Video Game: Kingdom Hearts SOS: The Road To Light

Kross tilted his head as she spoke, her question drew a nod from him."English wasn't my first language..sometimes my context gets thrown out of proportion, sometimes when I get angry, I'll accidentally let my first language slip out."He said with a sheepish smile."The common language is..difficult, putting it lightly. So many expressions and tones."He said. He heard her say what he said before but in her language. She even wrote it down to show him, he looked over it, it seemed somewhat similar to what he said, a couple of words he could pin point to be in his own language. He smiled a little and looked up at Ananta as she said her name in her language."Wow, my name on my island is Ik' ni Tikkt', it's 'heaven and earth'."He said and sat down."Even the tattoo on my arm means heaven, everyone on my island gets a specific marking to represent their mettle. Mine is heaven, my dad's was love and my mother's was bear."He said. her answer drew silence from Kross. She didn't ask to be a wielder, it was forced upon her He stroked his chin and looked at her."Well, my people believed in the Keyblade's lore, how it was the manmade weapon that saved them from the darkness and created my island. We believed there would come a time where the strongest of my people would be chosen to be a wielder of the keyblade."He said, looking at her."I was the weakest..you're not the only minority."He said and stood, dusting himself off and turned to Ananta, his hands on his hips."Well, it looks like the others are clearing the room so we should too."He said."What do ya say?"

 

Luna remained silent for a minute before running toward the group. "On second thought, I'm going with you guys." Luna ran out of the Hall of Records and toward Kel, Cat, Beuce, and the Moogle. She slowed down as she reached the group. Luna started to walk alongside the group as they started to make their way to the Training Grounds. "I wonder what's gonna happen when we get to the Training Grounds." Luna spoke to herself as she was closing in on the Training Ground.

 

Raisor looked to Anora as she asked them about Hikaru not regrouping with them. He didn't think it was any concern, and probably Hikaru just had something he had to do before joining up with them again, plus it was a big place they were in, so it was also a chance they wouldn't see him for a while just because he was in another place. But he was also sure Anora might look too much in to it, so he figured it might be a good idea to try and think of something to get her mind off it.
"I'm sure he just had to go do something on his own time. After all, we all have our own things to do, and if he came from here before meeting us, he probably has stuff to catch up on." He tried grinning to Anora, hoping it made her feel better. He was getting so sleepy though, he was sure his grin came out in all the weirdness possible.


He wondered what everyone was doing at the Hall of Records. Honestly, he didn't want to go there, but there wasn't anything to do in the Main Hall. Books were his weak point, and just thinking about them made him sleepy. Probably one of the reasons he moved around so much, or tried to stay in combat. Since neither were possible at the moment, he really didn't have a choice but to follow Anora and Aden to the room. The mountain of monotony is basically what he considered the Hall of Records.

 

Ananta listened to Kross intently. His speech was pretty good for the common language not being his first language. In any case, she listened as he said his name in his language. "Sounds pretty." she said, looking at his arm tattoo. She hadn't really noticed it until he mentioned it and she took a close look at it. "It looks beautiful." she said, staring at the tattoo. It was simple, but that's what she liked about it. Ananta didn't like very intricate designs, she would prefer something be plain and basic. But at times, she would be fine with something being intricate. If the occasion demands it, at least. "I don't even know anything about the keyblade. Mostly because I wasn't able to ask anyone about it before. Master Yen Sid wasn't very talkative either, from what I understand. He seemed to talk cryptically too. But maybe that's just me." she chuckled, standing up. "I guess we better watch out for each other, being minorities and all." she jabbed at him, making a playful punch at his arm. Looking over, she saw Hikaru return and start to talk with Kaida. She noticed his exchange with her, being pretty bashful and giving her an item. As Kross stood up, Ananta turned back to Kross and smiled. "You know, those two over there look like a cute couple, huh? Wish I had somebody like that. Somebody I could depend on, I mean." she said, placing her hands behind her head and smiling at Kross. "But I guess that'll happen someday, right? Anyway, Hall of Records is where we're supposed to go. C'mon." she said, swinging an arm over Kross' shoulder and sort of forcing him to follow along with her.

