Giving Stratos a small smile in return, Aislinn turned her focus back to her battle. The silence that had fallen over those who were not new to the combat, or at least talking with those who were new was becoming deafening. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the silence, and as she parried out of the way of an attack, Aislinn herself could feel her lungs burning. It was no wonder that people weren't talking, it was getting hard enough to breath as it was with the amount that was going on and the need to keep on their toes moving. As she spun once more, her muscles started to feel sore and protest, making Aislinn plant both feet on the ground instead of up on the balls of her feet like she had been to keep herself light and moving. The concept in theory was a good one, and had been working thus far, but it was better for shorter battles, the longer this one went, the more her body was failing her. While yes she was getting injured on occasion, it was more the fact that Aislinn wasn't used to having to fight this much without a break. It was wearing on her body, leaving it tired and unable to react as quickly as she wanted it to. Even as the heartless fell more easily to her blade, she still could feel her muscles tire with each swing of the keyblade and each time she launched herself forward for another attack. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Aislinn forced herself into another frenzy of attacks. There was no time to be wasting just relaxing even if her body was telling her that she needed it. A look of determination crossed her face as Aislinn forced herself forward to use a cross slash before dodging out of the way of another Neoshadow. Breathing heavily Aislinn continued to move, though she didn't want to. At this point if she stopped moving she would have a hard time getting going again. It was a matter of maintaining momentum at this point and that was something that she seemed to be doing rather well, as she cleaved through a heartless and kept her swing going as it wrapped around and bashed into another one. Two went down and she kept going, moving quickly to the next heartless, followed by one more, keeping herself moving through the smoke as her eyes scanned the battle field. If she couldn't keep up with strength of the rest, she would just have to make up for it with how quickly she was killing the heartless. To Karina this started to feel like old times, except this time, instead of having Stratos at her side, she had Arctus. Her eyes drifted over to the boy who helped push her through the Battle of a thousand heartless, who had managed to stay with has as they not only finished off their own wave of heartless, but started to move around helping everyone else. Once more he was a force to be had. While sometimes he didn't seem too strong, when it came to things like this, there was no one that could match him. Not even she could keep up with as much as she tried. Every step she took she was still one behind Stratos. If it was anyone else than she would have been annoyed, but given it was him, there was nothing she could do about it, and Karina accepted that at this point and continued on with her fight against the Neoshadows and Dark balls that were around her. Total Words: 609 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3420 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 1/15 Enemies Remaining: 425 Neoshadows 529 Darkballs
It was to be expected, the shock that came with Arctus realizing what she had said. But it did surprise her the nervousness that he showed when she suggested that she would walk away. This was a battle, not a meet and greet, she would think he would have been in his element here and not care who was around as long as he knew who to kill and who not to kill. Given that the things he needed to kill were black with glowing yellow eyes, Karina assumed that he could figure at least that much out on his own, it wasn't a difficult task after all. The creatures kind of stood out from the people like sore thumbs. Perhaps some of his confidence was just a ruse.... she should know what that was like, it was a common occurrence for Karina. And while sure she had anger issues, and was temperamental, and didn't get along with most people, or even try, Karina wouldn't draw attention to it. There was no reason to and quite frankly, while she wasn't quite sure what was going on between them, she didn't want to ruin it. "Look I didn't have much of a choice. I would have rather not given up my keyblade, but that was not something I could control. After we were thrown into the realm of darkness we all lost our abilities to use the keyblade. Essentially we had to earn them back for ourselves by going back and visiting our home worlds, and whatever demons were there for us. I was not prepared. When I went, while I had spent a year getting stronger physically I let the anger and fear of my father drive me, so when I faced him again and I still wasn't strong enough to beat him, I did not have the will to continue facing him. I did not have the will to stop him when he tried to have me executed. Even as someone else died, trying to get me to stand up and fight, I was simply in too much shock of the entire situation." Karina admitted, she seemed annoyed at herself with the entire situation and she wasn't fond of explaining it, but in the end it was her first step to facing the past and perhaps she could one day earn back her keyblade. "When we were released from these... illusions, I still couldn't summon my keyblade back, meaning I couldn't go with the others to take the Mark of Mastery and earn exit out of the realm of Darkness, so Lea took me to meet you guys. That was when I tried to change my name and run from who I was another way. Clearly that didn't work out, and instead of running I was faced with more from my past." Karina glanced over at Uniform before turning back to the heartless she was fighting. "So yeah not my choice." Stratos was dealing a great amount of damage to the heartless around them and Aislinn took a moment while he fought to catch her breath before turning to watch his back in case he needed a chance to catch his breath himself. She didn't want anyone to get too tired and make stupid mistakes. In her mind it was okay to take a moment and breath as long as someone was there to cover you when you needed it, in this case that was her as she stepped forward and took lead on the assault against the heartless doing whatever she could to deal with them as quickly as she could, which thankfully wasn't as hard as it seemed in previous waves. Total Words: 614 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3360 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 1/15 Enemies Remaining: 494 Neoshadows 600 Darkballs
