The magic that this guy was using against them was already on a different level than anything he's seen before, top it off with the fact that he's been dropping these high level spells on them rather consistently made things even worse. There was a limit to how much of this that they would be able to handle and they would reach it soon if nothing was done. Amidst the flames that rained down upon them, Chrono had done his best to not only move it to attack Kekfa, but to avoid the scorching hot flames. HP: 85/85 AP: 26/56 MP: 17/30
Zephyr nodded with Midarah's decision and walked off back to his room to spend some of the fifteen minutes before they left. The first thing that he did was to collapse right onto his bed, conscious still mind you, but just lying down in more comfort. He could still move his limbs which given what he did was a good thing. Cera's magic helped of course, though at worse his limbs could go numb for at the most a few hours. A huge inconvenience depending on if it occurred during a battle. He needed to get better at controlling his magic output or get stronger to a point where it wouldn't be an issue no longer. He wouldn't allow this to make him a burden onto anyone else. Zephyr laid on his bed for what was a least ten minutes, lost in his thoughts, before finally getting up. While there probably was some time before they were going to leave, he might as well go ahead and head down there before he's late. First Zephyr sat up, then stretched and finally ventured downstairs, spotting Gavin alongside the waiting Midarah and Thea. "I'm ready."
Take's adrenaline rush aside, despite how this whole situation felt there actually were signs of them making progress in this fight. Slow progress, but it was still a lot better than nothing. Chrono had gone in for another attack following behind Take and was quick to put some distance between himself and the clown. Speaking of distance, Chrono had started up the d-link that was forged between himself and Jim and immediately felt lighter on his feet. Chrono activated Jim Hawkins D- Link HP: 78/85 AP: 26/56 MP: 17/30
Kel had already been curious as to what had happened to the villager that had been taken when they were first told about them, seeing him as an animal was not what he'd thought he would see though. Talking animals themselves may not have anything new to Kel at this point, but to hear that a human had been turned into one was something completely different. Red XIII had said the man who had experimented on him was was Hojo. "Speaking of this Hojo person, is there anything else you can tell us about him." The name didn't ring any bells, but maybe some other information about him would.
Kel had given small wave when Aislinn had introduced him to Pocahontas. It was relieving to know that nothing had gone wrong when John Smith had run off to chase after her. "Your father should be happy to know your safe and maybe then Koucum can get off our backs." He didn't think it would be that easy, but maybe it would help in the very least.
With arms crossed Chrono had braced himself for the fire attack that had struck him. Whatever material this coat was made of was pretty durable as it held up well against the various elemental attacks. Come to think of it their own casual clothing did the same and his certainly wasn't made up of anything special. Either way, now was not the time to thinking about what material his clothes were made from and the young keyblade wielder aimed the end of his keyblade towards the clown. Judgement was cast from his keyblade and the rays of light shot forth and honed in on the singular clown target. Chrono used Judgement HP: 43/85 AP: 46/56 MP: 17/30
Gale had gotten back onto his feet after that last attack of his with spellbook in hand ready to cast the next spell. Out of the three golems, only two of them had attacked and one of which had hit its mark."That looked like it hurt."A bit on the obvious side, but Raelyn had been the unfortunate one to take a hit from the golems and it didn't look pleasant. With his attention back on his spellbook, the attacks he had previously used were currently grayed out. That must've meant that they were on cooldown. Not the best of times to learn that. Gales eyes then looked towards the third spell listed, still bright and full of color. His had outstretched and the flames surrounded the opposing group of golems. Gale used Blaze Column and prepared to dodge.
They had barely gone anywhere before an ominous voice rang out around them as well as a clown like figure forming before them. The first thing that ran through Chrono's mind was if this was the clown that Bowler hat guy had mentioned. This was nothing like what he had pictured when he was told a clown had given him the idea. That lightning attack had certainly been no joke, but they were in fact still standing afterwards. Following Take's protective magic, Chrono had moved to attack the clown. First he struck with a blitz and followed it up with another slash from his keyblade. Chrono used Blitz (+10 AP) HP: 54/85 AP: 36/56 MP: 17/30
Kel listened carefully to what he was told by his two comrades. He knew that trying to talk it out with everyone back home wouldn't achieve anything, but his father might yield some results. He'd never seemed to care one way or the other what he wanted to do, which reminded Kel that he did technically run away from home when he left to become a part of all this. Perhaps that reunion would be a good time to get this off his chest. "Thanks guys, I appreciate it." He really did and even cracked a smile to further show this. He still had the support of friends, be it old ones or new ones and he would do better at taking their advice to heart. In the back of his mind however, he still was concerned about Luna. Even as they walked back to the waterfall, something seemed to be off with hos she was speaking. He didn't press on it though, after being given advice and encouragement regarding his own troubles, perhaps she would open up to them once again. "Perhaps. Maybe we should've asked what the chief's daughter looked like before we left."
