This city was more than just strange to her, it was outright bizarre. Annabelle had never visited a city such as this, but that didn't mean she couldn't make an attempt at navigating the streets. What made it doubly strange though was just how deserted it all as, like a ghost town instead of a bustling city.

"Hello?" She called out, the sun at midday around this time, but the weather seemed agreeable to her. Even in her scaled armor and plate, she didn't feel very warm out in the sun. Maybe if she didn't find anyone she would remove the armor and try to have a nice time seeing the sites. There were skyscrapers here and there, and Annabelle had never been so high up in the air like that before. Suddenly there was a noise, and she knew then it was time to get serious.

Drawing her weapon, she dove behind a car and waited for more noise to follow. Whatever it was had alerted her to the danger, and now she could almost smell it from there. Putrid decay wafted up her nose, and she felt her reflexes sharpen at the recognition of undead filth.

"Looks like I found someone, but I'm guessing they won't be very friendly." She took a deep breath and felt one of her Mantels of Awakening activate Memories of Protection. Those long lost days of feeling safe in the arms of her father brought forth a shield of psionic energy over her body. Whatever would come at her, she would be ready for them, and come out as the winner.

"Friggin' zombies. Messing up my city."

The wolf strode forward, his baseball bat raised high in the air as he stalked an undead crawler that was feasting on a corpse. A long dead driver caught in his car, stuck behind his seat belt. Another fresh meal for the zombie. Daniel strode forward, reared back for a swing and unleashed his fury onto the zombie as it dug into the corpse's midsection. The aluminium bat smashed into the walking corpse's head and splattered what was left of its brains all over the car's interior. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and sighed, flicking bits of gore and blood off the end of his bat.

"That's...way too many to count today. Just a bit more til I get to the bridge-"

He stopped. There was a scent in the air. Something unfamiliar. Different than the smells of motor oil, grass, blood and death that lingered after the outbreak hit. A smell that didn't really belong here. Daniel raised his bat and looked around, searching for this unknown entity.

"Hey... I can smell you, y'know that, right? Why don't you c'mon out and we can sort our differences out without violence?"

At the sound of the stranger, Annabelle stood up from her position behind the automobile. The sight of the wolf man was more than a little strange to her, it was downright odd. "Never seen a werewolf with clothes before" she said under her breath as she examined him from a distance.

He spoke of non violence, but the warrior knew it had to be some kind of trick. Such creatures were made from darkness and evil, thus incapable of not having ill intentions with their words. For all she knew, as soon as her guard was down, he would smash in her head with that wooden club, and she would be his dinner. Not this time, she thought to herself as she kept her sword ready.

"You speak of being amicable, yet I have my doubts of your intentions." She said, eying the obvious amounts of gore and blood splatter on him from the use of his blunt weapon. "How many have you tricked with that little lie? Such deception will not work upon me, werewolf!"

With her next Mantle of Awakening, she would use it to activate her Memories of Jubilation. Images of a younger Annabelle, one without a care in the world as she ran through fields of golden wheat flooded her mind. With her speed now enhanced through her psionic power, she would charge forward, sword ready to cut down the wolf, but she was too far way to make her attack just yet.

"Little lie? Lady, what on earth are you talking abou-"

Daniel got interrupted as he felt a ripple of power in the air, all while the lady with the sword started charging at him. Instinctively he threw up his own barrier, a thin film of ice that rippled and formed over himself and his weapon.

In his defense, he wasn't prepared for an earnest fight from a stranger he met in a dead city. His instincts told him to fight but he threw common sense against the wall and lowered his bat. He threw out a hand, palm out and backed up, even as she charged forward faster than he thought possible for her.

"Lady! Wait! I don't want to fight you!"

This monster would not be able to deceive Annabelle with his lies and deceptions. She was a warrior of justice, to fight evil and bring hope to those who had none. Words would not stop her from her just mission.

Closing the distance between her opponent, Annabelle would activate her final Mantle of Awakening to activate Memories of Courage. Memories of the young swordswoman conquering her fear as she held up her sword for the first time to defend herself. Her strength was no enhanced just as her speed was and the psionic shield around her body.

Raising her sword for a right to left slash, she gave a mighty cry as she did so. This creature would feel her wrath for its crimes against the people of this city. "For justice!"

"For fuck's sake!"