What sort of bloody nightmare had she walked into now. Karina stepped back as she listened to Luna go off on her little rant before Arctus stepped in with his opinion. Trying to ignore it at first Karina turned to Luna. "Well congrats on passing. I was rooting for you guys. Glad you made it through, I was worried when Yue showed up to kick Nequa's ass, but it seemed to have all gone well, so perhaps I shouldn't have." There was no anger to be seen in the situation, Karina wasn't smiling but she was at least relieved that the Mark of Mastery went well. When she had started to yell at Mizu about her not having faith in Yue for having a way out, Karina had started to wonder what became of Yue and if she really was competent enough to manage running their Mark of Mastery. It turned out she seemed to be as most who went in came out, the other one she had seen already and knew what had happened to him. It wasn't like Karina cared much for Glen anyways, he had always gotten on her nerves. Luna proceeded to go on and thank Karina for protecting and bringing Koa to her, but she honestly had no clue what that was about, nor would she ask. Peoples personal lives were never something of interest for Karina. "I didn't do anything but brought him along to save those that I worried for." There was no way she was going to call them her friends or say that she cared about them, it would make it too personal, so she bounced around the words and made something else up instead that still sounded reasonable. "There is no reason to thank me. Just do me a favour and don't let him die, we still have work to do back in the realm of Darkness. There is an old friend messing with some things he shouldn't." Karina warned thinking about the boy she had seen before. Luna also commented on her weapon, a weapon that she now resented taking. "When I couldn't summon my keyblade anymore, I needed something to attack with. I am not so savage that I would rip things apart with my bare hands." She had not told Arctus that she was one of them before. Whether or not he had figured that out for himself she didn't know, but she couldn't help but wonder what he would think of it. Pushing that thought to the side she then addressed Arctus. "You are just asking for me to walk away aren't you? I don't know what you think we are, but I don't even know myself, so perhaps you should shut up before I punch you again." Karina threatened before mumbling under her breath. "Or at the very least try and discuss where we stand and clear things up a bit." Meanwhile Aislinn was still dealing with the Neoshadows that were coming for Stratos and Ananta. For a bit she had moved forward, almost fighting on her own, but now she backed off towards the others again, attacking some Neoshadows at Stratos's back, before spinning around and taking out more near her. They ever kept coming but the even without magic to take out mass amounts of heartless at once, Aislinn was finding herself an unstoppable force that the heartless couldn't seem to handle very well. They were quickly falling to her as her strength made up for the lack of magical abilities that she had. Even for the few things that she could possible manage to do, Aislinn had chose to sacrifice it for the sake of more strength, and strength to lend to allies. Total Words: 621 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3300 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 10/15 Enemies Remaining: 612 Neoshadows 642 Darkballs
So Zantetsuken had done quite a bit of damage but it was not enough to keep the heartless off her back. Aislinn had to do everything she could not only to keep herself safe, but also the people she fought with. It wasn't that they couldn't handle their own, of course she knew that bother Ananta and Stratos would be fine on their own, but there was merit in protecting those around you, it also made it a little bit easier to keep on fighting. Fighting for the sake of others added an extra level of determination to the whole battle. It was easy to lose sight of what you were doing and why when it went on for such lengths, but Aislinn was determined not to let that stop her from the battle that raged on. With each passing moment she looked for a new reason to fight, or at least a new way to distract herself from the drudgery of this fight. While necessary it was definitely a test of their characters and if they could handle the task of being masters. While this was not their exam, in Aislinns mind it was more of a test than anything else that they had been through during the Mark of Mastery exam. This was what really showed what they were made of and what they could handle. Much to her pleasure however no one had disappointed yet, they were all still standing and fighting, a good sign indeed. Joining in the fight once more Aislinn threw herself into the battle once more. After last time and the quick destruction of so many heartless, the progress on the ones that she was fighting now was rather slow given her attacks were limited to simple combos that she could do. It wasn't a fast process of taking out heartless but it was what it took in order to keep her strength up and make mass damage to the heartless when she had the chance. She might not have been able to do them often, but when she managed to get those larger hits off, it always gave her the extra moment that she needed to breath as well, and that was something Aislinn found herself ever waiting for. As Luna dropped in by them and Karina greeted her in her normal Karina way, Arctus asked if she was a friend or enemy. Karina rolled her eyes at him a bit. "Not everyone hates me you know, though she did try and attack me when we first met." Karina pointed out. She knew that it had not happened since that first time and Luna had tried to apologize for it, but it was something that still bothered her a little bit. It wasn't so much that she did it that bothered Karina but more so what had compelled her to do it. That had never made much sense to Karina, and it wasn't something she liked just accepting. Sure she had a habit of snapping and trying to kill people, but most of the time Luna seemed too nice for that, and that was what bothered her so much. "I guess formal introductions are expected. Luna, Arctus, Arctus, Luna. Try not to bite too much please. We have our hands full enough as it is." Karina pointed out as her whip flashed out taking out a Neoshadow before a wall of flame spouted from the ground killing a few more and clearing a little bit of a path for them, at least enough room so that Luna could get up and recover from her oh so graceful landing. Total Words: 609 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3240 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 10/15 Enemies Remaining: 652 Neoshadows 656 Darkballs
Well everyone else was taking their costumes, and Aria seemed to believe that it was okay. Given that Tinarah gingerly reached for hers just in time to have Edna walk up to her and begin pushing her away costume in hand towards the bedrooms. "Okay, okay I will change. Just please stop pushing me." Tinarah begged as she felt strange having people pushing her around. Honestly Tinarah didn't like being grabbed or pushed around, it always made her nervous, even if it was with people that she knew she should trust. Taking her costume, Tinarah returned to her room, struggling into it. It was tight, more so than Mika's clothing if that was even possible. It made her uncomfortable but she didn't want to comment on it as she peaked her head out from her bedroom before stepping out rather shyly. She glanced at the others and while hers was no worse than many of the others costumes, she didn't feel comfortable in it. Before she had the chance to really do anything about it though, Frozone called out to them. Rushing to where he was, Tinarah managed to catch the words right before it faded to "game time." They should have done something about it earlier instead of waiting, now they were expecting them and ready to deal with them. Meanwhile they were still effected by the lack of magic and all that was going for them, was overly tight, flashy costumes. "So are we the Unforgivables? What exactly have we... or any of you done to them?" Tinarah pondered. Take tried to ask who wasn't ready to go, but Tinarah just shook her head. "I am fine, we should go. Don't want to give them any more time to prepare than we already gave them." There was a slight tone of bitterness to Tinarah's voice as she looked at the words in the sky. She had wanted to deal with these people as quick as possible, but she was forced to sit around and wait, and now whatever they were planning, they were ready for them. That meant while her friends and her had new outfits, there was no advantage. They didn't even know this town, meanwhile these bad guys were preparing something, likely a trap and they were being forced to walk right into it. Still if they didn't go they might be putting a lot of people at risk, and Tinarah was more not okay with that.
