Song List
Susumu Hirasawa: Berserk - Murder
Malcolm Robinson Orchestral Selections
Chrono Trigger - End of Time
Chrono Trigger - Manoria Cathedral
Chrono Trigger - Primitive Mountain
Tekken Tag Tournament Intro
Front Mission SNES - Within Living Memory
Chrono Trigger - Corridors of Time
Konassian Cry - Time Patrol Saga Prologue (Chapter 3)
Hirudegarn, World Eater
The Konassian's hands quivered, shaking and clacking his teeth together as well as he stood right there, the epicentre, the eye of the storm, Hell. The boss' big body breached the night's embrace, revealing its never-ending stature from the abyss. Tapion didn't realise it hadn't even taken a step yet, shaking to the core of his being once that barrier had been broken. Chasms of dirt and rock split up in spires as Hirudegarn's foot slammed into the ground. Konatsquakes clamoured all around, snapping Tapion back to reality as the underworld's incarnate looked to turn him into tapioca pudding.
Foooshhh! THLOOOOOOOOOOHNNNNNN!
"Gah!" Tapion screeched as he wiped out. He might have jumped out of the way in time, but The Great One's heinous hand simply swiping caused a torrent of torment to tear Tapion asunder.
"..?" The Unfathomable raised its thick scaly brow in response to having missed its mark, a pure, unadulterated, animalistic rage soon to follow. Its insect maw started to salivate and grind with gristly bits before it exploded, absolutely ripped forward, clapping harrowing gales behind and to the sides of its enormity.
"He's fast~" Tapion stammered out in a stupid stupor as The World Eater's jaw snapped, causing a sonic boom to rip out, and blast the older brother to the cracked earth. The older brother whiplashed from the back of his head hitting the grass and he tumbled in a bad way, losing his grip on the sword at just the wrong moment. "Dah!" Tapion grunted as his last tumble sent the saber skyward and out of his grasp and onto the grass. "..? ..!"
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHMMMMM!
With only a second to spare, Tapion front rolled out of the way, the only reason he didn't eat shit, due to the blinding aura radiating off him. The man clenched his teeth as the ferocious momentum Hirudegarn generated with his swipes blasted into him and his back. With both hands back on the sword now, Tapion:
"Huuu~"
SKFFFFFFF~ FWOOOOOMMM! DTHLOOOOOOOONNNNNNN!
Tapion's hands shook with unmistakable sincerity as he slid to a stop in the devil's pit. Hirudegarn's previously vacant eyes locked on with an instinctual acuity, a red hue glowing in the faintest depths of his black eye sockets. They locked with Tapion's green irises and the moment they did, he froze, inhaling a breath that lent him no strength, only the reality that woe was him, he who stood in the dark.
SOOOOOO~SHWINGG!
Tapion caught the broad side, slashing upwards against the yellow claw hand of the behemoth. "..?" His worst fears were realised when he saw that the rest of Hirudegarn's four fingers hadn't closed in yet.
SHUMP!
"Kkkkkkkk~"
"..!" Tapion's resolve strengthened at the lack of the crushing compact of The Great One's five fingers that were each bigger than the both of them combined. "THAHHH!" He shouted, blade glowing both in tandem with his Ki empowering the steel and the sword's own light show at the hands of its handler. Tapion committed to form, pivoting on a 180, and delivering an overhead slash hairpin. "Dah~" He chirped, having only missed Beat because the man was deft enough to dodge, and not because he wasn't going to.
"Watch out, du-" Beat's scream barely audible under Hirudegarn's own rattle. Like God's fingernails on the Devil's chalkboard, singing a soliloquy of sorrow and pain. The mere act of The Unfathomable bringing back its hand like it had touched the core of Konats uprooted the rolling hills, shifting the landmass in a big way.
The pair occupying the landmass met mess, and a lot of it. Spiralling tornadoes pulled their footing every which way. Hirudegarn's maw crunched down on nothing as it spat vitriol from the anguish done unto it. Its titanic body whipped insanely, a terrifying gyration. It should not have moved that quick by any measure. Its draconic dragonfly wings fluttered and the beast spun out in a 360, delivering a lacerating tail slash of mythical proportions. Tapion's boots caught the uprooted ground, and out of the corner of his eye, all he saw were thick black scales. In a moment of clutch reaction time, he quickdrew, raising his blade just in time. But it struck false. The sword connected against the sloped surface, and held weak for only a moment. Not even a full second.
Even with surging Ki fueling his arm, and a rooted base in the grass, Tapion's fabled weapon broke on the spot, almost decapitating him as it snapped in two. Lucky again. He didn't dodge, it just barely missed the mark. Tapion's eyes widened as the sword of legends broke in his hands, and the thumping broad side of monster's extra appendage smacked him into next week. Tapion truly was lambasted, absolutely smashed from the blow. Blood and saliva poured out of him in droves, tunic pulverised on the spot. The man's limp body was knocked across and knocked out of the plains. Beat didn't do much better. Tapion blocking even for so long as not-a-second, allowed him to freely hop over the strike.
"Tapion!" He yelled, watching as his ally was swatted out of the park, a home run. "..!"
BVYUUUUUU! Bah-BOMBB!
The clutch laser blast didn't look so clutch as Hirudegarns bleeding left hand lunged right through the smoke and snatched him up, crushing him instantly.
"KkGaghkgkk~" The non-native Konassian squeaked like a mouse as his internal organs capsized from the crushing grip of The Devil Incarnate. Blood dribbled down his mouth, all limbs stapled in. There was no hope. He couldn't move, he couldn't even breathe. He could only watch as the empty abyssal quality of Hirudegarn's eye sockets glowed with the smallest red dots possible. It was only a second, but it felt like a lifetime. In that last moment, nothing hurt. The pain just fluttered away. He saw the demon from Hell open its bristly insectoid jaw, strange yellow spears clawing out and cleaning its teeth like windshield wipers.
He just did what he always wanted to do.
"Ohhh~ what happened to you, little one?"
"I got lost." Beat responded in a cutesy tone, looking up at the warping visage of a man in brown robes and a white, red, and blue insignia on the front of his cloak.
"Lost? Well, come with me." Kami said, bending over a bit and extending a hand to the tiny child.
All he could remember was that there were fire and flames all around as the soft spoken man took his palm in his and walked away.
"What's all this?" The boy asked, pointing towards the smokey plumage and desecrated environs.
"Nothing you need to be worried about. We'll get you home safe. What's your name?"
"Beat!"
"Well, Beat. My only requirement of you from now on is that you don't look at the moons. There are three of them, so that might be hard for you. But I'm gonna need you to make that promise, okay?"
"Well, why?"
"They say strange things happen when non… Konassians look at the moons. There are three of them, so this is no easy task. But I know you can do it."
"Okay." The toddler hopped up happily, following along behind Kami and sparing passing glances for the steamy piles of destruction.
Beat returns to reality.
"I always wanted to look at the moon…" Beat pondered, blood pouring out of his busted lips in droves, not even feeling the pain anymore as Hirudegarn's massive maw opened wide, unhinging to swallow him in one go.
It wasn't just one, it was two. The third might not have come out to play yet, but two giant lunar bodies in the sky loomed high, both of them not quite complete.
Oozaru transform using Bluntz Waves. Those are tiny waves of light that are commonly reflected off of lunar bodies. The reason Saiyans need it to transform or whatever is unknown to me. But what I do know is that it usually takes the reflective light of a full moon to transform into an Oozaru. Most planets don't have more than one moon, but Konats does. It has three even. So the threshold of Blunts Waves is easier to achieve with multiple surfaces for the light to reflect off of.
