Sorry for the VERY long delay. College has been a thing. But we're nearly there.
The heavy footfalls of my boots echoed in the all too quiet hallway as I paced towards the end. It seemed to lead into some kind of antechamber, judging from the layout. A place where volatile tests could be performed away from prying eyes and in perfect safety. If the bulkhead doors that blocked my way were anything to go off of, the place was also built as a panic room to survive airstrikes, should the need arise.
It took me three blows to cave the door down, each time delayed by my hand shattering into pieces and regenerating. 93% aura. A painful process, but the third blow took the doors of their hinges and they clattered deafeningly across the hard tile floor, sending shrapnel indiscriminately through the room.
If Ozpin felt any kind of shock or fear from the act, or my face, his aged expression did not show it. He was not calm, however. It was as if he was too tense for any lingering meager emotions to alter his train of thoughts. He stood, cane in hand as if it were a longsword, guarding a sort of medical pod in which a young, brown haired woman lay. She had a brilliant soul, the color of leaves just beginning to turn orange and red as fall approached.
I recognized her, of course. Cinder had told me about this one, and when we spoke of my plans, she asked me to report to her if I ran into the maiden before her. Slipping a hand into my pocket, I pressed the power in a sequence that would put out a beacon of my location to her. Then I turned my attention to the headmaster before me.
"What is it you want from us? My life? My school? The maiden?" Ozpin's voice was choked yet level, as if he were laboring under a great weight, but had practiced doing so. His voice, strangely, did not echo in the slightest.
"The first would be nice. After all, you really aren't supposed to be alive. As for the school and the maiden? I want your school destroyed. The maiden is of little concern, but I decided to play nice. One of my compatriots has need of her though." I slowly reached my hand to the handle of my sword. Ozpin began to pace sideways, the tip of his cane remaining pointed at my chest. A defensive tactic. A bait.
"Do you realize what will happen if Salem gets the maiden souls? It will mean the end for all of us, yourself included." My head was turning to keep track of Ozpin's body now. Soon I'd have to shift my stance to keep eye contact with him. He was waiting to use that opportunity to strike me while I was a fraction off balance.
"I don't think so. You see, I don't really end. But don't worry, I have plans for Salem too. After what I've read, it seems she's another immortal. To think I've failed twice is appalling." I turned my heel toward Ozpin, hand now grasping my hilt. The older man launched forwards as I lashed out. His strength was surprising and I felt tile crack under my feet as the clash pushed me backwards a few inches.
"You can't kill her. Nobody can." Ozpin separated from the clash and swung at the height of my sword, trying to push it out of my hands. My grip was strong and I pivoted with it, using the rotation to send a kick that missed wide as he jumped backwards.
"I take my job very seriously. After I've unraveled you, she'll be next. I'll put you both to rest." I charged this time, using bursts of wind from my back to propel me. My first swing but concrete as Ozpin jabbed it into the ground while launching over it. His speed was far more unprecedented than his strength, and another swift jab rapped against my temple, pushing me off balance.
Like a piston, Ozpin's arm worked as he delivered more thrusts, targeting pressure points from my neck down to my legs. I felt my body lock just before I drew my sword out of the ground. A final blast delivered to the base of my spine uprooted me and tossed my body across the room, slamming through a pillar and embedding into the wall. The magnitude of the strike jolted my muscles into place, and I fell painfully to my feet.
Ozpin's footsteps echoed out to me this time as he walked towards me. "Just what do you mean by, 'your job'?"
I laughed, spitting out a little blood. I could feel torn muscles knitting back together in my back and arms. Aura at 90%. "After how many times we've met, I thought you'd recognize me. Darren Bentley, colloquially known as Death."
Ozpin's footsteps faltered just as my muscles finished healing, and I charged him again. No matter how old Ozpin was, he certainly wasn't limited by his age. Years, no, lifetimes of fighting experience had sharpened him into something far more dangerous than a normal Huntsman. And Ozpin had the aura to back up his skill. He was likely my most deadly opponent to date.