 

Kross smiled a little, sheepish at her compliment of both his name and tattoo. He rubbed the back of his head and gave a soft, nervous laugh. Her comments about the keyblade drew his arm down and his expression changed to a more serious look."Master Yen Sid is an enigma, I was one of his pupils and he still manages to escape my comprehension."He said."But he is the wisest man I know."He said. As she punched his arm, he frowned and absently rubbed his arm, then blinked at her words."Who?"He asked, following her previous gaze to Hikaru and Kaida."..Those two?"He murmured. He then looked over to her. She wished she had someone she could depend on. He scratched his head in blatant confusion, but as she changed the subject, he went along with it and nodded."Hall of Records, cool! I can finally learn about those three jerks."He said."Ack.."He grunted as she slung an arm around him and forced him to walk along, well more like stumble, but still the same thing. He noticed something out of the corner of his eye though, something that was secured quite well into the wall, a mirror..he could see his reflection in it and he remembered the time he visited master Yen Sid, it was through a mirror, how very mysterious. Anora seemed fine by herself, since she was with friends and teammates so he wouldn't worry that much about her. Despite her fragile appearance, she was strong, very strong.

 

Eon quickly dodged the fiery attack, only to be burned by the radiance of the attack. Small burns that would only sting a small bit but serious damage was left to a minimum. He sighed at Glen's words. There were two ways to fight, go all out and head first, or play strategically and wait for the proper time to strike. The second method being more well known as assassinations and sneak attacks. "You call in weak, I call it strategy." He hummed at Glen. Now that he was found and his attack missed its mark, it didn't matter to be hidden. Now he just needed a way to hold Glen off long enough and figure out a perfect strategy to defeat him.

"Let's start with the original method. I summon you, my friends, the 3 Caballeros, Donald, Jose, Panchito, create the fiesta." Eon called out, lifting his keyblade into the air, the 3 bird's coming into existence to assist Eon in his battle against the ally Glen.

"Let's go g-" Eon stopped his speech as he looked over to the three birds. They all began to held their chest's with they wings, their breaths sounding forced. Sweat rolled down their feathers, there knees shaking as if the air above them was now weighing them down. "Guys! What's wrong!?"

"Sorry, senior, we seem to be at the termina."
"Si, our time is up."

Eon looked at them, his eyes widened from shock. What in Krowley's name was going on. Eon dropped his keyblade completely forgetting about the fight between he and Glen. "Come on, you guys are just kidding right? We can try and get you to a doctor."

"No, nino, I don't think we can recover from this."

"But... you cant leave me, you're my friends. I have to find a way to save you!" Eon shouted out, tears beginning to envelope in his eyes.

"We know you would try, nino."
"Listen, friend. Our time together was mui bien. You treated us well and always trusted us."
"You must move on and save the other wielders. We have faith in you."

Water dripped from Eon's eyes as he rushed to the birds and wrapped his arms around them all and vice versa. "I don't know whats going on, but I care about all three of you. Maybe one day we can meet each other again. All of you I care about deeply."

"Si, nino. We will meet again someday. Keep fighting...."

With the last words being said, the 3 brids disintegrated in Eon's hands. He fell to the floor, his hands catching himself. His eyes were now puring as he punched the ground violently. More people he cared about were being taken away with him and he could never know the cause. First his parents were taken from him and now some of his closest friends. This universe, was there anything else it could take from him? Why make friends if they are only going to be taken away from you in the end.

The boy stood up, his face covered in a dark shadow. No words could escape his lips as he looked at the remaining particles that dispersed into the air. His eyes looked dead, his skin appearing more pale. He slowly walked towards the wall, his body falling to the ground as his back laid onto it. "There... is no point in friendship..."

 

Steel wasn't as sure about Hikaru as Raisor was. It could just be something minor, but the fact remained that Hikaru, an apprentice-not even a full member of the order- had stolen order technology, which he used to run off without permission, break a few of their rules, and semi-impersonate their leader. It was entirely possible that the boy could be suspended from order activities. He could have also been kicked out altogether, but considering he had the purest of intentions at heart he doubted they would go that far. However, he didn't really know anything for certain. It struck him strange that he had reached a point where he knew so little about everything, but patience was one of his best qualities despite his fast nature; he could wait around long enough to learn.

Ultimately, there was nothing that directly pointed to Hikaru leaving the group so he pondered in silence, his arm across his chest and his hand on his chin as the group walked to the hall of records.

 

Hall of Records

Seiza watched the group leave, smiling a little bit at how their interactions brought up his mood. It wasn't often he was given the chance to communicate with people for long. Since they usually ran in and ran out with what they needed. He started to put books away before he noticed someone dressed in blue out of the corner of his eye, and he turned around right as they spoke, "Ah you there, with the hair that looks like a concoction of strawberries and bananas! As I understand it you are the curator in this facility is that correct."

