Elario & Lykaios (A Dangerous Game)

[Elario Luminus]

Vittorio felt the Night Angels presence before he saw him while he attacked to and fro with his Spathi friend. Parrying an attack to his head, Vittorio ducked and span under the blade, moving behind his opponent. He slashed up into the Spathi's open underarm, severing the tendons and rendering the arm useless, while with the other arm he fired his hidden pistol into the base of its neck. Paralysed, the Daimon fell to the ground, where his mark was impaled upon Vittorio's hidden blade.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. Careful, that one has a stick."

Sheathing his sword, Vittorio summoned his chain whip and flicked it towards the Spathi, making it latch onto its staff instead. He wrenched it back, tearing both his weapon from his hands and any form of guard it had against the Night Angel. Leaving the last one for his newest ally, Vittorio started taking in details. The weapons, the clothes; it was all too familiar to him, and it was something he found not only impossible, but also incredibly eerie. He had questions, and damn him if he wasn't going to get answers.

((I'm thinking this could be where we reunite, so to speak. Properly meet each other.))

[Lykaios]

Lucian ducked as the Dark Hunter threw a chain whip at his opponent and wrenched the staff free of him. Rising instantly; Lucian faced the defenceless Spathi and thrust his sais at incredible speed with precision into each of the Spathi's pressure points and finished with a double thrust into the Spathi's mark. Exploding into gold dust, Lucian smiled thinly. Another deader.

Standing tall, he resheathed his sais and turned to face the Dark Hunter. They were both tall; Shaun stood at 6ft6in, and there was very little height difference between the pair. He remembered reading some profiles on the Dark Hunter website about them being all above six foot tall.
"Tell me, Hunter; are all you and your kin giants? Because I would fit in very well." he asked in Italian. Only then did he realise he had spoken before whipping the staff from Shaun's opponent.
"I think I noticed some more Daimons heading this way. It's possible your Spathi dance partner had sent a call to all local ballet dancers. As for his stick, it was never a threat. I had pointed rectal probes in hand. I think my Spathi friend was close to asking for it." he responded, and as an after-thought; "Oh gods, that could have been an uncomfortable moment. I might get OCD on these sais when I clean them..."

That aside, he raised a hand in greeting, waiting for the Dark Hunter to shake it.
"At least it's early tonight. Might have a full conversation. Name's Shaun, but friends call me Lucian. What do your friends call you, Captain?"

[Elario Luminus]

Vittorio jokingly over-flinched in disgust at the image the Night Angel had given him and lowered his headphones, placing them around his neck. Upon hearing his name, however, he became incredibly guarded.
"Friends? I have none that I would willingly call friends," he said drily. "As for my name, the other Dark Hunters, as well as those in my sordid past, call me Vittorio. Means 'victory' in my tongue. Ironic, to say the least." Reaching up beneath the mask to scratch his nose, Vittorio frowned slightly at the news of more Daimons, both Spathi and the normal GV's - garden variety - on the way. He couldn't feel anything getting closer, nor were there any bolt holes open. Dubious, he folded his arms after discarding his chain with a small shimmer of golden light.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but have you ever actually dealt with Daimons before tonight? I'll hazard a guess and say no. And you're right; the night is yet to grow old, so if you're not busy at all, you're quite welcome to join me on patrol."
With that, Vittorio trekked off down the street, not waiting or slowing for Lucian.
"We can talk while we walk, you know. But keep in mind that after that little action, tonight might prove to be quite boring," he called back to Lucian over his shoulder.

[Lykaios]

Lucian froze at hearing the Dark Hunter's name. So much was similar to someone from his own past, that he didn't acknowledge his reply at first. Before he looked rude, he shook his head.
"No, yes, I know Vittorio means victory. I don't just speak Italian for nothing. I lived in Italy once. Viva Italia! And all that." he said after nearly too long of a pause.

