Duel:Kuzial v Muraski

Background

After challenging Kuzial to a duel, Muraski and the Drow patron meet at the Cenril Arena to battle. The previous night Muraski and a few others set up traps to try and help Muraski win.

The Duel Begins

Kuzial stalks into the arena with his usual languid grace; an unconscious movement that betrays him to be a master swordsman. For just a moment he looks around the area, noting the mirrors and the oddly colored sand, before fixing his scarlet-hued gaze on the vampire, Muraski. He smirks at the man with contemptuous disdain, "You will pay for your idiocy." The words ring out in the drow's euphonious voice, and before their final echo has faded from the arena's walls he is already flowing into pernicious motion. He draws from his back the stolen katana, Shattered Dream, and with his free hand he pulls forth a wickedly curved dagger. The drow takes one step towards Muraski, before dropping a globe of darkness over them both. Devoid of the need for sight, Kuzial charges forward, waiting until the very last moment before he spins to the left. Shattered Dream is swung high in a horizontal slash at the man's neck, and as he completes the turn his vicious dagger drives through a back-handed stab at the man's heart...

Muraski had worked upon his chosen venue the night before, hours of setting up for today's fight. As Stavret made his way into the arena, the vampire greeted him with a nod rather then harsh words. Muraski however was not to waste time with pleasentries and as his brief gesture was completed his hands were to brandish to seperate weapons, a torch in the left while a sabre resided in the right. When Kuzial began to charge the sired one began to take a cautious step in the opposite direction as he attempted to predict his foe. Darkness crept over the both of them and Muraski was unable to find his foe any longer, the drowish magic to take it's toll upon his calm. His eyes shut, his ears perked up, and he listened yet all but to late. Shattered dream had been swung, his own blade to luckily have been in the way yet only enough to lodge the attack into his shoulder rather then parrying it in it's entirity. The force of the blow nearly had his footing to be loss and soon he would be to stumble to the left, only to take a dagger in the shoulder blade of the arm that had recently been cut. The thief found pain to course through his body, the torch in his left hand to swing wildly in the direction that he had been assailed from. Whether connection was made or not, the vampire dropped the torch onto the oiled sand, mass amounts of the arena to soon be covered in fire. His hope at this point, was that the darkness would lift from the disturbance of the flames.

Kuzial snarls with sadistic joy as his weapons imbed themselves into Muraski's flesh. With casual cruelty the two blades are torn free, moments before he hears the torch's fire eating the air as it's swung towards him. The drow ducks beneath the attack, causing his white hair to be singed, and as he prepares to thrust his katana forward he feels a sudden surging of violent heat busting into life around the arena. The light is enough to dispell the globe of darkness, and the sudden shift from blindness to seeing causes shards of agony to lance into Kuzial's sensitive eyes. With another snarl of rage that's lost in the roaring of the fires, the Patron of House Stavret enacts the enchantments woven into Shattered Dream. To those watching it would seem like the drow was casting a levitiation spell and floating into the air above the arena, but it is merely an illusion, crafted by the katana stolen from Ginger's corpse. The true Kuzial draws in a burning breath, before erupting into a series of dizzying attacks with his sword and dagger. It dispells the illusion he created as like a dancer he flows through movements, keeping his feet on sand that isn't burning, and though his attacks are violent enough, they are aimed at forcing the thief into evasion rather than attempts at blocking, to push him ever closer to the walls of flames where he will hopefully be burned to death...

Muraski felt a mass amount of relief surge through him, as the flames removed the darkness from around , vision to be restored. The goggles upon his face were quickly pulled down to cover his eyes from the overbaring light that came forth with the fire to allow himself continued easy sight. As Muraski watched Starvet float above into the air his mind simply seemed to go blank, curiousity to follow as he wondered what would cause a man to flee. An answer was soon to follow as a sudden glint of flame was seen to bounce off of something shiny, Kuzial's blade to be instinctively dodged as LeskoVac's feet gave a sudden push of strength and forced himself towards the fire he crafted. The use of his right arm dwindled from the prior assault, his weapon to switch hands, sabre to now be held within the left and his repeater to be held within the dominant hand. With the weapons switched in places Muraski's attention was forced once more upon the drow, his left arm to begin countering to the best of it's abilities yet with each counter he inched more towards flame. The heat felt upon his back needed continued to grow, the merchant to need an escape and soon he changed the course of his steps. Suddenly the sired one would lunge at Kuzial with reckless abandon of the continued assault that seemed to come towards him, Shattered Dream to go clear through his gut. The vampires attack worked to land upon the drow, force both of them to the ground, and Kuzial upon the painted sands that he noticed upon entering. Underneath the first resided poisoned spikes, each with a deadly purpose, the infectant to poison one's system into shutting down, their body into paralysis that would force their lungs to quit breathing air until eventual suffocation should a significant enough dose be taken.