Seiza misheard him for a moment, and was almost certain her heard custodian in there, and he looked over and commented, "Did you just call me a janitor?"
"No not at all, young man. I was just curious if I could be so bold as to ask a favor of you."

He gave it a moment's thought before he answered, "As long as it doesn't involve a keyblade or running around. What is it?"

Merlin shook his head and waved around his arm, "Oh none of that fiddle-faddle, you see here young Mizu gave me this book before her unfortunate disappearance. She asked me to research it on behalf of the Order. And by jove I tried, but it's too torn with several of the pages missing. By my own beard I can barely make out the title."
"So why are you telling me about this?"
"If anybody knows the possibility of worlds, there's you. Because there was once a world in this book."

Seiza laughed a little and looked at Merlin in a sort of disbelief, "So we got the most magical member of the order, and one of the wizards we trust the most, and they couldn't do anything about it... and you are expecting me to do something about it?"
"Well you could at least fix the binding. And who knows, perhaps the pages are scattered throughout the worlds."
"I can fix the binding, but looking throughout the worlds for pages of a book is impossible for me to do. Perhaps you should ask someone else around here... maybe Kaida, she's always up for that work."
"I'll look into that then... but remember: even if it is tarnished, every book has it's merit. This book is like the human brain, we must fill it with the knowledge it lacks, because that's what makes the world go round."

Merlin made his way out of the area, after handing him what was left of the book. Seiza sat down and examined the book and pulled out book fixing tools that they fortunately already had within the library for situations where books got needlessly destroyed. He started working on it as much as he could until he was pretty sure the binding was in better condition.

 

Glen simply watched as Eon went through his emotional, dramatic goodbye of the 3 Caballeros. He himself hadn't been particularly attached to the birds, but he had to admit they had been very useful. Despite his eagerness to fight, Glen wasn't about to attack Eon while he was in such an emotional state. Karina was one thing, the two didn't get along well at all, but Eon was one of the first people he had met upon leaving his homeworld, and he had no reason to dislike the boy at all.

Walking over to Eon, he let himself slump to the ground next to Eon and waited for a moment to see if this would get a reaction. He then let out an enormous sigh. Much as he liked causing trouble, the keyblade warrior didn't like seeing people upset when he had absolutely nothing against them. "Friendship can be seen as a waste of time. Sure it might keep you happy for a little, but what's the point if it eventually fades away and leaves you more damaged than you were before? You're right about it Eon, it sucks and is horrible" he said, almost agreeing with the boy.

It wasn't all horrible though, and Glen knew that very well. The way Eon was, the amount he was upset, it reminded him of a time where he had been in a similar situation. He hadn't lost a friend, but someone had been there to pull it out of him, and it was time he did the same for the kid.

Spoiler: flashback

It was when they were only twelve years old, he remembered. Kara walked over to Glen, over sitting on a small rock overlooking the horizon. He was always there wasn't he? It seemed to be his favourite place. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly. As much as he tried to hide it, Glen's cheeks were wet; probably from tears after the people in their town had called him a monster again. Glen didn't respond. "I-i made you something" Kara said, reaching into the pockets of her jeans and pulling out a small piece of fabric in the shape of the heartless insignia. "What is it?" Glen asked, finally speaking.Kara gave him a smile. "A present! I saw you with those dark creatures earlier. They had this symbol on them, so I made it for you" Kara explained. Glen reached out and took it. He realized she was talking about the heartless that he had been around, the ones he had been trying to fight off but found it difficult to do so. The ones he and his family were supposed to fight off. Kara had always been accepting of his need to find heartless, to kill them, he wasn't sure why. "What's it for?" Glen asked. "To remind you that even in the darkest times, the person that made this will always be there for when you need her" Kara responded.

Kara saw another tear in Glen's eye, but it wasn't one of sorrow, it was one of happiness. He looked first at the gift, then back at Kara. For the first time in a while, he gave a weak smile. "Thank you Kara, i'll always be there when you need me too. I promise" he vowed. He looked back at the horizon; the sun was setting. He dried his face with the sleeve of his shirt and stood up, offering Kara a hand to help her up. Once she was on her feet, Glen gave another smile. "It's getting late, we should probably go back to town" he suggested. The two of them began their slow walk to the town, the promise between them both meaning more to each other than either of them realized.

