Clash of the Titans

Hezekiah looked on impassively as Julian tossed Nestor's skull clear to the other side of the room, not one to be overtly surprised at the carnage that Julian and Nestor had wrought. They were both top of the line fighters; that much he had to give to the now deceased Simia warrior, but in the end, Julian had proven his worth to Ut Puri at the older man's expense. "You don't look like you're pleased?" Hezekiah said in a questioning tone, noting the bored expression on his underling's face. 

           "Hmph," Julian said with an arrogant snort. "In the end that man wasn't as strong as I had first assumed."

"And that's a bad thing?" Hezekiah asked with a raised eyebrow. "Taking out one of the top threats to this mission's success with the ease in which you have done so?" 

Julian smirked as he rolled his shoulders. "I just like a good challenge, is all," he said. "Where were you anyway? You were m.i.a while I was taking care of that vermin?"

Hezekiah answered that with a curious look. "I had to attend to a few more members of this resistance." Hezekiah's gaze at Julian had the man reposition himself uncomfortably, feeling as if Hezekiah was suddenly scrutinizing him from the head down. "One would think that your name alone would quash some of the braver hearted of fighters, but alas, it wasn't the case."

"Ha," Julian mocked with a laugh. "So that's what this is? Hezekiah's mad that he had to get his hands a little dirty?"

"Not at all," the Oberst answered, turning his head towards the lone entrance to the chamber as he sensed the impending approach of the two Draco warriors. "Come," he said, a look of stern focus washing over his face. "It seems that the forces we had stationed to stall Raven's approach have failed. They will be here in seconds." Hezekiah watched Julian's eyes flicker over to the legendary weapon, where it had sat undisturbed as Julian had fought Nestor. "No Draven," he bellowed, knowing what sort of thoughts were going through the manslayer's mind. "Best not to show your foe your full hand when you have the advantage."

'Fine, whatever,' Julian thought as he tore his gaze off of Soulbreaker, albeit with great difficulty. 'That bow will me mine yet.' That was his hopes, anyway; before that dream would be made reality, he and Hezekiah would have to get through the only two warriors on Rhodes capable of turning them back. 

And neither were in a good mood.

***

They could smell the death before they saw it, but even the gruesome scent of burning flesh could not prepare Jasper and Raven for the sight of the acropolis' massive expanse being covered in a number of corpses. Each individual cadaver sported unique wounds that could give a fairly accurate representation of the way that they had been erased from the realm of the living, either by being scorched, eviscerated, or mutilated. As used to this kind of sight as they were, Jasper and Raven still had to stop themselves for a moment as their stomachs turned at the display of utter brutality.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Jasper said, turning away from Raven to dry heave, reacting from the smell alone. "A dead body is one thing, but burned corpses are another thing entirely." Raven nodded in agreement as he held his own mouth and nose, trying to ease his senses into dealing with the surroundings. 

"Light a cigarette or something," Raven requested as he scanned the area with his eyes. "Should help with the smell for a moment. And keep your guard up; Julian could be trying for a set up."

Jasper rolled his eyes as he forced himself to compose, pulling two joints out of his pocket and lighting them both as he waved them around. "I'm no amateur Rave," Jasper said with a mild smirk. "I've been doing this for years."

"Sure ya right," Raven mocked as he took one of the offered joints to take a few pulls. The Exemplar extended his senses as he started to make his way around the clearing cluttered with corpses, taking care to not disturb them anymore than they had already been. He didn't get it; the flames that he and Jasper had seen earlier suggested a raid had been taking place, but there were no bodies of Ut Puri corpsmen or guardsmen. That suggested something else, but as to what was bothering Raven; one thing he knew for certain was that Julian wasn't one to use explosives of any kind, relying on his mastery of the shadows to get things done. "What happened here?" Raven mumbled. 

His question was soon answered as he and Jasper picked up on the sounds of footsteps coming from the massive staircase. Both Draco, especially Raven, were taken aback as they saw not only Julian, but Hezekiah himself as they emerged at the top of the propylaea steps, looking down on the two warriors with expectant stares. "Raven, Raven, Raven," Hezekiah said with a smooth tone and a superior look, casting a rivaling glance at the Draco Exemplar. He almost cracked a smirk as he saw the looks on the two Draco's faces, knowing that neither of them had expected to see him of all people here. "And the brother too; what a splendid surprise."

The looks of shock turned into piercing stares of distaste as Jasper stood to his full height, tossing the half a joint in his lip aside to give the Angeli Oberst his full attention. "Something tells me that this is no surprise to the two of you," he said loudly, taking note of the grin that graced Julian's face. "And if I were you I'd wipe that silly a*s smirk off your face Jules." 

