Eye of the storm

OoC: Time for battle number two. Ill be using my character Aurora and the battle is open to all. I will allow a maximum of 2 more participants in the fight for now. Lets make this epic.

*****

The rain flew down in torrents; pools of water were covering the street below creating a swamp of mud and water. From a nearby rooftop Aurora squatted on her heels, bow in hand, cloak sodden around her. Her target would be leaving the building across the street any moment now. She had but to wait. A flash illuminated the street for a split second allowing her to take in the surroundings below her more clearly, barrels stacked against a wall, a stray dog cowering behind them trying to stave off the rain. Thunder boomed, so loud it almost appeared to have come from the ground itself. She pulled her cloak tighter to prevent her cheongsam from catching the wind and giving her position away. Her knee high boots creaked as she shifted her weight.
‘Why are men always so slow at doing everything?’ she thought to herself and sighed, feeling her quiver press against her back and seeing steam gather in front of her face concealed beneath her cloaks hood. A roar of laughter from the house she was watching drew her attention back to where she was. She checked her katana at her side; her fingers still nimble thanks to the leather gloves she wore; now glistening with rain drops.

As the door below began to open she stood up, lighting forked behind her, striking a nearby house sending the smell of brimstone and sulphur into the air. Aurora didn’t flinch; she had a job to do and would do it one way or another. Thunder attacked her ears while rain continued to beat her body.

(OCC: I’m assuming this is a village of wooden buildings as just using the term ‘building’, ‘house’ etc, is a bit vague. But if lightning can set it alight, it seemed as wood in my minds eye. If this is wrong, then I shall correct it.)

The sound of merriment lingered in the air, tainting it, pervading in its every pitched noise and thick, burly breath that Katsu took in. As the songs of valour and courage echoed onwards in the out of tune way they were, he stayed on his seat, metal fingers tapping with arrogant annoyance at the naives he kept as brief company. Still, it was the lure of the drink that bade him to stay. That fresh, sweet wine of life. Yet his eyes could only watch as what he truly wanted from this place was slowly being diluted by the filth of mead. Alcohol always left a horrible after-taste.

But still, the prey had not bothered him too much. A couple gold coins kept those curious in his wear and weapon away, as well as the water flowing to his glass. Even with the weather-beaten cloak shrouding most of his clothes, brief flashes from the split in the centre shown the extravagance he favoured to wear. Regardless to him though was if they noticed him or not. It was easier if they paid little interest in him but if moods changed, he was always prepared to take what he wanted with force.

As the rambling drunken choir carried on, one of them stumbled from the main crowd and left for the guest rooms above the in. ‘Now is the time’ Katsu thought to himself as he took leave of his seat in slow pursuit. His eyes lingered on for as long as they could on the target he had not picked. He examined the man carefully. Clearly, he was intoxicated beyond any and every limit humanly possible and in an unhealthy stated. From the heavy breathing to the deposits of fat that rolled about his body, the drunkard was an easy buffet open to his fangs.

The hunger grew, that feeling that must be satisfied roaming wild in the confides of his mind. But his eyes hardly showed the bloodlust; they remained calm and collected as Katsu watched ever closer as he hovered nearer to the target. The man, with a large and disturbing thud, fell flat onto the floor in his own room, leaving the door ajar. ‘This is too easy.’ The thought of how absolutely simple it was to prey on the mortal baffled him more and more. Surely they had heard of the myths and rumours of his kind. Was it blind ignorance, fear or stupidity that governed the mortal, he thought.

Slowly he closed the door and turned the man over. His eyes flickered open slightly, still slightly conscious after his fall but it mattered not. Look with those cold, impassive eyes, Katsu brought his fist crashing down in his face. That first spilling of blood, a moment that always washed through him when the hunger urged for his wine. The punch had split most of the drunkards left cheek open and removed a couple of teeth as well. Crimson slowly, ever so slowly, stained the floor. The sight was unbearable. He had to drink. With a sweep of his hand, he tore the throat and…

The deed was done. The hunger now receded to the depths of his mind as he took his leave of the inn. He could not stay longer, they would know it was him within little time as he always left a mess after feeding. The beating rain seemed to crash upon him with menacing intent, as if his action was a crime of nature. But the night called, as did something within it.