There was a large blast of fire from the direction that the new people were, and Aislinn looked over for a moment. It was good to see that they managed to hold up for themselves. She didn't really question the capabilities of this new group, just because they had got here was a show enough of what they could do. She was just happy to see them holding their own. However she needed to hold her own, giving the heartless were still swarming rapidly. The Neoshadows were not going to go away any time soon, Aislinn knew that already. She had to get rid of them as quick as possible. The dark balls were annoying but they were not as evil or deadly as the Neoshadows were. If there was any heartless that were cruel just to be cruel, it would be the Neoshadows for sure. That was why Aislinn found herself spending most of her time dealing directly with them over the smaller heartless. The smaller ones could be held until later. Trying her best to get through several at once, Aislinn prepared herself for one of her stronger attacks. She didn't have time to deal with each heartless individually so instead she used Zantetsuken to get rid of several at once. Was it over kill? Probably? Did she care? Not really. She was just as ready as Ananta was to be done with this damned fight and move on with her life, but it didn't seem to be happening any time soon, Aislinn just had to see what she could do to speed up the process even a little bit. Oh god, oh god where was Arctus going with this? It was a strange way of speaking and while Karina was all for joking as well at times, she still found it a little bit strange, especially with all that had been going on. With Ananta's help, Karina was starting to really piece together what was going on here, and she wasn't sure what to think. It wasn't that she actually minded the direction that their.... relationship (?) was going, but she didn't really expect it. She didn't understand this relationship thing that was going on here or whatever Arctus thought it was, but now was not the time or place to figure it out. She would just have to take things as they came. "I don't. I just don't want these looser to think they can start being all buddy buddy with me because I am.... talking... sort of normally to a person." It was hard to explain and she probably didn't do the best job at explaining it but at least she made some sort of effort to get out what she was trying to say. While not everyone here hated her, she wasn't really friends with everyone here either and she didn't want to be friends with everyone either. They were all too happy and friendly. Arctus wasn't making things much better when he mentioned her face. "Shut up." She snapped at him, perhaps a little more harshly than she meant to, but she wasn't fond of all the talk of her embarrassment. At first Karina thought she made a pretty good entrance in, she was going to come in and save the day, but since then things just seemed to be going down hill for her in terms of how cool she was being. Not that it matter how cool she was, just more that she didn't like being embarrassed and people thinking she was going soft. Speaking of people going soft, as Karina plowed forward through heartless, Arctus undoubtedly at her heels, another familiar figure landed in front of them in a not so graceful manner. "Well look who the cat dragged in. I would have thought you would be more graceful after your Mark of Mastery. I guess nothings has changed after all. How did that go anyways?" Karina greeted Luna, having not heard of the end results of the Mark of Mastery. Total Words: 670 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3180 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 2/15 Enemies Remaining: 688 Neoshadows 691 Darkballs
"I will never say no to help, you should know that by now." Aislinn responded as Stratos showed up and soon after Ananta. She had gone from fighting alone, back to two wonderful people at her sides, and for that Aislinn was more than just a little grateful. Ananta made a comment about the girl that had come in with her little group, and the name she said got Aislinn thinking. She recognized that name, if vaguely she just had to put her figure on why. "Karina... Karina... Oh that was that girl who left to do her own thing shortly after I arrived wasn't it? We were fighting to save her from that bubble thing that trapped her." Aislinn spoke out as she figured out what was going on. It seemed by Stratos's reaction she was probably on the right track with the recognition that he had in regards to this entire situation. Aislinn never really spoke to the girl, so her presence here only meant extra help for them and that was something that they rather needed. "I don't know when this will be over Ananta, but at least we have more help now. We made it this far, we should be fine." Aislinn assured her before turning her attention back to the heartless that were around them. With the amount of Neoshadows that were around her, Aislinn knew that needed to deal with those first. She didn't waste time as she started on another whirlwind of attacks against the heartless, barely giving them time to breath, but in turn not allowing herself much time to breath. It forced her back off more quickly that she would have liked, but at least she could do so knowing she had done a fair amount of damage to the thing. Turning away from Arctus didn't seem to help her keep her composer as Ananta addressed her again, commenting about Arctus being her boyfriend. "No." She said flat out and seeming rather annoyed but her face was growing ever more red. It seemed that she wasn't good at dealing with this accusations. It was hard to embarrass Karina but when it came talk about her personal life, she couldn't help but be a little bit embarrassed. At the very least Ananta then excused herself and she could go back to dealing with only one pain in the butt, and that was not the heartless. "Yourself or not, you still were playing dirty. Attacking a girl from behind while she was trying to fix the situation, who even does that." It was a joke for the most part, but she still had to point it