As they arrived Thea saw a child who very much seemed to like Izra. It was enough to convince Thea to trust her. She then saw Kyo and Jack, and looked at them curiously. She now really wondered what was going on here since she thought the two boys worked for the mayor. But instead they started asking about another child and Thea got quite concerned. "Oh no! I stopped you from saving another child. We need to go rescue them before they get hurt. You should have saved them not me. I can fight for myself. See I have magic." Thea made a small flame in her hand but noticed blue lacing through it and quickly put it out before it could go out of control. "Can we go back? Can we help them rescue the other girl? I don't want anyone to get hurt for me. That is unfair. We should go." She begged of Zephyr and Gavin. Sure she wanted to know what was going on here, but now she was more worried about the other girl that they were speaking of. Seeing the safe kids and familiar faces, Thea liked to believe that these people were good and now just wanted to help everyone. That being said she was being desperate and those more in tune to magic could feel it radiating off of her, for now she was containing it but it was clearly not a good thing to let her work herself up over such things. Rubbing the back of his neck, Everette looked away. He was supposed to be the one that they could go to and trust. He was supposed to be sort of leader like, he was the S-class after all, and here Sam and Conrad were comforting him. It wasn't surprising though, they were both good friends, Samuel was his best friend, they had both always had his back despite everything that he had been through. Even on mission they were still there for him even if he would rather forget it and move on. In truth Everette knew that wasn't necessarily the best thing to do, he knew that he needed to talk it out and not stew on it. He lectured Sam on the amount of sleep that he got, but Everette was well enough aware that if he left this unchecked he would lose sleep too it, worrying what he might forget, cursing his own mind. "You are right... thanks. I just I guess I need to work on not feeling responsible for everyone all the time. I know you are both capable of handling yourselves just fine without me. But if anything happened I wouldn't forgive myself, and it is always a fear that my own mind would get in the way. You know? I can't control it, no amount of studying fixes it, just.... it was damage that no one was able to fully fix. I guess sometimes when I remember how bad it can get, I just get concerned." Everette admitted as he finished what he was doing, handing the vegetables over to Conrad so that he could finish the cooking while Renza went to set the table. Renza offered to go get some water and Everette instinctively called out to her. "Make sure it is the rain water." After he was sure that she knew he took a seat and looked at the other two giving a small smile and laugh, though it seemed a little forced. "Some S-class I am, needing you guys to support me just to get through the task. But I appreciate it. It just shows you two would be good for the job one day. I will be rooting for you."
April is the month of Broadway Songs. Make sure you get your votes in on which we song we do. Voting will end April 8th Defying Gravity Karaoke | Original Suddenly Seymour Karaoke | Original Skid Row Karaoke | Original I Can Hear the Bells Karaoke | Original Sweet Transvestite Karaoke | Original Stars Karaoke | Original
Alright the sign ups are closed and the first round has been sent out. Keep tune next week to see what the contestants have come up with and help us vote on who's was the best.
Putting in some of my own. Stars Karaoke | Original
After being told to sit around and wait, now she didn't even get to join in the fight. Tinarah tried not to show the disappointment as she felt she had been side lined. It was partly because since she had arrived they had told them they came here to help, but every step of the way had been pushed to the side and had to wait and watch. Sure she wasn't much of a fighter, but she wasn't going to get better or stronger if she was always forced to sit around and wait for the others to do all the work, and getting stronger was something that she really needed right now. This probably wasn't the best way of going about it, but if the council was going to let her in the field she at least wished she had been given the privilege of doing something and not just waiting around. At least they had some sort of mission to do and it would be helpful, especially since she relied a lot on magic. "Alright, stay safe." Tinarah told the other group before averting her gaze sighing quietly as she turned to Frozone. She got the feeling that he didn't overly like her, so she would have to be careful with going about this, probably keep her mouth shut about it for the most part though Qamar was already questioning leadership herself. "I think the idea is following Mr. Frozone's lead." Tinarah tried to tell Qamar. It wasn't a problem if they wanted another leader from their own team but at the same time this was his world, his friend, so why should they take lead? There was no point to it and it was a waste of time debating it. They should just get a move on and get going sooner rather than later so they could deal with the magic thing before whatever fight was to be had could go too south.
