Taiga vs Freya

[00:13] Taiga Rowan says, "Oh hi Freya."
[00:13] Freya Vishkar says, "Hey Taiga. "
[00:13] Taiga Rowan says, "You should probably start running."
[00:13] Freya Vishkar asks, "Really?"
[00:13] Eryn Evanstere says, "....shit."
[00:13] Niklaus yawns.
(Niklaus Rowan)
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[00:13] Niklaus Rowan says, "...Prolly."
[00:13] Freya Vishkar asks, "It's been this long, and all you say is, "Start running"?"
[00:18] Taiga gives a slow nod of his head.

"Freya. Look at the facts. I killed my own father. Do you think I did it because I hated him? No. I did it because he was a Vampire. He killed hundreds of people and was going to keep killing people until someone finally ended the life that was making him miserable, or got turned into a mortal again.

...You're literally apart of the army that's been stealing children I care for very much and turning them into abominations for Sors sick, twisted game. Apart of the army that protects the desecrated corpse of a dragon tainted by the void. You have to wake up to reality, Freya. You're not a good person. You can't be in Dawn and be apart of that army and still cling to some sense of moral superiority.

Regardless of if we were friends once. I've made up my mind on who I should and shouldn't killing. So it's either you leave Dawn and start to change your ways...or yes. I'm going to advise you to start running. It's the least I can do."
(Taiga Rowan)
[00:23] Leaning against the wall, there's a slow drum of the man's fingers against his upper arms. Then, he blows a bit of his bangs out of his face.

"Mmh," bold.

Really bold, he guessed. Not that he really had anything to add onto it.

"You also sort of beat the shit out of Iral earlier, I guess." He rolls his dual colored eyes. "I wish they sought my father for you rather than Sors, especially given you're compromised to try to lure me out according to Dogslayer."

Oh, right.

Someone who keeps him in the loop, it seems.
(Niklaus Rowan)
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[00:32] "Do you think I don't see that?"

Frustration. That was writ on her face, and the fires around her giving light up in intensity. Out of anger, an anger that always seemed to dominate her life.

She clenches her fist, forcing composure back.

"...Eryn. Go back to Dawn. Make sure people don't come in the caves alone."

Eyes flash to Taiga,

"I have no choice. No choice with my necromancer, no ability to change how things are. I told Lailah to leave, but she didn't. She stayed to try and fight Sors. I warned her!"

"You make it sound so easy, Taiga. Just betray Dawn, give myself five years and kill all my friends! But it's fine, isn't it? I'm just the villain in this story, and you're the knight in shining armor, ready to kill me."

"I saved your life! I gave my arm so you and Niklaus could have that dragon. This is what I get? Because choices were made for me, I have to die now, is that it?"

Eyes move to Niklaus, the anger still present, yet softened.

"You know damn well I wouldn't betray you. You know it was Sors who made that choice. Who told me to try. Iral was just as out for blood as I am. I gave her a choice, and she chose to fight."

Her sword, Colada, was still strapped to her back. She hadn't reached for it, but she stood between her old friends and Eryn.
(Freya Vishkar)
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[00:33] It had been a relatively pleasant post-raid day, all things considered. The Drakanite had been making her way through the caves, smacking away at ore in the hope that she'd finally have enough to polish her skill to the point of mastery. Then she'd walked into a Levengardian... ambush? Picnic? Yeah, she wasn't sure. Either way, she found herself facing three of them with Paladin Freya of all people, who had apparently been patrolling.

It seemed like they had some degree of history going on between them, and for a moment the Knight wondered if she'd be able to just...bolt for it whilst they were reminiscing or whatever, and hey, Freya had ordered her to do just that!
(Eryn Evanstere)
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[00:33] Niklaus Rowan says, "Don't."
[00:33] Niklaus Rowan says, "Move a muscle."
[00:33] Freya Vishkar says, "She's a blacksmith, not a warrior."
[00:33] Taiga Rowan says, "She literally fought in the war."
[00:33] Taiga Rowan says, "Raid, rather."
[00:34] Taiga Rowan says, "Same difference."
[00:34] Freya Vishkar asks, "You mean the one where -we- were attacked?"
[00:34] Freya Vishkar asks, "When that Ookami ate Locran alive?"
[00:34] Eryn Evanstere asks, "You people keep attacking my home. What do you expect?"
[00:35] Thera Elisheva exclaims, "Ah, ah, ah!"
[00:35] Niklaus Rowan says, "It's my home. Sors is just fucking it up."
[00:35] Eryn seems to make a decision. Stands her ground.
(Eryn Evanstere)
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[00:44] "... I didn't ask for this lot in life either, Freya. But the fact remains. You're an undead in servitude to Sors Ultovex. Do you really think that's something I can just... overlook? You're exactly right, Freya.

You have no ability to change how things are. You have no capacity to free yourself from his control anymore. This isn't a story of heroes and villains, Freya. Not anymore. It's the story of a coward who was too afraid to stand up for his ideals until it was too late. Who waited until everything had already crumbled around them to start trying and clean things up.

