The more challenging Aislinn was becoming, the more help Aux wanted to be. Ever since he arrived, he always felt like a hindrance, but upon arrival and being more honest with everyone, he had slowly realized the idea that he could maybe be a part of this group. Aux wasn't much for the competitive spirit, but the least he could do was do what the woman said and 'keep up.' He watched it's arm as it's fingers were about the size of Aux's legs. A monster that size definately had a large health bar to it. The very thought of the amount of work it would take to destroy the darkside caused him to let out a sigh. Looking up at the darkside, he thought the best place to attack it would be to start with the legs. He figured that like with any strong opponent, the legs were probably one of it's weaker points and doing enough damage to them might actually cause the heartless to collapse. A tactic like that would be enough to give an ample opportunity to allow an opening to attack it's arms or even it's torso. With enough leverage and range they might even be able to go for the head. With this in mind, Aux's attention narrowed back to the legs, taking his keyblade and running in for a nice powerful charge. One foot after the other, he dashed at the opportunity to do some quick damage to the foe from below the belt. The legs were thin, but he could feel the solid amount of impact that his blade had upon hitting the leg. He sneered as he tried his hand at dealing a few more slashes before quickly backing up a few feet. He looked back up to see if the monster would reply with any sort of counter measure, but it was as if it barely felt his attack. The monster was very absent minded and slow moving. He would dare say it moved slower than himself. Watching carefully at Asilinn's attempt, he saw that the darkside at least had a few counters up it's sleaves. Enough to deal with crowd control and even shove up any opponents that were smaller then it. Basically anyone that was human sized. She too had began to slash at the legs, trying to do her best to weaken the heartless. Both of them together could do a formidable amount of damage, but that wouldn't mean anything if they weren't doing the damage in the right place. The heartless had just taken a direct Zantetsuken and it barely managed to take as much damage as when he did his combo. Choosing to try a different tactic he looked to Aislinn and then back at the heartless. He quickly ran a few more meters away at the heartless before looking up at it. The expression on the face of the heartless was still as blank and unmoving as ever. He couldn't even see a mouth under all that scarved darkness. Looking back down to Aislinn, he thought of a tactic that might work. "Hey!" he cried out to get her attention. "Try going for it's eyes!" He folded his fingers together and placed them near his belt, both palms open. His hands were formed in a position to help prop her up into the air to see if she could do some higher damage. That, or at least help knock it down closer to their level. "I'll give you a boost!" he cried out. He stood, waiting to see what Aislinn would think of the idea. Word Count: 601 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 960 Heartless Defeated: None Heartless Injured: Darkside 1,197/1,500 Heartless Remaining: Heartless Remaining: Defeat 1979 Shadows Defeat 447 Neoshadows Defeat 449 Darkballs Defeat 30 Invisibles Defeat 2 Darksides
Wave I Battle Report S-Rank - 15.7% - Stratos S-Rank - 14.8% - Aislinn S-Rank - 13.9% - AJ S-Rank - 13.0% - Hikaru/Aux S-Rank - 10.2% - Kel S-Rank - 10.2% - Ignis S-Rank - 09.3% - Kaida A-Rank - 07.4% - Beuce D-Rank - 02.8% - Luna D-Rank - 01.9% - Steel D-Rank - 00.9% - Ananta With The Colonel's wave defeated, the dust settled, all heartless in sight having been defeated. Shiro was still left fighting his former commanding officer. Uniform was parrying Shiro's powerful assaults with his metalic arm, Shiro grinning at keeping him occupied. "Looks like your first wave wasn't enough Hughes..." He said, grunting as he pushed his keyblade more forcefully. Hughes struggled as he pushed his arm forward. "Well let's see how they cope with the second then shall we?..." Looking around, Hikaru found that the only ones left on the field were himself and the eleven other wielders he traveled with. He looked ahead to the two older men as they were talking to each other in the midst of combat. Feeling confident in himself for once, Hikaru yelled to the older man. "Hah! Is that all you got?!" The second Hikaru finished his question, the heartless that appeared on the field were virtually double the number that appeared last time. In front of them was a horde of two thousand shadows accompanied by 450 darkballs, 450 Neoshadows, 30 Invisibles, and two whole darksides. His neck slowly sinking down, Hikaru was prepared to eat his words. "Oh..." MISSION START! WAVE II Defeat 2000 Shadows Defeat 450 Neoshadows Defeat 450 Darkballs Defeat 30 Invisibles Defeat 2 Darksides From across the field, Aux's neck quickly turned to Hikaru as he yelled loudly and in annoyed and frightened tone. "DAMMIT HIKARU!" "Oh come on, how is that my fault?!" He yelled back. "You thought something good happened. When has anything ever went well for this group?!" With a new wave of heartless being summoned to the field, the closer Aux was to losing his patience. Exactly how many waves did this mystery man have in him? With the new threat on the hoizon, Aux recalled where he last was in his conversation with Aislinn. The more Aislinn had explained as to what Aux should watch out for, the stranger he found the entire concept to be. She was telling him to keep an eye out for small children, owls, tigers, and bunnies. Characters that would otherwise be found in a simple children's book about joy and friendship. The way she went on about it made it seem like they were demonic creatures whose sole purpose was to do destroy her self esteem when it came to some sort of athletic event. Aux didn't have may sports on his home world, but the woman seemed enthusiastic about them for her age so he did his best to just go along with it. His lips went flat as he nodded along to everything she said trying not to be as rude as possible. But the way Aislinn was approaching the battle seemed to have peaked his interest. Instead of just crashing them about and cleaning through the heartless like some sort of janitorial job, they could instead treat it more like a game. Granted, the numbers on the opposing side were still a threat, but Aux had weighed and measured the current value of the heartless they faced as being little to moderate threats. If they had to remove them from the field anyways, they may as well have some fun when it came to removing them from sight. From the corner of his eyes, he could see darkballs begin to ascend from overhead while on the lower side of things, Neoshadows and Shadows were creeping up from the ground. As Aux thought about where to start first, his eyes flew to another side of the island, where two giant darksides were towering over them. An eyebrow raised from the arch of his brow as he looked at the massive beast. He tapped his keyblade over his shoulder as he turned to Aislinn. "Hey... I think I found us some bigger game if you're up for it." His head turned back to look into the bright, glowing yellow eyes of the giant heartless he planned to fight. "I'm gonna destroy that thing," he claimed, running into action. running past a whole bunch of minor heartless, he ignored them as he made a mad dash for the Darkside on the left side of the island. As he ran to gain momentum, he jumped up and performed three heavy slashes at the beast's torso, causing the darkside to look down to see what was damaging it. From across the field, Hikaru sloely backed away from the sight of the giant heartless. The giant menace cause Hikaru to quickly rethink his confidence. "Yeah, I'm gonna stay far away from that thing," He said turning to run the other way. As he did, he tripped over a tiny rock and tumbled onto the face of a darkball. The darkball slowly rose as Hikaru chuckled nervously. "Hehe.. Hi..." The darkball began flailing and screaming in Hikaru's face as it began dashing through the field to another part of the island. "AAAAAAAHHHH!" Hikaru screamed as he held on for dear life. The heartless eventually stopped near Luna and Kel as Hikaru flew the giant darkball straight into the ground like a giant comet. Getting up and shaking his head to realign himself, he turned to the two. "Hey guys,"he said shaking his head. Words: 671 EXP gained: 60 EXP Total: 60 Heartless defeated: Left Darkside: 1,431 BP Remaining 1 Darkball Heartless Remaining: Defeat 2000 Shadows Defeat 450 Neoshadows Defeat 449 Darkballs Defeat 30 Invisibles Defeat 2 Darksides
A momentary sign of overconfidence and optimism caused Tango to make a fatal mistake. As he wished to brandish his swords in the heat of battle, he didn't account for Luther's natural speed and mischievous tactics, caught him off guard. Tango's eyes grew wide open as his last attack barely made a scratch and was simply parried away. As Tango's head turned, he found Luther had already circled behind him and made a quick strike, causing a loud negative sound to be echoed. The sound blared as if it was a sports event goal that was made against Tango. His expression intensified as he threw his hands and blades to his side. "What was that?!" He asked angrily. "Where was the flare? The back and forth?! How are we to have a combat for the ages if you simply wish to be done and over with it?" Fire emblazened his keyblades as his raged increased. "If you want to be finished the battle so quickly, then so be it!" Several keyblades dispersed into the air as they formed a snake like pattern and began circling around Tango before bursting into flame. "Prepare yourself... For the Dragon's Fury!" He swirved his keyblades as if controlling the sentient ones and directed it towards Luther. The flaming keyblade's grew larger in fire until the flames made the shape of a giant burning dragon, with the keyblades acting as the bones. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As Kiara approached the laboratory, a large explosion had blast from within the building. The explosion threw back any of the nearby oncoming people and even managed to destroy some Nequabot remains. Kiara received most of the blast being the closest, but seeing as it was a fire-styled bombardment, it thankfully wasn't too fatal. The explosion had a large enough range that it caused a massive pushback to many in the area. The range even managed to push over Mizu's pod, causing her to spill out from it and shock herself awake. The blue haired girl coughed heavily as she slowly got up off the ground. Small smudges of black were seen on her face from the blast as she looked to the burning building in front of them. "What... what happened?" she asked in disorientation.
