SLY V BASSASAIL (Oasis)

Sly Rolls First

Battle Location: Oasis

For More info:
http://www.rpgdragons.org/t3124-the-grand-tournament-event#41541

Could have been battle-worn and weary from the last match, considering how quickly the next match for the tournament came. He was the first to finish, yet last, with his next opponent, to finally move to the second round. It had been forever, and he was as ever eager to step upon the next realm for his match. Yet the day came with the same kind of nervousness as he had in the first round. His heart thumped heavily against his scales, as if praying he had one more day to prepare.

The first match was a complete disaster. His opponent failed to show up, and it wasn't until he finished setting up camp in a well-hidden cave that a known official came calling for his name, letting him know that Chloe had long forfeited. Good news. And bad. Aside from advancing, by default meant he never experienced the first taste of a battle. He checked among the other combatants and received word that their opponents showed up. Sly was the only lucky one with the default win, but its value was utter rubbish.

Bassasail was the name of his next opponent. A SeaWing this time, and what better location to meet Sly's advantage than a little paradise of a treasure in the middle of the sand dunes.

The skies were clear of any streaks of clouds, the blue scorching and beating him down as much as the sun. The shade among the few pine trees that surrounded this small lake seemed welcoming, but who would knew if his opponent had arrived? Fortunately it was near nightfall, and the twilight purple and pink encroached from the west, almost consuming the burning hot oasis into darkness.

Sly settled not near the oasis, but behind a distant dune almost 10metres away, and there he hid to await his opponent, maybe to catch him by surprise. He made sure to check his surroundings often, his eyes peeled and ears perked for even a twitch of the sand, or anything as loud as a gentle breeze across the landscape. He had fears that the SeaWing would use the water as a hiding spot, but under this scorching heat, he doubt Bass would last long in there. The water wasn't even deep to hide a dragon of Sly's size anyways. Although his concerns were unfounded, he kept his senses well alert. Anything approaching him from a 1km radius would be seen, as he perched and hid behind the highest dune he could find.

And there he lied in wait. The opponent that won his match against an actual opponent.

"Suns getting ready to set..." The blue dragon said to himself, being an open target thanks to the color of his scales. He had been traveling far and long across an ocean and even rested for many various hours, eating and drinking what he needed to replenish his body: the swamps left a bad taste in his mouth, it was nothing like the fight against his own father, the fight that nearly took his life, and his arm if her survived.

But that was in the past, all wounds healed and completely fine, but there was an odd brand on his neck that could be clearly made out. It was the symbol for "The Damned" or exiled to be exact. Bassasail had lived through many years of combat, and every time, he is left disappointed, yet, this time could be different. He was fighting a NightWing Healer known as "Slychotic," it was an odd name to Bass, then again his own name was odd as well. He had a hard time trying to find out about this dragon, how strong it is, how fast it is, he didn't even know its gender for the most.

The desert seemed to be cooling, which was a good deal. When Bassasail really felt the heat coming to him, he buried himself under the sand and making a hole to where water could get to him to help with cooling off. When he found out about fighting the NightWing, he was actually excited, aside from the disappointed form lack of information, he would actually fight a member oft he most feared clan of all other dragons.

He would continue his walk through the now cooling sands, still feeling the heat though, it was not as bad as earlier, as he strides straight at the opponents location. Hopefully, this one would not be a let down.

There he was.

Sly caught glimpse of him and stayed behind the dune. He quickly examined his opponent, and was quick to conclude that he was part crocodile. An advantage Sly had over him, it seemed, was his ability to fly. But should he really use his wings in such a weather? Surely it was starting to cool diwn, but it did little to change the humidity. Sly licked his maw, and the dryness of the air was quick to steal his water. To him , it wasn't a problem, but a disastrous field for those who relied on water. Sly snuck a glimpse at the Oasis, knowing fully well that SeaWing would need to use it to cool off at some point until night falls. Or so he thought.

