Meanwhile, miles away from that scene, Templar, the cyborgnetic general from the Core Empire. Has been wandering the vast baran plains of what used to be towns and cities.

He would smirk if he had any sort of face, he helped aid bring this pityfull planet to its knees. But as quickly as they lain waste to Earth, the Core Empire fell even quicker, with the disappearnce of their leader and the loss of their armies.

Templar has escaped the Allience base after he'd been treated for his injuries, he finds it sickening he was treated by those fools, but it was THEIR mistake to heal a Core general.....

After escaping and being chased some of the way by Aremtis, hes now walking down a street of the bombed out shells of the ex New york city.

(just a quick thing so I know where I am)

OOC: Right, I've been forum-inactive for WAY too long >_> Time to get back on the DJL!

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Hera's blade sang on it's own wind as he ran through the trees. Every here and there, he and the others had to stop; humans were still about in the park at night. Once or twice, Hera had the others go ahead without him, only to meet up with them moments later after 'dissuading' rowdy teenagers from torturing or vandalizing the trees and stones of the park.

Not ten minutes after their initial sortie from the northern end of Central Park, Hera and the others came to an abrupt halt. Or rather, Jake and everybody else came to a halt, whereas Hera had to flare his wings and cushion his own stop.

Jake inspected the rocks. "Hey Rose, where's the way in again?"

Rose disappeared into the shadows. Not even five seconds later, a hatch from the ground began to open. She re-emerged from the trees and started down the steps. "Let's go. We don't know what we'll find down there, so stay sharp."

"Wait," Hera said, his eyes roving the landscape. Suddenly, his blade was at the ready, and his tail writhed in anticipation. Quietly, he said, "We have company..."

As if on cue, a full score of Huntsclan dropped from the trees. Hera hadn't paid much heed to his energy sensory beforehand; humans weren't particularly strong, but they were vexxingly resistant and stubborn. Doing a quick count, Hera chuckled and lowered his blade, completely at ease.

His voice could be heard quite clearly over the whistling of the chain weaponry some of the Huntsclan were wielding. "Nevermind. Go on ahead; I'll clean up here. There's only twenty, maybe more. Nothing I can't handle."

Jake cocked an eyebrow. "Twenty Huntsclan?" He narrowed his eyes and whispered, "Eye of the Dragon!" Sure enough, Jake counted about twenty surrounding fighters wielding an impressive array of weaponry. There were chain flails, traditional Huntsclan staves, and even the odd...were those swords? Wow, Jake thought. Good thing they don't use guns, or we'd be goners. "You think you can take 'em all?" Jake asked.

"Easily," Hera scoffed. "They're humans with toys. None of them have any mastery with their weapons, nor are they particularly intelligent. I mean, they're using swords in a world that uses guns. I have the reflexes to justify my melee orientation; they don't." As if to illustrate his point, Hera flourished his blade and charged one of the Huntsclan. The defending member gave a pitiful thrust of his staff, but it was parried aside and replaced by a sword sticking through his gut.

"What the hell?!" Jake roared. He made to jump forward, only to be blocked by a Huntsclan member. The assailant knocked Jake across the head, sending the boy sprawling to the ground in a daze. As the Huntsclan member raised his blade to deliver a killing blow, a scythe-like blade protruded from his neck, severing the head and killing the member instantly. Jake raised his hand to cover his face as red blood showered the field.

"You can question my actions later," Hera called over the dull thud of the decapitated body smacking the ground. "Right now you have to get inside that complex." The next second he was beside another Huntsclan member. A quick sword fight was all it took to force him to backpedal, leaving an opening for Hera's left claw to jab through his heart. A quick siezure racked the Huntsman's body before it fell limp. Hera shook the corpse from his hand and swerved his head, setting his sights on his next target.

"Jake, leave him!" Rose said, doing her best not to stare at the blood-covered Allsie. "Let's go; we have to get to Arkansan and Kane!"

"What?!" Jake cried. "Leave him? While he just slaughters them?"

