Chapter 37: On the Path
THERE WAS A CHAPTER REPLACED BEFORE THIS, SO MAKE SURE YOU READ IT BEFORE OR THIS WON'T MAKE SENSE.
Immediately, half of the warriors lunged forward at him. Jumping into the sky, he destroyed three of the ones who attacked from above before performing a downward stab into the middle of the group, Quilava took out almost all of them by combining the stab with his fire abilities.
There were only five of the warriors left. Three of them formed a triangle around Quilava, but before they could do anything, Quilava held his sword out in front of him and started spinning quickly in a circle until a gale formed around him. Once he reached the maximum power for the tornado, he let go of his sword, aiming at the far left warrior. He dodged the projectile, but the two shadows watching in the background were taken out before the sword wedged itself in the far wall.
With only three of the phantoms left, Quilava shone red before two clones of himself, each with only one sword, appeared. The last three phantoms all charged at a different version of him. The one on the left took a large horizontal slice at the clone of Quilava, but he fell back on the ground and used his legs to send him soaring into the air before slashing him twice before he fell onto the ground head first, defeated. The second shadow was fighting the second clone, and he was using a sword as well. They exchanged blows over and over before the phantom managed to get a light kick in on Quilava. He slid back a few inches before standing back up to full height. Sheathing his sword, he smirked evilly at the phantom. Grunting, the shadow charged at him and started to perform a vertical slash. Quilava bent over, his back touching the floor before he reached forward and grabbed the sword with his bare hands. Caught off guard, the phantom relaxed his grip long enough for Quilava to twist the sword into his own hands and impale the shadow, defeating him.
By now, the final shadow was completely defenseless. Quilava started lightly stabbing him over his body. As he continued, the power of each hit grew stronger and stronger. After nineteen constitutive hits, the phantom had been completely paralyzed as Quilava charged his sword in red flame and swung in a home-run fashion, sending the last enemy soaring into the sky. The barrier surrounding Quilava disappeared. "Pathetic." After Quilava pulled his other sword out of the wall, he fused back together with his clones and ran back to the main area.
Rio reached the end of his hallway and saw a gigantic puzzle with a switch at the very end. As he tried to press the switch, an electric barrier formed around the puzzle, except at the very front of the start. Looking through the maze to find the pattern, Rio launched an Aura Sphere and used his aura to guide it through the puzzle to hit the switch. The barrier faded. "That was way too easy." Rio said as he ran back.
Bryce ran to the end of his hallway, where the path curved to the right with a wall that looked as if it would lower. Bryce looked to the side of the hall and saw symbols of wind, fire, and dark. He touched the fire icon and it faded away, leaving a fire spell in its stead. The wall also lowered, showing targets moving horizontally behind a wall of water moving the other direction, with small square patches with no water. Studying the wall for a few seconds, Bryce started launching fireballs at the targets. Most of the targets were destroyed, however, the final one didn't break even though the projectile was a clean hit. Bryce closed his eyes before holding his hands up and drawing slow circles before stepping back while spinning once before launching another fireball, which this time not only destroyed the target, but sent up a small wall of flame. Bryce looked at his handiwork.
"Nice."
Weapon Level Up: Fire: E-D. Elfire is now available!
The fire tome vanished from his hand just like the thunder tome did. A target appeared beside where the books were. Bryce slammed the button with his fist, completing his challenge. He started to run back, but then returned. "Hmm…" Pressing the buttons for the wind and dark tomes, they both appeared. Taking both and storing them, he ran back to his team.
Grovyle had long since gotten started on his challenge. After wall jumping as best he could, he could see the button within reach, but in his way was a small balance beam. He started to quickly walk along it, but as he reached the halfway mark, several of the well-hidden lasers started firing upon him. Grovyle quickly did a hand spring, narrowly avoiding the two machines. As he landed a few feet in front of the button, the lasers tried one last barrage, but this time he was ready for them as he switched quickly to holding himself with his hands as his foot spun quickly, flashing with a metal like gleam. Both shots were deflected and rebounded upon the machines, destroying them as Grovyle pressed the button, jumping back down and leaving the area.
Haunter floated slowly through the hallway. The button was in plain sight, however he could clearly see the entire hall was booby-trapped. As he reached the three quarter mark, the floor gave way and revealed a pit of spikes. Haunter laughed. "What idiot designed this? As if a ground obstacle could hurt me." No sooner had he finished saying this, a fan from above sent a huge gale in his direction. "Oh…well, crap.(1)"
After barely managing to escape the blast, a magnet came forth from the side wall, jerking away all of Haunter's knives, chain, and any other gear he had, even if it wasn't magnetized.
"Okay, seriously, WHAT is going on." He sighed. He then noticed a blue barrier formed behind him as a red and blue phantom appeared in front of him. Glancing back at the barrier, he smirked, disappearing into the floor. Confused, the phantoms looked around before the red one let out a cry and his eyes turned an evil red. (2)
The blue phantom, realizing what happened, charged his blade and sliced his now lost companion straight in two. Sadly for him, Haunter left his body just before the impact. Once again, Haunter disappeared and reappeared in front of the barrier. "Bring it on." He smirked. Now that the blue specter felt like a fool, he let out a massive battle cry and charged with all of his might at Haunter. Haunter laughed and disappeared a final time, sending the blue idiot into the barrier, instantly beating him. "Moron." Haunter chuckled as he pressed the final button.
As everyone met up, the door with the Δ logo opened and another onslaught of enemies appeared. The all charged with malice in their souls, fighting for their departed comrades.
Three minutes later…
The final phantom hit the ground hard as he disappeared in a smoke. No sooner had he been vanquished did the FINAL doorway open. "Let's go." Rio said. The rest of the group nodded, and they all stepped through the doorway.
As everyone reached the final hallway, the door closed behind them and a massive timer at the end of the hallway appeared, and two barriers blocked their path. They ran to the first one, which was a light barrier. Bryce pulled out the dark tome and began to feel its power. The darkness appeared as a blob before sinking into the floor and rising up in a wall of its own before it consumed the light, breaking barrier number one. The dark tome faded as the second area revealed itself. The key was on the other side of the area behind a massive lava pit. "Does anyone have a key that looks like that lock?" Rio asked.
"Right here." Quilava said, brandishing his sword.
"I've got an idea. Quilava, throw your sword into the air. Grovyle, if you can time a kick correctly, then you should be able to send it into the lock."
Quilava threw the sword as high as it would go as Grovyle took up a fighting stance and prepared. Right as the sword got near him, it gleamed. Grovyle smirked, giving the sword a powerful kick from the pommel on the edge of the hilt, sending the sword skyrocketing straight into the lock, closing up the lava trap and breaking the second barrier. As they reached the door at the very end, the last part of the hall rose up and barriers formed, preventing the team from working together. "What a pathetic trick." Haunter said as he floated up to the top. Bryce used the wind spell, levitating himself to the top as well. Quilava backed up slightly and quickly sprinted his way up the wall. Rio and Grovyle simply wall jumped their way up as they finished the stage.
Don't worry, there's not a lot of swearing in this story. It's not very common, so don't worry if you're not too comfortable with it.
Haunter possessed him. Duh. :P
Author's Notes: Okay, hopefully you got my note at the beginning of this and read through it and all. So, about what I want you guys to comment on:
I know for a fact there will be one other training mission, but how much of the training practices and actual missions do you want? The way I'm taking this story, the ACTUAL plot could start 2 chapters from now. Not kidding. HOWEVER, I am more than willing to take time to talk about the development of the powers for everyone and more teamwork concepts (and if you have ideas for attacks/techniques, then by all means tell me, but message it to me so you don't give it away for others)
I'm still not 100% on Haunter's character development. I've got a good idea, but more thoughts are still welcome (and now you have a little more idea of what he's about).
Is there any way to tell how many people have followed your story? I know at a certain mark in both the story and the amount of readers, I'd like to have a poll or two.
If you have any titles about training that you find witty or funny, please send them. I'm at a loss currently :P
I guess that's about it. So…will the rest of the training go as smoothly? Are any of the new recruits holding a dark secret? What awaits our heroes in the future? Find out…in the next chapter.
Read and Review, and once again, thank you ALL for your support :)
-DeltaViolet21