Can A Emperical Mage Lose?

JP with Redsword, Lasersexpanther and Cindy

Sung was not sure, still not sensing Lily or the good Doctor. Sung refocused his ki again. He looked over the bodies for any information or keys that might help. After a few deep breaths. Let us take the Orc down, we don't need that at our backs and we can Hide the bodies there." suggested Sung. "Your thoughts?" asked Sung, still looking around.

"Not my ship." Masao said, "Not the captain. I am following for now."

Sasha looked around. "Yeah Orc first. Hard for something that big to sneak up on me, but I'd rather not get pincered.”

The Orc is going to take a while to get to, based on the distant felt. The closer the three of them get the easier it becomes to tell, the sound is likely from the Orc or close by the Orc.

About 15 minutes towards the Orc, and that danger sense hits Sung and Maseo again.

From behind, back towards where the ratmen had been killed you can hear. "They must have gone down here." In English with a French accent.

Another male voice, also in English but with a more Greek accent responded. "Let us find them."

Sung and Maseo can sense, these are probably humans but they can also sense magic among the group coming towards them.

"We deal with them first," said Sung solemnly. "I.... I am going to face them and watch my back" stated Sung as he walked towards the people. His mind was racing; he had not been in this type of investment in a long time and his heart was almost hurting. not in a physical way but more emotionally he was a killing machine again. One part of him said know another part of him said kill them all, leave none. The Schwarz dragon of kōrikuro was about to be awakened once more and the slaughter will begin.

There have been no bends or junctions in the tunnel since Sung, Maseo and Sasha headed towards the Orc.

The light from the men headed in their direction is getting closer but they don’t seem to be rushing to get anywhere.

Sasha nodded, stowing her pistols and taking out a wicked looking knife of some sort. She trusted Sung's skills but if he ended up not being quick enough she'd need to rush to assist to keep them from screaming too much and calling the whole temple down on them. Masao kept to his job of providing the least light he could and the three still being able to see, and extending his senses to the rear to avoid being flanked.

The men obviously are getting closer as they aren't trying to hide it. Before they reach Sasha, Sung and Maseo, an invisible wall can be felt behind the three.

A flash of light, then a dark blurr, lands in front of Sung. A man - obviously a powerful mage appears. A French accent speaks in English. "You all must be working for Lady Elizabeth. So, tell me did the Lady survive my attack?”

Sung moved to one side with in the blink of an eye his hand ran down his blad as he mumbled some words in Japanese. Sung was now just over arm's length away. His sword has almost a hue on the edge of his sword.

"You will never know," replied Sung camly. He moved with the grace and precision of a master with his sword. He moved with a mix of hard, linear lines, then into soft, circular motions. Then both hard and soft, both straight-line and circular movements. the sound of the sword cutting the air could be heard with the speed and power Sung was delivering. He knew there was a chance it was an illusion in front of him but waited for someone to get into his Awareness the powerful mage can't hide from that. Sung would kill anything could touch with his blade.

Sasha turned to face the men Sung was approaching. She changed the grip on her knife and lowered her stance. Her shoulders hunching slightly, as her aura began to shift and grow. What was once a calm stream, grew double in size and began to feel more like a raging fire. Turning off the thing in her brain that was repulsed by killing, tapping into the old blood of humanity, the more primal instincts.

It took longer for the men to get there, but only by a few moments because they increased their speed upon the mage leaving.

Upon the feeling that overcame the men, they stopped in their track. The empirical mage however just raised a brown at the masked woman, and grinned. "My, my it seems as if we have a Hunter among us." He then shook his head at the men. "Well, don't just stand there, get them."

Two of the men descended upon Sasha, the other two upon Maseo with their swords drawn.

The Empirical mage went towards Sung. He couldn't sense the magic on the sword Sung was carrying, and, assuming without a magical weapon, he had the upper hand. He would find out that wasn't the case, but he pulled his own magically infused sword, charging towards Sung.

