The End of a Tough Fight?
Or the Beginning of Horrors?
Noelle hurried through the firewalls doing a double-check over all of her math. It was difficult, but she was slowly coming to the conclusion of how break the firewalls installed. She looked over at the monster behind the glass. It had moved forward to the wall and pressed its face against the glass looking in at Noelle. She had massive tusks that scraped against the walls as it walked. It kept a close-eye on Noelle and Noelle admittedly felt a little twinge of suspicion as she worked on. She trusted Zhavio even enough to let this monster out of its cage. If Zhavio said that they could trust her, Noelle was certain that they could trust her. She continued working on it.
Suddenly there was a loud thud. The monster had brought its massive tree trunk of arms against the wall. Noelle felt a trickle of sweat form on her head. She didn't want to do anything with it. She wanted to leave the monster alone until she needed to use them. She needed to use the monster alongside Zhavio, once they did that they'd be golden. This little place would be their very own town, under their control. That was their goal and Noelle couldn't wait. Carving out their own location in the new world order was a fine idea and it was best to do it before everyone else was also trying to do it was a smart idea. And Noelle accepted the fact that they needed more muscles, but…did they really need this thing?
Noelle knew she was playing jump rope with her own albeit twisted, her own set of ethics. She didn't like it that she and this monster were used by the witches to test a Kishin creating method and now here she was about to use the monster in a very similar way. She ignored its humanity and possibly her own, a possession she once ignored and now wanted back, but she didn't care. There was no turning back now, she knew it. So she wondered why her fingers hesitated so much as pressed another button. She wondered about it as they danced gracefully about, should she just stop it here. Tell Zhavio that they could conquer this town with their own power? No…she knew they couldn't and she knew Zhavio wouldn't accept that. He was a thinker, not a fighter and he insisted on that fact. It was one of the reasons why Noelle could actually stomach being around him.
This plan of his still made her feel a bit uneasy. She trusted Zhavio, he was the only she did trust. However, that didn't make what she was about to do any easier. She remembered back when she was human, before the witches conducted their experiment on her. She would've grimaced at the thought of unleashing a beast like this onto the unsuspecting people. However, now she felt a great joy welling up in her in sheer anticipation. Her old voice was drowned out by a cackling laugh urging her on. She couldn't help it…she wanted to. That cackling laugh was the most powerful voice in her head and she wanted to do whatever she could to please it. To make it stay it made her feel great and the thought of unleashing this monster on the town made it laugh even louder. She had to wonder what would happen when the monster was unleashed. How loud would the laughing be? How great would she feel?!
(-with Zhavio-)
Zhavio's fist embedded itself in the ground once more as he tried desperately to pierce Ash's soft flesh with his sharpened claws. Ash moved around the room with adept agility. He was moving through the mess with incredible grace, wasting no time in bursting around and then back close to Zhavio. He would like to say that his speed was granting him the upperhand, but sadly it was becoming obvious that Zhavio wasn't about to let the difference in speed upset him. He was quickly adapting to the change in direction, managing to throw his guard up just in time to block the next attack from Ash. His guard was nice and solid too, Ash's continuous attacks on it didn't really even break it open. It was clenched tight, Ash would need a lot more force behind it in order to break it open. He and Zhavio both sprang back at the same exact second, separating them from each other after another failed attempt to attack. Zhavio's two long arms hung down to his knees.
"You are actually boring me," muttered Zhavio. He shook his head side-to-side as he looked over at his opponent. "It should've already become obvious that this fight will keep going on until I hit you again or you can get through my guard. So let's just hurry this fight along, shall we?" Zhavio's head twisted to the side in a rather unnatural manner. He was really starting to get bored. He wanted to kill people not fight with a brat. His memories from before he became an Evil Human was sparse. It was so long ago. He remembered uncovering a tomb to an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh. The rumors that circulated the pharaoh's powers and all the curses he had. Back then…he laughed at them. He thought they were the absolute silliest things in existence. He ignored them and went into the tomb anyways. There he found it…a beautiful golden scarab probably worth thousands, if not hundreds of millions. He stole it in greed. That was when the voices started. They set in upon him like vultures onto a carcass. They were quiet at first, but they slowly started to get louder. 'Kill him', 'kill her', 'kill them', the voices would say to him. He ignored them at first, he knew killing was wrong. However, eventually the maddening echoes of the voices became too much and he snapped. He killed one, thought it was over, but it continued. The voices only grew louder from there on out. He still heard the voices now…but he ignored them. He knew what he wanted and he didn't need the voices to tell him. He wanted to kill now. He enjoyed it…he'd enjoy ripping this kid's lungs out. Draining him of all fluids and then wrapping him up, imprisoning his dead cold body in the darkest tomb he could find. He wanted to kill!
