Chapter 2: Onslaught
"Aurie! Snap out of it!" Anara called, but her cry fell on death ears. Aurie was in a trance, her eyes had lost the light of free will and spirit that usually filled them so much. The very air around her had changed as well, it was now colder, and much more foreboding. With a sudden jerk, Aurie sprung forward and ran right into the center of combat.
"What're you nuts?!" Anara began, but was quickly cut off. Aurie had jumped, and her body twirled in the air as though she were performing the most graceful of dances on open air. had it not been for her keen senses, Anara would have missed the long, elegant blade in Aurie's right hand, one that looked as though it had been forged of nothing but ice. Shadows, who know no fear, lunged at her, but each one was cut down in a beautiful whirl wind of cold death, leaving only after images of her blade behind.
"Thunder!" Vecks raised his staff and bolts of pure electricity rained down from the sky. However, each bolt was redirected to something new and unseen before, a yellow large body. Shaped much like a regular large body heartless, this one had three differences for just such an occasion. The first was a yellow vest, which both showed what it was and amplified it's own electrical attacks. The second was not an immunity, but an absorption of thunder based attacks. Finally, a metal rod protruded from its back, effectively protecting its lesser heartless in combat from thunder spells, and healing its self too.
"Refle-" Was all Vecks managed to spurt out before he was cut off. A moment earlier, the large body had charged at him, and with its massive size, threatened to crush the young mage. However, before it could finish its deadly charge, the yellow large body had stopped, and frozen over in three inches of solid ice. Caught in mid run, the heartless continued on and fell over, shattering into tiny pieces before dispersing away. Vecks was utterly shocked when he saw not only Aurie caught in her trance, but that every other heartless had already fallen to her deadly blade.
Aurie gave a smile, but it held no emotion. Casually she picked up her sword, and with no more heartless to cut down, began to attack the only thing left, the wizard and his friend Anara!
Anara had bounced from the street to the side of building to right in the path of Aurie faster then the eye could see! Both her blades stopped the onslaught of Auries blade, but she could feel the immense strength that the white mage shouldn't have had.
"Aurie! What's wrong with-" But she said no more. Aurie's spare hand, which had not touched the hilt of her sword, traveled swift and hard, colliding into Anara's stomach, knocking her back, and the wind out. Aurie paused for a moment, as though she did not know what to do next. Her feet were no longer touching the ground, her toes were gently hovering over it by only an inch or so. Hovering in silence for only a moment, her sword arm rose, and then she shot off like a rocket for Vecks!
Something happened, something neither expected. Aurie backed off, because a wall of fire had risen between the two. Her form was enveloped in it for only a moment before she backed off and lost balance, falling to the ground. Vecks had conjured a wall of fire, independent of his own will, to protect himself. The glaze that gripped Aurie's eyes faded, and she regained herself.
"Vecks?" She asked, half yawning, almost as if she had been asleep the entire time. "Weird, I must have thought you were a heartless." she said plainly, looking at the sword. "Pretty spiffy, ain't it?" She said, smiling as she showed off her new blade.
"Spiffy! You almost killed us!" Vecks complained. But the effect was only for a moment. The light left her eyes again, and she could feel only her enemies again. Slowly, she rose from the ground on the unseen current of power she danced upon. "Anara! Try to get that sword away from her! I think it's telling her we're enemies!" But he didn't need to. A blur shot out from where Anara was, on she passed Aurie in a split second, several clangs and sparks following her.
"****! Her sword aint' goin down easy! My daggers didn't even scratch it!" Anara complained. She spun around and jumped back in one motion, narrowly avoiding the shards of ice that had threatened to puncture her body only a moment previous. "Ok, no Ms. Nice B!tch! 10X Slasher!" Anara hit the pavement, bounced back, and passed Aurie once more. This time, ten clangs, ten sparks, and one continuous rings cried out, but not even a crack could be found on the sword of ice Aurie held.
"Flare Bit!" Vecks launched two balls of fire at Aurie, both with less then a third the strength of a full fire ball, but he hoped the heat would snap her out of it like before. However, the each struck a barrier of light, and then were no more, leaving nary an ash. Aurie smiled that zombie like smile again, and then backed off again.
