War Amongst The Dead[Plot]

[Aerith]

See how you like this.
--------

Kairi tried to remember watching Sora fight and tried to imitate that. She could hear her attacker moving again, heard it shoot more of those projectiles at it. It was close enough now that Kairi could tell it was also moving in for a strike with its weapon.

She reacted purely by instinct again, summoning up her magic in the form of a double spiral of white light that surrounded her and shot up above her. The spiral deflected whatever was coming for her and briefly provided illumination that cut through the storm. From the point where the two spirals met, it exploded into three rainbow-colored beams of light that raked a circle in the snow around Kairi.

Hopefully, it would be enough to discourage her opponent.

[Summary:
Kairi used Prismatic Blitz.
Posts until next use: 5
Uses remaining: 1]

[Lagunamov]

Undettered.

[/center][/i]

Once more, the magic projectiles were useless. It was a slight surprise to see that the girl held another ace up her metaphorical sleeve, with an attack both offensive and defensive at the same time. The two crystal orbs had been deflected sideways, hitting the ground, or rather snow, and exploding into crystal stalagmites on the ground, pointing upwards and sideways in a range of two meters each.

As expected, it was casted so close to Animositas that, instead of managing the hit with its blade as it went down to cut her, it sent the armor flying upwards several meters into the air. Coupled with one or two more from the explosion at the top of the spiral of light. The armor was now engraved with a couple of new dents.

Consciousness almost faded for a second, returning quickly as the armor realized its current position. The Keyblade morphed back into the enormous rifle as Animositas flipped its body in the air, facing down at the girl from above. Its decent started almost immediately, the rifle ready to strike down at the target with its blunt edge and the last crystal orb shot forward on its way down.


[Crystal Stalagmites deactivated.
Sky Menace cooldown over.]

[Aerith]

I'm not gonna give up.
--------

Kairi's eyes widened. She could still hear movement, and now it sounded like her attacker was in the air again. What could she do against someone who could fly? She was stuck down here in the snow.

There was one more glowing crystal heading her way, and she concentrated, using the last of her available abilities to ignore the damage it would have caused.

She could not, however, do anything about the body plunging toward her. She had time to move just enough so that whatever the thing was riding hit her in the ribcage. Hard. With a gasp, she tumbled into the snow, pain shooting through her.

Gathering her strength, she rolled over onto her back and sat up, ready to defend herself with her Keyblade.

[Summary:
Kairi used Magic Bracer.
Posts until next use: 3
Uses remaining: 1]

[Lagunamov]

No mercy.

[/center][/i]

It appeared the girl still had one more defensive skill to play, leaving the very last crystal ineffective. Quite the proficient one in magic it seemed. Physically wise, the one with the larger weapon and gravity on its side had the upper advantage. Her small frame in comparison to that of the Sentiment certainly didn’t help matters when the latter came down crashing on her, hitting her ribs with the Havoc and making her fall back on the snow.

Animositas stood up after the attack, holding its weapon on with its right hand, and turned towards her. The impact seemed to have taken a toll on her, making her unable to stand, barely even sit on the ground with her weapon raised, and snow surrounding her. The crash had made the snow level in those two or three meters decrease, either compressed into a harder substance than before or simply expelled from the impact. For seconds, even though it may have seemed like minutes, the Sentiment simply stood there, immobile.

Then the armor lowered its right arm, the rifle almost touching the snow, and its internal engine starting up. Once the rifle was ready, Animositas jumped onto it, and pointing its tip upwards, took off into the skies, the image of the girl growing smaller in the snow and then covered by the snow storm.




Until it shifted its weight, pointing downwards and falling rapidly towards the ground. Flying close to the snow, it sped up and as it approached its target, it shifted sideways, aiming to hit the girl with the back end of the enormous weapon, in an attempt to send her flying towards a rock pillar not five meters away from her.


[Sky Menace Activated.]

[Matt]

Such Wonderful Weather, Isn't It?

