Snippet #2695084

His fingers were laced, his legs crossed. He wore a dark smirk on his face. Things were quite splendid, all told.

At first it started slow. He could tell from their rather refrained behaviour and the odd way they dropped subjects of topic that there was more than meets the eye going on.

Th crusader picked up on the cat person's energy quite well. She poked and prodded the woman, trying to make her reveal herself whilst belittling her companion. He had no word to add to this exchange, he simply sat and watched on with a bemused expression. He could feel the tension building like the crisp feel of winter forming it's first snowflake. One might say it was only a matter of breaking the ice.


Thankfully their little back and forth was interrupted by the arrival of the crusader girl's comrades. Their talk of the feline's potential service was cut quite short with a fast and duly warranted impalement through the woman's chest and body armor. For many the motions of the hooded engager would of been far too fast to follow but he could keep track of her movements sufficiently. He was well versed with techniques, knowing a number of his own. Her use of techniques seemed to act in place of magic for her as he watched her rend a anthropomorph's neck before using her technique to freeze the remainder of crusaders solid. At that point given the process of crystallization shattering them was more or less redundant as all that was left to thaw out were their dead bodies.

He stood, paying little mind to the dragonkin who was visibly unnerved by his presence, and strolled on down the car to the scene of the carnage. With the ends of his fingers pressed together he looked over her work, analyzing the mess with his crimson red eyes. "I give it a seven out of ten."


He rated the woman's performance. She was fast and effective however she paid little care towards bringing her foes suffering. Her means were simple yet boring, a means to an end rather than a true display of carnage at it's purest.

Seeing as how they were quite likely suspicious of his being a Hemomancer he spared not a second longer on his old charade. Going over to the flung body of her first victim he grasped the body by the back of it's neck, lifting it up and pressing the corpse against a wall.

"Crimsome Regus, Mortiferous Myst"


He uttered his dark magic, tracing lines with ritualized precision using his index upon the now deceased woman's chest. He could feel the cooling blood in her dead veins animate as he finished his incantation. The arms of the body lifted into position, outstretched against the wall. From his sleeve he produced a simple dagger and with a flick of the wrist he cut down the veins on both arms with the same ease an artist paints on a canvas. As the skin opened up blood started running out along the walls, flowing sideways instead of obeying gravity's laws. They shifted and ebbed like tendrils, eventually hardening against the wall.

As Eduard let the body go the blood held it fast against the wall by it's arms. The blood had formed long fleshy vines which clung to the wall with coagulants. The blood from the wound in the center of the body's chest help up the torso while the vines held the arms. Now that the body was in place he could arm it.


Waving his hand to the side and bringing his index and middle finger to the base of his thumb the blood could be visibly seen churning in the hole left by the hooded feline. The gesture was a preset magical trigger set by him, one of the more customizable aspects of casting. It was always wise to never make the gesture something the caster might make without intending to.

From the corpse up against the wall a red mist started to pour forth from the open wound in the chest. His spell had made the body generate a red mist from it's blood, rather quickly starting to fill the car with it. This way anyone who'd come in would be immediately exposed to the blood, liable to breath it in which is exactly what he wanted. He'd infect the intruders's lungs with corrupting blood which will allow him to directly tap into their blood too. The wonderful part was that since the effect wasn't inherently harmful he could pick and choose just who he wanted to harm and how.


With that set up he turned his attention inward. With a brief series of incantations he enhanced himself with improved physical ability and a number of magical defenses. He made note to protect himself against elemental ice given the company.

Speaking of company he turned to see if he'd drawn any particular amount of attention from the others. Given the number of crusaders on board he imagined he wouldn't take too much priority away from that despite his less than welcoming preparations. He didn't care the slightest as to how they thought of him but less enemies in his immediate vicinity meant less complications. She may of started the blood bath but he was more than happy enough to finish it.

"I presume you'll be getting off before the intended stop. It'll be a few minutes before we're clear of the chasm so even with stones ready to throw I'd ask you stow judgement until we're clear of these zealots first."


With his request pending he turned back to the entrance to their car from the rest of the train. He proceeded over to the anthropomorph who's throat was rent. With a fluid motion of his hands he extracted the blood from the open wound without needing to so much as even touch it. Before him hovered a ball of swirling blood. Extending a finger, the other hand kept still to maintain the blood's stability, he extended a tendril of fluid blood and started painting a Hemomantic rune upon the wall adjacent the door. He did very much the same on the wall opposite to the rune.

This was the Runes of Magic Draining, a set of runes which drains if not outright strips the magic from those who stand between the runes. He placed these as a trap for those coming in so they'd have no arcane protection to bar him from afflicting them most horribly.

He could of set up more magic and turn this whole car into a living death trap but he was fairly certain there was no time for that. Combat was impending.