Video Game: Kingdom Hearts SOS: The Road To Light

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After striking the heartless with his blizzard spell, he then went to attempt to fire another one at the red nocturnes that were staring him down now. As he attempted this though, nothing came out, which caused Stratos to look briefly confused, looking at his keyblade to figure out what was going on. His eye widened soon, though, at the realization and said, "oh right." It was no wonder he was unable to cast the spell now, as all he had been doing since they got Phoebus was casting magic. Well, even if his magical reserves were depleted for the time being, that didn't really matter much. He would just get it fully charged and raring to go once again, which was a simple enough task. Besides, for the time being it wasn't as though the enemies he was against really required him to go full steam with magic. As he had been thinking these things, he looked up and saw that the red nocturnes were none too happy with the boy. The tips of their hats charging with magic again, Stratos could see the air around them ripple with heat as a ball of flame was fully formed. Once the magic had been completely charged, it launched it at the boy, to which he simply put his keyblade between him and the attack. When the fireball made contact, it was deflected, though bounced off in a random direction.

Seeing the blaze strike a random area, Stratos silently cursed under his breath, noting that he couldn't just be reckless with how he fought against these creatures. Following the first ones lead, three more red nocturnes had appeared and started to repeat the process. As they started to shoot their magical fireballs, Stratos's grip tightened around his keyblade. Knowing that he had to be careful about his counter he swung down on the first one, smashing it into the stone floor causing it only to leave a small char on the ground but not much else. The second one, he then did an upper slash, striking the fireball from underneath with his keyblade, sending it into the air. As the slash had caused his form to be knocked off balance, though, and he didn't have anyway to properly direct a slash, the third attack he took head on. With the fireball exploding on impact, Stratos was knocked back, skidding across the ground as he tried to recorrect his posture. Before the four red nocturnes could attack again, though, Stratos started to spin his keyblade, tossing it at the first one. Running after it, the spinning keyblade had cut through the heartless, and once in range of the others, Stratos summoned the blade back to his hand. With ice imbuing the blade, the boy jumped into the air, slashing two of them before bringing his keyblade down with a hard slam on the forth.

Looking around, the boy noticed that these red nocturnes were just starting to come in droves, and were beginning to set fire to the surrounding area. Clicking his tongue, Stratos looked around to try and figure out which ones would be the best ones to take on first. Without magic to use, he couldn't actually cover much distance just yet. And so, the boy simply charged at a small cluster of red nocturnes, keyblade at the ready. Jumping up, Stratos burst through the air with a sliding dash, cutting through one and using strike raid on another before touching the ground. As he did, he felt a bit of magical power come back to him, and channeled his magic into the air. When done, he called lightning down from the sky, striking four of them down.

Word Count: 618
BP Spent: 30
EXP Writer 2: 60 EXP
Total: 120 EXP
Blessed Thief: 60 Munny

Enemies Remaining:
Red Nocturnes: 80/100 (3 BP Each)

 

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Luna had been playing a game with some of the children in the Court of Miracles before two men had been dragged onto the stage. Luna looked over to the stage to not only see Quasimodo but Phoebus as well. "What in the name of Apollo?" Luna slowly walked over as nooses were being wrapped around their necks. Fortunately, Esmeralda stepped onto the stage and spoke out to save Quasimodo and Phoebus. Letting out a sigh of relief, Luna squatted down to let the children know she was going to excuse herself for a bit. Receiving a nod from the children, Luna stood up and approached the group, hearing the events that led up to this current moment in time. To see both Quasimodo and Phoebus here, it had Luna pondering for a bit. A feeling caution and danger had settled in Luna as she pondered and pondered. Lo and behold, her gut feeling was right. Before she could continue to wander in her thoughts, Frollo and his army stormed into the Court of Miracles. Panic and fear had set in throughout the court. Frollo's army slowly crept toward the group and scattered to gather as many gypsies as they could. Before they knew it, Frollo had grabbed ahold of Esmeralda. Seeing Aislinn spring into the action and speak to Quasimodo, Luna looked around the court and saw guards surrounding the children. "No!!" Turning her head slightly, she spoke out to Aislinn and Ananta. "I'm going to make sure the people are safe!! Right now, they are my main priority!!" With that, Luna ran off in the direction of the children. Jumping onto a nearby platform that was overhead of the children and guards, the children looked up and smiled. "Luna!!" The white haired girl smiled as she spoke. "Get to a safe place and hide!! I'll come and get you when it's safe!" Watching the children run, Luna's smile washed away as if it was water. She turned toward the guards with an indescribable expression of irritation and anger. She jumped down from the platform and in front of the guards. "It would seem as though you have not learned your lesson......now have you?" The guards began to slowly walk toward her with an intent to harm her. Luna stood there before speaking once more. "How unfortunate.....alright.....let's review our last confrontation, shall we?"

