible strength at your own risk. “That was most impressive and made for a good show, SHE AWESOMELY RAMMED HIM THROUGH SIX FEET OF SOLID STONE!” The book intoned as everyone stared at a pair of orange boots sticking out of the hole in the floor of the arena. -Arizona- “Is he…” The referee started. “He’ll live, I braced his neck before I did that.” I had a fluffy wife to go cuddle against. This was at most a small warmup. “You’ll have to get someone else to dig him out though. The guy really needs to work on his skills a bit more.” -Shocking Awe- “I’ll still take him under my wing, he showed at least some promise. There aren’t too many opponents that would have been worse for him to fight.” I grinned at the carnage the cow left behind, yes it was so beautiful and breathtaking. I wanted to feel something like that personally! “Heh, I can’t wait to fight you again Arizona. I certainly hope you feel the same way towards me, good rivals are really quite hard to find these days.”