Step after step, rock after rock, Nall made his way quickly up the mountain. He wasn't exactly an experienced climber, but in The World, many things seem easier. Like hacking off a birdmans head.

The lifeless body fell down the mountain, not able to hit the bottom before disappearing. There were even less monsters now then before. Nall had managed to miss 90% of them by just sheer speed, and avoided fighting most the others. Even still, booting it up the mountain wasn't exactly a jog around the park.

He was above the clouds now, the peek was close. There were no more monsters on this side of the cloud, and Nall was greatful for that. He was exhausted, and knew that that is exactly how his prey wants him. If he wasn't careful, the roles may be reversed. His thoughts were focused and there was not going to be anything to break that focus. The boy hungered for blood, and was going to get his fair share.

Nall's hands finally touched the top of the mountain. The top was a large platform, just like someone had cleaved the top of the mountain. There were various rocks littered around the ground and sand lightly lined the ground. The sand would make menouvering a little more difficult at high speeds. There were also large metal pikes reaching up into the sky. Their ends were sharp enough to pierce nearly anything. The most noticable structure on the top though was what looked like a massive throne. Except, much too large for any human or monster. The 'seat' however was more of a perch, and was covered in gold like the reast of the structure. The back was decoratively adorned with jewels, different precious metals, and symbols of which not even Nall knew what they meant.

In the middle of the platform was a massive boulder, and atop it the one whom he was waiting to see. Nall grinned menicingly as the hacker elite stood up. He was a typical longarm, dressed in standard long arm clothes. The main color was orange and was highlighted by gold. His eyes had two red tatoo's cutting them down the center. His body was buff, and his face was emotionless.

"Finally.... I will tear you to pieces...."
Nall was a little disturbed, he was used to the hackers taunting him and teasing him. The one standing before him was the only one that didn't.

"Fool."
A low rumble rippled through the air. Nall frowned. He liked it better when the hackers talked more. But he wanted blood, and now, and wasn't going to wait for it. Kicking up one of the stones into his hand he whipped it at the hacker, and ran foreward.

------------------------------

A loud rumble could be heard from above. Nayru's head dropped.

"SHIT! He's made it to the top! GOGOGOGOOOOOO! Come on! Get your asses up and move, if you're too weak, wait here and join us when you can! COME ON!!"
Nayru, freaking out again flew around in circles. Nighthand wondered if AI's could get heart attacks. None the less, he gathered the group and began running up the ramp.

They stopped at the top, staring at pure rock.

"Stupid bird! This is a dead end!"
Nayru, finally fed up with the word screamed in Nighthands face.

"I. AM. NOT. A. BIRD!!!! The peek is right above us, blast through the rock you moron!"
Nighthand chose to keep his comment to himself and switch all his stats to strength. With a strong uppercut, the rocks above them cracked, and fell. Reinier took a paticulairly heavy rock to the head.

When they walked out onto the peek what they saw was expected. A heated battle. However, what was suprising was that Nall was holding his own. Despite the exhaustion, Nall able to dodge and attack flawlessly. But what the group saw amazed them. Nearly every single attack Nall made was blocked by a mixture of dense sand, rock, and diamond. The attacks that did go through were usually quite weak because they had to be quick, and seemed to do little to hurt the longarm.

The hacker noticed the players and glanced at them, not changing the emotion on his face. Nall also stopped, for a brief moment forgetting about his desire and wondering why the group had come. Nayru flew towards Nall, and the group fanned out along the mountain top.

"Time to introduce myself..."
The long arm paused, survying the scene. After some time had passed, he continued.

"I am Jett, Master of Earth."
The group was quite suprised the hacker wasn't smiling or taunting them. He was short and to the point. It was an eerie difference. Jett then put his fingers to his mouth and whistled quite loudly. The sound carried far and was painful to the ears. On que, a dark spec could be seen in the distance. With amazing speed, the dark spec turned into a large monster and landed upon the perched throne.

"I can not fight all of you. Meet, Oumonotori!"
The creature was a massive bird. It body filled up the entire throne. It's wingspan was no less then the entire peak platform. It's feathers were golden brown with orange. It's underbelly was a lighter gold, and it's eyes were solid black. A terifying shreak came from it's razor sharp beak, one that brought the players to their knee's. It's talons were just as sharp, and strong enough to turn a mac truck into a pop can.

Oumonotori took flight and circled the mountain, shrieking. Nall resumed his attack upon Jett before the group could take their eye's of the massive bird. Oumonotori swooped in quickly and tried to make a grab for Reinier, but the attack was dodged, barely. A stream of blood ran down his shoulder where the monster's talon's grazed him. Nayru flew towards the group again.

"Nall can't fight Jett on his own! We need to help him! And we have to be careful of Oumonotori! He'll tear us to shreds if we're not careful!"
As the flying cat said that, MeGan Don fell down into the center of the group. Nall was too occupied with Jett to care about the bird, and was hit from being just a little too close. This left an opportunity for Jett. He lunged forward, stabbing his spear into the blademaster. However, the blade went right though his body. Nall grinned and kicked the spear upwards, stabbing at Jett's body. The blade was stopped by the earth barrier again though.

Nall jumped backwards and glared at the hacker. Jett's facial expression didn't change, but Nall somehow saw that he was displeased.
"So...You have taken the Cape... It does not matter, I shall kill you slowly and painfully."

-----------------------------------------------------

Oumonotori! <!Boss!>
Large bird monster. It's size is one of the most impressive things about it. Sharp talons and beak will easily cleave through most defenses. Powerful attacks.
Att: 7
Acc: 6
Def: 4
MAtt: 7
MAcc: 6
MDef: 6
Speed: Incredibly fast

-All level 2 and 3 Earth spells.
-Wing Tornado: Usuing it's wings, an incredibly powerful gust of air is shot. While the damage is minimal, it is used to knock you off the cliff to your instant death.
-More techniques will be added as delt with.

Jett <!Boss!>
The strong, silent type. Jett is one of the hacker elites and is tough as...rock. His element is earth and has some powerful abilities.
Att: 8
Acc: 8
Def: 9
MAtt: 6
MAcc: 7
MDef: 9
Speed: Slow

-Techniques will be written down as shown to you.

Right, yeah, your file wouldn't have helped too muhg. Anyways. Like you saw in the post, a controllable 'form' of sand, rock, diamond, and other such minerals. That's basically all Earth Barrier is. Jett uses it to protect himself from attack on instinct, making it near automatic.

_________________
Nall//Blademaster | SWORD | Time Headband | Kagayuzen | Hands of Life | White Boots | {Life Drain}{Skill Drain} <Rue Crack> <Rue Revolver> <Ap Do> <Miu Lei> <Ol Repth> <Rip Maen>

The cave seemed oddly more abundant in the realm of noises than he had previously noticed, the sheer consuming silence of his mind making everything seem louder now, more explosive. His senses were hazed, dazed, a small swarm of slipping control that had the Heavy Blade churning with frustration. Anger seemed to assist him, however, and it wasn't long before such bombardment was shut down and shut out. When he had a firm grip on everything once again, he rose to his feet, broad-set shoulders hunched with a growing tension that rolled over his back. It was growing time that him and Nighthand had a little chit chat. The Bladesmage had gotten him into this mess, as indirectly as that may have been, and the former college student had reached his limit when his body had rearranged itself. A stern, almost stoic peace has washed over his expression as he walked towards the man, a small little speech building itself with each step he took. The words were going to be impressive, moving, a false sense of arrogance filling the man as he neared ever closer. The screeches of the odd little bird beast derailed his train of thought and had him focusing on things he supposed were more...important. More pressing.

"SHIT! He's made it to the top! GOGOGOGOOOOOO! Come on! Get your asses up and move, if you're too weak, wait here and join us when you can! COME ON!!" Its rushed words were ignored, being already standing as he was, but it even as a distant echo the creature was getting on his nerves.

The argument between the things species was again a distant annoyance, something that echoed in a distance, a whisper. The Heavy Blade was still trying to form some ill begotten, assaulting speech on Nighthand and his mind was still wrapping around the planning process. Again he found himself interrupted, the man having to force himself to stifle a laugh as a rock bounded across Reinier's head. With the now-opened path, Zan found himself redirected a third time, the sound of a rather impressive battle waging not too far off. By the time the small group had reached Nall and his opponent, they were rather unrelenting in their attacks, a pattern forming of hit and dodge, hit and barely damage, small glancing strikes. Though Zan expected the hacker, what he could only assume was one, to be infuriated by such badly forming results, he seemed rather at peace with it; focused. The intervention of the battle-worn group, however, brought distractions for the pair. A harsh, high pitched whistle chuckled promises of broken ear drums had Zan's hearing been amped. A couple moments of canted waiting and an impressively massive slab of poultry careened its way to a grip on the throne, intimidation rather easily obtained.

A horrible, window-shattering shriek spilled forth from the razor existence of the beak, everyone helplessly driven to waver on their knees. Zan hadn't even realized he had done it, a small blip of time lost. Was it his Beast? God...that would be incredibly bad timing. If there was one thing the Heavy Blade was going to try and steer clear of, it was becoming that...thing again. He rather lavished the control he had at the moment and didn't plan on giving it up any time soon. The memories of the all consuming agony still chattered tales in his bones, sensory images flying left and right. The pain had been so overpowering he had lost himself in its pursuits, completely unable to do anything but scream for a long wash of moments. Shaking his head, he beat back the images, driven to prove himself without the use of his...ability. Was it smart? No, not so much. Hell, if anything it was downright selfish, but Zan couldn't give less of a crap at the point in time. If anything, Zan would show he was able to take care of himself in any situation. He would present himself as a valuable asset, or die trying and looking incredibly foolish.

With an exhausted grunt, Zan lofted himself to his feet, a small stumble hinting at the fatigue that plagued him, stalked him so rigorously. Besides being incredibly painful, the transformation proved to sap a good slice of his energy. Being forced to his knees by something that would have shattered anything breakable within a fifty mile radius hadn't helped. A dull ringing, a static white noise still hung in his ears as he bolted forward, a slight dampener on his reflexes. If anything came to sweep up behind him, he knew he was royally screwed. There was an edge of serenity with that realization, something that brought a sigh from the plush planes of his lips. Jett braced himself as Zan approached, positioning his weapon for strike. With Nall's advancements, however, he proved to offer that perfect second of hesitation, hesitation that made his movements predictable. With a confidence shining in his morally diluted eyes, the hacker jammed his weapon forward, an elegant thrust that just clipped the edge of Zan's shin as he leaped up, the muscles of his legs swelling as he called upon a form he was familiar with. Though it was nothing, nothing in comparison to the large monster he had become before, it was something he knew he had a grip on.