The guards had begun to rush her one-by-one, Luna quickly dodged to the side and began her counter attack. Lifting her right leg up, she kicked a guard into another, immediately knocking the two out cold. She back-stepped away from the other three guards in the group. The guards continued their assault on the girl. Luna summoned her keyblade and began parrying their strikes. Catching one of them with a lowered defense, Luna immediately struck them down. Turning around immediately, Luna casted Blizzard on the ground where the guards were running upon. Slipping on the ice, the two remaining guards slid over to Luna. Flipping her keyblade so that the handle would face the guards, Luna swatted the two into a chunk of boxes a little ways away from her. "Who's next?" Luna turned around to see five more guards running toward her. Luna slowly began to run before breaking out into a sprint. Crystals had formed around her in a barrier-like shape as she was running. "Barrier Surge!" Luna slammed the barrier against the front two guards and a domino effect had washed over the group of five, before they knew it, the guards had been knocked out as well. Luna ran over to a platform and jumped onto it. She looked over at the size of the army Frollo had brought along with him. "These people will find sanctuary, I swear as Princess of Solara Lua..." Whispering to herself, Luna begun to evacuate people out of the area.

Words written: 644
BP Spent: 30
EXP Gained: 60
Total EXP: 60

Enemies Remaining:
80/100 Guards

 

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With the magic spell finished, Stratos looked around to see that there were still quite a good deal of red nocturnes floating about. With the swarm not showing any signs of relenting on the town and the keyblade wielders, Stratos looked to find another group to beat down. As a small cluster of the red nocturnes got together, they started to pool their magic together, creating a clear shimmer of heat in the air. As the flames started to form individually, they started to gather and coalesce into one much larger fireball, one that seemed poised to create a large, explosive inferno throughout the city. Seeing this was going to happen, Stratos knew that he would not be able to stop the ball of flame from actually being launched. So all that left was stopping the attack itself. Taking in a deep breath, Stratos focused a bit harder on this one, knowing that precision was everything with this next attack. As the cherry blossom petals started to rain from the sky, Stratos focused his senses, closing his eyes and attempting to get a clear and precise mental vision of what he wanted to happen in his head. As the fireball was sent forward towards a building in the city, Stratos opened his eyes and in that instant time seemed frozen. In the next instant, he was directly in front of the ball of fire, a large slash mark appearing underneath it. When time seemed to resume as normal, the flame seemed to be both split and force upward, shooting up like a geyser. While the heat was intense, it was mostly harmless to both the boy and the surrounding environment.

The red nocturnes were not pleased by this development, as they seemed to scatter and surround the boy. Charging up their own individual flames, they started to let loose a barrage of attacks towards the boy. Striking upward towards of the few of the attacks, Stratos was not able to attack everything within a full circle of him, and thus was peppered with a few blasts of fire here and there. The fireballs exploded on impact with the boy, and he could feel the heat start to rise around him, the pain not really relenting either. In fact, there seemed to be a constant area of pain that was welling up on him, and as he looked towards it, he saw that his back had caught fire. Biting down on his lip, to suppress any noise other than a few grunts of pain, Stratos knew that he needed to do something fast to get out of this circle of hellfire. Having to do this without magic was quite a pain though. It was at that moment that an idea struck the boy.

As this idea struck, his heart became aglow as blue lightning started to crackle around him until a burst of light came from it. His clothes had become bluer and with it, the gold trimming of his keyblade had shifted to a blue color as well. His keyblade had shifted shape as well, the teeth instead shifting to the tip of the keyblade and covering a sapphire gem, while the actual blade had become much shorter. The fire on him seemed to subside and the boy looked towards the heartless, a new look of intensity contained within them. Pointing the wand-like keyblade at a red nocturne, energy started to be pulled out from it, before it exploded into a puff of darkness. The energy flew towards the boy, being absorbed in the keyblade and empowering the boy. With a single flick of his wrist, lightning fell from the skies, striking the remaining heartless around him, and clearing the immediate area around him for the moment.

Word Count: 627
BP Spent: 30
EXP Writer 2: 60 EXP
Total: 180 EXP
Blessed Thief: 90 Munny

Enemies Remaining:
Red Nocturnes: 70/100 (3 BP Each)

 

Beuce was panting slightly as they arrived at the cathedral. Using so many spells had been relatively taxing, not to mention it was kind of a long walk.Nonetheless, they'd managed to get him there. While the wielders of the underground were catching their breath, something very peculiar happened. There were a trio of gargoyles speaking to one another. Living stone. The two pairs of three seemed to each be just as confused as the other about the fact that the other was able to see them. He gave a small wave to the odd constructs as Stratos did the talking. There wasn't really much of a need to restate what he'd just said. Even if it would increase the amount of words in the post to the amount which was needed to maximize experience gain. No not like this. what are you talking about? Their respite, however, came to an abrupt end as smoke began filling the air. He looked around for the source of it and saw that heartless were setting the city ablaze by throwing orbs of fire around. While each individual heartless wasn't particularly threatening, their numbers may prove to be a little bit of a challenge.

