Fight:Cornell v Lucia

Lucia vs Cornell, Spar at Kelay

Lucia :: The damage done to the Kelay Tavern had been severe... but when compared to the damage done -outside- the famed alehouse... it was but a drop in the bucket. Knight General Lucia Dameteise sat upon the steps of the once-proud drinking establishment, idly smoking a Clove Cigaratte and watching as a number of armed and armored men filled each of the massive holes in the road. Cobblestone would take longer to replace... but dirt would suffice until then. With a deep sigh, the Lymerrian knight took one last drag off her cigarette... tossed it into the dirt... and stomped it out with a massive platemail boot. "Well then... you ready for this? The name's Lucia. Lucia Dameteise, Knight General of the Violet Rose."

Cornell descended onto the road like a blight. The tropical storm rent through the night and spit hail like daggers all around, but that apparently did not stop the good working men from repairing the damage done for the betterment of Kelay or the Knight General from making her apperance. The peons and their endeavors were largely ignored as Cornell touches down onto the soft earth, his cloak like writhing shadows around his form. Behind the chaos visor the vampire in lord's training wore lies a serrated grin upon his lips, "I was born ready. Ready for war, ready for destiny. Ready for you." The vampire reached into the bowels of his mind. A litany of all sorts of devilish incantation flowed into his thought, the dread knight bearing his crest proudly wearing the shield of usurpers at his left. And in his right the vampire sword breather. With a few steps forward he surges closer to the knight in his armor composed of black-plate-mail, bones, and the all-too-wraith like leathers. The man extends his arm and hand, firing bolts of death toward the Knight through his brand, then coming in with a sweeping sideways slash aimed at the female's wielding arm, his casting appendage wrapped tightly around the tortured handle of breather adding ferocity to his damning attack.

Lucia :: Motion. The key to any battle in heavy armor, is motion. What this meant, for the dread knight, was that he faced an opponent who not only knew how to control the movement of her body... but also knew how to read the indicators of her opponent's. He advanced immediately... and so it was likely that his tactics would be aggressive. His armor was made to look equally intimidating and functional, so he likely employed fear and psychology into his tactics. Even those first few steps he had taken were analyzed and stored away... detailing his dominant leg, in the event it had relevance in the future. In a battle, however, watching one's opponent rush them can only go so far. As it turned out... this particular opponent had something which Lucia had not known whether to expect or not: magic. The motion of his hand betrayed him... but only just. Swearing out loud, the Knight General of the Violet Rose had all of two heartbeats to grasp for her broadsword, press palm to pommel, and activate the enchanted pearl inset. Rather than eating away at her armor... and her clothes... and then her flesh, Cornell's deadly projectiles were ensnared within a brilliant flash of white light. The Lymerrian knight was not phased by this light... charging through it and into what sweeping slice of his. Rather than meeting her stone armor... or worse, flesh... Cornell would find that his violent swing had instead left his blade captured between a pair of smaller ones. Duergar in origin, the dual shortswords which Lucia wielded hummed with electricity... and as she side-stepped around the dread knight in a hope to get herself out of the line of another magical attack... her arm outstretched with one of those hellish blades, and loosed her own 'bolts of death'. These, of course, were lightning bolts... capable of cooking a man's flesh and stopping his heart. It mattered not if she missed, however... for already she rushed the man in turn, from behind. Her dispell enchantment only worked once... and then it needed to recharge. She couldn't afford to let him loose more magic against her... she lacked a proper counter to it.