Light spilled into the street casting strange shadows on the ground and walls opposite. A fat man, most likely a merchant due to the way he was dressed, staggered out the door, slamming his shoulder into the frame and cursing loudly while doing so. His foot crashed into a puddle, sending waves of muddy water outwards. He spun around and crashed into the barrels stacked against the wall next to the door sending the stray dog into an uproar of howls and barks. Aurora watched with disdain, rolling her eyes and letting out another sigh, he breath devoured by the never ending onslaught of the storm.

“Time to move,’ she sneered ‘If the lightning strike didn’t catch people attention that mutt surely will.” The merchant had toppled some of the barrels and was lying face down in the mud, his girth the only thing keeping him from drowning as the dog continued to create a clamor. She double checked her equipment once more before jumping from the edge of the building. Her cloak billowed out behind her with almost a life of its own, tasting freedom before being snapped back to follow its wearer down towards the ground. For a fleeting moment Aurora felt one with the storm, falling as the rain drops did, cascading towards the earth. Then just as suddenly as it came the moment was gone and she fell to the ground, dropping to one knee into the mud, sending splatter around and onto her clothing. Just as quickly as she landed she sprinted towards the inn, taking shelter around the corner of the building.

From her position she could smell the strong stench given off by the drunkard and his expensive ale covered clothes lying in the mud only paces away causing her to cringe. She briefly considered silencing the dog but quickly dismissed the idea as it would only fuel suspicion and at worst a search should it be discovered. “If the target won’t come out, go in and make them,” she stated as she slung her bow over one shoulder and across her body pinning her cloak to her back preventing it from getting in the way indoors and loosened her katana in its black and thorn patterned sheath.

She pressed herself up against the edge of the building and peered around the corner. The door had swung closed after the merchant had left the building, leaving the street in darkness once more. She left the cover of the building, its walls damp with rain, the wood absorbing most of the moisture, and began to stalk towards the front door, double checking that the windows were fully covered by the drapes as she passed. Gritting her teeth, with one hand on the door and the other on her sword handle she prepared to enter the inn and to what awaited her.

The streets were empty yet noisy. From the east came the painful draw of ale that destroyed men with promise of happy song and joyous company, whilst from the west shrills of agony and horror. A think black smoke rose into the atmosphere, its source raging on again the storm as the light from the flames grew brighter over the other buildings.

With a smirk barely masked by the shadow of his cloak, a menacing thought cross the ancient vampires mind. From off his back Katsu drew Ame-no-nuhoko, its blade glittering faintly in the candle light of lanterns and windows, and walked on through the town. Under his breath he whispered,

“A massacre is at hand. Those in my way shall perish.”

His mud covered boots heavily trudged through the thick earth as Katsu proceeded further down the street. And there he lay, his first victim of a blind rage. The man on the floor, soaked in rain water and filth, didn’t turn nor move as Katsu hovered over him. With a quick stab and twist, he pierced both bone and flesh, tearing both valves of his heart into bloody ribbons. And now a new stain joined both their clothes of a deep crimson as the vampire withdrew his weapon from the corpse and moved on.

Seeing the form in the doorway, Katsu walked up the steps towards it. Its forms too was shrouded in a cloak unlike his own, but this persons was more beaten by the elements. He examined them carefully, naginata poised, as from the clamber of his boots it was likely they knew of his presence there. Still he took in the design and craftsman ship of their cloak. A pattern of vines ran over it and whatever it was made of looked foreign even to his traveled eye.

Shaking his head, he regained his focus and personal mission. With the hilt, he struck towards the back of their head, hoping to savor the moment of a fight. Yet as calmly as he performed the action, he said,

“Excuse me, you’re in my way.”

