Video Game: Kingdom Hearts SOS: The Road To Light

Luna looked over as Kel walked up to her and Stratos. "That's, um, quite the crown you have." Luna reached up a hand to her crown and then spoke. "Oh this? This crown is pretty special to me. It was made for me and given to me when I turned 16." She took off her crown and looked at it as she reminisced a little. She continued speaking. "This crown is almost like a symbol to show that I'm my kingdom's princess. I thought I should wear it not only because I've become a master, but to show that I'm not scared of who I really am anymore." She paused as she smiled and placed the crown back on her head. She then continued. "And that's princess of my kingdom. My home." Luna looked back at Kel with a smile on her face. Before she could say anything else, a hand had been placed on her shoulder. She jumped a little bit and heard a voice speak to her. "Well don't you look snazzy." She turned her head and saw the voice belong to Beuce. "Well thank you! I thought now would be a good time for a change of outfits. Since we became masters and all, I thought I should dress like a master while still looking like, well, a princess!" Luna smiled as she turned to Beuce. She laughed as Beuce joked with Stratos. He had motioned over to the portal, suggesting they should go through it now. "I think that's a good idea. Shouldn't wander here for too long. We should probably get going." Luna looked over at the portal before looking back at the others.​

 

Steel gave a small smile as he shook his head. She was hardly his only friend, but her offer was appreciated none the less. Her question had a bit of a complicated answer though.

"It's... quite a long story. I suppose you could say I've always been like this... or perhaps that it's a more accurate depiction of my original self?" Steel cocked his head to the side and twitched an ear as he quickly realized that he hadn't really told her anything. "You may have noticed I tend to overcomplicate things..." Crossing his arms over his chest, Steel began again. "Let us say... I am an image. An image of a creature with many forms, that existed in a time and world beyond those in which we now live. I remember... being him, in essence. Though my powers are considerably more limited, I did have some degree over what form I chose... once I was conscious of my nature. I chose this one because... he was a wolf. In the beginning anyway. I suppose it just feels natural to me."

---------------------------------

A being with many forms. One that showed many sides of itself and its varying strengths. He remembered glancing out over the horizon and seeing the rushing waters of the numerous rivers. Looking out and seeing the endless downpour, somehow knowing that it was his own tears of sorrow that torrented from the skies perpetually. It dawned on him: this was a fragment of his inner power.

Steel has gained a Level 1 Water Aura!

 

​

Stratos sighed a bit as the girl told him to speak what made him feel comfortable. It wasn't so much what she said, so much as what it made him think that caused his sigh. Before he had come here, what was it that he actually did? What did he actually want to talk about all the way back then? Thinking on it, his keyblade was the only reason he had anything to talk about with others to begin with. So perhaps business and regular life were the same for him...was he a businessman? While thinking about this, his train of thought was broken as Kel and Beuce had come in as well, Beuce joking at him about jinxing their down time. With a smirk on his face, the boy walked over to Beuce playfully punching him saying, "come on, we all know that once we step through there, it's going to be a meteor swarm. So why not acknowledge it once in awhile?" Chuckling a bit, the boy nodded to both Beuce and Luna saying, "yeah, I think it's high time we show the worlds that we're back."

 

"Many forms, huh?" Ananta said, tapping her chin with her fingers. It reminded her of something she was taught when she was much younger. "Kind of luck...your body changes and you can be whatever you want. Like water...never the same, always different." Ananta stepped to Steel and looked him over once more. "Wanna hear a story? It kind of is the same as yours...?" Ananta stood next to Steel and looked at the rest of their friends. "It's a story my grandmother told me many times...I'm quite fond it, honestly. It's kind of sad, you know."

Ananta sighed and looked up at the sky. "On my world, there's the Mother Crystal. Within her is the souls of every living person on my world and any who've taken refuge...my soul will return to it some day, but my own soul isn't really mine. When my world was formed, it was formed by an ancient keyblade master who had reached a point where she wanted to make a safe haven for those she cared about...all her friends and those she loved. Her crystal grew into the Mother Crystal and eventually, she too passed on and became the guardian within the crystal. Her soul splintered and every few generations, a part will be placed within the soul of a newborn who will go on to save the world once more."