Shaking himself off, he looked at Vittorio, trying to figure it out; he scanned the Dark Hunter. In the Night Angel's incredibly long life, memories unfortunately got a bit lost and jumbled; so he was struggling to piece together the puzzle at that moment. Vittorio was Italian to the core, that was obvious. He was Dark Hunter and he was Assassin. The Dark Hunter vow was rather similar to that of the Oath of the Night Angel, which was off-putting; as it meant somewhere in time, the Oath coalesced with the existence of the earliest Dark Hunters. Shaun couldn't place the where or when, but he considered the possibility that they knew something about him through the gods - or rather, goddess - that they worked for. He knew so little of these elusive Dark Hunters that he could only piece together so much.

When Vittorio offered for him to join him on patrol, he instantly fell into step beside the Hunter.
"Honestly, no. Daimons are a new and different threat for me - well; not for me personally, but my experiences lie in slaying dragons, people, ferali and the Krul. I'd wager of those; you only specialised in one of those in your lifetime, eh Assassini?" he asked with a grin.

As they walked, he took into account Vittorio's gait and stride. If only he could see the man's face! Something felt so out of character about this man. He was strong, deadly; a predator through and through - just like the Night Angel. He frowned; trying to figure out what of the Dark Hunters was fact and fiction.

"So, I guess I got pretty lucky with those Daimon...sorry 'Spathi' as he prompted me. I didn't read anything about a particular spot being their weakness. And I stupidly selected the weapons in my arsenal incapable of beheading. If I'm to be of much help...is there anything about Daimon's and Spathi I should know?" he asked, checking rooftops, alleys and buildings with every step. Feeling uncomfortable, he summoned the shadows, cloaking himself as a formless shadow flitting across the streets of New Orleans.

[Elario Luminus]

Vittorio thought for a second as he considered what Lucian would need to know. Coming up with a few things, he spoke without looking to him, not that he'd see his new friend anyway. "In all Daimon varieties, if which there are two, the golden mark they bear over their so-called heart is their main weakness. It's not enough to cut it, though, or damage it any other way; it has to be pierced, usually with a blade. Which would seem obvious except," he explained, flexing his wrist and firing a round from his hidden pistol. The round clattered uselessly on the ground, where Vittorio bent down to pick it up. Holding it in a pinch, he showed it to Lucian.

"The rounds that this would normally take are simply a round ball bearing. I've since modified it to hold these rounds; what I like to call spearhead rounds. They're diamond shaped in order to pierce the Daimons mark. Another way to kill them is beheading, as you know. Though, to be honest, there's not much beheading won't kill. They travel through bolt holes, as they live in a realm separate from ours. They don't usually stay open, but when they do, they're an opportunity. For all parties. For the Daimons, they're a semi-permanent opening to this realm. For us, it's a double edged sword; if we go there, we can take out a lot of Daimons. But we will eventually die from sheer force of numbers. There's more, but I figure you know enough to get about on your own now if you come across them."

Feeling a twinge of power tug at the delicate web of his senses, Vittorio tensed up. His expression hardening, he turned sharply into an alleyway and stepped into the shadows and started scaling the wall, finding foot and hand holds everywhere. At the top, he crept along the edge of the wall, using his sixth sense to find the Daimons trail. A bright red line screamed at him, and he followed silently until he found the group.
I count twenty. Soul crawl?

[Lykaios]

Not needing to say much as Vittorio brought him up to speed, he gathered his Talent and boosted his physical strength enough that anyone to try and hit him, would snap and shatter all the bones in their hand. There was definitely something wrong; when Vittorio shot up a wall. Summoning the Black ka'kari's power, Lucian sprinted straight up the wall, catching up to Vittorio very quickly. The black had pooled on his feet, acting as suction cups that simultaneously didn't slow him down as he ascended. It was a neat trick, that had taken him fifty years to do perfectly.

A formless shadow beside an Assassin Dark Hunter, he followed the line of what he guessed to be Vittorio's gaze. There, a hundred metres ahead of them appeared to be over a dozen very tall, very blonde people. So far, he remembered the Spathi from earlier being blonde, and those on the site said all were blonde, so he found no harm in guessing them to be Daimon's. Releasing the shadows, Lucian knelt beside Vittorio.

