"What have you done?!" He said through clenched teeth.
"You never said what ritual to perform. I did my own. You were too foolish to realize that I might know how to change it." It was clear that Astor fought for control. To not go feral. With Savon he would have to think, not just attack, or he might lose.
"You will regret this day." Astor held out what looked like a medium sized handle of some kind. With a blade extended from it and Savon just looked at him.
"I doubt it." Savon replied and Astor came at him. His features were a bit twisted into something else. He swung his blade at him, and Savon blocked it. The blow jarring. Savon moved backward through the room. He'd just sent a great many back to hell where they should never have left. There weren't many left to come to his aide right now.
Astor was fast and skilled, it took all of Savon's concentration to stop the blows. Neither managing to get anything solid on the other. Their movements growing faster, hitting harder each time. It seemed more of a question as to whose weapon would hold up longer.
Savon hit Astor with his mind, the blow powerful and sent him down and sliding across the floor. Savon leapt the distance and brought a blade down. It dug into the floor as Astor rolled away.
Astor was up quick and came at him. Savon felt his mind slam into his own. It was painful, but he'd felt this before. Had it done, and that saved him as he expected it. Astor had done this to him when he was younger, and he'd learned how to deal with it.
Still it was powerful, and this was Astor's main area of skill. Savon blocked the blow, but Astor used his body to hit him as well. Savon went back into the wall, denting it. There was a rush through his body, a fierceness that came to him. He felt his muscle shift, and joints crack at the quick movement of his acolyte.
'Let me in control.'
'You won't think.'
'Let me control or I will take it from you.' Savon couldn't afford for his two halves to be fighting. He also couldn't afford to let himself become mindless. However his acolyte could take the abuse his human half could not.
'I won't.' It said to him impatient at only half fighting Astor.
Savon managed a hit on Astor, drawing a good amount of blood. Pulling his left blade back and swinging with his right. Astor blocked it and kicked Savon solidly in the chest. They were still close to the wall and he went through it this time.
'I have you, let me.' Savon rolled as Astor's blade nearly got him.
'Listen when I speak or we will have problems.' Savon said and his marking grew hot. It felt like it might pull from his body.
'No.' Savon said, he didn't want that. It settled but his acolyte came forward, it needed this. Needed to protect its human half and to kill Astor. Savon got up and went at it with Astor once more. They destroyed the hall that they were in.
Savon scored another hit on Astor. His eyes neon green he was cold and calculating. He hissed as Astor's blade sliced across his left arm, but didn't stop. Astor shoved him back and Savon hit the stairs, from the end of the hall Ichor appeared watching.
He didn't move forward, he was told no. That none of them could help him while fighting Astor, unless it was dire. Right now it wasn't, and their need to protect him would just be an annoying stitch in their sides.
Savon went back hitting the stairs and rolled on his side. Astor's blade burying in the stair. The sound of fighting came to them from up top, as they went. Savon's back to the top of the stairs, Astor below him. They were at the top now and Savon used both his blades to block Astor's blow. They stared at each other for a moment.
"You'll beg to die before I'm done with you."
"You have to manage to get me first." Savon said and kicked out. Astor nearly went back down the stairs but caught himself and jabbed his blade forward. He got Savon high in the shoulder, the tip slamming into him painfully. Savon went staggering back a bit, but raised his weapons.
"You'll have to do better, or can't you win unless your opponent isn't looking, is at their weakest?"
"I can defeat you at your best, you are just a half bred."
"Wrong!" Savon snapped, though he was far more Lycain at the moment. "I'm far more than that. Far more than you will ever be." He growled as their weapons hit. They backed up into the large entry way, there were demons and humans here fighting.
"You can't be anything but." He laughed.
"You can't be anything but weak. A coward, just waiting for your foes back to be turned. You are lower than a human!" Lycain said, swinging hard.
"Hardly, I've killed more powerful things than you."
"I am the most powerful thing that you killed." Lycain shouted. Savon was far from the surface at the moment, but watching, making sure that this part didn't fail. Didn't lose rational thought, there was so much anger. It could blind him.
Astor looked confused for a moment but brought the blade around. Savon twisted his body to miss the blow, it skimmed his back, tearing the shirt slightly. Broken glass crunched below them as they moved. Others had to move or get hit by their blows.
"It was so perfect, you thought you killed me. Almost did. I was there in purgatory, just lost there in that cursed land. Not dead, but not alive, and then I heard the cry of a child. Your child, he needed the missing part, he needed his acolyte. I filled it, took the place of what he was missing." A nasty laugh left Savon's mouth.
