Zed Arybai Vs Taxim.

[Angel]

*A dull silver claw slams into the staff, smashing it away from Zeds body with a reverberating clang. The young vampire looks at his own arm in horror, the silver-gray metal creeps up his arm, from the inside out. He can't control it, with his human form so badly damaged and his mind in absolute turmoil. He scrabbles to his knees, ignoring the sickening wrenching in his gut.*

Get away from me! *He snarls viciously,* Go! *There are hints of panic and rage mixing in his voice, almost as if two people are talking at the same time.*

Run, get away from me! RUN! *His final word twists into an agonized scream, his head thrown back and fangs lengthening in his maw. The metal tears out of his skin, blinding him with rage and pain. His other hand shifts into a gauntlet to match his left, armed with four inch claws and spikes running down the outside of his arm. The living metal forces the feathers out of his wings and they blizzard around them in the hot wind. The razor sharp replacements glimmer blue, leaving a myriad of slices in the tarmac behind him. Finally, the visor slides across his cheeks, sealing Zed's rationality in a very dark place. The once dull red glow of the eye-slits is now a fierce, electric, blue.

The beast that he has become rears its magnificent head.

He launches at the masked child, no longer held back with thoughts of damaging the city, attracting attention, or any thought at all. Maw open to show his long ivory fangs, he crashes towards Taxim with claws outstretched.*

[Taxim]

(Is our arm better yet? We am not as familiar with electricity as you.)

"~Well... this is new.~"

Taxim's instincts tell him that fleeing and developing a strategy is a good idea, even though his mask acts against it. Taxim throws his staff towards his opponent with his remaining hand, hoping it would distact him for a short while at least.

Using his wings for the first time today, even though they are more usefull for gliding than flying, the mask gets them beating. As the staff flies towards his opponent, Taxim jumps backwards. The momentum of the wings takes him roughly five metres down the disused street behind them.

As soon as he touches ground, Taxim pulls out the Light Mask while plucking the White Mask from his face and switching them, using his time as valuably as possible.

[Angel]

((Ah, the effect lasts for four of your posts. you are free to use it, though there may be after effects.))

*The staff seems to move as if it's stuck in oil, Zed tips his body aside, letting it skim past and into his wings. It shears into slivers against the razor shards of metal, the fragments seem to hang in mid air for a bare moment before whirling and spinning away in pieces.

Zed turns back to his opponent in that moment, and the shards frame him. Whirling feathers and dust, the sparking mains cable that he was so desperately trying to reach, only minutes before. A tableau of destruction that he had sorely wanted to avoid. No matter now... the beast could care not.

He pursues his opponent back, not letting him gain anymore distance. He swipes with those deadly sharp claws, lurching forwards unpredictably and aiming for the masks. Their twisted voices torture his minds ear, stir the turmoil they have created, and seal their own future.

[Taxim]

Taxim manages to attach the Light Mask to his face in time before the claws come slashing. As the attack comes in, Taxim raises his left hand, the hand holding the White Mask, and uses it as a makeshift sheild.

The impact jars his hand as the claws tear into the mask, leaving large gouges in the foreign metal. You can hear the spirit scream as its keep is damaged, rendering it useless untill Taxim can repair it. The talons cut through the mask and into Taxim's left hand, slashing into his palm. A shout of pain as the mask falls to the floor with its bounty of blood.

The mask takes control as it is quickly shoved onto his face, instantly letting out a flash of brilliant light from its diamond-like decorations that would hopefully blind or distract his attacker for a few moments. Taxim cried behind the mask, trying to block out the excruciating damage that was done to his hand. He buries it inside his pocket to take his mind off it.

A short way away, the white staff fades away. A little closer, a large shape begins to appear on Taxim's arm...

[Angel]

*He relishes in the scream of the injured mask, the feel of blood on his claws. He draws his other arm back to rip through the delicate bodies midriff, but the flash of light interrupts him.