"Thing is, while you might be more damaged after it, you'll also be stronger and more prepared for it next time, and when friendship comes around again you'll be more appreciative and enjoy it a little more. I wouldn't really know about it too much, seeing as how I've only really had one friend..who I kinda left behind. Geez It makes me want to go back to Aatarsilu sometimes. My father's dead, my mother I never cared for, and everybody else hates me there, but the one friend I got...eh, she's special to me.." he said, his voice trailing off. He then stood up, kicking the keyblade he had sat down with his foot so it spun up into the air, and Glen caught it skillfully. "The point i'm tryin' to get across, is you can't let it get you down too much. People will start thinking you're weak, and nobody wants to be friends with a weakling. Look, if it's really upsetting you that much" he said, pointing his keyblade at Eon now, "then fight me, put your suffering into your weapon and take it out on me, it'll make you feel a little better, I can tell you that much" Glen encouraged.[/spoiler]

 

"An enigma should try and speak with his pupils more than speak riddles, honestly, but I understand I guess? He wants us to figure things out ourselves with the hints he's given us. Now that he's gone, we'll never get any new riddles or hints..." she seemed a little sullen, thinking about the possibility that Yen Sid is now gone. He was a gentle but firm guy, so now that he's gone, what will happen? How will they know what worlds need help? Those were all questions in Ananta's head. "What three jerks?" she asked Kross, having heard him express wanting to learn about them. She only knew of Nequa. If there were more like Nequa, then she wasn't really prepared for that. But it didn't matter, she wanted to take down Nequa and that's that. She'll do anything even put Nequa in her place. After everything she did, she had the gall to laugh at Ananta's attempts to give her some pain. There was nothing she could do at this time. Probably never, for that matter, but it didn't matter, she wanted Nequa to pay for everything. She took Mizu AND excalibur. How was that world going to survive now? What's gonna happen to Wart? More questions flooded Ananta's mind as she pulled Kross along in a neck hold. Halfway through walking, Ananta realized that maybe Kross wasn't comfortable. "Oh my god, I'm sorry, I got lost in thought and I didn't mean to keep my arm around your neck so long!" she said, apologizing to him and checking his neck to make sure it was alright. She even cast a cure spell on his neck, to maybe counteract the pain she inflicted. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry, I don't want to hurt you. I promise!" she said, frowning, continuing to fret other the situation.

 

Ultimately, there was nothing that directly pointed to Hikaru leaving the group so he pondered in silence, his arm across his chest and his hand on his chin as the group walked to the hall of records.
Anora listened to Raisor but noticing that sleepy lopsided smile, the young female decided not to bother Raisor any longer.He might have been tired from their earlier battle. Even she could feel the toll it took on her body but the excitement of meeting her old teammates was an adrenaline pick me up. Anora patted Raisor on the back and gave a small smile, "You need some rest." she said softly to him so only he could hear. "Maybe find a corner and fall asleep?" she asked. During her time with the Aden and Raisor she learned a lot about the boys and in turn they learned about her. One thing she knew, Raisor was more of a 'Lets go train and run around' rather than sitting in a library.
Patting his back one last time her eyes averted to Steel. Figuring by his expression she figured he knew something that they didn't. She was going to ask him what he knew but than she saw a man in blue, by the looks of it a wizard, prance out of the Hall of Records. She stared and watched him go by. He looked familiar to Anora, maybe her family knew him since they made it a point of knowing wizards, even from other worlds. Letting the wizard go, seeing as he was in a train of thought she turned into the Hall of Records and took in a deep breath of the smell of books.
She enjoyed this place immensely, it reminded her of her childhood, being surrounded my books of knowledge. After her incident with the heart attack she wanted to learn more about it, why, how, what this meant. Thankfully she did have help from other at uncovering what how to deal with her problem.
Turning to look at those who hadn't been here before, she smiled, "This is Hall of Records. It looks like the others aren't here so might as well look around and read some books before they come here."
Looking to a desk she saw Seiza working on a book. She was perplexed and walked over to him. "Hello sir." She greeted with kinder smile as she was able to learn a lot about her heart condition thank to him. "What are you working on?"

 

Eon could not hear anything Glen had to say. His heart was far too broken after witnessing such a difficult thing. His lifeless eyes could only stare down at the floor. His heart was slowly falling to the darkness. There was no point now. Everyone now was just a lost echo passing through him as if he was intangible.

