Trying to continue to carry the groups quick pace, Steel used yet another MP Gift. This time on Luna.
View attachment 47352 III and V... had they been... absorbed, by Ria? Perhaps Aevum as well? It seemed that the creature that was before them was quite a bit more dangerous than they had anticipated. Sure, controlling heartless was nothing to sneeze at, but this was an entirely different level. He stood to the side silently as X argued with the other being. Part of him wanted to tell the other L.I.G.H.T member to try not to be too reckless since they had no idea what exactly Ria was fully capable of. However, he was also aware of the unfortunately low odds that the man, or possibly any of the others would bother to listen to him, since they all had seemed to ignore his attempt to spur the group onward earlier. In the end, he just continued to listen carefully: as long as they weren't dumb enough to actually try and hand over the journal, he would try to stick to observing. Even if Ria kept his word, the entity's plans most likely would bring darkness and demise to most, if not all, worlds. His letting them go in such a case would only delay a demise that would be all too inevitable at that point.
“...Thanks…?” Steel replied to his old friend rather hesitantly as she didn’t seem to notice his previous interaction with her at all. That seemed to happen a lot to him. He had the strangest feeling about it… Like, he used to know why, but now… there was some kind of wall? No… a rule? Whatever the case, Ananta had healed him, and he thanked her by returning to her the MP she had lost in the process with another MP gift. Since he was right next to her, doing so had taken no time at all. In accordance, Steel decided to use the saved time as best he could, and rushed in to attack the Volcanic Lord. Steel used MP Gift on Ananta! Steel Attacked the Volcanic Lord As Well as he Could Based on his Abilities! Which May or May Not Involve A Combo!
“Well, I mean…” Steel waltzed over to Ananta, ignoring both the large amount of damage he had just taken, and the fact that the conversation he was continuing had seemingly ended already. “...He could also just have been attempting to make some kind of small talk, as our group is so fond of doing during large bouts such as this.” Twirling Stroke of Midnight a bit, he lifted the tip of keyblade above his partner’s head. A few gentle white sparks leapt upwards from it and floated soundlessly to the ground around her, and he felt a small amount of energy leave his body. “Probably just remembered too late that only two of his five companions could hear him.” He shrugged. Steel Used MP Gift on Ananta!
It seemed that Ice was not going to work against the Volcanic Lord, as only a few painfully specific skill were truly of the water element. For now, he would have to be satisfied with having lowered its damage output. Cloaking his weapons in flames this time, he shifted his focus towards the Blizzard Lord. While it was true the rain had also decreased his own fire based offense, this still was likely to be the best option at the moment. Steel Used Fire Strike on the Blizzard Lord!
“Beuce is expressing his trust in our ability to end these enemies quickly, and specifically asked that I tell you this in the middle of the fight.” Steel shouted to Ananta as she and the Princess were increasing their defenses. “Presumably he means it as some form of encouragement to increase our morale. Though it’s not really low at this point in time, so…” He shrugged as he pointedly ignored the fact that the aforementioned person could still hear him very clearly. As the Volcanic Lord charged back towards him, Steel slid underneath it, effortlessly dodging the rotund creature’s attack, as well as putting him in position to retaliate. Backflipping, his keyblades now coated in Ice, he brought the first blade down to bash his opponent on the back of the head. Pushing against it, he leapt back into the air, only to quickly come down and strike with the other weapon. Finally, he launched himself back up once more and swung his blades together before jumping back to a safe distance from his reeling opponent. “That’ll probably get under it’s skin.” He smirked. Steel Used Vorpal Blitz on the Volcanic Lord!
Steel smirked at Frollo’s commentary. “Oh, someone here will most certainly be judged. That much is certain.” Steel’s teeth gleamed as he smirked. As the Blizzard Lord charged in to strike at him, he effortlessly dodged with a backflip, only to feel a sharp twinge of pain as Ananta was struck by the Fire Lord. “That’s… going to be annoying.” He muttered silently to himself. Shrugging it off, he raised one of his clawed hands to his face leaving only his eye exposed. “You irk me Frollo. I shall be honest as to why: I was far too much like you not all that long ago. To claim one’s own selfish actions are the will of God…” He felt his scarf elongating and wrapping around his upper face, leaving his muzzle and the same eye exposed. “Throughout history, these men have been by far the most evil.” A single droplet of water escaped the corner of his eyes. He smirked as the droplet rose into the sky. “Let’s see then, shall we? Whose Judgement wins out in the end? Yours…” He paused momentarily as heavy rain began to fall, doing it’s best to weaken the flames all around them. “...Or that of the God you claim to serve.” Steel used April Showers!
