The Emperor of Assia, Akira Hanshiro, has had a lot of titles concerning his misadventures: Blade of the East, for being the top swordsman in Assia, Breeder of Females, for being a major playboy but the most infamous is the Silverborne Leader, in taste of his Holy Armament and his leading role in the Hunt. Alongside numerous heroes like Shroud the Bat Butcher, Luca the Dancing Swordman, François Lecourt, and Abraham Lincoln the Human Dracula, he made strides in his hunting days before posing the mantle to handle the hunt on an administrative level.
A man of his caliber is highly regarded as one of the symbols of hope, of justice against the vampires. So, it is only natural, that his only heir, the prince of Assia, is expected to reach the same heights, and even surpass…A lot of stress for one 19-year-old boy…
Suiga fairs well against the Imps. The vampire’s commands turn moot, and no imp follows him. Suiga had oiled his blade with Url’s imp sedative, leading them to their doom one by one.
Jack: Apparently, I was not the only one prepared.
Suiga: Have you finished stroking your blade, freak? You really thought letting loose a bunch of imps would turn the tide.
Jack: These were the warmup, human. I can’t feel complete if my prey’s blood doesn’t run hot in battle.
The vampire throws his cloak. Long beige hair, typical glasses, and padded armor. He holds an iron scimitar, and after a few swings, points it at his adversary, who has finished slaying his imps.
Jack: I pity you, hunter.
Suiga: How so, really?
Jack: Your head will roll before you ever be of any significant contribution to your team, your country, or your kind.
The vampire slowly approaches Suiga…
Jack: You are different from the other hunters, samurai. I’ve seen you.
Suiga: What are you getting at…
Jack: The plague doctor, he acts nice, and collected, but his morality falls out the window at a moment's notice. The noblegirl will slay anything in her path to prove her worth to her clan. Your chief, a brooding brute who’ll lose his cognition in the face of a vampire. All of them, have this grit, this… unhinged side in their fight
He stops halfway…
Jack: And yet you…have none
Suiga: If you are calling my teammates psychopaths, I’ll assure you they are nothing compared to what you monsters have achieved the past week.
Jack: This! This is what I’m talking about! I’ve seen all your fights. Coordinated, resourceful, truly something unexpected of a human…and yet no grit. No pulse, no desire to put everything on the line to decimate your foe.
Suiga: You have no idea what you are talking about, bat.
Jack: Don’t I, samurai? Out of all your comrades, you have yet to show your true ace up your sleeve. No royal swordsmanship or training can amount to what you avoid releasing…
Suiga now knows. Two drops of cold sweat run down his nape when he realizes the bat is referring to his Holy Armament. The weapon assigned to him that he so fears to use…
Suiga: I still find no connection to your words.
Jack: You are unpolished, hunter. I told you that I want my prey at its best before I lay waste upon it.
He takes a stance and prepares to strike…
Jack: I chose so. Before I destroy Landen again, I’ll have my fun with you. I’ll polish you for your last battle, and then I shall kill you. If you manage to please me enough…
Jack lunges at the samurai. Their swords meet.
Jack: I’ll turn you into my subordinate
Suiga: I’d rather have my corpse eaten than live to service you!
They both back off. A brief eye lock, and they clash once again. The hunter and the samurai appear even as they each strike their opponent viciously, every slash parried, every stab dodged. Sparks fly all over the room as iron and silver meet with every attack. Suiga tries to find an opening. He sidesteps to the vampire’s backline and strikes, Jack spreads his wings and floats to avoid the attack. The vampire turns and dives sword first at the hunter, Suiga quickly rolls forward and dodges the piercing attack. He wastes no second and throws two kunai at the bat. His wings prove hard to pierce, as the kunai only get stuck. They fall as the bat retracts his wings, and the clash continues similarly. Jack punches Suiga in the gut in an unfortunate opening and tries to slice him downwards using his vampiric strength for a lethal attack. Suiga uses his weakened state to fall on the ground and side-roll his way out of the attack. The vampire quickly rebounds and chases the hunter with relentless slashes from his scimitar. Now the tables turned, Suiga receives a fair beating from the vampire. He fails to dodge a few strikes, and he is slashed in his arms, legs, and ribs. The vampire manages to stay on the offensive but makes no attempt at any other lethal strikes.
Jack: Come on, samurai! Show it to me! Allow me to show you the potential you so yearn to hide!!
The assault continues. Even with some attacks blocked, the vampire manages to overpower our hero all around the room…
Jack: Accept my charity, hunter!! Consider this my extension of gratitude for being my punch bag before the grand finale!!!
