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He couldn’t count how many days had passed since he managed to get a solid lead on this bounty. Upon accepting it at first glance, Caeli thought it to be a once-out deal where he arrived at the location the target should’ve been and walked back victorious within the hour.
However, this time around had been much different upon execution. Not only had he arrived at the scene with cold tracks, but whoever had been there had managed to escape without too much of a mess.
Unfortunately for them this time, they ran out of places to hide. Judging by the low hanging and torn ceiling above his head, his target appeared to think that this place could offer enough protection.
Weathered boards creaked under his feet, mixing with the sound of pistons each time he took a step forward. Caeli wasn’t a sneaky person in the slightest with all due thanks to the supports that kept him mobile.
Why would he need to be quiet though?
“I know you’re here,” he called into the dingy, barely lit expanse around him. His voice came out muffled and metallic as if he were not a being of flesh and blood. Breath hissed out of the mesh opening in the side of his mask and entered the room in a cloud.
Silence still met him. Not a creak nor a breath of air other than himself in the entire building. Not that he didn’t expect that, but as time went on he knew they would have to take in air.
“You should come out. The longer you hide, the longer it lasts.”
One slow and careful step after the other, he made his way across the decaying floor and splintered boards that once served as walls. Now they loosely made up the foundation, creating a skeleton of what the building looked like before.
If he wasn’t mistaken, this had once been the home of someone long gone. In their absence, everything had fallen into disarray with even the ceiling and roof letting in rays of moonlight.
No noises met his ears, even when he had them raised for the smallest of scuffs. Again, the only thing that made noise had been him. Had they fled already?
Something in the back of his mind nudged him, telling him that it wasn’t the case. They were out of hiding places, and now he had them cornered with their back to the wall.
Caeli reached out with a gloved hand, the pattern on the back of it glowing a bright yellow through the dust and the dark. His fingers brushed against the rough surface of a splintered wooden beam, gears turning in his head.
“I may have been patient enough to follow your goose chase to here,” he muttered into the darkness, eyes not leaving the rickety beam in front of him, “But I’m starting to feel it waver. Why don’t I give you ten seconds to get to where I am? Ten…”
His ears strained once more for any sounds, eyes staring blankly at the wall in front of him.
“Nine…”
Caeli’s hand tightened on the beam as he finally swung his head around, searching for any movement in the shadows. Falling dust caught in the moonlight nearly made him believe they were there.
“Eight…”
With nothing catching his eye, he became acutely aware of the boards beneath his feet. Though despite paying more attention to them, he picked up no approaching steps.
“Seven…”
He looked back up to the ceiling above him. That moment he saw something that made his entire day lift with a cruel smile curling around his face.
“Six…”
Just above his head, he swore through the cracks between the floorboards he saw a shadow move. A shadow large enough to be a person hiding right above him, shifting carefully into place.
“Five.”
Caeli didn’t waste a single moment summoning a brilliant golden sword in his hand, not caring to even pause his countdown. No longer did the zero signal the discovery of his quarry, but the moment their head hit the floor.
Before he even could say four to match sync with his heartbeat, he swung his sword in a violent arc above his head. A shining light flashed through the air and after an arm-shaking retaliation from the wood above his head, his sword let splinters and chunks rain.
“Fo--AH--!”
He instantly stepped out of the way the moment something large fell from the ceiling, careening heavily to the ground before it exploded in a blinding puff of white. Beneath the mass, he heard the splintering of floorboards as whatever it was smashed into them.
Just above the ruckus, he heard a lighter thump from right behind him as he stumbled back away from the sack and the white dust settling around it. He couldn’t afford to waste a moment and wheeled around in his heel as he reacted to the second noise.
Not a moment too late. In front of him, two green eyes cut through the dark and a glint of silver caught the moonlight filtering through the cracks in the roof. Caeli only just managed to throw up his own sword to counter the rapier.
Both weapons smashed together with a resounding clang and as quickly as they connected, they let air shoot between them again.
Neither of them waited a second before launching into the next attack. The hunted instantly tried to throw another attack by lifting their weapon up to knock Caeli’s out of the way.
He let it happen, feeling his arm shake as it snapped to the side. As his arm swung around in an impressive arc and the bounty made an attack straight for the head on his shoulders, he kicked a leg out from under his cape and nailed them in the shin.
Silently, they took the hit and fell forward in order to relieve the pressure off of their leg. In order to keep his arm moving with momentum, Caeli spun on his heel, losing sight of the target for only a moment.
The silver of their rapier caught his sword as they popped out of their roll on the ground. It caught the grove on his own weapon and for a brief moment, they were locked.
“Think I’d go so easy from a surprise attack like that?” he hissed through the mask.
