Match 6309 Demona vs. Kraven the Hunter

[Guest callisto]

Demona is soaring over the rooftops of Manhattan in the night skies when she is suddenly ensnared from the waist up with a wire bola, wings and all. She crashes hard on the nearest rooftop.

 

"Who would dare attempt to subdue me?" she thinks to herself as she slowly stands up and flexes against her bonds. "The Quarrymen? Those accursed Hunters?"

 

She breaks free after a few seconds of struggle. At this moment she notices a figure running and leaping from rooftop to rooftop in her direction. As the figure draws closer, Demona sees that he has height and build very similar to...

 

"Macbeth!" the blue-skinned Gargoyle growls, her eyes narrowing and glowing bright red. Merely thinking about her mortal foe has always made her blood boil. "Come, human! Let us end this once and for all!"

 

The figures ducks behind a doorway on a nearby rooftop. Demona glides onto this rooftop and draws her particle beam cannon. "You're making this too easy!" she says with a smirk as she aims her cannon toward the doorway. But before she can fire, the man suddenly darts out and leaps to another roof. The Gargoyle glides after him, slowly gaining ground. As soon as she swoops over this new roof, however, a smoke bomb slightly blinds and gags her, forcing her to drop to its surface. The man keeps running to the edge of the building. Demona recovers just in time to see him take a giant leap to yet another roof, clearing a twenty-five foot gap in the process.

 

"What?" the villainess says to herself. "He could never leap like..." Despite this peculiar development, Demona's anger gets the better of her and she continues her pursuit. This next rooftop is the biggest one yet, with ten cooling units lined up in two rows and a large, one-story-high brick structure standing between the rows. Demona lands on the rooftop and immediately draws her cannon again. All of the different obstacles, though, makes it difficult for the villainess to find her target.

 

"Cowardice doesn't befit you, Macbeth!" she shouts. "Normally you're all too eager to do battle with me. Come out and face me like..."

 

She is interrupted by a burst of laughter. "You have much rage within you," says a man's voice with a thick Russian accent. "Typical of beasts like yourself."

 

"Who are you?" shouts Demona, walking slowly while still looking around and aiming her weapon.

 

"I am a hunter, a predator that stalks his prey," the man replies, still out of sight.

 

"Another Hunter?!" Demona's eyes glow. "Tell me your name, 'Hunter', so that I may carve it on your tombstone!"

 

"Very well, creature" he says, chuckling slightly. "Call me... Kraven."

 

Demona hears a faint whistling sound and is barely able to dodge a speeding dart coming her way. She has no time to relax, though, as she is forced to dodge several more darts coming at her in quick succession. She finally takes cover behind the nearest cooling unit.

 

"I know all about you and your kind, demoness," says Kraven. "I know that you gargoyles are more... nocturnal creatures. I know that you in particular have many enemies in this world, that you especially hate humans. Your... misanthropy makes you particularly motivated. I find prey that is motivated by fear AND hatred is the most thrilling to hunt."

 

While Kraven is ranting, Demona determines that he must be shooting his darts from a higher vantage point. So, in one move, she leaps from behind the unit to the one across from her, firing several shots from her laser in the process, with another dart coming at her almost simultaneously. The hunter's dart just misses the villainess, but the shots from the cannon strike the brick structure. Much of the structure collapses, bringing Kraven, whom Demona correctly guessed was perched on top, crashing down with it. Demona stands up and confidently moves toward the wreckage with gun in tow.

 

After a few moments, Kraven starts to emerge from the rubble. Demona is somewhat surprised her tormentor is still conscious. Undeterred, she takes a running leap high in the air toward Kraven and kicks him on the way down, right as he stands up. The blow sends him flying a good thirty feet and into another nearby cooling unit, heavily denting it. The Gargoyle's stalker hunches over, groaning.

 

"You are more resilient than I expected," says Demona as she walks to Kraven. She finally has a good look at her would-be subduer, a tall, muscular, dark-haired man with a thick mustache and wearing what appears to be a lion-skinned vest. She straightens him up and slams him hard against the dented unit. "But your efforts were ultimately futile. Now tell me who you are, really," the villainess says as she presses him against the unit with her left hand and aims her cannon at his face with her right. "I have never known the Canmore Hunters to have Russian lineage."

 

"I do not know of any Canmores," replies Kraven, now with a bit of blood running from his nostril. "I am here partially on my own accord, for my own pleasure. I was merely pointed in the right direction."

 

"By whom?" the Gargoyle asks tersely, quickly losing her patience.

 

"That is something you would love to know, da?" he scoffs.

 

"You would be wise not to toy with me, human," says Demona, eyes glowing again. "I can end you now and think nothing more of it." The villainess punctuates this statement by pressing the barrel of her cannon under the hunter's chin. "How long you live now depends on how much you tell me."

 

With a devious grin, Kraven raises his hands as if to surrender.

 

"Perhaps you should concern yourself more with the struggle before you."

 

Kraven opens his right hand, releasing a fine powder that blinds Demona. She releases her grip on Kraven to wipe her eyes. Kraven immediately finger-jabs a spot on the Gargoyle's right shoulder. Her right arm suddenly goes limp and she drops her weapon.

 

"Aaahh! What have you done to my --"

 

Before Demona can finish, Kraven delivers a double axe handle uppercut to her jaw, the haymaker knocking her about five yards diagonally to a spot near the edge of the roof. Stunned by the blow, she is momentarily too dazed to stand.

