Black Forest Redux (Closed) [Archive]

MetalDrago

08-04-10, 12:50 PM

Closed to Duffy Bracken or one of his alts.

The Citadel was among the most prestigious of fighting organizations in the entire world, and it was MetalDrago’s home. Here was the one place the Dragonian warrior could allow himself free reign as he fought and killed opponents in way that few could stomach, much less describe. This building, this monument to war, was perfect.

Thus the old fighter found himself in standing before the building once more. He went inside, and he immediately felt eyes upon him. A monk stepped forward from within the hustle and bustle of people trying to arrange fights and met him. “Master Drago, what a pleasure to see you again.” said Eins, in his typical, offhand fashion. Eins had been the attendant of some of the Paladin’s most memorable fights. The elderly monk had known him for practically his entire Citadel career, and had become something of a fixture in his life. The two of them had slowly become friends over the years, and had an abiding mutual respect.

Eins ran a hand through his rapidly receding hairline and asked, “Which arena can I set up for you today, sir?” the monk asked, a little more seriously. The humor in his eyes was evident, but the Paladin was in a killing mood today.

“I want my special arena, the training arena I created to test both myself and my opponents.” the Paladin said. He brought his cape around himself, completely hiding his armor beneath. Since the last time he’d been in the Citadel, the Dragonian had taken on the appearance of a dark warlord. While it seemed a little cliché, he wore the Endless Armor with pride. His cape was attached at the back, but fitted to a locking rail that could lock the cape in one of two positions. The first position wrapped his cape all the way around himself, hanging just a few inches off the ground. The second locking position kept the cape locked behind his back, where it wouldn’t get in the way if he was in battle.

The two old friends walked down one of the Citadel’s many halls to a room marked with the code MD10. MetalDrago had assisted in the design of this room shortly after he became a Paladin of N’Jal. It was the tenth of many rooms he had assisted in creating for the Citadel. He had not had a hand in the actual creation of the rooms, but often made his input on from a point of view only a few other monks shared. He liked difficult terrain, the kind which would test either commanders or combatants in battle. The rooms he had designed did exactly that, pitching people into areas where they would never consider fighting in.

As Eins slowly slid the door open, the Dragonian began considering other possible battlegrounds he could “suggest” that the monks create within the vast building that was the Citadel. As he stepped through the gateway into the white abyss that was the disquieting first appearance of his special arena, he smiled sadistically. He not only had an idea for a new battleground to be used in the future, but he was also anticipating his opponent’s response to the transformation that this field of battle would go through shortly. Though the white void was unsettling enough of a battlefield, it was merely the blank canvas upon which Drago would inevitably give birth to his favorite battlefield, the very same one in which he had decimated the young Dyne Cormyr almost a full year prior.

For from within this white void he would raise a forest so dank, dark, and dangerous that it would have no peer. This was the field affectionately known as the Black Forest.

Lillith

08-05-10, 02:15 AM

There were many ways to train a heart to feel, and Lillith had fraternised with most of them. She had seen the men she had seduced fall at her feet, and taken narcotics and opium dens in the high hills of Akashima, and many other unearthly delights; but she had not felt so alive and auspicious when in the carnal halls of Radasanth's Citadel.

She did not possess the words to explain how drawing her tanto and kunai made her feel, but it was a sensation on another plane of rapture to anything she had experienced before. It was heavenly, beyond the ether, divine and corrupting. As she entered the long corridor which lead to her next engagement, she looked back fondly over the previous encounters she had undertaken that same week. Her visit to the city was awash with business meetings, underhand dealings in backwater taverns and training opportunities she could ill afford to turn down - whoever waited for her would be treated no differently, a client.

Her usual attire gave her the freedom of movement she required whilst displaying her status as a woman, and as a child of Akashima. Her hair was tied back in a lose bun with the jade comb Ruby had given her many years ago, and her boots clipped against the cold sand stone floor as she approached the door to the dome where she was to fight. She turned the handle, and pushed.

