The Tale of the Four Brothers [Archive]

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:22 AM

Prologue

Out in the forests, beyond the large cities of Uruga, Elderine and Rumen, past even the small outlying and often endangered villages beyond them, lies a wooden house in the forest where some time ago four brothers of seemingly no particular interest were born. Their mother died only a few years after the youngest was born, and their father followed three years afterward. The brothers were born in the order of the eldest, the second eldest child two years later, and the youngest two, a set of twins, another year after that. The age gap being small as it was, the brothers grew up together, and were thus very close to each other.

Orphaned after the death of their father, and without money or training in any skills, they were shunned by the people of the villages; so they took to taking care of each other. The eldest, being the strongest and having learned the most from their father, took to foraging for fruits and vegetables, as well as firewood and medicinal herbs to take care of his brothers. The second eldest, not as physically able, cared for the house, cooked the food when brought, and read from the inexplicably large bookshelf on the southern wall of the domicile. The tales of Isya's heroes and monsters, legends and fact alike, often enchanted him -and his brothers when he recounted them (being clever as he was, he memorized many of the books, despite their length, to the smallest detail). The younger two, strong and energetic, spent their days hunting for food and protecting their home from bandits with the staffs the eldest brother had found while foraging.

Often, the eldest brother would wander close to Rumen in his search for herbs and fruits. Whenever he saw the city, he would marvel at its size and appearance. He saw the people dressed in armor, carrying swords and staffs, fighting with talents and skills he thought he'd never be able to use, and frequently (and secretly) imagined himself being one of them. Finally, one day, he decided he had enough time left over, that he would enter the city and look around more closely, perhaps even talk to some of the people and see where they went.

He followed one who seemed friendly enough...he was talking to everybody -something about a site where it was easy to find gold (which picked his interest). He followed the man to a strange blue arch with a violet light which somehow emanated toward the inside. The man stepped into the archway and vanished before his eyes! Perplexed and intrigued, he followed suite. Wondering what he would see inside this archway he stepped in, expecting to see a strange mystical corridor; instead, upon stepping in, he stepped out and into a whole different area, with dozens of potential heroes fighting monsters nearby. He tried to talk to the man he followed, but all he did was stand near the archway and shout to people about this weird "site" where they could find gold easily. Confused at the man's behavior, he decided to continue on and strolled down the forested path which eventually led out to a beach; even here there were people fighting the monsters. He wandered among them, amazed by how hard they fought, a few even did so with no weapons, only their hands. Encouraged by this, he decided he would have his go at the next monster he saw. A large blue crab with a white chest soon made itself known. Charging forward with naught a clue what he was doing or what he was fighting, he attacked what was in fact, the King Crab.

Upon seeing him charge, the crab saw little threat, but was annoyed at the audacity of this weak and pathetic fool thinking he could be so easily beaten. He opened his claw and quickly closed it around the boy's middle. Hearing the crunch of bone and seeing the insolent fool suddenly go limp; he flung the body back and walked away.

Laying there motionless, the boy lamented his stupidity. Knowing that his end was near, as he could neither breathe nor move, he thought of his brothers, and how they would soon be wondering where he was -he had never been late to dinner before. His breath running out and his vision becoming blurry, he could barely make out the sight of a cleric that had witnessed the mishap running toward him.

A faint voice chanted a distant prayer...then he heard what sounded like someone in a cave say, "revive". There was a popping sound as his crushed back and ribs straightened out and feeling returned to his limbs. Air filled his lungs and a cooling breeze swept across and through his body. He opened his eyes and saw a man wearing golden armor, with a large hammer in one hand and an even larger shield in the other，standing in front of him, smiling -a defeated King Crab laying on its back behind him. "What happened?" he asked before knowing he could speak. "You attacked King Crab and lost," the stranger said evenly. "You were quite foolish to attack him like that," the man chastised him, "He is very strong; it will be some time before you will be strong enough to fight him." "But if I died...how am I alive now?" the eldest brother asked. "I revived you," said the man, smiling, "I am a cleric, it's what we do." "A cleric?" he asked, the name jogged memories of the tales his younger brother had told. "You seem surprised," the cleric responded. "I have heard about you guys, but I thought that you were myths." He stood, his knees still a bit shaky, "Can you do more than revive the fallen?" "Oh much more," the cleric said chuckling, after which, he frowned, "You mean you don't know anything?" "Not really," the brother shamefully admitted, "I don't even know how I got here, to be honest." "You should go back to Rumen,” the cleric said with a thoughtful look, “I will help you."

Back in Rumen, the cleric led him down the street, pointing out the old man, Robin, Zack, the weapon title merchant, the smith James, Ruby the Skill master, and Julia the healer, as well as giving a brief summary of what they did (too brief for him, he still had many questions, but the cleric would not answer them). The cleric led him down a long flight of steps. "You see that girl there with the long orange hair?" he asked. "Yes", he answered. "She is called the Element Helper," the cleric explained, "She's actually here just to help people that are starting out, like you. Her name’s Remi. She will tell you more of the four classes of adventurers in here, and help you to decide which one you want to be." "Decide what class I want to be?" the brother said, confused. "Of course," the cleric replied, "You have to choose one if you want to be an adventurer here." The cleric pulled out a green roll of paper, he started to lift it, the stopped, "Oh right!" he nearly shouted, "I almost forgot: Pey the item merchant and storage keeper Raina are over there," he said pointing over toward a horse and wagon, "You will need to talk to them a bit as well." With that, the cleric lifted the green paper above his head, and vanished.

He talked to the Element Helper, and learned about the four classes of adventurer: the strong fighter, the nimble archer, the powerful mage, and the indomitable cleric. Upon finishing her introduction, she asked which class he would like to be. He stopped and thought for a moment, as he had not really considered this yet. He wanted to help others the way that cleric had helped him, to stop other people from dying, other people who had brothers or sisters, or even parents, that would miss them at dinner... "A cleric," the words flowed easily from his mouth. She smiled at his choice, and handed him a small mace, "The weapon of the protector," she said in a smooth, silky voice which would be quite pleasing to anyone's ears. She then asked for his name...which he was unable to give, as his brothers and he had never been given names. Asking if he could tell her later, she consented, and he left for home, running, as his brothers would be starting to cook dinner by this time.

It was a long trek home, the idea of actually being an adventurer dominated his thoughts. Several times he said he would put the mace away upon returning and not go through with it, because his brothers needed him. Then he would counter that thought with another; after all, his brothers were strong enough to take care of themselves now, they were all older than fifteen, there was no reason for them all to stay in that house forever. He debated like this for the hour that he ran. By the time he had returned home, his brothers had made dinner, and he had made his final decision.

At the table, after they ate, he announced his desire to become an adventurer in Rumen, and recounted the day's happenings to his brothers. Amazed by the tale of just one day's adventure, and knowing that their brother really wanted this, they agreed with his decision -on the condition that he come back to tell them new tales of his adventures. "So that just leaves the issue of a name," said the second eldest. "Yes," the first replied (until now, they had just referred to each other as big, little, biggest and littlest brother). "What are names for, anyways?" asked the youngest of the twins. "So that people have something to call you...I mean, not everyone can call me 'biggest brother'," he said smiling, to which they all laughed. "Well, since what you are called now reflects what you are to us, why not choose a name that reflects what you will be like?" asked the elder twin. They agreed, and after some searching through books, they stumbled across 2 words that seemed to fit. "An Ning," said the second eldest, "It means 'peace and tranquility'." "Very suiting for a cleric," said the eldest. "Indeed," the twins replied in near unison. "An Ning it is, then," An Ning said with a smile. Standing and hoisting the mace he was given by Raina, he declared, "Tomorrow begins An Ning’s first day as a cleric, and as an adventurer in Isya!"

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:23 AM

THE TALE OF THE FOUR BROTHERS

Book 1: An Ning’s story
Chapter I, Welcome to Rumen

The merriment in the house went well into the night; the sounds of laughter and cheers carried into the forest as the four brothers jaunted and laughed They would take turns hefting the mace that An had been given, the twins sometimes swinging it -acting out imaginary fights against invisible enemies. Finally exhausted, they settled in for bed.

The next morning, they gave what supplies they could to An. There was not much, 50 coppers -which amounted to the bulk of their savings, a few healing potions found along forest paths over the years (which, the second eldest pointed out in fun, they should probably have given him the day before), and some food to help him as he started out.

While they were all excited at this event, they could not help but each be a little sad at An's departure -one of the twins (which one will not be said) started crying as An hefted the strap of the small supply bag over his shoulder. An reached out and put a hand on his brother's shoulder, his brother looked up, wiping tears away, "Don't worry," An said to his brother, "I'll come back soon, I promise. And I will bring a lot of new and good stories that even Older Brother doesn't know." -as they talked the second eldest looked away swiping at his nose and eyes, softly muttering something about wind-blown dust. With that the twins smiled at An and bid him a good journey, hugging him in turn. The second eldest, feeling that hugging like that was perhaps a bit childish, extended his hand and told him not to pick a fight with King Crab for a while. They shouted and waved as An walked down the path toward Rumen -the youngest twin shouting a reminder to An that he needed to come back with good stories.

It seemed an eternity before he reached Rumen, but after a long walk, he finally entered into the market area. "Darn vines held me up," he muttered, "they always grow in the paths, why can't they grow elsewhere?" But in reality, he had stopped for a while to shed tears of his own -having not done so at home so his brothers would not become more upset had been difficult, and the last thing he wanted on his first official day in Rumen was to break down crying in front of people. He wandered the streets for a bit, trying to find that Element Helper that he had talked to yesterday. Wandering by accident into another forest, he found something familiar, a blue gate with violet light shining in its interior. Knowing now where he was -the previous day's events forever burned into memory, he recounted the path that the cleric had led him down, saying the names of all the merchants that he had been shown the day before as he passed them. Finding at last the Element Helper, he ran over to her to continue where he had left off the day before.

"I'm back," he said with a wave. "So I noticed," she said smiling, "Have you decided to give me your name now?" "Yes, sorry about that," he replied. "It's no problem," she laughed, taking out a notebook, "So by what name do we call Isya's newest cleric?" He straightened as he spoke, "My name is An Ning". "I see, very well then, An Ning it is. Before you start on your journey, I will help you out a little with getting prepared for your adventures," she stated in that sweet voice. She reached into a nearby box and handed him a blue shirt and a pair of blue pants, "Take these," she said holding them out. "Why is she giving me clothes?" An wondered as he took them. "These are adventurer's clothes," she said as though reading his thoughts, "They are very special. They are enchanted with a special magic -they stop you from being killed easily in battle."

"What!?" An shouted incredulously, "If they have these kinds of clothes then why doesn't everyone have them?" "There is a price," she replied, "The clothes of the adventurer prevent you from dying at the cost of your own strength. The magic bound in these clothes senses your body's health, if your health drops too low, you will fall into shock and collapse, the magic then uses some of what little strength you have left to pull you back to the nearest town. Many adventurers say that they can sense being weaker after having been saved by this magic -even after being healed they say they feel weaker than before. Not all people have the inner strength needed for this magic to work, some are so far from the towns that the magic would kill them in trying to bring them here. And besides," she added with a sad look, "The clothes are not a guarantee, an adventurer can still be killed wearing them if they are attacked by a strong enough monster -kind of like the King Crab you fought yesterday." "How did you know about that!?" he asked, flinching a bit at the memory of the intense pain he felt when the King crab snatched him up in its claw. "And here," she said to him, ignoring his question and handing him a few items. "This paper is another enchanted item. It can show you the map of any area you walk into and your current location, even if you have never been there before. The picture of a mushroom in your right hand," she continued, "is going to be your shelter while you are out on quests." "Wait a second," An said, interrupting, "How is THIS," he held up the tiny drawing, "going to be my house?" "It is a skill all adventurers share," she stated calmly, taking back the other items, "I'll show you." With that, she suddenly lunged forward and struck at An, landing several very strong blows to his torso. An fell back with a shout, landing on his back against the stone roadway, "What was that for?" he shouted. "Now you are injured," she stated with a slightly creepy calm -considering the speed and ferocity with which she had just attacked, "Breathe deeply and concentrate on your injuries, and put the picture of the mushroom in your hand into your mind." An did as he was told, if only to avoid having her attack him again.

Closing his eyes he started breathing deep, thinking about where he was hurt and picturing that stupid little orange mushroom; he suddenly felt cool, and noticed that the heat from the sun was gone. He looked around, and he was INSIDE the mushroom! It had grown ten feet tall, with two five foot floors and even had a window in the top and a windowed-door in the bottom level! "Whoa!" was the only thing he could think to say at the time. He noticed as well that his ribs and chest no longer hurt -it felt kind of like that wind from the cleric's revive ability from the day before. "This is cool!" he said. "Glad you like it," Remi said with a chuckle. "I'll bet she lives for that part of the introduction," An thought to himself, "My brothers are going to laugh at this part when I tell them about it...they'll never believe me when I tell them how strong she is". "Umm...how do I get out?" he asked, noticing that the door was only decorative. "Close your eyes, and think of being outside." It took less time for him to get out of the mushroom than into the mushroom, a fact he blurted out thoughtlessly. "It's normal for beginning adventurers," she told him, "You will get the hang of it as long as you use it." She handed him another paper, "What's this for?" he asked as he took it. "It's a log for you to keep track of quests you are on," she replied bluntly. "Well that's about all I have to tell you for now." She paused for a second, as though thinking, "As a final welcome gift to you I will give you your first quest: Go and find the healer, Julia, she has some more useful information for you. Good luck on your journeys in Isya," she smiled, then vanished.

Knowing where Julia was from the cleric's semi-tour, he walked up the steps and over to where the blue-haired girl stood. "Oh hey there," she said in a higher, more playful sounding voice than the Element Helper as he walked up. "Hello, I'm An Ning," he said waving, nearly dropping some of his papers. "Ah yes, the King Crab fodder," she said with a wink. "How did you!?.....ah forget it," he muttered. Julia laughed, "I'm sorry, she told me to call you that, she is a bit playful at times. Anyways, I noticed you are having some trouble with the items she gave you." "Just a little, they won't all fit in my bag," he said a little softly. "Here," she said handing him another bag. "This one's even smaller than my last one," he said, "How's this supposed to help?" "Enchantment," came the reply. "Oh right," he said. "Man, is there anything in here that isn't magic?" he thought. "This small bag will hold the items you were given, inside it has about fifty unseen compartments, which will hold any item you might find in your travels. Each compartment can only hold one type of item, though -a drawback to the enchantment; larger items may take up more space in one compartment than another would, as an example, dust -which is commonly looted by, and as a result, from, monsters, can have fifty units put into a single compartment, but a larger item, like a piece of armor, occupies a whole compartment on its own."

He looked up at her, "With so many compartments that I can't see, how will I be able to.." "Magic," she said, anticipating his question, "Magic is used frequently in here. The bag is linked with its owner, simply think of seeing what the bag has, and it shows you a picture in your mind of what you have. If you want to take something out, focus on that item and reach into the bag, it will give it to you." "This place is incredible," he said in a whisper. "You know how to use potions, right?" she asked as she continued. "Yeah, doesn't everyone?" he responded. "Well when you run out of potions there are two other common ways of healing," she said as An marveled at the items vanishing into the small bag he had been given, "The first is the mushroom house, which was already explained to you." "Uh huh," An said, dropping a glass-bottle potion from one foot in the air into the bag, wondering if it would break, "The other is by using soul stones."

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:23 AM

Book 1: An Ning’s story,
Chapter I, Welcome to Rumen

"Whoa, what!?" An shot up to his feet, "I'm not doing anything that has to do with souls returning anything!" Julia laughed, "Relax, that's just the name they were given. These small stones, which fit into small compartments in your bag -made specifically for them, in fact, can return your health if you are hurt in battle." "OK!" An said quickly stepping back -remembering how Remi had taught him to use the mushroom house. Julia laughed again, "Don't worry, I won't attack you. Just hold the stone in your hand and concentrate on your wounds, the stone will heal the most critical wounds first, then heal superficial but easily complicated wounds. The stone possesses a certain strength that it uses to heal, along with a number of charges -times it can heal you. It uses up one charge each time you use it to heal -healing at full strength regardless of the severity of the wound, then needs a few seconds to recover before it can use its next charge. As a soul stone only has a set number of charges, you should not be quick to use them on minor wounds or outside of a fight. When you run out of charges, the soul stone turns dark gray and can't be used until you have the charges restored by a Town Healer, like myself. Don't go thinking it's simple, though, we do charge money for it," she said winking again. "Ah, got it," An said, relieved that he would only have one story of a woman beating him up to relay to his brothers.

"Well aside from this," Julia said, "I don't think I have anything left to teach you." "I see," said An, "Well, thank you for the help." "Oh right!" Julia said suddenly, "Your quest from Remi was to find me and talk to me, I'd forgotten to give you your reward for finishing that." "I get a reward for talking to you?" An asked. "Well that WAS the quest," Julia replied as she reached into her own small bag. "Here," she said handing him the rewards, a Rumen Return Scroll, and one hundred copper. "To use a return scroll," she explained, "grab it in a hand and squeeze it until the magic seal inside it breaks, the scroll will burn up once that seal is broken, but you will be sent to whatever town is inscribed on its side." "I see," An said placing it in his bag, "Thank you again, Ms. Julia". "Anytime, young adventurer," she waved, "Good luck on your travels." Taking his last potion as he walked away, he tossed it into the air, “Well except for the part where I was beaten up by a woman, this morning’s gone pretty good so far,” he said. He rotated and stepped out to catch the potion in the bag he’d been given, only to have it miss and shatter on the stone ground, “Crap.”

Looking around, he spied the Skill master nearby, and he decided he’d go ask about skills. The skill master was tall, with an athletic body and long hair, and dozens of people around asking for skills. “Excuse me, I was wondering if you could tell me how to learn the heal and revive skills,” he said, expecting her to be as pleasant as the last two had been. “GO AWAY!” came the harsh, low-toned but distinctly feminine voice, “Can’t you see all the people here right now? I’m too busy to teach some new adventurer wannabe about skills!” She ignored his protests, and he continued on his way.

Hoping to find someone that would help him, he tried talking to a few people, most of whom ignored his questions, teleported away, or told him to go back home. He found a mage at the steps near the skill master who didn't seem to be doing much, so he decided to talk to him, “Hey, mages use a lot of skills so you must know a lot about them. Can you tell me how I can get the ability to heal and revive people?” The mage didn’t answer, so An repeated his question. The mage then looked at him, “Silver,” came the reply. “What?” An Ning was confused again. “I need three silver. Do you have any silver I can borrow?” Three silver! That was THREE THOUSAND copper pieces! If he HAD that much he wouldn’t have taken the fifty copper from his brothers. If his family’d had that much, he and his brothers probably wouldn’t have been so shunned by the villagers when their parents died! He looked at the mage, wearing nice silk clothes, a beautiful glowing staff (he wanted to know why his weapon was glowing, but first this matter needed to be settled...and that wasn't looking very promising) and wondered why this mage was asking HIM for money. “Please,” the mage continued, “I just need three silver can you please give them to me? I need money please!”

An walked backwards down the staircase and past Pey, the mage following him, continuing in his persistent questioning. “I don’t have that much, I only have a hundred fifty copper,” he said, surprised he’d said how much he was actually carrying. “Give it to me, then,” pressed the mage, “please, I need money!” An reached into his bag and shut his eyes as the mage held out an open hand; he withdrew an apple and hurled it into the mage’s face. The mage shouted, his hands flying up just after the apple struck his forehead and splattered across it, a few people nearby witnessing the happening chuckled. He quickly reached into his bag again, and as the mage wiped his face clear An pulled out the return scroll Julia had given him and broke the seal –hoping it would teleport him to a different part of Rumen….fortunately, it sent him back up the steps past the skill master Aggravated at this sudden downturn in luck with meeting people, An continued his walk up the street, glancing back on occasion just to make sure that the mage wasn’t following him. If he remembered correctly, the next shop he would pass would be the smith’s shop.

Smith James was a very large man, with an equally large and booming voice, “Hey there young adventurer!” He said waving his hand (and hammer) in the air as he stood over a sword he was forging, “I don’t believe I have seen you before, are you new around here?” “Yeah,” he replied, glad that he was talking to someone friendly again, “I’m An Ning. Nice to meet you Mr. James” “Hahaha! Just call me JAMES!” he shouted the last bit as he drove his hammer into the sword on the anvil. The ring from the anvil echoed down the street. “Okay, James,” An said, unsure all of a sudden. “So um…James….is there any equipment I can buy from you right now?” “Sorry, kid, you are not strong enough yet. You need to be a bit stronger before you can wield any of the stuff you see here,” he said gesturing to the armory behind him with his hammer. “These weapons and armors, as well as the mace you are using,” he continued, “have a unique enchantment on them. The more you use them in fights, the stronger you will become, much faster than if you were to use an unenchanted weapon. So the more you fight, the stronger you get, and the stronger you get, the more you can use to fight and become strong.” The smith drove his hammer into the sword a few more times, then stopped again, “If you are looking for a place to fight, try the forest just outside of town. Fight those pesky slimes and mushrooms that are all around near the entrance to the forest. They aren’t much of a threat to adventurers, but there are so many of them that traders are being harassed by them these days…Here, I’ll even make them an official quest.” “I see,” An said glancing at the sudden appearance of a quest on the log. An reflected for a bit on everything that had happened so far that day as he looked down the road. After a moment, he tightened his grip on his mace, thanked James, and walked out toward the forest.

That night, his brothers sat around an outdoor fire listening to An recount his day's travels. They marveled at the commonplace of magic in Rumen, at the magic robes that An now wore. They were surprised to find that the attitudes of the adventurers could differ to such a degree from those of the heroes in the books they had. Each delighted in An's depiction of the begging mage's startled face as the apple flew through the air at him. They were amazed when An showed them the mushroom house -each one wanted to try to make the mushroom house appear. The twins made verbal jabs and the second eldest brother nearly fell over laughing when he told them of Remi’s sudden and ferocious attack (as he'd expected, none of his brothers believed him when he told them how strong she was). They passed around his new armor and shield that he'd gotten as quest rewards, listening intently as he recapped the fights against imps and mushroom that he'd had in order to get them (he left out the fights against plain slime, since even as children they weren't afraid of slimes). They were enthralled by the magic bag -one twin tried to climb into it, but the bag wouldn't stretch far enough and he gave up. The laughter continued well into the late night, as the fire died, they decided to retire to bed.

The next morning at breakfast, An somberly told his brothers that his quests were going to be carrying him farther away from home for longer amounts of time. His brothers said they understood -it might be a while before they see An again. To cheer them up, An reminded them that being gone longer meant even more stories when he came back. After breakfast, his brothers started packing a few items for him again -and looking for a few pieces of armor that had gone missing overnight. An took the moment to place two hundred copper pieces he'd earned the previous day on the table (he knew his brothers wouldn't take it if he offered it to them outright, at least not while he was still so new to Rumen). Equipped and prepared again, An set out on his journey with his brothers standing outside their childhood home waving and bidding him good fortune on his travels.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:24 AM

Book 1: An Ning’s Story
Chapter II, Reflections and New Knowledge

He hefted his shield as the enemy charged. The beast spun, causing the spikes on its red shell to rotate toward his torso, a whirl of blades intent on tearing him in half. An swung his shield low and crouched, the spikes smacking into the metal surface and jolting the shield to the side. An thought he'd stopped the beast’s attack, but unfortunately the speedy boogy had anticipated this -having seen An attack the Mara Pirate Elite and the other Speedy Boogy that had been lounging nearby- he continued to spin and lunged, his long neck making it past the shield which had been knocked to An's other side. Quickly the beast opened its beak and closed down on An's side, in the small unprotected area where the top armor stopped and the bottom armor began.

An shouted in pain as the speedy boogy tore at his flesh. He knocked the speedy boogy's head back with his shield and swung his mace at the turtle-like creature's head. The speedy boogy spun again, causing An to miss the kill-shot. Still, the mace landed against the boogy's shell with such force that the shell cracked, causing the speedy boogy to be the one to scream in pain this time. An started to feel a bit dizzy, the boogy had managed to tear a sizable chunk from him. He dared not to look and see how bad it was exactly, but he could feel blood making its way down his leg armor -almost at his shins already.

While the enemy was distracted from his last attack, An lifted his mace -which seemed to have gained several pounds- above his head, and said a quick chant. A sudden wind appeared and swirled around him, cooling him, restoring his energy and undoing the damage to his side that the boogy had done. Seeing this, the boogy attacked, knowing that pressing the attack so that the cleric couldn't heal everything was the only chance he had at winning the fight. He snorted and charged, he saw that An's shield was at one side, his weapon-arm held in the air, leaving one side completely unprotected again. "His last mistake," the boogy thought to himself, "I've finished several clerics this way." Swinging his head up, then down, the boogy tried to snap at An's side again....only to have his charge cut short, and his head buried in the sand as An brought his mace down from where he'd left it in the air, concentrating on exactly where his mace would land and picturing his mace shattering a mountain -using a special skill to boost his attack strength which most clerics called "bash". The spikes and even the start of the rounded area of the mace itself disappeared into the beast's skull, driving it into the ground; the speedy boogy's body lurched twice, then remained still.

The battle over, An looked around the beach to make sure no other enemies were around (that last boogy had been hiding behind a tree, and charged An from behind as he contemplated resting); there were none -which was good, he had fought 3 enemies back-to-back, he doubted he had the strength needed to fight another one -let alone heal again if he was hurt like that last boogy (and the dual sword wielding Mara Elite) had managed to. His scouting done, he settled near a bridge and called for his mushroom house to heal him and restore his strength. As he sat down in his house, he started to think to himself, "Where is she? I thought we were supposed to go fight Grave robbers today." He sat back and thought back to when he first met Leranna646.

It had been quite some time ago now -a bit over a month, and a week after his fateful fight against the King Crab. He was trying to fight a large monster called Mushroom Fighter, and he was losing. Every time he attacked, the mushroom fighter would attack back, landing several very strong jabs against his head, torso and shield; while there was no mistaking the fact that he was hurting the enemy, the enemy seemed to have the advantage, as An's vision was becoming more and more frequently blurred for longer amounts of time after being hit. He was using the soul stone to recover as often as he could, but even that didn't seem to be helping enough.

As he was on the brink of defeat, a girl fighter who had been watching the fight ran up from behind and stunned the mushroom fighter, "Hit it now!" she shouted. Wasting no time, An swung as hard as he could at the mushroom's head, smacking it to the side...the mushroom stayed upright, alive, but still stunned. "Hit him again!" she said, slicing into its middle with her sword. He swung again as the mushroom groaned, lifting its arms, starting to come out of its daze. His mace landed against the mushroom's eye, and the Mushroom Fighter fell to the ground unmoving.

"Thanks for the help," An said, panting. "No problem," she replied with a smile. "Hey you're a cleric, right?" she asked. An nodded, still breathing fast. "Then why didn't you heal yourself?" she asked, her head tilting to one side. "In short," he said taking another breath, "I don't know how." He took another breath and straightened up, "Everyone I've asked has told me to leave them alone, so I don't know how to heal or revive people....some cleric I am, huh?" The fighter laughed, "Well you can't revive yet because you aren't strong enough...but you should be strong enough to use heal. Come on, I'll show you." She started back towards the gate to Rumen, "I'm Leranna646, by the way." "I'm An Ning," he replied walking next to her, amazed to have met someone that acted just like the heroes from the books, "Nice to meet you." "Ditto," she replied.

Taking him back to the skill master, she told him to be blunt with her, to stick to business of buying and selling and not to ask questions unless Ruby seemed like talking - usually when she was not very busy, which wasn't very often. He walked up to her and said he wanted to buy a heal spell, which she quickly charged him for, then handed him a book. Leranna explained that each skill has a small book which contained a chant in an old language not very commonly used anymore, and a motion, or sometimes just a motion that requires great concentration. For an adventurer to use a skill, they had to memorize the book's teachings on the skill. The same was true for any spell that any adventurer wanted to cast, even revive. She told him about the different tiers of magic, how there were different chants or concentration techniques for the same motions that could affect the skill's strength, and how they could only be accessed after becoming strong enough.

The two of them fought together frequently after that, the fighter-cleric combination was quite formidable as they fought in what was known as the Sea of Greed, made stronger by the appearance of another cleric they met while fighting in the Sea of Greed (near the very area he was standing in, in fact), Luna Ice. Their party, as a group was called, frequently got into trouble over the next few weeks (An had a bit of a bad habit in fighting...he always wanted to fight monsters that seemed a bit stronger than they could handle...and if he was beaten by a monster -as had happened several times before, he would keep going back again and again until he won)...just yesterday they had been attacking Mara Pirates on the beach of an island when Mara herself showed up....

At first they debated leaving before she spotted them, but they were too late...Mara saw them and ran over. Leranna took up her position in front, while Luna Ice and An stood behind her to her left and right respectively, and started casting protection spells to aid Leranna. Mara was ferocious, fast and strong, frequently getting past Leranna's shield with either her sword or triple claw, and slicing into her armor and chest; but Leranna's armor was tough, so she was never fatally wounded from a single blow, and the two clerics backing her seemed capable of healing any wounds that Mara could inflict. It seemed as though Mara would be defeated....that is at least, until Mara used a skill which stunned Leranna. Stepping into the way, An and Luna did their best to keep Mara from attacking the now-defenseless fighter, but Mara knew that the clerics' armor and shields were not as strong as the fighter's...it was only a matter of waiting.

The clerics had their hands full, Mara was able to attack swiftly with either arm, so fighting two clerics with their ungainly maces was not a great problem for her -though their healing spells were keeping them at a stalemate...but that would only last for so long, then the clerics would not have the inner strength to heal. At last, Leranna yelled, "Get behind me and heal! I want to kill this ****!" Hearing this, the two clerics quickly reverted to their protective roles and positions -glad to be out of Mara's reach...or so they thought...Mara had used the time to come up with a plan of her own.

Their fight with Mara had drawn a small crowd of people, amazed to see how long they were managing to fight Mara -especially given their relatively low "level" (the term used to describe how strong an adventurer was...based on what armor, weapon and skills you were able to use), a few mages of which, occasionally threw a fireball at Mara for good measure. Finally, Mara sprung her plan, she raked Leranna's shield to one side with her claw; anticipating the next attack, Leranna brought her sword center and pivoted to defend against Mara's sword attacking her torso (the next logical attack) and Luna lifted her mace to cast heal in case Leranna did not deflect the whole blow. She thrust her sword forward, as though about to attack Leranna's head, Leranna dodged to the side to cause Mara to miss...but Leranna was not her target....Mara stepped in and pivoted, the blade passing over Leranna's shoulder, and plunging into Luna's throat.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:25 AM

Book 1: An Ning’s Story
Chapter II, Reflections and New Knowledge

Her face was one of surprise. Her eyes were wide, and her arm fell to her side, dropping her mace. She couldn't move her body, she couldn't even breathe. She knew what had happened, she could see the sword running from Mara's hand to under her chin; yet somehow...it didn't hurt. There was blood...she knew there was, she felt the warm liquid making its way down her throat...but it didn't hurt. She looked to the side, at the horrified faces of An and Leranna surrounded by a slowly growing darkness, a ringing in her ears made it impossible to hear what they were saying, and she wondered why they looked so upset...after all...it didn't hurt.....

"Lunaaaaa!" An shouted. Mara pulled out her stained sword and the blue-haired cleric fell to her knees, then sank to the ground. "NOOOO!" Leranna yelled and sliced again at Mara in rage -an attack easily dodged. Mara was not finished...As An raised his mace to heal Luna, who was not yet dead, but unable to get up, Mara spun, continuing to step around Leranna, who was rotating to attack Mara again, and advanced toward An. An saw the attack and swore, knowing that Mara's plan was not to kill him, but simply to keep him from healing Luna (though killing him would, more than likely, also be acceptable to Mara). She thrust forward with her sword, but An brought his shield up to block -cutting his heal spell short and leaving Luna Ice on the ground behind her. Mara was far from finished; she kicked backwards, catching Leranna by surprise and knocking her down, then she spun, quickly attacking An with her sword, then claw, then sword again, managing to slice several times into An's arms and chest...then she played her final card: she used her stun attack against An.

With one cleric down for the count and another cleric stunned, Mara turned and blocked Leranna's attack -which would have sliced through her backbone and left her paralyzed. Leranna backed away, uncertain now that both her clerics were unable to help. Mara looked down on her, grinned and gave a low chortling laugh -knowing full well that this fighter could never defeat her alone. Leranna charged, slicing with her sword in a feint, Mara fell for it, reaching down to block as Leranna fell back, then rushed using her own stun attack, hoping it would leave Mara stunned long enough for An to come back to his senses and heal Luna -who was losing consciousness. Unfortunately for Leranna, Mara saw the attack coming and rotated out of the way.

Leranna knew that there was no way to win, she also knew that if she ran, Mara would probably pursue, and even if she didn't, she would definitely kill the two clerics (most of the crowd, especially those few mages that had thrown in their own random attacks, were now convinced that Mara was going to win, so they had dispersed to avoid meeting the same fate which the trio inevitably would). Mara lunged, raking her claw across Leranna's shield and knocking it aside, then slicing with her sword, which Leranna managed to block.

Annoyed at being unable to help either Leranna or Luna, An tried hard to get his body to move. He kept trying to move anything...finally, he was able to move his fingers, then his wrists, "Come on!" he thought, "GET UP NING!" From his vantage point on the ground, An saw Leranna block Mara's attack, but Mara had anticipated this, and struck her in the belly with a kick again, knocking her down. His arm twitched, he looked down to see it...wait...he LOOKED down! He could move again! He brought his arms up under him and pushed up in the sand, trying to get his numb legs under his body. Fumbling up the deep sand on the side of the hill, the fight ahead of him seemed to be going in slow motion: Leranna had lost her footing and was on her back in front of Mara, who was continuing to throw blow after blow at her -it was amazing that Leranna had lasted this long. An ran past Luna, he knew that their only chance at defeating Mara was in keeping Leranna alive, if Leranna died, even if Luna was healed, Mara would still kill them. "Luna knows this too," he said to himself, "if it were me on the ground, I'd want Luna to pass me and help Leranna, I'm sure that's what she wants too." An looked ahead, forcing himself not to look at the crumpled form of Luna and the slowly growing red sand around her, seeing instead what was to him, a more horrifying sight: Mara had used stun on Leranna again. "Leranna!" he shouted, his eyes widening as he realized he had just screwed up.

Chuckling, Mara lorded over the unmoving Leranna, she kicked her and beat her -savoring the victory. "Leranna!" she looked up..she'd forgotten about the other cleric! "That was lucky," she thought to herself, "if that cleric had not called out, he may have gotten close enough to catch me off guard and turn the tables again...but as it stands now, he's too far away to do anything...the fool." She looked down at the helpless fighter, "Still," she thought, "No reason to take any unnecessary chances.." She quickly knocked the shield out of the fighter's hands and lifted her sword above her head, smiling and looking at the cleric -still charging, still hopeful that he could help....how delicious.

An watched as Mara's sword descended...there was nothing he could do, even if her first attack didn't kill her, he was too far away to heal her or draw Mara's attention. Her sword continued to plunge, landing against an invisible wall. "You've got twelve seconds!" came a voice from behind him. He turned, and there was another cleric, wearing the same golden armor as the one that had helped him when he was beaten by King Crab. "Eight seconds! Don't look at me, help your fighter-friend!" she yelled at him, "I'll help your other friend over here!" She turned towards Luna, put her hands together and started saying a prayer. An turned back and saw Mara beating at the invisible shield yelling, shrieking and cursing herself, the fighter, the clerics, and especially the shield around the fighter. An ran over and quickly cast heal spells on Leranna, who was just getting up. Mara yelled and made a flurry of attacks that An could barely see, but the shield around Leranna had still not collapsed. Finally one of her attacks went through, just as Luna made her way back into the group, and the fight ensued once again.

The party continued to press the attack, the cleric that had saved them sitting back and letting them handle the fighting and healing. Mara continued to back away, overwhelmed now, especially since the clerics were at either side of the fighter, deflecting attacks aimed at them and the fighter, as well as occasionally adding painful strikes of their own. Leranna smacked Mara's sword aside with her own, then suddenly charged and knocked her back with her shield, finally she used a stun attack, leaving Mara defenseless. They all let loose with a volley of attacks, the clerics hammering Mara with their maces -they could distinctly hear the sound of bones popping, and Leranna slashing away at Mara's torso. Mara yelled and fell to the ground, then vanished.

Huffing and puffing, the party was not sure what to make of this, "Where'd *pant* where did *pant* she go?" Leranna asked between breaths, bending over and crouching a bit. "I'm *puff* not sure," Luna replied. An fell onto his back, just glad they were done, "Hey Luna *pant* sorry about *pant* not helping you out more." "That's okay, An," she panted, sitting down as well, "It's the only thing that *pant* made sense...I'd have done that as well. I just wish *puff* we knew where she went." "She retreated to another hideout," came the voice from the cleric that had saved them. An sat up, they all turned to look at her. "She wears clothes similar to our own adventurer gear, she used their ability to retreat," she explained, "this isn't the first time she's lost...she's lost many times, she always retreats, then comes back to stir up trouble again after a while." An got to his feet, "I guess we owe you our thanks...you really saved us all back there." "It's no problem," she smiled. "I'm An Ning, the fighter up there is Leranna646," Leranna waved, "Thank you so much!" the cleric nodded in turn. "The other cleric is Luna Ice," he said pointing. Luna stood, dusted herself off and bowed in thanks. "It was my pleasure to help. Nice to meet you all, by the way, my name is Rukya." She handed them a bunch of spirit and health potions, which they graciously accepted. "Don't mention it," she said with a dismissive wave, "I have plenty of materials to make more." An looked at her in confusion, "You can make potions?" "Sure," she said, "You...don't know how?" An shook his head, as did Luna and Leranna. "Wow," she said in disbelief, "...ok, then, I'll explain it to you."

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:26 AM

Book 1: An Ning’s Story
Chapter II, Reflections and New Knowledge

It had indeed been an interesting fight -and a very revealing talk with Rukya. She told them all about alchemy's basics: Every adventurer's bag had two slots where a magic patch could be placed. This patch could not be removed once placed, but it allowed the bag's owner to use a form of alchemy. The types of alchemy patches to choose from were stone production- the ability to make stones to make weapons and armors stronger (refining was something Leranna had taught him), composition- taking many low grade items and making one high grade item, decomposition- the inverse of composition, potion making- the ability to make several different types of useful potions, and scroll making- which allowed you to make magic scrolls that would increase a person's abilities for an hour (An had chosen the abilities to make potions and scrolls). After placing the patches, you needed to buy the recipe -similar to an attack skill in use, you concentrated on the items you needed, made a motion and said a chant, the bag -or rather, the patch- would give you the items (provided they were in the inventory) and the user would combine the different materials into a new item. She went on to speak of special armors that beasts would sometimes steal from special craftsmen; these special armors and weapons would have enchantments on them that made the wearer even stronger than the "normal" enchanted armors -a thought which made them all go searching for some for the rest of the afternoon (to no avail).

An and Leranna had no way of knowing it at the time...but that was the last day either of them would see his friend, Luna Ice. Never really knowing what happened to her, she went on a quest alone the next day, and simply never came back.

During the day, An would usually party with either Leranna, or Luna, or both -they all wanted to become strong, but often Leranna or Luna -or sometimes both- would want to fight something easier than An was after. At night, as the sun set and the stars came out, they'd usually meet at Rumen's fountain and watch the waves in the harbor, and talk about the day's adventures and encounters, or even past events that they had gone through. Often their little group would attract more people that would come in and start talking and listening -this was how Leranna met Buzz, who soon after meeting her (later that same night, in fact) became her boyfriend (a short relationship, though it may have been, it was important to Leranna nonetheless). After talking for a while, An would head home on his wooden hobby -another skill that Leranna had introduced him to, which allowed him to visit his brothers quite frequently- and tell his brothers not only his own exciting stories, but those that others had shared in the group. The second eldest brother, he noticed, seemed to like hearing stories involving mages. All he had to do was mention that a mage was involved and his brother would seem to perk up and be more intent in his listening...

Deciding he was done resting and reminiscing for now, An sent his mushroom house away. Looking around to ensure no enemies had wandered close, he pictured his inventory bag, and held his hands in front of himself as though holding a ball. The items he sought soon appeared between his hands, floating, pushing outward against him. He started a small chant and moved his hands around the invisible boundary holding the ingredients in the air. He pushed his hands in, against the protest of the materials, pushing them all together and creating a bright light as they fused from the skill he was using. The light faded and between his hands was a new health potion, which he placed in his bag. He repeated this for the next minute or so, making almost forty potions, wondering where Leranna was, and how Luna was doing on her quest.

"An!" came Leranna's voice from behind him. He looked back, his ingredients falling to the ground and breaking. "Dang," he whispered. "Hey Leranna!," he said waving as she came up to him, "You're late." "I know, sorry. I was talking to Romenus," she explained, "He said Grand Master Sean in the forest of Mist wants to talk to you about something." "Oh really?" An said excitedly (it was no secret that when he wanted to talk to you, it was to offer you a chance to go up a level in your class -which meant becoming a high cleric and having the revive ability for An), "Come on! Let's go!"

They quickly made their way back to Rumen, An seemed to have doubled in strength at this news, the way he quickly cut down all the enemies in his way. They rushed through the beginner's hunting grounds -stopping only so An could (again) fight the King Crab. "Honestly," Leranna said with a sigh, "Can't you stop beating him back into the water every time you see him?" "It's a personal thing," An said to her, "So...no, not really...no." He got back on his hobby horse and they raced through Sand Beach and into the Forest of Mist, making their way quite fast to the Guard Captain.

Hurriedly, An ran over to him, nearly falling twice. Almost bouncing up and down on his toes in excitement, he half-listened as the Grand Master told him of a cave where he could nearly double his strength. "Great!" said An when the Grand Master stopped talking, "Where is this cave, and how do I get in?" "Only I know where the cave lies," said Sean, "but I do not have the key to enter, nor do I know exactly where it is." "WHAT!?" An shouted, about to hit the man with his mace in frustration. "Calm down," said Master Sean, "I HAD the key, but it was stolen on my way here to meet you...I didn't see which monster it was, so you will have to look for yourself. Bring it back to me and I will let you enter, if you wish."

"I don't believe this," he said to Leranna as they walked away. "Somewhere in this ENTIRE forest, is ONE monster," he said, motioning at all the monsters that were visible, even from where they were standing. "And that monster," he continued, "has a tiiiiiny key the size of my hand....and I need to find it, kill it, and bring the key back." "It could be worse," Leranna said to him. "How?" he asked, turning his head toward her. "It could have been broken in half, one half given to a random monster here...and the other half given to Mara," she said smiling. An stopped walking and stared at her, "That's not funny," An said still standing in place, "That's not funny at all! Don't even joke about that!" Leranna laughed and nudged him to keep walking....they had a long day of fighting ahead of them....and they both knew it.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:26 AM

Book 1: An Ning’s Story
Chapter III: The Trial of the Cleric, the Quest to Obtain Revive

Leranna raised her shield, the Grave robber's hoe clanging against it, stopping inches away from her head. As the foe brought his weapon back across his shoulder -readying another attack, An swung his mace at him. The Grave robber spun and used a two handed grip to block An's attack...but that was only a distraction. Leranna swung her sword around and slashed three times into the enemy's side using the fighter's "slice and dice" technique. The Grave robber stumbled and fell, defeated. An searched the grave robber's pockets and the small bag that all grave robbers carried on their back. Obtaining only a potion and a small sack of dust, he threw the potion over to Leranna, who placed it in her bag. "How many does this make now?" An asked, dropping the dust in his own bag. "I dunno anymore," Leranna answered. Wiping sweat from her head, they started walking deeper into the forest, "Probably somewhere around seventy by now," she guessed.

"My bag is almost full..." a very tired-sounding Leranna said a few minutes later. "Mine IS full," An stated as he drew a necklace from his bag and threw it behind him, "I really don't understand why that tiny thing takes up a full storage compartment on its own...it's smaller than a copper lump and I have twelve of OOOF!" He bumped into Leranna's back, "Watch it!" he yelled -even though he had walked into her, "How about a little warning, huh?" Leranna didn't speak...she didn't move, she just stood there looking forward. An followed her gaze...his eyes widened when he saw what she saw, then he shut them and growled a low curse, slouching a bit. Ahead of them was a large group of boogy, but this was not what Leranna was staring at. Towering above all the Boogy nearby, was a Boogy Knight...and stuck around one of the spikes on its shell, was a bronze ring, with a key attached. "Well...we found it," Leranna said with a shrug and a slight grin. "Boogy Knight.....it figures it's on Boogy Knight," An said with sagging shoulders. Leranna stepped forward, and held her shield in front of her, looking back at An she smiled a bit more, "Well then, shall we?" "I have a choice?" An said as he raising his own shield. The Boogy Knight spotted them, as he charged forward, Leranna and An raced ahead to meet him.

The Boogy Knight jumped into the air, tucking in his legs and head while spinning, intent on slashing through the two adventurers. "Move!" Leranna shouted as she jumped to one side. An jumped to the other side as Boogy Knight landed between them. "Is it just me, or does this kind of thing happen to us often?" An said as he slammed his mace into the enemy's shell, seemingly doing no harm, "I mean, really, did it HAVE to be Boogy Knight?" "Stop complaining and keep fighting!" Leranna retorted, slashing at Boogy Knight's think-skinned neck. "Just trying to make conversation!" An said dodging spikes as the boogy spun around again, "And how the heck did the key manage to get up there, anyways? There's no way the boogy put it there himself!" "Good question!" Leranna said as Boogy Knight lunged forward and clamped onto her shield with his beak, "but conversation can come later!" Knowing she couldn't get enough momentum with her blade to hurt him that close in, she punched the monster in the eye with the hilt of her sword. The Boogy yelped, released its grip on her shield and pulled its head into its shell a bit, "For now, just concentrate on killing the blasted thing!" she finished. "Ah," An said slamming his hammer into the turtle-monster's hard shell again -with still little effect, "So you only want to talk and gloat once we've won?" "That's the basic idea!" she replied. "Ugh!" Leranna yelled as the Boogy managed to hit Leranna with a spin attack. "Leranna, you hurt bad?" An asked, "I can back up and heal if you need it!" he finished as he swung at one of the monster's back knees, causing it to groan in pain. "No, it's nothing major!" she reported, "Just a scratch on my shield arm, really!" Knowing that Leranna never told the truth about how bad she was hurt, An stepped back and cast a heal spell -just as a bunch of spikes passed through the area where he'd been standing only moments before.

"Fools!" shouted the boogy. "Whoa!" said Leranna. "It talks!" An shouted, saying exactly what she was thinking. "I am BOOGY KNIGHT! I am the STRONGEST one alive! You can NOT defeat me!" as though to punctuate his remark, he charged forward and spun, knocking Leranna back over a meter, and then turned toward An, who raised his shield in preparation. "I didn't know these pathetic and stupid things could talk," Leranna remarked. "What was THAT!?" the boogy shouted, looking away from An. "I mean, really, I thought if something this UGLY could speak, it would constantly be apologizing for the pain it caused others when they saw it!" Leranna jeered, making a rude gesture to top it off. "INSOLENT WHELP!!!" The Boogy Knight said, turning back to face her, "I WILL CRUSH YOU!!!!" He lunged forward and snapped at her shield, an attack which she dodged, "As though something as pathetic as you would be able to beat us!" she continued. "Stop DODGING!!!" the enraged beast shouted as Leranna side-stepped another strike. "AAARG!" he lurched as An used bash on the monster's back knee again. He turned around to attack An, Leranna taunted him again, "What's wrong, boogy? Tired of playing with me already? Or are you admitting you can't handle the heat?" she punctuated her comment with another insulting gesture.

The monster reeled, furious, "I think his blue face is turning red, Leranna!" An shouted nearly laughing, as he bashed the creature's other leg this time, splitting the skin. "It's because he knows it's true!" Leranna smiled as he made another wild, and easily evaded, attack. "GET OVER HERE AND I'LL SHOW YOU REAL POWER!" the boogy yelled franticly. Leranna slashed, narrowly missing his neck and instead slicing his chin, "Truth hurts, doesn't it?" she continued her taunting. "RAAAAWWR!!!" the Boogy yelled as he knocked Leranna to the ground with a charge, "I'M FINISHED WITH YOU!!!" He leaned back and to one side, preparing for another slicing spin, one that would finish off the smart-mouthed fighter. Seeing which leg he was putting weight on, An gave one last, powerful bash to that knee, hearing a gracious cracking sound as the mace connected, which sent the Boogy toppling to the ground. Leranna got to her feet and moved to the side of his neck as the monster groaned, uncertain of what exactly had come over him. "Well, you're right in a way," she said calmly as An retrieved the key from one of the spikes, as well as a small bag that had some dusts in it (probably from some unfortunate trader he had attacked earlier on), "You ARE finished." She raised her sword high, and quickly brought it down and through the Boogy Knight's neck.

They made their way back to the Grand Master -replenishing their soul stone charges and selling some of what they found at the nearby bridge's merchants. An walked up to the guard captain, "Here it is," he said proudly. "Yup, that's it" the man said, looking at the key to make sure it was the right one, "Congratulations are an order, then." "So can we go into the cave now?" An asked. "No," came the reply. "Huh? but I brought you your key!" "No you TWO cannot go in," master Sean explained, "Only you can enter...it is something you must do alone." An looked back at Leranna, "Oh, I see." "Oh, go on!" she said with a dismissive wave, "I'll be right here when you get back...not like a little rest is gonna kill me." An nodded and smiled. "So are you ready then," Sean asked. "Yes!" An smiled as he answered. "Alright, then, you may enter the cave...the entrance is right behind me."

The cave was dark, and dank. No, DANK was an understatement. An looked around a bit... kind of uncertain as to how he'd gotten there, since there was no door behind him, and he was certain he hadn't fallen. Dim flames appeared on torches around the small room, allowing An to see where he was. The room was small, box-shaped, and had a doorway on one side....and in between him and the doorway...was....himself?

"Huh? Who are you?" An asked as he looked at the newcomer from head to toe, "He looks and is dressed just like me," he thought. "I'm you," the impostor said. There was a slight pause, then he continued, "No...I am not you. You are pathetic and weak. You do not deserve my powers. It should be you trapped in here, not me." The impostor hefted his mace and shield. "I will defeat you," he said with in a low, menacing tone, "I will leave you here, and go into the other world as you." With that, the other cleric lifted his mace, gave a shout and charged at An.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:27 AM

Book 1: An Ning’s Story
Chapter III: The Trial of the Cleric, the Quest to Obtain Revive

"This guy is unbelievable," An thought to himself as he jumped back, the opponent's mace swinging past in a blur as the enemy swung his mace quickly to the outside. Seeing an opening, An decided to attack again. Swinging down then up, An managed to catch his opponent under his chin, sending him flying up and back; but rather than being defeated, or even seeming hurt and upset by the strong blow, the impostor An -who called himself Shadow An- managed to right himself in midair and land on his feet two meters away. Shadow An laughed a bit, and An cast heal to restore his broken left arm -from an earlier barrage. "This will be more fun than I had anticipated," Shadow An said straightening and walking forward again. "I was thinking the same thing," An retorted crouching in a defensive posture.

The shadow-person charged, lifting his mace up and executing a powerful bash attack -which he had done several times already. An lifted his shield above his head as Shadow An's mace plunged. It hit his shield with such force that An's forearm nearly fractured again. "You know there's a problem with your style," An grunted as he lunged up, catching his opponent under the chin again with his own attack. "You use bash too much," An continued as he charged in, his opponent again positioning in air so he would land on his feet, "It's powerful, I'll grant that, but it is slow, easy to block or dodge..." An swung as his shadow landed, forcing him to jump back. He swung again, his shadow blocking with his own shield as An continued, "And leaves you open for a second if you don't hit your opponent." Shadow An staggered back as An connected against his chest with his mace. He straightened and stood still, An stopped, wondering what was going on. "I'll show you," the shadow said, staring straight into An's eyes, "We'll see if you are worthy of the power or not. I WILL become you!" With that, the shadow turned and ran through the door and into the dark hall. His call echoed down the corridor, "Come and get me, if you can!".

"Come back here, coward!" An shouted after him, but to no avail. Dim torches again appeared along the walls, this time leading down the corridor. An rushed along the narrow path and around a corner, getting clothes lined as he did so by two strange-looking Kebing that had been hiding there.

"Oof!" the wind rushed out of him as he landed on his back, looking up at the two floating kebing, laughing to each other and pointing at An. He got to his feet as the kebing continued their aggravating mocking -one of them pretending to be An and "falling", as a floating being does, onto his back (three feet in the air). "Out of my way!" An shouted at the kebing, who laughed and shook their heads. "Not up to fighting me yourself, are you, coward!?" An shouted loudly down the hallway, "You have to get your friends to do it for you!?" The only reply was one of the kebing suddenly charging forward, using its massive head like a battering ram.

An jumped to the side, dodging the first attack, only to have the second kebing hit him from the side in a similar attack and knock him into the wall, whereupon the first kebing again rammed him, this time in his chest. As he was against the wall, he could not move back to absorb the blow, the full force of that attack went through his armor and into his ribs, causing some to crack under the stress. The kebing stayed there, continuing to push in and pinning him against the wall, laughing, as the second kebing floated out a ways, and lowered his head, pointing the thickest part of his cranium at An's unprotected head -an attack that would undoubtedly leave him dead, if he could not evade it. An struggled as the second kebing began moving forward, laughing manically as it began to charge, but An could not push the first kebing out of the way. He tried hitting it with his shield and mace, but because the Kebing was so close in, and there was a wall behind him, An couldn't swing to gather enough momentum to hurt the kebing. The other kebing continued to charge and gain speed, getting closer....this was going to hurt.

Remembering a tactic he had just seen Leranna use only a short time ago, An flipped his mace in his hand and stabbed the kebing in the eye with the handle -smacking himself alongside the head with the larger end lightly (an acceptable compromise). The kebing shouted and backed away, An rolled to the side just as the charging kebing arrived and struck it's head against the stone wall, putting itself in a light daze. An cast heal on himself to heal his ribs, then immediately used bash against the stunned kebing -the other kebing still flying around in random circles howling in pain. The stunned kebing fell to the ground, but started to get back up, chuckling a bit.

Fed up with their games, An made a wide circle with his mace and slammed it into the side of the kebing's head, then continued over and down, bringing the mace up under the kebing's right shoulder, launching it further into the air, then as the kebing fell, he landed another bash squarely in the kebing's chest, bringing the mace all the way down to the ground, cracking the floors. There was an audible crunch as the kebing slammed into the ground, and the kebing failed to get back up after this. The other kebing stopped moving upon hearing its partner's laughter cease, and saw that the cleric was standing over the kebing's body. An pointed his mace at the kebing, who had long since stopped laughing itself, and as he stepped toward the kebing, it turned and flew back down the hallway.

An continued down the hall, a bit slower this time, calling for his shadow to show itself, with no response. Fighting a few more of his shadow's annoying friends, An made his way into a large chamber with a few stone soldier statues around the sides, and a large gem at the end. Curious, An moved over to investigate. As he approached the gem, he heard his shadow's voice come from behind him, "I'm surprised you have made it this far." An turned, and saw his shadow in the doorway, with a bandit archer behind him. "You are stronger than I thought when I first saw you," Shadow An admitted, "but you have no chance now, not against all of us." "All?" An said with a smirk, "I only count two of you." Shadow An laughed, and the floor shook a bit as something stomped up from behind him. Turning, An looked just in time to see one of the giant stone soldiers swing a club down at him, and catch him mid-torso.

An flew through the air -grateful the enemy swung toward the inside of the chamber instead of toward the wall- managing to twist and land on his chest. Getting to his feet, he heard the distinct sound of stressed wood bending. An jumped and rolled forward, hearing a plinking sound as an arrow ricocheted off the ground where he had landed moments ago. Running, An surmised his situation: "I have a giant stone golem with a huge club trying to crush me...fun... a bandit archer launching an arrow at me every few seconds...great...and, oh let's not forget THE INSANE, HOMICIDAL DOPPLEGANGER EATING POPCORN ON THE SIDLINES!!" An changed direction as another arrow embedded itself against the wall ahead and to his side. "Simply put," he continued to himself, "I'm screwed." "I heard that, and that’s not true!" the shadow called as An changed direction again, "I do NOT have popcorn!" "Although," the shadow admitted to himself, "I probably should have brought something as a snack...this is kinda fun to watch."

An jumped back to avoid yet another arrow, closing in on the stone golem. It swung at him, a powerful, but ungainly attack. An rolled forward and under the golem's mace, then jumped up and spun, lifting his mace and slamming it against the side of the golem's head. The stone giant staggered, An landed and cheered, then yelled in pain as an arrow hit him in the back of his left leg. An quickly pulled out the arrow, rolled as another sailed past, and cast heal; as he did so, Shadow An cast heal on the golem. "Oh, you have GOT to be kidding!" An said as the golem's smashed face was restored. The shadow laughed, knowing there was little chance An could defeat the golem in 1 hit; and even if he could, there was less chance he would be able to dodge the archer when he attempted to do so. This was something An had come to realize as well. An briefly thought of charging the archer, ahead and slightly to the side of his shadow; but with the way his accuracy seemed to be improving as time went on (or maybe he was just getting tired and slowing down), that seemed a bad idea. An jumped back as he formulated a new plan, dodging another slow attack from the stone enemy.

An rushed his double, holding his shield close and crouching as he ran so the archer would have trouble hitting him. The shadow laughed at the brashness of An's attack, surely there was no way he thought he could beat HIM in a single strike. He hefted his shield to defend against An's predictable mace attack, and held his mace behind himself, readying to counter; but instead of attacking with his mace, An jumped and flattened out. Landing with both feet against the shadow cleric's shield, An grinned at his double, whose eyes widened as he understood the other's true intention...

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:27 AM

Book 1: An Ning’s Story
Chapter III: The Trial of the Cleric, the Quest to Obtain Revive

An jumped off of the shield, launching himself at a very surprised bandit archer. He spun in the air as the archer franticly tried to raise his bow and fire an arrow -but it was far too late for that. An's first blow connected under the right side of the archer's chin, breaking the jaw and sending him flying back; as he landed, An took a long step in and brought his mace up under the archer's back, breaking several vertebrae. Finally, An brought his mace up above the archer -who was still in the air at this point- and brought it back down on the bandit's neck. The bandit fell to the ground unmoving. An looked up at his double with a smirk, "That's one down."

"And two to go!" an enraged shadow cleric shouted at him. The golem and Shadow An took up positions on either side of An Ning. The golem swung down, and An dodged, barely lifting his shield in time to block Shadow An's attack. "If you thought it was hard before!" the shadow yelled swinging his mace time and again, "Then you have no idea what you've just gotten yourself into!!" An dodged, jumped, blocked and dodged again as attack after attack came from two sides. The two enemies easily kept him on the defensive; for several minutes it was all An could do just to avoid being hit. Knowing there was no way he could keep this up for much longer, he came up with another plan....one that made him wince to think about employing. An watched the golem's attacks, looking for a pattern...There it was! Up and left, down and right, straight left, up and right, then straight down again! Knowing he was going to hate himself for doing this later on, he continued to dodge his shadow's attacks, and waited. When the golem swung his club up and right, An allowed it to connect. The shadow cheered as An went sailing through the air again, landing several meters away and in the narrow hallway...much too narrow for them to gang up on both sides of him.

An grinned as he got up, despite the pain, then he cast heal on himself again as the shadow realized that they had just been duped. "AAAAARRG!!" the shadow yelled and faced the golem, "You stupid chunk of rock! What's wrong with you!? Didn't you see that coming!? Just because you have stone for brains doesn't mean you should be so incredibly incompetent!" An chuckled lightly, he knew the shadow didn't expect him to deliberately take a hit in order to escape, either, but was just looking for something to vent at (which An was fine with...it gave him more time to rest). "GGRRR-AAAUUGH!!" The shadow had now moved beyond coherent words as he ranted. At last, he stopped and looked at the golem, which was still standing there. The shadow straightened, lifted his shield to the front and held his mace out to the side and in a low voice, he told the golem, "You're worthless." The golem, despite having rock for brains, understood what was about to come. He turned to run away, but Shadow An wouldn't have it. He took three steps forward before the golem even finished turning around, swung, and broke the golem's leg in half. The golem toppled and landed on its back; the shadow moved up to the golem's head, breaking both the golem's arms as it tried desperately to protect itself. An's eyes widened with surprise at the shadow's newfound strength; and widened even more as with one fluid motion, the shadow cleric smashed his mace into the golem's head, causing it to turn into a shower of dust and pebbles. Standing with his back to An, the cloud of dust from the golem began to settle around him, the shadow cleric growled, "Now...." Shadow An turned, there was no mistaking the pure desire to kill in his eyes as he pointed his mace at An, "You're next!"

The shadow charged at An, who had come back into the main room, swinging wildly at An's head as he closed in, "You can't win! I am unbeatable!!" he shouted as he attacked. An dodged and the shadow cleric's mace slammed into a large pillar, cleaving a large gap nearly all the way through and severely weakening the structure. The shadow's enraged attacks were so powerful that if An tried to block them with his shield, he would probably break his arm. An continued to dodge as the shadow swiftly swung time and again, intent on killing the other cleric with one mighty blow. Shadow An swung up and to the inside, "I WILL KILL YOU!", the attack caused An to back up further into a wall; and the shadow then brought his mace down in a bash strike, "I WILL BECOME YOU!!". An ducked and spun, narrowly avoiding being struck, the shadow's attack nonetheless left a long gash down the back of An's armor. The shadow's mace slammed into the ground, crushing the stone, sending cracks out for meters along the ground and even up the walls, and causing dust to fly up around him. An stood up from his spinning dodge, then bent his legs as he continued to spin, bringing his mace down on the shadow's extended elbow.

The shadow released his grip on the mace, leaving it buried to its hilt in the floor as he shrieked in pain. He stood and backed away, holding his arm -which was now bent in the wrong direction- and howling. He raised his shield arm up to heal and said a quick chant; which An turned into a sudden puff of exhaled air by driving his mace into the other cleric's stomach. The shadow doubled over and continued to stagger back, An ran forward and smashed into his double with his shield, knocking the cleric off balance and causing him to go upright again, painfully waving his broken arm in an effort to regain balance. An followed through with another spinning attack to the shadow's mid-section, sending him into the pillar which the cleric had smashed part of earlier.

Looking up as he slammed into its base, the shadow saw that the four pillars in the room were ornamental; they did not reach up to the roof, they were only there to give the chamber a more grandiose appearance and hold a few torches. He looked back at An, who swung low at his left knee, smashing it in such a manner that it was beyond hope of him being able to use without healing. With another pain-filled shriek he fell to the ground at the pillar's base. The shadow wondered where it had gone wrong, where he had made a mistake.....at the beginning this other cleric couldn't touch him...how was it possible that he was being beaten by this wimp?

An walked around to the side of the pillar, about two meters away from the head of the shadow, curled up on the ground. "It's...not...nnngggover!" the shadow whisper-shouted in a raspy voice from the ground. "I...will...winI....must....killyou!" he spat the last few words out between pain-filled breaths. An said nothing, he hefted his mace and ran past the shadow cleric, swinging his mace through the remainder of the weakened pillar's base as he did so. With a thunderous roar and a shower of stone and dust that made the room shake, the pillar collapsed behind him, on top of Shadow An. After the last few pebbles finished crackling as they rolled along the floor, An sat and listened....there was nothing, only silence. He looked at the small mountain of rubble, resting over and covering Shadow An. No part of the shadow being could be seen, no part of the rubble moved. An waited, half expecting the stubborn shadow to suddenly lurch out of the debris pile and try to kill him again, but the anticipated attack never came. The gem in the back of the room suddenly glowed. An walked over to it, shielding his eyes as it glowed brighter and brighter; as the brilliant light faded, he realized he was standing in front of Leranna and Grand Master Sean in the forest again.

"Welcome back!" Leranna said waving cheerfully. "Congratulations on your victory, young adventurer!" Sean said with a smile. "So," said Leranna, "How was it?" An just stared at her for a moment...

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:28 AM

Book 1: An Ning’s Story
Chapter III: The Trial of the Cleric, the Quest to Obtain Revive

At first, Leranna was unsure of what exactly to say; she wanted to think he was making it up, but the gouges and gashes in his armor were more than enough evidence to support his story as far as she was concerned. "Wow," she started, "That's....quite a story." "Yeah," An said in his mushroom house, "Think my brothers will like it?" "They'll probably think you're full of it," she replied, "but yeah, they will like to hear it anyways."

"Ahem," Grand Master cleared his throat, "I believe you have forgotten something." "Oh, sorry," An said as he sent his mushroom house away. "What you experienced is what all people who go into that cave experience. The person you fought is yourself, your darker side. Everyone has this darkness in them, and it is very difficult to defeat," the guardsman explained, "But the darkness is not dead. It is still in you, a part of you, but in defeating it, you have proven yourself strong in both mind and body; and are more than qualified to take the title of High Cleric, if you wish." An smiled and accepted, the guardsman grinned, "Then, High Cleric An Ning, choose the weapon with which you will protect people from darkness." He held forward 2 weapons, one in each hand, a mace, in his left, and a hammer, in his right. "The mace you are familiar with," the guardsman noted, "The hammer though is larger, slower and more ungainly than even the mace, but should you strike your target, you can deal devastating damage." An thought for a moment, then selected the hammer, which he proudly displayed to Leranna.

An turned to leave, then turned back as though remembering something, "That key you sent me after," he started, "It was wrapped around one of the horns of a Boogy Knight." He closely regarded the guardsman, "There is no way the Boogy Knight put it there himself, and I doubt a monster would steal something like that, then give it to Boogy Knight." "Are you accusing me of something?" the guardsman asked, raising his eyebrows. "You never lost the key," An explained, "You put it there yourself without the Boogy Knight even noticing, didn't you?" The guardsman didn't answer, he only smiled. "Uh huh," An stated seeing the guard's reaction, "Nice work." He turned to leave, then turned back again, remembering something else, "So can I get the book on revive here as well?" he asked. The man chuckled, "No, you have to see the Paladin Master in Elderine for that." Nodding in thanks, An and his partner headed off to Elderine to seek the Paladin Master.

"There is a dark elf in the woods," the old Paladin Master said to him, "Go and find him. If he finds you worthy of such a gift, he will give you something to bring back to me; only then will I bestow you with the knowledge of how to revive the fallen." An turned away and looked at Leranna in annoyance, she shrugged, "Back to the forest, then?" "Forest, Elderine, forest, Elderine, MAN this is getting old!" An said under his breathe. "At least it's almost done," she said. "It's been almost done for eight hours now!" he said incredulously. Which was about right, Leranna noticed, they had started looking for the shadow key almost eight hours ago. "Well at least we know where he is," she reminded him. This was true, on their aggravatingly long quest to find the Shadow Key, they had come across the old elf in a small clearing in the bamboo thicket. "You know, you're right. I mean, all we have to do is get to the guy, talk to him, then come back here....it can't take that long, right?" An hefted his shield as they reached the gate to the forest, "All right, let's get going!"

"Un...freaking...believable," An muttered as they walked away from the dark elf, "Simply un-freaking believable." Leranna didn't know what to say -she felt just like he did. An looked at the list again, "Eighty....he wants us to kill eighty monsters before he will recommend me to the paladin master." "Well, technically," Leranna pointed out, "He wants YOU to kill eighty monsters...he doesn't care if I'M along for the journey or not." An stopped and stared at her, she laughed and pushed him, "Oh, lighten up! I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" An shook his head, "Not funny, Leranna....not funny."

The kebing charged, a similar attack as the ones in the cave he had just come out of had used, but this kebing was much weaker. As it neared, An stepped to the right, and swung his body and hammer left, sending the kebing flying over a shrub and landing in the dirt beyond it -laying still. "Home run!" he shouted. "Glad you're having so much fun!" Leranna grunted as the prock zone's toxic spit smacked against her shield, "These things are disgusting," she thought. "How about some backup over here?" she shouted. "I thought taking the kebing off your hands and letting you only worry about the Prock Zone WAS backup!" An joked as he ran over. "It was" she said, dodging another toxic slime ball, "but you don't have anyone to play with now, so how about helping me with this sick thing here?" An rushed over and lifted his hammer to attack, but the prock saw it coming and spat at him, the acidic slime landing on his arm, "Yow! Hot hot hot!!" Leranna stepped forward and pivoted, slicing the prock zone's top from its bottom as An cured himself.

"Prock zones are done," Leranna grinned. "Kebings, too," An stated, "Though I'm not entirely sure I like your plan for fighting prock zones," he said looking at his arm. "You have a better idea?" she asked. "Yeah," he nodded, "Next time YOU be the bait and I kill it." "Sure," she answered. "Really?" An said surprised. "Yeah, no problem," she grinned, "too bad we're done with those now. "Hey!" An shouted, Leranna laughed and ran ahead, An stood there for another second and shook his head, then ran to catch up.

It was another grueling six hours of fighting -counting the breaks to recover- but they finally managed to finish the quest and return to the dark elf. He gave them a small token to present to the paladin master. They walked back to Elderine, a fortuitously uneventful trip, as they were both tired of fighting that day. "I really hope that it's done after this," Leranna said as they approached the portal. "You and me both," An replied as Leranna stepped through. They made their way over to the paladin master who congratulated them, and rewarded An with the book teaching the revive skill.

"FINALY!" An shouted as he finished putting the skill to memory, "I can FINALY revive someone if I don't reach them in time to help in a fight!" "Kudos," Leranna smiled. "Now we just need to find someone for you to test your newfound ability on," she said stretching. She looked over, wondering why An had not made a comment about her snide remark; An was looking at her and grinning, "Don't even think about it," Leranna said, getting to her feet. An stepped toward her, lifting his hammer a bit, "Leranna, come here, I want to ask you something." Leranna backed away, "No-no" she stated in response, then she summoned her hobby and flew off. An summoned his own hobby and chased after her, "Get back here, Leranna!"

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:29 AM

Book 1: An Ning’s Story
Chapter IV: The "Tween" Levels

An sat down by a pond in the Forest of Mist, waiting for Leranna. It had been two days since his battle with his shadow, and now it was Leranna's turn. It was an odd feeling...he was excited that Leranna was being given this chance -after all, many adventurers give up before obtaining this power, he was confident in her strength...but he also knew how incredibly strong and tenacious her shadow would be (yes, he had told her what he faced...but there is a difference between hearing it and living it), and he worried that she might lose. He'd been sitting for what seemed like hours. He got up and quickly killed a Phino that had wandered too close, then upon spying a mini-greenky nearby, he walked over to it -but it chittered nervously and flew away at the sight of him approaching. Sighing, he walked back to the pond next to Grand Master Sean and sat down.

Master Sean looked down at him, "Don't stress out so much, kid; your friend should be fine." An looked up at him, "How do you know? Can you see in there or something?" The Grand Master shook his head, "I know because I invited her...if she wasn't strong enough, I wouldn't have let her in." An nodded, then looked up again, "Just out of curiosity..." "Hm?" Sean looked down again. "Why'd you give the Boogy Knight the key for ME to go in," he started, "and a freaking Mini Greenky the key for HER to get in?" "Because I figured that would be the last monster you attacked to look for it -given your past experience together," he answered. "But the mini greenky was by the bridge behind us," An retorted, "And he was holding the key in his hand. We found it and brought it back in less than two minutes." "Hey," Master Sean shrugged, "I just hide the key...I have no control over where the monsters go after I hide them."

An chuckled a little and shook his head, then settled in to wait again. As he did so a bright ball of light suddenly appeared in front of Grand Master Sean. The light began to fade, showing the silhouette of a girl holding a shield and sword. The light vanished completely, revealing a very tired Leranna646 bending over to catch her breathe, wearing very dented, scratched and gouged armor -red stains and dust covering them. "Leranna?" An said as he approached her. "Is she the real one?" he asked himself. "Leranna?" he said again. "****," came the reply, "That **** was **** hard to kill." "Yup," An said to himself, "that's the real one....I'll bet her shadow was the sweetest person in the world to talk to..." An chuckled a bit to himself as he thought that, Leranna straightened up; still panting and grasping her sword and shield, she glared at An. "Whoa!" he cautioned, raising his shield, "Easy there....you're done fighting for now." Leranna chuckled a bit and smiled, threatening An was just the pick-me-up she needed after that fight. She turned toward Grand Master Sean, who congratulated her on her success.

The guard gave her a choice of three weapons, a one handed sword like the one she had, a two handed sword -which looked very impressive, and a huge axe. Leranna chose the two handed sword. "Why'd you choose that weapon?" An asked as they headed back toward town. "Because it looks cool," she replied as she swung it over her shoulder. "I know that," An answered, "but it's not as damaging as an axe, and you can't use a shield with this, like you can with the other sword...it seems completely disadvantageous." "I am well aware of that," Leranna said, "but those other weapons just don't look as cool as this one does." Leranna smiled and An chuckled lightly....this was going to be interesting.

The next two days were indeed interesting, their battles seemed incredibly easy, but because of this, they weren't getting much stronger. They were stuck in what some referred to as "the tween levels"; the area one reached when they passed the job test, but before becoming strong in their job. Because the strength of their weapons increased so much, their ability to defeat the enemies around the areas they have been training in increases. Conversely, because the fighting is easier, they do not become much stronger, despite the greater enchantments on the weapons. This forces the adventurers to do one of three things: give up, take the slow path and fight wave after wave of enemies for a long time until they became stronger (fighting in such a manner was referred to as a "grind"), or wander ever farther from towns to find and fight monsters that were really too strong for them, but gain strength faster if they survived (many adventurers choose this option...and many adventurers die from it).

At first, An and Leranna chose the longer path...but after 2 days...they quickly grew bored. Seeking more difficult prey, they wandered into an underground temple known to be full of undead monsters protecting a giant glowing crystal (appropriately dubbed "Luminous Stone" by adventurers). They often had their hands full in that area. While it was true the lower section had easier enemies like Grave robbers and Kebings, there were many of them in a small area, so it was easy for an adventurer to get swarmed; and in a swarm of attacks by even easy opponents, making a single mistake could still mean defeat to an adventurer. The second floor, though, was where these two preferred to train.

The second floor was the resting place of the stone itself. It lay in the center of a great open chamber, on a fantastic stone pedestal below a ceiling easily 30 feet high. The gem was enormous, the size of several adult humans, emanating a strange light that the undead found appealing; which naturally meant there were dozens of undead -skeletons wielding swords and bows- around it.

Another skeleton charged raising its sword and slicing at An, who deflected the blow with his shield and spun to one side, striking back with his hammer. The skeleton dodged the blow, only to have Leranna's sword slice into his mid-section, resulting in a few ribs falling to the ground. "I kind of like fighting the undead," Leranna smiled as she parried a slicing attack from the skeleton. An smashed his mace into the skeleton's other side, causing a spray of bone and dust to erupt from the skeleton's right rib cage. "Why's that?" he asked in return. "Because," Leranna said as she slashed off the skeleton's arm -the sword clattering to the ground, "You can't kill what's already dead." As she said this, she sliced sideways, severing the skeleton's head; An then used bash, and the skeleton fell to the ground in a pile of bones, a blue mist rising from them and flying away -down one of the halls. "You can only make the evil spirit inhabiting them run away for a bit, but eventually they come back, rein habit the body and attack again," Leranna said, resting her sword along her shoulders.

"That's what most people find annoying, actually," An said sitting down to catch his breath -that was the tenth one they'd "killed" already. "I know," she smiled, turning as another blue mist flew back into the room, settling over one particular pile of bones a little ways away. "Show time," she said pointing with her sword. "Aw man, the archer?" An grumbled, "I HATE that thing! And it comes back the fastest, too!" "Just to annoy you, An...just to annoy you," Leranna chuckled.

The mist lowered itself into the bones, which then gathered themselves together, clattering. A fleshless arm of bleached bone reached out and grabbed the bow resting next to it, the other arm pushing down on the ground as the reassembled chest lifted off the ground. The skeleton's skull snapped forward from its resting place -facing backwards and down, something left over from a swift kick by Leranna the last time they fought it, its eyes lightly glowing bluish yellow from the mist inhabiting it. Clumsily it got to its feet, reached back with its free hand into the quiver it wore, pulled out an arrow which it then placed in its bow and drew -aiming straight at An's head.

The arrow sailed through the air and over him as An jumped and rolled out of the way. Rising to his feet he started running to one side, as Leranna ran to the other -the skeleton still tracking him. "This is why I hate archers!" An shouted as the archer let loose another arrow. An spun and dropped to his knee, his shield catching the arrow heading for his calf, "And THAT is why I hate your plans for killing these ranged attackers! I'm always the bait!" "Can't help that," Leranna smiled as she swung her sword at the archer's back, bisecting it, "They just seem to like attacking you." Leranna stomped as the skeleton archer's torso tried to aim a point-blank shot at her from its newfound vantage point on the ground, shattering the skull. She side-stepped as the skeleton archer fired the arrow straight up, easily missing her. An arrived and used bash to finish the fight and send the blue mist flying away -again.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:29 AM

Book 1: An Ning’s Story
Chapter IV: The "Tween" Levels

"Can we rest for a bit?" An panted as they went back to the room's center, "This running from one side of the room to the other is making me tired." "Normally, I'd say yes," Leranna said, pointing behind him. An turned, seeing four more blue mists entering the room...and behind them a very upset Skeleton Warrior. "But I'm gonna say we aren't being given the choice right now," she finished as the four mists settled over their respective bone piles, the Skeleton Warrior eying them, eagerly gripping its sword and shield. "At least there aren't any archers in that bunch," An said, trying to stay positive. "Umm," came Leranna's soft and somewhat worried reply. Not liking her tone, An turned back and looked at Leranna, who was looking further behind them, "I think that comment may have been a little bit premature." An followed her gaze, seeing a blue mist settling over the pile of bones from the skeleton archer they had just defeated. Light whispering howls came from the mouths of the four sword-wielding skeletons as they again raised themselves from the ground, the blue mist settling into the pile of bones from the archer. "Just to annoy me, eh?" An looked at her with a sad smile. Leranna said nothing, she just gave a tiny uncertain smile. An looked back as the skeleton archer began to get back up. Hearing the scraping of metal on stone as the four skeletons surrounding the Skeleton Warrior behind him picked up their swords laying on the ground in front of them -yet again, and watching the skeleton archer's head turn toward him as it slowly continued to rise up -yet again. An was only able to think of one word to say in response to the new situation: "Crap."

"Dangit!" An said as he stood up to heal himself, "That's the third time today! I freaking HATE archers!" "Sorry about that," Leranna said getting up from the ground next to him, "I guess the warrior had the same fascination with you as the archer." "I noticed," An muttered as he looked at the section of his top armor that the Skeleton Warrior's sword had sliced off -that had been a painful hit, but the archer's arrow to the shoulder had caused him to drop his shield, and the arrow to the lung had been what caused him to fall unconscious -even if it was ten seconds after being shot.

An turned to heal Leranna. Despite having a return scroll, Leranna had kept fighting even after An fell -they only managed to kill two of the weaker skeletons before An was defeated, leaving two skeletons, an archer, and the warrior for Leranna....it was a quick fight. In all seriousness, Leranna had gotten lucky. She had been knocked away by the warrior's backhand (given after a nearly fatal slash across the stomach -which almost disemboweled her); if she hadn't, she would have fallen in front of the blood-thirsty skeletons -she might have been killed off completely before her adventure gear's enchantment kicked in. "I'm gonna go visit the smith and get my armor repaired," An said. "I'll come along," Leranna said, "I have a few scratches in mine as well." "Understatement," An said looking at the gouge in front of her stomach, "Serious understatement."

Later that evening, as the two sat down in front of Rumen's fountain, a courier arrived with a message for Leranna. As she read it, her eyes grew big, "What's up?" An asked. "My sister is sick," she answered, choking back tears, "They can't cure her.....they think she won't make it." Standing up, she summoned her hobby, "I have to go visit her...I'm sorry, An." "Hey, hey, don't apologize, I understand," An said as he stood. "Family is very important," he said thinking of his own siblings. He wished her a swift journey with a favorable outcome (in a few more words than that), and Leranna went on her way. An thought to himself for a minute, then decided he should go visit his brothers and tell them his stories from the past few days -they'd been camped out for nearly a week, after all...they had yet to even hear about the evil double he'd fought five days ago.

"What are you doing?" the fighter shouted as An swung his hammer at the second Smart Phino, "Let me handle these guys! You're a cleric, get back there and heal me!" An groaned and moved back, the two phinos moved in to attack the fighter, landing several strong blows to his chest -causing the fighter to lurch forward a bit from the pain of his ribs shattering. "HEAL!" he yelled at the cleric. An groaned again as he continued his chant. "As though I wasn't aware he needed to be healed," An thought to himself. The fighter got up and used stun on one of the blue-hated phino, then used slice and dice on the other. The second Phino was hurt, but still on its feet and now angry as well, "It'd be over by now if he'd let me attack," An thought as he cast heal again -to undo the damage the angry Smart Phino had just wrought on the fighter with a swift barrage of attacks. The fighter finally managed to cut down the Smart Phino, yelling in triumph, then shouting, "HEAL ME, DAMMIT!" as the other woke up and punched him several times in the back. Fed up, An cast heal on the fighter, then used bash on the Smart Phino from behind -flattening its over sized top-hat against its skull. The Phino's neck cracked as the fighter thrust into its stomach -the fighter's sword coming out the other side and almost impaling An as well. "Watch it!" An shouted as he jumped back. "Well, you shouldn't have been there," the fighter retorted as he knelt and pocketed the 3 potions and 2 bags of dust they had dropped. "Hey, don't I get any?" An asked as he watched. "No," said the fighter, "You have healing abilities, I need the money for stones." "Great..." An thought to himself, "I managed to pick another winner to train with."

It had been three days since Leranna had left to visit her sister -who was actually doing a bit better, or so the message she'd sent said. An hoped that her sister would get well soon, both because it would make Leranna happy, and because he was having a lot of trouble finding a suitable training partner while she was gone -this was the second fighter and fourth partner of the day, and at the rate it was going...this partnership was going to be over very quick as well. They walked a bit further and found another group of Smart Phino, the fighter smiled and lifted his two-handed sword. "I thought we were gonna go to Luminous Stone? Killing these guys is boring" An said. "Tough," came the fighter's reply, "I have a quest for these guys, so I'm killing them first."

An sighed as the fighter charged in at the group of three phino. "Heal!" came the inevitable shout two seconds later (for a brief moment, An debated in his mind letting the fighter lose...then decided against it). "Oh yeah," he thought as he cast the spell, "This party won't last long." After an absurdly long time -for only fighting three Smart Phino, the fighter managed to kill off the enemies -again pocketing everything they dropped. "Well," said the fighter, "I'm done." "Good," An said with relief, "So we can go to Luminous Stone now?" "You can go wherever you want," the fighter replied, pulling out a green scroll, "I'm done, so I'm outta here." The fighter vanished, teleporting back to Elderine. "Jerk," An muttered as he turned back toward the entrance to Elderine. "Oh yeah," An thought as he shook his head, "Chalk up another winning selection for An Ning". "Heya, An!" a guy's voice came from the side. An turned to see a fighter running up to him, "Oh, Heya, Nohr," An said waving.

Nohr Tenchuryu was a cleverfighter -about as strong as Leranna was- whom he had run across in the Sea of Greed the day after Leranna left for her home. Pleasant to talk to, and always looking for a fight, Nohr was, unfortunately, a follower of the long grind method (or as he called it, the "big money method", since he killed easy enemies and got a lot of dropped items for it); as such, they did not party very often -big money or no, An hated fighting easy enemies unless it was to help someone. An had to admit, though, when they did train together, it was at least a little more fun -and Nohr shared the drops quite willingly; usually giving An the better of the drops "since without him, he'd probably lose" (though An knew it was out of kindness...Nohr was more than capable of soloing most enemies in the Sea of Greed).

"What's up?" An asked. "I need your help, Ning," Nohr said returning the wave, "I have a quest to kill Kebing Speeders." An shuddered, Kebing Speeder were annoying, stronger than even the kebing he'd fought when he faced his shadow; and they possessed a special attack that made you run slow -so it could call for friends should it start to lose without you being able to escape. Nonetheless, Nohr was a friend, and An didn't like saying no to people that genuinely needed his help -nor did he like turning down a friend, and in this case, Nohr was both. "Sure thing," An answered, at least this would be more interesting than his last few training parties.

The orange-headed kebing chuckled as it lashed out at Nohr with a few quick jabs, its stubby hands barely long enough to reach him. Nohr grunted as the Kebing Speeder's jabs somehow slipped past his guard. Continuing its onslaught, the kebing quickly lowered his head, smashing forehead to forehead. The attack dazed Nohr, who staggered back a few steps. The kebing lowered his head and flew forward in an all-to-familiar battering ram attack style that kebings, with their massive heads, thick skulls, tiny bodies and reasonable speed when charging seem to adore. Still dazed, Nohr stood still as the kebing charged. As his head connected, there was a loud metallic clang. The impact of the Kebing Speeder's head driving into his shield knocked An back into his still-dazed friend. An raised his mace and quickly cast heal as the kebing growled, then started chuckling again.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:30 AM

Book 1: An Ning’s Story
Chapter IV: The "Tween" Levels

"Cutting it a bit close, weren't you?" Nohr said as he came to his senses. "Sorry," An replied moving to his side, "That stupid little lizzardman had an annoying friend that wouldn't let me leave before I played with it." An motioned over where the reptile's body lay with his shield, and Nohr saw the pinkish-red jaws of a Prock Zone protruding from the grass, its crumpled body barely visible. "I see," he said, now understanding the delay. The kebing howled, and both adventurers looked forward as the Kebing Speeder looked back at them and laughed. "No way that can be good," An said. It wasn't, four more kebing -this time Joker Kebing- came charging over a nearby hill. "Guess we split up again," Nohr said. An nodded in agreement, "You want easy but numerous or tough but single?" "Easy but numerous," Nohr answered. "Aww," An replied, "I was gonna take that one." Nohr looked at An and smiled, "Got a coin?" "Don't think so," An said.

The kebing all stopped in confusion as the two adventurers turned toward each other and started playing rock-paper-scissors for who would fight which mob. The Joker Kebing tilted their heads to the side making short, high-pitched chuckles as though questioning what was going on; the Kebing Speeder wasn't entirely certain what to do, either. The Speeder suddenly charged at Nohr, who had finally won two out of three rock-paper-scissors bouts, "Darn it!" he shouted as he swung his shield up to block. "Guess that leaves the Joker Kebings for me," An laughed as he turned and drew his hammer. "That's not fair!" Nohr shouted as he sliced at the speeder, barely missing. "You can have easy but numerous next time," An smiled as he smacked one of the kebing into the ground with a forceful attack. "But this is the last Kebing Speeder I need," Nohr said looking back at An. An grinned as he replied, "I know."

A kebing charged him, An side-stepped and swung his hammer like a baseball bat, driving the kebing into the three Joker Kebing behind him -knocking them all down, "Strike!" "Glad you're having so much fun," Nohr said dodging another charge attack from the speeder, "Could you just finish them off and help me, please?" "Sorry," An said with a grin, "Couldn't help it." Another kebing charged, An again stepped to the side, the kebing halted to make him miss his attack, but An stepped toward the kebing and spun, bringing his weapon, up, then down on the top back part of the Joker Kebing's head. The kebing did a face-plant and stayed down. An rushed forward and used bash before the other Joker Kebing could react, sending another one to the dirt unmoving. The final two kebing flew away as An straightened and hefted his hammer again.

Finished with his group, An turned to help Nohr. He saw Nohr duck as Kebing Speeder made another battering ram assault. Nohr fell onto his back and thrust his sword up as the kebing flew over him, catching the kebing in the middle of the head. The Kebing Speeder had so much momentum from its flight, though, that even though the initial pierce killed it, it continued to slide forward, the blade cleaving completely through the kebing's body; emptying everything that was inside the kebing onto the ground -and fighter- below. An fell onto his back laughing at Nohr's expression laying there on the ground, his eyes wide and lips pursed, now-orange sword still sticking straight up in the air, not believing what had just happened. As Nohr stood he attempted to take on an indignant expression -which made An laugh all the more -a few light chuckles could also be heard from the Joker Kebing that had fled back over the hill. An stopped laughing as Nohr wiped off his face and spat, "That," he said brushing the orange-red liquid and chunks from his armor as though it were no big deal, "was completely disgusting." An rolled onto his back again laughing hysterically -even the kebing nearby couldn't control their laughter.

The next three days An and Nohr partied more often, once more he was part of a fighter/cleric duo, and once more his fighter/cleric duo became a cleric, cleric, fighter trio when they met Fuina on the pier in Rumen. A very driven person, Fuina's drive was not to become stronger through training, but to make money, buy rare armors and weapons, then fight to become stronger. Always looking to improve her alchemy skills to assist with this; when not training she would frequently employ An's help to buy materials she needed to practice and use alchemy. She made and spent entire fortunes on her materials and alchemy -which, An had to admit, enabled her to buy some very nice rare armors and weapons.

Their party was quite powerful -especially given Fuina's special armor and hammer, they were able to kill monsters in the Sea of Greed in such a short amount of time, An wondered why Nohr refused to try to train elsewhere. "Come on, Nohr," An said, "We just killed a Kebing Speeder, two little Lizzardmen and a Prock Zone in under two minutes! We shouldn't be training here, it's pointless!" Their conversation on this topic had been going on for the last three minutes they had been walking. Finally conceding, Nohr tilted his head down, "Alright, alright. We'll go somewhere else." "YES!" An said making a fist, curling his arm and tucking his elbow in beside him. "But not Luminous," Nohr added. "What?" An nearly shouted, "Where else is there? I'm not going to the Moonlight Tomb." "Burning Hill," Fuina answered looking at An. An looked back at Fuina and tilted his head to the side, "Where?"

At first, An was unimpressed with the Burning Hill area. Sure it looked cool, with the red sky, volcanic rock on the ground and whatnot, but still, there was something wrong with training there... "There's just a bunch of Grave robbers and Baby Bats here," An said as they finished off the last of the group -the third set so far to have attacked them, "There are full-grown bats in Luminous." "You kill those?" Fuina asked. "Well...no," An admitted, "Actually...I stay away from them. They're too strong for me to beat right now." Fuina chuckled a bit at his reply.

They came to a fork in the path, An looked at Fuina, "Which way?" "I dunno," she replied, "my first time here." They looked at Nohr, "Same for me," he said looking back at them. They sat there for a minute, looking each way. "My map shows that the right path is fairly straight," Nohr stated, "it'll be easier for us to see enemies along that route." "Right path it is, then," Fuina nodded. They made their way along the path, fighting a few more bats and Grave robbers, when they came to a large open clearing in the path; and in the middle of the clearing, a lone red wolf wandered around.

They watched it for a while, trying to think of what to do now -as none of them had seen this type of wolf before. "Well," An started, "I guess we should attack it." "Do you think it's very strong or aggressive?" Fuina asked. "Dunno," An said as he walked toward it. The wolf saw him, and charged forward. Surprised, An lifted his shield as the wolf's left-paw claws raked across it, then yelled in astonishment as the wolf sliced back with his right, knocking the shield out of An's grip. "Yes to both!" An shouted jumping back as the wolf snapped its jaws at his head. Fuina and Nohr raced forward to assist the overwhelmed and now shieldless cleric. An was trying to get over to where his shield lay on the ground, memories of his failed attack on the King Crab sprang into his mind as he desperately dodged and jumped; his mind quickly drawing many similarities between that occurrence and this.

At last reaching their friend, Nohr stunned the Glow Wolf, and sliced at its belly as An retrieved his shield. Expecting the fight to end there, Nohr was surprised to find that he lacked the strength to cut very deep into the animal's thick skin. The creature growled as it started to come to its senses, Nohr slashed once more, with the same effect. Fuina charged in and used bash on the monster's head, expecting to shatter its vertebrae; and was just as surprised at the result of her attack as Nohr was at his. Her hammer landed with a thud against its skull, and the wolf turned it head, bared its fangs and bit her shield-arm just below the shoulder. An returned in time to cast heal on a reeling Fuina -a large chunk of her upper arm now in the wolf's mouth as it swung its claws at an astonished Nohr. It was a full three minutes before they were able to defeat the lone beast. "Well that was interesting," Nohr said panting, "Let's hope we don't run into too many more of those." "Agreed," Fuina puffed. They walked forward another minute, before almost falling on top of each other upon seeing what lay ahead of them on the path.

They stared ahead, about forty meters in front of them, along the middle and outer sections of the path, wandered a loose pack of the red wolves -all with long claws and very sharp fangs. "Maybe we should go the other way," Nohr stated as An turned around and started walking back. "Once more," Fuina answered, "Agreed". They looked at An -he was not moving, he just stood there, staring behind them, "I just want to point out," he said finally breaking the silence and gesturing with his hammer; they turned around and their eyes widened as they saw a large pack of Gold Slime sitting along the path they had just come through. "Taking the path to the right," An continued, "was you guys' idea."

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:30 AM

Book 1: An Ning’s Story
Chapter IV: The "Tween" Levels

"We can't keep this up much longer!" An yelled as he knocked another Gold Slime back with his hammer. The slime rolled forward back onto its base -the only really hard area on any slime was this "foot" it used to hop around on, then jumped forward; An stepped back to avoid being crushed. "Well have you got a better plan?" Nohr shouted as he sliced at the slime in front of him. "Yeah, kill these freaks!" An shouted back, dodging another jumping Gold Slime. "Oh that's really helpful!" Nohr yelled as he stunned another slime, "Why didn't I think of that sooner?" "If you two would shut up and concentrate on fighting, maybe we'd be finished by now!" Fuina yelled as she attacked her slime.

"Got one!" An yelled as the slime he attacked sagged, its gelatinous body loosely folding along the ground and on top of its "foot". Another slime jumped, An stepped to avoid it, tripping on the slime that had died and landing on his back. Not wasting this new opportunity, the attacking slime jumped again, landing on top of An and crushing him. "An!" Fuina yelled as the slime continued jumping on his unmoving form. "Forget him!" Nohr yelled, "We can't do anything about him right now, we have to concentrate on keeping ourselves alive or we're all dead!" She hated to admit it, but he was right. Without An, the odds were horrible, three to one; but the odds would be much worse if she were to try to help An and fail.

An couldn't see anything, a darkness had enveloped him. He could barely hear what was going on but it didn't really seem all that important. He remembered what happened, but that didn't seem to matter either. A familiar feeling of warmth and a sensation of floating came over him. There was a strange feeling of light pressure as another Gold Slime jumped on his torso, cracking more bones. He had a dim idea of what was going on....but there were more important things to do now...like float.

An had decided he liked floating. It was fun, and it was easy. There was nothing to worry about, and nothing to do except float around and bask in this oddly dark -yet still warm- area he now found himself in. He didn't really know where he was floating to, but it didn't matter all that much, since he just liked floating. He wondered why he hadn't gone floating sooner...what had he been doing that had stopped him from finding this simple pleasure? Where had he been before he started floating? Was there someone else where he came from that hadn't found out how to float yet? And how had he gotten here from there? An paused his thoughts, and stopped floating toward wherever he was going...these were odd thoughts, a moment ago he hadn't cared about where he'd been before floating...why care now?

A sound came from somewhere. "A sound?" he thought to himself, "That's weird...I haven't heard any sound in here before." Then again, he admitted to himself, he really had no way of telling how long he'd been floating. He floated over toward where he thought he heard the sound coming from. The sound grew louder, he could make it out as a voice...a voice chanting something. The voice made a sudden and loud command, "Revive." The warmth left, and there was a new sensation....he was falling. He tried desperately to go back, to float again, but he couldn't fight this new pull, he just kept falling. The breeze that swept past him grew cool-and soothing. "This isn't so bad either," he thought as the familiar breeze swept through him, he lay back and enjoyed the air passing over him, some part of him knowing what lay ahead.

"Why isn't it working?" Fuina asked as An continued to lie on the ground. Ignoring her, the other cleric continued her chant. "Why is he still laying there!?" she demanded. The other cleric, eyes still shut finished her chant, "Revive," she said as she opened her eyes. An sputtered and coughed, sitting up suddenly. "An!" Nohr and Fuina cheered together at seeing him wake up. An looked around, taking in what he saw. Fuina and Nohr were there, he noticed -though they were a bit fuzzy he knew it was them. The slimes that had attacked them were all dead -strewn about the area around him.

"What happened?" he asked, his head a bit light. "You died," Nohr stated point-blank. "To put it bluntly," Fuina said angrily at Nohr, "could you put a little more sugar-coating on it next time someone asks that? For all you know it might traumatize someone." Fuina turned toward An, and looked behind him, "Now why'd it take you so long to revive him?" she demanded. An wondered who she could be talking to. "Because you left him dead for so long," a familiar voice said. He turned around to look, and Rukya was standing behind him. "Revive can only work on someone that's been dead for less than a few minutes."

"Huh?" An and Fuina said in unison -this was news to them both. Rukya sighed, knowing she had to explain something again, "When a person dies, their soul starts to move on. You probably felt it yourself, An." An shuddered...so that was the floating sensation he'd felt. "The soul moves continuously, our revive spell can only reach them for the first couple minutes of the soul's journey. After that the soul moves to a point where you cannot call it back; An had almost reached that point." Rukya finished. They looked at An, who felt the sudden need to lie down and sleep. "An!" Nohr shouted as his head hit the ground, "Great, he's out again." "What is wrong with you people?" Fuina's voice echoed lightly in his head, growing more distant as he sank deeper into his sleep, "I told you being so blunt with someone could...."

Nohr was explaining what had happened to An a little while later. "So after you died we pretty much got cornered, which was good and bad," he said, "good because it only allowed one or two slime to attack us at a time, and bad because, we were running out of stones and had no way to run away." "That's when I decided to step in and help," Rukya smiled as she sat with her head against a fence. "'Help' being an understatement," Fuina said, "this girl killed the four original slime we had left as well as the three that joined later on in seconds." Rukya shrugged and smiled. "What were you doing here anyways?" An asked, "Your timing was impeccable." "It's a gift," she answered smiling, "Actually, I had asked around the Sea of Greed for you, and some fighters said they saw you come in here." "For me?" An asked. "Yeah," she answered, "I was wondering if you had any more topaz for sale."

"Oh, right!" An said as he reached into his bag and grabbed the twenty pieces he'd collected mining a day ago (Nohr had decided to call it a day and Fuina wasn't around, so he'd decided to accept a small mining job from Rukya). He handed them to Rukya. "Twenty pieces at one hundred fifty copper each....comes out to three silver," she said handing him the money. An opened his mouth to object -after all, she'd just saved his life, "Just take it," Rukya said, knowing what he was about to say. Relenting, An accepted the trade. "Well, I'm all done here," Rukya said as she got up, "I will see you later, An." "Right, thanks again, Rukya," an said waving. "Try not to get killed again," Rukya chuckled, "I need the topaz...and I won't always be around to save you." An grimaced as Rukya smiled, then pulled out a green scroll and vanished.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:31 AM

Book 1: An Ning’s Story
Chapter V: The Quest to Kill Skeleton Knight

The trio made their way into Luminous Stone. Almost out of the "tween" levels, they had been given a quest by the Guard captain of Elderine: defeat the Skeleton Knight. This monster had been responsible for raising the army of undead skeletons that haunted the Luminous Stone area. Incredibly strong, and an ancient evil, the evil spirits that possessed the skeletons were summoned by the Skeleton Knight; and the people of Elderine wanted it stopped.

Unfortunately, Skeleton Knight was, himself, an undead -he was impossible to kill, so putting him away for good was out of the question (he had been defeated before, many times). A strong enough team of adventurers could, however, hurt him bad enough that the evil spirit residing in him would run away, lessening the number of undead skeletons in the area for some time -though eventually the evil spirit would return, possess the Skeleton Knight and again begin summoning skeleton minions.

They quickly made their way into the crypts beyond the chamber with the stone. Much stronger than the last time he'd gone in there with Leranna, the trio of An, Fuina and Nohr (now using a shield and one handed sword, as almost everyone knew Skeleton Knight was no enemy to mess around with) was something to behold in the main chamber. Each member able to defeat even the bats alone, they were able to split up and wreak havoc on the monsters occupying the area as they passed through.

"This is almost too easy," Nohr said as they entered the crypts, "I can't believe that we used to think skeletons were hard." "Nohr, duck!" Fuina yelled suddenly. Nohr dropped to his knees as a ball of energy flew past where his head had been, smashing against the wall of the hallway and vanishing in a burst of light -leaving a char mark where it had struck. There was high pitched laughter -similar to that of a kebing, the party turned and Nohr dodged again as a floating book shot another crackling ball of energy at him.

An and Fuina went on the offensive as Nohr continued to dodge, each attempting to smash the book with their hammers; but the book was nimble and small, making for a difficult target. The book laughed as it blasted another energy ball, this time at An -who barely managed to dodge the attack. Fuina swept with her hammer as the book stopped to attack again, and flattened it against the wall. The laughter stopped, and a vapor came out around the edges of her hammer. When Fuina lifted her hammer away from the wall, the book fell to the ground with an indignant "plop". For good measure, Nohr decided to use slice and dice on the book to make sure that it wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. "I hate undead....I hate mages," Nohr said as they moved further into the crypt, "....and I especially hate undead mages!" An and Fuina laughed a bit as they heard this.

They came to a turn in the corridor, and stopped as they heard the pitter-patter of feet...many feet. Nohr raced around the corner to attack the mob they heard and draw its attention so the clerics could back him up, almost tripping over the lone spider in front of him. Jumping quickly, Nohr managed to avoid the equally-surprised spider's biting attack at his leg as An and Fuina rounded the corner. The spider swept at Nohr with its front legs; Nohr, surprised at the spider's strength, was knocked backwards and fell down. The spider ran forward and leapt, its fangs intent on piercing armor and sinking into the flesh of the fighter. The spider's assault was halted mere inches away from Nohr's chest as Fuina cast the cleric's barrier spell -dubbed "invincibility". Nohr got to his feet as the frustrated spider turned to attack the cleric that had prevented his victory. It leapt at Fuina, who was still casting the barrier on Nohr, An stepped forward and swung his hammer, knocking the spider onto its back and pushing himself off balance with the force of the blow.

Nohr wasted no time; knowing that this was going to be a rare opportunity in fights, he charged forward and drew his blade up in preparation to impale the overgrown bug. The spider, having trouble getting onto its stomach, could still see what was happening in front of him, and unfortunately for Nohr, it still had one more trick left.

Nohr shouted in pain as the spider spit a poisonous goo into his face. The poison, one which works on contact with skin, worked well and worked fast; only seconds after having been poisoned, Nohr was having difficulty seeing, and was having an even harder time standing. An raced forward to cure Nohr and heal him as the spider managed to turn itself over onto its feet again. Seeing the cleric turned away from him, and the fighter still unable to battle, the spider raced forward. "First the cleric," he thought, "Then the fighter." The spider was so focused on the two victims in front of it, that it had forgotten something very important...the second hammer-wielding cleric behind him. Slamming down with all her strength and wielding her hammer like an enormous flyswatter, Fuina raced up behind the spider and crushed its head into the stone flooring. "I hate bugs," was the only thing she said as An and Nohr stared at her. She picked up her hammer and scraped off the green insides of the spider's head along the ground, then looked up, "If you're done healing Nohr, can we go?"

The path to Skeleton Knight was full of enemies, many of which -due to their magic-based and ranged attacks, as well as their tendency to show up in groups- frustrated the trio to no end. "I told you we should've brought an archer!" An shouted as he rolled to the side to avoid the Mage Book's attack. "No you didn't!" Fuina shouted back, trying to dodge the attack from the Flying Staff trying to kill her, while simultaneously attacking the Magic Staff which was distracted in its attempt to kill Nohr. "Well!" An shouted as he dodged another energy ball, charged and knocked the book back a meter, "I'm saying it now!" An followed through with a bash attack and sandwiched the book between his hammer and the floor, a blue mist rising up around the sides of his hammer, "We should've brought an archer!"

"Oh that helps a lot!" Nohr shouted as he stunned the Flying Staff -he and Fuina had apparently switched partners in the last few seconds. Nohr used slice and dice, cutting the staff into small pieces, again, the light mist of a spirit rose from the remains and raced away. "Like that's something none of us have thought of over the last fifteen minutes!" Nohr said eying An.

"Hey, guys! Focus!" came Fuina's yell, An and Nohr turned to look. Fuina was quite busy with her own fight -the Magic Staff and a newly-arrived Flying Staff were keeping her dodging quite a bit. "If you're done with your friends, why not help me with mine?" she shouted as the Magic Staff sent a blade of energy at her. Fuina jumped forward over the blade and rolled, raising her shield to deflect the attack from the Flying Staff, "We can yell about An saying useless things later!" An raced at the Flying Staff, smashing it into the wall with his hammer. Nohr, who had gone after the Magic Staff, was not as lucky. The staff saw the attack coming and nimbly dodged up and over the fighter's sword. The staff spun and lobbed a magic attack at Nohr, striking him in the right shoulder.

Nohr dropped his sword and shouted, his shield arm clutching the wound in his shoulder -a hole that went from the back of his shoulder to the front over two inches wide. Not finished with its work, the staff cast a spell on Fuina, weakening her inner strength so she couldn't cure or cast a barrier, then returned its focus to Nohr, striking at him again with a magic energy ball, this time aiming at the center of the fighter's torso. He had the presence of mind to block with his shield, but the energy blast knocked him back into the wall -against which he struck his head, after which he sagged to the ground. "Nohr!" Fuina shouted, she reached into her bag and pulled out a soul stone -one meant to restore the inner strength that spell casters frequently employed. The Magic Staff saw this and turned toward Fuina, swishing its head through the air and sending an energy blade slicing toward her.

Fuina didn't flinch, she didn't even move. She saw the energy blade sizzling through the air at her and stood there, replenishing her strength. The blade soared in, right on course to bisect her along the stomach, and smashed against an invisible barrier that An had cast after healing Nohr. Nohr struggled to his feet and gathered his sword, An returned to Nohr's side and Fuina rejoined them on Nohr's other side. Upon seeing this, the staff floated back a bit, as though debating the wisdom of escape. They did not give it that option. charging forward, An and Fuina ran down opposite sides of the corridor. An leapt with a feint-attack, and the staff dodged -straight into Fuina's own downward smashing attack. An landed from his feint, jumped up and spun, knocking the Magic Staff down the hall where he'd come from -straight toward a very angry fighter charging down the center of the hall. Nohr jumped into the air, spinning to gain momentum with his sharp one handed sword, then brought it down and through the Magic Staff's body. It clattered to the ground on opposite ends of the hallway as the trio smiled at their hard-won victory, a small puff of vapor rising from each of the staff's pieces as they did so. They turned and continued toward the large room in which Skeleton Knight resided. As they made their way down the dimly lit hallway, An's goading voice echoed back, "See you guys? I told you we didn't need an archer. And you were worried." There was a brief pause, then the sound of a palm striking flesh, followed by An Ning’s voice again, "Ow! Fuina! What was that for?"

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:31 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter V: The Quest to Kill Skeleton Knight

They continued down the corridor, past more guards -Magic Staffs, Mage Books and Spiders. While the spiders were not minions of the Skeleton Knight, they were in the crypt because they like dark warm areas and they had no problem with killing any adventurer that wandered by; as the undead would not yield nourishment from killing, the spiders would leave them be -something which the Skeleton Knight used to his advantage when selecting a throne room.

Confident in the ability of their fighter to attack and wound the skeleton, and the two clerics' healing abilities to ensure the fighter's survival, they entered the final chamber, each stopping and gaping as they looked in. There in front of them, seated on an enormous throne made of stone on the far side of the torch-lit room, was the Skeleton Knight. Easily four meters tall, the seat of Skeleton Knight's throne was almost taller than they were. His old bones gray with age and hard as the rock his throne was made of, he wore antique-style metal armor over his limbs, a large iron plate covered his chest, and sitting atop his skull was a rusty helmet with black ivory horns that curled upwards like the horns of the demons An and his brothers had heard about in legends.

The skeleton turned his head upon hearing them enter, his eyes glowing a dull yellow from the ancient spirit inside him. He stared at them for a moment, then opened his mouth slightly in what must have been a skeleton's attempt at grinning. He stood up from his seat, towering above them, drawing two massive swords. A hissing sound escaped his mouth as he took slow steps forward, the small party now uncertain in the wisdom of not bringing more people. Knowing it was too late to escape, Nohr reluctantly drew his sword as An and Fuina took up positions behind him. Knowing that going on the defensive would put the clerics at risk, Nohr charged at the Skeleton Knight.

The undead knight was amused at the boldness of the fighter's attack. Wanting to end it quickly, he swiped at the fighter with one of his swords. The sword arced down and over, smashing against an invisible wall -one of the clerics had cast a barrier. The skeleton looked up at the female cleric chanting, he readied to attack, "Hey moron!" came a voice from below, "Your fight is with me, remember?" Skeleton Knight looked down, the fighter was quite annoying, he wanted to kill it...but that cleric was the bigger threat. The undead lord looked up again, readying to attack the cleric once more, "Yo, dog chew! I got something for ya!" The skeleton looked down, as he did so Nohr turned around and bent over, "Right here, big guy!"

