Battle of the Heart

Hi everyone, well I got another chapy up! Thanks so much to Raven and Inugrl2004 for reviewing. I hope you enjoy think next part.

Ethereal

Rias stood in shock before his opponent, his eyes wide with fear and his heart racing. How the hell had he let this go so wrong? He knew his past master, he should have known the man would have done something like this. Why hadn’t he been more precise when he made that deal?
Rias chanced a look up into the bleachers towards Lamar. The fight would not start until the bell rang, but it was already to late to call it off. Lamar looked as panicked as Rias felt. He stood there with a horrified expression on his face, almost as if it were he who was going to be facing a gold fox.
Rias watched as the human started running down the bleachers towards the arena. Was the idiot going to try to get in? Rias knew that would never happen. Nobody would be able to get in or out until the end of the fight. It was a way of insuring that no sabotage was used, though in this case it hardly mattered. The damned fox in front of him could be missing a fucking foot and he would probably still beat Rias. Lamar had tried to stop this, he hadn’t wanted Rias to fight. He had said he was worried for the foxes safety, which really meant he didn’t want to loss his only fighter. At least that’s what would have made sense, but Rias wasn’t sure. Could it be that Lamar really about him, not as a fighter, but as a friend?
‘And he’s going to lose everything because of this fight. How is he even going to survive with no woodsmen skills and no money? He put everything on this fight, because I asked him to.’
Rias’ eyes turned to the gold fox as the bell rang and the creature moved towards him with incredible speed. Rias decided at that moment that he could not lose this fight, no matter what the consequences were. He had to win, not for himself but for Lamar. Rias shifted his weight to one side and prepared for the inevitable impact that would come from the other fox slamming into him. Somehow he would beat this creature, somehow.

~~**~~

Lamar stopped in his tracks when he saw the other fox slam into Rias with his claws tearing flesh and drawing first blood. His fox had shifted to the side at the last moment, so the blow did not hit him straight on. It caused Rias to be thrown to the side and land with a sickening thud.
“Kian is fast isn’t he? I’ve only had him for a year now, and he can be a bit hard to handle, but he certainly gets the job done. He’s a real beauty too, just like my lovely Rias.”
The voice sounded as a whisper that tickled at Lamar’s ear causing the human to flinch away and whirl to face Rias’ old master. “We haven’t been properly introduced yet. My name is Suvan I must say that I wish we had met under better circumstances, but I see no reason why I can’t help a newcomer out. I’ll let you apprentice under me for a year, and I’ll even give you a beginner fox to start you out with. I couldn’t let you use my Rias of course, you’re not ready for a fox with his, special needs.”
“I’m not interested,” Lamar said with venom in his voice, “and he isn’t yours yet.”
“Oh really,” Suvan’s said with a hint of snide humor, “look down at the field boy. If I hadn’t stopped my fox this would already be over.”
Lamar’s gaze snapped down into the field. The gold fox had stopped and was now looking up to Suvan for his signal to continue. The two must communicate through hand signals. It was a good idea, he would have to create some of those signals with Rias.
“Rias,” he gasped as he got a look at his fox. Rias was also standing still, but he looked to be in much worse shape. He was breathing very heavily, his legs shaking under his own weight. The side where the gold fox had hit him was soaked with red blood. Lamar felt rage fill him. How could he have let this happen? Rias was his responsibility. It was his fault the fox was in this condition. “We never agreed to fight a gold fox. This match is void,” he said with venom in his voice.
Suvan raised an eyebrow, chuckling and drawing closer to Lamar. “We agreed to a fight between Rias and my fox, you never specified which of my foxes I had to use. I was going to have Kian end this quickly, but since you have refused my offer so rudely, I think I will show you what happens when you chose to go against me. He pointed at Rias and than pointed down. Kian nodded and shifted forms, turning into a very large very muscular fox.
Lamar felt his heart skip a beat when he saw Kian lung at Rias. He knew he screamed the fox’s name and that he moved to run down towards the arena. He felt Suvan’s large strong hand fall on his shoulder and heard the other human tell him he was not allowed to interfere, and then the world turned upside down again.
Rias fell as the fox barreled into him. Or at least it looked like he fell, but what he really did was drop down so he could avoid flashing fangs and grab onto the creatures chest hair. The creature was so large that Rias had been able to slip right under him. With a pained cry he hosted himself up under the beast’s chest, wrapping his legs around the fox’s waist as well as the creature’s size allowed and holding onto fistfuls of fur. The golden fox howled in anger, shocked at suddenly having this rider on his underbelly. His teeth found Rias’s shoulder and held on, causing the silver fox to cry out in pain. Still, his most vital areas were now out of the fox’s reach. Rias seemed to be trying to reach something in his belt. That was a hard task while trying to hang onto the underbelly of a giant fox that was gnawing through his shoulder. When he finally reached his belt Lamar saw a hint of silver and heard Suvan bellow in a flustered voice, “now you worthless animal, finish him now!”

