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A Hero Tale {Complete}

The orbs of lightning combined at the point where the Ki explosion took place, but as the light erupted, it slowly took on a red hue. After the explosive event, nothing remained of the electrical orbs. As Jenso pulled himself through the air though, the body that refrained from attacking had finally taken in all of his spheres.

"𝕮𝖆𝖓𝖈𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓"

The air went thick, but the rain didn't slow down or grow heavier. Jenso's flame whip, as well as the arki his placed on the ground, both disappeared in an instant. Even worse, it was like the Ki in his body was sealed off completely. His glowing form vanished, and he plummeted to the ground without any power to readjust his direction. Yzeira's body stepped aside as he flew towards it, letting him stumble across the roof towards one edge. The two bodies began walking towards the center of the roof, slowly refreshing their orb supply.

"I was hoping this would end differently. But despite your unique properties, you appear to be no different than every other specimen that you've followed." Yzeira grunted, beside himself with utter disappointment, both figuratively and literally. "I can do this, just like Nexus. Only, much more effectively." He rose one hand and it emitted a dull red glow. "Without losing power."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

The current was dispersed by the rapid series of Ki blasts, curving around Jenso and off the edge of the tower as he ran around. However, it didn't take long before he reached one of Yzeira's bodies. The body that was channeling the technique near one edge of the tower.

It ended before he reached him, but with a flick of his wrist, the situation took another turn for the worse.

"Where are you looking?" Yzeira taunted. From behind Jenso, along nearly a quarter of the tower's edge, several hundred miniature orbs of scarlet plasma situated themselves silently. Another slight motion of his fingers, and Yzeira's lightning all began to home in on Jenso from behind, picking up speed as they neared him. The other clone watched carefully, taking several spheres into its body, quietly.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

As Jenso left the globe, it suddenly shrank down to the size of a baseball, and absorbed the film of energy that covered the ground. Afterwards, it flew towards Jenso, and exploded mid-travel, releasing a wide-range blast that covered nearly 25% of the tower's radius. The spears that Jenso threw were either destroyed by this initial blast, or shattered on contact with Yzeira's barrier. One of his bodies replenished their spheres again, while his other took aim at Jenso, regardless of whether or not he dodged the blast, and released an electrical current that danced across the air and spread to cover his escape routes as it encroached on him. As he channeled it, one of his spheres slowly began to shrink into his body.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"Far be it from me to deny the wish of a dead man."

The barrier around the clone did not falter. As soon as Jenso's spear struck it, the Ki shattered like glass, and turned crimson. Yzeira's bodies both rose one hand and aimed at Jenso where he stood. Two spheres from each clone disappeared into their bodies, and their hands began to glow.

"Encasement"

The air around Jenso changed in hue until all he could see was red. A globe of weak energy surrounded him, growing to roughly 20 yards in diameter and getting thicker with each passing second. The ground around Jenso's feet continued to encroach on him, but the edges of the arena were getting clearer as it shrank towards his feet.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Thrust his fists into the immediate vicinity of the orbs, the opaque energy field that surrounded them, prompted them to explode before his fists could reach them. One burst after another struck Jenso, launching him back, and then up into the air. The series of explosions ended shortly after they began, but Yzeira did not follow up immediately. Despite being a single series of attacks, Jenso could feel his Ki being drained rapidly by the strange energy that composed them, almost as it was directly eating away at his soul.

"That did not last nearly as long as I thought it would," Yzeira sighed.

Defiance

The unsettling stroke of Fauve's tongue against his cheek made Dannisus jerk away from her with an angry hiss. His hair stood on end and he tensed up tremendously. Anxiety was a thought of the past. Now he was angry. Dannisus briefly glanced at Jack to acknowledge his comment, but when Gabriel referred to him as Myti and nothing more, he began to growl from the bottom of his throat. Humans like this knew so little of him or his people. Few even cared to acknowledge them as people. That wasn't their fault, though. He thought carefully for a moment, trying to pull himself back to a reasonable state of mind, but there was a powerful underlying urge festering inside of him to tell these idiots off one by one. Not that he could. Every time he thought there was a moment for him to speak, somebody else spoke up first and kept talking. It was likely for the best though. His stance loosened while everyone spoke.

He finally had a chance to think. There... Wasn't much to think about at first. What reason could he possibly fathom to follow these people towards danger? Unless there was some mystical force at work, nothing would keep them alive if this monstrous mishap was as dangerous as it sounded. The work of necromancers was simply terrifying.

Just then, his eyes went soft and he straightened his posture. He finally registered exactly who the approaching woman was when she snatched the map and began to speak. Of all the possible survivors, it had to be her. 'Fake Lani' Dannisus thought to himself. He glared at her, his inherent fear overcome for the moment by new pangs of anger.

She began speaking to them with a tone of command that almost made him laugh despite everything that had happened. Instead of bringing any semblance of order to the group, or calming Dannisus' nerves in the slightest, she only served to offer him even more questions and reasons for frustration. Why would she waste her time hunting monsters? What did she classify as a 'monster' exactly? How did she know anything about the source of this attack that the rest of them didn't? Why exactly did she hide her face at night? Who did she think she was? What the hell was a Despiun? Dannisus mulled over the inane little speech she had offered their group with no prompt. The mystery of it all had actually managed to calm him down. He couldn't stay angry when he was suddenly... So confused. What followed had only served to deepen his befuddlement. Before he, or anyone else could even address her, Devlin took off just as quickly as she had arrived. It all became clear in an instant.

...Devlin was mentally ill! Completely mad!

It was the only explanation. But then it didn't explain how she was lucid about several very clear facts. Dannisus was almost caught in another spiral of convoluted thought, when Lui addressed him directly. "Mya?" He looked back to Gabriel for a moment, and then towards Lui. At least that crazy woman didn't take the map.

"E-even after all of that, you're still eager to run head-long into danger?" He stuttered, "I..." Dannisus caught his tongue and looked the group over silently. Perhaps it was a good idea after all. No, it really wasn't. It was completely idiotic to follow after these louts, regardless of how strong they might've been. But Lui was right about one thing. Barring another legion of undead, he could likely escape at any time if he let the rest of them stand in front of him. There were a few curious items well worth his time, assuming their owners were killed in the process. Most notable were Jack's gauntlets. He'd never seen - or smelled - such unique magical tools before. Not even his own weapons held a candle to those. Lui's eye, and that weird little lantern she carried around were valuable as well. Even Aelih's spear seemed to be an item of interest. The idea of letting both of them die wasn't ideal, though. Despite that, he wasn't about to put his life in danger to prevent such an outcome.

Something else caught his attention as he thought on his options. He turned his head towards Fauve slowly as she began to speak, expecting the worst. But as she went on, he couldn't help sneering at her childish ignorance. Dannisus would have been safer on his own out here in the middle of the forest, safer than he was with a bunch of crazy people, anyways. As long as he didn't come too close to Sylsashia's center, the only thing he had to fear was tripping. The last thing he needed was to fall from the treetops again. Fauve's voice was beginning to grate against his eardrums at this point. Every wretched syllable would bore deeper into his consciousness and strum at each nerve in his head relentlessly. He'd almost addressed her. Almost. Thankfully there was no need to get caught up in Fauve's pace with Ren around.

Dannisus had just noticed him. The boy that arrived with Devlin hadn't said a word, nor did he speak while communicating with Fauve. Was he communicating? Dannisus assumed that was the case. Ren waggled his hands around in some odd fashion at the crude woman. It had to mean something. Dannisus didn't quite get it. It had to be some kind of human thing, much like the way that Myti spoke with the cats of the forest. Apparently he wouldn't have any time to ask. In identical fashion to Devlin, the man followed after his apparent savior and disappeared into the forest. It was a shame. Ren looked somewhat reasonable for somebody who didn't speak. But Dannisus could have easily mistaken his naive kindness for wisdom. For all he knew, he was just as asinine as Devlin.

Lui's offer still bounced around in his head as a feasible option. As long as they didn't leave the forest, Dannisus had ample retreat options in the high-standing trees. Their tightly packed canopy was not under any immediate threat, unless some unruly mage sought to set it ablaze. A forest fire would surely attract the attention of his people. If that were the case, he'd have no choice but to abandon his... New 'comrades' without a second thought. He looked back to Lui and nodded silently.

