Beuce gazed up at the towering figured above them, clearly the most threatening of the heartless they'd encountered. Stratos appeared to be going toe to toe with one, barely managing to hold on with a barrage of spells. "Hey! Hold it off for a sec, I got an idea!" Now nevermind the fact that Stratos was clearly already doing that, but whatever. This was going to be cool. A light enveloped Beuce, indicating a change in job. It was a job he'd been using fairly frequently lately. His cape had been replaced by flowing streamers wrapping around his arms and seemingly animated of their own accord. That combined with his primarily blue outfit indicated that he was now in his summoner state. "Well...I've never actually tried this before, but it worked for everything else, so here goes nothing!" He twirled his keyblade around and eventually locked it in place parallel to the ground, his arms outstretched. His flesh arm gripped the keyblade, while the glass one had its palm flat against the back of that one. "Two sides of the mirror, power of the warrior and power of the mystic, transcend the barrier and become a force to reach out and take hold of the very heavens themselves!" The two blades of his keyblade instantly began to shimmer with an energy of the corresponding color. Gradually, they seemed to transmit their power down the keychain toward the other blade. With rapid pulses of power, the lights began to merge together into one blinding force. "Resound throughout all creation! Dichromatic Resonance!" The keyblade now let off an aura with a consistency similar to that of steam. Some of it was red, and some of it was blue, but where one ended and the other began was impossible to tell. Beuce meanwhile, seemed to radiate with a light to a similar effect, outlining his form. He stabbed the keyblade into the ground and placed his hands on either side of it, channeling magic into it as quickly as he could. "Awaken, Thundagolem!" The ley lines that formed the sigil with the keyblade in the center began to crackle with a yellow electricity, as they had any previous times he'd summoned the same creature. However, this time was different. With that keyblade specifically exercising its full power to merge the realms of might and magic, the lines trembled and shook the ground as they were filled with physical might. Finally, The summoning seemed to be complete as an enormous column of lightning channeled upward out of the summoning circle and into the sky, leaving a silhouette of an enormous figure, easily rivaling the darkside in sheer stature. Normally, the golems were just amorphous, vaguely humanoid embodiments of their elements, but this one in addition to being larger, was much more solid. It had a physical body, in addition to being made of electricity. It seemed outright solid, and the crackling energy that formed its body curved and bent into what appeared to be ever-shifting muscles. It stood from a crouching position and rolled its shoulders, before menacingly tilting its head and staring daggers at the darkside, who seemed to now notice this newfound threat. Though, it wasn't until the Thundagolem made its move that the darkside truly realized the depth of things. With blinding speed entirely unbecoming of its massive form, It leaped an incredible distance into the air and propelled itself downward at the darkside striking like roiling thunder from the sky, crashing into the ground with explosive force and electrocuting the heartless. Debris plumed into the air as it collided with the ground. The golem stood tall and looked to Stratos with a nod, acknowledging him as the ally of its summoner. With a flex, it invited challenge from the darkside which had by now recovered from the attack. It seemed in addition to a body, it had been given some level of self awareness as opposed to it just being an autonomous construct of magic designed to cast its spells until it was completely out of power, at which point it evaporated. Perhaps it had something to do with now being directly linked to the embodiment of Beuce's heart, his keyblade. It gave Beuce a fair bit of pause. If that was what it turned his golems into by being linked to his heart...What did that say about him? He mimicked the thundagolem's pose as several encroaching heartless and had never felt so empowered in his life. Turns out, this was the best idea he'd ever had. Total Words: 773 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 600 Blessed Thief: 30 Total Munny: 300 Heartless Defeated: 0 Heartless Injured: Darkside 1: 521/1500 Darkside 2: 1262/1500 Invisible: 22/50 Enemies Remaining: 1559 Shadows 349 Darkballs 386 Neoshadows (3 Reserved) 20 Invisibles 2 Darksides
'Two?!' Luther thought to himself. He wasn't sure why, given that he knew well ahead of time that Tango used multiple keyblades. It didn't matter much though. For this first round of combat, neither of them had any sort of supernatural powers. It was a duel of skill, and nothing else. "Seems like we're cut from the same cloth then!" Luther lunged forward, getting in close to Tango. Even without his Illusion powers, Luther was an expert at defensive swordplay. He would evade, parry, and riposte until there was a gap in their defenses somewhere. It might take longer the more skilled the opponent, but eventually he would slip up. Luther ducked and rolled, maneuvering to try and get behind tango so as to be in a position much harder to strike. Luther was quick on his feet. He brought up his bare hand to block a strike from Tango that came down on him during his movements, which harmlessly clanged off his skin. It seemed the Final Fantasy really did conform things to the rules he'd set. Nowhere but a fatal blow would have any impact. Luther continued to try and encircle and outflank Tango. He likely wouldn't win in a full frontal confrontation, so he needed to outmaneuver his opponent.