A sea of white, so vibrant and burning she could barely see burst into view. With cautious steps she entered, unsure if there was even a floor. The only mark to break the landscape was a dark circle on the far side, and a moving figure before it that could only be her opponent. She clicked her neck, brushed herself down and started a seductive advance with boots raised at the heel and hips swaying. She liked to make an entrance, and she would cut through any awkwardness or strangeness by exuding confidence in droves.

"Konnichiwa," she heckled, running a finger over her eyebrows and wiping her cheek with her wrist as she came to a halt roughly half way into the arena. She slouched to one side with a hand on her waist, dropping almost as if she were losing the will to stand.

MetalDrago

08-11-10, 01:28 PM

After waiting for his opponent with his eyes only half closed, the Dragonian felt someone else entering the room. With a sadistic smile on his face, he fully opened his eyes and for the first time let them fall upon his newest prey. He was not prepared for what he saw. A young woman, no older than maybe a hundredth of his own age, had walked into the arena. His eyes wandered up and down her body before they returned to her eyes. He knew better than to call someone unskilled just because they appeared that way. His alliance with Sei Orlouge proved that.

When she spoke Akashiman to him, he felt the spines on his back stand on end. This woman was either a skillful warrior who used skills very similar to his own, or something else that would only be found in Akashima. He closed his eyes and blocked out all exterior thoughts, except the ones about the impending battle. When he opened his eyes, they were detached and cold, unfeeling, and unbending in their gaze. His hand wandered down to grasp the hilt of his newest weapon, the Shadow of Light, a masterwork mythril katana from Akashima.

“A pleasure to meet you, madame.” He said in the most cordial, unfeeling tone he could muster. He slowly drew his sword from its leather sheath. “Such a shame that our meeting must come to an end so swiftly.”

At those words, he drove his sword into the “ground” beneath him. With a surprisingly sharp, almost wailing sound, the sword dug into earth that hadn’t been there before. As the Dragonian pulled the sword from within the ground, a single dark green vine crept up from within the hole, followed by another, and another. Soon, the vines grew out to cover the entire field. The “sky” above became dark and clouded. Half-alive trees crept up from within the ground, and spread out into the sky, skeletal hands reaching for heaven.

Satisfied that the Black Forest had truly come alive once more, MetalDrago lifted his sword and pointed it at the woman before him. As the vines crept around their feet, awaiting the opportune time to attack them, he spoke. “Now, shall we begin?”

Lillith

08-11-10, 01:43 PM

She bowed, dutifully of course, and addressed the immediate imbalance of power created by her opponent's revealing of blades by unsheathing her kunai from her belt and twiddling them in little spirals, one in each hand.. Her somewhat slovenly entrance was more driven by lethargy and apathy towards the Citadel, than a direct lack of strength of drive to continue in her task. She had been requested to conscript old adversaries of Duffy's and new famous faces in the pursuit of victory, so she would do just that, no questions asked, no favours or quarters given.

Still, she mused, as the forest swarmed up and around her from the nothingness and white etherium of the Citadel's dome, it wouldn't hurt to have a little fun in doing so. She cast the Black Forest a cautionary glance as it seemed to a slow in it's genesis, and came to abrupt cessation of growth. The unnatural light that fell through the twisted, hellish canopy cast a shadow over Lillith's face, and she felt a chill run down her spine. She had asked for no details regarding the paladin, and Duffy had been only too happy to oblige; she had not questioned his hesitation then, but she certainly wished she had done so now.

"We shall indeed, sir," she reverted to a more colloquial tongue, one befitting Radasanth proper instead of continuing to ostracise herself from normality. "Swiftness is a word you should not bander about so freely, I fear," she took a stance to heart and levelled her knees with the upper reaches of the half-drake's heavy boots. He dwarfed her, in every possible way except one.

Well, she giggled, aiming both kunai at her opponent's torso, except two. She jiggled her bosoms and waited for him to make the opening move.

