"You know, that's why I hate summoning at times like this. I can't figure out if you're dead or not. Then again, you're probably not, aren't you? You're already stuck between the weave of life and death," Dan grunted, turning slowly in a close circle, scowling. Beads of sweat still clung to the back of his neck, but the heat from the elemental plane was slowly lessening. Little fragments of stone ground under the soles of his shoes as he listlessly searched. Through the ground, he could feel nothing in the immediate area, beside a pleasant breeze whispering through the stone bars he'd created moments before. Finally, Dan stopped and began to dig around in his pockets.
"You're wasting my time, Sarah," he called out warningly, inspecting a wrinkled, creased cigarette with both hands before putting it into his mouth. It took him a few seconds of huffing before he ignited it with a match.
"You're moving yourself up from quick, clean decapitation to painful mutilation." Waving a hand cautiously in the air before himself, he picked a direction and began walking in it. Maybe she was dead? Dead or plotting something. Close to him like she was earlier, it had been simple to hear her, feel with her with his link to the very cave itself. But now, the acoustics of the lair had him questioning if he had heard one breath or two. And all he could feel through the earth was the impact of his own feet.
Suddenly, a vengeful cry erupted through the air, and Dan whipped around, his head moving rapidly, trying to pinpoint the source. "Oh! I was just thinking you were dead! You'd have been better of slitting your throat in whatever hole you were hiding in." Incredibly fast, he heard her feet pound the cave floor, and then vanish a moment later.
' - jumped - '
Killer's instincts suddenly sprang forth, and he crossed his arms before his face. A half second later, her warm weight drove into them, and he recoiled, hearing the hiss of steel in the air. Before she could fall away and scamper off for another surprise, the Saraelian's lower arm shot out, groped the air, and then clamped down on flesh - her throat. The Lavinian gave a startled, choked gasp, and stabbed her blades deep into the meat of his forearms.
He barely flinched.
"What, intending on cutting my throat? Drinking my blood? Ugh, it makes me sick that I can't even feel a pulse on my palm. Let's do this quick." Extending his free arm, Dan turned and twisted the fingers into odd shapes, and stamped the ground four times. The floor shook, and with four synonymous cracking and rumbling noises, curved stone slabs shaped themselves. Each formed a part of a collar, and with a sweep of his hand, pitted mossy rock broke away from the insides of the slabs, leaving jagged spikes. The Saraelian closed his outstretched palm into a fist, drawing taut unseen threads, and pulled the arm back to his side with a quick, jerking motion.
They came with the sound of a god grinding its teeth. They closed with a boom, and he felt the woman shudder, and blood splashed across his hand, from her beautiful lips.
He released his grip on her neck, and moved his hand gently to the back of her head, brushing ear as he passed. Dan Lagh'ratham leaned over the top of the iron maiden, and brought his face close to the pierced Lavinian's own. He kissed her bloody lips, drew back, and wrapped his hands through her hair, yanking her head back. The Saraelian's mouth opened, and in the dim, colorless light of the cave, his teeth glittered with spit.
"Stay the fuck away from me from now on, Sarah."
He ate.
Submit Thread for Judgment
She came across rather well throughout the battle and I especially enjoyed the jabs that went on between her and Dan, until Dan just got too pissed off to participate in them anymore. 