Graceful digits danced their way over each hole of the flutes shaft, creating a new haunting sound with each separate one. The melody that the artist seemed to orchestrate was nothing more than a dark gloomy and haunting tone, one that would leave most that listened to it feel a remorse for the Maestro composing it. While the artist continued to play, a few stray animals seemed to poke their head out from the woodlands in order to catch what was making the noise. Once they knew, they would remain in their position, curious to see where the melody would lead the longer it was played. Soon as the melody seemed to end, each animal would slowly depart back to their previous tasks, leaving the composer in peace. But one didn’t seem too keen on doing so and instead made its way curiously towards the black shrouded figure.

From first glance the animal appeared to be nothing more than a dog with soft tan fur and a black little nose. While it padded towards the composer, another figure emerged forth from the woodlands and closed in on the dark shadowy figure upon the stump. The dog instantly stopped in its place, before taking off into a nearby shrub for fear of confronting the two strangers at once. Confronting one of them was risky enough, but the second didn’t seem much friendlier than the other.

Amelia closed in on the hunched over form of Shagarez, where she would run her hand up along the spine of the man’s armor, enjoying the smooth touch of it against her skin. The further her digits trailed up the armor, the more she felt the distinctions in it, such as the inset eyes of the skulls and the teeth that rose from its flat appearance. Soon each of her digits would run along the long arcing horns upon his shoulders, stopping at the point where her index finger would idly tap itself a few times, “What are you thinking about my master…?” While her voice was soft and melodic in nature, it held a certain curious viciousness to it.

All the while that the woman scrutinized his armor with her touch, a slight grin crossed his lips. It was a great feeling to have someone as a subordinate, someone to serve him, never question him and follow him through the depths of time. The company was great for a change, after spending so much time alone it had almost been a saving grace from insanity. In his view, it was a way to distract himself and at the same time keep him set on the course that he lusted for the most and that was power. Soon everyone would know pain to the biggest and greatest degree he could muster and if it involved serving another. Then it would be done…Quickly all of his thoughts scattered in a mere instance, while his eyes quickly darted across his surroundings. There was a disturbance in the air…And a scent of death and blood, the latter was not something familiar to him. As it wasn’t just fresh blood, but more so of aged…Dried, coagulated in a sense.

Focusing his eyes, they would dilate and adjust themselves to pierce through the darkness with incredible ease. Everything came illuminated within a shear instant and there wasn’t a single thing that could escape his scrutinizing gaze. Carefully his eyes settled themselves upon the distant figure of a woman. At first glance she didn’t seem all too threatening in her appearance, but the scents and the way she carried herself raised suspicion in his mind. Taking flute in hand, he would proceed to carefully tuck it away within the safety of his armor. From there both of his hands would move down to the stump, using it to push himself up to an erect stance. Once standing, a lone hand would move out to the shoulder of Amelia to help guide her behind him just in case things should get complicated. Lowering a hand down to the hilt of the blade at his waist, he would allow it to settle there in its perch ready to withdraw the weapon on a seconds notice, “I suggest you keep your distance…You’ve come close enough to the both of us. “ His voice would call out through the silence of the night, hoping to bring the warning to her ears.

Oh, it was such a lovely night! The birds were singing, the animals were dancing, the moon was shining… okay, so maybe that wasn’t what was going on, but it was still a nice night. There were no animals, and considering this was a forest, it was a bit strange, but animals did tend to avoid her. There was one that had been stupid enough to tack onto her and follow her around like she was its mother, but she’d locked it in a closet at home, and it would stay there until she could figure out what to do with it. Stupid velociraptor…

After having received a few spells and weapons earlier in the evening, she had decided to come to the forest. Now, seeing how much she hated animals, it was probably a stupid decision that hadn’t been very well thought out, but Cordelia was known for doing things without thinking. Her mouth spewed words before she could filter herself, she made physical actions usually involuntarily… she was a mess when it came to logic.

With her hands in the pockets of her pants, Cordelia went on her way, her maroon coat trailing behind her due to her fast pace. However, her pace slowed when she heard music. She had always enjoyed music… but only if it was from a string instrument, like a violin. Woodwind instruments had always annoyed her, for whatever reason. Her face contorted into a look of disgust. “Tor-or-or-turous…” she sang along in a sing-song voice, laughing quietly at her wit. That had fit so perfectly! The vampire woman looked down and shook her head, continuing on at her slow pace and pulling a lock of black hair out from underneath her hat to cover her ear. Who knew – maybe it would help block that terrible noise!

Unfortunately, though, it did nothing. Cordelia was half tempted to go find whoever was playing that blasted flute and break it in front of their eyes so she could have some peace, even if the noise was faint. It seemed like a good idea at this point. She certainly hadn’t come to the forest to make her ears bleed; she’d come on impulse to do… something other than listen to that. Doing such a thing would probably get her into another fight, however, and the vampire wanted to avoid violence for an amount of time. She had to stay out of sticky situations… at least until she got a chance to try and kill Fehade, at least.

The music stopped, and almost as if thanking a higher power, Cordelia turned her eyes to the sky and exhaled, relieving an invisible weight from her shoulders. Finally, she didn’t have to worry about losing her ability to hear anymore! But little animals came scurrying away, causing Cordelia’s eyes to narrow. So now that the music stopped, she had to deal with cute little furry things? Ugh. She looked down at a rabbit that was currently hopping past her as quickly as it could. She had never really known why animals really hated her; maybe supposedly ‘cute’ things didn’t like bloodsuckers? It wasn’t that she cared, really. She was glad that she wasn’t one of those princesses in stories who attracted birds and deer… it was actually quite creepy.

“I suggest you keep your distance…You’ve come close enough to the both of us.”