Stretching, she looked to Steel. "But that's just a story Mothers and Grandmothers tell their children to help them sleep. It ends with us being told we're all children of the Mother Crystal, her life flows through our own crystals, and one day we return to her. It's complex after that...." Ananta shrugged. "I don't want to get into our burial and sendings. I already know I have to do a few when I get home anyway. Sorry, I rambled." Ananta knew she probably shared too much, but she just wanted to talk to somebody for once about her home. She missed it way more than she let on.​

 

Kaida traveled around looking at some outfits, trying to get some yellow out of her color scheme. It wasn't that she hated being decked in one color as much, but she wanted a change and the all yellow reminded her too much of her homeworld for her to feel completely comfortable. Now she wasn't bound to one world, she was free, and while she wasn't thinking that intensely about it in the moment the blonde did eventually settle on an outfit she enjoyed. She kind of wanted to lose the full jacket it only because she found herself rolling up the sleeves uncomfortably more than she kept it fully down. But once everything was sorted she headed on back over to the auras.

She stared at them for quite some time, but she found herself drawn towards the time aura and she stared at it for a while. She had no idea why, it didn't seem like something she had been completely interested in up until this point. But she felt naturally drawn that way, and she decided to go with that instinct this time and she touched the aura and absorbed it into her. She looked at the rest and immediately went towards speed if only because she knew she leaned on that strength a lot and she wanted to take advantage of it.

The final aura she was thinking more about how much she found herself wanting to spellsling a little more. Not as much as a mage type or anything, but enough to feel like she was useful on tat front. She looked between thunder and fire, if only because she thought those two would be the easiest to manage. After long and careful thought, Kaida grabbed her last aura: thunder.

The girl turned away with her hands her her new pockets afterwards, the buzz of becoming a master beginning to fade as the realization of the battle ahead began to take over. The girl began making her way towards the portal, she looked to the rest and said, "I'm all set, so I'm gonna head over now. I'll see you on the other side."

Kaida gained Time, Speed, and Thunder auras, level 1​

 

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He was waiting for Hikaru to say something and he watched him run off after Kaida. He let out a sigh and thought of what has happened so far. Most what was going on was a conversation about how Luna was a princess of heart. He looked over to Luna and she seemed to be wearing some kind of crown. He did not think that it was all that necessary. Beuce had said, 'Excuse me sir, but could you kindly not? I prefer my downtime to be unjinxed.' He thought it was best to use downtime to plan there next move. He was sure that as soon as they walked into that portal there would be a storm waiting for them on the other side. Conversations continued to go on everywhere. He was not paying all that much attention to them. That was when Aux came up to him and said, ' I'm sure Lea's fine. Not sure what he's doing but he's a member of the order. How much danger can he be in?' "I am more worried about the others that have gone missing." Aux seemed to have some memory now. "So you remember things now?" He was not sure if this was a good thing or not. "It seems silly to to leave your friends behind. It just looks like this is the only way out of the realm of darkness and I rather not leave people behind. I made a promise to myself that I would not let what happened on my homeworld happen to someone else or to another world. I have failed this," he said to Aux. He did not expect him to understand. Part of him wondered why he was telling this in the first place.

That was when someone said Kupo! and a moogle cheered as he suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "Is there anyone else I should know about that might come out of know where?" Hikaru seemed to know lots of thing and people. Then there was something about a red pouch and engraving. That was when Hikaru cam over and gave him a ring and said, 'Even if you haven't been with us long, you've all shown your strengths and skills. As fighters.' He did not have much choice in the manner. He wondered if the ring did anything. He looked down at the ring not sure what to make of it.

 

​

Walking forward, getting ready to leave, he was stopped as Hikaru seemed to have something to give to the rest of the group. Looking at him, Stratos was surprised as the other keyblade master gave all of his fellow friends rings. Looking at it, Stratos was a bit amazed at the accessory. As Hikaru had thanked them all for their service thus far as being a member of the SOS, and for helping him out through the whole thing. A smile forming across his face, Stratos put the ring on his index finger, giving a thumbs up to the man. "Thanks, really, Hikaru. These are awesome. And it makes us like a real team now, right? I just hope you got one for yourself too." Joking about it towards Hikaru he then looked towards everyone else saying, "well, like I said, these make us like a real team now, right? I didn't know any of you before this whole kind of keyblade thing happened, but now I don't think I can imagine a time without you all. We've all come this far, met so many people, and fought so many battles. Sure, it wasn't all ups and being cast into darkness wasn't exactly fun. But I'm glad, that if there was any group that I had to go through that with, it was you all. So, like a team, who's ready to go show the worlds what Masters are made of, and show No Heart we haven't stayed down after being kicked around?" Clapping his hands together, the boy began to take a step forward, walking into the portal and leaving Shibuya behind him.

