{{Chat transcript from me and Boundary. Sorry it took so long, hope it was worth it.}}<br/><br/><blockquote class="uncited"><div>Gabriel responded with a nod and quickly flicked his right arm, letting loose the knives in his hand towards Ayl and quickly replenishing the ones he used with ones in his coat. Strafing to the left he continued this method of attack, throwing set after set of knives.<br/><br/>Without missing a step, Ayl began circling in the opposite direction, keeping himself at a reasonable distance, dancing around the knives and deflecting them with his sword where necessary. "Come on, I know you've got more than just knives up your sleeves.. Show me what you can do!" he shouted, taking the first real move and quickly dashing towards Gabriel, his blade held close to his body. He quickly closed the distance, ducking under the latest volley of knives and spinning around, bringing his blade up in an underhanded uppercut. He would be surprised if it actually connected, but he hoped it would incite a different reaction than more knives, at least.<br/><br/>Gabriel did not expect the knives to keep the purple haired Hunter at bay, he simply wanted to gauge his skills. When he moved in with his blade for an actual attack he kickly kicked the blade out of the way with his leg and stepped forward in a very controlled motion, pushing his palm forward with a lot of mass behind it and trying to connect it with his chest to give Ayl a small idea of what he could do.<br/><br/>Ayl smirked as Gabriel attempted to kick his weapon out of the way. Apparently he wasn't as knowledgeable as Ayl assumed; his weapon was made of darkness, the lack of a metal blade rendered anyone but himself unable to interact with it physically. Rather than the weapon actually cutting his opponent as metal would, it manifested itself as a void space, in essence dissolving materials it collided with. The tradeoff was, to maintain that kind of power in a constant stream, he had to be intensely concentrated on what he was attacking. Because the kick was unexpected, Gabriel's leg seemed to pass through the weapon with either entity being entirely uneffected. The process was faster than the eye could possibly see, but this was caused by the flow of energy from Ayl's catalyst being cut off by the object in its way, and quickly correcting itself when the space was again open. The lack of contact gave Ayl the time he needed to react to his opponents next move, easily sidestepping out of the way of Gabriel's palm. The obvious force he had put behind the move told Ayl that there was something there he was unaware of, and he quickly made a mental note to stay wary when in close combat as he stepped back to a safe range.<br/><br/>Gabriel did not expect his foot to go right through the blade. Apparently the blade was not solid in the sense that everything else was. He would have to remember try and dodge the blade when engaging it as opposed to parrying it. The moment Ayl retreated he reached into his coat and threw more knives at Ayl, trying to keep him on his toes even when he was not within punching distance. Keeping note of Preston's half of a blade that he had in his left hand, he hoped it would come in handy sometime later. For now he had to keep the Hunter on his toes and not give him a single moment of respite. He would not reveal the full extent o fhis powers unless he absolutely needed to. The less Ayl knew about his abilities the better.<br/><br/>As Ayl stepped back, he formed needles similar to those he had used earlier in his hands, though these were a bit thicker. He assumed, based on the way the fight started, that there would be more knives headed for him, and spun himself around, throwing the needles at his opponent. They collided in midair, slicing the knives in half and causing them to fall harmlessly to the ground with their now-ruined aerodynamics. Quickly noticing a building's shadow a foot or so behind him, Ayl took the opportunity to hop back into it, appearing as if he fell into the ground as he landed. He circled his opponent in the shadows for only a moment before popping up a few feet behind him, raising his sword and charging at his back, making his footsteps as light as possible.<br/><br/>Gabriel was waiting for Ayl to jump into a shadow, he had seen him do it once and he had already planned how to deal with it should he use it. The most likely place to warp to would be Gabriel's own shadow, which trailed behind him. Gabriel turned rather quickly to face Ayl, drawing up his leg for a hard roundhouse to the Hunter's face.<br/><br/>Having anticipated Gabriel's intelligence, Ayl's free arm was already raising to counter the move. His arm and Gabriel's leg came into contact, but the force was greater than Ayl anticipated, and though his arm managed to deflect the blow, the sheer strength behind it caused him to be pushed sideways, a trail of dust flying up from the pavement beneath his feet. "Damn, that's some crazy power you got there! Haven't felt a hit like that in a long while. You might actually be worth fighting," he grinned, his sword dissipating as he tossed his catalyst into the air. When it landed in his hand once again, the object formed itself into a completely different weapon; gripping it firmly, a surface curved around his hand and arm, acting as a sort of gauntlet. From the point covering his fist, three blades shot forward, forming a set of claws. "This will probably fit the situation much better, don't you think?"