Cause we’ve been through hell and back. And back again. We turn around - go back and then; We play pretend, that we are the same people...
"Perhaps you would have more energy if you stopped sleeping at your desk." Everette retorted as he turned to look at Samuel, flexing his hand and clenching it, so the writing on his hand was covered."I am fine, I am just scared that if I wait for anything too long I am going to forget. I already can't really remember how we are supposed to get to the river, I know we have to go there and was told where to go but I don't know how. We can't afford to be wasting time this mission, not with so many people sick." He sighed before going back to what he was doing. "How about you, are you okay, you have been working a lot. Are you holding up okay?" Taking the flute from the girl, Thea looked up to the girl and thought for a moment. "I think that we should trust her. Of course see the kids, but the mayor was giving me creepy vibes. And isn't it strange how protective the girl was? She kept looking over my shoulder and not letting me do stuff." Thea went off about her thoughts though she knew her reasoning wasn't really solid it was just a thought that she had. Either way both Zephyr and Gavin wanted to see the kids first so that seemed like the direction that they were going to go.
Boreas addressed her and Tinarah had to force herself to look at the man. She was starting to get used to having him and Torrin around and not against her, but she still felt uncomfortable with it. "If we went sooner they wouldn't have as much time to set up a trap. Perhaps we could have gotten an upper hand." Tinarah then sighed as she thought of something else. "I heard it mentioned that it was those goggles that controlled Mr. Incredible. If we destroy them it would free Mr. Incredible. All it would take is one thing out of place and we might stand a chance. Or at least delay the inevitable." Like when she questioned Torrin instead of blindly following into battle. Though according to him after nearly a month he nearly finished taking them out, but that fight, for that one fight Torrin's side lost and she had given the Keyblade Wielders a chance to get the upper hand. If they managed to get Mr. Incredible to even stop and turn for a moment, it might cause confusion enough to get the upper hand. It was a long shot, but they could at least try given there was only so many options now, and in the end they had to run in there regardless. There was no more waiting around, they had to do something and soon.
With no more heartless to kill, Karina took a quick look around and noticed what Finlay was up to. "For Christ Sakes Finlay, I can't look away for one battle can I? Stop trying to kill the pet and maybe focus more on the heartless. Steel is harmless enough, and if he needs another good beating I can handle that. This is not what I brought you for!" Karina yelled at Finaly not forgetting the big fight with Steel they had when entering the realm of Darkness either.
The silence from Arctus wasn't sitting well. Yes she was talking to Luna before, but it seemed like Arctus always had something to say. Whenever she looked at him he didn't seem so involved in the battle that he couldn't talk. Not a single witty comment from him? It just didn't feel right. That being said she couldn't complain too much about that. Usually he was just annoying, it was kind of sad that she missed his annoying voice. Rolling her eyes she tried not to think about it too much as she turned her attention back to the heartless. They were almost done but she had a feeling that this wouldn't be the end. Looking around for her team Karina called out to all of them. "Hey Black Coats." She didn't know what else to say to get the attention of those following after her lead, it was the best she got. Karina figured that the SoS people already knew, so she wanted to make sure that everyone was prepared and that she would be able to bring everyone back alive. "Remember this Son of a ***** can summon more of these things. The battle isn't over until he is dead, so don't get to comfortable yet. There is a fight still ahead of us yet. Watch your backs." She called out over the heartless to everyone who would listen to her. It was important for them to know and be prepared for it because she was determined to make sure they lost no one else. With that covered there was still a fight that she needed to deal with herself as she moved ever closer to Uniform. Sure she was sure that the over sized out going man could deal with Uniform himself. He was one of the order after all. It wasn't the reason that Karina was heading in that direction. She was heading over there because she wanted to face him again. She had thought she was over him when he ran away, but now that he was threatening her friends this wasn't over. It was her fight once again. She would be there when he fell, even if it was not by her own hand. He would see the burning determination in her eyes, see that she wasn't going to let him get the better of her. His words got under her skin sure but it wasn't going to stop her, very little would stop her now. Not when she was so far into this. This far into her new life, leaving her past behind. He could talk all he wanted but she wasn't going to sit down and wait for him to come for her. she wasn't going to wait to die, not when there was still a fight to be hand. It was all that she was good at after all may as well go for it. Thankfully this round was almost over. She knew that the heartless would come again but if she could just get a moment to breath properly then she would be able to fight once more. They were almost at that point. She could get there if she tried a little more. Taking on her favoured ability once more she used Zantetsuken to get herself going once more. It was one last attempt and after she burst through the heartless, Aislinn fell to one knee as she breathed. Her eyes closed for a moment. "I will keep going. For Sarah and her family. I can do this." She told herself but for the time being she didn't get up, didn't try to fight again as she let the others finish the battle. Total Words: 614 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3840 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Enemies Remaining: 25 Neoshadows 38 Darkballs
