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The Zootopia Princess Bride

Chapter 9: Chapter 9 – Fencing, Fighting, Hustling

Chapter Text

Disclaimer: *Passes over popcorn to Disney and Princess Bride owners and takes seat.* Okay, you all ready to get this show on the road?


Chapter 9 – Fencing, Fighting, Hustling

The rope clattered down the cliff edge and the masked fox pushed the sword sheathed at his side further behind him and out of his way before grabbing onto the line.

It was only a matter of seconds before he reached the lip of the precipice, rather than the long dangerous minutes it would have taken without the hare's aid. The fox nodded to Inigo as the hare helped him over the craggy edge that crumbled even as he got his feet under him, sending pebbles and stones falling down to the water far below.

"Thank you," the masked figure said with a weary but grudgingly appreciative tone, as he made his way toward safer ground. He reached behind him as he did so to grip the hilt of his sword and draw it from its scabbard.

"No, no, we'll wait until you're ready," Inigo said, waving his paw at the masked fox before he'd fully drawn his sword. "Take a moment to catch your breath."

The fox looked up with another grudgingly appreciative, almost curious glance, then nodded, sliding his sword back into the scabbard.

"Again… Thank you," he said before taking a seat on a nearby rock that had once been part of the old castles crumbling wall. He lifted one of his hindpaws and plucked out a few pebbles that had gotten lodged between the pads of his feet and toes, then did the same to his other as Inigo took a seat on another nearby rock, watching the fox with a inquisitive expression, head tilted to the side.

The fox sent one last pebble flying with a flick of his finger, though his wary attention never quite left the hare who seemed to be watching his black gloved paws with an excessive amount of attention.

Still watching the hare watch him, he roller his shoulders, then grimaced and grabbed the back of his black pirate shirt, untucking it and shook himself, a slew of small pebbles and stones from the cliff tumbling out.

"I don't mean to pry…" Inigo asked in a courteous manner, though he was still staring intently at the other mammals gloved paw, "But you don't by any chance happen to have hooves instead of paws?

The fox stopped shaking himself, and gave the hare a baffled, are you serious? look as a final pebble fell out from under his shirt and clattered on the ground.

There was an awkward moment of silence as the fox glance at his gloved hand and then back at the hare.

"Do you always begin conversations this way?" he asked, "Because even for a Spaniard, that's a bit of an odd conversation starter. Hells, I would think any mammal, and especially a hare or rabbit would know foxes don't have hooves but paws and claws."

"It's not that odd of a question," the hare shrugged as he examined the black clothed and masked figure before him. "Not any more odd than a mammal that goes around dressed from head to tail in black," he added with a raised eyebrow before shrugging again. "I've seen a wolf constable back in Spain convincingly disguise himself as a sheep when undercover, so why might a sheep not disguise themselves as a wolf… or a fox?"

"Yessss… but hooved mammals only have three fingers," the masked fox replied slowly as if not sure if he was speaking to a simpleton or not and raised his gloved paw wiggling all four of his digits, then swished his long fluffy tail up and to the side were it landed in his outstretched paw.

"Plus this tail ain't, nofake," he said dismissively, flicking the tip of his tail, a bit of scornful pride showing through as he snapped his long fluffy tail back behind him with a sniff as if the hare had gravely insulted him by suggesting otherwise.

Inigo gave a slight nod in turn as if to apologize for any insult, even as his gaze fixed back on the fox's gloved paw and his mouth hardened into a thin line.

"Yes, that is true, and that is no doubt a fine tail." The fox gave a slight huff, muttering something about more than merely 'fine' even as the hare continued, his whole attention fixated on the other mammals gloved paw.

"But you see, my father was slaughtered by a hooved mammal that had four fingers on their right hoof."

The fox stopped his muttered comments and looked back at the hare again, this time with a little less of the dismissive scorn as he noted the hare's seriousness, then reached over with his left paw and pulled the glove on his right off. He raised his now uncovered paw, flexing his fingers and claws, turning his paw back and forth so the hare could clearly see the deep russet red fur and pads of what was undoubtedly a fox's paw.

The hare sighed dejectedly, as if he'd known that would be the case but hadn't been able to help hoping otherwise.