Aurora heard the person approaching behind her and paused with her hand on the bronze handle, the sound of boots hitting the mud was distinct even among the torrents of rain. She could tell from their footsteps alone that this was no peasant. A brief moment’s pause was all the chance she had. She dropped and rolled to the side as the man’s sword hilt came to rest in the space that the back of her head had occupied a split second ago. As her momentum brought her to her feet again she took a few steps back into the mud soaked street to take in her assailant.

Rain covered the man before her; although she could not see his face she could tell he was watching her. His cloak, already heavy with rain, rippled lazily in the rain and she caught a glimpse of some fine clothes slipping in and out of view. His face was mostly hidden beneath the hood but she could glimpse some black hair. She knew right away without even having to see the man’s face that this was who she had been sent to kill, his manner and his clothes deemed him so.

“This man is different,” she muttered to herself. “I can’t quite figure it out, but time will tell.” She unsheathed her sword, hearing the rain wet her blade as she pulled it into the open air. It gleamed in the darkness, catching the red glow of the burning buildings. She lifted it up, hilt level with her face and shifted stance, ready to engage her target. “Man!” she barked “Remember my voice; it will be the last thing you hear before I exchange your life for gold.” Springing off her feet she rushed head on at her enemy, creating waves of brown sludge explode beneath her feet, before diving into a roll, hood and cloak turning brown with mud, ending up behind her target and bringing her katana across through the rain in an attempt to slice his midriff.

The wood hit empty air as his target, with a feat of fast reflexes moved swiftly out of the attacks path. It seemed his assumption of the person had been right; there was something ‘more’ about them. Turning to meet the stare of his target, he watched with a withheld excitement as the woman’s young, elegant face was held briefly by the light and the calmness of how she drew her blade.

“Man! Remember my voice; it will be the last thing you hear before I exchange your life for gold.”

Her words, carried by the raging winds, seemed all the more harsher against his ears. Katsu’s mind replayed the statement over and over again; tasting them, reading them with full focus of meaning. A terrible snarl formed black shadows across the vampires face as his fangs became more apparent. A twist smile that now laughed mockingly at the woman before him.

“So it is you who disturbed the night?” His voice shifted and returned to a flat tone, conveying no emotion he held within, “Tell me why your masters did me such a dishonor as not to tell you my name? It would seem common courtesy to tell an assailant who the target it, or have they withheld it for fear of you not taking on the task.” The smile widened further and the laughter ensued again. “I shall introduce myself then, shall I? I am Katsu ClearSong. And I am no mere man. Mortals are weak, so please do not compare me to such a being.”

Even whilst he attempted to talk to her, she made her move. Darting at him with the intent of an outright kill, her sword flashed before him, aimed for his abdomen. As if dancing, Katsu spun backwards away from the blow. In the same movement, he brought his naginata round with him, blade towards the ground. He knew his dodge was not enough to avoid the blow. With a light tap of metal on metal, he parried the slash.

The force of the strike against his casual defense caused his weapon to rise. Taking advantage of the momentum, he tightened his grip about the handle, bringing his naginata to a steady stop in position and lunged forward with the blade at the woman’s face.

Her concentration was lost as his words still rang in her head. The appearance of his fangs and his words now showed her what he really was. “And I am no mere man,” repeated his voice in her head confirming everything. As the thought flooded her mind she was brought back to reality as Katsu easily parried her blow. She gasped not expecting so strong a parry from such a person and before she could react she was staring down the shaft of his blade as it raced towards her with the intent of a killing blow.

With little more than instinct she managed to tilt her head enough to escape a full blow. She rolled backwards out of Katsu’s reach, through the mud and came to rest in the prone position, kneeling in the ever increasing chaos of the street. She briefly checked her bow, still shouldered and hugging her body, for damage before rising. “If only this rain would let up for a moment, my bow could become an asset instead of a hindrance, I may have to risk it if my swordplay cannot keep up,” she thought.

