The Bloodied Hands Arena/Tel-Eth vs Mireya the Hedgewolf: Single Battle

== Spectating ==
In the stands, Kara the Dolphin and her nearly identical-looking brother, Eric, sat down in the stands. Kara looked somewhere between amused and perturbed, while Eric looked completely stoic as usual.
"Why did you do this?" Kara asked Eric quizzically.
Eric did not respond, but a faint smirk appeared on his face.
Kara sighed and rolled her eyes.
The two remained silent until Mireya yelled at Eric, causing Eric to chuckle.
"I really meant it before, you know," Kara said. "Unlike you, I'm not sadistic, and I care about the wellbeing of our little sister. Sure I know she'll be unscathed at the end, but you didn't have to put her through the psych—"
Eric raised a hand, palm out, in silence.
Kara rolled her eyes again. "Eric, you do this to Mireya again and I'm sicking my Wisps on you."
"I'll shoot 'em," Eric said, faintly smirking again.
Kara grimaced and looked back to the battle.
Vendeta sat in a seat next to Kara. He wasn’t usually late to these things, but he had had other matters to attend to in outer space.
”So,” he asked Kara, “that girl‘s up against Tel-Eth? She must be pretty powerful.”
"Ask Eric," said Kara.
Eric, not shifting his glance from the arena, said, "Unstoppable force versus unmovable object. She's not powerful per se, just indestructible."
Kara cut in, "So basically, your friend Tel-Eth is going to infinitely hit a wall...but then again, so will Mireya, making this pretty pointless."
A bit later, Kara was very surprised when Mireya landed a hit on Tel-Eth. "I didn't know she had a chance," she said, the surprise evident in her voice.
"I told you this'd be interesting," said Eric, the hint of a smile appearing on his face.
"Weird," Vendeta said. "Tel-Eth's not using much psychokinesis. He could have ended this battle a lot quicker. Maybe he just wants to enjoy the fight?"
"Or maybe he's interested in making this a teaching opportunity," Kara said. "Does your friend have a tendency to instruct his adversaries as he combats them?"
Kara didn't notice what was going on in the battle due to her absorption with speaking to Vendeta, but Eric did, and a barely-visible expression of pain appeared on his face as he saw Mireya's accidental self-attack.
"No," Vendeta replied to Kara. "No, he wouldn't."
"Hmm," Kara said thoughtfully. "Probably just sadistic then. Kinda like my brother."
"The teasing is no longer enjoyable," Eric said flatly.
"I'll have to dig into your mindset on the way home," Kara said, giving a sideways glance to Eric. "Or not," she said, a look of confusion coming over her face as she looked at Eric's expression.
”Did you recommend for her to go up against him or something?“ Vendeta asked Eric.
Eric remained silent, his gaze fixated on the arena.
"Yeah," Kara said. "Yeah, he did."
"I didn't realize she was so...inept when I did that," Eric said.
"That's hardly a kind thing to say about your sister," Kara said.
"You didn't see what I saw," Eric said.
Kara looked at Vendeta as if to ask his opinion, looking just as confused as she had before.
"What did you see that convinced you she could win this?" Vendeta asked Eric.
"She's completely indestructible," said Eric, "essentially giving her unlimited endurance. If she can outlast her opponent, she may well win."
"The Arena re-creates anyone who's annihilated, right?" asked Kara, throwing a suspicious look at Eric.
"I wouldn't have signed her up if I weren't sure," said Eric.
Kara let out a sigh of relief that was probably louder than she intended for it to be, then looked back at the arena. "Oh hey," she said with mild enthusiasm, "Mireya's actually fighting and not just getting beaten up. Wow." After a few seconds, Kara sighed and added, "...Or not," then started to redact that moments later, saying, "Wait–"
"Stop it," said Eric, giving Kara an amused glare.
"Get some help," said Kara, giving Eric a look that showed that, for her part, Kara was far less than amused.
Kara and Eric were fairly absorbed in the fight for a good bit after this until Kara's focus was broken by Mireya's loud noise. "What precisely is going on here?" Kara said, looking at Vendeta once it was clear that Eric wasn't going to respond.
"I think she fell over," Vendeta replied.
