With a knife lodged through his neck, Aster grinned maniacally. He took in the sight of the lady in front of him. Dressed in business attire, she was adorned by a two-piece suit. She looked professional, clean, dangerous. From her stance to her nearly emotionless expression, she was like pure poised elegance. Shoulder length purple hair, her eyes were a cool shade of violet, having an ephemeral memorability and this striking beauty to them. Most noticeable, her gaze was laced with killing intent. Even more than that, she was beautiful in a way he couldn't quite describe. "Hey lady!"
His voice seemed high from elation, incredibly smooth with a clarity she would not expect from a man with a knife lodged near their throat. "You're beautiful!"
???
Raising an eyebrow, she applied upward pressure to try and cut through even more of his flesh. Holding her wrists down desperately to resist in turn, blood dribbled out of his mouth as his voice became a tad choked, "Wow- I didn't think love at first sight was a real thing. But- I think I'm starting to fall like crazy."
Furrowing her eyebrows, she pulled the knife out of his neck and dashed back. Flicking the blade, it smeared a small rain of blood across the ground.
Holding his neck at the damage inflicted, he felt atypically amazing, despite the fact blood was pouring out of his body at an alarming rate. It's not like life was dull or even that bad, but the euphoria he felt was just overwhelming.
"Honestly! How wonderful!" He grinned like crazy. "Seriously. I never thought I'd find something quite like this."
It was questionable whether he meant her looks or capabilities or both, but he looked enamored.
Silently staring at him, she pursed her lips. Why wasn't this man dropping yet?
"Now what are ya lookin' at? The blood? Yeah. There's a reason everybody calls me "Immortal". If I died to something like this, then I wouldn't be so "Immortal", would I?" Veins popped out of his hand, and he tightened the grip he had on his neck, which seemed to have slowed the bleeding.
Her eyes narrowed by an imperceptible degree. Huh. Interesting. Nothing more than that though. She hopped forward, his eyes widening at the distance cleared in an instant. Biting down, he caught her knife in his mouth. Woah, he was about to die!
Letting go of the knife and dropping to the ground, she propelled herself off with a push to the floor, sending a dropkick straight to him. Raising his arms to defend against the impact, he could feel his balance tip. She was fast, dangerously so.
He'd normally be extremely cautious in everything he'd do, but today was a weird day. In fact, she was someone who he'd normally be even more especially careful in going against them. Their physical stats were world-class. Speed, strength, maybe even intuition, all of them overwhelmed his own. But even then, he couldn't help but throw safety to the side. He could his inhibitions loosening, his ego slipping, and a formless vague useless pride gripping ahold of him.
And it was amazing.
He spat the knife towards her and took out a pistol. Catching the blade midair she flew straight at him.
Click!
No bullets were fired, but they never woulda hit anyways. She'd cut into the gun straight down the middle
"Woahoh!"
Throwing a palm at her face, she grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her. Keeping balance, his feet touched the ground and he spun around to look at her.
Looking at his gun, it had a fresh knife embedded straight through it.
Tossing the gun away, he looked back at her.
"Hey."
She looked at him silently.
"Will you marry me?"
She didn't say anything.
"Alright. I guess that was a pretty drastic question considering we've just met. How about a date?"
"You're a creep." She said bluntly. He couldn't help but be a bit mesmerized by her voice
He grinned. "And you're a murderer! Come on, I'm not that weird in comparison!"
"I dunno about dating a man who enjoys getting stabbed." She began stretching.
"Hey, I didn't really enjoy getting stabbed. I think. You're just pretty captivating."
"That doesn't sound any better."
"Well… I'll pay for dinner?"
"No thanks."
"Ouch… not your type?"
She stared at him bluntly. "Whether you're my type or not really isn't the issue here. I'm being paid to kill you."
"Ah. Shucks. Well. Can you at least not try to kill me?"
Her fist whizzed straight past his face with him barely having avoiding getting his head crushed, as the wall behind him collapsed.
"Hahhhhh. Worth a try beautiful lady."
Moving alongside the wall, he barely avoided being crushed by hands of death. Narrowly rolling out of the corner, he raised his hands up to assume a stance. Fortunately, he did so fast enough to block the incoming punch. Her fist, did not feel like skin or bone. He could feel the impact run through his body and a bit more blood dribbled out of his mouth.
His voice was a bit choked. "W-oah!"