Her blue eyes flew up from the ground and to the man in the distance who had called to her. She really hoped she hadn’t walked into something unnecessarily complicated… oh, well. Removing her hands from her pockets, one would come to rest on her hip as she stopped walking, the other arm hanging limply at her side. She raised an eyebrow and simply stared for a moment before she started walking, her hand falling away from her hip and idly swinging at her side as she went closer. He couldn’t tell her where she could go, when she had to stop walking – and she didn’t intend on allowing him to.

“Oh, dear, I fear I didn’t get the memo that you owned the forest now…” Cordelia said in a rather condescending voice. “What ever shall I do? I won’t beg for forgiveness, since I didn’t even see you - ” Her eyes fell upon the hand that was at his side, clearly on a sword. Immediately the female burst out into laughter, no longer walking and bent over slightly in her hysterics. “Oh, that’s great! You think a sword’s going to do something!” Buying a few spells and weapons clearly had made her even more arrogant than she already was. Cordelia stopped laughing and stood straightly, merely smirking. “I really didn’t plan on fighting though, Oh-Wise-King-Of-The-Forest. Though that flute was really annoying, I’d fight that guy… did you hear that before? Know where I might find that thing so I can break it?”

From the mere second her lips slid ajar to speak, the small hand of the woman behind him would coil up and rest atop the shoulder plate of his armor. The action brought his eyes from Cordelia and over to the hand with its current placement. Issuing a slight nod to Amelia, both of his eyes would recoil back towards the young woman, only catching the final fragments of what she said. The rest didn’t’ matter after all; it was nothing but a bunch of blathering steam to him. Something that would only dig her grave deeper with the way she intended upon going with him. Patience was something of a fine line, especially with him. People could tread it, but it would quickly snap with the strain beneath them, sending them plummeting to an inevitable fate. That fate would be his to bestow…

“A king perhaps…Of the forest, I am not…” Eloquently his words flowed from his lips, carrying a faint melodic tone to them. Adjusting the positioning of his shoulders backwards, a set of jet black leathery looking wings would emerge and stretch out to their fullest extent behind him. The action seemed to startle Amelia, causing her to stumble backwards a few paces until she regained her composure once more. Settling the wings to a stationary position behind him, a twitch of amusement lingered upon his pale countenance. She had no idea who or what he was, yet she intended to play this sort of game with him? While it was admirable, he found it incredibly annoying…

“The flute…?” The question poised itself to entice her interest for the time being, while his free hand dipped within the confines of his armor. Pulling out the long wooden instrument from within the dark bindings of the armor, there would seem to be a smile that would eek carefully across his lips. Lifting his hand to the side of his head, he would proceed to wiggle the flute between thumb and index finger in a mocking manner. “The flute is right here…Come…Break it. I’m waiting…” There would be no actions that would follow the issued challenge to the woman; instead he would remain stationary and dormant within his stance. What was the point in preparing oneself for someone who would be all talk and no show? Besides, if she were truly as powerful as her mouth ran her to be then breaking his flute would be within the cards dealt to her hand.

However; if she wasn’t then she would be entering a league where she had no busy being. By mere fact, the second she would even make the attempt to attack him, it would take a mere second for him to withdraw blade and fend off the attack. On top of that, the first time their blades would meet, there was an almost undeniable certainty that his would slice clean through hers. Not even the greatest of creatures could match his strength, nor could the nimblest of beings match his speed. All in all, he was a war machine straight down to the core. When this woman would make the first move, she would be signing her soul off to him, mercy was never his specialty…

Cordelia had yet to notice the woman near him, since she hadn’t bothered to speak or really make her presence known. She didn’t usually notice people unless they were making fools out of themselves, saying something to her, or unless she actually took the time to look for them. He finally spoke, but the words came as a shock to her. An eyebrow rose and her head tilted to the side somewhat as she ran over the words in her head to make sure she had heard him correctly. Him, a king? Her eyes scanned him over, wondering if he was telling the truth. Whether he was or he wasn’t, Cordelia already knew she didn’t believe him. She always pictured those of nobility a lot different than what he looked like… she could see him being a potential snob – yes, because anyone who’s royalty has to be stuck-up – but he hadn’t talked much as of yet, so she really didn’t know.

“You’re joking, right?” she stated with a snort and a giggle, simply staring at him. She had chosen not to believe him and to let him to know that. He was probably some crazy person, since really, crazy people were the only kind of people Cordelia ever wound up meeting. It always seemed to be just her luck that she met the outcasts… couldn’t she just meet someone normal for once? But, then again, normal people were quite boring, and all these weird persons made for very interesting stories.

Frankly, though, she didn’t care if he was royalty or not. Just because he was a king didn’t make him any different from her or anyone else, and he wasn’t any more supreme. She treated people with the amount of respect they deserved, which in her own mind was very, very little, and people of nobility were no different. She didn’t kiss anyone’s rear end… why should he be different simply because he was born into a monarchy?

“The flute…?”

An eyebrow simply rose as he said that. She didn’t intend on repeating herself, since he had clearly heard her. If he hadn’t heard that squeaky, annoying, high pitched sound, then there was totally something wrong with him. Maybe he was a ‘king’, but he certainly wasn’t perfect. Her eyes followed the hand that went into his armor, and as the flute was pulled from the inside, her face seemed to pale a little bit. Wasn’t it just her luck that she found and threatened the person that owned the troublesome instrument?

“So you’re the flute guy… eh heh…” Now she had to actually break that thing! She bit her lip, knowing inwardly that she should probably watch her mouth more often, but it was really just too hard and required too much effort from her. She couldn’t even back out of it now, since it would look like she was afraid. Great.

