Assassin's bane [M]

[Medievarad]

Target acquired. Hidden in the shadows of a tree, Usagi watched how her target moved through the forest. She was told he was strong. But in his eyes. He was just a mere goblin that caused a tad too much trouble. An easy kill with a large sum on his name.

Moving as silent as death itself, Usagi hung down from a tree behind Smed, her legs hooked around the branch. She slowly unsheathed her kama and pulled her mask down, before flicking down the branch and landing on the forest floor. Not a sound made.

She dissappeared.from sigh, appearing above Smed with her kama brandished. Aiming to cut him down in one swift blow.

[DaGlobster]

Smed was on his way back to the cave from a long week's stay on the coast. A week overseeing the movement of the goods that kept his criminal confederacy running.

However, now, they were merely traveling. Smed, ten of his goblin cohorts, and an ogre. A standard travelling group for Smed. This way, they could capitalize on any opportunities they came across on their way to their destination.

They had just stopped to make camp. everybody was setting their packs down when Usagi moved in for the kill. Smed's ears perked up as she came up behind him, but, perhaps taken by some psychotic whim, he made no immediate notice. One of the goblins perked his ears up, and looked past him.

"Eh, boss?"

Smed quirked his eyebrows.

"Out with it. Looks like you've seen a ghost."

[Medievarad]

Too easy. The kama glinted in the air as she brought them down to cut Smed in the side of his keck, aiming to slice an artery and dissappear into the shadows as soon as she knew she finished him. The crimson clad assassin didn't care for his men, they were not in the contract.

[DaGlobster]

Of course, Usagi aimed to slice an artery.

She didn't get that far.

In a flash, Smed had Anklesnagger up in time to catch and snag her kama as they came down, and since he wasn't sitting, he tried to pull her out from behind him and into the open, using his small stature to trip her.

[Medievarad]

Her eyes widened. The little bastard had reflexes. She rolled out into the open, having lost one kama, it stuck in the ground next to Smed. She circled one in her hand. A dagger slpping down frol her sleeve and into her hand, she looked around and assessed her surroundings.

Interesting. To say the least. She didn't expect a challenge.

[DaGlobster]

Smed gave Usagi a little impish smile as he drew Footcleaver as well. His men started to circle, each brandishing a random assortment of crude weapons. If they had to be specified into categories, though, among the ten goblins there were three spears, two clubs, four swords, and a crossbow. The ogre had a war hammer.

"Fuck me, you're a pretty one," Smed said, still smiling.

"I'd say you're a pro, but what kind of stupid fuck tries to sneak up on a goblin? Get 'er!"

Smed's men moved in, attacking less like ten disorganized goblins and more like two cohesive groups of five, using their numbers and height to swarm her. The ogre hung back for now, waiting for an opportunity.

[Medievarad]

Usagi showed a wicked smirk. With a blur of movement, the dagger slid through the goblin with the crossbow his eye, killing him immediatly. Since that weapon would cause her the most trouble. Waste no time and eliminate possible risks with lethal precision.

"Aren't goblin dicks hilariously small?" She asked as the grin only widened.

The first spear however did stab through her, yet tore through the beige cloak she was wearing. Yet she was already gone.

She slammed the tip of the kama down on her first assailant in the confusion, wrenching the kama in his skull.

With a slow huff, she decided it would take too long to wrench the thing out from the second corpse and decided to change to knives, backing several steps.

But she had to end this soon. She wasn't good at drawb out fights.

[DaGlobster]

At Usagi's comment, Smed laughed.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

The goblins all reformed into a single mass. Despite his insanity, Smed knew that goblins had two major weaknesses: Their stature, and their disorganization. Smed's entire force of goblins (at least the core members of his gang) recieved basic training on swarm tactics, which, in turn helped mitigate their natural chaotic nature. Through coordinated strikes, and even a bit of stacking (in which a goblin stood on the shoulders of another), Smed's goblins had been extremely successful in fighting larger opponnents.