That was it; the skeleton's yellow eyes glowed bright with anger as he folded his arms across him, slicing at the fighter with his swords like a pair of scissors. Once more, they struck against a barrier; this time the fighter countered, jumping up and slicing at Skeleton Knight's face with his sword. the sword scraped along the side of the skeleton's cheek-bone, jolting Nohr's arm and almost making him lose his grip. "Dang! This guy's tough!" he thought, "We're in for a long fight." The angered skeleton backhanded the tiny fighter, slamming him into the wall, an odd distortion in the air around the fighter gave him the knowledge that the fighter's invulnerability was gone. Now he was as good as dead.

The undead knight charged in, using his scissor attack again, only to be amazed when his swords hit yet another barrier. He looked to the side, the second cleric was finishing his chant of a barrier spell. As he was distracted, Nohr attacked again, this time slicing at his leg multiple times with incredible force. The fighter's sword severely damaged the armor on his leg, but his bones were unharmed. The skeleton turned to attack the clerics. They were, after all, the only thing keeping the fighter alive; without them, this fight would be over quick.

Sensing that the Skeleton Knight was again losing interest in him, he again shouted a taunt, "Hey worm-bait! You giving up on me already? Man, you are PATHETIC!" A strong blow from the Skeleton Knight's sword knocked Nohr back and again collapsed his shield. Nohr was going to be busy dodging now...Fuina wouldn't be able to cast her barrier spell again for over a minute; but that had been the plan: get the skeleton focused on Nohr, give him some time to see how fast and strong the enemy could attack and let him come up with a plan to win. So far, everything was going according to plan....except that last bit...he still had no idea how they were going to pull this one off.

The Skeleton Knight was large, old, and none of that showed when it came to speed or strength in his attacks. Aggressive and powerful, he kept the fighter on a constant defensive -the fighter only getting in hits as counters when he blocked with his shield. Nohr stunned the Skeleton Knight, and charged in, slicing with all his strength and dealing almost no damage. Coming around, the skeleton opened his mouth again, as if to taunt the fighter at his inability to harm him, even when defenseless. The skeleton leaned back and tilted his head up, then reversed, bringing his head down and opening his mouth, a green vapor pouring from his maw and shrouding the fighter. The noxious fumes and toxic mist -made from a sack of rotting flesh held inside his chest (a trick which many undead used), quickly went to work on the fighter.

Nohr's vision blurred and he struggled to maintain his balance. The skeleton drew his left blade, which curled outward at the edges like a long-bladed double-scythe, and he looked at the back edge -the very tip of which was doused in a lethal poison. The double-edged sword's back edge was dull, and using a backhand technique was ungainly -attacking a nimble fighter was usually a waste of time- and so the undead knight normally avoided using it in his attacks. This one, however, was having difficulty seeing from his noxious vapor attack, and judging by the way he was staggering, he was unlikely to dodge the attack even if he did see it coming. This was the perfect opportunity; he rotated his palm up so the back blade was facing Nohr and swung, the poison tip piercing through the armor that presented itself, and digging into the fighter's side.

Nohr grunted and collapsed as the poison combined with the toxins that were in the skeleton's last attack to more than triple their potency. Wasting no time upon seeing the fighter take the hit and collapse, Fuina quickly healed Nohr while An -who was about to cast cure because of the toxic vapor attack- cured both the old and new poison, and Nohr rose to his feet again.

The Skeleton Knight was frustrated at seeing his effort go to waste. How had he forgotten about those stupid clerics? Why was he bothering with this aggravating fighter when the clerics were clearly the more important target? If he wanted to end this fight, he thought as he looked at the clerics, he needed to kill those annoying pests. His eyes blazing, he raised his swords and stepped toward them. Nohr did his best to taunt the skeleton, but there was no distracting him this time. He swung at Fuina with his left sword, Fuina rolled to the side and stood, as the Skeleton Knight's other sword passed through her chest.

An stared as Fuina fell, her head and upper chest to the front, her lower torso and legs to the side. "Oh my God," An whispered as he watched. "Fuina!" he shouted, still staring at her body on the ground. "An, focus!" Nohr shouted, "Look out!" An looked to the side, Skeleton Knight had crossed his swords and was lunging, swinging his arms forward and out in another scissor attack meant to decapitate him. An raised his shield as the two enormous swords impacted. The swords slid along the sides of the shield, preventing the Skeleton Knight from attaining his desired outcome -but the force of his attack was so great, that as his swords slid together, they pushed the cleric backwards.

Nohr attacked the distracted skeleton, slicing at the monster's back armor, gouging and tearing through the antiquated metal, only to once more jolt to a stop as he scraped along one of the knight's bones. The Skeleton Knight turned toward Nohr, readying to attack. He thrust several times, which the recovered fighter easily dodged. He spewed more of his toxic regurgitation at the offender, only to have him jump out of the way like a pestering gnat. The fighter's body glowed several times as a cleric cast a few different spells on him. The skeleton turned, remembering he had yet to finish off that cleric, wondering at its stupidity for not having tried to revive its fallen comrade.

"An!" Nohr shouted, "What are you doing!? Save Fuina!" "Trust me!" An shouted in response, "And don't move!" The Skeleton Knight turned toward An, who was now facing Fuina, chanting a prayer; Fuina's body was starting to be covered in a bright healing light as he finished the first half of the incantation. The Skeleton Knight swung at An, his blade met by a barrier, which An had cast just before healing Nohr needlessly; An continued his prayer as the glow around Fuina intensified. The undead lord struck again, "If he gets that other cleric revived," he thought, "they might keep that pestering fighter alive long enough to find a way..." The Skeleton Knight stopped. The fighter! That was this cleric's goal! By having the Skeleton Knight attack him, he could concentrate on reviving the other cleric as long as his barrier held without worrying about the fighter being wounded!

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:32 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter V: The Quest to Kill Skeleton Knight

Skeleton Knight whirled around and eyed the fighter with madness, "These pests are becoming ANNOYING!" he shouted in his mind as he swung wildly and charged the fighter. "Whoa!" Nohr shouted as he dodged the first volley of attacks by the skeleton. "I don't know what you did, An," Nohr said as he continued to dodge, "But this guy seems to have just gotten royally peeved at us!" The knight swung his sword in a wide circle, cleaving through his own throne as Nohr dodged. The skeleton spun with the sword, swinging out with his left, which Nohr easily dodged again, barely raising his shield in time to block as the knight quickly tucked is right arm, his other sword speeding in at Nohr's almost unprotected side. The blow knocked Nohr backwards and into the wall, dazing him as he hit his head again.

The skeleton stalked toward him and lifted both his swords. "I'll cut him into so many pieces," he hissed to himself, "That cleric won't be able to find enough of him to revive!" He swung his swords down, still dazed, Nohr didn't even try to block. The skeleton's swords impacted again against an invisible barrier. "There's no way he could cast another barrier so soon!" he thought as he hissed in rage, "Unless..." Turning, he saw two clerics standing side by side behind him -he had wasted too much time, the other cleric had been revived and already cast a barrier on the fighter.

Seeing the skeleton hesitate, Nohr charged at his back again, slicing into the armor, a chunk of it dropping off, only to wince as his sword met the skeleton's vertebrae and stopped. "You're not doing enough damage!" An shouted as he and Fuina dodged the angry skeleton's swings. "I know!" he growled in response. "Darn it, I know!" he said to himself, "I can get through his armor fine, but trying to attack his bones is like slicing at a stone cliff. what I really need is...." His eyes widened as he finally thought of a plan. "An!" he shouted, "Keep his attention a little longer! I'm going to try something!" "That's probably," An stopped as he rolled to avoid another set of blades, "The easiest thing I have been told to do!"

Nohr swung at the Skeleton Knight's back armor, slicing off a U-shaped segment in the upper center from the neck to the middle of the backbone. He then attacked the leg armor, cutting the straps that held it to his lower leg. The armor clattered to the ground and Nohr used slice and dice on the exposed bone, cutting several gouges in the leg. The skeleton turned, obviously displeased with the fighter's attempt to cripple him, and began swinging his blades at Nohr. Nohr drove in, jumping into the air and using stun on the Skeleton Knight -the skeleton was paralyzed. "An, Fuina!" he shouted, "Attack him with your hammers now!" An and Fuina swung at the undead knight's leg, cracking the bone slightly.

"No, not there!" Nohr shouted, An and Fuina looked up in confusion. The skeleton stirred, he was going to come out of his daze soon. "There!" he said pointing at the gap in the skeleton's armor along the vertebrae. Understanding the plan now, they began to jump and attack, the bone weakening as the skeleton's hands tightened their grip around his swords. His head turned, he was about to free himself. Nohr shouted desperately, "Use bash again! Hurry!" The Skeleton Knight turned and started to bring his arm out to swing his sword around; only to let it fly away and clatter to a stop in the corner as the bone in his neck crumbled.

The skeleton's bones crumbled to the ground, a large blue spirit rising from the remains. The spirit remained a second, as though memorizing the faces of these three young adventurers that had actually managed to beat it, then raced away. With the spirit's magic gone, the rest of the knight's bones crumbled into dust. They remained there a while to catch their breath, and celebrate their hard-won victory. "Cool plan, Nohr," An said, slapping him on the back. "Yeah, way to think on your feet," Fuina said with a smile. "Well, my sword wasn't cutting through, his bones were like rock," he started, "Then I realized: when you want to crush a rock, you don't use a sword, you use a hammer." With that, he smiled, "Or in this case, a pair of hammers."

They laughed as they started on their way back to Elderine. "Of course," An said, stopping at the throne room's edge, "Now, we have to go back the way we came." He turned to look at them, "And as unhappy as the guards were before...They will be much less pleased to see us now that we succeeded in stopping their master." They looked at each other and shook their heads; he was right...half the reason they got through so easily last time was because the guards had stopped attacking after a certain point -apparently the Skeleton Knight was bored and wanted to fight (in retrospect probably a bad decision on his part). But that meant that now, all those guards that they had walked past on the way in, were unlikely to show them the same hospitality on their way out. Nohr stepped forward and drew his shield as the light of several Magic Staves began brightening the corridor ahead. Sighing, An and Fuina moved behind him and to either side as the grinding sound of moving bones became audible, and shadows of Skeleton Warriors raced along the walls toward them.

This was going to be a long trip back to Elderine.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:33 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter VI: The Solo Path

An sat at the fountain in Rumen listening to the waves as the sky grew dark. "Sounds like you've had an interesting time while I was away," Leranna said from beside him. It had been almost four weeks since his battle with the Skeleton Knight -there were already rumors that another had been spotted in Luminous. Leranna's sister had recovered two weeks ago, she spent some time with her family, and had only gotten back about a week and a half ago -naturally, she was upset at how strong everyone else had gotten. This was the first time they'd had to talk to each other since she got back (An still went to the fountain around sunset out of habit, Leranna had met him there by chance).

About a week ago, Fuina had gone away. She said she needed a bit of a break to relax and visit family -she had no idea how long she would be gone. That was unfortunate, because An thought she'd get along reasonably well with Leranna. Rukya had gone as well, or at least that's the picture he had been given -she had not said anything, but had simply stopped contacting him. He pictured the two compartments in his inventory full of topaz, wondering what he was going to do with them. As for Nohr, he had returned to his "big money path" after the fight with the Skeleton Knight, so they had stopped partying as often as they had been before the fight. A few days ago, Nohr had decided to go on a quest to get some easy money; An had reluctantly volunteered to help -he did not want to fight easy monsters (even if they were numerous) but being a friend, he wanted to help- Nohr, however, saying he wanted to test his own strength, had declined his offer . While he should have been back by now, he was strong enough that An was not worried, he was probably just having trouble finding all the enemies he needed.

Thinking of Nohr being late returning from his quest brought to his mind hid old friend Luna Ice, who had presumably died on her own solo quest...the circumstances were the same...she had first been a day late, and no one thought much of it. Then she was a few days late, and they had started to question a bit. By the time a week had passed with no sign of her return -as the person who had given her the quest was still waiting for news as well- they knew what had happened. There was a sharp pang of guilt and pain as the memory of his friend surfaced. Grimacing, he forced the memory to go away.

Returning to his conversation with Leranna, he looked over, "Yeah. It has been interesting. Slow going, but interesting." With all his friends gone or training in a different method -and not desiring any more parties with people that wouldn't let him fight, or wouldn't share rewards, or would only use him so they could complete quests then leave- An had been soloing in his training for the last few weeks alone in the Moonlight and Vine tomb areas. "Clerics aren't much for killing fast," he said, "soloing for us is kind of tough. We can stay out for a long time and just keep training since we can heal ourselves, but partying is faster and has better rewards." He stopped and looked over with a smile, "And having someone to talk to is always nice....hunting undead enemies alone in a graveyard for six hours can be very boring."

"Yeah, well, it's been no picnic for me, either," Leranna said with a sigh, "Not knowing where any of you guys were, I've been tanking for people that don't know how to help a tank." She shook her head, "Do you know how many times I've had my armor warp me back to Elderine this last week? Nine! It's only Tuesday and yet nine times I've fallen because my clerics can't back me up right or the mages and archers will attack an enemy that I can't handle." She sat back with a scowl and looked up at the darkening sky, "I don't know why I keep saving them, to be honest...they tick off the enemy and I step in between them to get the bloody nose...then they finish them off after I fall and take the reward, leaving me to rot!" With a growl she he pulled out her newly-refined sword -which glowed a brilliant blue- stood up and slammed the tip into the ground grunting, burying the blade half a meter. Finished venting, she put the sword back and sat down again.

Seeing Leranna's display of anger at her story, An decided not to press for details. "Well," An started, "At least you know where to find one good cleric now." Leranna chuckled a bit, then shook her head, "With you so much stronger now I can't train where you are, and you don't get anything out of training against what I need -so we probably won't party much for a while." "I see your point," An nodded as he listened. It seemed he would be continuing his solo career for a bit longer.

"This smell is utterly putrid," An thought as he raised his shield, the long stick smacking against the metal. The zombie sputtered and moaned, clumsily swinging his wooden stick again in a wide circle, his attack being blocked again. An looked at the zombie: its decaying flesh gray in most areas, a purple slime leaking from its mouth and fresh wounds where the flesh had been torn -which oozed down its body,...and a smell that made you want to vomit. It was ungainly, having only rudimentary intelligence (kill anything that looks good to eat, then eat it) and would use whatever it could grab as a weapon. It was still reasonably strong, and as it still had flesh and muscle it was much harder to kill than the skeletons. "Well it's ugly, it's stupid, it smells foul," An thought to himself. The zombie struck again with his branch, the impact made a loud ringing sound as the wood hit the metal. "And it's as strong as a horse," he finished aloud.

Switching to an offensive, An stepped in as the zombie swung again, and used bash just below its elbow. The elbow cracked and the zombie's arm bent backwards, still holding the branch. The zombie stopped, looked at the arm, then reached over with his other and snapped the broken elbow forward again. "Oh right," An said as he watched, "I forgot about that. Zombies don't feel pain." The zombie swung again, An again raised his shield, the branch impacting against the hard plate. An stepped in again, bobbing his head as the zombie snapped its teeth at him -the smell of the zombie's breathe made him want to gag. Swinging his hammer down then up, he hit the zombie under its chin, snapping the head up; the attack broke the zombie's neck and sent it flying backwards. On any other enemy, that would finish the job, but even with a severed spinal column a zombie could still move a bit -though it would be even less graceful than normal.

Knowing this from previous fights, An moved in while the zombie still lie on the ground, and used bash on its head. The zombie's body spasmed, then lay still, a horrible stench rising from under his hammer. "Oh yuck," An said to himself as he lifted his hammer, "This is even worse than the zombie's NORMAL stench. I could wash this in three day old fish guts and it would smell better." An walked away as he looked for a place to wash his hammer -and foot armor, which had also gotten some purple gunk on it from the attack that had smashed the zombie's head- wondering what Fuina was up to.

He sat at a stream washing his hammer, trying to get the smell off. He pulled out a bottle -a special potion to absorb smells which his brother had made for him after coming home one night smelling like the undead themselves. As he thought, Nohr came to his mind. By this time, everyone was reasonably certain that Nohr wasn't going to come back from his quest. It had been two weeks since he met Leranna at the fountain, and he had already been running late then. There was little doubt in the mind of anyone that knew him: Nohr was dead. He thought about this for a moment, his hands had stopped scrubbing his armor as he sat under the broken bridge. First Luna, now Nohr.....maybe he could have made a difference...maybe if he had gone with them....they might still...

His thoughts were interrupted as a crashing sound came from behind him. A familiar growl emanated from behind a tree as loud footfalls approached. He pushed the thoughts and memories down, knowing that this was no time for emotion. Turning quickly and grabbing his shield and hammer, he readied himself for a hard fight. A large white monster trundled out of the forest. Over nine feet tall, with powerful arms and long claws, the Baby Werebear looked around sniffing the air, and spied An sitting near the water.

It roared and stalked toward him, turning its palms outward; An bent his knees and held his shield in front of him, his other arm trailing behind him, readying for a counter-blow. The Baby Werebear swung, its attack starting at the shoulders and rotating all the way down to the hip, its arm given great momentum by this, it slammed against An's shield with tremendous force, the claws leaving gouges on the already battle-worn surface.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:33 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter VI: The Solo Path

The young werebear's body lay at his feet, An stood over it, huffing and panting to catch his breath. The werebears always put up a good fight; very strong arms, long claws, hard bones and thick skin made for a hard time for most solo clerics. He glanced at his armor, claw marks in his shield, a few dents across his chest piece, they did not paint an accurate description of how hard it had been for An to win -in all honesty, he almost hadn't. He looked down at the werebear again, noticing for the first time the string around its waist. Grunting with great effort, he rolled the body over; finding that attached to the string, held to the bear's back, was a wand with a strange glow -the first "green" item he'd ever found.

An smiled, wondering at what the wand might empower for a mage. He placed it in his bag, mentally inquiring the bag as to the item's condition. The bag's enchantment went to work, showing An in minute detail everything about the mage weapon. It was actually a staff, for starters (An, not being a mage, and not being versed in mage weapons, didn't know the difference), but it had reasonable empowerment: the special enchantments could enhance a mage's inner strength as well as a mage's focus -focus being what was needed for a mage to generate a strong magic attack. Furthermore, the staff was made out of a rare wood, which increased a mage's aim. Unfortunately, the item was for a relatively low-level mage. Still...for his first find...it wasn't bad.

An looked up, it was beginning to get dark, and he had no quests that were keeping him out, so he figured that he would head back home to tell his brothers a few more stories and show his prize to his brothers before selling it in Rumen. He summoned his hobby and told it to move. The hobby started forward, then suddenly lurched to a near-standstill. An paused, then getting off the hobby, he sent it away again. He queried his bag, which let him know that his hobby was low on power and required more flotation stones -the fuel the wooden horse's enchantment needed to keep up its speed. An summoned his hobby again, this time reaching into his bag and grabbing a handful of flotation stones, which he placed in the wooden horse's mouth. The stones vanished as the magic consumed them, the horse floating a bit higher in the air after doing so. An got on the hobby and once again headed for his brothers' house.

His brothers were awestruck by the tale of An's fierce battle with the zombies from earlier in the day, as well as his telling of his struggle for survival against the Baby Werebear. "So have you?" The younger twin asked with a smile. "Have I what?" An asked grinning back. "Oh come on, An!" the elder of the twins said, "Tell us!" "Tell you what?" An answered in play. "Have you had any more fights against special enemies like Skeleton Knight or Mara?" the second eldest brother asked. An laughed -of course he knew what they had meant, after having told them of his epic battles against those two enemies, his brothers were always asking if he'd fought any more like them.

"Sorry," he began, "but no, I haven't." There was a chorus of "awws" and groans from around the room. "Hey, if those fights were common, they wouldn't be as interesting," An said looking at each of them in turn. His brothers smiled and nodded. "but what I DID do today," he said reaching into his bag, "Is find this strapped to the Baby werebear." As he finished talking, he pulled out the mage's staff. His brothers' eyes all widened as he showed it to them. They knew from his earlier stories that finding an item like this was rare, and they held special powers inside them.

As he told them of the staff's abilities, his brothers passed the item between themselves, the second eldest, he noticed took a great deal more interest in it than either of the twins -who much preferred An's mace and their hand-carved wooden swords. As he held it, his second brother looked up, "You know, An. Given that this is a low level staff; you are unlikely to sell it for very much -compared to what you make by selling drops and scrolls." An thought for a moment, his brother was right about that. Had it been a higher level weapon, it would be worth a substantial amount, but what he'd found was meant for a beginner mage -not even one who had the option of choosing between a wand or staff. "That is true," he answered, "Do you have an idea as to something else we can do with it?" His brother pointed behind him -at the wall of miscellaneous items that An had allowed them to keep -a few green return scrolls, as well as a sample of each type of potion and scroll An was able to make using his alchemy, a few random drops and his first mace were all on the wall. "Why don't we add it to our display collection?" he asked, "It would be a very nice addition: An's first green drop."

An chuckled, having a feeling that his brother simply liked the staff, but he agreed. His brother smiled and moved some things around on the shelf they had bought with some of the money An had given them. Having cleared enough space, he gently lowered it onto its new resting place -though for some reason, An had a feeling it would be taken down quite often in his absence, kind of like his mace (which, he had noticed some time ago, was never pointed the same way twice upon his return). One of the twins called from the kitchen, letting them know that supper was ready. They all moved over to the large pot to get a bowl of the meat and vegetable stew which that particular twin enjoyed cooking so much. Over dinner, the second eldest frequently looked at the staff sitting atop the shelf, a wondering look in his eye.

After dinner, they went to bed. An went into the "guest room", the room their parents used to sleep in. A few months after having left to become an adventurer, his brothers moved his bed in there as well. Whether they did this so they would have more room in their bedroom or so they would not be reminded of his absence at night he did not know, and he did not ask. His other brothers went to bed in their room, the second eldest in his bed near the door, and the twins in their bunk bed by the window. The next morning after breakfast, An set out again; his brothers once more standing outside the house and waving to see him off.

An continued his training with great eagerness and devotion, he wanted to become stronger. He quickly surpassed the zombies in strength, they were no longer a challenge, neither were the Baby Werebears, for that matter. An was venturing deeper and deeper into the dark trails of Vine Tomb, searching for greater challenges -those of the Hobs, bone Imps and Procks. These monsters were ferocious, incredibly strong (a prock once bit a large section out of his shield) and frequently would assist each other in combat. These battles where it was one lone adventurer versus three powerful monsters was where An distinguished himself -and where he most enjoyed training. He didn't know why it was, but the idea of none of those enemies being able to kill him despite outnumbering him gave him a sense of satisfaction.

A week after his discovery of the green staff, he found Leranna waiting for him along the path to Vine Tomb. "Leranna," An said with a surprised smile as he halted his wooden horse, "What are you doing here?" "I need your help, An," she answered, "I’ve been given a quest and I need a good cleric to help". "Sure, no problem," An answered, "What's up?" She looked at him with a grave seriousness, "Skeleton Knight is back. And I need to stop him."

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:34 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter VI: The Solo Path

The next day, An struck out for Luminous Stone to meet Leranna. He made sure to bring plenty of potions and scrolls, as Leranna had stated she wanted to take on Skeleton Knight as a duo. Initially he thought she was joking, then he realized she was serious and thought her insane; but she said she had a secret that would insure victory. She seemed confident enough, and he had told her of his fight against the knight over a month and a half ago, so he surmised that she may indeed have a new trick. "Or," he thought as he passed through the Forest of Mist en route to the entrance, "She may just have gone completely crazy."

An made his way through the first floor enemies -most of which actually avoided him now, but a few he killed anyways- and sat down next to the entrance to the second floor of the temple. It was not long before the blue-haired fighter showed up. "I see you were serious about a duo," An stated. "Sure am," she said with a smile. "So how do you propose we go about this, then?" An asked, "Walk up to him and ask nicely if he wouldn't mind going back where he came from?" "Oh shush," Leranna answered, "I told you I have a new trick to show you." They entered the main chamber with the grand stone, and a skeleton ran towards them, raising its sword.

An raised his hammer, but Leranna held out her hand, to stop him. She looked back at him, "Watch this." The skeleton had reached her and began to lash out with its blade. Leranna reached behind her at the two handed sword still in its sheath, she pulled out her sword, tracing a line of fire around in a quick circle from the sheath, around her body, through the skeleton and in front of her. The skeleton stopped mid-attack, then fell to the ground in two pieces.

Leranna hefted her sword up and rested it along her shoulders, then turned to An with a knowing grin. An was dumbstruck; he couldn't stop staring at the blade. It glowed as though it were on fire, a bright light of energy emitting from all points of the blade and flowing around it. This enhancement was incredibly powerful; when the blade struck you, you were hit first by the moving energy, then the blade, then again by the moving energy -it was like being hit three times or more per attack. No wonder she hadn't been worried. "Now then," Leranna said breaking the silence, "Let's go find this Skeleton Knight." He looked ahead, a lone Skeleton Warrior was racing down the hallway, no doubt to inform his leader about the intruders. As it ran off, An wondered with a bit of amusement as to whether or not the skeleton recognized him.

They made their way through the crypts of Luminous with great speed, at a pace An could barely believe....at a pace An didn't believe. Something was wrong...he didn't know what...but something just didn't seem right. He walked behind Leranna, who was busily chopping at anything in her path. Worked up into a frenzy, she would barely respond to anything except an enemy attacking her. More enemies made their way through the corridor to the knight's lair. Leranna plowed through the enemies, most of them falling in front of her, but a few managing to sneak past her as she continued on her way -a one woman wrecking crew.

The Skeleton Warrior that made it past Leranna did not bother to attack her from behind, rather, he focused on An. The undead warrior slashed with his sword, which An deflected with his shield, returning an attack with his hammer -which the warrior blocked with his own shield. "This makes no sense," An thought as he dodged again, "he had the perfect vantage point on Leranna, her unprotected back...why is he attacking me?" An used bash, and broke the skeleton's shoulder, its shield clattering to the floor, a quick attack to the torso and the rest of the warrior followed. An looked ahead, Leranna was still going at it. He raced up behind her, but another mob, this time three skeletons, made it past her. An dodged, blocked, bashed, blocked, swung, and bashed again to end the fight, hoping to catch up to Leranna, who was still pulling away.

He watched as she swung twice and four enemies fell to the ground. "Wait," he thought, "Four enemies? Even with her enhanced sword that shouldn't be possible at her level." An watched again, his eyes widened as he noticed this time an enemy that had not been hit collapsing to the ground. Another wave of enemies appeared, Leranna swishing her blade through them, most falling, a few scraping past her -but rather than attack the fighter's vulnerable back, they headed for An, who once more had to stop and fight. He at last understood...he knew what was happening. "Leranna!" he yelled as he blocked the first attack at him, "Leranna, stop!" An swung at the enemy, shattering its bones and sending it to the ground. He raced forward only to be met by another skeleton. "Leranna!" he pleaded, "Leranna, don't get so far ahead! It's a trap!" Leranna, too hyped up from confidence in her newfound strength to stop or listen, continued forward toward the throne room as more and more enemies made their way toward An. "LERANNA!" he yelled as she continued on, but it was no use; moments later, he lost sight of her.

Frantically, An used his invincible technique and started fighting as hard as he could, the wave of over a dozen enemies trying to smother him, stab him, or just hold him back while the inevitable happened to his companion. Shouting and yelling, he bashed his way through the wall of undead, healing and hammering as he went. Exhausted, he finally made it past them and saw the entrance to the throne room -Leranna was not waiting for him. Panicking, An raced in, hoping to see Leranna fighting the Skeleton Knight, but he did not. When he entered the room, he only saw Skeleton Knight himself, standing in the center of the room; and there, at his feet, was a brilliantly glowing two handed sword, in a pool of blood. There was no sign of the body, but there was no denying the fact: Leranna was dead.

The Skeleton Knight looked at An, who was completely exhausted, and, in his rush to save his friend, had not even bothered to use a soul stone to recover his strength. The knight opened his mouth slightly, his way of grinning, mocking the cleric at his failed attempt to save his friend -and by removing the body, there was no way for him to revive her...his friend was gone forever. An stood there panting. He couldn't believe it...he just couldn't...there was no way she was actually... He looked at Skeleton Knight, a deep anger, a hatred, a pure burning desire to kill welling up from within him. He gripped his hammer in his hand, so tight that his arm trembled. With a great roar, he charged the Skeleton Knight, who with one sweep of his blade, knocked An's shield to the side; and with the next, sent An into the corner mortally wounded.

An couldn't move his legs, the blood pouring from his stomach was slowly draining his ability to move. He had messed up again -he knew he had...he had let his emotions get the better of him and had made a big mistake. The same mistake that had cost Leranna her life, would now, only minutes later, end his as well. "No," he thought, "I can't die...not here...not like this." He watched as the Skeleton Knight slowly walked over, savoring the kill -especially since this cleric had been one of the ones to defeat him last time. "I must live," he thought to himself, "I have to get revenge...I have to kill him." He allowed the skeleton lord to come closer, and he reached into his bag.

The Skeleton Knight put his swords away, letting the blood loss do his job for him. "This," he thought as he grabbed the item he was searching for, "Will hurt him much worse than had I simply beaten him." An looked up at the knight, and smiled. The smile seemed to disturb the skeleton, who was suddenly unsure of what was happening. An slowly brought his hand out of his bag, holding a green scroll. The Skeleton Knight lurched in surprise, quickly reaching for his swords, sheathed on his back. He pulled one out as An lifted his hand and broke the seal. The Knight slashed, smashing his sword down into the ground, the stone floor shattering and kicking up a cloud of dust. As the dust settled, he saw the cleric was nowhere to be found....he had gotten away.

An found himself lying on his back on the warm stone surfacing that covered most of Elderine. He looked down, he was still bleeding heavily. He quickly tried to cast a heal spell to stop the bleeding, only to find he lacked the strength to do so. "So that was his insurance," An nodded, "make me so tired from fighting that I can't heal, make me so angry that I would forget." He reached into his bag and pulled out a soul stone, which glowed as it used a healing charge. He looked down, the soul stone hadn't healed him completely...this had been a very bad attack. He used another charge, and the stone finished healing him. He got up, thinking about what had just happened. His world darkened, words escaped him as he sat there by the city wall, feeling such rage and hate that he wanted to level the city.

He thought about the Skeleton Knight. He had robbed it of his complete victory, sure enough -and he had undoubtedly hurt the knight's pride in escaping; but it had killed Leranna. The fact that escaping was the only pain he could cause the knight was even more infuriating....it couldn't end at that. He would kill Skeleton Knight. "First," he thought, "I will need to repair my armor, then get more stone charges and potions." He walked toward the center of town where the merchants were. With a dark look in his eye that would cause even the unintelligent and undead zombies to quake, he began to plan. "Then," he said to himself, "I will need to form a party....this time I will kill him for good."

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:34 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter VI: The Solo Path

"Well are you coming or not?" An gruffly called behind him. The two mages, one male one female, crept around the corner into the crypts of Luminous. "Oh, stop it!" An snapped at them. "Well," said the girl mage, "Considering you told us your fighter friend died here, and we have no fighter to assist us; you can't exactly blame us for being a bit cautious." An growled at the girl -he didn't know her name, or the name of the boy, for that matter...he'd just picked them up on his way here. He took a breath -they were, An knew, a bit low level to be in here, "Don't chase them away, An," he told himself, "you need them...for now." "Look," he said more evenly, "I can handle anything that comes our way until we reach the Skeleton Knight itself. That's the only time you guys will need to worry." The mages nodded. "Besides, I'm up front," An said turning, "If there was trouble, you'd know because I'd be attacked." "That's what worries us," the other mage said in response, "You're the one that can heal and revive...if you get hurt, it's much easier for us to get killed."

They continued on their way, the monsters of the crypt stood no chance against the strong cleric and two powerful mages. At last An reached the door to the Skeleton Knight's throne room, the two mages close behind him. An stopped and turned. "Listen up," An said softly yet sternly, "Skeleton Knight will focus on me as long as you don't attack it too often or hurt it too fast....do not use any high level spells, space out your attacks, and it will continue to attack me." He looked at each of them in turn, his face darkening, "If you get too excited and use high level spells...if you deal too much damage with one attack....or if you chain cast many spells over a short time, it WILL attack you; and if it attacks you, it WILL kill you." The mages paled slightly...this cleric's eyes were scary in the dark passageway. An continued speaking, "IF you draw his attention...I will NOT stop him...and I MAY not revive you, as you may cost me the opportunity to kill it." He paused to let this new information sink in. "If you have a problem with my tactics," he said pointing down the hall behind them, "There's the way out."

An waited a second, then asked if they were staying or leaving. The girl mage spoke first, "I think you are controlling, a bit of a jerk, and borderline psychotic," she said, "but I think you can pull this off....and I stand a better chance fighting against Skeleton Knight with you than I do going back to the entrance on my own." An nodded, taking no offense at her words (he thought he'd been a bit of a jerk himself....but he didn't care at the moment). He looked at the other mage, who was looking in the throne room. "You said this thing killed your friend, then almost killed you" he started, "and you want to kill it in return. I may not like you, but I can sympathize with you wanting to do so...so I will help you." An did not thank them, he simply nodded at his comment, then turned toward the doorway. "I will go in first," he said, "Wait at least half a minute until you come in and start attacking yourselves." An looked back at them, "We'll rest here for another minute, then we attack."

Set in their plan, An laid out a bunch of scrolls on the ground, "The red ones increase your vitality, the light blue defense, and the bright green agility," he started, "You can use them, but you shouldn't need them." He pointed to the others, "The yellow-green increases your inner strength, allowing you to attack with magic a few more times before needing a potion or stone, the dark blue increases your accuracy." An grabbed one of each as he called them, (there were three of each color on the ground), breaking the seals to activate their magic; then waited for the mages to use the ones they wanted -they used one of each. After this, An handed them each a bright green scroll with writing on the side. "In case I lose, use these," An said, "they'll take you back to Elderine." The mages looked a bit worried again, as this cleric was admitting that he wasn't sure he could win. An noticed this, and decided he should say something. "Of course," he said looking at them, "when I kill him, I will want them back." This comment seemed to ease their minds a bit -which was good...a mage needed a clear mind to focus, better focus meant better spells. An summoned his mushroom house, the mages did likewise, and they rested until they felt they were ready.

A few minutes later, buffed, rested, and set in plan, An walked into the final chamber in the crypt, the mages waiting just outside the door. He looked over at the throne, in which a familiar being sat. "Get up," An demanded darkly, "and fight me." The skeleton looked over, its mouth opening, as though pleased to see the cleric again. The Skeleton Knight stood, drawing its swords from the sheaths on its back, and walking forward toward the brash cleric. An walked forward as well, toward the room's center, so the knight would not see the two mages standing beyond the doorway. Skeleton Knight started to run forward, brandishing his weapons, An did the same.

Raising both his blades, Skeleton Knight charged at the cleric, then he bent low and brought them around to the side. An rotated and blocked with his shield and hammer, the force of the blow causing him to slide backwards. The skeleton's eyes glowed yellow as it hissed, its mouth only inches away from An's face. The two were locked together, each pushing hard, trying to knock the other off balance. An gave a little, turning to the side, the skeleton stepped in. An repeated his step, as did the skeleton; An was now facing the doorway. An pushed harder, his leg beginning to cramp, the skeleton responded. An quickly sank to his back while keeping his shield in front of him, allowing gravity to do the next bit for him. Without the cleric's force pushing him back, the skeleton shot forward and over the cleric, stumbling. As he did so, An raised his hammer and caught it on the knight's shin, causing the Skeleton Knight to trip and land on its face.

An got up as the skeleton staggered, rising to his feet and charging forward just as the undead knight fell. An raced forward and used bash on its unprotected right shoulder, the bone cracking slightly. As the knight began to rise, An stood and spun, traveling down the knight's body as he did so, and brought his hammer down on its tailbone for good measure. An jumped back as the skeleton made a wild swing at him from his hurt arm. "What's wrong?" An asked in a mocking tone, "You had SUCH an easy time when I was here last." The skeleton got to its feet and swung again, and An dodged once more. "You don't seem to be having quite so much fun this time, though," An continued as he dodged another attack; this time he charged in, jumped and smashed his hammer into the side of the knight's face, spinning him around.

The Skeleton Knight's eyes burned with anger, this one cleric was being quite the handful. An grinned and turned around, showing his back to the skeleton while shrugging, "This is just too easy," he started, "maybe I should go back and fight something harder....like a slime." Skeleton Knight swung up then down, intent on driving his blade from the top of this annoying cleric's head through his body and a meter into the floor. The blades raced down, and struck a barrier of air -the cleric had cast invincibility at some point. An turned around, an evil grin on his face, "You didn't think it would be that simple, did you, you pathetic worm?" An circled, drawing the skeleton's gaze away from the door -the mages would be entering soon.

The skeleton swung, An blocked with his shield; the skeleton attacked with his other sword, An pushed down on the first with his shield, flipping himself up and over the new attack, bringing his hammer down on the knight's head, then bringing it up under its chin, knocking it back. "Last time you had an easy time gutting me, and made sport of killing my friend," An scowled, as they watched each other, each waiting for the other to attack, "I'm here to return the favor." The skeleton lurched forward as two bolts of energy crashed into his back -the mages had made their entrance, not wasting the moment, An raced forward and used bash against the knight's chest armor. The armor dented inward and cracked around the hammer's impact point with the pressure -An thought he heard something else on the knight crack as well.

The Skeleton Knight regained his balance quickly following the last barrage of attacks; then lurched forward and sprayed a toxic mist at An -from a slight range inhaling it was merely a poison, but this close in, a single breath of it could be fatal. An didn't move; he allowed to mist to envelope him, then a few seconds later he fell over, unmoving. The skeleton then turned to face the new arrivals, who upon seeing this, backed up a few steps; the skeleton opened his mouth in a grin again, stepping forward itself. "Hey, dog toy," An called from behind. The skeleton stopped, and turned to see the cleric standing behind him unharmed. The cleric grinned again, "Where you going? We're not done playing yet."

The Skeleton Knight paused, as though wondering how the cleric had survived, An pointed at his neck -a large red gem was tied around it. "Necklace of Blessing," An said explaining, "Protects from poisons and diseases." The skeleton turned towards An hissing as An continued, "Besides...I'm a cleric, you moron...I heal wounds and cure poisons...your toxins have no effect on me." An swung his hammer around in his hand as he prepared to continue the fight; and the Skeleton Knight charged again.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:35 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter VI: The Solo Path

The Skeleton Knight slashed with his left blade as An rolled, slicing into the ground behind him. An rose to his feet and raised his shield to block the skeleton's right blade, the sound of the impact echoing around the chamber. Skeleton Knight lurched again as the mages let loose another volley of mystical energy. An again charged forward in the delay and smashed his hammer into the side of the skeleton's jaw bone -a pronounced crack appearing this time.

The skeleton swung across his body in opposing directions, one blade at An's knee, the other at his neck. An jumped forward over the blades and spun, landing on his back. The undead knight raked one sword along the floor, bringing it toward the other blade, the path leading across An's middle. An rolled back between the Skeleton Knight's legs to avoid it. Continuing his motion, the undead lord brought his swords above his head and stepped back, uncovering An and bringing his twin blades down at the cleric's chest. Two more energy blasts slammed into the skeleton's back, knocking him forward and causing him to miss his mark -though An had already moved out of the way. As the knight stumbled, An jumped and attacked the shoulder he had weakened earlier; the crack widened and the bone shattered, the skeleton's arm falling to the ground.

The skeleton spun and staggered backwards, gazing at it right arm lying on the ground before it. An walked forward slowly, smiling sadistically; his desire to kill welling up in him as he did so. "You are pathetic," came the cleric's low voice, "You are weak." An charged again, shield out to knock the skeleton off balance. The Skeleton Knight swung with his left blade, smashing into An's shield and halting his advance. An raised his hammer, spun and brought it down in the center of the undead knight's blade. The tip of the blade impacted against the floor, the hammer continuing to drive the center of the blade down while the knight's arm held the back end up; the old sword shattered into three pieces.

Before the pieces had all landed on the ground, An spun and drove his hammer into the knight's chest armor, sending the skeleton backwards off-balance again. An stalked forward again, "You are disarmed," he continued as his grin turned to a scowl. He rushed in again, the skeleton not sure what to do now that his blade was only a foot long; An jumped up and spun, knocking the blade away with his shield and hitting the skeleton's jawbone with his hammer. Bone popped and cracked under the pressure; finally giving way and collapsing, the left side of his jawbone came loose and shot to the side of the chamber. The Skeleton Knight continued to walk backwards as An kept creeping forward. "You are defeated," An said in a low tone, allowing a long pause before adding in a very dark voice, "And you are worthless."

The skeleton straightened, as though it had heard those words before. An charged in, the skeleton sweeping with its new dagger -an exercise in futility; An blocked with his shield, his momentum knocking the skeleton back. An gave a loud shout as he jumped into the air, swinging his hammer up and under the knights cheekbone -where the jaw had fallen off. The skeleton knight lost balance, tripped and landed on its back, the broken blade clattering to a stop above its head. An walked to the head of the Skeleton Knight, then with a triumphant roar, he brought his hammer up and down in a bash, shattering the skull.

An stepped back toward the mages as the faint blue spirit arose from the bones. The mages cheered in victory, then An shouted at them, "What are you waiting for? KILL IT!" The mages looked at An in confusion. An whirled at them, "KILL IT BEFORE IT GETS AWAY!" The boy mage spoke up first, "We can't." "WHAT?" An shouted in reply. The girl mage spoke up next, "We can't kill the spirit...it's not something we can do." An glared at them, his face darkening, "Either you attack it, or I attack you." This was incentive enough to try; the mages turned toward the spirit as it started to move toward the end of the throne room. Two more balls of energy crackled and sizzled as they soared across the room, and straight into the wall having passed through the spirit, which continued to move away.

"NOOO!" An shouted, charging forward. This couldn't be happening, it couldn't happen...he wouldn't let it happen. He reached the spirit and swung, his hammer passing through the mist as it continued to move away. He swung hard, using the bash strike, his hammer slamming into the wall as the spirit passed through. An shouted and roared, slamming his hammer into the wall time and again, yelling for the spirit to return and fight. The wall began to crack and dust dropped from the ceiling. "An, cool it!" yelled the girl mage. "Stop it! Are you nuts? You're going to bring this whole room down on top of us!" shouted the boy mage.

An stopped, then turned around, walking toward the exit. "Well we won," the boy mage started, "I have to admit I'm impressed...you did most of that by yoursOOF!" An walked past the mage, his shoulder knocking him to the side. He said nothing as he walked down the crypt, he didn't pay attention to anything around him -he didn't even notice when the mages used the return scrolls he'd given them. Skeleton Knight was an undead...there was no way to kill the spirit inside for good...and he'd known that. He had beaten it again -this time almost on his own; but his victory seemed empty. It was hollow, there was no point to it, because in the end, the Skeleton Knight would still come back, and his friend was still dead. Slowly, he made his way to Elderine; where he found himself unable to rest. He continued his journey past Elderine and into the area known as Vine tomb, where he fought for the remainder of the day.

At nightfall he felt unsatiated, despite having killed many strong enemies. He walked along a path, not knowing where it would lead, when he heard some other adventurers talking. "It's true," said one, "These zombies are even stronger than the ones in Moonlight Tomb, so are the spiders and Tomb Foxes." Stronger? This caught his interest. "Wow," said the other, "Where is this place? I gotta remember the name so I know not to go there alone." "It's called the Abysmal Cave; the entrance is in Moonlight Tomb." An walked away as they continued their chat. So the Abysmal Cave had strong enemies, eh? He'd just have to see that for himself.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:35 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter VII: A Haunted Cave, A Haunted Past

The zombie gurgled as it swung its make-shift weapon -the top of a grave marker that it had ripped off- across its body at An. An said nothing, as he simply ducked and side-stepped to evade the attack. The zombie swung the polished stone back again, and An decided he was tired of the game. He raised his hammer and met the zombie's weapon halfway -the hammer shattering the stone into small pieces. The zombie stopped for a second, its decaying brain trying to absorb this new circumstance. An quickly and wordlessly moved behind the distracted zombie, and used bash on its head. The Cave Zombie's head collapsed in, a purple splatter erupting from under the hammer (which by now, An had learned to avoid), and the zombie's body fell to the ground.

"Wow!" came an excited voice. An looked over at a mage and cleric (both obviously lower level) that had apparently wandered by during the fight. "That was amazing!" continued the cleric. "Hey," said the mage, "Wanna join our party?" An turned around and started walking up the hill saying nothing. "Hello?" the mage continued, "Wanna join up with us? I'm sure we'd be a very powerful group." An continued to trudge up the hill, scowling in annoyance. "Yo!" said the other cleric, "Can you hear us?" Clearly these guys weren't getting the hint, so An continued to walk, but allowed them the kindness of a word to assist their understanding: "Scram." The duo stopped and turned around, heading back the way they came. "Jerk," said the cleric. "Wonder what his problem is?" said the mage in response.

"I don't have a problem," An said to himself, "I'm just not going to be bothered with protecting weaklings....especially if they were impressed by something as basic as THAT." An had been training in the Abysmal Cave for weeks without leaving, soloing the entire time. He hardly ever spoke while training in there, not even to taunt his enemies as they lost; he simply wandered voiceless from one fight to the next, until he was tired and needed to sleep.

The monsters in the cave were stronger than the ones in Moonlight Tomb, this was something that he could not contest. This had come about because of a powerful monster known as the Zombie King. This zombie had greater intelligence than most -it was able to organize, and it desired power and control. Created by a strong evil spirit, the monster had the ability to cast enchantments on any monster that would serve it, causing it to become stronger. This enchantment had two other uses as well: the Zombie King could deploy his subjects around the area to recruit other monsters -or kill those that would not be recruited; and also allowed the Zombie King the ability to kill any of the monsters that had the enchantment instantly -should it grow smart enough to desire power itself. With this zombie having made itself at home in the area, the only monsters left in these caves were those that served the Zombie King; all the others had been killed or had fled into Moonlight Tomb.

Like Skeleton Knight, killing Zombie King was known to be impossible -after being defeated he would eventually be resurrected by the evil spirit. Defeating the zombie, though, would result in a diminishing the number of his minions and fewer monsters plaguing Moonlight Tomb. This, however, did not interest An. He didn't care one way or the other as to whether or not he stopped an influx from one monster-infested area into another monster-infested area; he was only here to become stronger -to prove he was stronger than anything else here. To do this, he still needed to kill something that lived in here. "Found you," An said as he made it to the top of the hill. Staring forward he saw two small zombies walking around aimlessly; and in the center, a large zombie a little under three meters tall towered over them -the Zombie King. An stared for a bit, wondering if he was strong enough now.

This would not be the first time he fought the Zombie King, he had fought it twice before, his armor sending him back to Elderine critically wounded both times. The most annoying part was what the Zombie King did next: after each time an adventurer found the Zombie King and failed to defeat it, the zombie would set up in a new area of the cave. It had a compulsion that made the area easy to recognize when you found it -the zombie had its minions carve a large skull into the side of a wall nearby- however, the caves were vast, and finding the area was always tedious. An's most recent failed attempt at the king had been made about two weeks ago.

An thought back to that particular battle. He had found the zombie after two days of non-stop searching. After pausing to scroll up and rest, he charged in. The first to spot him was one of the lower zombies it used as bodyguards. It moaned and gurgled, then ran toward An with its grave marker above and behind its shoulder -the other two zombies were not far behind. An dispatched the first zombie quickly, dodging its running-attack, spinning and landing a hammer blow to the back of the head, then bashing its head in when it hit the ground. Unfortunately for An, in the time it took his to do so, the other two zombies had arrived. He yelled as the second zombie body guard bit into his unprotected neck, then found his vision becoming fuzzy and seeing rocks fly past as the Zombie King smashed An in the side with a large grave marker nearly as big as he was.

An landed and rolled, coming to a painful stop when his back impacted against a rock formation sticking up from the ground. An used heal to easily erase the wounds and cracked bone, but the bodyguard had used a special ability when it bit him: disease. The effects were only temporary -thankfully, but at the moment, his immune system was being overwhelmed by a virus that zombies could transmit through biting. This virus was boosted by a magic that would cause it to swell out of control quickly, causing fever, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and fatigue within seconds of infection (none of which were desirable when fighting to the death). The fast rate of infection was met with a short life span on the side of the virus itself; it would stop perpetuating itself in a matter of minutes -unfortunately, minutes were frequently not needed for your enemy to beat you when you were too busy vomiting to fight. The disease was not curable by a cleric's abilities, but was treatable by a certain mage skill. An, however, was soloing, so he did not have that skill on hand...nor did he have an antidote potion for it; and so as An stood, he was already feeling light-headed.

The zombies attacked as a pair, as one recoiled and prepared to attack again, the second launched its own attack; this kept the cleric on the defensive, preventing him from wounding one or the other of the zombies, and gave the disease more time to weaken him. The fever caused him to feel pain in areas that had not been hit, and was weakening his ability to block the already overbearing assault that the Zombie King launched time and again. He was feeling dizzy, the world was spinning slightly as the blows came -making it hard work to block all the strikes that came his way -thankfully, zombies are not exactly the masters of accuracy, and most of their attacks were large sweeping motions, this the only thing that enabled him to complete his blocks.

He continued to fight his slowly losing battle for what seemed an eternity. His head throbbed, muscles ached, he had vomited more than once, he was half-asleep and the world spun as he stood still. An stood up in a guarding position, swaying without realizing it -a black area began to surround what he saw, slowly closing in towards the center. The zombies launched another attack, the bodyguard swept to the left, and An met the blow with his shield. Weakened and fatigued, An lacked the strength to hold the blow back; the zombie's attack knocked his arm to the side. As the darkness closed in and filled everything he saw, a much more potent attack from the Zombie King hit An directly. An sailed through the air and landed on the edge of a hill, rolling down the side. The zombies grumbled and moaned to each other as they staggered down the hill after him.

An came to his senses when the zombies were about two thirds of the way down the hill and wandering around looking for him; they had lost sight of him as he had come to rest between two coffins -several of which littered the base of this hill. He made a quick self-assessment: he was thinking clearly, he was certainly tired, but nowhere near as tired as he'd been earlier, his vision was fine, and other than a ringing in his ears, he was not feeling any ill-effects...the zombie's disease had burned out. He was still wounded, though, he figured he had a few cracked ribs...he tasted blood and there was a gurgle as he tried to breathe in....he definitely wasn't getting enough oxygen when he breathed, so at least one rib had broken and punctured a lung. Upon trying to get up and cast cure, he was made aware of a dislocated shoulder and a broken leg. He raised his shield arm and said a chant to cast his most powerful cure spell -the words and flash of light alerted the zombies to his location; and they came charging in again.

They were not the only ones to attack, though. While the fall had proven fortunate in giving him time to overcome the disease from the bodyguard zombie, it has also moved him into a new area -with nearby enemies that had also seen and heard him cast cure. Three more enemies, a Cave Spider, and two Cave Zombies ran at him from behind. An stood still for a second as he wondered what he could possibly do given the current shift in the balance of power in this fight.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:36 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter VII: A Haunted cave, A Haunted Past

Deciding the most dangerous enemy -other than the Zombie King- was the spider, he decided to kill it first. With the zombies able to cast disease, and the spider's main attack being to sweep at an opponent's knees to trip them, he felt he really needed to kill the overgrown bug. He charged at the new wave of enemies, his hammer at one side, his shield at the other. This wave was actually farther away than the Zombie King and zombie bodyguard, so attacking it served another purpose: as he could run faster than the zombies behind him, it would give him more time to do more damage before those two showed up to the fight.

The spider ran out in front, as though sensing that it was the current target of An's aggression, and leapt at An, bearing its fangs. An stopped, his side facing the airborne spider, spreading his legs for balance and an anchoring spot. he swung his hammer with all his strength, and connected against the spider's mouth. The spider made a high-pitched hissing sound as An's hammer forced it to make an abrupt one hundred eighty degree change in trajectory, and it sailed back three feet before landing on its back facing An. An charged in and raised his hammer, using his shield to block the predictable poisonous spit that the spider desperately launched at the charging cleric. An reached the spider and swung his hammer up, then bent at the knee and swung back down -the last thing it saw was a very big hammer growing much bigger as it got closer.

An was not given time to celebrate his tactical victory: the first set of zombies had already reached him. they launched a series of sweeping blows -fortunately, these zombies, while stronger, were still stupid, they all attacked from the same side making it much easier for An to block them. An pushed back against the three stone slabs that were pressed against his shield, then stepped in and swung at a zombie with his hammer, quickly yanking his hand back as another zombie bit at it. The zombie staggered back, leaving him to fight two for a moment. An stepped to one side, a zombie following, he quickly reversed direction and slammed his hammer into the other zombie's face, crushing the nose in and send it back a few steps as well.

An grinned as he only had the one zombie left now, then yelled as the Zombie King crushed An's back in with a powerful attack. An fell to the ground, unable to move his legs. the Zombie King wandered over, and, wielding his grave marker more like a golf club, he knocked An away and over to another zombie. They circled around him, each beating him with their clubs five times, then knocking him to another zombie in the circle. It seemed like some sadistic game to see which zombie would be the one to kill him.

The wind flowed from his lungs as a tombstone crushed his chest in, the armor dented and ribs broke again. The tombstone then smacked against his back, something else popped and he was unable to retain control of his arms. The hammer fell out of his grip as his arm flopped about while he rolled along the ground; fortunately, the hammer was tied to his wrist so he did not lose the hammer itself...unfortunately, the impact of the hammer as it slid and skidded across the rocky ground dislocated his wrist, he then felt an extremely painful impact against his chest as the hammer -guided by his own body's momentum, flew into his torso. The world went black as the next zombie readied to swing...he felt a strange fuzzy feeling around what few areas he still had feeling in; and when he was next able to open his eyes, he found himself in Elderine.

An scowled again as he looked at the Zombie King, which undoubtedly remembered defeating him last time. "This time," An swore to himself, "one of us will be buried here...and it will not be me." He heard a curse from down the hill, and several grunts and shouts followed. Curious, An wandered over to the edge of the hill and looked down; a lone fighter was having some trouble with a Cave Zombie. Nearby, the mage/cleric duo from earlier was also fighting. "Hang on!" the cleric shouted to the fighter as he blocked attacks from two zombies, the mage trying to hit them without hitting the cleric, "We'll be there to help you as fast as we can!" An watched, for some strange reason, he found this interesting...he kind of felt like he should help them -even though they shouldn't be in here. Another zombie appeared and began attacking the fighter, who was now completely defensive and walking backwards toward a wall.

The mage finally managed to strike a zombie, blasting a large hole in the upper torso -the zombie fell to the ground. Relieved of an attacker, the other cleric went on the offensive, driving the zombie back, the mage managing to land a fire bolt in the center of the zombie's head -spraying a fine purple mist around the cleric. They sat and cheered at their victory, as the fighter continued to back up -almost against the wall. "If you're done with those guys over there, could you help me, please?" he shouted as he felt the rock press against his back. The cleric and mage ran towards the fighter; the mage made use of the two zombies facing away from him -and covering the fighter- by casting another magic attack and turning one zombie's side into ozone; the zombie gurgled and collapsed. The cleric cast an invincible spell, yelling for the fighter to attack. The zombie swung at the fighter, his attack halting against the barrier; the fighter swept up and across with his sword, aiming at the zombie's neck. The sword struck and slowed, the fighter pivoted his feet, rotated at the waist and forced it all the way through the flesh and bone, decapitating the zombie. The headless corpse fell to the ground at his feet, as the fighter leaned over to catch his breath.

"Thanks for the help," panted the fighter. "It's no problem," said the cleric, "I'm a cleric, it's what we do." This phrase caught his interest for some reason, An listened more intently. "You want to join our group?" asked the mage. "Sure," the fighter replied smiling. They walked off for a bit, the mage turned towards his comrades and smiled, "You know, I kinda like fighting these undead." A sharp pain accompanied those words as he heard them. A memory surfaced, he'd heard those words from someone else before, same as the phrase before. The pain came closer and closer, An turned and walked away from them, shoving the memory back where it came from.

As he walked, he breathed slowly, the pain and memory gone -now there was only the present, there was just himself -the solo cleric, and there were enemies that he needed to fight. He looked around for another enemy for him to vanquish, when another voice came into his head, "If you're done playing with your friends, how about helping me with mine?" As the voice came, so too did another wave of pain. "Go away!" An growled as he shoved the thought aside. He started walking faster, as though trying to outrun the memories that were coming to him. "I'm sorry I didn't help you sooner," it was his own voice this time. "It's okay, I understand," came another. The pain intensified. It wasn't like the pain from battle, it had no area that he could focus on and heal; this pain seemed to come from everywhere.

An started to run now, more words came into his mind, words that came in his own voice, "Worthless", "pathetic," "useless". "GO AWAY!" An shouted as he sprinted, darting across the rocky landscape of the caves, still another word came: "Liar". Once more a voice came from the depths, a buried memory surfaced, flowing into his mind with fresh pain, "You know," the voice started, "I like fighting the undead." An stopped running, standing straight up and looking forward. There, in front of him, holding a shield and hammer, dressed in armor that belied his true nature, was an enemy that An had never seen before; yet one he knew quite well.

He glared at the enemy, this new arrival. HE was the one responsible for everything up to now. HE was the reason An was feeling so much pain now. He was the one that made this pain, these memories return now. The enemy stared straight back at him -he knew what An was thinking, he knew An was in pain, and he reveled in this. An growled, and tightened his grip on the hammer in his right hand, "I will break this guy into so many pieces," he thought, "No one will ever fall for his lies again." An shouted as he raised his hammer and charged at the enemy -who raised his hammer and charged in as well.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:37 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter VII: Darkness, A Haunted Cave, A Haunted Past

"I want to help people," The thoughts came to his mind again, "I want to stop others from dying. To heal other people with families that would miss them at dinner." Those had been his thoughts, when he decided to become a cleric. An charged at the opponent in front of him, swinging his hammer with all the force he could muster. He wanted to kill that liar in front of him; he would kill him...he would swing straight at his head and smash it beyond recognition!

The green-skinned enemy swung his hammer up at the same time, the two hammers met with a harsh metallic clang, leaving his opponent unharmed. An charged again, swinging with incredible force, his hammer landing again right where he'd wanted to hit, right on track to smash his head in -and again, the enemy's hammer met his own in the same spot. He swung again and again in rage and hate, the hammer flying, landing against the crystalline stone that made up the side of the cliff in front of him. His hammer was doing no damage, his reflection still shown perfectly fine, enraging him all the more. His arms and shoulders hurt from the reverberations of his hammer's impacts against the strong stone. Blood began to drip from between his fingers as the skin on his hand became torn and blistered from the hammer's grip; still, he swung again -with such force that his shoulder on his shield-side fractured, and the crystal finally cracked.

Unsatisfied, he swung again and again, not feeling the pain in his body, still outraged that the cleric he saw in the stone was still there. Slamming his hammer once more against the wall, the crystal shattered, razor-sharp shards flew back at him, tearing at his face. He swung one more time, shattering the crystal until the reflection was beyond recognizing, the hammer lodging into the side of the cliff.

An suddenly found himself without strength, sinking to his knees, his anger started to be replaced by another emotion...one that he had been burying for a long time. "Hey, if you're done playing, how about giving me a hand?" a familiar male voice echoed in his head. "It's okay, I understand," came another, higher pitched voice, "I would have done the same." A new voice, another girl, came into his mind, "You know, I like fighting these guys....you can't kill what's already dead." Nohr. Luna. Leranna. He had failed them.....all of them. He lifted his head up and shouted, his tortured howl echoed across the caverns.

They were in fierce combat; this Cave Tomb Fox was not going down easy. The mage chanted as energy crackled to life between his hands, the fighter swung at the enemy, who dodged and swung back –its claws striking the metal of the fighter’s shield. A cry came from every direction. A loud shout that sent shivers up their spines –even the fox stopped fighting and looked around. Shuddering, the cleric asked aloud, “What is that?” The fighter shrugged and the mage looked back at his party-mate with wide eyes, “Is that the cleric we saw earlier?” They continued to look around, trying to hear which direction the sound emanated from. “So much pain,” said the fighter, “It….almost doesn’t even sound human.”

An continued yelling and howling until he lacked the breath to more than whisper, then leaned forward against the shattered stone in front of him and began beating it with his hands, leaving red streaks against the cracks, "Come back," the coarse whisper came, "Please, come back."

He missed them...he missed his friends... He was a liar. He began to choke, a knot in his throat and stomach forming...He had done nothing to help them. He was a cleric, it was his JOB to help them, to heal them, to keep them alive, to stop people from dying, and he had failed. He had failed in his goal and he had failed in his job, and because of it, he had lost three friends….it was his fault…he had killed them. He was just as much at fault as any enemy. Another thought came to his mind unbidden...another voice, Leranna's, "I have to go, An....I'm sorry." An left his bloodied hands above his head against the wall, his forehead against the crystal, and tears flowed from his eyes as he began to sob.

Even the monsters nearby avoided An as he knelt there for the next few hours. Whether out of respect (for they were, after all, dead themselves), or fear -he had just broken a wall that even the Zombie King was unable to damage, An never knew...but at the time...he didn't really care.

An sat there and cried until he could no longer do so; then he turned, his back against the wall, and thought. He thought about his friends, his adventures, where he had been and what he had been like before; and what he was like now. He wondered to himself what had happened, why he had started acting like this. More words came to his mind. "Darkness lies within all of us. The darkness you fought still resides within you, still seeks a way out," they were the words of the Guard captain in the Forest of Mist -he had spoken them after Leranna had faced her shadow.

"The shadow will use any reason to come out: pain, greed, sadness, anger, hatred, lust -any of these it will use to try to get your attention," the voice continued, "It will coax you, persuade you that its path is best; has less pain, less sadness, greater strength, the power to defeat anything. It will lead you alone to fight and kill -and you will indeed kill very strong opponents, but you will not be stronger. A group of adventurers will always be stronger than one who is alone; and an adventurer with two friends will always be stronger than a lone adventurer who can slay five opponents at a single strike."

An remembered these words and nodded, he understood what had come over him. The pain of losing his friends, and that from blaming himself, made him want revenge. After losing Luna and Nohr, he hated monsters, he frequently fought them alone and outnumbered -he wanted to show them he was stronger than they could handle. When Leranna was killed, he lusted for the strength to kill any enemy, regardless of how strong it was -but he wanted to kill it on his own. These thoughts were what opened him to the suggestions from his shadow. He thought back to one of his most painful memories -one of a talk he'd had with his father.

He was young, only seven years old when this conversation took place. His father had brought him out to help cut down trees -his father's would be for repairing the house, whereas his own would be for firewood. His father showed An a tree that was good size and handed him an axe, showing him how to cut. The tree fell quickly with his father's help; and his father showed him another tree that could be cut down. As he walked over to start chopping, his father selected a tree for himself -only a short distance from the tree An was about to cut.

An hacked at the base of the tree, and after a few minutes, it fell. An smiled as he saw it tilt and swoop toward the ground, thinking how proud his dad would be when he saw it. There was a cry as the tree neared the ground, it was his father. An raced over to the top of the tree, and saw his father underneath. An's eyes widened as his father lay on his back, the tree pressing against his chest. His father grunted, reaching under the tree, and hefted the tree up, tossing it two feet behind him before standing up himself.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" An shouted in tears as his dad looked at him, "I'm sorry, dad, I really am! Please forgive me!" His father smiled and reached out toward An, "It's okay, son, I forgive you but there is nothing to forgive. It's not your fault." An looked up, not understanding, "I knew you were chopping that tree down, son. I selected my tree because I thought I would be able to down it before you cut down yours. I knew there was a chance I could get hurt and I took it. You can't be responsible for choices others make."

A while later, they were carrying the last of the firewood back to the house, and his father looked down at him, "You're being very quiet this afternoon, son," he began, "Is there any reason?" An shook his head. They reached the house and placed the firewood in the pile out back; his father bent down and placed an arm on his shoulder. "I told you I forgive you, but that doesn't help you much, son." An tilted his head to the side in confusion. His father smiled and continued, "You still blame yourself for the tree falling on me, for almost hurting me. I told you I forgive you; but this won't help until you forgive yourself. If you don't forgive yourself, you will always be upset, sad and uncertain. You will become angry without reason, angry at yourself and others, driving everyone away from you so you won't hurt them -and so you won't feel hurt yourself."

His father was not particularly gifted with words, and if you only listened to him speak when he made a speech, it could sound like gibberish -a trait which he and his brothers shared as well. They could talk about anything -and would talk about everything, but speeches were not a strong point for them. Rather, his father -like his sons- were the type that if you were to look into their eyes as they spoke, you would understand their meaning in the first three words. As An looked into his father's eyes while he spoke, he understood what his father meant.

An looked down at his bloodied hands, nodding his head with a sad smile, "Thanks, dad," the same words he'd said in response to his father's talk were the same he'd said now. An stood up and cast heal on himself, the blood vanishing and wounds closing as though they had never been there. He thought about his friends. He still missed them, it still hurt, but he felt better now. He turned and looked at the stone, the cracked reflection of himself. He yanked his hammer out from the shattered surface and turned around, not looking back even once as he left the dark cave.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:37 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter VIII: New Beginnings

"There you go," An said to the archer with a smile, "That's all there is to refining your equipment." "Thank you!" the archer replied. "It's no problem at all," An said with a chuckle. He looked up for a second in thought as the archer girl turned to walk away, then reached into his bag. "Hold on," he said as he pulled out an item. The archer turned around, curious. "Here," An said as he handed her a few low-grade elrue, "I don't use this grade of elrue anymore. Just remember what I said earlier: most adventurers sell elrue cheap, but some try to sell it for more than it's worth. Pey always sells it for two hundred seventy copper, so if an adventurer tries to sell you elrue for more than that, just buy it from Pey." The archer girl laughed as An handed her the elrue and thanked him again, then went on her way -probably, An surmised, to the smith's shop to try to refine her bow.

An sat down on the hill looking out at the new adventurers in the area. It had been about a week since his journey out of the Abysmal Cave. He wandered for a bit in Elderine, then spent a few days wandering the forests while thinking. After that he had gone home to talk to his brothers -who had grown quite worried from his long absence.

Upon his arrival home, he sat down and told them everything that had occurred; the death of Nohr (which he hadn't mentioned before) and Leranna, the fight with Skeleton Knight, the sojourn into the Abysmal Cave and his personal revelation he'd had. His brothers listened with great interest as he finished talking. "So now I am not sure what to do or where to go," An had said, "I just....I feel like there's something I should do, but I don't know what." His brothers watched him for a moment before the second eldest spoke up, "An, why did you become an adventurer?" An looked back at him and shook his head, "I don't know why I wanted to, really. I just felt like it was something I should do." There was a slight pause before the second eldest continued, "Okay, but why did you choose to be a cleric?"

An looked up and thought for a moment; the memories of the nameless cleric that saved him, the way Rukya had saved him and helped him and his friends. It felt so great knowing there were people like that, and he wanted to be one of them -to give that same feeling to others and to help other adventurers. "I wanted to help people, the way I had been helped," he answered. His brother grinned, "Then start there. I remember our father saying once, 'When you feel as though you have lost sight of where you want to go, head back to where you started and take a better look'. It seems that this is what you should do." An nodded at his brother's remark. He spent two more days with his brothers before he struck out for Rumen and the Forest of Tides.

Now he sat in the shade on a hill, gazing out at a field of flowers. Out in the midst of the flowers a few Mushroom Fighters hopped about, waiting for a young adventurer to challenge them -something An was waiting for as well. He did not need to wait long, only a few minutes after he settled down a young fighter ran up to the beast and swung his sword at its back. This fighter had been fighting smaller mushrooms and slimes, and had gotten overconfident. Without a shield and too low a level to even bear the first set of armor from James, this fighter stood no chance against the mushroom. The sword swung around and impacted against the mushroom's side, sliding across and giving a minor -though still painful- injury.

The Mushroom Fighter turned and glared at the new adventurer, who backed up a few paces. The fighter swung again, and was surprised by the mushroom's relatively tough skin, as his sword glanced off the side of the monster's head. The mushroom jabbed quickly three times, knocking the fighter back, cutting under his eye and bloodying his nose. By now the fighter knew he had no chance against this beast, and he turned to run, but the mushroom would not allow it. The monster chased down the fighter, knocking him to the ground with another punch -the fighter spraining his wrist and dropping his sword as he hit the ground.

The mushroom fighter hopped over to the where the fighter fell, readying for the final blow. The fighter closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable end. Suddenly he felt refreshed and the pain in his arm was gone; there was a loud metallic clang, and he opened his eyes. He couldn't believe the sight of a strong cleric standing between him and the mushroom. The blue-haired cleric looked over his shoulder and smiled, "If you want to kill this guy, you'll need your sword."

The mushroom fighter's body lay at his feet and the fighter was on his way to Rumen to pick up a shield -with a small donation from An. An smiled as he walked down the forest path -he really liked being here and helping these new adventurers. Still, he thought, he needed to become stronger. There were other adventurers that could use a good cleric in areas he wasn't able to even traverse; and there were other, more helpful skills he could learn if he became stronger -one of which he greatly wanted to learn, it was called, "Endure". He needed to start training again soon. "Yeah, soon," he thought to himself, "but for now, I need to keep it a bit slow." He looked up the path; the dirt had turned to sand, the trees scattered about as the forest gave way to the beach and sea.

Ahead was a familiar sight: a large blue crab with a white chest; the King Crab. "Not today," An thought as he walked behind the crab and crossed its path, "I'm not going to chase it today." An continued to walk forward toward the edge of the beach when he heard someone shouting for help. An turned and saw another fighter being chased by the King Crab -and the crab was gaining.

An charged after them, hoping he would make it in time for him to help. The fighter looked behind him and saw he was not able to outrun the crab; he decided that if he was to go down, it would be fighting. "The decision every fighter makes," An grinned as he saw the fighter whirl around bringing up his shield, "that's what makes them fighters, I guess." He continued to run forward as the fighter swung.

The fighter's first blow impacted against the crab's shell, scratching the side. The King Crab responded by swinging his claw to the side, which the fighter managed to dodge. The fighter stood and hopped back as the crab's other claw swung past him; then charged in and thrust his sword between the crab's eyes -a good tactic for the fighter, as that was the only part of the crab's front that lacked armor. The crab bent low so the fighter's sword skipped off the top of its armor -just above its eyes, then quickly brought his claw around and grabbed the fighter's shield -which was locked around his arm. The crab lifted up his captive, who struggled and stabbed futilely at the crab's top armor; the monster then swung with his other claw, knocking the fighter over 13 yards away.

The fighter landed and rolled, the wind knocked out of him, and lay there trying to breathe as the crab approached. The King Crab looked over his new victim, and reached down with one claw, picking the fighter up and holding him in front of his face. The fighter looked back at the crab, which slowly began to apply pressure to the fighter's sides, not sure whether he wanted to asphyxiate the fighter, or simply crush him to death. The crab decided to go for the latter; he squeezed his claw with enough forced to cut through one of the trees on the beach. The crab waited to hear the scream of pain and agony, but it never came. The crab looked at the fighter, despite squeezing as hard as it could, the fighter's armor and body wouldn't crush in.

What kind of trick was this? The crab grabbed the fighter with both claws, squeezing with all his might, and still the fighter would not crush. What was this fighter made out of? Solid metal? “No," he thought as he looked at the fighter's surprised face, "This fighter doesn't understand it either." There was a tapping on the back of its shell, the beast ignored it. The tapping came again, and the crab kicked some sand behind it with a foreleg to get whatever it was to leave. The tapping came one more time, stronger than the last few, but still relatively light. "Some annoying imp wanting to kill the fighter, probably," he thought kicking at it with another leg. His leg impacted something hard....something metallic....something that would not move back. The King Crab turned, and dropped the fighter to the ground in surprise as he saw An Ning standing behind him -his hammer held behind his shoulder.

The fighter got to his feet as An stared down the crab -which backed toward the water. An cast heal on the fighter, who got up and returned to a guard pose. "You alright?" An asked as the fighter looked over at him. "Yeah," the fighter replied with a smile, "thanks." "No problem," An said with a grin, "So you want this guy or do you have somewhere else to be?" The crab stiffened at hearing this -he knew if the cleric helped there was no chance for him to win at all. "No, I need to meet a friend in Rumen," the fighter answered. "I see," An said turning toward him, "Well then, good luck in your travels." An waved as the fighter ran off toward the forest, the crab relaxed a bit and started to turn away. "Hold it," An said from behind him, "I did not say you could leave." The crab stiffened again, then slowly turned around, An was not smiling anymore, and his hammer was in position to be swung again, "I think we need to have a discussion," An walked forward as the crab backed away helplessly; he knew there would be very little talking in this cleric's "discussion"........

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:38 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter VIII: New Beginnings

An spent another week in the areas known as the "beginner's hunting grounds", and a few days wandering the Sea of Greed -helping adventurers on quests or just sitting and talking to some who had yet to learn about things such as refining or alchemy. After this, he felt he should spend some time training and set out for Vine Tomb.

There were a few adventurers in the area, but unlike most other places where people trained, few people ever spoke out there. Voices carried easily in the different areas where monsters lurked, so people that fought alone and got bored -or found a nice green drop they wanted to sell, often shouted to other adventurers. Vine tomb, though, was almost always quiet. Today was an exception, though, a cleric by the name of La Celestina was shouting quite often, trying to make for conversation while she trained. She seemed interesting enough, so he decided he would shout back and talk to her. They talked together and with a few others (people seem more eager to talk when some others are already talking) while training for the next few hours before it got dark and An decided to call it a night. He bid La Celestina -who by this time, was the only other person shouting- a good night and headed out for home.

The next day, he met up with La Celestina again in Vine Tomb, this time in person. They partied together while talking, the cleric duo quite difficult for monsters to handle -as they could either have two clerics attacking at once for small mobs, or have one cleric attack and heal while the other cleric sat back and focused only on healing for larger mobs. By day's end, they were both a great deal stronger. "I need to head to Elderine and turn in some quests," Celestina told him. "Okay," An said in reply, "I need to go there as well and see if there is any new armor I can find."

Once finished with their respective tasks back at Elderine, the cleric duo decided to relax for a bit; so they headed to a stone palace that towered over the large waterfalls that fed Elderine's water channels, an area An had never visited before. Celestina walked up a long red carpet toward some enormous statues of people An had never seen before. Celestina walked up in front of them, and bowed -An did the same, but as he bowed, he asked, "Who are these guys and why are we doing this?" Celestina held her bow, remaining silent; An took the implied meaning and said nothing. Celestina rose from her bow and walked back down the red carpet, An followed suite.

Outside, they found a place to sit by Elderine's water channel near the waterfalls. "Those were the people that founded the three towns and established the enchantments and guidelines which allow adventurers to fight and help people," Celestina said after they sat. "Oh, I see," An said nodding. "I go there every now and again to pay my respects," she continued. An nodded his head again, 'This girl sure knows a lot," he thought to himself, "Quite interesting as well."

"That guy on your shoulder," Celestina said pointing at the small slime pet An had purchased while browsing the markets earlier, "What's he for?" "He makes me look cool," An said with a grin. The two clerics laughed for a bit before he continued, "Well, I'm not too sure myself; but I've heard other adventurers talking...they say that these little guys can make you a little stronger in a few different aspects. Not much, mind you, but when fighting for your life, every little bit helps." Celestina nodded before asking another question, "So does he have a name?" An thought for a minute, "Pep," he said. "Pep?" Celestina echoed as she tilted her head. "Well he jumps around a lot, kind of like a peppy cheerleader...and like cheerleaders...it's somehow supposed to help me do better in a battle." Celestina laughed again at hearing this.

"So what are your goals, An?" Celestina asked after another minute of silence. "My goals," An said thinking, "Well...first is to learn endure." "Naturally," Celestina chuckled. "I want to get to the next set of armor and weapons on my own; then I'd like to join a guild to help me train." "Why not join now? Guilds are good for training," Celestina stated. "No reason," An replied, "just my goal." “Ah," came the other cleric's response. "After that...well...I don't really know," An continued, "I guess it's just to learn the next tier of endure after that.....so what about you?" "Endure, then AOE heal, then the next endure," she said matter-of-factly. "That was quick," An said with a grin, "Put some thought on the matter, have you?" "Yup," she grinned back. "No guilds, though?" An asked. "No, no guilds," she answered, "I'm anti-guild...I can't stand partying with random people, I can't see permanently joining a group of people I don't know." "I see," An replied.

An and La Celestina continued to train together as a duo and hang out relaxing for the next few months. They seemed to compliment each other nicely, as neither of them liked to grind continuously for too long, they both hated parties with random people because such parties frequently stiffed clerics of drops or used them for quests and left them, and they both enjoyed relaxing and talking -be it in Elderine or in the forests.

It was through La Celestina that An met the powerful mage Lunar Aegis, his relation (though he never quite said how they were related) Lunesta Aegis, as well as Lunar's friend, companion and frequent training partner, Maldavo. Lunar and Maldavo seemed to have a history with La Celestina -she called Lunar "the Evil One", frequently accusing him of cohorting with monsters (something she didn't explain to An) and was always teasing Maldavo about him writing evil things in his "notebook". While An didn't quite understand, he thought it was fun to hang around these other people and talk with them.

An was quite glad to have friends like this -ones who reminded him a lot of the friends he'd had before. Lunar Aegis and Maldavo, however, were much stronger than An and La Celestina, so while they talked often in Elderine -or even in the forests when Lunar and Maldavo were heading out to train- the four friends would not train together; they remained in their groups of two. Maldavo and Lunar were always trying to reach new heights of strength together; as for An and La Celestina, they would continue to train in their own duo while struggling to reach the goal every cleric has after attaining revive: "endure".

The white beast swung at An with the fence post it had gripped in its one hand, An raised his shield to deflect the blow; being knocked back a few steps regardless. La Celestina swung her hammer from behind, impacting the Harkan along its backbone. The Harkan growled and turned around, swinging at La Celestina once, then turning and swinging at An once again. An finished casting his heal spell and dodged out of the way, "This has more of an affinity for attacking me than you, it seems," An mentioned as he swung his hammer into the beast's chest. The Harkan staggered back as La Celestina struck at its back with her hammer again. "I noticed," she said with a smile.

The creature yelped as both clerics used bash at the same time -An to the front, and Celestina to the back. There was a crunching sound from both sides of the beast, the Harkan went limp and fell to the ground. "What exactly do you do, Celest?" An asked as he tried to catch his breath. "Pay them to leave you alone?" Celestina laughed a bit and gave him a smirk, "I'll never tell you...you'd use it against me." Another Harkan nearby spotted them and ran over toward them -more specifically, toward An. "And you say Lunar is evil and cohorts with monsters," An said as he brought up his shield. "What can I say, An?" Celestina said with a shrug as she brought up her own hammer, "They like you." She paused a second, then added, "And Lunar IS evil."

The Harkan swung his pole low as An looked back to make a remark, catching An off guard and sending him onto his back. The white furred beast jumped forward, and sent his blunt weapon crashing down on An's chest. With a loud "oof", the air flew out of An; he lay there as the Harkan prepared his next attack -wishing he could move but unable to do so as he was still trying to force himself to breathe. The Harkan swung his dug up fence post down at An's head, trying for a quick kill so it could deal with the other cleric, the post stopped just shy of An's face. The Harkan knew instantly what had happened -this was not the first cleric it had attacked, it looked up, then lunged after Celestina. Celestina raised her shield and deflected the Harkan's attack, swinging with her hammer in response; the hammer yielding a muffled thump as it impacted against the Harkan's tough belly. The Harkan was hurt -but more angered than impeded- it swung in response, again Celestina blocked the attack.

Having gotten his wind back, An got to his feet and looked for Celestina. He found her off to the left about twenty yards -the Harkan driving her back. An moved over slow and quietly -Celestina was not in imminent danger, so no need to lose the element of surprise. The Harkan continued to strike at Celestina, who in turn, continued to dodge, block and counter quite ably. Celestina made a strong blow to the Harkan's side, the Harkan reeled, then raised his weapon high above his head. There was a loud thud, a dim metallic ring and a crunching sound as a large hammer made itself known by impacting the top of the Harkan's head -An had arrived behind the Harkan and had executed a jumping bash strike. The Harkan was silent as it dropped its arm to its side, its wooden post falling unceremoniously to the ground. Wobbling, it turned around to look at An; its arms shook as though it were trying to attack but its arms had stopped listening, then the Harkan joined its make-shift weapon at the feet of the two clerics.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:39 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter VIII: New Beginnings

They rested in their houses for a bit before deciding that was enough for one day, and headed back through the Collapsed Prison area toward the Elderine gate. As they walked, they heard someone shout from behind them, "Go faster! Get a move on! GO, GO, GO!" They turned to see what was going on, a low level mage and fighter whisked by on their hobby horses. They were uncertain as to what had happened, until a huge beast came charging around the corner. Incredibly large and bulging with muscle, this white-furred beast carried no weapons, but it was clear it needed none. Long claws on its arms and legs, and sharp curved fangs in its mouth gave it the appearance of some mutant wolf -and the gray-furred head with large black eyes to accent gave it the aura of something that no one in their right mind would want to mess with.

"Train!" Celestina shouted as the beast rounded the corner, "Move! Move!" The two clerics ran for the side of the road, but it was too late. Having lost track of the fighter and mage -who by this time, were far away from the beast - the King Coll decided to attack the two adventurers it saw in front of them. The Coll charged between the two clerics, knocking An aside. As An fell the beast rotated and swung his clawed hand at Celestina. She raised her shield, the impact knocking her to one side. She used the momentum of her movement to launch a counter-blow to the coll's chest; the hammer slammed against it with a dull thud -and the Coll looked down at her in slight amusement.

Celestina flew through the air and landed on her back as the King Coll backhanded her in response to her attack - she quickly got to her feet and cast heal on herself. The Coll stomped towards Celestina, who raised her shield in front of her and backed away slightly. A hammer suddenly appeared on top of the coll's head -making a dim ringing sound as the metal impacted the coll's thick skull. The Coll stopped upon feeling the impact, and turned to glare at An -who was by now, both amazed by the coll's resilience (he had just used his strongest bash with almost no visible effect) as well as questioning the intelligence of his decision to attack it in the first place. A growl emanated from deep in the coll's throat as An shrank back a bit, knowing there was going to be swift retribution for the headache -however minor- the Coll was undoubtedly suffering now.

The coll's claws glowed a yellowish red and it spun around quickly, lashing out at An. An saw the claws glow, he saw the beast spin toward him, and he saw the sharp talons growing larger as they approached and he raised his shield. The next thing he knew, he felt like he was taking a nap, and heard a girl calling him, "An....An...get up." There was a sharp pain as someone kicked him -and he jolted up from the ground in Elderine's main square. He looked over and saw La Celestina next to him. "Whoa...Celest," he said feeling dizzy, "What happened?" "What do you think happened?" she said pointing to his shield. An looked down and his eyes went wide -half his shield was missing, and his chest armor was shredded.

"The Coll used its special claw attack and tore your shield in two, then raked its claws across your chest twice. You collapsed and teleported to Elderine before it could finish you off," she summarized. "But how'd you get away?" An asked looking at her, "You don't seem hurt at all." She gave him an "oh-you-think-so?" look and turned so he could see the side of her chest armor -there were four very large holes in it. "Stabbed me with its claws, lifted me above its head and threw me in the river," she said turning back, "Fortunately, I was awake enough to heal myself underwater. Once I got out of the river, I made my way back here to heal you." "Oh," An said looking away -that was five times now she'd come to Elderine to heal him after his armor teleported him back, "I see."

They made their way to Karl -Elderine's smith- to get their armor repaired. It didn't take long, but time was not An's complaint. "Twenty five silver," An grumbled as they left, "I just shelled out twenty five silver." "I only had to pay eight," Celestina grinned. An growled to himself. "Oh come on," Celestina said, "I was joking. Besides, you can always ask for a loan if you're short on cash." "For one, I have plenty of money," An started, "Two, you give away so much money and so many items, I never understand how you still manage to have more money than I do." Celestina grinned as An finished, "And three, I know that if I take a loan from you, you will never let me pay you back." "Few people actually have a problem with that," Celestina taunted. "Well I do," An answered, "A loan means you are borrowing the money...if I don't give it back, it either wasn't a loan, or I am basically stealing." "Call it a gift then," she said with a smile. "You know I'd never take that much money as a gift, Celest," he said smiling back.

They made their way to Elderine's park and sat down. "I hate trainers," An said, "They are just plain selfish. So many adventurers die from people that train monsters on them, just because they want to live themselves...it's incredible to think that people like this are actually adventurers to begin with." They sat for a few seconds in silence. "Well, It's not like it's allowed," Celestina began, "I mean, the laws of Isya state that adventurers that train monsters on other adventurers is basically murder -or attempted murder- and any such trainers can be removed from adventurer status and exiled from Isya....the problem is that it's hard to prove when one does it -you can't just go by word of mouth...and there are so many that do it." An nodded as she finished, "And also there's the fact that the names of adventurers are aliases...all an exiled one needs to do is go out for a while, then come back as someone with a different name."

An shook his head and sighed, Celestina leaned back against a tree, "At least there's the curse....it's not much but it is some consolation." "Huh? What curse?" An asked sitting up. "The Exile's Curse built into the adventurer's armor," Celestina stated, "You don't know about it?" An shook his head. "Upon being exiled, The Exile's Curse removes any strength gained by use of enchantment while wearing the armor...in essence, it makes you the same as you were before you ever put the armor on...and upon activation of the curse, the armor destroys itself." "I see," was all he could think to respond with. It made sense, though...otherwise when the exiled ones came back with new names; they'd start off at a high level instead of back at the beginning. An leaned back and they continued their conversation, They sat there for a bit longer before An decided to go visit his brothers -at least he had a new story -and an interesting spell built into the armor- to tell them.

An spent the next few days visiting his brothers, then spent a few more days in the beginner's hunting grounds -he frequented the area now, especially after he got upset at something (like the training adventurers). It was eight days after the loss against the King Coll, and An had just finished giving some alchemy lessons to new adventurers. He bid the small group good luck, and moved over to a hill overlooking a few flower patches. Soft footfalls came from behind him. "Heya, An," came a voice. "You have a knack for finding me, Celest," An chuckled, "Every day for the last three days you've been able to track me down, whether I was in the Sea of Greed, Sand Beach or here...I swear you should have been an archer." Celestina laughed as she sat down, "You're not too difficult to find...I just follow the trail of happy and polite newcomers...they seem to mimic any higher level adventurers they meet early on." "Glad to see I'm having a positive impact," An chuckled.

They sat together for a minute, watching the new adventurers learn to fight. "So done training for today?" An asked. "Well, actually, I came here to show you something," she said with a huge grin. An turned as she stood. She faced An and wove her hammer around her head, a red energy flowed around her, then over to An, surrounding him. He felt weaker, Celestina raised her hammer again and cast a heal spell on him. He felt fine, but his spirit seemed a bit depleted. His eyes widened as he understood what had happened. "Endure," he said quietly. Celestina's grin became even larger, "I finally got it. You're the first person I cast it on -other than myself." "I'm flattered," An said chuckling, "Congratulations, Celest! Man...gotten Endure already...wow you really are far ahead of me." "I knew she was ahead of me," he thought, "but I didn't know she was THAT far ahead." "You'd have it too if you didn't spend so much time in here," she said with a nudge, 'It's a taxing spell....I need to rest often if I cast it a lot...but it is fun."

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:39 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter VIII: New Beginnings

Celestina sat down next to An and they talked together -Celestina "buffing" the newcomers as they walked past. A few of them stopped to say thanks of chat for a bit, then went on their way again -lest the endure buff wear out before they fought anything. They sat there until the afternoon, when one new archer girl in particular arrived.

As she passed by the hill, the two clerics noticed her, and she in turn, noticed them. She walked up to the two clerics as Celestina stood up and waved her hammer over her head. "What just happened?" she asked, "I feel....stronger...but weak." "She buffed you," An said with a grin. "Huh? Buffed?" the archer girl seemed confused. "It means I cast a spell on you," Celestina explained, "Endure is a buff spell; it increases your total capacity for vitality and inner strength. That is why you feel stronger. It does not, though, increase your current vitality or inner strength, so you feel a bit weaker. Most people feel a bit fatigued after Endure is cast on them....it's best to rest for a bit -though many insist on only a quick heal spell or potion before they go out to fight with it." "That was quite the explanation, Celest," An said with a grin. She smiled back, "I had to read the book, remember?"

The archer girl sat down and talked with them for a while. She noticed Celestina getting up and buffing adventurers regularly. "Why's she doing that?" she asked. An laughed as he looked over at the busy cleric, "She just learned that skill, she's having fun using it.....she won't rest until everyone in the Forest of Tides has a buff." Celestina chuckled as she walked back and sat down, "Just about right." Suddenly remembering she had not introduced herself, the archer girl sat up and looked at them, "Oh, I'm Ruby Shadow, by the way." "Nice to meet you, little miss," Celestina said, "I'm La Celestina." Ruby nodded in greeting then looked over at An. "I'm An Ning," he said waving his hand and nodding a bit. "Pleased to meetcha!" the archer girl said with a smile. They continued to talk for a little while longer before Ruby decided she needed to go train -so she could get higher in level and talk to these nice clerics some more. The two clerics bid her farewell, and La Celestina gave her a parting buff. An and Celestina continued to stay there and talk -Celestina buffing any adventurer that wandered by- for the next hour or so, before An decided to call it a day and head home to see his brothers.

Two weeks later, An and Celestina were sitting in Elderine after a grind session in the Collapsed Prison area, when they noticed two familiar characters wandering near: Lunar Aegis and Maldavo. "The evil one! The evil one!" Celestina shouted at his approach. "Hello to you, too, Celestina," Lunar grinned. "Hey Lunar, Hey Maldavo," An said with a wave. "Hey, An," they replied as they sat nearby. They talked for a while about each group's interesting stories while training of late -and Celestina showed them her new buff skill, which they congratulated her on achieving. "So when will you get there, An?" Lunar asked. "Ahdunno," An said shaking his head, "Celest is always so far ahead of me...it will take me a while yet, I guess." "So," Celestina said with a hint of play, "No monsters to consort with or newbies to torment with your minions, Master-of-All-That-is-Evil?" Lunar shook his head and smiled with a chuckle.

An looked over at Celestina, "You know, you keep saying that he is evil." "Not just evil, the MASTER of evil," she corrected him. "Oo-kaaaay," he replied, "The MASTER of evil....but I haven't seen him do anything evil...he's actually been pretty nice around us." "That's his deception," she said with a grin and an accusatory tone, "He IS evil....I'll give you an example: I tried to give him some potions a few days ago, and he refused to take them unless he paid me for them." An's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he looked at her, "How dare he?" "YES!" she shouted, "Exactly! EVIL! He won't let me just give stuff to him like you do." "Umm, actually," An said with a sheepish grin, Celestina looked over as he continued, "Last time you gave me potions, I slipped a few silver in your bag when you weren't looking." Celestina's eyes widened, "You WHAT!? EVIL! You're as evil as HE is!" "I just felt bad taking so much stuff from you all the time, and I knew you'd never let me pay you for them," An said trying to defend himself. "Way wrong answer," Lunar whispered leaning over. "EEEEVIIILLLL!" Lunar laughed as Celestina continued to rant; Maldavo smiled and pulled out a notebook, writing something down. "NOOO!" Celestina shouted, "Not the notebook! He only writes evil things in that notebook!" "You know," An said turning to Lunar as Celestina began running around, "One day you will have to explain to me how this all started." Celestina ran around them in a big loop, "Evil! Evil! Hide before he gets you!" She ran past them and hid behind some nearby bushes as they all laughed.

About fifteen minutes later An was feeling restless, Lunar and Maldavo had already left again for their training, and An wanted to do the same. "I think I'm gonna head back to the Collapsed Prison area," he said, "Wanna join me?" Celestina thought for a moment, "Nah, I'm kinda tired. I think I'm gonna idle here for a while longer, then I'll head in early." "Okay," An said with a wave, "I'll see you later then, Celest." "Alright," she replied returning the wave, "See you later."

An wandered into the Collapsed Prison area and started fighting. After a few Harkans and Weakened Ogres, he took a break on a nearby bridge. As he did so, he overheard some adventurers talking. "Yeah, it's true," said one, "Princess Ai's gonna get married." A wedding? He'd attended weddings before and he rather liked watching them, perhaps he should listen a bit more. "Really, so El Directo's finally gonna marry his princess, eh?" the other laughed, "When's the big event?" "Dunno," the first answered, "Last I heard they were having some trouble setting up a time and place." "Really? Now that's unfortunate," the second said, "but we'll definitely have to go when it is finally decided." Their voices grew faint as they walked farther away, and An was left to himself again.

Princess Ai? This was a name he'd heard before. El Directo he was not familiar with, but he had seen Princess Ai a few times in the Collapsed Prison area...perhaps next time he saw her he should talk to her and see if she wouldn't mind one more wedding crasher.

It took him about two hours of searching, but he did manage to find her in the area. He'd been walking toward the exit -he had, in fact, been readying to go home and abandon his search for the day- when he heard a girl talking. "Well that was easy," said the first girl. "Well it WAS just a Harkan, Princess," the other replied. Princess? An looked up, there were two clerics in front of him, one he didn't know, and the other appeared to be Princess Ai. "Odd," he thought as he walked over, "I don't see this El Directo guy." He walked over to the two clerics who turned to face him as they saw him approach. "Hello," he said with a wave. "Hello," they replied returning the gesture. "Better to play it safe," he thought to himself -he had mistaken people in the past, and it was always embarrassing. "I'm An Ning," he said with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Ning. I'm Princess Ai. And this," she said motioning to her partner, "Is Terrific." "Pleasure," she said with another wave.

Princess Ai proved to be another nice person to talk to -so did Terrific, for that matter. It turned out that El Directo was a very strong fighter -he trained in the areas near Uruga, and that's why he'd never seen him before (and why he didn't see him here with Princess Ai; she was still training near Elderine). They talked for almost fifteen minutes before Terrific started reminding her friend that they had to meet someone -and An remembered why he'd sought her out. "Before you go," An said smiling, "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind having one more person at your wedding when you have it." Princess Ai smiled at his comment, "No, by all means come and join us. I'll let you know where and when as soon as we find out." He thanked them and said bye as they headed out to meet their friend.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:40 AM

Book 1, An Ning's Story
Chapter IX: Guild Trouble

The archer ran away from the red creature, which, despite the arrows in its chest, continued to chase after her quite nimbly while swinging its two swords. The archer girl spun, raising her bow and quickly began drawing back an arrow. It was too late, the Orc's dual swords swung down, reading to slice the small girl into three pieces, before striking a barrier cast by An. "Steel! Now!" he shouted. Raining Steel wasted no time, she finished her draw -the arrow's tip almost against the leading edge of the bow. The Orc threw his blades in front of his face to block as she said a quick chant and concentrated, then she released the arrow. The arrow soared through the small space between the opponents with such force that not even the steel of the Orc’s blades could hold it back. The projectile smashed through both swords and into -then out of- the Orc’s head before lodging halfway up its shaft in a tree some fifty yards away.

The Orc was dead before its body realized it. Blood dripping from the back of the hole in its head and the eye socket in front which Steel had just hollowed out, the Orc took two lumbering steps to the left, swinging its blades at an enemy no one else saw before falling to the ground. "There goes another one," An said with a grin. "Only eighteen hundred more to go," the archer replied with a sigh, "these licenses take forever to fill." "At least it's not two thousand like it was earlier today," An said trying to cheer her up, "It's progress." "Well, you are right about that," she smiled back.

"Hey!" An said suddenly pointing down the path, "there's another one! Man, these guys really infest Uruga, don't they?" "Well, the Orc armies have been laying siege to Uruga time and again for years now...they’re always sending skirmishers out to keep us on our toes when they aren't sending in armies," she replied. "Same plan as last time?" An asked looking at the bare chested fiend. "Actually," Steel said, "I think I'm done for the day." "Oh, I see," An said feeling a bit sad -he'd enjoyed duoing with her for the day, "well then, let's head back to town, eh?"

It had been some weeks since his meeting with Princess Ai. She'd had her wedding -here in Uruga, in fact. An had enjoyed his visit to the area so much, he decided to make it his main training area -the Orcs were more fun to fight than Harkans and Colls. Celestina, unfortunately, did not enjoy the fighting as much as An did, and opted to stay back in the Collapsed Prison area near Elderine instead of duoing with him; and so An was frequently soloing and trying to find a nice person to duo with. He'd run into Princess Ai a number of times in here, as well as his new friend, Doctor Poison (an odd name for a cleric, which was something Poison loved about it); and was frequently able to talk to them -though as they were stronger than him, he could not party with them. He still frequented Elderine and his friend, Celestina -she was always up for talking and relaxing; whereas Princess Ai and Poison, while chatty as they were, usually liked to chat while fighting all day (though there were times where he'd caught them doing nothing but talking with friends, it wasn't as often as he was used to). An had been getting a lot stronger these last few weeks as well, he had attained the ability to use the Endure buff about five days prior.

As the duo made their way to the gates of the fortress-town Uruga, Raining Steel turned toward him, "You know, you're a fairly decent cleric," she started. "Why thank you, I aim to please," An said grinning. She laughed at his comment, "You have a guild yet? We could use you in ours." "No, I don't have a guild yet," An said with a straight face, "My goal is to get to where I can use the next hammer and shield before I accept an invite from a guild." "I see," Steel answered as they passed by the guards, "Well speaking of guilds, I have to go see some of my guild-mates....but when you get to that point where you can join a guild, give me a holler and I can ask for you to be let in. We are a nice guild, more like a family than loose-knit strangers like some other guilds," "I'll keep that in mind," An answered with a smile.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a green scroll, breaking the seal. The archer girl vanished in rings of bright light, leaving An to himself again. "That's another guild invite," he thought to himself. "Man I have been getting tons of those lately. Madeleina last week, Foxy Brown yesterday, Steel today...they are nice enough people," he continued walking down the Uruga main street -a big open circular road with a large red gem held on an enormous pedestal in the center. "and Ruby Shadow," he said softly to himself, "she has been bugging me forever to join her guild." He stopped as he thought about that, "Appropriate her guild is named Forever," he chuckled, "that's how long she'll chase you if she wants you to join."

He kept walking, not thinking of where he was walking to, just thinking to himself some more about the guild situation, "Then there's Ita Kagome...she's very nice as well, I'm sure her guild would have nice people -kind of like her- in it. But if I choose her guild, then Ruby will be angry, if I choose Ruby's guild then Ita might be upset... and if I choose Foxy's or Steel's then Ita and Ruby will be sad..." "Rrraaarrgg!" he growled to himself, "Stop it, just stop it!" He looked around, noticing for the first time where he had wandered: he was in front of the bridge that led to Collapsed Prison and Elderine. "I need to clear my head," he said to himself, "I'll go to Elderine and relax for a bit."

An buffed himself and used a defense scroll before resting on the bridge -he knew what kinds of enemies frequented the area near the Uruga gate in Collapsed Prison; and he knew it would not be easy to return to the sanctity of the parks. Having finished his rest, he stepped forward off of the bridge, walking silently toward the Collapsed Prison gate. There was a cooing sound nearby, and An froze. He recognized that sound: Archon Juniors. The cooing sound came again, this time accompanied by rustling in some nearby bushes; An stole quietly backwards, hoping to hide in some bushes behind himself. He slowly crept into them and concealed himself, just as the large bird walked out of the bushes and into the clearing in front of him.

The bird looked around for a bit, as though searching for food, then began pacing around. An waited in the bush for five minutes before the bird went back into the bushes it had come out of. An smiled and crept through his bushes quietly, then yelled briefly as he tripped over something he hadn't seen -he had been watching for the archon in the bushes across the clearing to see if it would come back. As he fell to the ground with a thump, the sleeping archon he tripped over shot to its feet with a warbling cry. An crawled backwards on his hands and feet to get out of the bushes making a lot of noise as the startled Archon Junior trumpeted in alarm. An stood and started to run, as the first archon rushed out of the bushes in front of him.

The archon pecked time and again with its sharp beak -its strong neck muscles belying its young age. An swung with his hammer, knocking the bird's head back, but not hurting it severely; there was a trumpeting call from behind him, and An turned to see the second Archon Junior bolting forward. The two birds pecked at him ferociously -An had so much trouble keeping up with blocking the sharp bony beaks that he rarely had time to counter. One of the birds hopped to the side, then bolted past An, trying to get around him to attack from his vulnerable side -but this was just the opportunity he needed. Knowing it would end up causing him some pain as well, An swung up and in with his hammer at the archon in front of him. The agile creature easily dodged the attack, but that was fine, as that particular bird was not his target. An rotated with the motion of the hammer -counter to that of the running Archon junior, and brought his hammer down flat against the head of the second archon.

The archon had been running so fast that there was no chance for it to dodge the attack, the hammer connected, pushing its head down and compressing its relatively delicate vertebrae, causing one or more to pop out of place and sever the spinal chord. The bird trumpeted in alarm again as the hammer hit, then fell silently to the ground. There was a sudden and great pain in his back as a sharp beak pierced his armor and dug into his flesh -the other archon had not wasted his opportunity either. An swung around, knocking the archon's head back with his shield as he staggered backwards. He cast a barrier, the yellow bird running forward, as it did not understand the significance of the cleric's movements or words. The archon pecked again and again fruitlessly as An's barrier held it back, An casting a high level heal spell to recover from the hole where his kidney should be.

After An recovered, the bird attacked again. It quickly shot forward, its beak striking the barrier. There was a waver of air as his ethereal shield gave out, and the archon's beak continued in. The shield failing mid-attack was a surprise to An, who was unable to block in time. Fortunately for him, the bird did not have the distance or force needed to break through his armor again. The bird's beak struck his chest armor over his stomach, and scratched the surface. An reacted quickly, reaching out and around with his shield arm he trapped the bird's head against his chest and squeezed. The Archon Junior's muscles were very forceful when pushing forward, but weaker when pulling back -the archon could not break free as An closed off its airway.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:40 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter IX: Guild Trouble

The bird flailed and threw feathers in the air as it bit at An's hands and chest, and kicked its taloned feet giving An a series of very painful -but nonfatal- scratches along joints in his leg armor. The bird's attempts to free itself from An's grasp slowed, becoming less forceful, then stopped altogether. An held his choke hold for another ten count -just to be certain, before dropping the beast's body to the ground and casting heal on himself.

An used a stone to recover his spirit, then made his way down the path to the gate to Collapsed Prison. He was startled when he reached the portal only to find a green winged figure with red hair and a bright yellow trident standing behind it.

Wordlessly, the Mini Pixie charged quietly across the ground upon spotting An. It hefted its trident and trust forward, An deflecting it with his shield. The creature yanked its weapon back -the backwards pointing hooks on the edges catching An's shield and tearing it from his arm. An charged in and swung, the pixie dodging in turn. The green enemy swung its sharp triple bladed weapon around itself, the blades scraping against An's chest armor as he jumped back. He charged in and swung down, narrowly missing the pixie as it shuffled back, and took a painful hit to the side as the pixie countered and buried the hooks on the back of his trident in An's side.

The pixie yanked him around like a fisherman with a hooked fish, each yank pulling and tearing at the flesh of his side and knocking him off balance. The pixie yanked back, then thrust forward, pulling the hooks from An's body; then brought his trident up and around, readying for a battle-ending thrust to the abdomen. An brought his hammer up and forward, crushing the pixie's front hand against the trident. The trident sailed skyward as the pixie released its grip on the weapon, instinctively grasping at its hurt hand. An brought his hammer up and back -ignoring the screaming pain in his side- and stepped in, bringing his hammer down on the pixie's head. The pixie was resilient and did not die, but it was knocked unconscious by the blow. The pixie lay at his feet, unmoving but breathing, as An healed himself. He looked down at the foe, who started to stir...he brought his hammer up and slammed it down once more, ending this fight -and any future fights which that particular pixie may have been hoping for.

A weary An Ning made his way to the portal entrance to Collapsed Prison, again using a charge from his blue soul stone to recover his inner strength. "Finally made it," he said to himself as he stepped up to the portal. He stepped into the swirling pink energy, and stepped out into a dark area in the back of Collapsed Prison. "Outta my way! Watch it!" came a yell from in front of him. An looked forward just as the fighter on a hobby horse ran into him, knocking him to the ground and knocking the fighter off his hobby horse. The fighter did not get back on, he simply continued forward. "Hey!" An shouted as the fighter bolted toward the portal, "What was that..." his voice trailed off as he felt tremors behind him. He turned around and saw two very large, very angry tree beasts walking toward him. Dead Tree Souls. "For," he finished dejectedly.

He had just finished two very tough battles, and stepped out into the center of a train. "Later, loser," said the fighter as he disappeared through the portal. The Dead Tree Souls, which had just missed their prey, were more than happy to focus now on the cleric in front of them. They lumbered toward him as he raised his shield and hammer -which was not so effective against two feet of solid wood. He sighed and shook his head as they closed in....it was going to be a long walk back to Elderine...again.

An listened to the wind in the tree branches overhead as he stared into the pond in front of him. He liked it in this small park; in his view, it was the most peaceful spot in Elderine -others thought so as well, he had seen weddings being performed in this park. He leaned back and listened, he heard light footfalls approaching him. "You have a knack for finding me," he smiled as the purple-haired cleric walked over to him. "I would have found you sooner, but I was talking to a guildie," La Celestina said waving hello. "Ah, so Celest is in a guild now? Didn't see that coming," An chuckled. "I got tired of getting bugged about it," she replied taking a seat next to him in the shade, "Besides, this guild is kinda fun...nice people to talk to, always willing to help with a grind, and very friendly guild mates." to emphasize this last bit she pulled out a new hammer.

It was an incredible sight: a rare weapon which could increase her strength and spirit; and someone had the luck and ability to refine it to a high level as well -something easy to tell as energy crackled around the blunt sides of the hammer radiating an orange glow of power. "Free," she smiled, "a gift just for joining, and I keep it even if I don't stay." "Nice guild," An chuckled. "So when are you gonna get a guild?" she pressed him. "I don't know," An said, leaning forward a bit as he thought, "I'm not even sure which guild I would want to join....I mean...I have a lot of friends who have invited me into their own guild....I kinda feel like if I choose one, then I'm choosing one friend over another -it makes me feel bad." An leaned back against the tree, "Besides, I made one of my goals to get to the fourth level of hammers and shields before joining a guild...so I have a while to wait." La Celestina laughed again, "Same old An," she said with a smile. "I keep meaning to change," An said smiling back, "but I am just too lazy." An put his hands behind him and shut his eyes to relax.

"Niiiii-iiiing!" An's eyes snapped open, "It can't be..." he said looking around. "Nii-iiiing where are you?" the female voice called again -closer this time. "Crud!" An said as he looked for a place to hide. "I know you're here, Ning! Come out, come out, wherever you are!" came the voice through the trees. There was a bunch of rustling and cracking as the girl made her way over in An's general direction. "She's quite loud and cumbersome for an archer, isn't she?" Celestina said with a grin. "Sssshh!" An whispered, "She'll find me if we talk." "You mean you're trying to avoid her?" she asked innocently. "Of course I am!" An said, instantly slapping a hand over his mouth as he did so. He glared at his friend, who chuckled in response. "Aha! Heard you, Ning!" the voice said loudly. The footsteps and rustling came closer.

An silently stole into a nearby bush, just as the pony-tailed archer girl came through the bushes where he'd been sitting. "Hello there, little miss," Celestina greeted the girl. "Hiya," she waved back, "Where'd Ning go?" "Dunno," La Celestina shrugged, "he ran off only a few seconds before you showed up. "Aaaaw, darn!" the archer girl stomped the ground, then turned and started searching again, "Ning! I know you're here somewhere...speak up!" "Yeah right, Ruby," An thought to himself, "I know what you want, I am not gonna let you find me." Ruby Shadow looked around, then turned back towards Celestina, "You sure you don't know where Anne went?" she asked. "IT'S AN!" he shouted before he could stop himself. "HA!" she said spinning around, "I knew you were still here!" "That was stupid of me," he chastised himself.

"An! Join my guild!" Ruby Shadow said, jumping up and down excitedly. "No," An said as he got out of his hiding place. "Why not?" she asked, folding her arms. "You know why," An replied, "same reason as the last fifty times you asked that question." "I'm not good at waiting," she said with a smile, "Join my guild!!" "No!" "Join my guild!!" "No!" "Join my guild!!" "No!" "Join my guild!!" "No!" this time as An said it he ran away. Ruby followed, "Join my guild!" "No!" An summoned his hobby horse and raced away. "Hey! No fair!" Ruby pouted, summoning her own hobby and chasing after him. Their voices trailed off in the distance, but for a few more seconds La Celestina could still hear their simple conversation as they quickly rode away, "Join my guild!!" "No!" "Join my guild!!" "No!" La Celestina laughed to herself as she sat in the shade of the tree, "Same old An...Always interesting when he's around."