“The flute is right here…Come…Break it. I’m waiting…”

For some reason, Cordelia got the feeling that wasn’t an invitation. She rocked back and forth on the hells of her feet awkwardly for a moment, simply staring at him suspiciously. He was mocking her… she could tell when people were mocking her. The thought angered her to no end, but there were a few options here. If he was, in fact, a king, then he was either the kind of king that knew how to fight and would kill her if she got too close, or he was the kind of king that had been pampered his whole life and knew absolutely nothing about weapons and was simply bluffing. If he was crazy, though, there was no way of predicting anything. She’d learned that lesson with Manic…

The vampire took a cautious step forward, inching her way closer to him. She decided in her head that she wouldn’t end up fighting; she would just break the flute and be on her way; saving someone’s ability to hear was good enough for her. But as she reflected on her slow pace, she almost cursed herself – since when did she get scared? Huffing, the woman looked at him. “Fine, you know what? I will come and break it!” She took a few more steps, but there was a small part of her that doubted he would let her get close enough to snatch the thing from his hand.

No expression played across his visage while she giggled amongst herself over his aloofness towards the King comment. With no solidity, the statement of being a King had been made, something clearly judged as a solid and utmost certain claim by her. Stone cold his gaze remained fixated solely upon the upper section of her body for a hint or sign of her actions. Oh how little this all interested him, a game with nothing more than a child was something that hadn’t entice his interest for the night. For that was all she was to him; someone who found amusement in trying to act high and mighty, and found entertainment in such trivial things. The whole situation annoyed him truly and he would be glad when this tribulation would be finally put to an end.

After what seemed to be hours, the first movement had been made and only from the woman in front of him. Instinctively the hand holding the flute would tuck it carefully within the binds of his robing beneath the armor for safe keeping during their confrontation. While she continued to inch and then announce her breaking of the flute, the soft ringing of metal against metal would sound forth from the metal lip of the sheathe as he carefully and methodically withdrew the blade from it. Once her little proclamation and her pace had quickened, the sleek slender blade of the katana would slowly swing up to an upright position in front of him. As it had done so though, simultaneous after images of the blade would appear in its wake, giving it a deceiving appearance to the woman facing him.

This was when this little confrontation would end, all within a sheer instance of a second. Elegantly lifting his other hand, it would bring itself in a smooth movement up to join his other on the hilt of the blade. With a quick jerk of the hands, the blade would bring itself in poise above his right shoulder, while both of his legs would thrust forward in sheer power, propelling himself into a blurred rush towards his opponent. Upon drawing near, the blade would thrust higher, before coming crashing down towards the left side of Cord’s neck. And that was where the next section of the attack would kick in, because the mere second that his eyes would blink his body would instantly dissipate and vanish into thin air. Only to appear right behind her, the blade still continuing its downward arc, now instead at the right side of her neck. At the last fraction of a second before the blade would make contact, it would come to a dead and sudden halt. Whether she noticed or hadn’t, it really didn’t matter much, nor did it matter if she would move. It was only an issued physical warning, since the previous verbal issued one had not instilled enough fear into her.

“Last chance, walk away and savor your afterlife. I have no interest hurting you.” The words came like a jagged edge, harsh in tone and sharp with its delivery. Hopefully this warning would be clear and concise enough to scare off this unwanted intruder. If not, then there would be no choice but to eliminate her as a threat. The only thing he hoped for was that she had a coroner in line for her funeral…

Amelia watched unblinkingly while the two of them continued their discussion, knowing full well that her Master would not back down from this woman or even concede to allowing her to lay a single finger on any of his property. The second he disappeared though, her eyes moved off towards the shoulder of the woman where she could see him appear. That’s when the thought that standing out in the open like this may not be the wisest thing she could do, especially for her Master. If she were targeted instead of him, then things could definitely get messy, but where could she hide for the time being? While the thoughts jumbled through her head, her eyes would sporadically search the woodlands, before drifting back to the woman for a brief second. What if this woman took notice of her trying to escape and capitalized on that? But, then the thought of the chances that she would be more of a prime concern over her Master joined the chorus in her subconscious. If there was anything that her Master had taught her, it was to never take your eyes off your enemy, because the second you did it would be the second you were sorry. Using that bit of information to her advantage, she would proceed towards the woodlands encircling the tree barren plot of area in which they were. Soon, she would disappear within the darkness, intent on hiding out there until the final drawings of this confrontation ended.

Within moments, the flute had been tucked away. This made Cordelia feel slightly uneasy. Going into his armor just to grab a stupid, nasal instrument wasn’t really worth it, was it? If she had to go in there and grab it, it was unnecessary physical contact and he would probably think she was trying to start a fight. The only intention she had right now was to break that flute; she wanted nothing more and nothing less. She didn’t want to fight him, she didn’t want him to hurt her, and she certainly didn’t want a huge battle to take place. All she wanted was that blasted instrument.

Even though this all seemed so trivial, she finally made up her mind, deciding that it was, in fact, important. If she had to hear one more flute, her ears were certainly going to bleed. Breaking that would save her ability to hear and countless others’… plus, it would just help her live up to her wonderful reputation. His lack of a response irritated her a little bit, but she supposed it didn’t matter. Surely he would give her some sort of response when she broke that insignificant little contraption. Cordelia would certainly be surprised if he did nothing; but if he didn’t, it would just make this easier for her. In fact, him seemingly doing nothing would make it easier for her to taunt him in the end. What fun!

However, her path toward him stopped and she froze as his sword was unsheathed. Oh, come on! Was he really threatened by her? She was a twenty-seven-year-old arrogant vampire who couldn’t fight to save her life. Then again, he didn’t exactly know that, and she did look slightly intimidating, dressed as a man and in dark clothing to boot. Besides, she was Cordelia Marion Brooks; who wasn’t frightened of her? A smirk pulled at her lips as she thought it. Even so, she still didn’t want a fight, and that blade didn’t look like it was going to be nice to her. The after-images only helped to add to the uneasiness within her stomach, but she forced herself to concentrate on something else, since there was no reason for her to feel like that.