A heat burned a hole through his chest. It was like his heart beat magma not blood, coursing hot pulpy fluid through his veins. Hot spit rained down on him as Hirudegarn's extra bug appendages flopped out of his mouth and flicked corrosive saliva.
BOO-BOOM! Rmmmmmmm~
His heartbeat was all that he could hear, despite the breakneck pace at which the colossus' gigantic dragonfly wings were buzzing. It increased in tenacity and repetitions. His body bulked up and his eyes went red as he watched the moons move across the sky at about one third of the speed that the clouds did. Still remarkably fast. Hirudegarn's mouth snapped shut, clamping him down.
"..?" Or attempted to clamp down. The Great One's mouth just didn't quite get the job done. The tips of its sharp teeth bit into flesh, but soon it expanded. The only reason The Great One wasn't beheaded right there, with another titan spawning right in its bite, was because it could unhinge it. "..!" Hirudegarn's ghoul eyes ran bright red with surprise, neon tron lines drawing beneath the two open caverns.
Beat's clothing ripped to shreds and a massive furry brown beast wailed, not privy to the spikes needling into his fluffy backside. The monkey wolf hybrid jittered wildly under the pain and duress, flailing wildly until Hirdugarn's mouth opened all the way up in what might as well have been a flat parallel to the ground. The Zenith's mouth was a pez dispenser, completely conceding ground so as not to be taken off by the lower jaw up. And Beat wasn't done growing. The immense mass that ballooned up out of nowhere was also accompanied by matching weights, and Beat's enormous stature was planted right on Hirudegarn's tongue. The Great One's mouth started to crack and bleed, while it might have supported the unusual contortion, Hirudegarn wasn't supposed to be eating other predators whole. The Great Ape howled, hooted as it took full shape, not sure of where it was, his own eyes red, but not hidden behind deep pocketed sockets.
Beat's new form upended the leviathan's footing, and Hirudegarn fell backwards in response to the titanic form of The Great Ape. Beat finally came into his own, but fell along with the insect dinosaur demon, crashing into the plains and causing a true blue Konatsquake. Hirudegarn taking strides was one thing, it was another for both massive physiques to come crashing into the ripped apart landscape that was already uneven. Beat didn't attack or anything, but the earnestness for which he landed caused a whipcrack of untold proportions. The Great Ape fell off to the left, but he didn't completely avoid damage not only himself, but whatever was next to him.
Beat's hulking left leg slammed onto the top half of Hirudegarn's jaw as they tumbled. Blood sprayed up in droves as the sharp teeth of The Great One pierced his furry skin. But in return, the cracks forming over Hirudegarn's jaw increased immensely, a spiderweb fracture appearing. The rest of Hirudegarn's massive body hadn't reached the ground yet, and so the sheer force of The Great Ape landing cut a huge gash in the behemoth's compromised jaw positioning.
"WRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Hirudegarn's agony splintered deeply into Beat's now more sensitive ears. The beast didn't even want to finish chomping down, Hirudegarn was desperate to get whatever was causing the pins and needles to pain to get the fuck out of its mouth. Both yellow claws dug in deep, crunched up the fur, and then tossed him aside as it retreated with a hasty flap of its enormous wings.
Beat slid along the roughed up terrain on all fours, bleeding from his left leg. It was upon the first real breath that the wolf monkey realised, it was hurting real bad below its pectorals. His arms were numb, and the only thing that wasn't super fucked up was his mouth.
Most Saiyans cannot control themselves when in the Oozaru state. Beat is no different. He is on autopilot. Pretty scary.
All Beat saw was red, and the big body of a yellow creature standing on two legs and holding the bottom of its maw with one hand, and the mandible with the other like it was going to fall off. Hirudegarn stumbled. Beat howled into the night before marching forward on all fours, almost tripping and eating the world's largest shit ever recorded. Beat's body might have hulked up ten fold, and transformed into a titanic monkey wolf hybrid, but even then, he was still only about a third of Hirudegarn's truly one-of-a-kind stature. Any bigger and Hirudegarn might have just died from Beat simply landing on its jaw on accident.
"..!" Hirudegarn's insect instincts pointed him at the rampaging brown gorilla stampeding towards him, hills and cliffs falling away under the massive weight placed on it by the two kaiju. It looked to scream, but in fear of its jaw just falling off, clamped down hard with both palms, raising up a left talon, and blasting the ground instead with the foot of God stomp. Beat pivoted out right with a drift, all four palms grinding along the dirt and dust.
SNNNKKK!
Beat's eyes went blurry, he stared up at the giant insect, and finally saw it for what it was. Hirudegarn's eyes were visible. A grotesque portrait of bug eyes that flirted out into thousands of lenses. A buzzing just seeped not only into his ears, but every orifice. The indigo nighttime sky swirled into surrealism, and all Beat could do was limply swipe his paws at nothing as the life retreated from his body. Hirudegarn's thick black stinger had made its mark, poisoning him from the front as it speared through his belly after dodging the first. A pulpy gloop sound echoed throughout the perturbed planescape, and Beat's previously giant form waned, turning from apex predator to an enfeebled mess of protruding bone and saggy flash. The more Hirudegarn's tail sucked out, the bigger it got. It was already a The World Eater, but after that, it was nothing less than a God.
"..."
FOOOOOOOOMMMMM!
Beat's drained skin bag flopped onto the ground, still big enough to cause a corresponding tremor and a wave of pressure to flush outwards. Hirudegarn took a step back, on uneven terrain and the pain of its bleeding mouth too much to bear. It went for broke, testing the limits of its body.
"GWERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" Hirudegarn's cry shook reality. The stars seemed to dim just a little after that.
"..." Tapion's restful eyes twitched. He didn't wake, but the thrusting soundwave forced him aloft, sending him flying down the mountain, dragging his body cliffside as just the fact of Hirudegarn screaming miles away sent his ass packing, no real way to defend himself since he was out cold.
"..." Hirudegarn's brows furrowed, teeth snarling and bubbling with both blood and acidic spit.
KLOMMMMM! THLOMMM! TOMM! TOM!
The World Eater walked away, each step capable of causing ruination to anything that would dare mark the land as not belonging to Hirudegarn. Each plodding stomp caused Tapion's slumped body to literally jump off the ground until he had finally left for greener pastures.
"..." Tapion's mouth leaked with blood and while it might not have been under the best conditions. True, 'restful' sleep was granted to him for once in his existence.
Tapion, 25 y/o. Age -226 String 45th - Konats 8:57 A.M. Mellopho Falls
The bright light cast from the sun piqued Tapion's interest, enough so that the cascading luminescence illuminated the fact that he was blocked in almost all sides. His head hurt like Hell and his limbs were tucked into the stone with debris and the landslides Hirudegarn conjured just by tiptoeing around the place. A fuzzy feeling washed over the man, pain written in several paragraphs suddenly penned themselves onto his existence all at once and he winced, not sure his teeth were even gonna stay in.
"Rah! Grah!" Tapion grunted, infusing his limbs with aura, enough to break away, but perhaps a little too much in his wounded state, bringing him to gasp for air immediately following. "Kah~ Kuuuuu~ Huuu~ Haaa~" He lost his footing, and fell on his butt, resigning himself to his fate as he attempted to recoup his losses through rattling breath. Looking up at the sky, his mind wandered, wondering if he had forgotten something. "..? ..!"
Tapion's head whipped back like a professional just clocked him one in the jaw. His body pivoted, and zoomed up the hill. Instead of the steep 90 degree dropoffs of the mesa, the land was muddied and mangled, several fissures in the ground and jagged landslides made for a natural staircase up to the top 'platform' that was the prairie. Or what was supposed to be the prairie anyway.