MetalDrago

08-11-10, 02:10 PM

The vines beneath the two combatants seemed to hesitate for a moment, sensing that the battle was about to begin in full force. The Dragonian’s sword quivered in his hand as he surveyed the situation. Having been the architect of this particular field, he knew everything there was about this place, down to the very last detail. However, this made little difference, since the field was made as a test for both himself and his opponent. He’d originally crafted this particular field to make it hard on himself while he fought. His opponent would soon learn that not only was the forest a place of pure evil, but the environment itself was alive with magics that would attack anyone who fought within.

The pure femininity of his opponent was blatantly obvious to the Captain of the Black Dragon Corps, but he blocked it from his mind. He’d long since given up his ridiculous fear of voluptuous women, and would not let it creep up again in the middle of a battle. “Swiftness is something we apparently both excel in, my lady. Unlike the last person I fought in this field, I believe you should prove quite the admirable challenge of both my speed and strength.”

At those words, he moved, suddenly breaching the distance between the two. The vines twisted underfoot, their red thorns prepared to sink into the flesh of the people within. This was the beginning of the battle, and hopefully it would be a long and painful one for the Dragonian Paladin. He brought his sword up and swiftly attacked downward at his opponent, hoping only to test her reflexes at this point in the game. His eyes did not follow her form, but concentrated on one of the many trees behind her. He bounded forward past her, letting his arm continue its downward arc until he reached the first tree.

Sensing that the larger of the two people was attempting to escape their grasp, the vines came to life immediately, grabbing him by his ankle and pulling him downward to the ground. As they snaked up his leg, he swung his sword and cut clean through the vine that had grabbed him. The vines were swift when still upon the ground, but at any point above three feet, they could not move quite so swiftly, as their very weight would pull them back down to earth.

Knowing that the vines were surely going to renew their assault upon him, the Paladin climbed slowly up the nearest tree and hung from a branch, lifting himself just above the reach of the vines. He used the time he’d bought himself to survey the area around him, hoping to see not only if his attack had worked, but if the woman had come under attack from the vines that would attack them throughout the entire battle. Between the two fighters, the vines would not be much of a threat.

Once the Paladin allowed his bloodlust to consume him, however, the vines would retreat from his form and that of his prey. It would not be much longer until he allowed it, but for right now, he wanted to test his opponent and break her spirit, if at all possible.

Lillith

08-14-10, 02:00 AM

Flattery could go a long way in the world, but Lillith was well versed and trained to deflect unwanted attempts at soliciting friendliness. She flicked her hair and set about adjusting the tenements of her attire whilst he oozed confidence and drowned in his own self-esteem. When he moved forwards like a steam train, trundling across the forest floor like a behemoth rampaging through the night, she stepped deftly to one side and brought her blade up into the sword's path.

They clashed together and from the weight, she withdrew it with a spiralling flourish and stepped and spiralled to her left to retreat from it's deadly descent. A few well placed and sure-footed footfalls took her back three feet, and she watched with a stern glare her opponent's advance continue to the tree-line. Her feet remained planted, as if held by roots of uncertainty, and she moved only her head to follow him.

"You possess speed, that much is true, but there is no grace or skill behind your calamity - strength, that much maligned power, is far too easily stalled by the most delicate of well placed blows. Like water, it can stay the mightiest of bridges and quash industry." She turned fully at last and rested her arms by her sides loosely.

Her sense of humour faded, and the rise of the vines to lash and snare the paladin hammered a sense of reality into the Akashiman ninja - she was here for a reason, and there was no longer any need for small talk. She skitter-leaped forwards and deftly, and nimbly, ran across the heaving mass of foliage.

A great vine rose before her as she met the halfway mark, and she leapt to the right at the last moment as it came crashing down towards her. She stopped just beyond, and leapt backwards with a perfect back flip as the vine slowly began to rise again. It shook feebly, then with a motion like a whip, tried to flick it's attack clear.

Lillith flew through the air towards the paladin as he struggled with the arena, the very earth itself, and settled her kunai both forwards in a piercing strike. She fell like an arrow, spiralling in a flurry of cloth and smiles and delicate curves wobbling towards the half dragon, oblivious to his ways.

