Spending 20 crowns on +2 SPD SPD - 50(+3) That's it. That's all that's new.
As Boreas blows knocked her to the ground, Chrys mostly remained undamaged due to the remaining effect of her Stonera spell. Her Aerora, however, had worn off, and she wasn't able to dodge the attacks altogether. Back to the floor and watching her opponents keyblade swing down, Chrys was hardly going to let her opponent damage her. Her eyes began to glow purple as she prepared to show Boreas that she had not even remotely used her capabilities to their full extent. However, before she could accomplish anything on that front, a flash of light called her away from the battle. She was met with a very disappointed Light Chaser in Eventide Town. Climbing to her feet, Chrys recounted the regrettable story of their failure. She couldn't blame the master for his disappointment: She was incredibly disappointed in herself as well. "It was my fault." Chrys remarked as she finished her account. "It was my responsibility to lead my fellow apprentices into battle, and I failed in my leadership role. I did not even put up a proper fight for our opponents... I cannot ever apologize for that enough." She turned her head down in guilt; two people were dead because of her failure.
"Ah yes. A vacation would indeed be sublime." Steel sighed from his position on the ground; the wind had blown him back quite a ways as well, but he didn't put a lot of effort into fighting against it or even landing. So there he was with his back to the sand, staring up at the sky. "Unfortunately it most assuredly will be too much to ask. It's like relaxation is taboo around here." Shaking his head in annoyance, Steel quickly began to daydream of his own ideal vacation. "I could go for a cloudy day at the beach... Curled up on a towel with a cool breeze against my fur... the wonderful scent of rain from the clouds above, heavy with water but never quite bursting into rain..." His tail started thumping against the sand. "That would be a nice day..." As Kel went over to where the finale was going down, Steel pulled himself onto all fours. He didn't really bother going any higher, exhausted as he was. Seeing the commotion involving Aux starting to go down some distance away, he once again let out a sigh. It was more frustrated and annoyed than his previous. He turned to his remaining companions. "I suppose it's already time to start dealing with all this then... shall we?"
The world slowed to a near halt as one of their opponents fell to Dentro's blade. With Boreas having pushed himself back a distance, Chrys caught the sight full view. Her blood ran cold at it. It was clear from the shock on his face that the death of his target wasn't what he intended... or at least not that particular target. What on earth was he thinking? They weren't supposed to be killing anybody, regardless of their alignment. They could still be saved if they could just- Her thought was cut short as she saw Boreas charging towards her. She barely had time to deflect the first blow but managed to continue to keep pace with him as his attacks accelerated. Meanwhile... Tinarah began monologuing. Maybe she should have been grateful that someone else wanted a peaceful solution, but she honestly felt more insulted than anything. For one thing, the girl continued to assume she knew their intents and purposes. As if Dentro's murder attempt had been scripted by them beforehand and they fell from the heavens planning for Chrys to say things that would later contradict their actions. Not that Dentro helped with that. He just brushed it off as if he meant to do it the whole time. What the heck was wrong with him? Koa wasn't really all that great at this either since about 90% of what he said sounded like it came from a victim of brainwashing, just as Illiana had implied. Tinirah's second assumption seemed to be that Chasers thought of them as the villains. Chrys couldn't speak for the others, but she didn't personally think she had ever used terms like 'bad guy' or 'villain' to describe them. The single biggest problem here was that there needed to be 'bad guys' in the first place. Torrin seemed rather convinced that it needed to be them, and he wanted all of his friends to agree with him so that they wouldn't question him when he attempted to murder her on sight. They would even join in. Another thing Dentro had been absolutely no help with. Then she wrapped up her teary speech by saying that their attempts at fighting were not improving their circumstances with the other group and they couldn't have Aria. To be honest, if they had just let them take Aria after all this she would be more concerned than happy, but that was beside the point. Did Tinirah really want to come to a peaceable solution? Or was she just throwing insults at Chrys since she was busy defending her life