"..." Tapion's jaw would need to be melded back together the way it dropped at the sight. The rolling hills just outside Mellopha Village had been turned to flat browns smashed together, with a few exceptions, massive spires of dirt speared upwards into the aether, but most importantly of all, the older brother saw the withered blanket of grey dot the midst of the landscape. Whatever it was, it was massive, like a serpentine dragon had shed its hide outside the town. "..?" The closer he got the less it looked like snakeskin.
The closer he got it looked like an ape. Bristles of fur fell flat like grass. He moseyed around it, on his guard as he could be with the searing pain surging all throughout his left side. Until: "..! Huu!" He didn't even know a gasp came flying out of him as he saw the mark on the gigantic gorilla suit's nose. A clean line straight across the top of the monkey wolf's maw, akin to that of Beat's."What..? How..? Wha..? This..? What..?" Tapion just slumped over onto his butt in defeat, completely in awe of the development, double taking at the fact that it was simply the same scar. And more importantly, the same tail. It might have been a lot bigger, and it might have been flattened out like a tube of used up toothpaste, but the 'brown' furry extra was the same as Beat's as well.
Tapion's fists shook, and agonising grunts teetered on the edge as he vibrated on the spot. Anger, malice, regret, and shame fumed out of him in waves as he took on a fetal position, cradling his knees with shaky arms. He stewed for so long in his juices, it was first sundown, the solar body saying goodbye, and heading towards the horizon line. Tapion just shook his head. His mouth opened as he stared down at the enormous ape shed with blood lining the battlefield, but he wasn't even sure. With nothing else to go on, he just surveyed the rest of the damages.
The hills? The flats now. Mellopha Village? A stomped wasteland of broken buildings either lit on fire, flattened into the ground, or atomised by laser beams. Mellopho Falls? It might as well have been a bowl of cracked stone and water. Instead of waterfalls trickling down into the mesa, it was now a newly formed lakebed surrounded by landslides. Tapion wandered around the surrounding area, looking for:
"Hmm." His nostril breathed out, finding the top half of the snapped sword that betrayed him. A tear attempted to break its way out, but Tapion forced it away with the bottom of his palm. Next, he found the hilt, the bottom half of The Broke Sword. "Teh." He scoffed, scowling in true disgust. "Worthless…" He said, pocketing the broken blade. Bladeside first, hilt second, into the scabbard.
On his way out:
Fwoooooooo~
Tapion stared at the loose skin strewn about the land, vacant eyes, rubbery flesh, and a big bulbous tail flailing in the light winds like an inflatable tube. He left it all behind.
Tapion, 25 y/o. Age -226 String 45th - Konats 7:29 P.M. Outside Climbassa Crypt
"I failed!" His harsh throe boomed through the chasm. He marched with unself-assured strides, his boot squeaks reverberating off of the polished stone. Somehow, some way, the crypt was completely spotless and completely untouched by time. No one was here to clean it, and it was technically open to the erosion of the weather, seeing as how there was no door nor a gate or wall to block off the passage of time. Even still, it was pristine perfection.
Tapion stuttered, stammered, stepping up the three stairs leading up to the pedestal. His hands shook with true ire and frustration. Tight teeth and a grunting disposition stalled him out for a moment, but eventually he put his hands on the sheath, and took it off. He shook the case, but then that too, fell away. He let out a composing breath, equal parts to rejuvenate, and to quell the storm brewing within.
"I'm sorry… I failed…" Tapion said as the tears raged down like waterfalls on his bruised, chalk white left cheek, salmon peeled right.
He set the holster, complete with strap, and incomplete with two halves, onto the cupping ivory columns.
"..? …" Tapion's vision went dark, and then once again, he was awash in the void. "It is my fault. I take full responsibility for my-"
Something from beyond grabbed his tongue like a cat. He looked to do something about it, but nothing was there. His lips closed, and the words would fail him, unable to express his self admonishment.
Out of the black opened up a wormhole of vision. The reality shifted, blitzing across the aether, showing him the saber carved in legend, wielded by Koh himself, and sealed away in this very crypt before settling on presenting him with:
"What? What is that you're showing me..?" Tapion asked, jumping at the fact that he was granted the ability to speak once again.
fur, perfectly lined casing. The sound of footsteps. The rip in reality zoomed outwards. Bosch.
"Bosch?" Tapion questioned, eyebrow raising as high as it could go as his tears dried on the spot.
The rip in reality zoomed outwards. Again. The warping surreality serendipitously showed him himself. Then it presented the point of view of the blade's shine, and Tapion's dusty tunic. It zipped along the events at double time, triple time for some parts. Soon it showed the hand off.
"I'll be back for it in two days~" Tapion's voice warbled through the stream of ethereal magics pouring off of the void. The speed up zipped along the events once again, Tapion's eyes glazing over, gluing to the replication.
"I loathe to admit it, but it's true. I could never render a piece so beautiful in my life on my own~"
Tapion shook his head, unsure, fixing the out of place gold band strapped around the side of his bruised dome.
"And Tapion really wants to squander this opportunity by fighting that behemoth!? The Great Phantom is end times! If he's really come back… then we're all doomed!"
Tapion's eyes widened in anger, then gave way to intrigue, then ultimately burned brighter than the sizzling pulse of the sun.
"Tapion's not very good. … He won't notice if I switch them…"
He couldn't see straight, but that didn't matter, Tapion's golden headstrap glimmered with the insight he gained and a new passion struck his heartstrings with the melody of retribution. A whisper from the beyond called to him, and a calm came over him.
"Your heart must be true. The Brave Sword only lends its aid to the brave. It is yours, should you wield it with true intentions."
"Dah!" Tapion shouted as a pain panged through his brain, rattling to his core like a needle just stuck its way through.
"You are connected to The Brave Sword. So go and find it."
The view disappeared, and all that was left was the empty chasm of darkness. The beyond took over him once again, arm moving on its own, the same his mouth wasn't. The rip in reality might have displaced, but a new set of pictures took its place. Tapion's brow raised as his left hand's index finger clicked onto the bandle and shooed it away like an off switch. It pressed in again, and the image of Bosch trotting along towards a harbour showed itself to him. The grip whatever had on his body relinquished itself, allowing the sole survivor control once more.
"You are true now, but be careful. For Brave is a concept, not a constant. Bravery is not given, it is earned."
And just like that, the whirlwind of dark and the images it belonged to flushed, taking his breath away along with it. He hyperventilated at the hyperreality. He blinked, dumbfounded, a little dribble of drool slurping down his lip. He touched the golden bangle wrapped around his head for good measure.
"..!" It was no dream. Bosch handed over some Silvas to a hardy captain, eagerly accepting the monetary reward for his impending troubles. The embers of his heart that had been cooled down raged again into a bombastic bonfire, and he snatched up the scabbard off the columns, ready and willing to engage. Without his say, the heads up display emanating from his golden band zoomed out, revealing a map of Planet Konats.
There was the particularly mountainous region, high hills, and stepped cliffs of Mellophia, and above that was a separation of blue. A big blue landlack, marked: Sousaph Ocean. Zooming back in again revealed Bosch's wringing of the hands and his walking onto a ship with peeled eyes behind teashade glasses and a guitar case. Zooming in a final time confirmed it, The Brave Sword's brilliance had all but faded.
Tapion strapped the bisected blade over his back, closed out the projection by pressing in on the golden band lining his head, and marched out of Climbassa with a gallant gait.
Kulululululu~
The flowing water followed its route without him. Deep in the recesses of the crypt, from out of the shadows, loomed Mr. Popo, nodding in approval of Tapion before he disappeared into nothing but glitters.
