The Symphony of the Night

[Sarah Tintagyl]

The man breathed a sigh of relief as he was cut down from the pole and subsequently the vines. When his feet finally touched he stared up at Martens in awe. "Monsieur, there is no greater honor than what you have done for me here. Please, running away from that insane !@#$%*? No, I think all of the guests at the party were killed by her, it wouldn't surprise me at all and if you saved me then I have to return the favor." He extended his hand and Martens was able to get a good look at the man as he stepped closer. He was a middle aged man of an average height, his hair was brown and was balding on the top, he wore khaki pants and a white dress shirt, his feet were muddy and his hand was still shaking from fear even now that he was safely on the ground. "My name is Rynd and to be honest sir, I know a great deal of the Countess from what I have found out about her from her servants and from the rumors around the castle and that is why she has to be taken down, she has to be destroyed before it is too late."

Rynd took a seat on the ground and ran his right hand across his greasy hair. "I have been a native of Limoges my entire life Monsieur and never once have I heard of anyone by the name of Saint-Germain, but surely you know of the myth. The Count of the Enlightenment who entertained the courts of the French monarchy, it was rumored that he was a practitioner of magic and other things of the dark arts and he was a threat to all order within Europe. I hear the same things about this strange woman. She appeared out of no where, she never reveals her face to anyone...but I saw it and when I did I was shocked. It was the Lady Protector in Australia, no one at the ball expected such a shock. But she wasn't herself, I'm sure that if you have been in this castle you have seen her, how unnatural she looks. But please Monsieur, let me go with you, I might be able to help you. Before I was tied up here, I did a little snooping around and I know this castle like the back of my hand now. If you have any questions on the Countess, or anything in the castle, trust me. I'm your man." He shook his head and sighed. "Countess, when we saw her, Tintagyl, everyone expected it to be a pleasant experience, but she isn't the same woman that she was in Australia. She's changed."

He stood back up and extended his hand. "But even if I was blind I think I would recognize your face sir, anyone in Europe could. The famous Kaiser Martens. Yes, I would be happy to guide you until the end of this castle and we can take down this vile woman together." He turned back towards the castle. "Tintagyl has her personal quarters one the upper levels of the castle. We should start now, her power is only going to get stronger the longer we tarry." Rynd nodded and started towards the castle, a lightning bolt striking the clock tower on its steeple as the sparks jumped to the ground and if they listened carefully, they could almost hear the sound of laughter.

[Kaiser Martens]

He smiles and nods, and although he is still paying attention to what he says, he keeps looking around and over his back, sheathing his sword and returning to the axe, still thinking that something else may go after them. He did not want to let his guard down.

"I see."

And, yes, it would be easy to recognize him. He still had both his uniform and his cap on. If the man payed attention, he'd notice that Martens had a *slightly* similar air to her. He too had hints of something unnatural within... "But are you sure about that? You're likely to get slaughtered...what best you could do is tell me how to get to where she is, the shortest way possible. I need to put an end to this. You can come if you want, but you may not be able to keep up, and I may not be able to protect you..."

He shrugs. And he thinks again, what if it were a trap? Well. He did not seem to care anymore. Only now when he stopped he started to think about his situation...and Sarah's. Maybe she had gone insane altogether. Maybe it would be best if he killed her and then he, killed himself. Then the unnatural would no longer be present in Midgaard. Maybe.

[i]"Forwards."[/i]

[Sarah Tintagyl]

The two would journey back into the castle and if they were going to find Sarah there was only one way to go and that was head towards the roof. Walking through the ballroom and the Great Hallway once again, the same legions of ghouls and armored knights approaching them, Rynd knew his place to hid behind Martens as the Germanic warrior would no doubt waste anytime cutting the Countess' servants to shreds, but Rynd was a cowardly man always standing close to the Kaiser as they neared the staircase up towards the second floor of the castle. However the machinations that would be opposing them, would slowly change, from the clunking knights in armor, were changed to lighter soldiers who guarded the staircases and unsheathed long swords running as fast as they could to charge the Kaiser and his follower. If they were able to reach the top of the staircase however, they would enter another long corridor of black marble and red carpets. The moon shown brightly through the tall windows as Rynd once again took the lead as he led Martens to a large set of doors at the end of the hall.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iqBXNUSs9Y&feature=related"]The Plague Laboratory[/url]

Pushing open the doors, the two entered a darker room, this one lit by torches within green covers that gave almost an underwater sense to the room. The gray stone of the walls reflected a sickly green, likewise the marble on the floor, but what was scary about the room, was not so much what it looked like, but what it was filled with. There were various wooden tables, on top were vials, beakers, and tubes filled with various kinds of liquids, some the sickly green that was reflected by the torches, some were a bright blue that glowed magnificently. Inside test tubes small incests crawled around, small worms and other disgusting looking bugs, in fact the entire room smelled horrible, it smelt like rot, like the skin of rotting corpses and then they would see the cadavers on the table beyond the chemical tubes on the first set of tables.