This set of neoshadows seemed to have witnessed and learned from what had happened to the last one. They approached cautiously. Each time he tried to strike at them, they fled into the ground to avoid being hit by his blade. Scurrying beneath the earth, safe from harm, they repositioned themselves and attempted to strike at him once again. Given their increasingly infuriating tactics, Beuce was starting to get a little annoyed with the things. One jumped out of the ground and raked its claws at him, but he simply brought up his glass arm to intercept it. Try as it might, the heartless was hopelessly outdone in terms of its offensive power against the hardness of the arm. A blizzara spell to its chest was all that was needed to quickly dispatch it. Still, these things were going to be a problem if he couldn't find a way to get around their hit and run strategy. Not to mention, cautious as they were, they weren't exactly giving him room to think. He had basically been reduced to parrying their claws, with the occasional strike against them. He looked down as one rose from the ground beneath him and struck at his legs. His eyes widened as a thought struck him. The attack from beneath him had reminded him of something. He raised up the magical end of his keyblade and five clusters of explosive force formed in front of him. "Seeker Mine!" With another wave of the weapon, he sent them out searching for prey to detonate on. They scanned the ground aimlessly for a bit, leaving the white haired master with baited breath. Finally, the seemed to "lock on" to the various neoshadows beneath the ground, and hover over them for the duration of their time beneath the ground. While they didn't detonate, the shadows couldn't safely come up without triggering the spell and being destroyed. It appeared there was a limited amount of time they could stay under the ground, as eventually they were forced to exit, and the mines instantaneously exploded in a blast of force that launched them into the air. It didn't quite finish them off, but it certainly created enough of an opening. Wasting no time on the joy that his plan had succeeded in forcing them out of the ground long on to attack, he threw a strike raid toward one of the heartless and dashed with all his might to get in the way of another so that the return trip would take it out. He managed to just barely succeed, and two of the obnoxious heartless were destroyed. With one last effort, he fired a firaga at another that managed to connect right before it landed and presumably vanished into the ground once again. With three of them destroyed by his move, his mana reserves were running a little low. Thankfully, the remaining neoshadows seemed to realize that going underground wasn't going to save them anymore, now that Beuce had figured out a way to effectively hurt them while they were in it, so a head on assault was their only option. They ran forward with frightening speed and spun into a wheel of a claw slash. Beuce managed to smack one of them into the air and follow it up with a splattercombo. The second one was a little bit more difficult. They managed to evade one another's attacks, but with its far superior speed, it was going to win in a battle of evasion, so Beuce broke away from it, throwing another strike raid to finish it off. It seemed like most of the neoshadows in the general area were dealt with, so he ran to help Stratos with the more round and hopefully less obnoxious ones. Total Words: 656 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 480 Blessed Thief: 30 Total Munny: 240 Heartless Defeated 5 neoshadows 1 shadow Remaining 90 Shadows 33 Neoshadows 96 Darkballs
These heartless seemed to be not only intelligent in the way the approached combat, but it also looked like they were pack hunters. He was glad they were only in the realm of darkness for a short amount of time, and during that time they were mostly participating in the reaper's game. If they'd been there for very long before dreamer had collected them all and taken them through the castle of illusions, the heartless almost certainly would've picked them off one by one. If he had to face this horde alone, he wasn't sure he'd have the mental fortitude to steel himself for it. As he expected, the heartless all leaped at him at once. He knew that if they succeeded in swarming him, he wouldn't stand a chance against their speed. So, he stepped up onto a yellow orb he had created beneath him, and it shot out into a line sparking with electricity as he rode it out of the immediate threat area of the heartless. Having avoided the attack by momentarily taking to the air above them, he turned back around to go on the offensive. It was only for a moment, but they were all clustered up. Leaping off his powerline early, he looked down onto them, his vision focusing in on them to an unnatural height. Once again, the shining white cherry blossoms filled the area around him. Without wasting a moment, he seemed to blink out of reality and appear on the other side of the neoshadows. A momentary pause and an unnatural stillness from those heartless was followed by an enormous slash mark that tore their ranks apart. One 'pop' after another as most of the ones nearby had exploded into clouds of darkness and floated off to who knows where. He looked to Ignis, who was