[IC] A Hero Tale {Complete}

[Hatman1801]

"Oh, did your Order buddies talk about me? I'm honored." Alvios braced his sword against his side to clash with Vale's, and flicked his eyes to the javelin embedded in the ground behind his opponent. With a simple thought, it detonated in a radiant explosion of Ki energy, some of it the equivalent of shrapnel with its high density.

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The shards of energy struck Vale from behind, tearing small holes in his cloak and sinking into his pale flesh. But just as quickly as they struck him, the Ki sources disappeared, leaving shallow wounds with coagulated bloody scars that formed almost instantly,, sealing them. Vale lurched forwards from the force of the blast and followed through with his slash, glaring directly at Alvios, locking his eyes with the scion's with a vicious smile. His sword slid against Alvios' until he was within range to attack with his dagger again. He kept staring at Alvios directly, his beating white eyes flashing like strobe lights as he reached for his dagger in one fluid motion and aimed to penetrate Alvios' lower torso.

[Hatman1801]

Alvios' eyes narrowed, and he quickly formed a light-blade around his own off-hand, like a katar. Something was wrong. Despite claiming his fear of it before, he agreed to the trade. He thrust this new blade at Vale's torso, aiming to mimic the wound at least, or do worse if the blade detonated as the javelin did. He had a plan. A bad plan that would take utmost precision on his part and was entirely reliant on his current analysis, but he had a plan, and it put him in how he preferred close-quarters; trading blows, and outlasting with healing. A risky move, a losing one against a blood drinker.

I'm not as strong as Jenso, as fast as Jeff, as durable as Oz, or as grandiose as Bruce. I'm the doctor, the support, the man they can rely on to have their back. My Ki is less impressive in scale, but sharp, efficient, and unique in its own way. My grand attack back there was only capable because of Jenso's raw power, and they know it. Still... Alvios began permeating his own blood carefully with Ki. If Vale truly did drink blood, he could treat it the way he treated every sword, burst, or that javelin; detonated and shattered. If he tripped this up, he might end up tearing up his own bloodstream. The automatic regeneration of Lightforge would help, but he wouldn't last long before needing to heal himself, and stopping to do that was impossible against this opponent.

Alvios' expression had gone from careful analysis to a determined grin, and he would match Vale's enthusiasm with his own. He believed in himself.

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Vale's smile narrowed and his eyelid fell into an expression flooded with sinister overtones. Vale took Alvios' blade, embedding his own dagger into its target relentlessly. Both fighters stood still for a moment, but Alvios could hear a faint whisper leave the lips of his opponent as he pulled away slowly.

"I Win"

Blood seeped out of Vale's torso and down his inner thigh at an alarming rate. The bleeding slowed to a halt rather quickly, and the tip of Vale's dagger began to erupt with yellow paralytic poison, moments after impact. The vampire clasped his black blade, shrinking it down to the size of a short-sword. With a bloody retch, he swung it towards Alvios from his side, while fully impaled on the scion's Ki blade himself.

[Hatman1801]

Alvios twitched; he should have expected the dagger to be more than just an athame. His regeneration was counteracting the paralysis and bleeding, and the Ki in his blood conveniently purged it even more quickly, but there was a distinct numbness around the impact point where Vale's dagger hit him. A few of those stabs in the wrong places before he had a chance to fully cleanse it, and his mobility would be skewed.

"Do you?" Alvios upped the intensity of the blade in Vale's gut, twisting it and slowly enlarging it, and moved his other the best he could to block Vale's sword swing. If Vale let him keep empowering the blade piercing him, he'd find himself either fully impaled or shredded by the expanding Ki.

"Poison against the doctor? You picked the wrong opponent. And here I was scared that you were actually some kind of fantasy vampire."

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Vale's smile deflated. He pulled himself away from the Ki, tearing his dagger with him as he pushed up with his feet. A hop and a flip later, he stood crouched over with a hole in his lower abdomen, big enough to shove two arms through without much resistance. Vale glanced down at his blood drenched Dagger, following the streams of yellow liquid that mixed with the crimson hue of the light-fuelled life source. The injury around his stomach had already sealed itself, scabs clinging to the bone and edges of his flesh. Vale looked back at Alvios and carefully licked between the streams of poison, taking in spoonfuls of the blood that clung to his poisonous dagger.