...You're looking right at that coward, Freya." Taiga jabs a thumb to his chest.

"You shouldn't have had to die for that bastard. You didn't deserve to get raised by him, either. But that's all said and gone. ...So now I have to kill you. I won't pretend it's an act of mercy. I won't pretend it's for some greater justice. I'm going to kill you because I'll feel like a guilty son of a bitch who drank the wrong blood and needs to make up for it somehow."

Taiga very slowly unsheathes his own blade now, bringing it in front of him now. He levels it right at Freya, staring her down with a cold, unflinching gaze. Was this truly the resolution that Taiga had found, all these years later? There was no questioning it. He was bloodthirsty. Spiteful at the world - and though Freya had once been his trusted ally... it didn't seem like that mattered to him anymore.

"Are you ready?"
(Taiga Rowan)
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[00:45] "Do you think I gave a shit about Dawn, before? Before Eniel and his rabid dogs started attacking children. Before they started destroying my spirits. Once that damned tower fell, and Eniel's head was removed-

I was content with leaving Dawn along, to work on my projects, spend my days studying and relaxing- but, no." Maintaining her composure with Eniel's father? Simple enough. Remaining calm when they try to play the victim?

She's absolutely furious.

"...then Sors, and his soldiers, and spotted time and time again. Opening rifts on Huangzhous beach, setting up rift points within my home, and doing the dirty work that his puppet could no longer accomplish.

I'd have left you folk alone, content to mingle with your filth for as long as it pleased you, but you people. You brought this on your selves. So long as you support that monsters actions, through might, or otherwise."

She floats back, grasping Ode to Spring, glaring daggers at the duo.

"Don't start bitching now that you've bitten off more than you can chew."

Eyes shift to Taiga, and Niklaus, opting to float back seeing as how things seemed to be a bit more personal between Freya and they.
(Thera Elisheva)
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[00:49] Smiling all the while, he went alongside Zethra, having placed away their winds and staff. From there he was actually rather curious on how Dawn would be at this time of day, seeing as he hadn't been there in quite a whi-...Or at least, that thought was immediately bothered, by the fact they ran past a situation that they weren't probably going to think about.
(Eshmun Hirai)
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[00:50] Where there's anger, Niklaus' fury seems to shimmer to live along his features. The wings of the Dragon King would extend outwards as he tilts his chin upwards. They could claim it theirs. They could all say it so, but when he had to sit around and listen to people demand he challenge the Ultovex they should've ousted long, long ago?

Something doesn't sit right with the Rowan.

It is in this moment they can see the glimmering gold of his mother, Bei Rowan, and it is only the moment after that they can feel the intensity of Arthur Rowan within him. He hated it. The ideal that they all wanted this. That they invited it. To let the man to as he wanted, controlled or not. If she could defy the little instances to bring him in, then she could defy one way, one another.

He had to watch his father suffer for that creature.

Taiga didn't even get to ask if they were ready, because Niklaus' sudden roar echoed through the very chasm, image of the pristine man distorting into the worrying animalistic one. There's a rumbling within, the walls trembling as he slams his axe down against the ground, and like the levies, water would break through.

...From every crevice, from every hall, from every orifice it could break from...

The caverns began to flood viciously fast as images of Adrian, Aaron, Soraya moved through his mind.

What of them?

What games would be played with them?

"DON'T PLAY THESE GAMES WITH ME."

There was no time for talking anymore as he slams forward.

His home, his life, all for what Sors Ultovex wanted to dangle over him, all because someone said he was a traitor. He'd god damn well prove it now.
(Niklaus Rowan)
[00:56] "So be it."

Colada is brought to her left hand, the prosthetic that replaced the arm lost for Niklaus. A hand that forced her to not be there when her sister was burnt to ashes. Ashes that now dusted the pink Witches' hat, donning her head.

The green energy, the taint of Azrael, shined as pure and potent as physically possible. This could very well be her death. Fighting one of her only friends left in this world.

The rushing of water echoed around the cave; Niklaus had already begun his attack. She would waste no more time. Wings of Rieka lit up the cave, and she rushed directly at Taiga, hoping to bring him as far away from Eryn as she possibly could.

She prayed to Azrael that Eryn would live. It was all she could do for her now.
(Freya Vishkar)
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[00:56] "The Adjucator is a monster. I imagine most people would admit that, including him. I don't fight for him." A slightly apologetic look was shot over to Freya, the young Knight being maybe a little too honest. "I fight because Dawn is my home, regardless of the type of being that rules it. I fight in its defense!" A moment of verbal silence as Eryn's own wings burst forward, the female drakanite aware that she was vastly outmatched in a peripheral sense, but quickly growing too angry to care.

