Saga: Draconic Undead Rumble! vol.1

[zolomon]

(OOC: Ok, well, that last post may have been a bit TOO silly. Damn, lol, Zolo and Rizuk. Let’s just hope they don’t tear each other’s heads off before that of their actual opponents And don't ask about the title. Me being random, is all.)


Listening to Kihaku’s explanation of the situation, Zolomon felt a sudden cold rush, as if a breeze just hit him in the face and he opened his eyes after a long period of blindness. His mind suddenly cleared from a strange... frikkin’ bizarre dream, in which he was a lunatic... Weird, no? As the uncharacteristic of him gleefulness and demented cheer passed as suddenly and seemingly out-of-nowhere as it came, the vampire’s face turned from fanatically giddy insanity to his usual somber, calm, slightly arrogant and aloft expression, as if nothing had happened.

Upon hearing that his partner would be some ‘Rizuk’ character, the undead fighter scowled. ”I don’t fucking need a partner.” he hissed, not loudly, yet not really quietly either. After some more conversing, in which Zolomon took no part, they were supposed to head off. Being told what to do wasn’t quite the vampire lord’s thing, but he would be willing to sacrifice the minor insult, just to get to see what else this (or any other) world has to pit against him. With a heavy sigh of aggravation, he recalled the map of Dragonia he had recently memorized into mind, and then took to the air with a sudden blast of speed. Before bolting in the general direction of Western Paramecia, he looked at Rizuk. ”You be careful. Wouldn’t want you to catch those damn rabies.” he said and shot off, shrinking to a small black spot against the bright blue sky, then disappearing completely into the horizon.

--

After a while of flying, Zolomon reached the western shores of Paramecia. The land was lush, rich, thick with plant life, green reaching as far as the eye could see, almost up to the very sea. Only a tiny strip of pearl white sand separated the ocean of beautiful, deep blue water from the infinite plains of emerald-green grass. The healthy, pleasant over-abundance with life made Zolomon grimace as he flew over the area. He was stuck with a ‘partner’ AND he had to fight in this... hippy paradise. Fuck.

Tracing the seashore for quite some time, looking for anything to be considered unusual, so he could kill it, yet nothing appeared before him. ”Damn those bastards... hiding, I bet!” he swore to himself, pissed at the lack of things to kill. Grass doesn’t count. He was certain that was written in a rule-book somewhere. It had to be.

Either way, Zolomon got tired of flying through the air, looking for nothing, so his angle of flight made a sudden and very sharp turn of 90 degrees, instantly switching from flying horizontally to vertically downwards, without any loss of speed. The descent lasted only a couple of seconds because of his insane velocity, and, when he hit the ground, the sand in fifteen feet around him burst away in every direction possible.

As the dust settled, one could make out a lone tall, lanky black or at least very dark figure standing amidst the mess. After a moment, one could actually see the lone character is, in fact, Zolomon (le gasp!), his arms crossed and a grim look of determination on his face. “That is it. I’m staying here and waiting for whatever it is to come and get me. Fuck looking for it.” he said to himself, his resolve solid as rock. A big rock, too. Only a fool would try and make him reconsider now. A minute later he was starting to think of ways to make waiting more exciting. What can I say? Such is the fate of a vampire.

(OOC: Well, here goes, Jimmy! Looking forward to this. ^^ Let’s make it a good one!)

[Jimmy Claymore]

((Your on bro, this is gonna be awesome. Although we have got the funniest match up... I'm betting 2:1 that Rizuk and Zolo end up fighting each other before they fight anything else ;D))

As he had been asked to be quiet, Rizuk breathed deeply and dug his nails into his sleeves to try and hide his expanding rage. The cake was taken when he was told he'd be teaming up with Zolomon. If Gyro had a problem with him, he was either going to be a) a great guy!(although there was only one person fitting that description, and their name began with an R and ended in an Izuk) or b) someone very, very dangerous who 'threatened the safety of the planet, wah, wah, wah'. As it turned out, it was the Vampire. He'd seen him fighting Jimmy in the tournament. Not exactly weak, he'd stood against the Demon Jimmy quite well all things considered. But this wasn't what Rizuk would be objecting to, it would be that he had to team up with him.

