Gabriel, clad in his helmet with the shimmering steel of his blade stretched outward in his grasp, rode hard upon the gravel streets in Narrowhaven. The hellfire steed plumed smoke from it’s nostrils as he drove it onward, the fiery clattering of its hooves making sparkled messes of light and embers in the wild gallop. The betrayal of one’s word is not something Gabriel takes likely, the vampire having spent the last few hours defending his own.
He gritted his teeth, his tall, frigid frame set upon the bareback of the steed. With every meter he came closer, his fury became more daunting. Tightening his grip on the sword, he focussed on the other side of the shoreline, bypassing the ferries slower transport by leaping through space and teleporting, a feeble task for his own talents to accomplish.
After rounding the building on the left side, the density of the vegetation scrapped at the woolen texture of his robe. The heat from the mystical horses hooves left behind cindered imprints on the grass below, curling the green blades into withered, blacked clumps. He fast approached the door of the western hobbit house, the steed sending a simmering steam from a nearby puddle as it splashed through it with a thud. Inside, he would find the betrayer.
Reaching the door, Gabriel turned his hips hard, swooping the steed to kick it down in a fluid and unstoppable motion. As the steed turned to its side, preparing to make the kick and remove the tiny round door from its hinges, it violently crumpled below a massive red streak of muscle and flesh, booming down upon the frame of its rider. The ground under Gabriel’s body trembled as the great foot crashed into his torso, driving him from the mount and into the ground, a blow that would have crushed his rib-cage instantly had he been human and unprotected by his wards.
A gust of seering hot wind blew him into the ground with incredible force as the red beast flapped its wings, gaining altitude over his head. His golden eyes watched through the slits of the impermeable helmet protecting his head as the creature flew upward in powerful beats from its’ massive wingspan. Gabriel raised his hand skyward, gripping the foe in an invisible grasp, flexing hard to maintain control of it. He regained his footing and yanked down with the unseen string that tethered to his target. The horned monster writhed slightly, resisting, but darted out of the sky like a torpedo, wrecking into the mountainside in a splatter of rocks and splintering stone!
Smoke immediately filled the area, Gabriel, setting his teeth and positioning firmly in his stance, held his sword low and ready to slash upward…
"Parlor tricks from a monster? Come and meet me, you daemon!"
The bellowing silhouette of a humanoid figure appeared within the smoked wall, moving slowly, even deliberately slow.
"Parlor tricks…? Well, if that impressed you, wait until I unzip my pants…" The voice replied from behind the screen, it was sharp on the vowels, an enunciated poignancy to each word, the echo of arrogance stinging the air as it casually walked out of from behind the white smoke.
Quinn Vandoras, without any particular attention to the vampire, brushed away at his shoulders, a few pebbles loosing themselves from the velvet jacket he wore over the linked chains of his armor. He tossed a small, spherical object in his other hand, catching it without removing his crimson eyes from his own body, patting the fullness of his figure, brushing away the dust. His frame was built powerfully under the jacket, his veil rising to dual points of interest, creating a small tent beneath that separated the tips of his horns from the top of his head.
"What brings a cold-bodied slime-ball all the way out here, all full of battle-lust, ready to kick down that pathetic little door of the Unseer’s home?" The calculated confidence of his question rising in correlation with his brows. He stopped walking, catching the spherical object in one fluid motion, crossing his arms over the broadness of his chest.
Gabriel eyed him, wondering quietly to himself the same question in return, but instead of mincing words, he dashed at Quinn raising the sword in an upward fashion, preparing to execute a lightning quick razor strike into his enemy’s chest. His enemy, however, recoiled with a smooth gracefulness, arching over backward, flipping nimbly out of the way of the fatal blow!
"Pfuh, in no mood to ta–" Gabriel’s sword swung high at the tiefling’s shoulder, and although Quinn spun with the slash to mitigate the damage, his jacket was shredded by the blades shimmering edge.
