Black Coats: Volume 1

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Arctus checked the time once more. Minutes had passed. Part of it was for contemplation over his last fight and part of it was a purposeful stalling of time. He rose to his feet and pressed his hands to his back and stretched out to pop his back. "Guess I've waited long enough." He stepped over towards the door and pushed it open towards what his next fight would be. But he knew from the beginning exactly who his last fight would be against.

"Oh hey! Sorry for keeping you waiting. Did I keep you waiting long? I didn't expect to see you here! Neat! Went through all those rounds and boy were they tough! But I told you I'd be fine! So we're masters now right? That was all seven fights? Did you fight a bunch of nobodies too? Not the things that are bodies without a heart but...eh you know what I mean. The terminology of that stuff is poorly thought out." He held up his hand to count on his fingers the fights he had but stopped on the sixth. He recounted them and raised an eyebrow. "Hey wait. I only did six. Did you do six? We're fighting each other in our final round, Karina? That sucks. I feel so pressured fighting you in such an important setting. I'd rather this be a normal sparring match. You know, tire ourselves out and bond while sharing deep dark secrets about ourselves." Arctus spoke quickly and crossed his arms, frowning a little. "Ah...well. I suppose now that we're forced here it'd be insulting if I just rolled over and gave you the win, huh? I mean you want this more than I do, right?"

Arctus scratched the back of his head. "Uh...sorry...rambling...I get all rambly when I'm nervous. Ehehe...ha...haha...haaaah..." His shoulders slumped. Arctus lowered his arms and summoned his keyblade before waving it around like it was some strange foreign object. "You want to keep things fair for my sake at least? No magic. In my last fight I threw this thing and realized it wouldn't come back like my sword did. That was...ah...embarrassing. Haha...I'm still getting the hang of this I guess." He laughed self-consciously. "So uh...is there any special last round ceremonial stuff we need to do before starting or do we just go at it?"

 

Walking in the room Karina discovered that Arctus was her final opponent. He barely knew anything about the keyblade, this fight would be easy. All this and she expected something a little more exciting. Here she was listening to Arctus ramble. Glancing down at her timer, they only had ten minutes left. He barely finished talking before Karina launched an attack at him, rushing forward and using a combo to knock Arctus in the air then trying to hit him to the ground. "Agreed no magic. Lets get this done, no formalities, we don't have time." She said, the light in her eyes draining slightly by seeing the final fight. She now just wanted to get this done because no longer was this data replica's but this was a real fight with someone that she could really hurt.

"Look I have to get back to my friends. I don't belong here, I know that know so I won't let you stand in my way." Karina tried to tell Arctus as an apology for launching herself at him and not bothering to talk or even really listening to his rant. Karina took on a strong offense and trying to keep him back and on defense, if she could do that maybe she could finish this quickly. ​

 

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"Whoa!" Arctus took the first hit Karina launched at him but as she tried to knock him down he held up his keyblade to block the blow. Being in mid-air, this still sent him crashing into the ground. He recovered quickly and brushed himself off. "A little more desperate than anticipated." He muttered under his breath as he turned to face her and began parrying her blows as she dealt them, the clashing of their blades ringing throughout the room.

"What? We're not friends? I know we don't have history but..." Arctus called off his keyblade the instant after Karina swung at him again and ducked under her blade. Before she could recover he rushed her to tackle Karina to the ground. Rather than attack her again he rolled to the side to make some distance between them and recalled his keyblade. "You know...a thought came to mind. I can almost imagine how livid you'd be if I just started running around the room until time ran out. I know I could run for that long. I've got stamina for daaayyyssss...but...I don't know. Just a random thought. Sorry. I thought it was funny." He rambled, choosing to talk instead of fight.

"Oh...right. Fine. Fiiiiine. I'll take this seriously." Without any further ado he leapt at Karina and brought his blade down at her.

 

"We- Uh. We..." Damn it she didn't know how to respond. It took her a very long time to consider the SoS group as friends, she wasn't easily going to say that Arctus was her friend, but she didn't know what he was. She had kissed him for goodness sake, what did that mean? Her mind was confused and she tried to focus on the battle. "We are... but I owe you nothing. I owe them everything and I made a promise." She finally managed to get out between blows. Why it was so hard to say, Karina couldn't explain, but she at least had to try and explain it to him. Surprisingly this time there was no harshness behind her words, she wasn't trying to hurt anyone, she was just trying to figure things out herself.