Making his way out he was greeted by a ghastly sight. Though there was a set of islands in the distance, the one that he was certain Megumi had told them to go to, the actual path barely seemed to exist at all. It was like it was like they were merely walking around on a sea of darkness with a barely existing path leading their way. The island itself too did not seem to be in the best of shapes. Broken, shattered, like part of it was just torn away and lost. Stratos wondered if this was the fate of every world that fell to darkness, and it only furthered his resolve to make sure that no other worlds would follow. With a single treehouse illuminated, like a beacon in this baron dark wasteland guiding them, it seemed pretty obvious where the group was supposed to go. However, their path was cut short as another, unfamiliar looking person seemed to be standing in their path. While Stratos had no idea who he was, the man himself seemed to be in a foul mood and a dark and twisting aura seemed to accompany him. As Aux seemed to know just who this man was, Stratos was fearing things were going from bad to worse as he was wondering if Aux was merely going to regress back to being their opponent again.

Worse yet the man, Marshall Hughes as his name was, seemed to be intent on not only standing in their way, but summoning an army in their way. With a giant swarm of heartless starting to form, it seemed that his body was becoming a part of the realm of darkness itself, both fueling each other in a large explosion of power. As the heartless began to flood, ones that he had never actually seen before, the boy summoned his keyblade and immediately stood on guard against he coming storm. However, his attention was drawn to the one who stood above all the others. A towering heartless, black in form with a hole in the shape of a heart in its chest. Its yellow eyes were only barely visible amongst the tangle of dark tendrils that made up its head, as the large creature loomed over everything. Stratos felt a sense of dread towards their supposed last test to get back to the realm of light, only to suddenly be more confused as a voice bellowed throughout the area. Stratos had no idea where it was coming from, until he looked up and saw the figure of a large man plummeting from the sky. With a single strike, the towering humanoid heartless was brought to its knees and broke apart into the very darkness that made up its being.

Stratos had no idea who this man was, but with his familiarity towards Kaida and the raw power he displayed he was thinking this man was a member of the order as well. He was certainly of a different breed then Kaida, Yue and Lea, and his figure spoke for itself. He gave a far more commanding and inspiring presence then any of the others had, and as he began his exchange with Marshall Hughes, Straots was beginning to understand what it really meant to be a keyblade master. As Captain Fujioka declared that he would handle the marshal, that simply meant that the rest of the heartless were left to the group. Looking forward, Stratos saw that there was an almost innumerable amount of heartless, melding into what appeared to be a flood darkness. Yet, despite the volume he didn't feel any bit afraid of it. Knowing that he had braved hell and come out stronger for it, a few heartless didn't seem like that big of a deal.

As Aislinn seemed to be the first to take off into the fray, Stratos sighed, looking with a relaxed expression towards Beuce. "Same old song and dance right?" Twirling his keyblade around he said, "well, at the very least, there's no behemoths this time right? So how about we show these heartless that they've made a terrible mistake." Grabbing his keyblade more tightly, he followed suit in Aislinn's opening move, vanishing in a single instant. Appearing in the center of a swarm of shadows, the heartless all stopped as a large slash mark appeared across them as they looked at the boy. "Hello heartless, I'm Stratos. A keyblade master." The slash expanded as the shadows all exploded in unison, turning into wisps of darkness. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Word Count: 1034
EXP Earned: 60
EXP Total: 60
Blessed Thief: 30 Munny

Heartless Defeated:
26 Shadows

Heartless Remaining:
Defeat 876 Shadows
Defeat 199 Neoshadows
Defeat 200 Darkballs
Defeat 6 Invisibles
Defeat 1 Darkside

 