"That...makes sense," said Kara, looking back at the fight. "Mireya does that regularly." A few seconds later, Kara added, audibly impressed, "But apparently she has better balance than I thought—" Kara stopped short mid-sentence to try once again to discern events in the arena.
Shortly thereafter, upon noticing Tel-Eth's teleportation, Kara turned to Vendeta and commented, "If I'm seeing things right, it looks like your friend is finally pulling out the stops."
"If he was, there wouldn't be any ground left to stand on," Vendeta replied. "Although admittedly I wouldn't know of any other way out of that...bear hug?"
"Yeah, that was weird," said Kara, chuckling a bit. She muttered something that sounded like "I totally ship" and that earned her a momentary amused glare from Eric.
When Kara looked back at the arena, she did a momentary double-take before relaxing again. "If anyone else got hit by a dart like that," she said, "I'd think they were a goner. But Mireya is tough." After a couple of seconds, Kara added with slight hesitation, "...and I think she has regenerative blood as well."
”I’d hope so,” Vendeta replied. He used his psychokinesis to pull a large box of popcorn over to him.
"Whether or not she does," Eric said, eyes still glued to the fight, "the Arena will take care of that."
Kara waited a few seconds before commenting again. "Has Mireya lost yet?" she said, some trepidation creeping into her voice.
"No," Eric said with full seriousness. Hearing an interrogative noise from Kara, he said pointedly, "Watch the arm."
Kara squinted to see what Mireya was doing. "What's she...oh wait," she said, almost literally holding her breath as she tried to deduce the events. This led to an extremely sharp inhale when Mireya moved sharply, followed by a loud yell of, "Wait WHAT?!?" upon seeing Mireya's abrupt movement.
Eric shook his head in mild amusement. "Anyone who has reactions like in my line of work winds up in the line of fire," he said.
"I think we see why I'm not in your line of work, then," Kara said, giving a sharp glare that was meant to be aimed at Eric, but shot at an empty bit of wall near him due to Kara's distraction.
Vendeta snorted at Tel-Eth's last words. "Like he'd know what the makings of a great hero is."
Kara, who hadn't been paying attention to the arena for the final few seconds, looked back at it. "Oh," she said disappointedly. "I guess Mireya actually did lose this time."
Eric nodded, his expression now back to its usual unreadable state. 
== The Bloodied Battle ==
Mireya the Hedgewolf stalked into the arena, her "normal" composure (so frequently unseen) completely shattered in this instant. Looking like she was going to fall over at any second on her heeled boots, Mireya muttered something repeatedly under her breath, casting baleful glances over her shoulder at someone in the stands as she made her way into the center of the arena.
Tel-Eth walked into the arena calmly, hands in his pockets, trenchcoat sweeping out behind him. He stopped and looked at his opponent.
"So, you're Mireya then?" he asked.
Mireya looked completely baffled. "How do you know who I am?" she asked, her former angry demeanor replaced by sheer confusion.
”You expect me to enter this arena without knowing the name of my opponent?”
Mireya simply stared at Tel-Eth, her mouth partly open, before finally saying in a small voice, "No."
“That said, I know nothing about your powers, so...” Tel-Eth gets into a fighting stance. “Why don’t you show me?”
Mireya sighed, grabbed her rectangular blades from her sides, and charged haphazardly at Tel-Eth with her blades extended in front of her. Tel-Eth stands still for a moment and then calmly steps to the side just before Mireya would have hit him.
Mireya flailed her arms as she skidded to a halt, trying desperately not to fall over. Regaining her balance, Mireya turned around to face Tel-Eth (and, incidentally, the stands), yelled something indistinct at the stands that ended with "ERIC!", then advanced towards Tel-Eth again, this time at a more moderate speed.
Tel-Eth teleport dashes up to Mireya and tries to punch her in the gut, hitting her squarely and making her double over backwards as she failed to dodge at all. After a momentary wince, Mireya got back up and swung her right blade at Tel-Eth, trying to clip him in the side. Tel-Eth creates a Force Blade and uses it to parry Mireya’s attack before trying to kick her in the stomach, again connecting and knocking over Mireya.