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:41 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter X: An's Return Home, A New Mage in Isya

He had taken to wandering in the woods quite often these days. The twins were wanting to do more of the cooking and cleaning along with their hunting and foraging -and what was annoying was they were better at it than he was. This left him a lot of free time to read...but he'd already read all of the books they had -he had, in fact, memorized most of them, so reading was no longer as interesting as it used to be. He was feeling restless. He wanted to get out and DO something -so he usually went for long walks in the woods. Today was no exception to that norm...at least it didn't start out like one.

He had been wandering for about an hour and a half -after a few weeks of wandering day after day, you got good at telling how long you had been wandering without needing any sort of a clock. He thought about his brothers: about the twins and how lucky they were to be so strong and capable; about An and how fortunate he was to be an adventurer and have such an exciting lifestyle. While thinking thus, he walked right past the girl on the side of the path without even noticing her.

"Lost in thought again?" The voice startled him, he shot up and spun around, raising the walking stick he brought with him to defend himself. The girl laughed, "Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you." He believed her for some reason, and lowered his staff to his side. "Who are you?" he asked as he looked at her. She had brown eyes and dark hair about shoulder length done up in a ponytail, held with a yellow bow; a white cap sat upright on the center of her head and a yellow clip held her hair in place in front. She looked ordinary enough -dressed in a commoner's outfit instead of those of an adventurer- and except for a large gem which she wore around her neck, he would have thought her nothing more than a common girl...but something was different about her.

"Well I'm certainly no adventurer, if that's what you are thinking," she answered with a chuckle, "I've seen you out here the last few days, you always look like you are thinking about something; or looking for something." He nodded his head, "I am thinking." "About what?" she asked. Normally he wouldn't have talked so openly with someone he didn't know, but with her...it felt like she already knew. "My brothers," he answered, "I feel like I am not needed at home." "Ah," she said looking at him, "They don't want you around?" "No, no! It's not like that at all!" he said shaking his head, "They are able to take care of themselves, so there is little for me to do...except read and wait for my other brother to come back." "Ah, you are An Ning's brother, right?" she replied.

This caught him off-guard. "Umm, yeah, I am," he answered, "How did you know? Is he really that famous?" She giggled a bit, "No, not that famous. But I do know a little bit about him. For example: I know he has three brothers, two of whom are twins. and I know he goes back to visit them often." "Ah," he answered as she spoke, "So that's how you knew. I said I had two brothers and I was waiting for a third to come back." She laughed again at his response.

"So you feel bored, like there's nothing for you to do at home?" she asked changing the subject. He nodded, "Yeah, kinda. Nothing to do but read, walk, think and wait for my brother to get back." he thought about An, and sighed. The girl caught this and looked at him, "You're jealous of him, aren't you?" "Huh?" he looked back at her. "An," she answered, "You're jealous of him being an adventurer while you sit here with nothing to do." He thought for a moment, then nodded his head. "Yeah, I am a bit jealous. I mean, he is just so lucky that he got to be an adventurer....His life is so exciting..and...and...and why are you laughing!?" he demanded as the girl laughed at his comment. She waved her hand as she tried to stop, "I'm sorry," she began, "but the way An became an adventurer is not something he would have called "lucky" at the time." He tilted his head to the side, not quite understanding. She smiled and continued, "I mean, after all...that crab DID kill him...and even though he was revived, he still had to go through a lot of pain before he decided to become an adventurer."

"How did you know about that?" he asked, "I've talked to a few people in Rumen," she answered with a smile, "Not many adventurers have a start like that. It tends to be something they like to talk about." "Well when you put it that way," he admitted, "I guess he wasn't all that lucky on that particular day...or a few months ago either, for that matter." "Losing friends is always painful," she said with a bit of a frown. He looked up, "How did you...ah forget it." She smiled again, "So if you feel so bored here, and you want your life to be more exciting like An's, why don't you become an adventurer yourself?"

He laughed at her suggestion, "Yeah right! I don't have the strength to be an adventurer like him! I mean, look at me! I'm skin and bones, I'm paper even compared to my younger brothers! Me becoming an adventurer would be a waste of armor and a sword!" She looked back at him, "There's more than just fighters, you know." "Yeah, but a cleric needs more strength than I have," he replied, "and while archers may not need the vitality of fighters or clerics, I will -as you have seen- walk right past a person three feet away from me in the forest without noticing; also I have no skill with a bow, so I can't be an archer." She looked at him again, “There is a class you don't mention. One which does not require great strength of muscle or vitality, but strength of mind." She pointed down, at the item in his hand. "The mages," he answered, looking at his walking staff. "I think you have what it takes to be a very strong mage," she said looking at him.

He thought for a moment. Being a mage, being an adventurer. Was it actually possible? Could he do it? She was right, after all, the mages didn't need strength, and he was able to concentrate well -he could memorize whole books reading them only two or three times. It might be possible for him to.... "No," he said shaking his head, "No I can't. I can't be a mage. I can't be an adventurer. It's just not something I can do." Why not?" she said looking into his eyes, "You have nothing to do at home, you just wander in the woods all day and wait for meals or for your brother to get back. Why not give it a try and see? Remember, even your brother, after donning the adventurer’s armor, said he might not stay an adventurer. He said if he felt he couldn't do it, he would return home. There is nothing that keeps you from going back."

He didn't even bother to ask how she knew a comment that he made only to his brothers after his first day as an adventurer -after meeting so many unkind people and before he learned how to heal. He sat and thought about her words...she was right, yet again...he could just give it a try and see if he fit in amongst them. If he decided he did not, he could always go back home. He shook his head to clear his mind of such foolish thoughts, "No, I can't. I couldn't do it, I just...I just can't." "I see," she said shaking her head, "That's too bad. You would make a good mage." she turned around and walked away a few steps as he just stood there looking at the ground. She stopped, turned and walked back toward him. He wondered what she was about to do. She walked up to him, then past him and over to one side of the path. "However, should you change your mind," she said reaching out toward the vines that draped the side of the path, "Rumen is right here." She grabbed a handful of vine stems and pulled them to the side, unveiling a view of Rumen from about a thousand yards away. She stepped through the vines and looked back at him with a smile before she turned to walk away and let go of the vines which continued to swing back and forth, blocking and unblocking the view or Rumen -in the same way his thoughts would create a reason not to pass through the vines followed by a reason which countered it.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:41 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter X: An's Return Home, A New Mage in Isya

That same day in another part of Isya, An stood and reluctantly gave someone his shield. He sweated profusely as the fighter placed his shield on the table. "Relaxed," the fighter said, "I'm good at this; that's why I get paid to do it, remember?" An nodded -the fighter was right, it was his job, so he had to be good at refining, but still...there was always a chance in refining items... "You have the Xir?" the fighter asked looking over at him. An nodded and reached into his bag, pulling out a tier two Xir. The fighter took it and put it on top of his shield, placing his hands on the table around it. He shut his eyes as the shield and Xir glowed.

It was delicate work, refining. Each smith had tables with enchantments in them that adventurers could use to try to refine a weapon or armor's normal enchantments to a higher level -making them more powerful. The adventurer needed to lay the item to be refined on top of the table, along with the stone needed to refine the item. The adventurer then places his hands on the table, allowing the table's enchantment to show the process of the refinement in their mind. The stones, called Elrue, Lix, and Xir, contained special energies which could be released into the item and empower the item's enchantment. The problem with refining was synchronization: an enchantment's energy was always fluctuating, and the energy of any item had to be synchronized with that of a stone for refining to be successful.

If the energy of the stone was released at the right time, the energy of the stone and the enchantment would flow together as one larger energy -similar to one ocean wave that overtakes another becoming larger. If the energy of the stone was released at the wrong time, though, it would collide with the energy of the enchantment instead of flowing with it. This could result in only loss of hair -sometimes you lucked out and the collision was not enough to have a negative effect, a slight loss of energy -basically losing a previous refining attempt, or the item's enchantment losing control of its energy.

The last of those was the one any adventurer feared in refining. If an item's energy went out of control, the enchantment released the energy. The resulting sudden outflow of energy would destroy the item. The higher you refined your item, the greater the empowerment became; however, the higher you wanted the item to be refined, the more energy the stone needed -and the greater the chance of a failed attempt causing a runaway energy that destroyed your item. Elrue carried the least amount of energy of the three stones, and released its energy over a longer time period, so it was fairly forgiving in failures -and easier to synchronize, so it was easier to refine with it. Lix, which was needed after a certain point in refining, carried basically the power of three Elrues and released the energy a bit faster -so the refiner had to know what they were doing and have good reaction speed. Lix raised the energy levels higher than Elrue could, but was harder to be successful with, and easier to lose the item with as well. Xir, which the fighter was now trying to use on his winged shield, carried the power of more than three Lix, and released all its energy in one massive pulse. People that refined with Xir were not good or lucky...they had to be both.

The fighter kept his eyes shut as he concentrated, the stone and An's shield glowing brightly -An could see the wings on his shield pulsing as the energy it contained pulsed through it -a failure at this point would most likely destroy his shield. The fighter leaned forward suddenly and shouted a command. The Xir disintegrated and the shield glowed a brilliant yellow as the energy of the Xir entered. There was a bright flash -An shut his eyes, he didn't want to look and see if his shield was still there or not. "Hey," came the voice of the fighter, "Yo! Cleric! If you don't pay me, I'm taking the shield as payment!" An opened his eyes...and couldn't believe what he saw. his shield glowed a vibrant purple -as though it had become a rare gem. The glow pulsed, becoming more and less bright as the newfound energy flowed through it. This was the highest amount an item could be refined: the ninth level.

"Five hundred silver for refining from the eighth to the ninth level," the fighter said extending his hand. An was speechless as he handed over the silver and took his shield. The fighter grinned at An's expression, "I know...I get that effect a lot when I refine. If you see me after you find your voice you can thank me." He turned around and walked away as An held the shield in front of him. "So this is a plus nine," An said to himself after regaining the ability to speak, "Incredible." This was the same refinement level that Leranna'd had on her sword when she went to fight Skeleton Knight. Her sword hit with energy, then blade, then a wake of energy tore through the cut made by the previous two strikes -similar to wiggling the blade as it cut -only without needing the greater force doing so would require- to do massive amounts of damage. For his shield, though, he had layers of energy swirling around its surface, which would absorb or redirect the energy of an attack -even that of another refined item.

"Too bad I'm not keeping it for myself," he thought slightly depressed. He turned toward the crowded streets of Elderine, "five hundred silver was quite a loss, but my shield raises a person's vitality, inner strength and physical strength...and at plus nine, it will fetch quite a good price. With the five hundred I have left over, the amount I get for this shield should be enough for me to buy a highly refined shield for the next level up." He grinned at this thought. It had taken him quite some time, but he had finally done it; he was able to use the fourth level of hammers. He opened his mouth and breathed in deep, then as loud as he could make it, his voice joined the shouts of Elderine's market areas, "Selling green level forty plus nine cleric shield for one point seven five gold! Come see me by the smith!"

Selling such a shield, even at a price as high as one gold seven hundred fifty silver (which to most clerics of that level was quite a lot), did not take long -especially once he mentioned what the green enchantments did. His problem came in finding a new shield so he could start training again...no one, it seemed, was selling a cleric shield he could use. He stayed in Elderine's marketplace all day to no avail.

That evening, he gave up his search for the day and went to relax in the park. "Figured I'd find you here," came a voice from behind him. An shook his head and laughed, "You are good at finding me, Celest." "You don't have many hiding places, An," she said taking a seat next to him, "So where have you been today?" "Well, I paid five hundred silver to get my shield up to plus nine," he said. Her eyes widened, "You what? Did it work?" He nodded, "Oh yeah, it worked. The shield was incredible. It glowed bright purple like a gem." "Was?" Celestina asked. "I sold it," he answered, "for a little less than two gold so I could buy the next level shield like you've got." "Ah," she said with a nod, "makes sense, I guess...not something I'd do, trusting a stranger with my good items, but I'm glad it worked." "Well, to be honest, it hasn't," he answered, "No one's selling a shield for my level, so now I can't even train."

Celestina laughed, "I guess I lucked out then, I got my shield from my guild for free." An narrowed his eyes, "Yeah, sure...rub it in," he said sarcastically. "Tell you what, An," she said as he leaned back, "I'm almost done with my shield, so when I get my next one, I'll sell mine to you." "You're WHAT!?" he shouted. "Almost at the next level of shield," she repeated with a grin, "My guildies are always asking me to join them in training sessions, so I've gotten very strong very fast." An shook his head, "Man....everyone is just leaving me in the dust these days." "You could join a guild, you know," she answered. "Maybe I will," he said, "but I can't focus so much on being strong...I did that before and I did not like the results."

They sat in silence for a bit before Celestina returned to the original subject, "So when I'm done, I'll sell my shield to you, okay?" An looked at her, "By "sell" do you mean, "give", or do you actually mean "sell"? Because I'm not taking your green shield for free." She shook her head, "You are impossible...fine...I mean "sell"." "So I give you money, you give me the item?" He asked. Celestina nodded. He looked at her, "And a reasonable price, right? Nothing incredibly low like one silver, right? Like, actual market value of your shield?" "You know," she stated, "Not many people negotiate UP from the bottom price." "You're avoiding my question," he replied. "All right, fine," she said raising her hands in surrender, "Market value." An smiled, "Thanks, Celest." She smiled and shook her head, muttering something under her breath -An thought he heard the word "evil".

They sat in the park and talked for the rest of the afternoon before Celestina decided she had to leave. An said goodbye to his friend and sat for a few minutes alone before deciding he should probably be moving on himself. Without a shield, he could not train effectively. He thought about what he could do while waiting for his chance to buy Celestina's shield. He could always go to the newbie areas and help out some new adventurers in the day. For right now, though, he decided he'd go home to visit his brothers.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:42 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter X: An's Return Home, A New Mage in Isya

As he walked through the woods on his way home, An came across his brother -who seemed to be on his own way home after a bit of a walk. "Big Brother!" he shouted cheerfully. The other spun around, his eyes widening as he smiled, "Biggest- I mean, An!" he waved back. An ran over to him, embracing his brother. "What are you doing out here?" he asked as they started walking home together. "Walking," his brother replied, "I go for walks in the woods a lot these days." He looked over at his brother, "What about the twins?" His brother made a dismissive wave with his hand, "Ah, they don't need me around so much these days...they do everything themselves, even cook." "Really?" An asked, "How long have they been wanting to do that?" "They've grown up a lot since you left to become an adventurer, An, they aren’t kids anymore," his brother replied, "You may not have noticed it much, as you only visit for a few hours before leaving again; but they really have learned to take care of themselves over the last year."

Their conversation was interrupted by shouts of battle and the loud clacking of wood hitting against wood. "What is that?" An asked looking around. His brother smiled and motioned for An to keep quiet as he stole over toward some bushes and waved for An to come over as well. An moved quietly next to his brother, who pointed between the bushes. An peered through and saw the twins fighting each other with their wooden swords. Despite being twins, they were easily distinguishable; if you looked at their faces alone, it was impossible to tell who was who, but the eldest had blue hair and liked letting it stay messy; whereas the youngest had green hair, always kept neat -similar to An's style (though An's hair was blue). "They've been training together like this every day for some time now," his brother said quietly, "They've gotten quite good as well. Keep watching."

Their fighting styles were as different as their hair color. The youngest made a large swing which the eldest dodged by ducking low and spinning while bending backwards. As the wooden blade passed over him he reached above his head with his own sword and stuck the tip into his brother's shoulder. The younger of the brothers yelled and retracted his arm, kicking his brother and knocking him forward. "Wow," An whispered. "What, you're surprised?" his brother asked, "They are both strong for their age, but the elder was always the more precise with his attacks." The fight continued, the younger twin whirled after kicking his brother and brought his sword spinning toward his brother's ribs. His brother brought his sword over and pointed the tip down to parry the attack, a loud wooden crack sounding as the swords collided with great force. The elder went on the offensive again, feinting high, then striking his green-haired sibling in the fleshy joints of both shoulders and a hip.

"He's quite impressive," An said softly, "They both are, but Little Brother is especially good." "He is," his brother said with a light chuckle, "It always starts out like this; but he has yet to win once in these matches." An looked over as though to ask him to explain, but his brother simply pointed back between the bushes. An looked through and he saw the younger twin stagger back with a shout from the last onslaught; then as his older twin closed in for another attack, he swung his blade up and knocked his brother's hand -and sword away. "Little Brother may be very precise," his brother began, "But he has never been able to hurt Littlest Brother enough to cause him to stop fighting." He laughed a little, "Remember how he fell out of a tree that one day when he was four? When we saw him hit the ground, you and I were terrified that he’d hurt himself…then he shot to his feet smiling and asked to do it again. Give him a club and shield, and I'll show you the world's smallest fortress." The younger twin spun quickly as his older twin turned to retrieve his sword, he swung out and caught his brother on the shin just below the knee, sending him to the ground. He stepped over and raised his sword, then brought it down, stopping just above the older twin's neck.

They sat there for a minute, each panting to catch their breath. The older smiled from the ground, then pushed his brother's sword to one side, "Dang, you won again.” The younger smiled back, "Yeah, but you are doing much better these days, you almost had me." He reached down to help his brother up, his brother then retrieved his sword. Elder brother stood from their hiding place. "That was very good, you guys," he said with a grin. They turned to look and smiled at seeing him standing there. "Thanks, Big Brother," they said echoing a bit. An stood up as well with a wide smile, "Indeed it was. I didn't know you two had gotten so good at swordplay." "An!" they shouted in unison. They ran over to meet their brother.

They talked for a few minutes before one of the twins suggested going inside to start making dinner. An and the twins wandered inside together, but the older brother stayed outside for a moment looking up at the sky, wondering which of two things he would tell his brothers that night. He looked down and pulled at his shirt, stretching it forward and looking at the mage's white adventurer gear he wore underneath his clothes. "Big brother are you coming?" shouted one of the twins from the door. "Yes, I'll be right there," he shouted back. He walked inside having made up his mind as to what he would be saying that night.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:43 AM

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter X: An's Return Home, A New Mage in Isya

They had finished dinner, and the twins were talking to An and asking him questions about everything he'd done since the last time he'd been home -and marveling at the two gold coins that An was carrying with him, each one worth one thousand silver pieces. An looked over at his younger brother, who was staring at the floor. "Big Brother," he began, "Is something wrong?" He looked up, wondering how long he'd been staring like that, "No, An," he answered, "Why would you think that?" An looked at his brother, "You have been very quiet this evening," he replied, "And you have been staring at the ground quite often." He paused for a moment, the twins both stopped what they were doing and looked at their brother as well before An continued, "Something is on your mind, brother. What is it?"

He took a deep breath and looked at his brothers, then told them of his encounter with the brown haired mystery girl earlier that day. His brothers listened with great interest, and as he finished his story about the girl, he took another breath. "I thought about everything she said, and she was right," he continued, "the twins are able to care for themselves -they've always been able to defend themselves, but now they can cook and clean for themselves as well. I have nothing to do." His brothers remained silent, so he pushed on, "I thought for a long time about it and I did not make my decision as to what I would tell you guys until just this evening. I was waiting for an opportunity to tell you, and I was also a bit nervous as to what you guys would think about what I wanted to say."

He paused, and An looked at him, "Well, what did you want to tell us? What was your decision?" He stood and took off his shirt, unveiling the adventurer gear underneath, "I went and saw Remi, and registered with her as a mage." His brothers were silent for a bit as they looked at their brother wearing the white mage armor, then An looked up again, "So what name did you register under?" "A mage is able to unleash great power over time to cut down all enemies in his path, similar to how a river is able to cut through whole mountains," he began, "Mages are also able to unleash sudden torrents of destruction to swiftly destroy an enemy; much the same as a flooding river can sweep clear entire forests in moments." He paused and looked at his brothers, "So I chose the name "He Liu", or "Flowing River", to show what I aspire to be like as a mage."

He waited for the shouts, the anger, the questions and sadness to come; the quiet slowly making him wish he'd lied and told them nothing. Then his brothers erupted in shouts and smiles, patting him on the back and congratulating him, trying out his new name. His brothers asked him dozens of questions, which he HAD to answer. Then the twins started asking again and again for him to show them the spell he learned. Reluctantly, he agreed.

They moved outside and circled around him. He grasped his staff in one hand, his other hand at his side. He shut his eyes and concentrated, moving his arms back, feeling energy flow through his body, down his arm, into his staff and toward the focusing gem embedded in the wood. The energy pooled there, quickly filling the gem, wanting to rush to the next area -He Liu held it back with his mind as he continued the movement. The gem glowed a bright white as the energy continued to flow into it; he shot his hands forward and pointed his staff up, allowing the energy to flow forward from his staff. Less than a second after he shut his eyes, the white bolt of energy crackled to life and flew skyward from the tip of his weapon. His brothers shouted and cheered, Liu lit up the night sky five more times before they were satisfied enough to move back inside.

The feeling inside the small house was much the same as it was the night An had decided to become an adventurer himself, the brothers were just as excited, if not more so. They hollered and cheered, both to Liu and An, both brothers reminded by the twins to come back and share their stories with them.

Unbeknownst to them, from some distance away, a young brown haired woman watched the small wooden cabin where the four brothers lived. She chuckled to herself as she listened to the brothers, "That's two down," she said quietly as she toyed with the gem around her neck. One of the twins came to the window to open it and let the cool air in after their hot meal, "and two to go," she said studying him. She laughed again to herself, "I knew that one would make a good mage someday….he just needed a little nudge to get himself going. Now I just need to wait for those other two to be ready. She got up and walked away from the small home, the noise growing softer as she went into the woods. "Those brothers," a voice began, "They don't know what lies ahead of them." She stopped and looked at the newcomer, a strong man clad in golden armor. She nodded at him, “You are right about that.” One of the twins let out a loud yell that could be heard easily by the two in the forest –even at this distance. She smiled and shook her head as she continued walking away, the cleric following her. She looked over at him smiling, "But they should do just fine."

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:43 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter I: Parting of Ways

An Ning and He Liu waved goodbye to their brothers as they began their journey to Rumen. Their brothers cheered and hollered while jumping as they made their way down the path, An Ning smiled but kept quiet as he saw He Liu trying not to cry –after all, he’d cried himself on his first day as an adventurer. The two soon lost sight of the house and their brothers’ cheers grew distant, replaced by sounds of the forest. Liu looked over at his brother, dressed in his copper-colored armor, and felt a little embarrassed to be walking next to him as he had no armor of his own other than the white mage’s adventurer gear.

“Still don’t like to cry in front of people, eh, brother?” An asked after a few minutes of silence. He Liu looked over, “What do you mean, An?” he asked. An chuckled a bit, “Oh come on now. I saw you choking back your tears back there.” He Liu remained silent as they walked; he let the silence sit for a few minutes before answering, “For sixteen years I have not left home. I have journeyed away from it, true, but I have never actually LEFT it. Same with my brothers.” “I left,” An replied. “That is true, An…but as you said, it was YOU that left, not me. I have never left my brothers in one place while I go to another place, perhaps not to return for a long time. It is kind of odd for me…it makes me feel like I am abandoning them.” An nodded, “I felt the same when I left.” He Liu looked over, “Really?” “Really,” he replied, “Sometimes I still do. But no one is meant to live with their family forever; eventually everyone needs to find their own path.” He Liu nodded and they walked on for a bit more.

“What is it about you and not crying anyways? Some macho thing of yours?” An asked after a few minutes of walking. They walked a bit further before He Liu came to a sudden stop. He turned around to face An, “Look, An. I’ve always been the weakest in our family. At eight years old I could not do what the twins could at five.” An looked at his brother, “The twins were always remarkably strong, He Liu…they were even stronger than me at that age.” He Liu shook his head, “No, An, you don’t get it. It’s true that they were stronger than you at that age, but year for year I am by far the weakest in body, and my ability to concentrate and memorize things was never of much help to us beyond cooking and medicine making. I was always the weakest.”

It was An’s turn to be quiet now, as He Liu continued talking, “To me it was annoying and aggravating, having my brothers do all the real work while I stay home to cook because I was thought unable to protect myself.” He sighed and shook his head, “I dunno, An….I guess not crying….trying to be emotionally strong was my way of trying to compensate for my lack of physical strength.” They remained silent for a bit, each unsure of what to say, then An smiled, “Well now you are an adventurer, and a mage to boot –the most powerful adventurer class there is. What you thought a lack of strength is really a boon for you, huh?” He Liu smiled and nodded. “So maybe,” An said as they started walking again, “You don’t have to compensate so much anymore.” He Liu looked over at An, “I’m not making any promises,” he said with a smile.

“So An,” Liu said looking over at his brother, “Where are we going first?” “Rumen,” An replied with a smile. He Liu groaned, “Well of COURSE we were going THERE,” he said with slight aggravation at his brother’s play, “I meant where do we go after that? You said you were probably gonna go visit the new adventurer’s hunting grounds today.”
An looked at his brother and said, “I will go to the Elderine market first. I still need to find a level 50 shield –I doubt La Celestina will actually SELL me her shield, she’ll probably try to talk me into simply taking it.” “Yessss,” Liu started, “Cool…I get to go see Elderine.” An shook his head and chuckled, “YOU will go talk to the merchants in Rumen and see if there are any problems you can help with. I’m not taking you with me, brother. Sorry.” He Liu looked over in shock, “WHAT!? What do you mean, I’m not going with you? I’m your BROTHER!” An held up his hand to calm He Liu, “Liu, listen to me. Right now the difference in strength between us is too great. You will die fighting the enemies I face, and I won’t help anyone by fighting the weaker monsters you will have to start out against. For now you have to go out on your own.” He Liu looked at the ground. “Hey,” An said, Liu looked up, “I mean, after all; you didn’t become an adventurer to follow me around all day, did you?” Liu thought for a second, then smiled and shook his head, his green hair waving in front of his eyes. “You’re right, An,” he said, “I need to get stronger on my own.” He looked over at his brother and smiled, “As someone I know once said: Everyone needs to find their own path.” They laughed as they continued walking through the forest path.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:44 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter I: Parting of Ways

They reached Rumen and entered the coastal city. He Liu looked at An, “Well I guess I’ll be going now.” “Why don’t you look around at the vendors for a bit and see if there are any items for sale that could help you?” An answered. He Liu looked at him in confusion, “But I don’t have any money.” An shook his head, “Well not yet…If you find something, come and get me. I’ll pay for you.” “But I thought you weren’t supposed to help me,” He Liu replied. “Not with making you stronger,” an answered, “But buying my brother a piece of gear that may help him fight better is something I think I am not only allowed to do…but entitled to do.” He Liu smiled at his brother, and ran off to check the merchants in the area.

He Liu ran up the stairs to check the vendors by Smith James –An said they always had good stuff around there. As he wandered amongst the mushroom house vendors, a man called out to him. “Hey you! Mage, with green hair! Come here” He Liu looked around; there were no other green haired mages nearby. He looked over for the person calling, and found a woman with long brown hair and bright armor standing on the side of the street. He tried to remember who she was. “Oh! She’s Skill master Ruby,” he thought to himself. “Yeah, you!” she called impatiently, “Well, what are you waiting for, get over here!” “She certainly is touchy,” he thought as he made his way over through the jungle of vendor mushrooms. He made it over to her, and she stood there, towering over him, seeming to judge his ability based on his appearance somehow. “I haven’t seen you around before,” she started, “You new here?” “Yes,” he answered, “I’m just starting. My name is He Liu.” “Ah, good,” she replied without smiling, “I have a job for an adventurer, but someone who has been here a while would probably not take it. You want it?” “Sure thing!” he answered with a big grin. “Calm down. I have a problem with my boyfriend,” she paused for a second, He Liu chimed in, “Did he cheat on you or something?” She glared at him. “If he did THAT,” she started, her face darkening, “I would not require any assistance; I would simply slice his head off…or perhaps something more important.” He Liu shrunk back a bit, “This lady is scary,” he thought, “I’d better not make her mad.”

“Anyways,” she continued, “he got drunk last night and the only thing that can help him is my spe..” “I want to buy my next tier of heal spell now!” an excited cleric ran up and shouted, interrupting Ruby. She spun on her heel and drew her sword, pointing it at the cleric’s chest before the cleric had any idea of what was going on. “I WAS TALKING!” she yelled at the suddenly pale cleric, “Do NOT interrupt me again!” The cleric nodded, looking as though he were about to feint. Ruby began to put away her sword and turned towards He Liu. “Well then, where were we?” She finished sheathing her sword, the hilt making a soft click as it stopped against the edge inside the sheath to lock it in place, “Ah yes, I remember. My boyfriend got drunk last night and he’s hung over today. I need to make a soup to help him. For the soup I need some clam meat and starfish. Do you think you could go gather some for me?” He Liu nodded, his eyes wide. “Good,” she replied, “Clams and starfish are commonly found along the beach in the Forest of Tides. I’ll reward you when you get back.” He Liu looked over at the cleric, who seemed as though he was unable to move. “Well what are you waiting for? GO!” Ruby shouted from beside him, “My boyfriend is in pain and he needs my soup as soon as possible! Now HURRY!” He Liu jumped backwards into the street at her bellow and quickly lost himself in the tangle of mushroom vendors, then made his way back to An.

An looked over as he saw his brother approach, “Hey good news.” “What’s that?” He Liu asked. “I talked to Raina, the storage keeper. She says that since we are brothers she’ll let us share the same storage space.” He Liu looked at An, not understanding. “That means that whatever I give to a storage keeper you have access to as well. This includes money I put in, and any armors or weapons I have that I think you may find useful.” “That IS cool,” He Liu said in response. “So,” An said looking at his brother, “Any good items you want to buy?” “I didn’t find any,” he said, “But I did get a quest from Ruby. I have to get clam meat and starfish for a soup.” “Ruby eh?” An started, “You’d best be getting a move on, then. She’s kind of impatient.” “I noticed,” He Liu answered, “She’s pretty scary too.” An laughed, “She is, at that.”

He Liu waved goodbye and started back up toward the gate to the Forest of Tides. “Before you go,” An’s voice came from behind, He Liu turned, An was reaching into his bag. “Take this,” he said pulling out an item. He Liu’s eyes widened. It was the green staff. “An…I can’t take that,” He Liu said, “It’s the first green item you ever found.” “Being that it is mine, I should get to say who I give it to,” An answered with a smile, “If it is helping you to kill faster and stay alive in your fights, then it should go with you –it does me no good to keep it.” He Liu grabbed the staff, but still seemed unconvinced. “Besides,” An said still smiling, “Even though you have it, it is still the first green I found, isn’t it?” He Liu smiled as well as An laughed. An reached into his bag for a teleportation scroll, Pep jumped and squeaked from An’s shoulder. An withdrew his hand, looking over at the little slime pet, “Oh…so you wanna go to?” He Liu tilted his head in curiosity as the slime squeaked and An smiled again, “Well it’s okay with me, but you’ll have to ask him.” An looked over at He Liu, “Seems Pep here wants to go with you. He’s feeling kinda bored since I’m not training much.” An lifted out his arm, his palm facing up. The little slime hopped from his shoulder down into his hand and sat there looking at He Liu. He Liu wasn’t sure what to say, he reached down and set his hand next to An’s, and the tiny slime pet hopped onto his hand, up his arm and onto his shoulder. The mage looked back at his older brother, who continued to grin. “Take care of that little guy, he’ll need all the help he can get,” An said smiling. He Liu nodded, “I will, An.” “I was talking to Pep,” An said with a large grin. He Liu gave him a dirty look with a smile to let him know that the look was only for show. An chuckled a bit and waved, “Good luck, my brother.” “You too, An,” He Liu replied. “I look forward to hearing about the new mage, He Liu when I relax in Elderine,” An said as he pulled out a green scroll. He Liu smiled and waved while holding his new staff as An broke the seal and vanished.

He Liu looked around the bottom section of Rumen, at the pier and the large blue ship docked at its small port. He talked to the Templer at the lighthouse and looked through a few vendors nearby. Deciding he had best get to work on Ruby’s quest –lest she become angry at him- he made his way toward the stairs and the path toward the forest. As he moved along the road, a cry came from the forest, and a bell rang loudly from Rumen’s clock tower. Other adventurers began running past him, dropping whatever they were doing and running toward the forest. He Liu, not knowing what was happening, continued walking in that direction.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:44 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter II: Assault on Rumen

A nearby battle raged. Fighters and clerics yelled as they charged forward into the line of advancing Mushrooms and Slimes. A line of archers and mages stood behind them, launching whatever attacks they were capable of as fast as was possible. One fighter charged forward with her wooden shield, slamming into a Slime and knocking it back. She slashed across with her sword, the sword’s impact absorbed in the slime’s gelatinous body. The fighter pulled her sword back while spinning, freeing the sword and slicing the Slime in half. A Mushroom charged in from the side. Launching a furious assault of punches and driving the fighter to the ground. The mushroom loomed over the fighter, readying for another attack, and flew to the side, collapsing as an arrow sailed into its eye and embedded itself in the Mushroom’s head. The fighter got to her feet and continued to attack as Slimes and Mushrooms approached, some attacking her, others the other fighters around her.

A young archer pulled arrow after arrow from his quiver and shot them into the wave of enemies before him. The assault continued, casualties coming on both sides. A hole appeared in the front line as several fighters got mobbed on all sides by enemies and fell, their adventurer gear sending them back into town before they could be killed. Slimes and Mushroom surged through the gap to attack the mages and archers in the back. The archer launched bolt after bolt at the enemies that ran toward or past him, most enemies falling after the first shot, a few stronger enemies –or enemies that he’d gotten sloppy against- requiring a second shot to ensure that they stayed down. The Mushroom and Slime were too numerous to be stopped quickly, and were beginning to attack the vulnerable mages and archers while the clerics and fighters continued trying to seal the hole in the front line to prevent more enemies from getting through. The enemies stood no chance in one on one combat against these adventurers, despite Rumen being home to most of the weaker and less experienced people, but they were able to defeat adventurers through force of sheer numbers. Many would fall in an attempt to bring down one adventurer, but once he or she fell, those that remained would flood towards the next adventurer and overwhelm that one. A nearby mage fell, his adventurer gear teleporting him back to the relative safety of the village square. The mob that had attacked him, five Slime and four Mushroom, now surged toward the archer. He reached back and withdrew an arrow from his quiver. Quickly placing it in his bow, he drew back and aimed at the nearest enemy. He let the arrow fly, and it knocked the targeted Mushroom into the ground unmoving.

He drew another arrow, turning and firing, dropping a Slime this time. Two. He fired again and again, the mob drawing nearer. Three. Four. Five. He fired again, dropping the last Slime as the final three Mushroom charged forward, only meters away. He drew again, dropping the nearest one. The remaining two hopped over the body of the fallen Mushroom, and launched their attack. Their barrage of punches drove the archer to the ground, his bow clattering against a rock in front of him. He rolled onto his back and looked up as the two Mushroom prepared to finish the archer. His hand touched something…something sharp –an arrow that had spilled from his quiver when he fell. He grabbed the arrow in his hand and readied his last attack –if he was going down here, he was taking one of these two with him. An ethereal bolt flashed through the air and slammed into one mushroom, half of its head evaporating as the Mushroom –dead before it knew it was even attacked- fell to the ground. The final Mushroom spun as the mage charged forward, yelling. The archer launched up to his feet when the Mushroom took its eyes off of him. Holding the arrow in his fist, he stabbed the Mushroom’s head, slaying the beast.

The archer nodded thanks and grabbed his bow, launching arrows at any remaining enemies that had managed to get behind the fighters. He Liu, the mage that had saved the archer, stood nearby and began sending blast after blast of energy sailing into the enemy hoard. Up ahead, the fighters had fallen back a bit to regroup and seal the front line attempting to regain control; the enemies stopped getting past them, but the line began to fall back under the assault from the unending waves of Slime and Mushroom. He Liu backed away with the archers –uncertain of what was happening, but understanding that these enemies had to be stopped. The mages and archers around him walked backwards as they launched their attacks, He Liu followed suite. His eyes widened as he felt something under him, a stark contrast from the rock and soil of the forest paths, his heel had just hit the beginning of the stone roadways in Rumen. They were on the edge of allowing the town itself to be attacked.

A shout went up from behind, a rallying cry made by other archers and mages who realized the same thing that he just had. The cry carried forward and seemed to breathe new life into the fighters up front. They redoubled their efforts, their shouts joining those of the other adventurers behind them. Despite the new vigor in the attack of these young adventurers, the enemy army continued to press forwards. The mages and archers lined up at the road’s edge, a wordless agreement between them that they would not fall back from there, the fighters and clerics in the front pushing as hard as they could with sword, club and shield, still unable to halt the enemy advance. This last stand made by Rumen’s adventurers seemed doomed to failure, when a new shout came from behind the line of mages and archers.

He Liu turned around at the new sound, and saw dozens more fighters, archers, clerics and mages charging forward. These may have been adventurers, but they were not from Rumen, they were dressed in different armor carrying much more powerful weapons -they were reinforcements sent from Elderine. The fighters surged forward, charging into battle, the dozen or so that appeared easily took charge, overpowering the enemy’s front line, which the dozens of fighters from Rumen had lacked the power to do. He Liu watched as an archer from Elderine, clad in green armor, grabbed two arrows at once and placed them in her long bow. She pointed the bow skyward and said a chant as she launched her arrows. The arrows soared skyward, then ran out of energy and began to fall. As they fell the arrows glowed brightly, each arrow becoming six as they plowed into the ground, and the enemies which stood on it.

The mages from Elderine ran past the fighters, stunning most of the mages from Rumen –as staying behind the fighter was the most basic of mage principles. The mages ran into the midst of the Slime and Mushroom, which were not strong enough to knock them to the ground –the only place where slimes can do enough damage to kill someone. He Liu watched as one mage lifted his arms above his head in a partial circle, then brought his arms down and bent at the knees. Energy shot out around the mage and swirled, surging in all directions creating a magical torrent around them, and slaying an entire swarm of enemies in one attack. The attack did not last much longer once these adventurers appeared. In a mere matter of minutes, they had turned the tides and the last of the enemy army was fleeing back into the woods, scattering. Another cheer went up from the adventurers, both those of Rumen and of Elderine as the town was again made safe.

The adventurers from Elderine began walking back into town or scrolling back to Elderine as the remainder of Rumen’s forces ran forward into the woods to hunt down whatever stragglers they could find. He Liu looked back into the town, seeing Julia, Zack, James and Ruby taking care of the adventurers that had been wounded in the fighting –Zack, Ruby and James carrying them to one spot, Julia using stones to restore their health. A few clerics from Elderine stopped by and offered their assistance in healing, which they accepted without hesitation. Ruby looked up and spotted He Liu, she frowned and pointed at him, waving her hand, signing for him to be moving along. His eyes widened and he turned and ran down the path toward the gate to the Forest of Tides.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:45 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter III: The Mage’s Power

As He Liu walked down the path toward the gate, he saw a familiar archer stalking through the trees. He stood and watched quietly as the archer moved slowly and stealthily in the brush, taking up a hiding place behind a tree. He raised his bow, taking aim at a Mushroom hiding in a tangle of vines; drawing his arrow back, he sighted down the shaft of the projectile, feeling the energy stored inside it. The archer waited, arrow drawn back, holding his arm steady as he watched for his chance. The small monster hopped forward in his hiding spot, exposing a hole about the size of the mushroom’s head between it and the archer. Seizing the moment, the archer let loose the arrow. It sailed through the air, crossing the gap between the archer and the beast almost before He Liu realized that the archer had attacked. The mushroom collapsed with a whimper, and the archer made his way back to the trail. As the archer turned, his eyes widened at seeing He Liu –apparently he had not noticed the mage’s approach.

“Umm, hi,” the archer said, not really certain what else to say at seeing this mage again. He Liu smiled, “Hi again.” “Hey, uh…thanks for…you know….before,” the archer stammered. “It’s no problem,” He Liu responded, “So what was that back there?” ”I’m not sure,” the archer replied, “I just kinda followed the crowd to the fighting.” “Oh,” He Liu responded –he thought he’d be the only one that wouldn’t know what was going on, “I see.” The archer scratched the back of his head nervously, “So uh…I think I’ll be going now. Thanks again for…umm…helping me.” The archer turned back toward the woods and was quickly gone from sight. A bit confused, and slightly disappointed in this last encounter, he headed toward the easily visible entry portal to the Forest of Tides.

He stepped through the portal and found himself in another forest. Several new adventurers like himself were scattered around fighting small slimes and mushrooms, and the occasional imp. He Liu reached into his bag and retrieved his map. “Seems the beach area is off of the left path,” he said to himself, “Well, better get a move on, then.” He began walking up the path, looking at the other adventurers fighting. A cleric was fighting a large red slime a ways down the path. The slime was large and tough, bashing into the inexperienced cleric repeatedly, but the cleric went on to show why clerics were one of the toughest classes to kill by healing himself throughout the fight until finally wearing the slime down, defeating the monster. A more experienced fighter clad in leather armor ran past him, running up to a slime and in a single strike sliced it in half. His thirst for battle unquenched he continued to run down the path and in a single slice slay any monster that was anywhere nearby. He continued to walk down the path, wondering if this was anything like what An had seen on his first day.

As Liu walked the dirt beneath his feet became sandy, the grass and trees giving way to sand dunes. A small blue slime suddenly leapt to the top of a nearby dune, then charged down the side. Speedy Slime, while small, was incredibly deadly for a slime. As its name suggested, the slime was fast, it could charge with incredible speed (for a slime), and would leap high into the air to tackle opponents and send them to the ground. The slime charged forward at the mage. Liu stepped back and swept his arms forward to attack with his Magic Missile. His staff glowed white, and there was an electric crack as a shower of sparks jumped from the tip of the staff –he’d lost his concentration, resulting in a his spell failing. He Liu ran away while trying to concentrate on gathering energy for his next attack, the small slime gaining on him. He spun around, swinging his arm out and sending a magic missile at the small slime. The slime jumped to the side, the energy blast smashing into the ground, then the small beast jumped forward foot first with the intent of knocking the mage to the ground.

Liu’s eyes widened as the slime went airborne. Reacting on instinct, he stepped forward and to the side while twirling to the inside. As the slime passed him, he raised his staff and swung it across, sending the small slime soaring away to smash against a palm tree. As the slime tumbled to the ground stunned, Liu swept his staff around again, the jewel glowing white as energy gathered inside. The Speedy Slime began to come around, starting to squirm, just as Liu released the Magic Missile. The ball of magic flew straight into the small monster, causing it to vanish in a brilliant flash. Liu panted, shaking a bit as he realized just how close he’d come to losing that fight. After calming, he smiled and chuckled to himself, “Well, that was actually kind of fun.” He continued on his way up to the beach, feeling much more confident. Climbing over a sand dune, he got his first view of the beach. It was huge, several enemies scattered about the area –a few Fire Mushroom, Imps and many very large crabs. These enemies were few in number, though, so they tended not to be aggressive –perfect training for a new adventurer. He toyed with the idea of attacking one of the enemies, but figured he would just do his quest first.

He walked to the edge of the beach and began searching just inside the surf. It didn’t take him long to find the first half of what he was looking for -a few starfish which he swiftly placed in his bag. “Well that takes care of the first half,” he chuckled to himself as he walked past an old wrecked boat hull, “Now what about the clams? I haven’t seen any of those yet.” He looked at the unkempt vessel, noticing a large purple object sticking out behind it. He walked towards the back of the broken old boat, the purple object growing larger. As he turned the corner, he found it to be an enormous purple clam. It took him some time, but he finally managed to force the large bivalve open and gather the slimy meat inside. Liu shook his hands, the oozy slime from the meat dripping from his fingers, “Yuck. I can see why no one else wanted this job.” His job done, he began walking back toward Rumen, past all the enemies on the sand. Figuring he had some spare time, Liu took aim at a Fire Mushroom and readied an attack, but was distracted when he heard someone cry for help.

He looked around and saw an archer running down the beach, a large imp and two smaller imps chasing after him. Liu ran forward and channeled his energy, aiming at the large imp. The Magic Missile flew forward and slammed into the large imp, knocking it to the side and sending it to the ground, the other two imps stopping to look at the body of the larger imp. Liu’s eyes widened as the large imp got back to its feet, gripping its small dagger and narrowing its large eyes –looking directly at Liu. The three beasts charged at the mage, hopping forward, each brandishing their small imp daggers. Liu sent another attack out, this time hitting one of the smaller imps, but even this one was able to get back up after being hit. “This may have been a bad idea,” Liu said wishing the archer would come back to help him –but the archer was long gone by then. He contemplated fleeing, but was not even able to turn around before the large imp leapt into the air, swinging his blade forward. Liu side-stepped and smacked the imp with his staff, sending the imp rolling a few feet forward.

Before he could even laugh at the same tactic working twice, he felt something hit his back, then a sharp pain as the small imp that had landed on him buried its dagger above a shoulder blade. Liu shouted and swept back with his staff, knocking the small creature off –flinching as the imp took its dagger with it. The second small imp charged him from the front, planting its dagger in his shoulder. The imp pushed off and tore its dagger out, the push from the jump causing the weakened mage to stagger back. Not wasting the chance, the large imp jumped forward and kicked, sending Liu to his back on the sand. It slashed Liu across the chest, then jumped back and flipped; the two smaller imps jumping forward and slicing Liu’s legs to prevent him from escaping. Liu lay on the ground bleeding as the large imp walked forward, brandishing its dagger. The blood loss was becoming too great, and the view of the beach grew fuzzy, as the large imp began to walk up his body. Just as his adventurer gear sensed the serious wounds to its wearer and began to teleport him to safety, Liu passed out.

A cool breeze swept over him as a passing cleric cast a healing spell on him. He opened his eyes and looked around, finding himself in Rumen. He stood, realizing upon doing so that he may have wanted to stay sitting a bit longer when his head started to pound causing his vision to blur. “Okay that hurt,” he said as he bent over, noticing he was still bleeding from a few different cuts; he reached into his bag and used a charge from his red soul stone to heal himself. He shook his head to clear his senses and straightened up again. “I can’t believe I lost,” he muttered, “On the bright side, though….I was coming back here anyways.” He got his bearings and began to make his way back to Ruby’s store.

“That was almost insultingly easy,” He Liu thought to himself as he walked away from Ruby. Ruby was still frowning, still shouting, there had been almost no visible change in her mood when he handed her the items she had sent him out to retrieve -not that there ever was. For weeks now he’d been her errand boy and he was getting tired of it. Rather than getting harder, the tasks seemed to be getting easier –and killing Mushrooms and Imps was getting dull as well. As he walked down the road, he wondered to himself if Ruby was ever happy –and how in the world a guy found her tolerable enough to be her boyfriend. “Probably because Ruby showed up one day, declared that he was her boyfriend, and he’s too afraid of her to say otherwise,” he smiled to himself.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:45 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter III: The Mage’s Power

As he walked, he passed by one of Rumen’s trainers, Master Zach. “You’re An Ning’s brother, aren’t you?” Zach asked as he walked by. He Liu’s head jerked up and he looked to the side, not having noticed there was someone standing in that corner. “Yes, I am. My name is He Liu,” He Liu answered. “Do you have time for a bit of a chat, He Liu, or are you busy at the moment?” “No, I’m not busy not at all!” He Liu shook his head. “I see. Well then, young mage, tell me: what have you learned of magic so far?” the trainer asked. “Not much,” he admitted, “I really only know how to use the Magic Missile spell.” Zach brought a hand to his chin, “I see. That tells me which spells you have learned, but not what you know of magic. Now then, do you know where these attacks come from?” “They are energy attacks,” He Liu replied, “They are made by guiding the energy around us, concentrating it and channeling it in a direction for an attack.” Zach nodded, “Well that is both right…and wrong,” he grinned. He Liu was visibly confused. “Allow me to explain in a bit more detail,” Zach said. He Liu glanced to the side, wondering why Zach was bothering to tell him this trivial information.

Zach chuckled a bit and He Liu looked back up. “I’ve seen that look on the faces of any mage I start training,” he laughed, “You’re thinking you will soon be bored of my chat, and wondering why this matters.” Zach straightened, and stopped laughing, a serious look on his face, “Well it matters a lot, He Liu. A mage’s strength comes from their magic abilities, but a mage’s power is based on intellect, knowledge, the strength of the mind. A mage can be strong with little understanding of the magic that he or she possesses; but a mage can only be powerful through learning to understand where the magic and strength comes from, how it is replenished, what the limitations are and why the limitations are there.” He Liu was now paying full attention to the trainer. “As you have learned to use the Magic Missile spell, you have undoubtedly learned that there is a certain amount of time you must wait after casting it once, before you may cast it again.” The mage nodded, remaining silent. Zach regarded the mage, “Do you know why this is?” He Liu thought for a moment, then shook his head, “I never really thought about it before.” “It is because the energy for the attack comes from within the body.”

He Liu looked at Zach with a doubtful expression. Zach did not seem surprised and plowed forward in his explanation. “The body has an energy source. It possesses many different names across different lands, such as qi, spirit energy, or mana. As this is the power of the spirit, we simply call it spirit power, or SP.” Liu rolled his eyes, anticipating an unnecessarily long explanation. “The power pools in different areas of the body. It is from these pools that the power for an attack is drawn. Take your Magic Missile, for example. To begin the attack, you concentrate on feeling the energy flow around and through you. The energy flows from your body into your staff and away from you. The energy you feel moving away from you is not from the energy around you, it began inside of you. So in the most basic of ideas, the power for a magic attack comes from your energy, and not the energy around you.” “Okay,” Liu nodded, “So what’s that have to do with..” “I’m not done yet,” Zach said before he could finish. “Now then: If magic is cast properly, once the energy from an attack is taken from the body, the energy you guided from outside the body will come to replace the energy spent on the attack. This is the energy you feel flowing around you at the beginning of an attack. It replenishes the energy in your body and can be used again in future attacks. This is how the answer that magic is from the surrounding energy is also correct.”

He thought back on all the times he had cast the Magic Missile spell, and had to admit, this explanation made a lot of sense. Still, Liu briefly wondered if there was simply a book he could read on this –as there were also a few questions it had raised that Zach had not answered. He Liu looked up at Zach, and noticed that Zach was staring at him. “I’m glad you see you are actually putting thought into what I am saying,” he said with a smile, “Still, there is more you should hear before you begin thinking too much about what I have said so far.” He Liu nodded, Zach smiled again and continued explaining. “So now you know where the spells come from, but why is it that you have to wait before you can cast again?” He Liu looked up and shrugged. “The energy that creates the magic attacks exists in all beings, not just mages. They are a part of the energy that keeps you alive. Drawing upon it to cast a magic attack drains your body of this energy and puts it out of balance –basically, using magic kills you.”

“What?” He Liu almost shouted, “Now you’re making things up, Zach. Stop trying to scare me.” Zach chuckled a bit, “You’re not the first to have that reaction.” “Look, even you said it, ‘after the energy leaves our body, the energy around us enters and replaces it.’ Admit it: that last bit was some weird joke or something.” Zach shook his head, “Tell me, oh great and wise mage; if it takes so much concentration to take energy from your body and force it to become a magic attack, how easy or fast do you think it is for all the different energies that are flowing around you to enter your body and become the correct energy your body requires?” Liu stopped at that. He hadn’t considered this part. After casting a magic spell, he didn’t think about replenishing the energy or cast a spell to regenerate it faster, he just kind of allowed it to happen. Zach grinned, “I get that reaction a lot as well. The energy does enter your body and tries to bring your body back into balance, but it takes time to do so. It also takes time for your body to adjust to the change in the balance of your inner energies. If you draw too much energy too fast, you can kill yourself. This is why there is the pause between casting the same spell; to avoid overdrawing from one type of energy pool and unbalancing your body’s energy to a damaging degree.” Zach looked down at He Liu, “So that, He Liu, is where the attacks come from, and why you must wait between attacks.”

“I never knew that it was so complicated,” He Liu said, “But Master Zach, what about resting? If the spirit is restored naturally, why do we need to rest? I thought that was to restore our spirit power.” Zach smiled, “Not only listening, but applying what I have said to existing knowledge. You will make a fine pupil, He Liu.” Liu smiled as Zach began explaining again, “It is true that the energies flowing around us will restore us when we use our spirit power to use magic; but the constant withdraw and slow replenishment of energy is still taxing on the body as well as the mind. Imagine running down a short street, then slowly walking back up, over and over again. A short run is easy, but still very taxing –running always is. Walking is a bit of a rest, but walking is still work for your body. After a certain amount of time, despite the relative rest from walking, your body will become tired and need a greater rest. Your body is no different in needing to rest from walking than in needing to rest from using and replenishing inner energies. Once your mind and body are too fatigued, you need rest. That is a simple fact of life.” He Liu looked at Zach and nodded. It was a lot to absorb, and he still had a few questions, but overall, it made sense and answered a lot of his older questions.

Zach chuckled and looked at the mage, “There is good news.” He Liu looked up. “Different spells draw different amounts of energy from different pools within the body. Using different spells will allow you to fire an almost continuous barrage of spells, allowing your body to restore the energy pool by pool, a little at a time with almost no danger of over-draining your spirit.” Liu nodded, “Too bad I don’t have any…” Before he could finish, Zach reached forward, presenting He Liu with a scroll. “What’s this?” Liu asked. “Why it’s a scroll, of course. I’d think it would be obvious to you,” Zach said with a grin, “It’s a gift for listening to what I have to say. This is the guide for using the next spell: Ice Bolt.” He Liu accepted the scroll. “You have been strong enough to use this spell for some time now,” Zach said with a smile. “What!?” Liu shouted, “Then why hasn’t anyone told me?” Zach smiled again, “I told you when we first started talking: there are strong mages, and there are powerful mages…which was it you wanted to be?” Zach looked at the young mage and grinned, He Liu smiled in return and nodded.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:46 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter III: The Mage’s Power

“Energy flows both around us as well as through the body. The energy that flows through the body collects in many small pools. It is from these pools that we draw upon the energy we require to use magic. The pools each have one of seven governing attributes; six of which have an attribute opposite it, one of which has no opposing force. These attributes are divided into fire, water, earth, wind, light, darkness and lightning.

“Contrary to popular mythology, there are several pools that are governed by each attribute, not simply one. All pools governed by one attribute are linked, the energy flowing between them in a set channel. Each of these elemental attributes can be drawn upon individually to form a magic spell; but such magic spells are very taxing upon specific pools, and is disruptive to the natural flow of energy, thus enabling fewer uses of the spell, and requiring greater rest between uses. While it is true that this flow exists in all beings and that all adventurers use them to enhance their fighting abilities in combat through skills; the mage –due to the variety of spells they master as well as the amount to which they draw upon it- must be the most aware of and have the greatest control of their energies. Whereas most other classes of adventurer need only know how to draw upon the energy as a whole, mages must be able to take specific amounts from specific flows if they are to use their spells effectively.

“The simplest and least taxing spells to cast are elementally neutral or close to neutral; these spells are relatively weak when compared to an elemental attack which draws heavily upon one single set of pools, but are able to be used more frequently and in greater number. To use these neutral spells, you must draw upon pools of opposing elements (fire and water, earth and wind, light and dark). When starting out, the neutral magic spells are the easiest to cast, as the beginner mage has yet to be able to establish a degree of awareness that allows him or her to sense which pools they draw upon –instead, they rather clumsily draw from almost every pool they possess; in effect casting a neutral spell more by accident or instinct than by design. As the spell’s effectiveness is based upon being neutral, and the beginning mage has little control over how much energy is drawn from each pool, it is common for the beginning mage’s magical attacks to vary greatly in power as well as in how draining it is to use. As the mage progresses and becomes more aware of the energy flowing –and pooling- within their body, they will be able to make their neutral spells more effective by simply drawing the same amount of energy from as few pools as possible. As with the change of breathing when one practices running over time, this is often done without conscious knowledge over time and with practice; but with focus and meditation, it is something that can be learned faster, and mastered to a much greater degree. However, as in life, where water will douse fire, fire will evaporate water, wind erodes earth and earth slows the wind; so too is it with the energies in a neutral spell. The energies gathered in a neutral spell fight each other, clamoring for a dominance, rather than stability. This fighting makes the energies weaker as well as making it hard to concentrate large amounts in a single spell; making neutral spells relatively weak, regardless of how balanced the energies are in amount.

“Once a mage has become adept at casting neutral spells, they will be able to move on to casting elemental spells. The elemental spells carry much greater power than the neutral spells, as the attributes which make up the attack are not fighting each other. To use an elemental spell, one must begin by concentrating on feeling the ethereal flow of energy around their body. They must carry that sense into their body and be aware of where the energy flows, and where it pools. Once the pools are found, sense which pools carry the element desired, and find the channel of energy that flows between the pools of that element. Once that elemental flow has been found, guide the flow upward and through your arm to the focusing point in your wand –as a mage advances in experience, it may be channeled to other areas. As the element you channel will not fight itself as a neutral spell might, more energy can be focused before you must release it, allowing for a more concentrated burst of energy. This is the basis to form an elemental spell.”

-excerpt from the Scroll of Ice

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:47 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter IV: The Ambitions of King Slime

He Liu sat under the falling water from the fountain of Rumen’s square and meditated. A few passing adventurers mocked him –making sly comments about how much he must stink to need to take a shower that badly, or making rude assertions that his hair was green for a reason; a few others asked him why he was doing it, some others –mostly hyper girls- decided it looked like fun so they ran around in the fountain splashing each other -as well as passers by, but most did not pay him much heed. He sat under the falling water, feeling the water’s flow, carrying the feeling of the flow into his own body and sensing the different energies flowing within him. “There’s the flow for light,” he thought to himself, “There’s lightning, and darkness. There’s earth and wind…and water.” He continued searching for the last elemental pool. “Where is it? Come on, I know it’s here!” He shouted in his mind. The feeling became distorted, the flows became more distant. “Whoa, easy, Liu,” he said to himself, “Don’t lose focus, don’t get emotional. The element is here, just follow the flows and you will find it.” The feeling grew stronger again, the flows becoming more visible to his mind’s eye. He followed one flow, as he followed it, he passed a warm section. “That’s it!” he thought. He switched to a flow which moved in another direction, and felt it growing warm again. He had found the channel that led to the pool of fire energy. “That’s them,” he thought, “All seven elements.” He spent some time looking between them, moving from focusing on one elemental circuit to another –training so he’d be able to locate them faster in battle. “Now for the hard part,” he thought as he focused on the fire energy again.

He backed out until he could see the whole of the fire network –the channels and all its pools. Next, continuing to sense the fire, he expanded his mind’s search and allowed the cooling flow of water to enter. He mapped out the network of water’s channels and pools, sometimes running with fire, sometimes running counter. He continued until he saw six of the networks –all but lightning. His head was growing sore, his eyes hurt and his mind felt on the verge of exploding. He tried to calm himself, to breathe deep and slow while focusing just a little more; but the pain was too great, and the training was too exhaustive to his mind.

His view of the fire network began to dim. Panicking, he focused more on fire to bring the sharpness back, causing water and wind to dim instead. Liu focused on fire and wind, then water, but now the other three dimmed. He struggled to keep them in his view, but it was too late at this point, and he knew it. He lost control over sensing the different energy networks; they jumbled together into a tangle of pools and channels indiscernible to his mind. The map he’d drawn faded and zoomed out into a far region of the mind as it faded; and he suddenly became aware of everything physical around him again: back to square one, simply feeling the water flowing down his body. He opened his eyes and looked at the clock tower near the docks; he’d been training his mind to find the elemental pools and channels for almost six hours now –and that was just today. He Liu had been training like this for almost a week. He had gotten good at sensing the networks fast, and great at targeting one or two networks –and even tapping into them for attacks. His ability to effectively use Magic Missile, Ice Bolt, Lightning and his latest spell, Fire Bolt, had increased dramatically –most mages his level still took a while to use fire and ice, because they had trouble sensing the different elemental channels quickly, whereas Liu was now able to sense all seven of them within seconds (albeit only one or two at a time).

“I suppose this may be a good time for me to take a break,” he said to himself. Behind him, two archer girls and a cleric girl ran through the water laughing and splashing each other. Liu got to his feet and walked out of the fountain and stepped onto the ground. He looked at his soaked robes and waterlogged shoes, “Maybe six hours is a bit long for one go,” he thought. He walked forward, his shoes squishing with each step as his clothes left a watery trail across the stone road; as the wind picked up a bit he felt a sudden chill, and he fervently wished there was a spell he could use to dry off quickly. Lacking such ability, he figured he’d best just decide where he wanted to go next.

Having no quests, and feeling that he was done training for the day, He Liu decided to go visit his brothers for the remainder of the day. He walked to the edge of Rumen, the laughter of the girls in the pool –the initial three having been joined by a few more- growing faint as he walked over toward the woods. It had been two days since he last went to visit his brothers, they would probably be glad to see him -though he did not really bring any interesting tales of difficult fights against powerful enemies.

He was more exhausted than he realized. He only talked for an hour with his brothers before becoming tired. His fatigue seemed to increase exponentially by the minute after that; he barely made it to his bed before he collapsed –asleep literally before he hit the mattress. He slept for over ten hours; it was midday before he returned to Rumen’s square. As he came within view of the fountain, he saw a large mob of people surrounding the town chief, Romenus, shouting angrily. He Liu looked around, noticing for the first time that several of the buildings in Rumen –including the clock tower- seemed to have been damaged. He walked a little farther, then stopped to talk to a fighter that was browsing the nearby vendors. “What happened here?” He Liu asked the fighter, “Why are all these buildings damaged?” The fighter girl looked up, “You really don’t know?” He Liu shook his head, “I left yesterday a little after noon to go see my brothers some distance from here. I just got now got back.” “You are very lucky, then,” the girl answered, “Rumen was attacked again yesterday.” She paused for a moment, “It started off like the last attack, waves of Slime and Mushroom came down the forest path and were met by adventurers from Rumen. Like last time, reinforcements from Elderine arrived to assist; but apparently this had been anticipated. Waves of stronger enemies –Warrior Boars, Brave Honeying, even Gold and Silver Slimes came and pushed back the reinforcements.”

He Liu’s eyes widened as she talked. It was unbelievable that Rumen would be attacked again –even more unbelievable was the thought that adventurers from Elderine would be overrun. The fighter girl continued, “The enemy army entered the city and began attacking the buildings, and any enemy that could get past the fighters from Rumen attacked the townsfolk –fortunately Ruby, Zach and James were assisting in the evacuation behind Rumen’s forces, they were able to assist villagers that were attacked. They had pushed all the way up to Smith James’ shop before more reinforcements arrived –apparently no one in Elderine believed that the first set of reinforcements had been overpowered at first; one of the adventurers from the defeated party had to go to Elderine himself to recruit more help.” The fighter girl shook her head, “The people of Rumen are all angry at the town chief because of the attacks –even though there was little he could do about them. Now they’re all down there yelling at him, demanding he do something about it.” He Liu was uncertain of what to say. This news was incredible, “Maybe I should go talk to Romenus after this,” he thought. Regaining his composure, he thanked the girl for telling him and moved back towards the square. The mob was still there, still shouting at Romenus, so Liu decided to wait until the mob died down to talk to him.

It was another few hours before the town chief was able to calm down the last of the mob and send them away. He Liu looked up as the last two people walked off –obviously discontent, but still calmer than they had been. “Romenus,” He Liu tried to get his attention, “What’s wrong?” “Huh? Oh, it’s you, He Liu,” the town chief answered, “We were attacked again by minions of the King Slime.” “King Slime? What’s that?” He Liu asked. “King Slime is a powerful slime that lives atop a large mountain –which he declared his kingdom some time ago,” Romenus explained, “It seems that he’s decided his mountain is no longer an ideal place for his capital, and he has set his sights on Rumen. He has begun to raise an army to push out the inhabitants of Rumen, and over the last few weeks, he has been sending waves of his army out to judge the power of our defenses, as well as the strength of his army.” Romenus looked up, as though thinking, “After that last attack, he’s probably more than prepared to finish his preparations and launch an attack to crush Rumen before help can arrive.” “Why don’t we just ask for guards or adventurers from Sand Hill or Uruga to be stationed here?” He Liu asked. “All the towns are under threat from monsters, He Liu,” Romenus answered sadly, “Sand Hill is under-defended as it is; their main defense is the narrow corridors leading from the camp site to the wilderness –which makes it easier to defend with fewer people. Uruga is constantly threatened by Orc armies, so no guards or adventurers would volunteer to station themselves here, as that would severely weaken the defenses of that town.” “What about Elderine, then?” Romenus gave a light chuckle, “Elderine has a large wall around it for a reason, young mage…not simply because it looks pretty,” came the reply, “No. Rumen’s hope lies in the adventurers of Rumen itself. If we wait here for the King Slime’s army to attack, we are finished; the last battle proved that.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:47 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter IV: The Ambitions of King Slime

“So what will we do, then?” He Liu asked. “I’ve been talking with Zach, Julia, James and Ruby. We all agree that an attack on King Slime’s kingdom, if strong enough, might change King Slime’s mind –perhaps even topple the King Slime itself.” He Liu looked up in surprise, “An attack? Are you certain?” “No, we aren’t,” Romenus answered, “But in terms of strategy, it makes sense. All the King Slime’s preparation has been for an offensive at Rumen. A defensive in his own territory is not likely to be expected now –we’re supposed to be licking our wounds and making our own defensive plans. He thinks that our adventurers are weak, he thinks he can come in here and take over our town. He thinks all we can do is run. He thinks his land is invincible; but it is in his land that we will fight next.” Romenus’ eyes and expression both darkened visibly, “And it is in there that we will show him what happens to Slimes when they attack us.” Romenus looked down at He Liu, “I have another meeting now.” He began to walk away, then stopped and turned back. “He Liu,” he called. Liu looked over, “Hm?” “When our preparations are complete, can we call on you to be part of the invasion?” He Liu looked around at the buildings, at the scars and char marks on their walls and holes in the roofs. He looked back at Romenus and curled up his arm, holding his fist out in front of him, “You bet!” Romenus nodded, then turned and walked away.

Unsure of what to do next, He Liu decided to go to the hunting grounds in the Forest of Mist. On his way out of the town, he saw the extent of the damage that had been done to the town. After ascending the stairs to the upper section of town, each building had claw or sword marks gouged into the walls, most windows were broken. Char marks and arrows lined the streets and appeared on walls –a remnant from the archers and mages showing just how far the enemies had advanced. Smith James’ shop was in shreds, as was Master Zach’s house. The closer to the town entrance he got, the greater the extent of the damage to the town. At Julia’s house, He Liu noticed dark stains in the stone road –where drops of blood from wounded had hit. As he continued walking, the stains became more frequent, and larger. From the somber faced on the people that were cleaning and repairing the area, and the sad looks from James and Ruby, He Liu had a feeling that there weren’t as many people in Rumen today as there had been before the fighting yesterday.

He passed by Robin, who was standing in the same little spot he always stood in, smiling and humming a tune. He Liu was a bit puzzled at his behavior, and walked over to him. “Robin,” He Liu stated as he approached, “Why are you so happy? Rumen is in ruins, most of the upper level damaged or destroyed! Even the tree you usually stand near is gone!” Robin looked over at him, but held his smile, “I am smiling because I know that everything will be alright.” He Liu looked at the man as though he were crazy. “No damage has been done that cannot be undone. It is true my tree was burned down in the fighting,” Robin stated looking at the dirt and ash where his tree used to stand, “But that is alright. It is a tree, it will grow back in time –this particular tree will come back rather quickly as well –its seed germinates in fires.” He Liu couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Was Robin’s main concern really the tree he used to stand under? “I see that you do not understand my meaning, young one,” Robin said eying the mage, “Being a mage, I had thought you would be one of the last ones to allow your emotions to get the better of you. Then again, you are young…and the young are always quick to draw their own conclusions –wanting to live life as fast as they can.” Robin laughed a bit at this comment. “Okay,” He Liu furrowed his brows, “Now I am confused.”

“Rumen has not always been here, you know,” Robin stated. “Well obviously,” He Liu retorted, “I mean, after all, someone had to build….” His eyes opened up a bit wider and Robin’s smile grew. “Someone had to build it,” Robin finished for him. “The damage done to the town, like the damage to my tree, is something that can be overcome easily, if you are willing to put a little effort and patience into it. Rumen will rebuild, and be just as beautiful as before –just like my tree will.” “But what about the people that died yesterday?” He Liu asked, “That isn’t something that can be fixed like a broken window.” Robin eyed him carefully, “Who said anyone died?” He Liu started, then thought for a moment, “Well…everyone is so sad…and from what I heard, the attack yesterday was huge…and…and there are fewer people around here today.” Robin frowned a bit, “There were no deaths in the fighting yesterday, He Liu. Most people are sad because they allow things that are in fact, rather insignificant to have a significant impact on their emotions. Others, such as James and Zach, are sad because after the attack yesterday, many people left Rumen. Several inhabitants, whom no one wanted to see leave; as well as many adventurers who lost their drive to fight after almost dying in the battle have gone. This is something for trainers like Zach and James to be sad over.”

He Liu looked back at the town as Robin continued to speak, “But you, young mage, have no such reasons to be sad. Rumen, the town you saw yesterday, will be back on its feet and its people will be cheerful again soon enough.” The old man leaned down, drawing He Liu’s attention back to him. Robin put a hand next to his mouth and whispered, “Especially once you take our little message back to the Slime King.” “What?” He Liu stammered, “But that’s…how’d you know about…” “Shh!” Robin shushed him and continued to whisper, “I know because I am one of the ones in the council with Romenus. One of the other reasons I am this happy is because I know that the Slime King will have his hands too full soon to be attacking us again.” With that, Robin winked and straightened up, “Now then, I suggest you go and train a bit, He Liu. Not too hard, though, I have a feeling that Romenus will be calling for you shortly.” He Liu smiled and waved at Robin as he made his way down the forest path. “I guess the old man knows and listens to more than he lets on,” he said to himself, “I’ll have to watch what I say around him from now on.”

He Liu made his way to the Forest of Mist and began training –resting frequently as per Robin’s advice. However it was not until morning two days after that a courier arrived, asking him to return to the town square. The courier gave him a return scroll, which He Liu quickly employed. Appearing back at the square, He Liu looked around and saw about a dozen other adventurers gathered around the fountain, other adventurers scrolling to town themselves every few seconds. Standing along the walls of the nearby buildings, Zach, Ruby and Julia watched the proceedings, looking at the crowd of adventurers assembled, at Romenus, and at each other. Over eighteen adventurers were there, members from each class were present –four mages, four archers, five clerics and seven fighters. They all talked amongst themselves, wondering what exactly was being planned, making assumptions of what they were about to do. Romenus stood on the wall of the fountain so everyone could see him. “Adventurers!” he announced; the talking died down to feint whispers and everyone present looked at him. “King Slime has assembled another army to attack Rumen.” The whispers grew as Romenus paused to prepare his next part of the statement, “Our scouts have confirmed, that the army is primarily made up of Warrior Boars, Iron Slimes, Gold Slimes, Silver Slimes and Prince Slimes.” The whispers died down again –this was an army that the adventurers of Rumen would undoubtedly not be able to stop. “Our scouts have also confirmed,” he continued, “That the army is now on the move –advancing upon Rumen.”

The town square erupted into shouts and yells. Romenus put up his hands to quiet them, but nothing he did could calm the mob. “SHUT UP!” a loud bellow came from behind. The shouts instantly died out as everyone turned to see a very angry Ruby, hand on her sword’s grip, glaring at the mob. “Shut up and listen,” she said loudly, “We did not call you here to argue, we called you here to listen to what we have to say. So SHUT UP AND LISTEN!” “Thank you, Ruby,” came Romenus’ voice from the fountain. The adventurers turned again to look as Romenus continued, “This is the perfect time to launch our counterattack. If we were to attack before his army moved, there would be no way for you to win; we had to wait until the bulk of the King Slime’s forces were gone before we could attack him. I have sent requests to Elderine for reinforcements, but we should not require them. Once the attack is underway, King Slime should panic and send for his forces to return to protect him.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:48 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter IV: The Ambitions of King Slime

The crowd was silent, but anticipation emanated from each one present. “Ordinarily, a mission to a place as far as the Slime King’s mountain would not be condoned, as your adventurer gear would not be able to teleport you back to town should you be severely wounded; but, with help from Julia, Ruby and Robin, we have created a brace which increases the effective range of your gear. The increase is only temporary, however. It will last for thirty two minutes. After that, the enchantment fades and your gear will no longer transport you back to Rumen. This is why we have created the additional enchantment, that after thirty minutes, you will automatically be teleported back to Rumen. It doesn’t matter if you are on the brink of victory, or the brink of defeat; in thirty minutes, you will come back here.” Romenus pause and looked around. All the adventurers were watching him intently. He pumped his fist in the air, “Today we take this war to King Slime! Now, soldiers of Rumen! Fighters! Clerics! Archers! Mages! Go and send King Slime our message! Let him know if he wants to fight Rumen, Rumen will fight back!”

The town square erupted into cheers and yells from the adventurers as Rumen stepped down from the podium. The shouts continued as they lined up to receive their brace from Zach, Ruby or Julia. He Liu stepped into the line –he did not cheer, but he definitely felt the anxiety and desire to strike that the other adventurers felt. He waited his turn, until he was beckoned forward by Julia. She reached into her bag and pulled out the brace, fastening it around his waist. “The extended range enchantment will begin once it senses the effects of teleportation magic being cast,” she explained, “So from now until the attack begins, do not use a teleportation scroll, or you will cause the teleportation increase –and its timer- to begin.” He Liu nodded, and Julia motioned for him to move into the group that had their braces. “What about the teleportation scroll, Julia?” he asked. She looked at him as though confused, “Hm? I just told you not to use one,” “No, no,” he shook his head, “I mean, where’s the scroll to get to the Slime King’s mountain?” “Ooooh!” Julia smiled, “Sorry, but you’re not using scrolls this time; the transportation enchantment for both directions is in your brace. We’re using a joint-magic spell to activate the teleportation magic in the brace, which will then trigger the extended range return spell.” “Oh,” he nodded, “I see.” Julia smiled and sent him to stand in the group of adventurers that had already obtained their braces.

The waiting was the most annoying part. Standing there, looking at the other adventurers going up one at a time to take their brace, lingering doubts that had somehow been repressed by Romenus’ speech and the cheers of the other adventurers now made their way back into He Liu’s mind. “The King Slime’s armies almost decimated Rumen last time,” he thought, “They overwhelmed adventurers from Elderine. Even if it is a smaller army than they dealt with, how was this small group supposed to win? What if the army was larger than the masters thought?” He was not the only one having doubts, he noticed; many other adventurers, even fighters and clerics –the most durable adventurers- had worried expressions on their faces. A few archers and mages, he noticed, looked downright afraid of what was to come.

The waiting was finally finished. The last of the adventurers grabbed his belt and walked over to the assembly of adventurers –which was much quieter now. After the last of them gathered, Ruby, Zach and Julia moved around the gathering of adventurers, taking up spots at even intervals around the circle. Romenus strode forward toward the quiet mass of adventurers pausing in front; everyone turned to look at him. “Masters Zach, Ruby and Julia,” he began, “together will initiate the teleportation spell which will send you to King Slime’s mountain.” He Liu looked around, Zach was setting up a series of objects that looked like stones in front of him; Ruby and Julia were doing the same. Romenus continued talking, “Once this process is initiated, you will find yourself in combat.” It seemed impossible a moment ago, but the square grew even quieter as he spoke those words. “You young adventurers are the last hope of Rumen,” he looked around the circle, “This army, this counterattack, it is our last stand. If we try to defend against this last army, we will lose, the town will be leveled and everyone that cannot escape will be killed. Make no mistake this is what the King Slime wants.”

He paused again, then shouted loudly, “Is this something you will allow to happen? Will you let this town be destroyed? Will you let those who vested their trust in you, those who rely on your protection…will you let them be killed by his armies?” A deafening roar came from the crowd. Only a score were present but what was heard was the shout of an army one thousand strong as the adventurers present yelled “no” again and again. The masters began chanting, the stones around them glowing dimly. “Keep this in mind as you enter his domain,” he yelled, “If you give up, if you turn back; that is exactly what you will be allowing!” Another shout raged from the crowd, the stones in front of the masters glowed with greater intensity, the area underneath the adventurers beginning to glow as well. “Army of Rumen,” Romenus shouted with a salute and a fearsome grin, “Give King Slime our regards.” The crowd roared again as the glow grew brighter, surrounding them and outshining the sun in the sky until the bright yellow glow of the spell was all they could see. The glow dimmed and the group of adventurers found themselves on a rocky surface at the base of a large mountain.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:48 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter V: The King Slime Counterattack

The adventurers looked around, there was a cliff behind them, and a dirt path ahead of them, with a few Fire Mushroom in the pathway. The Fire Mushroom seemed surprised, and backed away a bit. The adventurers at first were not sure what to do. Suddenly one of the fighters raised her sword into the air giving a tremendous yell, “For Rumen!” The fighters all drew their swords and charged at the Fire Slimes, the archers, mages and clerics followed suite, drawing their weapons, charging in and giving a great battle cry of their own. The seven fighters of the group made quick work of the three Fire Slimes –they fell so fast only the fastest of the archers were able to get a shot in. They shouted and cheered at this first small victory. “If the rest are this easy,” said a nearby archer, “we won’t be here more than a few minutes.” “That’s not likely," a nearby fighter said, pointing with his sword. They followed his gaze, charging toward them were a dozen enemies, made up of Iron Slime, Brave Honeying and imps. "This just got a lot harder," He Liu said as he looked at the approaching mob. The rest of the adventurers also quieted at the sight of the encroaching enemy. Again the female fighter let out a yell and charged forward, joined quickly by the rest of the small army. The two sides rushed toward each other, the imps hopping out in front and leading the attack for Slime King’s forces. Rumen’s army bolted forward, the fighters raising their shields and archers drawing arrows as the minions of the King Slime drew near.

The Imps flew backwards several feet when the much larger and heavier fighters, holding their shields out in front of them, plowed into them as the two sides collided. The fighters halted and began hacking away at the Iron Slimes, clerics standing behind them, healing whenever needed, attacking when they could. Arrows and magic blasts sailed past them, into the Imps and Brave Honeying as well as the ground around the enemies. He Liu spotted one fighter who had two Iron Slimes and a Brave Honeying attacking her; it was, he noticed, the same fighter who had been the first to charge in each skirmish so far. He Liu took careful aim at the Brave Honeying that was trying to use its speed to flank her. Liu drew power from within himself and moved his arms in a circle; feeling the energy flow through him, he channeled it into his wand’s focusing crystal. The Honeying skirted around the fighter as the two slimes pressed the attack from her front. He Liu held the energy in his staff back with his mind while simultaneously guiding more energy into it. The crystal glowed a bright white as the energy pushed outwards, and He Liu finally allowed the energy to rush forward, guiding it toward the honeying. The Brave Honeying swung up and around, readying to attack the fighter from the rear in a deadly head-butt to the back of her skull.

The honeying was so focused on the fighter, it never even saw the Magic Missile flying towards it. The ethereal bolt slammed into the side of the honeying, leaving an enormous hole in the side of the beast and swiftly sending it to the ground for good. The fighter dashed forward using slice and dice on one slime; as it fell she jumped back to avoid the retaliatory attack from its partner. She landed and used a stun attack, leaving it defenseless. Before she could deliver the final blow, more than ten arrows and five magic spells impacted the slime, leaving little more than a few messy pieces of the monster remaining. She looked up, and saw that the other enemies had been dealt with already; and no one from Rumen’s side had been lost so far. The group rallied themselves and ran forward again, confident now in their abilities at having finished such a tough fight. The adventurers mixed together in their run, some running faster, wanting to see what enemies lay ahead, others running slower to save their strength for the fight. As He Liu ran, someone next to him spoke, “Hey, thanks for the help back there.” He Liu looked to the side, it was the girl fighter again. “Oh. No problem,” he answered. “I mean I didn’t need the help,” she grinned, “I knew where that little brat was, I just wanted to kill those two slimes first.” “Ah,” He Liu grinned back, “Well I’ll keep that in mind next time I see an enemy about to kill you.” She laughed as they ran, “My name’s Queen of England.” “Queen of where now?” He Liu asked, “Wait…you’re a queen?” She laughed again, “No no, I’m not really a queen, that’s just the name I took. And England is a place I read about in a book once.” “Ah,” he answered, “My name’s He Liu.” “That sounds silly. What kind of name is that?” she asked. “This from the girl who calls herself the queen of a place that only exists in some fiction book,” he smiled. “Fair enough,” she grinned back.

The group was slowing down, most of them growing quieter again. They looked ahead and saw the front of the group was almost at a dead stop. “Looks like it’s show time,” He Liu said. “Right,” she answered, “Well, back up to the front for me, then.” “Good luck, Queen,” he answered as he stopped running. “You too, He,” she replied as she ran forward. “Try ‘Liu’,” he said loudly, “It sounds a bit better.” She looked back and smiled, then faced forward and rejoined the fighters up front. Liu looked ahead, there was a cliff ahead, and a ramp nearby. Guarding the ramp were several large Ratmen and more Brave Honeying. Archers drew their bows and fighters raised their shields as the Ratmen and Honeying advanced on them. Once more the archers loosed their arrows, the projectiles joined in flight by the shimmering energy blasts of the mages. The attacks sailed into the midst of the enemies, felling several honeying as well as wounding a few of the much stronger Ratmen. The fighters charged forward, drawing the attention of the mob. The Ratmen sliced at the fighters with their claws, gouging metal shields, slicing into, and sometimes through, the leather hide that the fighters wore as their armor. While the Ratmen were strong, their low number made it quick for the adventurers to overwhelm them. Magic attacks and arrows flew into them from behind as the fighters and clerics pummeled them and sliced at their midsections from the front. Only moments after this fight began, the last Ratman fell to the ground with a hissing gurgle.

The adventurers did not waste time cheering now, they moved quickly toward the ramp leading up the mountain. As they neared, a bright blue field suddenly appeared at the ramp’s entrance. One cleric charged at the blue field intent on running through, instead bouncing off of it as though it were a solid wall. “What is it?” someone asked. There were a few “I don’t know”s when one person chimed in, “It’s some kind of barrier spell.” “Well,” shouted one fighter, “If it’s a barrier, let’s break it down!” Several others agreed with the fighter and began attacking the field, apparently not making much of an impression. He Liu looked more closely at the blue field. It emanated from the sides of the ramp’s entrance, between two large totem poles. His eyes widened, “It’s a binary magic.” “A what?” someone nearby asked. “A binary magic spell for a barrier,” he said, “It uses two magical items to create one very strong magical spell; in this case, a barrier. With a spell as strong as this, we won’t be able to break through it by attacking the barrier” “Oh like you’d know,” shouted another mage, a chorus of murmurs followed. “I’ve read about them before,” he replied angrily, “The magic is cast to absorb a large amount of damage, and the spell is constantly absorbed and recast by the two objects used –those two totem poles on either side of the ramp. But if you don’t believe me, continue attacking.”

The group quieted, the silence lasting for a bit. Queen spoke up, “Alright, Liu. Say we believe you….how do we get past?” He Liu shrugged, “I’m not sure. I never read a book where someone got past them.” A fighter walked toward the ramp, “You said it’s a binary magic that depends on the two enchanted items to cast absorb and recast the magic?” He Liu looked over, “Yeah, what of it?” The fighter gestured with his sword, “So why don’t we just break these poles, then? I mean, if the spell is only cast between them, then the poles should be open to attack.” “That makes sense,” he grinned, “I guess it also explains why in any book I read where they were employed, they were always planted in something hard to destroy –like fortified walls being built around them.” The fighter sliced at the slim pole, cutting it in half. As the top of the pole fell the blue field faded, and the large group began advancing up the ramp. As Liu began to walk up the ramp, the fighter smiled at him, “Good thing King Slime doesn’t read the same books you do.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:49 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter V: The King Slime Counterattack

“Man this sucks,” an archer behind Liu spoke to another. Liu turned as the other archer, obviously confused, replied to his friend, “What does?” “I haven’t defeated a single enemy yet,” he said angrily, “and we’re supposed to be fighting the King Slime’s army…the hardest guys here so far have been Ratmen.” “Count your blessings,” his friend cautioned. “Heck with it, I’m going ahead. If all that’s here is Ratmen at least I’ll get a kill.” The archer ran ahead to the top of the ramp. As he neared, a large brutish monster charged out from the side and sent the archer flying over the side of the cliff. The archer landed on the side of the cliff, tumbling down, He Liu imagined the popping and cracking sounds of bones shattering as the boy fell against rocks. The archer’s body began glowing yellow as he rolled down the hill, and just before hitting the bottom, he vanished. The warrior boar turned and looked down the ramp, spotting the mob approaching. It seemed almost to smile, then lifted its head up and howled loudly, a mixture of growls and hisses responded, the trampling of dozens of feet could be heard. Quickly, a group of Ratmen and Warrior Boars appeared behind the first beast, and began charging at the human trespassers

The Ratmen attacked first, far faster than the Warrior Boars. They hissed as they sliced at fighters with their claws, but the fighters were able to hold them back while the archers and mages picked them off from farther back; then the boars arrived. Far stronger than the Ratmen, a few boars simply knocked the fighters back, sending them tumbling down the ramp or cliff, or into other adventurers behind them. Those boars continued forwards, eying the mages and archers behind the fighters. It went without saying that if those boars came in close, there would be many mages and archers missing by the end of this fight. Without talking, all the ranged attackers targeting the boars that had gotten past the fighters; tough as they were, they were no match for eight angry archers and mages. A few clerics ran down the ramp to heal the fighters that had been knocked off, while the rest continued trying to assist the fighters through healing or contributing their own attacks.

He Liu set his sights on a Boar that was beating back a fighter. He concentrated on the energy inside of him and began casting spells at the beast. “Earth and Wind,” he drew energy for his attack with little effort, and sent it flying at the boar. It crashed into the boar’s side, hurting it, but it still pressed the attack against the fighter. “Fire. Earth and Wind,” he continued his chain of spells, sending bolt after bolt at the boar to assist the fighter, “Ice. Earth and…” “Whoa!” he shouted out loud. The boar had gotten annoyed at Liu for attacking him and charged in. “Earth and Wind. Lightning,” he began chaining spells a bit faster now, hoping to stop the monster before it could reach him, or hoping at least to make enough of a light show that someone would notice a mage with a very angry boar coming at him. The boar closed in, slamming his fist into Liu’s chest and sending him flying backwards. He landed against the side of the cliff, everything above his lower back hanging off the side. The boar stalked forwards, the other adventurers too involved in their own fights to even notice him. The boar made a chortling growl as it towered over the mage. Liu could only think of two options at this point. The first was to fall off of the cliff and hope he survived; the second was to sit there and see if the boar intended to beat him to death slowly –if it did, someone might notice and help…but if it didn’t, he was done for. Finding neither option particularly appealing, he decided he may as well try attacking again. The boar grinned again and peered at the mage, Liu suddenly swung his staff around, knocking the creature in its sensitive nose. The boar stepped back as he continued to swing his staff around. “Lightning,” the thought and spell came almost unbidden. The bolt of electricity hit the boar in the chest leaving a black scorch mark, and causing the beast to howl in pain.

He Liu smiled, then frowned, his eyes widening as the Warrior Boar stared back down at him, curling his lip –there was no mistaking the Boars intentions now. He spun onto his stomach and pushed off of the ledge with his foot, jumping into the air -deciding he’d take his chances with dropping to the ground. The boar reached forward and grabbed his foot, then whipped him up and around like a rag doll, slamming him into the ground. The boar threw Liu up the ramp –so that the mage would not be able to simply roll to safety. He stomped forward toward the mage –who’d had the wind knocked out of him from the impact. Liu rolled onto his back, trying to breathe and straighten himself out. He had just managed to sit up as the boar arrived again. The boar growled and raised both hands well above its head, preparing to finish the insolent mage. The boar’s eyes widened and its body jerked as a steel blade suddenly appeared from the monster’s throat. The blade retracted, causing the Boar to jerk again. It made a gurgling sound as it dropped its arms, then collapsed. Standing behind the fallen boar was a grinning fighter. “You’re welcome,” Queen said with a smirk. He Liu grabbed his staff and got to his feet. “I guess we’re even,” he said smiling back. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she replied. Liu chuckled as they ran over to the rest of the group –which was finishing off the last two boars.

By the time they reached the next ramp, they had lost three fighters, a mage, two clerics and another archer in the fighting. “Can we rest a bit?” He Liu asked as he put his hands on his knees, panting. “I don’t know,” a cleric replied, “How much time do we have left in here?” Liu shrugged. “A little more than fifteen minutes,” an archer replied. “Okay,” Queen –who had been named the official tanker of this battle- said, “We’ll rest for another minute.” They sat and rested, some of them in mushrooms, others using potions, a few even using alchemy skills to make potions out of supplies they brought with them. Behind them there was a faint buzzing and humming sound from another binary barrier spell. Once the minute was up, Queen walked over to one of the staffs and sliced it apart. “All right,” she announced, ”Time to go.” Those adventurers in their mushrooms sent their houses back, the few that were lying on the ground stood as they gathered at the base of the ramp. They all looked up, a Silver Slime stood at the top of the ramp looking back at them and grinning. “I wonder what it’s smiling for?” He Liu wondered aloud. “Probably because it knows what else is up there with it,” a nearby mage replied. “Well whatever it is,” an archer said drawing her bow, “It’s our job to kill it.” Queen smiled as she drew her sword again, “And we won’t do that if we just sit around here chatting all day.” With a roaring cry, the adventurers charged up the ramp, as several Gold Slime and a few more Silver Slime hopped up to the edge of the ramp.

The slimes made no move at the human’s advance, they sat there at the top of the ramp and grinned. The archers and mages let fly with their attacks, trying to soften them up for the fighters. The fighters charged in, swinging their swords and shouting out insults to keep the enemies focused on them instead of the archers and mages behind them. He Liu let loose a spell chain against a Silver Slime, and had the satisfaction of seeing it sag to the ground. He looked for his next target, and saw a fighter being attacked by two Gold Slime. There was a cleric with him, trying to protect him, but apparently the cleric hadn’t realized that one of the Gold Slimes was growing aggravated at seeing the cleric heal the fighter. The Gold Slime stopped attacking the fighter for a few seconds, as though debating which opponent it should attack. Its partner attacked the fighter, knocking him back into a wall with a loud thud. The cleric raised his mace and cast a spell, healing the fighter, but also helping the slime make its decision and sealing the unfortunate cleric’s fate. The Gold Slime waddled forward a bit, but stayed far enough away that the cleric was not put on guard. It waited for the cleric to try to heal again; as the cleric lifted his mace, the slime leapt forward, tackling the cleric and falling off the cliff, taking the cleric with it.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:49 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter V: The King Slime Counterattack

The fighter shouted in surprise and rage, the Gold Slime he was fighting looked over as well, then looked back at the fighter; this fighter had been giving it a lot of trouble, but without the cleric, he wouldn’t stand much of a chance. He Liu ran up the ramp, ignoring the other fights going on around him, drawing energy for his first attack. As soon as he was within range, he shot an ice bolt at the slime –which had its back to Liu, focusing only on the fighter. The ice bolt hit the slime, causing its normally absorbent outside to become a bit brittle in places and robbing the creature of energy and focus. He Liu did not waste his opportunity, he continued chaining spells –avoiding fire, and pummeling the back of the hardy slime. The fighter did not waste his chance, either, as soon as he saw the slime slow down, he let loose with several sword skills, severely wounding the slime. Slimes by nature are not very strong in terms of attack, but they were notoriously tough to beat, as their gel-like bodies absorbed a lot of damage and energy from attacks, and their ability to regenerate enabled them to be hit repeatedly over time and not suffer significant damage. However, slimes can only regenerate so much, and as with any living being in Isya, if enough holes were put in it, it would die eventually. The mage and the fighter proved to be too much damage for the slime’s body to absorb or recover from; overwhelmed, it sagged to the ground, folding in on itself until it appeared more like something one would hang on a wall or use as a mat than a fearsome opponent. The fighter nodded to Liu in thanks before running back to the ramp to help the rest of the adventurers with the remaining slimes. A few minutes later, they had won another skirmish; the only loss on their side was one cleric.

They regrouped and moved along the path around the mountain. He Liu was walking up front talking to one of the fighters, when he stopped suddenly, as did anyone else looking forward. All conversations died out quickly and people just stared ahead of them; at the 3 incredible large slimes standing on the path. These white slimes were huge, they were strong, and they were tough; they were the spawns of King Slime itself –Prince Slimes. No one said anything, no one needed to; they were all wondering the same thing: What now? Iron Slimes were annoying, but easy, Silver slimes were tough, but manageable. Gold Slimes were hard, but could be overwhelmed by the force from Rumen over time. Prince Slimes were said to be stronger than five Gold Slime. Going after these slime would be difficult, so when one fighter suggested going the other way around the path, most of the adventurers jumped at the idea. Going that way proved just as impossible, however, when they found three more Prince Slime in the way. Attacking all three of these slime would be tantamount to suicide, so the party backed off for a minute to come up with a strategy of engaging only one at a time. “Lure it out by attacking,” someone finally suggested. “But how?” another member countered, “A fighter or cleric would be spotted by all of them and get mobbed.” “Well then we’ll have to use a ranged attack,” the first countered, “An archer or a mage would do just fine.” “No, a mage’s attack would be a bad idea,” Queen stated in response, “Too flashy, easily seen by the other slimes; it would still draw their attention.” “So an archer, then,” said Liu, “The arrow would be hard to see for the slimes if it were fired up very high, and would really only attract the one slime targeted by the archer.” “Exactly,” Queen smiled. Liu turned back and looked at the two remaining archers, “So do we have a volunteer?” One of the archers raised her hand and stepped forward.

“Okay,” Queen grinned while looking at the archer, “We’ll hide a ways back around the turn so we’ll be out of sight of the other two slimes. You sneak around the path and fire an arrow at one of the slime. It should come to investigate what hit it without raising an alarm. Once it is out and away from its companions, step out and fire again to get its attention –get it chasing you. Once you get to us, we’ll run forward to surprise it.” The archer nodded and turned, raising her bow as the group of adventurers crept back down the path. She gave them fifteen seconds to be sure they had enough time to prepare, then, hugging the wall, she began creeping around the path until she could see the large white slimes. She crouched low behind a rock and grabbed an arrow from her quiver. She put it in her bow and drew it back, selecting one of the slimes as her prey. She aimed the arrow up, and let it shoot out from the bow. The arrow soared into the air, then plummeted downward. The archer cringed as the arrow was hit by an unseen wind only fifty feet above its target. The arrow hit the wall of the cliff, bounced away and over the side of the cliff to the side of the slime she had fired at. Assuming failure at seeing the arrow’s course change, she readied another arrow; however a few rocks were knocked loose by the arrow, and they crackled as they rolled to the ground, drawing the attention of one of the white slimes. “That works, I guess,” she smiled to herself as the Prince Slime hopped closer to see what caused the noise. She waited until it was a good forty meters from its friends before standing and drawing her next arrow. The slime straightened upon seeing her, then frowned as the archer’s next arrow plunged into his skin.

Angered at the pain and the audacity of the young girl at attacking him, he decided not to call his brothers for help and instead charged at the archer. The archer girl whirled on her heel and took off down the path, the slime grinned to itself, “I can’t say I blame her. I am quite impressive and intimidating.” The archer turned again and fired, another stinging arrow stuck into his body. He growled as he chased the girl, letting her know what was to come should he ever catch up to her. “This one is fast,” he thought, “When I catch her, I will enjoy tackling her and slowly crushing her to death.” The archer girl rounded a corner, undoubtedly trying to get away by making him lose sight of his target. “Too bad for her I grew up on this mountain,” he thought, “I know its paths like I know…” His thought was cut short as a dozen adventurers came charging around the corner with a loud yell. Two mages and another archer –as well as the first girl he’d been chasing- attacked him with a painful burst of magic spells and sharp arrows. Fighters ran up to him, encircling him, and began hacking away at his flesh. He called for his brothers, but they were too far away to hear his cries. He began fighting back, leaping at fighters and clerics, trying to knock them off balance, to crush them or push them over a cliff; but each time he knocked over one fighter, one of the other four, or one of the remaining clerics would stand between him and the downed opponent. More painful blasts and shudders came from his back as the mages sent their spells into him burning and blasting away his flesh, the archers shooting their arrows into the wounds from the mages. He began feeling dizzy and nauseous, unable to focus enough to fight back effectively. Fuzz seemed to be everywhere he looked and strange black dots began appearing, more and more by the second, consuming everything he saw. The world turned black as the dots finished eating everything, and he felt himself falling forward. He heard…something…hit the ground; then suddenly, nothing seemed to matter as he just kind of drifted off -almost like going to sleep.

The adventurers from Rumen cheered as the Prince Slime sagged to the ground, then slipped over the side of the cliff. They took a minute to rest and congratulate each other on the perfect execution of their plan. Liu, who had watched the slime’s body tumble and roll down the mountainside, spotted something at the mountain’s base. “Umm, hey guys?” he started, “How much time do we have left before we go back to Rumen?” Some of the group quieted, as his was not the voice of cheer which all the others had, but rather one of foreboding. “About ten minutes,” someone answered, “Why?” “How long would it have taken us to get up here if we didn’t have to fight?” he did not answer the person’s question. “Maybe about six minutes,” the same person responded, “Why?” “How long will it take us to kill these last two slimes?” He asked, again disregarding the other’s question. “Forget it!” the person answered, “If you’re just going to ignore my questions, I’m not answering yours!” “Well,” said Queen stepping past the annoyed adventurer, “Figure about two minutes per Prince Slime, in combat, two minutes to hide and lure, that’s about eight right there.” “I see,” Liu said continuing to look down, “And what if we only had six minutes to fight them?” “Liu,” Queen said walking over to the ridge he was standing on, “Why are you asking these….” Her jaw dropped as she looked down to see the answer to her unfinished question. A long line of enemies was making its way around the base of the mountain. Though far below them, it was easy to see that the procession included Warrior Boars, Gold Slimes, Silver Slimes and Prince Slimes. The King Slime’s army had returned.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:50 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter V: The King Slime Counterattack

Queen spun around, “Archer, get moving up the path and lure the next slime! Rest of you, back to your positions! Brake’s over! GET A MOVE ON!” Without question, the other adventurers got into position and waited for the archer to run past them again. “What’s going on?” a cleric whispered. “King Slime’s army is back,” He Liu answered, “They must’ve gotten word that we were attacking them here.” “I’ll tell you something else,” Queen said grimly, “Once they reach the first ramp, it may not take them six minutes to get up here.” She looked back with a worried expression, “We may only have five.” “So what do we do?” asked another fighter. “We run for it,“ said Liu. “Oh that’s really helpful!,” the remaining archer whispered sarcastically, “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re on a mountain! We don’t exactly have a lot of room to run away on; and there’s only one way down: through them!” “Of course I realize that,” Liu snapped back in a whisper, “What I mean is we kill the slimes in front of us and get as far around the mountain as we can. We know that in ten minutes we’re gone, they don’t. All they know is that in order for us to climb down the mountain, we have to pass by them, they have no reason to hurry that they know of; so we make them take a long time finding us in the hopes that we won’t have much time left when they catch us.” “That’s not very promising,” said the other mage. “I know,” whispered Queen, “but it’s all we can do at the moment. Now shut up!” They heard footfalls approaching, with a louder beating thud behind them. The archer girl ran past them, nimbly dodging the people crouched along the path. The group shot to its feet and charged forward as the Prince Slime jumped around the corner.

Like the first Prince Slime, this one was surprised by the charge and quickly surrounded. The fighters mocked the slime to keep its attention while the archers and mages focused their attacks on a single spot on the slime, hoping to do massive damage quickly. The Prince Slime was ferocious, sometimes bowling over two or three of the four fighters with a single charge; but soon it began attacking slower and weaker as its wounds overwhelmed its healing ability. The Prince Slime at last sagged to the ground and slid over the side of the cliff. Not pausing for a break or celebration, Rumen’s army raced forward to meet the next Prince Slime, knowing that soon the King Slime’s main army would make its way up to their level. The last Prince Slime was alert at noticing its two brothers were gone; being suspicious of the circumstances it was not surprised when the adventurers came charging around the side of the mountain path. Knowing what fate his brothers had suffered, the Prince Slime became angry, and charged forward at the four fighters that ran out in front. With its first charge it managed to knock one of the fighters over the cliff. It shrank back as the first volley from the archers and mages struck, then charged forward past the fighters to go after the more vulnerable mages and archers.

Liu watched as the archers skirted around the large blob as it hopped nearby. Having missed those targets, it set its sights on the other mage. The mage’s face turned white as the slime jumped forward with a fierce growl, ignoring the taunts of the fighters. Unable to move or attack, the mage simply trembled as the white monster approached. Liu snapped out of his daze and began chain casting at the slime to draw its attention away from the other mage. He led off with a fire bolt, followed by magic missile, lightning, magic missile and ice bolt, leaving a large and painful wound in the side of the slime, halting its advance –and causing it to change targets. “Good one, Liu,” he thought to himself, sending out another magic missile as the slime charged at him, “What now, genius?” The slime continued to charge as the other mage ran for cover with the archers, who began firing at the infuriated slime. Despite their best efforts, it seemed nothing would alter this slime’s decision to crush He Liu. Queen ran up behind the slime, taunting and mocking the beast, but to no avail. Annoyed by the monster’s lack of attention, she gave a swift kick to the back side of the slime; the slime halted, straightened up, then curled down and twisted to give her a sinister look.

The slime spun and charged at the same time, knocking Queen back against the wall. A cleric healed her, but the slime moved too fast for her to get away from the wall before it could attack her again. The slime pinned the fighter between it and the wall, a mixed death of crushing and suffocation that would without a doubt be painful and slow –especially with the clerics continuing to heal her. The mages and archers opened up on the back of the slime as the fighters sliced away. The slime was driving on pure rage, it knew it was going to lose, but it was intent on killing that one fighter before it died. The other fighters began leaping into the air with their attacks, adding their own cuts to the deepening hollow area that the mages and archers were gouging in the slime’s white body. The slime gave a sudden shriek and tumbled backwards as one of the fire bolts from the mages exploded inside of the slime’s body. Queen fell to the ground, gasping for air as the final Prince Slime’s body sloshed over the side of the cliff. She got to her feet and sheathed her sword –which had miraculously not been pushed into her by the slime’s crushing attack. As she regained her composure, Liu leaned over and smiled, “Okay…Now I owe you one.” She smiled back and the other adventurers gave a brief cheer before they remembered why they were in a hurry. They rushed to the side of the cliff and looked down at the Slime King’s army –almost halfway up the mountain. They raced to the side of the mountain directly opposite the ramp and waited.

They sat there for what seemed like an eternity before Liu looked over the side again, “Time?” “About two minutes,” someone answered. “How far are they?” Queen asked. “They are on the level below us.” Everyone left looked around nervously. “What do we do if they get here before time runs out?” one of them asked. “We’ll have to fight them,” Queen answered. “Heck with that!” another fighter shouted, “If they get here before time’s up, I’m jumping! If we fight I KNOW I’m a dead man; at least I’ll have a CHANCE if I choose the cliff!” There were a few murmurs of agreement or chastisement. Liu could not fault their feelings, though; after all, he’d made the same decision himself only fifteen minutes before. “Sheesh, is that all it’s been?” he thought to himself, “Feels like it’s been ages since I ticked off that boar.” “Look, you guys can do what you want,” Queen said, shaking her head, “But if they get here before we leave, I’m fighting. It will be easier if you guys are here too, but regardless, I’m fighting.” It was an agonizing wait until they heard it: the scrapes of clawed feet on the rock, the thumping of large slimes as they hopped along the path. They started to retreat until they realized that the sound was coming from both directions of the path –they were surrounded. The adventurers were dead quiet as the army made its way into view on both sides of the path. The army stopped, Warrior Boars in the lead, followed by Silver Slimes, then Gold Slimes. The boars gave evil smiles with their jagged teeth, and the slimes grew big grins at seeing the small trapped human army.

The lead boar on one side lifted his arm and gave a roar, and its entire side came charging at the adventurers. Queen drew her sword, the three fighters around her did likewise. The archers drew arrows and the mages readied themselves to attack. Queen gave a loud yell and charged forward, the other fighters behind her. He Liu drew energy for an ice bolt, channeled it into his staff and sent it at the lead boar, which was charging at Queen. Queen raised her sword, then dropped it low and swung up and inside with a charging slice and dice attack. There was a bright flash of yellow as her sword swung up at the beast’s neck; the narrow path they ran across widened, the loose gravel beneath them turned to cobblestone, and the mountain vanished, being replaced with a view of a small harbor. Queen, as well as two other fighters that were mid-attack when the teleportation spell went into effect, lost her balance and stumbled forward when her sword sliced through air instead of the thick hide she was anticipating. One of the archers was just about to release his arrow when he was transported into town. He quickly grabbed for the arrow, catching the very tip of it between the end of his thumb and index finger. The grip would not last, and if he tried to regrip the arrow, he’d probably lose control over it; so he instead chose to aim the arrow out to the ocean and released it, letting it fly out over the ship docked in Rumen’s harbor and out to sea.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:51 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter V: The King Slime Counterattack

The adventurers looked around, seeing many citizens of the town standing around the square waiting for them; the Masters of Rumen: James, Ruby, Julia, Robin, Zach and Romenus among them. Everyone began cheering loudly as the adventurer regained their composure, and Romenus walked up to them, positively beaming with excitement. “Well done, adventurers!” he said to the group, “Your actions at the mountain have definitely put a stop on King Slime’s ambitions! Our scouts reported the enemy’s halt in advancement minutes after you arrived at his mountain! Rumen is safe!” As he said this, a number of other adventurers made their way into the square: the ones that had been defeated in the battle. Romenus looked at them and smiled, “As is every adventurer that began this mission.” At this the townsfolk and the remaining adventurers cheered in celebration. Romenus waited for a minute, then held up his hand to quiet them, “As a reward for your bravery and heroism, the masters and I have created something special or all those who participated in the battle!” He reached into his own small bag and pulled out a tiny chest, “These chests,” he began, “Each contain a prize. We do not know what is inside it when we give it to you –the prize is generated by the box itself. It may be anything from some potions, to a weapon, to a special item that is hard to obtain. The harder you fought, and the longer you fought, the more likely the chance of something good appearing in the box. If the adventurers would line up here, they may take their prize boxes.”

The adventurers lined up and one by one they went up to Romenus, took their box, and walked over to the fountain. He Liu was the last mage to go up, as Romenus handed him the chest he whispered, “Don’t open it yet, stand next to the other adventurers.” He did as he was told, and waited for the last adventurers to get into the line. Romenus stood next to them, and turned to the crowd, “I give you the heroes of Rumen!” The crowd erupted in applause again as Romenus turned toward them and gave a bow, “Adventurers, we thank you.” They waited for the applause to die out before the first of them started leaving, many eagerly opening their chests. He Liu walked over to the edge of the harbor and sat down, looking at his chest. “So what’d you get?” came a voice from behind him. He turned to see Queen standing there, “Oh, I haven’t looked yet,” he replied, “How about you?” “I got a slightly refined sword,” she grinned, “should be useful when I’m strong enough to use it.” “That’s great,” he smiled back. “Go on,” she urged, “Open it.” He Liu opened his box, which vanished in his hands. “Hey, what the?” he stammered. “Relax,” Queen chuckled, “That’s supposed to happen, the items get placed in your inventory.” Liu looked a bit embarrassed, “Oh.” “Don’t worry about it, Liu,” she said, “Everyone did that when they opened their box, including me.” He smiled again. “So what did you get?” she asked. “Oh let me check,” he Liu queried his bag, and in the last filled box, he saw five potions. “Darn,” he said, “I got some potions.” Queen looked skeptical, “You sure?” she asked, “Remember if you had any empty spaces in your inventory, it fills those first.”

He thought for a moment, then queried his bag again, checking the individual boxes themselves. He reached into his bag and pulled something out; two red earrings that looked like they were made from some sort of a gel. “Wow, Liu!” Queen exclaimed, “You got King Slime jelly earrings!” Liu furled his eyebrows, “Is that good?” “Good? They increase your physical and spiritual durability!” she explained, “In short, they make you tougher to kill and let you cast more magic before needing to rest; it’s like the perfect mage accessory!” “Really?” he Liu asked checking the odd-looking earrings, “That’s kinda cool.” “Well go ahead,” said Queen, getting her excitement in check, “Put them on.” He Liu looked back at the earrings, “Ummm….” “What?” Queen asked. “I don’t have pierced ears,” he stated. Queen grinned, “Oh, well, we’ll just have to fix that.” “What are you…? Oooh no,” Liu finished as he saw Queen draw her sword. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt at all,” she said smiling as the tip of the blade slipped out of its sheath. Liu got to his feet and started walking backward, “You know, I really don’t think that’s necessary.” He looked behind himself, seeing if anyone was there. “I probably don’t look good in earrings anyways, what with my long hair and all,” he chuckled nervously. Queen began walking towards him. “So uh,” Liu continued, I think I’ll just be uh….on my way, then.” Queen began taking faster steps. “Bye! See ya!” Liu said as he whirled on his heel and took off down the streets of Rumen. Queen laughed and gave chase.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:51 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter VI: Friends of the Family

The brigand rushed in, twin blades slicing at the cleric, who raised her shield and deflected the blows with a loud metallic clang. The swords scraped across her shield as the Mara Pirate Elite drew her weapons back and readied for her next attack –but she would not get the chance. The cleric swung her mace into the pirate’s chest, sending her staggering back, then sidestepped away from the doomed pirate. “Liu! Now!” she shouted. That was his cue, he swung his arms around, sending a blast of energy at the pirate, which slammed into her just as she regained her footing. Liu brought his outstretched hand up around, then out to the side as more energy crackled between his fingers, sending a bolt of lightning slicing towards the sword-wielding Elite. The lightning bolt sent thousand of volts coursing throughout the pirate’s body, numbing her limbs and sending her to her knees. She planted her swords in the ground to keep herself from falling down completely, then strained and slowly began to bring herself back up. “This one is tenacious,” Liu thought, “but she’s done for.” Liu shifted his hand back and behind him, curling his hand as though about to throw a ball. Energy flared to life in the palm of his hand as he readied the powerful Fire Bolt attack; he swung his hand forward, flinging the deadly ball of fire at the groggy opponent. The fireball smashed into the Pirate’s chest, sending her flying backwards into the sand dune –this time she would not get up.