Sung moved to one side as the Emperical mage moved forward with a thrust of his sword. It looked like Sung was going to do nothing. Seeing the blade of the mage Sung was insulted by its quality. He would never let something like that be his. Sung watched in slow motion as the tip passed him. Sung moved past the mage with a small turn and then spun as his sword easily deflected the mage's sword. Sparks flew as the two swords connected as chips came from the mage's sword.

Sung continued past the mage with such speed he was hard to track. The mage realized what had happened but it was too late. Sung struck the mage in the back with his sword; the move looked to be effortless. With Sung's speed and grace of movement. Blood ran off of Sung's blade and splashed on the wall from the sword stroke.

The mage stumbled forward as his body blurred then slowly turned to smoke and vanished in seconds. Sung turned and changed the direction of his sword. Looking for the next one to be cut down. the Empirical mage and Sung's fight was over in seconds. It was almost not even seen.

"Two on one hardly seems fair." Masao said, "You need at least two more guys." Putting his free hand behind his back. In a more swashbuckling pose. "Come then. Let's get crazy."

Sasha on the other hand was silent; her pupils pinpoint, her deep breathing more like a growl. She lunged forward raking her jagged knife at the air, her handling of the knife easily swept most of the empty space before her.

The fight between Sung and the Empirical Mage, Pascal, was so fast that the humans with Pascal didn't even realize the Mage wasn't still fighting with them.

The men didn't respond to Maseo, they both lunged at him with their swords drawn, one of the swords hit Maseo's.

The two on Sasha seemed more unsure of what to do, as they didn't understand why the woman seemed bigger than she was. So, when she used her knife as one of the men was quickly approaching, the one closest to Sasha got nicked. It was then the other came forward, lunging towards Sasha.

The man who was nicked felt that cut more like a tearing than slash. The man who lunged at her felt his arm grabbed by her free hand, the fist of the knife hand cracking between his eyes directly on the bridge of his nose and was then slammed into the wall causing him to almost drop his sword but Sasha was moving past him towards the man who was cut. Her breathing almost sounded like low growls, as she bared down on him.

Masao twisted into the slash, pushing it mostly away from a sword lock and kicked one of the men in the side of the knee. Causing the man to stumble letting Masao fully deflect the blade and shoulder check the man getting him to back off.

"Masao, need one alive," said Sung as he moved on the one that got shoulder checked. The man stumbled back some. Sung did not give him a chance to recover, grabbing the man Using his leverage, and legs Sung flipped his opponent. moving with Sung they rolled back words. In the end, the man hit the ground with Sung on top. The man screams in pain as his arm is twisted in an unnatural position dropping anything he had in his hands. Sung with another move had his sword at the man's throat. "surrender," commanded Sung as he put more torquing on the man's arm and body to cause more pain and hold him in place.

The men did nothing to retreat, it was if they weren't that concerned or thinking they might end up dead. The one that was nicked, didn't stop to check his wound and just went again at Sasha. The one that had gotten knocked into the wall was trying to regain himself but did manage to stand back up.

The kick to the knee had downed momentarily, the man who had gone after Maseo. When Sung, got the other man and had him in such a way that was either death or surrender. "Surrender...surrender." Surprisingly, this particular guard gave up, as if he did not want to die today.

"Gotya." Masao said, cracking the risen but dazed man with the basket of his cutlass, dazing him again but it mattered little when he was run through with the blade. Kicking the limp to the ground. "Ugh...killing is so distasteful..." he said wiping his blade off on one of the dead men's clothes.

Sasha nearly sprinted at the men coming at her. The one she'd cut instinctively moved to try to avoid the charge and felt what he thought was a small scratch against this throat. Something on her strange getup that brushed him, until he felt the warm sticky telltale feeling of blood on his collar, then more and more, in a panic he reached up to touch the cut, but doing so spread the cut and he began to bleed out, slumping against the wall. The other man, though driven by his faith a moment before felt fear, backing into the dark Sasha followed. The only thing that came next was a cut short scream, and a limp thump against stone. Then Sasha stalked out of the dark.

With the other three men dead, he looked up at Sung. Fear was in his eyes. Speaking in broken English with a heavy Greek accent, the man said, "What...why you no kill me. What you want?”