Here is Chapter 5! Oo....No that's it. I have nothing witty to say today.
Long Pause
GET AWAY FROM ME YOU STARING FREAKS!!
By the way, I found my intelligence so I'm putting more description into this chapter, but I may be too lazy to do it in the further ones: P "Maybe"
Chapter 5: Shadow Balmung
Katsuhiro loved the area Kera picked. The forest was lush, and very green. Trees were gathered together but did not smother the cascading rays of sun that seemed to add a heavenly brilliance to the surrounding forest. A solitary path continued for what seemed like forever, the soft dirt comfortable beneath his feet. Jaed seemed to also enjoy the brilliant aura flowing from the trees and the brisk wind that flowed through the branches and soft grass.
"Hey, um...are you ok?" Kera asked, snapping a finger in Katsuhiro's face.
Katsuhiro blinked a bit and looked down, smiling a bit at Kera, "I'm fine. Let's go shall we?" He said, looking over at Jaed, who nodded.
The three adventurers took off down the path, not encountering any monsters but a few random treasure chests containing an occasional healing item, or a poison trap. Jaed was always ready with healing magic to negate the poison, or heal someone from an explosion trap.
"We should have reached the dungeon by now," Jaed said, looking around carefully and he saw a thin layer of branches low to the ground covering a small pathway. "There!" He exclaimed, pointing to it and Katsuhiro smirked a bit.
"I'll cut through it," He said, drawing his sword and he stepped forward, raising it slightly over his head to cut through the thick branches. Suddenly, a large sword sliced through them easily and he looked at Kera, a look of surprise on his face. She smiled sweetly at him, but there was a hint of confidence he hasn't seen of her yet. She walked past him and towards a large cave, its winding tunnel leading deep into the earth.
Jaed simply smirked and walked past Katsuhiro, "She's only shy to people she doesn't know. She's really a little firecracker," He said, turning around to look at Katsuhiro.
"What is your relationship to her?" Katsuhiro asked, just a tad curious of how Jaed knew her so well.
Jaed's cheeks flushed a bit red and he turned away quickly to hide it, but Katsuhiro had already noticed. Jaed said a bit loudly, "She's just a friend is all," And he followed Kera into the tunnel.
Katsuhiro smirked, "Just a friend eh?" He muttered and followed them into the cave, ready for his first adventure as a new player.
Dungeon Level 1
Katsuhiro looked around a bit as the tunnel opened into a large room with marble flooring. He had never seen a forest area with a temple dungeon. Torches with blue flames dotted the sides of the wall, and the door on the opposite end of the room suddenly was covered by a large stone slab. Three skeleton warriors and two archers appeared in the middle of the room, ready to fight.
Katsuhiro readied his sword, as did Kera. Jaed stayed a distance away and started casting support spells on them such as Strength Up. Katsuhiro felt himself get slightly stronger and he dashed forward, closing the distance between himself and the monsters.
Kera followed Katsuhiro closely, "I'll take care of the archers!" Kera said loudly and with a little excitement in her voice, also a trait Katsuhiro has yet to experience.
"Alright!" He said to let her know he heard her and he finally reached the Skeleton Warriors. He delivered a horizontal slash to the neck of the one closest to him, which was on his right of him. The skeleton rose its sword but was knocked but slightly by the force, and Katsuhiro quickly lunged back to avoid the two swords thrusting at him from the other two skeletons.
"Now this feels great!" Katsuhiro exclaimed, a smirk crossing his lips. Had he been Balmung, the skeletons would have been destroyed with one swoop of his sword. He felt like he was in high school again, practicing his fencing with Jonathan. Katsuhiro's fists clenched around his sword, thinking of Jonathan and he quickly pressed him out of his mind like a bad memory and charged forward to clash with the skeletons again.
Kera deflected a few arrows by using the base side of her enormous sword. She closed in and one, and with one vertical slice of her sword, cut it completely in half. The bones crumbled to the ground and they faded away. Kera was so amazed she killed the skeleton so easily, she didn't see the arrow coming straight her shoulder. She let out a loud cry of pain, the arrow piercing her shoulder.
