After having felled the five neo shadows, Stratos looked over to see if there were any other heartless that needed taking care of at the moment in the immediate area. Of course, he didn't see any right away and his attention was forced back to the fight between the large dark humanoid heartless and the physical lightning golem, as a large large flash of light and lightning was seen coming from the fist of the Thundagolem. As the explosion took place, Stratos covered his eyes, his jacket being swept back in the wind of the resulting force of the explosion. Looking at the two, as the thundagolem was missing one of its hands, though slowly regenerating, he knew his job now was more important then ever to stop any of the heartless from converging on it. Seeing that the two heartless were now totally focused on one another, Stratos looked around to see what other heartless were coming towards the thundagolem. As he did, he saw the neo shadows begin to crawl out from the ground, their inky black bodies slinking out from a pool of shadow, as they began to move towards the thundagolem. Walking towards the thundagolem, the three neo shadows had their claws at the ready as they went to go rake them against the thundagolem's body. Not wanting that to happen, of course, Stratos imbued his legs with the same gravity magic trick he had done before. With his aura buffing his powers, he had managed to do one large super jump towards the creatures. As he decided to long jump and keep himself low to the ground, he was able to extend his hand out to the ground, pushing against it to brake and turn it into a roll. As he did, he managed to roll into the heartless, feet first planting into the neo shadow's face and forcing it away from his lightning companion. The other four, surprised by this basically flying kick keyblade wielder turned their attention to him instead, the keyblade being far more pressing on their list to get rid of then the large body of lightning. After his kick, the boy managed to land on his feet, skidding across the ground, spinning his keyblade and tossing the weapon with a strike raid, cleaving the heartless in twain. As another of the neoshadows leaped towards the boy, he merely high jumped as well, imbuing his keyblade with ice and striking twice in a cross before bringing down a finishing third hit. Before he could land back on the ground though, the other three neo shadows jumped after him. Channeling his gravity magic onto him, the boy fell much faster towards the ground, dodging the heartless as a result. Stabbing his keyblade into the ground, he channeled earthen magic through it, causing 8 mines to appear around him. As the heartless landed, the small discs of magic homed in on the heartless, exploding as a result and destroying the neoshadows in an instant. With its hand broken, the thundagolem had to buy time for itself as the hand slowly repaired itself. Meanwhile the dark side wanted to press its advantage, channeling the dark magic into its hand, letting loose a large magically infused punch at them. Knowing that it could afford to block now, the creature evaded to the side of the punch, charging up its other hand with lightning magic. Balling its hand into a fist, the creature let loose a fast hook towards the darkside's head, letting loose an explosion of magic into the face of the creature forcing it backward. Word Count: 601 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 2580 Blessed Thief: 1290 Munny Heartless Defeated: 5 neoshadows Heartless Remaining: 1205 Shadows 300 Darkballs 330 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 13 Invisibles (4 Reserved) 1 Darkside Heartless Injured: Darkside 2: 578/1500
Stratos had to step away from the golem, as it was forced away by the initial punch of the dark side. Being near the lightning golem, Stratos was able to see just how large it actually was and knew that a being that large would hurt to be crashed into by. He also figured that the lightning charging off of the creature would be no good to be hit by either, and even though it obviously wouldn't have been actively trying to harm him, its body was made of lightning. So it probably didn't have much of a choice if the boy accidentally ran into it, or in the more likely and current situation, it was forced into him. As it was coming at him at great speed, the boy channeled his gravity magic into his legs, and with a burst of magical power managed to leap away from the golem. Being able to clear the distance, jumping far farther then he first expected, the boy landed onto the ground at great speeds and rolled a bit before springing back to his feet. The boy looked on as the two titans continued to match blow for blow against each other, the thundagolem looking quite injured but the dark side looking none too health either. Its once solid black form was beginning to break apart, and wounds that it had accrued were smoking with darkness, no longer instantly repairing and regenerating themselves. Knowing that his job was working out already, the boy merely looked around, looking for more heartless to safe guard the golem from. Of course, true to the type of heartless he was used to fighting, more neo shadows had begun to start running towards them. Calling his keyblade to his side, the boy looked towards the heartless. There were five of them, barreling towards the thundagole, and were on the opposite side of the golem that Stratos was. Being quite far away from it now, Stratos knew that he had to clear some of the distance between him and them, or else they would get to the dark side and swing the fight instantly in its favor. Taking a deep breath, knowing that the time between the last time and now wasn't that great, the boy braced himself for the coming fatigue. With cherry blossoms flowing through the air, the boy disappeared in an instant, appearing in between the five heartless, cleaving into one of them. After destroying the creature, the other four turned around and saw that there was now a keyblade wielder in between all of them, and decided to try and fix that. With claws at the ready, they dove at the boy, who responded by striking his keyblade into one of them, saying, "drain." Ripping his keyblade out of the heartless, the form of the creature broke apart as it merged with the keyblade master, revitalizing him and curing him of fatigue, before he struck his keyblade at the ground. Four orbs of light surrounded the boy, tearing into all of the neo shadows as the explosion destroyed the remaining three. Meanwhile, after using one hand to punch the dark side in the face, the Thundagolem went to follow up with an uppercut. The dark side saw this coming and, with darkness imbued hands, caught the fist, trying to force it down. However, the thundagolem merely charged its fist with lightning until it was entirely overcharged, exploding as a result. The dark side was forced back, the resulting explosion surprising and harming it, the smoke and scars on its hands being evident of that. The thundagolem flexed at the dark side again, its now destroyed hand slowly reforming. Word Count: 614 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 2520 Blessed Thief: 1260 Munny Heartless Defeated: 5 Neoshadows Heartless Remaining: 1313 Shadows 301 Darkballs 336 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 13 Invisibles (4 Reserved) 1 Darkside Heartless Injured: Darkside 2: 683/1500
With the last assortment of neo shadows destroyed, Startos took a moment to look around to see what kind of creatures of darkness were coming towards him. Seeing that there were still a collection of Neoshadows roaming around, the boy figured he'd go and attack them, only for his attention to be brought back towards something different. Looking towards the golem, which he realized he was now a bit of a distance away from it. As such, it took him a moment to notice that there was something moving through the ground towards the physical magical being of lightning. One after the other, creatures began to move up through the ground, reaching their claws up from below the shadows and hoisting themselves up into the physical world. He realized that the reason he hadn't noticed it was because they weren't neo shadows going towards the thundagolem. Instead, they were much smaller and much less threatening. But there was much much more of them. Pulling themselves towards the creature, a horde of regular shadows started to surface themselves and with a simple swipe, clawed at the creature's leg. While the damage was minimal, the fight against the dark side was more likely than not already stressful on the golem, and thus any amount of external damage was probably more likely than not fatal to the creature's continued performance. Moving out, Stratos began running back towards the creature, trying to see just how many shadows there were. The more he ran and looked, the more seemed to appear out of the ground all walking towards this giant beacon of lightning. At the end of it all, Stratos figured there were likely somewhere around 20, maybe closer to 30, shadows that were swarming the creature all moving to scratch at it. A few hits had gotten in, the heartless managing to reel back their claws and raking them against the ankles of