The Midnight Hour (Scott)

A dark form flittered overhead as the peaceful citizens of the city slept. Shooting under a large archway of a bridge, Vanyel chuckled. He flew out from under the bridge and floated up to a large structure that reached for the heavens from the mist of the river. Spirling around the pillar that held up a large half-dome, Vanyel wondered what the peaceful people of this advanced city would think if they knew a vampire was among them at this very moment.

The undead form flew, arms outstretched, to the top of the platform and landed softly. He strode across the wide, open marble floor to the only blemish apon the perfect structure. Opening the door to a small room, he found what he had expected.

Several desks covered with papers filled the room. Picked up a random sheet, the vampire read it to himself. As he had thought, it was a form for a a slave warrior. Picking up another, he found a sheet showing a chart covered with scribbled names and lines.

Walking back out to the arena, he looked around. High bleachers surrounded the arena, but there were no signs of how anyone could get up here. The only structure connecting this platform to the rest of the city was a solid pillar that resided in the middle of the river. Yet the arena was clearly still in use.

His attention was drawn to the middle of the battleground when a large circular design set in the marble floor decended with a a mechanical whirl. After a few moments, it came back up, bringing with it a shadowy figure.

OoC: You have too many characters. So many to scroll past just to read that one. Mine is located here.

IC:

It was a full moon this night, Tarhedron new, but the thick clouds overhead would make any observer think otherwise. A vague rumble on the horizon told of a storm in the distance, and a slight breeze foretold of a tempest of other sorts soon to come. He stood in the center of a large, pristine amphitheater of marble.

To one side stood a lone figure--a demon, of sorts, he knew. Demons could not be allowed to remain in the material realms, preying on the defenseless, so what would come next was inevitable. He decided taunting this being would not be useful.

Tarhedron activated his helmet's sensory enhancements, which had the external effect of lighting his eyes up into an evil-looking pair of red eyes on his silhouette, and into his left hand drifted his staff, which he held in front of him as he advanced slowly toward the being. The orb on the end of his staff began glowing slightly with a silvery hue, and grew brighter with each step.

The being stood in the edge of the amphitheater floor's darkness, observing his approach. Once he was about half way to the being, all of the gems on his armor suddenly began to glow bright green, and his staff's orb changed to the same color. A split-second later, he launched a stream of energy at the (now slightly surprised) being, who managed to evade being struck by the stream. Once it had dissipated, Tarhedron again could only be seen as a silhouette with glowing red eyes, and a silver orb.

Vanyel drew Soul Blood as he leapt up into the air. He hovered above the glowing orb and red eyes.

"So, thats it then? No warning? No en-guard? And people call me a monster. Very well, so be it." The vampire shot down at his attacker, sword held back to his side. The orb and armor began to glow green again as the vampire approached.

Dodging the blast of energy, Vanyel sliced at the figure with his sword. The metals of the weapon and armor rang out through the amphitheater as they collided. Swooping past, Vanyel turned back to his opponent. He flew back down at the Eldar and dodged another beam and countered.

The two fighters continued in vain for several minutes before the vampire decided to end this foolishness. Shooting along at Tarhedron just above the ground, he held his blade above his head. Predictablely, the Eldar shot another beam at Vanyel just as he approached.

Kicking off from the ground, the vampire flipped over the figure and swung Soul Blood out behind him, cutting into an unseen gap in the armor. Pulling his blooded sword free, the 700+ year old leapt away as the Eldar examined the wound calmly. Laughing, Vanyel ran at his foe, ready to draw more blood.

He swung his blade down in a vertical slice, but Tarhedron spun away and swung his staff out to hit Vanyel in the back. The vampire shrugged the blow off easily and advanced towards Tarhedron again. This time, he launched into a series of strikes and combos, but the Eldar danced around all of them.

Amused at his opponent's calmness and single-minded purpose, he backed away for a monent.

"So, just who are you? A gladiator?"

Tarhedron's only answer was a quite scoff as he raised his staff. The orb glowed red this time, shooting out a small laser that cut through Vanyel's cape as he rolled to the side. Leaping forward as he came to his feet, the vampire attacked the Eldar's legs, slicing through the armor protecting his shin.

OoC: "Quited"? You mean "quiet," or perhaps "stifled"?

BiC:

Tarhedron rolled forward and over the creature, thereby avoiding nearly all harm from its attack. He landed nimbly on his feet again an unnatural distance away, and turned to face the creature. This creature is obviously unfazed by my wards, Tarhedron reflected. Let's see how he fares against other methods...

"You don't like the light, do you, creature?" he asked flatly. Suddenly, jerked the staff upward, and a blinding light emitted from it in all directions. At the same instance, flood lights pointing into the amphitheater turn on, giving the whole area a day-like appearance. The sudden light obviously shocked the creature, and Tarhedron took the opportunity to kick it in the chin--hard. The creature fell backward, and landed with an audible "thud" on the marble floor.

