Strangely enough... Lucien didn't get knocked back as Irina intended for him to. In fact, he moved himself accordingly to Irina's momentum in that small moment so that her dagger would become embedded in his stomach as he spun away from her. While doing this he used his sword hand to bash Irina's hand off of the dagger via pommel smashing her wrist with his katana. With the pistol, he fired a few point-blank shots at her chest - more shotgun shells. Either she would have to let go of the dagger to minimize the damage done to her by the point-blank shells or risk severe damage from Lucien's firearm.

[i]Indeed, she did suddenly let go, dashing away as more pellets slammed into her left arm and side, causing more blood to spew and more pain than before. As she dashed away far enough, she sighed as the blood pooling around her and surrounding locations began to quiver and shake, as puddles began to rise from the earth and towards Irina's open palm. The blood leaking from her wounds eventually hardened over, blocking off more of the deep red liquid from leaving the wounds.[/i] [i]As the surrounding area was then cleared of spilt blood, and each drop within a grotesque, malformed deep red orb within Irina's left hand, she only chuckled quietly, circling Lucien as she kept the ball at her side. It seemed that Irina, while also being a Vileblood and something of a swordswoman - could also manipulate the life essence of most organic beings - and was waiting for Lucien to attack.[/i]

Grimacing, Lucien ripped Irina's dagger free from his chest after holstering his off-hand sidearm. He held the dagger in a stance awfully similar to Irina and her Rakuyo - a near-perfect recreation. Ash stained with violet-blue embers escaped from his chest wound as well. It cauterized the stab and seared it shut whilst spreading to the stolen dagger, cinders hardening on its blade to create serrated spikes akin to a beast's teeth. He spun his katana in hand and slashed it alongside the ground, sparks created from the mere speed of the slash and setting the napalm upon it on fire. As the blow dragged along the ground and left it, a wave of fire and burnt earth sailed towards Irina.

[i]The way that Lucien utilized the Rakuyo's dagger definitely surprised Irina - but it also casted a look of interest upon her pale face, a grin slowly beginning to cross it. So Lucien could adapt and utilize the weaponry and fighting styles of his opponents...it certainly surprised her.[/i] [i]As the flaming wave of fire approached, the Vileblood only jolted to her left, speeding away as if attempting to get away from it. If completely necessary, she would have attempted to utilize her blood manipulation to attempt to adapt to it. [/i]

Little did the Vileblood know, Lucien had other plans for her. He emerged from the wave of fire in a quick blitz of speed - he used the fire as an attack as well as a smokescreen to get closer to Irina without her knowing. The man shoulder-bashed into her as a surprise attack, immediately closing the gap and rendering both of their swords ineffective due to the close-range. This, however, did not apply to Lucien's knew serrated knife. He would push her to reveal her inner monster, even if he had to bleed every last drop from her. With a pommel smash to the chin, Lucien whirled on the ball of his right foot and drove the dagger upwards through Irina's chest in an icepick grip, shredding more tissue with its teeth-like protrusions.

[i]As corrupted blood began to gush from the new wound, Irina did not use her manipulation of the thick red liquid to close the wound, but instead kept it open. After seeing what Lucien could do, the best thing she could even do at the moment was attempt to rip the dagger out.[/i] [i]Which eventually, she would.[/i] [i]As her left hand churned with her own blood, it suddenly writhed and formed over her entire hand and fingers, forming into a wide, katar-like blade. The liquid then solidified, allowing Irina to suddenly rear back and thrust forwards with the new weapon wrapped around her left fist.[/i] [i]Right towards Lucien's unarmored throat.[/i]

[i]There we go.[/i] Lucien dropped his sword into the ground tip-first as he raised his hand to stop the blood katar. It stabbed through his palm, which was surprisingly resilient for a man who seemingly had no powers. With his other hand he grabbed the barbed dagger implanted within Irina's chest and leaned his head in close, almost as if he was going to kiss Irina through his mask. "Oh, poor child of blood. Within this fool's gallery of advanced technology and science... Did you really think you were the only master of flesh? This is true atonement." He twisted the dagger inside of her, releasing branching talons of hardened ash and his own boiled blood from when Irina stabbed him. The branches expanded through her chest, penetrating organs and burning her body from within. If Irina were to pull it out, it would surely rip out chunks of her flesh.

