Mercenaries... Bounty Hunters... Hitmen... . All terms to describe the not so noble profession of murder for hire. These type of men/women will do almost anything to get some dough in their pockets. Steal, lie, betray "allies", and obviously kill others. So today for my introduction to the Skulduggery Pleasant world, we're using two similar killers for hire.
Hol Horse, the gunslinging mercenary who always comes in 2nd with his trusty Stand, Emperor
J. Geil, the double right handed sexual assaulter who uses the power of mirrors with his Stand, Hanged Man
vs
Billy-Ray Sanguine, the laid-back, southern "hitman deluxe" who would slit anyone's throat for cash
Dusk, the vengeful,sadistic, and cruel vampire who will track and kill anyone who dares to cross him
WHO IS DEADLIEST?!?!
Hol Horse[]
| “ | Better to be No.2 than No.1.
— The Entire Equine
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Hol Horse is a mercenary working for DIO. He first appears in Calcutta, working with J. Geil. They decide to go after Jean Pierre Polnareff after he was separated from the Joestar group, and almost kills Avdol when the latter comes to help his teammate. The group then goes to search for J. Geil, who has more of a connection with their pasts and defeats him. Hol Horse attempts to confront them after his death, but upon learning that his partner died he flees. Angered at Hol Horse's cowardliness and the fact that he let J. Geil die, Enya the Hag, J. Geil's mother, wounded and began to control him through her mist based Stand, Justice. While acting dead Hol Horse steals the Joestar Group's vehicle and once again escapes the Stand users.
Later, while reporting to DIO on Alessi's and Mariah's defeat, he tries to attack the vampire when questioned on why he is not fighting the Joestar group. He is cowed by DIO's power and, broken, swears eternal loyalty to DIO and decides to attack the Joestar group with a new partner. Shortly after, he kidnaps Boingo, the younger half of the Oingo Boingo brothers, to make a final attempt on the Joestar group's lives. He does not fill the predictions set forth by Biongo's Stand Tohth correctly and gets shot in the face with his own bullet. His wounds put him in a coma, an embarrassing end to his run.
Stand:Emperor:
Hol Horse's stand takes on the form of a revolver. Emperor fires bullets like a normal gun but Hol Horse is able to freely control the trajectory of his bullets. This enables him to bend his bullets around corners, do a U turn if he misses his target, navigate them through a metal pipe without being able to physically see them and all with enough precision to avoid even incredibly fast stands such as Silver Chariot with no lag time. Hol Horse summons Emperor directly into his hands which makes it perfect for a quick or stealthy attack and he has an infinite number bullets. Emperor works in conjunction with Hanged Man by shattering windows or mirrors in order to give it more angles to attack from.
But Hol Horse is not without a friend, as is his nature...
| “ | You really did waste your youth trying to hunt me down... but it looks like you won't succeed! What a pathetic life you've lived!
— J. Geil
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J. Geil is a minor antagonist of part three of JoJo's Bizzare Adventure, Stardust Crusaders, and is one of the many stand users sent by DIO to hunt down the Joestar Group who was enlisted through his affiliation with his mother, Enya the Hag.
He was a perverted serial sexual assaulter, and had previously attacked Jean Pierre Polnareff's sister among many other women, banking on his possession of two right hands to make testimonies sound ridiculous. However, the lack of justice for Sherry's murder sent Polnareff on a nearly lifelong mission to locate his sister's murderer.
During the events of part three, Geil is a minor antagonist and partner of the mercenary Hol Horse, possessing a stand that lives in reflections, and can attack and murder his enemies by harming their mirror-selves. While this initially posed an almost unbeatable combination for the Crusaders to defeat, even managing to seemingly kill Muhammed Avdol, he was killed after Polnareff, with the aid of Noriaki Kakyoin, found the secret to his stand and attacked it while it was moving from one mirror to another. Running away in terror, J. Geil fell and accidentally hung himself upside down on a gate, dead.
Stand:Hanged Man
Hanged Man is J. Geil's Stand which resides within reflective surfaces. Rather than attacking a person directly, Hanged Man appears in reflective surfaces such as mirrors, windows, puddles of water and even the pupils of someone's eye. It then attacks it's victims reflections through the use of two wrist blades which are sharp enough to cut through flesh with ease and they will bear the wounds of this attack. Hanged Man can travel between reflective surfaces at the speed of light which makes it incredibly hard to actually damage. However it can only move between reflective objects in a linear faction and has to move it's location if it's current surface is covered or destroyed meaning it can be forced into following a particular path.