Sly pressed his wings close to his side. This was a friendly battle but Sly rather skip the formalities and test his opponent. As energy built to maximum, Sly waited for his foe to walk by him, almost 10metres from where he was, and there he released his wings. Two large orbs, condensed with potent energy floated slowly from his wings and began to circle around the dune from both sides, charging at Bass in opposite directions. A shame that their apparent brightness and flashing colours would immediately catch his foe's attention, but that was what Sly would try and prevent.

He pressed his wings close to his side again, focusing enough energy to fire an additional 12 smaller but faster orbs, and they leave a trail of different colours as they flew over the dune in all directions and spiral around his foe, assure to hit him on all directions. The smaller orbs, would converge on where Bass would be, the explosion that would throw sand everywhere and hide the approach of the larger orbs.

Although the orbs hone in on their target, the small ones would barely do much to a dragon of Bass's size, since Sly didn't focus them on a single point on his body, but it would be his larger orbs that would be a problem.

Sly then climbed down the dune and ran around it, hoping to change his location quickly while out of sight...

Bassasail could smell another, it wasn't sand nor water, but rather something that was more lively. He began to take caution but stopped immediately as glowing orbs surrounded him, something he had not seen in a good while from other dragons he had to fight.

As the orbs would collide, Bassasail would breath a wave of blue fire, making it surround him as a shield as the orbs would collide, but this was only for the protection of the blast radius, but the two orbs are what immediately bothered him. He noticed they were slow, but he could not move within this fire, and as they would collide form what he saw, they would explode violently, which in return would break the flame shielding, but at the same time he took minimal damage thanks to that same shielding taking most of the blast.

He could not see his enemy, so he did await, hearing, smelling, he did not know where his enemy was which bothered him as well. Energy projectiles, the smaller ones were faster then the larger ones, did it have to do with weight? Possibly, considering the immense energy it did take to make the larger orbs move, he would have to consider watching out for this.

Bassasail began to power up, allowing the energy to travel through his body evenly, the brand on his neck glowing a bright blood red while between his scales began to glow dark blue. He let out a small burst of energy to finish this off, allowing himself to use energy to his whim, yet how much would it take? Hopefully, this opponent would be fun enough for him to fight.

The next dune wasn't very far, he crouched in the shadiest part of it, well hidden from the sun as he hurried. Blasts from his stars could be heard over the dune, as well as the great roars of what sounded like fire. The two elements collided, and Sly expressed some doubt that he had hurt the little dragon at all.

As he passed through the small gap between dunes, he snuck a split second look at what happened. Blue flames. And it seemed his large orbs failed to blast him. At least they were strong enough to throw him back a little. Sly disappeared behind the next dune and waited, now around 7metres from Bass and almost directly in front if him. Now what?

Sly expended a surprise attack, and it seemed to do little than make his opponent fired up. A distant boom signalled that he was ready, and Sly found it unlikely the same trick would work again. No, he shouldn't act rashly. He needed to think.

Sand. Nothing but sand, with a near shallow oasis sitting in the middle. The only spot he could hide behind were the dunes. Sly knew he had to do something about the blue flames, find a way to manoeuvre over them. He huffed a sigh as he caught a glimpse of the sun, burning his eyes as it scorched behind his opponent. Of course. He needed to stall anyways.

Sly concentrated his energy again and shot out two more large orbs. They had to circle a bigger dune to hit Bass, so Sly had plenty of time. He made sure to guide the orbs to move around the dunes before homing in on Bass by both his flanks. Then he huffed and concentrated, but this time on only one wing. He waited, knowing he needed to time this right for this next attack to work. When his window came, he backed away slightly, and he fired the large orb, targetting the tip of the dune he was hiding. As his head began to flare from the quick succession of orbs, he folded his wings again and shot another 12 orbs over the dune. As the dune tip explodes, a huge wave of sand would sweep over his foe, and the 12 small orbs blended in with somewhat descent camouflage as they all rained down upon his foe.

There was no time to react, he had not seen it coming. Bassasail was hit by 12 of the same orbs from before, and he saw the two larger orbs again approaching him. It seemed the enemy was close by, and in response from he twelve orbs he only roared as he took the same minimal damage, and fired a blast of blue fire at the orb closest to the dune, causing the orb to erupt and explode violently next to that same dune. The second one he would blast it with he same blue fire, causing it to explode as well.