fighting in the same area as the two of them and apparently primarily focusing on shadows. That was good. In just their area, they had someone on every remaining type of target. "Well, we didn't have to deal with the really big ones right away thanks to Kuma. Him fighting whoever that was is also probably the reason the heartless aren't immediately swarming us all at once. He controls them, and his concentration is broken right now. Really, I think that's the best we can ask for. Besides, we're masters now. We've done nearly nothing but hide behind people stronger than us up till now, but we have the power to fight back now. If we can't handle a few thousand heartless between us, then why are we even trying for No Heart? Still, once we're done...I can't say it won't be nice to actually sit down and relax for a minute." He looked to the horde of Neoshadows as it began to replenish itself from his Zantetsuken. "Yeah. I assume you took fire?" He threw his keyblade as a lance to pierce through the chest of a neoshadow that had jumped toward him, then summoned it back to his hand in a spiral of blue and red light. "I think mine is called Blade? Its for anything that requires using the keyblade at all." He jumped up and crashed down onto an unsuspecting neoshadow that hadn't even finished emerging from the ground. His planted the red side into its neck, and adjusted his hands to be wielding its more mystical counterpart. "It seems like it gives a helping hand to most things that we do. It's really nice." Total Words: 613 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 420 Blessed Thief: 30 Total Munny: 210 Heartless Defeated 5 neoshadows 1 shadow Remaining 98 Shadows 53 Neoshadows 104Darkballs
"Hah, well to be fair, you were kind of weak back then." He said to Stratos, who commented on the moment past when he'd used soldier and empowered Stratos with it, to minimal effect. "Though, that was only back then." He said, watching the boy effortlessly destroy a swath of heartless with the raw physical power the job gave him. From the looks of things, the battle was beginning to pick up in pace. Off in the distance, he spied Aux, who had decided to actively begin participating. He still wasn't sure how well they'd be able to trust him, but for the moment he appeared to be concentrating his efforts entirely toward the heartless. To speak nothing of his reliability of personality, he was exceedingly powerful, so Beuce didn't think too much on his participation. It would be an enormous boon. Stratos had begun to deal with the horde of darkballs that approached them, while Beuce continued to battle the neoshadows on the ground. In an incredibly bout of luck, Beuce managed to reach out and grab onto the antenna of a neoshadow. He could swear the beady yellow eyes grew larger the moment his hand clasped down onto it. Now that it was unable to escape with it's speed Beuce was more than strong enough to do with it as he pleased. With a heavy swing, he threw it full force into a darkball that Stratos was currently facing. The rotund heartless was caught unaware as its more slender companion crashed into it, sending both of them tumbling. At least, they would've gone tumbling if a pillar of light hadn't been called down from the heavens above and turned them both into a familiar inky black smoke. Beuce, having three more pillars to spend, attempted to incinerate two more neoshadows, but they dodged in opposite directions, forcing him to choose between the two. These things were getting a bit to clever for his liking. He fired the third pillar on the one that dodged to the left. Fast and dexterous as it may have been, it couldn't change its direction midair. So, the white light struck it dead on and immediately removed it from the fight. He fired the final pillar at another darkball near Stratos, knowing full well he couldn't hit the neoshadow with it. Instead, he took up a stance, red side at the ready. The agile heartless sprinted toward the seemingly wide open keyblade master. It lunged, only to find a flow of cherry blossoms radiating with a white aura fill its vision, and it was split in half by an impossibly fast and impossibly powerful strike. As Beuce discovered, Zantetsuken was also empowered by his new aura, along with Stratos' strength bolstering presence. Honestly, this was just incredibly useful all around as an offensive tool. He got the feeling, however, that he couldn't sustain more than one at a time, so he decided to save his other two for later. No sense showing all his tricks up front, especially when the heartless seemed to be getting more and more intelligent and capable of planning. He just hoped they didn't develop speech. Several more neoshadows seemed to rise out of the ground, now encircling him in some sort of arena. He'd started to use his stronger attacks, and they'd begun to view him as more of a threat. Taking a deep breath, Beuce prepared himself for their oncoming onslaught. Total Words: 604 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 360 Blessed Thief: 30 Total Munny: 180 Heartless Defeated 4 neoshadows 2 darkballs Remaining 111 Shadows 65 Neoshadows 117 Darkballs