As the voices started to rise up again in Zhavio's head, the dark purple smoke that Marburg had injected him with started too ooze out of his body and fill the air once more. The voices were growing in a cacophonous tune that filled his head. He couldn't fight it anymore. The edge of Zhavio's mouth jumped back forming a cruel insidious smile. Ash knew what that signaled, this fight wouldn't last another five minutes. And Ash was okay with that.
The two fights raced at each other Zhavio's long arms shot out, Ash dove to the side letting the attack breeze past. Zhavio lifted his knee finally smashing it comfortably into Ash's face. Ash stumbled back, but recovered just in time to avoid Zhavio's next couple thrusts. Each blow was hard to avoid, Zhavio had definitely sped up in an attempt to catch Ash. His arms came in at an increasing pace. One of them would eventually catch Ash the only thing it would take was the slightest slip or for Ash to slow down by even a millimeter. And of course, Ash didn't have an infinite tank of stamina, he could already feel his legs growing heavier. He couldn't keep this up much longer. He need to go for it…his all-or-nothing plan! Suddenly, Ash felt his leg go up in the air, his balance was thrown off, and he had slipped. He saw the ground and ceiling slowly switch places as he was tossed through the air and slowly turned around. However, the floor and the ceiling getting flipped around was the least of Ash's worries. His true worry was what was slowly inching towards his face. Zhavio's sharpened claw was coming in and behind it was Zhavio with a cruel, sadistic smile plastered on it.
Zhavio's hand pierced through Ash's shoulder, sending a magnificent spray of red blood upwards, coating the monster's arm and legs. Zhavio stepped forward and pressed his foot on top of Ash's body, squeezing down on top of him. "Victory has never tasted any sweeter!" Zhavio laughed loudly, a tone of sharp insanity filled the air. "You did good, but ultimately you fail when compared to the magnificent me! Any last words?"
"Right back at ya?" said Ash with a little question hanging at the end of his statement. He had never done something like this before, but he still trusted his own powers as well as Xander's. His hand clasped onto Zhavio's blood soaked leg. Ash had a unique power through Soul Resonance with Xander, he could turn his own blood into sharpened daggers. True, ordinarily he had put the blood on his blade rather than on his opponent, but blood was blood, right? Ash's simplistic math proved to be true. The blood on Zhavio's legs transformed into the same daggers as they would've if they had been on Ash's blade, but this time they had direct contact with Zhavio's legs. The daggers exploded inwards, severing many important arteries and tendons as they made their way through Zhavio's leg. They tore their way through and into his leg, slashing everything apart, officially tearing it off. Zhavio's leg recoiled off of Ash's body in pain, he screeched loudly, looking at his leg. They knives were still in it, but they didn't stop the blood flow.
Ash rolled onto his chest and quickly stood up, he was in as bad as shape as Zhavio was in, but he couldn't let that stop him. One more hit was all he needed. He rushed in through the ground and quickly caught up to Zhavio. He leapt up into the air, a simple shot to his chest wouldn't cut it here. No, Ash needed to land a blow that was definite, a blow Zhavio couldn't get up from. Anything less would be as good as nothing at all. He was in the air and he threw his entire weight behind it, there was a loud crackle as he sent his Soul Wavelength shooting up the length of his arm focusing it all into the tip at the very end. A brilliant flash of light was released as Ash brought his blade into the forehead of Zhavio's mask. The electricity of his Soul Wavelength shot forward, covering Zhavio in the bright light. Zhavio was thrown backwards, his mask was finally chipped. Bits and pieces of the hardened mask flew around him, Zhavio hit the ground, collapsing into pitiful pile in the center of the room.
Ash landed safely at first, but then he stumbled forward as the pain shot back up his body. In the end Xander was right, the plan was just to beat him up. He stood up, lifting his body back up and leaning it against the nearby bed post. He looked at Zhavio, who remained crumpled up in the corner. More of the purple smoke oozed out of Zhavio's body. Ash paused for a few seconds as he watched it, the sight seemed familiar to him somehow, but in the end. He couldn't quite place it. His own body was beaten and bloodied, so he chose not to strain his brain as well. He shrugged it off, whatever it was it wasn't as important as Ash taking him down. With that in mind Ash headed back off to the center of town, hopefully he would be able to find Michael and ask him for a ride back. He didn't think he had enough strength in his legs to make it all the way back to the outskirts of the small town.
Xander smirked as he came out of his weapon form and transformed back to his human form. He butted his arm up from below and hefted Ash onto it. He did a good job, he was allowed a little rest.
It seems Noelle has been busy along with Zhavio and things are looking like they might just go from bad to worse.