Cornell tugged at his sword as he found it locked between sister blades. He always had a plan forming in his mind, knowing hesitation equaled demise. As his swift opponent had accuractely accessed him, the vampire's weakest point being his mobility, he worked at his own strategum, and being sluggish mattered little when he had all the wit to outsmart his opponent and, like most warriors, were mistaken in staying in such close quarters with him. As the Knight female strafed around him and his body was stirred and jolted by stings of electricty, the vampire shrugged it off harshly and mechanical gears in a tactical mind pulled his muscles into motion. Sure, the lightning could stop hearts, but luckily for the vampire his undead heart had stopped it's troublesome beating long ago. His armor poured smoke from various joints, the vampire's skin fried underneath his fearful raiments, but it did little to stop him. As Lucia ducked behind his sword arm the Dread Knight whirled around with his shield of ursupers, the shield swung low where the Knight-General's legs would be. The shield was heavy, more than capable of crushing armor and breaking bones. Both possiblities a true threat to Lucia, as well as being completely swept from her feet. Whether this was the case or not, as if his attack would succeed, a foul miasma arouse from the tainted vampire's deathly garments as his sword arm reared back and lunged forward, hoping to catch the female's chest plate and pierce into the cavity that held her beating heart.

Lucia :: The shield... godsdammit, she'd left herself cleanly open to the attack! Snarling as it made contact with her armor, sparks flew... and the sound of metal grinding against... well... whatever the hells her armor was actually made of, because it screetched like nothing she'd ever heard before. It was hardly the first time Lucia had found herself upon the ground... and she doubted it would even be the last... but by the gods, she had -felt- the bones shattering in her lower leg. Fortunately for her, and not so fortunately for her opponent, he was not the only one who suffered from the cold grip of undeath. Even as she lay there upon the ground, the scent of her own blood aroused her. It filled her with fire... burning away all but her thoughts of pain, and the enemy. With eyes as black as sin, the knight uprighted herself... and this time she was ready when the vampire lashed out at her again. Twin-blades spun out as her unwounded leg lunged forward, deflecting the course of Cornell's blade. Gliding over the smooth surface of her armor, the piercing strike became a glancing blow...and the Knight General would use that momentum against Cornell if she could. With one Duergar sword raised, she pushed herself along the edge of that deflecting sword and raised her arm... with every intention of brining her sworrd straight down into the vampires' neck-joints. It was risky. It meant she was close, once more. But this time... even if she missed... she rolled back and away. Lightning seemed to do very little in her favor. He shrugged off burning flesh like a corpse might shrug off... you know... whatever it is that a corpse might be wearing! The point was, Lucia needed a new plan... and that plan involved her broadsword and her tower shield. With both in hand... Lucia dropped down into a defensive posture and waited. She needed a weakness... and the only way she was going to find it... was to make sure that Cornell was too busy attacking to -defend- it.

Cornell was thankful for the thick shroud of miasma as it hung black and hungrily over his form. It blurred his existance with it's vapors, perhaps intentionally, causing the sword aimed at his throat to skewer slightly and bite into the thick meat of his shoulder. Though it was difficult anyway to sneak a blade into the soft spot of armor and flesh that protected a vital bridge between mind, spinal column, and body. His armor was pitted in a way to protect his neck, so such a weapon would literally not be able to deliver a fatal injury to him. Yet, her blade did dig into Hod's servant, tearing a swath of destruction through a grey-chain mail vest near his neck, one of a few places the thick dark shadow plates did not govern. The vampire's wounded cry was metallic through his visor, his fury rising in shades of red, sanguinous shadows. Breather bled the red energy too, like lightning bolts jumping from open conduits and back. Lucia had strength and strength was to be respected. At times to be feared. Fear kept a man alive for longer, it's what kept Lucia hidden behind her impregnable tower-shield defense; and, Cornell would be a fool to believe her cornered. Even himself, as the up start vampire, creatures known to fear nothing, felt the adrenaline of battle and the anxiety of not knowing how things would turn. He knew that even a weak opponent could be potentially deadly, spurned on by desperation. Instead of attacking the Knight-General, the vampire bade his time out. His armor of Carrion was black as death; resplendently malcious in the moon light. Finally, cornell grinned beneath his visor, "Death takes neither of us. Tomorrow may be a different story." With that the Dread Knight holsters breather and slings the shield upon his back. "Farewell." He turns and vanishes into the night.