As Karina stormed off, emotions clouding her own judgement, she had not noticed the attack from behind, it was only the quick thinking and attention of Luna that managed to save her. Karina was left, mouth agape for a moment as she contemplated what had just happened. She had already convinced herself that no one cared for her, so she was ready to move on, anger already filling her heart, but here stood Luna, turning back to help her, caring what happened. It had honestly caught Karina by surprise, as she turned, not actually able to make eye contact with the girl at this point. "I'm... fine. No damage done thanks to you." No physical damage at least, though Karina was still confused and unsure of what to make of the entire situation as she found herself just staring blankly for a moment before managing to snap herself out of it. Luna was trying to make excuses, but they were pathetic ones. Of course she didn't want to lose him again, but what did she think would happen? He would magically suddenly be able to use the keyblade and become a master so he could travel with them? No that was not how the world worked. "What did you think would happen Luna? Were you just going to run off, abandon all your friends, all the worlds you have helped just to go hide with him? Of course not, you are too nice to leave people to die and fight on their own. You know as well as I do that Koa isn't suited to go with you through whatever trials you all must face next, and you certainly are not suited for where I have been. You took the Mark of Mastery to get out of the realm of darkness, so don't throw that chance away. He is fine, I have seen him fight, he can hold his own and he isn't alone. I know god damn well that I should be the last person saying this, but you have to try trusting other people for once if you want to see him again, running away or dragging him with you are worse idea's than letting him walk his own path until this entire mess is dealt with. I don't know if Nequa is dead, I hope so but without a body, I am not going to assume anything, and Vanitis and Aux are still out there. That is just the start of our troubles. We can't just walk away from the paths we have chosen for one familiar face, so you will just have to learn to deal with it." Karina kind of snapped at Luna. She knew what she was saying, meant every word of it, but also knew that there was nicer ways that she could have said it. What was done was done though, and trying to be nice was never something Karina was good at, it was better to be blunt, she would deal with the consequences later. Ananta had gone off to help Steel, which was probably for the best, but once more Aislinn found herself feeling more alone in the fight. She wasn't the only one fighting alone, she knew that well enough but it was always nice having someone there to watch your back. Without it it left Aislinn twirling in circles, trying to cover from attacks on all sides. Unfortunately that wasn't possible and while she was holding her own well enough, it left her with a few scrapes and bruises. If nothing else it was nothing serious enough to stop her from fighting. She simply had to learn to shrug off the pain and keep going. Total Words: 617 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3720 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Enemies Remaining: 101 Neoshadows 109 Darkballs
Aislinn supposed that it was fair enough that Stratos was moving on to deal with helping more people, but it still left her feeling a little lonely as he moved on and she was left to fight more or less on her own in that side of things. While it was fine, she could handle it, it wasn't the first thing that she wanted to do. Besides it providing entertainment it also provided reason to fight. A person to protect other than herself. While Sarah wasn't there, Aislinn began to imagine her sisters smile. She imagined the reason behind her strength, someone to fight for. At this point it wasn't fighting to protect her or make her life easier. Aislinn was fighting to return to her sister. She knew that Sarah wouldn't be able to handle it if she never returned. She knew how heart broken her sister would be if she died here on this battle field. That was her reason to fight. It wasn't for her own sake even though it was fighting to keep herself alive, she was doing it for others. Just that thought helped give Aislinn focus. With that in mind she was able to look Stratos straight in the eye and offer him a nod. "Yeah, you stay safe too, and show them how it is done." Aislinn encouraged Stratos, though she knew Aux really didn't need to be shown up by anyone, it would still be entertaining to watch from a distance at the very least. Flipping over top one of the Neoshadows, Aislinn sliced at it's back getting a second wind.... or a third wind... or a fourth. At this point she wasn't quite sure which one she was at or how she was doing, honestly she was just going for it. Moving around the side of another group of them Aislinn pounded one heartless into several more before summoning her keyblade back to her and using it to charge her way through the next grouping. There was now some gaps in the defenses of the Neoshadows. Not enough that Aislinn could consider it time for a break, but enough that she was gaining confidence that there would be an end to this coming in a relatively short amount of time. If she kept up the pace that she was going, there would be no issues dealing with the heartless, hopefully opening a path for them to deal with the man who was creating the heartless, though that was a big if. Karina would never admit that she was upset, though her attacks lost some of the flare they had before and degraded mainly into harsh fast slashes with her whip as she tore through the heartless. As one got too close to her, Karina didn't even try and use her weapon, instead using her already clenched fist to punch it. When it fell prone, she took advantage of that as well as she stomped on it's face. Sure it wasn't nearly as effective as a proper attack and it took a little longer, but it still did the job and get some of Karina's anger out, though that was very little considering how good she had been behaving. It had been long enough that since she had last had a full on fit, that she had a lot of pent up rage that she was more than happy to take out on the heartless. Even as she did her eyes were still glued on Uniform fighting Shiro in the distance. While it wouldn't be right away, she was going to get over there and kill that over confident son-of-a-bitch. Total Words: 608 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3660 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Enemies Remaining: 277 Neoshadows 358 Darkballs
Watching Luna start to walk off, Karina wondered if it was something that she had said. For once in her life she wasn't actually attempting to chase anyone off, but she sat there and watched as Luna started walking away in the direction of Koa, Hikaru and the red haired boy that she couldn't quite figure out who he was still. She had at least seen the other two before she had left with Lea, this boy was a complete mystery to her though. Luna seemed to be a little upset and Karina couldn't figure out what she had done this time. Sure she deserved it for plenty of times before, but having come back and just watching people who once were her friends, or acquaintances anyways, walk away from her instead of fighting at her side. Perhaps she had created a greater gap between her and everyone else than she had originally thought. Karina had never let herself think about it before, convinced herself it didn't matter, instead filling her head with thoughts of power, but now that she had given that up, she realized how lonely she really was. Sure Arctus was at her back now, but part of her had hoped when she came back to save her friends, that they would be excited to see her. Instead Ananta and Luna stopped by for short periods of time while the rest gave her a cold shoulder while they went