Having finished yelling at Luna Karina turned around letting most of the rest of her rage out on the heartless around her. They stood between her and her target after all and that was not okay. Sure she yelled at Luna but that was not the object of her rage, it was the mad man who was summoning all of these bastards to their doorstep. She wasn't going to let him get away with this, that was not okay in her mind. On top of that she did have a score to settle. Perhaps Karina had gone too light on him, perhaps becoming a little like her father wasn't a bad thing when it came to the fact of dealing with those out of line. She had tried to change but he was making things hard. Perhaps, just maybe if she got rid of that block in her way she could indeed become a person to be proud of. That being said she now finally had someone who accepted her for her, so perhaps change wasn't as needed as she had thought it was. Without the ever present loneliness, perhaps she could be okay with herself, or perhaps not. Karina couldn't quite figure out where she sat with it given she was never good with anything that didn't have to do with anger and violence. She had once upon a time tried to be a normal person, slip into her role in life. That only brought pain, fear and failure. Every time she tried to do something she failed at it and earned her fathers wrath. The one thing she was good at was fighting, and that was not a skill for girls. She escaped and trained it to the point she saw herself becoming her father. When she tried to back off Karina found herself lost and that was where she was now. Unsure how to deal with anything and everything. She was scared of being weak and she was scared of becoming her father. Finding the middle between that felt like an impossible task. Now looking back at Arctus she wondered if she even needed to try. If he was accepting her as she was, perhaps she was not as bad as she thought she was in her own mind. That being said, her mind was a volatile unpredictable thing that she couldn't trust either thinking good or bad thought. Everything she thought of turned in to an unsure mess as was the case now, leaving her instead to lose herself in the battle rage that quickly had crept up on her. Breath... just breath. She just needed to take the time to breath, though the heartless were not really allowing it. Every breath she took, Aislinn could see the heartless closing in on her. She had to keep fighting, had to do something, she wasn't going to die here. Taking one more breath Aislinn stepped forward, not launching herself into the attacks like usual, but instead stepping forward dealing single swings at the time, just enough to keep the heartless back a bit. Breathing heavily Aislinn quickly got a feeling for how many more she would have to deal with before continuing her fight in a slow manner. It bothered her she was slowing down the way she did, but there was no choice, there was no way that she could keep this up, Aislinn wasn't that stupid. If she launched herself into battle every time she started to feel tired, she would soon find herself taking a dirt nap. This was the best way to keep up with the battle. Total Words: 604 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3780 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Enemies Remaining: 61 Neoshadows 73 Darkballs
As Karina stormed off, emotions clouding her own judgement, she had not noticed the attack from behind, it was only the quick thinking and attention of Luna that managed to save her. Karina was left, mouth agape for a moment as she contemplated what had just happened. She had already convinced herself that no one cared for her, so she was ready to move on, anger already filling her heart, but here stood Luna, turning back to help her, caring what happened. It had honestly caught Karina by surprise, as she turned, not actually able to make eye contact with the girl at this point. "I'm... fine. No damage done thanks to you." No physical damage at least, though Karina was still confused and unsure of what to make of the entire situation as she found herself just staring blankly for a moment before managing to snap herself out of it. Luna was trying to make excuses, but they were pathetic ones. Of course she didn't want to lose him again, but what did she think would happen? He would magically suddenly be able to use the keyblade and become a master so he could travel with them? No that was not how the world worked. "What did you think would happen Luna? Were you just going to run off, abandon all your friends, all the worlds you have helped just to go hide with him? Of course not, you are too nice to leave people to die and fight on their own. You know as well as I do that Koa isn't suited to go with you through whatever trials you all must face next, and you certainly are not suited for where I have been. You took the Mark of Mastery to get out of the realm of darkness, so don't throw that chance