Aiden
Aiden was running through a forest, eyes glowing with a savage intensity in the darkness as his quarry tried to shake him off. They were currently one a horse, eyes shifting constantly as he looked for the ice dragon slayer. He didn't have to wait long, however, as a chill spread through the air. The leaves rustle as frigid winds blew over the man, piercing the thin cloak he wore with ease. Suddenly, a light shower fell over the forest, and as the man raised his hand to shield himself from the chilling droplets of water, the horse he as riding cave out a frightful cry as it lost it balance, toppling over and sending the man falling to the ground.
As he tried to rise up again, he heard a strange cracking sound. Looking down, he saw that not only was the ground covered in slick ice, the culprit for his horses toppling, but he was slowly being covered in a thickening casing of ice. He tried to get up, but he found that his feet were stuck fast to the ice under him, as it slowly began to creep up his form. He cried for help and mercy as it rose high and higher, but the forest offered no reply, only a silent vigil as the man was slowly frozen.
Only when he had been completely frozen did Aiden appear, forming from mist next to the downed horse.
"Water Dragon's Healing Spring." He place a hand on it's sprained ankle, a small orb of water forming over the injured area and a gentle blue glow emanating from the center. After some time and no small amount of effort, the limb was good as new. Aiden then used the ice to help the animal back up, and the horse gave him a silent look before riding off into the forest, disappearing from sight in the leafy depths. Aiden wiped his forehead of sweat, feeling somewhat annoyed that it was still hard for him to heal things. He'd gotten better, but unless he was healing himself, it always took a lot out of him, and he could only heal minor injuries and physical fatigue within himself, everything else could just be stabilized to only partially healed.
Giving a sigh, he turned to his target, a dark mage that had been terrorizing a nearby village, or so they thought. In fact, he hadn't even been a mage, just a guy who'd gotten his hands on a powerful artifact and abused it. Aiden had tried his best to recover the artifact, but it got destroyed in the battle, causing a large explosion and giving the scumbag time to get away, though it didn't matter much in the end.
"Goddammit, I was hoping this mission would be more of a challenge." Aiden muttered to himself as he pulled out a transportation lacrima from his pocket and put his hand on the crook-sicle, and in a flash of light, they were in Crocus. Aiden dragged the frozen criminal into the guild and placed him near the door, before he pulled up a communication lacrima and called the authorities, letting them know that the mission they put up had been finished and that the culprit was ready for pick up. He then walked over the bar, leaping over the counter to access his stash of ice cream snacks. Today he was feeling like chocolate, so he pulled out three galloon tubs of the stuff and a spoon, closing the door to the stash with a slam then walking over to a table, where he began the process of eating the delectable treat and thinking of new ways of using his magic as well as ways to train.
He'd recently gotten down a Secret Art that had opened up a lot of possibilities for using his powers, but he still didn't think he was ready for what was coming.
The Grand Magic Games . . . After my last failure, am I even ready for them? Aiden's free hand clenched into a fist and he almost bit through his spoon as he thought about the events of 4 weeks prior. Not only had they failed to bring in the shadow mage, but she was continuing to reign havoc on the populace. And if that wasn't enough, he had been 'relieved' of his Magus Hunter duties because that blasted councilwoman has taken an interest in Sable for training.
A frost began to spread from where he was seating his anger rose, wondering what the hell this woman was playing at. Everything she did served only to make him hate her more and more, the way she seemed to move and manipulate people without a care for what ever they were doing before, it was beyond infuriating. Before he lost control of himself, he started to breathe and took himself out of that frame of mind, continuing to eat his treat.
"I wonder if Cynthia will be in the games, haven't seen her in a while . . . goddamit, I hope that Sable didn't ruin his things with her with his new bullshit attitude." He sighed as he sat in the Viper Guild hall, waiting for something to do, for something to happen. If nothing did, he would go and train for a bit, something he had been doing non-stop between any missions he'd decided to take, and sometimes during them if they were the slow kind.
Xavier, A short distance outside of Crocus
Xavier stood alone in a field, his new longer hair blowing in the breeze as he stared out across the fields, eyes scanning the horizon. In his hand he wielded a
new sword that he had spent the last 4 weeks training with, a bulky thing but thaty suited him just fine. Taking a breath, he raised the blade and slowly began to go through the forms that Knight had taught him. As time passed he began to swing the blade faster and faster, and started to perform more skillful techniques with it, the wind beginning to whistle around the black blade.
After an hour of this, Xavier began to gather magical energy into the blade, causing a darkened orange aura to cover the blade.
"Tephra Godslayer's Ashen Harvest!" The energy around the blade flashed as he made a horizontal slash, sending out a fast moving, sickle shaped cloud of super heated ashes to slice through the air, and it was soon followed by more as he continued the assault on nothing, before he moved to block an imaginary attack from behind. As he pretended to struggle with the foe, another orange glow came up from below as he used another spell.
"Tephra God's Wrathful Upheaval!" The ground exploded upward in a plume of hot ashes, which Xavier used to separate himself from his foe, but then burst through it slash at his imagined foe, using the plume of ash to send out blades of obsidian at them every now and then to keep them from getting into a rhythm. If anyone was looking for him at the moment, this is where he would be, training intensely in order to get ready for the Grand Magic Games.
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