Chrys brought a hand to his face and sighed as the entire group fell apart at breakneck speeds. No one had even answered his question. It was because of Cer- X of course. He ripped the journal everyone had worked so hard for straight from their hands and refused to share its contents. The ensuing scene had given him a headache within seconds. Admittedly, he was curious as to what the man was on about, but X seemed not to sure about it himself. He wasn’t sure how to appeal to the idiotic pride in this situation, meaning he had no way of getting the Narcissistic brat to hand the journal back. He wasn’t really sure he had the patience or desire for it now anyway. Perhaps simply asking him would be the best thing; perhaps the man would surprise them. Though, it might be a bit late for that. Since the squabbling mass was essentially useless to him, he instead opted to walk around it, throwing back an informative shout. “Well, you can all argue here until you’re blue in the face then. I’m going to go try and meet up with the others and compare notes. When you’re ready to share your own personal revelation and the contents of that journal, you can come find us to.” He halted some ways from the group, His foot mid step as a thought suddenly occurred to him. “Or you know… If you’re not all too busy shouting to notice something terrible sneak up on you and… well… I suppose you’re all capable though, so...See ya.” With that, Chrys continued walking back the path they had come.
Equipping Oath Keeper Equipping Stroke of Midnight as my secondary weapon via Sync Blade. Abilities are: High Jump Combo Dodge Roll Guard Item Boost Combo Plus Battle Cry Limit: Hunter’s Mist Buying and Equipping Another Mega Ether. (750 munny) Also Purchasing both Fire Strike and Vorpal Blitz. (800) Skill Commands: Fire Strike Reluctancy Splatter Combo Vorpal Blitz April Showers Final Tally: 765 Munny remaining Str- 16(+11) Spd- 43(+3) Def- 19 Mag- 18(+8) Res- 19 AP 27/27
Steel casually munched on the popcorn offered to him by the shorter of the male stone gargoyles, as he watched his companions leap about slaying heartless. It seemed to him that the other two were perhaps just a bit too eager, as perhaps was Phoebus considering he had ultimately run after explosions and trusted them to lead to his goal. The latter was a thought for another time though, as both he and Quasimodo had run off to find Esmeralda some time ago. His companions on the other hand, had practically leveled the battlefield in their quest to comment on each others new clothes and how interesting the new looks and strengths were. "You know what I find interesting about all this?" He directed the question to the gargoyles of course, whose names he had learned were Victor, Hugo, and Laverne. "I walked back into their lives as a giant wolf-man, and they haven't said a word, but somehow their clothes are interesting?" He tapped a claw against his snout in emphasis. "I mean, I can see how I've been creepy for a while, and we've seen a lot of weird stuff, so I guess It's not super new and they may have even expected it to an extent. Still, if their wardrobe change is worth a conversation, I'd say me suddenly turning out to be one the 'walking, talking, animal type locals' that we wind up running into every so often is at least worth a comment." "Wow, attention hungry much?" Hugo answered his concerns with that little remark, and a smug smirk. Steel only shrugged. "I can't really deny that. Due to childhood trauma I won't bother you with, I rather despise being ignored. Everyone does of course, but... I take it to a new level at times." Now it was Hugo's turn to shrug. "Hey, at least you're honest pal." "Regardless, it does seem rather strange that your companions would turn a blind eye to a complete change of species like that. Despite anything they may have seen in the past." Victor observed. "I know, right? It at least deserves one of the less tactful members whispering all like 'Oh, that explains everything!' but not a word from anyone other than Ananta." A small explosion near the cathedral led Steel to finally take notice that his companions had destroyed nearly every last heartless in their desperation. "Right, I guess I should do something too." He waved dismissively walked forward towards the fight. "It's just food for thought some other time I guess." "As much thinking as you seem to do, I'd say you still have several meals for thought to get through still." Laverne commented. "You sure you don't want any more actual food before you go?" Hugo asked. "We've got caramel apples!" "No thanks, the popcorn alone already got all stuck in my teeth." Steel turned back to give the three a grateful smile. "Thanks for the offer though." He gave a small thumbs up as he walked away from the trio. Counting the remaining Red Nocturnes that floated about, he summoned his weapon to his side. Knowing that his favorite spell had grown in power with the reawakening of his keyblade, he held the magical sword in the air as he reached the center of the plaza. "Stopga!" His shout echoed around the area, and an orb of energy grew from it. While it wasn't quite enough to engulf the area, a fair amount of heartless had been enveloped by the magic. Steel couldn't help but smirk at all of the helpless targets that now floated motionlessly in mid-air. "Let's see..." He started to drum his claws in the air, the tips ever so slightly rubbing against each other ever so slightly. A small spark of purple jumped from one of the frictional movements. "...Eenie..." A snowflake drifted from the next impact. It was a good option elementally, but it was one of his weaker spells of current. "...Meenie..." A spark of fire. Heck no. Terrible idea. "...Mynee..." A spark of electricity. Seeing that to be the best course of action at the moment, Steel gathered up all the spare energy he had charged while speaking to the Gargoyles and cloaked his hand in the electrical resonance of a thundara spell. "Mo!" He barked out as he thrust his hand forward. Arcs of lightning shot from his palm and into the air. Instantly evaporating many of the stopped heartless. Weak as they were, it still vastly pleased him that he could take so many of them out with a single spell. His magic had definitely become more powerful. Word Count: 773 BP Spent: 30 EXP Writer II: 60 EXP Total: 60 EXP Enemies Remaining: Red Nocturnes: 20/100 (3 BP Each)
“Not really sure…” Chrys answered Marley as his own period of recollection was ending. Two children… a sanctuary of some sort? There was a bit too much information that was without context in that memory. There was certainly a little he could glean from it, but… the key word was ‘little’. Kara had been in it though. Maybe… it might be a bit of a long shot but maybe, she had remembered something about it too. Besides, if the others’ actions were any indication, they had all likely recalled something of a sort. Kara remembering something wasn’t a stretch. In fact, maybe the other members with him had remembered something relevant themselves. “On what appears to be similar lines, I don't suppose any of you remember something about… taking inventory?”