As they appeared on this island seemingly lost to storm, Kaida looked around with more concern than curiosity. Everything seemed so... broken. But the man with the cybernetic arm ended up catching the most concern anyway. Kaida did not approach, since others seemed to be going for that anyway and she'd rather just listen. The girl played with her new ring that Hikaru gave them just a bit to try and adjust it right, since the girl was not entirely used to the feeling of jewelry. After some strange explanation of the Red Society, the next thing she knew, Aux was remembering everything and keeling over in pain. When the man threatened to have them submit, Kaida immediately held out both of her hands to summon out one of her keyblades in defense and ready for action. The amount of heartless that seemed to begin pouring out made her back away a bit and when the number ten thousand was mentioned she was about ready to faint.

Ten thousand heartless? Everyone else had told the story about how they had fought only around a thousand. This was absolutely ludicrous. She wondered if this was where she was going to end up dying after all that effort was placed into becoming a master. But then she shook it off. Not here. This would not be the place she would fall. It would be far too anti-climactic. She was not entirely sure why this man seemed to have this sort of complex about Nequa and this unhealthy want to please her when she had already rejected him. Perhaps at this point he just really wanted to take his anger out on what he considered small potatoes, despite the fact this group had proven to be anything but.

There was almost a relief and joy Kaida felt upon hearing Shiro's booming voice come out of nowhere to confront Hughes. She was a little worried why the man did not have a shirt but that was definitely something she was not worried about questioning at this time. When he mentioned being glad to see her safe, and his congrats to her passing the Mark of Mastery, Kaida held a thumbs up towards him when he congratulated her and she said, "Thanks. Now's not the time though."

When he told them to leave Hughes to him, that no doubt meant they were going to have to fight the horde. Kaida looked over towards the rest of the group but because people beat me to the punch, I'm not gonna have her do the wink and smile at the crowd anymore, so she just mumbled under her breath, "Let's do this then." and the girl quickly charged in.

Kaida had jumped into the horde of shadows, if only because that sounds incredibly badass in writing and also cause I wanna focus everything in one place and so would Kaida. The girl first started by flinging a blast of fire into the crowd. The shadows blew back at the impact and the girl landed in the center and pointed her keyblade at one group of heartless and side eyed to see the crowd aiming for her back and the girl reached her hand backwards and summoned out one more keyblade. The girl smirked and readjusted her posture, one backhand and one front hand at the crowds trying to provoke them to draw near. Then the girl ducked as they jumped in so they flew straight above her head and the girl blasted two projectile spells crossways at the different parts, watching more heartless fall. She took a breath and got back defensively again.

Word Count: 606
EXP Earned: 60
EXP Total: 60
Blessed Thief: 30 Munny

Heartless Defeated:
25 Shadows

Heartless Remaining:
Defeat 851 Shadows
Defeat 199 Neoshadows
Defeat 200 Darkballs
Defeat 6 Invisibles
Defeat 1 Darkside

 

​

When Luna had taken off her crown, Kel took that as a chance to get a closer look at it. He was taking in the information that she was telling him about it as well and nodded along to her tale. Back on his home monarchy's were not really a thing anymore, in fact the only reason why he even knew about them was because of some of the history lessons he was given as a kid. What he had mainly remembered from those lessons was that the prince of their last king had officially made a declaration to abolish the monarchy and even gone out of his way to live like the common people. It was a respectable move, but one he was curious as to why. A reason he would probably know if he had fully paid attention in those classes. "That's pretty admirable." Beuce had joined their little group and following some more casual chatting, Kel ventured through the portal.

What waited for them on the other side of the portal wasn't quite what he was expecting at all. The darkness was just a reminded that they were still trapped in the realm of darkness plus the stark island in the distance was really caught his attention. Was that supposed to be their ticket outta here? If that were true, then who was the strange man that happened to be standing directly in their way. Whoever this man was knew Nequa and that alone was concerning for Kel specifically. That streak of misfortune whenever she was around would be something that he never forgets. Least until he could he well earned payback, but that's not the main focus here. What was the focus was how this man had just summoned forth a massive horde a heartless to impede their progress. The sight brought back many...unpleasant memories from the last time a horde of heartless was sent their way.

