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Keeping his routine defensive stance as more shadow heartless appeared, Hikaru listened as Ignis continued to share her story. "Wow, I didn't know you were a mercenary." She spoke a lot about what it was to hold a grudge versus just having something happen as part of the job. It was true that since Hikaru began this little crusade, each world has felt like part of a job he was meant to complete so he could keep the world order. At the very least, she wasn't hating him, which is what Hikaru was hoping for since the beginning. Since his trial of heart, Hikaru had had a looming thought over his head in terms of what became of Aux. He had seen with his own eyes just what the remnant had did. It corrupted him and caused him to act with dark intentions. But the reason he felt most responsible for the whole situation is that because Aux gave up his light just to save him from his fractured heart. While Hikaru had come to terms that his own life was his to live, he still felt he owed Aux a group to call his own and a life to live. He did accept Kaida's advice and chose not to beat himself up too much about it, but part of him wanted to keep Aux safe from further blame.

Before he could think further on the subject, he a few Neoshadows begin to creep their way towards him. Their size was much larger than their shadow counterparts. As he saw them begin to circle him as if they were velociraptors. Hikaru's eyes shifted back and forth watching for any of them to strike. They had long lanky arms, which meant they could cover a large rage with just a sweep of their arms. Taking his keyblade and keeping it vertically in front of them, he carefully paced his feet in a circular motion to get a good idea what was going on in their heads. They had a very predatory mentality, as just like any aggressive creature, their end game was to be able to knock him down and finish him. He pointed his keyblade to the ground and cast a seeker mine spell, causing various seeker mines to appear in a cirular formation around him. Seeing the powerful mines places, the Neoshadows began to scatter. Some jumped up high in the air, while others began to run in the oposite direction. Regardless of what they did, the seeker mines managed to chase them down and detonated themselves in a small controlled explosion. The Neoshadows were for the most part eliminated, with Hikaru lowering his keyblade to see if the damage he done had scared them off for noiw. Looking to the ground, he checked to make sure if there were any straggling shadows or neoshadows performing shadow sneak. The last thing he needed was for any of the heartless to perform a sneak attack while he was busy getting rid of the neoshadows. The area seemed clear for now as he saw a small straggling shadow without anywhere to run. It was close enough for Hikaru to reach without moving himself at all. Taking his keyblade he turned around and quickly slashed at the shadow heartless. A few smacks with his keyblade and the shadow vanished in a puff of smoke after it's defeat. Returning to defensive stance, he could see some darkballs floating around him. Instead of pursuing them, he kept his ground and prepared for if they had planned to decide whether or not they wanted to bring the fight to him.

Word Count: 605
EXP Earned: 60
EXP Total: 1440

Heartless Defeated:
1 shadow
5 Neoshadows

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

Enemies Remaining:
1561 Shadows
365 Darkballs
392 Neoshadows (3 Reserved)
20 Invisibles
2 Darksides

View attachment 48807

The more that Aislinn continued to sing, the stranger Aux's face became. He wanted to respect what she was doing. He really really did. But there was just something about the odd visual sight of watching someone sing while in battle. The more she sang, the more he tried to analyze just what it was she was saying. He began with looking back to the earlier verses of the song. She mentioned 'I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd. You're gonna hear my voice.' Obviously she wants to tell him something. 'It's my life, It's now or never. I ain't gonna live forever. I just want to live while I'm alive! It's my life!' And the more he listened to the lyrics the more he was trying to understand just what giant thing she needed to say. What information did she need to convey that required such a grand gesture? He recalled some of the other lyrics in his head about just what it was she was singing about. 'My heart is like an open highway.' As he thought about it without much moving, several small shadow heartless began to pop from the small pool of darkness that the darkside heartless had created. Twitching and jerking about, the shadows began to flail their way towards Aux; who at this point was still in a deep analytical thinking process regarding Aislinn's sudden burst into song. As the shadow heartless jumped upward, Aux quickly slashed them away with one fell swoop of his keyblade. He didn't even look at what he was defeating. He just looked at Aislinn continuously with a semi-horrific look on his face, swatting away and any heartless that approached him like there were an afterthought. The shadows he swiped away from the darksides pool had been eliminated as the darkside raised it's hand and returned to it's upright position. The attack wasn't all that powerful as it simply brought more shadow heartless onto the field. The darkside seemed content with it's time consuming attack as it simply stood there, lurching slowly as it looked across the field, it's bouncing edgy shadow hair just bouncing in place.