Aux watched as a small group of Neoshadows rose from the ground in front of him. They tilted their heads, looking at the sky aimlessly as they rose like black ink from the ground to the leveled plain. They looked to Aux with intense glowing eyes as their hand lay limp and their legs swayed towards him. Their bent antennae dangled far behind them, reaching almost to their lower back as they swayed their head back and forth. One of the Neoshadows jumped high into the air, prompting Aux to tilt his head up as he watched the Neoshadow jump. The heartless looked down immediately and made a mad gliding dash towards the man. Aux remained in place as he watched the heartless approach him at an alarming speed. One thing Aux was good with however was reflexes. His cardio was on par with Hikaru's, but his reflex was more like that of Kaida's. As the Neoshadow prepared to scratch away at his face, Aux quickly grabbed the Neoshadow by it's head causing it to flail. Aux glared at the creature as he jumped into the air, the heartless' head still in his palm, covering it's eyes. As Aux jumped back down, he swung down his hand, slamming his palm and the heartless' head with it. Headless, the Neoshadow began to stagger a bit, walking around like a chicken without it's head. Taking his keyblade, Aux made a wuick slash at it's torso, causing the rest of his body to evaporate into black smoke. Without it's head, the torso and by extension, the rest of it's bod was severely weaker and practically a one hit. Throwing his keyblade over his shoulder, he looked to the other Neoshadows who watched in horror as the last Neoshadow was brutally disposed of before their eyes. "Next." Aux asked standing with confidence. The Neoshadows looked to each other and back to Aux, twitching violently before they ran along the ground towards him. The two Neoshadows ran quickly, one of them attacking from the sky, and the other from the ground. Taking quick not of his current situation, Aux ducked down and swept his leg under the bottom heartless to trip it off balance. While he did this, he pointed his keyblade straight into the sky with a powerful stabbing motion. The heartless attacking from the sky was subsequently stabbed in the torso as it evaporated instantly. He looked back to the heartless he tripped prior and swung down his keyblade in a warhammer-like motion. The powerful momentum and impact caused the heartless to fade before his eyes. Two more Neoshadows snuck to his sides as they rose from their shadow sneak state to surprise Aux with a sneak attack. He let go of his keyblade, droping it to the ground. This next maneuver he needed both hands for. With both his hands he grabbed the back of each Neoshadow's head. With full force, he pushed the Neoshadows' heads to rush into each other as if they were headbutting. The powerful force and impact caused them both to be dazed as they staggered back with tiny stars floating about their head. Aux re-summoned his keyblade as he slashed away at both their leveled necks. Like before, they both were decappitated of their heads and began to twitch as their bodies slowly faded from the battlefield. He looked to the right, watching a small shadow heartless watching. The heartless slowly backed up, but Aux was relentless in letting it survive. He tossed keyblade quickly in a spiralling motion, finishing off the heartless with a quick strike raid attack. He looked back to Aislinn for some sort of sports term to give her. "Uhh... foul I guess." Total Words: 620 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 840 Heartless Defeated: 5 Neoshadow 1 shadow Heartless Remaining: 121 Shadows 74 Neoshadows 127 Darkballs
Aux rolled back his shoulders as Aislinn pitched the heartless towards him as if it was a baseball. Lowering the keyblade he had in one hand, he caught the shadow heartless with his free hand, it's head being held in his large hand. He glared as he squeezed on the heartless' head, feeling it twitch and squirm in his hands. The heartless eventually couldn't take the pressure that Aux was inflicting on it and vanished into dark smoke, Aux's fist fully closed as it vanished. He looked at his hand as if expecting to find something there. "Oops. Fouled out." A somewhat sick sense of humor, Aux shrugged before turning his back to see what was approaching them." He held his keyblade to his side as he watched more darkballs begin to surround them. "I wouldn't take it personally. And if it's any consolation, I guess you could say I kinda hate everyone. I'm just not much of a people person I guess." He watched as the darkballs rammed their way through the sky to begin their attack. He lifted his keyblade and cast a quick fire spell at the darkball, watching it twinge as it continued to burn. Aux jumped into the air and began a slow, but powerful assault with his keyblade against the oncoming darkballs. The heartless were dispersed without even so much as a second thought, as he landed with a great impact on the ground. Unknown to him, there was a small shadow heartless he crushed while on the way down. Aux looked back and shrugged at her question regarding if there were too many heartless to fight. "Would seem that way if they weren't so weak." Aux caught sight of another darkball charging straight for him. Unflinching, he held up his keyblade to guard the attack and held his ground as the darkball flew straight into his keyblade. Chewing at the hilt as if it were a rabbid dog. Aux carefully took his blade and whacked it on the ground, getting the heartless to eventually burst into smoke from he sheer impact of his blade hitting the ground. "Just be grateful that they're easy to kill..." He held his guard up for anymore oncoming threats. "And as far as sanity goes, I'm doing just great. A bunch of scurrying monsters hungry for taking my heart of course. But other than that, I'm just dapper." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over with Kaida, Hikaru couldn't help but have a small smile escape his mouth as he watched her leap into action. "Safety first!" he yelled casting an Aero spell around his friend. His keyblade pointed in her general vicinity as a sphere of cutting air surrounded her while she did her thing. Hikaru turned his back to her as he tilted his head up to the sight of two darkballs. The large headed heartless rattled their metal chains as they smiled their sinister grins heading towards him. "Oh that's not good," he said, slowly stepping back from discomfort. One of the darkballs charge right in as Hikaru quickly guarded, parrying away the heartless' efforts. His eye immediately caught sight of the other darkball as he jumped off the edge of the dock and performed an aerial combo on the heartless. With that one vanished, he landed back onto the dock in time for the parried heartless to come back and try it's attack again. He held his keyblade with both hands and performed a swift uppercut, knocking the enemy into the air. He jumped up to perform another aerial combo on the foe as he hacked and slashed away at it before returning to the ground. Total Words: 606 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 780 Heartless Defeated 8 Darkballs 2 shadows Heartless Left: 201 Shadows 90 Neoshadows 141 Darkballs
