Beaten bloody and dragged before the throne of the shadow demon lord in the halls of black marble, he had little choice but to accept the offer of a duel.

There would be no escape this time. There was nowhere to run. The man in black drew himself to full height, his cloak whipping around him. He adjusted his wide-brimmed hat and glared at the demon, his narrowed emerald eyes piercing the darkness. He stood tall and awaited the first move of the demon, his fingers twitching almost restlessly and of their
own accord.

He knew his normal poisons would not work on this enemy, but if this played out to his advantage, he may well survive.

His captor laughed, the sound echoing through its own main halls and sending its demonic minions scattering for cover. "Fool! Why do you not move? Resigned yourself to your fate, have you?" The demon lord seemed to speak with several voices at once, and none of them were particularly pleasant. The shadows beside the throne twisted and vomited forth a dark and ugly greatsword. The lord grasped its hilt with one clawed shadow hand, and hefted it as though it weighed nothing. "Fine. Stay there and this will at least be a swift end for you!"

The demon charged, greatsword flung over his head. So he intends to do things this way, does he? With fingers deft from a life in the service of Mask, the assassin ripped his cloak from his shoulders and threw it at the charging shadow demon. As it flew, the assassin pinwheeled out of the charge's way, pivoting on the ball of his foot and barely being missed by the rapidly descending shadow-blade. The greatsword clanged into the floor, sending off a shower of sparks and tearing a large gash in the black marble. The demon laughed again as the cloak fell from its body - or rather, through it, the assassin noted as the fabric flitted to the floor - and it rounded on the assassin furiously.

"So, you intend to fight after all, do you? Very well, but you are going to lose either way, even if you are the legendary Poison Arrow!" The greatsword sped at the assassin's neck, and he stepped aside as fast as he could, leaning backwards to avoid the blow. It still connected, but not with its intended target. Poison Arrow's black shirt gave a resounding tear as its front was shredded from his body.

At first he thought he had managed to avoid this strike too, but as he regained his fighting stance, his chest burned with the searing pain of a nasty gash. His stomach and chest were coated with his own inkyblack blood. Instinctively, he looked down to inspect the wound. Before he could look back up again, the demon was on him, and he took a solid bash in the face from the pommel of the dark blade. Poison Arrow crumpled to the floor, his hat sent spinning off to one side and his earth brown hair streaming across the black marble floor. One of his prized crossbows snapped its bolt channel in two under his awkward weight, and drove heavy splinters of wood into his side. He resisted the urge to scream as he sat up and yanked the wood out.

The demon laughed at Arrow's plight, kicking him in the ribs opposite the new wound. The kick connected hard, cracking at least one rib. Arrow coughed and doubled over "This is so easy, I cannot believe it took me this long to do it!" It raised the greatsword menacingly, threatning Arrow with a coup de grace. As the sword reached a pinnacle, Arrow acted. His
hands literally seemed to sprout a half-dozen daggers each, drawn from his bandolier at speeds inhuman. He launched them unerringly at his target as he rolled to one side, the tiny missiles turning the shadow demon into a dark pin cushion.

The demon screamed in rage, batting the daggers from its chest. "How dare you insult me with these puny weapons, human? I shall slay you where you are for th-" the demon was cut off mid-sentence as the special poison took effect on it. Its dark form began to twist and writhe, folding in on itself in places and bubbling out in odd shadowy tendrils in others. "What is this? What is happening to me?" It dropped the sword and collapsed to its knees, gasping for air.

Arrow stood up carefully, inspecting his broken crossbow as he spoke to the shadow demon. "I poisoned you. Not with the regular stuff, mind you. This poison only affects things like you," he explained as he tore the remainder of his shirt open and tied it around his wounds. "This stuff kills darkness." Arrow smirked under his mask despite his pain and turned his back on the demon, who had collapsed to the floor and appeared to be choking. It finally sprawled out, tendrils of shadow dancing across the floor. It spasmed once, and rested. Arrow began to walk away, the demon's minions scattering in his path.

The shadow demon exploded then in a violent cascade of bright white light, and a disembodied scream resounded through the black marble halls of the shadow demon lord's realm. It soon died down, and was replaced with the multilayered voice of the defeated demon lord.

"You have won, Poison Arrow. Our oath says the winner would have all, so my lands are your lands now. Or have you really won anything? For you see, according to our other terms, I live yet. And you are my new vessel!"

Arrow's body wracked with a sudden and unimaginable pain. He clutched at his chest wildly, tearing through the makeshift bandages and collapsing to his hands and knees. He let out a terrible wail of agony and misery as his blood dripped from the sword wound and pooled on the floor beneath him. A whirlwind of crackling energy surrounded his body, small bolts dancing in a tornado of dust and electricity. Arrow's head flung back in a howl of torment, and a single bolt of energy struck him. He crumpled to the floor, unconcious from the pain he had suffered. The whirlwind died down, and all was calm again.

One of the demon lord's minions, a small winged creature, stepped over cautiously and tapped Arrow on the shoulder. With a sudden gasp, his eyes shot open and the demon minion recoiled in fright. His eyes, formerly human, were now entirely emerald and seemed to be burning with an inner rage. The voice of the minion's former master issued from the human's mouth.

"I...LIVE."