PHASE 2 UPDATE # 14
CREATING NEW FILES…
INCREASING MEMORY CAPACITY.
DE-FRAGMENTING REGISTRY…
MANAGING DISKS…
OVERVIEW ENABLED.
Ain't this just fine and dandy?! Of course this day couldn't just end on a good note, but nooo! It had to even continue on!
Worst vacation ever!
Ugh, I digress from clichés… I better check if I'm prepared for war.
Bow? Check. Sword? Check. Quiver with my arrows in it? …Oh crap. Ugh, quivers are so annoying. How does Virion carry it around so easily?
"Hurry up, Knoll!" Wystan tells me as we all leave the Inn. It becomes all too silent as we all leave. The others and I continue to the stables, but the night seems too quiet.
"Are there really Risen here?" Ana asks.
Just as she finishes that sentence, the stables burst with a loud noise. All of the horses there start madly neigh and trashing.
We get inside and see Streaky and Charles attacking several Risen.
"Ha!" A shot of light skewers the Risen. I look back and I see Wystan after casting a bolt of light.
"By the way… how exactly does magic work?" I ask. I pretty much lost my chance to use magic when I changed to this class…makes me wonder what I was originally…
"Well, all I do is read a passage for this book in my mind and point my hand in a direction." Wystan says.
What? … That's all it takes!?
"That's not how my magic works." Alice said.
"Guys focus!" Ana says as she gets to Charles and helps him into his gear. I quickly follow with Streaky as well.
"AAAAAHHHH!"
Screaming people. Is it weird that that this stuff really doesn't surprise me anymore?
"And that's our cue!" I call out and we all leave the stables.
OVERVIEW DISABLED.
=A little while ago=
Back in the Bubbly Dolphin, we focus within the room of Thomas and Kishin.
Oddly enough, Kishin is awake and he is staring at Thomas' peaceful sleep.
Kishin smiled twisted-like as his eyes became black. "I go away for one day, and you go off and make close friends and enjoy your life?! I've definitely lost my touch ever since I came to this place, but let's see if I can get back the old gloomy Kishin after I smother this Robin wannabe in his sleep…"
The evil Kishin was about to choke Thomas to death; however, something started glowing on the top of Thomas' cabinet.
"Oh right, the weird Earth Key. It is giving off a unique energy… wait… did it just stand up?" Evil Kishin watched confusingly as the key seemed to come to life and stand up then slip out the window and into town.
"The hell did that happen!?" Evil Kishin yelled loud and woke up Thomas. "Tch!" Kishin's eyes suddenly turned back red.
"Kishin! I'm trying to sleep; what the heck are you doing!?" Thomas said as he wiped his eyes.
"Uh guys!? The key's gone!"
Kishin and Thomas looked to the top of the cabinet and saw that the key disappeared!
"How'd that happen!?" Kishin asked.
"I saw what happened… The key got up and moved out of the window. You all must hurry and get it! I sensed odd energy spike within the key!" Necora said.
Thomas got out of bed. "Fred! Wake up the other two! Kishin, get changed, we're going after the key ahead!"
Necora whispered to Kishin. "Kishin, be careful. He's back…"
Thomas, Donkan, Rei, and Kishin got out and saw people running and screaming. The town was set ablaze and Risen were swarming the place.
"Jesus! Since when can Risen suddenly attack a village without any warning!?" Donakn said as he looked around.
"Guys! The Key! That Risen has it!" Rei pointed over to a trickster Risen that held the Earth Key. This Risen seemed different though.
"Does that Risen have three eyes?!" Kishin yelled. The eyes of that Risen seemed to have three brown glowing eyes. It then quickly sped off.
"Crap!" Thomas yelled as they all quickly followed it.
It started moving quickly and faster and then the Risen jumped over the roof.
"I'll get it!" Kishin said as he jumped and climbed a few windows before running on the roofs after the Risen.
"Kishin! Wait!" Thomas yelled and tried to follow him, but cavalier Risen started charging at them.
"We have to get back!" Rei said as she and Donkan grabbed Thomas back and ran away.
"I don't know why we're trying to outrun undead horses, but can we please think of a better plan?!" Donkan cried out as the cavalier Risen were slowly catching up with them.
"There! Turn right here!" Rei pointed over as they all quickly ran into an alley way. "We'll use this a choke point and pick them off one by one!"
"Use your long range weapons!" Thomas added. He took out his tome, Rei took out her bow, and Donkan took out Amatsu.
The enemies all mindlessly followed the heroes into the choke point and one by one they were pierced, blasted, and slashed by the trio. But even then, the numbers started to push them further down the alley.
"There's too many of them! We're getting pushed out of the choke!" Rei said.
They were all pushed out of the alley way and two axe Risen pincered them on both sides. Before they could react, a blast of light and a short axe blasted/cut the two of them. The trio looked behind them and smiles slowly appeared on their face.
"REI!"
"ALICE!"
The two sisters ran to each other and embraced. Ana and Wystan came over and met with Thomas and Donkan.
"You guys are alive!" Wystan said.
"You guys too!" Thomas said as he blasted a risen from the alley way. "It's good to see you all alive!"
"Hey, where's that Kishin dude?" Ana asked.
"We got separated a while back, but did you guys see any town Keys here?" Donkan asked.
"Town Keys? Were you guys looking for them too?" Wystan questioned.
"Long story short: We found one, but we lost it here. It's called the Earth Key: it's a brown key." Thomas said. "Everyone group up! The Risen are circling us!"
The group got together and faced the Risen surrounding them.
