I learned my lesson from the first hit and crashed into the second pit fighting ring half a step from blazing out like the glorious light of Ligier himself..
Half a step I took by spending a single mote to intentionally flare up my anima banner which exploded it up the two stages right into massive emerald burning dragon land.
The thirty two people and seventeen or so dogs promptly ended up voiding their bladders and/or bowels.
There was no time for speeches this time, I tied them up, dropped the tipoff and moved on the moment my anima was back down to 'bonfire' levels.
The third pit had the complication that I didn't actually have enough local rope to make use of, so I ended up locking most of the more obvious skinheads in their own kennels letting the dogs loose.
That was possibly a mistake, but the irony was too great to pass up, and I wanted to make use of the momentum I was building up.
The forth pit was where my luck ran finally ran out.
I smashed through the door as I had the last three buildings spending motes to supercharge the blow letting out a bellowing, "Oh-!"
It was empty.
My first impulse was a mental scream of 'bomb!' and my mind primed Bloodless Mirk Evasion on raw instinct.
But then I realized where I was wrong. There couldn't be a bomb because the room wasn't really empty. Standing to the back and already moving forward was a single man already stepping forward.
I caught sight of a gleaming steel mask before he all but exploded into a moving razor edged mass barreling towards me.
"-Shit!" recognition hit me. Hookwolf. One of the few local capes nasty enough to do melee with an Endbringer and actually be a factor.
Then the cape himself plowed into me like a semitrailer of pain.
I only had moments to react. Motes burned, but not to teleport me free.
No, it burnt to cover my rapidly expanding body living brass armor.
As I hit the threshold of expense my anima banner triggered again and By Rage Recast with it, expanding my body four fold and twisting my fingers into deadly blades of my own.
My feet dug through the ground as gleaming silver washed over my view like a wave, strait edge, serrated edges, stabbing points, biting teeth. A thousand ways to cut, pierce and rend crashed into emerald lit brass.
And was found wanting.
My claws dug into a mass of steel I couldn't even see as I struggled to maintain my balance, twisting around and letting out a bellowing roar of fear and challenge as I picked the entire mass up around me and threw it.
An echoing screech I felt more then heard raked across by body as what I now realized was a massive set of jaws pulled loose around me as a huge six legged thing of whirling, living blades smashed through the wall behind me.
Had he just tried to freakingeatme!?
The fire in my chest exploded at the thought.
Eat me? The fucker thought he could Eat Me!?
Something snapped, and my face unseen under the living bronze bone of my carapace twisted into a snarl, "I'M GONNA WEAR YOUR FACE AS A HALLOWEEN MASK!"