about talking to each other and fighting along side those they were closer with. Perhaps she had put more distance between herself and everyone else than she though. Turning away Karina focused her attention towards the direction that Uniform was, watching him closely as she fought through the heartless. If no one else cared she was there, she wouldn't care for them, instead dealing with the heartless until she made her way over to her one true goal, made her way over and killed Uniform. It would just be a small step in the direction that she was heading. He was the first person to kill if she was going to kill her past and move on with her life. She had learned that strength alone she couldn't do it, but apparently she couldn't rely on friends all that well either, so determination had to be the answer. Instead of running and hoping it went away, she would simply have to face it head on and go to whatever ends to deal with it, starting with the pain that thought it a good idea to get on her bad side by constantly bringing up the past that she was trying to leave behind. One day... eventually she would get to her father. Aislinn continued to think back to her life at home learning about the keyblade and those first days after her parents death. However hard this battle was, it was nothing compared to the struggles of getting her life started again, getting up every morning and making lunch for her and her sister. It was those times that she learned what strength really was. It was the ability to keep moving when things seemed like they were impossible. It was that same strength that Aislinn carried into battle with her. Sure she was physically strong for the most part, but it was how she carried herself, the inner strength that she knew was important and the reason that she could get her way through things. As long as she had that strength, even as her body tired she could still fight to the very end. There was no laying down and waiting to die for her, that was not an option, she couldn't let it be with something like this. Total Words: 623 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3600 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 1/15 Enemies Remaining: 308 Neoshadows 401 Darkballs
The swarms of heartless kept coming and Aislinn let her mind wonder once more trying to deal with the situation the best that she could. Her mind drifted back to before she had a keyblade, it was before her parents died. Something about her parents death and the desire to fight to protect her sister seemed to be the catalyst to bring her keyblade to her. Was it the tragedy that brought the keyblade to her aid, or perhaps how she dealt with it. Everyone here seemed to have gone through their own hardships, but each of them were still fighting instead of running and hiding or giving up, it must have been part of the reason that they had it. Aislinn always knew that strength of heart was something that keyblade wielders had to have, but perhaps she also needed something to show the strength of ones heart. If there was nothing to test yourself against then there as no way of knowing how long that strength would hold up. For Aislinn the hardship was the loss of her parents and the war against the heartless in her town. With her being just eighteen when her parents died, someone had to take care of Sarah, and keep her safe. While sure they could have found someone to look after them, at that point they were both old enough that they didn't want anyone else in their lives. That being said, they needed to support themselves, and that wasn't possible if they were both depressed, so Aislinn had to learn to be strong. As the heartless moved in closer she knew that she couldn't just sit back anymore either and help her sister ignoring all those around her, she needed to pick up a sword and fight alongside everyone else, it would be the best way to protect her sister. It was only so long after that before her keyblade came to her, and Aislinn was sent searching for someone to train her in how to use it. The training seemed to pay off seeing how she was managing to deal with the heartless here and now, even if she couldn't use the training to save her world yet, at least something was better than nothing, she had a place to start, she was quickly gaining power and now she was at the point that if she went home, she was sure she could make a difference, it was no longer just a maybe. The battle stretched on before her and while Arctus and Luna were fighting at a respectable speed, Karina found herself pushing herself more than she should to keep going, keep fighting. There was a jealousy of the power of those around her. She hated that she was so weak compared to them. At one point she used to be the strongest and now she was struggling to make a difference. While Karina was starting to get over her power hungry habits, it was not something that she broke in a day. It took a lot of time fore her to get over herself, and not feel the need to outdo everyone. From visiting her home world the thing Karina learned was that she would never be strong enough, and there was nothing that she could do about it. She had to deal with her problems another way and not just add strength until she was strong enough to rip apart the world. It would get her nowhere in the long run if she didn't deal with the issues in her heart, issues that Karina was still lost on how to deal with. Total Words: 606 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3540 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 1/15 Enemies Remaining: 347 Neoshadows 434 Darkballs
Thea was rather confused but at least the man didn't seem to want to harm her, even allowing Zephyr and Gavin to slowly catch up even if he took the time to talk with her first before he got there. "What sort of danger? What sort of evil? They said you were taking their children and they were just trying to keep them safe. I don't understand. I do want to see the other kids, I need to know that they are alright. And if you are telling the truth we need to help the others." Thea tried to ask and figure out a bunch of things at once. Necos wasn't making much sense in her mind, and that was perhaps because Thea was tired and her mind tended to jump from place to place. "I am not in danger anyways. I can handle myself. I am a powerful mage, see!" Thea summoned a little bit of fire to her hand before looking back to Gavin and Zephyr arriving. "Guys... I think you should hear this. I don't quite get it, but maybe you can make more sense of it." "Alright good night Chief Yolvun. We will continue our search tomorrow. Thank you for your help." With that Everette turned to follow the other two towards the Inn. While Everette felt tired and ready for bed himself, there was a lot on his mind about everything that was going on, and the state of the town. Sure being S-class he had been through a lot of towns and seen a lot of different situations, but the longer he spent with Renza the more he wanted to get this sorted out and quickly. The girl reminded him a little bit of Thea, all the energy and positive attitude despite their circumstances. For Thea, there wasn't much he could do to chance things, but for Renza, they could get this dealt with. Looking at the writing on his hand, Everette cursed quietly to himself, he hated his memory problem and he just studied the note he had written to himself which was already starting to smudge. "This is important. There is no way I will forget about it." He tried to tell himself quietly, as they reached the inn. Heading to the kitchen he unpacked some of the food and grabbed a knife to cut some vegetables. "Renza do you want to peel the potatoes, and Conrad start on the meat?" Everette asked. Everette decided that he couldn't be trusted with anything that could burn, he had learned that rather quickly when learning how to cook. Way too often did he forget to check the stuff on the stove and it burned, at least with chopping things it was repetitive enough that he could handle it.
