Me: Yay another chapter of Little Xia!
Mario: What's it about this time?
Me: Basically the gap between the two's departure from Isshun Village to Hamel Castle with the rest of the Elgang!
Crystal: Speaking of adventure stories, what about Virtual Journey?
Me: *sweatdrops*
Mario: *death glares*
Me: I'M WORKING ON IT! *runs away from Mario*
Mario: GET BACK HERE! *chases Fire*
Crystal: *facepalms* This should be fun. Chapter 2, START!
Characters and their classes (introduced in this chapter):
Elsword: Rune Slayer
Rena: Wind Sneaker
Aisha: Void Princess
Raven: Blade Master
Eve: Code Battle Seraph
Chung: Tactical Trooper
Chapter 2: Getting to know one another
The night before~
"Oh what's this?" Ran raised an eyebrow at the blinding white flash enveloping the sleeping Ara. The air around the two intensified as the sleeping beauty transformed. Her silky black hair slowly painting itself white, nine white elegant tails sprouting from her tailbone, and red fox markings on the cheekbones. Whatever the being is, it's definitely not the polite girl that once inhabited it. The being possessing Ara opened its red menacing eyes and stretched in its newborn puppet.
"Ahhh." The same feminine voice that spoke to Ara moaned gentle dinosaur sounds whilst stretching. "Finally I'm awake after all this time." The being grabbed a nearby glass shard and admired her reflection. "My my so this is the young girl who awakened me?" It muttered, Ran standing completely dumbfounded. The being took a few moments to get used to the body and picked up Ara's spear, pointing it at the Demon General with an extended arm. "You!" It threatened. "You're the one trying to harm this girl correct?"
"That's correct whoever you are." Ran gave no hesitation, snapping back to reality. "My name is Ran, a Demon General at your service." After taking a mock bow at the possessed Ara, he looked up from his stance. "And just who might you be? I presume you aren't that stubborn girl from before?"
"You would be correct." The being twirled the spear with both hands before assuming a fighting stance. "I am the God who these people, the Haan, and this girl worship. My name is Gumiho, the Nine-Tailed Fox. Although...I always hated that name." The God grunted. "Call me Silver instead, sounds more fitting and humiliating for someone of your caliber to get crushed by a mortal being." Silver taunted.
"My aren't we cocky?" Ran readied his grip on his newly dark-fused sword. "But that narcissistic attitude of yours won't get you anywhere with little combat experience 'God'!" He mocked, charging in with his sword.
"I could say the same to you, Private." Silver returned the favor and dashed towards Ran with Ara's spear in hand.
*CLASH!* The two weapons collided. The two locked in a power struggle.
"Not bad." Silver noticed, having a slight advantage over Ran due to the more durable weapon. "But I guess the same can be applied to any ordinary swordsman." She mocked.
"Yeah, but you haven't seen all my tricks yet foxy!" Ran removed his left arm from the handle and extended it to the side, absorbing a bit of the darkness within the blade while keeping his hold against Silver. "BLACK FIRE CLAW!" His left arm is engulfed in shadow as he removed his weapon from the struggle and aimed the claw right at Silver's head.
*GRAZE!* The attack barely hit her, only grazing her cheek. "Tch if I was an ordinary being without these heightened senses, you probably would've won." She bid for time, her cut healing in an immense rate. "Being a God really has it's perks you know." Silver claimed, revealing her healed cut to the shocked Ran.
"I can see you worthy of your title now." Ran respected her. "But that doesn't mean I'm giving up just yet! SHADOW CLONE!" He brought his sword to his chest, the blade itself skyward. In an instant, two Ran's stood side by side in front of Silver.
She raised an eyebrow at this and grinned. "Another trick? Two vs. one, finally a fair fight!" The three charged at each other, exchanging blows, swipes, stabs, and slashes as their little melee rages on. On the outer rim of the former Haan house, the few demons left standing debated with each other as they watched the fight.
"Should we help General Ran? I mean he resorted to the Shadow Clone technique to take down this opponent! What kind of girl is she anyway?" One growled at the other.
"She's the Great Haan's daughter remember? Ara? The sister of that man Ran possessed?"
The first one grinned. "Well good. What better way to solve a sibling fight than to bring company?" With a growl, the demon gathered the rest of the 50-man demon army and charged into the battlefield at the three. The ground around the three combatants rumbled as Ran recalled his clone and the remaining two look on at the horde of demons charging straight at Silver. She glanced at the Demon General with a disapproving look.
"Here comes the cavalry. Looks like the general is nothing without his soldiers."
"Actually this turns out well for me." Ran reflected the bullet. "I'll get the job done much faster with my men by my side, so I suggest you hand over your spirit and the Moon El to us now."
Silver chuckled in defiance. "And bring this whole continent as well as my new-found freedom in jeopardy? I think not."
