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 Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:26 am
Malkin saw Emma attacking the image of him and was impressed. But he had only just begun his attacks. His aura was steadily increasing in power, as he had limited it's size. He would eventually be able to try his newest move, one that would otherwise incapacitate him for weeks without the synchro. Landing softly, Malkin laughed as he dashed for her, his image splitting again, this time three of him. The two on the sides ran in for a pincer movement, while the middle on threw his dual blade straight for her. The one on Malkin's left was the actual one, but it was invisible without some form of aura tracker. He had insured that with the expansion of his aura.
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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 5:28 pm
"Right, this thing feels much more powerful than the common fiend. What ever it is it's holding back." Train said as he stepped onto the lift.
Isaac was almost worried now, but his excitment was killing it like a badger would kill a cat or a mouse, if it couldn't run that is. He had to force himself not to jump up and down, so he resorted to bouncing up and down in his feet.
Emma was truly having fun, with all his speed Emma was barely evading Malkin's sword. She still didn't feel the need to draw her second blade. She wasn't quite as fast as Malkin, not that she would reveal that fact until much later. Rather leaving afterimages, Emma tended to just get much bigger and much closer without you knowing. As she stopped her spinning she landed on her feet only to kick off again this time flying right back the way she came, towards the Malkin that was charging straight at her. His sword also flying towards her, she swept with her own just to have it go right through. "Fake, I love it!" Emma thought. Throwing her weight forward she halted her momentum as she pushed herself with her hand, guiding her feet back to the ground. The pincering Malkins would have a decent chance of running into each other, or at least they would be close enough for her to slash two with one.
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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 7:40 pm
"Alright, everyone in." William said as he ushered his fellow Hunters and Guardians into the elevator. As he got in, last, he closed the gate.
"It's above us." Kimiko said from where she was still being guided by william, on hand on his shoulder. "I agree with Train. This fiend is very powerful."
Matt moved to one of the cranks and shooed the crank-man that was manning it to join his coworker on the other. "Alright, boys, let's get this box moving." Matt said as he grabbed firmly onto the crank with one hand and disengaged the lock with his other. Half the weight of the elevator and its occupants immediately fell onto his crank and the muscles of his arm bulged with the exertion of holding it in place.
The crank-men worked together to hold their crank in place and release the lock. Working in unison, the three of them began to lift the car, quite steadily, upwards.
"When we get up there. Matt, Kiro, Train, and I will fan out in front of the elevator. Once we have identified our target we will fall on it in two teams, one on each side. Kimiko, you stay here in the elevator and give us directions if you think they're needed. If we're wounded we'll return to you. If things look like they're going badly take the elevator back down and find as many Corps members you can for reinforcements. Isaac, I want you to stay here and guard Kimiko. If you think that she is in no immediate danger and that you can assist, then do so. Act on your own discretion." William said calmly. He was trying to keep his voice steady, part of preparing himself mentally.
"It's not much farthur up, now." Kimiko reported.
"Alright, everybody ready?" William asked.
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 3:00 am
Malkin was enthralled with her movements. Nothing wasted, everything planned. Carefully, she was drawing him for something.
We can do it. We can win. Gods fall before us. Life is nothing more than an ephemeral plaything. Crush her, and leave nothing.
Malkin's inner demon was snarling, a second part of him tracing her movements, gathering in strength. Close. Sooo close to that moment Malkin silently crooned to it. Malkin was sure he was going to get her when he saw her move, and his own image bearing down on him. Crap. Malkin swore softly, letting the image fade. It was his aura holding it in place, and it was easy enough to disperse. Continuing his side of the maneuver, he swung his dual-sword straight for her neck, spinning his body slightly to build up the velocity of the swing.
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:55 am
Isaac nodded in agreement, he was to guard Kimiko until the target was identified and he judged the situation as contained enough to leave her. He could handle that. Probably. Isaac moved closer to Kimiko so that she could find him more easily. He was shortest amongst them, but then she wouldn't have to go far for him.
Train nodded too, though he had to hold back a retort along the lines of how stupid William was. If Train with them, why would they need to Kimiko to give direction? Though he would need her to help seal the beastie after they killed it. He had a bundle of scrolls tucked away on his person, each with tons of writing and runes upon them. As they were, each was useless, just short one mark to have any significance. Train didn't like having to really take the time to mark everything while a spirit fiend tore away at him and his partners.
Emma was glad that the girl Malkin was talking with earlier had gotten 'busy,' she would have been dead within the first attack. "I love this. No other fiend I've ever fought has been this fast before, no other person either. Usually they just hit really really hard, which made battles easy."
