[IC] In the Darkness of the Night

[ShidenBlades]

D’Angelo could have interrupted whatever it was that his opponent was doing, but instead he stood and calmly watched, giving the couple of seconds needed to use his spell. He heard the rummaging behind him and a cursory glance showed him something moving back there, he didn’t know yet that it was his earlier victim.

When he looked back Daxius had just started speaking and D’Angelo could see the creature’s hands moving in a familiar pattern. More daggers, he thought. He smiled briefly and swept his left arm down, a dagger now gripped in that hand, in one swift motion so that both enemy thrown daggers were swept aside by the steel bracer he wore on his arm. That attack was becoming very predictable.

He knew the daggers weren’t the true danger, what followed up behind that attack was what required his attention. Still, slashing claws against steel was in favor of D’Angelo as far as he concerned, he could be both offensive and defensive at the same time. As Dax attacked the injured leg D’Angelo brought the dagger down to counter, blade first to skewer the cat-demons hand, or at the very least force him to retract his attack or risk losing a digit.

His right hand came rushing forward, an underhanded throw, dagger aimed low at his opponents right foot to try and pin him to the ground, even if it was only for a moment.

[Dolerman]

Daxius didn't have time to think about whether the knives hit, he had to be swift and commit to the follow up attack, he knew this was dangerous, he didn't care, he had to buy time while his undead companion made it to the scene. He expected some sort of parry, this human was a skilled swordsman no doubt, as he swung towards the injured leg the assasin dropped his dagger to counter Dax's hand. Daxius could have pulled away last minuite to avoid injury, but he didn't want to go on the defensive, after all he was unarmed.

SCHICK

The mighty feline demon's hand smacked against the dagger, it didnt quite impale the palm, his hand was at an odd angle so it sort of cut into the flesh diagonally, Daxius howled in pain but his eyes once again flashed glowing blue as he kept pushing his hand against the blade!!
He was using the momentum of the swing and his superhuman strength to try to pull the blade off of the assassin, who was readying his hand to throw a dagger at his right foot. With his hand still on the blade now bleeding, he quickly lifted his foot off the floor to drive a hard knee to the left side of the assasin's abdomen. The thrown dagger sliced past daxius's thigh leaving a fairly shallow but painful cut. He was too focused on the pain of the dagger to cry out again though.

Now if the assassin were to leap back to avoid the super quick knee, he would surely forfiet his dagger as Daxius's strength and grip were stronger than any human's.

[ShidenBlades]

D’Angelo’s eyes narrowed as he processed all the things going on at once. Any lesser man would have surely been intimidated by the power, speed and fury with which the Daxius moved and attacked him with. But excitement mixed with a fear was what fueled D’Angelo. It wasn’t a fear of the creature before him, but rather a fear of the unknown, the excitement for things to come.

The overpowering strength of Daxius easily grabbed hold of the dagger, which D’Angelo simply released. He was not about to get into a grappling contest with something that had claws and fangs. He might have been skilled in hand to hand combat, but he was no master, he preferred the use of his tools.

He brought his arm down, close to his side and let out a feral growl as the felines knee struck him hard, causing him to bend slightly under the pressure. D’Angelo didn’t have a choice now, he knew he would be torn apart.

As quickly as he made the decision D’Angelos eyes dilated and his body shuddered as an unnatural amount of adrenaline surged through his body. He would pay for this, he knew, perhaps even fatally. But that was a risk he was willing to take.

He actually pushed back against the demons knee, his other hand shooting forward in a knife hand strike at Dax’s throat. The speed and power with which he struck was at the brink of human capacity, his limiters were removed, the normal limitations the body placed on itself for safety had been taken away. This was the power and speed with which humans were known to do extraordinary feats with, a mother saving her child from a rolling cart, or fathers lifting whole trees to save a loved one underneath. For most it wasn’t a conscious decision, and even using that little bit proved taxing. For D’Angelo however, it was a skill mastered and a calculated risk.

[Dolerman]

Daxius still had his left arm free, his right hand dripping with blood from the dagger he siezed off his opponent, holding it by the blade. The insane human had used some sort of trick to change his biology, Dax could sense it, the 'human' was invoking powers that were an enhancement of what a human is supposed to be.

Now who's the freak? you look like the zombies I resurrect for practice!