Rizuk scowled deeply at Kihaku and attempted to protest as he flew away. He clenched his fists and seethed angrily on the spot, flames almost licking up his arms as he watched them fly off. He turned to look at his 'partner' and tried to hide his discontent. He flicked his head in the direction of Western Parmecia and started strolling when he heard Zolomon launch into the air. After a quick quip he flew off leaving Rizuk standing on the grass, after a few seconds of silently watching him fly off Rizuk bellowed to the heavens with sky splitting violence
"GET BACK HERE YOU VAMPIRIC ASSHOLE! I CAN'T FUCKIN' FLY!!" He stood breathing deeply as his voice echoed around the area, and reminding everyone in the nearby country of Rizuk's handicap. After he finally calmed down enough, he decided to try and use the only other method readily available to him. He curled into a ball and with an explosion of flames, ignited and burnt away his flesh to expose brilliant scarlet scales and enormous bat-like wings. He growled in his throat for a second as he steadied himself before launching sky-wards in a beating of wings, pounding the earth with great gusts as he sailed into the air and in hot-pursuit of his newly acquired "team-mate"

--

Rizuk didn't like trying to fly in his Dragon Form, mostly because it wasn't that whole "Bukujutsu" technique that even Claymore could master. Rizuk didn't use Ki, it required concentration and training in a martial art. Rizuk's fighting training had been mostly him making up moves that hurt people more than other moves, he was, in this way, a fairly basic fighter. In order to fly in that case he turned into his Dragon Form and flapped his wings, now... this only worked in the same sense that flapping your arms would work, if you have strong enough arms and some loose skin you may well stay above the ground. But it doesn't half get tiring. Rizuk ended up losing the will to flap a few feet from where Zolomon had made his landing only a few minutes earlier. His wings vanished in a flash and puff of flame and he fell downwards into the blue ocean with a tremendous splash.

He wasn't visible for quite a long time, until a black nailed hand erupted from the water and dug into the sand in a claw shape. Rizuk rose up, angrily and steaming to remove the water, and the sand fell off as grains once he was completely dry. He stormed over the beach in great strides and started walking over the grass with his hands firmly balled into fists and his eyes flickering with rage and fire. He finally wheeled around and saw Zolomon, standing firmly in the sand. His teeth were clenched into semi fangs as he walked over to him, sand turning to glass in his tread as fire seethed and raged around him. If he was a normal human, this would be approximately the point where his blood pressure would give him a stroke. He reached Zolomon finally and stared up at him, he didn't look that intimidating intentionally, but there is something about someone leaving a smouldering trail of fused silicon behind them that just makes you feel a bit uneasy
"Where... the... HELL Did you go!?" Rizuk choked on his own rage as he stared up at the much taller vampire.
"Do you have any idea how FREAKING hard it is to fly here without using that Ki technique! You know that joke about flying in from Lavertia and boy my arms are tired? IT'S NO JOKE!" He screamed, his arms flailing wildly. He scowled in his usual default pose and pointed at the inner more points of their new landing point
"Our enemies are in there? OK, how about we do a slash and burn? That'll find them, and it'd be a great way for me to relieve some tension as well as free up some area for real-estate" Rizuk's voice was a little weird to make out... was he being sarcastic or not?

((I pity our enemy... I reckon we should do Draconic Undead Rumble! vol. 2 if those goes as well as I think it will))

[zolomon]

(OOC: Oh, definitely! On all accounts )


As the vampire just began seeing a slight, faint ray of hope in that the ‘I can’t fuckin’ fly!’ bit was to be taken seriously, and he could actually do this without some life-loving pussy tagging along needlessly, his joy was shattered when he saw a tiny little splotch approaching his general direction, soon growing into a strange red-scaled and winged variation of his ‘partner’. Whoop-de flippin’ do.

With considerable amusement (not that his face showed it any), he watched as Rizuk’s wings evaporated in a sudden burst of bright red flame, the boy falling into the water with a grand splash. ‘Hehe... pansy...’ he snickered. It seemed like there would be at least SOME enjoyment out of this. He was beginning to feel certain joy as Rizuk was nowhere to be seen, yet disappointment once again struck the vampire when a hand burst from the water in a fairly cinematic moment. If only Zolomon had a camera... he would throw it at the drownee to help him. Help him drown, that is.

Angry and hot (temperature-wise, of course), Rizuk stomped about, steam rising from him like a stove, the sand melting beneath his feet, while the grass near him turned grey and charred. “Hmm,” was all Zolomon said, watching the dragon-ish boy out the corner of his eye.

It seemed like he only now noticed the vampire (which wasn’t surprising, due to Zolomon’s naturally keen eyesight), and began storming towards him, quite obviously pissed. ”Where... the... HELL did you go!?” he shouted, out of breath.