Ana told the others something. "We were originally planning to get the Water Key, but the Syndicate took it. We came here hoping to beat them to the Wind Key."
"Hey!" Everyone looked to Alice, who was searching frantically around. "Where's Knoll!?"
"Who's Knoll?" Rei asked as she took out her blade.
"He's a part of this world's Shepherds!" Wystan said.
Both Thomas and Donkan's ears perk up at what Wystan just said. "He's a Shepherd!?" They both yelled loud.
"What's a shepherd?" Rei asked.
"Sis, it's a long and confusing story." Alice explained. "But apparently he's just like us!"
"What do you mean by that?" Thomas questioned. "Donkan, on your right!"
"He's – Ugh, it's too long to explain now!" Ana said.
A majority of Risen tried to rush our heroes, but several powerful weapons and magic blasts came from above. The attacks devastated the risen numbers. All the heroes checked all the directions each attack came from.
"Well, well. What do we have here?" a familiar voice said.
"Magus!" Ana screamed. On one side of the street, there were four familiar people standing on the roof.
"Everyone is here!" Splice chimed. "I'm so glad that you're all unhurt…"
"Great. Not her again." Donkan said as he readied his blade.
"Huh? All of those brats are here, but the Kishin punk."
Magus and everyone else looked to the other side of the road. "Arcane, Gamble. Good to see you both are still alive. How's getting the key?"
Arcane and Gamble were seen on the opposite side of the road. "No. we lost the key to these folks a while back." Arcane said. "But now that we are all here…"
"Fair enough." Magus said and pointed to all of the heroes. "Give us the key you have and you will be spared… again."
"And why would we do that?" Thomas asked and readied his tome.
"DUDE!" Wystan yelled. "You did not just taunt him!"
"I guess this is where you will die then. I take point." Magus said as he jumped off. He took out a stone as he jumped off and a bright flash of purple appeared.
*Boom!*
The ground shook a little before the heroes saw what was in front of them.
"A-a manatake!?" Thomas, Donkan, and Rei stepped back in surprised.
"Crap! Not this again!" Wystan put his tome away and took out his blade. He looked to Thomas. "Thomas you might not want to use your tome!"
"What? Why?" Thomas asked.
"LET ME TELL YOU WHY: I AM A MAGE DRAGON. MY KIND IS IMMUNE TO MAGIC." Magus said.
"Well this is just dropped down hill fast!" Thomas said as he took out a blade.
The other Assassins surrounded the heroes. All closing in after Magus.
"Rei…" Alice looked to Rei.
Rei seemed a little surprised but she exhaled. "… The situation does seem desperate. Everyone spread out a little!"
Donkan looked back, "What?! Wh-" he couldn't finish because there was suddenly a white dragon within their circle.
"Alice is a manatake!?" Thomas and Donkan screamed at the same time.
"Yeah we were totally surprised the first time as well." Ana said and Charles roared.
(Fred! Can you still link us up!?) Rei thought as she quickly looked up.
"It's going to be a lot harder without Necora here, not to mention there are more of you now!" Fred replied.
{Then ya don't mind if I help then right?}
"Huh? Hey…"
(Who is that?!) Thomas thought.
(Her name is Veyona. She's a friend of mine.) Wystan said.
{Chronos showed me a few tricks with this. There! Everyone is now linked up!}
(Who's Chronos?) Donkan thought as he readied his blade.
(That's not important right now. Everyone listen!) Rei thought. (Keep our formation tight. Let Alice handle Magus. We're going to try and break through this surround and make our escape!)
Thomas calmed down and added to it. (Be on your guard and do your best to defend! Watch their movements as closely as possible. If this still works like last time, then Rei should be able to recognize movements after a while. Avoid locked combat with Magus, Gamble, and Splice. Resort to guerrilla techniques of hitting and running away! We can't fight them here or in a straight battle!)
(Ready everyone!?) Rei said as they all gripped their weapons tightly as the Assassins were all closing in on them.
"Break!"
And the heroes charged.
"Dang it! I thought everyone was behind us!" Knoll screamed as he kept running on the rooftops.
+There is something wrong in the air. I can't connect to Veyona and the others. But I recognize this power almost too well.+
"What is it?" Knoll asked.
Two myrmidon Risen suddenly jumped out and tried to strike Knoll. Knoll activated his aura, unsheathed his blade, dodged both initial swings, and he quickly stepped in between both of them and did a quick spin slash which cut off the heads of both Risen.
+Huh, well done.+
"I really have to thank Sully and Lon'qu for all those muscle stretching exercises and proper combat form. I'm think I'm starting to actually look like a warrior now." Knoll said as he kept his blade and deactivated the aura. He looked behind him and tried to look for someone. "Where's Streaky?"
+I don't know, but worry about that later, she can take care of herself. I need you to keep following this signature. I think it's the Keys!+
"What do you mean keys?!" Knoll asked noticing the plural.
+First, something felt off with the air back in Water Town: the key gave me a familiar feeling. I've only recently remembered why it felt so familiar. It is because that the Water Key has the same energy of that with Neptous, the Great Water Spirit of this world.+
"The Keys have something to do with the great spirits of this world!?" Knoll asked and jumped over to another house. He saw the beach in the distance.
+I truly don't know; however, the similarity is no coincidence. The air is filled with something just like Neptous' presence, but there are three of them.+
"T-three!?" Knoll yelled as he got to the beach.
