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Location: Iurin island
"A chance to duel against Runali Lev…I've waited for this moment."
Nikos remained still watching Runali from the other side of the line, the fact she was a few feet away ate at him but his fellow Messengers were being patient as well, he was proud of them as their leader, he knew how much they wanted to fight their targets. How patient they had been all waiting for this moment, and even now they stood firm waiting for the chance to act on the feelings bottled up inside them for so long.
Knowing this it was simple to wait for Runali to cross the line, he would repay their patience and faith with some of his own.
Granted Runali could always stay on the other side of the line and not get involved in the duels, that was an option. Nikos wasn't going to force her to fight, but he doubted the Stardusk leader was that cowardly.
"When you come back." Runali nodded towards Luro as he scampered into the forest. She couldn't worry about her carpenter at the moment, despite some clear signs of… things not being 'normal'. There were more important things at hand, like the Ravens standing in front of them waiting for them to make a move along with Alicia's anger developing a tension she could practically feel. "Hmmm." She stretched her legs to the side absentmindedly and then put her arms behind her back. Without a word, she trailed along the edge of the line made by Nikos, raising a brow as if expecting him to follow. When the line stopped, she continued before finally speaking. "I'd listen to Tashigi if I were you, you might want to… make some room." The captain smirked and looked back at her crew.
"Raise hell."
Her back was turned once more and she continued walking down the beach, still staying on her imaginary side of the line. "Tell me Nikos." She had walked a good distance away from her crew. Apart of her did it because she wanted to keep her focus on Nikos and not her crew, and another part was because she wanted to be sure her crew couldn't intervene. When she finally stopped, she used her foot to create a quick line in the sand again. "Is this really business, or is it personal?" Runali tightened her eyepatch and pushed her hair back. "You've been watching us for so long and I can't imagine we've done anything as awful as you think. Well, heh, besides breaking out of Kane'Artem. Hah, in fact, we've saved more than we've killed- well, as a collective. What the crew does on their own is," She waved her hand back and forth, trying to find the right word. "Well, their own."
"The warning is appreciated."
That was the simple response he gave in terms of the Captain's warning, the Messengers didn't seem bothered by the sudden change focused more on their own matters, they almost seemed accustomed to it.
When Runali started walking Nikos turned and followed after her, he got a general idea what Runali wanted and saw little reason not to follow, walking next to her on his side of the line. If not for the slight tension in the air it wouldn't be far off to think the two were taking a walk on the beach and engaging in a lighthearted conversation.
When Runali stopped and made the quick line Nikos stared down at it, seeming to measure it for a moment before looking back up at her. Folding his hands behind his back he turned to face Runali as she spoke to him, his brow arching at her question. He stared at her his interest piqued at why she was bringing up Stardusk's past events all of sudden.
Though as she brought up matters of morality a small smile found its way on Nikos face, and bringing a hand to his mouth a small chuckle escaped from him before he slowly shook his head.
"I think you misunderstand our intentions, Captain Lev," Nikos said. "This is a duel of Conflicts not honor."
Nikos said this motioning back in the direction of his comrades.
"Our duel is not meant to be personal, far as I'm concerned this is business, but I am human so to say I feel absolutely nothing in this moment would be a lie. We have all chosen you for our own respective reasons. To say we approached you to punish you for your wrongdoings or out of some weird sense of justice would be lying. The Navy is around to deal out 'justice'."
Nikos lowered his arm and returned it behind his back as his gaze rested back on Runali.
"Besides the very presence of Luro in your group would be fit for a kill order…but he's not a part of this exchange, so no complications."
"See, that's where ya lost me." Runali stretched. "You say it's a duel of conflict but from what I know, conflicts are disagreements, arguments even. But save for Luro, we've only heard of you… what once?" Despite the looming battle approaching, Runali did seem genuinely curious. She felt she had the right to be, considering they had come out of nowhere and declared war on them- or at least a formal battle. That was more than most- or any of the people they fought. "I suppose," She looked down at the line she had made in the sand. "The conflict starts when this duel does. At least for me considering this looks like it'll play out as a till death thing." She turned her head in her crew's direction and then towards the forest. "They're not gonna hold back one bit." She laughed a little. "And I can't be upstaged by my own crew. But," She gave a polite nod towards Nikos. "I do appreciate you answering my questions though. It's a shame you're trying to kill us, you seem like cool birds. Weird obsession and all. I mean, nice to know we have fans."