“You’re scared?” an eyebrow raised and that smirk twitched at the edge of her lip again. In a moment, though, he seemed to have disappeared. This wasn’t proving to be any fun at all. She had stopped moving because of the sword, and then he seemed to just… poof right into thing air. Her eyes, and her self as a whole, were too young to catch that he had actually jumped up and moved toward her. Cordelia might not have been able to see the movements, but she could feel that something wasn’t exactly right here. She couldn’t place a finger on it, but…

A noise similar to the air being cut zoomed past her left ear and her eyes went wide and she ducked down slightly, only to feel the cold metal suddenly come near the right side now. The blade was barely even touching her, but she could feel the cold emanating from it, and the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood up straightly. With a defiant pout on her face, Cordelia simply stood there, unsure where his sense of fun was. Someone had woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning…

“Last chance, walk away and savor your afterlife. I have no interest hurting you.”

A deep, unhappy growl came from the depths of her throat as he said that. There were so many, various reasons that that statement bothered her… first of all, it was hypocritical. If he had no interest in hurting her, then why did he bother attacking her like that and putting a sword to her neck?! There was no way that was logical. It only backed up her belief that everyone in the world, except for herself, was crazy. No one had any reasoning to do anything they ever did. Finally, the vampire just snorted and rolled her eyes. Since he had said he had no want to harm her, then she had no reason to take that blade at her throat seriously.

Cordelia looked out of the corner of her eye, trying to get a good look at him. “Yeah, no interest in hurting me, eh?” The woman lifted her left arm and bent her elbow and wrist, a slender index finger uncurling from her palm while the other fingers stayed bent to point at the sword. “Then what the hell do you call this thing at my neck?” Her commanding, clear dark blue eyes narrowed and her lower eyelid seemed to twitch slightly. Hypocrisy was not something she enjoyed listening to, even if she could be quite a walking contradiction herself sometimes.

Once that was taken care of, she chose to go back and answer the previous thing he had said. “And I don’t know what you mean by after life, I’m clearly alive and well.” Except for that sword at her neck, the fact that her heart didn’t beat, and she was undead. “But, hey, maybe I would walk away if you would so kindly remove your stick from my personal bubble.” Even when she was being threatened, she never learned. She never learned period. Cordelia still didn’t think it mattered much, though, since she could always hold what he had said about not hurting her against him.

Her eyes moved away from the man for a moment to look through the area. Great, no one was here to witness this injustice… except for a little girl who looked like an animal with a bright light in its face. An eyebrow lifted slightly as she tried to figure out her purpose. Cordelia hadn’t spotted her before, so she couldn’t help but wonder when she had arrived or if she had just been invisible for the time being. The latter seemed highly unlikely, however, so she was going to go with the idea that she had just gotten there. The other female started walking off, though, and instead of watching, Cordelia looked back to the unnecessarily hostile man. “You might want to follow her instead of keeping me here. I don’t know, I think she just got here and she just walked off. Why not threaten her like you did to me, since I clearly can’t do anything?”

All the while her voice filtered through the silence in the air, a slight tinge of disgust took upon his elegant visage. A waste of time was what this had been and a mere distraction of what entailed prior to this tribulation. She clearly was stepping outside of her class, especially when she simply stood willing to accept what fate he would bestow. Despite what her voice said, it would only serve to belie what her body’s actions were telling him. The whole matter quickly disinterested him, so with a quick flick of the wrist, the blade would lift and spin in his hand for 180 degrees, before halting its further rotation. In one quick movement, the hand holding the blade would bring it slamming back within its sheath without any pre-meditation or delay.

The second the blade was returned, Shagarez would carefully turn his back to her, pausing as he had, “A waste of immortal flesh…Don’t dare to waste my time again, weakling.” The words came with a venomous bite, with an added emphasis on weakling. However she would take it would matter little to him, for his prime concern now turned to the missing woman. Carefully each of his crystalline blue orbs danced across the surroundings, until finally catching the silhouette of a woman behind one of the trees. But before he could even make a move, a few more figures slinked in behind her only to take her up in arms. At that sheer instance in time, the sound of her shrill voice cut through the air like a knife, “MASTER! HELP ME!”

Shagarez’s right eyebrow twitched in irritation. Why did everyone have to pester him tonight of all nights? Couldn’t they just leave him be and let him enjoy his peace? Apparently that was asking too much…A faint grunt escaped his lips, before pushing off in a slow succession of footsteps towards the figure holding the woman at a knife point. There was no sense of urgency in his footsteps and no display of worry visible upon his countenance. Once he reached the point of distance desired from the two of them, a hand would drift to the blade, pulling it out in one swift motion to bring it up slowly to rest upon his shoulder.

The man behind Amelia continued to hold the blade at her throat, while two men lingered somewhere off in the trees behind him armed with bows and arrows. Should Shagarez make a foolish attempt then any effort the man would apply would indeed be lost. At least that was how he felt. Suddenly his voice would pick up in a commanding tone in order to make sure he could hear him, “Stay as you are or she becomes ours and you die. She’ll be in good hands, just trust us…We’ll break her in real good. It’s the least you owe us for killing our leader. Fair trade don’t you think?”

Lifting the blade from his shoulder, Shagarez’s eyes zeroed in on that of Amelia’s for one last time, knowing full well this would be the last time he would see them. When the moment arose to throw his move into action, his entire body would rock forward in a dash only to once again blur it into a series of after images to delude their mind as to where he really was. It didn’t take more than a mere second, before his blade had been thrust clean through Amelia’s abdomen and clean through the man’s behind her. A soft whisper would escape his lips, which would only seem to bring a satisfying smile to Amelia’s lips. Once said, the blade would depart from their abdomens, only to set place and launch forward in an arc towards the man’s head. Only to lop it clean from his body and send the two separate pieces cascading to the ground in a series of thuds. Continuing on his follow through, both of his hands would release the blade and instantly jolt up in front of his face where they would catch two arrows just mere inches from his face.

