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"Just three. I challenge you."

"You have nothing to wager with! Your life is forfeit, and your soul is condemned before both gods!"

"I disagree. I challenge you to a trial by combat. If I lose, you are correct, and you may bury me beneath the earth. If I win, my soul is not lost, and I may join Saccularius on the pyre."

Most of what Mordecai had said was an act, an attempt to appease his clan and retain leadership. Kage was grasping at straws, just like he had been three days ago, but the chief saw something different in the young Wolf's eyes. There was determination, courage, but most importantly, confidence. As Kage stared without blinking into the eyes of the chieftain who held the pup's life in his hands, Kage saw something he hadn't been expecting. Fear. With that, he had a horrible idea.

This is an even worse idea than challenging Mordecai. Go for it.

He turned towards the crowds and raised his voice loud enough to be heard. Looking back, he would question what exactly had happened. He'd started speaking, then he'd started acting, and words fell from his mouth even as life flowed through his limbs.

"NOBLE WARRIORS OF THE SHADOWPELT TRIBE! Is there no low too far for you to reach? Is there no depravity so outrageous, no act so heinous that you would not fulfill? LOOK AT YOURSELVES! You have been lied to. You have been misled. Saccularius was one of your own, a mighty warrior! I am but a Runt... I had no hope of defeating him! I never did! All I wished was to die in combat, with honor."

The crowd was still angry, and his words only stoked their anger. Mordecai looked at him with confusion; he seemed to be lighting his own funeral pyre, so to speak.

"But I did not die! A noble warrior fell instead! The greatest in your clan... felled by a weakling! Does this not seem wrong? DO YOU NOT SUSPECT A BETRAYER IN YOUR MIDST?!?"

By the time Mordecai realized his plan, the crowd was already swinging against him. Growling savagely, he pulled on Kage's arm as he swung his arm in a roundhouse blow that would have torn the pup's face to shreds. Rather than try to pull away, or block the attack, Kage used the yank on his arm as leverage, pulling with Mordecai's strength even as he jumped upwards and forwards. A skull is one of the hardest bones in the human body, and round shapes are the best at dissipating force. Mordecai was pulling on his arm, and he was lunging upwards and forwards with his legs, the most powerful muscles in any Being's body. All of this added into Kage's skull impacting Mordecai's jaw with bone shattering.

Several of Mordecai's molars cracked into pieces, and his jaw fragmented into shards. The myriad of broken bones sliced the old Wolf's gums to ribbons, sending blood spraying outwards as he howled in agony. He instantly let go of Kage, who pushed hard back and away. Khaejiran stumbled back a few steps, did his best to guess a trajectory from memory, then dove backwards in a leap of faith, hoping that his bones wouldn't snap on impact. He fell backwards for what seemed like ages... until four strong arms caught him, cushioning his fall. He looked up into the faces of Fortuna and Fatum, and the three of them shared a crazy smile that was more than slightly tinted by madness. Kage was far from in control of himself by now; the elation of adrenaline and the barest chance of victory whipped him into an emotional fervor not unlike the bloodlust and berserker rage often seen amongst soldiers. The odd twins lifted him back onto his feet, and Kage turned to continue to do what he did best: play to the crowd. He raised his voice into a full bodied shout that carried over all the assembled.

"It was your Chieftain who ordered the extinction of the FirePads, it was your Chieftain who forced you to swallow insult as your power waned, and it is YOUR CHIEFTAIN WHO POISONED SACCULARIUS! He poisoned the warrior's meat because he saw him as a threat!"

Kage turned and stared into Mordecai's eyes, nay, into his very soul. His face split wide in a reckless grin as he raised his arm and pointed skyward to the chief in one final taunt.

"MORDECAI! I NAME YOU COWARD AND MURDERER!"

As Mordecai stared deep into the Runt's eyes, he saw something. He saw something familiar, something he had not seen in years... recognition was swiftly followed by absolute hatred, and he literally dove from the pyre onto the pup. Kage had been watching though, and he dove to the side just as the vessel of absolute rage crashed hard into the ground. He rose with strength, but Kage was lighter, and rose to his feet fasted. He settled into a stance, mirroring the one the black wolf had used in the fight in the memory. Right leg back, left leg pointed forwards, left hand up to block, right hand high and back. He cackled with manic glee, taunting Mordecai with his every breath.

"Come then you bastard, I will teach you a lesson."

Kage had been planning on using the same strike his father had used so many years ago, but as Mordecai charged him, Saccularius screamed in what sounded like pain. His vision burned white until all that existed was a cone consisting of his enemy, and instinct flowed through him, guiding muscle and mind. He felt his body shifting, flowing through form his father had spent a lifetime perfecting. He moved with an absolute of clarity and control that can only be attained through reaction, through a body and soul performing what it knew to be right regardless of the mind's thoughts.

One strike, unexpected, to stun.

He pushed hard off the ground with his back foot, pivoting clockwise about his front foot in a loose half circle away from the charging enemy. His right leg came up in a natural extension of the movement, striking out with the full force of both legs as well as the force of the spin. The angle also braced his back leg solidly against the ground, so that when his heel impacted his target's stomach, it stopped the charging wolf on the spot.

One strike, hard and fast, to wound.

He brought his right foot down even as his enemy backed up, gasping for breath that had been knocked from his lungs. Kage continued forwards, left foot up in an arc, pushing hard off the ground with his right. His left heel came up in a powerful rising kick, aimed directly at Mordecai's already sore jaw. The impact of Kage's chin earlier had caused a hairline fracture in the bone, and his heel's impact now split his jaw in half, down the middle. His enemy fell backwards to the ground, screeching in an absolute of agony and suffering unmatched by simple pain.

One strike while he lays beaten, so that he stays beaten.

When you fight, what you fight is not a wolf. It is not a face, or a name. It is not a living, breathing, thinking, feeling creature. It is the Enemy, and Enemies exist to be destroyed. Do not give it the chance to fight you again.

He brought both feet down and fell into a crouch before jumping high into the air. His scream of blood lust and battle fury matched his Enemy's cry of desolation and defeat. He all but soared in a graceful arc before he came down hard, landing with the full force of impact focused into his heel, delivered right into his Enemy's throat. The soft flesh burst and splattered like an overripe fruit, and blood sprayed out from popped arteries as the Enemy swiftly died beneath his foot.

With the battle done, his adrenaline started to fade, and his vision expanded from a narrow cone to what he considered a normal focus. The wolves who had observed the fight stood in shocked silence, and those who hadn't were shoving their way forwards to look at the aftermath. Kage had exactly five seconds to enjoy the stunned silence that followed in the wake of his enemy's death. Then, Belluosus reached his peak at exactly high noon, and screams rent the air as the sentries were overwhelmed.