Zolomon only chuckled to himself, somewhat arrogantly eyeing his temporary ally from head to toe. “Don’t over-exert yourself talking. Catch your breath.” Of course, this wasn’t a friendly advice to an exhausted brother-in-arms, more like a pompous taunt. Zolomon simply couldn’t get over being stuck with someone in a ‘team’. It was against his very nature. That bastard Kihaku. He was probably laughing behind Zolomon’s back right now. Fucking asshole. Damn him.

He half-listened to Rizuk whining about flying here on his wings and not knowing the Ki technique of flight. All Zolomon could do was roll his eyes. And (quite obviously) say something as well. “Oh, quit your bitching. Flying with wings is a lot easier than that stupid Bukujutsu shit. It took me fucking forever to learn. And I KNOW what ‘forever’ means.” Not only was Rizuk one of those ‘heroes’ of this damn planet, he was also useless. That’s just great. Fuck. He’d need to have a serious talk with Kihaku after this. VERY serious.

Then suddenly, Zolomon’s thoughts on his partner changed, when he spoke the next couple of sentences. For a moment the vampire just stood there and blinked once. ‘Huh? Did I hear him right?’ Could it be? Did this planet actually have someone that wasn’t into green-peace? No way... Is it possible? No, no... That’s just not plausible. Or is it...? After several seconds of such tug-o-war thoughts, the vampire smirked. “That sounds like a plan after my own heart.” He uncrossed his arms and with one swift movement detached the Mirror Handle from its usual spot, locking it into a certain blade behind his back.

With a quick flick of his arm, before him was the Scythe of Hellfire, its internal flame reflecting in the vampire’s bloodthirsty eyes. “May I do the honors?” he asked, turning his head to Rizuk, then, without waiting for approval (pfft... who needs approval anyway?), raised the scythe so that the long handle was parallel to the ground, while the blade – perpendicular. His following movements could only be described as damned fast, for even a second did not pass when he had already made a full circle and five short slashes with his scythe. Then, for the briefest of seconds, a bright red pentagram could be seen if one looked on from high above, reaching from some thirty feet before Zolomon, overlapping the lush green grass, to some thirty behind him, even on the surface of the water.

While the flames in the water and sand disappeared, they continued to burn the fresh grass, spreading wider and wider. The flames of hellfire would burn even green grass and grow in it, being snuffed out only as soon as it rained, but, judging by the clear blue sky, it wouldn’t be anytime soon. Maybe even some distant houses would get caught in the flame. ‘Oh, I do hope so...’ could be heard in the deep recedes of his dark mind. Turning his attention back to Rizuk, he cocked his head to the side and smiled wryly. “Your turn.” Who knows, maybe something good might come of this partnership after all.

...Nah...

[kihaku]

Though the Chaos entities had been left in Zolomon's metaphorical dust, and followed a little ways away from Rizuk, they were now standing a ways away, sufficient enough to not be harmed by the Hellfire, but close enough to still be protected if it came to that. The Inner Demon that'd followed was the reptilian one, its tail flicking about as it awaited the completion of the triangulation. The Shadow Form simply stood by, its faux clothing not even rustling in the small breeze created by the sudden updraft of hot air.

When the pair finally did move, it was their heads snapping in the direction of Zolomon's back, where neither the dragon, nor the vampire could hear or see the object coming for them. To even the most trained warrior's eye, it would appear as if a large black blur was flying at mach speed towards the two destruction-bent warriors. Before either of the beings could make any sort of warning gestures, the large blob seperated into two seperate blurs of dark coloring. Without any sort of forewarning, a pale fist crashed into Zolomon's jaw, sending him flying past Rizuk two dozen feet with enough force to let him skid another five feet. Meanwhile, the second sphere of dark speed came downwards in a spin, letting a single clawed foot slam against the side of the Dragon's head. The kick sent him sprawling right next to the vampire, both now forced onto their backs by the onslaught of strength and speed.

"Fuckin' hell? I thought they'd be better than this."

A pair of glossy black boots set down on the charred earth as the fire raged about him, the entire posture this person held was one of cocky disappointment. A black full-length coat covered this person from leg to shoe, which was closed at the moment. The arms were left to hang flippantly at his sides, while an arrogant smirk revealed ivory-white elongated canines. The face, framed by waist-length grey hair, was partially hidden as the left side was covered by a curtain of straight hair, only the right, jet-black eye staring with a malicious glimmer at his downed opponents.

"Speak for yourself blood-breath, the easier this is, the better."

This speaker was much shorter than the previous, though no less fierce looking. The feet up to the ankle were exposed, very reptilian in appearance before they were hidden by a pair of black pants. The smaller attacker wore no shirt, though the arms crossed over his chest sported deep indigo scales that glimmered in the firelight. A similar arrogant smirk revealed sharp canines, burning black eyes setting a contrast to the grey hair that blasted backwards, crowned by a pair of black horns. The exposed skin was pale in color, thought it was what was behind him that drew the most attention: fluttering blackness, moving like flame, shaped like wings, shifted about on his back.