As she stood up, sword, blade now a dull mud colour, still clutched in her right hand, she lifted her other hand to her head where the vampires sword and struck and found her hood in tatters around her shoulders, a large but shallow cut on her cheek bleeding slowly, the rain sending a blood smeared stain down her face. Her hair, most of it still tucked under her cloak, was already wet and beginning to become matted and stuck to her face, its slick black colour glistening with rain. She rallied herself, ashamed at knowing that her surprise must have shown on her face for a moment, and begun to concentrate once more as blood began to trickle down her neck. “Vampire?” she thought. “Creatures of legend. I who have traveled the world over did not believe them to be real, yet I of all people should know that all stories start with truth.”

She stared at her adversary, his blade tinted red and his calm yet excited stare. She grinned, “Perhaps now we can really fight?” she muttered. “Vampire!” she barked “Know this. You are the first person to look upon my face for many years and for this you must die tonight. My name is Aurora, know you hold no fear over me or my task. You will perish here tonight, by sword or sun, and as you die you will stare at my face and beg for mercy.” She reached down to her mud worn thigh, and undid one of several unusual looking arrows held in place there. “One scratch of this and the fight is as good as over” she chuckled. Raising her sword in one hand and gripping the poison arrow with the other she rushed toward Katsu. She brought or katana sweeping down across his body, expecting a parry, while jabbing forwards aiming at his thigh with the arrow, all whilst smiling manically.

‘Impressive’ he mused to himself. ‘Such agile reflexes and elegant form in combat. She may prove to be some worth.’ As the thought of her dwelled on in the void of his mind, that voice that seemed coarse through the crashing rain played its melody in his ear once more.

“One scratch of this and the fight is as good as over”

Of all her rabble, Katsu took notice of her last line. Before he could compose himself for a response, she all ready rushed at him. Mere seconds seemed an age as the distance between them was closed and combat ensued once more. The pincer strike was an obvious move. He knew she’d try to distract him with one attack to aim with another. Yet the length of his weapon would prove to have the advantage.

Another parry as he spun his naginata to the floor, deflecting the arrow and guarding the sword. Using the momentum of the spin, he too moved around his opponent. Drawing his weapons blade from the ground, its sheen now stained with mud, he lashed viscously at her back with its rise and fall back down.

Yet his mood dictated him not to carry on with trying to strike Aurora. With a massive leap, he hurled himself backwards onto the wall of building. Stabbing his naginata in, Katsu positioned himself on the shaft and stood with the same calm air he held. With a clearing cough, he prepared to speak but his eyes fell down onto his own body. A perfect cut stretched across his cloak and shirt underneath. Looking closer he saw the some of the links in his mail had split and broken; barely protecting him from the full blow he thought to have stopped.

With a loud hiss, he called out to her, “It seems I do not give you enough credit. It has been quite awhile since anyone has landed such a clean hit upon me. I commend you. But please, call me by my name. I am not just vampire, I was once human and still demand some respect for the name I bore from that life. It’s Katsu if your feeble mind had forgotten but it matters not now.”

A quick jerk of his neck, Katsu turned to the inn he had met this adversary at. He could feel what he wanted within there, calling him, begging him for energy. Slowly, he lifted his right hand towards it and the building burst into a raging inferno. Screams rang endlessly around them as the flames swiftly climbed higher, engulfing all inside. Turning his hand now to face Aurora, he flames lunged forth from the building in a wide pillar that battered on against the hindrance of the rain.

Aurora felt her blow connect for a split second before it was thrust aside by Katsu. She had barely enough time to take in the fact that although she had struck a glancing blow it hadn’t felt like striking into flesh, but much more like striking armor. She cursed as her arrow was deflected as well before seeing her target spin behind her. Before she was able to spin to face her assailant she felt the bite of steel on her back. Her armor took the brunt of the first strike but a second followed right after biting into her back making her grimace in pain. She spun around, sword ready to parry and strike, shaking loose rain and mud from her clothes, but Katsu was gone.