The lady was in his face now, sword slashing from his left to his right. With barely a thought, he brought up his bat, flipping the friction-taped grip in his hand so he was holding the lightweight bat in a backhand posture, and swung towards the incoming sword. The clash of metal on metal rang through the air as sword met bat, and for a brief moment, he locked blades with the warrior woman.

That moment went by as his left hand shot to the other end of his bat and together he angled his weapon and twisted it to his right so the sword slid right across and off his weapon, the sharp shing of the blade leaving the smooth metal of his baseball bat ringing in the air. With the momentum of his turn, he completed his swing, bringing his bat round to his right side as he held onto the hitting surface with his left hand. His right hand switched grips to a forehand and he threw in a quick jab with the large, round and blunt hitting end of the bat towards his opponent's midsection.

As their steel clashed, Annabelle knew that the time for running was over. Just as the werewolf was able to redirect her attack, she made a redirection of her own. Taking a Mantel of Awakening from her Memories of Jubilation, she placed it instead upon activating the second level of her Memories of Protection. A flashback of a fight she had with an orc who would have ended her life had she not gathered up a shield in the last second filled her mind, the barrier around her body becoming stronger in the process.

When the bat connected, it would be rebuked by the psionic energy surrounding Annabelle. Now in the flow of battle, the swordswoman was certain of her edge in combat and capitalized on his failed attack. A gauntlet covered left backhand flew towards the wolf's face, the damage enhanced by both the hardened shield as well as her own increased strength. While non-lethal, it was sure to leave him reeling, just as she planned for her second attack.

Grunting with the effort she brought her sword up for a second slash, telegraphing a straight forward top to bottom slash, but changing at the last second to a diagonal left to right attack. Judging from the power of his ice barrier, it wouldn't outright kill him, but it was definitely going to hurt. He deserves all that and more for being such a monstrous little creature.

As soon as his bat impacted an invisible shield instead of her gut, he knew something was up. The force that pushed him backwards made him rethink his strategy on the fly, even as his ears perked at the air parting and whistling as the lady's fist met his cheek. The force broke the thin yet sturdy ice barrier covering his body and struck him physically, making him spit blood while he reeled backward. In his head, gears turned and he made a plan to get himself some distance.

Using the force of her shield, he pushed himself backward with his bat and ducked, letting the diagonal slash fly cleanly over his head, even as he coated the soles of his sneakers with ice and propelled himself a foot or two backwards with her own defensive shield. The ice on his feet made the trip back slick, as if he was wearing ice skates on the concrete, but he stopped himself by stamping and breaking the ice that coated his feet, planting himself firmly back on the sidewalk just two feet away from her.

"Hmm."

With a flick of his wrist, he coated his bat in ice again, thicker this time, and he reared back and swung it at the warrior with his right hand. From this distance, ice sheared off his bat and flew towards her in a spray of sharp icicles, which masked the movement of his left towards his jacket. His fingers quickly found the zipper of his hoodie, pulled it down slightly and dove into the innards, his hand gripping itself around the familiar metal and plastic of his pistol. The spray of ice should've bought him enough time to draw the deadly ranged weapon and bring it to bear on the warrior lady. He primed the weapon with a flick of his thumb and aimed it at her.

"Stop right there. I doubt your shield's going to protect you against this. Now will you listen to me? I don't want to hurt you! I just want to get out of this city and away from all the zombies!"

i'm sorry i didn't mean to post here. please delete this. idk how.. bruh

This was no ordinary werewolf, Annabelle thought as the ice shards flew at her. Unable to dodge she took the full force of the attack, several cracks appearing in her psionic shield as the pieces of ice exploded against her. She would make this creature pay, as soon as she was able to get close enough to him.

Unfortunately the monster had other plans up his sleeve as he pulled out a strange metal device from his person. Annabelle had never seen a gun before, and so was uncertain what to think of it or the implied threat behind it. "You must have some powerful magic inside that thing, don't you?" It must have been how he was able to slay his more feisty victims. The thought of it made her sick.

"How am I supposed to believe you won't try to kill me as soon as I put my guard down?" She had much experience with wolves in the clothing of sheep. It was such a person that murdered her father, burned down her home and entrapped her into a deranged cult they lead. "I refuse to be taken advantage of by another monster."

To her right was a parked car, one of several in a long line heading southward their position. Slowly she began to back away from him, her reflexes readying themselves for when it was time to dive. Strangely enough, the smell of death was getting stronger, though she could not identify where it was coming from.