Tinarah's story had surprised Chrono as the first thing that had come to mind when she had said 'Mom's murders aren't there anymore' was that either they had been arrested or maybe they died and the company that hired them went bankrupt. His assumption was close, but not completely right. They had only moved locations. The rest of the story didn't leave him with the best of feelings despite it being one of the few times in which he didn't immediately think 'What if I had done something sooner'. It frustrated him that this happened, but there was nothing he could've done about it. "That's good, for dad's sake at least." Didn't change the fact that they both were still around and his desire to see justice brought down upon them, though apparently their power then they did five years ago. Chrono noticed the nod to his suggestion and was relieved to see it. She was willing to try at least at most he could try to make things easier for him. As much that was actually within his realm of capabilities at least. "Sorry you had to hear all that. Even if you did set it up, it didn't go the way you'd imagined it I guess." Chrono said, addressing Take who had been quiet the whole time. Probably out of either respect or just surprise.
Lazuli had done well about keeping the Grimm in front of him during the battle and as he just pulled out his sword from the chest of a beowulf, one Grimm had managed to sneak around and get behind him while he was unaware. The sudden exclamation from Auburn had grabbed his attention and he ducked as instructed, "Thanks." He'd quickly adjusted his footing before going to strike down another grimm in front of him. The grimm behind it thought that this meant it woud be able to attack now, but Lazuli was one step ahead. His second sword was sheathed, procting the gun form of his weapon and fired off a few shots into the grimms head before it could even take a step closer to him. HP: 16/20 BP: 1/7 Bullets: 03 Grimm Defeated; 2 Beowolves The attacks had been blocked by his weapon and were meant with a counterattack of his own. He spun his weapon around and swung it into the gut of the nearest White Fang member. Said member had been sent flying and right into another one who hadn't been paying attention prior. HP 14/20 BP: 1/7 Bullets: 03 Enemies Defeated; 2 White Fang Members
Chrono hadn't been expecting Take to try and be a therapist for himself and his sister and the latter wasn't quite up to it. He, admittedly, did agree that this wasn't the best of places to do that sort of thing, but another part of him knew that if they didn't talk now then the odds of this happening later down the road were slim. So he did what he was good at and silently listen as Take explained about his brothers and what happened to them. As Tinarah gave a response on how she felt and when it all had seemingly settled, he spoke up. "So that's why you want to so back." Of course he was against it with that being the reason and he would continue to be against it as long as that Torrin was a possibility. What bothered him more so was how it reminded him of his own plans. "Either of us going back would give dad a heart attack. I left with no intentions on going back anytime soon, not until Mom's murderer is brought to justice and the damned company that hired him was brought to the ground!" This would be the first time that either parties would have heard about this and had it not been for Tinarah's own goals being similar to his own, it would've remained unheard. "Especially when said killer has already made it clear that he'd kill you and dad if I were to so much as whisper about the truth on that day." Talking about it allowed memories of that day to resurface and resulted in his fist clenching at himself more than anything. "I know you're not the same Tinarah that I knew when I left and I honestly have mixed feeling about that. Part of me feels like I should be at least happy or proud that your not the same as when I left, but when I had left that day I did it with the intention to not get you involved with anything that'd cause me harm and you know better than anyone how wells that's gone." Letting her get kidnapped and going through all that in a different realm. By sheer comparison aging 5 years was the last thing that bothered him. "If you really don't know who you are, then let's start with that and just start over. You try to find your answers and I'll just support you as your brother. Sounds easy, probably too easy honestly, but what else can I do? This whole other realm incident has left with very little to work with to be of actual help."
Kel had only nodded when Luna had told them what was on her mind. Her concern was understandable, but didn't quite explain why Luna had acted the way she did prior to telling this. Not completely anyway. "With that in mind, I feel even less comfortable leaving John Smith out there to roam about freely." He may not have been inclined to do so, but if he were to harm her then it would be bad on a whole different level. He picked up his pace to keep up with the others and took a moment to think before speaking again. "Sure you will, most of the relationships we have have been a result of the sheer amount of time we've spent together. Your home however I don't think its my place to say. If you ask me you've gotten stronger for sure in the short time you've been with us." Speaking of home, it was his turn to share. "For me its a part of what Kocoum had said. Back home I've always been stuck in my fathers shadow. Yes I do have some friends that see me for who I am, but most others look at me with either expectation in their eyes for me to end up like him or with disappointment given how much of a screw up I am and they typically don't keep that to themselves. Hear that enough times and you slowly start to believe it." He was slowly making progress to not think like this though, least he'd thought he was.
