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As Stratos talked about the heartless and them putting it six feet under, Ignis could only cock her head to the side, wrapping her head around the joke he tried to make. Failing that, she got annoyed as he seemed to put the whole joke nonsense on her and let loose some flames all over her body. As Stratos let loose his flames against the Darkside, she jumped forward the heartless and knocked it around with another combo of hers and then jumped back. As she did she walked over to Stratos and knocked him on the head with her fist. "Next time you try to place the blame for something on me that was your fault for continuing, you're going to wish you had Heartless instead of me to deal with."

Ignis activated Flame Aura and used Combo

Ignis stared right through Kaida as she kept going on about her puns and grumbling something else. she knocked up the darkside with her keyblade and jumped up, knocking it around in the face a little more and fell back down, dusting her jacket off. "I don't know what you're grumbling about. Puns are just the lowest form of humor, and I prefer not to hear them." Then she walked over to Aux and began poking him aggressively. "And I don't care if that was intentional or not, if you're going to side with me, do it properly, or keep that trap zipped so you keep yourself from looking like a buffoon."

Ignis used Combo

Ignis had been separated into her own group from the Darksides that had appeared, and apparently they weren't going anywhere till they were taken care of. Unfortunately for her, she had to listen to the bad puns of Kaida and Stratos when they attacked the Darksides. She simply clenched her fist and jumped at the Heartless, smacking it and walking away, letting the explosion take effect. "So are you two going to make bad puns every time you attack?" turning her head towards Kaida and Stratos.

Ignis used Fist Bump.

Don't you dare put that thought in our heads. We want our game dangit.

Also, I really can't see anyone else playing Hades. I'm already having a hard time imagining anyone else playing Xehanort other than Leonard Nimoy, but at least there's a very good reason for that one. I've grown up with these people voicing certain characters, so I need them to stick, please and thank you.

Ignis watched as a Shadow jumped at her, trying to get its own two cents in. She swatted it away effortlessly, wondering why these things couldn't just get it through their heads that they weren't going to get to them. At the very least the crowd had thinned by a fair margin, to the point that while they still covered a good chunk of the ground, at least Ignis could make out some semblance of sand beneath them. As she continued to bat away Heartless, she listened as Stratos and Aislinn talked about their own situations. When Aislinn began talking about her homeworld a little more, Ignis couldn't help but let out a little sarcastic laugh. She didn't mean to, but it had somewhat become a reflex for her when she started to hear people go on about their own problems.

She coughed a little, red in the face at the blatant rudeness that came out. "Sorry, didn't mean to laugh at your problems. I was just thinking that I'd honestly prefer to take Heartless in my own world versus the problems we currently have. Truthfully, I'd rather deal with a never ending army of these things if it meant that we had a way to fight back. The past four years I've been in a forest, fighting to keep whatever monsters came out from across the way, and I've noticed that lately I haven't made a single difference. Not only that, but it's likely that there are even more monsters than before. And while I wish the problem was as simple as just "monsters multiplying quickly", it's actually been a nut-job who thinks he's trying to "save the world by getting rid of its lies". On top of that, I've recently learned that he's actually been teamed up with a group of absurdly powerful people that, quite honestly, makes the fight between Shiro and that old guy over there look like a kiddie fight. Oh, and did I mention that these guys are apparently immortal? So yeah, there's that too. Apparently they've been spending years somehow learning to create an army of monsters and sending them out into the world, and worst yet, the things actually take orders. Having an army of monsters is one thing, but having one that can take human commands and follow orders like a proper military? There's something wrong with that. If I'm being honest with myself, I have no clue how I'm going to deal with it, and to a point, I don't really care; all I care about is taking the head of that guy and getting payback for what he did four years ago."

She took another slash at the heartless, noticing that her grip on her keyblade had tightened out of frustration. She sent out some flames to burn the heartless around them and noticed a couple Darkballs coming down and a Neoshadow jumping up at her at the same time. She leaped up and got on top of one of the Darkballs, dodging the Neoshadow's attack. While on top of the Darkball, she tossed her keyblade to the others that were floating about and then stabbed the one she was standing on. Of course, this also meant that she was falling down, but she had aimed herself right for the Neoshadow. Out of instinct or some other stupid reason, the Neoshadow jumped at Ignis to attack, and Ignis simply brought her keyblade down, letting gravity add to the effect, and cut the Heartless right down the middle. She landed on the bridge, causing it to rattle and shake a little. She figured it probably was a good idea not to fall from that height again and land with all her weight on a bridge that looked like it was about to fall apart.

Total Words: 634
EXP: 60
Total EXP: 1240

Heartless Defeated:
4 Darkballs
1 Neoshadow
42 Shadows

Heartless Injured:
Invisible (Scarmiglione): 25/50
Invisible (Cagnazzo): 25/50
Invisible (Barbariccia): 25/50

Enemies Remaining:
279 Shadows
153 Darkballs
128 Neoshadows (1 Reserved)
4 Invisibles (4 Reserved)

Ignis continued her own struggle against the Shadow hoard, having been joined up by both Aislinn and Stratos now. Aislinn had asked Ignis on why she had joined up with the group and Ignis never did give her an answer. She only listen to Stratos as he gave his explanation, if she could really call it that, and then Aislinn giving her backstory. Knocking away some more Shadows, Ignis began to wonder of why she took the job. It wasn't so much the question of "why did she take the job?" but "why take the job when there was other things to do elsewhere?". She didn't really have a good answer on that, and struck down some more Heartless, letting her mind wander. She began to think about the forest she had stayed in for the past four years, and the village that had taken care of her. She also thought about her friend that had stayed by her side even with all of the stupid stunts Ignis pulled at times, and about what her motivations were. Of course, the answer for that one was pretty easy, considering that everything she thought of recently was getting payback, but she tried to steer clear from that line of thinking, figuring now was probably not the best time to get lost in a train of angry thoughts.