<br/><br/>Gabriel watched as Ayl formed some sort of three-clawed gauntlet to fight with. It seemed he was predicting that this would be a close quarters fight, which may be how it could end up. "Fighting fodder can weaken a man can it not?" he asked rather blankly, saying his first words since the battle started.<br/><br/>"Ah, so you finally acknowledge that I'm more than 'fodder?' Good, I was starting to feel underappreciated." Given that they were still in reasonable proximity to one another, Ayl followed his words with action, stepping forward and sending his fist flying towards Gabriel's chest, while at the same time removing the handle on his left side from its holster. Using that one hand while his other served as a distraction, he hooked it into the chain hanging off his wrist in one swift motion, a short blade forming on the end of it.<br/><br/>Gabriel sidestepped Ayl's punch forward, pushing hard on his arm and using it to spin himself behind Ayl, sending a hard elbow into the back of his head in one smooth motion.<br/><br/>Using the momentum from Gabriel's push to his own advantage, Ayl spun around quickly, barely ducking under the elbow and bringing his left arm up, the dagger-like blade he had just formed swinging around by the chain and slicing through Gabriel's side.<br/><br/>Gabriel's elbow hit thin air and just as quickly felt Ayl's dagger cut into his side. He could not feel pain but pretended that it did indeed hurt, using his memory of what pain felt like to help the imitation. He then suddenly lashed his left arm out, attempting to grab Ayl tightly by the hair and sending a punch towards his face, hoping to hit him with one or two very hard hits before he escaped his iron grip.<br/><br/>Ayl didn't believe the amount of pain the small dagger sent through the man for a moment, but Gabriel was quick enough to make his next move to where it did not matter. The hand intended to grab his hair was dodged, but the fist sent flying towards his face was not. Ayl practically flew across the street, only at the last moment regaining his control and flipping to collide with a building using his feet, harmlessly landing on the side of it and soon after realigning himself with the ground as gravity kicked in. He stood up, rolling his neck and rubbing it with his free arm. "Pretty good arm you got there, pal. Gotta wonder why you even bother with those puny little knives."<br/><br/>Gabriel ignored Ayl's comment on his fight style, charging forward with remarkable speed as he closed the distance between them, attempting a hard palm forward as an attack. He wanted to send him through the building wall and get him in a more confined space, thinking the environment would be more beneficial to him.<br/><br/>"Ah, you're more of a man of action!" Ayl stated, grinning as he jumped upward and swiftly climbed partway up the wall, avoiding Gabriel's approach. Before long, he backflipped off, pulling his gauntlet back and preparing to punch the man from above as he was recovering.<br/><br/>Gabriel noticed Ayl move up the wall and instead of succumbing to his counterattack decided to do something rather unexpected. Hardening himself he simply slammed himself through the wall of the building in front of him and ran up a set of stairs that greeted him, moving up only two sets before reemerging from the wall of the building in a rather destructive fashion and appearing above Ayl to send a hard punch at his face.<br/><br/>Ayl landed on the ground soon after Gabriel charged through the building, and his heavy footsteps were enough to inform him that his opponent was up to something. Setting a palm to the ground, Ayl built up a pool of darkness as quickly as he could; it was no more than a foot in diameter when the sound of Gabriel breaking through the wall above him was heard, and Ayl flipped his head up, smirking as he realized he had guessed right. "Say hi to the concrete for me," he said, raising his hand as a tentacle shot out of the ground, reaching for Gabriel in midair at incredible speeds. Because of the lack of footing, it was nearly impossible to dodge, and it soon found its mark, grasping him around the waist. After reeling back for a moment, the tentacle shot forward, curving around its center until bringing Gabriel slamming into the ground, a small crater forming around the impact.<br/><br/>Gabriel emerged from the crater covered in a black, chitinous coating that seemed otherwise unmarked by the impact. Without it he was sure that that impact would have splattered a good amount of him all over the road. The dust kicked up from the impact kept him obscured for the most part and he used the time to make the armor recede back into his skin. He wouldn't want Ayl knowing too much. It was strange, fighting Ayl felt like fighting Seth, a challenge. This man could have been a High Silencer if he wanted to, heck he was sure that his demon was miles ahead of the other Hunters' in terms of power. This man was different, but just because he was different did not change the fact he was an enemy. Gabriel walked out of the dust, sure that he could not surprise Ayl by bursting forth from the dust. Ayl seemed to have an idea about his surprise attacks before he did them, so it seemed foolish to rely on such tricks. "Concrete says hi..." he said rather dryly.