Most people wouldn't have charged aggressively at a madman with a sword. They'd have held their ground, waited for their foe to commit to a move, then gotten out of the way and struck just once, before stepping back and doing it all over again.
Beasts killed people like that.
Hunters killed beasts, not the other way around. Not if the hunter wanted to live and continue being a hunter.
To anyone else, her position was not good. A decorative saber and a dagger that was barely a hand long and barely two fingers wide. Sirius was taller than her, his reach farther, his blade actually sharpened. Maria was handicapped by having people she had to protect, had no trusty Evelyn, forced to rely on her wits, her skills, her body and her will against a foe that would show no mercy, give no quarter, while possessed of greater advantage.
This was not a good position.
This was the best position. For this was the state of being of all hunters.
In her eyes, she faced a towering, inhuman pillar of black flame, a force of incredible power she could not hope to match. She could barely make out the human form at its base, only the sword in its hand truly visible, even as black smoke that verged on flame wafted from it.
Walking calmly towards her foe, she smoothly snapped her saber out to her side… and lunged.
Mary Hunt was terrified.
The stories had been right! Commoners were a dangerous existence! Why did they still have them around?! Has the parable of the Goodwife Bathory taught them nothing?!
Clad in the practical exam uniform but with trousers instead of a skirt, a dagger in one hand and a saber in the other, for some reason wearing tricorned hat that she hadn't been earlier, Maria Campbell had stood between before them, her back to Mary, Katarina and bleeding, unconscious Keith. Mary had been trying trying to staunch the bleeding, using Keith's own handkerchief as she frantically tried to remember everything they'd been taught in medicinal magic classes. Fortunately, it hadn't been too deep, but unless they got Keith medical attention… or a Light Magic weilder who wasn't a commoner insane with bloodlust…!
Mary had glanced at Katarina, who was holding her fiancé's sword. She'd stood over Mary and Keith, her face conflicted but determined.
"Lady Claes," Campbell had said, "Please stay with Lady Hunt."
Katarina glanced down at Mary, and her face grew pained as she saw Keith, lying unconscious. "Be careful Ma– Miss Campbell!" she said, carefully grounding her sword to not tire herself out holding it up as Maria stepped forward.
Her steps were firm, sure, and unhurried as Maria Campbell closed the distance to Sirius Dieke, raising her sword (when had she gotten a sword? Had the woman had that this whole time?! Umbasa, they'd had her behind them with a sword this whole time!)…
+1 Insight
And then she seemed to just disappear only to reappear swinging that sword inhumanly fast at head-height as if she meant to decapitate Sirius then and there. He barely managed to catch it on his sword, and then it was a confusing whirlwind of movement that Mary couldn't catch…
"Mary, how's Keith?"
Mary wrenched her eyes away from Maria at the sound of the most important person in all the world asking her a question, turning towards her, and then heard the words. Quickly, she turned back to Keith. Laboriously, she turned him over, trying to keep his wound higher than his heart to lessen the bleeding. Hesitantly, she called on her magic, trying to grasp his blood, trying to keep it from exiting his body…
She caught glimpses out of the corner of her eye, flickers when she dared look. Maria, sword and knife (she had a knife (+2 Insight) too?! How long had she had a knife? Had she been carrying a knife on her whole this time?!) parallel as she swung both diagonally, barely missing Sirius as he frantically tried to step away. Sirius barely falling out of the way of a lunge that ended with Maria on the other side of the room. Maria leaping all the way to the ceiling far above their heads before coming down and slamming both weapons in her hands with all the force of her body, barely keeping from crippling Sirius on the spot, forcing him to dart away from Katarina.
Commoners were dangerous! They were insanely dangerous! Why did they let one into the school? A school is supposed to be a safe place, why did they allow this ridiculously dangers commoner into it?!
+3 Insight
Maria parried Sirius' sword with exquisite, perfect timing. He was unbalanced as the blade was knocked aside, and she struck with her saber, the swing short, sharp and precise. It struck his bicep again, the same spot she'd been hitting all this time. The blade was dull, drew no blood, but she did not doubt he was bruised there now, many times over.
He swung at her, his sword gripped in both hands in a backhanded, rising blow. Her saber knocked the sword aside and upward, then reversed and slammed another punishing blow into his bicep, followed by her off-hand rising to swing her dagger to follow through. It missed, being far shorter than the off-hand short sword she was used to, but she didn't let that throw off her rhythm. She raised both blades at her right, holding them parallel to the ground, and lunged. Dagger tore through his jacket, barely missing flesh as her saber struck his left shoulder, making him cry out. Another bruise.
She had never fought like this before now, to weaken and cripple instead of kill. Had she a true blade in her right hand, it would not have been possible. Her soul knew the movements too well, every strike a deadly blow in the heat of the fight, but the blade was dull and she had enough presence of mind to swing instead of stab… most of the time. The hunter in her knew she had to end this fight, end it quickly and decisively and in blood. The noble in her, raised in Cainhurst, knew she'd have to side with Claes in this or be destroyed in the storm to follow, and so she had to defeat Dieke. A lifetime in Cainhurst, the Healing Church and research hall knew this madness that had overtaken him could not be cured, not by any amount of blood, perhaps not even by light magic.
Yet a part of her, a part broken, pained and crying, that had cried herself to sleep when her father had left her, had wanted her mother to hold her and tell her everything would be all right and damn the fact she was a grown woman in her own mind, would not allow it. Not in this place, not with this person…
She lashed out with a kick, pushing Sirius back before she crossed her arms before her and lunged. Again the dagger missed but the saber didn't, striking a solid body blow that would knock the wind out of even a beast. The force slammed Sirius into the wall behind him, and only then must he have realized he had been forced too far back.