Battering away a wandering Darkball that had decided to float around and join their little party, Ignis continued to bat away at her enemies. She wondered if she really wanted to answer the question on why she joined at all. It only made her wonder more about the priorities she had in her own world. Maybe it was simply on a whim that she had joined up with the group, or maybe she was still trying to better herself, but in the end, she had joined up and gotten lost in another realm completely. At the very least, once she had started on something, she wasn't going to let it go, so it wasn't like she was going to up and leave before finishing this fight to the end. A few more Darkballs decided to hover over, perhaps curious what was going on with three keyblade wielders fighting against a giant mass of Heartless, but Ignis didn't care. She tossed her keyblade at the things and knocked them down, lowering the count by a few more.

Continuing to bat away the Heartless, Ignis realized she started to join in on the conversation. "So, we've got one keyblade wielder who kind of just joined the group out of happenstance, basically, and the other who decided to join up because they wanted a place to belong? Well, there's all kinds I guess. Not that I'm one to talk. I've got a world that's basically at war with a single man, and nowhere to call home. Guess that kind of puts me in the middle of the road between you two, huh? Ah well, we ended up together anyways, and it's not like this group wouldn't be entertaining if we weren't a motley bunch, am I right? Not that I really cared about being a keyblade master in the first place. Honestly, before I had the keyblade, I was perfectly fine using a plain old sword. Truthfully, I might give up the keyblade and go back to the sword once this is over. This thing isn't going to do me much good in a world like mine. To me, being labeled as a 'master' just means I've gotten better, and it means I have more of a chance to finish my vendetta against a certain someone."

Total Words: 608
EXP: 60
Total EXP: 1180

Heartless Defeated:
4 Darkballs
47 Shadows

Heartless Injured:
Shadow 1/3
Invisible (Scarmiglione): 25/50
Invisible (Cagnazzo): 25/50
Invisible (Barbariccia): 25/50

Enemies Remaining:
450 Shadows
283 Darkballs
166 Neoshadows (1 Reserved)
4 Invisibles (4 Reserved)

Ignis continued her neverending fight against the ocean of Shadows when she noticed that one of the other keybladers was heading in her direction. From the looks of it, it was Aislinn. Ignis hadn't personally talked with Aislinn much, if at all, as far as her memory goes, but she did know her name from being around enough to hear it in relation to who was being talked about. As she eyeballed Aislinn plowing through the Shadows using a barrier, they were separated by a number of heartless between them. Ignis lit up her keyblade and shot some flames at the heartless, knocking a fair number down and roasting a few others. There was finally a clear path between the two and Ignis took the chance and ran for it, setting up back up to Aislinn and facing the other end of the bridge, where apparently the heartless were now forming. She hadn't noticed earlier, but they had apparently climbed up on the island out in the water and were getting on the bridge from that end.

Ignis clicked her tongue out of annoyance and turned her head back toward Aislinn. "I hope you realize you might have just gotten yourself stuck in a sea of heartless with me. Long as that's not a problem, I appreciate the help. Now you better get ready, because these things don't seem to feel like giving us a break."

She lit up her keyblade, then shot out a blast of flames, this time instead of sending it out as a large wave she sent it out as more of a cannon shot. The large flame ball flew toward the heartless, and any of the ones that didn't fall down just because they were pushed off by the number of them were incinerated without a trace. While it cleared up the way for a minute, they were still surrounded on all sides with plenty left to deal with.

Feeling like it was going to get pretty boring just taking out heartless, Ignis decided to try and strike up some kind of conversation. "So I guess you were fighting a darkside earlier with Aux huh? I only caught a slight glimpse since I was busy running away for my life from a previous hoard before this one. That's a horrible way to start a conversation, but I got nothing better to start it with. Hope you got a better way to keep the talk going or this is going to be one silent bout between us and Heartless."

She watched as the heartless began swarming the bridge again. Tossing her keyblade, taking out a number of the Shadows, Ignis was surprised that the bridge at this point hadn't collapsed under all the weight and destruction that was being caused on top of it. At the very least it was a sturdy bridge, beat up as it was. If it weren't for that, Ignis may very well have been swimming with the Heartless by this point and it was not have been a pleasant experience. She looked around to see if she couldn't catch a glimpse of how the others were doing, but it was hard not keeping her eyes in front of her at the moment, what with the army in front of her ready to take her out and all. She only managed to catch a glimpse of Kaida shooting from atop a tree, but past that, she was unable to see anything else. The heartless drew closer and Ignis ended up punching it, causing it to go back and blowing up, taking out more alongside it. The blast also ended up shaking the bridge a little, and Ignis had to keep her balance.

"Okay, no more blowing up heartless on top of the bridge. From now on I'm only doing that to the ones down below."