the golem before Stratos had managed to get there. Thankfully, a few of them were destroyed just due to attacking the electric charged body and being destroyed by the residual lightning, while others merely recoiled from the shock, being partially stunned. Pointing his keyblade to the air, Stratos sent a surge of magic towards the heartless once in range, sending a spark into the air. Following that was a collection of lightning bolts falling from the sky, striking against a collection of the shadows. The lightning shocked some of the already stunned ones, being destroyed instantly. While that wasn't enough to stop the flow of shadows, it was a start and spinning his keyblade around, the boy tossed it to cleave through a few more. As that was happening, he motioned with his hands towards the other group of shadows, causing gravity wells to form on them and crush them underneath the force of it. The thundagolem was knocked a bit off balance, the force of the Dark side's slap being quite large still. While it was about to go back into pounding damage into the similarly gargantuan creature, it suddenly felt a pain in its legs, causing its focus to move downwards. As it saw the shadows raking their claws into them, the golem's focus faltered for a moment, which the darkside capitalized on by sending out a surprisingly fast and strong punch into the golem's sternum. Being blown back, the stumbled backward after recieving the heavy blow, clearly being damage by it. However, as it did, it noticed that there no longer anything at its legs. Unrestricted for movement now, the creature bolted towards the dark side and countered with a fast and heavy punch of its own into the dark side's face. Word Count: 614 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 2460 Blessed Thief: 1230 Munny Heartless Defeated: 26 shadows Heartless Remaining: 1421 Shadows 321 Darkballs 342 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 13 Invisibles (4 Reserved) 1 Darkside Heartless Injured: Darkside 2: 788/1500
With this new power in toe, Stratos felt like he could take on the entire army of heartless himself. As he looked towards the horde of enemies, he realized this was probably a bit of an over exaggeration, and figured he'd just stick to protecting the thundagolem. Looking over at it, it seemed to be holding its own against the dark side, and seemed to be even stronger than when it was first summoned. Thinking this was a good sign for the creature, Stratos turned his attention back towards the heartless that were congregating towards it, and spun his keyblade around as he moved towards them. His next opponents were slowly and surely coming towards them, the only ones seeming to pay much attention to this group being the neo shadow type heartless. Looking around, he saw that Kel, Luna and AJ were dealing with the majority of the dark balls, which probably explained why they were so preoccupied at the moment and only the neo shadows were coming to play. Stratos didn't mind so much, as it meant he was simply getting better at fighting these specific kind of heartless. So, getting ready, the boy rushed towards the neoshadows that were making their way here. As he ran forward, he noticed there were five of them all making their way towards him at great speeds. The first three of them, rather than charging head long at him instead dove into the ground, becoming a part of the darkness itself. As they continued to run past him, two of the neoshadows still above ground instead rushed at him, leaping into the air. As they did, they began to spin, moving perpendicular to the ground as they charged at the boy. Clapping his hands together, Stratos created a small pulse of gravity, forcing both of the above Neo Shadows to crash into each other. The force of the crash, and their already attacking bodies colliding forced the creatures to destroy themselves. As he did this, he noticed that the shadows in the ground had moved behind him, and as they did, they leaped into the air, forming a triangle around him. Twirling his keyblade around, the boy merely said, "faith," channeling magic into the ground around him. Four pillars of light erupted from the ground, beginning to spin around the boy and the heartless that were trying to stop him. As a result, the four pillars ended up exploding against the neo shadows, destroying them and returning them back to the darkness that they had come from. After having let loose a small flurry of blows against the dark side, the creature moved back, looking with pure hatred towards the golem. Stepping backwards the creature began to charge its fist with dark energy. Not giving it a chance to punch, though, the thundagolem moved forward and sent a jab out towards its gut. While the creature was visible hurt from the attack, it still managed to bring its hand up and smash its dark infused hand into the creature's torso. While it was clearly in pain from the attack, without a second hand the dark side didn't have a second hand to guard its face with. And so, one after the other it brought up its fist and with lightning charged magic the golem punched its head into the face of the dark side. With one punch after the other, it beat its fist into the head of the darkside, until the dark side brought its other hand up and managed to slap the fist away. The force of the creature's hand cause the golem to back up a bit, still clearly ready to keep going. Total Words: 615 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 2400 Blessed Thief: 1200 Munny Heartless Defeated: 5 Neoshadows Heartless Remaining: 1448 Shadows 329 Darkballs 342 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 15 Invisibles (4 Reserved) 1 Darkside Heartless Injured: Darkside 2: 888/1500
After having felled the first of the neo shadows, there were still two more that had shown their face. Stratos got ready to fight against the heartless once more, readying his keyblade and getting into a defensive posture as he studied the two heartless. The two of them looked towards the boy, heads bobbing and moving around, seemingly trying to find a break in Stratos's guard. The two neo shadows began to walk towards him, then split off walking in two different directions, circling the boy. He looked towards the two heartless, wondering what they were about to do as their twitching heads continued to move all around and look towards the boy. With claws at the ready, the two began to rush forward towards the boy. The both of them leaped at him at the same time, one high and one low trying to stop him from escaping in either direction and guarding against both attacks. However, that would only apply if Stratos were still as weak as he used to be. With the power of his aura and his skills in the keyblade, the boy knew he was able to stop what was coming at him. Stepping back, letting loose the magic through his foot, he targeted the one charging low with a pulse of gravity magic. The other, he went to guard with his keyblade. The first of them merely stopped in its tracks, floating away as its body was now afflicted by a different force of gravity. The second, he merely parried away with his weapon. As the two heartless got back up, Stratos looked ready to combat them, only for two more neoshadows to pop out of the ground next to them. With claws at the ready, the four were now primed to go and attack him once more, and the boy was not sure if he was going to be able to keep up with fighting them and keeping the golem safe. Especially as he wasn't sure that he would be able to deal with all of the heartless at this point by himself either. It was then, though, that a silver light glowing across his keyblade caught his attention. He wasn't sure what it was, but he felt a surge of strength run through himself. Before, at the start of this fight he had felt as though now that he were a master he could deal with twice as many heartless at once. Yet now, this power surging through him blew that increase in strength fa out of the water. He felt like he had the strength of four of his running through his body, maybe more, and he was not about to let four simple neoshadows stop him here. As the glow subsided, the power fully inside the boy now, he merely looked at the four heartless and took a calm breath. As time came to its usual standstill, cherry blossoms fluttered through the air and the boy found just where to slash against the neoshadows. In an instant, he appeared behind them, slashing through all four of them and destroying them in a single stroke of his blade. Meanwhile, the Thundagolem's fist had been forced away by the might of the dark sides. Though it was strong, the dark side was far stronger in terms of physical power and thus it could not win in the power struggle. After winning the first clash, the dark side reeled back its fist and went for a second one. Bringing up its guard again, the thundagolem was forced back as it took yet another blow, starting to feel its form be broken apart by the attack. However, soon, it felt a surge of force run through it, as if the person who commanded it was suddenly able to provide far more power for it. Its form coming back to whole, the golem flexed its rippling lightning biceps a few times before going for another punch against the darkside. One after the other, with three heavy punches it forced the dark side back. Word Count: 678 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 2340 Enemies Defeated: 4 Neoshadows Enemies Remaining: 1449 Shadows 337 Darkballs 355 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 18 Invisibles (4 Reserved) 1 Darkside Enemies With Injuries: Darkside 2: 991/1500