Beuce looked over as stratos had come to offer a hand, defeating several shadows along the way. "Well, I wouldn't really so much say trouble, but this whole darkness thing really takes it out of you, ya know? In any case. I appreciate the hand." He said, honestly glad to see that Stratos was now directly fighting the same foes he was, as opposed to another section of the horde. Stratos appeared appeared to have not used any magic in a while, and as soon as he'd stepped close to him, Beuce could feel his muscles surge with power. Best he could surmise, Stratos was using Soldier. That was new. It was also a tad ironic, given that he used to view stratos as weak. Not in the sense of combat prowess so much as raw physical strength. "We've come a long way, haven't we?" He said, remembering their battles past. They were masters now, and they didn't need to hide behind anyone any longer. Beuce ran into several shadows and brandished his keyblade, filling it with darkness and slashing over and over, performing a massive combo. It helped him regain his lost mana, allowing him to cast more spells. In addition, it seemed doubly empowered by both his blade aura and the darkness from his Dark Knight job. The blade ripped through the ranks of the shadows like they were made of paper. "This is getting a little exhausting. I'll save this for one of the bigger guys. You know, one of those guys with the tendril faces that Kuma one shot at the beginning of the fight." He gave one last dark thundaga to destroy a large horde of shadows and went out of his dark knight form, returning to his usual non-edgy attire. Now that he no longer had to worry about the burdens of the darkness draining his health away every time he thought about attacking, he was free to go on the offensive a little bit more. A green light washed over him as he flashed a quick cure spell to top himself off, and he returned to business as usual. Throwing a spinning keyblade toward a nearby shadow, it dodge it by melding into the ground. Honestly, Beuce found these particular heartless more annoying than actually threatening, but the others had been dealing with the bigger ones, and someone had to make sure they didn't get out of hand with their sheer numbers. Although with the arrival of Stratos, the shadow and neoshadow populations had seemingly merged into one, as opposed to before where they only slightly mingled together. One of the red ones, seemingly a stronger breed of neoshadows, came charging at him. Quickly darting from side to side in a zigzag pattern, making its movements had to predict. Once it had reached him, it went to swipe. Beuce moved to slash at it ahead of time and at the very least knock it away before the blow connected, but it stopped its attack short, leaped backwards, and lunged forward once again, managing to rake its claws along Beuce's left shoulder. "Gah, these things are way worse to fight than the little ones." He decided he wasn't going to win in a battle of outright speed, as even with his blade aura enhancing his swordsmanship, it was simply faster than he was, and possessed the intellect, or at least combat instincts, to use it to its advantage. Turning his keyblade around to the blue and, he aimed a firaga spell at it. It dodged out of the way initially, but their magic often had a way of finding its target regardless, and curved its path to crash into the agile heartless. Total Words: 645 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 300 Blessed Thief: 30 Total Munny: 150 Heartless Defeated 21 shadows 1 neoshadow Remaining 380 Shadows 118 Neoshadows 170 Darkballs
Beuce maneuvered through as many heartless as he could, cutting them down one by one. He decided he'd currently focus primarily on the shadows, so as to thin their numbers down as much as he could. Individually, they weren't so much of a threat, but through their sheer numbers they threatened to overwhelm the new masters. Beuce would do all he could to keep that from happening. He focused inward on himself and draw out another new power. Similarly to when he transformed into one of his various jobs, a light began to envelope him. However, unlike other times, this light was a dark purple mixed with black. When he emerged, his outfit was far darker in color and had armored aspects to it. His hair had grown dimmer, and unlike all of his other jobs, his keyblade remained unchanged. A shadow popped out of freakin nowhere from the ground like some kinda crazy guy with a knife on the street that could meld into the ground. However, it scratched him to seemingly very little effect. Beuce turned to the shadow and produced a black flame in his hand, throwing it and instantly evaporating his aspiring attacker. However, as soon as he'd done so, he winced in pain. "Well damn, is that what using the darkness is like?" It felt like the force inside him that was giving him power also ate away at his inside every time he used it. Thankfully, it replaced it could be replaced just as fast as it was taken away. Multiple shadows swarmed him and swiped and clawed at him over and over, but their attacks were so weak, they barely got through his resistances to the darkness. In addition...Being struck seemed to caused the darkness inside to strengthen and rejuvenate his body in response, so as to not allow its host to fall when it still needed their life to function. "Man, this stuff is dangerous... It takes your blood and dries you up, but gives you just enough to keep kicking." He said, apparently given