"Why don't we just use fire then, since seeker mine is so inefficient?" Steel asked whilst conjuring up a small orb of flame. After the explosion from the first seeker mine, Pheobus would surely notice a constant ball of fire moving on it's own in the same general area. Steel had been quiet for awhile now, and it would be fair to say he was going through something of an... adjustment phase. He was only really just starting to really think about and consider some of his newer long term goals and how best to achieve them. For now though, all he could do was try to help finish the mission. He had been so sidetracked he had barely noticed Stratos change of job.
'Nice Party' IX had said. Oh yes. A very nice party. After jarringly being outside of an indefinitely sized crypt of which there had been no specific rules about entering, the shock of being surrounded by heartless and struck had definitely taken something of a toll on him. Thankfully, the group was small, and with his preemptive strike, most of the enemies were already taken out. However, there were still two left. After recovering, the young man sent a quick one-two strike to his nearest opponent, a nearly downed opponent which had been distracted by the others. It vanished the same way all heartless did. After that, he used a stop spell on the last remaining one, and made another quick- though unfortunately weak- blow. Words: 125 BP Spent: 6 Heartless Remaining: 1 Gigas Shadow (4/10)
Standing by the entrance, Chrys dutifully kept watch on the others. He contemplated the whispers as the others all went about being themselves, whether that be curious and resourceful or… easily frightened. The mysterious flashlight was flipped on, and he found himself itching; just waiting for something to go terribly wrong. He didn’t have to wait all that much longer. Before too long, multiple shadows sprang forth from the ground. Some were small… and some were not so small. Gritting his teeth and tightening the grip on his keyblade, Chrys leapt towards the target with a shout. “Heartless!” His shout echoed throughout the crypt as his weapon ripped through the thick black smoke that seemed to make up the lesser creature, and it vanished with a shocked hiss.His shout should have been more than enough warning for his allies deeper in, so he decided to continue his preemptive strike on the heartless. Hoping to prevent them for traveling much further in, Chrys gathered the necessary magic at the end of his keyblade. Dodging a scratch or two, he cast a Zero Gravity towards the path. Several of the creatures began to float in the air… only for more to begin crawling that way.“Seriously?” He let an exasperated grunt as he ran in and began slashing. He was already extremely annoyed at these enemies, and the fight hadn’t really even begun yet. He hoped that he and the other members of light wouldn’t wind up dealing with this too often; he didn’t know what kind of life they had led before, but they already went through far too much mindless violence in less than twenty four hours… A bit too much running about too, since he was essentially trying to get as many hits he could on everything that moved. Getting in a preemptive strike was nice and all, but as many enemies as there were, it was also quite a hassle. Especially since he was pretty much doing all of it alone. Where the heck were they? Planting one last blow into the Mega Shadow and casting a stop spell on the lesser ones surrounding it, Chrys leapt off to find his team. “What are you all doing?! We are being attacked! You need to be more aware of your surroundings!” He rose a hand to prevent Cerdic from making his inevitable comment. “Except for X because he’s so amazing, and never does anything less than perfectly. He just chose to be nice and wait on the rest of you.” His extremely sarcastic comment was finished with an eye roll, knowing full well that the man would take it at face value as a compliment. Words: 446 BP Spent: 40 Heartless Defeated: 1 Shadow Damage Dealt: 1 Point to remaining Shadows 1 Point to all Gigas Shadows 21 Points to Mega Shadow
Oh gosh, I'm sorry; I've been so preoccupied with P5 the past few days and haven't been on. Thank you all very much!