Zexion was saved from having to answer the Academic's question, Lexaeus appearing almost like he had been summoned by the inquiry. Well it was about time. "Perhaps..." he replied thoughtfully to the Silent Hero's observation. "He has less, that is for sure. Whether or not he has enough? That has yet to be seen." Obviously they had the upper-hand as far as numbers went, but this battle would be determined by much more than simply numbers. It was impossible to say for certain what the enemy had up their sleeves.

Vexen watched the Champion closely, careful to observe his every move. The missile attack hadn't worked, nor had it been remotely likely to, but it had provided him with a small visual sample of his power. Having never personally seen the Tool of Darkness in action, the scientist needed to take in every bit of his fighting style that he could. The Champion was the real threat; the thing that had brought about such an unusual alliance between foes. There were his allies too, of course, but it was his power that was supposedly so incredible.

Dismissing his dark one, the swordsman summoned another sword: this one a strange rapier that seemed to change colors constantly. Vexen took note of this, waiting to see what the purpose of this new weapon was. Understanding his frequent switching of blades and what each one did specifically would be useful in defeating him.

Once the light had faded, what it revealed made Vexen smile. The Champion had created one gigantic blizzard. He could have hardly come up with a more strategically advantageous terrain for the Academic, as well as for Aixfeur and that other ice-user that apparently had on their side. The freezing cold was probably not too pleasant for the others, specifically Axel (an added bonus), but it did not bother him remotely. The obscured vision he could have done without, but no matter.

"Very well." he replied to the Schemer's suggestion, not that it had been anything genius that he hadn't already been thinking. Ice Needles it was then. Still remembering the spot where the Champion had been moments ago, Vexen created a dozen sharp spikes of ice around it, each a little over four feet tall. Without being able to see the attack coming, some would mostly likely hit either their target or one of his nearby allies, hopefully.

[Used Ice Needles; 2 Posts Until Next Use; 5 Uses Remaining]

[/size]

[Administrator]

Fights starting in the snow.

Ava and Sephiroth easily avoided the icy needles. The latter leapt into the air, his wing carrying him aloft. Unluckily for him, the wind soon swept him away from where he took off, and, when he landed, he stood face-to-face with a keyblade wielder, one Sora. "We meet again, chosen of the keyblade," he said as he drew his sword.

Meanwhile, Ava was wandering through the snow, more than half blind. Ironically, he managed to stumble upon Cloud and Aerith. "Heya Aerith! Nice to see that you're all right." Turning to look at Cloud, he gave the man a slight glare. "I suppose if you're her friend, I'm glad you're okay, too. But just because of Aerith." Glancing around, he couldn't see anyone else through the snow, even with his considerably heightened senses.

Looking back over at Cloud, Ava shuffled his feet. "So, since I'm on the side of Darkness, and you're on the side of Light, we should probably fight. I won't hurt you badly because of Aerith, but I'm not going to go easy on you." Multicolored light flashed, and two longswords had appeared in the Chaosling's hands. Lifting his left arm to point at Cloud, he grinned. "Ready when you are."

At the same time, Riku, who could also see Sephiroth and Sora, the latter because of following him through the snow, and had witnessed slightly better then Sora what had happened to Kairi, said, "I don't know what happened, but Kairi was there, then she was gone. I'm sure she'll be fine; she's tough, remember?" He was referring mostly to their time in the Castle That Never Was. Kairi had wielded a keyblade for her own defense, and she fought well enough to get by.

Riku knew that wasn't going to be good enough against most of the more powerful forces of the Dark, but he couldn't worry about that now. Drawing Way to the Dawn, the teenager moved to stand alongside his friend. Sephiroth grinned in response. "Another bearer of the key? I, like as not, should not be surprised at this, but regardless, I am."

Laughing, the silver haired man angled his sword, pulling it back, reversed, near his shoulder, to prepare for his assault. "It matters not; one or two, your fate remains the same." At that, Sephiroth slashed, eight total slashes, divided among Sora and Riku. The latter blocked three out of the four attacks, but one slipped through his guard, cutting him across the chest. Riku couldn't do much more than that.