He figured this out, which would had been sooner had he observed earlier. The dunes, the enemy was using dunes as their cover, how smart. Bassasail was too bright scaled and too large to hide behind most of the dunes himself, so it was another small dragon, he thought. He would shoot a blast of blue fire at the dune, causing sand to go everywhere, but as the sand went everywhere, if it shifted as it fell, he would see it and attack immediately, but maybe the enemy was not there? No, its where the orbs came from, right? He questioned to himself but kept his sights on where the dune used to be, just to make sure.

Did it work?

The dune was broken up and caught a bit of breeze. Sly lowered his head as the sand rained on him, trying not to get any of it in his eyes. It passed pretty quickly but his heart leapt again at another roar, followed by huge explosions. Not that it was any sign that he landed direct hits with his flanking orbs, but it was obvious that he didn't time it right. But at least the minor orbs did something.

Sly knew fully well his position was compromised but he chose not to move. By now, his foe should have figured out what was going on. Even seem that Sly had expended his entire arsenal on Bass to no effect. Something below him glowed, and Sly stepped further from the dune, now red like rubies. Actually the entire sand turned red, the skies not sparred from this phenomenon as well. He looked around, but the dune had covered the sun from him. Though without any source of light in this oasis, everything far from him would slowly become silhouettes.

It was soon to be a moonless night.

The dune near him exploded again. Another violent one, enough to rock the sands a little. Sly jumped back from the explosion and stepped away from the rising sand. The sun came back to him, a faint light reaching out from the huge ball of floating sand. It surprised him at first, but then he smiled. The sun helped illuminate the shadow of his opponent, still standing before him.

Sly folded and focused energy in his wings again. This time, he released one large slow orb, moving to flank Bass around his right, again using the existing dunes for cover. The other, he released 6 small orbs, straight ahead towards the foe. With the sand everywhere, they would surely provide cover for the six orbs, as now Sly could concentrate and focus all of them to aim at Bass's chest for greater collective damage.

Though he didn't stop there. Sly swivelled left, right wing folded and facing Bass, and shoot 4 additional small orbs from that wing, homing to Bass's head this time, an attack not fully charged but may land if the first 6 failed, and he dashed back around the dune to his left (the dune he hid behind at the start). As he did so, he held onto the buildup of energy in his left wing, hoping to release it later...

Firing another blast at the newer energy balls destroyed some for eh surrounding minor orbs, but it had been stupid for not moving at all. As the energy ball hit his side, causing some damage and a violent explosion as his fire hit the ground at the same time, send sand everywhere. He fell to his knee, but the falling sand did provide some form of cover for now. He was his, some pieces of his scales even missing, but he was more worried about the side of his body. What was this feeling? It had been something he hadn't felt in a very long time, has he truly lost his game? Has he became this dull? This stupid? He used to take blasts like this from his siblings with ease! And now?

Yet, there was another feeling, his heart thumping violently, sending pulses through his body as he would feel them, each thump swift. This feeling, it was so familiar, and as the sand would end it falling it would reveal the now blue glowing dragon. As he opened his mouth, bioluminescence would radiate furiously from the inside of his mouth and head, to in between his very scales, the area growing slightly hotter like before it had hit sundown. he was powering up, releasing his power throughout his body. He hissed as he grew furious, yet calm. He slammed his paw into the ground, he knew the enemy was going to play smart, and so would he now. He fired a wave of blue flames, spreading all around him and extended on the ground, going around the dunes and into a larger circle, providing what seemed to be an arena.

If he wanted a battle, then an actual arena would be more useful then any other structure... if you could even call it that. The blue flames that counted their glow provided some for of light, allowing him to see now. They will die out soon, but they will last for a good while before expelling without any fuel to keep them going.

"I see, so you can make energy orbs and have them track an enemy down, smart," he said as he looked to that one dune, the one he had his eyes kept on for some time now. He charged up, the heat returning from his body and to the area as his body grew brighter and brighter, the arena being now illuminated. He saved himself some form of energy to continue off of, he was not stupid enough to utilize all if it now.