Nikos offered a smile to Runali as the reason for their approach remained unknown, in the end that was how it generally worked. Stardusk were a strange exception but aside from that there was little difference in the exchange they were having. He didn't mind having the chance to speak with Runali, this had the possibility to be the last time.
"It's not too complicated honestly. Our leader has already shared this information with you so there's little point in keeping it from you," Nikos said. "Most of what I said is in that journal Nura gave you. Also yes she permitted that information to be known as well."
Nikos gave a small nod at this before moving one of his hands back to his sword.
"I appreciate the compliment but let make this clear, we're not fans. Your existence to us no matter the good you've brought into the world is a stain. We're here to rob you of your freedom. Not simply out of justice or hatred…but because we don't believe in what you believe in, our ideals differ and since you won't change yours…and I won't change mine."
Nikos' smile faded and he gripped his sheath.
"We're enemies, it's that simple. This conflict started the moment you bore that symbol as a Stardusk and not a moment after. We both have our own marks to represent…so whenever you're ready Captain Lev."
Runali listened and nodded only to give a rather cheshire smile. "Well Nikos the, what was it again? Fallen Phoenix? Just know, if you don't kill me, you're not gonna be the Fallen Phoenix anymore, you'll be forever known as Stardusk's biggest fan." She winked- which still wasn't as effective with one eye and proceeded to lower her body.
As much as she wanted to test the theory that he really had been studying her, she had to play it smart- which was never too hard in most fights, but that was because those people weren't obsessive. Her feet dug into the sand and she launched herself towards Nikos, careful to keep an eye on the blade at his side. She didn't readily have her armament, but that didn't stop her from throwing a punch with all the force she could muster straight into his gut. But, in true fashion, she distanced herself again as much as possible, careful not to stay too close, not until she knew exactly what this particular Raven was capable of. This fight wouldn't last a second if she went head first into danger- which was usually plan A for most things.
"Hah…we have orders not to kill you. We're not fans," Nikos said rubbing the side of his head.
Runali was every bit as eccentric as the reports said, though their observations had revealed it, watching it and dealing with it were two entirely different things.
The moment she lowered her body however his attention moved back to her, his hand still resting on his head but his focus clearly on her next movement. When she ran towards him his hand gripped his sheath but he made no attempt to draw his sword, watching as she drew closer. The moment the punch was thrown Nikos hand moved and his sheath blocked the blow to his stomach, his feet dug into the sand as the leaves of the tree's behind him shifted slightly. He glanced behind him before looking back at the now distanced Runali.
"That was a good amount of force…to be expected of the Captain,"
Nikos lowered his hand and drawing his sword put his sheath back on his side, adjusting it slightly before he started to walk towards Runali.
His kept a casual place, the tip of his sword dragging against the sand as he slowly shrunk the distance between them, he had the advantage against a hand to hand fighter but letting his guard down was how the other opponents of Stardusk lost.
Once he had measured the proper distance Nikos shifted gripping his sword with both hands, he raised his sword diagonally towards Runali's body, and maintaining the same distance made a second movement bringing the sword straight back down, the attack almost one movement as he attacked trying to stay outside Runali's striking range.
Runali heard his comment before she struck, but only offered a cheeky smile after she distanced herself. Her head tilted a bit, as he pulled out his sword and slowly walked to her. It made her sign, but nonetheless she adjusted her stance once more. The moment he swung the sword, Runali's arms raised in a 'x', the haki instantly covering it. Instead of letting the sword collide with her haki, at the last second she twisted her arms out and grabbed the sword. It wasn't a tight enough grip for her to keep a hold, but it was enough for her to move it out of her line of defense. And with the quick second opening she made, she ran towards Nikos again, attempting to him again, this time with the armament to add to the force.
Nikos eyes widened slightly as his sword was grabbed his eyes going to Runali's now Haki covered arms. When Runali closed the distance Nikos eyes twitched and his head lowered as the strike came his body sliding backwards until he slid to a stop a few feet back. Though he didn't raise his head his other sword was drawn slightly, and positioned where Runali's blow had landed. Drawing the blade with a sigh he brought both weapons to his side and rotated his shoulders.
"Expected of the woman who fought Alton," Nikos said tapped his foot against the sand. "Let's see what else you can do."
Nikos rushed forward throwing sand up behind him as he sprinted at Runali, a wave of sand flowing behind him as he got closer to Runali.
He swung his swords in a rapid flurry towards Runali, spinning his body as his blades sliced through the air, his attacks didn't seem to have any real direction, only making attempts to cut any opening Nikos could exploit. He kept close to her maintaining his attacks and speeding up his movements with each strike, filling the area around them with traces of silver.