 

"Pressure point," says Kraven, still aching from Demona's kick earlier but eager as ever to catch his quarry. "You underestimate me, beast."

 

He starts preparing yet another dart. As his blowgun was destroyed in the rubble of the brick structure, he knows he has to use the dart manually, so he starts walking toward his downed quarry.

 

"If... if you know as much about me as you claim, hunter, you must know that nothing you do will put me down permanently. I will just arise once again and kill you in your failure. Why do you insist on throwing your life away with this fiasco?" asks the blue-skinned Gargoyle, tasting some of her own blood in her mouth. Between her still-blurry vision, paralyzed arm, and the last blow, she is trying to buy herself time to recover.

 

"I know you cannot be killed," the hunter responds, still preparing his dart as he approaches. "My pursuit of you is about the thrill of the hunt as much as anything. Also, I am being paid quite handsomely for your capture, not your head."

 

Demona turns away from Kraven and rolls onto her belly. At this point, her dizziness has passed, her vision is almost clear, and she is starting to get feeling back into her arm.

 

"That is why the darts I am using are filled with a tranquilizer strong enough to put a brown bear, a proud symbol of Mother Russia, to sleep for hours."

 

Kraven is now standing over Demona, ready to inject her with the paralyzing toxin.

 

"A pity. As much as I was told of your kind, I was expecting more of a challenge."

 

"You may yet get your wish, hunter!"

 

Demona quickly whips her tail into the hunter's legs. Kraven falls on his back, dropping his dart in the process. The Gargoyle immediately gets into a crouching position, turns, then growls and pounces on the man. Both combatants tumble all around the roof, each jockeying for position, finally stopping with Demona on top of Kraven.

 

"Her arm is recovering more quickly than I expected," Kraven mentally laments as the villainess swipes at him with her claws. He notices his dropped dart is nearby. At that moment, Demona manages to rake him across his chest, leaving a very noticeable mark.

 

"You wish to see what a Gargoyle is TRULY capable of?" she snarls. "That was but a mere sample of my fury!"

 

The hunter finally kicks Demona off and goes for the dart. After quickly inspecting it, he turns to face the Gargoyle. Only then does he recognize his folly. He not only kicked Demona away, but in the direction of her dropped laser cannon, of which she, fully recovered herself, now has aimed at him.

 

"Nyet!"

 

Kraven turns and tries to run, but Demona fires her cannon, hitting the ground just behind him. The resulting impact knocks him back down.

 

"Now you DIE, human!"

 

The villainess moves in on Kraven, but the hunter drops another smoke bomb before she can get close. Her eyes glowing yet again with rage, she growls in frustration and fires several shots blindly into the smoke, kicking up dust and making even more smoke form in the air. As the air clears, though much of the roof has now been reduced to shambles by the blasts, Kraven has disappeared again, much to Demona's chagrin.

 

"Where are you this time, hunter? The very air reeks of your cowardice! Mark my words, before this night is done, I WILL find you and make you suffer! And when I'm done with you, you will BEG me for a swift death!"

 

Demona searches frantically and angrily for Kraven on the roof, but he has already escaped to another building not far away, climbing its walls with the ease of a jungle cat.

 

"This hunt is more exciting that I could have dreamed," he says to himself with a grin. "It is going to be an interesting night."

 

And the battle continues! Can Demona finish off her relentless pursuer, or will Kraven the Hunter manage to capture the rogue Gargoyle?

[DSkillz]

Ok, so I wrote up a good portion of the battle already, but this one could go for awhile. Here's how they match up:

 

Demona can, like most Gargoyles, can rip through steel. Another good indicator of her strength: She once picked up a boulder that appeared to weigh as least 400 lbs. with little effort and threw it with enough force to shatter a small tree from over 20 feet away. Due to Demona being functionally immortal, she has a millennium's worth of combat experience. For this battle, she also has her trademark particle beam cannon.

 

Kraven has all his usual weapons (bolas, smoke bombs, knowledge of toxins, etc.), tracking and combat skills, and intimate knowledge of pressure points. For this battle, he also has the strength and agility of a lion. An adult male lion has once been filmed tugging a hippo's carcass across a river (Hippos can weigh up to four tons).

 

Both characters also know Manhattan very well, so this fight could carry on across the town.

[Dark Spider-man]

This is a toughie. Ah I gotta think on this for a good while before voting. Btw, good setup!!!!

[Guest Bloody Freak]

Very nicely done! I was thoroughly entertained with the setup. Very believable as well. I give it to Kraven given the setup, for some reason it feels he has the edge.

[DSkillz]

Thanks for the comments! Here's to hoping for a few more come in...

 

BTW, this question is probably for somebody with a martial arts background: How effective an attack is a double axe handle in real combat? It's only really seen used in cartoons and pro wrestling. I can't imagine clasping your hands together for an attack is practical in a real fight.

[Mercenaryblade]

good setup I think Demona can take Kraven.

[Guest LoneWolf]

Nice! I will say... Demona. Her experience and physical strength is higher. She can fly and has a much better weapon. Kraven is going to tire, or slip and and get taken out.

[DSkillz]

Okay, with just about 40 minutes until this match moves to the archive (and gets turned into a wall of text, lol), I just wanted to say thanks again for reading, commenting, and (hopefully) voting and rating on my second-ever match at CBUB. I hope to have another match up soon. I also plan on making a story arc that includes this set-up.