“Nice work, Liu,” the cleric said to him as she checked the Pirate’s small bag. She drew out a spirit potion, which she kept for herself, and a small object called Vanished Sign, which she tossed over to Liu. “You too, Wild,” Liu said with a grin as he put the sign in his bag. Wildride was one of the clerics he’d met in the raid on King Slime’s mountain. She was a very interesting person to talk to, a little odd at times in conversation, sometimes saying weird things he didn’t fully understand; but she was well focused, an adept fighter and quite driven in her training. He enjoyed fighting enemies with someone as strong as she was -and he had to admit it was nice to have someone he trusted to train with so often –strangers frequently tried to stick him with no drops, few drops, or the non-valuable drops, from enemies….which made making a living quite difficult for him. “How many of these guys are left?” Liu asked casting a glance along the beach –he saw two Speedy Boogy and another Elite, as well as a few lowly sailors. “Dunno,” Wildride laughed, “I’m here to get stronger, not for a quest.” Liu snapped his head back to look at her, “What!? You said you urgently needed my help to kill these guys!” “Yeah I did. See I want to get stronger so I can start using the next set of armor; for that I need to go fight and kill stuff,” she smiled, “And I do need your help: it’s much faster to kill them when you’re around.” Liu just looked at her with an unbelieving stare, “You know…I was doing a quest in the Forest of Mist when you came and got me! I’m supposed to kill a Ratman Fighter!” She laughed and ran down the beach toward the boogys; he shook his head and followed after her.

The nearest Speedy Boogy spotted the cleric running towards it, and charged towards her –it did not, however, notice the mage following twenty meters behind. As the boogy jumped into the air and spun, whirling its spiked shell, the cleric ducked, making room for Liu to send a Magic Missile into the beast’s soft underbelly. The energy bolt surged into the turtle-creature’s flesh, charring skin and frying vital organs; what fell to the ground after the spell hit its target would not be a threat to anyone anymore. The Mara Pirate Elite and remaining Speedy Boogy witnessed the quick battle and rushed the cleric. The boogy came in low, spinning as its compatriot had, Wildride blocked low with her shield to keep from having her legs cut off at the knees. In a seemingly unforeseen surprise attack, the Mara Elite arrived at the same time, and grinning, swung both blades down towards the cleric’s head –over her lowered shield. The pirate’s grin turned to a frown as her blades impacted a barrier inches from the cleric’s head. “That’s surprise number one,” she smiled looking up at the pirate, she then looked over to her right side, the pirate following her gaze –seeing a deadly mage with an unblocked view of her unprotected side conjuring an attack, “And there’s surprise number two.”

The pirate drew her blades back and began to swing them in front of her body –the only defense she could think of. Before she had even drawn the first blade across her body, Liu’s fire bolt has flown from his hand, across the beach, and into her left side, sending her spinning into the ground. The Speedy Boogy backed away, reassessing the situation. It circled, putting the cleric between itself and the mage. “I have to take out that mage,” it thought, “but that cleric will kill me if I try to run by….unless….” It narrowed its eyes as it came up with a plan; it channeled some of its own energy into its front claws, readying a seldom-used, but very annoying attack unique in this area to the Speedy Boogy. It feinted a charge at the cleric, who dodged to the side to give the mage a shot at the beast; but the boogy was waiting for that. “Gotcha!” it thought as it jumped with the cleric, and out of the way of the lightning attack launched form the mage. The cleric’s eyes widened as the boogy dodged with it, her hammer out of position to attack, and her shield unable to stop an attack launched from so close in, as her shield-arm was in the air to balance herself. “If only I had the momentum for a spin right now,” the boogy thought dejectedly upon seeing the cleric so open to attack, “Oh well.” It swiped forward with its claw, striking the cleric in the leg, sending a strange magic spell of its own into the cleric’s body.

The type of spell it cast was called a “debuff”. Whereas a “buff” was a spell that enhanced the body or mind through magic, a debuff used magic to weaken or slow the body. The particular spell the boogy used would disrupt the brain’s communication with the body’s limbs, making it hard for a person to move or react quickly. While it made maneuvering, running and fighting difficult, it made hitting an object that was moving and running even harder. The cleric’s body swayed, she staggered as the impulses to her limbs were slowed. “A tempting target,” it thought as it looked at the cleric, it looked over to the side to see the mage running around her to get a line on the boogy, “But, HE’s the main threat.” It jumped behind the cleric as the mage launched a Magic Missile. As the magic attack impacted the sand it sent up a shower of dust, and the boogy decided that was the perfect time to attack. It jumped into the dust cloud and charged forward using the dust as cover, rushing towards where it heard the mage’s feet crunching around on the sand as he ran. As it exited the dust cloud, it had the pleasure of seeing the surprised look on the mage’s face. “Bet you didn’t see this coming,” It gloated. The mage let loose another magic attack; the boogy tipped its strong and durable shell forward while tucking its head in, “Good luck getting through this,” it growled. But the attack from the mage was not meant to kill the boogy; the boogy’s eyes widened as its shell became cold, ice growing over its body. Its joints stiffened and it found itself unable to move quickly, it stared at the mage in surprise, the mage was running away from it, back towards the cleric, looking back at the red-shelled Speedy Boogy with a grin on his face.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:52 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter VI: Friends of the Family

“Ice bolt,” it thought to itself, “That darn mage slowed me down just like I slowed down his cleric-friend.” It looked forward, the cleric was still slow, but moving forward to assist the mage, who had stopped running and turned around. The boogy charged in as fast as its cold muscles could carry it; a Magic Missile slammed into its shell, halting the boogy, but not hurting it. A lightning spell followed, then another Magic Missile. Its shell was cracking; it felt the distinct pain of bone being forcefully torn away from flesh in multiple directions. The ice was thawing; as it quickened its step, it dodged another Magic Missile, its body growing warmer. “Heck with the mage!” it thought as it charged in, “If I’m going down, I’m taking one of them with me, and the easiest one will be that cleric!” As it closed in it jumped forward, the cleric swinging her mage out and to the side to intercept its attack on the mage, but just before jumping, it had changed direction, attacking the cleric. The gap between the cleric’s shield and outstretched hammer arm was enormous, well more than enough for the boogy to fit inside. It spun around, tucking into its shell, its spikes whirling around to decapitate the cleric, only to strike the barrier –which it had forgotten the cleric had cast only eight seconds ago.

The impact knocked the cleric backwards and onto the ground as the speedy boogy fell into the sand, right in front of the mage. He Liu gathered energy, and sent a Fire Bolt point-blank into the boogy’s weakened shell, causing it to shatter and spreading the shell and remains of the beast for meters around. He Liu stood up straight, disgusted as he looked down at his fine silk robes, covered with what was left of the Speedy Boogy. “I don’t know why I did that,” he said as Wildride walked up, “I don’t know why that seemed like a good idea.” Wildride couldn’t help herself; she collapsed in laughter as Liu began to wipe off his robes. “At least we won,” she said with a chuckle. “Yeah, well, next time….you get to be the one covered in this crud,” he said glaring at her. “Oh lighten up,” she said pushing his shoulder, “It happens sometimes.” Liu nodded and finished cleaning his shirt as best he could.

“Let’s go,” Wildride said walking towards the shore, “There’s a small land bridge over here we can use to get to the forest area behind the hills.” Liu looked around, “Where? I don’t see it.” “That’s because it’s about six inches under water,” she called back. “Some land bridge,” he muttered. “Hey, if they built three other bridges to connect the other islands to shore, why didn’t they build a real bridge here?” he asked as he caught up to her. “I don’t know,” she replied, “Why? Have a problem getting wet?” “Well my clothes are silk, so they’ll dry quick,” he answered, “But you have heavy cloth and metal, you’ll be wet for hours.” “Don’t worry,” she said with a strange grin, “I’m used to it.” Oh,” Liu stopped and looked to the side, “Wait…what’s that supposed to mean?” Wildride laughed and kept walking forward as Liu stood in the water, “Don’t worry about it.” “Hey, Wild!” Liu shouted, walking forward to catch up, “What did you mean by that? I KNOW you were implying something else when you said that!” “Relax, Liu,” she laughed as she ran ahead, “It’s nothing, just a joke.” Liu ran after her, “Hey, Wild! Wild! Get back here and tell me what you meant by that!”

Liu continued to train with Wildride quite often over the next few weeks; but Wild quickly outpaced him in growing stronger. She rapidly rose to the level of High Cleric and began training in areas Liu was not granted access to –there were a number of gates around Isya that would not let you pass unless you were a certain level. While he and Wild continued to talk off and on, Liu was back to being a solo mage. He continued training in the Sea of Greed against Pirates and Speedy Boogy –staying well away from Mara, when she made her presence known; until he was at last strong enough to go to the next area: Burning Hill.

Burning Hill had plenty of strong enemies to fight, which was both boon and bane to Liu. Burning Hill was not short on training targets, but what it was short on, was room. The trails were narrow, and enemies frequently camped near each other, increasing the difficulty of fights by sheer numbers. The first time Liu stepped into Burning Hills was a time he would never forget:

He was ecstatic at being able to train in this new area –while Wildride had long since graduated from the area and moved to harder hunting fields, he was just happy that there was one less place that was forbidden for him to enter. He stepped into the portal, the sky changing from a brilliant blue, to an ominous red. The sand turned to lava rock and the barren dune-filled landscape was replaced by trees and shrubs growing alongside a rocky pathway leading around a large red hill –the color making it seem as though it had just been lit ablaze. As he gazed at the new area, a panting mage dashed past him and into the gate without a word. Liu turned toward the gate at seeing the figure rush by, wondering what he could be running from. There was a crunching behind him, which he distinguished as multiple heavy footsteps from a large group running in his direction. Liu flinched as he recounted stories An had told him about adventurers running past with large enemy mobs behind them –trainers leading trains of enemies.

His eyes widened as he saw a gang of four angry Grave robbers running toward him; Liu turned toward the gate, only to have it cut off by another Grave robber that had run up from the side. The Grave robber swung his hoe out and to the side, striking Liu in the head, leaving a gash across his forehead and sending him to the ground. He struggled to his feet as they surrounded him, laughing. Another Grave robber struck him in the chest, causing him to double over, it then brought the shaft of its hoe back up, breaking his nose. Yet another hit him in the knee, dropping him to the ground once more. He struggled to get to his feet, another enemy did not give him the chance, striking him in the back and laying him out flat. Blood coming from the wound in his head as well as his nose, Liu raised his staff to attempt a magic attack, but a Grave robber slammed his elbow with its hoe, breaking his arm and causing Liu to cry out and drop his staff. Liu held his other arm over his face as they surrounded him.

They took turns pummeling his body until one of them finally struck him in the head knocking him out. He awoke in Rumen, his robes torn, bleeding openly and yelling in pain as he tried to move his broken arm –and a leg which one Grave robber had broken in two places. He reached into his bag with his good arm and grabbed the health stone, using a charge, which reset and healed the bones as well as one cut along an artery –finding that the cut to his artery was such that had he not awoken in two more minutes, he would never have been able to wake up; a fact that startled him. He needed to use another full charge before he was recovered. Liu got to his feet and looked at his robes, deciding the smith was obviously the first stop he needed to make. After buying a new set of robes, Liu visited Julia to recharge his stone, then withdrew several dozen potions he had stored away with Raina. His brief preparations complete, he struck out for the Sea of Greed, a resolute look on his face and a glare in his eyes. “I’m going back in there,” he thought angrily, “I’m not training anywhere else! I’m going to train in there until I’m so strong those weaklings cower at my name and flee upon my sight!”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:52 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter VI: Friends of the Family

An looked around and sighed, wondering what to do. There were dozens of new adventurers around, but these days they all seemed to know what they were doing –and most were more interested in having him “buff” them than in asking him for guidance in being a good adventurer. Having not yet bought his next shield he still could not fight –which, he had to admit, he was coming to miss- and there was very little help needed by the rookie adventurers these days, making for very long periods of sitting and doing nothing. An finally decided he’d go visit the parks in Elderine for a change in scenery. He made his way through the trees and to the entry portal to Sand Beach, making his way toward the Forest of Mist, and the large walled city bordering it.

The Gold Slime charged in, leaping into the air to crush him. He ducked out of the way and ran as the slime slammed into the ground, taking a second to reorient itself. The slime looked for its target, finding the adventurer behind it now. The slime spun and charged in again. The adventurer began to chant, and a bright ball of fire flew toward the slime, smashing into the beast’s face, splattering globs of slime four meters around the remains of the beast. He Liu too a deep breath and wiped sweat from his forehead, glad to be done with this latest fight. “Plenty of these guys to go around,” he said to himself, “Looks like I picked a good license this time.” He thought for a moment, “Speaking of which, I’d better see how I’m doing.” He checked the added enchantment on his weapon; it was about halfway through its second tier.

Licenses were an enchantment that could increase the attack against a specific monster. The license’s enchantment was able to “sense” a certain type of monster. When a weapon with a license was used against the monster it was designed for, the weapon would draw added power –sort of in the same way that a mage draws power- and release it into the attack. The more often the license was used, the greater the license’s effect would become –so in short, the more of a specific monster you killed, the more damage the license would do to that type of monster. The progress of the enchantment’s damage increase was measured in levels, or “tiers”. After attaining a certain amount of extra damage, the damage was considered to have entered the next tier. They were an interesting enchantment that, similar to refining, was not needed, but could greatly increase an adventurer’s strength in attacking; and made grinding much more efficient.

He checked the path ahead, a Grave robber was walking toward him. Liu raised his staff and grinned, but the Grave robber saw him, realized that Liu was much more powerful now, and wisely decided to go back the direction from which it had come. Liu heard light footfalls behind him, not soft enough to be those of someone sneaking up on him, just of someone that wanted to talk; he shifted his staff against his shoulder, shook his head and smiled. “You have a knack for finding me,” he said as he turned to greet the purple haired cleric coming up from behind him. Celestina smiled at the mage, “The comment must run in your family,” she said with a laugh, “Your brother says that a lot as well. In fact, he said it about an hour and a half ago.” “An?” Liu asked, “You’ve seen him?” “Mm, I just talked to him in Elderine before I came over here,” she nodded. “So how’s he doing? I haven’t seen him in weeks!” “You’ve been training hard since your fight at King Slime’s mountain,” she nodded again. “And my defeat here,” he added in his thoughts. “He’s doing well –a bit bored without being able to train though,” she continued, “and he asked me how you were, since I seem to run across you more often than he does.” He Liu looked up, “Him not coming by me in the fields is by design, not chance. He tries to avoid me so that I become strong on my own, forge my own path, make my own friends and teams to prevent me from being dependent on him.” “It’s harder on him than you might think,” Celestina said sitting down, “He’s your older brother; protecting and helping you is his job. It takes a lot for him to resist the urge to stay with you when you train.”

She looked over, “So how are you doing?” Liu shrugged, “I’m doing alright, I guess. Just been grinding in here for the last few days working on my licenses so I can get stronger.” “Hoping to get a call from the guardsman in the Forest of Mist?” she chuckled. “Maybe,” Liu smirked. “It’s been a long couple of days, though,” Liu continued, “Staying in the same area is incredibly boring.” Celest nodded, “Something which An has found out over the past few weeks as well.” “I have to say though, I have come to hate grinding,” Liu said with a nod. “Oh? Why’s that?” she inquired. “I’m bored,” he answered, “I form parties with almost anyone I can just so I have something to draw my attention for a bit.” He sighed, “I guess at the heart of it, there are just so many long periods of no one else being in here that I just get lonely.” “I can understand that,” Celestina replied, “it was always more fun to duo with your brother than to fight on my own; or even with a group of strangers –if only for the conversation.” “Ha-ha, yeah,” Liu chuckled, “Too bad you don’t have a sister I could duo with, eh?” “Well actually, that brings up another subject that I wanted to talk about,” Celestina said. Liu looked over, obviously confused, “Huh?” “Well, she’s been around for a while now but refuses to work on anything but her alchemy, and I was thinking that maybe if I were to introduce her to you, she might find fighting more interesting,” she answered. Liu was still confused, “Huh? Who now?” ”Lamis,” Celestina said looking over. “Who’s Lamis?” Liu asked. “Lamis is a relatively new mage,” Celestina said. She sighed and looked up, “And…” she continued, “she’s also my niece.”

“YOUR WHAT!?” An shouted, looking at the other cleric in disbelief. “My niece,” Celestina replied, “Little Lamis. She’s a mage, like your brother.” “Unbelievable,” An said, “You never told me you had a niece!” “You never asked,” she replied matter-of-factly. “Well…I guess that’s true,” An admitted, “I guess I just figured you’d tell me if you had any family around here; especially since you know so much about mine.” “She started her journey as an adventurer about the time that we stopped duoing so much,” she said, “I didn’t see you as often; and when I did, I guess it would just slip my mind.” “I guess that makes sense,” An said with a nod, “So what is your niece up to, then?” “Alchemy, mostly,” Celestina shook her head, “She’s obsessed with it of late.” An grinned, “Ah, making scrolls and potions?” “No, she does material composing and decomposing,” she replied, “She’s quite skilled at it now, and is so wrapped up in it that I can’t get her to go train.” An raised an eyebrow, “She doesn’t go train?” “She doesn’t want to,” Celestina answered, “She doesn’t think it will be fun.” ”Doesn’t THINK!?” An said incredulously, “She hasn’t even tried?” Celestina shook her head, “She tried for a bit, but didn’t like the people she met in the beginner’s areas; or the solitude of grinding in the Sea of Greed.” “Those are not the best parts of training to base your opinion on,” An replied. “I know, but I can’t get her to give it another try. She doesn’t have anyone here that she knows; and she seems kinda shy.” An nodded and looked away, thinking. “I was thinking I might introduce her to your brother,” she said looking over, “Maybe having her make a friend would inspire her to train a bit. I’ve told her a bit about you and your family; she seems to like hearing about you and would probably like meeting him.” An grinned, “That sounds like a good idea to me. I know Liu likes meeting other mages; and I’m certain he’d like to help.”

The two clerics talked for a while longer, subjects ranging from old stories, to family, to recent grinding –or lack thereof. After almost an hour of conversation, Celestina stood, “Well, I’d better be going, if I’m going to find Liu before he finds a place to camp for the night.” An nodded, “You know where to find him?” “A guildie of mine saw him heading toward Burning Hills earlier today. He’s been going there for a while now.” “So you haven’t seen him of late?” An said looking up at the other cleric. “Not in a few days, no,” she answered. “Well,” An said standing as well, “Let me know how he’s doing after you see him.” Celestina nodded, “I will, An. You take care of yourself.” An waved as Celestina started toward the other side of town, “You too, Celest. See you later.”

“So that’s basically what I’m doing here,” Celestina said to Liu, about ninety minutes later. Liu raised his eyebrows, “That’s….quite a story. I had no idea you had family interested in being an adventurer.” “Well,” Celestina began, “That’s really the problem…right now, she isn’t interested in being an adventurer, just an alchemist. It can’t be healthy to be that wrapped up in alchemy.” “Well, it’s not healthy to be that wrapped up in anything,” Liu pointed out. He looked down and away, “Something we all learned from An.” Celestina nodded, “True enough. So if you don’t mind, I’ll let her know where you have been training. Maybe you can show her the fun aspects to training.” “Sounds like fun,” Liu grinned. “I had a feeling you’d say something to that extent,” Celestina smiled back.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:53 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter VI: Friends of the Family

Liu continued training, constantly wondering when he would meet this new mage. As the sun set over the Burning Hills area, he realized that he would not be meeting Celestina’s niece that day. “Ah well,” he said to himself, “She probably didn’t have enough time to get here today. I’ll probably get to see her tomorrow.” He looked for an area to camp, and finding a few small few newly-vacant tents (remnants from a group of Grave robbers he had chased off), he summoned his mushroom house using the tents as cover –to avoid being attacked in his sleep- and settled in for the night.

For the next two days he continued to work on his license, looking around every few minutes to see if Celestina or her niece was coming; and for those two days, he was continually disappointed. On the third day, he began to wonder if perhaps Celestina was unable to talk her niece into even going into the fields to talk to him. Liu wandered along one of the paths in the Burning Hills, looking for more Gold Slime. After an hour of walking and fighting, he decided to return back to the campsite; and found a large pack of Glow Wolves roaming the area. Knowing that they were too strong for him, especially in this great a number, he took to the small bushes and crept past them, hoping that he would not make any noise to draw their attention. He snuck through the brush, past the majority of the Glow Wolves, when a sharp crack emanated from under his foot –he’d stepped on a small, but very dry, branch that had fallen from the bush. Instantly upon the cracking of the brush, two ears on a nearby Glow Wolf shot up and began twitching in different directions, listening for other sounds. The Glow Wolf lifted its snout in the air and began sniffing loudly, searching for some clue as to what had made the sound. Liu’s eyes widened as he watched through the bush he was hiding in; as the large carnivore lowered its head and turned to look straight at the bush he was in. The wolf curled its lip up, a low growl, soft, but unmistakable, making a show that the wolf had located its target.

The Glow Wolf began stalking forward, and Liu began to panic. He looked around, seeing that none of the other wolves were close enough to have their curiosity piqued, and devised a desperate plan. He waited for the Glow Wolf to gain a bit more distance from the rest of the pack, then channeled his energy for an attack. The glow of the bush as the mage gathered energy seemed to drive the wolf to rage. It tore forward, surging toward the bush, just as Liu released an ice attack, which slammed into the large red beast. Ice quickly grew over the wolf’s body, freezing it and causing it to have difficulty moving. Liu darted out of the bush and ran away to gain distance; then turned and began casting a long chain of spells as the wolf made its way toward him. Liu smiled as he saw that the beast was weakening, even before it was able to reach him; but his smile and confidence turned to a frown and dread as the wolf stood up on its hind legs and let out a loud howl, drawing the attention of another Glow Wolf forty meters behind the first.

“I can’t beat two of them,” Liu thought, “I can barely beat one, and that’s with the advantage of a surprise attack. I have to run.” Liu cast another spell at the nearest wolf, spun on his heel and ran as fast as he could. He chanced a glance behind him, his eyes widening as he saw the two wolves gaining on him –the ice having melted off of the first. Knowing escape was impossible, Liu decided to lessen the odds against him; he spun again and sent a powerful fireball at the nearest wolf, which exploded against its chest. The wolf shot to the ground, but clambered up and continued its charge. It leapt at the mage, bearing its fangs. Liu raised his staff –the only defense he could think of- and, gripping either end of the strong wooden rod, thrust forward and jammed it into the beast’s mouth. The wolf swiped several times at Liu with its claws, narrowly missing, growling and chewing on the wooden staff Liu was pushing back into its mouth. Another growl drew his attention, he looked to the side as the other Glow Wolf jumped into the air; intending to knock the mage back, free up its partner, and put the mage in a position where he could not win.

The wolf seemed to move in slow motion through the air, Liu knew that this was going to be painful. There was a soft noise behind him, followed by a familiar sounding crackle; and a large fireball slammed into the wolf, sending it sailing back ten meters. Liu looked to the side, even the wolf in front of him stopped trying to claw forward or chew through the staff in its mouth so it could look to the side. Liu saw another mage walking forwards with a grin. She flipped her red hair over her shoulder, and sent another magical attack at the second Glow Wolf –which had gotten back to its feet. The wolf lunged at the mage, who dodged, sending a crackling ball of energy into its back. The beast swiped with its claws, so close in that the mage did not have time to dodge. The mage raised her staff and held it to the side, bracing herself as the sharpened bone slammed into her staff. Her arms gave way a bit and the tips of the wolf’s claws sank into the mage’s side. The mage yelled, pushing back to keep the wolf from pushing its claws in deeper. It was amazing to watch her fight the wolf, especially in such close quarters. Mages were not known for their physical durability, and seeing one of the rare mages that could take a hit as well as deal them was a sight to behold. “I know….this looks really fascinating,” she grunted, “But it would be…a lot better…if you’d finish your fight and help me!”

Liu suddenly remembered that he was fighting an enemy, and as he looked back to see the wolf’s surprised glance at him, he knew the wolf had just realized the same thing. He swung his staff to the side and pushed forward, knocking his wolf off balance, causing it to stagger back. The Glow Wolf regained its balance and growled loudly at the mage as it straightened up. Liu looked at the large beast, its fur was covered in blood from his magical attacks, there was a slight sway in its stance –it was unlikely that it would be able to take much more. “Of course,” Liu thought as he stared at the wolf’s long claws and curved teeth, “Even at perfect health, it won’t take much for this thing to kill me.” The Glow Wolf sank down, readying to pounce, and Liu let loose a lightning attack. The electric charge flung from his wand slashed its way through the air and hit the wolf in an open wound, just above its heart. The wolf gave a quick howl which abruptly cut off as the current ran through its body and shut down its heart and respiratory system.

The lifeless wolf collapsed in front of Liu, who stood there, amazed at having won. Noise from behind him drew his attention; Liu turned to see the other wolf and the unknown mage still fighting. The mage had freed herself from the wolf’s claws, and had used a stone to heal her wound. She was facing Liu, the wolf between them, focused only on the other mage. She looked past the wolf at Liu, holding out the palm of her hand as though about to cast a fireball. Liu nodded his understanding, and readied his attack. The wolf lunged forward, snapping and then slashing at the small mage, who dodged out of the way and circled –Liu keeping behind the wolf. The other mage brought her arm down and around, channeling energy for an attack, Liu doing likewise and stepping forward to compensate for his reaction time. The mage girl released her spell –a large fireball- which flew forwards towards the wolf. The wolf straightened, readying to take the blow to demoralize the mage in a show of brute strength, unaware that Liu had sent his own large fireball at the wolf’s back in a simultaneous strike. The two fireballs hit the wolf at the same time, the concussions crushing the wolf’s chest, breaking ribs and crushing vertebrae, the explosions tearing large holes in the beast’s front and back, fire burning off fur, peeling flesh and charring the beast’s eyes, ears and nose. The body of the second Glow Wolf fell to the ground in two distinct pieces, releasing a very pungent odor which both mages quickly walked away from.

The two mages found a clearing to catch their breath. “Thanks for the help back there,” Liu said. “No problem,” the other mage smiled, “It was actually kinda fun.” Liu took a few deep breaths to help slow his breathing. He noticed the other mage was looking at him, “Yes?” “You’re He Liu, aren’t you?” the mage asked. He furrowed his eyebrows, “Yes, I am.” “Ah, well that’s interesting,” she smiled, “I came out here today to look for you. My aunt has told me a lot about you.” Liu shut his eyes, smiled and nodded, understanding, “Your Lamis, aren’t you?” Lamis looked back and gave a wide smile, “You’re right on that one.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:54 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter VII: A Visit to the Shadow Cave: He Liu’s Trial

It seemed to Liu that Lamis rather enjoyed fighting and training. Over the next two weeks, he and Lamis fought together quite often. Lamis’ attack style differed radically from his own. Whereas Liu –and most mages In Isya- preferred to keep the enemy as far away as possible, running away as the enemy advanced; Lamis would stand her ground, going from ranged attacks to using magic spells at melee ranges (though she did have a tendency to go through potions quite fast). The power of two mages was a force to behold in the Burning Hills area over that time; their simple two person party was able to devastate any single enemy along the lower section; and Lamis’ physical vitality made them quite effective at taking on multiple strong enemies as well. Lamis still liked to work on her alchemy, though, so she would often take a day or so off to work in-town. Liu noticed that Celestina would often visit while Lamis was away –probably for the same reason that An avoided him in the fields, he presumed.

It was during one of the days where Lamis was working on her alchemy that a courier arrived with a message for He Liu –asking him to visit the Grand Master at the Forest of Mist. As fast as he could, he raced through the fields to the forest gate. He entered the forest and almost flew over to Grand Master Sean, eagerly waiting for Sean to tell him he could go into the cave, half listening as Sean gave his introduction about the mysterious cave. “Your brother has undoubtedly told you about his adventure in the Shadow Cave,” he said looking down at Liu, who was fidgeting a lot, “I have had my eye on you for some time now, and I think you might be ready to go in yourself.” “YESSSSS!” Liu jumped in the air and pumped a fist. Sean held up a hand, “But first, you must prove your ability to me.” Liu looked up at the Grand Master. “You must find the key which unlocks the door to the Shadow Cave,” Sean grinned, “It is somewhere in the Forest of Mist, being carried by a monster. You must find the monster and retrieve the key before you may enter.” Liu’s shoulders sagged and he slapped a hand to his forehead. “I forgot about that part,” he muttered as he turned around. Liu looked around, at the few nearby enemies, remembering An had told him the first time he’d hidden it with a Boogy knight, and the second was with a Mini-Greenky. “Well,” he sighed, “Best get started.”

One of the nearby Mini Greenky noticed that Liu was looking at it, and began to fly away, a Magic Missile slammed into its back, knocking it to the ground unmoving. Liu walked over and checked the body, “Nope, not that one.” He stood and spotted another nearby enemy, a Phino, which he slew with a quick Fire Bolt. Grand Master Sean grinned as he saw the young mage making his way across the Forest of Mist; even after the mage vanished into the white mist that gave the forest its name, he could still see the flashes of Liu’s magic attacks for some time afterward as the mage continued his search. Sean chuckled to himself, “There’s gonna be a lot fewer monsters in here by the time he’s done.” He started laughing even harder, “And there will be one ticked off mage in here when he finally finds that key.”

Liu was growing aggravated, it had been over three hours since he’d started looking for the key; he’d slain more than fifty monsters already. He’d even checked out -though he had stayed far away from- a Boogy Knight and there was still no sign of the darned key. He had made his way completely around the Forest of Mist, from Mini Greenky, to Phino, to Ratmen, to Boars, to Smart Phino, Boogy and Lizzardmen, he’d killed every one he’d come across without any result. He was growing quite discouraged. There was a rustling nearby, a large two legged beast covered in fur, with sharp claws and a long thin nose stepped out of the brush, hissing at Liu. The Ratman glared at the trespassing mage, flexing its fingers to show off its claws –Liu was unimpressed. The rat-beast charged, hissing and reaching back with its claws, readying a powerful slash; only to be sent flying backwards as a fireball exploded against its chest. The Ratman tumbled across the ground, coming to rest against a rock, its neck twisted at an angle that was only possible after having died. Liu walked over and checked the body, unsurprised at finding only some gem dust.

A deep growl came from behind him, much deeper than a Ratman, and different than that of a Boar. Liu turned around as an even larger rat-beast entered the clearing from the brush. Liu looked at the new enemy, its yellow-furred body was covered in scars from fights, its fingers had longer and sharper claws than the last Ratmen –some of which were missing, and its two large front teeth dripped with a toxic saliva –Liu had just been discovered by a Ratman Fighter. Liu reached into his bag and pulled out a defense scroll, which would add energy to his robes to increase their durability. He quickly broke the seal, never taking his eyes off the large rat-beast as he backed away. The Ratman Fighter stood still, watching the mage back away, then suddenly it lunged forward, a quick strong leap which brought it in striking distance of the mage. Liu ducked back to avoid the claws; the Ratman Fighter snapping its teeth at the mage’s midsection. Liu fell to the ground just before the monster could bite him, rolling to get out of the way. He got to his feet as the rat sliced at him again with its claws, leaving gashes in Liu’s right arm. Liu got to his feet and ran backwards, falling to the ground as he tripped over a stone –just as the beast-fighter’s claws raked through the air where his chest had been. Liu rolled onto his back as the Ratman Fighter walked up to him.

The beast looked down as it stood over him, giving a low hiss as though unsatisfied at the poor fight the mage had put up. Liu reached over to grab his staff, which had fallen from his grip; he curled his fingers tightly around it, and jabbed forward, slamming the end into the Ratman Fighter’s belly just below the ribs, knocking the wind out of it. The rat-beast doubled over, gasping for air as Liu rolled backwards painfully over the stone he’d tripped on; and got to his feet. The Ratman Fighter was unable to move as it struggled for breath, making for an easy target. Liu sent his three strongest spells into the beast, the first two, Ice and Lightning, striking its chest, the third smashing into its head. The beast fell to the ground, not breathing, and not trying to any more. Liu panted as he searched the body –hoping this was the one he’d needed; unfortunately, not only did this monster not have the key, it did not have anything that Liu could use or sell. Dejectedly, Liu walked forwards, almost not caring now about where the stupid key was. A Phinofly chirped in alarm at spotting Liu about ten meters away. Liu lazily threw a fireball at it, sending it to the ground where it remained quiet and motionless. Liu did not even look at the body. “That thing is so weak and pathetic,” he thought, “Why even bother checking?” He continued to walk forwards, until a gleam caught his eye. He turned his head slowly to the side, noticing a shiny metal object that had fallen under the Phinofly’s body.

Liu’s eyes narrowed as he saw the shiny object. “It can’t be,” he shook his head as he walked up. He pushed the Phinofly over, uncovering the small object, unveiling a tiny copper key. Liu stood over the dead enemy, simply staring at the key for a moment, lips pursed. He reached down and picked up the key, holding it in front of him, making small nods with his head. “I’m gonna kill that guy,” he spoke softly as he put the key in his bag, “Yeah….definitely gonna kill him.”

Grand Master Sean smiled as the tired mage walked up to him with a scowl. “I see you found it,” Sean chuckled. “Yeah,” Liu growled, “With a Phinofly…about one hundred yards from where I started.” Sean nodded, “Yup, just in the direction opposing the one you chose to move in.” Liu continued to glare at Sean, who smiled at the mage, “Make your preparations, He Liu. When you are ready, you may enter the cave.” Liu went to a nearby merchant to recharge his health and spirit stones, then used the scrolls he’d withdrawn earlier in Rumen to boost his vitality, defense and agility. “So, going for Wiz-Mage, are you?” a voice came from behind. Liu jumped and spun around, astonished to see La Celestina standing there. “Celest!” he shouted, “What are you doing here?” “Oh Sean told your brother you were gonna have your test, so he asked me to come cheer you on,” she smiled, “As well as give you a bit of an unfair advantage.” She wove her hammer, casting the endure spell on Liu. They talked a few minutes more before she reminded him there was a time limit on the buff scrolls and endure, and sent him to Sean.

He looked over at the young mage walking up to him and raised his eyebrows, “Are you ready, He Liu?” Liu nodded his head, and Grand Master Sean moved to the side, allowing Liu access to the large door at the mouth of the cave. “Good luck, Liu,” Celestina called from behind him, “I’ll be waiting here for you to get back.” He Liu turned and nodded with a confidant smile, “Right! Thanks, Celest!” Liu turned back towards the door, took out the key and placed it into the lock, turning it. There was a series of loud clicks as it unlocked, the door swung open and Liu was enveloped in a blinding yellow light. The light dimmed and he found himself in the center of a dark room, lit by dim torches along the walls. There was one exit to the room, a doorway on the far side, and standing in that doorway, was another green haired mage, looking back at him with a smile. “So you’ve finally arrived,” the twin Liu grinned, “I’ve been waiting for you.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:54 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter VII: A Visit to the Shadow Cave: He Liu’s Trial

The other Liu stepped to the side, Liu moving in the opposite direction to keep distance between them. The double smiled again, “So you came here seeking my power, did you?” “No,” Liu replied, “I came here to become stronger than you.” The shadow’s face tightened into an enraged frown as he began to circle back. “You won’t become stronger than me,” he snarled, “You don’t get stronger when you’re dead!” It threw its right hand forward, a brilliant flash of light erupted from his palm as an unknown magic spell flew towards Liu’s head.

Liu ducked and rolled forward under the massive fireball, which smashed into the wall behind him, incinerating the stone and leaving a melted crater in the rocky surface. Liu forward onto his knee and straightened up. He threw his hand forward, lightning sprouting from his staff as he counter attacked. The electric bolt slammed into the shadow being, launching him backwards and through the doorway with a surprised shout, his body vanishing into the dimly lit hallway. His voice called from inside, “I’m impressed with your strength, but you are no match for me. Come forward if you dare, but I promise you, you will die.” Liu walked forward into the corridor, the torches along the sides lighting as he stepped inside. He heard light chuckles coming from around the next corner; he stepped back into a guard position, raising his staff. “I know you’re back there,” he called to the kebing, “Come out and face me. You won’t catch me off guard as you did my brother.” Slowly, two large Shadow Kebings made their way around the corner, chuckling to each other and pointing at the mage.

Liu decided giving them the first move was a bad idea; he let loose a fireball at the first kebing, running backwards as he targeted the second with an ice attack. The first kebing was knocked back into the wall behind it and collapsed to the floor, stunned, as the second kebing charged toward Liu. Liu’s ice attack hit the kebing, slowing it slightly, but not stopping its charge. As the kebing neared, Liu reached forward with his staff, and bringing it up under the kebing, ducked while rotating his staff –catapulting the other kebing into the room he had just come in from. Liu chuckled himself as the kebing flew out of control into the small room. The kebing halted its unwanted flight and turned around, obviously upset at its prey being the one to laugh at it. It stopped chuckling and charged in again, its charge cut short by a furious spell chain launched from the mage. The kebing’s smoking and charred body fell to the ground, rolling a few times before stopping at He Liu’s feet. He Liu chuckled again at his victory; then quickly shouted in pain as a firm object slammed into his back, knocking him forward. The force of the impact was so great and sudden that he was not able to stop himself from hitting the wall of the narrow hallway; his head hit the brick and stone siding, dazing him and sending him to the floor. As his vision cleared and he regained the ability to focus on individual objects, he saw the other Shadow Kebing floating above him, laughing and pointing at the grounded mage.

The hovering being floated backwards, allowing Liu to get to his feet. As Liu raised his staff, the kebing motioned for Liu to make the first move. Liu brought his arms out and around, drawing two energies into his staff. The gem at its crest glowed white as the energy was compressed and restrained, seeking a way out. Liu thrust his staff forward and sent an ethereal bolt at the large floating beast. The Shadow Kebing charged forwards along the floor as Liu cast the spell, the distance between the spell and its target closed rapidly. “There’s no way this will miss,” Liu though with a smirk; however just as the magic blast neared the kebing, it pushed down on the ground with its tiny but strong arms, moving upwards with incredible speed and sending it out of harm’s way. Spinning up and over the attack, which continued down the hall, the kebing charged forward, lowering its head and slamming into Liu’s chest, knocking him backwards and bruising his ribs. Liu hunched over, holding his chest, cringing at the pain that shot through him with each breath. As he reached into his bag for his health stone, the kebing shot forward again, intent on crushing the mage against the wall. Liu used a charge on the soul stone; a cooling chill ran through him as air painlessly filled his lungs. He looked up to see the kebing only meters away –less than a second from hitting him. Reacting more than thinking, Liu let his knees buckle and dropped painfully to the stone ground, the kebing flying overhead and smashing into the wall with a loud thud.

The Shadow Kebing floated away from the wall, shaking its head and pressing against its temples as Liu got back to his feet and began to cast another spell. The kebing turned as Liu launched his first attack, a Magic Missile, which the kebing easily dodged. Liu followed up with a Fire Bolt, and again the kebing dodged, beginning to chuckle as it saw the mage’s aggravation at having missed again. Liu launched another magic missile, which the kebing dodged by simply floating over the top of the attack. Hovering near the ceiling, the Shadow Kebing was laughing as the frustrated mage glared at it. It dropped down a bit and again made the sign for the mage to attack; Liu narrowed his eyes and sent out a Lightning Bolt at the annoying opponent. The kebing did not even move –the mage had grown so frustrated that he couldn’t aim; the shot was going to miss him by a wide margin, sailing well over its head. There was a loud blast as the magic attack impacted the rock of the hall, then suddenly large painful objects pummeled the kebing from above, knocking it to the ground and burying it.

Liu grinned at the success of his plan. Knowing he couldn’t hit this agile kebing with his magic spells, he’d decided to attack something else: the old, cracked stone ceiling above it. The ice and fire attacks were bait, to draw the kebing off-guard, especially since the ice attack would have covered the ceiling in frost and the explosion of the fire attack would have made tiny fragments. He waited until the kebing seemed overconfident –making the motion for the mage to attack was a good enough sign to him- then launched a Lightning Bolt at the ceiling above the kebing. The attack worked perfectly, the rock instantly became superheated in a relatively small area and expanded, pushing against the unyielding cold stone around it, leaving only one place for it to go: down and onto the kebing’s thick head. Liu strolled over to the buried kebing, which was beginning to stir and strain under the weight of the rock covering it. Liu shook his head and sent a fire bolt into the rock pile, destroying both the stone and the beast which it covered.

Taking a moment to rest, Liu checked over near the entrance to the corridor, looking for the body of the first kebing –just to be sure. Once he felt rested, he continued forward through the corridors. The corridor led to a large open room that his double had taken the time to occupy with four very annoying sword-wielding skeletons, and two even more aggravating skeletal archers. Fortunately skeletal beings were not known for their speed or resilience –especially to explosives, so they fell quickly without doing more harm that a few health potions could not compensate for. He continued past the large room and into a dark corridor, the door to the room slamming shut behind him. “For such a weakling, you’ve come much farther than I had anticipated,” Shadow Liu’s voice echoed through the hallway. “You could have done well in the outside world, but there is no going back for you.” Liu stretched out his hands, feeling his way along the cold stone walls of the unlit hall. “You will die in this place. If you get lost in there, you will die. If you have the luck and intellect to find your way out, you will be killed. Why not save us the time and do it yourself?”

Liu ignored the taunts and continued to feel his way along the walls. His hands touched something very cold and hard…something metal. He grabbed the object, finding it was able to be rotated and tipped back and forth. Thinking back on what his double said, he began moving it in random directions. In a few minutes, there was a brief flash from the object, and Liu stopped, trying to move the object back where the flash was seen. It took a few more seconds, but he found the position once more, finding that the object he was holding was a mirror reflecting light from down one pathway of the corridor. He followed the light from mirror to mirror, until he came to another large open room, his double standing in its center looking back at him, a large sword-wielding soldier on one side, and an archer on the other. “Had to do it the hard way, huh?” the doppelganger looked at him with a sinister grin as the bandit archer strung her bow, the swordsman drawing his sword up behind him. “Well, then: Welcome,” Shadow Liu said sweeping his arms out, “And don’t worry, we’ll make it quick.” The swordsman charged forward, swinging his large broadsword down at the mage. Liu jumped backwards as the large sword sank into the flooring in front of him, yelling as an arrow thrust itself into his shoulder. The swordsman yanked his sword back up and around, swinging it at Liu, who again dodged the blade, falling to the ground as another arrow struck his calf. The swordsman stepped forward, raising his word as the archer readied another arrow. Shadow Liu clapped his hands and laughed, walking up to Liu, in front of the two bandits. “Well played, Liu. Really, you did much better than I thought you would,” Shadow Liu shook his head, then gave a big grin, “But you never stood a chance.” He turned and walked away from Liu, past the two bandits, and with a wave he gave a simple command, “Finish him.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:55 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter VII: A Visit to the Shadow Cave: He Liu’s Trial

“Really, you did much better than I thought you would,” the shadow being smirked. As his doppelganger talked, Liu pulled out the two arrows in his body, throwing them at his double, who smiled as they struck his robes and clattered to the ground, “But you never stood a chance.” His double turned away from him, Liu slipping a hand inside his bag, grabbing a soul stone, tightening his grip on his staff with his other hand. Shadow Liu gave a dismissive wave as he walked away, “Finish him.” The soldier and archer looked back at the shadow creature –this was his chance. He used the charge from the soul stone to heal the wounds in his arm and shoulder; then got to his knees, spinning around and whipping out with his staff, knocking the archer to the floor. Seemingly in slow motion, his shadow and the swordsman turned at the same time, trying to figure out what was going on. Liu continued his spin, using the momentum to quickly rise to his feet, and let fly a Fire Bolt directly into the Swordsman’s face, sending him to the ground for good. “What?” was all the time Liu’s shadow had to shout before Liu was done with the first bandit. Liu spun again, looking for the archer, which had gotten to her knees and prepared another arrow. Without a shield, only meters away and unmoving, Liu couldn’t think of many options -he spun and ducked as the archer fired, the arrow lodging into his left shoulder blade. He shouted in pain as the arrow lodged into bone, but continued his turn and sent a ball of energy crackling towards her. The Magic Missile did not kill the bandit, but served its purpose of allowing him time to make sure she would not be shooting an arrow at him again. As the archer landed on her back, Liu ran forwards, and swung the heavy end of his staff down on her throat, crushing her windpipe. The archer spasmed on the floor for a few seconds; then lay still.

He Liu reached back and pulled out the arrow, flinching as it came loose from his shoulder. He used another charge from his soul stone, then turned to look at his double. Shadow Liu’s face had gone through a wide range of emotions in the short time that Liu had used to kill the two bandits, the one that was there the most frequent, and the one that Liu now saw, was surprise. Liu expected the shadow to fly into a rage, swearing and ranting as An’s had; but he was astonished when his shadow instead, smiled and broke out in a fit of laughter, clapping his hands. “Oh Bra-vo, bra-vo!” his double laughed, “Indeed, very well done, Liu! Well, played, well played!” He Liu furrowed his eyebrows at his double’s actions. “This guy’s cheering me for winning?” he thought, “He’s completely off his rocker.” Shadow Liu grabbed his staff and held it, his smile turning dark, “If you fight me with such intensity, you should provide me some good amusement before I kill you.” “Seriously,” Liu said, “That’s all you’re going to say to that? No anger? No grand monologue about how you will kill me, or how hopeless it is for me to try to beat you? Not even a few sentences about why you want me dead?” “Not everything happens the way it does in your books,” the shadow narrowed his eyes, “And that includes the hero surviving the trial!” Shadow Liu quickly sent four strong magic attacks at He Liu –an Ice Bolt, Fire Bolt, Lightning Bolt and another Fire Bolt. Liu nimbly jumped and rolled out of the way, staying just ahead of the attacks. The double next cast another magic spell, the same one he had used in the first room. There was a strange whirring sound as the shadow thrust his staff forward, then yanked it back again, sending a large energy pulse at Liu. Liu got to his feet just in time to see the attack coming at him; he fell onto his back as the energy flashed by him, incinerating a large chunk in the wall. The shadow then cast another Fire Bolt at Liu, who rolled along the ground to avoid being incinerated. Shadow Liu raced forward, swinging his staff at Liu. “He’s my shadow,” Liu thought with a grin, “He knows stronger spells than I do, but I should be just as capable as him when it comes to strength.” He brought up his own staff to block, Shadow Liu’s staff slammed into his with surprising force. Liu was not able to stop the blow, his arms came back, and his own staff struck him in the head. Shadow Liu continued the attack, whirling around, with Liu on the end of his staff, he then threw the other mage across the room. As Liu landed, the other mage sent two Fire Bolts flying across the room at him. Liu again rolled as the energy blasts smashed into the ground next to him.

As Liu got to his feet, the other laughed, “Don’t think that because we look the same, that we are the same being.” Liu looked back at the doppelganger, seeing the shadow sweating and breathing hard as he spoke, “I am far stronger than you are.” Liu looked away and to the side as a voice came unbidden into his mind. “He Liu,” It was the voice of his trainer, Master Zach, “A mage’s strength comes from their magic abilities, but a mage’s power is based on intellect, knowledge, the strength of the mind. A mage can be strong with little understanding of the magic that he or she possesses; but a mage can only be powerful through learning to understand where the magic and strength comes from, how it is replenished, what the limitations are and why the limitations are there.” Liu grinned as he continued to watch his double –his breathing was slowing and he was not sweating as much. “Come on,” He Liu taunted, “Show me that flashy technique of yours again. Give it your best shot.” Shadow Liu complied, sending that flashing energy at He Liu, who barely dodged the attack. Shadow Liu followed with two more strong spells then another attempt of the unknown technique, which Liu dodged by spinning and bending over at the waist –nearly horizontal. As he finished, Liu stood straight up and spread his arms out to either side. “Thank you, thank you,” Liu said taking a mock bow, “Really, is that the best you can do with that spell?” The shadow growled as it launched the attack again, Liu dodging once more. “Fight back!” the shadow yelled as Liu stood up again. “I don’t need to,” Liu said, looking at the panting enemy, “You can’t even hit me with that spell. I mean, really, it’s pretty much useless for you…someone like you knowing it is a waste.”

Shadow Liu roared, letting loose another blast of the same attack, this time weaving slightly in his stance as he finished. Liu began to walk away, the shadow’s eyes bulged, “Running away, eh? COWARD! You will NEVER be as strong as me!” Liu turned around, grinning, “You are so pathetic you’re not even worth fighting, I don’t WANT to be as weak as you are…you can’t even use your spells right!” The shadow mage screamed as it let fly with a barrage of magic attacks at Liu, beginning and ending with the spell Liu had been egging the shadow to use. Liu began to run around the perimeter of the room, his shadow’s attacks falling short behind him, turning the walls and floor to craters and debris piles with paths of rubble connecting them. The shadow wobbled after this latest onslaught, swaying now as he breathed heavily, then falling to one knee. Liu stood still only fifteen meters away from him, “Come on,” he taunted, “Give it up you weakling! You couldn’t hit me with your best attack if I were to stand right here!” The Shadow dizzily rose up, glaring at the other mage and spit out a curse. He grit his teeth and summoned the energy for his attack, throwing the attack at He Liu.

The energy sailed forward, impacting the ten meter high ceiling some six meters behind Liu, who had not even flinched. Liu swept his staff out and around, guiding his energy into the wooden focus. The energy began glowing, shining around him as it coursed up into the focusing crystal. Liu brought his arm around, pointing the tip of the staff back at his shadow, and allowed the energy to move forward, surging into Shadow Liu’s chest. With a shout, the shadow flew backwards onto the ground, panting for air. “What happened?” he struggled to speak, “How is this *gasp* possible?” The shadow being struggled to turn over and look at Liu, who was somberly walking closer, “Why can’t I *gasp* kill you?” “Simple answer,” Liu said looking down at the dying shadow, “You aren’t powerful enough to beat me. You never were.” Liu took a few steps backwards, and readied a powerful attack of his own. “On your feet, shadow,” Liu called to the form on the ground, “This battle is over.” Shadow Liu understood, He Liu was going to finish him, whether he was lying on the ground or standing up; being allowed to stand was just a courtesy he was being offered. The shadow planted his staff on the ground for assistance and struggled to his feet, leaning on the end of the staff as he continued to pant. Liu threw his arm forward, a Fire Bolt blazing towards the shadow, quickly hiding him from Liu’s view. Shadow Liu looked forward, straight into the fireball approaching him, nodding as just then he realized what He Liu’s words meant. The energy blast impacted against Shadow Liu’s chest, he felt a shove and sudden heat course through him, then nothing. He Liu raised a hand to shield his eyes as the fireball exploded against the shadow. As the light dimmed and his eyesight returned, he looked and saw nothing of the shadow.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:55 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter VII: A Visit to the Shadow Cave: He Liu’s Trial

Liu wandered over to where the shadow had been standing, the only trace he saw was the bottom part of a charred magic staff, which he left on the ground. “So that’s that,” he said looking at the charred ground and smoldering staff piece, “I was really expecting a harder fight…more like what An had told me his fight had been like.” Liu looked around the room, noticing the only exit was the way he’d come in, “Okay, so…how do I get out of here? Same way I came in?” The room suddenly glowed a brilliant yellow, the light engulfing everything around him, as the light vanished, he found himself outside, standing next to Grand Master Sean. “Congratulations, He Liu!” Sean shouted. Liu looked back at Sean, “Hey, is the fight in the cave supposed to show people something? I mean like, teach a lesson?” Sean looked back at him and leaned over a bit, “Why, did you learn something in the cave?” Liu shook his head, “Nothing I didn’t already know, just something my master taught me earlier.” “Oh?” Sean raised his eyebrows and straightened a bit, “And what was that?” Liu looked back at Sean, “That a mage’s power is doesn’t come from the number of spells, but from their understanding of how to use them and the limitations they carry.” The Grand Master grinned and leaned back laughing a bit, “Very good, He Liu, truly excellent! Indeed, you will no doubt become a fine mage; and you have more than earned the right to your new title: Wiz Mage!” He Liu smiled at Sean’s words, and Sean reached into his bag, “Now then, I have a gift for you, young ma –I mean, young Wiz-Mage.”

He pulled out two rods, holding one in each hand, “These are the weapons of the Wiz-Mage. The small one on the left is a wand. It contains a rather large gem for focusing strong attacks, but the small stem makes guiding accurately difficult at times. The other is a staff, which you are familiar with already. It has a smaller gem than the staff, so it can’t focus as well, but the weapon is easier to guide making it more accurate.” Sean looked at the green haired mage, “As a gift for passing your trial and attaining the level of Wiz-Mage, I shall grant you whichever weapon you choose.” Liu looked up at the Grand Master, “Can I change it later?” “Of course you can,” Sean laughed, “But you will have to buy it from the smiths. Only the one you choose now is free.” Liu took the wand –deciding he wanted to try something different, thanked Master Sean and made his way over toward where Celestina was waiting. Sean watched the mage walk away, and start talking busily and excitedly to the purple-haired cleric, motioning with his arms to convey explosions or the speed of attacks; Celestina smiling and nodding as she listened. Sean chuckled a bit as he watched, his gaze becoming serious. “Everyone sees something different in the caves, young Wiz-Mage,” the gold-clad Gran Master whispered to himself, “Never forget what you saw, or you will share the same lesson as your brother.”

An may have preferred the sanctity he found in the parks of Elderine, but Liu always enjoyed Rumen. The sea breeze helped it to feel cool despite the humidity, the sound of waves -always audible in the town- was quite relaxing, wandering the nearby forests was fun -as was simply going to the beach to relax, and there were very few people when compared to the crowded streets and markets of Elderine. Liu made his way up the steps of the small town, passing the smith’s shop. As he walked, a loud clacking sound came from beside him, he looked over at the mage walking next to him, “Ah, it’s her shoes,” he thought as he glanced down, “That’s what’s making the sound.” Lamis looked back at him, “What is it?” “Huh? Oh, sorry,” Liu shook his head, “Just a stray thought. It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” “I’m bored,” Lamis said as they continued walking, “We haven’t had a quest in days…grinding is getting kinda boring against the same enemies all the time.”

It had been two weeks since he’d passed his test from Grand Master Sean at the Forest of Mist –Lamis had gone through her test as well only three days after Liu, this was the first time since then that they had been back to the small town; and Liu had to admit, he missed it. “He Liu! He Liu!” someone shouted from a corner. Liu looked over to the side, Robin was motioning for him to come closer. Liu and Lamis made their way over to him as the old man looked at the mage traveling with him, “Ah, and Ms. Lamis as well! Perfect!” Lamis looked at the old man, standing under his still-growing tree, “What is it, Robin?” The old man looked at the duo, “By now, you two have undoubtedly heard the story of Mara.” Liu nodded, “Yeah, her mother Alebrin was from Isya, she married Karas. One day Karas disappeared, as did Alebrin. Alebrin came back years later without Karas, but with two children, and very ill. The people helped her to recover, but some citizens found Karas some time later, and found out that he was practicing forbidden spells on humans and monsters.” Lamis nodded, “Once they found this out about Karas, they ganged up on Alebrin -and accused her of being a conspirator…or an experiment…and she was exiled from Isya with her children. Mara, her daughter, became a strong pirate and attacked traders, fishermen, whoever she could in an effort to exact revenge for the treatment of her mother.” Robin nodded, “You miss a few details, but you are right in your general description.” “What’s wrong, Robin?” Liu asked, “Is Mara back?” “Actually no,” Robin answered, “Mara hasn’t been seen in weeks.” “Well then if there is no trouble, why are we talking about this?” Liu asked.

Robin shifted his gaze over to look directly at Liu, “I did not say there was not a problem, I said it did not involve Mara.” “Well then who does it involve?” An exasperated He Liu asked. “It involves her brother,” Robin answered flatly. “Her brother?” Lamis repeated. Robin nodded, “Yes, Mara’s brother, Marlone. He has become a strong bandit, and is the leader of a large group of bandits known as the Marlone Clan. Like his sister, he leads them in attacks against merchants, citizens and even villages in Isya in the call of revenge for his mother.” Lamis nodded, “And you want us to take him out, huh? We’ll do it!” Robin chuckled, “You are impetuous, young lady. You should go talk to the guard captain in Elderine, Shutian –he’ll have more to tell you.” Liu looked over at Lamis; she nodded at him, “Let’s go.” The duo began their trek to Elderine, “Sounds like things will be getting difficult,” Lamis said as they walked. Liu looked up as the sight of the blue sky above gave way to forest canopy, “Well look at it this way: at least we have something to do now.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:56 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter VIII: Return to Burning Hills: The Marlone Clan Bandits

The mage team quickly made their way to Elderine, and found Shutian in Elderine’s center square by the fountain. “Master Shutian!,” Liu called as they approached. Shutian turned to see who was calling him, “Huh? What is it? Who are you two?” he asked the two mages. “I’m He Liu,” he said, introducing himself. Lamis gave a slight bow, “I’m Lamis, we were sent here by Robin to ask about Marlone.” Shutian raised an eyebrow, “Robin sent YOU to deal with Marlone?” The two mages nodded, Shutian looked away and shook his head, “The old man has finally gone senile.” “Hey!” Lamis shouted, “We’re a lot stronger than you give us credit! Beating this Marlone guy will be a piece of cake!” Liu looked over in shock –he couldn’t believe what Lamis was saying to Captain Shutian, oddly enough, Shutian was not angry. The Guardsman eyed the mages, “You have spirit, I’ll grant you that.” He stopped and looked at the mages again, this time with a slight grin, He Liu fidgeting a bit in the awkward silence. “I’ll tell you what,” he said folding his arms over his chest, “I’ll give you a test; if you pass, I’ll give you the quest Robin sent you here to find out about.” “What quest is that?” Lamis asked, Liu remaining quiet.

“The Marlone Clan has many different bandits in their ranks…your trial is to kill twenty Marlone Megatons, and ten Marlone Captains,” Shutian looked at them again, “Start off with the Megatons, then move on to the Captains.” “So how will we know which ones are the Megatons and the Captains?” He Liu asked. Shutian smiled, “Trust me, the Megatons you’ll know when you see them. They aren’t called ‘MegaTON’ for nothing. The Captains are the big axe wielding ones.” “Axes?” Liu’s eyes widened. “Is that all?” Lamis asked calmly, Liu turned to look at her as though she were completely insane. “Yes, that’s all,” Shutian said with a grin, “If you cannot defeat them, then you stand no chance against Marlone –you’ll admit it and forget Robin sent you here. As proof of your victories, bring me a souvenir. Many of these bandits carry with them a Sign of Loyalty to their leader, Marlone. Bring me twenty.” “Fine,” Lamis answered. “Excuse me,” Liu said looking at Lamis, “What are you doing?” “Calm down, Liu,” Lamis replied, then looked back at Shutian, “Where do we find them?” “Marlone has based his bandits on top of the large hill in the Burning Hill area.” Lamis nodded, “Well be back to talk to you about Marlone later.” “We’ll see,” Shutian grinned back. Lamis turned and walked away, Liu following. As they walked away, Liu looked at Lamis, “Hey, Lamis, can I talk to you about this idea for a second?” ”No,” Lamis kept walking forward. Liu stopped as she kept walking, “Oh come on!” he pleaded, “Did you MISS that part about big axes!?” Lamis kept walking away, “Lamis?” He walked forward quickly to catch up to her, “Lamis?”

As they began climbing the large hill, Liu looked over at Lamis, “I really think we should have found a cleric first.” Lamis shook her head, “We won’t need one…at least not for these guys. I brought enough potions and scrolls to attack Mara by myself.” Liu grinned a bit and shook his head, “You know, you should have been a fighter.” Lamis chuckled a bit herself, “Not a chance…like I’d be caught wearing the tacky outfits they have. Besides,” she looked at her wand, twirling it around in front of her, “I like being stronger than they are.” Liu chuckled as they passed the wooden fence that surrounded the bandit encampment. Turning left, he looked down the corridor the small maze the fences made, and saw no sign of any enemies. “So when we find these guys,” he asked, “how are we supposed to tell which ones are Megatons?” Lamis shrugged, “Shutian said we’d know them when we saw them because of their name.” Liu shrugged in response, “Yeah but why would they be called Mega..” Liu stopped as the ground shook, large thumping sounds coming quickly from behind them. Liu turned to see a large enemy running toward them. No not large…large was to understate this thing’s size. This thing was enormous, as wide as it was tall, its girth equal to –if not surpassing- the brawn which showed on its arms, panting heavily as it ran. “Tons,” Liu finished as the thumping bandit ran up toward them, raising his fists –wearing, Liu noted, two very large sets of metal knuckles. Letting out a loud battle cry, the Megaton charged to two small mages.

An energy bolt flew over Liu’s shoulder and impacted against the Megaton’s chest, exploding into a sheet of ice. The ice grew over the Megaton’s body, spreading over his arms and legs –but the powerful bandit kept moving, shattering the ice. The ice quickly grew back, and again the Megaton continued forward, the ice splintering again –slowing the great bandit, but not stopping it. “Don’t just stand there gawking, Liu,” Lamis shouted as she ran past him, “Start attacking!” she cast another magic attack to cap her command. Liu blinked as he snapped out of his surprise and began casting spells of his own. The Megaton plowed forward, bolt after ethereal bolt slamming and exploding against his massive chest. “This thing won’t die!” Lamis shouted as she began her third set of her spell chain. Liu cast another Fire Bolt, and looked at the Megaton as it blew up against the bandit’s chest. The blast caused a large ripple to flow across its belly, only managing to shred the cloth of its shirt. “His fat is absorbing the impact!” Liu shouted incredulously, “Is there anywhere on this thing that’s not covered in flab so we can actually hurt it!?” Lamis ran forwards toward the bandit, Liu’s eyes widened, “Lamis! What are you doing?” “Trust me!” she shouted back. Lamis looked up at the Megaton, easily twice her size. The Megaton slammed the metal tip of his metal knuckle into Lamis, sending the mage flying into the fence over to the side.

“Lamis!” Liu shouted. He watched as she slammed into the wooden barrier and sank to the ground unconscious, the Megaton stalking toward her. Liu sent a series of magic attacks back at the oversized enemy, appearing to do nothing more than draw its attention. The Megaton began stomping over toward Liu, who desperately attacked as fast as he could. The Megaton reached Liu, towering over the mage, as though savoring the look in Liu’s eyes. The immense enemy suddenly shouted and raised his arms, his head lighting up as electricity coursed through it. Smoke rose from his hair as his arms dropped to his side, then the Megaton fell to the ground. Liu looked at the defeated enemy on the ground, then looked farther back, seeing a grinning Lamis standing behind the Megaton’s body. “Lamis!” Liu shouted, “What the heck? How did….You were…what just happened?” “Your idea,” she grinned back, “We had to hit the thing where there wasn’t any fat to absorb the attack. His head, while still large, had very little fat. Of course, he’d never stay still long enough for us to attack it easily…unless he didn’t think we’d be able to attack.” “But you were hurt,” Liu said with a confused look. Lamis laughed, “Like that wuss could have put me away with one hit.” Liu shook his head, “I should have known .” “Yeah,” Lamis grinned as she dug through the Megaton’s pockets, finding a Sign of Loyalty and stuffing it in her bag, “You should have. Now then, we have nineteen more of these guys to go…you ready?” Liu half-grinned and gave a silent laugh, “Sure…why not?”

Another blue clad Megaton charged at the duo, the ground shaking slightly as the obese enemy ran. “Legs!” Lamis shouted at Liu while she readied her attack. Liu let loose with an Ice Bolt, which bust into a sheet of ice enveloping the Megaton’s large body. Like the last few times they had tries it, the large Megaton continued forward, shattering the ice over its arms and legs. The ice grew back, only for the Megaton to break free once more. Lamis aimed carefully, waiting for the ice to grow over the Megaton’s legs a third time, then sent her own attack hurtling toward the enemy. Her aim was perfect, a Fire Bolt slammed into the Megaton’s knee just as it broke free of the ice sheet. The Megatons had a large and flabby upper body, but their legs were tiny and unprotected. As the energy attack slammed into the Megaton’s knee, he yelled and fell forwards, the remorseless ice still trying to cover the Megaton’s body. The Megaton rolled on the ground, holding his knee and howling in pain. Liu and Lamis each sent attacks at the bandit’s head –the rolling making it difficult to hit their target. At last one of the attacks struck the unprotected head of the Megaton, and the giant enemy lay still.

Liu grinned at Lamis, “How many does that make now?” “Eighteen,” she grinned back, “See? I told you we didn’t need a cleric.” “I’m sorry I doubted you,” Liu bowed as Lamis retrieved the next Sign of Loyalty. Loud stomping sounds came from behind them as tremors rolled through the ground under their feet. They looked back and saw three Megatons running towards them from the far side of the encampment –already passing the entrance and cutting off their escape. Liu looked over at the other mage, “This could be more difficult.” Lamis nodded, “There’s always plan C.” Liu glanced at the Megatons charging them, “You really want to try that now?” “Good a time as any,” Lamis answered, “Besides…plans A and B don’t seem to have good outcomes for us against three of them.” “You have a point,” He Liu conceded. The two mages moved next to each other, centering themselves in the walkway between the two fences, and watched as the Megatons came closer. “Ready, Liu?” Lamis asked as she used a charge from her soul stone to recover her spirit. “As I’ll ever be, I guess,” Liu nodded as he braced himself. “This is going to be very quick,” he thought to himself, “One way or the other, this will be over very quick.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:57 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter VIII: Return to Burning Hills: The Marlone Clan Bandits

The Megatons ran at the two tiny mages. “They aren’t attacking,” one said. “Ha-ha! They’re probably too afraid to attack!” another replied, “This’ll be too easy…we just surround them and pummel them. Over in a second!” They made room between each other as they drew near, the mages continuing to stand still without attacking. They reached the mages, two Megatons running past them to make sure they couldn’t retreat. The two Megatons then spread out a bit and began walking towards the mages, boxing them in. The first Megaton raised his fist; the metal knuckles he wore sparkled in the light. The Megaton stared at the two mages, who were staring straight back at him. “Liu! Now!” the girl suddenly shouted. With amazing speed, the two mages raised their arms up and quickly brought them back down and together. A powerful wind suddenly came from all directions, seemingly emanating from nowhere as the two mages each unleashed a torrent of swirling energy. The wind kicked up dust and rocks as it whipped at the Megaton’s faces, arms and legs, slamming into their stomachs and backs; but it was more than just wind -this wind was painful.

Liu’s eyes widened as he saw the effects of the spells he and Lamis had cast. Magic Burst was the last-ditch spell of mages. When all other spells had failed and the enemy still came in close, Magic Burst would send out powerful jets of energy swirling in every possible direction to attack the mage’s opponent –or opponents. The spell created a magical maelstrom, using the very energy found around the mage to perpetuate itself for a short time. The energy would slam into the opponent from all directions, beating the enemy as though caught inside a tornado, dealing severe damage. Usually, if this spell was not enough to kill the enemy, it was enough to allow the mage to escape and regroup. He watched as Magic Burst sent energy coursing around both mages, slamming into all three Megatons. The energy from the two mages would sometimes run with each other, increasing power of the blast’s direct impact, and sometimes counter, striking both front and back of the same bandit at the same time. The Megatons yelled in surprise, outrage and pain as the energy attacks continued to assault them. The energy finally died down, the rocks clattering to the ground as the dust settled, revealing three Megatons still standing around the mages.

Lamis and Liu each held their breath at seeing the Megatons still upright after that last attack. Liu peered closer at the nearest Megaton –his eyes had rolled back into his head, and he was not breathing. Without warning, one of the three large bandits fell to the ground with an earth-shaking thud; the other two following suite. Liu looked over at Lamis, letting out a nervous laugh, “Well that last part was unexpected.” “True,” she replied, “Nevertheless that was more than twenty Megatons. Now we need to find the captains.” “Right,” Liu nodded slowly as they continued walking farther into the Marlone encampment, “the big guys with axes….great.”

Surprisingly enough, Liu found the Marlone Bandit Captains were much easier than the Megatons. While they were still oversized, incredibly muscular –and did indeed wield large axes; they were not as large as the Megatons they had just faced, and did not have their added protection that the mage duo had found so aggravating. Without that extra layer to cushion the impact from their spells, the Captains never had the chance to use their sharp axes; they always fell just before reaching the powerful duo.

Lamis let loose another lightning attack, which slammed into the Marlone Captain’s bare chest just before Liu’s own magic attack impacted. The double shock knocked the big man backwards and sent him to the ground unmoving. “Heck with what Shutian said,” Lamis said as she walked forwards, “I say we find this Marlone guy now and see just how tough he is.” Liu grinned as he walked next to her, “Well every other time I said it was not something we could do, you proved me wrong…so why not?” They began walking through the outside corridors searching for Marlone. Liu listened to the shuffling of their feet on the loose dirt as they walked. The soil hardened as they neared the center of the camp, giving way to rocky gravel. Liu looked over at Lamis, again hearing the clacking of her heels against the compressed surface. “What is it?” Lamis asked looking over. “I was just thinking about our armors,” he replied. She waited a moment for him to continue, which he seemed reluctant to do. Finally she asked, “What about it?” He tugged at the small cape that hung from the hem of his pants, “Well for starters, you ever wonder why we wear silk?” “It breathes well,” she smiled. Liu shook his head, “All the others get some sort of metal… even archers….we get silk. It’s no wonder we are the weakest ones in terms of defense. I mean, this stuff isn’t even armor…it’s evening wear. We should be going to dinner in this, not fighting.” Lamis looked back at him, “We’re mages, we’re not supposed to have heavy armor; we’re supposed to be comfortable –it allows us easier concentration when we cast spells to make them more damaging and accurate.” “Alright, I’ll concede to you on that point; but what about those?” Liu said gesturing toward her high-heeled shoes. “What about them?” Lamis asked back. “What’s the point of those? They CAN’T be comfortable, they’re loud, and they aren’t exactly easy to use in some terrains; and they’re only given to archer girls and mage girls. What’s the logic behind that?” “That’s an easy one,” Lamis smiled, “If you’re gonna fight, you gotta look good.” Liu couldn’t help laughing with her at her comment as Lamis chuckled.

They continued walking until they found an opening in the fence leading to a large house with several Marlone Clan Captains and sword-wielding Marlone Fighters standing around the courtyard. The door to the house opened, and they all turned around to see who it was, saluting and cheering as a large man walked out. The man was larger than a Megaton, but proportionally built like the Captains. His white hair was thinning and falling out, but it did not make him look old or feeble, as it might with some –and the two scars crossing on his forehead gave him a fearsome expression. In his hand he held a large axe, comparable in size to Liu’s body. The crowd around the house continued to cheer, some chanting, “Mar-lone! Mar-lone!” repeatedly. Marlone flexed and hefted his axe, walking over toward a large tree in the corner of the courtyard. The crowd grew silent as the large bandit leader stood next to the tree; and with a single swing of his axe, he sliced through the trunk at its thickest part, felling the tree. The crowd broke into applause and cheers again as Marlone sliced the tree into three segments, which he then lifted one at a time with his free hand, throwing them into the back yard, some fifteen meters away. Marlone then turned to face the group in his courtyard and began to lead them in training exercises. Without a word, Liu turned around and began walking back toward the entrance to the camp, Lamis walking next to him. He waited for a good three minutes before turning to look at her, “Cleric?” “Cleric,” she nodded. Liu nodded in response, then after a short pause he spoke again, “Fighter?” Lamis hesitated in her reply, “Maybe.”

“What!?” Shutian yelled in surprise. “Here are the twenty Signs of Loyalty,” Liu said presenting the small bag to Shutian again as Lamis suppressed a chuckle. Shutian reached out and took the bag, looking at the two mages with uncertainty, “YOU two managed to kill twenty Megatons, ten captains AND obtain the signs ALL on your own!?” “Yeah, it was pretty simple,” Lamis said looking at a nearby vendor to see if there was anything interesting. “Well, the Megatons were kinda hard at first,” Liu added, “Their blubber made them difficult to kill.” Shutian stared at the two mages in disbelief. “So anyways, can we go after Marlone now?” Liu asked looking at Shutian. Shutian’s mouth was slightly agape as he nodded at the two mages. “Okay then,” Lamis said with a grin as she looked up, “We’ll go get ready and check back with you once we beat Marlone.” The two mages turned and began walking back down Elderine’s busy main street, Shutian watched as they walked away. “Maybe the old man isn’t quite the fool I thought he was,” he thought to himself. “We are going to get a cleric, right?” Liu asked quietly as they walked away. “Of course,” Lamis replied, “I just phrased it like that to see his reaction.” She started laughing again, “I mean, did you see the look on his face? It was priceless!” He Liu laughed as well, hoping that they were far enough away that Shutian wouldn’t hear them, “It was pretty funny.” “Especially the way his mouth dropped like it did when he heard that we’d ‘check back with him after we beat Marlone’. That was just plain hilarious.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:57 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter VIII: Return to Burning Hills: The Marlone Clan Bandits

The party made their way through the twisting outdoor corridors of the Marlone Bandit encampment. Liu looked back at the cleric they had found in Elderine, noticing that he looked a bit uncertain. The cleric wasn’t as strong as Liu had been hoping they would get –he had only a few days prior become a High Cleric, but Liu wasn’t going to complain. He looked ahead, at the unexpected addition to their party –a very strong fighter. Brandishing a large axe rather than the sword and shield that most fighters chose to wield, his intense expression and the spikes that jutted from the shoulders of his yellow armor gave him a menacing presence –one Liu hoped would keep Marlone’s attention during the fight to come.
The fighter’s story was difficult to hear, or forget –and Liu hoped it would be one this team could avoid repeating.

Liu’s party had just entered the Burning Hills area when they were ambushed by a few Grave Robbers. The fight lasted all of three seconds. Liu and Lamis each used their Magic Burst skill and sent them to the ground without suffering so much as a scratch. The two mages laughed as the cleric stood agape at how fast they had dispatched the enemies; the party of adventurers then continued on their way. That’s when they heard a voice up ahead, “Can you help me? I’m after Marlone.” Liu looked down the path and saw a fighter standing at the base of the hill talking to a few people in front of him. The other party’s fighter scoffed, “We don’t need another fighter.” “I’m not asking to replace you, I’m here for Marlone and I would like some help.” The other party’s cleric spoke up this time, “I’m sorry, but we’re on our own quest. Try recruiting people in Elderine, then coming here.” The party turned and walked away, leaving the fighter alone, looking a bit sad. Liu’s party began walking toward the hill, the fighter turned upon hearing them, “Hey! I’m after Marlone, can you help me? I’ll help out with whatever you guys need in return.” Liu looked over at Lamis, who shook her head slightly. He returned his attention to the fighter, “Why are you here?” “I’ve been here off and on every day for a while now,” the fighter replied, “Marlone is here, in the encampment up the hill, and I want to face him. I’m not strong enough to fight him alone yet, so I’ve been asking any party I come across for help.” “I see,” Liu replied, “But why do you want to fight Marlone?”

The fighter hung his head slightly, his shoulders dropping. “A while ago, Robin sent me on a quest against Marlone,” He began, “I formed a party with a mage I met on the way, and a cleric –my long-time friend and duo partner. The fight took a long time, but it went well –up until the end.” The fighter looked up staring past He Liu, at some point only he could see, “We had managed to weaken Marlone greatly, he was about to die…then I got overconfident. I knocked Marlone backwards off of his feet, and was standing over him, swinging my axe in triumph, readying to make the final strike. Suddenly Marlone made his last-ditch attack. Moving faster than I had thought possible, Marlone swept out with his axe, I was barely able to bring my own axe up in time to block. His attack sent me flying backwards into his house. As I got to my knees, I saw Marlone standing in front of me –and he wasn’t going to waste the opportunity that I had. He brought his axe down, straight at my chest, my axe still on the ground next to me. Marlone’s axe struck a barrier cast by the cleric, May. He raised his axe again, intending to break through, but he lurched forward as the mage started casting powerful spells into Marlone’s back –I had told him not to attack very often so Marlone would leave him alone, but he felt he needed to attack to save me. Marlone turned toward the mage and stomped over as I retrieved my axe and got to my feet, but before I could even make a move, Marlone cleaved the mage in half with one swing of his axe.”

Upon hearing the part about the mage being killed, Liu’s eyes widened, as did Lamis’ –for a moment, at least. The fighter continued to speak, “I attacked Marlone again, drawing his attention, but he noticed that May was trying to revive the mage. He used a magic spell on me called Entangle, which summons up vines to prevent an opponent from escaping…or giving chase. Marlone turned towards May, who cast a barrier on herself as she continued to revive the mage. By the time he attacked May for the first time, I had managed to free myself from the vines. As he swung down the second time, she finished restoring the mage’s body and reviving him. I ran over toward her as fast as I could, praying I would make it. As I neared May, I saw her looking past Marlone and at me…she was sad, but smiling. Marlone swung down, and shattered her barrier, killing her.” The fighter looked down again, “The mage and I attacked Marlone, who used his gear to retreat from the battle –as he and his sister often do. There was no other cleric in our party, and no clerics were around at the time –at least none that were willing to try to help…so May was never revived.” His face darkened as his eyes narrowed, the grip on his axe tightening, “I’ll never forget what happened, and I won’t let Marlone forget, either. So now every time I hear that he has returned, I come here and beat him back to where he came from…and I swear…one of these times, he won’t be able to run away.” Liu turned toward the others and whispered, “So do we let him in?” “No,” said the cleric, “I’m not gonna end up like that other cleric!” “You won’t,” Lamis answered, “First of all we’re here. Second, I don’t think he’ll make that mistake twice.” Liu looked at Lamis, “We could use a fighter to keep Marlone occupied. It would make things a lot easier.” “Well,” she replied, “Easier is always nice.” Liu looked back at the fighter. ‘So will you help me?” the fighter asked. “As it happens,” Liu grinned, “We’re here to kill Marlone as well. We’d be happy to help you if you’re willing to help us.” The fighter grinned and hefted his axe, “Thanks. You won’t regret it.”

Liu looked at the fighter, wondering what he was thinking –or feeling. He remembered the pain that An had gone through after Skeleton Knight killed his friend Leranna –and the obsession he had with becoming stronger afterward. He felt some pity for the fighter, but mostly he hoped that the fighter wouldn’t have to learn the same lesson as An had –at least not in the same manner. The fighter stopped, motioning for the others to keep quiet, “Marlone is always surrounded by guards. If we go charging in, we can be overwhelmed easily.” “So what do we do?” Liu asked. Lamis picked up a small stone, tossing it in her hand with a grin, “I think I know.” The fighter smiled as Lamis got to her feet and walked toward the entrance to Marlone’s courtyard. She crouched by the gateless entrance as the fighter crept up next to her. Lamis looked around the corner, selecting one of the Marlone Captains that was standing nearby. She walked out into the opening and threw the stone, knocking him in the back of his head.

The captain turned around and looked at the ground, spotting the stone that had struck him. He looked up and saw Lamis standing in the opening, grinning as she waved at the captain. He snarled and ran toward Lamis, who quickly disappeared around the corner. A nearby swordsman saw the captain running, and became curious, “What is it, sir?” “Nothing,” the captain growled back, “Get back to your post!” As the captain charged out of the entrance, he saw the mage waiting for him –with another mage and a cleric behind him. “It’s a trap!” his eyes widened as the thought entered his mind, “I have to warn the others! I have to raise the alarm!” He opened his mouth to speak, “Ala…” He froze, the words sticking in his mouth, his body refusing to move. The two mages stepped forward, the last thing he saw were two red bolts of fire flying from their staffs toward his face.

The fighter grinned as he walked around the body of the captain, “That worked well.” “It did,” Lamis agreed. “Stun…isn’t that a bit risky?” Liu asked, “It doesn’t always work.” The fighter nodded, “True, but a stun attack from behind has a greater chance of success. Besides, if it hadn’t worked, I could have just used my axe.” Liu tilted his head to the side, “So…why didn’t you do that in the first place?” The fighter shrugged, “Gave you guys more to do.” Liu looked at Lamis, asking a silent question, she shrugged. Silently, the party readied to take out the next bandit.

The party managed to take out two more captains and four swordsmen in the same manner; swiftly and quietly carving a path into the courtyard. They set up again, Lamis choosing another stone. As she peered around the ledge, a Marlone Captain that was wandering over to look for the guards he knew should be there spotted her. Deducing the fate of the missing guards, he wasted no time himself. Rather than chasing her down, he let out a loud yell, “Intruders! Intruders at the gates!”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:58 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter VIII: Return to Burning Hills: The Marlone Clan Bandits

“Oh crap!” the fighter said as he heard the yell. He leapt to his feet from his squat next to Liu and spun around the fence opening. He charged forward as a half dozen other Marlone bandits rushed the gate. Liu and Lamis ran out behind the fighter, casting ice spells at the approaching swordsmen to slow them down. The captain hesitated for a second, uncertain whether to attack the mages or the fighter. Fortunately, a second was all the fighter needed. He quickly swung his axe up and in, the captain lurching forward as the blade sunk into his chest; the fighter yanked back, pulling out the axe and letting the captain sink to the ground. Two more captains rushed forward at the fighter, slicing down with their axes. As he had no shield, he was only able to parry one of the two metal blades; the other plunged down, striking an invisible barrier cast by the cleric. The captain looked up at the cleric that had appeared from behind the fence. The captain stepped around the fighter, making his way towards the cleric. The fighter pushed forward, knocking the captain in front of him off balance and freeing up his axe. He spun around, sinking the tip of the axe into the back of the captain rushing the cleric, sending him down well short of his target. The fighter yanked back, pulling the axe free from its newfound holster, and planting the other side of the double edged weapon into the chest of the first captain, ending the second fight before it could begin. The fighter turned his attention to the other two Marlone Captains that were still approaching –slowed by the sheets of ice that kept growing over their legs and bodies. There were burns and scorch marks on their torsos from the attacks of the two mages. Two explosions flared into life –one on the chest of each captain, and the captains fell down and lay still.

Another wave of shouting bandits charged from around the manor, setting up for a pincer attack. The two mages stood behind the fighter to either side, the cleric raising his shield behind them as the fighter raised his axe. “Enough!” A loud voice roared. The Marlone bandits all stopped, the shout dying down to a murmur as they turned and looked at the open doors of the manor. There were barely audible whispers as the bandits spoke, but one word that was heard many times was quite easily distinguished: “Marlone”. A large shadow moved inside as the door opened wider with a groan. A large and powerful warrior stepped out of the door, hunched over a bit as he was actually too tall for the doors –large as they were. He straightened up, his thinning hair revealing two white crossing scars on his forehead. His eyes blazed as he stared down the small party of adventurers. The fighter tightened his grip on his axe, “You.” Marlone’s gaze shifted slightly as he caught side of the fighter, “Who are you?” The fighter did not answer, then Marlone’s lips curled into a smile, “Ah yes, I remember you…you still upset that I killed your little girlfriend are you?” The fighter made no answer; gritting his teeth and bringing his axe back a bit. Marlone continued to grin, “And you’re still trying to avenge her? How cute. Haven’t you gotten tired of failing by now?” “If you stay and finish the fight this time, there will be no need for me to come back, you coward!” the fighter growled. Marlone laughed, “As though you will ever be able to defeat me! It’s utterly ridiculous!” Humph!” The fighter scoffed, “Then where have you gone the last five times I faced you? You are not powerful enough to defeat me, Marlone!” “Is that so?” Marlone straightened as he scowled. “Come out here and I’ll show you,” the fighter grinned. “Very well,” Marlone replied. He stepped forwards, the other bandits clearing a wide circle around them. Marlone walked up to the party, his axe held in one hand, continuing to glare at the party –the fighter in particular. Marlone growled, “I’ll show you true power.” With lightning speed he raised his axe and brought it down, the ground shaking as it struck the earth where the fighter had just been.

Two crackling balls of magic slammed into Marlone’s chest, causing him to shudder a bit and growl in annoyance. The fighter –who had rolled away from Marlone’s attack, rose to his feet and sliced at Marlone’s midsection. Marlone swung his axe down, a loud clang echoing across the hilltop as metal slammed into metal, Marlone’s counter attack stopping the fighter’s attempt at a disemboweling strike. The two axes locked with each other as the fighter and Marlone strained, pushing against each other. “You’ve gotten stronger since the last time I saw you,” Marlone chuckled. The fighter sank and fell back, the sudden removal of the fighter’s counterweight causing Marlone to fall forward. The fighter kicked up as Marlone stumbled, sending the large bandit leader into the air –the distance of his flight assisted by a few explosions from attacks contributed by Lamis and Liu. Marlone landed on his back more than fifteen feet out. The fighter lunged to his feet and spun, rushing toward Marlone –who was getting to his feet himself. Marlone swung his axe out, the fighter ducked and spun underneath, grasping the shaft of his large axe in one hand and swinging out himself. His axe struck its target, slashing across Marlone’s chest, he brought his axe back and around, catching the shaft halfway up with his other hand, he shifted his grip and bent at the knees to ready his next attack. Marlone staggered backwards at the attack, looking down to see the cut that crossed his stomach. There was some blood, but the wound was non-fatal.

Marlone looked up at the fighter and grinned, “Your skills with an axe have improved as well.” “I’ve been training to kill you, Marlone,” the fighter spat back. “I’m flattered,” Marlone mocked, “Is that all you do? Train day and night just because I killed your girlfriend?” “Don’t TALK about her!” the fighter yelled back. “Aww,” Marlone grinned, “Did I hit a nerve?” The bandit leader looked at the fighter more closely, “Oh, I get it! You never told her how you felt about her, did you?” The fighter made no reply. “Oh this is delicious,” the bandit laughed, “You know…I really enjoyed killing her. The look in her eyes when my blade passed through her. It was just…priceless.” The fighter yelled, charging forward, swinging his blade at Marlone’s chest. Marlone blocked the attack, their axes becoming entangled again. “I will finish you!” the fighter yelled, “You can’t win; I am just as strong as you are!” “I may not be able to prevail in a pushing fight,” Marlone conceded, “But you forgot something.” “What?” the fighter scowled. Marlone gave an evil grin, “MY axe is not two handed.” With a quick sweep, Marlone sent the fighter flying backwards. He stomped over to the fighter and raised his axe, “Two lovers with the same axe. It’s almost poetic.” He brought his axe down, two ethereal bolts detonated against Marlone’s upper body, knocking him off balance and causing him to miss his target –his axe sinking into the ground next to the fighter.

Marlone growled and rushed the mages, who began casting spells much faster than they had been. The fighter shot to his feet and gave chase, “Hey Marlone! What’s wrong? Can’t handle me so you’re attacking the two puny mages?” Marlone stopped and turned, swinging his axe at the fighter, who deftly dodged the attack and swung his own axe, slicing into Marlone’s upper arm, severing a vital nerve. Marlone yelled and staggered back, his free hand hanging near-limp at his side, bleeding profusely. “Gee, I guess it’s a good thing that’s a one-handed axe you use,” the fighter taunted. Marlone sneered, “Insolent fool! I will crush you!” He swung his axe around at the fighter’s head. The fighter brought his axe up, swinging in a vertical circle, guiding the opponent’s axe up and over his head. Continuing the motion of the blade, he spun and buried the tip of the blade in Marlone’s side. Marlone yelled out, jerking as the fighter pulled his axe out again. Marlone swung again, smacking the fighter with the broad end of his axe and knocking him back. Marlone staggered forwards, knocked to the ground from an attack by the two mages behind him. The fighter got to his feet, and walked up next to Marlone, placing the blade of his axe at Marlone’s neck.

Marlone lay on the ground, panting for air, weakened from blood loss by the wounds in his arm and side. The fighter glared at Marlone, “This ends now, Marlone.” Marlone laughed, coughing up a bit of blood at the end of the chuckle, “You think this changes anything? Even if you were able to kill me now, your little girlfriend will still be dead.” The fighter raised his axe overhead. With a loud yell, a Marlone fighter charged him from behind, slashing with his sword. The fighter turned, unable to do anything to block the attack. A fire Bolt slammed into the swordsman, sending him flying backwards. The fighter spun as the remaining Marlone bandits surged in, several attacking the mages and cleric, the rest gunning for the fighter that had wounded their leader.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:58 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter VIII: Return to Burning Hills: The Marlone Clan Bandits

“Cast a barrier on yourself!” Liu yelled at the cleric. Without a comment, the cleric began to chant, the air around him shimmering a bit as the barrier formed. The trio was rushed by three Marlone Fighters and four captains, two of the captains slicing at the cleric, finding their attacks halted by the cleric’s barrier. Lamis and He Liu quickly raised their arms and channeled energy through their bodies, concentrating it in their hands. They tucked and thrust their arms down, releasing the energy, sending a torrent of energy lashing out at the enemies surrounding them. The energy whipped out and around, crashing into the bodies of the bandits, crushing bones, twisting organs, dealing tremendous damage in seconds. As quickly as it started, the energy storm stopped. The captains and one fighter collapsed, but two other fighters remained standing. Liu’s eyes widened as the two wounded fighters focused on the two mages. They quickly swung their broadswords down at the mages. Lamis rushed in, bringing her staff up between the legs of the swordsman attacking her and halting the attack briefly; Liu, unable to move as fast, raised his staff to block the sword. The metal weapon slammed into Liu’s staff, but Liu was not strong enough to block the attack completely; the blade continued down and buried itself partly into Liu’s shoulder. Liu yelled as the blade sank in, and again as the bandit pulled his blade out. Liu grit his teeth and concentrated as the bandit fighter brought his blade up with an annoying laugh, he pointed his staff forward and sent a powerful bolt of fire into the bandit’s face. The bandit fell to the ground, his blade clattering to the ground beside him. Lamis stepped back from the hunching form of the fighter in front of her, as though debating what to do, before sending him to the ground as well with a powerful bolt of lightning.

The fighter was quickly mobbed by bandit swordsmen. Three of them swung down at the same time, the axe fighter used the steel of his axe’s shaft to block the attacks. He looked past them, Marlone lying on the ground, grinning at him as the bandit leader’s body began to glow. “Noooo!” The fighter yelled as he realized Marlone was trying to teleport to his other hideout. He pushed as hard as he could against the swordsmen in front of him, desperately trying to get past them –to stop Marlone from escaping. Marlone’s body glowed a bright yellow, and vanished, the fighter gaping at the empty area where Marlone had been lying, “No! Dammit! No!” Two more fighters came at him from behind, attempting to slice him in half while he was defenseless. He stepped forward, twisting under the blades of the three swordsmen and stepping behind them, all five blades sank into the ground where he had been standing less than one second prior. The fighter spun, swinging his axe and passing the blade through two of the bandit swordsmen’s bodies. Three more swordsmen rushed him as he continued his assault on the bandits. He continuously spun, blocking, dodging and slicing; dozens of bandits falling, dozens more rushing to replace them. He lost count of how many he’d killed, lost track of how long he’d been fighting, he hadn’t even noticed when it was over. Suddenly he saw that there were only three enemies left, he struck at one, the other two fell as blasts of magic slammed into them. The fighter stood in the courtyard, scores of enemies lying on the ground around him.

He lifted his axe above his head, and with a pain-filled roar, buried the entirety of the axe’s blade into the ground in front of him. He yelled for over a minute before sinking to the ground, exhausted. The rest of the party walked up to him, sitting around him. “He escaped,” the fighter shook his head, “I failed again. Marlone is still alive.” They weren’t sure what to say, they remained silent as he continued to speak, “She died because of me. Marlone survived and killed the mage because I got careless. Because the mage died, May had to revive him. She knew what was going to happen to her when she revived that mage…she knew Marlone would target her. As Marlone attacked her, she looked at me…she smiled. She smiled because she knew that we would be safe –because she knew I would be alright.” He looked up at the sky, which was slowly growing dark, “All I have now is Marlone…all I’ve wanted for so long is to defeat him…to avenge her…for so long I’ve tried…and every time I have failed.” He got to his feet, yanking his axe out of the ground, and slung it over his shoulder. “Where are you going?” Liu asked as he got to his feet. The fighter stopped, looking behind him, “I’m going to go train,” he replied. He looked forward as he started walking again, “Marlone is still alive; so I’m going to go train. Next time I face him, one of use will not be leaving.” “That doesn’t sound like a good idea,” Liu said loudly, “There’s no good ending if you look at it like that…trust me.” The fighter ignored him, continuing forward. “What do we do?” Liu asked as he watched the fighter walk around a corner. “There’s nothing we can do, Liu,” Lamis answered, “He made his choice a long time ago and no one will change his mind. There’s nothing you can do.”

The party returned to Elderine, collecting the reward from a very surprised Shutian, then disbanded. As they walked away from Shutian, Lamis turned toward Liu, “So what are you going to do now?” Liu shrugged, “I don’t know…I’m not sure why, but I feel a bit odd.” He looked up at the dusk sky, the first few stars of the night making themselves known. “I think I’ll go visit my brothers for a bit,” he said, “It’s been a while since I’ve seen them.” Lamis nodded, “I should probably go talk to my aunt as well.” Liu turned towards her, “Well then, I’ll see you later.” “Probably,” she grinned. He Liu summoned his hobby horse and got on. “Take care, Lamis,” he waved. “You too, Liu,” she replied as he rode away.

It was dark before he made his way home. As he entered the small house, he saw a familiar person wearing gold armor sitting down in the main room. “An!” Liu said as he entered. “Liu!” An smiled as he got up, “How have you been?” “Not bad,” Liu answered. “Hey there, Liu,” a voice came from behind him. Liu turned to see another person standing in the kitchen doorway. “Littlest Brother!” Liu smiled. “We haven’t seen you in some time,” the green haired young man smiled, “What have you been up to?” “I’ll tell you guys later tonight,” Liu said with a smile, “You’ll like the stories I have today.” Liu looked around, “Where’s Little Brother?” An looked away as Littlest Brother found something interesting to look at on the ceiling. “He’s…hunting,” Littlest Brother replied. “Still?” Liu asked, “He’s normally caught something in his traps by now.” “He’s….not trapping,” An replied, “He’s been trying something…new.”

As he finished speaking, a voice came from outside, “Blast this stupid piece of wood and string! This is impossible!” Littlest Brother shook his head as he walked back into the kitchen and began gathering vegetables, “Looks like we’re going vegan again tonight.” Huh?” Liu looked at him confused. “You’ll see in a minute,” An answered from the chair as he opened a book. The elder twin entered the house, obviously frustrated. “Another fun hunt, bro?” came a voice from the kitchen. “I don’t have ANY idea how those archers do it!” he answered tossing a bow to the ground by the door, “I suck at aiming with this thing, and I can’t get close enough to any food out there to shoot it without it hearing me and running away!” “A bow?” Liu said, “How long have you been using that?” The blue haired twin turned, he had not noticed his brother standing there, “He Liu! You’re back!” “Yes, yes I am,” he smiled, “Now what’s with this bow you’re using?” His brother looked down, “I wanted to try something new, figured I’d give using bow and arrow a try…but I suck at it.” “Hey you can’t be that bad,” Liu reassured him. He looked at An silently asking for support, An whistled a bit and looked back at his book.

Liu looked back at his brother, who was shaking his head, “I got attacked by a Mushroom today. A Mushroom! It saw me with the bow and thought it could take me on.” “And?” Liu asked. “I couldn’t hit the thing with an arrow to save my life…literally. I ended up beating it over the head with the bow until it ran away,” the blue haired young man answered. Liu’s eyes widened as An stifled a chuckle, “Okay…so you need practice.” An looked up, “He could practice, and undoubtedly he would improve; but he is gifted in his use of the sword. Personally, I think he should use that again.” “Soup’s on!” the younger twin came out of the kitchen carrying the black pots, “Let’s put this discussion on hold for now.” He looked at He Liu. “Liu, why don’t you tell that story you said you wanted to share with us?” Liu grinned and nodded his head as the elder twin began serving the meal, “Very well then. Well, Lamis and I were in Rumen, when old man Robin called us over and started asking us about Mara. We asked if Mara was causing trouble again, and he said she wasn’t.” “Then why’d he ask you about Mara?” The younger twin asked. “That’s what we asked,” Liu replied, “You see, it turns out the problem wasn’t Mara, it was a large and powerful bandit leader named Marlone. Marlone, as it turned out, is Mara’s brother….”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:59 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter IX: Squishy: the Price of a Mage’s Strength

He Liu sat down on the sand, a green mist enveloping everything around him. “Man this stuff stinks,” he said waving his hand in front of his face, “Where’s it come from, anyways?” “I don’t know,” said a person somewhere next to him, “It just seems to emanate from the ground periodically.” “I noticed,” Liu replied, resisting the urge to gag, “Utterly putrid…where’s this friend of yours already?” “He said he’d meet me here,” the girl replied. The nauseating fog cleared, Liu looked around at the large cavern they sat in. Giant stalagmites jutted from the ground all over the cave, equally giant stalactites hung from the ceiling some thirty meters high. Many of the ancient rock formations had grown together, creating a web of mountains and caverns within the cave itself. “The Abysmal Cave,” he thought as he looked around, “It certainly lives up to its name.” The Zombie King lurked somewhere in this area, heavily populated with the beast’s minions. He looked over at the fighter sitting next to him, “So are you after this Zombie King as well, Akarii?” The fighter shook her head, “No, I’m just helping a friend.” “Well I’M getting bored!” said the cleric pacing impatiently behind them, “I could have been training and instead I’ve been waiting uselessly in here for almost an hour!”

Liu had returned from visiting his brothers a few days ago –a stay that had lasted more than the two days he’d planned, extending instead to over a week and a half. In that time, Lamis had gone on a training binge and had far exceeded Liu’s level, training now in the Collapsed Prison area, while he was still stuck training in Moonlight Tomb. His first day back he’d had the fortune to run into an old friend, Queen of England. She had been away for several weeks on business –Liu hadn’t seen her since the fight at King Slime’s mountain. Queen, it turned out, was only a part-time adventurer; she would train to become stronger then use the skills and items she obtained in training to guard herself and supplies while she went away on trading business. Liu had to admit, it seemed a smart plan. By defeating enemies, she obtained a lot of pillaged materials –which, by Isya’s law, were granted as property to the adventurer that found the item (this, along with monetary rewards for doing quests was how adventurers funded themselves), and also was able to protect herself and her valuables while out trading –thus avoiding the problems of many adventurers that are attacked by monsters. He talked to her for most of the day. She had arrived back in Rumen about two days after he had left to visit his brothers, and intended to leave again the next day, again on business. While he was sad that he only got to see his friend for a short time, he was still happy to know that she was doing alright.

The next day Queen left, and Liu started training in Moonlight Tomb again. He trained in there against Bats, Spiders and Zombies –while Bats and Spiders were found in any large, dark and moist area with plenty of hiding places, Zombies were the scourge of any tomb. The undead were a nuisance to most adventurers –as they felt no pain and were incredibly tenacious as well as aggressive. Liu did not care for most enemies in the area, but he especially despised those puss-oozing Zombies. While it was true that mages had fewer problems with such creatures (blowing off a leg, pain or no pain, was still going to slow an enemy down); the stench they released after being struck by a magic attack was unbearable. Their normal smell of rot and decay was eye watering, but when the flesh was hit by a magic attack, it rose to a whole new level of stink, and their bodies tended to splatter when hit by an explosive charge, covering most things within five meters with horrid-smelling Zombie remains. He’d been training in the tomb that morning when a fighter approached him. She introduced herself as Akarii, said that she was going to help someone fight a large monster called Zombie King, and asked if he would join them. While uncertain about fighting a large Zombie called Zombie KING (the normal ones smelled bad enough); he was getting a bit lonely without having anyone to talk to and figured going with her would help them and alleviate his boredom, so he consented. They made their way to an area known as the Abysmal Cave, en route they found a cleric whom Akarii also recruited. A few minutes later they arrived at the entrance to the cave; they went inside and waited for Akarii’s friend to show up.

The soft pitter patter of many feet snapped Liu back to the present. He looked around, Akarii and the cleric were talking –Akarii was probably trying to persuade the cleric to stay with them a bit longer. He tilted his head down, shutting his eyes to see if he could still hear the sound. Liu listened for a few seconds –all he could hear was the cleric and fighter talking in the background. The sound came again, coming very close –positioned so that Liu was between the sound and the other two adventurers. Liu’s eyes snapped open, he wanted to get to his feet and look immediately, but as close as that sound was, he did not want to let on just yet that he heard it. Liu fidgeted a bit, uncertain what to do –he noticed that while he moved, the sound had stopped. He took his staff, which was on his lap, and lay it on the ground beside him –he wanted to catch this thing off guard, and the best way to do that was to appear defenseless. After laying his staff down, he shut his eyes and reclined, laying back against the rocky hill –as though about to take a nap. He Liu waited, hoping that his gamble would pay off. He lay back with his eyes shut taking slow breaths to appear asleep. He turned over onto his side and opened his eyes –he was facing toward his staff and away from the enemy, he reached out with his hand and lightly grasped the wooden weapon. There was a quick noise as the enemy took a cautious step, to see if its prey was awake or not. There was a brief pause, then the sounds came again –this thing was making its move.

Liu quickly rolled onto his stomach, tightening his grip on the staff with his bottom arm, he continued to rotate, pushing off of the ground with his free hand and swinging his leg up under him. He flipped his arm out, pointing his staff in the direction he heard the enemy coming from, channeled as much energy as he could into the focusing jewel, and released it as he continued to roll. He looked out as the spell was cast, seeing a gigantic set of fangs flying through the air as the Cave Spider leapt out at the mage. The spider had reacted with incredible speed, already compensating for the mage’s new movement it had jumped out, set to land squarely on the mage’s chest and sink its fangs into the mage, pumping him full of venom. As Liu saw the spider’s face –and saw his fireball miss, his wrist twisted painfully and he collapsed to the ground –the spider sailing over the mages body by a narrow margin. The spider landed a few meters away, quickly turning and focusing its eyes on Liu once more. “Liu!” the cry came from behind the spider. Apparently, the blast from Liu’s fireball when it hit the rock had drawn someone’s attention, after which they saw Liu’s little predicament. Two of the spider’s eyes glanced back to look, and saw the fighter and cleric charging towards it. Liu swung both arms out and around, drawing energy as the spider dashed forward again. Liu released the Magic Missile, sending it flashing towards the large arachnid, which hopped up to avoid the attack. Liu backed away as the spider came at him. Suddenly a very pungent odor called itself to attention, Liu’s vision went fuzzy, but not from toxin or attack, the green mist had returned.

The mist quickly swept over him, blocking out everything he could see. He dropped to one knee, hoping the spider was stuck in the same boat that he was. He listened, he heard the shouts of the cleric and Akarii -undoubtedly only able to see the fog that had enveloped him and the spider, then he heard the pattering of the spider’s feet again –off to the side. He followed the sound, which seemed to be wandering a bit at random. “It’s searching for me,” Liu thought, “It can’t see anything either…that’s good news. I think.” There was another sound –not necessarily far but still very faint, and different than the spider…almost like a kebing’s laugh. Liu continued to listen, the new sound died out, he could only hear Akarii and the cleric –and the spider. The fog continued to lift, Liu turning to face the sound each time it moved. Finally, he saw the spider, about eight feet away from him –staring straight at him.

The spider lunged, flying into the air at Liu’s chest again; Liu suddenly remembered something he had done on his first day as a mage. He grinned as he stepped in, bending his knee and thrusting his staff forward. He caught the bug under the torso, twisting and hefting to send the spider sailing onto its back some eight feet in the other direction. The spider’s legs spasmed as it tried to right itself, but Liu was not going to give it the chance. He threw another fireball at the immense pest, which slammed into its soft underbelly and splattered the beast’s insides around the ground nearby. “Liu!” Akarii shouted from the side, still alarmed. He turned and waved to show he was alright. That small laugh came from behind him again; then there was a sudden pain in his body –dying as fast as it came. He looked at Akarii, her eyes were wide in shock and she was yelling –but the ringing in his ears made understanding any of what she said impossible. He wondered what she was so upset about, and what the black stuff floating around her was. He felt the sudden urge to go to sleep –regardless of the fact that he was standing. His vision went black and he collapsed to the ground, voices and sounds becoming meaningless noise.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 08:59 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter IX: Squishy: the Price of a Mage’s Strength

“Revive him!” the voice echoed in his head as he sat in darkness. “He’s not dead!” another voice shot back, “At least not yet.” “Well then HEAL HIM!” the first echoing voice demanded. “Alright, alright,” the second replied, “Sheesh, you act like I wasn’t going to.” “These voices are so loud,” he thought to himself as the echoes died out, “can’t they go away? I’m trying to rest here.” A cool wind shot around him, “Well this is outright uncomfortable,” he thought, “how rude.” He tried to ignore it so he could keep resting, then his chest began to burn as though someone had poured boiling water on it. He couldn’t ignore this anymore; it was too hard to keep trying to go to sleep. Air filled his lungs again as the cleric’s heal spell repaired them, and He Liu opened his eyes. He sat up, looking at the cleric and fighter, “What happened?” he asked groggily. “The spider wasn’t the only enemy in that fog,” the cleric said, motioning with his hammer, “That was in there, too.” He Liu turned and saw a severely damaged book with ghostly ooze dripping from its pages. “A Cave Archmage Book,” Akarii said. “So that’s the laugh I heard,” Liu thought to himself. Akarii continued, “When the fog lifted, we saw it off to your side, but you didn’t notice it because you were fighting the spider. When you defeated the spider, I tried to get your attention to warn you, but I was too late. The book hit you in your back with a magic attack, drilling a whole straight through you.” Noticing for the first time the increased draft on his chest, Liu looked down, and saw that a four inch wide area of his shirt had been shredded in the front. “Aw man,” he said looking at the damage, “I just bought this shirt.” Akarii and the cleric laughed as Liu retrieved his staff and got to his feet, “Okay, from now on, I’m staying next to you guys.” “Scared, are you?” the cleric taunted. “No, I just don’t want to waste more money replacing clothes,” Liu retorted, “If I’m next to you, there’s a fifty percent chance that the enemy will attack you instead.”

The next forty minutes passed uneventfully, the cleric’s impatience seemingly reset by their fight against the Archmage Book, but the cleric was again becoming antsy –not that Liu could blame him. “It’s almost been TWO HOURS!” the cleric said as he paced back and forth. “He has a point,” Liu said looking at Akarii, “Where is he?” Akarii shook her head, “I really have no clue…sometimes that guy just gets a bit sidetracked.” The cleric stopped pacing and turned to face them, “That’s it!” he said slashing his arm through the air, “I’m not wasting my time any longer! I’m outta here!” “Come on,” said Akarii, “Can’t you give him five more minutes?” “Five minutes?” the cleric said as though taken aback, “I’ve GIVEN him five minutes. I’ve given him five minutes forty times over!” Akarii tried to persuade him a while longer, but this time the cleric’s mind was inalterable. The blue-clad adventurer walked through the portal, leaving Liu and Akarii alone in the cave. “Well,” said Liu as he looked over at Akarii, “As we are now down one cleric, I am thinking fighting Zombie King may not be such a good idea.” Akarii nodded slowly, “Yeah, unfortunately you’re probably right.”

Akarii stood silent for a moment, then looked over at Liu, “Well then, shall we go?” Liu looked back at the fighter, “Go? But what about your friend?” “He’s well aware that if he arrives late there is a chance the people he asked to help won’t stay,” she replied, “If he thinks we’re still waiting for him, hell figure out we aren’t when he gets here.” “Well, that’s true, I guess,” Liu answered. Akarii looked over at the mage, “You know, you handled yourself pretty well back there.” “Right up until I got my chest hollowed out,” Liu said dryly. Akarii laughed, “Well okay, I’m not saying there wasn’t something you could have done better; but you fought well against the spider. There are a number of mages I know that wouldn’t have been able to take on a spider alone –especially that close in.” “You don’t know Lamis,” he thought with a smirk. Liu looked back at her, “Thanks.” The two walked down one of Moonlight Tomb’s dark pathways another minute or so in silence. “You know, I happen to be admin of the guild I’m in,” Akarii said. Liu looked over, confused, “Admin?” “Administrator,” she replied, “It means I can invite or ban members of the guild I am a part of.” “Oh? That sounds interesting,” Liu said, wondering why she was talking about this. “You should join our guild, Liu,” she said, “You’re a fairly decent mage, and those aren’t always easy to come by –unless they are already in a guild.” Liu stopped for a moment, “Wait…You’re inviting me into your guild?” “Well, not my guild,” she corrected him, “The guild belongs to the guild master; but it is the same guild I am in. Guilds are nice things to have; always people to train with, usually guild-mates will sell you their items very cheap –sometimes even giving them away, more experienced adventurers to tell you things you don’t know, and newer adventurers that can use your advice as well.” “Sounds interesting,” Liu replied. “So what do you say? You wanna join?” Liu mulled it over in his head. He’d never really put much thought into joining a guild, and it did sound interesting. His brother An, however, was much stronger and still did not have a guild despite getting invites wherever he went. Of course, that was An’s decision. He liked trying to make it on his own, or with a few friends; joining a large group of people he didn’t know was not his style.