“The headstone would’ve been funny,” the other snarked.
Caeli made a hum of acknowledgment as he snapped his sword back, taking a few steps away to keep himself out of reach of another attack.
The target didn’t take that too kindly as they stumbled forward. Green eyes narrowing as they caught themself, they now took a few cautious steps forward. No doubt they realized they were in the long haul of a fight and form was everything.
In response to that, Caeli raised his arms to either side of him, inviting them to make the first move.
Once more, moving in silence, they walked quietly forward. The boards beneath their feet refused to make any noise.
They lunged forward, rapier shooting towards his chest only to be countered by him angling his sword down and knocking it to the side.
Under their cloth covering, he could hear a soft hiss as they quickly shot their arms up to bring the blade down over his head. As quickly as he could, he countered it and the weapons smashed together once more.
However, this time the bounty didn’t wait for him to deliver an extra move in with a kick. Before he could even bring his leg up, they jumped back. The sound of screeching metal filled the air as they jumped back to their feet.
While he expected another head-on attack, the bounty target ducked to the side and around a part of the collapsed ceiling, going out of sight for cover.
He couldn’t let them get that kind of solace. Caeli sprinted to the other side of the collapsed roof and nearly had his face skewered by the point of the blade shooting through the decaying wood.
Snapping his head back, he now knew the exact place where the target stood and knew full well they couldn’t get it out in time. Caeli let himself fall back, a yellow sheet appearing behind him.
He entered his hourglass portal and exited in mere fractions of a second, and instead of seeing the target trying to extract the blade from the wood, he only found the handle of the rapier.
Suddenly something hard connected with the side of his head and he veered to the side, off balance.
From the shadows, his opponent leaped out and walked forward again, digging their sword out of the wall in a swift and fluid swipe. It swished through the air tauntingly as Caeli once more found his feet.
“Crafty, aren’t you?” he sneered.
Caeli now realized that this was a fight he had to take more seriously. If they knew of his tricks with a portal, then he really needed to watch his step.
They said nothing as they took up a burst of speed, feet kicking against the boards in a half skip before one right after the other, advancing as they shot their rapier back and forth.
He quickly countered, now not making any more dramatic movements. He parried each swipe and attack, stepping back one foot after the other.
The sounds of metal clanging filled the air as it masked the hisses of the pistons and the creaking of wood at his feet.
His target suddenly stopped and jumped into the air, much higher than it would be considered normal. Through the broken ceiling, they disappeared and left him on the bottom floor.
Caeli would’ve run after them immediately, but he had to take it smart. No doubt they’d be waiting for a portal.
“You do know,” he called into the rafters, “Every second I’m alive is one closer to your demise. Cowering will not delay the inevitable.”
He remembered the surprise they had waiting for him the first time he cut through the ceiling. Trying to strain his ears, he ran off, listening for any creaks above his head.
Not hesitating to waste any time, he opened a portal beneath the giant sack. Now he hoped that it would catch his masked opponent much the same as it did him.
A ripping noise filled the air above his head and his suspicions were confirmed. They were waiting for him. With fine particles falling through the boards in the ceiling and the air thick with the powder, he sent his own portal up there to meet them. A moment later, he entered and found himself right in front of the other in a cloud of flour.
They shook their head from side to side, reeling at the airborne powder getting into their eyes.
Movement caught the corner of his eye as he took his first step forward to finally dispatch the target. Instantly alert to the danger, Caeli turned on his heel and raised his weapon to make contact with whatever lurked out of sight.
Brighter green eyes suddenly flooded his vision as someone of the exact appearance of the target lunged out from the corner of the room and swung an identical rapier at him.
The weapons made contact and he shoved their arms to the side, now not taking any more of their dodging tricks. Once more, he resorted to the kick but now aimed for the side of their ribs. A good hit with his ankle support would surely shatter bones and cartilage.
But when he expected to make contact with hardened bone and soft fabric, his leg passed through the air as the opponent’s body dissipated into smoke upon him touching it. Alarm rang through him as the form of the other completely vanished into black puffs as the rapier fell to the ground.
The second silence filled the air, Caeli knew better than to wait around for the next move. No doubt by now, the other had recovered from the surprise attack with the flour and to his expectations, a quick turn around with his sword ripping through the air in an upper diagonal slash, he cut through the fabric of the other.
A hiss left them as their cape became undone and dropped to the floor while they still tried to follow through with two smaller daggers.
Caeli became swallowed up by another glowing yellow portal, evading a new attack as they tried to bring both blades down upon him. They really didn’t know how to let up.
He appeared to the side of them, their blades now in no position to strike him comfortably. To dissuade them from attempting such a move, he grabbed their wrist with his free hand.
