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Moogle x Moogle", "writing": "VoCT Round 3.\n\nTsumi vs. Kraz Mesic.\n\nCharacters © their players.\n\nStory © Tsumi Moogle ’09.\n\nDespite the dry, hard and heated ground, Tsumi had slept. Longer, perhaps then he had intended, but opening his eyes, nonetheless to a fresh, new morning; his aches, weariness from the day before long gone. One small detail lay though, an issue with his belly, distended greatly with the remnants of his former opponent.. It was not the neat affair that his pompom had made it in the first round… He rubbed softly at his own bare neck, some half hour later and some dozens of kilos lighter as he walked from the small notch of shelter he’d hidden in during his last fight, using it this time, for a more menial purpose. Reed’s scarf had ultimately come in handy too. However a regrettable and unbecoming end it was.\n\nLooking over Charlie’s sword and shield, His brow furrowed thoughtfully; doubtless they would come in great use… but they were far too large for him to lunk around and learn to use within the span of time it took for him to find his next opponent. Respectfully, he laid them beside the shelter, before turning his gaze back to the mountain to the east. His eventual target. He set out, not as apprehensive as he remembered being the day before, feeling rather… light, instead. His pompom, still refusing to acknowledge his apology, bobbed gently overhead, as mundane and altogether useless as a propeller-hat. The quiet morning air was an unsettling sensation in itself, the mog used to hearing those voices about him every now and then if they detected something, a sense of companionship and.. As of the day before, that slight ringing noise in his ears. Those flames had made it, he was sure. But unable now, to feel or hear it, he was much more relaxed. Were it not for the high hundred-and-thirty-something degree weather causing him to already pant, he would have been almost smiling.\n\nWith the shimmering horizon slowly easing into clearer view, revealing a low, sprawling collection of buildings, Tsumi sighed. Shade would be greatly appreciated, after having spent so long in that forsaken wasteland. He paused though, turning his head suddenly at a shadow from his peripheral vision… The blank horizon split only by the occasional husk of those lonely, burnt trees. But he had been so sure someone had been there.. It hadn’t looked like a tree at all… although Black.. If it were a striker.. He’d have seen the white of their cloak, surely. A shiver ran down his spine as he turned on the spot, surveying left and right. Nothing. But still, he could feel eyes on him, watching. The moogle backed towards those ruins he had seen, looking about cautiously, before turning and breaking into a run for the cover of the ancient stone buildings ahead.\n\nThe anxiety, the thought of something unseen chasing him, nagged him all the way to the ruins, Tsumi’s eyes wide as they darted left and right, expecting some silent assassin to befall him. A fallen city, past that ghastly wasteland.. That certainly didn’t help his nerves as he skidded to a stop, pressing back against a cool, stone wall, panting hard and holding a terrible stitch in his side, trying to calm the pounding heart in his chest. Fear of the unknown.. It was almost as bad as his fear of the dark… the moogle staring around, able and only needing to see ahead of him, he gulped between his breaths… But nothing moved. The wasteland, stretching out in his vision, was empty. Empty as it had ever been. It must have been the heat getting to him… Just the heat.\n\nHe was starting to really dislike his vulnerability, wondering as he slowly started to move through the ruins, how other people handled it. Not knowing if anything was out there, what things were if they were there, or what to do if they got to close… The mog kept his eyes peeled, ears perked as he moved rather cautiously. The ruins, not the vast space of nothing the beach and wastes had gotten him used to, left many hiding places for an ambush.. It must have been a great city, once upon a time, the buildings, ranging in many sizes, from small looking homes to skeletal remains of taverns and towers. What must have been cobbled foot pathing broken in many areas, in place of simple earth and grassy patches.. Great chunks of buildings and pillars laying over what he guessed had once been a main-street through the city, as he guessed it to have once been. Though.. Looking over a number of walls he passed, many seemed littered with curious, unreadable… runes? And obscure pictures, aged almost to nothing. There were more comforting signs though, as Tsumi noted mosses and small plants growing from cracks and peeking from the ground. Nature was reclaiming the damaged land, it seemed. Recovering from whatever had happened. The moogle knelt, looking over the bud of a small flower, smiling despite himself, before his ears pricked. …Footsteps.\n\nLooking about anxiously for a moment, the moogle crept up a crumbling flight of steps, wincing as the last step gave an audible ‘Crack!’ and gave way, rumbling dully as it thudded to the hard ground. Rolling himself off of step before it gave way, onto the verandah, the pink moogle pressed his back to the cool stone of what once would have been an elaborate guard-rail, and peered cautiously down to the street below as the footsteps walked closer, slowing with caution. They’d heard him…\n\n“Kupo.. These ruins are really falling apart...” Came an unfamiliar voice, talking to itself… Tsumi blinking a little in shock and delight as of all things… a moogle came into vision. Shorter then he was, with creamy-tan fur, grayish hair and a red pompom… He wore the most curious robes; looking something of a mix between a mages’ and some kind of monks’. Settled crossed over his back, were two identical poles, ending in long and wide blades…\n\n“My next competitor is another moogle?” Tsumi thought, before gasping and leaning quickly out of sight as the other moogle’s pompom began glowing, warningly.“If you’re going to accept my apology.. Now would be a really good time to do it! …Please!” Tsumi thought desperately, staring at his own bauble and holding his breath as below, the cream-colored moogle looked around shrewdly for a few moments and seeming to decide it was nothing; turned back to his explorations, running a hand along a set of the runes on the wall. Remaining hidden, Tsumi thought desperately of his options… He could try and creep away from the smaller frame.. But he could be seen, blowing the option of a surprise attack… If he tried to attack, his opponents’ pompom would pick up on him the moment he decided to raise a claw… If he stayed where he was, he was liable to be found eventually. He was ironically trapped, by much the same sense that had kept him alive as long on the island, whilst his own had forsaken him.\n\nFight or run… Eat or be eaten… Those were the options he’d been given, by that accursed rabbit. If he tried to quit, the strikers would have him… But without his pompom, he was rather at a slight disadvantage against his newest opponent… Slowly he stood, gulping nervously as he crept back down those ancient stairs, thankful that the rest remained sturdy and stood himself behind his opponent; firm in his decision, and waiting.\n\nAnd he didn’t have to wait long, the shorter moogle’s pompom glowing; a yellow, rather than a red. He looked up to it, as if confused, before he turned about softly, and blinked in surprise at the pink moogle standing before him whilst the hand that had instinctively reached behind himself for his weapons stilled a moment… like he was happy to meet another person that wasn’t outright attacking him.\n\nBut it faded as his hands met the cool hilt of his weapon pieces. Tsumis’ new competitor, despite his momentary surprise of apparent pleasure, was still playing by the rules.\n\n “Kupo… It would have been silly of me to attack you openly.” Tsumi murmured. “And I couldn’t let you get the jump on me, either, kupo...” He continued, biting his lip slowly. “And there’s really no easy way to do this, fighting another moogle… I-... I’m Tsumi.” He murmured; a stickler with his formalities of at least knowing the name of the person he had to beat, or be beaten by as he lowered into a stance.\n\nBut this time, there was no gentle beat waiting to lead his capoeira, no tension in his mind, scanning his opponent, no warning sounds. Nothing. The pink moogle trembling slightly, as the cream-colored moogle inclined his head, looking for a moment, confused. \n\n“I’m Kraz.” The tan-moogle returned simply, smiling as he saw the nervousness on his opponent’s face. “I hope I’m not the scariest thing you’ve met on this island. You’d think you had it easy, kupo.” He said, grinning as he drew the two pieces of his Yan Yue Dao, holding them in front of himself, and eying the pink moogle, spoke firmly; “Merge!” His pompom glowing, the glaive brought its two halves together unbreakably. “You don’t seem ready, Tsumi-kupo. Are you sure you should have shown yourself so soon?” The smaller moogle slowly turned the glaive in his paws over, as if warming up.\n\n“…To be honest, I didn’t have much of a choice.” Tsumi admitted, tilting his head sheepishly.\n\n“Well, don’t think I’ll hold back because you’re younger, kupo!” Kraz said firmly, darting forwards and bringing the glaive to his right, as though to slash at the taller moogle. Tsumi’s eyes wide in shock at the sudden beginning of the match, his back arched as he ducked himself backwards under the brutal swing, feeling the precarious rush of air slicing past his cheek. He cursed himself softly as the second blade followed through smoothly after the first, altered for the dodge; Tsumi could only drop himself completely onto his back in shock, rather than let it strike. His eyes looking up to the tan moogle as his footsteps turned before him, Kraz raising the Glaive above his head in a simple chopping-motion and bringing it down, looking almost amused at the ease with which he held the battle in his favor.\n\nTsumi rolled himself swiftly out of the way, panting as the glaive sank into the dry earth where he’d lain just a second before. Raising himself unsteadily from his knees, he wheezed as the older moogle kicked him firmly in the stomach, knocking him back and winding him. He was quickly getting to know the ground with this round, wincing as he held his stomach, gasping for breath and looking up to Kraz.