He Liu thought for another half minute while Akarii waited. “There’s no need to rush, you know,” she said, “It’s not like this is a once-in-a-lifetime deal. You can always ask me to join if you see me around again.” Liu nodded, “I know. I’d like to try. I don’t know how long I’ll stay if I don’t like it, but I’d like to see what it’s like.” “Fair enough,” she grinned. She reached into a pocket of her bag, producing a small patch, which she then handed to the mage. “Take this,” she said, “place it in that pocket of your bag there.” Liu did as he was instructed. The patch and pocket glowed for a second, then the pocket sealed shut. “Hey!” he shouted. “Relax, it’s alright, Liu,” she reassured him, “The pocket seals so the patch isn’t lost. If you want the pocket to open, just reach down and it will open for you.” Liu reached down, the pocket unsealing and allowing him to grab the patch, “Oh. Cool.” “Don’t remove the patch, though,” she cautioned him, “To prevent people from entering multiple guilds, the bag destroys the patch upon removal –effectively removing you from our guild. If that happens, you need to find the guild master or an admin like myself to give you a new one…which we won’t always do.” “You know,” Liu said looking up at Akarii, “This bag has to be the coolest thing I’ve ever gotten.” Akarii laughed, “I’ve thought so on many occasions as well.”

“Welcome to the guild, He Liu,” a voice from nowhere spoke. Liu’s eyes widened, “What the heck was that!?” “Calm down, Liu,” Akarii grinned, “It’s our guild master, Bakers Monkey.” Liu looked at Akarii as though she were a demon. “She’s talking,” he thought, “But her lips aren’t moving.” Akarii grinned and again spoke without moving her mouth, “It’s called Guild Chat. It’s something that comes with the patch I gave you. It links you psychically to other guild members –or at least to their patches, which are linked to the members- and allows you to talk to all of them at any given time.” “Oh crap,” he thought, “They can hear what I think? Wait, then they can hear this too!? How am I supposed to think straight when I know people are listening in?” Akarii held up her hand and opened her mouth to speak, “The patch is still working on connecting to your mind, Liu. In another minute, it will only transmit whatever thoughts you want us to hear.” “She had that part memorized,” he thought, “I wonder how many times she’s had to give this explanation.” “She’s done it a number of times, as have I,” Bakers’ voice came again, “Don’t worry, no one becomes an adventurer knowing everything. Even the most experienced adventurers in Isya are still learning new things.” “I can’t wait until this thing lets me choose which parts others hear,” he said to Akarii, “Wait. Can I talk to select guild members or only to the guild as a whole?” “Guild chat lets you speak to the guild,” she answered, “you can address specific people, but everyone in the guild will hear what you think.” “Oh,” he thought, “Hey, Baker. How’d you know I joined the guild?” “I am the guild master,” he replied, “The patch notifies me when someone new joins.” “But then how’d you know my name?” Liu asked in response. “Guild masters are also endowed with a sheet of paper that lists the names of anyone that is a member of our guild, as well as their class. As soon as you placed the patch in your bag’s pocket, your name appeared on my list.” “Well, at least this holds promise,” he thought, “It should be interesting, if nothing else.” “Oh I can assure you it will be interesting,” Akarii said from beside him. Liu smacked the pocket of the bag where the green guild patch resided, “Shut up already!”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:00 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter IX: Squishy: the Price of a Mage’s Strength

An Ning stared at the small channel of water flowing past him, “Point.” “Line,” the reply came from next to him. He looked over at the purple haired cleric keeping him company, “Point!” She looked back, “Line!” “I’m telling you,” An began, “Progress is measured in a series of points. You begin at point A, and progress to point B.” “I’m not arguing that,” Celestina replied, “I’m saying that there are lines that connect the points. There has to be a line between point A and B, you don’t just jump a gap from one to the other.” An shook his head, “No, you don’t understand, there is no line between A and B; A and B overlap each other.” “No, they don’t,” Celestina answered back, “What if A and B are complete opposites for each other, like life and death? If you are born at point A and die at point B, then the two don’t overlap, otherwise you’d die at birth.” An thought for a second as she continued, “There has to be a gap between them with a connection, a line along which you progressed from A to B.” “You can measure progress in lines and points,” An said, “But if you were to stop at any time along that line, you would not say you are progressing along Line A, you would be at a point between A and B -AB one, A plus one, B subset one, whatever you call it, it would still be a point.” It was Celestina’s turn to be quiet as An continued speaking, “There are larger points that people realize as objectives or some other form of measuring points, and there are small connecting points that start inside one large point, and overlap each other ending in another large point. If at any time you stopped in one of these points, you would define yourself as being in one of the small points –a point- between two larger points. Once you reach the larger point, you look back at the smaller overlapping points and see that they trace out a line. Points are used to measure reference, and progress in the present. Lines can only be used to show progress that hasn’t happened –that of a desired or predicted direction- or progress that has finished already.” Celestina nodded, and the two stayed quiet a few seconds before she looked back at An, “How’d we end up talking about this anyways?” An shrugged, “Heck if I know.”

The two clerics sat off the side of Elderine’s large stone shrine, sitting along the edge of Elderine’s irrigation channel. An had returned to Isya the week after his brother, spending most of his time now in Elderine, rather than the Forest of Tides. He had run into his old friend earlier that day –and, showing just how far ahead of him she was, she traded him her old shield.

“Have you been to Rumen since the construction ended yet?” Celestina asked. “Construction?” An asked back. “Rumen has been undergoing construction the last few weeks,” Celestina answered, “They built a whole new section to Rumen. A market area, it turns out. A large stone platform in the water connected by bridges. They did it to help with the traffic issues that Rumen has been having along its main passageways these last few months.” “Really?” An replied, “I’ll have to go look for myself later on.” “Raina has moved over to the new derrick as well, and Rumen has banned adventurer vendors from most of the streets outside the marketplace.” “They’ve been doing a lot of work in Isya these days,” An nodded, “Restoring the damaged gates, creating new gates to new areas, establishing new enchantments to certain areas….they’ve done a lot of work.” Celestina nodded, “Yeah…Isya’s almost a completely different place for adventurers these days.”

“I hate Zombies,” Liu said as they walked away, “Their rotting stench is unbearable.” “Hey, I was the one standing up front,” Akarii said as she wiped the purple globs of flesh from her axe and armor, “So you don’t get to complain.” Liu tossed her a cleaning solution that would help remove the stench of the Zombie, which she quickly applied. “I’m about out of those,” he added as Akarii finished cleaning off her axe, “So let’s go someplace else.” “You wanna try the new area?” she asked. Liu looked over at her, “What new area?” “The enchanters have been working on several gates in Isya. A few of them were old gates close to Uruga and other high level areas that were damaged in fighting a long time ago; but a few open to new areas that have only recently become infested with monsters.” “The monsters are spreading out again, eh?” Liu shook his head, “I thought we were having a positive impact on them.” “We are,” she replied, “The monsters didn’t spread because they are advancing toward the towns, it’s because they are searching for places where they can make strongholds to avoid being pushed back farther. Most of these places are underground areas, filled with hundreds of enemies. There are even rumors of shadow beings that have escaped the Shadow Cave and wander with them.” Liu raised his eyebrows, “Now this seems something worth investigating into.” “I have news for you all,” Bakers’ voice echoed in his head, “I can see that our guild has acquired a few new members over the last few days, most of whom join the majority of our guild in using the third set of armor and weapons. To get you all motivated, I am announcing a competition amongst the guild members: The first three members of our guild to make it to the fourth set of armor and weapons will be given a prize. For the first person will be seventy five silver and a refined green item. The second person receives fifty silver and a pet. The third receives thirty silver and a pet. Good luck to you all, and have fun training!” Liu and Akarii looked at each other as Bakers’ voice trailed off in their heads. “New area?” Liu said grinning at the fighter. “New area,” she said grinning back.

Akarii walked forward through the cramped, humid cave, her axe held in front of her as He Liu followed behind her. The narrow tunnel they were in opened up to a larger cavern, which sloped down and to the side into a mist-covered lake. A clacking sound echoed lightly through the cave and the duo stopped, looking around. “Normally I don’t mind caves,” Liu said as he scanned the walls for signs of an ambush, “But this place is kinda creepy.” “It is,” Akarii answered back, “But that’s probably mainly because the entrance is in the middle of Vine Tomb.” “Which makes you wonder what kind of enemies we’ll find in here,” Liu replied. A slight howl reverberated along the cave’s ceiling, adding to the cave’s strangely haunting presence. Akarii scanned the walls, looking at a clump of roots from a plant above ground that had managed to penetrate the cave’s walls. Her gaze ran along the dark brown roots, pausing when she saw something that didn’t look right –a dark green root that seemed to be coming up from the ground instead of the side like the rest. She reached out with her hand and tapped Liu’s shoulder, Liu jumping a bit as she did so –he had been looking at the mist covering the ditch in the floor. Akarii pointed toward what she was looking at, “Over there. See the green root?” Liu looked at the clump of roots, quickly finding the green stalk that she was speaking of. “What about it?” he asked, “So that one section is healthier than the others.” “Keep your eyes on it,” she replied, “but don’t focus on it.” He Liu wasn’t sure what she was getting at, but he gave it a try. As his gaze focused on the area around the stem, rather than the stem itself, he saw what it was Akarii had noticed; the root came up from the ground, moving into an area of thick, twisted roots through which one could barely make out a wide flat head –that of a Prock.

“I see it,” said Liu, “So what do we do?” “We get its attention,” she grinned, “Use your ice attack to get it out, and I’ll take care of the rest.” Liu nodded, taking a few steps back from the fighter as he channeled his energy. He brought his staff down and around, guiding the flow through his arm and into his staff where he held the energy back. Once the energy had reached a high enough level, he swept his staff forward, casting the ice spell at the roots around the Prock. The small plant beast saw the attack coming and quickly wiggled its way through the entanglement of roots and out into the open. Its cover gone, and quite upset at being attacked first, it tilted its head back, then quickly threw it forward, spitting an acidic slime ball at the mage with an almost comically light sound –like the squeak of a Guinea Pig. He Liu dropped and rolled as the green glob shot past him, standing up just as he heard another squeaking sound. He looked up to see the green slime coming at him; with no time to dodge, he swept out with his staff, hitting the globule and stopping the main hit –but causing it to splatter painfully over his staff and upper arm.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:01 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter IX: Squishy: the Price of a Mage’s Strength

The Prock readied another attack, then ducked in surprise as a large metal blade came slicing towards it as Akarii attacked in return. Akarii swung again, but the Prock was thin and agile, making for a difficult target by axe. The Prock spit again, this time at Akarii, who quickly twisted her wrists so the acidic spit would impact the broad side of her axe. Akarii spun and swung, The Prock lashed forwards, clamping onto the edge of the blade with its powerful jaws, planting its roots firmly in the ground. Akarii and the Prock took turns tugging and pulling, each trying to shake the other off. “Liu!” Akarii grunted, “This will go a lot faster if you help me out!” Liu grimaced as she spoke –he had been moving to get an angle on the Prock so he could assist Akarii; but as she tugged she would frequently move into his line of fire. He finally found a spot to attack from and began channeling energy, then noticed a strange shimmer moving along the mist below him –moving in the general direction of Akarii and the Prock. He Liu ran counter to the shimmer, keeping it in the corner of his vision, stopping on the other side of the Prock, sandwiching it between the two adventurers. Liu began channeling energy, watching as the shimmer crept up behind Akarii.

Akarii continued to tug on her axe as Liu prepared to take his shot, wondering why he was taking so long. The palm of the mage’s hand glowed red as fire sprouted to life, and the mage threw the energy ball at the plant monster. There was a bright flash as the fireball impacted the prock; as the flash died down, Akarii was surprised to find the Prock still there, still clamping onto her axe. She yanked around, surprised again when it met no resistance –the prock was gone from the head down, dead before it even knew to let go. She looked up at Liu with a grin, which quickly faded into a confused frown as she saw the mage glaring at her, sparkles of electricity crackling in his hand. Akarii’s eyes widened as Liu threw his arm forward at her. The blue bolt of lightning flashed across the room, faster than Akarii could see it, let alone dodge it. The bright light blinded her for a second as the mage attacked; she braced herself, expecting a sharp pain when the attack struck her, instead feeling a strange cold sensation that started at her shoulders flow downwards through her body. Her vision cleared, she was still standing, and she was not hurt, Liu walking towards her with a relieved look on his face. “What the heck was that about!?” she yelled, bringing her axe up behind her. Liu pointed at the ground, “That’s what that was about.” She looked down at her feet, surprised to see that she was standing on the ethereal remains of a Ghost. “It was creeping up behind you while you fought the prock,” Liu explained, “I think it was using the Prock as bait; it had been hiding in the fog down there.” “So that’s what the cold feeling was,” she muttered quietly to herself. “Umm, Akarii?” Liu said, looking at her. “Hm?” she looked back, “What is it?” He pointed toward the tip of her axe, “Are you gonna take that off, or are you keeping it as a trophy?” She looked at her blade and laughed a bit as she remembered that the Prock’s head was still clamped on to it. “I could keep it,” she smiled, “But I think I’ll get rid of it instead.” She swung her axe up, then slammed it into the rocky surface of the cave floor, the remains of the Prock shattering with the impact. “Well then,” she said as she yanked her axe free of the ground, “Shall we move on?”

For the next two weeks, Liu trained with Akarii, the two becoming quite strong. Sixteen days after Bakers Monkey announced the beginning of the guild’s competition, he announced the first two winners: He Liu, then Akarii, only a few hours later. Akarii remained in the Abyss –the name for any of the new underground areas filled with enemies, but Liu had left to get his new armor and restone, only to find he could not get back into the Abyss upon his return. Bakers informed him that there were special enchantments on those gates which prevented adventurers that were too strong from entering –supposedly this was to make it so the stronger adventurers would continue into the next Abyss with stronger enemies, but Liu didn’t quite understand the logic of it. Unable to continue training with Akarii, who was now unable to leave the Abyss without meeting the same problem as Liu, he decided to strike out for Collapsed Prison –the area his brother An had trained in at the same level.

Liu stepped into the new area and was amazed at what he saw; the hills, the river and sky, it all seemed so nice (having been training in tombs and caves for so long, most adventurers felt that way upon entering “CP” for the first time). The path from the gate was narrow, next to a steep hill and a narrow river, Liu began walking forwards. As he got close to the edge of the hill, an adventurer ran around the corner, slamming Liu in the shoulder and knocking him aside as he continued to rush past. Liu didn’t even have time to yell at the rude adventurer before three large furry beasts ran past him as well. One of them was white and blue, semi-dog-like in appearance, walking upright and carrying a large wooden post over one shoulder. The other two were both taller and wider than the first, gray and white fur covered their powerful bodies, long claws and sharp teeth showing that they needed no other weapons to assist in killing their prey. Based solely on their description from An’s stories, he knew what they were; two King Colls and a Harkan –all very powerful enemies. The monsters chased the adventurer to the gate, whereupon the adventurer vanished through the portal, leaving the three beasts there, growling and stomping in fury. One Coll turned around, spotting the mage standing ten meters away, with no chance of escaping to the portal as the last adventurer had. It flashed its fangs and growled, Liu’s eyes widened as the other two large beasts turned to look at him as well. Liu quickly turned and ran, the three large enemies chasing after him, and quickly gaining. Liu felt a painful strike on his head as the Harkan struck the mage with its wooden post. He Liu collapsed to the ground, rolling onto his back and holding his head as the vision of the three large enemies surrounding him became fuzzy and faded out.

He awoke some time later in Elderine, as a passing cleric decided to heal the unconscious mage lying on the side of the walkway. Liu slowly sat up, his head throbbing as he tried to figure out what happened. He looked around, finding himself sitting in the middle of Elderine, but for what reason he couldn’t recall. After a few seconds his vision cleared, as did his head, and he remembered the events that had occurred. “Ah crap,” Liu said as he got to his feet and looked at his new shirt –torn beyond repair, “Well this doesn’t bode well for the rest of my training in there, does it?” He walked over toward the smith’s shop, “Okay,” he said to himself, “Next time there’s a train, run away before they see you, idiot.” He bought a new shirt and began walking back towards the Collapsed Prison gate, hoping this time it would go better. He walked through the doorway and down the path again, keeping an eye out for anther train; seeing none, he quickly walked out to an open area where he had plenty of room to move around.

The area had several monsters nearby, two Colls, two Harkans, and a Weakened Ogre. The Weakened Ogres were just old; and quite frail compared to the larger and younger Ogres, but they both had great strength, resilience, and very large clubs. Liu took his time, devising a plan and, as would inevitably be needed, a route that he could run down that had no other adventurers nearby. His route planned, he crept around the monster, and let loose with an Ice Bolt. The magic blast slammed into the beast’s back, ice sprouting from the sight of impact and spreading over the Ogre’s body. The Ogre spun, looking for the adventurer that had dared attack him, sighting the mage just as he let loose another painful attack. The Ogre raised its club with a growl and took a giant step forward –slowed down by having to break the ice growing along its legs. The mage began running away as the Ogre approached, spinning to launch annoying and painful attacks before continuing to run away. The Ogre seemed to be making no gain on the puny mage.

Liu looked behind him, the Ogre was just about finished, he could tell by the wobble in its step. He spun around, readying another powerful magic attack, just as a fighter clad in yellow spiked armor charged in from the side and thrust his sword into the Ogre’s ribs, then quickly jerked it out. The Ogre clutched its side, dropping its club, turning to face the fighter. The fighter dashed in again, plunging his sword into the Ogre’s belly, dealing the final blow. The Ogre moaned as it fell to its knees, fighting to stay upright, then collapsed to the dirt pathway, silent.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:01 AM

Book 2: He Liu’s Story
Chapter IX: Squishy: the Price of a Mage’s Strength

Liu stood there, staring in disbelief at what had just happened. “What the hell was that about!? Why’d you steal my kill?” he yelled at the fighter, who was grabbing the potions the Ogre had dropped –to Liu’s further aggravation. “What? I didn’t steal your kill,” the fighter shrugged back, “You were running away. I just saved you.” “It was almost dead!” Liu yelled back, “I didn’t NEED help! I didn’t WANT help! I didn’t ASK for Help! AND YOU DID NOT HELP! There are laws to being an adventurer that prohibit this kind of disrespectful behavior, you know!” The fighter grinned as he looked over, pocketing the last of the drops, “Yeah, well what are you gonna do? Report me?” The fighter took on an innocent expression, “The mage was running away, being chased by a large Ogre. I figured if I didn’t intervene, then a fellow adventurer might be hurt…or worse yet, killed.” The fighter looked back at the mage, grinning, “What exactly do you think they’ll do when I tell them that, huh? Exile me for trying to help you? I don’t think so. They didn’t do it before; and they won’t do it this time.” He Liu couldn’t believe what he was hearing, “You…You rotten piece of scum…You KNEW I didn’t need help. You only stole my kill because it fit the standard you needed for your “protection” bit to work.” The fighter grinned, “Now you’re getting it, genius. What? Did you really think I didn’t see how wounded that thing was?” “You’re a horrible person and a lousy adventurer! You’re no better than the beasts we fight, taking advantage of others like that!” Liu shot back. “Up yours! Shut up you whiny mage,” the fighter said with a rude gesture, “Go cry in the corner, where something might actually care.” With that the fighter walked away, down towards an archer that was running from a poisoned Coll.

Liu stared at the fighter, wanting to nail him in the back with a Fire Bolt –wishing that the laws would allow him to. Shaking his head, he walked back up the path, searching for a new opponent, and hoping that the fighter would be too far away to steal the kill this time. He crept up behind a Harkan, and fired an ice spell at the beast. The ice impacted the Harkan’s shoulders, quickly spreading across its body. The Harkan quickly spun and attacked the mage, who launched a Magic Missile before beginning to retreat. The ice weighed down on the beast’s shoulders, a thin layer also growing down its legs, shattering and growing back with each step the enemy took. Liu spun on his heal and let loose a volley of spells, covering the Harkan in gashes and burns, but the strong beast kept coming. Liu used another Magic Missile; then raised his arms, readying his final attack. He channeled as much energy as he could; then tucked his arms, pushing the energy out and pulling it around himself. The energy kicked up and around, swirling about the mage and hammering the Harkan, which howled in pain as the spell lashed out at it. An otherworldly wind spun about with the magic, kicking up sand and dust around the two. As the wind calmed and the energy died, the dust settled around the mage.

Liu grinned, knowing this time he’d won. A swift blow to the head from a wooden post sent him to the ground, and let him know he was mistaken in thinking the fight was over. The Harkan stood over the mage, scarred, wounded, and glaring angrily at him. Liu swept his staff up, trying to launch another attack, but the Harkan swept out with his own staff, slamming into the mage’s elbow and shattering the bone. With a growl, the large beast began to pummel the mage, landing blow after painful blow until his gear’s enchantment kicked in, teleporting him back to town. He awoke to find himself lying on the streets of Elderine, in quite a bit of pain. He used a charge from his health stone to recover; as he sat up he shook his head, thankful that he didn’t have to pay to repair his shirt this time. “This,” he said to himself, “definitely does not bode well for my future training in there.”

He continued training in that area for weeks, each day meeting the same fate more often then not –effectively making no progress in becoming stronger. One day as he was musing over his recent failures in CP, he ran across Celestina. She had been wandering Elderine again –she had not been training much of late, and he happened to find her sitting in the shade of one of Elderine’s many large buildings. He sat down and began to talk to her about the problems he’d been having; she sat and listened as he told her of the last two weeks training –or trying to train- in Collapsed Prison. “You know Liu,” she said as he finished, “Collapsed Prison is technically too high an area for you to train in on your own.” He looked over at her, not understanding, “What do you mean, Celest? An was training in there with his third set of armor, I’m on my fourth.” “An was in there before he should have been as well,” she said back. “But it makes no sense,” he said as he kicked the floor lightly, “I’m a mage. I deal more damage than any simple cleric.” Celest looked at him without saying anything. “Oh, umm…no offense,” he said, bowing a bit. “None taken,” she said with a grin. “It’s just that mages deal more damage than clerics, level for level,” he said, “I don’t understand why it is that An could kill something that I couldn’t.”

Celest waited a second before replying, “An didn’t win because he killed faster than you, Liu,” she began, “He won because he had something no mage has.” “What’s that?” he asked looking over. She abruptly swung her hammer over, smashing it into the stone pillar next to his head. Liu shouted and leaned out of the way, instinctively raising his arm to block. “Celest!” he panted, “What was that for?” “Look at your arm,” she said as she put her hammer away. “What about it?” he said, still breathing hard, “It’s not hurt.” “If I hadn’t missed, my hammer would have smashed straight into your arm. It would have broken your bone, probably several times, perhaps breaking the skin in multiple areas leading to massive blood loss,” she said evenly, “If I had done that to An, he would have raised his arm, like you did, and my hammer would have struck a shield.” She waited a second before continuing, “You know what they call you mages, right?” “Damage dealers,” he responded without thought. “Well, yes,” she nodded, “But aside from that, there are two other names for you: Squishies, and Glass Cannons.” Liu looked at her as she continued, “These names show what the problem is that you run into, Liu. It is not power. It took An three minutes to kill a Harkan at your level, whereas it takes you twenty seconds. The problem is that An could take three minutes of a beating and still fight back, whereas it takes a Harkan two to three blows to effectively defeat you. It’s the curse of being a mage, Liu. You can kill fast, but you have nothing to protect yourself aside from attack power…You’re a Squishy”

Liu nodded, “So what do I do?” “I don’t know,” she replied. “Well, what did Lamis do?” he asked. “She did what she always does –charge headlong in at the challenge and fight until supplies and energy are both exhausted…It’s not a path I recommend you try.” She looked over at him, “You need to find your own way, Liu, your own balance, your own strategy. In time you will be strong enough to face these enemies without challenge, but where you are right now is a difficult spot for mages. My guild has mages that have hit the same rough patch, Lamis did as well. Where you are right now is a difficult spot for mages; the monsters you are fighting are becoming much stronger, making it seem as though you are becoming weaker. It will take a lot of work to get through all this on your own.” Liu thought for a moment, “I’ve been focusing a lot on training of late. I think I’ll head home for a bit, take some time to think and clear my head a bit. Maybe I’ll find a solution faster if I take a bit of a break.” Celestina grinned, “You sound like your brother, but the idea sounds good to me.” He Liu stood up and thanked Celestina, bidding her goodbye as he started walking home. “I’ll see you later on,” she said as he walked away, “Good luck, He Liu.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:02 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Stories
Chapter I: The Twin Fighters

The fighter yelled as he slashed down, his short sword glimmering as the light that poked through the trees struck it. The sword continued in at the opponent’s chest, cut short as it impacted another blade in its path. The other fighter grinned as he strained, pushing back against his opponent, “You’ve gotten stronger.” “That’s odd,” the other fighter grinned back, “You seem about the same.” The first fighter raised his eyebrows, “Oh really?” The second grinned, pushing harder against his opponent. “Yeah, he said pushing back to respond, “I can’t believe this is all you’ve got.” His opponent grinned even wider, “You’d be surprised.” With that the man lunged forward, stepping in, pushing his arm forward and sweeping his blade out, knocking the other fighter back. The man staggered backwards, quickly regaining his footing, bringing his blade up just in time to block his opponent’s sword from slicing into his neck.

“You’ve grown overconfident,” he smiled at the other fighter as their blades locked again, “Just because you’ve gotten stronger doesn’t mean everything will be easy.” His opponent smiled back, “Now why would I think that?” “I don’t know,” he laughed a bit, “You’ve been training hard the last few months, trying to improve.” “Well I’ve been trying to beat you since we were kids,” the other grinned, “and I intend to beat you now!” The blue haired fighter pushed forward against his opponent, who pushed back just as hard, halting his advance before it started. “I’m sorry to say it,” he chuckled, “but it seems your offensive just stalled. He felt his opponent push again, and he pushed back to show he could not be overpowered, only to fall forward with a startled gasp when he met no resistance. The blue-haired fighter fell back and kicked up, sending the green haired fighter flying over top of him and onto his back about two meters away. The blue haired fighter got to his feet and rushed his opponent, who was still on the ground –his sword on the ground five feet past him. “I’ve got you this time!” he yelled as he closed in on his helpless opponent. He dashed toward the fighter, intent on winning the fight. Before he could react, the other fighter swung one leg up and around, spinning onto his stomach. He then twisted, placing his hands on the ground and spun around, sweeping the charging fighter’s legs out from underneath him. With a shout, the fighter tripped and fell to the ground, his blade clattering to a halt next to the green haired fighter. His opponent quickly snatched up the blade and placed it against his opponent’s neck, holding it there –the fight had ended.

“Aww man!” the defeated fighter shook his head, “I thought I had you. I can’t believe you keep beating me, Littlest Brother.” The other smiled as he put the blade away, extending his free hand to help the first up, “You are improving. You did very well, Little Brother. But you forget that I improve as well. If you are going to come at me with brute force –as you did in the start of the fight, you shouldn’t train to get to where I am in terms of strength; you need to train to get to where I am going to be. Though I have to admit, you always seem to do better once you stop trying to use strength alone –you caught me off guard with that flip.” Little Brother smiled, “Your expression in the air was hilarious.” Littlest Brother looked back with an annoyed yet amused expression, “Quiet.” Little Brother retrieved the other blade on the ground and placed it in his sheath, “An and Liu said they’ll be coming by tonight, I guess we should start getting ready.” “Yeah,” Littlest Brother said with a serious look as he started heading home. “Well, I guess I’ll start hunting,” Little Brother said with a wave as he walked down the path. The green haired fighter turned to look at his twin, “Should we tell them tonight?” The other stopped and turned to look back, “I really hadn’t thought about it,” he admitted, “I guess it’s as good a time as any…I mean, it’s not often both of them are here at the same time.” “So tonight it is, then,” he said back. The other nodded, “Yeah.” They stood in silence a moment before Little Brother spoke up, “Actually, I think I’ll catch some fish for tonight. I’ll see you later, Littlest Brother!” The green haired fighter turned and started walking home, “Call me Ao Shun,” he thought to himself with a grin.

The blue haired fighter began walking through the forest path toward a small river that always had plenty of fish. He had no fishing equipment with him, of course, no nets or lines, not even a hook; but this was fine by him. Bamboo grew by the river, and the shoots were easy to craft into make-shift spears that were quite effective at fishing. As he walked, he started thinking about the decision he and his brother had made: to become adventurers themselves. They had made the decision only a week or so ago, and already the idea was seeming a bit weird to him –though he wasn’t entirely certain why. When he and his brother fought, it was fun –there was no denying that. He loved hearing the stories of the adventures, friends and incredible fights his brothers had; and he had to admit, he wanted to experience it first-hand. But still, something just seemed….amiss.

He continued walking down the path, thinking to himself, not paying the slightest attention, when he walked past a young girl sitting in a low tree branch on one side of the path. “You seem lost,” she said as he walked past her. He jerked his head up, snapping out of his thoughtful state, and quickly spun to see who was behind him. She was a young girl –probably no older then Liu, with dark hair, a strange outfit, and a large jeweled necklace. “I’m not lost,” he answered, “I’m just going to the river.” She raised a hand to her mouth and giggled, “I didn’t mean that you seemed lost physically, I meant that you seem lost in thought.” She jumped down from her branch, and pointed back down the path a ways, “Though it seems you are physically lost as well. To get to the river, you take the left fork in the path back there.” He looked back, “What? I passed it already? How long have I been walking?” “Apparently longer than you think,” she smiled. The young man groaned, shaking his head, “Man, I am just off today.” He looked back at the girl, noticing that she was looking at him, quite intently. “What is it?” he asked the girl. “You’re related to He Liu, aren’t you?” she asked. The statement caught him off guard, “Huh?” “There’s a definite family resemblance among you four,” she continued. “How do you know my brother?” he asked. She smiled, “I’ve seen him around before. I’ve seen An before a few times as well.” He looked back at her, “Are you an adventurer as well? You don’t really look like one.” She laughed again, “No, no. But I visit those areas sometimes to see what’s going on in the big cities.” “Oh,” he looked down, “For a second I thought you were a friend of theirs.” “Nope, sorry,” she replied, “I doubt they would even know who I am if they saw me.”

She looked at him again, “So what was it that you were thinking about anyways? What was so important that you almost lost your way in the forest?” The young man looked at her for a moment. He didn’t know her, he had no reason to tell her, but for some reason, he trusted her enough that he wanted to answer. “My two oldest brothers are both adventurers. For almost two years now, me and my twin have listened to their stories of friends, enemies, magic and fighting,” he began, “A short while ago, while talking to my twin, he suggested that we join our older brothers in the ranks of the adventurers; the idea seemed good at the time, so I agreed...but now I am not sure. When I think about being an adventurer like Liu or An, something is just…missing” She looked at him, “What is it that is missing?” He shook his head, “I don’t know. That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out. So far, I haven’t been able to do so. I’m seriously thinking that maybe I shouldn’t become an adventurer. Maybe I’m just not meant to be like my brothers.” There was a strange crashing sound from the side of the pathway, He looked over in the direction the sound came from just as a large red Mushroom burst through the brush.

Without wasting so much as a second, the Fire Mushroom threw a punch, catching the young man off guard and sending him staggering backwards. The blue haired man reached to his side and withdrew his short sword, raising it in a guard stance. There was a new series of crashes in the brush as another Fire Mushroom appeared. The red beast looked between the fighter and the girl, settling its gaze on the girl; who screamed and ran away –the Mushroom pursuing it. The first Mushroom punched three times in rapid succession, all of which the adept fighter managed to dodge. He swept in with his blade, slicing across the beast’s midsection. The girl screamed again from down the path, he looked over to see where she was –taking a shot to the head from the mushroom he was still fighting. The Mushroom followed up with another jab to the stomach, causing the man to double over as the wind rushed out of his lungs. The Mushroom tried for a fight-ending upper cut while the fighter was doubled over, but as the Mushroom tucked low to launch its attack, the man straightened, spun, and sliced across the Mushroom’s head. The fighter continued to spin around the Mushroom, flipping his blade to a reverse grip. He stepped in and swung his hand out, facing away from the Mushroom, sending his steel blade deep inside the monster’s body. He spun around again, using the momentum of the spin to increase the damage of his attack as he yanked his blade to the side, nearly slicing the beast in two. The Mushroom fell to the ground as the fighter stood over it, panting. Again from down the path came a scream, and the young man took off down the path after the other Mushroom.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:02 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter I: The Twin Fighters

The young girl ran down the path as the Mushroom chased her, yelling as the Mushroom tried to attack her on the few occasions where it managed to catch up to her. She yelled again, ducking as the Mushroom punched at her head, hoping the fighter she saw would show up soon. She ran through the forest, the trees gradually being replaced by towering bamboo as she continued to flee from the monster. There was a rushing sound from up ahead, she skidded to a halt as she rounded a turn in the path to find herself at the edge of a river. She turned around, thinking to run back up the path, and froze –the Fire Mushroom was standing at the top of the path that led to the river. The Mushroom seemed to grin, slowly hopping forward on its stalk as it closed in on the girl, who yelled loudly, calling for help. The Fire Mushroom was only feet away, raising its hands and readying to strike, when a shoot of bamboo suddenly sprouted from its chest. The beast jerked as the spear pierced its body, then turned around to look for it attacker, only to see another bamboo spear sailing towards it. The sharpened shoot soared into the top of its head, cutting through the thickest section, and jutting out the back of its neck. The beast stood for a few moments, shaking and trembling, then fell to the ground, laying still. The girl looked back behind the Mushroom, and there, standing in the path, was the blue haired young man from earlier, with a wide grin on his face, his sword in one hand and another bamboo spear in the other.

“Well I have to admit,” the young man said a few minutes later –after having given the girl time to calm down, “That was kind of fun.” The girl smiled back at him, “I’m glad you enjoyed my peril.” His eyes widened, “That’s not what I meant!” he said raising his hands. “I know,” she said with a laugh, “I’m teasing you.” They sat in silence another moment before she looked over, “You seem quite adept at fighting. You have the makings of a great adventurer, you know.” The man nodded as she continued, “And you seem to enjoy fighting these monsters, which is quite useful. It seems to me you might enjoy being an adventurer. Why not give it a shot? The worst thing that can happen is you decide you don’t like it and go back to the way you are now, right?” He thought for a moment, “You know…you’re right. Just because I try it doesn’t mean I have to be one forever if I don’t like it. I think I will see what it’s like.” She smiled as he thanked her for listening, then he asked her if she was alright to go home on her own –which she said she was. The young man turned and began walking down the river bed, looking for a good spot to catch some fish.

The girl watched the young man until he rounded a turn and could no longer be seen. “The coast is clear,” she said, “You can get up now.” The Fire Mushroom groaned as it got up from its spot on the ground, and painfully began pulling the spears from its body. “You owe me for this one,” the Mushroom said as it healed itself. “Oh be quiet,” she said with a wry smile, “It’s not like he actually could have killed you.” The mushroom glowed, taking on the form of a man, “Yeah, but having a piece of bamboo shoved through your eye and out the base of your skull is still painful…immortal or no.” She laughed a bit, then added, “Nice touch with the second Fire Mushroom, by the way. How exactly did you get it here…and so ticked at the boy?” The man smiled, “That was easy. I took that guy’s form, found the Mushroom, and started throwing rocks at it. When it came after me, I ran toward where you guys were, got out of sight, and changed into the other Fire Mushroom. It heard you guys talking and went right at him.” The girl looked over, then shut her eyes, shaking her head, “Would you please wear something other than that?” The man looked back at her, an innocent expression on his face, “Why, whatever do you mean?” “The loin cloth,” she replied. “What about it?” the man grinned, “It’s just a loin cloth.” “It’s hardly got anything over the back, just a string connecting to the front,” she said back. “I know,” he said happily, “I like it.” The girl shook her head and began walking away, “Okay, fine…Wear the man-thong if you want.” “Man-thong,” the man said thoughtfully, “I like the way that sounds.” The girl sighed and continued walking away, the man walking fast to catch up to her.

The young man stood over a large pot adding ingredients as it boiled, looking at the house’s other two occupants. One, a man with blue hair trimmed neat –similar in style to his- sat in a chair at the table in the main room’s center. The other, a young man with hair as green as his own hair, lay back relaxing on a mat in one corner. “So now that Celestina has traded you her shield and you have started training again,” Littlest Brother smiled at An, “SHE stopped training and is idling around the towns…have I got that right?” An nodded in slight annoyance, “Yes, yes. For the fifth time: yes.” “Just checking,” he said with a grin. “So,” Liu said sitting up a bit, “How is Little Brother doing hunting with a bow these days? Is his hunting going easier?” “Oh, his hunting is going much easier these days,” the green haired young man said with a smile. “Oh that’s good to hear,” Liu answered. “I still think he should have stuck with the sword,” An muttered, reclining a bit in his chair. “Yup,” the twin continued to speak, “He’s been doing much better since eight days ago.” An looked over, clearly a bit puzzled, “Eight days?” “Uh-huh. Right around when he trashed his bow and took up using the sword again,” he finished with a large grin. “Ah” said Liu, “So he did give up the bow. What did he do with it?” The twin grinned again, “Have you ever wondered how many times you can cut a one inch circle of wood in half with a sword? Little Brother found his limit to be around thirty times before it was too small to do accurately.” The trio of young men began laughing just as another person entered.

“I’m back!” he said as he stepped inside, a small group of fish stuck to the skewer in the light blue-haired man’s hand. “Ah good!” the other twin said, “Get cleaning those. This stuff will be ready in about an hour.” The older twin nodded and walked into the kitchen, placing the fish on a cutting board and drawing out a large knife. “So you’ve given up the bow, have you, Little Brother?” He Liu asked from his mat. “Yeah,” he said as he began beheading the fish, “I got tired of Slimes and Mushroom trying to attack me. Now that I have my sword back, they run away at seeing me.” In only a few minutes, the blue haired twin had finished removing the fish scales, putting them on a spit and had placed them high over a fire. He walked into the room with An and Liu and sat down; his twin walking in shortly afterward. Neither of the two adventurers had done anything of particular interest of late –An was getting back into the rhythm of fighting, and Liu had returned primarily because his recent fights had not been very successful. As such, the room was very quiet.

He looked over at his green haired twin, asking his brother an understood question. His brother nodded slightly in reply –An caught the gaze, as well as the gesture. “What’s that about?” he asked, turning his gaze from one twin to the other. “Well,” the younger started, “We were talking earlier…and we were wondering about something.” He Liu looked up, “Huh? Wondering what?” “We were wondering what made you guys decide to become adventurers,” he finished. The older twin shut his eyes, shaking his head. “That’s not it,” he said. An looked over, “You guys are acting a bit weird.” “Even for you,” Liu chimed in. “We were wondering what you’d think when we told you that we wanted to be adventurers as well,” the elder twin said.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:03 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter II: The Dragon Fighters, Twins Divided

They had expected shock and surprise from their brothers, and they were right –or at least half right. Liu nearly spit out the water he had been drinking. “What?” he choked out between coughs, “When did this come about?” “We’ve actually been discussing it a while,” the younger twin answered. “So,” An said from his chair –apparently unsurprised, “Why do you decide to do this? Because Liu and I are adventurers?” “No,” the older said, his head shaking, “We want to see what you guys have seen. Have adventures and friends of our own. It is quite boring around here. All we really have to keep us interested is training against each other and the occasional monster that bumbles through –no bandits even come here hoping for an easy raid on the isolated wooden house anymore.” An smiled a bit, “Good.” “Good?!” He Liu repeated, looking at An in shock, “How can you say that’s good?” “Because,” An said looking back at him, “If they wanted to do it just because it is what we are doing, that –I feel- would be a bad reason.” An looked back at the twins, “You know, I was wondering when you guys would make this decision as well. To be honest, I had expected it a while ago, really.” “But…but An,” Liu stammered, “Come on! I mean, they’re our younger brothers. Are they even old enough to start yet?” An smiled again, “Liu…You started your adventuring at a younger age than I did –well over a year younger. Our brothers are little more than a year younger than you.” “Exactly!” Liu said, “They need to wait a while longer, that’s all.” “Liu,” An shook his head, “They’re barely three months younger than you were when you started.” He Liu looked at An in surprise, saying nothing for a few moments. “Has it really been that long?” he said, asking no one in particular.

“So then,” An said to break the silence, “I’m guessing I don’t have to ask what class you guys want to be; but I will anyways.” “Fighter,” the twins grinned as they spoke in unison. An chuckled, “I thought as much. You two always liked your swords.” “Well,” Liu said coming out of his shock, “I guess that leaves getting you guys names, then.” “Actually,” the elder twin said, “We already picked our names. I hope you don’t mind.” “Why would we?” An said with a smile. “Not at all,” Liu said, “What are they?” “Well,” the youngest began, “I remembered some of the stories Liu used to read to us when we were young. One of them was about the Dragon Kings. I always liked that story, and the dragons in them, so I took the name of Ao Shun, the Dragon King of the North. I figured…you know…Ao Shun, powerful, brave, immortal…all good things for a fighter to live up to.” “Ao Shun, eh?” An said with a grin, “I like it.” “So do I,” He Liu said from his chair. “What about you, Little Brother?” Liu said, “Wait, let me guess: Ao Qin, Dragon King of the South, right?” “Told you he’d say that,” the elder twin said glancing at Ao Shun. “No, I did not take a name of a Dragon King,” he shook his head, “Ever since we were kids, everyone expected us to be alike, to like the same things and do the same stuff…and sometimes we do, but sometimes we don’t. I wanted a name different from Ao’s. Dragons symbolize more than immortality, they also symbolize power, and the intelligence needed to use it wisely in a good manner, so I wanted a name that had to do with dragons to show this.” He looked at An and Liu, “I took the name Tian Long, or Heaven’s Dragon.” “I don’t remember that being in the books I read, “Liu spoke up. “That’s because it isn’t,” Tian Long replied, “I found the words myself in a book and felt that it would be a good name. The Dragon of Heaven, powerful, wise and using his strength and power in a just manner.”

”Ao Shun and Tian Long,” An repeated. “Sounds nice,” Liu said smiling. “I would have to agree,” An nodded. “Well then,” An said getting up from his chair and moving over to the door, “That just leaves one thing to do.” “What’s that, An?” Tian Long asked. An opened the door slowly with a somber expression and walked outside. He reached into his bag and placed something on the ground in front of him. Worried at his strange behavior, his brothers got up and came outside. “An?” Ao Shun called, “What’s wrong? What’s left to do?” An stood up and backed away from the small items on the ground –which his brothers still could not see. There was a sudden flash as one of the small items leapt into the air, hissing and spitting a trail of smoke and flame, then exploded in a flower of color in the sky with a loud bang. An turned around as another of the fireworks he had set on the ground went off, a large grin on his face. “Celebrate!” he answered his brothers loudly as more fireworks went off. His brothers all laughed, going inside to fetch their cups as An continued to set off fireworks. “You have no idea how long I’ve been carrying these around,” An said with a grin, “It’s about time I got to use them.” He pulled out his second treat, a small bottle of wine, pouring each of his brothers a small amount, then held his glass in the air, “To Isya’s adventurers!” “The old and the new,” He Liu said, hoisting his cup in the air to meet An’s. “Hu-rah!” Tian said, raising his glass. Ao raised his as well, all four glasses clanking together, “Here, here!” They drank their glass of the sweet-tasting drink and An put away the bottle –secretly hoping there would be another time when they’d be able to use it in celebration as a family of four brothers. He continued to set off fireworks for the next hour until he ran out, then he and his brothers moved back inside where they continued in their merriment well into the night.

The next morning, all four brothers set out for Rumen together. Once they reached Rumen, An gave them each a few dozen silver, and Liu gave them some of the low grade elrue, lix and xir he’d made –should they wish to try to refine their equipment. After this, An and Liu bid their younger brothers safe journey and used green scrolls to move to their own respective town areas. The two fighters went into town and found Raina, who gave them the introduction their brothers had gotten (minus An’s little side-step about how to use the mushroom house, which none of his other brothers ever needed to receive), handing them their swords, adventurer gear and other items; then moved to Julia, who gave them their bags and soul stones.

Ao Shun looked down at the red clothes he was wearing, and the steel short sword in his hand. He glanced over at his brother, wearing identical armor with a similar short sword, “I like it.” Tian grinned, “I kind of like this as well.” “Now what did An say was around here?” Ao asked, “The Forest of Tides and Sand Beach, right?” “Yeah,” Tian nodded, “He said that the Forest of Tides is the best place for beginners, they have weaker enemies.” Ao grinned, “Well then, shall we go and start training?” Tian grinned back, “Why not?” Looking over at his brother, Ao Shun smiled, “Race ya!.” He then took off down the road, leaving Tian far behind him. Tian grinned, then raced down the path after his brother. “You may be stronger than me Ao!” he called out as he started to catch up, “But I’ve always been the faster.” “Well duh,” Ao shouted with a glance back, “Why do you think I started first?” The two fighters began weaving in and out amongst the adventurers wandering around Rumen’s cobblestone streets as they raced. “You can’t beat me in a race, Ao, admit it,” Tian shouted, dodging another adventurer. “I’ll admit that as soon as you admit you can’t beat me in a fight!” he called back. Tian grinned, “Not gonna happen!” Ao grinned in return, “I know!” They started pushing themselves harder, the ground underneath them giving way to dirt and grass, the occasional root sticking up a bit, and the two brothers sprinted down the forest path toward the portal for the Forest of Tides.

The twins reached the portal at the same time, and they stood there panting, trying to catch their breath. “See?” Tian said between gasps, “I tol….I told you I was….faster.” “You still…didn’t beat me,” Ao replied with a grin, also panting heavily “Only because…you had a…head start,” Tian grinned back. They stood there for a few minutes catching their breath before entering the portal, and moving into the area known as the Forest of Tides. The two fighters glanced around, looking at all the new adventurers in the area, each trying to become stronger. There was a growling purr from somewhere nearby, the two brothers looked to see what had made the noise, looking just in time to see a small Imp jumping through the air, brandishing its dagger. The two fighters dodged, letting the Imp land behind them. The Imp spun, slashing at Tian, who blocked with his blade. Ao Shun ran around to the side, the Imp falling back and pulling away with his blade to strike at the green haired fighter. Tian and An moved simultaneously, thrusting in with their swords and felling the small beast.

“That was too easy,” Tian said as he looked at the dead Imp. “Yeah, tell me about it,” Ao replied. “Maybe we shouldn’t train together,” Tian looked at his brother, “It’d be way too easy for us.” “True enough,” Ao replied, “Okay then, individual training it is, then.” Ao Shun started to walk away, then stopped and turned back, “Hey Tian,” he said. Tian looked over, “Huh? What is it?” Ao Shun got a large grin on his face, “Race you to the next sword from James.” With that he ran down a path, looking for an opponent to fight. “You’re on!” Tian shouted after him, beginning to search for an enemy himself.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:03 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter II: The Dragon Fighters, Twins Divided

The two brothers raced each other for each piece of armor, alternating small victories. They continued training almost non-stop for weeks until one of them finally reached the last mark –being given a new sword and shield by Smith James in Rumen –oddly enough, it was Tian that prevailed. Odd to Ao Shun, at least, but the outcome made sense to anyone that watched them train. Tian Long trained against enemies at his level, refining his technique for swordsmanship. He quickly rose to a point where he could slay monsters in only a few strikes –learning the critical points on the enemies that dealt the most damage when hit. His fights were fast, enabling him to fight scores of enemies in an hour. Ao Shun, on the other hand, fought monsters above his level. He quickly developed a desire and pride for fighting –and defeating- monsters that other adventurers said were too strong for him to face alone. He relished the challenge and would hunt down specific enemies, leaving the weak ones alone, rather than training against them as well. His fights were harder, and granted him greater strength after each victory, but his fights were also longer in duration and he spent a lot of time hunting down enemies; whereas Tian spent more time fighting. This thirst for hard-fought victories that Ao Shun had not only allowed Tian the opportunity to catch up to Ao, but to surpass him.

Tian Long, however, was quickly growing tired of fighting. Something was missing, he could not tell what it was; but some part of him was just…empty. He began running quests for the merchants and masters in town, slowing his leveling, and allowing his brother to catch up to him in level. One day, about a month after they first came to Rumen, the two brothers met up again. Tian was on his way into the woods to slay a number of Slimes and Mushrooms that James felt were becoming over-abundant again; and Ao was returning to town to recharge his frequently-used soul stones.

“Tian!” Ao shouted, seeing his little brother for the first time in days. “Ao!” Tian smiled upon seeing his twin, “Look at you…you’ve got a different sword than the last time I saw you!” “Yeah,” Ao chuckled, “You’ve been slacking, brother –I’ve caught up to you in armor and weapons. I’m heading off to James to get my new shield, actually. Wanna join me?” “Sure,” Tan nodded, “This quest from James isn’t urgent, anyways.” The two fighters began walking together down the street toward Smith James’ shop. Tian Long looked over at his brother, “So what is the big monster you’re after now, Ao?” The green haired fighter smiled, “What makes you think I’m after one?” Tian smiled back, “I know you, brother. I know that look in your eye. It’s the same look you have every time we’re about to fight each other.”

The two fighters arrived at the smith’s shop, a large man stood over a piece of red hot metal, pounding it flat with a large hammer. The man swung his hammer behind his shoulders and looked at the fighters. “Well if it isn’t Ao Shun and his brother, Tian Long,” the man’s voice boomed, “Done with that quest already, Tian? Even you shouldn’t be able to kill that many Slimes and Mushrooms that fast.” Tian shook his head, “No Mister James, sorry. I haven’t started your quest yet. I was just talking to my brother.” “Ha ha ha,’” the smith laughed, “I know, Tian, I know. Don’t worry. And how many times do I have to ask you to drop the “Mister”? Just call me James.” “Sorry, Mist…uh…I mean, James,” Tian said. James laughed again, “No need to apologize –it took your brother Liu some time to get used to it as well.” He looked between the two young fighters, “Well if you’re not here about quests, what brings the two of you here then?” “James,” Ao Shun spoke up, “I wanted to know if I could have the next shield: the Buckler.” James grew quiet, peering at the fighter, who shrank back slightly. “Are you sure you can handle it?” his voice was a bit low. Ao swallowed, then straightened, “I’m willing to give it my best,” he answered. James broke out in laughter, leaving Ao quite confused. “What’s so funny?” he demanded. “You’re so serious about such a small thing,” the smith laughed, “Of course you can have the next shield, Ao. All you need is to pay one hundred coppers for it.” The twins laughed a bit –despite being a large and powerful man, James enjoyed a good joke every now and again; Ao exchanged James the money for the shield, and the two fighters began walking up the street again.

“So what is it you are after?” Tian pressed his older twin. Ao Shun grinned, “I was fighting an Angry Wolf in Sand Beach and someone happened to walk by. I beat it and the guy said it was nothing to be proud of, because an Angry Wolf was nothing compared to the Boogy found in the Sea of Greed. I said I’d go fight one, and he said I wouldn’t stand a chance.” He strapped his shield to his arm, “So I’m off to the Sea of Greed to fight a Boogy and prove him wrong.” “So Tian,” Ao said looking at his brother, “Now that I have the same armor and weapons as you, shall we race to the next set of armor?” Tian looked down at the ground, frowning, “I don’t feel up to it,” he sighed, then looked back up again, “Honestly, Ao…I don’t think I will even get that armor anytime soon..” “Huh? What do you mean?” Ao stopped walking. “I’m just not feeling up to this…I don’t know why but…I’m not going to drive to get stronger so fast any more. Something’s just…missing.” “What’s missing?” Ao asked his brother. “I don’t know,” Tian replied, “I had a similar feeling before we told An and Liu about our decision to become adventurers as well. It’s just something I had at home that I don’t have anymore –I haven’t had It since I left.” Ao was silent, Tian gave it a few seconds before he finished, “I’m going to go back home, Ao.” “Home!?” Ao almost shouted, “You’re giving up?” Tian shook his head, “No, I’ll keep doing quests. I’ll help you guys out where I can, but I can’t do what you, Liu and An do; I don’t find the same happiness as you guys. I need to find whatever I’m missing before I can be an adventurer like you guys. I’m sorry, Ao.”

It took him a few moments before he could say anything. When he could finally reply, it was not the reply Tian was expecting. Ao nodded his head, “I understand, Tian.” “Really?” he looked up. “Of course. You shouldn’t do what you don’t want to do,” he answered, “You need to do what you want to do, what makes you happy.” “I’m glad you understand, Ao,” Tian smiled sadly. “Hey, I’m your brother,” he replied, “I’m supposed to help you find your own life, not make you do what I like.” He paused a moment before continuing, “don’t get me wrong, though, I do want you to be an adventurer, and I have a feeling you will become one eventually…but I know that if I push you to do something you don’t want to now, then you will only be driven from it more forcefully in the future.” “Well, I won’t be staying at home all the time. I’ll still be doing some quests to help you guys out as well,” Tian said. “Help us?” Ao chuckled, “I think we’ll be okay, Tian.” “I can still help,” Tian replied, “The rewards I get for my quests might not be much in silver, but some of the items given are worth one to three silver each these days. Besides, I’m not quitting entirely, I still want to train a bit and fight a bit, just not to the extent that the rest of you guys do.” Tian glanced back at the smith’s shop, “Speaking of which, I should probably start working on the quest James gave me.” “Definitely would look bad if it took you a full day just to kill some Slimes and Mushrooms,” Ao grinned, “And I guess I should be heading toward the Sea of Greed, myself.” “I’ll see you later, Ao,” Tian said with a wave, turning toward the forest outside of town. “Safe travels, Tian,” Ao waved back. Ao Shun watched as his brother walked away, “I hope you find what you are looking for, Tian,” he whispered, “Good luck, brother.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:04 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter III: A Name to Live up to

The large beast lunged forward, tucking its head in and spinning around, the large spikes on its shell swirling towards his waist. Ao Shun bent at the knees, held his shield forward and braced himself. A large spike slammed into the shield, pushing the young fighter back in the sand. Ao Shun stared at his shield, and the sharp white bone that had managed to force its way through the low-grade metal. The Boogy spun again, jerking his arm aside and dislocating his shoulder as the spike turned away –taking the shield strapped to Ao Shun’s arm with it. The beast continued to spin, the strap around the fighter’s arm tearing, freeing the fighter from the Boogy; he staggered back holding his wounded shoulder –his shield arm facing backwards. The Boogy turned, seeing the fighter wounded and without a shield, and charged again, snapping its beak. The fighter jumped back to avoid the boney jaws of the turtle-beast, then fell onto his back as the Boogy spun, the spikes on its shell swirling above him. The Boogy stopped its spin, looking at the grounded fighter rearing it head back and readying to strike again with its hard beak. Thinking quickly, Ao Shun sat up and thrust his arm forward and into the Boogy’s neck as the Boogy lunged down, its beak closing over the fighter’s left shoulder. Ao Shun yelled when the beast clamped down on his shoulder, pushing his sword deeper into the Boogy’s soft neck; the beast yanking and tearing at the fighter’s shoulder. The beast’s grip on his shoulder started to weaken; Ao pulled his sword out and to the side, freeing it from the Boogy’s neck. The Boogy sank to the ground as it died, its beak still clamped weakly to his shoulder.

Ao reached into his bag and grabbed the soul stone, using a healing charge, resetting his shoulder and closing the torn skin under the dead beast’s jaw. He reached up and grabbed the Boogy’s head with both hands, forcing the jaws open and sliding his shoulder out from its beak. He released the jaws, and they clamped shut, its head dropping to the sand. Ao Shun stood up and pulled his sheath from his belt, turning it upside down and dumping out the sand that had managed to make its way inside. He sheathed his sword; then began wiping off the sand that was sticking to his skin and leather armor. He looked over at the Boogy’s spike-covered shell, shaking his head as he looked at the shield impaled on one of the large spikes. He reached over and pulled the metal slab off, shaking his head again as he looked through the large hole now in its center. “Dang it,” he said to himself as he walked back toward the Templer, “Not again.” As he walked up to the Templer elf she chuckled a bit, “Heading back to Rumen so soon?” “Yeah,” Ao sighed, “I need to go see James.” “Lost another shield, have you?” she smiled. Ao shook his head again, “I’d rather not talk about it.” She nodded and said a chant, sending Ao Shun back to the streets of Rumen, where he purchased his fourth shield of the day.

“You go through these at a rather alarming rate, Ao Shun,” James gruffly said as Ao handed him the copper for his new shield, “You should really think about taking it easy with the fighting.” Ao looked back at him, “What’s the point of fighting if it’s not a challenge?” James looked back at the young fighter, knowing he could not dissuade him in this notion. “Well then,” he said after thinking a moment, “You should consider refining your shield to increase its strength and defense. The stones and shields needed to do it can be expensive, but YOU’D probably end up SAVING money.”

Ao Shun looked to one side –he’d never thought of that before. Refining his shield would increase its durability –and make it easier to repair if damaged, as the damage would be considerably lower. He had been given some stones by his brother, He Liu, when he first came to Rumen, and they were just sitting uselessly in his inventory. “Yeah,” he said in response to the smith’s comment, “I think I will. Thanks, James.” “No problem, young fighter,” the smith said with a smile as Ao Shun walked back toward the storage area. “That fighter,” James thought to himself as he watched Ao walk away, “Is one crazy guy....but then again, all fighters are a bit insane.” He shook his head and laughed a bit as he went back to hammering another slab of metal into shape.

Ao Shun sat down, shield on a table in front of him. His hands sat palm down on either side of his shield, and above the shield was a single green stone – a xir. Ao shut his eyes and concentrated, feeling the energy of the shield, waiting for the right moment to employ the xir’s power. He leaned forward and shouted a command; the xir glowed brightly, as did the shield. The stone vanished as its energy entered the metal slab, which continued to glow brightly. Ao Shun smiled as the glow began to dim, a swirling energy moving about the face of his shield. His eyes widened in shock as the shield suddenly glowed a bright orange and began shaking. Without a sound, the shield burst into orange dust which quickly vanished as the enchanted item released the energy it had been trying to contain. Ao Shun shook his head, “Well, there goes another shield.”

It had been two days since he had fought anything. His first day of refining attempts had resulted in eleven broken shields, and one shield –which he now kept, that had made it to the sixth level of refinement. While he was happy to have such a shield, what he was really hoping to obtain was a shield that made it to the ninth level –one that had almost no chance of breaking. Initially he had thought to purchase one, but his brothers managed to talk him out of it. Shields refined to the ninth stage were almost unheard of at his level, and as such, would undoubtedly be very expensive despite their relatively low level and durability. Instead, they gave him a small supply of silver, and He Liu gave him all the stones he had saved up (useless to him now, as his equipment could not be enhanced with them), and told him to try and make one himself. For the next full day he did nothing but refine. He would buy shields by the half dozen; then refine them one by one until they broke or reached a certain level. Once he made a certain number of shields at a certain level, he would take those shields and try to create as many as he could that were one level higher. To date, he had destroyed about thirty shields, and made six shields that were in the eighth stage –he wanted seven before trying to go to nine.

He pulled out another shield in the seventh stage and set it on the table in front of him, then realized he only had seven xir left in his bag –if he used one to try to get this shield to the eighth level, he would only have six attempts to get one of the shields at the eighth level to the ninth –and the odds of this shield going to the eighth level was very low. He debated himself a moment, then set the shield aside, pulling out one of the other shields instead. With the seven shields he had, he quickly left himself with only one. He looked at the shield, and the lone xir he had remaining. “I could just take the shield as it is,” he thought to himself, “A plus eight shield is nothing to sneer at.” He looked back at the plus seven shield sitting on the ground below him, “Then again….neither is a plus seven…and I want to get a plus nine.”

He set the xir and shield on the magic symbols on the table’s surface, placing his palms down on either side, and began concentrating. He watched the energy rushing around inside the shield; he saw the many small waves racing across darkness, only to hit unseen barriers and rebound off of them in a different direction. He leaned forward, praying that his timing was right and shouted a command, the xir and shield began glowing, then the xir vanished. The shield began glowing brighter and brighter, its normal glow turning deep red. Ao Shun felt a push of energy as the xir’s energy impacted that of the shield, then the energy pulled back again, stabilizing. He looked at his shield as its surface began to transform, the gray metal glowing, turning a near-transparent red that glowed with power. As the shield finished its transformation, Ao Shun jumped into the air and gave a loud shout –he finally had his plus nine shield. He eagerly grabbed the bright shield and lashed it to his arm, turning the crystalline armor back and forth to see how it looked from different angles. He grabbed his bag and slung it around his shoulder, then struck out for the Sea of Greed again. A smile grew on his face as he walked, “Let’s see those Boogy try to break this one,” he thought to himself.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:05 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter III: A Name to Live up to

Ao Shun scanned the beach, looking for any nearby enemies. Finding none, he stepped away from the three fallen Mara Pirate Elites that lay at his feet, found a spot along the shore, and summoned his mushroom house. He lay back against a wall of the small house, and started breathing deep and slow to help recover fast. As he relaxed, he thought back to his unexpected encounter earlier that day.

He had been out training since almost daybreak, fighting Boogy and Mara Pirates by the droves, constantly pushing himself to his limit. He set his sites on a lone Mara Pirate Sailor, and charged at the yellow-clothed man, stunned to find that it was a trap. The Mara Pirates had gotten annoyed at this young fighter nipping at their heels the past few days and had set up a surprise for him; the lone sailor standing out in the open gave a loud whistle as Ao Shun rushed in, and three more sailors and a half dozen lower pirates sprang out of hiding from under the sand, quickly surrounding the prideful fighter. Ao took a few steps back, looking at the swarm of enemies around him; he’d always enjoyed a hard-won fight, but in his mind, he’d always known he’d be able to win…this time he wasn’t so sure…and he wasn’t sure what to do. There was a scuffling sound behind him, he turned to see three pirates blocking the route to the bridge leading off the small island; he had no choice –he had to fight them.

One of the nearby sailors chuckled, “You’ve become a pain in the neck, nipping at us one by one these last few days. Now we’re going to get rid of you.” Ao Shun grinned as the enemies began moving around him, “You scumbags don’t scare me. You’re just three training sessions condensed into one.” “There’s an adage you should pay attention to, fighter,” said another sailor, “’Pride goeth before the fall.’” Ao Shun swung his sword around once, pointing the tip at one of the sailors, “If you think you can beat me, go ahead and attack. I will decimate you all.” “Whoa, careful there,” one of the pirates laughed, “That guy is really scary, especially wearing that DRESS!” Ao looked down at the grass skirt James had sold him, his eyes narrowing as he looked back up. “I told him I wanted pants,” he growled to himself, “But he refused to sell me any, saying this is what all fighters have to wear.” “And look,” shouted one of the sailors with a flop of the wrist, “He has a pink shield to match!” Ao Shun grit his teeth as the crowd burst into laughter, their taunts continuing, “I think we know why he’s really out here! It’s so he can work on his leg tan!” “No!” shouted another sailor, “It’s obvious, especially with that leather top he’s wearing, that it’s so no one will tease him for being so openly…“ The pirate was unable to finish his sentence; he looked back at the fighter’s face and saw in his eyes what was about to happen. The crowd went silent, their laughter dying out as they saw the sailor begin fumbling for his sword –Ao Shun’s gaze locked on the pirate, the pirate looking back in terror. The pirate looked down at his side to find his dagger, reached down to grab the hilt; and Ao sprang forward.

As the Mara Pirate Sailor’s hand wrapped around the grip, Ao Shun’s short sword plunged into the chest of a pirate standing next to him. The other pirates were stunned by both the suddenness of the attack, as well as its ferocity. Ao Shun felled two more pirates nearby before the sailor finally pulled his sword free and hefted it into the air, shouting for them to attack. The three sailors and remaining pirates charged in, Ao Shun spun, sank low to the ground and stretched his right foot far out, leaning forward and thrusting with his sword, stabbing a sailor in his chest. He pulled his legs together, staying close to the ground, and raised his shield as the six remaining enemies all sliced down with their blades, impacting the glowing shield. Ao strained, pushing his shield up as the pirates tried to force him down. Realizing that he could not overpower all six of them, he lashed out from under his umbrella-like protection, and sliced another sailor in the knees, causing the brigand to fall to the ground and lose grip of his sword.

Without the large sailor’s assistance, the remaining enemies were unable to overpower the strong fighter; he burst upward, throwing his shield-arm to the side and sending the enemies staggering back. He gripped his blade hard enough to turn his knuckles white, turning his gaze from one pirate to the next, as they regrouped on the sandy hill. The remaining pirates charged all at once; with a whirl of blades and a short symphony of clashing metal and screeching armor, it was over, the only ones left were Ao Shun, and the sailor that had been struck across both knees –the same sailor that had let out the call to attack. The sailor watched in horror as the fighter stalked forwards, the tip of the blade gliding lightly through the top of the sand as he walked. Ao Shun stopped in front of the sailor, “Now then….I believe you were saying something funny before…care to finish your sentence?” He paused as the fighter stammered mindlessly, then spoke again, “You don’t remember? I’ll start: I train so hard so people will know I am….what?” The sailor looked up in terror, hoping to find a good word to end the sentence with, “Great?” Ao Shun smiled, “Good choice of words.” With that, Ao Shun sheathed his sword and walked away, the wounded sailor passing out on the beach.

As he walked away, he heard someone nearby clapping; he looked to see a purple haired cleric wearing very nice –very high level- armor standing on the beach. “That was rather impressive,” she said with a smile, ”I must admit, I thought you were gonna need help at first; but I underestimated you. I take it you must be Ao Shun, right?” “Yeah. Who are you?” Ao Shun asked as he walked up to her. “A friend of your brothers,” she replied, “One of them told me his little brother would probably be in here.” “So you’re….La Celestina?” he asked. “Yup,” she smiled as she sat down, “Nice to meet you.” “Nice to meet you as well, La Celestina,” Ao smiled back. She laughed a bit, drawing Ao’s curiosity, “What’s so funny?” “Sorry,” she chuckled, “People don’t usually call me by my whole name, especially your brothers…I guess it sounds a bit weird because I was expecting the same from you.” “It seemed as though you were expecting to see me here," Ao Shun said to the cleric. She looked back, “Well, I wanted to meet the newest brother to take up the position of adventurer.” “How’d you know where to find me?” Ao asked. Celestina smiled, “Your brother Liu said you’d probably be in here by now.” “You’ve seen Liu?” Ao looked over at her, “When did you see him? How is he doing? Have you seen An lately?” She held up a hand, “Slow down, take it easy. I just talked to Liu not ten minutes ago –he’s doing fine…said he was going to go train in CP a bit. I haven’t talked to An yet; I’m heading over his way later on.” She looked over at the empty island he’d been fighting on. “So what are you up to now? Picking on sailors?” “Training,” he replied, “I’m getting ready to go into Burning Hill to fight Glow Wolves. Someone told me they are stronger than Marlone bandits.” “Burning Hill? So soon? My, you work fast,” Celestina answered with a shake of the head, “All these young kids are in such a rush these days.”

She got up and dusted herself off, “Well then, Little Shun, I shouldn’t keep you from your training.” Ao looked back at her, “Little?” “Well you ARE An and Liu’s little brother,” she smiled, “and besides, Ao Shun was said to be immortal…” “I haven’t lost in a fight yet!” He interrupted her, “Unlike An and Liu, I’ve never used my adventure gear to port back to town!” Celestina nodded, “But Ao Shun was also incredibly strong and brave, able to defeat almost any number of any opponent, never backing down from a fight –you just had trouble fighting off a half dozen of Mara’s underlings, and that was only AFTER they cut off your escape route and forced you to fight….you have a ways to go before you earn that name of yours.” Ao Shun stopped for a moment, uncertain of what to say. “Well I’m off to talk to An,” she said, “Good luck, Little Shun.” She smiled a bit, then she gave a slight bow as she used a teleportation scroll to leave the area.

He sat back, feeling the cooling breeze of the mushroom house’s enchantment sweep across him. A blade shot through the far wall of his house, snapping Ao out of his thoughts. He looked through the window to see a pirate stabbing his house –undoubtedly trying to kill whatever trespasser was inside the large mushroom, without knowing who exactly the camping gear belonged to. With a thought, the mushroom house vanished, and Ao Shun stood up. The pirate gave a startled shout and fell back, dropping his dagger in the sand and scurrying back on all fours as Ao drew his sword. Ao grinned as he took a fighting stance, “I think you have the wrong door, pal.” The pirate gave a cry, and two women each bearing dual swords ran over the hill –Mara Pirate Elites. Ao Shun raised his shield as the three enemies took a fighting stance of their own, looking behind them as a Sailor and another Elite came running over the hill. “This,” he said to himself, “Will be fun.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:05 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter IV: Test of the Clever Fighter

Ao Shun grinned as he took a small slice of the Glow Wolf’s hide and placed it in his inventory bag. He stepped over the three other Glow Wolves that had fallen in the same fight, and continued on his way around the Burning Hill area. While it was true that the Glow Wolves weren’t much of a threat alone –they hadn’t been since he arrived in the area one week before- their tendency to roam in packs and call for help made fighting them interesting…for a while. Now, though, he was becoming bored with fighting them…thinking of moving his main training grounds to somewhere new –somewhere like the neighboring Sand Hill area. Sand Hill possessed a small reinforced encampment for adventurers and traders, with a few guards, a storage merchant, healer, and a small smith shop. The area was overrun by Marlone bandits, and possessed some very strong enemies, like Desert Archon, and Desert Wolves. The Glow Wolves he had been fighting were, in fact, weaker than the Marlone bandits –which annoyed him, as he’d been told that the Glow Wolves were stronger; but every time he went into the Marlone camp and started fighting, other adventurers would try to “help” him, since he was “a low level”…which annoyed him a bit more.

A sloshing sound got his attention, and he looked up a nearby incline to see a Gold Slime jumping at him. He dove forward and rolled as the monopod’s foot hit the ground, the slime’s large body squashing down on top of it. The slime gathered itself together, and Ao Shun retaliated. He attacked with three strong blows back and forth across its body, slicing deep into the living gel, almost cutting the beast in half with two of the strokes. The Gold Slime halted, trying to close the wounds, but the fighter wasn’t going to give it the chance to heal; Ao spun, quickly whipping out his blade and striking one of the deep cuts he’d made in his first barrage. As his sword entered the creature, he twisted his wrist, bringing his blade along level with the terrain, but pointing the sharpened edge down at a diagonal as it passed through the slime. His spin was enough to keep the blade moving through the slime’s body; and the force of the attack was so great that the slime’s top half was sent flying up the incline that it had started from, as its base sat on the ground in front of the fighter. He decided to take a quick rest before continuing on –it was quite warm in Burning Hill, and even when he wasn’t fighting, Ao Shun was sweating.

He sat in the cool refreshing breeze that his mushroom house provided for him, trying to think of where to go next; a knock came on the small door of his house. “What is it?” he called from inside. “Are you Ao Shun?” the unknown voice asked. “Yeah,” he replied, “What do you want?” There was a brief pause before he heard the voice again, “I have a message for you. Grand Master Sean requests your presence in the Forest of Mist at your earliest convenience. He’ll be waiting for you in front of the bridge by the healer and item merchant.” Ao Shun quickly rose to his feet and sent away the mushroom, but by the time he did so, the messenger had already left. He took up his sword and shield, making his way toward the gate to the Sea of Greed. “Well,” he smiled to himself, “At least now I know what I’m going to do the rest of the day.” He stopped as he reached the gate to the Sea of Greed, looking up and to the side as he thought. “First things first,” he said, “I should go to Rumen and pick up a few items.”

He awoke to the sounds of people talking and shouting, finding himself lying on his face in Elderine’s main square. His body ached all over and his head throbbed. He reached up to his head with his left hand, pain blazed through his body as he recalled that his arm had been broken several times. He reached up with his other arm, rubbing his head, feeling the thick warm fluid that had been making its way out from several open wounds that he could not see. He brought his hand in front of him, there wasn’t as much blood as he’d expected –probably because most of it was starting to dry and cling to his hair and scalp. He Liu reached into his bag and grabbed a soul stone, using two charges to heal his wounds. Getting to his feet, he grit his teeth, planning for his next fight. “I’m stronger than this,” he thought to himself, “I’m strong enough to kill that blasted Harkan; and so help me, I’m going to do it if it’s the last thing I do!” He Liu walked toward the gate to Collapsed Prison once more; intent on breaking through this barrier he’d seemed to run into.

Upon entering the Collapsed Prison area; the angered mage stalked forward, looking for the white-furred dog-beast, finding one standing in a small clearing not far from the gate. He crept around the beast, finding a bush which would obscure the mage from the Harkan’s keen eyesight, and crouched behind it as he readied his strike. He swept his arm down, guiding energy from around him into his body, finding the proper energy circuit inside him, and sending in Ice blast crackling through the air toward the Harkan. The light generated from producing the attack alerted the Harkan to the mage’s presence just as the energy ball flew from Liu’s wand; the agile beast dodged the attack, and ran towards the brush the mage had been hiding in. Liu shot to his feet and began channeling blast after magical blast at the white and blue-furred menace, which came closer despite his best efforts. The Harkan reached the mage, Liu tucked his arms and sent out an explosion of sudden energy around him, hoping to finish the Harkan off; but as he opened his eyes and looked up, he saw a wooden post swinging down towards him.

The Harkan’s counterattack struck Liu across his head, sending him to the ground some four feet away; the creature crept forward, slinging its weapon over its shoulder as it walked; Liu rolled onto his back and sent another lightning burst at the Harkan. The agile beast again dodged the attack, growling and bearing its fangs at the mage. It lifted its post high above its head, readying to strike down the mage again, as a powerful fire spell erupted against the beast’s back. The Harkan cried out in pain, spinning to find its new attacker, falling to the ground motionless as another spell exploded against its chest. Liu looked over at where the attacks had come from, finding a familiar-looking red haired mage standing at the edge of the clearing. “Thanks, Lamis,” Liu said dryly as he sat up. “You’re welcome,” she said with a smile as she walked over, “Still having trouble with Harkans, eh?” He Liu looked away and growled. “I’M STRONGER THAN THIS, DAMMIT!” he said slamming his fist into the rocky ground –a sharp pain shooting through his wrist as his fist impacted, “I’m stronger than this freaking Harkan! Why can’t I kill the stupid thing!?” “Liu, calm down,” Lamis said, scooting away a bit, “It’s alright.” “It’s NOT alright!” Liu said as he got to his feet shaking his head, “I should be able to kill this stupid thing by now, and every time I try, I end up losing! Why? What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I kill this freaking Harkan!?”

Lamis looked at him for a while as Liu stood there, puffing –having finished his rant. “When’s the last time you went to see master Wishis?” she asked him coolly. Liu looked over at her, “Huh? I dunno…maybe when I got my new staff, why?” “I noticed something odd about your attacks,” she said, still looking at him, “They seem a bit…weak.” “Gee…thanks,” Liu said dryly, “Please, don’t sugar-coat it…tell me how much you really think I suck at magic.” Lamis frowned, her eyes narrowing a bit, “That’s not what I meant…and stop feeling so sorry for yourself!” Liu straightened, he hadn’t expected that reaction from her, “Sorry…I’m just frustrated…I don’t mean to take it out on you.” Lamis nodded, her expression lightening up a bit, “What I meant was that the attacks you use seem underpowered for Harkans. I think you’ve been so obsessed with proving your strength that you've forgotten to check with her to see if there are any more powerful skills you can buy.” Liu looked at her, staring, the he raised his hand, striking his forehead.

“Well?” Lamis looked over at Liu as he walked up to her. He Liu hung his head, shaking it a bit. “I can’t believe I’ve been this big a moron,” he said, “I walked up to her and the first thing she told me was ‘It’s about time you showed up’…There were four new scrolls for me to use….I can’t believe I have been this blind.” Lamis looked over at him, “You were too busy trying to prove you were as strong as your brothers, Liu. You are probably the only one that didn’t see it.” Liu looked up at his friend, “Maybe I should go meditate for a while.” Lamis smiled, “That sounds like a good idea.” Liu smiled back as Lamis summoned her hobby horse, “Thanks, Lamis.” “See you around, Liu,” she called with a smile as she rode away.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:06 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter IV: Test of the Clever Fighter

Ao Shun was elated as he entered the Forest of Mist. He quickly made his way over to Grand Master Sean, whom he greeted with a large grin, “Master Sean! I’m here! And I’m ready for my test!” The guardsman raised his eyebrows, “Oh really? Very well, then; here you are, young fighter.” He reached into his bag, pulling out a set of papers, and handed them to the fighter. “Huh? What’s this?” Ao asked as he took the papers. “Your test,” the Grand Master replied evenly. “What?” Ao stammered, “But, what about the Shadow Cave?” “What about the Shadow Cave?” Sean asked back, “That’s for other classes of adventurers; this is the test for the Clever Fighter.” Ao’s jaw dropped, staring at the guardsman in disbelief. “After all, why do you think they are called ‘Clever’ fighters?” Sean’s cheek twitched as he made a light coughing sound; then Grand Master Sean suddenly burst into laughter. Ao’s eyes narrowed, “You were joking.” Sean continued to laugh, “I’m sorry, yes I was. Hey, even I get bored standing here day after day, I need to have my fun as well, young fighter.” Ao bit his tongue lightly as the Grand Master continued to laugh for the next few minutes. “It’s okay, Ao,” he thought, “Just go with it, and you’ll get your test.”

As with his brothers, Sean gave him the first task of finding the key to the cave –which Sean had hidden with a monster somewhere in the forest. Unlike his brothers, though, Ao found his key in only minutes –possession of the shiny object was causing a bit of a ruckus with some Ratmen not too far away from the cave itself. “I knew it was a bad idea to give it to a Ratman,” Sean thought to himself as he saw the fighter returning, “But I was hoping he’d be like his other brother and go after the stronger enemies first…ah well.” “Here it is, Master Sean,” Ao said as he handed the guardsman the key. “Nice work, Ao Shun,” he nodded, “take a few minutes to prepare yourself, and let me know when you are ready to begin your test.” Ao Shun walked to a nearby healer to recharge his soul stones. “You progress fast, Little Shun,” came a voice from behind him. Ao turned with a half-smile, “I’m not little, Celest.” Celestina smiled back, “Yeah you are.” “So you came all this way to make fun of me?” he asked with a grin. “I came at your brother’s request, to see if you pass your test,” she replied. “If?” Ao scoffed, “There’s a doubt?” Celestina smiled again, “One thing you never seem to lack is confidence.” Ao stood up and gave a slight nod, “We’ll see if confidence is all I have.” He walked over to the cave entrance, Sean opened the door and allowed him to enter. Celestina watched as the young fighter stepped through the doorway, as the doors shut behind him she whispered, “Good luck, Little Shun.”

It was exactly as his brothers had described it, dark, cramped, humid, and for some reason, he was standing in the room’s center with no doorway behind him –the way he’d come from. Torches lining the walls flared to life, revealing a corridor in front of him, and in the doorway, a green haired fighter stood glaring at him. “So you’re my shadow,” Ao said as he looked at the other fighter. “I was your shadow,” the fighter continued to stare, “But after this, YOU will be MY shadow. I’ve had to stay down in this place for years…I’m tired of it. I will defeat you here, and go up to your world myself, leaving you to rot in this prison.” Ao Shun grinned and looked at the other fighter, drawing his sword, “Really? You think you can defeat me? I can’t say I feel threatened by you.” The other Ao nodded, bringing his sword and shield up into a guard position, “I was about to say the same thing.” The two fighters rushed each other with identical attacks, their swords meeting with a forceful crash, the sound of metal striking metal echoed down the dark hallways. Each fighter pressed, trying to force the other back.

“You’re not used to fighting someone as strong as you are,” the shadow growled, his eyes flashing with psychosis, “It terrifies you, doesn’t it? Every time you’ve locked your sword with an enemy, you’ve always been able to push through them.” Ao Shun strained, pushing harder, his shadow met his press with equal force, “Well you’re not stronger than I am,” Shadow Shun pushed forwards, stronger than Ao Shun was able to push back, forcing him to take a step back. “You’re on the shallow end of strength this time, Ao Shun,” the shadow grinned, Ao Shun grunted as he was forced back another step, “What now, smart guy?” Ao Shun narrowed his eyes, pushing against his shadow’s blade, feeling his shadow push back; he whipped around with his other arm, his shadow yelled as Ao’s shield struck him across the head. The shadow recoiled, falling back, and Ao pressed the attack, a flurry of strikes with his sword left gouges in his shadow’s armor and slice marks across his shadow’s shield. The shadow staggered back into the dark hallway as Ao Shun stood in the room’s center, panting. “Impressive. You’re a better fighter than I had thought,” his shadow called from the darkness, “It’s not over yet. The only way for one of us to leave this cursed tomb, is for the other to be defeated; one or both of us will be in this place for eternity, and I don’t intend for it to be me. Come find me in the final chamber, and we’ll see who is the true Ao Shun, and who is the shadow.” The Shadow’s voice trailed off, and Ao stepped into the dark corridor, torches beginning to dimly burn as he stepped through the doorway.

He walked down the hallway, surprised to find that the Kebing that his brothers had fought were not present as he rounded the first corner. He continued forward, into another chamber. As he stepped into the room, an arrow embedded itself in the wall next to him. His head snapped to one side, his gaze fixing upon a Skeleton Archer, drawing another arrow. He looked to the other side, at another undead archer drawing an arrow and pointing it at him. “Archers,” he grumbled as he raised his shield, “I hate archers.” The archers let loose their arrows, Ao dove forward, twisted onto his back and flattened himself against the floor, bringing his shield up to cover as much of his body as he could. The arrows skipped across the top of his shield and ricocheted into a wall. Ao flipped backwards onto his feet, spun and charged the nearest archer, ducking his head and holding his shield behind his back to protect him from the other archer’s attacks. A metallic clank accompanied by a soft push came as an arrow impacted his shield. The archer ahead of him drew an arrow back, pointing it straight at the head of the charging fighter. He stepped to the side, the archer swung its bow to compensate, and released its arrow. The projectile sailed toward the fighter, who pushed away from the side he’d been stepping to and spun. Stepping backwards toward the archer, Ao Shun continued his spin, lashing out with his sword and cleaved the Skeleton Archer in two.

Remembering there was another enemy behind him, he spun around and brought up his shield, just in time to block an arrow aimed at his neck. He charged the other archer, holding his shield in front of him –several arrows bounced off the thick armor before he reached the undead warrior- and made short work of the archer. Ao Shun took a deep breath and turned toward the doorway at the end of the corridor. As he approached the doorway, he stopped, tilting his head in confusion. In the doorway ahead of him stood another fighter, but it was not his shadow. He looked at the fighter, who gazed back in his direction, but not at him, a near-blank look in her eyes. Ao Shun walked up to her, she continued to stand still, gazing as though she did not see anything in the room. He stood in front of her, uncertain of what to do. He waved his hand in front of her face, she remained unfazed. “Who are you?” he asked the girl. Her head jerked at his voice, she looked over, as though searching for where the voice had come from. “Nyaka,” she replied softly. “Nyaka,” he echoed, “What are you doing here?” As he asked that question, she vanished from view, leaving Ao Shun alone in the chamber. He looked around to find the fighter girl, but she was nowhere to be seen.

He looked for the girl for another minute, before continuing on through the doorway. Making his way through the dark maze beyond, he came to the final chamber, where his shadow stood awaiting him. “Gotten past those little surprises, have you?” Shadow Shun grinned, “I can’t say I didn’t anticipate that.” He made a dismissive wave with his hand, “Honestly, I don’t know why I employ them, they are completely useless as guards, and almost as useless for training purposes…their only real use is as stress relief, since they come back after being destroyed.” The shadow looked over at his double, “Oh, right…sorry, I’m off track.” Ao Shun yelled as an arrow plunged into Ao’s shoulder, Shadow Shun’s grin grew wider, “Or perhaps I was merely being distracting.” Ao Shun flinched as he pulled the arrow from his shoulder, “It’s going to take more than that to finish me –I thought you of all people would know that.” He looked over to the side as a Marlone bandit swordsman and archer walked forward. He looked to the other side as a large stone golem stomped forward, the three enemies lining up next to his shadow. Shadow Shun smirked, “Would it take something more along the lines of this?” He made a motion in the air with his hand, pointing at Ao, “Kill him.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:06 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter IV: Test of the Clever Fighter

The swordsman and golem charged forward, the golem swinging a stone club as the swordsman sliced with his large broadsword. Ao sidestepped to avoid the golem’s strike, meeting the attack from the swordsman with his own sword as the golem’s club buried itself in the ground. The golem began tugging at the club, trying to free it from the floor; Ao raised his shield as the archer fired an arrow, blocking the attack. His shadow smiled, ”Nicely done, Ao, but you have left your back without defense.” He raised his sword, preparing to strike, as Ao looked back at him and grinned. “What’s so funny?” the shadow demanded. “I learned something else from my brothers,” he smiled. “And what’s that?” Shadow Shun scowled. Ao Shun tilted his head and quickly glanced at the stone golem still trying to free its club, “That stone golems aren’t terribly clever.” The shadow being looked over to see the stone golem tugging at its club with both hands, pulling the club to one side –towards the small group of people fighting each other. His eyes widened as the large stone club started to show signs of coming loose. Shadow Shun turned toward the golem, trying to get its attention, “No! Stop!” The doppelganger was too late; with a forceful tug, the golem pulled his club free from the crater in the ground. The force of the pull caused the golem to swing its club out to the side, slamming into the bandits, the fighter and his shadow, scattering them across the room. “Stupid golems,” Shadow Shun muttered as he got to his feet, “Seriously…why are these the only guys I can find in here? I’d be better off training attack monkeys…or rats.”

Across the room, Ao Shun got to his feet, and quickly found where his enemies were located. The bandit swordsman was unconscious, lying next to him, the archer was getting to her feet across the room from him. In another corner of the room –making a triangle between him and the archer, he saw his shadow getting to his feet as well. Across the room from his shadow stood the golem, who seemed uncertain of which of the two fighters it saw to attack. Grinning in his mind, he scowled and stepped forward, pointing at his double, “Don’t just stand there, you useless slab of stone! Get him!” “What?” his double looked up in disbelief as the golem began walking over toward him, brandishing its club, “There’s no way this thing can be THAT stupid.” The golem continued forward, raising its club and the shadow grumbled to himself, “Then again…its brain is made of rock.” The large golem swung at him, he ducked beneath the attack, which created a gust of wind as it passed above him. Ao Shun rushed across the room, focusing on the archer, who had not been fooled by his ploy. He ducked and dodged as the archer sent arrows at the fighter –a few of which struck the bandit swordsman behind him as he got up, effectively removing him from the fight as well. He closed on the archer, slicing her bow in half with one swing, and sending her to the ground with the next. He stood over the defeated archer, and looked with amusement as the golem continued to attack his shadow.

“You stupid overgrown paper weight!” his shadow yelled, “You’re attacking the wrong one! Now if you don’t get it through your incredibly thick skull as to which one you are supposed to be trying to kill, I will destroy you myself!” The golem stopped, lowering its club as the shadow continued yelling and threatening it –apparently it was starting to believe it was attacking the shadow. “It’s about time! Now make yourself useful and KILL THE OTHER FIGHTER!” The golem nodded and turned around, just as Ao Shun’s blade sliced through its neck. There was a dry and annoyed look on the shadow’s face as the golem collapsed into a pile of rubble, “I should have hired monkeys.” “Probably would have been more effective, huh?” Ao Shun grinned as he pointed his blade at the shadow. Shadow Shun readied his own blade, “You haven’t won yet,” he sneered, “Not even close.” The Shadow charged, swinging his blade down and impacting against Ao’s red shield with a loud clang. Ao Shun retaliated with his own attack, blocked in a similar manner.

They traded blows for minutes, each leaving cuts and scratches in the other’s armor and body. They stood hunched over, panting heavily from their last exchange, Shadow Shun began to smile. “What’s so funny?” Ao shun asked. “Just that I’m about to win,” the shadow replied. “Really?” Ao answered as he straightened up, “From what I saw a moment ago, this match could go either way.” “There’s something I know that you don’t –or perhaps, something you haven’t remembered,” his shadow grinned. “What’s that?” Ao asked with a slight sense of disbelief. The wind flew out of him as a large stone club slammed into his side sending him across the room. Ao Shun rolled across the ground, coming to rest abruptly against a wall. “Stone Golems are like the undead,” his shadow called from across the room, “They come back a little while after they are defeated.” The golem stomped over to the fighter, swinging its club up, then down again, intending to crush the tiny fighter. Ao rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the large weapon as the stone beast again planted it so deep in the ground it was unable to pull it back out. Ao stood up, and walked past the golem, a large grin on his face.

Shadow Shun slapped a hand to his forehead, “Unbelievable…Totally un-freaking believable.” Ao Shun walked to the other side of his shadow, who drew his sword and prepared to strike again, just as the stone golem pulled its club free from the ground. It turned and walked over to the two fighters, then began looking at each in turn, an obvious look of confusion on its face. “Oh there’s no way you can be this stupid,” the shadow muttered as it looked at the golem. “What are you standing there for, you stupid rock? Get him!” the shadow yelled, pointing at Ao. The golem looked over at Ao Shun and lifted its club. “No!” Ao Shun yelled back, “He’s tricking you again! He’s the one you’re supposed to kill!” The golem looked back at the shadow, lifting its club again. “So help me,” the shadow growled, “If you hit the wrong one of us again and keep me stuck here, I’LL SPEND THE REST OF MY ETERNITY IN HERE DESTROYING YOU EVERY THREE MINUTES IT TAKES YOU TO RESPAWN! Now stop being so incredibly idiotic and KILL THAT FIGHTER!” The golem looked back at Ao, who scowled in response, “You moronic chunk of stone! You’re a mockery to any other life form that exists in this entire realm! Honestly, I don’t know why I even employ your services in here!” The golem began looking back and forth between the two fighters, more uncertain than ever about which one to attack. “Oh this is pointless,” the shadow muttered with a sigh. He walked over to the golem and with one stroke of his sword, he sent it to the ground in a pile of debris and dust.

“Not like it would have actually managed to kill you anyways,” he sneered as he looked at the pile of stone. He turned back toward Ao Shun, “Let’s finish this before it comes back, shall we?” The two fighters charged each other, their swords locking; again the two near-identical green haired fighters were caught in a pushing fight. “Do you think this wise?” the shadow grinned, “As I recall, I have the advantage in a pushing fight.” To emphasize his point, he pushed forward, forcing Ao to step back. “True,” Ao Shun grunted, “But there’s something else I have learned in all my time fighting.” “And what is that?” the shadow asked, forcing Ao to step back again. Ao pushed forward a bit more, feeling the shadow push back harder in response, “It’s not always the strongest that wins.” With that, Ao Shun stopped pushing and sank back, letting his shadow fall forward over him. Ao fell onto his back and kicked up with his legs, grabbing onto the collar of his double’s shirt and twisting over, slamming his arm, and his double, hard into the ground. The wind flew out of his double as he impacted the floor, and Ao got to his feet as his shadow lay on the ground gasping for air. Ao looked over, next to the shadow was one of the room’s tall pillars. “You know,” Ao said as he walked over to the large stone pillar, “I remember how my brother An told me he defeated his shadow…and for some reason, after all of what has happened here, for a large piece of stone to be what ends up finishing you seems…almost poetic.” Ao swung a few times into the pillar, then sheathed his sword. He turned toward the crumpled form of his shadow, “This fight is over.” The pillar began to lean to one side, then fell to the floor, crushing the shadow-being and erupting into dust and pebbles.

Ao Shun stood watching the large pile of rubble for movement, but even the tiniest of the pebbles remained still. There was a brilliant glow, and Ao Shun suddenly found himself outside. He looked over and saw La Celestina sitting down near Sean. She rose to her feet and he grinned, “See? I told you I could handle that wimp! He’s not gonna be bothering anyone ever again.” Celestina just looked at him. “What? Do I have something on my face?” “No,” she replied, “I’m just…not sure which Shun you are…I think you might be the evil one.” “What?” Ao shouted, “Me, the shadow? How the heck would I have lost to that jerk? He was a total wuss!” “That sounds like something an evil shadow being would say,” she replied. “I’M NOT EVIL!” Ao yelled at her. “We’ll see,” Celestina answered as she reached into her bag and pulled out a teleportation scroll, “I’ll be keeping an eye on you. See you again, Evil Shun.” She vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving Ao standing there, jaw agape. He shook his head, “…I think I preferred ‘Little Shun’….”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:07 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter V: A New Goal: The Soloist

Ao Shun turned toward the Grand Master after Celestina left. “Well done, Ao Shun,” Sean congratulated him, “You defeated your shadow, passed my test and have earned your new title of ‘Clever Fighter’.” ”Hey, Sean,” Ao looked at the armor-clad warrior, “Why is it that my brothers both had little foreboding things revealed to them in their tests; but I didn’t? I mean, my shadow wasn’t crazed with power, or driven to be stronger to the point of being reckless….if anything he just seemed to have a hard time finding good help to kill me.” Sean looked at the fighter standing in front of him, “The ordeal faced in the Shadow Cave is different for each person. The cave itself has powerful enchantments in it that I only know the basics of, in truth. From what I have ascertained –both through my own investigations as well as through assistance with other masters in Isya; the cave is able to see a small ways into the future. It then gives a slightly distorted reflection of it, transferring it into the shadow beings locked inside.” “But my shadow, just seemed bored out of his mind more than anything,” Ao retorted. “As I said, Ao Shun,” the guardsman shrugged, “I do not fully understand all the secrets of this cave –that is why I guard it and only allow certain people inside.”

“Oh,” Ao looked away, then remembered something and looked back up, “Hey…while I was in there, I saw something else…a being that wasn’t an enemy, or my shadow.” Sean looked back at the fighter, “Oh?” Ao Shun nodded, “Yeah, it was another fighter, a girl. At first she seemed almost like she was unaware of anything going on. I asked her for her name, and she said it was Nyaka. I asked why she was there and she vanished…what was all that about?” The Grand Master brought a hand to his chin, “Nyaka?” He stood in silence a moment, as though lost in thought, Ao Shun called out to get his attention, “Yo, Sean! What’s wrong?” “Huh? Oh, nothing,” the guardsman made a dismissive wave, “It’s…probably nothing, Ao Shun. Don’t worry about it. Anyways, you passed your trial, so you are now permitted to use one of the three weapons available to a Clever Fighter. You may choose between the axe, the two handed sword, and the one handed sword. The axe does the greatest amount of damage in a single strike, but is ungainly and heavy, attacking small opponents is difficult with it, and agile opponents such as archers are especially difficult. The two handed sword is easier to wield than the axe, but does not deal as much damage in one attack. The one handed sword deals the least damage, but is the easiest to wield, and allows you the use of a shield while using it.” “No contest,” Ao Shun grinned, “I want to use a shield, gimme the one handed sword.” Sean smiled as he gave Ao Shun the sword, “Use it well, Ao Shun. Adventurers will always be in the need of a good tanker.” “Thanks, Sean,” Ao Shun said as he started off for Elderine, “I will.”

He sat on the beach in the Sea of Greed, listening to the waves. Not sure of what to do, now that he’d made it past his test and purchased his new armor –keeping his old plus nine shield- he was uncertain of where to go. He wanted to do something challenging, to try his newfound strength; but he was also well aware that he was still a low level and his strength was relatively limited –fighting something and losing would be an incredible let-down after all of this. “Enjoying the outside world, Evil Shun?” called a voice from behind him. He shook his head, “Someday you’ll have to tell me how you find me so easily.” “And let an evil being know how to do it to innocent adventurers? Never,” Celestina said as she took a seat next to him. Ao Shun shook his head again, turning his attention toward the sea. “So what’s your next objective? She asked him. “I dunno…I’m trying to figure out what to do now,” he said as he watched the waves crashing against the shore. “Spent so long in that cave trying to get out that you’re not sure what to do now that you’re out, eh?” she smiled. Ao turned slightly and glared at her a bit, “I’m not the evil Ao Shun.” “Yes you are,” she answered, to which Ao shook his head again and sighed. “Well you need to define a goal, Evil Shun,” she told him. “A goal?” Ao looked over at her. She nodded, “They give you something to train and drive for. I’ve seen many adventurers that haven’t had them loose interest and simply…stop,” she looked over at him, “So now that you’ve made your first goal of escaping the cave, you need to make a new one for where you want to go from here.” She got up from her spot in the sand and dusted herself off, “Well I’m off to talk to An. See you later, Evil Shun.” “I’m not evil!” he yelled as she summoned her hobby horse and rode away.

He sat on the beach, thinking of what Celestina had told him, and trying to think of a goal he could try to accomplish. “Yo, we’re here to fight Mara!” a voice called out across the area, “Anyone want to help us? So far we’re just a mage and a cleric!” “Mara?” he thought, “Now that sounds like a fun fight.” He got to his feet, “Hey, I can help out. I’m a fighter.” “Cool,” the voice yelled back, “Meet us by the Templer.” He hurried over, strapping on his shield, and was met with astonished and indignant looks from the two adventurers waiting for him. The mage was the fist to speak, “You…You’re the one that volunteered to help us?” “Yeah,” Ao grinned. The mage did not look impressed, “You think that YOU can help US kill Mara?” The cleric stepped forward, “You have any idea what level you are?” “Just passed my clever fighter test,” Ao answered proudly. The mage and cleric burst into laughter. “Get out of here, fighter,” said the mage, “There’s no way you could help out with Mara, you’re too low a level. We’d be better off with me being the tanker.” “Okay,” the cleric shouted, “Does anyone SERIOUS want to help us with Mara?” “I AM serious,” Ao protested, “I can help.” “Yeah,” said the mage, “You can help by going away.”

Ao narrowed his eyes and turned away, walking back the way he’d come from. “That was completely uncalled for. Just because I’m a lower level doesn’t mean I have no idea what I’m doing,” he muttered to himself, “You know, it’d serve them right if I defeated Mara by myself and proved them wrong.” He stopped walking, looking up as a wide grin grew across his face, “In fact…” He jogged across the island, crossing the bridge that connected the island he had come from to the island with Mara’s camp set up on it. He slashed his way quickly through the Mara Pirate Sailors and Elites that scattered the face of the island as he walked up the sandy hill toward the pirate’s camp site. As he reached the top of the hill, he saw several large tents set up in a circle, and standing in the center, a woman clad in white, holding a long sword in one hand, her other hand –lost long ago- replaced with a short curved blade. Mara. She stood in the center of the tents, as though waiting for something, then turned her head toward him, giving him a clear view of the blue sign of the Mara pirates stitched onto her white hat. She smiled a bit upon seeing him, motioning for him to approach. Ao stepped forward, coming into clear view. “I’ve been hearing shouts for some time about a party coming to fight me, but you seem to be alone,” she said, “Where are they?” He motioned over his shoulder and smiled, “At the door, waiting for more people to help them.” “Smart move for them,” she said. “I offered to help them myself,” Ao said as he drew his sword, “They refused my assistance. Said I was too weak, that I wouldn’t stand a chance against you.” “Sounds about right, by looking at you,” she grinned. “Well I’m here to prove them wrong,” Ao scowled, “I’m going to defeat you by myself.” “You? Defeat me? Alone?” Mara scoffed, “That’s outright insulting.” “If you don’t raise your sword, Mara,” Ao said stepping forward again, “Then this will be a quick fight.” Mara raised her blade, “Oh, I seem to have the feeling that this will be a quick fight regardless.” Ao reached into his bag, pulling out three scrolls, breaking their seals. “Increased defense, vitality and precision,” he grinned, “I think the advantage in this playing field just tipped in my favor.” “You’re confident, I’ll give you that,” she said as she stepped forward, “Let’s see just how much of that confidence is deserved.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:08 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter V: A New Goal: The Soloist

Mara struck with her sword, her blade intercepted by Ao’s shield. She grinned as she swiped at him with her metal claw, Ao ducked and spun, avoiding the blow and taking a step back. Mara grinned, “Not bad, fighter, especially given your obvious inexperience. I’ll tell you what; I’ll give you something I rarely give others.” “What’s that?” Ao grinned back. “The chance to leave alive,” her smile faded, “I suggest you take it.” “If I did what everyone suggested,” Ao said as he brought his sword up, “I wouldn’t be here.” Mara slashed again with her sword, Ao slashed up and to the side, catching her blade and guiding it safely over his head and across her chest –preventing her from using her claw. Continuing the motion, Ao spun around, knocking Mara in the back with his shield. Mara staggered forward two paces, then spun around, a sneer on her face. “I’m done wasting my time with you,” she growled, “Elites! Sailors! Remove this fighter from my sight!” A dozen Mara Sailors and Elites swarmed up the hill, Ao looked at them, then back at Mara, “’Remove’? Trying to let me live again, Mara?” Mara scowled, “Alive or dead, I want you gone.” The small force of pirates surged at the fighter, the larger Sailors managing to outrun the Elites, and reaching him first.

The sailors fell quickly, while strong, the sailors only carried a single long dagger, and their attacks were easy for Ao Shun to block or dodge, whereas his counterattacks were found by the sailors to be quite the opposite. The Elites, however, were a harder fight for the tanker. With their dual short swords and quick attacks, they would have been a great threat to him en masse –but to his fortune, of the twelve pirates that attacked him, only five were among the elite ranks; and they fell soon after the fight began as well. As the last of the elite pirates fell to the ground, Ao stood, panting heavily, his gaze fixed on Mara, who had not left the top of the hill. “Any more for me to fight, Mara?” Ao called as his breathing slowed. To his surprise, Mara smiled, “Just one.” She stepped forward, drawing her sword again. She ran at the tanker, slashing down with both sword and claw, catching the fighter’s shield with her claw, and locking her sword with that of the fighter. “You’re quite talented, fighter,” Mara said as the two pushed against each other, “I’ll make you another offer, one I don’t usually make to people I fight and one I only make once to anyone: join my crew, we recently had some space open up.” Ao Shun smiled, “Sorry, not interested –working for you doesn’t seem to be a very secure position.” “Pity,” Mara smiled. She yanked back with her claw, jerking Ao off guard and breaking the lock of their swords, slicing down and cutting Ao’s right shoulder.

He yelled as the blade sliced neatly through his armor and skin, sliding against bone, and staggered a few steps back. “Then I guess I’ll just have to kill you,” her smile faded as she finished speaking. She struck with her sword again, Ao brought his shield up to block, only to realize too late that was a bad decision. As her blade struck the highly refined shield, she swung across and low with her claw, slicing across Ao’s midsection. Ao Shun collapsed, rolling down the hill, leaving patches of red sand as he rolled. Ao strained to sit up, his head was light and he felt something warm covering most of his abdomen. In a near-daze, he slowly reached into his bag, grabbing a soul stone as Mara began walking down the hill. “I offered you a chance to leave alive, and you refused,” she said as she walked toward him, “I even went so far as to offer you the chance to join my crew, after you slaughtered a dozen of them; and still you said no.” Ao’s hand wrapped around the small stone in the pouch of his bag as Mara walked up to him, the tip of her sword barely touching his stomach. “I’ll bet now you’re wishing you had taken me up on one of my offers,” Mara continued, “But the time to do so has long since passed….now you die.”

Before Mara was able to finish him off, Ao Shun used his free hand and tossed a handful of sand into Mara’s face. Mara yelled and fell back, swiping at her face. While she was distracted, Ao used two charges from his soul stone to heal his wounds and got to his feet. Mara stopped thrashing, having cleared the sand from her eyes, which now burned with rage. “That,” she growled as she raised her own blade, “Is going to cost you.” “Well you were planning to kill me anyways,” Ao jeered, “So I figured, what the hell? May as well go for it.” Ao and Mara charged each other, shouting loud battle cries as they closed together. Mara swung across with her claw, a strike which Ao dodged by jumping back. She stepped in and swung back across with her claw, continuing the spin she lashed out with her blade at the dodging fighter. Ao intercepted her attack with his shield, then drove in, slamming into her with the large metallic sheet of armor, causing her to stagger back, stunned. Ao Shun pressed the attack and continued his assault with a flurry of strikes and slashes, Mara fell to the ground wounded. Ao walked up to her, his blade at her throat, “You’ve lost, Mara. Time for me to end this.” “It hasn’t ended yet,” Mara half-grinned, “And you sure as hell won’t be the one that manages to end it.” She swept out with her leg, knocking Ao Shun to the ground with a startled yelp. Mara scowled as she sat up, her body glowing yellow, “I’ll leave for now, but I will return. I will never forgive these people for what was done to me, or my mother. I will have my revenge on all citizens of this cursed land.” She vanished as her gear teleported her to her other hideout, leaving Ao Shun alone on the beach.

A bit disappointed at having missed the chance to defeat Mara for good, the triumphant fighter got to his feet, sheathed his sword, and began dusting himself off. Something shone on the sandy beach; he reached down and picked it up –a ring from Mara herself. He placed it in his bag, and looked up as a group of adventurers arrived –among whom were the cleric and mage from before. “Beat it, fighter,” called the mage as the party’s fighter walked up toward the encampment, “We told you that you can’t help us fight Mara!” “Alright, fine,” Ao replied, “I was just leaving, anyways.” He grinned as he walked away from them, the mage speaking to his party members, “Idiotic newb…wouldn’t stop bothering us about fighting Mara earlier…would have served him right if Mara HAD found him.” “I can’t find Mara,” the fighter said as he returned. “What?” the rest of the party called. “I can’t find Mara,” he repeated. The fighter looked up and saw Ao Shun walking away, “Hey, you! How long have you been on this island?” “Maybe ten minutes,” Ao replied. “Did you see Mara at all while you were here?” the other fighter asked. “Yeah, come to think of it, I did,” Ao Shun called back, “If you’re after her, you’re gonna have to wait a while.” “Huh? Why’s that?” the fighter asked, clearly confused. “Someone already fought her and beat her,” Ao Shun smiled, “About two minutes before you showed up.” He turned around and started walking away, the fighter called again, “Who beat her?” Ao Shun turned, a wide smile on his face, “I did.” “What?” yelled the cleric, “Stop lying! There’s no way you could have defeated her!” “I think he’s serious,” said the girl archer with them. “Yeah right, like that low level wuss could have bested Mara alone,” snickered the mage, “Too bad he can’t prove it.” “Yeah….too bad I can’t prove it,” Ao Shun reached into his bag and removed the ring he’d found, holding it in the air in front of him as he inspected it, “Hey, any of you guys know what Mara’s Jewel of the Waves is worth these days?” He waited for a moment, no one answered, they just stared at the young fighter, “No? Okay then, I guess I’ll go ask someone else. Later.” He walked away, leaving the party of adventurers gaping in silence behind him.

“I’m impressed, Evil Shun,” Celestina said after Ao told her of his fight against Mara, “though I have to admit that I should expect someone from the shadow cave to have done something like that –just to aggravate those other guys.” Ao’s shoulders sagged in surrender, “Celest…I’m not evil…” “Oh, I know, Little Shun,” she chuckled, “I’ve just been teasing you –after all, you did say you didn’t want me calling you ‘Little Shun’ anymore.” Ao Shun shook his head, “Still, it was interesting to fight an opponent like her…too bad I don’t have more fights like that to look forward to.” “You know,” Celestina said thoughtfully, “Isya has many incredibly strong enemies that plague it constantly like Mara: Marlone, Skeleton Knight, Robo, Goblin King, Torturer King, just to name a few.” She looked over at him, “There are a lot of enemies out there, Little Shun, many times more powerful than Mara.” Ao looked out at the sea, thinking. Finally he spoke, “I think I just thought of a goal, Celest.” Oh?” she asked innocently. “Yeah,” he nodded with a large grin on his face, “I’m gonna defeat every one of these boss enemies I can find; and I’m gonna fight them by myself.” Celestina smiled and stood up, brushing off her pants, “Well I’m glad you have a goal now,” she smiled, “But I should be going –I have to meet with Lamis.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a teleportation scroll, “Good luck, Little Shun.” “Have fun, Celest,” Ao replied as she vanished, “And thanks.” He waited for a bit, continuing to think until finally getting up himself. “Well,” he said as he dusted himself off, “Nothing to do now except train.” He set off across the beach, a grin on his face as he tried to think about who he should fight next.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:08 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter VI: Ao’s “Tween” Levels

“Looking for someone to marry! Preferably a cleric!” the voice echoed across Elderine. Celestina shook her head, “This is just ridiculous.” “What? The wedding thing?” An asked. “Yes. These fools rush to get married to people they don’t know or even don’t like. It’s just insane.” “Well weddings have been taking place for a long time,” An said, “but it’s only recently that they’ve lost their meaning –ever since Dreien Uriel showed up.” He shook his head, “I can’t say I blame him, though –even I saw the profit potential in giving an officially recognized wedding ceremony for adventurers.” The purple haired cleric sighed a bit, “But that protection spell he gives away with the wedding, and the rings that can summon your partner…those are what turned it from something meaningful into nothing more than another buff spell to exploit.” “I know,” An said, grimacing as the call came again, “But there are a few people out there that genuinely care for each other and desire to get married. It’s nice to know that those people are able to have the ceremony as well and have it officially recognized.” An chuckled, “You know, I’ve had three people I don’t even know ask me to marry them so far. It’s kinda funny, really –someone you don’t know asking that.” “I’ve lost track of the number that have asked me,” she said with another head shake, “And to me, it’s anything but funny.” An looked over, “So I take it by your tone that you don’t intend to get married?” “Nope,” she answered quickly, “Why, do you?” “I never really put serious thought into it,” he said leaning back, “I suppose I would, if I met the right girl –but I don’t see that happening any time soon.” Celestina gave an exasperated sigh as the shout came again. “Hey!” An said suddenly, “Wanna go check out Rumen? I hear they’ve been doing a lot of work in there again; new roads and everything.” Celestina shrugged as she got to her feet, “Sure. Why not?”