Stratos was the first one to leap into action, taking out heartless left and right. Beuce ran over to the flames and held out his hand. From it, several spheres of water were conjured forth and doused the flames. While it was hardly all they needed to fix the problem, it helped to slow the progression of the flames. He moved onward to the next building and attempted to do the same, but nothing came out. It was then he remembered that the energy that fueled his magic was used almost entirely to guide Phoebus back to the church, in not a dissimilar manner to the way Stratos had. With a heavy sight, Beuce clicked his heel against the ground and a bolt of energy propelled him forward on a line of energy. Though he was moving at high speeds, Beuce's aim didn't seem to be any less deadly accurate. One shot after another plowed right into the heartless. While they weren't taken out by single shots, he simply kept firing until they died, never missing once. Every few shots, the barrel would glow and unleash a flurry of magical bolts onto the target unlucky enough to be the correct numbered target.

Once his Power Line ended, he plopped down onto the ground next to Stratos. "Damn, you've really been tearing into these things. Have you...gotten strongwer..? I don't just mean like better at fighting, I mean like literally more jacked." He asked, holding up his left arm as though flexing a muscle to show off strength. One thing Beuce had definitely noticed about the boy's fighting was that his attacks had begun to have a huge amount more punch behind them. Holding out his arm and aiming his gun toward a cluster, five lights spiraled together into a single orb in front of the gun, and Beuce pulled the trigger. Far faster than any other shot, it fired out and destroyed one of the red nocturnes before ricocheting to another, and another, and another. Five were taken out by the attack, but if one had blinked they may well have missed the entire thing. "Damn. This smoke is starting to get pretty thick. I won't be able to maintain my aim for long." A light collected around Beuce, and was gently released as he returned to his base state, taking a moment to consider what exactly should be done for his next course of action.

Word counter: 606
EXP Writer II: 60 EXP
Total EXP: 60
Red Nocturnes: 60/100
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Hikaru's call for assistance did not go unheard, even though Base was nowhere to be found. He was just not in plain sight. Unfortunate to report, the cause for his absence was all too evident: at the first sign of real trouble, Base had run away for cover. In some defense, it is difficult when your weapon and sole means of defense against major threats refuses to make an appearance. Since Base had flown in carried by Baymax, and he had landed in San Fransokyo near the Lucky Cat Cafe --- by ever-intervening Fate, no doubt --- he had no reason to summon the Keyblade until that point. The lack of it was not only unnerving, it was the facilitator for a full-blown panic attack.

Explosions, metal-clashing, and shouts ringing out around him, he couldn't help anyone. The passed few minutes were chock full of revelations. Hiro found out who was really the man in the mask, and Base found out he was far too useless to be in the situation he was in. He was helpless. He couldn't answer the call that reached his ears. Much like the Keyblade, words failed him at the time.

'What's happening?!' he thought from behind a metal pillar, unable to look around.

OOC:
EXP Writer: 10 EXP, if this counts towards contributing towards the mission

 

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After twirling his wand-like keyblade about, a blue light seemed dissipate off of the boy. As it did, both his weapon and his clothes had returned to their original state, and it left the boy to go and hunt out more of the heartless that were prowling around. While staying in that form did give him a good deal of magical power, it wouldn't matter any if he couldn't use his physical prowess to resupply his magic. Stretching a bit, getting ready to bring his keyblade down on more red nocturnes, he soon saw Beuce flying around on a line made of electrical power. He saw the attack, and studied it a bit. He did not know how to completely copy the attack, yet ideas were going off in his head as to how to replicate the same effect. While he had reached a solution, it was not nearly as efficient, nor probably as effective, and thus he simply decided he'd wait a bit before he tried to replicate the real move himself. As he was studying this attack, the boy's thoughts were interrupted as Beuce had landed near him, asking him if he had gotten, physically at least, stronger. At this question, the boy started to think about it a bit.

Magically speaking, he felt like his old self was at a higher level than where he was now. Defensively he also felt as though he was more susceptible to both physical and magical attacks then he would've been before as well. However, the margin between those powers and then and now didn't feel all that wide. In fact, it felt as though it were at a level that he could easily catch up, given enough time. In regards to his physicality, though, there was definitely a major change. He had noticed earlier, but it felt as though his body was lighter and moved to match his thoughts more precisely. His swings had far more force behind them then they had ever had before and as a result, all of his physical commands felt as though they packed more of a punch now. Then there was the fact that his body was moving faster and he was able to react to things more precisely and with earlier timing. After thinking about it for a bit, Stratos looked to Beuce and said, "yeah, I guess I have. Not sure why it happened but I've felt like this since we got here. It's a pretty strange feeling. Not bad, really, just different."

