Reaching Breaking Point (Zenneth and Legacy)

It had been a month now. A month since Alexander Zenneth had disappeared, and since then Marick hadn't touched a drop of alcohol or really spoken to anybody. The exam had been approved by Zenshin, but still it had been tense from the very start. However, what had occurred next...well, he couldn't have predicted that. No-one could have except perhaps Alex himself. Stubborn git...if he were to actually talk then this could have been avoided...I hope he's doing alright... the Solitaire thought to himself as he looked out of the windows of the Sabertooth guildhall. He'd spent most of his days over the past month trying to figure out if there was any way of helping his guildmate wherever he'd gone, but to no avail. Now he was sat at the bar with just a glass of water again, receiving the occasional odd stares and comments about how he'd 'changed'. Perhaps he had. He didn't care much right now.

Guilt. A demon that haunts everyone.

Alexander was back at the guild, looking completely changed. For one his hair finally went from silver to full white. There was tired looks in his eyes and a hellhound that he stole from hell. Stupid luck he got out, it seemed demon summoners have problems when it came to summoning Archdemons. He was not amused, so he was hesitant to even come back to Sabretooth, the Paragon of Selflessness was trying to kill him for heck sakes! And because of him he had to endure 2 weeks of torture to make up for lost time. It still was painful no matter how many times he went through it. The images were just as he remembered them and now that he was here.... He was not allowing anyone to try and attempt to control his demon again. It was his responsibility and his task. Hence he managed to find someone to seal the demon for an exorbitant amount of jewels. He looked at the rosary bracelet on his wrist and hoped in was worth it. The 'help' that Alexander got made him now suffer demonic possessions on a daily basis and go through constant epileptic seizures. It did not help, but made it 10 times worse.

He casually walked in as if he was not gone for a month and put his gear back in the room. It was a long trip and he needed a drink. So he finally let his dog stay in his room, guild would be freaked out if they didn't get a warning first. So he stepped out to the guild hall and towards the main hall. It was then he saw Marick, and all the rage boiled to one single point. He walked up to the man and punched the man from the side as much force as he possibly could. He yelled, "That's for the training that sent me to hell you son of a b****!"

Marick stood there stunned for a brief second. Admittedly he hadn't exactly expected Alex to enter and be all friendly with him. But to punch him in the face and disrespect him in this way in front of the members who were here as if it was entirely the Solitaire's fault? No, that wasn't on. In a quick flash Marick's right fist shot up and caught the Demon Slayer across the cheek with a force that Alex would be feeling for a good while. There was no hesitation from the Sabertooth Ace. He got to his feet, the three inches of height he had over the younger mage being clearly evident to the members now surrounding them. "That's for being disrespectful to a fellow member. Are you really so self-centered that you think I put you through that training just to spite you? I couldn't have predicted that to happen, and I'd been given permission from Zenshin himself to give you exactly that exam. Without control you were a risk to every member and every civilian you worked around. We were trying to help." he growled, both of his fists clenched. If it was a fight the slayer wanted, he was going to get it. Sure, Marick was the guilds ace and he was supposed to set a good example. But he'd spent the last month worried about this boy, only for him to return and immediately go on the offensive.

Okay, maybe that was the most rash decision he could have come up with. But as he fell backwards he caught himself with his hand and propelled his feet up in a sort of hand plant kick up Maricks jaw. Unlike Marick, Alexander went through worse pain than the ace could even imagine. He would feel it of course, but it wouldn't affect him in the slightest. Regardless of outcome the new style of Alexander showed for he didn't keep his hair spiky anymore and slightly showed the muscles on his chest that were filled with new scars. He seemed to really not give a damn anymore what people thought of him anymore. He yelled, "Then if you did not know what the hell you were doing then don't help! You had no idea what you were doing and proceeded to train a powder keg. For someone who is trying to help me, you have already almost killed me twice. " Alexander was not exaggerating either and thus they were getting their emotions out with each punch and bruise they got.

Alex's moves were good, but now Marick's experience would show up, as he sidestepped the kick and grabbed the Demon Slayer's leg, before swinging the younger man across the room and over the bar with his own momentum. "If we didn't help then you would've ended up killing someone eventually. Do you really want to live with more of a burden on your mind?" he responded, jumping over the bar and lifting his guildmate up to his feet by the collar of his coat. "I'm sorry about what you went through. Had either myself or Zenshin been aware of the potential consequences then we would have planned a different exam. We can't read minds Alex, and you're not letting either of us in." He pushed the fire user backwards into the wall before turning his back and jumping over the bar again "...punching me wasn't the smartest of moves either...so I guess that makes two of us who've made mistakes since you joined Sabertooth." he continued as he turned back to face Alex again. If the slayer wanted more, all he had to do was ask.