\n\n“Are you making fun of me or something..? Are you even trying, Kupo?” The tan moogle asked, disappointed, almost. “If this is the best you can do, Tsumi, give up now. This is barely even fun!”\n\nTsumi felt his cheeks flushing with shame, wincing and holding his stomach; he staggered back and managed at last to draw a breath, shaking his head softly. \n\n“I-.. I wasn’t ready!” The pink mog stammered, shaking his head and retaking his stance.. Had he been so silly as to expect that voice to jump out and tell him to keep going? Deep down, somewhere about the level that Kraz’s foot had made contact, he admitted sheepishly to himself; ‘yes’, before bringing his focus back to his opponent as Kraz took initiative once more.\n\nTenser then he could remember feeling, Tsumi focused on simple dodges and evasions.\n\n‘Esquiva’ He told himself firmly, ducking under the blade as it sang past him again. ‘Resistenca’ as he lowered focused, under the tail-end of the weapon and rolling himself aside as the blade sliced down. This dance was different from all the others.. The only music; the rush of the blades through the air, footsteps on the hard ground and the focused breathing of both opponents… But still, it had rhythm. Above him, Tsumi noted a snort of appreciation; Kraz pleased that his opponent was getting into the fight more, proving not to be so much of a novice as he’d thought. The pink moogle panting as he ducked and weaved over the blades and interwoven strikes.. Krazs’ quite flawless, intricate movements and sweeping strikes blocking any attempted retaliation from the younger moogle. The hilt of the glaive warding off kicks, simple turns avoiding punches which left Tsumi wide open… The older moogle grinned as with a twirling slash, he forced his opponent to leap back.\n\nTsumi gasped softly at the reprieve, holding a soft burning stitch in his side, where as his opponent stood, barely ruffled. Kraz had been able to flow with momentum in his strikes, attacking with impunity, whilst he himself had to put everything into avoiding being hit, let alone trying to get any strikes in... He could feel beside the aching burn, a knot of worry.. He would collapse from exhaustion at this rate; his opponent would win without breaking a sweat or even getting a single crease of annoyance on his face…\n\n“You’re not bad, Tsumi, kupo.” Piped up Kraz after a moment, grinning and tilting his head. “Though, I’m still waiting for the fight to properly start. …or are you done..?” He trailed off, smiling amusedly as the pink moogle shook his head.\n\n“I’m.. Sorry, but… giving up is out… of the question..” Tsumi said, firm as he could manage, pulling himself together again for a third round. His eyes though, focusing a moment on the small ripple above his pompom, which he knew to be that curious shard…\n\n“Well, you can move all you like Kupo, but if dodging is all you intend to do for the next round..? I’ll just save the effort, now..” Kraz mused, sighing and grinning as he hitched his Yan Yue Dao in the crook of one arm whilst the other began tracing the air before him in a vague outline of a body, keeping his eyes focused on the pink moogle before him and murmuring as he did…\n\n“A chance..!” thought Tsumi, gritting his teeth as he made to run forward to strike the unprepared Kraz, “If I can just get that weapon out of his hand…” Inattentive to Krazs’ other paw tracing the air and suddenly pointing at him, stabbing through the faintly glowing outline in the air. The most bizarre sensation overtook the pink moogle’s body… As if in a split second he had run a hundred laps around the island; his legs feeling as jelly, body like it were made of lead… The world began slowing down, spinning and going fuzzy in his vision… \n\nStill, he charged, with his opponent’s face grinning simply before him. Kraz stepping aside, seeming as light and smooth as ever, unbothered by the seeming shift on time. Ungainly as he had been at the beginning the match, he staggered about, turning to face his opponent and collapsed to his knees into the dirt at Krazs’ feet with a blackness crowding his mind… Sleep was being forced over him… Tsumi’s’ head shaking feebly at that blackness claiming his vision, trying desperately to fight the exhaustion sinking in and keep his eyes open. But inexorably, the ground seemed to rush up to him in slow-motion. He was out cold before he hit the ground…\n\nSmirking softly as the taller frame slumped unceremoniously in the dirt, Kraz walked around his sleeping foe, gently rolling him onto his back with a foot. “Hmph.. Sorry, Tsumi-kupo. But I’ve still got a bunch of exploring to do.” Giggled the older moogle, kneeling slowly at Tsumi’s feet, to pull the young mog’s well-worn sneakers off. “No good to me and not digestible. Bleh...” He mused, lifting up the otherwise quite succulent paws of his sleeping opponent, and smoothly began easing them into his jaws, chrrrling contently. Taking his time, he slowly swallowed over Tsumi’s toes, sinking his young opponent down delectably. “Mmnh..” He murmured thickly about the pink-mogs’ ankles…\n\n ***\n\nIt was dark, nothing but a matte blackness around him. But it was alright, the voice said so. \n\n‘Just rest.’ It told him. He was safe here. ‘Nothing can harm you here. Just relax, Tsumi.’ It continued whispering in his ear. The moogle floating serenely within that inkiness that lead on forever, as far as he could tell.\n\nIn his other ear, a soft, familiar voice that he just couldn’t place whispered incoherently.’**** **…’ It urged… But like static; it was incomprehensible, non-sensical. About him, the darkness rippled gently, it’s soft embrace holding him like many pairs of gentle hands supporting all over him.\n\n‘Don’t mind that noise, Tsumi… Just keep resting.’ Came that first voice again, Tsumi starting to feel an odd sensation within his mind; within the safety of where he lay… there grew a soft nibble of anxiety, alarm…\n\n‘wake.. **..’ The second voice urged, coming through the static slowly, growing clearer, the more the moogle paid it heed. ‘You.. *an’t let.. **e one who ***t *e.. ea* you… too’ It continued gently. Tsumi able to feel something.. Someone nearby.. They were so familiar, so close.. A gentle pulse of purple within the inky darkness reminding him; \n\n“…Kyt?” The moogle thought, a small smile crossing his features.\n\n‘Wake up!’ The voice urged again, the shock of urgency opening the moogle’s eyes with a gasp. The darkness in his vision dissipating to the clouded sky above within a moment. ‘Wake up!’ It kept telling him. The urging voice of the dragon changing slowly to that… of his pompom.\n\nHis eyes looking about, he became aware of his body again, the warm ground beneath his back, his stomach aching a little.. and a curious, wet, kneading sensation holding his legs. It rippled, and drew him along the ground an inch or two, before he willed himself to look down. Kraz’s familiar face etched in bliss; his maw full of Tsumi’s thighs, and creeping slowly over his hips with another swallow. \n\nA shiver of terror ran up his spine, before a soft urge in his mind stayed his paw that lifted, eager to push Krazs’ muzzle away…\n\n‘Wait. …Rock.’ They said. Tsumi looking up slowly, silently as his pompom glowed a welcoming orange to his recognition that they were back. The sensation that he was again assisted by a close friend bolstering him as his eyes passed over a flat-sided chunk of an old fallen building within arm’s reach. He didn’t need telling twice.\n\nTurning to grasp at the rock, Kraz was alerted to his meal’s apparent consciousness, looking up in an instant and staring in shock as Tsumi stared back, holding a rock. The next thing Kraz felt was a terrible blinding pain as his half-ingested prey swung with all its’ might, clubbing him over the head with that rock. His eyes went wide a moment, before he slumped down atop his ‘meal’, eyelids closing; He’d been knocked out cold. Within him, Tsumi panted, beginning to extract himself, squirming, from those hot, slimy jaws. His feet slipped this way and that, unable to find purchase, as he scooted his rump slowly back and eased the now fully-sodden jeans and his legs and feet at last from the smaller moogle, panting. \n\nHe thought back, shivering, able to remember, rather vividly the similar sensation shortly after arriving on the island, Reeds’ jaws enfolding his head and shoulders.. He closed his eyes, shaking himself from the thought, as he dropped the rock aside and groaning thankfully as he slumped against a still-standing pillar.\n\n“You have a scary sense of timing..” He murmured sheepishly as he looked up to the pompom, glowing it’s gentle, merry way.\n\n‘Danger, too great. Had to help.’ They responded, making tsumi giggle gently. \n\n“I see.. so it’s an obligation n-“ He trailed off, blinking as he detected something new… from the gently orbiting crystal shard hovering about his pompom. …It felt, angry. “..What’s the matter?” He asked curiously…\n\n‘Vengeance. He says.’ Whispered the voices, translating the shards emotions.\n\n“Vengeance..?” Repeated Tsumi, looking over his opponent, coming to and groaning heavily, holding the side of his head with a curiously glowing paw… A small trail of blood trickling from Kraz’s temple.\n\nThe tan moogle looked up, panting and growling as he got to his feet, lifting his glaive from the ground beside him with his free paw, eying Tsumi suspiciously.\n\n“You broke my sleep-spell. …How?” He asked darkly, noting the younger moogle’s pompom was now glowing, like his.\n\n“With help.” Tsumi stated simply, moving aside from the pillar he’d recuperated against. “I just have a quick question, before we continue.. Who were your previous opponents..?” He asked, feeling his body tensing up again, stomach knotting.. He hadn’t paid it any thought; who Kraz was, and who had been his opponent, before bumping into him. The idea that another moogle was the one who offed Kyt… Well, the irony would have been painful enough.\n\n“…If it matters so much; My last opponent was some meerkat-guy. And before him, my first opponent was.. A dragon. Sort of tasted like Chocolate..” He pondered, before grinning slowly. “Y’know, You’d have gone well with him, strawberry-kupo.” Kraz taunted lightly.\n\nTsumi, meanwhile, felt a rush of shock and a spike of anger around his chest and stomach, starting to breathe a little deeper as his eyes narrowed. Rules or no rules, He had something personal against the tan-moogle now.