As he said this, he then looked at the man, before realizing there was something off about his appearance. However, before he brought it up any further, the boy could see the blazes of more red nocturnes ignite through the smoke. "Well, they don't seem to be relenting anything soon." Spinning his keyblade, the boy tossed it at the first of the red nocturnes. Rushing after it, he then leaped into the air. After the keyblade struck through the heartless, he summoned it back to his hands. Once there, with a sudden burst of movement, the boy slid through the air, cleaving two more Red Nocturnes. When the speed from the sliding dash ran out, there were still a cluster of seven more of them around him. With another sudden burst of movement, the boy let out a series of seven strikes, one for each heartless, cleaving each of them as his blade passed through them. When all was said and done, he landed on the ground, with the previous hearts of the red nocturnes floating into the air.

Word Count: 600
BP Spent: 30
EXP Writer 2: 60 EXP
Total: 240 EXP
Blessed Thief: 120 Munny

Enemies Remaining:
Red Nocturnes: 60/100 (3 BP Each)

 

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Xara had done her best for most of the fight, but let the others have their go at him. She wasn't feeling much into it after being thrown off of Baymax at some point. Luckily, Kel took the lead and inserted the chip back into Baymax. Hopefully things would go back to normal.

 

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"Alright, alright." Mumbling to himself, Stratos nodded after having finished his full combo of skill commands. The attacks weren't used for the sole purpose of just getting the heartless killed, no. Instead, it was more of a way to finally help recharge his ever waning mana pool. After the splattercombo had finished, he definitely felt a good charge back, but he was not near full just yet. He would have to still wait just a bit more and attack just a few more heartless before he was back at tip top shape. With one final nod of affirmation to himself, acknowledging his current status, Stratos looked around to see where else the red nocturnes were flying around. This was a much easier said statement then it was done. Beuce had been right, the resulting smoke from the red nocturnes' previous attacks had started to make things all the more difficult to see. Not only did they have to deal with the heartless themselves, but also the rising flames from the attacks by these heartless. The boy was somewhat worried, though, about how they would handle such flames. After all, they were still stuck in the UG, and their influence over the RG was minimal at best. Even if the heartless were as well, all they needed to make sure a single spark made its way out. It was much easier to start a fire and keeping it going, then it was to put it out.

As such, the best way to keep the fire from spreading any further was to simply get rid of the things providing more flame onto the area. After a bit of looking around, the boy had found another group of heartless, a cluster of ten red nocturnes not unlike all the rest that he had taken on prior to this. Twirling his keyblade a bit, the boy then took off for the group of the heartless, gripping tighter on the hilt of the blade as he made his way over. When he was within range, the heartless took note of him, and stopped the fire blasting against the city and decided to direct their attacks over to the keyblade wielder. With the orbs of flames starting to gather on the tips of their pointed hats, the red nocturnes had begun to let loose a barrage of fireballs towards the boy. Stopping in his tracks, Stratos started to let loose a flurry of swings towards the fireballs. One after the other he batted them back towards their caster, causing the ball of flame to explode upon impact with the creatures. Though, despite this, they seemed none too affected. When the flame and smoke of the explosion cleared, the heartless remained virtually untouched by it, and saw fit to just start charging up its magic once again.

As the heartless saw that their first batch of attacks hadn't really worked out that well, they got together, and decided to try to take a different approach this time around. As the red nocturnes gathered in a circle, the magical energy they had started to gather and coalesce towards the center. Gripping the hilt of his blade with both hands, the boy started to focus and prep for his Zantetsuken, but quickly rethought using it. The ball of flame had already started to reach a much larger than normal size, and he wasn't sure what killing the heartless would do it to while it was charge. So instead, he simply decided to bide his time and wait. While doing so, the orb's size continued to grow and expand, becoming almost its own miniature sun with a size that dwarfed any of the creatures creating it. As they had finished charging the attack up, they seemed poised to fire the sphere and let loose its destructive wrath. However, they weren't aiming it at Stratos, or any of the other keyblade wielders. No. Instead, their focus was towards the large cathedral, the Notre Dame itself.

With one final pulse of magic, and a small flip, the red nocturnes fired off the giant sphere of flame towards the large building, it sailing towards their with remarkable speed in spite of its size. Having to think fast, Stratos resharpened his focus and prepared his, practically, signature command. As he took in a deep breath, time seemed to slow down around him, to almost a complete standstill as the cherry blossoms started to flat around the area. Closing his eyes, the boy visualized the necessary attack needed to stop this giant flame orb. Once the answer was found, he opened them, appearing within a single instant beyond the flame orb and a giant slash mark appearing underneath it. Once time resumed, the orb halted its progress, being cleaved in two from the bottom and forcing the flames to jettison harmlessly into the sky above. Of course, being close to this attack, Stratos was knocked back by the impact, and forced tumbling into the ground. After his body had knocked into it, and he skidded across just a bit, he got himself back up.

