Dante (Devil May Cry 2001)

Sometime before their eighth birthday, Eva gave Dante and Vergil each a half of the Perfect Amulet. Eventually, Sparda died, and Eva and the twins were left alone. When Dante was eight years old, he and his family were attacked by demons. Eva was killed, and though both Vergil and Dante survived, the twins were separated, and Dante believed Vergil to have died. Eva was killed, and though both Vergil and Dante survived, the twins were separated, and Dante believed Vergil to have died. At some point after this, Dante met Enzo and began a demon-hunting business under the alias Anthony "Tony".

Abilities
Dante, as one of the sons of Sparda, possesses extraordinary powers beyond that of any human being, and which surpasses that of most demons.

He has the strength of even the strongest demons and can punch through and/or shatter stone with little difficulty, and often overpowers demons much larger than himself, though he was able to stop the punch of a giant statue with some difficulty. In Devil May Cry: The Animated Series, Dante is seen snapping handcuffs and overpowering human authorities as well as street thugs with no effort. Dante's display of superhuman strength indicates that his muscles produce exessive amounts of energy, as well as his bones, organs, and epidermis being much stronger than that of humans and allowing him to exert his enhanced muscle power to vast proportions without fear of injury or fatigue.

Dante is blindingly fast, able to dash a short distance to dodge attacks, dodge bullets fired at close range, and move so fast that he appears to teleport.

He is extremely agile; able to jump to great heights or even to balance on a flying rocket, as well as run up vertical walls. He is also naturally acrobatic.

He is able to channel his power into various physical objects, ranging from his guns to the air itself.

Dante can instantly heal from nearly any wound; even the Hell Prides were surprised when he mostly ignored their attack on him at the beginning of Devil May Cry 3. Dante has been shown to simply shrug off wounds that would either disable or outright kill a normal Human, such as being impaled through the chest with his own sword (something that happens to him during almost every game), struck by opponents with superhuman strength, or being shot point-blank in the head and stomach.

Dante also appears to be able to breathe underwater; while within the Ghost Ship or while swimming in Devil May Cry, he is able to remain underwater indefinitely. Additionally, Dante possesses great resistance to heat, as shown in Devil May Cry 4 when he casually sat on the flaming tail of Berial and came out with little more than a burnt coat.

On top of his incredible demonic powers, Dante has also proven himself to be an extremely capable combatant. He has shown incredible proficiency with many types of weapons including several different types of swords, nunchaku, gauntlets, and a scythe/guitar hybrid, displaying near mastery of them within moments of picking them up. He is also quite skilled in unarmed combat, managing to disarm and subdue Nero bare-handed in their second fight; his hand-to-hand combat skills are also displayed by his usage of the Beowulf Devil Arm. Dante's skill with firearms is impeccable. He has displayed enough accuracy to hit targets as small as the pommel of his sword; shoot his opponents' bullets out of mid-air; and hit the same target over and over with such unerring precision that his bullets stack on top of each other. Dante is also shown to have incredible hand-eye coordination; for example, he kicks the Neo-Generator into the statue above the bridge approximately 20 feet away from where he stands in Devil May Cry 3, and kicks the seed of Echidna the She-Viper back at her to get her attention in Devil May Cry 4.

Thanks to his half-demon nature, Dante can release his demon power through his Devil Trigger. The appearance of this form varies throughout the games — in Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 3, the form is influenced by which Devil Arm he carries, while in Devil May Cry 2,and Devil May Cry 4, he has a pair of Devil Forms believed to be his "true" Devil form. These forms usually increase his strength and speed and give him slow regeneration, and sometimes grant him new abilities, like flying.

(From the Devil May Cry Wiki)

Battle vs. Ezio Auditore da Firenze (by Wassboss )
Dante is walking through a maze underground tunnels, ebony and ivory locked and loaded. Suddenly the tunnels start to shake, rocks falling from the ceiling and shattering on the ground. Dante starts to run through the cavern, barley avoiding the many falling rocks. He finds himself in a large underground cavern. Suddenly rocks explode from the ground, scattering everywhere and smashing off the walls and ceiling. A large creature pulls itself out of the massive hole, almost humanoid but still with a beastly essence to it.

It turns and sees dante standing, hands by his sides, with ivory and ebony in each. The beast snarls and lets out a deafening roar, shaking the cavern. Dante just stands there, smiling in an evil sort of way and lifts up his two guns and pointing them at the giant monster. “Come on then” he says and fires off round after round at the humongous beast but to no avail. The beast is hardly budged and letting out another roar, charges at the demon slayer.