\n\n“…Thanks. That’s… all I needed to know..” He muttered stiffly and clenching a paw tightly into a fist, becoming vaguely aware of the soft beat in his head again as his pompom began glowing. Kraz raised his Yan Yue Dao before him, grinning. \n\n“You should really have just let me eat you before, this is getting-“\n\n“Attack already!” Barked Tsumi sharply, throwing Kraz off a little.. The pink moogle looking definitely angry about something.\n\n“Alright then, keep dodging then, Tsumi. This’ll end eventually, for you.” Kraz inclined his head, before rushing towards his oddly stationary opponent. Deciding to take it up a notch, Kraz leapt into the air, to spear down into the pink moogle. Tsumi, his ears flicking and pompom flaring red, leapt aside moments before Kraz landed; sinking the blade of his glaive into the ground with a curious sound of splitting metal. Seeming unconcerned at the noise, Kraz used the shaft as leverage to swing a flying kick at his dexterous opponent. Tsumi, his face set with determination, fell back onto all fours in a Queda de Quatro, switching one arm around and pushing up into a solid vertical kick, catching Kraz firmly in the ribs.\n\nWincing as he arched in pain, Kraz fell to the ground and growled. Pushing to his feet, he deftly hauled his glaive from the ground, as behind him, tsumi similarly stood up. The tan moogle, more annoyed at his carelessness, then Tsumi’s first actual landed hit, turned to make a firm stab at his opponent; Tsumi predictably standing aside. Kraz smirked, starting to rapidly jab and stab, watching his opponent turn this way and that as he stepped back from his approaching steps.\n\nAs Tsumi took another step back, the curious rattle of a chain took Kraz’s attention, as he looked down at the metal links, aged and blackened trailing between his legs, back to the gouge in the ground his spear had made… He looked back to the pink moogle as tsumi gave a firm pull, hauling the chain up behind Kraz. Tsumi’s’ face impassive except for the lines of anger, almost fury, wrinkling his muzzle bridge.\n\nThis time it was Krazs’ turn to dodge, leaping back in a great arc over the chain as Tsumi caught it in a paw, and spun the length in his paws, like a conjoined pair of Poi. “Now who’s dodging?” He smirked, stepping forward and whipping the chain out in fluid arcs. In his ears, the music was pulsing with each weave of the thick metal in his paws, angry and intent.\n\nWith a breath, Kraz returned the motions, the moogles moving into a swift and focused dance, eyes focused on each swipe of their opponent’s weapons, footsteps circling. Metal met metal time and again, with clashes and rattling. A firm stab from Kraz met with a low step back from Tsumi, returned with a horizontally spinning leap, whipping the chains around himself to slam them down over Kraz who leapt back in kind before the impact. His own heart racing now with adrenaline, he swung the Yan Yue Dao down, again to chop down at Tsumi. The pink moogle, rather than move, this time, caught his blade in his raised palms! The chains rested along them protecting him from the blade. Taking the moment of shock on Kraz’s behalf, he reached forward swiftly, grabbing the hilt of the spear and leaping back with a turn, pushed with one foot on the ground, slamming the other heel into Kraz’s Jaw and flipping forward onto his feet, breathing heavily, but looking no more worn out then when he started…\n\nStaggering back in another shot of blinding pain, Kraz held his muzzle a moment, wincing as he felt a dribble of blood ease from his lips. Focusing on the pain, he channeled the adrenaline coursing through him, causing his paw to glow as he healed the damage done to his jaw, panting. Tsumi stood still with his back to the older moogle. He was letting him heal? \n\n‘A costly mistake.’ Thought Kraz, hitching his glaive and growling as he aimed a firm stab for his opponents’ back. Tsumi was proving to be much more apt of a fighter then he’d initially seemed, and that was not good for Krazs’ continued prospecting of the ruins.\n\nHe noted again, the younger moogle’s pompom glowing red, and again; Tsumi ducked aside! Clear as if he had eyes in the back of his head. His chain came up, too, wrapping firm about the hilt of his Glaive, and catching the end, Tsumi’s eyes met Kraz’s. \n\n“A very costly mistake, kupo!” Tsumi growled, and with a sharp yank down on the chains, followed by a swing off to his side, he pulled Kraz’s weapon from its shocked-owner’s grasp, and hauled it, spiraling into the dirt some yards behind him with a clatter; He’d thrown his chains too.\n\nWatching his opponent step back a moment, before reaching behind him to fetch a sword from behind his back, Tsumi stepped forward; the threat of a sword far less than that of his opponents’ Glaive.\n\nBarely heeding the call of ‘Duck!’ from his pompom, he felt the blade singing within a hair’s breadth of his nose as he leant back. Pushing up and towards Kraz again in an instant, Tsumi caught the tan moogle’s sword-wielding arm at the elbow with one hand, and behind the neck of his robes with the other. Slipping his leg behind Kraz’s knees, he hauled Kraz bodily to the ground, holding the sword-arm down, almost growling at the eagerness to extract a more forward revenge on his opponent. Damn the rules, damn the rabbit who’d laid them, and damn the contest the Rabbit had set up.\n\nKraz winced as he was knelt over, panting and forcing himself, again to focus.. This battle was getting way out of hand, but he had to get away from the pink moogle…\n\nThe music pounded in Tsumi’s ears as he lifted a paw, glaring viciously down to his opponent, able to see one of Kraz’s yellowish eyes widening.. His pompom was yelling something at him urgently, but with a cry of ‘Black out!’ from his opponent, the world, the music, Kraz’s worried face, all vanished into darkness in an instant.\n\nThe sudden silence was deafening… Though he was sure the music was still there, he could not hear it. His heartbeat racing in his veins, a staple of the beat, gone. His own breathing, heavy, anxious, now silenced…\n\nHe could not see his hand in front of his face, he could not see his own nose, or pompom, or anything… The way everything was muted, it was like they weren’t there at all. He was unsure if he even turned his head, looking around in the impossible darkness… It was not the same as the Moogle’s other spell had been. This was all-encompassing. He was just a thought, within that impossible darkness…\n\nBut even as a thought, he existed. And so too, surely, must other things.\n\nHe could feel his anger. It lay there in his mind; yearning for something to lash out at, it’s fiery burn still strong, but it was dulling too. He could feel something more, something primal, instinctual… Remembering many a times huddled at home in the dark, his pompom glowing, his overactive imagination insisting that shadow across the floor of his room was moving, inching towards him. If he had a spine, in this place, it would have been shivering. Unable to see, feel, hear within this darkness, this nothingness; The pink moogle could almost feel the slavering breath of some great, terrible beast poising it’s claws to spear him, tear him alive and sink it’s fangs into his neck. In the impossible darkness, he screamed. He heard not a noise, of course. But he willed himself to scream, with everything he had; all his terror, his anger… thrashing about to dissuade would-be predator monsters whilst he tried to remember how to run, when he could feel nothing, knowing not where he ran to.\n\nAnd the world suddenly burst back into light and noise about him again, his running legs staggering as feeling returned, causing the panting moogle to collapse, shaking and sobbing with the latent terror. The song, he realized, had returned, pulsing again and fluxuating with the change in emotion. Looking back shakily at the darkness he’d burst from, he took in the shape of a large hemispherical dome of pure matte black, before it flared white and vanished with a flash… Raising himself to his feet, he took slow breaths, calming the raging beat in his mind, as his eyes caught the golden ones of his opponent, Kraz visibly shocked to see his opponent not even within his attack’s radius.\n\n“I thought I heard something, like a little rat!” Spat the older moogle, irritated that Tsumi had escaped such a critical strike. “You should have just stayed down, Kupo!” Kraz glared, taking a deep breath and glared intently at the pink moogle across from him.\n\nTsumi flicked his ear softly, watching curiously at Kraz’s shadow starting to thicken and deepen, before it crept up over his frame, draping over his body like a ghostly cloak, hooding his face as his pompom continued pulsing, still red. \n\n“Prepare…” Warned the voices in Tsumi’s’ ear, before Kraz seemed to melt into the ground, vanishing against the reaching shadow of a tall building to Tsumi’s side.\n\nHis heart racing in his throat, his pompom couldn’t sense the tan moogle… Now his opponent once again had an element of surprise..\n\n“Left!” They whispered, and rolling forward, tsumi heard, rather than felt as Kraz launched from the shadows with a hefty punch in his wake, only to vanish again into the shadows. “Behind!” Tsumi winced, bracing his hands against the ground in his crouched position, to thrust a kick as Kraz leapt again, almost form thin air! But a moment from contact, the shadows swallowed the older moogle again. As the cry of “In front!” whispered in his ear, Kraz had already leapt, from the darkness ahead of tsumi to tackle the younger moogle to the ground. With no time to react, Tsumi winced at the shorter frame holding him to the ground, knelt over him and pressing his chest down, but something was off…\n\nKraz’s grip was shaking. Not with fear or anger, as Tsumi had been… he was exhausted. Beyond that, he looked emancipated.. Tsumi staring at his opponent in shock; Kraz’s face sunken and pale beneath his fur. Though his golden eyes still shone with youth, they were darkened and his body looked slimmer... Thinner. Like that shadowy cloak had been feeding off the moogle to maintain it…\n\nThe tan moogles’ chest rose and fell with weak breaths. With a turn and pushing at Kraz’s side; Tsumi’s opponent collapsed beside him. The fight was done.