tampered | (no subject)

(no subject)

When; June 13, Night
Rating; Pg-13
Characters; Greed

mighty_senza
Summary; Greed and Senza decide to have a "friendly" duel on the edge of the beach.
Log;

Greed was already waiting by the time his opponent arrived, kicking his foot in the sand and awaiting his enemy's first move. He leaned lazily against a nearby palm tree and scanned the horizon, his expression unreadable under the moonlight. Upon hearing the sound of footsteps in the distance, his ears twitched and he rose up.

"Took ya' long enough," he said, doing some quick hop-steps to loosen his feet up, "You ready?"

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"Problems with the mistress. Sorry to keep you waiting," Senza stated as he finally stepped up to the to the aggreed upon meeting place, the cooler night breeze a relief to the more cold-loving demon.

"Ready when you are," he stated, brushing back long blue-ish hair and getting into position, the air around him chilling significantly.

"She's a hot chick. What are ya', some kind of slave fetishist? I could never let a woman boss me around like that," Greed smirked, cracking his knuckles and neck, then doing a few bends.

"Thought you'd never ask!"

Greed exploded from his starting area, churning up the dust as he ran full speed at the demon, readying his fists.

Greed didn't waste much time talking and, in Senza's opinion, that suited him just fine. He crossed his arms over his chest, a shield of ice curling up from the ground in front of him, thick and intricate.

"You, my friend, have inexplicably poor taste in women. That twit of a girl and her goat sealed me away or I'd have nothing to do with them and, most assuredly, would not be calling her master," Senza's proud voice rang out as the barrier finished curling about him.

Greed reassessed the situation as he approached, taking in the view of the large shield coming up in his path. He grinned and formed a shielded gauntlet over his right hand and forearm.

"Like shields, eh? Try...out...mine!" he yelled, jumping up and coming down on top of the shield. At the moment of impact, he brought his fist down on the same place his feet struck, hoping to shatter the shield from it's top point.

Senza laughed out loud. This was what he had been hoping for. The other had bite to his bark and more powers than any regular human might have. He drew back, lifting arm to cover his eyes from the spray of ice and to build a new one in its wake.

"Some shield! How much protection do you think it offers?" he pressed.

Greed formed claws over his other hand, using them both to pound and claw at the ice continuing to reform in front of him.

"Harder than diamond, harder than steel, probably harder than any material you'd know of. It's also very slimming. I think everyone should be wearin' one in the future!" he laughed, throwing a hard kick toward the demon.

He was fast, faster than any mortal and some of the demons Senza had encountered. But Senza hadn't exactly been the leader of the ice demons for his looks. He drew in a hiss of breath as the kick connected firmly to him and clapped a hand around Greed's ankle, ice growing freely from his hands.

"You think mortals would be capable of developing that?" Senza laughed, shaking his head.

"Never know," he said, ripping his leg free and jumping back several meters, "Ya' never know what humans can do! That's why I like 'em. They always strive to accomplish things. And mortality is relative. There is no true immortality, in my opinion. Which makes me want it all the more."

Greed raised his iced leg and stomped down, shattering the frozen shell and shaking it off his foot.

"Ah! Pins and needles! Pins and needles!" he said, shaking his foot faster.

Senza's laughter was rich again at that. He had never had an opponent react that way to his ice. It was interesting, just as the dark shield that covered Greed's skin.

"They're animals, ekking out their lives on farms and in little cities. They don't see that much beyond the land they own or want to," Senza countered.

"HA!"

Greed hopped from one foot to the other, then bolted forward, aiming a straight jab for Senza's face. He turned on his heel afterward, throwing a donkey kick behind himself.

"ALL creatures are selfish! All creatures get whatever they can! If all the prey animals were slow, the predators would kill them all eventually. What makes demons so different?"

Senza choked on his words as the impact of Greed's kick sent him flying, with a sharp burst of pain along his demonoid skin. He wasted little time stumbling to his feet, though. Staying down for too long would give Greed too much time to launch a counter attack.

He pressed a hand to the sandy ground, using the moisture that was thick through the sands to coat the ground with ice around him. "Demons are the prey animals. There's nothing bigger, stronger, or badder there."

"So demons devour demons? Isn't that cannibalism?" Greed said, honestly curious. He bounced from one foot to the other, throwing practice punches, "That don't make ya' sick?"

Senza scoffed. Demons were what they were created to be. There was little changing that any way that it was skewed.

"The strongest survive. We don't coddle the weak and breed ourselves into overpopulation like the humans."

"You won't progress anywhere like that. No wonder you guys get sealed by humans, ha ha! Some great race you turned out to be! It's because of that surplus population that humans accomplish so much."

Greed started walking forward, letting his shield drop and cracking his knuckles.

"Now fuckin' bring it."

The ice on the field seemed to not be having the effect Senza wanted. His lips twisted, pursing before he pressed his hand to the ground, letting ice shards rise from the thin coating he had left.

"The weakest of us get sealed. And if that twist of a girl didn't have Kenso on her side, I wouldn't have either."

Greed felt shard slice upward under him, damaging his feet and lower legs as he jumped back.

