The Slayers Quest

[Merc]

Lina runs downstairs, Zel running after her. Once both are downstairs, they look for a direction to go. Lina decides to go to the forward path, and slams the twin doors open as she heads down the hallway.

Zelgadis, figuring they might as well split up in their search, the enemies being a relatively simple matter to handle from what he saw, heads towards the left side.

Amelia enters the mansion just then to see both Zel and Lina vanish down their respective directions, even as Kizel continues to complain.

[Merc]

The man snorts at the thought of being spared. "How amusing, me being spared? Still, should you best me, you do deserve a prize, I suppose. The cook is in the basement, which you can get to by going down the hall in front of the entrance. The meat, however, is kept locked and safe in the kitchen behind me."

His grin returns as he states, "Not that you'll get past me, you understand."

With that, he makes a lunge at the blond swordsman.

[Ebiris]

Gourry attempts to parry the attack before counterattacking with two slashes followed by a third strike at Ekanna's throat!

[thepanda]

"The Dragon Cuisine is in there, so Miss Lina wouldn't Dragon Slave the place like she did the cave, unless he's already eaten it. But then the Dragon Slave is so big being out here wouldn't help anyway," Amelia says cheerfully, pulling on the man harder. They go straight.

[Merc]

Gourry successfully parries the sword strike from Ekanna, and attempts to connect with two slashes. First slash misses, but the second one strikes against his armor, pushing him back from the force. Taking advantage of the situation, Gourry goes for a strike to the man's throat, which is blocked by the flat side of Ekanna's blade and deflected to the side.

"Tsk, what happened to sparing me, Mr. Gabriev?" He says with a raised eyebrow, before coughing a small bit of blood, his reddened lips turning into the grin Gourry was becoming accustomed to. "I suppose I'll have to ante up then."

[Ebiris]

"You don't seem like the type who would accept charity. But if you change your mind, just say so," Gourry grins before pressing the attack with a thrust followed by a wide horizontal slash, holding back a little so he can defend against any unexpected surprises Ekanna might have up his sleeve.

[Merc]

Kizel grumbles as he's stops dragging his feet and walks behind the princess. They were already in enemy territory, he might be relatively safer sticking by her side. Amelia greets Lina from behind with a shout, almost startling the sorceress into firing back at them.

After giving a quick yell at Amelia for almost startling her, the trio continue their search, as they come upon a downward stairway. Going down, they find themselves in a darkened cellar. They can barely make out a man resting on his chair next to a hand-fashioned cell, his eyes closed.

The man raises them up as his ears twitch, and he opens his eyes to stare at them. He calmly stands up to a towering height and Kizel begins to wonder if he might have been wrong in his figure. The man's face is inhuman, fangs jotting out of his mouth, and red empty eyes stare at them. "Ah...guests," he says, licking his lips.

OOC: The two sorceresses, thanks to their monster lore (even with Lina's focus on lesser Mazoku), recognize him as a vampire, although he seems to exhude a more powerful aura than what they're accustomed to from prior experience. Double damage received from fire magic.

[Corwin]

"Vice Flare!" Lina greets the vampire, pointing at him with her sword.

[thepanda]

"Flare Lance!" amelia yells, throwing her arms forward.

[Merc]

"I'll keep that in mind," Ekanna replies drolly as he parries the first attack which Gourry shifts into a wide horizontal swing. Jumping into the air above the swing as he releases one hand on the sword, he shouts "Bomb Split!" as a ball of energy fires from his palm and bursts onto Gourry's armor. Gourry grunts as he is pushed backwards from the impact but managing to keep himself from falling onto his back as Ekanna lands, diving his sword downward with both hands, shouting "Blade Haut!".

Having not lost his balance, Gourry manages to avoid most of the shockwave, his own armor absorbing the remaining damage, as he jumps for the table.

"Hmph, tough bugger, aren't you?" Ekanna mutters, not having expected Gourry to be standing after the set up attack.

[Ebiris]

Gourry frowns, having expected this to be a straightforward sword duel. Throwing magic around just seems to cheapen things. Still, he resolves not to use the Sword of Light, confident that he can handle Ekanna with trusty steel.

Not bothering to reply, he instead leaps from the table with an overhead slash aimed at bisecting Ekanna down the middle, ready to follow up with two more slashes as he lands.

[Merc]

"Well, someone looks like he thinks using magic's cheating," Ekanna says with his grin as he blocks the downward strike. Moving back as Gourry lands on the ripped up tile, he barely misses getting sliced as Gourry twists his blade to slash from the side, getting nicked by the third strike.

"Ow," he mouths with a small wince. "Flare Bit!"

Gourry coughs as bursts of flame pop up around him, and he finds himself a bit disoriented as a sharp pain shoots from his left side and he's pushed away, grabbing his side.

"Personally, I think outside of crotch shots, anything goes. Crotch shots are low blows, even for mercenaries."

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OOC: Gourry takes 8 damage and is a bit disoriented for one round.
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The vampire screams in agony as his attempt to dodge Lina's and Amelia's spell fails somewhat. While he escapes the burning touch of the spells, he is still caught in the area effect of Lina's Vice Flare as it bursts outward on impact.

The light from the fire make the dark cellar brighter for a moment, and the two sorceresses can see within the cell the body of Mr. Ashford, bleeding and slightly burned. As the fire dies out, unable to keep in the stale air and stone floor, they can also see the vampire's red eyes glowing with fury as he stretches, wings popping from his back, fanning the rest of the flames away and launching the room into darkness (save that from upstairs) once more.

The vampire grasps a sword from the sheath on his waist and launches himself towards the princess with a gutteral scream. The princess screams as blood spills from her side, unable to better defend against the strike. The vampire grins, drowning in the bloodlust as he raises his blade again and strikes at her again with a downward cut. Amelia however manages to roll away from the second strike, and she weakly stands up besides Lina.

The vampire's eyes continue to glow as he stares at the two and the scampering figure of Kizel running up the stairs in horror.

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OOC: Amelia gets 30 damage. Vampire's heavily injured, but not gone yet.
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[Ebiris]

Slightly disoriented, Gourry focuses entirely on defence until he can shake off the effects of the Flare Bit.

[Corwin]

Lina pushes Amelia to the ground with one hand, before launching the Assha Dist spell at the vampire and moving to stand over the wounded girl, holding her sword defensively.

[Merc]

Gourry, focusing on total defense, manages to defend against both of Ekanna's attempts to slash at him.

"My, you -are- a worthwhile opponent, aren't you?" Ekanna says as he proceeds to take his distance after those two attacks.

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OOC: Moving away was his next round move
---

The vampire laughs as he dodges the spell. "Assha Dist? Do I look like a common mongrel vampire? I was extraordinary as a human, and though I don't wish it, I am MORE now!"

He bares his fangs at the two women before charging, making a strong horizontal swing at the redhead that damaged him so, hoping to break through her sword, and her soft body. The redhead's sword held true however, despite Lina and Amelia both feeling the gust the swing brought up.

Snorting, he kicked at the crouched woman with his boot, picking Lina up and launching her against the stairs. Turning to the princess, he grins, deciding that kicking the two of you will make fine sport. "And here I was almost worried when you threw that Vice Flare. Hell, you almost toasted my 'charge' as well. Oh well, would have been fun if you did."

With that, he kicks Amelia next to Lina.

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OOC: 10 damage for Amelia. Lina loses 10 EP using a defensive EP shield.
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