Witch VS Bitch (closed to Witchblade)

[Shell]

Shell was bored out of her mind. She wanted a good fight. She had been able to find one, maybe two of those in the Citadel, but she hated the fact that every time she had defeated her opponents, the Citadel employees healed them. Shell also hated how they healed her after every Citadel battle. She was a believer in keeping any and all battle scars. Every single one of them reminded her of one of her victories or one of her defeats.

It wasn't going to be hard for her to find opponents to fight, there were hundreds of people in Corone that she could challenge, but all the good fights happened in the citadel, and she wasn't about to go back to fighting in a place that showed mercy to anybody in a fight to the death. Suddenly it occured to her how to lure the good fighters out.

Shell flew down to one of the houses in the town of Shuhiko, which was the closest town to Radasanth, and knocked on the door. As soon as someone opened the door to see who knocked, Shell forced her way in and slaughtered the family of four inside. Her actions didn't go unnoticed, though, and soon ten members of the town guard came in after her. Shell took advantage of the narrow doorway and started cutting them up as they entered.

Another guard had attempted to get a surprise attack via the back door. Shell didn't even bother looking before slashing his head off. One final guard smashed the window open and started to enter when Shell turned to glare at him.

"Do you honestly think that is a good idea?" Shell said thrusting her blade into him.

When noone else came for her, Shell left the house, convinced that there were no good opponents left. She didn't even bother to try to cover up the blood on her tail as she walked down the street in search of someone else to kill.

[Witchblade]

It was just like every other town she’d happened to walk through. There were hard dirt packed roads that kicked up small clouds of dust with every step she took and little houses made of stone and wood. Quaint and yet it was neither small nor very large. It must have had a few thousand people as its population, all going about their normal lives. Children laughed and played in the streets while their parents worked the farms and prepared the food necessary for their survival. All around her there was activity and noise and yet not as much as the city of Radasanth. Not to mention the noise was different. It had a calmer sound to it than the bustle of the city, which was grating on her ears.

What surprised her most were the polite smiles and nods she received from almost every person as she passed them by. Truly, she could not remember the last time people had looked at her with such openness. Were they daft? Could they not tell that she wasn’t human and that if one of them so much as took a threatening step towards her she could remove their head from their shoulders? Perhaps the years of living so far away from the city had meddled with their minds and they truly just saw her as another adventurer. She was just another traveller passing through their lands and wishing for a night’s rest. If only she could be that traveller.

As far as human towns went, this one truly wasn’t that bad. The only thing wrong with it in her mind was that humans populated it. They were filthy creatures that destroyed the lands without a thought or care as to the repercussions of their actions. They only thought of themselves, their greed, their needs and no one or nothing else’s.

“Pathetic…”

As much as she agreed with The Malice, she still ignored it. She was not in the mood to have a mental battle on her hands. She just wanted to pick up some supplies for Daegun and then she was out of this place. That meant she needed to find the marketplace, which shouldn’t be too hard. It should be the busiest street in town. All she had to do was follow the noise. Avoiding a small group of children running and laughing, Witch looked up in time to see a group of armoured soldiers head down a side street. Raising her brows, she walked over and peered down after them. They were all stopped at the fifth house down. One of the men, who had gone inside first, quickly came stumbling out. His body hunched over in the middle of the street, he began to empty the contents of his stomach into the dirt. Though she couldn’t see what was inside the house, Witch had a pretty good idea what could make a human empty his stomach like that.

A massacre?

A normal death saddened humans, but an unnatural death usually made them react as sickly as the soldier feet ahead of her was doing. Still, it had nothing to do with her. Turning away from the scene, the halfling moved away and further down the street she was on. The humans could deal with the death of their own, she didn’t care.

[Shell]

I edited my first post a bit so that we have a name for our location now. Thank you for pointing out my mistake.

Shell was never one to hang around any one place for too long of a time, so she didn't really know her way around too well. She really didn't want to stay that long anyway. As far as she was concerned, there was noone worth fighting. Every single person she saw looked extremely weak. Normally, Shell would have gone on a killing spree, but right now she needed a battle she could sink her teeth in to.

There was a lot of noise coming from the center of town. This area consisted of a bunch of shops strewn all over the place with a statue of some heroic looking dude with a bastard sword held high in the air in the middle. This central plaza was also the town's marketplace.

A lot of the people ran away screaming as soon as they saw Shell enter the Plaza. Shell was used to this reaction by now, but she did have to wonder if the blood dripping from her tail had caused more to run. Not like she cared, though. She wasn't interested in them today. The few that decided to stay were merchants, guards, and a few idiots who had decided to wait to see if she was as dangerous as she looked. Noone there seemed to be without fear, though.

Shell turned to the nearest merchant, slashed his arms clean off, and waited for some to attack her as she watched him bleed to death. The remaining merchants ran away, fearing they were next. The idiots who had stayed behind, ran away as well. Shell moved towards the guards, licking the blood off her tailblade.

"So, which of you fuckers wants to die next?"

The guards just looked at one another, unsure of what to do. They knew it was up to them to protect this town, but this was rediculous.

"You little!!!" One guard said as he pulled out his sword.

Shell was quick to cut the guy's sword arm off before he could draw his weapon, though. The rest of the guards ran away after seeing this display of speed. It was obvious that they had decided they would rather stay alive than stay on guard duty that day.