"Looks like they've got some Friday Night Fight in them. Isn't that Sanctuary? That big nightclub run by the...Peltiers?" he asked Vittorio.

[Elario Luminus]

Vittorio turned his gaze to the building the group were huddled outside of and nodded grimly. "You're right. I'm surprised they haven't been greeted by one of the Peltier boys; normally they have Dev standing outside. I wonder what's going on..."
Taking a single step back, he dashed forward and leaped across the street onto the adjacent building in order to get a closer look. He cursed in his native tongue quietly. "Being near Sanctuary gives them immunity from the Dark Hunters. If I attacked them now, the extremely large quantity of Were Hunters would be all over me like white on rice. And I don't feel up to taking on two wolves, a family of bears, an eagle, a tigard and a goddam dragon. And I'd appreciate it if you didn't go in and get them either. The Pelteir's will not take kindly to Daimons randomly falling apart in Sanctuary. They'd blame us," he explained. The last thing he wanted to do was place his allies in danger, mortal or otherwise. The Were Hunters had abilities that made them dangerous to the Dark Hunters.
"We'll wait to see where the group goes. If our luck gets any better, they might not be on the hunt, and they'll move off somewhere else. "

Vittorio desperately hoped so. He was getting bored, and a small horde of Daimons seemed like fun. Focusing his vision, he began using the sixth sense he had again, and this time they ALL glowed red too brightly for them to be considered your standard Daimon. Except for one...
"Dammit. They're all Spathi. Except one of them. See that one in the centre? What Spathi are to your GV's are what this guy is to Spathi. What we call a Spathi Knight or Warlord. They feed off the souls of only the strongest people, and even the souls that their brethren have as well. The only guy stronger than these ones is Stryker himself. Which is saying a lot.

He watched the Knight closely, concern drawn on his face. "If one of them are out, then we're in for one wild night. Definitely a soul crawl; he'll send the Spathi out to go 'have fun', and when they return to him he'll take what they've gathered by slaughtering them," Vittorio explained, a bitter smile plastered on him. "Our world is full of double edged swords, it seems. We wait, however. It'll be easier to take out the Spathi before they return to the Knight. We'll need to work together; they certainly will be."

((Goes without saying that Spathi Knights don't actually exist in the DH universe, but I figure I'd make the night interesting.))

[Lykaios]

Lucian grimaced at Vittorio's explanation of the Knight, but agreed with his observation on the absence of Dev Peltier. Frowning, he scanned the street outside Sanctuary, looking for any sign of Dev. He'd met and spoken to Dev and his brothers a few times. The first time had been when he'd first entered Sanctuary wearing an older and different face to what he was wearing now. Dev had stopped him, and appeared to sniff the air. Lucian's brow had raised in confusion and Dev had faltered; his expression instantly tense. Dev questioned him about his complete lack of odour, and stopped when - for the briefest of moments - Shaun's eyes had gone completely black, while he scanned Dev with the ka'kari. They both learnt the other was magical in origin, and the Night Angel begged him to remain silent about what he discovered. Dev had eventually agreed, on the proviso that he share a fraction of the information with his family, and a man named Acheron. Uncomfortably; Lucian had accepted his terms, not knowing that his family was twelve strong, or who or what Acheron might be. But, whenever he felt like it, he could enter Sanctuary normally, provided one of the Weres on guard sniffed him, to be sure it was the Nameless, Dev had told them about. It made his friends incredibly jealous that he could 'sneak into' the nightclub at only 18.

Not seeing Dev or any of the Peltier's anywhere made him a bit uncomfortable. It was then a thought hit him.
"Captain, do you know a man named Acheron?" he asked Vittorio. He finally remembered where he'd heard the name before. He had seen it on the website Dark-Hunter.com, and had met men with that name a few times over the last eleven-thousand years. He'd never once considered that all those people; could be one person. He always assumed, that he was the only man living through eternity and appearing - albeit under different aliases - in the darkest of times.