"Pussy, always wanting the easy way out, claiming victory for the sake of hearing your own voice."

"Can-it, fang-face. We got a job to do, and I don't need your yakin' makin' it any harder."

The mirror images of the protagonists now stood before them, grinning like a pair of predators who've already cornered their injured prey, a pair of doppelgangers that were about to deliver the violence that Kihaku had promised Zolomon.

[Jimmy Claymore]

"Oh you know what forever is do you?" Rizuk asked sarcastically "I'm fairly sure I'm old enough to be your grandfather, even by undead standards. I'm into quadruple figures" Rizuk boasted, unaware that most people didn't like to show off how old they were, as it was normally quite a sobering experience, it usually meant the reaper was just around the corner. Rizuk frowned at the flames and clapped his hands, holding his hand like a funnel to his mouth, he sprayed a burst of water like a fire-hose at the flames to try and extinguish them. He didn't get very far and stopped to explain to Zolomon why when he realised he might be annoying the vampire
"Slash 'n Burn works for finding them, but its no good if they use the flames to mask their assault..." Rizuk trailed off as he saw Zolomon fly past him. He turned to see who was attacking them and was met by a foot in the face. He had enough time to move back so his head wasn't knocked clean off, he screeched backwards and rolled back onto his feet while still tumbling. His hands stuck in the sand as he stared, open mouthed at their assailants, it looked like some poor clone of Zolomon and a mis-coloured copy of his Pinnacle form. The one he reached by being filled with positive thoughts, and he wasn't exactly over-flowing with them at the moment.

"WHAT THE HELL!? You think that looks anything like me? I am so much more attractive than that!" Rizuk growled as he stared at the two of them, torn between rage at someone trying to impersonate him and his urge to just unleash all kinds of unholy hell. He stared at them, waiting for Zolomon's inevitable rising. He wasn't going to believe that the vampire was really hurt by that attack, he'd seen the Tournament match. He took a step forward and the air itself whipped around him, casting up sand-storms and flickering shards of malformed glass flew as he generated more and more heat. He finally unleashed this as a scream at the ground, the sand erupted outwards instantly creating a sand-storm of a screen all around their opponents and leaving the true Rizuk and Zolomon uncovered for now. Rizuk's hands began to smoulder before bursting into flames, he looked at Zolomon and his breath flickered with flames as he spoke
"I'll deal with my clone, you deal with yours. Deal?" Rizuk asked before diving into the sand thrown up by his Earth elementa breath. He could make out his opponents black wings and with an enraged battle cry threw a scorching upper-cut, aimed at his opponents jaw, before pivoting on the spot and trying to kick at their face with his trainer, in one fluid movement before continuing out the other side of the failing storm. He sucked in air to perform the move again in preperation for a second strike.

((Ive got an idea how this is going to go down, and it means Rizuk and Zolomon can release all their tension about each other in one fell swoop))

[zolomon]

(OOC: HARR! Here we go!)


Rizuk mumbled something about being older than Zolomon, though he obviously didn’t realize that the vampire had spent what could amount to several thousands of years of this world in training with the gods, but it wasn’t in him to lecture the elderly boy right now. The vampire gave him an even more curious look as he began vomiting (or something) to put out the fire he had only just started. Hell, ‘slash and burn’ was his frikkin’ idea. Idiot.

It seemed like his partner noticed Zolomon’s confused discontent, and so he begun his explanation. “Slash ‘n burn works for finding them, but it’s no good if the—“

Just as Zolomon was starting to hope someone would kick him in the head so that he didn’t need to listen to this kid’s lecture, his wish was instantly granted (well, he was punched, not kicked, but meh... no diff), for once. As he flew through the air, Zolomon yawned, before crashing into the sand on his back, his face expressing an unbearable sleepiness more than anything else. What a disappointing start. Rising (definitely not standing up) to his feet, Zolomon shook his head slightly, looking at the opponents before him, before they were hidden from his view by a current of sand.

Now, the really STRANGE thing about this was that Rizuk was under the impression Zolomon needed to be told what to do. God knows where he got THAT impression. The vampire grinned menacingly when his partner disappeared and opened his jacket, spreading his arms, his claws growing longer while his entire eyes turned black as if ink had been spilled onto a page. For a moment he considered the option of transforming, as last time fighting like this led to unwanted consequences in change of character. Looking at his palm, he closed it into a fist, then hissed. He’d be alright.

