Guristas and Serpentis fired their weapons at each other. Bar patrons scattered, hid, fled or joined in. Screams, oaths, cries, the sound of splintering wood, shattering glass and the thud of bodies falling to the floor were constant.
The Serpentis Agent fell back, half a dozen glowing holes peppered the body armour under his flight suit but his right eye was a blackened hole which bored through his head, his weapon firing erratically as his dead finger depressed the firing stuf. Angelina threw herself behind a table, blood streaming from a bullet wound in her neck, automatically ejecting the spent energy cells and grabbing for new ones. Eliza, heedless of the incoming fire stood stock still, two pistols in her hands firing with calculated shots.
The Serpentis and Guristas crew clashed, knives replacing guns. Vicious slashes, stabs and cuts quickly tore the two groups apart til the last Serpentis was left backing away, bloody wounds covering his body. None could touch him, already four had died at his hands and knife.
He raised his dagger in salute and threw it into the wooden floor.
"Fie, I challenge you. Angelina of the Ballentyne, blood sister to Carmilla. In the name of the Serpentis, of the Teku Bloodline I challenge you. Do you accept in the name of the Guristas?"
His barrel chest was heaving, sweat and blood covered him, his tattoo's seemed to writhe out of the way of the blood for the most part, all glistening with multi-chromed inks. One of the crew raised his weapon.
"Why should we?"
Eliza reached out and laid a hand on his arm without looking and pushed it down. She looked over at Angelina, blood still pouring down her neck.
"Do you want to do this?"
Angelina stood up and staggered over, taking a plasma repeater from the floor and checking it's load. She looked at the Serpentis.
"Teku.... I have heard of you. You are the ones who took my Sister. I have no love for you only hate and loathing. What are the terms of the challenge?"
The Teku looked at her.
"I win I walk out of here alive. You win the Teku relinquish any claim on Carmilla D'Morenta."
Angelina pointed the plasma pistol at the floor and depressed the firing switch until the whole clip had fired.
When the noise cleared she looked straight into his eyes, without fear.
"No. You win, you walk out of here alive and under my protection. I win, the Teku Bloodline, and the Serpentis as a whole relinquish any claim on the Ballentyne bloodline."
She jammed the red hot end of the weapon against her neck. The stench of searing flesh filled the room, covering the other smells. The Teku looked on and nodded.
"So be it. The challenge has been accepted. Let none interfere unless they want to face the wrath of the Serpentis...."
There were jeers but they were silenced as a heavily robed man approached and pushed his way through. Four guards walked with him, recognisable anywhere. Federic "Gilgamesh" Chopin pulled back his hood and stood beside Angelina and Elize. There were a few whispered gasps and mutterings.
"And let none interfere unless they want to answer to the Guristas."
Angelina looked around and nodded, she gestured and the area around the dagger cleared.
"On behalf of the Ballentyne bloodline I accept the challenge."
Together, Teku and Ballentyne leapt for the Serpentis Dagger. Two pirates fighting as their kind had done for millenia, a knife fight to the death. Two pirates, one bred for violence, abhorance and pain, the other fighting for her Sister. Federic knew, as Eliza knew, as every Gurista knew.... Teku didn't stand a chance.
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