away. He is fine, I have seen him fight, he can hold his own and he isn't alone. I know god damn well that I should be the last person saying this, but you have to try trusting other people for once if you want to see him again, running away or dragging him with you are worse idea's than letting him walk his own path until this entire mess is dealt with. I don't know if Nequa is dead, I hope so but without a body, I am not going to assume anything, and Vanitis and Aux are still out there. That is just the start of our troubles. We can't just walk away from the paths we have chosen for one familiar face, so you will just have to learn to deal with it." Karina kind of snapped at Luna. She knew what she was saying, meant every word of it, but also knew that there was nicer ways that she could have said it. What was done was done though, and trying to be nice was never something Karina was good at, it was better to be blunt, she would deal with the consequences later. Ananta had gone off to help Steel, which was probably for the best, but once more Aislinn found herself feeling more alone in the fight. She wasn't the only one fighting alone, she knew that well enough but it was always nice having someone there to watch your back. Without it it left Aislinn twirling in circles, trying to cover from attacks on all sides. Unfortunately that wasn't possible and while she was holding her own well enough, it left her with a few scrapes and bruises. If nothing else it was nothing serious enough to stop her from fighting. She simply had to learn to shrug off the pain and keep going. Total Words: 617 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3720 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Enemies Remaining: 101 Neoshadows 109 Darkballs
Aislinn supposed that it was fair enough that Stratos was moving on to deal with helping more people, but it still left her feeling a little lonely as he moved on and she was left to fight more or less on her own in that side of things. While it was fine, she could handle it, it wasn't the first thing that she wanted to do. Besides it providing entertainment it also provided reason to fight. A person to protect other than herself. While Sarah wasn't there, Aislinn began to imagine her sisters smile. She imagined the reason behind her strength, someone to fight for. At this point it wasn't fighting to protect her or make her life easier. Aislinn was fighting to return to her sister. She knew that Sarah wouldn't be able to handle it if she never returned. She knew how heart broken her sister would be if she died here on this battle field. That was her reason to fight. It wasn't for her own sake even though it was fighting to keep herself alive, she was doing it for others. Just that thought helped give Aislinn focus. With that in mind she was able to look Stratos straight in the eye and offer him a nod. "Yeah, you stay safe too, and show them how it is done." Aislinn encouraged Stratos, though she knew Aux really didn't need to be shown up by anyone, it would still be entertaining to watch from a distance at the very least. Flipping over top one of the Neoshadows, Aislinn sliced at it's back getting a second wind.... or a third wind... or a fourth. At this point she wasn't quite sure which one she was at or how she was doing, honestly she was just going for it. Moving around the side of another group of them Aislinn pounded one heartless into several more before summoning her keyblade back to her and using it to charge her way through the next grouping. There was now some gaps in the defenses of the Neoshadows. Not enough that Aislinn could consider it time for a break, but enough that she was gaining confidence that there would be an end to this coming in a relatively short amount of time. If she kept up the pace that she was going, there would be no issues dealing with the heartless, hopefully opening a path for them to deal with the man who was creating the heartless, though that was a big if. Karina would never admit that she was upset, though her attacks lost some of the flare they had before and degraded mainly into harsh fast slashes with her whip as she tore through the heartless. As one got too close to her, Karina didn't even try and use her weapon, instead using her already clenched fist to punch it. When it fell prone, she took advantage of that as well as she stomped on it's face. Sure it wasn't nearly as effective as a proper attack and it took a little longer, but it still did the job and get some of Karina's anger out, though that was very little considering how good she had been behaving. It had been long enough that since she had last had a full on fit, that she had a lot of pent up rage that she was more than happy to take out on the heartless. Even as she did her eyes were still glued on Uniform fighting Shiro in the distance. While it wouldn't be right away, she was going to get over there and kill that over confident son-of-a-bitch. Total Words: 608 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3660 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Enemies Remaining: 277 Neoshadows 358 Darkballs
