Earlier that morning...
Juniper's fiery aura was surrounding himself in a cloud of bright red as he hovered in the air. The air around him was shuddering against his heat as his eyes scanned the city below him. He could see Vail dodging every burst of fire he sent in his direction. They were both on the level of sage with their capabilities but when it came to brute force Juniper was still above Vail so he had to be cautious while defending against Juniper. Juniper had no idea who Vail was or why he was getting in his way to go after the girl, Iris, but he did not mind in the slightest because he still found Vail fun to toy with as well.
The fiery aura burst from behind him like flames as his body shot down into the city straight towards Vail. His speed was on par with a rushing car that could kill a normal mortal on impact. On instinct Vail's body flung itself into the air just barely dodging the impact as a purple glow streaked across the air as he moved. Juniper's feet braced against the ground causing the cement below his feet to become a scorched black. On the other end Vail landed gracefully on his feet and jumped back.
"You seem to be great at dodging, but if you keep suppressing your own sage power do you really think you're going to get away from me alive?" Juniper's face smirked with such desire in his eyes that a sudden chill ran down Vail's spine. The cross mark in Juniper's eyes felt like they were able to see straight through him. It felt like Juniper was trying to toy with him just to see how he would react so Vail suppressed his own desire to respond.
Diving into the shadows Vail tried desperately to submerge himself into the darkness. If he could vanish from sight he felt he might be able to sneak attack Juniper when he least expected but he found himself cut off from the surrounding shadows as Juniper shot his fire straight into the direction that Vail had tried aiming for. The scorching aura singed the very hairs on Vail's arms as he had to throw himself back before he could be burnt alive by Juniper's actions.
"I'd ask if you have a name before you die but if my guess is correct your just one of the Shadow Sect's dogs, right?" Juniper laughed into his hand, fire bursting forth from his body like it had a pulse.
Vail grit his teeth as he lunged himself forward at Juniper with his dagger firmly gripped in his hand. His body streaked a purple light across the air as their aura's collided. Juniper's sword colliding with Vail's dagger sent sparks into the air as a metallic sound resounded in their ears. Juniper's fiery aura felt like it was overwhelming Vail's purple aura and it made him feel like he was going to suffocate in the heat. The blazing heat was causing a roaring, screeching, sound that almost sounded like a wild bird calling out from the flames. Just as Vail pulled his dagger back he found himself with Juniper's sword swinging straight for him. His body quickly reacted and dodged the blow by a mere inch, nearly being sliced in half at his waist.
Twisting his body around Vail launched himself up into the air. His dagger in hand as he landed behind Juniper and swiftly swung at the opening. The impact he was hoping to make with Juniper was found blocked by the metallic clash with Junipers sword as he had swung himself around just in time to protect himself. Before Vail had time to realize what had happened Juniper's empty hand clasped a tight grip on Vail's throat. With a wide smile on Juniper's face his grasp slowly raised Vail up into the air until his feet were dangling in the air. His hand was still firmly grasping his golden dagger as he tried desperately to swing it towards Juniper's arm to struggle for freedom, however his attempt at swinging the dagger was a failure as Juniper's sword swatted it from Vail's grasp. The dagger landed with a clang onto the cement.
"I kind of feel disappointed.. as a sage you'd think you could've done a bit better." Juniper spoke as if he was disgusted by the fact that Vail had refused to use his abilities against Juniper.
Vail could not respond let alone breathe with the fact that Juniper was holding him up in the air by his throat. A sudden pain came over his body as his eyes widened from the shock of it. He could feel the sharp, long, blade of Juniper's sword slowly forcing it's way into his stomach from one side only to exit him from the back before being pulled back out of him by Juniper. Blood rushed from the wound and splattered across the ground below them while some of Vail's blood covered Juniper's sword and hand. Drip by drip the blood fell from the sword as Juniper admired the sight of the blood for a second before tossing Vail's wounded body roughly to the ground away from him.
Coughing hard from his wound while gasping for air a lump of blood fell from Vail's mouth. His wound was bleeding heavily and hurt like hell but he was not ready to let himself fall so easily. Struggling as hard as he could he managed to climb to his feet only to collapse back to his knees. The wound was not light and he knew that however if he fell easily to wound he knew it would only look bad in front of his own sect if they found out about it and he would be deemed as trash among his own people.
Juniper must have lost interest in Vail or expected his wound to be fatal because he did not so much as glance in Vail's direction. He slowly turned to rush off as the sounds of sirens were getting closer to their location. Juniper did not like unwelcome situations so he was not willing to deal with the mortal authority. He was on a level beyond them just as most cultivators among society were so he saw them as simply nothing in his eyes other than a nuisance when he was enjoying himself. There was a different task on his mind anyways and he had wasted a lot of time to take care of Vail.
A loud thump filled the air as Vail collapsed onto his stomach while coughing up blood again. He could hear the sirens in the distance and every fiber of his instinct was screaming at him to vanish from the scene but he was struggling to move his body. His breathing was heavy and painful to deal with while his vision was beginning to blur as he tried to scan the area for his dagger that was across the street on the ground.