Arctus then let out another thought that was less confusing but caused her to roll her eyes. "You would lose too you idiot." Thankfully he actually tried to fight, throwing himself at her with his own attacks. Karina brought her keyblade up and deflected. He pushed her back a little bit and Karina used the momentum to continue jumping backwards before cloaking herself in a barrier as she launched herself back at him trying to get another solid hit on him. She didn't understand how this battle was supposed to end, but she needed to keep fighting, maybe try and knock him out, but nothing deadly, that was where she drew her line. When it was a data version it was fine, but not when she would have to hurt him... Arctus, the man who followed her around like a lost puppy but made her feel like a regular person too. She had to leave, she had to go back and join the SoS, but she wasn't going to do it without a bit of regret for leaving people like Arctus. ​

 

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Arctus did a standing block to hold his ground just as Karina rushed him with some sort of magical barrier thing. It pushed him back and knocked him off balance making him fall over but he recovered quickly enough. "Huh...you might not intend it that way but those words actually hurt." But why did they? He didn't want to press the matter mentally anymore. Not when he needed to focus on the here and now. "Thought we said no magic! Ah. Well it's okay. I know this is important to you." He shrugged. "It doesn't matter if I pass this test or not. It really doesn't. I came to stand by someone I believe innnnaaaannnddd that turned sappy real fast. You can pretend I said something else. Gr! Battle!" Arctus swiped his blade upwards cutting into the floor and sending sparks at Karina before rushing at her again to cut at her with attacks coming in from multiple angles.

 

"I. I um. I didn't mean. Oh who cares." Karina didn't feel like trying to defend herself like this. She didn't know how to tell him what was going on in her mind. She didn't know what was going on in her mind. As Karina spun on her heal, moving away from an attack and opening herself for another attack on him she flashed him a smile. "Not magic." She retorted remembering once again how he did not know much about the keyblade and what you can do with it. "While magic is like your gravity or my fire, this is simply a trick, and ability of the keyblade." She explained to him before deciding it was best to put it away. "But if you don't want me to use them I will lay off. I won't make you suffer what I did to Beuce last battle." There was a small amount of light to her eyes when she mentioned him, like she really did miss him. Somewhere along the line he came to support her more than anyone she knew in her life. What he did for her brought back and showed her that she mattered. She shook this feeling quickly however as needed to focus as she barely tried to dodge one of his attacks only to be caught in the arm. Another attack contacted before Karina manage to get her rhythm back and blocking a few more before ducking under the last one, sweeping a leg around trying to take Arctus out with a trip attack. ​

 

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"Oooo. Neat." He fell just as he said those words, having appeared to have lose his concentration when he realized that she hadn't used magic. "Oomph!" He let out a low groan. "Ouch." His eyes flicked over to the time. One minute remained. "Sorry. Guess I wasted a lot of time chatting with you. Sorry. Wait I already said that." He rolled to the side to once more get distance from Karina and stumbled as he regained his footing. Arctus tapped his keyblade to the ground and swept upwards, once more sending sparks Karina's way as he leapt into a barrage of attacks, following the same pattern as before in his movements.

 

Noticing Arctus looking at the time, Karina spared a glance at her hand. Shit. They were almost out of time. There was a fire that burned now in Karina, not out of anger for the time she wasted fighting Arctus but a fire burning leading her to what she knew she had to do. No more playing nice and having a friendly spar, there was something that she had to do, a battle that she must win. Through a blitz of upper cut attacks she broke through Arctus' already failing defenses. She then turned around kicking him back making him stumble enough that she could move in close, bringing her keyblade up to his neck, her shoulder near up against his. "Sorry but I couldn't let you win. I have failed enough, now there is a promise I have to keep and I couldn't let anything stand in my way. Not even you." She whispered into his ear, holding her ground for another minute or two until she was certain that her victory in hand.

Stepping back she looked at Arctus the fire in her eyes still burning. "I can't say I remember the last time I saw through one of my promises. Sorry that I couldn't have talked more or helped more, but I am sure you see it as well as I do now. I don't belong with Lea's little crew, I belong with the goody-two-shoes on the other side. I can't say I know how that happened, but I hope you understand, and forgive me." She told him before turning around looking towards the area around her not sure what to do now.