He swipes at him with his massive hands, but dante easily clears it with a quick flip. “Is that all you got” he says and fires another few shots, this time striking it in the head. The beast is still unharmed and swipes at him again, this time sending him flying across the cavern and hitting the wall with a thud. Dante pulls himself to his feet and dusts himself off, holstering his pistols as he does. Taking out rebellion he holds it up to the cracks of sunlight, squeezing through the cracks in the ceiling, the light reflecting off and lighting up the sword.

“Let’s dance” he shouts and charges at the gargantuan demon, dodging swipes from its massive hands. He jumps onto its giant paw and slices into it, leaving a deep wound. The creature roars in pain and tries to grab the tiny human, but dante jumps out of the way and starts running up its arm. He gets to the shoulder blade and hacks away at it, making the creature roar again. He dodges one swipe only to land into the palm of the other hand, which quickly closes around him.

The huge creature holds the demon slayer up to his face and roars, spit hitting dante like a hurricane. “Watch it” he says and shields his eyes from the watery substance. The demon just snarls and prepares to bite him in two. Dante looks franticly around to try and find a way out. He spots a large sharp rock hanging precariously from the ceiling above. Taking out a throwing dagger he stabs the demon causing him to lose his grip. He slips out and taking out ebony fires several rounds at the rock causing it to become dislodged and fall.

The demon growls at dante but he just smiles and points up. The demon looks up, just as the rock hits it going right through its head. The creature screams a most terrible scream, that sends shivers down dante’s spine, but he knows he must get out of there. Grabbing rebellion from the floor (he dropped it after being grabbed by the demon) and runs out towards the only visible exit. The demon, who is still alive, tries to grab him, but dante jumps over his fist and runs through the exit, as cavern and tunnels begin to collapse. The demon lets out one more scream before he is buried under 20 tonnes of rocks and dirt.

Dante carries on running through the tunnels, somehow managing to dodge the collapsing walls. He finds himself in another cavern, but this one is different. In the middle of the cavern, there is a shining light, glittering with all the colours of the rainbow. Dante sheathes rebellion and walks, cautiously, over to the strange spectacle which is still glimmering. Reaching out with his hand, he touches it with his hand and is amazed when it gose through it without his hand sustaining any damage. Dante puts more of his body through the portal until he is completely through it.

Dante finds himself in a large city, with stone buildings stretching as far as the eye can see. There are people selling goods on the paved road, while others walk past carrying goods or children. Some people have stopped to stare at dante but most just ignore him, too busy with their other duties. Dante decides to explore this strange new land, but he only takes one step before someone shouts “Hey you”. Dante turns around to see man, walking towards him, almost marching. He is wearing a red robe, with sliver armour on his body and a helmet which covers his entire face.

“Who are you” he barks almost like an order, his helmet staying completely still when he speaks. “Dante” he says calmly “Just dante”. The guard looks him up and down, and spots his sword, clearly sheathed in his belt. “What is that” he says suspiciously, pointing at the sword. “Oh this” dante answers and taking out the sword says “This is my sword, Rebell-”.

The man suddenly snaps into action “Put the weapon on the ground NOW” he shouts making dante jump a little. “What why” he says looking up and finds himself staring down the barrel of a very primitive firearm. “Okay okay” dante says and let’s go of the sword, which clatters on the ground below. “You sir could be a threat to our city” the man barks, pushing the arquebus nearer to his face “And i must neutralise any threats”. 3 armoured guards step out of the shadows and surround dante, blocking off all his escape routes.

“You there take his sword to make sure he does not use it” the man shouts and one of the guards picks it up and sheathes it in his empty scabbard. The arquebus wielder turns and walks away and the guards push dante after him, something the demon slayer is not happy about. “Hey watch it ugly” dante shouts at the guard who pushed him. The guard takes out his sword and holds it too dante’s face and snarls threateningly “Do you want to live or not”. “Live obviously” dante sighs. “Well then” the guard continues, sheathing his sword as he does “you had better watch your step. He turns back to the mission at hand but realises that the arquebus man is missing.

“What the where the hell did he go” one of the guards says, scratching his head in confusion. “Help help murder” a voice cries out, high pitched and shrill. A woman runs out from an alley way and runs up to the head guard, screaming. “Whoa there what happened” the guard asks calmly, holding the women still and trying to calm her down. “I was walking along when i saw one of those arquebus men marching down the road. I was about to ask him what he was doing when a pair of hands grabbed him and pulled him into an alleyway. I went over to see what was happening and i saw a hooded man crouched over his body, holding a bloodstained blade. I screamed and the person ran off into the streets. Please you have to help me”.