Keep moving, she could do that. She kept on her feet and dodged out of the way of a few attacks. Aislinn had surveyed the field to see who was doing well and what was going on. For the most part things were exactly as she had expected them to be. It was clear that this new group was no amateurs though. They were holding their own as well as anyone else in this battle, despite the fact that they didn't have keyblades of their own. It was almost entertaining watching the bigger man with the ax go about this battle. He seemed to have a lot of fight in him and Aislinn wished luck to all of his allies that had to deal with him. From what she could tell just by watching him for a moment, that he was a hard one to deal with, had a lot of energy to him, or at least it seemed that way. The girl who made the big entrance seemed to be more familiar with those around her, though much to Aislinn's surprise not as many people were talking to her as she had originally thought. Then Hikaru and Aux were talking to another boy who had quickly run over and caught Luna's attention. To her it was interesting watching how everyone was getting along now, perhaps that was just something she found interesting, but it at least gave Aislinn something to contemplate as she fought the heartless that were now coming at her from all sides. There was not a chance she would let them catch her off guard though as she shifted her balance and adjusted to give the muscles on her right side a bit of a break and fight the heartless focusing more on using her left, less dominate side for fighting. When Karina turned her attention back away from Stratos, she scanned the rest of the people. Guilt still sat in her heart when looking at Beuce due to what had happened the last time she was in this battle and ended up falling unconscious. That was not going to happen again, and even if she did, she was sure that Arctus would have her back. Karina was just thankful that there was no mutated behemoths to face. These Neoshadows were nothing compared to Derpy the Derpmoth, or Arma or even Free Willy Cat. The heartless in that battle were all insane and stupid and Karina didn't know how to handle them, meaning at some times she seemed to find her mind broken. It was really weird really, Karina didn't like thinking back on those times, it was not pleasant to say the least and to say she had lost it during that battle was an understatement. Glancing back to Arctus she certainly hoped that it didn't happen again during this battle. She had enough embarrassment for one day, she didn't need to add to it by losign her cool. Wanting to show off a little more of what she had learned to do, Karina channeled her flames through her whip and sent it flying at the heartless, causing a bit of an explosion that took out some of the heartless around it as well. It was just a shame that there was no fire based heartless here, if there was she could show off her fire eater ability. That being said after the explosion at the lab, perhaps she had enough of that for one day. Though she had been healed, Karina could still feel the faint ache from where the injuries should have been, she was just thankful for the power that Lea had given her, if it wasn't for that then she would have been dead. Total Words: 629 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3480 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 1/15 Enemies Remaining: 394 Neoshadows 497 Darkballs
Giving Stratos a small smile in return, Aislinn turned her focus back to her battle. The silence that had fallen over those who were not new to the combat, or at least talking with those who were new was becoming deafening. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the silence, and as she parried out of the way of an attack, Aislinn herself could feel her lungs burning. It was no wonder that people weren't talking, it was getting hard enough to breath as it was with the amount that was going on and the need to keep on their toes moving. As she spun once more, her muscles started to feel sore and protest, making Aislinn plant both feet on the ground instead of up on the balls of her feet like she had been to keep herself light and moving. The concept in theory was a good one, and had been working thus far, but it was better for shorter battles, the longer this one went, the more her body was failing her. While yes she was getting injured on occasion, it was more the fact that Aislinn wasn't used to having to fight this much without a break. It was wearing on her body, leaving it tired and unable to react as quickly as she wanted it to. Even as the heartless fell more easily to her blade, she still could feel her muscles tire with each swing of the keyblade and each time she launched herself forward for another attack. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Aislinn forced herself into another frenzy of attacks. There was no time to be wasting just relaxing even if her body was telling her that she needed it. A look of determination crossed her face as Aislinn forced herself forward to use a cross slash before dodging out of the way of another Neoshadow. Breathing heavily Aislinn continued to move, though she didn't want to. At this point if she stopped moving she would have a hard time getting going again. It was a matter of maintaining momentum at this point and that was something that she seemed to be doing rather well, as she cleaved through a heartless and kept her swing going as it wrapped around and bashed into another one. Two went down and she kept going, moving quickly to the next heartless, followed by one more, keeping herself moving through the smoke as her eyes scanned the battle field. If she couldn't keep up with strength of the rest, she would just have to make up for it with how quickly she was killing the heartless. To Karina this started to feel like old times, except this time, instead of having Stratos at her side, she had Arctus. Her eyes drifted over to the boy who helped push her through the Battle of a thousand heartless, who had managed to stay with has as they not only finished off their own wave of heartless, but started to move around helping everyone else. Once more he was a force to be had. While sometimes he didn't seem too strong, when it came to things like this, there was no one that could match him. Not even she could keep up with as much as she tried. Every step she took she was still one behind Stratos. If it was anyone else than she would have been annoyed, but given it was him, there was nothing she could do about it, and Karina accepted that at this point and continued on with her fight against the Neoshadows and Dark balls that were around her. Total Words: 609 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3420 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 1/15 Enemies Remaining: 425 Neoshadows 529 Darkballs