Jaed quickly raised his staff, casting a healing spell on Kera, and the arrow vanished as well as her wound. He then aimed his rod at the skeleton and unleashed a small fireball into it, but it was powerful enough to destroy it.
"Are you ok Kera?" Jaed said, quickly running over to her.
"I'm fine, Jaed," She smiled warmly at him, and Jaed blushed slightly.
Katsuhiro caught all three swords on his own, his heels digging into the ground as he was forced back. He quickly spun to the side, causing the skeletons to fall forward onto each other. Katshuiro seized this opportunity and struck all three skeletons in the back with a powerful blow from his blade. All three skeletons exploded, and the bones faded away.
Katsuhiro smirked a bit, relishing the feeling of actually struggling during a battle, and he turned to smile broadly at his two companions.
"What's wrong Katsuhiro?" Kera said, a little perplexed by his large grin.
"Nothing, come on let's go. The door is open," Katsuhiro said, lifting an arm to point at the now revealed door.
They walked over and opened the door quickly, and all that was there were creepy stone steps leading down into the darkness.
"That looks kind of creepy," Jaed said, but with that he started walking down the steps, followed by Katsuhiro, and Kera, who stayed very close to Katsuhiro.
Katsuhiro felt a little uncomfortable because of the small Heavy Blade nearly stepping on his heels. Actually, she would step on his heels every now and then.
"OH SORRY!" Kera said rather loudly after the third time of stepping on his heels.
"It's alright," Katsuhiro managed to say, sighing a bit. The stairs seemed to go on forever, and it had been five minutes of wandering through the darkness with only a small glow of Jaed's rod guiding them.
Jaed suddenly stopped, pointing his rod at a closed door. He tapped the end of his rod against it roughly, and the entire staircase started rumbling a bit. Kera wrapped her arms quickly around Katsuhiro's waist and he blinked a bit, looking down at her.
"What's wrong?" Katsuhiro said, gently prying her arms from around his waist.
"Nothing, I just...don't like earthquakes," She said timidly, and even in the darkness Katsuhiro could tell she was blushing.
He was about to ask why she didn't like earthquakes, but the low grinding of stone showed that the door was slowly opening. It finally opened all the way and light filled the seemingly endless tunnel they had been walking down. The room was much like the one they were in earlier, but it was much larger and in the middle of the room was an enormous circle with a red pentagram inside it. Katsuhiro had never seen anything like this in the game before, and he became very cautious, his eyes narrowing slightly. There were no doors either, so this must have been the end of the dungeon. This was very strange, as most dungeons were far longer than this, and had many more monsters, mazes, and treasures. He was rather disappointed, but his disappointment turned into fear when he saw his screen glitch slightly.
"What was that?" Kera asked, and her sword rose to point at the pentagram.
"The glitch across my screen?" Jaed asked, but she was obviously referring to something else.
"No, I saw that too, but I just saw something appear then vanish next that star," She replied, her eyes glowing in fear.
Katsuhiro was too preoccupied with the glitch across his screen to notice and he knew where this was going. "We need to get out of here! Now! Don't ask questions!" He yelled and drew a Sprite Ocarina. The escape item suddenly turned a dark black and shattered to pieces, and all three of the adventurer's eyes grew wide with shock.
Katsuhiro noticed the door behind them was still open and he commanded his team members with such a forceful yell they obeyed without question, "GET OUT NOW!!"
All three of the players ran towards the door, Kera making it first, and Jaed second. The door suddenly slammed shut just as Katsuhiro neared it and he growled, turning around swiftly.
He expected to see the strange black portal that sucked so much life from him, but he did not. Instead, he saw Balmung. He saw his past character. He saw himself.