Wincing a bit from the pain of his landing, the boy dusted himself off, and looked towards the red nocturnes. If heartless could feel emotions, which he wasn't actually sure if they were able to, these certainly seemed to have some degree of disappointment to them. Twirling his keyblade a bit, Stratos's grip around it tightened before he decided to charge straight at the heartless. A bit surprised that the boy was moving so fast again, it took them a small bit to actually start their attacks up, but soon enough they were charging their fire spell. However, it was not soon enough, as the keyblade wielder had jumped at one of them, bringing his keyblade down and slicing it in twain. The other heartless had taken this opportunity to fire at the boy, but, sliding dashing away from where he was, he then let loose another splattercombo against the remaining heartless, felling all the ones in the immediate area.

Word Count: 1009
BP Spent: 30
EXP Writer 2: 60 EXP
Total: 300 EXP
Blessed Thief: 150 Munny

Enemies Remaining:
Red Nocturnes: 50/100 (3 BP Each)

 

While Stratos defended the cathedral from the incoming inferno, Beuce seemed to be in an almost trance like state of concentration. He seemed to be trying to do something fairly complex. He'd never actually done it before, but he remembered what it looked like. He remembered the power of one of the best mages he'd ever seen, and she was only twelve. "Well, If some kid can do it, then so can I." He said to no one in particular. Crouching, Beuce put his hands against the ground, and magic began to swell all around him, coalescing into an emblazoned emblem on the ground. The crest began to chill with power and froze over, despite the intense heat surrounding the area. With one final push of magic, the spell was complete. "Blizzagolem!" As the name of the spell was called out, Beuce burst into light, indicating another job change. His appearance this time was clearly that of a mage. His clothes had now become a deep blue robe, and strips of crimson cloth floated and twined around him. A silver chain wrapped around his right arm, leading up to and connecting with his hood.

Though, the garment change was far from the most noticeable thing if one were to look in his direction. Rather, he was obscured by an enormous animate beast of pure white ice towering over Beuce. It stood nearly three times his height, and was incredibly bulky. Though nearly featureless, it was clearly humanoid in shape. One of its hands was not a hand, but a large spike leading off of its arm, while the other hand contained only two broad fingers and a thumb about the size of Beuce's arm. It wasn't far off of identical to Mizu's golems. "Ha...Haha! I pulled it off!" Beuce said with excitement. This was a milestone in his progression as a mage. As he pointed in the direction of some red nocturnes that were heading toward the boy who was ripping through their numbers, and had defended the cathedral from their assault. The ground shook as the golem's thundering stomps moved toward the fire casting heartless. It raised its fingered hand and let loose an incredible barrage of icy shards. Each one impaled the heartless and destroyed it instantaneously. What was even more incredible was the efficiency of this in regards to the golem's master. Once each spike had done its job, it melted away and dissolved into pure energy, and traveled back to Beuce. With each dose, he could feel his mana returning to him.

"Wow~! That's so cool, Kupo!" A new voice said from behind Beuce. Taken by surprise, he turned to see what appeared to be a toy. Upon closer inspection, he discovered it was no such thing.

"You're...that moogle from Mizrabel's castle." Beuce said, the memory of this thing coming back to him.

"That's right, Kupo! My name is Jax! No time to explain things. In any case, i'm here to help! I'm not much of a fighter, but us moogles are good at synthesis." Jax looked at the situation, and pulled out some ingredients. Beuce, not exactly being an expert on the subject of item creation, had no idea what they were. Though in a seemingly magical process, the moogle combined the things together and bottled them up. As Beuce took the resulting item in his hands, he look at it in surprise.

"It's an ether." He stated.

"Well, yeah! You guys are low on magic from before! This will help you get it back, Kupo! That was nothing. Imagine if i had a real crafting station." The moogle said with a small laugh. Beuce turned on his heels and called out to the wielder by the church.

"Stratos! Catch!" He hurled the bottle with all his might, straight toward the boy. As if to confirm that it was still there, he looked over that the hulking creation of ice he'd spawned. It was, in fact, still destroying the heartless left and right. It slammed its spiked hand down on the hat wearing mage heartless unlucky enough to be standing in its path. The thing was crushed instantly beneath the weight of the blow. Despite the fact that it was made of ice and standing in the middle of a burning city, the golem had not started to melt. There was no sheen of water on the exterior of it reflecting the light. This was made of stronger stuff. Beuce muttered in amazement, and had a newfound respect for Mizu. To master this kind of power at such a young age was nothing short of incredible. It was then that a thought occurred to him. If he could do this...Beuce put his hands against the ground and began to channel his magic which was being returned to him by the blizzagolem's spells.

