Sigma/Star

Chapter 128: In Pieces

The Twin Fang writhed with anticipation at Raul's words, springing to life as it began to bounce around. Raul always spun to match its movements, keeping himself face to face with his opponent. With a skillful assassin, one could never let them flank you or leave your sight. It was easy to watch them dance around you and save energy, but in a flash they could rip you apart, and someone with the weapons of the Twin Fang only needed to land a single blow in order to incapacitate him. "I haven't found pleasure in a dance in just so long. Nobody ever seems to last."

Raul grit his teeth as he spun out of the way of a lunge from his opponent. Her words almost entranced him, drawing out a curiosity about her particular insanity and methods. But as she spoke them, she attacked, creating a disorienting pattern. She knew who she was up against, and knew it well. Her style was especially potent against other assassins, for when she opened herself up to analysis, that was when she struck. It meant that Raul would have to ignore training and trying to find a weakness, and would focus more on instinct.

It was always a possibility that his training could carry him through this duel more than his observational skills. He just had to keep in mind that the woman may shift her style once she discovered he was no longer biting. "This is how you dance then?" Raul said, skirting to the side of a downward slash. He tried to retaliate with his own hidden blade, but the Twin Fang was already there, her dagger parrying it and turning the attack aside. "It seems rather boring."

"It has to be," came the immediate response, with no change in emotion. "One cannot simply tango or waltz in their first moments. It must be gradual and slow, and it must build into a moment of pure passion." The two entered back into their dance macabre, neither wishing to strike first, each watching the other for the next move as they encircled each other. So it only gets worse form here then, Raul thought.

The fighters entered into a stalemate, neither holding an advantage over the other. Raul certainly preferred quick strikes and assassinations, and to attack when he held some element of surprise, but it seemed this woman enjoyed staring down her opposition, and engaging in duels where she slowly chipped away. She had incited all of this, after all, when she probably could have attempted something craftier. It jus didn't make sense why she would do it though, because her fighting style wasn't suited to these duels either. She kept attempting quick jabs and barbs, and her weapon was designed to incapacitate in a single blow. Nothing she was doing indicated she wanted this fight either. So why engage in it?

Raul ducked an overhead swing and flipped backwards, anticipating the feint and follow-up. He was already calculating all of the possible combinations that could be chained with those two strikes, but as he hit his feet, he saw the Twin Fang back to standing across from him. It seemed his opponent was ready to hesitate, or was willing to toy with him and delay things, stretching them out unnecessarily. The two of them should have been exchanging blows, not staring at each other again. "Where's the fun if you aren't going to actually fight?"

"The dance itself is the fun. The flowing, the ebbing, the motions, these are things that hold fun in them. It is not in the moves themselves, but what happens between the moves."

"She makes no sense," Raul muttered, leaping back to counter the woman's own forward jump. He grabbed the shuriken from his back and deflected the dagger from the Twin Fang, keeping the motion going until he reset the weapon on his back. He needed to make larger strikes. Constantly dodging and blocking these tiny attacks would eventually lead to a mistake, to some sort of little scratch that would disable at least a portion of his Goliath, and then it was over. This was what she meant by the dance when she had spoken before, and Raul could feel himself being pulled into her web of movements and motions. All of it was an intricate trap designed to seduce and deceive, and the young pilot had to admire the technique of his opponent momentarily.