With the the three Neoshadows out of the way, Stratos looked towards the dark side and thunder based golem that were fighting against each other. The two hadn't seemed to do much in way of fighting yet, but they had been going blow for blow thus far. Thinking it imperative to keep the pressure off the creature, Stratos continued to tighten his grip around his keyblade, on the lookout for any of the neo shadows that might have been around to attack the golem he was guarding. It didn't take long for more to appear, as the thunder elemental golem was gigantic and glowing with crackling electricity, and Stratos knew that he had to go stop them all the same. There were, once again, three neo shadows that had appeared from beneath the ground, all near where his current position was and began to run straight at them. While the creatures had managed to pull themselves out of the ground, claws extending from it as they hoisted their dark mass out from the shadows, they did not at first take note of Stratos. Looking only to the golem, they appeared ready to attack it, claws bared and at the ready to leap and tear at the creature, Stratos went to intercept them. Spinning his keyblade around, the boy tossed it at in a strike at one of them, managing to strike one of the three that was caught flat-footed from the attack. The heartless was knocked off its feet, landing on the ground as it looked towards the boy with hatred in its eyes. Diving back into the ground, the creature ran through the shadows moving towards Stratos in an area that he wasn't able to actually attack. As the creature burst out from the shadows, the boy rolled backwards, avoiding the claws that the creature swung upwards to attack him. While its uppercut slash had missed, the creature then jerked its small foot forward, surprising the young keyblade master. Being struck in the chest by the foot, Stratos skidded backwards, partially winded from the attack, only to look back at this foe, ready to fight back against it. Pointing his keyblade at the creature, the boy had a small orb of flame appear at the tip of his keyblade, getting ready to launch it out towards the heartless. As he did, casting the firaga spell, the creature ducked, dodging under the attack before leaping forward towards the boy. Raising up his keyblade, the boy managed to deflect the claws of the heartless. With the blade in hand, the boy ignited the blade with flame, striking downward on the heartless, cleaving into its already wounded form. The flaming blade tore through the rest of the body, with the flames igniting what was left of it. With the attack finished, the neoshadow was destroyed entirely. As the dark side had caught the physical thundagolem's fist, it curled up another one. Charging with lightning, with great speed the golem unleashed an uppercut towards the darkside, smashing its fist into its tendril mess of a head. With the fist striking, sparks of lightning arcing across all the tendrils once struck, the heartless let go of the first fist it had caught as it stumbled backward. Reeling back that original fist, the thundagolem then moved forward, and with a straight punch smashed its lightning charged fist into the chest of the heartless. The dark side planted its foot into the ground, keeping itself steady. As the thundagolem went for a third punch, the dark side reciprocated. As the two fists collided with each other, a burst of air and lightning flowed out from the point of impact, the raw force behind the two attacks being that great. Words: 623 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 2280 Enemies Defeated: 1 neoshadow Enemies Remaining: 1450 Shadows 337 Darkballs 377 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 18 Invisibles (4 Reserved) 1 Darkside Enemies With Injuries: Darkside 2: 1109/1500
As the new thundagolem and the dark side heartless were doing battle with each other, Stratos knew that he had to go and deal with some of the other heartless and provide some cover for the creature. He wasn't quite sure what this thundagolem was entirely capable of, nor did he know how long it would last, but he knew it had a far better chance at dealing with the dark side then he did. And since it was constantly letting out volts of lightning around it, he had an inkling that standing near the creature would probably not be very beneficial to the boy's health. As the creature continued to emit light from the lightning arcing every which way, the heartless around the area were more attracted to it, and as it was fighting against the dark side by itself, that too signaled for them to join in on the attack. So, seeing that there were a collection of heartless that were beginning to form around the thundagolem, Stratos spun his keyblade and got himself ready to protect the giant while it went into battle against the dark side. Looking around, he saw the claws of the neoshadow burst out of the ground as they made their way towards the golem. Dashing towards the creature, Stratos tossed his keyblade at one of them, cleaving its claw off before it managed to fully pull itself out of the ground. The creature looked to its hand, seeing it was just a stub, only for Stratos to then slide in at quick speeds and cleave through the heartless in one strike. The slash had formed across the creature's head, wisps of darkness coming out of the creatures' wound before it finally exploded and returned back to the dark. As the next creatures had appeared, they were fully formed and ready to spring out towards Stratos. Holding his keyblade up, he guarded against the attack, parrying the claw away, though feeling some of the shock run through him. Looking over, he then saw yet another of the neoshadows spin towards him, striking him in the back. Letting out a grunt of pain, being forced forward a bit, the boy looked towards the creature and ignited his keyblade. Bringing the slash towards the creature's claw, he managed to collide blade and claw against each other winning out in the battle and destroying the heartless's claw. Following up with a few consecutive normal slashes, Stratos had managed to finish off the one neoshadow before turning his attention to the third one. As it jumped at him, the boy merely extended out his hand and said, "graviga," causing the heartless to immediately be forced to the ground. The creature was unable to get up, and with a bit more force applied to the neoshadow the creature merely erupted into darkness, being destroyed by the rush of gravity. Meanwhile, the dark side had swung its fist forward towards the thundagolem. The golem brought its arms up in a guard, blocking against the punch. It grunted, the force being clear behind the dark side's attack and the being was forced back a bit, yet it still stood its ground. The dark side, however, was not without injury itself. The golem was still half made of pure magical lightning, and as such the volts across its body also arced onto the fist as it struck it. Clenching its own fists, the golem brought the guard down, and with a single swing aimed for the dark side's head. While the golem was fast, the dark side moved with far more speed then it had normally, bringing up its hand to guard against the attack. While it managed to catch the lightning fist, it still received a shock through the contact. Words: 630 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 2220 Blessed Thief: 1060 Munny Enemies Defeated: 3 Neoshadows Enemies Remaining: 1451 Shadows 337 Darkballs 378 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 20 Invisibles (4 Reserved) 1 Darkside Enemies With Injuries: Darkside 2: 1173/1500 Invisible: 22/50