So while the goblins kept Usagi busy with their attacks, Smed ran in, dropping his weapons and pouncing straight for her chest with an abandon one could only describe as feral, going in to bite at her shoulder with those sharpened, dagger-like teeth of his.

[Medievarad]

Usagi seemed to dodge and parry all of the strikes easily, occasionally stabbing back, wich resulted in an impairment or even death. Yet she was still fighting eight foes at the same time.

Wich even forced a trained assassin like her to concentrate on only them. When Smed came running for a charge, she heard the pounce but reacted too late, a muffled cryas she felt his teeth in her shoulder.

She staggered back and flicked a knife from the back of her hip, aiming to stab Smed in the face. So he had to let go.

And the instant he did. She blinked away, reappearing several meters away from the group, resting her hand on the bloody shoulder, a slow grin forming on her lips.

[DaGlobster]

Smed's teeth only tightened as she struggled, a grip that remained even as she drew her knife and brought it in for the kill. Her dagger went right into the mad little goblin's forehead, and he fell to the ground like half of a sack of potatoes, face up and staring at the sky. His body twitched and his teeth gnashed blindly for a few more seconds before the little monster fell still, never to trouble the continent again.

Or so she thought.

His men gathered about to stare at him, and after a few more seconds, he twitched, and then sat up rather suddenly.

"Fuck!" He laughed, and his men laughed with him.

"Been a good year or two since someone stabbed me in the head," he muttered, and he grabbed at the dagger.

"Do I leave it in?"

"Methinks it'd kill you again if you did, boss."

"Shit."

He glanced around for a bit, nose smelling and acute eyes scanning through the darkness. He locked onto her after a few moments, and his smile returned.

"She's over there! Catch 'er for me, I want her alive!" Smed cackled, and his men all started scrambling towards her. One of the goblins picked the crossbow back up and sent the bolt flying at Usagi. In the meantime, Smed reached up and pulled the dagger from his head, still smiling as he collapsed again.

[Medievarad]

With a low panting, she dissappeared from sight again, blinking into existence next to Smed, rather wobbly due to the sloppy execution of her shadow dash. She was getting tired. The amounts of blood pouring down from her shoulder didn't help.

She grit her teeth, eyes narrowing as she gripped the knife in Smed's head. "Just.. Die," she hissed under her breath as she slid the knife forward, trying to slice his face in two pieces.

Whether succesful or not, she released the knife again and swung herself around as she grabbed her second kama. Brandishing both weapons now, the bolt scraping along her cheek.

[DaGlobster]

If it was one mistake that Usagi made, it was turning her back to Smed. Because even though she brought the dagger down on his face, tearing the muscles and slicing the bones as she dragged her dagger free of him, it wasn't enough.

Her weapons, unfortunately for her, were just too mundane to keep the little monster down for good. So, when he woke back up behind her, still grinning as his face stitched itself back together (it'd definitely leave a gnarly looking scar), he wasted no time.

He leaned forwards, and snapped his teeth onto her ankle, intent on tearing it out.

[Medievarad]

She cried out loudly as she felt his teeth sink into her ankle, losing balance and smacking against the ground, kicking at his face, trying to get him off. And boy, did she possess strength in her legs.

Yet, as she realised he wasn't letting go, she flicked one kama in her hand and started to hack down on his head, desperatly trying to get him off, uncaring she was hurting herself in the process.

[DaGlobster]

It wasn't really Smed that she had to worry about. In her panic, she'd seemingly forgotten about the others, and now, on the ground...

...she was on their turf. The club-wielding goblins were the first, and while she did get a solid kick in on Smed's head, that was as far as she got before the club wielders set upon her, deciding the best way to "take her alive" was to beat her senseless with their clubs and feet, laughing and snarling the whole time.

[Medievarad]

She threw her head and Kama up in a defensive manner, taking several hits to the gut, defending her head desperatly.