[i]The Vileblood's eyes only widened in agony, while the blood katar in her left hand began to shift and change, the once frozen blood changing back into a liquid state. It wrapped around Lucien's wrist, while Irina's left hand itself wrapped around his hand in general as the blood tightened around him, as if...trapping him.[/i] [u]"...S-So."[/u] [i]The sound of a blade clattering against the ground could be heard as the sword portion of the Rakuyo clattered to the ground suddenly, rendering her right hand completely free. As her own blood dripped and oozed even more from the chest wound, it began to freeze over the blade of the Rakuyo's dagger and eventually, Lucien's hand. It was still breakable - it would just take a lot of force to do so.[/i] [u]"...S-Seems that I have a...a choice...[/u] [u]...Do I draw a weapon and attack with the intention of murder against a would-be murderer? Or...d-do I perhaps remain some sort of hero...and simply allow myself to die at your hand?"[/u] [i]A soft chuckle escaped the pained Vileblood's mouth, as the blood that had wrapped around Lucien's hands and the dagger blade fully solidified, becoming a glass-like solid.[/i] [i]Suddenly, Irina stopped chuckling to herself as her right hand suddenly reached with incredible speed towards her longcoat's inside pocket, fingers wrapping around the handle of a lightsaber. While she swung the inactivated handle, the blade suddenly extended into its true shape - a singular abyss black lightsaber blade, the very light surrounding it being sucked into it. A darksaber, which was speeding straight towards Lucien's hand holding the dagger embedded within Irina - specifically towards his wrist.[/i]

With a howl of pain, Lucien pulled his hand free of its bloody prison - only, the shell of blood was still there... and more sanguine liquid dripped from where he broke free, remnants of flesh decorating the outside of the shell. He had ripped his arm free of the blood by shedding most of his skin and muscle tissue. Lucien's hand and forearm were now skeletal, with tendons just barely holding every bone together to be functional. The darksabre cuts through the empty shell as he palm strikes Irina with his off hand in the solar plexus to knock her back slightly. With speed to rival the Dojo's best, he does a whirlwind kick to Irina's hand holding the darksabre before picking up his sword and backing up slightly. "So it's true, yes? You killed a man for that weapon." [i]High temperature, plasma contained by magnetic fields. Interesting. Highly volatile.[/i] His skeletal hand slowly begins to grow flesh upon it once more, albeit rather slowly. "Show me more of your demons, girl. Feed me your true sins." In his semi-skeletal hand he drew his revolver and fired the remaining three bullets at Irina before discarding the empty casings and putting new rounds in: translucent rounds seemingly made of plastic with a blue stripe around their tip...

[i]Though Irina was caught and stumbled backwards from the first attack Lucien committed, she then suddenly leaped backwards entirely, the blood beneath her and Lucien trailing towards her body as she stopped herself.[/i] [u]"...Indeed, I did kill a man. A clone, by the name of Bliss. He was a good man, truly...and yet he was still murdered by my very blade."[/u] [i]As Lucien fired the three remaining rounds towards Irina, her left hand suddenly flew upwards as the puddles of blood upon the ground flew up and solidified, stopping the first two shots then shattering upon the third, as the spread shots slammed into Irina's body once more. Gritting her teeth, the Vileblood's ability ensued once more as the blood liquified and covered the wounds, although something could be seen within Irina's crystal clear eyes: [/i] [i]She was tiring.[/i]

