Taste of death

Renjiro couldn't make out the figures when they moved but he could see sparks of light and the flashes of arcane circles being summoned. Both parties soon stopped moving and stood at a considerable distance away from each other, nightshade looked more haggard and was struggling to stay on his feet. But the cloaked figure looked like he was having the time of his life, whenever they clashed renjiro heard those eerie cackles that made him shiver in fear.

"nightshade why don't you give up, you are making it harder for yourself if you agree to die right now I promise to make you death swift and painless" the cloaked figure said with a crazed look in his eye.

"go to hell you filthy assassin" nightshade said and charged at the cloaked figure again

"assassin? Does that mean that this creepy man is an elite from the kingdom of askabar, they are known for being guns for hire" renjiro thought to himself, completely forgetting his predicament at that moment.

"since you are proving to be very difficult to deal with I will use everything I have to get rid of you" the cloaked figure hissed angrily and began to chant

"descend and annihilate

I call on thee

Sword of the conqueror"

A bright light shone and a dark arcane circle that made renjiro's heart lurch in fear appeared above their head and from it a dark sword that seemed to absorb all light around it appeared, just looking at the sword repulsed renjiro so much that he threw up inside his mouth.

"what in the world is that" renjiro thought to himself

"are you out of your mind? How could you summon a cursed weapon here, are you trying put a target on our back" night shade said in anger, his skin was a bit pale it looked like he had lost a lot of blood but there were only a few cuts on his arms.

"I don't think you should be bothered by that since you wouldn't be leaving here alive, but if you are concerned about me I'd have to say that you worries are unfounded and I am only telling you this because you are as good as dead but I got this beautiful weapon as payment for one of my numerous missions, at that point I wasn't aware of the fact that it was a cursed weapon till I killed someone with it, after it tasted blood it became hungrier and I had to look for a way to seal it before it consumed me. I managed to seal it with a portion of my energy and it takes up a bit of my energy to store and that's why I am this way. You are lucky I can only use a tiny fraction of it's power or you'll be dead the moment I release it" the cloaked figure said

"that being said it's time for you to die" the cloaked figure said and swung his sword at nightshades's direction. Asides for the fact that space seemed to distort for the fraction of a second, renjiro didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, nightshade anticipated the trajectory of the attack and tilted his body slightly to the right, it looked like he had avoided the strike but the top of his masked cracked and began to decay albeit slowly, it left renjiro in shock since he didn't see anything.

"I am lucky I had this mask with me today or I'd be dead, I thought I had dodged that strike but it seems like I was touched by the remnants of the strike, if that was my head I wouldn't even have a body left to bury" nightshade thought to himself

The decay eventually came to an end and renjiro could get a glimpse of some part of the man's face, he saw that the man had a blond hair that looked like it glowed considering that the entire area was dark he looked like a moving light bulb.

"you almost got me there, but it looks like I also have to go all out. I'd let you understand why I am known as nightshade" nightshade said with a chuckle

"vine enclosure: poison garden" nightshade chanted and an arcane circle appeared beneath them, multiple green vines erupted from the ground beneath them enclosing them in an airtight space. Renjiro found himself outside these vines so he couldn't see what was happening Inside the vine enclosure, but he could still hear sounds.

Inside the vine enclosure was filled with a pink mist, that obscured sight and began decaying the cloak of darkness that the assassin had on him, the assassin reached out into the air in front of him and rubbed fingers together.

"this mist in the air is a corrosive poison peculiar to you, this would have been deadly to anyone else but to me it's nothing. I am shocked you still have enough energy left to do this, you are truly exceptional" the cloaked man said with a smile and swung his sword again parting the mist and cleaving open the vine enclosure, seeing what happened the last time nightshade completely avoided the attack this time.

Seeing that the vine enclosure was blown open renjiro knew that nightshade had lost the battle and fell into despair, nightshade stumbled out of the vine enclosure falling on his knees he looked at renjiro and smiled apologetically, at that moment the cloaked assassin charged out of the enclosure and swung his sword at nightshade's head aiming to decapacitate him.

"sacrificial exchange: human to doll swap" nightshade muttered and an arcane circle appeared above his head and beneath his feet spinning very quickly and gravitating towards each other, the moment they came in contact with each other the assassins blade connected with nightshade's head leaving the body headless.

"sneaky bastard I wonder what he did before I killed him" the cloaked assassin said and spat at night shade's body which decayed almost immediately. He turned towards renjiro

"as for you, say hello to nightshade for me on the other side" he said as he walked towards renjiro, renjiro gulped down a ball of saliva nervously, he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his chest the pain grew worse with every passing second and he spat out blood and fell into the darkness