Aux rolled back his shoulders as Aislinn pitched the heartless towards him as if it was a baseball. Lowering the keyblade he had in one hand, he caught the shadow heartless with his free hand, it's head being held in his large hand. He glared as he squeezed on the heartless' head, feeling it twitch and squirm in his hands. The heartless eventually couldn't take the pressure that Aux was inflicting on it and vanished into dark smoke, Aux's fist fully closed as it vanished. He looked at his hand as if expecting to find something there. "Oops. Fouled out." A somewhat sick sense of humor, Aux shrugged before turning his back to see what was approaching them." He held his keyblade to his side as he watched more darkballs begin to surround them. "I wouldn't take it personally. And if it's any consolation, I guess you could say I kinda hate everyone. I'm just not much of a people person I guess." He watched as the darkballs rammed their way through the sky to begin their attack. He lifted his keyblade and cast a quick fire spell at the darkball, watching it twinge as it continued to burn. Aux jumped into the air and began a slow, but powerful assault with his keyblade against the oncoming darkballs. The heartless were dispersed without even so much as a second thought, as he landed with a great impact on the ground. Unknown to him, there was a small shadow heartless he crushed while on the way down. Aux looked back and shrugged at her question regarding if there were too many heartless to fight. "Would seem that way if they weren't so weak." Aux caught sight of another darkball charging straight for him. Unflinching, he held up his keyblade to guard the attack and held his ground as the darkball flew straight into his keyblade. Chewing at the hilt as if it were a rabbid dog. Aux carefully took his blade and whacked it on the ground, getting the heartless to eventually burst into smoke from he sheer impact of his blade hitting the ground. "Just be grateful that they're easy to kill..." He held his guard up for anymore oncoming threats. "And as far as sanity goes, I'm doing just great. A bunch of scurrying monsters hungry for taking my heart of course. But other than that, I'm just dapper." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over with Kaida, Hikaru couldn't help but have a small smile escape his mouth as he watched her leap into action. "Safety first!" he yelled casting an Aero spell around his friend. His keyblade pointed in her general vicinity as a sphere of cutting air surrounded her while she did her thing. Hikaru turned his back to her as he tilted his head up to the sight of two darkballs. The large headed heartless rattled their metal chains as they smiled their sinister grins heading towards him. "Oh that's not good," he said, slowly stepping back from discomfort. One of the darkballs charge right in as Hikaru quickly guarded, parrying away the heartless' efforts. His eye immediately caught sight of the other darkball as he jumped off the edge of the dock and performed an aerial combo on the heartless. With that one vanished, he landed back onto the dock in time for the parried heartless to come back and try it's attack again. He held his keyblade with both hands and performed a swift uppercut, knocking the enemy into the air. He jumped up to perform another aerial combo on the foe as he hacked and slashed away at it before returning to the ground. Total Words: 606 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 780 Heartless Defeated 8 Darkballs 2 shadows Heartless Left: 201 Shadows 90 Neoshadows 141 Darkballs
As Hikaru held his keyblade aloft, he tried to recall what the remnant was. "I'm not exactly sure what it is. From what I can remember, it's like a small orb of darkness. Whatever it was, it made Aux act irrationally. After he took that he began to distance himself from us more and more. It's like all he cared about was getting stronger with darkness. And what's worse, it was Nequa that gave it to him. I haven't ran into her much, but from what I've, she's not to be taken lightly." He slashed a quick shadow that was trying to climb aboard the dock. "And that's what Megumi said, remember? Once we get to the threshold, everyone's entree fees will be returned to them. Aux's fee was his remnant. His memories are just something Sho took from him. I don't know why they came back to him now of all times..." He looked back at the edge of the dock and saw a couple more of the shadows begin to scurry aboard. While trying to explain, he quickly dealt an uppercut with his keyblade and jumped into the air. He performed a quick, but powerful aerial combo before landing back down to his feet. The heartless were removed from sight as he looked back to Kaida. "And as far as our friendship goes..." He stopped, trying to think of something to say that wouldn't sound too self hating or out of character. This was one of the few times, Hikaru ever had to discuss something emotionally heavy. "I just felt that if I wasn't real then... neither was the bonds I made with people." He thought back to what Tron said back in Space Paranoids. His time in the digital world gave him time to reflect on the fact that he was a replica. Up until that point, he didn't take the time to really stop and think about his current predicament. Of all the worlds he had visited in the Mark of Mastery Exam, the Space Paranoids is probably where he did the most self growth in. The bit about how despite him being a copy, the thing that made him unique was the bonds he forged with others. Before speaking further, he saw a small gaggle of shadow heartless try to reach the edge of the dock from the beach terrain. "Blizzaga!" he cried, firing a quick spell of ice at the group of them. The powerful ice spell froze and immediately eliminated the threats, showing just how strong and well ranged the ice spell was. Tiny shard of ice faded into the ground as they mystically melted out of sight. "Our friendship means the world to me, and I just hate that lately it's felt that I haven't shown that. I left Central Haven to search for Aux without telling you, and I spent the entirety of Pridelands trying to make sure he was okay. I never once stopped to check in how you were doing." He performed a quick ground combo to another small quartet of oncoming shadows. He lunged into the group and began his routinely sweeping of his keyblade to remove and eradicate them off the deck that he and Kaida were defending. The ones he didn't defeat were sinking their way along the ground. He watched as a few began to shadow sneak under his feet, holding his keyblade and preparing them to rise of from the ground. It was almost as if he was fishing with his bare hands and he was just waiting for them to pop our of the ground. As he watched them return to their three dimensional form, he took his keyblade and swung it down overhead, making quick work of the remaining heartless shadows. Once the area was secure, he looked back to Kaida and approached her. "I promise once this is over, I will never lie or keep secrets from you again." Total Words: 658 Exp: 60 Total Exp: 720 Heartless Defeated 26 Heartless Left: 230 Shadows 97 Neoshadows 149 Darkballs