out and be a bit of a dick about it, she was honestly still a little bitter about the situation. While Karina knew that it wasn't her fault it hadn't helped her with her trust issues. Turning away from Arctus Karina faced down some of the enemies that were around them, trying her best to deal with them swiftly, this time turning to her magic. Now she wasn't just strong but she knew how to use fire efficiently. In a moments time the heartless around her went all up in flames and left the area clear just as Karina turned around. "So if I give you what you want, will you shut up?" She asked him looking around quickly at the others in the area. "Even if I did humour you, not here. I have an image to maintain. Don't want anyone thinking I have gone soft." She also warned him. There was no way she would give anyone else a reason to make fun of her. That being said Ananta decided that they were a thing, so the chances of rumours getting out was high. Total Words: 629 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3120 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Heartless injured Neoshadow 1/15 Darkball 8/9 Enemies Remaining: 715 Neoshadows 738 Darkballs
Rotating her keyblade in her hand for a more ideal strike, Aislinn looked around and realized the new girl and her merry bad of mischief had managed to take out the other invisible that she was unable to deal with herself before. That just left the Neoshadows and the Darkballs. It was not going to be fun to deal with, and in some ways she missed the little innocent shadows, at least those practically died by proxy of killing everything else, getting caught in the cross-fire from friends and enemies. These creatures took a little more effort to take down, even if that was still just slightly more effort. That being said even as the heartless grew stronger, so did they. With the buff that they were being provided with, Aislinn was finding it rather easy to take out the same creatures that she had found a bit annoying during the earlier rounds of combat. Charging on in to a hoard of the Neoshadows, Aislinn didn't waste much time getting started with her attacks. She did not go lightly on the heartless that were around her. She went all out, trying to deal with them quickly by starting with a barrier surge before she launched into numerous combos that chained on to each other as she whipped around trying to take out as many of the Neoshadows as she could at once. Each one falling easily to her blade. It almost felt like they could not keep up, move as fast as she could. At one point it was difficult to keep up when several attacked at once, but now, whether from practice or this buff she couldn't quite tell, but it didn't matter as long as she managed to do her job and deal with these heartless in as efficient of a manner as possible. Meanwhile with Karina she looked over at Arctus as he spoke. His wording was rather interesting. "Your what? What were you going to say there? I would be rather interested in hearing where that was going." She pried a little playfully but she was genuinely curious about what he was going to say. The way he worded it, it was like he was going to give her a title of some sort, but as far as Karina knew, she couldn't tell if they would even call each other friends, much less refer to them as my "something." Either way as much as she would have wanted to know, there were other pressing matters to deal with, such as the heartless that still surrounded them and her friends. Currently as much as Karina didn't like Ananta, she felt a little bad for running off on the girl, so she supposed she could just deal with the threats that came in their direction for now, perhaps she could make sure some of her friends were okay later. As she fought she noticed the boy who had asked her about if she knew anyone was talking to Luna. Perhaps that was why the questioning. They did seem rather excited to see each other, some sort of former relationship that almost left Karina sort of jealous. Turning away from them she turned to the heartless, the easier thing to focus on for her. It didn't take too much time for her to take a few of the heartless out either before she moved on to the sort of compliment offered by Arctus. "So you don't actually hate me. Huh funny after you stabbed me in the back... literally I thought you might not like me." She was more joking but she then heard his next comment, turning around to punch him, in a playful manner, but forgetting about her own strength, "in your dreams maybe." She told him before turning back to the heartless before he could spot the little bit of red building on her cheeks. Total Words: 641 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3060 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 18 Neoshadows Karina Heartless Defeated: 6 Neoshadows 2 Darkball Enemies Remaining: 825 Neoshadows 882 Darkballs
As the password was entered correctly through his moment of clarity and anger that mashed into one, Cerdic managed to unlock the console in time for a memory to return to him. He could hear his own voice in it, he could see a form being created and Marley trying to stop it, destroying the machine that they were now fixing. He wasn't quite sure what this meant for them though. Looking at the situation around them, Cerdic couldn't tell if they should be fixing the machine or not anymore. That being said the darkness that was forming had also started to form words. Looking back at Chrono and Alder, Cerdic spoke up. "Do what you think needs to be done. I have no clue, I will hold this thing back." He told them, placing himself between Daeni and the creature. It seemed that it's attention was fixed on her even though he wanted Marley. Cerdic remembered Daeni saying something about Marley's memories or something but he wasn't too sure what that meant for her. "Stay back, stay alive." He told her before he stepped forward, his keyblade at the ready, as he shot off a fire spell at the forming darkness. "If you want to pick a fight, pick it with me." He warned the creature, ready to deal with the consequences of that statement, whatever they may be.