\n\nSitting up and panting, Tsumi slowly began petting Kraz’s frame down, through the robe, he could feel a few objects… Callously, the moogle removed a hammer, of all things. A strange looking gun, which he put aside with distaste. A book of sorts, and with a little pang, withdrew three thick, silver links. Recognizing them instantly, he rested them atop the leather-bound book. Finally reaching into the last one of Krazs’ pockets, he withdrew a most curious looking device. It was simple; cylindrical, metal and sat in the palm of his hand, like a laser-pointer, but thicker. He looked curiously along the lens settled over the front of it.. Before he pocketed it. He could determine more about it later…\n\nHe turned, to his opponent who was trying feebly, and without success, to raise his torso from the ground and gently knelt behind the older moogle. Taking Krazs’ wrists and inclining his head. “…Now we’re even, kupo.” Tsumi murmured, before taking the Tan moogle’s hands into his muzzle. Suckling gently on the now-slender hands, he mused at Krazs’ sweet flavor; Subtle and enjoyable, but it also had a curious tone he couldn’t place. With plenty of time to relax, picking what that flavor was, Tsumi swallowed.\n\nHe felt the slow ripple of his throat pulling those hands down into the slick heat of his gullet, easing down Kraz’s forearms, the flavor muted by the robe as he gently held the weakened form’s chest down. Looking down to his opponent as he straddled over him, he could see the fear in his opponent’s golden eyes as Kraz feebly shook his head; breathing out almost silent pleas for the pink moogle to stop. Even with the sheer helplessness of his opponent, Tsumi couldn’t have stopped if he tried. More than just the rules urging him on, his revenge was almost complete now… He wouldn’t stop until Kraz curled fully within his belly, to become little more than nutrients for his next leg of the journey; up the mountain looming ahead.\n\nThe thin arms sliding up into his muzzle, he washed over them slowly with his tongue, cradling Kraz’s neck softly as he lifted his opponent up towards his eager gullet. The sweet flavor washing along his taste buds getting his saliva flowing copiously, dripping down in great strings over Kraz’s face, until he felt the widening bulge of the Tan moogle’s head slipping past his lips, his spread jaws, into the inexorable depths of his maw. A faint blush rose in his cheeks as he sensed the shard floating about his pompom feeling pleased, and relieved, that he had won, most likely..\n\nWith Kraz squirming with what little energy remained to him, Tsumi moaned. His throat delighting in the sensations of the deep rubbing, before feeling his progress over the smaller frame falter as Kraz’s hands pushed against the tight entrance of his Belly. But with a simple swallow, pushing his muzzle over Kraz’s broadest part; his shoulders, the slim hands sinking into the churning and slimy embrace of Tsumi’s gut.\n\nEasing himself up and slowly gripping at the waist of Kraz’s robes, Tsumi eased his now-meal up into a sitting position, and ponderously from there, onto his feet. Keeping his grip, he pulled Kraz slowly towards himself as with a yawn of his jaws, rather aching from weariness of the battle starting to sink in on him, swallowed bodily; each slow, compressive undulation of his heated, squishy insides kneading Kraz, inching him deeper and deeper. His arms curling slowly into Tsumi’s belly, as the pink mog worked down the shapely chest and belly of his poor opponent. Tsumi’s maw, full of copious drool matted down Kraz’s robe steadily, sticking to his frame and permitting his taste to slowly seep through, teasing over the back of Tsumi’s tongue.\n\nReaching Kraz’s hips, Tsumi paused, panting through his nose as he gathered his strength for a moment, before with a firm haul and a push of his legs, lifted Krazs’ up over his head. His eyes widened a moment as he over-balanced and staggered back, bumping into a wall behind himself, groaning around his meal and slumping onto his rump, the shock of impact with the ground causing him to drop Kraz’s hips past his maw. Working down his opponent’s legs, staring up now, at the twitching and stirring feet dangling before him, Tsumi considered the curious bangle on Kraz’s right ankle.\n\nGrowing easier by the swallow, Kraz’s ingestion continued at a quickening pace. Tsumi’s belly swelling in his lap as he eased down the Tan knees, and lapped gently along the bare calves of his opponent, finding himself with a smile on his face at the renewed, stronger flavor washing over his tongue again.\n\nWith the feet in reach, Tsumi lifted a paw to gently remove the bangle from his opponent, pausing in his swallows to admire the gemmed loop of gold. The respite didn’t last long though, and watching the toes of his opponent squirm, Tsumi dropped those broad moogle feet into his muzzle, groaning faintly, appreciatively as he closed his jaws behind Kraz’s toes and rested. He worked his tongue slowly over the feet of his opponent, blushing and smiling whilst he tenderly assaulted the padded soles within his maw, chrrrling muffledly as he savored the last supple, musky taste of the smaller moogle…\n\nWithin him, Kraz continued to squirm, knowing he was but a swallow from his end, but truly helpless to get free now, Tsumi heard a feeble cry from his belly, before he swallowed, following the bulge of Kraz’s foot paws down his throat, past his chest and into his belly at last…\n\nHe rested; panting from the effort swallowing his opponent had taken, musing about the lingering taste on his tongue as his swollen gut wriggled gently. Tsumi able to feel Kraz within, squirming in the slick and heated embrace of his belly, undulating indefinitely about his trapped frame and squishing him about slowly before Tsumi puffed his cheeks out and clenched his belly softly, forcing the excess air within out in a long and low, wet burp. A blush crossing his cheeks, as he slumped back against the wall, feeling his belly stirring hopelessly, before stilling… Closing his eyes slowly, he raised a paw to cover his face and sigh, relaxing, though a heavy weight rested still on his chest. Despite his revenge, the pink moogle felt a twinge of guilt…\n\n ***\n\nThe evening in the ruins was mercifully quiet, for Tsumi; the pink moogle having constructed a small fire within a building that had no roof, but four complete walls as to recuperate in as he digested. With his back against the aged stone, he watched the flames dancing quietly with the occasional crackle and pop, contemplating the look his opponent had first given him when they’d laid eyes on one another.\n\n“Kraz was happy.” Came the voices, whispering softly and causing Tsumi to look to his pompom, and the clear, starry sky above beyond it. “He didn’t know other moogles, like you have. Nor magic either. …He could not hear us. If not for this tournament, perhaps…” They trailed into silence, leaving Tsumi pondering.\n\n“So he didn’t know I was there, then? He couldn’t have sensed me..? I walked into that battle needlessly?” He asked faintly, blushing.\n\n“Never needlessly; Always for a reason. Just as we left you, just as we returned. Just as we help you, there is a reason.” Came the mysterious response.\n\n“This tournament, then? What’s the reason for it..?” Pried the young moogle, frowning.\n\n“…We… are uncertain of this. There are many threads still on the island. A gathering that otherwise would never naturally occur. Truly, you feel and hear the beat of the island; Dark, and powerful. …All we can say is; …This is no ordinary Tournament, and we will help you to whatever end is formed. …Within reason.” They uttered softly, leaving the moogle nodding gently.\n\n“And.. the people, I’ve beaten.. That Kraz beat… that any other competitors beat… Are they..?” He hesitated softly, cautious of prying such a topic with the faint light coming from his pompom.\n\n“No longer here… yes. Beyond what they are... what their fates are… We cannot say. It is one of those things that you must one day find for yourself.”\n\nWatching again, as the flames danced gently before him, Tsumi gave a soft sigh, rubbing his arm, before pausing softly.\n\n“…Can I help you?” He asked softly, flicking his ears at the noise of a soft swish of a cloak above. Turning his gaze to the rim of the roof above, he looked to the hooded figure watching him in return, before dropping down into the house, across the fire from Tsumi.\n\nThe moogle’s pompom glowed yellow. There was no intent on attack.\n\n“I was almost disappointed by your performance, today, moogle.” Murmured the Moonblossom as he lifted his hood back, gazing over the competitor. “But you came through. I’m impressed.”\n\nTsumi frowned quietly at the rabbit, feeling that unfamiliar well of anger beginning to bubble at the sight of the Lapine before him; addressing him conversationally.\n\n“…I followed your advice.” Tsumi spoke bluntly. “I decided to eat, and win. So I can go home when this is all done.” He frowned as Sefra chuckled lightly.\n\n“Cute resolve. But you might just need a bit more than that, to finish the tournament. You only want to go home? Is that your only reason for being here? Not glory? Not the riches that await the winner?” Asked the robed rabbit, walking around before Tsumi and looking down to him lightly.\n\n“…No. I’m also here to see you, at the end, Kupo. And come that time, I’m going to do to you what I’ve had to do to Reed, and to Charlie, and to Kraz!” The pink moogle said firmly, rising to his feet and glaring at the rabbit with the firelight reflecting in his eyes. “I’m going to finish this tournament, listening to you scream, and beg, and plead as I digest you.”\n\nRather though, then look worried at the Moogle’s threat and intent glare, Sefra just smirked. \n\n“Is that right? Well, if you think you can, why don’t I make sure you have the right reasons to chase after me?” And whipping out a robed hand, Tsumi moved to duck, as the lapine’s paw lashed at him and realized, a moment too late that it wasn’t him Sefra was grabbing at.\n\nDrawing his arm back smoothly, The Moonblossom held a small, glinting frame between his thumb and fore-finger, Kyt’s’ shard. With a simple tilt of his head and a chuckle at Tsumi’s cry of shock, he leapt back as the moogle made to grasp at his wrist. Catching the rising, heated air of the fire, Sefra gave a spin, and with a rush of the wind, launched himself to the rooftop again. “Do your best, then, Tsumi! This will be your prize if you win.” Chuckled the rabbit, before he vanished into the night.\n\nWith a cry of desperation, the moogle hurried to the doorway, and stared into the night sky, seeing a cloaked form rushing smoothly through the sky, supported by the wind. Banging the heel of his fist against the doorframe, the mog took a breath, and hitching his eyes to the mountain, started for the base of it…\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "VoCT Round 3.

