Mash Burnedead and the Vampire's Deal

The temperature of the arena steadily decreased, slowly but surely the entire area was frosting over.

"Ice magic, huh?" Mash took in the change and kept his breathing deep and steady, letting his breaths keep him warm. Already he could feel his muscles loosening up, heartbeat steadying, and blood flowing. "Shouldn't be too hard. I can handle some snowballs."

Raven grinned, "I'm sure you can." Instantly in front of her floating form, several large ice spikes appeared and sharpened. Without a word, the spikes launched themselves towards Mash. Right before they could impale him, Mash breathed deep and exhaled just as he launched a punch of his own. The two forces, magic, and muscle met in the center.

The ice stopped, before getting thrown back by the air pressure caused by the sheer power of his fist. Raven remained undeterred, allowing her ice to get closer until she turned and redirected the ice shards around her form and back at Mash. This time, the ice was shaped into tiny dagger-like shards, allowing them to cut into Mash's body.

Mash dodged and weaved the shards, but they moved in every single direction, seemed to follow him, and didn't let him ready an attack. Thinking on his head, Mash thought of what ice was weak too. Ice melts, so a fire is its weakness. A tiny smirk appeared on Mash's face, unseen by anyone except for Raven.

Still dodging the sharp shards, Mash rubbed his hands together. Rubbing so fast his hands were a blur, they eventually were aglow with an orange heat that melted any ice that came close to his hands.

Not enough. Taking his superheated hands and clapping them together, he ignited the chilled air around him. Causing an explosion of heat and wind that made anything cold disappear in an instant. The resulting smoke and evaporated ice fogged the arena making it impossible to see both combatants.

"How's that for a magic trick?" Mash got a pretty big surprise when Raven came out of the smoke unharmed. Waving her hands in fluid motions, the smoke was blown away by her own manifested wind.

"Nice trick, would you like to see mine?" Thrusting her hands out, concentrated beams of flame shot towards him. The flame struck the spot he was at and vaporized the floor. When Mash was nowhere to be seen Raven looked to the sky and charged one powerful jet of hell's fire.

Mash noticed her charging her magic and had no interest in dodging. Instead, he inflated his lungs. An imposing pillar of fire approached Mash, set on cremating him. To match her attack, Mash blew as hard as he could, the chilled air from his exhaling breath clashing with an inferno. The two sides remained in their stalemate until Mash felt himself run out of air.

Purely on instinct, Mash rummaged through his pocket until he found a gold coin. It was his first gold coin, the only one he earned himself. Remembering his second encounter with Abel, Mash readied his next attack. As soon as his exhale finished, Mash threw his coin at the still approaching pillar of fire.

When he threw the coin, he made sure that right before he released it he twisted it to make it spiral. Doing this, he made sure that when the coin meets the fire pillar, it got torn apart by the unstoppable spiral and nails Raven right in her center mass.

As soon as the coin met the fire, it met no resistance as it tore the flame apart, resulting in Raven getting her aura almost completely broken by the coin slamming into her chest and causing her to cough up blood.

Mash finally landed on the ground, looking impassively at Raven's coughing form. "Do you give up?" His words enraged Raven, causing her to look up and level her best bloodshot glare at him. Mash had to admit, she was kinda creepy when she did that. "Guess not."

"It's funny, I never got your name."

"Oh, it's Mash. Mash Burnedead."

"Mash… where did you find such strength?" It was nothing like she's ever seen, even Tai couldn't make as much damage as he could.

Mash gave Raven a tiny, amused smile. "My pops."

She stared at him, face blank. Eye twitching, she let out a belly laugh. Wiping the blood from her mouth and tears from her eyes, she gave a smile to Mash. It wasn't the darkly amused ones like before or even a bloodthirsty one. She gave him a genuine smile like she was enjoying this fight. "Mash Burnedead, you enlighten me."

"Okay?"

"When you brought up your knowledge on magic I thought you were my enemy, someone looking to steal and use my power like all the others."

"Huh."

"I now realize you're much more than that and much too stupid to be working for someone else."

"I'm not that dumb." He just wasn't good with books, that's all.

"You fight for your friends, is that your secret?" Raven questioned, honestly.

"Listen, lady, I just want a peaceful life with my pops and friends."

"And to do that you need enough strength to protect them, is that right?"

"I guess so."

Raven chuckled, "In that case, there's something you should know about your friends."

Mash got on guard, "What's wrong?"

"Their heartbeats were irregular, and bodies spasming sometimes. If you don't hurry up and end this quickly you might end up burying them in the woods."

Eyes widening, Mash wasted no time jumping towards Raven with the intent to finish this. Raven felt her smile taking on a more cruel smirk as she sidestepped his charge and shot his face full of lightning.

MSHL

Mash felt every fiber of his being spasming, his muscles locking up and falling out of his control. He shakily got up, already getting used to the effect. Until he felt another shock course through his system, causing him to almost fall down. Grimacing from the pain, he glared at Raven.

"People tend to become stronger when their loved ones are in danger." The electric arcs in her hands became more and more unstable, as the sky itself clouded over and thunder sounded out like divine music. As Raven's eyes got more intense, so did her magic. Crazy powerful streams of light coalesced into one singular beam of lightning. "I want you at your absolute strongest!"

Mash breathed in deep as he closed his eyes, "Full Body Magic." As soon as the beam of divine fury neared him, Mash opened his eyes and spun on his heel catching the lightning strike in his hands. Keeping to the end of his rotating arc, Mash stomped a heavy foot and hurled the lightning bolt back at Raven. "Retro Macto."

Eyes wide, Raven moved quickly. Jumping to the side in order to avoid being cooked alive. As soon as she blinked, right before her was Mash putting a knife hand to her chest. Muscles tensing, Mash put his whole body into this final attack. "Full Body: One Inch Punch."

Driving his fist into her center, Mash knocked the wind, blood, and Maiden state out of her, launching her back out of the arena, slamming into the wooden wall behind her, and destroying it.

The victory was his.

Raven sputtered as the wood dust got into her lungs, blood soon joined as she once again coughed the red substance out. Limping her way back to the arena was an accomplishment in itself, but through sheer will, she kept herself upright and conscious.

Looking over in the direction of her opponent, she found him fully dressed in his cloak and tie once again. "After all I inflicted, you seem none too worse for wear."

"You weren't good enough to take me down, vampire lady. Now…" Mash pointed an impeccably strong finger to the ground. "Put my friends down." The sound of doom boomed as Mash glared at her.

Raven smirked, "I can still fight… but you seem to be in a hurry." She motioned with her hands and the suspended cage above them slowly descended. Looking inside, Lance and Daut were still unconscious but now they were spasming. "I wouldn't want to keep you waiting, they need the help anyway."

Mash looked on, wide-eyed. "What's happening?" He checked their heartbeats and found they were pounding.

The vampire shrugged, "Best to be going now, they might not last much longer."

As Mash got ready to do just that, Raven put up a hand. "Or… you could stay here a little longer. I think I know what's wrong with them."

"Help them." It wasn't a plea, it was an order.

She smiled, "Oh I will, but in return, I'll need a favor. One day I'll come for you. I'll give you a request you can't refuse, then we'll be even." She held out a hand. "Do we have a deal?"

Living steel almost crushed her hand, "Help them."

Subtly, Raven cradled her hand. "Follow me." She then turned around and walked off.

Picking up his friends, Mash followed. This is why you should never make a deal with a vampire.