As Malkin lurched for her neck she ducked it and sprang forward, angling her rapier to try and cut Malkin's side. All of her attacks would be aimed for non-fatal areas of course. Until Malkin got close enough to piss her off.
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:29 pm
"Yeah, I'm ready..." Kiro replied to William with a sigh. I really do hope this will be good... Kiro thought, his hands both rested on each of his katana hilts.
(( I think I'll have Enyo show up too somewhere. Sorry for the little post. ))
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:54 pm
"You know I'm ready." Matt said while giving his mock salute and cranking one handed.
"Here! Stop the elevator!" Kimiko said excitedly, but whispering all the same.
Matt and the crank men both locked their cranks. Matt and William, the two seniormost Hunters in the small elevator, moved to the gate. Kimiko moved to the back, staying behind Isaac, the two crank-men moved with her. William grabbed the gate and, quickly, pulled it back.
Matt moved out immediately, moving left. William darted out right behind him and moved right. The two of them were crouched, trying to make themselves less noticeable, both held themselves in defensive stances, according to their fighting styles. Both Hunters listened and could hear the sounds of battle ahead of them, in one of the rings that was set into the floor.
Seems like somebody beat us here... William thought to himself with a frown. This could be bad, if this thing's as powerful as Kimiko and Train say it is whoever's in there with it might not last long...
We better hurry, or we're gonna miss all the fun... Matt thought with a grin.
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 7:25 pm
Kiro followed William but made no effort to crouch at all to hide himself. "Hmmm." Let's see what's going on here. Kiro thought as he looked out into the arena to see Emma. Emma? She's here?
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Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:09 pm
Sensing her move more than seeing, Malkin tensed his legs, springing himself up, feeling the blade of her rapier cutting his leg a bit. Damn. I wanted her blood to spill, not mine. A snarl twisting his face, Malkin spun in air, throwing his dual sword at her as a second image threw the Corp Dagger at her, moving away from the other Malkin at the same time. A third one dropped straight to the ground, dagger drawn in one hand, dual sword pointed straight at Emma as it charged. Oddly enough, it was the one that threw the dual blade that was real, remembering her not taking the intial throw seriously.
We're there! Next attack we kill her! Next attack we divide and conquer!
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Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:26 pm
William knew that he should wait, he knew that Train wasn't in position yet, but he couldn't help himself and Kiro had advanced even further already. He could hear Emmas voice coming from within the ring. He moved forwards, toward the ring, until he was near enough that he could see into it. Matt was moving similarly on the opposite side, which surprised him, he had halfway thought the man would just rush in and to hell with their plan.
William looked into the pit ring and saw Emma apparently fighting with Malkin. Which was no big deal, Hunters were constantly sparring against each other to stay sharp. The problem was that there were three of him in the ring.
"Malkin..." William whispered. "What the..."
...hell? That's not an ability I remember Malkin having.
Matt stared down into the ring in awe. Now that's an opponent! Damn, I'm gonna have to take a turn at that kid when Emma's done.
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Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:56 pm
"William." Kiro whispered to William. "I'm pretty sure something is up with Malkin. Not to mention, look how they're fighting. They're trying to kill each other for real. We should stop them."
I doubt Emma will want to stop at this point though... And I don't know if we can trust Malkin now.
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Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:44 pm
Train snorted a little as he passed by the fanned out hunters. He knew the fiend wasn't right behind the door, the source had to be further away. Besides, no fiend would just wait there, it would smash through and start attacking everyone.
As they moved past him to peer down and Emma and Malkin fighting, he snickered, seeing the expressions on their faces. "I guess we know who it is now... And Kiro, don't worry, Emma is always in complete control. At this point, I bet she tries to injure him only enough to subdue him."
Isaac watched with an odd look as the other hunters plus the guardian moved forward. Train was moving recklessly, which seemed the most odd. He was the one that couldn't defend himself. "Ms. Kimiko, we should move up a little..." Isaac said, inching forward a little so that he didn't get too far away from her. He wondered of she would need to have to touch him to move along. The way he figured, she could see people, just not objects. Though he doubted that she was at the arena very often.
"Hit, good." Emma thought as she turned to face Malkin. "Three with one... Got it," Emma thought immediately after Malkin's attack. The dagger would be easiest to dodge, being the smallest of the weapons. But she had already decided not to leave a single opening in case the real attack got through. Her plan was to swipe the sword and dodge the dagger, really, her response to the crawling Malkin would depend then upon what she found of the weapons. If that was the real Malkin she didn't want to stab him or something.