"Here we go again." There was no way around it either. With both his hands outstretched, Kel called forth both of his keyblades and set his sights on the Invisible heartless that floated above the massive heartless floated above the mass horde of smaller heartless. He took a firm step forward and dashed off towards the horde, he ignored the smaller ones that made the occasional swipe at him. Only the ones that had actually gotten in his path were struck down. Three shadows had all jumped at once and met a swift end by Kel throwing his oathkeeper keyblade at the group, dissolving them into dust before said keyblade returned to his hand. The invisible heartless had just been floating there watching the young keyblade wielder approach it with the usual blank expression that most heartless wore on their face. Not showing any clear signs of emotions, but there was the sense that it was looking down on Kel. Not because it was a higher elevation that Kel, but because somewhere in that void in the center of its chest it felt like it could beat him with each. Kel would be certain to fix that and leap into the air, poised to deliver a decisive strike to the heartless. It wouldn't be that easy though, being masters wouldn't change that. The blades collided mid air with Kel fortunately having more force behind his attack due to being the aggressor. Kel only needed one of his keyblades to keep the heartless preoccupied and aimed his second one right at the Invisibles face. "Thunder!" The electric sparks shot out of his keyblade and blasted the heartless square in its face. Without its head, its body both started to descend slowly from the ground while dissolving and crushing another 3 shadows and one neoshadow that were unfortunate enough to be underneath it.

Total Words: 632
Exp: 60
Total Exp: 60
Blessed Thief: 30
Total Munny: 30

Heartless Defeated
6 Shadows
1 Neoshadows
1 Invisible

Heartless Remaining
Defeat 844 Shadows
Defeat 197 Neoshadows
Defeat 200 Darkballs
Defeat 6 Invisibles
(Darkside not on the list since it's, ya know, already dead)

 

Cutting through the first swath of heartless, he looked around the horde of shadows that seemed to be backing away from him. Stepping forward, keyblade at his side, the heartless instinctively continued to back away from him, only to eventually halt. As he continued walking at them, the halting horde of shadows began to charge at him, to which the boy merely twirled his keyblade around in order to stop them. Of course, the mere flourish of his weapon didn't seem to do much of anything and as the heartless pounced on the boy, he seemed to be suddenly swallowed in a dome of shadow and claw. The yellow eyes of the shadows were no longer visible with how tightly packed they had dived together onto the boy, trying to scratch, maim and devour the boy; both body and heart. However, the swarm didn't seem to be getting any further in pressing down on him, and a single word could he heard. A single word uttered from within the army of shadows. "Faith." Four pillars of light erupted out from the dome, piercing through it. As the pillars of light had come into being, just their existence had managed to slay a few of the heartless, forcing them back into their wispy and shadowy forms. The other heartless then recoiled, repulsed by the towering light that the keyblade master had summoned, and trying to get away from them. As they did, Stratos didn't seem to be any bit injured from the attack he had recieved and merely stood there with a calm expression on his face. Spinning his keyblade some more, the pillars of light ended up combining into one large mass. With a simple swing, Stratos sent the pillar out to dispatch of another swath of heartless in a single attack.

However, the pillar was stopped in its tracks a blade appeared out of nowhere, forcing its way against the attack. Pushing back, with what appeared to be a mighty effort, the sword had managed to force its way through the faith created pillar, splitting it in half. Dissipating the attack, Stratos looked to see that the blade belonged to a heartless that also had a humanoid shape. With a sharp tail and vaguely feather wings, the heartless also seemed to have a hole in its chest as well in the shape of a heart. "Well, you're new." Straots remarked at the sword wielding heartless. The heartless, however, did not seem to be in the mood to exchange pleasantries, and instead dove forward towards Stratos. With blade in hand, Stratos parried the fist of the heartless's attacks. He then immdiately went to follow up against the attack, and with a quick slash had managed to strike one of the wings the heartless. With it breaking apart and fading into darkness, the heartless's flight seemed to be impeded as it got down to the ground on its feet. Raising up its blade to try and attack him again, Stratos responded with an attack of his own. In a burst of speed, Stratos dashed forward towards the new heartless. His blade had managed to cleave through the side of the heartless, causing it to be cleaved in twain. Not even having time to lower its sword, the heartless's body split apart as it fell to the ground and vanished into the darkness around. Looking around, Stratos saw that there were quite a few other of these strange heartless, and Aislinn seemed to have been doing a fine job in handling them herself. Thinking the girl was plenty strong enough to the point that she could probably handle that section herself, Stratos instead moved on to a different section.

