((OOC: JP featuring
@demibear ))
It was about twenty minutes into his hike that Marcus heard the creak and snap of branches, accompanied by the rasping tones of a much larger creature approaching behind him. The opposite of hiding in the gloom, light was particularly harsh at this time of day; It snaked out of long marsh-grass in the direction of the sun, coiling grey body hidden in the shimmer of a pond's edge.
But it didn't sneak up. The nine foot tall monster stooped slowly towards him, rags and ramshackle plates of spiked steel obscuring a lean form of sinewy, rough scales. Holding a long, coiling blade in both hands- as long as Marcus was tall- it made haunting, rolling, hissing noises though a heavy mask of opaque metal.
"
Humannnn..... I... man-gle..." It managed to pronounce, declaring it's intentions as clearly as the
non-humanoid thing could. "
Cut toooo... pie-cessss..."
A sparking sound. The massive sword cascaded with open flame.
And then it swung at him, wide and thunderous- incinerating grass and diving the bracken-
Not close enough to hit.
It stared him down, angular eyes like daggers. The next slash... that was reserved for the real bloodletting.
Marcus had seen the creature once he had made his presence known. But he had intended to completely dismiss it as he was on a personal mission. But when it decided to make a swing to startle him, he jumped to the side and away from it.
Not out of fear, but to increase the distance between his determined opponent. Marcus simply stared down the lizard man with his still folded nagamaki nodachi resting on his right shoulder, finger on the release mechanism. If one were to watch a volumetric drama about the Ketsurui Samurai, it would seem like your typical samurai stare down before the blows start.
Without saying anything, he presses the release and the blade springs out. “What is your name?”
“...Vo-SSa-Mar” It replied with a guttural grunting noise. Kind of hard to tell if it understood, or if it was just saying something random in its own sinister language. The red eyes observed within the shade of its helmet didn’t seem to regard him with any traditional human respect, constantly curving around, twisting its serpentine body as it slowly circled around him… It was more like it desired a genuine, unrestrained duel, and wanted Marcus to know this.
To Vossamar, an easy win was worthless.
The massive, crude sword began to rise into the air, flames billowing and sparkling as it made contact with invisible clouds of dense pollen. It was a sword stance that said ‘slit my guts open, but the return hammer blow will crush you.’
Marcus followed with his eyes and then the rest of his body as he studied it. “Henderson” he said as he entered into a mid-stance with the hilt of the weapon parallel to his body and the blade sticking up above him. Even as tall as he was, the weapon was as big as a polearm. It just did not offer him any reach due to how large (half the length) the blade was.
Marcus thought about the fight he once had with an ID-SOL he once fought at the Mizumitsu House. He was glad Vossamar was not nearly as calm and collected as that ID-SOL was. Even as an ID-SOL hybrid, Marcus was no match for him. Marcus then lunged at him and made a probing strike to see what the reach and reflexes of Vossamar were.
The defence reflexes were not excellent- or perhaps the fire-blade was too heavy- but it was still difficult to jab at the thing, just because of how long-limbed and hunched over it was. Vossamar allowed their purple-hot killing tool to just fall against their shoulder armour, recoiling backwards with the angle of their torso until Marcus could only overextend himself to perhaps catch the cross guard at best-
That backwards momentum was channelled around, sliding the blade crudely until it came between the both of them, swinging wide and gut-level. The lizard was practically holding it as a scythe at that point, with one webbed hand on the pommel, and the other barely grasping the top of the grip- The intense heat dared him to try blocking it.
Marcus stepped back and started circling Vossamar, blocking would be foolish considering the heat of his weapon. His Advancer Iron Bone Enhancement only applied to his muscles and bones. He still feels the pain.
But he couldn’t just let him swing at him whenever he wanted either. He was going to need to either slow him down, keep him on the defensive, or get within his reach. He looked around for anything to help him as he felt the pain of his muscles preparing for the aggressive rush. The Durandium shavings he grinds were keeping his enhancement active, but it wasn’t exactly the ideal diet for him.
Sprinting forward to catch his weapon at the cross guard and kick powerfully at Vossamar legs. With the way it could move its torso, getting at it was a pain.
“Hen-de-soone… So small… how it make… empire…” The thing make husky, rolling tones as it continued to make viscous, wide swipes at him. Kind of clear it wasn’t even aware of the ID-SOL or genetic engineering in concept.
There was nothing out here that seemed overly useful, just mud, thorned vines, brittle hanging trees. Too much light. Marcus’ sudden burst of speed caught the monster off guard, getting into close vicinity whilst the heated blade was under the inertia of reversing its swing- Bending the upper knee awkwardly and causing the lizard to lose its footing over some slippery rocks.
