Snippet #2365832

Khrae & Sebastian

A crash came from down the hallway and Sebastian immediately looked to where it had come from. One of the servants who worked in the mansion was tossed, flung aside even as the man had tried to fight against the intruder. Sebastian ground his teeth and pulled his sword up. Rushing down the hall he attacked the cloaked man. Steel ground against steel as the intruder brought up his own weapon to block the strike.

Reaching into his clothes, Sebastian withdrew a couple of throwing knives. Shoving off the man's sword, the old assassin took several steps backwards to gain some distance. He threw his knives then, the blades making a soft whistle as they covered the distance. One of the three made their mark, the other two being deflected. The intruder rushed forward then, his blade coming down on Sebastian hard.

The old assassin swiped his sword upwards to knock the mans aside and tried to sidestep. However, as he did so the intruder followed him and he felt a sharp stab into his side, just above his hip. Glancing down, Sebastian noted the dagger protruding form his side and grimaced. Holding the weapon, he moved himself backwards to gain more distance once again. From just down the hall towards Khrae, another door flew open and yet another cloaked figure came into the hall. This one turned to look at Sebastian and then to Khrae.

The old assassin glowered at both intruders and reached for another set of throwing knives. These he threw at the newcomer and then lunged forward at the first one who had stabbed him, though his weight was now mostly on his left side as he couldn't put too much on his right. Once again the blades locked together and Sebastian struggled to keep the weapon from cutting into his shoulder and chest.

--Khrae waited patiently, poised to strike, though at first it seemed his help wouldn't be necessary. In fact, the swordsman was somewhat surprised in the speed and agility the older assassin possessed, and he had to concede to the fact that, despite the cowardly brand that these people had acquired over the years, they held invaluable skills. Khrae himself wasn't one to judge of course, and though he knew it was hardly a fair fight when the assailant was striking from the shadows on the unsuspecting, he couldn't help but admire their stealth and patience, let alone the precision needed for their infamous missions. Of course in this scenario, to implement their usual ideals would be mostly ineffective, and so a more conventional method of combat was necessary. It seems Sebastian was perfectly tailored to this as well, effectively rushing his opponent, giving himself an opening and then sending a fast, close-ranged trio of knives soaring into the empty space between them. Probably displaying an equally impressive amount of skill was the cloaked man's ability to deflect two of the knives even with the close proximity, but Khrae expected as much. Perhaps if he'd move just a moment faster too, he could've stepped in to slash at the enemy's hand as it followed the assassin's sidestep, grasping firmly a dagger which, unfortunately had met its mark. He'd seen it, but he was still a meter too far to have been able to do anything.

It was just then too that another figure appeared, further down the hall. Sebastian used only a moment to glance to Khrae, who nodded, before scrambling another set of knives, then wasted no time in continuing his fight. The older swordsman stepped forward now, both hands wrapped firmly around the two hilts of his swords in a backwards grip. Sebastian could hopefully handle himself, and it seemed that this other intruder would be a good match up as well. Watching as the man straightened himself from having dodged the knives, Khrae gave him a rather blank stare, daring him to move first. To instigate combat was frowned upon, and never would his swords leave their scabbards unless to defend ones self, when simple negotiation wasn't enough. Luckily though, the other man begun first.

The attack was rather simple, the more popular way to engage oneself in battle, though hardly effective. In one fluid motion, Khrae drew both swords simultaneously, his arms crossing in front of him just above shoulder level, his blades forming an "X" to catch the downward strike. Giving just slightly to allow the energy to transfer through him without breaking the defense, the man stood with his knees bent just slightly, so that he was below his opponent's center of gravity. With a simple adjustment, and after the attack had lost all offensive power, Khrae pushed back, pulling his arms apart, both blades sliding across the enemy's own until the cross-pieces made contact, though he had brought his right sword down enough to make a difference in his next trick. Adding a last minute push, Khrae pulled his two blades clear of the enemy's, though with the cross-pieces pulling on either direction, and separated as they were, he managed to cause the man's to spin awkwardly to the right. His opponent wouldn't be tricked by this however, as he caught on and used the motion of his blade to spin, following the momentum as he dropped to a knee, coming around on the balls of his feet in a low-crouch with an even lower right-sweep of his blade. Khrae just managed to fall back onto his heel, evading barely the blade's deadly arc. Had the enemy not taken a step back to support the turn, he would've been close enough to sever the swordsman's leg. Khrae hadn't anticipated that.

With his right hand he spun the hilt of his sword around, preparing for a retaliative downward strike on the man from his now exposed kneeling position along the floor in front of him, but alas his enemy evaded, quickly pushing off to the side and rolling to the right. Again the man struck back, but this time Khrae was ready, already having used the his own attack's momentum to jump, flipping sideways over his enemy and allowing the blade to once more sweep through vacant air. The attack wasn't finished however, as now the cloaked man pivoted entirely around, standing, his left hand drawing his weapon back to complete the nearly 180 degree cut while his right came forward, magic crackling in his palm.

Khrae landed gracefully, quickly falling into a ready stance, left arm held forward at chest level, elbow at 90 degrees with his sword in a reverse-grip, the back nearly parallel to his forearm. His right arm was simply held out straight behind him, blade an extension of it as the point covered a mere inch off the floor. In truth Khrae felt like he was slipping, he'd left far too many openings in this battle, or perhaps his opponent was just that strong. Nevertheless, he promised to meditate on his failure later, as the enemy it seemed would not let him rest. Luckily enough, the fire attack was the wrong choice for his opponent.

While he was blown back, he was far from out, in fact nearly unscathed. It seemed as though whomever he was fighting was far too confident in their powers, and so his back was soon facing the swordsman as he went to assist his friend. Khrae simply stood, smoking from where he'd fallen onto the floor. Fire-retardant clothing was indeed useful, especially when he dealt entirely in that element.

--Sebastian swung low, his blade aiming at the man's legs, forcing the intruder to step away from him. With the distance between them increased, the elder assassin collected another set of knives and threw them. Two made their target, one deflected off the man's sword. Sebastian was running low on throwing knives, perhaps holding only six more equaling out to two more throws of three. He would have to end this fight fairly quickly. Even so, the intruder before him didn't seem to be affected in the least by the wounds he'd inflicted on the man.

If anything, the man seemed to be even more powerful than before and Sebastian wasn't getting any stronger. Blood trickled down his thigh as his other hand tightened around the blade in his side once more. The old assassin narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth. Who was this man that he fought? More importantly, why were they here... Anymore thoughts on the intruder were cut away as the cloaked man lunged at Sebastian. Behind him, the elder assassin felt the presence of the second intruder coming up behind him.

A low growl issued from his lips as he turned to look towards the one advancing on him. Narrowing his eyes, Sebastian had two choices, take the blow from the one in front of him and defend against the second, or vice versa. Either way, without Khrae he was going to be injured severely, or killed.

--Khrae struck fast, seeing Sebastian's predicament and charging the man directly in front of him. Of course he knew the enemy would turn around, but Khrae was counting on it. Only a few feet away the enemy, as expected, suddenly spun around, his blade coming out at shoulder level, only to slice through air. The man was momentarily bewildered at this, realizing only a second too late that his adversary had slipped onto the floor below him.

The older swordsman came up quickly, having slide between the man's wide-stance and using his blunted swords to catch his ankles. Leaping up onto the balls of his feet and balancing in a crouch, Khrae pulled his blades up, dragging the man's feet with them and causing him to collapse forward. Lowering his arms as he heard the loud thud, Khrea's blades touched down on the flooring of the mansion, then drew a circle around him as the man rotated, putting his back to Sebastian and facing his enemy who was trying to collect himself from the floor.

"Ideas?" Khrea said quietly, eying the man as he rubbed his jaw and spat on the floor, "I'd rather not scorch anything..."

--"Killing them would be nice," Sebastian responded as he felt Khrae's back against his. He'd noted the man's advance and had turned to face the first one he'd been fighting. Batting aside the blade that came at his chest in an attempt to kill him, Sebastian leaned against Khrae for support. The elder assassin was having a bit of difficulty standing on his leg.

The cloaked man lunged forward hoping to kill both of them by shoving his sword through Sebastian and then through the swordsman. Sebastian's sword knocked his aside and as he did that, he reached up remove one of his throwing knives that had struck the man. The knife was wrenched free and as the man stumbled backwards, slightly startled by the move, Sebastian threw the weapon a second time. The knife flipped through the air and hit the intruder again.

"Burn them if you have to," Sebastian grunted as he blocked another swing to his body. The blades clashed, sliding against each other until they locked at the guards on the hilts. Leaning forward, Sebastian sent a hard punch to the man's stomach, receiving one as well. He stumbled backwards into Khrae and he hoped that he hadn't thrown the man off to bad as he recovered as quickly as he could.

Regaining is footing, Sebastian shot a quick look behind him to the dark haired swordsman, "Do you have anything in mind? I would like to live till tomorrow."

--"Right," Khrae responded flatly, focusing again on the man before him. Behind him, he could feel Sebastian's back against his, and then heard the clash of steel again and felt the man shift as he deflected an attack. The swordsman was working through several scenarios, judging up the skills of these two while trying to weigh what skills he'd seen from the assassin and how they could be implemented.

Suddenly though the man struck, stepping forward to close the distance while coming in with a cut from the left. Khrae brought forward his left arm, a back-handed version of the same attack his opponent had thrown at him, only meant for a defensive purpose instead. The cloaked man's sword deflected easily upwards, sliding against the flat of the older swordsman's blade which continued its own travel until the man could not stretch his arm any farther to his right. Spinning his blade quickly, and with his right trailing, Khrae then rotated his weapon around and slashed out again. The cloaked figure had brought his weapon back down quickly, stiffening his arms and holding his blade out diagonally in front of him to deflect the slash, but not entirely ready for the fast thrust which followed. Stepping forward to increase the power, Khrea's right arm extended quickly as his left went far to his side. Unfortunately though, last minute the man had managed to save himself, turning his blade sideways and swinging up to the left, bringing Khrae's blade with it. With his direction suddenly changed again, the man allowed his right sword to travel up and back as his left foot moved ahead, his same-side arm and sword already coming in for another sweep which the cloaked man ducked below while using the motion motion of his previous block to spin entirely around, moving back several paces in the process until finally he came up again, left arm outstretched with his blade leveled at Khrae's chest.

Both men paused, looking each other over and taking only a second to recover themselves, respecting either one's abilities enough to allow the break. Khrae spun his weapons, opening his stance again as he turned entirely towards his adversary. Standing at a rest, Khrae allowed both his swords to fall to his sides, tips just barely off the floor before he brought them up again, widening the space between his arms and torso and bending is elbows, placing both blades in front of him, crossed over his chest. His enemy simply acknowledged the movements as a reset to end the draw, lowering his blade and pulling it back, holding it diagonally with both hands to his right hip, left side still facing his opponent. At least he was an honorable fighter, Khrae thought to himself.

Then the assassin's voice called out to him from behind. "Burn them if you have to," he had said. The man nodded, but before he could do anything he found himself pushed forward, his current stance not one to withstand Sebastian pushing against his back. Taking a quick step forward to catch himself, he kept his eyes on his opponent, who luckily remained unmoving.

"Do you have anything in mind? I would like to live till tomorrow."

"How fast can you duck and throw knives?" Khrae asked quietly. "Because now would be a great time to do that, and with luck, turn and catch this guy in front of me off guard with a little volley." The swordsman only wished that the assassin would understand, because just then he spun, putting a sudden surge of energy into his strike as he swept both his weapons around, at about shoulder-level height, striking out at the man in front of Sebastian. Even if the attacker wasn't close enough, he had his ace ready. So long as the assassin ducked and struck the one behind him, Khrae could hit the other. Unleashing the energy he'd collected, the swordsman's blades crackled loudly as they erupted with flames that shot out in a massive shock-wave-like inferno which tore down the hall and towards the second of the intruders. Duck, thought Khrae.

--"How fast can you duck and throw knives? Because now would be a great time to do that, and with luck, turn and catch this guy in front of me off guard with a little volley."

Khrae had caught himself well enough after Sebastian had been knocked backwards into him. Another slash to his chest and the elder assassin just barely moved it out of the way, catching the tip of the sword across his shoulder as it went.

"Fast enough," he answered and just as the words came out of his mouth, Khrae had already begun to move. Sebastian shifted his body to turn in the appropriate direction as to be out of the way of the older swordsman and positioned nicely to attack the man on the other side. Reaching into his clothing, Sebastian withdrew the last set of throwing knives he had as he ducked out of Khrae's way. Fire crackled over head, but the elder assassin didn't look to see what was going on.

Coming up on Khrae's other side, Sebastian threw his knives at the slightly startled intruder. The man obviously hadn't been betting on Khrae to do such a thing, nor had he thought that Sebastian would target him. The three knives sung as they shot through the air and landed with three soft thuds into the man's flesh. Sebastian stepped forward, straightening his body and taking the place where Khrae had been. He readied himself for the last bout of this fight, hoping that with in the next few minutes, they could drive the two cloaked men out of the mansion.

--The blazing inferno roared as the flames traveled down the hall, over the assassin and into the second intruder who had been caught almost entirely off-guard. Khrae heard the man scream and then lost him beneath his sudden tsunami of fire. He'd put enough force into the blast to at least incapacitate his enemy by means of slamming him hard enough into the wall at the end of the hall, but judging by their skills and reflexes so far, he wouldn't make any final determinations until afterwards.

The attack wasn't a prolonged, continuous stream of fire, but rather a short, fast eruption that expanded quickly. Swords were better for those kinds of attacks, especially when they consisted of more force than anything. Bare-handed he could maintain the fire for several minutes, but it lacked substantially in power. Nevertheless, either attack equaled the other eventually, and at this point, Khrae needed something hard-hitting and fast. It took several moments for everything to clear, and even then only the main body had dissipated, leaving smaller campfire-like patches burning along the floor and walls, licking at the still superheated air.

Through the clearing smoke, Khrae looked down the hall. Sure enough the man was still mobile, but his clothes were scorched, making him match most of their surroundings. The older swordsman straightened himself, lowering his weapons to a resting stance as he waited to see exactly what would happen. Behind him, he knew Sebastian's attacks had hit, because he heard the man drop to his knees, breathing ragged. Both had put up a good fight, Khrae had to admit, but that's all he would care to say.

It took a few seconds, but finally the man at the end of the hall stood. Khrae hadn't expected him to continue the fight, but he was ready nonetheless. When the man raised his hand and suddenly disappeared, apparently bringing his friend with him, the man let out a low sigh. Looking around, Khrae did a quick judgment of the immediate vicinity, though he could detect nobody else. That completed, he turned to Sebastian.

"I think we can consider this area secure, for now." He said simply. "Shall we continue, then? When this is all over, I can assure you that if you so desire, I can reimburse you for whatever damages I'm forced to impose. I do apologize by the way, I did so enjoy this interior."

Looking around thoughtfully, Khrae inspected the damage that the combat had caused, rather displeased and only somewhat disgusted. Violence was a useless tool, and always messed with the serenity and natural balance of things. How he despised having to resort to it, but now was hardly a time to concern himself with his own distastes. Returning to his usual stoic expression, he pushed away those emotions which would hinder him in any upcoming events. With that, he swung his two swords around, holding them backwards as he slide each into their respective scabbards. Nodding to Sebastian, he gave his head a tilt to the side before extending his arm out, motioning for him to lead.

"After you."