Imperfections [Kisaragi/Luke]

[Kisaragi]

"N-no, I, I don't..."

The tender voice wasn't loud, but Kisaragi's sharp senses caught it nonetheless, though less for its content as the tone. She could almost hear the fear in it, the uncertainty and worry of the feminine voice, rousing her from her casual stroll through this small village. The wonders of Caelin. Can't spend 24 hours without getting into some fresh new kind of trouble, eh? Despite the sarcasm, the Sacaen sword-wielder wasn't too bothered by it, and the thought of NOT investigating never even crossed her mind. If there was foul play afoot, these people were unlikely to be able to defend themselves, and if not - well then, there wouldn't be much need for her, would there? At worst she might interrupt a couple of dumbass teenagers making out, which would be awkward for everyone involved but leave no lasting harm.

The scene that played out before her as she rounded the corner of the building and looked beyond was somewhat less tender than that which she had imagined, though, a village girl of some attractiveness pressed up against a wall herself, looking quite uncomfortable, as a muscular man pressed against her with her right arm placed against the wall above her and to her right. He wasn't actually touching the girl, but the overwhelming presence and lack of space between their bodies left no illusions as to how 'optional' her cooperation was, and the three other men nearby didn't seem to be concerned by it either. "Go on, ya don' what now, girl? Body like that's a shame to waste on these fools. Why dontcha come with us and we'll show you some real fun?" "Please, I'm engaged, I shouldn't-" His arm slammed into the wall with force, acting to summarily silence her. "You don't want no trouble, do ya? Be a real shame if we had to go... convince... your little by toy to let us have a turn, innit? We're real good at talkin', I bet we could get him to agree real fast, once we started cutting bits off..." All color fled from the woman's face as she grasped the implications.

"That's enough." ...She'd heard more than enough. Kisaragi stalked into the clearing, her legs propelled more by anger than righteous justice, one hand resting on the hilt of her blade as she approached the group. It didn't matter if she was outnumbered, though she did sight weapons on some of the men which raised another issue; it was a matter of right or wrong, and she did not intend to enable this boorish behavior. Her counterparts had other ideas. The hulking man who had been bothering the woman barely took a glance at her before the interest left his eyes. "f**k off, shrimp, or I'll give you to Daevan. He likes to break the small ones. Me... I like a little more meat on the bones, but y'all scream the same." Her blade was already out of its sheath as began turning his attention back to the terrified villager, the silvery steel flashing through the air before stopping a few inches from his neck. Kisaragi would have preferred to touch the tip... but she wasn't sure if she could control it with such precision as to avoid accidentally cutting him in the process, and while she certainly WANTED to, wanton murder was not her favorite thing to do.

"I SAID, that's enough. Leave her alone."

He sighed. "Ya shouldn't 'a done that, missy. Now I'm gonna have to teach you about respectin' yer elders..." He turned, and by necessity and perhaps slightly out of fear, Kisaragi pulled back her blade, grabbing it with both hands as the towering man looked down at her with a hunger in his eyes that she... hadn't seen before. "But first I'm gonna break your pretty little body in real good-like 'til you beg for more."

[Luke Pendragon]

A pondering mercenary stared down at a piece of parchment as he considered his next move. He had been on the scent of prey for a bit at this point and he was close. The scent had taken him through a few parts of Lycia, making his way to Caelin. A small little village where more than likely nothing exciting ever happened and when it did even if it was something small everyone in the village knew about it and was affected in some way. Luke hated small villages in this regard as it was hard to deal with groups and keep things mostly quiet. Someone was going to hear about it.

He had been accepted a bounty job that required him to take care of a few men who had least than stellar manners. An easy job if you asked him, Luke had no qualms in taking out low lives. Granted he didn’t have many qualms about taking out any one who had it coming. It was part of the job that he had signed up for to every once in a while to get his hands dirty and take the life of another human being. He wasn’t the type to exactly enjoy killing people but whatever pays well enough he wasn’t going to complain.

Walking through the small village Luke found himself about to turn a corner before stopping himself short at the sound of what appeared to be a rather unsavory altercation. He put away his parchment poked his head around the corner to assess the situation. Luke had caught a few words that were exchanged and he felt like he understood the situation. There were about four men, some of them armed, with two females. One looked terrified, possibly the target of the men but unsure at the moment. The smaller female had drawn a blade and had it at the man’s neck.