He raised his sword, but the blade was shaking and he gripped his bicep, then grimaced as that pained his should that had taken blow after blow.
"President…" she said, and Maria was surprised to hear her voice shaking. "Please, stand down. Please, stop…"
"I…" his voice was ragged, in pain. Tears fell from his eyes unheeded as rage burned, fiercer and darker than the black flame that encompassed him. "I will have my revenge…!"
Holding his sword before him with both hands, he lunged.
Maria sidestepped easily, punishing him with a saber blow to his kidneys, but to her surprise he rolled with the blow, running past her toward Lady Claes.
Lady Claes sword snapped up in a guard once more, ready to meet Sirius even as Maria realized her mistake and quickened, darting pastSirius and moving herself between him and Lady Claes. Raising both weapons, she swung her saber in a backhanded descending slash, knocking his sword aside with brute force, her dagger just barely missing on the follow through, before she lunged out with the saber in a stab that once more caught him in the left shoulder.
This time, however, he fell to the ground as he let out a cry, dropping his sword and falling on top of the geometric design that dominated the room. Instinctively, Maria raised both saber and dagger for a downward slash that would finish this… and found herself frozen.
He just lay there, panting sword just out of easy reach. Two steps, and she managed to kick it away, leaving him helpless.
"It's over, Lord President," she said, her voice shaking in a way it hadn't since she'd been a rookie hunter, so very, very long ago. "Y-you have to stand down now…"
His kick was swift and slammed into her ankle, knocking her feet out from under her. The darkness around him roared, seeming to gather into his hand as it slammed onto down onto her face…
Darkness…
And then, like a hazy light at the end of a wavering tunnel, she heard voices.
"What are you doing in a place like this?" she heard a gentle voice say.
It was the memories of the one she knew as Sirius Dieke… a boy born under the name Rafael Walt…
She saw his life as though through his eyes, saw him growing up as a commoner… saw his mother, who was all he had in the world…
She saw her die… saw the ritual that had happened in this very room that had burned her life to create Dark Magic…
She saw and heard his mother's last words… "Please… live. Live… and be… happy…"
She saw and heard his mother's last words… "Please… Avenge me…"
I will have my revenge…
If he cannot give it to me… YOU will…
The marchioness had betrayed him! She had killed him, had him disposed of like garbage as soon as she'd gotten what she wanted, all to keep her secrets!
But he had endured. He had held on, used his new dark magic to go beyond death, to bind his spirit to the boy. They had both been betrayed by THAT WOMAN. Surely he would be willing to help him get revenge for them both?
But now, the boy was useless. Broken, conflicted, defeated. But ah… what a find, this who had broken him. Her soul burned with darkness, with loneliness, hate and envy! She was skilled, a killer beyond any he had ever seen! He would no longer have to wait, to bide his time, to slowly twist that boy towards their vengeance! With this girl, he would take THAT WOMAN'S life with his own hands!
His essence flowed into her, tearing apart the hooks and roots and binds that had bound him to the boy despite the magic he had been surprised to find dwelling within him. No matter. He had possessed a wielder of Light Magic once, he could do it again! He'd grown in his time within the boy, hard learned of the boundless power of Dark Magic. could do things that he couldn't when he'd first made the boy his host! This time he would plunge her into a deep, cursed sleep from which she would not awaken, and there would be no one to hold him back as he used his new body to FINALLY get his revenge!
There was a sound like a bell…
He stood in a dream and knew it was a dream. Had he made some mistake?
No, no… She had not fallen into quiet slumber like that Claes girl (how had she awoken?), but had clawed to remain conscious, pulling him down into dream with her. No matter! Here, in mind and memory, Dark Magic was at its greatest! No matter how much she tried to resist, his power was absolute!
Two doors stood before him, wide and tall. His dream-self was a monstrous wraith of dark flame and shadows in the shape of a robed giant, a last vestige of his earthly form. Raising his hands, each large enough to grasp a man, he pushed the doors open.
Beyond them was a vast room with wooden floors. Candles burned on racks along the walls. Confidently, he stepped inside, ready to crush this girl's last remnants of resistance so he could claim her body for his own.
On the far side of the room stood a chair. On it, a woman sat with legs crossed and head bowed, her hat obscuring her face. A weapon of some sort lay on her lap.
"What a strange twist this tale takes," she said softly, yet her words seemed to echo throughout the room as he took another step inside. "You are the shadow of over the/my Lord Head Clerk's heart? You are the hatred and madness I saw in his eyes?"
"He betrayed me! He is weak! But I… I will have my vengeance, girl!" he roared. He loomed over her. Such a small, insignificant thing…
Slowly, the woman's head rose. Pale hair on pale skin, as if under moonlight, her eyes burned into his. "No… you will not. You are a fool. You could have had your revenge at any time, simply by denouncing the marchioness. A word to Nicol Ascart, who considered Sirius Dieke a friend, and you could have had your vengeance by the third month of last year at the pittance of a few words. You could have asked for help, you fool. You need not have done this alone. And because of your foolishness, an ill-used soul pays the price. A blameless girl nearly died by your foul power. No more. You will not hurt him anymore!"
Uncrossing her legs, she stood, a long weapon with a blade at either end in her hand. Raising it before her, she wrenched, and one weapon became two.
"I will liberate him… from your putrid influence!"
Spreading her arms out to either side, she impaled herself on her own blades, hunching over as their tips and more erupted from her back. As he stared, confused, she wrenched them free. Blood exploded everywhere as fire licked the edges of the swords, which had elongated with blades seemingly made from blood.
"You are my prey… AND I WILL SLAUGHTER YOU LIKE THE BEAST YOU ARE!"
Cursed Spirit of Vengeance, Wielder of Dark Magic
(▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒)
Lady Maria Campbell of the Astral Clocktower
(▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓)