Captaincy of Croatia-Slavonia
To an outside observer, it would appear as though Hungary was overcome by civil war.
Hungarian, Holy Roman and Ottoman soldiers all fought across the region intent on leaving no quarter. Fields were razed to keep the enemy from using the grain, civilians were forcefully recruited or brutalized, caravans were raided for anything of worth and city upon city was burned in the blaze of war. No area within this captaincy of the kingdom was left untouched, a fitting metaphor for the war that was fought for the soil of Hungary.
Or so it appeared.
To anyone who had true knowledge of this conflict, they would know that the true war did not wage for the kingdom of Hungary, but for the souls of it's people.
What is believed to be a civil war was in truth a slaughter.
When Holy Roman and Ottoman reinforcements arrived to quell the apparent unrest spread by the "malfestation" of Graf Dumas' uprising, they expected to face nothing than spears held by mortal men.
Instead they faced fearless and even maddened yet completely synchronized soldiers led by Graf Dumas' successor. A young man who was believed to have been one of the Graf's holy warriors before he overthrew his master. Now the boy openly claimed the Graf's lands and desired to control of the two empires to the west and south of Hungary.
At least as a start.
His armies were further led by warriors and monsters of remarkable power and recognition. Often entire platoons fled at the sight of Azure Knight despite confirmation of his death 17 years ago or from the large golem wielding an ax that could clove through the walls of a fortified castle with little effort or the flexible monster that was rumored to have once guarded Vercci's Tomb. Sometimes, officers would be found slain in their tents with naught but a black feather left upon their ritualistically defiled corpse.
Much like the one that Tira brushed her hair with as she stalked her prey.
She currently waited in the trees surrounding a large organized camp of Ottoman soldiers. Thus far, it seemed to be the central commanding presence of the Ottoman front. The regiment's commander was reportedly a well-tutored strategist whom managed to adapt the otherwise inflexible Turks into a force that withstood most assaults. Since strength of arms seemed to be having little affect and her Ravager was currently abroad in the Mediterranean Sea, Tira decided that the best way to kill a snake was to remove the head.
Her raven flew to her and perched onto her shoulder. Tira pet the bird and ordered it to rejoin the pack while she moved through the security breech which the bird had already marked. She moved as gracefully as the feather that she allowed to fall before she leapt, her ring blade cut through the spine of an unsuspecting guard and spun with it's wielder's momemtum to hack through his head in five different locations. She moved into a nearby tent where a soldier was having his way with a peasant girl that had likely seduced him.
While tempting, the scene of coitis distracted the soldier so she decided to spare the man and let him enjoy his spoils.
A few moments later, a dozen wandering soldiers lied upon the ground silently clutching their slashed throats as they drowned in a pool of their own blood. Blood that created a trail to Tira's target. Confident that the rest of the camp was asleep, Tira entered the Commander's tent and prepared to grant him a 'Sky Burial'.
Except that the tent was empty.
"Looking for someone?" Tira smirked in anticipation as she turned in time for her Ringblade to parry the quick slash of an iaido blade. Tira swung several counter slashes at the blade's wielder but only cut an artistic jacket that reminded Tira of one person. Said woman had now sheathed her sword and stared into Tira's eyes. Another blond, but this one was paler than an Alexandra as if Japanese or someone pretending to be Japanese.
"So you're the leader of these pathetic worms?" Tira asked her foe and embedded the blade into the floor before sitting on it, "How sad...the Ottomans are really desperate to send a woman to lead men!"
"Their true leader fled his men in the thick of battle and they turned to me for help." Setsuka replied as the camp around them began to awaken, "Return to your master foul raven. You will shed no more blood this day."
"I've had my share darling..." Tira laughed as several troops approached with spears brandished towards the careless assassin, "But...you have a bit of a bigger problem. You hear those growls from around you?"
"My lady!"
"Calm yourselves!" Setsuka commanded as the sound of malfested demons emerged from around the camp, "All hands to the barricades! Do not allow them to penetrate the perimeter!"
"But you're ignoring me?" In a flurry of green and steel, Tira's blade had cut down the troops surrounding her as Setsuka crouched into a ready position, "Nice trick, but Patroklos told me everything about that style! Your speed only works if you can get close enough-" Before Tira could enter her spin, Setsuka was already behind her with an unsheathed blade.
"You are correct, I did teach Patroklos the Shinden Tsushima-ryu BattÅjyutsu."Setsuka acknowledged as the grey haired assassin cried out from the wounds inflicted to her thighs above the knees and to her forearms. Resulting in clean, but painful wounds that caused the girl to drop her weapon, "But I didn't teach him everything."
"Got me good...I'm impressed..." Tira laughed with pain and pleasure while her wounds began to regenerate and she balanced herself upon her blade, "If you had done that 17 years ago...I'd be dead, but things are a little different now..."
"Then stand. Stand up, monster." Setsuka sheathed her sword and kept her back to the laughing Tira while her troops engaged Tira's now attacking warriors on the perimeter of the camp, "I will cut you down as many times as you wish."
"You're only mortal and you're old."
"With age comes wisdom and with eternity comes stagnation."
"Let's put that to the test!"
"I intend to."
Valentine Private Mansion, Prague
Hilde's spear swiped at the flying steel fragments that levitated around her opponent. The white haired woman in a thin violent heavily revealing leotard turled in place while Hilde was forced onto the defensive, using the length of her spear's shaft to deflect most of the woman's shards. Seeing an opening, Hilde stabbed towards her foe only for the spear to be entangled in the reforming whip of the woman's living sword.
"When will you stop falling for that?" Ivy Valentine inquired before nodding to the observing Siegfried, "Glad to see that you've kept her sharp!"
"She's the one who helped me more than I helped her."
"That's a lie and you know it." Hilde said before thrusting forward with the spear, Ivy's grip preventing the blade from hitting the torso as Hilde released the spear and stopped her short sword just inches from Ivy's neck before she realized what had happened, "You're the one whose softened..."
"You're still alive, wasn't that a good enough hint?" Ivy asked while relaxing and yawning with sudden disinterest, "Until that "Holy Warrior" came, I never thought that I'd need to harden again. A good choice Siegfried...as always..."
"Believe...I agree-"
"And yet you don't understand the gravity of your mistake!" Ivy sarcastically laughed as she came to a book shelf and found a worn-book, "How could you forget that Soul Calibur is intrinsically the same sort of entity as Soul Edge? You of all people should never forget that! Yet, you believed that it would be an excellent idea to hand the Holy Sword to a Tainted Child whose very thoughts and heart fed the energies of Soul Edge already within him!"
"Yet you still helped him."
"Because I made the mistake of trusting your husband." Ivy replied to Hilde while Siegfried grimly stared at his feet, "Besides...the second time around, I thought that the boy had learned his lesson. I trusted that Siegfried knew what he was doing...show you how much I've softened...haven't I? If it were up to me...his sister would have made a better wielder for Soul Calibur."
"Perhaps she would." Siegfried agreed, remembering the last time that he had seen Sophitia's daughter, "But now we cannot bicker over whose to blame for the past...we must focus on the present. Can you help us?"
"Why should I?" Ivy asked to Hilde's shock, "Soul Edge is now gone...consumed between the Holy Ravager's new blade or now conflicting within Pyrrha. I no longer have a stake in this fight, so why should I return to it?"
"Because you're just as much at fault for this as I am." Siegfried answered while looking into Ivy's eyes, "You helped Patroklos unlock Soul Calibur's power and...you admitted to the mistake of trusting me. In any case, Patroklos will soon hunt down anyone related to the Soul Blades to enslave or destroy them...including you."
"So you offer your protection in exchange for my assistance?" Siegfried nodded as Ivy sensually paced towards him, "Oh my...Siegfried...how can you hope to protect me...when you can't protect your own men?"
"We could always overpower you and take you with us." Hilde pointed out with her spearhead held out between Ivy and Siegfried, "Offering you a choice is a formality..."
"I rather like my estate...I don't think I want to leave..."
"Then tell us everything we need to know about Patroklos and Pyrrha's conditions."
"As far as the boy is concerned? Kill him as soon as you have the chance." Siegfried winced from Ivy's blunt advice, "Any good within that boy's soul has been consumed and destroyed by the Soul Embrace. Soul Edge used the evil within Patroklos to gain a foothold and consume Soul Calibur...that child is now too dangerous to keep alive in any capacity. His Soul and that Blade have essentially become one through the Embrace."
"How do we stop him?"
"You can't."
"We've beaten-"
"This is not Soul Edge...even I cannot fathom any familiarity..." Ivy stated, "The only chance that you have is to create a new sword consisting of equal and opposite energies to the warped power in Patroklos' sword. But...that is impossible."
"Ivy...you're alive after having your soul removed from your body." Hilde objected, "I refuse to believe that there is nothing that can be done to stop Patroklos. The Edgemaster figured this would happen and sent Maxi's group to Ibelin in Palestine."
"So the Edgemaster is hoping to find the Secrets of the Ancient?" Ivy said outloud and then laughed, "The pirate's group is on a hopeless mission...I know exactly where he's going and what he will find."
"What did you find?"
"Nothing." Ivy answered to Siegfried's disappointment, "If the Edgemaster is referring to the ancient temple where Algol created Soul Calibur...it is now nothing but empty ruins. Crusaders had ransacked and pillaged the temple long before I came there...It seems that you've sent them to their deaths."
"How?"
"The girl...Pyrrha...you said that Patroklos had stabbed her with Soul Calibur, no?" Ivy asked, "That's how this whole mess was started. Which means that there is a single fragment of the sword embedded into the girl...now she has two conflicting energies within her body. If she ever becomes emotionally unstable...Maxi and whoever is with him may be in trouble..."
"How long do we have to stand like this?"
"For as long as I say." Maxi barked back while pacing in front of ZWEI and Leixia, whom Maxi and Bangoo had forced into a balancing act as punishment. Both youths were positioned with the heels of their bare feet upon the edge of their own swords while Maxi paced back and forth between them and the circle of various assorted broken blades and daggers that Maxi had scavenged from the battle earlier that day, "Or as long as it takes for the others to get back here."
"Why do we-" ZWEI nearly lost balance and immediately shut his mouth to refocus and keep from falling, "Pirate..."
"Proud of it too, right boy?" The wolf barked in agreement with Maxi while yawned, "Hey Bangoo? How long have they been like this?"
"Ten minutes I believe-"
"Burn for me! Perish Now!" Just as a violent roar erupted from within the cave, the ground shook and both warriors lost balance along with their propped weapons. They leapt outside of the ring of blades though Leixia's was far more graceful and ZWEI fell upon his chin, "DIE!"
"That came from inside the cave!" Leixia cried out and saw the Dvara-Yuga flare up with energy while a glowing emblem appeared on the wolf's forehead as it growled, "What's wrong boy?"
"He senses the same presence that we all sense." Bangoo replied while looking over to ZWEI and Maxi, "Is it Pyrrha?"
"Yeah..."
"Damn it! Let's go!"
"Hold it kid! That might not be a good idea!"
"What are you talking about? Natsu is in there with her! I've seen her cut through a wall, she'll collapse the whole cave on both of them and get themselves killed!"
"Listen to yourself Zwei! Do you really think that running in there is going to help her?" Maxi grabbed the cuff of Zwei's jacket and forced him against a fallen log, "Don't run headfirst without looking kid! That almost got you killed once before and there won't always be a fairy around to save your ass!"
"A what?"
"We'll explain later!" Leixia said to Bangoo while she ran into the cave followed by the wolf, "Master! Get Xiba and Cassandra and bring them here as soon as you can!"
"Damn it Leixia!"
"I will follow them." Before Maxi could protest, Bangoo had already charged in after the chinese girl and left Maxi and Zwei behind to feel the increasing vibrations coming from within that cave.
"Damn kids! You get Cassandra and Xiba, I'll make sure that they don't kill each other."
"Maxi-"
"That's an order boy!"
"I don't take orders from you-"
"Listen here boy! Your Commander put you under my command, that means when I say jump, you ask how high! Got that?" Maxi stated, ZWEI fumed in protest but eventually understood who was in command of the situation, "Now go fetch those two and bring them back here! We'll need both them to calm her down!"
"From Soul Edge? I thought it was gone."
"It's not Soul Edge that's the problem..." Maxi corrected, "It's Soul Calibur...or whatever's left of it..."
Author's Notes:
What ill news will Ivy's omen bring upon Maxi's company? Can ZWEI find Xiba and Cassandra in time? Will they and Leixia be able to calm Pyrrha from whatever is affecting her? Stay tuned to find out.
Yay! Setsuka's back!
To answer the inevitable question, yes I'm planing an Iaido showdown between Setsuka and Patroklos.
And in case you haven't heard the news, here it is:
At the San Diego Comic-Con, Namco Bandai officially announced "Soul Calibur 2 HD Online" which is essentially a current generation port of the Second Soul Series game released ten years ago.
The game will feature most if not all of the single-player offerings, characters and other goodies from the original game, but apart from the enhanced graphics, the game will also include an online component so that you can battle people around the world. So far, the only guest character confirmed is Heihachi from the original PS2 with no word on the other two guest characters Link and Spawn. The game will be released for the Xbox 360/PS3 at some point in the Fall.
In addition, Masaaki Hoshino will be replacing Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada as producer for the Soulcalibur series regarding future games.
So that's the general gist of things.
I find it interesting.
Why?
First off, why is Namco actually funding an HD port of a game from the previous generation to be released within mere months of the Xbox One and PS4 coming out? Is this there way of putting in a semi-launch title that they figure most people will buy? The two consoles are now backwards compatible after all, so it's not like buying these games would be a complete waste of money. (Unless you believe that ports are a complete waste of money)
Why Soul Calibur 2? That game was released ten years ago, you'd think that they'd make an HD re-release of Soul Calibur 3 instead since it was essentially the high point of the entire series and the mid-point of the game's story. Perhaps it's because Soul Calibur 2 is regarded as the best game in the series after Soul Calibur and it was the game that brought the series into the mainstream spotlight.
Or it's all a big test.
I'd say that by now, Project Soul sees that Soul Calibur V was a huge disappointment to most of it's fanbase. The only people who genuinely liked the package as it was shipped out were hardcore gamers and apologists who think that it's wrong to be critical of stuff. So maybe this game is intended as a testing ground to see what they should focus on in the next game to prevent another repeat of SCV.
Basically they'd be looking for feedback on missed characters, SP content, combat dynamics, online content and other material that fans associate with Soul Calibur. Using this feedback, they'll know how to tailor SCVI so that it doesn't alienate over half of it's established fanbase up to that point by making wild assumptions.
Or maybe it's a cheap HD remake intended for the sake of making money.
What do you guys think?