Again, my first swing was swiped sideways by Ozpin's cane before the blunt end shot up and struck me in the chest, shattering a rib as I was thrown upwards. Using the range, I conjured a small storm of daggers, sending them towards him. Ozpin did not parry or run, instead dodging every singly strike, leaving behind such perfect afterimages of himself. And as the storm ended, I planted my feet on the ceiling and channeled two more air runes, thrusting off of them towards my enemy.
Another clash, but with my added strength and momentum, Ozpin's footing faltered and his knees buckled under the weight. I used the close proximity to my advantage, grabbing ahold of the man's forearm and spinning us until, like some great club, I slammed his thin body into the floor. Another crater added to the collection we were amassing.
I swung again, only for my wrist to turn painfully, then snap, as Ozpin freed himself. Then he used his grip on me to wrap a leg and arm over me, performing a joint lock that shattered my left elbow before I could react. Grunting in pain, I swung and hit open air as Ozpin again created distance between us.
With my dead arm knitting back together, I slogged after him with renewed speed. This time, I focused a weighting rune near the hilt to give me more maneuverability. He let loose a flurry of piercing attacks that I managed to block. With a crack my bones fell back into place and I belted a wall of fire from my left hand. Dodging with a backflip, I saw the black flames singe the front locks of his white hair and heat the metal in his glassed red.
Footing found, Ozpin threw the spectacles to the side. "You will not have my soul today, nor hers. We are beyond death's embrace. If you are who you say you are, then you must feel that you have no power over me. Only my flesh." I narrowed my eyes at Ozpin, grinning with my split cheeks.
"Nothing is fully beyond me. It may simply take a more 'hands-on' approach, but I'll reap you all the same." I was prepared to charge for a third time, but Ozpin moved before me. I parried his first stab, blocked the second, and then grabbed the third. The force of it would have cracked my wrist had I not decided to expend more energy towards defense. As it were, he was still proving to be a draining fight. My aura sat at 86%, and it was falling.
I attempted yanking the cane out of his hands, but Ozpin held on and I lifted him off the ground. His grip slid then, grasping my wrist in one hand and his cane in the other as both his feet planted against my chest before violently extending, ripping my left shoulder from its socket with a sickening, hollow squelch.
Dropping my sword, I grabbed onto Ozpin's leg before he fully jumped away. However, instead of swinging him into something again, I conjured another black fire rune in my palm. In half a second his flesh began to scorch as his aura failed him. Skin melted under my hand as I reached muscle, and then suddenly I was shunted away in a flash of green light.
From my new distance I saw Ozpin encircled by a hexagonal grid of pure aura, one that had extended from his body to separate us. But the damage was done. As Ozpin stood, I could see that he was favoring his scorched leg. No matter how much aura a human had, none could regenerate like I could. Almost mockingly, I forced my shoulder back into place before calling my sword back to me.
"Nice trick. But that was a lot of aura. I wonder how many times you can use it and still keep up." Ozpin grit his teeth and we charged simultaneously, all to eager to kill the other. Sparks flew as he forced my sword upwards with his cane. But it was a failed parry, and I brought the edge down onto his shoulder, scoring his fine suit and staining it with blood.
Piercing pain filled the left side of my head as a sickeningly precise jab took out my left eye, popping it like some kind of balloon. The end of a fight to any normal human, but Ozpin was unaware of my aura sight. I did not guard my other eye, and passively let the destroyed one regenerate as I poured on the pressure.
Every swing was punctuated by an arc of fire, every thrust followed by the creation of a spread of spectral daggers. I forced opportunities to open in Ozpin's defense and took advantage of them. Every time he hit me, shattering a bone or tearing an organ, I only charged with unrelenting force.
It began to wear on the older man. The drawn out fight was pushing him to his limits as he was forced to keep pace with something beyond human. I had landed a variety of hits, and Ozpin's blinding dodges were now followed by a mist of his blood. I swarmed him with daggers again, and Ozpin's physical drain became apparent as he used the spherical barrier to block them, rather than dodging as he had done before.