In the midst of his attacks, he let a sword leave his hand and switching his grip on it, black ran up the blade as Armament coated it before he quickly swung it towards Runali with increased force.
"You talk and I hear 'obsession'~." For a brief moment, Runali wondered if others of the Worst Gen, knew about this group of mercenaries. She wondered if they had to deal with it as well. But her thoughts were quickly pushed to the side when Nikos changed his pace. With both swords in hand, she had to be quicker about dodging. And Runali was quick, but not quick enough to dodge every blow. She was stuck on the defensive, trying to minimize as much of the damage as she could. He was too fast for her to try and grab the swords again, but that was the least of her worries. Spotting the armament along the blade made her eyes narrow. 'Figures.' Runali dug her heel deep into the sand and braced herself for the impact, deciding it was best to take it head on than risk trying to dodge it.
When haki collided, the impact of it caused the ground to tremble ever so slightly, but Runali stayed on her feet. "Heh, keep training and you might hit as hard as the one bounty hunter that tried to kill me. Y'know, the one that died? Oh and, thanks for reminding me about Alton." Runali let herself drop to one knee using a free hand to scoop up sand and toss it at Nikos' face. Without hesitation, she lunged at him, her fist opened and the armament around it turned into a familiar claw form, so she went with it and tried clawing across his face.
Nikos kept a firm grip on his weapon staring at Runali during their collision in silence, he had expected her to block and his brow arched seeing she had managed to stay on her feet. He didn't make any other movements only staring with a calm expression. At her comment at the supposed strength of his blow Nikos only offered a smile to her.
"I won't learn anything if I come at you full force," Nikos said watching as she fell to one knee. "I-"
Nikos comment was cut off as the sand hit him in his eyes causing him to reel back, pulling away his blade in the process, he grit his teeth as he shut his eyes his vision going dark. He seemed to be preoccupied wiping his eyes to deal with the attack coming, grumbling as he wiped his face with his sleeve.
The moment the attack got closer however Nikos raised his sword swinging it in a wide arc, slamming it into the Runali's Haki claw, his own Armament colliding with hers. Unlike the first one this one was far harder, and the force of the collision threw away a bit of the sand around the two of them.
"Feel free to use whatever tactics you would like," Nikos said keeping his eyes closed. "Though I dislike that you actually made me use my Haki."
Nikos eyes opened red from the sudden sand, his gentle gaze replaced with a cold stare as he slammed the now Armament pommel of his sword against Runali's chest, forcing a few feet between them.
"I won't lie and say I'm not a bit obsessed," Nikos said letting the Haki fade from his blade. "All of us are here for a reason. Each one of us personally chose you as our targets. We don't attack you over something simple like greed…though I asked the others not to make these fights personal…"
Nikos sighed and rotating his shoulders spread his feet shoulder width apart, he brought his blades in front of him taking on a firmer stance, the aura around the man shifted and a small smile rested on his face.
"That's all but impossible. We want to defeat you."
The moment she was hit in the chest, the force behind it caused her to stumble back a few feet, sliding in the sand. She took a deep breath, before jumping back onto her feet and dusting some of the sand out of her hair. As he spoke, Runali's curiosity got the best of her. "Wait a minute you mean to tell me, you took all this time to research and stalk us just for you to go easy on me?" Her hands went on her hips. "Frankly, I'm offended Nikos." She took a few steps forward, armament only going up her right arm. "You make me come all this way and you're not even going to try and fight. You promised a fair fight after all." Her tone was mocking and playful and her expression was calm. Minus the few cuts from the swords, she didn't look too bothered. She couldn't exactly say she was enjoying the fight with so many threats on the line, but she had to admit, it wasn't the worst fight she'd been in. But it also had just started, so she wasn't getting too cocky about it.
Runali had stopped, still out of his sword's reach just to add, "If you can keep up, please, I'd love to know why you decided I'd be.. Such a perfect match." She didn't actually wait for a response. There was only a moment of Runali adjusting her stance before she rushed forward only to duck and slide behind him, causing sand to fly up in the process.
"Go all out and miss your snide comments, now that would be a waste," Nikos said with a small shrug. "We'd love nothing more than to come at you with everything, but orders are orders."
He knew every one of his Messengers wanted to throw everything they could at their targets; he knew how painful it was for some of them to hold back. It was because of that he forced himself to do the same, two years of watching and waiting. Watching Tari stare at a poster of Alicia, hands clenched until her nails dug into her skin, Nina swinging her sword every day, the poster of Kadi resting nearby for motivation, Kaim punching the poster of Sara as he trained…he watched the patience of his crew in silence. They wanted nothing more than to come at them with everything they had, and Nikos was no different.
