Unity (EOTG Final)

[stroud]

just waiting to collide,

and I will watch you fall again, and bury you alive

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,460,true][atrb=style, background: url(http://i53.tinypic.com/a2vuas.png); padding: 5px; text-align: justify; color: #202020;] A blinding white. When the powerful orb of light was fired from the shotlock of the knightly keyblader, the resulting explosion flooded everyone's vision with the flashing purest ivory. Like a internal flash of lightning within the darkest of storm clouds, the very surface beneath those who could witness it illuminated from within. In all directions as far as the eye could perceive, an eerie white translucence flashed and shot out in all directions. As the light began to receed, a silhouette could be made out. Starting as a blur on the event horizon, it contrasted sharper into the image of a figure, the back of his cascading white hair faced towards those that were still standing from the previous fight. He stood there rigid as he faced the very heavens above them, motionless like a pristine immovable statue. Slowly, a malicious chuckle rose from the shade of the man that once was Stroud Harkdren. "Heh heh heh... I'm tingling with excitement." Gauntlet hands of the darkest armor raised as if to cradle the sky, to behold the sight he was seeing. No longer they were in the Endless Abyss before the Door to Darkness. Just as quickly as the light flooded in around them, twisted tendrils of darkness began to seep in the landscape surrounding them, corroding and constricting the scorching luminescence. The tendrils of darkness seeping and writhing across the light began to grow thicker, until the light merely became patches of vibrant rays shining in spotlights, like sunlight trying to shine through the thick undergrowth of thorny vines. Tendrils of nothingness was their only border, black and white vines twisting into an endless nether. The laws of light and darkness seemed to take a day off, light shining in at random angles into places where darkness already was and vice-versa. It remained this way until the light shrank until they were the size of pinheads poking through a black canvas, until those lights shone larger again and become all too real as they came dangerously closer in focus. They were stars... and now clearer through the chaotic collage of light and darkness, the laws of reality returned as it became gravely clear... they were worlds. Destiny Islands. Castle Oblivion. Traverse Town. The World That Never Was. The End of the World. Twilight Town. Keyblade Graveyard. Agrabah, Port Royal, Halloween Town, Olympus Coliseum, Beast's Castle... they were appearing around them at a astonishing rate now faster than one could keep up with. Even through the transparent floor, one could see the worlds being drawn towards their very destination as if by invisible strings. As they came into range within recognition, a deafening shockwave of gut-churning force ripped through the very foundations of the existence around them. Like some epic god hungry for sacrifice on a grand, demonic scale, a guttorial moan resounded throughout the sea of stars that was closing in around them. From the large, heart-shaped symbols that was appearing on the icy white surface that allowed them to exist, there was only one place Stroud could have pulled the survivors of this final battle to. They were inside Kingdom Hearts itself. At this moment now that Stroud had revealed to his audience the vision of what he had seen, the lord of all Heartless spoke. "The darkness will engulf all. As it has come to pass... all worlds, all hearts will return to the greater heart. Then... I will cover the entire world... in darkness. Even now, hordes of powerful Heartless pour into the worlds with unstoppable force." he spoke softly in a rather eerie manner, as if he had seen it come to pass all along. He turned to his audience, revealing his newly transformed image behind his curtain of ivory hair. His armor was now a combination of the deepest black, brightest white and amber yellow. His face markings had been replaced with black and white tendrils of nothingness, his eyes completely covered in a glowing amber. "Twice now you have fallen before my indomitable power. Even if you could destroy me, you destroy Kingdom Hearts and the fabric of this world will become undone. No matter what or how you try, every time it will result in the same inevitable non-win scenario for you... but enough banter. You broke already... I guess I'm done with you." With a sudden shout, a bright white aura engulfed surged through his very form. Emerging charged with thunderous energy coursing through his inhuman being, his Grim Stroud form unfurled it's humongous limbs and four seraphic wings. The gargantuan broadsword Piercer materialized into existence in his hand, integrated with the very tendrils of light, darkness and nothingness itself. From above, the gut-churning force reverberated throughout the universe as the worlds closed in, like some giant meteoric moons threatening to crash down and crush them from the very heavens above. In a matter of minutes, the homeworld of the Heartless would be complete. "I'm getting bored of YOUR CHEAP TRICKS." Fiery Hatred formed around his targets as symbols appeared beneath them, shooting up roaring pillars of fire surrounding them to trap them and inflicting the emotion of the most blinding anger.Wind of Despair fanned those flames of hatred, screaming gale force winds spreading the fires and sending sickle projectile blades while they should be trapped, inflicting the fear of despair if the anger had not been effective. Even targeting the users of the dark, for he had no more use for the pathetic leeches attempting to cling to the darkness he had solely brought. The end had begun... of a new beginning for the Heartless, and all other being's undoing towards the true nature of their hearts. --- Fiery Hatred: Summons circular glyphs on the ground around a target which instantly flares up pillars of fire and also inflicts anger to cloud their mind as well as fire damage. Cooldown: Three posts. Wind of Despair: Of the wind element, he sends powerful waves of razor-sharp winds at his foes, which also inflicts the emotion of despair nd sadness onto a person. Cooldown: Three posts.