a newfound understanding of the way darkness functioned when wielded in combat. He reached out his glass arm, which was now more vibrant in some areas and darker in others so as to accentuate the images on it. He grabbed a shadow by the head and drew the life out of it to heal himself. The shadow squirmed and struggled, but to now avail. Now revitalized, he decided he'd spend it once again. Spinning his keyblade to the magic end, he called down a mighty barrage of black and purple lightning. "Dark Thundaga!" As the spell hit the ground, it exploded with a far more violent force than a normal thundaga would. Apparently, darkness was malleable and could be used to augment almost any other element, but the more he used it, the more apparent its drawbacks became. Both physically and mentally it was incredibly taxing to use. However, Beuce was no stranger to exhaustion, and while it wouldn't work on the more powerful enemies, the shadows proved to be all but unable to harm him in this form. He drained the life out of another shadow to keep himself sustained, as he seemed to be doing more damage to himself than the heartless were to him. He'd change out of this form shortly, but for now, he wanted to test the limits of what this new job they'd obtained was able to do. Besides, he'd have other things to do down the line. Total Words: 602 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 240 Blessed Thief: 30 Total Munny: 120 Heartless Defeated 26 shadows Defeat 479 Shadows Defeat 123 Neoshadows Defeat 172 Darkballs
Beuce began to laugh when Stratos said that if he didn't want him to pass him up, he'd have to keep a faster pace. "Buddy, you aren't giving me time to breathe with your growth rate. Still..." He moved his shoulder, stretching his muscles. "I guess I gotta pick up the pace. It's a good a time as any to use our new toys." Beuce concentrated on something deep within himself, something new that had just joined him. Summoning it forth to the surface, he called out "Blade!" and a silvery aura surrounded him, the color of steel. Not Steel like the wolf guy but steel as in the metal. Beuce brandished his weapon and moved through the shadows with unparalleled grace and motion. His raw power hadn't gotten any stronger, but his bladework had become peerless. No matter how many shadows tried to claw at him, he moved his weapon to intercept them, and destroyed them before they ever managed to lay a claw on his skin. Using his keyblade as a source of leverage, he vaulted over a neoshadow, quickly getting behind it. Instantly turning to face him due to its near unrivaled speed in this fight, it attacked him with a barrage of swipes and slashes from the long claws attached to its arms. Beuce maneuvered his blade in a counteractive slash for each one, spinning it as he did so. The shadow backed away for a moment as the keyblade master just stood there twirling it between his fingers. An impressive feat, given how unwieldly the weapon was, but right now Beuce felt like it was an extension of himself, and he had nearly total control over his weapon. In a sense, it literally was an extension of himself. Wasting no more time showing off to the heartless that would soon be dead, Beuce lunged forward, sliding across the ground. Normally this was a weaker, more mobile tool of combat they possessed, but Beuce had turned it just as deadly as most of their other arsenal. He slashed upward the moment he reached the neoshadow, cleaving it in two. A few darkballs rushed him, gnashing their teeth as they rapidly flew through the air. He wasn't quite able to counter all of them as, despite his skill with his blade, it could only be in on place at a time. However, being hit didn't mean he wasn't going to make them pay for it ten times over. Ice coated his keyblade as he leaped into the air at the flying heartless, slashing straight through the first one. It exploded into an inky black smoke, just like all the others had, and just like the ones before him were about to. A second leap, and his blade broke the skin of the second darkball, destroying it instantly in a very similar fashion. Much like the sliding dash, his newfound precision and overall extra efficiency with his keyblade gave it an extra boost in power. It seemed anything requiring it would enjoy these benefits as long as he maintained this form. Finally, he leaped at the third darkball, with turned on its back upward so as to try and catch the keyblade in its mouth. "You want it? You can have it." Beuce's jump brought him a fair bit higher than the rest, and instead of slashing downward onto the heartless like the other two, Beuce landed on its face and used it to propel himself even higher into the air, at which point he threw his keyblade, power side first, as a Javelin downward into the heartless' mouth and out the back of it. Total Words: 637 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 120 Blessed Thief: 30 Total Munny: 60 Heartless Defeated 1 neoshadow 3 darkballs 12 shadows Defeat 593 Shadows Defeat 168 Neoshadows Defeat 193 Darkballs