Word Count: 617
EXP Earned: 60
EXP Total: 120
Blessed Thief: 60 Munny

Heartless Defeated:
9 Shadows
1 Invisible

Heartless Remaining:
Defeat 835 Shadows
Defeat 199 Neoshadows
Defeat 200 Darkballs
Defeat 5 Invisibles
Defeat 1 Darkside

 

The risks involved in being completely surrounded by shadows was kind of fun, and mostly worthwhile. Kaida had no idea if this meant that she was suicidal or an adrenaline junkie. She kind of hoped it was more the latter, since she would like to think she was pretty happy with her current mental state. Though she kind of wished her hobbies led to her jumping out of airplanes with parachutes instead of these kind of risk activities. Kaida swung her keyblade a bit as a wave jumped over and got a few, but they seemed realize that this tactic was not working out.

They were evolving quickly. This would not do. Kaida kept herself in a defensive stance as she paced around carefully in a circle. Then something she didn't expect happened. The group began to jump and try to hit Kaida and the girl dodge rolled just in time. The shadows as a result piled up and missed, and one shadow was a bit disoriented as another one accidentally hit it. The shadow grumbled and a noise was made before the heartless slashed at the other one.

This resulted in a brawl that made Kaida stand on edge for a while, but the shadow that seeked blood seemed to successfully defeat the other and let out a war cry. In the distraction, a couple of shadows jumped at Kaida giving her a good scratch on the back and she let out a yelp. The shadow turned towards Kaida's attackers and ran at the two and attacked them back. They backed away quickly and jumped behind Kaida's guard and the girl raised an eyebrow amused and said, "Well, okay pipsqueak. I'll help you out if you help me out a while."

The shadow seemed to look at her with a bit of a connection and the girl nodded and began slicing and dicing at more of the heartless while this little shadow seemed to keep up the backend, knocking any heartless that tried to jump at the blonde away from her. It seemed overly excited to be helping out in this manner but Kaida was definitely not going to turn away something helping out. Kaida swung her keyblade a bit to charge up thunderbell and blizzard at the same time and she pointed them in the crowds again. A loud ringing sound seemed to be heard and the little shadow flickered away scared a minute before it rushed back to knock out another attacker.

Kaida took a deep breath and looked around at the others, checking up on their progress a bit. Aislinn was having a hell of a time with a neoshadow, and Stratos seemed to have.... be fighting something with wings. Mumbling to herself, "Well, that's new. Go get em, Stratos!" before another heartless jumped at her and she rolled away to dodge.

Kaida noticed a bit of an afterimage as she did so and blinked a bit and mumbled to herself, "That...is... really new." she quickly got up and stabbed at a couple more heartless and tried to get out of the circle. Her new heartless friend jumped up on her shoulder as she dodged away. The swarm followed her as she tried to run out, but only so she would not be surrounded anymore. As they all ran their way into a straight line. Kaida grinned a bit, thinking about how easy it would be to mall this group down as she shouted out, "Anyone wanna go shadow bowling?!" the girl threw her keyblade, only knocking them back and not being able to give them much damage at this time. At least she'd give people an opening.

Word Count: 607
EXP Earned: 60
EXP Total: 120
Blessed Thief: 60 Munny

Heartless Defeated:
25 shadows

Heartless Remaining:
Defeat 815 Shadows
Defeat 199 Neoshadows
Defeat 200 Darkballs
Defeat 5 Invisibles

 

Having no intention of slowing down against these heartless, Stratos ran forward towards more of the heartless. With blade in hand, the boy began to make his move towards a large collection of other shadows, though, slowed down a bit as he realized that these were seemed to be a lot different than normal. They were definitely in the same vein as a regular shadow heartless, but that was only in general body shape. The heartless itself seemed to be far taller and gaunt then the regular shadow heartless, and the antenna atop its head were definitely longer. Staring at the strange creature, it looked back at him as well, a feral look in its golden beady eyes as it crouched into a predatory stance, seemingly ready to pounce. Spinning his keyblade around, with a Strike Raid, Stratos tossed his keyblade towards the neo shadow, as he would now call them. Rather than dodging in any physically possible way, though, the Neo shadow merely melded into the ground underneath it. "Right, they do that..." Stratos was partially surprised at this, having forgotten what shadows actually did beyond just clawing at you.