Chrys resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and readied his weapon: the group was not only in dangerous territory, but decided it would be a great idea to split up even further. VIII and IX were walking alone into a crypt, and VI had just watched X ... He wasn't sure what X had just done. The man was completely ignorant to his blunder and just kept waving around the latest symbol of his inadequacy as a person. This man was... amazing. That was probably the word he would pick because knowing him, he'd just find some way to twist it into some kind of compliment, and at least that way he could say what he meant, and he would be heard, even if it was taken completely the wrong way. Looking between the direction of the two pairs, the exceedingly paranoid Chrys stood ready for something to blow up in all of their faces.
After the fighting had ended, the three of them once again split up from the girls in the RG. Ananta insisted that he should try to find either Phebus, or follow Frollo. Since it seemed illogical to split the group up even further, Steel followed Stratos’ lead, and went after Frollo. He did, however, pause momentarily when he got the oddest feeling from the general direction of the cathedral. It was as if he was missing out on something… neat. Shaking it off, he decided to attempt talking strategy with the other two. “So, now that the riddle is infinitely more clear, what do we intend to do?” He pondered aloud. “Following Frollo is all well and good of course, but do we have any plans beyond that?”
In the end, I had let him go down the dirt path. As they walked down the increasingly dark and murky path, the entirety of the group remained as silent as the graveyard upon which they had wandered. The only one who seemed willing to speak was X... who was frankly the last person who should be allowed to speak right about now. Alas there was naught he could do about that. As he followed the others through the gate, Chrys briefly wondered what kind of place this "Orphic Coast" was, and whether or not any of them had been here before. The strange whispers twisted the already dark atmosphere into that of a chilling and seemingly haunted locale. It was as if something could jump out at the small group at any moment. Ever paranoid, Chrys summoned Light Seeker back to his side, despite the lack of immediate need for it.
Steel was had not been very focused on the fight: He was attacking sure, but his strikes were weak. Their was simply too little force behind his blows. The crowds treatment of Quasimodo had certainly made him angry, but it had also made him sad. He couldn't help but wonder how things might have been different if it were him in the RG. Would they have dragged him into the festival? Discovered his monstrous appearance before the poor bell ringers? Could he have save Quasimodo from this? The answer would have to be no of course. Or at least, in a good 85% of timelines: time did so love it's little set pathways. Even if they had, he could very well have made things worse. Sure, Quasimodo was 'ugly' but he was still pretty darn human. Him though? They would probably think he was some kind of demon, and Frollo's influence wouldn't help. if Quasimodo had been discovered after him, well... the consequences could be disastrous. A moment of clarity burst through the haze of his mind, and he managed to just dodge an enemy attack. Now that he was back in the present, his rage came back to him. The self righteous cruelty of the masses fueling his own self-hatred, and only provoking him further. He may have faced his inner demons, but the truth of the matter was that such a confrontation was never ending, and while the consequences of his action had curbed his blood lust and taught him restraint, he had never doubted for a moment that the rage he had locked away for so long was still there; pulsing in his ever unearthly eyeball. The sprout of the Artisian Shard. The crowds inconsiderate torment of Quasimodo was infuriating. "Just stop..." he muttered. Briefly noting that Stratos had dealt with most of the horde all by himself. "Stop... just..." Stop. Stop... Staph. "Staphma!" He practically roared the strange word, causing multiple bolts of lightning to crash down and evaporate multiple foes. After that, he turned back to his thoughts, and was lost in them once more. 15/20
As his companions argued over which of the two roads to take, Chrys merely observed the two paths carefully. While the road to the left looked brighter, looks could be quite deceiving. While splitting up may not have been the best of decisions, it seemed at this point to be an inevitability. The least he could do in this situation was make sure he chose the path that he wanted to take. Like it or not, the dark path seemed to be calling to him. Something stirred within his memories just looking at it. Something about... duty. His mind conjured up an image of his keyblade: Light Seeker. Did that have something to do with it? Was it his duty to seek the light in the darkness? Or was he just twisting logic? Regardless, it seemed his choice was clear. "I can't say I agree with their logic, but... I want to go down the dirt path too." Turning to look at the leader, he gave an apologetic shrug. "Sometimes the right path is the hardest path to take. Still, I'll stick with what you decide." Chrys didn't really like placing his decision in her hands, but it couldn't be helped. He had already made the choice to follow her judgement, and that wasn't something he could change now. "I'm not sure if you can change their minds, but for me... I won't go that way if you don't want me to." Chrys waited silently as he waited for either permission... or orders. Staring at the ground, Chrys silently considered how much easier it would be to choose a path if they already kner where it would lead them. Had they known once? Surely they must have taken one of the paths to get here.
