the hunter and the hunter - Printable Version

His home in Canis was good, small, and comfortable. He had family there - Forgraves and Banshy lived in his den, but the demon could not stay in one place for long. He required movement and activity, something to get his heart pumping and his blood rushing. Canis was good, but it was boring.

And Polaris was nothing but energy, the crackling of the Spire and the air, so intense with the sting of magicka, that he could feel it the instant he stepped foot within the cavern. This was good, this was better - he felt alive here, he felt ready to roar and blast flame into the air and bring the ceiling crashing down. But he did none of these things - what was the point of needless destruction? No, instead, he wandered, palms open, many eyes searching for food...or something to do.

Training was the most important thing right now. It wanted to sleep, oh it wanted to sleep so badly, but it was afraid. It feared that if it continued to disappoint Master Vargas then it would be, as he'd warned it long ago, taken apart painfully and remade into a new shape. Why hadn't it taken those words seriously? Why had it brushed them off with a chuckle and continued on its merry way? Because now it had so much to do and in so little time. It had to make up for so many lost days of training.

Or else it would end up just like Palefur. Dead. Forgotten. Discarded as a failure.

When it saw the beast, towering over the ruby, it immediately changed course, bounding towards the demon with excitement. This was a good design! The kind of things that Master Vargas liked - multiple arms, many eyes, a strong, powerful build, deadly claws, wings...yes, this would make a fine adversary.

It could have just gone for the hunt, but it had learned now - setting up a "game" was better for training. "Hey! Big monster thing!" Beta called out as it approached. "Hey, train with me! You're big and strong! I'll bet you'll make a great training partner!"

Azrael turned at the voice and narrowed his eyes. A strange purple beast...hmm, he had not seen one of these before. No, nothing like this. But it was asking for training, and interrupting his hunt, and assuming that it could just ask to be a partner out of the blue. Azrael turned with a snort and crossed his four arms across his chest. "Train with me? You want a fight. I will crush you with fire and darkness, beast."

It snorted. If it backed down, then it was not a worthy adversary. And if it accepted...then Azrael was in for just what he was looking for.

Oh wow, this guy was kind of intimidating, especially with his arms crossed across his chest like that. He looked like he could easily just smash Beta into the ground without a second thought. But the ruby wasn't scared, not of him. Not after growing up with Vargas as its Overseer and Alpha as its hatchmate. Not even of fire - the others could do worse.

"No, not a fight. A hunt. I want to practice my hunting. You run or hide and I'll try to find you without you noticing me." It tried to give the demon a friendly smile, or as best a smile as the cat-like creature could make. "It'll be fun! We can make a game out of it."

Azrael's eyes flashed. "A HUNT?!" Fury billowed up in his chest and he opened his arms from his chest, striding forward to tower over Ruby-Beta, glowing eyes burning with rage. "I am a HUNTER. You do not HUNT a hunter!" Heat began to rise in his chest, eyes burning and glowing with fire, as if he were transcending into a creature of pure flame and rage and hate.

A true demon, standing before the ruby.

"If you want a HUNT, then I will hunt YOU. You want to make a GAME?!" He roared and turned, pointing to the other end of Polaris. "I start there. You start here. And we hunt EACH OTHER."

Beta was taken aback by the sudden rage that the demon was giving off, taking a step back as the creature began to glow. Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea...

But the game that he was suggesting sounded like a good idea and Beta realized that it was the kind of training that they'd neglected - what if the hunted was also the hunter? Its tail twitched and it raised its head. "You know, that's a good idea! Yeah, yeah lets do that." It began to bounce on its feet. "Okay, you go out and in five minutes, we'll start." Now this was going to be some good training!

Azrael narrowed his eyes and considered denying for a moment, but hadn't he come out here to get some excitement? This was exactly what he was looking for. So he snorted and lowered his arm. The light from within slowly died until he was glowing at normal levels. "In five minutes, we begin. We try not to kill each other."

He turned, then and spread his massive wings. He began to sprint towards the other side of Polaris, occasionally jumping up and giving a great flap of his wings to propel him forward until he was well out of sight.

Once he was certain they would not be able to see each other, he picked a spot and turned, waiting for the five minutes to be up. He collected himself, took a few deep breaths, and prepared.

It didn't stay in the same place. As soon as the demon was out of sight, it turned and walked some paces away until it was crouched in the shadow of a boulder. Its eyes narrowed, counting down the time until the game began and, the instant the time was up, it tried to flare up a spark of magicka, to be able to find the beast as he came prowling. But nothing came up, no heartbeats hammered in its ears.

It growled and crouched. This better work soon or it was screwed.

Azrael was crouched in his own hiding spot, waiting for the time to be up before standing and beginning to pace forward. He had the same idea as Beta, flaring up magicka to check for wherever the beast's heartbeat was at. But the magic fizzled and he was left with nothing but just the path right back to where he'd been before.

But he wasn't foolish enough to take that path - instead, he veered to the right, deciding to take a different path, for now not bothering to stay hidden - he was far enough away right now not to worry about it.

Beta, meanwhile, was content just waiting for the beast to come to it. No need to go out when he would most likely come charging at it. That was the kind of character that the demon had given off. The type that didn't want to wait.

Beta quite liked waiting.

But when it tried to get its magic working again, suddenly its own heartbeat was hammering in its ears, loud enough to give it a pretty nasty migraine. It moaned and grabbed at its head with its claws. Of course this would happen now.