Tsumi vs. Kraz Mesic.

Characters © their players.

Story © Tsumi Moogle ’09.

Despite the dry, hard and heated ground, Tsumi had slept. Longer, perhaps then he had intended, but opening his eyes, nonetheless to a fresh, new morning; his aches, weariness from the day before long gone. One small detail lay though, an issue with his belly, distended greatly with the remnants of his former opponent.. It was not the neat affair that his pompom had made it in the first round… He rubbed softly at his own bare neck, some half hour later and some dozens of kilos lighter as he walked from the small notch of shelter he’d hidden in during his last fight, using it this time, for a more menial purpose. Reed’s scarf had ultimately come in handy too. However a regrettable and unbecoming end it was.

Looking over Charlie’s sword and shield, His brow furrowed thoughtfully; doubtless they would come in great use… but they were far too large for him to lunk around and learn to use within the span of time it took for him to find his next opponent. Respectfully, he laid them beside the shelter, before turning his gaze back to the mountain to the east. His eventual target. He set out, not as apprehensive as he remembered being the day before, feeling rather… light, instead. His pompom, still refusing to acknowledge his apology, bobbed gently overhead, as mundane and altogether useless as a propeller-hat. The quiet morning air was an unsettling sensation in itself, the mog used to hearing those voices about him every now and then if they detected something, a sense of companionship and.. As of the day before, that slight ringing noise in his ears. Those flames had made it, he was sure. But unable now, to feel or hear it, he was much more relaxed. Were it not for the high hundred-and-thirty-something degree weather causing him to already pant, he would have been almost smiling.

With the shimmering horizon slowly easing into clearer view, revealing a low, sprawling collection of buildings, Tsumi sighed. Shade would be greatly appreciated, after having spent so long in that forsaken wasteland. He paused though, turning his head suddenly at a shadow from his peripheral vision… The blank horizon split only by the occasional husk of those lonely, burnt trees. But he had been so sure someone had been there.. It hadn’t looked like a tree at all… although Black.. If it were a striker.. He’d have seen the white of their cloak, surely. A shiver ran down his spine as he turned on the spot, surveying left and right. Nothing. But still, he could feel eyes on him, watching. The moogle backed towards those ruins he had seen, looking about cautiously, before turning and breaking into a run for the cover of the ancient stone buildings ahead.

The anxiety, the thought of something unseen chasing him, nagged him all the way to the ruins, Tsumi’s eyes wide as they darted left and right, expecting some silent assassin to befall him. A fallen city, past that ghastly wasteland.. That certainly didn’t help his nerves as he skidded to a stop, pressing back against a cool, stone wall, panting hard and holding a terrible stitch in his side, trying to calm the pounding heart in his chest. Fear of the unknown.. It was almost as bad as his fear of the dark… the moogle staring around, able and only needing to see ahead of him, he gulped between his breaths… But nothing moved. The wasteland, stretching out in his vision, was empty. Empty as it had ever been. It must have been the heat getting to him… Just the heat.

He was starting to really dislike his vulnerability, wondering as he slowly started to move through the ruins, how other people handled it. Not knowing if anything was out there, what things were if they were there, or what to do if they got to close… The mog kept his eyes peeled, ears perked as he moved rather cautiously. The ruins, not the vast space of nothing the beach and wastes had gotten him used to, left many hiding places for an ambush.. It must have been a great city, once upon a time, the buildings, ranging in many sizes, from small looking homes to skeletal remains of taverns and towers. What must have been cobbled foot pathing broken in many areas, in place of simple earth and grassy patches.. Great chunks of buildings and pillars laying over what he guessed had once been a main-street through the city, as he guessed it to have once been. Though.. Looking over a number of walls he passed, many seemed littered with curious, unreadable… runes? And obscure pictures, aged almost to nothing. There were more comforting signs though, as Tsumi noted mosses and small plants growing from cracks and peeking from the ground. Nature was reclaiming the damaged land, it seemed. Recovering from whatever had happened. The moogle knelt, looking over the bud of a small flower, smiling despite himself, before his ears pricked. …Footsteps.

Looking about anxiously for a moment, the moogle crept up a crumbling flight of steps, wincing as the last step gave an audible ‘Crack!’ and gave way, rumbling dully as it thudded to the hard ground. Rolling himself off of step before it gave way, onto the verandah, the pink moogle pressed his back to the cool stone of what once would have been an elaborate guard-rail, and peered cautiously down to the street below as the footsteps walked closer, slowing with caution. They’d heard him…

“Kupo.. These ruins are really falling apart...” Came an unfamiliar voice, talking to itself… Tsumi blinking a little in shock and delight as of all things… a moogle came into vision. Shorter then he was, with creamy-tan fur, grayish hair and a red pompom… He wore the most curious robes; looking something of a mix between a mages’ and some kind of monks’. Settled crossed over his back, were two identical poles, ending in long and wide blades…

“My next competitor is another moogle?” Tsumi thought, before gasping and leaning quickly out of sight as the other moogle’s pompom began glowing, warningly.“If you’re going to accept my apology.. Now would be a really good time to do it! …Please!” Tsumi thought desperately, staring at his own bauble and holding his breath as below, the cream-colored moogle looked around shrewdly for a few moments and seeming to decide it was nothing; turned back to his explorations, running a hand along a set of the runes on the wall. Remaining hidden, Tsumi thought desperately of his options… He could try and creep away from the smaller frame.. But he could be seen, blowing the option of a surprise attack… If he tried to attack, his opponents’ pompom would pick up on him the moment he decided to raise a claw… If he stayed where he was, he was liable to be found eventually. He was ironically trapped, by much the same sense that had kept him alive as long on the island, whilst his own had forsaken him.

Fight or run… Eat or be eaten… Those were the options he’d been given, by that accursed rabbit. If he tried to quit, the strikers would have him… But without his pompom, he was rather at a slight disadvantage against his newest opponent… Slowly he stood, gulping nervously as he crept back down those ancient stairs, thankful that the rest remained sturdy and stood himself behind his opponent; firm in his decision, and waiting.

And he didn’t have to wait long, the shorter moogle’s pompom glowing; a yellow, rather than a red. He looked up to it, as if confused, before he turned about softly, and blinked in surprise at the pink moogle standing before him whilst the hand that had instinctively reached behind himself for his weapons stilled a moment… like he was happy to meet another person that wasn’t outright attacking him.

But it faded as his hands met the cool hilt of his weapon pieces. Tsumis’ new competitor, despite his momentary surprise of apparent pleasure, was still playing by the rules.

 “Kupo… It would have been silly of me to attack you openly.” Tsumi murmured. “And I couldn’t let you get the jump on me, either, kupo...” He continued, biting his lip slowly. “And there’s really no easy way to do this, fighting another moogle… I-... I’m Tsumi.” He murmured; a stickler with his formalities of at least knowing the name of the person he had to beat, or be beaten by as he lowered into a stance.

But this time, there was no gentle beat waiting to lead his capoeira, no tension in his mind, scanning his opponent, no warning sounds. Nothing. The pink moogle trembling slightly, as the cream-colored moogle inclined his head, looking for a moment, confused.

“I’m Kraz.” The tan-moogle returned simply, smiling as he saw the nervousness on his opponent’s face. “I hope I’m not the scariest thing you’ve met on this island. You’d think you had it easy, kupo.” He said, grinning as he drew the two pieces of his Yan Yue Dao, holding them in front of himself, and eying the pink moogle, spoke firmly; “Merge!” His pompom glowing, the glaive brought its two halves together unbreakably. “You don’t seem ready, Tsumi-kupo. Are you sure you should have shown yourself so soon?” The smaller moogle slowly turned the glaive in his paws over, as if warming up.

“…To be honest, I didn’t have much of a choice.” Tsumi admitted, tilting his head sheepishly.

“Well, don’t think I’ll hold back because you’re younger, kupo!” Kraz said firmly, darting forwards and bringing the glaive to his right, as though to slash at the taller moogle. Tsumi’s eyes wide in shock at the sudden beginning of the match, his back arched as he ducked himself backwards under the brutal swing, feeling the precarious rush of air slicing past his cheek. He cursed himself softly as the second blade followed through smoothly after the first, altered for the dodge; Tsumi could only drop himself completely onto his back in shock, rather than let it strike. His eyes looking up to the tan moogle as his footsteps turned before him, Kraz raising the Glaive above his head in a simple chopping-motion and bringing it down, looking almost amused at the ease with which he held the battle in his favor.

Tsumi rolled himself swiftly out of the way, panting as the glaive sank into the dry earth where he’d lain just a second before. Raising himself unsteadily from his knees, he wheezed as the older moogle kicked him firmly in the stomach, knocking him back and winding him. He was quickly getting to know the ground with this round, wincing as he held his stomach, gasping for breath and looking up to Kraz.

“Are you making fun of me or something..? Are you even trying, Kupo?” The tan moogle asked, disappointed, almost. “If this is the best you can do, Tsumi, give up now. This is barely even fun!”

