[color=black][b][h2]The Book Keeper VS The Itinerant Exorcist - Round 1[/h2][/b][/color]
Frankly speaking, this was one of the more bizarre beings he'd ever encountered, and that included the company of, essentially, vampiric demigods. She was female; she was humanoid; but she was certainly not human, for no human smelled of... what was it, what was that animalistic smell? He wasn't certain he'd ever encountered it, which may be why he was having such trouble identifying it. Then again, maybe it was familiar, but just off enough to mask the familiarity? He couldn't say for sure. On the other hand, her intentions were all too clear, and the sound of a drone announcing the match only clarified the truth.

This was his foe, then; "little miss magic tricks", as the announcer had put it, and accordingly the light to his darkness, because there was no reasonable way he'd ever be mistaken as truly good by those who knew what he was. It was a shame, then, what he'd have to do to her in order to win. Not necessarily to end her life, if he could avoid it, but perhaps merely having your soul taken was worse than that anyway. That, and all the injuries she was about to sustain.

A metallic [i]clap[/i] sounded out from the drone as it finished broadcasting its thoughts, and like that the fight began. Or ought to have, anyway. Whilst his enigmatic foe summoned forth a few wisps of flame, Motley simply crossed his arms and slowly approached her, content that he could close the distance in a second if he so desired. Whilst his Heavy Fuel remained active within his body, he felt that its sheer lethality ran somewhat counter to the notion of leaving her alive. Or at least not dead; if that was his goal, zombification would be easy enough.

[color=black]'So, you and I would appear to be foes,'[/color] Motley stated bluntly. Unexpectedly, however, he received a rebuttal of sorts: [color=bc8dbf]'Well, actually, I'm just a tourist here. The fire's to keep me warm, and so I can see in this darkness!'[/color] The lie was shameless, and apparently intended to throw him off, given that the drone had just announced they were combatants. Maybe it'd have worked on somebody without the will to manifest a Stand... however, despite her earlier approach, she was now backing away from him as quickly as he moved toward her. That told him she didn't want to get into a close range fight, meaning that whatever power she possessed did not extend to her physique, and that meant she would be fodder once he moved in.

[color=black]'In the interest of fairness, I'm going to tell you that you're utterly outmatched,'[/color] the vampire continued, more bold than before now that he knew where his best interests lay. [color=black]'However, I've figured out a way of defeating you that will let us avoid the, shall we say, [i]unpleasant[/i] notion of death. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?'[/color]

[color=bc8dbf]'Hah! Bring it on!'[/color] the girl responded, smiling to Motley quite bluntly. [color=bc8dbf]'I die all the time, and then come back to life by the end of the day! Besides, I [i]think[/i] I saw your fangs, which makes [i]you[/i] a vampire!'[/color]

[color=black]'How astute your eyesight is,'[/color] Motley responded, running his tongue over the top row of his teeth, the two points of his canines in particular. He knew from experience that it wasn't so easy to focus on someone's mouth long enough to notice their dental structure, especially with how one's lips tended to move whilst talking. [color=black]'I reiterate, though: this means you're outmatched. Give up.'[/color]

[color=bc8dbf]'Or [i]maybe[/i] it means I'm in a great position to [i]put you down![/i]'[/color] she crowed, flinging her arm wide and sending the wisps of fire out toward Motley, either a deliberate scattershot to trap him- or, he suspected, a wild, even random hurling of magic just to try and hit him. You honed your combat sense by fighting at close range. Simply flinging balls of fire was no way to do that.

[i]On the other hand,[/i] Crue mused as he ducked around the motes, [i]she did seem awfully confident that they would do the trick... is there some amount of strength being hidden in their size? Or maybe they have some special feature to them when it comes to slaying the undead?[/i] He figured it was worth pinching off a piece of his hand, between his index finger and thumb, to test the theory, since that small bit of flesh would grow back sooner rather than later. Taking aim at one of the will'o'wisps as they changed course back toward him, he flicked the undead meat toward one of them, only to be forced to leap away as an explosion of heat rushed toward him, the once-small flame expanding to quite the size, enough even to consume its fellow sparks before fading, with only the piece of meat engulfed in purple fire as evidence of its existence. So, whichever of his theories held true, that fire was in fact more than capable of harming him.

And that presented its own conundrum: whilst she was still greatly outmatched at close range, it'd only take her a moment at that distance to hit him with a great number of fireballs and set his whole body ablaze, whether or not he had Heavy Fuel available to him. And whilst he knew he could regenerate away the damage of regular fire...

[color=black]'Kuaa... alright, you may actually be a somewhat challenging foe,'[/color] he admitted, to the air a few meters in front of him, as his opponent was already running off, leaving fireballs and exultation in her wake, and leaving him frowning. [i]God damn it.[/i] Challenging, but also annoying - there was a phenomenon in many video games that most boss fights, save those where victory was deliberately impossible, ought to actually be defeated the first time they showed up, because if they just ran off, it was no victory for the player at all. This, Motley figured, could well be something along those lines.

Then again, most boss battles in video games didn't have a player more powerful than the boss themselves. And more importantly, a much faster-moving character. Making sure to breath evenly, Motley began running after the strange, oddly-scented pyromancer, ducking and diving around each fireball as it steered towards him, at one point even moving on all fours because it was the best way around the next obstacle; apparently, she had the sense to not just throw them out behind her as landmines- air mines? Either way, she understood that that would be a silly use for them.

Apparently, she also understood the prospect of misdirection, and that despite her best efforts, she was still being gained upon. Out of nowhere, the girl ceased her hollering, split in two, and ran off down two separate forks in the village road - one nearly straight ahead, and the other at an angle to Motley's right. This, for a brief moment, brought Motley to a halt when he reached the fork, somewhat caught up in the notion that maybe she was a Stand user after all. But no, it was more likely that her "magic tricks" were also involved in this... and not very usefully, as it happened. The sound of echoing footsteps was only coming from the one direction, and likewise the strange scent of her unique form only emanated from the right-hand path; and so, Motley chased her down that path, continuing to dodge the fireballs as necessary. As a vampire, he didn't have anything to worry about as far as exhaustion went, whereas the pace she was moving just to stay ahead of him would, unless she was more superhuman than he thought, surely tire her out sooner or later. It was just a matter of pursuit, and evasion. And, of course, time.