"I'm thinking that perhaps the Peltier's are staying put inside with all of these Spathi hanging around. I might just go inside and see what's up." he said, and before Vittorio could comment, he had created a perfect illusion of normal clothes: baggy jeans, big, baggy, loose hoodie and then he proceeded to conceal his make-up with the same illusionary magic.

Stepping off the roof, he landed in the alley on his feet; without making a sound. And promptly began to cross the street.

[Elario Luminus]

Not even able to get a word to Lucian to stop him, Vittorio cursed again and watched carefully as the situation unfolded, thinking about what he'd said. How did he know the Atlantean? He knew Ash was old and had spent a lot of time on the planet, but he was always very reclusive and secretive, always seeming to know more than he let on and never really gaining any real friendships along the way. So how was it that the Night Angel knew him? How old was this guy? Pushing the thought to the back of his mind, Vittorio paid attention to the scene unfolding before him.

At that exact point in time, his vision turned bright gold, and a golden flash burst from his eyes. Flinching from the brightness of the flash, Vittorio dropped to the ground. In his minds eye, he saw a trio of the Spathi exit Sanctuary and head off south, towards the French Quarter. Growling angrily, he got up into a crouched position and watched the door. Sure enough, three Spathi exited Sanctuary and headed south. Frowning simply cause he shouldn't be able to see the future, he watched them turn left at the end of the road...towards the French Quarter. He marked one of them mentally, creating an invisible shine around them, in order to follow them later on.

Then Vittorio remembered what he'd said not five minutes ago; it'll be easier to take them out separately. Smirking, he swept from the edge, sprinting silently sling the rooftop. Leaping across the gap between the buildings, he landed on a air conditioning duct and slid along it, eventually planting his feet on the ground and continuing his run. Diving through a small opening between hot water systems, Vittorio latched onto a windowsill of the next building and rapidly climbed the wall. Noticing a power line reaching across the street, Vittorio spotted the three Spathi meandering down the road. Timing his jump with their steps, he latched onto the line with his hook and quietly slid along till he detached himself from the line.

Landing with an almost silent thud on the Daimon at the back, he pierced it's mark with his hidden blade before it could do anything about it. Anticipating the other two to turn around, Vittorio retracted his blade and vaulted into the shadows of an alleyway. The Daimons spun around in time to see the golden dust of their friend dissipate into nothing, at which point they drew their weapons; a sword and a war axe between them.

Vittorio chuckled darkly, projecting his voice so it echoed off the buildings walls that made up the street. Eyeing them from a distance do close that it seemed like he could breathe on them, he prepped a poison dart and launched it from his wrist-mounted pistol into the Daimons neck, where he instantly began choking and spasming. Dying and dissolving, his friend began spinning in a circle, searching for their hidden assailant.

Vittorio launched himself from the alleyway in a blurred flurry of his sword, attacking quickly. Each attack was barely blocked, and eventually the Spathi got a counter-attack in. Dodging it easily with a backflip and landing against a nearby apartment lot, Vittorio spear tackled the Daimon sword first, impaling it. Unfortunately, Vittorio had missed its mark, but not by much. Ripping the sword sideways, he cut straight through the mark, destroying the Daimon.

Sighing, Vittorio dispatched his sword in its characteristic golden shine, and he made his merry way back to Sanctuary via the roads and pathways, eventually stopping to lean against the wall in the shadows across from the establishment.

[Lykaios]

Walking to the door of Sanctuary, Shaun looked around, eventually spotting one of the folks he knew to be employed, or rather, associated with the Peltier's. Waving him over, Shaun made a show of getting Jasyn's attention. The were-hawk came over to him, and realising who it was; acknowledged Lucian with a nod. Giving him the cursory sniff, Jasyn brought Shaun inside.

"What's going on tonight, Jasyn? There's Spathi and Daimon's everywhere!"
"How do you know about them, Nameless?"
"I befriended a Dark Hunter. Anyway, that's not important."
"It never is." he remarked.
"So what's happening?"
"I don't actually know. But Dev has been trying to keep them from coming anywhere near here."
"Can he do anything against Spathi?"
"Not really. They're incredibly strong. What brings you here, Nameless?"
"My Dark Hunter friend and I are patrolling. I came in to scour for information."
"Then you should start digging. I've got other things to attend to."
"Right. See ya, Jasyn."