As Stratos had rush through all of the heartless, his zantetsuken had ended with a simple slash through all of them, the cherry blossoms fluttering in the wind and rushing in the direction Stratos had moved. The dark side heartless paused a bit, caught off guard by the attack, only to then slowly turn towards Stratos. The keyblade master in question was currently hanging in the air, a result of his last attack, only to begin slowly descending towards the ground and landed softly onto it. As Beuce had shouted out to Stratos that he needed to be bought some time, the boy looked over to him and gave a nod in acknowledgement. He hadn't actually known that Beuce had come over here with him to begin with, nor did he actually know what he had to do differently to actually help buy the older keyblade master some time, but he at least acknowledged that that was what he had to do now. Twirling his keyblade around, Stratos looked over to the dark side, and began to run towards it to start distracting it. The dark side brought up its hand, smashing its palm into the ground to try and squash Stratos. The boy had managed to stop and dodge roll backward in time, avoiding the attack of the large heartless, but still being knocked off balance by the result shockwave of the attack, a light tremor being felt through his feet. As he was knocked off balance, another neo shadow had seen fit to come and strike at him, rushing from the side with claws at the ready, the creature swept them at the boy. Barely managing to get his guard up in time, the boy managed to deflect the claw attack though was still knocked off his already off balanced feet. Being knocked onto the ground, the neo shadow ran towards him, leaping into the air and attempting to dive down on him. Bringing the keyblade up, the boy created a small ball of flame launching the firaga from his keyblade at the airborne heartless. The explosive force intercepted the airborne heartless and managed to destroy it. Picking himself up from his prone position, the boy's eyes went wide as the dark sides fist was beginning to descend down towards him. It was then that the fist stopped, the dark side being stunned as a large collection of lightning arced across its body, the heartless seemingly being electrocuted. Looking at what had done it, Stratos saw a familiar yet different sight in the thunder golem that had appeared on the scene. As it challenged the dark side before it, the boy nodded back to the golem saying, "thanks for the save." Looking back to Beuce, seeing him in the familiar summoner garb with a strange power he had only actually seen him use once, he merely gave a thumbs up before going back to the fight himself. As it had turned out, the large thunder golem had begun to attract a large amount of attention to itself. The heartless began to converge on the golem's position and seeing two neoshadows begin to bare their claws at the creature, Stratos merely said, "thundaga!" stabbing at the ground with his keyblade. As he did, lightning fell from the sky, striking both of the heartless and killing them, as he moved to look at the dark side. Directing another bolt of lightning at it, he had managed to strike the dark side in the head, though it didn't seem to acknowledge that this was from the keyblade wielder. Instead, it merely wound up its fist and went to punch at the strange golem before it. Word Count: 614 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 2160 Blessed Thief: 1080 Munny Heartless Defeated: 3 neoshadows Heartless Injured: Darkside 1: 520/1500 Darkside 2: 1232/1500 Invisible: 22/50 Enemies Remaining: 1534 Shadows 349 Darkballs 383 Neoshadows (3 Reserved) 20 Invisibles 2 Darksides
With the last of the three neo shadows that had been assaulting him being destroyed, the boy looked up to see the dark side he had struck. The lightning from his thunder bell was arcing across its face, spark jumping across the different tendrils, and the creature seemed to be pushed back by the attack in full. Yet, it didn't take long for the shocking effect to subside from it and the creature merely moved its head back into being straight once more, as it stared down and looked at Stratos, its golden eyes fixed on him. Whereas before, where Stratos saw nothing but an instinctual need to kill and consume before, here he saw something much more expressive. He could see an anger, and one that was directed at him no less. Stratos backed away from the creature, expecting it to let loose yet another punch, though his attention was split once again as he did so. As it turned out, his fight against the large heartless was not meant to be a one against one fight, as more heartless had decided to join in on the fray and attack the boy while he was being occupied with the creature. Three more neo shadows had clawed their way out of the ground, standing upright yet still hunched with a predatory look in their eyes as they stared towards the boy. With claws at the ready, they began to make their way towards the boy, who in turn wanted to get away from the dark side. Of course, the only meditate way to do that was to dodge towards the heartless. Looking at the dark side, he saw it bringing its hand back again, likely winding up for yet another punch towards him. Knowing that being in the general vicinity for that would be bad, the boy merely rushed forward towards the neo shadows, spinning his keyblade in his hand as he did. Tossing it, with a spin the strike raid was sent towards one of the shadows who merely struck at with their claw. While his attack had been deflected the neo shadow that parried it also seemed to be off balance now, causing the boy to recall his keyblade to his hand and pointing the blade at the stunned neo shadow. With a ball of flame forming at the tip of his keyblade, the heat apparent, the stopped momentarily and said, "firaga" as he fired the fire based magic at the heartless. The ball homed in on the heartless, and with a large explosion engulfed it, slaying it almost instantly. Looking behind him, he saw that the dark side had managed to close its fingers and ball them into a fist yet again, the hand seeming to be charged with a purple and black dark energy. It was in this moment of distraction that the neoshadows managed to close the distance on the boy, who had been able to react in time with his guard. Placing his keyblade up, he managed to block one of the claws of the neo shadows, only for the second one's to go underneath it and cut a bit into his torso. Stepping back away, the boy saw the fist beginning to come down towards him and knew what had to be done. Rolling forward, past the heartless, he then turned around to face them as cherry blossoms fluttered in the air. As time came to a stand still, the boy vanished from sight as he appeared behind the dark side. The two neo shadows seemed to be instantly cut in half, and part of one of the dark side's tendrils also was cleaved off. Word Count: 616 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 2100 Heartless Defeated: 3 Neoshadows Heartless Injured: Darkside 1: 521/1500 Darkside 2: 1340/1500 Invisible: 22/50 Enemies Remaining: 1559 Shadows 349 Darkballs 386 Neoshadows (3 Reserved) 20 Invisibles 2 Darksides
The shadows that Stratos had crashed into exploded into wisps of darkness as the boy's body smashed into the ground, his body skipping across before he managed to get back to his feet. He was a bit unsteady at first, needing to find his balance, yet he eventually managed to steady himself, looking towards the large foe he was against. Stratos could tell that the beast was far stronger than he was anticipating, as what had just hit him wasn't even a full power attack. He was merely smacked, tossed away effortlessly by a small little slap. As such, he knew that if he were to keep fighting this thing, he had to avoid getting hit by a direct punch no matter what. As he looked to the face of the creature, though, he could see some of the writhing and clustered tendrils that made up the creature's face were either missing or cut apart. It was clear that it was wounded from his attack, and aiming for the face was definitely the way to go. However, there was also the issue of having to actually get to the creature's face in the first place that made it all the more difficult, especially now that the large humanoid heartless was paying more attention to the boy. To make matters even worse, Stratos looked from behind him and saw a few more heartless behind him also taking notice. More specifically, and more problematically, they were neo shadows. With claws at the ready, the creature's started twitching their heads around, seemingly ready to pounce on the the keyblade master. Of course, now that he had noticed them, they were now ready to pounce on to him. Rushing forward, running along the ground, the first of the neo shadows jumped at the boy, causing Stratos to roll forward. As he dodged the attack, he then looked that he had now sent himself in front of the dark side. It didn't seem like it was going to punch him this time, instead merely putting its hand to the ground, moving it across the ground. Trying to dodge roll to the side, Stratos managed to barely avoid being slapped by the back hand of the dark side, only for the other two neo shadows to leap towards him, claws at the ready. The boy kicked forward, sliding across the ground as he dashed into one of the neo shadows. As he brought his blade through the heartless, following up with an ignited slash and felling the heartless, the other neo shadow had managed to claw him in the back. Wincing in pain from the attack, the boy imbued his blade with darkness, rushing at the neo shadow next to him. Striking one after the other in a string of seven hits, Stratos unleashed a splatter combo into the creature's torso, cleaving off parts of its body. With one final, regular, slash the boy managed to fell the heartless. Looking over, the darkside was now moving again, its other hand coming towards him with its fingers extended and bringing its palm towards Stratos. Realizing that the creature was trying to grab him, the boy pointed his keyblade towards the dark side's face, he shouted, "Thunder Bell." A lightning orb formed at the tip of his keyblade, firing off and into the face of the dark side. As the bell hit the heartless in the face, it recoiled backwards, its hand moving away from him. Before he could even find more room to breathe, the final neo shadow moved towards him, the boy back stepped away, having the claw strike into his torso, before dashing forward with a series of consecutive regular slashes into the heartless to slay it. Word Count: 622 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 2040 Blessed Thief: 1020 Heartless Defeated: 3 Neo shadows Heartless Injured: Darkside 1: 521/1500 Darkside 2: 1370/1500 Invisible: 22/50 Enemies Remaining: 1560 Shadows 357 Darkballs 389 Neoshadows (3 Reserved) 20 Invisibles 2 Darksides