Though the jump had been rather strategically executed, it hadn't given him quite the distance he had wished. Realizing this mid-leap, the Heavy Blade used a good kick of Jett's head to give him that needed oomph. The hacker's head jerked forward in response, a small snarl curling his lips as he was opened to a temporary attack. That assistance rendered, Zan continued towards his true target, the heaving weight of his Absorber already half swung by the time he shouted the collapsing wood incantation. The Juk rune spun in a mad twirl above the massively large bird's head, a signal of its intentions. As a barrier of thicket surrounded the creature, Zan threw all of his weight into the strike, hoping to catch Oumonotori in the belly the same moment his spell crushed in upon it. The ivory gleam of the Absorber was aglow with the beat down of the sun above them, a light that was suddenly snuffed out, denied as the beast loomed over him. Nearing the end of his jump, Zan was forced to swallow a throatful of feathers as the wing collided with his face. His angle had been too awkward to hit with its claws, but the wing held just enough punch (in conjunction with his jump) to launch him back the way he came. The moment the former college student’s body thudded, bounced, and skid along the mixture of earth, the spell finished itself, a cloud of bramble choking at the bird's form, confining it.

Shrieks of pain and agitation flooded the arena, a number of notable scratches trickling with blood as the skill cleared and left its body visible once more. Groaning, Zan turned, easing himself onto his side, coughing through the kicked up cloud of sand and floating particles of dirt. Already he felt the need to simply lie down and rest, simply let everyone else finish the job. Knowing full well that wasn't the path to earning the respect he so zealously sought, the Heavy Blade grudgingly got to his knees, palms supported his weight, unsteady breaths quivering from throat. The man's muscles ached and complained as he managed to lift himself from his hands, coming to sit on the back of his legs. It was a stupid position to put himself in when in a battle situation, but a good chunk of him simply didn't care at the moment. A quick breather had been earned, he thought, with the defense slip of the hacker and the successful (well....mostly) attack on the 'Oumonotori'. If no one else agreed, they could kindly go to hell.

_________________
Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
Wishlist
Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).

“SHIT!” Nayru screamed. Reinier snorted and fell over, hitting the ground, as he woke up. He rubbed his eyes as he watched everyone scrambling, and following the bird. Reinier clambered to his feet, Taimat becoming wings upon his back, and followed along with the group. Thoughts of who the group was up against flooded his mind, but one thing was certain to the player: they were up against a terribly strong foe to freak out Nayru more then normal.

Reinier made it just as Nighthand uppercut through the rock to reveal a pathway to the top. A few rocks subtly hit Reinier atop the head, not bothering him much. He followed behind the group and climbed up from the dark, dank cave to the breezy, high, mountain top. Two players fought in the background, Nall and a Long Arm. He muttered something as the two stopped their fighting for a bit. “I am Jett, Master of Earth,” echoed through the field.

Sheena’s loud, obnoxious voice flooded in to his thoughts as she remembered something she said to them at the hot springs, back when he was still new to being in a coma. “Jett has the power of earth, and has ways to protect himself by using it!” He shuddered as he remembered this. He looked down at his bracelet at his gem of the element Gan, and sighed, knowing the armor would be more of a weapon towards the group then the enemy. A loud whistling echoed though the field, a horrible shriek that pounded in Reinier’s ears.

He looked up to see a massive bird speeding towards him. His eyes widened as he heard its’ name announced by Jett, “Meet, Oumonotori!” Reinier should have seen this coming, as they had already fought a larger then normal spider, and mini spiders, and birdmen before that. So naturally the pattern would follow with a giant bird zooming towards Reinier’s head. He looked up and realized the bird loomed overhead, and gave him just amount of time to leap to the right to avoid getting hit. He rolled on his back and stayed in a kneeling position as he watched the bird circle overhead.

Nayru began shrieking and barking orders like always, making drawing attention away from everything, including the MeGan Don the bird cast upon the group. A few rocks pounded Reinier in the head, the smaller shards from a massive rock of the spell. Reinier stood to his feet, pulling out the gem of Rue. Zan, acting before thinking, bum rushed the bird. Reinier sighed and turned his head away and began thinking on how to attack the bird.

Naturally it would be easiest to chop off its’ wings and let it fall to the earth below and blow up on impact, but that’s not going to fly… haha, bad pun. I could blind it with my Shuriken’s skill, but that thing’s pretty fast… I’ll just have to hope for the best.

Reinier clutched the gem, causing the shuriken and bracer to form in a shine of blue light. He didn’t connect the shuriken to the bracer, but instead placed his hand through the middle of the massive weapon. He gulped and spun the weapon around. The shuriken spun around his wrist, and almost instantly an orb of pure water energy formed. He closed his eyes and kept his right arm outstretched, his left arm pointed towards the ground. The orb grew to become a bit uncontrollable to the Heavy Blade, as the shuriken went from his wrist to a little bit below his elbow. “Please let this hit…” Reinier muttered.

He cringed from losing all his SP points, and that the fact he could feel pain emitting from his arm. Cords shot out from the bracer in to the ground, and almost instantly shot back up from the ground around the bird’s ankles. Reinier had been aiming towards the monster’s chest, and like he hoped, the bird looked down towards the cords. “Now…” he muttered.

The shuriken shot back, then shot forward in to the orb of energy. The shuriken shot all the way forward, and even after the orb flew towards the monster, the shuriken continued forward until it hit the ground. The massive weapon hit the ground, and began to roll in a circle until it began to spin around in a circle on the ground. Reinier cringed in pain as he fell down to his knees, gripping his wrist. He looked down to see his hand had become more or less solid ice, and it continued all the way up his arm until his elbow where it became cracked. He flicked his wrist to find no feeling at all. He let out a silent profanity and rolled forward in to the ground while still gripping his wrist. “Well I’m useless for now…” He yelled in to the sand.

_________________


Reinier's Wishlist: Sakabatou|Sharktooth
Abraxas' Wishlist: Complementry|Summon
The Hack's Wishlist: Wall lvl 2

"You alright?"

Lighteria blinks out of his haze of thoughts and turns towards the gray-eyed heavy blade. His heart jumps and a twinge of anxiousness surges through his body. The question is a lot harder than what it appears to be on the surface, at least for Lighteria. The ultimate truth is that he's really NOT alright. The twin blade was never good with heights so the climb had taken a lot out of him. And considering he'd nearly died twice during the battle with Klippe and more than half the orbs had been killed after he split, his head was definitely left spinning. Kit was also rather tired and ended up taking a cat nap not even an earthquake could interrupt. The twin blade, at the moment, had been pondering where a safe place to put her would be, but with the way things are at the moment, NO WHERE really seems safe. And with Nall acting crazy and the team cut down to only four players climbing up this god forsaken rock to help him, the twin blade can't help but feel things are just a little bleak. In addition, having never really talked casually with Zan before, heck with most anyone before, his face clearly shows he doesn't know how to react. Especially after the beast thing he saw him do. Lighteria always does his best not to offend people, but the consequences of offending HIM could be rather dire.

So even after all that consideration, the player finds himself STILL at a loss for words. He nervously opens his mouth to talk...

"SHIT! He's made it to the top! GOGOGOGOOOOOO!"

Zan's head turns towards the bird just in time to not notice the twin blade collapsing to the dirt out of shock.



After a few minutes, dragging his kitten along on his shoulder...

“Meet, Oumonotori!” The sound of the bird's earth shattering shrieks is just enough to rouse kit from her slumber.

"Man... It's about time you woke up"

"Mew meow mew mew meow meow mew mew meow! (Well excuse me for wanting to be fresh for the big fight!)"

"Sheesh." Lighteria shakes his head and puts kit on the ground, taking his slayers out from his belt. "Alright Kit, here's the plan. I know you're fast, I saw you last time you spotted someone with a fish from the Mac Anu river. I want you to use that speed to keep out of danger, but most importantly you have to act as Nall's support. KEEP. NALL'S. HEALTH. HIGH. Ok? You and I have plenty of SP for repth spells so don't be stingy."

"Mew meow! Mew... Mew meow meow mew? (Piece of cake! Umm... so what'll you be doing?)"

Lighteria turns his head towards his fighting teammates.

"I'm taking that bird down."

Kit blinks and watches the twin blade rush off towards the giant throne on the opposite end of the mountain top. After a second she kitty-shrugs and races across the sand and dirt towards Nall until he's just close enough to be in range of spell casting... and the repthing begins. In the mean time, the twin blade quickly climbs up onto the seat of the bejeweled throne. Another leap later and he's on the arm rest. Ironically, the jewels and decorations make for good foot and hand holds to use as the twin blade climbs up the back of the monumental chair.

Stupid... fsking... little... HAD to be a giant hawk thingy... couldn't have been a chickadee or something...

Despite the grumbling, the twin blade makes it to the top of the throne and watches the gigantic bird fly around the mountain, taking some rather painful looking attacks from Zan and Reinier.

This next jump would have to be perfect...

He grips his slayers tightly in his hands and waits for the bird. The giant winged beast quickly heads to the other side of the mountain, clearly trying to position itself for a good attack, not noticing the twin blade in its focus on the ones who did damage. As soon as it's within range...

"Yaaahh!!!" He squeaks out nervously, holding his blades above his head, plummeting towards the avian back. His heart races as the golden feathers hurtle closer towards him, the wind whipping his face. He knows that he'll either perfect his technique of latching onto monster's backs or be bucked off the side of the cliff.

With his stomach in knots and his heart beating like an industrial pump, his slayers drive themselves powerfully into the mass of feathers, quickly drilling into the flesh of the beast. Its ear-piercing screech rings out across the mountain as the twin blade digs his blades in firmly into its back, his face filled with giant feathers.

"Pfft*! Tooey* Ugh, he'd better not have fleas or something." Slowly, inexorably, the player extracts one of his blades and buries it back into the bird's flesh, a little further along its back, in effect 'climbing' up the beast towards its head. The process is somewhat slow, considering how much the bird struggles and flaps to get him off. However, since its wings and claws can’t reach its own back, the twin blade is relatively unimpeded in his ascent.

Eventually, the twin blade makes it to the beast's head, gripping tight on both its down feathers and his blades. He swallows in nervousness and extracts his blades from the beast's back hoping for dear life it won't buck him off while he attacks. With an enraged yell, he plunges the blades into the beast's eyes, blood and eye goop spurting out onto his arms. The beast screeches out death and rage and flaps around blindly, the twin blade gripping his blades as hard as he can, trying not to fall off. He swallows in fear and suddenly realizes the only way he'll get back on the mountain top is if he's lucky enough to fall off that way. Regardless, the player yanks the blades from side to side, desperately trying to steer the bird in one way or the other in a panicked bid to get it to crash to the ground or hit one of the towering pikes on the mountain top.