and couldn't really answer? What exactly was she supposed to do at this point? Lower her blade? Trade the mass of sparks from blocking for a blade nestled comfortably in her neck? How convenient a time for someone to suddenly care about peace. It is at this point reader that I urge you to look away from the misfortune about to befall the Baud- I mean, Chasers. You can instead pretend that they decided Torrin's squad was right about everything just because they said so, and that they all teamed up to defeat the Light Chaser, who is totally the real villain. No seriously, don't question it. However, if you continue to indulge in this tragedy, you will face several realities that are harsh and 'cruel,' a word which here means "the author isn't going to switch sides and ditch his character development just because you keep pressuring him to." The reality that Dentro was not the only one who had attempted murder. The reality that the Light Chaser was far too cannonically overpowered. The reality that everyone, Chaser and Wielder alike were incredibly wrong about something they were rather certain of. The reality Chrysanthemum Light did not leave the Chasers that day. You see, though Chrys acknowledged that the Light Chaser was something of a puppet master, it was her experience that the other sides leader was much the same. His attempt to murder mere seconds after meeting when combined with his rather 'for me it was Tuesday' attitude about the whole thing did not make her all that fond of team Torrin. In fact, she was against it, or perhaps more Torrin himself, rather vehemently. A word which here means 'Against team Torrin, or at least Torrin himself.' Her decision was only cemented when Dentro died. "Enough!" Chrys lowered her blade... and cast reflect. As Boreas blade sailed towards her, Chrys lost interest in whether or not the blade came any further or if the knight managed to stop it in time. Instead, she merely walked over to Koa, past Qamar to pull him away. She wanted to leave Tinirah with a definitive answer, but even though the world had stopped collapsing around them, it was still clearly not the time to talk. After all, if no one did any listening it wouldn't do much good. Qamar, on the other hand, seemed to think it was the perfect time to talk, inserting a rather boastful sounding comment about what had happened to Dentro. Chrys was rather quick to glare at her. "If I were you, I'd watch my tongue a bit more carefully: One might think you don't even care that one of your own died today as well." Two deaths. Two deaths she would mourn silently as her enemies mocked her. "Even with Dentro being my friend, I can very easily admit he made some bad decisions, and it was those decisions that led to his death. It was Karma." Karma was a word that here meant 'A brutal death that was surprisingly not induced by a small reptilian creature with glowing yellow eyes and a large knife.' "If you're not more careful, boasting as if you actually did something to cause his death, you might find that the universe... or the heartless, will be the ones dragging you down into the next ravine." With that, Chrys turned and continued to walk away. She left only a few more parting words as she walked away, responding to Tinarah's question. "Wherever Torrin and Aria are... I hope they're safer than we were." None of them were safe from each other.
Chrys found herself dodging out of the way of Boreas' attacks. Unlike her companions, she was not currently wearing armor and was considerably more vulnerable to the attacks. Once she was safe from the fireballs, Chrys peered around for a head count. Most everyone was gathered at the moment, though some of her opponents seemed to be fighting... each other? Regardless of whatever issue those few currently had at the moment, she felt it was possibly more worthy of note that neither Aria nor Torrin was present. The same could be said of a third individual whose name was not well known to her. After the gigantic explosion that had resulted in a practical volcano of dark energy, she was reasonably concerned about them. However, as much as she wanted to go looking for them, Boreas sights were trained straight on her. Any attempt at leaving now would only be translated as one or all of various villainous traits. She had to finish her fight first. Remembering the beating she had taken earlier, Chrys began planning a counter assault in case he tried a similar attack in the near future. Casting Stonera on herself, she dashed forward, still under the effect of her earlier Aerora, aiming for a powerful frontal attack.
Crackling with his charged energy, Steel channeled it into a burst of power. His unique ability was unleashed in an awesome display... but no one was watching him this time, so there was no reason to describe it. Steel Used Tempered Fate!