+Yes, three, all of which should be- … there…+
Knoll looked over and saw three Risen tricksters on the ground of the beach. Their bodies vanished instantly and Knoll saw some scary looking Assassin holding three peculiar items.
"The Keys!" Knoll yelled. He quickly covered his mouth and the Assassin classed warrior turned his head to him.
The man was wearing some kind of demon mask. He had white hair that to Knoll, looked and styled like Yen'fay's hair style. The man was holding a scary looking blade as well.
"Hahaha. Now who do we have here? Little boy blue?" The guy taunted.
"Who the freak are you?" Knoll asked.
+… Hmm?+
The guy just pointed his blade at him. "The name is Kishin, Demon of Grima."
Knoll's eyes widen. "K-Kishin?! Hey! You're one of the people that came from another world with Wystan, Ana, and Alice!" Knoll remembered that name when Wystan mentioned it to him.
"… Oh, so you do know me then?" Kishin started to look at his blade.
"Yeah! I'm with the others, I'm here to help you all get back home-"
+Knoll, ready your blade!+
Chronos quickly shouted and Knoll readied his blade in surprise.
Knoll was taken back a bit. (Chronos, why-)
"HAHAHA!" Kishin laughed. "I must admit: I am amazed with the warriors of this world! I've always found the only thing fun in my world to be killing people mercilessly. The bloodbath and Etc. is quite invigorating, but here…" He takes off his masks and reveals he has black eyes under the moonlight. Knoll now prepares his stance better. "I have yet to even scratch a piece of blood of anyone and surprisingly… it feels addictive! The warriors here are so hard to kill! It makes me want to kill them more and more and more! I bet when I kill at least one of you this world, I will feel joy more than slaughtering everyone in the world! So come! Starve me more, so your death shall quench my appetite!"
[Recommended Music-Two steps from hell - Norwegian Pirate]
Kishin charged at Knoll with a wide horizontal slashed. Knoll ducked and backed off, but he almost lost his footing because he was in the sand.
+Get back to the road! You can't fight properly on the sand!+
Knoll heeded Choronos' advice and ran for the road. Kishin chased after him.
Knoll got to the road and faced Kishin again. Kishin kept wildly slashing at Knoll, but Knoll either continued to parry and dodge. There were a few times when Kishin was able to scratch Knoll's skin and where he was also able to put in some kicks to the stomach of Knoll. You didn't have to be an expert to see Knoll was losing. Knoll did try to activate his Arua, but Kishin kept attacking him and distracting him from activating it properly.
Kishin dashed closer to Knoll and stepped on his foot. Kishin swung hard and all Knoll could do was block.
*Shatter.*
Knoll quickly ducked and pushed Kishin away. Knoll's blade was broken and useless. Knoll checked his cheek and there was a clean cut on his right cheek.
Knoll had no choice but to take out his only weapon.
+Really Knoll!? You brought a bow, but left your arrows!?+
(Yeah… this is going to be a long night.) Knoll thought.
"Hmm? What's this? Don't you have any arrows?! HAHAHA!" Kishin laughed at Knoll.
Kishin attacked Knoll again. Knoll activated his aura during Kishin's laughter to avoid all of Kishin's attacks better.
Knoll had to think. (I'm a sitting duck! What can I- !? …I really hope that Sully and Lon'qu's training pays off!)
"Hold still so I can kill you!" Kishin said. He did a wide horizontal slash that Knoll avoided by jumping high to the wall and wall kicking from there to another roof. "Oh no you don't!" Kishin said as he followed Knoll and jumped on to the roof.
Knoll ran a little back and Kishin just laughed and chased him. "Finally! I get to kill someone!" Kishin lunged and tried to stab Knoll.
"Here goes nothing!" Knoll said as he stopped running away and rushed right for Kishin.
Things seemed to slow down as Knoll held his bow like a staff and was able to knock the flat side of Kishin's blade. Continuing that momentum, Knoll spun toward Kishin and drop elbowed him in the stomach with his left arm. Kishin opened his mouth in pain, but Knoll knew this was his only chance to hit him. Knoll tightened his fist as hard as he could and threw a punch he was thought by Sully.
(Tighten fist. Keep thumb folded but not in fist…) Knoll's thoughts moved fast as his body moved slowly. (Twist your waist; don't use your shoulder…) Knoll let go of the bow with his right hand and started moving it towards Kishin. (Rotate fist...) Knoll stepped hard forward and caused the roof to break where he stepped. (…And give it your all!)
*BAM!*
The punch made contact.
Knoll followed through the motions and finished the punch. As he did, Kishin smashed downward through a house wall at incredible speed.
Knoll was gasping for breath. "*Huff* *Huff* I-I can't believe that worked! And that was the first time I used my Aura with my strength! …Dang! …... OMG, Did I kill him!?" Knoll realized and grabbed his head.
+I wouldn't worry about that. He is a demon after all. They should be harder to kill than humans.+
"Oh that's a rel- wait, what?!" Knoll asked.
+No time! Go to him quickly and put your necklace on him now! I'll explain later!+
Knoll didn't hesitate and did what Chronos told him. He saw Kishin under a few piles of rubble and quickly put his necklace around Kishin.
+Here I go.+
The necklace shined blue and Knoll covered his eyes. The light died down and Knoll didn't see much change.
+… Knoll, there is someone I'd like you to meet.+
"Huh?"
"You have my thanks, Restorer."
Knoll was surprised at the woman's voice. "V-Veyona?"
"No, my name is Necora. I am to Kishin just as Chronos is to you. I must thank you both for freeing me and my champion from his demonic self. This world had weakened me in way I didn't know, so I apologize for Kishin attacking you."