The human rasied his hand fast, faster then he done anything else before, Dax had only his instant to raise his left arm in front of the intended targeted area, it seemed to be a chopping hand attack at his neck.

SNACKK!

If the move would had his neck it may have killed him, it was the hardest he had ever been hit before, even Daxius' superhuman body felt like rotted wood against an iron club. The Assasins knife hand attack was blocked, barely, Daxius's forearm was cut open past the flesh and the impact of the attack fractured some part of his bone. His leather armguards were like paper defending him from the attack. Daxius didnt just cry out this time, dropped to one knee. The pain was staggering, if he was even able to use his left arm at this point it would not be worthy wield any sort of weapon with any sort of skill or finesse, he was probably crippled.

Dax fell to his knee and his eyes flashed as he saw a somewhat shocking sight. It was the corpse he called upon! now only 5 feet away, ready to attack the assasin in the back with what looked like one of Dax's throwing knives, which he must have picked up off the ground seeing as so many were batted away ealier in the fight, the corpse had a sloppy movement but was still sprinting fast, with his weapon hand raised to stab the villain in a downward angle in his shoulder.

Daxius, now on his knee screamed in agony as he tried a desperate attack to be in tandem with the zombie's using the newly aquired dagger he swung his right arm to stab his assailant in the non wounded leg, it wasnt going to be the strongest thrust, because of his injured hand and overall pain, but he could still attack as fast as ever.

[ShidenBlades]

One, two fingers broke, bending at an awkward angle as it stuck Daxius’s left arm. That technique was not made for striking hard surfaces, or perhaps it was, but either way D’Angelo didn’t have the skill to pull it off without injury. He held back the pain, broken joints and bones had been a part of his earlier training.

D’Angelo was going to reply to Daxius’s words but they had reminded him of what he had momentarily forgotten about in the single mindedness rush that had over-taken him with the use of his Radiim technique. But, now that he registered the creatures words he could hear the shuffling sounds of the rushing creature. Without much of a thought D’Angelo dove forward, over the kneeling Daxius.

The dagger of the creature would be of no threat to him, however, the weapon that Daxius had acquired from D’Angelo a moment before tore into his calf and the ripped out, blood would flow easily, following him as a trail in the air, likely gushing across and onto Daxius with his leap. D’Angelo would come up from his dive in a role.

With both legs now injured he favored his left, the one that had been stabbed. While he wasn’t sure how bad the damage to the right leg, the one that had just been torn, he did not think it would support him for more than a few moments if he put all his weight on it. Worse, the use of his technique was going to make him tired and sluggish. Of course, he could use it again, but that only meant the effects would compound, or kill him if done too much.

He looked now at the running-shuffling zombie thing and the Cat-Demon. He knew one of his opponent’s arms was of little use, but he did not know the true strength of the undead that he had raised to fight him. Perhaps it would be wiser to flee, he thought? Then again, it likely wasn’t as he was sure that Daxius would probably track him the same way he found him earlier in the night.

[Dolerman]

Daxius was heaving, gulping for breath as the pain started to all set in at this point. He saw has opponent gracefully leap over him as the momentary enchancement effect was still active he was able to acheive such a feat even though his legs were now both bleeding fairly heavily, there was blood everywhere, but it wasn't just D'Angelo's.

Daxius was losing a decent amount too, as his grursome looking forearm had been cut to the bone, and his right hand was dribbling with blood from the palm. Daxius knew he could use his right hand okay, it would just be painful, his left arm, he wasnt so sure about, he was sure there was some sort of fracture.

Daxius once again reached for his grappling claw, but instead of throwing it at his opponent, he used it to snatch on to his still impaled sword! as the assasin was no longer in its direct path from him. Simeltaneously he telepathically ordered the undead corpse to rush towards the assasin head on. While also using his badly damaged left hand to throw another knife at him, he could still throw it fast but his accuracy will be impaired somewhat, as his throw jerked suddenly to wince as the bone poked his open flesh wound, the knife was aimed somewhere at his midsection not sure entirely where it would strike if it landed.

As the shambling corpse sprinted very fast to once again try and stab the assasin in the neck/shoulder area, Daxius noted that while the zombie wasn't a skilled fighter at all, he could still run fairly fast, and with an incoming dagger and two clearly injured legs, the human's once incredible dodging abilities would be quite a bit less effective now.