"Seems like our luck is running out." Steel observed aloud to his silent companions. Ignis had finally taken a hit from a non-shockwave attack, and he was starting to take more and more damage from said attacks over time. He shrugged his shoulders, not really expecting any sort of response from his teammates, since they hadn't really made any sort of attempt at banter so far. Sensing that he was almost charged up for a grand finale, Steel zoomed in for one last extensive chain of attacks. OC: Steel Attacked With A Combo! x2
Chrys reeled back from Boreas' last blow, having been knocked back a short distance.Not one to simply accept such a beating, she was calculating how best and briefly to cut through his defenses for a counter assault when... Big things happened. The group of skirmishing warriors was blasted apart as a large rupture opened in the ground. Debris went flying everywhere, and the sound of her voice and all others became dulled as though she were underwater. It took a bit to recover in the horrible conditions of the storm, but when she managed to get back to her feet she heard her two companions commenting on what was apparently most definitely not a moon. Looking to the sky to see it for herself, she balked at the sight of the red sphere high in the sky above the clouds. It was hard to see it all clearly, what with the terrestrial rupture spewing thick black smog at ground level and the intensely thick cloak of a similar sort shielding it up in the sky. Even more surprising was that there was a second ominous orb not that far away from it. Shaking her head in absolute horror, Chrys turned to her companions, only to see them running off. "Wait!" She called out in vain as she started after them. "We need to stick together!" With her voice drowned out by the background, Chrys could only run after her companions as they headed towards the other keyblade wielders, all the while haunted by the red orbs from which she was certain no one was safe.
Having sufficiently charged his energy Steel activated the Aura that the Stormbringer had cut off earlier. "Fever Pitch!" He shouted. Once again he was enveloped in the aura of speed energy. He blasted forward and began attacking the left hand with an intensely long combo. OC: Steel Attacked With A Combo! x2
Boreas swung his blade with well-practiced motions. It was quite clear to Chrys that he had quite a bit of training. But she was no slouch either. The first few blows were relatively easy to dodge, though the overhead strike had to be blocked. It had a substantial amount of force behind it, but her blade held firm as she braced it with both hands. The enemy soldier leaped backward, creating a fair amount of distance. With no direct projectile forms of magic, there was no way for her to mid-leap while his guard was lowered. However, she had learned quite well by now that her caution and hesitance to use her other magic in battle often became a liability. With her new mana regenerative abilities, there was no real reason to hold back with them. Casting Aerora on herself to increase her speed, Chrys dashed forward while flipping her keyblade into a normal grip. Wielding it like one would a battle-ax, she made a large sweeping motion low to the ground in an attempt to knock him off his feet. Continuing the sweep into a full circle, Chrys came back around and delivered a solid thrust forward to his position.
Seeing as how absolutely no one answered him and just kept on fighting, he assumed they were all fine. He sped towards the left hand and attacked it with a combo before coating his weapons in ice and delivering a jump attack. OC: Steel Attacked With A Combo! Steel Used Vorpal Blitz!
