raze & ruin // niko vs. karl

[pup]

It hurt. That's wrong. It shouldn't have hurt. It's not supposed to hurt. After the torment, after the anger, after the death, seeing Itzal's face in the sky wasn't supposed to send pangs of sadness through Niko. They weren't friends-- they couldn't have been after Itzal sent his sword through Ivy's body in tune with Mirage's, but he had been the last bit of home when they were so far from the familiar.

When Elm's face appeared in the night, their screams rung in his ears as loud as if they were still standing besides him, weeping over their foot hanging askew. Elm didn't seem terrible, but just like Ivy, their life was cut short by a monster. Maybe that's what happened to Itzal too- that must have been it. Mirage must have done the math and realized her only ally, the only person willing to put up with her in this arena, would soon become her enemy. That would make sense.

Staring at his stump of a foot after the anthem rises, Niko determines that must have been what happened. Mirage is a monster, and to make it back home he must stop her.

He can't sleep that night. His eyes continue resting on his mangled limb and the piece of his shirt he used to staunch the bleeding and cover where the bone protruded from his body. In every moment where's about to fall asleep, Elm's torment returns to his mind in painful blasts. Bean, the traitor who led him to Mirage's sword, dozes next to him. The seelie could rest easy knowing it's done its job to lead him to disaster.

When morning finally arrives, he pushes himself off the ground and tries to sneak away from the mutt. Unfortunately, the glowing blob seems to always know where he is and immediately perks up as Niko moves away from it.

Niko resigns to letting the creature follow him. He learned yesterday that it's not worth expending his energy to try and squash the creature.

Marching onwards, he wants to put as much distance between himself and the floating islands as possible. The further he is away from the scene of Elm's ghastly death the better. All he wants his to survive and find some way to forget this. Maybe their screams will soon fade from memory and the stones crunching against each other on the ground will soon no longer sound like Mirage's sword tearing through bone.

When he reaches the decrepit structures, he knows he's come to a dangerous place. When he had seen them from the top of the peak, he had thought it might provide some form of cover or solace. But no, the footsteps are already nearing him.

Turning his face, he wearily clutches his weapon. The dark circles under his eyes seem to weigh him down, and his blood-deprived features must be shining pale in the sun hanging overhead.

He doesn't want another fight. Not with this person who he's never met before. After days of fighting, all of the names and districts he had remembered had blurred into a sea of light in the sky.

The seelie is gone, of course. It flees at the sight of battle. If only it could be that easy. Niko is once again alone with the painful reminder that is all he will ever be here. Alone and desperate to make it home. There’s no more pride in him, his sense of justice was torn away from him at the moment he had brought Elm to the ground for Mirage to finish off. Mirage’s comments had angered him at first, they were nothing alike. But as the fight wore on he realized it didn’t matter. In the violence, they are all the same.

The other boy seems just as battle worn as Niko, if not more, and Niko wonders what he has lost. Unfortunately, Niko must make sure he loses a lot more.

"Sorry, we have to meet this way," he says, his voice weighed down by a lack of sleep. His eyes blink, trying to keep the tiredness at bay. He’ll sleep when this is over.

"You haven’t happened to see a case wandering around by the name of Mirage, have you?" Despite the terror she instilled in him, he would much prefer to be fighting her. "If I have to die at some point, I’d prefer to see her go first."

But he knows the fight is inevitable. There are only a few left in the arena. If not now, he’d likely need to face this boy sometime soon anyways.

attacks karl with naginata (glaive)
0kWxtDB_dyglaive
[Deep Gash on Right Bicep -- 8.0 damage]

---

bean

[kaitlin]

glaive

[tick 12a / calla]

► ► ►

Aed comes back eventually, after Dyno's come and gone, after Karl's done his little routine of lying on his back staring up at the sky until his eyes go dry. He's stopped sleeping now. Because now, the heart seems to be louder with a crack in the jar, and so the sound travels better.

It's like a deep drum. Everytime he nearly drifts off, it crashes again.

But the sunlight is weak when it seeps through the sky eventually, and the air is thick when Aed floats back in lazily. It moves gelatinous through the air, pushing and heaving like the humidity is a solid thing it has to push against.

It creaks once, long and low as it descends and tries to get back into Karl's bag.

He knows better though. It wants the heart.

He swats at it and it spins on itself, rolling a few feet through the haze before it trots back like a sad balloon.

"No." Karl tells the little traitor. "I don't care where you've been."

Because it always seems to be conveniently disappearing when the trouble starts, and then only returns once Karl is battered and bloody and unable to throttle it properly. He looks at it and wants to pop it like a water balloon. Or a particularly ripe berry.

"Shoo." He hisses at it, waving his scythe through the air and frowning as the seelie merrily evades it.

