Some how I managed to get my sword in between his blade and my head. For the first time I got a clear look at his sword. It was a very reflective metal, but I couldn't tell exactly what element it was made from. Also it was a straight blade, slightly shorter than mine but this evened out because of the curve on my sword, and it was sharpened on both sides. Most swords look like his but only are sharp on one side, I have never figured it out why but I realize that they must just use the safety precautions as marketing. My sword was only sharpened on one side because of its slight curve, but the blade was made thin enough on that side so that if I really made a great effort I could put a gash in someone. My sword is a lot more powerful than his there is no doubt about that but even the meteor materia used in the wrong hands is useless if a superior fighter is using even a barely adequate weapon.
He continued to strike at me relentlessly for who knows how long and I continued to parry, obviously struggling to keep up with him. I knew he was probably getting a little tentative because I was able to keep him from reaching my body, something he had most likely expected to do on his first swipe. With every attack and defense I studied his strategy and fighting style, not for content but for a flaw. Like the best written novels it would take a long time, maybe longer than I had, but you can always find a flaw and if you act on the flaw correctly it can prove to your advantage greatly. In the position I was in a quick swipe to the neck would be the optimal scenario, but I could only be so lucky. The only consistent opening I could find is that if I attacked at just the right time I could get a good hit in between the third and fourth ribs on his right hand side, I good quick backhanded attack would do the trick just fine.
I parried patiently, waiting for the opening to come again, when from seemingly nowhere I saw his sword coming for my head. In fear I lifted my left arm which was not holding my sword. This instinctive maneuver would cost me dearly as his steel drew the first blood and drove about halfway through my arm. That was a relief though, if he had gotten a good hit in my arm would be on the floor right now. But I knew I could never give him the chance to attack again and seeing his first delay since the battle started I struck just as I planned. I hit perfectly, surely bisecting his lung and perhaps cutting his stomach a little. When I with drew the blade he put his hand to the wound and hunched over. His next move could never have been predicted, for his next move was he laughed, or about as much as he ever does at something.
"Well I see you have forced me to reveal my little secrete to you," and his formed changed into a black winged demon.
"You're a metamorphagus?" I half shouted half enquired. A metamorphagus is a person who can change into a beast of their choice. The gene is very rare indeed and is in fact thought to be a dead one, the only remains of its existence in a lab that was destroyed in the obliteration of Midgar.
"No one has ever known over five minutes" he said plainly. His clawed hand lifted into the air and I shot back. Lucky for me my sword stayed in my firm grip. I knew the one way to defeat a metamorphagus: pierce their heart. By doing so they revert back to their original form and usually faint from the loss of energy. I had only one tool for the job, a small throwing dagger I kept at my waist. I drew it and threw at Vincent's now bare and even more muscular chest. I then proceeded to charge him, he would have to choose to counter the knife or me, and either way he was going to be dead. He choose the knife and my long black sword punctured through him, I quickly withdrew it and he began to glow a valiant white. When the light cleared all that was there was my old employer lying there, naked and unconscious. I picked him up and gathered his scattered belongings; I had decided that he was going to be of more use to me alive. And if anything this would mean that things would get really interesting if anything.
So today I fought my nature and won, but was that truly my nature? Was the bringing of death not my sole purpose in life, and if not what was? These thoughts entered my mind and left just as quickly. I refused to let them cloud my thoughts for too long, and I worked to find one short simple answer. I finally deducted that I was created for nothing, therefore I had no sole purpose and the causing of death is the only true way for me to move in the world, for some reason or another. Today I just decided for the sake of causing death in the future I sacrificed one kill today.
I hated my moments like that almost as much as I hate my tattoo. My tattoo showed that I was only a product like many more like me, and these moments showed that I was either growing soft, or loosing my grip on what I had come to except as my reality. I have come to except that death is the cause of my life, that has driven me and that is what will always drive me. I have received a second chance and now I would use it to make the better of my life and show the world what I had discovered: death drives all the living, for the fear of death causes us to do crazy and sometimes idiotic acts, and that if we learn to seek death rather than loathe it the world would operate much more effectively and with much less stress. Death, I have come to find out though, is all that I have left on my side.