Tsumi felt his cheeks flushing with shame, wincing and holding his stomach; he staggered back and managed at last to draw a breath, shaking his head softly.

“I-.. I wasn’t ready!” The pink mog stammered, shaking his head and retaking his stance.. Had he been so silly as to expect that voice to jump out and tell him to keep going?  Deep down, somewhere about the level that Kraz’s foot had made contact, he admitted sheepishly to himself; ‘yes’, before bringing his focus back to his opponent as Kraz took initiative once more.

Tenser then he could remember feeling, Tsumi focused on simple dodges and evasions.

‘Esquiva’ He told himself firmly, ducking under the blade as it sang past him again. ‘Resistenca’ as he lowered focused, under the tail-end of the weapon and rolling himself aside as the blade sliced down. This dance was different from all the others.. The only music; the rush of the blades through the air, footsteps on the hard ground and the focused breathing of both opponents… But still, it had rhythm. Above him, Tsumi noted a snort of appreciation; Kraz pleased that his opponent was getting into the fight more, proving not to be so much of a novice as he’d thought. The pink moogle panting as he ducked and weaved over the blades and interwoven strikes.. Krazs’ quite flawless, intricate movements and sweeping strikes blocking any attempted retaliation from the younger moogle. The hilt of the glaive warding off kicks, simple turns avoiding punches which left Tsumi wide open…  The older moogle grinned as with a twirling slash, he forced his opponent to leap back.

Tsumi gasped softly at the reprieve, holding a soft burning stitch in his side, where as his opponent stood, barely ruffled. Kraz had been able to flow with momentum in his strikes, attacking with impunity, whilst he himself had to put everything into avoiding being hit, let alone trying to get any strikes in... He could feel beside the aching burn, a knot of worry.. He would collapse from exhaustion at this rate; his opponent would win without breaking a sweat or even getting a single crease of annoyance on his face…

“You’re not bad, Tsumi, kupo.” Piped up Kraz after a moment, grinning and tilting his head. “Though, I’m still waiting for the fight to properly start. …or are you done..?” He trailed off, smiling amusedly as the pink moogle shook his head.

“I’m.. Sorry, but… giving up is out… of the question..” Tsumi said, firm as he could manage, pulling himself together again for a third round. His eyes though, focusing a moment on the small ripple above his pompom, which he knew to be that curious shard…

“Well, you can move all you like Kupo, but if dodging is all you intend to do for the next round..? I’ll just save the effort, now..” Kraz mused, sighing and grinning as he hitched his Yan Yue Dao in the crook of one arm whilst the other began tracing the air before him in a vague outline of a body, keeping his eyes focused on the pink moogle before him and murmuring as he did…

“A chance..!” thought Tsumi, gritting his teeth as he made to run forward to strike the unprepared Kraz, “If I can just get that weapon out of his hand…” Inattentive to Krazs’ other paw tracing the air and suddenly pointing at him, stabbing through the faintly glowing outline in the air. The most bizarre sensation overtook the pink moogle’s body… As if in a split second he had run a hundred laps around the island; his legs feeling as jelly, body like it were made of lead… The world began slowing down, spinning and going fuzzy in his vision…

Still, he charged, with his opponent’s face grinning simply before him. Kraz stepping aside, seeming as light and smooth as ever, unbothered by the seeming shift on time. Ungainly as he had been at the beginning the match, he staggered about, turning to face his opponent and collapsed to his knees into the dirt at Krazs’ feet with a blackness crowding his mind… Sleep was being forced over him… Tsumi’s’ head shaking feebly at that blackness claiming his vision, trying desperately to fight the exhaustion sinking in and keep his eyes open. But inexorably, the ground seemed to rush up to him in slow-motion. He was out cold before he hit the ground…

Smirking softly as the taller frame slumped unceremoniously in the dirt, Kraz walked around his sleeping foe, gently rolling him onto his back with a foot. “Hmph.. Sorry, Tsumi-kupo. But I’ve still got a bunch of exploring to do.” Giggled the older moogle, kneeling slowly at Tsumi’s feet, to pull the young mog’s well-worn sneakers off. “No good to me and not digestible. Bleh...” He mused, lifting up the otherwise quite succulent paws of his sleeping opponent, and smoothly began easing them into his jaws, chrrrling contently. Taking his time, he slowly swallowed over Tsumi’s toes, sinking his young opponent down delectably. “Mmnh..” He murmured thickly about the pink-mogs’ ankles…

 ***

It was dark, nothing but a matte blackness around him. But it was alright, the voice said so.

‘Just rest.’ It told him. He was safe here. ‘Nothing can harm you here. Just relax, Tsumi.’ It continued whispering in his ear. The moogle floating serenely within that inkiness that lead on forever, as far as he could tell.

In his other ear, a soft, familiar voice that he just couldn’t place whispered incoherently.’**** **…’ It urged… But like static; it was incomprehensible, non-sensical. About him, the darkness rippled gently, it’s soft embrace holding him like many pairs of gentle hands supporting all over him.

‘Don’t mind that noise, Tsumi… Just keep resting.’ Came that first voice again, Tsumi starting to feel an odd sensation within his mind; within the safety of where he lay… there grew a soft nibble of anxiety, alarm…

‘wake.. **..’ The second voice urged, coming through the static slowly, growing clearer, the more the moogle paid it heed. ‘You.. *an’t let.. **e one who ***t *e.. ea* you… too’ It continued gently. Tsumi able to feel something.. Someone nearby.. They were so familiar, so close.. A gentle pulse of purple within the inky darkness reminding him;

“…Kyt?” The moogle thought, a small smile crossing his features.

‘Wake up!’ The voice urged again, the shock of urgency opening the moogle’s eyes with a gasp. The darkness in his vision dissipating to the clouded sky above within a moment. ‘Wake up!’ It kept telling him. The urging voice of the dragon changing slowly to that… of his pompom.

His eyes looking about, he became aware of his body again, the warm ground beneath his back, his stomach aching a little.. and a curious, wet, kneading sensation holding his legs. It rippled, and drew him along the ground an inch or two, before he willed himself to look down. Kraz’s familiar face etched in bliss; his maw full of Tsumi’s thighs, and creeping slowly over his hips with another swallow.

A shiver of terror ran up his spine, before a soft urge in his mind stayed his paw that lifted, eager to push Krazs’ muzzle away…

‘Wait. …Rock.’ They said. Tsumi looking up slowly, silently as his pompom glowed a welcoming orange to his recognition that they were back. The sensation that he was again assisted by a close friend bolstering him as his eyes passed over a flat-sided chunk of an old fallen building within arm’s reach. He didn’t need telling twice.

Turning to grasp at the rock, Kraz was alerted to his meal’s apparent consciousness, looking up in an instant and staring in shock as Tsumi stared back, holding a rock. The next thing Kraz felt was a terrible blinding pain as his half-ingested prey swung with all its’ might, clubbing him over the head with that rock. His eyes went wide a moment, before he slumped down atop his ‘meal’, eyelids closing; He’d been knocked out cold. Within him, Tsumi panted, beginning to extract himself, squirming, from those hot, slimy jaws. His feet slipped this way and that, unable to find purchase, as he scooted his rump slowly back and eased the now fully-sodden jeans and his legs and feet at last from the smaller moogle, panting.

He thought back, shivering, able to remember, rather vividly the similar sensation shortly after arriving on the island, Reeds’ jaws enfolding his head and shoulders.. He closed his eyes, shaking himself from the thought, as he dropped the rock aside and groaning thankfully as he slumped against a still-standing pillar.

“You have a scary sense of timing..” He murmured sheepishly as he looked up to the pompom, glowing it’s gentle, merry way.

‘Danger, too great. Had to help.’ They responded, making tsumi giggle gently.

“I see.. so it’s an obligation n-“ He trailed off, blinking as he detected something new… from the gently orbiting crystal shard hovering about his pompom. …It felt, angry. “..What’s the matter?” He asked curiously…

‘Vengeance. He says.’ Whispered the voices, translating the shards emotions.

“Vengeance..?” Repeated Tsumi, looking over his opponent, coming to and groaning heavily, holding the side of his head with a curiously glowing paw… A small trail of blood trickling from Kraz’s temple.

The tan moogle looked up, panting and growling as he got to his feet, lifting his glaive from the ground beside him with his free paw, eying Tsumi suspiciously.

“You broke my sleep-spell. …How?” He asked darkly, noting the younger moogle’s pompom was now glowing, like his.

“With help.” Tsumi stated simply, moving aside from the pillar he’d recuperated against. “I just have a quick question, before we continue.. Who were your previous opponents..?” He asked, feeling his body tensing up again, stomach knotting.. He hadn’t paid it any thought; who Kraz was, and who had been his opponent, before bumping into him. The idea that another moogle was the one who offed Kyt… Well, the irony would have been painful enough.

“…If it matters so much; My last opponent was some meerkat-guy. And before him, my first opponent was.. A dragon. Sort of tasted like Chocolate..” He pondered, before grinning slowly. “Y’know, You’d have gone well with him, strawberry-kupo.” Kraz taunted lightly.

Tsumi, meanwhile, felt a rush of shock and a spike of anger around his chest and stomach, starting to breathe a little deeper as his eyes narrowed. Rules or no rules, He had something personal against the tan-moogle now.