Holding both of the arrows, shaft between index and thumb, he would proceed to twirl them absentmindedly, as his eyes shifted over his shoulder. The slumped body of Amelia resided a mere couple of feet off from his current placement, still writhing in agony from the wound that plagued her stomach. Drawing up a decision in his mind, both of his arms would glide in elegant fashion off to his right flank, poising at the ready for the next stage of action. Returning his gaze in front of him, it would settle off and onto the two men still in the trees off in the distance, drawing the strings of their bows back for another attempt at him. They would have no shot, because in a mere blink of the eye, both of his arms jolted up and off to his left. Once they reached a specified point in position, both of the arrows would relinquish themselves from his grip and sail straight towards each of the individuals. A few cries could be heard, followed by a couple of soft thuds, which seemed to bring a sick sadistic grin to his lips.

Satisfied with what just took place, his slumped form would slowly rise, while his hand moved to scoop up the blade. Bringing the blade up in front of him, his other hand would lift to join the other at the hilt. Now it was time for the last act of the night, the one that would pain him the most, but something that was quite necessary. Moving to face Amelia’s slump form, both of his arms would raise the blade high above his head, before turning the blade in his hands so it pointed downwards. Settling his gaze across a vital target on her body, his voice would pick up in a soft tone, “If I can’t have you, no one will…” At the last word of his sentence, the blade would thrust downwards and plunged straight through her back, skewering her heart and finally slamming its tip into the earthen ground bellow. Pausing for a few moments, both of his arms would tense and give a swift jerk to pull the blade from the woman’s body only to then return it to its sheathe.

Trickles of blood ran down his face from his thoroughly blood soaked hair, which had begun to mat itself against his scalp as it started to dry. The scent of blood was intoxicating to his nostrils, sending his emotions into frenzy, but he was able to keep the urges quelled deep within him not wanting to expose himself to this unwanted stranger who still seemed to linger. Clenching and unclenching his hands into tightly woven fists spasmodically, his eyes would narrow themselves upon the form in front of him. Tremors vibrated throughout his body in its almost near failed attempt to keep his urges at bay. Having not fed in almost a week made such a feat near impossible, but the woman’s continued presence had been enough to take his mind off of it and enable him to maintain his composure for the time being. How long that would be was something he wasn’t entirely sure of, so he would need to get her from here before that time would come…That was when his mind came across the thought of the flute and her want to break it. Perhaps that would be enough to get her to leave.

Reaching into his armor, he would once again remove the flute from its confines. But instead of taunting her with it like last time, he would simply toss it in her direction. A few words would follow the action, soft in their tone, “Break it and be gone…”

He sheathed his blade. Haha! Almost with a mind of its own, the left corner of her upper lip began to twitch, begging to pull up into a large, satisfied smirk. Doing so was so very tempting, but he could easily pull that blade right back out if he saw any smug action from her. Cordelia let out an over dramatized sigh, rotating her shoulders and taking a few steps away from him.

“A waste of immortal flesh…Don’t dare to waste my time again, weakling.”

Oh… he did not just say that. For a moment the words made her numb as she grasped what he had said. He had really dared to call her weak! Her face darkened and she snorted, shaking her head. That statement had been so incredibly ignorant of him to say that she wanted to laugh. Maybe it was the truth, but she was stronger than a lot of other people around these parts. At least she, unlike other people, wouldn’t die from getting stabbed in the abdomen or simply taking an arrow to the back. Mortality was such a… pointless thing. There was a part of her that almost felt bad. Almost.

Cordelia turned slowly to face him finally, trying not to blow her top. “Weakling…” she repeated quietly, allowing herself to smirk at last. “Oh, yeah, I’m the weak one here, I’m the waste of flesh!” She laughed cruelly before rolling her eyes. He probably wouldn’t even understand what she was referring to, but she didn’t care. If he was any stronger than her, he would have killed her. If he wasn’t a waste of flesh, if he wasn’t a weakling, then he should have had no problem in killing her. Cordelia never had problems with slicing anyone’s throat, so she was probably a lot stronger than he gave her credit for.

“MASTER! HELP ME!”

That was entirely too pathetic for Cordelia to even form into words. The girl depended completely upon her master, almost as if she was a child. Her left arm crossed her chest while her right elbow rested on the back of her hand, her right arm propped up with her fingers pressed against her forehead. It was surprising that he had never taught her how to protect herself… then again, maybe not. If he was her master, that meant she was his servant or slave of sorts, and teaching her how to defend herself may end causing a rebellion. Cordelia wasn’t going to think too much on it; it was beginning to give her a bit of a headache.

The woman merely stood there as he went off to go find the girl. So now he was going to act valiant and save the poor little damsel… that was very boring. Cordelia almost wished he wouldn’t have done anything and would have let her captors do whatever they wanted with her. It would have been much more entertaining to see the disappointment and distress that way. Oh, well – maybe she’d still end up getting disappointed. The woman now finally simply folded her arms, taking a few steps closer so she could get a better view. No matter what happened, she wanted to make sure she got a good seat.

For a moment, while one out of the group was speaking, it was dull… and then Shagarez stabbed right through Amelia. Despite herself, a shocked look crossed her face, though it was quickly put away to be replaced by a raised eyebrow and a smirk. The blood in the air was a calming thing for her, but it still didn’t put her shock at ease any. He’d gone and injured the girl that had asked for his help… while it was a despicable action, Cordelia couldn’t help but be intrigued by it. She loved unsuspected twists and turns, especially the ones that made things so much more interesting. At least he wasn’t as afraid or hesitant as he had seemed to be when she had been held at knifepoint, especially after seeing him go after the others in the group as well. That fact almost upset her, though; she wouldn’t get a chance to make fun of him for that! Curse her inability to judge people correctly!