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words Bwahahaha~ tags Terra, Aqua, Selena, Namine, Kadaj, Yazoo, Yurimuka, Felix, Valerius notes And here I was, thinking I had no Stroud muse to push out. >3 credits rinne

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[Larxene]

Due to the overwhelming odds, we have split the group and are allowing Stroud two turns per everyone else's one. This will help balance out the battle as most, if not all, boss battles in the Final Fantasy games allow the boss to attack twice as fast.

---

Posting Order: Namine, Felix, Selena, Terra, Stroud, Yazoo, Aqua, Kadaj, Yukimura, Stroud.

[Naminé]

Naminé found herself once again on the ground from when Artemis had shoved her out of the way of an attack that the silver haired remnant had attempted. The little Nobody had discovered that for some reason she had turned back into her real form. She no longer possessed the image of the female Heartless Horseman. She had wonder how the Angel managed to escape her captor, but her question was quickly answered when she looked where the masked horseman once stood. He had vanished just as everyone else had and so did the snake creature.

Naminé scrambled for her sketchbook to help out the winged Angel in her attack on the remnant, but just as she grasped a hold of the book there was a blinding bright light. The light forced her to close her eye and press the sketchbook to her chest. When the bright light had vanished, the Nobody opened her eyes. She blinked a few times to un-blur her vision, and surrounding her was a new group of people, most of which the Memory Witch either didn’t know or only knew from Sora’s memories. However, one of them caught the attention of the female Nobody. His white hair stood out in the darkness that surrounded everything and everyone. He must have been one of the Human Heartless. His power was overwhelming and something inside the Nobody told her that now would be a good time to tremble. This man…this Heartless man was without a doubt the leader of the Heartless Horseman. He had brought the groups together for the final showdown. They all stood deep with the realm that was Kingdom Hearts.

The girl in pure white stood fixated to the spot. She had hardly even noticed that other worlds were drawing closer to the very place they stood. Naminé could hardly take her bright blue eyes off of Horseman. He spoke with a soft, eerie voice lecturing about how Darkness was going to take over. He sounded, to Naminé, much like Xemnas did when he would talk of Darkness and Kingdom Hearts. It was this that made the female Nobody clinch her fists. “Who are you to decide the fates of the worlds and the people that inhabit them?” Naminé asked the man in her typical sweet voice. She wasn’t quite sure where the gall to challenge such a powerful being came from, but she was going to go with it. The man didn’t seem to be listening to the little Nobody and continued his rant.

Before Naminé knew what was happening, a circle of fire surrounded her and everyone else. She could feel the intense heat burning her skin and without armor she had no way of defending herself from it. The man had attacked and was about to attack again. It appeared that this Heartless Horseman did not care that some of the people there were fighting on the side of Darkness with him. Was he really going to attack his own team members?