"Damn it! You are all just gutless cowards! Is there noone here willing to fight me?" Shell yelled out in frustration.

[Witchblade]

The stench of fear and blood carried over the wind. Soon, the smell it was followed by a crowd of many fleeing from the one place Witch was trying to reach, the marketplace. From face to face she glanced as they passed her by and each one was pinched with fear. They were radiating that wonderful smell into the air that set her instincts ablaze and made her fight off the urge to attack. She was an animal after all and a predator and it was in her nature to attack something fleeing from her, even if not directly because of her. Lucky for them though, Witch had a firm hold of her animalistic instincts. Otherwise she’d be nothing more than a raging monster.

Despite the crowd that said nothing yet begged her to go in the opposite direction, the halfling couldn’t help but continue forward to the marketplace. Curiosity got the best of her, as did her confidence in her own skills knowing full well she could handle herself against many a creature and many a warrior. Within her rucksack a single movement went almost unnoticed, but for the fact that something was rather uncomfortably shifted into the small of her back. Nothing else stirred, her familiar was still asleep within his safe and warm haven and she hoped he would stay that way for now.

As the last of the crowd rushed passed her, Witch stepped out onto the very edge of the marketplace, which also happened to be the centre of town. It was a large circular area that contained many shops and many stalls where merchants and peddlers would shout their wares at the top of their lungs. Personally in her mind the silence and solitude of the place was much better than how she would have originally found it. And the merchants had been so nice as to leave all their items behind and in plain sight for any who happened by and might want something. Weapons, armour, jewellery and clothes amongst many other assorted items lined the streets, all glimmering in the light of day and all without any to watch over them.

“I never pegged you for a thief…”

She wasn’t really, but if opportunity arose she was not one to turn it down. Still, the items in display would have to wait for on the other side of the market something far more interesting was taking place. It was there that the smell of blood radiated from and with her keen vision it was there she noticed a slightly demonic looking female yelling about how gutless everyone in this place was. The halfling wouldn’t disagree with her. Most humans were gutless dogs and two guards running away from her, one holding a bleeding stump were no exceptions. Still, she wanted nothing to do with the female creature. She was only here for supplies, not a battle.

“Just a quick one.”

She pushed the thought from her mind even as The Malice tried to plant in there.

“It won’t take very long.”

Ignoring it was the best solution.

“You know you want to. The thrill of the fight is calling to you.”

I said no…

She shouldn’t have mentally spoken to it. It would only encourage the thing, but she couldn’t help it. The images of past battles it was planting in her mind were almost enough for her to give in. The blood lust and a need for death were powerful persuasions but not this time. Her eyes moved away from the female and back to the shops and their wares, she needed food for Daegun.

[Shell]

Hope that the description in your profile is still accurate. I am using it to describe your character. If it isn't accurate, PM me and I will edit this post so your description is accurate.,

Shell was about to leave to find another place to terrorize when she saw something that intrigued her. While most people ran away from her, Shell saw someone enter the area without a single trace of fear on them. It looked to be a female dressed in all black, but the most peculiar thing about her was that she had her mouth sewn shut. Shell stared at the female for a few minutes before finally speaking up.

"Are you here to relieve my boredom?" Shell asked in a sinister manner. Before she could get an answer, though, Shell rushed in and swung her tail at the woman's neck. It really didn't matter why the woman was here to her. As far as Shell was concerned, that woman might as well be a corpse already.

[Witchblade]

Even after having her dragon for such a long time, Witch was not entirely certain what he preferred to eat. No matter what she put in front of him he usually ate it without complaining, so she supposed if it was enough to satisfy his hunger he was fine with it. Not having to eat herself though, she didn’t know what anything tasted like and she just hoped she didn’t pick something that was rather gross to him. After all, she’d hate to have to go through all the trouble of actually going into a village only for it to be in vain. She just might get frustrated enough to tell him to go hunt for his food, which wouldn’t be good for the little guy. Sure he needed to practice his hunting technique, but he did need some help from time to time.

Reaching out, she grabbed a few round things off a table she assumed were fruit. They had many different kinds of them, some were red, other orange and even a few green and purple ones. She took a few of each and without taking her rucksack off, found the flap and dropped them inside. With no one around she didn’t need to pay for these.

She was just about to head over to a shop that had the smell of freshly baked bread coming from it, as well as the growing stench of burning bread. She bet the baker fled with some buns in the oven when all the fighting broke out. Pathetic humans. They never did quite figure out how to protect themselves, they always expected others to do it for them. Perhaps one day that would be the downfall of their race. Witch could only hope. On her way over there, the woman who had been tearing up the bazaar came over to confront her, her question confusing the halfling.

“I win.”

Before she could question what The Malice meant by that, the halfling turned to the woman just in time to see her attack her. Her crimson eyes narrowed as she watched the tail blade come sailing through the air at her like a whip. Raising one of her arms, Witch blocked the bladed tail with the Titanium plates on her armguard. The sound of metal clashing against metal echoed in the silence of the empty square around them. But how empty was it really? The halfling could feel the life forces of other around the area as if waiting to see what would happen. And she was rather certain someone was going to come back with a few Corone Rangers anytime soon. Though at the speed humans move at, that could be another hour or so.