[Hatman1801]

"So, you do drink it. Shatter!" At his command, the blood flickered white, and crystallized into several tiny shards of Ki. Each one detonated, smaller and smaller. It was akin to licking pieces of shattered glass that constantly broke into more tiny pieces of glass.

Also at the command, Alvios winded sharply, hand going to his now-open wound. The poison had dulled his precision; the wound now looked like horrible scar tissue, the blood around the wound detonating as well, tearing open the knife wound in a more serrated fashion. It glistened as it healed itself, but he couldn't focus enough power there to permeate it with his Lightforge Ki any longer without hurting himself. Instead, the veil expanded, covering the wound in a vaguely transparent light. The blood that had managed to flow through the veil hardened and dissipated as well.

"Suck on that."

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Vale reeled back as the length of his tongue was shredded, blood beginning to run down the back of his throat, his own blood. He staggered, loosely gripping his sword with one hand. A gurgled chorus of laughter began to bubble past his injuries as he regained his balance, staring intently into Alvios' eyes as best he could manage. One hand reached shakily into the inner pocket of his cloak, and he pulled out a vile of red liquid, struggling to keep from dropping it. With the tip of his thumb, the cork lid that sealed it was popped out, and in a frantic motion, the vampire poured its contents into his mouth, sucking on it desperately, all while keeping his flickering eyes locked with Alvios'.

[Hatman1801]

Alvios' eyes widened. Of course the bastard had spare blood on him for emergencies. If this healed him or empowered him, it would put Alvios at an immediate disadvantage. He reacted as fast as possible; he pointed his left towards Vale, and all of the fragments of the sword he had detonated earlier rose up and flew at the bloodsucker as a torrent of fragmented light shards. With his other, he impaled the ground with his sword, and discharged Ki. The ground beneath Vale began to crack, as the Ki wave went underground and threatened to come up right below him.

Hopefully, Vale wouldn't be able to dodge both while he was injured. He didn't waste time waiting to see the results though. One the wave had been discharged, he rushed forward, blade in hand and ready to slash Vale across the torso once the short distance between them was covered.

[tex]

The blood trickled down his throat quickly, and in only a few moments, his flesh bubbled and popped, sealing itself quickly, and repairing any damage that had been done. His natural reflex's took control, despite the shards of energy piercing the outer layers of his back, digging at least an inch into his flesh. He shrugged it off, leaning forward only slightly. The vampire looked down, smiled, and sprouted forward, bounding into a leap with his black blade held overhead, and extended to its usual length. He slammed down hard against Alvios' blade, attempting to swat it away with as much power as he could muster, before thrusting his free hand towards the light bringer's face in an attempt to grab it from beneath the nose. By then, his tongue had fully repaired itself, long before the bubbling flesh at the center of his abdomen had settled.

"Enlighten me!" He shouted, his voice raspy and withered.

[Hatman1801]

Alvios clashed against Vale, mentally cursing himself all the while. Why wouldn't the vampire carry around extra blood if it fully rejuvenated him like that? It was foolish and arrogant of him to think that Vale exclusively relied on recklessness if the opponent could injure him before he could get their blood, or if the opponent had no blood. He sacrificed quite a bit to punish Vale for the earlier attack; his typical trading strategy had worked poorly.

Well, time to abandon the other... Alvios held fast to his sword, and waited until Vale had committed to the attempt to grab his face. Once he was certain, he detonated the sword in his hand, in the same manner he had detonated the one he had thrown earlier. Point-blank, it would hit both of them and leave Alvios without either of his empowered blades until he could reconstitute them. Still, it would be worth it to further injure Vale and keep him at bay.

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Vale didn't falter, and followed through, grasping as Alvios' face and holding it steady, lining up his eyes so that they were looking directly into his. Vale's smile widened, even as shards of Ki tore through his body and embedded themself in his chest. One shard caught his eye, but the other continued to glow brilliantly.

