Chrys attacked and Used MP Drain!
Steel dodged around the thunder from Ursala's trident and shot forward with surprising speed. He supposed the move to water hadn't affected his skills that much, and it was only further augmented by the energy gathered around him; devoted to pure speed as it was. Rather than dwell on it, he instead focused on the fight, zooming up to her head and summoning his weapons to deal a long series of blows as was coming to be expected of him. Steel attacked with three combos!
Chrys Renewed her Ruin Saberga, Cast Reflega, and Attacked!
Chrys, knowing she couldn't keep casting spells forever, made an effort to drain magical energy from her opponent. Chrys Attacked and used MP Drain!
Chrys paused in her battle to cast another enchantment on her sword. Having had quite enough of being knocked around by the demon tower for the time being, so cast a spell that would allow her blade to sap it's health. With that done, she leaped back into battle. Chrys used Blood Fencer and Attacked! MP: 16/56
Chrys renewed the Enchantment on her blade, as well as the reflective barrier she had cast earlier. That done, she attacked once more. Chrys Cast Ruin Saberga, Reflega, and attacked! MP: 23/56
No Square, it's alright. I didn't really need my heart, it's perfectly fine that you ripped it from my chest and trampled it on the floor. No biggie.
Chrys shook off the extra damage she had taken and charged at the Demon Tower once more. Chrys Attacked.
Well, if Steel had learned one thing from the battle, it was that Karina was just as violent as ever. Indeed, she was ever eager to beat in the faces of their opponents, and he knew the power she possessed from experience. As far as he could tell, she had done most of the work on Ursula by herself. He felt a bit guilty at this if he was honest. Ever since the Castle of Illusion it felt like he had been slowly becoming less and less effective against their enemies, only really effective when he was required to do simple strikes against an opponent in rapid succession. He couldn't fathom why; it wasn't as if he had lost any power since then. Sure, maybe the perceived power of being the eye, but that had only really been healthier for his mind, and shouldn't have effected his combat skills at all. He would be lying if he told anyone he was happy with the way things were; with how little he seemed to be able to come to aid now that he had made it his solemn duty to protect these people. If he was honest, he felt a little bit emptier than he ever had when he was deluding himself with his copied memories. But how was even supposed to begin to improve? It was a thought that should be saved for another time, and yet... it never seemed to be a good time at all. As Aux charged in, he thought about just how long it had even taken them to get here. Indeed, it had only been a few days since they had passed their mark of mastery, and already so much had happened. Unlike the original Steel, he wasn't as capable of processing so much in so short of a time. Was that perhaps the reason? Was he too caught up in his own thoughts to fight productively? Maybe he should try to talk to the others more to put himself more in the moment? That didn't really seem like a much better idea though... simply put, he was not very social and what little attempts had been made were met with an utter lack of success. Sure, he and Karina had both been in a bad place, and Ananta was more the type to talk then listen... but Glen actually had a mental shut down... and... well, that was just discouraging. He was shaken from his thoughts when Aux began shouting at the rest of them. Having freed Ariel and put Ursula in choke hold, he was now calling for someone to hurry up and get the trident away from her. Steel broke from his inner distractions and swam forward, hoping to be helpful for once in a long time. He extended his hand toward the glowing weapon, readying his weapon all the while. He grabbed for the trident as he brought his weapon down on the sea witch, aiming the blade for her torso. Words: 500 Exp: 100 Total: 189
Having more properly gauged her opponents strength, Chrys cast Reflega on herself and charges back in to attack her opponent. She could deal quite a chunk of extra damage this way, defending herself all the while. If she could keep a good pace going, than she might be able to make this battle into one that was only a matter of time. Chrys cast Reflega and Attacked! HP:149/170 MP: 33/56 FOC: 40/40 FLUX: 5/5
Braden took his leaders advice and stayed close with his weapons ready to draw. After all, he didn't want to be caught off guard anymore than the others did. There wasn't really much he could do at the moment other than glare suspiciously into the shadows, though. He could try his semblance, sure, but there was almost no chance it would find a working target, and he might leave himself to open trying. Best to just stick to the others for now.
