"Who in thissss thriccce-damned land sssschedulessss a match for ssssseven AM..?"
After a rough night's sleep, the skinks troop out, tired, onto the underground field used for this morning's game, bleary eyed and out of it. Given their performance recently, and the boost on having a full, (mostly) uninjured roster and some stars in their lineup, Kobb's Khorne actually receives 50k inducements, spent on one magiced keg of Bloodweiser to help with those unfortunate KOs.
The lineup is nothing new - skinks elect to receive after Chaos loses the toss, and the beastly side sets up in Full Frontal Brutality. The fans, led on by the rattlewavers, bolster the sink's morale as the ball goes high, and Tyrr receives to lob a quick pass to Novv - the agile skinks make things look easy despite their diminutive size, and Nirr surges forward. The chaos side counters... with a really bad block - despite his training, and the apothecary, Thor'gor goes down with a broken jaw courtesy of Vorr the Sharktoothed. This opening leaves Novv to push forward, scoring handily in the second turn as the skink line takes the opportunity to test the haos resolve... but only succeeds in shoves.
(... Note: Seriously: Two double skulls, a failed armour roll and a pretty severe apothecary result too.)
At the kickoff, the ball goes wild, Garr punting the ball off-field rather than anything worthwhile. Jarr and his Beluga face go down, screaming in pain from a pinched nerve that looks to put him out for the following match, while Takk and Vorr go down hard, if hot with as much hurt. Cramulgor tosses the ball to Tzaal the Thrasher, the additinal-armed chaos warrior handling the ball surprisingly adeptly for someone of his bulk and stature, who proceeds to blitz the lone skink Novv and sends him staggering back. With Sprafy supporting, and a rather severe lack of muscle in the way, this looks dangerous for the lizards.
In response, three skinks manage to bring him down, the ball bouncing on the astrogranite as the rest of the blue team's muscle shoves the various mutants clear, even as Weyy moves deep in the hope of a surprise pass. Full frontal brutality proves its namesake, laying its hurt on the saurusses, and piling around Rexx, Mejj and the skinks surrounding the ball. Vorr gets a nasty stun, but the ball bounces into the claws of Tyrr, although various tackles leave him increasingly hemmed in by beastman muscle. After some skink repositioning, Tyrr shoves Sprafy off-field, sprinting away and backed up by Weyy.
In response, the mutated minotaur laus down the hurt, aas well as most of the skink side. A chainshove knocks Novv out, and off the pitch, promptly set-upon by angry fans, but otherwise, Tyrr is left to sprint forward, slipping away fron a solitary beastman to bring the skinks 2-0 up.
The lineup is only altered by the pair of rookie cannon-fodder skinks, Irzz and Sorr, lining up in place of the injured Jarr. Cramulgor opens up with a quick pass back to Tzaal, the chaos side's hopes pinned on the agile, armed assaulter. Takk and his bad breath get dragged off to the unconscious box with a KO from Frizfagors, the skink line in something of a disarray from the rather brutal assault.
Mejj responds by jumping up and smashing against Tzaal, but fails to make it stick and ends up in the midst of beastmen for his efforts, while Irzz manages to slip away from tentacles, but is still brought own with a surprising punch that leaves him broken and out for the rest of the game. The way is cleared for Tzaal, but despite being surprisingly agile, he still can only lumber at a stately pace, walking calmly to the toucnline with a mob of monsters for backup. Like a minotaur. And some mutant sheep. Nonetheless, Rexx finds an opening - and although he only needed to shove the multi-armed warrior to remove the ball from his grip, he manages to bring him down instead. Mazz manages to recover, dumping off to Tyrr, who tries... but fails to make the rather difficult long-pass stick, bouncing short and just shy of the awaiting Weyy.
