Round Three - Mox vs Larxene

It had been months, the new challenge caught her by surprise. She took it inside and compared it to the other two. Larxene. She knew the name, knew it too well.

It was hard to be anywhere near some rooms without being acutely aware of the Savage Nymph. She’d been chased out with electricity and curses when she’d gone poking, looking around to familiarize herself with the new world.

Her hair bristled as her body tensed. Of all the people she would rather leave alone, Larxene headed the top of the list. Whenever she was about Mox knew she would encounter pain, or otherwise general discomfort.

The challenge informed her she better get her ass up to the training room. The time it gave was only ten minutes after the challenge had been issued. She hurried upstairs.

Larxene glared at her as she rushed, sparking angrily. She jerked a thumb at the opposite side of the gym. Mox hurried to the area, her hair on end.

“You better be ready!”

The cat didn’t meet her eyes. Her ears flattened as much as they could, but she tensed, preparing herself.

“Yeauuus.”

The sting of electricity in the air alerted her. She jerked and jumped back as a crackling knife slammed into the floor in front of her. The buzz and crackle snapped and charred the wood. She stared before another tingle made her jump again.

The second one sliced through her cloak. Larxene was already adapting to her movements.

Mox didn’t let herself stare a moment longer. A third came, she back-flipped out of the way and landed comfortably onto all fours. Her bones and muscles shifted, letting her spread her weight. She grinned a bit. The air sang. She was in her survival place now.

Larxene scowled, summoning her knives back and charging four up with electricity. The grin the other was giving her was grating, making her want to eliminate it. She jerked her hand forward, spreading the knives in an arc.

Mox barely seemed to move this time. She kind of rolled, and kind of shifted, and suddenly wasn’t there when the knives hit. The cat’s head seemed to be bobbing with some internal music.

“Goddamit cat, stay down.”

She sent an arc at the redhead. Mox properly rolled this time, letting it scorch a line over the floor. One single blue eye focused on the blonde, narrowed above a thin line of teeth. Larxene readied another knife.

She shifted her weight and charged. The zigzag pattern she followed seemed to blaze a lightning arc on the wooden planks. Surely no human could counter and react to such a thing!

Mox waited until she was almost upon her before she lunged through the gap in her legs. Despite not being male, Larxene was intimately and unfavorably surprised as two very powerful hind legs rammed up into her groin. The satisfaction of her bolt shield zapping the crafty minx was marginalized by the hobbling pain the blow inflicted upon the nymph.

Mox rolled forward, catching herself and shaking her body out as the tingles passed. They turned to face each other again.

“You little bitch!”

She was just as shocked when this time the cat perfectly mirrored her zigzag, even though the pattern was meant to be completely random. Closer and closer they darted, with Larx diverting her strength to her self-shield, starting to smirk at the cats’ quiet stupidity.

Something hard slammed into her face, distracting her enough to drop the shield. Mox rammed her stomach with a sharp and critical elbow, driving her wind out. Many would have dropped out then and there, but even winded Larx could make out a bare foot. She grabbed it as she fell, sending enough voltage through to stun a cow.

Mox fell back, writhing as the current surged through her body. Only when it stopped did the twitches fade away. Larx panted, expecting her opponent to yield.

The unprotected feet scythed her own out from under her. The blonde twisted as she fell, plunging another knife into the supposed leg. It missed, burrowing half its length into the ground. She caught herself and combat-rolled back to her feet, glaring.

Mox was already moving in to take advantage. Her weapon, the dull maroon bag, swung on its cord like a psychopathic Newtons’ cradle out for revenge on the executives of the world.

She caught the bag in two knives and tried to jolt the cat with electricity again. It only took a split second to realize the materials were canvas meshing and thick cotton cord - not the best conductors.

Mox dropped her weapon while Larx was attempting the shock, and dove back in with her shoulder once more. Yet again Larx caught her in her field, zapping her opponent for longer than she really should have.

The twitches took ten seconds to die away. She waited, expecting a withdrawal.

Mox gave a sound somewhere between a howl for blood and a screech of fury. Larxene hesitated.

The cat came lunging at her, all four limbs twisted towards the blonde woman, her nails extending eerily from her fingertips. She almost didn’t sidestep in time, and grabbed her hard, shocking her again.

Bare feet came at her stomach, ignoring the electricity. Larx yelped a little as they scratched deeply at the leather and threw the smaller woman hard.

Mox hit the opposing wall and twisted in midair, landing on her feet again. The redhead grinned.

“Why won’t you stay down?!”

Mox tilted her head, then leapt as a blot arced to where she had been seconds before. She kept grinning as she rolled out of the way, changing direction inhumanly fast. Behind her the streaks of blackened wood expanded.

Before she knew it, Mox was back inside Larxene’s personal space. The energy crackling around her body made her hair stand on end as always. She ignored it this time as she grabbed the shocked Nymph by the throat.

The electricity snapped through her body, making her muscles clench. Her thumbs bore down on the thin throat.

Two blades dug into her hands, trying to force them up, into her arms. She could feel it dully, but the blows were getting weaker and weaker, as was the field. The less energy there was, the less she had to deal with.

BOOM

A hard shock directly to her chest sent them tumbling apart. Mox rolled back several times until she hit the wall. She sat there shaking her head for a moment before grinning up at the other.

Larx stood there in disarray, panting, looking slightly frightened. The odd bruise pattern from Mox’s damaged hand was evident. Seeing the cat looking at her again, she dropped into a guard position.

Mox rose fluidly. Somehow it was like a different creature had risen from the smoke. She palmed the burnt hole in her shirt before frowning gently, now balanced perfectly on her feet.

One calloused sole slipped, spreading to a fighter’s guard stance very similar to Larxene’s own. She positioned her body so only one edge was towards the Nymph.

Tired of waiting, Larx fired, arcing lightning at her.

Mox twirled. The bolt singed the air around her, but missed the Leprechaun.

Larx fired again, anticipating.

Mox moved, once again the bolt slid harmlessly by her. The movements were completely different from the feral rolls she’d been using minutes previously.

Larx growled and started shooting hard and fast, trying to pepper the ground ahead of her.

The cat began to dance. She seemed to slide right through the mist of electricity until she was right in front of the blonde. Larxene drew her hands up to jolt her yet again. Mox’s hands rose in perfect counterpoint, holding something…

There was another explosion. Her ears rang. She was face down on the wooden floor, unable to see anything.

Without warning two bare feet landed on her back, pushing her hard against the training room floor. Mox had to raise her voice quite high to be heard above the ringing.

“Yield?”

Larx coughed, then nodded. The creature she’d fought clearly wasn’t human.