“Okay Okay” the guard says and turns too his men. “I’m gonna see if i can sort this out. Keep your eye on this one i will be back in a few minutes”. The two guards nod and the leader jogs over to where a large crowd is starting to form. “Now don’t you try anything fun-” starts one of the men but before he can finish, he grabs his throat and falls to the ground. The other guard runs too him but, like his predecessor, he also collapses spitting up blood.

Dante walks over to the two fallen men and inspects there corpses. They both seem to have died from no apparent cause. But as dante reaches down to take rebellion from the dead guards scabbard; he notices something shiny sticking out of one of the men’s neck. He takes it out and inspects it; it seems to be some sort of knife. Before he can even blink another knife flies past his face, scraping his cheek and drawing blood.

Dante turns around at lightning fast lightning speed and sees a hooded figure standing in the middle of the road, staring right at him. “Hey you” shouts dante but the man throws another knife at dante who easily manages to dodge it. “I don’t want to hurt you” he tries to explain but the figure throws another 3 knives at the demon slayer. Dante dodges the first two but the third hits him in the arm. “Ah crap” he says and pulling out the knife, throws it to the ground in disgust.

“Fine you want to play that way do you” dante smiles “bring it”. He whips out ebony and ivory and opens fire on the figure, which scrambles away, bullets flying past his head, striking nearby civilians. He jumps behind the cover of a stone wall, the bullets shattering off the wall. This man is no ordinary man however he is Ezio Auditore De Firenze, legendary assassin. He peeks over the side of the wall and sees dante. Cleaning his gun thinking the threat is over. Ezio takes out two knives and dives for the nearby hay bale. He peers through but dante has not spotted him.

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0cm;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">Ezio breathes a sigh of relief and readies his knives. He then charges out of his hiding place and throws them, but his aim is slightly off and they do nothing but cut dante’s clothing. Dante whirls round and shakes his head when he sees the man standing a few feet away from him. “Not you again” he sighs and takes out his pistols again. “This time i ain’t letting you go”. With that he fires several shots at ezio who turns on his heels and runs, knowing he can’t beat him in this way. Dante jogs after him, his guns still in his hands.

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0cm;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">Ezio turns sharply down a street corner and looks around for anything he could use to his advantage. He spots a crossbow man, standing guard outside a monastery. “Well I’m gonna need it more than he does” ezio mutters under his breath and pushes his way through the crowd, making a beeline for the guard. The man turns to face him, but it is too late. The last thing he sees is the dark inside of a sleeve, illuminated by a shiny blade. The guard slumps over, his eyes rolled back into his head and ezio picks up the crossbow, which is lying at the man’s feet.

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0cm;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">Just at that very moment dante rounds the corner and spots ezio, crouched over the guard’s body. He fires two shots at the master assassin, who just manages to roll out of their path. He quickly swirls around and fires a bolt that the demon slayer barley avoids. He then slinks off into the shadows, struggling to load up another bolt as he does so. Dante sprints towards the alley way, but when he arrives his opponent has seemingly disappeared. Dante cautiously side steps through the narrow and very badly lit alleyway, looking around for ezio but not once looking up...

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0cm;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">Ezio stands on top of the building staring down at the clueless dante. Chuckling, he takes the crossbow from where he strapped it onto his back, and points the freshly loaded blot at dante’s pale, white haired head. “This is too easy” he sniggers and fires the bolt, which whistles almost silently towards the unsuspecting man below. However this is no ordinary man, his ears are trained to hear even the faintest of sounds and a crossbow blot whistling through the air is no different. With a single step of both speed, agility and skill the crossbow bolt, snaps on the wall behind. He looks up to see the shocked ezio, standing in plain view on the roof top.

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0cm;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">“Got you now” says dante and opens fire on ezio, the first few shots bouncing off the roof tiles. Ezio comes to his senses and tries to escape, but the roof tiles crumble beneath him, sending him crashing to the ground. He sits up dazed, rubbing his head to try and make the pain go away. He suddenly finds himself looking down the cold, dark barrel of a gun. Dante sniggers and is about to pull the trigger when a shout comes out from the alley way entrance. Dante looks around and sees a tall man, in full body armour, standing tall, sword in hand.