Whether that bid succeeds or not doesn’t matter to Lighteria though. The giant bird finally manages to twist its neck enough to slide the blades out of its flesh, leaving the twin blade defenseless against the wild buck that sends him hurtling and spinning over the edge of the cliff.

_________________
Lv. 37 Twin Blade (180 SP)
Weapon: Rashou (Thunder Coil- 30, Suvi Lei- 20, Mumyn Lei- 30) (Life Drain)
Armor: Holy Tree Mail (Juk Kruz- 20) - Scarab Earring (La Repth- 20, Rip Maen- 40) - Time Sandals (Ap Do- 15) - Forest Gloves (Juk Kruz- 20)
GP: 14384

Wish list (In order of priority): Angel halo accessory, chibi angel wings, Bone Armor, Professional

Lighteria: "Obsessively updating my profile since Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:10 pm"

Nighthand heaved himself up out of their hole last out of everyone, making sure the rear was guarded. Not that they really needed it. Jett was through sending little monsters at them, since it plainly wouldn’t stop them. That giant bird on the other hand, could easily decimate them if they weren’t careful.

Unfortunately, care didn’t seem to be high on everyone’s list.

A far cry from the teamwork they had shown defeating Klippe, everyone practically rushed this beast at once. Zan and Lights attempted more direct attacks, while Reinier opted for the distance shot. His ice shot was a risky move, considering the position of his other two comrades; he could easily hit one of them accidentally.

The only really strategic move anyone made was when Lights had Kit head off to keep Nall boosted. Though Jett was a hacker, he would be unlikely to spend much effort attacking a kitten, whether it was a threat or not.

Alright Shard, time to step out for a moment. I need you to cast Ap Vorma on everyone here.

Obediently, Shard emerged from his tattoo form. The visual effect was odd, a pool of black ink oozing off of Nighthand’s wrist and pooling on the floor, then standing up to form the Cerberus. The familiar trio of eyes, yellow, red, and green, watched him for a moment. Almost like they knew something he didn’t.

”Ap Vorma.”
”Ap Vorma.”
”Ap Vorma.”

The trio cast their spells all at once. One took effect on Nall, though he took little notice. One affected Lighteria and Zan, both near enough to each other that the same spell could affect them. The final one settled over Nighthand and the nearby, half-frozen Reinier.

Right, good job. Now… I’m not sure there’s much else you can do here. With your powers cut off recently, that is. Might as well do your best at distracting the hacker from Nall and Kit.

The three heads silently nodded, and the Cerberus bounded off to the side, where Nall and Jett stood locked in frenzied battle. He leapt and lunged at Jett, doing no damage but cause him to activate his Earth Barrier and shift his focus slightly away from Nall. Hopefully, this would lend him an opening to get in a vital strike.

Now, what do I do…

You could let me out?

Really now, what would you do? It’s all mono-element here, it’s not like your special powers would do particularly well here. And we both know I have the faster reactions of the two of us. Not to mention It.

The bring It out. It’s not elementally defunct here, and the long you wait, the more likely it is that a hacker will notice it in your data and figure out what it is, losing that element of surprise you wanted.

I guess you’re right, I’ll have to bring it out here. But first…

Nighthand, ignoring the bird in the background, took it upon himself to act as support. While Nall was being healed by Kit, he didn’t have to worry about him… And Lighteria had disappeared somewhere on the bird, which was across the platform from him. Nighthand focused on the two left over, Zan and Reinier.

Reinier was the most obviously crippled, so he handled him first. This would be a risky move, give his control over the spells was still shaky at best. Ignoring the fact, however, he withdrew a scroll from his pouch.

Hmm, this thing is noticeably thinner than it was a while ago… I’d better stock up on them pretty soon.

He smiled. While Reinier was, he supposed, an ally and friend, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be fun to scare him like this.

”Reinier, hold on a moment, I’ll have you out of this in a bit. Level One Fire Magic: Fire Tempest! Nighthand called out, just within hearing of Reinier.

Reinier took a moment to register what just happened, then his eyes widened.

"Go fuck yourself Nighthand! I'll defrost it myself! Taimat!.... Taimat? Son ofva..." He cringed, moving his frozen arm as far away from his body as he can.

Nighthand caught and held the spell immediately after casting it. (16) He watched the energy, felt its fluctuations, and judged what would be best to do… Then he released it all at once in a mass fire burst into Reinier’s outstretched arm. (8 ) He found his judgment right, as the spell weakened as it entered his arm.

Sure, Reinier may have felt a painful burning sensation there for a moment… Which was fine by Nighthand. The spell had the desired effect, however. The weakened power wasn’t too much to shatter the ice right off, but it also wasn’t enough to immolate his partner. The ice melted to water from the inside out, cracking and falling off into a slushy mixture. Whatever burn Reinier felt wasn’t from the vak spell, but rather, from the now-cooled flesh feeling the normal temperature air as much warmer than it really is.

Nighthand grinned. Then he proceeded to the second step; healing. Pulling on his Darkness Hood, he cast his spells.

”Ol Repth! Ol Repth!” Both Reinier and Zan felt the healing flood into them. Lighteria was still nowhere to be see, so Nighthand couldn’t target him.

Step Three, more power-ups. Nighthand tapped his Corona Blade, drawing on one of the skills he didn’t use as often.

”Ap Corv!” He tossed the spell upon himself. . Catching it with a gesture, he held its effects still from actually coming into play. (12) With a twist and pull, he tore it apart into components. (10) They were already mending themselves when he tossed them on their way, settling an Ap Corv on Zan, Nall, Reinier, and himself.

Alright, that settled… Time to pull It out.

Nighthand moved closer to the center of the platform, where the throne was. He didn’t want to be blown over the edge when he was concentrating.

How DO I cast this thing, anyways?
It’s fairly simple, your father told me about it, because he figured you would ask.

Before Nighthand could ask Verona to elaborate, her presence was gone, leaving in its place the instructions. Silverblade, viewing the mindscape as his own personal library, pulled the new book off the shelves.

Looks like you just take a scroll…

Nighthand withdrew from his pouch one of the many Nightblights.

Hold it in the air…

Nighthand raised his hand above his head, ready to activate the scroll.

Now, repeat after me… Your father sure has a penchant for melodrama…

”Wryneck’s talon, rend a hole in this plane and deliver unto me the power only you can give! Use this offering as your tool, and deliver unto me your blade, the Blade of Night! Come to me, Nightblade!”

The scroll he held suddenly pulsed, bulged around his fingers, and burst open. The darkness energy hadn’t even needed activation, it merely was ripped from its container and bent to a will besides his own. It pooled in the air immediately beside his hand, forming a black haze. From nowhere, a slash appeared in the center of the haze. The black energy was sucked into the center, leaving a jagged tear in space. After a short moment, a small object was pushed through. It hung there for an instant before Nighthand grasped it and pulled.

The blade he drew from the tear in space seemed to take the hole with it. He swung it to the side, and the hole was gone. All that remained was his blade, the Nightblade.

As long as a typical heavyblade, it was made out of pure darkness. Nighthand could feel the pull of it on the residual darkness left over from the scroll. It was like darkness crystallized, the thin blade was faceted and slightly curved back. It was almost like looking at obsidian, though it was no rock known to man. From the bottom of the handle sprouted a whip some three feet long. It didn’t seem much, but Nighthand knew instinctively that it would extend when it was needed to.

He swung the blade back to the other side, and felt its weight adjust to his strength. It was tuned to be perfect for him.

Master!

Nighthand looked to the side and saw Shard, scrabbling his claws on the ground, being dragged as if by some unseen force towards him.

”What is it, Shard?”

That blade is calling us in! We can’t resist, it’ll swallow us up!

Nighthand’s eyes widened, but by then it was already too late. The Cerberus was physically lifted off his feet and flew towards him. Nighthand watched with mute fascination as the Cerberus seemed to approach and rocket away at the same time. His mind told him the beast was coming closer and would strike him and minute, but his eyes showed him steadily growing smaller until…

…Until the Nightblade absorbed the Cerberus of Shadows like he was little more than a tasty snack.

For the second time in his career in The World, Nighthand was left with the fading scream of one of his comrades, lost perhaps forever because of an action he had taken.

Nighthand stood frozen, the blade gripped tightly in his hands. There was nothing for it, now. It was too late to save his Guardian from the blade. He could only hope there would be some way to retrieve him later.

Lighteria’s scream cut the air nearby, breaking Nighthand from his trance. He glanced up in time to see the bird buck one final time, and watched the twin blade fly for the edge of the cliff.

Dashing over to the edge, Nighthand had to pull himself up short lest the sand cause him to slip over the edge himself. There was no way to reach his companion on time.

Unless….

Nighthand swung the blade quickly, sending the whip lashing out for the twinblade. It curled around his ankle and caught hold. The whip, unfortunately, wasn’t the safest thing around, and its mere contact caused some small damage to the player. Hopefully not enough to put him under.

Bracing himself as best he could, Nighthand took the weight of the twinblade. ”Sorry Lights, best I can do here!” He called, not knowing if he was heard. He felt a shock in the cord as the player slammed into the cliff face below.

Apparently the blade knew something Nighthand couldn’t see, and the whip retracted almost immediately. He could only hope that Lights had managed to hold onto the cliff below, and had the energy to climb back up.

A shriek from above reminded him that he had much more important things to deal with. He dashed back to the center of the platform, narrowly missing being hit by the birds diving claw. A quick check revealed the skills the blade had: Skill Drain, Nightblade Storm, and Maj Lei.

Figuring to test out the Storm some other time, and Skill Drain being a passive skill, Nighthand cast Maj Lei on the bird above. He wasn’t sure if the curse took effect, but if it did, it could be handy in stopping the monster from casting its many earth spells.

(OOC: Right, Enter the Nightblade.

Special things about the Nightblade: even though it’s made out of darkness energy, it deals normal physical damage. Also, it is constantly absorbing small bits of darkness energy from around the area. This means that all darkness attacks by friend or foe are weakened when it is present. It helps us in that we take less damage from darkness attacks, but we also give less. )

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My items and such

Wishlist: Any Armor or Weapons under level 50, Any Scrolls (prefer level 2+)
EXP 500/1000

Jett observed the scene as it played through. Nall was the only one who he had experienced fighting before, and thus, he was curious to see the others abilities. After Jett's pet was introduced, one of the players rushed forward in a mad fury. It was obvious by the players facial expression that he was in no mood to play it safe.

"Is this all your friends have to offer Nall?"
Jett's own appearance hadn't changed. As Zan lunged forward, Jett was caught off guard slightly by the unusually high jump. The spear which he thrusted forward glanced off his shin instead of his heart where it was aimed. Zan then tried to use Jett's face as a stepping stool, but the Earth Barrier was perfect. Jett, without the barrier would have had a boot mark on his face, but the unconcious barrier had defended. Zan still got the boost he was looking for, jumping off the rock mixture and lunged for Oumonotori, quickly being swiped away.

Nall lunged forward now, striking with disgustingly fast speed. His movements were barely viewable. And with every attack, the force and speed seemed to increase. Nall was losing more and more patience as his attacks were blocked. Jett wasn't even paying attention to the blademaster right now, and yet, the Earth Barrier magically came up and blocked every attack. Nall growled as he let off a Rue Crack. Again, the attack was simply absorbed by the magic earth that congregated at every point of attack.

Reinier's ice attack interested the hacker as the energy of pure ice soared towards Oumonotori. Jett was also interested in how the pet would react. Oumonotori did see the approaching ice, however was unable to completely move out of the way. It did manage to move enough so that the ice hit the side of his torso, which froze solid. The massive bird was about to break free of it's bonds when it felt something climbing up it's back. Before it could react, a dagger was plunged into it's eye, a shriek of pain following. Lighteria was hurled from it's back, over the side of the cliff.

Jett was still paying attention to Oumonotori, neglecting the frenzied Blademaster. This made it all the more frustrating for Nall who attacked endlessly. However, Jett made a mistake, and neglected one other member. Nighthands pet lunged at the hacker elite, the Earth Barrier comming up in defense again. Jett realized at the last second that another foe had challenged his defenses. A fraction of a second was all that was needed for the blademaster to strike.

The Earth Barrier was basically instantaneous, but it couldn't defend 2 points of attack at once. The instant the barrier rose to defend against Shard, Nall was upon the hacker. Using his brute strength rather then his weapon, Nall gave off a monster of a punch right into Jett's face. Nighthand would have enjoyed the blood and cracking of face bones had he not been in the middle of summoning the Nightblade. The events were transpiring quickly, so quickly it almost seemed to be going in slow motion. For Nall it was, for the others it was an illusion.

After Nighthand was finnished with saving Light he quickly casted Maj Lei upon the bird. As expected, the curse took no effect upon it. It was after his spell had been rejected that he noticed what had happened. Jett had flown a good 30 feet accross the plaform, snaping a couple of the spears that pointed upwards in half. Finally, he was stopped near the edge of the platform by some conjured sand. Jett's face was bloody and disfigured, but it didn't stay that way for long. A PhaRepth and some painful looking rearrangement of bones and he was back to his old, stern face. The only thing that remained was some blood.

"Hmph... I underestimate you... But only a little."
Jett said calmly as he walked back towards Nall. Nall was grinning ear to ear like a puppy who finally got a treat for bringing that bloody stick back to his master over and over and over. Jett couldn't help but notice the Nightblade. Despite it being his mistake last time, he took a moment to examin what he had felt just before being attacked. The blade held a great deal of energy, but it wasn't radiating it... It was keeping it locked up inside it, and drawing more in every moment. Unlike most, this power seemed to care about every bit of energy, not willing to expend any of it un-neededly.

"Interesting weapon. Does it's wielder know how to use it is the question."
Jett glanced over at Nighthand who gave off a smirk in response.

"HA! Of course I do, it was built for me. Seriously, for a hacker, you're quite a block head."
Jett's changed form for the first time the group had met him, and the tinyest grin crossed his face.

"Cute. You can make jokes in the middle of a battle. I guess you need something to keep you calm."
Nall rushed forward again, attacking like a lunatic. This time, Jett payed attention to the surroundings, but still held the conversation with Nighthand.

"The World was made for you and everyone. Only one person know's how to use it to it's full potential. Being built for you is a poor proof of mastery."
Nighthand growled at the comment, his face visibly showing Silverblade trying to argue him out of it. Nighthand had been tweaked in the wrong spot though. He leveled the blade at the hacker.

"This blade is ME. More so than you and your false attempts at power could EVER hope to comprehend. Compared to the power of this blade, you are NOTHING!"
Nighthand, his blade still leveled at the hackers chest, was almost instantly to point blank range, a thrust at such speeds as to blow through solid rock. Jett's face remained unchanged.

"There is only one blade in this World that I bow to, and it is not yours! Be careful of being too cocky, emotions can ruin a fighter. Take your idiot friend Nall for example."
Nall drew in for another of his successive attacks. However, his attack was thrown off by a crack in the earth in front of him. The ground benith Nall caved and swallowed him up, his body falling to the room where Klippe once guarded.

"Your blade cannot pierce my armor any better then anything in The World can. However, fighting more then one person puts me at a disadvantage..."
Jett kneeled down to the ground and closed his eyes. Suddenly, he jabbed his palms into the ground, two glyphs appearing on either side of him. From each of the glyphs rose mud and rock, twisting and molding themselves into a form. A fairly large form. Standing to each side of Jett was an impressive Mud Golem and a Rock Golem.

"These creatures are not like the pets we send at you... These summon's, though basic, are quite formidable."
Jett stood his ground as the two golems converged upon Nighthand. Nall was quickly making his was back up the ramp towards his goal. Nothing mattered. The pain that swelled in his body was defeaned by sheer desire.

Meanwhile, Oumonotori had had enough of the pests clambering onto him and broke the bonds which held him down for Reinier's ice attack. With great force of wing, it lifted itself into the air and began circling the platform at high speeds. It's eye had healed, which the other's would notice later when the bird was in better view. Before the group had decided how to attack the giant bird, it used one of it's own techniques, Wing Tornado. Zan and Reinier were in a direct line of fire...or wind. Wind that threatened to knock them both off the platform.

The odd's wern't looking in favor of the freedom fighters.

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Nall//Blademaster | SWORD | Time Headband | Kagayuzen | Hands of Life | White Boots | {Life Drain}{Skill Drain} <Rue Crack> <Rue Revolver> <Ap Do> <Miu Lei> <Ol Repth> <Rip Maen>

Wow... so this is how it ends. Falling face first off of a big rock after being bucked by a giant chicken. I'd always hoped I'd have one of those super-hero type deaths... the one where I save a bunch of people and then come back at a later episode anyway because my merchandizing potential and fan base is too high for me to only appear in reruns. ...Yeah, that'd be sweet. I'd be an action figure AND alive. But no... I get a face full of dirt after a face full of downs and I don't even know if I beat that thing! What lousy way to-

"OOOF-!" He spits out, smacking into the side of the cliffs like a human pendulum.

”Sorry Lights, best I can do here!” Nighthand calls down, the whip retracting back into his new blade, leaving Lighteria upside-down and hanging by the toes of his boots on what should be his handholds.

"No... ...problem...." He groans out, feeling his nose bleed from both the impact and the height. With a deep breath his hand grips the side of the cliff with all his might and slides his feet to the side, twisting himself upright very... very awkwardly, but enough to let him grip the hand holds and slowly, slowly climb up. His feet dig into the rock wall, his avatar's boots clenching on his toes. His fingers, still sore from gripping the blades, clench the cracks in the cliff side, his body working hard to get him back up.


In the meantime. Kit gasps to see Nall suddenly fall through a crevasse in the mountain top. She glares down and heads for the hole that had lead the team to the top. With all the speed of a super-kitten, she races down stairs until she sees the enraged blademaster, rushing back up to battle.

"MEW meow! Mew meow meow mew mew meow mew mew meow meow mew meow meow meow mew, mew meow meow me- (THERE you are! You know it's hard enough to target you with spells when you keep phasing out of synch with time, but falling into another room jus-)" She's knocked off her paws by the sheer force of Nall passing by her without saying a word. "MEW! Meow mew meow meow! MEW! (HEY! Don't just run away from me! HEY!)" She yells, turning around and instantly following him, trying to target him with healing for the damage of the fall.

Again in the meantime, Lighteria gasps as a sudden, giant gust of wind barreling overhead past the edge of the cliff. His hair flutters in the breeze but his body remains firm against the cliff side, too low and to close to the mountain to be affected by it. Still, it frightens him. Once it subsides, he growls and gets back to the top of the mountain, rushing to the throne so he'll have something to hold onto if the bird tries that wind trick again.

Reaching into his item pouch, the twin blade pulls out his long-forgotten wristbands and slides them on, glaring at the bird circling over head. He holds his palm out and a glyph appears on it. "Juk Rom!" He says, a tornado of twigs and leaves catching the bird in its grasp. His magic defense may be high but the distraction would be the most useful. "Juk Rom!" He says again, casting another tornado against the bird's head, getting it instantly caught in the second one.

Ok... No problem. I've got plenty of SP to keep this up. The others call pull off some sort of plan while I'm doing this...

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Lv. 37 Twin Blade (180 SP)
Weapon: Rashou (Thunder Coil- 30, Suvi Lei- 20, Mumyn Lei- 30) (Life Drain)
Armor: Holy Tree Mail (Juk Kruz- 20) - Scarab Earring (La Repth- 20, Rip Maen- 40) - Time Sandals (Ap Do- 15) - Forest Gloves (Juk Kruz- 20)
GP: 14384

Wish list (In order of priority): Angel halo accessory, chibi angel wings, Bone Armor, Professional

Lighteria: "Obsessively updating my profile since Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:10 pm"

Zan lie in a slight haze on his back one more, unable to stay on his hands and knees as his thoughts swam over his logic, his head a pulsing agitation, a throbbing reminder of his stupidly executed bum rush. Everyone seemed to take on the same look as he did it, take on the same glaze of disappointment and humored entertainment as the former college student simply attacked first and asked questions later. The Heavy Blade did not fidget through embarrassment very well, so he simply ignored it the best he was able. His team mates seemed to be quickly submerged in their troubles, unable to ponder over the best way to scold the man. By the time Zan had focused himself back on the here and now, Nighthand seemed to be defrosting Reinier's arm, an attack having taken place that Zan had blatantly been too zoned to pay proper attention to. With a grumbling sigh and a tilt of anger to his frown, he swung back to his feet, a wavering, precarious wobble that told him he was still paying the boon of his transformation.