"Ow! Damn it!" he yelled, picking himself up and charging the demon, "You're gonna' hurt for that!"

Greed charged in and leapt, trying to bring his legs down on his enemy.

"At least a WOMAN didn't kick my ass!"

Senza hissed, his back hitting hard against the shattering ice beneath him. He grit his teeth to stop from vocalizing the pain as Greed hit him head on, with or without his armor, definitely making a dent in the ice demon's pride.

"A demon. Not a real woman."

"As long as you're humanoid in form, I don't differentiate. I'd mount any guy or girl that's pretty enough. I don't discriminate, I regulate all kinds of ass!" he grinned, jumping back again and taking a defensive stance.

"Come on, now! You attack!"

Senza growled under his breath, pulling free from the ground and shaking sand from his long hair. This was why he hated the physical aspects of brawling.

He let the wind build beneath his thin, bug-like in structure wings and rushed the other, a spike of ice building in his hand as he struck.

Greed couldn't retreat fast enough, slipping as he went to dodge, his arm flailing out in front of him. The ice spike sheared through his flesh, causing him to grunt in pain and roll to his feet.

"...You asshole!" he yelled at Senza. His arm was gone at the elbow, "That hurt!"

Senza laughed, full and open. That was more like it. That was the effect he was used to having. He pushed forward, pressing the advantage.

"I can make it hurt worse, you know," he grinned.

Greed grinned and jumped over his opponent and retreated a small distance. Bit by bit, the limb grew back as he moved. First the bones, then the muscles, and finally the skin closed itself.

"My body is pretty special," he said, wiggling his new arm and clenching a fist, "It'll take more than that!"

He dashed toward Senza, forming the armor back over his arms.

Senza gaped at the regrowing limbs. It was a rarity among his kind to have healing abilities of that level of power that could heal injuries of that extent. He drew back, letting the wind against his wings lend speed to his movements.

"You've got a lot of tricks up your sleeve," he scoffed, bulding the ice blade again for another series of strikes as Greed approached.

"Homunculi are very hard to kill with any finality," he smirked, "It doesn't matter what you do. Decapitate me, incinerate me, eviscerate me. I'll always come back as long as this stone has energy."

He punched his fingers into his chest and pryed his ribcage open, showing a small red stone next to his pulsing heart.

"Our existence is all dependent on that," he explained, letting alchemical energy crackle over his chest as it sealed.

Senza raised an eyebrow. Fascinating, indeed. What Kenso said about the inhabitants of this city was true and he could hardly wait to find out more.

The ice demon lunged forward, his blade on his forefront, "That stone, hmm?"

"Yep!" he said, lunging himself, trying to tag the demon in the side as he passed.

Senza kept his focus on the place where he'd seen the stone and driving the blade of ice into his chest, letting the cold trickle from it, trying to freeze his way in to the stone.

"What the fuck?" he yelled, surprised. He hadn't thought about the freezing effect of the sword on his stone. Little by little, his body was frozen from the inside out.

Soon his body was encased.

Senza drew back, letting his sword shatter as he smiled up at the ice sculpture of his opponent, waiting but a few seconds to savor the victory before pressing his hand against the block of ice and letting it shatter as well.

"Checkmate."

Greed's stone fell out of the shattered bits of ice, bouncing along the ground before it came to rest at Senza's feet. After a few moments, a hand came from out of the stone, grabbing a hold of Senza's leg. Garbled laughter was heard as a mass of tissue formed vocal cords, then his head and neck.

"It's not...that...easy! This stone is made of very special material! Unless you know alchemy, don't bet on destroyin' it!" he said, using the arm to toss himself further away. As he flew through the air, the rest of him grew around the stone.

"Asshole," he spat, touching the ground, "That hurt."

Senza's eyes widened as the lines of his brow deepened. So, that was the strength of the man he had challenged, was it? And he doubted the other would fall for the ice trick for some time again.

"It was meant to," he grinned.

Greed stood for a moment and assessed his opponent, putting a hand to his chin.

"Hmm...Is there even a point to this? We never even set criteria for victory. I promised your boss I wouldn't kill ya', so how am I supposed to win?"

Senza grit his teeth at the mention of the girl, but it was true. Unless he could destroy the stone, it was pretty pointless to fight.

"Something else, then? A contest of strengths. No powers," Senza ventured.

"Sure you wanna'?" he said, flexing his arm, "I can crush solid marble with my bare hands."

He walked up close to the demon, standing toe-to-toe.

"I mean we've had the obligatory macho bullshit quotient, so we may want to go out seperate ways. I won't run out of lives anytime soon, and there doesn't seem to be a way to stop you without causing serious harm, which I promised that babe of yours I wouldn't do. Think we could settle this over a pint?"

Senza hesitated, but not for long. Greed was the one who had bent, offering the 'less masculine' solution of a drink out instead of a pissing contest of strength. Senza brushed back his hair, smirking just a bit.

"I think that sounds like a suitable arrangement."

"Sounds good," Greed laughed, immediately putting his arm over Senza's back, "Let's go, pal. I'm gonna' drink you under the table!"

He began to walk them toward the Underground. It would be a long night, indeed.

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