"Oh my God!" Rynd ran up to one of the corpses. "They're still fresh My Kaiser! Look at this!" And indeed they were, there was still a warmth to their bodies, their death could not have been that long ago and when Rynd ran his hand over one of the bodies. "They still feel alive." But there was something strange about them, they seemed stitched together as if they had recently been operated on. If they had recently been torn apart. "Do you have any idea would could be in those vials?"

Then there was a moan from further down the room, Rynd turned his head and followed the moan a bit further until they came upon a series of pumps and wires that lead up towards a wall at the right. There on the wall, chained down, was a young girl with long blonde hair. She was pale, deathly pale, more pale than Sarah had been. She was dressed in the uniform of the Hanseatic Lillian Guard, as her face was scared and stitched together. She lifted her head up and her eyes were white, straight white, the pumps and wires ran directly into her body. Finally seeing the two approach, she jangled the wires that kept her held to the wall and opened her mouth. Her voice was weak. "No...run...before its too late..."

Edited April 29, 2010 by Sarah Tintagyl

[Kaiser Martens]

He did not like it there. He had a feeling that the corpses may return, may become animated at every moment. Because of this, he took his axe and started to hit each of them, splitting them in two and nearly breaking the tables. He had not used strength enough to break them purposefully, not wanting to deal with bugs. When he was done with his butchery, he came up to the one attached to the wall.

He looks at her with a mix of disgust and sympathy...and lifts his axe.

[i]"Hold still...I will put you out of your misery..."[/i]

He begins to lift his axe and prepare. Martens would waste no time. When it came to dealing with enemies, he was very systematic. He would hack, slash and fire his way to Sarah, and nothing was going to stop him. His face, grim and pale like a rock, showed no emotion anymore. He was now a machine. There was dust on his boots, dust from having moved around, having fought so much, they were beginning to look dirty. By now, some parts of his uniform had sustained minor damage, and looked slightly broken. But he had not lost his elegance quite yet.

"..To valhalla."

[Sarah Tintagyl]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3mW3TlyxMQ&feature=related"]Prized experiments...[/url]

"Not so fast Michel!" The familiar voice of the Countess shouted out from the corner of the room as the torches suddenly exploded in a frenzy of light. "Dominique here is special, considering the fact that she is already dead, but as you can see what a little medical surgery can do by yours truly to fix something like this. She is alive and well now and I will show just what I can make of my servants, the power that was given to me, the least I could do is use that knowledge to forge my world."

"How can you even speak like that devil?" Rynd walked from behind the Kaiser and glared at her. "What have you done to the fair people of our region, you are a sore on the world itself and putting young women through such misery like this?"

"She isn't in misery at all, she's just learning to wake up from eternal sleep. The sleep that you both are going to be sent too if you keep this foolishness up."

Rynd shook his head. "But why? You were Sarah Tintagyl, you were the Lady of Peace in a world that loved you, you..."

"Love goes two ways idiot! And the world didn't love me, unless you call love the same way you regard one of your favorite glass dolls that you put on your highest shelf. Look at, don't touch, and God forbid is she speaks! Knock her to the floor and watch her shatter into millions of pieces. No, that will never happen again, but the minute I try to do something for the world, you people come and ruin everything. You ruin everything!" She pounded her heel into the floor. "I have your dear Kaiser over there to thank for that, but I realized that even with the Ubersoldaten formula I couldn't achieve a new world. I knew that there would be opposition, I knew that I wouldn't be allowed to see true idealism without taking down the doubt. I remember it all too well Michel. On a raining plain in Poland, I was starved, cold, hungry, homeless from traveling the world and then she appeared to me. Hel...she looked at me as a pitiful creature, but someone with hope still in her heart. She said she could make this dream come alive, all I had to give up was the rest of my humanity. A small price for someone who already sees barely anything good in the human spirit, besides, perhaps...love." Sarah smiled and looked at her hands. "She filled me with power from the depths of the underworld itself and I swear, no one is going to stand in my way. Now, gentlemen if you would turn your attention to Dominique!"