Watching Luna start to walk off, Karina wondered if it was something that she had said. For once in her life she wasn't actually attempting to chase anyone off, but she sat there and watched as Luna started walking away in the direction of Koa, Hikaru and the red haired boy that she couldn't quite figure out who he was still. She had at least seen the other two before she had left with Lea, this boy was a complete mystery to her though. Luna seemed to be a little upset and Karina couldn't figure out what she had done this time. Sure she deserved it for plenty of times before, but having come back and just watching people who once were her friends, or acquaintances anyways, walk away from her instead of fighting at her side. Perhaps she had created a greater gap between her and everyone else than she had originally thought. Karina had never let herself think about it before, convinced herself it didn't matter, instead filling her head with thoughts of power, but now that she had given that up, she realized how lonely she really was. Sure Arctus was at her back now, but part of her had hoped when she came back to save her friends, that they would be excited to see her. Instead Ananta and Luna stopped by for short periods of time while the rest gave her a cold shoulder while they went about talking to each other and fighting along side those they were closer with. Perhaps she had put more distance between herself and everyone else than she though. Turning away Karina focused her attention towards the direction that Uniform was, watching him closely as she fought through the heartless. If no one else cared she was there, she wouldn't care for them, instead dealing with the heartless until she made her way over to her one true goal, made her way over and killed Uniform. It would just be a small step in the direction that she was heading. He was the first person to kill if she was going to kill her past and move on with her life. She had learned that strength alone she couldn't do it, but apparently she couldn't rely on friends all that well either, so determination had to be the answer. Instead of running and hoping it went away, she would simply have to face it head on and go to whatever ends to deal with it, starting with the pain that thought it a good idea to get on her bad side by constantly bringing up the past that she was trying to leave behind. One day... eventually she would get to her father. Aislinn continued to think back to her life at home learning about the keyblade and those first days after her parents death. However hard this battle was, it was nothing compared to the struggles of getting her life started again, getting up every morning and making lunch for her and her sister. It was those times that she learned what strength really was. It was the ability to keep moving when things seemed like they were impossible. It was that same strength that Aislinn carried into battle with her. Sure she was physically strong for the most part, but it was how she carried herself, the inner strength that she knew was important and the reason that she could get her way through things. As long as she had that strength, even as her body tired she could still fight to the very end. There was no laying down and waiting to die for her, that was not an option, she couldn't let it be with something like this. Total Words: 623 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3600 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 1/15 Enemies Remaining: 308 Neoshadows 401 Darkballs
The swarms of heartless kept coming and Aislinn let her mind wonder once more trying to deal with the situation the best that she could. Her mind drifted back to before she had a keyblade, it was before her parents died. Something about her parents death and the desire to fight to protect her sister seemed to be the catalyst to bring her keyblade to her. Was it the tragedy that brought the keyblade to her aid, or perhaps how she dealt with it. Everyone here seemed to have gone through their own hardships, but each of them were still fighting instead of running and hiding or giving up, it must have been part of the reason that they had it. Aislinn always knew that strength of heart was something that keyblade wielders had to have, but perhaps she also needed something to show the strength of ones heart. If there was nothing to test yourself against then there as no way of knowing how long that strength would hold up. For Aislinn the hardship was the loss of her parents and the war against the heartless in her town. With her being just eighteen when her parents died, someone had to take care of Sarah, and keep her safe. While sure they could have found someone to look after them, at that point they were both old enough that they didn't want anyone else in their lives. That being said, they needed to support themselves, and that wasn't possible if they were both depressed, so Aislinn had to learn to be strong. As the heartless moved in closer she knew that she couldn't just sit back anymore either and help her sister ignoring all those around her, she needed to pick up a sword and fight alongside everyone else, it would be the best way to protect her sister. It was only so long after that before her keyblade came to her, and Aislinn was sent searching for someone to train her in how to use it. The training seemed to pay off seeing how she was managing to deal with the heartless here and now, even if she couldn't use the training to save her world yet, at least something was better than nothing, she had a place to start, she was quickly gaining power and now she was at the point that if she went home, she was sure she could make a difference, it was no longer just a maybe. The battle stretched on before her and while Arctus and Luna were fighting at a respectable speed, Karina found herself pushing herself more than she should to keep going, keep fighting. There was a jealousy of the power of those around her. She hated that she was so weak compared to them. At one point she used to be the strongest and now she was struggling to make a difference. While Karina was starting to get over her power hungry habits, it was not something that she broke in a day. It took a lot of time fore her to get over herself, and not feel the need to outdo everyone. From visiting her home world the thing Karina learned was that she would never be strong enough, and there was nothing that she could do about it. She had to deal with her problems another way and not just add strength until she was strong enough to rip apart the world. It would get her nowhere in the long run if she didn't deal with the issues in her heart, issues that Karina was still lost on how to deal with. Total Words: 606 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3540 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 1/15 Enemies Remaining: 347 Neoshadows 434 Darkballs