Total Words: 646
EXP: 60
Total EXP: 1140

Heartless Defeated:
59 Shadows

Heartless Injured:
Shadow 2/3

Enemies Remaining:
869 Shadows
297 Darkballs
312 Neoshadows (1 Reserved)
12 Invisibles (4 Reserved)

Aww don't say that, it only reminds me it's my last semester with Phil Snyder, not too mention I only have so much time left for my final project in 3D Animation

Continuing with her attempts at getting rid of the Shadow mob that was in the process of surrounding her, Ignis wondered if maybe there was a way to at least cut the hoard off so she didn't have to deal with all of it at once. Unfortunately for her, there wasn't much that she could see, and the heartless didn't feel like letting her get a good look either. As she punched another heartless, she noticed a Neoshadow jump up from the ocean of Shadows. Wondering where in the world that thing was hiding, she got her keyblade ready. Since those things had longer arms and were in general just a much larger nuisance that the Shadows, Ignis had to try and ignore what else was going on around her for the incoming one.

As the Neoshadow fell, it flung its claws wildly, making it hard for Ignis to attack back. She put up her keyblade, shielding herself but its wild swipes. As she tried to find a way to get in through its strikes, another Neoshadow managed to crawl its way behind her and attacked by spinning around. The moment Ignis got hit in the side, she had to use all of her willpower to keep herself from losing her balance and get ripped to shreds by the Heartless in front of her. She kept parrying the flailing of the Neoshadow in front of her, and while doing so, grabbed a hold of the one that was standing behind her. Grabbing it by the arm, she yanked it forward, sending it into the Neoshadow that was still going strong, letting it attack the second Neoshadow. At that point the two were lined up nice and neat, and Ignis threw up keyblade right through the both of them, taking them out and leaving her with the ocean of Shadows as well.

She looked around to see if there were any Shadows that were available for her to knock out, but much to her dismay, the heartless had learned they could get on top of the battered bridge as well and were lining up to go after Ignis from the front. She prepared herself to fight in the small space than realized that she could try using the width of the bridge to her advantage. She light up her keyblade and used a horizontal slash, sending flashed flying toward the lined up heartless. Some of them jumped out of the way, but Ignis was prepared and flung her keyblade, taking out the ones that were jumping. The heartless kept piling up on the bridge and Ignis continued with her flames, sending them flying off the bridge and clearing the way. The ones that were technically smart enough to jump out of the way of the flames were unlucky enough to be sniped by Ignis's keyblade, letting her handle the Shadows with relative ease. But she also knew she couldn't keep it up forever. If they Shadows managed to figure out that they could get up on the bridge and attack, eventually the ones on the ground were going to think about attacking at the same time while Ignis was preoccupied with the ones already on the bridge. She looked around to see if there was any way out of the situation and realized she was basically stranded where she was. The only way out was either going through the ocean of Shadows that was below her, and while they were technically small fry, she didn't think wading through a few hundred of them was a good idea. She tried to figure out some way out of her problem while dealing with the oncoming flood in front of her, realizing that she was probably going to have to do something drastic if she wasn't to get somewhere safe to deal with these guys.

Total Words: 641
EXP: 60
Total EXP: 1080

Heartless Defeated:
2 Neoshadows
49 Shadows

Heartless Injured:
Neoshadow 2/15

Enemies Remaining:
986 Shadows
297 Darkballs
312 Neoshadows (1 Reserved)
12 Invisibles (4 Reserved)

Still dealing with the large hoard of Shadows that wouldn't give her a minute of rest even if it were to kill them, Ignis sent another slash of fire across the way, burning some Shadows and knocking some back with it. At this point she was ready to just lie down and toss her keyblade in every direction like mad, just so she wouldn't have to keep running around, but of course the Heartless wouldn't have that. Every time she figured she had found a good tempo to keep up with the heartless, some few decide to grow a semblance of a brain and sneak up by running through the ground and getting up close and personal, making her have to jump back into the swarm of Heartless and making sure she wasn't overwhelmed by the sheer number of them. Seeing that it probably wasn't doing her any good fighting them where they were all holed up, Ignis looked around to see if she couldn't get some kind of advantage.

A little ways away she noticed a broken down bridge and wondered if she might be able to make use of that. She knocked some Shadows away and began to run as fast as she could, soon enough hearing the loud sounds of heartless running over each other. She wondered how many there actually were that she was dealing with, but it probably didn't matter, since eventually she or someone else was going to have to deal with them anyways. Turning around and throwing her keyblade at some Heartless that jumped at her, she tried to pick up the pace, trying to get the high ground as soon as possible. Some Darkballs appeared out of nowhere, apparently wanting to get in on the chase, and Ignis did not feel like having any part of that. She jumped up toward them and knocked them away full force, immediately vaporizing one of them and sending the other bouncing into the swarm of Shadows. Ignis turned her head to look at them and almost wished she didn't, since what she saw just lowered her spirits on the sheer number of heartless she was fighting against. As the Darkball bounced on the ground, knocking a few Shadows through the air, eventually it came to a stop on the ground, and then the Shadows began to pour over it, so many of them running over it that eventually the Darkball just got lost in the wave of Shadows, never coming back up again. Ignis was almost certain she even saw the smoke from the Darkball vanish into the air, but she couldn't tell with all the creatures after her.

Eventually she managed to get to the broken bridge she had eyes and got on top of it, turning around and looking at the mounds of Shadows. At this point it almost looked like an ocean of them, covering all the area around her. She needed to deal with a large number of them at once, and could only think of one way to do that. Well, technically she thought of two ways, but the last time she was forced to use her aura past her limits she almost fainted, so that only left one viable options. Some of the heartless began to jump at her, trying to get in any sort of attack, and Ignis took the opportunity to punch each of them back, watching as they fell into the never ending swarm of shadows and eventually blowing up, taking the surrounding Shadows with them. What made it simple was that some Shadows were blown right toward Ignis so she was able to just keep knocking them back into the mass of Heartless, watching them blow up and then getting more heartless to strike back.