"He was a well known sword maker, my father," the hare said as if to apologize to the other mammal for his question with the explanation. "A great sword maker… and an even better father," Inigo continued. "Then one day the four fingered sheep appeared and requested a special sword. My father took the job."

Inigo paused, pride and sorrow mixing in his expression as he looked down to the rapier sheathed at his side; then with evident care, touched the weapon's elegantly crafted wire basket guard and slowly withdrew the blade to look at it mournfully.

"He slaved a year on it before it was done…" he said quietly, examining the rapier all the way from the masterfully inlaid hilt to the fine razor edge and point as he held it like a curator would a priceless piece of art. The hare looked up, still quiet, seemingly lost in his memories and then as one swords mammal to another, offered the blade to the fox for him to examine.

The masked fox slowly reached over and grasped the weapons hilt held in the open palm of the hare's. He raised it, turning it carefully from one side to the other, inspecting it.

The fine gleaming steel of the skillfully crafted weapon and beautifully gold inlay on the almost delicate looking, yet sturdy guard of the rapier, seeming to make the simple rapier strapped to the fox's side pale in comparison. Still examining the blade, the masked fox reached out and tapped the weapon's blade with his claw.

There was the slightest ring of perfectly forged blade steel and the fox nodded with an understanding only one intimately familiar with such weapons and their use possesed.

"I've never seen it's equal," he said to Inigo admiringly, carefully handing the rapier, hilt first, back to the hare, who looked at the weapon with the same knowing look as he took it back. But then sorrow once again filled his expression.

"The four fingered sheep returned and demanded it, but at one tenth his promised price." A deep anger bubbled up edging the Spaniard's voice as he continued defiantly.

"My father refused! Then, without a word, the four fingered sheep slashed him through the heart." Inigo's paw gripped the rapiers hilt so hard the fur over his knuckles paled. It was a long moment before his hold finally loosened and he carefully returned the rapier to the scabbard, though his paw remained on the weapons hilt with a light, almost reverent touch.

"I loved my father…" the Spaniard hare continued somberly. "So, naturally, I challenged his murderer to a duel." He shrugged, "I failed." Inigo shook his head sadly. "The four fingered sheep left me alive; laughed, and left me there with my murdered father and my father's masterpiece coated with his blood. I think the four fingered sheep was amused by it, but before he left… he gave me these…" The hare tilted his head to one side and reached up with his paw to draw a finger across the odd ridged black stripes of fur on his cheek, then did the same to the stripes on the other side and the fox finally noticed that unlike the dark markings on his ears, the stripes lining the fur on the hare's face was covering old knotted scars where the fur had regrown black instead of white.

"How old were you?" the masked fox asked.

"I was eleven years old, just a small kit," the hare said with another shrug. "When I was strong enough, I dedicated my life to the study of fencing." His voice hardened again, this time though filled with determination and an almost wistful longing. "So the next time we meet, I will not fail. I will go up to the four fingered sheep and say… 'Hello, my name is Inigo La'Savage Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die'."

The hare's hard expression held for a second and then he grinned almost boyishly.

"My friend Fezzik helped me out with that. I was just going to kill the four fingered sheep, but he said that proper revenge needs a properly dramatic line. I think he's right, it is a good line, a good thing for those to be the last words the four fingered sheep hears."

"You've done nothing since then but study swordplay?" the fox asked in sincere interest.

"Meh… more pursuit than study lately," The hare shrugged halfheartedly and gestured, "You see I cannot find the sheep. It's been twenty years now. I am starting to lose confidence," he said sadly, his ears wilting and flopping against his back as he sat down next to the black clothed mammal. "I just work for Vizzini to pay the bills. There's not a lot of money in revenge," He added, waving off in the direction the weasel and fennec fox had gone.

The fox snorted, "No, I guess there isn't. Money problems always seem to be at the root of life's issues and then by the time you get it, it seems that it's too late for money to fix them." He gave a small, sad smile, then clapped his paws on his knees and got up.

"Well, I certainly hope you find your sheep someday," he said taking a few steps away and turning back to face the hare whose ears perked back up.

"You are ready, then?" Inigo asked, excitement coming back to his voice banishing the hare's melancholy.

"Whether I am or not, you've been more than fair," the masked fox replied with a courteous gesture of his arm.

The hare grinned, hopped to his feet, and walked over to stand facing the masked mammal in the middle of the old ruined castle's courtyard.