 

The group heading to the training grounds made idle conversation along the way. What would the mark be like? What would Kuma look like? They discussed the topic while following the likely lamppost wielding moogle to their destination. Beuce was the first to step into the sandy grounds behind the moogle. Looking around, he could see Eon being depressed, Glen trying to comfort him, an- JESUS CHRIST MAN! WHAT HORRIFYING MONSTROSITY WAS THAT?! IT'S LIKE IF HERCULES AND SUPERMAN HAD A BABY THAT TURNED INTO THE HULK, WAS ON STEROIDS AND WENT SUPER SAIY- on no wait that's Karina...woops. Beuce was glad he didn't say that out loud. Otherwise hulk super saiyan steroid hercules baby might have had an issue with him.

Looking over to eon, he could tell that the guy was really down. Glen's encouragement did nothing to help him. Before any of them could do anything, a loud voice came from behind them. It was deep and had a thick Scottish accent. It sounded like the voice of a giant. Turning around, Beuce saw that he wasn't far off.

"His body is harder than diamonds, but...He is still a boy. His heart is soft and vulnerable..." said the rather large man. He towered above Beuce, who standing at 6"2, was fairly tall by most standards. To top it off, the man was so brawny he looked like he could win a fist fight against a freight train with both hands tied behind his back. He could only guess that this man was the one that they had came looking for. The keyblade master known as Kuma. "So, why have you come seeking me?" He asked Beuce, who was at the head of the group.

"We came to take the mark of mastery." Said the red-clad keyblade wielder bluntly. He stated exactly why they were there. No beating around the bush. It obviously took somewhat by surprise. He raised an eyebrow at him, then began to laugh. When he spoke, it was in a louder tone than he had previously used. It honestly suited him better.

"HAHA! THE MARK YOU SAY? THAT IS A HIGH REQUEST FOR AN OUTSIDER! THE ORDER DOESN'T LIKE GIVING THE MARK TO PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T TRAINED IN CENTRAL HAVEN, BUT I SAY THAT IT'S NOT WHERE YOU TRAIN THAT MATTERS! AS LONG AS YOU SHOW THE MAKINGS, A MASTER YOU ARE! STILL, I CAN'T GO GIVING THE MARK TO EVERY STRANGER WHO WALKS IN AND ASKS! HMM...I WILL TELL YOU WHAT, I'LL GIVE THE TEST..." He paused, raising his hand into the air. He held up his Index, middle, and ring finger. "TO THREE OF YOU! WHICH THREE, YOU WILL HAVE TO DECIDE FOR YOURSELVES."

 

His eyes lifted up to Karina who began to spit trash from her mouth. The words she spoke were that of a heartless witch. He moved his body slowly staggering towards her. His fist clenched ad he came closer.

He stood in front of her, fangs being shown, anger coursing through his small body. His fist reached up a punched the wall beside her. "You understand nothing. You speak of your father being a horrible man. It clearly rubbed off on you."

 

The scene before them at the training grounds was definitely an unusual one. Glen had apparently attempted to comfort Eon, who was now standing in front of Karina with an angry look on his face or something, which probably wasn't a good idea considering how Karina looked more like a demon at this current moment. "Just what happened here?" Clearly this was more than someone losing in a sparing match. Then he attention was grabbed by a loud voice behind them. Kel turned around and was staring face to face was a giant bear.

This encounter wouldn't be as shocking if he was the same size as Goofy and not a giant bear. Beuce then proceeded to explains why they'd appeared before him and he gave them a laugh. Despite Kel having the impression that they wouldn't be given the Mark of Mastery, Kuma's next works were contrary to that belief. In fact they would be able to do it, though the number would be limited to three. Well two since the demon Karina had already claimed one of the slots.

"Only two slots left then, I'll give it a shot as well." Nothing was guaranteed about this exam, especially considering how the requirements to passed varied between whoever was administering it. He knew next to nothing about Kuma so trying to guess what he would have them do wouldn't help him much at all. All he could do was to wait and see while hoping for the best.

