Beauty and The Beasts: Rain

39. Competition

1st of 3 updates today, May 17th.

     Rain and Third intended to enter the competition while Brice and Harvey watched. Rain wasn't back to her best yet because of the cool temperatures, but the exercise will help fix that. Rain stretched her muscles with Third before coming, so they were ready.

     The bear king, Alexander, noticed their presence and nodded his head towards Rain. She gave a slight nod back. After the sun hit the highest point in the sky, Alexander announced the start of the competition.

     To make it fair, the king would select the individuals to fight. He would purposefully choose those around the same level of strength to make the fights more interesting and skill based. Rain approved of his decision.

     Rain's first opponent was a wolf who looked like he would rather be anywhere else. Before they could start, the wolf stepped out of the ring, disqualifying himself. Rain was infuriated by his actions. The bear king was not pleased either and made an announcement.

     "I will not stop you males from making such a decision, but know that I invited this female here as a participant myself to prove her capabilities." That was all he said, but it changed the mood of the crowd.

     There were over a hundred participants in total and Alexander called the next beast up. This one was eying Rain with his skirt tented. Rain hissed in displeasure, but understood. She would make an example out of this bear.

     When the fight started Rain didn't move until the male was almost on top of her. There was a pretty large gap in size between the two participants and he towered over her. Rain pulled herself down and held herself horizontal while the male wrapped his arms around where she had been. She slammed her tail into the tented skirt and dodged as the body fell.

     The crowd was silent except for a few whimpers of sympathy. The male did not get back up and the bear king decided to add a new rule just for Rain: Targeting the reproductive organs was not allowed.

     After the poor bear was removed from the ring, Rain stepped out. Third was fighting in another ring and she watched. He was fighting a wolf male who was roughly the same size and strength.

     The wolf male seemed sharp and practiced as he predicted Third's moves. He was not able to land any blow solid blows on Third, however. Rain smiled to herself. Third was naturally talented in combat, but liked to turn his interests elsewhere. Since Rain returned, he got a lot more experience fighting colossus and other males.

     Although Third had good combat instincts, he wasn't extremely assertive. When he did fight back, he relied on finishing moves that left him open for counter attacks. Assuming the beast could survive it, that is. The two were a fair match and the fight lasted for a while. Rain could tell that Third had more power and speed than the other male, but his opponent was more patient and was predicting Third's moves.

     From Rain's perspective, the wolf male had the upper hand. He seemed to be less tired than Third. Rain wanted Third to win, but it wasn't looking like that would happen. The fight carried on for over ten minutes and the bear king announced a draw.

     When Rain's turn came again, her opponent was a fox. The first thing she noticed was how red his hair was. It was almost as bright as hers. The fox looked young, but had a second stripe.

     At the start of the battle, neither moved. They were cautiously watching each other and looking for the opportunity. Rain prepared to approach and wound her coils while the fox male lowered his center of gravity.