MetalDrago

08-22-10, 06:08 PM

It was a simple tactic, if nothing else. Drago had long since given up trying to outright defeat his opponents right from the beginning. Instead, he studied them for at least the first five minutes of battle before unleashing his true fury upon them. The Paladin looked around himself, and then noticed a strange shadow on the ground in front of him. His opponent had taken flight, flying toward him with her weapons pointed directly at him. Without a second thought, he released his grip on the branch of the tree, falling to the ground. As his feet met the ground, he bent his legs ever so slightly, absorbing the majority of the impact with the ground. It wouldn’t do to have an injury this early in the game.

The vines rose to challenge him again, but were quickly cut through by his sword. They balked and retreated backwards by about a foot, waiting for the opportune time to strike at him again, when his guard would drop. The woman had some amount of grace, but her graceful strikes would prove to be as naught to him. His eyes closed as he felt his bloodlust beginning to rear up. It was only slight at the moment, but the excitement of battle always made him giddy and unpredictable. He turned on his heel and faced the tree he had been hanging from before pushing back with the balls of his feet to move back a few feet, deepening the chasm between himself and his opponent.

A degenerate, wicked smile came to the Dragonian’s lips. While he still contained his bloodlust’s true ferocity, just a little of it would be more than enough to suffice at the moment. He drew his second sword, a black, serrated blade known as the Dragon’s Betrayal. While he was not as good with his dual-wielding skills as he was with a single weapon in hand, fighting with two weapons was much more fun.

His blade howled in his hands, a sound audible only to the Dragonian warrior. It wanted to feast on the blood of his enemy, and feast it would. He kept his guard up as he smiled, his eyes darkening to a more bluish violet as he waited, swords in hand. He chuckled under his breath, knowing that this fight was only just beginning. Behind his seemingly calm façade, a black beast of madness and pure love for battle was waiting to strike, blood boiling with the thoughts of a prolonged and savage battle.

Lillith

09-08-10, 02:27 AM

Lillith's angelic descent bluntly crashed against the empty air where her opponent had been, and was rebuked with the simplistic and ignorant stepping aside. She kicked back with a trio of leaps, coming to a standstill twenty or so feet away to the reprise of a second sword being drawn in her honour. She span her own weapons with little flourishes of blurred steel and clicked her neck, ready as she ever would be for the coming medley of blows.

The heady musk of the forest calmed her nerves somewhat, and the vines continued to shift, shake and shuffle underfoot like a blanket woven with life. She wondered, half secretly and half with an expression of momentary confusion what sort of madman had concocted this wicked place. Nature, she knew all too well, was a fickle and dangerous enemy to all life, but for it to strike out with lash and horned prong in such a manner, meant it was truly beyond reconciliation, truly beyond hope.

She stomped on a vine as it lifted to strike her, and rubbed it into the dirt with a heel that could drop a man's jaw at twenty paces. With a stern straightness in her spine and a char-grilled smile of malice on her pretty little face, she shone defiance at the paladin. The gentle breeze carried the mildew and moss scent across the clearing, adding to the ambiance, and after a cautionary measuring up of her twin-bladed opponent, the daughter of Akashima said her put-down with half-arsed effort.

"You're awake, then." She ran forwards, scurrying with deft footwork over the moving, ever changing floor that made to trip her, weapons behind her in a twin-tailed trail of destruction, and eyes falling onto the dragon's own blades. As their presences collided, she lashed them both forwards and cut into the defence of her opponent as she stepped back, adding weight to her swing. "Good!"

MetalDrago

09-17-10, 05:06 AM

The Dragonian smiled as she missed her mark. He looked down at his swords and thought for a moment at what each meant. They were as potent as his personality. One was straight and sharp, the other jagged and bestial. They both represented to him the alternate sides of himself, the cool tactician and the murderous monster hiding just beneath the surface. As the woman landed on the ground, he took a few steps back, his feet crunching on the vines underfoot. The vines reflexively moved back ever so slightly, just inside of striking distance. It was easy to tell that they were unsure of attacking at this point.