Kel wasn't buying that at all, nor was Aislinn for that matter. "You're going to have to try harder if you want to convince us. Maybe we can help with whatever is bothering you. I can share what's on my mind as well." They did have plenty of time to kill until they got back to where they last say John Smith. He'd ran off after someone before they were separated by the Indians. That made the waterfall as good as a starting place as any for their search.
He'd gotten his answer and it wasn't what he was hoping for, in fact it came as a complete shock. 40,245, that how many people were currently trapped in this game. A Number that was larger than the entire population of Sint Maarten! Was there a natural disaster outside? Was the world ending? Had a terrorist group gone to the extremes and they'd agreed to trap themselves in this game as a way to protect them!? That last one probably was an overreaction if not a plot to a different game, but the point still stood. Something major had to have happened in the real world. Gale made a mental note of what the memory crystals were and how they worked for they had a much more pressing matter. "Maybe this was programmed to happen?" Offering what was hopefully a reasonable suggestion to all this. With spellbook in his hand he turned to the second page in the book and looked at the spells listed. He was a fire user too it seemed, good to know. He skimmed through the name of the first spell and put his fingers in the typical finger guns and spoke the incantation. First a small orb of flames appeared at his finger tips and fired off a torrent of flaming bullets towards the target. Then he spoke the next one and this one was a much larger orb of flames that went fired off had some kick to it that had knocked Gale onto his rear for the first time. Gale used Fire Bullets and Great Fire Blast
Despite Take's demonstration not being completely what he had in mind, it was close as Chrono had thought that the keyblade would appear and literally point towards what they were supposed to be looking. No such luck so far as his keyblade remained at his side, in his hand. "Not that I can think of." Unless it was in one of the books that he hadn't gotten around to reading, there were quite a few of them anyway. Despite what was said prior, Tinarah did bring up an interesting idea. While there was nothing concrete about the idea, it was worth looking into while they were down here. "I agree, last thing we need is this turning into the 'hunters' becoming the 'hunted'." Especially if what they were looking for was something that could fight back.
Some fresh air would serve to help Kel ease up slightly after what had been said, though at this point it was more of an internal thing then anything else. He always did. One sigh later and Kel was avoiding that train of depressing thoughts right before it could even start and looked around them for any signs of the chief's daughter. "Hello, Luna? You okay there?" He didn't think much when Luna had just started walking ahead of them again, but her hugging her shoulders was more on the concerning side of the spectrum.
Gale had been concerned when the turquoise ball had entered. His first thought was that this was some sort of security system sent to corralled them back into their cells. They wouldn't be able to do much about that either, so far only Raelyn would be able to do something about it and that was assuming that it wasn't waterproof in anyway. Then the orb had greeted them, which threw off this entire thought process. The whole part about their bodies being virtual was what had stuck with Gale the most. What about basic things that humans needed to survive. Like sleep, eating and drinking? "What about in the real world, wouldn't people notice that" He paused to count the people currently around. "six people aren't responding to any attempts at communication?" Hearing that something had happened in the real world to have caused all this was one thing, hearing that their bodies were like this as a result of what had happened was another. Whatever help this little orb thought it was providing was doing next to nothing to actual help and causing more concern than anything else.
Just as Chrono had taken a step to adjust himself, the ground around them had violently shaken and a wall of flames had erupted between themselves and Torrin. Said shaking had almost knocked Chrono off his feet, but he managed to keep himself standing. The others seemed to be fine as Tinarah and Take were still standing and Torrin's voice could just barely be hear through the roar of the flames right next to them. With no other information to go off on, walking off from the split was about all they could do. Finding a source of darkness amidst all the darkness that was already around them sounded near impossible. "Maybe our keyblades will react when we get near." Chrono suggested, summoning his keyblade as well. He didn't know how they would react if they even would, but what else were they supposed to do beyond walk around in the darkness.
"Well its all we got right now so why not trust it." He didn't see any harm in it right now. Not counting the two people who had just exited their cell he know knew the names of everyone he's just meet. Gale peer over towards Evie after she had called out to them and briefly glance at her before looking at the marking she was staring at. He didn't look long because there was another one right by him. Still just as creepy as the first time he'd looked at it, but this time he'd taken more of a closer look to it. Quite literally in fact as he'd leaned in closer before actually going to touch it. He didn't think it'd feel any different from the wall it was currently plastered onto and if it did then he would be thoroughly creeped out to say the least.