Howling in pain, he raises his wings over his head. The metal feathers jingle discordantly, like broken wind chimes. As the flash dims, he slashes his wings open. They leave deep gouges in the concrete and slice through the air, making it scream tortuously. Barely letting up for a moment, he feints to the right, the lunges back left.

His wings lash out at shoulder height on the boy, taking advantage of his injured arm. Zed can smell the heady scent of blood and salt tears on Taxim, and his fangs ache for their taste. He pushes forwards, ever on, to grip the boy's shoulders. Trying to sink those long fangs deep into a vein.*

[Taxim]

The boy takes advantage of his attackers blinding to hold up what was materialising slowly infront of his wrist.

By the time his foe had slashed at the concrete, Taxim was standing behind a kite-shaped shield that is larger than he was. This shield was a brilliant white and gold coloured thing with diamonds embedded around the border. It was built to be the most endurable thing ever, yet it was about as heavy as a normal bag of sugar.

Taxim grips the shield tightly and ignores the screams of his foe as he seems to lash out blindly towards him. The knocks and bangs of the shield would only harm his opponent due to it's strength.

While he was safe for the moment, Taxim started looking around for an oppertunity.

[Angel]

*Zed growls in frustration at the sudden appearance of the shield, he's hungry. His attacks haven't left much of a scratch so he backs off a little, to see his opponent properly. He has to attack sometime... and to do that he will have to come out from behind his shell.

The beast can feel Zed's body protesting to this harsh treatment, beneath the blood-metal armour. His Midian ancestry, straight from the Noble line, is strong and uncontrollable, at least by anyone but his master. Especially himself. This fierce and purely emotional creature has folded away its human mind to protect itself from the torment.

He backs up again, giving him self room to manoeuvre, before beating the air to shreds. He lifts off with graceful ease, hovering at about two stories.*

[Taxim]

"~ Well... that's not too bad... at least he can't do much while we've got the shield.~"

Taxim didn't feel as sure as his mask. He raised the shield, looking through the diamonds as some sort of blurry-peep-hole. It wasn't the easiest thing in the world, but it worked. Sort of.

Taxim followed his opponents movements, only relying on the sole thing that he believed he had more patience.

[Angel]

He was right.

Zed pounds the air again, rising up quickly before coming down, wings swept back, straight at the shield. The force alone would shatter concrete, but that's not what he's after. Without shifting a muscle that could let his opponent realise, he charges the powerful electric field again, letting it rage around his metal skin, invisible just below the surface.

At the final moment before impact with the shield, he slips to the side with a powerful flick of his wing. punching his arm in behind the glitzy, diamond studded thing, he lets loose the charge.

It cracks like lightening across the gap, and Zed snaps his eyes shut for the split second that it arches. Once fired, there isn't enough time from him to right his dive and he ploughs into the tarmac. It rips up in massive chunks and cracks radiate out from the breach.

Zed surfaces quickly, on alert as ever, but a thin trail of crimson leaks from the corner of his mouth, his body can't put up with much more. This will be finished. Soon.

[Taxim]

Taxim had only enough time to turn his head before the bolt connected and smashed its way into him. The force knocked him off his feet, Taxim felt only a breif sense of pain enter his side which seemed to pulse through him before the whole world around him went black.

The body landed roughly two metres away, on it's side with the shield underneath him. It seemed to skid about half a metre with an evil screeching sound with the body laying still. It must have only been the healing properties of the mask that saved him.

"~Idiot child!~" Screamed the black mask, followed by cursings, one after the other.
"~He tried his best, and this was not good enough. We should not curse him.~" This was the light mask replying. This caused bickering between them which echoed as they moved away from the other entities.
"~I can smell him....~" This was the beast, master with taste and scent. "~He is down, and he may not get uuup....~"

At this comment, they all turned their attention to the foe. Waiting for movement.

[Angel]

Zed Pulls himself out of the gouge, ruffling his feathers to rid their sheer planes of the dust and grit. He steps over to more stable ground and watches his foe for a moment, wiping the blood from his chin.