Kuzial once again feels savage joy as his blade drives into the flesh of his opponent, and just as he was preparing to tear the weapon up into the vampire's unbeating heart, the thief tackles him back from the flames. The unexpected move causes the drow to fall backwards and drop the dagger he held, though his other hand never releases the hilt of Shattered Dream. For just a moment he is still, before he arches his back and pushes off with his left leg, forcing Muraski off him and in the same movement tearing Shattered Dream out of its temporary fleshy sheathe. He rolls over to get up and suddenly staggers, his vision beginning to blur. Not all the spikes managed to pierce through his armor, though enough did for the insidious poison to begin its work on his body. He staggers once, then screams in rage as he slams Shattered Dream into the sand at his feet abd draws forth his most odious sword, the E' et-Nilah Blade. Once owned by the ruler of Trist'Oth, the weapon is viciously sentient and around its razor-sharp edge tendrils of ebon darkness twist and dance to a music unheard; consuming the light like a ravening beast as the weapon emits a dark, hungry moan. With this in hand, Kuzial commands the sword to enact one of its potent properties. The tendrils of darkness snake out from the weapon like a spider's web - they surge at the ground where Muraski is in an attempt to lock him in place long enough for the patron to complete his dazed attack. He steps forward as he reverses his grip on the weapon, before laying his other hand over the bottom of its hilt. With a dark curse the patron drow drives down with all his formidable strength, the wickedly sharp tip aimed at the vampire's heart; to end this battle once and for all so he can flee somewhere safe and fight off the insidious poison still surging through his body...

Muraski was slower to stand then the drow, the damage to his chest and arm having taken their toll upon his ability to react. Once upon his feet he quickly turned to face his foe, not wanting to lose sight of him once more. As he spotted the enemy he missed the tendrils, each to latch upon his feet and force him into the inability to escape. With a lack of movement to bind him, the sired one moved his arm behind him and poited it woards the nearest wall. A mechanism clicked, the gadget to be fired from the vambrace upon his arm as soon a grappling hook was bound into the arena's side. Muraski's arm tugged upon the rope with every ounce of force he could muster and yet it refused to budge him from the spot he resided. Instead, his body bent backwards and seemingly sent him in the clear from the assault that would have otherwise impaled his heart. Suddenly pain was felt and as he attempted to look down he felt rather unable, the blade to have pierced through the bottom of his chin and out his mouth. A horrified look was about all he could make as pain seemed to surge through the vampire unlike anything he had ever felt before. With the threat of death iminent the man made his last move, his right arm raised and set upon his now bent backwards leg. With three clicks to be heard, three shots were to be fired towards Kuzial, each laced with the same poison upon the spikes, each headed to his lower region. If Muraski wouldn't make it out of this alive, he most certainly didn't feel like he had to die alone.

Kuzial staggers as his blade slices into Muraski's face; the poison meaning his usual dark joy is hardly even felt. Yet as the man pulls out the crossbow, a tactic heavily favored by the dark elves, the Patron of House Stavret can hardly offer adequate defence. He tears out his sword and attempts to spin to the left, evading one bolt completely. But the second tears through his chainmailed leggings and lodges into his thigh, causing him to stumble to the ground and take the final bolt on his back, where thankfully his armor is strong enough to stop it piercing into his flesh. Kuzial can feel the insidious poison surging through his dark flesh; the fiery air becomes hard to breath and his vision dims to a bright wavering light. But still he gets to his feet once more, fighting the agony that surges from his bruised back, his impaled leg and the potent poison seeking to end his life. Fueled by rage alone, he stands there, the only thing that stops him from falling is he's laced his hand around the hilt of Shattered Dream, which is still imbeded into the sand at his feet. He leans on it and waits, sure if the man attacks again he will have the strength to at least destroy him before the poison can end his psychotic life...

Kuzia Wins: 2 - 1

Kuzial can feel the insidious poisons paralyzing his body, but fueled by his brutal rage he would not stop - not until the man who so brazenly challenged him was taught a lesson. Though his vision swims with hazy lines, he manages to sheathe the E' et-Nilah blade on his hip, before drawing forth another of his slender daggers. He abandons Shattered Dream, which was keeping him on his feet, and launches himself at the thief. The man's legs are still held within the webs crafted by E' et-Nilah, so when Kuzial's shoulder strikes his chest he is bent awkwardly backwards. The drow pins the arm that holds his crossbow with one knee, before tearing off the goggles that cover the vampire's eyes. He sways for just a moment as darkness threatens to swamp his mind, before he snarls in rage and drives his dagger down. Brutally, and without any caring for the man beneath him, the drow carves into his face around one of his eyes. Sawing in and out until he's travelled around the orb, before he drives his free hand into it. There is a disgusting noise of flesh being torn that rings out above the flames, before the drow holds up his trophy with sadistic delight. He hisses the words, which are only slightly slurred, "Challenge me again.. and you will die.." Before he gets to his feet and returns to Shattered Dream. The katana is swept up and returned to its sheathe on his back, before the drow turns on his heel and weaves through the fires, out into the cool Cenril air, to find somewhere to rest while his body fights off the insidious poison..