Rae'liel - [u]The Not-so-Honored Guest[/u]

She was close, so terribly painstakingly close as the blade cut through the very air. Sherpa's blood was hers and hers alone, by her blade it would spill, by her blade his mortal coil would be severed unto a painful end. That was until a Runic weapon intersected her strike and drove her back. 

A maddening flurry of strikes ruptured forth then, each swing of the blade against her screaming for her flesh and blood as shield and sword was used to parry each oncoming strike. With one solid blow sending her skidding back and away, one of her own Knights stepped into the fervor only to die at the hand of the howling abomination's blade. 

Behind him, Rae'liel's grasp tightened upon her blade as Sherpa taunted maliciously from afar. Hiding behind the armor of the monstrosity that stood between them. Old wounds burned and ached, the familiar warmth of blood once again began to trace thin lines down her shoulder and abdomen. The two places where only recently she had been wounded. This monstrosity desperately needed to be stopped, and here in this moment only she was capable. 

Accompanied by a clatter, her sword and shield fell onto the staircase as she reached behind her. With the barrier and slender blade, she could not hope to match this monstrosity's offense. The Blood Knight behind her attempted to speak in protest at first, but her hand cast to the side silenced him immediately.

Her first action was to remove her gauntlets so that she only had her beautifully slender fingertips and leather gloves to bear. This next action required the sacrifice of her flesh and blood. 

[color=662d91]"I hate to use this against you, you dull creature."[/color] The Blood Knight started quietly as the abomination turned to stare at her in all of its maniacal glee. [color=662d91]"I hate to use this blade at all, but it is a necessary choice."[/color] Smoothly, a blade adorned in gold and silver slid from the hilt upon her back. Yet the moment that she touched the hilt with her mostly bare hands, the luminous emerald corruption in her eyes flickered and then brightened to a never before seen intensity.

[color=662d91]"Apolyon has been waiting for a good challenger, now I can oblige it at last."[/color]

She only used this weapon in moments of desperation. Only once had Sharon even ever seen the blade, and at that time it was not in her possession.  

The final edge of the weapon finally emerged, and with it came an ominous green glow. The flickering madness of fel-tainted energies. A Soul-Rending blade, that she had retrieved from the corpse of Kil'Jaeden herself, gifted to wield by her by the Matriarch of the Blood Knights. It was her final trump card, this blade, as she could feel the vile corruption from it coursing through her veins.

Within her body a battle was being fought. The purity of Light, and the horrors of Demonic Corruption. 

Gripping the weapon with both of her slender hands and abandoning any pretense of defense, she dug her toes into the earth and with a maddening, almost seemingly possessed grin, the Paladin launched herself forward. Blurring by, the distance rapidly closed as the two unholy weapons clashed against one another. This time with such titanic might that the bearer of the Runic Weapon was forced back by her own maddening assault.

Whatever incredible speed she once had with just the shield more than doubled with a Two-Handed sword, after all as a natural practitioner of Retribution, she was back in her element. Whatever credible might she once possessed nearly tripled with the horrors of Fel Corruption. 

Fel Energies burned her constantly, only to be embattled by the healing energies of Light Magic as with every breadth, she exhaled literal smoke. In a fight of agony and fury against agony and madness, fury held greater determination and she refused to relent. Each harrowing strike chipped away at the Runic Monster's ability to defend, until at long last an opportunity presented itself.

A desperate counterattack caused her to viciously parry, forcing his blade into the floor and she leapt off the buried flat, and before the monstrosity could even blink the Soul-Rending blade came crashing down towards his skull with the intention of cleaving him completely in two.