Asha, seeing that the woman is beyond her own healing and that Simon is already calling for aid that would serve, turns her attention toward searching more of the debris, in case there are other victims still buried.
The monks rush to Simon once he alerts them to the woman he's found, and they assist him in bringing her still form out from the wreckage. It's plain to see how she's died - one of the pieces of timber pierced her side when she landed on it, and the remainder of the tower crushed her when it collapsed on her. The monks solemnly place her onto a stretcher, cover her with an orange sheet, and carry her off the battlefield. Across the way, the man in black shakes his head as he watches the monks carry her off the field.
Poog looks around.
"Am this mean we know fight later?"
"Problem, neighbour?" Simon asks of the man in black, frowning.
"We'll still fight, Poog, it just means don't stand under the timber structures during the match." taking consideration of It, Zak advises him as well, "That means you too, It, don't let Poog leash you to one of those posts."
Poog's eyes light up momentarily, as if the thought hadn't occurred to him until right then.
Asha moves toward the black-clad man as well, studying him for evil intent. She offers the man a slight bow, and asks, "You were her opponent, yes? What happened?"
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It shies away from Poog, giving him a low growl.
Just try it, buddy. That which was given to you can be taken away again.
"That's not how this was supposed to end," the man says. His voice is raspy, and the exposed skin on the right side of his face is reddened and scarred from a old burn that never fully healed. "It's not how it's supposed to end for any of us. We all hope for success, but you have to be prepared to lose at any time. Only one of us is making it to the prize after all. But this...this is a senseless loss of life, a tragic accident. There's nothing glorious about this end.
"As for what happened...we each fought in our own styles. She got off a lucky shot early on in the fight, but Seishuku is not called the Scarred Ninja for nothing. I made her blind to the spots I was at, and struck her a few times with my blade." He pats a curious chain weapon with a hooked blade on one end and a heavy metal ring on the other. "That's when our duel took to the towers. She tried to keep moving between the towers to keep me from getting at her, but as she climbed to the top of the middle tower, everything just suddenly collapsed. She was pitched towards the leftmost, and everything fell on her." He shakes his head again. "Senseless. That's what this is. A terrible way for a warrior to die."
You concentrate on the Seishuku during the conversation. You do not detect any darkness within him.
Poog scowls at the scruffy terrier.
He moves over to the towers and begins looking at the rest of them, to see if any show signs of sabotage.
The little goblin examines the wreckage of the towers. He finds several thick beams that have snapped and splintered, though whether that's due to sabotage or damage that was caused during the fall, he can't say.
The monks continue to solemnly and quietly begin to cart away the wreckage of the triple towers. The Emissary stands and clears his throat, his voice echoing across the pavilion. "Honored guests, favored warriors, devotees of the Ruby Phoenix. This is a most unfortunate and tragic accident. The gunfighter known only as Helen was a very competent warrior, and we will mourn her passing. The clerics will be contacting her spirit to see if she wishes to return to this world.
"Despite this tragedy, the Tournament must continue. Every contestant knew that death was a possible outcome for them, and would not have entered if they feared such an end. We will have a fifteen minute intermission while my assistants remove the wreckage, and then we will resume the competition." The Emissary sits back down on the throne, looks to Kiang Zhen, and nods to her.
She nods back, and instantly disappears, only to reappear next to the five of you. "Nasty business," Kiang Zhen says in a disinterested tone. "We'll need a good fight to clear the distasteful end to that last bout, so you've been selected to participate in this year's Boar and Tiger. Which one of you will fight?"
"Forgive me, Klang Zhen, I've forgotten the Boar and Tiger match, can you please describe that for us again?"
The oni sighs and rolls her eyes (or at least, you think she does, since it's hard to tell when her eyes are a solid red) at Zak's question. "One of your number will be tethered to either a dire boar or a tiger, and your opponent is tethered to the other. Your goal is to kill your opponent's animal while keeping your own alive."
"Poog suggest Asha do it. Or Zarina. Or maybe Old Man or Zakarras. Any of them am being good for this challenge. Zakarras, am you able to fly with your creature? That am making it very hard to eat. Or any of you am good with animals. Otherwise animal maybe am trying to eat you while you am trying to protect it."
"Hmmm, I'd be good at attacking the other animal, but I don't have any real way to protect one. Would one of the archers be better suited to quickly resolving the battle?"
"Well, little Poogie and Zarina have a good idea there, I can fly up away from the animals and give the distinct advantage to my animal. I accept the challenge!" Zak states proudly, before realizing that it's likely another setup to bring misfortune to the party.
Asha frowns at the oni, then deliberately looks away, focusing instead on Zakarras. "Best of fortune to you, then, my friend," she says. "I pray that you make the animal's end swift and as painless as you can manage." Her tight expression does little to hide her anger at the very idea of such a competition.
"If you am wanting, I can be making animals no like you, Zakarras," Poog says excitedly.