As Aislinn sung on, Aux peered his eyes, trying to understand just what it was she was trying so hard to sing to him about. 'You better stand tall when they're calling you out. Don't bend, don't break, Aux, don't back down.... Ready to take hold of your own life and show everyone what you are made of?' Looking away for a quick moment, Aux quickly slashed away at the darkside heartless' shins again, hoping to break eye contact with Aislinn if even just for a moment. The eye intensity she was holding was a very awkward thing to try and hold with her. As he pushed away the darkside, he looked back at Aislinn. As she sang to him and had her hair blowing in the wind, he had a very unsettling thought as she continued. She kept singing about living for the moment and that her life was her own. She claimed her heart was open ended and that he had better stand tall because she was calling him you. He told him not to back down from this very public display she was portraying. There was no other logical way to look at it. The signs were too obvious and the lyrics were far to specific to be anything else but what Aux had suspected would happen since he met her. Their initial disagreement upon meeting and their sudden kinship as allies. Aislinn was confessing her love to him.

Word Count: 603
EXP Earned: 60
EXP Total: 1380

Heartless Defeated:
5 Shadows

Heartless Injured:
Darkside 1: 582/1500
Darkside 2: 1487/1500
Invisible: 22/50

Enemies Remaining:
1602 Shadows
381 Darkballs
400 Neoshadows (3 Reserved)
20 Invisibles
2 Darksides

Noticing the grand efforts of Stratos as he leapt away to help someone else, Hikaru watched in admiration, not even minding that he left. Not really like they should be using a lot of this time to be talking too much anyhow. There were too many heartless too eliminate and there were only a dozen of them present to get the job done. As he thought of what his next plan of action, he was approached by Ignis. The red haired girl walked over to him and began some casual conversation. "So, how are we handling ourselves? Have any enjoyable moments with these little guys that you'd rather forget about? Oh yeah, you know if Aux is handling himself any better?" Hikaru had only really alligned with Ignis during their time in Sanfransokyo, and even then, it was during a time in the exam where they were seperated in both realground and underground planes of existence. She seemed kind enough and was willing to approach Hikaru in concerns to Aux; something he thought no one but himself and maybe Kaida would bother to check in with. "Could be worse, I guess," he replied to Ignis. "I mean, yeah there are a lot of these little buggers everywhere, but at least becoming masters gave a kind of edge, y'know?" Hikaru shrugged, looking across the field at Aux and Aislinn. "As for Aux, I guess he's just adjusting. He said he began recalling a lot of his forgotten memories. I don't know if that's a good thing or bad to be honest..." Realizing something crossing his mind, he turned to Ignis to question her on something he constantly thought about. "Aren't you still mad at him? Y'know... for throwing you and almost everyone else here into darkness from Disneytown?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the side of the darkside, Aux was prepared to attack once more when he saw that Aislinn was prepared to boost him up. Before he could even jump, he hesitated. After all, he knew that she was definately a strong woman, but being hoisted up by a woman more than two weight classes below him felt... dangerous. Not to mention he was always concerned with his size in comparison to others his age. His rigorous training with his grandfather Kurt caused him to gain unbelievable muscle mass from a very rigorous training schedule. Hikaru had always said that his arms were the size of cantaloupes, which somehow made him a little uncomfortable about his size. But this was Aux attempting to try and fit in with the crowd and work together with them. Kaida was able to do it, so why not him? I mean sure, he's still the reason a large percentage of them ended up here, but in the long run, he still had to at least make the attempt to be a team player. Just as he was about to go in for the boost, he stopped at the sign of Aislinn preparing to sing.