As Hikaru held his keyblade aloft, he tried to recall what the remnant was. "I'm not exactly sure what it is. From what I can remember, it's like a small orb of darkness. Whatever it was, it made Aux act irrationally. After he took that he began to distance himself from us more and more. It's like all he cared about was getting stronger with darkness. And what's worse, it was Nequa that gave it to him. I haven't ran into her much, but from what I've, she's not to be taken lightly." He slashed a quick shadow that was trying to climb aboard the dock. "And that's what Megumi said, remember? Once we get to the threshold, everyone's entree fees will be returned to them. Aux's fee was his remnant. His memories are just something Sho took from him. I don't know why they came back to him now of all times..." He looked back at the edge of the dock and saw a couple more of the shadows begin to scurry aboard. While trying to explain, he quickly dealt an uppercut with his keyblade and jumped into the air. He performed a quick, but powerful aerial combo before landing back down to his feet. The heartless were removed from sight as he looked back to Kaida. "And as far as our friendship goes..." He stopped, trying to think of something to say that wouldn't sound too self hating or out of character. This was one of the few times, Hikaru ever had to discuss something emotionally heavy. "I just felt that if I wasn't real then... neither was the bonds I made with people." He thought back to what Tron said back in Space Paranoids. His time in the digital world gave him time to reflect on the fact that he was a replica. Up until that point, he didn't take the time to really stop and think about his current predicament. Of all the worlds he had visited in the Mark of Mastery Exam, the Space Paranoids is probably where he did the most self growth in. The bit about how despite him being a copy, the thing that made him unique was the bonds he forged with others. Before speaking further, he saw a small gaggle of shadow heartless try to reach the edge of the dock from the beach terrain. "Blizzaga!" he cried, firing a quick spell of ice at the group of them. The powerful ice spell froze and immediately eliminated the threats, showing just how strong and well ranged the ice spell was. Tiny shard of ice faded into the ground as they mystically melted out of sight. "Our friendship means the world to me, and I just hate that lately it's felt that I haven't shown that. I left Central Haven to search for Aux without telling you, and I spent the entirety of Pridelands trying to make sure he was okay. I never once stopped to check in how you were doing." He performed a quick ground combo to another small quartet of oncoming shadows. He lunged into the group and began his routinely sweeping of his keyblade to remove and eradicate them off the deck that he and Kaida were defending. The ones he didn't defeat were sinking their way along the ground. He watched as a few began to shadow sneak under his feet, holding his keyblade and preparing them to rise of from the ground. It was almost as if he was fishing with his bare hands and he was just waiting for them to pop our of the ground. As he watched them return to their three dimensional form, he took his keyblade and swung it down overhead, making quick work of the remaining heartless shadows. Once the area was secure, he looked back to Kaida and approached her. "I promise once this is over, I will never lie or keep secrets from you again." Total Words: 658 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 720 Heartless Defeated 26 Heartless Left: 230 Shadows 97 Neoshadows 149 Darkballs
Aux staggered a bit as he shook his head. The sensation he was going through was intense, seeing as how he felt as if numerous flashes of his life were being broadcasted into his head Everything from his first steps, to his birthdays, to his family, to his entire life on his home world. Everything was being returned to him slowly and without mercy. He had to breathe in deeply through his nose and out his mouth just to stop himself from screaming. He was going through numerous emotions at a time. Anger, sadness, frustration, joy, fear... As the cascade of memories slowed down, he slowly removed his hands from his head, now being able to hear everything that was going on around him. The background noise blasting in his head was subsiding and making room for the sights and sounds of everything around him. He blinked his deep blue eyes twice as he watched the swarms of heartless race across the battlefield. He knew where he was, but it was as if he was watching everything with fresh new eyes. For the first time in a long time, Aux had remembered everything. He turned his head to the dock and saw Hikaru and Kaida working alongside eachother to defeat some shadowheartless that were climbing up onto the dock from the beach. Looking elsewhere, he charged onto the battlefield without so much as summoning his keyblade. He thought about back when he told Hikaru that once they had a minute, they needed to talk.' True as that was, Aux had a method on helping himself keep focus off of the dramatic, and that was by putting all his focus and energy onto something else. This battle came at an opportune moment, as Aux was now able to take out any frustration on the matter onto the invading heartless. By continuing his run, he gained enough momentum to jump off a shadow heartless, luckily dispelling it in the process. He jumped close to a darkball and held it's chain's slowly pulling it down. He swayed his legs back and forth as he was preparing to gain more momentum. The darkball wasn't fond of this and began to thrash back and forth to try and shake the man off. He climbed up the chain quickly without ease, and jumped onto it's head, he grabbed one of the darkball's antennae and pulled on it, falling off. Aux's choice of action caused the darkball to lose stability, and be dragged down as Aux held onto the darkball as he dragged it down. Falling fast, he landed flat on his feet and with an impressive amount of force; slammed the darkball into the ground. The impact of Aux's force caused the darkball to vanish. Aux cracked his knuckles and took a deep breath as he closed his eyes. As he opened them, he turned to the person closest to him, which in this case was Aislinn. As much as he didn't get along with her, she was still doing her part in the battle. He held his gloved hand in front of him and summoned a keyblade, gripping it quickly. As he was about to approach her, several darkballs appeared behind him preparing to make their attack. As one of them got close enough to him, Aux spun around and wrapped one of the darkball's chain's around his keyblade. Then, as if the darkball was a morning star, he swung around the heartless and began to hit the other floating heartless. He grunted as he slammed the last one into the ground, watching as it vanished. He looked up and cracked his neck before speaking to her. "Give me something to hit." Total Words: 617 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 660 Heartless Defeated 8 darkballs 1 shadow Heartless Left: 258 Shadows 97 Neoshadows 157 Darkballs
Hikaru looked back as more shadows were beginning to overwhelm the two. "Sure, raincheck." Hikaru turned back towards anymore oncoming shadow heartless. He kept his stance and slashed at a few of the oncoming shadows. "And y'know that's fine with me, because it is clearly a lot to take in." He saw a few of the shadow heartless sneak into the ground as he was trying to talk to Kaida and fight at the same time. He kept his guard up and moved his keyblade vertically back and forth to prepare for any more oncoming attacks. "It's just y'know I wanna make sure that well, you're okay after all that." Kaida was most likely not listening to any of this, but whenever Hikaru got nervous, he began to speak more than regularly. When too many thoughts were racing through his mind, it was more often than not that he would beginning babbling and ensue in what Aux coined to be 'word vomit.' Spotting the upcoming shadows, he quickly stepped back as they rose from their shadow sneak state an looked up to him. One after the other they leapt into the air before Hikaru held his keyblade in a horizontal position to parry. Like a smack to the face, each of the shadow heartless were knocked back onto the ground. Doing his little routine clean up, Hikaru attacked the ground as if he were sweeping with a weapon to help get rid of any remaining or straggling shadow heartless. He turned to Kaida. "Because if you wanna talk about any... I dunno feeling you need to vent on the subject, just know that as you're friend I'm right here if you need to-" At least a dozen shadow heartless jumped on his back from behind, causing him to fall to the ground in an embarrassing and unprofessional way. The shadow heartless squirmed and twitched as they scratched his back and head.Covering his head with one of his arms, he slowly pushed up on the heartless that were swarming him from the back. He swatted his keyblade as he slowly tried to rise to his feet, eliminating any heartless that were in the way of his keyblade. When Hikaru's brain was scattered, he would lose focus. And when he lost focus, he would begin to make bad decisions as was just displayed by the embarrassing overtaking that had just occurred. Covering his head still from the shadows that were continue to pile on, Hikaru was becoming frustrated. "Oh you know what, that does it!" He pointed his keyblade to the sky as far as he coul, stabbing and eliminating a shadow heartless as it did. "Faith!" he cried out. His keyblade glowed brightly as an immense and powerful pillar of light shined down next to him, blasting off a small portion of shadows. Another burst fell down between him and the coconut tree, knocking back some of the shadow heartless over the dock. A third pillar rained down with a powerful beam that was close enough to Hikaru to do some serious damage. The third pillar knocked a good two thirds of the clinging heartless off of Hikaru, as he fully rose to his feet. The fourth and final pillar burst down closer to the beach, managing to push off and even eliminate some of the heartless that were climbing the dock. Reaching behind his neck and throwing off a a shadow heartless into the air, he quickly made a slash at it, before kicking off the shadow wrapped around his leg. Again, he made easy work of that one too. Sighing, Hikaru repeating. "Right... raincheck." Total Words: 605 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 600 Heartless Defeated 26 shadows Heartless remaining 319 Shadows 103 Neoshadows 178 Darkballs