The fight could make any human sweat from the fear of death. A fight-starved vampire lashes at you, his strikes feeling like being hit with a jackhammer, his wings blowing all dust up your face, the instance of death pervading every second of your clash. And yet, Suiga is not afraid of it.
He manages to find an opening. He takes off another kunai, slices the bat’s chin by fair chance, and pushes through him to disengage from the assault. His breath was out of rhythm, his heart pounding non-stop. He stares at the vampire. Time goes slow in his head as he’s thinking about his next move…
Suiga: This bat, he’s too good. His attacks feel like a lead rod against my katana. His technique, he definitely trained, and he matches the shrimp in skill. That attack was the only one I landed, and it’s no lie that he probably let it land. He’s toying with me…
Suiga stares at his trembling right hand…
Suiga: If I drag this out, I might not make it alive. We are equal in skill, but his unnatural strength and speed are just… Is this the gap in our skills without my armament…
The boy’s face turns desperate as he realizes the only way out of this might actually be using his weapon. Before he even dares to think about it, Jack attacks him once again. Suiga tries to block the attacks and land a strike, but the bat’s strength proves an unsurmountable wall to the weakened Suiga. After a few hits, he kicks Suiga away and taunts him…
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Jack: Really!? I refuse to believe that you have no ace up your sleeve!
He contemplates the situation as Suiga chooses to lash at him once again, silver sword in hand…
Jack: Could it be… you are rather ashamed?
He effortlessly parries the hunter’s strike and pushes him away once more.
Jack: You are in a tight spot, so you’d be a fool to reserve your weapon up until now. It’s not fear because you’ve used more than questionable tactics in your fight with Wutsworth…
Another lunge, another parry, another kick to the hunter’s guts that pushes him back…
Jack: So it’s a shame. But what weapon could be so weak, or so disgusting, or so idiotic that a hunter would prefer to suffer through a fight and get mocked by his peers just to hide it away…
Suiga tries to get up, bruised and bleeding. He looks down as the vampire’s slander strikes his heart head-on. The hunter is ashamed of his weapon…
Jack: None the matter, you are obliged to take it out. Want to know why, hunter?
Jack wipes off the blood from his scimitar and swings it a few times as he strolls around the room, waiting for Suiga’s next assault.
Jack: You are going to die, samurai. No matter the outcome. But if you don’t weaken me, I’ll hunt down your unfortunate friends, and do I promise you their fates will be a lot more gruesome than yours...So choose, will you die knowing your shame brought your teammates downfall, or you will die, a small contribution to your kind, but a contribution, nonetheless.
Suiga’s eyes widen out. The threat of his comrade’s lives starts looming over his head. Throughout the fight with Wutsworth, throughout the fight in VHC, his choice to avoid his strongest tool has brought the team mostly misfortune and difficulty. As he gets up, he stares at the vampire taunting him. His pupils have reduced in size, and his muscles are tensed to a breaking point. He raises his right arm to the side and opens his palm.
Jack: Interesting. A smart choice, human.
Suiga: You call me a fool or avoider for choosing to not resort to this…but you are a fool yourself, bat.
Jack: What is this now, a sudden surge of arrogance?
Suiga: Not arrogance. Pity.
The air is void. Other than the two foe’s voices, nothing disrupts the empty room. Suddenly, the hunter’s bare open palm starts is slowly set aflame. The cinders encircling it are black and orange, resembling a soul from the hells sprouting and clawing its way out.
Jack: (Awkward. Hunter armaments emanate holy light and are silver in nature…)What would you feel pity about in all of this? You are about to die as my warmup event to the destruction of Landen!
Suiga: You had one chance to kill me. But your arrogance and curiosity will get the better of you now.
The flames get stronger and stronger as they burn. Suiga’s palm rests intact.
Suiga: You are right. I am ashamed of this monstrosity. I’m the only hunter alive who has to use this. But this is not the only reason I never pull this trick against you…
Suiga starts praying… He flashes back to the empire, during his training as a teen with his father. The courtyard is filled with burns and destroyed dummies. Suiga and his father, a much larger, muscular, and more rugged adult version of him look down on the hunter in training as they lay down, surrounded by chaos.
Hanshiro: Suiga, remember this fondly. This thing you wield is going to make some people afraid. Hell, our people already hate you for this!!
Suiga: But father, it’s not my f-
Hanshiro: You think I don’t know that!? I would have cut your arm clean off if that wasn’t true!!