At this point though, she figured she wasn't going to get anywhere on her own and just yelled into the air out of frustration. "If anyone's free, I could really use a hand here! Unless you'd rather I became heartless chow!?"

Total Words: 672
EXP: 60
Total EXP: 1020

Heartless Defeated:
2 Darkballs
53 Shadows

Enemies Remaining:
1093 Shadows
297 Darkballs
325 Neoshadows (1 Reserved)
12 Invisibles (4 Reserved)

Continuing with her bad luck of being chased by heartless nonstop, Ignis was running for her life, away from the hoard of Neoshadows that were gunning for her. She really didn't understand why these things chased after her so much. Sure, they were fighting against and all, but they could at least do her the favor of going after someone else in a giant hoard and not her. She spotted Hikaru and ran up to him, thinking of no better solution to deal with her predicament.

"Hey, Hikaru! Sorry, but I'm gonna leave you to babysit these guys!" She ran past him, hoping the heartless would be dumb enough to actually stop chasing her.

Luckily, the Neoshadows actually were dumb enough to stop chasing her, since the moment they spotted Hikaru, they froze and kept fidgeting around, as if they were debating going after Hikaru or Ignis. Taking this chance, Ignis jumped over a couple broken barrels and down a little ledge, getting out of sight from the Neoshadows. She looked over, making sure they hadn't noticed her, then breathed a sigh of relief. As she figured out what to do next, she felt a little tickling on her back. She swatted it away, keeping her eyes on the group of Neoshadows. The tickling kept coming back, and the frustration was starting to get to Ignis.

"Okay, whoever's doing that needs to stop!" She turned around and noticed that she had gone out of the frying pan and into the oven.

In front of her was a giant mound of Shadows, all of them covering the ground to the point that Ignis couldn't see anything but black bodies and beady yellow eyes. The Heartless swarmed around, a little like bugs, and Ignis noticed one more that was right in her face, staring with a blank expression. Though considering they didn't really have a face besides the whole eyes, they always seemed to have a blank expression to her. She quickly grabbed her keyblade and jumped up, getting the one off of her and alerting all the others that were swarming around. She quickly let lose some flames, and scorched the earth beneath her, quickly dispersing a handful of Shadows. The rest of the seemed ready to finally do something, as a group of them jump at her and the others began to swarm about the ground with even more energy. She threw her keyblade at the ones coming at her, and aimed for the head of one that was passing beneath her, landing on top of it and squishing it beneath her boots. The rest on the ground began to converge on Ignis, all wanting to get their little two cents. Ignis quickly let lose another flame and burned some more, creating a little opening for her to get out of the hoard and not be surrounded. She took the chance and got out, having a giant hoard of Shadows now chasing her instead of a hoard of Neoshadows. She really didn't think one was better than the other, but at least these guys were smaller. She turned back around to face them and tossed her keyblade multiple times, taking out more Heartless as they closed in. As she kept throwing her keyblade, a few ran across the ground , all nice and flat and unable for her to hit them. They popped out right under her, and threw her off balance. Ignis fell backwards and placed her hand to the ground, catching herself and throwing her weight to kick the heartless back. She left one around and threw a punch knocking it back and blowing it up, taking a fair number of Shadows with them. By this point there was definitely less heartless, but there was also definitely a lot more to deal with.

Total Words: 636
EXP: 60
Total EXP: 960


Heartless Defeated:
59 Shadows

Heartless Remaining:
1146 Shadows
300 Darkballs
330 Neoshadows (1 Reserved)
13 Invisibles (4 Reserved)
1 Darkside

Heartless Injured:
Darkside 2: 578/1500

Ignis knocked back a few heartless that were going after her when out of nowhere she began to hear a large amount of shouting, and then a strange aura began to glow around Ignis. She didn't know what was going on, but it seemed like a good thing at least. All of the keybladers around seemed to have the same aura surrounded them, so she figured they were getting help from someone. With that, she began to keep attacking the Heartless, knocking them away and cutting the amount down little by little. She looked around, just to get a view of the scenery, though she wasn't sure why she bothered. Everywhere she looked there were heartless swarming, and the giant Darksides were blocking the sky view as well. She noticed Aux and Aislinn taking on one of the Darksides while Stratos and Beuce were chipping away at the other. She wondered about maybe helping them out, but the Heartless around her seemed to have different plans.

She readied her keyblade, as Neoshadows began to surround her. Turning around, she noticed a bigger heartless flying above the rest. This one was seemed humanoid except for the big winds and the obvious whole in its stomach. Past that, it also had a giant sword that looked like it would be a really big pain. The Neoshadows stood at the ready, waiting to plunge. She figured they were just biding their time for when she was busy fighting the big guy, but apparently the Invisible was the one directing the Neoshadows. It thrust its sword forward, direction the Heartless to attack, and Ignis prepared herself for the mountain of Neoshadows that jumped at her all at once. She ducked to the side, getting out of the way as a bunch of them landed where she had been standing, and threw her keyblade, knocking a few of the Heartless to the side while others jumped out of the way. Getting her keyblade back, she charge at some of the shadows as they were getting their footing from their escape and knock them senseless, getting rid of a couple more. She figured the big guy wasn't going to do anything until the Neoshadows were all gone, and if that was the case, this was going to be a lot easier. On the other hand, if it decided to charge at her while she was busy dealing with attacks from all sides by the Neoshadows, she was going to be in a little bit of a bind. Taking an attack by another Neoshadow, she kicked it away as she was pushed back, then swung her keyblade vertically, sending a flame its way and singing the enemy.

