[IC] A Hero Tale {Complete}

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"I'm Dacer, Dacer Gaiaco," Dacer said, with a grin that mirrored Jenso. "Seriously though, I don't think we're just going to be able to punch them. They're kind of uh... Made out of pure magical energy. I don't suppose you can manifest your Ki?" Dacer paused and looked down at Jenso hands for a split second before maintaining eye contact. "Or uh, use any real magic at all? Ehehe..."

[Jensoman]

"Well, I can use fire but...I don't have much control of it yet..I can also force myself to get surges of power to move faster and strike things harder, but it takes a chunk of energy to do. Using flames is the most exhausting thing to do, though. I can coat my body in flames, but not really cast it properly yet." Jenso explained to Dacer. "I hope we'll figure out a good way to take those elementals down, but...even if we don't, I will climb up there and fight them anyway. It's my fault this is happening, and I will fix it!" Jenso said in a determined tone. "I hope my leg will be healed after we've rested though..It'll make the climb and fighting those things a whole lot easier."

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Dacer stayed silent for a few moments, troubled by Jenso's resolve. "Listen," He finally said, "You aren't capable of even fighting those things, Jenso. Unless you can harness your magic, or manifest your Ki, there is literally no way of hurting those bastards, ya feel me? Gaia's people spoke legends of the four elementals. They aint gods, but they also aint pushovers. Unless you can strike at their arcane network, you can't hurt them, and you'd literally, and try to follow me here, quite literally killing yourself. That aint gunna help anyone except the bad guys, ya feel me?"

[Jensoman]

Jenso clenched his fists. "But I have to-" Jenso muttered, stopping himself mid-sentence. "No...you're right. There's no point going up there just to get killed. Do you have an idea how I can learn how to do either of those two? I think I have more of a shot with my ki manifestation, my magic is still pretty new.." He said to Dacer.

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"Well," Dacer immediately stopped talking and huffed nervously, but stood up and started again, "You 'aint got Gaian Blood, so that's kind of shitty already. Gaia's prophecy always said that Gaians were the only ones who could Manifest their Ki. Course, that's total bullshit, cuz I've seen it done before by perfectly normal humans. We've just got a... Y'know, knack for it. I can tell ya this much though, it's like taking all of the memories that help you tap into your Ki, and uh... Coming to terms with them." Dacer summoned his bow, this time with an actual drawstring. He then formed a wooden arrow in his right hand using his magical abilities and pulled back, aiming for a nearby boulder. "Ki just makes you stronger if you don't really know how to use it. That's common sense. Before I could summon my weapon, I had to use normal weapons, but I never had much luck with any of em. Whenever I thought about my mom though, it got a lot easier to pull back on the drawstring of a bow. The tension didn't hold me back at all. But I wasn't able to do anything with all that power until I came to accept Mom's death as just... Something that happened, and nothing more. I turned it into a growing experience, and then- Well," Dacer coated the wooden arrow in white energy and fired it, splitting the boulder in half. "Pch-ew! It all came to me, like some kind of magic... Haha, well, not magic. I guess it was just me finally growing the fuck up." He turned to Jenso and smiled. "If you ever wanna disrupt a Ki user, hit 'em in the heart. Make 'em sad, make 'em angry. That'll fuck up their focus like mad. They might get stronger, but they won't be able to put all that power anywhere useful."

[Jensoman]

Jenso's eyes widened. "Is...is that why I couldn't shoot a fireball at you earlier when you fought me, and why I couldn't shoot one at Shadra and Adarine? I felt sad because I didn't want to fight you and because I was injured, and I was too angry to strike those two with a fire ball...I see.." Jenso responded, nodding at Dacer's display of power. "I'm feeling very angry...at myself, at the elementals and at those masked people. But...how do I move on from that? All of this has put so many people in danger.." Jenso said.

[tex]

Dacer shrugged. "Everyone's gotta find their own way, man. I just remember what my da-" Dacer paused, and the life drained from his face. He smiled and shook it off. "Somebody told me that there's no point in aiming for something you're never going to hit. But as long as you can still shoot, or swing, you 'aint dead yet." Dacer looked at Jenso and then to the ground. "A loss is only the end of you let it consume you."

[Jensoman]

Jenso nodded, listening to Dacer's words as confidence returned to him. He turned to Dacer with a wide grin. "Hey, that's what Lark told me too! He told me that losing isn't the end, despite what happened to his village on the island of Gaia. That woman with the black mask killed his entire village too.." He said. His anger began to fade away. Dacer was right, he needed to move on and keep going for what he believed in. "Thanks, man...you really helped me a lot." He was unsure if Lark and Dacer's villages were the same or not, but he believed that he would find out soon.