Julian, not being the kind of person to let someone jab them verbally, scowled in anger. "Keep talking like that!" Julian yelled, incensed at Jasper, who to his credit wore a successful grin at riling the Daeva up. "You can join your monkey friend at the shores of Styx!" 

The two Draco's eyes widened in shock at the implications of that statement, with Raven uncharacteristically taking it personal. Raven took a couple of leaps towards the two Ut Puri warriors, stopping at the foot of the propylaea to yell at the two. "You didn't!" Raven yelled. Inside, his mind was already going at full speed to try and think of a way to handle this situation. 'Not Nestor,' Raven lamented as the Simia's kind face flashed in his mind's eye. 'He was the only one who could unlock Soulbreaker.' That thought made his blood run cold as he saw the wicked look of confirmation on Julian's face. 'Of course they did; Nestor did say he and Julian already have their run in.' 

Now enraged himself, Raven yet out a yell of power as he instantly summoned his ki to bear, surrounding himself in a heavily translucent bluish white flame. "Hezekiah Shane!" Raven yelled as his continued to focus his power, uncaring as the landscape itself started to tremble. "That was an innocent man! He and the inhabitants of this isle should have been of no concern to you!"

"That's where you're wrong," Hezekiah announced, surprisingly unfazed by the show of power and rage from the Draco Exemplar. "This isle is a prize that's far more important than the life of one man; a station itself in the future for Ut Puri operations, and that's to say little of the real gem that lies here."

'Soulbreaker,' Raven thought, coming to the realization of their mission being compromised by Ut Puri's number two. He grit his teeth as he wondered just how many lives had already been lost in the night; there must have been about a hundred bodies lying dead in the acropolis' clearing, and he was willing to bet that there was a decent number more that they didn't know about. "How did the likes of you find out that Soulbreaker was here in the first place?" Raven asked, making sure to keep an eye on Ut Puri's finest warrior. 

Hezekiah let a halfway respectful smirk grace his face as he answered Raven. "Ah Ryu Senko," Hezekiah said. "You of all people should know that Ut Puri has just as much access to the true histories as the Illuminati, if not more." 

"You speak of the Apostolic Library and the secret archives, aren't you?" Raven questioned. Raven knew of the Vatican's library, arguably the world's most secure facility in terms of keeping knowledge secure. To even get access you needed express permission from the pope himself, and that said nothing about the secret archives of the Vatican, whose tomes have still only been seen by a small handful of individuals. 

Hezekiah nodded, confirming Raven's suspicions as he started to purposefully make his way toward the Exemplar at the bottom of the steps. His eyes took on a fierce green glow as he focused his own ki, preparing himself for the inevitable. "You see Raven," Hezekiah said, his voice taking on a hard edge as he approached the Exemplar, who subtly shifted his own stance in preparation. "Whatever plans you and your 'Illuminati' had for Soulbreaker are null and void as of this moment. Consider it property of Ut Puri!" The Angeli suddenly took off in a run, charging at Raven as a bright, golden aura of ki instantly surrounded him. In the same motion, Hezekiah withdrew the broadsword that was on his back, shifting to swing the blade at Raven once he got to within arms' reach.

Raven's eyes lit up, both from ki usage and from catching a glimpse of the large weapon as he jumped into the air to avoid the swing from Hezekiah. "You have to make it through me first!" Raven yelled in midair, twisting in midair to avoid a large tendril of shadow ki that was sent at his body by Julian. Instead of just avoiding the attack, however, Raven hammered it back, swinging at the tendril's tip with a mighty double fist smash and sending it back at Julian. "I'm not anyone else, you should know that Hezekiah!"

Julian narrowly avoided being hit by his own attack by jumping into the air himself, but in his attempt to attack Raven' he had forgotten the presence of Jasper, who kindly reminded him by appearing at his side untraced before leveling him with a hook to the jaw. "Y'all better recognize that you're dealing with the brothers Edge!" Jasper yelled as he landed on the steps behind Hezekiah as his own ki aura exploded around him in an equally brilliant display. "I'm not going to let you all waltz out of here without paying for Nestor's demise."

Hezekiah smirked, taking note of the position Raven and Jasper had him in. 'We have to separate these two,' he thought, finding himself in between both Draco warriors. Hezekiah was confident in his own strength, but he knew that two against one against these two didn't bode well for his survival. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Julian get up from Jasper's hit relatively unscathed, wearing a much more focused look than before as he held his jaw. 'Seems the Nycest, ever did me a favor and knocked the fight into him.' That did nothing but good for the Swiss Guardian: a focused Julian could at least contend with one Draco while he did his best to eliminate the other. 