Though the actual shift hadn't taken place too long ago, Zan found himself increasingly frustrated with the period of exhaustion he was so obviously suffering. It seemed unfair, unjust, some glitch in the system that had him improperly stationed in the shell he was trapped in now. That thought stopped him, stopped his mind from considering a plan of action. Shell? He was human at the moment. Why was he suddenly considering it a shell? An encasement? A prison? The words beat against his eyes, mocked him as he struggled against them. His Beast, his other half, his separate whole was starting to become a true part of his consciousness. He could no longer fool himself with the consideration of it as a separate entity all together. Zan was the Beast and by God it, he, was trying his best to come to a proper acceptance of that fact. Something in his gut told him how easy it would be to tread that path, to wade through those murky waters. The relief had such promise, such a draw to it that he found himself almost completely coaxed down from the proverbial tree he had huddled in.

The more he fought against the tide, the more he pressed the scream of the ocean against his palm, the more the intolerable rage boiled in his veins. It was thinned lava running in rivulets beneath his skin, flushing him with a feverish sweat, a tint of illness that called to quite the opposite. It wasn't enough to bring about the change, that much he knew and that much he took shelter in. However, it was simply another way to drown his senses in a harsh wash of swirls and whistling slashes of color and sound. Zan found himself wanting to be sick, wanting so badly to simply toss up his inhibitions. When no such action occurred, he allowed himself to consume a rather large inhalation of the dust-coated air. His lungs shuddered, whimpered beneath the taint, but took what it could from such. Eyes that had bled a bright amber from the sway of his anger (but, oddly, seemed to keep his sight in the range of normality) tossed up to stare at the abomination of a bird that screeched so proudly above him.

By the time Zan had realized it was launched an attack in his direction, it was beyond late, frightened, inhuman eyes widening as the attack fell upon Reinier and himself. At first it was simply a hot caress of air, a kiss of wind that seemed utterly harmless. The increasingly eerie lash of instinct he had obtained and the swell of his logic told him to run, to escape, to flee from the growing strength of the attack. With only seconds to spare, the Heavy Blade picked up his weapon and drove the Absorber's blade about half its length into the rock, a death grip settling around the hilt. There was no steady progression of intensity, merely a drastic change from gentle and hinting at invigoration to hurricane-force gales that had him up and lifting in a small slice of time. Teeth ground against teeth, his Clabro form losing even its impressive heap of strength, leaving his arms crying with fatigue, begging Zan to leg go and simply accept his fate. It was vaguely depressing to be so helpless while everyone else around him fought so valiantly, so determined to win.

With that thought tucked into the corner of his ever-bombarded mind, he indulged the wishes of his arms and simply released himself. There was a moment of true, God honest serenity as his palms hovered off the hilt. It was as if a part of him was simply saying 'My, this isn't so bad after all'. For a small fraction of time he felt a smile twitch at the edge of his lips, a smile that slammed down into a panicked expression as he was whirred towards the edge. A fate that promised nothing but death lay ahead of him now, a dark promise of the Reaper. Through this he found another trigger of the Beast, a trigger he had only been partially aware of when he had lost consciousness on the mountain a small while back. This drive of self-preservation seemed almost as strong as the rage that had first tore his humanity from his skin. If Zan had been so helplessly beat after the first shift, he could only imagine what condition he'd dwell in after this one subsided. Setting it on a shelf of anxieties for another time, the Heavy Blade let the primal, harsh transformation occur. It took not even a fourth the time as the one before, as if the sheer frantic nature of his adrenaline forced it through with more zeal than before. With his clothes melting into his form, wisps of fur fell over him in waves, muscles tearing and stretching, bones cracking, breaking and rearranging. He was a mess of pain as the edge grew near, but he was alive and could feel the mountain of power that bred through the nine and a half foot tower of his physique.

Though the attack was subsiding, it had done what it needed to (at least, to Zan), the werewolf heaved off the mountain top's edge without even a hint of mercy. Scrambling claws scratched harmlessly off the edge and for a moment he felt himself failing, felt the change pointless. Such a train of cognations was laughed away by his need to survive, a rather massive humanoid paw barreling into the side of the mountain, wickedly claws fingers grabbing terra and clinging to it as tightly as he had his sword not too long back. His muscles strained and threatened to rip asunder beneath the weight of the relentless wind. Almost as quickly as it had torn from docile to monstrous, it calmed from monstrous to docile. The mass of his form slammed into the slab of earth, forcing the air from his lungs. His muzzle turned to the side so his mace didn't mash and crinkle against the wall of granite, he began to climb, ascend the surface that had almost claimed his life. It wasn't too terribly long before he on his feet and staring up at the bird with a menacing glare to his amber irises.

Lips curled back in a snarl, he felt the Rage, felt the Anger breathe a new life in his gut. It culled a new power to the surface, a power that filtered through the long row of razor edged teeth and through his muzzle. Eyes falling shut, the lycanthrope let out a bellow of pure sound, a bellow that seemed to vibrate the very air around them. Zan found himself suddenly aware of everyone and everything within hearing distance of his screamed howl. Something ancient, something aware of what was occurring honed itself on Reinier, Nighthand, Lighteria, Nall, and himself, but steered clear of the hacker. It wasn't fear that kept it from Jett, but almost a smug laughter as silvery whips of power exploded from Zan. Each wisp of light careened and hummed into their chests, calling out the runes of Ap Corv, Vorv, and Torv to meld together above their heads. The rune became something else entirely, a swirling full moon taking precedence. With the new boost of power writhing through him, pleading for a way to express itself, the werewolf descended into a crouch.

Zan was once again forced to sit back and watch as he lost control of his body, the Beast having plans he seemed unable to fathom. All of that strength, the magics and the hundreds of pounds of muscle all siphoned their energies into his legs. Like some spring-actioned figure, he bolted in a jump that sent him launching in a vertical ascent that had his fur whistling through air. Zan managed to grapple a leg of the obscenely large bird before he lost the momentum. Scrambling claws ignored the protesting thrashes of the bird as the Beast followed Lighteria's previous lead and scratched up its back in an attempt to reach the hard, boned top of its wing. Growling past the face full of feathers that scratched at his face as he climbed higher and higher still. When strong digits clasped around the boney top of the wing, he howled a triumphant sound and pressed downward, a harsh crack splitting through the air. Though the break only affected a small fraction of the large wing, he had centered it enough to make flapping the wing both agonizing and nigh-impossible.

The fact that he was still riding the monster as it flapped a disabled wing hadn't occurred to him. What did bite into his thoughts, however, was that one break might not be enough. The Beast placed snap after screech, flail-inducing snap along the ridge of bone, his patience and strength running thin as he waited, inwardly begged for some assistance.

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Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
Wishlist
Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).

Reinier crouched over his arm, his face still submerged in the earth. He gripped the arm, not finding the strength to do anything about the fact he had froze it. “Reinier, hold on a moment, I’ll have you out of this in a bit. Level One Fire Magic: Fire Tempest!” Reinier could hear someone call. He continued to sit on the ground, his teeth chattering, the statement not completely registering with Reinier’s mind. His body shot up as he looked up on Nighthand holding a scroll. His eyes widened, as he tried to throw in his own thoughts.

“Go fuck yourself Nighthand! I'll defrost it myself! Taimat!.... Taimat? Son ofva…” Reinier muttered, attempting to call his pet. No reply. Reinier shook his head back and forth rapidly to shake off the dirt on his face, and rolled back on to his butt. He gradually hopped up to his feet and held out his arm nervously, not ready for what Nighthand was about to do. He had never been a religious man, nor did he ask God for anything, but at that moment, he began to pray.

He prayed that Nighthand’s wild ability over his hack went under his control and he wouldn’t cause Reinier to spontaneously combust. Pop, pop, pop. The sound of ice cooling a nice tall glass of Root-Beer entered Reinier’s mind as he heard the sounds of ice popping. He opened his eyes to see a sadistic grin across Nighthand’s face. Gradually he moved his fingers about and around to see if they still worked. He felt stronger oddly enough, as Nighthand and Shard had done a nice job of strengthening the players. He felt the magic effects of Ol Repth taking its’ course, most of its’ powers going in to his arm. Even though Nighthand had gone off to do his own thing now, it still felt as if his arm were on fire.

In the background, a bickering war of Nighthand and Jett over his new weapon, the Nightblade. Reinier gulped, wondering how well this would work against the hacker. He shrugged this off as he wandered over to his fallen shuriken and picked it up, and gradually wrapped his numb fingers around the massive weapon. He grinned in his small victory over the numbness, but when he looked up, he saw Zan flying backwards. That’s when he noticed a small change in scenery. He twisted and twirled through the air, not feeling as much pain as he would think.

Reinier flew over the side of the mountain, the gentle breeze whirling past his face. Without warning, Taimat emerged and circled around Reinier, then dive-bombed downwards towards the falling player. He twisted under the player, and allowed him to fall upon his back. The dragon hovered near the mountain, and gradually began to rise upwards.

The dragon flew upwards and towards the flying bird, following behind WereZan. “Don’t fuck up,” the dragon grumbled, twisting upside down, dropping Reinier to the ground. He fell to the ground with a roll, coming to a sliding stop in a knelt position. He held on to his shuriken for dear life, letting it rest against the ground as he eyed his opponent.

Reinier gulped and slipped the shuriken on to his wrist, and pushed down upon one of its’ spikes to spin it around his wrist. Energy fluxed around, resembling lightning as it bounced around against his wrist from the shuriken. The energy poured down, forming an orb of energy on his open hand. He managed to pour in just enough magic to form the spell, but he didn’t have enough to power up the orb.

Reinier closed his eyes, spread out his legs, and placed his left hand on top of his right elbow. The orb began to pulse rapidly, and gradually began to grow larger, as he managed to pour in not magic, but his own health. His health rapidly decreased, even to the point of going in to the red zone, and yet Reinier continued to go. He opened his eyes and noticed a healthy blue glow had encased him. Normally he would have liked this, as he would be more noticeable, but right now it had little to no use.

One health point. He had reached the point of no return, where he had one shot and only one shot. The orb had become much smaller, and yet he felt it held more power. He palmed a deep azure ball of pure energy, with its’ own light blue aura swirling around it. The shuriken backed back in to his left hand, then shot forward in to the orb, shooting it towards the bird.

Reinier fell to his feet, cringing, feeling the shuriken still spinning around his wrist. Acting like a vacuum, the aura that once flowed around Reinier swirled towards his arm, and took a form. A light blue crystal colored chunk of ice incased Reinier’s whole arm, stopping at the joint of his arm and body. Reinier fell down to his knees, his eyes wide open and gazing in to his frozen arm. His vision began to phase in and out as he looked around, he looked up towards the massive bird, and let out a few words, “Up to ya’ll… now…” With that said, he let out a small groan and fell forward on to the ground, landing on his left side with the shuriken’s blades spreading down in a V over his body.

