Vaan felt his leg make contact with Death's hand. He expected this to be a block and had been ready to pull his leg back. He'd misinterpreted the sensation though. Before the Silencer even knew what had gone wrong, he was being spun in a full circle and hurled at the ground. He landed in the earth back-first, and the air was shoved completely out of his lungs. After that, he tumbled over himself a bit, his neck being bent at a rather uncomfortable angle, before coming to a stop shortly after.<br/><br/>The air rushed back into his lungs and Vaan recovered himself, an uncharacteristically calm look on his face. Vaan took a moment to crack his neck and get rid of that uncomfortable feeling. "I'd prefer if you didn't address me by my demon's name," Vaan commented. His flames had gone out after he'd gotten the wind knocked out of him, and he reignited them now.<br/><br/>"Otherwise," he said, sprinting and jumping into the air, his leap intensified by his levitation powers. He shot himself down, aiming a good solid kick to Death's head, or shoulders, "What was the point in introducing ourselves?"<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">"Very well then, Vaan," replied Death simply, as he gracefully sidestepped out of the way of the incoming kick. "Since we're on a first name basis, the least you could do is make your movements less obvious," he commented, spinning around and loosing his grip on the left hand scythe.<br/> <br/>He threw his right fist forward as the spin came around, the thin wire attaching his weapons pulling the left hand scythe with it and launching it at his foe. In a completely intentional movement, the scythe made contact with the back of Vaan's head; though it was the blunt side of the weapon rather than the blade. In the moment that Vaan was recovering from it, Death stepped forward with his right foot, pulling the left one upward behind him. When the step was finished, the raised foot came forward and under, until eventually slamming hard into the Silencer's face.</span><br/><br/>Vaan stumbled and bent over when something hit his head-- hard. He'd hardly had time to recover from the attack when Death's foot crashed into his face. Vaan stumbled backward now, his hand moving toward his face in a reflex. Slowly, he pulled the hand away. The silencer's red eyes were hard now. With blood dripping from his nose and mouth, he wore a serious expression for the first time in a long while.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Less obvious...</span>Vaan ran forward yet again, this time, only his leg ignited. He aimed a kick at Death which, of course, was easily dodged. Then the Silencer's shoe slipped off his foot, continuing toward the reaper with great momentum. Of course, the shoe was bathed in bright blue flames. No attack of Vaan's was complete without the dazzle of fire.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Death's pose relaxed a bit after his attack was finished, and he simply stood and waited for his opponent to recover and retaliate, his expression remaining solemn the entire time.<br/><br/>As Vaan charged at him, Death again waited until the last moment to react. He quickly leapt backwards, far out of range of the attack. Just a moment before it would have been too late, he saw the flaming shoe being flung through the air towards him, and allowed his backward momentum to assist in transferring his movement into a backwards cartwheel. After recovering from the movement, having narrowly dodged under the object, he returned his gaze to his opponent.<br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">Much</span> better!" he said in a half-shout, as a smile played across his face. "That's the kind of ingenuity I expect from someone strong enough to be Abaddon's host." The recovery from his dodge had taken too long for the Reaper to make another surprise attack, and so he decided instead to wait for his opponents next move. Things were finally becoming interesting.</span><br/><br/>Vaan gave a slight smile, but the seriousness didn't leave his eyes. "Why thank you. You know I spend hours in front of the mirror every day rehearsing these moves," he joked, coming at Death and pulling back his arm for a punch. His arm, of course, was lighted on fire.<br/><br/>The punch was a feint though. He definitely kept it going, but as Death moved to dodge and was unstable on his feet, the Silencer lunged forward and ignited his whole body as he moved to wrap the reaper in a flaming bear hug. That was definitely an A for originality.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">As Vaan charged yet again, his arm pulled back, Death raised an eyebrow. Unless his opponent was setting up to disappoint him, there was some other plan behind this than a simple punch.<br/><br/>When the fist was thrown, Death backstepped it easily - and that's when Vaan's plan became clear. He leapt forward towards Death, arms outstretched. His feet left the ground just enough for Death's response to be an easy one; as his feet touched the ground again, he fell backwards, using the arch of his back to roll. It didn't go very far, though - when his legs were curled up to his chest and pointing upward, Vaan positioned right above him, the Reaper shot his legs out again, slamming into his opponent's chest with incredible force. At the same moment, the push from his legs propelled Death into the shadows. As Vaan was sailing through the air, Death traveled through his shadow, until the man was about to collide with the ground. At that point, he jumped out, grabbing the man's body out of the air. He flipped forward at a rapid pace as they traveled forward another few feet, and just as they were about to come into contact with the ground, Death shifted so that Vaan's head and neck were the only things taking the full force of the landing.<br/><br/>Death continued with the momentum, planting his foot on Vaan's head and using it to vault forward, flipping and spinning so that he landed a few feet away, facing his opponent once again.</span><br/><br/>Vaan did his best to adjust his fall in mid air with his levitating abilities, but when there was so much momentum working against him it did little to help. He barely managed to shift enough to avoid a fatal meeting with the asphalt. Vaan dragged himself to his feet, determined not to give up, and once again charged at Death.<br/><br/>Unfortunately for Vaan, the battle continued exactly as it had started: with him getting his ass kicked. After a while, the two stood facing each other; Death unharmed and rather bored looking, and Vaan bruised, scraped, scratched and battered. Blood was smeared across much of his face and arms now (which had been the main victims whenever he clashed with the asphalt) and he was breathing ragged, heavy breaths. Any four year old could see that the Silencer was going to lose, yet his still stood there, facing the reaper. It was more pitiful that admirable even, to a degree, in his own eyes. But Abaddon hadn't told him to stop yet, so he would continue struggling.<br/><br/>Vaan took a breath to steady himself, and set his ruby eyes (one of which was swollen half-shut) on his target. Quickly, without offering time to change his mind, the lead Silencer broke into a sprint. He jumped into the air before Death, raising a fist and summoning a fireball above it. He planned to simply throw the flame and hope for the best, as his stamina was quickly depleting. This would probably be his last shot. Or at least the last one he'd be able to stand up from after firing. It was too bad he couldn't just run away, but there was a barrier in the way of unknown properties, and a lead Silencer simply couldn't abandon a fight.<span style="font-style: italic">Having a high rank is overrated,</span>Vaan thought, readying himself for the worst.