Nikos' eyes narrowed slightly as Runali got closer but spinning his sword around he returned them to their respective homes and straightened his body, she was staying outside of his range which meant she was making an effort to judge it, seeing that he smiled a bit.
"Since that's not in Nura's notes, there's little reason to answer that question," Nikos said keeping his attention forward.
Nikos closed his eyes as the sand went up and his body seemed to shift left before he appeared next to Runali, his blades drawn and coated black once more. Though as he swung he made sure to do so on the side where Runali's eye patch was. His eyes rested on her eye and the moment he saw it move towards him he'd move just outside of sight and attack again, he didn't just attack from her 'blind' side, his other sword moving towards her torso but it was clear he was casually moving into her blind spot with any real attack, his other attacks however didn't cease. His swords came at her from three different directions with each attack his body shifting in and out of view as he attacked her with a bit more ferocity, hardening his Haki a little bit more with each attack.
She didn't have time to jump up when Nikos disappeared out of her line of sight. Fortunately, what she couldn't see she could hear, and hearing the 'swoosh' of the blades made her put both arms up to protect her side. She could feel more and more force being put into each attack so with a 'last ditch effort' she hardened her haki once more and let the force push her back enough so she could jump to her feet. "Jeez, Nura this and Nura that… Guess I can't complain. If you're gonna hold all these secrets might as well live and die by 'em." She had paused, letting the numbness in her left arm pass. He mentioned, they weren't trying to kill the Stardusk but they were in fact trying to win. Which didn't make much sense, especially when they went ahead and riled up Alicia of all of the crew.
Runali watched Nikos for a moment, recounting his movements and everything he mentioned before before narrowing her eyes a bit. 'Is this supposed to be some 'study' or something just to see what we can do...? There's probably some other motives that aren't being said too.' She spared a glance towards the forest before looking over at Nikos again. She stretched her arms out in front of her, letting the haki fade. "Alright. Then I suppose it's no use asking questions." She ran at Nikos again, throwing another punch. Before it could connect, Runali pulled her punch, making the armament drop and letting it be a regular punch with as much force as the first one.
Nikos slowly straightened his body as distance was forced between them once again; he had to admit that Runali was very tenacious. He was holding back but that didn't mean he wasn't trying to capture her still. He expected resistance from her as he did most of his targets but he could almost feel the difference from a normal pirate; just as he expected Runali really was something else.
"I'm not pleased to talk about her either but orders are orders," Nikos said with a small shrug.
Nikos stood glancing sideways at Runali waiting for her to make another move, his foot inched towards her wondering if he was going to have to make the move this time. However before he could move his attention moved over to the forest, his eyes narrowing as his guard dropped for a moment.
He was pulled back to the fight however feeling Runali's approach, turning he quickly leapt away from Runali putting some distance between them again, he narrowed his eyes at her and spinning his swords put them away with a small sigh. It was unfortunate but the situation had changed, much as he wanted to keep this going things had changed.
Nikos brought his fingers to his mouth and taking a deep breath an ear shattering whistle escaped from her, the sound seemed to resonate through the whole island.
"It's unfortunate but I'm out of time," Nikos said turning his back to Runali. "You should return to Lady Luck, he'll be heading that way soon and I have to address the new kill order."
The sand around Nikos suddenly exploded upwards, hiding the man from sight, the sand around them suddenly starting rising violently as if someone were throwing explosives into the area around them, obscuring everything from view.
"A word of advice Captain Lev. Luro…the real Luro is not a person…so do not treat him as such."
Nikos spoke his warning as the sand fell to back to the earth, the swordsman gone with even his footsteps in the sand fading with him, though one last warning was directed at Runali from no direction in particular.
"Next time we meet Captain…no…Runali Lev…I will kill you."
"Hmph," She stood straight up when he moved out the way only to wince a bit when he whistled. Rubbing her ear, she huffed. "Of course you're out of time. What other excuse is there." The sudden sand storm made her step back, but not far enough to run- especially not after what she heard of Luro. She couldn't help but chuckle. "Maybe if you started treating him like one-" She paused and shook her head, not bothering to finish the sentence, only to glance around curiously now that she was alone. Or at least she thought so. "Huh… Well don't disappoint me then!" She yelled out to the air before turning back around and heading to the ship. "Stalling for time? Assessing the fight? What could it be this time…" She mused, quickening her pace to check on the rest of her crew.