The two were fighting a giant heartless, but she still managed to find the time to prepare a ballad of sorts to sing as she sung her heart out. She turned back to him after her attack and redid her boosting position. "Your turn," she said.

View attachment 48802

Choosing not to question it, Aux simply took her boost and gave the darkside a wicked whack to the face. As he descended back down, he watched overhead as the Darkside shook it's head. Reaching back his giant head, he punched it into the ground before the two and caused a swirling purple pool of darkness to form around his hand. "Well that's probably not good."


Word Count: 609
EXP Earned: 60
EXP Total: 1320

Heartless Defeated:

Heartless Injured:
Darkside: 801/1500
Invisible: 22/50

Enemies Remaining:
1635 Shadows
373 Darkballs
401 Neoshadows (3 Reserved)
22 Invisibles
2 Darksides

As Aislinn asked how he came to be in the Mark of Mastery Exam, Aux had to take a moment to reflect. He had all his memories restored so he was trying to recall just what it was that brought him to Shibuya in the first place. As far as everyone else was concerned, Sho Minamimoto; the devilish game master that he was, simply put him there for giggles. But it was more complicated than that. Before the events in the realm of darkness, Aux had knocked most all of the SOS members into the realm of darkness after the fall of Disneytown. After the world's demise, he had gone back to No Heart to report and then... Hard as he tried to remember, not all of Aux's memories had returned to him. He remembered that No Heart had sent him on a mission to complete in the realm of darkness, but what was it? And why was he so eager to follow the master that tried to get him to destroy his friends? A lot of Aux's past actions didn't make much sense to him as far as going through with them was concerned. As far as Aislinn and the JJ kid was concerned, he was just another person from the group's past with troubling tendencies. Even if he didn't initially get along with them during his time in the Pridelands, Aux didn't want to stir up more conflict than the giant heartless horde battle that they were currently facing. He turned his head to Aislinn after she had finished her assault and scratched the back of his heads as he tried to muster a good enough explanation that would satisfy her curiosity on the subject. "Well uhh... I used to train with Hikaru and Kaida for a while. I was friends with them for a while before I uhh... lost contact with them for a while. For some reason I was drawn to Shibuya while I was in the realm of darkness, and then Sho got a hold of me and well... I can't remember much else about why he abducted me. And one thing led to another and I found myself subbing in for some guy that didn't make it past the first part." The more he spoke aloud, the more he began to wonder if that explanation at all would be suffice enough for her. Before he continued on he could feel the darkside walking closer and closer towards them. He could see from the corner of his eye, that the darkside was preparing to raise it's hand as if it were preparing to crash it down in front of the two. Not wishing to be interrupted, he quickly turn to his left, and gave the darkside a hard punch to the shin with his left fist. The darkside heartless stumbled back a few feet almost as if it was going to lose it's balance. With the darkside temporarily off balance, Aux turned back to Aislinn to finish his explanation.

"Anyways, I guess I joined here more by circumstance than desire." He looked back to Kaida and Hikaru here were fighting away on opposite sides of the battlefield. Part of him was just thankful that he didn't end up finishing them off. That darkness he held inside him made him fear the future and what part he would play in it. As he thought about this, Ananta quickly slid onto the scene yelling "Take this!" as she cast a quick cure spell. The girl then dashed away as quickly as she came, leaving Aux to look up and down obliviously at Aislinn. "When did you get injured?"

Word Count: 611
EXP Earned: 60
EXP Total: 1260

Heartless Injured:
Darkside 1,035/1,500
Invisible 22/50

Enemies Remaining:
1651 Shadows (3BP each)
381 Darkballs (9BP each)
403 Neoshadows (15BP each)
23 Invisibles (50BP each)
2 Darksides (1500BP