[ShidenBlades]

D’Angelo was a man of practicality normally. Generally he preferred doing things in the most simple fashion, however, with his wounds what normally would have been a joke turned into a threat worth dealing with. The man, in life, had been nothing, and now as a running corpse he was a mass of flesh that needed to be dealt with.

Sheathing his short sword he took his long sword in both hands and waited for but a moment, he then let himself fall to the right, swinging his sword with both hands, the dagger skimmed his side and caught in his cloak, but compared to the wounds he had, it was a minor thing.

He lashed out, swinging from right to left at the zombies neck, if he hit the sword would cleanly tear out the creatures throat and even possibly remove its head. His roll was not very graceful, and a he came up on his knees rather than his feet, long sword held defensively in two hands before him.

[Dolerman]

The Undead corpse was struck at the neck, the dark blade of the assasin tore out his throat like black thunder, and a dark crimson liquid began to spew all over the place. Daxius knew that while the attack was well timed and viciously aimed, it wouldnt destroy the zombie just yet, his brain must be destroyed for that. The zombie roared in anger and went to grab the assasin's cloak as to keep him somewhat still so he could follow up with another stabbing attack with the knife in his right hand.

While this was all happening Daxius' grappling claw had caught the sword in the floor and was dragging it from the hilt with the hooks curled around it like a sling. Daxius was mainly using his right arm but managed to use his insane strength to whip the sword towards the assasin and the zombie. The sword would act as projectile from the claw a rock from a sling would and Daxius called it detonate the moment it got within a half a foot range of the struggle. This time the explostion would be bigger than last time, enough to engulf the the two in a firey explosive blast, daxius would be just at the edge of the blas radius. risking serious injury himself. But he knew he would have serious trouble in a straight up sword fight, so he was going to blow the villain to bits.

[ShidenBlades]

Blasted undead.

D’Angelo felt the tug on his cloak and his roll was stop as he came out of it, the result was an unceremoniously landing on his arse. Knowing that certain death was behind him his left hand came up and unclasped his dark cloak, at the same time he rolled to the right, careful not to slice himself open on his own weapon.

He came to his knees a moment later, only a few feet from the undead and its dagger. It was at that moment that he saw his opponent’s sword whipping towards them, thrown like some projectile, tumbling through the air in their direction. D’Angelo knew from earlier that there was only one reason that the Cat-Demon would disarm himself.

He gritted his teeth and continued on his retreat, using his upper body to throw himself backwards, rolling away as the sword erupted with far more power than it had last time. The edge of the explosion caught D’Angelo on the right side, burning clothes and skin. He came up, his skin flushed red from first degree burns, one eye was closed tight and blisters were clear on his face.

He let out a violent cough, and despite the massive damage his body took he moved to stand. Even with his training, the pain was immense and a soft grunt escaped followed by a low growl, it was all he could do from screaming out loud. D’Angelo wanted to say something witty, but the heat from the blast had dried his mouth and only a croak came out.

As he came up he realized he was close to the wall of building on the street they had been fighting, so he leaned against it, using his left hand to help support his weight on a barrel as well, his long sword held in his right hand at his side, the corpse of the redead undead creature no doubt burning between the two enemies.

[Dolerman]

The blast was a vicious one indeed and while Dax was far enough away from it to not be injured by the impact, the flames from his cursed sword had a larger blast radius than he expected, the fur around his face and left shoulder had all but burnt off, leaving a red-pink underskin on display for his opponent to see, it was not a pretty sight. Daxius also hunched over slightly, he felt a moderate level of pain in his chest around his heart area. The energy used to detonate that horrible sword had a drain on his life force, he had already used its explosion magic twice and the last one was a big one. He maybe had one more in him but there would be a good chance it would give him a heart attack and possibly kill him.

Over the crackle of the flames a vicious roar was heard. The vengeful for corpse of the slain main was charging towards his enemy once again! but this was now a different creature, his flesh was 70% burnt off, his bones were exposed at all parts of his body, his intestins were exposed where a hole was burnt in his stomach and his left ear and left arm at the elbow was completley gone. He was no longer a regular corpse, but a skeleton warrior, albiet a damaged one with some parts of flesh still on his bones. His eyes were no longer human but two glowing torch flames in his eye sockets. The soul of the innocent man who was killed by this assasin was now warped fully by Daxius' magic and was out for very bloody revenge, and as a skeleton warrior his was much more skilled than before and instead of weilding a discarded throwing knife, he held Daxius Rune Blade! Twirling it in his hand as he approched the assasin who now had his back to a stone building wall, he charged at him preparing to vertically slash and stab combo the assasin.