He shot off a powerful beam of blue fire in the direction the orbs came from, the beam would go right through the sand, leaving the sand being melted form the heat of the fire in its wake. Question was, would the enemy simply dodge it? Even if they managed to escape the fire, they would still be struck with the heat wave and the force of the blast.

((If you have questions for me ask them through PM, I will not answer any of them here just so you know))

It felt like a marathon, but he finally reached the spot on the dune he wanted to hide behind and he stopped to catch his breath. He didn’t expend a lot of his energy, but the humidity was getting to him. Sly rested against the dune, breathing through his nostrils so as to create as little noise. A soothing bed these hot sands would make against his cold scales, as they brushed over his legs. Sleep could take him, but the task at hand kept him wide awake. He was aware that his orbs had struck Bass, though still unsure if they landed or not. However, his opponent had stumbled, evident when he could hear some muffled thuds after the bursts. Did his larger orb finally hit? He may never know. Though he knew just one big orb was far from enough to ensure victory. He had the upper hand at last, night was about to set in with the sands turning dark red and all without showing himself to his opponent. The Nightwings ought to be proud, especially with very little cover under the beating the sun. Once the moonless night sets in, the rest of the match should be a cakewalk for any Nightwing. Though Sly didn’t really have any trump cards. Probably a burden he had to bear for being able to manipulate his orbs.

Sly inhaled a deep breath. Those rushing thoughts made his heart beat hard again. Surely it was a surprise that this Seawing was capable of breathing fire—an element opposite of his own breed. Sly didn’t know something like that was possible, but at least he knew before Bass could about the exact nature of Sly’s abilities.

He rested long enough, the sun now nothing more than an orange streak across the distant dunes. But just as he got up, the air boomed, like thunder had struck where Bass was, and the impact blew a bit of the dune tips off. Sly stiffened, eyes wide and reverting back to the serious yellow colour he would wear when provoked. Over the dune, a small mountain over the dark blue hue of the sky, something bright blue was glowing. The sand shuffled at the phenomenon, some dunes sinking lower at his periphery, saved for the one he hid behind.

There it was. Bass’s possible trump card.

Sly was sure to remain quiet, his claws crunching the sand below him as he climbed up the dune and peaked slightly over, praying the night would conceal him against the ring of blue flames he just saw. It was a large wing, seemingly burning the sand to sustain themselves. Bass was in the middle, on his fours, gaps and articulating scales of his body glowing the same colour as the flames. Everything inside the circle had burned slightly, but the sand was still…useable. But with the fire lighting the area, Sly doubt he could keep stealthy for long. He had to pretend it was still daylight until the fire fades.

On the other hand, he could see bits of grey smoke coming from the left side of his opponent’s body. So it seemed the large orb connected. Something inside Sly expressed some worry about what he had done, seeing bits of scorched pieces lying around near Bass. Possibly scales. Though it was nothing Sly couldn’t treat. And maybe he could offer to patch him up after the match. At least he now had opened a weakness in case he wanted to use his smaller orbs.

Sly still had his left wing pressed against him, already built up at its maximum potential and ready for release. Unfortunately, he stood on the wrong flank of Bass, as his right side was still perfectly healthy. Sly curled back a little when Bass’s voice bellowed over the oasis, commending how Sly was able to guide his orbs to land against his opponent. That was true, but they were very volatile, and that had more than often made him grit his fangs.

Bass’s maw began to glow brighter, gapped open with obvious signs that he was charging up for a stronger attack. But he was still targeting the dune, half-destroyed, right in front of him. Sly smirked a little at how him firing his orbs at that spot prior to relocating to this dune seemed to have made him assume Sly was hiding there.

Another window of opportunity that Sly rather felt sorry that he had to take.

While Bass was focusing his attack, Sly focused on his right wing and released his left—another large orb, and he guided it around his dune so that it would either strike Bass at the front, if he didn’t turn to Sly, or his left side. He made sure to guide the orbs to manoeuvre over the ring of fire so they wouldn’t blow up against it, and predicted that the flames could provide cover for the orbs until they fly over the ring. Sly then quickly folded back his left wing, so that he was building energy for both wings at roughly the same time. He released an additional two large orbs, one going around the dune on the other side to strike Bass’s back, and the other trailing after the one he fired earlier.

