Enjoy
Bane of Existence
Chapter 4: Round 2
The doors to DMC burst open and smashed on the opposite walls of the building as Vergil made his grand entrance. Dante didn't even flinch and looked up slowly to frown at his unwelcome visitor for the second time that evening. "Didn't we just do this, Bro?" he asked despairingly. "I think you missed the concept of throwing in the towel."
"I wasn't ready," Vergil contested, making Dante sigh and mutter unhappily.
"Sure looked like it to me," he said.
"Really? And how does this look?" Vergil snapped, unleashing some energy that purposely missed Dante but swept by close enough to his face that it rustled his hair.
Dante sighed and closed his eyes. "Looks like Round 2," he muttered unhappily.
"Very observant, Brother."
"Tch," Dante rolled his eyes and stood. Resigned to his fate and not needing a second invitation, he grabbed his sword moodily and approached his brother. "Move it or lose it Sweet cheeks." He shoved by and wished that he could have slammed the door in Vergil's face on the way out, but unfortunately the doors no longer existed. Dante wondered why he kept getting them fixed in the first place since they all came with a death wish anyway. Nobody entering DMC seemed to grasp the concept of twisting a door handle.
Dante heard his brother turn on his heel to follow and couldn't resist spinning back and punching him across the room. It was a low blow, but well worth it. Vergil hadn't seen a move like that coming from him. It was more his brother's style.
Vergil climbed to his feet, rubbing his jaw. He glared across at Dante, but couldn't help being slightly amused. It seemed they'd both been spending too much time around each other and had adopted one another's tactics.
"Now who does this remind me of?" he commented dryly.
Dante snorted but otherwise ignored the comment. "Get your ass out here Verg. I'm not trashing my place any more than it already is."
Vergil chuckled. "Really? And what if I were to do it for you?"
Before Dante could respond, Vergil amassed a large amount of energy and let it spread out around him. A huge shockwave encircled the interior of DMC and within seconds, what remained of the place could to fit inside a matchbox.
Vergil stood unscathed in the center of the destruction, reverted back to his human form. "So what do you think of the redecorating, Brother?" he asked while grinning, "Call it Extreme Feng Shui, if you like."
Dante's jaw went slack but his eyes turned colder than before. Sure his place of business had been damaged before, but no one had ever taken it to this extreme. Leave it to the Spardas to go completely overboard.
"What's the matter Dantekins? You look as if you're about ready to cry," Vergil leered, "Are you not happy with the renovations? I thought you'd feel more at home working in a pigsty. But I suppose I was mistaken."
Dante swallowed back his anger and looked away as Vergil traipsed through the rubble to join him on the street. An obliterated building was going to be a lot harder to fix than a few broken doors. He was not looking forward to having to rebuild DMC. And he was equally not pleased about his brother's amusement over it.
When Vergil started laughing loudly, Dante snapped his eyes back to him. He had obviously missed the joke, because he didn't find anything even remotely funny just now. "What the fuck is so funny?" Dante growled.
Vergil's laughter died down some but in its place he held an uncharacteristically wide smile. "You are, Brother. You're speechless. For once in my life, I said something and you did not have a smart assed comment to say in return."
"Yeah well-"
"Quiet," Vergil interrupted harshly, raising a hand to silence him, "I'm savouring the moment."
Dante growled and clenched his fist around his sword. "Savour THIS!" he yelled and rushed forward, but swiped nothing but air. His brother laughed and circled around him.
"Such anger. I wonder what could be the cause." Vergil kicked out at the back of Dante's legs and dropped him. Dante quickly flipped onto his back and brought his sword up to block a moment before Vergil's pierced his stomach. He thrust a foot up to knock his brother's blade away and quickly got to his feet.
He had to admit that Vergil seemed to be on his game again, and finally fighting with the same spirit that he did normally. Vergil noticed this too and it made both Spardas wonder why he had gone down so easily before. It had been far too quick. Only mortals were incapacitated by a broken arm.
"Looks like you got the hang of your sword again Verg." Dante observed. "I would have offered you instruction before if I hadn't thought you were a lost cause. You were beyond pathetic before. What happened? It made me more embarrassed than usual to be your brother."
A grunt. Vergil clanged his blade with Dante's and gave a meager shrug. He twisted around and attempted to slash at his back. "Apologies Brother. I was feeling a little under the weather a moment ago, but it seems to have passed, thankfully."
"Yeah," Dante agreed sarcastically. "I hear those 24 'second' flues are going around."
"Indeed," Vergil nodded and blasted Dante with a ball of energy. Dante crouched to absorb the attack with his sword.