With a monstrous roar, Zolomon exploded from inside the sand, assaulting his doppelganger with a sudden knee-thrust to the gut, followed by a powerful palm-thrust. Quickly taking a step back, he grinned at his look-alike, then took a fighting stance. “You know, grey really isn’t your color. You’re making me look bad. Let’s hope you fight better!” With that he assaulted his foe once more, with two quick punches to the torso, followed by a quick elbow strike to his face.

He tried keeping an eye on the two dark creatures that had followed them here, since, as far as he knew, they were needed for discerning the position of this Dramanius fellar. Then again, it was difficult not losing track of such small things when a fight was before him. The easiest solution for this was to kill his opponents off quickly, then do whatever. And that was just what he was about to do.

(OOC: Well, THAT post ended up sucking terribly... >.< I hope my next one will be better.)

[kihaku]

With the onslaught of fire from the raging dragon “god,” the anti-Rizuk gave a cocky laugh. “Predictable.” His own fists and mouth spouted blue flame, not a raging fire like the original dragon, but a clean, sharp, light azure, as if burning a flammable gas. Blue met bright reds and oranges as the copy caught the fist with his own hand, bringing down his horned crown for a vicious head-butt to the angered warrior’s incoming foot. The impact caused his body to shift backwards slightly, but not significantly.

When the original backed off enough, the clone thrust his hands forward, the blue flames on his hands blazing bright, and blasting forth. However, when the flames licked the earth, instead of the charred grass smoking even more so than it already had been, where the flames touched earth, ice formed instantaneously. Splaying his fingers, the twin streams of blue flame were directed straight for Rizuk’s head.

Meanwhile, just as Zolomon himself gave a slight shift in appearance, so had the copy, nails elongating, and eyes clouding over to a milky white. The incoming knee was easily side-stepped, the palm strike parried with a quickly raised forearm. The original gave a few words to the effect that he hoped his fighting skills were fairer than his looks… what a pathetic attempt at taunting.

“You don’t need me to make you look bad, you do that just fine on your own.” The incoming torso strikes were avoided with a quick hop backwards, the elbow strike was countered by leaning back and letting it fly by, then pushing stiffly on the offending limb. Now that Zolomon was close enough, the clone lashed out with a vicious kick to the kidney region.

Meanwhile, the two Chaos entities looked at one another. Though there was no expressions upon their face to convey ideas, they seemed to interpret exactly what the other was saying in a matter of mere seconds. The reptilian Inner Demon gave a low hissing verbalization, while the Shadow Form gave a soft sigh as its forearms and hands shifted about, morphing into razor sharp, night-black blades.

[Jimmy Claymore]

Rizuk's eyes widened in surprise as the blast came towards him, in a flaliling movement he clenched his hands and the fire still flickering leapt from the ground it was singing and formed a flaiming shield in front of him. It didn't last long, he took a step back and finally rolled desperately as the blue flames burst through. Rizuk tumbled down the sandy banks and almost into the water, but a quick thought made him stop. If this guy could breathe ice then getting wet would definitely be a bad idea, he snarled and took a step up the beach, he noticed Zolomon's fight and ranted at him
"Hey! Could you be any slower! Jeez, it's pathetic"
Rizuk scoffed as he walked back up the beach, his feet beginning to glow slightly. He was considering how best to deal with this poor imitation of him as he stood on the sand, still stirred from the Earth Crash Breath he'd used before. From the looks of him, his clone was already in his Positive side, 2nd form, so he was at his peak (hopefully). Now, if Rizuk transformed into one of his own Dragon forms he might be able to beat him, but he wouldn't. Simply because his ego refused to allow him to submit to what he saw as a "poor copy" despite the fact it blatantly had some superior techniques, throwing the fire from his Blaze of thr Dragon technique was something Rizuk never thought of even trying. He growled and stared at his clone, the ground around him shook midly and grains of sand were slowly raised into the air by the force.

"So, you already know my name I'm sure, so at least when you die you'll know who was responsible. Why are you and the asshole version beta here? Did you just get sick of breathing?" Instead of waiting for an answer, Rizuk leapt forward and focused fire onto his feet, they began to glow red and spread up to his black jeans starting them smouldering. He turned with his hips, bringing his foot swinging around through a deadly arc as he struck down with his blazing trainer trying to either hurt his opponent or at least throw them off balance. He span around in mid-air, moving away from his new enermy, using his kicking leg as leverage and whilst turning, he breathed in deeply and with a loud roar unleashed a pillar of flames comparable to even the mightiest Ki attack. Although he would have claimed it was several times better, but the truth is it was only impressive in size. The heat would probably be easy to handle with the cooling flames, although it was hardly nothing in terms of force. Rizuk panted to regain his breath after unleashing the contents of his lungs at his opponent. He looked over to Zolomon and shouted at him
"For God's Sake Vampire! Just kill it! It's a vampire like you right? Just stake him through the heart, or take him out for Italian!" Rizuk's dissatisfaction at his own inability to beat the fake Rizuk was rapidly being transferred to his team-mate. Most of Rizuk's colleagues would have taken this on the chin and written it off as his arrogance, but Zolomon didn't know Rizuk that well...