Thea was rather confused but at least the man didn't seem to want to harm her, even allowing Zephyr and Gavin to slowly catch up even if he took the time to talk with her first before he got there. "What sort of danger? What sort of evil? They said you were taking their children and they were just trying to keep them safe. I don't understand. I do want to see the other kids, I need to know that they are alright. And if you are telling the truth we need to help the others." Thea tried to ask and figure out a bunch of things at once. Necos wasn't making much sense in her mind, and that was perhaps because Thea was tired and her mind tended to jump from place to place. "I am not in danger anyways. I can handle myself. I am a powerful mage, see!" Thea summoned a little bit of fire to her hand before looking back to Gavin and Zephyr arriving. "Guys... I think you should hear this. I don't quite get it, but maybe you can make more sense of it." "Alright good night Chief Yolvun. We will continue our search tomorrow. Thank you for your help." With that Everette turned to follow the other two towards the Inn. While Everette felt tired and ready for bed himself, there was a lot on his mind about everything that was going on, and the state of the town. Sure being S-class he had been through a lot of towns and seen a lot of different situations, but the longer he spent with Renza the more he wanted to get this sorted out and quickly. The girl reminded him a little bit of Thea, all the energy and positive attitude despite their circumstances. For Thea, there wasn't much he could do to chance things, but for Renza, they could get this dealt with. Looking at the writing on his hand, Everette cursed quietly to himself, he hated his memory problem and he just studied the note he had written to himself which was already starting to smudge. "This is important. There is no way I will forget about it." He tried to tell himself quietly, as they reached the inn. Heading to the kitchen he unpacked some of the food and grabbed a knife to cut some vegetables. "Renza do you want to peel the potatoes, and Conrad start on the meat?" Everette asked. Everette decided that he couldn't be trusted with anything that could burn, he had learned that rather quickly when learning how to cook. Way too often did he forget to check the stuff on the stove and it burned, at least with chopping things it was repetitive enough that he could handle it.
Keep moving, she could do that. She kept on her feet and dodged out of the way of a few attacks. Aislinn had surveyed the field to see who was doing well and what was going on. For the most part things were exactly as she had expected them to be. It was clear that this new group was no amateurs though. They were holding their own as well as anyone else in this battle, despite the fact that they didn't have keyblades of their own. It was almost entertaining watching the bigger man with the ax go about this battle. He seemed to have a lot of fight in him and Aislinn wished luck to all of his allies that had to deal with him. From what she could tell just by watching him for a moment, that he was a hard one to deal with, had a lot of energy to him, or at least it seemed that way. The girl who made the big entrance seemed to be more familiar with those around her, though much to Aislinn's surprise not as many people were talking to her as she had originally thought. Then Hikaru and Aux were talking to another boy who had quickly run over and caught Luna's attention. To her it was interesting watching how everyone was getting along now, perhaps that was just something she found interesting, but it at least gave Aislinn something to contemplate as she fought the heartless that were now coming at her from all sides. There was not a chance she would let them catch her off guard though as she shifted her balance and adjusted to give the muscles on her right side a bit of a break and fight the heartless focusing more on using her left, less dominate side for fighting. When Karina turned her attention back away from Stratos, she scanned the rest of the people. Guilt still sat in her heart when looking at Beuce due to what had happened the last time she was in this battle and ended up falling unconscious. That was not going to happen again, and even if she did, she was sure that Arctus would have her back. Karina was just thankful that there was no mutated behemoths to face. These Neoshadows were nothing compared to Derpy the Derpmoth, or Arma or even Free Willy Cat. The heartless in that battle were all insane and stupid and Karina didn't know how to handle them, meaning at some times she seemed to find her mind broken. It was really weird really, Karina didn't like thinking back on those times, it was not pleasant to say the least and to say she had lost it during that battle was an understatement. Glancing back to