"You seem like a decent fellow," the hare said as his paw reached down to grip and draw his rapier. "I hate to kill you." He gave a half smile and made a remorseful gesture with the blade.

"You seem a decent fellow," The masked fox replied with a charming smirk as he drew his own blade and mimicked the gesture back as he put his free paw over his heart dramatically, "I'd hate to die."

The hare smiled as he raised the blade, looked right back at the fox who did the same. Then with a gesture like a conductor signaling the start to a concert, he smiled and said one word.

"Begin!"

" 'Begin!' and with that one word the fight…" Ellaine paused in her reading as she noticed that her two grandkits attention seemed to have wandered away. She looked over at the bunkbeds where the two of them were sitting on the lower one whispering furiously back and forth.

"I know, I know but still-"

"If he doesn't win then what will happen to Butterfluff?!"

"She'd find some other way to escape, but I still want to find out why a masked pirate is after her!"

"So do I, but I like Inigo now too… I don't want to see him lose either!"

"I know, I want to see him get his revenge on that four fingered sheep but…"

"But if he wins then the masked fox will be dead and-"

"And if he loses he'll be dead-"

"So who do we want to win?!"

"I want both of them to win!"

"You can't have two winners! Not to a duel to the death! Well… I guess you could… but if they tied wouldn't that mean they'd both die?"

Ellaine put her paw up to her mouth to stop herself from interrupting the two little kits as their hurried, oh-so-serious, whispered debate over who they were rooting for continued. Her muzzle twitched as she bit back a giggle. Ridley's tail was lashing in a distraught manner behind him as he waved his paws and Ella's ears kept popping up and down as she nodded or shook her head.

Finally, it was too much for her and Ellaine spoke before she lost it and started laughing and snuggling her too cute grandkits to her in an excessively grandmotherly way.

"If…" Ellaine bit her lip again trying not to let the happy laughter bouncing around inside of her show too much in her voice. "If you two want to know who wins that badly…" she said, her voice not quite betraying her amusement as she flipped a few pages forward in the book and had to try even harder not to giggle at her little hustle. "I guess we could just skip to the end of the fight so you can find out…" She looked down at the book as she ran her claw down the page as if to find the spot to jump to when there were two simultaneous, and vehemently desperate, 'NOOOOO!'s.

"No! No Grandma! Please don't skip over that! We want to know what happens!" Ridley said, half panicking as Ella sat up next to him waving her paws too.

"You can't skip over parts of the story Grandma! Thats… thats… not right!" the little bunny kit (well, half bunny Ellaine thought with a smile) said after a moment's hesitation before coming up with a justification and then continuing onward determinedly. "Not Right! You have to read it through properly!" she added, nodding her head vigorously, her arms crossing as if stating something everyone should know.

"Ohhh?" Ellaine asked questioningly, her muzzle almost quivering as she worked not to giggle and smile. "I need to read the story properly?"

"Yes!" Both Ridley and Ella shouted promptly, both of them nodding their heads.

"So I should read it all without skipping over any of the parts?" she asked again, still just barely managing to keep a 'oh dear me, is that how its supposed to be done?' grandmothers tone to her voice.

"YES!" Both of her grandkits answered again, their nodding even more enthusiastic this time.

"Even the… the icky, 'kissy' book parts?" Ellaine barely managed to ask without loosing her grandmotherly hustler expression while both kits froze mid nod, Ella's long ears, which had been flopping backwards and forward, flopping over her eyes.

"I… ah…"

Ridley looked at Ella uncertainty as she reached up and raised one ear up, looking at her brother with a conflicted expression.

There was another hurried whispered conference between the two kits.

"... listen to kissy bits! Eeww!"

"-but what about the fight!?"

"-might get cooties!"

"-can't tell if grandma's hustling us! Is she holding the fight scene hostage?!"

"-doesn't matter! I want to find out what happens! Cooties or not! Anyway, I think we've been vexanated for them."

"What's vexanated?"

"Dunno exactly… all that stuff the to make sure we don't 'get sick' the doctor was talking about before we go stuck with all those needles-"

"Ugh! I hate shots!"

"-last week when mom and dad took us to the vet-"

"haaaaaate going to the vet!"

"-for our yearly checkup, so I think that means we're safe from them."