As the amount of Heartless began to dwindle, the Invisible decide to attack on its own. Ignis was busy dealing with Neoshadows in front of her and in back, and only noticed the Heartless as it got above her, sword at the ready. She quickly jumped back, guard at the ready, as the heartless swung down, barely missing its target. As the strike hit the sand, a wall of it blocked the view between the Heartless and Ignis, and Ignis took the chance to strike back. She threw up keyblade at the Invisible, and as it flew, she ran to the side, getting behind the heartless. The Invisible blocked the keyblade with ease, like Ignis figured, but she took the chance to recall her keyblade and strike at the Heartless from behind. She lit up her keyblade and slashed at the Invisible, setting it aflame and ready to watch it dissipate. To her disliking, however, the heartless didn't feel like going away so quickly and began to spin around, sending out balls of dark energy. Ignis began to weave through the attack and got up close to the enemy again, and knocked it around with her keyblade, this time finally getting rid of it. She fell to the ground, with Neoshadows surrounding her still ready to attack.

Total Words: 667
EXP: 60
Total EXP: 900

Heartless Defeated:
8 Neoshadows
1 Invisible

Heartless Remaining:
1448 Shadows
329 Darkballs
347 Neoshadows (1 Reserved)
15 Invisibles (4 Reserved)
1 Darkside

Heartless Injured:
Darkside 2: 991/1500

Stratos was busy dealing with the heartless around them and Hikaru had asked if they were angry at Aux for sending them into the Realm of Darkness in the first place. At that moment, Ignis grabbed Hikaru's shoulders and moved him a little to the side, and then used her keyblade to stab a Neoshadow that has jumped at them. Another came following, and Ignis let lose a flame burst to grill the Heartless to smoldering vapor. She turned back to Hikaru and didn't even think about the question regarding Aux.

"Nah, I don't hate him. I've spent most of my life in life and death scenarios, fighting for the people and all that. But being a mercenary means you'll end up fighting against some people one day and the next you may end up being their allies, sometimes even friends. Though to be fair, in my past I didn't like working with anyone, so usually when I was forced to be paired up in a group I just went off on my own. Kinda led to a lot of people losing their lives, but I digress." She scratched her head, thinking about exactly how to word her feelings toward the subject. "I guess the best I can say is I don't hold grudges toward people when I'm on a job, so to speak. I've basically viewed this whole thing as a job of sorts, and it just meant that we were going to face off against people, some of which might be stronger than us. All that happened was that we had a fight and lost. Be thankful that we had at least lived through it, there's plenty of people who would no doubt have wished they had that opportunity. It might have been personal for you, Kaida, and Aux, but for me I just saw it as something I had to deal with to finish my task, and I lost. But since Aux ended up joining us, I don't have to worry about facing him again, at least for the time being. I don't hold grudges against people because they're doing what they believe is right. Well, not most of the time. There is someone who I'll give my life to kill, but that's my own personal problem. Either way, I have the viewpoint of "If they're your enemy, you fight them with to the best of your abilities, and if they're your allies, give them the best you can offer."

She turned around and burned a couple more Shadows that were leaping toward her and watched the smoke dissipate. It ended up making her think about about all the times she had taken jobs and fought against some people, and then ended up becoming allies with them later on. There were plenty that hadn't lived as long as she, and some that had been through plenty more battles in comparison, but all of them had picked their sides and needed to stick with it. She sighed and turned back toward Hikaru, remember something else about that mindset she had.

"Of course, there's also the fact that viewing things that way means that you have a hard time fully trusting people at first. It really depends on the person's own personal code, but sometimes those who side with you may end up turning against you later on. I've had some people I've known who fought against me and then sided with me, only to turn their swords on me yet again, all because of their personal beliefs at that point in time. I don't hate them for it, but it made it hard to trust people when that was the life I lived. Let me tell you this, if you can find a friend that will stick by you no matter what happens, no matter what you do, they'll be irreplaceable. I think you and Kaida are a little bit like that, and even Aux, at least as far as the little bit I've seen so far. Though I will say, like most people, I don't like losing, so I'm still going to fight him again at some point and get that win back. Just, maybe not in a whole "life and death" situation, you know?"

Total Words: 708
EXP: 60
Total EXP: 840

Heartless Defeated:
2 Neoshadows
16 Shadows

Heartless Injured:
Darkside 1: 521/1500
Darkside 2: 1400/1500
Invisible: 22/50

Enemies Remaining:
1563 Shadows
373 Darkballs
397 Neoshadows (3 Reserved)
20 Invisibles
2 Darksides

Ignis stayed on the ground, woozy from whatever we was feeling. As she was on the ground, Stratos came over and took out a couple of heartless that were coming up on her, and then helped her up with a Cure spell. Ignis looked over and saw Hikaru standing along the way, and waved to him. She managed to get up after a minute and dusted off her clothes. She was getting more sand on her clothes and in her hair than she would have ever preferred; after this she was going to find a lake, river, or some kind of water source and jump right in to get all of it off. Looking around, a lot of the heartless she blasted were still laying on the ground, knocked out from her little fireworks show. She was just glad that there wasn't another wave after her, because she wasn't sure she'd be willing to use her flames as much again knowing how helpless it left her.

Looking to Stratos she gave a thumbs up sign. "Well, better late than never. Could have used you before I became a pancake under a giant mass of heartless though. Thanks for the pick-me-up, apparently lighting the whole area on fire in a giant blaze of glory does not sit well with me. I'm guess I'll have to be careful not too push it any further with this aura stuff. Maybe I should stick with the simple 'sending flame waves and cooking the heartless to a crisp"."