Or, maybe merrily isn't the right word. There's an inherent sort of grossness to it that Karl's started to notice. Yael's seelie was a bright, bright yellow. Calamity's was a blinding little blossom light. The one that follows Karl around seems like it's sick. It's putrid, and its light is dim, flickering in and out like a weak candle, and sometimes the sound it makes sets his teeth on edge - nothing like the merry babbling that Johnny's had.

Maybe this is just some part of the curse that Karl's undoubtedly under. This is some kind of omen and it's rotting just like his jar, it's rotting just like him.

He feels half-dead from it. He feels like a bad wound. He wraps his leg tight enough that the skin goes bone-white. He still has to lean on the scythe as he walks, there's something in his thigh that's been cut and when he moves funny it makes his whole leg jerk and he has to stop and catch his breath and focus on not screaming.

But he has to move, because Dyno knows where he is now, and he can't be caught off guard again.

He makes his way down the mountain slowly and Aed stays for once, hovering annoyingly in his peripherals and clicking. It looks like it's going to storm, so Karl directs course under one of the arches that he and Johnny had bypassed before. It's a moment of respite for his leg when he leans against a pillar and he can practically taste the rain on the air now. There's a few distant booms of thunder that make him jump. The hum of electricity reminds him of the horses and he starts looking back over his shoulder.

His allies were picked off one by one, all in a row, and now he's returned the favour. Now he's going to kill Brennan, and then Dyno, and then Mirage. And then the heart will be appeased. And then Karl can sleep.

The heaviness of the air parts for a breath then, and a figure walks out, asking after Mirage, of all things.

Karl tenses, and takes a step back.

"I haven't seen her since before." He gestures to the fog around them, the storm-clouds coming in, the thunder starting to boom.

"I'd prefer to see her go first."

"We have something in common, then."

The heart hadn't frenzied at his voice. It doesn't care about this one, maybe they can just -

His weapon digs into the arm holding the scythe and Karl stumbles. He catches himself on the pillar and breaths harshly through his nose, staving the pain away.

Career slayer, Dyno had called him. Except this boy doesn't look like a career.

"I know where she is though." He tries; terrible little liar, self-survivalist, "I can show you."

karl attacks niko | scythe (glaive)
jl0dFN7Wi0glaive
13068 -- Shallow Cut on Right Shoulder -- 3.5 damage

glaive

[pup]

The boy alternate to Niko wields a mean looking weapon with a blade sharpened to a round point. There are only seven tributes left, so even as he talks about commonalities, Niko's sleep-deprived brain is working in overtime. There is no more room for peace. Their common enemy had taught him that.

Niko's blade slices into the arm holding the weapon. The boy withholds his screams which is a small solace to Niko. If he goes down, at least he won't go down screaming like Elm. One person's sobbing and howls piercing his ears at every moment is more than enough. There is no more room in his brain for another tribute's pain with Elm's dying noises already ricocheting around his cranium. He could even hear their voice now, clawing its way past their blood and through the humid air to curse Elm's final obscenities at Niko and Mirage.

No, he can't handle another death like that. At least the other tribute's words now seem to come from the same source as the familiar taunting which had plagued every other fight. It almost made it easier. Instead of a person with blood and thoughts, he's now just a character in Niko's sleepless dream. There's no screaming. There's just an enemy with a thesaurus of words which could no longer hurt him.

However, Karl's words still give him pause. He considers it for a moment. Making sure Mirage is not let loose on the world could be worth risking his life with another loose alliance. The thought is struck from him though as the curved blade comes swinging at him. He moves just in time for to avoid his neck flying off his body. Instead, the weapon grazes his shoulder and elicits a pained gasp from him.

That's when the canon goes off in the distance. It's a familiar sound now, almost welcoming. It's another step closer to home, but even better, it means that there's a one in five chance Mirage just died. Even if he didn't get to do the honors, seeing her face in the sky tonight is cause enough to survive this battle.

He points upwards with one hand before tapping a finger gently at his ear. "Hear that?" He asks, knowing full well the last six tributes could tell and were counting down the canons, "No way for me to know if you can show me where she is until I see the faces in the sky now, and I don't think I can afford to wait all day."

It's back to the taunting, the flirtation with death as if this is all a terrible play. Hopefully his dad has enough sense to cover the TV screen to stop his sister from watching. It still hurts to think of her watching him say the things he needs to say.

Raising his weapon once again he continues.

"I hope that when I see your face up there tonight, it'll be right next to Mirage's."

attacks karl with naginata (glaive)
ZVqwZp0gjTglaive
[Severed Right Forearm at Elbow -- 9 damage]

---

bean

[kaitlin]

glaive

[tick 12a / calla]

► ► ►

The boy sidesteps and Karl finally sees his face.

