5 Ashan 720
Llaren's inscribed name seemed to vanish from the pedestal at Balthazar's touch and the statue of the Immortal women itself came to life. Catching him entirely by surprise, the statue jumped down from it's pedestal and seized Balthazar by the throat, lifting him into the air as the statue charged at the door. When they reached it the stone Llaren slammed Balthazar's head into the door and he blacked out... well not really as he was dreaming but the world went dark and when Balthazar could see again he was in a familiar place... Yaralon. He recognized the street but more importantly he recognized the bar he'd frequented many times. Llaren meant to fight him in his favorite bar? So be it. That was the way.
Balthazar approached the bar and pushed the doors open, stepping into the surprisingly empty structure. There were a few tables and a stocked bar but no crowd and no bartender, just Llaren sitting at a table in the middle of the room drinking from a pint. "Here to fight?" Llaren asked as Balthazar neared her. She stopped her warm up and grabbed a drink from the table beside her. She was wearing dark pants and a wrap around her breasts but no shirt otherwise and her red hair hung loose around her head. "Well you came to fight so you must have come here to die. Take off your shirt."
"I've come to bring death." Balthazar said as he obeyed. He pulled his shirt off over his head and set it on one of the tables.
"But you won't, that's left to Vri and he is in no rush. But I suppose you can try." Llaren looked over the scars across Balthazar's back and abdomen, trophies of battles he survived. Even in this dream he could recognize the scars across his body, but there were more than normal... unfamiliar scars that seemed to draw Llaren's attention more than the familiar ones. "This will be fun." The Immortal of brawling said as she took another swig from her pint. She stood up from her seat and finished the drink in one big gulp.
"Not as much as you're hoping." And with comment from the mage, Llaren attacked Balthazar. First she hurled her pint across the room at Balthazar who knocked it aside with a swipe of his arm and a gust of wind. Yet the pint had distracted him just long enough for Llaren to close the distance between the two of them.
Immortals, she was fast on her feet. Balthazar didn't get an arm up before Llaren socked him across the jaw and when she did, he stumbled backwards with almost no defense to speak of. So he thrust his hands at Llaren and a powerful blast of wind threw her across the bar while Balthazar lost his footing and fell to the floor. He rolled and got back onto his feet but by then Llaren was on him again.
Balthazar's head dipped to the left to avoid a swing from the Immortal, then it dipped backwards and he brought his right arm up for an uppercut was Llaren moved in for a right hook. This time Balthazar was the faster of the two and the hit seemed to rock the Immortal... for a trill. Llaren moved back in and Balthazar dropped into a leg sweep that the Immortal bounded over to get behind Balthazar where she wrapped her bicep around his neck and began choking him. Balthazar wheezed for air but couldn't get any with the powerful arm of an Immortal around his neck. His eyes widened, then bulged and he realized what he needed to to.
Balthazar called on the elements around him, the wind began to kick up and Llaren realized it. Lightning began arching off of both of them- generated by Llaren and forced through Balthazar who screamed in pain as the electricity rippled through him... but he couldn't stop now. Balthazar thrust both his hands towards the floor, firing a blast of wind so powerful that it propelled Balthazar and Llaren into the flimsy roof of the bar. They crashed into the rooftop together, Llaren wedged between Balthazar and the hard wood, then fell apart as they descended and crashed separately into the ground.
Balthazar pushed himself back onto his feet and thanked all the other Immortals that when he did, Llaren seemed to be struggling with her throat. She'd hit the back of her neck against one of the support beams and the damage seemed to be delaying her. Balthazar moved in quickly, tossing aside a table as he tried to reach Llaren before she realized what was happening. He failed. Llaren looked up and opened her mouth just a trill before Balthazar realized what was coming. He drew his fist back to propel a ball of fire at Llaren but before he could drive the strike through, Llaren emit a loud screeching noise that caused a reverberating pain in Balthazar's ears. If he was screaming, he couldn't tell over the sound she was making. Balthazar clasped his hands over his ears to try and block out the noise but it didn't seem to work.
Glasses behind the bar began to burst and shatter one by one and for just a trill, Llaren noticed. Her gaze drifted sadly to the shattering bottles of great alcohol and when he turned to look at Balthazar again he was gone. "Where'd ya go?" In a burst of fire, Balthazar emerged from a portal behind Llaren and punched her in the back of the head. The Immortal stumbled forward as she turned and swung her arm wildly- just managing to catch Balthazar across the jaw again as she did. Shit, that hurt. Balthazar lamented, even the glancing blow having left a rough impact.
Llaren and Balthazar recovered in tandem and a beat passed where the two of them stood watching each other. Llaren watching Balthazar with some admiration and Balthazar watching Llaren in fearful anticipation of her next move. He could have played the distance with his elements but he'd chosen to try and take the Immortal one on one in hand to hand combat. This figment of his dream seemed to respect that. Llaren gestured for Balthazar to come at her and Balthazar nodded. He took a tentative step forward first, then really commit and leapt into a sort of superman-punch that Llaren sidestepped. She jabbed Balthazar across the back as he landed on his feet and snuck another blow to his ribs as he turned to face her again. Every punch that landed sent an echoing thud through the room but in this dream, Balthazar could take it.
Llaren jabbed again and this time Balthazar bobbed his head to the left of her arm, sneaking a blow to her rib cage. Llaren's eye's widened slightly in surprised and she bounded back one step before moving in again with a right hook that Balthazar ducked under before going for an uppercut- but Llaren was ready. Balthazar's hand struck air and Llaren's leg swept him off of his feet. Balthazar crashed onto his back and without more than two trills to let the mage try and rise, Llaren kicked Balthazar over onto his stomach.
She wrapped her arm around his throat again, trying to choke the life out of him. "Does this seem familiar to you too?" Llaren asked mocking while she choked Balthazar. Fortunately it did seem familiar, and Llaren's mockery was the guiding light that told Balthazar what he should have done the first time. Llaren was making herself an easy target, Balthazar just needed the will to strike through that which she was using to defend herself.
Balthazar smacked his fist against the ground and a small nob of stone shot up through the floorboards. Balthazar broke the stone off the ground and it quickly formed a blade just as Balthazar drove it through his shoulder and into the Immortal behind him. Llaren gasped in surprise and her grip loosened. Balthazar fell forward, allowing the stone spike to go the rest of the way through his shoulder. Balthazar turned as he fell and crashed onto his back so that he could see Llaren with the stone dagger protruding from the middle of her chest. She didn't seem like she was going to go down for a trill. She took one step forward, then another with more purpose, and then she fell flat onto the floor.
Balthazar wheezed through his crushed throat as a bright glow began to emit from Llaren's body. The glow grew brighter and brighter as it consumed the room around him and brought an end to his dream.
