by Harlon Banks
Quiet Malice & Hidden Fury
A/N - Wasn't expecting another chapter so soon were ya? Neither was I TBH
Character Note - Liariana's abilities are inspired by Japanese Shinto God's & The Yelkath Clan of Samurai (Yes, these are real things if you didn't know)
The Challenger Chapter Eighteen - Quiet Malice & Hidden Fury
Liariana's blade hit the ground with a loud clanging noise. Jonath's dagger also fell out of his hand; chains rattling before falling into silence as the phantom blade dissipated into thin air. His right hand bleeding profusely and now lying limp at his side as he back stepped away from Liariana. The woman's powerful red eyes watching him like a predator that had just mortally wounded her prey and were waiting for it to succumb to its wounds. Blood dripping into a small puddle by his feet, Jonath breathed a bit labored...
"Damn..." He thought quietly to himself, unable to feel his thumb momentarily as she'd severed the tendon when she disarmed him. "This girls no joke when it comes to using that sword... If I hadn't attacked when I did... She'd have cut my throat out." He the entire time when thinking this eyed the bloody ninjato blade at the woman's feet. His own debilitating wound sealing itself over again good as new, although this time it healed slower than before. His stamina was fading fast... He had to come up with some sort of plan and soon.
Drip... Drip... Drip...
His soft glowing eyes casted towards Liariana's right hand when he heard the sound of dripping not from his own wound. The woman staring at him monotone and unflinching as if she hadn't registered the wound inflicted upon her person yet. Jonath couldn't believe it when he saw the trails of blood dripping off her bandaged fingers resting limp at her side down onto the cold stone flooring...
He actually managed to wound her... ?
"I can't kill him unless I figure out how he's avoiding my attacks. This is so strange..." Liariana mused to herself as she raised her bloody hand to looking at the red staining her wrapped in black palm. A noticeable, horizontal tear right around if not slightly below the wrist area; he had severed the tendon of her arm as well, she couldn't move her thumb either. Staring at the slash across her flesh for what felt like ages before slowly turning to look at Jonath again with hollow eyes. Hooking her foot under the blade by her feet, she kicked it back into the air and caught it with her free hand in the standard grip before lowering it back to her side.
"Question." Liariana suddenly said which completely threw off Jonath. His eyes widening in confusion and tilting his head at her while at the same time examining her posture and body language. She didn't seem like she were going to attack him if he answered, her tone also implied she was genuine in wanting to ask it. Relaxing his own posture, arms moving to his sides at rest as the second chained knife vanished into thin air also, he nodded at her.
"What is it?" He said. The animosity in the air seemed to fade away; an eerie reminder these two weren't fighting for personal reasons. They were fighting for the wrong reasons. Holding up her bloody hand so as the back of it faced Jonath, she'd focus her eyes on him again. This time her focus being felt directly on him unlike the other times where it was as if she were just looking at a wall instead of a person. The soft white light of the gem hovering behind her making the blood noticeable when it pooled off her arm below by her boots.
"How did you do this?" She asked voice calm and quiet. Was she asking how he managed to cut her at the same time she cut him?
"Excuse me?" Jonath responded with a confused yet subtle tone of his own. Flexing his healed over thumb as they talked to make sure it were fully functional.
"Your reactionary skills aren't conventional. I should have killed you multiple times already had you been relying on typical reflexes befitting of your calibre." She paused as her wound began to fume with something Jonath could only make out to be as 'dark energy'. The flaming essence a deep silver black tint in coloration and confined to just the wound, but he saw it all the same. Eyes squinting slightly at that energy, was that fire? No... It was too dark, too ominous to be typical flames. What the hell was that energy?
"I've noticed during your battle with the serpents you on multiple occasions dodged attacks meant to kill you before they were even enacted by the predators. Yet non lethal attacks seemed to have higher chances of striking you. Those eyes of yours start glowing also and transform in appearance as well..." She kept on talking and the more she said the more tense Jonath got. She had watched him much more closely than the reverse, he became aware of that when she told him after saving his life; but to have observed him to this extent was something unsettling. It was as if she had stalked him while simultaneously acting as if she were his ally even if it was only bare boned.
Liariana rotated her hand so her palm was facing Jonath now, revealing the healed over wound which made his heart sink. She could regenerate too!? Sliding the blade back into its sheath at the small of her back she never released the hilt of the weapon as crimson eyes calmly looked upon her target. His eyes watching that sword more than her out of habit at this point, when she had her hands on that thing she became a lot more dangerous. He had to keep his guard up.
"Tell me, are you able to foresee your own death?" She asked in an eerily simple tone void of any attachments. A breath once again catching itself in Jonath's throat now realizing her question was rhetorical, she had already figured him out. The fact she even asked in the first place was to inflict psychological leverage over him, she was figuring out all of his tricks one by one. Her red eyes flared brighter with mystic energy; slit pupils emanating that same calm murderous intent fit for an assassin towards his own eyes that made his mind quiver a moment. However his body remained calm, not a single shiver in any cell of his physical being no matter how deadly this woman seemed.
"Maybe. Maybe not. Guess we'll find out soon either way though right?" He played off the vibe he was getting from her with sarcasm. His mind settling again and a twitch of his fingers reforged those ethereal looking chained daggers into his possession once more, switching both around into ice pick grips and readying himself. His crescent-shaped eyes growing stronger ever so subtly in their luminous emanation as well. Liariana lowered her healed hand back to her side, other arm still gripping the hilt of her ninjato as the two succumbed to the silence around them once more, preparing for another and far more intense clash.
"If I can't kill you in one move I'll just have to cut you down till you can't regenerate or react fast enough, then I'll finish you off." Liariana thought to herself while bending her knees ever so slightly and raising up her right hand in a strange one-handed sign. Index and middle finger fully extended and pressed together hovering right in front of her nose and center of her lips; her other fingers curled inwards to her palm and her entire vibe growing colder. Jonath tightening the grip of his twin daggers and bracing himself amidst the silence.
"Here she comes..." He quietly said to himself steeling his nerves.
A bit of wall crumbled within the cathedral off in the darkness...
"Iajutsu." She whispered.
Liariana vanished, her speed incredible! Jonath giving in to his body's natural calmness and relying on instinct more than conscious thought to survive.
He pivoted off his foot lashing out with his right blade behind him in a half-moon arc meeting Liariana's sword as she freed it from the sheath and attacked him in that same motion. Ethereal dagger making a high-pitched ping noise against razor-sharp steel sword as ghostly sparks burst from the point of contact. The two engaged in another tense blade lock, eyes staring into one another's with quiet resolve and tenacity. Jonath at this point had no choice, he had to fight as if he wanted to kill her too if he were to live. Hitting the base of her weapons hilt with her opposite hand the Yelkath broke the blade lock by knocking away Jonath's dagger, her right leg lurching forward to slam her knee into his solar plexus.
Jonath immediately retaliated, spinning around the outside of her moving leg and swiveling blade into a forward grip to plunge it
into the gap of her ribcage. Her red eyes reading his movements and easily allowing her to avoid the counter with a sidestep of her own. The two backing off momentarily before lunging forward again with no words or noises aside from the sounds of vicious combat. Sparks flashed all across the terrain, the two engaged in a vicious melee of fast paced footwork, slashes, thrusts, dodges, parries, blocks, everything. No words being said as streaks of pale and red trailed from their eyes as the two clashed over and over and over in close quarters combat. Liariana's raw skill, precision, aggression and agility combatted by Jonath's natural reflexes, perception, superior physical strength, instincts and dual wielding blades.
The battle started off with Liariana dominating at close range, Jonath struggling to defend against her nonstop onslaught of agile attacks and fluent footwork. As the battle dragged on however, she found less of her attacks pressuring him as hard and the amnesic's movements growing more and more fluent and precise by the second. The fact that he even lasted this long against her compared to just earlier he struggled with animals she killed easily raised more and more questions about just who, or what he was.
Jonath knocked away her sword aiming to carve a line through him shoulder to waist with his left dagger; breaking off the intense melee by jumping backwards several meters with supernatural agility of his own that seemed to become increasingly on par with her own. Liariana quick to pursue him, blade gripped in reverse as she lunged through the air after him with the two now airborne and clashing blades once more in a flurry of sparks and aura emission. Their clashes echoing through the air as she hammered down on his defenses trying to break through with her greater skill and technique.
"How... ?" She couldn't help but ponder agitated in her mind at this. How the hell was this amnesic who earlier could barely use a dagger decently now fending her off even if his skills were amateurish!?
Her blade arced to carve out his face, he dodged by a hairs breadth. His eyes reflecting off the metal that seemed to move in slow motion with all the adrenaline in his system as it danced across the air where his face was moments earlier. A glimpse of the crescent shapes of his Melissaes making itself known across sleek steel.
"How are you doing this!?" Her eyes now began glaring at Jonath as she attacked him. It was becoming more and more insulting to her that it were taking this long to kill him...
The more he dodged and evaded, the more aggressive and precise Liariana's swings were. As if she were getting more and more serious at the same rate his body were adapting and evolving to combat her. At this point it was a lethal battle of attrition, by all means she intended to win it.
"She's getting more aggressive..." Jonath analyzed in his mind swaying past a slash meant to cut across his chest with an irritated look in his eyes. The two landing on the ground feet first and Jonath growling in frustration. "Is she getting frustrated? Either way I can't get any breathing room, one wrong step and I'm dead." The thoughts of him dying kept coming and coming. This girl was a monster at close range!
Liariana made a punching motion with her arm, fist aimed past his head to overextend and allow the reversed blade to drag itself into his neck killing him. Jonath ducking and aiming to elbow her overextended body in the stomach only for her to swiftly move into her missed attack and roll over his lowered body fluently back on her feet behind him. Pivoting around both hands gripping the blade she made a diagonal cut towards his body. Blade whistling as it cut air and missed by a few centimeters when he hopped away spinning mid-air to throw his weapon like a rope dart with high-speed and astounding accuracy at her own throat. Ninjato batting away the smaller blade, Jonath smirking next when the dagger merely twirled around the swords edge ensnaring it in the invisible chain that he had wrapped around his arm. Said chain briefly visible in a ghastly appearance from his arm to her weapon before it faded away into thin air again.
"Those chains are a real nuisance..." The Yelkath scowled in her mind but her face remained ever neutral, merely looking at her entangled blade yet not releasing it from her grip. Red eyes soon looking back at Jonath as the combat ceased and the two seemed to be taking a breather. "He's also more easily defending himself against me... Evolutionary adaptiveness?" She wondered while examining his form. From black and white hair to those markings across his left to the ghastly color of his eyes and his peculiar aura energy. He was truly an enigma she couldn't figure out.
"His moves are getting sharper and more fluid... Are his eyes like mine?" She canted her head in silent thought. Was he part of a clan as well? She'd never met anyone from Yakagura with powers like his...
Regardless, after fighting for several minutes nonstop and still being unable to land a decent blow against him... Liariana had a hard choice to make. Lowering her head now and falling quiet, a bit too quiet...
"I'm running on empty here, don't know how much longer I can keep this up..." Jonath thought while trying to hide his labored breathing. He could feel his body losing energy, growing weaker by the second at this rate. He needed to end this, someway somehow; if he ran out of steam before this fight ended he was without a doubt a dead man. "Think, Jonath. There's gotta be a way to talk her out of this... Or finish her off without killing her... if I even have a choice that is." He scoffed verbally while his mind ran countless options.
He kept his tightened grip on the phantom chains binding her weapon from afar, never daring to give any slack on his grip. Pale eyes darting around the place for anything that might help him meet his goal. Nothing around offered any sort of insight. Damn...
Sucking his teeth Jonath figured by now the only way he'd be able to get out of here alive is to knock her unconscious, he highly doubted he'd be able to kill her. Doubted even more he'd be able to just escape her by fleeing... This entire ordeal was annoying as hell for him. It was unfortunately however, more annoying for his opposition.
"I guess it can't be helped..." she sighed to herself. Her words exasperate and tired.
Liariana's peculiar words made Jonath snap back into focus, looking at her in silence. The young woman relaxing her posture; blade lowering back to her side still ensnared by his weapon. Her vibe shifting once again. What was she doing now?
Liariana closed her eyes while tugging her blade back up closer to her chest with the chains; her right hand reaching out to grasp the links of the phantom bindings and tightly squeeze them so Jonath wouldn't be able to get away. Not taking any chances with another sudden movement by her Jonath quickly snapped the chains at the base of his wrist separating himself from the dagger right as Liariana raised her open bandaged palm towards him with an eerily cold look in her eyes.
"Never thought I'd use this against someone like you, but I can't waste anymore time." She whispered. Her aura starting to spark around her left arm and same side of her face like a struggling match trying to ignite. Jonath staring at her bewildered and shortly afterwards reforming his dagger and chain and bracing himself again. Her eyes flaring in glow as those slit pupils began to quiver across a canvas of deep red and her left side ignited in a blaze of silver and black tinted flames. The dancing fires appearing in sinister patches across her left arm from fingers to shoulder, her neck and the left side of her face. Jonath's eyes widening at the sight of these void tinted fires...
What the hell was that... ? That wasn't regular fire...
"I hate using this... but you won't be alive to tell anyone what you're about to see anyway." She spoke in an eerily tranquil tone. The air felt sickening soon after the words left her lips, a chill akin to death brushing against the back of his neck graced Jonath as he stared into those flames of black and silver. The most noticeable thing about them aside from the malevolent coloration being that they gave off no heat at all, in fact it felt cold if anything yet not in the conventional sense. They felt cold in a way that could only be described as 'unholy' in nature. Taking a step back in caution as he couldn't help but feel some type of panic in the back of his mind.
"What the hell are those flames?" He asked
voice laced with hesitating curiosity. This was bad. This was extremely bad.
"No need to worry what they are; you'll become kindling soon either way." She replied in a grimly casual tone. The flames compressing in size before vanishing completely leaving fuming embers and smoke emanating off her person. Jonath's eyes flashing the image of him being swallowed by those flames and left a grotesque corpse lying across the ground soon turning into ashes and scattering to the wind. Damn. Damn damn damn damn! He needed to do something fast in the next few seconds!
"Burn to nothing, Kagutsuchi." As these words were spoken her hand sparked up again like a match.
Bang! The sound that followed reminiscent of a grenade.
Liariana's arm recoiled backwards from the violent explosion of dark fire released from her bandaged palm in a swirling torrent towards Jonath. His eyes wide with shock at the speed of the flames before they swallowed all in their path washing it all with cold hues of black and silver. Recovering herself from the recoil silent as red eyes watched the dark fires devour all in their path. Black veins creeping across underneath her skin from the same side she released those flames from; Liariana suddenly coughed up blood and fell to a knee holding her left side as blood streamed from her closed left eye. The black lines crawling beneath her skin swelling a moment in size, and then vanishing as quick as they came.