She had seen his lips move, but her ears hadn’t caught what he was saying. Cordelia watched, completely interested, as he lifted the blade and plunged it right into the girl. The vampire couldn’t help but wince, since after all, that had to hurt. He had hurt her before, and now he had killed her… honestly, she hadn’t been expecting that. She never expected people to turn their backs on others. Perhaps it was just the tinniest bit naïve of her, but then again, she always did think people were weaker than her. If they were weaker than her, then surely they didn’t have the capacity to betray anyone that they cared for or that cared for them. The guilt would certainly be too much to bear. For people like Cordelia, however, letting people go was simply a fact of life. Whether she was the one to defy what people expected from her was just another way to get rid of them.

“Break it and be gone…”

As the flute was thrown in her direction, a single arm reached out, catching the wooden instrument in the palm of her hand. She brought it closer to her, examining it. This very object had been what had made him get so angry before, and that had caused the little girl to run off, which had caused her death… the flute was behind it all. Cordelia smirked and a soft, hum-like laughter came from her throat as she went over her options. She could very easily break this and take yet another thing from him that night, or she could very easily break it and relieve him the reminder of why this had happened. Not breaking it would leave her without any satisfaction, and would either hurt him more or only get a reaction of indifference from him. Since not breaking it included a negative that affected her, there was only one thing to do – break the flute. Besides… he didn’t look or sound all that happy. Maybe she was wrong, but she highly doubted being mistaken was even a possibility.

Taking the flute in both of her hands, Cordelia applied enough force, and the flute broke after a try or two. The crack that occurred when the wood split was amazing to her ears and she let out a sigh of content. “And I repeat again… I’m the weak one?” Her dark blue eyes lifted to look at him, all covered in blood. It wasn’t very appealing, really, considering she wasn’t hungry at all, but the sight and smell did put a fluffy feeling in her stomach. She laughed, releasing the two broken pieces of what was once a flute and letting them fall to the ground. “You didn’t kill me… and you could have saved her, I’m sure – you know, the one who asked for your help? – yet you killed her… and then you hand over your flute to me…” She shook her head, acting as if she was disappointed. “Weak.”

Apathetic remained the soft features of his blood ridden countenance, intently watching while she proceeded to break the flute, noting that she needed to make two attempts at it in order to do so. Very little had the action bothered him, after all, he WAS the one that gave her the flute. If it served as something precious to him, then it would have never entered her hands. To him, it was simply another tool used in life, something that served a purpose to him and him only. Just like the rest though, that purpose would draw to a close and that tool would need to be disposed of by any means seen fit…

For the most part no emotion played across his countenance, making him appear as though he were a stone statue standing guard of the night blanketed forest. At least that was until the final words broke her slithering mud slinging lips. Soon a darker demeanor took upon his visage, eyes drawing to narrow slits, while his lips shifted into that of a snarl. She had no grounds, held no strength, and would stand no chance against him, yet here she was throwing mud in his face. In a way it reminded him of the time he first spent with his late wife. However, that only served to annoy and press his patience further than it had been previously…

In almost poetic fluidity, the razor thin blade of his katana would be withdrawn and brought out in a slow moving arc out in front of him, until the tip of the blade lingered in Cordelia’s general direction. Focused eyes pierced their gaze over the top of the blade and bore themselves into the woman’s, “The weak die and the strong survive. She was weak, I am strong. You…You had your chance to live, but now you will know the meaning of those words by my hands. Prepare yourself for death.” With a quick flick of the wrist, the blade dropped and dove down to his flank only to be brought to a dead halt. Again his wrist twitched, but this time turning the blade so the edge of the blade now faced his enemy.

Slowly the lids of his eyes would slide shut only for a brief moment, because within a mere instant they would jolt open and his body would rock forward into another sprint this time towards Cordelia. Image after image trailed behind, causing his outline to blur in the process. That was of course until the moment his eyes fluttered shut for a brief instance to immediate cause him to vanish and appear off to her right flank. Without wasting an instant of time, the blade would jolt up from his flank in a diagonal upwards swing to the center of her right bicep in hopes of slicing the damned thing clean off. If not, then to at least clip it and cause some lasting damage.

Cordelia saw the look on his face and almost rolled her eyes. However, doing that would force her to take her eyes directly away from his, thus making it look like she couldn’t stare at a person for as long as she pleased. She recognized that look; it was the kind of look she received quite often, in fact. It was that sort of look she seemed to get right before people either spoke back to her, put her in her place, or wanted a fight. Any of the three was possible with this man, so she wasn’t quite sure what to go with…

… Until he pulled out the blade. Cordelia’s shoulders slumped forward and she let out a sigh. Why did everything she ever said wind up getting her into trouble? People always took things so seriously! People could never just solve things verbally, oh no – they had to pull out swords and spells and decide to knock her around! She didn’t attack them with such things, so she didn’t see why it was necessary for them to do it. Some people just couldn’t control their temper, really… it was so disappointing!

“The weak die and the strong survive. She was weak, I am strong. You…You had your chance to live, but now you will know the meaning of those words by my hands. Prepare yourself for death.”

By the time he had finished that incredibly long statement, Cordelia was already pulling her sword out of its sheath at an almost painfully slow pace. He was so cocky; she was really getting sick of people who were so full of themselves. She hadn’t died because she was weak; she had died because he had put that sword right through her stomach. Besides, it wasn’t like she was going to die from getting stabbed. He just thought he was so high and mighty and that he could kill her – oh, she would show him. Rolling her eyes finally, Cordelia pulled her sword out the rest of the way, finding no use in delaying the inevitable. If he wanted a physical fight, then fine! He’d get a physical fight!