"Are you sure, because if your wrong and we get cooties that means we might have to go back to the vet!"

"Well, we might have to risk it if we want to hear grandma read us the story!"

There was some more whispering and nodding of heads between the two siblings before they finally turned back with determined expression as Ellaine, still sitting in her chair with the storybook, relaxed as any grandmother knitting on a sunday afternoon would.

"Yes!" The both said again nodding resolutely, "You have to read the book properly! No skipping!"

"Well, if that's what you two want…" Ellaine said sweetly as she smiled back at them. "Then I guess that's just what I'll have to do. It's not like I could ever tell my two favorite grandkits 'no' afterall," she added with a giggle as she flipped back to the page she'd been on and had held marked with a claw.

"Now where were we… oh yes, here it is." Ellaine said happily, settling back into her chair as she began reading to her two favorite, and now very attentive grantkits. Her two grandkits, that along with their mother and father, she loved more than anything else in this world.

" 'Begin!' and with that one word the fight started."

"Begin!"

The fox grinned back at the hare standing just out of reach, the other mammal's blade raised, matching his across the gap for what seemed more like minutes rather than mere moments. Neither rushed or tensed but merely stood loose and ready, watching the other, though their confident, not quite hidden smirks seemed to already jab and clash like swords in the silence of the ruined courtyard.

Then the silence was broken with two clashes of steel on steel and a swishing sound like that of a sharp knife through paper as the tip of the hare's rapier slashed through the air, right where the fox's head had been before he leaned out of the way of the blade.

The hare took a single step back to where he'd stood before and grinned like a puppy on Christmas who'd been given a new chew toy. The fox smirked back and-

Clang! Clang! SwWwissh!

Inigo's blade met the fox's for two lightning quick moments and then he leaned to the other side, the fox's own rapier missing his ear by mere fractions of an inch as the predator stepped back, before the hare could take advantage of the opening from the slash.

Another few moments of silence as the two mammals watched each other, the slightest movement in the hold of one of their blades causing the other to shift theirs just enough to respond. A quick feint from one and the clash of steel and feint from the other and each backed off again.

The fox started to circle the hare, who moved in unison with him so that they were always facing each other across the open gap of ground, just out of reach of each other's teasing testing strikes.

The hare was grinning broadly by this point and the fox smirked.

Clang! Clang! Slash! Clang! Clang!

The air was suddenly filled with the sound of metal against metal as the circle was broken and flurry of strikes and parries where exchanged. One after another after another as steel striked and screeched across each other in a nearly continuous beat as each blocked the other and struck back.

Inigo grinned like a fool and nearly laughed in delight before he picked up the pace, one strike following a second then a third before he had to deflect a slash or a jab and could strike again as he started to put his foe on the defensive, pushing him backwards.

Without even looking behind himself, as if he'd memorized the entire courtyard before they'd begun, the masked fox shifted so that his retreat pushed him up a pile of rubble toward a flat bit of slanted masonry that had once been a wall, or landing, or some other broken piece of the castle. The hare followed each retreating step of the fox, yet the thin long blade of his plain sword snapped against the tip of the hare's fine rapier as each slash was deflected to one side or another and the fox used the momentum of the parry to strike downward at the hare even as he moved back up the slab of stone.

"You're using Bunnyetti's defense against me, eh?" Inigo questioned delightedly, seeming more thrilled than worried by the fox's skill as one of the counterstrikes nearly nicked his long ear.

"I thought it only fitting, considering the rocky terrain and my Lapin opponent!"

Inigo laughed excitedly, "Naturally, you must expect me to attack with Capo Feral!" he replied deflecting one of the foxes jabs high and then attacked savagely with a series of powerful lunges, first at the foxes feet and then at his chest,then back at his feet again. Each lunge from the hare was timed with a further hop up the rubble pile toward the fox, adding the strength from his legs to the straight powerful strikes and forcing his opponent to fall back again, now perilously close to the edge of the slab which they now fought on.

"Naturally," the fox grunted with a bit of effort, glancing down at his precarious footing, and shifted so that his side faced the hare, his rear foot brushing some dirt off the edge.