And once more, she dissappeared from sight, slumping down against a tree several meters ahead, bleeding at her ankle and shoulder, her face mostly intact, except for a bleeding lip. She noted with a faint grin that several of her ribs were broken.

Seems like she wasn't ontop of the food chain anymore.

[DaGlobster]

"Agh! Fucking disappearing whore!" Smed yelled, clawing at the grounf before standing up onto his feet.

It was interesting the first two times. Now? He was just getting annoyed.

"Where'd she go, boss?" one of the goblins chirped, and Smed sniffed at the air again. He could smell her blood, hear her as she slumped against the tree. Once the demon inside him had a taste, he couldn't rest until he had the whole meal.

"Stay here, don't wander. I'm gonna go get 'er," Smed growled, and he picked his weapons back up. He knew where she was, he just wanted to get her alone. He dragged Footcleaver along the ground as he walked, eyes locked onto her, face covered in a mix of her blood and his. He smiled as he approached, and she'd be able to see bits of her own flesh hanging from his teeth.

"Not so smug now, are we?" Smed purred as he approached. Oh, he was going to savor this, and he was going to savor it again when he'd bring her to his camp. He didn't want a disappearing assassin in his main base, but one of his outposts?

He grinned in anticipation. He was goign to make her pay for giving him that scar.

[Medievarad]

Usagi merely arched an eyebrow at his approach. So proud. So self-centered. She spat some blood and gave him a cold gaze, slowly sitting up, flicking a knife from her right boot. She was making mistakes, losing her edge. Normally, Smed would enter a field filled with all manners of traps and wards. Even if she was wounded like this.

But this time, she didn't manage to in time and cursed herself for failing to do so. Not even prepared a proper shadowwalk. A faint, bitter grin broke through the neutral guise. I'm really losing my touch, she thought to herself.

She raised the dagger as Smed approached. "So.. You can't be killed.. But I wonder if you'll regrow fingers." A wicked glint was seen in her eyes, "perhaps I'd even attempt to castrate you.."

[DaGlobster]

"Regrew my face, didn't I?" Smed said, pointing to the newly created vertical scar that ran straight down from his forehead to his chin. It'd definitely be a conversation piece.

"And believe me, you wouldn't be the first woman who's cut off me dick."

A short pause.

"Or the second."

He grinned at her and flipped Footcleaver into a more proper hold. His beady little eyes glinted with promises of a slow, agonizing death. Although, something else glinted in them as well. Something far darker.

Perhaps it was the same thing that caused wispy black energies to start rising from his shoulder. Letting out a screech, he charged at her.

[Medievarad]

"You did," Usagi panted slowly. "And that.. Surprises me.. You sound like the type to have loads of admirers," she said as she pushed herself weakly again, flipping the knife up and catching it between her teeth, sliding out two other knives.

As Smed charged forward, so did she, three daggers brandished. Slow hisses surrounded her, a wispy black energy raising for her shadow.

She dodged underneath his first blade and rammed the knife between her teeth through his throat, at the same time, stabbing him through the liver and the heart with the two other knives. Four shadows formed almost immediatly around the two, looking like Usagi, all armed with three dagger. And they also charged forward, trying to hit Smed on other arteries and vital organs.

((Shadows have no special traits, it's just more physical damage))

[DaGlobster]

Smed managed to deflect the knife aimed at his heart, knowing that if he did so, it'd leave his throat and liver exposed.

It didn't matter, those wounds wouldn't kill him immediately. He came to a rolling landing, her daggers protruding from where they'd struck, and he wheeled around to face her. Pain was no longer in Smed's vocabulary. Perhaps it was, once, but he'd been killed, slashed, burned, and even decapitated too many times to feel anything in his upper body. His beady eyes started to glow, and when the shadows came in for him, they never got close enough to connect.

He let out a yell, and a wave of dark energy blew away and dispelled the shadow forms. Steam started to rise from his mouth.

"I got some tricks too."

Immediately after those words, he vomited forth a gale of fire, and while it wasn't really the best aimed, it was large.