The shadows crept along the ground as more continued to swarm the part of the dock that Hikaru and Kaida remained on. One after the other, the shadows jumped up and down, preparing to claw their way through Hikaru's defenses. For what felt like a good twenty seconds, Hikaru kept his keyblade and guard position and continued parrying their attacks. Every time a shadow jumped to attack, their dark claws hit the side of his keyblade, bouncing them back in a flail-like motion. Hikaru placed one foot behind him as the shadows continued to parry, making sure he stood his ground so that the repetitive attacking wouldn't overtake him and knock he himself back. Waiting for a prime opportunity, he seized his moment as the shadows stopped jumping. With swift vertical slashes, Hikaru went to work and began mowing down the shadows with his keyblade. Slicing through them as if they were blades of grass, he persistently continued his motion without letting up. As far as he was concerned, he could continue the battle like this when it came to the smaller heartless. Then again, doing the same tactic over and over would get repetitive and boring real quick. Plus, even if he continued with that tactic, there's always the possibility that they could sneak under him and catch him by surprise. Though they didn't do much damage to him, they could still pose a threat if enough of them teamed up on him. Not to mention, their more powerful counterparts; the neoshadows, proved that they were stronger and had longer range. Hikaru slashed at the shadows until he could see no more and stopped for a moment. Before the next wave came, he looked over the dock again at Aux. His friend was at this point slowly getting to his feet, holding his aching head. He knew Aux had questions, and deserved answers, and Hikaru knew he couldn't spend every minute thinking about what to say... But he still thought about it. While he was in thought, a small shadow caught him by surprise and attacked his shin. He winced slightly in pain and looked back at the shadow who was as mindless as ever. He took his keyblade and pushed the shadow heartless off before slashing it with a quick combo. It was moments like those that were beginning to bother him. The enemy's numbers were beginning to grow to such a rate, that he could barely have moment to think to himself before the enemy began their next assault. Watching as a few more were on the horizon, he took his keyblade and pointed forward. Bracing his legs, he performed a quick Aqua Splash spell and began to cascade the shadows with bursts of pressured water. He continued to walk forward slowly as he rained the water over them, watching the sheer pressure from the water do it's job to damage them. While it did indeed knock back most of them, the shadows that got closer to him were immediately eliminated. It felt weird defeating enemies like this. As if he was holding a reverse flamethrower and destroying them with something as simple as water. Regardless, he continued his spell before the water that emerged from the keyblade eventually subsided. Most of the heartless were either pushed off or dealt with. It felt like he had just cleared the rain gutter of leaves. Defeating the smaller heartless were more and more beginning to feel to him like a chore. He sighed as we watched down below. More were already on the horizon and began climbing up the walls like his efforts didn't matter much. Total Words: 607 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 540 Heartless Defeated 26 shadows Defeat 421 Shadows Defeat 119 Neoshadows Defeat 172 Darkballs
More shadow heartless began to form in front of Hikaru as a small group began to rush their way onto the dock. Holding up his keyblade firmly, he slashed away at the targets. One after the other, he slashed through them as he did with all the ones that attacked before. The shadows were starting to creep up along the edge of the dock. Climbing with their tiny fragile bodies as if they were preparing to storm a castle. Hikaru kept looking back and forth from the heartless on the edge, and the ones attacking him from the front. "Oh come on!" he yelled. He slashed through two heartless at once, knocking them back before he charged in and dispersed them with his keyblade. He quickly raced to the edge and peered his head over to see what the observation report would entail. He shouldn't have been in such a rush to look over the edge, as three shadow heartless jumped onto him and caught him off guard. He held his keyblade in front of his face, but they had already jumped and and were trying to claw at him through his keyblade. Hikaru distanced himself from his blade as the shadow heartless continued to claw and gaze at him with their bright eyes. Hikaru took the keyblade with the heartless on them and whacked it against the wall to try and get rid of them with the sheer impact from hitting it against the wall. After a couple of hits to the wall, the heartless eventually released themselves from gripping the keyblade and began to scatter. Not looking where he was stepping, he actually managed to step on one of the weaker ones and eliminated it. Chasing after the ones that were scattering, he quickly jumped into action and slashed the keyblade overhead to slam down onto one ofthe escaping heartless. The shadow had already gone into it's shadow sneak mode and began to scurry around much to his dismay. Hikaru grunted as he looked around for more present enemies. He managed to find a few stragglers trying to jump off the edge, but took out his keyblade and pointed it straight at them. He fired a powerful Blizzaga spell, freezing half of them in place and eliminating the other half. The ones he had frozen he rushed in after so they would not defrost before he got there. He whipped his keyblade back and thwacked the ice chunks to the wall, shattering them and eliminating the shadows he caught in the ice spell. More hsard of crystal ice rained over him and scattered on the ground as he looked around for any more stragglers. He sighed in relief for a moment as the dock had been cleared for the moment. He looked over the dock to see how the others were doing. With the exceptions of Steel, Ananta and Aux, everyone seemed to be battling on and holding their own to boot. As he looked onward, Bambi came into view and began to happily prance about him as if the small deer didn't have a care in the world. Small bubble of mana began to fall around Hikaru as he absorbed them and began feeling the bubbles' replenishing properties. Thankfully for him because all the Blizzaga spells he was casting were beginning to decrease his MP rapidly. "Thanks Bambi," he said, petting the back of the deer's ear. The deer liked this, as he continued to hop away, supplying more MP bubbles for the rest of the party. As Hikaru watched on, he stood by Kaida and braced himself for another onslaught. Total Words: 604 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 480 Heartless Defeated 26 shadows Defeat 453 Shadows Defeat 123 Neoshadows Defeat 172 Darkballs
