Cross Conviction

With the last of the soldiers dispatched, Leopold turned his attention back toward the burning camp.  He observed the buildings, engulfed in flames, as their structural integrity was gradually compromised and they began to fall apart.

"Two more souls are approaching," the disembodied voice echoed through Leopold's mind.

The eye on the sword's pommel twitched before suddenly snapping to the doorway of a damaged concrete building with high, barred windows. After a tense moment of inaction with only the insidious growl of the surrounding inferno rumbling in the evening air, the heavy steel door was suddenly launched toward Leopold at blinding speed. In an instant, the German defensively carved through the reinforced door with his greatsword, deflecting each massive piece to either side in one fluid motion.

From the dark, cavernous entrance left behind by the door stepped a Chinese Communist officer. Leopold couldn't discern his exact rank due to the guerilla nature of such rebel forces, but it was apparent by his prominent cap and embellished shoulder boards that the man was some sort of commander. Under his arm, the rebel leader clutched a young woman dressed in a dingy blue robe. Sturm and the officer locked eyes and, after some time, the Communist roughly tossed the girl on the ground in front of him, where she collapsed in a heap.

In shockingly natural-sounding German and with a sly grin, the officer asked "Do you frequently invite yourself into other people's homes and make such a mess?"

"Do you frequently wait until all of your men are dead to show yourself?" Leopold retorted, unamused.

The officer chuckled. "You know where we are, right? There is no shortage of men in China. They were prepared to die for the revolution and for the sake of that revolution, they will be replaced."

Sturm glanced down at the severed limbs and maimed entrails littering the ground. "Yet as I understand it, there is a shortage of men willing to take up your cause..."

The man scoffed, the smile slipping from his lips. "All of China will stand united under our banner in due time, dog knight."

Sturm motioned with the tip of his sword toward the broken corpses all around. "If this is how you lead, I doubt that very much."

With a pained cough, the girl at the officer's feat attempted to rise to her hands and knees but was pushed back into the hard dirt by the weight of the man's boot on her back. His restrained fury obvious, Leopold gripped the hilt of his greatsword tightly.

A hint of burning anger in his voice, the German inquired, "To whom do I owe the displeasure?"

The Communist officer laughed aloud, shifting an increased weight onto the small girl's back as he began to shout. "Major Han Long the Immortal Hero, China's greatest warrior! That is what you will call me!"

"Then how far China's greatest warrior has fallen to be convening with murderers and tormenting young girls..." Leopold replied.

Han long laughed once more. "Four thousand years I've lived. Enough time to learn lowly your language, along with every other form of petulant babble from the less enlightened corners of the planet. You're nothing more than a sniveling child before me! And this xiǎo Rìběn guǐzi..." he emphasized as he once again crushed the girl under his foot, "is less than an insect!"

The Communist's rant elicited no response from Leopold, who remained in place despite his increasing anger.

"I take your inaction as an admission of your inevitable defeat. A wise choice if you'd prefer to keep your death quick and painless." Han Long continued, slowly removing his foot from atop the young woman.

Leopold sheathed the greatsword at his hip and stood up straight. Despite the difference of ten or so meters between the two men, the height difference was quite apparent. The girl, finally able to breathe properly, lifted her head from the ground and peered at Leopold from exhausted eyes. Even in their darkened, half-open state, the surprise that washed over them was apparent when they finally made sense of the scene before them.

The girl's voice strained, barely managing to push out a weak groan. "T-Tatsumaki-sensei..?"

Leopold's eyes widened in surprise. "How in the hell did a Japanese woman fall into your hands, Major?"

"The guǐzi doesn't speak Mandarin, so I can't tell you why it's here." started Han Long, "However, I can tell you that it slit my lieutenant's throat in the night, like a coward."

Dormant until now, the mysterious voice entered Leopold's consciousness. "There can be no survivors, let alone a Japanese witness. Tear through her and put an end to this fiend's boasting."

Focusing his thoughts inward, he replied to the unseen being. "She's but a child, Ziz. I must find another way."

"If you have any final words, now would be the time to speak them, Hurricane." Han Long spoke up, "Unless you plan on condemning this little worm to death in a futile attempt to defeat an immortal."

The wind began to pick up, disrupting the steady blaze as the gusts increased in strength and frequency. Leopold gradually lifted his arm and directed his cupped palm toward his adversary. Fingers outstretched, it was as if the German was preparing to grasp at nothing.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do have some final words for you..." Leopold started plainly, "Until we meet again."

