Rumble at the Ranch

The Quick-Feather Peko Ranch has been open for business now for a little over a week, and life is starting to return to the areas surrounding it. Ranch hands and Crescent Moon members have started cleaning up the weeds and a shipment of Pekos has already arrived from the Ninetails Dominion.

Rylen seems relieved to be back home. It is still chilly outside, but he is already shirtless, likely due to the exericise that comes from working around the farm. Where he had been muscular before, there is additional definition in places, showing that the war has had an impact.

Even the tattoo on his back looks different, more accents added to the marking of wings. It almost seems to glitter in when the light catches it just right. In addition to that, a feathered earring dangles from a peircing that he hadn't had before.

At that moment, however, he has his arms folded across his chest, one eyebrow raised, looking across towards the man who calls himself his partner, his 'boyfriend' even if the term sounds quite silly given the context. "You really want to do this? I recall it didn't end well last time."

The last time these two had sparred, it had left Xander feeling weak questioning his abilities, and Rylen uncertain if he hadn't just ruined a friendship over a 'friendly' fight.

    The dark scaled Salamander was in his full gear from head to toe, including that cape of his moving ever so slightly behind him. "Yes, but that has been awhile hasn't it? You've grown. I've grown. I've been training, just as you have Rylen." Xander grins a little as he lowers his head. The helm casting darkness if his face, allowing his eyes to shine through in their draconic fiery golf glory.

"And I like to see just how badly you can still kick my tail into the ground. Who knows?" He chuckles a little. "Maybe I'll learn to enjoy it." This is followed by a wink as he draws his old sword our and points it toward Rylen. "So, what say you Yoshi. Ready to do this, peko farmer." There was a teasing in his voice. It was easy to see, he was trying to keep it light hearted, though the stance he was taking was slowly becoming a serious one.

Despite the time that has passed between then and now, Rylen remembers the aftermath of that fight all too well. It had felt like 'winning' had turned into a 'loss' as it seemingly drove yet another wedge between the two of them. That had been before they had given up their taunting and teasing and actually given in to becoming more than friends.

There is that hint of wariness there, of repeating past mistakes, but Rylen has never been one to back down from a fight. "As you wish."

He settles back into a defensive stance, easily shifting from farm worker into martial artist. His muscles tense, arms raised with one outstretched, motioning a hand in a 'come get me' motion. "Your move."

     Xander watches as Rylen gives the bring it motion. His foot shifts a little as he moves his own blade into a more ready posture. He steps to the side once, then twice. Then look of play slowly removing from his face. Maybe Marcus remembers that day. Maybe he pushed it back... or maybe he see's this as a chance for redemption toward himself. For all his failures he continues to add up, and losing so often to others as of late, being one of them.

Xander suddenly moved in, but he leaped up, before casting down a bright light. As he landed, he then spun his blade's tip around toward the elf.

The bright light leaves Rylen squinting, his pale eyes more sensitive to it than most, but the man doesn't even flinch as Xander rushes forward with his blade. Just at what seems the last moment, the ground begins to shift underneath him, sliding the martial artist out of the way, trying to negate the brunt of the damage.

Where the Beastmaster is usually a kind and charming individual, all smiles and bluster, he seems serious, muscles tense and eyes focused on his opponent.

The man stomps down once on the ground, kicking up a chunk of rock which hovers for a split second before it ignites with a flick of his fingers. With a soft sound of effort, he thrusts his hands forward, sending the flaming projectile of stone hurtling towards Xander.

    Xander watches as the earth takes Rylen away. It is in this does he realize one fault he has. He was, outdated. Inferior when it came to really mastering the game and bending it. He may not see the game as a gane, but the way he moves. The way he attacks... It is still restricted. Xander tsks at himself, and raises hus shield to take the blunt of the flaming rocks, though one finds his shoulder and burns away at his health.

Xander growls lowly, but his shield flickers with runes around the edge and seems to blast out a burst of glowing magic toward Rylen as he carefully marches forward.

In some ways, Xander and Rylen are polar opposites. Both are stalwart fighters, utilizing strong movements, but Rylen is more fluid, using his natural agility to weave between attacks, where Xander tends to trust in his shield and stamina to get him through.

Once more, Rylen slides sideways, the ground moving with him almost as if it were water, dragging his feet along. He shifts slightly in the motion, running his fingers along the ground at the same time as sweeping back towards Xander.

He slams a fist into the earth. The only sign of the attack coming is the slight rumble of the earth before a stone pillar rises up, intent on slamming right into Xander, continuing to test his defenses blow after blow.

    xander watches ad rylen skates around like an ice skater on ice. the gymnast so easily seen in that moment. Though when Rylen punches the earth, Xander already has a bad feeling.

