Moonspear Kings fight for empires, madmen for applause.

kukutux, hydra -- they all went unseen.

for arcturus only saw the leviathan rising like a stone golem in his vision. the traitor, the betrayer.

the brother that had left him not once, but thrice now.

a resurgence of that sense-crippling fury entered his blood. even without ying's intoxicating scent, arcturus knew that if he did not put revui to bed now, that challenge would remain forever -- that his honor and his place upon this mountain were intricately tied in brittle gold threads to one simple thing: his ability to defend his position as a leader.

the second that facade cracked -- the second there was a spider-thin fissure in the veneer -- it all went downhill.

hydra's monologue on the mountain fell on deaf ears as arcturus came in charging. all arcturus saw was revui challenging his honor, and now hydra, denying him the option to defend it.

if she had truly loved him -- if she had truly been furious her brother had challenged the beta in the first place by that stony creek -- she would have finished the job arcturus had not been able to. she would have grasped revui by the throat and dismantled him, sinew by sinew until all that remained was pulpy, bloody gristle --

instead she rose to defend revui.

like a bull arcturus plowed past with a heady snarl, his jaws wide and eyes brimming with infernal rage. revui may have been partially pinned by hydra, but arcturus was not to back down. hydra did not control him, and in that moment, arcturus was doing what he knew was right.

he did not stop, he did not falter -- his muzzle split in a withering snarl as he circled around revui and hydra, waiting for them to either become entangled given their current positioning, or an opening presented itself. like a stud honing down on an insolent subordinate, arcturus lunged for revui's hindquarters in the attempt to rip him out from under his protector, uncaring of the fact hydra might -- and likely would -- intervene.