"I-it's fine." Knoll said scratching his head in confusion.
"Uuh…" Kishin moaned.
"Aah!" Knoll yelped.
"It's fine. He will not hurt you now."
Knoll was a bit hesitant but he saw Kishin wake up with red eyes and not black. Knoll exhaled and put his arm out to Kishin. "Need a hand?"
Kishin blinked a few more times before taking the hand. "Yeah, thanks…" Knoll helped Kishin up and Kishin cleaned the dust off of him. "So… that's some right arm you got there." Kishin smiled.
Knoll looked surprised. "I punched you through a wall with everything I had, and you just say nice punch!? … Could you tell me more about this demon business?"
+Oh, don't worry. I sealed away the pain onto the other persona. Kishin right now should be fit as a fiddle.+
"Sorry about some cuts and kicks a while back." Kishin said and he gave back Knoll's necklace.
"It's fine." Knoll said and took it back. "Just get the Keys ready."
"… Uhh…"
"…"
"…"
"OH COME ON!" Knoll screamed.
"I thought I had it while my other self was fighting you!" Kishin defended.
+Uh oh… You two, head to the beach now!+
Kishin and Knoll ran to the beach and saw something crazy.
"What the hell is that!?" Kishin yelled.
Knoll sarcastically screamed. "That, my friend, is the embodiment of hatred this world has for people not of this world!"
"Gah!" Thomas grunted as he was kicked by Phase in the chest.
"You OK?" Wystan said as he quickly helped him up.
"Ugh! I forgot how hard sword fighting was." Thomas said. "We still in a small fighting space, so it's hard to activate magic while Magus is taking up most of the space in this battlefield!"
"Hey!" Donakn said as he tried to keep Primal off of him. "A little help here!?"
Thomas and Wystan tried to get to Donkan, but Phase flipped over them and stood between them. "Where do you think you two are going?" Phase pointed his Levi blade (Which didn't shoot thunder right now). Phase then took out a whip and cracked the air. "I probably shouldn't had held this back at Water Town."
"A whip and sword?! The heck is wrong with this world!?" Thomas complained as he readied himself. Phase then charged at both him and Wystan.
*Boom!*
Alice was smashed through a house.
"Alice!" Rei said, but she had to surprisingly face against Arcane.
Despite being a sage himself, and being unable to use magic, Arcane was amazingly fluid in close combat. Especially with his own custom weapons: metal gauntlet claws. Arcane fought like a beast. He kept trying to slash Rei and forced her to continue being on the defensive. What was worse was that he was moving in a completely different way than most styles of fighting go, so Rei had a harder time keeping up with him.
Rei tried to stab Arcane, but he blocked with it with one hand. He quickly moved his hands and locked the sword with his claws. Rei tried to pull her blade out, but she couldn't; Arcane suddenly moved forward and started pushing Rei back. He rammed her to a wall and he was about to slash her.
"HA!"
Arcane looked over and saw a hand axe coming his way. He quickly knocked it away, but Rei saw an opening and quickly slashed at Arcane. Arcane quickly jumped back and avoided it.
Ana and Charles quickly came over to Rei. "Thanks." Rei said.
"Umm… I actually need your help!" Ana said that and she pointed behind her.
Rei looked over and saw Splice slowly walking towards them. She simply smiled among the dark skies, burning fire, and moaning of the nearby Risen. Her eyes seemed to unblinkingly fall on the two girls.
"~The swan princess lost her love, and now her luck is buuuuusted!~" Splice sang darkly. "~She looks so sad beside the lake, her wedding ring a'rusted…~ She spins her axe quickly before quickly running up to the two.
"I can't fight her alone!" Ana complained as she readied an axe she picked from one of the Risen.
"I don't want to fight her at all!" Shouted Rei as she and Ana prepared for one heck of a brawl.
Even with all the fighting, someone was bored out of their skull.
"*Sigh* I thought for sure I would get to kill that Kishin man this time…" Gamble said as he sat on top of a pinned down Risen.
"Grrahh…" The Risen was still alive, but Gamble pinned down all of its limbs with random Risen blades.
"Yeah, I know that there are enough people here for us to fight. Phase is fighting a 2 on 1, but I just think it's not as fun." Gamble responded thinking that the Risen was talking to him.
"Grr…"
Gamble looks over to a distance and stands up. "Hmm? This might be interesting after all… thanks for listening by the way." Gamble said as he stood up from the Risen. He quickly looked to Magus and screamed, "Magus! Incoming magic blast!"
Magus looked over to and saw a large gust of wind heading towards their direction. Magus stopped fighting Alice and jumped in front of the attack. With that, the gust of wind faded immediately to a soft breeze.
This distraction allowed the Heroes to regroup with each other and the Assassins to regroup with Magus.
"WHO DARES?" Magus asked as he focused on the direction of where the magic blast came from.
"Hold you people of destruction!" A very loud voice screams in the distance.
"...No… it can't be…" Ana said and Chrales snarled.
"Ana?" Rei asked and looked to her.
A loud horse is heard and people see a figure in the distance. Some kind of dark knight is seen in the distance.
"Behold foolish warriors! I am Norman, of the Magi Knights! Know that this day my words and blade shall cleanse your souls!" The man named Norman said.
"Hey… Thomas, he kinda looks like you." Wystan noted.
"Only when he screams, it's annoying rather than helpful." Donkan commented.
"Oh gods it is him…" Ana said rather depressed to which every hero looked at her.