With both of the eels thoroughly dealt with, Steel turned his attention to Ursula along with the rest of his comrades. There wasn't really much to be said, that hadn't already been said to her, why should he bother talking to her? It was bad enough they had to give her the time of day. So he sort of just jabbed his keyblade at her while he thought of more important things. Sure, fighting in water was a bit different than what he was used to, but they had all gotten used to it pretty quickly. Maybe it was a bad sign that he was starting to push forward without much thought, but he wasn't sure how much he cared at the moment. If they did this right, they could be done with the witch, save the princess and move on. The worlds were in danger and didn't have to time for them to constantly be facing whatever decided it wanted to get in their every time they landed. Well, maybe they did since whatever No Heart was planning seemed to involve them, but the more disturbances they had to distract them, the less time they had to think things through and figure them out. OC: Words: 205 EXP Writer: 41 Total: 89 BP: 0/102 Flotsam: 0/300 Jetsam: 0/300 Ursula: 546/2000
Staring down her opponent from across the void, Chrys began preparing her magic. Holding her keyblade forward, she began to weave a saberga around it. However, rather than leave the spell as it was, she closed her eyes and looked within for something she intended to add to it. There was a light within her; A light that had been nurtured by her love of her brother and her hopes of finding him again, the friendships she had made, her determination to fulfill Chryssa's wish, and the mercy that she had shown so many times in the past, unwilling to hurt others when it wasn't necessary. She poured it into her blade to maximize it's potential... but that wasn't all. She also poured her darkness into it. Her hopelessness at losing the ones she loved and being unable to find them, the crushing sense of betrayal she had faced multiple times now, and the sense of ruthless determination that had begun to well up inside her, willing to do anything necessary to reach her goals. Indeed, the Light Chaser had caused the darkness he wished to destroy to grow immeasurably within her single handed. That wasn't relevant now, though. She gathered the two powers in the palm of her hand, and they formed into a single orb. It was like a black hole contained ominously within an opulent pearl. With a single word she shoved the orb into her keyblade as she finished the spell. "Ruin!" With that, a aura similar to the orb wrapped itself around her keyblade, having combined with the saberga to greatly increase her attack strength. After that she cast a protectra, though she didn't add the augmentation. Perhaps that was a bit strange for her; normally she went to extremes to build her defenses as high as possible. However, in this situation she was facing down an enemy that she had faced in a much more powerful form. She had faith in her ability take a few hits from this lesser variant. Her enchantments done, Chrys rushed towards the demon tower with a fierce battle cry. Chrys casts Ruin Saberga, Protectra, and Attacked! HP: 170/170 MP: 36/56 FOC: 40/40 FLUX: 5/5
As the others began forming into groups, Chrys mostly ignored them in favor of carefully examining the program listings. All that she really took note of for them was that Torrin and Aria had both chosen teams, which meant she wouldn't have to worry about either joining her if she chose a simulation that was small enough. Unfortunately for her, Tinarah had already chosen the only solo program. 'A Simple Task' seemed like it might be a good warm up, but it might have been better to save it for someone who needed it more. 'In A Flash' managed to catch her eye briefly, but she soon dismissed it; she wasn't arrogant. A match like that would be against time, and at her current strength she would likely only be able to wipe out around half at most before the enemies detonated. With 50 or more enemies remaining, she didn't like her odds of lasting through the explosion even with every defensive spell available to her active. If there was anyone else with her it might be a different story, but she had best not plan for anyone to be joining her given her position. It was then that she spotted an interesting collection of enemies. The last one would almost definitely give her problems based on past experience from not too long ago, but the first two would be a good test of her abilities. Without much comment, she stepped towards the door for the 'Demon Hunter' matches.
Steel shrugged in response to Luna. "It's no big deal really." It was at that point that Karina swam over, and he didn't really have a part in the rest of the conversation. It was good to see Karina being a bit more social, and ultimately their meeting with King Triton went pretty well. ------------------------------------------------ Not that it meant anything once the witch had blindsided them. Sure, they had expected it, but that didn't really seem to have helped them any. Dodging the lasers from the two eels, he locked his sights onto the one who had yet to take as much damage from his friends. Summoning his keyblade, he darted around what he could of the electrical shocks, being quite familiar with the element and lunging his arms forward to get a glancing blow at the creature. Of course it managed to do dodge out of the way itself and avoid most of the damage, but even those glancing blows of electrical force had been painful in this environment, and he wasn't going to let it get away that easily. He reached out with his hand and grabbed, his fingers suddenly glowing red hot from the beginnings of a fire based spell. "I wonder what grilled eel taste like." He mused aloud to the creature as it struggled within his grip. Unfortunately, his sense of triumph could not last; not when the other eel knocked him from behind. How annoying. Words: 240 EXP Writer: 48 Total: 48 BP: 0/102 Flotsam: 100/300 Jetsam: 166/300 Ursula: 1718/2000
Chrys sat at the table silently, doing not much else than eating from the humongous stack of waffles throughout the duration of the meeting. For the most part it was drama, especially from that other new wielder. Kaio had put him in his place though. She had to say she liked the master. Sure, it wouldn't be pleasant to be on the receiving end of such a talk, but at least he was speaking his mind, and not tolerating arrogance. It also seemed she was keeping her little promotion from puppet to cannon fodder. How delightful. Now they were down in the training rooms, and she was still processing some of the information. Torrin was discussing a plan of action for the groups training, but she figured that she was the last person that he would want to hear talk. Not wanting to draw that kind of attention to herself, she stayed quiet and reviewed her options. It wouldn't matter if she had partners as long as it wasn't Aria by herself, so she didn't really need to worry about it for the moment.