Niko. Itzal's partner - and so far, not even half as annoying.

The cannon makes Karl jump so hard that he nearly loses his grip on the scythe.

"Hear that?" Niko asks, and Karl glances between him and the sky. Aed drifts across and Karl pretends he doesn't notice.

The selfish part of him hopes that the cannon was for Dyno. The practical part of him hopes it was Mirage. Because against all odds, he's more afraid of her than him. He can handle Dyno because he understands him now, there's this sick thing festering between them. But Mirage is too much like Yael. It makes him uneasy.

The sudden vitriol from Niko takes Karl aback slightly, and he gapes as the weapon swings towards him, landing in his dominant arm again - he's smart. If he can't hold the scythe, then he can't hold himself up, then he can't fight.

But it's alright, he grits his teeth, he just has to reroute. He went through this with Dyno and he went through this with Johnny, he just has to change tactics. He doesn't want to get any closer to the other boy - so that's out. The docile act isn't working. He had to shed the whole little lamb thing yesterday when Calamity gave him teeth and a proper working heart and made him into a wolf.

Blood drips down his arm and then falls, pattering to the ground. It doesn't feel right yet though, he doesn't know if he's supposed to fight back or not, Karl waits for -

badump-badump-badump

He smiles.

"Okay." He says softly, going very, very still.

Then to Niko - "It doesn't like you anymore."

Lately, the things that have threatened Karl have tended to die. Lately, it's the blood that makes the heart go warm and thump against his hip.

"You need to go now."

karl attacks niko | scythe (glaive)
kCxWCqn68wglaive
13129 -- Shallow Cut on Left Thigh -- 3.5 damage

glaive

[pup]

A chill creeps through the humid air and latches itself onto the back of Niko's neck. Scurrying down his spine like a millipede late for an event, a shiver runs through him at Karl's words. He knows there's no one else who feels it because there's no one else around to watch the cool insanity in the scythe-wielding tribute's eyes. He matches Karl's stillness, raising his weapon in defense at the subtle horrors hidden behind the boy's voice.

Niko is no stranger to this insanity or to the desperation which fuels it. Before the keepers had thrown him in the detention center for dealing, he had seen it time and time again. He had been on the receiving end of punches from such people but before, but he had never faced down someone with such emotionless need who was also holding a scythe.

When Karl moves, Niko jumps in time. Their weapons clash together for a few noisy moments before the curve of the blade slides down and bites into Niko's thigh. The boy from eleven must be trying to remove his other leg from use.

He grits his teeth. At least the pain and resulting adrenaline is pulling him out of his sleepless stupor and to attention.

"I'm not sure what it is, buddy, but I'm not sorry if I hurt it's feelings."

He needs to make whatever it is angry. Whatever monstrous thing it is needs to be thrown off it's game. That's what the taunting is for, right? It's why Itzal said those terrible, terrible things, why Mirage would call out insults in her scientifically cold manner, or why Elm had screamed obscenities. The anger is why Niko would miss attack after attack and fail to kill who needs to be killed.

There's no more wincing as he strikes his opponent. The emotions weighing in his heart reduced to a dull ache rather than a searing pain holding back his weapon.

"It sounds like either I or it has to go, so does it need some time to make a will or what?"

attacks karl with naginata (glaive)
mHuHSaX2tXglaive
[block]

accuracy reroll
glaive
[Shallow Cut on Stomach -- 4.0 damage]

---

bean

[kaitlin]

glaive·glaive

[tick 12a / calla]

► ► ►

The blood-loss has started to make him lightheaded again, there's the barest hint of static around the edges of the landscape, and the sound of the heart overlays on itself. It's like seeing double, but now he's hearing double.

There's a scream underneath it all that sounds eerily like Pierce.

“I’m not sorry” Niko says.

And the heart cries out.

Niko's looking at Karl like he's crazy, but Karl isn't crazy. He's not. Cutting out your dead ally's heart and keeping it in a jar for five days, talking to it, isn't a sign of insanity. He's accepted this state of himself.

He's a harbinger. A horseman. He's Calamity's martyr and their storm and now he's their blade too. Maverick and Pierce dying had made the heart happy - he could recognize the sensation of it under the murmur. It was a warm kind of feeling. It rippled over him like water when he held the jar into the night. It made him sweat through his bandages, feverish even when the air cooled.

But now-

Now it turns scorching.

It's one thing to threaten Karl. That's what got the other hurt. But it's entirely another thing for Niko to threaten it.

It really, really, doesn't like that.

Something settles deep in his gut. It reaches up into his ribcage with greedy fingers and tries to split him open. The lightheadedness shifts to a type of delirium, shifts to a type of razor-focus. The days-old stitches in his chest burn like the threads are molten.