The Nobody double over when one of the sharp winds hit her left leg. She had to do something before she was ripped to shreds. She place one hand on her sketchbook and with her other hand she snapped her fingers. Three Creeper Nobodies materialized themselves from a drawing that she had drawn awhile back. “Kingdom Hearts won’t be destroyed if you are. Kingdom Hearts doesn’t exist because of just you. It is the hearts of all people both dark and light. You shouldn’t be allowed to decide the fate of everyone’s destiny.” Naminé preached with a calm soft voice as one of the Creepers turned into a shield that rested on her left arm. "And what if you do get what you want and all of the worlds are engulfed in darkness, then what? Everyone will be a Heartless just like you. So by definition they will know no fear, no sorrow. They would feel nothing at all.” One of the other Creepers had turned into a sword and rested itself in its master’s right hand as she continued to speak. “What is to stop all those Heartless from overpowering you when all is said and done?” Naminé looked straight into the eyes of the Heartless Horseman. “Am I wrong about that? Please stop this before it is too late.” And with that the last of the Creepers turned itself in to a lance and by itself the Creeper lance charged straight for the leader of the Heartless. There was no doubt in the Memory Witches mind that the white haired man could wipe out the Creeper, but it was only sent as a distraction to give someone else who was stronger than she a better chance at getting to the Horseman. Naminé might not have a heart but she does have a brain, and she isn’t stupid enough to attack that man head on without a real weapon and someone to back her up. She would have to go after someone she would have a better chance against or back up a stronger team member that goes after the Horseman. Now wasn’t the time for her to be careless like she was in the last battle.


(OOC: Sorry that this isn’t really that good. I really didn’t know how to start this thing but I did my best

---

Creeper Nobodies: Up to 3 Creepers come to my aid per battle.
Attack: Hitting enemies by turning themselves into weapons.
Defense: taking the hit for Namine so no bodily damage is inflicted on her. (Creepers will die the moment after they are hit.)
[Duration: until enemy eliminates all 3 Creepers. Cooldown: Two posts after all have been defeated.]

[Felix]

With one keyblader soon to go down, Felix’s attack having been almost certain to hit, the odds were heavily stacked in the favor of those fighting for Darkness. Indeed, not only had a few of the warriors that had pledged their allegiance to the light fled at the first sight of danger, but now one of the more capable fighters, I.E. Aqua, was going to be knocked out. At least that’s what the freelancer had imagined happened when he had flawlessly executed his combo, but fate had different plans in store.

Suddenly, a blinding light would blanket the “arena” that the heroes and villains alike fought in, that would then begin to be swallowed up by darkness. Indeed, darkness began to close in on all the fighters present that day, almost as if threatening to devour them if they didn’t take shelter in the patches of light present. It was in one of these patches of light that Felix had spotted his katana, dashing toward it as swiftly as possible and sheathing it before their surroundings would change once more and quite rapidly at that. Several worlds began to pass him by, his eyes although well-trained, not managing to recognize a single one. Whatever was happening, they were moving fast, passing by all those worlds and a pit-stop didn’t seem likely. Within a moment they would then arrive at Kingdom Hearts, Stroud now making his presence known and having taken yet another form change.

“Man this guy changes his looks more often than a Power Ranger. What’s he doing to do next, bust out a Megazord?” the freelancer joked, a smirk curving against his lips as the words left his mouth. Regardless of his quip though, the red-head knew best to pay heed to his surroundings and began to notice a lot of familiar faces, some of which he had been planning on beating to a pulp but ignoring the urge to do so for the time being. For while the recently self-deemed “Master of Elements" enjoyed beating down keybladers, survival certainly took priority. He hated to admit it, but the shaking in his legs certainly proved that Stroud’s killing intent was immense and meant... he couldn’t beat him alone. He bit down on his lip, clenching his right fist as he slammed it against his forehead, slightly dazed by it. A deep breath escaped his lips soon after, his legs shaking having ceased and his mind having calmed down considerably. It was with this moment of clarity that Felix’s mind went to work, examining his enemy that enjoyed stroking his ego far too much. He certainly seemed indestructible at first glance and assuming he was similar to Super-Man in endurance, then a plan of attack was required. With his katana having been secured to his back, his right hand clutched it tightly as he unsheathed it, certain that he’d need it to inflict the kind of damage required to slay this creature… especially if those around him went with his plan,