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"Helped? Hah, I haven't done anything yet," Dacer insisted, laying down by Tiger's feet. The Large beast shrunk down again and curled up by his torso like a little ball of fluff. "And it was the same village, Jenso," Dacer muttered, closing his eyes. "Lark was my father, after all."

---

~ End Of Chapter 39 ~

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~ Chapter 40 ~

_{Climbing Against True Earth, Orobo Rears His Ugly Gem}

Jenso felt somebody poking at him until he awoke. Dacer was nudging him awake with his bow. "Ey, wake up. We gotta move now," He said sternly, pointing up at the top of the Mountain.

[Jensoman]

As Jenso awoke, he stared at Dacer. "Right!" He said, looking down at his knee which had now been fully healed and left another scar in it's wake. He scrambled to his feet, stretching out the leg which was injured before. "Good as new! Let's do it!" He added, and began to climb the mountain. He decided to avoid mentioning Lark right away. Dacer was angry with the man, but he decided to wait to try to reason with him on that subject later on.

[tex]

Dacer nodded and rolled his eyes. "If you can't hurt them, you run. Got it?" Dacer ordered while Tiger slowly moved towards the cliff side, next to the huge hole in the wall that Dacer made earlier.

[Jensoman]

Jenso frowned. "Right...but I'm going to do my very best." Jenso responded in a serious tone as he continued to climb the mountain. "Hey...what I'm gonna ask is probably going to annoy you, but...how DID Adarine get you under her control? Did she use a candle ritual thing for that too?" Jenso asked Dacer as he moved up. "...I'd just like to know in case I run into her again."

[tex]

"Um.." Dacer frowned and scratched the back of his head, letting out a faint, nervous chuckle. "It's kind of embarrassing actually.. Her uh, her weird magic made it really difficult to ignore her. She must've snuck up on me and gotten something into my body somehow, and then it was like, 'man I love this woman!' for a while. And uh... Then we kissed, and she lit a candle and I kinda just don't remember much after that. Don't even know how long ago that was," Dacer explained, pausing at random between sentences.

[Jensoman]

"So, Lark was right...she uses some kind of magic to get people to fall in love with her..Like she did in your village." Jenso responded to Dacer. "I don't know why those masked psychopaths run around killing off and destroying entire villages, but I will put an end to it!" Jenso said, as ki flickered in his eyes for a split second out of anger. Of course he was unsure if he even stood a chance against them, but he would certainly try to take them on. He didn't like the fact that he was unable to fight Adarine due to being injured before. He continued climbing up.

[tex]

Tiger followed after Jenso, scaling the rock wall with Ease. Dacer groaned but nodded happily, and smiled when Jenso's eyes flickered. He'd never seen that before, and didn't make much out of it, but that was definitely the pure essence of Ki. Perhaps this wasn't a lost cause after all..

As the two made it further up the cliff, suddenly, a large rocky boulder jutted out of the wall and knocked Tiger off, into the sky. Dacer shouted, but swung his bow the opposite way, pushing the two towards a lower portion of the mountain. They landed hard and found their bearings. "What the hell!?" Dacer screamed, barely audible below Jenso. If Jenso looked up, he would notice that it wasn't just a boulder that jutted forward... It was a giant stone fist.

[Jensoman]

"Holy shit!!" Jenso shouted as Tiger was sent flying. "Tiger!!" He shouted in concern, taking note of the giant stone fist. This had to be Orobo. It could be another earth magic user like Bobba was, but it seemed the most obvious that they were dealing with Orobo now. "Orobo...bring it!" Jenso shouted.

[tex]

Orobo's fist was larger than a small house, and spread even wider when he unfurled his fingers. Jenso himself felt the earth around where he was grappling push forward as well, shaping into yet another fist. It continued to move out, faster and faster, attempting to launch Jenso off the mountainside. If he was launched, he wouldn't be able to return like Dacer had. Jenso had to find a flat area quickly.

Fortunately for him, the mountain was littered with relatively flat plateaus, but the closest landing was far above. He would have to make it there without getting launched off, or he would meet an untimely fate..

[Jensoman]

As the fist aimed to launch Jenso off the mountainside, he tried to climb on top of the fist as quickly as he could manage, and leaped forward in order to grapple onto the mountainside once again and continue climbing upwards to the plateau up above. He kept a close eye on the rocks as he climbed, trying to be prepared to dodge in case Orobo would try to punch him again.

[tex]

The fist beneath Jenso sunk back into the mountain, as did the one from earlier. As he climbed higher though, vines launched out and wrapped around him from the stone itself, and a hand emerged, fingers coming down to crush Jenso, who was trapped in the palm.