Chrys found herself thinking that Tinarah's answer... Was incredibly short-sighted. Not because she thought what the girl was saying was wrong exactly, It was just that it assumed far too much. That was something that several worlds had a saying in common about. So Chrys was with the Light Chaser. That apparently meant that, despite what she had just said, she totally went about doing things like kicking puppies and stealing candy from babies. That she inherently twisted enough to think such things were somehow right. That she condoned everything the master may or may not have done without question. Not to say she didn't believe what Tinarah had said about what the Light Chaser had done to her; it was certainly possible. That didn't mean she was going to take the girl's words without a grain of salt though. It was fairly easy for people to develop misconceptions. People lied sometimes. The Light Chaser was one of them of course, he had proven that to her not all that long ago. Though he had also been totally up front with her about it, which was quite the twist. However, if she couldn't trust the master, then who was she supposed to trust exactly? THEM? The thought was almost laughable. The minute she had met Torrin, her life only descended further into a war-torn hell. It didn't take her long at all to figure out that she wouldn't be able to get many words in before a blade was aimed at her throat. From the moment he had met these other people he had pointed at the Master's group, her included, and told them "shoot." So they did. Sure, now they had the council on their side or whatever, but it's not as if they needed a reason. They did what Torrin told them too. They had never even met her before, but they were willing to hurt or even kill her if it meant the fulfillment of what they believed was right. So how was that different than what the Chasers were doing? It wasn't. Not really. They were each holding up to their beliefs of what was right, no matter the cost. So now that someone from the group that was working for the guy who had never done anything but try to hurt her, who would have hurt her in his place had she not been ordered away, had apparently gotten hurt herself... Chrys was supposed to just tuck tail and run? Switch to their side begging for forgiveness? It was a pity play; a guilt trip. The master had actually saved her life, tried to help her and gave a compelling reason to do so. These cretins were just going to tell her she was stupid and wrong and beat her up for it. Screw them. It was a short-sighted answer for a person who clearly hadn't grown up at all in spite of her apparent time travel. Because it only took into account what a single person did to her and shared the blame amidst them all, regardless of what their actual opinions on his actions might be or even their motivation for following him. She was not blind to the Light Chaser's misdeeds, but he had shown her kindness and she had made friends that she felt might be worthy of trust among the ranks of his students as well. People fought for what they truly believed in until the bitter end. Neither group was an exception. They didn't know her reasons... and she didn't know theirs. She voiced none of this. It would be useless. Other than Aria, Illiana was the only one at current gaining any sort of respect from her at the moment. She was at least trying to actually convince Koa. Show something other than a scathing and hateful glare. Even she seemed to be under the impression they were brain-washed or some such notion, though. "I'm sorry miss, but we don't have much time for talking at the moment. This will have to wait." She didn't want to actively discourage her from trying after all. It would only be hypocritical of her to be mad at the others for not bothering with negotiation and cut off Illiana's own attempts at a peaceful solution. Besides, she knew what it was like to lose a brother; to be missing an important and loved member of your family. She sighed as the world continued to crumble around them, the exasperated puff of air a symbol of her regret at the fact. But they really didn't have time to discuss it. Heck, Chrys had already spent far too long just thinking about it. She took turned her head to Boreas with her body staying in profile to him. "Tinirah's gone now, so..." She raised her closer, empty arm to him, flexing the hand in a universal motion of 'bring it.' "Are you going to kill the big bad villains, or aren't you?" She pondered momentarily how predictable his response would be. It mattered not. Chrys could continue being friendly with her friends. She refused to continue being a pushover to the likes of these, though.
"Your observation is quite biased, you have no idea what we have been doing until now." Yet again she spoke as if the opinions of their opponents could be swayed. "Tinarah..." Chrys spoke as she took a battle stance. "Please get out of the way. I don't know what the Master did to you and I won't pretend for even a second that I can fully condone it. But I'm not asking you to leave Aria to us; I'm just asking you to walk away from this fight." In the background, Koa seemed to have made his choice. "I know I have no right to ask anything of you... I was there when it happened after all, even if I didn't know what was going to happen. I still don't really." Chrys frowned to herself at that. "But this fight... there's just no time to argue over all this right now." She slashed at a stray heartless that rose from the ground, keeping it from interrupting. "But none of us are going to back down from this, even if it's completely pointless, even if we could normally sit and work it all out. There just isn't time." This was going to happen, no matter what any of them did. "The truth is, win or lose doesn't matter right now. So long as we make this quick."