“While he’s busy stroking his own ego, I’ve got a little suggestion to make,” he began, his eyes making a quick glance to the right and left to note those who actually heard him and were paying attention, “needless to say he’s going to be unbelievably strong right now and it be best if we put aside our differences for the moment since I’m sure he’s planning on offing all of us since that’s kind of the whole super villain shtick. That being noted, I’m going to be attacking one area on his body following the Gamma Knife principle in that a bunch of what will probably be tiny attacks for him, will quickly stack up and cause massive damage that will be far more prominent then attacking anywhere I can. Feel free to join me if you wish in testing if that plan yields results or do your own thing… just don’t blame me if you die doing something stupid,” the freelancer explained, his words in a whisper to try and keep Stroud in the dark unless he also gained some sort of super hearing ability. Whatever the case was, it was at that point the freelancer had begun running toward his target, intent on getting the first blow but preempted by the beast he wished to destroy. A sudden surge of heat would touch his feet, his eyes glancing downward to see a fiery death waiting to happen if he didn’t move. Without a moment’s hesitation, the freelancer would roll forward, avoiding the brunt of the blast but getting his back singed. With this burning sensation a rage came over him, a fury that while Stroud had probably hoped would distract him, only helped him strengthen his resolve to attack. Indeed, fighting with anger wasn’t a new concept to the freelancer and controlling it to not cloud his mind was something that Martial Artist like himself was disciplined and trained to do and instead use it for a more positive effect. Regardless, the next attack would come soon after, the crimson haired warrior quick to get back on his feet as he activated his signature move, Mass Manipulator. His mass would suddenly be reduced twenty times, allowing him the freedom of movement to easily avoid the wind attack Stroud had followed up with, jumping over it as he dashed toward his target. Within a second he closed the distance between them, now within his effective range and ready to do damage. He quickly stabbed toward where he assumed his foe’s stomach was, hoping to impale… or rather feign the intent of such an attack. No it was merely a technique to trick an opponent as he instead brought up the sword and swung it in arc that resembled half of a heart. His target now would be the location of where he hoped the rib cage was, both hands gripping his blade’s hilt tightly as it came upon the beast at a speed surely past anything he was accustomed to seeing out of a human. Not only would the speed be astounding, the power behind the blow would be as well, Felix making use of his ability to its fullest and increasing the mass of his blade to 3000lbs upon impact. With the force equivalent of a bullet train at full speed hitting Stroud very precisely, the freelancer had no doubt that if that blow alone didn’t do it, several more to that same spot would produce the desired result.

Despite this confidence in his attack though (assuming it hit), the freelancer would quickly release the mass switch of his blade and preemptively run backwards, several feet away, hopefully avoiding any immediate counter to his attack.

OOC:

Mass Manipulator
3 Switches left / 2 Switches Used
3 Post Duration / 1 Post used

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[Deleted]

It seemed that as soon as the dark keybearer yelled at the Remnant, she was blinded by the brightest of all lights and closed her eyes to wait for it to die out. When the area became consumed by darkness, 'Artemis' reopened her icy glare at the poor fool, Stroud in his terrible new form, who dared to interrupt the battle that was just about to begin between her and Kadaj. Sadly if expressions could kill, then there wouldn't be much of a battle. Her gaze turned towards the 'stars' as they spun within proximity.

As the worlds spun 'round and 'round, Selena only faltered when one world caught her eye but before she could identify the world, the cycle spun even faster beyond recognition and then she realized that they were inside Kingdom Hearts itself. She briefly heard Namine, the girl that had taken the only female Horseman's form and one of a cocky unfamiliar male. The winged woman briefly glanced at them and curtly nodded at them both as a form of 'encouragement'. Although 'Artemis' kept a cold front, she could feel her heart beat faster from the fear of the power this particular Horseman had obtained.

"Like we have anything better to do other than admire the decor..."muttered the dark keybearer, sarcastically. Suddenly, Selena felt the soles of her feet grow hot and instinctively flew forward before the pillars of fire could trap her but singed her wings in the process. As dark keybearer began to acknowledge the anger and despair brewing inside her carefully guarded heart, she forced herself to land into a crouch due to the howling winds and folded her damaged wings flat against her back.