The young mercenary let out a disappointed sigh and rolled his eyes at the sight of the girl completely losing any sign of control of the situation. The sight of the man’s face made Luke puzzled for a moment. After taking out his parchment again the lad smirked before putting the parchment away again. He poked his head around the corner again to get another assessment of the situation. Calculations of just how he’d take down each man went through his head as he turned away from the corner. He checked his throwing knives before turning around the corner.

”If you’re going to threaten a man’s life it’s best that you keep your sword at their neck.” Luke would say, his facetiousness being quite apparent. Despite his attitude he was keeping his focus up, ready to throw his knife if the other men get jumpy and he’s forced to move his hand. Granted he had already planned on taking their lives but he’d rather do it when he got a bit closer to the main target. ”Easy to have control of the situation that way.” He continued giving his advice as he moved closer, ready to draw his weapon or toss his knife.

[Kisaragi]

"Don't remember askin' you," Kisaragi shot back before thinking, never exactly amenable to being corrected but more angry that he WAS right, dammit, that she had screwed up and failed to push her advantage. But she couldn't just go around... killing people who were jackasses, not until she knew they were actual villains, and while it had been likely before it was until now that it had been guaranteed. They could have just been drunk idiots harassing a girl, rather than possibly-bandits, rapists and savages, as they had turned out to be. So much for the even handed approach huh?

The thug she had been arguing with seemed to be stuck between amused and annoyed at Luke's arrival, dragged from dreams of debauchery to face the cold reality that there were now TWO idiot kids to kill instead of just one. It would be hard to say he seemed too angry though, already more or less convinced Kisaragi was an idiot newbie - not entirely incorrect - and no more impressed by Luke's initial showing. "An overcooked shrimp and a golden turd. Caelin's finest, boys, guess the jig's up!"

On cue, the other three men all laughed, but there was no humor or merriment in those cold voices, and the tall thin one was eyeing Kisaragi with no small degree of interest - and not the "hey do you want to play games with me" way, more of the "I'm going to rape your broken body until the sobs stop' sort of vibe. None of them charged yet, uncertain what Luke was capable of, but they began to spread into a semicircle and approach the cluster of arguing individuals with their hands on their various weapons; an axe, a lance, and the thin man with a long and very thin sword that Kisaragi had never seen before with some kind of fancy armguard.

"Now easy there, goldilocks," the seeming boss of the group rumbled. "Why don't you go play hero somewhere you're wanted, and let me and the ladies finish our little chat here? We was just gettin' to the good part, and it's rude to interrupt, yanno."

"...Is everyone in Lycia crazy, or am I just the luckiest girl alive?" Kisaragi's voice was held steady by stubbornness, and she was proud that it didn't waver at all, but she hadn't thought about what she was getting into until recently, and they were... kinda outnumbered. Not that she was gonna back down of course. But she was feeling a bit less optimistic than she had been a minute ago. It was ALMOST enough to make her admit weakness, but let's not get too crazy here, it still took a fair bit of effort to grind out something that could almost sort of imply she didn't 100% know what she was doing. The myrmidon ground out the words nonetheless in a low voice, her head cocked towards Luke, as she held her blade before her, taking refuge in familiarity. "You, uh, you got a plan?"

[Luke Pendragon]

Luke was beginning to feel like he was doing the world a favor by off this guy for his insults alone. He wondered how many more times he was going to run into a group of dimwits who just had to spout a myriad of insults that did nothing more than have Luke question their creativity. Though there was some solace in the fact that they’d be dead eventually and he’d be getting paid for it. So maybe in the end it wasn’t all that bad now that he considered all the factors. Still, it was kind of sad how lame they were.

If they were as skilled at combat as this guy was at insults then Luke didn’t have much to worry about. However he did have to deal with this kid who frankly Luke didn’t care much about. Of course he wasn’t exactly keen on these men having their way with her but he wasn’t completely doing this to help her. A bit cold? Yes but in this world you can’t spend all your time worrying about someone else, especially when they decide to involve themselves in situations like this. It just happens that this time his goals and this girl’s wellbeing just so happened to be in the same ball park.