With most of the darkballs kept far at bay, Hikaru looked behind him as more shadows had formed in his short absence. At least couple dozen from the looks of things. Keeping his keyblade straight and vertical, Hikaru began to slash away at the shadows. He ran forward and just slashed at the small little heartless buggers without overthinking for once. When it came to the weakest form of heartless, dealing quick physical damage seemed to be the best method in defeating them. But one thing this species of heartless had on them is that they always traveled in larger numbers. As he watched more and more shadows head toward him, he could feel himself becoming a little concerned and possibly overwhelmed. He continued slashing away at them, defeating several heartless at a time, but the shadows continued to increase in numbers, eventually swarming him as they hopped onto his back. He felt the heartless squirming and twitching on his back, getting more and more uncomfortable from the sensation. He jumped into the air, preparing to fall on his back. He made sure to keep his elbows in and knees elevated so he would create as large an impact as needed to get rid of the shadow heartless. He managed to create a large slam that crushed the heartless on his back, dispersing it. Not only that, but he managed to create enough of a shockwave, that it caused the heartless that were overwhelming him to scatter and give him a better distance to reprise from the overwhelming force. Though they were small and weak, the amount of sheer numbers on their side alone was a scary thought. He began to swing his keyblade in bursts of 180 degrees slashes. He wanted to cover a wider range so they wouldn't be able to overtake him like that again. He watched from the corners of his eyes to make sure all the shadows were within his line of sight. He kept his eyes and stance vigilant so he would keep himself composed. He breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth, watching them carefully. Several of them went into the ground for their signature shadow sneak attack, allowing Hikaru to quick slash away at several of the shadows that had yet to go underground. This allowed him to divide his efforts and help keep his enemies to attack in smaller bursts. He watched around his feet to see the rest of the shadows crawl under him as if he was standing on an interactive painting. The masses of dark moving around before they resurfaced in their primary forms. Grinding his blade along the ground, he slashed upwards to knock back a few shadows before slashing away at the ones that were closest to him. He managed to knock back several, while eliminating others. He reset his stance and prepared himself for the return of the shadow heartless that he had just recently knocked back. The shadows twitched and jumped overhead preparing to slash. Preparing for their attack, Hikaru slashed at the air, dispersing more heartless and knocking back the others. He looked around him to ensure more heartless hadn't snuck up on him while he was taking care of the shadows. Getting the all clear from himself, he turned back to the shadows and slashed at the knocked back ones he had left on the ground, turning them into nothing more than puffs of smoke. He nodded as he readied his stance once more, watching as one of the straggling shadows began to run away. "Oh no you don't!" He quickly ran a few meters before jumping into the air and slamming his keyblade into the ground. The impact took care of the shadow heartless with so much as a second inspection. Word Count: 633 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 420 Heartless Defeated: 26 Shadows Remaining: Defeat 539 Shadows Defeat 127 Neoshadows Defeat 172 Darkballs
Several dark orbs began to form around Hikaru in the air, their bright yellow eyes glowing intensely in the dark setting. The chains hanging off their bodies as the circular bodies made their way towards him, their jaws opened wide as if their teeth were cutting through the air. Making a mad dash towards him, the darkballs began chomping and gnawing away as they approached Hikaru. Thinking quickly, he quickly held up his keyblade to parry, in time for him to deter a few of the darkballs. One managed to make it's way through and did a quick gnawing bit of damage, causing Hikaru to be pushed back to the wall. As he was, he could feel the dock around him begin to creak. All the damage the realm of darkness had done seemed to make the place a little unstable to stand on. It seemed sturdy enough that it shouldn't cause any worry, but it still took him by surprise. Hikaru pushed himself off the wall and jumped off the dock's edge, making good opportunity in taking out the darkball as it was caught off guard. Once he was in the air, he quickly dashed towards the darkball and began to hack and slash away at it. With all this aerial combat, a thought crossed his mind to summon Dumbo or maybe Baymax. Bambi was still on the field however, so he would have to make do with some simple hit and run methods for the time being. He didn't want to use his magic to often either, so he would have to use it sparingly. As he dispersed darkball, he remained in the air and quickly jumped on top of one of the other darkballs' head. It felt like he was balancing on a bouncy rubber ball. An odd sensation considering he was still trying to keep himself balanced. He used his arms to retain his balance as he watched the other darkballs hover around him. The darkball he was standing on did not seem amused as it was quickly twitching and glitching all over the place to get him off. He fell flat on the darkball's head to hang on until the darkball would stop. Once it did, he quickly rose to his feet and used the top of the darkballs to hop from heartless to heartless before attacking a stray darkball, dispersing it. It was definitely a strange technique to use his enemies to stay float by jumping on their heads, but it seemed to be a useful tactic. He used his keyblade to jump in the air. Slow motion style, he swung his keyblade like a baseball bat and hit one of the darkballs into the others. He cast quick blizzaga spell to cover a large area, watching them freeze inn the air. The ones that weren't immediately eliminated began slowly falling. Before they fell too far, Hikaru jumped from darkball to darkball to catch them before they all fell. In quick succession he slashed each darkball, cutting and swiping through the air to get all of them. He managed to dispersed all the frozen darkballs his hit, watching as the leftover ice shards fell to the ground like crystal rain. Landing back on the dock, he looked onward, as more darkballs began to form. He held up his blade, sighing. They floated around as if waiting for him to act, but he wanted to keep his ground. If he went out too far, they would most likely summon more of themselves to ambush. Hikaru wanted to play this battle smart. He would make his efforts count. Word Count: 602 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 360 Heartless Defeated 8 Darkballs Heartless Remaining Defeat 567 Shadows Defeat 131 Neoshadows Defeat 173 Darkballs
With his MP replenished by Bambi, Hikaru felt reinvigorated, and rolled back his shoulders. Looking across the battleifeld, they managed to put a small dent in their numbers, but there were still many on the horizon. From the looks of things, they had barely managed to eliminate roughly half of the previous population of the heartless wave. He wondered in the back of his mind if they got harder from here, or if the numbers would just continue to rise exponentially. Where would the end of the battle be in hindsight? He tried not to dwell on it, as it would only worry him. And as it was, he already had enough in the back of his mind. He looked behind him, as a couple of neoshadows were making their way up the dock. "Oh no you don't!" Hikaru pointed his blade to the ground and from the tip of his blade, caused bursts of mystical mines to appear around the floor in front of him. The mines acted on their own and began to seek out the neoshadows that were making their way up the dock. Without warning or hesitation the seeker mines rushed against the heartless and began to explode. The first two that exploded knocked the heartless into the air, while the another two managed to make their way under the neoshadow heartless for when they would land. As the heartless fell back down onto the dock, the seeker mines were ready and waiting for them, as the mines burned brightly, the heartless descending onto them. The explosion caused by the two seeker mines managed to get