"But I find that ThiBull cancels out Capo Feral, don't you?" The fox asked, the strain leaving his voice as his posture took on an almost natural ease and he deflected each new lunge with a serious of fluid, graceful, angular parries and counter strikes from his new stance. The sound of the clashing steel filling the courtyard for a moment as the fox smirked at the hare and then rather than even bothering to block the next lunge, stepped backwards and off the stone slab.

Inigo stared down at the fox as he landed easily back on the courtyard a few feet below him with a causal flick of his long tail for balance.

"Only unless the enemy has studied Agri'paw…" the hare snorted and then with an answering display of nonchalance took two steps and somersaulted over the fox below to land cleanly with his sword pointed at his foe, "Which I have." He smirked back at the fox before charging forward, his sword once again meeting his opponents with a series of clangs of steel on steel as he drove in close to the larger mammal and pressed him back against the rubble pile. But the masked fox was too quick and with a few sly movements and parries, slid out to the side, retreating a ways across the courtyard before he made a clever counter sending the hares blade wide of its intended path and struck back hard, now on the attack.

Inigo back peddled hurriedly, the razor's edge of the masked fox's simple but study rapier coming closer and closer to hitting him, despite all his efforts to block and parry as each attack followed just a bit faster than before.

"You are wonderful!" the hare all but laughed even as there was the slightest tug on the sleeve of his shirt as the tip of the fox's rapier slashed through the loose bit of fabric.

"Thank you," the fox smirked as their swords clashed again. "I've worked hard to become so," he said, striking quick as any predator and another small tear appeared in the shoulder of the hare's shirt where the blade had made it partially past his defense.

Inigo took a quick glance backward as he retreated toward the very edge of the cliff where he'd helped the fox up and then smiled back at his foe.

"I admit it," he said, sounding almost giddy. "You are better than I am!"

"Then why are you smiling?" the masked fox asked curiously even as he forced the hare back another step closer to the open cliff edge in the broken bit of castle wall.

"Because I know something you do not know," Inigo said slyly, his long ears seeming to nearly quiver with excitement even as he continued to retreat backwards, now but mere feet from the edge.

"Oh?" the fox asked with amusement, thrusting with a particularly powerful strike. "And what is that?"

"I-" the hare started angling his sword to catch the incoming blow even as it pushed him right to the edge of the cliff, "am not left handed." He finished, his right paw coming up to grip the hilt along with his left as he turned the fox's blade, the sound of two razor sharp edges shrieking against each other as the hare deflected the fox's slash in a half circle using both paws and then struck back, quick as a jackrabbit, the gleaming rapier now in his right paw and striking much faster than before, faster even than the fox had been.

Parry, jab, reverse and slash, duck a hurried counter and lunge… Inigo stepped forward away from the precipice edge, striking and slashing and then took another step, the fox's lips now a thin line on his muzzle as he tried to keep him pinned against the cliff edge… and couldn't.

Jab, jab, deflect and slash, reverse and slash, an opening- thrust- the fox fell back, Inigo's blade almost catching him as the predator frantically tried to regain his footing and bring his blade back into position. But the hare gave him no time, springing forward and turning the backwards step into a full retreat down a section of the ruined wall along the cliff edge.

Clang! Clang! Clang!  Slash !

The fox nearly tripped as he backpedaled, his foot slipping on the raised stones of a half crumbled staircase to the ruined castle's only remaining and half destroyed corner tower.

Inigo lunged forward and the fox only just got his sword up in time to deflect the blow past his cheek where the rapiers edge sparked against the stone. The hare pulled back and lunged again even as the masked fox tried to get his feet back under him while simultaneously scrambling further back up the staircase and parrying the blow.

The tip of Inigo's rapier flashed by the fox's hurried block, only to be deflected downward at the last second as the steel skittered off the cross guard and nearly buried itself in the fox's long tail. The masked fox made a stifled yip, his eyes going wide and the hare snickered… only to stop a fraction of a second after he'd started as he ducked, snapping his ears down as a viciously fast desperate slash from the off balance fox nearly took the fur off his head.

The slight break in the hare's attack was all the fox needed to right himself, but that moment was all he had before the hare was back on him, pressing the attack, forcing him backwards up the staircase to the half broken corner turret overlooking the sea far, far, below.

Back on flat ground, the masked fox threw himself into the fight and for a brief few moments he and the hare dueled, almost even, the sound of their whistling blades and clashes of steel drowning out the sharp sea wind.