The smell of everpresent death and undeath worried him. It was getting stronger. And closer.

"You're just gonna have to trust me then. And I'm not a monster!"

Daniel gripped his pistol tighter and gritted his teeth. This wasn't going the way he'd wanted it to go, but beggars couldn't be choosers. He had to convince this...weird warrior woman that he just wanted to find a way out of his once-home. His bat was gripped tightly in his other hand, low and safe, but ready to come up at a moment's notice.

The tension built between them as he steadied his aim at the woman's head. Something had to give.

He hoped it wouldn't be him.

She needed to find a way around that strange weapon, one where she did not die once it was activated. Perhaps she could try to use her speed to defeat him, but it would take time to shift her Mantels of Awakening, and all it took was one hit to end her. All the while the rank stench of death was getting closer, which only meant one thing...

Whack!

A body hit the ground next to her, someone had fallen from the building next to her. It was an easy four story height, enough to kill someone or put them into a coma, but then the body started twitching. At that moment, Annabelle knew it wasn't a normal person who just fell, it was an undead. The rotting corpse moaned softly as it picked itself up, turning its heard towards the warrior with a soulless hunger in its eyes.

Whack! Whack!

Two more bodies, forcing Annabelle to look upwards to discover a horde of zombies were on the roof of the building, and they were simply falling off of it in order to get to them. To her left was another horde, and behind her yet another, it looked as if the entire populous of the city was coming after them. Slow, shambling monsters were making their way, and Annabelle was left without many options.

"There's so many of them..." she said, her sword striking out quickly to dispatch the first few zombies coming for her from the building. Looking to Frost, she felt uncertain about whether or not to trust him, but now things had changed and she refused to die in this place. "I am willing to accept the chance you aren't the monster I thought you were..."

"Ah shit! We made too much noise! Now the entire city's gonna come after us!"

Daniel kept his pistol and shook his head, raising his cap a little to stare at the lady eye to eye.

"Look, you want to really accept it, let's take our fight somewhere safer. Then we can really fight and I'll prove to you I'm not a monster."

He stopped the conversation to swing his bat at an encroaching zombie, the magic ice contained within the bat freezing it solid on impact. The wolf-man kicked it away, shattering it to pieces as he extended a hand, freezing the growing wall of zombies behind him to clear a way forward out of the park.

"I know these streets like the back of my hand! Follow me! We'll get across the bridge and out to the countryside. We can fight there."

Annabelle felt conflicted by this situation, and wasn't certain how she should respond to it. At first it appeared as if this might be another trap set by this strange wolf man, but something inside of her said otherwise. It was either trust him, or be devoured by the hordes of undead that were closing in on them by the second.

"Fine!" She said in frustrated defeat, allowing him to lead the way on point as she guarded the rear. Thankfully her psionic shield came in handy for its durability as she was able to protect herself from the grasping hands of the undead. Whenever one of the shambling corpses got too close, she would cut them down with extreme prejudice. Dying was not her intention this day, as the will to live burned brightly in her heart.

After some hours of cutting through the city, both combatants were finally able to clear the city into the safety of the countryside. Rolling green hills greeted them as they arrived to a land of safety and quiet. The city it seems now belonged to the dead, their moans still audible even front. Looking back, the swordswoman felt saddened at the thought that such unholy creatures were inhabiting this city. Hopefully in time, efforts could made to cleanse it, so the living may be allowed to occupy it once more.

"Thank you" she said as she watched the city from afar, the wind blowing through her hair "I would have died in that city if not for you. Much of what I thought I knew appears to be wrong." It was possible her entire world view was wrong, and whatever she tried to reason that feeling away did not come to her. Annabelle would have to accept that maybe this strange wolf man wasn't a monster after all. She even reconsidered whether or not she should fight this person or not.

"So then...shall we finish what we started?

"Yes, let's."

Daniel gripped his bat tighter. The city limits were far behind them and the wide expanse of grassy field now gave the two warriors a level...playing field to fight in. All bets were off. He needed this woman to trust him so that he could journey onward without fear of her stabbing him in the back.

He raised his bat and got back into his combat stance just a few feet away from her, feet spread apart slightly with his bat to his right side, facing her and staring her down.

"Whoever wins, well, they don't lose. There's no shame in this. Just another duel so I can prove to you I'm no monster."