She whirled around as she heard Katsu speak to her from a distance. He had dug his naginata into the side of a building and was balancing on it, ignoring the rain and distant thunder, about halfway up the buildings wall. His cloak whipped slightly in the wind, revealing the tear in his clothes made by her katana. She smirked to herself glad to have ruined his fine, expensive clothing. “It seems I do not give you enough credit,” he hissed at her. “It has been quite awhile since anyone has landed such a clean hit upon me. I commend you. But please, call me by my name. I am not just vampire, I was once human and still demand some respect for the name I bore from that life. It’s Katsu if your feeble mind had forgotten but it matters not now.”

“I do not call you by your name, vampire, because you do not deserve it, at least not yet. You are just another hunt to me. Gold to be collected, to be put into my pocket, gold I intend to collect, there is no other course of action.” Before she realized, as if in answer to her, she saw Katsu raise his hand and make the inn burst into fire. She spun around to see huge flames leapt into the air as if challenging the storm itself. Her beautiful face became lit up by the fiery glow of the inn, her dark hair, now wild and attacking her face and body, shimmering darkly. “Flames should not move that way,” she thought as she saw the raging wall of red and orange move towards her. Realizing what was happening just in time she flung herself down into the mud and water in the street and rolled to cover herself in water and mud as the flames rolled over her in an angry barrage.

As soon as the flames receded Aurora clambered to her feet, heavy and sluggish with the water and mud that protected her from the fire and began to focus as she sprinted to a nearby alley. Casting vanish on herself as she used the walls as spring boards she reached the top of the building and sheathed her sword as she began to undo her bow from around her. She swore as she found the bow badly damaged from the vampires attacks to her back and the fire. “It’s a chance I have to take, even if the bow is damaged and the string is wet,” she thought as she undid another arrow from her thigh. “I need to land a hit and this armor piercing arrow will do more than that,” she chuckled quietly. She took aim at Katsu, confident in her Vanish spell to hide her, feeling the bow bend awkwardly from its damage and its string feeling much less taught and launched the arrow toward her target.

(OOC: I'd just like to add for the purpose of that my attack may sound God-Moddish, it is dodge-able since it is only moving at a single low level. Getting over and behind it, since it consumes whatever it touches, would ensure safety.)

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As the raging inferno covered the pretty little woman, Katsu felt not a stir in his heart. Neither pity nor regret for what he did lingered to that empty soul he owned. As he broke his focus upon the flames, the rain performed its duty. Steam billowed towards the heavens and Katsu stared for a brief moment at the charred ground that lay not more that a few metres from him. All that was left for her were ashes and a sly smile upon the ancients face.

As the rain carried on beating down on his cloak, he took a moment to inspect his wound. In thin streams crimson rolled down his lower abdomen but the cut hardly looked deep. ‘Hmph, just a scratch.’ he thought. Yet amidst the crashing rain, he heard the twang of a bow. Swiftly turning to where he thought he heard it, Katsu’s reactions proved too slow. Pain coursed through his left arm and a loud scream of agony left his lips. The arrow pierced his mail and gauntlet with an unwavering power and cleanness that he had never come across. Turning to look Katsu saw the wound, the pouring blood that now stained his water-soaked clothes with a new dye. Pinned to the wall he had held himself against, his left forearm bled fresh scarlet as the arrow embedded itself in flesh and wood.

He cursed bitterly to the night, his voice no longer calm but course and torn as the pain fought to take its place in his feelings. Gripping the shaft with his right hand, Katsu effortless broke the wood and pulled his arm free of the wall. Blood still dript from the wound and mingled with the rain as it softly fell to join the mud. Jumping down from his position, he ripped his naginata free with his fall. Splintered wood burst from the wall and more pain travelled through Katsu’s arm as he made his landing on the earth.