This Balmung's face was much paler, and its eyes were cold and black. His hair was more of a grey than his beautiful silver, and it had black streaks running through it. His wings were black and tainted with blood, and his armor was colored to much the same fashion. Balmung's sword hilt wrapped around his entire arm like a tentacle, the hilt melded into his armor and skin like it was a part of him. A strange, powerful red aura emitted from the blade as a small evil smirk crossed the evil being's lips.
Katsuhiro could only stare in disbelief, a long silence occurring between the two, and it appeared they were in a staring contest. Though Katsuhiro was silent, questions were screaming into his mind. Katsuhiro's questions were interrupted by the cold emotionless tone that seemed to even make the air shiver before him.
"So this is the character you have created?" The Evil Balmung said, the smirk still evident on his lips, but his face and eyes took on a more business-like tone.
"B-Balmung?!" Katsuhiro said in disbelief, not believing this was his character. No, it had to be someone playing a joke. It had to be some hacker creating a character that looked like him. But Balmung's character model could not be copied, even by the most advanced hackers.
"Hah. You are Balmung you fool. Even though you have a different name and appearance, you will always be Balmung of the Azure Sky," He paused a moment as if waiting for Katsuhiro to respond, but seeing silence had struck him he continued, "I am Valmung of the Red Fury."
Katsuhiro gripped his sword, raising it defensively as Valmung pointed his own towards him.
"Are you ready to die, Balmung of the Azure Sky? Murderer of Orca, also known as Jonathan. Ex-Server Operator of the World. And, the cause of the World's destruction!" Valmung said all of these titles mockingly and Katsuhiro's rage swirled around him in an invisible aura of power.
"YOU WILL PAY!!" Katsuhiro screamed and lunged towards his opponent, sword raised and ready to strike.
End of Chapter 5. Who is this mysterious Valmung and how does he know of all that Balmung has done. Thank you for all the positive reviews! I also made this chapter much longer than the others. The next chapter is gonna be great! XD Hope you enjoyed it.
Special Notes: Tasogare brought up some interesting points in her/his (Kitsune is a girl's name right?) review. This is a sort of timeline I invented myself, so I'm sorry if I'm insulting the series or anything, but I really needed to alter things to match the timeline. Sorry ;-;
Long Pause
GET AWAY FROM ME YOU STARING FREAKS!!
By the way, I found my intelligence so I'm putting more description into this chapter, but I may be too lazy to do it in the further ones: P "Maybe"
Chapter 5: Shadow Balmung
Katsuhiro loved the area Kera picked. The forest was lush, and very green. Trees were gathered together but did not smother the cascading rays of sun that seemed to add a heavenly brilliance to the surrounding forest. A solitary path continued for what seemed like forever, the soft dirt comfortable beneath his feet. Jaed seemed to also enjoy the brilliant aura flowing from the trees and the brisk wind that flowed through the branches and soft grass.
"Hey, um...are you ok?" Kera asked, snapping a finger in Katsuhiro's face.
Katsuhiro blinked a bit and looked down, smiling a bit at Kera, "I'm fine. Let's go shall we?" He said, looking over at Jaed, who nodded.
The three adventurers took off down the path, not encountering any monsters but a few random treasure chests containing an occasional healing item, or a poison trap. Jaed was always ready with healing magic to negate the poison, or heal someone from an explosion trap.
"We should have reached the dungeon by now," Jaed said, looking around carefully and he saw a thin layer of branches low to the ground covering a small pathway. "There!" He exclaimed, pointing to it and Katsuhiro smirked a bit.
"I'll cut through it," He said, drawing his sword and he stepped forward, raising it slightly over his head to cut through the thick branches. Suddenly, a large sword sliced through them easily and he looked at Kera, a look of surprise on his face. She smiled sweetly at him, but there was a hint of confidence he hasn't seen of her yet. She walked past him and towards a large cave, its winding tunnel leading deep into the earth.
Jaed simply smirked and walked past Katsuhiro, "She's only shy to people she doesn't know. She's really a little firecracker," He said, turning around to look at Katsuhiro.
"What is your relationship to her?" Katsuhiro asked, just a tad curious of how Jaed knew her so well.