Words: 807
EXP Writer II: 60
Total EXP: 120
Red Nocturnes: 40 remaining
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After dealing with the small cluster of red nocturnes that had attempted to set the cathedral ablaze, Stratos continued to look onward to see where the next set of heartless would be. The flames were most definitely spreading, and the smoke was making things far more unbearable than they needed to be, yet he couldn't give up. He wasn't quite sure how he'd deal with the fire once this was all said and done, but taking on the heartless was as good a first step as any. However breathing the air was becoming harder, his body starting to feel a bit sluggish from the heat and sweat was starting to fully cover his brow. This was soon offset, though, by a sudden flow of cold air that felt both refreshing and strange. Looking to see where the cool air was coming from, Stratos looked a bit until he saw exactly what the source was. A large golem made entirely of ice, bright and glistening in the otherwise dark and dreary scenery, making all the air around it shimmer with specs of frost. While he had only ever seen this type of magic once, this specific kind at that, it was one that he remembered as though it happened yesterday.

The spell that belonged to the youngest member of the order, and the first he had met. Back then he didn't really understand just how amazing a mage she must've been, but seeing this in person for a second time, it was quite clear just the raw amount of magical power and talent that went into making such a construct. Yet, the one who summoned it was not the blue haired girl of the order. No. The one next to the golem, an ecstatic and triumphant expression on their face was none other than Beuce. As he looked at the golem, Stratos realized something. In spite of how much stronger he had gotten and how much he had started to understand, he had only just started. While everyone else had reaffirmed their strength during their trials to reclaim their keyblade, Stratos had already known they were plenty strong to begin with. They simply used their reaffirmation to propel themselves further. He was different however. He had known his weakness, his own lack of power, and had come to terms with such things. He had used that to start to move out of everyone's shadows and start to cast his own. Yet at the end of the day that simply meant he had so much catch up work to do.

While before, his expression would be one that was vacant, looking towards an impossibly distant sight, and simply be disheartened. However, now, the boy's expression was one quite different. A large smile across his face, one that seemed to have some sort of excitement and thrill. He could tell that doing something like that was far beyond him at this moment. Heck, he wasn't even sure how long he'd have to keep working at it before he could do that tier of magic. Yet, he knew it was not impossible. It wasn't a matter of possibility, simple a matter of time. Taking a deep breath, the boy focused himself and got ready to go and deal with the heartless once more, when he heard Beuce yell towards him. Seeing something go through the air and towards him, Stratos caught it. Examining it, the item itself was one that was all too familiar to him, yet he was still confused. Shrugging, he just figured that Beuce really liked throwing Ethers to him, and so he waved and shouted back. "Thanks! I'm probably not going to give this one back this time, though." With a slight chuckle, the boy tossed the item in the air before catching it once more. His attention now turning away from the ice golem, he looked towards the red nocturnes that were floating about.

While not something that could be deemed as impressive or unique as what he had seen Beuce do, the boy still had something he could do. In a flash of blue light, his outfit change once again, briefly surrounded in blue fire. His eyes had become a calm azure, his clothes a much deeper shade of blue. On the back of his hoodie there he bared an insignia in the shape of fire. His hood had become longer and more pointed. His keyblade had shrunk, being more akin to a wand then an actual blade. Looking at the cluster of red nocturnes, he saw them charging a massive ball of flame as they had last time. However, once the magical energy had been fully gathered, rather than launch it at any specific area, the heartless merely fired it upward. Raising an eyebrow, Stratos curiously watched it, only to see it explode in the air, turning into a large storm of much smaller fire balls that began raining down.

While he could not use Zantetsuken in this form, he knew just how to stop this rain from causing massive damage. The blue flames traveling across his keyblade, once at the tip it became more a blue crackle of electricity that Stratos thrust towards the sky. When he had pointed it upward, there was a slight delay as the magical energy was expended. Soon, lightning started to rain from the sky, striking a small collection of the fireballs mid descent, destroying them. Continuously swiping his keyblade towards the sky, Stratos continued to call down more lightning, casting Thunder one after the other and destroying more and more of the raining fireballs until he had intercepted nearly all of them in this method. The heartless seemed definitely surprised by this, but the boy brooked them no quarter. Swiping towards the air, Stratos conjured four bubbles of water at his side, and fired them off towards the heartless. Each one seeking out a target, resulting explosion from the collision caused not just their targeted to be destroyed, but also all of those close to them. With the attack completed, Stratos tossed the ether in the air, absorbing the power from it and feeling ready to take on the rest of the red nocturnes.

Word Count: 1034
BP Spent: 30
EXP Writer 2: 60 EXP
Total: 360 EXP
Blessed Thief: 180 Munny

Enemies Remaining:
Red Nocturnes: 30/100 (3 BP Each)

 

Steel casually munched on the popcorn offered to him by the shorter of the male stone gargoyles, as he watched his companions leap about slaying heartless. It seemed to him that the other two were perhaps just a bit too eager, as perhaps was Phoebus considering he had ultimately run after explosions and trusted them to lead to his goal. The latter was a thought for another time though, as both he and Quasimodo had run off to find Esmeralda some time ago.