rid of the rest of the neoshadows, leaving no trace of them left behind. With Hikaru's high magic stat, his earth magic was able to make quick work of the more HP heavy of enemies. With one seeker mine still straggling around, a small shadow heartless was seen at the edge of the dock. With it's target locked on, the seeker mine chased after it. The shadow spotted it and tried to run away, flailing it's arm and legs as it tried to run away, but the seeker mine was still headed straight for it. To help escape it, the shadow sunk into the ground with it's shadow sneak. The seeker mine straggled about, but was still locked onto it's target. With little option left, the shadow heartless tried to slowly phase back to the grounded plain. This sadly was the end for that shadow, as the seeker mine took no time in wasting and blew up directly beneath the shadow, dispersing it from the battlefield. Another Neoshadow on the horizon from approaching the dock, Hikaru sped down quickly and performed a quick uppercut with his keyblade, jumping into an aerial combo. He slashed away at the neoshadow, staying in the air for what felt like ten seconds, continuously hacking and slashing at it. "You're done!" he yelled as he performed a finishing slash, causing the heartless to vanish. Hikaru landed back on his feet, exhaling as readied his keyblade for any more oncoming threats. Kaida hadn't said anything yet, which was beginning to make him worry. All he could do was deal with the heartless problem around them, instead of fretting too much about the words he had said to her. He looked at the corner of his eye to see Aux, still trying to compose himself next to AJ. He was at risk now of losing his two best friends, making his mind lose focus. He gripped his keyblade tightly, hoping this wouldn't end as horribly as he thought it would in his head. Word Count: 606 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 300 Heartless Defeated 5 Neoshadows 1 Shadows Defeat 575 Shadows Defeat 146 Neoshadows Defeat 190 Darkballs
After having revealed the entire truth to Kaida, Hikaru couldn't help but just keep defending the two of them from the rest of the shadows trying to sneak aboard the dock. He leaned forward with his keyblade thrusting his keyblade and knocking back a few shadows, continuing to attack them with a flurry of blows. The shadows quickly dispersed as he held his keyblade in front of him to guard against any more. For now it seemed that most of them were distracted elsewhere, but he kept his keyblade high just in case. He remembered way back when during his training days to always keep his guard up. Aux once told him that because of his less than muscular stature, he would have to be defensive with his blade. Since they, he had gained much more defense, but it was just a reflex he always had in the back of his mind. He looked behind him and saw the little shadow next o Kaida still acting more oddly than the other heartless. He raised an eyebrow as the small shadow twitched and looked at him, almost as if there was a person under there. He didn't have much time to examine the little thing further as a small gaggle of darkballs had made their way to them via the front. The dark balls formed in small purple orbs, rocking back and forth as they appeared. Their antennae swayed left and right as they moved forward. Using the edge of the dock to elevate him, Hikaru leapt forward and began a quick succession of slashes against 3 of the darkballs. Defeating two, one of them shifted vigorously back and forth, managing to hit Hikaru and knocking him back a few feet in the air. Quickly gaining footing at the edge of the dock, he pushed himself forward with momentum and did another quick slash to dispel of the heartless. He landed back on the dock, a little off balance before regaining his footing and stepping back down slowly. The shadow heartless behind him had returned and began their assault by performing their signature shadow sneak along the ground. He watching as the shadows scurrying along the edge of the ground lik cockroaches scattering back and forth. They eventually rose to the surface where they met the end of Hikaru's blade slashing back and forth against them. He managed to get a good clump of them in that first combo, but more were on the way. He cast a quick Blizzaga spell, dealing a massive amount of ice damage to them. He managed to freeze a couple that weren't fully destroying, bring his keyblade smack down as he shattered them into nothing but dispelled darkness and shards of ice along the ground. He could feel himself getting low on MP from all the magic he was using, so he called himself a quick friend. Raising his keyblade he cast a ball of light into the air, preparing to summon Bambi. "Come on out, Bambi!" The small deer appeared in a flash of pink petals and jumped about, Hikaru petting him behind his ears. "Make sure you help the others too!" he said to the small deer. Bambi nodded and began prancing about the battlefield, dropping small bubbles of MP to replenish the others. The amount of cheers that everyone equipped would ensure the summon would stick around for a while. He watched as the deer would hop back and forth as if the heartless weren't even a second thought to him. To his surprise the heartless weren't even concerning themselves with the faun, which was fortunate for him. Word Count: 606 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 240 Heartless Defeated 3 Darkballs 17 Shadows Defeat 576 Shadows Defeat 156 Neoshadows Defeat 190 Darkballs
Hikaru watched as Kaida became more and more overwhelmed with her thoughts. The more she talked on, the more he slowly began to catch his breath. The more she talked about Aux, the less comfortable he was to talk about it. "From the look of things, Aux is slowly regaining his memories." He turned around and dealt a few quick slashes at a shadow that was trying to sneak behind them. He turned slowly back to Kaida as if destroying the heartless was just an afterthought. "And because he's remembering everything, that includes everything that Mizrabel took from him years ago." He turned around again and dealt a quick combo against another shadow heartless, defeating it. He kept his keyblade up in case more were going to interrupt him. "I thought I could record everything I had to explain to you and Aux viaa the recorder... But that wouldn't be fair to either of you. Because you're both my friends and deserve to know the truth." He took a deep breath to brace himself as he got rid of another shadow heartless. "Aux had all his memories when he first came to Central Haven. He was traveling with his grandpa Kurt who turned out to be conspiring with Nequa to get younger bodies. She took Rin and he took Krowley." Hikaru slashed another shadow heartless, growing more intense in his voice. "When Aux found out, he was going to tell the rest of the order, but Kurt stopped him and he and Nequa made the transfer. To make sure he wouldn't talk, he made a deal with Mizrabel to erase his memories and put them into a replica of Kurt's younger self." He slashed at another shadow heartless angrily. "As I found out in the Castle of Illusion, I'M that replica, and my entire life has been a lie and my only purpose for living was to make sure I would carry on his work if he failed." He slashed at another shadow heartless. "And then I was introduced by Krowley to Aux and after that I met you and for a while it was great. And then of course things went south and I ended up going into a coma. Which turns out to be because my body was failing without a heart." He slashed and dispersed another shadow again, getting angrier. "Which, as it turns out, is why Aux ended up going full darkness to begin with. Nequa showed up and said to save my life and still keep his heart whole, he would have to give me his light, and accept a dark remnant from her." He panted heavily before turning to Kaida. "But that remnant is nothing but darkness and she's pretty much been fueling his dark intention and it's all because of me!... I'm the reason he did all those things... He'd still hold on to his light if it weren't for me... And once we cross that portal, the remnant will return to him." He slashed another shadow heartless in one fell swoop. "You're helping this group more than I ever have, Kaida. You helped by being who you are and never backing down." He cast another gust of Aqua splash at a small group of shadows that were making their way up the dock. "I didn't want to dump it all on you like this, but there was never going to be a good time to do it. When Aux joined the mark as his old self I didn't want it to end. But soon it will... And I need you to know everything to not hate him. Because he only did it out of something kind..." Word Count: 619 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 180 Heartless Defeated 26 shadows Heartless Remaining Defeat 610 Shadows Defeat 175 Neoshadows Defeat 196 Darkballs Defeat 1 Invisibles