"Just to let you know," Julian said with a look of rage on his face. "I'm the one who killed the buffoon." Julian pointed at himself with a thumb, leveling an intense glare at Jasper. "And I'm going to do the same to you! How dare you lay your hands on me!" 

"Rave?" Jasper asked with a sigh, returning Julian's glare with a focused on of his own. "Let me handle the small fry; this guy must need a reminder of just who the f**k I be." Jasper had made up his mind: he had always wanted to be the guy who finally shut the Daeva manslayer down. However, his stance wasn't shared universally by the four living Sovrumano on the battlefield.

"Who said you got to choose?" Hezekiah asked, taking a jump at Jasper as he aimed to decapitate the Draco with a slash from his sword. Jasper's eyes widened at the quickly advancing Hezekiah, being taken off guard by the speed the Angeli possessed as Hezekiah seemed to be locked on Jasper. So committed was the Angeli in his approach, he, nor Julian and Jasper ever detected the movements of the final warrior on the field, who now held Hezekiah's sword arm in a death grip.  

"I did," Raven said in a stone cold voice, unmoved as Hezekiah tried to pull his arm from the grasp of Raven. "Seems like you forgot who I be?" Raven said in a questioning tone. "How about I remind you?" With that, Raven suddenly twisted, burying the heel of his foot into the sternum of the Angeli almost instantaneously as the man doubled over in pain. Raven took the open opportunity to pepper Hezekiah's face with a flurry of jabs, righting the man's posture, before drop kicking him away to the complete other side of the clearing.

Jasper smirked as he jumped behind Raven, the two brothers taking a back to back defensive stance as they kept eyes on Julian and Hezekiah. "Just like old times?" he asked, smirking even though the two were now embroiled in conflict. 

"A bit," Raven said with a small grin. Even in this situation, Raven found himself comfortable, for as strong as he was individually, he was just as unbeatable when he and Jasper worked together. "Stay focused Jazz," he said with a warning undertone. "These two are two of the strongest Ut Puri has. One more fight and we get to go home; let's make sure we make it there."

Julian smirked as he summoned his own ki, surrounding himself in a deep purple flame of energy as he prepared to get serious. 'You're going to have a hard time making that a reality if I have anything to say about it,' he thought. Julian was on a roll today: Nestor had been first, and he had a mind to add two more Draco to his list of victims before everything was all said and done.

***

Jericho and the boys didn't have things any easier on their end. It felt like the mass of Ut Puri corpsmen that were currently pursuing the group down the tight alleyways of Lindos had specifically waited for the two Edge patriarchs to depart, chasing them like a hyena would a gazelle in the wilds of the Serengeti. Jericho had been doing everything he could to slow their pursuers down, having already wrought several traps of varying foliage that did a splendid job of thinning the group, but every time they thought they could take a moment to breathe, another group of corpsmen had picked up where the previous one had left off.

"How far to the ship Jericho?" LaShonda yelled out, winded as she leaned against a shop's wall to take a breath. "I can't keep running like this!"

"Neither can we," Jericho said, thinking fast as he oriented himself in the maze that was Lindos' residential district. "We're about ten blocks to the pier; once we get to my yacht I want you all to get on and locked down."

"What about you Unc?" Taji asked as he kept an eye out, talking in a hushed whisper as he heard the sounds of their pursuers close in at a rapid pace.

Jericho smirked whilst he checked his footing; He had gotten the unfortunate task of not only leading their escape; but he was also carrying the much smaller Sharon, who wasn't able to run with the others due to her much slower speed. "I'll be fine," he said impassively. "I'm not your fathers', but I'm no pushover either."

"Cool," Roman said quickly, noticing that they had been spotted by a group of corpsmen a few blocks down. "We got company!" 

"Haul a*s!" Jericho yelled, turning in the direction of the pier as the younger two Draco and LaShonda made a move to run. However, Roman stayed put, taking on a hard expression as he stared down the corpsmen who had spotted their group. 'Oh boy,' Jericho thought as he skidded to a stop, realizing that they were a man short. "Rome!" he yelled, questioning the youth's mentality from not following his lead. "Move it! What do you thing you're doing?"

Roman didn't move from his spot, not even turning to address the older Canis as the corpsmen drew closer. "Buying us some more time," Roman said calmly. With that, the boy took a deep breath before stepping forward and launching a decently sized ball of flaming ki at the unsuspecting charging corpsmen. The corpsmen were too committed in their pursuance of the group to escape from the fireball's trajectory, especially in the tight streets of the seaside neighborhood, so they took the full brunt of the attack. "Now who wants to take a breather?" Roman asked, turning around to avoid seeing the carnage he had wrought with a proud smirk.