His companions on the other hand, had practically leveled the battlefield in their quest to comment on each others new clothes and how interesting the new looks and strengths were.

"You know what I find interesting about all this?" He directed the question to the gargoyles of course, whose names he had learned were Victor, Hugo, and Laverne. "I walked back into their lives as a giant wolf-man, and they haven't said a word, but somehow their clothes are interesting?" He tapped a claw against his snout in emphasis. "I mean, I can see how I've been creepy for a while, and we've seen a lot of weird stuff, so I guess It's not super new and they may have even expected it to an extent. Still, if their wardrobe change is worth a conversation, I'd say me suddenly turning out to be one the 'walking, talking, animal type locals' that we wind up running into every so often is at least worth a comment."

"Wow, attention hungry much?" Hugo answered his concerns with that little remark, and a smug smirk. Steel only shrugged.

"I can't really deny that. Due to childhood trauma I won't bother you with, I rather despise being ignored. Everyone does of course, but... I take it to a new level at times." Now it was Hugo's turn to shrug.

"Hey, at least you're honest pal."

"Regardless, it does seem rather strange that your companions would turn a blind eye to a complete change of species like that. Despite anything they may have seen in the past." Victor observed.

"I know, right? It at least deserves one of the less tactful members whispering all like 'Oh, that explains everything!' but not a word from anyone other than Ananta."

A small explosion near the cathedral led Steel to finally take notice that his companions had destroyed nearly every last heartless in their desperation.

"Right, I guess I should do something too." He waved dismissively walked forward towards the fight. "It's just food for thought some other time I guess."

"As much thinking as you seem to do, I'd say you still have several meals for thought to get through still." Laverne commented.

"You sure you don't want any more actual food before you go?" Hugo asked. "We've got caramel apples!"

"No thanks, the popcorn alone already got all stuck in my teeth." Steel turned back to give the three a grateful smile. "Thanks for the offer though." He gave a small thumbs up as he walked away from the trio.

Counting the remaining Red Nocturnes that floated about, he summoned his weapon to his side. Knowing that his favorite spell had grown in power with the reawakening of his keyblade, he held the magical sword in the air as he reached the center of the plaza.

"Stopga!" His shout echoed around the area, and an orb of energy grew from it. While it wasn't quite enough to engulf the area, a fair amount of heartless had been enveloped by the magic. Steel couldn't help but smirk at all of the helpless targets that now floated motionlessly in mid-air.

"Let's see..." He started to drum his claws in the air, the tips ever so slightly rubbing against each other ever so slightly. A small spark of purple jumped from one of the frictional movements. "...Eenie..." A snowflake drifted from the next impact. It was a good option elementally, but it was one of his weaker spells of current. "...Meenie..." A spark of fire. Heck no. Terrible idea. "...Mynee..." A spark of electricity. Seeing that to be the best course of action at the moment, Steel gathered up all the spare energy he had charged while speaking to the Gargoyles and cloaked his hand in the electrical resonance of a thundara spell. "Mo!" He barked out as he thrust his hand forward. Arcs of lightning shot from his palm and into the air. Instantly evaporating many of the stopped heartless. Weak as they were, it still vastly pleased him that he could take so many of them out with a single spell. His magic had definitely become more powerful.

Word Count: 773
BP Spent: 30
EXP Writer II: 60 EXP
Total: 60 EXP

Enemies Remaining:
Red Nocturnes: 20/100 (3 BP Each)

 

As Beuce continued to channel more of his magical power into another golem, it became increasingly more apparent by the crest which had been emblazoned on the ground that it was to be a different kind. This time, the crest began to shine with a bright yellow light, with waves of blue running through it. As the crest finished charging, Beuce called out the name of the spell he'd been casting. "Balloongolem!" A rather odd looking golem rose up from the ground. It was made of a similar yellow light with waves of blue, yet it seemed to be comprised entirely of spheres of the stuff merged together into a humanoid shape. This one looked far less intimidating than the frozen construct which was currently ripping heartless apart left and right. This one seemed to take a more supportive role, as it walked over to Stratos. It placed one of its balloony fingers on the wielder's head and it popped, showering him with a watery light and began to heal him. Closing wounds, repairing burns, and so forth.

Meanwhile, Steel had finally seemed to join the fight. He'd cast quite the powerful stop spell, beyond Beuce's current abilities, and frozen several of the fire using heartless in time. Taking advantage of the fact they were wide open for another attack, Steel let loose a barrage of lightning bolts onto the defenseless heartless and blew them away. Beuce looked at the situation around them. Between his two companions and the Blizzagolem, there wasn't much question they could deal with the few remaining heartless. The Balloongolem and Jax would keep them in top shape between the healing and items. That only left...The flames. Firstly, he had to do something about the smoke reducing visibility so much. He poured magical energy into another emblem on the ground, and this time it rose up in a violent whirlwind. "Aerogolem!" He called out, commanding the construct to rise. The resulting creature was the least solid so far, as it was a collection of spiraling wind that simply flew through the air. It bestowed Stratos additional support in the form of a wind barrier. Unlike the normal aero spell, it didn't seem to so much block damage as it increased the boy's natural ability to do so. After which, it took to the skies and began clearing as much smoke as it was able. He considered creating another golem, but the method of creating a watergolem eluded him. It was then it occurred to him. The golems weren't the only things he could summon to help him.