Lamar watched in horror as the giant fox slammed his belly to the ground. He heard a cry of pain and saw blood welling up on the ground under the gold fox. Suvan chuckled behind him, “well, that’s that, now we just have to transfer ownership, I certainly hope I didn’t just kill my own fox.”
Lamar was in shock. He couldn’t take his eyes off the still fox. Actually the gold fox wasn’t moving at all, that was odd, Rias had never hurt him. “Get that fox off Rias! He’ll be crushed under there!” Lamar heard panic in his voice, he just couldn’t face this. He couldn’t believe that he had lost Rias, that he might even be dead.
“Kian.” Suvan called down, “get off my new fox, I want to see if he’s still breathing.”
For a moment the giant fox did not move, but then he shifted, or rather something under him shifted. “Could-could it be.” Lamar whispered staring with wide eyes as Rias emerged from under the fox’s bulk. He was alive, and he was standing! Clearly hurt but standing there victorious with a painful grin on his face and a small bloody dagger in his hand.
“He won,” Gabe, who had gone unnoticed until this point came up beside Lamar. “He won master! Is-is he going to be okay?”
Lamar looked him over, wondering that himself. His side was open and pouring blood from the first attack, and his shoulder was also bleeding, but all the other blood was from the golden wolf.
Lamar smiled down at the young fox, “I think he’ll be fine Gabe, I think he’ll be fine.”
“Get up you worthless piece of shit!” Suvan’s loud cry caused both of them to jump and turn to the enraged human. His fox was still breathing, but he was clearly unconscious. “It’s over Suvan. Give me the silver fox’s stone as we agreed, and the 20 pensives.”
Suvan’s eyes flashed with hatred as he turned to Lamar, but he dug through his pocket and retrieved the glowing metallic stone and the pensives all the same. “This was a fluke, newbie, next time you won’t be so lucky.”
Lamar ignored the human’s words, taking the items and running down to check on Rias, ‘You’re wrong Suvan,’ he thought as he and Gabe made their way down. ‘There won’t be a next time. I will never let Rias do something like that, no matter what.’
~~**~~
Rias grinned as he saw Lamar and Gabe running towards him from the gate. He had done it, he had beat a gold fox! More importantly he had beat his old master. Even with the immense pain that filled his body he felt light and free, like a giant weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Or maybe it was the lose of blood that was making him feel that way. ‘Yeah,” Rias thought as he felt his legs buckle, ‘that’s probably it.’
Rias expected to meet cold hard ground and was surprised when he fell instead into warm gentle arms. “Rias, are you okay?”

The fox looked through hazy eyes up into the face of his master. “Hey Lamar, we really did it didn’t we? I’m gonna take a nap I think. I’m feeling kinda tired.”

Rias closed his eyes feeling safe and secure in Lamar’s grip. It was odd, he had no fear of Lamar, even with the collar around his neck. He knew Lamar wouldn’t hurt him. “Rias no you have to stay awake. You’ve lost a lot of blood. If you go to sleep now you might not wake up.”
Rias smiled as he looked up at the human. “You’re comparing me to humans again. I’ll heal a lot faster than a human. I’ve had much worse than this, I just need to rest. If you guys can bandage me that will help, but I’ll be fine.” With a slight smile on his face Rias closed his eyes and let the peaceful and painless oblivion of sleep claim him.

Well that's all for now, in the next chapter Lamar and company are going to run into some unwanted intruders. Please review and let me know what you think.