It was to be expected, the shock that came with Arctus realizing what she had said. But it did surprise her the nervousness that he showed when she suggested that she would walk away. This was a battle, not a meet and greet, she would think he would have been in his element here and not care who was around as long as he knew who to kill and who not to kill. Given that the things he needed to kill were black with glowing yellow eyes, Karina assumed that he could figure at least that much out on his own, it wasn't a difficult task after all. The creatures kind of stood out from the people like sore thumbs. Perhaps some of his confidence was just a ruse.... she should know what that was like, it was a common occurrence for Karina. And while sure she had anger issues, and was temperamental, and didn't get along with most people, or even try, Karina wouldn't draw attention to it. There was no reason to and quite frankly, while she wasn't quite sure what was going on between them, she didn't want to ruin it. "Look I didn't have much of a choice. I would have rather not given up my keyblade, but that was not something I could control. After we were thrown into the realm of darkness we all lost our abilities to use the keyblade. Essentially we had to earn them back for ourselves by going back and visiting our home worlds, and whatever demons were there for us. I was not prepared. When I went, while I had spent a year getting stronger physically I let the anger and fear of my father drive me, so when I faced him again and I still wasn't strong enough to beat him, I did not have the will to continue facing him. I did not have the will to stop him when he tried to have me executed. Even as someone else died, trying to get me to stand up and fight, I was simply in too much shock of the entire situation." Karina admitted, she seemed annoyed at herself with the entire situation and she wasn't fond of explaining it, but in the end it was her first step to facing the past and perhaps she could one day earn back her keyblade. "When we were released from these... illusions, I still couldn't summon my keyblade back, meaning I couldn't go with the others to take the Mark of Mastery and earn exit out of the realm of Darkness, so Lea took me to meet you guys. That was when I tried to change my name and run from who I was another way. Clearly that didn't work out, and instead of running I was faced with more from my past." Karina glanced over at Uniform before turning back to the heartless she was fighting. "So yeah not my choice." Stratos was dealing a great amount of damage to the heartless around them and Aislinn took a moment while he fought to catch her breath before turning to watch his back in case he needed a chance to catch his breath himself. She didn't want anyone to get too tired and make stupid mistakes. In her mind it was okay to take a moment and breath as long as someone was there to cover you when you needed it, in this case that was her as she stepped forward and took lead on the assault against the heartless doing whatever she could to deal with them as quickly as she could, which thankfully wasn't as hard as it seemed in previous waves. Total Words: 614 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3360 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 1/15 Enemies Remaining: 494 Neoshadows 600 Darkballs
What sort of bloody nightmare had she walked into now. Karina stepped back as she listened to Luna go off on her little rant before Arctus stepped in with his opinion. Trying to ignore it at first Karina turned to Luna. "Well congrats on passing. I was rooting for you guys. Glad you made it through, I was worried when Yue showed up to kick Nequa's ass, but it seemed to have all gone well, so perhaps I shouldn't have." There was no anger to be seen in the situation, Karina wasn't smiling but she was at least relieved that the Mark of Mastery went well. When she had started to yell at Mizu about her not having faith in Yue for having a way out, Karina had started to wonder what became of Yue and if she really was competent enough to manage running their Mark of Mastery. It turned out she seemed to be as most who went in came out, the other one she had seen already and knew what had happened to him. It wasn't like Karina cared much for Glen anyways, he had always gotten on her nerves. Luna proceeded to go on and thank Karina for protecting and bringing Koa to her, but she honestly had no clue what that was about, nor would she ask. Peoples personal lives were never something of interest for Karina. "I didn't do anything but brought him along to save those that I worried for." There was no way she was going to call them her friends or say that she cared about them, it would make it too personal, so she bounced around the words and made something else up instead that still sounded reasonable. "There is no reason to thank me. Just do me a favour and don't let him die, we still have work to do back in the realm of Darkness. There is an old friend messing with some things he shouldn't." Karina warned thinking about the boy she had seen before. Luna also commented on her weapon, a weapon that she now resented taking. "When I couldn't summon my keyblade anymore, I needed something to attack with. I am not so savage that I would rip things apart with my bare hands." She had not told Arctus that she was one of them before. Whether or not he had figured that out for himself she didn't know, but she couldn't help but wonder what he would think of it. Pushing that thought to the side she then addressed Arctus. "You are just asking for me to walk away aren't you? I don't know what you think we are, but I don't even know myself, so perhaps you should shut up before I punch you again." Karina threatened before mumbling under her breath. "Or at the very least try and discuss where we stand and clear things up a bit." Meanwhile Aislinn was still dealing with the Neoshadows that were coming for Stratos and Ananta. For a bit she had moved forward, almost fighting on her own, but now she backed off towards the others again, attacking some Neoshadows at Stratos's back, before spinning around and taking out more near her. They ever kept coming but the even without magic to take out mass amounts of heartless at once, Aislinn was finding herself an unstoppable force that the heartless couldn't seem to handle very well. They were quickly falling to her as her strength made up for the lack of magical abilities that she had. Even for the few things that she could possible manage to do, Aislinn had chose to sacrifice it for the sake of more strength, and strength to lend to allies. Total Words: 621 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3300 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 10/15 Enemies Remaining: 612 Neoshadows 642 Darkballs
So Zantetsuken had done quite a bit of damage but it was not enough to keep the heartless off her back. Aislinn had to do everything she could not only to keep herself safe, but also the people she fought with. It wasn't that they couldn't handle their own, of course she knew that bother Ananta and Stratos would be fine on their own, but there was merit in protecting those around you, it also made it a little bit easier to keep on fighting. Fighting for the sake of others added an extra level of determination to the whole battle. It was easy to lose sight of what you were doing and why when it went on for such lengths, but Aislinn was determined not to let that stop her from the battle that raged on. With each passing moment she looked for a new reason to fight, or at least a new way to distract herself from the drudgery of this fight. While necessary it was definitely a test of their characters and if they could handle the task of being masters. While this was not their exam, in Aislinns mind it was more of a test than anything else that they had been through during the Mark of Mastery exam. This was what really showed what they were made of and what they could handle. Much to her pleasure however no one had disappointed yet, they were all still standing and fighting, a good sign indeed. Joining in the fight once more Aislinn threw herself into the battle once more. After last time and the quick destruction of so many heartless, the progress on the ones that she was fighting now was rather slow given her attacks were limited to simple combos that she could do. It wasn't a fast process of taking out heartless but it was what it took in order to keep her strength up and make mass damage to the heartless when she had the chance. She might not have been able to do them often, but when she managed to get those larger hits off, it always gave her the extra moment that she needed to breath as well, and that was something Aislinn found herself ever waiting for. As Luna dropped in by them and Karina greeted