Then, a huge explosion echoed to Sly’s right. It wasn’t his orbs for sure, but perhaps Bass had completely destroyed that dune.

BASS! Sly immediately roared on top of his lungs, trying to get him to turn to what would be the last dune standing that was near Bass, and folded his wings close again. He measured Bass would be surprised at the call of his name, especially right after knowing Sly was no longer behind that dune, and he fired another 12 small orbs, leading them over the dune to splash over Bass. 2 orbs touched the tip of this last dune and exploded, again, throwing sand over Bass. If Sly remembered correctly, this first dune he hid behind before the match was 5metres from Bass, and therefore a lot closer, though the arena he created meant Sly could see a bit of flickering blue fire near the top.

As well as hoping the sand would cover the rest of the small orbs, he hoped the sand would, this time, get into Bass’s eyes and maybe blind him for Sly’s approach as he ran up to the top…

As the dune would explode, Bass closed his eyes for the brief moment, barely opening to see various dim objects heading towards him. He spin around, hitting several of these orbs and causing them to explode when he swung his tail. As the sand would rain of him, he heard some form of shuffling, but was distracted by the rush of several more orbs, one that struck him in the knee, another that struck him in the chest. It was not very effective, for that matter, they only felt like heavy arrows, something to push him back. Again, he heard the shuffling above and swiftly turned to the dune behind him before backing up several steps.

The sun was set now, only the pink streak of cloud could be seen in the sky, he could feel coldness come to him, at least it's not as bad as an ocean trench. He charged up and fired at the dune, enough to make it explode, but not enough to simply annihilate it. He lost a lot of energy, and he needed to regain ground, so he needed to utilize as little ranged attacks as possible.

Once his claws slammed upon the top of the dune, he threw himself over. Beforehand, he charged his wings again and cast two more large orbs, throwing them towards Bass in mid air. The two orbs would make a wide arc around Bass before exploding on him on either side (assuming he turned to Sly this time). As he was about to take flight as well, Sly frowned at him a little. Bass had swung his tail and knocked out two of the large orbs earlier. But he was facing the wrong direction, having turned to a somewhat distant dune 8m from him and exposing his already weakened left side to Sly. Additionally, the third orb from previously was still active, and had just climbed over the ring of fire and homing in to Bass's back now.

Perhaps a mistake. If Bass tried to turn to Sly now and face him and the two new large orbs, his left would be hit directly by that third orb. Not that he had much of a choice left. But Sly had to be cautious. Bass's glow may had weakened but he still had fuel left in him. Sly made his preparations just as Bass fired at that dune.

It was time to end this.

Sly beated his wings, focusing on every mighty swing. Doing so allowed him to send 4 small fast orbs towards Bass with every flap, and he aimed all of them specifically at Bass's head and neck. If his small orbs could now knock him back a little bit, or even blind him until his large orbs collide, then it would at least cause his next potential breath of blue flames to misfire and throw him off balance before he could counteract the large orbs.

Sly did this until he was 4metres from Bass - rather dangerously close for his taste, but necessary. With one huge breath, he roared at Bass and released a very dense mist all over him before flying past him overhead. The expelling of this mist would coincide with the 3 large orbs making direct contact on Bass.

The mist wasn't dangerous and, unlike other Nightwings, does not induce sleep. Instead, Sly modified his breath to over-sensitise Bass's affected body in direct contact with the mist. This would completely reawaken any wounds he had sustained lately, especially his left side, and make his skin very tender, thereby making Sly's smaller orbs more painful and larger orbs more excruciating for a period of time.

Sly turned and flied around the Oasis, panting. He too was getting exhausted. Although he was healthy and had yet to take any damage, he had expended a lot of energy for those surprise attacks. And so he waited and hoped...