"Kid!" Fu Dog yelled. "Get going! We'll talk about this later." He pushed with his head against Jake's legs, urging the boy to get up.

Jake was about to retort when Rose grabbed him by the hand and threw him down the shaft. He grunted as he tumbled and rolled through the dirt, eventually progressing to a stone hallway. A few seconds later, Spud, Artemis, Fu, and Rose appeared at the bottom alongside a very mad Jake.

"Yo, what are you doing?!" Jake roared. "That...thing is up there killing all those-"

"Shut it, kid," Artemis growled, looking like she was about to hurl.

Jake was about to retort when Rose cut in. "Jake, wait. Did you see the look in his eyes? He wasn't happy, he was..."

"Sad," Spud finished, looking back up the shaft. The screams of the perishing Huntsclan could be heard through the tunnel...

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Hera's blade shone red in the moonlight, cutting its way through limbs and digits as the Allsie massacred his way to victory. Ten seconds since Rose had thrown Jake into the lair, and Hera had already dispatched six more of the Huntsclan. His fur was dyed purple from all the blood he'd shed. The red blood that covered his tail blade sprayed everywhere whenever he whipped his tail, only to be replaced by more as the blade found its mark in the body of another Huntsclan member.

Nine down, eleven to go, Hera thought ruefully. It's a pity that humans only understand whatever language they speak...violence is such a rancid affair... One of the Huntsclan backed away, but the other ten - erroneously thinking that there was strength in numbers - charged Hera in a mad rush.

Hera cursed under his breath. He sheathed his blade and whirled his arms, fully extending them at his sides, fists pointing down to the ground. In the same movement, two energy blades sprouted from his forearms, crackling and hissing as the blood was evaporated from the fur on his arms.

With a roar, Hera rushed into the fray. Before entering he let loose a single slash of energy from the blades, scattering the Huntsclan and allowing him to place himself in the centre of them. Under normal circumstances, this would be disadvantageous, but with twin blades of energy...it was the perfect position.

Blood sprayed everywhere as Hera milled about, moving from one target to the next with lightning speed. By the time he was done, heads and limbs littered the ground, and bodies lay in pools of their own blood. Hera's blades sizzled one last time and a body fell before him, sliced completely in half through the torso. Hera sighed, fighting back the irrepressible feeling of guilt which came with such a massacre. He massaged his conscience by the fact that it was necessary, and that there was still one left...

And that one had tried to run away. Hera could hear him, several hundred metres away, running for his life. Hera jumped into the air and soared after him. He overtook the escapee in less than a minute.

Grabbing the Hunstman by the throat, Hera dragged him through the air back to the lair's entrance. "You are going to take us to the Dragon Arkansan." He threw the clan member on the ground among the bodies. "And if you don't, you will end up like them. Understand?" Hera's gut did a flip as the man nodded. It felt so WRONG to put out death threats. But he'd done it before, like now, because he had to. Because it was the fastest and most efficient way of getting things done with cruel people.

So fire against fire didn't work. All that meant was that you had to make an even bigger one.

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OOC: Right, so the timing of this post is a bit odd. Due to the timing of the fight and everything else, we're setting this in the early morning, just before dawn. Now, some people will find it odd that I mentioned moonlight when it's dawn, right? Well, the moon itself appears during the mornings for half of the lunar cycle. So it DOES shine during the mornings.

And apologies if this is gory, but I haven't even broached the tip of the iceberg yet. Hera can be very 'efficient' when he has to be. He just hates it like nothing else >__>

Moving away from the events unfolding at the huntslair...even further out and away into the far reaches of outer space. A industrial encrusted planet, the home of a parasite like race known only as the 'Core' residing on the polluted plant called Core Prime. Its a desolate planet, where no plant or anaimal life exsist, wiped out by the Cores demanding needs for industry and its lust for war....for many, many years they consumed the planets natural resoures, running the planet dry, forcing the armies of the Core to spread like a swarm of locusts the neighbouring planets, and when those resources were depleted, the Core would turn the planet into a huge factory, spewing out weapons of war. Droids, Tanks, Aero-Fighters and Heavy armed ships the size of a skyscraper. It wasent long before the Core had theyre electronic eyes set on the Planet Earth, but wernt counting on the planets resistant defence in the long term by winged creatures and humans. Core High command lost their leader, Coredeath, in the final battle for Earth, now with the Core droid armies in ruin on the planet and their leader lost, High command were forced to retreat without their leader, or face total and crushing defeat.