The tubes that ran into the dead Lillian suddenly filled with the blue liquid as they began pumping into the soldier's body. She opened her eyes and began to flail around, screaming, foaming at the mouth as her arms, her legs, her chest, began to grow into hardened muscle. Right in front of them, the girl was transforming into a hulking demon as the sleeves of her military coat began to rip and the wires and tubes began to give way to the instant weight she was putting on. Finally falling from the wires, she stood up and stared down at the Kaiser, gave a loud roar and swung her hand towards him trying to knock him out in one swift punch. Sarah stood on the side and smiled.

"If you manage to best her Michel, come up to the roof of the clock tower, I will wait for you there." She said, fading into the blue flame.

[Kaiser Martens]

His jaw nearly dropped from his skull and his eyes opened widely. "HEL? Herregud! How could you! Don't you realize what you have done? A traitor Valkyrie...a Valkyrie of Hel..." He steps forth with determination and "aims" his axe towards her. "This cannot be forgiven! Enemy of Midgaard!" He begins to swing his axe as if to hit her, but then the soldier turned monster attached to the ceiling starts to change. Martens turns around just in time to be greeted by a massive punch from this enemy, a punch which sends him flying to the side and into a wall headfirst, this would surely kill any human being. Martens yells out, "Rynd, RUN!"

He stands and picks up his axe, starting to maneuver backwards, trying to see the capabilities of the monster...would it be fast in spite of its size? How good would be its reflexes? He takes a bottle and tosses it at the monster, trying to see how it responds. Then he takes out his gun and shoots towards its head, although he feels that it won't be enough to destroy it.

"You must be the trolls our forefathers spoke of!"

[Sarah Tintagyl]

The hulking beast swatted the bottle out of the air like a fly as the plagued water ran over its arms and when Martens shot it, it only howled it pain making way for a deadly charge against the downed warrior. While it was not nearly as fast as Martens would be, size alone would be the judge of that, she was surprisingly agile nonetheless and if she was to be a troll, she didn't waste any time picking up the first weapon she could find, in this case one of the tables. The cadaver on top fell off in parts as she threw the table at Martens and then charged ahead swinging towards him. It felt as though the entire castle shook as the troll attacked, attempting to swat Martens every which way he moved, picking up more than just tables and pieces of garbage to throw at him or use as a club. This monster was not beyond picking up the very pieces of the cadavers and tossing the dead arms and legs towards the warrior as he ran from the place in the wall where he had been punched into.

However, for as powerful as the troll was, this was Martens' test from Sarah. She had wanted to see just how determined he was to destroy her, how hard she would have to fight to keep this dream alive. From the clocktower she could hear the fight below, she could hear the screams of the troll and the cries of Martens. Gripping the stone rail of the tower Sarah stared off into the moonlight, it gave her strength, it gave her power. "I will not fail the world. Not this time." Below, as the sounds began to draw out, she could still hear the steady sound of the clock tower's gears turning. They turned forever, like she did. But humanity and the world, the gears of the individual did not last as long as time itself. People had to understand that, time...time waited for no one. No one but her.

[Kaiser Martens]

It was like fighting an earthquake. Constantly, different objects were hurled at him and he had to jump out of the way just in time. In less than ten seconds, the room had turned into an utter mess, and martens found no windows for attacking. After having dodged for a while, he spun once and threw the axe spinning towards the monster, then quickly he drew his sword and leaped at the monster to try and stab its head while it was busy trying to deal with the axe. The gun was also aiming forwards and began to be fired while doing so. In this action, he resembled a berserker, attacking without regard for damage sustained.

His attack is "succesful", the axe hits and gets stuck in an arm, the sword is stabbed through the monster's head, several bullets hit. But it does not die. Instead it wraps its arms around Martens and tries to crush his bones. The monster is enraged when it cannot seem to do so, and tries to rip martens apart in two. Martens fights back and keeps stabbing it in the face, neck and where he guesses the heart may be.

"Just die already!"

He forces his gun down the throat of the monster and continues firing into it. Then, the Monster tosses him away with great strength and he lands outside of the room, and falls downstairs back to the hall painfully. He had dropped his gun, but still had his sword, and panted, growling in frustration when the enemy approached slowly.