"I suppose there's some merit to the idea. B-but I don't think anyone should be following that-tha-that... Psychotic disaster-waiting-to-happen!" He pointed in the direction that Devlin and Ren had headed towards, and looked to everyone. "I don't suppose anyone shares my concern? If you're really bent on investigating and keeping your lives, it may be wise to take our own path towards..." He paused and darted towards Gabriel's side. One hand gently clasped the corner of the map he held, while he gestured to everyone else with the other. "Towards this place of interest?" He nodded to Gabriel politely, despite his earlier comment, and stepped away. Then he pointed to himself.

"I know this forest quite well! If you're bound on investi- I mean really- if you really need to sate your curiosity, lend me the task of being your guide." He pointed up towards the canopy of the forest and turned his head towards the group again, while walking away slowly. "I can keep- I'll keep Us much safer by guiding you around any dangers. We're still very far out from the thickets of Sylsashia, but these wilds are tainted. If anything approaches, I'll know it before any of you." He lowered his arm and waited for the group's response, gently flapping his uninjured ear. If he was committing himself to following these simple folk, even if only partially, he wouldn't be letting anybody put him in danger. Nobody would order him around, least of all Devlin.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Jenso's spear pierced and destroyed the orb, but the other 7 rapidly moved towards him straight afterwards, moving in erratic patterns as they moved through the sky. The orb in the middle of the arena began to pull heavier as well. Jenso could feel it as he moved too far away from the ground, that gravity was beginning to pull him into it ever so slightly.

The two clones took a moment to restore their orb surplus while Jenso was left to fend for himself against the various attacks, and the floor did not show any sign of changing any time soon.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Yzeira's main body flicked its hand towards the ground. Suddenly, one of his spheres dropped down quickly, and spread across the entirety of the roof in all directions. Jenso's flames would be smothered, as if Jenso didn't dodge, he would likely be harmed as well. The issue that persisted however, was that the ground would remain covered in a constant pool of his crimson energy, from one edge of the roof to the other.

Jenso's spears, much like his earlier attacks, did little to disrupt the combining spheres. They shrank slightly as they gobbled up his attack, but then continued to grow, converting his Ki into even more power as the orb rose higher into the sky. The rain curved around and straight into the sphere, like it had its own gravity, while the giant orb behind Yzeira's clone finally stopped growing. However, its size suddenly shrunk, and it split into eight tiny orbs that stood in place. Each one then flew further from each other, and created a transparent red aura around themselves, where streams of red electricity crackled erratically within its scope, contained much like giant plasma globes. They spread out around the edge of the arena where Jenso first stood, slowly lining up across one edge of the roof in a paralleled fashion.

"Try not to fall."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

One attack after the other, Jenso's attempts were negated entirely by the barrier that surrounded Yzeira's bodies. The stream of energy aimed for his feet had bent out of shape and wrapped around into a spray if Ki, while his fireballs exploded on contact and spread into smoke. Even his flame saws whiffed on contact, getting shattered one after the other as if they were paper plates striking a stone wall. Yzeira didn't turn to face Jenso, neither of his bodies did. Instead, the two orbs that connected to each other disconnected their streams from the two bodies, and began to join together into one entity near the center of the arena. The other orb that followed Jenso earlier, began to expand where he stood before, until it was roughly 7 feet in diameter. The 5 orbs around Yzeira's clone stopped spinning for a second, and then two disappeared. The clone spun around and slammed his hand into the ground, unleashing a tidal wave of energy that spread out across the roof incredibly fast, roaring with explosive power that threatened to evaporate Jenso is his entirety. It grew taller and wider as it spread forwards.

Yzeira's other body rose a hand and fired a single refined laser, aiming to hit Jenso the moment he moved to dodge the initial wave.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

The orbs flickered as they were struck, but did not disperse. Instead, they grew bigger, forming a visible line between one another, and between their host bodies near the chest level. The clone directly in front of Jenso slashed its hand at him, creating a thin wave of energy that traveled at waist level, while sending one of his orbs towards him slowly.