Then his face falls.
"Am not sure if it am helping you, though."
"Thanks, Poogie, but I've still got a trick up my sleeve that should help if I need it." Zak pulls a strange carved mask from his pack and fits it to the top of head, taking on an animal like caricature himself.
Kiang Zhen claps her hands thrice, which echoes across the fight stage. "Very well, Warrior Zakarras. Prepare yourself for battle." The handlers begin moving the aforementioned animals into the fight stage - while the tiger appears to be normal in every way, the boar is massive and is roughly the same size as the great cat, though far stockier. A slender Tian-Dtang woman with chin-length black hair and chestnut eyes approaches you all, a massive anaconda slithering obediently behind her. A predatory grin breaks out on Kiang Zhen's face as the woman approaches.
"Zakkaras, this is your opponent, Nearidei. She excelled in this fight a decade ago, and was chosen to make this the best show possible for the crowd. As you are the newcomer, you will be allowed the chance to make the call for the coin toss to decide who gets which animal." The oni stretches out her hand, and an oversized coin appears. One side has the faces of a boar and tiger, while the other has the respective hindquarters. "So, Warrior - heads or tails?"
"So, I just have to make her say mercy, that all? And no animals have to be harmed in this production? A fair deal, her choice of animals then, as it will be her hide that wears my arrows." Zak grins a ferral smile to rival that of Klang Zhen, then he lowers his mask and prepares to enter the match.
"Both contestants will begin the bout on the ground - after that, whether you remain there is largely up to your own abilities. And the bout does not end until one animal or the other is dead, Warrior. You might end Nearidei's life, but should her animal slay yours, you will have lost the bout."
"I've no desire to end her life!" Turning to the female warrior, Zak earnestly adds "It will be an honor to compete against you and I'll not cause the death of you or your animal if possible. Which animal do you prefer for this match?"
Nearidei smiles readily and answers without hesitation. "The boar. It brought me luck last time - I see no reason why it shouldn't do so again."
"Good, good, it is decided," Kiang Zhen hurriedly says, the coin disappearing as quickly as it appeared. "The monks will escort you to the fight stage, and shackle you to your chosen beasts. You will have a minute to prepare yourselves or your animal however you wish, and then the exhibition match will start. Any questions? No? Good!"
The monks escort Zak to the stage. The tiger is frozen in place across the stage from the massive boar, and a manacle on one of its hind legs bears a fifteen foot length of chain that ends in another smaller manacle. The monks affix this manacle to Zak's ankle, and retreat for any last moment magical augmentations. Across the fight stage, the same thing is happening for Nearidei and her boar. Once the monks retreat, she casts a trio of spells on herself.
You recognize her chanting and motions to be a barkskin spell.
You recognize her chanting and motions to be a air walk spell.
You recognize her chanting and motions to be a freedom of movement spell.
Once the minute has passed, Kiang Zhen yells out, "Begin the Boar and Tiger!" The spells holding the wild animals in place drop, and the fight has begun in earnest!
The tiger roars, venting its pent-up frustration on the nearest target - Zak. It leaps at the archer, all four claws and its massive jaws prepared to strike!
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The tiger leaps on Zak, and catches him with a trio of massive paws. It struggles with the archer, attempting to bring him to the ground and sink its powerful jaws into the man's neck.
"She am casting spells to make her skin tough like bark, to walk on air and to make it so you can no make it hard for her to move," Poog tells Zakarras.
He glares at the tiger. "It seem like good animal, better than It. Poog am sure it will not try to eat you and it am having good luck." He spits three times at the tiger's feet before going into his goblin rhymes.
"No am get yourself killed, Zakarras. We am needing you to win Ruby Phoenix's prize. It am more important than this."
"That am BAD tiger!" Poog declares, as he stops chanting.
"Methinks the lady must be a Druid," Simon muses, nodding at Poog's description of the spells. "Hmm. Druids. Druids and their power over animals. Druids and their oaths not to wear metal armour."
"Poog am no having metal armor to give her, Simon." the goblin says exasperatedly.
Completely unaware of the threat the tiger posed, despite being shackled next to it for a minute, Zak falls under the claws, his best laid plans literally bottled up in smoke. To add to his misfortune, the sneaky goblin exacts revenge for Zak's earlier warning to It.
Attempting to break the grapple, Zak exerts all his effort knowing that failure on this try will likely result in the loss of the match.
and is the archer free....
Zak shoves the tiger away, which lands with a loud thump upon the ground. It yowls at him, hunger and predatory fury in its eyes, preparing to leap at him again.
Zak will fly straight upwards to the 15' extent of the chain and ready his bow.
The tiger swipes its paw at Zak, but he is already gone - it catches nothing but air. The great cat roars in fury as its prey flies up into the air out of reach.
