as written by Alara and Script
"Heh, looks like you have your answer," Bastien told Eliza with a chuckle as he left her side and moved to join the others in the center of the cellar floor.
Marc too stepped through the onlookers to join the rest, but he seemed far less humored by the matchup. The beefy ex-soldier gave his neck a crack before rolling his shoulders to loosen them up.
"Stay out of our way, eh?" he told Snow as he shrugged past him with haughty indifference.
Bastien's own conflicts with Snow had largely been mended with the recovery of his daughter, Sophia, but neither did he seem inclined to intervening between Snow and Marc. He too gave his arms a few light stretches at the shoulder to limber them up before moving to encircle Baron from Marc's left.
Baron meanwhile turned his gaze from one to the other, assessing them each in turn as he fell into a guarded crouch.
Snow responded to Marc with a dismissive snort, not even turning to look at the larger man as he moved over to take up a position on his right. His stance was defensive and his eyes locked on Baron, waiting for the first move to be made.
Marc was the first to move on Baron, but his first swing was knocked wide as Baron twisted around him. It left Baron's back exposed to Bastien and Snow though, but he anticipated the flanking maneuver and he ducked beneath Bastien's own swing before repeating his twisting step to push Bastien towards Snow while Marc wheeled around to press the attack on Baron once more.
Quick footwork allowed Snow to easily sidestep Bastien, giving him a chance to regain his balance whilst Snow himself stepped in to attack. He kept half an eye on Marc's own renewed assault, not trusting him to avoid his momentum being turned against him for a second time, as he went for a low kick to offset Baron's balance.
Snow's kick was met with swift reprisal as Baron moved into him and swept his other leg out from under him to send him sprawling to the ground. Baron moved to stomp his foot down on the prone Snow, but as Snow rolled free Marc was on him again.
Marc's first blow met Baron's own arm as he blocked the attack and returned one of his own to Marc's midsection. Marc grunted before his own fist struck Baron's face and forced him back a step as he shook his head to clear it.
Baron was swift to fall back into his guarded stance though, and once more Bastien's efforts to engage him proved ineffective. Rather than dodge Bastien as he had previously, Baron entangled with him as fists met flesh. One, two, three strikes and Bastien was down on his knees, and Baron's lip was split.
A knee to the face left Bastien sprawled backwards on the floor, dazed momentarily.
But the focus on the other two had left Snow with plenty of opportunity to spring back to his feet and find an opening to re-engage. Before Baron's foot had touched the ground after his knee struck Bastien, Snow darted in with a square punch to the jaw.
The blow snapped Baron's head to the side, but something amber and feral flared through his eyes and he drove his own fist into Snow's stomach with vicious intent as the wolf rose within him.
The energy of it danced along his skin, threatening to burst free from his flesh, but should he let the change overtake him the match would be forfeit. No, he kept the beast within caged just behind his feral eyes so as to draw on its strength without letting it loose.
He grabbed Snow by the back of the neck, shoving him into Marc's path.
Bastien had managed to roll to all fours as he shook his head trying to clear the dazed fog, but he had yet to regain his senses.
Marc's own approach was intercepted by Snow, and the larger man snarled a warning.
"Get out of the way," he bit out as he shoved Snow to the side to join Bastien upon the ground.
It was the opening Baron was waiting for. Until now he had been hard-pressed to follow through on his attacks without needing to fall back to defend from the others. But with Bastien and Snow both momentarily out of the way, he seized the opening.
Marc came in hard and fast, but Baron fought with the ferocity of a wolf. He ducked and twisted, blocked and counter-attacked with vicious precision that had Marc sent reeling back into the onlookers who caught him as he fell. They shoved him forward again, and he managed to get an arm up to block Baron's next blow, but he wasn't nimble enough to keep Baron from ducking past him to land a kick to the back of his knee.
As Marc fell to one knee, Baron was upon him with an arm snaked around his neck. He craned the larger man's neck backwards at a painful angle as he looked between Bastien and Snow who were both well on the way to recovery. For Marc though, aid came too late. Baron released him and he was left to stagger to the edge of the ring where he spat out his frustration upon the floor.
A few people offered jeering laughter and good natured pats of support for his showing, but the fight wasn't over yet. Bastien and Snow were both met with shouts of encouragement as they regained their footing.