As the degenerates began to move Luke studied them. The one with the lance was probably going to give him an issue while the world with the armguard was interesting. Having fancy equipment didn’t spell out skill and Luke felt that these guys didn’t exactly have the skill to back up their talk. ”Listen I don’t really give a damn about your little chat.” Luke began as he slowly began to reach for his weapons. He eyed the lance wielder, getting a good idea of his height and the target on his body that he’d be aiming for with his knife.

”The only thing I care about is the-“ He cut himself off. Luke understood that the girl had asked him about a plan but Luke didn’t feel like they had time to stand around and come up with some plan while they were in earshot. Hopefully she’d take this as a sign to move. Hopefully his word had them distracted enough as Luke in a swift and smooth motion pulled out his knife, it leaving his hand and cutting through the air has it aimed for the head of the lance wielder.

The object wasn’t necessarily to take out the lancer user but to distract the group long enough to move towards one and get a killing blow. He wasted no time and in same motion he threw his knife he used the other hand to draw his blade, charging the ax user with all the speed he could muster. Luke would aim to drive his blade through the man’s chest, putting much of his weight behind him and he went from the drive.

[Kisaragi]

It was interesting to savor her anger, feel it flowing through her like a roaring river of rage as Kisaragi slowly became convinced that everyone in Lycia was completely insane, an asshole, or an insane asshole. From Asri's caustic flirtations with anything in sight to Mizu's... general dislike of fun and happiness, this axe guy's apparent fondness for rape and shitty jokes - though she did like the gilded turd one, that had actually been ok - and the blonde sword guy's complete lack of charisma or being friendly, she just sort of wanted to punch all of them in the face. At least once. Some of them deserved more. A lot more. Between Ito and this guy, though, the young blonde swordsmen seemed to take the cake for most infuriating - but also the least likely to try to kill her, which she could respect, if nothing else so far neither of them had jammed their swords into her body. Yet.

...Didn't mean they didn't both need a punch in the dick though.

At any rate, Luke didn't seem eager to be her friends so as much out of practicality as simple immature frustration, Kisaragi resolved to stop worrying about it. Which wasn't to say that she was actually over it by any means, her dirty glare in his direction living evidence of that, just that she wasn't going to think about it too much until afterwards when she'd give him a piece of her mind, and probably fist. But if he didn't want to do the teamwork thing, she certainly wasn't going to push it, just having a meatshiel-er, 'ally' in the fight would still be helpful, Kisaragi had perhaps a bit high of an opinion of her abilities, but she wasn't a complete egomaniac, she knew quite well that she had no chance against four competent fighters simultaneously as she was. But one on two, while still disadvantaged heavily, at least gave her a fighting chance, maybe the ability to try to use their numbers against them to some degree, so it wasn't like she was gonna tell him to go make sweet love to a horse.

The gargantuan man she had been arguing with didn't seem too interested in the whole fight, which put her off of attacking him slightly... even knowing he was an absolute asshole without a single redeeming quality, it didn't sit right with her to attack a seemingly unarmed man who wasn't trying to hurt her (yet). The surly Sacaen grimaced. This would be so much easier if she was better at swording and better at just murdering people. Whatever. The skinny guy... Daevan wasn't it? He was one of the three approaching, with that strangely thin sword, and a tranquil madness in his eyes.

Her patience long since exhausted, Kisaragi gave up on giving a crap and just charged Daevan with a kiai shout instead, slightly regretting the decision when his eyes lit up with profane interest but already in too deep to actually back down. Not that she ever backed down. RIP.


OOC: feel free to control whoever you're fighting of the 3 minions. They're a little above our level but not crazy strong - so no oneshotting but not overwhelmingly difficult. The big boss is just waiting on the sidelines for now. Also, very sorry for extremely belated post, last week was friggin' insane on every level for me so I got very little posting done.

[Luke Pendragon]

Luke’s plan, or lack thereof, sort of worked in his favor in a way. The knife that he had thrown met its mark seeing as its target had no idea what was coming but it didn’t meet its mark where any real damage was apparent. The lance wielder only suffered from a shoulder wound that was more than likely just annoying rather than anything damming. The intention was never to kill but instead to work as a distraction in order for Luke to get in on one of the other men. And while that worked he found himself in another situation where his planned didn’t pan out exactly as he wished.