“Foolish…”

It was the only thing Witch said to her without even moving her lips. She then shifted within the darkness of her cloak. The straps of her rucksack slipped from her shoulders and she carefully placed it on the ground, mindful of the sleeping bundle inside of it. Her cloak came next. With a quick flick of her fingers the clasp holding her cloak in place opened and the black material slipped from her shoulders and pooled around her feet. It revealed a curvy woman clad in black leather pants and a revealing black leather top. But it also revealed all the weapons adorning her body, including the massive Rot Slayer that was over six feet from tip to tip strapped securely to her back.

[Shell]

Shell grinned evilly as she watched these events unfold. Shecould tell that this one was going to be a bit of a challenge. The problem was that she was unsure about whether or not this person would stay to fight the entire thing out. She hated it when her foes left before one of the two of them had died.

Shell decided to test the woman's skills a bit more.

"Talk with your mouth, Damn it, or don't talk at all!" Shell yelled at the woman, as she attempted to make a deep slice at mouth level. She didn't stop there, though. She followed it up with a second attempt at slicing the neck clean off, a swing to the chest, and a stab at her left kneecap. She didn't expect any of her attacks to hit, but her attacks weren't without reason.

Shell had payed enough attention at the beginning of the fight to notice a way to give the woman another incentive for fighting her. There was something fragile that the woman cared a lot about in a bundle that she had placed carefully on the ground. Shell made her next slash, not at the woman, but at that bundle. She intended to destroy whatever it was in there, giving the woman a reason to fight.

Shell watched the woman carefully as she made her attack on the bundle. If the woman made a move to defend it shell was ready to attack any weakness in her guard that she could find.

[Witchblade]

Or don’t talk at all? She could give the same advice to this…person. All she seemed to do was talk and for someone who had started this altercation, it was beginning to raise her annoyance. Words were best left off the battlefield.

Just as she was about to start—and finish—this herself, the female before her finally made her move. It was clumsy. She swung with that tail blade of hers, one that the halfling could see coming miles before it ever came close to hitting her. The girl was fast, but she wasn’t fast enough for her tastes. This was probably going to be a relatively boring and quick fight in which she was rather certain she already knew the outcome to.

“Someone’s getting cocky.”

Merely observing.

Witch moved her head back out of the way as the blade came by and passed within an inch of her mouth. The rush of air brushing against her skin actually felt rather nice. Perhaps she should have let the attack connect though, since the strings binding her mouth could not be cut by physical means, the blade would have done little to no damage. It was too late now. The simple slash at her face was not the girl’s only attack too. She quickly followed up with a move towards her neck, one that was just as easy. With a simple step away from her the attack passed once again in front of her, leaving not a trace but the stirred air.

Still think I’m getting cocky?

“Perhaps not, but she’s attacking you again.”

My eyes work fine, you know.

Raising her right arm, the halfling easily blocked the slash at her chest. The tail blade simply bounced off the Titanium armour layered on her leather armguards. The halfling could barely believe it when she came in for yet another attack, as if her ability to block the ones before meant nothing to her. Was she dense in the head or did she just not see how much she was out manoeuvred. Her skills were far below the ones that Witch had taken years to hone and learn. In her mind, this battle was already won. Perhaps she would have a bit of fun with her opponent though. The girl’s final attack was once again dodged by simply jumping backwards.

As her feet touched down on the dusty, dirt road, the halfling smirked. It was finally her turn. But then she noticed the girl going for her rucksack and the smirk turned into a frown. With a quick thought, she used her telekinesis to hit the girl’s tail. The impact was similar to a punch and was enough to interrupt the attack and change the trajectory. The blade missed the bag and instead buried itself within the dirt beside it. Then she once again used her telekinesis, this time to levitate the rucksack and quickly move it to a place behind her where it would be safe and away from her opponent.

Reaching behind her, the halfling wrapped her hands around the worn and familiar handles of her twin daggers. With a quick tug she removed them from their sheath and brought them out in front of her. Tensing the muscles on her legs, she leapt towards the girl, using her speed to cover the distance between them in a mere second. With an expert motion of someone who’s used the weapons for a long time, she diagonally slashed at the girl’s body, going from her hip to her shoulder. Then she followed through with the same hand, turning the blade around and slashing downwards. Finally, she finished it off with a third attack, knowing it any this was the one most likely to go through. She cut straight towards the area when the girl’s thigh joined with her hip.

[Shell]

Shell was not all that surprised to realize, her half-hearted attacks had been dodged easily, and although she was intrigued by the fact that an unseen force stopped her tail and moved the rucksack, she showed no signs of fear and gave no thought to the fact that she might lose.

Perhaps it was this cockiness that made her lose sight of the attacks, but whatever the case, the daggers sunk into her with all 3 slashes. Shell, however was unimpressed, and unwilling to conceed defeat. There was no denying the fact that cutting her in the exact same place twice had caused her quite the painful injury, though. The third blow was a bad wound too, but Shell was willing to deal with it.

"That all you got, Bitch.? C'mon, I want your best!!" Shell said, holding her stomach wound. "Aren't you gonna do any more of that voodoo magic?" She continued, talking about the telekinesis.

After speaking her mind, Shell went in and attacked the woman's left leg, figuring that she would have to bend a bit to block it. One thing was for sure, as she followed this up with a vertical slash to the head and an attempt to slash off the woman's left arm. Shell was not going to let a bit of pain get to her.

[Witchblade]

More of that voodoo magic?