As Irina staggers back from the blow, Lucien backs up himself and holsters his gun. Lucien falls to one knee before he lifts his head and glares at Irina. For a second she can see something beneath his reflective visor - the unbridled flame of pure hatred. He stabs his blade into his own stomach and twists. A thick and warm miasma begin to fill the area, bringing upon a scent of burning flesh and brimstone. Lucien's form grows two large avian wings, made of burnt-black flesh and soot-ridden feathers. A pair of colossal arms unfold from his lower middle back, seemingly made up of thousands of thrashing arms all amalgamated into two limbs. Two of the arms withdrew Lucien's .50 Desert Eagles while others picked up his 2-gauge shotgun. One even reached into his holster to draw his Mateba revolver. Whatever demon Lucien had become laughed in a thousand different tongues. It unfolded its wings as they were set alight with corrupted cobalt flame - as did his sword, who's flames only heightened and seemed to whisper with every crackling ember emitted from it. He took his grenade launcher out from his belt with his left hand. With the wings, the massive limbs and the flaming sword paired with the grenade launcher, he looked like some demented Angel of Eden. And then the miasma enveloped him, making him disappear from sight as the sound of crackling flames and cries of children surrounded Irina.

[i]Memories of buildings set ablaze in Yharnam and the screams of innocents before their deaths filled Irina's mind, her face contorted into a look of concentration as she only eyed the monstrosity that Lucien had revealed himself to truly be. The lightsaber blade suddenly extinguished, and Irina holstered the saber's shining handle back within her coat as she reached down to grasp the handle of her Rakuyo's sword portion - the dagger portion still remained within her chest, due to Irina's own slight fear of removing it during combat.[/i] [i]Irina took this time to make sure that she had control of all of the spilt blood in the area at the moment, as her own and Lucien's began to swirl slowly around her beaten body.[/i] [i]Now, she would wait. She had to remain calm, and remain strong, no matter the case.[/i]

Laughed. Sickened laughter emanated from Lucien, for it would be inaccurate to say he himself was laughing. He chuckled in a thousand different voices, yet was crying in pain at the same time. It was as if he had mouths beneath his corrupted flesh that cried and laughed like two parallel theatre masks multiplied by the thousands. As Irina swirled hers and Lucien's blood around her, some of it began to... dissipate? No - [i]it was turning to ash.[/i] Lucien's blood transmuted into calcified skin cells with burning blue cores, skin to a swathe of hot cinders. Irina had unintentionally trapped herself in a swirling ash storm by controlling Lucien's blood. He slowly raised his sword up and brought his blade down quickly, not hitting Irina at all due to the range between them, but shaping the ashen winds around Irina into razors that burnt her flesh every time they cut her - he was cauterizing each wound to ensure she would bleed no more.

[i]The cauterization was bad news for Irina, as now she only had a limited amount of blood that she could freely manipulate against an opponent that possessed what seemed to have been much more power than she had. In short, it was a bad situation, one that Irina would have usually retreated from to access her wounds and plan ahead for a separate encounter.[/i] [i]The first thing that came to Irina's mind was identifying Lucien's current location, as she then whirled around to where the man had laughed. The goal now? It was to get out of this situation as fast and as safety as possible. [/i]

The air held the pungent odour of burning flesh and brimstone. In front of her she saw a glint of gold, shaped triangular and cone-like - an executioner's helmet? No, no it could not be. They should not be here. In its hand was an oversized wheel, stained with bits of gore and rotten meat from past kills. And then something landed in front of Irina, thrown by the Executioner. Something small and rough, slightly pink but now rotting. Her tongue. The laughter continued from the figure. It was no doubt that it was Daniel.

[i]The memories of Yharnam, of the hunt, they...they swirled within the Vileblood's mind, corrupting her, and ever so slightly pushing her closer and closer to the edge of utter madness. Yet a question remained within Irina's head, as she froze in place; as she stared at Daniel, the one that had caused her so much pain and suffering...[/i] [i]...How?[/i] [i]How could He be here? He was dead, a broken lunatic of a man crushed after he descended into his own insanity, into his bloodlust. So that begged the question...how was he here in the first place?[/i] [i]Unless, Irina's suspicions came true.[/i] [i]Instead of panicking, Irina attempted to ignore the apparition of Daniel, the one that had committed his life to her very death. She stared upon that thick grey robe, the bloodied pyramid-shaped head...the rotten tongue upon the ground. Irons forced herself to look upon it, before she began walking.[/i] [i]Straight towards Daniel, the one she knew was dead.[/i]