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0cm;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">“Hey you i thought i told you not to run away” he barks and two more men appear beside him. Dante looks back to ezio, but he has disappeared. Ezio watches him from the rooftop and laughs. “Nice knowing you” he whispers, staying to watch his opponent’s fate. “I’m gonna enjoy this” the head guard say angrily. “Attack”. With that the two grunts run forward, their swords, glimmering in the light. Dante waits till they are too near to dodge and, taking out several darts, throws them at the two guards, piercing their eyes and killing them.

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">“Well then” the last guard smiles “It’s just you and me”. With a roar he charges at dante, who takes his stance, rebellion in hand. The guard tries to hit him with a downward strike which is easily blocked by dante. He tries to stab forward but again dante blocks and rebuttals with a slash, which cuts through the guard’s neck like a hot knife through butter. The guard grasps his neck and falls to the ground, gulping like a fish as blood spurts out of his neck. “Who are you” he sputters, his life slowly ebbing away. Bending down to look at him dante says in a calm and soothing voice “I’m dante, dante the demon hunter”. With that he plunges the sword into the man’s head, putting him out of his misery. Ezio cures under his breath and jumps down from the rooftop, landing silently behind dante. “Time to finish what is started” he whispers and taking out a knife, sneaks up behind the unsuspecting demon hunter.

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0cm;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">Unfortunately he accidently steps in a puddle, making a large splashing noise and alerting dante to his position. Dante whirls around are laughs at the assassin standing before him. “Back for more are we” he says putting his hands on his holstered guns. “You me right now, no firearms just us and our melee weapons” ezio says hoping that dante will except. Dante smiles and takes his hands away from the guns. “Bring it” he sniggers and throws several darts at him, but ezio dodges them with ease. He throws the knife he is holding, but that too fails to land a blow.

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0cm;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">Dante takes out rebellion, a holds it up in the air, light bouncing off it making it shine. Ezio brings out his hidden blades, and holds them together in a cross, having the same effect as rebellion. With the showing off over, ezio charges at dante, who readies himself for impact. Ezio stabs forward with his blades, which dante just manages to parry. He swings rebellion at ezio, who catches it with his blades and tries to pull out of dante’s hands. Dante however has a better grip on the sword and regains possession of it. This gose on for several minutes, every time one of them starts to get an advantage the other cancel’s it out with a cleverly timed block or strike.

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0cm;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">Ezio however is starting to learn dante’s pattern of attack and tires to intercept it. Dante tries a slice with his sword, which ezio catches in his blades and tries to pull out of dante’s hand. This time instead of trying to forcibly yank the sword out of dante’s hands, tires to remove it with skill. He twists the sword in one direction and when dante responds to this, twists it quickly in the opposite one, yanking it out of dante hand. He tosses the sword aside and swipes forward with his blades, managing to leave two light cuts on dante’s chest. Dante pushes ezio away and picks up a discarded chair, waiting for his moment to strike.

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">Ezio prepares himself for a jumping attack, and leaps high into the air, his blades aimed downwards. Just as he is about to stab the demon hunter, dante whirls round and smashes him, square on the chest, sending him flying into street by the alleyway. Dante picks up rebellion, which had landed perfectly, blade in the ground, and strolls over to where ezio is lying. Ezio gets to his feet, holding his head, the pain being almost unbearable. Dante throws one of his daggers which hits the master assassin square in the shoulder and he crashes to the floor.

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0cm;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;">Dante stands over his opponent, the sun shining off his back making him look more badass. Ezio makes one last feeble attempt to salvage this battle and raising his hand, fires the hidden gun inside. However his aim is off and it only scrapes dante’s cheek. Dante touches his cheek and feels the warmth of his blood, dripping out. “So trying to cheat are we” dante gloats and holds rebellion high above his head ready to plunge it into the fallen assassin’s heart.

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0cm;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;">Before he does however ezio calls out “Tell Ceaser Borgia that he should kill his enemies himself instead of sending trained warriors after me”. “Ceaser Borgia” says dante questioningly “Who the hell is that”. Ezio looks at him confused “But you were sent by him right”. “No” dante says sheathing rebellion and putting out his hand to help ezio up. Ezio takes it and pulls himself up with a grunt, his ankle in extreme pain. “Well i guess this is all a big misunderstanding” ezio says and dante nods in agreement. “Well i had better get back to my own world” dante says “Hope you catch this Borgia guy”. With that the demon hunter turns and walks off, the sun shining off his coat and lighting the street around him. Winner dante

Expert’s opinion
<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0cm;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;">Dante won because of his more modern weaponry and his experience fighting much harder foes.

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0cm;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;">The original battle, weapons and votes can be found here.