"Hey whoever is running this, where the hell are you? We finished!" She called out, anxious to see how she did in the entire fight, see if she was indeed good enough to be a master, or if this entire fight was just to give her a false sense of confidence. She didn't know if she could keep herself from shattering completely if it turned out to be the latter of the two. ​

 

A flash of light surrounded the room, teleporting both Karina and Arctus back to where Shiro was at the beginning of the building.
"A WELL FOUGHT CLASH," Shiro nodded in approval. "YOU'VE BOTH SHOWN TREMENDOUS SKILL, BUT I'M AFRAID ONLY ONE OF YOU MAY PASS. IF ARCTUS WAS TO WIN AFTER ONLY A FEW MOMENTS WITH THE BLADE, I COULDN'T HAVE IN GOOD CONSCIENCE, ALLOW KARINA TO BE MASTER. NOT TO MENTION THE SUSPCION I'D HAVE AGAINST SUCH A MAN THAT COULD PICK IT UP SO QUICKLY," he said, with an arched brow at the young man. "NEVERTHELESS, KARINA HAS EMERGED VICTORIOUS. YOU BOTH MAY HAVE BEATEN THE REAPER'S GAME, BUT ONLY KARINA IS THE NEWLY CROWNED MASTER." Shiro patted Karina on the shoulder "WELL DONE MS. XERES." He looked over to Arctus with crossed arms. 'THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT YOU I JUST CAN'T PUT MY FINGER ON... YOU ARE SKILLED YES, BUT I FEEL THERE'S STILL SOMETHING YOU'RE HIDING..." Looking down at Arctus, his eyes grew sharp for a moment before laughing it off. "HA HA, WELL NO POINT IN DWELLING ON IT NOW! YOU TWO NEED TO GET GOING. I'M SURE THE GAME MASTER WILL KEEP ME HERE WHILE YOU BOTH HEAD TO THE REALM OF LIGHT, BUT AT LEAST YOU WON'T BE ALONE!" He turned and began to march forward. "NOW LET'S SEE WHAT YOUR FELLOW COMPANIONS ARE DOING IN THEIR OWN TRIALS... I'M SURE THEY ARE FIGHTING WITH AS MUCH HONOR AND SKILL AS YOU HAVE DONE!"

Meanwhile, in the Thunderdome...

As Dastgir's weapon made its piercing stab, the pole arm seemed to have it a rock by the hard stone sound that was made. Charlie's skin seemed to have solidified itself in a hard stone material. "I appreciate the effort, but you'll need something better than that." Charlie grabbed his weapon and threw Dastgir along with it away from himself. He knocked his abs twice for the rock noise to be heard by all. "It's important to have a sturdy core when fighting. My iron defence isn't easily penetrated, but I would love to see someone try," Charlie smirked, waving around his keyblade. "I just wonder who will be first to actually beat the Charlie the Rock..."
Vanitas looked around to that he was vastly outnumbered. "Well it's not gonna be me..." he huffed under his breath.
Summoning unversed around himself, Vanitas was still scorned at the fact he couldn't have kept his full heart. He still had to make sure no one took Ventus...

Finlay tilted his head at the swarming blue flood unversed. "Oy! Who's cheatin'!" He said, spitting on the ground. "If yer gonna cheat Finlay, do it with some more pinash at least!" Finlay said, charging against the small creatures. "Oy! Kobra! What's our new game plan?"

(Failure to post by July 28th will have your character killed off)
@Shiki
@Iskandar
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@Beucefilous
@ArchAwesomeman
@LadyAzura
@Skyheart

 

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Arctus brushed himself off and smiled at Karina. "No hard feelings. You needed to win this anyway. I didn't." He smirked. His keyblade vanished and he stuck his hands in his pockets as they were now being spoken to by the one who led them to the exam. Shiro gave his congratulations to Karina but mentioned her by another name. A name which caused Arctus to flash a bright grin over at her. "Hello there Madam Xeres. Nice to meet you Karina Xeres. I imagine you're not fond of the name so I won't be using it from here on out but...that's not the last name I pictured you having." He mused.

Shiro gave Arctus a careful examination and claimed to be suspicious that Arctus was hiding something but he merely shrugged and kept on smiling. "Sure. I'm hiding something. But aren't we all if you think about it? No one knows everything about a person. Not even oneself." Arctus chuckled. "You'll never guess my favorite color. Such a secret." The subject had been dropped and it was now time to turn their attention to head to the Realm of Light. Arctus rubbed his palms together and looked over at Karina. "Ooooh. Neat. So you're not getting rid of me just yet. Congrats on the win though. Your conviction really does stand out as something inspiring. Was that what kept you from passing last time? Either way. You made it this time and that's good. Wooo...I've got a lot of pent up energy after that. Let's go play hero now and save the Realm of Light...or something."

 

Master, the words clanged through her with a power that she had not expected. She could hear them again and again, Master, Master, Master. She was able to fulfill her promise. She was a master now, she would be able to follow in the footsteps of her friends and join them once again as their equal and rival. Shiro put a hand on her shoulder to congratulate her, but his words made her bristle more than it made her smile. "Don't use that name. How do you even know that name?" She asked before Arctus started to repeat it.