Executing her plan, Emma dipped down and to the side, letting the phantasmous dagger fly past her. Her rapier flicked up and struck the blade out of the air, her realization confirmed with a slight metal clang. Since the weapons obvious went faster than the charging Malkin, however slightly, she knew she wouldn't have to deal with him any longer.
As the blade slid on the ground, she advised, "Never loose your weapon, the id dagger is no where near enough for anything serious." Emma then drew her second rapier. It was time to end it, before Malkin got any more enraged. Then a thought occurred to her, what if he could actually move fast enough to be all of them at once? That he was luring her into a false sense of safety and then planning to use that against her. The charging Malkin would still be nothing to worry about though, she had already discovered his real sword, and the dagger would still be making sounds off of the floor as he tapped against it.
Emma was prepared to dive for Malkin's sword when he went for it.
(Crap, I was going to write something here but I forgot!)
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Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 8:58 pm
William observed for a moment, seeing Emmas skillful counter to Malkins triple attack. At about the same time Train walked up to them and spoke loudly enough for William to hear.
Is he saying that Malkin is the fiend? Wouldn't be the first time I've worked with somebody with fiend blood in them... He seems to have far less control of himself than she did though...
"Kiro, Train's right. Emma's too skilled to needlessly attack him with lethal force. The only way she would is if she believed that her life, or somebody else's were in danger. She has to know we're here by now, both of them should. I'm all for letting this play out. If she needs a hand, which is unlikely, we're here to give it to her."
"Man, I was really hoping to have a go against that kid before Emma wears him out too. Maybe he's still holding back?" Matt said his voice rising hopefully, and his ever-present grin on his face. "I call dibs if we need to intervene in this."
"Okay, a little closer." Kimiko said and reached out her hand and set it on Isaacs shoulder so that he could guide her.
She could see Isaac's aura directly in front of her, and her own connected to it where her hand was touching him. She could also see the four auras of the other Hunters and Guardian up ahead. Two of them seemed wary, they were focused, almost sharp. She recognized the, as William and Kiro. The third was exited, his aura blazing about wildly, that had to be Matt. The last one, which had to be Train, appeared calm, almost relaxed. She could see two more auras, dancing and darting about. One of those was tense, but also with an edge of amusement to it. The last one was obviously the fiend. It seemed very angry, and violent.
"Not too close, okay, Isaac?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 2:08 pm
Kiro sighed at his friend's remarks. I'm not too sure about that. Emma likes to win and to beat Malkin in that state will mean she has to go completely all out. Malkin won't just stop.
"What are you doing?" A familiar voice asked in Kiro's ear.
"Huh?" Kiro turned to see Enyo stand next to him, bent down to speak directly in his ear. "Ohh, it's you." Kiro said, calming his heartbeat from her sudden appearance. Even though Kiro was an elite assassin in his past life, this girl was still able to completely sneak up on him? And also in the midst of William, Train, and Matt and not to mention Kimiko and Issac behind him, though they must have saw her coming at the last minute.
"Mhmm." Enyo replied quietly.
"We had sense a fiend here so we all came to investigate." Kiro said, finally answering Enyo's first question.
"Malkin is right there, it's fine." Enyo replied monotonously.
"You knew? But you're so new here." Kiro said, feeling a little surprised.
"I've read almost every book in the library already and as many data files I could find so I know all about it." Enyo replied once again in her usual monotone.
"Oh right! I forgot. Hmm... That makes sense, I guess..." Kiro mumbled.
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 1:16 pm
What the-!? There's an aura tracker and...another. We can't let-
Shut up! I'm in control. We'll kill anyone we need to. For now, we end this battle. Malkin supressed his inner demon's sudden, nervousness. It was odd for that one to be cautious, but then, they had been hiding each other's controls for so long it was natural to be nervous. Malkiin could only see Emma before him, only see that smile, that knowledge that she was better.
"Filth must be cleansed." Malkin whispered, vanishing from the air appearing where the charging one was. But it had stopped charging. He began laughing. So many auras, so many weak humans. So much blood waiting to be spilled. The blade that Emma had knocked to the side had his eye. Taking a step and appearing behind her, grabbing the blade, he vanished back to where he was. Spinning the blade before him, he seperated it into two swords, and two of him. Each one holding the blade.
"Can you hear it? Can you hear the final serenade, Miss Emma? It is so beautiful, but so sad. Let us dance one more time, let us see who is better in this last move." The two of him seperated, moving faster than any normal human, the one on her left sweeping the sword for her legs, the other one leaping straight up onto the roof, upside down, and diving down. They were one and the same, and both attacks were lethal. Malkin/His inner demon couldn't tell each other apart. All they knew, was they were invincible. All fiends must die/All humans must die. A single note of discord spread through the aura dome.
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