((Hrm, this may be a bit tricky XD))

Bassasail took this punishment, from starters, the smaller orbs that hit him in the face did indeed blind him, and other orbs colliding into his body and exploding. This put him in so much pain, it was just like when he had fought his father... no, Bassasail still had fight in him left. He fell to the ground as a huge cloud of sand feel in the area he was in, and he took a huff.

This wasn't what he had in mind, He actually expected a claw to claw combat, but much like the last dragon, this one used tactics, but they were better, this one was smarter, he used the area to his advantage and Bassasail was in trouble. While a majority of his power was lost, he still had much of it left, but the pain inflicted into his left side was excruciating, yet, he had to get over that. Slowly, he got back up, the pain being pushed into the back of his mind as he began to glow again, but only dimly this time. Charging up, he would send a strong wave a blue fire, the large ring that was now expanding being sent out at a furious speed, and this ring was spreading to burn anything on sight.

It was probably a little too much.

Sly turned around and hovered near the edge if the ring, still inside it. He first saw the sun had long disappeared behind the dunes and the arena-like ring was all that was left lighting the area. Sly witnessed, a little saddened as Bass just allowed all the orbs, large and small, to converge and blast him all over. That and coupled with the effects of the sensitising mist meant even his small orbs were just as painful as the large orbs, though not actually as damaging as them.

Sly had hoped that last attack would at least dissuade Bass from continuing this fight any further. They both were heavily exhausted but Bass took the brunt of nearly every attack Sly sent in his way. Yet Bass was still standing.

Dont fight anymore, Sly said. I dont want to hurt you anymore than what you have sustained. If you choose to continue, some parts of your body may nev-

Not like he would listen anyways. Bass has already charged his next attack. His scales glowed weakly, as if an indication that he was down to his last ounce of strength. Sly gritted his fangs. He exposed himself almost in vain, but at least he may had taken another advantage, that being Bass's scales were more sensitive to pain.

With little choice left, Sly beat his wings to gain some altitude. He then closed his wings to his side and concentrated on forming large orbs. As he did so, Bass released his next attack. Another wave of flames that ringed around him and expanded outwards. Sly dove towards Bass at the same time, at a low angle like he was gliding. He measured the flames and predicted he could soar over them, but didnt count on how they would rise slowly.

A flame licked his underbelly and Sly hissed, trying to ignore the pain as he released the orbs, just as he flied over. The 2 orbs were released dangerously close, a little over 3 metres from Bass, and Sly pulled up, releasing another 4 smaller orbs as he flapped and passed over Bass again. He targetted them all at Bass's head, hoping to finally knock him out unconscious and take the victory without anymore pain.

Bassasail would see the orbs coming at him. He has had enough with these, eh shot five fire balls, taking 2 two each smaller orbs out while shot numerous balls at the larger orbs causing them to blow up in his face, but they did;t hit his head, that was good. As soon as they would explode, he shot six large fire balls at the enemy, he knew he would not miss. To finish this off, he charged up, the cool night being heated up quite violently as his body would envelope in heat and blue flames, glowing intensely between his scales. He was preparing for one last attack that should work, instead of rushing in, he needed to do this to end it, here and now.

Sly hissed, then almost snarled in frustration.

This was one very stubborn dragon he had to deal with. What's more, he had just revealed he was able to shoot balls of fire rapidly from his maw and completely destroyed all of those orbs. Sly's eyes widened when he saw the maw gapped towards him and hurling additional fire balls.

Sly pulled up and barrel-rolled, trying to dodge the sudden attack as much as possible. 4 of them struck the dunes but the other two singed his tail and right hindleg. The burns shot up his spine and he howled in pain. Him not being as physically strong, the pain almost took hold in his mind, but he shook it off in time to avoid falling into the edge of the dying ring and veered.

Sly brushed passed the dunes and soared high up in the air. In his periphery, Bass's scales lit up again. Something was wrong. The scales werent as dimly lit. Had he been played? No. Not likely. He could see a lot of signs of exhaustion and pain on Bass's expression. He could be charging his last resort. Likely that, as Sly could feel the area heating up.

He needed to get out of sight.