her in her normal Karina way, Arctus asked if she was a friend or enemy. Karina rolled her eyes at him a bit. "Not everyone hates me you know, though she did try and attack me when we first met." Karina pointed out. She knew that it had not happened since that first time and Luna had tried to apologize for it, but it was something that still bothered her a little bit. It wasn't so much that she did it that bothered Karina but more so what had compelled her to do it. That had never made much sense to Karina, and it wasn't something she liked just accepting. Sure she had a habit of snapping and trying to kill people, but most of the time Luna seemed too nice for that, and that was what bothered her so much. "I guess formal introductions are expected. Luna, Arctus, Arctus, Luna. Try not to bite too much please. We have our hands full enough as it is." Karina pointed out as her whip flashed out taking out a Neoshadow before a wall of flame spouted from the ground killing a few more and clearing a little bit of a path for them, at least enough room so that Luna could get up and recover from her oh so graceful landing. Total Words: 609 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3240 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 10/15 Enemies Remaining: 652 Neoshadows 656 Darkballs
Well everyone else was taking their costumes, and Aria seemed to believe that it was okay. Given that Tinarah gingerly reached for hers just in time to have Edna walk up to her and begin pushing her away costume in hand towards the bedrooms. "Okay, okay I will change. Just please stop pushing me." Tinarah begged as she felt strange having people pushing her around. Honestly Tinarah didn't like being grabbed or pushed around, it always made her nervous, even if it was with people that she knew she should trust. Taking her costume, Tinarah returned to her room, struggling into it. It was tight, more so than Mika's clothing if that was even possible. It made her uncomfortable but she didn't want to comment on it as she peaked her head out from her bedroom before stepping out rather shyly. She glanced at the others and while hers was no worse than many of the others costumes, she didn't feel comfortable in it. Before she had the chance to really do anything about it though, Frozone called out to them. Rushing to where he was, Tinarah managed to catch the words right before it faded to "game time." They should have done something about it earlier instead of waiting, now they were expecting them and ready to deal with them. Meanwhile they were still effected by the lack of magic and all that was going for them, was overly tight, flashy costumes. "So are we the Unforgivables? What exactly have we... or any of you done to them?" Tinarah pondered. Take tried to ask who wasn't ready to go, but Tinarah just shook her head. "I am fine, we should go. Don't want to give them any more time to prepare than we already gave them." There was a slight tone of bitterness to Tinarah's voice as she looked at the words in the sky. She had wanted to deal with these people as quick as possible, but she was forced to sit around and wait, and now whatever they were planning, they were ready for them. That meant while her friends and her had new outfits, there was no advantage. They didn't even know this town, meanwhile these bad guys were preparing something, likely a trap and they were being forced to walk right into it. Still if they didn't go they might be putting a lot of people at risk, and Tinarah was more not okay with that.
There was a large blast of fire from the direction that the new people were, and Aislinn looked over for a moment. It was good to see that they managed to hold up for themselves. She didn't really question the capabilities of this new group, just because they had got here was a show enough of what they could do. She was just happy to see them holding their own. However she needed to hold her own, giving the heartless were still swarming rapidly. The Neoshadows were not going to go away any time soon, Aislinn knew that already. She had to get rid of them as quick as possible. The dark balls were annoying but they were not as evil or deadly as the Neoshadows were. If there was any heartless that were cruel just to be cruel, it would be the Neoshadows for sure. That was why Aislinn found herself spending most of her time dealing directly with them over the smaller heartless. The smaller ones could be held until later. Trying her best to get through several at once, Aislinn prepared herself for one of her stronger attacks. She didn't have time to deal with each heartless individually so instead she used Zantetsuken to get rid of several at once. Was it over kill? Probably? Did she care? Not really. She was just as ready as Ananta was to be done with this damned fight and move on with her life, but it didn't seem to be happening any time soon, Aislinn just had to see what she could do to speed up the process even a little bit. Oh god, oh god where was Arctus going with this? It was a strange way of speaking and while Karina was all for joking as well at times, she still found it a little bit strange, especially with all that had been going on. With Ananta's help, Karina was starting to really piece together what was going on here, and she wasn't sure what to think. It wasn't that she actually minded the direction that their.... relationship (?) was going, but she didn't really expect it. She didn't understand this relationship thing that was going on here or whatever Arctus thought it was, but now was not the time or place to figure it out. She would just have to take things as they came. "I don't. I just don't want these looser to think they can start being all buddy buddy with me because I am.... talking... sort of normally to a person." It was hard to explain and she probably didn't do the best job at explaining it but at least she made some sort of effort to get out what she was trying to say. While not everyone here hated her, she wasn't really friends with everyone here either and she didn't want to be friends with everyone either. They were all too happy and friendly. Arctus wasn't making things much better when he mentioned her face. "Shut up." She snapped at him, perhaps a little more harshly than she meant to, but she wasn't fond of all the talk of her embarrassment. At first Karina thought she made a pretty good entrance in, she was going to come in and save the day, but since then things just seemed to be going down hill for her in terms of how cool she was being. Not that it matter how cool she was, just more that she didn't like being embarrassed and people thinking she was going soft. Speaking of people going soft, as Karina plowed forward through heartless, Arctus undoubtedly at her heels, another familiar figure landed in front of them in a not so graceful manner. "Well look who the cat dragged in. I would have thought you would be more graceful after your Mark of Mastery. I guess nothings has changed after all. How did that go anyways?" Karina greeted Luna, having not heard of the end results of the Mark of Mastery. Total Words: 670 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3180 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 2/15 Enemies Remaining: 688 Neoshadows 691 Darkballs
"I will never say no to help, you should know that by now." Aislinn responded as Stratos showed up and soon after Ananta. She had gone from fighting alone, back to two wonderful people at her sides, and for that Aislinn was more than just a little grateful. Ananta made a comment about the girl that had come in with her little group, and the name she said got Aislinn thinking. She recognized that name, if vaguely she just had to put her figure on why. "Karina... Karina... Oh that was that girl who left to do her own thing shortly after I arrived wasn't it? We were fighting to save her from that bubble thing that trapped her." Aislinn spoke out as she figured out what was going on. It seemed by Stratos's reaction she was probably on the right track with the recognition that he had in regards to this entire situation. Aislinn never really spoke to the girl, so her presence here only meant extra help for them and that was something that they rather needed. "I don't know when this will be over Ananta, but at least we have more help now. We made it this far, we should be fine." Aislinn assured her before turning her attention back to the heartless that were around them. With the amount of Neoshadows that were around her, Aislinn knew that needed to deal with those first. She didn't waste time as she started on another whirlwind of attacks against the heartless, barely giving them time to breath, but in turn not allowing herself much time to breath. It forced her back off more quickly that she would have liked, but at least she could do so knowing she had done a fair amount of damage to the thing. Turning away from Arctus didn't seem to help her keep her composer as Ananta addressed her again, commenting about Arctus being her boyfriend. "No." She said flat out and seeming rather annoyed but her face was growing ever more red. It seemed that she wasn't good at dealing with this accusations. It was hard to embarrass Karina but when it came talk about her personal life, she couldn't help but be a little bit embarrassed. At the very least Ananta then excused herself and she could go back to dealing with only one pain in the butt, and that was not the heartless. "Yourself or not, you still were playing dirty. Attacking a girl from behind while she was trying to fix the situation, who even does that." It was a joke for the most part, but she still had to point it out and be a bit of a dick about it, she was honestly still a little bitter about the situation. While Karina knew that it wasn't her fault it hadn't helped her with her trust issues. Turning away from Arctus Karina faced down some of the enemies that were around them, trying her best to deal with them swiftly, this time turning to her magic. Now she wasn't just strong but she knew how to use fire efficiently. In a moments time the heartless around her went all up in flames and left the area clear just as Karina turned around. "So if I give you what you want, will you shut up?" She asked him looking around quickly at the others in the area. "Even if I did humour you, not here. I have an image to maintain. Don't want anyone thinking I have gone soft." She also warned him. There was no way she would give anyone else a reason to make fun of her. That being said Ananta decided that they were a thing, so the chances of rumours getting out was high. Total Words: 629 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3120 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 1/15 Darkball 8/9 Enemies Remaining: 715 Neoshadows 738 Darkballs
Rotating her keyblade in her hand for a more ideal strike, Aislinn looked around and realized the new girl and her merry bad of mischief had managed to take out the other invisible that she was unable to deal with herself before. That just left the Neoshadows and the Darkballs. It was not going to be fun to deal with, and in some ways she missed the little innocent shadows, at least those practically died by proxy of killing everything else, getting caught in the cross-fire from friends and enemies. These creatures took a little more effort to take down, even if that was still just slightly more effort. That being said even as the heartless grew stronger, so did they. With the buff that they were being provided with, Aislinn was finding it rather easy to take out the same creatures that she had found a bit annoying during the earlier rounds of combat. Charging on in to a hoard of the Neoshadows, Aislinn didn't waste much time getting started with her attacks. She did not go lightly on the heartless that were around her. She went all out, trying to deal with them quickly by starting with a barrier surge before she launched into numerous combos that chained on to each other as she whipped around trying to take out as many of the Neoshadows as she could at once. Each one falling easily to her blade. It almost felt like they could not keep up, move as fast as she could. At one point it was difficult to keep up when several attacked at once, but now, whether from practice or this buff she couldn't quite tell, but it didn't matter as long as she managed to do her job and deal with these heartless in as efficient of a manner as possible. Meanwhile with Karina she looked over at Arctus as he spoke. His wording was rather interesting. "Your what? What were you going to say there? I would be rather interested in hearing where that was going." She pried a little playfully but she was genuinely curious about what he was going to say. The way he worded it, it was like he was going to give her a title of some sort, but as far as Karina knew, she couldn't tell if they would even call each other friends, much less refer to them as my "something." Either way as much as she would have wanted to know, there were other pressing matters to deal with, such as the heartless that still surrounded them and her friends. Currently as much as Karina didn't like Ananta, she felt a little bad for running off on the girl, so she supposed she could just deal with the threats that came in their direction for now, perhaps she could make sure some of her friends were okay later. As she fought she noticed the boy who had asked her about if she knew anyone was talking to Luna. Perhaps that was why the questioning. They did seem rather excited to see each other, some sort of former relationship that almost left Karina sort of jealous. Turning away from them she turned to the heartless, the easier thing to focus on for her. It didn't take too much time for her to take a few of the heartless out either before she moved on to the sort of compliment offered by Arctus. "So you don't actually hate me. Huh funny after you stabbed me in the back... literally I thought you might not like me." She was more joking but she then heard his next comment, turning around to punch him, in a playful manner, but forgetting about her own strength, "in your dreams maybe." She told him before turning back to the heartless before he could spot the little bit of red building on her cheeks. Total Words: 641 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3060 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Enemies Remaining: 825 Neoshadows 882 Darkballs
As the password was entered correctly through his moment of clarity and anger that mashed into one, Cerdic managed to unlock the console in time for a memory to return to him. He could hear his own voice in it, he could see a form being created and Marley trying to stop it, destroying the machine that they were now fixing. He wasn't quite sure what this meant for them though. Looking at the situation around them, Cerdic couldn't tell if they should be fixing the machine or not anymore. That being said the darkness that was forming had also started to form words. Looking back at Chrono and Alder, Cerdic spoke up. "Do what you think needs to be done. I have no clue, I will hold this thing back." He told them, placing himself between Daeni and the creature. It seemed that it's attention was fixed on her even though he wanted Marley. Cerdic remembered Daeni saying something about Marley's memories or something but he wasn't too sure what that meant for her. "Stay back, stay alive." He told her before he stepped forward, his keyblade at the ready, as he shot off a fire spell at the forming darkness. "If you want to pick a fight, pick it with me." He warned the creature, ready to deal with the consequences of that statement, whatever they may be.