How amusingly ignorant of her. Telekinesis was not magic, it was simple an ability that most people did not have. It required concentration, not energy and chanting. Magic she had, but telekinesis was certainly not it. If she wanted more of it though, the halfling was more than happy to give it to her.

She smirked as the female moved in on her again with that damned tail weapon. It was bothersome and the halfling could picture it being a problem, if she learned how to use it properly. Her attacks were still too slow right now. It was like she was so overconfident and cocky that she didn’t realize how fast Witch was. Either that or she just didn’t care. Unless she had some extremely interesting tricks hidden within that small frame of hers, the halfling was seeing this battle ending rather soon. Such a shame.

Pivoting to the left, the attack on her leg completely missed. The tail blade passed through nothing but the space she used to occupy. Sharply it turned and began heading towards her again, this time coming straight up in an attempt to slice open the flash of her neck. She deflected the blade long before it ever came close. The dagger into her right hand lashing out, impacting and filling the relatively quiet square with the sound of metal clashing against metal. It echoed off the wooden and stone houses, not completely empty. Though the human populace of this town was scared of the creature Witch was now fighting, they could still watch as the battle took place. With frightened eyes and imaginations calculating every possible outcome, they watched with their morbid curiosity.

It was always much easier to deflect a blade coming at you then simply stopping it, and that’s exactly what the halfling did as her dagger clashed against the female’s tail blade. It’s course harmlessly diverted to her left, only to quickly come back again.

She doesn’t give up, does she?

As if that counts for something…

I can remember quite a few times where your stubborn will to live was the only thing keeping you going.

As the tail travelled back towards her, Witch dropped the dagger in her left hand and lashed out as fast as any lightning strike. Her fingers tightly wrapped around what looked like rough skin, but the leather glove covering her hand actually prevented her from feeling it. And for good reason too.

I grow bored of this.

With her right hand still firmly holding her dagger, the halfling brought the blade down upon the female’s tail, attempting to sever the weapon from her very body.

[Shell]

Shell let out a mighty screech of pain as the blade pierced her tail. "FUCKING BITCH!" She yelled out at her foe as she turned an angry eye towards the halfling that was clinging to her tail and got a cruel idea. Shell knew that removing the blade from her tail was not an option at the moment, but she could at least remove the halfling from the blade.

Acting on an impulse, Shell thrashed her tail back and forth, attempting to either slam the halfling into the ground or fling it off. Either way, it was likely to get her foe far from the blade imbedded in her tail, as well as cause some pain to the thing. So what if it hurt her too? she was used to pain. The scales on her tail would mike a straight cut through her tail extremely difficult anyway, so Shell figured she had nothing to worry about as she attempted to swing the halfling around like a rag doll.

[Witchblade]

The blade did not completely rend the tail from her body. Such a shame. Instead all it did was cut down to the bone and stop. Apparently the skin that covered her tail was much tougher than the halfling had first guessed. She’d have to use more force on the next try. Not that her opponent was going to give her the chance for a next try. Rather rude of her in the mind of the halfling, especially since she was still holding on to her tail and the motions she was making were making it a little difficult to do just that. Good thing she was a lot stronger than she looked.

Witch smirked and tightened her hold on the female’s tail. She had the strength enough in her grip to break bones if she wanted to and well, that seemed like the next best course of action if her opponent wouldn’t let her cut it off. She might as well make it inoperable.

As she flailed her tail in an attempt to dislodge the halfling’s grip from it and making it extremely hard for her to hit her target, Witch used her strength to rip her tail to the side and squeeze down on it as hard as she could. After only a few seconds she heard the audible crack and crunch of bones breaking beneath her grip. Then she released the female’s tail and moved in on her hopefully unguarded front. After all, having her tail broken was probably quite painful and rather distracting. With a quick motion she took a few steps closer to her opponent and slashed towards her neck, wishing to end this ridiculous battle.

[Shell]

Shell was not one to let a little pain stop her. Heck, she wasn't one to let a lot of pain stop her. That simple fact was the only thing she had left going for her, not that she would admit it. While she let out a scream like a banshee when her bones got crushed, she knew that compared to death, pain was nothing. As she saw her assailant attempt to hit her head on, she swung her tail around to swat her out of the way.

It was a bit awkward, swinging her tail around like that, seeing as half of it was broken. If Shell had meant to hit something with the blade of her tail, she likely would have missed, but she was aiming to hit with the brunt of her tail. She was too badly wounded to hide her attack, as was proven by the scream she let out in pain as she swung her tail forward. She was sure that with that it would be near impossible to dodge the wide part of her tail, but ready to take to the sky if neccessary.

[Witchblade]

(If you have a problem with what I did, let me know and I'll edit it.)

The screaming was becoming annoying. So much so that the halfling was considering sowing the little bitch’s mouth shut. Shame she didn’t have any string on her. Though she supposed killing her would suffice, then the female wouldn’t be able to make any kind of noise. Of course, she would be dead if not for the fact that she had the luck of a devil.

The blade of Witch’s dagger was a mere inch away from the neck of her opponent when that second scream rent the air and the thick end of her tail smashed into the halfling’s side. It slammed into her rid cage, ripping her arm away from her target as she was sent stumbling to the side and struggling to stay on her feet. Her balance was quickly regained as she merely allowed herself to fall down onto all fours. It was a crouching position that left her looking like a snarling animal ready to rend the female before her. The pain in her side was something she could ignore and forget. It was only a constant throb, nothing more and in her long life the halfling had felt pain much worse than that.