Seeing Kel and Luna still in his rear view, he looked on to the horde in front of him. Several shadow heartless had already made their way into his general vicinity, sneaking into the ground as he took a few steps back. He shot several blizzard spells along the ground, managing to immediately get rid of the ones charging at him from a higher vantage point. He had managed to fire three powerful blizzard spells, that managed to help get rid of any of the oncoming threats before having to wait for the other half of the shadow heartless swarm to rise up from their shadow sneak forms. He took his keyblade, and watched carefully as they scurried under the ground beneath his feet. Hikaru's Aerora spell was still in effect so at least he had a powerful wind barrier on his side for when they would try and pop out of the ground to attack him. He crossed his eyes back and forth as held his keyblade firmly in preparation for their onslaught. They rose from the ground in time for Hikaru to let loose his ground combos to scatter and destroy any of them from coming near himself or towards Kel and Luna. He kept his legs low and his strikes accurate as he slashed away at the targets, causing them to disappear. Taking on solely shadows, he managed to help the group while preventing himself from challenging som of the more fierce heartless.

Coming back from his attacks on the shadow heartless, he looked around the battlefield. His eyes flew over to the giant darksides he planned to avoid, as a couple of keyblade wielders from his group were already taking on the giant one on the left side of the island. Aux and Aislinn were taking on the darkside all by themselves, and from the look of things, wearing them down quite a bit. Two of the strongest keyblade wielders were duking it out with the big guns and he was still on the ground floor attacking shadows. The more he looked around the battlefield, the more he tried to wonder how everyone else was fighting in comparison to himself. One member of their party he took great interest in was Stratos. He had only partied with him in Space Paranoids, but from what he saw and heard, he was always there on the front line of the battle, ready to fight without a moments notice. Stratos fought many at once and always managed to find ways to eliminate multiple enemies in a small time span. From what he could see in his arsenal, Stratos' abilities and skills were more or less on par with everyone else's. His strength seemed relatively average in many areas also. Not that it was necessarily a downside, but it still made him curious to see what drove him to fight so hard so quickly.

Before he walked over to ask, Bambi pranced alongside him once more, dropping another group of MP bubbles before Hikaru would stop to pet him. "Okay, that's good for now pal. Thanks..." Bambi nodded before disappearing from the field, but not before replenishing Hikaru's MP by a small margin. As Hikaru rushed over passed numerous heartless, he could feel that his wind barrier was also fading. At the rate the wind was slowing and deteriorating, the defensive wind spell would probably run out of time by the time he's approach Stratos. Watching him perform a potent thunder styled attack on a nearby heartless, Hikaru began slowing down as he approached Stratos. "Whoa... where'd you learn that?" he asked. He wished to get to know Stratos a bit better in order to see what kept his drive going. Maybe even learning a bit more about him.

Word Count: 629
EXP Earned: 60
EXP Total: 1200

Heartless Defeated:
26 Shadows

Heartless Injured:
Darkside 1,191/1,500

Enemies Remaining:
1701 Shadows
413 Neoshadows
382 Darkballs
24 Invisibles
2 Darksides

After Bambi pranced away happily, Hikaru was newly rejuvinated by the MP bubble orbs that the deer had left behind. He felt his mystical energy replenish as he was no ready to have some mre fun with his high damaging spell casting. Hikaru looked into the sky as roughly half a dozen darkballs were floating overhead. Hoping to get some good distance, Hikaru began to pace himself around the giant darkballs in order to get a good idea of just how much range he had before casting his spells. With the aerora spell still in effect, his wind barrier was still able to parry and deter most of the darkballs' charging attacks. Stopping and finding his footing, Hikaru looked up at the demonic darkballs, as their chains dangled heavily at their sides. Two of them took the leading charge as they made a mad dash for Hikaru. While he would normally be on his guard, Hikaru didn't have to worry about it too much this time around. His wind spell was still active and caused the darkballs to bounce right off him as if they were dodgeballs hitting a wall. The darkballs were bounced off and both heads were floundering about in a daze, allowing Hikaru his opportunity to do damage. Taking his keyblade, he pointed it directly in front of him and aimed specifically for the dazed darkball on the right. He let loose a powerful blizzard spell, causing the Darkball to immediately freeze on impact and the darkballs nearby to receive a fair bit of damage. He watched as the frozen one began it's decent onto the ground, while the other darkballs were still shaking off the edges of their frozen antennae in an attempt to get rid of the excess ice dangling from the sides of their bodies. Their chains were now cold as ice, now having turned a light blue cyan colour. Dashing towards the falling darkside, Hikaru held his keyblade with both hands, preparing to do a massive strike against it. This hit had to be just strong enough to launch it, but not strong enough to destroy it. Hikaru wanted to try his hand at a geometric tactics. He lossened his grip lightly as he took his swing at the frozen darkball. He did not smack his keyblade forcefully against it, but managed to just cradle it enough with his keyblade, before firing it like a hockey puck at the other darkballs. The darkball managed to hit 3 others before falling apart in a cascade of ice and darkness. "Woo! Three pointer!" he cheered, charging ahead to finish the other darkballs. He raced to the remaining darkballs and jumped into the air to perform a fury of slashes to help finish off the darkballs that weren't damaged or destroyed by his little geometric ice tactc. In all honesty, there wasn't much math involved as just pure luck.

