Fate was so cruel.

Logan pondered it as his fangs dug into the sensitive flesh of his latest victim's neck. It was a small patrol group that found is whereabouts near a small cavern, but it was good that he had visitors. It made the hunt all the easier for him since they came to him and not the other way around. They put up a decent fight once he made his intentions aware by snatching up the closest one and ripping at his throat, but alas, aside from some minor wounds, he was in the clear. Both men and their horses were slaughtered and as the last man's final grasp was released, he savored the pooling blood into his mouth. Still, he couldn't completely enjoy his meal with those vile thoughts that kept stabbing at his mind- of his brother who had done quite well for himself up to the point of becoming a so-called God. Of another brother that played as the former's lackey now and that while they lived the high life, it was him that was slumming about, feeding on the scrapes of the world. He absolutely hated his position and the more he allowed himself to think of it, the angrier he was becoming. 

Uncaring for his meal, he ripped himself away, tearing chunks of flesh and blood in its wake and spat it out before tossing the corpse away like trash to the ground to join the rest of the carnage. He was the one in rags and with a rusted sword that could barely be used; so much for a former knight that was respected greatly in his House. But no, he was dismissed from it because of a little murder, despite the fact that the woman had been his to do whatever he wished to her. His brothers fought him to no ends to keep her away from him but in the end, he had the last laugh, didn't he? Not even when his brother had taken vengeance to his own hands was he successful. 

Oh, he was cruelly reminded with each campfire he started since arriving here; he recalled the mansion they all lived in being caught up in an inferno. He knew who had done it and why, but there would be no satisfaction given to him. What Nemesis or even Reaver had been quite familiar with was that their home held many secret tunnels beneath the house, passageways that they couldn't dream of knowing and it was perhaps because of that and dumb luck that Logan had barely made it out alive. Since then, he kept a low profile to not entice his brothers' wrath now that their family was all but destroyed. Still, he felt that he had been wronged for doing so little when he had been loyal to a damned family that couldn't give him what he wanted. 

Logan marched over and started a little fire to light the place up while he took to the painful task of moving the bodies of both man and beast to dump elsewhere. The blood that stained the earth would still linger for some time until it rained, he supposed. That nearly seemed to be the case always. Gods knew that he wouldn't take this laying down forever. One day, he was going to take this world for all that it was worth and watch it burn if he had to.

Katarina wandered the plains for quite some time now. Hearing of people going missing near a particular stretch of plains from various sources, she has set about, to find root cause of it and if possible, deal with it.

With her, as always, her loyal Jackal companion, Henselt. Both of them were now prowling across the plains, looking for clues and oh boy did they found them. Corpses in various states of decay, often strewn about left and right. Bandits, highwaymen, guards, mercenaries, bounty hunters and more, much more. Diverse group of victims, none of whom were given much thought after died, for as Katarina concluded she found the bodies there where they fell. If she was not used to this or was of much weaker will she would be sickened to her stomach, but she was an proud knight and as such she rather than feeling ill she felt angry. She would find one who had done this and would bring them to justice! Doubly so when she found the commonality between the victims she found that were not too decayed. Namely throats, riped apart in an too familiar manner.

Vampire, her quary was an Vampire and so her efforts re-doubled. She and Henselt scoured the plains, following every lead singular lead they found. She knew that it was probably not who she hoped it was but nonthenless she kept on with renewed vigour. For even if it was not him, whoever was responsible was just as deserving of swift death.

And so after many hours of the hunt, she found the culprit or rather he gave away his location. She and Henselt sniffed out smoke from nearby and as they got closer, scent of fresh blood hit them. They moved untill they found a cavern, an bonefire and a man near it, their target. Knight beconed to her Jackal to follow her at a distance and await her signal to attack. 

As she moved closer she drew her Flamberge from the sheath on her back and rested it's blade on the shoulder. Then in her second hand she form a ball of fire and lightning. As soon as she was in range she flung it at monster who killed so many and as she did so she roared out in rightous anger
- HAVE AT THEE FOUL BEAST!

One by one, he cleared his little abode of the filthy corpses. He wouldn’t stand for the smell that they would produce in the coming days, especially since the season was still warm enough to cause them to stink quicker. He wouldn’t go very far, they weren’t worth the trouble and he’d rather use them inadvertently to garner more “flies” later on. That would be the most useful they ever were, even in life itself as far as he was concerned.