And hope that Sora could do more.

[Castle]

Sora skidded to a halt when an unpleasantly familiar figure landed in front of him. He immediately shifted into a battle stance and readied the Keyblade at his side.

"Sephiroth," he said in a less than friendly greeting. Cloud hadn't said anything about what happened after they vanished together last year, so this man was still an enemy in Sora's book.

Meanwhile, Riku didn't seem overly concerned about Kairi's disappearance. Sora misinterpreted him, thinking that he just meant Kairi was in sight one minute and lost in the snowstorm the next. His friend soon joined him by his side, and he became that much more confident. He'd already beaten Sephiroth twice (sort of), and he was sure he could do it again.

Soon enough, the attacks started. Sora flashed back to his last fight with Sephiroth, and his arms seemed to move of their own accord as he swung the Keyblade around to block the strikes. He managed to block them all, but the impacts left his arms tingling. He jumped backward to put some distance between them.

"Are you with the Champion?" he asked.

Before any answer could be made, Sora quickly advanced, swinging his weapon vertically and prepared to follow it up with more strikes.

[Aerith]

Am I really this helpless?
--------

For what seemed an eternity, there was silence. Kairi sat in the snow, breathing heavily. She may have been able to hold her own a year ago in the Castle That Never Was, but that was against Shadow Heartless. Even when Sora had fought Kadaj, leaving her to the deal with Heartless by herself, she had been able to handle it. This was a far cry from any Heartless she had ever encountered, though.

She tried to scramble to her feet at first, but when she heard that flying thing heading for her again, she instinctively tried to flatten herself on the snow as much as possible to avoid being hit. But she was caught halfway down and was slammed into rock. She thought she heard something crunch, and the pain that exploded told her something had indeed broken.

[Lagunamov]

Environmental damage.

[/i][/size]

The hit connected perfectly, crashing the girl against the pillar. It was a quick movement from Animositas that brought on the last strike, with it turning to the side and aiming at the girl. Speeding once more towards her, the Sentiment raised the tip of the Havoc as it approached; flattening what was on the pillar into it.

The crash was loud, with the rock cracking around the area of where it was hit. Several fragments fell to the ground and sunk into the snow. Animositas let the rifle stuck on the rock, lowering its body to the ground. If it removed the weapon now the entire structure would collapse onto itself. And that would be counter-productive. For now.


[Sky Menace deactivated. Two post cooldown.]

[Aerith]

So, this is the end.
--------

Mere moments after she hit the rock pillar, Kairi saw her life flash before her eyes. Excruciating pain exploded all over body, and she couldn't help it. She screamed. Yet, even she had a hard time hearing herself over the howling blizzard.

She felt blood pouring from wounds inflicted by the jagged rock. Her Keyblade slipped from her weakening grip and fell to the snow. Black was quickly encroaching on the edge of her vision. Her lungs couldn't draw breath anymore; it hurt far too much.

Sora... I tried... for you...

She finally let go.

[Lagunamov]

Secrets won’t go unnoticed.

[/i][/center]

The screams of pain from behind the rifle and under the rock were muffled by the storm, but even then Animositas managed to hear them. The girl’s weapon had fallen from her grip and onto the snow right next to the pillar, blood dripping close to it. Blood was dripping out from behind the Havoc everywhere, painting the snow in a crimson color.

The Sentiment approached, moving a couple of steps forward, and reached with its hand into the crashed rock pillar. It refused to remove its weapon until it was done, for simplicity’s sake. And thus, its right hand reached the body of the girl, and pressed itself against her head. Concentrating onto its last task, the Sentiment began the extraction process.


[Shadow Façade memory extraction in progress.]