While Tinarah didn't really speak up again, given she felt like her last words weren't really taken to heart, she did tuck away some of the information that she had gotten from Elastagirl. The fact that the goggles had something to do with the power that the woman had, it was a good thing to keep in mind. Tinarah gave a slight nod, ready to head off to find food or something when Edna walked back in the room ready to show them what she had created. Tinarah groaned to herself a bit, this was all over the top, it only got worse when they were brought in to see what she had made. Following Edna into the next room Tinarah tried to stay back a little bit as she watched the woman with wide glasses prepare to reveal her creation. Each suite sat on mannequins and Tinarah walked until she found one that was labelled for her. Stopping she looked at it shaking her head a little bit before glancing over at Chrono. She didn't like tight clothes, she had a feeling her brother wouldn't like her wearing tight clothes, but here she was with a costume, that was made to completely fit her form. It made her slightly self conscious considering her weight at the time, but what could she do? She saw how tired Edna looked and the comments that she had been up all night, it made her feel bad if she didn't wear it. "So... um should we take them and try them on?" Tinarah asked a little unsure of what to do now.
As determined as Thea was not to fall to the power of the flute, she couldn't seem to shake off the effect that it was having on her mind. Her flame dimmed quickly after the sound took over and she found herself simply following rather closely to the person who was floating in front of her. "Where are we going?" She managed to ask quietly as she moved along, not quite sure where they were going or why, but feeling compelled to follow anyways, even as they started into the tree line and away from town. Renza had come out with snack, and then returned to the house wrapping them in cloth and bringing them back out again, offering it to them before commenting that she would tag along with them heading back. "Thank you very much Renza, that is very kind of you. Of course we don't mind you coming along." He told her, even going as far as to offer his hand if she wanted to walk back with him. When they returned they were greeted by the chief who, of course was asking about answers, which Samuel provided. "We are planning to go up stream tomorrow morning, investigate where the starting point of the poison might be. From there we will work on a solution." Everette assured the man with a half hearted smile, just trying to be at least slightly reassuring. The Chief offered them a place to stay and Renza offered to take care of them. While the Chief seemed hesitant, she wanted to go and Everette saw no problem with that. "It is fine if she wants to come with us. I don't mind. It might be good for her too. Tho Renza," Everette knelt down to look at her. "I think we can take care of ourselves tonight, we brought some of our own supplies, so why don't you just come and hang out with us for fun, don't feel like you have to go out of your way for us." Everette suggested. It hurt him to see a child having to go through so much and he was just trying to help make things easier for her where he could.
The man brought her into town, but Auburn just watched as the man got ready to leave again. She wasn't that fond of being left behind again just to be sitting there. She couldn't go after her or call for him not to leave her though as she nearly passed out on the woman, as she seemed to panic. "Get a doctor! Quickly." The woman called to the people around waiting with Auburn, unable to stop the bleeding until someone came to their aid. Soon both children were moved into the local hospital, the woman taking time to calm and care for the crying infant, while Auburn was taken in to have her wounds looked at. That didn't seem to be as easy as they thought though as Auburn looked out, terrified of the situation trying to back away a little bit but unable to do so as they started to clean the wounds, and for the first time, Auburn cried out, unable to handle things.
Well it seemed that Luna was happy as she seemed to notice someone else in the new group that she knew. It was interesting, but as Luna ran off to talk with the boy that she saw, Aislinn walked off the other direction dealing with some of the heartless that were near by. She didn't want to interrupt on their private conversation, but with Luna talking to this boy... Koa? and Beuce having ran off to fight with Stratos again, Aislinn found herself fighting alone once more. She knew that she could handle it, easily, but there had been more motivation to fight when she had others at her side to watch her back. Shrugging that off Aislinn looked around at the heartless that were left around her. The numbers this time seemed to be dropping at a more rapid rate, but that being said there was more heartless to deal with. Taking that into account, Aislinn started to face off against some of the last of the bigger guys left. She couldn't deal with all this alone, but she could get a good start on them, start to lessen the large amount of heartless. It was easy enough to get through these guys again. The invisibles surrounded her, trying to slash at her with their swords, but nimbly Aislinn was able to move out of the way, ducking and dodging attacks as she countered with her own attacks until one after another the heartless fell. Of course Arctus wouldn't be far behind her and making a bit of a snarky comment. "Let's just say I used to stronger than all of them, but it looks like becoming masters has made them all cocky. I will have to prove that they can't forget about me after all." She replied to him as she took her whip and swung out at an invisible, dealing with it swiftly before turning back to Arctus to respond to his next thing. "And for the record I know most people here, except him," Karina pointed to AJ, before pointing to Aislinn. "And her." Then her eyes rested on Aux. She didn't recognize him right away but ended up looking at the man for a while just staring before she turned to react to Arctus' other sly comment about how many of those people hated her. Before she could respond however Ananta had arrived. Of course like Ananta tended to do she started to blabber some sort of apology towards her and talk all about how she was a bad friend and such. Karina rolled her eyes at the response turning back to Arctus. "Clearly not everyone hates me. Most of these people..... tolerated me. I can't say that we are