Though there was a bit of smoke coming off the arm of the dark side heartless, the residual effect of the explosion of the faith attack, the large humanoid being of darkness hardly seemed damaged at all. Instead, it moved its arm to the side, curling its fingers into a fist. As its fist tightened, Stratos saw that unlike the last attack this one was charged with some kind of dark energy. While Stratos was watching the fist expectantly, thinking it was going to be brought down on him at any moment, he noticed the creature suddenly tilted. He was curious as to what was going on, he noticed that it wasn't as though the creature was being tilted by some kind of external force, no - it simply raised its foot. Seeing the foot now raised above him, Stratos merely said, "oh," as he realized what the creature was about to do. As it went to stomp down with its foot down on him, the boy realized that he needed to get out of the way soon, and thus began to frantically roll out of the stomp. As he did, it only stomped on empty ground, causing a brief quake from the force. Expecting it this time, and not being nearly as strong as the last punch, though, the boy's footing was still firm and solid on the ground. As he looked towards the darkside, now that its foot was now firmly planted on the ground, the creature began to move further towards the boy. Swinging its fist with great might towards him, Stratos attempted to leap out of the way, using his gravity aura to increase the height at which he could jump due to shifting the gravity around him to become lighter. As he made his way upward, he looked down as the fist slammed against the ground. While he wasn't on the ground to feel the impact, there was a visible shock from the punch, and explosion of darkness stretched out from the epicenter of the punch. The wave stretched on for a few feet before slow dissipating back into the darkness around it. As Stratos had landing on the ground, the dark side began to pull its arm back out of the ground. As he looked at the arm, Stratos figured that attacking that would do no good, as evident from his previous attacks against it, and instead decided to go and strike somewhere he thought would be more vulnerable. The mass of tentacles around the creature's head. Jumping at the arm, the boy landed on the forearm of the creature before it managed to pull it out from the ground. Now on the creature, he knew that there was very little time to do what he had wanted to do, and began to run across the arm of the creature. As he got further and further up the arm, the boy jumped off the arm, using his gravity power to cause him to catapult downwards, then being reversed to fly upward even faster. Now 10s of feet above the dark side, the boy intensified the gravity field around him once again, dropping down on the heartless below. With a heavy slam, the boy smashed his blade against the creature's face, causing a noticeable groan of pain as it was forced backward, only to reach up with one of its hands to slap the boy away. While it was not strong as it could be, he was still forced away from the creature, down on to the ground and with a heavy crash into a few of the shadow heartless. Word Count: 604 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1980 Blessed Thief: 990 Munny Heartless Defeated: 2 shadows Heartless Injured: Darkside 1: 521/1500 Darkside 2: 1400/1500 Enemies Remaining: 1580 Shadows 381 Darkballs 399 Neoshadows (3 Reserved) 20 Invisibles 2 Darksides
As Stratos's keyblade that he had thrown, spinning with the force of a strike raid behind it, the blade managed to skid across the arm of the dark side. The large humanoid arm didn't seem to be all that affected as the blade spun across it, only mere wisps of darkness came off the arm but no visible signs of damage were seen from the hit. And while it didn't manage to inflict any really damage to the creature, it did manage to draw the large heartless's attention towards him. Now that he was up close with it, the boy could see in full view the power and size this thing contained, looking downward at the keyblade master who had challenged him. Though Stratos could look straight at the large creature's eyes, in spite of the large tangling of black tendrils that wrapped around its face that extended outward, he saw just what lie beneath its veneer. Nothing. No rage, or hatred. No malice. Just instinct. Just an innate need to destroy, and likely consume, what was before it. As it winded its hand back, fingers balling into a fist, Stratos merely said to himself, "I might have made a mistake." The large humanoid heartless had finished pulling back its arm entirely, only to then punch towards the boy. The attack was a lot slower then he was expecting, though there was a visible cone of wind around it, indicating the force that was being brought behind it. Running away from the attack, the boy's footing was being lost as the fist struck the ground, releasing a large quake through it. The quake managed to trip up Stratos so much that he ended up falling onto the ground, though that was the extent of the damage that he seemed to take from the attack. Letting out a sigh of relief believing the worst of the attack to be over, and thinking this creature looked far more threatening than it was, he noticed something. Its fist was still in the ground - literally inside of it. A pool of darkness formed around its hand, wisps coming out from it as he saw claws reach from underneath the pool. The claws were small, yet numerous, as they moved down and pushed against the ground, as if pulling itself up. Stratos went wide eyed as he realized what the creature had done, with the shadows having fully hoisted themselves out of the ground. This wasn't just a big guy meant for punching...it also summoned. Thinking now that he made the right choice to kill the large humanoid being of darkness first, as it would just continue to summon more and more heartless into the battle. Spinning his keyblade around the boy targeted some of the heartless, saying, "Aqua Splash." Water formed at the tip of his keyblade, firing off four bubbles of water at four individual shadows. Each of the shadows had taken a bubble, it exploding on impact and destroying some of the heartless around him. Of the twenty that the creature had summoned, his aqua splash had managed to destroyed eight of them. Running towards the heartless, he then ran into the center of the shadows, which were now converging on him. Shouting, "faith." Four columns of light appeared around the boy, spinning and exploding outward, destroying the rest of the shadows and dealing damage to the darkside heartless. The heartless held its arm up to defend against the attack, and after the explosion had taken place, the arm still seemed perfectly fine. Stratos was not sure what this thing was, but it was a hell of a lot more sturdy than a behemoth was. Word Count: 613 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1920 Blessed Thief: 960 Heartless Defeated: 20 Shadows Heartless Injured: Darkside 1: 582/1500 Darkside 2: 1469/1500 Invisible: 22/50 Enemies Remaining: 1582 Shadows 381 Darkballs 400 Neoshadows (3 Reserved) 20 Invisibles 2 Darksides
After making his statement, Hikaru didn't seem to answer, but instead brought attention over to Aux and what he was doing, due to Ignis's prompting. The boy looked over to see the large man and his partner from the Cites des Cloches, striking at the large dark humanoid heartless, seeming to make some great heady way into them and carving wounds all across them. He was then briefly surprised as Ananta appeared before him, healing him, with the boy only saying, "wha- oh thanks," as she did. As Hikaru asked if they were still mad about what Aux did, Stratos merely said, "of course." His expression was neutral, and tone was matter of fact. "He destroyed a world with only innocent people on it and pounded us all into the ground while stomping on our beliefs. Of course I still haven't forgiven him, and I don't think I'll be able to until he answers to all of us about what he's done. But," he looked back to the two fighting the darkside. "He's fighting with us now, and doesn't seem to have any intention of betraying us for the heartless, or if he does it doesn't matter since he'll have to kill all these heartless anyway. Besides, we're busy enough, so I don't really have time to worry about what he'll do." With a smile on his face he said, "and he's your friend and you seem to trust him, so that's good enough for me right now. Of course, if he does turn on us, that's entirely on you buddy," he joked towards Hikaru. Looking towards the heartless before him he said, "well, I'm going to get moving onto that big guy over there, so if you two are coming, now's the time. Otherwise, happy hunting." Twirling