Tapion, 25 y/o. Age -226 String 49th - Konats 11:36 P.M. Sousaph Ocean
"You're not going to… seize them, are you..?"
VRRRRRRRRR~
"Are you?"
Tapion stood steadfast, eyes locked on target as the speeding five seater drove across calm waters. The boat had a glassy dome overtop, preventing the water from splashing up onto them, and preventing capsizing from devastating. The motor chugged and churned liquid out in simple and clean gyrations of the blade, cutting through the sea with blissful efficiency.
"I don't support this!" The old man croaked out, raising a finger from the speedboat wheel. The man was tanned and sporting a big mustache.
"I already paid you everything I got, Balthasar. You were the one that accepted. No questions asked."
"Hrmmm~" The brown man hummed out in response, his right index batted down not by force, but by ideology.
"Besides. I'm not after the boat, or the crew. I'm after one guy."
"Well who's the guy?"
"Didn't we agree back at the port? No questions!" Tapion's gruff voice growled back, finally taking his eyes off the cruise liner for a second to try and reinforce his point, though it was hard to tell if it had seeped through or not due to the old tan man's stupendously thick white eyebrows blocking out what should have been his vision.
Belthasar recalls hours earlier.
"Take me out to sea. I need you to catch up to the cruise liner that left port on the 45th."
"Epoch? Why in the world do you need to-"
"-No questions." Tapion said, the blurry ends of his memory blocked out by the visage of money.
"Five Silvas!? Shuweesh! No questions!" He yippied, snatching up the bills.
Belthasar returns to reality.
"Hrmmm." He hummed, staring back out at the open ocean in front of him, surging waves of blue carpet peeling out at the behest of his small boat's seahorsepower.
Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr~
Cast and crew all looked down at the speeding bullet that was Balthasar's boat. All except one. Bosch relaxed, his blue robes all packed away in his cabin. He however? He was just chillin', letting the sun do its work on his old bones. He relaxed, taking off the teashades to make sure to tan evenly, though he at least didn't care enough to wear less than a speedo.
Zhuuuuu~
The glass dome receded into the windshield and Tapion grit his teeth, wild red hairs on split ends as his ears twitched like a mad dog's.
"Hyah!" He harumphed, leaping off the darting ship and onto the easy-peasy cruise liner.
"I wonder if this is how you gotta play it. Maybe staying on the sea and keeping it moving is how you do it. Hirudegarn's gotta gobble up everything on the land first before he gets out to sea, right? So it stands to reason that… I've got to keep my wits about me. The only thing is, how am I gonna set up shop on a ship? I need to be able to work, but I don't think I'm gonna be able to work on my weapons on a moving ship. It's going to interfere with the craftsmanship… what to do…" The old fogey pondered, aiming his tired old eyes up at the clouds that were equal parts challenged by the forward momentum of the boat he occupied.
Vrrrrrrrrr~
"Maybe I'll just get to Percusse Pass, and try to set up shop with the tribe's people. Hirudegarn isn't going to wreak havoc in the quarries, right? Hmm… well. Maybe I should be more focused on getting this blade as far away as I can from Brassbara. Toh!" He scoffed, itching his poofy white mustache as he said it. "What am I saying? That boy was killed by Hirudegar-"
The sound of boots slapping on polished wood was startling, but it was the sound that came after, that forced his head to shoot up from its relaxed position.
"BOSCH!"
The man himself just about peed his pants at the screeching growl that boomed from across the floor as a man with distinct red hair crashed down with fire in his eyes. Bosch scrambled to his feet, the balls of them not especially useful for a high speed getaway. It was like a dream, or perhaps a nightmare, the way he ran wild, but gained no ground. Finally he broke free from the prison that was the layabout chair on the deck. He turned his neck only to see the big man barreling towards him.
WHAMM!
Tapion thrust the old coger up into the cabin wall, one hand on his collarbone, the other pointing right at his bulbous nose.
"I trusted you! And this is how you repay me!"
"Repay what? Whatever do you mean~" His whistly voice shifted under the pressure of Tapion's vitriolic eyes and grip on his right shoulder.
"You know what I mean! You gave me a fake weapon! I try to do one man a favour in this pitiful existence and you go and run me through with it! People Died because of your incompetence, Bosch! Good people!"
"My incompetence? You're not half the swordsman needed to defeat The Great Phantom! If Koh couldn't do it, what makes you think You could!?" His shifting tones wheezed out in a laugh. "I~I~ I was just holding onto the sword for safekeeping until a real hero came to me with the experience necessary to take down Majiin!"
"What happened to whatever do I mean!? You didn't seem to know you handed me a fake blade before!" SHWINGG!
"Geeeee~" Bosch's mousey voice and hiking of the shoulders was met with the shattered edge of his recreation. The blade still glowed, even if it was only a hilt, and one third of a weapon.
"Where's the guitar case!?"
"I'm not telling you! You're just going to get yourself killed! If you- If yu- If you think about it, I'm really just doing you a favour." The old man quipped as his sweaty back slid down the outside wall of the cabin.
"I've survived Hirudegarn's wrath Twice-" SHINGG! Tapion said as he stuck the half-a-sword into the surface, just above Bosch's left shoulder, close enough so as to force the old man to dodge lest he be pierced at the stake. "I won't leave this life until I drag that beast down to Hell with me! Now where is the blade!?"
"Is something the matter, Bosch?" A voice came from around the corner, two pairs of footsteps.
"Yes! Yes!" He yodeled. "This man is trying to kill me! He's trying to get into my cabin! You have to stop him! He's a maniac!" The man struggled, wiggling his limbs every which way as the two men stepped up to the plate. "What do I pay you for!? You have to get him, Gato! … Gato..?"
Tapion finally let go of the not-so-sorry old man, Bosch's butt hitting the deck. The mohawked man stared up at the big burly nature of the red skinned man. Gato huffed, the other man from the fair accompanied him, the fight promoter.
"Grrr~" The man said as he fixed the fedora over his eyes, shying away from the sun's rays.
"What are you doing!?" Bosch cried, getting onto his knees as he observed the standoff between Tapion and his hired muscle.
Gato stood right in the way of the aisle. Until he didn't. Gato stepped aside and placed his back against the deck railing, the seabreeze licking up against his crimson physique.
"Room 18." Gato said as he fished the corresponding keys from his pocket, tossing it over to Tapion.
"What!?" Bosch screamed, losing his mind as he actually lost his hat, the blue V shaped number flying off his balding dome and into the ocean. "Huuu~" The old guy gasped, placing hands on his reflective head.
Tapion said nothing as he caught the jingling set of metallics, walking right on through the hallway that Gato and his accompaniment provided.
"Are you serious?" The other man asked, his mustache, hat, and now khaki coloured polo shirt blowing in the wind.
"Are You gonna fight him, Hashh?"
"..." The man's furry lips zipped shut.
"Didn't think so." Gato said before looking back out to lapping waves.
Not long thereafter, Tapion strided through the cabin hallway with guitar case in hand. With nothing else, The Mohawked Man placed a foot up on the railing.
"Belthasar!" So not totally nothing else.
Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr~
The speedboat pulled close, reigning in the fast pace to match equal with the cruiser's. The top dome pulled back once more, revealing the other four seats with which to land on.
"..."
Fwuuuuu~
"Hey!" Caught Tapion's attention just before he made the plunge.
Tapion looked to his right, and locked eyes with Gato. The red skinned man didn't say anything else. He just raised his right hand from the cross armed stance, and saluted, giving him a 'Rock On' without the words. Tapion returned the favour before hopping off the boat and landing in Belthasar's.
Clig-Clicc! Clic-Clicc!