He sees his chest rise and begins thinking again, it's been a little too long since the beast took over, a bundle of sheer instinct. But the need for an intelligent tactic to bring this fighter down opened the door for Zed to wake up.

He pads softly, with control, to his downed opponent, looking up and down the street for the human army that's approaching the town. It was supposed to be a slick, seamless operation to take it out by removing the commander but the mess they've made... Zed will have to move on.

He leans down to the unconscious body and retracts his claws carefully so he can scoop the tiny thing up.

"Keep quiet, mask-spirits, I'll not hurt him any more. But we do need to leave, I'm sure you appreciate that..."

He coughs faintly and another streamer of red stains the corner of his mouth. As a precaution, he flaps his way into the air, heading north.

"If you attack me, I will not hesitate to drop this little one, much as it'd pain me to do so." He wouldn't in actuality, but he gives no trace in body or voice of it. He'll have to land soon, change back, but he doubt he'll be able to stay concious. Either way, he prefers it if they're both out of the city before then, he opposes the killing of children. Even homicidal ones.

The brief glimpse of Taxim's memories shed a little light on his past and Zed feels a certain... similarity with his own.

[Taxim]

Taxim began to re-awake, still feeling as though his body was dead weight. He did not panick as the Light mask had been gently whispering the situation into his head while it worked it's healing magic.

"~You fought well child... Take a rest. We do not sense evil in this one. Yet.~"

The child blinked a few times, letting his vision come back before he gripped the wrist that was holding him gently in order to gain his holders attention. It took him a few attempts to get to get his words correctly, he felt battered and bruised all over.

"Yuuu... Yooooo... Y-You do realise that most of us would rather drop then conssss... conceede?"

[Angel]

*He laughs grimly, glancing down at the seven-year old,*

Like the white one said, you should go to sleep. I think we'd both be better off if that didn't happen.

*He glides down softly, the metal feathers already returning to feathers and the wind-chime sounds fade into soft rustling. In under trees, on grass, he sets down. Its out of sight and sheltered in the coppice so he sets Taxim down on the springy moss underneath a tree. He staggers over to another, his wounds catching up to him, and sinks down to sit at its base. His wings droop to either side of the trunk, limp on the ground. and the metal recedes into his skin.

the visor goes last, melting away silently. Underneath it his eyes are already closed and his chin slumps to his chest. His body is shutting down to give itself the time to heal.


~~Fin~~

[Swix]

As promised, here are your scores , enjoy.

Zed Arybai (Angel):
Believability: Whilst I’ve only seen you use Zed a few times, I can’t see any problems with believability. Certainly get the impression this is a character you know well though, which is definitely a good thing. 10/10:

Powerplay: 0/-10. I can’t see any problems with this even with that Midian side of Zeds.

Personality/Flair: I find this quite odd, clearly there is a bond between writer and character yet it seems as though he is missing something? My only complaint is that I’d like to see more of Zeds thoughts 8/10

Cleverness/Inventiveness: I thought Zed got knocked out far too early, but then maybe I just got too into the fight. However, using the cables in the ground for your electrical attack and distracting Taxim whilst doing so was an excellent move. 17/20

Grammar/Spelling: Several spelling mistakes I’m afraid, but grammar was spot on. 7/10

Total Score is out of 42/50

Taxim:

Believability: Again, from the little I know of your character I couldn’t see any problems with believability. The child and the masks are certainly intriguing though. 10/10

Powerplay: I didn’t see any problems with this, and your kid bashing through the wall’s explanation was sufficient so 0/-10

Personality/Flair: Whilst your way of writing is very individual, I’m afraid I find myself thinking the same thing. Hearing the characters thoughts a little more, especially when it came to switching between masks would have been much better 9/10

Cleverness/Inventiveness: Your attacks and different weapons were very interesting and individual, and having the Black Mask take over when the kid wasn’t good enough was a smart move, as was sending debris flying at Zed. 18/20

Grammar/Spelling: Again several spelling mistakes were found but the grammar was perfectly fine. 7/10

Total Score is out of 44/50