But almost even, was not even enough and after a few blows he was forced back, then after another few blows, back again.

"You are amazing," the fox commented, sounding as nonchalant as if he were judging the duel rather than fighting it, but a note of strain in his voice gave him away as another blow pushed him back and knocked his sword to the side.

"I ought to be after twenty years!" the hare said with grin as he slammed his blade down against the fox's out of position parry, twisting his rapier as the blade screeched down against the other until the guards hit and locked and he shoved forward using his better position to slam the fox and his sword arm against the old battlement.

"There's… Something I ought to tell you-" the fox grunted as he tried to push back against the hare, but with his sword guard tangled with the hare's and his arm at an awkward angle, he was only shoved back against the battlement wall again.

"Oh!" Inigo snickered triumphantly as he pushed and the mortar of one of the stones the fox was pressed up against along the battlement edge crumbled, the stone sliding back with the fox and almost falling to the sea below.

"Tell me," the hare asked holding off from a final push for just a second.

The masked fox's bright green eyes meet those of the hare's and seemed to smirk despite the dire situation he was in, off balance as he was with the hare about to shove him over the battlement to a long fall and a certain death.

Inigo saw him raise an eyebrow under the mask in an almost mocking manner as the fox said with perfect calm, "Never try touching a fox's tail unless they invite you to!"

His long russet tail snapped up, its fluffy black tip whapping the hare across his nose and causing him to stumble backwards.

"Certainly never try to stab it!" the fox sniffed indignantly. "Oh, and also…" he added almost as an afterthought, "I'm not actually left handed either." He grinned, standing back up off the crumbling battlement wall and tossing his rapier from his left paw to his right, brandished it at the hare with an unnecessary flourish and smirk.

Inigo blinked, his nose twitching erratically from the swat across it, but even momentarily stunned, he struck back with a lightning quick paw, his sword flashing as the fox flourished his. Except that the fox's blade seemed to catch his with ease, the dramatic flourish turning into textbook disarming counter as he spun his bade in a circle against Inigo's, forcing his arm to the side and up in a quick motion that had the hare's rapier sailing out of his paw to land down in the courtyard behind them.

Inigo stared at his empty sword paw in disbelief, then made a startled hop a foot backwards as the fox feinted forward with his blade. The stunned hare barely had time to ponder why there wasn't a sword blade in his chest before the fox, still smirking made another fainting motion and Inigo reflexively hopped back again like frightened mouse being played with by a cat.

Inigo's ears snapped back angrily as he realized that he was being played with, and in a single motion he turned and with three quick steps sprinted off the towers edge. He turned mid air and bounced off the wall with his feet, and then in a move of unrivaled athleticism, twisted to grab a moss covered support bar in a broken archway below the tower using it to arrest some his momentum before he hit the dirt covered stones of the courtyard in a short tumble, snagging his rapier as he bounced back up to his feet once again, facing toward the fox standing a good thirty feet away, above him on the broken tower.

The masked fox snorted humorously down at the hare, and then with a casual flick of his wrist sent his sword spinning forward to land point first in a clump of weeds not five feet in front of the hare.

Inigo's mouth opened as if to ask why the heck he'd done that for when the fox crouched and then leaped. He hit the wall in the same spot Inigo had, bouncing off it but then instead of grabbing the bar in the broken archway to slow his fall, he grabbed it and spun like an acrobat, up and over once, then twice, then on the third he released, doing a full spin and flip before landing perfectly, feet together, one paw casually resting on his pirates black cloth waistband and the other reaching out to rest on the pommel of his sword he'd landed next to.

The masked fox smirked.

Inigo's ears dropped down along with jaw.

The hare's rapier lowering a bit as his head cocked in a confused manner as he stared at the fox like he wasn't sure what he was or had just seen.

"Who… are you?" the hare finally asked slowly as if a name might solve the quandary before him.

The corner of the masked fox's lip twitched.

"No one of consequence," he said indifferently, but Inigo shook his head slowly.

"Nooo…. I must know," the hare repeated, a coy grin stretching across his face as his ears came back up.

"Get used to disappointment," the fox replied smugly.

The hare shrugged, a sort of 'fine, have it your way' motion.