The radiance The Brave Sword illuminated just about blinded his driver.
"What the Hell is that!? I'm trying to drive here!"
Shwinggg!
"No!" Bosch hollered, leaning over the edge as Tapion held it aloft, gleaming in all its glory. Tapion took off the strap and dumped the second half of the steel into the guitar case, freeing his scabbard up for his armament.
Shingg.
Tapion's brow furrowed as he saw Bosch still belabor and belittle his efforts. With that, he grabbed the guitar case and lobbed it, throwing it like a javelin smack dab into Bosch's jaw and sending him barreling over the railing.
Splashhhh! VRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrr~
The speedboat sped past, ripping up waves as Bosch's head breached water.
"You're lucky that's all I'm gonna do!" Tapion howled, pointing as the old man bobbed up and down next to The Epoch, gasping for breath. Not only did he become a blob, so too did the yacht, a sweet nothing that used to exist as Belthasar carried him across the rest of the ocean at a breakneck pace.
Tapion, 25 y/o. Age -226 String 50th - Konats 1:07 A.M. Eupha Bay
Vrrrrrrrrrrrr~pero~pero~pero~
The small ship skirted around the edge of the sand, splashing up waves onto the beach. Belthasar patted the man down, waking him up in a frenzy.
"Ayy! Easy man!" He shouted, taking his hands off the wheel to raise the roof. Even in his sleep, Tapion was ready to draw.
"..?" The older brother looked around, still not quite awake yet.
"We got to the bay. No need to go slicin' me up!"
"Mmm~" He grumbled out, stepping off in a half-woken daze, almost falling over, each step reminding him of the pain triggering all along his left side.
"What, no tip?"
"Hah?"
"... kidding. Have a nice life. Don't get killed by that thing or whatever."
VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr~
Tapion's tired eyes peeled, the damage causing him to take recuperating breaths every so often, only to go unheeded as he blitzed through the jungles just past.
"..! Wait!" Tapion thought as he pressed his hand on a tree for leverage.
Tapion recalls the events from what feels like only yesterday, but were in fact yesteryear.
"So you played Uno with the girls again?'
"Yep! They straight up just be cheatin'. That's messed up."
"Well, it's Uno. I don't think they particularly care about the rules."
"Did you know they're not coming to the festival?"
"..? What? Oh! Yeah, no, I know. It's because Miza's mother is bedridden. They don't want to leave her alone. And those three all practically attached the hip."
"You know Everything."
"I only know what they tell me, Minnow. We used to live out in Ukeleil with them when you were little."
"What? Really?"
"You probably don't remember. I was very close to those girls when I was younger. That's probably why they like teasing you so much. They see you like the little brother that you are to me."
"That sucks."
"Nah. It's pretty funny."
"Hey!"
"Hahaha~"
Tapion returns to reality.
"I guess I know where I'm going next." Tapion's thoughts raced, and he winced, feeling the needles drag through his body each time his left boot touched grass. "I can't beat him until I'm fully healed."
Tapion, 25 y/o. Age -226 String 51st - Konats 7:57 A.M. Banjuh Forest
Through gritted teeth and with nothing more than a few hours sleep and sheer force of will, Tapion zoomed across the terrain. Instead of the vast mountain ranges, steep dropoffs, and sloped hills, the biome was packed with dense forestation and shrubbery. The tree leaves blocked out a greater view of whatever was lurking within. Tapion clutched at his ribcage, rattling out strained breaths that simply caught up with him. He dared not attempt another spell on his ocarina, for controlling his vocals was far out of reach at this junction. He caught himself on the brown bark of a tall oak, wheezing out not just from lack of breath, but lack of sleep, lack of care, and serious damage sustained once again. Right side a mess, skin pigmentation permanently altered, left side groaning with each step.
"Tah~" He spit out, muscling through it, if no longer capable of a sprint, a modest walk was going to have to do. Tapion wheezed out breaths, taking in the scenery. "Not much has changed…" Tapion kept to himself, mostly because of the effort it would have expended to say it out loud might have taken away the necessary recuperation granted to him by his unsteady breathing.
The packed flora and fauna within the jungle brought a bit of relief, the air a pinch fresher than his life in the mountain grasslands. With the help of the colony of conifers and evergreens both leading him down a treaded path and the assistance they provided for Tapion to just place a hand on, the older brother bumbled out of the forest and into a more vacant venue. Nature opened up into a wider plains and the road out of the forest led down a winding way. Still a journey to go. His rapid breaths were stopped by the sight of a cemetery.
Not for what was in the tombs, but what was out of them.
"..?" Tapion raised a brow. "Is someone visiting..? I don't have time for this…" Tapion gasped, grunting out a breath so he could get more air back in.
The bruising painted onto him by Hirudegarn had lessened, but it still provided an interesting landscape of beatings. His chalky skin on the left side of his face was coloured green by the lashings while his right was a speckled salmon, the man's nose especially marred by the mauling, still 'blue' in places. His shaky footing came back into a bit of normalcy as he placed his hand on the black gate surrounding the graveyard. With not much else to look at other than the sandy path before him, the grass below him, and the trees at the outskirts of the prairie, he sent over a watchful eye to whoever was mourning their fallen.
"..! Kikaza..? Kiki!" He shouted, seeing that unmistakable mound of curly purple noodles. Grunting his teeth and hopping over the spiked ebony spears at the top. They were meant to stop this sort of behaviour, but Tapion could still clear them while injured. Though, landing was another thing entirely. He ate ass on the ground, thankfully missing an unmarked tombstone on his way down.
Fwuhmpp!
"Ehhh~" He wheezed, getting to a knee with great difficulty before weaving around the various other cement blocks.
"Did you hear something..?" A soft voice asked behind the grey slabs.
Fwumm!
All three girls looked at him as he rounded the corner.
"..."
"..." Tapion stared back, less than stellar presentation. Not just his open jaw, but his shaky breath, and the clearly seen-better-days welts marking their territory onto his skin.
"Tapion!" Miza shouted, shoving the shovel aside to sprint along the dark and strangle him in an embrace.
"Guhah~" He squeaked, the earnest hold placed onto him squeezing on his chest and ribs tighter than he would have liked.
"You're alive! I'm so happy you're alive…" She said as she snuggled her chin onto his neck, all of the pain immediately leaving Tapion's insides en masse. He hugged her back, ignoring the discomfort in favour of the real comfort. She departed from the clutch only to cup the man's cheeks with her hands instead. She brought his head to hers and the pair's foreheads touched each other, half because she pulled him down and half because she was just really tall. They just stared for a bit until the obvious struck a chord. "..!" She gasped. "Where's Minnow?"
"..." He put a hand on her wrist.
Her already watery eyes started in a full downpour at his lack of an answer.
"No~"
"..." He couldn't meet her eyes any longer as his vision started to blur in synchronicity.
"Daymn ittet~" She stuttered, sobbing as she turned around and whimpered desperately into her forearm, having to take a lap at the news.
Iwaza strolled right by with wet golden eyes and offered her embrace also, returned by Tapion. "I'm so sorry, Tapion." Iwaza said as the grip in her hold released and she stepped aside allowing Kikaza to hug him tight too.
"Minnow…" Kiki said as she cradled him, pressing her face into his tunic.
"Teh~" The man scoffed, waterfalls of fluid streaming down, biting his lip to not cry even harder in front of the three women. He placed a hand onto her puffy afro, feeling a shade better to have the reassurance.
"What the Hell happened to you..?" Iwaza inquired, placing her thumb onto the pasty flesh on his right side and rubbing it along the scarred dark pinks to clear it of his tears.
