The silhouette of two figures fought on top of a great building. They circled each other, testing their defenses as the fire slithered its way around the frame of the structure, its many tongues flicking out in merry savagery. One of the figures paused to leap to the side; his foothold disintegrating to fall into the growing fire below. Mavier swiftly capitalized on his opponent’s small distraction, his scimitar adding yet another cut to the growing collection of slight wounds littered across Adrian’s body. Still, the hero’s mind whirred like his old computer as he tried to think of some way, just any way to even the odds.

If I can just get a half a minute- no, five seconds to buff myself. Just some decent body-strengthening shit like the lizard has. Adrian parried another scimitar blow, twisting his body to the left to avoid the inevitable jab to his chest that would follow. Air tickled through his ragged shirt, and Adrian smirked in spite of the irritating situation he had found himself in. Bit by bit, he was learning what Kevin had been so fond of calling ‘the moveset’, or the lizard’s fighting style, if he didn’t want to sound like a fucking dweeb. A flurry of strikes followed, each one deftly parried by Adrian’s trench knife, and as each blow deflected shook his arms, Adrian began to formulate a plan.

Mavier’s mouth opened, and Adrian, expecting some low-tier banter, instead balked in the face of a torrent of blue flames roaring from the demon’s throat. Adrian threw himself backwards, wincing as the skin on his face melted bit by bit in the face of the sheer heat of the magic.

“Guh! Motherfucker!” Adrian roared while his feet scrabbled for a foothold, a commodity that was rapidly becoming scarce. Well, it’s now or never. Adrian took a half second to mentally brace himself, and then drew in all the breath he could bear into his lungs. The scorching hot air almost caused him to cough, but instead he dug the guard of his knife into his legs to offset the pain, which felt like pulling coarse sandpaper into his vulnerable throat.

Mavier’s face wrinkled in confusion, but the demon still upheld good sense and readied his offhand in a guarded posture – exactly what Adrian wanted. As soon as caution filled the demon’s body language, Adrian tensed his lungs threw his head downwards, expelling the scorching-hot air down towards and through the roof with the force of a cannon. The roof splintered into a thousand shards of splinters instantly and Adrian dived downwards towards the inferno below.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Still above the building, Mavier recovered from the surprise of the roof next to him disintegrating into a maelstrom of debris. He had half expected for that maelstrom to be directed at him, but Mavier did not regret taking caution. Following recklessness and failing to guard from unexpected attacks was how many of his enemies had fallen. He would not do the same. Still, there was no time to reminisce. Mavier snapped to attention, making a few muted gestures behind his back to renew his armor of flames and to coat his fist with a howling inferno much larger than the last. Each second counted in their melee, and while he would rather face the human without having to deal with buffs, well, Mavier wryly chuckled as a rumble of magical winds roared out of the burning house his foe had fallen in, he considered that not everything in life could be as easy as he wished.

Mavier made time for one last spell, sending a tiny line of flame towards the line of his followers a street away, masking the movement by swiftly leaping down into the burning building to commence round two with Adrian. The demon landed with a graceful bow towards the psychotically grinning Adrian.

“Well done.” Mavier nodded towards the hero. “I suppose since this is properly started now, that introductions are the polite way to do things.”

Adrian’s only response was to palm a bowie knife in his offhand, looking disturbingly delighted at the prospect of using it.

“Very well,” said Mavier as he readied his own stance, “I am Mavier, the hero of my people, the slayer of Kevin, and…” Mavier continued, his voice laced by an undercurrent of rage, “a warrior that served under the mighty Lord Glorian, whom you ‘heroes’ murdered.”

At this Adrian’s face finally displayed a hint of interest. “My my,” He muttered with a crooked grin, “looks like we missed one when we cut that Glorian fuck into a hundred pieces and slaughtered his men.” Ignored a hiss of rage from the demon, Adrian gleefully continued. “Okay, I’ll play ball. I, am Adrian.” He gave a slight flourishing bow in mockery of Mavier’s own. “And, I must say, it was a fucking blast to play with you lot back then. Especially those cute little maids your worthless king had around.” Adrian giggled, his laughter turning into a surprised little yelp as Mavier rocketed towards him with pure hatred across his face. Trench knife parried scimitar, and Adrian whooped as his bowie knife skimmed a patch of skin off Mavier’s knuckle as the human caught his punch mid-air.