"ANA?" Alice asked.
"You know him?" Thomas asked.
"…Just… watch…" She said.
They all turned to their attention to Norman who blasted a powerful thunder magic from a fairly long range. The thunder magic harmlessly faded before even getting spitting distance to Magus.
"Huh?" Norman tilted his head. "Am I out of range?"
"I DON'T LIKE EXPLAINING MY ABILITIES WHENEVER I SEE SOMEONE NEW." Magus said.
"Bah whateves." Norman said as he took out both his wind and thunder tome. "Prepare yourselves! Thoron!" Norman aimed his spell at a house this time and a huge chunk of the house blew up.
Everyone was surprised. "What's he-" Wystan tried to ask.
Norman quickly readied his wind tome. Soon, burning debris was falling on top of him. He pointed his hand to the sky and then to the Assassins. "Archwind!" A powerful gust blew from where Norman was and the debris falling over him was caught in the wind and went flying towards the Assassins!
"!?" Magus acted fast and spewed his own magic blast at the flying debris.
*Boom!*
Magus' blast combined with the debris and brunt rocks hailed from the sky.
Alice quickly spread her wings and prevented the rocks from hitting the heroes.
"Woo! That was creative." Gamble said. "Hey Magus, you don't mind if I take him on do ya?"
"BE CAREFUL. THAT MOVE JUST NOW…"
"Yeah, yeah- …?" Gamble started walking forward, but out of the explosion of the smoke he heard something.
*Neigh!*
Gamble quickly drew his double blade and side dashed to his right. Norman and his horse jumped out of the smoke and forced the Assassins to all break up and avoid him.
Norman came over to the heroes and smirked at Ana.
"Sup, Ant?"
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Ana screamed. Everyone was rather surprised to hear Ana's nickname to be referred to as an ant.
(Huh… that kind of fits…) the heroes hid this thought in the back of their minds but…
(OUR MINDS ARE STILL LINKED, REMEMBER!?) Ana screamed in all of their heads.
"How did you get here, Norman?" Ana asked hostile like.
"Dunno, who cares? I'm the main hero wherever I go." Norman said like a snob.
"Such a humble attitude you got there." Donkan sarcastically noted.
Norman glared at him and Donkan the same before Alice suddenly screamed.
"LOOK OUT!" Alice quickly blasted at an attack from Magus and another explosion happened.
*Boom!*
"Right… them…" Thomas said after the blast. "Everyone group up! We need to-"
"Just fight them head on." Norman interrupted.
"Are you crazy!?" Wystan screamed. "We can't fight them head on!"
"Pfft… maybe you dorks can't, but these guys are easy pickings!" Norman boasted.
"Then go right ahead then. Kill yourself like bait so our friends can actually think of a better plan to beat these guys." Donkan said flatly.
Norman glared at Donkan again. "Don't underestimate me… buddy…"
"Oh please, a chump like you would just get in our way." Donkan replied coldly.
"I think their fighting amongst themselves." Phase noted from afar.
"Then that just makes this way too easy." Gamble said.
"We need to hurry and kill these guys. They might have our key that they stole." Phase said.
"Your group had a key?" Arcane asked.
"WE DID BUT WE LOST IT EARLIER THIS NIGHT. SINCE THESE PEOPLE WERE THE ONLY ONES WHO KNEW OF THE KEYS, BESIDES US, THAT MAKES THEM THE ONLY SUSPECTS TO TAKE IT." Maugs said as he started stepping forward to the heroes.
"They also should have the Earth key then." Arcane added in.
"OTHER WORLDERS! WE WILL GIVE YOU ONE LAST CHANCE TO GIVE US THE TWO KEYS IN YOUR POSSESSION, OR SUFFER OUR WRATH!" Magus roared.
"Great, they think we have the keys." Thomas said.
"Rei? Thomas? Do you two have any more plans?" Ana asked.
Before the two could answer, another loud noise came from behind the Assassins.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Everyone looked behind them again and saw two familiar looking figures.
"Knoll!/KNOLL!" Alice, Ana, and Wystan screamed while Thomas, Donkan, and Rei screamed, "Kishin!" at the same time. The latter group looked over and asked. "Knoll?"
They saw the two guys frantically running to them all.
"HA!" Gamble cried out in joy. "Kishin! This time-"
But Kishin and Knoll quickly ran past him and the Assassins.
As they came close to the heroes, Knoll seemed to eye Norman.
"AH! Marvo!" Knoll jumped and quickly punched Norman in the face and knocked him out cold and off of his horse.
"… I think I'm going to like this guy." Donkan said with a grin on his face.
Knoll quickly took a look at the guy on the floor and panicked. "Oops! I thought it was Marvo! I'm so sorry dude!" Knoll apologized.
"No, you actually helped us a bit. Thanks." Thomas said and reached out his hand.
Knoll looked at him for a second and asked. "Lucile? Is that you?"
"Huh? No! My name is Thomas." Thomas said.
*NEIGH!*
The Heroes looked over with Norman's Horse looking mad at Knoll.
"Uh oh!" Ana cried. "Satin doesn't like it when someone hurts Norman!"
Before Satin, the horse, could do anything, a white wolf appeared quickly between Satin and Knoll.
"Whoa!" Donkan, Rei, Kishin and Thomas were taken back by the fierce looking creature.
"Streaky!" Knoll said and came closer to the wolf. Streaky looked back at her friend with a smile before facing Satin with a fierce look.
"*GROWL!*" Streaky then forced Satin to calm down.