"We heard about Majiin. We're lucky enough to haven't seen him yet, but… it's true, right?"
"Sss~" Tapion answered as Kiki's fingertips touched onto the many bruises lining his left side. "Hirudegarn."
"Hirudegarn?" Kikaza asked, taking her hand away after she saw the man's wince at her touch.
"Majiin is not the beast's name. It is Hirudegarn. He doesn't look like in the storybooks anymore. He's shed his skin."
"You've Got to sit down." Iwaza's statement rang true, both by Tapion's immediate return to feeling like shit and her guiding him down to the grass.
"Sss~" Tapion leaned against one of the rectangular tombs, not a simple slab, but a tiny house dedicated to a life well lived of a Konassian long gone in this neck of the woods.
"There we go. You were saying?" Iwaza said as she plopped down directly opposite him.
"Hirudegarn. Somehow he was summoned out of The Music Box. I don't know how, but I believe the Kashvari are involved somehow."
"Kashvari..?" Kiki asked, placing a hand on Miza's jittering shoulders.
"Some strange people from another world. I don't know. But it was suspicious. At the fair, they were introduced mere moments before Hirudegarn was summoned and killed Minotia right on stage."
Kiki and Iwaza had no choice but to face the brutal honesty with open eyes and ears as it came out of his mouth, aware of the reality that the performers on the float face. I suppose they just never believed it would come to pass. That someone would actually summon The Great Phantom.
"Wasn't Kami there? What happened to Kami?" Iwaza questioned, grabbing onto the orange shoulder pauldron of his messy tunic stained with dirt, earthen tones, and the now-dried salty seawater.
"I never saw him after Hirudegarn came out of The Music Box. I'm pretty sure he's dead."
Kiki's jaw dropped, and Iwaza drew her hand back to cover her tan mouth and nose with it, cupping both around her face as her golden eyes bugged out.
"No~ it can't be… We're all gonna die…" Her voice trembled as she clutched at her stark white roots before returning a gaze. "-buh… how did? How did you get out of there?"
"Beat saved me."
"The float organiser?" Kikaza asked, taking her hand off of Miza's sorry state, still slobbering over herself.
"He dragged my sorry ass out of there in one piece. I was in no state to fight, let alone to challenge Hirudegarn… Snn." He wiped his nose with the bottom of his thumb and spared a glance for the rising sun to not peek out of the horizon, but cast its signal. "I can't say I know for certain. But there's a good chance he's dead too."
Iwaza couldn't stand to look anymore, teary eyes leaking out as she stared at the other stone inhabitants of the world. Konassians checked out a long time ago, the only proof of their existence written on weathered rocks shaped in the way of grey surfboards sticking out of the damp dirt. Kiki couldn't ask another question before Tapion rattled off the list.
"Joseahl-hind. Kokotchka. The only reason I'm still alive is because my stupid ocarina got busted the day before the fair and she filled in for me. They're all dead, damn it! They're all dead!" Tapion growled as he couldn't stop the second wind of his tearduct's activation.
"Sdewbid sdewpid stupid~" Miza barely got out through wails of her own, leaning over a tall stone structure for support.
Tapion couldn't bear to see her cry in that way, but didn't look anywhere else anyway, letting the pain flow freely through his eyes as Miza let out disheveled drones onto the rocks. He heaved, getting to his feet with great agony written all over him, Iwaza's hand on his chest that he broke through as well to get to her. The pair locked arms once again and Miza shoved her mourning face into his adam's apple.
The four 'siblings' all shared their condolences until the cows came home and then it came time for Tapion to finally ask:
"..." He looked down at the unmarked grave, no stone accompanying it either, dirt recently renovated. "Is this..?"
"Mohm-mm-muh Mi-iza~" Miza choked, gripping onto Tapion's busted up left hand tight.
Tapion said nothing else, just grabbing her by the wild frays of pink hair and leaning into her. Miza's hyperventilating breaths were followed by more waterworks and she teetered on the edge, the only reason she hadn't fallen off yet was the man in front of her. She hugged him as tight as could be and the four Konassian's let the emotions run through as day dawned behind them and the rest of:
Banjuh Cemetery
Tapion parted with a deep, all fours bow to the headstoneless grave of Miza's mother, and the four of them all sat around. Kikaza cracked a case open, revealing glassy bottles that she handed out to the rest.
"Alcohol?"
"Mmhmm." She nodded.
"I don't want to drink." Tapion said, brushing aside the beverage. "Do you have water in there?"
She nodded again, replacing the order instantly. Miza looked down at her choice, then up at Tapion, who by all rights had an excuse, face green on one side, and pink on the other, neither of those being his skin tone.
"Kiki?"
"..?"
"Gimme a water too."
"Chaser?"
Miza just shook her head as she handed back the green glass bottle. Kikaza returned her with a clear liquid.
"I just want to ask. … for the record. You said Beat dragged your sorry ass out of there. What did you mean by that?" Iwaza inquired, drinking down a big gulp of her grog, almost burping on the come up. "You werrrp~ gu~uuanna fight Hirudawatever?"
"He killed my brother, Iwaza. Not to mention however many didn't make it out of Trobonne. Beat bailed my ass out because I had my legs tied from the start. Some freak meteorite landed on me right when I went to save Minotia. That's where I got these from."
Iwaza's spit take wasn't avoided by Kiki, but at least she didn't get her hair wet.
"You got freakin' blown up by a meteor?"
"Those Kashvari seem to travel by rocks. I don't know how or why, but that's what happened. One tried to cut me down pretty much right after I dumped the rock that hit me."
"Glugluglug~" Iwaza nodded her head in approval while she whittled away at the bubbling beverage inside the glass.
"I was messed up really bad. And I was never going to win. I didn't even have my sword."
"Did you get a new one? That looks like a new case." Kikaza asked as she pointed to the shining silver and blue handle.
Tapion drew it, and the sun itself looked to be hiding away behind the blade.
"WHOAAAAAAAA!" Iwaza's voice joined the chorus a bit late, having to chug down the rest of her sip to awe at its majesty.
"Nu-uh! No shot! That's not-"
"-Hold it." Tapion said, flipping it bladeside, pressing his fingers into the steel, and presenting pommelside first to Kiki.
The purple haired woman cradled it with care.
"It's so… light…" She pondered, all eyes except Tapion raising in intrigue as the glow returned to nothing but a simple sword. "It's really… The Brave Sword?"
Tapion nodded as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the regal tomb of a Konassian, name not written on the outside.
"Are you gonna fight him?"
"Yes."
"But you already lost, right? What's the point?" Iwaza said, turning all eyes on her as she drank down the last bits of her first beer. "That's where you got those from…" She swallowed strange, her chest building up. "-right? Can I getta nother one?"
"Yes. These bruises are from Hirudegarn."
"And if that's The Brave Sword-" Iwaza said as Kiki handed her another green bottle. "And Kami's dead… then what hopes do we have?"
"You just want to roll over and die?" Kiki asked, her glasses falling down her nose a bit, and her bushy purple locks swaying as she disagreed with the notion.
"No. Course not. Just look at the facts. Tapion couldn't beat him with The Brave Sword, neither could Koh. Koh had to seal him. Kami's dead too. What hope does anybody have?"
"Well we don't Know if he's dead… right?" Kikaza asked, fixing her glasses back into the correct position over her nose.
Tapion shrugged.
"Well I don't think Tapion should stop fighting." Kiki said, handing back the blade to Tapion.
"I… I do."
The rest of the three looked at Miza instead, Iwaza halfway down her second drink already.
"I don't think The Brave Sword is as strong as the legends say. Koh couldn't defeat him with it."
