Cerin Cornine
Cerin knew that just because everything was going his way, that did not mean that things were going to continue to go his way. He would be a fool to let his guard down in a battle. Yes, he had caught his opponent off-guard, but that was only for now. It was a temporary thing. He had temporarily made the match harder for Cole, but he doubted that the meta was done with his tricks. Yes, he may have died from that, but he had battled phoenixes and people who could regenerate. Just because you knocked someone down did not mean that they couldn't get back up. If he was playing chess, he had gotten Cole into check, but there were still moves left before he hit checkmate.
There was one step and then there was another one.
He took a deep breath and he had learned that sometimes you had to make sure that things were done before you let go. Even in the world was perfect and Cole had died when he had shot him first, he would not count his blessings. He knew that murder was wrong and he also knew what he was. He knew that he was a sociopath. He had taken every internet quiz things and watched all the lists. He knew he exhibited all the symptoms.
It was funny that he knew what he was, but that didn't mean he wanted to get better. He was fine just as he was and he had killed people who had disagreed. He hadn't been above getting rid of people who dared to question him. But the question remained. If he knew he what he was, then was there anything to stop him? Probably not. He had been playing with others emotions for so long that he hadn't even thought what it meant to do it. He stopped thinking of the consequences of what he did. It was only when you were dying that you truly lived and living life on the edge was always his motive. He knew that killing Cole couldn't be this easy. Nothing was this easy. The easier a task the seem, the more it seemed to turn sideways. It wasn't that the world was out to get it because he was bad. The world was out to get out because he was someone who knew to be caught. What was the name that the heroes had used for him in circles about making people do what he wanted? Shadow Manipulator... it was a fitting name because they couldn't see the bigger picture of how he wasn't always the bad guy. Maybe he had a god complex, he couldn't tell.
Sometimes the path to glory was paved in blood or something like that.
He just had to wait for him to die. Each second that had ticked by made the situation worse. Each one had a moment of doubt that made him wonder if he had made the rest choice. Everyone would see him as a killer, a murderer, a traitor. Of course, maybe he could lie, but then again, why should he bother? Lying was beneath him and sometimes the raw truth was better. He looked over to see that there was some fog that was gathering and he knew that meant something was coming, Cerin Cornine was no idiotic moron.
There was a flicker. He knew that it was over, no matter how much he wanted it to be.
One illusion was not something he had expected, but he doubted that it stopped at one. If it was stopping at one, then it was a godsend, but he doubted that it was just one.
Another followed by more and more. It just kept coming and it didn't stop coming. He hadn't expected them to stop coming. He knew that his battle wasn't over and he knew that he would need to be quick about what he did next. He needed to be efficient and he needed to be smart. If he was stupid then things could end poorly.\
There it was, there was his next battle.
There it was. He had expected something stupid, so an illusion of a man was something that he had expected. It was true that he had hoped that the battle was over, but as said before, Cerin Cornine was no fool. He could pretend to be one, like he could pretend to be good, but neither of those two things were true. He was not a good man and he was not a fool. He knew that a new heart just meant a new thing to kill. He had been broken a long time ago.
If you asked him for a moment where he had broken, he would probably site multiple incidents, but it also stemmed back to one key moment. The moment he had found that Daniel Cornine had did the thing he wanted to do. The minute that he found out that the oldest brother had killed the woman who had abandoned him. Do you know what made it worse? His other brothers had each other, but he was alone.
"
You know, I have heard many men that it would take a lot more to kill them and I had killed them each and every time, sometimes you think you are immortal, but you are anything but that though."
Cerin was not a fool and he had noticed that there was fog. The fact that he had used fog against someone who could manipulate the elements was dumb to him, but he would let him play his trick. He would let him believe that he was fooled, but he had been anything but. There was a reason he had spoken, it was to give the illusion of Cole knowing where he was. He had his doppelganger in the area away from the air, but he had been there, holding his breath and baiting his time. He knew that the fog mostly hide a broken boy and if he had to guess, he would be in the exact spot where he left him. He knew this and also knew that he liked to play his game and make him think he was being cocky and smug.