"Koori! I see things have not gone too well for you." A harsh voice called. Aurie's smile did not fade, but a light seemed to return to her eyes. However, when she spoke it was with the voice of an older woman, one who's very words seemed to drip with a venom that froze the soul.
"Aphasia, they managed to kill my form. Thankfully the girl foolishly sought to wear my amulet. Now she is ours." The cold voice of Koori called back. From the alley way came a large, muscular man with arms of steel that looked polished and shone brightly in the sun. "Thanks for the wake up call, by the way."
"Not at all my dear." Aphasia responded with a slight chuckle.
"Ok, what the h ell is going on here!?" Anara called out, not too pleased with the way things were going as of late. "Koori is dead, sorry buddy, but that is our buddy Anara, who we have to help, because she is acting weird. So kindly tell me who you are, or so help me I'll-" The threat that came from Anara could easily be judged illegal in most countries.
"Calm down silly girl! Koori is not dead, you merely killed her physical form. With nowhere else but the amulet to go, her spirit resided there, until I woke her up. That is when she took your friend's body. So Koori lives, and your friend doesn't. I am Aphasia, the metal lord. Now, if we are quite done," After these words, Aphasia demonstrated amazing speed and agility that should not belong to someone so large. Anara's body acted on its own, narrowly dodging the assault, but was left wide open to an attack from Aurie, or Koori, rather. The blade of ice sang a song of death to come as it sliced through the air and was to cut Anara down, when suddenly, her form stopped.
"Got your shadow." Said a hard voice. Aphasia looked back, and saw Aurie's shadow had been pierced with a simple dagger, and it was stuck that way, along with her body. He traced the dagger back to its source, a young man with a katana and a stern look on his face. His body bled an aura of blackness from every pore, and Aphasia, as powerful as he knew he was, could not help but feel taken aback, if just a little at this man.
"Septero! Long time no see!" Aphasia called to the man. "Love the new look, by the way. Good bye!" Aphasia slammed his right arm into the ground, sending out a shock wave that cracked the ground and dislodged the dagger, and it also knocked the young man Septero off his feet as well. His hand still buried in the ground, Aphasia used it to throw himself forward and towards Septero, his left hand transforming into an ax blade that was meant to decapitate the young man.
Free from the spell the bound her to the ground, Koori continued the pursuit, but had gone no further then a foot when she kicked up off the ground and into the air, narrowly avoiding the pillar of rock that sprung up from the ground in front of her.
"Furigana! I thought we'd-" But she was cut off. A single ray of white light had pierced her torso. Though it left no mark on her body, her soul was damaged directly! And being only partially bonded to her new body, she was hurt tremendously. Sweat dropping off her brow, she looked up, and saw another young man, holding a keyblade.
"Thought this looked like fun. Hit her Angela!" But Aurie was too quick, she leaped from the assault to come and back down to the center of the street, erecting a barrier from her new found power.
"Oops." The young mage said. Koori looked down in horror and saw a wide circle had been drawn exactly where she landed, with an intricate design of two squares inside it, one with its corners exactly in the center of each side of the other. In the center of that were two triangles of opposing directions, joined together. Vecks tapped the ground, and the circle activated. There was the feel that everything turned to glass for a moment, and then shattered. Koori lost consciousness, and fell over, her new body unmoving, but alive.
Somehow, Septero had recovered from his fall, and his blade was now locked with Aphasia's arm blade. As powerful as Septero was, Aphasia seemed to have the edge in physical power and agility, as though he were a gladiator.
"Face it old Guardian! You're precious blade cannot penetrate my steel skin." Aphasia was right. Even though countless attacks had struck his body, Aphasia was unharmed. His entire body had converted into the same mysterious metal that coated his arms, enhancing not only his endurance, but his strength as well, with no apparent loss in agility or speed.
"Thunder." Vecks said plainly. The bolts of electricity rained down from the sky a second time, this time time each one striking Aphasia's metal body and coursing through him. The metal lord let out an ear-splitting cry of pain as his body was flooded with raw power, and then stopped moving entirely. Septero had seized his chance, and thrust his katana into Aphasia's mouth, and out through the top of his head.
"Death to the wicked." He said quietly, and the removed his sword, sending up a spray of red from the corpse. A moment later, Aphasia's body turned black, like coal, and then it crumbled away, leaving only a shining essence of silver, that hovered for a moment, before merging with Septero, and then vanishing. Septero took a moment to catch his breath, before walking slowly towards the fallen Aurie.
