Been Awhile - March 14th - Tellurian

[DerekCase]

C.O.M.B.A.T. Gym, previously the UofL YMCA

The crowd parts and the music dims to make way for Darien. It had been awhile since he'd taken time to fight in the cage, and he needed to relieve the stress. The one waiting for him was a Get, a garou of high standing and pure breeding. He stood 6', 200lbs, his whole body covered in scars. He had fine features, pure white hair cropped short, blue eyes. The man was thoroughly intimidating but was laughable standing across the ring from He-Who-Fights-Like-A-Homid. The bell rang, cutting short the frantic roaring of the crowd, and Darien was on the other side of the cage before it could a second time.
His opponent ducked a lightning-fast right, and swept Darien who landed on one hand, kicking and flipping up simultaneously, his movement rattling the whole cage. The smaller Get stepped low to side, planting one hand and snapping out with a strong round to Darien's ribs shifting his balance and causing him to fall. Darien rolled up, forced to take a defensive stance as his pursuer flew at him with blow after blow. Fights soaked most of it, feeling his jaw and a few of his ribs break under the onslaught. His foe's moves were nearly flawless, but one off balance cross, and Darien had him by the shoulder. A quick jerk, and the lesser Get was below him with a broken elbow and shattered shoulder. A moment later though, somehow using the new flexibility gained from the lack of bone his left arm, he was up, and Darien's right leg was broken in three places.
With all haste, the two unstoppable men flew at each other limbs swinging, taking stance after stance, matching blow for blow, muscle against speed. For fifteen minutes, there was no sound save for the cracking of bones, the slam of flesh and muscle. Blow poured out of every side of the cage. The packed gym was in hushed awe of the spectacle, two war gods attempting at the very peak of their will to tear each other apart. And then it was over.
A spray of blood teeth and the smaller Get went flying into the cage wall only to bounce back feet first. His legs wrapped around Darien's head pulling him to the ground and breaking his neck with a solid CRACK! that vibrated the whole cage. Darien fell unable to move and was carried out of the ring, his title now lost to a lesser Get.
In the medical room in the back, Darien was lain on a cold slab of concrete. In private, he shifted to crinos, and his bones snapped back into place. He growled low in his throat as he sat up, and it was answered in kind by the growl of the lesser Get who stood over him in a pure white Crinos mirroring his own.
"You've gotten better, Jake." Darien's laugh was mottled as he shifted back to homid.
"Ah! Better? I thought I'd killed you!" Jake yelled, shifting down with him.
Darien hugged his brother to him and growled in his ear. "It'd take a lot more than a broken neck to bring down my fate."
"But I did beat you. Can't wait until I tell Father." He replied grinning.
"I saw. The great Darien Gray, slayer of vampires, bane of the wretched Black spirals, destroyer of Banelords laid low by a lowly adren." He-Who-Fights-Like-Fenris let roar a momentous laugh and shook the two by the hair.
"I could take you both had I had been able to use my swords or even one of my gifts." Darien grinned, happy to see another warrior again, happy to feel at home.
Jake laughed even louder, leading the three to Darien's bar which of course was just outside of the owner's private 'medical room.' "What is that I hear? 'I would've won if I didn't suck?'."
The three of them sat, drinking and sharing stories that occassionally erupted into fullout brawls before falling back into bouts of drinking. By the time Darien stepped back into the caern his grin was chiseled in place, and for the first time in a very long time, he slept.