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In a vast chamber that was dimly lit with light, sat behind a wide metal table, were 5 droids. The Core insignia printed in red on their breastplates and their bodies painted a jet black. They were looking from one to another, it had been months now since the last defeat and with no word from Coredeath, the droids felt the worse had happened and that he had been killed in action...

"So.....where does this leave us?" One of them said

"I do not know...the Empire is finished, with no-one to guide us, even we cannot control the vast amount of droid soldiers we have"

"You pity yourself, we still have the control uplink to the millions of droids across our empire, and you say were not in control?"

One of them shook its head "Thats not what I mean, the organic part of us, Coredeath, he is what kept the empire in check, we need him!"

There was a mutter of electronic voices amougst them, and one raised its arm to quieten the chatter "That we do B-117, he may still be alive"

"I say we go back to that planet! Dont bother with the capturing them, kill them all! No mistakes this time!"

"What do you suggest?..."

"We return to this planet...Earth... we turn every living thing into corpses, no warning, no mercy, no retreat, we're machines and dont feel fear nor pain, we use every resource avalible to us, Earth will belong to the Core after this one attack, and the surface will never be the same again...."

There was a breif moment of silence, until it was broken "And what about the Allience? If you claim to be able to destroy them, why in the past have they managed to defeat us? 4 times?"

"This time will be different, we send a massive invasion force, bigger than any other we've assembled in our history, find our leader if he still lives, and then devote ourselves to the destruction of the Allience, without them, the planet will be helpless"

"Then it is agreed then..the Earth will fall, and this time, we WILL be the ones Victorious"

O.O.C. Hey guys. So, Magan (Arkansan) asked me to come back for a little while because she wanted to finish our fight here on DJL, so thats what we are going to do. Whether DJL continues is completely up to you all, if there is interest in continuing the story I may even stick around longer. In any case, Magan and I have agreed to try something a little different for this fight. We will be playing it like a standard RPG meaning we adopt the following rules.

1.) Magan and I will only control OUR respective characters
2.) We won't discuss the fight outside of DJL
Also, the posts will be shorter, just because we can't dictate a whole lot before the other player reacts. I hope you enjoy reading our work, and long live DJL!
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Kane spun his hunting staff around his hand, checking the balance as he strode confidently toward the arena. He'd liberated the staff from a nearby arms stash moments before, no more training staff for him, this time around he was going in prepared.

Thick double doors slid apart as Kane reached them to admit a torrent of booming cheers. From this the Hunter gathered that Arkansan was already in the cage, no clansmen would ever cheer if they thought a dragon were coming. A triumphant smile stretched Michael Kane's features and he raised his staff high over his head in acceptace of the clans cheering.

The smile still plain on his face, Kane climbed the few steps into the arena and heard the steel door clang shut behind him. He locked eyes with his former comrade. "Greetings, Dragon.", he said coldly, and with all the bitterness he could muster.

Arkansan began to strafe in a wide arc. “I don't want to hurt you Kane.” the female Dragon called, "And I don't think you want to kill me either.”

Kane began to strafe as well, keeping his eyes locked on Arkansan as he replied, "“It doesn't matter what you or I want. We both know there's only one way this can end.”

"I know", came Arkansan's reply, and she attacked!

