Redtail Rise cutting

the world devolved.
augur, who had never punished him before, now pierced the flesh atop his muzzle. ancelin yelped, and then his aunt was there, calling off her wardog and speaking.
he was to fight. to earn a rank.
fight her son. fight his cousin.
this was what he had wanted, right?
the boy's indigo eyes shifted for one solemn moment to his aunt and then relic was on top of him, hard and gnashing. the other's first blow opened a wound along his left cheek, immediately brilliant with blood.
pain and shock was a clubbing blow to his gut, and fear arrived next.
and then pride, pride finally sundering its last chains. ancelin kept his footing out of sheer luck; he took two more clips of relic's teeth as he tucked chin and turned his shoulder hard into the other's chest.
there was no strategy but to step, to slash, to absorb as many blows as he was able while cutting toward lip and jaw and shoulder and cheek, each strike toward a different area.
ancelin kept himself close to relic, refusing to give ground or allow his cousin to draw away. his spittle turned bloody from his own split lips, but his eyes had gone hard and blackened with something avicus perhaps would recognize.
merrick, laughing as his grandson turned pride and agony into a knifeblade of focus.