Kicking her in the abdomen, he knocked them back and used the force of the impact to move back as well.
He took a breath and held onto the wound on his neck, which had been freshly reopened. Taking a few more breaths, he let go and brought out another stance. His hands were a bit lower and his feet weren't as quite spread out.
She could feel this man's demeanor change. But then again, not really. She thought he'd be like those mastermind types who always seemed to be a couple of steps ahead in every plan they had. Always in control of themselves and others. Always making every meticulous move so that nothing could escape their grasp. She hated those type of people. When she first saw him standing there, he had originally given her that type of impression, but as the fight kept going, it looked like he wasn't even really thinking.
Digging her fingers into the floor beneath them, she dug it out and threw a chunk at him. Barreling his head straight through it, he sent out a straight punch directed at her. Swiftly dipping under the strike, she went to gouge out both his eyes. Barely avoiding their fingers, his cheek was still given a small slash.
Slipping and spinning outta the way, he turned to her, tossing out two effortless kicks in quick succession.
Avoiding the blow, she clocked him with a blow to the liver. It was a devastating left hook. He felt his body rupture with this unexplainable feeling. No. It wasn't unexplainable. It was just pure stunning force. A regular liver was like an aftershock, this was a lightning bolt piercing through him.
Blobs of blood gushed from his throat and dribbled out his mouth. But the "Immortal" never stops. Grabbing the elbow of her extended arm and shoulder, he slammed his head into hers.
She didn't feel like skins or bones, not even quite human, but he felt extra human. Raw mass was all that was required for him to contest the unbreakable. As their heads collided, she felt his thick skull making a very different sound from what a regular one would make.
As the two stumbled back, they quickly recovered and took up their respective stances.
Rushing each other, she didn't seem all too affected by the head collision. It barely phased her, but she was still just slightly more disoriented than he was. Although, just barely.
Somehow, even with all the damage he'd taken, his body was moving the same. There was a hole in his neck, his liver was damaged, his arms were shaking from impact, and none of this impeded his movement.
She threw front jab, he parried. The exchange continued.
Right hook, duck, uppercut, backstep. Wall.
Wall? Hitting his back against a wall, he grinned nervously as he was then smashed straight through it.
More blood poured out of him. The hole in his neck, his nose, and mouth. Cracking his neck, his muscles seemed to pull and tense, veins bursting out, as through pure force, he seemed to have stemmed the bleeding. His eyes seemed to clear up with focus.
In front of him, the assassin lady walked out the hole she'd made with his body, wielding the dagger she'd let go of earlier.
"Ya know… I'm apparently pretty highly rated as a mercenary, and I swear I'm always being put into these unwinnable situations. It makes me wonder if I should quit or raise my prices because honestly, it's like any employer I get is trying to kill me." He took out a box of cigarettes, "You smoke?"
"No."
"Me neither." He threw the box away. Inhale. "My friends always smoke in situations like this and so I thought I'd try it out. But something tells me that wouldn't give a very good impression."
Exhale. "Oh well. Your day's been good?"
"No."
"How much did they pay you to hunt me down?"
"Enough."
"Darn. Well, before we continue, you're top ten aren't ya? It was ... "The Destroyer" right? Could I get your name?"
"… Mel." She had no clue why she responded.
"I'm Aster."
"I know."
"Right, you're an assassin." Unlike assassins, a lot of mercenaries in general didn't really keep their identities very private. Others knowing their names didn't affect them as much since mercenary work wasn't as especially discreet(Aster himself is actually famous.)
He'd completely let go of the smile now, having seemingly calmed down. Slowly in and out, his breathing stabilized greatly. Like animal to robot, his demeanor changed.
|Advanced Skill - [Basic Breathing]|
He looked at the expression on her face, complete indifference, he smirked, "Look alive. You get to see something special."
Her eyes narrowed. This man... was a real warrior huh?
She cracked her neck, veins popping out as she did. A sign of irritation or just pure strength contained in her body? Maybe both?
Her arm drew forth with blinding speed, knife in hand. Even faster than before, its precision fell by several notches, but that didn't matter, the power behind it more than compensated for it.
As he ducked underneath the wild strike and stepped behind her, she turned nearly as fast and slammed into him with a lariat. Blocking, he was quickly flipped over from the force and landed back on his feet.