He gets up…
Hanshiro: Never be ashamed of it. No matter what this is, it’s going to save you from the bats. It’s going to save others from the bats. Your weapon doesn’t define you, Suiga. Bare it with pride.
Suiga looks over his father, amazed by the man’s stature, and now reassured by his words…
Hanshiro: Just…no one should be close to you when you use it.
Behind the man’s large back, violent burning slash wounds melt his body. He struggles to hold back his pain and screams…
Hanshiro: Wouldn’t want anyone on your team getting hit like this…
Back to the present, Suiga prays…
Oh Lord of the Sun. You who have cursed your soldier with the worst of misfortunes. You who bestowed upon your hunter the blight of vampires. Strengthen my blade once again. Curse my hand with the arsonist’s berserker flames.
The flames expand to the side, and from the cinders form a black katana. Suiga drops his tired silver blade and grasps the molting black blade, all while holding his gaze upon the confused vampire.
Jack: (A new blade. Typical of a samurai, I suppose. But those flames. No sign of the Sun bastard’s essence. And that is silver, but why is it black…)
Suiga keeps staring at the bat.
Jack: (Black flames, black flames…no…)
The vampire freezes. His stature of pride and confidence starts to falter as he continues to gaze upon the ominous cinders falling out of the blade…
Jack: Kunishiro the Arsonist. Those hellish flames could only be his…
Jack prepares to strike, but he stays more cautious. Whatever he recognized, it must be terrifying enough to shake a vampire’s confidence.
Suiga: Where’s your tongue, asshole?! I got tired of hearing you prattle on and on…
Suiga approaches him. The bruises don’t concern him, the bleeding keeps on, but he doesn’t care. He doesn’t take a stance, he holds his katana like a butchering cleaver. Jack holds his ground and prepares for another clash.
Jack: You hypocrite. You call yourself a hunter!! How dare you hold my kin’s blighted soul! You were right to be ashamed of this! This is nothing to be proud of!!! You disgusting monster!!
Instead of waiting, Jack lashes at the hunter.
Jack: (I don’t care if he has a blight! I’ll end this here and now before he gets a chance to use it!!) You are still warm up to me, scumbag!!! I’ll slice your entrails off and then-
Jack strikes. The hunter parries his attack flawlessly. The force is enough to push both of them back. Suiga keeps on and slashes the bat’s exposed chest. Blighted flames engulf the blade and push the bat away as he’s sliced in the chest. Agonizing pain as the burning wound fails to close. The flames keep tearing away his flesh. The fire on Suiga’s blade gets stronger, and his gaze turns more void of any doubts.
Suiga: Come on. Entertain me, freak.
Suiga slashes again. The whirlwind pushes a crescent shape of flames on the fleeing vampire and strikes him on the legs. He tries to flee by flight, but another flying slash burns his wings. The more the vampire burns, the more the hunter’s blade turns stronger.
Jack: (Kunishiro’s flames. The more they burned, the stronger he got…)
Jack takes out a flask of blood. He chugs it down. His wound somehow managed to heal at half capacity. He grabs his scimitar and starts an assault of slices on the hunter. A few failed attacks parried strikes from the hunter, and the vampire is sliced three times. The flaming blade violently cuts through the bat's flesh, each time leaving him in agonizing pain. His regeneration fails him, and he falls back to the ground as the hunter prepares a final strike.
Suiga: I pity you, vampire.
Jack: You bastard!! Do you think killing me will make you a hunter!!? Remember this, samurai! That blade will always be a vampire!! You’ll walk on this Earth knowing you are relying on your sworn enemy to survive!!
Suiga: I don’t care. As long as my friends live, as long as I can save people…as long as I can keep slaying you like I please…
Suiga cuts the vampire’s head with all his might, sending the charred head flying and leaving the beheaded body spurting out blood.
Suiga: I don’t mind relying on this freak…
The samurai gasps. The blight strikes both vampire and human flesh harder than anything in the world. He counts on his fingers…
Suiga: 15 minutes. I have to end this quickly or I won’t be able to control the blade…
The cinders calm down as the burning wounds on the corpse cool off…
Suiga recuperates with one of Url’s potions and departs for the next room, hoping he’ll find his teammates before anything happens to them…
Suiga: I can’t avoid this for now. I must hope the others won’t discard me…
Aaron saving him from Lau’s questions during the fight with Wutsworth comes to his mind, along with Url’s daily kind acts and Lau’s shouting. He bites his lips and keeps on walking…