Blasted corpse!! they are always more unruly when the spirit is vengeful, why did you have to go and kill this one? Now hes not going to be as easy to control cause he wants you dead so badly! No corpse should be able to claim a bounty, but I'm happy for him to chop you up a bit.

Daxius was no longer the neutral fighter just looking to kill for a bounty, the injuries and intensity of the fight awakened his demonic blood and he was now half crazed, soley focused on turning the assasin into chopped meat. Itiching to get back into the fight flung his grappling hook to the roof of the building that D'Angelo was underneath and used at as a fixed grapple point to swing over the now half burnt man throwing another knife as he swung read to swing kick the assasin right in the chest when he makes contact with him. His swinging arc would be from D'Angelo's right side as to not throw a knife at his own skeleton corpse as the undead warrior attack from the left.

[ShidenBlades]

Nicoli, in a lot of pain, was not enjoying this fight like he had been mere moments ago, before he had been badly burned. He took the brief moment of respite to analyze the situation and he had to admit that it was not looking good for him. He would have to make some sort of game changing difference, or flee.

He watched as the horrific creature came running out of the fire despite the powerful explosion. What’s more is that as soon as he heard his opponents claw connect with the roof above him he knew what was going to happen and he knew what he needed to do. He through a smoke bomb down at his feet, letting the dark grey fog spread out thirty feet all around him and obscure him inside.

He didn’t need to see to know what to do next, despite the pain his burn hand grabbed at his pouch once again and this time he threw an adhesive gel out roughly eight feet in front of him, if the skeleton ran across it, it would at the very least slow him down if not trip him up and stop him completely.

He didn’t have the energy to try and run he decided, not without risking more damage to his body. So, he turned in the direction he knew the Cat-Demon would be coming from and hefted his long sword up, point first and braced it with his body, and his body against the wall. He felt as the knife dick deep into his already burned arm, piercing the muscle of his bicep with ease. If the creature was set on blindly rushing him he would find the long sword thrusted out and up into him.

[Dolerman]

The skeleton-corpse was up first, he wasnt a shambling dumb zombie anymore but a vicious spirit weilding a dangerous blade, bent on revenge.
He was attempting his slash stab combo as he approached when suddenly the next step he too was slightly slower than the last, then the next step felt like a stepping into a pool of worm guts, he got 4 more steps, each more sluggish until he came to a stop, the immediate area was filled with smoke but the more intelligent skeleton spirit quickly deduced it was adhesive gel, used to catch mutuant sewer rats in some parts of city he once lived in. His attack was nearly abandoned until something very grusome happened. The corpse couldnt lift his feet out of the gel but his feet were still the flesh feet of the man who was killed.....The skeleton with a whispery hiss pulled his feet bones out of the flesh of the original corpse. The squelching was nausiating but it worked, with minor delay the skeleton was able to continue his attack because his spider like feet bones didn't have a wide enough area of impact to be properly trapped by the glue. Upon getting in range of the human who he could now see close range even with the smoke he slashed downwards at the left hip and thigh of the man with the still red-hot chaos blade.

Meanwhile Daxius in full swing saw his target envelop in a puff off billowing smokescreen, he knew that his swinging kick would be met with some sort of counter attack so he did his best to veer the swing to the right as much as he could but.......

Squilch!

...It didnt work, upon entering the smoke cloud were he knew the assasin was, he was impaled on his black steel sword which was being held out like a defensive spear barricade the sword had went through him....but not where the man probably intended. Because his swing was angled to D'Angelo's right and he veered to his own left last second, Daxius was 'impaled' just under his right armpit and the flesh just at the side of his chest, missing his ribcage but pierced straight through the skin.

Daxius screamed in pain, his cat like howl was guttural and low with a demonic undertone, blood sprayed from the wound and was covering the floor beneath them. Daxius wasnt sure if he would survive such a wound, the blood was leaking fairly quickly. His right arm was now inches in front of the assasin, Daxius with a painful roar swung his arm around the man who was next to him in an attempt to grab him with his vicious superhuman strength, feline quickness and demonic grip, and turn his head to sink his fangs into the man's collarbone and lowerneck and attempt to tear out his throat or as much flesh as he could bite into while not letting him go.