Drago had never pretended to be a charming combatant, nor was he particularly charming company in the presence of women, anyway. He couldn’t understand them. Though he’d met and fought women in his life before, they always exhibited a certain something about them that made him uncomfortable. He couldn’t quite tell what it was. They exuded a confidence in themselves that he could not for the life of him understand.

When she addressed him, he could only smile even more widely as she pushed herself closer to him, attacking him with her kunai. Instead of trying to avoid her attack, he stepped into it, brushing his cape out of the way as he did. While the cape appeared only to be an article of clothing, it was actually his transmutated draconic wings, and still hurt him dearly if punctured or otherwise attacked.

As the kunai drove ever closer to him, he held his breath for a split second. A peeling cry of steel on steel was his reward. Her knives scraped across his symbiotic Endless Armor, leaving a light scratch over the surface of the armor. “Yes, I’m very much alive.” His confidence bolstered by his armor’s performance, he snaked his arm back and unleashed an elegantly swift attack with his Dragon’s Betrayal. The sword screamed in glee as it tore through the air with serrated teeth.

The monster was still holding back. If she got away from this attack alive, then the fun could truly begin.

Lillith

09-18-10, 12:04 AM

A swift strike found itself parried and the dragon returned the favour. Lillith barely had time to gasp before she retracted her arms and clashed against the heavy blade; the impact itself knocked the wind from her, and she found herself tumbling back instinctively to avoid the end of her life from the simple, brutal rebuttal. She stumbled at the end of her tether and tried to recompose herself with a not so elegant spiral and duck retreat.

"Alive is a relative meaning!" She roared, rising back into a standing position and crossing her weapons across her chest. Her hair was lose and a strand fell across her eyes as she panted her words. "One can live, but not truly be part of the world. One can exist, without feeling the pain and eloquence of living!"

She closed her eyes for a moment, and felt the pulse and the tangle of the chaotic forest heave to and fro all around her. With the same calm emotion she had used to sedate her nerves upon approaching the arena door, she drew on The Aria and pulled from the silver sea in her mind a ghostly instrument of ritual power.

It hovered before her, a pale light blue token of peace. For a moment, the branches and roots all around her, which threatened to slay her with ravaging tendrils of anger only moments before began to settle. They convulsed and rippled, and died, falling back from the plucky woman and her strange customs.

She sheathed her tanto for a moment, and pulled in the Shamisen close. As soon as she played, the delicate melody rang out through the black forest, each note striking a blow to the darkness and the malefic which pulsated through every inch of the arena's being.

"Live, and see the world."

"Die, and see it truthfully one final time!"

She snapped the shamisen in two, letting the haunting melody ring through the arena as an entrancing and delerious distraction. Beneath it's glow, she ran forwards once more and pulled a kunai from her belt as she flew across the sedated roots towards her opponent once more.

One strike, two, three and four, a flurry of blows aimed at the dragon's sword to test his defences once more.

A true artisan of war after all fought not a man but a blade, waiting for the perfect and serpentine opportunity to sneak through the wall of steel to carve out a legacy in the heart of the enemy. Lillith's teeth clashed and her pale skin flushed with crimson as she felt her body contort, and the forest came alive once more as the ancient song faded.

MetalDrago

09-30-10, 08:22 AM

The woman managed to parry and avoid his rebuttal. I’m far from done. The Dragonian said to himself. When the woman managed to summon a strange musical instrument, things got interesting. The entire forest seemed to calm down. The vines stopped shifting beneath their feet, entranced by her song. “How very interesting…” he said. He brought his sword up as she snapped her own instrument in half. The music still, strangely, hovered in the air, counteracting the dark heart of the forest. The sound was hauntingly beautiful, very similar to the harp the Paladin had played just a few years ago. It reminded him of a time when he lived in the light, a time he despised ever having lived through.