"I didn't fight Hirudegarn with The Brave Sword." Shwingg~ Everybody now turned their gaze to him.
"What?"
"So you ran?" Iwaza burped out, sliding down the tomb wall, dust filling the morning air.
"No. Long story. But I didn't fight Hirudegarn using The Brave Sword. And I damn near cut off his hand without it. If I could just train a little bit more, get better… I think I have a real shot at this."
"You didn't fight him with it..?" Miza's fears fluttered away like butterflies as the sword shined behind the scabbard, an ethereal glow buzzing out like fireflies.
"No. A connection I had double crossed me with a replica of the sword. But I have proof that this is without doubt, the real thing."
"Well how do you know?"
Bvoi.
"Satisfied?"
"..?" Their intrigue turned into cringe as Tapion tapped his golden headstrap only for them to not see what he saw.
"What?"
"..."
"So you went to Climbassa?"
"Yes."
"Really? I thought you hated dungeons." Miza said, leaning forward a bit.
"Yeah, we went there a long time ago. But I don' really member it." Iwaza said, scratching at the white hair flowing down from the top of her dome.
"We had to bail out because we couldn't get through that black mist or whatever. I was starving." Kiki said.
"Yeah… that was one of the first times it really sunk in how dangerous they could be." Miza concurred, scratching her left cheek.
"I don't really know the first thing about dungeons. All I remembered is that you all teased me to no end that one time and it just… fell into place."
"Heh. So whatcher sayin' is, We got The Brave Sword." Iwaza chuckled, slapping his weathered shoulder pauldron.
"Just go back to your sippies, Iwa." Tapion fired back, pressing his palm against the bottom of the bottle and forcing a chug that started out as a swig.
"Knn-HnnHnn~" Miza chortled, Kiki not willing to part with laughter, but smiling all the same. "But… what happened here? If you fought him, how did you survive?" Miza asked, cradling the bruised cheek in her right hand.
"Knocked out. I got lucky not one time, nor even two times. I got lucky three times. For whatever reason, whenever I woke up, Hirudegarn was nowhere to be seen."
"Lucky? I thought you said you fought The Great Phantom with a fake sword. That's not very lucky." Kiki added on.
"... True." Tapion said as he looked over at the starting to brighten skyline.
"How are you gonna beat him?" Miza asked, her face falling at all of the damage etched into his frame.
"I need to rest until I'm healthy again. I was hoping you girls could teach me a few spells. I really only know how to use speed modifiers. Everything else is just for fun."
"We could teach you, yeah. But you don't think a couple of strength and defence modifiers are going to get you across the finish line, do you? Kami's Dead. If there's anyone who was gonna teach you the best there is, it would be him." Iwaza claimed as she downed her second. "More please." She asked, shaking the green glass from side to side.
"I'm not gonna give up like you, Iwa-"
"-I'm Not giving up!" She shouted back as Kiki obliged, handing her a third. "It's juss- what choice do we have!? The Great Phantom is gonna kill us all!"
"Well he's not killing me." Tapion huffed, crossing his legs as he leaned against the tomb. "He already failed two times." The older brother of Minotia claimed as he brought up the relevant amount with his fingers.
Miza, 27 y/o. Age -226 String 53rd - Konats 10:11 A.M. Ukeleil Village
"Let him sleep, Kiki." Miza cooed, grabbing the woman's hand just before her knuckles met on the wood.
"But he said he wants to train right away."
"Well I think that's dog shit. He needs to be doing anything else right now so that he can get better."
"I mean yeah, but he's gonna get mad at us again for letting him sleep past noon."
"If he's falling asleep early only to wake up past noon then that means he's Dog Tired." Miza continued, pressing her hands together, bobbing them up and down in tune with her statements. "Let him sleep, sis." She said, flicking the woman in the head, a sigh to follow suit.
Tapion, 25 y/o. Age -226 String 60th - Konats 8:15 A.M. Ukeleil Village
"You really never learned any spells besides speed up?"
Tapion's chalk white skin turned red and he grunted, all three girls staring at him in the middle of town and he had to take it.
"Yeah. You always struck me as someone who was really diligent." Kiki claimed, moving a set of drums into place, testing the kicker with a rhythmic tap of the pedal.
"I was practicing the sword, okay!? You only have so much time in the day!"
"Ahh~ He handles the Sworrrd!" Iwaza laughed, tuning her bass guitar as she let out a devilish tongue and gripped the long neck of her instrument and winked to the rest of her band.
"Sword..? What do you~" Tapion asked before it hit him and his white cheeks turned completely red. "Not like that!"
Kiki and Miza laughed out loud in the middle of the square, the passersby and randoms coming in and out were of quite a higher number than Tapion remembered.
"I thought Ukeleil was full of old timers and people who didn't want to live in the cities? Why are so many people here now?"
"It's been like 10 years since you left, Tapion. Lots is bound to change." Kiki calmly stated, tapping her drumset with careful deliberation of her polished wooden stick.
"..." Tapion scanned the hideaway village, stumps of trees all around, both new and old. A great degree of log cabin style homes placed what should have been inside the forest were placed outside, simply due to the fact that the Konassians were cutting, and in a big way.
"Well, I mean. Kiki's not entirely accurate. Mmhmm!" Miza said, clearing her airways of any leftovers, phlegm, spit, or whatever. She punched at her chest with a firm hammerfist and stepped in front of the other two women. "Lotta people fled here right after New Year's. That's how we knew about Hirudegarn. Cept… they didn't call him that. People didn't want to be in Brassbara after… you know… everything."
"Don't blame em'." Kiki said as she looked down at the carved stone platform in the middle of the village.
"I feel like we're gonna see a Lot of people coming to Stringstratta or Percussilopolis. Those places are just gonna be harder for The Great Phantom to get to I think." Iwaza said.
"No place is safe."
"Well, yeah, obviously, buht-" She replied back, mid pluck of her strings.
"Hirudegarn can fly. He sprouted wings after he shed his shell."
Dweoirrr~
Iwaza's string broke as she stared back at him with an open jaw, the two other girls also absolutely stunned by the notion.
"Nowhere's safe. It doesn't matter where you go. That's why I have to fight him." Tapion said matter-of-factly. The casualness killer, forcing the girls to really evaluate their station as the older brother caressed his ocarina like it was more important than what he just said. "Well..? Are we going to start?"
"..." The three women had a bit of breath taken out of them, but it's not like there was much else to do.
The sun set. Then set again. Then set many more times. Each time it rose was accompanied by a different set of sounds, drums that didn't resemble drums, guitar riffs that sounded like saxes, the only thing that resembled what it was 'supposed' to was Miza's shrill rocker babe vocals, but even then, that wasn't true. She belted big ones, but an entire rocker's choir was backing her, and it wasn't anyone in the village. Slipstreams of turquoise, purple, green, and blue emanated from Tapion's lips and fingertips as he mastered his woodwind.
Kiki's hands were the only thing enveloped by the Magic of Music, slamming ethereal drumsticks into beats that didn't match how they should have, producing not just a rocking drumset kit's style, but xylophones, and synth.
Iwaza could play bass, acoustic, and electric. But it wasn't just guitars either, banjos, ukuleles, brass somehow played on strings, all produced on her one instrument. It didn't make sense, but Iwaza shredded that thing all the same, flicking the strings with exposed fingertips that radiated purple etherium.
"Speed test! Annnd~ Go!" Miza shrieked, clicking in the top node of her stopwatch as the other two girls stood beside her, the middle of the village cleared the way, no instruments of pedestrians nearby.
Tudluuu~
Tapion pressed his lips against the blue flute, played his little tune, glowed with a glove of the aether wrapped around his body like fabric and then dashed. Clearing the town in what looked like a single tron line for the rest of the town.