[ShidenBlades]

The impact jarred Nicoli, only his back against the wall save him from falling over. The down side was that the brick wall was there to keep him from falling over. The air was blasted out of his lungs and his grip fell from the long sword, it was impossible to hold onto with his own damaged hand. This was brutal, down to a physical match where Nicoli knew he was outclassed. Still, even with his opponents physical superiority Nicoli wasn't yet ready to admit defeat.

The creatures vice like grip found purchase on the opposite side of Nicoli's head, effectively making it so that he couldn't dodge or evade those dangerous fangs. Yet, Nicoli did not panic. His right arm came up, the metal gauntlet covering his forearm being used as a barrier, it was all he could do to keep those fangs away. His left hand shot across and without a whimper pulled the dagger that had stuck there a moment ago. With all his strength he jabbed that dagger upwards, once again using what strength he had, but mainly the momentum of his opponents head coming down to bite on his throat, and effectively try to use the blind spot of directly below his opponents muzzle against him.

If that weren't enough Nicoli twisted his body and dropped to his knees, as his opponent was still in the air, albeit, it was only slightly, he didn't have much say in which way Nicoli spun himself. The spin would be enough to turn him in the way of that dangerous Rune Blade that his skeleton summon was now swinging at him. Nicoli knew he couldn't beat Daxius in his current state like this, so perhaps Daxius could defeat himself?

[Dolerman]

Daxius was still bleeding profusely, he knew that even if he won this match there was a chance he could simply bleed to death afterwards. He was feral now, everything being a demonic or animal instinct now. His biting attack was interupted by the assasins hand that was gaurded by a metal gauntlet. It was a steel gauntlet of normal design. Now Daxius didnt normally try to bite through steel but these were extreme circumstances and his feral nature made him go against his better judgement. He locked his jaws down and bit down hard with extreme demonic strength. He could feel some of his razor sharp teeth breaking but his jaws are able to puncture the relatively thin metal of a gauntlet. The teeth that got through should be able to reach the assasins hand in place hopefully helping pin him in place.

The right hand used to hold his his head now intensfied, his claws bared out of his hand ready to protrude out of his fingers and dig deep into his opponents face, which daxius noted was already fairly scarred close up. This was a tough human.

The assasin's hand came up to stab the dagger that was in his leg into Dax's face. Luckily for Dax's pulling a blade out of burnt sticky flesh isnt a lightning quick motion and even with his right arm and fangs locked in place he swung his highly damaged left hand under his armpit, under where the sword stabbed him and pulled the sword down out of his own armpit flesh causing more bleeding and used the assasins long sword to cut down at the rising hand of the dagger looking to lop off the hand or at least block the blade of the assasins left hand.

Although Dax was beyond rational thought, his fighting spirit allowed him to respect the surival will of this man, even though he was clearly outmatched in raw strength (even before Dax became even stronger being feral) and had two very damaged legs which hadnt stopped bleeding from their earlier wounds. Dax was shocked the man could even stand, but with some unknown will he still attempted to spin to sort of half shoulder throw Dax into his demon's own attack......

Sadly the simple biology was against him, although Dax could feel the attempt and it was strong one, Daxius was using superhuman strength which extended to his healthy undamaged legs, versus a human with damaged legs, Daxius was not being moved, and his grip with his fangs and right hand stayed true.

Unfortantley for Dax his feral mind was now not able to command the skeleton spirit of vengance, who had no intention of keeping daxius safe, using the momentum of his downward swing, he stepped into his right foot and suddenly changed the angle to a jolting upwards stab from a slightly crouched legionnaire style stance. This was aimed at the assasin's chest/neck area with nasty speed an precision. The spirit was no longer looking to maim his killer like Daxius previously rational mind had intended he was no working on his own agenda.

The Sword strike (which was superhumanly faster than Dax himself) made Dax curse the day he ever learnt necromancy, the area that the spirit was stabbing for was partially blocked by Dax's right arm, that was across his collar bone, holding his opponents face. But this skeleton didnt care. The burning hot sword stabbed straight though Dax's forearm severing through the top half of it like a knife through butter, no resistance no speed loss, and on its way to the assassin's chest which it would penetrate even easier than Daxius tough demon-feline body.