Taking hold of the last body, he began to drag it against the earth with one hand when something struck his back. He stumbled a bit and felt his flesh scorched. The burning smell only added to his anger as he dropped the corpse in its place and stood straight up. Without even looking at the person, he listened to the ignorant words and smiled tenderly when she called him a beast. A little lost knight had seemed to have found his home and his works of art, it seemed. It didn’t matter to him, she would end up like all the others. But unlike them, he would have a bit of sporty fun with this one. He turned to fully look upon her, Chestnut eyes linger on her, and a smile that one would usually reserve for a loved one crept across his face.

“Quite a way to say hello”, he spoke as his feet drew him into closing their distance. Along the way, he took hold of a bastard sword, one that was actually in good condition, likely from one of his victims. It had been ages since he had taken to the art of blades yet to him, she would be his practice dummy. His pace was casual, there was no rushing into these things. Each step would bring them closer together and he pondered if the little knight had thought this to be an easy task to slay a crazed vampire. Well, he was no mindreader and before long, the smile eroded a bit. Her scent…she was much more than what he had thought. And that brought the smile back.

“Hello”, he replied just as he was a few feet away before he charged, sword out in a lunge before his feet quickly changed direction to the left, and his sword tilted to the side and brought up to slash at his opponent.

Let’s have some fun, kin…

As soon as she let loose of the projectile, Katarina took up her sword into two hands. One hand on the hilt and another on the foregrip, right beneath it's blade. Assmuming a defensive stance with her blade pointed towards her foe, she waited. Waited and observed her opponent. 

From the way he moved, to the way he responded to her, she could tell that he thought of her as lesser than him. Another foolish would-be hero invading his abode. Arrogance and Hubris, so common among the likes of him, would be his downfall, she thought untill she noted subtle change. His smile, it eroded a bit before returning to it's previous shape. Has he got her scent? Did he now knew she was too cursed?

However such questions were of little to no consequence now as he lunged at her. At first it would like to be straight forward but he quickly changed his footing. Classic misdirection. She quickly moved her blade to parry his attack and deflect it to the right and using the momentum of said parry, she would also spin on her feet. At first it would like she would perform a spinning slash but at very last moment she went in for a pwerful stab aimed straight at her opponent's gut.

The games have just begun and already his opponent was simply full of surprises, wasn't she? Logan couldn't recall the last time he had the pleasure of another vampire's company, but he doubted that this would friendly from the moment she had attacked him from behind. Just who was she and what family did she hail from? He had to admit that he knew next to nothing of this realm, of this land, and the power struggles that took place here. He would have to find all that out eventually, but for the meanwhile, he would find entertainment in this affair of theirs. He did seem a bit disappointed as his blade was countered. Seemed as though she was trained properly, and that the armor wasn't for mere showing. 

Excellent. 

He found himself wide open as she spun and at first, he observed her movement and that of her sword's and thought that she would bring it at top speed and strike him down.  he believed he couldn't bring up his sword in time and so he would his own arm to block it. But he was dead wrong as he felt the slight pang and peeked downward to see where her true target was. He felt the cold steel in his torso and immediately took hold of the sharp blade. Even in this state, he wouldn't yield so easily and he smiled as he tasted copper in his mouth. Blood poured out of his wound as a stream from his mouth, a mixture of his own and from the one man he had fed from. It was only fortunate that he gathered up his strength prior to this. His hand was also starting to bleed from his death grip.

"So tell me, gallant knight. Which House do you come from?", he inquired while coughing up some more of the crimson fluid and spat it against the earth.  Should he die here, it would be one less vile evil in the world, or so it would believe that to be the case. Was that the fate of a Houseless one such as himself? No…it couldn't be. 

"I still have too much to do in this world, and vengeance will not allow me rest nor my death." He shifted his body, even with the wound damning him to further pain, and swung left, bring his sword hand along the way to attempt a quick cleaving at her side.  

This was going much better than expected, Katarin thought as her sword sunk into her opponent's torso. Her little manouver worked and the vile beast moved it's hand to defend himself from a strike against his side, leaving himself exposed to her true intentions. And although he managed to stop her from further skewering with her blade, it was not something major she couldn't deal with by just pushing with all her body down upon her blade. Actually it was exactly what she was about to do when her concentration was thrown off for but a momment.

