Necrophage

A Hero Tale {Complete}

The guardian's attack was courageous and unpredictable. Sometimes bravery didn't pay off.

Everything was red. Chaos energy had warped all around him, taking away any other sense of awareness. With everything he had he launched himself out of the fourfold attack from the patriarch of the order. Oz flew out like a cannonball being fired, leaving an explosion of force in his wake. So disoriented was he that he slammed into the ground quite a distance away, bouncing like a pebble across a still lake. Finally lying motionless on the ground, he tried to get up, to move even a little. Everything hurt or felt numb, he couldn't see and his ears rang. But he was still alive.

Oz refused to die. Even caught in that by such a powerful being.

After what seemed like an eternity he finally managed to get some light to his eyes. Everything seemed red as he stared at the torn sky above. He reached up to the sky with his left arm. Except, there was nothing left to reach up with. His heart dropped as much of the numbness stuck in his body started to fade, leaving sharp pain all across his skin. He examined his right forearm. His skin was pink and blood was welling up in random places. It was like someone had tried to use a fine device to flay him. Most of his upper clothes were consumed by the attack or torn by the landing. He drew on berserker strength to tear the remainder off and use it to triage his nub of an arm. In the wake of his landing he'd even left a trail of blood splattering every time he slammed into the ground.

Hyperventilating wasn't what he'd expected to do. Oz started to panic. He pushed that out and decided to be pissed instead. There was no way to try meditating or thinking when everything hurt this bad. It was all real. Not some illusion. He fumbled for the pouch which was thankfully still there and pulled out a power pill. He popped it in his mouth and tried to stand. He stumbled. More than once. Determination burned just as badly as the pain and he just kept trying. His body did not, however, agree with him. Oz blacked out and collapsed on the sand.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Oz remained bold despite the tough predicament. As the forces combined around him and his feet gave way he did the most brazen thing possible. He launched backwards with a burst of force energy into Yzeira and drove the shield straight through his well of energy and toward him. In that same action he lobbed his hammer upwards at the orb. Whatever happened would happen, he was going to do as much as he could.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Oz postured into the attack with his shield. He whinced as it collided with his injured arm but held firm, managing to absorb the entire attack. He turned to follow Yzeira in his path, keeping the shield handy between them. "I know you've got more than that for me." Oz lifted the hammer into the air over him. "Or is this your serious face? Glancing away, constantly distracted." Oz arched the hammer straight at the ground, causing a crack before it exploded outward in a wave of emitted force spread toward Yzeira. Hopefully he would disrupt the energy beneath the ground that Yzeira kept funneling for his defensive techniques. Assuming he even needed anything down there.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Atlas dragged the cracking bubble that held the expanding black hole with great difficulty into the laser as it ripped open, consuming the giant's arm and most its torso. What was left of Atlas collapsed on itself and faded.

The tyrant's advance was an unusual tactic but he still had orbs to use and an attack underway so it was clear he had plenty of an advantage coming in close. Oz fired off half a dozen shards into the spiraling orbs through the momentum gate, regardless of their spinning he managed to hit one. He quickly turned and fired off the remaining half dozen in a spread at Yzeira. Concentrated energy gathered on his left arm and in his right hand forming a physical, medium sized shield and a hammer. Excess energy flared off of him making it obvious Oz had his personal shield up. He was prepared to take a hit as he charged forward, spinning out of the way of the last orb to clash with Yzeira.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

The incoming attacks were undoubtedly fatal and would mean the loss of Atlas for a while if they struck. Regardless there was little to be done, if they weren't removed Yzeira would simply change their direction again. Atlas' hammer reshaped itself into a bladed wheel that the colossus held the center of. It reeled back and rolled the wheel at the ground. The war-wheel swiftly glided forward, picking up speed toward Yzeira's barrier.

Atlas reacted with the little time remaining by jumping into the incoming spheres, projecting shields around its hands to catch them in individual bubbles and turn any resulting explosion away from Oz.

Oz grimaced. Yzeira was picking his attacks and defenses both apart without barely even moving. He shook it off. There could be no losing hope here, he couldn't afford it and neither could his companions. He would buy them more time for certain! His body started to give off a violet aura. Wisps of energy seeped off coalescing into a multitude of rough spikes that gathered around him like shards of ice floating in the air. He strafed off to the side, away from Atlas. The circles and spikes all orbited around him until he would need them.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Yzeira's action took Oz by surprise. It was more spontaneous than he was expecting. He twisted out of the way of the twin lasers as best he could but the one grazed his side and the other cut into his left shoulder drawing blood. Neither were fatal but they would likely slow him down.

Atlas extended an arm so Oz could land atop the palm and look downward at Yzeira. The tyrant was stubborn and already carving out a more stable position. He seemed to be unaffected by Oz's manipulation of gravity so long as he was within his barrier. Whatever was under or around that barrier made it dangerous to even approach. With that barrier in place maintaining this level of gravity distortion didn't hold much point but it had at the least taught him about his opponent. Oz released control. The world turned back, vertical becoming a proper horizon. Dust, sand and dirt settled and the water in the distance that had been affected lapped back onto the shore in huge waves.

Atlas hauled itself out of the ground, placing Oz down and standing at full height. So Yzeira required time to charge significant attacks. But he didn't need significant attacks to hurt Oz. Oz just needed to keep at it. Atlas summoned its own hammer and began advancing on Yzeira's zone. The patriarch's zone of control was only getting bigger with his new addition of more orbs.

Oz himself moved so that he wasn't lined up with Atlas anymore and summoned several momentum gates in succession in front of himself. There's still more tricks to try.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

The fight was frustrating but somewhat predictable. Yzeira was powerful and he knew it so he didn't have to play tricks. Oz made sure he wasn't in the line of fire. He prepared another spear and waiting for Yzeira's large-scale attack to start before throwing it at the patriarch.

Atlas reeled its arms out and swung them to either side, launching the shields in curving archs towards different points on Yzeira's pedestal. Poor Atlas was in no position to move.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Well, this feeling of futility was to be expected. So void attacks really would be pretty damn useless here.

Oz grimaced at the instantly forming energy around him. He expanded his personal shield and the explosions rocked against him pretty hard but he stood steady. He coughed through the dust, before drawing in a good breath. "Atlas!" He called. The colossus' torso burst out of the ground like a subterranean monster. Its arms were bigger this time and clad to each was a glowing shield. It went to work quickly crashing shielded limbs into the laser, to divert it or destroy it.

The man himself jumped into the air and threw the veil spear at Yzeira.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Oz glared back at the growing threat. He stretched his left arm out toward it and summoned more black energy, launching a sizable black hole into it as his counter.

A nagging feeling told Oz that void attacks would likely not work against Yzeira directly but they could still function as counters. He summoned a spear of veil to work with in his right hand and kept closing the distance.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"Finally. Just the two of us here." Violet energy enveloped Oz's busted arm. He flexed it and whinced. It was painful but necessary. There would be no holding back from here on out. Everything was on the line.

Oz raised both hands like he were lifting an object. Violet energy danced around them to evidence the power at work. Sand and debris started sliding toward Yzeira. As far as the two of them were concerned the world was tilting toward the sea and the horizon was becoming vertical. Sand, dirt and debris of all kinds began falling with the two of them. A blinding storm of earth flew through the air, obscuring clear sight of anything and threatening to consume them.

Taking advantage of the chaos Oz immediately ran downward along the loose ground, maintaining enough personal gravitation to maneuver along the wall and dash between the larger bits of debris as he zig-zagged toward Yzeira. A bare smidgeon of light could be seen through the storm as Oz charged light-blue energy into his right hand.