"A wolf and blue armor… isn't that Knoll of the Shepherds?" Arcane asked recognizing the rumors.
"Shepherd?!" Both Thomas and Donkan looked to Knoll with surprised faces.
Knoll snapped back and remembered something, "AHH! Right! You guys have to run! Follow Kishin and I!" Knoll started running.
"Wait up!" Kishin said quickly as he followed Knoll and Streaky.
"Whoa! Wait!" Thomas screamed. "Kishin, what about the Key!? And what are you two running away from!?"
"BBBBBBAAAAAARRRRRRGGGG!"
Everyone looked back and had their eyes widen in awe and horror.
On the far end of the road were three two-story-high Golems! One Golem made out of nothing boulders, one made of pure water, and one made up entirely of wind! And they all had three eyes of the same color of their element!
"What on earth is th-" Phase tried to ask.
"GYAHHHHAAAARA!" The three Golems suddenly started moving. The Wind Golem flew towards them with great speed, the water one shot up and rushed toward them like a stream of water, and the earth one leaned forward and slid on the ground like it was on skates.
"OK! I see what they were running from!" Wystan cried as he and the rest of the heroes ran after Kishin and Knoll.
Satin, the horse, quickly picked up Norman and followed the heroes.
"EVASIVE MANEUVERS!" Magus screamed as he jumped high out of the way of the three unknown beings. The Assassins all got out of the way of the Golems and saw the three of them go after the heroes.
"What the hell were those things!?" Gamble asked as he and half of the Assassins were on a roof.
Magus turned back to normal and looked to the direction the Golems and the heroes went. "… Everyone, we're leaving."
"Alright, but care to explain why?" Primal asked as all of them jumped off the roofs and went closer to Magus.
"I'm not risking our lives fighting strange unknown creatures. We can search for the keys later if those people survive, which is very likely considering their resourcefulness so far. We will go ahead to the last town, Fire Village, and set a trap for them there. Then we can have all of the keys and head back to the Benefactor."
"Seems good, but the trap is to be actually thought off when we get there… isn't it?" Phase said.
"It's good to know the area before our enemies do. Move out." Magus said and the Assassins all started leaving town fast.
"What the heck are those things!?" Wystan screamed as all the heroes caught up with Kishin and Knoll.
"Those things are the Keys! Even the Wind Key!" Kishin screamed.
"WHAT!?" Everyone else screamed.
"Would you guys believe that the four guardians put a fail safe on the Keys if they were ever attempted to be brought together?!" Knoll screams.
"Fail safe?!" Thomas asked.
"Allow me to explain: Chronos here explained that the magic on the keys have a unique seal on them. Their activation attracted the Risen to this town and now the keys are aiming for us because they think we were the ones trying to undo the seal!" Necora said.
"Necora!? Wait, who's Chronos!?" Thomas yelled.
+That would be me. Now hurry up and run to the forest!+
Thomas, Rei, and Donkan seemed surprised with another new voice in their heads and questioned whether or not they were slowly losing it.
They all got out of the town and into a forest clearing and faced behind them. The three Key Golems were closing in fast.
"Uhh… Rei? Thomas!? Any plans!?" Ana asked.
"This is out of our jurisdiction!" Rei said.
+I have a plan on how to undo the seal, but I need a few minutes! Hold them off until then!+
Knoll activated his aura and everyone quickly felt the difference.
"Whoa! What just happened?!" Rei asked.
"It's an ability I have! But focus on the charging living boulders coming our way!" Knoll screamed.
The Earth Golem charged right for the heroes, but Alice came forward and tackled the Golem back. Though, everyone was surprised to see the Golem stop Alice and lift her over itself.
"Move!" Kishin screamed and the heroes split up. The Golem threw Alice right back at where the group used to be. *Boom!*
"Alice!" Rei screamed and took out her bow. "Hey Knoll! Help cover fire!"
Knoll looked at her sheepishly. "Uh… I don't have a quiver?"
"What!?" She screamed.
"Look out!" Knoll tackled Rei and avoided a large water tentacle from slamming them down.
"Wystan! We have magic now! Blast those things!" Thomas said as he took out his tome and blasted wind magic at the Earth/Boulder Golem! … Only for it to miss completely and be absorbed by the Wind Golem. "You've got to be kidding me!" Thomas yelled as he and Wystan were separated by a wind cut from the wind being.
Wystan rolled over and took out his light tome. "Ha! I don't see a light Golem here to absorb my magic!" Wystan fired a light blast at the Water Golem, who evaded it by opening up its body and the blast hitting the background behind the Golem. "We need a new plan!" Wystan yelled.
"I've never had to deal with magic Golems!" Thomas screamed.
Kishin and Donkan rushed up to the Earth Golem. They both tried to slash the legs of the creature.
*Clang!*
Despite both of them having powerful blades, they only scratched the monster. The Golem slammed its fist on the ground and caused a powerful shock wave.
"Ugh! Thomas any ideas on your end!?" Rei asked. Everyone then grouped up together and face the three Golems.
"Chronos!? Now would be a great time to do what you said you would!" Knoll screamed.
+I'm sorry! It's more complex than I originally thought! Hold for a few more minutes!+
Thomas yelled. "Fred!? Anyone else!? Can't you help him or something!?"
"Sorry! Chronos is the only one here that can go better in Magic Nexus-Gah! Basically he is the only Magic Scientist here! Everyone else here has a different expertise that doesn't help here!"
Knoll quickly took at everyone around him. He noticed Satin with Norman unconscious. Nroman was holding his two tomes out and Knoll's head quickly started cranking.
