The Match of Monsters
The alligator charged at Zesiro, his gaping maw wide open as he closed in on his prey. Zesiro lashed out at his impeding opponent. First he struck from below, his sword carving its way up and smashed into the alligator beast's jaw, forcing it shut. Zesiro rotated around, bringing his sword in from above this time. The beast's entire body bucked at the force of the blow, but sadly Zesiro did not even manage to mark the animal's hide.
Even without Zesiro's sterling steel cutting edge, he was still stronger than most humans and he was not afraid to show such incredible strength off. While his opponent may not be cut, he still must've been hurting.
Zesiro ducked down, diving beneath the beast's fearsome jaws and from there unleashed a salvo of quick cuts, all of which rang out against the monster's battle ready skin. With each blow that Zesiro crashed into the animal's body the alligator was forced back a foot or so, proving Zesiro's strength to any who could see.
However, as it turned out the alligator was also stronger than most men and he too held no reserve when it came to showing it off. The beast' brought his fist back and readied a punch. He struck out, drilling his fist into Zesiro's gut and lifting the hefty Fishman clear off of the ground with an impactful liver blow. Zesiro landed on the ground, a bit uneasy on his own two legs and the alligator human clearly chose to punctuate on Zesiro's current state.
A vast barrage of flickers, jabs, straights, uppercuts, and hooks, almost all of the punches physically imaginable burst forth from the monster's hands. Each one found itself landing bright and clear against Zesiro's softer body. Zesiro gritted his teeth, standing strong he weather the vicious assault, his own willpower forcing himself to stand through it all.
"Devilfish Finisher!" shouted Zesiro, crossing his blades into an X formation before striking out, drawing that X out across the alligator's bulk. Zesiro rotated around, this time going in from below once more. "Cascading Cuts!" Zesiro struck out, a complete onslaught from below, several powerful slashes that went upwards against the alligator's chest and chin, but once more produced no visual effect.
"You're going to learn sooner or later you just can't cut me," laughed the alligator. "The people here call me Alligator A. Alligator. Inventive name I know, but I can't blame them. I'm nothing more than a wild beast to them. The ones who do show me respect refer to me as Al. Either that or Hooktail." The monster flashed his tail over in front of him, showing off that his tail had been sever just at the tip and had been replaced with a curved metal hook.
"Lost it in a duel with a vicious sea monster," Al explained, "been a reminder of the beast I have to kill for all of these years."
"If I were in your place I would've already killed him and I wouldn't have gotten my tail cut off in the process," Zesiro smirked.
"But you don't have a tail," Al offered causing Zesiro to grimace.
"You know what I mean."
"No, I think you're just showing off your true stupidity!" screeched Al as he rotated into another vicious straight right for Zesiro's arms. Zesiro blocked the incoming punch, once more surprised by the alligator's strength. "And this is how you use a tail!" Zesiro barely caught it in the corner of his eye before the tail screeched across his face, drawing blood. Zesiro was practically tossed to the floor from the force of the swatting tail.
"I think we've already seen the difference in our bodies," Al stated as he went down on one knee before his fallen foe. "My body would never have taken that blow and would never be bleeding so openly. Its a disgrace to you and your crew."
"Barracude Surf and Slash!" Zesiro shouted, rotating around and taking a clear aim at Al's legs. Al leapt into the air, dodging the first cut, however, once he was in the air Zesiro twisted once more, revealing his true intention. A downwards slash capable of cleaving a man straight in two.
Despite the force Zesiro willed into his blade it only managed to smash into Al's body and force him back onto the ground and onto his back. The two were in near identical situations, both on the ground with a minor injury beginning to ache. However, Zesiro was already beginning to clamor to his feet while Al still tried to register the newest wound.
"Flying Fish Frenzy!" Zesiro leapt onto his feet while rapidly throwing slashes, each one generating a powerful blast of wind that soared across the sky, digging into his opponent's body and pinning him to the ground with their force. Still, however, there were no telltale marks of Zesiro's onslaught.
"I'm not through with you!" shouted Zesiro, jumping into the air and soaring right above the fallen beast. "Sword Rain!" Zesiro struck out a single unified plunge right down at the beast's heart. With all of his weight behind this powerful downwards thrust, there was no doubt in his mind it would pierce the bastard's skin.
Zesiro's sword slammed into the beast's chest with enough strength to shatter steel. Zesiro grunted with all of his strength as he applied one final burst of power to the piercing drop. However, the monster didn't even blink. His chest just steadily rose and fell. There was a slight frown to his face and Zesiro knew he definitely wounded him...he just didn't pierce his skin.
"Wanna try again? Cause if you are I think I'll just take a nap for the time being," Al jested from his spot on the ground. Zesiro growled as he twisted around and quickly spun around, lashing out with both of his blades. The swords dug into the side of Al's neck, snapping it to the side, but it was still obvious that it did very little to wound the monster. Of course, Zesiro was no quitter.
He shifted his weight, dropped both blades down to the ground one on either side of the monster. Finally he snapped them both together with the beast's head in the middle of them. The beast's entire body rolled to the side. The alligator scrambled back up onto his feet. The beast was back on his feet in no time and already preparing to exchange blow again. The monster charged for Zesiro.
A rapid combination of jabs came right at Zesiro, but with head-slips he managed to dodge them all and dive right in closer to him again. Al's was like twice the size of Zesiro so even with the extra reach his swords provided him it still wasn't much of an advantage.
Zesiro rotated down, diving beneath Al's next blows. Once more he was beneath the monster's fearsome hulking body. He made his two swords parallel as he zoomed in on his opponent's lower chin. Zesiro swung upwards with his two swords, landing two twin slashes right on his opponent's chin. However, Al just gritted his teeth and weathered through it, which seemed to be rather easy for the large beast.