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Reinier's Wishlist: Sakabatou|Sharktooth
Abraxas' Wishlist: Complementry|Summon
The Hack's Wishlist: Wall lvl 2

Nighthand was furious that the hacker would go to such lengths to taunt him about his blade, only to summon a pair of golems to hide behind. The sheer dishonor of the thing drove him nuts. Enraged as he already was before, the swordsmage decided it would be his immediate goal to destroy the golems as quickly as possible so he could get back to slaughtering the hacker.

Stepping out of their easy reach, Nighthand actually took the time to study his two new opponents. Outwardly they looked similar, a pair of golems standing erect to guard the hacker. Upon closer inspection, they were each fundamentally different.

The first was a golem seemingly made out of pure packed mud. It wasn’t your typical sludgy image of mud, either. It was drier than the cliché, undoubtedly able to move fairly quickly, while still able to absorb plenty of damage. The good news was it wouldn’t be able to sit on you and suffocate you. Well, at least not as easily.

To its side stood a distant cousin, a golem made out of rocks. This one looked to have a stronger defense, possibly a stronger blow due to its more solid nature, but not much other change. Indeed, they were virtually the same.

Both of them were obviously creatures of earth, so wood should be a handy device for the battle.

Nighthand narrowed his eyes to slits, and sensed the earth energy pulsing through the beasts. He grasped the energy with his full might, feeling his power take hold as it used to, and he gave a mighty yank on the bonds holing the life to the stone. Try as he might, however, the bonds would not budge.

"Interesting. But do not think your control over Earth can surpass mine."

Nighthand withdrew his grasp and opened his eyes fully in a glare at the hacker.

”Fine, then. I don’t even NEED my powers to beat these clods.”

”Have fun.”

The heavyblade shrugged, and lofted his Nightblade. The facets gleamed darkly, reflecting only a fraction of the light they should. The whip twitched and writhed like a thing of life itself, feeling its wielder’s hatred and bloodlust. As the golems converged on him, Nall was finally back into the fray. The frenzied blademaster had long since abandoned any hope of fighting with strategy, restraint, or intelligence. He was simply a mindless machine, designed for and acting on one purpose alone; the attack, to hit, and to kill.

A machine which, apparently, needed some oil. Nall let off another Rue Crack, but Jett didn’t even bother to look at him. His eyes swept over the rest of the mountain top, taking in the damage to his lair and pet with dispassionate ease.

The golems closed in on him, lacking strategy almost as much as Nall. What they lacked in brains, however, they made up for in brawn. As one, they both threw punches fit for tanks. Nighthand leapt back, landing on his hands and springing off them backwards. The Nightblade curled the base of the whip around Nighthand’s wrist, keeping itself out of the way for his handspring but refusing to be left behind.

For a moment, Nighthand almost suspected the weapon of having some dark intelligence. It was rare, these days, to find a darkness weapon that didn’t. The idea was quickly dismissed, though. The only intelligence that could bless, or curse, his blade would be Wryneck’s, and that dark god couldn’t fit his power in such a small vessel without it radiating power. No, the only intelligence controlling this blade was Nighthand’s own.

Nighthand landed from his handspring on his feet, the Nightblade snapping back into his grasp and releasing the whip from his wrist. He held it level, his arm drawn back so the blade stretched right by his face. He could feel its subtle pull, even now drawing in fractions of energy from everything nearby. He grinned, waiting for the golems to approach once more.

Approach they did, predictable as a glacier. His grin fading, Nighthand lunged and rolled between the golems as they prepared their fists. The stone golem, slightly faster on the uptake, raised its foot to stomp, but Nighthand was up and behind them before he could be squashed. Shifting much of his energy into strength, he swung his blade twisting at the mud golem.

He was far enough away that only the tip could hit the creature. It struck, losing most of its momentum, and slid through. He put as much power into the swing as he could muster, feeling the blade respond easily, and continued his spin into the chest of the oncoming rock golem.

The blade stopped dead. His arms tingled with backlash. Of course, he should have expected slamming a sword into solid rock to feel just like slamming a sword into solid rock. Nighthand quickly drew back the blade in time to block a punch coming from the mud golem. The force was blunted somewhat, but even still it shoved him back a good ten feet.

Nighthand quickly looked around the area. Nothing much was happening. Reinier lay helpless on the ground, Zan full-on beast form tore at the bird’s wings. A few broken shafts of the spears lay on the ground near the throne where they had been blown by the bird’s wing storm. Jett stood still, face impassive, as he watched Nall fruitlessly batter at his Earth Barrier. The whole where Nall had fallen through the floor gaped like a dark mouth a short distance to his left.

The hole where Nall had fallen through…

Nighthand’s eyes lit up. His goal wasn’t to destroy these monsters, they were obviously a lot tougher than he had given them credit for. Rather, he would take them out of the picture.

Nighthand ran for the stone golem, leaping and kicking off its heavy chest. It didn’t even budge under his weight, but it did irritate the beast. Flipping through the air, he came out with the mud golem in between himself and the stone one. Still showing off a lack of cooperation and teamwork, the golems both charged him in a line.

He led them around, ever closer to the hole. Finally he neared it with them both in the proper orientation. They still approached him, slow enough to dodge. The mud golem stopped and reared back its fist, slamming it down at his crouched form.

Rolling forward, Nighthand came up just barely behind the bent-over mud golem. Leaping back quickly, he landed on its back as the stone golem approached. It acted exactly like its cousin, slamming a punch for him. Once more he kicked off, moving somewhat slower than he would have liked due to the softer golem he stood on. The stone golem clipped him as he leapt, dealing some damage to him, but the full brunt of its punch slammed into the mud golem’s back.

It had hardly moved when Nighthand’s strike had torn through it, but it was certainly budged by this display of force. It threw its arms out to the sides, windmilling in an oddly human gesture as it lost its balance and fell through the hole. Its head, or what passed for a head on a beast made securely out of mud, clipped the other side of the hole. It tore off another chunk as it fell through, landing with a heavy thud far below.

Nighthand, meanwhile, was behind the stone golem. It, unfazed by its sudden burst of team damage, turned around and raised its leg for a heavy stomp. Nighthand could barely roll forward fast enough to avoid a direct hit, and was caught in the shockwave that emanated out. The ground bucked under him, and he sprawled out.

Quickly he rolled to the side, avoiding a second quick stomp, but the ground’s shuddering kept him from leaping to his feet. The golem was in frenzy, stomping with one foot, then the other, as an irritated human would stump on a colony of biting ants.

Nighthand liked to think he had somewhat more intelligence than the average ant, and on the next roll proved it. He drove his blade into the ground as he twisted, using it as a combination lever and vault, lifting himself to his feet, into the air, and some distance away from the raging golem. Grinning once more, he ran right for his foe while it was still recovering from its latest stomp. Rather than leap and kick off it, however, he dug his feet into it. First into the knee, then the waist, then a stomp to the chest, and he was flying high above it.

This time, it wouldn’t have a chance to react.

Reversing his blade, Nighthand drove it with all the force he could muster into the ground. His rolling had kept the golem fairly close to the hole already made, and its frenzied stomping had done nothing to help the support of the ground beneath. His blade struck like a wedge into the weakened rock, causing yet more to crack, crumble, and drop below.

Unfortunately, Nighthand was among the pieces that fell below, into Klippe’s lair.

He landed hard, twisting and rolling as he hit to try to lessen the fall. The maneuver would have worked perfectly on a flat surface, but in a cave with the ground littered with rubble, he only succeeded in not breaking any bones. A particularly sharp piece of rock, whether from the Klippe’s jewel-like shell or from the rocky roof above, tore a long slash open on his back. He winced, but ignored the pain. He had bigger things to worry about.

Particularly, two much bigger things standing over him now.

Hoping he wouldn’t get stomped, Nighthand threw himself forward into another roll, ripping his back open further and leaving a smear of blood on the floor. The golems turned, and began to follow him.

He shifted a little to speed and dashed forward to get a lead on them. He headed, not for the ramp upwards, but for the exit to the sheer cliff face. He kept ahead of the golems, who had to squeeze single-file into the tunnel to follow after him.

The stray bits of a plan falling into place in his pain-clouded mind, Nighthand was sure to keep just close enough to the chasing golems to keep them interested in pursuit. Finally, he neared the entrance.

With a silent command, the Nightblade’s whip stretched and shot out into the corner near the doorway. More of a hole than a doorway, actually. Nighthand prayed that the whip was as strong as it seemed, and stopped abruptly at the edge of the cave.

The golems, seeing their quarry with nowhere left to run, put out a surge of energy and headed right for him. They were right, at least in part. He had nowhere left to run.

Nowhere, that is, except out the door.

As they barreled almost on top of him, he leapt out into open sky. Falling freely, he could feel the Nightblade send out an extra tendril of its whip to wrap around his wrist once more.

As he had hoped, the whip’s tip has anchored itself firmly into the rock above, leaving him to swing down. Above him, the mud golem screeched to a stop at the entrance, teetering like it had on the hole above. The stone golem, close behind, slammed into its back and carried them both over the edge.

A tangled mass of rock fell above him. Finally, he commanded the whip to stop lengthening. It did so, slamming him to a halt abruptly and swinging him into the cliff face. He felt sorry for what he’d done to Lighteria, as pain lanced through his entire arm, back, and side. The golems tumbled past, growing smaller and disappearing from sight.

With a sigh, Nighthand ordered the blade to pull him up. It did so, but with a total disregard for his pain. If anything, his arm grew even more pained. It felt as if it were about to fall off. Not to mention the flesh being scraped off by the cliff face.

Finally, he was able to drag himself into the cavern opening. He lay, panting and bleeding on the floor, barely the strength to move. His arm was almost certainly dislocated, he was bleeding heavily, and he’d already lost most of his hit points.

Willing all the energy he could, he pushed himself to his knees. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the Nightblade with his other hand and jabbed it into the ground, propping a foot against it. The whip still curled around his wrist, keeping the blade attached to his hand.

With a jerk and a cry of pain, he kicked and pulled, ripping his dislocated shoulder taut, out, and into its socket. Panting, he rested his head on the floor for a moment.

Finally, he cast an Ol Repth on himself. He had more than enough SP to handle the spell, and it quickly closed up the wounds on his side and back. But still the pain lingered, lessened, but not gone. Perhaps it was something of the nature of this place, or perhaps it was a nasty side-effect of the blade he held tight. Whatever the case, his spell only healed his hit points and his wounds. He would probably ache for days.