[zolomon]

Zolomon watched his doppelganger’s movements very carefully, seeing him react to the vampire’s assault in a very similar way as to how he would have acted himself. ‘Interesting...’ he thought, as his attack sailed past the opponent, the other being parried. The white-haired Zolomon taunted him, to which he only chuckled while attacking, afterwards taking a powerful blow to the kidneys, full-force. He had seen it coming, though, and braced for it, the attack forcing him to slide along the sand.

“You’re not all that hot. Age catching up with you?” he quipped, preparing to attack again when Rizuk began whining once more. He had ignored the first time he bitched about the vampire, but this was simply getting ridiculous. “Hey, heartburn-breath! Fuck off and die, I don’t see you even touching your equally shitty copy!” What a waste of breath.

Sadly, Zolomon didn’t have the time to enjoy himself and crack the kid’s skull, for these was another skull to be cracked at the moment. With a roar, the vampire lord bolted at his opponent, suddenly stopping a few feet short, rising his right leg for a kick, which was aborted, instead thrusting his foot into the sand in mid-kick, throwing sand at the fake Zolomon’s face, instantly following with a roundhouse kick to the right side of his face and, after that, a straight kick to his chest.

Of course he would not stop there, attacking with a clawed thrust at fake Zolomon’s face, continuing with a swing to whichever side his opponent evaded using the same arm. Another wide vertical sweep came from Zolomon’s other arm, deliberately powerful, yet fairly predictable and easy to dodge. However, this was his goal, for he would grab the other Zolomon’s hair as soon as he moved, jerking suddenly and pulling him down and delivering three powerful punches to his face.

Successful or not, he took several steps back and prepared to defend himself against any attacks from his doppelganger. At least he hoped there would be. Out the corner of his eye, he noticed the two dark figures that had followed them since their meeting with Kihaku, their hands suddenly changing. He gave them a grim look, as if signaling not to interfere. They better not. Eyes darting back to the fight at hand, he tried to ignore the obscenities and sheer stupidity voiced by his ‘partner’... again. It seemed like he didn’t know who he was talking to. Zolomon made a mental note to kill him sometime. Definitely.

[kihaku]

Once already, the Zolomon-clone had proved to be quicker at the draw when it came to defending, if not attacking, and this time would prove no different. The kick was planned for, but the sudden change of its direction wasn't, and all that could be done was a slight shift of his body and head, the sand harmlessly bouncing off coat and hair. Fortunately, the roundhouse kick was coming in from the direction that the clone had pivoted, and quickly defused it by bringing his hands, fingers interlaced to form one big fist, crashing down against the real Zolomon's shin.

Had he not been immortal, the force would have surely shattered the bone.

The incoming clawed strike missed only barely as the clone moved to neither side or back, but down and forwards instead, towards the original vampire. There was a slight rustle and flash of black as a leg swept out from underneath the clone to try and break Zolomon's stance, with a vicious upper-cut aimed to the chin came in directly following from below.

Rizuk was having slightly better luck with his copy, though, as the blazing trainer caught an upraised forearm with just enough strength to lift him off his feet. When the blazing inferno caught up with the sslightly airborne clone, a thick sheet of ice protected it from harm, though it crashed so forcefully as to send him skimming across the ocean's surface. To slight surprise of some, the water instantly froze beneath the two clawed feet and hand splayed against the surface, the free left hand balled up into a tight fist, blazing with sharp, azure-colored flame.

"It'll be a cold day in Hell when force is all that'll bring ME down!" There was a sudden shuddering roar as a huge pillar of water shout out from just in front of the doppelganger, freezing to ice en route, threatening to crush the dragon to a pulp if he didn't move quick enough.