Then she attacked him. It was a swift, merciless flurry of attacks. Her blades hit his sword once, twice, thrice. Drago felt more than saw the fourth attack hit. As it hit, he released the Dragon’s Betrayal from his hand, letting it fly from his hand and land somewhere among the vines. As the music finally died, he felt himself laughing under his breath. He took a single step back and smiled widely. “Now, milady…” He chuckled evilly. “Let’s have some fun.” His hand swiftly snaked to his back and drew his most evil weapon, the Nocturne of Madness. As the tip of the sword left its sheath, he was immediately surrounded by a stifling black aura.

His eyes went from blue-violet to a frightening white-blue. His laughter increased as he hunched his back and hung his swords just a few inches off the ground. The Nocturne screamed loudly as its power continued to envelope the Dragonian, a scream audible to everyone and everything in the entire field of battle. This sword had caused many men to go completely insane under its control, but those who accepted and embraced their own madness were able to control themselves even when under its thrall. MetalDrago’s own bloodlust was something that he accepted and embraced, and thus the sword merely strengthened his trait instead of using it to control him.

The laughter echoed throughout the forest as the Dragonian took a few steps forward. His eyes locked onto those of his opponent, and then he was off. He dashed across the last few feet between them and swung the Nocturne at her, his aim intentionally off. He followed after with a single swipe of his mythril blade, the Shadow of Light, cleaving through the air with his signature Shockwave Slice attack. The air burned hot as the wave of energy left the blade of the sword and continued forward, with the brutal intent of slicing the dear woman in half.

All the while, that incessant laughing continued.

Lillith

10-06-10, 06:46 AM

Madness was a part of a woman's mind, it belonged to her to hold reign and providence over. Men fell beneath it's wake, crumbled beneath it's insanity, faltered behind it's presence. All the same, the aura cast from the dragon's blade crippled Lillith's calm and collected decadence with a fell circlet of disability. She stood, barely, darkness haunting her mind as the laughter from her opponent's mind accented the torment.

She saw visions of her childhood flash before her eyes, with twisted shadows forming new horrors to her already troubled remembrance. Sweat poured from her brow as she struggled to contain the outburst that welled up in the pit of her stomach. The echo of the scream from the blade as it had been unsheathed rang in her skull, and completed the horror she felt.

"You are nothing, Lillith Kazumi," said her father, turgid lips and piercing glare flashing clear as day.

"You will be nothing more than failure," said Ruby, her finger prodding her wounds with salt.

"You're just a slut...

A murderer...

A harlot of the slums..." Said everyone, a union between troupe and alcohol and family.

"NO!" She roared, falling to her knees as she succumbed to the strain. She cupped her head in her hands and rocked back and forth, suddenly oblivious to the peaty grass beneath her stained knees and the whiplash vines that threatened to smother them all amidst the wild fauna of the black forest.

"Get...out...of...my head!" The scream rivalled that of the sword's, and she felt alive again. Slowly, she peered out from her prison and the vision of her opponent calmed her further still.

She licked her lips to return moisture to them and rose without flexing so much as a muscle in her upper body. Her tanto appeared automatically, and she curled her lip in appreciation. With the stern glance, she kept the hounds that snapped at her memories at bay for long enough to return the favour.

"A petty trick, from a petty man, with petty vendettas to settle...I live for madness, I am madness, I am a pitiful woman scorned...if you wish to fight me in such a state, then see the wrath of calamity!" She crossed the gap between them quickly, stepping back out of harm's way from the first strike and leaping in a back flip to the side as the searing flame of the shock wave slice threatened to cut her from existence.

She landed in a crouch like a tigress, forty five degrees to the dragon's left side. She resisted the urge to pounce upwards like a mantis and drive her blades into his neck, and aimed both squarely at the magical blade. She drive her weapons at the dragon's hand, hoping to disarm him, or at least injure the immense strength he carried behind each and every blow. She cackled. She screamed, she pulled faces.

Madness consumed her, but instead of corrupting her, it only made the assassin of the blossoms more proud and more determined to play to her strengths.