“…Thanks. That’s… all I needed to know..” He muttered stiffly and clenching a paw tightly into a fist, becoming vaguely aware of the soft beat in his head again as his pompom began glowing. Kraz raised his Yan Yue Dao before him, grinning.

“You should really have just let me eat you before, this is getting-“

“Attack already!” Barked Tsumi sharply, throwing Kraz off a little.. The pink moogle looking definitely angry about something.

“Alright then, keep dodging then, Tsumi. This’ll end eventually, for you.” Kraz inclined his head, before rushing towards his oddly stationary opponent. Deciding to take it up a notch, Kraz leapt into the air, to spear down into the pink moogle. Tsumi, his ears flicking and pompom flaring red, leapt aside moments before Kraz landed; sinking the blade of his glaive into the ground with a curious sound of splitting metal. Seeming unconcerned at the noise, Kraz used the shaft as leverage to swing a flying kick at his dexterous opponent. Tsumi, his face set with determination, fell back onto all fours in a Queda de Quatro, switching one arm around and pushing up into a solid vertical kick, catching Kraz firmly in the ribs.

Wincing as he arched in pain, Kraz fell to the ground and growled. Pushing to his feet, he deftly hauled his glaive from the ground, as behind him, tsumi similarly stood up. The tan moogle, more annoyed at his carelessness, then Tsumi’s first actual landed hit, turned to make a firm stab at his opponent; Tsumi predictably standing aside. Kraz smirked, starting to rapidly jab and stab, watching his opponent turn this way and that as he stepped back from his approaching steps.

As Tsumi took another step back, the curious rattle of a chain took Kraz’s attention, as he looked down at the metal links, aged and blackened trailing between his legs, back to the gouge in the ground his spear had made… He looked back to the pink moogle as tsumi gave a firm pull, hauling the chain up behind Kraz. Tsumi’s’ face impassive except for the lines of anger, almost fury, wrinkling his muzzle bridge.

This time it was Krazs’ turn to dodge, leaping back in a great arc over the chain as Tsumi caught it in a paw, and spun the length in his paws, like a conjoined pair of Poi. “Now who’s dodging?” He smirked, stepping forward and whipping the chain out in fluid arcs. In his ears, the music was pulsing with each weave of the thick metal in his paws, angry and intent.

With a breath, Kraz returned the motions, the moogles moving into a swift and focused dance, eyes focused on each swipe of their opponent’s weapons, footsteps circling. Metal met metal time and again, with clashes and rattling.  A firm stab from Kraz met with a low step back from Tsumi, returned with a horizontally spinning leap, whipping the chains around himself to slam them down over Kraz who leapt back in kind before the impact. His own heart racing now with adrenaline, he swung the Yan Yue Dao down, again to chop down at Tsumi. The pink moogle, rather than move, this time, caught his blade in his raised palms! The chains rested along them protecting him from the blade. Taking the moment of shock on Kraz’s behalf, he reached forward swiftly, grabbing the hilt of the spear and leaping back with a turn, pushed with one foot on the ground, slamming the other heel into Kraz’s Jaw and flipping forward onto his feet, breathing heavily, but looking no more worn out then when he started…

Staggering back in another shot of blinding pain, Kraz held his muzzle a moment, wincing as he felt a dribble of blood ease from his lips. Focusing on the pain, he channeled the adrenaline coursing through him, causing his paw to glow as he healed the damage done to his jaw, panting. Tsumi stood still with his back to the older moogle. He was letting him heal?

‘A costly mistake.’ Thought Kraz, hitching his glaive and growling as he aimed a firm stab for his opponents’ back. Tsumi was proving to be much more apt of a fighter then he’d initially seemed, and that was not good for Krazs’ continued prospecting of the ruins.

He noted again, the younger moogle’s pompom glowing red, and again; Tsumi ducked aside! Clear as if he had eyes in the back of his head. His chain came up, too, wrapping firm about the hilt of his Glaive, and catching the end, Tsumi’s eyes met Kraz’s.

“A very costly mistake, kupo!” Tsumi growled, and with a sharp yank down on the chains, followed by a swing off to his side, he pulled Kraz’s weapon from its shocked-owner’s grasp, and hauled it, spiraling into the dirt some yards behind him with a clatter; He’d thrown his chains too.

Watching his opponent step back a moment, before reaching behind him to fetch a sword from behind his back, Tsumi stepped forward; the threat of a sword far less than that of his opponents’ Glaive.

Barely heeding the call of ‘Duck!’ from his pompom, he felt the blade singing within a hair’s breadth of his nose as he leant back. Pushing up and towards Kraz again in an instant, Tsumi caught the tan moogle’s sword-wielding arm at the elbow with one hand, and behind the neck of his robes with the other. Slipping his leg behind Kraz’s knees, he hauled Kraz bodily to the ground, holding the sword-arm down, almost growling at the eagerness to extract a more forward revenge on his opponent. Damn the rules, damn the rabbit who’d laid them, and damn the contest the Rabbit had set up.

Kraz winced as he was knelt over, panting and forcing himself, again to focus.. This battle was getting way out of hand, but he had to get away from the pink moogle…

The music pounded in Tsumi’s ears as he lifted a paw, glaring viciously down to his opponent, able to see one of Kraz’s yellowish eyes widening.. His pompom was yelling something at him urgently, but with a cry of ‘Black out!’ from his opponent, the world, the music, Kraz’s worried face, all vanished into darkness in an instant.

The sudden silence was deafening… Though he was sure the music was still there, he could not hear it. His heartbeat racing in his veins, a staple of the beat, gone. His own breathing, heavy, anxious, now silenced…

He could not see his hand in front of his face, he could not see his own nose, or pompom, or anything… The way everything was muted, it was like they weren’t there at all. He was unsure if he even turned his head, looking around in the impossible darkness… It was not the same as the Moogle’s other spell had been. This was all-encompassing. He was just a thought, within that impossible darkness…

But even as a thought, he existed. And so too, surely, must other things.

He could feel his anger. It lay there in his mind; yearning for something to lash out at, it’s fiery burn still strong, but it was dulling too. He could feel something more, something primal, instinctual… Remembering many a times huddled at home in the dark, his pompom glowing, his overactive imagination insisting that shadow across the floor of his room was moving, inching towards him. If he had a spine, in this place, it would have been shivering. Unable to see, feel, hear within this darkness, this nothingness; The pink moogle could almost feel the slavering breath of some great, terrible beast poising it’s claws to spear him, tear him alive and sink it’s fangs into his neck. In the impossible darkness, he screamed.  He heard not a noise, of course. But he willed himself to scream, with everything he had; all his terror, his anger… thrashing about to dissuade would-be predator monsters whilst he tried to remember how to run, when he could feel nothing, knowing not where he ran to.

And the world suddenly burst back into light and noise about him again, his running legs staggering as feeling returned, causing the panting moogle to collapse, shaking and sobbing with the latent terror. The song, he realized, had returned, pulsing again and fluxuating with the change in emotion. Looking back shakily at the darkness he’d burst from, he took in the shape of a large hemispherical dome of pure matte black, before it flared white and vanished with a flash… Raising himself to his feet, he took slow breaths, calming the raging beat in his mind, as his eyes caught the golden ones of his opponent, Kraz visibly shocked to see his opponent not even within his attack’s radius.

“I thought I heard something, like a little rat!” Spat the older moogle, irritated that Tsumi had escaped such a critical strike.  “You should have just stayed down, Kupo!” Kraz glared, taking a deep breath and glared intently at the pink moogle across from him.

Tsumi flicked his ear softly, watching curiously at Kraz’s shadow starting to thicken and deepen, before it crept up over his frame, draping over his body like a ghostly cloak, hooding his face as his pompom continued pulsing, still red.

“Prepare…” Warned the voices in Tsumi’s’ ear, before Kraz seemed to melt into the ground, vanishing against the reaching shadow of a tall building to Tsumi’s side.

His heart racing in his throat, his pompom couldn’t sense the tan moogle… Now his opponent once again had an element of surprise..

“Left!” They whispered, and rolling forward, tsumi heard, rather than felt as Kraz launched from the shadows with a hefty punch in his wake, only to vanish again into the shadows. “Behind!” Tsumi winced, bracing his hands against the ground in his crouched position, to thrust a kick as Kraz leapt again, almost form thin air! But a moment from contact, the shadows swallowed the older moogle again. As the cry of “In front!” whispered in his ear, Kraz had already leapt, from the darkness ahead of tsumi to tackle the younger moogle to the ground. With no time to react, Tsumi winced at the shorter frame holding him to the ground, knelt over him and pressing his chest down, but something was off…

Kraz’s grip was shaking. Not with fear or anger, as Tsumi had been… he was exhausted. Beyond that, he looked emancipated.. Tsumi staring at his opponent in shock; Kraz’s face sunken and pale beneath his fur. Though his golden eyes still shone with youth, they were darkened and his body looked slimmer... Thinner. Like that shadowy cloak had been feeding off the moogle to maintain it…

The tan moogles’ chest rose and fell with weak breaths. With a turn and pushing at Kraz’s side; Tsumi’s opponent collapsed beside him. The fight was done.