Quinn blinked, and as his eyes opened, Gabriel was upon him again! The blade went high, a mistake by the attacker, Quinn swerved his head to the left avoiding it and countered, catching the vampire’s wrist in his grasp, bringing an enclosed fist into the locked out elbow of Gabriel. The fist clubbed on the arm at the directed point of attack, but it was hardly noticed, the wards protecting Gabriel’s body repelling the strike easily. The red-skinned tiefling, whom fancies himself the king of all things, raised his eyebrow and curled his hips to the ground, using the leverage of the vampire’s arm to fling him through the air! Gabriel contorted his body in the air and landed on his feet, his legs spread wide with his hand outstretched toward Quinn.
"A nimble little cretin!" Quinn exclaimed his verbal attack, but his footing was quickly disturbed as the ground sparked to life with explosive force beneath his feet! His body sent airborne, heat bouncing off his figure, his stomach was soon blasted with a bolt of energy, flinging him from the sky and into the ground, tumbling head over heels. Gabriel capitalized, moving quickly, poisoning the tiefling’s bloodstream with a click of his fingers, but the body disappeared in a small cloudy burst. Unsettled, Gabriel’s reflexes could not match the dexterous and uncanny speed of the pureblood, the stab of a spears tip just piercing his back! Quinn withdrew the spear, spinning it wildly in an act of pure showmanship as Gabriel turned to meet him.
The spear’s tip came to rest, pointing directly at the vampire, Quinn looked down at his feet, where his toes wiggled playfully and boots were burned away in the blast from a moment ago. "You ruin my jacket, and my boots, you are ruthle–" Gabriel attacked again bringing the sword from underneath in an upward slash! Quinn turned hard, grabbing the neck of a nearby clone and deflecting the deadly force into it. The spear rounded in a circular fashion, striking high but Gabriel easily let it pass over his head, stabbing at Quinn’s midsection with the tip of his blade which met with sharp clang of metal on metal!
A warfork pincered Gabriel’s sword into the ground, Quinn’s foot stomped hard on the hilt, disarming! Quinn released the handle of the warfork, and with a subtle click the rust colored metal of his dagger nested in his palm, which slashed across Gabriel’s chest, the wards reflecting the dooming edge of the knife. Over-extended and off balance, Quinn keeled over from the impact of Gabriel’s knee, which drove his body upward in a heave, only to be wracked back down into the soil below with the crack of a lightning bolt from the air above!
Gabriel rolled over Quinn’s body, retrieving the sword, tumbling over the ground gracefully, bringing the steel in front of his face just in time to parry the dagger meant for his chest. Quinn grasped Gabriel’s wrist, and Gabriel responded in kind, wrapping his long fingers around the wrists of the tiefling. Setting their jaws, the two pushed and grappled with one another, the brute physical strength of the king of all matching evenly with the mystically enhanced power in the ancient guardian of the covenant.
Planting his foot in the chest of Gabriel, Quinn sprang upwards into the sky, kicking Gabriel across the helmet with his barefoot, doing no harm. Gabriel reached for him, putting the ankle of the exposed foot in a magical vice, flinging him into the dirt with crushing force. Quinn felt the wind leave his lungs, his ribs cracking as they struck the ground below, he winced breathlessly, feeling a foot come pressing down on the back of his head. His open mouth betrayed him, the wretched taste of soil and grass exploring his taste-buds!
Quinn, using the strength in his hips and legs, scissored his lower-body and curled his torso into his knees, performing a trip that swept the Vampire from his feet. Landing in a heap, Gabriel scrambled, turning to face his foe then he was again taken from his feet, and this time his body soared across the soil, slamming hard into the mountainside! His wards absorbed most of the impact, but he kicked his feet idly, raised off the ground and made vulnerable by the Daemon, a massive scarlet hand pressing him into the rocky surface behind him with disintegrating power! The sword slashed the back of the daemon’s arm, and across the stomach, setting it off balance, Gabriel fired two energy bolts into its chest, stumbling it backwards, leaving himself space to fall to the ground.