Al twisted around, smashing his fist into Zesiro's unguarded cheek, blowing him back a few inches. Zesiro barely had enough time to recover when Al's next attack came in. The punch resounded directly into Zesiro's shoulder. The next attack came in at his chin. Zesiro's entire body was being sent bucking backwards again.
Al was fast and even worst he hit like a truck. Zesiro was once more forced flat on the ground. He felt his swords get flung from his grip and he began to scramble to pick them back up. He managed to grab one before Al smashed his foot down onto his stomach, keeping him permanently pinned to the ground.
Zesiro panicked making a random cut right at Al's leg, but once more it just glanced right off of his skin. The beast just shrugged it off. He was just as indestructible as he was before. The monster slowly began to apply more and more pressure to his prey's chest. "I'm the strongest predator there is. Try as hard as you want, but you cannot and will not be able to overpower me. Your blades can't even nick my hide."
"I'll give you a nick!" shouted Zesiro as he lifted his sword above his head and grabbed onto it with both hands to increase his power. Finally he brought it overhead, biting down from above and smashed it right into Al's extended knee. Despite the fact that even thought it didn't cut it still must've hurt, Al didn't even budge. He stayed above Zesiro, a twisted smile on his face as he reveled in the pride of his victory.
"Nice try," Al stated as he moved forward, practically going in to straddle Zesiro. "The prey tries one last time to injure the predator. Just like a cornered rat. When I meet you in hell remind me to ask you how it was to be a prey. Cause its a feeling I'll never experience."
Zesiro drew a sharp breath. His own animal blood had just been insulted. He could feel his own arms grow hot with rage. Him? A prey? Dream on! He was a predator! Ask all the monsters he had beaten before! They were his preys! He was a predator. And this guy was just another one of his preys. Zesiro would see to that.
Al could feel a slight shift in his opponent. He was unsure what it was. Perhaps a sort of growing hunger or something. Once more Zesiro generated another powerful cut, arcing in from the side and right into Al's ribcage. From there Zesiro lashed again a bunch of small, yet still stinging cuts. Against a normal human...hell, a normal monster Zesiro would've bust open the skin with these cuts, but once more Al just laughed at him.
His attacks, no matter how much killing intent Zesiro put behind them, they just tickled him. However, that did not stop Zesiro. Another maddening hacking slash right for Als head, followed with a chop to his knee, then a swing at his gut. Each attack was done given his position and would've easily made a lesser man back off, but Al was a unique monster. He was not going to back off so easily.
However, despite Al's clearly superior position something was beginning to well up inside of him, however, his gut was beginning to clench up. His arms seemed to be seizing. He couldn't keep his head on straight. He could feel something swelling up within Zesiro. However, he couldn't quite place what it was.
Zesiro struck out once more. Al gritted his teeth more out of reflex than pain. It was strange it didn't hurt as much as he thought, but he was beginning to feel a certain amount of pain. His body was clenching up whenever Zesiro swung. It was instinctual. The feeling of flight or fight was welling up in him. And the instinct of flight was growing stronger with each moment that passed.
Zesiro made another attempt at a swing straight for Al's head, but it didn't seem to have any effect on his opponent. At least at first. The animal seemed to weather the blow, but for once he stepped off of Zesiro. Zesiro was soon back on his feet. His predatory instincts were taking over and unlike Al's his were telling him to fight and fight back hard. Zesiro bent down and picked up his other sword. He was ready for the exchange.
A bestial outburst of strength came from Zesiro as he rushed forward. He whipped around and made a quick cut. It nicked Al's arm, but it was obvious that he wasn't wounded at all. However, Al felt his arm clench up on him. It steadied and froze. He couldn't open his fist if he wanted to any more. He could feel Zesiro's cold killing intent swarm around his blade.
Such intensity had turned such an ephemeral object as killing intent into a fine blade for Zesiro to wield gleefully. Zesiro stepped forward. Al was unsure if Zesiro was even aware about this new weapon he was wielding. A fine weapon, the epitome of the hunt and the predator. And it was the hands of someone who had no idea what he was wielding!
Al could practically feel the blood lust radiating from Zesiro's blade. As a matter of fact whenever Zesiro took a swing with his blade it wasn't the cold steel that cut through his hide like butter it was the blood lust leaking off of the blade, which sliced through Al's impenetrable hide straight to his blood where the aura turned his blood cold.
It was unsettling. A predator being pushed to its brink. And Al was just learning what it was like. Zesiro's new blood-chilling aura that swept all around him was immense. It was an age old saying that the sword was just an extension of the swordsman and this was that to an extreme. Zesiro's sword seemed to be taking in Zesiro's killing intent and exerting its own.
Zesiro could feel it. A slight breathing coming from his hand. The quiet whispering of his own blade. Its own sort of pulsing that echoed as he poured his killing intent into it. The sword picked up on the killing intent that was in it, growing stronger with every moment. Zesiro had been pushed to the edge and now it was his turn to push back.
Zesiro's swords screeched free from their holding place and smashed into Al's arms. Once more Zesiro didn't manage to break his skin, but there was still a problem. A slight ray of hope that beamed through and onto Zesiro's golden path. He could still win.
The Predator's Blade!
The Spirit That Devours the Prey!
Happy New Year everyone! I still have no idea why I stay up to 12 each night...its not like I do anything special. Oh, well, social pressure I guess. Oh, well, another chapter.
By the way anybody out there? Haven't seen too many reviewers lately. Are you guys still here?