Hurriedly he breathed another mist in front of him, flying directly through it. This time he modified it as an anaesthetic, and the burns receded to mere stings. Then nothing at all. Their sensations were completely numb, but so was Sly's whole body. It was a desperate move but necessary. Especially if he failed to get out of that last attack - whatever it was.

Sly escaped the ring, almost just as the flames had died down, and soared around the desert. He gave himself enough distance such that the light of the flames couldn't touch him. Just as he did so, he was immediately reminded about where he really was.

The Oasis.

He was now flying over the oasis, more than 50metres from where the intense blue glow was, which Sly presumed was Bass. There, Sly focused. He felt his head starting to flare and ache, his wings chilly with the sheer excessive energy he had now stored in them, though the anaesthetic mist had numbed the sensations of burning.

If Bass is going to launch that last resort, so would Sly. It was time he finish this for real.

Pushing himself to the limits of pain and energy, Bassasail continued to charge and charge, forcing himself up. He fell to his knees, shaking his head as his vision blurred from the intense heat, but he needed to win this. He charged up, feeling the heat coming more and more to his head, he began to grow dizzy. Had he just simply just did this from the start, none of this now would have occurred.

The heat was getting tense.

Sly frowned as he felt he had reached the maximum his wings could hold. If he charged anymore, he could damage his own wings. Not that it mattered now as he needed all the energy he could get. In fact, some of it started to leak and Sly had little choice but to release some orbs, a total of 4 medium sized orbs travelling almost the same speed as the smaller orbs.

He targeted the four towards where Bass was. If Bass was still charging his attack, these orbs could provide more damage and cause some nuisance. No matter. Sly was already fully charged, his wings glowing faintly as every fibre in them brimmed with energy.

With that, he took to the air, gaining higher in altitude and further away from the touch of light. He needed to go higher and higher, and as he did so, he purposely dropped more medium sized orbs, in groups of 4 with every beat of his wing as they were sent plummeting down, with assistance of gravity, towards Bass at blurring speeds.

A total of 32 orbs were dropped like meteorites raining down and aiming at Bass. And when he reached the desired height, Bass was no more than a tiny glowing crystal below him. Sly hovered up there, and waited for the outcome of those leaked orbs, his wings still fully charged and waiting...

Bassasail saw the attacks coming in, and decided it was time (finally). He opened his maw as he let out a violent and large beam of blue molten fire straight where the enemy was, all he did was aim where the orbs were coming from, like target practice in a sense. He fired off the beam of blue fire, and if he manage to dodge this attack, like most of the attacks thrown at him, then Bass was already defeated, for him it was just a matter of who fell first. Bassasail collapsed, but not defeated, he was still struggling to get up as the orbs rained down on him, causing more pain. There was no escaping it, he had to endure the punishment, but, he could handle it, right?

The blue 'crystal' below him glowed. And it was getting bigger.

Fast.

Sly cursed between his fangs and tried to turn. As he did the blue hot beam shot dangerously close to his neck as he had just made the dodge. Or so he thought. His right claw grazed far too close to the beam of fire, and he could hear the roaring and crackling of the beam. Sly watched as his foreleg seemed to shrivel a bit, charred and blackened as he pulled away from the beam, smoking and burning. Not just his foreleg, but almost the entirety of his right body was scorched purely by the sheer heat this beam was radiating out.

Sly dove back down towards the ground. He wasnt in pain. But he was glad the anaesthetic mist had kicked in earlier to numb down these burns. But it could be a very long while before his foreleg could heal up again.

He continued to fall down towards the Oasis, wondering what he had done wrong. Of course. He predicted the final resort to be a huge wave of blue fire. But that moment he forgot Bass could change that. Surely, had it not been night time, had he not thanked the gods for a moonless night, Bass may had enough light to aim more accurately for Sly and end him in what would be probably the biggest upset of his life.

No more games this time. He still had his own attack to perform.

Sly held his breath and opened his wings a little, guiding himself to dive on Bass. There were still 20 or so medium sized orbs still dropping onto Bass, but he was already on his knees. As if in defeat. Sly couldn't trust those orbs to be enough, seeing first hand how he underestimated Bass and burned his own tail and hindleg.