At the least, he was back in action.

Shifting all the points he had into speed, he could nearly match the movement Nall could achieve without Ap Do. He did this now, racing as a blur back the way he had come, through the Klippe’s cavern, and back up the ramp to the hacker’s mountaintop lair.

Arriving at the top, absolutely nothing had changed. Jett still idly watched Nall batter at his shield, and the others did a mediocre job of keeping the bird from plucking them into the air. Nighthand, despite his pain, grinned. He strode slowly and purposefully towards the hacker’s back, his stats leveled out to normal and his blade balanced on his shoulder.

”Jett! It will take more than those pushovers to take care of me!” He called, hoping to startle the Master of Earth enough that Nall could get another hit in.

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My items and such

Wishlist: Any Armor or Weapons under level 50, Any Scrolls (prefer level 2+)
EXP 500/1000

While the Master of Earth was not startled, his Earth Barrier was mindless anyways. That was the benefit, yet great downside to his technique. Jett was a little suprised that Nighthand had managed to survive the golems, but not suprised enough to change his facial expression. He still was standing smug behind his barrier. However, the problem posed itself again of a 2 on 1, and he could not summon his golems again for another 20 minutes.

"It looks like I shall have to fight you both then...Stoneskin."
Jett's arms came up in an x across his chest. The ground benieth him shook as his body glowed. Little pieces of earth, rock, everything that made up his Earth Barrier came up and swirled around him. The earth seemed to sink into the hackers skin and disappear. The hackers appearance didn't change, but Nighthand could see that his skin held pure earth properties.

Oumonotori screached in the skies. It's left wing slowly being dismantled. The never ceasing Juk spells causing slow damage and annoyed the bird slightly. However, on the more pressing matter, it prepared to remove the frenzied werewolf when it noticed Reiniers second attempt at an ice shot. Being attacked by the same move twice in a row made the bird wonder about players intelligence. But being in the sky, and moving at mach speed, dodging it would have been too simple. But Oumonotori found a better use for the ice blast. Moving it's wing into the line of fire of the ice, the energy did hit the bird, but right where the bird wanted to be hit. The ice blast completely froze Zan to a cube, and the bird flung the froze wolfman to the ground below. The whole process took mere seconds, Zan hitting the ground and shattering into pieces.

Half it's wing frozen and broken, it was forced to land back on it's perch. However, on it's decent it was full aware of his attackers weakness. GiGan Zot was promptly cast benieth Reinier who was too frozen and injured to dodge. The bird looked out at the fray and screached in content. 2 birds with one stone, though the bird disliked the saying. From Oumonotori's view, only Lighteria was left as a threat. As the bird was thinking this another juk spell carressed over it. However, due to it's injuries, it was forced to recover itself, slowly. It's wings covered it's body as a blue arua surrounded it, slowly healing the ice, the bones, and it's eye. The Juk spells wern't enough to prevent the regeneration.

Meanwhile, Jett had finally come out of his shell, so to speak, and lunged at nighthand with his spear. The Nightblade was brought up to parry the attack, and Nighthand spun around to attack back. Jett fell to the ground, Nighthands attack soaring overhead, nearly hitting Nall who refused to notice the blade. Jett's Earth Barrier was still protecting all the attacks from Nall's side, while Jett dodged and parryed Nighthands.

"Gravelshot."
Jett murmored as he pressed his hands down to the earth. Magical pieces of rock began to shoot out like a machine gun in a large V towards Nighthand. Nighthand dodged for the most part, but couldn't help but parry one with his sword. Upon touching the Nightblade, the rock exploded fiercily knocking nighthand back. This staggar cause more rock to hit him, each rock exploding on impact. Finally, nighthand switching all his stats to speed, managed to escape the bombardment being hit several more times on the way out.

Nighthand panted, the tiny rocks doing a number on him. He staggered slightly and fell to the ground, casting Ol Repth on himself. Jett let a grin curl on the side of his lips. Despite the image of hiding behind a shield, he was actually a very skilled fighter. But so was Nighthand. If Nall wasn't in such a frenzy, Jett could be in serious trouble. However, as it was, Jett was still in serious trouble. What Nall lost in mind he gained in strength, speed, and quite obviously stamina as he hacked away at the barrier. Nalls weapon shook the barrier fiercly, enough to slightly panic the Longarm. No one could break this barrier, but Nall was sure coming close.

The hacker would love to dish out some pain to Nall, but at this point he would just fail to strike and possibly leave an opening. The best he could do is kill everyone else, and by then have Nall destroied alone. Oumonotori was doing a good job, but it could not let things go now. Revive's were unfortunately a large nuiscense in the game that left the hackers at a disadvantage against a massive group. Jett was not that worried though, he was ready for anything and knew Oumonotori wasn't going to go down easily.

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Nall//Blademaster | SWORD | Time Headband | Kagayuzen | Hands of Life | White Boots | {Life Drain}{Skill Drain} <Rue Crack> <Rue Revolver> <Ap Do> <Miu Lei> <Ol Repth> <Rip Maen>

Lighteria gasps out. His teammates suddenly down for the count as the frustratingly durable bird continues to show no signs of quitting. It bathes itself in an iridescent blue glow, covering itself with its wings, clearly healing itself from its great number of injuries. The twin blade glares death at the healing bird, infuriated at the pleasure it took from killing off his friends. For an instant his ankle jerks forward and he begins a rush towards the bird to attack it. However, the blue healing glow around Nighthand, courtesy of Kit, reminds him that the team takes higher priority than his own personal vendetta.

"Too dangerous to infuse them... Looks like I'll have to do this the old fashioned way..."

Two pure white feathers. The form resurrects take in his hand. The twin blade quickly administers the items. First to the prone body of Reinier. His arm discolored and purple from the ice and the rest of his body beaten and bloody from the pummeling of rocks, the cracked ground beneath him stained red with blood. The twin blade winces from the sight and lets the feather drop onto his chest, bathing the heavy blade in a fantastic glow of blue healing, the heavy blade's ghost returns into the body, life coursing through his digital veins again.

Next, Zan. The sight of his wrecked body is terrible. No blood is on the ground for it all froze solid to his body. The player's smashed, beastly limbs covered in an unforgiving white frost, sends a shiver up Lighteria's spine. The bones, the muscles, the blood... all frozen in place like a sick, twisted statue. He bends over and takes a frost covered fang in his hand, pressing it to the feather. As he does, the pieces slowly disappear from the ground and reform the player as a whole again, frost free and again normal.

With the two of them restored, the twin blade takes a breath and turns back to the bird as it heals still. The relentless assault the three of them had made seemed to do no good. The damned avian simply regenerated itself, able to withstand and avoid a massive amount of damage, more than the team could dish out. The twin blade walks back to his companions and looks up to Reinier, who is equally frustrated it seems. The pace of battle still pumped adrenaline into their blood stream but the apparent futility of their efforts wrenches forth a necessary pause in the teams lust for combat. Strategy would have to win this day.

The twin blade opens his mouth to speak but is stopped by a brief flash of light from elsewhere on the mountain. He looks to the side, seeing a few of the broken pike heads shimmer in the sun. His thoughts return to Nall's perfect blow to Jett's face, the one that sent that dirt clod of a hacker flying a good 30 feet. The twin blade lets out half a smirk, getting a little joy from knowing the man who was causing them so much pain got some himself. His gaze turns back to Reinier for a moment... and he blinks. You can almost see his thoughts forming in his head. He whips his head back towards the pikes and stares at them, his eyes widening with inspiration. Reinier, thinking the twin blade is acting somehow odder than usual, looks over to the pikes as well, also getting a sudden change in his expression. For five seconds they stare at the pikes until they turn back to look at each other.

"I've got an idea." They say in unison.


Their plans eerily similar, it doesn't take long for the three of them to come up with what will probably be their best shot at killing the obnoxious bird. Hurriedly they plan to keep the bird from regaining full health and break off to their tasks. Lighteria rushing for the bird, mimicking a frontal assault. With his Ryokugen equipped, the twin blade yells out a battle cry, startling the beast to attention. The bird almost smirks at the recklessness and opens its wings, its beak bulleting down towards the player to crush him in its beak. Though Lighteria would undoubtedly be crushed had it hit, the twin blade soon proves he's no slouch at dodging. With a tumbling jump forward the bird soon gains only a beak full of stone, letting Lighteria leap from the tumble towards the bird's giant wings.

"Splinter Slash!!" He yells, his body quickly twisting around. Most of the hits miss but the fourth and final hit, a powerful stab, does connect, digging into the wing of the giant bird, the twin blade desperately trying to dig his blade into the golden throne through the beast's flesh.

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Lv. 37 Twin Blade (180 SP)
Weapon: Rashou (Thunder Coil- 30, Suvi Lei- 20, Mumyn Lei- 30) (Life Drain)
Armor: Holy Tree Mail (Juk Kruz- 20) - Scarab Earring (La Repth- 20, Rip Maen- 40) - Time Sandals (Ap Do- 15) - Forest Gloves (Juk Kruz- 20)
GP: 14384

Wish list (In order of priority): Angel halo accessory, chibi angel wings, Bone Armor, Professional

Lighteria: "Obsessively updating my profile since Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:10 pm"

A cold darkness enveloped Reinier’s body as he slowly drifted off in to a dark abyss of death... But then his eyes opened up and he found himself as a ghost. Normally in this kind of situation Reinier would fool around, walk through other people, or bug the hacker. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the patience for humor at this moment as the bird had managed to survive longer then it should have. He did notice that the bird had learned that the ice attack did pack a punch, and wouldn’t fall for it again as it used WereZan to deflect the attack. The bird’s intelligence was indeed high, but it had to have its’ flaws.

All enemies have flaws… everyone has a flaw… Nall is weak to light, Jett is weak to Juk, Nighthand is weak against compassion… what is this bird’s weakness...

Reinier watched as the bird swooped back down in to its’ perch and fold in its’ wings, and begin to heal itself in a blue glow. Ghost-Reinier cocked his eyebrow in wonder as to why it would land to heal itself. “Why not heal in mid-air… it’s only worries is Lighteria, and he’s a pushover compared to this bird…” The ghost muttered to himself as he crossed his arms, raising his left hand up to his mouth. The boy gnawed at his forefinger as he stared at the bird, perched and blue, wondering why it would do such a thing.