[Jimmy Claymore]

The worrying part was, Rizuk didn't even look at the Ice pillar coming at him, he was too engaged in seething with anger and rage at the disrespectful way that this Vampire was talking to him with, he snarled and started bellowing at the Zolomon's
"How DARE you talk to me like that! I will come over there and burn your skin off your bones!" In his rage he stormed away from the path of the ice pillar just in time to have it crash behind him and shatter loudly, he blinked in a combination of surprise and horror before slowly turning his head back and snarling at both the Rizuk Copy and at Zolomon
"Alright look! I don't care that your boss probably has a Mirror of Pockus or something ((OOC: A VERY old reference to a VERY old saga)) but that is no excuse to disrespect me with poor knock-off copies!" He growled again and snarled at Zolomon
"And you, quit distracting me idiot!" He shouted before leaping at his clone and trying to hit him with a gout of fire again.

He landed on the sand and tried to think of a reasonable way that Fire could beat Ice. He wasn't coming up with much he admitted, as he leapt around the area trying to avoid being a target for attack and to avoid any kind of retribution Zolomon might throw at him whilst equally planning a way to unleash his nuclear Carnage move so he could eliminate all three of the annoyances here. And he was really thinking all three. To be honest, the reason Zolomon and Rizuk hated each other was fairly obvious. Both were pretty old and the older you got the more crotchety you got, second, they both believed that they were the epitome of evolution, and as such were EXTREMELY arrogant. Normally, you'd think having so much in common would have made them the best of friends. But as it was, Rizuk and Zolomon were just about ready to KILL each other...

[zolomon]

(OOC: Sorry it took so long! Anyway, here goes... )

Zolomon’s anger was slowly (okay... pretty fast) building up, as once again his attacks proved futile against this... grey-haired copy. It seemed like no matter what the vampire did, his opponent was a step ahead. Inferior or not, it seemed this copy was at the very least faster than him. For now...

As the doppelganger dodged Zolomon’s blows, and suddenly countered with a powerful punch to his leg. In his anger, however, Zolomon ignored the pain, instead continuing with his seemingly pointless assault. As his attacks sailed straight past their target, the undead lord’s body grew more and more tense as the darkness and hatred within him swelled, tiny wisps of black vapor-like substance seeping through his skin and dissipating into the air only a couple inches off it.

The sweeping kick wasn’t entirely unpredictable, yet, in the heat of his anger, Zolomon did not notice it, and took a humiliating tumble to the side. However, due to the movement of his body as he was tripped and fell, the uppercut just missed him. Taking this fall put the vampire in an unprecedented rage (especially considering he wasn’t one easily angered... until recently), and he thrust his arm forward, pointing it at his copy as he fell, suddenly unleashing a mighty electric current from the jewel in the ring. Like a brilliant ray of light, bright blue energy surged forward, yet it was different than what Hydra had displayed before, as at the very core of this immense bolt, which was at least five feet in diameter, was a string of black, and black bolts ran throughout the beam, as the vampire supplemented this attack with his own Black Matter.

Just as he hit the ground, Zolomon rolled away from his enemy and rose to his feet, different from the smug, confident and cool vampire he usually was. His hair was wild and lightly shifting constantly, as if a wind was blowing, when there wasn’t a single breeze. Two wild, animalistic eyes burned black like charcoal from behind it, and he stood in a semi-feral stance, bowed low, almost on all fours. His fangs had grown longer, no longer fitting under his lips, instead protruding from his mouth.

It was the same monster from the fight against Hydra, ready to tear its opponent to bits once more. This, however, was not destined to happen. At least... not the opponent Zolomon had in mind. “And you, quit distracting me, idiot!” This was a stupidity and arrogance Zolomon had not seen before. The vampire stood up straight, an expression of confusion and anger read clearly in his face. Unbeknownst to him, his face and hair turned back to normal, as he slipped out of his rage... into a whole different emotion. As Rizuk racked up the insults and blatant ego-boosts, his forced partner felt an incredible need and justification of killing him. And, guess what? That’s what he would do.

In an instant, he bolted towards Rizuk and his copy, much, much faster than he had moved before, almost instantly appearing between the two combatants, fist drawn back to strike Rizuk while his body was horizontal in the air in mid-leap. However, instead of striking the dragon, he kicked his copy in the face and released a smaller beam of electricity to nullify the surge of fire the dragon had just unleashed. Only now would anyone realize where Zolomon had gotten the sudden increase in speed and strength, as he now stood in his black & red Gi, intimidating scaled dragon wings reaching out of the very fabric of his short top.

Taking a battle stance against the Rizuk copy, he turned his head slightly to the side, though still looking at his new opponent. “Get lost, before I kill BOTH of you.” It wasn’t that he didn’t care about an inferior, poorly-colored copy of him running around and acting untouchable, but there was just something about Rizuk that really made Zolomon want to kill him. So that’s what he was going to do. And, by killing his copy, he would be able to scratch that murderous itch while also fulfilling their target. Heck, if he felt up to it, he could kill Rizuk afterwards too! “Care to try a more resilient opponent?” He could only pray that his opponent would not die easily.