Drawing forth his magical power to call on an ally from another world, he fired a sphere of light up into the air which took on a more elliptical shape. From it, a familiar grey skinned pachyderm flew down to Beuce. He patted Dumbo on the trunk as it splashed him affectionately with water. He climbed on the elephant's back and they took to the air. Now that the heartless were by and large eliminated, the flames were spreading much less rapidly. As the pair flew systematically over each fire, the let loose a spray of water onto the burning city in an attempt to douse the flames faster than they could spread. Though, one thing that did surprise him was that now Dumbo's water was also replenishing his mana. It appeared that now his summons were sustaining him, allowing him to call out more summons. This was proving to be an interesting job. Continuing to spray water on the buildings Beuce look to Stratos and the golems to watch the end of the fight.

Words: 606
Exp writer II: 60
Total EXP: 240
Red nocturnes: 10 remaining​

 

​

Baymax had returned to his usual healing self once the chip had been re inserted, which was good, good enough for Kel to let out a sigh of relief. He didn't have a plan B had the chip not worked like they had assumed. Unfortunately Callaghan had gotten away during all this, which was probably for the better. Hiro did not feel the same and thus went ahead and tried to remove the chip once more. This had ended with Baymax refusing to oblige as well as showing him a video of Tadashi. By the end of the video Hiro seemed to be feeling different. Better in fact. "We're still here to help, those microbots would be too much to handle on your own."

 

​

After the boy had taken down his swarm of red nocturnes, he turned his attention to the next one. While preparing to go strike them, he noticed something peculiar about them. They were floating in place, still, without any form of movement whatsoever. Recognizing this to the be the effect a stop spell, he quickly looked around the area to see Steel fiddling around with magical energy, swiping through it as if browsing through a catalog. After seeming to be pleased with his selection, lightning arced out from his hand, striking down and destroying each of the heartless he had frozen. While the spell itself was one that was fairly simple, the display was impressive enough that Stratos let out a small whistle. Twirling his keyblade, getting ready to take down the next group of heartless, the boy's thoughts were briefly interrupted as a giant made of glowing watery spheres walked over to him. Surprised, understandably so, Stratos jumped back away from the thing, keyblade at the ready. Though, as it approached him, he realized it was of a similar make to that of the Blizzagolem, and didn't do much else as it laid its spherical hand on him. Feeling a wave of relief course through him, the injuries and burns that the boy had incurred in this fight were vanishing and mending.

Not soon after did this happen, did he then start to feel a gust of wind surround him. The spell was definitely familiar to him and one that he had used many a times in the past. However, there was something that felt different about it. Something that didn't quite feel similar to the Aeros of the past that he had used. Looking for the source of this windswept barrier, he saw a third golem. A creature made entirely of twisting winds, parting the smoke every where it moved and granting a shield of wind to all their allies. Stratos was a bit impressed by not just Beuce's sudden talent to bring out all of these golems of varying elements, but also being able to sustain all of them at once. He had only had the one summon magic before, Dumbo, and while he didn't have the ability to test summoning and maintaining multiple at a time, keeping one out was strenuous enough. He briefly wondered what it was that gave him this ability, though figured that now in the midst of the burning city, was probably not the best time to figure it out.

With that out of the way, Stratos looked to find the last group of red nocturnes that were floating about. They were, like all of the others before them, in a cluster of ten. Dancing about the smoke and flames, they seemed to frolic and revel in the chaos and destruction they were causing. Sighing, the boy figured that trying to just strike them down in the same way as he had all the rest would be too boring a finish for these malevolent creatures. And so, his mind settled on using something that he had yet to do. With this resolution in mind, a blue light emanated from the boy's clothing, drifting off and returning him to his normal attire. Twirling his keyblade, the boy slowly approached the heartless, the light started to envelop his keyblade. This light spilled out to the ground around him, slowly growing upwards into large pillars. When the pillars had reached the apex of their height, Stratos smirked towards the red nocturnes. Their joviality seemed to end at this, frozen by the sight. With a flick of his blade, Stratos let loose the pillars of the faith command towards the heartless. In an instant, they were enveloped by the light, destroyed by a resulting explosion and soundly defeated. After all, fire could not beat the faith, (preach it!)

Word Count: 634
BP Spent: 30
EXP Writer 2: 60 EXP
Total: 420 EXP
Blessed Thief: 210 Munny

Enemies Remaining:
Red Nocturnes: 0/100 (Preach It!)