Jaed's cheeks flushed a bit red and he turned away quickly to hide it, but Katsuhiro had already noticed. Jaed said a bit loudly, "She's just a friend is all," And he followed Kera into the tunnel.
Katsuhiro smirked, "Just a friend eh?" He muttered and followed them into the cave, ready for his first adventure as a new player.
Dungeon Level 1
Katsuhiro looked around a bit as the tunnel opened into a large room with marble flooring. He had never seen a forest area with a temple dungeon. Torches with blue flames dotted the sides of the wall, and the door on the opposite end of the room suddenly was covered by a large stone slab. Three skeleton warriors and two archers appeared in the middle of the room, ready to fight.
Katsuhiro readied his sword, as did Kera. Jaed stayed a distance away and started casting support spells on them such as Strength Up. Katsuhiro felt himself get slightly stronger and he dashed forward, closing the distance between himself and the monsters.
Kera followed Katsuhiro closely, "I'll take care of the archers!" Kera said loudly and with a little excitement in her voice, also a trait Katsuhiro has yet to experience.
"Alright!" He said to let her know he heard her and he finally reached the Skeleton Warriors. He delivered a horizontal slash to the neck of the one closest to him, which was on his right of him. The skeleton rose its sword but was knocked but slightly by the force, and Katsuhiro quickly lunged back to avoid the two swords thrusting at him from the other two skeletons.
"Now this feels great!" Katsuhiro exclaimed, a smirk crossing his lips. Had he been Balmung, the skeletons would have been destroyed with one swoop of his sword. He felt like he was in high school again, practicing his fencing with Jonathan. Katsuhiro's fists clenched around his sword, thinking of Jonathan and he quickly pressed him out of his mind like a bad memory and charged forward to clash with the skeletons again.
Kera deflected a few arrows by using the base side of her enormous sword. She closed in and one, and with one vertical slice of her sword, cut it completely in half. The bones crumbled to the ground and they faded away. Kera was so amazed she killed the skeleton so easily, she didn't see the arrow coming straight her shoulder. She let out a loud cry of pain, the arrow piercing her shoulder.
Jaed quickly raised his staff, casting a healing spell on Kera, and the arrow vanished as well as her wound. He then aimed his rod at the skeleton and unleashed a small fireball into it, but it was powerful enough to destroy it.
"Are you ok Kera?" Jaed said, quickly running over to her.
"I'm fine, Jaed," She smiled warmly at him, and Jaed blushed slightly.
Katsuhiro caught all three swords on his own, his heels digging into the ground as he was forced back. He quickly spun to the side, causing the skeletons to fall forward onto each other. Katshuiro seized this opportunity and struck all three skeletons in the back with a powerful blow from his blade. All three skeletons exploded, and the bones faded away.
Katsuhiro smirked a bit, relishing the feeling of actually struggling during a battle, and he turned to smile broadly at his two companions.
"What's wrong Katsuhiro?" Kera said, a little perplexed by his large grin.
"Nothing, come on let's go. The door is open," Katsuhiro said, lifting an arm to point at the now revealed door.
They walked over and opened the door quickly, and all that was there were creepy stone steps leading down into the darkness.
"That looks kind of creepy," Jaed said, but with that he started walking down the steps, followed by Katsuhiro, and Kera, who stayed very close to Katsuhiro.
Katsuhiro felt a little uncomfortable because of the small Heavy Blade nearly stepping on his heels. Actually, she would step on his heels every now and then.
"OH SORRY!" Kera said rather loudly after the third time of stepping on his heels.
"It's alright," Katsuhiro managed to say, sighing a bit. The stairs seemed to go on forever, and it had been five minutes of wandering through the darkness with only a small glow of Jaed's rod guiding them.
Jaed suddenly stopped, pointing his rod at a closed door. He tapped the end of his rod against it roughly, and the entire staircase started rumbling a bit. Kera wrapped her arms quickly around Katsuhiro's waist and he blinked a bit, looking down at her.
"What's wrong?" Katsuhiro said, gently prying her arms from around his waist.