(OOC: Not quite brilliant, but, hey... it works! )

[kihaku]

A brilliant flash of blue, a grunt of surprise, a spray of sand and a sizzle of air... the bolt of lightning was definitely a shock to the clone, but didn't do... 100% damage. The anti-Zolomon gazed at his right arm, jacket completely soiled, just before ripping off the entire affair. Though Zolomon normally had a very healthy stash of weapons beneath his clothing, this version seemed to not have a single glint of metal on his body, maybe partially explaining his increased speed.

Still, his own enemy now after his brother, and not finding a two-on-one fight entirely pleasant to think about, he was gone in another spray of sand, back to back with his original self. There was something that didn't exactly sit well with the casual on-looker, and that was being, as fast as Zolomon had a change in attire and looks, so did the doppelganger, wings a night black, a deep indigo gi wrapped about him, with violent slashes of white throughout. The very thought that his original self was already giving up and going after the easier-fought of the two was... rather disappointing.

"Pussy. I'll smack your partner around for you, make things easier on me." There was a sudden foreboding laugh as, in a haze of speed, the clone Zolomon was instantly in Rizuk's face, throwing a devastatingly powerful punch for his nose.

On quite the other hand, the doppelganger dragon was enthralled to have a new sparring buddy. "Bring it fang-face!" There was a blur of deep purple as scaled arms were slung outward, and dozens of knife-like ice sicles were sent screaming directly at the vampire.

[Jimmy Claymore]

Rizuk saw the fist coming in and it looked impossible to dodge, he looked scared on appearanced but as the fist came in, his eyes suddenly looked hard and he held a burning hand with a malicious grin. He caught the fist and felt a crack of bones, they began to knit together quickly but his fanged smile would be far more alarming, fire was beginning to flicker all along his body in thin lines and made him look like a burning demon from the depths of hell. He'd purposefully avoided dodging so he could catch his opponent hand, and he tightened his grip with his burning fingers and a cruel expression of glee began to spread over his face like a child at christmas

(OOC: I don't think it's autoing to catch a hand, I'll edit if your not happy with it)

"Now, switching opponents may have seemed a good idea to you... but there is one major mistake you made, and I'm afraid it's ruined everything you and that copy of me had been planning. Because you see, Now, your fucked, because for the last 30 minutes, I've been desperately supressing the urge to beat the crap out of someone who looks EXACTLY like you!" Rizuk finished and at the last words belched out flames from his mouth, trying to hold his opponent still by the hand so he couldn't dodge the blasts of fire coming out of his mouth. He moved away after the attack and plunged his hand into his fore-arm, with a painful grinding sound he finally pulled out a resplendent red and green sword. He swung it down and with that same evil grin shouted
"Vampire! I'm going to kill this guy and pretend its you. You cool with that?"

((OOC: And well done to Zolo for getting the reference so quickly ;D, Order of the Stick is brilliant and the quote just seemed to fit. Who knew Rizuk read web-comics?))

[zolomon]

(OOC: PLAGIARISM! PLAGIARISM! ALARM ALARM ALARM! I’ll notify Order of the Stick!! >.< ‘Neways, good comic, lol. )


It wasn’t easy being evil. Not at all. For example, when you’re good, all you have to do is kill the bad guy and all problems are resolved. When you’re evil, you are tempted to kill each and every person to be found along your life’s path. And here, Zolomon was at a crossroads. He had made a decision: to go after the dragon bitch-boy copy, due to a wave of frustration culminating at his transformation and assault. He could, however, be doing something else. Something more enjoyable... He could be soaring through the crimson skies of a sea-bound sunset, basking in the read light like a—

'Oh, cut the crap you dolt! You’re a fucking god-awful narrator.'

:’<


As Zolomon bolted at his new opponent, he noticed a sudden hail of icicles coming in his direction. Hardly a threat, though. In a swift, mighty movement, the conglomerate of black scales shielded him from copy-Rizuk’s line of sight, then swung to the side, knocking the somewhat massive icicles aside like they were but snowflakes, the transformed monstrosity charged at his opponent with lethal speed, attacking with a sudden punch to the gut, followed by an upwards-aimed elbow thrust to knock the boy into the air, after which came a crushing double-sided blow from both his wings coming together like two trucks colliding, each attack aimed at the boy had the previous been successful or not. Now we would see what this copycat was worth.