"You can't be." Astor said angrily. "I killed you!"
"You thought you did." Lycain said with a smile. "I should thank you, you've made me more than I could ever have been. This human makes me strong, so much I have learned. So much I have forgotten.
"I'll tear you from his body. You cannot have what is mine!" Lycain parried the blows sparks flying from their weapons. Astor's anger was rising even more, that another acolyte dare think to try and take his own flesh and blood. To turn it against him!
"Taking me now is impossible. This body is mine. Savon is me and I am him. We can no longer be separated even in death. I did what no other acolyte soul was able to do, coexist with a human's soul." He gave a laugh that was far from human.
Astor was furious, Lycain was a thorn in his side. Powerful and in the way, but how did you kill a being that was stronger than you? He'd gotten his chance and taken it. Now here he was, part of his son's body, and it all made sense. All the reasons why Savon was better than he should be.
"Doesn't matter, you are weaker now."
"No, perhaps without my memories. Without knowing what I was. But I have Porui to thank, he saw the marking and opened my eyes." Astor made an angered sound.
"You can't protect your human half forever." Astor said, and tore into Savon's mind. He did it differently knowing that anything he'd done before Savon would now know how to block. He took hold of the part that was human and pulled that forward. Forcing the acolyte back. While he couldn't control their mind, he could force a change in the dominant personality.
Astor hit Savon, what he did was disorientating and gave him the upper edge. Savon's mind was in chaos for a moment. Astor and him went to the ground and Astor plunged his blade into Savon's shoulder, missing his chest as he moved.
He gave a cry of pain, but hit Astor in the throat. The punch nearly crushed his windpipe and Astor went back. Savon moving to pull the blade out and tossed it, blood running from the wound. He grabbed one of his blades and sliced into Astor's back as he got up.
Astor turned and made a motion with his hands, half those in the room went to the ground sliding away from where they were. Savon touched his shoulder, but went into the minds of the humans forcing them back and away from the fight. He did this to the ones that Astor missed shoving out of the way. They were in danger being close to them.
Savon felt his acolyte's anger, and Astor was sorely mistaken if he thought that Savon was the weaker personality. He was the one keeping them sane. Keeping their energies one with the power of his acolyte. It was not the acolyte who kept them together, the human taught him what real survival meant.
"You fight me, yet we would want the same thing." Astor said.
"No, that is not his desire anymore. It changed the moment he became part of me." Savon corrected his voice steady. They were both bleeding, both high strung and angry.
"I'll strip the flesh from your body if that is what it takes." Astor said and came forward. Astor's body changed slightly, his hands becoming claws. His eyes seemed to elongate slightly. He was fast and deadly, and definitely not human.
Savon jumped back to miss the claws that slashed at him, Astor knocked the blade that Savon still had away. Savon lashed out and got Astor across the face, his hands looked more like claws as well, he drew blood and Astor hit him, they went to the floor.
Savon was below him, but fought him. His hit scoring every time, and he heard one of Astor's ribs crack. Astor's limbs bent oddly, and Savon knew what he was doing, or Lycain did. He was changing to what an acolyte really looked like.
All the lines had different forms, it was what their markings on the human bodies represented. Astor sunk his needle sharp teeth into Savon's shoulder and neck. Hot blood rushing from him into Astor.
Savon's aggression and anger went through the roof. Like hell he was going to let Astor feed from him. His acolyte jumped forward, as something slammed into Astor's side driving him off of Savon. He sprang up on his feet one hand to the ground. He stood slowly as Kiore darted away, the scent of fear came from the animal.
"I'm going to show you what it's like to die." Savon's eyes changed. Still green, but the pupils were slit like a cats and he felt the bones in his back pop. His shoulder blades shifting and muscles tearing rearranging but it didn't hurt all that much.
Those in the room where watching them. Savon felt his arms change, they felt longer so did his legs but he still looked human, mostly. Astor was looking far from human. His shoulder blades protruded grossly up like hard plates on his back. His face was contorted and more snout like, his jaws would be wide once changed.
Savon saw what Astor looked like in his real form. Not the one he needed to live here, it was huge, and deadly. His jaws would open wide enough to easily fit a fully grown human in.
"This time you are not coming back." Astor hissed and came at Savon, or rather Lycain who moved to the front immediately. He forced this body to shift slightly, knowing that a full shift might tear his human mind. They fought hard, and blood soaked the ground from both of them. Both parts of Savon knew they were going to have to make a decision that might cost them their life if they were wrong.