Sitting up and panting, Tsumi slowly began petting Kraz’s frame down, through the robe, he could feel a few objects… Callously, the moogle removed a hammer, of all things. A strange looking gun, which he put aside with distaste. A book of sorts, and with a little pang, withdrew three thick, silver links. Recognizing them instantly, he rested them atop the leather-bound book. Finally reaching into the last one of Krazs’ pockets, he withdrew a most curious looking device. It was simple; cylindrical, metal and sat in the palm of his hand, like a laser-pointer, but thicker. He looked curiously along the lens settled over the front of it.. Before he pocketed it. He could determine more about it later…

He turned, to his opponent who was trying feebly, and without success, to raise his torso from the ground and gently knelt behind the older moogle. Taking Krazs’ wrists and inclining his head. “…Now we’re even, kupo.” Tsumi murmured, before taking the Tan moogle’s hands into his muzzle. Suckling gently on the now-slender hands, he mused at Krazs’ sweet flavor; Subtle and enjoyable, but it also had a curious tone he couldn’t place. With plenty of time to relax, picking what that flavor was, Tsumi swallowed.

He felt the slow ripple of his throat pulling those hands down into the slick heat of his gullet, easing down Kraz’s forearms, the flavor muted by the robe as he gently held the weakened form’s chest down. Looking down to his opponent as he straddled over him, he could see the fear in his opponent’s golden eyes as Kraz feebly shook his head; breathing out almost silent pleas for the pink moogle to stop. Even with the sheer helplessness of his opponent, Tsumi couldn’t have stopped if he tried. More than just the rules urging him on, his revenge was almost complete now… He wouldn’t stop until Kraz curled fully within his belly, to become little more than nutrients for his next leg of the journey; up the mountain looming ahead.

The thin arms sliding up into his muzzle, he washed over them slowly with his tongue, cradling Kraz’s neck softly as he lifted his opponent up towards his eager gullet. The sweet flavor washing along his taste buds getting his saliva flowing copiously, dripping down in great strings over Kraz’s face, until he felt the widening bulge of the Tan moogle’s head slipping past his lips, his spread jaws, into the inexorable depths of his maw. A faint blush rose in his cheeks as he sensed the shard floating about his pompom feeling pleased, and relieved, that he had won, most likely..

With Kraz squirming with what little energy remained to him, Tsumi moaned. His throat delighting in the sensations of the deep rubbing, before feeling his progress over the smaller frame falter as Kraz’s hands pushed against the tight entrance of his Belly. But with a simple swallow, pushing his muzzle over Kraz’s broadest part; his shoulders, the slim hands sinking into the churning and slimy embrace of Tsumi’s gut.

Easing himself up and slowly gripping at the waist of Kraz’s robes, Tsumi eased his now-meal up into a sitting position, and ponderously from there, onto his feet. Keeping his grip, he pulled Kraz slowly towards himself as with a yawn of his jaws, rather aching from weariness of the battle starting to sink in on him, swallowed bodily; each slow, compressive undulation of his heated, squishy insides kneading Kraz, inching him deeper and deeper. His arms curling slowly into Tsumi’s belly, as the pink mog worked down the shapely chest and belly of his poor opponent. Tsumi’s maw, full of copious drool matted down Kraz’s robe steadily, sticking to his frame and permitting his taste to slowly seep through, teasing over the back of Tsumi’s tongue.

Reaching Kraz’s hips, Tsumi paused, panting through his nose as he gathered his strength for a moment, before with a firm haul and a push of his legs, lifted Krazs’ up over his head. His eyes widened a moment as he over-balanced and staggered back, bumping into a wall behind himself, groaning around his meal and slumping onto his rump, the shock of impact with the ground causing him to drop Kraz’s hips past his maw. Working down his opponent’s legs, staring up now, at the twitching and stirring feet dangling before him, Tsumi considered the curious bangle on Kraz’s right ankle.

Growing easier by the swallow, Kraz’s ingestion continued at a quickening pace. Tsumi’s belly swelling in his lap as he eased down the Tan knees, and lapped gently along the bare calves of his opponent, finding himself with a smile on his face at the renewed, stronger flavor washing over his tongue again.

With the feet in reach, Tsumi lifted a paw to gently remove the bangle from his opponent, pausing in his swallows to admire the gemmed loop of gold. The respite didn’t last long though, and watching the toes of his opponent squirm, Tsumi dropped those broad moogle feet into his muzzle, groaning faintly, appreciatively as he closed his jaws behind Kraz’s toes and rested. He worked his tongue slowly over the feet of his opponent, blushing and smiling whilst he tenderly assaulted the padded soles within his maw, chrrrling muffledly as he savored the last supple, musky taste of the smaller moogle…

Within him, Kraz continued to squirm, knowing he was but a swallow from his end, but truly helpless to get free now, Tsumi heard a feeble cry from his belly, before he swallowed, following the bulge of Kraz’s foot paws down his throat, past his chest and into his belly at last…

He rested; panting from the effort swallowing his opponent had taken, musing about the lingering taste on his tongue as his swollen gut wriggled gently. Tsumi able to feel Kraz within, squirming in the slick and heated embrace of his belly, undulating indefinitely about his trapped frame and squishing him about slowly before Tsumi puffed his cheeks out and clenched his belly softly, forcing the excess air within out in a long and low, wet burp. A blush crossing his cheeks, as he slumped back against the wall, feeling his belly stirring hopelessly, before stilling… Closing his eyes slowly, he raised a paw to cover his face and sigh, relaxing, though a heavy weight rested still on his chest. Despite his revenge, the pink moogle felt a twinge of guilt…

 ***

The evening in the ruins was mercifully quiet, for Tsumi; the pink moogle having constructed a small fire within a building that had no roof, but four complete walls as to recuperate in as he digested. With his back against the aged stone, he watched the flames dancing quietly with the occasional crackle and pop, contemplating the look his opponent had first given him when they’d laid eyes on one another.

“Kraz was happy.” Came the voices, whispering softly and causing Tsumi to look to his pompom, and the clear, starry sky above beyond it. “He didn’t know other moogles, like you have. Nor magic either. …He could not hear us. If not for this tournament, perhaps…” They trailed into silence, leaving Tsumi pondering.

“So he didn’t know I was there, then? He couldn’t have sensed me..? I walked into that battle needlessly?” He asked faintly, blushing.

“Never needlessly; Always for a reason. Just as we left you, just as we returned. Just as we help you, there is a reason.” Came the mysterious response.

“This tournament, then? What’s the reason for it..?” Pried the young moogle, frowning.

“…We… are uncertain of this. There are many threads still on the island. A gathering that otherwise would never naturally occur. Truly, you feel and hear the beat of the island; Dark, and powerful. …All we can say is; …This is no ordinary Tournament, and we will help you to whatever end is formed. …Within reason.” They uttered softly, leaving the moogle nodding gently.

“And.. the people, I’ve beaten.. That Kraz beat… that any other competitors beat… Are they..?” He hesitated softly, cautious of prying such a topic with the faint light coming from his pompom.

“No longer here… yes. Beyond what they are... what their fates are… We cannot say. It is one of those things that you must one day find for yourself.”

Watching again, as the flames danced gently before him, Tsumi gave a soft sigh, rubbing his arm, before pausing softly.

“…Can I help you?” He asked softly, flicking his ears at the noise of a soft swish of a cloak above. Turning his gaze to the rim of the roof above, he looked to the hooded figure watching him in return, before dropping down into the house, across the fire from Tsumi.

The moogle’s pompom glowed yellow. There was no intent on attack.

“I was almost disappointed by your performance, today, moogle.” Murmured the Moonblossom as he lifted his hood back, gazing over the competitor. “But you came through. I’m impressed.”

Tsumi frowned quietly at the rabbit, feeling that unfamiliar well of anger beginning to bubble at the sight of the Lapine before him; addressing him conversationally.

“…I followed your advice.” Tsumi spoke bluntly. “I decided to eat, and win. So I can go home when this is all done.” He frowned as Sefra chuckled lightly.

“Cute resolve. But you might just need a bit more than that, to finish the tournament. You only want to go home? Is that your only reason for being here? Not glory? Not the riches that await the winner?” Asked the robed rabbit, walking around before Tsumi and looking down to him lightly.

“…No. I’m also here to see you, at the end, Kupo. And come that time, I’m going to do to you what I’ve had to do to Reed, and to Charlie, and to Kraz!” The pink moogle said firmly, rising to his feet and glaring at the rabbit with the firelight reflecting in his eyes. “I’m going to finish this tournament, listening to you scream, and beg, and plead as I digest you.”

Rather though, then look worried at the Moogle’s threat and intent glare, Sefra just smirked.

“Is that right? Well, if you think you can, why don’t I make sure you have the right reasons to chase after me?” And whipping out a robed hand, Tsumi moved to duck, as the lapine’s paw lashed at him and realized, a moment too late that it wasn’t him Sefra was grabbing at.

Drawing his arm back smoothly, The Moonblossom held a small, glinting frame between his thumb and fore-finger, Kyt’s’ shard. With a simple tilt of his head and a chuckle at Tsumi’s cry of shock, he leapt back as the moogle made to grasp at his wrist. Catching the rising, heated air of the fire, Sefra gave a spin, and with a rush of the wind, launched himself to the rooftop again. “Do your best, then, Tsumi! This will be your prize if you win.” Chuckled the rabbit, before he vanished into the night.

With a cry of desperation, the moogle hurried to the doorway, and stared into the night sky, seeing a cloaked form rushing smoothly through the sky, supported by the wind. Banging the heel of his fist against the doorframe, the mog took a breath, and hitching his eyes to the mountain, started for the base of it…

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