He asked her of her house. This was troubling to her…..did he sense her cursed state of being? Did he inquired about from what clan of wretched leeches she hailed from? How did he knew? Were his senses so strong to allow him to feel out her affliction? This unnerved the noble knight to her core. She now fealt an genuine threat. Not to her life but to her identetity. If he knew about this, he could not be allowed to live! Lest he would somehow stain the noble name of Von Schwarzspeer even with shame and dishonour even more than it was already! Her grip upon her sword tightened, she clenched her teeth, angered and furious to a point of near madness. She would have thrust her blade deeper into the foul monster……if not for the fact that she managed to contain herself. Her anger was smothered down by her rational side, telling her that it was impossible for him to knew such things. She relaxed her muscles and exhaled. She quickly came to the conclusion that he meant a normal noble house rather than a clan of blooduscker. Afterall she was clearly a noblewoman, and a knight on top of that. She felt that she could indulge in a little bit of theatrics, feeling her victory secured.

- I have you know foul monster, that one that brings long overdue justive upon your horrid flesh is an scion of the noble house of Von Schwarzspeer. An venerable household, loyal to the people of Adeluna and the Crown. We are those who protect that which is sacred, preserve that which is sublime and render swift punishment upon those that dare to threaten us, our people and our realm. We have followed and upheld the chivalrous virtues of knighthood for centuries and we shall do so forevermore. Myself I am but one of many who followed such path, and I won't be the last. Know this as you leave this mortal coil, beast.

As she finished her little speach, the knight of Adeluna prepared to thrust further into her opponent and bring this encounter to an end. But then Logan acted. In her distracted state she could not react fast enough to protect herself. The blow that the enemy vampire dealt her, causedher to lose grip upon her sword and fall to the ground. While the attack did not managed to puncture her armor it did dent it, and alongside that it also broke many of her ribs. She gasped for air as the sword struck her side, and begun coughing up blood as she tried to rise back up to her feet, managing only to get up on her knees, while rasping and spitting out blood through the visor of her helmet.

He wasn’t expecting the knight to be so…what’s the word? Taken back, was it? Yes, taken back by his simple question. There was a quick tempest summoned from her, he noticed it in how her grip upon the handle was as well as other body languages. People can spin words to mask their intentions and innermost thoughts; the body, on the other hand, was not ever as deceptive. Something was quite off but he kept his focus on the battle at hand. Even with her noble words, she had left herself open from her hesitation and brief point of anger.

It was all that it took for a knight of his caliber. Well, former knight.

Logan slammed his blade and watched as it did enough to send her away from him while he clenched his teeth together to go through the painstaking task of pulling the sword she impaled him with. It came out with a sickening sound and he grasped in a pain before tossing the bloody instrument to the side. Fresh blood stained the ground around him as he glared at her. “Lovely. Von Schwarzspeer, you say? Well, they trained you quite well, didn’t they.” She attempted to get back on her feet, but not able to make it up fully. He supposed that he had hit a mark, regardless of not penetrating the armor. Slowly he circled around her, but from a good distance. She had already proven once to be capable of long-range attacks and he’d be a fool to believe that she was completely vulnerable now. “I have to admit, I know nothing of this Adeluna, but I suppose that I should visit it one day and see this glorious House you praise highly.”

In truth, he saw no difference between them and the knights in bedtime stories. If they would prove to be a thorn in his side, then he would deal with them accordingly. The point of his sword found its way onto the earth, digging a bit into it as he stalked her. Every so often he would bring it out for a few seconds before dragging it all over again. He was thinking of something, but he wouldn’t reveal what exactly. “Honorable lot. I too knew of such people that were so gallant and held onto traditions and all that nonsense. I abandoned such customs long ago and I can tell you something, dear friend.” He made his way back to her front, his free hand resting against the wound as it continued to leak crimson. “Aside from a couple of brothers of mine, the rest of those fools died. I play by such rules no longer. Oh, and I don’t plan on leaving the living anytime soon.” He turned away and headed back to her sword and grimaced as he picked it up. Damn, he would have to find some more prey to make up for this little situation.

“Ah, you cost me some nourishment, which means you also cost a future someone else their life.” Holding onto the sword nimbly, Logan approached her and threw it at her feet. “While I could probably try and fight you while you’re down, there’s no sport in it. Besides, I doubt your House would be happy with you coming back in such a state while I remain. No, no, that won’t do for them, would it? Better to die in the glory of battle, and all that rubbish, correct?” He smiled and backed away a few paces. As stated before, he played by no rules other than that of survival. Virtues had been a thing he forgone long before his own House turned to ash.

Let her set up her own noose, he believed as he stood by in a readied stance to continue this affair.