"Okay," he added, and then started forward toward the fox with his rapier as if to take his name with his sword at his foes throat.

There was no feinting this time, no testing strikes.

The fox pulled his sword from the ground as the hare walked toward him and then-

Clang!Snap!Clang!Clang!SwWwissh!Clang!

The speed of the dueling, clashing swords made the previous round seem like one between sloths.

Inigo jumped, the fox's blade sweeping just under his feet as he extended his arm lancing his sword forward with blinding speed only for it to miss skewering the fox's ear as the short triangular appendage pinned back against the black bandana covering his head. He ripped his blade back in a downward strike that should have carved a line across the predators long muzzle, but the fox's sword met his with a ringing of steel that sent the smaller hare flying back. He hit the remnants of a stone pillar behind him feet first and used it to launch himself forward, blade leading into another lunge, but the move was a feint and at the last possible moment he whipped his body around slashing at the fox's shoulder.

The masked fox ducked, his sword snapping up horizontally for the edges of their blades to meet. A grating shrill whine filled the air as Inigo's jumping slash sent him flipping over the fox as if their blades had been a fulcrum and as the two razor edges of the blades ground against each other. But the fox had already reversed his grip and struck back blindly between his legs right at where Inigo landed, one paw out to steady himself, his rapier already deflecting the blow down so that the fox's rapier dug into the thin rocky soil of the old broken courtyard.

He slashed, aiming to cleave the fox's paw from the sword before he could pull it free, but the fox simply let go, the hare's slash whistling harmlessly through the air right above the sword's hilt. The masked fox rolled into a forward tumble, his long tail snapping up under his swords cross guard yanking the weapon from the ground and sending it flying even as Inigo leaped forward to take advantage of his unarmed opponent. He stuck, but the masked fox caught the flying sword as he rolled out of the tumble, spinning to catch the hare's rapier, the two blades screeching again as Inigo shot past him, their blades locking for a brief moment as the fox guided the blades down and around as he spun, then slashed up at the passing hare.

Inigo's fur stood on end as he felt his opponents blade shave a few hairs off the tip of his short puff of a tail before he managed to turn his careening charge into a twisting jump that landed him on top of a tumbled stone pillar, like that of a great fallen tree in the courtyard, now again facing the masked fox. The hare's brow furrowed as the fox leapt up onto the other end of the long broken piece of stone and the two stared at each other for a half second; the fox showing nothing but his annoyingly confident smirk as the hare's lips hardened into a thin line.

Then that brief pause was gone and the next few seconds were a blindingly fast series of strikes and parries as the two sword mammals fought head to head with no room to move to either side.

Five, seven, eleven, sixteen blows and counters, the ring of steel on steel so fast that they sounded like one continuous noise before Inigo's eyes went wide again as his countering slash came in too high, his arm just the slightest bit out of position from the last blow. He leap backwards off the broken pillar even as the base of the fox's blade smashed into his rapier sending it cartwheeling out of his paw again.

The hare snarled, hitting the ground before flipping backwards. That first time he'd been startled, caught by surprise when he'd been whapped on the nose, but this time… this time he'd been flatly outmaneuvered. Inigo stood up, snatching his falling sword from the air before it hit the ground and gave the fox a hard look as he hopped down in front of him.

Never before had he faced another swords-mammal that could match him blow for blow like this fox had, and never before had a mammal disarmed him, let alone done it twiceNever before, not since he had been but a small kit holding a blade he didn't know how to use and facing his father's murderer, had he ever been afraid that he might lose.

There were no words spoken, only an exchange of looks as the fox set himself in a fencers stance and Inigo raised his father's rapier for the last time, his long ears angling back and down with determination. Somehow he knew that this was it, like that sixth sense that warned of a stalking predator that this next exchange of blows would decide the victor. The two of them would match blades once more, but only one was going to walk away… and for the first time since he'd sworn to learn the swordsman's art he wasn't entirely sure if the one to walk away would be him.

None the less, he leveled his rapier at the fox.

He had been defeated once before in his life and he'd sworn that it would never happen again, sworn that he would beat everyone that stood between him and his revenge. He would not lose. He could not lose. Not for the love he bore for his father.

He stared back at the masked fox, his determination burning through him and saw something behind the fox's annoyingly nonchalant confident smirk. A sort of answering determination burning deep in those green eyes, like he was a mammal possessed, a fox on a mission that would not let anything, not even death, stop him from reaching his goal.