She bent her arm, holding her sword in front of her and awaiting his attack. She wasn’t going to initiate this, especially since she hadn’t even wanted this in the first place. Verbal fights were much more in her territory. After losing the last few fights she had been in, her confidence had dropped slightly… but only slightly. This was still Cordelia, after all.

It was hard to see him, considering he was a blur, but she was ready for whatever he had coming. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to help herself see better, and, of course, he disappeared. She was completely confused and caught off guard by the action, but a sort of sixth sense kicked in and she stepped aside as his blade came up toward her upper arm. Clearly, he wanted to get this over with. Well, maybe if he hadn’t started it, it wouldn’t have needed to happen!

Cordelia hissed loudly, her fangs unintentionally bared as the pain from the blade shot up her arm. She took a step away from him before her eyes became much more serious and her jaw clenched; oh, he was going down. Cordelia lunged at him, swiping her sword in a left to right diagonal, hoping to get him in the shoulder or collar bone.

Assiduous eyes tracked her every movement, starting from the recoil to the next initiated attack against him. A foolish and predictable move it was, a simple slash to the shoulder wasn’t going to do a single thing against him, let alone help her in any shape or form. Granted she had caught him still on his follow through, but while his arm stretched across his chest in its continued motion, his left jolted up over the top of that. Outstretching it out to the oncoming blade to his shoulder, each of his long emaciated digits would span outwardly to welcome the blade to its Venus flytrap like appearance.

Before his elbow could lock and set itself for the oncoming blow, the blade would already be upon him. Left with no option, a surge of power rushed throughout the very core fabric of his being, only to quickly distribute it throughout each and every muscle of his body. Within a matter of an instance, his body felt like it could break a tree in half without much of an issue. Though, it would seem that he would have to settle with the woman in front of him…

Wasting no more time, each of his digits clamped down to catch the oncoming blade to keep it held at its place and away from his palm, but it would seem that he misjudged the timing ever so slightly. While the blade had stopped dead in its tracks, a part of the blade had broken the flesh of his palm, only slightly. Trickles of blood spilled out over the sides of his palm and rolled down to the top side of his hand, before dropping off to the ground bellow. A brow lifted itself the second his eyes nestled themselves upon the blade in his hand. That certainly hadn’t gone the way he had felt it would, but it really didn’t matter now.

With both of his arms now crossed momentarily across his chest, a thought crossed his mind. Since his left was the one against his chest and his right was still within free movement range, the idea would be quickly put to use. While continuing his death grip on the blade with his left hand, the right would poise, lock and set itself before launching down in a slant to her now exposed left side. She was left with two options, move off to the right and relinquish her blade, but still risk chance of getting clipped by the blade, or release the blade and move backwards, still risking a chance of becoming clipped. No matter what it would seem that he only option would be to abandon the blade, unless she had hoped to pull the thing from his grip, which at the current time didn’t seem all too probable.

As Cordelia swung, his arms crossed over his upper body. In her speed, however, she didn’t have the time to process the reason for such an action. Covering himself was only going to cause more damage, wasn’t it? Once she hit him and the blade went down to his arm… oh well, stupid move on his part. It wasn’t like Cordelia cared at all what happened to him. He was simply a hostile object in her way that didn’t know how to solve anything without violence. Granted, violence was extremely fun and a very enjoyable thing to act out on, but that didn’t mean he had to act out all his cruelty on her! What had she even really done? Stupid… male person thing.

His fingers catching the metal had been unexpected, and for a moment, her dark blue eyes simply locked on her sword being held captive by his hand. Her brows furrowed, the corners of her mouth turning downward as she stared at it, trying to pull it back into her possession, but to no avail. Not only did such a thing anger her, but it was confusing and it made her anxious. No normal person could simply catch a blade coming in their directions in just their fingers; any average person wouldn’t be fast enough. Either he was using magic, or the fact that he was crazy somehow made him stronger. She had a feeling it was the second option, though, since he hadn’t used magic before, and crazy people… well, one just never knew what to expect from those types.

A low, dangerous sounding growl emitted from the depths of her throat as she held on stubbornly to the hilt of her blade. The scratch he had seemed to receive from her attack was hardly pleasing or encouraging after what she had planned to do to him. For a split second, the vampire almost thought Manic was right when he said that ‘self-righteous attitudes won’t get you very far in life’. It was only for a brief moment, however; she wouldn’t entertain such a notion for much longer. Ha, such an attitude wouldn’t get her very far… it had gotten her twenty seven years so far, she didn’t see why she had to stop acting the way she did.

Keeping her eyes on that blood made her former expression turn a bit smugger, though. He probably hadn’t intended for any damage to be done at all. There had to be a way she could continue to make him make the wrong movements… the hard part would be figuring out what way that was. Ugh, why did this have to involve so much thinking?!

And, how lovely – he was attacking her. Cordelia tried one last time to get her sword out of his grasp, but it simply wasn’t working. Either she could stand there and get stabbed repeatedly while she determinedly tried to take back what belonged to her, or she could let go and retreat. Neither were options, however. Standing there would make her look both stubborn and incredibly stupid, which, while she did carry both of those traits, was not something she wanted to do right now, plus it would cause far too much damage for her to probably handle. Leaving her blade would give him two weapons and leave her only with the dagger she had received and the alter self spell, which, frankly, weren’t going to help her at all.

There wasn’t time to debate this, though. The blade swung down and Cordelia jumped back diagonally from the blade, her hands holding onto the hilt of her blade desperately. It didn’t matter what happened, so long as she didn’t let go of that sword. If she lost that, she was done for. She bent herself at the waist, sucking in her stomach so as to try and help even further in the attempt to dodge him. The katana cut away a piece of her maroon jacket and barely scratched at the skin beneath. She had spent a bit too much time thinking on what to do, which had caused the small amount of damage. If she hadn’t done that, she might have been able to come out of that one completely unharmed… oh well.