With each hit he takes, his determination grows.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNobYgm18gE"]The Clock Tower[/url]

The monster stepped one more step forward before it finally fell to its knees, bleeding from its head, its throat, its chest. On the ground dead, the monster once again began to shrink, its muscles getting smaller, before finally all that lay on the ground was the stitched together girl who had been chained to the wall before. Her new life finally sucked out of her and the entire room was silent for once. The chemicals ran across the ground, there were near craters in the black marble floor, dead body parts were scattered everywhere and all that he could hear was the distant sound of the gears of the clock tower moving rhythmically beyond the doors of the laboratory. It was where Sarah said she was waiting for him, just up that staircase. The wooden doors to the clock tower opened magically beckoning him forward, it was dark beyond the door and the staircase seemed to spiral up forever before reaching the roof, but this was the last of his journey. Beyond the doors of the clock tower, the Dark Lady waited for her hunter, or perhaps her prey.

Stepping into the tower, the gears were massive that moved time forward and there was nothing more magical than time. This was the force that controlled them all and the strength of the gears was evidence of this, it seemed that not Martens nor Sarah could ever bring such majestic pieces of machinery crashing to the ground. Perhaps if it was done, time itself would stop. Their beat accompanied his footsteps to the top of the winding tower where at the top, there was a large wooden door with a golden handle that would be pressed down. As he put his hand on the handle, the gears stopped, everything in the tower stopped for a moment and he pushed the door forward and stepped out onto the roof of the clock tower. It was a wide platform, surrounded by a small stone rail, from here it dropped nearly eight stories to the ground below. No living thing could survive something like that, but then again, who was gathered on the roof were most likely, not living.

He stepped out into the moonlight, the statues of Hel on each corner of the clock tower and a statue of an angel just below the steeple.

"Welcome Michel, glad to see that you are finally able to join me. I've been waiting for you, just you and I, face to face. I'm sure you've been waiting for this for a very long time." She turned, her blonde hair falling down her back, waving gently in the breeze. "So have I." She sighed and looked at him. "There's no going back is there. You and I, enemies forever, even though we could do such amazing things. Just leave Martens, just abandon this world if you don't want to change it. Mankind needs changed, a new story, a history that would have never been thought of forms here. If you can't bear to deal with that, then I misjudged your strength. But you still want to be an outcast, you still want to watch the world pass you by. For what? That Germany will rise in strength?" She shook her head. "And you call me selfish...You're more of an idealist than I am."

[Kaiser Martens]

When he appeared before her, his clothes were somewhat torn already and he was once more carrying the axe as well as his other weapons. He ignores her speech at first and instead kneels down, taking out his sword and resting it on his lap, closing his eyes, calming down. She could hear that he was reciting something, something so ancient that it was perhaps proto-germanic. He takes out a very tiny knife and unbuttons his shirt, then carves several runes onto his chest...but they are different. Not the runes that are known. These were his secrets. Next, he speaks something in Nordlandic proper,

"Woudhen. Gib mï licht. Þonner. Gib mï stärkja. Valkyrjar, stand mï met. För Nordland kämpe eg, zi Evigheit. För förmaaktnis sunnas. Geistunu slage eg. Alu."

He stands up and removes his cap slowly, tossing it to the side and then sheathing his sword again, taking the axe once more. He looks up at her, very calmly, very cold was his fire. He nods, respectful of his opponent and now speaks,

"I was reconsidering. But once that you side with the two-faced lady, there is no turning back. For she sides with that who cannot be named, the deceiver and the enemy of ravens. I have picked my side for all Ragnaröks. The Norns will write their fates anew. This is not only about Germany. Even if we fall, we still win...you would never understand."

He breathes in and out.

"...I will fight you now. Once that you have left this world, so will I. It will be better off without us. I may leave, yes. But I will take you with me. Zi Vallhöll."

