[bunnying approved]
It was refreshing to for William to engage with someone on his own level for once. Lorenor was just as savage as he remembered throwing his own weapon away so that the two of them could claw and crush one another like the monsters they were. Their last fight had started similarly, but neither man was the same as they'd been those long years ago.
William slammed into Lorenor, savoring the feel of the creature's body giving way beneath him. Something inside the undead snapped and the chamber filled with the smell of old, sluggish blood. True to his nature, Lorenor stoically accepted the crashing attack and simply bore down into it, hammering on the side of William's head with heavy fists. The punishing blows blazed with radiant energy which burned hotly against William's charred flesh.
Demonic was a phrase often attributed to the revenant. The truth of it was that he'd only earned that moniker for the twisted way he looked and not for possessing any true demonic heritage. Still, evil is evil, and William had committed enough atrocities to earn that title a thousand times over. While he held no particular weakness to Lorenor's holy smite, the attack still struck him with its full force.
It had been a long time since anything had burned William and he found the sensation oddly frustrating. He staggered, letting Lorenor slump away from him without a follow-up attack. When they'd first fought, Lorenor had landed a similar blow, minus the holy light, and it had crushed William's skull like an egg. This time the searing punch had savages a good chunk of flesh from his temple across to the top of the ridge of his right eye. Annoyingly, what remained of his ear swung lightly by a thin strip of flesh. It was quite distracting.
William spat at Lorenor's feet, noting that his mouth had somehow filled with the bright molten blood that flowed through his veins. It sizzled where it struck the rusty floor grating.
"I've had worse," he said in reply to Lorenor's taunt. Normally William found amiable chatting in the middle of a fight horribly offensive, but this time he found himself rather enjoying the ordeal. Besides, it gave his regenerative powers a chance to start repairing the damage that Lorenor's attack caused.
"A little trade-off for first blood," he continued. "But given that I'm feeling generous, I think you've earned a little something for the effort." William blurred into motion, pulling the loose tattered bit of his ear free with a sharp pop and threw it towards Lorenor. Covered in molten blood as it was, even that scrap of flesh could be dangerous. But hurting Lorenor with an errant scrap of flesh wasn't William's intent. The moment Lorenor's eyes flicked from him to the makeshift missile, William lunged forward again. His clawed hand gripped the front of Lorenor's leather jerkin. With his supernatural strength and speed it was easy for William to simply lift his opponent and, with a push, hurl the creature through the portal behind him into the dark room beyond.
William didn't know if that particular room held a trap but it didn't really matter. If there was a trap and Lorenor died, then he won. If Lorenor survived then their little back-and-forth would go on just a little longer. He was starting to have fun.