"Okay?" Jericho said, a bit confused at the actions that Roman had taken, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Five minutes," he announced as he dropped Sharon off of his back. "Then we have to get going. And Rome?" he asked, pointedly casting a stern gave at the oldest of the boys. "Next time, do me a favor and warn me before you decide to use some heroics."

"Not a problem," Roman answered with a smirk as he took a seat in the middle of the street, with none of the companions ever noticing the worried stare that Sharon was giving her oldest son.

***

Hezekiah and Raven yelled out in joint cries of battle as they charged at each other, both warriors consciously and subconsciously choosing each other as their sole opponent. Unlike Jasper and Nestor from earlier in the day, this was no friendly spar, so the two Sovrumano warriors weren't pulling any punches. They met in the middle of the clearing with a thunderous clash, forearms crashing against each other as a shockwave of power radiated from the point of impact. This degenerated into a furious ground assault from both warriors, with fists and feet flying at near unseen speeds as either warrior tried to bolster some type of advantage against their foe.

"You're still as good as ever," Hezekiah said with a small smirk as the two warriors simultaneously caught each others' right hooks.

"As are you," Raven agreed with a matching smirk. Raven suddenly leaned back, pulling Hezekiah over him horizontally before dropkicking the Angeli into the air with a spin kick to the chest. The Exemplar spun into a flare to right himself on his feet before opening his mouth to launch a breath of lightning oriented ki , which looked like a large plume of brightly shining electrified smoke as it covered Hezekiah from his sight.

Raven stayed rooted to his spot as he watched the results of his attack play out. His breath of lightning now looked like a low cloud with am electrical storm system contained in it. An incredibly impressive attack; being able to not only shoot elemental ki but to localize it was one of the top tiers of Draco ki manipulation. Nonetheless, Raven knew the level of opponent he was dealing with in Hezekiah; the Swiss Guardian was not going to fall to that level of attack.

After a few more seconds of watching the raging mini storm, Raven's eyes widened slightly as the surrounding cloud of lightning was blown apart. Hezekiah was still in the air, but his look had changed a fair amount. The Angeli's new visage would make any bystander believe that he was truly an angel of the divine; his skin glowed a bright golden white, unmarred by any imperfections, complimented with an outfit change of pure white flowing pants, a matching sleeveless shirt, and brown sandals. His hair had grown a fair bit, now cascading to fall in between his shoulder blades, where two large glowing white wings were now rooted, easily having a ten foot span. The Angeli himself was bathed in a raging translucent flame of gold as his eyes shone a brilliant jade green, leveling a piercing stare at his opponent on the ground.

"You're not playing around," Hezekiah said, his voice having a more regal tone than before. "It's been a while since I had to release the restraints in a fight, especially this soon." What Hezekiah had done exactly, was use a special ability that all Sovrumano inherently possessed, that being anima remissionis, the 'Soul Release'. What the ability did was simple; it released the subconscious and physical restraints that the body had on a person's output of ki, in a way 'transforming' the person into a form better suited for the increased output and levels of ki. It was a handy ability to have, but only the strongest of the Sovrumano even had a chance at using the ability, much less master it. This ability, more than anything else, is what truly made the Sovrumano, super-human, for it was these 'ascended' forms that first gave the Sovrumano races their actual names.  

"You should have already anticipated that Shane," Raven said with an impassive stare, regarding the physical change of his opponent with a fair amount of disinterest. This wasn't their first fight by a long shot; Raven had been waiting for this since the onset of their confrontation. "I take my position very seriously; and I take all fights in the like." Raven wore a smirk of anticipation as he slid into a stance, beckoning Hezekiah with a wave of his hand. "Anima remissionis this early though?" he asked with an amused grin. "Part of me takes that as respect, while another part tells me that you're actually trying to end my life here."

"Hmm," Hezekiah hummed, cocking his head sideways as he continued to stare at Raven. "That's kind of the point old friend!" With that announcement, Hezekiah went into a swan dive, charging Raven from the skies overhead as he focused himself on a singular objective, finally defeating the enigma known as Raven Edge, the Illuminati's Ryu Senko.

The two warriors clashed once again as the surroundings of the island itself quaked out of respect and fear of the powers of two of the strongest Sovrumano walking Earth's surface. The only question that remained, was if the released Swiss Guardian had the strength to defeat the Illuminati's Draco Exemplar. Even with the heightened power of the Soul Release on Hezekiah's side, the isle of Rhodes was about to bear witness to the reason Raven was a living legend.