MetalDrago

12-01-10, 03:25 AM

The Dragonian Paladin of N’Jal smiled wickedly at the girl before him. Gone were her refined voice and stance. Now he could see her for what she truly was. While she embraced madness decidedly different than his own, she was still a being very similar to himself. “Petty tricks? Do not think a being who embodies the power of the Goddess of Darkness would be petty.” He cackled lowly as he spoke to her. When she rushed at him, aiming for the Nocturne, he simply relaxed his grip on the sword, letting spin downward in his hand. After it turned a full 180, blade down, he reversed the blade with a single flick of his wrist.

Holding the weapon steadily, the back of the blade touching his arm, the beast of a man swung it swiftly around, blocking her thrusts with the blade, supported by the full strength of his forearm. As she attacked, he slowly backed up, his laughter changing to a light scowl. He had sincerely hoped for more from this girl than a bunch of paltry antics and useless posturing. She was easily almost as fast as he himself was, and still she could hardly land a blow to cause any amount of damage. It was beginning to annoy him.

After watching her almost completely useless flurry of attacks go to waste, Drago had just had enough of it. Despite being one-fourth dragon, he was not the kind of person to take patience as one of his key character traits. For a brief flash he seemed to step back from everything, his eyes began to glow with a bright blue-white light as he smiled, the most twisted, sadistic, and dark smile conceivable to the imagination crept across his face.

“Time to end this…” was all he said as he brought his sword to bear and released a pair of Shockwave Slice attacks at the girl in front of him. The air screamed as the pale blue energy cut through it with murderous intent. The dark being smiled even more widely as he watched his twin attacks burst forth from his blades. To this being, pain was everything… causing it, feeling it. In every lifetime one must feel pain. It made them strong, made them more than they were. Gave them the power to fight, or stole their will to live. Pain was everything and nothing, and it was the realm of darkness itself.

If this is the end, I’m sorely disappointed.

Lillith

12-04-10, 03:36 AM

A floral pattern had many depths, like the woman that wore the woven fabric. She pushed out her limbs to steel herself against the incoming attack, and with steady hands, crossed her blades over the path of the shockwaves. In her madness, that momentary precipice of dellusion, she believed in all her righteous scorn that she could simply rebuke his advances like a wiley man in a sleezy downtown bar.

How wrong she could be.

She flew backwards, the impact shattering her tanto into a thousand sparkling pieces and casting them up into a maelstrom of glittering dust without a care or thought for the atmosphere. Lillith's lithe body went further still, coming at last to a bloodied stop atop a mound of moss, sharp with hunger and heaving with it's own life.

"Oh..." she mustered, coughing and spluttering with her back arced in pain and agony and ever more escalating descriptions of near death experience.

For just a moment, the vines around her stopped. They felt her death incoming, and waited, like a stupidest crowd for the passing of the last gap. She rolled onto her side before she gave in, and glared at the Paladin. "Petty...tricks...gambits of death, fiery convocation - you would do well in a war, my good sir, but in affairs of the heart, of life itself, I pity you for giving up your freedom so surly and swiftly." She spat blood onto the leaves and wiped the corner of her mouth, it smeared onto her porcelain skin and tinted her copper and brazen brass.

"Graciously I bow out, but remember...this black forest, is nothing more than a reflection of your black heart..."

With her skin ruptured and her muscles cracked, spent and torn, Lillith fell forwards into the fold of the heaving vines, and no sooner than she died, they began to cover her and drag her into the deep seated peat and undergrowth.

Drago might feel disjointedness, but Nature always relished in the bounty of human inconsideration.