A few minutes later, in discussion with some powerful people, he spotted a few of the Spathi leave. He silently cursed as he realised following them was both currently impossible, and would leave him vulnerable to the rest jumping him. While he was certain they couldn't sense him, he would hazard a guess that having them take his soul would pretty much do to him what death couldn't do: staying dead. A half hour passed with his conversations switching between the people in the club until he saw the Spathi move to leave.

Following discreetly, he walked past Remi and Nicolette, whom he nodded to as he left. As he stepped outside, he watched the Spathi group begin to head towards the French Quarter; presumably after their earlier colleagues who probably went out in search of prey to prep for the full crew later. Looking around; he spotted Vittorio lurking in the shadows. If his vision weren't perfect in the dark, he'd have had trouble finding him. Moving over to the Dark Hunter and dropping the illusion, he smiled at him and raised his thumb, pointing toward the moving crowd.

"Shall we join our friends?" he asked, cloaking himself in shadow once more.

[Elario Luminus]

With a smirk and a nod, Vittorio began scaling the wall behind him with a leap and a bound, landing silently on the roof. Moving off at a sprinting pace, he vaulted over an air conditioning duct, slid across the gravel rooftop and propelled himself to his feet and across the gap between buildings. Landing with a quiet roll, Vittorio pressed himself against a low wall and peered down towards the group. They were beginning to split up now, separating into groups of about half a dozen, while the Spathi Knight disappeared down a bolt hole which was kept open. Cursing, he looked back to Lucian, who'd definitely caught up by now.
"There's no way that this is a normal drinking drive. That bolt hole will be an open door for anyone who wants entrance. We'll need to take care of each group together; I'm not really strong enough to take out an entire squad of Spathi alone."
Watching the groups drift apart as he spoke, he thought quickly and realised a truth.
"It's likely we won't get to both groups in time to stem the issue. We'll need to act fast and hard, but I think we might have a chance."

The group of seven Spathi Daimons strolled down towards the opposite end of the French Quarter, cheering and whooping loudly like regular hooligans. While to the normal human eye, they'd just be a group of handsome men on a pub crawl, to Vittorio they were a group of the world's worst scourge. Growling softly, he crept along the wall at a slow jog, releasing the catch on his hidden blades and focused on the trailing man.

[Lykaios]

As soon as his Hunter companion began to climb, so too did Valentine. He followed the same freerunning movements that he knew an old friend and pro had used regularly. It was surprising to Lucian to find someome else who fought and moved like both his friend, and by extension; himself. Shaun had a knack for freerunning, as he did for killing. If he could use it, he would master it. And because for centuries, he'd lived standard - but countless - lives as a mere Assassin (and not a Wetboy) using proper freerunning had been his saving graces. But he still held onto his belief that Master Stern had drilled into him: "Assassins have targets; Wetboys have Deaders because a Wetboy never misses."
It had been a conflicting time for him; but simultaneously had been of great benefit...as magic no longer 'existed' as far as these humans were aware.

Beside Vittorio; Shaun frowned at Vittorio's admission. Admitting that a half dozen Spathi would be too tough for him single-handedly, must have been hard. But worse, was that it gave Lucian the feeling that the older Dark-Hunters could also be threatened by their Spathi rivals. It made him wonder as to what earthly powers could rival a Spathi completely on par, that wasn't a Dark-Hunter, Were-Hunter or himself. The likely scenario, was that there were none in the regular human race that could stand against them.

"I see. Well, since you asked so nicely for a friend to keep your ass intact; I think I can spare a moment." he gave a half-smirk, and looked into the crowd below as the two teams dispersed. "Which menu would you like to partake in, Captain?" he asked with a wry smile.

When Vittorio had decided; he would follow his lead. His experience with Daimons so far, was incredibly limited.

