Shadow

Duel and Sacrifice

Ashkiri Temple

"Have you decided?" Dusan al Ghul asked a brown-eyed Qaramzi el Zal who just arrived at the Temple and found him meditating before the Lazarus Pool.

"I have, Master Dusan." Qaramzi el Zal answered, joining Dusan on the floor.

"Has the Guild lived it's last day, or have I?" Dusan followed up, feeling rather calm and at peace.

"You have, but your legacy will live on." Qaramzi el Zal replied, and received a nod before Dusan resumed his meditation.

Qaramzi el Zal decided to focus on the Lazarus Pool. For some reason, he felt a connection with the Pools, both Ashkiri Temple and Nanda Parbat's. And the connection was similar to the one he felt with the Nemeton in Beacon Hills on his home Earth after the surrogate sacrifice ritual.

It was why Qaramzi el Zal, like Dusan, meditated beside the Lazarus Pool and it was always his first stop after returning from missions, to center himself and pretend, just for a moment, that he could feel the late love of his-No, Scott McCall's life Allison Argent and former best friend Mieczyslaw "Stiles" Stilinski.

He often wondered how the people he left behind were, how his mother was, including his father and friends, Scott's pack. But after a nogitsune wearing Stiles' face had a literal summoned demon kill Allison and she died in his arms, Scott wasn't the same, something broke within him.

Killing the nogitsune with Kira Yukimura, the girl he was starting to move on with, didn't repair what was broken within Scott, instead, it left him feeling hollow, and he filled that emptiness with anger and every negative emotion he could.

The days leading to Scott mysteriously appearing in Ashkiri Temple's Lazarus Pool were his darkest. He thought that if he had done what he should have done, what was needed, Allison would still be alive.

Yes, Stiles would have been a werewolf but being one was better than being dead, better than Allison dying.

Qaramzi el Zal, however, knew that they-Scott, should have killed the possessed Stiles when they learned the nogitsune possessed him like Kira's mother Noshiko repeatedly told them to.

They could have saved lives with the nogitsune's death, Allison's included, but they, werewolves, let a kitsune play them when Scott McCall should have brought it to its knees and ripped its throat out with his teeth.

Qaramzi el Zal knew Scott McCall's fatal mistake, which was why he, Qaramzi el Zal, was born. But after learning how Ra's al Ghul Malcolm Merlyn used his daughter to kill Nyssa al Ghul's love Sara Lance, Qaramzi el Zal thought that it was time Scott McCall resurfaced.

If Malcolm could use his own daughter the way that he did, there was no telling what more he was capable of. Who was to say it was the first time he did what he did?

The similarities between how Scott and Nyssa's individual loves died were too much to ignore, and so were Malcolm and the nogitsune's similarities.

With what Qaramzi el Zal has learned in the past four years, he knew that it was time Scott McCall resurfaced and did what was necessary. It was time. But Qaramzi el Zal had one last thing to do.

At that thought, Qaramzi el Zal heard the faint sound of a sword being drawn out before he heard it cut through the air towards his neck.

He quickly leaned back until his back touched the floor and hit the blade on its bottom flat side with his palm with enough force to force it out of a now shirtless Dusan's hand and into the air.

Just then, Qaramzi el Zal heard an arrow fly through the air, coming from the twin snow leopard statue alter towards his chest. He rolled to the side while taking off his shirt, away from Dusan, a couple of times, and so did Dusan and half a moment later the arrow hit the floor and exploded.

Both knew that an equally shirtless Sensei was behind the bow that let loose the arrow and that it was time, time for their duel which had already started.

As they got to their feet, Sensei released three arrows simultaneously in Qaramzi el Zal's direction, forcing him to keep moving and so he did by running towards Dusan and caught the sword that he disarmed Dusan of in its free fall and moved on to attack him.

Having anticipated that he would lose the sword, Dusan had a second one on his person and took it out to redirect Qaramzi el Zal's sword strike. He knew, from experience, that blocking Qaramzi el Zal's attacks was never a good idea.

The two men with swords proceeded with a fast-paced sword fight and an occasional physical attack, although rare for Dusan who received support from Sensei's well timed arrows, some of which were normal and others special like the first one, while he descended the stairs.

But as well timed as the arrows were, none hit their target although they did give Dusan a few breathers.

By the time Sensei reached the bottom of the stairs, bow and empty quiver on the floor, and joined the sword fight, two arrows were buried in Dusan's back due to Qaramzi el Zal using his super hearing to determine their course and forcing Dusan to step in front of the arrows with his back turned against them.

The once one on one sword fight turned into a fast-paced handicapped sword fight but Qaramzi el Zal held his own and avoided being cut by the two older men while he managed to inflict multiple tiny cuts on them.

Seeing how ineffective their attacks were, Sensei decided to sacrifice himself to give Dusan the opportunity to finally wound Qaramzi el Zal by not avoiding a sword strike at his abdomen. Instead, he allowed it to pierce through his abdomen and moved forward so that it went deeper and came out his back.

This move surprised both Qaramzi el Zal and Dusan but when Sensei's legs gave out and he fell on his knees, Dusan capitalized on the opportunity his grandfather sacrificed himself to give him by burying his sword through Qaramzi el Zal's side.