MetalDrago

12-07-10, 06:29 AM

“A quaint speech, but little more.” The warrior said, sheathing the Nocturne. His eyes immediately went back to their original color, a dark orchid violet. He stopped smiling and went back among the trees to find where his Dragon’s Betrayal katana had flown off to. “A winner in war, but a failure at love, huh?” he asked himself. He ran his right hand across his face, wiping the blood of the woman off of his scaled face. He growled lowly as the vines below him stopped moving. With the battle done, the forest returned to immobility. Finally, after a little more searching, he found his other sword. The vines of the forest had wrapped around it, as he suspected. He used the Shadow of Light, his third acquired katana, to hack through the vines to retrieve his original sword. As he withdrew the sword, he recalled the events of the battle. The woman he fought here would eventually become a great and powerful person. He could feel it in his bones. He turned around, the silence of the forest after the battle almost too great to bear. He whispered, “We’ll see each other soon, I’m sure…”

The smell of decay and fresh blood surrounded him, and he was almost sorry to leave this field of battle. A magical door appeared as the forest began to disappear, returning to the white void that had existed before he drove his sword into the ground. As he gripped the door, he turned back one last time to look at his Black Forest. His opponent had been correct. He smiled. It really was a reflection of his heart.

As he left, his eyes immediately met those of Eins. The old man watched him as he closed the door behind him. His brown eyes shone brightly as he smiled at his old friend. “You don’t know the meaning of restraint, do you, old friend?”

Drago looked at the man with only a half smile on his face. “I was restraining myself, right up until the end. The same as with that student of yours, Dyne.” The two of them shared a light chuckle before they went to take care of the Dragonian’s armor. The scratch wasn’t too much, and it would take only a little buffing out. While the Endless had the capacity to heal itself, the symbiotic armor hadn’t yet attained the ability, so it required attention when damaged.

“I’ll want to see the young woman when she’s healed up enough to speak, Eins. I have a feeling she’ll have something to say to me.” He said.

“Of course, Master Drago…” the old man chuckled. “Of course…”

Lillith

12-07-10, 11:49 AM

With a heavy hand and a heavier heart, Lillith tore away from the Citadel as soon as her limbs could muster the strength to depart. She had no desire to remain in the paladin's company any longer than she had to, her mission, her mandate, as far as she was concerned, was done.

On her bed, she had left two notes. One was addressed to the monks, who had utilised their divine inspiration to resurrect her. It gave a simple thanks and instructed them to deliver the second envelope to her opponent, should he chose to follow up her offer and instigation during their conflict. As she relished the sun on her back and the prospects of a relaxing journey back across the ocean to the island of Scara Brae, she wondered secretly how he would respond.

She wondered what Duffy was playing at, offering friendship to such evil, abhorrant avatars of the dark Thayne Njal.

The Tantalum Troupe, allies of the Dark Ghoul Lorenor seek your alliance.

No corner or stone unturned, no secrets revealed, just a simple exchange of services.

If you wish to learn more, then seek the Obsidian Tower in Scara Brae, bound in Liviol and malice.

There, you shall find your answers,

Duffy Bracken.

MetalDrago

12-07-10, 04:57 PM

When Eins and Drago made it to the room in which the woman had been revived, one of the monks handed the Dragonian a piece of paper detailing her message. Scanning the words on the page, he couldn’t help but laugh. “It seems our little friend has run away…” he almost seemed sad for the loss of her company, but Eins knew better. He’d learned of the Paladin’s true nature very quickly after his transformation. He was not sad for her to be leaving his company. He was quite the opposite. He was relishing the new challenge that waited ahead for him. He was merely hiding his true emotions, as he always did. No one knew for sure what went on in the head of that sadistic beast, and no one thought to ask. They were sure that whatever it was, they didn’t want to know.

“This is going to be fun…” he said, his eyes glowing a slightly lighter shade of violet than normal. He smiled sadistically and crumpled the piece of paper, the sound music to his ears. He dropped the letter on the floor and walked out. If Lorenor was taking part in this, there was no mistaking that this was going to be some of the most fun the Dragonian Paladin had ever experienced. He would have to be ready.

Days would turn into weeks as the creature made his way to Scara Brae. Whatever Bracken wanted, it proved at least that it was going to be interesting. Come think of it, I might not be as disappointed as I thought after all… This battle was just the prelude to a bloodbath that will be all the sweeter.