"He assured me of his gaze," Vale gasped as blood began to leave his body once again, "He promised me, glaring at me with those beady red eyes of his, he promised! 'Visual abilities like mine', that's what he said!" Vale focused intently on Alvios, glaring deeper and deeper as if his one remaining eye peered into the man's soul. Vale's smile drooped, and his grasp slowly weakened. Nothing happened. His head spun towards the other side of the battlefield, and he tightened his grip around Alvios' maw once again, as blood poured from every hole that Alvios' shards had made. Nothing happened. His grasp fell loose as he caught something in the distance, and Vale dropped his blade, stumbling back away from Alvios. Nothing happened. "Bah.. Ha..." Vale's body trembled, as he stepped backwards. His head perked up as if he'd just remembered something, and he reached into his coat. But his hand shook. It wouldn't stay steady. He pulled another vile from his cloak, accidentally dropping five or six more onto the ground. They shattered, spilling the blood onto the ground as he popped the cap off the last vile. But his grip loosened too much. It slipped from his hand, and he took another step back. His eyes darted towards Alvios, and in one sudden movement, he tore off his mask, revealing a white tattoo beneath his left eye, before darting off towards the tower's entrance in a full retreat, stumbling and tripping over his own feet while barely managing to keep his body upright.

[Hatman1801]

Alvios stood still for a moment, shaken. The fight had gotten far more intensely than he could have hoped, and once Vale grabbed his face and mentioned his eyes, his heart had skipped a beat, wondering what terrible visual prowess he could have been blessed with. But...nothing happened. Watching the vampire fumble around with vials, and begin stumbling off towards the tower in retreat, Alvios contemplated what to do. Most of his right arm and part of the right side of his face had lost their glow, the blast from his sword alongside the fight's apparent conclusion leading him to avoid fully cowling himself.

He decided to let him go for now. If anyone more powerful decided to leap out and protect Vale if he tried to pursue, it would have been bad for the entire group. Besides... Alvios knelt down on the ground, reaching out with his left hand, carefully coating it in more Ki, and carefully grasped the hilt of Vale's abandoned sword.

"He won't be as threatening without this unique blade... and who knows? Maybe it'll be useful against the other members of the Order."

[tex]

Vale continued forwards, trembling as he reached the archway of the tower's main entrance. With both hands, he grabbed the side of the rocky doorway and pulled himself past it, into the inner sanctum of the tower's ground floor. As soon as he could, he settled himself down next to the only other door in the room, sitting with his legs splayed outwards. His injuries had clotted by now, but he felt weak. Reaching into his cloak, he pulled one last vial out, and held it carelessly between his legs, eyeing the red ooze inside.

"What am I doing..."

---

~ End Of Chapter 177 ~

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~ Chapter 178 ~

_{Ki Overhaul, Dacer's Secret Technique}

Dacer glared at Jeff and Jenso, whipping his tail. His eyes peered up for a moment, before coming back down to watch the two heroes carefully. "Where's Pij, Jenso?" Dacer mocked, "Why not bring her out? I know she's in there. I know that my stupid old man performed Gaia's rites on you." Dacer lashed his tail back and forth, flexing both claws inwards, and then outwards. "Bring her out!"

[Jensoman]

Jenso frowned at Dacer. He decided not to obey Dacer's wish. After all, he was the enemy right now. "I'm not that easily baited into doing what you want, Dacer." Jenso muttered. "Do you want to know Lark's final words after he merged his Ki with mine, and passed away?" He asked, pausing for a moment. "Save my son..." He stated in a sad tone, as he began to channel more white flames into the ground through his feet.

He doubted that trying to reason with Dacer in this state would achieve anything, but he decided to try none the less. "Why do you hate your father, Dacer? Is it because he ran away from the island of Gaia when Ada was wreaking havoc? What do you think would have happened if he stayed? I'll tell you what. He would have ended up under Ada's control too. There was nothing that he could have done."

"I'm sorry, though... I should have finished Ada when I had the chance. But...Shaidra already abducted you before I managed to beat her, so you would have been captured regardless."

[SuperFlash]

The wind saged frowned from hearing Jenso's words and memories back from there encounter with Dacer in Techmo came flooding back. "Jenso..." Jeff started to mutter, but his tone changed quickly as he and his mirage both tightly gripped there fists and pointed at Dacer.

The sage then formed six wind spheres in the air around him and his mirage while whipping up the wind in the area and circling around the lower area near him, the castle, and Jenso. He then prepared for the feline's next movements by using the stirred up wind to help sense the direction he would move in and then planed to launch each of the wind spheres accordingly. He planned to have two tail after him with another set of two trying to cut him off and final set going for a more direct approach. "I wasn't strong enough back then in our home town, back when Rajaka attacked our town. Or when we met those few times back in Techmo. But I'll prove that I can overcome any of the Order that stands in my.. no... our way..."