I think I'll go for HP +5 (1 lvl) and AP +6 (3 lvls)
Upon Dentro's prompt, Chrys leaped from her glider and quickly descended to the ground, her glider vanishing as she recalled it. She landed to the rather unflattering taunt launched by Aria. As if Chrys's wish for the girl to have free will and make her own choice was a dimwitted thing to hesitate over. Then again, if this was her repayment she supposed it must have been. Aria had likely developed quite the cynicism for her attempts at kindness by now, Chrys was the villain by default, after all. Her retorts were cut short though as Tinarah abruptly cut in. "Just leave us alone already! Why are you so insistent on tormenting us?" At first, Chrys just stared at the girl. It did take a moment to process just who it was of course, but even once it had registered, she wasn't even curious as to why. She wasn't all that shocked by the fact the Master hadn't told her exactly what would happen to Tinarah either. At the moment more than anything, she was more focused on a feeling that suddenly seemed to encompass her entire being... She felt mocked. "That's Cute." Her voice felt so irrevocably different then. Almost wrong, yet somehow not quite wrong yet. She ignored it. "As if you're the ones being tormented here." She looked over at Koa and Illiana having their confrontation only feet away, only to find her gaze turning back to Tinarah with a glare. "As if you're the ones... just trying to help. Trying desperately to do something you believe will help everyone. Only to be repaid with hateful words and flashing blades. Any words of a peaceful resolution being empty traps... being spat upon and glared at by the people who are supposed to understand." She shook her head. "Why am I wasting my breath on you? I learned a long time ago that words do no good." Hearing the silence that had developed between brother and sister, Chrys turned her attention to Koa instead. It was an avenue of action where she figured her words would be far more productive. "I find myself agreeing with your sister: this is all a petty squabble among children. I know we all spoke of our reasons for staying together, but..." Chrys summoned Forgotten Flower in reverse grip as she prepared for the upcoming fight. "...I wouldn't hate you for backing out now, while you still have someone on the outside that cares for you."
Steel was slightly agitated at the rather disheveled state of his fur. The electric shock had caused it to frizz out quite a bit, and he was hardly pleased with the fact. Furiously smoothing it out, Steel let out a deep angry growl as he leaped over the giant hand that intended to further do the group harm. He then dashed straight for the left hand while gathering energy around himself. The barrier of light exploded into shards before he jumped back to a safer position. Unfortunately, it seemed that Ignis was the only other one who had managed to escape damage by oversized hand, though she had taken damage from the electricity same as him. "Are you three going to be all right?" OC: Steel Used Barrier Surge!
Since landing, they hadn't done much more than walking into town and fighting off a relatively small group of Heartless. Yet here they were, racing against the clock to accomplish their goal before the world fell into darkness. One had to wonder just how quickly things were progressing with Torrin's group if things had gotten this far already. Why one might even think that she and her friends had been battling those relatively weak enemies for over a week instead of a mere few minutes. But that was simply unthinkable; time didn't stretch in such ways. What was she even thinking? Ridiculous. "As long as he isn't an inky black shadow that goes about terrorizing innocent civilians, I'd say it doesn't matter whether or not Dentro has a heart."
Steel clenched his fist as well as his teeth as he stared up at the latest in the long and seemingly inexhaustible chain of enemies. "This is getting just a bit ridiculous." Now paired with the oldest of his allies as well as his fellow in sudden transmogrification. That was, of course, Ignis. Putting thoughts of his new teammate aside for the moment though, Steel rushed forward to deliver a combo to the target. OC: Steel Attacked With A Combo!
With a little more dashing and smashing, three more Neoshadows quickly bit the dust. Common as it was for Chrys to think to much, she found her thoughts wandering as she went about crushing her enemies. Not that she let them wander too far of course: that would be extremely hazardous to her health. She did find herself briefly thinking about Aria and Torrin though, and wondering just what they had been doing since last she met them. BP: 12/54 Enemies Defeated: 3 Neoshadows
Switching Fire Strike for Sliding Dash Commands: Ninja Vanish Barrier Surge Sliding Dash Vorpal Blitz Reluctancy Break Time April Showers