She'd put even more power into that blow than every other before, and it certainly dealt considerable damage, but it seemed to do even less damage than before. His speed was an obvious difference now. Their hands crossed as they exchanged a flurry of blows. His strength was a tad higher than before. With knife in hand, she drew a cut on his head, above his right eye. As he knocked her away, she noticed especially, that his precision was much higher. Before was more so the flailing of a brawler, tough but she could deal with it with no issue. Now though, he seemed top-tier.
Their presence flowed in and out, contracting with every breath.
|Advanced Skill - [Extreme Breathing]|
Taking it all in. His body felt like it was burning up. A terrible mix of infatuation and exertion as his right eye was covered by the pouring blood. With the perspective of both eyes combined, it was rose tinted vision.
She took the initiative and tilted their body, smashing their fist into the ground, before they sent both fist and earth bolting towards him. Debris and dust flew. Lifting his leg up and kicking forth, the two collided as they fell through another floor.
He was not anchored to the floor as she was and was flipped over. Upsidedown, with his back facing her mid-air, he was going to land, but she threw a lightning-quick straight. Twisting in midfall, he avoided getting what he imagined would be a hole blown through him. Now facing her, he wrapped his arms around her forearm, hanging onto it. She was strong enough to be able to keep her arm out straight even with the weight of his body on it.
Bringing her other arm back, she got ready to throw another fist. Spinning around on her arm, he landed a couple of kicks.
Kick and kick and kick. Impact impact impact. Didn't seem to do much to phase her. Doing a flare around her arm, he avoided the next strike, quickly being flung into the ground.
"Kh!- Ack." Blood spurted from his mouth as he braced.
She sent out a punch and it pierced the floor underneath him. Barely having moved his head out of the way, he kicked her off of him. Right now, the fight was going pretty well. At least to the point where it didn't seem like a victor would be obvious at first glance.
But if one thought about it, it was probably the assassin lady who was gonna win. The "immortal" was riddled with damage, he'd already gone through a pretty tough job, and he was half-blinded by the blood pouring over his right eye. Plus, while rankings weren't allll that mattered... it's not like he was renowned as a top ten mercenary. She on the other hand was up there for the world of assassins.
He realized that she was way out of his depth. It was kinda like the strongest spear vs a good shield. No, a more proper comparison would maybe be a great spear and shield against extra flesh, extra leather, and chainmail. In fact trying to explain it with a clean and simple analogy wasn't really going to cut it.
She was strong and he was too, but that would be a major oversimplification. In comparison, at least from his point of view, she was a freak of nature monster while he was just a weird creature. The difference was quite tangible. Making his chances of winning out kinda low.
Well... not like victory was impossible.
|Advanced Skill - [Extreme Breathing]|
A bit of blood dribbled out. He bled so much and looked so natural while doing so, that if not for the fact he was bleeding a river, nobody woulda thought they were worse for wear. Internally, he wasn't feeling too hot. Metaphorically of course. In actuality, steam was coming off of him.
She didn't seem the slightest bit roughened up.
Her muscles tensed and visibly popped through her skin, as she pierced through the air, the wind whistled, and the two met.
His elation was reignited. Avoiding slash and dagger, he was struck with a heavy left hook from his blind spot. Unyielding, he grabbed her collar and kneed her in the gut. Following up with a pushkick, he stepped back and could feel everything shutting down.
Blood poured out of his eyes and he breathed. aw
He thought about running. It made sense to try doing that. Then he immediately threw the idea away. He found the reason silly and even a bit childish: he really wanted to impress this girl he liked.
|Advanced Skill - [Extreme Breathing]|
|Advanced Skill - [Extreme Breathing]|
|Advanced Skill - [Extreme Breathing]|
|Advanced Skill - [Focus Stance]|
Affected by her presence, he couldn't quite squeeze out every ember of power he had in his body or utilize his skills to their full potential, but nonetheless, driven by ego and desire to push his body further, he tried his best to let loose.
Blood nearly steamed as he took a stance, his body amping up in preparation.
To his surprise, for just a moment, did she let out the smallest smile.
Was she taunting him? Wiping blood away he narrowed his eyes, his heart almost felt like it would stop.
She raised her knife to her mouth and held it between her teeth. Taking out two knuckle dusters, she put them on. The "Immortal" was astounded. Her fists alone were enough to actually kill him, but brass knuckles just seemed overkill.
Oh well, if he died, he died.