Billy-Ray Sanguine[]
| “ | Not merely a hitman darlin'.I am a hitman deluxe
— Billy-Ray Sanguine
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” |
Billy-Ray Sanguine is a hit-man, he considers himself a hit man deluxe, who kills people for fun as well as for money. According to himself, Sanguine used to be a detective, giving up soon after as he kept killing his clients due to boredom. He also states that he has only solved one case, but considers it 'cheating', since he was the
Sanguine has very laid back, witty personality. Most of the time he is relatively polite to people when talking to them, though this mainly only to female characters. There are also some that warrant nicknames from Sanguine, such is the case of Skulduggery Pleasant whom Sanguine calls 'Mr. Funnybones' or sometimes just "Bones". He wears a brown suit and scuffed cowboy boots and also a pair of sunglasses to hide his eyes which are empty sockets; despite his lack of eyes he can in fact see better than people with eyes. He also has a tendency to hold vendettas against people, such as Valkyrie after she stole his beloved straight razor on two separate occasions and when she cut him with Tanith's sword, causing him to become unable to use his magic effectively.
Equipment:
- Straight Razor: Sanguine carries around a three inch long Straight Razor which he uses in combat. Unlike a regular razor however being cut by Sanguine's razor leaves behind scars that never heal and it also appears to be more durable able to block a sword.
Powers/Abilities:
- Tunnelling: Sanguine's primary power is the ability to travel through the ground and other solid objects. He can travel at high speeds through dirt, rocks, brick, basically anything solid by with the earth just seeming to open up in front of him and close behind him as he passes, leaving only a few cracks in his wake. He can carry other other people while moving through the ground and can shove other people's body parts through walls, trapping them. He has also be shown jumping through people, leaving a gaping and bloody hole in his wake.
- Proficient in hand-to-hand combat: Sanguine is shown to be a skilled fighter, able to hold his own against other mages and sorcerers as well as other skilled combatants. He often uses his hand-to-hand skills in conjunction with his tunnelling ability to dodge around and surprise his opponents.
- Skilled Knife User: Sanguine is also very skilled with small blades such as knives, daggers and his signature weapon a straight razor which leaves scars which never heal. He has been shown to be more than capable of taking on fighters with swords and scythes and coming out on top even with a smaller blade.
- Above average speed and agility: Sanguine appears to be quicker and more agile than a normal person although not as quick as other sorcerers. He is able to quickly jump through wall after wall using his tunnelling ability and still manage to accurately swipe at an opponent with a blade.
- Immunity to any binding spells or charms: Sanguine, by his own admission, cannot be held by any magical symbols or have his powers bound by any sort of binding spell or object including handcuffs.
But even the hitman deluxe needs allies...
| “ | [Dusk] has a habit of holding grudges. I had an associate who crossed him. It took years, but Dusk finally managed to track him down and the death he provided was not a quick one.
— China Sorrows
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Dusk is an enigmatic and powerful Vampire. Loyalty is not one of his strong points, as Vengeous was not surprised when he did not attempt to free him from prison, thus he does not take it upon himself to punish Dusk. Like all vampires, Dusk is eerily elegant and graceful. Valkyrie Cain describes him as "beautiful but inhuman." He possesses immense physical strength, superhuman agility and speed. He curbs his Vampire nature through the use of a syringe containing a chemical mixture of hemlock and wolfsbane. He has a history of holding vendettas and never stops until he spills blood.
- Vampire Physiology: Even when not in his full vampire form, Dusk can still exhibit several superhuman physical abilities. Dusk has superhuman strength which enables him to easily pick up and carry a normal person, rip someone's head off with his bare hands and send someone flying with a strong push. Vampires are also described as unnaturally graceful, able to contort their bodies to land perfectly on their feet and leap long distances with a byproduct of this being that they can move silently even without trying. Dusk is also incredibly fast even by vampire standards and his movement is almost like a blur allowing him to effortlessly keep up with running humans and dodge blows in close proximity which allow him to outpace even his own kind. Vampires are also shown to be incredibly durable falling from a 4 story building and walking away with only a limp.