The ax wielder was distracted but only for a moment. He had enough time to react to Luke’s charge and in the last minute bring up his ax to meet Luke’s blade, causing it to jerk up slicing the man on the shoulder rather than where Luke was aiming. This had completely thrown off Luke’s momentum and in a split second reaction he decided to throw his weight onto the man, tackling him and causing the two of them to hit the ground. Luke was never the type to fight with elegance or grace. It’s not that he couldn’t he chose not to.

He learned at a young age that when you’re in a fight where you life was in the balance the goal was to win in any way you could. The two men, now on the floor, where a bit dazed from their crash onto the ground as neither of them moved much outside of Luke rolling off the ax wielding thug. There would be no time for him to rest, a lance tip coming straight for where he was currently laying. Quickly he rolled again, only getting clipped on his side instead of taking a spearhead to the gut. So all in all it seemed like a fair trade.

The spearmen tried again, this time missing Luke as he rolled once more and shot up from the ground with sword in hand. Looking down he noticed an awkward sight. The lance’s tip was stuck in the ground the wielder trying to pull it out of the ground. While that was happening below the man was his comrade that was slowly getting up. The three men stared at each other, the two thugs figuring quickly that they were easy targets at the moment and Luke seeing the same. All three frantically moved. Luke charged the two, ready to take advantage of his position.

The axmen scrambled about to pick himself up off the ground while the spearmen struggled to pull his lance out the ground. A devilish grin grew on Luke’s face as he got closer and made his attack, aiming for the spearmen. He managed to land a nice hit on the man’s midsection, nothing fatal but he’d definitely need to get that checked out. Luke was having more than his share of fun but he wondered how his little friend was doing, he did leave her with the weirdest looking one of the bunch.

[Kisaragi]

The slender swordsman's sallow smile grew thinner as she approached, parrying her blade with ease before slipping the tip of his blade upwards, forcing her to recoil backwards before it tore open her cheek. It wasn't common for her to be fighting someone with an even lighter blade than her, so Kisaragi was pretty much used to winning speed and deflection battles unless against her father - but the thin blade the brigand wielded seemed to sing through the air, looking almost too fragile to survive in a real fight and yet apparently quite capable of parrying her sword.

Then it was his turn to be on the offensive, the pointed steel launched at her with phenomenal speed that bypassed her attempt to parry it and drew blood as it traced her other cheek, his smile growing far crueler. Was he - toying with her? He could have gone for a killing blow right there, she hadn't been prepared for it, just slipped it into her eye and taken her out instantly. DAMMIT! Her temper flaring, Kisaragi swung her own blade to knock his own away before stepping back into her assault, the thin wakizashi slicing through the air in a three-hit combo, a diagonal strike from upper left to the lower right of his abdomen - parried again by that blade - a horizontal strike - deflected - and another diagonal blow upwards, spinning the blade almost instantly in her hands, that barely managed to draw a trickle of blood in his momentary overconfidence.

That... seemed to be fading, something uglier filling his eyes as the stinging nettle shot outwards again, barely pinging off her slender blade as this time Kisaragi managed to deflect it a moment before it would have punctured her shoulder. She still wasn't used to this strange combat style, but it seemed that he was trying to injure and weaken her rather than actually kill - for what purpose, she did not know. She just didn't have a very good feeling about his intentions.

[Luke Pendragon]

The man with a fresh wound let out a grunt of pain, cursing under his breath as he held a hand to his wound. Luke wasn’t sure as to whether or not the man was going to continue on fighting, these types at the end of the day seemed to rather living than whatever cheap thrills they were going on about. That would make things a bit more difficult seeing how if he wanted to collect what he intervened for in the first place this man would have to stick around. Luke for now was going to count this man out at least for the moment.

The next challenge was going to be dealing with the axmen, someone who was still probably a bit dazed from a moment ago. Seeing his friend wounded and in pain sent the man in a fury which he then decided to take his anger out on Luke, rightful so from his perspective, charging straight for Luke with his ax ready to strike. In the man’s rage he left himself wide open for an attack as his hands held his ax high exposing his mid section. With this opening Luke charged forward, ready to drive his blade into his opponent.