He strikes his fighting pose.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Sarah smiled shaking her head. "At least you are one of the Nords who were noble Michel. To this day I regret what was done to you, not to the others, but to you. There was always a place in my heart for you and even now that it is black, there is still a place for you. But its clear that you would rather not accept it." She began to walk forward. "So this is how everything is supposed to end, the brave German warrior fighting his way through the haunted castle to slay the demon woman at the top, a little different from those tales of damsels in distress huh? Well Michel, I hate to disappoint you, but you aren't taking me with you and you aren't leaving this world either. No, it would be a sin to kill the man that is responsible for everything you see before you. You were the one Michel, you gave me this strength, you gave me this wisdom, and whether you know it or not, you crushed my heart. You call yourself an outcast? Then what am I? We're both outcasts in this world, passing reverent figures, like angels, demons, like spirits both malevolent and rewarding. Where would the world be without us? Maybe you will turn away from the world that cast you away, but I don't plan to do that. I will not rest until the world has been created in an image that I deem fit for it and no one...especially not you Michel...WILL STAND IN MY WAY!"

A sudden change came over Sarah as her body jolted back, a blue light forming around her. Her dress twirled around on the ground, her hands opened and turned to the sky as her eyes turned to the straight sapphire blue that he had seen when he first tried to attack her in the entrance corridor. The blue light around her hands soon began to work into her hands as the skin turned to a dark blue color. Turning her head towards on of the statues of Hel, she shot a blue bolt of ice at the statue as it froze and then began to crumble towards the ground. "You have no idea of the power that I possess Martens." She spoke, but it was an inhuman voice that came from her mouth, sounding like three voices in one, the voice of a human, a demon, and a fallen goddess. "You cannot even fathom what you have done to me, what this world has done to me, what I have done to myself. You call yourself resilient. No...you have no idea what resilience is. I will not stop until my dream is completed and from that point I will not rest of make sure my dream is protected. If you are sent from higher powers to make sure that I never succeed, then we will battle until the end of time....but..." Her feet floated into the air. "Time will wait for us!"

The fallen angel charged forward through the air at the warrior brandishing his axe. Sending two bolts of ice towards him, she expected him to dodge them, but if he did, Sarah made sure that she would be there to pounce down on him with all her strength. Forming her feet into a kick to push him back and then in her hands, two icicles formed. She held them like daggers, they were grotesque those icicles, and Sarah twirled them in her fingers with deadly precision. "On your guard Warrior of the Gods, if Heaven and Hell are to fight, let this decide the fate of the world, let us decide the next era of history. An age of order or an age of chaos?"

...but who fought for which?

[Kaiser Martens]

"I cannot accept your heart! Slave of Hel!" He narrows his eyes. "We were at war! You did what you had to do, and I had picked my side too. It is nothing but my fault for having sided with them. I do not hold it against you. But now you have betrayed the Aesir and Midgaard!..I would have hoped that things would be different...but we are destined to fight, if not now, when Bifrost breaks..! This is beyond us, we have no choice anymore! Even if there are places in our hearts."

The fight begins. He yells, "Do not underestimate me!" When instead of avoiding the incoming icicles he slashes them apart with his axe and uses the timing to send out a lateral kick while spinning. Taking the axe then, while still in movement with his other arm, he would move so that right after the brutal kick, which would surely meet Sarah's own, the axe was already swinging from the other side towards her body, as if mixing the brutality of a charging bull with the dancing elegance of refined ballet technique in this inconventional choice of attack. When the two feet collide, something akin to an explosion is heard. In this, Martens, having greater mass and raw physical power, has an advantage.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

"I never do Michel and I never will."

They collided and the gods cried as thunder cracked and the sky lit with lightning, but he was stronger and sent Sarah reeling back towards the ground, she slid across the ground and jumped back onto her feet. While Martens had raw power, Sarah was much more flexible, she was much more agile, and with the added strength given to her by both Martens and Hel, his power while fantastic would have to be pushed to the breaking point if he was going to be effective in this fight. Back onto her feet, she twirled through the air thrusting her daggers towards his chest and his stomach, if they were hit by the axe, the ice shattered into fine points and immediately regrew. But for Martens' attacks with the axe, Sarah was able dodge out of the way. As Martens swung, she clenched her fist and pushed a beam of ice against him. If it hit, it would be a rude awakening to her power and the frostbite of the beam. If it missed, he would at least be caught off balance and she could jump in for a deeper strike with her daggers.

"But don't underestimate me. I'm not your little Valkyrie anymore!"