Before she could spring towards the female and rip her still beating heart from her chest, her senses caught the feeling of a few new additions to this little dance of blade and skill. Normally that would not bother her, but she felt power there. Not a lot, but she still felt it. Because of that, the halfling did something she rarely if ever did during a battle; she took her eyes off her opponent and looked behind her.


------------------------------------

Arkanen ground his horse to a stop. The hooves of his beast were digging into the dirt and causing a small cloud of dust to rise and loom in the air for but a moment. It was a small nuisance really, one that tickled his throat and lungs. What he was more interested in were the two warriors feet away from him. Their bodies a blur of motion dancing to a macabre song that he himself had engaged in many times. His eyes narrowed on the scene as one of the warriors slammed what appeared to be a tail into the other and sent her skidding a few feet away and into a crouching position. Every muscle on her body tensed after that as if a loaded gun from those bastard Drow in Alerar ready to spring into action and rip her opponent to shreds. But it never happened, instead her head turned and looked directly at him. He was too far away to see much of any detailing on her face but for some reason the look made his heart beat quicker within his chest.
Seconds after he had come to a stop, two of his men did the same. He didn’t need to look at them to know that they were surveying the same thing he was.

“Thank the Thayne you’ve arrived!”

His eyes turned to one of the men a few feet from the nose of his horse. A simple guard of the town whose eyes were scared and frantic and told of no experience in handling a situation like this.

“She just walked into the town and start killing everyone she came across, even all the guards! We couldn’t stop her!”

Arkanen narrowed his yes as he looked back towards the two women fighting, “The one wearing all black?”

“No…the one with the tail.”

Did he jest? That was the warrior that these men couldn’t defeat. A mere tiny female with a tail blade that looked as if she could not defend herself against a child. Albeit looks had been deceiving in the past but the other female warrior did not appear to be having much trouble dispatching her. After all, she appeared to have not a single mark on her and the one with the tail blade was bleeding from several wounds.

Grinding his teeth, the Corone Ranger dug his heels into the side of his horse, coaxing him forward into a gallop as he headed towards the two battling warriors.

[Shell]

Why would I have problem when you practically gave Shell a free hit by looking away from the battle. Now that you mention it, though, be sure to let me know if you ever have a problem with anything I post as well.

Shell was in quite a lot of pain when the soldiers arrived. The blood loss was getting to her, but she would fight even in death itself. Her life meant nothing compared to her pride. If she were to run, she would lose her pride as a fighter, and that, in her mind, was inexcusable. Besides, the soldiers were small fry, they could wait. It was her little opponent that was bothering her.

Her foe was fast. Too fast for her to hit with anything other than a lucky shot. What she need was an opening. When she saw her foe look the other way, Shell took her chances and, as usual, went for a killing blow.

Withe a scream of agony, Shell swung her tail straight at her foe's head with enough force to snap the neck in two, but something went wrong. Do to a slight oversight on her part, the loss of blood caused her tail to lose just enough speed for her attack to be unable to kill her foe. Shell flew straight up in the air after this attack and stared down at her opponent. She was high enough in the air so nobody could attack her unless they had something to throw at her or shoot at her.

Shell heard the twang of a bowstring and quickly flew out of the way as an arrow wizzed past her. She dodged another few arrows before she grabbed saw what she was looking for. A soldier was getting ready to throw a javelin at her. Shell quickly swooped down and after knocking the soldier to the ground with a quick tail swipe, she grabbed the pointy stick and flew right back up into the air to try to locate where her foe was at. She had no experience with this type of weapon, but how hard could it be to throw something at someone?

[Witchblade]

The cry of pain was her first warning. Before her eyes could even make it back to her opponents, the hark skinned and bloody tail of the demonic freak of nature snapped into the side of Witchblade’s head. Pain exploded down her temple and across her jaw line and cheekbones. She even lost her balance, stumbling back a few steps before safely recovering and not embarrassing herself by falling flat on her ass. That would have been quite humiliating and the woman she was fighting would have had to pay for it dearly.

The was rather stupid of you.

Once again, not asking for your opinion! Her words to The Malice were a snarled warning for him to shut up or be shut up.

Really now, who looks away when they’re in the middle of a battle? No matter how weak your opponent is one should never put themselves in a position where they can’t see them. I would have thought you a better fi—”

Whatever The Malice had planned to say next was cut off. The halfling having erected a strong and tight psychic barrier between him and the rest of her mind, one she had done many times before. One she knew that he would eventually be able to break down but didn’t care. As long as it afforded her some kind of peace and quiet from his constant interruptions she would be happy.

Glancing around the town square, wit it’s still disserted shops and eyes peering out from darkened corners watching their every move, Witch realized she’d lost track of her opponent. Hearing the twang of a crossbow, the halfling turned back to the approaching Corone Rangers only to see them firing into the sky. Then she watched as the woman swooped down and stole one of the soldier’s spears, most likely planning on using it against her. Smirking, the halfling straightened herself out and was just about to surprise the hell out of her quarry when a large, hulking beast of a horse got in front of her.

“Your battle is over, warrior. We Ranger’s will handle the rest of this and serve out the justice that she so deserves for her actions.”