As Felix made his move, 'Artemis' was wondering how she would get Namine out of the pillars and grimaced when a razor wind grazes her left arm. She briefly shook her head in an attempt to shake out the pain, despair and the hatred threatening to take over her. Using it as her resolve, the dark keybearer finally thought of something she could do to help take down this Horseman and dashed forward despite the possibility of an immediate counter to Felix's attack. When the winged warrior was close enough, she quickly spread her wings and flew around him to get behind him.

'Artemis' was repeating what had happened at End of the World with the exception her previous mistake that nearly cost the warrior her own life in order to save another. Aiming for his lower back, the dark keybearer was going to attempt to stab Stroud in the back. If 'Artemis' should succeed with her attack, one, the Heartless Horseman would have a really hard time getting that thing off his back due to his four wings; and two, the poison her keyblade was laced with should even out the odds.

With no intention of getting it back, she flew around again and landed in a crouch near Namine. Breathing heavily, Selena was desperately trying to hold together the cage that her power that is threatening to permanently destroy the cage and consume her because of the anger and despair inflicted upon her heart. Staring up at Stroud with golden serpentine eyes, she found herself smirking. "How's that for a 'cheap trick'?"mocked 'Artemis' as she wasn't going to let him get the better of her, especially when she intends to stay sane and remember this battle for something to tell her younger sister as a story hopefully sometime in this future.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Keyblade Ability: Poison]
What is special about this keyblade is that it turns the Heart's Blood into a poison that attacks the Heart. It's most effective on Heartless, ironically, but it has no effect on Nobodies. Selena is usually never uses this keyblade to attack people though Black Angel might. The poison will only deplete health until it’s low. No worries.
[Cool Down: None.] [Duration: 3 Posts or until healed with a curative spell.]

[Terra]

This was it, the final battle.

Stroud had effectively turned on even the warriors that had helped him fend off the light invasion for the second time. Now, all of the worlds’ citizens were teaming together, light and dark, to take on the ultimate being of the Heartless. Terra would have never suspected that he’d look around and Kadaj would be amongst his allies. Twice now he’d been pitted against the leather clad villain. The first time was more of a draw to Terra, even though Kadaj would have won had the battle continued, and the latter Terra forfeited without actually starting the conflict.

There were two other allies of darkness here, one who looked like Kadaj and another whom Terra had never seen before. It was a little off setting to share the battlefield with these warriors and try not to defeat them, but Terra would do whatever he had to, to see Stroud face his final moments.

Once again, Terra raised his keyblade, the same key that’d crossed blades with the emperor of Heartless twice before, and began to finalize his plans for ending the Heartless’s existence.

”The darkness will exist beyond this battle, I am certain of that, but you will not. Stroud, your final moment of existence is at hand. Light and Dark, you have turned everyone against you. Allies that are usually enemies will fight together and succeed. Allies that are usually allies will fight together and succeed. And people who have never met before will fight together and succeed. It doesn’t matter what you do, we’ll all fight together and succeed.”

[/b]

Before Terra had a chance to send the battle into a third round, Stroud started the conflict as a fiery symbol appeared around and a wall of fire around him short after. The heat was intense and immediately beads of sweat began to roll down the side of the keyblader’s face. The wall then began to spit blades of wind covered in fire towards him. One by one, the blades soared towards Terra. He was able to dodge the first two with a single jump as he used his keyblade to block a third. Unfortunately, the fourth and fifth found their mark on Terra’s right shoulder and lower back, bursting into a small blast.

As the attack ended, Terra saw the redheaded Felix and the winged ‘Artemis’ make their moves, and Terra figured it would be best to continue the attack head on. Others like the blond haired girl and Aqua were best suited for cover fire anyway, due to their high magic power. With a freshly torn shirt and two brick red burn legions, the bronze keybearer rushed in head first, covering himself in a veil of fire. He struck first with a diving stab before he unleashed two wild swings. He finished his Firestorm[/b] Command Style by jumping backwards and unleashing a massive burst of flame towards the face of Grim Stroud.