Perhaps, it was at that moment it became clear just how natural the enemy was in turn- The thing was a sea creature, collapsing into a pile the moment brute force was applied to the wrong place.
Unfortunately for Marcus, grabbing the cross guard meant he was now the one holding all of the weight of the blazing sword, bearing down towards him as Vossamar’s back arced sideways, its horned head vibrating back and forth under strain. One hand still grasped the pommel, whilst the other hand slapped loudly against the glimmering dirt, trying to steady the rest of its serpentine body-
A last desperate counter to avoid getting slashed by the human’s still free blade arm, it learned in- lowered its ears- and rammed its stubby-horned nose directly at the center of Marcus’s exposed chest.
Catching the Vossamar’s blade the way he did might not have been the smartest move. He could already hear Mizumitsu-sensei loud shrill voice as she would beat him over the head for getting the kata order wrong.
“Wrong you moron! Absolutely wrong!!! Do it again from the start!”
But she wasn’t here fighting for his life, he was. Even with his genetic background and still functioning augmentation, the weight of the weapon and the added strength would sap too much endurance from him. So he planned to use Tenryu-do (Aikido) to redirect the weight of the weapon to attempt a clean slash of his arm. At least that was the plan until Vossamar decided to go full creature on him with the ram attempt.
Manoeuvring his large polearm like weapon was doable with one hand. But he had it positioned to deflect and parry if his charge had not worked. But the weight and density of the handle was perfect to be used as a club. Which Marcus was gladly about to demonstrate.
With a strained face and a furious kiai, he pulled Vossamar’s weapon down and inward as his arm and weapon came furiously towards the side of the silanbar’s head.
The resulting CLANG rang the lizard’s helmet like a bell, disrupting the headbutt and causing him to flinch backwards with disorientation. It was immediately apparent that keeping hold of the pommel and exposing their armpit was a great way to get stabbed in the side, and so they just let it go- The scorching zweihander either falling down onto Marcus’ back, or embedding itself into the ground like a hot knife through butter.
Springing backwards with a loping gait, Vossamar got out of spearing range as fast as possible. Their coiling form was perhaps naturally hard to get a jabbing attack into, but the benefit of reach had now turned.
Without turning their back to the human, they rapidly looked around for anything long, any replacement or distraction that would let them get back to their own weapon.
Snatched from the mud, a rock just bigger than a man’s fist was the best they could do.
Marcus felt the heat as he let the large weapon fall and lodge itself into the ground. It honestly looked like the mark of an angry God to him.
An Angry God that seemed to be siding with Vossamar. Jabbing at it was proving useless as he wasn't testing his skin's resistance to slash's yet.
He moved slowly and deliberately as he assumed a mid stance with his weapon. He was tired of this and the calm but furious look on his face was showing.
"As for your question, intelligence and determination. I don't know what you are, but you have picked a terrible day to die." Marcus said, staring Vossmar down. He matched his movement to ensure it got no where near the weapon.
"So before I decide how you are going to pay for this inconvenience, you are going to explain why you think this was a great idea…"
The lizard just grunted and continued to strafe for a minute, unwilling to collaborate or admit defeat so easily. The fact that the blazing sword was currently wasting it’s power uselessly heating up wet sand, and there probably wasn’t a good way to replenish it in this technology-forsaken place… That was just adding insult to injury.
“...Good idea… No… Nat-ural idea…” It spoke cautiously, the glint of red eyes showing through the cover of darkness inside the primitive helm. “We knows about you humans… Always destroys… always on tops of things that no look like humans…”
Despite the rasp, the agitation in their voice, it didn’t actually sound like he was regarding Marcus disparagingly for these reasons. It was a cruel universe, so perhaps it really was to be expected that an ‘alien’ empire would behave as such.
“...Human only promote human child as leader… Path-e-tac! Silanbar is only rely on own strength! Silanbar is prove own strength!”
Getting worked up, Vossamar’s chest began to heave as his monstrous voice began to bellow. He took on a wild-eyed expression, simply looking for an opening…
Marcus continued to match Vossamar's movement to keep him away from his weapon. But he kept just enough space around the thicker vines to both not trip and to slash/trip the Silanbar if he fell for the false opening. Oh how he wished the pistol he had worked. But it has no power.
“Ugh, that sounds like something a Kuvexian would say. We don't particularly like it when others invade and try to push their own ideals on us. We like aliens just fine.”
Having a feeling Vossamar really wanted his weapon, Marcus decided to forget reaching the crash site, other survivors were likely to get there before him. The thought of it really made his face look even madder with a shift in his stance indicating he was about to do something.
“Perhaps you speak of humans the Kuvexians had conquered…”
“No-no- Fun-da-men-tal!” The lizard was agitated at not being able to articulate what it was thinking better, but clearly had something a little more complex than ‘humans bad’ to say. “Kuvex is survival-of-fittest society. Money is concept not understanding, but they advance… They advance us, themselves… Them empire old… Yumu-tai empire not old. Naplusens old but not strong… Kuvex is special.”