Beuce looked around at the broken and dark world. It was...hardly what he'd been expecting for their triumphant return to the realm of light, but he soon saw the cause for it. An older man standing, proclaiming he would prove his worth to Nequa. Apparently she had rejected him or something, but whatever the reason, he was bad news for the SOS. He seemed to exude dark power as he summoned forth a plethora of heartless that put the one at central haven to shame. The current most menacing of them was easily taken out by a new arrival. Beuce looked on and beamed, recognizing him as the master who would have given them the mark at Central Haven. Apparently, he'd be taking on the one in charge of the heartless for a while. Stratos casually turned to him, giving a "same old song and dance". Beuce couldn't help but chuckle. He was right. This was hardly the first time they'd been through an ordeal very similar to this, but this time, one thing was different. They weren't struggling for their lives to run away from it. They were facing it head on as masters, and they were going to blow it right out of the water. Beuce was ready, but something gave him pause. Stratos was tearing through the heartless with far more ease and confidence than normal. He'd done a lot of work in the previous battles, and there was no one he'd rather have at his side in such a time, but this was different. When did he get...that strong? Beuce leaped into the fray with his friend shortly after the battle began. "Hey, hey, hey, who said you could go and get stronger than I am when I wasn't looking?" He mused aloud. A neoshadow leaped at him, spinning its whole body with impossible dexterity. First a vertical swipe, then a horizontal one in the same jump. Beuce however summoned his keyblade and back-stepped out of the way, before lunging forward and cleaving the heartless in two. Following the larger one was a plethora of regular shadows. Beuce charged them head on and mowed them down one by one, each time a small red heart floated up. He threw out his dual ended keyblade in a straight line, decimating a row of the small heartless. Another neoshadow leaped at him with just the right timing before his keyblade returned to him, but Beuce didn't even turn to face it. Instead he simply muttered the word "Stop" and it was frozen in midair, unable to finish its assault. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers three times. The first put a seeker mine spell beneath it, the second cast a gravity spell to shove it downward into it, and the third called down a barrage of lightning bolts from above to finish it off. Beuce caught the keyblade on the return, and time unfroze for the unsuspecting heartless. Nearly as soon as it had unfrozen, it was violently ripped out of its jump and into the mines. The mines then proceeded to all go off by the impact and launch it into the air with the force, and into the decimating array of lightning bolts he'd called down from the sky. Beuce brandished his keyblade and returned to work. He did, however, look over to see how Stratos was doing. He couldn't help but feel a sense of pride that Stratos had gotten so powerful. He'd viewed him as something of a younger brother, but now, he was clearly his equal, if not more. A sense of rivalry ignited in his heart, Beuce cleaved through more of the heartless in his path. Total Words: 616 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 60 Blessed Thief: 30 Total Munny: 30 Heartless Defeated 16 shadows 2 neowshadows Heartless Remaining Defeat 714 Shadows Defeat 183 Neoshadows Defeat 196 Darkballs Defeat 1 Invisibles
The man seemed to be willing take take Luther up on his challenge. His eyes sparked even more with excitement. He nodded when Tango asked if he was the one with Illusion powers. He already knew, so there was little point in hiding it. Not to mention, Tango revealed his own element of Fire, saying something about how it would make a powerful Luther listened to his proposal of something called a "Final Fantasy". It appeared to be some variety of wager where they bet their element in some sort of competition. "Interesting. I like it! Let's do it!" Luther said, his excitement growing. He looked to Melus. "It's better if I do this alone. Normally, help would be appreciated, but it would make him stronger." He, being the challenged party, had the right to set up a variety of rules and conditions. After brief consideration, he came to a conclusive answer. "First, A set of duels, best of three. Second, For the first duel, there will be no supernatural powers, only raw skill with a blade. If you win a round, your opponent regains the use of their powers. Win again, and congratulations. Lose, and the real fun begins. Round three will have both of us at our full power, free to do as we please. Finally, Only a fatal blow will be able to damage your opponent. A stab to the heart, a slit throat, whatever you like. Take a fatal blow, and you lose the round. Anything less will be nullified. Strike to kill, after all. " As the man finished listing his set of conditions, their hearts began to radiate in a light, flooding their vision and the whole area. The earth beneath them rumbled and shook, changing the entire terrain around them. Once vision was restored, they stood opposite on another in an arena of sorts. An enormous smooth, flat surface. There was no cover to hide behind, not walls to help win the fight. The only thing that mattered here was your opponent, and how you were going to kill them. Luther took up a stance and readied himself with a focusing breath. "Okay...Let's dance!"