"Well allow me to make your job a little easier!" Hikaru pointed his keyblade over Stratos and unleashed an aero spell over him. He nodded to Stratos before heading for another wave of Shadow heartless. He looked around to see if there were some shadow heartless he could quickly eradicate. In his eyes, there were a lot of shadow heartless left on the battlefield. With them out of the way, he and the others could focus on taking out some of the more stronger and skilled heartless that were roaming around. The Invisibles were proving to be formidable foes and the Neoshadows felt like matured shadows. He took his keyblade and tried to just plow his way through a good chunk of them. As he ran past a couple dozen shadows he slashed through them left an right, not stopping to see if was doing any damage or even killing any of them. He was just running and slashing with his keyblade. He skid along the ground, eventually running around a group of shadows before he saw a good chunk of them grouped together. He jumped into the air as he saw a chance to seize an opportunity and fired a powerful blizzaga spell at them. "Deep Freeze!" he shouted, his ice spell managing to cover a wide range of the shadow heartless cluster. Without even warning or further effort, the critical ice attack manage to completely wipe out the small hurdle of shadows, causing Hikaru to pull his fist down in a victorious way. He spotted some of the weaker ones lurking away, causing him to chase after. Before he could attack one however, the heartless sunk into the ground making it invulnerable. Hikaru struck down his blade, hearing a loud clang against the cement-like ground of the dark path side of the Destiny Islands. "Can't stay down there forever!" he yelled, finding a couple shadows to strike down in the meantime, he slashed away at them without a second thought as he waited for that shadow to re-emerge. Only seconds later did he see the little bugger pop it's head out of the ground. He quickly slid towards the shadow, catching him by surprise in the front and did a quick jab at it with his keyblade, the heartless fading before his eyes. He looked as the once tame beach-like world was shattered by darkness and all the wondrous things that might have once been warm memories, were now torn like a ripped page. He shook his head and looked to the rest of the group in helps of leaning towards some more of the support side of things. He caught Kaida in the corner of his eye and quickly dashed towards her to see how she was doing. "How are things on your end?" he panted, catching up to her. He was wheezing a little more than he should've at this point. Speed was not his forte and it was beginning to show as he was already so out of breath. "And why am I so tired already!?" he asked, putting his hands on his knees as he breathed deeply. He held up his finger as if to interrupt some one who was talking. "So tired..." small droplets of sweat ran down the side of his face. "How are you not?" He tried to stretch himself up and keep himself limber as he shook his legs off. Sufffice to say, Hikaru did not have the best cardio. Even dating back to his academy days, Hikaru always dreaded the rigorous running segments and sessions that the institution made him do to keep his energy up. Word Count: 607 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 120 Heartless Defeated 26 shadows Heartless Remaining Defeat 663 Shadows Defeat 183 Neoshadows Defeat 196 Darkballs Defeat 1 Invisibles
With vim and vigor in his eyes, Tango pulled out two keyblade. "I accept your challenge hombre!" A smile struck his face as he looked up with bright red eyes, two keyblades in his hands. He clashed the two of them together as he placed his blades to his sides. "You better not disappoint me Mr. Luther. You've gone and gotten me quite excited for what I hope is a thrilling battle." He breathed deeply. "Half the reason I joined the Red Society was to find worthy combatants to test my steel against." He dashed forward as he prepared to slash both blades in a cross like formation. "Let us see what you're made of!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside the laboratory, Yue looked around for any sign of Nequa or her cronies. She saw Rin on the table, her eyes widening before she rushed over to her. She felt her face to see if she was still breathing, but gasped in shock upon the sensation of her face. Rin was as cold as ice. "No..." Yue whispered, taking her sunglassses off. She picked up her limp body and held her closely. "Relax, she's alive... but barely." Yue spun around to find the voice belonging to Nequa. She was in her old purple armor but her face was covered. She could tell there was a new body under the armor because her height had changed. She was slightly taller and her voice was more soft spoken. "Frankly I would have liked the Mizu girl for her magical affinity, but I had to use the spare magic user instead. Overall, things could've been worse?" Yue closed her eyes and looked to Rin, holding her cheek before slowly lowering her body back to the table. "What? No angry threats? This is very out of character for you ms. Yue..." "Of course I'm angry." She looked down and held her cold hand with hers. "But just seeing her alive at all... I can't help but be grateful." She brushed some excess hair away from her face as she tried to fight tears rolling down her face. "And now you're crying?" Nequa mocked. "Seriously, what did you do with the chick with all the anger issues? I mean it's not like you guys were married or something." Yue remained silent as she squeezed Rin's hand tighter. "Oh my god.... you... you actually love her, don't you?" Nequa asked leaning back. Yue now turned her eyes to Nequa, turning pink from her tears. She looked at her with more hatred. "Well that is just precious!" she laughed, holding her sides. "I mean does she even know? Was it like a secret admirer type thing where you harbored your feelings. Wow. I mean just... wow. Think what you want of me, but irony is the real monster here... And now she's gonna die without knowing how you felt." Yue looked down before feeling her hand being squeezed back. A tear streamed down Rin's face as she looked up at Yue. "Trust me... she knows." she weakly smiled. "And she feels the same." Rin slowly got up with the help of Yue and held her hand tightly. "Aww... if I had a heart it would be melting right now..." She held up her hand as a powerful dark aura surrounded it. "You two are about to have a nice little trip to the void. It's an interdimensional prison that is impossible to escape. Can't have you somehow surviving here as heartless after all. Your hearts are too strong." Her tone turned serious. "Any last words?" Rin looked to Yue. "You can escape you know... All you have to do is phase-" "I already lost you once," Yue interrupted. "I am NOT losing you again." Rin weakly smiled. She looked to Nequa and softly replied, "We beat the reaper's game together... We'll beat the void too." Yue wiped away any more tears and picked up Rin in her arms as she stood proudly, her eyes never leaving Nequa's helmet. "We'll be back for you." "Doubt it," Nequa replied, crushing her hand to activate the void portal. A purple pentagram surround Yue and Rin. Rin closed her eyes in acceptance, with Yue shutting hers tightly. Rin ran her head along Yue's neck, feeling safe again as both of them vanished in a flash of purple smoke. "Well, that almost made me want to gag..." She looked to Zulu who was silently watching. "So... What are we to do now?" "Take what you can and self destruct the lab... We've done all we needed here. Be ready in 5 minutes or I leave you behind.." Zulu nodded before rushing to collect his research. She looked back to the spot the two girls once stood. "To err is human I guess," she shrugged.