Mireya lay on her back on the floor for a few seconds before trying to get up and hit Tel-Eth again, swinging her left blade towards his left side and pushing her right blade straight forwards, trying to make it harder for him to simply dodge or block. Tel-Eth flies up over the blades, hanging in the air just above Mireya's head. Mireya halted in her tracks, noticing that Tel-Eth was already out of her line of attack.
"Why do you keep just dodging out of the way?" Mireya said, sounding somewhat annoyed. "This isn't even fun for either of—wait, it's probably fun for you..." Mireya used her apparently-random monologue to buy a bit of time to try to turn around and swing her left blade up at Tel-Eth, moving her right more forwards again to try to counter him landing or flying a bit further upwards (though she had no plans for if he moved to the side or acted while she couldn't see him, due to him being behind her before she turned around). Tel-Eth flies straight back, out of reach of Mireya's blades. He then dashes forward and tries to punch her.
The punch connected as usual. This time, Mireya's blades were in such an awkward position that the hit make her fumble and spin them around a bit, causing one of the blades' backs to slash her in the side. Mireya grimaced, but as she maneuvered into another charging position, anyone looking from the side would be able to see through the tear that the wound completely healed up in about a second. Now apparently unscathed, Mireya charged at Tel-Eth again; if he dodged to the side, she'd try spinning to try to hit him, while if he flew upwards, she'd try jumping at him (though either maneuver would land her flat on her back if it failed). Tel-Eth dodges to the side, but as he does so he noticed the hole in Mireya’s clothing and the lack of a wound there. Mireya hits him, cutting a scar through his chest, and he stands there, surprised.
“Your regeneration is...impressive,” he said.
"It's what kept me alive this long," Mireya said, getting up and trying to slam Tel-Eth in the chest with the flat of her right blade. Tel-Eth covers his hand in a gauntlet of psychokinetic energy and throws a punch to block Mireya's blade, hoping their two fists will meet.
The block worked, sending Mireya staggering backwards for a moment until she moved the her left blade to where the blade would both touch the arena floor on its sharp side and have its flat side behind her, letting her collide with the flat and thus stop her backwards tumble. What Mireya hadn't counted on was that the abrupt collision left her somewhat dazed, making her unable to move for a few seconds and thus potentially leaving her open for one of Tel-Eth's attacks. Tel-Eth doesn't follow up: he just stood there.
"Get up," he said. "You can do better than this."
Mireya grimaced again as she got to a more defensive position. Thoughts seeemed to be cycling through her head before she spoke. "You know what? Everyone thinks I can't do this. My brother up there wants to watch me fail. Just to prove them wrong, I am gonna win this."
Mireya abruptly charged at Tel-Eth, swinging her right blade in an arc towards him in an attempt to either slash him or at least smack him. If that failed, her left blade was coming in a similar reverse arc slightly behind the right, balancing her and keeping her from falling if nothing else. Tel-Eth dropped below the first blade, going for a sweep attack to knock Mireya off her legs, following up with a downwards elbow strike if he succeeded. The attack worked, but Mireya continued to swing her left blade around, putting more force into the strike in an attempt to hit Tel-Eth. Tel-Eth created a Force Blade just in time to parry Mireya's attack, quickly floating away from Mireya.
Mireya tried to jump back up and attack Tel-Eth, lunging directly into her blades (which she hadn't realized were there) and making her fall back over as she hit herself in the stomach. After a couple of seconds of visible pain and damage, the injury healed over, and Mireya got back up, carefully this time to avoid another collision. Mireya breathed hard for a moment before straightening up. "OK, dude," she said. "Time for round two."
Mireya charged at Tel-Eth, pivoting slightly to try to slam him with her right blade's flat and swinging her left out in a reverse arc; a nearly identical move to her previous move, but in a wider arc to maximize the area that could theoretically hit Tel-Eth (at the cost of minimizing the possibility of hitting with her blades) and to avoid the possibility of hitting herself again should she fall. Tel-Eth parries both of the attacks with his Force Blades, one in each hand, and follows up by trying to stab both blades into Mireya's shoulders, one blade per shoulder. The attack hit Mireya, causing her to flinch, but instead of trying to extricate herself from the blades, she simply pulled slightly out of the right one, using her close proximity to try to hit clip Tel-Eth through the chest with her right blade. Tel-Eth pulls the right blade out and uses it to block Mireya's blade, keeping the left blade in. Mireya pulled backwards as she tried to figure out what to do, causing her to stagger and fall on her back, where she lay as she considered her options and as her shoulders healed up. Tel-Eth let her heal and think for a moment before trying to stomp on her chest. Mireya stayed down, still thinking, but in obvious pain from Tel-Eth's attacks.