The earth trembles, abd the Salamander's armor ignites with red runes before he drags his sword across the ground. The ground rushes, and fire bends out of it to rush some of it back toward Rylen. Xander then moves with the flame. His teeth clinched as some of ground gives way, causing him some pain as it tries to punish him. Yet here he comes, sword heated by the very flames he sent ahead to lash out as his companion.

The Salamander's defensive flames had always been an issue for Rylen, enough so that it chips away at his health, leaving a few red marks across his forearms where he wards off the heat.

"Forgot about that." He admits, a hint of a smile beginning to creep onto his features. While Rylen doesn't fight for sport, he does really seem to enjoy competition.

In that moment, Rylen seems to all but ignore the blade coming towards him. It's a calcualted risk. Taking damage in the hopes of doing far more damage in return.

The ground rumbles...

Even as Xander's sword slices against his side, leaving a visible red line that glows faintly, Rylen is already channeling enough elemental energy that small stones start to lift around them.

"How about something new..." He stomps the ground once more, but this time it seems to radiate with power. It sends shockwaves out, blasting earth backwards from the center point of the impact, alarming Pekos and threatening to hit Xander with some very real damage.

    "... What is your game?" Xander hissed out as he watches his blade to cleanly leave a mark. Sadly the knight was about to find out what the monk was up too, as the ground rumbled he looked directly into Rylen's eyes as he said 'something new'.

The ground rumbles still, till the shockwave comes. It hits the Salamander with a force like a thousand fists, sending the Holy Knight back. His back slamming into a tree, cracking the bark, before he goes down to the ground. Xander lays their for a moment as his armor glistens with lines and cracks of digital damage. He slowly pushes himself up, coughing as he does, before getting back up on his feet and throwing his cape to the side.

At this point Rylen can't even see his face. Just a void of darkness cast by the helm with its menacing horns. He raises up his sword in front of him, before he brandishes it to it then blade as he sweeps it to the side. Then the Salamander starts to walk, then races toward Rylen as his sword starts to glow brightly. Then with a sweep of the blade, catching the sun's light, he sends out a flash of magical light toward the earth-breaker.

Rylen stands there in that moment, in the aftermath of the powerful blast of earth elemental energy. His chest heaves and he breaths hard, looking on at the prone form of the man he loves. Under other circumstances, he might feel bad about it, but the fact is, Xander had - quite literally - asked for this.

"Still able to stand, are we?" He asks, giving the Salamander time to get to his feet and right himself. Rylen doesn't seem afraid of that darker countenance. He has seen it before.

It's hard to tell if he's tapped out of mana, or just keeping it in reserve, but rather than sweeping the earth beneath him, he simply moves with fluid grace, avoiding most of the attack that is thrown in reprise.

"Kyo! Hold him off for a bit, will you?" Just as he says it, a crack forms in the earth and the familiar form of a certain undead samurai emerges from her grave. Kyoko, the zombie that Rylen named after his dead sister, holds her blade, eyes hidden by the creepy sprawl of her hair.

She charges forward, just as a crow flies in from one of the nearby trees. Apparently, both creatures named for his sister attack in unison, crow claws and zombie sword.

    Rylen calls in the shadows of his sister to do the work of the monk, and while Xander uses his shield to block away the claws on the crow, the zombie is another matter entirely.

The undead gets her sword against his armor, slashing a strike as he tries to move past her. His sword searing, as he goes to strike our with holy energy on the blade. Though not just with damaging magicks, but trying to aim deep as well.

Even after her initial attack, the undead samurai continues to linger, offering some measure of defense against the holy attacks that Xander throws at her master. There is a snarl as it hisses against her blade and then breaks through her defenses, neatly causing the undead to vanish into little more than smoke and mist as the blade continues forward.

It slashes across Rylen's shoulder and down onto his chest, leaving another glowing red line to add to the series of injuries he's already accumulated. And yet, there is that smile again.

He points upwards, giving Xander only a moment's notice before flaming rocks begin to pummel the ground where he is standing. Rylen, for his part, backflips away with a showman's style, eventually stopping to land on his feet hands raised again for the next assault.

    Rylen points up, Xander looks up, and roars out "Rylen!" With a draconic roar to the sound of his voice. It wasn't shortly after that does the rocks hail down, slamming the area in fire and brimstone.

It should be over, as the smoke clears, the Salamander is down on the ground. Armor is smoking, and damage all over. It should be over, their is no way, and yet...

American Army-Boy Stubborness prevails.

One hand moves, and he pushes it under him, then next moves, as he slides that under him. In some ways, it is, even in the game, proof to why Marcus Peterson, the man behind Xander Scaleharth survived the Flash of Death.