Watching behind him, he spotted two smaller shadows sneaking towards Kel. Insignificant as they appeared to be, he want to make sure his friends were covered from all angles. HE charged ahead and lunged forward with his keyblade, causing one of them to be eliminated on impact. The other one snuck down into his shadow sneak mode, causing Hikaru to pause and wait. It honestly felt like he was just waiting for a fish to jump out of a river. When it did, Hikaru jumped at the chance and immediately slammed his keyblade down to the ground. The impact caused the shadow heartless to be eliminated, as Hikaru returned to his defensive stance. Reseting after each encounter was slowly becoming second nature to him.

Word Count: 607
EXP Earned: 60
EXP Total: 1140

Heartless Defeated:
8 Darkballs
2 Shadows
:
Heartless Injured:
Darkside 1,194/1,500

Enemies Remaining:
1820 Shadows
426 Neoshadows
408 Darkballs
25 Invisibles
2 Darksides

Hikaru watched as more shadow heartless began to rise in front of him. Their bright eyes illuminated the atmosphere of darkness that was laid before them.Holding his keyblade aloft, he looked onwards to the swarm of shadow heartless. Whenever they appeared, it was always in a pack of roughly two dozen or so. They twitched back and forth as they began to scurry forward, half of them shadow sneaking from the ground as they prepared their oncoming attack. Hoping to try and deter their efforts while saving some of his own stamina, Hikaru helt his keyblade over his head. Pointing straight to the sky, he cast a large circular wind barrier over himself with an Aerora spell. "Wind!" he yelled, watching as the cutting wind spell moved smoothly with a sleek intensity around himself. As some of the shadow heartless approached, they immediately did one of their simple signature maneuvers and jumped at Hikaru from above. The wind barrier Aerora spell did it's magic and caused the heartless to be parried away from Hikaru once they hit the barrier. The barrier was strong but wouldn't last forever, prompting Hikaru to jump into action. Taking his keyblade, he lunged at a small group of shadows, before knocking one of them into the air. Managing to knock a couple with the shadow he knocked upward, he performed an aerial combo that managed to cover a large amount of range with his keyblade. A few small grunts and precision slashes later, the shadows he had knocked into the air had all vanished from his attack. Landing back to the ground, he whipped his keyblade to the side as he dashed forward for another assault.

Taking his keyblade, he slashed horizontal at the grounded heartless, remaining low as to damage as many of them as he could. He whipped his blade back and forth, using both hands when he wanted to perform more of his intense combo finishers. The shadow heartless that were in shadow sneak mode eventually came to the ground and returned to their original form. Trying to rush him from behind, the heartless jumped forward, trying to scratch at Hikaru's shins from behind. These attacks were of no use to them as Hikaru's defensive barrier was keeping them at bay from doing any damage and keeping him in control. "Not this time!" he called out, swinging his keyblade behind to try and get rid of the little pests. Turning around, he swung his keyblade along the ground and performed a flurry of quick stabs and slashes to disperse them from his personal space. Once he had helped get rid of the meddlesome shadows that were attacking him from behind, he returned to his defensive stance, looking around to see if there were any more shadows in their most recent assault. Breathing in deeply through his nose and outward from his mouth his eyes shifted back and forth, staying on his toes for when the next group attacked him. While there was a silent moment of Hikaru focused, Bambi pranced around him, dropping several MP bubble orbs which Hikaru absorbed to replenish his Magic power. While it was kind of the deer to do for him, it definitely ruined the intense battle scenario that he and the rest of his group were currently facing. He simply sighed and said; "Thanks," as the deer pranced away without a care in the world. Returning to his battle stance, Hikaru held up his keyblade and rolled back his shoulders as he kept Luna and Kel guarded from the rear. The least he could do is make sure they were well covered both offensively and through supportive action.