Alexander was mildly surprised at being caught in the leg before being thrown over the bar. Well this was a turn of events, but not before being grabbed by the collar and thrown to the wall. Wall was easy enough as long as long as you knew where the walls was, turn around to put your arm in way to absorb impact and use the ‘bounce’ to get more speed in. Using momentum he turned around and came back twice as fast to apparently punch him in face, but feinted and instead tackled him across the waist. One of the benefits of being shorter was less of a window box to hit. He the then punched him straight in the stomach as he hit the ground, “I don’t know, it was worth it to me. I would have said something if I was ASKED. If you had asked you would have known that I already soul searched before. I know what I want out of life and death.”

Marick took the punch to the gut and took a step back as a way of reducing the impact slightly. It was a quick feint and had certainly caught the Solitaire off-guard. Still, he'd fought Zenshin when at the top of his game and at double his usual pace. Although he might be a little slow off the mark, the Ace would be able to handle pretty much anything physical that Alex threw at him. As stepped forward he brought his right fit up and powered and uppercut straight at Alex's jaw.

"I'm sorry, does your mouth not work? Let me fix that for you so that you can actually talk to me. If you'd tried it before then you should have informed me when I suggested it."

By now he was beginning to get really quite pissed off. Marick knew he was at fault to some degree and he didn't deny that. But Alex was proving that he was as much to blame by not talking to either him nor Zenshin.

Alexander took one to the jaw, it hurt that is for sure but it was nothing. He felt worse pain in other fights that he had been and thus this was minimal. It could be that he was too stubborn to admit defeat. It was like having 2 stubborn immovable forces when it came to their personalities. The only difference between them was that their personalities were opposite in everything else. Their goals and ideals clashed. “Well excuse me if I don’t like to talk about every factor of my life to people. So maybe I placed my trust into it to see if I got new insight. I did, you’re a dumb arse!” Alexander felt betrayed after all and responded by striking him in the throat.

This fight was going to take a while longer. It appeared none of them were going to give up.

The strike in the throat would most likely have caught Marick off-guard and, in all honesty, could have killed him. Of course Marick had been in far more bar fights than he'd likely admit to even in a drunken state and one thing he'd always been sure of was to protect his throat...and his face what with the usual ladies being around (although then again, there weren't many ladies around the Sabertooth guildhall, or at least none of a reasonable age who may be interested in him, but that was another matter entirely), and thus he sidestepped Alex's strike and took it to the shoulder. He felt his shoulder click, before clicking back into place not unlike when he'd fought the rune knights a year or so before. Admittedly this time the dislocation of his shoulder was certainly not voluntarily and it hurt considerably more.

Clearly Alex wasn't up for ending this fight prematurely. He intended to hurt the Solitaire. Marick brought his fists up once more, bringing an uppercut with his left to the Demon Slayer's gut, before following up with an uppercut with his stronger left hand to Alex's jaw. "Maybe I am. But you're no better. Sabertooth follows three main values; Selflessness, Faith and Conviction. From what I've seen from you, you lack faith in your guildmates. I had faith in you, had the conviction to follow what I felt was necessary, and the selflessness to think of you and the members that would be affected by your actions."

Marick sighed and lowered his fists - and his guard - as he took a step backwards. "I don't claim to be perfect...but I wasn't made an ace for nothing Alex...I care about every single member here...I never meant for anything to happen and, had I known, I'd never had pushed. But I'm not solely to blame." Admittedly he probably wasn't getting anywhere, but it was worth a try right?

Alexander stopped fighting for a bit, and glared at Marick. “You are wrong in so many levels. I am not selfish man enough to attempt to drag other people towards my problems and fix them myself.” Alexander raised the rosary that was on his wrist that temporarily sealed Adromelech. He knew that it was not going to stop it forever, but it would give time to prepare better. Alexander was not done though, he continued “I have much more conviction than you can ever dream of, because one cannot survive hell without it and still find reason to live on and causes to die for.” Alexander swallowed some of his metallic tasting blood that filled his mouth, “And I have faith that despite suffering through the darkest nights, the next day shall bring the Radiant Dawn. They are the same values, but different way to interpret them.”

Marick look Alex dead in the eye, neither man moving as each others words would probably be running through their heads as much as their own words had been. The other members in the guildhall watched nervously as the standoff ensued. Alex was intelligent, had strong beliefs and was a stubborn bastard. Marick eventually just chuckled. "...you and I are more alike then we'd probably like to admit..." he muttered, before walking to the bar and turning two stools back to their upright position. "Sit your arse down...fighting won't get either of us anywhere at this rate."

Another member rushed behind the bar and placed a few beers onto the countertop. "Besides, you just got back from hell...I highly doubt you've had a beer down there...and from what I vaguely remember of when we first met, you like to have a beer from time to time."

Alexander then just snorted, "Not mad at you, just wanted a rain check on that punch you said I could have on the exam." Alexander sat down and ordered whiskey, something much stronger that beer. There was no booze in hell, but there was a lot of fire, pain and death. Yeah screw the shot, he wanted the whole damn bottle. He poured Marick a glass, "Don't tell me you started goin emo because of my arse. That is a crime punishable by death." He quickly downed the whiskey glass and poured another one before pausing and said, "Bright side is that now you have a hard arse reputation. If C-rank exam involves throwing people to hell, what is my B-rank going to be?"