Their eyes ignited and they countered with their uncaptured arm, taking the dagger and stabbing it into his own wrist.
“I don’t think you got the memo,” he said quietly. Golden liquid began to form around the embedded knife as he squeezed. “But you’re fresh out of luck.”
He swung back his other occupied yet uninjured hand and with a flash of golden light, he sent it shooting toward their back. The opponent gave a gasp of shock as their hold on the knife loosened.
But they weren’t out of the ring yet. A new fire burned behind their eyes and set forth in their vigor and their legs appeared to suddenly give out. They sharply fell, supposedly by the fatal injury, causing Caeli to dip forward slightly.
Without realizing what hit them, they shot their head up and made contact with his chin. Caeli’s head snapped back as his grip on their arm loosened and he fell back. As he did, the other jumped back onto unsteady feet and readjusted the knife in their other hand.
“I think you need to reassess the situation.” They didn’t take the effort this time around to slowly stalk forward to Caeli, who had now only just fallen to the ground.
He felt something sharp pierce the flesh in his chest, digging in as the weight of the target fell onto him. Behind their bandana, he could hear them hissing through a toothy smile as they dug the knife in further and further.
There was no pain to be felt, and for a moment, he thought he heard the cracking of glass beneath the point of the knife. Emerald eyes widened with elation at the sight of more golden blood seeping out of the injury.
Caeli was not one to give up easily. Sure, anxiety began to creep itself up his chest, alerting him to the sound of the broken glass. He didn’t know whether or not to be appreciative that the Doctor had traded his heart for spare parts.
Now he knew that this person had him figured. But did they have all of him figured? Portals could wait another moment.
“Poor fawn coming all this way just to be beaten,” the other crooned with a strained voice. They tilted their head to the side as their cat-like pupils became slits. “Your employer put too much faith in you.”
“I think I’m doing just fine. I think I’m the perfect one for the job to knock you off your high horse.”
He needed to get this fine done as soon as possible, he knew he would be living on borrowed time if they managed to get another stab or two in. Judging how their hand tightened around the knife’s hilt, they were about to again.
The person gave a hacking laugh, no doubt living on their own borrowed time with the sword still embedded in their back.
“If I’m not getting out of here, then neither are you,” they rasped. Voice still thick with pain, they finally pulled the blade out of his chest and raised it again to hit him again.
Now was his chance. Caeli quickly reached down for the pocket watch, golden chain glinting in the moonlight filtering in from above their heads. The other didn’t notice, still focused on ending his life before their own was cut short.
“Then how about one last dance?”
With a flick of his wrist and shooting his arm up toward his opponent, the glittering chain caught onto their hands and looped around. The weight had been supported by the watch itself and the glass surface of it swung round and round.
His opponent’s eyes widened and they let out an angered snarl as they tried to jerk themselves back, but the hold had already become secure. Caeli yanked on the chain and they let go of the knife.
It clattered to the ground next to his ear as the other fell forward, unable to keep themselves upright. With a sense of pride that made his artificial heart rise, Caeli rolled out of the way to avoid getting squashed by them or the sword.
Now too weak to be able to counter and jump back onto their feet, the person hit the decayed boards hard and with a gasp of pain. In their back, the sword became partially dislodged.
The two of them knew it was over the moment that happened. Red blood turned orange by the glowing yellow of the blade began to pour out of their injury, and the target made no move to get up.
“You’ll rot for this,” they hissed.
Caeli stood over them, his own front stained with gold and flecks of blood from his adversary. As he put his hand on the circular hilt of his sword, he tried and failed to not let a sense of pride and amusement overtake him.
“I’ll be sure of that,” he cruelly promised.
His gloved hand curled around the hilt and not taking his eyes off of the back of the other’s head, he twisted the sword into their back.
Just like that, they fell still.
It was over.
Relief flooded through him for the first time ever since he started that wild goose chase, and now the hunted goose was ready to bring back. For two long he hunted that pest and they managed to get in a few good hits before they went.
No matter. He did the job, just as promised, and would bring his client a bounty to give him more standing. Another obstacle was cleared and he could now reap the reward.
The sword vanished into thin air, leaving nothing behind except for a last few glittering sparks that resembled embers. His eyes curled like half moons as he finally let the pride overtake him.
Even after such a short fight, they still lost. Imagine fleeing for that long, surviving out of pure will and thinking they had the upper hand so many times, only to give up right where it mattered most.
He could almost feel sorry for them. He still commended their resilience, but they marked themselves for dead the moment he became their hunter.
“Someone’s dying to meet you,” he told the corpse, “Let’s go meet them, shall we?”