Arctus she certainly hoped that it didn't happen again during this battle. She had enough embarrassment for one day, she didn't need to add to it by losign her cool. Wanting to show off a little more of what she had learned to do, Karina channeled her flames through her whip and sent it flying at the heartless, causing a bit of an explosion that took out some of the heartless around it as well. It was just a shame that there was no fire based heartless here, if there was she could show off her fire eater ability. That being said after the explosion at the lab, perhaps she had enough of that for one day. Though she had been healed, Karina could still feel the faint ache from where the injuries should have been, she was just thankful for the power that Lea had given her, if it wasn't for that then she would have been dead. Total Words: 629 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3480 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 1/15 Enemies Remaining: 394 Neoshadows 497 Darkballs
Giving Stratos a small smile in return, Aislinn turned her focus back to her battle. The silence that had fallen over those who were not new to the combat, or at least talking with those who were new was becoming deafening. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the silence, and as she parried out of the way of an attack, Aislinn herself could feel her lungs burning. It was no wonder that people weren't talking, it was getting hard enough to breath as it was with the amount that was going on and the need to keep on their toes moving. As she spun once more, her muscles started to feel sore and protest, making Aislinn plant both feet on the ground instead of up on the balls of her feet like she had been to keep herself light and moving. The concept in theory was a good one, and had been working thus far, but it was better for shorter battles, the longer this one went, the more her body was failing her. While yes she was getting injured on occasion, it was more the fact that Aislinn wasn't used to having to fight this much without a break. It was wearing on her body, leaving it tired and unable to react as quickly as she wanted it to. Even as the heartless fell more easily to her blade, she still could feel her muscles tire with each swing of the keyblade and each time she launched herself forward for another attack. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Aislinn forced herself into another frenzy of attacks. There was no time to be wasting just relaxing even if her body was telling her that she needed it. A look of determination crossed her face as Aislinn forced herself forward to use a cross slash before dodging out of the way of another Neoshadow. Breathing heavily Aislinn continued to move, though she didn't want to. At this point if she stopped moving she would have a hard time getting going again. It was a matter of maintaining momentum at this point and that was something that she seemed to be doing rather well, as she cleaved through a heartless and kept her swing going as it wrapped around and bashed into another one. Two went down and she kept going, moving quickly to the next heartless, followed by one more, keeping herself moving through the smoke as her eyes scanned the battle field. If she couldn't keep up with strength of the rest, she would just have to make up for it with how quickly she was killing the heartless. To Karina this started to feel like old times, except this time, instead of having Stratos at her side, she had Arctus. Her eyes drifted over to the boy who helped push her through the Battle of a thousand heartless, who had managed to stay with has as they not only finished off their own wave of heartless, but started to move around helping everyone else. Once more he was a force to be had. While sometimes he didn't seem too strong, when it came to things like this, there was no one that could match him. Not even she could keep up with as much as she tried. Every step she took she was still one behind Stratos. If it was anyone else than she would have been annoyed, but given it was him, there was nothing she could do about it, and Karina accepted that at this point and continued on with her fight against the Neoshadows and Dark balls that were around her. Total Words: 609 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3420 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 1/15 Enemies Remaining: 425 Neoshadows 529 Darkballs
It was to be expected, the shock that came with Arctus realizing what she had said. But it did surprise her the nervousness that he showed when she suggested that she would walk away. This was a battle, not a meet and greet, she would think he would have been in his element here and not care who was around as long as he knew who to kill and who not to kill. Given that the things he needed to kill were black with glowing yellow eyes, Karina assumed that he could figure at least that much out on his own, it wasn't a difficult task after all. The creatures kind of stood out from the people like sore thumbs. Perhaps some of his confidence was just a ruse.... she should know what that was like, it was a common occurrence for Karina. And while sure she had anger issues, and was temperamental, and didn't get along with most people, or even try, Karina wouldn't draw attention to it. There was no reason to and quite frankly, while she wasn't quite sure what was going on between them, she didn't want to ruin it. "Look I didn't have much of a choice. I would have rather not given up my keyblade, but that was not something I could control. After we were thrown into the realm of darkness we all