Turning quickly she brought her keyblade back up to Arctus' throat. Something about that name put Karina on edge, that much was clear. "You better not speak that name again." She growled before removing her keyblade and stepping back, looking between the two men. "So what exactly does being a master entail?" She actually didn't know besides having a title that she could rub into her fathers face and show him that she was not worthless. At this point she couldn't give a damn about what Arctus may or may not be hiding. She just needed to prepare herself and then go back to her friends. "Also once we leave, who is going to lead this group. After all Lea left me in charge. and Lea is go too." Karina pointed out. ​

 

"MARSHALL HUGHES; THE MAN YOU KNEW AS 'UNIFORM,' WAS MY MASTER. HE SERVED UNDER YOUR FATHER'S MILITARY INFLUENCE FOR MANY YEARS. HE TOLD STORIES OF YOUR FATHERS COUNTLESS FEATS AND TRIUMPHS. INCLUDING THE VERY... UNSAVORY DETAILS. I SIMPLY ADDRESSED YOU BY YOUR SURNAME OUT OF RESPECT. I MEANT NOTHING DISRECPECTFUL BY IT MS. KARINA." He looked on as the battle continued, with Charlie laughing away in villainy. "AS FOR YOUR SUCCESSOR, THAT IS ENTIRELY IN YOUR HANDS. LEA'S BUSINESS WAS HIS OWN. IF HE SELECTED YOU TO LEAD, THEN I TAKE THAT AS A CONFIRMATION OF HIS TRUST IN YOU. YOU SIMPLY NEED TO PASS THAT TRUST ONWARD TO ONE OF THEM," Shiro said, looking down below as the fight raged on.

Clang's of Vallus' assault were heard, with Charlie punching the boy to the ground, before knocking him away with an earth pillar. "PRETTY SNEAKY SIS!" he laughed, launching him away. His skin couldn't be pierced... He took note of Koa and fired a large stone straight from his keyblade towards the man. As this happened, Dastgir launched another frosted attack, causing Charlie to shield himself with his right arm. As his arm began to cover in ice, Dastgir had made his next assault. "The pierces having no physical strain against Charlie, he began to yawn. "Well at least you're getting creative..." he shattered the ice on his elbow against Dastgir's face, knocking him down.

Aeira was the next to attack with a swift punch to the gut. With her powerful earth punch, Charlie made a loud 'oof' as he bent over against her fist. Looking as if the punch had given a real impact. As he slowly got up to line up his face to hers, he chuckled. "That one had some kick to it... But next time, try putting your BACK INTO IT!" He countered Aeira with a powerful gut punch of his own, knocking her to the other side of the stadium.

The blade of Luther's illusion made a large clanking sound as it hit Charlie's inpenetrable skin. "Hehe, tickles," he replied in a menacing tone. "Take note that your simple tricks and tactics won't work against me. I'm an opponent you either need to crush, or survive from." With an emphasis on the word 'survive,' Charlie slammed his keyblade into the ground and caused an earth pillar to knock Luther's side, causing him to stumble. Before rushing to heal him, Mizu sprouting more than two dozen water clones as cover fire before rushing to Luther's aid. "Don't worry, I'll heal you," she told him, getting close enough to cast a cure spell over Luther.

"Don't care who you are. You come at me, that's a death wish." He sighed as he cracked his knuckles. "I must say, I'm unimpressed with your performances. I don't think any of you deserve to live at this rate..."
"Alright! Finlay's had just enough of you!" Finlay pointed one of his axes at Charlie's fist, causing a small static shock to surround his fist.Another static shock was made against the ground, causing Charlie's fist to fall to the ground with a powerful static cling.

Charlie chuckled, digging his fist further into the ground, sigging his fist into the earth, before pulling out his fist, now covered in the earth itself.
"But that's Celtic Magic!" Finlay yelled,
"No, that's a party trick." Using his other fist, he punched the stone off his fist until the rubble would slowly fall away.


Alex looked to Melus. "Don't mess with Charlie," he whispered to her. "He's an a-hole. But he's never been beaten. No one has ever even laid a scratch on the dude... Go attack some one you don't like."
Several flood unversed began to swarm towards Alex. He spun around his keyblade as it became his instrument, strumming along magical electric strings, paralyzing the unversed with a powerful shock wave.

 

"If you know the unsavoury details then you would know that there is no honour in that name, not for me at least." Karina glared before turning back towards the fight below with Shiro. "If you want me to chose then I say none of them. Koa is the closest one I trust, but I don't trust he won't need to leave before the job is done. As for everyone else, I can't say that I can really trust them to lead. Any other suggestions on what to do about it?" She asked before glancing over at Arctus. "How about you, any suggestions for oh so mysterious past?" She questioned him more. ​