friends but they were adequate comrades." She replied. Part of her would want to say friends but the other part of her still questioned that. She had a feeling most of these people weren't too fond of her, and even if they didn't mind her, she wasn't fond of some of them, for example the woman trying so hard to apologize in front of her. "You know Ananta, it would do you well to stop being so desperate and just move on with life. Just forget about it." It wasn't quite a way of saying she forgave Ananta, it was more just a sign that she had moved on from that sort of stuff. "Now if you excuse me, we kind of have bigger issues on our hands." Karina pointed to the heartless around them as she readied her whip and lashed out at a couple Neoshadows and a dark ball. Total Words: 606 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 3000 Aislinn Heartless Defeated: 5 Invisibles 1 Neoshadow Karina Heartless Defeated: 1 Invisible 3 Neoshadows 1 Darkball Enemies Remaining: 875 Neoshadows 884 Darkballs
Perhaps there would be time for conversations, but unfortunate for her, this wasn't the time. Of course Aislinn was still going to talk but as the fight wound down it seemed that they had new guests arriving in the minute. Aislinn prepared for a defensive stance against the new group before she realized that they were not coming against them, but the black haired girl in the long black coat seemed to have her eyes set on the man who was causing this mess. They didn't seem to get along too well, and in all honesty Aislinn was rather enjoying watching the situation unfold since it seemed that they didn't get along too well. Of course getting on the nerves of the uniformed man was only making things worse as another wave of heartless was sent at them. This they could handle, with the extra help Aislinn didn't worry too much as between Shiro and one of the new people, this one seeming to be closer to a child took out some of the bigger heartless. While it wasn't much of an advantage it was better than nothing and Aislinn was ready to deal with things in as swift of a manner as possible. "Well it looks like we aren't done yet. Guess we will have to talk as we fight again." Aislinn told Beuce over her shoulder as her defensive stance took a turn towards the enemies and away from their newly arrived allies that she had not expected. A pleasant surprise to say the least. "Anyways I wasn't there by choice as I am sure you have guessed. The heartless were making a push against the front lines that were protecting my town, being the only one that had a keyblade from that world, I needed to do something about it. Things went not as planned and I wasn't able to fend off that many heartless by myself. Somehow I managed to survive the attack but I was dragged down into that darkness. I ended up just walking until I found something, or someone who might have an idea how to get me out. When I found you guys, I didn't it was a relief, even if there was trouble. I was just glad to see face's and glad that I had the chance to help out a bit, test my skills and compare them to others of similar powers." Aislinn admitted to him. She wasn't quite sure if that was the answer that he wanted but it was the best way she had to explain she supposed. There was no more time to talk however as she turned a little bit, so that between her, Beuce, and Luna they could cover the most sides possible, positioning herself, to face the Invisibles that were waiting. She wasn't going to go easy on these things again and let them live for long. If she could deal with as many as possible now it would be good, of course without leaving the group. Luckily for her they were already heading in her direction. Apparently these things had not forgotten about the damage that she managed to cause before, and thanks to whatever Shiro was doing, Aislinn was even more confident that she could deal with this. Charging in there was nothing too fancy in her attacks, simple moves that were not overly strong in her opinion but seemed to be doing more damage than she had expected as the Invisibles fell to her like they were nothing. Even a couple of Neoshadows got caught in her set of attacks, only one of those Neoshadows died but the other one wasn't looking good either. That being said, Aislinn's eyes were more focused on the Invisbles around her and watching her teams backs. Total Words: 631 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 2940 Heartless Defeated: 5 Invisbles 1 Neoshadow Heartless Injured: Neoshadow 2/15 Heartless Remaining: Defeat 999 Neoshadows Defeat 1000 Darkballs Defeat 35 Invisibles "Perhaps you just underestimate me a little too much old man. You know what my father can do, you think I didn't pick up a thing or two from him whether I liked it or not?" Kiara responded in a rather sassy tone as her eyes scanned the area, making sure that everyone she knew was alright. "Now if you excuse me, as much as I would love to take your other arm, I should clean up your mess first. Never have liked crowded areas." With that Karina stepped away from the group, in that moment she missed her keyblade more than anything, but she tried to act like it didn't matter as she stepped into the field, flicking her whip blade around a few times just to test it out before stepping forward to deal with some of the issue, starting light by taking out two Invisibles. However looking at the people around her, while she knew that she had not lost any strength, the strength they gained made her feel weak. A slight flame started to form across her whip. "There is no way I am letting them show me up." She whispered to herself as she prepared to do more damage if she could next time. Heartless Defeated: 2 Invisbles Heartless Injured: Neoshadow 2/15 Heartless Remaining: Defeat 999 Neoshadows Defeat 1000 Darkballs Defeat 33 Invisibles
A huge thanks to everyone who decided to participate this month. It has been a lot of fun doing this song with you all. I hope to see everyone out next month for our Broadway themed Chorus, we are always welcoming new people, come check it out!
Hello everyone! Every few months I try and do a themed chorus. Without any special occasions this month, I figured we would do one of your suggested Themes. This month we will do a Broadway themed chorus. If there is any songs from a Broadway production that you would like to do, now is the time to put your suggestions out there. You will have a week to suggest your songs, and on April 1st we will have a vote that includes all suggested songs to see which one we will do for April. Look forward to seeing what you all come up with!
