Summary: Battle Commences.

Leaning down and putting pressure on the weight, Windsor let a smile draw across his demonic visage. He had been having the dreams since he had arrived in Sunnydale but he had only realised what they meant in the last couple of days, acting on them as soon as he saw fit.

“I taught him well,” thought Windsor to himself as he pressed the weight down harder onto his victim’s throat.

“It’s been a long time Pantha…I haven’t seen you since, oh, Tianamin Square. I seem to remember we fed well during that period. A pity you decided to run off and leave without telling me,” said Windsor, letting anger seep into his voice.

“I had to leave, I needed to leave,” gasped Pantha, struggling to speak with the weight pressed down onto his throat.

“I don’t really care what you had to do, you left me and now you’re going to pay for it,” replied Windsor, calmer this time.

“You? You’re here to fight in the battle, aren’t you?” asked Pantha with worry in his voice.

“I most certainly am,”

“And you, my friend are going to help me win it. I made you and I can destroy you, so you will help me. If you do a satisfactory job, I may let you live. If not then I’ll make what I did to the Jews look like the work of an infant,” continued Windsor, laying down the law to his creation.

Now get up and fetch me something to eat,” said Windsor, lifting the weight from Pantha’s throat and throwing it across the room.

* * *

Akira had seen the two other vampires feeding in the cemetery. They had fed on a young couple, who had presumably been doing more than mourning relatives as they were both half naked.

Following them back to a warehouse, Akira had been watching them since. One, a tall black man, built like a brick wall and wearing military garb, seemed to be serving the other one, who was smaller and dressed much smarter, was quite obviously in charge. At one point they had fought and from watching them Akira confirmed his suspicions that they were indeed his two opponents in the battle.

The smaller of the two seemed to be a brilliant combatant, utilising various forms of combat to beat the bigger one, who it seemed fought simply by using brute strength to beat his opponent, literally.

Deciding to crash the party and see what the two were really made of, Akira jumped up from his spot on the roof and dropped straight through the sky-light, causing a shower of glass to rain down onto his now rather angry opponents.

“Who the hell are you?” shouted Pantha, moving in to punch Akira under the chin.

Spinning round in a fluid motion that almost looked like dancing, Akira ducked the punch and raised his leg up, kicking Pantha in the armpit and knocking him backwards and over a table.

“I’m Akira, your opponent in the Battle of Warriors. I’ve come to see what you’re made of,” answered Akira in Japanese, bemusing both Pantha and Windsor.

“I don’t care who you are, I’m going to send you back to where you came from in about 10 boxes!” replied Windsor, now sporting a very angry, demonic face.

Leaping backwards in the air, Akira brought both feet up, kicking Windsor under the chin and sending him flying across to the other side of the room. Taking a huge punch to the back from Pantha as he landed, Akira fell to the floor, only to be jumped on by Pantha, who started raining punches down onto the back of AkiraÂ’s head.

“Pick him up and let him go! I’ll beat the slanty-eyed pile of shit myself!” screamed Windsor, who by this point was angry enough that it clouded his judgement.

As Pantha picked him up and let him go again, Akira regained himself enough to somersault over a low kick from Windsor, spinning round after landing and driving a hard kick into the back of his knee. Then, running towards the wall as fast as he could, he in effect ran up the wall, leaping backwards when he got as high as his momentum would take him and landing on PanthaÂ’s back. With his legs wrapped around PanthaÂ’s head, Akira tightened, and squeezed, spinning at the same time. With a sound alone that would have made a human sick, Akira wrenched at PanthaÂ’s neck, tearing the spinal cord and in effect decapitating the vampire.

Dropping to the floor as PanthaÂ’s body turned to dust, Akira was suddenly knocked backwards into the wall as Windsor hit him in the gut with a metal pole. Raising his hands to block the pole from hitting him in the face, Akira let out a roar of pain as Windsor instead rammed the sharp end of the pole down into, and through, AkiraÂ’s shoulder.

Screaming in pain, Akira lashed out with his leg as Windsor just stood grinning, turning and wrenching the pole while it was still in AkiraÂ’s shoulder.

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to be rough in the playground?” came a young female voice from the doorway.

“I’m not sure, it’s been nearly 250 years since I drained her blood and ripped her head off,” replied Windsor, spinning round to see the young slayer stood there, accompanied by Angel and a human who Windsor assumed to be her Watcher.

“Well, now you’re in my playground and you don’t get to beat up the little vampires, that’s my job,” replied Buffy, trying to ignore what Windsor had said about killing his Mother.

“Well actually, I think I’ll pass right now, but don’t worry, here’s something for you to claim as your kill for tonight,” said Windsor, throwing Akira to Buffy’s feet.

“Don’t worry though, I’ll be back to play some more. With you and your friends,” continued Windsor, before turning and jumping through a window at the back of the warehouse.

“Damn, he got away!” said Buffy, shoving a stake through Akira’s heart as he slowly tried to rise to his feet and punch Buffy in the face.

“He’ll be back. We should be extra careful for a while, I don’t like what he said about playing with you ‘and your friends’,” said Giles, in a worried tone as they turned and left the building.

* * *

Sat in a car across the road from the Bronze, Windsor smiled as he brought his head up from the neck of a young girl, blood trickling down his chin.

“There they are…this slayer has plenty of friends for me to choose from,” said Windsor sadistically as he watched Buffy, Willow, Xander, Cordelia and Oz step out of the Bronze.

© Matthew Smith, 2003