Word Count: 612
EXP Earned: 60
EXP Total: 1080

Heartless Defeated:
26 Shadows

Heartless Injured:
Darkside 1,197/1,500

Heartless Remaining:
Defeat 1850 Shadows
Defeat 431 Neoshadows
Defeat 432 Darkballs
Defeat 25 Invisibles
Defeat 2 Darksides

"Yeah, I'm... just a dittle lizzy," He replied to Luna, slurring his words slightly as he staggered back and forth. Hikaru had to blink a few time to readjust his vision, while the now defeated darkball heartless took a large portion of the blow, Hikaru was still a bit dazed from the impact. Getting up he was immediately pushed aside by the valiant Luna. As he fell back a few feet he saw as more and more heartless were slowly attracting themselves towards her. Granted they all had keyblades, but Kel and Hikaru seemed like small snack in the eyes of the heartless, while Luna's heart looked like a light-filled all you can eat buffet. In the chaos, Luna managed to release a powerful faith spell, only to be caught up by an invisible. Before Hikaru could even step in, Kel had defused the situation and managed to keep Luna in the clear. It was times like these that Hikaru was thankful the allies and friends he had made were strong enough to support each other. When he began this journey, he thought he would have to shoulder everything alone. Dealing with Aux, defeating the heartless; it all felt like so much to him. Now, after friends had came and went he still had a small band with him. Kel and Luna were the two he had known the longest and he had watched them evolve from lower levels into powerful masters.

Rushing to Luna's aid, he held up his keyblade over her head and cast a quick cure spell to heal her injuries. "There you go!" a small beam of light flowered over her head as her minor injuries were rapidly healed by his curaga spell. Before he could even ask if she was okay, a large swarm of small shadow heartless made their way into his general vicinity. Taking a few steps back, Hikaru wasn't going to let the heartless overtake him or his friends. Everyone else was showing such an instinct to attack and defend. Hikaru had that mentality before it was broken by the overwhelming numbers that Colonel Hughes kept supplying in heartless. Taking his keyblade, he slashed away at the heartless in front of him, sweeping along the ground as the shadow heartless had either been dispersed on sight or knocked back. He saw more heartless jumping overhead, causing his to swat his keyblade over his face, watching as the twitching jumping creatures were smacked right out of his way. The amount of combo damage he dealt varied as he continued to hack and slash away. To his surprise, many of them weren't shadow sneaking into the ground this time around. They most hurdled around him and paced until they found an ample opportunity to strike. To make sure they wouldn't catch him off guard, Hikaru would instinctively turn ninety degrees every couple of seconds or so to make sure they wouldn't catch him unprepared for their assault. Performing a powerful spinning attack, he leapt into the air and slashed at every direction before jumping down, watching as the heartless he had defeated, fell to the ground in dark purple puffs of smoke. He kept his stance firm as he raised his keyblade in front of his face. His face stayed more determined and rapidly looked to the left and right to see if they would jump out of the ground again. "Just how many of these things does he plan to bring out?" He turned his head to ask Kel and Luna what they thought as he watched their six. The thought of how many heartless he could summon began to haunt him.

Word Count: 609
EXP Earned: 60
EXP Total: 1020

Heartless Defeated:
26 Shadows

Heartless Injured:
Darkside 1,197/1,500

Heartless Remaining:
Defeat 1876 Shadows
Defeat 436 Neoshadows
Defeat 432 Darkballs
Defeat 25 Invisibles
Defeat 2 Darksides

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.

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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."

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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