You have got to be kidding me…

He actually spoke to people like that? It sounded ridiculous, he sounded ridiculous. Not to mention he probably wasn’t even strong enough to think about arresting her. Well, perhaps in her current state he might be able to, thanks to Witch wounding her a number of times. But how did he plan on reaching her when she was floating a good twenty feet in the air? Unless he had wings hidden under that heavy and cumbersome armour of his, she couldn’t see it happening anytime soon.

Ignoring the human, Witch stood straight and prepared to enter the battle with her opponent once more. Just because she was flying a few dozen feet into the air didn’t mean Witch would be unable to continue this battle. Before she could make her next move though, the horse of the human came to a stop directly behind her and the gloved hand of the Ranger landed upon her shoulder. Snarling in fury as he dared to touch her, the halfling reached up and grabbed him around the wrist. Then using her body as well as her strength, she flipped him over her back and onto the ground before her.

“Don’t ever touch me again you human piece of shit!”

The Ranger seemed stunned both by her words and the impact of his back on the ground. Not to mention that armour he wore probably didn’t help much. Stepping over him, to her surprise, the stupid human did not listen to her. Instead he grabbed onto her ankle and tried to stop her once more, this time he quickly released her and then came to a standing position.

“I must ask you to stand down. You have done all you could to help this town and now it’s our turn to do our jobs.”

She laughed, she actually laughed out loud at his claim to her helping this shit hole. The action pulled on the strings that held her lips in place and caused the human to grimace slightly, but she didn’t care. “As if I’d actually help a bunch of humans who can’t even defend themselves… pathetic.”

His hand came to rest on a short blade upon his hip. She noted that he also possessed a long blade but was rather intelligently going for something that could actually match her daggers. Perhaps he wasn’t a complete idiot after all.

“Please stand down!”

She only smirked and turned her full attention to him. Her other opponent could wait, she was wounded and would probably succumb to the blood loss soon enough. This one was beginning to look far more interesting.

[Shell]

Shell was feeling extremely weak, She was also extremely agitated and annoyed that her opponent had seemingly forgotten about her. She had been giving this fight her all, the least her opponent could do was respect that by fighting to the finish. Shell knew she had to make this foe know that she was the most prominent threat.

Shell rushed in at her now pre-occupied foe in a dive bomb-type attack. She used her momentum to throw the spear when she was five feet away from her foe, aiming at the heart. The spear swerved slightly and ended up going for the foe's shoulder instead. This was mainly due to the fact that Shell had never used a weapon other than her tail before in her life, so she still had a lot to learn about wind resistance and all the other factors you need to take into account when using a weapon like a spear.

A flaming arrow hit her wings from behind, sending her tumbling to the ground, hard. Shell struggled back to her 'feet' and attempted to tackle her opponent. she fell over from loss of blood, but got right back up, after a bit of effort.

"Fucking Whore! Die!" Shell yelled out as she swung the partially severed tailblade down onto her foe.

[Witchblade]

The human Ranger kept his calm. His face was void of almost any emotion as she turned her attention to him. It was as if he realized the mistake he had made in entering this battle where he was now fighting for his life. She was truly going to enjoy ripping him apart for interfering. If he had calmly stayed on the sidelines like every other pathetic and scared human within this village it would have been fine. But no, he had to play the hero and get himself caught in the crossfire. Even then she may have been able to ignore him, but the fact that he touched her. That he actually dared to lay his hand upon her shoulder as if she were someone he knew, someone he trusted was his biggest mistake. No one touched her, especially not a snivelling human coward hiding behind his shiny metal plating.

Her fingers tightened along the worn leather of her daggers as she contemplated just how to attack him. Anything direct would be fine as that armour he wore was most likely quite cumbersome and slowed him down greatly. She was just about to begin circling him like the caged animal he was when she felt the presence of that demonic freak approaching her from behind.

“Look out!”

The words of the human came too late as the halfling felt something tear through the flesh of her shoulder. It ripped through muscle and tendon, rending right down to the bone and causing her to cry out in pain. Her right arm fell limp to her side. No matter how much she wanted to move it, the muscles would respond properly. And her fingers could no longer clench the dagger within them, allowing it to slip from her grasp and clang against the rock and dirt ground at her feet.

Dropping her other dagger, Witch reached up and grasp onto the ragged wound, trying to stop the flow of dark blue blood that was trickling down her arm and staining her shirt. Oblivious to the fact that she had just been about to kill him, the Ranger walked over to her hoping to help, but Witch simply pushed him away.

“I don’t need your help!”

Turning her attention back to her original opponent, the halfling watched as he slammed into the ground, then stumble to her feet. She knew there was no way the female could be able to keep this up for much longer, she could barely keep herself on her feet. Proving her point, she stumbled and fell when she tried to run at her. Her movements easily becoming far clumsier the more blood loss she suffered. Somehow, she found the strength and determination to pull herself back up off the ground where she belonged and swing her tail towards Witch.

Releasing the wound, Witch blocked her tail swipe with her good hand. Watching as the slightly severed and broken appendage flew off away from her. It was surprising she could even still use the damn thing. Exciting the ions around her hand, the halfling ignited a sphere of blue flame that floated just above her palm. Heat radiated down to her skin but it did not burn her. Taking a step towards her opponent to close the small gap between them, she shoved the flame towards her face.

[Shell]

Though Shell would never admit it, it was only by dumb luck that she avoided the fireball. The blood loss got to her again just before it hit, sending her to the ground again, and the fireball just over her head.