The two forces, human and Dragon, charged eachother head on. A pang of fear touched Kane as he watched the comparatively massive Dragon coming ever closer, it had been a while since he'd done this. Pushing his fears away Kane swung his staff out in front of him and planted the blade in the earth below. Keeping a firm grip on the staff to make sure it went with him he vaulted his body into the air, arcing as high as he could. He could have used Dragon wings, but he doubted the clan would accept a victory by magic, and anyway, the Huntsclan sleeper wasn't entirely sure he wanted to win.

Corkscrewing in mid air Kane leveled his weapon as best he could, sighting a few yards down the Dragon's flight path. He loosed 3 short energy blasts. The staff hadn't had time to charge between blasts so they were not overly powerful, but it was still an impressive spread. <"Not bad."> thought the Hunter as his missiles sped toward their goal.

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O.O.C The dialog I gave Arkansan Actually comes from one of Magan's previous posts. I just wanted to give Kane a little more background before the fight. The only changes I made to her character's dialog was to write it from Kane's perspective. Your turn Magan!

OOC: Alright! Let's get this started!
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The distinctive sound of three staff discharges reached her ears even over the roar of the crowd. A moment later, she caught their glow from the corner of her eye. <This is going to hurt....> she thought sourly.

The young female was actually small and slender when compared to most dragons, but what she lacked in strength and power was made up for in speed. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for her agility.

She turned sharply, or tried to at least, as the first energy bolt struck near her head, showering her face with sand and gravel. The second bolt hit the small of her back, and a moment later the final bolt grazed her tail. She hissed, more in annoyance then pain. The impact wasn't as bad as she'd thought it would be, but it still stung.

Finally she was turned enough to face Kane. Arkansan crouched low on all fours, tail lashing and wings flared, studying her opponent. <He was pretty fast with that pole vault.> she thought. <Well, let's just see how fast he really is...> She charged him again, letting out her fiercest roar!

(Next!)

Kane twisted and dropped to the ground as a slight gasp of pain he recognized as coming from Arkansan broke across his ears. At least one of his shots had hit the mark than, but the staff had been set low, so even if all three hit home Arkansan would have only been out for a second at most. The sleeper stumbled as he rolled into a crouch. <"Darn it! That hurt!"> he thought, <"I can't keep fighting like I'm a Dragon or I'll kill myself before Arkansan does!">

Kane's head snapped up as a deafening roar washed over him and he saw a clearly enraged Dragon once again barreling toward him as fast as she could. Kane froze <"She looks like she wants to kill me"> thought Kane, shocked, <"but we're friends, surely she won't really do that. Then again, I did just shoot her in the back...">. That realization brought the hunter back to his senses and he saw, to his dismay, that Arkansan had nearly closed the gap between them. <"No time."> he thought, and he leaped to the left.

As it turned out, Kane had been right, there had been no time. Kane new this, but a small part of his brain still held out a hope right up until a cold claw clamped around his ankle. Kane was immediately swept up in Arkansan's momentum, he saw three choices: He could let Arkansan have him, at the rate they were moving it looked like she planned to body slam him into the cage, not a good idea. He could cut off his leg with the staff, but doing so would leave him helpless anyway. He didn't dare slash at Arkansan's arm since he couldn't see it. He wasn't ready to risk slaying the Dragon if he could help it.

Resigned to his last option, Kane began charging the staff. As he pointed the now glowing orb at the ground he absently wondered how much what he was about to do was going to hurt. He pulled the trigger and felt a painful stretch in his leg as the blasts recoil sent him high over the dragoness' head, and, with any luck, out of her grasp

OOC Next!

Arkansan skited to a halt, blinking up in surprise as Kane shot out of her claw. <Wow,> she thought, slightly concerned, <I must've scared him pretty badly for him to try that move.> She'd only been trying to catch him, but hadn't had time to slow down from the charge.

“I'll be shocked if he doesn't have a limp from that stunt.” she muttered, before spreading her wings and leaping after him. <I can't believe I trusted him! Him! A Huntsclan spy!> but just as quickly, another thought came, <But he's my friend... we saved each other's lives more then once, spy or no spy.> A sad look came into her eyes. <I need to know the truth...>

As she neared Kane, she drew back and spun in mid-air. This was a tricky maneuver, but if done right, it would cause a dragon's tail to lash out with enough force to rival a bull whip. She was only trying to stun him, but the flame shaped bone on the end of her tail wasn't just for decoration.

