Blair & Zarrath | Jungle Tabernacle
Zarrath hefted his katana as the blood spikes appeared and gave his own small smile as a rune manifested, creating a barrier between himself and the attack. The after effects kicked up a lot of dust, but his blade managed to deflect the spear off to the left. He had learned last time they fought that allowing those barbs to lock with Shadowsteel too long can only help Layla and unleashes an Arced Slash at the demoness after leaping back, the vertical slash rushing at her. Zarrath used it as cover, sheathing Shadowsteel and waiting for her to rush in for the attack once more in a crouched position, one hand gripping the sheath just below the crossguard and the other around Shadowsteel's hilt.
Despite efforts to draw in close, the angel managed to deflect Zalmonah to the left before leaping back and unleashing a vertical slash that sent a wave of holy energy crashing at her. Put in an awkward position, she created a spear-like 'chain' made of blood, with an open hand, and sent it crashing into a nearby tree and pulled herself out of the way. After evading the attack, she rushed in, using 'Blood Blast' to coat her weapon in blood. However, Blair stopped just out of range and planted Zalmonah into the ground, causing an explosion to erupt, causing earthly debris to scatter all over the place, interferring with the remaining waves of his previous attack. Using the aftermath as a distraction, she charged in and, Using Ragdoll, thrusted her spear at the angel in attempt to stab him and fling them into the air.
As the spear shot towards him with intent to impale, the Angel unleashed his Eviscerate, the horizontal slash connecting with the spear's tip and, for a moment, it would seem that neither would give ground. However, the moment quickly passed and the two evenly matched forces forced both Demon and Angel to slide back. Zarrath slid into a ready stance, his katana held up in front of him and gripped with both hands.
"Perhaps it's time we both quit testing each other, hm?" In a flash, the Angel closed the distance between himself and Layla, unleashing a series of swift thrusts and slashes, the blade becoming covered with holy flame at odd intervals. With in less than two seconds, after images began to appear and strike where the real blade just had, except any attempt at going through them was found to be impossible, as it felt like hitting a real sword upon contact with the image. This technique was Zarrath's Blade Storm, a difficult move to counter or escape.
While her attack was once again thrawted, there wasn't even the slighest change in expression on Blair's face, treating the exchange complete indifference. However, as they forced each other to back off, the angel's words caused a dangerous smile to form on her face, making everything up to this point seem like some kind of game to them. Remaining silent, she readied herself for the upcoming counter-attack. Having gone on the defensive, she focused on blocking and diverting the dangerous thrusts and slashes, of which were imbued with holy flame at odd intervals. Almost immediately, countless after images of the angels began appearing and striking where the real one had. Blair managed to block the more serious of blows, but nontheless still was struck by the onslaught of blows. Deciding her next move, she continued to stay on the defensive. Over the course of the exchange, she started 'appearing' to lose focus and thus allowing more attacks to strike.
However, the truth of the matter was that over the course of the exchange, she began focusing on casting another spell. Despite being struck countless times, Blair had a twisted, chilling smile on her face. Having casted her 'Blood Spike Projection', she created 4 good-sized blood spikes, 2 of which formed behind the angels back, to his left and right. Giving the mental signal, the spikes came crashing down at him and just when he moved to respond, Blair moved, revealing the 2 blood spikes that were hidden behind her back, leaving the angel trapped. With this, she moved in with Zalmonah, striking the angel's sword arm with her spear.
As the spikes of blood erupted behind him, Zarrath reacted, mostly on instinct, with another barrier rune, defending him from the rear, with Shadowsteel coming up in a defensive position for a spear strike, which was instead revealed to be another pair of spikes. Holy flame covered the length of the katana as it's weilder countered with a pair of vertical slashes, one going up, the other coming down. However, it left him open to Zalmonah's strike, even if it glanced off his armor. Rounding on the demoness, the angel made a tenative slash at her to make her dance back, but found that his arm didn't move as fast as it could, feeling a slight paralysis sensation. He could feel no rune magic, something that he'd only seen Fallen use anyways, so he chalked it up to some kind of poison, which his armor offered no protection against after all.
Showing no outward expression of reacting to her well played attack, Zarrath focused for a moment before all the runes along Shadowsteel's length blaze brightly. One of said runes appears beneath Layla and after a moment, erupts upwards in a spear of holy energy. However, it was never meant to actually strike her and the angel appeared on her right side as she dodged, the glow of the runes diminished, but a slash catching her right arm, a golden rune appearing where it contacted, though it was a superficial wound. Ideally, the demoness would find that use of her right arm would be greatly diminished, if not gone completely as the Angel retreated with a pair of backwards hops once more.