As they walked toward the gate to the Sea of Greed the call came again, Celestina shook her head and sighed again. “Hey, did I tell you about the odd encounter I had the other day in the Forest of Tides?” Celestina looked over, “No, you didn’t. What happened?” “Well, I was in the Forest of Tides looking for new adventurers to help,” he started, “Then I came across this one cleric, she kept charging Mushroom Fighters and Slime Heroes, but she wasn’t strong enough to beat them. She never healed, just charged straight at them and started wailing on them with her mace.” Celestina listened intently as An continued, “She lost several times –fortunately her gear warped her back each time before she was killed. I followed her for a while trying to get her attention –healing her to keep her from losing, but she just kept driving at these strong enemies. I was really unsure of what to do after about thirty minutes.” An shook his head a bit, “One of the other adventurers nearby didn’t know why she was acting that way, but was able to tell me the cleric’s name: Spotted Fire. I told my brothers about her when I saw them that night, they all thought it was pretty weird as well.” “Weird is an understatement,” the other cleric responded. They walked in silence a few more steps, then Celestina looked over at An, “So speaking of your three brothers; what are they up to these days?” “Liu is still trying to break through his little barrier with Harkans and Colls,” An shook his head, “As for the other two…I’m not certain, really.”

He lay on his back, the wood cool from the long night as the warm air gently flowed around him. He stared into the sky, the sun’s rays peeking out from behind the tall trees surrounding the house and its small clearing. He sat and listened to the rustling of the branches and the various animals making noise in the woods beyond the small abode. “He’s moving again,” he thought to himself, “The crickets chirping nearby just went silent. I wish he’d just make his move already.” There was a faint rustling from below, and a light crack as the intruder crossed over a twig. He shook his head, “Aw crud. Now he’s gonna wait like eight minutes before moving again to make me think no one’s there.”

He lay back and waited, the rustling started again a few minutes later. Slowly, he reached for the sword lying next to him, the blade quietly gliding out from its sheath. There was a series of loud footfalls as the bandit made his move, charging the house. With a thud, the bandit heaved his bodyweight against the door, smashing it open. There was the unmistakable sound of string being pulled and wood straining –a bow readying to fire at an opponent. “Alright! No one move!” a loud voice demanded below. Tian Long smiled as he grabbed his sheath, got to his feet and leapt off the roof, his feet loudly impacting the ground near the bandit. The man gave a start, accidentally loosing his arrow into the empty house. “Stay back! I’m warning you!” the man yelled, pointing his bow at Tian while he gaped at the fighter’s sword. Tian motioned to the empty bow, “I think your motivation for me to do that recently parted ways with you.” He raised his sword, “And you just attacked my house. I’m not exactly going to let that go unchallenged.” The bandit’s eyes went wide as he backed away. “I-I’ll fight you, I swear!” he stammered, pushing part of his robe aside to reveal a dagger secured to his belt. “Good,” Tian smiled, “It’s been a while since a bandit has challenged me. I wonder how long you’ll last. The last one made it a whole seven seconds.” The man reached across his body and pulled the dagger, his unstable stance and weak knees causing him to stagger backwards and fall to the ground –dropping the dagger as he did so. Tian Long’s face was one of dismay and disappointment as the bandit began fumbling in the grass around him for the lost weapon. “Forget it,” Tian said as he sheathed his sword, “This wouldn’t even be fun. Just….Just go already.” The bandit looked up at the blue haired young man, “Really? You mean it?” Tian gave a dismissive wave, then crossed his arms and turned away, “Do it quickly before I change my mind,” he said, “and if I catch you robbing people again, I’ll kill you.” The bandit sat still, staring at the fighter another moment as though expecting a trick. Annoyed, Tian drew his sword and spun around, pointing the tip at the man’s throat, “I SAID GO!!” In a flash the man was on his feet and running for the safety of the forest.

He watched the bandit run into the woods, quickly losing sight of him amongst the trees. “It figured,” he said to himself, “The only ones that come around here any more are idiots and new bandits that haven’t heard about this house from other bandits yet, no one talented.” He looked at his blade a moment, then sheathed the sword again, fastening it to his waist. “I have to admit, I was surprised you let him go,” came a voice from behind him. Tian Long spun quickly around, finding himself staring into the eyes of a powerful mage with long green hair, “Weak though he was, I wasn’t sure you wouldn’t beat him up just for kicks.” “Liu!” Tian shouted upon seeing his brother’s face, “When did you get here?” “I got here in time to see you jump off the roof,” he smiled. “Man,” Tian shook his head, grinning, “I didn’t even hear you approach.” “I noticed,” he smiled in response. “Come inside! Come inside!” Tian gestured toward the door, “I gathered some good tea leaves the other day, we can try it out now!” “Sounds good to me,” his brother said with a smile.

Ao Shun raised his shield above his head, the jeweled metal surging downwards as a heavy axe impacted it with incredible force. Ao swept his shield to the side and down, knocking the axe away and slicing at his opponent with his other hand. The enemy managed to lean back just far enough that Ao was unable to reach him with his sword from where he stood. Out of reflex, Ao tried to step in, only to be reminded that his legs were secured to the ground by Marlone’s entanglement spell. Marlone grinned as he swung his axe around again at the fighter, then yelled in pain as several arrows and magic attacks impacted the large man, halting his attack. Marlone growled and began stomping over to the small group of archers and mages behind the fighter –Ao furiously hacked at the vines around his legs in an effort to free himself. Another volley sailed into the large bandit leader, and the immense fighter staggered back two steps, before continuing forward with even greater intent. Finally free of the vines, Ao spun around and charged at Marlone’s vulnerable back with a stun attack; but with speed Ao did not think such a large man could have, he spun around, swinging his axe at Ao’s midsection. Ao Shun leaned back, falling to the ground and sliding under the deadly blade, ending up right in front of Marlone on his back –a surprised look on both of their faces. Marlone swung his axe up, intent on crushing or bisecting Ao Shun, causing the wooden docks beneath them to erupt in a shower of splinters as he rolled out of the way. “See? I told you I was a good backup tanker,” Ao called out as he got to his feet, “And I’ll bet now you’re glad you decided not to tank both of them yourself, Slasher.”

The fighter behind him smiled a bit as he dodged a thrust by his opponent’s sword, “Yeah, I admit, attacking both these guys myself probably would have been a bad idea.” The white-clad pirate slashed several times with claw and sword, the fighter deftly dodging and blocking each attack. “I still say you’re the lucky one, though –I got the hard one.” He dodged again as Mara quickly rotated, sending a blur of swirling blades at the fighter and any other adventurers around her.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:09 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter VI: Ao’s “Tween” Levels

Ao chuckled as he heard Slasher’s comment, blocking another attack by Marlone and buying more time for the archers and mages with them to attack the large man. Marlone gave a loud yell as another wave of arrows and spells slammed into his back, falling to his knees, then onto his side –he was not breathing. With a loud cheer, Ao and his group turned, readying to assist Slasher and his group with Mara. Ao Shun raced past the pirate and fighter, then spun and charged in at Mara’s back, using a stun charge once more. Again, the enemy he charged managed to see it coming, and Mara stepped to the side and back, spinning and attacking Ao with her claw, while simultaneously attacking Slasher with her sword. “Okay,” Ao said as he gaped at her newfound strength and fighting abilities, “You may be right about her being the stronger of the two.” He strained as Mara pushed against his shield, surprised at actually needed to step back to gain better leverage. “She’s a lot stronger than I remember,” he grunted. “Well,” Slasher growled back, “Shutian did say Mara and Marlone were using Karasian magic to make themselves and their minions stronger.” “I know,” Ao said as he stepped back, releasing the lock between his shield and Mara’s claw, “but I didn’t think it’d be this bad.” Arrows and magic attacks flashed through the air at the pirate leader as the two fighters continued to keep her attention. At last, the damage seemed to take effect, and Mara collapsed with a long exhaled breath.

The adventurers all gathered around Mara’s body, staring as though expecting her to leap up and attack again. “That’s it?” Ao asked, “We actually won?” “It seems so,” Slasher answered. Mara’s body suddenly began to smoke, as did Marlone’s. The smoke grew thicker, covering the docks the stood upon; when it finally cleared, two lowly pirate bandits were laying where Mara and Marlone had been. “What the heck just happened?” Ao shouted. “Karasian magic,” a nearby mage answered, “I’d say this was a cloning spell.” “Cloning spell,” Slasher looked back at the mage, “Doesn’t that require a human sacrifice?” “Well there’s a reason that it is forbidden magic,” the mage replied. “There is good news, though,” another mage chimed in. “What’s that?” Slasher asked. “If you defeat the originals, the clones will die,” he stated. “Oh,” Slasher replied, “Well…since we just killed their clones, I’m guessing we won’t have to worry about that.”

The adventurers continued on their path down the small pirate port. Mara and Marlone had been attacking trade and supply shipping off the coast of Elderine with greater frequency of late, pressuring Shutian to find their hideout and organize an attack against them. They had also, by reports, been dabbling in Karasian magic, to make themselves stronger and more brutal in combat –with the side effect of driving them slightly insane. Isyan spies had managed to locate the pirate hideout –a long series of make-shift docks off the coast of a small island, and Shutian had gathered a score of adventurers to go on the raid. They had been warned that Mara and Marlone were using Karasian magic and that they had gone slightly mad, but to be barbaric enough to sacrifice two of their own just to make clones of themselves as guards –this was actually frightening to Ao.

They came to the end of the docks, where two large pirate ships sat anchored next to each other, a dozen pirates sat on the steps waiting for them. Drawing their swords, Ao and Slasher yelled and charged forward, met by the pirates charging from the ship. Once more arrows and spells flashed through the air as the fighters drew the attention of the pirates. With a symphony of clashing blades, crackling and sizzling magic blasts and whistling arrows, the fight ended, the adventurers clamoring aboard the first boat. The first ship was empty, so the group decided to take the chance to rest and recover –they had about ten minutes until their specialized gear would warp them back to Elderine, but they figured thirty seconds wouldn’t make all the difference. Ao and Slasher walked up the staircase on the side of the ship to get a look at the ship neighboring the one they were in. As he reached the top, Slasher’s eyes widened, his back straightening. “What do you see? Ao called as he walked up next to him –the other fighter made no reply. Ao repeated his question, and again it went unanswered. He reached the top of the stairs and nudged the other fighter, repeating his question with an annoyed tone, and was again ignored. “Come on man! What is out there that is so…” his voice trailed off as he looked to the other ship and saw what Slasher saw –the deck was full of Maras and Marlones –two real, the rest clones. “Oh, come on,” Ao Shun muttered under his breath, “They have GOT to be joking about this.”

Another few adventurers came up behind them, and gaped as they saw the small army of Maras and Marlones. “So we have to kill the originals, huh?” Slasher asked the people around him, “How do we know which ones those are?” They looked back and forth between the different Maras and Marlones, when Ao suddenly pointed, “There! That’s the real Mara!” Slasher looked over at him, “What? How do you know?” “Her hat, it has a blue insignia,” he replied, “All those others have a pink insignia, but I distinctly remember her having a blue one when I faced her on the beach a week ago.” “Come to think of it,” an archer said behind him, “I remember seeing a blue insignia on her as well –though I didn’t fight her at the time.” “Okay, so we’ve got the real Mara,” Slasher said, “What about Marlone?” “That one,” the archer said with a gesture, “Look at the other Marlones, they all stand still, looking toward the center of the ship, but that one is looking down, and sometimes glances in the other direction like he’s nervous.” “Well, that settles which ones we need to fight,” Ao said, turning to face the others, “but how do we manage to get to them without getting mobbed by the clones? They may be fakes but they are still very strong.” The archer smiled and stood, readying an arrow and pointing it at the real Marlone, “Leave that part to me. You guys get to the base of the stairs and wait for me and my new friend to come down.”

Tian Long raised the cup to his mouth, blowing across it lightly to cool it off before placing it against his lips. “I still don’t understand, brother,” Liu said from across the table, his own cup resting next to his crossed arms, “What is it you have here that you don’t have as an adventurer?” Tian Long took another sip of the hot tea, then looked down into the dark liquid, “You know, I’ve wondered that a lot myself, and I have to admit; it took me a long time before I could really figure it out.” Liu took a sip of his tea as his brother finished speaking, “Well? What did you find? What is it you have here?” “Purpose,” his brother replied as he looked up. Liu furrowed his brow, “What? What do you mean, ‘purpose’? There’s a purpose to being an adventurer! I have a purpose as a mage, it is not all self-gratification!” “I know,” Tian Long answered, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. I meant that I found a purpose here that I did not have as an adventurer.” Liu looked around at the wooden home they’d grown up in, “What purpose could you possibly have here that you could not have as an adventurer?” “This home,” he answered with a wave of his arm, “It gave me something I could defend, something to protect. I’ve been doing it since I was old enough to wield a staff.”

“That’s it?” Liu thought, “It was just something to protect?” He Liu looked at his brother, “You know, Tian, the main purpose of being an adventurer is to protect the people of Isya.” “I know that,” his brother answered, “But I had nothing of my own to defend. Nothing that was mine was being threatened when I fought and it just made me feel…I don’t know….empty. To fight to defend Isyan people is to defend those I don’t even know –people that don’t know I exist, people whose names I don’t and will never learn.” He looked out one of the windows, “I’m not like Ao…or at least not exactly like him. I have fun fighting and I enjoy becoming stronger…but I need more than that…I need…to be needed.” “If you had a few friends to train with,” Liu said thoughtfully, “they would need you.” “Like you and Lamis?” Tian looked back, “Like An and Celestina?” Tian Long shook his head, “You’ll notice how those turned out…Celestina hardly ever trains any more and when she does, An isn’t able to help her because she’s so far ahead of him. You and Lamis don’t fight together anymore, either –for much the same reasons.” Liu looked away as his brother continued to speak, “She has gotten even farther than Celestina in terms of level –you two hardly even speak any more….same with you and Akarii…and when was the last time you even heard from Wildride?” “Right around when she added you to her guild,” the mage said sadly. The fighter looked to the side, “Still not sure why she did that.” Tian shook his head, “Anyways, I don’t want to be like that. Being needed and then not being needed is even worse than not being needed in the first place.” He got to his feet, walked over to a wall and pulled out the arrow the bandit had mistakenly fired into the house earlier, “As long as I’m here, this house needs me. I protect it from bandits and monsters that would damage it for fun and profit. I repair what gets old and keep what it holds inside safe and secure…so I am happier here.” Liu nodded a bit, sipping more of his tea, “I guess I can understand that…though I think I should point out that just because a friend is stronger than you doesn’t mean they don’t need you anymore.” “They may need me as a friend,” he nodded, “But they do not need me as a fighter –and that, brother, is what I need as an adventurer.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:09 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter VI: Ao’s “Tween” Levels

The tall man looked with disbelief at the dented and gouged purple shield in his hands. “You know,” the smith looked over at Ao Shun, “You should really think of getting a higher level shield than this,” “What do you mean, Karl?” Ao Shun asked, “It’s a plus nine shield, getting a new one would be reducing my fighting capability.” Karl shook his head, “This may have helped you out a lot when you started out, but now it’s really nothing more than an impediment. The next level of shields are made of much stronger materials than this, they have nearly as good unrefined as this one is at plus nine. Minimal refinement would actually give you the same defensive power.” He looked at the sad expression on Ao Shun’s face and felt a slight pang of guilt at having told him so bluntly. “I can fix it for you no problem, Shun,” he continued, “It would be a few silver to do it; but I would recommend buying a new one soon –the enemies you fight will only be getting stronger, and I’m afraid this shield has about reached its limit.” Ao nodded his head, thanking the smith and handed him the money for repairs, “I’ll get this one repaired for now, and start saving up to get another one.” “This shield means a lot to you, doesn’t it?” the smith asked. “It’s the first plus nine I ever made. Took me three days and a few dozen shields to make it and it has helped me out a lot…so yeah, it carries some sentimental value.” The smith nodded, “I can understand that.” He set the shield down on his table and put some materials in a furnace, “Come back in an hour or so and it should be all set.” Ao Shun nodded and walked away, deciding to browse the market while he waited for his shield to be repaired.

It was a long hour to wait, the vendors were not selling much in the way of items that interested him. As he wandered, another fighter passed by. On his left arm was a giant shield with glowing wings that pulsed with energy –something he’d never seen before. “Hey,” he called as the fighter walked away. The fighter turned, “Hm? What’s up?” “That shield,” Ao said pointing, “How’d you get wings on it?” The fighter gave Ao a curious look, “You have a plus nine shield…you should know.” Ao tilted his head in confusion, “Huh? What do you mean?” “This shield gets wings the same way your shield glows purple,” he replied pointing at Ao’s shield, “Refining.” “I’ve never seen wings on a shield before, though,” Ao answered, “What level of refining is that?” The fighter furrowed his eyebrows, “It’s one level below yours –a plus eight.” “What!?” Ao almost shouted in surprise, “That’s a plus eight? My plus eight didn’t have wings when I was refining it to plus nine!” The fighter nodded a bit, “I believe I know the problem. Here, watch this.” He unstrapped the shield, removed it from his arm and held the shield in front of him. As soon as the shield left his arm, the wings vanished. “The wings only appear when the shield is equipped,” the fighter explained, “If you just see the shield on the ground or in inventory, it won’t show the wings. I’m guessing you didn’t equip your plus eight before making it a plus nine, did you?” “No,” Ao answered with a slight chuckle, “If I had known, I would have stopped at plus eight –that one looks way better then mine.” “I know,” the fighter grinned, “I don’t use plus nines any more. They are hard to break, but the plus eights look so much better that I just use them instead.”

The great wolf howled as Ao’s sword sliced into its hide, then growled and slashed at Ao with its long sets of sharp claws. Ao jumped back to avoid the Desert Wolf’s strike, immediately realizing the folly of that choice as the Desert Archon raced forward and pecked at his chest, piercing his armor. Ao threw his shield arm out, striking the bird in the head and knocking it aside, slicing at the bird beast’s neck as it recoiled –narrowly missing the agile creature. The wolf attacked again as Ao retaliated against the bird, leaping forward and knocking the fighter onto his back. The bleeding from his chest was annoying, but not life-threatening, so Ao decided against using a soul stone to recover. Instead, he reached into his bag and withdrew a small potion, smashing the fragile container against his chest –the elixir splashing out and healing his wound. He got to his feet as the two monsters ran towards him, the archon outrunning the wolf and striking first. Ao intercepted the pecking strike with his shield, then sliced at the bird’s neck, piercing the soft skin and cutting through, felling the beast. As the archon fell the wolf arrived, again leaping at the fighter. Ao Shun ducked and took a long step under the wolf, spinning and coming up behind it as it landed. The Desert Wolf growled in annoyance at having missed its prey again, turning around to attack once more.

The wolf charged in again at Ao, this time halting short of the shield-bearing fighter, and slicing at him with its claws, which left deep scratches along his shield. Ao thrust forward, his sword entering the wolf’s chest, and stopping short as the blade struck a thick bone. Reacting quickly, Ao rushed forward with his shield, stunning the beast before it could turn and tear the blade from his grip, then pulled his sword from the wolf’s chest. Spinning to gain momentum, Ao Shun sliced across the Desert Wolf’s tender underbelly, disemboweling the wolf and felling the beast. “Man these guys are tough,” Ao panted as he tried to regain his breath. “But still,” he straightened up and took in a long breath, exhaling slowly, “They’re a lot more fun than anything else I’ve come across so far.” He walked along in the sand for a bit, following the wooden posts that outlined the camp in Sand Hill. He heard a growl from nearby, and someone shouting. Intrigued, Ao ran in the direction of the sound until he could see what the commotion was about. He rounded a corner and found a cleric and a fighter who seemed to be having some trouble with two Desert Wolves and two Desert Archon. An archon dashed forward, pecking furiously at the fighter’s shield, while the other ran quickly from one side to the other and jammed its beak into her shoulder. “Heal me!” the fighter shouted as a wolf managed to get past her guard and slice into her leg. “I am!” the cleric shouted, dodging an attack from the other wolf, “But there’s too many of them!”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:10 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter VI: Ao’s “Tween” Levels

Ao ran forward, running up behind the cleric to help the two adventurers. Knowing that attacking the beasts –despite the apparent distress the two adventurers were in- was technically illegal, Ao decided against actually attacking the enemies. Instead he charged at the wolf attacking the cleric, slamming into it with his shield stunning the beast, giving her time to cast a barrier on the fighter –who was using both potions and stones to stay alive. Ao stood between the cleric and the wolf –both he and the wolf unmoving. He turned to look at the cleric, “Need another sword?” “Yes!” she replied, “Please!” Without hesitation, Ao raced forward and struck at one of the two archon attacking the other fighter, cutting deep into its side wounding it severely. The bird wobbled and staggered off balance, the other fighter took advantage of its temporary defenseless state and sliced into the archon’s chest, killing it. The cleric behind him gave a shout, letting Ao know the other wolf was awake again. Ao spun around, facing the wolf’s back. With a grin, he struck the beast on the head with the hilt of his sword with a dull thud, “Bad dog! Heel!” The wolf raised the fur on its back in anger at the fighter’s comment, turning and curling its lip. “Hey!” Ao raised his eyebrows, pointing his sword at the beast, “No! That is no! You do not curl your lip at your master! Bad dog!” Completely forgetting the cleric behind it, the Desert Wolf lunged forward, snapping its sharp teeth at Ao’s throat. Ao took several quick steps back to avoid the attack, passing the other fighter, who was dealing with the other wolf and archon. Spinning on his heel, Ao charged the wolf behind him, stunning it again, then pivoted and swung his sword out at the other Desert Archon. His blade passed cleanly through the bird’s frail neck, leaving only the two wolves –one for each fighter.

The two fighters and cleric quickly finished off the two remaining Desert Wolves, after which the fighter and cleric both sagged over a bit, laughing to ease their tension at having nearly lost. Ao looked over at the cleric, who turned toward him, “Thanks for the help.” Ao smiled and made a dismissive wave, “No need to thank me. I was happy to help.” The cleric looked over at the other fighter, “That was too close. Don’t lure so many enemies next time, Corvette!” “I didn’t see that second archon, and the second wolf only came after the first one called for it,” the fighter replied. The cleric gave the fighter a look, then the fighter nodded, “I’m sorry, I’ll be more careful, Spotted.” “Spotted?” Ao repeated, looking back at the cleric, “Would that be, Spotted Fire?” The cleric looked over at him, “Yes. Do I know you?” “No,” Ao replied, “but we have heard about you.”

Ao told Spotted Fire about An’s story of his encounter with her, the cleric’s expression one of surprise and confusion as he told her. When he finished, her expression was one of amused interest. “That sounds like the first day I was in Rumen,” she stated, “I remember trying to fight enemies and losing a lot- I had no idea what was going on or what I was doing, really.” She looked over at Ao, “I don’t remember seeing or talking to your brother, though.” “Well he thought as much,” Ao chuckled, “Since according to him you ignored him for almost forty minutes.” The cleric’s face turned a bit red as she heard this, “I’m sorry.” “No need to apologize, I promise,” Ao laughed, “An just wasn’t sure what to make of it at the time.” “It must have seemed pretty weird to him,” she admitted with a thin smile, “but I was really completely clueless that day.” Deciding to change the subject, Ao looked over at the other fighter, Corvette, then back to Spotted, “So what are you guys up to here?” “I’m training,” Spotted answered, “I want to get stronger so I can learn better heal spells.” Ao looked over at Corvette, who shrugged, “I’m doing a quest for the Henneath Alliance.” “Oh?” Ao answered, “What is the quest you are on?” “A very tedious one,” she said with a head shake, “I need to kill sixty Desert Archon and sixty Desert Wolves.” Ao’s eyes widened, “Julian?” She looked back at him, “Yes, how did you know?” “He gave me the exact same quest,” Ao said with a laugh, “He must really hate those things, huh?” “Guess so,” Corvette answered with a laugh. “Mind if I join you two?” Ao asked looking between the two adventurers. “Fine with me,” Corvette said looking at Spotted. “Sure. Why not?” Spotted replied, “We had another cleric with us, by the way –her name’s Leyrra. She should be coming back soon, she had to go back to the camp to restone.” As they talked another fighter walked up from nearby, “Hey, did I hear you say you are after wolves and archon?” Ao and Spotted looked over, nodding. “Can I join you guys?” she asked, “I’m after them as well.” Ao looked back at Spotted, “Wow…Julian really DOES hate them, huh?” “His dislike for them seems to rival that of An’s dislike for the King Crab,” he thought with a slight smile, “I wonder if they attacked and defeated him a while ago.” Spotted nodded in response to the new fighter.“The more the merrier.””Thanks,” the fighter smiled, “Oh, I’m Chaola, by the way.” “Nice to meet you,” Spotted replied. “Pleasure,” Ao said with a light nodding bow.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:10 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter VII: King Marlone’s Lust for Power

“Ao Shun,” Spotted Fire called, “What are you doing?” The bandit swordsman swung his blade over his shoulder and down, nearly catching Ao across his shoulder as he spun out of the way. “One sec…kinda busy,” he replied. The swordsman laughed, pulling his blade out of the ground, setting it against his shoulder and taking a wide stance for balance. “You know, your laugh is really annoying,” Ao sneered at the bandit. The swordsman chuckled again, swinging his longsword down at the fighter once again. As the sword descended, Ao took two charging steps in, then sat back and slid under the swordsman. As his opponent’s sword struck the ground behind him, Ao got to his feet and spun, striking the man in the back with his sword. With a startled and pain-filled shout, the bandit swordsman fell. Ao grinned, taking the two potions that the bandit had dropped, and placing them in his inventory. He looked around to see if anyone else was nearby, but all he saw were the high walls and rocky base of the caves he was wandering in. “Sorry about that, Spotted,” he called, “bandit swordsman was attacking me.” “That’s okay,” she replied, “So what are you doing?” “I’m in the caves under Burning Hill,” he answered, “Looking for King Marlone.” “King Marlone?” someone interrupted, “You’re going after him?” Ao Shun smiled, “Yup.” “I hope you have a strong party,” the person responded. “Actually,” he started with a smile. “Ao is going to try to defeat him alone,” Spotted finished for him. “He’s ALONE?” the other almost shouted. “Ouch, take it easy,” Ao thought pressing a hand to his temple, “I can hear your voice in my head when you whisper, no need to shout.” Spotted Fire chuckled at Ao’s comment, Ao deciding to continue through the caves ahead of him.

Three weeks had passed since he’d first met Spotted Fire. She was a very nice person to know, and while she was less experienced than Ao, she had a lot of friends, and was the leader of her own guild –which she had invited Ao into. He had lost track of Corvette, one of the other fighters he’d met the same day, but stayed in contact with Leyrra and Chaola, frequently training and talking with them. Ao looked at the shield on his arm, which was glowing a light purple. As he was almost to the next set of weapons and armor, he had decided against getting a new shield right away; rather saving up his money to buy a more highly refined shield for the next set. Still, he had to admit the shield was small and did not seem to be protecting him as well as he would like. It was time for him to part ways with his treasured shield.

Up ahead, another bandit swordsman spotted the lone fighter, charging in with an annoying chuckle and swinging his huge blade recklessly. Ao caught the sword on his shield, a loud clang echoing around the rock walls of the cave as it impacted. With a grunt, he heaved the sword back towards the bandit and to the side –the bandit staggering forward off balance as it slid off the side of the shield. As the bandit stepped forward, Ao flipped his sword around and spun counter to the bandit’s movement, his blade sinking into the bandit’s stomach. He shook his head as the swordsman sank to the ground, “Why do these big enemies have so many minions I have to go through to get to them?” he kicked a stone as he walked, “I mean, if he really thinks he can’t be defeated, then he should be standing right here waiting for me, shouldn’t he?” Weeks ago, before he’d met Spotted and Leyrra, he had been sent by Shutian as part of a task force to attack and defeat Mara and Marlone. Based from a secret pirate port, Mara and Marlone had begun using Karasian magic to make themselves stronger and increase the effects their attacks had on the people of Isya. Isyan spies located the port and Shutian organized the raid to put an end to the two bandits. The attack had been a success, and the two strong bandit and pirate leaders were defeated. Charismatic Mara –the title Mara had given herself while using Karasian magic- was no more. After her defeat, she stopped using Karasian magic, deciding that the Karasian magic was not helping her or her cause.

Legendary Marlone –as Marlone had been calling himself- was also no more, but for a different reason. After his defeat at the pirate outpost, he retreated back to his mansion in Burning Hill. There, he continued using Karasian magic to increase his strength. The Karasian magic had an incredible effect on him. Large as he was before, he was even larger now. Marlone’s shoulders were now more than seven feet high, his axe now dwarfed by his massive body. As he grew stronger, so did his lust for control, and his paranoia of being attacked –from within his own organization as well as without. Taking the most loyal of his followers, King Marlone –as he now called himself- had set up his new empire in the caves under Burning Hill; and someone had leaked his location to Shutian -as well as the fact that he was readying an army to attack Isya. Marlone used Karasian magic on his own bandits as well, making them stronger, giving them an even more warped sense of loyalty to him, as well as a thirst for higher rank and status. To avoid a panic, Shutian kept this information relatively quiet; and had asked Ao to eliminate the problem. Ao presumed that Shutian had wanted Ao and his brothers to go in after King Marlone; but if this King Marlone was really that strong, then Ao wanted to fight him solo.

Ao Shun continued wandering through the cave, his footsteps echoing down the dark passageways as he moved through. As he passed by a large rock, he saw a sudden movement from the corner of his eye. Ao Shun spun towards the movement, raising his sword and bringing his shield up to block an attack as he readied to take on his next opponent –but no attack came. Ao glanced around, searching for an enemy, seeing only more rocks around him. Movement came again, he jerked his head over toward where he saw the motion, noticing a small white object sitting behind one of he stones nearby. Cautiously, Ao approached the object; rounding the corner, he found the object to be a white treasure chest. “Hey cool!” he called out to his guild, “I just found a treasure chest!” “Nice, Ao!” one of his guild mates replied. “Cool,” came Spotted Fire’s voice, “What’s in it?” “Dunno,” Ao replied, “I haven’t opened it yet.” “Well hurry and open it before someone else does!” she said back. Ao glanced around, making sure no enemies –or even other adventurers- were nearby, as either would be more than willing to take whatever treasure he’d found, given the chance. Seeing no one, he knelt beside the chest and began trying to open it. It took him several seconds, but he finally managed to force the chest open, spilling its contents onto the floor. Ao looked at the ground, smiling, there were a few silver bars , some rare refining stones and even some rubies scattered around now.

As he gathered the items, his gaze set on something small and yellow lying on the ground near his foot. He reached over and picked the small object up in his hands; the object cooed slightly, stirring from its long sleep. The miniature Honeying opened its eyes and looked up at Ao Shun, rising up off of his hands. The two stared at each other for a minute before the Honeying cooed again and floated over towards Ao’s head. “Whoa now!” Ao said, dodging the tiny beast, “What are you doing?” The small Honeying floated towards him again, once more Ao spun and backed away, this time drawing his sword, “Back off! I mean it!” The mini-Honeying looked down cooing sadly, then sank to the ground giving a light whine. “This thing is weird,” he thought. “What’s weird, Ao?” Spotted asked back –apparently he’d accidentally thought something that his whole guild heard. “This tiny Honeying was in the chest,” Ao answered, “It tried to attack me or something, but when I drew my blade, it backed off and now it’s acting…I dunno…like it’s sad or something.” There was a brief pause before Spotted answered him, “Um, Ao? That’s a pet.” Ao’s head jerked up, “What?” “That little Honeying is a pet. You found a mini Honeying, and it was trying to perch on your shoulder like all pets do –not attack you.” “What?” came another guild-mate’s voice, “Who found a Honeying pet?” “Ao did,” Spotted answered. “Wow, lucky,” the voice replied with a little annoyance, “I’ve been looking for one forever.” “Most people have,” Spotted retorted, “They are the most highly desired pets in Isya at the moment.” Ao put his sword away, ignoring the rest of their conversation and moved toward the Honeying, which backed away a bit as he approached. “So you’re a pet, huh?” he asked the tiny creature. The Honeying squeaked and looked up a bit. Ao extended his hand toward the mini-Honeying, which seemed to hesitate. “Go on,” Ao said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were trying to help me before. It’s okay now, if you still want to.” The Honeying pet chirped and quickly floated up to Ao’s shoulder where it cooed happily, looking at its new master. “Okay, little guy,” Ao said to the Honeying, “Shall we move on?” He laughed as the little beast chirped again and he continued on his way through the rocky corridors.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:11 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter VII: King Marlone’s Lust for Power

The immense bandit wheezed as his fist flew out at the fighter, metal knuckles clanging against the metal shield the fighter had lifted in front of him. The fighter charged in at the Megaton, which twisted at the waist and swung his other hand around while stepping back, catching the fighter in his side and sending him sprawling across the floor. “Intruder. After Marlone,” the Megaton growled as it approached the fighter on the ground, “Kill intruder. Then Marlone pleased.” The Megaton stood in front of the downed fighter –which was beginning to stir- bringing up both hands and locking his fists together, readying his final blow to the fighter. With a roar, the Megaton brought his hands down, bending in unison at the knees and waist; but before the Megaton’s large hands impacted the fighter, the fighter rolled toward the Megaton, got to his knees and thrust his sword into the large bandit’s belly.

Ao’s eyes widened as the sword impacted the Megaton’s stomach, sank into the bandit’s surplus of skin, and stopped. The Megaton again swatted him to the side like a fly, sending him rolling painfully across the cavern’s uneven stone ground. Swearing lightly, Ao got to his feet as the Megaton stomped over, wheezing loudly, “Fighter fast, but Megaton kill.” “No,” Ao said as he used a potion, “Fighter strong. Fighter kill Megaton.” The Megaton charged in again, swinging with one arm, then the other. “Of course,” Ao admitted to himself, “I have no idea how exactly I plan on winning this particular fight; since I can’t seem to cut into these guys –it’s like slicing into thick pudding.” The ground shook as the Megaton brought both arms down again, trying to crush the fighter, his hands impacting the ground as Ao dodged. “Stay still,” the Megaton growled at the fighter, “Crush quick.” The large man again stomped over, small pebbles on the ground trembling a bit each time the porcine enemy set a foot down. “It’s amazing that his tiny legs can carry all that weight,” Ao thought. His eyes lit up as he thought that, “His legs!” He looked at them more closely as the Megaton approached –they were very short and obviously strong, but more importantly, they were relatively thin and completely unarmored. He grinned as he saw this, charging forward at the Megaton while it charged him. Ao Shun sank back and to the ground as the Megaton swung, the large fist passing far above him as the fighter tried to slide –forgetting that uneven rocks are not the best material to try to slide on. With a painful shout, Ao came to a stop directly under the Megaton –half of him on one side, half on the other. The Megaton looked down, confused, “What you try do?” ”This is gonna be painful,“ Ao thought. He flipped his sword around the Megaton’s leg as he answered, “This!”

Ao Shun yanked the sword back, the blade sliding across and slicing into the Megaton’s leg. The Megaton yelled in pain as the blade cut through, then fell to the ground – on top of Ao Shun. After sinking to the ground, the Megaton tried to sit up and reach the injured leg, but was unable to reach around his massive girth. Howling in pain, the Megaton began trying to roll around to grab the wounded limb, eventually uncovering the buried fighter beneath him. Quickly, Ao Shun rolled to the side, lest he be buried again should the Megaton roll back. Wracked with pain himself -from several broken bones resulting both from the Megaton’s sheer weight, as well as the impact of the rocks he’d been laying upon- Ao used a charge from his soul stone to recover. Ao got to his feet and looked at the Megaton rolling on the ground, still trying to grab his leg. Ao shook his head and walked away, deciding he’d done enough to that particular Megaton.

Ao continued through the nearby cave mouth, which opened into a large open cavern. Standing in the center of the cavern, was an impressive mansion –Marlone’s mansion. Ao took a moment to rest in his mushroom –there were no guards around, then sent his mushroom away and checked his supplies. He was out of scrolls, but the ones he was using –scrolls which increased his vitality, agility, inner strength as well as increasing his armor’s defensive enchantments- would last at least another twenty minutes before wearing out. Aside from this, he still had a few tier two health potions, and a few dozen tier one health potions –he felt he was as prepared as he could be. He walked up to the mansion, halting about fifteen yards away from its large doors. “Marlone!” his call echoed around the cavern, “I’m here at the order of Guard Captain Shutian of Elderine! Your time here is at an end! Come out and face me, if you dare!” There was a moment of eerie silence, Ao stood before the mansion wondering if perhaps Marlone was not there. “Intruder,” a low, growling but very loud voice boomed from inside the house, “You trespass on my domain, you defile my kingdom and kill my subordinates. Now you dare to challenge me?” Ao’s eyes widened, “Man, even his voice sounds like it could tear this cave apart,” he thought. Loud groaning of strained wood emanated from inside the mansion as the voice continued, much louder now, “The penalty for such crimes in my domain is death!” The doors to the mansion –as well as the three feet around them- burst apart into a cloud of dust, splinters and large wood chunks as King Marlone burst through the wall. “Whoa!” Ao thought upon seeing him, “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:12 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter VII: King Marlone’s Lust for Power

Marlone stood towering over him –even from this distance- his dark eyes blazing with hate and fury. Ao looked between the massive bandit leader before him, and the mansion behind him –noticing that Marlone’s shoulders were higher than the top of the doors. “Seriously,” he thought, “If he builds these places himself, then why doesn’t he make them big enough for him to use the door?” “Insolent fool,” King Marlone’s deep growl reverberated off the cavern walls as he spoke, “For your crimes your death will be neither swift nor painless.” Marlone charged, incredibly fast for his size, and swung his large axe at Ao. Ao’s initial reaction was to block the attack, which he quickly learned was the wrong idea, as the axe impacted his shield and continued to the side, carrying Ao and his shield with it and sending him flying into a wall some ten meters away. There was a loud crunch and a sharp pain as his back struck rocks that jutted out from the wall. As he fell to the ground the wind rushed out of him, and there was a strange sensation in his legs and lower torso –a kind of tingle. He moved his arms under his body –pain shooting through his right arm as he moved his shoulder, and as he tried to stand, he realized he couldn’t move his legs. He twisted to look down at his feet, a new wave of pain coursing through him, causing him to collapse with a shout. “Heal yourself, whelp,” Marlone called from where he stood, “You won’t get out of this so easy.” Ao reached into his bag and grabbed a tier two potion, using it to heal his broken body; then struggled to his feet. “You’re tougher than I thought you’d be, Marlone,” Ao grinned as he grabbed his sword again. “I am KING Marlone,” the large axe warrior growled, “And you will address me as such.” Ao swung his sword around in his hand, “I’ll call you a king when you remove my shield and sword with your axe at my throat, bandit.” “Such insolence,” Marlone scowled, “Killing you will be very satisfying.”

“We’ll see about that, Marly,” Ao jeered. “That’s KING MARLONE!” the large man shouted. He stepped forward with great speed, slamming his fist into Ao’s chest, just under his ribs. The air flew out of Ao Shun’s lungs, and he couldn’t get it to come back in. He fell to his knees, placing one hand on the ground for balance, the other on his stomach, trying to gasp for air. “Now then,” Marlone grinned as he looked at the fighter, “Bow to your king.” Ao regained his control over breathing, grabbing his sword and getting back to his feet and taking a defensive stance. Marlone charged in, swinging his axe down at Ao, who deftly dodged the attack, Marlone’s blade slicing into the cave’s rocky base. Ao charged in to attack while Marlone’s axe was buried, but Marlone stepped forward and swung at him with his free hand, knocking his aside like a small insect. Ao tumbled and rolled across the ground, getting back to his feet as Marlone freed his axe. Ao reached into his bag and grabbed another potion, smashing the bottle against his chest, the elixir sinking into his body and repairing his damaged ribs. Marlone charged in again, swinging his axe around, Ao tucked and rolled forwards, dodging the blade. As he came out of his roll, he took a long step in, thrusting with his sword. The metal blade shot forward, impacting Marlone’s abdomen, but not penetrating. Marlone stood still, grinning at the fighter’s expression at his blade having been stopped by Marlone’s bare skin. “Is that all you’ve got?” Marlone smirked, brushing the blade aside with a finger, “You’re going to need to do a lot better than that if you hope to survive long.” “How’s this?” Ao shouted as he brought his shield up and around –the edge slamming into Marlone’s eye. Marlone shouted and reached up with his free hand to cover the eye, backing away a few steps. Marlone took his hand away, blinking his eye several times as tears pushed their way around it to cool and soothe the wound.

Ao ran forward as Marlone tried to refocus with his eye, dodging a clumsy axe attack. As Marlone brought his hand back to recover from his strike, Ao changed directions, running back under Marlone’s arm and raising his blade –sliding the edge along Marlone’s skin. While Marlone’s skin was tough, and the blade carried no power to penetrate far, the sharpened metal still cut into Marlone’s arm, creating a long and painful slash down from his wrist nearly to his elbow. Marlone recoiled, shouting in pain again, swearing at the fighter. Ao stopped and grinned at Marlone, “You know, it’s weird. I thought you were supposed to be slowly and painfully killi-“ Ao didn’t get a chance to finish his comment as Marlone struck out with his other arm, again sending Ao tumbling into a wall. “That’s getting a bit old,” he grunted as he got to his feet –using yet another potion to recover, “But it is just as effective”. He looked up, Marlone seemed to have recovered from the surprise of the attack to his eye, and was standing in front of him, holding his axe –a very angry look on his face. “This may be a long fight,” Ao admitted to himself as he checked his supplies, “and I’m using a potion almost every time he attacks me. I don’t know if I have enough to last against him.” “Oddly enough,” Ao thought with a grin as a wave of energy spread through him, “This is getting me psyched.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:12 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter VII: King Marlone’s Lust for Power

The battle raged on between the massive axe wielding King Marlone, and the much smaller shield-bearing fighter, Ao Shun for another ten minutes. Both of the enemies were becoming fatigued, their attacks a bit slower and less forceful. Ao’s supply of potions was running low, and his scrolls would wear out soon; but Marlone had taken several slicing cuts to different areas of the body, and the slow blood loss was affecting him as well.

Ao stood before the large bandit, panting to catch his breath after the last exchange, Marlone doing the same. “Face it, fighter,” Marlone scoffed as he raised his axe, “You cannot defeat me on your own.” “I’ve made my living as an adventurer proving that statement wrong,“ Ao answered with a sly grin. “And your living doing such ends here,” Marlone sneered. The two enemies circled, each waiting for the other to attack. “Being cautious now, are we?” Ao taunted. “I have all day,” Marlone answered, pointing his axe at him, “but you are the one in a hurry.” Ao paused for a fraction of a second, “How does he know that?” In the small space where Ao hesitated, Marlone saw an opening, and lunged at the fighter with a two handed attack. Ao snapped out of his thought as Marlone began moving, but was already too late to avoid the attack. He brought up his shield and stepped in, meeting the steel of Marlone’s axe with the refined steel of his shield –his shield buckling in slightly and one of his shoulder bones cracking from the incredible stress. Marlone growled as he pushed against the shield; he had been able to knock the fighter aside with a single handed attack earlier, how was the fighter able to withstand a two handed assault now? As Marlone pushed with both hands against Ao’s shield, Ao clipped his sword to his belt and used a charge from his soul stone to heal his shoulder –which was causing immense pain.

“How are you doing this?” Marlone demanded, “How is it possible for you to be stronger now than before?” Hearing Marlone admit that he was having trouble seemed to give him yet another wave of energy, and he pushed back against Marlone with renewed strength. “Don’t you know?” Ao strained as he pushed, forcing Marlone to take a step back. Marlone struggled, pushing back and halting the fighter’s advance, “Know what?” “I can do this,” Ao smiled, bringing his blade up behind his shield, “Because of who I am… I am Ao Shun.” Marlone’s face was one of confusion and pain, “What?” With a triumphant roar, Ao pushed up and to the side, breaking the lock between the two, “I AM AO SHUN! NAMED AFTER THE IMMORTAL DRAGON KING OF THE NORTH!” His blade glittered and flickered in the cave’s dim light as he sent strike after strike into Marlone’s arms and torso –the large man falling back severely wounded. Ao lashed out again, slicing at Marlone’s leg, causing the bandit king to fall to one knee. “Now then,” Ao said, tip of his sword at Marlone’s throat, “Bow to your king.” Ao thrust forward, his blade penetrating Marlone’s neck, and the enormous bandit fell to the ground. Ao’s eyes widened as smoke rose from the man’s body, revealing that this King Marlone had been no more than a clone as the body of a Mara Pirate Marine lay before him. “A fake?” Ao stared at the body, “He was a fake? Then where’s the real one?”

“There is no real one,” a voice answered behind him. Ao spun around, raising his blade as he saw a Marlone Fighter standing before him. The fighter held up his hand, sword at his side, “I’m not here to fight you now, I’m here on behalf of my master, Marlone.” “Marlone?” Ao tilted his head, “Marlone sent you?” “Yes,” the fighter answered, “You see, my master was wounded in the raid by Shutian. To avoid others knowing this, he created a double to make it seem as though he was uninjured…you know, to hold things together until he recovered.” “A double?” Ao asked, “You mean a clone?” “Not quite,” the fighter answered, “A clone does only as its master commands through a psychic link, the master must use a great deal of strength to control the clone –strength my wounded master did not have. A double is capable of independent thought, and relinquishes its spell willingly once the master requests it.” The fighter shook his head, “But the double got to like being in charge, so as my master neared full health, he took a number of my master’s followers into this cave and began practicing Karasian magic to become stronger –to destroy my master and take over again.” Ao’s eyes widened, “Marlone was the one that leaked word to Shutian about this King Marlone.” “Yes,” the fighter nodded, “You see, my master is still wounded, and not strong enough to face King Marlone on his own; but if he admitted that openly and launched an attack with his army, he might have been deposed as their leader –most of my master’s followers simply follow whoever is strongest.” “And Marlone knew that if he only leaked word that he would be killed by the double, then Shutian wouldn’t do anything about it; so he said the King Marlone was planning to raise an army against Isya,” Ao finished for him. “Actually, no,” the fighter replied, “Shutian knew everything about Marlone’s injury and the King Marlone’s goals. But he also knew that if this double took over, it would not be long before he DID create an army of the bandits using Karasian magic and attack Isyan cities, so he decided to act and kill King Marlone.” “But not the real Marlone?” Ao asked, raising and eyebrow. “The battle between Isya and Marlone’s forces will begin again soon. This was merely a temporary treaty, as he posed a threat to both sides.”

“So why exactly are you here?” Ao asked the fighter. The fighter took out a long two handed sword, handing it to Ao Shun, “A token of respect and gratitude from my master. He forged it himself.” Ao’s eyes widened as he saw the magnificent blade, twirling it around in his hands. “It’s very powerful, made of material stronger than your current sword, allowing it greater attack; it also carries special enchantments to increase the strength, vitality and lower the reaction time of its wielder,” the fighter said as Ao continued to look the weapon over, “It is also his way of saying that he owes you nothing now –so if you meet him in battle, he will not hold back.” The fighter looked down at the body, “This is odd.” “What is?” Ao asked as he put the sword into his inventory. “The double that my master made,” the fighter replied, “Was originally a fighter, like myself –but this seems to be one of Mara’s Marines.” The fighter looked up, “This was a clone of the double. It seems that the original King Marlone is still around somewhere, and he will still move on with his plans.” “So will you be taking the sword back, then?” Ao asked. The fighter shook his head, “No. You bought us time to come up with a solution to this ourselves. You killed the King Marlone that was here, and killed many of his minions in getting here –he will need time to recover from this. By then, we should be ready.” “You know; you guys are alright when you aren’t trying to kill me,” Ao said as the fighter turned to leave. The fighter paused, then looked back, “Likewise. However, next time we meet, I WILL be trying to kill you.” With that, the Marlone Fighter turned and left the caves, Ao followed soon after.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:13 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter VIII: A Fateful Encounter, the Dragon and the Phoenix

“Are you sure, Ao?” Tian looked back at his brother, uncertain. Ao Shun nodded, “Of course I am –I don’t even use it anymore. The shield I have now is stronger unrefined than this one is. I have to face facts: it’s not practical for me to keep it –especially if I know someone that can use it.” Ao lifted the item slightly towards his brother, “Go on, it’s yours.” Uncertain of what else to say, Tian reached forward and took the gift from his brother, “Thanks, Ao.” “Well…Put it on, already!” Ao smiled. Tian grinned and strapped the shield to his arm, rotating his arm from side to side to get a better look at it. Tian looked over at his brother, “So what are you up to now, brother?” Ao Shun shrugged, “Not much, really. Just questing, training with Leyrra and Little Mo, the usual.” “Little Mo?” Tian tilted his head, “Who’s that?” “Oh, sorry,” Ao chuckled, “Little Mo is a sibling of Chaola’s. Chaola has been training like mad and is a much higher level now, so she asked her sibling to join us in training –she and Leyrra train together almost constantly now –I’m actually starting to fall behind them.” “I see,” Tian answered, “Anyways…Are you going to be vending for potions in town again tonight?” Ao gave a dismissive wave, “Nah, I’m saving up for something.” Tian looked up, “Oh? Saving up for what?” Ao grinned, “Alright I’ll tell you: I found an incredible shield in the markets today. It’s for the next armor set, so I can’t use it, but it’s a green item, with great enchantments.” Tian smiled, “Wow, nice. How much?” “Three point five gold,” Ao answered with a smile. Tian’s eyebrows shot up, “What!? Are you crazy? Three gold for a green shield!?” Ao’s grin grew wider, “It’s a plus eight shield –and it comes with a plus nine sword. Package deal.” Tian’s heart nearly stopped at hearing this. He sat there stammering a few seconds. “I know,” Ao said, “I felt that way too when I saw it.”

“That’s….unbelievable for a price,” Tian finally managed to get out, “Still…three and a half gold…where do you plan on getting it?” Ao grinned again, “By selling this.” He reached across his body and withdrew his sword, energy from the blade lighting up the room they stood in. Tian’s eyes grew even wider as he looked at the blade his brother held –at the hilt of the blade, energy flowed outward, taking the shape of a dragon’s head. From there the energy was pulled back in, flowing down the blade on all sides, culminating in a single point just off the tip of the blade. It really looked like the blade was a dragon that breathed a blade of fire. “I just got this a few days ago. It cost me a ton –had to sell almost everything I had with me to get it refined, one gold for refinement in total,” Ao said as his brother gaped, “But I already have a buyer lined up for it when I am finished, he’ll pay two gold for it which only leaves me to find another one and a half.” He sheathed the sword, the room darkening a bit, “The shield and sword would have been three gold, had I bought it now, but the seller agreed to hold onto it until I get the money if I paid an extra five hundred silver. Since I will still need my current sword for a while, I figured that this was the better plan.” Tian nodded, “Sounds reasonable. I have to say, Ao, I hope I have the same fortune as you when it comes to getting gear.” Ao laughed at his brother’s comment, “Of course you will, Tian –you’ll be getting mine.” Tian laughed , “Oh I see. In that case I hope you have even more luck.”

He lay on the roof of the small house –the wood radiating the energy it had absorbed from the night before. Though it was a warm day, the cool wood made it quite comfortable to be outside doing nothing. He had finished questing for a little while. He had been helping Julia gather materials for scrolls and potions, each time he returned with his materials, she gave him a few copper and a Rumen teleportation scroll. “I have six stacks of those blasted scrolls right now,” he thought to himself, “So that’s sixty total. If I sell them for seven hundred fifty copper each, that’s about enough to cover all of Ao’s training expenses for a week- which would let him focus more on saving money for his shield and sword.” Feeling restless, Tian got up from the cool rooftop, hopping down to the ground. Deciding that it was too early to do much else, he went into the forest to gather whatever he could find for later.

He knelt beside the small mushroom patch, his hands sorting through the toadstool shoots. He picked a few good stems, placed the items in his bag, then stood up and continued walking along the path. “Hey, hey,” Tian said as he spotted a particular plant, “Jasmine, nice. Looks like I have something to make tea with later.” Tian reached out and began gathering some of the better looking leaves from the plant, when a loud shout drew his attention away from his gathering. Without thought, Tian Long raced down the path in the direction he’d heard the shout coming from. As he ran, he heard the distinct sounds of a fight, he quickened his pace, hoping he could arrive before it ended –in case the person needed help. He reached a small clearing, where he saw a girl fighting off a Fire Mushroom and a Mushroom Fighter at the same time.

The two enemies were not granting the woman the opportunity to attack them, or to run away. They alternated blows, knocking her back time and again –Tian had to admit, he was impressed she was still standing. The Fire Mushroom let loose a quick volley of blows at the cleric, knocking her off balance; then the Mushroom fighter hopped forward and landed a strong jab against her head, knocking her to the ground. Tian Long bolted forward, his sword singing as it slid out of its sheath, and with a quick blow, slew the Fire Mushroom and cut deep into the Mushroom Fighter’s torso. The Mushroom Fighter turned, looking for its new opponent, then suddenly seemed to lose interest in fighting when it saw the fighter standing next to it. “You alright?” he called to the girl behind him. “Yes,” came the reply. The Mushroom Fighter hopped backwards, contemplating retreat, but Tian Long did not give it that option. He shot forward and with another swift strike, cut the large mushroom beast in half. “Thanks for your help,” came the voice behind him. “It’s no problem,” Tian Long sheathed his sword again, turned toward the girl, and stopped.

He stared at the girl –she was very beautiful. Wearing a blue skirt with matching shoes, she had long reddish-brown hair done up in a ponytail, large brown eyes, and a small nose that seemed to suit her just perfectly. Realizing he was gaping, he tried to recover, “Um, uh…It…it was no problem at all.” The girl got to her feet, flinching and grabbing her shoulder. “Need a potion? He asked, passing one toward her. “Thanks again,” she said softly as she accepted the item. “You’re an adventurer,” Tian said as he realized what she was wearing, “A cleric, right?” The girl nodded, Tian tilted his head to one side, “Why didn’t you heal yourself?” The girl looked down, “I…I don’t know how. I’m new so…I really don’t know anything yet.” “Oh, well, I can show you,” Tian said. “Really?” the cleric smiled, “That’d be great! Thanks!” “She has a nice voice, too,” he thought. “No problem,” Tian smiled, “Rumen’s only a short ways from here. Follow me.” “Sure,” she replied. “I’m Tian Long,” he said, feeling he should introduce himself to the girl. She looked over at him, “That sounds interesting. Does it carry a meaning?” “Actually it does,” he nodded, “It means ‘Dragon of Heaven’.” “Oh that’s neat,” she smiled, “My name’s Feng Huang. It means ‘Phoenix’.” “That’s pretty cool,” he replied, “Nice to meet you.” “Same here,” she answered.

As the two adventurers wandered off, the remains of the two mushrooms began to stir, their bodies regenerating. “Oh, man,” the Fire Mushroom groaned as it got up, “That’s it, no more of this work for me -it’s quite annoying to be ‘killed’ so often.” The Mushroom fighter stood as well, “Aw come on. Where's your sense of romance? Didn't you see the way they looked at each other when they met?” The Fire Mushroom sighed, body glowing as it changed into the shape of a man, “My sense of romance just had a sword stabbed through it and hasn't regenerated yet. You know, that’s twice that this guy has ‘killed’ me…you definitely owe me now.” The Mushroom fighter transformed as well, into the shape of a familiar brown haired girl, “You know, he attacked me too…twice at that, so stop complaining.” She gave the man an exasperated look, “And why are you wearing that thing again?” He chuckled at her reaction, “Because…the man-thong rules.” She shook her head, “Come on. We’ve got more to do.” “We always do,” the man said as they walked back up the forest path, “But at least our work with these four is done for a little while.” “True,” she replied, “but we’ll need more than just those four in the end.” “Obviously,” the man looked back at her, “I mean, we’ve been doing this whole ‘inspire the hero’ thing for…sheesh…how long now?” “Too long,” she replied, “But we’ll be able to stop soon. The final battle with Legel is not long in coming, I can feel his strength grow each day.” They traveled in silence a few minutes before the man looked over again, “Those brothers…will they really prove that critical to us?” The girl shook her head, “As many as we have, Legel has many more –we’ll need all the help we can get.” The man thought for a moment, “Still, would the four of them really make a big difference?” The girl stopped and looked directly at the man, “For lack of a support the size of a small stone, a tall tower can collapse.”

His footsteps echoed lightly, bouncing off the cold stone walls in the dim corridor. The place was kind of eerie –dark, cramped, humid and silent- it felt like an enemy could leap out at you from nowhere at any second. Oddly enough, that spine-tingling anxiety that heightened all senses in preparation for an ambush was kind of fun to Ao Shun; it was similar to the sensation he got when fighting a really tough enemy that might be able to defeat him. He smiled at the feeling, and, as he looked ahead and spotted a doorway, the thought of what lay beyond. He paused a moment, reaching into his bag and pulling out several scrolls, breaking their seals and activating their enchantments. The fighter stalked forward silently, tightening his grip on his sword as he entered. The room was smaller than he thought it would be, maybe only twenty feet across any of the four walls; but that is not what he was focused on. Across the room on a large throne made of stone sat a very strong enemy –one familiar to his family. Ao grinned again at the sight of the ancient evil, which opened its mouth upon noticing the lone fighter entering its throne room. Slowly raising from its seat, Skeleton Knight stood tall, as though trying to intimidate the fighter. “Skeleton Knight,” Ao said as he stepped forward, “I am Ao Shun, brother of the cleric An Ning.” The Skeleton’s eyes seemed to glow at this statement, Ao smirked as he continued, “I see I have your full attention.” The old skeleton reached behind its back, withdrawing its two blades, and holding them ready before itself. Ao Shun twirled his blade once, pointing it at the skeleton, “After you.” The words had scarcely left Ao Shun’s mouth before the ancient skeleton lord charged in at him, slashing down with both blades. Ao bent at the knees, lifting his shield above his head, the swords clanging loudly as they impacted his shield –Ao straining to stay up and not be driven to the ground from the force of the blow. “This,” he thought as he pushed back against the swords, “Will be very fun.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:13 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter VIII: A Fateful Encounter, the Dragon and the Phoenix

“Go on,” Tian said with a nod. “Are you sure?” Feng asked, “He looks pretty strong.” “Don’t worry,” he said confidently, “I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise.” “Ah, so you’ll be my bodyguard?” she chuckled. “If that’s what you’d like to think of me as, sure,” Tian laughed, “Just remember what I told you, and what you read in that scroll –when you’re hurt, use your healing spell.” “But what if I don’t do it right? Or something goes wrong?” she looked back with worry. “If it looks like this one’s too much for you, I’ll step in,” Tian soothed her, “Don’t worry. What kind of bodyguard puts the person he protects in danger he can’t handle?” She smiled and turned back, facing the small white beast. She hefted her mace and struck at the small Imp, smacking it upside the head. The beast staggered, falling to the ground, then got up and turned, eying the cleric that had attacked it. Leaping forward, the Imp slashed at Feng with its dagger, most of the strike blocked by her shield, but as the blade slid up, it passed over the shield and into her shoulder. Feng Huang yelled as the blade slid through her skin, spinning to turn away from the attack –putting her back to the Imp. Tian’s eyes went wide as he saw her spin, knowing that could have bad results; he glanced over at the monster as he drew his sword, wondering if perhaps it would not be able to capitalize on this error. Unfortunately, the Imp did not waste its opportunity, it jumped again, sinking its dagger into her back, then leapt off, pulling its blade out. Feng yelled again as the beast attacked her, staggering forward and falling to the ground. She turned onto her back, in time to see the Imp charge forward again, its dagger flashing in the sun. There was another flash as something passed between her and the Imp, Tian Long suddenly appearing before her; the small beast landing well short of its target, and in two separate areas.

Tian turned around, kneeling next to her. “Are you alright?” he asked looking her over –her wounds didn’t seem too bad. Feng nodded, using a soul stone, “What happened?” “For one,” he answered, “You didn’t heal yourself.” She looked down, Tian continued, his voice a bit more stern, “And two, you showed an enemy your back during a fight. What were you thinking!? You NEVER do that, it’s ASKING to get hurt!” “I’m sorry,” she near-sobbed, “I don’t know what I’m doing…I shouldn’t be an adventurer.” Tian felt a pang of guilt at her comment, “I…I’m sorry, Feng Huang, I shouldn’t have gotten upset at you. It’s just that doing what you did is an easy way to end up getting killed.” “I noticed,” she commented. “It’s a way for it to happen fast enough that I can’t do anything about it,” Tian continued, “It freaked me out…that’s why I got so upset. I’m sorry.” Tian hung his head a bit as Feng looked up with a little smile, “As am I.” He looked over at her, “So why didn’t you cast heal?” She shook her head, “I don’t know. I just…forgot I could heal –then I froze after that Imp stabbed me and couldn’t do anything.” “She sighed a bit, “Maybe I should give up.” “Hey, don’t say that,” Tian replied, “You’ll make a great adventurer one day, Feng. Not everyone starts out as a natural at this, you know; it’s perfectly reasonable that someone that hasn’t had training in how to fight would have difficulty with fighting when they start.” She looked over as he continued speaking, “Just stick with it a while and keep trying. You’ll see; someday you’ll be a great cleric.” She smiled as he finished, “Thanks, Tian.” Tian smiled back, “No problem. You ready to try again?” to which she nodded.

Tian got up, extending a hand toward Feng, who smiled as she grabbed both of his hands. “She’s so warm,” he thought as he helped her up, noticing again her captivating brown eyes; then looked away, wondering why he was thinking about that when he was supposed to be training her. Trying to get back on track, he looked around for an enemy, he pointed over at a small collection of Iron Slimes and Fire Mushroom, “There, that will work. Feng’s eyes went wide, “What!? You want me to attack all those after I almost got killed by one Imp!?” Tian smiled, “Nope.” She looked back at him, clearly confused, “Then why-“ “I’m going to be attacking them,” he answered before she finished asking. He then removed his bag, handing it to the cleric. “Wait,” she stammered, “Why are you giving me this?” “Because I won’t need it,” he answered with a smile as he started walking toward the enemies. “But what if you get hurt?” she demanded, “Your stones and potions are in here!” He looked back with a grin, “Because we’re working on getting you used to that spell of yours –you’ll be healing me.” Her eyes widened again, “But-but wait! But what if I…” “I trust you,” he answered as she searched for the words to finish her question, “I know you can do it.”

With that, he charged the group of enemies, which quickly began to attack him from all sides. Tian blocked as best he could, slicing and thrusting whenever he got the opportunity, but the enemies were dealing too much damage. Before he managed to fell three of the enemies, they had him nearly exhausted from their attacks. His vision was becoming blurry –especially from the constant jabs to the head from the mushrooms- and darkness was making its way around the periphery of his sight; his breathing was becoming haggard, straining to catch just a little air before an Iron Slime would slam into his chest and knock it from his lungs. A cooling wind swept over him, his vision returning and air filling his lungs, a sudden burst of energy flowing through his body as Feng Huang finally managed to cast her heal spell. Smiling, Tian Long struck at an Iron Slime with his blade, the creature sagging to the ground with a light squishing sound, he then stepped toward the dead beast, spinning on his heel and lashing outward with his sword several times, killing three more mushroom, leaving only two more Iron Slime –which sandwiched him in a simultaneous attack, crushing ribs front and back. Tian fell to the ground, unable to breathe, when again Feng cast her healing spell, restoring his body. One of the Iron Slime turned, targeting the cleric –but it never even made an advance on her before Tian slew the beast –its partner following shortly after.

Feng Huang smiled at Tian, walking up toward him –both of them were beaming at her success. “That was great, Feng!” he said as she approached, “I told ya you could do it! You just needed a little more motivation.” She blushed a bit, “Thanks, Tian. You’re really teaching me a lot.” “She’s cute when she blushes,” Tian thought with a grin, “Wait…what? Why do I keep thinking about her as being cute?” “What is it?” she asked him –Tian hadn’t realized he was staring again. “Huh? Oh, uh nothing, really,” he said as he tried to think of something else to say, “Just uh, trying to think of what you need to learn next.”

The ancient skeleton crossed its blades in front of itself, then threw its arms forward and to the sides, the blades sliding along each other as they reached for the fighter. Ao rushed forward, jamming his shield between the two blades and halting the Skeleton Knight’s attack. Reaching up and slashing outward, Ao’s own blade swung toward the skeleton’s face; the undead lord leaned back to avoid the strike, relieving the pressure on the trapped fighter’s shield –as Ao had hoped. Jumping up, Ao swung again at the knight’s head, this time leaving a long scratch across the evil being’s face. The skeleton fell back, staggering, and Ao pressed the attack, slicing again and again at the off-balance beast –cleaving off three large segments of its armor.

The Skeleton Knight lurched forward as Ao closed in again, a toxic mist spraying from its jaws. Ao sputtered and took several steps back, a fever already beginning to develop. “Disease again?” he said choking back the urge to vomit, “That’s pretty lame, you know.” Another knot formed in his throat as the skeleton charged forwards; this time he was not able to resist the urge as the lump surged up, leaning forward and regurgitating as one of the knight’s blades slammed into his hard metal armor, sending him rolling across the floor. The rolling motion did not help Ao’s newfound stomach sensitivity, vomiting again as he came to a stop. Fever burning and covered in sweat, he struggled to his feet, ears ringing and a pounding headache developing as he stood. The room spun again and Ao began to feel like he was swaying, so he planted his sword in the ground to regain his balance, looking up to see two blades slicing at him from his unprotected side. Ao attempted to lift his sword and dodge, but due to condition, as he lifted his sword he lost balance and fell –which managed to save him oddly enough, as both blades passed harmlessly overhead. The Skeleton Knight continued his motion, carrying its blades up and to the side as they swept over the collapsed fighter. Dual swords hefted up, pointing straight above its head, Skeleton Knight brought his arms down, blades set to cleave the fighter into three pieces.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:14 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter VIII: A Fateful Encounter, the Dragon and the Phoenix

The Mushroom Fighter struck, a volley of quick blows, all of which impacted the cleric’s glowing shield. Still, the strength of the punches drove the cleric back a bit; but she used the momentum to launch a spinning attack with her shining mace, smacking the beast upside its head. The mushroom fell to the ground, where it swept out with its arms, sweeping at the cleric’s legs –she fell as well with a startled yelp. The red beast got back up, as did the cleric; but before the cleric could again raise her shield the mushroom attacked, landing three hard punches against her face and torso. Feng Huang fell back from the blows, raising her mace. A blue energy briefly swirled about her, her body glowing, as she healed her wounds.

Tian watched in amazement at her fight, marveling at her progress. “Just this morning she couldn’t fight or even heal others, let alone herself,” he thought as he observed her fight, “Now she can do both at the same time. She is quite a fast learner.” He watched as she leapt forward, striking at the beast, and fell back to avoid its retaliatory blow. Her long hair whipped around her face as she spun, lashing out in another attack, narrowly missing her target; then she dropped to her knees bringing her mace back around at the mushroom’s stalk. Tian kept watching her as she attacked, dodged and countered against her fierce opponent. “She’s very good,” he thought with a smile, “beautiful too.” He stopped, looking to one side, “Okay, Tian, cut that out. Remember, for all intents and purposes, this is your student; you should be concentrating on her fighting and making sure she knows what she needs to be a good adventurer, not judging her looks.” “Besides,” he thought as he continued to watch her, “How could a girl like that possibly like a mess like me?”

He looked up as the fight ended. The Mushroom Fighter leapt forward with a strong jab, which Feng dodged by stepping to the inside. As the plant beast attacked with its other hand, she continued to travel, spinning and stepping in –the punch grazing her shoulder. She raised her mace as she spun, bringing it down on the beast’s head, crushing its head in and sending it to the ground for good. Feng stood over the mushroom, panting a bit after the tiring battle; Tian got to his feet and applauded with a big smile. Feng Huang smiled back, walking up to him, “How was that?” “That was perfect!” he answered, “There’s no other way to put it; that was perfect!” She smiled bigger, giving a light laugh, “Really? I was perfect?” “’Perfect’ doesn’t begin to describe her,” the thought came unbidden to his mind. “Absolutely!” Tian answered, “That was even better than I hoped you’d do.” “Well, I had a good teacher,” she smiled back. “Teacher,” Tian thought with a slight pang of sorrow, “That’s right –I’m supposed to be teaching her.” Feng caught on to his mood change, “Hey, what is it?”

“Well,” Tian said as he sat down, “That’s about all I have to teach you. I showed you alchemy, where to get your armor and weapons, where to get and how to use skills both in and out of combat.” “And I am not being the best teacher,” he thought, “My mind keeps straying.” He looked up, trying to think, “I can’t think of anything I left out. That’s all you need to know about this.” He felt sad as he said this –he had liked spending time with her. “Thank you so much, Tian,” the cleric said to him. “Hey, it’s no problem,” Tian smiled, “I enjoyed doing it –no need to thank me.” “Can I ask you something?” she said sitting next to him. Tian nodded, “Sure, shoot.” Feng looked over at him, “You seem like you’ve been an adventurer for a long time. Why are you still such a low level?” “I don’t train much as an adventurer,” he answered with a chuckle, “I usually stay close to home, just running some small errand quests to earn money and help my family out a bit.” “Oh, I see,” Feng replied, “So you don’t really train out here?” Tian shook his head, “Not really. That’s actually why I was wandering so far out from Rumen when I first met you.” “Oh,” she replied, “Well that makes sense, I guess.” Feng seemed to hesitate, “Well…I was wondering…” “Hm?” Tian looked over at her –she was blushing a bit again. “Would you mind…staying with me?” she asked, “You know, helping me as I train…training together?” “Staying as your bodyguard?” Tian smiled. “Kinda,” she answered. Tian pretended to think it over a moment –he’d actually made his decision the second he’d heard the question- then smiled, “Sure.” Feng looked over, “Really?” Tian chuckled, “Really.” Feng reached over and hugged him, “Thank you!” Tian was not expecting her sudden embrace and tensed up as she hugged him. After a few seconds he relaxed a bit, putting an arm around her as well, his fingers brushing through her soft hair, “She’s so warm.”

Panting, bleeding and nauseas, Ao Shun took a step forward, a loud scraping sound echoing off the walls as his sword dragged the ground behind him. Another step forward, another scrape as the blade caught up with him, a few more drops of blood fell from his arm, joining the other red drops that were scattered across the floor of the Skeleton Knight’s throne room. He reached out, placing a hand against the wall in front of him, then twisted and fell to the ground; his armor clattering and his back sliding against the wall as he fell. He panted, looking with a slight smile in front of him at the pile of bones that had once comprised the Skeleton Knight, and the wall that the spirit inhabiting its body had disappeared behind after its defeat. A new sound entered the area, reverberating from the flat stone surfaces covering the area –a light clucking or clacking sound. At first there were only a few, and they were quite soft, then they became more numerous, and much louder. Ao Shun tilted his head back as he continued to laugh louder, sweat pouring down his face in the humid cave, wiping the dirty water away with the one hand that wasn’t covered in blood. “Now THAT,” he said as he looked over at the holes and slashes in his armor, ”Was a good fight.” He looked over at his shoulder, at the small purple Slime pet still sitting on his shoulder, “And fun too, right, pal?” The Slime seemed to regard its master for a moment, then jumped slightly and squeaked in reply. An had traded Ao another pet Slime he’d found for the Honeying (Gevis) a while ago. The Honeying was not too thrilled with Ao’s taste for training against incredibly strong enemies, and was frequently not happy with its master; so when An suggested trading the two pets –as his own slime was unhappy with its master’s sedentary style- the Honeying and Ao jumped at the opportunity.

“You’re darn right I’m right,” he said pointing at the small beast, red fluid dripping from his finger. The Slime looked at the finger, then up at Ao again. “Oh, right,” Ao said holding his hand in front of his face –the blood having made its way down from a large hole in his shoulder (a souvenir from one of the Skeleton Knight’s blades), “I should probably fix this, huh?” He reached into his bag and grabbed the soul stone in there, surprised when nothing happened. He pulled the small stone out and found that the stone had changed from a bright red, to a dull gray in color –it was out of charges. “Oh,” he said regarding the stone, “Crap.” He looked over at the Slime, “Ah well, we’ll just have to use the mushroom to heal up.”

He sat in his mushroom house for a few minutes, allowing the mushroom’s enchantment to restore his body and spirit. Once healed and refreshed, he sent the mushroom away and got to his feet, walking back down the dim corridors. “You know what’s next, don’t you, pal?” Ao asked the small slime. The slime squeaked in reply. “No, we’re not going to take a break,” Ao said dryly. The Mini-Slime squeaked again. “We’re going to Elderine to buy more potions and recharge my soul stone –and maybe fix my armor.” Once more the slime squeaked. “Well,” Ao’s voice trailed off in the stone hallway, “A while ago someone told me of a large enemy in a place near Moonlight Tomb called the Zombie King. He was beaten a while ago, but apparently he’s back and causing trouble again.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:14 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter IX: The Goblin King, the Goblin Kings?

“So the big zombie charges at me again, and I’m lying there, bent backwards over a tomb stone where I’d landed after he hit me with that grave marker,” Ao said, using his hands to help him talk, “I reach onto my bag and used a stone to recover –‘cause my back was pretty messed up, it doesn’t normally bend that far- rolling off the tomb stone as the Zombie King smashes it into dust. I hit the ground, get to my knees and slice again at that same spot of its leg, finally slicing through and cutting it off at the knee.” He imitated the sword slash and the zombie falling down. “So the zombie falls to the ground, then starts trying to get back up, each time it manages to get up, I just push it over and start hacking away at its neck, jumping back at times to avoid the grave marker it was swinging at my knees. Finally, fifteen minutes after the fight started and a few dozen swings at its neck bone, my sword passed through the Zombie King’s neck, finishing the battle,” he swung his arm down to mimic the killing blow. “Sounds like you’ve been busy,” the purple haired cleric sitting next to him said. “Yeah, it’s been great!” Ao said with a happy tone, “Four great fights in only a few weeks.” “Four?” she looked over. “Oh yeah, didn’t I tell you, Celest? I also fought Werewolf Robo in Vine Tomb the other day –and today I’m supposed to go to Goblin Camp. Someone told me the Goblin King is back.” Celestina shook her head, “Going after Goblin King already? You work too fast, Little Shun.” He narrowed his eyes at the cleric. Celestina smiled as she stood, “I should be going. Have fun fighting your goblin, Little Shun.” “I’m not little!” he said as she pulled out a green scroll and vanished.

”Just tell her how you feel. Just tell her how you feel,” the thoughts ran in his mind over and over as he looked at her. Feng Huang sat relaxing under a tree, enjoying the shade’s protection from the warm noon sun. “Just go over there and tell her how you feel,” Tian told himself. He shook his head, “I can’t. What happens if she says she doesn’t like me?” “Tian,” she called. His thoughts continued as he gazed off to the side, “How could I ever speak to her again after that?” It would be seriously weird.” Her voice came again, “Tian?” “What if she gets offended?” What if she’s horrified and never wants to see me again?” his thoughts were shouting in his mind, “I don’t know what I’d do if she said that!” “Tian!” the voice jerked him out of his trance-like state. He looked over at the cleric sitting nearby, “Huh?” “What are you thinking over there?” she asked, “You look like something was worrying you.” “Oh crap,” he thought, “Now what?” He walked over trying to think of something else to say, but as he sat down the only thing that came to mind was a poor dodge, “Nothing really, Feng. Don’t worry about it.”

It had been several weeks since they had met; and he had been training with her on a daily basis for seven hours or more each day. His initial infatuation with her –which he’d tried to repress and had hoped was merely temporary- had grown each day that he’d been with her; to the point where he’d stopped denying it and finally admitted to himself that he really liked this girl. Over the last week and a half he’d been wrestling with the idea of telling her how he felt, and three days ago had made up his mind to do so –but each time he’d tried to tell her so far, he chickened out and found something else to say to her. It was getting quite discouraging –he was starting to think maybe he should just stop trying.

Tian sat down next to Feng, trying not to look at her for fear of staring again –and being caught again without an excuse. “Ah, heck with it!” he shouted in his head, “Just do it already! This is driving me insane!” “Fe-ngnk,” his throat tightened as he spoke, cutting him off. He cleared his throat, “Um, Feng?” She looked over at him, “Hm? What is it, Tian?” “Am I really going to do this?” the thought came to his mind, he had no answer for himself. “Um, if you don’t mind me asking,” he scratched the back of his head, “Why don’t you have a boyfriend?” “Guess not,” his thoughts answered. She looked away for a moment, then looked up, “I don’t know. I guess…it’s because…no boy I’ve liked has asked me yet.” “Oh crud,” he thought at her answer, “Does that mean I should shut up? Is that a warning to me not to ask her? Or is it actually an invitation, a way of saying she likes me?” He sat in silence another second, trying to think of a solution. “Okay. Just tell her in a way that she doesn’t have to accept or reject,” he thought, “Just tell her so all she has to do is acknowledge it, not act on it….now how exactly do I do that?” “So guys have asked you, then?” he asked, still thinking of a way to tell her. “A few have. It’s kinda weird, though, most of the guys that have I didn’t even know; the first time I saw them was when they asked me to be their girlfriend.”

“That’s gotta take a lot of confidence,” Tian said without thinking. “What does?” she asked looking at him. “Asking a pretty girl like you to be their girlfriend when they’ve never met you before. I’d be nervous as Hell,” he answered –again without thinking. She looked down, blushing a bit. Tian glanced at her, a knot forming in his stomach as he spoke, “You know. I have to admit, I can’t blame them. If I thought I had a shot, I’d ask you to be my girlfriend.” “Holy crap! I actually told her!” He didn’t look at her, he didn’t want to see her reaction –he sat silently just praying that she wouldn’t get up and walk away. His heart pounded in his chest –for a moment it felt like a really weak mushroom was punching him in the torso. “Well,” she answered back softly, he looked over at her, she was looking at him –it suddenly felt hot again. She scooted over a little closer, “If I said you had a shot, would you still ask me?” His breath caught –he wasn’t able to speak, he just stared at her for a moment before he finally regained his speaking ability. “Feng,” he stammered, “Would you…be my girlfriend?” She leaned in, lightly pressing her lips against his –it felt like an electric current ran through his body as she kissed him. They put their arms around each other, breaking off their kiss and resting their heads on each other’s shoulders, laughing lightly. Tian stroked her long soft hair with one hand as they held their embrace. “Question answered?” she asked with a hint of play. Tian chuckled a bit, “Question answered.”

They continued to hold each other. “How long?” Feng asked. “What?” Tian wasn’t sure he understood. “How long have you been wanting to ask me?” she elaborated. “I’m not sure,” he said slowly, “I’ve been trying to tell you for a while now…but honestly I can’t say when I first started thinking of telling you.” He loosened his embrace a bit, “What about you? How long have you been waiting for me to ask?” “Sometimes…it feels like it was the first day we spent together,” she laughed a bit, “But I think it was actually the day after that I seriously started wondering if you would.” He pulled away a bit, so he could look into her eyes, “Feng?” She looked back at him, “Hm?” “I…I uh…um,” he sat there stammering, unable to think of anything else he could say as he looked at her. She smiled, tightening her hold on him as she leaned forward, Tian moved forward to meet her as they kissed again.

Ao Shun tightened the straps of his shield around his arm, enamored in the sight of the large shield’s pulsing wings. He drew his sword, holding the blade out in front of himself to look at the energy flowing down from the dragon’s mouth at the hilt. “This looks cool,” he thought as he looked at the two pieces of highly refined armor, “I could get used to this setup.” The chime on Rumen’s clock sounded, Ao jerked his head up to look, “Oh crap! I’m gonna be late!” He reached into his inventory bag for an Elderine scroll, his bag telling him it possessed no such scrolls. “Oh crud, that’s right,” he muttered, “I gave all my scrolls to Tian for him to sell.” He ran to the marketplace, quickly checking vendors. “Buying one Elderine return scroll!” he shouted, “I need it fast, please!” “I have one,” someone nearby said. He spun around, face to face with a lower level archer. “Great! How much?” Ao said, reaching into his bag. “Three point five silver,” the archer said evenly. “WHAT!?” Ao shouted in return, “THREE POINT FIVE SILVER!? They normally sell for one!” “Fine. Whatever. Later,” the archer turned around. Ao shun growled, admitting to himself that he needed the scroll, “Alright, fine. Three and a half silver.” The archer turned around with a grin, “Make it four. You’ve wasted some of my very valuable time.” “Why you little,” Ao started. “You need it or not?” the archer asked smugly, “Because I have places to be.” Ao wished that he was in an area that allowed him to use his sword when dealing with slime like this archer, but as he was unable to do so, he begrudgingly handed over the four silver.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:15 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter IX: The Goblin King, the Goblin Kings?

Not waiting to hear the archer’s commentary after the transaction, he quickly broke the scroll’s seal and teleported to Elderine. Elderine’s streets were busy as usual, which made getting across the town all the more difficult. Ao Shun bolted across the stone slab surfacing of Elderine’s main thoroughfare, jumping a few vendors and dodging –or sometimes only trying to dodge- the other adventurers in the area. “Hi, Shutian! Bye, Shutian!” he yelled as he darted past the fountain. “Ao?” the guardsman looked up as the fighter dashed past, “Hey, wait! I have a..” Before he finished, the fighter was already gone. “Quest for you,” he finished, wondering where the fighter was going in such a hurry. Ao Shun made a sharp turn just past a bridge that went over a large exposed portion of Elderine’s irrigation canal, the road narrowing to a small path lined with tall bushes. He raced down the small path, nearly slamming into another adventurer around the second corner –one of many waiting in the small area. “Oh, sorry!” he said after running into the other fighter. The fighter turned, “Ao!” she exclaimed at seeing him. She gave him a brief hug, “You made it!” “Of course, Little Mo!” he said, “You think I’d miss your wedding?” He looked around, “So where’s the other bride?” “Over there,” Little Mo said, pointing at a large crowd, “She’s giving out the invitations.” Ao looked over, barely able to discern Leyrra standing in the midst of all those other people. “I see,” he said to the fighter, “So I need to go ask her for one, then?” “Actually, I have yours,” she answered him. “Oh really?” he looked over, surprised. “Yup,” she grinned taking out the small envelope, “We saved your invite to make sure it wasn’t given away accidentally.” “I’m flattered,” he smiled as he accepted the paper. “Don’t be,” she smiled back, “It was nearly demanded you be here. After all, you were there the day me and Leyrra first met.” Ao smiled back at her, “Yeah…now you and she are both higher level then I am…maybe I should have trained with you two more often.”

They shared a laugh; then Ao talked with Little Mo, Leyrra and some other guests for a while before Dreien Uriel, standing nearby, called out that it was time for the wedding. Everyone with an invite lined up, handing their invites to Dreien, who then teleported them to the wedding area –a small outdoor area with large white and blue stone tiling on the floor, several large white pillars, a grand altar upon which sat a large book, the walkway lined with beautiful flowering bushes (the area was aptly named the Holy Garden). The guests lined up on either side of the walkway as Leyrra and Little Mo stood at the walkway’s end, Ao looked around at the assembly and realized he was –by level- one of the weakest adventurers at the ceremony. A voice, seeming to emanate from the book upon the altar, called for the two being married to approach. The cleric and fighter walked down the aisle, stopping in front of the book, which continued to speak, leading the procession. The book spoke of how the bond it would give was not to be taken lightly, and how the two it bonded together should protect and care for one another. To ensure that the two could not be separated, and to assist in their obligation to protect each other, the book said it was endowing them both with a special skill, that would allow either person to summon the other to their aide, regardless of how far apart they were to begin with; furthermore, it provided a strong enchantment that would be with both of the adventurers, making them stronger –but the enchantment grew to its strongest when the two were together; this enchantment it called “The Power of Love”.

Finally, the book pronounced the two adventurers as married, ending the ceremony; upon which all the adventurers gathered gave a loud cheer, yelling and clapping as the newly weds walked back up the aisle. As they reached the top of the aisle, the higher level adventurers began casting skills to light up the ground and sky of the garden. The mages cast nova, showering Leyrra and Mo with glistening flakes of ice; the clerics used their area healing spell, creating what appeared to be a rain of healing white energy; and archers used their protection spells to set off mists that covered the area, reflecting the light of the mage and cleric spells. Ao sat back and watched the festivities, wishing he had a spell he could use to show how happy he was for them; but as he was without such an ability, he simply smiled and continued to cheer. A few minutes after the wedding ended, all the adventurers were teleported back to Elderine, where Dreien Uriel presented the couple with two special pets each as wedding gifts. The collection of spectators again congratulated the cleric/fighter duo, gradually taking their individual leave. Ao stayed a while to chat with his friends before they decided to go to Uruga to complete some of the quests they had been given.

He stood before a giant stone goblin, seemingly built to ward away possible intruders. “So Goblin King’s in there, huh?” he asked the cleric standing next to him. “That’s where the Goblin king always is,” Celestina answered. Ao looked over at the cleric, “Okay…so I get how Mara and Marlone can keep coming back after being defeated; but I find it hard to believe THESE guys have adventure gear as well.” She raised an eyebrow, “What makes you think they would?” “Well,” Ao answered, “I know that Goblin King has been defeated before…but…he’s still here.” “Oh, that’s what you mean,” she nodded, “No, they don’t have gear like ours; when they are defeated, it’s because they are killed.” “Then how’s he still here?” Ao asked. “Goblins, like many hierarchical monster species…are like bees,” the cleric started, “At birth, they can become any type of Goblin –the club-wielding drone, the mage, the sword-wielders or even the Goblin Captains- all determined by the diet they are fed as infants. Each of these goblins has a role to play in goblin society, which is controlled by the Goblin King. When a Goblin King is killed, it throws the goblin society into chaos –that’s why we do it, it stops them from causing so much trouble with us. However, shortly after the death, a newborn goblin is selected to be the next Goblin King; like all monsters, goblins mature incredibly fast, so a new Goblin King is able to take control and put an end to the chaos in a matter of weeks –that’s why we keep having to kill the Goblin King.” “Oh,” Ao nodded, “Well…I guess that makes sense.”

“Well have fun on your solo attempt, Little Shun,” Celestina said as she waved. “Wait,” he looked over, “You’re not gonna watch me?” She shook her head, “I’m a cleric, Ao. I’m not going to stand by and watch you get pummeled without doing something to help you –it’s not my nature.” “No faith,” he said spreading his hands. “I didn’t say I didn’t think you’d win,” she pointed out, “Just that you’re still going to get beat up; and if I’m around to see it, I’ll want to heal you, which is something you –for reasons I’ve yet to ascertain- do not want.” She gave him a parting buff; then pulled out a green scroll, breaking the seal and vanishing. Ao Shun sighed, shaking his head and moving forward through the loose sand of Goblin Camp as he headed toward the Goblin King.

He had his head down, so when the first strike came just as he stepped under the stone goblin, he was unprepared to either block or dodge; the Goblin Captain’s sword slicing into his armor and cutting a deep gash into his right shoulder and upper arm. Ao Shun leapt back with a yell, raising his shield as the large Goblin Captain stepped forward. Over ten feet tall, these pale-blue skinned brutes had incredible strength and wielded enormous swords; while not as crafty or annoying as the Goblin mages that could attack or heal with magic spells, they were still very powerful and, aside from Goblin King himself, the highest ranked goblins in Goblin Camp. The beast struck again, sword swinging down at the wounded fighter. Ao raised his shield to block, grunting as his feet sank into the ground with the sword’s impact. The captain wasted no time, pulling his sword to the side; his blade came across his own body to attack the fighter’s right side. Ao raised his sword to defend, pain shooting through his arm and shoulder wounds as the two swords met. The goblin pressed in harder, knowing the fighter had been weakened from his first strike, hoping to knock the fighter’s sword aside and leave a clear opening at his head. The large sword inched closer as Ao’s blade gave way, arm trembling from fatigue and strain. Ao’s blade jerked a bit, moving backward as the goblin’s blade pushed it aside, creeping toward the fighter’s neck. With a swift fluid motion, Ao relaxed his arm, allowing the goblin’s blade to slide toward his neck; at the same time, he leaned backwards, flipped his sword around, carrying the goblin’s blade over his head and guiding it to the side –the Goblin Captain’s momentum and weight carrying him forward. Ao’s blade slid across the back of the captain’s sword as he rose back up and stepped behind the goblin; he swung his arm down, blade skipping over the hand guard at the base of the goblin’s sword, then through its wrist. The Goblin Captain’s blade and hand both fell to the desert floor, the goblin itself staggering forward, knocking into a large rock. With a charging thrust and a few quick slashes, Ao Shun’s fight with this beast had ended.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:16 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter IX: The Goblin King, the Goblin Kings?

He trudged forward through the sand, using a soul stone to recover from his arm wound. The area opened up before him as he passed by the stone goblin, revealing a large circular –almost arena-style- field before him. The area nearby was dotted with large stones, strong Goblin Captains, and pesky Goblin Mages. Deciding a full on charge was a bad tactic –as mages were good at hurting fighters- he instead skirted around the enemies, darting between the boulders to keep out of sight. Arriving at the far side of the field, Ao Shun came across a totem pole that stood five or six meters high. Ao stood gazing at the pillar for a moment, before noticing what was wandering around beneath it. The beast was large, with the pale-blue skin of a goblin Captain, but half again their size. A dark blue hat trailed two sashes behind the large monster, and in its right hand, slung over its shoulder, was an axe almost as large as Ao Shun was. He had found the Goblin King.

Ao Shun’s eyes widened as he saw the large goblin pacing around beneath its totem pole –it was far larger than he’d expected. He’d heard stories that it was a sixteen foot tall brute, but he’d always thought they were over-exaggerating (which he now realized, was a mistake on his part). He crouched down low to avoid being seen –reaching into his bag to draw out scrolls. One by one he began drawing out the scrolls, breaking their seals as he watched the large goblin walk around the base of the totem pole. As he contemplated resting to maximize the effect of the scrolls, a shrieking roar came from behind him. Ao Shun spun around, bringing up his shield as the Goblin Captain that had discovered him struck.

The large blade of the captain slammed into his shield, staying pressed against it as the goblin pushed forward to knock the fighter off balance. Ao chanced a glance behind himself –noting that the Goblin King had not missed the captain’s warning cry, and was on its way to kill the intruder. As Ao looked back the Goblin Captain sidestepped, Ao, pushing but no longer meeting resistance, stumbled forward. Trusting his gut instinct that the captain would be striking at his back -rather than waiting for him to hit an object or waiting for the Goblin King to show up and assist; Ao twisted and allowed himself to fall to the sand, holding his shield to his chest –the captain’s sword slamming into his shield and compressing his chest. The goblin made no move, leaving its blade on Ao’s shield, putting all of its weight upon its sword to prevent Ao from escaping. Ao attempted to strike with his sword, but that too was pinned beneath one of the wings of his shield. Ao struggled and strained, pressing against his shield with all his strength, but unable to move as the Goblin Captain simply put more of his own weight on it when the fighter struggled. Ao looked over, seeing the Goblin King less than sixty yards away –he was running out of time, if he was still trapped when the Goblin King arrived, his head would undoubtedly be cut off by that enormous axe.

He began wiggling to free himself, gasping in pain as his own sword cut though his armor and sliced gently into his skin –but his arm had moved a bit as well. He wiggled his arm more –his blade cutting across his chest as he did so, but with each wiggle, his arm moved closer to the edge of his shield. With a hard shove, Ao managed to push his shield up just enough to free his blade and arm from beneath the edge of his shield, which he quickly swung around at the Goblin captain’s calves. The goblin was taken off-guard, falling to the ground unable to use its feet as the blade sliced through muscle and membrane; Ao Shun, armor damaged and chest bloody from the multiple slices he’d had to take of his own skin to free himself, rose to his feet with a grin as the Goblin King arrived, swinging his axe around at the fighter. Ao Shun raised his shield to block the axe; the wind rushing out of him as his shield slammed into his chest from the axe’s impact. Hearing a growl from behind and the scrape of metal against sand, Ao Shun leapt into the air, being hurled four meters back by the Goblin King’s brute strength, and over a long blade as the Goblin Captain lying on the ground behind him tried a desperate immobilizing strike at Ao’s lower legs.

The fighter tumbled after hitting the sand, rolling backwards down the hill and coming to a stop a short distance from the totem pole. He quickly stood, using a soul stone to recover, and braced himself as the Goblin king charged, slamming his axe into the ground next to the fighter. The impact from the axe seemed to cause the ground to tremble, an impressive shockwave smashing into him –leaving him stunned. The large goblin swung with its axe, the blade crashing into Ao’s shield with bone-crushing force; but as the fighter was stunned, he was unable to drop his shield –even though his body screamed at him to do so. The axe came around again, this time from the side, but the pulsating wings of energy on his shield seemed to bend slightly, getting between the axe and the fighter. The immense blade hit the wings, and continued forward; the wings could not dull the blade, but they absorbed some of the impact, preventing the axe from sinking to a fatal depth as it sliced into the side of Ao Shun’s armor.

Ao Shun strained to move, to reach a soul stone, to do anything as the Goblin King readied his next attack. He saw the blade reach the end of its backward motion and flinched when he thought about where the Goblin King would strike next. His eyes snapped open when he realized that the flinch had been a voluntary movement; with a large grin, Ao rolled forwards as the Goblin King’s axe buried itself in the ground where he’d been standing. Rising to his feet not a meter away from the Goblin King itself Ao struck, plunging his sword into the goblin’s chest. The Goblin King staggered back, one of its massive hands pressing against its wound as purple fluid oozed from between its fingers. The fighter charged in, ignoring his own pain as he slashed again at the goblin’s chest. The Goblin King met the attack with its axe, knocking Ao Shun’s sword up and away as it brought its axe high into the air. Ao raised his shield and leaned back to block the strike as the axe descended, swearing in his mind as the axe slammed into the ground stunning him again. The Goblin King made a series of sweeping strikes at Ao’s body, most of the impact absorbed by the refined shield or his own armor’s durability, but still taking several painful cuts to his abdomen, torso and shield arm.

Aggravated that the fighter was still not dead, the giant goblin swept with its axe, hitting Ao Shun with the flat end and knocking him into the totem pole. Having recovered from the stun, Ao again rose to his feet and used a stone to heal himself, raising shield and sword immediately after to catch the goblin’s axe –halting it inches above his head. Ao shun swept his arms to the side, then brought his sword back across, slicing again into the Goblin King’s chest. The Goblin King kicked, knocking Ao back into the pole; then once more slammed its axe into the ground. “What the hell?” Ao shouted in his mind, “What’s this guy have with his stun attack?” Ao growled as the goblin struck again -another gouge into his prized armor, another moment of searing pain as the blade sank in and struck bone, another moment of discomfort as warm liquid crept down from the newest wound between his skin and armor; and he was getting ticked about it. As the stun wore off, the Goblin King once more raised his axe high above his head, and Ao Shun charged in underneath, leaping up and smashing the goblin with his shield using his own stun attack.

“Ha!” he shouted at seeing the goblin freeze, “Stunned you back! Sucks, doesn’t it?” The Goblin King remained in place as Ao used a potion to recover. “Tell you what,” he said as he saw the beast beginning to stir, “You stop stunning me; and I’ll stop stunning you…how’s that?” The Goblin King responded by slamming its axe into the ground, once more stunning Ao Shun. “Dude, you are SO gonna die,” Ao thought darkly as the goblin again sliced into his armor. The blood loss from his wounds seemed to be impacting the goblin’s strength, Ao noticed, as the attacks were becoming sloppier –dealing less damage to his armor and cutting less flesh- with each strike. Ao stood patiently, biding his time until the stun would again wear off. Ao broke free of the stun as the Goblin King swung down and to the side at Ao’s left shoulder; with an infuriated gaze, Ao raised his shield and caught the massive blade against it; charging in and thrusting his blade into the Goblin King’s chest once again, then pulling out with a sideways slice. Its large axe fell to the ground as the Goblin King staggered backwards clutching and grasping at its stomach. With a large clamor almost like a small explosion, the great beast fell onto its back; a cloud of dust erupted from under its body, and the Goblin King lay still. Ao Shun reached into his bag, pulling out another potion and healing himself; then glanced down at his tattered armor, “Ah crud…It’s going to cost me a ton of money to get this fixed again.” He shook his head and started walking back toward the gate, “Still. It was a fun fight.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:16 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter IX: The Goblin King, the Goblin Kings?

“Ao Shun!” Guard Captain Shutian called as he passed by, “Ao Shun! Come here a moment!” Ao Shun walked over –deciding his trip to the smith could wait a minute, “What is it, Shutian?” The guardsman looked at him, “What happened to your armor?” Ao started to answer, but Shutian held up a hand, “Wait, nevermind; that isn’t important right now.” He looked down at the fighter, “What do you know about goblins?” “Well, I know they work together, they’re reasonably strong, and they have a leader called the Goblin King.” Shutian nodded as he briefly listed the different types of goblins that served the Goblin King, as well as the explanation that Celestina had given him earlier. “I also know that they will be having trouble organizing for a while,” Ao grinned pridefully, “Since I just killed the Goblin King.” “That’s quite impressive, Ao,” Shutian said, “But my task for you is more difficult.” Ao raised an eyebrow, “More difficult than killing Goblin King, yet still involving goblins? What are you asking me to do? Go kill every goblin in Goblin Camp at once?” Shutian shook his head, “There is more than one goblin colony, Ao Shun; and as such, there is also more than one Goblin King.” Ao’s interest had been picked, he listened more intently as Shutian continued, “Goblins work together in their own social colony; but separate colonies will war with each other if a nearby colony has more suitable terrain or better resources. When this occurs, the Goblin King from one territory will quite literally invade the territory of the other in order to kill off the current Goblin King and take over in a violent war. Naturally, whichever Goblin King is largest and strongest, wielding the strongest goblin army, will come out the victor.”

“Um, Shutian?” Ao spoke up, “This is cool to know and all…but what are you getting at, exactly?” “In the caves near Goblin Camp, a large goblin called the Giant Goblin King has begun to set up in preparation to invade Goblin Camp and take over. Needless to say, the Goblin King we have in there is pest enough; and we do not want this one taking over and causing even more trouble. This is not the first time we’ve seen this goblin colony in the area, and like the last time it came around, it needs to be killed.” “And you want me to kill it?”Ao asked. “Well if you don’t think you can, then I can ask someone else –I just thought you’d jump at the chance to fight something this powerful.” Ao Shun grinned, “You know me quite well, then.” “But I will need some time…you know, buy potions, scrolls…..get my armor fixed,” he said as he looked down at all the gouges in his armor. “That’s all well and good, Ao,” Shutian said with a serious expression, “But remember, you just killed the Goblin King in there, so it won’t take Giant Goblin King long to take over once his army is done preparing. I’ll recruit a few other adventurers to disrupt his preparations to buy you some time; but at most we’ll have four days –that means after two I’m finding someone else to kill him.” Ao half-grinned, “See you in two days, then.” Shutian grinned back, “I had a feeling you’d say that.”

“Have you met Feng yet?” An Ning asked the cleric sitting next to him. She looked back at him, “Feng? Who is that?” “Oh, you didn’t know yet?” An seemed surprised, “I could have sworn Ao would have said something of it by now.” “No, he hasn’t,” Celestina replied, “So what are you talking about?” “Feng is a lower level cleric,” An answered, “She is also Tian’s new girlfriend.” “Oh really?” Celestina smiled, “That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard anything about this yet.” “I noticed,” An smiled back, “They’re quite the cute couple, really –Tian is incredibly defensive of her, too.” “Jealousy?” she asked. He shook his head, “No, not jealous, he trusts her completely. I meant defensive as in he’d jump in front of a blast from Madeleina before he'd let it hit her.” “Well isn’t that what most tankers do?” Celestina asked, “Take the damage for the party?” “Not like this,” An replied, “I mean; yeah I’ll take a hit for someone, but the way Tian looks when she’s being attacked…it’s like…if you killed him, his ghost would come back to protect her.” “That’s an interesting way to put it,” the purple haired cleric chuckled lightly, “I’d like to meet this girl some day.” “I’m sure Tian would be very happy to introduce her,” An smiled. “You mentioned Ao,” she said, changing the subject, “How’d he do on his fight earlier?” “Oh, he won,” An replied, “His armor was trashed, and he was pretty banged up, but he won. Now he’s getting ready to fight the Giant Goblin King.” “Ah,” she nodded, “Will this one also be him by himself?” “Yes it will,” An sighed, shaking his head, “Young, suicidal nut job…It’s like he thinks he has something to prove.” Celestina looked out at the sky, “Maybe he does,” she said softly.

The first day passed quickly, Ao managing to do quite a bit of business in the short time frame –selling items he’d found training, buying scrolls and potions in preparation for his next big fight. When noon came on the second day, Ao struck out for Goblin Camp, knowing he’d done as much preparing as the twenty four hours had allowed. He his hobby horse and began the short ride to the gate inside of the Collapsed Prison area. As he rode, he silently called out to the members of his guild, none of whom seemed to be in any of the towns or fields. He sighed a bit as he continued on, “No one is around any more,” he thought, “Most that are have left since Spotted had to return to her hometown a while ago…it’s a pretty lonely guild these days.”

He sat reclining a bit with his upper back against the trunk of a large tree, smiling slightly as the girl snuggled a bit against his chest in her sleep. His shield arm around her, she sat across his lap, her head lying against his chest as he held a watchful eye over the cleric, his sword held in his free hand should an enemy arise that would threaten her. They had been training all day and she had become tired, desiring to take a nap; Tian had initially suggested going back to town and renting a bed at an inn or using her mushroom house, but she had rejected those ideas. Instead, she wanted to take a nap outside –Tian had objected at first, sighting that they were adventurers in an area filled with monsters which would (literally) jump at the chance to kill them, but Feng had somehow managed to convince him it was alright. He breathed slow and deep so as not to disturb her slumber as his gaze flicked over Feng’s face. “She’s cute when she’s asleep,” he thought, “I still don’t understand why she chose me; she’s so beautiful…I must be incredibly lucky.” He looked at her a few seconds, briefly contemplating giving her a kiss as she slept, when a nearby rustling drew his attention away from the cleric, to a patch of tall flowers not too far away. As he watched, a Slime Hero slunk its way out of the brush, setting its gaze upon the adventurers under the nearby tree.

The Slime Hero looked at Tian, then set its gaze upon the cleric sleeping in his arms. Tian’s eyes blazed as he drew his sword, pointing it at the slime; his gaze letting the slime know that any move toward the cleric would be intercepted and result in its –more than likely excessively painful- death. His sword, refined to a moderate level, glowed a bright and cheery blue, but his eyes seemed to turn a deep and consuming black; as the slime looked on, it could not tear its gaze away from the fighter –his eyes seemed to tell the beast everything that the fighter would do to the slime before killing it should it attack the cleric –and it was indeed painful. The large red slime trembled as it stood before the adventurers; Tian’s breathing becoming louder and deeper as he prepared to strike. Feng stirred in his lap, stretching her arms and yawning as she woke up. Tian looked down at the cleric, his gaze softening –the slime taking the opportunity to quickly hop back the way it came. She looked up just in time to see the slime leaving, and at Tian putting down his sword. She smiled a bit as he looked over at her, “It was thinking of attacking you. I believe that I managed to persuade it to do otherwise.” “Ah,” she chuckled as she gave him a hug, pressing her lips against his cheek, “My good bodyguard.” “No I’m not,” he said as he hugged her back. “What do you mean?” she said, pulling away to look at him. He looked down and to the side, “A good bodyguard wouldn’t have fallen in love with the girl he was protecting.” She stared at him a moment, his eyes widened, swearing loudly in his mind as he realized what he had just said. “Could you…say that again?” she asked slowly after a few agonizingly long moments. He stammered for a second, both wanting and not wanting to repeat it, “I…I love you, Feng Huang.” She stared at him, looking into his eyes another moment; he knew she was feeling something, uncertainty to be sure, but something else –either fear, or hope. Tian gave a silent prayer that it was the latter –he’d give anything for it to be hope. Feng leaned in, putting her arms around him tightly, speaking softly into his ear, “I love you too, Tian Long.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:17 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter IX: The Goblin King, the Goblin Kings?

Wood snapped and groaned as it plunged downward; An Ning deftly leapt aside to avoid the tree branch as it slammed into the ground. The wood groaned a bit again as it began ascending into the air, An Ning charging in and swinging again, his hammer impacting the trunk of the Dead Tree Soul and sending a shower of bark out around it, the wooden beast groaning slightly. The twenty foot tall tree swung once more, a long branch hurtling toward the cleric, who blocked the attack with his shield. An swung again, cracking the wood of the tree’s trunk around the point of impact, the tree stepping back. Ao pressed the attack, using a strong bash strike, followed by three more solid strikes with his refined hammer –the crack spreading through the Dead Tree Soul and causing it to collapse in several very large pieces. Ao stood over the enemy panting heavily to recover from his workout. “Dang,” he panted, “That’s the fifteenth one in a row.” He paused as he felt a tremor in the ground; loud stomping and the sound of straining wood coming from behind him. He sighed, turning and raising his shield at the approaching Dead Tree soul, “Ah well. Here comes another one….again.” He raised his hammer, then heard more sounds, coming from the side. He turned his head to look, seeing three more large Dead Tree Souls stomping toward him. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!” he shook his head in disbelief, “What did I do? Tick off the whole freaking forest!?” He looked back at the closest tree, “Look, I know I chopped down my share of trees in my day…but seriously, shouldn’t you be more ticked at a lumberjack?” The tree’s attack answered his question. An Ning dodged the blow, sighing as the other three trees arrived, “Well…at least it will be good training.”

A ball of energy soared past him, narrowly missing his head as he rolled along the cave floor. Ao Shun shot to his feet and lunged forward with a long step, thrusting his sword into the chest of the Goblin Mage. The Goblin Mage let out a warbling yelp, then fell to the floor. Ao Shun grinned as he stood up, stretching a bit before he continued to walk through the caverns. “Well that was easy enough,” he thought smugly, “I don’t know what Shutian was so worried about; I mean, if the rest of these guys are this easy, then I…” His thoughts stopped as he rounded a corner, freezing at what he saw. In a large cavern before him, was a large blue skinned Goblin with an enormous axe. Standing a good meter taller –and probably half a meter wider- than the Goblin King he’d killed the day before, this Giant Goblin King certainly lived up to its name. “Okay,” he thought, “I’m impressed.” He reached into his bag and began systematically pulling out scrolls, breaking their seals to buff himself. “Alright, big guy. Let’s see how tough you are,” he thought with a grin. His breathing quickened in anticipation as he slunk around the corner –the Goblin King facing away from him- he gripped his sword tightly and stood in the center of the corridor. While Ao Shun’s slow movement had gone unnoticed, his lack of movement seemed to draw the goblin’s attention; the Giant Goblin King turned, straightening at seeing the fighter standing in the hall before him. The goblin growled, hunching his shoulders down as he held his axe before him; Ao grinned, stepping back into a defensive stance, raising shield and sword. The two enemies stood still, as though gauging one another; Ao motioned with his hand, curling his fingers toward himself to invite the Goblin King to attack first.

The large goblin swept in, axe slashing down at the fighter. Ao jumped back as the axe slammed into the ground –a geyser of dust and debris sprouting from all sides of the blade. A wall of air swept past his face as Ao landed, the intensity of the beast’s attack was incredible. “Maybe giving him the first move wasn’t the hottest idea,” Ao conceded to himself as the goblin king tore his axe from the stone ground. The Goblin King swung again, Ao raised his shield to meet the blow, the goblin’s attack slammed him into a wall, crushing him between the hard steel of his shield and unforgiving rock. The goblin pressed, holding him against the wall for a moment, then pulled his axe back, allowing Ao Shun to drop to the ground two meters below with a loud clatter. As he landed, the Giant Goblin King swung his axe over his head then down again, slightly stunned from the last attack, Ao did not see the attack until the axe was already coming down. Ao started to raise his shield, but was unable to move it all the way up in time; the axe hit the top of Ao’s shield, the force of the blow pushing it down, a long section of the axe overlapped the shield, however, slicing through the fighter’s armor and burying itself in his shoulder. Ao yelled as the blade sank into his shoulder, slicing into and crushing whatever was in its way until his bone finally halted the weapon’s advance –cracking as it absorbed the metal blade’s force.