his keybalde, the boy began to move towards the large heartless looming over all of the other heartless. With everyone else putting in work, the heartless weren't paying too much attention to him, only for his run to be stopped as a sword appeared in front of him. Well, appear wasn't accurate so much as fall directly vertically down from the sky at him. The serratted looking blade was becoming all too familiar in appearance to Stratos, and he knew exactly what was coming up. The air around it began to ripple with purple and black flame, a humanoid hand reaching out from the strange darkness. Grabbing onto the blade, the creature pulled the blade out of the ground, slashing it a few times before pointing it at Stratos threateningly. "If you want to keep from that big man over there, you're going to need more than just threat," the boy declared at the heartless. Cocking its head curiously at him, the creature flourished its blade before disappearing, reappearing behind Stratos. Though he was caught off guard by the sudden teleportation of the attack, he wasn't exactly surprised either, and was able to react in time. Bringing up his keyblade, the boy managed to successfully guard against the attack, though he still felt the force behind the attack as it pushed him forward. Wincing in pain, the boy looked towards the creature, ready to retaliate, only for another heartless, a neo shadow, to appear right before him. Clicking his tounge in frustration, the boy dodge rolled backwards avoiding the claws of the heartless. As he did, he noticed the invisible flying above him, ready to dive down onto him. Focusing on the two in front of him, the boy then vanished from sight, striking both of them in an instant with his zantetsuken, felling them instantly. With the two felled, the boy looked towards the dark side he was now near, tossing his keyblade at it. Word Count: 624 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1860 Blessed Thief: 930 Munny Heartless Defeated: 1 Invisible 1 Neo Shadow Heartless Injured: Darkside 1: 645/1500 Darkside 2: 1487/1500 Invisible: 22/50 Enemies Remaining: 1617 Shadows 381 Darkballs 400 Neoshadows (3 Reserved) 20 Invisibles 2 Darksides
As Ignis seemed to be a bit better on her feet now, seeming to acknowledge that she put too much effort into that last attack, Stratos felt more relieved now. If one of them were to be too exhausted now, it would be disastrous for the rest of them, and even more so for that person. All the same, the girl seemed to resolve to no longer over exert herself to that extent, which got Stratos thinking. Creating large explosions wasn't entirely out of his repertoire of skills, even outside of the sun based limit that he tended to throw around without much care. So, he was wondering if he was having an issue similar to him and mastering the power of the soldier job he was having older. It would make sense as the girl told him herself that she hadn't much experience in using magic before, and only ever used it as an assist tool rather than her main form of magic. As such, she was probably just abusing the power boost the aura was giving her and taking it too far. While he was going to tell her to try and take it slow, she already seemed to figure this out herself and just went back to shooting out small waves of flames instead. As she went to ask about the giant heartless behind her, he looked to Hikaru, and then back to her, nodding. "Yeah, those are the kinds that uh, that one guy from the Order - I don't really know his name - destroyed when he fell from the sky. Those two just kind of appeared along with the rest of the heartless when this current wave was summoned." Looking between the two large humanoid heartless that were walking around, he pointed to the one farther from them and said, "Aislinn and Aux are dealing with that one over there," he said barely making out the figures of the two keyblade masters. As Ignis mentioned that she would rather stay as far as possible from the heartless, Stratos was about to speak up, but the girl seemed to become preoccupied with a few nearby heartless, letting loose a wave of flame and burning them up. Looking around, Stratos noticed a few other neo shadows that were near them, taking note of the group and looking ready to pounce on them. Thinking he had to go and take care of them, the boy spun his keyblade in his hand, tossing the spinning blade in a strike raid at a nearby shadow between the neo ones. As he summoned his keyblade back to him, the boy started to rush towards the heartless, meeting them head on. With a snap of his fingers, three of the charging heartless were suddenly subjected to the effects of his Graviga spell, beginning to float into the air. The two neo shadows on the ground continued their charging, spinning in a vertical way, perpendicular to the ground. As the heartless made their way towards him, the boy pointed his keyblade at them, water forming at its tip. "Aqua Splash." As he called out the attacks name, four bubbles were launched from his keyblade, being sent towards the heartless, it exploding against their bodies and destroying them instantly. Stabbing his keyblade into the ground he then said "Thundaga!" causing massive lightning bolts to rain from the sky, felling the three neo shadows that were suspended in the air. Looking over to Ignis and Hikaru he said, "I know you said you wanted to avoid it, but, I'm going to go take that other big heartless head on. After all, we have to face it eventually, and the longer we let it keep moving around the more of a chance it'll cause trouble for all of us. Either of you are free to join me if you'd like." Total words: 643 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 1800 Blessed Thief: 900 Munny Heartless Defeated: 1 Shadows 5 Neoshadows Heartless Injured: Darkside 1,113/1,500 Invisible: 22/50 BP Heartless Left 1676 Shadows 403 Neoshadows 381 Darkballs 23 Invisibles 2 Darksides
As Stratos continued his trail towards the dark side heartless, the large figure getting ever closer with each step he took, his attention was called back towards something else. Hearing the voice of Ignis call out to him, he turned around to notice that a swarm of heartless were coming after her. While the boy figured she had it under control, the girl was soon overwhelmed by the flood that was coming towards her. Stopping in his tracks, the boy started to run after her, trying to keep her from being swallowed by the swarm of darkness, only for the girl to shout at him to take cover. He wasn't quite sure what she was talking about, continuing to press forward only to stop as he saw a faint glow being to form from underneath the swarm. Figuring out what was about to happen, the boy quickly jumped into the air, casting Graviga on himself to make himself weightless and float much higher into the air then normal. As the glow grew, it soon launched itself into a large outburst of flame, engulfing the heartless that had been swarming the girl. Having been safe from the attack, he started to descend, returning his gravity to normal as he saw the girl wave for him to come closer, seemingly out of breath. As he landed, Hikaru called out to him, the boy looked over, giving a short wave. Wondering where he learned the technique he used, the boy looked confused for a second, saying, "Graviga? I just kind of picked it up? Well, it was Gravity and then it just naturally evolved over time. Though, I'm not entirely sure where I learned gravity in the first place...instinct? Well, regardless, that was just graviga amplified by one of my Auras from becoming a master. The space - er, the Gravity one. Still a bit tripped up by that." As he answered the question, he then realized that Hikaru also probably already knew Gravity, and thus was probably asking about something else. Thinking back to all the moves he had just used, he landed on the most recent one and snapped his fingers, saying, "oh. Fox taser. Yeah, I picked that up in the last world I went to. Kind of emulates a weapon that this fox and bunny had - they were like people but animals - called a taser. Only this one is a lot more violent and deadly, as I have just learned." Seeing a few neo shadows begin to converge on Ignis's position, as well as a handful of regular shadows, he held up a hand towards Hikaru saying, "excuse me, there's someone in need of my aid." Spinning his keyblade, the boy took a deep breath as cherry blossom petals began to fall from the sky. Time began to crawl on forward, only for the heartless to completely stop in their track. Looking at the three neo shadows, the boy vanished from where he was standing next to Hikaru, only to appear next to Ignis in the next instant. A large slash appeared across each of the neo shadows, only for them to pause mid leap as well. The slash expanded, and the heartless, both neo shadows and regular shadows in total, were cut in half, their bodies dissolving back into darkness. Looking to Ignis he said, "sorry for taking so long." Noticing she seemed very unsteady on her feet he said, "hey are you able to keep going like that?" Pointing his keyblade towards her, he cast a cura spell over her, hopefully alleviating some of the exhaustion she was feeling. Word Count: 601 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1740 Blessed Thief: 770 Munny Heartless Defeated: 3 NeoShadows 11 Shadows Heartless Injured: Darkside 1,191/1,500 Enemies Remaining: 1690 Shadows 410 Neoshadows 382 Darkballs 24 Invisibles 2 Darksides