lost our abilities to use the keyblade. Essentially we had to earn them back for ourselves by going back and visiting our home worlds, and whatever demons were there for us. I was not prepared. When I went, while I had spent a year getting stronger physically I let the anger and fear of my father drive me, so when I faced him again and I still wasn't strong enough to beat him, I did not have the will to continue facing him. I did not have the will to stop him when he tried to have me executed. Even as someone else died, trying to get me to stand up and fight, I was simply in too much shock of the entire situation." Karina admitted, she seemed annoyed at herself with the entire situation and she wasn't fond of explaining it, but in the end it was her first step to facing the past and perhaps she could one day earn back her keyblade. "When we were released from these... illusions, I still couldn't summon my keyblade back, meaning I couldn't go with the others to take the Mark of Mastery and earn exit out of the realm of Darkness, so Lea took me to meet you guys. That was when I tried to change my name and run from who I was another way. Clearly that didn't work out, and instead of running I was faced with more from my past." Karina glanced over at Uniform before turning back to the heartless she was fighting. "So yeah not my choice." Stratos was dealing a great amount of damage to the heartless around them and Aislinn took a moment while he fought to catch her breath before turning to watch his back in case he needed a chance to catch his breath himself. She didn't want anyone to get too tired and make stupid mistakes. In her mind it was okay to take a moment and breath as long as someone was there to cover you when you needed it, in this case that was her as she stepped forward and took lead on the assault against the heartless doing whatever she could to deal with them as quickly as she could, which thankfully wasn't as hard as it seemed in previous waves. Total Words: 614 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3360 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 1/15 Enemies Remaining: 494 Neoshadows 600 Darkballs
What sort of bloody nightmare had she walked into now. Karina stepped back as she listened to Luna go off on her little rant before Arctus stepped in with his opinion. Trying to ignore it at first Karina turned to Luna. "Well congrats on passing. I was rooting for you guys. Glad you made it through, I was worried when Yue showed up to kick Nequa's ass, but it seemed to have all gone well, so perhaps I shouldn't have." There was no anger to be seen in the situation, Karina wasn't smiling but she was at least relieved that the Mark of Mastery went well. When she had started to yell at Mizu about her not having faith in Yue for having a way out, Karina had started to wonder what became of Yue and if she really was competent enough to manage running their Mark of Mastery. It turned out she seemed to be as most who went in came out, the other one she had seen already and knew what had happened to him. It wasn't like Karina cared much for Glen anyways, he had always gotten on her nerves. Luna proceeded to go on and thank Karina for protecting and bringing Koa to her, but she honestly had no clue what that was about, nor would she ask. Peoples personal lives were never something of interest for Karina. "I didn't do anything but brought him along to save those that I worried for." There was no way she was going to call them her friends or say that she cared about them, it would make it too personal, so she bounced around the words and made something else up instead that still sounded reasonable. "There is no reason to thank me. Just do me a favour and don't let him die, we still have work to do back in the realm of Darkness. There is an old friend messing with some things he shouldn't." Karina warned thinking about the boy she had seen before. Luna also commented on her weapon, a weapon that she now resented taking. "When I couldn't summon my keyblade anymore, I needed something to attack with. I am not so savage that I would rip things apart with my bare hands." She had not told Arctus that she was one of them before. Whether or not he had figured that out for himself she didn't know, but she couldn't help but wonder what he would think of it. Pushing that thought to the side she then addressed Arctus. "You are just asking for me to walk away aren't you? I don't know what you think we are, but I don't even know myself, so perhaps you should shut up before I punch you again." Karina threatened before mumbling under her breath. "Or at the very least try and discuss where we stand and clear things up a bit." Meanwhile Aislinn was still dealing with the Neoshadows that were coming for Stratos and Ananta. For a bit she had moved forward, almost fighting on her own, but now she backed off towards the others again, attacking some Neoshadows at Stratos's back, before spinning around and taking out more near her. They ever kept coming but the even without magic to take out mass amounts of heartless at once, Aislinn was finding herself an unstoppable force that the heartless couldn't seem to handle very well. They were quickly falling to her as her strength made up for the lack of magical abilities that she had. Even for the few things that she could possible manage to do, Aislinn had chose to sacrifice it for the sake of more strength, and strength to lend to allies. Total Words: 621 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3300 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 10/15 Enemies Remaining: 612 Neoshadows 642 Darkballs