It was funny, but he had already chosen two ways as Cerin did something insane. He did a flip in mid air and in the same style that an action movie star would do the shot, he shot twice, but it was how he positioned the bullets that had been ingenious. He shot one towards where Cole might be, well more particularly where his head might be and the other was for the glowing form, a head shot as well. He also did one full emotional manipulation poking and prodding thoughts of death. It was the best time to poke weakness and to get him to not think. If he realized what he was doing, he would be out, but he had done a second thing with the flip. He had made it look like his doppelganger was going in for a shot to the head with just a punch. It was funny, but it would have to do as a distraction.
Void Stiles
The Nogitsune had to admit that he hadn't expect a life from the senator, but he knew that it was best to not underestimate your opponent. Who was to tell what he was truly up too and he was smart enough to know that he wasn't going to be stupid about everything that was happening. He was happy that he had managed to do something that rarely happened. But he also knew that he was getting stronger with each second. It was funny that unknown that between Cole and Cerin, both were feeding his super speed and strength. The more chaos, strife and pain that was going on around him, the more he could feed on them. It was a treasure trove for him of misery and he was loving every minute of it. He was silently laughing to himself that none of them had considered that he fed off of more then just pain. The Mason kid assumed that pain was the only thing that fueled him, but the more crazy he made things, the more everything was going to get for him. It was funny, but everyone was helping him, be them knowing or not.
The Nogitsune could get angry, but he had been manipulating people for a thousand years, he wasn't going to fall for the same tricks that he had used for the whole time. It would be stupid of him to think of him as anything more than a kid and for once, he had thought about the face under the bandage form. He thought of the fact that underneath the monster's face laid the face of a man who he had taken everything from. He had to grin and he also had to prove Steven Armstrong wrong. It was a matter of principle after all and he hadn't thought about the fact before he slowly let the bandages fall. The Nogitsunes rarely chose the face underneath, he knew that he had seen him once and he hadn't expected what he saw, but then again, why not show the man underneath the bandages? He did have nothing to lose.
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"Lemme start a round of applause for Harry Hou-fucking-dini. You're one step away from Harry Who-fucking-cares, son, but you're little magic tricks amusing at least. You gonna try pulling a bandage out of that mask o' yours?" He made a slow round of applause, each shoe tapping the concrete in a metronomic fashion. He let his nanomachines even out his pulse and lower his adrenaline levels, almost fully leaving his offensive mode and restoring the facade of the friendly State Representative. He needed to his opponent into a false sense of security to fully draw out what he was capable off; he had underestimated him once and let himself be made a fool of. He had no intention of repeating such a mistake. Letting his nanomachines stir and pace beneath his skin like soldiers in a barrack, ready for war. Should they need to, they could rush to arms in a heartbeat, turning his skin to steel again the moment they preempted an attack. His own early warning system was in play. Now all he had to do what wait and see what Nuke the Monster deployed...
The Nogitsune didn't respond, deciding instead to change the illusion around them to a forest full of trees. It seemed that he sat in the center of it when he finished leaning on a tree stump. It was weird to recreate the nexus of all the power in Beacon Hills, the place where all of the evil was kept at bay, the place where the first Stiles Stilinski and his friends opened a door to a world full of creatures that would be attracted to a beacon. Little did they know what they had done until it was much too late for them to change their course of action. He could easily punch him again, but instead, he decided to do what he did best when it came to everything. Give riddles to which the answers were true to the situation and that would surely drive the man a little bit nuts. Drag out the time until it was nothing but one punch to kill him. He doubted it would take too long with everything that everyone else was fighting. It would just take one death to let the pain change his powers and make them better. What could possibly be taking so long? He took a deep breath for a moment.
" Oh, you see, that was just a game for me. Actually, this is all just a game for me to be honest. You see, I love messing with people, but I'm not much of a fighter. Have you ever heard a good riddle? Well, I'll let you get a punch if you can answer the riddle and then maybe I'll attack back. I haven't decided yet. As for the riddle, It's shorter than the rest, but when you're happy, you raise it up like it's the best. What is it?" He asked, leaning against the tree as he waited for him to answer. He could dodge him all night long while he waited for the answer.
@Cromartous