Stratos continued his advance towards the large, ever looming humanoid heartless in the distance. He was able to make his way through the swarm thus far, but there was still a large amount of distance to cover, and he was positive that more heartless were going to stop him. After all, ti wasn't like everyone else could keep a couple thousand other heartless occupied while he did this. So, his run was slowed, as aired on the side of caution, looking out for any heartless that might be trying to ambush him on his way towards the massive heartless. Looking around, the boy's leisurely jog was interrupted by a sudden explosion of black inky darkness, a neo shadow appearing behind him. The boy dodge rolled forward, attempting to avoid the attack, only for the claw to rake against his back. While the attack wasn't massive or anything, it was still noticeable and caused the boy to wince in pain as he finished his roll. Turning around, he looked at the opponent before him, noting it to be of a different breed of neo shadow then the common one, but still one he had dealt with previously. The heartless was still roughly the same size, though, rather than being an inky black, it instead had red veins moving across it. Its body was still tall and gaunt, and the shadow still moved around frantically, though it seemed to constantly snap and tilt around, like it was having trouble paying attention to any one thing at a time. Despite this rather frantic, beyond feral kind of actions the beast seemed to be taking, the crimson veined neo shadow did not wait for much time to pass before it lunged at Stratos again. The speed of its lunge was not any greater, at least as he could see, then the one of the regular neo shadow. However, there seemed to be a lot less preparatory motion in its action, making the attack feel a whole lot more sudden. Stratos, caught a bit flat-footed by this sudden attack, could barely react in time to hold his guard up against the attack. The attack itself, also appeared to be far more sudden then normal, the arm of the creature going from a wind up motion to snapping forward, ready to bury itself into his chest in no time flat. The boy had managed parry the attack with his keyblade's guard, though he was still pushed back by the attack. If he had to guess, the heartless that he was facing definitely stronger then the regular neo shadow. However, if he had to guess its actual strength, he'd say it was approximately as powerful as five neo shadows put into one. Maybe a bit more. All the same, he wasn't about to let that deter him. Looking at his super foe, the boy took a deep breath, trying to focus on his next attack. As he prepared his zantetsuken, though, the heartless gave him no time, suddenly appearing next to him, and letting out a fast snap kick, striking the boy in the gut. While winded, the heartless raised its claw into the air, about to stab through the boy. However, reaching out, he cast yet another Graviga, forcing the heartless into the air, weightless. Being in the air now, the claw of the neo shadow merely struck nothing but air. Getting his breath back, the boy looked at the creature, and shot a small lightning dart from his keyblade. As it struck the heartless, he merely said, "Fox Taser." The heartless suddenly exploded in violent lightning, being destroyed. Word Count: 606 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1680 Blessed Thief: 840 Munny Heartless Defeated: 5 Neoshadows 1 Shadow Heartless Injured: Darkside 1,191/1,500 Enemies Remaining: 1741 Shadows 415 Neoshadows 391 Darkballs 24 Invisibles 2 Darksides
Though he had felt like he was putting up a good fight so far, it was clearly noticeable just how little they had actually done so far. Though Stratos had slain a dozen neo shadows himself and few of the invisibles, it seemed that there was still a sizable amount of them left. Well, he couldn't exactly count the invisible, as they were lost in the sea of darkness that was the heartless, yet he could see the collection of neoshadows that were still around, and they were far more numerous than he was expecting. Add onto that, while Kaida and Hikaru seemed to be dealing with the super horde of shadows, despite all their efforts that too didn't seem to be ending anytime soon. Add on to that, there was still the two giant humaonid heartless, that were still walking around and likely causing the others to be inspired, if heartless could feel that, and were unrestricted in what they were doing. While Aislinn and Aux seemed to have one under control, the other merely moved around uninjured and undaunted. Stratos had resolved to go deal with that one, as well, though, there was still quite a large number of heartless between him and it. The solution was simple. He merely had to cut a path between him and the heartless, and once he did that, he'd have a clear shot at fighting it. He resolved to do this, knowing that the longer it was around the harder things in the long run for them would be, and so with keyblade in hand he began to rush towards the heartless. Unsurprisingly, there was collection of neo shadows in his way that had designed to stop him. One popped out of the ground, swinging its claw in an uppercut fashion, trying to slash at him. The boy managed to stop himself in time, merely dodge rolling backward to avoid the attack. As he got back up onto his feet, the creature was now floating in the air, descending as gravity took hold of it. Imbuing his keyblade with ice, the boy jumped up, slashing twice in an X formation, with a third heavier slash being brought down. As the vorpal blitz cleaved through the heartless, instantly slaying it. As he landed back on the ground, a second neo shadow, spinning parallel with the ground moved its way towards him. Pointing his keyblade at it, Stratos merely casted yet another Graviga on it, forcing the creature's spin to come to a halt as it was pressed against the ground. Sliding dash through the heartless, and cleaving it instantly. With those two being dealt with, a shadow and three more neo shadows emerged from the ground, trying to impede the boy's progress as well. The three Neo shadows, traveling in a straight line, all barreled their way towards the boy. Taking a deep breath, wanting to get through them as fast as possible, the boy charged himself with a yellow lightning. Kicking off the ground at high speeds, the boy unleashed his Hunter's rush limit towards the Neoshadow's, instantly slashing through one and the shadow that was close behind it. The other two neo shadows were surprised by this attack, as the boy moved right past them. While his back was to them, Stratos merely twirled his keyblade and pointed it to the ground saying, "seeker mine." With that, small discs of magic formed on the ground, seeking towards the Neo Shadows, exploding at they came within range. The mines managed to destroy the heartless instantly, and without even looking back, the boy kept running towards the second darkside. Word Count: 606 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1620 Blessed Thief: 810 Munny Heartless Defeated: 1 Shadow 5 Neoshadows Heartless Injured: Darkside 1,194/1,500 Enemies Remaining: 1792 Shadows 420 Neoshadows 399 Darkballs 24 Invisibles 2 Darksides
As the heartless that he was fighting were destroyed, dissipating into the air as wisps of dark smoke, the boy landed back on his feet, touching down on the ground below. Before he could even formulate a next plan of attack, or designate a new target for him to try and attack however, he was immediately cut off by another heartless that came to attack him. Only being barely able to react, the boy tried to dodge out of the way as a sword from seemingly nowhere was flung at him. His reaction was good, but not impecable, as the blade had still managed to nick his cheek, the blade planting itself into the ground. While it had come from an angle, the boy looked over to where it came from and saw nothing that would have delivered it. Looking back at the blade, he saw a ring of black and purple flames start to form around the hilt, before coalescing together into one ball of fire. From that fire, a heartless came out from it, the humanoid form with the pointed tail and faux angelic wings. Stratos recognized it as the invisible type heartless he had been dealing with thus far, and merely said, "well that's new." The heartless reached down, its hand closing around the hilt as it yanked the blade out from the earth it was stuck in. Twirling it, the invisible pointed its serrated blade towards the boy, clearly meaning to challenge him. The boy held up his blade, ready to take on the invisible as it dove at him with its own blade at the ready. Diving forth, Stratos held up his keyblade to guard against the sword, the two blades colliding against each other. As the came to a power struggle of sorts, Stratos pumped his gravity aura into the opponent's weapon, causing it to steadily become heavier and heavier. However, the invisible was not deterred by