<This is probebly going to make him mad...> She thought, aiming for him with the flat of the bone. <I just hope it doesn't break something.>

(Next)

<Wonderful> thought Kane, <I'm about to be tail-slapped>. Kane had been flung from the Dragon's grasp and could now see her below him. He watched her body pivot and saw the tail that would smack him back down to earth come up to meet him.

With no time to think Kane's body was on autopilot. The hardened combat veteran in him did not share the compassion Kane had for the Dragon. Without a conscious thought to what he was doing, Kane swept his staff, blade out, at Arkansan's oncoming tail.

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OOC Not a whole lot I could do here.

“What the- !” Arkansan's eyes widened in shock as she saw the blade coming at her. Before she knew what was happening, instinct took over, her tail seemed to move on its own, and jerked out the way. The blade passed close enough to scrape off a few scales, but that was better then having her tail cut off.

Unfortunately, there was no time for the rest of her to dodge the swipe. A piercing shriek burst from her muzzle as the blade bit into her side, right along the large jagged scar that went from her lower ribs to her hip.

<Great,> she thought absently through the pain, <now I'll have two scars. As if the one Coredeath gave me wasn't bad enough.> A memory flashed through her mind then, of the day Coredeath had wounded her. The day that Lao Shi had been killed as he and the others had tried to save her. A single tear streamed down her face at the thought. <I'm sorry... Jake, Lao Shi... I'm so sorry...>

She didn't even remember falling, but suddenly, she was on the ground, one wing pinned beneath her limp form. She vaguely heard someone yell “First Blood!”, and the roar of the crowd as they cheered for Kane. Her vision was swimming, had she hit her head on something? She couldn't tell. Finally, after what seemed like hours, her vision cleared, but where was Kane?

Slowly, she moved her head to see how bad the injury was. There was blood, but it didn't look that deep. <I must've jerked away from it before it could go any further.> she thought. A quick puff of fire from her jaws seared the wound, stopping the bleeding, but Arkansan knew it was only a temporary fix.

That done, she slowly pushed herself back to all fours, glancing around to try and spot Kane again.

(Next)

Kane struggled to his feet to thunderous cheers of "First Blood!" Kane felt hot blood trickle down his left leg from where Arkansan's claw had dug in and for an absurd moment he thought that the Huntsclan was actually cheering for a Dragon. He soon realized it was only that no one had noticed his injury, the clan only saw what it wanted to see, still, he couldn't be sure how long that leg would bear his weight.

Kane calculated. How long had it been? Maybe two minutes from Coredeath's cage to the armory and then to the Arena. Another minute or two fighting Arkansan. <I need to stall!> thought the Hunter. He gripped his staff with both hands and hoisted it mightily over his head, his fierce war cry joining the onlookers cheers.

He spotted Arkansan, She seemed to be coming around, she was cauterizing the wound Kane's blade had left her with. Kane's leg throbbed and he wished he could do the same. He felt the Dragon's power inside of him, knew that he could awaken it with a word, but if he did that, both he and Arkansan would die.

As the Dragon's searching gaze locked on Kane, he motioned for the still cheering clansmen to be silent. <Actions may speak louder than words> thought Michael Kane as his face contorted into a malevolent sneer, <but words take longer.> Locking his gaze with Arkansan's, he said in mock praise, "Nice move Dragon, did your master, Lao Shi, teach you that before you got him killed?" Then Kane had an idea, maybe, just maybe, he could give Arkansan a hint at what he was planning for her, after all, the clan only saw what they wanted to see. Without giving the Dragon a chance to reply, Kane added, "Its a shame about him, really. No one even cared enough to try and help him, and no one cares about you either, Arkansan. I doubt they even know you're gone."

Kane smiled, as the jeers from the clan reached his ears.