Ah lovely lovely, look at all those beautiful faces out there. Perfect. Just the perfect candidates for my new project. Yes so many lovely faces out there, it will be hard to choose, hard to come up with a winner for this. Yes, there only must be one winner for my new project.... Wait you mean I haven't told you what my new project is yet? I will have to get right on that. Eh-hem. Welcome one and all to KHV's newest annual event. What is this event, you ask? Well that is simple, it is a beauty pageant of course.... well it isn't just a beauty pageant, it is more complicated than that. You see there are far too many beautiful faces and far too many shy people out there to just base this on looks, that would be too hard to decide then. No, now is a time for your inner beauty and creativity to shine through. What does that mean for you? Well that is simple, it means that you, the contestants will be put through a series of creative challenges to see just how beautiful you are, and how much you love this site... You do love this site right? Well of course you do! Who am I kidding everyone loves this site. Anyhoo, you will be put through a series of challenges, whether that be dressing up, writing something for me, or drawing stick figures and pretending that they are keyblade wielders. You will have a week to complete each task, and at the end of the week your work will be judged by our beautiful panel of judges, as well as your peers. Everyone gets a say in who wins or who loses. At the end of April the person with the most points wins. Simple as that. What do you win you ask? Well you win this beautiful pin! Spoiler: Pin There are rules though, nothing is without rules. Rules are what make things fun for everyone. Let me go over those rules for you: Please get your projects in on time. There will be no extensions. If you don't get your entries in for that round you will get no points. No voting for yourself. Contestants are welcome to vote in the polls but only when voting for other people. The entries will be anonymous, the challenges will be sent out through PM and the entries will come in through PM. When the entries are posted for voting, there will be no names attached. While points are scored through both voting and judging, most of the score will come from the judging. So the results at the end of each week might not be what you expect. You will be judged on the following criteria where applicable: Use of Prompt, Creativity, and inclusion of KHV. Have fun! Support your competitors. Sign ups will cut off when the first challenge is sent out on April first. If you want to be included make sure you post in this thread to show your interest. All are welcome to join! *Credit to Midnight for helping come up with this idea
A backstory of Auburn, a character in RWBY: Guardian's Saviors "Get behind me. Stay back. When their is an opening take your brother and run. Listen to me Auburn, you have to be strong for me sweetie." Standing up Auburn's mother stood up and grabbed the knife of the kitchen table, standing near the entrance to the kitchen. In their small cottage the room that served as a nursery was off the kitchen, so if they could keep the grimm out of the kitchen then both the kids would be safe. There was a cracking sound at the door and then a yell "It is breaking through, be ready Rach!" A man called from the front of the house ready to fend off the grimm for the sake of his family. There was a few sniffles heard from the small girl behind her mother who stood in the back of the kitchen, ready to run for her baby brother who was crying in the connected room. Suddenly there was a loud burst sound before a war cry as the grizzled middle aged man charged in to deal with the grimm that managed to breach through the walls of the town and was now attacking his family. ------------------- Onyx had just arrived into the town. He had decided to explore before someone had yelled out. "Someone! Anyone!! Please help!!" The grizzled man looked over and ran to the person. "What's wrong?!" The person had appeared to be an old woman. She looked over to Onyx and immediately asked for is help. "Please help!! The grimm...It's the grimm!! They're attacking the town and they're currently attacking one of the families!! They need help!!" Onyx listened as the woman spoke. He then asked where the house in question was. The elderly woman pointed in the direction of the house. He thanked her and began making his way to the house. As he arrived, he saw numerous grimm running into the house. "That's not good!" He grabbed his sword and begun to cut down the grimm that was making their way into the house! "Don't worry guys! I'm on my way!!!" Slowly he made his way into the house while fending off the grimm. ------------------ The fight against the grimm was short lived. While Auburns father had a couple of small weapons in his house, he was not Huntsman, more a simple farmer. There was no screams that escaped his mouth though, but a grunt, then a thump as his body hit the ground and the Grimm prowled into home further, smelling the air before charging towards the kitchen. Rachel's kitchen knife was batted to the side with one swipe of the mighty claws, before the other claw slashed across her body. The woman screamed and looked over at her young daughter. "Run!" It barely escaped her mouth before the grimm slammed it's paw down on her mother, pushing the last bit of life out of her. Auburn was terrified, she couldn't move really, she was numb. "Mom? Mommy! No!" Bending down she picked up the kitchen knife that had been pushed towards her when it was knocked from her mothers hand, standing over her mothers body looking up at the creature. "You will not hurt my mommy any more." She told the dark creature though her hands were shaking and she could barely hold her knife. She still was trying to defend her mother no matter what, even as blood stained her bare feet. The grimm was only toying with her though as it lifted a massive paw to take a swipe at the girl. --------------------- Onyx got inside just in time as the grimm ha slain the man that was in the room. "Oh no..." He then sliced throught the grimm that had begun making their way into the kitchen. As he got to the kitchen, he saw a woman bleeding out on the floor and a small girl holding a kitchen knife against the grimm. It raised its paw, getting ready to strike but before it could, Onyx ran into the room. He shot at the grimm and then cut through its body. He went over to the little girl and carefully took the kitchen knife out of her hands. "Are you alright? What happened here?!" He knelt down to her level and spoke calmly to her and tried to check for any injuries on her as he asked. ------------------------- The man who came in to save her might have arrived slightly too late as the paw had managed to graze her on the side, though given her size the cuts were still deep. At first the girl didn't seem to notice though as she stared at the man, her baby brother still crying in the background. While Auburn might have been five at the time, her height suggested more of a three year old, at least until she spoke up and it became obvious she was a least slightly older than three. "They killed mommy and daddy. I-I tried to save them. Mom told me to run, but I couldn't leave her." She put her hand to her side as the knife was removed from it, but as she did she felt something warm, looking down at her side she