"You people attack us! You ally yourself with a man who ate my friend! Call us evil all you want but you're just as bad as us!" She could feel rage fueled adrenaline pumping through her lungs, the emotion fuel for her flames, which unbidden pulsed in a mixture of a raging orange and a bright sapphire practically dripping through her hands.

Clearly she'd had some pent up emotion about this for quite some time, finally breaking free when presented with an outlet as she, very, very stupidly, rushed into a fight she had no chance of winning.
(Eryn Evanstere)

[01:37] It's down the wire.

A battle between Freya Vishkar and Taiga Rowan. Those who had once been keen allies, now working against one another as fated enemies. How had the world come to this? Taiga's conviction had been found finally, in the later years of his life, and now he was sticking to his guns to the very last breath. Fighting against the minions of Sors not for his own ego, not so that he could claim to be some bastion of justice-

The way Taiga saw it? There was a man hurting children in the world. It was his obligation, then, to kill that man and everything he stood for. If Freya had become a servant of that man? If she had no choice but to follow his orders? Then Taiga, similarly, had no choice but to take her down as well. It's a grim fate. But here, in the midst of battle, there was nothing to think about. No time to spare with fancy words, trying to prove the other side as wrong - who deserved to survive would be decided by the blade.

Decide they did. In a clash of screeching metal against metal. Their blades ring out through the field again and again - a ceaseless pounding against the door of death, both of them dancing the line to see who could come closer to that fated end without tipping over.

Taiga's style of fighting has changed drastically since Freya had last seen him in action. Instead of the solid, skilled fundamentalist who stuck to his guns - the addition of Wayfinding to his swordsmanship proved to be a gamechanger. Different from the style that Ren Shi or Laemor employed, Taiga aimed to make his blade impossible to follow, rather than warping through portals.

He tosses it in the air, hurling it like a javelin straight up - only to have it emerge from a portal inches from Freya's face, the momentum carrying it like a guided, teleporting arrow. He snatches it mid-flight, twirling with the movement of the blade to strike with unbelievable force. More than that,he aims to redirect his opponents attention at all times. If Freya took her eyes off him for a split second, he was already scheming a way to get his blade to her throat.

"GRAAAAGH!"

The last of his mana expends itself as Taiga emerges from a portal, just out of Freya's blindspot. A large, blood line scores itself across her face! And then... the world goes dark for her. Right in the eyes. Just the tip of his weapon slashing apart her sight and leaving her helpless in the dark!

But the dhampir is obviously exhausted, Freya didn't need eyes to tell that much. After the swing, his sword seems to carry him with it, his arms too weak to raise it once more. His wounds too numerous, hundreds of tiny cuts from which his blood pours out in a pool beneath his feet. Taiga gasps, hauling himself forward once more. Abandoning the blade entirely to lash out at Freya!

But he stumbles, knees weak, fallingfacefirst into the dirt. Freya was obviously the one with more substantial wounds here... but Taiga's body was sapping his energy dry, trying to mend the damage already dealt. Another movement would result in his wounds reopening, likely leading to his own end.

"F...F-Freya..." he hisses, cursing beneath his breath. It looked like, for the time being, Taiga was unable to rise once more. Leaving Freya a precious few moments to cut her losses and run!
(Taiga Rowan)

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[01:52] The very earth was cracking under the feet of these two powerhouses. The elusive and deadly Dhampir, someone able to seemingly phase though time and space to deliver blows that were seemingly impossible, verses the unmoving undead Oscuri, Freya Vishkar.

But she didn't want it to be this way. Not with Taiga, not the man she saved so long ago, someone who she saw as one of the last people left in her life. There was cautious hesitation in the first few moments; precious seconds of careful analysis on Taiga's new fighting style.

She had seen how Taiga leapt into battle before, when they fought side-by-side against Azikar. But aided by Wayfinding, he was able to manipulate directly in the perfect spot for a sundering blow. Strikes that would test the regenerative abilities of the Perfect Undead.

But she had to adapt. There was no rhyme or reason to his movement patterns.

Or was there?

He was moving into her flanks through green portals of the Lifestream. A lucky blow managed to knock Taiga back, forcing him to rethink the next time he'd rush in. A minor, ethereal victory.

But the longer this fight was dragging on, so too was her patience and mercy being stretched thin. They were nearly even, Taiga's regenerative abilities outmatching her own, but her ability to counter magic still reigning supreme.

It was in those final moments, where the two monsters of melee were stretched to their absolute limit. A final clash of sword as Taiga appears from another rift. She swings; but it's just too high. Forced to dive back, Taiga's sword slices across her face, cutting both eyes and leaving her in the darkness.

"TAIGAAAAAAAAAA!"

A roar of rage. Like an animal, lost in the dark. The only vision she's allowed are the faint specks of spiritual energy that she's trained in. Only the faintest wisps of shape and color. But her goal has been met:

Eryn has fled, and is relatively safe.

Unable to feel fatigue, yet without the mana to form wings. She slams the earth and dashes; flowing towards the biggest flow of spiritual energy and away from here.
(Freya Vishkar)