"Not a bad idea," shouts Nearidei as Zak flies away from his animal. "Mind if I join you?" She walks into the air as though climbing an invisible staircase, ending at the same height as Zak. "Now, I can't have you hurting this poor creature - so..." With a gesture and a word, the ground erupts with thorny scrub brush which rapidly grows to wholly encase the boar. "Try shooting through that, Warrior!" A confident smile appears on her face, and she crosses her arms in bravado.
The dire boar squeals in frustration of this new predicament it finds itself in, and tries to move towards the last thing it saw - the slip of a girl that walked up into the air away from it! The boar starts crashing through the thorns, and it squeals in pain as the scrub tears away its thick hide.
The tiger leaps at the archer, trying to grab him and bring him back down to earth. The tiger's paw comes close, but the cat is unable to get enough height to catch Zak.
Zak unleashes a swarm of arrows at Nearidel. "You or the beast, and the beast is covered."
Four shots snap off towards Nearidei - all four find their target. She cries out in pain from the grievous wounds, and the confidence that was on her face suddenly is replaced with fear.
"A minor setback!", she yells, though a quavering is heard in her voice. She waves her hands, and the dust of the fight stage kicks up, bisecting the two portions. "There! That should keep your arrows away from me and the boar! Now, on to victory!"
The boar continues to try to force its way out of the briar patch. It makes no progress this time, but the squealing is still heard within.
The tiger tries to leap at Zak again. This time it gets enough distance for its claw to reach the archer, but the flying archer is able to avoid the beast's claws...for now...
With the boar injuring itself and wind swirling between him and his foes, Zak relents on the arrows and unstoppers the bottle of smoke to hide both him and the tiger.
The bottle drops to the ground, and instantly Zak's half of the fight stage is obscured by smoke. The tiger roars in surprise as roiling clouds of smoke completely envelop everything on Zak's side of the curtain of wind. From beneath his goz mask, however, Nearidei is completely visible.
Nearidei studies the smoke cloud that has suddenly coalesced on the other side of her curtain of air, scratching her chin in surprise. "Alright," she says at last. "I'll admit, I didn't see that one coming. But you're not out of the woods yet. Now I just have to get indirect!" She chants some more words of power, and a column of fire erupts in the middle of the spot where Zak and the tiger were at. The tiger leaps away, roaring in pain.
The boar struggles against the thorns again. It digs in its hooves, trying to make headway, but the brambles are too tight. It ceases it struggles, and squeals in frustration and fury.
The tiger leaps to where Zak used to be, but catches nothing, since the archer has moved on from directly above him. The cat begins circling, waiting for his prey to come back in view. A low grumble issues from deep within its gullet.
Zak will fly forward as far as the chain will allow him to go, then softly call back to the tiger, "Here, kitty kitty, here, kitty kitty" in an attempt to get the cat to move forward and allow him the reach to bypass the wind wall.
Under the concealment of the smoke, Zak strains against the tiger's weight, and the beast roars again in protest of being pulled unwillingly along.
Zak will drag the tiger toward the wind wall, then halt there, hoping to get a shot on the boar next round.
Nearidei frowns as she hears the tiger roar on the other side of the wall. "Alright, that smoke is now officially bothersome. Let's change that up." She begins chanting again, but it is a longer spell, and it draws a great deal of natural energies to her.
Judging by the words, you believe she's casting summon nature's ally V.
The boar clearly has had enough of trying to make any degree of headway through the brambles, and lies there, snorting dejectedly.
The tiger continues to pace. Without a target, it can only pace and wait for its prey to return.
Seeing an opportunity, Zak drops low and moves through the wall of wind and targets the boar in its bramble cage.
The arrow pierces the boar's eye, which squeals in pain. It thrashes in its bramble prison, and kicks in fury against the thorny walls.
Nearidei finishes casting her spell, and a giant cloud with vaguely humanoid features appears. "Get rid of that smoke for me!", she orders it, and the summoned elemental spins rapidly, turning into a tornado. It flies into the smoke-filled section of the fight, and begins to disperse the smoke.
"There's the tiger!", Nearidei says with a smile. "Now, let's end this!" She casts another spell, and a bolt of lightning slammed down from above into the tiger. The cat, however, leapt out of the way, searing its orange-and-black coat.
The boar, however, was in its death throes, and attempted to break further out of its prison. Though it struggled against the brambles, its blind fury tore itself to pieces.
The tiger is about to leap at Zak again, but a well-placed magic word halts the beast in its tracks again. The black-skinned oni approaches the two combatants within the fight arena. "The battle is over," Kiang Zhen calls out. "Warrior, it seems as though your arrow caused more harm to your fellow contestant than to the creature you were tasked to slay. You and a few of your allies expressed your distaste in this fight - therefore, take this ring. It will aid you in saving the lives of these lesser creatures you seem to care for." She offers him a silver ring with a simple small pearl set into it. Half of the band is a stlized boar holding the pearl in its tusks, while the other half is a tiger holding the pearl in its outstretched paws. Their tails intertwine on the other side of the ring.