The neo shadow crawled through the ground at great speeds, and though its long body seemed to look awkward moving across ground while being apart of it, the speed at which it did did not give Stratos any bit of ease. Instead, summoning his keyblade back to his side, the boy dodge rolled out of the way as the Neo Shadow had finally made its way up to him. Emerging out of the ground, the heartless had leaped into the air and attempted to claw the boy. Thankfully, he had managed to dodge out of the way in time and only left with the feeling of wind rushing against him as he did. With the heartless now hanging in the air, beginning its descent towards the ground, Stratos figured this way the best time to bring the neo shadow down if there were any. Pointing his keyblade up towards the creature he said, "Thunder bell!" A large collection of lightning gathered at the tip of his blade, forming into compact orb of electricity. The crackling ball of magical lightning soon reached its full mass as Stratos fired it at the airborne Neo Shadow. With a resounding "bong" noise as the bell struck the heartless, the Neo Shadow was soon engulfed in lightning and was destroyed instantly against the attack. With the attack resolved, he heard Kaida compliment him, turning to face her as she seemed to perform a rather flashy dodge herself. "You're not looking so bad either," he called back to her.

He then noticed as she asked about shadow bowling, seeing the large swarm of shadow heartless that were following after her. With a small smirk on his face he said, "yeah, I wouldn't mind joining in on this," the boy began to make his way towards her. Running in an arc opposite of hers, so as to cut her off, Stratos ended managing to get in front of Kaida and the swarm that was following her. Spinning his blade he said, "I think you could use a little hand with those." With a crackle of yellow lightning over his body, his chest releasing a similar glow, the boy took a deep breath as he moved forward. Rushing past Kaida, with great speed the boy unleashed a flurry of slashes against the heartless mob as he ran opposite the direction of them. With his Hunter's Rush limit, he had managed to cut a large swath in their numbers, before appearing at the end of the line with said line still going after Kaida.

Word Count: 617
EXP Earned: 60
EXP Total: 180
Blessed Thief: 90 Munny

Heartless Defeated:
1 Neo Shadow
21 shadows

Heartless Remaining:
Defeat 793 Shadows
Defeat 195 Neoshadows
Defeat 200 Darkballs
Defeat 4 Invisibles

 

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Kel was given a short break upon landing after felling the massive heartless cause he'd landed right in the middle of the horde he'd run through to defeat it. The run there was easy enough to make cause it was nothing more that shadows in his way, however this time there were neoshadows making up the bulk of the group that surrounded him. To make matters worse, another Invisible had floated its way over to where Kel was. Surprisingly none of the heartless had made a single move to attack him despite clearly having the numbers advantage against him. Yes he did just prove that he could beat who was likely their strongest force out of all of them, but that only when so far. Meaning if about a hundred of them jumped them all at once, while he would still probably make it out of that mess alive, there was no way he would be getting out of it unscathed. Stranger still, the heartless all stopped moving when the Invisible had finally arrived. This one was clearly sporting a cocky look on its face as it looked down upon him, not to mentioned that it was had floated down and stared him down from his higher position. This heartless was challenging him wasn't it. Not as obvious given the lack of expressions on its face, but there was something for certain that told him that it wanted him to try and beat it. Kel would've been happy to oblige in this challenge seeing as it clearly wanted it, but the moment he took a single step forward a good five neoshadows jumped in his path, with the obligatory one regular shadow chilling next to a neoshadow. That poor shadow didn't get to do much as the very same neoshadow it stood next to impaled it with its claws, picked it up and launched it at Kel at full force. This caught him fully off guard and he jumped out of the way before it hit him. He stood up, took another look at the Invisible who had made a small motion with its hand. That motion had set off the five neoshadows that blocked Kel's progress and they attacked him all at once. Kel countered by casting graviga on the ground in front of him, forcing all of the heartless down to the ground for a brief amount of time.