”This is it for you, Stroud.”[/b]

Cooldowns[/u]

Firestorm[/b] – 2 posts[/blockquote]

[stroud]

I watch you swim with all your lies, they pulled you under,

and as you wait for my demise, I'm just getting stronger

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,460,true][atrb=style, background: url(http://i53.tinypic.com/a2vuas.png); padding: 5px; text-align: justify; color: #202020;] The shade of the Princess of Heart threw a Creeper Nodody in the shape of a spear at him, and the Heartless had to laugh. ""So, you want to see my true power? You fool! I am the rightful ruler of the Heartless, the evolution of mankind's truest desires, so nothing you or anyone else does will make a difference!" The spear bounced off his armored hide, and cold cruel laughter continued to echo from his gargantuan form. The world shook as slowly, slowly, the other words converged like water down a drain towards their location. Soon, the worlds would be complete with the great heart once more. Then the red-headed human's attack came, followed by the attack of the winged Keyblader. As the multiplied assault came from the front, Stroud seemed to freeze and take the attack. Or, did he? The image faded away, and Stroud reappeared instantaneously behind Felix. He had been struck with the sting of Selena's Heartsickness keyblade, but had used Damage Control to negate Felix's attack. Quickly he slammed his blade into Felix in the counter-attack, sending him flying towards Selena. "So you are going to try adding your attacks into one area of me, are you? Too bad I already know your every move, two steps ahead of you." Good thing he had imprinted Maurelle's powers of mind-reading in the form of Dark Clairvoyance to foresee the attack coming. Felix's attempt had been a good distraction as Terra's Firestorm burned into him, caused a good amount of damage. In retaliation, he conjured with his hand as suddenly pools of dark voids opened up across the area with his Dark Void spell. Thanks to MP Haste, the spell quickly multiplied and covered almost the entire surface of the ground of the inside of Kingdom Hearts. "Drown in the cesspool... of darkness!" he declared callously, as tendrils of darkness snared up to grab each and every hero to pull them in. FINAL BOSS THEME: Escape from UB - For theThird Birthday --- (OOC: Summary: Took the Creeper Nobody distraction, negated Felix's Mass Manipulation with Damage Control, took Selena's Heartsickness Keyblade attack, took Terra's Firestorm attack.) Damage Control: One post. MP Haste: Once Stroud has used spells which equal to a total of having six cooldowns or more, he can activate this ability to regenerate his magic back to full and effectively double-cast the next spell he casts. (No cooldown in Grim Stroud form.) Dark Void: Three posts.

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words Mwabwahahaha~ tags Terra, Aqua, Selena, Namine, Yazoo, Kadaj, Felix notes Selena, the worlds aren't 'spinning', but they are if you want them to be. |D credits rinne

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[Yazoo]

The man he attacked, had similarly vanished like all the others. Darkness seemed to have quite a play in this battle, not for either side they took warriors away. Apparently Stroud’s powers were causing much disturbance in the balance to cause the Corridors to take away many of them. Fool, what is he doing? Yazoo questioned the Horseman’s actions in thought, but watched the guy in question calm.

Then as if Stroud had heard him, the entire place was flooded in Darkness and the area seemed to change, or maybe they were taken away. The Remnant wondered what was happening now, was Stroud simply kicking everyone out, so he can continue his merge with Kingdom Hearts. He had seen some files on this, but he wasn’t certain what was going to happen next as they suddenly stood in an all different area.

Looking around himself, Yazoo saw his brother as well as the other presences from the other group that had been fighting. All the other Horsemen were now gone. Felix and Yukimura were still there as well as the Light’s side Warriors. Now what? All the more he saw, the more confusing it seemed as he looked up at Stroud, who seemed to have proclaimed himself as the leader of the Heartless Horsemen. He remembered when he first met the man, Stroud was simply taking the place of Kuja, a Horseman that had vanished.

Yazoo had seen the man and heard his ambitions, seen his interests were somewhat differently from some other Horsemen. Well, from appearances at least, perhaps it was being more open to his way of thinking, but it didn’t make the Remnant like the Heartless. The man was talking all kinds of nonsense that he didn’t care about, so instead he figured he should continue an attack on the Light’s side while they were still confused about where they were.