She looked around to see what was next. Turing around she noticed a giant heartless towering above them. Blinking her eyes, trying to make sure she wasn't seeing anything, she then noticed that there wasn't just one, but two giant heartless. Taking a moment to take in the scene, she turned around and looked back at Stratos and then to Hikaru.

"So....there's a giant heartless right behind me...right? I'm not just imagining it? Because I don't remember that being there a minute ago. Either that or I was too busy running for my life that I completely failed to miss the obvious. Well, I'm just going to go this direction away from the large Heartless that most likely will be a pain in the butt to kill, and focus completely on the ones that are taking a nap around here for now."

She went over to a couple of the heartless that were lying down and brought her keyblade out, lighting it on fire and shooting it through them. She figured that if she could send out flames in a giant area like before and like she's been doing with those attacks of hers, she should be able to direct the flames into a smaller, more condensed area and shoot them out at once. She walked over to the next heartless, a little Shadow that was twitching on the ground and was about to get rid of it when it simply dissipated on its own. Ignis seemed a little shocked, figuring that maybe the heartless was trying to hold on after getting knocked around, but she never figured the small ones as the type to linger if they were basically done for. Grabbing her keyblade, she walked over to Hikaru.

"So, how are we handling ourselves? Have any enjoyable moments with these little guys that you'd rather forget about? Oh yeah, you know if Aux is handling himself any better?" She wasn't really sure what to say, but figured that if there was someone else around, she might as well try to start a conversation or something; it seemed like a better idea than just spending the whole time running around crazy and knocking out Heartless.

Total words: 622
EXP: 60
Total EXP: 780

Heartless Defeated:
13 Shadows
1 Darkball
2 Neoshadows

Heartless Injured:
Darkside 1,113/1,500
Invisible: 22/50 BP

Heartless Left
1677 Shadows
408 Neoshadows
381 Darkballs
23 Invisibles
2 Darksides

Ignis had been busy hiding in a small little corner away from the heartless, taking a break from the fighting. She almost wanted to run up and smack Hikaru for his big mouth, though she also figured there was a good chance they were going to have to deal with more heartless after the last bit either way. Stratos seemed to be going as strong as usual, taking out a bunch of heartless, and she also noticed that Kaida had come over for a visit too. Ignis wondered if maybe there was a way they could just blow all these heartless up along with that guy fighting Kuma and be done with it. She got up from her hiding spot and got ready to face the next batch of heartless when a giant shadow cross over her. She turned around and her body just froze from the sheer number of heartless that were waiting above her. The hoard was filled with Darkballs, Neoshadows, and Shadows, and they were all gunning for her like a child to a chocolate cake. At that point Ignis wasn't thinking of fighting but running for her life. She kicked her legs into high gear and ran as fast as she could, running from the wave.

Running up toward Stratos, she waved her arm frantically to get his attention. "Hey, Stratos, get your butt over here and help me out with these guys!"

As she ran, she noticed the wave catching up on her, and she wasn't sure there was a way to get away. She get her keyblade ready and prepared to fight them, only to have her realize it was a terrible idea. The heartless piled on top of her, the sheer weight of the creatures squashing each and every one of the. Ignis was pinned to the ground with shadows all around her, unable to figure out what was where. She tried to move her keyblade, but felt a weight on top of it. Apparently there was a Neoshadow being dog-piled by a few shadows. At this point Ignis was finding it a little difficult to breath with all the bodies around her and couldn't think of any way to get out of this scenario but one.

"Stratos, if you're close by, you better take cover!" She forced her arm free from the neoshadow and threw a punch as hard as she could to every heartless that was close by to her.

As the seconds slowly passed by, Ignis quickly lit her keyblade up and blew flames all around her. Hopefully the heat was enough to get rid of some of the heartless, but she was finding it hard to get anything out with what little concentration she was able to muster. With a last ditch effort, she blew out as much flames as she could, as if letting all the air out of her lungs at once, and at the same time, the heartless she had punch started to glow. She blew the heartless away with a mass of heat, and the heartless began blowing up like fireworks, knocking each other this way and that, scattering them across the area. She didn't notice if she had actually taken out any heartless, but she was more interested in catching her breathe with some fresh air. Trying to stand up straight, she felt a little dizzy and off balance, falling to the ground. She figured letting all those flames out at once was probably not a good idea, and way past her current limit with her aura abilities. She waved to Stratos, signaling him to give her a hand.

Total Words: 605
EXP: 60
Total EXP: 720

Heartless Defeated:
13 Shadows
1 Darkball
2 Neoshadows

Heartless Injured:
Darkside 1,191/1,500

Enemies Remaining:
1727 Shadows
413 Neoshadows
382 Darkballs
24 Invisibles
2 Darksides

Ever hear of animal cruelty?

Taking another look around, Ignis finally started to notice they were low on heartless for the time being. She had a feeling it wasn't that easy, but for the moment, all they had to think about was the few heartless still roaming about. Although what she couldn't quite understand was why Kaida was having a Shadow help her out. At one point she wanted to ask what was going on over there, then she figured it'd just confuse her even more, so she let it go and worried about the rest of the heartless. She noticed some darkballs that were floating around blissfully, seemingly not caring about what was going on. Maybe it was because they were hiding out above everyone, floating and thinking they could get attacked from where they were. Ignis suddenly had the urge to prove them wrong.