It may have been brief, but still long enough for Kel to deliver a devastating fist bump to one of the heartless and sending it flying back into the crowd in a fiery explosion. Somehow not a single other heartless was caught in said explosion. Kinda odd, but whatever. His gravity spell had worn off and the other neoshadows had slinked into the ground and headed towards the keyblade wielder. One of them jumped high in the sky while the other had chosen to strike from the ground, seemingly making it so that regardless of what actions Kel took, one of them would land a blow. Unfortunately for Kel, his attention was more focused on the one who had jumped into the air. By the time he'd realized the ground one was getting close, he'd already been grazed by the blow despite his last ditch attempt to dodge. The pain was minimal and as the heartless tried to duck back into the ground, Kel grabbed hold of its arm and chucked it at the air towards its friends. Claw first so when they collided, they had pretty much impaled each other which dissolved them both. Three down and two more to go, two that were promptly dealt with a zantesuken. An act that was followed by Kel making his on 'bring it on' motion towards the invisible that had caused all this.

Total Words: 633
Exp: 60
Total Exp: 120
Blessed Thief: 30
Total Munny: 60

Heartless Defeated:
5 Neo Shadow
1 Shadows

Heartless Remaining:
Defeat 792 Shadows
Defeat 190 Neoshadows
Defeat 200 Darkballs
Defeat 4 Invisibles

 

Gripping his keyblade tighter, the boy was ready to make another run at the shadow swarm that was attacking Kaida, but it had appeared that he had managed to get himself into a bit of a pickle himself. Of course, among the ten thousand heartless they were supposed to fight, it only made sense that the swarm Kaida had gathered was only a small fraction of it. Starting at another horde of shadows, they began to charge at him as well, seeming to try and sandwich him between themselves and the swarm that Kaida was dealing with. Try to stay light on his feet, the boy began to run to the side to try and avoid the horde's advance it didn't seem to do much as the horde started to collapse on him from that side as well. Skidding to a halt, the boy realized he was beginning to be surrounded, and perhaps jumping head first into a horde was not the most practical or bright ideas. Yet still, he was here, and there was very little he could've done about it regardless, so he resolved that there was only one path that he could take. If darkness surrounded you at every path, and there was no way for you to see the way out, you merely had to make one yourself.

Taking another deep breath, the boy's body began to crackle with a red lightning erupting from his chest. Soon being entirely engulfed by it, the lightning soon subsided, revealing a different looking Stratos from underneath it. His jacket had turned a red color, with a clear emblem in the shape of a sword emblazoned across its back. His hands had to black metal half gauntlets on them, with green gems on the center of the back of his palm. His keyblade had changed shape as well, the teeth of the key now being gone entirely and the shaft becoming more sharp and angular. At a closer look, his weapon now resembled more a long sword then it did his usual weapon. Glowing with a red aura, the boy let out another deep breath, and in that instant, the aura washed over his other team members, granting them what felt like a boost to their physical strength. The boy had never used this form before, and in fact he had always thought it was out of his reach. Yet, since he had become a master, though it was a short time, certain things began to become more intuitive to him. He figured out how to bring the most out of him, and didn't seem to care for any limits he had previously put on himself. With the only thing to base it off of being both Karina and Beuce using this kind of power, Stratos wasn't quite sure if he could match up to the raw power behind it, but he could certainly mimic it.

With his long sword keyblade, the boy charged forward with swift speed rushing towards the heartless. With a single cut nothing seemed to happen at first, only for the keyblade master to then immediately strike with yet another swing of it. As he did, a large X formed in the air that soon exploded with raw power, forcing the shadow heartless away. The heartless were destroyed in an instant, unable to take the raw force of the attack, and dissipated back into the strands of shadow they were made of. Stratos started to feel a sense of pride roll through him as he had managed to execute a technique that relied on nothing more than strength. With that pride, the boy knew that he'd be able to cut through the heartless even more easily than he had been before, and started to run headfirst into the mob.

Word Count: 633
EXP Earned: 60
EXP Total: 240
Blessed Thief: 120 Munny

Heartless Defeated:
26 shadows

Heartless Remaining:
Defeat 766 Shadows
Defeat 190 Neoshadows
Defeat 200 Darkballs
Defeat 4 Invisibles