I crashed into the shield, sending cracks through it, but it held. Another slash, a stab, more cracks forming as Ozpin realized that, by defending himself with a technique that rendered him motionless, he had imprisoned himself. Sweat and blood fell from his hair as his breath heaved, then hitched as I summoned lightning to strike the shield.
Finally, I broke through, shattering into inch thick panes of aura that fizzled and burned away as their substance was lost. Ozpin, to his credit, struck me first. A glorious upswing aimed to my right arm all but tore it off, spinning me in midair like a top and throwing my sword across the room. In my left hand, I used fire to create more arcs, the spiraling motion forming me into a dust devil of sorts. Except the sand was replaced by black flames hot enough to melt steel.
Ozpin was forced to jump backwards. I forced myself to a stop with another burst of flame, and used a third to send myself towards him. My arm would take another moment or two to be useful again, so I lashed out with summoned foot blades, sailing past him as he rolled to the side. The room was in ruin now, and Ozpin struggled to find level ground to face me on.
I let him have reign for just a moment, taking the time to recover my sword and repair my arm. After thirty seconds I was as good as new, aside from some mending pains. Aura at 70%.
Ozpin found somewhere to make his stand, and stood in a guarded stance as I rose to my full height. "I have to say, I am thoroughly impressed. I didn't think you'd last this long. But, the night is not getting any younger, so I believe it's time to wrap this up."
Ozpin readied himself as I murmured, burning sigils across my skin while my black eyes raised into an inferno of purple fire so intense it was nearly white. Ozpin was unable to react to my next motion as I delivered a blinding cut across his stomach, searing the wounds with the heat of the friction while the echoes of a sonic boom rattled the rubble of the room.
I exhaled, steam pouring from my mouth as I relinquished my hold on my upper limit, and my body began cooling. Then, I heard the distinctive thump of a body falling onto stone. Ozpin, bisected at the waist, was defeated. But my work was not yet done. I had promised, no, swore to put his soul to rest.
Bringing my full attention to bear, I set my hand ablaze and pressed it into his chest. For the first time in many millennia, I bestowed the mark of death myself, and brought his soul from his body. There were no open spaces for marks on his spectral body, dozens already overlapping, so I laid the new one in his chest.
And yet, instead of fear, pain, or anger, I saw only self pity in the old man's eyes. "It won't last. They always bring me back." The words were almost whispered, but I heard them clear as crystal.
"Not this time. My miscreant brothers may have power over you, but they hold no dominion around me. Not after I promised that someday, I would reap them as well. While I'm here, they wouldn't dare."
Ozpin looked up from his body then, and at me. After everything I had done, still, he showed no hatred. He only seemed tired, but he was also tensed as if waiting for something. But whatever it was, it never came, and slowly Opzin relaxed. Then he spoke to me again.
"Can you do this for her? For Salem?". Ozpin and I were well aware of the plauge that Salem was. She was responsible for millions of deaths across the planet, and had personally betrayed him on many occasions. And yet, when he spoke of her, there was only love and desperation.
I may have been a creature fascinated and entertained by the suffering of mortals. But the immortal soul was different. Causing pain and anguish to those alive was almost a vacation. But this, ferrying souls, was my work. And I had almost forgotten the sense of worth it brought me. It was more than worth. It was purpose.
The feeling was clarifying, like a ray of sunlight after a turbulent storm. I realized then, I had been away too long.
"I promise you. Just give me some time. Now, get walking, and don't look back. You'll make it where you need to be." Ozpin turned, seeming to pick a direction, but faltered again.
"And my school? What will happen to everyone in it? Will you kill them?" I pondered it for a moment. My thoughts seemed clearer than normal for the first time in a while. And I began to actually wonder if what I was doing was what I wanted.
Minutes passed in silence before I spoke again. "I will. What I said in the arena hasn't changed. But I will do it quickly. I remember now that I always tried to do it quickly."
Ozpin seemed resigned, knowing that there was nothing he could do to stop me. So, he began to walk. He did not look back, and after two dozen steps, a flare of light took him, and I was left alone in the destroyed antechamber.