Luther's eyes narrowed into a glare at Tango as he banished Lea to god only knows where. Anger welled up inside him. They hadn't helped Lea at all by stepping in, they'd made it worse. Apparently, the only way to beat this man was to fight him one on one, in a duel. "Hey!" Luther called out, refusing to be disrespected to the extent of having him just walk away from them. A small slap was heard on the ground behind Tango. If he turned around, he'd find a black glove on the ground, and Luther's left hand bare. "Where do you think you're going? You might've finished your mission, but you haven't finished the fight. I won't stand for that kind of disrespect." Luther's eyes had a fire in them. It wasn't a fire of anger, though that was surely somewhere inside him as well. This man had just defeated Lea nearly effortlessly, and they'd been powerless to stop him. This was someone...who could beat him. He held his blade at his side, his hand quivering with excitement. "You wouldn't just abandon a battle half finished? Where's the honor in that?" He could barely contain the grin that threatened to creep onto his face. After all those years of withering away on the inside, finally he'd found a fire that burned away all the rust and decay, and it was nearly coming through his skin.
Adalric listened as he accompanied the group into the tunnels. He knew that his master had asked him to make friends with them but...It was a little difficult to just insert oneself into an already existing group. In addition, two of the three he was with were the ones from the realm of darkness. He was having trouble finding anything to contribute to the conversation, so he was content just listening for the moment. He couldn't quite agree with Take's logic. Hide it in a bad hiding spot, so that no one would ever think to look there. While it made sense in theory, it seemed to be overthinking it quite a bit. Shortly afterwards, they came to a fork in pathways. It seemed these tunnels never ended. His head perked up as he heard Torrin speak his name. "Oh, yes?" He listened to the young master's concerns. "Well, discretion is the better part of valor. We can't beat the light chaser in a head on fight from what I've heard, so misdirection is essentially our only option at this point. From a purely strategic standpoint the best course of action would likely be to just get one of the princesses, Aria, for instance, and keep her in the council world for an indefinite amount of time. That way, he'd never get all seven and we could simply wait out the light chaser until he died of old age, as all do eventually. Though, obviously we can't simply imprison her. So this is likely our next best option. I understand your concern, but we haven't got a lot of alternatives."
Luther stared on as the man produced a floating array of weapons and had them fight him on their own. That was...troublesome. He wasn't sure his misdirection would even work against them, as they appeared to fight according to his will, but not his focus. Nevertheless, Luther wouldnt get very far in combat if illusions were were all he could do. He quickly moved in front of Melus and began parrying as many weapons as he could. It was annoying to say the least, as parrying was about all he could do, due to there being no body wielding them to counterattack. For now, all he could do was simply hope that Lea would be able to defeat the swordsman quickly.
Adalric watched the two "heroes" work, and began to read them. The dark skinned one seemed to, outside of his ice powers, be a regular human. What's more, it didn't appear to be magic so much as an extraordinary ability. Interesting... As for the other...He was, well, incredible. His strength and durability we're monstrous, the latter possibly exceeding his own. And his speed wasn't even compromised as a result. In terms of raw physical ability, he was easily on par with any of the masters. Technique and magic were the only things that put them above him in terms of efficiency in battle. His concentration was pulled away by the sound of maniacal laughter. While he didn't get enough of a look to read the clown, he did become aware of something as he spoke. He realized the spent stamina from that last battle hadn't returned. While he was mostly fine apart from mild fatigue, he couldn't expend his resources recklessly until this device was dealt with. There seemed to be a little bit of a dispute about whether or not they should search for the device now or rest first. Adalric chimed in, approaching Mr. incredible. "I realize this might be a tad presumptuous of us, but do you think you would be able to help us search for this...magiteck device he spoke of? It's... detrimental to our strength to say the least, and we'd almost certainly be able to deal with them if it weren't for it. I understand you're a hero. You want to stop them from performing random acts of terror like the apartment building yes?" Adalric then turned to Thallasa. "Would it be alright if I went with them to search? I'm alright on stamina, and I'm not particularly hurting for rest."