Sly spun towards Bass, almost charging towards him like a spinning torpedo. He released all of his energy, stretching his wings outwards. With loud hisses, orbs of varying sizes burst out of them and surrounded Sly. Some of them were big, others were small. But it was Sly's best attack yet. Once all of his energy had expelled, Sly slowed and stopped his fall. With one mighty swing, the 40 or so orbs circled around the oasis in a brilliant display, like celestial objects circling an unseen sun. As they spun, they descended upon Bass, surrounding the entire arena below him, hitting him on all flanks, in every direction and every height, like a giant dome shrinking over him.

I'm sorry... Sly whispered, as his wings beat slowly, aching and trembling with exhaustion, before he fell onto the edge of the oasis, the cool water splashing over him.

Bassasail would roar, feeling the attack from all sides. He could feel only pain, but then numbness. His nerves had gave out on him, his energy force was dangerously low, and to top it all off, he felt defeated, he felt empty somehow. As the attack faded, he would collapse onto his underbelly, but was still awake, still breathing. He attempted to get up, but no avail, he pushed himself too far, the damage he took had taken energy away form him, so there was reason for him to be this weak. He heard a voice form the opponent, yet, this only enraged him. He slowly pushed himself up, blood trickling from various wounds on his body, he spotted the dragon going for water. Water... seething he remembered about it. He began to slowly walk toward the dragon, lost in his mind, he only knew to react.

Landing in the water was perhaps one of the best thing he had planned for right after launching a final attack like that. His legs felt like they had run a marathon, aching, trembling and numbing. Sly pressed his tongue against his throat, and he realised how dry it was. He satiated his thirst quickly, diving his snout into the cold water and sucking it up. Every second was an audible gulp, uncaring for etiquette as he just needed water. Cold, refreshing, loving water.

After probably filling his stomach, Sly rolled onto his side and rested his head against the banks, huffing. The exhaustion made him rather dizzy but at least he done it. He fought his first battle against a formidable and strong-willed opponent with an unusual set of abilities.

Or so he thought.

Another disappointment came to him as he saw Bass, walking down the dune and towards the Oasis. Of course, Sly could only see him because of the very faint glow still existing inside Bass, fading like a candle on its last piece of wick. Sly could see blood, among other wounds. And he knew Bass was ljterally forcing his own body to work. He doubt he could fight anymore.

Sly could hardly himself, but it amazed him how a dragon could survive an onslaught of his orbs raining upon them. He slowly rolles onto his belly and lifted himself back up. Sly looked up at Bass, huffing, and wondered what he qas going to do next. The two were on opposite ends of the Oasis.

Sly flicked his snout towards the oasis. Drink.

Bassasail gave the dragon a glare as it would speak, but did so as the dragon told him, collapsing on his knees and paws of his arms as he began to drink the water. Yes, it was quite refreshing, and he took various moments gulping down large amounts before speaking, "Name..." He would say to the dragon, more of a question then anything.

Sly sighed, in relief as Bass kneeled to drink from the waters. As he did so, he looked at his own wounds. They were like second or third degree burns, with his foreleg suffered the most. They werent a problem for him to fix definitely, but he didnt have his knapsack with him. The oasis didnt have a lot of plants growing around it anyways, despite being Earthwing territory.

Sly turned back to Bass, still huffing for breath. He gave him a smirk. My name...is Sly. Surely you...saw it when our...match was announced...Bass. Sly coughed to the side. He inhaled a deep breath, trying to loosen that tight feeling. That was... a good match... dont you think? You are...pretty tough to beat.

"Because of my stupidity... I lost," He would say taking another drink. This would linger on him for a long time. He body was somewhat trembling before speaking, "You... blew out my nerves," He would say in a deep yet calmed tone, "You are not the first I;e met that produces energy like that, but I doubt your the last." Bassasail would say again as he took yet another drink, feeling himself refresh. His entire left side was bloodied, his right nearly equaled his left, and the glow had completely faded form before, only leaving then brand on his neck glowing avery dim red.