Going over to a tree that was near, she jumped up on top of it and then took another leap, heading straight for the floating darkballs. They noticed her incoming and tried to float away. Ignis took a swing at the closest one, and managed to nick it with her keyblade. While it wasn't anything major, the darkball didn't seem to appreciate being hit at all, and tried to slam Ignis into the ground. She flipped herself around in midair,, dodging the attack and letting the darkball get lower to the ground. Then she tossed her keyblade at it and took it out. It seemed like this was another group of heartless that seemed to like each other, because as the heartless puffed away, the others seemed irritated and tried to go after Ignis. Landing on the ground, Ignis prepared to take out a couple more of them.

The first two darkballs came flying at her, teeth nice and sharp. The tried to take a big chomp out of her, but Ignis brought her foot up, kicking one right on what she expected to be the chin area, and the slammed her keyblade into the ground and threw herself around it, kicking the other darkball in the side of the head. They both flopped away, leaving the other darkballs alone. They dived in, teeth flashing just as sharply and ready to try and make a meal out of Ignis. She lit up her keyblade and shoved it into the mouth of the first one, and filled up the balloon with a load of fire. For a second she thought the darkball enjoyed it, seeing as it clamped down on the fire and what seemed like chewing. But then the heartless began to wail about and popped, leaving little traces of fire falling and fading. The next darkball tried to do that little crazy bounce thing that they all did, and flailed around. Ignis put up her keyblade and blocked the attack, sending the heartless back. Then she slammed it with her fist, letting it blow up in the middle of a group of other darkballs. She certainly enjoyed watching them blow up like that, either expecting nothing to happen or just watching the explosion up close and personal. It certainly brought a new meaning to "seeing a bright light at the end". The darkballs she had kicked back earlier were coming at her again, and Ignis figured they were pretty much done at this point. She tossed her keyblade at them, taking them out and watching as the smoke vanished. By this point there were only a few heartless left, and she wondered what the others would do to get rid of them. She decided to sit down on the ground, taking what little break she had. She didn't care if it would only last for five second, she wanted to rest her feet and lay down.

"So, how many more heartless do you think we have to deal now?" directing her question toward the other two near her.

Total Words: 652
EXP: 60
Total EXP: 660

Heartless Defeated:
7 Darkballs

Heartless Remaining:
1 Shadow
1 Neoshadow
1 Darkball

Ignis watched as Stratos continued to fight against the darkballs. She personally found it hard to understand what it would be like fighting with raw strength and no magic as opposed to magic as a helping hand, but she could try to watch and give tips at the very least. As she observed, Stratos became surrounded by darkballs and relied on his Zantetsuken to get out of it. She began to wonder the best way on how to provide him tips on fighting with just strength. Walking up to him, she took a closer look at him, checking out his arms, legs, and so on.

"Hmm," she began to think about his form and other things, "it looks like you're fit enough, but I wonder if maybe you're using muscles you're not used to. Like you said, you've been used to fighting with magic and such, so I wonder if maybe your body has relaxed a little using it. Since I've always had to fight with pure physical strength, they always got worked out without the use of any skills. Try fighting without using any skills and see how it feels. Kind of like this."

She looked around and found a group of Darkballs hanging out on the far edge of the island, wavering around the water. At least, she thinks it might be water. Given its purplish color, she wasn't entirely sure about it. Either way, she went over to them whistled, getting their attention. Apparently they were the dumb ones of the heartless they were fighting, because they were just bouncing around having fun and not noticing anything. In fact, she wasn't sure if they even heard the whistle just now. She was getting kind of annoyed about being ignored by some stupid heartless, and threw her keyblade to one, missing as it bounced out of the way and knocked down a random Shadow instead. At that point she was wondering if it wasn't just messing with her.

She cupped her hands over her mouth and yelled over "Hey, balloon head! Get over here and take your beating like the Heartless you are!"

That seemed the get the Darkball's attention, as it turned around and bounced angrily at the comment. The other darkballs joined in and started to charge forward. Ignis took the initiative and jumped over to them midway, and knocked one out immediately, causing it to disappear. At this point she had jumped into a circle of darkballs and figured it would be a good chance to knocked them all around. The group of them began to bounced around wildly and Ignis put up her guard, blocked the attacks and sending them in other directions, having them bounce into each other. As they did so, she hacked and slashed at them, giving them all some damage and slowly dwindling their numbers. One bounced toward her haphazardly and she brought up her guard, knocking the darkball backward, and brought her keyblade down on it, slamming it hard enough to throw it back into another unsuspecting Shadow and causing them both to disappear. At that point there was only a single balloon left and it wasn't happy. It turned into a smoke cloud and tried to move around randomly, but at this point all she had to do was wait for it to reappear. She kept her keyblade at the ready, and as soon as the heartless popped back out, she rushed forward, swinging her keyblade horizontally, taking care of the final heartless.

"Try to do a fight like that and see how you do. Sometimes the best exercise is to limit yourself. You'll get use to it soon enough. Even the best fit body has something it's not used to, but I'm not much of a teacher, it's just how I trained myself."

Total words: 640
EXP: 60
Total EXP: 600

Heartless Defeated:
9 Darkballs
2 Shadow

Heartless Remaining:
12 Shadows (1 Reserved)
16 Neoshadows
30 Darkballs

As the fight continued on, Ignis finally began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And that light was the dread of knowing they weren't even close to being done after this. It was a little bitter sweet, but as the island seemed to be dwindling of heartless, she knew there were more that were bound to show up, so it was almost a given that they were't done yet. And as if there were some kind of bell to announce the next bout between keyblader and heartless, some darkballs came charging at Ignis out of nowhere. Seriously, she didn't even see these things a second ago, blinks, and there they were, charging at her face first. Though considering that their whole body was basically their face, that wasn't saying much. At the very least, when she felt like punching something in the face, like she had been doing for a majority of this fight, she could always look to a darkball.