Getting that sick ass hp boost
Adalric swatted aside a blizzard spell with his hand, leaving little more than a small bruise on it. The enemies were nearly dealt with, and so moderation had little value now. His keyblade still empowered with water, he ran forward into the comparatively small cluster of icy cubes and began dispatching them as quickly as he could. Killed 14 icy cubes Remaining 5 blue rhapsodies 14 icy cubes
While Adalric was not nearly as proficient at dispatching the heartless as many of the others, namely torrin, he took his time about things and approached the situation calmly. Of the heartless, it seemed the large shield bearing heartless and the slender black ones didn't deal elemental damage, which he'd developed an innate resistance to. Logically they should be taken out first. Putting a finger to his keyblade, he ran it down the weapon and it was engulfed in a torrent of liquid. Taking the offensive, he quickly slashed at the heartless' chest. While the blow itself didn't quite take it out, the rush of cutting water that followed did. Quickly reacting to another one that attempted to scratch at him, adalric did his best to guard against it, though he suspected it wouldn't do meaningful damage to him anyway. As the claws and the majority of their attack was deflected, he watched it go into the ground, seemingly little more than a shadow passing along it. Adalric concentrated for a moment, and ran to the location it was likely to pop up at. It's head had barely left the ground before Adalric's keyblade and the rush of water that followed it plunged into the beast's head. Cast water Took out two neoshadows. Used 2 AP to guard (oh baby) Enemies Remaining: 2 Defenders 1 Bolt Tower 1 Neoshadow 6 Yellow Operas 19 Blue Rhapsodies 32 Icy Cubes
Beuce looked around at most people changing outfits. He'd gotten his current outfit, minus the cloak, his homeworld in the castle of illusions. Come to think of it...if it was an illusion, how were they existing outside of it? Would he be naked when they got back to the realm of light? ...was he already naked and no one told him? Beuce suddenly started to sweat nervously as his eyes darted around for the nearest clothing shop. He followed behind Stratos and picked out an outfit for himself, but didn't put it on yet. It was more for a just in case sort of thing. Now that he had insurance against catastrophe, he took the time to look at everyone else's outfits. Lunas was by far the most eye catching. He clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Well don't you look snazzy." He commented, peering at the crown atop her head. Beuce looked to Stratos after his comment about their last downtime period being disneytown and put his hands up in a cautionary manner "Excuse me sir, but could you kindly not? I prefer my downtime to be unjinxed. Id rather avoid having a meteor sent by no heart containing all the evils of the world falling on us." He mused jokingly. "Well, we're all dressed up and have nowhere to go. Guess we'll see if there's anywhere in the realm of light." He motioned his thumb over his shoulder at the portal to the realm of light. Their ticket out of here they'd fought to win.
Luther stood up from his seat as soon as the voice rang out. He'd learned after Krista that their enemies could come at them at any time, and from anywhere. The man was apparently here to take out Lea. He was about to step in anyway, and Melus doing so only contributed to his decision. Removing one of his gloves, he threw it on the ground in front of their new "guest". "Im not sure what tricks you have up your sleeve that you think you can take on all of us, but we killed the last person who walked into our base and pulled a stunt like this. What's to say we can't do it a second time?" Luther brandished is rapier and took up a stance. From the looks of things, he appeared to be a swordsman. That was good. His fighting style in a clash of blades was so much of an advantage it was all but cheating, if there were such a thing in a fight. Many swordsman more skilled than he had fallen to his blade, unable to keep up with it.
Adalric looked around the new world, briefly taking in the sights before a roiling explosion flared to life behind them. Nearly all of the others rushed off to save civilians, with the exception of Torrin and Thallasa. The former went off to chase down the perpetrator, while the master who was leading the mission went to tend to the wounded brought out by the other keyblade wielders. He was sure that with their numbers, they'd be able to rescue them all in a timely manner, so Adalric rush to Thallasa's side and began receiving the wounded and tending to them both with cura spells and mundane medical practice. While he was hardly an expert in the latter, he had basic enough knowledge to be of assistance. Once it seemed to other wielders were finished clearing out the building, he motioned them over, ready to give similar treatment to any of them who needed it.