While Tinarah didn't really speak up again, given she felt like her last words weren't really taken to heart, she did tuck away some of the information that she had gotten from Elastagirl. The fact that the goggles had something to do with the power that the woman had, it was a good thing to keep in mind. Tinarah gave a slight nod, ready to head off to find food or something when Edna walked back in the room ready to show them what she had created. Tinarah groaned to herself a bit, this was all over the top, it only got worse when they were brought in to see what she had made. Following Edna into the next room Tinarah tried to stay back a little bit as she watched the woman with wide glasses prepare to reveal her creation. Each suite sat on mannequins and Tinarah walked until she found one that was labelled for her. Stopping she looked at it shaking her head a little bit before glancing over at Chrono. She didn't like tight clothes, she had a feeling her brother wouldn't like her wearing tight clothes, but here she was with a costume, that was made to completely fit her form. It made her slightly self conscious considering her weight at the time, but what could she do? She saw how tired Edna looked and the comments that she had been up all night, it made her feel bad if she didn't wear it. "So... um should we take them and try them on?" Tinarah asked a little unsure of what to do now.
As determined as Thea was not to fall to the power of the flute, she couldn't seem to shake off the effect that it was having on her mind. Her flame dimmed quickly after the sound took over and she found herself simply following rather closely to the person who was floating in front of her. "Where are we going?" She managed to ask quietly as she moved along, not quite sure where they were going or why, but feeling compelled to follow anyways, even as they started into the tree line and away from town. Renza had come out with snack, and then returned to the house wrapping them in cloth and bringing them back out again, offering it to them before commenting that she would tag along with them heading back. "Thank you very much Renza, that is very kind of you. Of course we don't mind you coming along." He told her, even going as far as to offer his hand if she wanted to walk back with him. When they returned they were greeted by the chief who, of course was asking about answers, which Samuel provided. "We are planning to go up stream tomorrow morning, investigate where the starting point of the poison might be. From there we will work on a solution." Everette assured the man with a half hearted smile, just trying to be at least slightly reassuring. The Chief offered them a place to stay and Renza offered to take care of them. While the Chief seemed hesitant, she wanted to go and Everette saw no problem with that. "It is fine if she wants to come with us. I don't mind. It might be good for her too. Tho Renza," Everette knelt down to look at her. "I think we can take care of ourselves tonight, we brought some of our own supplies, so why don't you just come and hang out with us for fun, don't feel like you have to go out of your way for us." Everette suggested. It hurt him to see a child having to go through so much and he was just trying to help make things easier for her where he could.
The man brought her into town, but Auburn just watched as the man got ready to leave again. She wasn't that fond of being left behind again just to be sitting there. She couldn't go after her or call for him not to leave her though as she nearly passed out on the woman, as she seemed to panic. "Get a doctor! Quickly." The woman called to the people around waiting with Auburn, unable to stop the bleeding until someone came to their aid. Soon both children were moved into the local hospital, the woman taking time to calm and care for the crying infant, while Auburn was taken in to have her wounds looked at. That didn't seem to be as easy as they thought though as Auburn looked out, terrified of the situation trying to back away a little bit but unable to do so as they started to clean the wounds, and for the first time, Auburn cried out, unable to handle things.