SHUUUUMMMMmmmmmhhhh~
Dust sprayed up into the air, having to be wiped away by the three, Kiki touching in the top of the apparatus.
"Strength test."
"How are we gonna go about a strength test?" Miza asked, hands on her hips.
"Well I found this big ass rock. I guess we just test that." Iwaza said as she pointed her thumb behind her and the other three, a shapely sloped boulder sitting as a cozy little cliff standing over the town.
"You want Tapion to throw that thing? It's stuck in the side of the hill. How is he gonna get it out?" Kiki asked, pointing towards the obvious truth of the matter, roots, trees, and grass growing around it, the stone having been embedded into the environment for years clearly.
"I mean I didn't say anything about throwing."
"Well then what's the test?" Miza asked.
"I guess he can throw it."
Miza's corresponding facepalm reverberated so strongly throughout the land that Kiki had no choice but to do it too.
Tudluu~
The little jingle that came out of his ocarina resulted in red flames licking off of his physique and he dashed past the girls to put hands on the stone.
WHOHMM! Rrrrripp! Skrifff!
Hundreds of stringy roots and earthen masses shot to the sky at Tapion's unplugging of the massive hill. The overlook only existed thanks to the stone's embankment. Now that Tapion lifted what was essentially a small house of rock, an enormous swath of the packed ground opened up into a cavern.
"Damn!" Miza shouted at the display of athleticism, it looked like it was about to fall out of his hands, not because he couldn't hold it, but Tapion's yank was so strong that he almost knocked himself over with how easy it was, overestimating the force necessary to drag it.
"So what, throw it?" Tapion asked as he took away his right and held the house-sized stone in one hand.
"Yyyeah." Iwaza said. 'Obviously' implied in her statement.
"Hmphh!"
FWOOONNN! Fwooooooooo~
The force he generated blasted back a wave of zephyrs as he threw the boulder aloft like a spear, akin to the olympian lob he sent at the boat, only with much more mass this time. The giant rock soared skyward, disappearing from view before they got to see it decline.
"Wha…? Are you serious?" Iwaza said with wide eyes, blinking at the clear skies of springtime.
"Your test." Kiki said as she placed her hands in her pockets.
"I mea… i wasn't sayin' that to be like: 'Oh haha, let's laugh at Tapion.' I'm really just… like what the Hell..? He's that strong?"
"I mean… this guy can handle a sword like nobody's business." Miza said, bumping elbows with the two women.
"HAHAHA!"
"Teh." Tapion scoffed, no black discolouration, nor green or blue. Just red. His wounds had healed but the gaggle of girls still clowned him nonetheless.
"Durability test!"
"But how are we gonna like… test that too?"
"I don't know…"
"Do we just like… beat him up?" Iwaza asked.
"You couldn't beat me up even if you were trying." Tapion said, waving the three of them off with a hand.
"Oh yeah?" Miza yelped back. "Play your lick, and then take yours like a man."
"I don't need to play anything. You girls can't even beat me up without a boost."
Kiki laughed, but Miza and Iwaza sure weren't. They stepped up to the plate first. Tapion took off his blue scarf and orange tunic, wearing tight black spandex underneath.
WHAMM! BAMM! BOPP!
"..."
Bababababapapapappapp!
Tapion said nothing back, eating their hardest shots with nothing more than a smile, making Kikaza laugh even harder at the pair's plight.
"Kikaza~ Help~" Miza said with watery eyes as they made absolutely no headway, even without Tapion resisting, nor casting spells.
The sun had set and no progress was made. They had abandoned hope of damaging Tapion with their lack of pugilistic prowess, but they hadn't thought of anything else either, short of:
"Volcano?" Tapion's lips pursed out and his left eyebrow punched the air.
"What!? You're insane! I'm not putting him in a volcano!"
"Who said anything about You, Miza?" Iwaza chirped back. "It's a group vote."
"I'm not going in a volcano." Tapion replied, crossing his arms that looked more than a little bigger than last time the girls saw them. But maybe it was more due to the fact that Tapion always wore that bulky tunic, taking away from his natural shape.
"You scared?" Iwaza teased, magical casting fingers.
"We're not putting him in a volcano." Kiki said, making it 3-1.
"Dah!"
Tapion tapped his bicep, furrowing brows. The stars twinkled in the beyond as a couple trekked up the side of a mountain, face to face with the bubbling below. Popping boils of shiny death shimmered at the basin of the volcano.
"You sure you want to do this? I was mostly kidding."
Lloip. Blubp. Sklloid.
"It's not a good test of durability if it wouldn't be capable of actually killing me in the first place."
"..." She stared at his glowing face, a golden hue emanating from the light source below. "You're a lot more metal than I remember, Tapion."
"Thanks for coming with me." Tapion said as he shed the tattered orange coat a second time. "I just don't want the other girls to worry."
"I'm just worried Ninis' Grace might not be enough to dissuade lava…"
"You girls taught me that all I need is to rock out like no one's listening. So that's exactly what I'm gonna do."
"Wait, Tapion!" Iwaza shouted, her cries banging off the curved insides of the volcano as the man grabbed his flute and dropped into the abyss without even having started playing yet.
Teedlee-Doo-Dwoo~
An oceanic current of magical streams surrounded Tapion's body in a bubble as he plummeted right in the belly of the beast.
Untouched.
Bloop. Blubp. Skloll.
Planet Konats' filigree innards spilled outward in geysering splashes that did nothing and didn't want to contact Tapion's safety net. The blue orb keeping him from harm did its job and Iwaza lost her mind, leaning over the overhang with great care, hands dug into the stone as she saw the man below refuse to be swallowed up by the corrosive currents of their planet's core. Or at the very least, what the volcano was capable of conjuring.
SHWINGG! Slasshhh! SHWUONGG! SssuuuSuu!
"Oh, he just can't keep his hands off the sword. That's crazy." Miza said as Kiki watched his swordstokes slashed in the middle of Ukeleil Village at dawn, cutting the air with damning devotion.
The three girls watched the difference in the man they once knew up close. There was no longer the degree of separation. They only remember the ideal, the teenager picking up the art before they started taking this band shit serious. Like: 'Oh that's neat, but we're actually playing concerts now. Have fun swinging your little toy around, bro~' type of way. It hit a little differently when they saw the man lift boulders, ran miles in seconds, and slash the air itself into separate channels.
"..?" Tapion looked down at the glinting base of the blade, furrowing his brow in thought.
"It is yours, should you wield it with true intentions."
"You are connected to The Brave Sword. So go and find it."
"Why am I..?" Were Tapion's first thoughts after the former. "I'm doing the same thing I've always done. The same kind of practice. If it's mine, and it's a legendary weapon. I'm only holding myself back by not getting creative. What did they call it..?"
"Yeah!" Miza's voice giggled in his mind from an earlier era, the youth sitting in the stairs of Miza's basement as the trio tuned their ramshackle instruments. "When you play live, sometimes you mess up, so don't be afraid to improvise."
Tapion returns to reality with sterner steeling of his devotion.
"Tah!"
"Ayy! Whadja do that for!?" Miza shouted as Tapion tossed it up to grab it by the tip and then tomahawk it down the vacant streets of Ukeleil, moreso chance than anything else.
But before The Brave Sword could meet its mark in the porch railing of The Lele Tavern, an unseeable force pulled it right back, spinning like a boomerang right back into the man's hands.
"..?"
"Huh!?" Iwaza said as he saw the bird fly back to the nest in real time.
Tapion's excitement at this new development couldn't be contained, and the three girls were all happy to see him wear anything other than a scowl.