And like two unstoppable forces of pure will, the fox and hare stuck, their blade's clashing hard enough that the sound rang in the hare's ears. He forced the fox back a step, then had to retreat a step himself as their swords sang through the air in an almost hauntingly beautiful melody that ran counter to the sharp jarring beat of metal striking metal that was closer to the sound of a blacksmith's hammer on an anvil, than two swift bladed rapiers meeting.

Inigo growled more ferociously than any prey should have been capable of and threw all his skill, all his speed and strength that he'd obtained from a lifetime of training, into the fight. Strike and strike, parry and slash, dodge and lunge- but he could not seem to break through the fox's bladesmanship. He growled again, gripping his rapier with both hands and striking like a the thin blade was a greatsword, headless of the damage such blows might cause to it, confident in his father's craftsmanship as he hammered on his opponents sword in near desperate fury. If the fox was too skilled with the blade for him to take outright by pure skill then he would shatter the fox's blade if that's what it took to win.

He was Inigo La'Savage Montoya.

He would not lose!

Not before he had taken his revenge!

He stuck with everything he had, the edge of his rapier striking that of the fox's. The superbly crafted steel bit into the other, chipping a piece of the fox's blade away, but the fox, still standing in a traditional fencing posture managed to deflect most of the blow's force to the side, sending Inigo's sword arm far out to the side as his blade flashed up toward the hare's face.

Inigo leaned to the side, trying to backpedal and bring his rapier back to bare as the fox's sword nearly grazed him, but the fox struck at his face again, even faster, and this time Inigo felt the edge catch some of his fur… a literal hair's breadth from nicking him as it took everything he had to avoid the blow. But even as he dodged the second blow, he saw the fox's paw already moving for a third and this time, he could not dodge, not with his sword so far to the side, his feet out of place and body and head twisted and off balance from the previous two strikes.

The fox's sword flashed by his eye like silver lightning, raggedly scored and chipped as it struck with terrifying speed, splitting his view of the blue sky over the ruins of the abandoned castle that still stood sentinel over the sea.

A clap like that of thunder exploded in Inigo's long ear, followed by an explosion of pain like that of his old school house nun whacking it with the flat of a ruler.

He stumbled back, is free paw going up to grab his ear, surprised to find that it had not been cut off, only for that surprise to double as he felt the fox's rapier tip lance through a gap in the wire basket hilt of his rapier, then twist to catch the metal. It only took a moment, a fraction of a moment of distraction as he'd grabbed for his ear, thinking it severed, and then his blade was gone, roughly jerked from his paw and the fox's sword snapping up to stop quivering, right under his chin pressing against his throat.

Inigo's shoulder's fell, his paws going slack as he realized that he had failed… failed… once again.

The fox continued to eye him, blade never leaving the jackrabbits throat as he walked in a half circle around the hare, kicking the hare's rapier further away as he moved.

Inigo slumped to his knees, looking down at his empty sword paw.

Empty for the third time in one fight.

He had failed… he had given it his all but he had still failed, beaten by this fox before he could find the four fingered sheep.

"Kill me quickly." Inigo said quietly.

If nothing else, he would die like a true Spaniard; die with honor, defeated by another master of the blade after giving it his all. And maybe, just maybe, if there was something after death, that would be enough and he would be able to see his father once again…

The masked fox snorted.

"I would as soon destroy a stained glass window as an artist like yourself," he said with an amused tone as he circled around behind the hare. The fox's blade resting against Inigo's neck disappeared as he continued, "But… since I can not have you following me-"

An explosion of pain blossomed at the back of the hare's head before it was washed away by darkness. Inigo flopped forward, out cold, the fox standing above him where he'd stuck the hare with the pommel of his sword.

The masked fox made a saluting gesture, his blade going out to the side as he gave a small bow.

"Please understand that I hold you in highest respect," he said to the unconscious hare apologetically before sheathing his now chipped blade, his nose going up to point into the wind as he sniffed, scenting the air.

He continued to sniff until his nose twitched like it had caught some half remembered scent. His head snapped around, his nose pointed in the direction the weasel, fennec fox and the princess had gone.

Without a moment's hesitation he took off after them.