<br/><br/>Ayl couldn't help but smile as the dust settled and his opponent was revealed once more, seemingly uninjured. "Glad to know Concrete's feeling social today," he responded. "Gotta say I <span style="font-style: italic">am</span> a little disappointed, though; I expected at least a scrape. What exactly is it that makes you tick?" he asked, crossing his arms and looking over his opponent.<br/><br/>Gabriel stopped and tilted his head slightly to the side in response to Ayl's question. "You talk too much..." he said matter-of-factly, "you remind me of someone I fight back home."  He decided that now was the time to show him a glimpse of what he could do. He slowly shifted mass from his torso down to his leg, doing his best to compensate for the loss of mass in that area so that his body didn't outwardly appear to change. Finding a crack in the street under where his feet rested, he pushed it down under the street, forcing it open as the mass hardened into a metallic looking black spike. As he talked it creeped under the ground slowly towards Ayl to close the distance, ready to violently snap up when he wished it to. He kept it thin, but very sharp so it was still deadly. "In any case, I am driven by a will to change things, same as you and same as the rest of the Silencers." he paused for a moment, "You are different from the rest of the Hunters. The ones I killed in that hideout were almost...animalistic, pitiful. Others have an idea of what they are up against but have little in the way of abilities to stop it...they try anyway. I may have to ask you the same question....what makes you tick, Ayl Taveirn?"<br/><br/>Ayl listened intently to Gabriel's speech, having not expected much in the way of a response. As he finished his reasoning, Ayl nodded. "I can respect that.. It is unfortunately in your methods that the problem lies. You see, humans are weak," he began, pacing around Gabriel as he spoke, his voice surprisingly serious compared to the tone he had through the rest of the fight. "Humankind; once you wipe them out, they're done for. Though their spirits and souls are strong, they haven't evolved enough physically to stand the test of time. Demons, on the other hand, have had more than their fair share of time to harness their innate abilities. What they're doing here is nothing short of bullying. You ask what makes me tick, Gabriel? The reason I fight? And the reason that you, or anybody else, will <span style="font-style: italic">never</span> defeat me?" He stopped moving, pulling his arms behind his back and staring Gabriel straight in the eye. "I fight for balance."<br/><br/>Gabriel chuckled a little, the first sign of emotion he displayed since the fight started. This was followed by his biological spike thrusting its way through Ayl's heart and into the wall behind him, impaling him. Gabriel walked forward towards Ayl, his face seemingly disappointed. "You have it all wrong Ayl...you treat me as if I am a demon myself, when I am just as human as you are." Taking his hand he cupped Ayl's cheek and lifted his eyes to face him, "Me and you? We are the future...we are not trying to destroy humanity, we are trying to strengthen it."</div></blockquote><br/><br/><br/>Ayl's body went limp within seconds. Impaled directly through the heart? A human would be as good as dead. No reaction was given as Gabriel walked up to him and spoke; no movement, no expression.. nothing. "S-so.. You're as human as me, huh..?" he asked, his voice straining to get the words out. A few moments passed after this, where Ayl's shoulders moved up and down in a ragged fashion, as if he were struggling to drawn breath.<br/><br/>Suddenly, his arm shot forward, gripping around Gabriel's throat with an unbelievable amount of force, all signs of exhaustion immediately gone. Darkness swirled around and through Gabriel, quickly binding the man into a state of complete physical paralyzation, though he could still see and hear. Ayl pulled the man closer to himself, a fire burning in his eyes as he whispered into his ear; "Which is to say you aren't human at all."<br/><br/>With his free hand, Ayl grasped the spike in his body, snapping it in half with ease and falling to the ground, still holding the motionless Gabriel above him. He pulled the spike out of his chest, tossing it off to the side and looking at the small hole it left behind. There was no kind of blood or anything there, and he quickly covered it up with his clothing, soon after glaring up at the man in his grasp. "If I ever see you again, your head will be mine. I was doing nothing but toying with you today; you have no idea the kind of power I have, Gabriel.<span style="font-style: italic">Don't tempt fate,</span>" he snarled, dropping his motionless body on the sidewalk and dissolving his weapons as he walked away.