realized it was bleeding and quite badly. Her eyes widened as she looked up at the man, clearly terrified. ----------------------- Onyx looked over at the little girl's mother and father's bodies. He knelt down and check both of their pulses. He let out a sigh before looking over at the two children. He hugged the little girl as she was looking terrified. "Everything's going to be okay. I'll make sure I'll get you to safety. I promise." He patted her head before pulling away and saw another room where he heard the faint sound of an infant crying. He walked into the room and saw an infant crying their eyes out. He picked the baby up and spoke to the baby. "There's no need to be scared now. You're safe now. You're both safe now." He looked between the two and tried smiling to calm the girl and the baby down. Onyx stood up and looked around the house to make sure no other grimm were still lurking around. He went back to the children and reached his hand out. "Let's get you two out of here and to somewhere safe, alright?" He then looked at the girl and spoke. "And let's get some band-aids for you, okay?" He looked at the girl and smiled as he held the baby. ---------------------------- The man had gone to get her younger brother and Auburn just stood there, staring at the blood on herself and on her mothers body in front of her. "No! can't go! Not without mommy and daddy! They need help too, someone needs to protect them until they wake up." The concept of death had not quite hit for Auburn, to her they were just hurt like she was. She saw blood on herself and on her parents, to her there was no difference. However even as the small girl argued she was getting noticeably pale, from the blood loss. While she didn't seem to be registering the pain all that much the wound was decently serious. Auburn just looked at her brother though in the mans arms. "Help him though." She told him while she stood her ground inside the house, she knew it wasn't necessarily safe and her baby brother needed to get out of there. ------------------ Onyx got down on one knee as he carried the girl's little brother. He tried to think about his next words carefully. After a few moments, he looked at the girl and spoke. "Don't worry! I'll send somebody right over to watch your mommy and daddy." He smiled and then continued. "Your mommy and daddy wants to make sure you two are okay. I promise somebody will be here to watch your mommy and daddy while I get you two some help." Onyx tried to reassure her while still trying to keep a smile on his face. "We need to to get you two out of here while I have someone come in here and watch your mommy and daddy, okay?" -------------------- There was a small sniffle as tears started to run down Auburns face at last. "I- I don't want to leave them." She begged, however looking at her brother then down at her bleeding side there was only so much that she could argue here. She knew that she couldn't actually protect her parents much longer as she was feeling rather tired the more time that went by with her arguing. Finally she nodded and grabbed the mans hand with one of her hands and used the other to hold at her side. "I feel dizzy..." Auburn told him as she tried her best not to look at the blood as they walked by, Auburn did however kick the dead grimm as she passed out of spite for what he did to her family. As she did so though her side screamed in pain and she got really dizzy almost slipping out of Onyx's hands. Still she was doing her best to hold back tears, though Auburn wasn't doing a good job at it, she didn't sob or cry loudly, she just kept her mouth shut and gripped her side tighter, letting the tears flow a little more freely.
Having fallen asleep so quickly after hitting her bed, Tinarah never really caught any of the conversation that was happening after they were to go to bed. Apparently sleep was something Tinarah had needed more than she had originally thought that she would. While kind of annoying to admit, at least Tinarah could be grateful that she could sleep through the night and wake up in the morning, unharmed, and hearing voices in the house. Sitting up out of bed, Tinarah found herself curious about what the conversation was. It would have been more respectful to just tune it all out, but instead Tinarah found herself cracking over her bedroom door, listening to what was being said. She had chosen a bedroom near the start of the hall, so she perhaps could catch things a little easier. After listening in to Edna's conversation for a moment, Tinarah quickly got ready to the best of her ability before stepping out of her room, a little nervous as she looked back down the hall. Finally Tinarah stepped forward not really wanting to walk up to the adults talking but lingering near by, clearly in view. "Like I said before, we aren't heroes, but... I want to help anyways. I... We know how to fight, and I would rather not stay behind and just wait for more people to get hurt." Her voice was quiet and she still kept her distance, but Tinarah was done trying to argue with with Thallasa. She kept pushing to help, but they hadn't yet, so now she was taking the next step and directly offering help. They had let her come here, to help out, now she needed to be allowed to help. If they were just going to sit around and only let a couple people do things at a time, it would be no better than leaving her back at the council's castle. If that was the case she would have preferred it, then at least she would have been doing something to benefit herself by figuring out where she stood with Master Stamatis, and perhaps even Master Fost... if he ever did end up contacting her again.
Crossing her arms and huffing a breath, Kiara just stared down Mizu for a moment. "... If there are thousands of heartless we could use all the help we could get." Kiara repeated sounding rather annoyed. "Besides I think that Lea would have a heart attack in his old age if we didn't return and kept all the fun to ourselves." Kiara stated back to Mizu. She was not impressed with the child's attitude but dealt with it to some extent, to the best of her ability. She didn't try and punch some sense into her, so she supposed that was an improvement. Koa then approached Kiara, and she turned to face him as well. "Yes I know them. Lets say I worked along side them for a while, but it didn't feel quite like my path to walk. We need to go though, it sounds like they are in trouble and I am not waiting around for them all to die. Lets go get back up." From there Kiara turned and walked away, keeping rather fast pace heading towards the hideout. Upon arriving the hide out was empty, all that was left was Lea's keyblade broken on the ground. Before anyone else could enter she walked up and picked it up. "Stupid old man, you were supposed to help me change, not put me in charge and leave me." Kiara sounded actually a bit upset and confused. Trying to take a deep breath and calm herself she turned back to the rabbit. "Well Oswald, lead the way, there is no more help to be found. Whatever was planned... they wanted us to split up and now I fear they might kill my friends." There was a bit of fear in Kiara's voice but she tried to keep it hidden. For once she didn't mind referring to those people as friends, the thought of losing them too, it was kind of scary, enough to make Kiara realize that she might not have done a good job at keeping herself distant from people.