"Nothing, I just...don't like earthquakes," She said timidly, and even in the darkness Katsuhiro could tell she was blushing.
He was about to ask why she didn't like earthquakes, but the low grinding of stone showed that the door was slowly opening. It finally opened all the way and light filled the seemingly endless tunnel they had been walking down. The room was much like the one they were in earlier, but it was much larger and in the middle of the room was an enormous circle with a red pentagram inside it. Katsuhiro had never seen anything like this in the game before, and he became very cautious, his eyes narrowing slightly. There were no doors either, so this must have been the end of the dungeon. This was very strange, as most dungeons were far longer than this, and had many more monsters, mazes, and treasures. He was rather disappointed, but his disappointment turned into fear when he saw his screen glitch slightly.
"What was that?" Kera asked, and her sword rose to point at the pentagram.
"The glitch across my screen?" Jaed asked, but she was obviously referring to something else.
"No, I saw that too, but I just saw something appear then vanish next that star," She replied, her eyes glowing in fear.
Katsuhiro was too preoccupied with the glitch across his screen to notice and he knew where this was going. "We need to get out of here! Now! Don't ask questions!" He yelled and drew a Sprite Ocarina. The escape item suddenly turned a dark black and shattered to pieces, and all three of the adventurer's eyes grew wide with shock.
Katsuhiro noticed the door behind them was still open and he commanded his team members with such a forceful yell they obeyed without question, "GET OUT NOW!!"
All three of the players ran towards the door, Kera making it first, and Jaed second. The door suddenly slammed shut just as Katsuhiro neared it and he growled, turning around swiftly.
He expected to see the strange black portal that sucked so much life from him, but he did not. Instead, he saw Balmung. He saw his past character. He saw himself.
This Balmung's face was much paler, and its eyes were cold and black. His hair was more of a grey than his beautiful silver, and it had black streaks running through it. His wings were black and tainted with blood, and his armor was colored to much the same fashion. Balmung's sword hilt wrapped around his entire arm like a tentacle, the hilt melded into his armor and skin like it was a part of him. A strange, powerful red aura emitted from the blade as a small evil smirk crossed the evil being's lips.
Katsuhiro could only stare in disbelief, a long silence occurring between the two, and it appeared they were in a staring contest. Though Katsuhiro was silent, questions were screaming into his mind. Katsuhiro's questions were interrupted by the cold emotionless tone that seemed to even make the air shiver before him.
"So this is the character you have created?" The Evil Balmung said, the smirk still evident on his lips, but his face and eyes took on a more business-like tone.
"B-Balmung?!" Katsuhiro said in disbelief, not believing this was his character. No, it had to be someone playing a joke. It had to be some hacker creating a character that looked like him. But Balmung's character model could not be copied, even by the most advanced hackers.
"Hah. You are Balmung you fool. Even though you have a different name and appearance, you will always be Balmung of the Azure Sky," He paused a moment as if waiting for Katsuhiro to respond, but seeing silence had struck him he continued, "I am Valmung of the Red Fury."
Katsuhiro gripped his sword, raising it defensively as Valmung pointed his own towards him.
"Are you ready to die, Balmung of the Azure Sky? Murderer of Orca, also known as Jonathan. Ex-Server Operator of the World. And, the cause of the World's destruction!" Valmung said all of these titles mockingly and Katsuhiro's rage swirled around him in an invisible aura of power.
"YOU WILL PAY!!" Katsuhiro screamed and lunged towards his opponent, sword raised and ready to strike.
End of Chapter 5. Who is this mysterious Valmung and how does he know of all that Balmung has done. Thank you for all the positive reviews! I also made this chapter much longer than the others. The next chapter is gonna be great! XD Hope you enjoyed it.
Special Notes: Tasogare brought up some interesting points in her/his (Kitsune is a girl's name right?) review. This is a sort of timeline I invented myself, so I'm sorry if I'm insulting the series or anything, but I really needed to alter things to match the timeline. Sorry ;-;