[Cloud]

Bring It On

When a figure suddenly appeared close enough for him to make out, Cloud's hand flew to his sword almost instinctively. But when he was able to recognize the vaguely familiar face, he just sighed. Great, it was this crazy again. Ava. Aerith might have insisted upon the fact that he was a friend, but that hadn't made Cloud completely trustful of him. Even if he wasn't a heartless, as he had originally thought, he was dangerous. Unpredictable, at the very least.

Ava was oddly friendly, considering the circumstances. This annoyed Cloud slightly. Having the enemy act like that just seemed out of place. It was sort of confusing, to be honest. As someone on the side of Darkness, he should have been more vicious, more cruel. He shouldn't have been glad to see that Aerith was alright, and he shouldn't have been worried about hurting a friend of hers. None of that should be any concern of his.

Releasing Aerith, Cloud brandished his sword in front of himself. "You sure are cocky." he said simply. His voice unusually unaggressive, it sounded more like an observation than anything else. For Cloud, this was almost being friendly. Almost. He wouldn't go as far as to say he liked Ava, but he didn't hate him. Not like he hated Sephiroth or the Champion.

"I'm ready."

[Loz]

Rematch Time

Great, a freaking blizzard. The Champion just haaad to pick snow, didn't he. Loz didn't like snow very much. Well, it was more so the wind and the cold that he didn't like. The cold sucked. But also, how were they supposed to fight in all this stuff? It was too deep to be able to move through easily; practically waist deep. It was just dumb, something he would have to be sure to tell the Champion. Too bad he couldn't even see where he was.

He glanced over at Kadaj, listening to his suggestion. Well going ahead through the snow didn't really sound like his idea of fun, but then again neither did just standing there. Talk about boring. Plus moving around would probably make him less cold. "Okay." he agreed, returning his brother's grin. Not saying anything else, he picked a random direction, not really knowing which he ought to go in, and started going that way.

After almost being hit by a meteor or two, and moving for a short while, Loz finally came across someone. Due to the weather obscuring his view and the sort of quick pace that he was moving at, he almost ran into the person. It took him a second, but he realized he had met this person before. "You." It was that guy he had fought that once in Radiant Garden. He didn't actually remember the guy's name, but he remembered him.

Rather impulsively, Loz leaped at the man, bringing his fist swinging towards him.

[Nothingness]

This Doesn't Mean We're Friends

Leon had been trying to see anything, but the snow was rapidly rising, and the wind wouldn't cease. He could hears the sounds of battle nearby, but the wind was distorting it so much that any fighting could be on the other side of the field, or right next to him. However, Leon had another matter on his mind right now: Maleficent's lackey.

"What an idiot." Leon thought, raising his blade and pulling the trigger, pushing the man's fist back. Although that gave him breathing room, breathing itself was difficult in the snow. A thought came to mind, and Leon reared back, and swung his gunblade in an arc, sending out a wave of fire that melted all the snow in its path (and hopefully bowled the man over, too). "Don't think I did this to help you." He called out to his foe. Raising his gunblade, he scowled at the man. "Now, come on."

[Leon used Fated Circle, three posts until next use]

[Loz]

Getting Started

Loz leapt backwards as the man blocked his attack with that weird sword of his, and was about to charge at him a second time when he swung his sword. Feeling the wave of heat and seeing the flames following right behind it, he rose his arms to shield his face from them. The heat actually felt somewhat good at first, considering how cold it was. And luckily, once the fire subsided, the chilly wind and snow were there to quickly do away with any feeling of being hot or minorly burned.

"Did what?" he thought. "Threw a wall of fire at me?" Yeah, because he had really been thinking the man had done that as a favor. Idiot.

Hmm... He realized that the flames had melted pretty much all of the snow between the two of them. Good, now Loz would be able to attack way easier. "Gladly." he sneered in response to the man's challenge.

His Dual Hound springing forward, he lifted up his left arm as if preparing to punch someone. Suddenly he went flying at his enemy, hardly more than a blue blur. Closing the 15 or so feet between them in an instant, he sent weapon, pulsing with electricity, straight at the man.

[Speed Burst thingy used; 3 posts until next use]