"! Guys! I have a plan! Streaky!" Knoll screamed and quickly ran over to Satin.
*Neigh!* The horse seemed hostile to Knoll, but Streaky quickly silenced her. Knoll quickly took both tomes from Norman. "Thomas, catch!" Knoll tossed over the thunder tome to Thomas.
"What are you doing? Magic doesn't work!" Wystan screamed.
"Magic didn't work because you guys didn't aim properly!" Knoll said and quickly pointed to the creatures. "Move!"
They all split up again. A boulder came in that almost crushed the group.
"Alice! Ana! Distract them!" Knoll shouted above. "Wystan! Thomas! You two are going to be our big guns in this!"
Rei and Thomas seemed to have their eyes widen and they both looked to the Golems and the tome Thomas was holding.
Thomas seemed to get what Knoll was thinking. "Whoa?! Wait are you-"
"No time!" Knoll said. "Rei, Donkan, Streaky, and Kishin! Help Ana and Alice distract those things!" The four nodded and charged in. Knoll looked to the remaining two. "Wystan, this time, you aim for the Earth Golem. Thomas, with that tome, you aim for the Wind Golem. I need to stand close to both of you. My ability allows an increase in your battle efficiency, even your magic. We need every boost we can get."
{Wait! I think we can do better! Alice! Come back to these three!}
Alice quickly flew over and landed behind the three. "WHAT DO YOU NEED, VEYONA?"
"Veyona! That's brilliant! Knoll, if you ride on Alice, your power boost ability will increase!"
"What?!" Knoll asked.
"Even I know this! Dragons, especially Divine dragons like Alice, have a powerful life force. We can't go into the detail of how your boost seems to work by energy, but we can say that direct contact with Alice's essence will super charge that ability!"
"I'm still confused as all heck to what we're doing!" Wystan cried.
"I'll explain later!" Knoll said. "Climb up on Alice!"
The three did and Alice flew up.
"Guys get out of the way!" Knoll screamed and the others backed away greatly from the three beings.
"NOW!" Knoll screamed and activated his aura.
With an insane power boost, Thomas fired a powerful lightning bolt at the Wind Golem, Wystan let loose a bright and powerful beam of light at the Earth Golem, and Alice blasted the Water Golem with a huge fire breath.
*BOOOOOMMMM!*
A large explosion followed with the entire forest being almost blown away from the force of the three blasts. The after math showed a burned crater to where all three Golems once were.
"Oh gods that worked!" Thomas said and they all got down.
"That was insane!" Ana screamed as they all came together. Alice turned back to normal and was picked up by Rei.
"Dude! That plan was crazy!" Wystan said as he lightly punched Knoll in the shoulder.
"I admit." Thomas said. "I was too busy thinking of tactics, I forgot about noticing which elements where which."
"Yeah… Pokémon did teach me that." Knoll said and then realized what he just said.
"Pokémon?!" Thomas yelled and Donkan's eyes widen. "You know about Pokémon?!"
Knoll just smiles and looks at the two reactions. "Oh! You two are from Earth as well?"
"Earth!? You're from Earth!?" Donkan screamed.
"Bu- then- when did- you- Huh?!" Thomas stammered in surprised.
"It's a long story." Knoll said. "But… hey… isn't the wind kind a strong now?"
Everyone did notice the wind seeming to pick up pace as it got stronger… then even stronger!
"What's going on now!?" Kishin asked.
Everyone looked and saw boulders and bits of water all gathering up at the three craters.
"NO! GODS DANG IT, NO!" Donkan screamed out loud as they all saw the three Golems regenerating!
"They were all blasted into nothingness!" Rei said. "How are they still like that!?"
The winds stopped and the three golems looked towards the heroes who tightened up.
"GRAYAAAARAG!" they all roared at them.
"What do we do now!?" Alice screamed afraid.
+Don't worry. You all bought me enough time.+
A blue light shined from Knoll's necklace. Everyone covered their eyes at the flash. When it died down, everyone stepped back at what they saw.
A giant blue snake made of energy faced all three Golems.
+This time… I fight.+
"What the heck is that!?" Kishin screamed.
"That's my friend Chronos!" Knoll cheered. "But we all better stand back!" He said and he and Streaky ran back. Everyone else followed him.
"That giant snake is Chronos!?" Donkan asked.
"Yeah! Of course! What, did you think he was human or something?" Knoll said.
"Whoa! Look!" Alice pointed to the fight.
Everyone didn't expect this: Chronos was weaving around each attack of all three Golems. True to being snake-like, Chronos ducked and weaved to avoid all attacks. Chronos' tail grabbed one the Earth Golems' leg and a magic circle appeared on it. Chronos then swung his tail hard and lifted the Golem off the ground it was connected to! Chronos quickly slammed the other two Golems with the Earth Golem and forced all three of them to crash into each other out of the crater.
The Golems quickly tried to regroup and attack Chronos. The Wind Golem sent a large barrage of wind slashes to Chronos, but Chronos avoided them all. And the heroes saw each wind slash cleanly cut a good amount of trees behind Chronos. Chronos then froze one wind slashes and sent it back right to the Wind Golem!
The Water Golem tried to stretch a water tentacle to Chronos; all Chronos did to retaliate was smack the tentacle away with his tail and slammed the Water Golem with that tail of his.