Removing a handgun from the holster clipped to his black leather belt, Han Long took aim at Leopold with a satisfied chuckle, oblivious to the violent, thrashing breeze around him, "Yes... goodbye."

Before the Communist officer could pull the trigger, Leopold swiftly clamped his open hand into a fist. Near instantaneously, the air forced inward against Han Long's body from every angle, crushing every bone in his body at once with a sickening crack, and forcing his blood outward as it sprayed in every which direction. The man's body subsequently collapsed in a shattered heap. Leopold cautiously approached before grabbing the girl by her collar and leaping back to his previous position. Gently placing her on the ground behind him, the German began to question her rapidly.

"What is your name? How did you get here? Can you walk?"
She stared blankly in response.

Realizing that she likely couldn't understand German, Leopold groaned under his breath. "As I suspected..."

To his surprise, the girl reached up, firmly latching on to his cape, and used it as leverage to hoist herself up to her feet. Though her legs were shaking, she managed to stay on two feet. As soon as she steadied herself, the girl then began to hop in place, further astonishing Leopold. With the first jump, she landed and, with a pained grimace, avoided collapsing. She was not so lucky the second time and stumbled back down to the ground.

Fearing that she'd sustain even greater injury than she already had, Leopold protested her actions, holding out his hand in the universal signal to stop. "Halt! What are you doing?! Do not strain yourself!"

Ignoring the sign, the girl pointed back toward Han Long's crushed body and excitedly uttered a single word. "Jiangshi!"

Leopold's eyes widened with realization as he turned to face the man he had certainly just annihilated. Like a crude marionette being animated by invisible strings, Han Long's battered form rose up, joints snapping and popping as his body gradually returned to its original shape. Han Long the Immortal was a jiangshi; a so-called "Chinese Vampire" and the stuff of Eastern legend. Hardly undying, the long-dead rebel leader was little more than a mobile corpse granted mobility by an ancient Taoist talisman. Though this development was unexpected, the German remained unshaken. 

With words accented by the limp fumblings of a loose jaw gummed up with muscle and sinew, Han Long began to speak. "I suppose even after four thousand years, this world is still holds surprises." 

Without delay, Leopold tore the right small, rectangular litzen tab from his collar and held it to his forehead, as far up as his visor cap would allow. With his free hand, he pointed at the tab, directing the young woman's focus toward it. Though momentarily perplexed, her eyes clearly lit up when she realized the meaning of Leopold's display. In response, she hastily stuck out her tongue and pointed both of her index fingers at it. To the legendary veteran of many hundred battles, the message was clear.

The talisman that granted Han Long his mobility was attached to his tongue.
Leopold wasn't the only one who had made sense of the girl's charade, however. Out of fear that the source of his supposed immortality had been unveiled, Han Long took drastic action. Letting our chattering laughter through blood-coated teeth, the vampire stood triumphantly. He slowly opened his mouth to reveal the sanguine stump of his tongue. 

"I see that you're tenacious, jiangshi. However, a man confident in his superiority would seldom resort to such desperate tactics." Leopold said calmly.
A long, almost serpentine tongue sprouted from the fiend's bloody mouth before promptly rolling back into his jaw, allowing him to properly speak once more. "You bark very much but have little to say, imperialist."

"Then perhaps I can better explain my assertion through different means," Leopold replied, balling his gloved right hand into a tight fist.

After quickly looking over the broken pistol in his hand, Han Long tossed it aside and took the famous tiger claw stance of Chinese kung fu. "For once, we're in agreement."

With similarly impressive speed, the two combatants dashed toward each other, meeting halfway. Han Long delivered a barrage of swift, precise strikes to Leopold's chest and abdomen, but they seemed to have no effect. The titanic westerner had made no effort to dodge, instead leaving himself in the perfect position to land a brutal blow on his adversary's jaw. Fragments of Han Long's disintegrated teeth and jawbone were projected several meters as enough torque was delivered to his head to crack his neck audibly. The vampire staggered, giving Leopold the chance to follow up with two vicious hooks to the left and right side of his torso. Ribs crushed, Han Long gasped and heaved before receiving a pulverizing knee to the chest, driving his fractured sternum up and into his throat. Body crippled and mobility failing, he dropped to his hands and knees and began to vomit blood and dislodged innards through his broken, gaping maw.