Hikaru looked at his friend and back to the baattle aheaad. With Shiro's appearance, the group had enough back up, but he was still concerned about Aux. People like Aislinn, Kaida, Kel and Stratos had already joined the fray, prompting Hikaru to try and get in on the action. He leaned down next to Aux who was still writhing in pain. "I'll help you once I help the others alright." Aux grunted as he tried to keep his eyes open. "Just go..." Hikaru nodded and began to race off. He didn't get very far as Aux helfd his wrist, causing him to stagnate in place. "But before this is over. You and I WILL talk," he said in a threatening tone. Hikaru began to sweat a little, gulping and nodding to affirm Aux's condition. Aux let go of his wrist, causing Hikaru to dash forward. He pointed his blade forward unleashing a torrent of water. "Aqua splash!" Using it like a magical fire hose, he pushed the water spell against several shadow heartless, dousing them and pushing them back furth and further away from him. He managed to find himself a little spot as he began to press the water around him and further away from the wielders who had yet to join the battle. With the water spell having finished, he twirled his keyblade firing a blast of a blizzard spell, freezing a neoshadow. He dashed forward and unleashed a flurry of blows before the neoshadow could escape. His combo hitting was successful as the neoshadow faded into darkness. From the corner of his eye, he could see many of the smaller shadow heartless sinking into the ground and heading right for him. He dashed back and began to sprint far from the heartless. He whacked his way through the wave of minor heartless trying to reach the other combatants. He noticed that fighting the once adament heartless seemed relatively easy to him now. Was it something to do with becoming a master? Regardless, he felt he had grown as both a keyblade wielder and as a warrior. He looked off to Shiro who was still confronting the mystery old man before looking back to the battle ahead. He kept running until an invisible blocked his path. He froze in place, backing up a bit at the size of the above average heartless. He backed up and used his keyblade to guard as the heartless struck down on Hikaru with his sword, being parryed off his keyblade. While he wasn't the fastest, Hikaru manage to race around behind the heartless before hitting the heartless with another Blizzaga spell. The power of Hikaru's magic did a number on the heartless, doing massive ice damage and causing the heartless to decrease in speed. Seizing his opportunity, he unleashed a quick torrent of slashes before the heartless finally dispersed. He continued to look around for any of the massive invisible heartless he had never seen before before backing up slowly. His back eventually hit something, as he was stunned before turning around. He quickly held up his keyblade but breathed a sigh of relief upon realizing it was stratos. He looked to see the waves of heartless the boy had already defeated in his small absense. "So I see you've made good use of your time," he chuckled. He twirled his keyblade before offering his hand. "Need some extra magic power in your arsenal?" Hikaru and Stratos had rarely interacted with each other much aside from their short time in Space Paranoids. This time, he wouldn't let himself be as short handed as he was in Central Haven. Word Count: 606 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 60 Heartless Defeated: 1 Invisible 1 Neoshadow 4 shadows Heartless Remaining: Defeat 761 Shadows Defeat 188 Neoshadows Defeat 200 Darkballs Defeat 2 Invisibles
A bright light shown around the party as they were transported from Shibuya to somewhere new entirely. The path along the realm of darkness was baron. a kilometer away however, small island could be seen connecting to the pathway/ As if an entire patch of beach was shipwrecked on the realm of darkness. The world seemed to be broken. As if the darkness caused it to tear apart from the inside. A luxurious treehouse that sat atop the island was in ruins. At the center of the island, a grizzled man could be seen. Scars all over his body and a cybernetic left arm. Hikaru looked down at his player pin. "Are we?... Are we supposed to give our pin to him?" Aux looked at the ol man who looked took a fierce stand. His hands clenched as he walked to the edge of the beach. "I don't think he's the welcome committee," Aux said. "Tell us who you are old man!" Aux yelled out. "A former soldier of the Red Society!" He cried out. "The what?" Hikaru asked back. "A group that follows Nequa," Aux bluntlty replied. "You... know who Nequa is?" Hikaru asked nervously. He looked down to Aux's player pin that was pinned to the pocket of his pants. The red pin glowed intenseley meaning Aux's memories were slowly fading back to him. "Guess I do... I'm beginning to remember things." He looked to Hikaru. "Everything." Aux fell to his knees as he grabbed his head in pain. Hikaru began to worry. If Aux's memories were being returned to him, then the dark remnant he bared would return soon as well. The friend they were with to this point would be lost to darkness. "Aux, get up!" "Your friend has the right idea... Submit now and I won't have to destroy you." A storm began to form around the island, growining in power as the man contined. "My name is Colonel Marshall Hughes. And I was recently discharged by Nequa. She told me I was a FAILURE!" Thunder roared across the sky. "So I'm here to prove my worth. Show that to this soldier; FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!" He drew a keyblade from his hand as darkness and wind formed around him. "If I cannot serve under her banner. Then I will serve under my own and do what I was born to do." From all corners of the island, thousands of pureblood heartless began to spring up. Shadows, Darkballs, Neoshadows and a giant Darkside "Command an army of darkness!" he yelled to the heavens as his heartless army marched. "This is my final test to you so called masters! Five waves of heartless! All the energy my body has belongs to the darkness now! This is my final attack! 10,000 heartless all with the enraged desire to destroy you all! Nequa will see that I am not a failure! I will succeed where she has failed! And no one can help you now!" Uniform laughed maniacally, his own ego increasing as his heartless moved forward. "You're all going to die and it's all thanks to your weak hearts!-" "THE FIST OF JUSTICE SAYS OTHERWISE!" A booming masculine voice echoed across the island. From a purple portal, a man shirtless man with jet-like bronze hair came flying through the gloomy sky and punched the darkside, causing it to immediately disappear. The old man stepped back in shock as he watched the mystery man land. "What... you!" Reacting as if he had met them before. "THAT'S RIGHT COLONEL! CAPTAIN FUJIOKA IS NOW PRIMED AND READY TO FIGHT ONCE MORE! UNFORTUNATELY FOR YOU THOUGH, I'M ON THE OPPOSING SIDE THIS TIME AROUND!" Shiro, also known to most of the SOS members as 'Kuma,' has flown down like a superhero and cracked his knuckles as he faces Hughes. Colonel Hughes drew out his keyblade. "One more weak hearted fool makes no difference to me!" Shiro chuckled whole heartedly, keeping his optimism as he turned to Kaida. "LADY KAIDA! IT'S GOOD TO SEE YOU'RE DOING WELL. MY CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR SUCCESS OF YOUR MARK OF MASTERY!" He turned to his oppenent as he cracked his neck and drew out his keyblade. "LEAVE HUGHES TO ME! I WILL HELP YOU WHERE I CAN! NOW GO AND SHOW ME JUST HOW POWERFUL YOU'VE BECOME!" MISSION START! 10,000 Heartless Battle begin! (Look at the Guild Hall for details!) (As masters your BP has doubled!) Wave I Defeat 900 Shadows Defeat 200 Neoshadows Defeat 200 Darkballs Defeat 7 Invisibles Defeat 1 Darkside
Back at Lea's hideaway As Tango walked away, his feet came to a full stop after Luther's question. "The battle I came to finish has ended. I have no quarrel to pick with the likes of you two. And yet..." A fire glared into his eyes as he saw Luther's expression. His face quivering with excitement reminded him of his own lust for battle. "Something about that face has me intrigued. Do you wish for a challenge perhaps? I recall from earlier reports that you are the hombre with the illusionary prowess, yes?" He grinned as his keyblade ignited in fire. The powers of both of both flame and illusion would make for a truly inspiring combination of elements. Or perhaps wind and fire for a truly devastating collaboration?" He looked to Melus before quickly pointed his blade to the two of them. "Tell me... do you know of a challenge known as Final Fantasy?" He looked to either of them for a sign of response. "It is a challenge between one or more parties. A duel of sorts that wages your ability over an element. One party would initiate the challenge. To wager one element for another. The one being challenged is able to set the conditions. And the victor of both would obtain both elements as their prize... With the option of course to slaughter his enemy or grant mercy." He pointed his blade to Luther. "For example, if I were to challenge you to a final fantasy... what would you say?"