this, instead gripping onto the blade with both of its hand and using the new weight to force its way through Stratos's guard. The boy was blown by the attack, as the sword of the heartless struck the ground with a large thud. It seemed to be struggling to pick it up, yet it still managed to hold onto the super heavy sword. Imbuing it with a dark flame, the heartless swung his blade at the boy, sending the wave of purple and black flame at him. Spinning his keyblade, Stratos tossed it in a strike raid, the two being intercepted by the other and canceling each other out. Summoning his keyblade back, the began to run towards the heartless. Sliding dash forwards towards him, the boy struck his keyblade against the invisible's sword, the latter using it to guard against the attack. However, as he did, he switched the gravity effect on the weapon. Suddenly becoming far lighter, the weapon was blown out of the invisible's hands, as it was not expecting such an abrupt change. His blade erupting in flames of its own, Stratos brought down a fire strike through the heartless's torso, cleaving it in twain. As he did, he followed up with his blade with ice, letting loose a vorpal blitz against the creature, striking it twice before bringing down a final hard strike, felling the heartless. After he did that, he looked up to see a few more heartless approaching him. With a calm breath, the boy looked at the 3 heartless and said, "graviga!" Creating a super heavy field of gravity, the heartless were crushed under the force of the magic, being destroyed and returned to darkness. Word Count: 606 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1560 Blessed Thief: 780 Munny Heartless Defeated: 1 Shadow 1 Neoshadow 1 Darkball 1 Invisible Heartless Injured: Darkside 1,194/1,500 Enemies Remaining: 1794 Shadows 425 Neoshadows 407 Darkballs 24 Invisibles 2 Darksides
After having used his bare hands to destroy the heartless before him, Stratos was starting to understand something about the monk power that he had been using. It was certainly a powerful style that he could get used to using, and slowly but surely he was getting the hang of punching and kicking things. The power of the four seasons was also something to be reckoned with as well. However, he was seeing where its limits lied. While he was able to keep up with the heartless and able to destroy them with great speed, fighting a horde with this bare handed power of his was far less effective then it was with a blade. And so, taking a deep breath, the boy started to focus as he was enveloped in a red and green light. Slowly, the light moved off of him, turning into mere particles as Stratos's outfit had returned to normal. The emblem of the fist now missing from his jacket and it returning to both being open and going back to its usual black coloration, Stratos looked at his hands. Going back to bare hands, the cestuses now missing, the boy held out his hand, taking in yet another deep breath as he focused on bringing back his keyblade. Looking at the weapon he said, "yeah, maybe this'll do for now." Not wanting to use any of the fancy new job powers that he had obtained upon becoming a master, Stratos figured he'd just stick back to use the basics of his keyblade bladework, the skill commands associated with it and the magic he could use with it. Of course, the new aura of gravity was still around him, and the boy was still trying to master just how this kind of power functioned so it wasn't all just vanilla keyblade wielding. Twirling his keyblade, he looked towards a lone shadow that was popping out of the ground. Spinning his keyblade faster, the boy tossed it at the small heartless, the strike raid instantly hitting it and destroying it. Calling the blade back to his hand, he was then assaulted by a neo shadow almost immediately afterward. Looking up, the boy brought his keyblade to defend himself from the attack, the claw being stopped by the blade's guard. Channeling his gravity aura through the weapon, it soon went into the body of the neo shadow, causing it to suddenly shudder and smash into the ground, unable to lift itself up over the sudden increase in gravity it was experiencing. With a stab downward, Stratos managed to fell the neo shadow in a singular, heavy strike. After that was done, four more neo shadows popped up from the ground, claws at the ready to rake into Stratos. As their claws closed in, the boy focused his gravity magic into his feet, letting out a burst of magical force to cause him to leap over the claws. Now higher in the air then he had ever jumped before, the boy then caused a surge of gravity magic to affect him again, causing him to come crashing back towards the ground much faster. With a singular heavy slash, Stratos landed on the neo shadow, destroying it instantly. The three others being shocked by this, Stratos then dashed forward, sliding across the ground and stabbing into one, following up with a singular fire strike, his flaming keyblade cutting it in twain. As the two lasts ones leaped into the air after him, the boy snapped his fingers, causing the neo shadows to float there harmlessly. Jumping after them, the boy altered his own gravity to allow him to hang in the air longer, spinning all the while and cleaving through both of the neoshadows with his keybladae. Total words: 627 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 1500 Blessed Thief: 750 munny Heartless Defeated: 1 Shadow 5 Neoshadows Heartless Remaining: Heartless Injured: Darkside 1,197/1,500 Heartless Remaining: Defeat 1848 Shadows Defeat 426 Neoshadows Defeat 424 Darkballs Defeat 25 Invisibles Defeat 2 Darksides
With his gravity aura still active, Stratos wished to see how else he could push the limits of his new found space powers against these heartless. As he focused more on the sensation that it gave him, he was able to feel more then just the weight that was given by it. Sure, the air had felt heavier then before, but there was more to it. It was as if he could feel not just the air itself, but the very concept of weight itself felt like it was within his senses. It was a strange sensation to say the least, yet, he figured he could use this to help understand his space magic more. As he walked around, looking for another heartless test this understanding on, he was greeted with the sight of a few more neo shadows, their bodies coming out of the ground as the heartless looked at him with their beady golden eyes. Curiously at first, they bobbed and titled their head around, before opening their claws to begin their onslaught against him. Putting up his fists, the boy got into a defensive stance, ready for whatever the feral large shadow type heartless were going to throw at him. The first of the neo shadows moved fast towards him. Rather than lunging at them, as they were wont to do, this neo shadow ran across the ground towards him. As it did, two more dove into the ground, becoming a part of the ground itself as they scurried to either side towards him. The last two, behind the first, merely seemed to stand there, looking as if they were waiting for something to happen. As the first of the neo shadows had finally closed to the distance, it opened up with a slash from its claw, prompting the boy to evade underneath it, followed by a follow up swing of its other claw going in an upper cut motion with a swift jabbing motion against the heartless, in spite of the speed by which he struck the heartless there was a certain weight behind it. The impact of his fist felt far greater than normally, as if it suddenly weighed considerably more and thus was able to strike harder as a result. Driving his gravity imbued fist into the neo shadow's gut, he moved his arm up in an uppercut motion, forcing the neo shadow off its feat and into the air. As it was falling back down to the ground, the heartless seemed to have taken a considerable amount of damage, being destroyed in the process. After his heavy punch, the two neo shadow's that were in the ground popped out, closing in on either side of Stratos, there was barely any room to move around, and thus he couldn't quite dodge them. And so, merely stomping onto the ground he said, "graviga," letting loose a pulse of space magic from his stomp. The neo shadow's attack swung wide as they began to float into the air, their gravity inverted by Stratos's magic as he ducked underneath their now higher swings. Jumping into the air, the boy grabbed both of them, and switched the gravity around them to become super heavy, smashing the two against each other and destroying them. The two that were left, started spinning towards the boy, prompting him to clap his hands together. A strong force of gravity pulled the two neo shadows towards each other, forcing them into each other destroying them as well. With all that done, a single shadow attempted to ambush Stratos from behind, but seeing it coming, merely stomped at it and destroyed it instantly. Word Count: 609 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1440 Blessed Thief: 720 Munny Heartless Defeated: 5 Neo Shadows 1 Shadow Heartless Injured: Darkside 1,197/1,500 Heartless Remaining: Defeat 1875 Shadows Defeat 431 Neoshadows Defeat 432 Darkballs Defeat 25 Invisibles Defeat 2 Darksides