“Enough! This ends now. You and this village shall fall together.”

Standing up straight, digging Ame-no-nuhoko blade first into the ground, the earth liquefied and a moat of water surrounded his position. Katsu closed his eyes, feeling the energy flowing through his body, around him and the two intermixing. The air grew dense, his breathing harder, as he focused more and more onto his task. Ripples formed in the water and mud around his feet, the wind shifted direction and swirled about him. Fire from the building leapt from its source and encircled his presence. As the vampire opened his eyes, he saw them. The four pillars of elements that circled him. Earth, Wind, Fire, Water all moved in the same quick motion around him. With just a thought, the four became one; a single swirling mass of chaos that warred for dominance over the other. And with that same shift in thought all four burst away, scattered to the four directions. Each traveled with a rumbling, terrible power that enrapt, consumed and destroyed all in there path.

Aurora watched, relieved that she managed to aim correctly despite her broken equipment, as her arrow flew towards her target, burying itself in the vampires arm, cutting throw his armor as if it didn’t exist. She allowed herself to gloat, laughing out loud, as the look of pain welled up in Katsu’s face. “Let’s end this foul creature,” she spat while loosening her sword in its sheath. She watched with a smile on her face as the vampires blood mingled with the rain, staining his cloak, the red a stark contrast with the rest of the dark gloomy village. Her smile faded as he dug his naginata into the ground turning the sloshing mud covered street into a torrent of water and the fire from the inn become alive again and leap towards the man in the street. She started to panic as Katsus preparation came to an end and the huge wall of elements cam thundering towards her.

She quickly shouldered her bow, hearing it creak in complaint, and cursing, ran to her opponents right, aiming to get behind him and upon reaching the edge of the building leaped off to land on the roof of the next. She looked across and saw that wall was an ever expanding circle of chaos, getting closer all the time. “If that attack hits me not only will me spell be cancelled out but I may not be able to get up again” she thought bitterly. Looking around desperately for a way to avoid the attack the spotted the town temple a short distance away. “If I can reach the top of that in time I may be able to leap over his this wall of death” she spoke to herself.

A thunderous crack brought her spinning around, expecting to see some tree or building struck anew by lightning but astonished she gaped as building after building toppled under the onslaught. She heard the screams of people inside as they were consumed by falling debris and a catastrophic melee rolling over them. She shook her head, sending a spray of water off into the rain and came to her senses. She turned and started sprinting desperately towards the shrine behind Katsu. Leaping from rooftop to roof top she became confident once more as it became clear she would reach safety in time. “Two more to go,” she rasped breathlessly to herself. As she reached the edge of a small house, the attack now only a few meters away, her foot slipped on the wet edge. “No!” she screamed as she tumbled from the roof towards the mud covered alley below. She landed on her feet, her back to a dead end, sending a wave of mud and water onto the side of the building, and looked up to see the mass of chaos bearing down on her. With nowhere to go she whipped out her katana and shifted into a defensive stance in one smooth movement and roared as the wave overcame her.

The onslaught threw her up and forwards out into the crater of what used to be the village. She lay on her side in the mud, her once black coloured clothes now tattered, torn and stained red and brown. As she came to she opened her eyes, and climbed to her knees, and saw Katsu some distance ahead of her. She could no longer feel the effect of the Vanish spell over her and knew the magic attack that had just hit her had cancelled it out. As she summoned what little energy she had left into a spell, she could only hope the vampire had not noticed her land behind him. She raised her arm with tremendous difficulty, even the rain hitting her dirty mud strewn arm felt to her like it weighed a ton. “This has to hit,” she prayed “I don’t want to, but it looks like there is only one attack left I can use to beat him and I need his energy.” She launched her Steal Will spell at him and once more un-shouldered her bow, broken and beaten almost beyond use and notched 3 arrows to the string and held it down in front of her ready to counter or attack depending on what happened next.