The Fallen Vampire

There\'s no telling whether or not that bitch died in the initial attack. And even if she didn\'t, she\'s too self serving to just- Wait… Why is that guy staring at me..

-

Taira watched Gu Mu-Song get back to his feet after losing an arm and a wing in quick succession.

Hot blood dotted the ice underneath their feet before it was inevitably picked up by Taira\'s spell.

"Pitiable." He spat coldly.

Gu Mu-Song cackled as he picked his body up from the ground.

"Arrogant fucking fox… Do you think I have survived this long without being able to FIGHT for my life in dire straits!? The venom of the Poison Cloud rots the soul and the body alike!!"

A dense purple aura surrounded the wounded tengu.

He held out his remaining arm and an ominous black staff fell from the sky like a comet.

At the very moment that it touched his hand, he grasped it firmly and shot forward with tremendous speed.

Taira didn\'t even draw in a breath. He kept his hands loosely at his sides and his feet spread shoulders width apart. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

His eyes were dangerously calculative. He could already see it.

The path his enemy was taking toward self destruction.

Poisoners are all alike.

They are a crafty, meticulous sort who don\'t mind stooping to the lowest of the lows to achieve their desired outcome.

They\'re careful. Ingenuitive.

And they have torrential superiority complexes.

They believe themselves to be better than other warriors because they use their brains instead of their muscles.

And therein lies their undoing.

But rage is only ever worth anything when it is used in the hands of the cognitively incorruptible.

Anything else is just…

"Embarrassing."

At the very moment Gu Mu-Song thrusted his staff towards Taira\'s chest, he sidestepped it with ease.

He lashed out with a simple palm strike that shattered Gu Mu-Song\'s jaw with a dangerously loud crack.

His head was flung back. Taira caught him by the back of his head and drove his knee into Gu Mu-Song\'s temple.

The tengu was rendered unconscious almost instantly.

Taira held his body up by his hair like his opponent was a trophy he never even wanted.

"Die knowing I will send the rest of your sect members behind you swiftly."

Taira raised a clawed hand and went for the tengu\'s jugular without even a moment\'s hesitation.

Which made it all that much more surprising when his claws struck metal instead.

*Clang!*

Taira\'s face became horrifically ugly.

His ears became large and bat-like. His face too.

His fangs began to grow past the limits of what his lips could reasonably conceal. His eyes burned with an anger scarcely ever seen before.

"Another dog is off it\'s leash..!!"

Standing in front of Taira was a sect member from that odd silent sect.

He could not see his face, nor his expression, but he knew one thing for sure.

Whoever was beneath that cloak was undoubtedly a highly skilled swordsman.

"Hello there."

Taira glanced just beyond the figure in front of him and met the friendly gaze of another sect leader.

The Overseers of Beyond are an odd bunch. None of their members speak. They don\'t take off their robes either.

Their leader is an equally mysterious man who, despite never speaking, has never displayed any sort of nefarious intention other than a mild staring problem.

"Would it be worth quelling your rage to hear me out for just a moment?" He asked politely.

"Please, no need for that." The man said as he held up his hands. "I only wish to give you the culprit you are so adamantly seeking."

Taira held up a finger. Both his dharma, and his spell stopped on a dime. The world was now frozen, as if someone had pressed pause on the epilogue of an action movie. His face slowly reverted to normal, but his mood saw no immediate improvement. "Deceive me and pay the price with your life." Taira warned.

If this new ally of his was offended by any of Taira\'s behavior, he certainly didn\'t show it.

"Fufufufu, I understand."

-

Dan Master Hideyoshi, Abbot Tang, and Grandmaster Joshua were still being held in place by Vermeil and Keran. They saw the world stop suddenly and sighs of relief escaped from their old lungs in an instant. This feeling was nearly doubled when they saw Taira\'s dharma disappear. "I-Is it over then..?" Abbot Tang asked hopefully. The air suddenly whistled behind them.

They found Taira standing with two men from the overseers sect.

The Grandmaster of the Overseers, Eui Fang, was pointing at a member of the crowd like some childish tattle tale.

"It\'s that one. Will you put everything down now?"

The grandmasters unanimously let their jaws drop.

They had known Eui Fang for hundreds of years, but they had never heard him speak even once.

He only occasionally wrote things down for them, but even that was only once in a blue moon.

But they quickly traded one shock for another when they watched Taira lash out and grab a disciple by the face.

Squealing erupted from the individual as Taira lifted him off the ground.

"Stop! What is the meaning of this?! Unhand my disciple now!" Dan Master Hideyoshi said.

Taira didn\'t even look back as he locked eyes with the squirming young man in his grasp. A human, no more than twenty five years of age at that.

Unfortunately for him, he didn\'t know not to avoid looking in Taira\'s eyes directly. And the price he paid for this was immediate.

"Did you poison my sect…?"

The young man felt his mind glazing over and everything became hazy.

Taira uncovered his mouth so he could speak, and the words that came out of his mouth were preternaturally disturbing.

"It was… her idea. I just… helped her make the powder."

I know I been away too long and I’m sorry for leaving in the middle of such a hectic arc but the holidays just caught up with me and I even got a case of the Rona so I really couldn’t help it AnathaShesha