The sudden symbols below him and the others did stop Yazoo from moving and stare for a moment. Yazoo then felt himself engulfed by fire, but not only that, he felt an anger. It felt strange, but familiar. He was not one to take on many emotions, but more of a calm person. The pain of the fire and the feeling of anger stopped the Remnant from moving at all for a moment when the Wind of Despair came at him. This time, he quickly moved from the flames and dodged the wind agilely.

The feeling of anger remained, a certain anger filled him up, memories of certain events kept filling his minds until he felt that this was not the place for him to be. What the others did around him, went entirely unnoticed by Yazoo as he simply followed the hate, the anger that had filled him up. When Stroud started to attack again, it was already too late to attack the Remnant again. Two people that had changed much of his past in his memories made Yazoo shroud himself in Darkness.

The Remnant moved to follow Maurelle, remembering her presence from the last fight at the Door. Yazoo left this battle, not feeling it to be his to fight and left the others to their own devices.

Yazoo left the thread.
This was done per request of Larxene / Maurelle.

[aqua]

Aqua hissed as Felix had managed to attack and attempt to strange her from behind. She was not ready to lose, not when they were so close to winning... She kicked backwards but before her foot could collide with her attacker, the blue haired keybearer was blinded like the others by a flash of white light.

Had the battle... ended?

Her question was answered when the battle field came into focus once more: No. The battle had only just begun.

As the darkness swallowed up the light, it became clearer and clearer that they were inside Kingdom Hearts, and that if they didn't defeat Stroud now, there would be no other chance. It was around this time that Aqua noted she no longer was on the verge of getting strangled by Felix. She could only look for a split second at what the others were doing before Stroud launched his first wave of attacks. The keybearer dove into a cartwheel, dodging the fire and wind quickly.

Landing right side up on her feet once more, Aqua readied herself as the chaos unfolded around her. Rushing to Stroud would only cause her problems- she was better suited for ranged combat and it seemed as though he was predicting the moves of those who managed to get close... She winced as Stroud disappeared only to reappear and whack the red-headed man into Artemis. Although she gripped her keyblade tightly, her grim expression turned into a slight smile.

Time for Stroud to get a taste of his own medicine.

While she would've liked to have had a short speech or a battle cry, she remained quiet, depending on the pandemonium of the battle around him to be a distraction. Aqua closed her eyes to concentrate and glowed green, activating Ghost Drive. With a swish of her keyblade she disappeared into thin air, leaving an after-image behind her, only to reappear in the air a few feet ahead. She landed gracefully on the ground, not wanting to rely on air combos for travel because too many after-images would only draw attention to herself. Running forward, however, was no longer an option as Stroud began his Dark Void attack, and the cold, snake-like tendrils veered towards her, trying to drag her down into the dark depths.

Would she return to that dark realm if it meant saving the worlds or her friends?

The answer was, of course, yes.

Getting dragged into the abyss would do no good now, but as the chill of darkness approached her, Aqua had fleeting glimpses of memories she would rather not see, millions of yellow eyes watching her from the dark, a red, purple and black sky, and worst of all, the large Heartless with the red eyes... She shook off the horrid thoughts. Knowing that staying in the air was the only way to stop this from reoccuring, she launched herself into the air once more, and made a beeline towards Stroud.

Aqua twisted her body and swung her keyblade for a final air combo attacking Stroud diagonally. "Only one of us will come to an end today..." She said, her eyes fierce with determination as she swung Stormfall in an arc, "...And that's you!"

The swing of her keyblade appeared as though it would be an attack, but in all actuality Aqua was propelling herself in the air, and she disappeared once more, leaving an after-image behind. Appearing in the air on the other side of him, slightly higher than she was before, Aqua used all the momentum she had built up for a combo of slashes at the lone Horseman.