A lot of lizards see the business end of various claws, gauntlets and other inopportune spiked tools to make their lives unpleasant, but that still leaves Tyrr able to pick up the ball after a beastman fails to keep his wits about him sprinting, and dumps off to Garr with the look of "if you mess this up, you're on the barbecue." Garr promptly sprints towards the touchline to bring them 3-0 up as time ticks away. The few remaining moments of the match are filled with violence, although mostly uneventful, and the surviving skinks troop off the field for a repeat of what just happened after the half-time snack of a rookie casualty from the tryouts beforehand.
Once more the lineups stay static enough, and once more the cheering fans bolster the skink's resolve... although that just leaves Sorr to go down, clutching his face as his goofy-looking face receives a gouge for its troubles. Cramulgor opens with a long pass back to Tzaal, the multi-armed monsters proving their worth rather decisively, but in a repeat of the first turn, although less painfully, Mi'mulgors goes down to a solitary skink from a bad tackle, Nirr evidently choosing to punch him in the furred crotch with tiny, angry claws.
Mejj smacks Tzaal down, and knocks him out to boot, but the ball bounces into the professional hands of Sprafy Claw who picks it up rather confidently. Weyy, Rijj and Novv close down on him, still rather able to escape, but... looking awkward for the beastman. As payment for their earlier performance, Vorr receives a smack that knocks him out, drooling awkwardly as a mob of skink orderlies drag his hefty bulk off-field, but the minotaur roars to himself and spends the time he should have spent blitzing scratching and grazing instead... despite the fact there was little grass in the subterranean pitch, but Sprafy slips away anyway, only to be intercepted by Rexx, despite the backup... although the stress of the game, and with his injury, Tyrr finds it difficult to pick the ball up, backing away early from the claws of Plag the Pugilist and fumbling the pickup... but gets a seconf wind with a shove that knocks the ball back to him. In kind, though, Sprafy thumps him down, laying on pressure and hurt and unkind words to the agile skink.
At the end of the day, though, he is still an agile little runt, and scrambles up, awkwardly escaping the pursuit of the lizardmen to toss a hopeful pass Mazz's way, but that gets quickly fumbled and leaves him standing, the skinks unprepared for the imminent counterattack. Novv gets shoved off pitch, and Weyy gets flung into the injury box. Sprafy puts pressure on Tyrr, knocking him down and leaving him without cover. He tries valiantly, but the adept, tackling beastman proves his worth by bringing him down again, a severe lack of numbers for the skink side with only five players on field... but their tactic seems to be working, delaying the chaos side from eating into their 3-0 lead. Nirr gets shoved away, but Sprafy fails to pick up the ball, landing face-first from a slick tackle, although Tyrr still fails to make good - recovering the ball, he fares little better, fumbling another pass, and promptly gets injured and put out of the game for his efforts.
As a result, the chaos side have almost free-reign of the pitch - three sauruses and two skinks all that stands in the way of a touchdown, but Nirr can't even get free, brought down with a swift tackle. The chaos side give the ball-carrying Nu-Mor a clean run, letting him slip through quickly and easily, although delaying the touchdown a few more moments... although Mi'mulgors gets sent off by putting the boot into Takk, putting him out of the match and leaving four Stormers on-field.
Nirr puts up a brave one-skink defence, closing in on Nu-Mor, while Mazz just watches on, dumbly, from his position far, far back in the chaos half. Drath promptly dispatches him with a punch that knocks him out, leaving Nu-Mor to score as time ticks away, and makes the scoreline from the first half sting a little less.
The entirety of the skink side manages to get up - at least, those capable of being roused or not currently receiving sutures, splints or seasonings, for a last-minute punchup. Novv receives Mazz's pass, but can't run fast enough, and the scoreline remains at 3-1 in a match that went surprisingly well for the skinks.
Ra'nogor, an unremarkable beastman, receives the MVP for Kobb's Khorne, while Garr gets his for the touchdown he secured with his fast frame.
(... Didn't expect for the first half to go well, but given the beatdown in the second half, it was definitely needed to secure that win. The six injuries, and two or three MNGs, was more in line to what I expect from the team that pioneered the Full Frontal Brutality lineup. And that agility 4, extra-handed warrior is hurty, even with his reduced armour.)