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