Showing his fangs in a growl, Gabriel sprang forward, driving the tip of his sword toward the Daemon’s chest, but catching only the flank as it maneuvered the overgrown body to the side! Quinn clutched his side, his gigantic and powerful form leaving him, blood seeping out of the crevices formed in-between his taut fingers. He writhed, and Gabriel advanced, taking advantage of the opening for a killing blow…
…the sharp edge of his sword swung high, slashing through the flesh of Quinn’s neck, parting it from his shoulders!
Victory!
And Gabriel slumped forward, blinking—awestruck, feeling a numbness encroach onto his muscles… His head drooped, looking down, as the Quinn in front of him drifted away in a small cloud of dust and smoke. His fingers weakly wrapped around the wrist of an arm, driving the full length of a razor sharp dagger into his kidney, parting the flesh and organ, lodging into his spinal column. Gabriel’s body was wracked in pain, his hand trembling over Quinn’s flexed grip, which remained steadfast to the hilt of the blade, twisting it, the poison coating of the dagger shedding into Gabriel’s bloodstream.
"Just a parlor trick… after all." Quinn’s facial features bent upwards, a grin overcoming the grimace of his face as he turned the dagger into Gabriel’s body, clutching at his own side—Gabriel’s original slash finding home deep into his skin, cutting into a lung, the bubbling scarlet of his blood betraying the wound as near fatal.
Quinn withdrew the dagger, wiping it clean on Gabriel’s robe, clicking it into place behind him. He spent the next several moments applying what bandage he could over his wound, snarling in pain as Gabriel’s paralyzed body laid slumped over beside him… Quinn moved over Gabriel’s body, grasping around his unbreathing neck. The golden eyes of the vampire blinked in and out of consciousness, "No no, don’t go anywhere yet, we’re not finished playing…" Quinn muttered aloud, pulling the body of the paralyzed vampire over to the side of the mountain, propping it up in a seated position.
He squatted down, the sloping meander of a mutt drawing close, the tiefling scratched behind the dog’s ear, watching Gabriel struggle against the poison that fluttered and destroyed the nerve endings connecting to his muscles. "See, I was just here to drop off this thing to the Unseer, and there you were, all ready and aggressive, I do wonder who sent you… but…" Quinn stood up, brushing the dog aside, which wandered away and sat down in some kind of a lazy, apathetic instinct. Pushing his foot against Gabriel’s head, Quinn gritted his teeth, raising his leg and smashing it onto the helmet, repeatedly.
"No.."
SMASH!
"..one.."
CRASH!
"..will.."
BANG!
"..touch.."
CRUSH!
"..what.."
CRACK!
"..I.."
CLANG!
"..do not.."
CLINK!
"..PERMIT!"
The silver of the helmet crushingly dented and contorted inward onto Gabriel’s skull, who blacked out long before his body managed to slump to the side, the helmet becoming so destroyed it rolled away from his head in an awkward wobbling motion. Quinn snatched Gabriel’s limp body, lifting it by the locks of bloodied, formerly raven-black hair. The dagger escaped its’ resting place from Quinn’s back, and he peeled the lips of the fallen vampire upward, tilting his head to examine him…
The point of the dagger drove wickedly, with a crunch, into Gabriel’s mouth, wedging itself into the socket that held the left fang in place. Steadying himself, Quinn anchored the dagger upward violently, the ivory fang snapping free from the socket with a hollow, gruesome, pop! Blood splattered down Gabriel’s motionless face, oozing out of the emptied socket, leaving only a wiggling nerve-ending in its’ wake. Quinn braced his forearm against Gabriel’s bruised and bloodied head, pinning it against the mountain, ejecting the other fang in the same disgusting and brutal manner.
"…you won’t be turning her, now, will you?" His red face turns, sucking at his own teeth. "Okay, time to go… I’ve just the place for you, you’ll feel right as rain in it… it’s dark, and foreboding, and cold, and small, like a coffin… you’ll love it."
…and Gabriel’s body fell, unconcious, landing with a sickening and bone-breaking clatter onto the stone floor, well below the lowest floor of the Academy. His body mangled and broken, unmoving within the stark emptiness of the obsidian prison.
Quinn limped away, patting the dog on the head…
"Let’s get you home…."