"It would seem that, once more, we are at in impasse."She had to take a few shots, but doing so enabled her to get in and strike Zarrath's armor with her spear. To those unknowing, one might laugh it off and boast about the strike not getting through upon contact. But to those who have fought against her before, a strike like that is more than enough. For her demonic spear, not even armor nor magic of any sort can guarentee a stopping of her blows. Which Zarrath was able to experience once more as he felt his arm wasn't exactly up-to-par for his forth-coming assault. Though, even as Blair continued to dodge his blows, he managed coax her into position with a slight trick as he appeared on her right and slashed at her right arm. Almost idential of a situation, she too found the use of her arm greatly diminished from the paralyzing slash. Though, even if she loses use of an arm, she's still far from done and the angel knows this all too well.
Moments after the strike, she once again used 'bloodline' to create a spear-like chain to wrap around Zalmonah and recalled it to her left hand. By this point, Zarrath had retreated backwards as Blair looked on as if it was no problem at all. At the angels words, she grinned.
"So it seems. It's a crying shame that we don't have limitless time on our hands." One had to wonder if all of this is on purpose, First with Kushiel and now once more with Zarrath, someone out there just won't let her go all out and finish a fight. Well, she always puts the mission first but occasionally an all-out fight is whats needed.
Zarrath chuckles, looking around them.
"It reminds me of the stalemate we came to the last time we fought, though we were both far more worse for wear than we are now." The angel indicates Enepsigos.
"And there was no other witnesses.""None of them was fortunate to stay alive anyway," referring to the minions that came with him that day.
"Or Unfortunate if you think about it, don't think the others would've liked what I had planned for whoever ended up surviving anyhow." Blair went a little far that day, once she invokes her Berserker style, her personality shifts completely and her desire for blood and carnage reaches unimaginable levels. That said, she did have fun draining them of their blood. Angel blood has quite a rich flavor, after all.
"Perhaps, but that was a long time ago. I take it you are here to destroy the seal then? If I had to guess, you serve that pompous jack ass Mundus, as Queen Sheba, to my knowledge, prefers things as they are." Zarrath made sure to keep an equal distance between Layla and Enepsigos, not trusting the other demon to not try and launch some kind of sneak attack.
In response to his question, she simply remained there in silence without a change in her expression, as if to confirm it. It's hardly a secret after all, them knowing so wouldn't prevent them from destroying them. However, his next statement finally aroused a reaction.
"Serve? Hardly," she said with a mocking laugh. [color=9e0b0f]"I prefer term 'Work'. I'm merely an 'employee', putting it in Human terms. We Demons work quite differently than you Angels do." she grinned.
While some demons might serve out of loyalty and devotion, they're in the minority. The Majority, on the other hand, were much akin to mercenaries. Most either flock to money or power or for some, both. Some for personal reasons, some for lack of ones. Some are used, some use others. There are all kinds. But to her, 'to serve' brings loyalty and devotion to mind. Blair might work for Mundus, but not a trace loyalty or devotion is there. Personality aside, one doesn't need to be loyal, or even like them for the matter to work under them.
Due to the grave situation of the seals for each side, with one wanting to destroy and the other to protect, both of them knew that neither of them could afford to waste anymore time here with a drawn out battle. In short, there was no reason for her to stay anymore. Despite the conversation, there's no way a high ranking Angel will allow an equally high ranking demon to escape.
Luckily, she brought along the perfect ally for situations like these, Enepsigos. With her ability of Zone control along with her Illusion abilities, it makes things much easier. All she needs to do is give the Madamma the signal and draw his attention away from her so she can do her thing. Problem was, despite her not being in the battle, Zarrath was being quite cautious of Enepsigos.
In short, she needed to distract him long enough to drop his guard, in the form of a faint attack, so she can do his thing. However, just as they were about to move, a change could be seen in Zarrath. Seeing this, Blair decided to stand down and see what he does next.
Zarrath had been about to make a comment in response to Layla when a blairing cry for aid came from a squad of angels, commenting that they had just had their leader, a Storm Warden, downed by a Hellhound, Shapeshifter demon, and a human, along with several of their fellows. Growling softly at having to allow Layla to escape again, the Angel spread his wings and flapped once, hovering several feet from the ground, looking at the demoness.
"I suppose we'll have to leave this battle undecided once more. But, allow me to leave you with a warning. The Charred Council has sent their own agents to secure this Seal against Heaven, Hell, and anyone else attempting to interfere with the Balance. Don't underestimate them or it won't be my blade you find yourself spitted upon." With that, Zarrath turned and flapped again, soaring upwards before moving swiftly through the trees towards the source of the call for aid.
