Battle at the Cathedral (Anybody)

OoC: It's been quite some time since I battled last! I want to get back into the BA so I'm dusting off my favorite character Aidan. I'd love to battle somebody I'm familiar with, but anybody else is fine too. ^__^ The link for Aidan's biography is in my sig. I'd like it if whoever decides to join can advance the storyline I've set up. If you want, you can search old threads of mine with Aidan to see his fighting style. Feel free to spin it however you want. Alright, let's see how rusty I am. =P

BiC:

The priest paced back and forth before the lectern in the Seventeenth Cathedral of the Goddess. He thumbed through his notes preparing for an upcoming sermon. Like any devout clergyman of the Goddess, he would repeat this task many times on any given day.

Suddenly, the heavy wooden doors at the entrance of the cathedral burst open. The priest’s heart jumped into his throat. In what was left of the light of day, a dark silhouette appeared in the open doorway. He immediately entered and slammed the doors behind him.

“Oh, dear Goddess!” the priest cried as he fell and began crawling behind the lectern. “Protect me from this evil!” The man stormed up the aisle between the rows of pews. His armor clanged with each step. When he reached the lectern, he grabbed the sniveling priest by his robe and pulled him into the air – feet dangling.

“A-Aidan!” the priest cried in horror, “Y-y-you’re supposed to be –”

“Dead?” Aidan finished, “Didn’t quite work out.” The priest’s face went completely pale.

Aidan, a former knight of the devastated kingdom of Aeros, clutched the old man’s robe at the neck with one hand. His handsome face was covered in blood and his white hair was unkempt and matted in crimson clumps. After years of pointless wandering, he had began performing work as a mercenary as he had no other skills other than those of a knight. After years of fights, daily misery over his lost love, he felt as if he were a man with no soul and no hope of redemption. Killing a man of the Goddess would not affect him in the least. He was already damned.

“Wh-what about the men?” he stammered. The former knight, Aidan, smirked.

“Your assassins,” he replied, “are all dead. And so are you.”

“No, no!” the terrified holy man screamed, “You can’t! I had no choice! Nobody could know that the church hired you to commit that terrible sin. My hand was forced!”

“Terrible sin?” Aidan scoffed, “That cult was the terrible sin before. A threat to the Goddess you said. Now that they’re all dead, I’ve committed the terrible sin?”

Aidan dropped the priest and pulled his huge longsword from its sheath on his back. He put the blade to the holy man’s head. The old man began uttering prayers to the Goddess even as the blade’s edge rested firmly on his bald head.

“Shut the hell up,” the former knight demanded. He pulled his blade away from the priest. The old man looked up at his assailant. From his knees, Aidan appeared to be a demon. But, he was a demon that the church had went into business with in the first place. “Tell me what I want to know and you may come out of this alive.”

“The High Priest,” the old man started, “He ordered that the cult be dealt with because it was an abomination that was in defiance of the Goddess. He told me that they had to go by any means necessary. Even though it went against my conscious, it was for the glory of the Goddess. After some investigation into the matter, I discovered you and hired you to take care of the whole affair. After word arrived that you had completed the task, I..”

“Finish or I will filet you like a fish,” Aidan muttered through gritted teeth. The priest lowered his eyes to the floor.

“I informed the High Priest,” he responded, “A-and he ordered that you be murdered immediately. He didn’t want word to get out that the church had hired you for such an atrocious act. Those assassins were sent by the High Priest himself. I had nothing to do with it and could not have stopped it if I had wanted to.”

Suddenly, a loud rapping came from the door. Aidan turned his attention to the door then back to the priest.

“Stay here and stay quiet, old man,” he said. He began walking toward the door.

Still on his knees, the priest looked up at the ceiling and whispered, “Thank the Goddess.” Aidan looked over his shoulder at the devout old man and grinned.

“Don’t thank the Goddess,” he snorted, “Thank me.”

