The Shears of Atropos clanged against the drakotaur's sinister blades as Thaltos and Vaal danced in a whirling pattern of expert swordsmanship. Vaal's significantly greater size afforded him a slight advantage, but the Gorgon speed of Thaltos kept him a step ahead of the demon dragonman's weapons.
"You always were a nimble little beast, Thaltos. Hold still so that I may free you from your cursed mortal flesh! Rraagh!"
Vaal brought his heavy tail down in a thunderous crash that cracked the stone steps of the plaza they had happened to wander across, right where Thaltos had been a split second ago. Rolling out of the way and drawing a ragged line across the armored tail with one of the Shears, Thaltos taunted back.
"You speak with much confidence for one who has already felt the embrace of death at my blades. Come closer, I would love to add your new pair of wings to their brothers on my wall at home."
Vaal roared with rage as the words stung him, the original loss of his wings a very sore wound in his soul. There was little more to humiliate one of airborn dragon blood than the robbery of one's wings, and the vicious removal of them in his first battle with the Gods' Assassin had infuriated him.
"Your blades will never again feel the taste of my flesh, spawn of Gorgons! The very wings you once severed shall crush the life from your broken and ruined body! I will lift your corpse above the Altar of Daemon as an offering of servitude!"
Vaal roared and beat his wings with a single powerful gust that lifted his heavy upper torso off the ground, and slammed his forelegs into the ground. A ripple of kinetic energy shockwaved out from around him, causing Thaltos to stumble. Vaal was on him in seconds, spinning around to deliver a clawed mulekick to his chest that could shatter marble. Thaltos flew through the air to an abrupt stop as his back smashed against a stone pillar at the front of a building. Falling to the ground in a heap, he groaned. Vaal was a lot stronger than he was the first time they fought...Thaltos knew he could win this fight, but he wasn't quite sure how yet...