[Kaiser Martens]

He never seemed to stop. When she avoids the massive axe already at the end of the spin, he is already sending a new kick towards her seemingly out of nowhere. It was once ment to hit her, instead, he shifts the position of his hips and then the kick to cause the ice beam to be deflected while at the same time moving forwards, trying to shove the back of the axe so that it may hit her head. Everything was happening very, very fast, without more than a fraction of a second for each to consider their moves.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

And Sarah's assault nearly did the same, she wouldn't give up, not now, not when everything was so perfect, not when everything was finally going to go right with the world. She loved what had been done to her. Slave of Hel? Pah, never in a million years. She had been born and bred for this moment, starting off in this world as a white pawn, she had been transformed into the black queen and there was nothing that the brave warrior could do to make her think anything different. Sarah continued to dodge the axe, sending beam after beam of ice towards Michel, the ground was filled with craters of their battle, bits of frozen rock, scratched granite, but they never stopped. A dagger thrust there, she tried to punch him other times, yet more a kick. But never stopping...never ever stopping. She watched as the axe came down towards her head as she put her arms up in the air, the daggers evaporated as she caught Martens' own hands and the two warriors stood stalemated. White King, Black Queen, Black King, White Queen, with nowhere to move, glaring and grunting at each other.

Sweat rolled off of Sarah's face as her muscles bulged. "What about love Martens? What about the spectres in the ballroom? What about them? Don't they deserve a chance to live? To breathe? What do the heavens care about them? They don't! They don't care! But you do! I know you do! We do! We fight for the same thing you and I!" Her eyes unmoving, the axe unmoving. "Why don't you fight for what's in your heart! Not what society tells you to do!"

[Kaiser Martens]

"I fight for my Country! That is why I became what I am! I wanted to be there to protect it for all eternity! That was my mission! That is what I must do! I have nothing to live for but that. I AM GERMANY!"

Below them, the floor gets fruther damaged from the forces that it must sustain when both push and struggle with all their might. After a while of this, when Martens seems to be slowly gaining an edge over her now that it again came to close combat, he kicked upwards with unusual flexiblity to hit her chin and face while the hands were still being held. The kick hits her and makes the head be forced back as she then lets go and is knocked back for several meters, nearly falling off of the platform. He hurls the axe towards her spinning, brutely, and then takes out his sword as he approaches himself quickly but cautiously, not desperately. The kick would have killed any human being.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Sarah flew back from the kick landing on the ground writhing in pain, she bled from her mouth, but even then she still pushed herself off the ground and back to standing in front of the warrior. Her dress was ripped and tattered as it blew it the cooling breeze, it was getting colder as well, already snowflakes were beginning to fall and they would continue to fall so long as the blue lights still glowed within her hands. Standing back up, she faced him, her hair blowing in the wind and the daggers reformed. "I said you wouldn't take me down and you're not and I swear I will freeze you where you stand Michel. I'm not giving you anymore chances. Not now." She screamed and charged forward, her daggers in front of me and began the storm of blows against him. Thrusting and parrying, the fight began again as the snow began to fall harder and harder. He was in her world now, her black and frozen heart.

[Kaiser Martens]

Now that he unsheathes his runic sword, his family sword made in a very high quality and unusually strong materials, his speed seemed to increase. It was a far cry from the insanely big axe from before, he moves close and starts to slash deftly with the longsword, handling it as if it were lighter than it really is. The air around them was cut with every movement, threatening to remove a limb from her if she were caught, and his other, free hand was used for defence, uncannily moving every time to deflect the incoming ice dagger, sometimes getting cut by them on his bare hand but not seeming to show any damage or fear, much less pain. After a while of fighting like this he yells to the top of his lungs as his face and becomes increasingly ferocious, his eyes showing madness and bloodlust. They both fought well, and it seemed as if they'd be able to go on doing so indefinitely for years, neither sustaining decisive wounds, only minor cuts.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

For as Martens' bloodlust and his face contorting in rage, Sarah's face never once changed. She was calm, her swings were calculated, her beams were aimed at his chest, at his head, and at the ground to make him slip up. He cut her with the sword, on her arms, on her legs, and as they fought, sweat and blood running down their bodies, Sarah was nowhere close to looking like the woman she had been only moments before. She was beaten and bloody, her blonde hair flushed with a red tint to it, but her eyes were still fixed to his own and every movement he made. They were still the solid sapphire blue color, the same as the glow on her hands. He swung the sword towards her center and missed, this was her chance and without missing a beat through both of her fists towards his face. Sarah came down on the warrior in a rage, her fists burying into his cheeks, into his chest, into his stomach and she didn't stop until they reached the stone rail of the tower. He was pinned, it was the rail and then beyond that, a four story drop to the roof below. "You hear me! You're the one that did all this! Take your lashing!"