Aidan crept to the door with his sword still drawn. He put his ear to the cold oak to see if he could hear anything outside, but he heard nothing except for the rustling of the evening wind.

"What's going on?" he grumbled lowly.

OoC: *calls dibs* I'll edit this with my post tonight (and then there's another battle I haven't touched for a while to post in, too >.>).

EDIT: And here we go! I'm gonna throw Brann at you and see what happens. Also, @Star Boy - hey there. Long time no see. ^_^

BiC: Brann walked through the city, making his way towards the spires rising up out of the sea of small, often shoddy buildings that humans were happy to call home. He barely noticed as the locals scattered before him, likely scared away by the great katana he carried in one hand; strangely, the immortal hadn't yet encountered any would-be heroes out to prove themselves against the obviously dangerous foreigner. He thanked the old gods and his forebears for this small mercy, and then smirked at himself for using such a silly mortal mannerism.

Even, his long walk ended in front of the great doors of te cathedral, which were strangely closed for such a building - often, church doors would remain open to offer "the faithful" easy access whenever they desired it. Shrugging, Brann simply reversed his grip on his katana and rapped the hilt against the door.

When nothing happened for a full minute, Brann silently cursed the priest he had come to discuss things with and put his shoulder against the wood of the door.

OoC: I think that should do for now.

OoC: Brann looks like a good character! It should make for an exciting battle. I forgot how fun it is coming up with posts. ^__^

BiC:

Aidan listened intently at the door. Then, a noise came.

Thud.

Damn, there is somebody out there. What to do now?

Already weakened from the attempt on his life by the High Priest’s assassins, Aidan knew that he was at a severe disadvantage in a fight. There was no other choice than to open the door though. A villager would be confused to find a closed door with no answer and might gather a group of townsfolk to investigate. Aidan knew that he had to keep that from happening or he would have an angry mob on his hands. He wanted to avoid shedding any innocent blood if possible.

What if I’ve been tracked? More assassins?

This would be an equally bad situation for the former knight. The other assassins were skilled. They were skilled enough to almost get the better of him. In his condition, another group of assassins would certainly be his undoing. There was no more time to think though. He had to do something.

“Who’s there?” Aidan asked loudly. No reply. Then, another three raps came at the door.

That rapping…a hilt.

Aidan jerked the door open and jumped back. Brandishing his sword, he sized up his potential enemy. There was no group of assassins at the door. Only one man. He was dressed in black and wore a striking red overcoat that brushed the steps of the cathedral with its length. It was apparent that he was no villager. He held a katana with the hilt pointed at the door. Despite the bloodied, armed Aidan standing inside the holy doors, the stranger looked indifferent.

“You picked a piss poor time to come and give alms, stranger,” the former knight said gravely. The stranger’s short, red hair waved gently in the cool evening breeze. Without a word, he walked into the cathedral.

“I wonder. Does the Goddess welcome the ignorant into her bosom after death?” Aidan asked coldly. The man still did not speak. He only leaned to the side and gazed towards the lectern where the priest sat hunched in fear.

“I have business with the priest,” he stated. Aidan looked back at the priest as well.

“That old codger has his hands in even more than I suspected,” he muttered to himself. He turned back towards the ominous stranger. The two stood in silence while they studied one another. Finally, Aidan broke the silence.

“I feel for you,” the former knight started, “but I also have business with that man. It seems that we have a conflicting interest. You’ll simply have to wait your turn.” Aidan turned his back with no concern for the young man.

Surprisingly, the stranger quickly dashed and swung his katana at Aidan. Undeterred, the former knight spun and locked swords with this new opponent. His arms trembled under the force of the young man’s katana. He was much more powerful than he looked. Though he was injured from his previous fight, the former knight relished the challenge. The stranger's dark eyes seemed to be burning as Aidan gazed at them with his own cold, gray eyes.

“So, we’re going to do this thing, huh?” Aidan laughed. “So be it.”