Look into their eyes, and you will see nothing, nothing but pitch-black darkness that belayed the eyes of a monster. They have no souls, no feelings, no regret or remorse, so neither should you. They are not like us, they will never be like us. All they can do is slaughter and destroy, so it is my duty to do the same to them. They are nothing but monsters that equate to the doom of our world, and I will drive them back, one by one, until only the light remains.
The only problem is, this one is different.
This one's eyes has intelligence.
This one seemed to have the light.
This one has a soul.
But it can't. If it looks like a monster, talks like one, then it must be one. Look into it's eyes and ignore that flicker of emotion, ignore that spark of life that all sentient beings seem to share. Look into it's eyes and show no love or pity, for it will show you known. Raise your sword and strike it down while you still can.
But for some reason, I can't bring myself to do it...yet.
It felt like an eternity, but in actuality, it was only the briefest span of a minute. Our eyes locked into a battle generating stress that seemed expend the time. Once my heterochromatic peepers met his almost iridescent green ones, something happened. Sir Vorpal paused, as if contemplating something. His face showed a sign of an internal argument, and mine showed confusion. He had his magical blade directly at my throat, and with only a mental flick, he could kill me right now. Strangely, he did not.
I for one was not to waste a chance of survival. My eyes fell upon the sword barely an inch away, and I examined it quickly. It seemed to shimmer there in mid-air, physical yet immaterial at the same time. It was a longsword, the usual silvery tone of metal golden and glowing a low brilliance. From what I could gather from now and my beforehand meeting with the knight, he could materialize the sword whenever he wanted, so it was magical in property. He could levitate it, to what degree, I did not know, and I didn't wish to find out.
My body rolled underneath the floating sword like a spring, coiling up every muscle I had in my streamlined design, and rushing forward by pushing off of my back foot, the momentum adding up to one helluva punch. My left bear fist collided into Vorpal's head, the small din of a heavy fist meeting his metal helmet clanging through the room. He was sent lurching backwards, his mystical sword disappearing into thin air, his concentration of keeping it around now gone.
To be honest, I grinned a sharky, victorious smirk, confident of my win. Everything I had fought up to now buckled underneath my punch whenever I sent it at them, and right now felt no different. My lighthearted mood of victory sunk in my chest as Sir Vorpal righted himself back to all four legs, cracking his neck and adjusting his helmet, a large dent sunk into the surface of it. His eyes blazed with the fury of a man out to kill, and I knew that he would.
His horn shimmered momentarily before his magical sword sprung back to life before him, whizzing through the air directly at me. I reacted just in time by jerking my head a few inches to the right, the golden weapon embedding itself deeply into the wall, still buzzing with energy. Vorpal ripped it free and pointed it towards myself once again, advancing steadily with the precision of a master swordsman...or swordstallion, if that is the correct term in this world.
I had very little room to move about within the confines of the quarters, and my large size did not aid this whatsoever. Wherever I tried to dodge, I would bump into the wall or a piece of the furniture nearby, and Vorpal would score a successful cut on my body, the depth of the wounds varying. Some were minor, and my healing factor would patch them up in a jiffy, while others were deeper than Tartarus and bled like a fucking waterfall.
Whenever a drop of my lifesource fled out of my body, Vorpal would gaze at the green blood for a split second before continuing his onslaught towards my destruction. I did not know if that meant anything, but it was a point of this battle, and I had to take advantage of it if I were actually stand a chance against a trained knight of Celestia's guard.
I flicked up a few drops from my left arm into the palm of right hand, swinging it wide so the acidic droplets would flow through the air with a dazzling effect. Vorpal paused once more to stare at them, his blade ceasing in a chopping motion that would have surely lobbed off my head. I took this time of distraction to rush forward and deck him with several speedy jabs that pushed him right out of the room and into the larger hallway, granting me an advantage of movement now.
He nearly growled as I slithered around his blade now, moving deftly around it like liquid in our now spacious combat zone. I supposed I would have to thank Celestia later for having a ruler's affinity towards giant castles with big halls.
"Stand still, jabberwock!" The knight roared, swinging faster and more viciously, but more reckless as well. His attacks increased in strength, but slacked off in accuracy, barely hitting me now.
"Hmm..." I mockingly considered this by tapping my chin as I rolled underneath a great big swing that could've been dodged by a defunct automobile. "Naw. Swords sticking into me really clashes with my whole 'living' thing I got going on."
"Watch your tongue, beast! I am one of the highest ranking warriors in Equestria! I've slain countless of your kind, and one smart-mouthed jabberwock is not going to outwit me!"
"It's not really looking good for you so far...you're missing a lot. And I mean A LOT." I chuckled as I sidestepped the pointed tip ready to stab into me.