Seeing this axmen changed the direction of his swing, rotating his arms in an almost clock like motion and swinging diagonally. This knocked Luke’s sword out of its track, instead of driving through the man it did nothing but nick the man’s side. Luke continued his attack however, spinning his body and meeting his mark. This spin resulted in Luke managing to slash the ax wielding thug, finally getting a clean hit on the axmen. Luke didn’t manage to get away scot-free as the axmen swung as he himself got cut which managed to land a blow on Luke. While it certainly wasn’t fatal and due to the man wildly swinging his ax and having no coordination behind it the blow surely wouldn’t leave much of a mark but it stung like hell.

[Kisaragi]

Steel lashed out, shrieking psalms of sorrow as blade met blade, Daevan's piercing strikes growing faster and faster with each deflection. Frustratingly enough, while she was able to react in time, if only barely, to each strike, there was simply not enough time and space to counter with her own; her earlier success had only galvanized the mad swordsman's fighting spirit and continued to show the difference in skill between them. He was not in another world like Veigue and her father were, she could still follow his movements and read his attacks to a degree, but not yet match them. Thus it was all she could do to retain the defensive and try to stay alive.

She could hear and occasionally glance at Luke's ongoing fight, even more frustratingly forced to admit that he must be pretty impressive to keep up with two fighters at once, but there was simply no way for her to aid him when herself outmatched. And Daevan knew it. She could see the wet gleam in his eyes as he wore her down, his passions only further incensed by her resistance - and Kisaragi was willing to go out on a limb by guessing that he wasn't planning on treating her to a nice dinner and some fine dancing afterwards if he won. That, er, made it all the more important to hopefully not die horrifically in the next few seconds.

It wasn't until the rapier snagged slightly on the underside of the hilt of her blade, leaving a thin line of blood on the fingers he had barely messed severing completely, that a tiny opportunity presented itself - biting back the pain and shock that threatened to make her drop the blade in a meaningless attempt to avoid the damage, she instead shoved it outwards, to her right, unbalancing the Lycian swordsman momentarily as she stepped to the left, charging and dropping low to avoid a clumsier strike as the momentarily perturbed swordsman attempted to spear her directly through the head and barely missed as the blade passed above her through parting hair. Without the time or range to bring her own blade in for a killing strike, similarly unbalanced, Kisaragi nonetheless managed to close the distance and meet the larger man in a shoulder tackle, simultaneously grateful for her bony frame and slightly regretting it as bone met bone and sent her right shoulder tinging as it struck his rib cage, forcing him back and completely setting him off balance. The handle of her sword was the follow-up attack that broke something she thought, a sharp crack in his chest where she had planted it with all her strength, and a grunted curse from the man as they both tried to recover from the momentary fracas.

[Luke Pendragon]

It would seem that through all of what the three men just went through they were back to where they had started. Certainly more damaged and exhausted but still the same position they were in before Luke had made his first move. Luckily for Luke he had come out of their scuffle with the least amount of damage but he was certainly feeling it. He’d take a glance over to where Kisaragi was fighting, relieved to see that she was still holding her own and was skewered. Making quick work of these two would have to be paramount in order for him to assist her.

The spearman’s wound seemed to be taking a toll on him; he looked barely able to hold his lance properly without grimacing with pain. He would make for an easy target but Luke wasn’t the only one who had noticed this. The man with the ax stood between Luke and his target, frustrating the mercenary a bit. While the man wasn’t in the best conditions himself he certainly had more fight in him than the other guy did. The only way to get to the weaker man Luke would have to have one last dance with the axmen.

Luke moved, closing in the small distance between him and the axmen. The two clashed blades, Luke noticing that the man was moving much slower and his movements were sluggish. Taking advantage of this Luke parried one of the man’s attacks and with the opening finally delivered a substantial blow, a powerful thrust, skewering the man through the chest. Anytime Luke delivered a fatal blow there felt like there was a pause and the world completely stopped as everyone realized what just happened. Luke could hear the air escape from the man before his body began to slump over. He put a hand on his chest and pushed forward as he pulled his sword back.

As the man’s body dropped to the ground Luke eyes locked on his other target. He could see the mix of emotions on the man’s face. Does he run? Does he avenge his fallen comrade? Luke wasn’t sure what the man was going to do but he better make a decisions quick because the only way Luke was going to get paid was once these scum were dead and in the ground. And while Luke wasn’t some money grubbing snake he certainly didn’t like going through all this trouble and end up not getting paid.