In a single deft movement, Tarhedron let his staff drift behind him (remaining milimeters away), pulled out his witchblade, stepped forward, and pressed the tip of his blade onto the bridge of the creature's nose. He waited a moment for the creature's senses to return, then he asked the squinting creature matter-of-factly, "A wound from a blade can't kill you, can it?" he laughed once mirthlessly at the silence. "Good thing this isn't a normal blade." Tarhedron shifted his weight slightly, and raised the witchblade slightly to plunge it into the creature's head.

This moment was exploited by the creature, who shot away in the instant the blade left his nose. In response, Tarhedron generated a cloud of shimmering energy around him, distorting exactly where he stood, and what he was doing. To him, though, everything was still perfectly clear, and he faced the creature once more.

His eyesight returning to normal, Vanyel floated up above into the air, out of reach of Tarhedron. The vampire contemplated the strange haze surrounding the Eldar while circling around him. A clever move, but Vanyel wasn't likely to be deceived so easily.

Hefting his blade up on his shoulder, the vampire concentrated on the stored life energy in the blade. Soul Blood had not yet been able to steal enough life force to perform anything too complicated, but it had enough to negate Tarhedron's haze effect.

Vanyel dropped to the floor and spun around several times, multiple blasts shooting from the blade. The invisible blasts sliced through the haze and into Tarhedron, the widespread attack disregarding the illusion. Stopping the spin with an outstretched foot, Vanyel charged forward, his keen hearing pinpointing the precise origin of the Eldar's muffled grunt of pain.

The 745 year old leapt into the haze, slicing wildly with Soul Blood. The rune-enscribed blade made contact with Vanyel's opponent's robes, but slid off them without doing any damage. Undaunted, the vampire spun around, foot outstretched to hit Tarhedron in the chest.

The Eldar was knocked back, but recovered quickly, bringing his witchblade up to attack Vanyel. Vanyel closed his eyes as the blade decended on his, relieing on his hearing to lead him to victory.

He blocked Tarhedron's downward slice with Soul Blood and punched out, hitting his foe in the chest. The Eldar's armor negated any damage, but the score boosted Vanyel's confidence. Easily pushing the witchblade back, the vampire swung his blade across waist-height.

Tarhedron danced away from the attack and leapt forward, blade slicing across to cut off Vanyel's neck. Listening to the whistling of the blade passing through the air, the vampire ducked, causing Tarhedron's witchblade to pass over his head harmlessly.

Unguarded, with his blade out away from his body, Tarhedron made a perfect target. Changing his hand postions on Soul Blood's hilt, Vanyel shoved the blade forward, piercing through the Eldar's armor. Tarhedron grunted as the magical weapon cut into his torso, just blow his rib cage. Blood spurted out, soaking Vanyel's hands.

Taking advantage of Vanyel's temporary hinderance, the Eldar moved his hand over onto the back of his blade and plunged it into the vampire's shoulder. Pulling the blade back out, he prepared to stab it into the undead creature again.

But Vanyel darted away, clutching at his wound, leaving Soul Blood still embedded in Tarhedron's torso. At a safe distance, Vanyel raised a hand to his mouth and licked Tarehedron's blood off with a grin.

"Yummy. Your blood is especially flavorful. I will be sure to savor it as I drain your body of it completely."

Tarhedron gave no responce to Vanyel's testimony of victory, but instead pulled Soul Blood out, wielding it with his other hand. The Eldar's wound prevented him from anything too extraneous, but he stalked forward, blades raised.

Vanyel merely scoffed at the sound of the footsteps and raised a finger. Both of the blades were suddenly wretched free of Tarhedron's grasp, and flew over to Vanyel's outstretched hands.

OoC: After a shockingly long hiatus (Holy fsck, a year and 8 months), we shall see where this goes. Oh, the Witchblade has a soul, and is semi-living.

IC:

With an unseen smile inside his helmet, Tahredron remarked with a slight hint of malice, "That's a cute trick, demon. Did you learn that all by yourself, or did some other unholy creature teach you?" As these words were spoken, his armor, shrouded as it was by his robes and protection wards, could be seen knitting itself back together, hiding from sight the wound that he would have to spend time later fixing. But for now, pain-deadeners would have to suffice.

"I have my own tricks. For example, you might notice now that my blade in your hand resists your movements." At this point, Tahredron's staff returned to his hand, and the sigils across his robes and armor began to glow once more.

The vampire scoffed again, and began advancing on Tahredron, who simply stood and waited for the attack, which came precisely when it was expected. The creature's own sword swung first, and Tahredron dodged out of the way of it--and into the way of his own blade--with little effort. As the followup attack should have struck home, the witchblade wrenched itself out of Vanyel's fingers, and moved around its owner to spin and pierce its very startled wielder through the center of the torso.

As his witchblade did its work, Tahredron took the opportunity to back off a bit, and waving his staff from side to side slightly, set up more powerful protective wards around him. "Your move, demon."