Another grunt, this one sounding almost like a frog croaking. He was perfectly aware that everybody said that, but it wasn’t easy to think about a foreign language in the middle of a sword fight.
“...Give back sword. We finish fight later.” Vossamar suddenly demanded with a blank expression, as if they could see Marcus getting impatient to end this. “I could have sneak up, but I not sneak up. Good Silanbar not do this... Vossamar and Marcus can kill each other, more… convenient time.”
If Marcus wasn’t so battle focused at the moment, he would have started laughing hysterically at the Silanbar’s demand. This was his first encounter with the species, so I made the assumption that Vossamar was quite serious. Which then leads to the next question, is he so determined to prove his worth or is the alien just not very intelligent.
“You, you, you… want your sword back? After you lost your advantage!? Tell me this is some kind of odd joke for your species?” Marcus said, his anger starting to spoil over. But without closing his eyes, he simply takes a deep breath and moves in a calculated manner towards the Silanbar.
“No, you fucking cannot have it. At least not intact anyways.” He said moving ever so slightly. “Now I do not know what concepts of honour your people have, but not sneaking like a weakling shows you have some basic concept of it. I assume bad Silanbar sneak because they are weak.”
Marcus stopped and readied himself for a strike. “You can die right now with honour or accept you have been bested and live. I claim your weapon for my troubles. The choice is yours.” He had something else to say about the Kuvexians, but that would wait.
“Bad Silanbar sneak, because cannot do anything else.” The lizard backed off more, that rock reflexively raised up to pelt Marcus with. It was the one tool they had that would allow that split second to get away, if needed. “Kill Vossamar with no weapon not prove honour… Not prove anything…”
Of course, that last bit was spoken like they actually knew what human honour was. The swamp dragon believed perfectly well in the universal concept that might makes right, but it didn’t mean they were about to just give up, and let their head get separated from their shoulders, either.
A rusted metal click- Still keeping their distance from the gleaming polearm, they found a moment to unclasp their helmet, causing the ‘muzzle’ and ‘brow’ sections to separate, and then be rapidly closed again around the monster’s right hand. It was a metal punching tool now.
A dim grey creature with a glossy brown mane, this change in form barely revealed anything new about them. Just more scars, and a befangled maw large enough to fit a human forearm inside.
“I claims mines weapons. I am not beaten.” A clonking collision, bashing the helmet and stone together. “Marcus wants to disgrace Vossamar. It thinks weapon is only good thing about Vossamar. I does not think so. Either you is make proper claims, or I am is kill Marcus very inconvenient time.”
Marcus just smirked at him. This Vossamar character was making it difficult for him to keep mad and take him seriously anymore. “You know what, fine champ. I guess I need a rival to keep things interesting in this hell hole. We are going to stay right here until that fire extinguishes itself and then you can have your weapon back. Or you can attempt to test my reflexes with your ad hoc punching gloves. I do warn you I am sturdier than I look.”
Marcus entered a guard stance. “Now, did you crash here or did you actually choose to live here?”
“I choose to be alive, yes.” The lizard just blinked, answering matter-of-factly. “I am force to land here and hide. But that is… Not forever for Vossamar.”
The more time passed, the more bugs the ambient heat from the blade seemed to attract. It was like the bugs here were so abstracted from sentient life, they’d never evolved the ‘don’t fly directly into open flame’ instinct. It annoyed the Silanbar, seeing his pride and joy left like that.
“You hu-man, you here for finish killing outsiders stuck down here? You come from Yah-muh-tai because they send you?” A tensing, as if they were prying at something they figured Marcus would obviously lie about. It wouldn’t have actually stopped them attacking him either way, but still. “Where is your ships? Does it still work?”
“As if the Cats would waste their efforts sending anyone to this dump. I doubt it is even registered on their star charts. I certainly did not realize it was here until I was pulled in. I would have altered my flight path to the NDC.” Marcus said, keeping his focus on Vossamar.
“I kill only because some people seem to have forgotten what cooperation means. Funny how that happens. Take away people’s creature comforts and centuries of civilization suddenly vanish.” Marcus said, not so much talking to Vossamar but more of self-introspection. He doubted the lizard was capable of understanding him anyways.
“As for the wreck that I arrived on…” Marcus just shrugs. The craft was such a total loss he didn’t bother to remain in the area. He wasn’t particularly being vague, Vossamar just was the last person at the moment that he would give any useful information about the local area at the moment. But he was all for giving him an education of why the Kikyo Sector proved superior to his precious Kuvexians.
“What do you know of the races of this sector?”