Well it seemed that Luna was happy as she seemed to notice someone else in the new group that she knew. It was interesting, but as Luna ran off to talk with the boy that she saw, Aislinn walked off the other direction dealing with some of the heartless that were near by. She didn't want to interrupt on their private conversation, but with Luna talking to this boy... Koa? and Beuce having ran off to fight with Stratos again, Aislinn found herself fighting alone once more. She knew that she could handle it, easily, but there had been more motivation to fight when she had others at her side to watch her back. Shrugging that off Aislinn looked around at the heartless that were left around her. The numbers this time seemed to be dropping at a more rapid rate, but that being said there was more heartless to deal with. Taking that into account, Aislinn started to face off against some of the last of the bigger guys left. She couldn't deal with all this alone, but she could get a good start on them, start to lessen the large amount of heartless. It was easy enough to get through these guys again. The invisibles surrounded her, trying to slash at her with their swords, but nimbly Aislinn was able to move out of the way, ducking and dodging attacks as she countered with her own attacks until one after another the heartless fell. Of course Arctus wouldn't be far behind her and making a bit of a snarky comment. "Let's just say I used to stronger than all of them, but it looks like becoming masters has made them all cocky. I will have to prove that they can't forget about me after all." She replied to him as she took her whip and swung out at an invisible, dealing with it swiftly before turning back to Arctus to respond to his next thing. "And for the record I know most people here, except him," Karina pointed to AJ, before pointing to Aislinn. "And her." Then her eyes rested on Aux. She didn't recognize him right away but ended up looking at the man for a while just staring before she turned to react to Arctus' other sly comment about how many of those people hated her. Before she could respond however Ananta had arrived. Of course like Ananta tended to do she started to blabber some sort of apology towards her and talk all about how she was a bad friend and such. Karina rolled her eyes at the response turning back to Arctus. "Clearly not everyone hates me. Most of these people..... tolerated me. I can't say that we are friends but they were adequate comrades." She replied. Part of her would want to say friends but the other part of her still questioned that. She had a feeling most of these people weren't too fond of her, and even if they didn't mind her, she wasn't fond of some of them, for example the woman trying so hard to apologize in front of her. "You know Ananta, it would do you well to stop being so desperate and just move on with life. Just forget about it." It wasn't quite a way of saying she forgave Ananta, it was more just a sign that she had moved on from that sort of stuff. "Now if you excuse me, we kind of have bigger issues on our hands." Karina pointed to the heartless around them as she readied her whip and lashed out at a couple Neoshadows and a dark ball. Total Words: 606 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3000 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 5 Invisibles 1 Neoshadow Karina Heartless Defeated: 1 Invisible 3 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Enemies Remaining: 875 Neoshadows 884 Darkballs
Perhaps there would be time for conversations, but unfortunate for her, this wasn't the time. Of course Aislinn was still going to talk but as the fight wound down it seemed that they had new guests arriving in the minute. Aislinn prepared for a defensive stance against the new group before she realized that they were not coming against them, but the black haired girl in the long black coat seemed to have her eyes set on the man who was causing this mess. They didn't seem to get along too well, and in all honesty Aislinn was rather enjoying watching the situation unfold since it seemed that they didn't get along too well. Of course getting on the nerves of the uniformed man was only making things worse as another wave of heartless was sent at them. This they could handle, with the extra help Aislinn didn't worry too much as between Shiro and one of the new people, this one seeming to be closer to a child took out some of the bigger heartless. While it wasn't much of an advantage it was better than nothing and Aislinn was ready to deal with things in as swift of a manner as possible. "Well it looks like we aren't done yet. Guess we will have to talk as we fight again." Aislinn told Beuce over her shoulder as her defensive stance took a turn towards the enemies and away from their newly arrived allies that she had not expected. A pleasant surprise to say the least. "Anyways I wasn't there by choice as I am sure you have guessed. The heartless were making a push against the front lines that were protecting my town, being the only one that had a keyblade from that world, I needed to do something about it. Things went not as planned and I wasn't able to fend off that many heartless by myself. Somehow I managed to survive the attack but I was dragged down into that darkness. I ended up just walking until I found something, or someone who might have an idea how to get me out. When I found you guys, I didn't it was a relief, even if there was trouble. I was just glad to see face's and glad that I had the chance to help out a bit, test my skills and compare them to others of similar powers." Aislinn admitted to him. She wasn't quite sure if that was the answer that he wanted but it was the best way she had to explain she supposed. There was no more time to talk however as she turned a little bit, so that between her, Beuce, and Luna they could cover the most sides possible, positioning herself, to face the Invisibles that were waiting. She wasn't going to go easy on these things again and let them live for long. If she could deal with as many as possible now it would be good, of course without leaving the group. Luckily for her they were already heading in her direction. Apparently these things had not forgotten about the damage that she managed to cause before, and thanks to whatever Shiro was doing, Aislinn was even more confident that she could deal with this. Charging in there was nothing too fancy in her attacks, simple moves that were not overly strong in her opinion but seemed to be doing more damage than she had expected as the Invisibles fell to her like they were nothing. Even a couple of Neoshadows got caught in her set of attacks, only one of those Neoshadows died but the other one wasn't looking good either. That being said, Aislinn's eyes were more focused on the Invisbles around her and watching her teams backs. Total Words: 631 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 2940 Heartless Defeated: 5 Invisbles 1 Neoshadow Heartless Injured: Neoshadow 2/15 Heartless Remaining: Defeat 999 Neoshadows Defeat 1000 Darkballs Defeat 35 Invisibles "Perhaps you just underestimate me a little too much old man. You know what my father can do, you think I didn't pick up a thing or two from him whether I liked it or not?" Kiara responded in a rather sassy tone as her eyes scanned the area, making sure that everyone she knew was alright. "Now if you excuse me, as much as I would love to take your other arm, I should clean up your mess first. Never have liked crowded areas." With that Karina stepped away from the group, in that moment she missed her keyblade more than anything, but she tried to act like it didn't matter as she stepped into the field, flicking her whip blade around a few times just to test it out before stepping forward to deal with some of the issue, starting light by taking out two Invisibles. However looking at the people around her, while she knew that she had not lost any strength, the strength they gained made her feel weak. A slight flame started to form across her whip. "There is no way I am letting them show me up." She whispered to herself as she prepared to do more damage if she could next time. Heartless Defeated: 2 Invisbles Heartless Injured: Neoshadow 2/15 Heartless Remaining: Defeat 999 Neoshadows Defeat 1000 Darkballs Defeat 33 Invisibles