Steel could only sigh in a dejected manner. They had up and made a deal with the bad guy. How perfect. That couldn't possibly backfire on them. Sure, Luna had read over the contract, but it was pretty certain that Ursula would pull some ink out of her tentacles during the endgame. Whatever the case, Steel went over possible plans while the others explained to Karina and Aux what was going on. They could always just tell Triton about what had happened. The trident would certainly wind up 'in Ursula's lair. He wasn't really sure how the others would react to that plan though. They were quite strongly against the King's behavior and seemed to think that it was their role to fix it. Proving that his concerns had legitimate merits wasn't really on their agenda, even if it meant ignoring the fact that the man's pure power would be a huge help to their situation. It was unfortunate for them. While his mind wandered, he zeroed in on something from the previous conversation in his mind. Swimming over to Luna, he quietly verbalized as the others continued their meeting: "A princess of heart, huh? Guess I should have figured."
Sure enough, Torrin was there and itching for a fight the minute he saw her face. It wasn't really surprising and if it had been almost anyone else in the castle, she probably wouldn't even consider it wrong. After all, she had been the enemy. Torrin though... She was about to deliver the best biting retort she could manage when Lumen stepped in between them. He delivered a brief but moving speech about how it was never too late for people to change, and how he was going to protect her from Torrin. It seemed he had already grown attached to her, for... no reason in particular? Chrys felt sorry for the kid. Sure, Torrin was kinda tough, but it was more about the fact the she had such a similar frame of thinking not two days ago. She had always wanted to believe in the good in others and... that naivete had been abused all too often. She wanted to speak up, say that he should be more careful about who he trusts and that she could defend herself, but Qamar chose that moment to pop in. Of course she did. Now, when she had already resigned to having to likely be forced to defend herself, instead of earlier before she had her panic attack. Why did it seem the multiverse seem to go out of it's way to deny her any real sort of progress. Being a master was brought up momentarily, and she briefly remembered that she had attained that title. Then she remembered who she got it from, and decided it probably meant nothing. She sighed and shrugged it off, deciding to ultimately ignore all of the drama that she was, unfortunately, the center of. Instead, she turned to the boy who had spoken to her with a surprising air of casualty. She knew she had seen him before, and that he therefore must know of her sordid past. Yet if he wasn't going to be hostile, she was hardly going to complain. "Could you direct me to it, please? And perhaps some coffee too? I had a long involuntary nap, and I could use a bit of a wake up call."
Chrys walked in not long after hearing Torrin speak and just in time to catch Lumen getting all excited over someone who was apparently the Master of Masters and asking about food. She hadn't found anyone else to vouch for her on the way back, but she wasn't going to give herself time to second guess her own actions again. "Yeah, a meal sounds pretty great actually. In the last 48 hours I've been accused of what basically amounts to witchcraft, chased out, and been knocked out and dragged here unconscious and against my will. Don't even get me started about all the ultimatums in there. I could eat." Chrys stepped into the doorway as she made her statement, looking around at and examining the kitchen. She made it high priority to make note of any alternative exits.
Sitting in the shadows of a courtyard wall, Chrys' head was planted firmly into the palms of her hands. Why did she have to panic like that? She had been all gung-ho about charging into dangerous situations before. It seemed strange to her that, now that she wasn't of the rather naive preconceived notion that she could resolve her problems peacefully, she was somehow only more afraid to rush into a fight. What had changed? Why had she suddenly become afraid to fight, when it had never seemed like a big deal before? There wasn't even a guarantee of a fight. Yet, no one had listened to reason before, and she was, at the very least, hesitant to walk into a group of people who, as far as they knew, had no more reason to listen to her than before. Unfortunately, her problems were hardly about to go away just because she ignored them. This sitting around wasn't going to last forever; there would be some kind of gathering or mission eventually, and she wouldn't be able to hide from anyone then. She gave a heavy sigh, frustrated at her own act of cowardice. But it was time to get back to doing something about it. Chrys stood back up from the ground and started walking: It was better that those who remained of the ignorant be informed of her presence sooner rather than later. Inside was the best place to start, and if she was lucky she could run into someone who could vouch for her before she got back to the kitchen.