- Enhanced Senses: Vampires have a keen sense of taste and after they taste the blood of a person they are able to locate them no matter where they go and also possess incredible hearing, able to hear a persons heartbeat.
- Vampire Form: When the sun goes down a vampire will shed it's human skin and reveal their true form. Heavily muscled, with pale skin and soulless black eyes a Vampire becomes even stronger, quicker, agile and durable than their human selves and even experienced mages such as Skulduggery Pleasant have trouble defeating them. Vampires also grow long claws and huge teeth which they can use to rip and tear into any unfortunate person to get in their way. All this comes at the cost of their human intelligence and they become feral beats, obeying only their primal thirst for blood.
- Minion Creation: Dusk can create his own undead minions to serve his cause. When bitten by Dusk, a human will become and mindless minion who will follow his every command without question and after 2 days they turn into a fully fledged vampire. Until then they retain the same physical capacities as a human albeit with the inability to feel pain.
- Skilled Hand to Hand Combatant: Having a lifespan of several centuries and backed up by his vampire abilities Dusk is an incredibly skilled hand to hand combatant. He an hold his own against experienced mages including the infamous Skulduggery Pleasant and he can even defeat other vampires without too much trouble even those more experienced than himself.
X-Factors[]
Hol Horse and J Geil are both experienced mercenaries who have likely had decades with their Stands, mastering their usage through their jobs. They acquired their Stands at an early age, so it's not a stretch to assume they've had a lot of time using them.
However, Billy Ray and Dusk are hundreds of years old. This means they in general have had more time fighting. Dusk has hunted many people in his time, and has fought many a sorcerer, while also taking those down whom he has/had a grudge with. Billy Ray used to be a detective, but became a well known hitman, who has also killed many people, and has shown his worth against sorcerers.None of these men are particualrly well trained, and are mostly self taught. As these guys aren't main characters, we don't get much info on them, and none of them are soldiers or parts of any militant groups they aren't paid to be in, so there's not much to their training. The only thing that could be really interpreted as such is Billy Ray's supposed time as a detective, which would likely involve some type of police training.
As long as Hol Horse has a partner, he is A OK. Having J Geil with him, gives him confidence (sometimes overconfidence) in attacking an enemy, and gives him someone to focus him in battle. But the moment he realizes his partner's gone, the Entire Equine will immediately begin to retreat, hoofing it out of there. J Geil's personality really isn't explored much, but I would make the assumption that he's decently calm while fighting, especially considering how his Stand works. If that's overcome however, he will begin to retreat just like Hol Horse.
Billy Ray is almost always laid back and chill, as befitting of a Southerner hitman deluxe. He's able to keep his cool in battle the majority of the time, and is able to almost any job with a cool attitude as long as he's paid properly. Though he is prone to anger if his knife is lost or he is severely injured. Dusk is often fueled by his need to exact revenge upon those who have wronged him. His obsession with this often drives him to rage, and makes him fixate on the aforementioned people who have wronged him.I feel it necessary to group Billy Ray/Hol Horse and Dusk/J Geil together, because they're rather simillar. The first group are two mercenaries who aren't esepcially cruel or brutal, they're mostly interested in completeing the job so they can get paid. Both Dusk and J Geil however are remorseless, sadistic killers, who love to kill, and torture their opponents.
These four are mostly bound by circumstance and the promise of cold hard cash. There's no real incentive to care for the other for either of them. If things go south for either group, I wouldn't expect them to go out of their way to help the other. An exception of course is if it directly affects them.
Notes/Voting[]
This battle takes place inside of a hotel in Calcutta
Both pairs are targeting the same person, and are aware of the other, but not of their powers/abilities.
Billy Ray and Dusk will be able to see Emperor and Hanged man given their magical characteristics.
Successful rebuttals to a vote will result in said vote being halved or being completely disregarded.
You all know what I need for voting but just in case:
Format 1: Detailed edge based vote with good grammar and that isn't just a couple of words or a sentence.
Format 2: At least a 7 sentence paragraph detailing why you believe a certain warrior will win.
I hold the final say as to whether a vote counts or not, guidelines not withstanding.Voting will end when I am satisfied the the quality and quantity of votes.