The sage glanced at Jenso smirking. "We're a team after all, and we as a guild will overcome these obstacles and be the first to best the Order! Starting with you Dacer!"

Overall, despite the attack he prepared, Jeff still kept his guard up and had the white flame boosted nanoblade on the ready to counter if Dacer would close in.

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Dacer grunted at Jenso's comments and slapped his tail against the ground. "You don't know anything about what happened in Thoris. And, despite whatever the hell you want to believe about my old man, you don't know a thing about him," He hissed, "He's a coward. He didn't even try to fight. All he did was argue and bicker with Master seiner about Ada, all he did was disregard grandfather's warnings. He saw it coming long before anyone else did, before the murders. I saw it too. I saw it, and I knew she was trouble. But he sat there and let her mingle with our people so innocently, chyea! Look what fucking happens when a dumbass old man lets his guard down." Dacer eyed the sky again for the briefest of moments, and flicked his tail downwards sharply. "He could have fought, even in the end when grandfather Seiner was forced to kill everyone- My friends, my teacher, and even my apprentice. All Lark did was cower in his own guilt. He let her live, too. He stepped away from her, after smashing that stupid little display of hers with his own one with Gaia abilities. That's why Ada won, even when surrounded by hundreds of people with access to our sacred blessings. That's why my old man was cut off from Gaia. You're just the same, too much of a goddamn pussy to follow through with anything. All you'll do, even if you get up to big red and scary, even if you do manage to defeat him, is cower. You'll cower, and cower, standing over his defeated body, too terrified to turn him into a bloody fucking corpse, at the expense of the entire universe." Dacer spit on the ground and lashed his tail downwards yet again. "So, no, you can take all of your bullshit and shove it right back up your ass. You don't know a fucking thing about my old man. It's ironic, really, because you're just fucking like him. Just the same, a stain on my people's dying will, and I intend to thoroughly erase you from Gaia's record, you little cocksucker." Dacer's tail slammed against the ground again, and from above, a disk of flaming Ki began to plummet. It had left the planet's atmosphere, now falling towards Jenso at terminal velocity from above like a spinning disk-like comet. A sneak attack of epic proportions, using Jenso's own ability against him. Was Dacer Just stalling? It didn't matter anymore. The fully powered Gaian warrior turned to Jeff and launched a series of Ki-slashes towards him with his claws, one after the other, while jumping in between each with carefully placed bounding hops, so that he could flank the wind-sage.

[SuperFlash]

Jeff grunted as his words went a little ignored, but overall he understood that there was a still a lot between Dacer and Jenso that even he didn't entirely know about and thus decided to accept it. Seeing the ferocious feline's slashing ki coming from one way and him trying to pounce from the other it left Jeff with a couple of choices on what to do. With his wind orbs still yet to make contact with anything, he had each of them compress themselves into about the size of tennis ball before flying off each at the speed of a bullet to the center of each ki slash, attempting to disperse all of them while the Jeff and his mirage both rocketed into the air, reaching about castle height when Jeff's eyes widened and took notice of the flame saw coming in from orbit.

"Well shit.. JENSO WE GOT INCOMING FROM ABOVE!!"

Not being one to let something like that go ignored as it could potentially meet shit levels of trouble if ignored, fired off the a sniper bullet from his gauntlet that composed of white fire and compressed air towards the saw, aiming to pierce the attack at it's center before it could get any closer. The target was moving a ridiculously fast pace, but between dealing with Zelraine, hitting this seemed potentially a tad easier.

[Jensoman]

Jenso sighed at Dacer's words. As Jeff called out the warning, he quickly jumped further back to avoid the incoming disc without wasting the time to look upwards. If Jeff warned him, whatever was coming was dangerous. "As I expected, a waste of time to try to reason with you." He simply replied to Dacer. Despite all that, he did learn a good deal more about Lark and Dacer's past now.

He coated his hands in Arki to defend against the disc in case it decided to change course, and slammed his left foot on the ground. A white flame wall erupted from the ground, growing wider and bigger as it moved forwards towards Dacer. He shifted his right foot briefly on the ground one second afterwards, and the white flames that he'd channeled into the ground earlier began to take position under the ground, right under Jeff's location as he moved upwards to avoid Dacer's Ki slashes.