The Giant Goblin King grinned, yanking his blade free of the fighter’s arm, the fighter staggering back, reaching into his bag for an item. The Goblin King charged in again while the fighter’s hand was in his bag and unable to attack; the fighter’s body glowed as the soul stone he had grabbed healed his wound, a loud metallic clang emanating from the fighter’s shield as he blocked the attack –the axe’s power pushing him back several feet. Pushing down on the axe with his shield, Ao hurdled the large axe before him, dashing in and thrusting at the giant’s midsection –the beast’s tough skin and hard abdominal muscles stopping the blow. The Giant Goblin King reached across with its left hand and smacked the fighter aside, then brought his axe back up for another strike; but before he was able to, Ao had already gotten to his feet and rushed in once more, slicing at the goblin’s stomach and drawing a painful line across it. With an angry roar, the goblin swung his axe across, knocking the fighter back and into another wall; not waiting to see if he was injured, the goblin continued his motion around, spinning and sending his axe out in a powerful strike –at an empty wall. Ao had seen the Goblin King’s spin and had taken the time to roll forward and to the side while his back was turned. The Goblin king kicked at Ao, who jumped back, chopping haphazardly at the goblin’s leg as he did so –his attack did not deal any damage, but neither had the Goblin King’s.

There was a deep growl from within the beast’s throat as the Goblin King and Ao Shun stood still, regarding each other. “Fool,” the beast finally said, “You cannot defeat me. You will die here.” Ao gave an annoyingly smug grin, “And here I was thinking you couldn’t talk…I was planning on a very quiet fight before I killed you.” The goblin opened its mouth in a snarl, “This was a mistake on your part; you should not have entered my domain.” “YOUR domain?” Ao scoffed, “last I checked this area belonged to another Goblin King.” “A situation I intend to rectify,” the goblin said as it drew up its axe, “And one which you are in the way of!” With a harsh whistle, the blade slashed forward at the fighter; Ao, unable to dodge in time, caught the blow across his chest. The blade impacted, smashing against the armor, pinning Ao once more between his armor and a rock wall; as the giant goblin withdrew his axe he left a long dent in Ao’s chest armor, the newly reshaped armor pressing painfully against his chest when he inhaled. Ao fell to his knees as the axe moved away, clutching at his chest armor and gasping. “Humans are such fragile creatures,” the Giant Goblin King chuckled lightly, patting his axe against one hand. Ao got to his feet, straightening and taking in a long deep breath –grimacing as his chest pressed against the armor that had been pushed in. “I’ll show you fragile,” he growled as he again raised his sword.

The goblin raised his axe to prepare an attack, “Too slow!” Ao yelled as he dashed forward under the weapon. Reaching down and across, he smacked the fighter aside, “Deliberately so.” Ao swore lightly under his breath as his back struck yet another rock wall, falling to the ground again. “Man that's old,” he groaned as he got back to his feet, “Why do each of these guys do that?”. He looked up as the Goblin King roared, dropping low to the ground and rolling, allowing the giant axe to sail safely overhead and into the wall he’d struck earlier. Jumping to his feet again, he sliced twice at the Giant Goblin King’s abdomen, sending him staggering back; Ao hunched over for a second as the dent in his armor made itself known again. “Insolent fool,” the goblin growled as he grabbed his axe, “I shall devour you!” Taking a wide swing the goblin sent his axe at the fighter; Ao ducked beneath the blade, the goblin continuing his motion around and carrying the blade up, then swinging it back down once more as he came around. Ao swung blade and shield down beneath the axe, then spun and raised his arms, carrying the blade up and over him again. Growling in annoyance, the goblin carried his axe up, again continuing his spin, axe held high above his head. The beast finished its turn, sighting the fighter, and with a loud roar sent his blade down at the fighter. Ao lunged forward as the goblin spun, swooping low then thrusting upward as the goblin’s axe descended. The Giant Goblin King’s eyes widened, his roar cutting off and axe clattering to the ground as Ao’s blade sank through his skin, sliding under his ribs, penetrating intestine and lung. Ao thrust his sword in up to its hilt, glaring into the Goblin King’s eyes. “Devour this!” he growled, yanking his blade out from its temporary sheath. The beast gave a great spasm as it collapsed to the ground, then lay still; this Giant Goblin King was no more.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:17 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter X: Tenacity, Audacity and Insanity

“It's this way,” she said as she led the fighter through the forest, “I've seen it a few times while I've been training in here.” There was a strange cooing sound, followed by loud rustling as a large green enemy wielding a trident crashed through the brush, charging them. The Giant Pixy swept in, thrusting with its weapon, the fighter raised his shield to prepare a block, but before either of the two enemies had a chance to complete their move, a large hammer landed atop the Pixy's head. There was an audible pop from the Giant Pixy's neck, and it fell to the ground. “Sorry about that,” the cleric smiled, “There are a number of those pests around here.” She turned and continued to lead the fighter deeper into the forest; coming to a halt a short time later, crouching down low behind a small hill and looking over. She motioned for the fighter to be silent, then pointed over the hill, “There he is.” The fighter crawled to the top of the hill to peak over, and his eyes widened momentarily in surprise. From his point atop the hill, he saw a large enemy -large was an understatement, from one hundred yards away this thing still looked big. Larger than most buildings in Uruga, the enormous creature was made of living wood over six feet thick; large branches it swung like giant fists at its prey forty feet below them, able to smash its way through mountainsides that way, if it wished. “So that's him,” Ao Shun said as he climbed back down the hill, “That's the Legendary Tree.” “Yup,” Celestina nodded beside him, “That's the guy you're looking for.” It had been several weeks since his fight with the Giant Goblin King -an accomplishment which he was quite proud of; but the week prior he'd had an encounter that had given him a new enemy to fight.

He had been recounting his fight against the Giant Goblin King -something he had been quite proud of, when a higher level fighter passed by and heard him talking. “GGK? Big whoop,” the fighter smirked, “I killed one of those myself a long time ago -back when killing one of those things alone was actually something rare. Solo killing one of them now is commonplace. So shut up and stop bragging about it.” With that, the fighter summoned his hobby horse and rode away.

Hours later, as he was training in Scaffold Execution Grounds, the fighter's words still sounded clear in his head. Ao stood in the path for a few moments, before a mob of two King Colls attacked him. With an angry roar, Ao swept his sword around in a circle, dragging it through the ground, then with a tremendous pull, he yanked the sword free of its stone prison and slammed it into the ground before him. The impact sent a shockwave through air and ground, stunning the two beasts before him; with a flurry of powerful slices, Ao dropped the two beasts. He stood for a few more seconds before making up his mind to go to the nearby town of Uruga. While wandering through the crowded market streets, he noticed a very familiar looking fighter. “Akarii!” he shouted as he finally recognized her. “Ao!” she waved back, “Long time no see!” He smiled, “Likewise. What have you been up to?” Akarii shrugged, “Ah, just training of late.” “I noticed,” Ao said as he looked at her new armor and axe, “Wow...you've gotten a lot stronger than the last time I saw you.” “So have you,” she grinned, “Want to go have a friendly fight in the Free Battle Zone here?” “Against you?” Ao said pointing at her axe, “There's no point to it; I mean we both know who'd win -this thing of yours would slice through my armor like paper!” She laughed at his comment, “Well, okay, but if you change your mind let me know.” “Not gonna happen,” he smiled back, “but okay.” He thought for a moment as Akarii browsed a nearby vendor, then looked over at her, “Hey, Akarii.” She looked back, “Hm?” “I was wondering: do you know of any monsters stronger than a Giant Goblin King?” “Oh sure,” she smiled, “There are a few; Torturer Kings, Giant Orc Captains...” “I mean one I could fight at my level,” Ao replied, “Those guys are in areas with gate restrictions, they won't let me in until I have better armor.” “For good reasons,” Akarii added.

She thought for a moment, “Well, there's the big tree; but he's really too strong for you.” “Big tree?” Ao repeated, “What's that?” “The Legendary Tree, to be more precise,” she answered, “It's a giant tree-beast that dwells in Ancient Elven Woods. It's almost forty feet tall, incredibly strong, and makes a nuisance of itself every so often; so adventurers are sent to kill it. Unfortunately, as it is a plant, it grows back a few weeks later so we have to go kill it again.” “Legendary Tree, huh?” Ao grinned, “That sounds like an interesting enemy to fight.” Akarii shook her head, “I suppose telling you he's too strong would just make you more intent on going after him.” “Darn right,” Ao grinned at her. He thanked his friend who bid him safe travels -she was part of a training party and the final few members had shown up and were calling for her. After she left, Ao began looking for someone to show him where the tree was; but it was a week before he found someone willing to show him the beast.

“Dang,” Ao thought as he looked over the hill again, “This thing redefines what it is to be big. Akarii certainly didn't exaggerate when she described it to me.” He looked in his bag, at the potions, stones and scrolls he'd saved up for this monster, then looked back at the giant tree. The tree turned and walked away from the hill, as it did so one of its branches swept into the trunk of another nearby tree, the tree snapped off a third of the way down its trunk -the Legendary Tree had not even slowed. He climbed back down the hill where Celestina was waiting for him and they began walking back toward the path. “I think I may need a little more preparation,“ he said quietly to Celestina, “Some more potions and stuff.” She smiled at the fighter, “I can make some for you if you get me the materials. How many more do you think you'll need?” “Off hand,” Ao glanced over his shoulder to see if the tree was following them, “...I'd err on the side of hundreds.” She raised an eyebrow, “Not confident about this one?” “I'm crazy,” Ao said looking back at her, “Not completely suicidal.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, pointing back in the direction of the Legendary Tree, “...and me going at that thing with what I have now would be the latter of those two.”

She smiled, looking into the wind as the light breeze blew across her face and through her hair. “She's so amazing,” Tian thought as he sat next to her, “I still don't know why she stays with me, though.” He looked to the side, “I've never felt this way about someone -I didn't know it was possible. Since the day I met her I never wanted to leave her side, not even for a moment.” He looked over at her again, a warm feeling welling up inside him, “I will stay with her, by her side, as long as she asks me to stay -be it a day or a lifetime.” He glanced away again, “I want to stay with her; I want to be with her forever.” He shook his head slightly, “What am I thinking? I can't make that decision yet! I've only known her a few months, it should be a year or more before I even start to consider this...shouldn't it? I mean...sure I won't leave her and I know my feelings for her won't change...but...what about her? If I told her now, she'd probably freak out and leave!” “Tian,” the voice called softly from his side; jerking him from his thoughts. “Hm? What is it?” he asked looking back at her. “What are you thinking?” she asked. “Oh, uh...nothing, don't worry about it,” he replied. Feng smiled, “I can tell when something is worrying you, Tian; and when you are thinking about something you think is important. Why are you hiding it?” “I'm not hiding it, Feng,” he said slowly, “It's just...I'm not sure myself what exactly I was thinking; and don't really know how I'd phrase it all if I tried.”

“Well then,” she said scooting closer to him, “Just tell me the main part.” “I...was thinking about a question,” he said looking away. “Oh?” she replied, “What question?” “One that I want to ask you,” he looked down, face reddening a bit, “But not one I should ask you -at least not yet.” She looked at him, blinking a few times with a serious look on her face. Tian's stomach tightened, a long silent pause between them before Feng sat up, moving slightly away from Tian -who flinched a little as she did so. “I think I know which question you were thinking about,” she said softly. Tian tried to sound casual, hoping to persuade her that he was not actually thinking of asking her to marry him, “Oh? Then by all means...which was it?” “About Feng being with someone forever,” she spoke barely audible above the rustling tree leaves. “Holy crap!” he thought, “She figured it out! Do something! DO SOMETHING!” Feigning not to understand, he looked at her as though curious, “Wait...what? What are you saying?” Feng's eyes widened, “That's not what you meant?”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:18 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter X: Tenacity, Audacity and Insanity

“What's not?” he replied. “Oh, nevermind,” she blushed, “Forget it.” “No, no,” he chuckled, “You wanted me to tell you, remember? What did you mean?” “I didn't mean anything!” she looked away. “Wait a second,” Tian smirked, “Did you think I was thinking about asking you to marry me?” Feng smiled sheepishly, then started to laugh a bit. “Come on, Feng,” Tian laughed, surprised he was doing such a good job so far, “We've only been together a few months!” Feng began to laugh as well, they continued laughing for a few minutes. As he laughed, Tian began to feel strange, “I shouldn't mislead her,” he thought, “I should tell her the truth.” He looked over at her as their laughter died down, Feng was smiling, “You really thought I was gonna ask you to marry me?” She smiled, nodding, “Yeah, that's all I could think of -it made sense as to why you were acting so funny.” he hesitated, drawing a deep breath -it felt like he was getting ready to fight some incredibly strong enemy. “In all honesty,” he said, looking away from her, “You were actually right.” Feng's eyes went wide as he continued, “I...I was thinking about it; but didn't want to ask you yet because we haven't known each other long -and I didn't want you to know I was thinking about it, so...my first reaction when you wanted to know, and when you guessed...was to hide it.” He swallowed as Feng remained silent another moment, “Then why are you telling me now?” “Because,” he stammered, “Because I love you, Feng. I shouldn't hide things from you; if you ask me, I should tell you.”

He waited another moment, staring at the roots of the tree they sat under. There was a brief rustling sound as Feng moved; after another moment, Tian thought perhaps she had left. He shut his eyes as the thought came to mind, then felt something warm against him; he looked over and Feng was still there, her arms around him. “I love you too, Tian,” she whispered, “Thank you.” Tian was uncertain what to say for a moment, “Thanks? For what?” “For telling me,” she replied with a smile, “For being honest even though you didn't want to be.” “I'm your boyfriend, Feng,” he said with a light chuckle, “Protecting you, being honest with you, it's what I am supposed to do.” She laughed a bit, snuggling up next to him “Not everyone does, dear. That's what I am saying thanks for.” Tian relaxed a bit, putting his arm around her, “Then...it was my pleasure, Feng.” She chuckled again, “Though I don't think I'm ready to answer your question just yet.” “Hey,” Tian grinned, “Just remember it wasn't my idea to tell you right now -I was going to wait at least another year. And technically you guessed it, I never asked it!” They laughed again as the wind picked up once more, Feng tightening her embrace a bit. “I love you, Feng,” Tian said as they sat down together. She smiled playfully, “I know.” He looked down at her, “Hey!”

“Ao, are you certain?” the cleric asked. “I've bought as many health potions as I could buy; and these last few potions I found are incredibly rare -they are like added defense scrolls,” Ao replied, “If I'm not ready now, then I don't think I will ever be, Leyrra.” Leyrra grinned, shaking her head, “Well if you are sure.” She raised her hammer over her head, waving it in the air as a blue circle rose from the ground around Ao -raising his vitality in a high-tier Endure spell, “Good luck, Ao.” “Thanks,” he said as he looked behind him -the Legendary Tree a few hundred yards away, lurking through the forest, “I'll need it.” “You say that,” she replied, “Yet you smile.” “Of course,” he grinned, “I'm smiling because this is gonna be great!” “You're crazy,” she said with a laugh. “I know,” he chuckled before turning away and walking toward the beast. The large tree spotted the tiny fighter as he approached, lumbering over toward him. The insignificant fighter stepped into a defensive posture, and the tree swung down with one of its large branches.

Ao jumped aside as the branch crashed into the ground, then rushed forward, slicing at the tree's trunk with his sword, yanking and pulling as the tree's wooden body resisted the power of his plus nine sword. He swung again, slicing into the same spot, chips of wood falling from the tree's body as the blade impacted and slid through. Ao withdrew his sword, dodging another attack by the tree. Ao gaped as he saw the slice he'd made in the tree begin to fill back in from the inside, “What the heck? It can regenerate wounded parts!?” “Ao watch out!” Leyrra called from behind him. Hearing the warning, Ao looked up and saw a massive tree branch swinging down at him. The branch impacted, sending him sailing into another tree to the side. He groaned as he got to his feet, reaching into his bag for a soul stone. He grabbed the stone and used a charge to recover; looking up in time to see another tree branch swinging at his head. The tree drove the fighter into the ground, Ao lay dazed on the floor, gazing into the air as the tree swung down once more...

There was a feint voice in the darkness that surrounded him; it sounded like someone praying. He didn't know who it was, or what they were saying; all he really knew was the pain -it seemed to completely envelope him. The voice suddenly gave a loud command, “Revive.” Wind engulfed him, a cold feeling flowing through him, loud popping sounds echoing in the darkness. Air suddenly filled his lungs, his eyes snapping open; he sat up quickly, coughing and sputtering. “Welcome back,” Leyrra smiled from beside him. He started coughing again, he put his hand in front of his face -his breath catching as he saw it covered in blood. He looked around at his body, the red stains covered his dented and crushed armor, “What happened to my armor?” “Well...to put it as straightforward as I can,” Leyrra said, “You got killed. The tree knocked you onto your back, then pummeled you until it got bored and walked away. That's when I was able to sneak in and move your body so I could revive you.” She motioned over his shoulder; Ao looked and saw the giant tree beast walking around some four hundred yards away. Ao groaned as he got to his feet. “You shouldn't be standing up so soon,” she told him. “I'm fine,” Ao said dejectedly, “I just...can't believe I lost.” He looked back again, at the enormity of the enemy he'd attacked, “Well..okay...maybe I can see losing...but losing that quickly?” He shook his head, “Man...this sucks.”

“That sounded...painful,” Celestina said after Ao told her of his recent failure. “Heh. It was. It was very painful,” he shook his head, “Humiliating as well.” “Nothing to be humiliated about,” she replied, “At your level it was impressive you lasted as long as you did. Perhaps it was more 'humbling' to you; reminding you that you are not invincible?” “Perhaps,” Ao conceded, “Still...it was a pretty poor fight -I wish I'd lasted longer.” “Next time?” she looked over at him. “I don't know if I will be fighting him again, Celest. The Legendary Tree is so powerful...I don't think I can kill it.”

The cleric raised her shield, the wolf's strong claws knocking it aside. “Tian!” Feng called as the Angry Wolf stalked toward her. “That beast is DEAD!” Tian yelled in his mind, “As soon as I'm free I'll shred him into pieces as thin as my blade!” Tian strained, finally breaking free of the stun spell the wolf had cast on him, charging at the beast. “Hey! Fluffy!” he shouted loudly as he charged in, “You wanna chew on something?” The wolf turned toward the fighter, slashing at Tian, “Chew on this!”. Tian ducked beneath the claws, his blade swirling into the beast's mouth as it snapped its teeth at him. His blade sliced into the wolf's mouth, cutting the top of the head off; the body falling to the ground. Ao rushed over to Feng, wrapping his arms around her, “Are you okay?” She smiled a bit as she nodded. “I'm sorry I let you go against that thing alone like that,” he told her. She shook her head, “Tian, you have to stop apologizing every time an enemy stuns you. It's not your fault, so you don't need to apologize.” “This sword,” he thought as he held Feng against him, “It doesn't deal damage fast enough; and my shield is only useful as long as the enemy is attacking me. If my enemy strikes at her, all I have is the sword to prevent it. If I am going to protect her, I need to kill these enemies before they even have the chance to strike.”

“Is there anything else I could have done?” the thought came to Ao's mind as he used his shield to guide the Coll's claws over his head. Its claws glowed, the Coll slashed at the fighter before it; Ao stood tall, not even bothering to dodge as the claws raked across his armor -piercing through and into his chest. Ao brought his sword up and in as the Coll recoiled, slicing into the beast's chest and throat -the Coll falling to the ground unmoving. He looked down at his armor, thin claw marks running through it, “That tree...it completely crushed this. Maybe...what if I had gotten this refined as well?” “Hey, Ao Shun,” a person called from nearby, Ao looked up to see an archer he'd never seen before. “I heard about your solo against the tree,” he laughed, “REALLY great job!” The archer laughed as he ran away, Ao Shun narrowed his eyes at the fleeing adventurer. “That tears it,” he thought as he grit his teeth, “I'm killing that freaking tree.” He ran his fingers along the gouges in his armor, “but first, I need to make some more preparations.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:19 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter XI: Forge's Fire

The ice blast flew through the air, impacting the King Coll directly in its back, a sheet of ice spreading across its body. The Coll turned, glaring at the mage that attacked it; He Liu's eyes widened as the beast began to charge, “Uh oh.” He began casting more spells at the Coll, “No-no! Down boy! Stay!” The Coll continued to charge, shrugging off blast after blast that impacted against its large body. Channeling more energy, Liu swept his arm forward, sending a bolt of lightning at the large Coll beast. The lightning cleared the gap between the mage and monster before either could blink, slamming into the Coll and causing it to stagger, but still the beast stayed up. Turning around, Liu ran away from the beast, trying to gain precious distance to launch another barrage of attacks. Spinning on his heel, Liu turned, noticing that the ice sheet had stopped growing over the Coll's body -and the beast was charging in much faster. He launched another volley of attacks; magic missile, fire, magic missile, lightning, magic missile again -the beast was on top of him. Raising his hands and quickly tucking his arms, he sent out a sudden blast of energy in all directions, the energy sweeping out and around the mage, slamming into the Coll from all sides. He Liu opened his eyes after the attack calmed, channeling energy again in case the hardy beast was still alive. Liu looked up, and noticed that the Coll was not standing in front of him, he glanced down, seeing the large body before him. He Liu smiled, finally having defeated one of these beasts alone, “Sit. Play dead. Good boy.”

It was a cold day, the sun was covered by cloud and a light wind chilled the mist of the ocean as it sprayed across them. Tian Long held Feng Huang in his arms, “I wish you didn't have to go.” “I know,” she said, her own embrace tightening slightly, “But I need to go see my family.” Tian sighed, another tear making its way down his face, “I know. I just...I don't see why I can't go with you.” “It wouldn't be proper to my family,” she answered, “I should tell them about you before taking you to meet them.” She looked up at him, he was looking out at the ocean, “Hey, it's only for a little while; I'll be back.” Tian smiled, “I know. I'm going to miss, you Feng.” She smiled back, “You'd better.” They shared a brief laugh together, the call for all aboard came from the boat beside them. “Well,” Tian said with a choke, “Guess you're up.” “Guess so,” she looked up at him, “Wait for me?” Tian looked at her without answering. She tilted her head, “Tian?” “I'm thinking,” he said with a smile. She made a face and punched his shoulder. “Ow! That hurt!” Tian reached up to rub his shoulder “Good!” she stuck her tongue out at him, “Now then: Wait for me?” Tian gave a light laugh, “You know it.” “Good answer,” she replied with a sad smile. The call came again, Tian sighed, “You should probably go...otherwise you'll miss the boat.” “I know,” she said, tightening her hug again, “Just a few more seconds.” “You know,” she said as they held each other, “I never answered your question.” Tian looked back at her, “Technically I never asked.” She looked into his eyes, “Would you ask me now?” Tian smiled, “Will you marry me, Feng?” Her smile grew as she waited a second before answering, “Yes I will.” He brushed his hand through her hair as she looked up at him, he leaned down and they pressed their lips together.

“Final call!” the man on the boat shouted, “This boat is leaving!” “I have to go,” she said softly as they broke their embrace. “I know,” he replied, “I love you, Feng Huang.” She smiled, “I love you too, Tian.” Feng walked over to the ramp and onto the deck of the large ship in Rumen's harbor. As the ramp retracted, Feng made her way to the ship's railing, looking out and waving at Tian as the boat began to move away from the docks. Tian waved back at Feng as the boat turned out to sea; he continued to stand at the edge of the pier and watch as the blue boat slowly passed over the horizon. As the boat vanished from view, he took in a long breath, and walked back toward the town square, taking a seat by the fountain. He sat at the fountain, listening to the splashing of the water behind him and the waves crashing against Rumen's sea wall before him until after dark, then decided he'd head back to his family's house.

Ao Shun crouched behind a small bush, watching the movements of his prey. He watched carefully, waiting for the small group of Greenky wandering around the beast's feet to move away -while listening to the forest around him, lest a wandering Greenky manage to sneak up on him. One hundred yards away, a towering beast stomped through the forest, unconcerned about any of the puny creatures that wandered the forest as well; for while sometimes beasts would fight with each other as well as humans and elves, the Legendary Tree was so powerful that nothing else in the forest would dare challenge it. “I'm ready for you this time,” Ao grinned. “I hope you're right, Ao,” Celestina said from next to him, “I don't particularly like seeing adventurers get killed.”He looked over at her, “No faith.” “She looked back at him, “Well, you DID get killed last time.” Ao thought for a moment, then nodded, “This is true.” “The Greenkys are gone,” Celestina pointed out.” Ao looked up again, seeing that the Greenky had indeed decided wandering underfoot of the large tree was too dangerous -as it thought nothing of crushing them- and had gone to a safer area of the forest. Ao gave a toothy grin as he looked back at Celestina, “Show time.” Celestina shook her head as he stood from their hiding place and walked toward the giant tree.

He had not made it halfway before the beast noticed hi; seeming to recall its last encounter with the brash fighter, it turned toward the adventurer, crossing the thirty yards to the fighter in less than six steps. The tree swung low with a branch, gouging the ground in front of Ao Shun as it swept toward him. Ao spun to the side, hacking at the branch and slicing off the end. With a groan the tree brought its branch up, swinging again with another; and again Ao dodged, this time slicing into the tree's wide trunk. The tree seemed to become angered, swinging down at the fighter with both branches, this time one of the blows connected with the fighter, and he tumbled across the ground away from the tree. Ao Shun was unable to get up, and there was a sharp pain in his side when he tried to take a breath. He used a soul stone to recover as the tree began to make its way toward the downed adventurer. Ao clambered to his feet as the tree arrived, swinging its branch down at Ao once more. Ao feinted to one side, then quickly ducked and stepped to another, slicing up at the branch and cutting a six foot segment free. “I'm doing a lot better this time,” Ao thought to himself as he sliced several time into the tree's trunk, gouging out a large segment. The tree swung again, and again Ao dodged and hacked off a section of the branch. “Face it, I know your tricks now!” he shouted at the tree, “This time I have you!”

The tree growled, its face twisting in anger at the fighter's audacious claims. Ao sliced again as the tree seemed to hesitate; then it straightened up, standing as tall as it could- over ten meters in the air. Ao took a step back, looking up at the beast as it raised its two large branches high above its head, “What the...What the heck is it doing?” The tree's branches swung down and out, high above the fighter, Ao continued to watch in wonder; then he was hit by an incredible force that he did not see. The force slammed into him again and again, pummeling him; he raised his shield, trying to block whatever was attacking him, but was unable to stop the attacks. Another unseen attack slammed into his chest, and again into his head, his vision was becoming fuzzy as the torrent of energy continued to slam into him. Ao felt a sudden impact against the side of his head, his ears rang as the world suddenly turned black.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:19 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter XI: Forge's Fire

“Ao?” the voice echoed in the darkness. He wasn't sure where the call came from, all he could tell was that his ears were ringing, and it felt like he was surrounded by fire. “Ao!” the call came again, sounding surprised at something. There was a quick chant, then suddenly the unseen fire around him died, replaced by a refreshing wind. He groaned as the ringing in his ears died down, opening his eyes, seeing Celestina standing over him. He sat up from his spot on the ground, holding his head as the loud high pitched ringing suddenly came back; quickly fading out. “Unh,” he groaned, “Celestina? What? Where?” He looked around, remembering his fight with the tree as his mind cleared, “What happened?” She sat down next to the fighter, “Umm -you lost.” He looked back at her, “Clearly. Could you perhaps elaborate a bit more?” “The Legendary Tree used a magic attack on you,” she replied. “What?!” he shouted, “That thing has a freaking MAGIC attack!?” “Quiet!” she said in a harsh soft tone, motioning over her shoulder, “That tree isn't too far away, if it hears you and attacks both of us, no one will be here to revive us -I can't beat that thing myself.” His shoulders sagged, “Sorry, I just...I didn't know that thing could use magic. If I had, I would have used a scroll to increase my defense against magic attacks.” “I thought you knew,” she looked over at him, “You really attacked that thing twice without learning if it could use a magic attack?” “Everyone told me that it would crush me with its physical attacks,” he replied, “I guess no one thought I'd survive long enough for it to bother using the attack, so they never told me it would do so.”

They got up and started walking back toward the forest path toward Uruga. He sighed, “Another lesson learned, I guess.” “Pretty expensive lessons,” she said pointing at his armor. He looked down, his armor was shredded, “Oh come on!” “I noticed something about your last fight,” she said as he continued to inspect his armor, “You reach into your bag to use stones and potions.” “Well...yeah,” he replied, “How else could I use them?” “You ...don't know?” Ao looked over at her, “Know about what?” She shook her head, “Goodness...all these fights and you've been reaching into your bag to use stones and potions.” He raised an eyebrow, “Celest?” “Every time you use a potion or a stone your way, you have to stop fighting,” she answered, “Because of this, the bags have the ability to link several of their pockets to their owner's minds -similar to the patch for the guild system. It allows the owner to use items -like scrolls, potions or stones- without halting combat to reach into the bag.” “What?' Ao said back, “Why didn't I know about this!?” “Too busy to ask?” she shrugged. He shook his head, sighing, she gave a slight grin, “Another lesson learned?” He made a face and nodded, “Funny.” “I'm sorry,” she giggled, “I couldn't help it.”

“He hasn't left the house in HOW long!?” An Ning shouted at the mage in front of him. “Quiet!” He Liu shushed him. “Sorry,” An hung his head a bit, “So he's been like this for how long?” “About two weeks,” the mage repeated, “He comes out to gather food, but aside from that, he just sits in there, staring at a wall.” An shook his head, “Does he talk to people?” “Oh sure,” Liu said, “He'll talk if you go in there, just don't expect him to leave...or do anything outside beyond getting food.” An sighed, shaking his head, then walked into the small house. Upon entering, he saw the house's lone occupant, sitting in a chair staring at the ceiling. “Looks like it might need to have some parts replaced,' An said walking up next to his brother. The blue haired fighter looked over, “Huh?” “The ceiling,” An replied, “Looks like some of the wooden segments are getting old and starting to wear out; they'll need to be replaced soon.” Tian looked back up at the ceiling with a nod, “Hm.” An sat next to his brother, staring at the ceiling as well; allowing the silence to continue for a bit. “Wow,” he said after a few minutes, “This is incredibly boring -I can't believe you've done this for two weeks.” “Feng isn't able to come back,” Tian said, ignoring his brother's comment, “The harbor in her home town froze over, no ships can get in or out.” “If no one can get through,” he said, “How do you know?” “I sent a letter to her,” he answered, “the courier came back -no one can get through. The channels are too narrow for ships now -due to icebergs, but the ice is thin in many areas -too thin for people to walk across to another harbor.”

“I see,” An nodded. “It's not fair,” Tian said after another moment, “No part of any of this is fair.” An stayed silent for another minute before looking over at his brother, “So are you just gonna keep moping like this until Feng comes back?” Tian's face twisted and he shot to his feet, “What!? Moping? Are you insulting me!? The woman I love is stuck half a freaking world away from me and you insult me when I get depressed about it!?” An sat up, giving his brother a hard stare, “I'm not insulting you, Tian; and you've every right to be upset.” An stood up, his eyes at the same level as his brother's, “But this,” he said with a wave of his hand, “Is not something you should do. It's an over exaggeration of how bad things are for you. You're alive, so is Feng. Yes, you are separated from her for now, but newsflash: there are people that have actually LOST the ones they love -they have had to watch as they are killed by enemies, then have to live with themselves afterwards knowing that their loved one is dead while they continue to live. Do you really think you are worse off than they are!?” Tian said nothing as his brother continued, “You stay in here, as though there is nothing more that can go wrong in your life; and I am not going to pity you for perceiving things that way; nor will I pity you for what you are doing to yourself. But I have a question for you to think about.” Tian looked up, “If Feng were here, and saw what you were doing; what would she think? Would she be pleased at your behavior? Would she feel happy that her absence made you do this? How would she feel about herself at seeing how you're reacting?”

Again, Tian said nothing, looking down and to the side. An stepped to his brother's side,looking across the room, rather than at his brother, “Have you given up?” Tian looked over, “What?” “Your goal,” An replied, “It was to protect her, wasn't it?” “Yes,” Tian answered. An nodded, “Well?” “Well what?” Tian shot back. “Have you given up on that goal? Have you given up protecting Feng?” An looked back. “What kind of question is THAT!?” Tian spun to look at his brother, “In case you hadn't noticed, FENG IS NOT HERE FOR ME TO PROTECT!” “I'll repeat the question,” An continued to look away from his brother, “Have you given up on protecting her?” “FENG IS NOT HERE!!” Tian shouted. An spun around, shouting back, “Whether she's here or not does not have any bearing on whether or not you still wish to protect her! Now; DO YOU STILL WANT TO PROTECT HER!?” “Of course I do!” Tian yelled.

“Good,” An replied quietly, “Now then, let me ask you this: how do you want to protect her?” Tian looked away, “I want to make sure that an enemy can't get past me and make its way to her.” An nodded, “You'll need to be stronger than her to do that.” “I am stronger than her,” Tian replied. “True,” An said back, “But tell me; would something be wrong with being stronger than you are now when she got back?” Tian thought for a moment “Well, if I was too much stronger, then training with her wouldn't be beneficial to me, and that would make her feel bad -like she was dragging me down or holding me back.” “I didn't say if you trained up to Ao's level,” An said softly, “Just stronger than you are now. Wouldn't that assist you in your goal without making her feel like she was holding you back?” Tian thought for a moment as An walked toward the door. An hesitated at the door, “For what it's worth...I'm sorry that you can't be with her now.” With that he opened the door and stepped outside, leaving Tian alone in the house -which suddenly seemed much darker than it had the last week.

“That was some discussion I heard,” Liu said to his brother as An walked away. “How much did you hear?” An asked as he looked over. “The part about Tian not wanting to give up on his goal,” Liu looked over. “That part was probably easy to hear in Rumen,” An shook his head. “So is he going to come out?” Liu asked. “I don't know,” An said softly, “I told him he had to figure out what he wants to do; and gave him a suggestion.” “That's it?” Liu asked, “That's all you're going to do?” “That's all I felt I needed to do; he seemed to respond to it,” An looked over, “Though if you feel you can do more; he's still in the house.” Liu shook his head, looking up at the afternoon sky, “If I thought I could do more, I would have done it already.”

At twilight, Tian still sat in the house, holding his sword across his hands, staring at the blue glow of the blade as it lit up the house. “My good bodyguard,” Feng's voice came to his mind. “I will stay with her, by her side, as long as she asks me to stay,” these were things he'd thought some weeks ago while he was with her. More words came to his mind, words he'd told Feng himself, “Protecting you, is what I'm supposed to do, Feng.” He nodded, staring into the glow of his sword, “My duty, my promise...was to protect her no matter what,” He stood up, strapping on his armor, “If I am stronger when she gets back, I'll be able to protect her better than I can now.” He tightened his shield straps to his arm, “When she gets back, nothing that she needs to fight will be able to get past me.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:20 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter XII: Path of Dreams

The weather was becoming colder, Tian could see his breath in front of him as he ran down the forest path. The cold weather was interesting to Tian: the air seemed clearer, sounds were sharper; the grass gave off a crisp crunch as he ran across it, the sound of his footsteps seeming to echo off of the trees surrounding him. The trees parted as he arrived at a clearing, standing on one side of the field was a large man who wore very impressive armor; Tian Long ran up to him. “Ah so you've arrived, Tian Long,” the man greeted him, “You took your time getting here, my courier should have met you over an hour ago.” “Yes, I apologize,” Tian said with a slight bow, “What is it you wished to see me about, Grand Master Sean?” The man smiled, “Drop the act, young fighter; you know why you were summoned and being courteous won't make me tell you where I hid the key.” Tian smiled as he straightened, “Actually, Grand Master, I took the liberty of picking that up before I arrived to meet you.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a small copper key. Sean's grin faded, “You're not supposed to do that.” Tian grinned, “Sorry, I didn't get that particular message.” He held the key out with his palm up, “Here you go.” Sean frowned, looking at Tian's smug smile; his hand flashed out, and the key vanished from Tian's hand, “If you want to use my knowledge, you follow my rules. Go find it again.” Tian gaped at his empty hand, “What the!? How did you do that?” Sean grinned, “You're not the first to have tried that, and you won't be the last. Now: go find the key, then come back here.”

Ten minutes later, Tian returned with the key in his hand again; and once more presented it to the Grand Master. “That's better,” Sean said as he accepted the key, “Now then; I presume that your brothers have told you of what lies in the cave behind me, so I will skip that part of the introduction.” Tian smiled as the guardsman continued, “What precisely you will encounter I cannot tell, so prepare well. I will wait here, take your time making your preparations; come find me when you feel you are ready.” Tian flashed a wide grin and gave a slight nod, “I made my preparations before I even got here. I'm ready now.” Sean gave a challenging grin, “So sure, are you? I hope you are right, for what lies in that cave seeks your destruction. Shadow beings know everything about you, and will use what they know to distract you in hopes of defeating you.” Sean led Tian to the cave, and opened the large doors. Tian stepped into the darkness, Sean shutting the door behind him. Torches along the walls suddenly flared up, granting a dim lighting to the room.

Tian looked around -there was no door behind him, and while he had not taken more than three steps, he was in the center of a twenty foot long fifteen foot wide room. Footsteps came from ahead of him -through a dark corridor on the opposite side of the room. A figure emerged from the shadows, dressed in the armor of a fighter, armed with a sword that glowed blue with power, and a shield that shone red with energy. The shadow being stopped as it entered the room, his face uncovered by the torches' light. It stared at the fighter that had entered the cave, “It's about time you got here.” “Sorry to keep you waiting,” Tian gave a mocking bow, then stepped into a defensive posture. “You don't deserve what you've been given,” the shadow said quietly, “I will defeat you here, and go into your world to take your place. I will earn what you have not; I will protect what you can not.” The shadow dashed forward, slicing with his blade. A loud metallic clang reverberated through the room as Tian blocked the blade with his own sword; the two fighters stood, blades locked, glaring into each other's eyes.

The shadow pushed forward, knocking Tian backwards; he pressed the attack, swinging at the fighter as he regained his balance -Tian managing to use his shield to block the attack. Tian spun and stepped back to avoid another strike, swinging back with his own blade -his sword intercepted by the shadow's shield. “You're pathetically weak,” his shadow sneered. “I'm still warming up,” he growled back. Tian lunged again, his shadow knocked Tian's blade aside, then stepped in and stabbed at Tian's chest. Tian blocked the attack with his shield, but the shadow reached up with his other hand, smashing Tian against the head with its shield. Tian staggered back and shook his head, then began walking to the side as his shadow began circling. “This isn't very exciting, is it?” the shadow tilted its head, “Perhaps I'll have some fun with you before killing you, though.” The shadow lunged in again, Tian managed to block with his shield. Tian feinted a lunge to the right, then reversed his step, spinning and reversing his grip in his sword, slashing backwards at his shadow's relatively unprotected chest. The blade slid across the leather armor on his shadow's chest as it jumped back to avoid the strike, landing inside the corridor. The shadow stopped, regarding its opponent for a moment; then backed away into the darkness, “You're not worth my time. I'll let someone else deal with you.”

“Ao, are you certain?” Liu asked the fighter. Ao Shun nodded, “I'm as sure as I can be.” “Ao,” he protested, “Leyrra isn't going with you on this one, and Celestina isn't around either -you don't have a cleric with you.” “That's why I spent so much gold to have my armor refined,“ he answered, “It will absorb more of the damage; letting me survive a greater blow -increasing the chances that if I lose, my armor will port me back to Uruga.” “You do realize you just said, 'increase the chances' about that, right?” Liu pointed out, “Not 'definitely will', but 'increase the chances'; meaning not a guarantee.” Ao grinned, “I know. It makes it a bit more critical that I win. It's actually kind of exciting, really; maybe it will make me try a bit harder than the last few times.” “Ao!” Liu called as the fighter began to walk away. He turned and looked at the green haired mage, “What is it?” Liu wasn't sure what to say; he knew he couldn't stop the fighter regardless, “Be careful, brother.” Ao Shun nodded and curled his arm up with a fist; then the green haired fighter walked down the long set of stairs at Uruga's southern gate heading toward Ancient Elven Woods.

Tian flinched as he pulled the arrow from his shoulder blade -a souvenir from one of the two defeated skeleton archers on the ground behind him. He reached into his bag and grabbed a potion, using it to heal his wound. The door to the large chamber opened, revealing yet another corridor beyond it, completely unlit. Tian shook his head as he walked through the door and into the darkness. The doors swung shut behind him, leaving him unable to see anything in the narrow corridor. He began to feel the way along the walls, when he noticed a blue light coming from down the hall. He walked up to the light, finding that the light was being reflected form a small mirror. He continued following the light from one mirror to the next until he came to another chamber. He stepped into the chamber, which filled with a sudden bright light, revealing his shadow, a bandit archer, a bandit swordsman and a stone golem waiting for him in the room's center.

“Well I have to admit,” his shadow shrugged, “I didn't think the kebing or skeletons would actually stop you.” “Then why bother with them?” Tian asked. “Contract,” the shadow shrugged again, “They come with these last guys -but they're a bit more effective than the guys you just fought.” The archer suddenly drew back on her bow, pointing an arrow at Tian's chest. Tian ran forward, slicing at the archer with his blade. The archer let her arrow loose, it flew through the air and embedded itself in Tian's chest, but failed to halt his advance. Tian drove through, thrusting the tip of his blade into the archer's stomach. The archer fell to the ground as Tian removed his sword and swung around at the bandit swordsman, who was swinging down with his own blade. The large sword came down with great power, Tian had to use his blade and shield to block the attack. “That was unexpected,” the shadow said from the sideline, “I really thought you'd try to dodge that shot.” “Why dodge it,” Tian grunted, “When the one shooting it is still there?” “Point,” the shadow nodded. The shadow then looked over at the stone golem next to him, and pointed at Tian, “Kill him.”

The trek took him almost fifteen minutes before he finally arrived at the end of the forest path where the tree was known to lurk. Ao stepped into the brush, pushing aside the green vines and small leaf-covered branches that were in his way. “Where are you?” Ao called softly. Ao stopped for a moment, trying to figure out where his opponent was. He felt a tremor in the ground below him, and heard distant rhythmic rumbling and crashing as a large creature stomped through the forest around it. Ao's eyes narrowed and he started walking toward the sounds. The sounds became louder, Ao's heart began pumping faster in anticipation as he walked farther. A large grin spread across his face as he pushed aside the branches of another bush, allowing him the sight of an enormous tree beast stalking through the forest before him. Ao stepped through the brush into the relatively clear area the tree had just walked through, “Hey, you overgrown weed! I'm here to cut you down to size!” The tree stopped, turning around to look for the soon-to-be dead being that said that, stopping short as it saw it was once again that fighter. Ao stepped forward, “You know, you really need to learn how to finish what you start; if you keep letting enemies survive, they'll just keep coming back for you.” The tree growled, and began walking toward the fighter, who moved into a guard stance.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:20 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter XII: Path of Dreams

The tree swung down at the fighter, and Ao nimbly dodged, hacking again into the tree's trunk. The tree lifted its branches high above its head, then swung them down, releasing a sudden burst of energy. The unseen barrage began striking Ao from all sides, slamming into his chest, arms, legs and head. As blast after blast pummeled him, he focused his mind on his bag, sending a thought to it; a pocket glowed blue as the soul stone inside used a charge to heal the fighter, keeping him conscious throughout the assault. The tree lowered its branch arms, and stared as the fighter below was still standing. Ao looked up with a grin, “Surprised?” The tree roared, swinging down with a branch, Ao sliced at the branch, cutting off a long segment, then hacked again at the gouge he had been making in the tree's trunk. The tree brought its wounded branch back up, looking at it a moment before sprouting a new end to it. Ao looked on as the slice in the side of the beast began to regrow from the inside, and sliced in again as hard as he could with his sword. As his blade struck into the stalk of the wooden beast, it swept down with another branch, knocking the fighter away. Ao rolled along the forest floor, he placed a hand on the ground and rotated, halting his roll and standing. Springing forward he charged in at the Legendary Tree once again, swinging his sword out to one side, “You're gonna have to do a lot better than that!”

The swordsman swung again, yanking his blade behind him then pulling up and over his head and down at the fighter. Tian swung his shield to the left while stepping right to avoid the strike; as he stepped he spun and sliced with his own sword at the bandit swordsman. His blade sliced into the swordsman's side, but before he could complete the attack, he felt an incredible pain in his side as the golem swung its stone club at him. Tian rolled across the floor, yelling as he landed on top of the arrow, pushing it deeper into his chest and breaking off the end as he rolled. Tian groaned as he got to his feet, his shadow laughing from his spot in the center of the room, “Nice work, Tian! Try again, eventually focusing on only one enemy at a time will work!” Tian looked down at his chest, the arrow was broken off less than an inch above the skin -it would be hard to pull out. He looked up as the swordsman shouted, slicing around wildly with his blade. Tian stepped in and crossed his shield arm over his body to block, then reversed his step and swung out as he spun, slicing again into the swordsman's torso. The golem attempted to attack Tian as he countered again, but Tian was waiting for the attack. As the golem swung across, Tian fell to his back on the ground, the golem's club slamming into the wounded swordsman; he flew across the room and landed in an unmoving heap against the far wall of the chamber. Tian chuckled as he rolled toward the golem, swinging his sword around and slicing through the golem's ankle. The golem opened its mouth in surprise as his leg no longer supported its weight; the stone beast fell to the floor. As the golem crashed to the ground, Tian got to his feet and ran up the golem's back, dragging his sword up through the center and slicing the living statue in half; the golem crumbling into rubble as his blade finished the slice.

Looking back at his shadow, still standing in the room's center, Tian grinned, pointing the tip of his blade at the shadow, “Well; looks like I get to fight you after all.” Shadow Tian pointed at Tian's chest, “If you intend to fight me, you might want to take care of that first. I won't be as easy as those idiots.” Tian looked down again at the broken blood-stained wooden shaft sticking out of his upper right chest. He placed the edge of his shield against one side, raising his sword and reversing his grip. He growled in pain as he pressed his sword's hilt against the shaft of the arrow, pushing the arrow in turn against the edge of the shield and lifting out. He yelled as the tip of the arrow finally tore free, throwing the broken projectile to the ground.

He had been fighting for over ten minutes, and both enemies were beginning to show it. The tree swung low again, swiping at the fighter, Ao twisted in toward the attack, bringing his blade down and cutting through the tip of the branch again, jumping back to avoid the attack from the tree's other branch. Ao turned toward the tree, his shoulders rising and falling noticeably as he panted heavily; the tree seemed to stop for a moment as well -taking a second to regenerate its broken branch. Ao rushed in again, the tree lifted its branches and sent out a pulse of swirling energy, which crashed into the fighter. Ao's vision blurred with the sudden strong impact; he sent a thought to his bag and used another soul stone to recover as he staggered back trying to regain his balance. “What's...What's wrong?” Ao panted as he bent over a bit, “I hardly ev...even felt that. You getting tired or something?” The tree stomped forward, swinging with both branches and following up with another magic blast, knocking the fighter back again. “Oh man. Okay...I felt that one,” Ao said as he picked himself up off the ground, “Guess he's not so tired, after all.”

He used another stone as he straightened, “You must be getting desperate to be rushing your attacks like that!” The tree growled, its face turning into a sneer as it swept down again at the fighter; Ao rushed beneath the branches as they swept in, slicing once more into the large cut he'd been making in the tree's trunk throughout the engagement. Ao noticed as he struck, that a crack had appeared at the cut's edge, and it was widening as the tree stepped and twisted to attack. Ao grinned as he saw the crack, then flew backwards as the tree swung at him again while he wasn't paying attention. Ao rolled backwards and shot to his feet, charging in and dodging to avoid the tree's first strike. The Legendary Tree bent low again, swiping with its other branch, Ao sidestepped and swung up, slicing into the end and cutting it off, then brought his sword down and around to cut into the notch in the tree's trunk. The tree lifted wounded branch up above its head as Ao rotated,throwing his shield arm out in front of him and holding his sword far behind his back; the tree began to lower its branches as Ao planted his blade into the ground, anchoring it. Ao rotated over, using his spin and bodyweight to pull his blade free of the ground, slamming it into the ground at the feet of the tree. The sword impacted, sending a tremor into the ground, lifting the ground and the giant beast atop it while sending a shockwave through the air, blasting the tree's branches back into the air; halting its own attack.

The ground dropped from beneath the Legendary Tree, and the tree began to fall as the tremor created by Ao Shun's Devastate attack caused the ground to rise up once again, slamming into the tree's legs. The stress of the ground coming up and the weight of the tree coming down transferred into the tree's trunk, compacting the beast's wooden body -including the large gouge Ao had been creating during the battle. The stress hit the gouge, pressing down from the top and up from below, transferring the force to the small area Ao had not yet sliced through causing the tree to lean over, trying to pull back to compensate. There was a loud audible popping sound as wood splintered and gave way, the crack expanding all the way through the tree's trunk. The tree's face became one of shock as its upper body fell forward while its lower body fell back; Ao scrambling to get out of the way of the giant beast. The tree impacted with the ground, a cloud of dust and debris shot upward from the impact, covering the area for over a minute. Ao coughed and swiped his hand in front of his face; as the dust cleared, he saw the giant tree beast lying on the ground before him -the Legendary Tree was not moving.

“It's....over?” he stared at the body of the monster in disbelief. He walked up to it, tapping the body with his sword; the tree remained unmoving. “I won?” Ao asked, eyes wide as he continued to stare. He gave a nervous laugh, “I actually killed it?” He tilted his head back and let out a loud yell, leaping into the air, “Wooohooo! I FINALLY killed the Legendary Tree!” There was a sharp pain in his back, three small spikes sprouted from below his right shoulder. He looked behind him, a Giant Pixy had heard the noise of the tree's demise followed by the fighter's call; and seeing the fighter turned away from it, had jabbed its trident through his back. The large green enemy jerked his trident back and Ao Shun fell to the ground, world turning black. He awoke a minute later, finding himself surrounded by the vendors of Uruga's market street. He shook his head, “Aw, you've GOT to be kidding me.” He sat up, his side throbbing as he used a stone to recover, “All that fighting...I actually beat the Legendary Tree...and a PIXY beats me afterwards.” He got to his feet, shaking his head with a grin, “But I did it...I did beat that freaking tree in a fight.” He thought for a moment, frowning, “You know -that doesn't sound nearly as hard as it actually was.”

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:21 AM

Book 3: Ao Shun and Tian Long’s Story
Chapter XII: Path of Dreams

Tian walked to the side, blade dragging along the stone ground with a light scrape; his shadow circles dragging his own blade as well. “You think you are strong enough?” the shadow asked, “You really think you can protect her?” Tian stopped, “What?” “You're too weak,” the shadow continued, “You won't be able to save her.” “Save her from what?” Tian asked. The shadow answered by charging forward with a quick thrust, Tian dodged, knocking the blade aside with his shield and stepping back; his shadow halted, spinning around to face him again. The shadow lunged again, blade flashing as he brought it down, across and up over and over. “You're weak! Pathetic! Hopeless!” the shadow yelled with each strike, “You will never be able to protect her as you are!” Tian continued blocking the attacks, backing away as his shadow pressed its attack, “You think you are helping her? You think you will keep her safe? She will die in front of you and you won't be able to do anything about it!”

Tian blocked again with his shield, spinning and slicing back with his own blade, narrowly missing his shadow's neck. His shadow leaned back and kicked up, catching Tian under the chin and knocking him back towards a wall. His shadow sliced again, Tian blocking with his shield; his shadow hitting him across his head with its own shield. Tian fell back once more, the shadow striking again -this time at the straps to Tian's shield, severing them and letting it fall to the ground with a clatter. Tian rushed forward, slicing at the shadow, who blocked the strike and kicked again, causing Tian to fall back yet again. As Tian staggered his shadow charged forward, giving three quick slashed to Tian's chest and legs; Tian fell to the ground at the wall's base, groaning as his shadow walked up to him. “You see?” his shadow jeered, “You were never strong enough to beat me. Sean knew that; it's why he sent you here -he knew I was more suited for the job.” “Job?” Tian asked hazily. “I'll do what you never could,” the shadow gave a sadistic smile, “Don't worry; I'll take good care of Feng.”

Tian's eyes snapped open and he let out a loud yell, springing to his feet with an upward slice, his shadow jumping back to avoid the sudden strike -the blade passing so close it would have severed a hair placed between the blade and the shadow. Ignoring the pain from in front of him and the shield on the ground next to him, Tian charged at his shadow with the newfound strength of pure blinding fury. He swung his blade at the shadow, who raised his own blade to block; only to give a surprised shout as Tian knocked his blade aside, then jabbed forward, hitting the shadow in the nose with his sword's handle. “You will never get near her!” Tian yelled as he swung his sword around again, the shadow using both shield and sword to halt the ferocious attack. The shadow kicked out once more, Tian twisted and caught the shadow's foot between his arm and body, giving an evil smile. The shadow yelled as Tian took a step back and twisted while leaning to the side -a loud popping crunch coming from the shadow's ankle. Tian released the trapped foot and the shadow hobbled backwards, “What? What happened? How are you doing this?” “You will not touch her,” Tian said quietly, dragging his sword in a semi-circle along the ground as he swayed to one side, dragging the blade behind him. He burst forward, blade pointing at the Shadow's chest with a loud shout, “I WON'T LET YOU GET ANYWHERE NEAR HER!” The shadow swept his blade across to intercept, but Tian pulled the tip up as he thrust, moving now for a killing strike at the shadow's neck. The shadow swiped with his shield to knock the sword off course, but only partly succeeded; rather than passing through the throat, it sliced across the side of his neck, narrowly missing his artery.

The shadow limped back again as Tian skidded to a halt beyond the shadow; his eyes opened wide as Tian took a long step back, spinning around and lifting his sword high into the air, bringing it down at the Shadow's head -ready to run the blade from the top of its head through the base of its body. The shadow stepped back, pain shooting through his wounded ankle and tripping him as it gave way; Tian's blade sinking into the ground with a harsh slice and the crackle of stone. Tian yanked at his blade, and it refused to budge from its new sheath; the shadow got to his feet with a grin, pointing his blade at Tian and hobbling toward Tian, who began pulling at his sword more quickly. “You got careless,” his shadow snickered as he touched his blade to Tian's throat -Tian leaned back a bit as the cold metal contacted his skin, “That is going to cost you.” Tian's eyes narrowed, his mouth curving upward in a grin, “Same to you.” The shadow's eyes widened as he noticed that Tian was leaning away from both the shadow and his grounded sword, “I must finish him now,” the thought came to his mind, “If he pulls it free...” The thought was never finished, as the shadow pushed his blade forward, Tian leaned back and pulled with as much strength as he could freeing his blade and pulling it around, into the shadow's chest. Tian fell backwards from the force of the pull, shouting slightly as his neck slid along the shadow's own blade. As the blood from his wound began to flow out, he reached into his bag and grabbed a soul stone, using it to heal the cut and replenish the lost blood. Tian got to his feet, seeing the shadow writhing in pain on the ground before him. Tian place his blade on the shadow's throat, the shadow stopping and looking back, “You think...you...can protect her?” the shadow being gurgled, You...think you can...be...her shield?” “No,” Tian answered, “I will not be her shield. I will not take the hits for her; she has her own shield to do that.” The shadow seemed puzzled at Tian's statement. “I will be her blade,” he continued, “I will protect her by destroying those that would harm her; slicing my way through any enemy that dares get near her.” His eyes narrowed, “Just like you.” He thrust his blade forward, the shadow falling silent as its body went limp.

He pulled his sword back and retrieved his shield from its resting place on the ground. A sudden light flared to existence, blinding Tian; as his vision returned, he found himself standing in front of the Grand Master Once more. “Congratulations are an order, Tian Long,” Sean smiled, “You have bested your shadow and passed your trial; earning the right to the title Clever Fighter.” Sean reached into his bag, “As well as earning your choice of weapon for the clever fighter: the shield-bearing one handed sword; the more powerful two handed sword; and the powerful but ungainly axe.” Tian looked at the shield in his hands, straps somehow repaired. He looked up at the Grand Master, “Give me the axe, please, Master Sean.” Sean grinned as he pulled out an axe and handed it to the fighter, “Somehow young fighter, I had a feeling you'd ask for that.”

That night Tian met with his brothers at their house, and he showed his brothers his new weapon. “It IS impressive,” Ao said as he inspected it, “But I could perhaps do better.” His brothers all looked in puzzlement as Ao reached into his bag, retrieving a large two handed sword, blade bathed in an energy that glowed like fire. “This sword,” Ao said, “Was given to me for defeating King Marlone. It is impressive for its level -much stronger than that axe you now hold; but is too weak for me to use personally.” He extended his hands, presenting Tian with the fiery blade, “Perhaps you could make good use of it, brother.” Tian gaped as he received the weapon, trying to think of anything he could say to his brother. Failing at finding anything original, he simply smiled, “Thanks, Ao.” Tian hefted the blade in the air, swinging it a few times, then brought it centered in front of him, “Oh yeah,” he smiled, “I could get used to this.”

“That sounds like it was some fight,” Celestina said from Ao Shun's side as he recounted the previous day's events, “And it was very nice of you to give that sword to your brother.” “Yeah, well,” Ao shrugged, “I wasn't using it, and he -well he didn't NEED it, but he could make more use of it than I could.” Celestina nodded, keeping quiet for a moment; then looked back at him, “So what's next for Ao Shun the soloist?” Ao Shun looked out from their high point overlooking the forests and mountains of Uruga, “Well I heard some people talking the other day.” Celestina sat up, “About what?” “Tell me,”Ao Shun looked back at her with a familiar grin, “what do you know about a large monster called the Ghost Knight?” She looked over at him, "And whyever would you want to know about that?" Because," he smirked, "I'm thinking of fighting him next." She smiled, lowering then shaking her head and chuckling lightly. It was going to be quite interesting to be around these four brothers.

Orchids_Mantis

01-17-2009, 09:22 AM

The Tale of the Four Brothers
The Interim Years: Ao and Nyaka

She looked at the crumpled form of her shadow; breathing heavily as she tried to relax. “Finally,” she panted, “It’s over.” A bright light came from the center of the room; filling the whole chamber; when it vanished, she was standing outside in by of Grand Master Sean again. He was talking to someone on the other side of him –she couldn’t see who, though. Seeing the light signifying her arrival, he spoke to the person she could not see, “Ah, excuse me a moment.” “Surte, no problem,” the unknown person replied in a familiar-sounding voice. Sean turned around and smiled, “I see you’ve returned. Successfully, I trust?” She looked up at Sean, “There was another fighter in there.” The old guard smiled, “Mm, your shadow. I see you managed to defeat her.” She shook her head, “No.” Sean raised an eyebrow, “No?” She held up a hand, shaking her head emphatically, “No-no-no. I mean ‘No that’s not what I meant.’ There was another fighter in there besides her.” The Grandmaster tilted his head, “Oh? Who?” She looked away, “I…don’t know. He was just there all of a sudden in one of the big chambers; a fighter with a refined sword and highly refined shield glowing red and pink with energy. I walked up and looked at him. It was creepy –it was like, he was there, but he wasn’t really there. When he looked at me it was like he was looking through me.” The big man crossed his arms, “What happened?” She looked back up at him, “He asked me who I was. I considered not telling him, but after a moment he asked again and I told him my name. Then he asked why I was there; but before I could answer he vanished…like a ghost or something.” “Hm. That is interesting,” he nodded. He looked down at the girl with a knowing smile, “Well; in all honesty I had a feeling that might happen…and as such, there is someone I’d like you to meet.” The large man moved aside, as she caught sight of the fighter that had been standing behind him, her jaw dropped. The armor he wore was different, that of a much higher level than she had seen; and his shield now had wings, but the face was the same –it was the fighter she had seen in the Shadow Cave. Sean grinned slightly as he looked at the gape-mouthed girl and the obviously stunned man, “This should be interesting,” he thought.

The other fighter recovered first, regaining his composure as he spoke, “You look…exactly as I remember you…Nyaka.” She stepped back, “You know my name?” “Of course, you told it to me,” he replied. She looked down a bit, “Oh right; I forgot I just told you.” The other fighter shook his head, “I wouldn’t say ‘just’.” She looked up as he continued, “You told me your name a few years ago –when I was going through the Shadow Cave myself.” She looked up, clearly surprised, “What? Impossible, I wasn’t even an adventurer until only a month ago!” The fighter shrugged, “Yes well; one would normally say that it would be impossible for me to be in the cave with you while I was elsewhere; yet as you can clearly see I was not in the shadow cave with you just now –I was in Uruga when Sean’s messenger pigeon arrived.” He looked away, “I’m not saying I understand it; I’m just pointing out that it happened; so clearly it is not impossible.” Drawing her sword the girl pointed her blade at the other fighter, “Who are you!? Tell me!” The fighter seemed amused, “Those that know me know that I am not threatened by blade or arrow; level difference alone suggests you sheath your sword.” The girl did not heed the advice, shoving the blade closer to the fighter, “Tell me who you are!” The fighter tilted his head, smiling slightly –which caught her off guard, “Arrogant little thing, aren’t you? You must know that you cannot threaten me with that puny little dagger of yours.” He drew his own sword, a much higher level blade surrounded by fire, pulsing with energy, “The same, however, cannot be said of me threatening you.” The girl’s eyes widened, but she held her ground, keeping her sword pointed at him. He smiled again, sheathing his blade as he nodded, “Hm, interesting –you’ll be a good fighter in the future.” He took a breath, “My name is Ao Shun.” Her face went slightly pale, “Ao Shun…the soloist?” He grinned slightly, “Ah so you’ve heard of me; that’s neat. Usually only my friends know of my exploits these days.” He looked at her again, raising an eyebrow, “So…you going to put your sword away or do you actually plan on attacking me?” Quickly her blade disappeared into its sheath.

Nyaka looked up at Sean, “Okay…can you clear any of this up?” Sean shook his head, “Sorry, but I am merely the keeper of the key to the cave; no one –including me- understands everything that place shows.” He looked between the two adventurers, “I’m guessing that you two meeting was no accident, however.” “Well yeah,” Ao replied, “You called me here; otherwise I would still have been in Uruga when she came out.” Sean shook his head, “I don’t understand all of the cave’s magic, but I do know that the cave shows a reflection of the future of each person in there; so clearly you two were supposed to meet.” The two adventurers looked at each other while Sean continued, “If you want to know what the cave sees in store for you; perhaps you should stick together and see it for yourselves. It is not forced upon you, your futures are influenced by your own individual choices; but beyond this, I can offer no advice.” The two fighters looked at each other for a moment before Ao spoke up, “So….what do you think?” She thought for a second, “Well...I’m curious to know what was meant by it, are you?” Ao grinned, “I’ve been wanting to know for years.”

They looked at Sean, nodding in thanks then turned and headed for town. “That’s a very pretty shield,” Nyaka said as they started to walk away. Ao Shun chuckled, “Thanks.” He waited a moment, then grinned, “Steel Wing appreciates the compliment as well.” She looked back at him, “Steel Wing?” Ao Shun nodded, “Yup. That’s its name: Steel Wing.” Nayaka shook her head, “La-ame.” “Oh that hurts,” Ao grinned, “I thought it was a good name at the time.” Nyaka chuckled, “When was that? Four years old?” Ao Shun stopped, “O-uch!” “Seriously…’Steel Wing’? That’s the best you could do?” she asked as she continued to laugh. Ao trudged after her, “Alright, Ms. Smarty-Pants, what would you have named it?” She laughed again, “Well I could have done a lot better than Steel Wing.” “Oh I’m sure,” Ao retorted, “But you still haven’t told me what you would have named it; in fact you have yet to give a single idea as to…” The words became indistinguishable as they continued to walk farther away; Grand Master Sean shook his head and grinned, “What lies ahead for those two…should be very interesting.” He chuckled as he heard their conversation continue unintelligibly, “Hehehe; very interesting indeed.”

mysty2

01-18-2009, 12:27 PM

I want more

Orchids_Mantis

01-18-2009, 04:07 PM

The Tale of the Four Brothers
The Interim Years: The Cleric and the Archer

The blue-haired cleric grinned as the ball of energy crackled in the mage’s hands. With a shout the mage hurled the ethereal attack at him; An braced himself, raising his large shield, stepping back as the blast’s impact slammed into the large metal sheet lashed to his arm. The mage was surprised by An surviving the attack so easily, and stretched out his hand, chanting as he prepared another attack. An looked at the ground, noting the red circle that stretched out behind him, and the blue circle before him –an overlapping section of the two neatly surrounding his feet.

The mage continued chanting as the cleric straightened, standing in place and looking straight at the mage. “This one will finish him off,” the mage thought as he concentrated on his chant. The mage finished his chant, flicking his wrist. From below the ground a searing flame surged upwards around and inside the red circle. Above the blue circle formed massive crystals of ice, which dropped to the ground, the crystals filled with energy from inside the circle like the focal point on a mage’s staff; the ice, though, was not able to handle the energy as a focusing crystal could, and the overloaded ice crystals shattered, flying through the air in small –but very deadly- projectiles. The mage grinned as the cleric was hit by the flame of his Inferno, then consumed by the light of Nova’s devastating explosive attack. His grin quickly faded, eyes widening as a silhouette appeared in the light of the two attacks. “It can’t be,” he thought as the shadow loomed closer to the edge, “It’s impossible for him to have..” His thought went unfinished as the cleric walked slowly out of the dual-attack. The blue-haired cleric looked over at his shoulder, the cloth of which was smoldering slightly from Inferno’s heat, and brushed at it with his hand. The cleric looked back at the mage with a grin, “All done?” The mage shouted, raising both his hands as he prepared a powerful blast attack, then fell to the ground as a large hammer impacted his back. The mage stayed on the ground unmoving, then his body suddenly vanished –taken by the battle zone’s enchantments to another point where he would be healed then released again. “Aw, Cookie,” An said with a sorrowful expression, “That seemed completely unnecessary.” The red-haired cleric, Cookie Princess, smiled back at him, “It was; but at the same time, so was you toying with him like that.” An laughed as she continued, “Seriously, An…why do you even come in here? You never kill anyone.” An Ning shrugged, “Why do I have to want to kill someone to come here? I just like the area, what’s wrong with coming here to enjoy the view?” Cookie Princess shook her head, “I’d argue with you…but there’s no real point, is there?” An smiled, “Not really.” She shook her head and laughed, turning away. “More people to fight?” An asked as she started walking away. She looked back at him with a grin, “You know it.” The two clerics laughed, then parted ways, Cookie running down the stairs to the middle level of the Free Battle Zone, An staying in the upper level. An waited a second, then turned to head back toward the entrance, thinking perhaps it was time to actually do some training. He shook his head, “Nah…I’ll go to the Forest of Tides instead.”

The low level areas were scarcely populated these days; most of the newbies were either in guilds or had masters that taught them the basics –and sometimes finer points- of being an adventurer themselves –leaving little for An to do most times he visited. He sat down in the grass on a small hill, overlooking the area where Mushroom Fighters tended to roam –an area once heavily trodden by new adventurers that didn’t know how that the powers they were given had limitations, as they ran away from the relatively large and strong beasts. Now the fields below were largely empty, save a few small Imps, Slime and Mushroom wandering about. An sighed to himself, thinking about how he missed the days where he could help and teach in this area. “Excuse me,” came a voice from behind him, jerking him out of his thoughts. He turned to see who had called, finding the source to be an archer. “Something I can help you with?” She shuffled her feet a bit, “Maybe.” He took a second look at her, noticing that she was an adventurer of reasonable level, he tilted his head to the side, “You are a bit high level to be in here, aren’t you?” The girl blushed, “Actually…I’ve been waiting for you, An Ning.” An was taken back, “For me? I haven’t been here in months!” “I know,” she answered, “I’ve been coming here off and on for a few years now hoping to see you.”

His eyes shot open, “A few years!? Why would you be looking for me that long?” He thought for a moment, “Wait a second…how do you know my name again?” She looked down, “Well, you probably don’t remember me…My name is Xiao Bai Yang. A few years ago I was training here –right after I had become an adventurer. I was attacking Slime and Mushroom for a quest. I shot at a speedy Mushroom, but it dodged and my arrow hit a Hero Slime, causing it to attack me.” She looked up at him, “I tried to run away, but it caught up to me and knocked me down. It jumped into the air to crush me, but you cast a barrier on me and saved me.” An’s eyes opened wider again as he remembered the scenario she described, “Ah right. I do remember you.” “I’m glad,” she smiled. An looked over at her, “But you’ve been looking for me ever since then?” “Honestly no,” she answered, “I thanked you and went on my way –and you on yours. At first I just continued my training as normal. But I never forgot you. Every day I’d think about the cleric that saved me; and after a while, I started wanting to see you again.” She looked up at him, “I’ve made a lot of inquiries about you, found some people that knew you –people you trained with, guilds you used to be in- all in the hopes that I could find you again.” An wasn’t sure what to say –he was slightly creeped out at a person searching for him for so long, “Why did you want to see me, exactly?” She hesitated a moment, “Because…I wanted to ask you…if you might consider…” An waited as she continued to hesitate, “Consider?” She looked up, cheeks blushing, eyes slightly afraid, “Being my boyfriend?” An was again astonished, but he forced himself to remain calm as he replied, “You’ve been waiting –looking for me- for years…to ask me to go out with you?” She nodded, not talking. “You’re basing this all on a picture you have of me saving you; you don’t know anything about me.” “I know you are nice!” she answered quickly –and loudly. She quickly hung her head, voice dropping in volume, “I know you care a nice guy that is kind, who cares about other people. That’s enough for me to be interested. As to your comment; it’s true I don’t know much about you –and you know nothing about me…but I want to know more about you. And if you’re okay with it…I want you to know more about me as well.” He looked back at her –she was genuinely serious with her request. He wanted to straight-up reject this –after all, the whole thing was insane- but there was something about her that made it seem…alright.

Xiao Bai Yang hung her head as An remained silent, she shut her eyes –she knew he was going to turn her down. He spoke at last, “I can’t be a boyfriend with someone that doesn’t know me…and I cannot have a girlfriend I know nothing about.” Her heart sank as she nodded –she knew it would end like that; then she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see him smiling gently, a warm look in his eyes, “So perhaps you should begin telling me more about you.” She stared a moment –waiting to see if he was tricking her; when he hadn’t said anything after a moment, she launched herself forward, nearly knocking An over as she hugged him, “Thank you thank you thank you!!” “Ack! Whoa, easy there,” he choked out, “I’m not...promising…anything!” he said as he pried her off of himself. He held her at arms length, “I cannot say what will become of this; only that I am willing to learn more about you and let you know more about me. If you still feel the same way when we know each other better, then we can talk about the next step. Is that okay?” She smiled, nodding emphatically, “Definitely.” An nodded, “Okay then.” She fidgeted slightly, “But…” An tilted his head to the side, “Hm?” She looked up at him, “Umm….Can I still hug you?” An exhaled softly –this girl was definitely unique. “All right,” he said after a moment, “Just try not to knock me over, okay?” She smiled, wrapping her arms around him again.

Orchids_Mantis

01-24-2009, 09:43 AM

The Tale of the Four Brothers
The Interim Years: The Flowing River and the Beautiful Blade

Liu smiled to himself as he wandered down the forest path; nodding as he came to a familiar tree. “So this is where it started,” he thought, “I was walking by here when I saw her.” “Hey there,” came a voice, snapping his mind back to the present. He turned, seeing a young woman standing before him, “Yes?” “This is probably going to sound weird,” she began, shuffling slightly, “But I’m…trying to find my way to Rumen to register as an Adventurer. Do you know the way?” Liu’s eyes widened a bit, the girl looked away, “You think it’s foolish to be an adventurer as well?” “No, no, no!” he said waving his hands in front of himself, “That’s not it at all!” The woman looked back at him, “Oh?” Liu smiled, “Why would I think it was foolish? I’m one myself.” The woman looked him over, “no offense…but you don’t look very strong.” He Liu laughed, “No offense taken –I’m not that strong…at least not physically.” He reached into his bag, pulling out and showing her his staff. “A mage?” she said softly as she looked at him. Liu grinned, stretching out his hand. Sparks flew from his fingers as energy gathered in his palm; the energy built, quickly forming itself into a ball. He raised his hand above his head, then threw the energy into the air, the magic blast leaving a trail of energy behind it as it slowly burned itself out, traveling higher and higher into the air. The girl stared at him as he grinned back at her, “So in answer to your other question: yeah, I happen to know the way to Rumen.” He smiled and started down the path, then stopped, looking back at the girl –still standing in the same spot. “You coming?” he called out after a second. She jerked slightly at his call, then nodded, “Oh! Sorry! I’m coming!” Liu laughed, turning around and walking down the path again; the girl quickly caught up to him, walking beside him. “So what’s your name?” the girl asked after a few minutes of walking. “My name is He Liu,” he answered, “Most people just call me ‘Liu’, though.” She smiled, “Ah, well thank you, Liu.” “Hehe, it’s no problem,” he laughed, “So what name are you going to register under?” “Mei Jian,” she replied. “’May Jen’…you mean Megan?” he asked. The woman shook her head, “Uh-uh. ‘Mei Jian’ It sounds a little like Megan, but it’s different. Mei Jian –the name I will use- means ‘beautiful blade.” Liu nodded, “Aah, I see.” He chuckled a bit, “I guess that means I don’t need to ask what class you will be applying for.” “Fighter,” she smiled back. He Liu laughed, “Yeah…kinda figured that.”

The two talked all the way to Rumen, where He Liu led Mei Jian to where Remi stood, waiting for new adventurer applicants. “This is where I leave you to start, I guess,” Liu said after a moment. Mei Jian nodded, “Thank you for showing me the way here.” Liu laughed again, “Stop thanking me for that, really. I was on my way back here anyways.” He thought for a moment as they looked at each other, then spoke up, “Well good luck training when you’re done talking to Julia..” She tilted her head to the side, “Julia? You mean Remi.” Liu shook his head, “No, I mean Julia –don’t worry, you’ll meet her soon enough.” “I see,” she nodded, “Thank you, Liu.” They hesitated another moment, then Mei Jian turned away, starting toward Remi. “Mei Jian,” he called after her. She turned to look back at him, “Hm?” He hesitated a moment before finishing, “Come talk to me if you have any questions or problems, okay?” She nodded, stepping a bit closer to him, “Ah, okay. And…what if I just want come talk to you?” Liu looked at her another moment, then smiled and nodded. Mei Jian smiled back at him, then turned to go to Remi again. “Good luck, Mei Jian,” Liu said, “See you again.” She smiled and nodded to him, “You can count on that.”

Agile61

01-29-2009, 09:21 AM

So Much writing lol!

Orchids_Mantis

01-29-2009, 01:26 PM

Epilogue

Out in the forests, beyond the large cities of Uruga, Elderine and Rumen, past even the small outlying and often endangered villages beyond them, lies a wooden house in the forest where some time ago four brothers of seemingly no particular interest were born. Orphaned after their parent's death, and without money or training in any skills, they were shunned by the people of the villages.

Now, years later, eight adventurers stood together in front of the old wooden house that had provided those four unimportant brothers with shelter during their childhood years. “It's hard to believe,” He Liu said as he looked at the old house, now covered with vines, “It's been so long since we were last here together.” “Only a few months,” Ao Shun pointed out next to him, “It wasn't really that long.” An nodded from Liu's other side, “Still...it's hard to believe all that's happened over the years -it sounds almost like it's some fairy tale.” “Yeah,” Ao nodded, “The old house in the middle of the woods is both where our story as four brothers started, and where our own stories as adventurers began as well. It does sound like a fairy tale.”

He Liu looked down for a moment, “So...what do we do now?” “What do you mean?” Tian looked over, “We keep going, as we always have.” “But each of us has their own lives now, their own friends, their own quests.” An Ning looked away for a bit as Ao interrupted, “But, that's just what's supposed to happen, isn't it?” Liu shook his head, “I mean, we see each other less and less with each day that passes. Sometimes...it feels like we aren't brothers any more.” An looked back, “Hey, we're family. Nothing can change that.” “This is gonna be corny,” Ao thought, crossing his arms with a silent sigh, “But what the heck?” He stuck out his hand in front of He Liu, “No matter what happens we'll always be family.” An smiled, putting his hand on top, Liu followed, as did Tian, followed by four more hands. Tian looked over and smiled at Feng who smiled back; then looked over at Mei Jian, Bai Yang and Nyaka, who were smiling as they looked around at each other. Tian reached over and grabbed Feng's free hand with his, squeezing it lightly and feeling the cold metal of the wedding ring she wore. “Family is forever,” he said looking forward, “That is something we should never forget.”

They stopped as they heard a young girl giggling behind them, “See? I told you they'd be fine!” They turned to see a brown haired girl and a man in a loincloth walking toward them. An peered at the man escorting her, “He looks familiar.” Liu squinted, “Hey, I...” “Know that girl!” Tian finished. An and Ao looked back at them, Liu and Tian looking at each other. All four brothers said it simultaneously: “What?” “She's the girl who told me I should try to be a mage,” Liu said, pointing at her. Tian looked at her, then back at his brothers, “But...she's the one I saved from mushrooms -who told me I should give being an adventurer a try when I was having doubts about it!” At this, the man rubbed his head and muttered, the girl giggling again. 'Both true,” she smiled, pointing at the man behind her, “And An, you know this guy behind me.” An looked again, “He's familiar, but...” “Perhaps this would assist,” the man interrupted. His body glowed suddenly, becoming covered by golden armor. An's eyes widened, “THAT'S THE CLERIC I SAW WHEN THE CRAB KILLED ME!” “Alright,” Ao said drawing his sword, “Who exactly are you?!”

The girl laughed, the man smiling, “Well, I have been given a few names...but the one most refer to me as is Teva.” All eight adventurers' jaws dropped, Ao's blade clattering to the ground as his arm went limp. “And this,” she pointed behind her, “Is my compatriot, Dakkon.” The man bowed, “Also known as the diabolical Fire and Fighter Mushrooms.” He looked up at Tian, “By the way, Tian: never throw bamboo spears at me again.” “Oh shush,” Teva smacked him on the chest, “It was in the plan for him to kill you and you know it.” “Plan?” Tian repeated. Teva smiled, “Yes, I'm sorry, but we've been kind of...pushing you to become adventurers...guiding your experiences , if you will.” “You made us become adventurers?” Ao asked. “No, no,” Teva answered, “It was always your choice to do so.” She looked over at Ao specifically, “And Ao...we didn't have to do anything to convince you, only Tian and Liu -and I had Dakkon save An because I thought he'd make a better adventurer than dead person.”

“I still don't understand,” An said, stepping forward. “Isya is in need of adventurers, An,” she replied, “Legel's minions and powers grow each day, we cannot handle all of them ourselves; that's why we created the adventurers.” “But the adventurers are relatively few in number,” Dakkon said, “So sometimes when we see elves or humans that would make good adventurers, we open them to the idea by having them meet an adventurer, or defeat a foe to protect someone as an adventurer does.” “Wait,” Tian said stepping forward, “You said you were the diabolical Fire Mushroom...you mean the one that attacked Feng when I met her?” Dakkon shrugged a bit, “We did...orchestrate that a little -I was the Fire Mushroom and Teva was the Mushroom Fighter; that way we knew Feng wouldn't actually be harmed.” “You set us up?” Tian asked incredulously. Teva held up a hand, “We led you two together because you needed each other. Feng needed someone to teach her and guide her. Tian, you needed someone to protect; we brought you together for that purpose only.” She looked at Feng, then back at Tian, “In case you're wondering; your personal relationship was something we had no control over.” “We did have some idea about it, though,” Dakkon admitted, “Your names kind of gave that away.” Feng looked over at the two outsiders, “Our names?” Teva smiled, “Tian Long, the dragon; Feng Huang, the phoenix. These two characters combined are an ancient symbol for husband and wife -an immortal love.” She looked over with a smile, “So we had some idea of what may come of your meeting; kind of like a destined couple.” “Destined couple, eh?” Tian looked over at Feng, who smiled back at him, “I can live with that.” Liu looked over at Mei Jian, then back at Teva, "What about.." "Relax," Dakkon said as he raised a hand, "We don't play love gods that often...You three found your significant others on your own."

An looked over at them again, “One more question. Why us? I mean, we were out here in the middle of nowhere; we had no skills, no training -why'd you pick us?” “We pick hundreds of adventurers, An,” Teva replied, “All of them have a part to play in the upcoming battle. All of them have their own stories. In your case, we picked you because we knew that being as close as you were to each other, you'd help and support each other, encouraging each other's growth.” “Teva, it's time,” Dakkon stepped up next to Teva, “Well it's been fun visiting you guys, but we have to go check on some other potential adventurers.” “Oh yeah,” Teva smiled, “He's right, I almost forgot.” She looked back at them, “Ao, An, Tian, Liu, Mei, Bai Yang, Nyaka, Feng: Take good care of each other. You are family, after all.” The two turned and began to walk away, Dakkon again dressed in his loincloth. “Would you PLEASE find something else to wear?” Teva said as a bright light appeared in front of them. “But I like wearing this. The man-thong is cool,” he replied. “But it looks so horrible; it's indecent and not befitting of...” their conversation drifted off; as the light vanished, so too did Teva and Dakkon.

“Now that...was weird,” Tian said as he looked at the empty space the two had been standing in. “'Weird' doesn't begin to describe it,” Liu replied. Ao looked over, “Kinda cool, though.” “I still can't believe I just pointed my sword at Teva,” he added in his mind. “So...now what?” Tian asked looking at his brothers. There was a moment of quiet before An spoke up, “We do what we intended to do in the first place,” he said moving toward the small house, “Make a fire and cook some food while we spend time together.” “That's what you intend to do?” Liu shouted, “After all that; you're just going to make LUNCH!?” An turned and looked back, “Well, yeah. It doesn't change anything, does it?” Liu straightened, thinking for a moment, “Well...no. I guess...it doesn't.” “Dibs on the steamed rolls!” Tian called from the side. “Hey!” Ao looked over at him, “I wanted the steamed rolls!” “Too slow,” Tian grinned, “You've always been too slow, brother.” “Oh, have I?” Ao grinned with a challenging look as he grabbed his sword, “Well as I recall, I was always the better fighter. Care to see if that's still the same?” “It's been a while since we sparred,” Tian grinned as they both drew their weapons, “But I'm interested in seeing how far I've come.” An chuckled and shook his head as Liu and Feng moved next to him, “I swear; those two will never change.” “True,” Liu said quietly as he grinned, "but then again, why should they? It works for them." Nyaka and Mei Jian moved in behind them, followed by Bai Yang. As they watched the fighters prepare for their sparring match, Nyaka grinned and turned toward them, “While they're fighting...you guys wanna go inside and eat the steamed rolls?” An chuckled again, “Sounds like a plan.” “Sure,“ Feng smiled, “It will be interesting to see their reaction after they find out.” With a shout, both fighters charged forward swinging their blades at each other. Ao's short sword slammed into Tian's own short sword; flashing in sparks and sending a loud metallic ring echoing through the forest. Feng looked over, shaking her head and smiling as she watched her husband another moment before moving inside the house with the other girls; Liu following shortly after.

An watched the two people enter the house, then looked back as the twins continued to spar, loud whistles and clatters echoing through the trees. He chuckled lightly, moving toward the door of the small house, reaching into his bag; then paused, “If Dakkon was the cleric that revived me...doesn't that mean...I was supposed to die that day in Rumen?” He looked over to the side, “That means I was never supposed to do any of this.” He pulled a small bottle of wine out of his bag, “I wasn't even supposed to get a chance to use this the first time.” “An,” Feng called from inside, “The rolls are ready! You coming?” An Ning smiled again, pulling the bottle the rest of the way out of his bag, “I guess I'm lucky enough that I get a chance to use this again.”

twentytwo2

01-29-2009, 01:32 PM

Thank God ironman doesn't know about this thread.

Orchids_Mantis

01-30-2009, 06:55 AM

Epilogue Addition

As An started inside, he noticed someone standing at the side of the house. The blue haired cleric walked over, a bit confused when he saw it was Teva again, watching Ao and Tian spar. "Teva," he said softly; the goddess jerked -she hadn't seen him approaching. An looked at the deity, "Is there something you need?" "Not really," she said looking down and away. An continued to watch her a moment, "Something is the matter, then? You look a bit...sad." She sighed a bit, hesitating before she answered, "It's just...I've been watching you guys for so long..." she began, "It is going to be weird now that our work is done." "Well you can always drop in," An grinned, "It's not like we'd send you away or anything." She smiled a bit, giving a light laugh. An looked back at the twins, "You know...I can't believe he's able to move so fast still." Teva looked over as well, "Who?" "Ao," he smirked, "The way he looked after you said who you were....I thought it'd be days before he would be able to grab a sword again." Teva laughed uncontrollably for a moment, "Hahaha, yes. Dakkon was quite amused at his reaction as well." She smiled as she watched the two fighters sparring each other; the metal clangs as their blades impacted each other echoing through the trees surrounding the cotage.

"You know," Teva said after a slight wait, "We've guided others before. I've even talked to people like this in saying goodbye." An looked over, slightly puzzled at her statement. She looked over at him, "You are the first ones to invite us back." An thought for a moment, Teva continued, "I know you're the only one to say it so far; but I am able to see what your brothers would say in the same situation." "Well," An started, "You guys seem nice enough; why wouldn't we invite you back?" She smiled at his comment, "I'm manipulative, shadowy, quick to anger and generally closed off from people." "So you're not perfect," he grinned, "I haven't met anyone yet who is. Not being perfct doesn't mean you're not nice." She smiled again, then looked up at the sky, "Oh...I'm late." An looked over at her, "Hm?" "Another appointment," she smiled at him, "someone else for us to guide." "Ah," he nodded, "I see. Very well; good luck then." He raised a hand and waved as he bowed his head slightly, "See you later, Teva." "You know," she smiled, "You just may." She looked to one side as though remembering something, "Oh right. I wanted to give you this." She held out her hands, giving An a small tube covered in bright paint and characters. "Don't open this until all four of you are together," she said. An furrowed his eyebrows, "What is it?" "Something I think that all of you will like," she said with a wink. With that, the goddess was gone; were it not for the gift in his hands, he'd have thought he'd imagined the whole thing.

It was nightfall, long after dinner before Ao found the decorative tube -which An had forgotten to mention. "Hey, what's this?" Ao asked as he picked it up and started turning it end over end. Feng and Bai Yang looked up, but Liu and Tian continued to sip their glasses, Nyaka and Mei Jian stopping their conversation in the corner as they looked over. "Ao, be careful with that!" An said as he got up, "It's a gift from Teva." This got the attention of everyone in the room. An relayed the conversation he'd had with Teva before she left again. "She said not to open it until all of us were together," he finished. "So what's in it?" Liu asked as he looked at the container. "I don't know," An said as he shook his head, "But we're all together now...what do you say we find out?" An unfastened the top of the tube, and it slid off, revealing a rolled up paper. An removed it and unrolled the scroll, his eyes widning as he saw what lay on its surface; a portrait of a young male fighter with blue hair, and a beautiful purple haired elf standing beside him, holding a bow.

The twins looked at the painting, "An...that's not Bai Yang; so who's the girl there with you?" Ao asked. "And why are you holding an axe?" Xiao Bai Yang asked from next to Ao. "That's not me," An said as he looked at the painting." "Looks like you," Tian said from his spot." An looked over at them, "Guys...it's our parents. That's our mom and dad." "Whoa! Seriously!?" Tian shouted. "Our dad was a fighter?" Ao asked, "I thought you always said he was a woodsman." "Well he was a woodsman when he settled down and had us," An answered, "But before he had a family, he must have been an adventurer as well." "And mom...was an elf," Liu said as he reached back and felt his pointy ears, "Well...I guess that explains a few things." "That's right," An thought, "I was barely even five when mom died...he wasn't even three so he wouldn't remember what she looked like, either." "Wow," Feng said from her vantage point, "Your mom was very pretty." "Yeah," An answered, "I had almost forgotten what she looked like." "Dang An," Nyaka said as she leaned in to look at the painting, "Except for the class...you look almost exactly like your dad." An looked down, beneath the two people on the painting, reading he names painted below them, "Li Tianxia; Xiao Yanzi." "Their names?" Tian asked; to which An nodded. "They sound kinda cool," Tian replied.

"Hey, there's something else in here!" Liu said as he reached into the tube, "A few papers...and...it feels like a book." He pulled his hand out, holding a small book and a pad of paper. He opened the pad and started to read it. "What's it say?" Mei Jian asked with great interest. "It says, 'I have returned to my house; but not to my home. My house is where my body dwells. It is where I sleep and eat; it offers me shelter and nothing more. Home is where my heart resides, it gives me peace, strength, meaning and comfort. I shall never be home until I am with her again.'" "With who?" Asked Ao from his chair. "Who do you think?" Tian said looking over at him, "With Xiao Yanzi...with our mom. He must have written this after meeting her." "Awwww," Feng cooed from her spot, "That's sweet." Liu opened up the book next, reading the cover page aloud, "To my beloved Xiao Yanzi. I finally fell for the right girl." He turned the page and read for a few seconds. "Well?" Feng pressed. Liu looked up at the room's occupants, "It's our father's journal." The room was quiet a moment; then Ao Shun spoke up, "Hey! Why don't you read it to us, Liu? Just like old times with the books on the shelf behind us!" The seven other adventurers made a chorus of short sentences to persuade the mage to read them the journal. Liu looked down and shook his head as he grinned, "Alright, alright! I'll read it to you!" An chuckled lightly as he pulled his chair forward a bit -Bai Yang taking a seat next to him; his other brothers, as well as Feng, Nyaka and Mei Jian, also getting more comfortable.

The fire in the fireplace beside them cracked and popped as Liu started to read the first page, "My name is Li Tianxia. This is not the first time I have tried to make a journal -in fact I have lost count of how many I have started; but hopefully I will have the willpower I need to make it the last journal I ever begin. I am twenty-one years old and live wherever my work takes me. I am a courier by trade, so while I do not live the glamorous life of a swordsman -which I guess any guy my age secretly wishes to have; I still see more of Isya than most normal working people, and experience some things of interest. This being the case I figured I would keep a log of those strange, funny, sometimes weird and interesting things that I do experience; if only so on some nights when I am older I have something to reflect on." An stretched back in his chair, picking up his glass. He noticed Tian had his arm around Feng; and that Feng seemed to be tired -her head was leaning on Tian's shoulder and her eyes were slowly opening less and less each time she blinked. He smiled, taking a sip of his water as He Liu continued to read, "The fifteenth day of the third month in this my twenty-first year of life (I don't know how else to begin a journal). A few days ago -I have been unable to write for a few days and I shall explain that here- I woke early in the morning -thinking nothing of it, as I got to sleep early the previous night (as always, the time I arrive to town from my day's labor setting the stone for when I shall retire for the evening) and decided to go to this village's square to see if there was any work available for me at the early hour. If there was not, I figured, I could at least listen to the town's visiting minstrels telling stories in song of famous heroes -old people, children, couriers and people with messages are the only ones ever awake at such an hour. As I walked I became more and more hopeful of being able to hear stories; to the point of which, by the time I arrived to the square I was disappointed to find someone in need of my services -they needed a message delivered to another town some ten miles away. Begrudgedly, I accepted the task, taking from the man his parcel as well as the paper with the address and name of its intended recipient (and my initial payment), and set about gathring items for my journey to the village. As I had no mount I needed to start my travels quickly -lest I arrive in the next town so late that I could find no other business for the day (ten miles would not take me long to travel unharassed...but that is only if unharassed); and so I immediately set upon what I thought would be a long, arduous, and boring trip to the village and back...I was correct about the trip to the village, but in regards to returning, I had no idea as to exactly how far away from actuality my musings were...."

The End

alchemeng

02-04-2009, 05:08 PM

Fascinating story. I don't have time to critique; this deserves to be read, so bump to the top!

By the way your vocabulary is wonderful.

12markkram34

02-06-2009, 08:42 PM

Gah so long!!!!

Orchids_Mantis

02-07-2009, 12:26 PM

Thanks to all who read my story as well as those who made comments.

Special thanks to

Aspen_Flower (My IRL as well as IG love interest :D) thanks for the support when I was writing it, Honey

All friends mentioned in this story, in particular:

-LaCelestina for sticking around a nut like me, letting me keep you in my story, and for reading it even though you may have had other more pressing matters

-Lamis; one of the coolest and most determined mages I've ever met; thanks for reading through my story while I was writing it

-Chaola and Leyrra; even though I don't know if you ever read the story, you guys made it much more enjoyable for me to play; which made writing this story more fun

-RubyShadow; a bright spot in what was many times a very dark server for a slow-leveling usually-solo cleric

-Wildride; glad you liked reading about yourself ;-)

Orchids_Mantis

02-14-2009, 01:45 PM

Well that's it, the full story including the epilogue is posted. I hope those of you that read the story enjoyed it.

While finishing the epilogue I developed some problems with my account, and due to that, I was not sure if I'd be continuing to play Fiesta. As a result, I made a second ending for that possibility.

...if you're good -and if you like it- I may post the alternate "dark" ending (which is another full chapter).

Orchids_Mantis

02-19-2009, 08:34 PM

readers is still under 1000, and still so little commentary...guess I'll just be deleting the other ending

Orchids_Mantis

02-24-2009, 07:39 AM

Finaly over 1k readers...though I wonder how many are just ooking and leaving...and how many are actually reading this to the end?

mehe25

02-24-2009, 07:41 AM

Reading......shhhhhhhhhhhhhh

eragon_shadeslayer1

02-28-2009, 06:17 AM

So good...... and long. And I really want to see the alternate ending.....

Drop_Dead

02-28-2009, 03:37 PM

Ah. What A Journey.
On A Scale Of 1-10,
It's Infinitely Off The Charts

power_ness

02-28-2009, 10:35 PM

nice story, I'm working on finishing it, about a 4th of the way through it so far XD will continue tomorrow, since I have nothing better to do. but great so far :) amazing how few people commented, guess some people don't like reading, either that or commenting on what they read, even if only to say it was good or it was bad, I feel sorry for those people though.......
well anyway, time to go to sleep, and then read this tomorrow ^^

oh yes just a few comments, while An is fighting a skeleton for the first time you use "mace" when you mean "hammer" also, when the skeleton knight attacks him the time after he goes to avenge Leranna, you say "sword and hammer" when I think you mean "hammer and shield"

quoted below once I find em ;)

Book 1: An Ning’s Story
Chapter IV: The "Tween" Levels

--clipped---

Another skeleton charged raising its sword and slicing at An, who deflected the blow with his shield and spun to one side, striking back with his mace.

Book 1: An Ning's Story
Chapter VI: The Solo Path

--clipped--

Raising both his blades, Skeleton Knight charged at the cleric, then he bent low and brought them around to the side. An rotated and blocked with his sword and hammer, the force of the blow causing him to slide backwards.

Orchids_Mantis

03-01-2009, 06:58 AM

Yeah you're right about those errors. I know there are a few of those in the story somewhere, I tried to get rid of as many as I could. My main comcern, though, was making sure An's name was always capitalized but not "an" the conjunction (which my word processor seemed to have a problem accepting); and that I never wroter "An" instead of "Ao" or vice versa.

Thanks to all who read the story all the way through -as well as for the recent commentary.

power_ness

03-01-2009, 11:00 AM

yea, in those three pages I had read, I did see "an" once, after I finish I'll go back and look for it for ya

Orchids_Mantis

03-02-2009, 02:31 PM

Well, since it seems a few people have finished my story, and since there have been a few replies; I think I will add the alternate ending.
I'll post the lead-in today, and add the remaining pieces at later dates.

Orchids_Mantis

03-02-2009, 02:32 PM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter I: Revelation

Out in the forests, beyond the large cities of Uruga, Elderine and Rumen, past even the small outlying and often endangered villages beyond them, lies a wooden house in the forest where some time ago four brothers of seemingly no particular interest were born. Orphaned after their parent's death, and without money or training in any skills, they were shunned by the people of the villages.

Now, years later, five adventurers stood together in front of the old wooden house that had provided those four unimportant brothers with shelter during their childhood years. “It's hard to believe,” He Liu said as he looked at the old house, now covered with vines, “It's been so long since we were last here together.” “Only a few months,” Ao Shun pointed out next to him, “It wasn't really that long.” An nodded from Liu's other side, “Still...it's hard to believe all that's happened over the years -it sounds almost like it's some fairy tale.” “Yeah,” Ao nodded, “The old house in the middle of the woods is both where our story as four brothers started, and where our own stories as adventurers began as well. It does sound like a fairy tale.”

He Liu looked down for a moment, “So...what do we do now?” “What do you mean?” Tian looked over, “We keep going, as we always have.” “But each of us has their own lives now, their own friends, their own quests.” An Ning looked away for a bit as Ao interrupted, “But, that's just what's supposed to happen, isn't it?” Liu shook his head, “I mean, we see each other less and less with each day that passes. Sometimes...it feels like we aren't brothers any more.” An looked back, “Hey, we're family. Nothing can change that.” “This is gonna be corny,” Ao thought, crossing his arms with a silent sigh, “But what the heck?” He stuck out his hand in front of He Liu, “No matter what happens we'll always be family.” An smiled, putting his hand on top, Liu followed, as did Tian, followed by a fifth hand. Tian looked over and smiled at Feng who smiled back. He reached over and grabbing her free hand with his, squeezing it lightly and feeling the cold metal of the wedding ring she wore. “Family is forever,” he said looking forward, “That is something we should never forget.”

They stopped as they heard a young girl giggling behind them, “See? I told you they'd be fine!” They turned to see a brown haired girl and a man in a loincloth walking toward them. An peered at the man escorting her, “He looks familiar.” Liu squinted, “Hey, I...” “Know that girl!” Tian finished. An and Ao looked back at them, Liu and Tian looking at each other. All four brothers said it simultaneously: “What?” “She's the girl who told me I should try to be a mage,” Liu said, pointing at her. Tian looked at her, then back at his brothers, “But...she's the one I saved from mushrooms -who told me I should give being an adventurer a try when I was having doubts about it!” At this, the man rubbed his head and muttered, the girl giggling again. 'Both true,” she smiled, pointing at the man behind her, “And An, you know this guy behind me.” An looked again, “He's familiar, but...” “Perhaps this would assist,” the man interrupted. His body glowed suddenly, becoming covered by golden armor. An's eyes widened, “THAT'S THE CLERIC I SAW WHEN THE CRAB KILLED ME!” “Alright,” Ao said drawing his sword, “Who exactly are you?!”

The girl laughed, the man smiling, “Well, I have been given a few names...but the one most refer to me as is Teva.” All five adventurers' jaws dropped, Ao's blade clattering to the ground as his arm went limp. “And this,” she pointed behind her, “Is my compatriot, Dakkon.” The man bowed, “Also known as the diabolical Fire and Fighter Mushrooms.” He looked up at Tian, “By the way, Tian -never throw bamboo spears at me again.” “Oh shush,” Teva smacked him on the chest, “It was in the plan for him to kill you and you know it.” “Plan?” Tian repeated. Teva smiled, “Yes, I'm sorry, but we've been kind of...pushing you to become adventurers...guiding your experiences , if you will.” “You made us become adventurers?” Ao asked. “No, no,” Teva answered, “It was always your choice to do so.” She looked over at Ao specifically, “And Ao...we didn't have to do anything to convince you, only Tian and Liu -and I had Dakkon save An because I thought he'd make a better adventurer than dead person.”

“I still don't understand,” An said, stepping forward. “Isya is in need of adventurers, An,” she replied, “Legel's minions and powers grow each day, we cannot handle all of them ourselves; that's why we created the adventurers.” “But the adventurers are relatively few in number,” Dakkon said, “So sometimes when we see elves or humans that would make good adventurers, we open them to the idea by having them meet an adventurer, or defeat a foe to protect someone as an adventurer does.” “Wait,” Tian said stepping forward, “You said you were the diabolical Fire Mushroom...you mean the one that attacked Feng when I met her?” Dakkon shrugged a bit, “We did...orchestrate that a little -I was the Fire Mushroom and Teva was the Mushroom Fighter; that way we knew Feng wouldn't actually be harmed.” “You set us up?” Tian peered at them, “You made us fall for each other?” Teva held up a hand, “Stop right there! We don't interfere with feelings or free choice. You two fell in love of your own accord. We led you two together because you needed each other. Feng needed someone to teach her and guide her. Tian, you needed someone to protect; we brought you together for that purpose only. Your personal relationship was something we had no control over.” “Besides,” Dakkon grinned, “Are you complaining about being with her?” “Of course not!” Tian snapped back. Dakkon smiled, “Then it worked out for the best, didn't it?” “We did have some idea about it, though,” Teva admitted, “Your names kind of gave that away.” Feng looked over at the goddess, “Our names?” Teva smiled, “Tian Long, the dragon; Feng Huang, the phoenix. These two characters combined are an ancient symbol for husband and wife -an immortal love.” She looked over with a smile, “So we had some idea of what may come of your meeting; kind of like a destined couple.” “Destined couple, eh?” Tian looked over at Feng, who smiled back at him, “I can live with that.”

Orchids_Mantis

03-02-2009, 02:33 PM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter I: Revelation

An thought for another moment, then looked up with an expression of clarity, “Wait a second...Dakkon, you revived me, right?” Dakkon glanced at Teva, then looked back at An, nodding slowly. “Then...that means...I was supposed to die. I'm...not supposed to be here, right?” he asked slowly. “In a way, you are correct,” Teva replied, An's brothers all look up in shock, “You were intended to die that day on the beach; but I had Dakkon revive you instead.” They were quiet for a moment before He Liu stepped forward, “Wait...then why don't you guys just revive everyone that gets killed?” Teva looked down, Dakkon looking over at the brothers, “Death is a part of life in this world,” he replied, “While sad and unfortunate, it often serves a purpose. Reviving one person -preventing them from dying- may prevent something that the person dying was supposed to trigger; or may in fact cause more people to die in the end.” Teva looked over at An Ning, “An, your brothers were supposed to become adventurers; and it was your death that was to inspire it.”

An's mouth opened slightly, his brothers again falling silent as the goddess continued, “Your death to the King Crab was going to inspire your brothers to become adventurers themselves, to rid Isya of all monsters, to prevent other families from losing members to their cruel brutality.” “However, we saw something interesting about that day,” Dakkon spoke up, “We saw that were you to survive your encounter, you would be inspired to become a cleric, which would in turn inspire your brothers; as well as several others.” “Wait,” An interrupted, “But being a cleric, wouldn't I save people that were in turn supposed to die were I not around?” Dakkon stammered a moment, and Teva looked aside a bit, “Yes, there were a few that you saved who should not have been; but their destinies were...not as alterable as yours. Eventually, they met the same fate they would have if you had not intervened. You...were quite familiar with some of them.” An hung his head, shutting his eyes, “Luna...Leranna...and Nohr.” Teva gave a sad nod, “Their deaths were unavoidable, I'm sorry, An.” There was another long pause between the members of the group. “An, you okay?” He Liu asked looking over at his brother. “I guess....I had just always held onto the thin hope that they weren't really gone.” He looked up at the sky, “I mean, Luna and Nohr...just went into the wilderness...and I never actually saw Leranna die, I just found her sword.” He looked down, shaking his head, “there was always the chance that they were still alive.” Teva put a hand on his shoulder, “An, it's not your fault; there was nothing you could do. Even if you had gone with them, even if you had saved them then, they would have met the same fate later.” “And you would have died trying to stop it,” Dakkon added quietly.

“So you were the one that talked me and Tian into being adventurers,” Liu said after a few moments, “And Dakkon revived An to give him a chance as well; and both of you were involved in bringing Tian and Feng together.” Teva nodded, “That's correct.” “One question, then: Why us? What made us deserving of this special attention?” “We assist in inspiring many people to begin their journey as adventurers,” Teva replied, “They are needed to assist in the coming battle against Legel and his minions.” Ao Shun looked up, “Wait, what battle? I thought you defeated Legel already...isn't our job just to...you know...clean up the aftermath of the monsters and defeat the other spawns of Legel?” Dakkon chuckled lightly, “You have no idea how many times we've been asked that.” Teva shook her head, “Legel was defeated, yes, but not destroyed. As he slumbers sealed inside of this planet, he recovers from our battle; and his spawns search for a power to grant them the ability to free him.” Her face hardened, “It won't be long before they do so, and on the day Legel is freed; Legel and his spawns will attack me, to destroy me and allow Legel the opportunity to finish what he started eons ago -destroying this world. The adventurers will be called upon to even the odds, fighting Legel's spawns and minions while I fight Legel himself. It is the adventurers like you, who are the hope of Isya.” The brothers again fell silent, then Ao began to chuckle, Feng and his brothers looking at him as though he were insane, “That is so cool; I almost can't wait to see this fight now.” An Ning and He Liu exchanged confused looks Liu whispering lightly, “Ao has completely lost it.” Ao spun around to look at his brothers, laughing, “Unbelievable. Think about it. Us. All adventurers...We're the Hope of Isya!”

As the jubilant fighter finished his exclamation, the sky darkened, harsh wind blowing through the trees surrounding the clearing. “A hope that you will soon find to be misplaced, Teva!” a voice thundered from all directions. The adventurers looked around, drawing their weapons as the voice continued, “Your dream of protecting this planet will come to an end; and you will find yourself as powerless as these fools you surround yourself with!” A red light appeared across the field, placing the adventurers between Teva and the swirling energy. A portal of fire opened, two more people clad in black armor and helms with demonic horns covering their faces stepping through. One reached up and removed the helmet, dark hair falling around her shoulders; her compatriot reached up, unveiling his face as he removed his helmet as well. Red lightening flashed in the black clouds above as the two figures gave sneering smiles and stepped forward. All five adventurers stepped back as the duo advanced towards them. Ao Shun looked over at his oldest brother, “An...who are these guys?” The girl gave a cruel smile, “It's been a long time, Teva,” “Oh, and Dakkon as well,” the guy snickered. Teva nodded slowly, “Indeed it has...Anis and Nik.”

Orchids_Mantis

03-02-2009, 02:33 PM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter II: Shattered Dreams and Crushed Hope, Legel's Offensive

Upon hearing the identity of the two people standing before them, the quintet of adventurers took another involuntary step back, raising shields and weapons. “Heh, insolent morons,” Nik sneered as he drew a demonic-looking blade, “You think you can do anything against us?” An raised his shield again at the demigod's comment. A bright bolt of lightning flashed in the sky, after the blinding flash, they saw that Nik was no longer standing in front of them. He looked behind them, eyes widening at coming almost face to face with an equally surprised Nik, whose blade had been blocked by a grinning Ao Shun -somehow Ao had followed the enemy's fast movement and blocked the attack meant for the cleric.

There was a startled gasp behind him; An turned again, seeing Anis, blade unsheathed, picking herself up from the ground, an unarmed Teva standing between her and the group of adventurers. Nik swung his blade, pushing Ao Shun back; the fighter strained, losing ground to the strong deity, “You don't stand a chance, fighter. You may have surprised me with your ability earlier, but I wasn't putting any effort into my attack.” Ao swore lightly as the black blade edged closer to him. An ethereal bolt slammed into the side of the demigod, explosion causing Nik to suddenly lurch to one side with a shout. Ao looked over, seeing He Liu lowering his wand, “Stay away from my brother!” Nik got to his feet, clearing the distance between him and the mage before Liu could register the movement. Liu jumped back a bit at seeing the blade-wielding deity suddenly before him, raising his staff to defend as Nik grinned, slashing down. Nik's eyes flashed black as his blade impacted an invisible barrier, leaving the mage untouched. “Hey, tough guy!” came another shout. Nik turned his head as a large hammer slammed into his face, knocking him to the ground a few meters away. An Ning came to a stop in front of Liu, grinning, “You may be faster than us, but we have you outnumbered.”

“I'm going to destroy you,” he growled as he got to his feet. “You'll have to finish an attack first!” Ao said charging toward him from one side. “That's going to be easy,” he said raising his blade. “Hey there, forgetting someone?” came a shout from behind. Nik's eyes widened again as he spun, raising his blade to block Tian's attack as the fighter continued, “You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!”. Switching to a single hand grip on his sword, Nik pushed Tian's blade to one side, ”Ha! See? You are nothing to me!” Another shout came, as Nik glared down at the fighter before him, “Get away from my husband!” A large object made its way into his field of vision, a blinding flash of pain coming as Feng Huang's mace slammed into the upper left side of his head.

“You call us foolish?” Dakkon called with a grin from his place next to where Teva had been standing, “Legel himself was unable to defeat Teva. You, with only a fraction of his power do not stand a chance against her, yet you challenge her with me and five strong adventurers present!” “I will make you all pay for this,” Nik said as he picked himself up from the ground. “You won't be doing anything beyond today, Nik!” An Ning yelled as he bolted at the deity. Nik lifted his blade to block, but An jumped to the side before attacking, Ao Shun's blade slicing into him from the side instead. As he recoiled form the impact, Feng and Tian both struck at his back, followed by a strong blast from He Liu, sending him into the air. An Ning leapt up above Nik, and with a loud roar, brought his hammer down on the deity's face with a powerful bash strike, sending him into the ground.