"Don't hurt her!" Vecks said, pushing himself forward to protect Aurie from Septero, despite the fact that the katan holding guardian stood at least a foot taller then the mage. Vecks took his staff with both hands, before Septero brushed him aside.
"Don't plan to kid. Eiyuu! Now!" Septero called to the rooftops where Eiyuu stood.
"Right!" He held out his keyblade, and a beam of light sprung from its tip and struck Aurie, doing nothing. From the tip of Septero's blade came a beam of black light, that touched Aurie, and reacted with the light. The seal around her shattered, and from Aurie an ice-blue spirit came forward. Septero took not even a moment, before he slashed his blade across it. A similar, ear splitting cry called out, before the spirit crumbled into black, leaving behind only a ball of ice-blue light. Septero held out his hand, but the essence would not move.
"Seems she liked it there. Fine by me." With those words, the essence re-entered Aurie, and her eyes opened again.
"Care to explain whats going on here?" Anara finally asked.
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"This here is Eiyuu. He is our emissary of light in a way, and wields the keyblade." Septero began, now that everyone was on board the gummi ship. "This is Angela, host to the spirit Furigana, Atlantean guardian of earth. My name is Mateo, and I hold both the ancient katana Tide, as well as the spirit of the guardian of darkness, Septero. Long story short, we're searching for the lost amulets of the Atlantean guardians, which have been stolen. Yours and Aphasia's are the first we have found so far." Mateo explained.
"So, what happened to me anyway? One moment I am talking with Koori, the next moment I am kicking some serious @ss!" Aurie asked between bites of a sandwich she made just before. Apparently, being possessed by a sword wielding ice-queen works up an appetite.
"Yeah, I am kind of curious about that myself." Anara asked between bites of her own sandwich. Apparently, watching a friend eat a sandwich after working up an appetite from being possessed also worked up an appetite.
"Well, when you all killed Koori, you didn't really kill her. Her spirit was re-embedded into her amulet, which luck would have she still had. For some reason or another, whoever stole the amulets has been cursing them, and then forcing them on people. They wear it, and over time the spirit takes over 100%. Koori must have been put into her new body not all that long ago, which is why she still had the amulet, or never got a chance to return it. Aphasia on the other hand was completely embedded, and the amulet is back with however stole it. While it is de-powered and pretty much useless now, it means that we cannot restore the guardian of metal until we get it back." Angela explained in a long winded paragraph.
"So, does that mean we killed innocent people?" Vecks asked. Mateo looked grim for a moment.
"Yes, and no. We killed their bodies, but their spirits essentially swapped places with the spirits of the amulet, so they are now trapped there. If we can build them a new body, we can restore them to life, or else release their spirits to the next life." Mateo explained. Aurie raised her hand in a mock fashion, and Mateo indicated to her to ask a question.
"So, what the h ell is up with me then?" Aurie asked simply. Anara laughed at this question.
"Well, the amulet is a roomy place in terms of souls. It could easily hold both the guardian spirit and the original host. However, in your case, I think the guardian may be active, while the spirit is dormant. You can draw on Koori's power now, and because I purified her, she'll be back to her normal self, and won't try to take you over again. For instance," Septero snapped his fingers, and something inside Aurie clicked. With a small wave of blue light, Aurie summoned and held the ice blade once more. "Don't expect to have the same level of control or power, but that will hold you."
Aurie smiled at her shiny new toy.
"So I suppose we should help each other out then? The guy who stole the amulets is more then likely the same guy we're after, seeing as they work for him. Care to join us?" Vecks asked. Mateo looked to Eiyuu and Angela, who both just smiled.
"Sure thang."
Not all the long, but tell me what you think.
I am very disappointed in its length, Wally; I expected longer from you! :p:
Very nice chapter. I like how you described Aurie after she got the katana, and the battle sequence overall was awesome!
One question: Does Koori still inhabit the amulet? I didn't really get Septero's explanation.
Yes she does. She know lends her power to Aurie, but less then I demonstrated.
Okay, then. I'll go start on my chapter.
Okle Doke!
Just remember.
Moose are funny.