But there was sill retrieving her sword she had to be worried about. Cordelia narrowed her eyes and pulled on her sword again, forcing herself to come forward with her legs outstretched a bit, her feet aimed right for his legs. Hopefully, if this went as planned, she could knock him down; or at least catch him off guard so that he would release the only useful weapon she had on her at the moment. Either of those would suffice.

With a soft swish of air, the blade seemed to pass effortlessly past the off kilter form of Cordelia as she tried her best to avoid the blow. While she succeeded for the most part, the blade had still managed to clip her slightly, which was enough to satiate his mind for the time being. That was until all of his focus would drop to the blade in his hand, as he felt tremors of tension pulsate throughout its length when she pulled, twisted and jerked on it. There was no need to watch her actions, but he had no choice as he caught the first movement out the corner of his eye.

Acting on mere instinct at this point, he would hop off to the right as much as he could, but it would not be enough to avoid the blow entirely. So without delay, his left leg would begin to rise, bending immediately at the knee, while all his weight would shift itself mostly upon his right leg to maintain balance. Effortlessly her feet passed by his right leg, but had still managed to clip his left knee ever so slightly, but not near enough to deter its path, but only succeeded in slowing its forward progression to near nothing.

The intention of the action was not to just merely avoid the blow, but to turn it into the counter. Should the woman decide to maintain her grip upon the firmly supported blade in his grasp; her legs would end up coming in at a downward slant, which would mean that her upper body and facial region were exposed and coming straight towards his advancing knee. If she maintained her grip on the blade, then she would give herself up to an unavoidable blow. While it was nothing powerful, due to the nerfed momentum by her own attack, it was still enough to at least do SOME form of damage. But if she decided to relinquish the blade, her body would flop back first to the ground, only to slide straight beneath the oncoming leg without much issue other than getting the wind knocked flat out of you. It was all a game of options and choices, sort of like a giant game of chess; you just never knew where the pieces lied and which means they would be deployed.

Cordelia had failed to notice that he was lifting his leg. This was partly because she was a bit unobservant… she never really paid attention to detail at all. Ignoring it was so much easier, and while that probably wasn’t very smart… well, she wasn’t very smart. However, this was also because she was swinging in his direction and looking to see if he had lifted his leg wasn’t her top priority at the moment. However, as soon as her foot collided with him, there was no way she couldn’t notice. A smug smirk came onto her face; so far, she’d made him bleed and she’d kicked him! That was something to be extremely proud of in her book. She hadn’t been able to do anything to Manic or Fehade… she wasn’t as helpless as people thought she was! Ha, in their faces!

And, of course, just like before, she continued to fail and notice something, and this time it would probably come back to bite her. If her body continued to move downward as it was now, she was going to get kicked. Oh, that was lovely. She always enjoyed getting hit in the face and stomach and oh, don’t forget any other region that was pretty much useful!

However, she wound up not having to worry about getting kicked. A bigger problem had come onto her plate. Her hands slipped from the hilt of her blade, causing Cordelia to descend to the ground. She hit the ground back-first with a rather loud thump, a few thoughts running through her head. The first one was the realization that she was having difficulty breathing, which was probably from getting the wind knocked out of her… that affect would go away soon enough, if she could find someway to get out of this. It wasn’t exactly easy moving around when one couldn’t breathe. The second thought was that she had completely lost her sword to him. Oh… that was great. That was just peachy! Cordelia’s eyes narrowed as she stared up at Shagarez from the ground. She could barely move because she had lost her breath, she was right under his foot, so he would probably pin her down, and now she had lost her sword.

There’s a moment you know… you’re screwed.

Each movement was calculated to dead on accuracy, leaving many of his opponents wondering just what kind of beast he was. The thing that helped the most in the greater portion of his conflicts resided in his strength and speed. Most never saw what was coming to them until it was right flat in their face…The only person that proved that fact wrong was the unorthodox styling of Manic. Oh how he loathed that man, words could not even explain what he would do to him should their paths ever cross again. Brushing the thoughts from the caverns of his mind, dark orbs settled upon the fallen form of the woman bellow him, admiring the fact that she was completely and utterly at his every mercy. Not one did he hold all the cards in his hands, but now all the swords…Taking the newly acquired sword, he would give his wrist a flick to toss the blade into rotation and up into the air, where he would later catch it at the hilt.

With one smooth steady motion, both of the blades would bring themselves down to place their points on each opposing side of her neck to add to the suspense. To make sure that she wouldn’t get away from him, a foot would lift and drop down upon her chest to pin her to the placement upon the softened earth bellow. Pondering over a few thoughts in his head, one would seem to speak louder than the rest, pestering him with its insistence to do as it wished. Deciding to give it a shot, both of the blades would lift from the woman’s neck and ascend slightly into the air before him. From there both would snap down towards whatever parts they could strike, the newly acquired blade would travel down to her shoulder, while the other would proceed to the top of her head.

The moment the newly acquired blade closed within striking, the hand holding it would relinquish its grip to allow it to sink itself into the Earth just centimeters above her shoulder. Atop that, the other blade would falter dead in its tracks just a off from its target, before slowly moving its way down to her nose where it would hover momentarily. Fiery eyes stared down into hers, boring with their intent and yearnings to harm her beyond words, but beyond that resided one final chance… Moving off from the woman, the blade would jolt off to his immediate flank where it would rest momentarily, as he spun on the heels of his boots and cleared a good distance between themselves. Once at the desired distance away from her, his body would turn to face her once more, a jeering smirk upon his face as he motioned towards the blade with his free hand, “Take arms and stand to try again, or concede and be on your way. I am not a giving man; your next failed attempt might very well be your last.” There was an almost dead certainty that the woman would truly dismiss the offerance of departure, but it was worth a shot. Should she continue the frivolous fight against him, then there would indeed be one less vampire within the world and it certainly wouldn’t be him…