"I'll take it from here, Ma'am." The Ranger said to Shell's opponent as Shell lay on the ground, seemingly unconcious. He ran towards Shell with his weapon drawn. Whether he planned on killing her or arresting her, Shell didn't know and never really planned on finding out. As soon as he approached, Shell let out a deep cry of pain as her tail once again went into action, creating a decent slash through the man's side, sending him to the ground.

Afterwards, Shell got to her 'feet' yet again, this time a lot more slowly and turned once again to her powerful foe.

"Now that that distraction is out of the way, bring it."

[Witchblade]

The pain radiating from her shoulder was immense. Every time she so much as jolted the now dead weight of her arm, it sent a fresh wave of pain through what seemed like her entire body. It made the fight hard to focus on and the blood loss would be great. Already she could see it trailing down the entire length of her arm and dripping onto the dirt, staining it blue. The human Ranger seemed to be fairing no better, his side was ripped wide open and she could see some of his organs slipping through the gaping wound. If he was lucky he’d die quickly, but from a wound like that she knew it might not be so easy. Infection might set in and leave him in a feverish haze, slowly destroying him from the inside out. Not that she hadn’t warned him to stay out of this and that she’d had everything under control.

Her eyes trailed from his kneeling form to the demonic bitch that still seemed rather intent on finishing this battle. She could barely stand let alone keep fighting. Her head must be swimming at this point in time with the blood loss and that tail weapon of hers was nearly out of commission. But Witch’s two daggers were scattered on the ground as well and using her telekinesis at a time like this to grab them was not the best of ideas. She could barely concentrate passed the pain in her arm, let alone focus on moving an object with her mind.

She took a few steps towards her opponent, but stopped when she came to the human. Reaching out, she wrapped her fingers around the white leather hilt of a short sword sheathed on his belt. He seemed to want to protect against her taking his weapon, but the words most likely died on his lips as she tore the weapons from its sheath. The moment she did, she felt the magic in the weapon, as if it were released when she had pulled it from it’s resting place. Glancing down, she noticed the blue metal and the mist that seemed to be emanating from it.

Interesting…

Placing that confident smirk back on her face, the halfling leapt towards her opponent, using her speed to try and catch her off guard as she slashed towards the woman’s stomach. A trail of mist followed the blade as it travelled through the air.



((Picking up a weapon here if you don’t mind. If you have it hit your character, keep in mind that it’s enchanted with ice and has a numbing quality. It lowers the core temperature of a person it pierces.))

[Shell]

Shell was already quite bloodied by this point, but her cocky attitude remained. Her opponent had no weapons left that she could see, and she had managed to get some good hits in on her foe. As far as she was concerned, Shell only needed to get one more clean hit in to even the odds. Problem was that Shell had lost so much blood up to this point, that she was having trouble seeing straight as well as standing up straight.

Her foe, on the other hand was still fast at it, charging forward, with a soldiers sword. Well, Shell couldn't say she wasn't resourceful. In fact, Shell had no time to say anything before a cold blade slashed right through her skin like a hot knife through butter. There was still something driving Shell to stay up at this point. It was no longer blind rage that drove her at this point, it was pride. She had always believed that she was the strongest and best fighter out there, and now that that belief was in question, she needed to prove to herself, if nothing else that it was still true.

Shell staggered forward and swung her tail at her foe's injured shoulder. It wasn't her intention to kill her opponent with this blow, since she was only hitting with the blunt part of her tail, but she wanted to give her foe so much pain that she would be forced to drop her newfound weapon. She wanted to put her opponent through hell, and she planned on doing so by giving her opponent pain like she had never felt before.

It was a crude plan, but it was all Shell could think of at the moment. It was amazing that she could even think to do that, actually. When people lose lots of blood they sometimes have a hard time thinking straight. The fact that Shell was never able to think straight is probably the only reason she was still able to think at all, if that makes any sense. Hopefully that would be enough.

[Witchblade]

She never did anything new. It was always the same attack over and over again and by now the halfling could easily read the way her opponent’s body moved just before she unleashed her next move. Not to mention she was growing sluggish with the blood pouring from multiple wounds that Witch had inflicted upon her. Soon she would be feeling the effects of that as well though. The large open gash along the top of her shoulder was bleeding quite profusely and even though she could feel her body already working to heal it, a wound like that was going to take a lot of time. Her arm was covered in the free flowing blue liquid that made up her blood, as was her shirt. She could feel the material sticking to her skin.

This battle had to come to an end soon. The last thing the halfling wanted was to be weakened and vulnerable to her opponent or the multitude of humans behind her. Though she doubted they’d come after her, it didn’t matter.

As the female swung her tail around to crash into Witch, she ducked down, lowering her body and allowing the blunt and deformed weapon to pass above her head. She could feel her limp hand dragging in the dirt, but paid it no mind as she attempted to finally end this. Bringing her borrowed blade in front of her, the halfling pushed herself up from the ground and forward, thrusting her arm out at the same time. The blade was perfectly aligned with her opponent’s stomach and hopefully with one last thrust this bitch would finally roll over and die like the good opponent she was.

[Shell]

[OOC]Thank god. I would have hated for her to die from bloodloss.OOC]

Shell was unable to do anything about this deadly attack. Perhaps if she hadn't been injured she would have been able to dodge it, but she was too slow and unstable to dodge anything at this point. She hit the ground hard, knife sticking out of her chest, finally defeated, finally dying. Her fighting spirit, her pride, and her body were all broken. As she lay on the ground gasping her last breaths, she suddenly got an evil grin on her face. She knew she was dying, but with any luck, she would come back stronger than before.

