Zone C -- Megacity One

[Strazio Rockwell]

In response to the swordsman’s invitation the Avatar of Rage trundled forth. What was once a burning beacon of distilled rage was now little more than a candle at the end of its wick. Rain battered the fiery endoskeleton and threatened to extinguish the creature. And while the rain wasn’t solely to blame for his reversion it certainly did not help matters any. Ragged patches of ravaged skin stitched themselves back together and formed an ill-fit shell of flesh. Strazio growled and stumbled, bracing himself against a nearby wall. Hot blood rushed from the hole in his gut and he pressed a pale fist against the open wound. He sucked air, filling his lungs with labored and uneven breaths.

As the power of the Avatar waned so did Strazio’s grip on the conscious world. For all of his rage and for all of his might exsanguination affected him as it would any other man. Dark clouds swirled in his peripherals and his vision frayed. Takezō shifted in and out of Strazio’s sight. Not because the swordsman was mobile, but rather because Strazio’s eyes could not keep focus for more than a few seconds. He slid down the wall and fell on all fours.

“Fuck,” he whispered with a hint of fear in his throat, “fuck, fuck, fuck,fuck.”

Shinmen laughed, “have you finally bleed to death?”

Strazio tried to glare, but all expression had left his face. Instead he merely stared, slack-jawed, at his opponent. Words tried to leave his mouth, but were turned into nothing but a garbled mush. Shinmen chuckled and started limping towards the fallen mage. However as he stepped past the fallen troll something grabbed his ankle. Pallid fingers clutched the man’s leg and they belonged to none other than the high-blood himself.

“Yo, motherfucker,” Gamzee said, not even bothering to raise his head of the ground, “can’t have you walkin’ away now, I still got all kinna pep and vinegar.”

“That so?” Takezō said and pulled his leg free, “then I’ll just have to bleed it out of you.”

Using his boot to keep the troll pinned Shinmen grabbed the hilt of his blade and cranked on it. Strazio watched as his friend was tortured by the seemingly demonic swordsman.

“Dammit Gamz,” he muttered.

Wresting control over his breathing he managed to find some sort of equilibrium. Every limb felt like under-cooked noodles, and his entire body felt too heavy to be carries. His vision narrowed and focused, entering a sort of extreme tunnel vision. He started to crawl along the wall, using it as a brace for his ruined body. As he neared the two he took a deep breath and crawled to his feet. For a moment he stood still as the sudden change in blood pressure starved his brain. But once he was back online he half-stumbled, half-charged the swordsman.

Their brawl lasted for all of two seconds as Strazio was overpowered and for the second time that night someone was thrown through a glass storefront. The white-haired mage groaned as he found himself belly-up inside some kind of hunting goods store. He scanned his surroundings and his gaze came to rest upon a display stand that held a small hatchet. Outside he could hear Gamzee scuffle with Shinmen, and it did not sound promising. Well, he figured as he crawled to the weapon, if there ever was a time for a Hail Mary this was it. He pressed his mangled hand against the floorboards and examined it. After having been run through and chomped on the paw was damn near useless in all ways except for one. He cut a strip from his pants and formed a tourniquet around the hand’s wrist.

“You fuckin’ owe me one Gamzee,” he muttered and raised the axe high.

In one fluid motion he cleaved his hand free from his arm, cutting it at the wrist joint. Jets of dark red blood sprayed from the wound. With his still functioning hand he dropped the hatchet and clenched his newfound stump. A burst of magick, barely enough to be considered an attack, charred the edge of his arm. Even a team of master surgeons would have been hard-pressed to reverse the damage he had done to the wound, but between the tourniquet and cauterization the bleeding had more or less stopped.

He grabbed his severed hand and stood on shaky legs. He stumbled over to the window and peered down the street. Gamzee was trying his damnedest to not acquire new holes, but the swordsman did his best to go against the troll’s wishes.

“Gamzee!” Strazio shouted, “fuckin’ move!”

With that he threw his severed hand at them. Neither even had a chance to process the morbid curiosity before it became an unstable bomb and detonated.

Strazio used detonate on his own hand. This has been one helluva brutal fight, I wish the best of luck to Shinmen! Please be gentle Karl.