Taking the initiative this time, she tossed her keyblade toward the darkball in front. This time she didn't toss it to use her strike raid skill, but just through it straight forward, like a javelin. The keyblade pierced right through the darkball, dispersing it. Though she might have tossed with a little too much force, as the keyblade kept going and went straight into one of the walls. The darkballs seemed confused by the tactic, and Ignis just wondered when this comedy act going on with her was going to come to an end. She never seemed to have this issue back home, so why was it everything went wrong when she was fighting here? She tried to get rid of her distracting thoughts and recalled her keyblade. At the very least, while the darkballs where confused about what just happened, she had the opportunity to strike a few of them down. She came up to the closest two and knock the away into a tree, causing them to disappear. At least a coconut didn't fall on another heartless's head this time and caused a riot against her. She wasn't going to count that out from happening again, but at the very least it wasn't this point in time.

The Darkballs seemed to regain their senses after this little mishap from earlier, and seemed to want a bite out of Ignis. She wasn't really surprised by them doing so at this point, given how much they liked to chomp at anything in front of them. She brought out flames from her keyblade and roasted a few more darkballs, giving them a nice little heat storm. They vanished in the flames, leaving only a handful left. As per usual, things could be that easy. The darkballs flew at Ignis top speed, and out of nowhere, some Shadows popped out from behind the balloons. She wasn't sure where they were hiding exactly, since they weren't there a minute ago, but that wasn't the issue. She had to put up her keyblade to stop the bite of the darkballs, which left her defenseless against the Shadows. While they were small, she'd rather not be hit by anything so puny and deal with the consequences later. Given no other alternative, she released flames from her keyblade full force, giving it no general direction. She let the flames run wild, burning everything in a fiery pillar around her. She didn't know if it was because they were her flames or she just had control over fire, but luckily the pillar didn't harm her; or at the very least, it didn't feel like it harmed her. The heartless vanished, and she was left with smoke wafting around her.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot," she turned to Stratos to respond to his recent reply about the auras, "Using that isn't too difficult. It's basically just a hack and slash, so if you got that down, just work your skills around it. I've had to fight my whole life without the use of magic, so I'm used to it."

Total words: 676
EXP: 60
Total EXP: 540

Heartless Defeated:
9 Darkballs
2 Shadows

Heartless Remaining:
17 Shadows (leave one alive)
21 Neoshadows
47 Darkballs

Now that the heartless wave was finally down a fair amount, Ignis figured she could get a moment's reprieve from all this fighting. She let herself fall to the ground and gave a little moan. She realized that there were still heartless all around her, but she was off in her own little world, getting away from all the fighting they had been doing. She almost didn't care if they decided to attack her right now, she just wanted to think about something other than the impossible amount of heartless in front of her. She thought about being back at home, and in the woods where she stayed. Then she thought about all those days where she could just lay in the grass next to the lake and sleep like nothing was wrong. Of course, that moment didn't last long, as she opened her eyes and there was a Shadow, staring her right in the face. For what seemed like a couple seconds, nothing happened, the two of them just staring at each other. After that, Ignis began feeling angry bring brought back to reality and punched the heartless right in the face, immediately vanquishing it. Just a little bit of denial, was that so much to ask? Apparently for these guys, it was, as there were more Shadows around her, this time a whole platoon of them. She moaned a little, wanted to get a little more rest, but figured it was back to reality.

She got up just as a shadow figured it was time to attack, leaping at her claws flailing. The good part about the Shadows over the Neoshadows was how short they were, since she could simply take them out with her keyblade before their tiny little arms got close to her. She thrust her keyblade out, knocking the heartless back into a pile of others. Then she chucked her keyblade at the pile, taking them all out. The others didn't appreciate that, however, as they began to fidget around randomly and jumping like bugs. She was getting irritated by all the jumping and hopping lately, and figured it was time to stop them. She lit her keyblade up like a candle and struck in into the ground, sending a giant fire wave outward from her, hitting all the Shadows flailing about. Some vanished instantly, others laid on their backs, arms and feet twitching, though she wasn't sure if that was from her attack of just their usual twitch. Then she realized that wave was big enough to get to Stratos and Beuce and slowly turned around. They both were slightly singed, with a little flame flickering off the tips of their hair. She cringed at her own carelessness.

"Oops, sorry guys. Wasn't really thinking about that just now. I'll try and remember to not do it again with other people around."

She turned back toward the last of the shadows that were still on the ground, some of which were getting back up after the attacks. Ignis figured at this point it wouldn't do to just excessively use flames, and decided to get up close and personal with them before they went back to their little habits of disappearing and reappearing. She hacked and slashed at the Shadow, taking them out as some tried to fight back after regaining their senses, what little they had at least, and others simply waved around in a daze. She tossed her keyblade at a couple, and did a few kicks at some more, trying not to wear herself out. Luckily they were all basically gone at that point, since they disappeared after a little strike here and there. It was too bad her aura strength wasn't enough that she could just put the whole island to flames and get the heartless in one. She would probably need more practice before achieving something of that level.

Total words: 648
EXP: 60
Total EXP: 480

Heartless Defeated:
26 Shadows

Heartless Remaining:
50 Shadows
26 Neoshadows
80 Darkballs