"Still," the devil hunter continued, charging back up to attack, "That wasn't like you. I've never ended a fight THAT easily before." He managed to crack Vergil in the shoulder with the hilt of his sword and Vergil hissed and stepped back.
"I know," his twin answered gruffly, rubbing the instant bruise, "So let us just forget it ever happened and move on."
Until Dante had brought it up, Vergil had been hoping that the first half of the battle hadn't been as pathetic as it had seemed, but apparently that wasn't the case.
It was strange, but all of a sudden Vergil had felt his entire power leave him. When his arm had been broken, he'd been just as powerful as any mortal out there, or perhaps even less. He had been relying completely on his body's physical strength when he'd made the final charge at Dante. For an entire couple of minutes, he'd been helpless, and then in a wave, his power had returned full force. Vergil couldn't explain what had occurred, and it slightly worried him, but he could see no point in informing his brother about it.
"But-"
"Drop it Dante. It's in the past so leave it there. Focus instead on the beating you are about to receive."
Dante only laughed at the danger in his twin's voice. "Shouldn't I focus on 'preventing' said beating?" he drawled.
Vergil rolled his. "You know what I meant, Brother. Just shut up and swing your sword already."
"Aye, mon capitaine." Dante said with an exaggerated salute and a half smirk. He immediately bent forward to deliver a spinning kick to Vergil's midsection, which made his twin grunt and stumble back a step.
"That wasn't your sword," Vergil growled, holding his sore stomach.
Dante shrugged. "Since when do I actually listen you?"
"Touché."
Narrowing his eyes, Vergil decided to ramp up his attacks. He lashed out with his sword at a furious speed that gave Dante less than a second to react between strikes. But the devil hunter was used to his brother's zeal and he was able to block each attack easily. Dante didn't mind being put on the defensive anyway. He expended far less energy blocking than his brother did while swinging madly and eventually Vergil would tire himself out and give Dante the opportunity to lunge.
Dante edged back as Vergil once again struck forward. There was plenty of space on the street to spread out so he wasn't worried about getting cornered. It was far better than fighting inside DMC, or at least it would have been had his office not just been destroyed.
Distracted by mourning thoughts of his former place of business, Dante worked on autopilot, raising his sword to block as Vergil's came crashing down from above. He did not notice or wonder why Vergil was continuously angling his sword towards his head. He did not realize that his brother was merely trying to keep his attention above him and not on where he was gradually being pushed back.
A tingle ran up Dante's arm as Vergil slashed down particularly hard. Dante was already falling when he realized that he'd lost his footing, having bypassed a wooden barrier blocking off a five-foot square section of ripped up concrete. He had been so intent on keeping his head that he'd lost it and had completely forgotten that this half of the street was currently being repaved. He'd also somehow missed the warning pylons.
He landed with a thud and hissed as the chewed up rubble dug into his back. Vergil made sure he felt it by pressing down on his chest to keep him lying flat. Dante reached up to remove his foot and stopped, hands hovering in mid air, when Vergil aimed his sword at his throat.
"No. I wouldn't do that, Dear Brother."
Dante bared his teeth. "Not that I don't appreciate a rest, but I'd like to mention that this hurts like a sonuvabitch."
"I'll have to take your word for it," Vergil responded with a tired smirk.
Dante glared and tried to shift but it was no use and Vergil pressed down with his foot to keep him from struggling anyway. "So what?" Dante winced, giving up on finding any sort of comfort in his current position, "You going to just stand there all night until I get the road permanently etched into my back?"
Vergil shrugged. "The possibility is out there."
"Could get pretty boring," Dante scowled and saw Vergil grin in turn.
"Oh no," he shook his head, "Seeing you in discomfort never bores me." Vergil shifted more of his weight onto the foot that was holding Dante down and the devil hunter winced and narrowed his eyes. Vergil smirked. "No. I don't expect this will get old for a while."
Dante growled deeply. "Hate to disagree but..." He reached for his brother's leg again but was stopped for the second time by Vergil's sword, and this time he was given a warning slash to his forearm.
Dante jerked his arm back and hissed. He wanted to grip the stinging wound, but unfortunately could not cross his arms over his body because Vergil was currently standing on him. He let his arm drop to the gravel and glowered up at his smirking brother, clenching his fist tight in a show of pain.
"Tsk tsk, Brother," Vergil scolded, "Whoever said the matter was open for debate?" He levelled his sword back on Dante's neck and narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Move again," he warned, "And I'll slice something a little more critical than your arm." The tip of his blade poked lightly into Dante's neck and a thin stream of blood trickled down. "Understand?"
