02-19-2018, 11:08 AM
Argento stared across the landscape at the sneering demon selected from the opposing pit.
In the background, someone was barking instructions and information about the two combatants. The audience, some who recognized the paladin, were already chanting and clamoring for his blood.
For his part, the paladin stood his ground and watched intently as the bipedal devil drew a mace from his waist and stalked his prey. He had been captured with no weapons, but that didn’t mean he was unarmed. Quite to the contrary, Argento knew he had more at his disposal than the red-skinned creature marching toward him.
Flexing his fingers, the paladin reached up and adjusted the breast plate that hugged his chest. Salvaged from some dead gladiator in the pits, the armor fit him as well as he could hope for in a hand-me-down.
The demon got close enough that it broke into a sprint.
Argento side-stepped and buried a fist up into its gaut, exposed gut. As the monster writhed on the floor, the paladin lifted his hands and summoned the Day’Suis in a scintillating sparkle of lights.
“You will not enjoy this,” he whispered as he brought the head of the hammer crashing down onto the monster’s skull.
With no spectacle and the hated holy knight claiming victory, the crowd turned to boos and hisses as the crew rushed out to apprehend Argento. He discarded the hammer and offered his hands like a good convict, and within a few minutes, he was being kicked into a cage down below the facility.
From the next cell over, a human-sounding voice addressed the paladin. “You’ve got an attitude.”
The man shook his head. “Quite the opposite.”
“You’ve been here before, haven’t you? You’re that holy man.”
Argento nodded his head. “Correct.”
“They said you escaped… what happened?”
“I let them return me here.”
The man in the other cell frowned. “Bullshit. No one would do that.”
With a scowl, the paladin looked the man in the eyes and nodded his head. “Correct, but I have business here.”
“You’re insane, aren’t you?”
Argento almost laughed at that remark. “No, but by the end of this, they will wish that I was.”
In the background, someone was barking instructions and information about the two combatants. The audience, some who recognized the paladin, were already chanting and clamoring for his blood.
For his part, the paladin stood his ground and watched intently as the bipedal devil drew a mace from his waist and stalked his prey. He had been captured with no weapons, but that didn’t mean he was unarmed. Quite to the contrary, Argento knew he had more at his disposal than the red-skinned creature marching toward him.
Flexing his fingers, the paladin reached up and adjusted the breast plate that hugged his chest. Salvaged from some dead gladiator in the pits, the armor fit him as well as he could hope for in a hand-me-down.
The demon got close enough that it broke into a sprint.
Argento side-stepped and buried a fist up into its gaut, exposed gut. As the monster writhed on the floor, the paladin lifted his hands and summoned the Day’Suis in a scintillating sparkle of lights.
“You will not enjoy this,” he whispered as he brought the head of the hammer crashing down onto the monster’s skull.
With no spectacle and the hated holy knight claiming victory, the crowd turned to boos and hisses as the crew rushed out to apprehend Argento. He discarded the hammer and offered his hands like a good convict, and within a few minutes, he was being kicked into a cage down below the facility.
From the next cell over, a human-sounding voice addressed the paladin. “You’ve got an attitude.”
The man shook his head. “Quite the opposite.”
“You’ve been here before, haven’t you? You’re that holy man.”
Argento nodded his head. “Correct.”
“They said you escaped… what happened?”
“I let them return me here.”
The man in the other cell frowned. “Bullshit. No one would do that.”
With a scowl, the paladin looked the man in the eyes and nodded his head. “Correct, but I have business here.”
“You’re insane, aren’t you?”
Argento almost laughed at that remark. “No, but by the end of this, they will wish that I was.”
Quote:Argento running word count: 29,136