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Heh...

Reyin shook his head. It was weird, how he was still able to think to himself. Now if only he could figure out how to get that damn song from coming out of his lips.

"Caught between confusion and pain, pain, pain~"

The warnings from the crowd were almost drowned out by another crack of thunder and a sudden increase in the intensity of the rain. Most of the weapons, a longsword, a short sword, a staff, a bow, were all behind Arian. What hadn't been accounted for was the scabbard, which had been tossed not too long ago and all but forgotten in the frantic brawl that ensued shortly afterwards.

Reyin himself hadn't really noticed the thing as he stood up, the baldric caught up in his right arm. His eyes narrowed at the weapon sheathe, as if he was seriously doubting its application as a weapon at this point. He shook his arm, the baldric unraveling itself until Reyin once again held the blunt object in his right hand.

He wasn't in great shape at this point, the fact that he was still singing somewhat offset just how wrecked the blonde appeared. he was hunched over slightly, still trying to draw some air into his lungs, even though he wasn't nearly as fatigued physically as he was mentally. Trying to muster up enough concentration to shunt the pain his body was experiencing to some foreign corner of his mind.

"Distant eyes-"

Perhaps easily forgettable was what Reyin clutched in his left hand. His baseball cap, discarded at the very beginning of the fight. As Arian continued her mad dash forward, Reyin just cracked a bit of a smile and set the cap on his head, turning the bill backwards and ensuring a snug fit with a light tug.

He wasn't going to be running anywhere with the condition that his shins were in, so he just stood there, turning so that his left shoulder was pointed towards Arian. His left hand moved downwards, gripping the scabbard just below his right hand, just waiting for Arian's charge to finish.

"C'mon."

Hey, I can talk now!

"Hey, I can talk now!"

Reyin had to admit he was a bit taken aback when the woman slid to a stop. After all, it was Reyin's job to take things too lightly and make the fight seem more like a playful workout than a serious endeavor. As she talked, his gaze shifted to her right hand. She was obviously mad judging by her clenched fist, or at least frustrated, but there was something else. Just by the way she was curling her fingers, he could tell...

She's holding something.

He casually lifted his eyes back towards Arian, a cocksure little smile crossing his lips.



"What, awesome?"

Reyin didn't brag often, but he wasn't going to deliver the girl an insult to throw right back at him. He was obviously joking, but the joke itself was hard to convey given the situation.

"Look, I'm not in the business of pissing people off. I also don't think it's very fair of you to be getting mad at me for not making you angry. Seems more like your problem, really."

Reyin started shifting forward, taking a couple of tentative steps, narrowing the gap between the two fighters to about eight feet.

"So suck it up. It's gettin' cold out here without a shirt on, and I'm kinda anxious to wrap this up and take a nice hot bath."

Reyin took the bait, at least as well as could be expected. He didn't actually swing his scabbard, but he recoiled a little bit, only to find that nothing had actually been thrown his way. His body, already turning slightly to avoid what wasn't actually coming at him, was nice and exposed by the time Arian threw the thing for real.

Reyin was tired of having to put up with these things. The needles were bad enough, the vial had been used twice already, and it was time that he did something about it.

The odds of Reyin actually planning out what happened next were slim to none. He brought the scabbard across his body, whipping the sheathe and whiffing the vial entirely with the scabbard itself. But the baldric, the strap that held the scabbard in place, caught the vial and relaxed enough that it didn't shatter on impact.

The momentum of the swing caused the baldric to cradle the vial, and when Reyin suddenly stopped, assuming that the vial had just simply missed its target, the sudden slacking of the strap caused the vial to pop up into the air.

Reyin's eyes widened as the vial just seemed to float up out of nowhere in front of his face, suddenly expecting the thing to just explode and cover his entire head in flames.

It didn't, though. Arian was closing in, and all Reyin had was a split second to try and catch the vial. He completely blanked on focusing on Arian, and as he reached out to cup the vial in between two hands (wanting to catch it softly just in case the thing was ready to break), he was doubled over by the flat of a tonfa blade slamming into his stomach.

"HURF!"

Reyin coughed, and clutched at his stomach with his left arm, totally unable to stop the vial from shattering on Arian's back as he shuffled backwards, trying to catch his breath.

Reyin wanted to apologize, because he knew just how much being set on fire hurt. The only problem was, he still had issues getting enough air into his lungs for normal breathing when Arian came charging back in. It was strange, all things considered. Here they were, in a veritable downpour, and the two fighters couldn't seem to keep from catching on fire.

C'mon... MOVE.

He couldn't do much, not with his legs busted up the way they were. All Reyin managed was to kind of back up a little, hold his scabbard out (which was no longer suspended by its baldric on his arm), and get run the hell over by a very angry, very on fire, short girl.

Reyin hit the ground, exhaled sharply through his teeth as his wounded back slammed into the ground with a spray of mud and water, and barely managed to have the wherewithal to reach up with his left hand and solidify his grip on the scabbard that Arian's head had run through during her tackle.