 

Cat walked along with the boys, the idle chatter distracting her from her earlier outburst. She felt a bit better already, and she tried not to think about ultimatums, but the truth was undeniable: if it came down to it, she had to be the one to defeat the light guardian on her own. The thought of taking on such a legendary beast scared her, that was for sure, but she had to save her... no matter the cost. They walked out to the training grounds, and she saw Glen comforting a distraught Eon. Karina was standing around, looking as upset as ever, and someone else she didn't recognize was there as well. Suddenly, they were approached by a burly giant. He seemed to be praising Eon while sympathizing with him, and before she had time to think, Beuce questioned him about the Mark of Mastery. This was the Kuma they'd been searching out, and she was definitely intimidated by him in more ways than one. Eventually he stated that he would only give the mark to three of them. Karina and Kel spoke up and she quickly stepped forward. "I can't afford to lose this chance. I need to take the exam and face the light guardian." She spoke matter of factly, not daring to look away from Kuma -- partly to prove her resolve to him and partly not to look at any other wielders that he was taking the chance away from. "I'm not just doing this for myself," she said. She wasn't really directing it to anyone in particular at this point. Just whoever would listen. "I swore when I left that I'd find a way to save her, and the more I look the more it seems like this is the only way. So please, let me take the test."

 

Kross absently rubbed his neck as he felt Ananta relinquish her grip. He felt a warmth go through his neck and in that instant, the small pulses of pain were gone. He also heard a string of apologies from Ananta and he looked at her, shaking his head slowly."Don't worry about it, Ananta."He said and looked forward, then started his pace. They were getting close now, so kross would explain the three he was talking about. The Hall of Records, it was a huge collection of information both physical and digital. He saw even more machines, from terminals that displayed the time and date to towering electrical boxes."I visited Master Yen Sid, it was sort of an unexpected visit since I was sucked into a mirror..anyway, he told me of an apprentice who betrayed Master Xahenort, his name was Vanitas. He joined two others just like him, Aux and Nequa. I encountered Aux more than once, but I haven't quite faced Nequa or Vanitas yet..but I know one thing, gathering from what happened, I know Master Xehanort, seedy as he is, isn't responsible for this."Kross said. He walked further into the hall."I wanted to come here initially to maybe find out more about those three. Master Yen Sid trusted me with that information, it's my duty to look further into this."He said, his naiive aura now gone. This was the true Kross, a calculating, serious intellect, a side he rarely showed towards others.

 

Ananta watched as Kross rubbed his neck and seemed to be okay again. When he reassured her that he was fine, Ananta took caution not to mess with his neck again. She really didn't want to hurt him, considering they needed everyone to be in tip top shape for any and all fights they would face in the near future. Things were getting serious and now wasn't a time to hurt your comrades. Although, thinking of that, reminded Ananta of the training grounds that many of the others had run off to. They were over there, fighting each other and training. Yes, that helped them in the long run, but hopefully none of them got too hurt. If anything, Ananta could help the ones that were hurting the worst. Ananta was pretty proficient in healing magic, she has training in it for a long time. Although, she only knows a few spells, she hopes to someday be able to know more spells. Kross began to explain what Master Yen Sid had told him. "Why would Master Xehanort do this? He's no a bad guy. I mean, I haven't met the guy, so I have no experience with him. But if he's a master, he can't be such a bad guy....right?" she said, crossing her arms. As they entered the room, Ananta took a gander at the shelves and terminals. Everything seemed to be swelling with information, Ananta was curious as to how they fit so much in such a small place. At least, it looked small to her. Kross mentioned this was his duty. His duty was to investigate Master Xehanort and why Nequa, Aux, and Vanitas were going around and messing up worlds. "Kross, I don't understand, why can you be the only one to do this? Can't others help you? I hope you don't think you have to do this all alone. You have comrades who can and will help if you ask. Don't worry about asking me, I've already made up my mind to help you." she said, placing her hands on her hips. "With our magic, we can do a lot of stuff. You can fight, I can heal, we'll be really powerful." she smiled, laughing heartily.

 

Beuce scratched the back of his head. Too many people, not enough spots. He knew this was going to happen the second Kuma said there'd only be three spots. "Well, i can't afford to give up my spot, but we can't exactly go and fight over them. This is probably part of the test, to prove teamwork and humility. It's a classic test for teams. Set up a situation where one is guaranteed to fall behind, and see if the others turn around to help them back up." He thought to himself. If one of them had to fall behind...He couldn't afford to let it be him, but everyone had their own reasons for taking the test. "I'll save her for you." Beuce blurted out eventually.

"We both need the guardians anyway, but i need all eight of them. If you let me take the mark in your place, I'll save her for you." He offered, attempting to get Cat to relinquish her spot to him. Without those guardians, he didn't stand a chance against Nequa, and if needed the guardians as well, why didn't he just use them to accomplish her goal? Looking at her, he awaited her response.