Adam stepped through the side door and into the alley. His three immortal friends were close behind, and Joe was just a short distance away from them trying to look discrete.
With a wary look of caution, he approached the challenging Immortal. With the point of his claymore resting on the ground, Vasquez was unexpectedly waiting patiently for the gathering of the Immortals.
"Have you said your goodbyes?" There was still a mixture of ice and contempt in the tone Vasquez used.
"I have said all that needs to be said." Adam pulled out his Ivanhoe as he shrugged off his tailored coat. "Shall we get introductions out of the way before we begin?"
Showing that his apparent patience was just a façade, Vasquez sneered. "I care not for your name, but if you must know my name is Juan Fernando Vasquez."
Adam raised his sword slightly as to salute the man and replied, "Pierson, Adam Pierson."
With that Vasquez gave a quick nod while tossing his trench coat onto the ground next to him. Then, without warning, he rushed Adam in an attempt to put him off balance.
Adam was able to quickly recover from the sudden and unexpected charge and soon the two opponents were simply probing each others defenses. Both men knew that the true sword fight hadn't commenced yet,
Without warning, Vasquez pulled a long knife from a sheath hidden on his back. Taking a swipe he was able to make a minor cut along Adam's arm holding the sword. Adam, caught off guard, was barely able to keep a hold of his sword and just managed to parry a blow that would have decapitated him. Taking advantage of Adam's distraction Vasquez swept Adam's feet from under him.
Instead of falling flat on his backside, as Vasquez had intended, Adam was able to put himself into a roll. While it kept him moving and mobile and kept him away from Vasquez's blade, it unfortunately made him drop his sword along the way.
Vasquez quickly went after Adam as the man went down, but much to his chagrin, Adam never came back up into a standing position. Instead, he pivoted on the ground, and using his momentum swept Vasquez's feet from under him in a stunning reversal of moves. Unlike Adam, Vasquez hit the ground, and he hit it hard.
Not wanting to waste a moment, Adam nimbly leapt over the man, who was beginning to move again. He had just manage to grab his own blade by the pummel and just managed to bring it up into a defensive position in time to deflect another game ending blow from Vasquez.
With a speed and precision that belied his prior rusty performance, Adam changed gears. He slashed his blade across his opponent's chest. As Vasquez reacted by leaning forward and clenching his wound, Adam made another slice along the man's arm, causing him to loose his sword. Now standing behind Vasquez, he drove his elbow into the back of the man's head as he was starting to straighten himself.
Vasquez slammed back into the ground. He had managed to get himself back onto one knee as he heard a voice from behind him. One that was laced with fury and it uttered the one line that all Immortals learned to dread.
Xander had been watching the battle between his teacher, a man he knew he could call a friend, against Vasquez, an Immortal who had initially challenged him, but was now trying to kill his own teacher. Sometimes, life was cruel.
While watching the two combatants test each others defenses, he noticed that Vasquez was no where close to being as good as Mac was. He could also tell that Adam was in control, well…as much control as was possible in such a situation. Even though he could believed Adam had the upper hand in this fight, he didn't dare truly believe it. When one got overconfident in a situation, it tends to bite you in the ass.
It seems that in this situation merely having the thought was enough to turn the tables in this fight, and Xander was cursing himself for this 'amateurish' mistake.
Where Vasquez was once holding one blade, he was now holding two. Not only had he drawn blood from Adam, but he had managed to get Adam off his feet.
Xander's heart skipped a beat as he saw what he believed to be his teacher's demise. However, much to his relief and piece of mind, that was not how this challenge was to end.
It happened so fast Xander almost missed the action. Vasquez was bleeding from a few cuts; he was bending over, and clenching his stomach, as Adam, in a stunning reversal, had cut his opponent's arm. Vasquez's sword clattered to the ground, and Vasquez joined it there soon after.
Vasquez was attempting to get back up. He was on one knee when Adam's voice cut through his process. Adam's voice was clear for all to hear. What Adam had just said made Vasquez's eyes go wide with fear.
Even without seeing the expression that Vasquez was giving, Xander knew down into his soul, that those words were going to have great importance for the rest of his hopefully long life. They are the words that no Immortal wished to hear from another. Most Immortals would have wished to never have heard the phrase let alone say it themselves. It was amazing what 8 little words can do.
"In the end…There can be only ONE!"