Their blades cut through the air, each stroke perfectly deflected or dodged in an incarnate dance that Adrian made sure to obviously revel in, taking every opportunity to try and get a rise out of his opponent. Still, Mavier clenched the muscles in his gut and tore every ounce of his concentration towards focusing on the fight, allowing for the discipline he had hammered into his own body to keep the initiative of the fight going in his favor.

A noticeable ripple in the air, followed by an uncomfortable pressure in his skull, like a vice grip had been fastened around his brain, brought Mavier a surge of euphoria that he powered into his strikes. Beside him Adrian’s grin faltered, as Mavier’s only grew more feral.

He could feel it. Tim’s plan was working.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Power filled Adrian’s slim frame as his signature wind magic screamed all around him in a tornado of energy, its beautiful voice whispering in his ears to tell him of all the fun he could have now. Oh, and what fun it was turning out to be. Seriously, for the first time in human history jumping into a burning building was an excellent idea! Ten out of ten, would do again. Adrian stuck his tongue out as he sidestepped Mavier’s scimitar. It whistled past his head, coming so close that it clipped a few stray hairs swirling in a wind of his own making. Each close encounter, each blow dodged by the skin of his teeth only served to fill Adrian with even more confidence, even more euphoria as the adrenaline rush of finally being able to show off his own skill after all those years began to set in. Hell, he couldn’t even remember how many years it had been since he had lucked into a fight that wasn’t a straight-up curbstomp. Sure, it was a bit dicey around the start, but, Adrian chuckled to himself as he caught the blade of Mavier’s scimitar on the guard of his trench knife, twisting sharply in order to nick the edge of the sword, that was what makes it fun. Ya’ gotta give the audience some suspense. Well, I don’t know if I can call those worthless sacks of meat from the government watching in the distance a good audience, but it’s better than nothing.

Still, a strange prickling feeling had been growing in the corner of his mind, a feeling that he couldn’t throw, or completely place. Something was… off. A growing headache was moving around the front of his head, and he had neither been concentrating hard enough nor had taken any knocks to the head to cause it. And… Adrian cocked his head in consideration as he leaped backwards over a burning table, kicking it viciously at his opponent as soon as he cleared it. He could almost swear that the air was… rippling? The feeling of another one of those strange pulses travelling through the air made Adrian hum in consideration as his thoughts were confirmed.

Magical backlash from our fight? No. We haven’t been using near enough to start that. Hell, the only time I’ve seen it happen is when Kevin decided to go all Zeus on that tribe hill giants after Warren bet him that he couldn’t kill them all in ten seconds. Man, Adrian grinned, I kinda miss that Warren guy. He did have a funny expression when I gutted him like a fish, though, so I’ll let it slide. Wait… Adrian flinched as the tip of Mavier’s scimitar caught him in the arm in an unexpected thrusting strike. Got off topic. Shit. Alright, so it’s not us. Elena maybe? Adrian tipped his head to the side in consideration as he burst through what remained of the wall in the house towards the street. I suppose she does have some freaky-ass holy magic, but she doesn’t like to use it all that much. Don’t think she’s used it since we merc’d that demon king. What did she say… ah yes, something about ‘some things you just can’t mess with’. Fucking wuss. Sizzling cobblestones announced the arrival of his opponent as Mavier followed him through the wall and out to the street. Or rather, the channel that used to be a street. The veritable whirlwind racing around Adrian’s body snatched up bits of debris from the blazing houses, each bit whipping around in the air and forcing Mavier to divert precious seconds into guarding his eyes with his offhand. No… it’s something else. Adrian couldn’t shake the feeling, the overpowering sense of wrongness that had began to permeate the night air and infest the atmosphere with its unsettling tentacles. What what what am I missing??

Then, Adrian’s question was immediately answered, the air above Drassington tearing as a maw of bone-chilling nothingness bit into the sky. It was almost as if the void of space had descended upon them all. The very stars themselves cringed back, becoming pale mockeries of the celestial bodies they once were. The buildings shuddered under the weight of what was to come, the weight that was not of simple pounds or tons, but a weight that simply announced on simple, unavoidable fact: that It was here.

And all around the town, in every gutter, in every street, in every home, the rats gathered. The stared towards the skies with shining unblinking eyes, their paws held upwards in an act of worship.