[Elario Luminus]

Without a word, Vittorio dropped down and landed on the shoulders of the trailing Daimon, flattening him to the ground. Using its body as a cushion, he thrust one of his hidden blades into its mark, making the Daimon die with a roar of pain and a cloud of gold dust. Naturally, this alerted the rest of the group who conjured their weapons and a malicious expression at the same time.
"Oh look, they do have more than one expression," Vittorio taunted, standing up to full height and retracting his blade. While the Spathi hissed at him, he conjured his own weapon and gave them the universal 'bring it' gesture.

One lunged forward with a rapier in an expert swing which Vittorio ducked under, countering with a vicious kick to the Spathi's ribs. Rolling to the side and out of reach of the other Spathi, Vittorio conjured his chain whip in his opposite hand, flicking it around in an intimidating way. The unorthodox weapon combination gave the Spathi pause for a second, which was punished with a whip to the face for the front-most Daimon.
"C'mon, you bastardi! I haven't got all night, and my blade demands your essence leave your bodies!"
The shout cajoled the Spathi into action, surging towards Vittorio with ferocious fervor. Loving the combat, Vittorio whipped the closest one in the leg, causing it to fall and trip his friends up. Laughing, he charged towards the group, sword swinging.

[Lykaios]

Still on the rooftop above Vittorio's fight; Shaun watched him fight for a few moments, taking note of similarities to his old friend from Italy. It was frustrating, seeing similarities, yet being unable to remember his name, face or age. There was always a chance that this man; Vittorio was the same one he knew, but the odds were stacked against him for that such eventuality, and even then, the chances were, they were merely from the same order, or might have been loosely related. He watched a moment longer as a pair of Spathi rounded up behind the Dark Hunter, and he knew it was time to act.

Bounding from the roof, he flew down, righting himself mere moments before crushing one of the two Spathi, and impaling him in the mark with his sai. The other Spathi wheeled about and looked at the Night Angel in horror for a moment. Then his expression returned to its usual smirk of satisfaction.

"The Dark Hunters pair up! They kill themselves!" he laughed to the others, who responded with laughs of triumph.
"Yeah; just one problem with your conclusion, Mr Right-Now: I'm not a Dark Hunter. I'm worse, for I am Timeless and Nameless. I am your deepest nightmare. I have only Justice to mete out tonight." he said, drawing the sword from his back as he replaced his sai.

He was holding Retribution tonight, and he would feed the Devourer and the blade, together.

~So I'm needed now? Picky, aren't you?~
Oh, shut up. You'd think after millenia, you'd know your place.
~Why yes, I should. But being bonded to you, makes it hard to learn differently.~
Oh, shut it... he growled back in his head.

[Elario Luminus]

Vittorio edged around closer to Lucian, standing to his back while the Spathi surrounded them and pushed them towards the dim glow of the only street light on the road. He smirked as he glanced over his shoulder to his battle partner, liking the situation.
"You know, I never thought I'd die in an all-male sword orgy, but apparently I was mistaken."
The Dark-Hunter fell silent, scanning the Spathi he could see; watching, waiting, for one of them to shift in a betraying way.

Nothing moved. Everything went still; even the wind stopped, and the ambient sound of cars, people and nightlife ceasing to exist. Everyone sat that way for a while, held still in a tense positions. Now if only one would-

To the right. A sliding foot.

Exploding into action, Vittorio swung his sword in a quick slash to the ribs, catching the Spathi unaware with his speed and having the blade swing right down to the spine. Sliding it out, Vittorio flung his whip at the street light, shattering it with ease. The end fell towards its origin, where the Assassin kicked it into the face of a Spathi to the right of the first one he attacked, impaling the Mark on its chest. Barking a short laugh, he backflipped out of the way of an attack, landing on top of the street light with perfect balance.
"Get down here, Artemis scum! What, can't handle the heat?"
"Your sister handled the heat I gave her earlier!"
Laughing to his enemies, Vittorio dropped down and swung from the light, landing in a low combat stance. While his face was hidden by the mask, his dark eyes danced with a fury and a joy akin to that of someone in the dark red grip of bloodlust.

That wasn't to say that Vittorio didn't want to see Daimon dust flowing around him wherever he went, though...