"Your loss then." With Ran's one-liner, the two resumed their battle with the demon army surrounding them.
One by one the demons try unsuccessfully to hit or even distract the graceful Silver from her match against Ran only to be met with either a stab at the skull or, if they're unfortunate enough, sliced in half for "getting in the way". Several bouts of this routine left the foxy puppeteer bored, instead trying a new more efficient method to get rid of the rest of the demons. Once one last Shadow Port Walker took a stab at attacking Silver, she reversed the roles and literally turned the poor soul into a demon kabob. Keeping it in place, Silver searches through Ara's memories for any possible techniques the young Haan has learned from her youth.
Ah here's one I'd like to try out! The fox muttered to itself, dropping her guard. Thanks to her ruse, all the remaining demons and Ran immediately charged at her. Fools! She thought to herself, stabbing the ground with her spear. After causing minimal initial damage to the ring of enemies closest to her, the entire stone floor beneath their big circle grew black in darkness. The demons fought unsuccessfully against the raging darkness that entangled their legs and hopelessly accepted their fate.
Silver however put on a kitty smile in response. "Bye bye!" She yelled out the skill that her container, Ara, named. "SHADOW RISING!" Immediately the shadows rose and pierced through the bodies of all the demons, later engulfing them into the shadow depths below. However one demon managed to escape.
Ran stood unfazed and undamaged by the attack, raising an eyebrow finding the two alone. "I see you're more powerful than you let on little fox." He mocked, sheathing his blade over the shoulder. "I must bid you adieu for now. There's plenty more El to obtain our power than your precious Moon El." He started to take his leave.
However Silver, still possessing the body, chased after him. "OH NO YOU DON'T DEMON!" She chased him as far as the central plaza, until he disappeared too quickly out of her sight. Suddenly a sudden migraine overtook the Nine-Tailed Fox, bringing her to her knees and dropping the spear. Silver tried her best to stay awake, but the comforting darkness that lured her from inside her eyelids proved too strong. She gave up and laid there, asleep clutching Ara's spear as the mysterious hairpin re-materializes on her other hand.
Present~
"So that's what happened?" Ara asked as soon as Silver finished her tale of the events that happened the night before. Ever since the Great Nine-Tailed Fox Silver joined her via her hairpin, the young Haan couldn't stop politely pestering it about what happened during the time she was asleep from the time she awakened the next morning. Unfortunately for her, Silver's story proved long and tedious, finally ending after a trek past the Great Sander Desert (which, by the way, is way more tiresome than it sounds) through the other peaceful villages unharmed from the demon attack that took the lives of everyone Ara loved.
"Yep I pinky promise on that! You could ask that Ran guy the next time we see him, but he wouldn't be so inclined to share a story of one of his defeats. Man was your brother always so prideful before he got taken over?" The Silver Hairpin talked in such a tone where Ara can imagine a stubborn girl flicking an ear talking casually to one of her friends.
"Y-Yes that's right!" Ara glowed in the same amount of pride Silver described. "The Haan family were a proud race of people who were praised for their excellent etiquette and, more importantly, their martial arts prowess. For example my weapon, the Haan Spear, is a symbol of my family's power as the 'king of the weapons.' The excited Haan rambled on. "Not to mention our social status in the village rivaled the caste named Vellalar which, from the words vel and aalar, means 'ruler of the spear'"!
"Okay okay we get it you know your mythology smarts and all that. You're making me feel bad in not knowing all this stuff!" Ara swore the teasing Fox hinted at a weeping tone. "Now can we get going? I think I can see that great city Hamel from here!" Silver was right, beyond the mountain Ara was climbing lied a vast and grand white city surrounded by water. The young girl couldn't believe her eyes as she gaped at the beautiful sight. The city was grouped up together like sweet tasting vanilla ice cream. It was indeed a wonderful sight for the Haan...
...Until she noticed that some of the little white dots of the city were submerged underwater. "Oh no..." Ara noticed the water engulfing more and more of the little dots closest to the shore.
"Damn." The Hairpin mildly cursed. "Looks like we're running out of time since Ran made it there before we did, damn his 10 hour head-start! C'mon Ara better step it up!" And Ara did step it up, tripping and tumbling down the side of the mountain in her urgency to make it to Hamel quick. Groaning in pain from the painful (but faster) way going down she scrambled to her feet and ran towards the nearest building, Hamel Castle.
*Huff!* *Huff!* Ara breathed heavily from sprinting towards the building, grasping her knees in an effort to stay standing up. Suddenly something whizzed past her in an alarming rate, something black and demonic. Catching it with only a glimpse, she made out a familiar figure. R-Ran?! It was too late for Ara whether or not to confirm the shadow's identity as it was gone as quickly as it showed up.