As he rises, he growls lowly, his draconic tail flicks across the ground. "Rylen." He almost says with a low chuckle. "That hurt...". Then his armor glows as he shoves off with his foot, rushing right at the other man almost unnaturally. His eyes almost gleam with a killer instinct, as he actually throws a punch with everything he has left toward the other man.

It should be over.

But Rylen knows better. Xander could survive nearly anything just by raw stubbornness alone. So, there is no surprise on his features as the Salamander gets to his feet again. He still has his defenses raised, hands set in front of him in fists.

"That's the point of fighting, or did you not get the memo?" Rylen replies, the smirk playing on his charismatic features.

And - of course - Xander has to continue the fight when the victor is already clear to anyone watching from the sidelines. Even the Pekos know the outcome by now.

Sliding to the side of the attack, Rylen puts his fingers into his mouth, whistling. A moment later, the shadows reform and the undead samurai actually starts to click irritatedly. She does not attack with her sword - in fact, the weapon is nowhere to be seen. Instead, she just tries to full body tackle Xander and /bite/ him.

Because zombies...

    Xander ended up backing up as the undead sister swung her blade at him, using everything he had to hold his ground, but it was easy to see he was losing steam, but also could be buying time as well.

Xander grit his teeth and looked past 'her', directly at Rylen. "You know," Xander says perhaps forcing himself to not let his mind sink to deep. "You can't keep a good man down... and I have to push myself.. I have to know!"

Xander moves to block another strike. "I was the last to survive. I trained and trained, and yes, you are my god damn /better/, but i have to know /WHY/?" Xander then tries to use holy light on his shield to cast her back into the darkness. "So come on Rylen! Come at me!!"

The zombie's teeth dig against Xander's armor, but they are not able to quite break through, leaving her chewing on him in a way that might look almost comical. From that perspective, one of her eyes is visible, and it looks all too human beneath the grime of grave dirt.

When Xander speaks to Rylen, however, the zombie turns to look at him. The light from the shield has her releasing her hold on the Salamander, but rather than continuing, she simply turns and walks to reclaim her sword. The whole interaction is a bit... strange.

The expression on Rylen's features is a mixture of understanding and 'I told you so'. It feels like the past replaying itself again for him. He looks past Xander, eyeing Moko in his nearby pen. With a flick of his fingers he gives the bird a silent command.

A command that is followed by a rumbling in the ground as Rylen summons up a fireball in his hand. He chucks it, with some speed, towards Xander, intending to knock him back into the fence where Moko can grab onto him. It's an attack more meant to constrain than to actually do outright damage.

The next moment, Rylen has Xander quite literally by the shirt and tugs him forward. "Why do you always have to be looking for a damn reason, Marcus?!" Moments like this, they get to Xander. "Was there a fucking reason that my sister had to die? Was there?!" He raises his voice at that. "The only fucking reason I can think of is for me to have become a better person. To be standing right where I am right now."

His hand clenches more into Xander's shirt. "Why can't this be enough for you?! Why can't you just being here with /me/ be enough?"

With a slight push back against the fence, Rylen releases Xander and turns his back to walk away. "The fight is over. We're done. I need to go cool off."

    Xander is thrown back by the brute force of the fireball, right into the loving arms of a peko... Or is it wings? Then here comes Rylen to look the other man dead in the eyes.

Xander remains rather quiet during all this. He doesn't argue, he doesn't even try to break free. He doesn't even try to fight. The frustration is earned. They both have list so much, and yet...

"That is why... you always will win." Xander says as Rylen lets go, letting himself fall at last to his knees. Tiredly taking off his helm. "And why you will always be the better man, Yoshi." Xander then looks up. ".. And why i love you... and why you are a light to me." His eyes lower their gaze to the ground.

"You know how to hold onto it, how to make that pain, make you stronger. To live for the better, where I.... I never have learned that, but rather allowed it to consume me in the darkness." Xander smiles, but it was not a happy one. "I am sorry... even if that doesn't mean much. I.. I need to think this all over... So, we can talk later... with better minds." Xander then at last looks up. "I... will get better. I will work on that. For us both."

The words stop Rylen briefly in his path, his back turned towards Xander. A back that is painted with the very wings that represent his sister. He doesn't just carry his past with him, he wears it on his skin and in every part of himself. Closing his eyes, he lets out a breath. It doesn't quite ease the tension.

For all that Rylen may sometimes be a wizard with words, this time he seems to just come up short. So, he just goes with his gut. "Don't appologize, Marcus. Just do better. Little by little, every day. That's how you change."

He lets the muscles in his hands relax, his fingers falling to his sides. "I hope that someday you find a way to live again, to be happy with what you have. What I have? It's precious to me." Rylen is still then, "I hope I get a chance to see you happy, someday."

And with that, Rylen walks off towards the barn, hefting up a bale of hay as he goes. The work won't take care of itself, now will it?