Darkness Redux

[Nalia]

You don't have to tell me that, Ali thought, though she kept it too herself and simply nodded. Focusing on the task as hand was more important than squabbling over whether or not she could take care of herself in a fight. This...man, if it could be called that, felt so....odd to her. Not just the straight anger, bloodlust that he was displaying on the outside - there was something else there. Sadness - regret, maybe. Ah well, best not to think of it now she reasoned, leaping back to avoid the downward swipe of her opponent's scythe. I can puzzle over that when the battle is through.

She took a moment to resummon that....aura, she guessed. Ali really had no clue what it was that she made. She took it, and on a moment's intuition, pushed it out towards the man - a dark cloud of all the pain of this ravaged town, hoping it would reach him before he could use that weapon of his to make it dissipate again, hoping she could tap that...regret that she had sensed.

 

[Thor.]

The Prisoner's eyes flared as his blade drove into the sand with a soft thud. Of course. The battle had only begun, she had the energy that came from knowing your life is in danger without the fatigue that came from actually defending it. But this would end the way it always did. He would tear out her throat with his bare hands when she finally collapsed from exhaustion. He yanked the scythe out of the sand sending a spray of it in to the the air and rushed forward once more. He could feel more of her magic approaching him. He ground his teeth. He had yet to see the spell that could bring him to his knees. He did not slow.

And as he approached her...he felt weak. In that moment the rage, the lust for destruction, the need to do what he was meant to do. It all seemed insignificant next to the crushing despair that was always sequestered in the back of his mind. He felt heavy. He wanted to rest. To weep.

There was a flash of pain as the Prisoner was knocked down into the sand. His visions swam and blood ran down his face. He had been hit, judging by the pain in the nose, and a lot harder than he had been hit in a long time. He rolled back to his feet, his head still fuzzy, and saw a small girl with a big grin standing in front of him. She was dressed oddly, and her hair was many different colors, many of them rich and unlike any he had ever seen. She giggled.
He would kill her. He dashed forward again, other warriors forgotten. He got close. He raised his scythe, and suddenly he was sprawled again in the sand. The girl stood over him now, a large hammer in one hand. Where had it come from?

Luckily the blow had only struck him in the shoulder. His arm would be useless true, but if that had landed on his head... He staggered back to his feet. His scythe held in one hand he hesitated. He had underestimated them. And perhaps...perhaps THESE foes would finally be able to strike him down.

 

[Candy Man]

Sotrec stuck to the shadows outside of battle, picking through the clothes of the fallen dead. "What do i want? What do I want?"He glanced over occasionally but only with vested interest. These weren't what they needed, not now. He still had to learn what it was he had any interest in himself. the flesh under his hands grew that much colder as he ran his fingers across it, searching. There'd be nothing he'd need here, he knew that, but there's always something that he wants.

One monetary glance to his left showed something more interesting that some stained rags. The screaming man who had been bouncing hither and fro was trying to cut into the little pets. Joking aside, his weapon was by far what caught Sotrec's eye most. He abruptly dropped the perhaps-not-entirely-dead man and stood up on his now tan feet. He consciously licked the ring on his lip, as he very well should, whispering. "Now that..." He pulled his collar up and walked closer through his alleyway.

 

[Thor.]

Alistair stepped into the shaded alley. There was a man there that had caught his eye. Neither fleeing nor under the spell of the Doctor's concoction he either had to be insane or another player that he was unaware of. His body language made it clear that the man was not going to pass him. He looked harmless, scrawny, twitchy. But at the same time, there was a light of madness in his eyes and worse. He was headed toward the battle between the Chosen and his prisoner.

"I wouldn't go over there if I were you." He said with a smile he didn't need to feign. He enjoyed talking, he so seldom had anyone to talk to that wasn't a broken Puppet of the Evil. Not that he himself wasn't.

 

[Candy Man]

Sotrec stopped on his heels and pivoted to face the guy. He pulled his hands up into the sleeves of his too-loose coat, hidden from view. His too-wide smile grew to his too-long ears while a too-bright glow came from behind his too-yellow eyes.

He clicked his teeth together once and two-step on and off one foot, if only a moment. "I don't think I can be sure you're not, Icey."

 

[Thor.]

Alistair furrowed his eyebrows. The man was clearly insane. Which was certainly a relief. But something about the stranger didn't sit right with him. What he had said, his mannerisms. All of it had seemed like complete nonsense. He rolled his neck let out a sigh and tried again. "I guess some people are beyond help." She said to the man, not confident that any of it would make it through to him. "If you go over there you will die. I just thought I would let you know." He turned around and walked away. Most people, even the insane ones had a fair enough grasp of life and death to try to avoid the latter. Still. He left the alley and watched the prisoner fighting the Chosen. If the lunatic showed up...he would deal with it when and if it happened.

 

[Candy Man]

Sotrec turned his head to watch the man go, tongue to his cheek. "He's little." He turned to leave the alley, his right foot coming down flatter and heavier than the other, both completely bare. He lifted his left foot with some effort, jangling at only the smallest volume. he slowly set it back down, strong enough for the weight not to bother him. "Very very good."

The guy left the alley to watch the fight before them. Sotrec puffed air out his nose and looked to the beast of a man fighting pets, cutting through the air with a preternatural blade. "That I need." He leaned up against the wall next to him and stared wide-eyed at the battle. "Just one... more... thing..."

 

[Nalia]

Ali found herself wincing along with every blow Penny dealt. She didn't like this fight, not one bit. The creature before them seemed to her almost a thing to be pitied rather than destroyed. He seemed to her twisted with pain, on the brink of a despair so deep she could hardly fathom it. Alesia choked a little and stopped herself from probing further - she could guess that were she to touch that deep despair that it would all but destroy her. Still, pain should be fixed, healed, not....

Ali sighed and brought herself mentally back to the fight. Such thoughts were useless. Still, she couldn't help but study the man one last time. He seemed to be relishing this fight, even though he had to know that it would kill him. Could it be?

"He wants to die." Ali surprised herself when she whispered that out loud, but when she heard herself say the words aloud she knew it was true. Alesia nodded, understanding.

"Very well," she whispered

Ali began to fight again, but oddly - all of the zeal she had displayed before was gone. One would think it would be difficult to fight with compassion, and yet that is exactly what she did.

I feel you, I know you. If I am the answer you seek, then so be it. I will not deny you this.

 

[Stavvy]

This man was strong, dangerously so, he just took a beating from Penny and still stood, although wounded. This needed to end before he pulls out another trick. Ellis noted the man's hesitation and charged, hoping to catch him off guard. He drew a knife in his left hand and drew his sword in his right. As the distance between the two closed, he threw the knife at the man's upper torso and another quickly at his left so that he couldn't move without taking it. He then came from the right in a sort of flank, aiming a slice empowered enough to cleave the man through. He knew the man could probably kill him, so he knew to watch for the counter-attack that would surely come. Hopefully another would jump in the fight as Ellis felt an odd feeling of intimidation from the man.

 

[Thor.]

Knives thudded into the Prisoner and he bit back a roar. More blood was spilled and his thoughts grew fuzzy, somewhere in the back of his mind he knew his rage was increasing, but the thinking feeling part of the Prisoner had long since fled. He threw up his arm and deflected the blow enough that it smashed into the sand rather than cutting him in half. Blood poured from a stump that was once his left arm. This time the prisoner did roar, he charged faster than he should have towards the one who had taken his arm, swatted at him then darted past towards the woman who was behind him. The little girl he ignored. She could come later.

 

[Stavvy]

Ellis barely felt the blow as his body flew into a dune of sand. He managed to stand quickly and see that this shell of a man was running towards Alli past Penny. Dammit, she won't be able to defend herself against it. He hadn't really seen her fight with her fists, but merely by the fact that she chose to fight long-distance was enough to assume she'd at least be worse fighting up close. He wondered why he chose her instead of Penny, but that didn't matter. His skin burned as the symbols blazed red beneath his clothes. He wasn't thinking but merely ran towards the beast, aiming to tackle it away from its target.