"Silence!"
His sword swung downwards to miss me and bounce off the floor.
"Can't make me."
He went into wide, sweeping arcs that was laughably easy to dodge now.
"I..."
Vorpal amped up the frequency of his attacks, mixing in a series of slices and stabs into a frenzied pattern that came closer and closer to me.
"Said..."
I thought to duck and avoid it, but to my surprise, one of his attacks caught me in the shoulder, sending a brief, sharp sting into that area.
"SILENCE!"
The stab wound deepened as he plunged the full blade into my right shoulder, rending a terrible scream to escape my lips. He maliciously yanked it free to renew his attacks with the vigor of an enraged animal. Snicker-snack went Vorpal's blade as it hummed through the air, cutting me down across the torso, various cuts and gashes opening up across my chest and stomach. He was progressing forward, forcing me quickly back into the small room in which our bout had begun.
A final push of stabs knocked me onto the flat of my back, and I grimaced at the pain jolting throughout the quadrants of my body. I tried to stand back up, but found a heavy force keeping me down. I looked up to see Vorpal's form approaching my fallen body, his horn glowing brightly with the golden aura associated with his abilities. I quickly theorized he was holding me down with tremendous telekinetic force, and that wasn't easy considering the strength I had now.
His visor had fallen down, so I could not make out any facial expressions, only that they were truly angry and gleefully sadistic in nature. He raised his blade and stabbed it downwards into my right hand, twisting it, receiving a yelp of pain from me in return. He pulled it free and did the same sequence of action with my left hand, legs, and even my tail.
I gasped from the pain coursing through me, overriding ever last nerve and thought with the horrible feeling of oncoming death. I did not know what death actually felt like, but this is what must be close to it. I gritted my fangs to hold back the shouts as the shocking pain washed over everything.
Vorpal stepped forward and placed a foreleg on my chest, raising his golden sword overhead, readying it for the finishing blow. He flipped his visor open, and I could finally see his eyes. They were what could only be described as madness. His pupils had expanded until they took up nearly his entire eyeball, filling it with a black darkness that showed no emotion. If I didn't know any better, I would say he had lost all fragments of his soul long ago.
"Any last words, jabberwocky?" He cackled, slowly raising the sword higher, ready to give it momentum for that final strike that would end me.
"Y-yeah...sure." I gasped out, my body shuddering at my words. I looked up, and locked my own eyes directly into his once more. At the determination in them, the darkness in Vorpal's eyes receded ever so slightly.
"He who fights monsters should be wary, lest he becomes one himself."
His most honorable knight came to a screeching halt as he was about to bring his sword down, his eyes now wide and fear-filled as my sentence came to an end. I could even make out beads of sweat beginning to appear on his fur. Did my words really have that much of an impact on the blighter? Once again, I had to take advantage of this moment.
I took in a deep breath, expanding my chest despite the heavy damage, and breathed out. Vorpal dodged just in the nick of time as a heavy stream of fire poured from my mouth. With his concentration broken once more, I sprang back up to my feet, shivering slightly as the heavy toll of my wounds began to take effect. I stumbled about on my feet, but my fists were still raised and ready to do battle as Vorpal only seemed to back away in fear from me.
He...he said THOSE word. He couldn't have know, he just couldn't have. That was so long ago, nopony would even dare to remember save for Celestia herself, and even she does not know of that time.
And his eyes, HIS EYES. They mock me, torment me of the facts that I should know. His eyes are alive, alive as a pony's is. A monster should NOT be this way. A monster only kills...
I caught him staring at the blood freely flowing down me once more. I placed both hands against one large wound in my side, caking my palms in the green goo that should really be staying inside me if I wanted to live.
"What?" I raised an eyebrow at him, baring my fangs. "You want some of my blood too? Take it then!"
I charged ahead towards him, hands of two different animals forward, grabbing onto his elegant armor tightly. It sizzled momentarily before my paw and claw sunk deep, the acid-like blood burning right through the metal and onto the soft, defenseless fur and flesh of Vorpal underneath. He screamed and writhed in pain at the touch, trying to break free, but I had him in a deathlock.
"You...are not...getting out so easily!" I roared as I hefted him into the air, his twisting body pitifully moving against my grip. With a battle cry that resembled a black metal vocalist, I leapt into the air brought my arms down with Vorpal in them simultaneously, piledriving him into the floor below. His entire body cracked into the ground, metal flying and bones breaking. When I released him, he buckled and collapsed into a heap of himself, twitching occasionally. I took a step back, expecting him to jump right back up and continue our battle, but no such thing happened. His chest rose slowly, signifying that he was still alive, but that really was the only movement from the unconscious night.
With a sigh, I collapsed beside him.