Dante gritted his teeth and refused to answer. He didn't approve of being handled like a child. Vergil took this as a further sign of disrespect and snarled. "YES OR NO, DANTE?" he shouted, standing fully on his brother's stomach in order to free up his other leg to kick Dante in the face. The devil hunter's neck popped loudly as his head swung completely to the right.
"Answer me." Vergil commanded.
Dante moaned and slowly turned his head back to face Vergil, but his eyes were half-lidded and glazed. He hadn't cried out when Vergil had kicked him because the action had been too unexpected and had immediately dazed him. Now, as it was, he was still having extreme difficulty trying to piece together what had occurred to make him feel as if he was floating at a high altitude while jackhammers were having a fiesta in his head. There was an extreme pressure in his ears and for the life of him, Dante could not understand why his face was throbbing and covered in warm wetness that tasted mildly coppery.
Vergil snarled, realizing he wouldn't get an answer from his brother. He stepped off Dante's chest and kicked him in the side to get some sort of reaction, which ended up being a small whimper that led into a lengthy groan.
Dante slowly opened his eyes wider as the pounding in his head slightly dissipated, though the thumping in his ears was still a great discomfort. He fixed his blurred gaze on his brother and bared his teeth. "No," he said darkly, as a few more jackhammers left the party and he could think a little easier.
Vergil was puzzled for moment by the single uttered word before he realized that it had been a response to his question. He smirked and placed his foot back on Dante's chest and pressed down again. "Of course not. You always did have a thick head b-"
"Bored yet?" Dante interrupted, half speaking, half groaning the sentence.
Vergil snorted. "Not even close."
"Too bad," Dante grimaced as he decided that enough was enough. "I hate to cut your good time short then," he said gruffly and charged up the power within. He transformed into his devil form and used the appearance of this wings to thrust himself up.
Vergil, not expecting the sudden movement, was knocked off-balance and stumbled back a few feet. Dante immediately snatched his sword from the road and took a large swipe at his brother's torso, which Vergil avoided by sheer millimeters. It may have hit its mark had Dante not been so dizzy still.
The devil hunter wobbled on his feet a little and gripped his head, scrunching his eyes tight. "God," he winced, realizing that catapulting himself to his feet had not been a wise choice, given that he was sure he had a slight concussion. He felt like he was getting off a really bad bender, though the pain in his head meant nothing as Vergil rushed forward and impaled him with his sword.
Dante cried out and abruptly fell to his knees as the shining steel tore through his insides and exited out his back. Vergil pushed with his foot against Dante's shoulder to remove him from his sword and stepped back. Dante dropped to the road and curled up on himself, gripping his chest and gasping. Vergil narrowed his eyes.
Now who was being pathetic?
Bane narrowed his gaze along with the dark twin. Although marginally more entertaining, Round 2 of the Sparda boys' fight had still failed to live up to his expectations.
"What is this?" he groused, "Do they take turns being pathetic?"
'You're so difficult to please, Bane.'
The violet-haired man growled. He could almost picture Glyph's ridiculous pout.
"What the hell is wrong with them?" he said angrily, "One minute they're fighting and the next, one of them is lying on the ground, moaning like a child with a scraped knee."
'Actually, I believe children cry or whine, Bane-boy.'
"You know what I meant."
'True. But you do realize that this is how battles work? Individuals fight and then one of them is wounded and the fight is over and someone becomes the victor?'
Bane growled. "But THIS is NOT how I expected the battle to finish. You can't possibly convince me that THIS is all the Sparda twins have in them. The devil hunter was impaled with a sword before and he did not lay on the ground in a worthless heap. Something is not right here."
'Well…You know how impatient I am little Bane…"
Bane bared his teeth. "You didn't." he growled at the voice in his head.
A soft chuckle. 'I couldn't wait until you brought them back. I wanted a small sample of each.'
Bane looked down on the Spardas darkly. "You could have told me you were stealing their powers."
'Oh but then I would miss seeing that cute little shade of red you turn when you're angry.'
Bane chose to ignore that. "Do they have their powers back now?"
'Of course. It was just a little taste.'
"Good."
'Care to guess which twin has the better power?'
"No. You want both so it doesn't matter."
Glyph sighed. 'Fine. Don't be any fun.'
"I didn't plan on it."
'Just bring them in. My little sampling has made me anxious for more.'
Bane rolled his eyes. "I'm sure it has."
'Hurry home Bane.'
A nod. "Yeah."
Alright. So there's another chapter. Probably would have been longer if I didn't have so much updating to do. Hope it was enjoyable anyway.
REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW