It's the freakin' FIFTY-FIRST CHAPTER! W00TAGE! I wonder if we'll get to one hundred…
Kendal: NOOO!!
Others: NOOOOO!!
Me: WHAT!
Others: MORE ABUSE??
Me: WHAT!
Sheena: Stop repeating, say something original for once!
Me: Okay… WTF??
Sheena: Okay, same thing pretty much-
Me: WASN'T THIS ABOUT ORIGINALITY AND THE DEATH OF REPETITION??
Everybody: NOW IT IS!
Me: BUNSHIN NO JUTSU! (ten thousand clones of me start the mauling)
Disclaimer: Yes, I don't own. Obviously. How does a thirteen year old own anything like Tales of Symphonia? A copy, maybe, but rights to the game? Heck no. /rant
Yuan never heard the door open.
Mainly because of all the noise from battle and spells, also because the doors were pneumatic and therefore nothing more than a pretty faint hissing could be heard.
Well, if he had looked, he would have only seen a brown-haired kid dressed in a matching brown no-sleeves and long, rough brown trousers complete with boots. And a rather intimidating blade on his back that jutted over his right shoulder.
But no, Yuan didn't see him- He was busy grunting from the recoil of blocking a Beast from Lloyd. Not that anyone could block it and get away with it, obviously.
The next moment, however, something- Or somebody- Slammed into him in a shoulder tackle so hard and fast that the next thing you knew, Yuan was five feet up in the air. And that didn't stop there. From his point of view, someone had become a rather violent (And effective) battering ram- But who? The question was instantly dispersed when someone jumped up with him, getting behind him as his back faced the floor, and landed two vicious kicks on his sides by twisting his body to the left and the right with both feet- that drove the air right out of his mouth, even though he was breathing in at the moment.
As Yuan fell, he was slammed upwards by a flat-palmed shove that immediately turned into an axe kick, as his new assailant jumped higher than him and slammed his foot down. All Yuan saw was a brown foot, and then he crashed into the metal floor.
And even though every part of his brain was telling him so, Yuan couldn't believe that no weapons were used. Just a pair of worn-out boots. And seemingly-superhuman powered legs.
Lloyd knew who it was. He just didn't realize that a certain rogue's recent feat was only possible through rage. A huge amount of it, to be exact.
VWVWVWVWV
An explanation, you say?
When I first entered, I was nowhere near prepared for what I saw.
I saw nine figures. Seven, I knew. Well, eight, really. That odd one out was a spiky-haired guy with brown hair, just like mine, except his was in two spikes. Weird- Did it defy gravity or something?
But to say the least, there was one more figure, who happened to be rather conspicuous anyway. That's because of a head full of blue hair- Who has blue hair these days, anyway?
To the point- Something sparked in me when I saw him. A rush of images blasted by me head at a rapid-fire pace. Him punching me when I was only fourteen. Him spitting on the very best of me friends in somewhere that only me and he knew. A sneering figure batting away… something. A cleaver that seemed precious to me…
Okay, yes. My memories were incomplete. Not from time. From trauma. Or maybe something else- My memories were perfectly split among certain lines that I'd not discuss right now.
But it was enough to set of a chain reaction that smashed the dam to the other side, the side that always craved the violent way to do things. A torrent of anger blasted through my head, as my pupils sudden dilated. Okay, yes. To say the lest, I was throwing of fit.
Okay, nothing like the childish like tantrum I'd thrown back in the temple of lightning. This time, it wouldn't be anything like "I AM GOING TO KILL YOU IN A FREAKIN' SUPER BLOODY WAY!" or anything like that. I'd roar a battle cry, then settle back into a super-efficient routine of slashing, stabbing, ripping, ect- Well, just generally making things bloody. All for the sake of vengeance for the worst adolescence ever.
I then went silent and dug in my heels into the metal floor, feeling it protest. And then...
I was only a blur as I propelled myself with a force equal to the terminal velocity at three Gs. My legs hurt like hell the next moment, but now and then, I didn't give a damn to the world, only caring about whether I killed someone I happened to hate.
The shoulder tackle hit Yuan right on the soulder, sending him some five feet into the air. I dived low, shadowing him, and then blasted upwards, his back facing my front.
I swung my right leg first, slamming his side, and then my left, with another kick. If it hadn't been flesh that I was hitting, then something would have shattered or at the very least dislocated something. Because my effort to shadow Yuan had blasted me at a greater velocity than dear Yuan himself and now that he was stopped from the kicks I'd delivered, he started falling.
He might still be going forward, but I was going to overshoot him by at a mile. So, I slammed my gauntlet straight into the metal ground.
It went straight through it, pulled my elbow straight of my socket- And slowing my down to a dead stop. As Yuan came down, my right arm, miraculously still able to move despite the dislocation of my elbow, came up with my left and slammed Yuan back up.
It had the effect of propelling Yuan up again, but also now my elbow, with a loud pop, came back into the socket with a shudder. As he started right back up, I rolled to the side, and jumped up at him as he reached the apex of his rise, which to say the least was at least ten feet in the air.
And then, the axe kick. A smashing maneuver the caught him in the chest and sent him crashing into the ground, leaving a rather obvious dent there. As I came down, though...
I came down like a rocket. With, pun intended, a Blade Rocket.
Spinning like a crazed upside-down top, which I became at that very moment, I slammed down just to the right of Yuan's mangled chest and therefore he got the worst of the spinning, rapidly expanding and very sharp vortex that had formed. Ignoring the fact I'd done it in close proximity to the others, who managed to put up there defensive techniques just in time to stop themselves from being cut up with violence, I skipped back as a panicked Botta sprung a hasty Stone Blast on me.
The one with the gravity-defying hairdo was now on my hit list, as in the top of it. No mercy.
VWVWVWVWV
Lloyd, bringing down his shaking arms, could only watch as Botta, seeing a charging Kendal, pulled back his new and improved blade and jammed it into the ground- And therefore sent a torrent of rocks outward as if somebody had slugged a rather large boulder and had blown it all away. Hence the call of "Rock Smash!"
Botta, confident that he had at the very least stopped the newcomer, was stunned when the rocks clattered to the ground and-
Kendal just wasn't there.
The next moment, Botta, just as stunned as the others and contemplating that he might have wasted time on a damned phantom, or ghost, felt the impact of fists in a rapid-fire barrage that was far more real than any phantom/ghost. With both metal and flesh pummeling every inch of his torso at impossible speeds, he staggered back, and then tripped over a groaning Yuan's body.
Down, punch-drunk, and generally beaten, he looked up to see a crazed Kendal with a beast-like look in his eye above him, blade raised over his head.
He swung down, the blade barely going to an inch of Botta's chest, before a Drop Dragon erupted. At Kendal's crazed state and the dangerous proximity where the "dragon" was unleashed, it instantly drove both Botta and Yuan downwards, crushed by the force of a very brief five G's, before bursting upwards, as the protesting metal of the floor fought back.
Landing in a mind-jolting impact, a few feet from the now-obvious crater on the floor, Botta was jolted loose from covering Yuan's body as he stuck his head against the ground. that had the effect of clearing his head, but there was one problem- He was helpless. His sword was only a few feet away, but it seemed more like a mile with all the others around.
"Wolf... Fang..." Botta turned, just in time, to see a Kendal slam his cleaver just under Yuan.
Botta was a half-elf, so he obviously could sense the mana that radiated everywhere, the building, and other people, if he was close enough. This time, the mass of mana on the tip of the diamond-edged cleaver was more dangerous and obvious than anything else in the room, not even the gathering energies of a Spread by Genis that would nail Botta if he didn't move.
Rolling away, Botta shouted a warning, to no avail. Yuan was still stunned and everything, and besides, it would have been to late anyway.
"PULSE!"
An explosion right under Yuan, and the bluenette was airborn, hurt, bloodied, with a head awash with pain but clear, and definitely airborne.
VWVWVWVWV
Despite the previous rampage of violence I had rampaged through, I somehow hadn't lost my sense of sarcasm.
"Fly blue bird man," I twittered under my breath, "Fly."
And then I was airborne, once again.
A drop kick to Yuan's spine was really the last straw- The moment he flew onwards from impact, he roared in rage and started to execute a backflip to bring him back to normal orientation. Well, by then, he was upside-down, so you really must forgive the usage of the phrase, even when "bringing back to normal orientation" is supposed to be adjusting to one's normal idea or feel of gravity.
Not that he'd go through a landing unscathed. Adding to his gallery of wounds, I looped around my back my cleaver to launch an Aeroslicer via myself being upside down. It might have not done much...
But it DID cause the normally composed half-elf to curse violently and so lose his balance in mid-air. So he crashed on his knees, which resulted in him jumping up and hopping around in pain. Crazy person.
That was something to be laughed at. So I did. Like everyone else, I managed to heavy a few bellows of merriment that only served to enrage Yuan further- Screaming at his and holding both knees, he fell over a crate, landed on his head, and then promptly smashed it into pieces with his Swallow Blade.
We kept laughing, and did so- Until Botta, seizing his chance, snatched back his blade and promptly flat-whacked Genis with it. And even worse, on his behind.
That really, really exaggerated what was initially an unconventional and even more so undeclared truth to watch funniness take its hold. We kept laughing at the generaly craziness of the situation, leaving Botta bemused and embarrassed for the incredible ruckus he'd caused. Yuan, even more so, could only scream as his lieutenant was shamed to ridicule, and so could do nothing.
Laughter seemed so common around me, didn't it?
But I couldn't forget the reason I came here. I was first to stop laughing, rip out my weapon and start cutting up people.
Not that what I was doing was an easy job. The moment the duo of Botta and Yuan saw, they reverted to battle mode and started fighting anew, especially Botta who brushed aside the others with a mere flick of the wrist. And since this was with a blade, and he now did it with the sharp edge, it wasn't anything funny. More like, painful. In a complete circle that left a glittering aftermath, he sent everyone around him stumbling away, gasping in pain.
Yuan, not hesitating, blocked my charge and turned quickly to the side a quarter of a second later, in an attempt to send me right past him headfirst into a wall.
But before I can tell anyone what I did next, then I'd have to tell you how I fought.
I fought under no style at all. I could begin any duel swinging my cleaver like an enraged bull, make my blade's touch as light and quick as a raindrop striking someone's forehead, make my movements totally exaggerated to the point of being ostentatious. I could change how I swung at anytime, I could go unarmed to compensate for a very quick enemies in fistfights, and could dropkick pretty much anyone out of the blue, and others things. Casting spells didn't count, because often, even I had to admit was cheap.
But under crushing pressure, my mind would accelerate, literally. Like if I was in a Ghost status, the world slowed down.
Only difference was, so did I.
Just because my mind started absorbing information faster than the world could give it didn't mean that my body became fast. I could force it to, however, but that hurt afterwards. Like, really hurt.
But right now, with my emotions clouding my head like everything would turn red from all the rage I had, every time my edge met another or any time related to it, suddenly I'd pop into a realm of my own. As in, time would suddenly appear to slow down just for me and then I'd calculate at lightning speeds the move my opponent was planning, therefore totally negating the prospect of surprise for the SOB.
I had no control when and where I'd suddenly see the world slow down. I just knew that I wasn't going to care when it did, just as long as it let me kill someone. Yuan, preferably.
So suddenly I saw the blade as it was, but now I was analyzing the tensing of his muscles, weighing in the best options for Yuan to do at this point. I could see that he was now going to shift to the right, so then he would send me flying by- As I missed him, he'd continue the motion of whirling the he'd started when he sent me in the wrong direction, and as his Swallow Blade was double ended, he then slash open my back.
Like I'd let him. I dug in my heels, then threw back my blade as Yuan pirouetted and then stopped, to realized he'd missed. Badly. Before he could correct himself, I'd hacked open his back. Funny how I'd done the same thing he'd wanted to do to me, eh?
I also echoed him and spun around, but this time skipping back as he took a swipe at me. As I landed from my skip I sent forward another Aeroslicer, which fizzed out against Yuan's quick defensive Guardian. As his temporary shield faded and he looked up, I sent a quick Damnation. While the barrage served little, it sent Yuan backwards, cursing, as he got cut under the cheek.
A Dual Dominating Blade. His cape, now thoroughly shredded, waved weakly as he was sent flying. This was really getting old for Yuan, as he was being rendered helpless on his own turf. As Botta was pummeled, and Yuan himself was being showed up to...
He went berserk, just like I was. Even I was surprise when he suddenly shouldered tackled me, something that I thought only I knew how to do correctly on a battlefield. As I staggered (He'd done the very thing I'd have done and lowered the point of contact at the last second to hit my solar plexus), he dropped me in a Thunder Explosion and then rushed to rescue Botta, who was now being pummeled by a Sword Rain: Alpha from Lloyd.
VWVWVWVWV
As Lloyd was about to unleash a Raging Beast against Botta, who was now rapidly swiping away blood from his arm, he felt a sudden stinging pain in his arm.
Before he could cry out, Botta, seeing Yuan as he benefactor, quickly launched a Rock Smash that smacked Lloyd with rocks-
One who which broke the brunette's nose. As Lloyd staggered backwards, Sheena jumped in to cover the now-vulnerable Lloyd- However, Yuan spun around on a polished toe and knocked her back rather worse for wear. But at the very least, she'd gotten Lloyd of the danger zone- Zelos and Regal now shoved them backwards and began their own offensives.
But now, with both of them together, they were practically unstoppable, with Kendal temporarily disabled thanks to the solar plexus spike he'd taken. With Yuan keeping them away with Thunder Explosions and Botta blasting them with Stalagmites and all that stuff, all they could mostly do was let Genis do his thing and hope that he could. But Botta, already knowing how dangerous the little mage was, mostly targeted him- Stone smashed him, fireballs chased him, and once he almost fell victim to a Ground Dasher. Even worse, they hurt and they hit lots of people. So technically, the battle was being held up.
VWVWVWVWV
I was bent over, almost crying from the pain.
The triangular point of Yuan's shoulder had hit me right under the heart. In addition to jolting the natural rhythm of my heart, it blasted the breath out of me, thanks to an instinctive muscle clench activated when I was charged into.
On my knees, in pain, and clutching both hands on my stomach, I felt like an animal in a trap. While I was mostly safe as the battle had shifted away from me, I was angry that I hadn't realized what had happened sooner. Why?
Nothing to do but rejoin the battle. What're you doing here, idiot? Sitting here like you're dead? I bet you're crying already, I taunted myself. Stupid, stupid, stupid. What, you survived a thousand years just to wind up kneeling like you're going to be killed? Dumbass, get up. Get up. GET UP!
I got up.
When I straightened my legs, I felt like my chest burning- So I sat back down. Time to administer medical care then.
But then again, even raising my arm hurt. Biting a scarf tail in an attempt to stop myself from breaking a tooth or two, I felt mana burn through my veins. Ina soothing way. Thank god that mana didn't hurt- Otherwise, my situation would have been impossible.
A snap of my fingers, which hurt so much I fell backwards with a resounding thud.Thankfully, noises of battle blocked that nasty bit out.
"I'm going to bet that took the record for loudest thud ever," I said deliriously, as the spark did its work.
I got up, with no pain now, and cracked my knuckles as rage returned to keep yet another hold on me. I was ready to have a crack at those bastards again-
No. I'd just suffer the same fate that most of the others were now in, having to fend off both Yuan and also dodge Botta's spells, or vise versa. What to do now?
A sneak attack, I decided. I picked up my cleaver, slammed it into the ground, and crossed my arms.
VWVWVWVWV
Genis was having the most strenuous exercise of his life.
Namely, running around trying to survive an onslaught of spells that his foes had almost no trouble casting after only a few seconds. Indignation. Holy Lance. Stalagmite. Ground Dasher. Spark Wave. Even Genis, with his huge amount of practice, couldn't do them that fast.
But he was only a kid, and both of them, half-elves they were, had to be something like three hundred years old. At least. Genis was only twelve- Therefore, no contest.
But even with Botta's and Yuan's mana that they were sending out like mad, Genis could suddenly feel something in the air. A… source of heat seemed to be running from underneath him, charged with mana. Lots of it.
Lloyd, now with a healed nose, was about to relaunch his offensive when he suddenly felt his boots grow hot.
He was confused. What in the world was going on? A human body isn't enough to melt rubber, after all- But he stepped to the side nonetheless, and was immediately relieved to feel his boots become cool again.
Zelos, dancing with Yuan (Literally) was getting ready to give himself some room with a Super Sonic Thrust to be followed by a Hell Pyre, and then scooting back to avoid Botta's next bit of evilness, felt something under the polished shoes that he was wearing.
Heat. Yuan, feeling it as well but also sensing the mana paused along with Zelos.
Everybody stopped doing whatever they were doing- Running for their life, casting a spell, swinging a foot or weapon of some kind, ect. as they all felt the same thing. What was going on-
They simultaneously all got the same brainwave, and so turned to where a certain rogue was standing.
With arms crossed, blade at his side, and eyes closed, he seemed to be meditating. But the half-elves that were in the battle knew better. Much better. A moment later, they didn't know better because everybody knew it.
Cracks. Heated cracks in a rough circle around him, brimming with steam.
The next moment, however, was not one of meditation, but of a supposed apocalypse.
Roaring, magma blasted around Kendal, enveloping him in a maw of destruction so unstoppable that everyone thought he was dead.
VWVWVWVWV
Riiiiight.
When I crossed my arms, I wasn't meditating, obviously. I was calling magma, molten rock into a circle around me. One thing about, though, was the fact it was obviously noticeable. If you were standing on a vein of magma moving towards me, which they all somehow were.
When the magma blasted up, only the circle of cracks started blasting up- Therefore, I was so obviously not freakin' dead. It served more like a circle of protection.
The heat was, obviously, intense. Intense enough for me to start sweating. But no time to whine about the obvious discomfort. More like a time for action before I was fried to a crisp, dehydrated, or what-ever-involves-flames-and-causes-of-death-are-involved.
Mentally forcing the magma to rise, I then condensed it into a raging ball of molten rock- A much better force of destruction than a pathetic fireball or even the magically generated Eruption.
I raised my hand, backfirst, fully aware that everyone could now see I was alive and well.
"Magma…"
The sphere above me began to roar as it began to spin, spewing heat everywhere- But not magma. To be killed by your own spell when you do it- What does that tell you about why you should use a spell?
"METEOR!"
VWVWVWVWV
He stepped forward and threw his hand down.
Immediately, the "meteor" roared and flew up at an impossible speed, barely gracing the ceiling- And then, it came down, scorching a fiery scar through the air.
And then it hit. Since Botta and Yuan were almost side by side, they were blown away, slamming into walls, crates, or anything that presented a barrier. Things were broken. Walls were not, though obviously dented.
The impact did more than just blow people away- It created a five meter- deep scar almost ten meters across. And the currents where the magma had previously flowed through? Technically, they had never existed, since I had just gotten the metal to serrate apart and then come back together after it gave way to the liquid rock. So, nothing to crawl through.
But the fact was, the moment it Yuan stopped moving, the others pounced by sheer instinct. Hell Pyre. Endless Infliction. Serpent Seal Pinion. Thunder Blade. Heavy Tiger Blade. Photon. Triple Kick.
"READY!" I roared. Lloyd, and Genis gave me their own affirmatives.
Lloyd hopped back, as we started violence of a very sophisticated kind. "Meteor-" I began
"Lightning-" Genis continued.
"Tiger-" Lloyd roared while in the air, as lightning bolts slammed down-
We all, all yelled the last part out. "BLADE!!"
The moment Lloyd chopped Yuan's arm and hit the ground, an explosion equal to the impact of a Magma Meteor blasted up around the brunette, sending Yuan flying one more time. The blue bird man was now officially half bird.
A smoking crater surrounded Lloyd, though technically metal didn't smoke. But magma was magma, wasn't it?
Everyone: (wide-eyed) Fireworks...
Me: Yep. New compound special attack...
Kendal/Genis/Lloyd: (chanting) Meteor Lightning-
Me: HEY! THE CHAPTER'S OVER, GO HOME!
Kendal/Genis/Lloyd: (cries)