By the time Adam had reached the word 'one', he was on his downswing. His Ivanhoe slicing through flesh, bone, muscle, and tissue as though they weren't there. Vasquez's head rolled clean off his body from his kneeling position and stopped a few feet away. His prone body slumped to the ground, landing on his side with a boneless thump. Blood was slowly oozing from the open wound, creating a pool around the body.
Xander watched in a shocked silence as the scene before him played out. He watched as Vasquez's headless corpse thumped onto the pavement of the alley. He slowly came out of his shocked state as he began to hear claps of thunder in the distance that seemed to come closer.
Looking up into the sky he could see darks clouds forming in the night sky. The thunder became louder, and louder. Dull flashes of lightning lit up the night sky. The sound of rain could be heard in the immediate area, as well as the smell of ozone in the vicinity, but it seemed as though no rain was making its way into the Alley.
Xander's attention was drawn from the sky to the lifeless body that was one Juan Fernando Vasquez. The man's body seemed to have a white, glowing mist forming from it and surrounding it. Bolts of lighting, similar to those he had witnessed healing his own wounds, but on a much larger scale, were cascading across the body as it began to hover about half a foot off of the ground.
Those bolts of lighting, the man's Quickening, Xander realized, grew in intensity before shooting from the body of Vasquez straight towards Adam.
Adam was holding his sword towards the sky, almost as though it were a lightening rod. Every time a bolt would find him, he would shudder. To make the situation more surreal, the thunder from the storm seemed to crack at the same moments Adam would shudder.
From the look on his face it was hard to tell if he was in intense pain, or was experiencing extreme pleasure. At some points, it was hard to tell where one ended, and the other began.
The lightening would shoot through his body and then be released out into the world. There didn't seem to be any set pattern to it other than the destruction it left in its wake. No matter what it touched it destroyed. The small windows of the building across the alley shattered as sparks flew through them and blew some outward and some inward. The bricks of the buildings shattered into dust leaving scorch marks along both buildings in the alleyways. Sometimes the lighting would shoot up into the sky sending a shockwave outwards once it was a few feet above the buildings.
It was plain to see it was raining in the area. However none of the rain made it into the alley. It was almost like they were shielded. But as the quickening was released upward, and shockwave after shockwave was released, the rain could be seen being sent away at high velocity. Some of the rain struck the building like mini bullets. Minute holes were being left on the upper edges of the building in the alley with small plumes of dust being sent down to the pavement below.
The Quickening began to fade. Whatever barrier that was keeping the rain away faded with it. Slowly rain trickled into alleyway, picking up in its intensity with each passing second. It was obvious then that Vasquez had been a hunter and had a powerful quickening due to the various quickenings he had taken
It was Duncan to come out of his stupor first. After looking around to make sure no one had witnessed this bizarre quickening, he walked over to where Adam had set down his jacket and retrieved it.
Adam by now was down on his knees and breathing heavily. It seemed as though all the energy he had within him was temporarily drained. Mac brought him his jacket and helped Adam to his feet.
Adam quietly mumbled his thanks, trying to save his energy, as Duncan lent his support helping to keep Adam remaining on his feet. After a couple of cleansing breathes, Adam nodded his head to Duncan and thanked him once again. He slowly made his way over to the dead body. He looked over it as the blood mixed with the now pelting rain. The diluted blood made its way to the closest storm drain. Adam bent down and wiped the remaining blood off of his sword onto Vasquez's jacket before sheathing his sword.
Adam took his arm out of his jacket sleeve. His shirt was still split open, but there was no trace of any wound. His white shirt was stained with blood, but with his coat on you couldn't tell at all. He put his coat back on and turned towards Xander, Duncan, and Amanda, who were standing together a few feet behind him. He looked beyond them and saw Joe making his way to a woman hiding in the shadows at the end of the alley towards the street. He watched as Joe finally reached her. He relaxed as he saw her shake his hand. Finally Adam spoke.
"Well, as much as I enjoy standing out in the middle of a downpour, I think I could use a drink." Looking over at Xander, "I think my beer is probably warm by now, but under NO circumstances are you to leave the table and go to the bar." Adam looked up as if in deep thought, he suddenly turned towards Xander with a mock sincere expression. "Strike that, you are to go nowhere near people unless accompanied by at least two of us...Ever!"
Adam smiled as that got the desired chuckle out of Duncan and Amanda, and a somewhat chagrined look from Xander. He put his arm around Xander's shoulder and gave a short squeeze to let him know everything was all right.
Deciding that they each needed a good drink, the four Immortals made their way back into the club.