“I think he's done,” Ao Shun grinned as he stood over the unmoving body. The five adventurers began cheering, slapping hands and backs. “Pathetic,” came a new voice, “I should have known you two would be incapable of defeating even these weaklings.” He Liu looked down, “Did...that voice...just come from Nik?” Teva's eyes widened as she spun around, “That voice...” Nik's body rose from the ground without strain, his eyes dark, devoid of life or consciousness. “Up again, eh?” Ao jeered, “All the more fun for me!” He bolted forward, slicing at Nik, who deflected the attack with an unarmed hand, sending the fighter sailing off to the side, tumbling across the grassy field. "Ao!” Tian yelled. Ao pushed himself up, shaking the dirt from his head, “I'm fine!” “What the heck?” An started, “How'd he get so much stronger?” “This...doesn't even seem like the same guy,” Liu said beside him. “Anis, leave,” Nik said in a strange voice, “I shall deal with these insects myself.” The woman bowed, “As you wish, master.”

Teva looked over at Anis as she opened her portal, “Master?” She looked back at Nik, standing before the adventurers with no sign of emotion, “It can't be...” Nik turned to face the goddess, “I see you are starting to figure it out, Teva. That took longer than I had expected.” She curled her hands into fists, face tightening, “Legel!” Nik's head tilted back as he let out a long burst of laughter. “But how? You're still sealed in the ground! How are you possessing Nik!?” she demanded. Nik reached into his pocket, drawing out a handful of glowing red stones. “Stones,” she said quietly, “Fragments of Bijou.” “You know, I actually liked Bijou...a shame what happened to him -if only he hadn't gone against my will then he'd be more than small pieces of rock," Legel smiled as he placed the soul stones back in his pocket. "They aren't much use to me, personally,” Legel continued, “But by having others gather enough of them, they make it possible for me to possess my own spawns.” Nik lifted slightly into the air, floating forward, “I've been watching you a long time, Teva; studying you, trying to find the secret to that power you unleashed in our last battle...that power you called “hope”, and trying to find a way to beat it.” Nik grinned, looking over slightly -at the group of five gape-mouthed adventurers, “And I think I found a weak point.” Nik looked back at the goddess, “By destroying that which you place your hope in, I will chisel away at this “hope”, slowly dissolving the strength you draw from it, leaving you powerless to defeat me...and I'll start with the ones you have so conveniently gathered here.”

Legel grinned, motioning to an area with his head, a void tearing in the space before the adventurers. As the portal widened, long thin beings made of living magic darted out and began zipping across the field. Tian watched the solid-colored beings dash about randomly, "What are these things?" Ao Shun narrowed his eyes, "Kallops. Be careful, they're tougher than they look." There was a roar from the portal, which strained as it began to widen again, flames trying to escape only to be pulled back in as a great power approached the exit. "Something else is coming through," Feng said quietly as they all watched the tear in space. The flames began to clear as large clawed hands grabbed the sides of the void, rending it out, forcing it wider. The large enemy surrounded by fire straightened as it stepped through reaching high into the air and stretching with a great roar; then it looked down at the small group before it. "Get back!" Dakkon shouted, running between the adventurers and the beast, "Don't get near this thing!" "What the hell IS that?!" An shouted at seeing the massive beast. "It's the the master of these Kallops," Dakkon replied, "This is Helga."

Helga looked down at Dakkon, then over at the possessed Nik as though asking for an instruction. "You know what to do," Legel said calmly, "Just have fun with them a bit before you finish the job." Helga nodded, then looiked back at the adventurers and Dakkon. "No!" Teva shouted as she ran forward, "I'll never...!" Her outburst was cut short as Legel darted in, slamming a fist into her stomach, then spun around her, wrapping one arm around her throat, and with his other pulling one of her arms up behind her back in a lock. "No, no, no, Teva," he whispered in her ear, "No intervening from you. No...you will watch...powerless...as those in whom's hands you placed your hope are slain in front of your very eyes!"

Drop_Dead

03-02-2009, 03:49 PM

*Get's Mad Chills*
I Love It!

Orchids_Mantis

03-02-2009, 05:35 PM

The two endings I came up with were designed in skeletons, when the ending used was chosen, it was expanded upon into the version that was used (being an epilogue, rather than a closing book, the overall length was shortened).

The closing chapters for the alternate ending were left in skeleton format -the basics written but no meat; as such, I will be filling it out over the next week or so.

That said, I should explain why the chapter above is changing still -basically, I was not able to finish writing in all the details before class, so I posted it before it was complete. I finished the last touches now, and will concentrate on the next few parts of the alternate chapters (after my class project which is due in about 3 hours).

Orchids_Mantis

03-04-2009, 08:42 PM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter II: Shattered Dreams and Crushed Hope, Legel's Offensive.

“We need a better view of the show,” Legel chuckled darkly as he began to float into the air, lifting Teva up with him. Teva squirmed and struggled to free herself, but Legel seemed to somehow tighten his locking grip on her. Exhausted, she stopped struggling and sagged a bit, panting heavily. “Stop squirming,” Legel whispered, “If you don't watch you might miss everything.” Helga raised his massive arms as Dakkon readied his hammer and shield; a massive pulse of energy shooting outward towards the under-dressed cleric. Dakkon leaned forward and braced himself as the energy slammed into his shield, looking up in time to see Helga sweep across at him with one of his clawed hands. Reaching up and over, Dakkon smashed his hammer into Helga's arm with an audible crunch. Helga withdrew his arm, swinging out with his other arm, his attack blocked by another shield -but not Dakkon's. “Mind if we back you up?” An asked as he pushed against Helga's arm with his shield. “Hope not,” Ao Shun said from Dakkon's other side, “This guy looks like fun!”. “Ao watch out!” Tian called from behind them. Ao turned, eyes widening as an arrow streaked in toward his head. The arrow impacted a wall of air less than an inch away from his left eye, with an even more surprised look, he glanced behind him to see a smiling Feng standing next to Tian, finishing her barrier's chant. She gave a startled yelp as Tian jumped over at her from where he stood; tackling her as a ball of energy from a Mage Kallop sailed through the spot she'd been standing in. Helga straightened, looking down at his crushed arm; a blue light surrounded him, the arm filling out and bone resetting. An furrowed his eyebrows, looking around and seeing one of the Kallops casting a heal spell on the great beast behind him..”Leave Helga to me,” Dakkon growled, “Kill those other pests!”

An cast a sidelong glance at Dakkon, hesitating a brief moment before he spun to the side and swung at a nearby Kallop, “Right. Tian, Feng! Hit that Mage Kallop behind you! Ao, take out that archer!” Ao Shun nodded and spun on his heel, leaping forward with a thrusting strike at the Archer Kallop that had attacked him. The agile energy being easily dodged the fighter's strike, drawing another arrow in its bow and aiming at Ao Shun's head. The floating being sailed to one side, Ao moving with it, shield raised. With incredible speed the Kallop darted to the other side, Ao Shun unable to keep up. The Kallop drew its arrow back as it saw the fighter's unprotected side, loosing the arrow in the wrong direction as An Ning's hammer slammed into it from the side. The Kallop flew over to the ground with a slight spin, hitting the ground hard and remaining down. Ao started to laugh, then yelled in annoyance as an arrow struck his arm as another Archer Kallop attacked him. As An and Ao turned toward the floating beast, they both muttered the same comment, “I hate archers.”

Feng Huang and Tian Long quickly got to their feet after the Mage Kallop's attack, Feng raising shield and mace, Tian hefting his sword. Hearing An's shout, Tian shook his head slightly, grumbling, “As though we had to be told that part.” The mage darted back and forth, as though trying to decide whether to attack the mage or the fighter. Tian glared at the beast as it swung back and forth, clenching his teeth, “Don't you dare...” The Kallop decided on a target, centering itself on the cleric. Growling, Tian bolted forward swinging his sword behind him. The Kallop tried the same fake-out move that the archer had tried against Ao; but Tian anticipated the tactic, feinting to one side then slicing across as the Kallop reversed. Tian's blade sank into the beast, wounding the energy being, which darted back. “Tian!” Ao yelled from across the field, “That two hander looks cool, but I think we need a bit more damage here! Use your axe!” Tian blinked twice, then looked at his blade, “That's right, I completely forgot!” As the Kallop continued to back away, Tian placed his sword into his bag, removing a large axe with a bright yellow glow surrounding the blade on each side of the shaft. Tian grinned at the energy beast before him, “Now then...shall we dance?”

The Kallop darted to one side, focusing on Feng again. Tian sprinted forward with a shout, “Wrong choice, pal!” He swung his axe back as the Kallop unleashed its attack...at the fighter's chest. Tian's eyes widened as the crackling energy ball flew towards him; unable to stop and uncertain if he could turn before the attack would strike him, he decided on a painful method of stopping. With a firm grip, he planted the tip of his axe in the ground behind him. With the curved blade acting as an anchor, his feet flew out from under him and he landed with a gasp on his back, the blue ball of swirling energy flying safely over him. “That hurt,” Tian said as he got to his knees, “I'll have to not do that again.” The Kallop approached the fighter, ready to deal a finishing attack. Energy sparked to life in front of it, and flashed across the narrow space between them, smashing into the fighter and sending him onto his back. The Kallop floated over the fighter, toward the cleric that had been standing behind him. Feng backed away, raising her shield as the Kallop floated forward. Feng lowered her shield, giving the Kallop a wry smile. The Kallop hesitated a moment, before falling to the ground as Tian's axe cleaved the beast in two. Stepping over the remains, Tian smiled back at Feng, “Nice timing with the barrier, Honey.” Feng smiled back, “What would you do without me, huh?” Tian chuckled a bit, flashing his teeth, “Let's not find out.” Without warning Feng sprang forward, Tian giving a startles shout as she tackled him. “Feng! What was that for!?” He asked as he lay on his back. “Look!” she pointed over his head. Tian rolled a bit and tilted his head to see, surprised to see the Mage Kallop he'd just killed standing a slight distance away, “It's back!?”

Across the field, An Ning gave a startled yelp as an arrow plunged into the back of his right shoulder. Ao and An both turned to look, seeing the first Archer Kallop once again zipping about the small field. An grit his teeth as he pulled out the arrow and healed himself. Ao Shun raised an eyebrow, “How the Hell...?” They looked around, spotting the Cleric Kallop darting behind Helga, healing the large enemy of another devastating attack from Dakkon. Ao Shun and An Ning sprinted forward to attack the Cleric Kallop, their charges cut short as arrows flew through the air in front of them. The two adventurers each ran toward the same Archer Kallop; Ao pulled ahead, charging in close to the beast. Ao Shun gave a feint attack, causing the Kallop to straighten, then he spun around the beast and ran past, toward the Cleric Kallop. The Archer Kallop spun to follow the fighter, being knocked to the side as An Ning reached the beast, smashing his hammer into it. Ao raced forward toward the Cleric Kallop, yelling as an arrow from the second archer thrust itself into his leg. “Hey!” Dakkon shouted as he continued his fight against Helga, “Kill that freaking Kallop that heals first or this fight will never end!” “Gee,” Ao grunted as he pulled the arrow out of his calf, “If only we'd thought of that!”

Orchids_Mantis

03-17-2009, 09:28 AM

Sorry for the delay in updating, I went away from Spring Break.

Orchids_Mantis

03-17-2009, 09:34 AM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter II: Shattered Dreams and Crushed Hope, Legel's Offensive.

An Ning lunged, stretching his arm out, shield barely catching the arrow heading for Ao Shun's leg as the fighter fended off the other Archer Kallop. An rolled forward and shot to his feet, holding hammer behind him and shield flat against his chest. He growled lightly in his throat as the archers continued launching arrows at the duo, the annoying Cleric Kallop healing and reviving the others whenever they managed to wound or defeat one. “We have to get to that freaking cleric,” he thought, narrowing his eyes at the floating beast darting around in the background, “But every time one of us goes after it, the others stop us.” Behind him, Ao Shun jumped forward and sliced at an archer with his sword, leaving a deep cut in the Kallop's side. Ahead of him the cleric stopped a moment, raising its arm and casting a heal spell on the wounded Kallop, then began dashing about the back of the field again. An's eyes widened as a thought came to him; he chanced a look over his shoulder, spotting He Liu trying his best to hit one of the nimble archers with a magic strike. Energy sparked to life in his hand and the magic attack flew through the air, and kept on going as the archer dodges the attack. He grunted, falling to one knee as an arrow plunged into his leg. His first thought was to pull the arrow from his leg, then grinned in his mind as he made a new plan. He clumsily got to his feet, staggering back, closer to Liu. “An!” Ao Shun shouted at seeing the cleric leave his back unprotected, “Where are you going?” “Back off,” An replied, “We can't win this.”

From his vantage point in the sky, Legel smiled at hearing the cleric's admission. He moved his head forward, mouth next to the ear of the goddess he held captive, “You see, Teva? They are beginning to realize the cannot win. They are losing their precious hope.” Her eyes widened, a cold emptiness overwhelming her as she looked at the wounded cleric, “An...”

“WHAT!?” Ao shouted looking away from the archers. “We can't handle them,” An repeated, “You can't win this fight, Ao; face it.” Ao Shun stood still, staring unbelieving at his brother; An Ning staring straight back at him with a cold seriousness. Ao Shun's face hardened, his eyes narrowing as his brother's comment ran through his mind over and over. “An! What are you doing!?” He Liu demanded beside him. An Ning took a deep breathe, using it as cover for a light whispering ventriloquism as he answered, “Just watch. Trust me.” A loud roar suddenly burst to life, echoing across the field, He Liu turned his head quickly, seeing that the thundering shout emanated from the fighter standing a slight distance away from An Ning. The fighter was grabbing both sides of his head, sword dropped on the ground as he shook his head from side to side, unable to accept what his brother was telling him. “Get ready, Liu,” An whispered.” The green haired mage looked back in confusion, “Huh?” “Keep your eye on that Cleric Kallop,” he whispered, “When it stops to heal, take it out. But don't move before Ao does.” All eyes -the adventurers', the Kallops', Dakkon's, Teva's, even Helga's and Legel's- were focused on the seemingly insane fighter. The air in his lungs finally depleted, Ao Shun's yell ended, and he once again stood still in the middle of the field.

Seizing the opportunity, an archer pulled an arrow and shot it into Ao Shun's chest; the fighter didn't even flinch as it impacted. It hesitated a moment at seeing the lack of reaction, then picked up another arrow and shot the fighter again, this time in his shoulder; again the fighter did not react, staring coldly at the blue haired cleric. Now the Kallop was completely uncertain of what to do, and simply floated about the field. Everything seemed to have stopped. The sky was silent, the thunder and lightning nonexistent now, even the winds from the storm had calmed; the atmosphere seemed to be anticipating something. Slowly, Ao Shun reached down and picked his sword up from the ground, pointing it at his brother. “I'll show you whether or not I can win this fight,” he said silently. “NO ONE TELLS ME I CAN'T DO SOMETHING!” he shouted. With a speed greater than his brothers had seen before, Ao spun around and darted forward, plunging his sword into the chest of the nearby Archer Kallop. Pulling his sword free of its new sheath, he spun and shot forward at another Kallop, “YOU WATCH! I'LL KILL EVERY ONE OF THESE MYSELF!”

Behind the giant beast Helga, the Cleric Kallop snapped out of its daze, stopping and raising its arm to cast a heal spell on the first Kallop as the second archer darted away from the angry fighter, trying to avoid his sword's attack. An Ning's eyes widened again, he looked over at the mage next to him, “Liu! Now!” “Liu quickly shook his head, “Huh? Oh, right!” He thrust his staff forward, bright energy building at its tip, and sending a concentrated burst across the field. The crackling energy ball struck the Cleric Kallop in the chest as its arm stretched high, and exploded, leaving nothing left of the Kallop. “Tian!” An shouted as he looked over behind him, “Wake up! Kill that mage now!” Coming out of his own awestruck daze, Tian realized that the mage he'd been attacking had also stopped moving. Bringing his axe behind him, he readied his attack. The Mage Kallop shot backwards to get out of range as the axe descended, but Tian was ready for it. Concentrating hard, he sent a pulse of energy through the blade as it slammed into the ground. A blade of energy shot up from the ground and moved forwards, passing beneath and bisecting the Kallop as it fled. “An,” Liu said from the cleric's side, “What the heck happened?” “Quite simple,” An answered, “I ticked off a very strong fighter.” Liu's looked up and over at his brother, “What?” An Ning grinned slightly as he glanced down at his brother, “There are few things that enrage that fighter more, than telling him he can't win a fight.” With another burst of speed, Ao Shun gained on the fleeing archer, his sword entering the Kallop's chest, and coming out its back. He spun to the side, yanking his blade free as he turned his attention on the large beast on the other side of the field.

An's eyes widened as his brother bolted across the field, charging the giant beast Helga. The fighter leapt into the air, striking at Helga's neck. With a growl, Helga brought his arm around and knocked Ao Shun aside like a small flying insect. Ao rolled across the ground a few times before placing his hands down and springing to his feet, then dashed in at Helga again. “Okay,” An said, “This part I did not anticipate, I thought he'd stop and gloat after he killed the Kallops.” Dakkon moved in, striking at one of Helga's arms, Ao jumped back to avoid another swat from the giant beast, getting shot backwards several meters as Helga released a massive pulse of energy. An Ning ran forward, casting a regeneration spell on Ao Shun. He looked back to see the others still standing gape-mouthed as they watched. “Tian! Liu! Feng!” An shouted, “Come on, snap out of it! We have to help Ao!” Liu let fly a flurry of magic spells as Tian charged in with his twin, both slicing at different parts of Helga's body. The great monster Helga swatted at the adventurers and Dakkon, letting out pulses of energy to drive them off or kill them, but without the Kallops to assist him, the healing powers of Dakkon, An Ning and Feng Huang were able to keep up with his damage. Tian swung his heavy axe down, slicing into Helga's abdomen; as Helga reached over to claw the fighter, Dakkon swung his hammer down and shattered his arm's bone in several places. As Helga reeled, Ao Shun sliced into Helga's other arm, He Liu sending volleys of explosive magic energy into the beast's chest and head. With a triumphant shout, Dakkon leapt high into the air, bringing his hammer down in a powerful bash strike, crushing Helga's head and sending the giant monster to the ground.

Legel's face seemed made of stone as he watched Helga's body vanish back into its tomb. “That,” he said dryly, “was not supposed to happen.” Teva smiled at his comment, “You'll find yourself saying that a lot when dealing with those five.” She twisted in Legel's grip, bringing her elbow back underneath his ribs. Startled, his grip on the goddess' neck weakened; Teva spun around and ducked, pushing away and freeing herself from Legel's lock and gave a strong punch to his jaw. She twisted back then threw another punch at Legel's head. Raising a hand, he caught Teva's punch in his palm, his hand closing around hers; he threw his own punch which Teva caught in a move mirroring Legel's. They began pushing against each other, each trying to force the other back. Teva grinned as they struggled. “What's so funny?” Legel demanded. “We've been here before,” she smirked, “And I think we both know how this ends.” “This fight is far from similar to the last one we had, you little brat,” he growled. He looked past Teva, and gave a loud call, “Anis!” Teva's eyes widened as a portal opened and the other goddess stepped through, “Yes, master?” “Summon a couple of your friends and kill these annoying helpers of Teva's.” Anis bowed, “As you wish.” “Oh, and Anis,” he said looking back at Teva with an evil smile, “Take care of that pestering fool Dakkon yourself.” As another portal began to open behind her, the goddess drew her dark blade and smiled, “With pleasure, Master Legel.” The portal widened, a familiar clawed hand grasping at one edge. An Ning sucked in a breathe as Helga once more began to emerge from his tomb -clearly upset at his latest defeat, two Cleric Kallops pushing against the other side of the portal. With a flash of light, Anis darted across the field, striking at Dakkon, her demonic sword intercepted by his shield. Ao Shun looked over at his brothers, “This...just got a lot harder.”

eragon_shadeslayer1

03-19-2009, 08:09 PM

So Action-packed! =D

Orchids_Mantis

03-21-2009, 10:02 AM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter II: Shattered Dreams and Crushed Hope, Legel's Offensive.

Her blade still pressed against Dakkon's shield, Anis pushed again, forcing Dakkon back. As he stepped back he spun, sending his hammer flying around at Anis' head. Anis raised her blade and caught the hammer underneath the blunt end, rotating her sword around she guided the hammer over her head and sent Dakkon into another spin as she thrust forward. Dakkon twisted his other arm and brought it far behind him as his hammer was guided past his target, managing to block Anis' attack with his shield, finishing his second rotation and facing the spawn of Legel. “You've gotten much better, Dakkon,” Anis smirked, “When I first saw you, it would only have taken me two seconds to defeat you.” Dakkon smiled back at her, “You'll see just how much better I've gotten when I stand over you and drive my hammer into your skull.” “Confident,” she chuckled as she twirled her blade, “Let's see if it's deserved.” Dakkon gave a slight bow of his head, “Let's.” The two rushed each other, Dakkon raised his hammer, but Anis quickly slashed upwards, knocking his hand farther up, then brought her blade back down, Dakkon barely managing to block in time with his shield. Dakkon brought his hammer down as Anis slashed, missing as she in turn spun to the outside. Dakkon yelled as the smaller enemy sliced across with her spin, cutting through the back of his armor and leaving a long gash. He brought his other arm around as Anis continued to spin, smashing his shield into her face and knocking her back, quickly following up by slamming his hammer into her chest. As Anis staggered, Dakkon raised his hammer, casting a healing spell on himself; his eyes widened as he finished -his spell had failed to heal him. “Something wrong?” Anis asked smugly as she wiped blood from her lip. Dakkon stared back at her, “But, how?” She straightened, raising her blade again, “My blade has an enchantment on it just for you,” she smirked, “Your heal spells won't work on any cut this sword makes as long as I am alive.” Dakkon's eyes widened again as she continued, “You're not going to win by wearing me down as you heal yourself. To win this fight, you have to straight up kill me before I kill you,” she brought her blade horizontally before her, gazing at it, “And somehow, I don't see that happening.”

As Helga and the Kallops continued pushing the doorway further apart, the adventurers looked among themselves with worried expressions; their eyes begging for an answer as to what they were going to do when Helga came again. Ao Shun looked over, and saw that, for some reason, all four of the others were looking at him. Unable to say anything, barely able to breathe, Ao Shun looked over at the gate; as he looked in, the dark beast looked up, gazing straight back into his eyes. His throat tightened as he took an involuntary step back. “I...stepped back?” he thought, “I didn't want to step back.” Something felt strange at his side, he looked down and saw his hand shaking from side to side without thought. He brought his hand forward, staring at it, “What is this? Fear? I'm....afraid?” His face tightened as he sneered, “I...don't...fear....anything,” he thought as he curled his hand into a fist, “But how am I supposed to know what to do?” An shook his head slightly, “It's not fair that we all look to him for an answer here,” he thought, “After all, he's the youngest.” He looked over at the two titans fighting each other off to the side, “But with Dakkon fighting Anis now; I don't see how we can beat Helga when he gets free.” A thought came to him, he looked back at the widening gateway -at the two Cleric Kallops forcing one side of the portal open, then spun to the side, looking at the mage beside him. “Liu!” he yelled. Liu looked back at him, “Huh?” An Ning pointed over at the portal, “Those Kallops aren't able to evade! Hit them with your strongest spells now and close the gateway!”

He Liu swept his arms around, staff glowing brightly as energy gathered inside of it, then shot a terrific blast of energy at the most exposed Cleric Kallop. The blue energy beast flew backwards as the ethereal bolt detonated against it. The second Kallop redoubled its efforts at pushing its wall of the portal, its endeavor cut short as another energy ball entered the portal, slamming into its head. Without the Kallops pushing against it, one side of the portal quickly began to shut; Helga reached over, grabbing both sides of the portal now, and strained as he pushed against them, halting the closure of the portal, and managing to slowly force it back open. “Dammit,” Liu growled, “He's still coming through!” He sent another volley of missiles and magic blasts at the large beast, but Helga did not give way. Ao Shun watched as his brothers continued to fight, trying to stop Helga from emerging, “Why? Why am I still standing here? Why aren't I helping them?” He reached down and drew his sword, hesitating slightly as he looked back at Helga. With a loud yell, he charged the gate, leaping into the air and sinking his blade into Helga's chest. Helga reeled again, arms involuntarily releasing the sides of the gate and clutching his wound as the fighter jumped off his chest. As the portal narrowed, Ao Shun landed, looking up with a smile, which quickly turned to a startled expression as Helga made a final slashing strike with his claws across the fighter's chest. With an undignified thud, the fighter's body hit the ground unmoving. “Ao!” An Ning shouted as he ran toward his youngest sibling. He knelt beside him, pressing fingers against the fighter's neck to check for a pulse. “Still alive,” he whispered. He raised his hammer and gave a chant, casting a high level heal spell on his brother. Ao Shun opened his eyes and slowly sat up, groaning, "That was painful." An Ning shook his head and smiled, “Suicidal idiot that thinks he has something to prove.”

Legel looked over at the adventurers as he continued pushing against Teva, seeing that the portal had vanished and all five adventurers remained on the field, “What?!” Teva grinned at her opponent, “Told you. You shouldn't underestimate the capabilities of these five together.” She pushed forward again, Legel straining as he matched her push. “You seem to be weakening,” she grinned. “You seem to be getting overconfident again,” he sneered back. She released a pulse of energy to push against Legel, Legel again matching her move. The two energy waves slammed into each other, the backlash wrenching the two apart and forcing them meters away from each other. Teva recovered first, flashing in and slamming her fist into Legel's chest, knocking him back again. As he staggered, a few small gray stones fell from his pocket. “Gray shards?” she thought as she looked at them. She turned back toward Legel with a sly smile, “Now I see. The fragments of Bijou don't have enough power for you to remain here indefinitely. You're burning through them at a fast rate -despite how many your minions have gathered for you. You're not getting weaker, you're running out of power from those stones.” “And you seem to be trying to draw this out as long as possible,” Legel countered, “But perhaps you are right.” Teva straightened, “What!?” “Perhaps I have underestimated the ability of those five when they are together,” he said stretching a hand out at them, “Perhaps I should do something about that.” Before Teva was able to stop him, Legel gave a chant and cast a spell on the adventurers, each of them straightening and staring straight ahead. “What have you done!?” Teva demanded. Legel smiled back at her, “This fight for them will end alone, in the darkness that resides within themselves.”

mandylynns

03-26-2009, 01:24 AM

i never wrote anything before now wanting to read the completed part you have written so far this is one story that has held my interest for as long as i have been reading it plus leveling up 4 characters on the epith server the highest being my cleric at 86 now . i say you need to make more to this story the battle has not ended these brothers have yet to find all the strengths they hold inside yet a great story so far . these five can do so much lending even more hope to other adventurers who hear thier story and learn from it . it would be nice to hear the battle each rages inside themselves finding out all they can be .

Orchids_Mantis

03-27-2009, 08:43 AM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter III: Darkness of the Mind

They suddenly found themselves in a strange underground chamber -based on the condensation along the walls. The room was only dimly lit by four torches in the corners, and two more on either side of an entryway on one wall. The adventurers began looking around the room, trying to ascertain how they got there....and where exactly “there” was. “What the heck just happened?” Ao Shun wondered aloud. An Ning shook his head, “I have no idea. One moment we're standing next to our house fighting and the next.....” His voice trailed off as the other green haired fighter next to him was suddenly engulfed in a yellow light; when the light vanished, so had he. “What!?” An Ning shouted as he looked at the empty space his brother had just been occupying, “Ao! Ao where are you!?” He turned, seeing the others were gone as well. “Liu!” he called looking around the room, voice echoing off the walls and down the one corridor, “Tian! Feng? Where'd you guys go?” A dark laughter emanated from the ceiling, An looked around again, raising his shield, “Who's there?” “Your fight ends here, young cleric,” a familiar voice chuckled from the hallway. An looked down the corridor, seeing a person walking toward him, one he had not seen in a long time. “You again,” An shook his head, “I really have to fight you again?” “It's been a long time, An Ning,” the cleric said, hefting his hammer. “Indeed it has, Shadow An,” he replied to the twin. “I've been waiting for this for a long time now,” the shadow sneered. “Funny,” An grinned, “I can't say the same. Though I thought you'd know better than to fight me alone by now.” The shadow raised an eyebrow, “Who said I was fighting you alone?” He stepped to the side, two new figures emerged from the dark hallway; as they stepped into the somewhat lighter chamber, An's throat tightened and he staggered back, eyes widening, “It...It can't be.” “These two seem a bit upset at what happened to them as well,” the shadow said with a sadistic smile, “Quite upset at what YOU let happen to them.” Standing on either side of the shadow, Luna Ice and Nohr Tenchuryu each raised their weapons, staring angrily at An Ning. The laughter came again, Legel's voice speaking through the walls and ceiling, “Your fight ends here, in this prison created by your own subconscious. A lair of that which gives you your greatest pain, fear and sorrow.”

Legel smirked as he looked back at Teva, the five adventurers motionless on the field, “It shouldn't take too long now. My bet is the cleric will fall first, then perhaps the mage.” Teva glared back at her nemesis, “What are you talking about, Legel?” “I cast a spell over them. Now they fight inside their own minds, against enemies created by their subconscious, inspired by their own fears, doubts and failures. The perfect place to crush their hope before crushing their bodies.” Giving a sudden growl, Teva jumped forward and punched at Legel, who darted back and avoided the blow. He chuckled again, “Lost your desire for conversation now, have you? I must have hit a nerve.” “I'll stop you, Legel,” Teva shouted as she swung again, “I swear it!” The possessed form of Nik again dodged the blow, “Don't promise something you cannot deliver on.” “I don't!” she punctuated her reply by leaping up and catching Legel under his chin with her knee. Legel leaned back, flipping over and landing on his feet, stepping back to avoid another strike by the maddened goddess. “You're getting sloppy, Teva,” Legel grinned again, “You really shouldn't let your emotions get such a ..” A swift kick to the face sent him to the ground momentarily, cutting him off.

A yellow flare engulfed his brothers, as it died out, his brothers were gone. “Ao! An!” Tian called looking at the empty area they had been occupying, he turned to the side, “Liu!” “They're gone, Tian,” Feng said from beside him. “But...where?” Tian stammered. “I don't know Tian,” she said softly, lowering her head. Feng Huang yelled luodly as a large dark beast flew toward them out of the hallway. It flew past the cleric and straight at the fighter. Landing on the surprised fighter, it sank long fangs into him. Tian yelled, knocking the beast off of him, and bisecting it immediately after with a strong swing of his axe. He looked down at the remains of the beast, "Bats....I hate bats." "Tian!" Feng called from the side, "Are you alright?" He laughed a bit, "I'm fine, Feng. It's nothing to worry about." He reached down for his bag, "It's not even something I should use a stone..." He stopped suddenly, looking down, "My bag is gone!" Feng looked to her side, panicing, "Mine too!" "Alright, alright, that's okay," Tian reassured her, "You can heal, and I can fight...we don't need the bags." Tian reached out to her with one hand, grabbing one of hers, she looked up and he gave her a reassuring smile, “Come on. Let's find a way out of here.” “A way out?” a voice called from nowhere, “There is no way out.” “Legel,” Tian growled, “Where are you!? Where are we!?” The voice ignored them as it continued, “I know what frightens you the most, that which you are truly the most afraid of. You will both die here, in a prison created by your own shared fear.”

As the voice finished, the walls of the cavern became hazy and unfocused, a strange shimmer running through them as the area expanded. When the walls settled, refocusing, they were in a strange cave, the air thick with humidity. Tian Long looked over at his wife, “What...do you think he meant by that?” Feng Huang's eyes went wide as she looked behind her husband, “Tian!” The fighter spun, raising his axe with two hands widely spaced, catching a large blade across its shaft. Tian looked up in surprise, staring at a large white ghostly figure brandishing a sword. “Ghost Knight?” Tian whispered, “But, he doesn't use a blade.” The ghost brought its hand around, sweeping at the fighter from the side; Tian stepped back and twisted, freeing his axe and regripping it at the base. The ghost came forward and slashed with its sword as Tian came around with his own blade; the ghost halted his attack and floated up, evading Tian's strike. Ghost Knight raised his blade as he floated over the fighter's head, and prepared to slice downward at the axe fighter beneath him. Seeing his attack miss, Tian continued across with his axe, spinning ahead of it to bring it over his shoulder, and looked up to see the Ghost Knight's sword coming down at his face -only to halt less than an inch away as it struck a barrier. Tian grinned and brought his axe down in front of him, putting a deep gouge through the front of the ghostly being. Ghost Knight reeled backwards with a wail, Tian hefting the large double sided weapon over his shoulder with a grin, “This is almost too easy.”

“I know what you're afraid of,” a voice whispered in his head as the ghost continued to thrash, “I know what your deepest fear and pain is. You fear not being able to protect her, failing her as her guard. You fear that your own mistakes and weaknesses will lead to her death.” “Shut up,” he said to whatever was talking to him, “just SHUT UP!” “Tian,” Feng called from beside him, “Who are you talking to?” “You don't hear him?” he asked her. She looked back at him, confused, “Hear who? Tian, we're the only ones talking in here.” “It will happen,” the voice continued, “It is inevitable. Just look: it's already starting.” Tian looked ahead, the ghost had recovered from the shock of Tian's attack, and was looking darkly past the axe fighter -straight at Feng Huang. “What!? No!” he shouted, “Don't you DARE take your eyes off me, you worm!” Tian bolted forward, raising his axe, “If you do, you'll die before you even get a chance to defend!” “Tian!” Feng called as he dashed away, “Tian, wait up!” “You can't stop it,” the voice whispered in his mind, “No matter what you do, she's going to die...she will die alone...and it will be all your fault.” “No,” he thought back, “I'll never let that happen!”

Orchids_Mantis

03-27-2009, 11:00 AM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter III: Darkness of the Mind

Tian Long sprinted at the ghost beast before him, swinging his axe across hard, the Ghost Knight meeting blade with blade, blocking the strong attack. Tian thrust forward, a move which caught the Ghost Knight off guard, shoving the tip of the shaft into the Ghost Knight's body. The angered fighter began running forward, slamming the ghost into the rock wall a few meters away, pinning it to the hard sediment. Ghost Knight again raised its blade, Tian grinned as it did so, pulling back slightly with his axe and whipping around counter clockwise, slamming one of the two blades of his axe into the Ghost Knight's body, right underneath its uplifted arm. The ghost gave another shrieking wail of pain as the axe buried itself in the ectoplasm of what were once ribs. It gave a sudden blast of magic from its free hand, which slammed into the ground in front of Tian -the explosion sending him flying backwards and tearing the blade free from the Ghost Knight's body. “Oh, perfect,” Tian grunted as he got back up, grabbing his axe, “Now it's using magic.” The ghost charged in again, clearly angered at the pain it was now feeling, leaving a trail of strange green ooze which slowly crept from the two large wounds Tian's axe had left in it. Tian backed away slightly as the beast charged in, pulling its weapon back for a thrust, then grinned as he brought his axe back and down, slamming it into the ground. A blade of energy shot up from the impact site and raced forward through the ground and beneath the ghost. Once more a slice appeared in the creature's body, but this time the Ghost Knight pressed forward, ignoring the pain, thrusting its blade at a very surprised fighter.

He dropped to his knees, leaning far back as the blade approached, twisting over and letting the blade slide by -or nearly slide by. He yelled as the Ghost Knight dropped his blade lower by a few inches, the very edge of the sharpened steel sliding across his shoulder. Tian started to bring his axe back up, attacking the ghost's exposed belly, but before he could, a large energy pules impacted the ground and flew out in all direction, knocking the fighter back and sending him tumbling across the ground. Tian struggled to get to his feet this time, staggering slightly, dazed from the impact of the magic blast. A cooling breeze swept across him, skin turning a light blue for a moment as Feng Huang cast a healing spell on him. His vision focused, his legs becoming more reliable as he took an offensive stance. He shook his head slightly as his skin returned to its normal color, “Whoo....that was unexpected. Thanks, Honey.” Feng chuckled lightly behind him, “No problem. Just be careful, Tian.”

Tian again charged the Ghost Knight, who swung its blade at the fighter. Tian spread his hands out, again catching the blade on the axe's shaft, pushing over and across to bring his axe past the Ghost Knight's body. Ghost Knight pressed against Tian's axe, but was unable to overpower the strong fighter; with its free hand, the ghostly enemy began to ready a powerful magic attack. Seeing an opportunity, Tian spun his axe, letting Ghost Knight's own momentum bring his blade up and across his body, nearly knocking it out of his grip. As he brought the axe head down, he brought it back toward the Ghost Knight's body, crushing the ghost beast's hand with the blade and halting the magic attack intended for the fighter's side. The semi-transparent white beast spun with the impact of the axe. A glob of green goo smacked Tian in the chest, he gave a disgusted look as he swept it away, “Ew...aw man...this stuff is gross.” Feng's voice came loudly from behind him, “Tian! Pay attention!” He looked up, seeing the ghost's blade coming toward him. Too close in to block or dodge, Tian grit his teeth; as surprised as the ghost was when the blade failed to penetrate his armor, slamming into an invisible barrier and merely knocking the fighter to the side.

Ghost Knight looked up again, eyeing the cleric standing a short distance behind the fighter. As the fighter got to his feet, he saw the ghost beginning to float over toward Feng Huang, who was backing away from the large sword-wielding apparition. With a grunt, he shot toward the large ghost being, quickly imposing himself between the two. His eyes darkened as he looked at Ghost Knight, “You...will not...get to her.” Ghost Knight swung with its blade, following up with a magic strike from its other hand, both of which Tian easily dodged. He countered by spinning, raising his axe high and slamming it into the ground, the resulting shockwave of his Devastate attack stunning the great beast temporarily. “You're going to have to do a lot better than THAT,” he said darkly, “If you want to have even a hope of defeating me.” The beast stirred, coming out of its daze and swiftly swinging its hand across, knocking the fighter to the ground.

As the fighter rolled, it sent a magic blast out, catching the fighter in the side; Tian let out a loud yell and stopped rolling, hand pressed tightly to the hole burned in his side. The Ghost Knight stretched out his hand, vines sprouted from the ground around the downed fighter, curling around his body and holding him to the rocky floor. Feng's eyes widened as she saw the axe fighter unable to move. “Tian!” she called, “Tian, hang on!”. “Don't do anything, Feng!” he yelled back, “Don't make him focus on you!” She stopped, unable to speak, not knowing what she should do. “It's going to kill him,” a voice told her, “It will be all your fault, Feng Huang; just like you always feared it would be.” “No,” she whispered, forcing back tears. “Yes,” the voice replied, “It's your fault. If you weren't here, he would not have been trying so hard to get its attention.” “You're wrong,” she shook her head, “He won't die.” The voice came again, “If you don't do something, he'll die. You have to heal him, if you don't....that beast will slay your only love.” Tears ran down her cheek as she raised her hammer, knowing what she had to do.

Tian braced himself as Ghost Knight drew nearer, lifting its blade. “All I have to do is live,” he thought, “This attack will cut the vines and allow me to escape...all I have to do is survive it and we can win.” A cool breeze swept across him several times, his skin glowing blue and wounds closing as Feng Huang cast her most powerful healing spells on Tian. The ghostly beast before him stopped, and turned toward the cleric, forgetting the fighter behind it. “Feng!” he called, “What are you doing!? STOP! STOP IT NOW!” Tian's eyes widened as the ghost began to drift toward the cleric, he began pulling as hard as he could against the vines holding him; with his side healed, he managed to break free, getting to his feet and grabbing his axe. He looked forward, seeing that the Ghost Knight had reached Feng and had begun attacking her. He sprinted forward, hefting his axe, “FENG! Feng, get out of there!” He closed in, swinging his axe to one side in preparation for an attack, just as the Ghost Knight knocked Feng's shield to the side with a magic blast and sank his blade into her chest. With a strong blow, Tian Long sent the ghost flying across the cavern where it landed in a heap, Feng Huang collapsing to the floor.

Tian sank to his knees, unable to breathe as he put his arms under Feng Huang, “Feng...Feng, wake up...wake up and heal yourself.” She opened her eyes slightly, looking up at the fighter, “Tian...Couldn't..let you...die...I'm...sorry.” “Don't be sorry, Feng,” he choked out, “Just...just heal yourself, okay?” She raised her hand, touching his cheek as she looked up at him, breathing haggardly, “I love you...Tian...Long.” She closed her eyes as her hand dropped to the ground. “No,” Tian said, unable to believe what was happening, “No!” He shook her slightly, “Feng...Wake up! WAKE UP!” He picked her up, holding her closer to him, he heard her heartbeat slowing, her breathing becoming lighter. On the wall ahead of him, he saw a faint shadow behind him, the unmistakable curve of a blade being raised. He hunched over, covering her body with his, water dripping from his eyes to the floor under them, “I love you too, Feng Huang. I will never leave your side, in this, or any life.” The curved shadow reached its highest point and waited, Tian lowered his head, his mouth next to his wife's ear, “I will always love you, my dearest Feng, Huang.” The blade descended.

Teva swung again, knocking Legel strongly in the chin, a loud cracking sound as her knuckles impacted, Legel falling back again under her latest assault. Suddenly, Tian Long and Feng Huang fell to the ground. Teva came to a sudden halt, looking over, “What happened?” Legel smirked back at her, “Well...it seems both my guesses were wrong. I thought they'd be the third to go.” “Go?” she looked back at him, at his sly grin, “No...you mean they're..?” “Dead,” he said raising his eyebrows with a wider smile. “No!” she shouted, spinning away from Legel and racing toward the fallen adventurers. In a familiar move, Legel dashed in front of her and slammed his fist into her stomach. She came to a halt again, bending over and crouching as the wind flew from her lungs. “No, Teva,” Legel smiled, “No reviving them, remember? They're dead...gone...forever. You failed them.”

Orchids_Mantis

03-27-2009, 11:01 AM

Remember, for those of you who read the posts after the main story, this is the alternate ending created on the chance that I was going to stop playing...I called it "dark" for a reason, so I hope you guys weren't hoping for the sunshiney style of the current ending.

mandylynns

03-31-2009, 11:24 PM

this story is still not over and yet there is always a hope till all is over so give us your best and we will see who conquers all in the end without hope there is nothing and with two gods and a goddess and three brothers alive there is yet hope for all

Orchids_Mantis

04-05-2009, 09:07 AM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter III: Darkness of the Mind

The yellow light faded, and he found himself in an underground chamber, with no sign of his brothers. “An!” Ao Shun called as he looked around, “Tian! Liu! Where are you guys?” He took a few steps as he turned, stopping suddenly, “Something isn't right. My weight is different,” he thought. He looked down at his side, narrowing his eyes as he saw the cause of the change, “My inventory bag is missing. That explains it.” He shook his head, then looked up at the ceiling, “Hmph. I wonder what kind of trap I'm supposed to be in now.” He took a few steps forward in the dark room. He looked around the small room, it was cramped and dimly lit by small torches along the walls and a single door in one wall opposing where he first found himself. His eyes widened, “Wait...I know this place.” “Bingo,” a voice echoed from inside the doorway, “I was wondering how long I'd have to wait for you to figure it out.” Ao Shun shook his head again, drawing his blade, “Alright, so now that I know, care to come out and fight me, Shadow Shun?” “It's Ao Shun,” the voice replied, “and I'm not going to bother coming out to fight you. You're the one in a rush, so you come to me.” Ao shrugged, “Hm...fine by me. Either way, you're going to lose just like the last time we fought.” A dark laughter came from the dark passageway, “Don't be so sure...A lot has changed since you were last here. Trust me, you're confidence and pride will be your downfall in this place.”

Ao Shun began nonchalantly walking forward, “Yeah...whatever. Look I'll come beat you up in about two minutes...until then, how about shutting up for a change?” “Aww, I'm hurt,” the shadow responded, “You don't want to talk to me any more?” Ao rolled his eyes as he entered the hallway, his shadow continuing, “Very well, I'll leave you be until you reach my room. Until then, have fun with some of my friends.” Ao Shun came to a halt, stepping into a guard stance as a large dark figure moved toward him. The figure emerged from the shadows into the light of Ao's sword, a large snarling beast with clawed hands and sharp teeth. The creature glared at Ao Shun and growled, Ao Shun dropped his hands in disappointment. “A boar?” Ao asked dryly, sheathing his sword. The beast's claws glowed a familiar red, and swung at the fighter. Ao Shun reached out and caught the beast's clawed limb in his own hand, “Really...You're serious? You're pitting me against a BOAR!?” He stepped forward twisting his hand, a sharp cracking sound emanating from the Boar's arm as the bone snapped. The creature roared in pain, a roar quickly cut off as he released the captured limb and slammed his fist into the side of the Boar's head. The large beast flew backwards, neck letting out a loud popping sound as it twisting farther than natural from the power of the strike, and landed in an unmoving heap a few meters out. “That was insulting,” Ao growled to himself, “I hope it gets better. It seems a lot of trouble to go through for such a weak trap.”

As he neared a turn in the hallway, he paused, hearing a light sound coming from around the corner. Once again, Ao shun drew his sword, the firey energy surrounding the blade illuminated the hall before him. “I heard you behind there already,” he called, pointing the tip of his weapon at the corner, “Come out!” Slowly, three chuckling Kebing made their way into view. “Oh You've GOT to be joking!” Ao said through grit teeth. The Kebings flew toward the fighter, who scowled and swept his blade from side to side in several lightning fast strikes. Pieces of the Kebing fell to the floor behind him as he sneered and continued forward again, “As powerful as I am, you send these weaklings after me?!” He let out a long breath as he stalked forward, “No ally you have in here is able to even touch me. If this is the best you have, our fight will be very quick.”

Unbeknownst to the fighter wandering through the dark hallways, a figure in the final chamber watched as he continued through, fighting the miniscule mobs in his way with increasing disgust. “Ha ha ha ha. Very good, Ao Shun; very good,” his shadow laughed darkly, “That's it, brave fighter. Unleash your strength; show me that craving for a fight you have.” He tilted his head down, grin growing wider as he gazed at strange markings along the walls beginning to glow dimly, “Show me that infamous pride.”

He Liu's vision did not clear even though the light dimmed. The sky was dark and the area was surrounded in a dense fog . He heard the gentle washing of waves, and tasted salt in the air from a light ocean breeze. He stepped forward, a familiar surface beneath his feet, and he heard a feint ticking from the side opposing the waves. “Rumen,” he thought as he looked around, “What am I doing in Rumen?” He Liu walked forward, his steps loud in the relative quiet of the city. “I'm not usually in town at night,” he thought to himself, “Is it always this quiet? Rumen is usually bustling with activity.” He passed by a few lower level adventurers as he walked, but they were not talking, questing or training; rather, they just seemed to prefer standing still, staring off into the mist. “These people are giving me the creeps,” Liu thought as he passed another nonresponsive adventurer. He heard running water and light splashing from up ahead, the fountain in Rumen's main square. Liu nodded, “The fountain, Rumenous usually hangs around there. I'll ask him if there's a reason for these people acting so odd.” It took some doing in the mist, but after a few minutes of hunting, He Liu finally managed to see the familiar silhouette of the town chief. As usual there were a few adventurers nearby; though these adventurers, like the others Liu had seen, were not moving or talking, just standing straight looking off into the distance. “Rumenous,” Liu said as he approached, “Something feels weird. Is everything alright in Rumen?”

The town chief did not respond to Liu's question. The mage hesitated a moment, then stepped forward, repeating his question. This time the man groaned slightly, turning toward He Liu, who stepped back as he saw the town chief's eyes glow a dim green. He noticed that the other adventurers around him had begun to move as well, they were all looking at him now, the same glow in their eyes as in Rumenous'. Liu stopped walking backwards as the group in front of him came to a halt. A nearby mage began to shake, tilting his head far to the side, loud popping and cracking sounds coming from his neck as he groaned. The adventurer's body convulsed, growing rapidly as his skin turned a rotting gray in color, the small mage replaced by a large zombie. “What the heck?” Liu stammered at the mutation, “What's happening?” As though the first zombie appearing were a cue, the crowd behind the zombie began to convulse and change as well, and Liu found himself facing a large group of over ten zombies. The zombies stood for a moment, as though assessing the new situation, then began moving toward the mage. He Liu continued to walk backwards as the undead mob approached, a few more zombies walking into the group from the docks. Liu's back struck something, he turned to see what it was, finding a large unlit lighthouse behind him, and beyond that, nothing but the deep water of the town's harbor. Liu looked forward again, seeing the gathering of zombies staggering down the walkway toward him; among their groans was one barely audible word: “food”. He Liu narrowed his eyes and stretched out his hand as the zombie gang neared, “I doubt you are, but if you're the real inhabitants of this town: I'm sorry.” A large blue symbol appeared on the ground under the zombies signifying the attack was ready; Liu made a motion with his hand, and several large chunks of ice fell from the sky landing on top of the mob, crushing them. The attack not finished, Liu lowered his head and looked away; energy from the symbol poured into the ice, using it as a focus. The ice began to glow bright with the energy pouring into it, and the frozen water was quickly overwhelmed. The boulder sized chunks of frozen water detonated on top of the undead enemies, sending energy and sharp ice shards into the mob below; as the symbol and ice fragments vanished, the remains of the mutant zombies lay unmoving on the ground before him.

He Liu stepped past the unmoving bodies and made his way back into the town square. “Gotta love Ice Nova,” he said with a light laugh, “It's a taxing spell, but it definitely has a purpose.” He fell to the ground, tired from losing the massive energy needed to cast Nova, “Well at least that part's over.” There was a familiar moaning sound from somewhere ahead in the mist, Liu's eyes snapped open as he began scanning the dense vapor for signs of where it came from. He saw a shadow approaching in the mist with a familiar stagger, He Liu quickly got to his feet and began preparing for his next attack. The large zombie broke through the mist, only to be sent back through as a fireball launched from Liu detonated against its chest. “This is getting annoying,” Liu said as he sent an energy blast at another charging zombie, “There's too many to take out one at a time.” More silhouettes became visible in the dense fog, Liu again backed away as the mob gathered ahead of him. He stretched out his hand, again casting his Nova spell, eradicating the collection of undead monsters before him. A new gang of zombies made their way past the pile of their unmoving allies; once more Liu stretched out his hand, but this time nothing happened. He sucked in a quick breath, “I don't have the energy to launch the attack. I've used up too much already.” He reached down for his bag, his eyes widening, “Where's my bag? Where are my stones and potions?” A chorus of moans coming from all directions as he continued to back away from the small gang in front of him. He lowered his wand, looking at all the barely visible beings in the mist approaching him, unable to think of a way out.

Liu sidestepped as another zombie lurched forward grabbing haphazardly. He ducked low and stepped forward, spinning and bringing his staff down on the base of the zombie's neck, sending it staggering off into the brush. Liu continued his spin and ran forward, dodging another clumsy grab by yet another zombie. “I've got to get to Julia,” he thought, “With no potions I can't fight them with magic.” He dodged another attack by a pursuing zombie, he spun and dropped low, bringing his staff up at the zombie's ankles, tripping the beast, “And without potions, I can't beat them all hand to hand....this sucks.”

mandylynns

04-09-2009, 12:07 AM

good going so far but you still have three brothers alive to finish this tale and find out who actually wins in the end

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3398/incubatorsamissria2.png[/url

url=http://dragcave.net/view/4uWF]http://dragcave.net/image/4uWF.gif (http://dragcave.net/user/samissria2)[

http://dragcave.net/image/dYuo.gif (http://dragcave.net/view/dYuo)

http://dragcave.net/image/553T.gif (http://dragcave.net/view/553T)

http://dragcave.net/image/51Ck.gif (http://dragcave.net/view/51Ck)

Orchids_Mantis

04-15-2009, 10:26 PM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter III: Darkness of the Mind

The shadow cleric gave a dark laugh as it watched An's reaction. “They put their faith in YOU, An,” the shadow said with a sinister grin, “Faith you betrayed.” The two pale-skinned figures continued forward with a dark look in their eyes. The shadow gestured to the doorway again, “But none were betrayed more than this one.” An's breath caught and his body froze, as Leranna stepped into the chamber, her highly refined two handed sword set across her shoulders. The trio of adventurers stepped forward, drawing their weapons to an attack position. “Nohr...Luna,” An stammered as he stepped back, “Leranna...I..” His comment was left unfinished as Luna rushed forward and slammed her hammer into his chest. An staggered back, gasping in surprise and falling down just as Nohr's blade swung through the air he'd been standing in. An rolled sideways across the ground out of reflex, his escape cut short by a large sword sinking into the ground in his path; he came to a sudden halt, staring straight up into Leranna's emotionless face. “We trusted you, An,” she said coldly, “We put our lives in your hands...and you spread your fingers.” An reversed his roll and sprang to his feet, “Guys! I don't...I can't fight you!” “Then this should go very quickly,” Luna said stepping around in front of An. “Hmph,” Nohr scoffed from the side, “This will go fast regardless.” An gasped as Leranna kicked him in the back, straight into Luna's swinging hammer. An lurched forward, ribs cracking as Luna rotated, continuing through with her swing and forcing him backwards. An fell back and rolled across the floor getting to his knees and raising his hammer to cast a heal spell. He shouted, hammer falling from his hand and clattering to the floor as Nohr's sword sliced through his armor and into his back. Nohr spun with his blade, swinging his other arm out and striking the wounded cleric in the side of his head with his shield. Ears ringing, vision blurred and blood filling his mouth, An fell to the ground dazed. As he came back to his senses, he felt something cold against his neck. He coughed, bad tasting fluid spurting from his mouth, as his vision cleared, he saw the object touching his neck was the tip of Leranna's sword. “Is that all he's got?” the angry fighter said silently, “Pathetic.” “Wow, that was fast,” Luna agreed, “For some reason, I thought he'd be stronger than this.” Nohr sheathed his sword, “Just kill him. He has a habit of managing to wriggle out of these situations.”

“I don't want to finish him just yet,” Leranna growled, “I want him to have a good long look at what he did to me.” She leaned forward, long dark purple scars visible on her skin beginning just above and below differing parts of her chest armor. “And me, too,” Luna said stepping forward, discolorations on her face and arms showing where severe impacts had occurred. Dizzy as he was, An was still able to tell what it was he saw. The ringing in his ears grew louder again, the world spinning faster, “Guys I'b....I'm....” “Sorry?” Luna finished sarcastically, “You're sorry? You have any idea what happened to us? What you ALLOWED to happen!?” “You could have prevented it, An,” Nohr said with a sneer, “You could have made all the difference; but you did nothing.” “Worse than nothing,” Leranna continued, “I trusted you to have my back, An Ning; and when you weren't there, Skeleton Knight sank his sword in it...and that was just the start of my torture. In the thirty seconds it took you to finally show up, he'd cut up my body, starting with my feet, then legs, then arms....then he gutted me. I was awake! I saw it all! I WATCHED, as I bled to death...and his minions dragged my body away in different directions!” An's head sagged to the side, a mixture of bloodloss and disbelief. “You could have prevented it all, An. If you had been there, we wouldn't have died like we did...it's ALL YOUR FAULT!”

The world turned dark, a haunting laughter filled the air as Legel's voice came again, “Your fight ends here, in this prison created by your own subconscious. A lair of that which gives you your greatest pain, fear and sorrow.” The darkness consumed everything, somehow seeming to grow even darker, a new voice entering the midst, “It's not your fault." He held onto that voice, trying to force the thought back into his mind. The darkness faded, replaced by a forest, and a familiar face. The man continued to speak, “I knew you were chopping that tree down, son. I selected my tree because I thought I would be able to down it before you cut down yours. I knew there was a chance I could get hurt and I took it.” An watched from a distance as the man spoke to his son. "You can't be responsible for choices others make," the man finished, placing his arm on the child's shoulder. The man's eyes briefly flicked up, looking into the eyes of the cleric standing five yards away from them; giving a smile and a slight knowing nod s he did. The boy smiled back at his father, an smiled a bit as well, saying in his mind what the boy said aloud, “Thanks, dad. For everything.” The sky became darker and the vision of the man faded, a sudden burst of light appeared with a new pain, as Leranna backhanded the side of An's head with her armored wrist. “Wake up!” she shouted, “I want you awake and begging for our forgiveness when we kill you!” His vision cleared, he again saw Leranna, her sword pointed at his throat, glaring at him. “Say it!” she demanded, “BEG US TO FORGIVE YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO US!” “For what I did...to you,” An repeated groggily. He took in a deep breath, eyes focusing and the world stopping for a moment as he looked up at each of them in turn, “I'm sorry, Nohr, Luna, Leranna....but there's nothing for me to say. What happened...is what you did...to yourselves.”

An's shadow looked up suddenly from his lounging position in the far corner where he'd been watching; the three adventurers in front of him seemed dumbfounded at his words. “WHAT?!” Nohr demanded, “What are you talking about!? This is your fault.” An raised a hand, pushing Leranna's blade to one side as he got to his feet, “No, Nohr...it's not. What happened to you guys was...a result of your own choices.” “Shut up!” Leranna shouted, pointing her sword at him again. “You're the one...who's been telling me to talk this whole time,” An countered as he raised his shield -which seemed much heavier than it should have been. He looked at the other cleric, “Luna, you chose to go...on your quest alone. Nohr and I BOTH offered...offered to go with you, and you refused.” An's gaze shifted, Nohr looking back from Luna and met his gaze, “And you, Nohr...are the same as Luna. I offered to join you on...your quest, but you wanted to prove your power to yourself by...by doing it alone.” “ENOUGH, AN!” Leranna shouted from the side as she lunged. An turned to the side and caught her blade on his shield, “And you, Leranna, you went ahead of me in the crypts of Skeleton Knight. I shouted for you to slow down.” “Shut up!” she growled. An continued, “I begged for you to...come back when the mobs began attacking me, but you pressed forward without listening to me... without a thought of...what I was saying or doing. It was YOU who abandoned ME in those caves.” Leranna howled, “SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!!!” “Your deaths, while tragic and saddening, are the result of your own actions, of your own...choices.” “I SAID SHUT UP, AN NING!” Leranna shouted as she swung her blade up, preparing to bring it down on the cleric. An stared straight into her raging eyes as he finished, “Your deaths are...your own fault, not mine.”

The trio of undead adventurers suddenly broke out in loud painful yells as they clutched at their heads and sides. Their screams were cut abruptly short as their bodies disappeared into a blue vapor, which rose up to the ceiling and vanished. “A prison made by my mind, “An said quietly, “Made of my fears, my doubts and my pain. They weren't real; they were constructs from my past, brought to life because they...were the last people I'd ever want to fight. And to increase my guilt, they were made to look as though...they had died horrible deaths, which I'd always feared they had. You're despicable, Legel.” He shook violently as he coughed, blood spattering on the floor in front of him, “They may not have been...the real ones, but they still hurt like hell.” He hobbled forward, making his way toward his hammer, “Now I...just need to find a way out.” He reached down for his weapon, a black boot stomping the ground between his hand and the weapon. The boot swept back, kicking the weapon farther away from the cleric, An looked up to see his shadow standing before him, a sneer on his face, “Forget about someone? I'm impressed you managed to survive that, An; you really have gotten stronger.” His shadow gave a sinister grin as he twirled his hammer, “Which will make the feeling of killing you all the better.” Shadow An gave a great yell as he raised his hammer, and brought it down at the bleeding and exhausted cleric before him.

Orchids_Mantis

04-28-2009, 09:13 PM

for those still readin: sorry about the delay -exams were this week; and I'm getting ready to move at the semester's end, so I haven't been updating this. I'll try to get a few more posts in over the week and the weekend to make up for it.

Orchids_Mantis

04-28-2009, 09:22 PM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter III: Darkness of the Mind

His shadow grinned as Ao Shun walked into the room with a scowl. “What's wrong, Ao? You look angry about something,” the shadow taunted. Ao raised his sword, “Being my shadow, you are supposedly as strong as I am. Knowing this, why would you leave such weak enemies to fight me? They weren't even a challenge; they served no purpose.” The shadow grinned again and stepped to the side, unveiling a mob of a dozen enemies made up of Colls and Boars, “Oh there's a purpose to it, fighter. And these ones are about to show it to you.” The shadow being gave a motion with his hands, and the sizable mob of beasts charged at Ao Shun. The fighter rolled his eyes, shaking his head as the mob charged toward him. Ao planted his sword in the ground and spun around as the Boars and Colls drew close, then twisted over, pulling his sword free whipping it around his body and slamming it into the ground; shockwave from the powerful attack stunning all the beasts, knocking them into the air and slamming them into the ground where they lay motionless.

“That was pathetic,” Ao Shun said as he stepped past the dead monsters, “And I think I should be insulted you send these weaklings after me.” Shadow Shun grinned and raised his sword as the other fighter stepped toward him, “Well then, perhaps you'll find fighting me a bit more challenging.” Ao gave a maddening grin, twirling his blade in his hand, “I doubt it.” The doppleganger frowned at the comment, then leapt forward with a downward slash; sword landing with an echoing clang against the winged shield of his opponent. Ao Shun retaliated with his own downward attack, the shadow spun and ducked, raising his shield and knocking Ao's blade aside. The two fighters spun opposite each other, Ao Shun bringing his sword down from above again, the shadow from the side. Shadow Shun's blade struck first, penetrating Ao's armor and slicing across his stomach; as Ao Shun lurched down and over from the wound, it accelerated his own downward strike, slicing down the back of the shadow. The Shadow straightened up and shouted as the cold steel trailed down his back leaving a fiery trail of pain; he staggered forward for two steps, then turned with a sneer, eyes widening in surprise to see Ao reversing his rotation and stepping forward. The shadow turned in to meet the attack with his shield, eyebrows furrowing as Ao's sword smacked against the shield with almost no force.

Ao Shun grinned as his sword, gripped with a limp wrist, bounced off of the shadow's shield; he continued to spin, reversing his grip on the sword and stepped backwards, thrusting his sword beneath the shadow's rising shield and into his abdomen. Shadow Shun gave a quick gasp as the sword thrust into his body, cut off fast as it pierced his solar plexus, paralyzing his lungs. The shadow's eyes went wide, looking wildly around the room as he strained to breath. Ao Shun gave a forceful yank, pulling the sword free from the shadow's body; the shadow falling to the floor, writhing as he tried to find some way of getting air. The shadow flipped onto his back, his writhing slowing and eyes starting to roll back, until at last the doppleganger lay still. Ao Shun said nothing, he merely sheathed his sword as he looked at the lifeless shadow. He shook his head then turned to leave, pressing an arm to his stomach and bending over with a growl as a sudden wave of pain came from his wound. He looked up and halted, standing in the doorway before him was a mob, a mixture of King Colls and Boars -the ones he'd slain just before his fight with his shadow. His eyes narrowed, “Hmph; so THIS is what my shadow was laughing about; you guys come back after you die.” His gaze moved over each individual enemy in the gang before him. “So you outnumber me and you can't be killed,” he said as he drew his sword, “Big deal.” He charged forward and with a flurry of quick strikes, he again felled the mob. Ao Shun placed a hand on his hip and gave a shrug, “If you guys wanna get back up so I can kill you again go ahead...I have some extra time.” “Oh okay,” A voice answered from behind him. Ao spun around, again drawing his sword, his eyes widened as he saw his shadow standing up in the room's center, “But only because you insist.”

Ao Shun looked at the shadow as though it were a ghost, “But...but..” “How did I not die?” the shadow finished for him, “Well actually, I did -it was rather painful, really, a fact that I will keep in mind when I kill you later, but I digress. The more accurate question for the subject at hand would be: How am I alive again?” The shadow motioned to the walls of the cavern, “You see these green glyphs that surround the room? They feed off of you, Ao Shun, off of your pride, your arrogance; and they infuse us with the energy they create from their feeding, restoring our bodies and energies. I've watched you a long time, tanker. You have never met an enemy you felt you could not defeat. Even if an enemy bested you in combat, you would simply train to fight them again -the thought always in your mind that you could defeat them, that you were stronger than they were. The only things greater than your strength, Ao Shun, are your pride and enormous ego; which in here, sustain us. To put it simply: as long as you are alive, we cannot die.” The shadow gave a sudden shout, charging forward and slashing with his blade, Ao barely reacting in time to lock his sword with the shadow's. The two fighters pressed, each trying to push the other back; Ao Shun grunted, his chest burning from the cut he'd received earlier, his shadow grinned, “Are you in pain, fighter? If it gets to be too much for you, you can always just release your sword and let me kill you. Ao Shun's face darkened, “That's not going to happen,” he growled. “I know,” the shadow smiled, “I just felt like reminding you. Of course, I don't feel a thing of the attacks you got in earlier.” Ao twisted, rotating his blade over and jamming his elbow into his shadow's eye; his shadow fell backwards, clutching his face. “See if you feel this!” Ao shouted as he closed in and cut twice into the shadow's chest, dropping him to the ground again, “And this time stay down!”

Ao turned around, walking back toward the door, then stopped as he heard the sound of metal sliding across the stone floor. He turned to see his shadow again getting to his feet, wounds already healed. “Hahahahaha,” the double chuckled, “Is that the best you've got?” Ao took a long step in, rotating and bringing his sword around in a very strong attack, which the shadow met with his own blade, then leaned back and struck out with his foot, knocking Ao Shun back three steps. “So how's it feel, Ao Shun?” the shadow taunted, “To fight an enemy that you cannot defeat? To face a foe you cannot kill? To know that no matter how many times your sword pierces my chest, that eventually you will tire, and I will kill you? That no matter how many times I fall, I will continue to get back up?” Ao Shun closed in, the shadow slicing down with his sword; Ao dropped to one knee and raised his shield to block the attack, swiping across with his sword, slicing off the shadow's left leg at the knee. The shadow shouted again as he fell to the ground, grabbing his leg with both hands; not wasting the opportunity, Ao stepped forward and thrust his sword down and impaled the shadow. The shadow fell silent as Ao pulled out his sword, then spun and swung down, decapitating the evil double. “Get back up from that, you aggravating pest,” Ao said darkly.

He stepped back as the body started to glow a dull green, the head and leg reappearing, the wound in his chest closing. The shadow's eyes opened as the light faded and he got to his feet, picking his sword up from the ground. “I wonder,” the shadow said with a strange expression as he regarded Ao Shun, “Perhaps I should explain this whole concept of 'immortal' to you?” “I know what immortal is,” Ao Shun spit out, “But you are no immortal; and I'm going to keep killing you until you stay dead!” The shadow shook his head, “It would be so much easier on both of us if you simply surrendered and let me kill you.” “Thanks for the advice,” Ao grinned as he raised his shield, “But I think I'd rather just kill you again.” Ao Shun swung, his blade bouncing off the shadow's shield, catching the shadow's retaliatory strike against his own shield. The two fighters spun again, this time stepping away as they struck, blades passing over each other, the two fighters finishing facing each other with the same stance: shields forward held in front of them, arms extended behind them and swords pointing away. “You've done quite well so far, Ao,” the shadow said with a nod. “Thanks for noticing, I intend to continue to do well, you don't really seem capable of beating me -even with this cave reviving you each time I kill you.” “Overconfident as ever,” the shadow grinned, “But you know...there is something about this cave that you are forgetting.” Ao Shun tilted his head, “And what's that?” The shadow grinned wider, “I'm not the only being in this cave that is effected by the glyph.” Ao shouted, lurching forward as something struck him from behind, a claw piercing his armor and tearing into his back. He spun as he staggered, facing again a group of a dozen Boars and Colls. He raised his sword to attack, catching sudden motion from the side, spinning to block his shadow's blade, yelling once more as another Coll raked its claws across his body. The shadow knocked Ao's sword aside, then sliced across the top of Ao's leg, snickering as Ao fell to the ground. “How's it feel, Ao Shun?” the shadow asked as the mob surrounded him, “To know that there is no way for you to win?”

Orchids_Mantis

05-06-2009, 08:40 AM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter III: Darkness of the Mind

The fog was so thick even the street he ran on was difficult to see; yet somehow the zombies chasing him were having an easy time finding and following him. “I think I've gone far enough,” Liu thought to himself as he turned to the left, “The stairs should be pretty...” He gave a startled shout, his though left unfinished as he tripped, landing painfully on the stairs leading to Rumen's upper level. “...close,” he finished through clenched teeth as he got back up. A chorus of moans behind him let him know that now was not the time to sit still and feel sorry for himself, he began clambering up the stairs on all fours -insuring he would not trip again- to gain more distance from the undead beasts following him. “At least the stairs should slow them down a bit,” he thought as he bolted up the stairs, “ It should give me time to get to Julia; to get a few stones so I can cast nova at them again.” He reached the top of the stairs and got to his feet, instinctively turning toward the area where Julia the Healer usually practiced her craft. Through the fog he could barely see where she was, but soon he saw a shadowy but familiar outline standing before him. “Who goes there?” a high pitched voice called “I'm He Liu,” he answered as he walked closer, “I need your help, Julia.” “Oh thank goodness,” the person answered, “I was hoping it was you.” Liu halted, “You were?” “Yes,” the voice answered back, “I need you to do something.” “What did you need?” he asked cautiously. The figure turned toward him, glowing eyes piercing the fog, “I need you to stand still.” With that, the figure began to spasm, arms and body growing, silhouette changing to match that of the other zombies that had been pursuing him. Liu stepped back and turned, just in time to see another zombie walking over from where Ruby normally stood.

As he stood gape-jawed, the zombie behind him leapt forward, grabbing onto him from behind and sinking its teeth into his shoulder. Liu let out a loud yell as the teeth easily tore through his silk shirt and into his flesh. He brought up his wand, striking the beast in the head, causing it to release its bite, but not its grip. Liu ran backwards, slamming the zombie into the stone wall behind them and knocking the beats in the head with his wand again; this time the beats let go and sank to the ground. Liu stepped forward, ducking and narrowly dodging a grab by the second enemy, then bolted down the road again, making for the forest on Rumen's perimeter. “Great,” he thought, “So everyone is a zombie. That means no stones, no potions, no assistance of any sort. I don't know if I can take on this big a mob by myself. Even in perfect conditions I don't know if I'd be able to..” his thoughts stopped, his steps slowed and he came to a halt, staring ahead of himself. He was only ten yards away from the relative safety of the forests, but positioned at the road's end, were a dozen more of the zombies that had infested Rumen. Liu turned around, and made no move; the other set of zombies had caught up and gathered behind him. “Hounds to the hunters,” Liu said softly as he shook his head, “Man I'm stupid; I should have seen this coming from miles away.”

The zombies began to close the gap, and Liu scowled, incredibly angry, but not sure why. “This really ticks me off!” he shouted loudly. He threw out his hand at one zombie, fire erupting from his palm and slamming into the beast's chest, knocking it back. He spun, swirling his staff and pointing its top at another zombie. There was a sharp crackle as lightning shot down from the sky, driving into the beast's head and making its way into the ground below. The charred remains falling to the ground. He brought his staff around again, chaining two powerful fire spells together and felling three more zombies. Sweat poured from his head, his chest burned and he couldn't breathe, but again he spun, facing the mob that separated him from the forest. He stretched out his hand, mind filled with the burning desire to obliterate all the enemies before him. A glowing red circular symbol appeared on the ground, a wall of flame shot from the ground, surrounding the zombies and incinerating any caught on the outskirts of the circle Then an even more intense flame burst upward, instantly cremating the other zombies trapped within the powerful inferno. The flames died, and a line of zombies still stood, blocking his path. Liu stood hunched over, panting heavily, he stretched out his wand again, and nothing came of it -his energy was completely gone.

Seeing the mage unable to attack, the zombies once again began slowly hobbling forward from both sides. A zombie lunged, Liu managed to sidestep and knocked the beast in the back of the head, cracking bone and sending the undead beast to the ground; where it began to get up once again. The mobs continued to close, drawing ever closer to the defeated mage. Sadly, Liu looked down at his wand, “If only you were a sword.”

The shadow leaned back and raised his sword, Ao took the opportunity to lash out with a foot, striking the double above the waist and knocking him off balance. Ao grunted as he got to his feet, and with a flurry of strikes, once more sent the beasts surrounding him to the ground. The shadow straightened and beheld the fighter, hunched over and bleeding before him. The fighter raised his sword and began to side-step, the shadow copied and they began walking a wide circle around each other. The shadow gave a slight laugh, “Heh, that's no matter. They'll be back in a short amount of time anyways.” Ao stopped circling and gave a weak smile, "Are you sure about that?” The shadow narrowed his eyes as he answered, “Yes. They will rise up again just as they did the last few times you killed them.” Ao's grin grew wider, “Well, they would have, if all remained as it was.” Shadow Shun's head twisted slightly to one side as he looked at the fighter, “What are you getting at?” Ao tilted his head down slightly, “You and your buddies here are revived by the glyph on the wall, correct?” He gave a brief pause but did not wait for an answer, “Well then logically, all I have to do is destroy the glyph on the wall, and you guys are as mortal as I am!” Ao Shun spun on his heel, wincing as pain shot up his leg from the slash he'd received earlier, and bolted toward the wall containing the largest glyph. The shadow's eyes opened wide as he realized that every bit of this conversation had been a lure, and he'd been strung along quite neatly. By circling, Ao had placed himself between the glyph and the shadow, instead of being on the far end, with the shadow between him and the glyph; and by talking, he'd bought himself time to recover slightly, and prevented his shadow from attacking before he'd gotten into position to attack the glyph.

Ao Shun charged in at the glowing carvings on the wall, raised his sword, and slashed across them, creating a long cut across the glyph. Bringing his sword back up he straightened, then brought the blade back across as he spun, slicing into it again. He halted his spin, sword held high above him, and twisted counter to his last strike, bending down bringing all of his weight and momentum to bare on the carvings. Sparks shot off of the wall as his sword scraped across the surface, cutting into the hard stone, Ao tried to halt his move as his sword reached the ground, but a fresh jolt of pain shot into his leg and he dropped to his knee with a growl.

He suddenly heard laughing behind him, Ao Shun turned to see his shadow, head tilted forward and eyes shut, chuckling and shaking his head. The shadow took a breath, “What was that supposed to accomplish, exactly? First of all, the glyph is a carving in the wall, all you did was carve a few more marks in it. Secondly, the glyph feeds off of your bravado, that entire series of moves you just did -intent on defeating us with your strength and power- all it did was give the glyph more to feed on.” Ao turned, noticing that the shadow was telling the truth, the glyph glowed as bright as ever -even the new carvings he'd just made were glowing. “There is no way for you to defeat us, Ao Shun. The only way for us to die, is if someone were to kill us AFTER we kill you.” The shadow was joined by a mass of Colls and Boars behind him, “But as you can probably tell, since you are the only one here besides us...that's not going to happen.”

Orchids_Mantis

05-06-2009, 09:27 AM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter III: Darkness of the Mind

The shadow dashed forward and swung, bringing his sword out to the side. Ao brought his shield across, sword following, intent on a block and counter that would severely wound the other fighter; but when his shield met the shadow's sword, there was no resistance, the sword merely bounced off as the shadow easily spun backwards, avoiding Ao's strike -Ao had fallen for a feint strike. The shadow raised his sword as he spun, bringing it down across Ao Sun's back. Ao yelled, spinning away from the blade and staggering backwards, nearly collapsing again. “You can't defeat me, Ao Shun,” the shadow said smugly, sheathing his sword, “Your very personality dictates that I will win. The glyph feeds off of your pride. Your pride you have at always being triumphant, you pride that you feel you will always come out on top. Every time you tell yourself you can win, you can beat me, you can destroy me, the glyph becomes stronger; and uses that strength to restore me.” Ao charged in again, but his leg gave out and he stumbled. The shadow stepped to the side and knocked Ao with his shield, bowling him over. The shadow didn't even face him; he stood facing the glyph, arms outstretched, “This time, Ao Shun, it is I who will defeat YOU. It is I, not you that will leave this cursed cave, and it is I, who will return to the surface.” The shadow turned, drawing his sword, “And when I get there, I will free my brothers from their place of imprisonment as well.” Ao heard the last comment by the fighter, his mind raced, trying to find some way to win, some way to defeat the shadow, but no answer came. “To put it simply: as long as you are alive, we cannot die,” the shadow's words echoed in his mind; and Ao nodded slightly as he clambered to his feet. “I can't win.” “I see you've finally accepted it,” the shadow smirked at hearing his whispered comment.

Shadow Shun pointed his sword at Ao and charged in, “Now DIE, Ao Shun!” Ao straightened, facing directly at the shadow, completely unmoving. The shadow's thrust held enough force that his blade easily pierced through Ao's armor, passing through his body and jutted out his back. Ao sank forward and gasped as the metal blade went through him; groaning as the shadow yanked backwards, pulling the blade out of his stomach. Ao Shun sank to his knees, coughing up blood; straining to look up at the shadow. “You're pathetic when you give up like that,” the shadow sneered. He looked down at the defeated fighter, “Don't look up at me, you disease-ridden maggot!” he swung his shield across, slamming it into Ao's head and knocking him to the floor, “Stay down there and die slowly...Shadow Shun.” The shadow turned and grinned as he walked away, “That was far too easy,” the shadow thought, “Man, I never knew I could have so much pow..” his eyes widened in shock, thoughts cutting off and breathing halted as his chest filled with a sudden intense pain; the red tip of another sword sprouting from his chest. The blade retracted and the shadow spasmed as the sword's energy wreaked havoc with his insides. The shadow turned to see Ao Shun kneeling down on the ground, blood dripping from a wry smile. Shadow Shun swung his shield at Ao again, knocking him backwards into one of the room's stone columns; then lurched forward, vomiting blood.

The shadow clutched at the opening in his chest, coughing up blood again and taking a pain-filled breath. “That will serve you no purpose, Ao Shun,” the shadow spit out between rasping breaths, “The glyph will restore me, and I will still go to the surface.” Ao looked back at the fighter with half closed eyes, taking long breaths, “ Then why hasn't the glyph...begun to restore you?” Ao raised a shaky arm, pointing at the walls, “Or haven't you...noticed yet?” The shadow looked around, the glyph's green glow had faded, now they were simply carvings on the walls. “What?” the shadow stammered, “But..how...how could this happen? What did you do, Ao Shun!?” “Me? I did nothing. This was all your...doing,” Ao grinned lazily, his head swinging around in a half circle, “You said it yourself...That glyph feeds off my bravado...my...pride in winning....As long as...I live....you are immortal.” Ao sagged forward a bit, “Your last attack....has killed me, shadow...I will not survive this...and I have no hope...of winning....And now...neither...do you.” The shadow's eyes widened as Ao Shun looked up weakly, “You will not...get near...my family.” With that, Ao Shun sagged, falling over to the ground. The room darkened, he heard the shadow's howling shout of denial, followed by a clatter of armor as the shadow collapsed as well. Ao Shun smiled to himself as the darkness overtook him, “I couldn't win; but there was too much at stake, I couldn't afford to lose, either,” he thought to himself, “I'm sorry that I won't be coming back; but at least you are safe, my brothers.” A small dot of light appeared in the darkness, and began to grow larger and brighter, until it surrounded him...

Legel swung at Teva's head, a powerful but slow strike that she easily dodged. She ducked beneath his arm, and gave a quick jabbing spear to his underarm with her fingers. Legel shouted and recoiled, grabbing at the area with his other hand. There was a light sound from the side, like something falling to the ground. Teva chanced a look, and saw that He Liu had fallen from his spot. “He Liu!” she shouted in disbelief. The mage made no reply, other than to give out a long exhale of air. “So he was third,” Legel said smoothly, “That took longer than I had expected; perhaps he was stronger than I realized.” Teva turned toward Nik, still possessed by his master, Legel, “You're despicable, Legel.” He grinned at her comment, “You're not the only one who thinks so.” She scowled, “I will defeat you, you mongrel; I will seal you beneath the ground for eternity, and force you to watch as that which you would destroy flourishes.” “My, that's very dark for you, Teva,” Legel grinned, “Too bad you lack the strength to back up your boasts.” Before Legel could finish laughing at his comment, Teva swept forward, striking him several times in the stomach and head; sending Legel flying backwards and into the ground. “I don't,” she said darkly.

Teva winced as there was another brief thud from where the family of adventurers stood. She didn't want to look...she couldn't look at another of the family having died. A sudden spasm of coughs got her attention, her head jolted to the side, eyes widening as she saw Ao Shun on his hands and knees, coughing and gasping for air. Legel looked over in astonishment as well, “What the Hell!? How did he manage to escape!? His prison should have been impossible for him to get out of alive!!” Teva looked back at Legel with a grin, a familiar feeling welling up inside of her, “I told you, Legel: you shouldn't underestimate the capabilities of those adventurers.” Legel growled, staring daggers at the confused fighter. Ao Shun looked around spotting the bodies of Liu, Feng and Tian. He rushed over to them, shaking them and shouting at them, trying to wake them up. Upon seeing that none of them were alive, he sank backwards to the ground in shock. “ANIS!” Legel's voice thundered across the field; Anis looked up from her fight with Dakkon as Legel continued, “Stop toying around with him! Finish your fight and when you're done; KILL THAT ANNOYING FIGHTER, AO SHUN!!” Ao looked over at where the shouting had come from, his face darkening, “Legel,” he whispered, “You will pay for this.”

Anis broke her lock with Dakkon and dashed toward Ao with incredible speed. Ao Shun raised his shield and blocked her attack, the force sliding him backwards several feet. Ao pushed forward against Anis, who smiled at his effort and pushed in reply; forcing Ao to take a step back. Ao Shun looked up at the deity and grinned, chuckling lightly. "What's so funny?" Anis demanded as she regarded the fighter. "Sorry," Ao grineed, "I was just imagining you in a lot of pain." Anis grinned back, "Arrogant little brat, aren't you? I kind of like that. But you will not be able to do me any harm." Ao's grin grew as his eyes flicked over her shoulder, "Who said I was the one that was going to hurt you?" Anis' eyes widened, she lunged forward, knocking Ao backwards and spun around raising her sword -just in time to see a large hammer flying toward her face. Dakkon's attack connected, and Anis flew up and backwards, landing hard on the ground some distance away. She recovered quickly and got to her feet as Ao moved next to Dakkon. "You will regret that," Anis growled. Dakkon grinned back at her, "We'll see." Anis raised her sword as An and Dakkon charged in at her in unison.

Orchids_Mantis

05-06-2009, 04:02 PM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter III: Darkness of the Mind

An Ning dropped and rolled as his shadow swung his hammer down, smashing into the rocky base of the chamber. He got to one knee and raised his hand, casting a healing spell on himself. Energy shot through him, restoring his energy, resetting bones and closing wounds. An Ning straightened up, getting to his feet and darted around his shadow, grabbing his hammer off of the ground as the shadow yanked his hammer free from the small crater he'd just made. The shadow turned to face An, “Faster than I had thought you'd be.” An grinned back, “Sorry to ruin your hopes of a quick and effortless victory.” “Nothing to apologize for,” the shadow replied, “I think I will enjoy killing you in a fight even more than I would have enjoyed seeing you get killed by your friends.” An swung his hammer out, striking the shadow's shield; the shadow countered, his hammer striking An's own shield -the force of the blow stressing An's forearm and cracking it. An swung down then up, his hammer making its way under the shadow's shield and connecting with his chest. The shadow cleric staggered backwards, raising his hammer and casting a heal spell on himself as Ao did the same. The two clerics lowered their hammers and glared at each other for a few moments. The shadow raised his shield, “This may take a while.” An grinned back, “If you're in a hurry to lose, you could just let me win.” The shadow gave a sarcastic smile, “Funny.” The shadow dashed forward with a strong bash attack, which An deftly avoided, spinning around and swinging his hammer at the shadow's exposed side. His hammer impacted, knocking the shadow being to the side. The shadow caught his balance and turned, casting a strong healing spell on himself.

The two clerics continued their duel, trading blows, blocking and healing, seeming to take turns getting knocked back, healing then knocking the other back. An charged in, smashing his hammer into the cleric's shield, then rotated and slammed his shield into the shadow, knocking the cleric back; and followed up with a spinning hammer blow, forceful enough to bend the cleric's armor in and shatter the ribs it protected. The cleric fell back, leaning toward his injured side, and looked up at An Ning, “You really think you can win?” He hefted his hammer, a blue aura surrounding him as he cast a strong healing spell, restoring his body as he straightened up, “You cannot do more harm than I am able to heal.” The shadow looked at him, “I remember last time you won because I was too eager to use bash. You'll find that this time I am not so easily felled.” An Ning looked over to the side as he began thinking, “He's right; he hasn't used bash since that first strike. So how can I defeat him? Each time I attack him all he does is heal himself. A cleric attacking a cleric is usually..” “An exercise in futility,” another voice finished for him in his mind. It was a voice from years before; before Ao or Tian had decided to become adventurers, before he'd even heard of Lamis; back when An was striving to catch up to Celestina's level, and Celestina was taking a break from her training. She and An had been talking in Elderine, and Celestina had mentioned being bored without training, and not liking the many fights and scams that seemed to be plaguing the streets of the town. An grew a big grin and suggested they go to the new area of Rumen, a battle zone where adventurers could fight each other for fun and sport. He managed to persuade her to go there to see what the area was like; now he was trying to get her to fight him -perhaps hitting him a few times would alleviate her boredom somewhat.

“Oh, come on, Celest,” An Ning said with a grin, “Just once.” The purple haired cleric smiled and shook her head, “Why would you want to fight me?” “For fun,” he replied, “You were just saying how bored you were out there; I figured we could go have a friendly sparring match.” “What would the purpose of it be?” she asked back. “For fun,” he answered again, “Something new we could try. Besides, you're a higher level than me, I want to see how long I can last against you.” Celestina looked straight at An, “Look, I don't want to risk hurting you.” “You can't,” An grinned back, “This place has a strong enchantment on it that prevents death, for one. As an added precaution, once you take a certain amount of punishment without being healed -be it by stone, potion or spell- you are teleported to a new area and your health is restored. No one can die in this area.” Celestina shook her head again, “A cleric fighting a cleric is an exercise in futility, An. No one can win. We just heal ourselves.” An nodded, “It's true that we can heal ourselves a lot, but after a certain point, we can't heal anymore.” “So we just use a stone,” she answered, “It restores our spirit and we go back to doing what we do best: healing.” An gave a challenging look back at her, “Not if we agree not to use stones.” Celestina sighed, shaking her head yet again, You're not going to let this go, are you?” “I will if you fight me once,” An grinned. “I don't think I'd like fighting, she replied. An nodded, “It's possible; but how can you be sure if you've never tried it? Come on...if you decide you don't like it I'll stop bugging you.”

Orchids_Mantis

05-06-2009, 04:03 PM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter III: Darkness of the Mind

She shook her head again and chuckled, “Alright....Alright, fine...I'll fight you.” “Woohoo!” An jumped into the air, Celestina chuckled lightly, “I didn't know you wanted to fight me that much. “Sorry,” he grinned, “I just wanted to get you to try something new.” “Well then,” An said taking up his hammer, “Shall we begin?” Her attack was faster than he'd expected. With a yell she lunged forward, bringing her hammer down in a hard bash strike. An lifted his shield to block, shouting as the force of the blow shattered his bone. He spun around, knocking her in her side with his hammer and stepping back. The two clerics spun to face each other, each casting healing spells on themselves. “That was pretty good, Celest,” An grinned. “Thanks,” she smiled back, “Your counter was fairly decent.” The two clerics charged in again, trading blows and healing once more. Their fight continued for several minutes, the two clerics standing, facing each other and breathing heavily. “See?” Celestina said, “I told you: neither of us can win.” An grinned, “Actually, Celest, you're wrong. There's a flaw I've spotted in your style; one that translates into a loss for you.” Celestina tilted her head to the side, “What do you mean?” An chuckled, “I'd guess you have enough energy for about three more exchanges. After that, you'll be unable to heal yourself.” Celestina straightened as he continued, “However, I have enough energy for another eight or nine exchanges.” She furrowed her eyebrows, “How? I mean, I should have more energy than you; so I should be able to heal more than you before running our of energy.” An nodded, clipping his hammer to his waist, “True; but that doesn't take the flaw into count. When you add that in, it makes perfect sense.”

“So what's the flaw?” Celestina asked. “Your heals,” An replied, “Every time you heal you do so at your maximum capability. Those healing spells are the most taxing on your spirit. Each time you strike me, I use the minimum heal necessary -even if it leaves me partially wounded. It extends my endurance in fights beyond the range of yours, if you continue to heal at your maximum ability for each attack.” Celestina thought for a moment, “I never really thought about that before.” An grinned, “I noticed. But see? This is something we might not have seen if we didn't spar. Something good came out of it.” She smiled a bit, “True enough, An.” “But...you don't want to try it again, huh?” An finished. Celestina shook her head, “No...This was a bit useful; but I'd rather not do this again.” An laughed, “Okay. You win. I said before we sparred that if you didn't like it I'd stop bugging you about it; so I will.” They made their way back toward the entrance to the battle area, “That was interesting, though...”

An looked back up at the shadow cleric standing before him, grinning. “What's so funny?” the shadow demanded. “I just remembered something important; a way for me to defeat you.” The shadow swung his hammer around in his hand, “You're bluffing.” An grinned, “Am I? You'll just have to come over here and find out.” The shadow charged, swinging hard with his hammer and smashing An's shield. An spun and bent at the knee, striking the shadow in the femur and cracking his bone. The shadow collapsed to the ground as An backed away healing himself. “Come on, shadow,” he thought, “Show me the flaw. You think you have unlimited power; use it. Heal yourself to your fullest ability to try and ruin my morale.” He grinned as the Shadow used a powerful healing spell to heal his leg and got to his feet.

The clerics clashed again and again, trading blows then backing away and healing, An waiting patiently for the flaw in the shadow's fighting style to make itself known. The two clerics charged again, hammers clashing against each other's armor, bones bending, cracking and breaking. The two clerics spun and backed away, each raising their hammers. A blue aura appeared around An, who smiled as his shadow's eyes widened, his body remaining wounded and unhealed, “Gotcha.” An rushed forward at the astonished shadow, hammer flying into the shadow's shield and knocking him back; then slamming him to the side by bringing his own shield around and knocking the shadow across the head. The shadow collapsed to the ground, dazed. Shadow An heard some strange crunching sounds as he tried to regain his senses. At last his eyes focused, and he scanned the room looking for his opponent. His eyes widened as he spotted An Ning, standing a few meters away; next to a severely damaged column. An looked back at the shadow, “I think this means I win.” An Ning swung his hammer into the column again, the tower of stone began to collapse. The shadow let out a loud chain of swears at the cleric, cut off abruptly as the column smashed into the floor, shattering into dust and debris. An looked at the pile of rubble, the burial mound for his shadow and shook his head, “This time...stay buried.”

Orchids_Mantis

05-06-2009, 04:03 PM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter IV: The Four Fallen

The room suddenly filled with a brilliant light, devouring everything and enveloping his body. As the light faded, he found himself outside in front of his family's house; the place he'd been standing before he went into the caverns he'd been fighting in. He looked around, seeing Ao Shun and Dakkon fighting Anis, and finding He Liu on the ground next to him. “Liu!” he shouted, kneeling down next to his brother and folding his hands together, “Hang on, Liu...I'll get you back here.” “WHAT!?” the sudden shout from the air broke his concentration; he looked up to see Legel staring at him in astonishment. “NO! Not that one, too! The fighter is annoying enough, how'd he get out!?” His rant was cut short as Teva landed series of strong jabs, sending Legel to the ground. She turned toward the cleric, “An! Revive Liu, then Feng and Tian! Hurry!” An nodded, folding his hands again and shutting his eyes, concentrating as he began the chant.

Legel got up from the ground, eyes wild, as Teva closed in on him, “You see, Legel? I told you; these adventurers are much more powerful than you will admit. Or perhaps, you have less power than you delude yourself into believing.” Legel's face twisted with craze, “Anis!!” Anis broke off her offensive against her two opponents and launched herself into the air to escape, giving Legel her full attention. “Forget Dakkon and kill that fighter. Don't toy with him, just kill him and kill him NOW!” Legel floated into the air, looking over at Teva, This farce ends now!” Teva gave a maddening grin, “I've heard you say that several times before; you still haven't beaten me.” A sudden and incredible pulse of energy slammed into her, knocking her back several meters. Legel grinned from up in the air at Teva, “I didn't say I was going to defeat YOU.” His wild eyes trailed over to where the cleric knelt, eyes closed and chanting, “I said that this farce ends now.” Teva's eyes widened and she started to get up, only to be slammed back into the ground as another pulse of energy from Legel slammed into her. When she opened her eyes a moment later, Legel was no longer in the air above her.

He knelt next to his brother, eyes closed, sounds of the battle a distant rumble as he concentrated on his chant, trying to bring back the spirit of his fallen brother. He felt his brother's presence, and began guiding the spirit back toward his body. Suddenly he felt someone's hands on his own body -on his neck. His eyes opened wide as someone jerked hist head up and to the side, bones cracking and popping. The hands released him, and he fell to the ground, unable to move or breathe. He tried to talk, but he couldn't open his mouth; the world began spinning from lack of air, and as he stared ahead; he vaguely made out the fight ahead of him.

Anis looked ahead as Legel shouted at her, “Forget Dakkon and kill that fighter. Don't toy with him, just kill him and kill him NOW!” She gave a nodding bow, and dropped back to the ground. She spun around, twisting her sword to the side, blocking an attack by Ao Shun and locking their swords together. She tilted her head as she looked at him, “Too bad...I liked you. You were kind of cute.” Ao looked over to the side, blinking a few times, not sure what to make of that comment. She brought her other hand around and punched him in the jaw, knocking him back. As he staggered, she lowered her blade and thrust forward, driving her sword through the fighter's chest. She pulled her sword out, allowing the fighter to sink to the ground.

From his vantage point, An could make out what was going on in the fight ahead of him. He saw Ao Shun take the first hit and fall to the ground. He then saw his killer, Anis standing over him. She twirled her blade around in her hands, pointing the blade down, and sank it into the fighter again -Ao Shun remained unmoving. The world spun, his vision blurred and darkness began to consume everything he saw.

Legel smiled as he saw the fighter take his last breath, and the cleric's eyes close. “Finally. Those adventurers were real pests; but at least that's over now.” He felt a pressure in his side, a sudden blow from behind sent him flying into the ground with a great force, burying him three feet below the dirt. Legel broke back up to the surface in a fit of rage, glaring at Teva, “Now all I have to do is finish the other two pests.” Teva glared back at him, “I'm afraid your time to do that is up, Legel. She held out her hands, and Legel's eyes widened. “No,” Legel whispered softly as he stared. In Teva's hands were a cluster of red gems -she had stolen the soul stones from his pocket before attacking him when his back was turned. Teva stared at her opponent, who began to spasm. “No! Nooooooo!” Legel shouted in defiance as he began to lose control. Legel straightened, glaring at her, “I...may..have lost...this...fight...” He clenched his hand into a fist, then stretched it out, pointing it at the adventurers and opened his hand again, “But...you still...lose...them.” The bodies of An Ning and Ao Shun were covered in a light darkness. Teva looked back at him, “No!” Legel grinned slightly, then his face twisted in pain; he gave a last loud shout, then the body of Nik collapsed to the ground again, vanishing. Teva turned toward Anis, who quickly surmised that her situation was untenable. She opened a portal beneath her feet and dropped into it, disappearing before Dakkon or Teva could attack her.

Dakkon and Teva walked over to where the bodies of the adventurers lay, Teva knelt down and began to cry lightly. “It's...not possible for us to revive them now...is it?” Dakkon said softly. Teva shook her head, “No. Legel's last act...was to send their spirits too far away for us to reach.” They sat there for a long time, before Dakkon broke the silence, “What...can we do now?” Teva's face hardened, “We do what we have been doing; we find a way to stop Legel permanently. To ensure that he is never able to do this again.” Dakkon looked to the side, avoiding looking at her directly, “We...should bury them first. They deserve that much.” Teva nodded, and the two began digging in the ground next to the place where the bodies lay; preparing to bury the five family members, the five adventurers who had once resided in the small home not twenty yards away.

He was floating in the warm darkness again. An didn't know where he was floating to...or from -or indeed if he was in fact moving anywhere- but it was comfortable to float like that. H e had a vague sensation of movement about him, as though being submerged in a warm, lightly flowing river. The flow seemed to slow somewhat, then pause -as though something wer holding him -regarding him. A thought outside of his own entered his mind, "You're an interesting one." He did not recognize the voice...or rather...the voices. It sounded like thousands of people speaking the same thing all at once -not the cluttered echoing disarray of a thousand people trying to speak at the same time, but more like one person, or rather, one entity, speaking with a thousand voices as it talked with incredible clarity.

An's mind cleared a bit as he tried to become more aware. He wanted to sit up and look around, but there was nothing there to sit up from, and nothing there to see. He wanted to reach back and scratch his head in confusion, only to find that he could not feel his arm...or head. "Don't try to move around much," the voices stated, "It will only serve to perplex and aggravate you." "Where am I?" he said without speaking -for he could not find a mouth to move. "That is difficult to express in a way you would understand," it answered, "There is no 'here' that can perfectly express what 'here' is...as this is not a 'here'; there is simply 'me'. You are in fact, nowhere...but to put in a manner you wuld comprhend better; you are in a place between all worlds. Not alive in any of them, nor moving away from any of them." "Worlds?" An repeated. The voices paused for a moment, "Between, worlds, dimensions, universes; however you wish to phrase it. This is a seperation from time and space for beings as they cross from one existence to the next."

An was a bit confused, "Between one existence and the next....so I...don't exist?" "Correct," the voices replied. "But I am here," he countered, "How can I not exist when I am clearly here?" "Because there is no 'here'," the voice repeted, "This is outside of existence, beyond space and time, which is needed for there to be a definition of what you would call a 'here'." "Who are you?" An asked, his head -or where his head should be- hurting slightly. "I am a guide," it replied, "When one being passes from one existence, I guide it to the next. Sometimes they are to be reborn in the same world as the last they were in, sometimes it is a new world." An thought moment, "There's more than one world?" "Of course," the voice answered, "There are many universes with many worlds inside them. When a person ceases to exist in one, they come to me, and I guide them to their next place of existence." "Impossible," An stated, "For that to be so, you'd have to deal with thousands, if not millions of people in a single day. Countless people one after another after another." "Yes," the voice replied, "That is true." "Yet in the few minutes I've been here, no one else has arrived...no one else has died." There was a light chuckle now, "You still think in the terms of constraints for your existence. I said before this place is beyond time. What seems like hours to you may be less than a second in your last world. And what seems like moments can be years, if that is what is needed. Though we have traded several ideas, no time has passed since I first spoke to you; so no one in any world has died yet."

Orchids_Mantis

05-06-2009, 04:04 PM

Alternate Ending

Book IV: Light of Hope, Shadow of Chaos
Chapter IV: The Four Fallen

An grew frustrated -clearly he would never understand this. "Where are my brothers?" An asked, changing the subject again. "The four before you," the voice clarified, "They have already moved to their next place of existence." "So since I'll get there last...does it mean I'll be the youngest of us four this time?" An asked with a slight laugh. "It does not work that way," the voices replied, "In fact; you may not even be brothers." "WHAT!?" An shouted, "How can you do that to us!?" The vioces were silent a moment before answering, "You four were not always brothers. You were in the last existence, but before that, you were simply friends. Before that, cousins. Before that, a mix of brothers and in-laws. Your relationships with each other change from one world to the next, in most you are related or together, but in some you are barely acquaintences. That is not my doing, per se; just the way things are to be." "What about Feng and Tian?" An asked after a moment. "Those two are...also interesting," the voice began slowly, "They seem joined at a deeper level than most -indeed a joining I wish I saw more frquently. In any world they are sent to, they are never related...and no matter how far apart they are set in a world when born, they always find each other and end up together." "Well at least they will still have each other," An thought.

He had a sudden thought, "Did you go through all this with the others?" "No," the voice admitted, "I usually simply push and pull, guiding them along as they float from realm to realm. I did the same with your brothers." "Then...whay did you stop me?" An asked. "Because you are...unique in this situation," the guide answered, "Most have a sign as to where they belong next; and I guide them to that realm. You, however....you have two signs." An was stunned a moment, "Two...signs?" "There is a sign for the world in which your brothers now exist," the voice vrified, "AND...a sign for the world from which you just came." An was quiet, "So you mean...I could be reborn in Isya...or with my brothers." "Not quite," the voices contradicted, "You could be reborn with your brothers in their new world...or sent back to Isya." "Sent back!?" An exclaimed, "You mean...back to the life I just had!?" "Yes," the voices said softly, "It seems that due to a strange circumstance involving interventions at key points multiple times; that certain paths of existence are still possible for you. So you are being given an option to resume your life as the Isyan cleric An Ning." An thught for a moment, "Killed by nature, revived by a deity, then killed by a deity...is that what you mean by strange intervention?" "Yes," the guide answered.

An thought briefly, "I could go and join my brothers in the next world...but they may not be my brothers. Or I can return to Isya, to my friends and help them out there." "The choice is yours," the voices stated, "Do not rush this decision; once made, it cannot be undone. Do not worry about time; until you decide, no time shall pass in any world. Once you are ready, tell me your decision, and I shall guide you there." An thought for -what seemed to him- a long moment, "I could go to the next world...to see my brothers...but they won't be my brothers. Heck...I probably won't evenrecognize them -or remember any of this. If I go there, everything starts all over from the beginning...memories, skills...family and friends." He thought back to the world he had just left, to his freinds, La Celestina, Ruby Shadow, Princess Ai, Madeleina, Lunar Aegis, Maldavo, Cookie Princess (a cleric he'd met not too long ago) and her frequent training partner, Hot Trot. "Loss," he thought, "my reason for becoming a cleric in the first place was to prevent it, to prevent the pain others feel from losing those close to them. If I were to stay in Isya, my brothers would live on in the next world without knowing I was gone. But to leave Isya...to leave my friends...that would create the very feelings I've been wanting to prevent. Even if in the next world I wouldn't remember the consequences of this choice; I still can't do it."

"Guide? An called. "You've made a decision?" the voices asked softly. "Yes," An answered, "but before I say it; I want to ask a question." The voices paused a moment, "What is it?" "Will my brothers be alright -and be happy- even if I am not there with them right now?" There was a warm feeling from the guide, "Not forever; all life has some suffering -it is a part of what defines life in these universes. But your brothers will be fine enough until such time as you rejoin them." An was satisfied with that answer, "Then...I want to go back to Isya." There was a brief laugh again as the guide replied, "As you wish, young An Ning." The warm flow cm back to him as the guide pushed him back into whatever the stream was. The flow returned, beginning to race faster and faster, the sensation changed, it became one of free falling from miles in the air, surrounded by nothing but darkness. A new feeling arose; a sensation -a forboding- that the sensation would soon have a very abrupt end. The sensationm grew larger and larger, looming ahead in the darkness.

Orchids_Mantis

05-06-2009, 04:05 PM

Alternate Ending

Epilogue

The giant beast swung down at the fighter, who nimbly rolled across the ground to evade the attack. He stood up in a guard stance raising his sword -just in time to catch a strike across the chest by the enormous beast's other arm, which sent him bouncing across the field. He stood up again as the large monster stromped across the grass toward the fighter. "You want me to help yet, Ryu?" the mage watching from the sidelines called. "Are you kidding?" the fighter panted, "I've got him right where I want him!" The mage rasied his eyebrows, "Really? Because it kind of looks the other way around!" The beast swung at the fighter again; and again the fighter was sent sprauling across the grassy field. "You know...I really could help out here, Ryu," the mage shouted. "Don't you dare, Neqi!" the fighter shouted back as he dashed in, slashing with his sword -and getting knocked back again, "This one's mine!"

The mage shrugged, then turned around and looked about the tall grass for an enemy -or three- of his own to fight. Spotting one, he grinned, channeling energy into his hand, a large ball of fire sitting atop his palm. He launched the fireball at the small beast, which never even saw th attack coming. It detonated against the monster's side with a loud bang and bright flash; and the beast lay still on the ground. The four monsters in its pack, though -the ones Neqi hadn't seen- noticed this, and quickly dashed out of the brush to surround the mage. "Oh," Neqi said softly as he looked around, "This is not quite what I'd planned."

The small dark dog-beasts circled the mage, taking turns dashing in and biting at the mage's legs. Neqi spun arund constantly, throwing fireballs and ice blasts at th pack as they tried to catch him off guard when dashing in; but the nimble monsters were hard to spot as they circled him in the tall grass, and were adept at dodging his bright attacks. Another dog-beast rushed in, Neqi spun and hurled an Ice Blast, but the dog bounced back before he'd even finished his attack. "A feint," Neqi thought, eyes widening. He spun again, a large fiery ball of energy appearing in his hand as he spun. He saw a flash of white -the long sharp teeth of the beast attacking him- as he threw his palm forward. The fireball never left his hand, the beast was so close in that his palm and the energy ball hit the beast together, the explosion shooting the two enemies apart from each other. Neqi got to his feet and saw that he was down to three enemies, all of whom were in front of him -much more managable. With a wry grin, he stretched out his hand. A wall of flame sprouted from he ground in front of him, and raced along the ground toward the pack of enemies. The dog beasts spun and ran, but the flame was too fast. It hit the back legs of one of the beasts, and detonated. When the smoke cleared, a large circle of the grassy field was missing, and another monster was laying on the ground unmoving. The last two -burnt and howling- were running away, disappearing into the brush again.

The mage stood, breathing heavilly, "You know...you could have helped me out a bit when those other four were circling me," he called to the fighter behing him -the large beast he'd been fighting long silenced, "I really wouldn't have minded." The fighter grinned as he lay his long sword across his shoulders, "I could have...but I didn't want to ruin the fun." The mage made a face, "Whose fun? Mine or theirs?" The fighter laughed and the duo began walking off again, searching for more enemies to fight.

In a town some distance away from Neqi and Ryu, a cleric girl was organizing a store's dwindling supply of potions, and cleaning the shelves to keep herself occupied. The door to the shop opened behind her, she shook her head a bit as she continued to organize, "I'm sorry, but we're closed right now." "Well that's okay," a voice replied. Her head immediately jerked up, eyes wideneing as she recognized the voice. She spun around to see a strong fighter carrying a bag of supplies with him. The man smiled, "I didn't come here to shop anyways." "Jiang!" she shouted as she leapt forward, wrapping her arms around him. "Hey, Honey," he replied, putting an arm around her and kissing her. She broke the hold and looked at him a moment, then punched him in the arm. "Ow!" Jiang said making a face. "Where have you been?" the cleric demanded, "You were supposed to be back two days ago! I was starting to get worried!" The fighter smiled, hugging her again, "I'm sorry, dear. It took me a bit longer to gather the stuff we needed. The fighting took a bit longer than I had expected; since I had to rest more often than usual."

She gave a wry smile, "It wouldn't take you so long if you let me come with you." Jiang smiled back, "You know I'm not going to risk that, dear. For the next while, you're confined to town." She made a pouting face, then smiled to show it was in play, the fighter chuckled. The cleric yawned a bit, strecthing her arms out. "Tired, baby?" the fighter asked as he looked at her. "Maybe a bit," she replied, "I've been getting kind of fatigued around noon these days." The fighter smiled, putting his arms around her again, swaying lightly, "Hm...then why don't you two go take a bit of a nap, then?" "What about you?" she asked looking up at him. "I'll work on making the stuff for us to sell so we can open shop tomorrow -someone needs to." He pressed his hand against her belly, smiling at her as he felt something move, "But for right now, you two need your rest. Go take a nap; I'll come get you in a few hours." She smiled back at him, "One hour." Jiang chuckled lightly, "Hahaha, alright, alright...there's a reason you're the seller here...One hour." She reach up to pull his head down and kissed him again, then moved into the bedroom and shut the door. Jiang watched until his wife was out of sight, then turned back to the bag of materials he'd gathered and started working on making them into potions for their store.

An Ning smiled as he watched the different advnturers in their other world -the ability was a parting gift from the Guide. Since time moved differently in different worlds, his brothers had already become as old as he was -and An had gotten to watch parts of all their lives. "Nice to know they are doing alright," he thought to himself, "Except for his name, Ao hasn't changed at all. Liu, or Neqi, seems to be doing even better there than he was here..at least he seems more confident in his abilities. as for Feng and Tian -or rather Yang and Jiang...well...they get to have the family they wanted here...I miss hving them here...but I guess...I'm happy for them." "An," a voice called from nerby. he opend his eyes, "Huh?" "Ah, you're here again, I see," the cleric said smiling at him. "Heh; you still have a knack for finding me, Celest." Celestina smiled as she sat down next to him, "You still don't have many hiding places." An nodded as he looked around the small park in Eldrine, "True enough...but I like this place." Celestina chuckled a bit, "So what were you doing here?" An shook his head, "Nothing much; just checking up on some people." They sat in the park for a few minutes before An got up and looked over at his old friend, "So...wanna go fight something?" Celestina laughed a bit, getting to her feet as well, "Heh. Why not?" The two clerics walked off toward the gate toward Collapsed Prison; making their way to the distant areas far beyond them.

The End