He began twisting the scabbard, quickly as he possibly could before Arian could capitalize on knocking Reyin onto his back, tightening the baldric to a point that it would begin constricting Arian, cutting off her air supply as though the sword strap were a makeshift noose.

It wasn't the most honorable thing in the world, certainly not the flashiest, but with all of the gadgets Arian had revealed in their short time together, he wasn't going to take any chances on her chest plate not containing a cannon or something equally ridiculous.

There was a moment of confusion marking Reyin's face as he noticed the odd appearance of the collar bunching up around his opponent's neck. That, coupled with the punch he received, did wonders to deter him from that course of action.

Reyin's neck visibly tightened at the shock, jugular vein showing itself as the muscles in his neck tightened up to the point of intense pain. He couldn't even scream, breathe, or offer a witty reply. Which was a shame.

Before she could muster another assault, Reyin decided to use his baldric for another purpose. His left hand seized the scabbard by its center and pulled with as much strength as he could muster while bucking his hips to throw off Arian's center of gravity, hopefully tipping her off onto his left side.

Kinda hoped it wouldn't come to this but...

His left hand, meanwhile, shot upwards to grab the hilt of his hunting knife that had still been stuck into Arian's arm. He still couldn't talk, but he managed to mouth the words 'I'm sorry' before ripping the weapon free of the stab wound.

All that armor and that iron jaw of yours makes it kinda hard for a guy to fight with his bare hands.

Whether or not he could dump Arian off of him didn't really matter, because the hunting knife was still easily accessible, but if he was successful Reyin would attempt to capitalize, rolling over onto Arian and releasing the scabbard to try and pin Arian's hand to the ground by applying pressure to her forearm, knowing full well just how unpleasant those gloves were.

Of course, once he got up there, he had no idea what to do afterwards.

If Arian was still on top, or if Reyin was unable to position himself on top of her, he'd pretty much remain where he was. At the very least, he had a knife now.

"What th-"

Dammit, was there anything on this girl that he could secure a grip on without being electrocuted, stabbed, set on fire, or disoriented? He was running out of options at this point, and started to consider that even Arian's hair was actually made out of razor wire, and if he were to chance grabbing it his hand would be looking like a chunk of hamburger meat.

Reyin's right hand sunk into the mud with a wet -splat-, throwing off his concentration enough that when Arian's legs extended, he didn't have much time to defend himself.

Next thing Reyin knew he was inverted, then on his back, sliding a little bit across the muddy ground. What caught his notice more than anything was the very unpleasant 'cushion' his head landed on, that being the scabbard that was still wrapped around Arian's neck.

"Agh! Man...wait-"

He turned his head to find the scabbard being dragged along the ground as Arian rolled to her right, the scabbard falling just out of reach as he extended his left hand, trying to grip what remained of the baldric with his ring finger. It slipped through his grasp, and at a point when Reyin thought Arian was going to get up, she just came charging right back in, trying to catch him in the head with her knee.

Reyin sat up, barely getting his head out of the way of the knee only to catch a well-toned thigh instead. The impact was hard enough to basically spin Reyin around on his a**, no longer with his head closest to Arian but with his legs.

Before Arian could catch her bearings, Reyin's right hand snagged ahold of the scabbard and pulled backwards, an attempt to knock the girl back onto her a** as both of Reyin's legs split in order to wrap around the girl's waist, pull her tight towards his chest (with her back against him).

As he pulled her back, his left hand clocked her in the back of the head with the hilt of his knife.

No way was he touching her with his hands. No sirree.

Wait, this wasn't supposed to be happening. Arian was supposed to be angry, she was supposed to be trying to gouge him with all manner of sharp, pointy objects. She was supposed to be cursing at him, punching him in the sack, y'know, all sorts of dishonorable stuff people did when they were angry.

But this, this was like trying to contain a five year old experiencing a temper tantrum.

"Hey!"

Reyin kind of rolled slightly onto his right thigh as she started flailing, trying to keep two bodies up right with just his torso and the occasional right hand planting into the mud.

"Who-GHK!"

A thumb stuck straight up into his nose. Reyin snorted.

"Ow!"

A pinky scraped past his eye.

"StAH!"

Index finger into the mouth, fishhooking his cheek and causing him to mispronounce the word 'stop'.

"Would you just CALM DOWN?!"

Thankfully Reyin still had his baseball cap on so he couldn't have his hair grabbed, but in the end he wound up flopping onto his back, sending yet another splash of mud into the air. Reyin was trying to figure out where to go from there, because letting her go at this stage would be a very bad idea, but having his face constantly assaulted by a flailing hand wasn't a great alternative.

Taking his right hand out of the mud, causing the rest of his upper body to roll backwards into the mud, Reyin tried to hook his elbow around Arian's wild right arm, then pressed the base of his palm against Arian's left ear, performing, to his best recollection, a half-wing reminiscent of when he was getting bullied in elementary school.

"SAY UNCLE!"

Maybe a bit too reminiscent.