"HEY! YOU COWARD GET THE HELL BACK HERE!" Ara jumped at the obviously pissed masculine voice.
"KYAAAH!" The jump-scare really spooked the easily scared girl, passing out yet again.
*sigh.* The Silver Hairpin sighed. "Looks like I'll have to take control for now, this Ara girl really needs to handle her body more carefully." With those words Silver possessed Ara's sleeping body, transforming into the same creature it did the other night against Ran. Right as the transformation is complete the voice's speedy footsteps finally reached outside. "Looks like I got that demon now! That'll teach him to scare poor Ara!" Silver gripped the spear and, with timing, managed to score a direct hit at the being who just went outside.
*BONK!* The crashing spear collided with the poor crimson-haired boy's head, pushing him to the ground with a comically drawn bump on his head. Silver realized right away the boy was human and immediately regretted her mistake, letting Ara resume control again.
The Haan woke up with her spear in hand and an unconscious boy on the ground in front of her. Instinctively she switched gazes between her weapon and the boy again and again, blushes appearing on her face more heavily by the second. H-Hang on?! The poor girl racked her brain for an assumption of the events. That boy's clothes...his stomach and back are exposed. With the thought she couldn't help but wonder her eyes at the specified areas at the boy laying down on his back, getting redder than his hair. Did he...did he try to ra-
"E-ELSWORD!" Suddenly a pretty elf in a green dress and her blonde hair tied in a ponytail rushed to the now named boy. The elf turned her gaze to Ara's quizzical and blushed look. "D-Don't worry it's not what you think young girl!" Her voice sounded motherly and soothing. Ara noted. "This young man here is always being so rash and tried to chase the demon that just escaped." After the elf finished talking the rest of her friends arrived.
Ara gulped when she saw four of them. One was a purple-haired girl with pigtails dressed in a very suggestive demon outfit facepalming herself at the sight of the crimson boy Elsword, a handsome and clean looking gentleman doing the exact same thing, a young man the same age as the unconscious boy carrying a very heavy-looking cannon looking on with sweatdrops as he reloads his aforementioned weapon, and a girl with silver hair traveling down her waist standing expressionless and merely fiddled with electricity through her hands.
"O-Oh El..." The purple girl muttered, going up to the elf. "That Elbaka is seriously gonna get some major brain damage and be even more stupid."
"Well served him right for not analytically thinking of any possible consequences for pursuing the demon named Ran." Ara's ears perked up at the electric girl's mention of the demon that raided her village, her brother.
"Hey come on guys!" The cannon boy spoke lighthearted. "Can't we just give him a break already? It's not his fault this pretty lady here smacked him to sleep with her weapon like that." He winked at Ara, forcing out more redness in the Haan's cheeks and an extremely painful slap from the electric girl. "Ow ow geez sorry Eve." The boy apologized to the electric girl, who Ara noted as Eve. "You're the only girl for me you know that?"
"Even as I do accept you as my only intimate partner Chung," Eve called out the cannon boy named Chung, "I stay emotionless regardless. You'd have a hard time trying to please me now in this Battle Seraph form than ever."
"Yeah I know Eve I know." Chung chuckled. Ara stood, still dazzled.
"Hey guys don't forget we still have an unconscious idiot and a lost girl in our hands?" The gentleman, a black haired adult clad in an all white suit, walked up to Ara as she became lightheaded from all the blushing. "Do you have anywhere to go young lady?"
Ara could hardly speak. "O-oh n-no-not rea-real-really!" Her words came quickly that she had to repeat them again in order to get the message clear.
"I see." The gentleman thought. "Why don't you come with us back at the hotel we're staying at in Hamel? You look like you came from a long journey and maybe very exhausted. Am I right?" Now that he mentioned it, Ara's legs feel stiff from all that walking and her whole body ached from tumbling down that mountain. She quickly nodded in gratitude. "Great, Rena can you help this young lady over here." He motioned to the elf to the Haan. "I'll go grab sleeping boy here. Too bad this is probably the only time all of us will ever catch any peace during our travels." The gentleman joked, earning a laugh from the rest of his friends.
"Sure Raven!" Rena, the elf, obliged, meeting up with Ara. "Here can you walk alright?" The elf grabbed her arm in permission.
"Yes, but I appreciate the help. Thank you." Ara thanked the elf as the latter wrapped her arm around her. The group headed back to Hamel in order to discuss the poor Haan's (and Silver, her hairpin form still unnoticed) situation.
Me: *tied to stake* HELP ME!
Ara: *unties Fire*
Me: THANK YOU! *glomps Ara*
Everyone Else and Ara: OAO
Me: ...Oh right the pairings for this story. Hm...I guess the usual: Elsword x Aisha, Raven x Rena, Chung x Eve.
Ara: What about me D:
Me: Well you're the main character, that's good enough :3