At that moment, Lighteria arrived and dropped a revive upon his corpse-chest, which caused him to begin to glow a healthy golden color. The ghost fell backwards, sucked in to his body, which once again rose. He faced the back of the throne, and he continued to wonder why it would go there to heal. His eyes shot open as he muttered the words, “I’ve got an idea…” He began running forward, weaving in and out of the tall pikes which had been randomly stationed throughout the field, four or five feet apart from each other.

Immediately he noticed that the sand which littered the field made a full sprint in to a slow jog. Without needing to call him, Taimat emerged and Reinier hopped on his back. The duo flew towards the throne, kicking up massive amounts of sand behind them. Reinier pulled out a Mage’s Soul, and cringed. He didn’t normally enjoy drinking souls, but at this point it was necessary. He popped off the cork of the round vile, and poured the thick and gritty substance in to his mouth. He forced down the liquid as he began to gag, and his eyes watered. He shook his head about wanting to throw up, and he tossed the vile to the side in to the earth.

The two found themselves in the shadow of the monstrous throne, which loomed over the whole mountain. Runes, one to three size in diameter, were arranged in a circle on the back of the throne. Reinier grinned and nodded as he switched out his Holy Cross, his favorite sword, for a newer blade, the Devil’s Blade. Taimat flew closer to the throne, close enough that his snout was a few feet away from a rune, and he began to breathe in to gather up his flames.

Reinier unsheathed his blade and wrapped his left hand around the handle so that his pinky was the closest finger to the blade. He placed his right hand against the butt of the handle, and inched the tip of the sword towards a rune towards the left of him and Taimat. By this time, Taimat had already began enflaming the rune, melting it down in to an even less identifiable scripture. “Kannon,” Reinier whispered. Flames slithered from out of the handle, until the whole blade had been engulfed in flames. With a push forward with the right hand, the sword pierced the gold of the throne and destroyed the rune so that only the outside of that particular rune could be seen. At this point, Taimat had run his flames against two more runes, making them relatively hard to read.

At this point, enough of the runes were most likely decimated to keep the bird from being healed. The two flew around the throne and landed in front of the bird, with Taimat kicking up a massive amount of sand as he landed. Reinier hopped off his dragon and leaned up against a pike, and looked upon the bird to try and see if what he did had any effect at all.

_________________


Reinier's Wishlist: Sakabatou|Sharktooth
Abraxas' Wishlist: Complementry|Summon
The Hack's Wishlist: Wall lvl 2

One moment he was working in frantic motions to sever the wing of the creature, and in another the Beast had suddenly become encased in a solid prison of ice. The cage was unbearably cold, a chill that ran through ever inch of him. Even the feverish sweep of his flesh had no effect on the ice, blue crystal becoming his downfall. The harsh kiss of earth left the Beast split into a remarkable splash of frozen flesh and unrivuleted crimson. Darkness filled his vision like something out of a novel, so untainted, so pure; it was as if every color in the world, every image, every person, had melded to make that dark, consuming color. The shadows tried to claim him, claim him with their threats, their cries, their harsh words, but it wasn't long before he felt the familiar air of the mountaintop swirl through him. Wait...through him? Zan's ghost rose in a steady mist from his remains, from a death that had been literally quick and painless.

Zan waited for what seemed like a pointlessly lengthy duration to form and, in the end, he seemed unable to take a shape. He was merely a billowing fog, as if smoke from a fire had become his being; though he was dark like the ashen whisper of such smoke, but tinted blue, a ghastly haunt. Though the Heavy Blade had assumed his base form, his true form, was that of his player persona, he was not so sure anymore. Being the malleable being he was now, he could only look on at the fight that continued between Nall and the hacker, Jett. Where Nall had initially seemed like someone who could have taken down the Earth Master on his own, his sudden berserk seemed to take away the substance of his fighting abilities, the intelligent edge that had him at a slight advantage before. Now Jett simply seemed bored, more inspirational things found about him then in front of him. Zan's thoughts had became forcefully sidetracked as a sudden breath filled his lungs and he found himself wavering above what had once been his minced, slushied corpse. More confusing then the sudden revive was the fact that, while he still shuddered in his wolf form, he had his normal stream of thought, undiluted by the raging madness of the Beast.

The Heavy Blade attributed the odd change to the death he had experienced, the chill of Reinier's misguided attack. For a moment he had the false hope of redemption; the Beast's death having brought upon an actual deletion of the Beast itself. That hope was quickly shattered by the light growl that quivered through his mind, made the hair stand up on the back of his head (which, in this form, was quite a lot). Zan was well aware that had only a few more moments of actual thought before the fury embraced him once more and brought his rash actions to the surface. Such actions could get his team killed, slaughtered. Did he want to be the one at the root of such a fate? Hell no. Though Luna's Bellow no longer held its advantages through his body, he was still impressively quick, a blurred movement as he tore towards the nearest fallen spear. It was massive, promising, idea inspiring. Though Reinier's assault on the throne had him well and confused, he used the sudden distraction for his own devices. Heaving the large pole in his palms, he lofted it above his head, every muscle in his body shaking, straining to keep the metal-tipped log steadied.

With a grunt that shuddered through his body, he heaved the massive weapon forward, lunging it with a whistle that tore at the air around him. Though it seemed rather aimed, rather straight even with the wobble his arms had obtained, he would not put it past the winged beast to find some last ditch maneuver to take it out of harms way. With this in mind, he could do but one thing (or, technically, a number of the same thing); make a barrage of the fallen, oversized arrows. The outcome of each and every launch seemed blatantly ignored by the werewolf, his mind too rushed by the growing presence of his crazed self, by the need to succeed and help out his teammates. When the Heavy Blade found himself out of ammunition, he simply ran to the ones that stood straight and undamaged, several hundred pounds of muscle careening into their bases, cracking them onto the mountain top with an audible, vibrating thud. This stream of action continued until he could hardly stand and, finally, until he fell to one of his knees.

It was then the Beast roared through him, it was then he felt his mind thrown from his body to watch from afar. This action was growing tiring, relentless; something he knew he'd have to deal with indefinitely until he either was able to log off from this wretched game, or learn to control the railing thrash of instinct and the boiling fire of his anger. At a distance, the latter option seemed possible, even obtainable. When given a closer look, when not simply brushed off as something he could do if he really wanted to, it became more and more obvious that it would be a mission all its own. If he were to truly seek something like that out, if he were to truly devote himself to that action alone, he knew he would have to split from the Freedom Fighters from a time. Could they survive without him? Ha. Of course they could. They had been doing so for what could have been years before he came along. It only occurred to him then that he hadn't inquired to the habitual extent of their comas.

In the dank shelter of his thoughts, in the cold recess of his sub-conscious, he found himself dwelling. It was comforting in its own right, a place to bathe in his amounting sorrows. That thought alone should have spurred him from his slump, should have shaken him and invigorated him with some speech of empowerment. It did neither, but only drove him into a further pit of 'woe is me'. The fact that it was painfully pathetic hadn't really occurred to him, or, perhaps, it had and that was only another source of his depression. Luckily for the monster and unfortunately for the rest of his teammates, the lycanthrope could do nothing but waver on the one knee it could support, languid snarling furrowing from its lips in a threat it couldn't even execute. Zan could feel the wound in the Beast's pride only sprout larger, deepen, burn hotter than it had before. He was helpless at the moment and he knew it. Though his hit points were at a fairly decent level, fatigue still ate at his muscles, chewed into his bones. While he fought to lift himself to his feet, he could only hope everyone else's struggles were going much smoother.

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Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
Wishlist
Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).

Damnit, what’s wrong with me? Pain like this has never lasted before. Even when I got that branch shoved through me it was gone with a good Repth. What is the deal?

Nighthand’s hit points were quickly back up to full after the gravelshot attack. Even so, he could still feel the pain of hundreds of tiny cuts on his skin. Shrugging it off as best he could, he studied the hacker. The more he looked, however, the less chance he figured he had. With Nall being as stupid as he was, there wasn’t much he could do.

Damnit, LISTEN TO ME!

Nighthand was taken aback at the force Silverblade’s shout had. The slight haze of irritate rage left his vision and he turned it inward.

Alright, alright, what?

You know what. You can’t beat this hacker on your own any more than Nall can. Nall’s no help.

I know all this, get to the point!

Fine. You have a whip that can lengthen on command, and a speed-devil of an ally who’s useless unless he slows down to think. Put 2 and 2 together for god’s sake!

…four…

Nighthand looked around, this time not at the hacker, but at the scenery. There had to be something he could use… His whip, woven through the spears, would make a nice tripwire, but the spears could be broken. He couldn’t get close enough to the throne with the bird on it like it was… But the boulder, that one might work.

Nighthand waved to the hacker.

”Be right back, Jett. I’ve got something to do hear pretty quick.”

Without listening for an answer, he dashed to the boulder. As he had expected, it was completely immobile, even when he was shifted to strength.

With a grin, Nighthand wrapped the boulder several times in a quick dash. The tip wrapped itself in a knot and was latched firmly to the boulder.

Nighthand gripped his blade in one hand, the whip streaming out behind him as he dashed. His other hand snagged spears as he passed, allowing him to change direction and wrap the whip around it.

He continued, watching where Nall was more by feel than actual eyesight. Soon he had a field of tripwires and clotheslines stretched out between Jett and Nall. Through this all, the hacker stood and watched. Nall didn’t even bother to notice.

That is, of course, until he slammed into one at waist height going full speed. An impressive flip and he was on his feet again, but he barely could take a step before another line snagged his leg and he fell.

Nighthand took his opportunity and was immediately by the fallen blademaster’s side. Acting quickly as Nall stood up, he wrapped the whip around Nall’s waist and in a spiderweb around several nearby spears. Still dashing at full speed, he circled the boulder another loop, and connected Nall directly to it.

A yank, and the whip tightened to bring Nall right up to the rock. The rest of the weave of tripwires seemed to melt for an instant, disengaging from the spears and being sucked back into the blade. All that remained was a single strand, keeping Nall bound to the boulder.

It all happened so quickly most of the other players could barely follow it. Nighthand moving at full speed to catch the blur that was Nall was more than most could comprehend.

Nighthand drew back his blade and slapped Nall across the face with the flat.

”If you don’t come to your senses now and actually learn to fight, I’ll leave you here for the bird to feast on like some twisted Prometheus! …damnit, it shouldn’t have been that easy to catch you.”

He could only hope Nall would snap out of his bloodlust before Jett decided to take action.

(ooc: sorry for the lateness. didn't want to have to control nall like that, but, time pushed me into it. )

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My items and such

Wishlist: Any Armor or Weapons under level 50, Any Scrolls (prefer level 2+)
EXP 500/1000