Leopold stood tall over his brutalized opponent and flicked his wrist with such speed that the blood was purged from his right glove, leaving it spotless. "Credit where it is due, it is impressive that you're still in one piece. Strikes similar in strength to the one you first received reduced tanks to little more than rivets and scrap metal during the Great War."

Without warning, Han Long leaped back up and thrust his hand toward Leopold's Jaw.

Unfazed, Leopold continued to speak as his attacker's fingerbones shattered against his mandible. "I do wonder how long your enhanced durability will persist once I've removed that hexed talisman from your stomach."

The vampire shrieked in pain and stumbled back before falling on his rear. He grasped at his twisted jaw, wailing in pain as it was slowly set back into place.

"Damn your mother!" Han Long cried, pushing himself away from the slowly approaching German with his feet, "May your dead mother be cursed in-"
His crude rantings were suddenly cut short by Leopold's massive hand closing around his throat and lifting him into the air. 

"Fuck you, dog knight!" Han Long choked as he spit blood down into the giant's face. 

Leopold's only response to the man's provocations was the slam his fist through the Communist's stomach, effortlessly impaling him. Han Long howled as Leopold then roughly stirred his insides, seeking the talisman. In short order, the German retracted his arm, revealing the blood-soaked talisman clutched firmly between his index and middle fingers.

"That takes care of that." said Leopold nonchalantly before tossing his maimed and defeated opponent to the ground with a thud.

Now apparently unable to regenerate, Han Long clambered to his hands and knees before rearing up and exposing the crimson cavern left in his abdomen. 

"Y-you..." the Communist rebel gurgled as he struggled to form words with his broken jaw and collapsed lungs, "It doesn't h-hurt... I can't feel anything..."

"Rest, Han Long the Immortal. You've no doubt seen many battles, but this will have been your last. Your death was delayed for four thousand years, but delayed it will be no longer."

The defeated Han Long panted grotesquely as he desperately clung to what little air his lungs could gather, attempting to speak. "I... s-surrender..."

"What?" Leopold inquired suspiciously.

"T-take me to Nanjing's m-mystics... they'll r-repair my b-body and I'll tell you about the-" Han Long choked on his words and erupted into a coughing fit.

Stepping closer to the broken vampire, Leopold pressed on. "The what?"

"T-the Soviets! Heroes in S-Spain!" Han Long exclaimed before tearing some sort of bundled wire from his exposed innards. "I s-surrender... I'll tell you e-everything..."
Leopold glared down at Han Long, his mustache-adorned face cold with scorn.

"Truthfully, I'm relieved."

Hearing this, the Communist forced a crooked smile as best he could, considering his current state.

"I'm relieved," Leopold continued, "because I was under orders to leave no survivors. Despite that, I would never slay a prisoner. However, your perfidy has resolved that issue."

Han Long's dark eyes quickly widened in shock as he began to sputter frantically. "Y-you can't kill me, Hurricane!"

"Can I not?" Leopold replied calmly, revealing the second talisman he had hidden behind his ring and little fingers. "Did you think the additional charm behind your heart was safe?"

"Monster!" cried Han Long, "Let me speak! Listen to my words, bastard!"
Looming over the fiend, Leopold Sturm looked like death himself in the eyes of his beaten adversary.

"It wasn't any more well-hidden than those grenades tucked up under your ribs, my friend. Goodbye." Leopold said coldly.

Before Han Long could issue another protest, Leopold launched him into the air with a kick so powerful that a small shockwave rippled from the impact point. Careening into the air at blinding speed, the vampire's screeching gradually became fainter with distance until the grenades in his chest cavity detonated. Han Long's ancient body, several hundred meters in the air, was torn apart by a substantial fireball, giving way to a thick black smoke. Leopold Sturm took in the sight before unsheathing his greatsword and planting it firmly in the earth beneath him. He then knelt and said a silent prayer for his fallen opponent. Regardless of the circumstances, Leopold Sturm was a man of God, through and through. 

"And as for your other loose end, brother?"

Spurred by the same disembodied voice that had earlier invaded his consciousness, Leopold Sturm turned to see the young Japanese woman sitting up on her knees, in awe of the destruction that had unfolded before her. She tilted her head slightly as Leopold approached, his expression having turned grim.

"For the sake of our alliance's stability, surely you know what must be done."