"Most enemies wouldn't give you time to lie and think like this," Tel-Eth said flatly. He walks away from Mireya, his back turned, creating several force blades directly above Mireya. Mireya simply stood up through the blades, letting them cut through her as she rushed at Tel-Eth, her body beginning to regenerate as she moved. "I'm done thinking," she said, swinging both blades in an outwards arc at Tel-Eth. Tel-Eth keeps his back turned to Mireya as she runs forward. As she swings the blade, he floats backwards past Mireya’s attack, stopping once he’s directly behind Mireya, facing the back of her head. He then tries to Force Palm her in the chest. The attack connected, but Mireya spun as she fell, trying to slash Tel-Eth on the way down. The hit lands, although Tel-Eth moves slightly before it can really damage him.
“Good,” Tel-Eth said. “Keep going.”
Mireya bounced back up faster than she'd done in the match, dashing at him and spinning a bit to try to catch him wherever he was (as she hadn't had time to see and react to precisely where he'd moved to). Mireya slowed down a bit as a sudden thought occurred to her. "What are you trying to do, psyche me out?" she said as she moved.
“I’m trying to make you a worthy opponent,” Tel-Eth replies. He walks up to Mireya slowly.
Mireya stopped moving, a sudden look of apprehension on her face as the scared 9-year-old in her replaced her tough fighter mentality. "...What are we doing in here again?" she said, her voice meeker and higher-pitched than it had been. Having been able to keep herself moving for so long out of anger alone, she'd only just been snapped to a state of confusion at current affairs. "What are we supposed to get out of fighting each other?"
“We’re here for the entertainment of a crowd. I’m here to make you a worthwhile opponent, strong enough to stand on your own. Your regeneration won’t save you forever. I could have ended this fight easily if I wanted too, but that denies both objectives. Now...” Tel-Eth gets into a fighting stance. “Your move.”
While Tel-Eth spoke, Mireya looked more and more focused and determined. Just after he finished, Mireya spoke in her normal voice—"I'm ready"—before charging at Tel-Eth.
This move had a bit more nuance than Mireya's previous moves. On the surface, she tried to backhand him with her right blade while moving her left in what appeared to be a usual a reverse arc; however, if Tel-Eth didn't intercept this, she'd swing it around in a three-quarter circle and bring it up again for an underhanded upwards strike at Tel-Eth's upper half. Tel-Eth is caught off guard and only narrowly dodges. He moves forward and tries to kick Mireya in the chest. In a first for Mireya, she managed to move her right blade back enough to block Tel-Eth's foot with the flat of the blade, though the resulting impact did make her stagger slightly until she firmly planted her left blade at her side to steady herself. She then kept holding her right blade in front of her, waiting for Tel-Eth to move again. As his kick hits the flat of Mireya's blade, Tel-Eth jumps off it and lands away from Mireya. He then creates a psychokinetic fireball in his left hand and throws it at Mireya.
Mireya stood still for a second as she watched the fireball, considering her options. Momentarily moving to block, she instead decided to run right at the fireball with her right blade out, pivoting slightly to send her into a spin on impact and possibly get a chance of hitting Tel-Eth with the extended blade (while keeping her left close enough to the ground to halt herself if need be). Tel-Eth creates a Force Blade and parries Mireya's blade upwards, following up by moving past the blade and trying to punch Mireya in the chest. Mireya, having gotten knocked off-balance by the blade's upwards movement, started to crumple backwards, but managed to land on all fours instead. As she got up and thus raised her blades, she tried to slash at Tel-Eth's legs. Tel-Eth floated upwards over the blades and tries to kick Mireya in the head. The kick was successful, causing Mireya to crumple over backwards, somewhat stunned from the headshot. Tel-Eth follows up the kick by doing teleport dashing a short distance above Mireya and divekicking her. Still stunned, all that Mireya managed to do was twist slightly to one side in an attempt to dodge, one that didn't ultimately protect her from the divekick's effects. Tel-Eth then teleport dashed behind her as he finished the divekick and kicked her in the back, hoping to knock her away.