"You... I'll remember...you...watch...your...back...I...will... overcome death... itself...to...fight you...again." Shell managed to spit out as she coughed up blood. Finally, her whole body fell limp. She was, by all rights, dead.

[Witchblade]

I’ll be waiting…

The halfling smirked as she watched the creature before her breathe her last breath. There was something so beautiful about watching someone die. The way their eyes slowly lost that look of life and seemed to grow so much duller without the soul encased in the shell of the body. Not to mention the amount of times she’d heard a curse upon her being the last words the person ever spoke, just sent little pleasurable shivers down her spine. And this time was no different. Whether or not her opponent really could come back better and stronger to defeat her, the halfling didn’t know and didn’t really care. The battle was over and she had won.

Standing straight, Witch took a few steps towards the still body of the woman and reached out with her good arm. Wrapping her fingers around the white handle of the short sword, she pulled it from the corpse, enjoying that sick, sucking sound as it pulled and ripped through even more flesh. Turning around, she looked towards that Ranger who had thought himself so much help to her. His body was slumped against the ground, a pool of blood beneath him. With her sensitive hearing she could just make out the faintest heartbeat. He was still alive, but not for much longer. The man would die long before any of the other ranger’s now surrounding him could help.

Looking to the beautifully crafted weapon in her hand, the halfling figured she should keep it. It wasn’t like the Captain could use it any time soon and well, it would be a nice reward considering all she had gone through in the passed little while. As she moved towards him, one of the rangers noticed her and her dead opponent.

He quickly stood. “Thank you for your assistance. Oh… umm, do you need any help?”

She ignored him and his outstretched hand and instead walked right by him, leaned down and removed the white sheath hanging from the hip of the unconscious human.

“W-what do you think you’re doing!?”

Witch smirked, “It’s not like he’ll be needing this. From the sound of his heartbeat, he’ll be dead shortly.”

His face both became worried and angry at the same time. “I won’t allow you to take that!”

“Try and stop me then.”

He backed up a little.

“I thought so…”

Sheathing the short sword, she slipped it through the belt of her pants for the time being and preceded to pick up her daggers as well. These she placed within the sheaths on the small of her back. She also grabbed her cloak and her rucksack with the bundle still safely sleeping inside. How Daegun could sleep through that much racket, she wasn’t sure, but he did nonetheless.

Spoils:

Frostbite: Frostbite is an enchanted Ninja-to that has a blade length of 17 inches and a handle length of 5 inches. The handle is pure white leather with the blue vines crawling along it that actually give it slightly better grip with the user. The sheath is also a pure white, hard scabbard with the same blue vine design along it. The blade is made from Prevalida and as such is also blue. It is enchanted with ice, creating a slight mist whenever it cuts through the air. But it also had an effect on any creature that it punctures. The blade is extremely cold and could freeze water should it come in control with it. Grabbing it with bare skin would cause a cold burn. When it pierces the skin, it lowers the core temperature of the person cut by it. This will of course slow down a person’s reflexes and actions, and enough cuts could severely hinder them in battle.

[Call me J]

Well, it took me a long time to figure out whether this thread should be judged as a battle or a quest. I know you guys wanted quest, but I felt as though a battle might better express the feelings I had for this thread. However, I did decide to honor your request.

Total Score- 50

• STORY ~ 13/30

Continuity (4) ~ For the most part, this thread just seemed to happen out of nowhere. I know Shell hated the Citadel, and Witch wanted to feed Daegun, but here were very few connections here to other events.

Setting (5) ~ Bringing in the police was definitely a nice touch, but the only one in this thread.

Pacing (4) ~ The battle took a bit too long to get started, and it didn’t really get moving in a clear direction once it got started.

• CHARACTER ~ 15/30

Dialogue (5) ~ I really liked the interaction between Witch and the Malice, but that was the only highlight of a generally drab category.

Action (4) ~ Shell, the action seemed to be a bit ridiculous in terms of the number of things your character evaded. Unless Witch secretly is the world’s worst aimer of her attacks, you should have suffered considerably more damage.

Persona (6) ~ Shell really needs more depth than “me Shell, kill things” even if she is a cold blooded pathological killer. As for Witch, I really like the character, and I felt as though I learned a bunch of information about her. However, while all of it was consistent, you often seemed unsure as whether you wanted to make Witch a protagonist or antagonist here. I’m not sure if you were going for anti-hero, but that’s the closest to what she was, and you didn’t really pull that off precisely. A character like her that is so grey can easily shift between the two roles, and I think you have to decide before you start a thread what kind of a role you want to give her.

• WRITING STYLE ~ 16/30

Mechanics (4) ~ There were way too many mistakes here.

Technique (5) ~ Witch did much better here than Shell, primarily by attempting to do things.

Clarity (7) ~ For the most part this thread was easy to follow.

• Wild Card (6) ~ I feel that the judging of this thread might have been a bit harsh, so the Wild Card is bumped up a bit to compensate for that.

Spoils
Witchblade receives 1250 EXP and her spoil. I have deducted some EXP to compensate for a very rich spoil.
Shell receives 518 EXP and 72 GP.

[Karuka]

EXP/GP added! Witchblade levels up!