[Kaiser Martens]

He is surprised when he is hit, his eyes open widely and strangely instead of further angering him, he seemed to be pleased as he struggled to block her but was continuously overwhelmed, dropping the sword. A grin formed as she continued to punch him, and he even laughs after a while, until he is kicked over the rail by her and starts to fall back.


...


He crashes into the floor below and takes out a small metal bottle from his inner pocket...he refills himself with blood and smiles, feeling very pleased. He looks up at the moon and does not get up. Then he takes out his weapon and waits for her to jump after him, to shoot her several times while in midair, as once that she had jumped, she would not be able to move. He loads incendiary shells.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

As she watched him fall, she smiled, but when he crashed into the roof and began to move, he had still not been defeated. "Damn." Sarah said jumping up onto the ledge. "Why won't you die?" With the wind at her face, the Countess jumped off the stone ledge and began to fall towards him, a raged twinkle in her eye. But as she feel Martens was quick to take out his pistol and the shots sounded like cannon fire, Sarah's eyes widened in fear, she dodged one, but the second one, she wasn't as lucky. The shell hit her hard as she was enveloped in flames and shrieked in horrible pain as she fell to the ground, a fiery comet descending to the Earth. Sarah hit the roof, unmoving as the flames began to die around her body, put out by the extreme cold that pulsated from her body. She was charred, parts of her hair was singed and writhed in pain as she got up to her knees barely able to move from that point, but she would recover her strength and clenched her fists as a bright blue light formed within.

"Is...that..." She chuckled, smoke coming out of her mouth as she coughed, it was almost comical, snow still falling and she was burnt up. "Is that all you got?"

[Kaiser Martens]

When she said those words, she noticed him jumping at her as if he were one of the big cats, to try and grab her neck with the one hand while allowing the other one, which still held the pistol, to discharge if possible several more rounds against her head. It was true, as he had mentioned when she first became in-human, fire was rather effective against them, and he tried to take advantage of this. Would he succeed in blasting her head out of existance, or would she react in time? He had renewed energy, having taken more blood.

Martens, the King Tiger.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

He dove towards her and knocked her to the stone of the roof holding the pistol above her face. Sarah smirked staring at death in the face. "You don't talk much do you Martens?" She watched his finger pull further on the trigger, the hammer of the gun ready to discharge. Beads of sweat formed on her face as she closed her eyes, so this is how it would end, eyes down the barrel of a gun, defeated because of a lucky shot from a weakened enemy. But he needed a boost, he needed more to survive her, she was stronger then him and it was clear to her now. Her eyes opened suddenly as the hammer was about to click. Her hands darted in front of him and clawed into his neck, it was enough to escape as the flash went off and where Sarah's head had been just seconds before, there was nothing more than a deep crater in the castle roof. She stood back to her feet looking down at Martens, her hand covered in the blood from her scratch and as soon the smoke began to form from the crater in the roof, a beam of ice was discharged towards his center. A freezing beam of cold, combined with the continual snowfall around them.

[Kaiser Martens]

The ice beam was too much for him to handle. Even as a human, he had not reacted well to abnormal temperatures...When she stands there, he tries and shoots towards her again several times, four more times until the last clip runs out, then discarding the gun. He growls and makes a great effort to stand up. It did not seem like much to the casual look, but both of them could tell that the extreme cold temperature had slowed him down almost imperceptibly indeed, but enough for her to gain a decisive advantage. Noticing this but doing nothing about it, as there is nothing he could possibly do, he moves forth to try to punch her, maybe even knee her.

"When you want to fight, FIGHT. Don't talk!"

[Sarah Tintagyl]

The cold had slowed him down as much as the fire had done to her, but this was Sarah's environment and he was playing on her fields and her rules. As he went to punch her, she grabbed his hand in her own fist and held it there, while as he went to knee her, she took another ice dagger and jammed it hard into his leg. But she was too devoid of emotion by this point to even offer him a twinkle of her eye. Sarah held him in place as the snow, with great speed, began to gather around his legs and work his way up towards his chest. It was as if the entire environment around him became crystallized with the falling snowflakes and he would find himself stuck, unmoving in an icy trap.

"You're right...maybe I don't want to talk anymore." He was addressed by a monotonous voice and pitiful eyes. "Why should I want to talk to someone that doesn't even have the courtesy to touch a black heart."