Then finally, the Earth Golem charge at Chronos. Chronos charged in as well and quickly wrapped itself completely over the Golem and constricted it. Chronos quickly jumped up and unwrapped himself in a snap! The Golem was left spinning incredibly fast and fell hard back onto the ground! *Boom!*
"Whoa…" Everyone said as they saw Chronos easily defeat all three of the Golems.
From the sky, Chronos suddenly grew in size and he quickly circled all three Golems. As he did, a magic circle appeared under the three. It shined bright blue then quickly trapped all of them. When Chronos stopped circling around them, the three Goelms where in the air, each trapped in some magic bubble.
+Veyona! Necora! I need your help in this part!+
Chronos said and looked back to the heroes. Veyona and Necora both appeared beside Chronos and they pointed to each of the Golems. (Chronos was using his tail to point).
A line traced from each of the bubbles. Veyona to the Wind Golem, Necora to the Earth Golem, and Chronos to the Water Golem. The three of them pulled hard on the lines and the Golems suddenly exploded from within bubbles. And the magic faded away into the sky.
[End Music]
The heroes slowly walked to the three after seeing the Golems gone.
"Is-is it over?" Wystan asked.
+Yes… yes it's finally over. Knoll, come here for a sec.+
Knoll walked over to Chronos. Chronos took out his tail and slowly put it in front of Knoll. Knoll put out his hand and Chronos dropped something on it.
"Hey! This is the Water Key!" Knoll said as he held the blue key.
"Kishin?"
{Yohoo! Wystan!}
Necora and Veyona called their friend over and gave them the Earth Key for Kishin and the Wind Key for Wystan.
"The Keys?" Kishin said.
In a bright flash of light from Knoll's necklace, Chronos went back in. Veyona and Necora then faded back away.
+And now, we have three of the four keys.+
"OK…" Knoll said as he looked to everyone. "I guess this would be the time we all start explaining now huh?"
Everyone nods their heads like crazy.
"Hmm…" Knoll rubs his chin and looks to the distance. He then looks at the keys. "We have to hurry to Fire Village first! I'll explain all of these things on the way! Hurry! I think the Syndicate might be ahead of us!" Knoll quickly ran in a direction and took out a map. Streaky followed him shortly.
"… Fine! At least we'll finally get some answers!" Thomas yelled as he went after Knoll.
Soon everyone followed the strange blue armored boy.
From one glance of this large group of people…
You could tell they were made to do the impossible.
And the Dream Team has finally assembled!
Woo! It's always so fun to write this stuff! Really hope you all enjoyed it!
A new note is that I have reached over 200,000 words! WHOA!
To the story:
HA! Knoll does know martial arts now! (Or basics from before). I Told you I would incorporate some real martial art forms!
Yeah… I kinda skimmed over it, but Kishin is supposed to be an actual demon. In his world demons like him are the answer to manatakes under Naga. Which sounds interesting. (rdfalcon560)
In one part of the fight, I had Splice sing a song. Do any of you recognize what it is?
It's a song from Donnel and Olivia's support! I thought I would have her sing actual folklore song from her world in a creepy, dark, and sadistic manner…
I never got to explain properly in the story but let me try here.
The Keys have been imbued with a special fail safe magic that allows them to transform. First: their power calls out to the other keys nearest to them and their form of magnet attracts the Risen.
If a Risen (Or even human for that matter) ever picks up a key during this state, they will be possessed and be told to bring the key to the other key(s). Like as you saw when a Risen had the Earth Key.
When the keys are together, they will start reacting to each other and unlock the second phase of the seal where they start to get animated. The keys will slip out of anyone who holds two or more of the keys (In this case evil Kishin) and start to gather in their respective elements.
The third and final phase is when they are done and become Guardian Golems and attack whoever touched the keys last. (Kishin again. Which is why these three ignored the Assassins and went after the heroes.)
And into this a bit more: Yeah, I made Chronos a fighter!
I bet many people really don't expect someone like Chronos to directly intervene in something like this right? WRONG-O-MUNDO!
Chronos came to this world realizing that he may have to use force in expelling the foreign force. He's not afraid to face anything that is threatening the time line. So you can count on him when things get hairy. (But only when things get hairy.) Anything not related to threatening the time line are things that Chronos avoids almost completely.
Believe it or not, you can expect some crazy fights with Chronos in the future as he and Knoll get closer to The Interferer.
Norman is technically Ana's "Antagonist" but he is actually an Anti-hero. Not really a villain. I was kinda given permission to do as I please with him as long as he character fits... seems OK... (He's from Pikapikaluv)
One last thing was with Alice amplifying Knoll's Aura.
Here was how I saw it; a little while back, after the event with Metus, Chronos explained that Manatakes have a strong life force. In a sense, Knoll's power increases everyone's stats by empowering life force to an extent. Therefore, adding a strong and pure life force like Alice's unto Knoll's boost increased it tenfold. From something like a 10-15 percent increase in everything to 100-150% increase. And it was properly transferred with direct contact. (thus the ride).
Yeah… sometimes I like the crazy details some Animes have… but I don't like it when they explain it during the fight! *Glares at a specific story forever unknown to audience.*
But I've finally covered the notes for this and I can't wait to get started on Fire Village!
Quit, don't quit? Noodles, don't noodles? You are too concerned about what was and what will be. There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the "present."
- Oogway, From Dreamwork's Kung Fu Panda.
Hope you enjoyed this, thank you for your time/Please review!
The scene is set near a cave.
*BOOM!*
The cave explodes and three people come out of the explosion.
"Good work, Jewel and Mule, But now we move out."
Both Mule and Jewel bow down and follow their leader.
"Yes, Benefactor."