Karl looks at Niko with a startling sort of clarity, narrowing his eyes and putting a protective hand over his bag, “It’s not going anywhere.”

karl attacks niko | scythe (glaive)
4KUyLQUfbyglaive
13049 -- Shallow Cut on Neck -- 4.0 damage

glaive

[pup]

Whatever it is must be hidden within the depths of the other boy's bag. From the way his hand instinctively clutches the bloodied sack at the mention of harming it, Niko felt the overwhelming urge to learn what was in that bag. Is it a muttation from the Capitol which bewitched the boy's mind? What if it is a dangerous weapon? Maybe it is a drug he had dug out of the ground somewhere which destroyed his comprehension skills. Hell, what Niko would give for anything like that right about now.

One thing is clear, though. There's only way to find what it is: to kill Karl and take the bag.

However, that was proving more difficult than anticipated. What had first seemed like an easier fight than any of the times Niko had faced off against Mirage was now becoming a war of blood loss. Who would die first from the small gashes they make on each other's skin after rounds of parrying and jabbing their weapons at each other.

The boy seems to become even more of a threat to Niko when it is brought up. His eyes seem to have lost their insanity and now have a more dangerous glint in them.

When the boy from eleven goes for Niko's neck, the scythe almost deals a killing blow. Instead, a slice of pain roars through his body and he can feel the blood beginning to seep out of him from another Karl-created gash. Niko could feel his vision clouding, the tiredness and blood deprivation in a constant battle with his adrenaline.

But he won't give in easily to a case who listens to voices from a bag. No, he has to make it home to Kat.

"Really? It's not going anywhere? I don't know, I might just have to take it off your hands for you."

This time, before striking at Karl, he lunges at the bag. If the boy is so intent to protect it, he'll shield it. Shifting his weapon sideways as he stabs forwards, he slices away from the bag and towards Karl instead. Hopefully the distraction works.

attacks karl with naginata (glaive)
0j2pD2A|_uglaive
[Deep Gash on Left Thigh -- 8.0 damage]

---

bean

[kaitlin]

glaive

[tick 12a / calla]

► ► ►

Karl goes for the head again, but Niko moves just in time. The scythe makes a clean line across his throat, so red that it nearly glows. Everything hones in to where the blood drips down his neck. The world goes still for a moment, and then Niko is rearing back, saying the worst thing he possibly could -

"I might just have to take it off your hands for you."

Niko lunges for the bag, but Karl is already moving. The air shifts strangely and the fog thickens.

"NO!" Karl screams, yanking it back behind himself and taking the blade in his bad leg instead.

The last of his muscle control crumbles. He stumbles backwards as his knee gives out, the scythe clattering to the ground and his body following. His shoulder hits the ground and knocks his breath from him and he feels for the jar briefly -

it's not broken.

It's fine.

Karl lets out a shuddering gasp, it's futile, trying to work around the way it gets caught in his lungs. His arms shake as he reaches for the scythe again. The thunder seems to get louder. He nudges the bag behind him further still, nearly settling himself on top of it.

The sudden panic tastes like pennies. There's Niko, standing over him. There's Karl, trying to protect something already dead.

(The heart, or himself?)

"You can't have it." He says, shaking his head, "It's not yours, it doesn't like you."

You don't belong to it.

karl attacks niko | scythe (glaive)
g82lxetuYWglaive
13005 -- Shallow Cut on Left Thigh -- 3.5 damage

glaive

[pup]

The trick works. As Karl dives to protect his bag, Niko's blade digs deep into his leg. Blood soaks the ground, and it's becoming increasingly impossible to distinguish who's blood left what splotch. Niko's vision grows hazier as he watches Karl reach for the scythe one more time.

It's sad to watch the boy on the ground, shuddering over an unknown object. What could have so much power over him? He might have just thrown his life away grasping to protect something that needed no defending.

Karl's words are futile at this point. It seems that the way this is going, Niko is going to find out what's in that bag.

All Niko needs to do is step bag as the scythe passes across his legs again. The boy is on the ground, bleeding to death. The strike barely registers as it cuts into his leg and mingles with the pain searing throughout the rest of his body.

Niko stumbles forwards, standing over Karl once again. Their fight is nearing the end, one way or another. Maybe it'll be a mercy to free the boy from eleven from whatever has torn his mind apart. No one should need to live like this.

"I don't think it matters what it likes."

Niko says, his breathing heavy and his voice solemn.

"It liking you didn't do you much good."

attacks karl with naginata (glaive)
I8TEeOa6QQglaive
[Shallow Cut on Left Thigh -- 3.5 damage]

---

bean

[kaitlin]

glaive