If Tel-Eth had been trying to beat down Mireya, he couldn't have done worse. Mireya's blades acted as supports, making the kick knock her into a partly-standing position, from which she quickly pulled herself into a fully-standing position. Twisting herself around to face Tel-Eth, a somewhat-pained smirk could be seen on her face as she said, "Wrong move." Mireya planted her left blade for support while she moved her right into a blocking position, awaiting Tel-Eth's next attack.
Tel-Eth is surprised by Mireya's lack of falling to the ground; she was improving quickly. He then went for a slide attack, leading with his right leg, that would knock Mireya into the air if it hit. Mireya blocked with her right blade, bracing herself with her left. She then tried to slash downwards at Tel-Eth with her right blade, hoping to hit him while he was in a half-prone position. Tel-Eth was knocked off his feet, but used his flight to right himself in mid air and land away from Mireya.
Mireya didn't waste any time. Taking only a moment to breathe and un-brace herself, she charged at Tel-Eth, trying to press her temporary advantage by once again trying to strike down at him while he was down. Tel-Eth sidesteps Mireya’s attack but doesn’t follow up.
”Good,” he said. “Keep going.”
This time, Mireya didn't even respond, spinning to face Tel-Eth. After stopping in place to balance herself by putting her blades out to the sides, Mireya thrust her blades directly at Tel-Eth. If Tel-Eth moved, it would bring her forwards slightly, but wouldn't knock her over and would keep her blades in front of her in a 60º arc. Tel-Eth ducked under the blades and went for a sweep attack. Mireya nearly fell over backwards, but spun slightly and used her blades as makeshift crutches to keep her upright. She then got up again and tried a hard downwards slash at Tel-Eth with her right blade. Tel-Eth rolls to the right and goes for a roundhouse kick to the Mireya’s ribs. Mireya pivoted towards Tel-Eth to try to block his attack, but was slightly too late to avoid it connecting; however, instead of buckling backwards, Mireya managed to lunge forward, trying to hit Tel-Eth on her way down. Tel-Eth is knocked down and tries to grab Mireya while she's down with him and throw her into the air. If he succeeded, he'll teleport dash above her and kick her downwards.
The throw didn't exactly work as planned. Mireya planted her blades into the ground, making her avoid going into the air, but her position in relation to her blades made her twist around and end up in an awkward heap on the ground (on top of Tel-Eth, if he was still there). "This was a mistake," Mireya muttered, compounding the problem by trying and failing to un-twist herself. Tel-Eth just teleport dashed out from under Mireya.
”You could have thought that through a little better,” Tel-Eth pointed out.
Mireya made a set of incomprehensible noises of frustration, culminating in a rather loud (but muffled) yell as she finally extricated herself from herself and whacked herself face-first on the ground in the process. Mireya did manage to get up pretty promptly afterwards, albeit dizzily, and resumed one of her standard blocking positions as she tried to regain her bearings. Tel-Eth lets Mireya get up before attacking again, this time trying to stab Mireya in the upper chest with a Force Blade. Mireya blocked, but wobbled a bit from the impact, remaining in her now slightly off-center blocking position. Tel-Eth kept up the pressure, creating a Force Blade in the other hand and swinging it upwards. Mireya braced herself from behind with her right blade as she kept blocking with her left, an expression of some increasing emotion appearing on her face. Tel-Eth followed up by swinging the other Force Blade horizontally.
The follow-up, while blocked, made Mireya stagger backwards from the impact, slamming hard against her right blade and beginning to slide down it. In a sudden flurry of movement, Mireya abruptly pulled the blade out from under herself and spun around to try to slice Tel-Eth with it, holding her left blade near the ground to brace herself when the spin ended or if Tel-Eth took advantage of her temporary vulnerability to try to deck her. Tel-Eth ducks under the blade but goes for a kick attack, mistakenly believing he can knock Mireya down. Mireya braced as planned, leading her to wind up in an awkward lock with her left blade boxing her in from behind and her right blade boxing Tel-Eth against her from the front. "This is weird," Mireya said, half under her breath. Tel-Eth doesn’t say anything but clearly agrees, teleport dashing behind Mireya and out of the weird half-hug. He turns round, ready for Mireya’s attack.
Mireya, who had decided to pull back to try to unlock herself just before Tel-Eth teleported out, succeeded in doing so, spinning around both to catch her balance and to try to hit Tel-Eth's side with her now-extended right-blade. Tel-Eth blocks the blade with his own Force Blade and tries to punch Mireya in the face with his free hand. Mireya blocked with her left blade, then pushed forwards hard on both blades, trying to make Tel-Eth give out on one attack or the other, which would then let Mireya collide with Tel-Eth blade-flat-first and thus knock him down, giving her an advantage.
Surprisingly, Mireya's plan nearly worked; Tel-Eth is succesfully knocked down, but quickly rolls to his feet. He creates two Force Blades and throws them at Mireya. Mireya blocked one dart with her left blade (still in its blocking position), but wasn't fast enough to stop the other dart. Grimacing, Mireya dropped her right blade and tried to pull out the dart. Tel-Eth ran towards her and swung his fist at her. Just before he hit, however, he teleport dashed behind her and continued the attack.
Mireya, who had just managed to pull out the dart (a process hastened in an effort to avoid what she perceived to be an effort by Tel-Eth to ram it back in), was quickly floored. The combination of the now-open wound and the hard impact of the floor completely winded Mireya, as well as shooting a good deal of blood out of her back—potentially hindering Tel-Eth—before the wound would close up a couple of seconds later (provided that Tel-Eth didn't do anything to provoke it further). Tel-Eth is momentarily blinded by the blood but quickly swipes it away with his psychokinesis.
The psychokinetic swipe—or perhaps an unconscious reaction to it on Mireya's part—caused Mireya to roll over onto her back, from which she tried to stagger to her feet (a difficult task, given how winded she was). Tel-Eth walks over to her and goes for another punch to the face. Mireya, who couldn't have resisted even if she'd wanted to, was knocked down at once. Mireya groaned in annoyance and boredom as she lay prone, trying to recover her energy. Tel-Eth folded his arms.
”Is this the limit of your regeneration?” he asked, sounding less mocking and more just curious.
Mireya breathed hard for a few seconds. "I only have so much air," she finally said, sounding annoyed.
Inhaling as deeply as she could, Mireya tried to reach across herself to grab her right blade, which had been lying on the floor since she dropped it half a minute earlier. Tel-Eth waits for Mireya to stand up before he'd engage her; even if he could have won, he wanted to give Mireya enough time to improve and learn what it's like to fight knowing you're probably going to fall. And anyway, it's not like he couldn't win if he wanted to.
Mireya didn't know or even guess at what was going on in Tel-Eth's head. The hesitation when reaching for her blade, only partly from exhaustion, was in equal part due to another factor: she'd come up with a plan. Finally grabbing her blade, the pretense of extreme exhaustion abruptly dropped as Mireya swung the blade hard in front of her and to her right, letting go of the handle with the intention to send it flying through Tel-Eth's midsection. In the same movement, Mireya stood up, though she was clearly in no condition to fight; breathing hard and leaning on the one blade she was still holding, she'd be completely vulnerable to whatever counter-measures Tel-Eth might take to block her blade-throwing attack.
Tel-Eth is caught off guard by the attack, and he only narrowly dodges the blade, which rakes a gash across his side. He then teleport dashes up to Mireya and tries to kick her in the side. Unable to dodge, Mireya was knocked over against the flat of her blade, collapsing onto the ground on top of it. World spinning from lack of air, Mireya hovered between consciousness and unconsciousness. Tel-Eth stood over Mireya.
"You have the makings of a great hero in you," Tel-Eth told her. "Don't squander it."
A psychokinetic fireball forms in Tel-Eth's right hand: not a strong one, just enough to knock Mireya out for now.
I tried, Mireya thought, noticing the fireball in her blurry vision. I tried.
Mireya didn't have time to think anything more before the fireball hit her.
Category:Bloodied Hands Matches
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