Cooldowns:

Ghost Drive - 1 turn left

[Kadaj]

This was perfect! The battlefield was completely deserted and no one was going to witness what happened next. The death of 'Maurelle' who was actually the Time Witch Naminé in disguise and Black Angel, also known as 'Artemis'. There was once a time that Kadaj thought he needed her help in acquiring the X-Blade, but after discovering her alter-ego as Black Angel, a figure whom appeared on occasion to disrupt the Remnant's plans in the past, all Kadaj wished for, was to render her asunder and stand above her, smirking, watching as the last ebb of life left her body and knowing her eternity in the afterlife would revolve around him. But, it was not to be. Though the Leader of the Remnant's had charged up a Draw Slash to slice the pair of women in two, there was suddenly a massive, bright light that lit up the entire area. It was blindingly bright, enough so to force the Remnant's eyes closed and make him bring his free hand up to his eyes to shield them as best he could.

A moment passed and the light faded away. Opening his eyes, the silver-haired youth glanced around his surroundings. This was a completely different place... but it kept changing. Several worlds that the young man recognized seemed to 'fly' past, the area changing constantly. The floor was also transparent, giving the opportunity to look down to see what was happening to the images of the 'worlds' as they passed by. That was no concern though, for a second later, a powerful aura smacked his senses and forces the Remnant Leader to look up. Actually there was more then one, but the biggest seemed to be coming from that strange, large monster a short distance away. Pausing, the Remnant recalled feeling this power once before, back in The World That Never Was, the time when he had to fight the Phantom and considered a temporary alliance with Cloud to hunt down someone called 'Stroud'. Was this Stroud? This... creature with tendrils and a massive sword? Kadaj tilted his head as a smirk started to tug at his lips.

"So this is it, eh?"
Kadaj said to himself aloud, flicking his left wrist a couple times as he span the Souba within his grasp. Clenching his leather gloved fingers about the handle, the Remnant stabbed the blade into the floor and rested his hand upon it, casting his eyes off about the others whom also joined him. Naminé was here, so she obviously avoided the Draw Slash sent her way. 'Artemis' was also here too, so that last attack was obviously a waste of energy. There were more he recognized though. Terra, the Keyblader who fell to his strength in Hollow Bastion was here. The sight of him caused the Remnant to tighten his brow, narrowing his eyes. That massive cannon attack of his very nearly killed the Remnant back on that day... but Kadaj knew that their paths would cross again. Kadaj was going to have to fight that man if he was going to achieve his goals, but not here, not now. Peering around once more, the silver-haired youth saw more he had met in the past.

First was Felix, the red-haired Reno-wannabe who had a clever ability to manipulate his own mass and gravity... or something, giving the boy incredible speed and strength for his scrawny, almost pathetic appearance. The Remnant tilted his head and pondered. Why was he here anyway? Was someone paying him or something? He shrugged his shoulders and looked towards the third Keybarer he recognized. Aqua. Well, three Keybarers were joining this fight? There were more in the previous battle he was in, but they all fled the field of battle before anything interesting happened. Was the same going to happen here too? Finally, the most recognizable person had Kadaj's attention, but before he could say or do anything, the figure was gone.
"Yazoo!!"
Something seemed strange about his brother... something the Remnant Leader had not seen expressed upon his brothers face for the longest of times. But that's when Stroud's attack hit him.

Strange symbols appeared on the floor beneath the Remnant's feet, as a 'trap' of fire erupted about him. Then the deadliest, most dangerous angry the Remnant had ever felt started to consume him. Gripping the handle of his Souba, the silver-haired youth tugged the blade from the ground and returned the katana to it's sheath, burning the elbow of his left arm on the flames as he did so, but the pain went unnoticed due to the extreme angry flowing through his body, causing a few of his veins to raise to his skin as if he were tensing up every muscle in his body. There was only one person within his mind now and it was someone he most definitely wanted to destroy. Walking forth, Kadaj passed through the flames as if possessed and opened up a Dark Portal before himself. Glancing off to peer in 'Artemis's' direction, the Remnant gave her the deadliest stare he'd ever shown, before speaking up.
"You can handle it from here, right?"
Then he stepped forth through the Dark Portal, the gate leading to another world closing behind him instantly.

Kadaj has left the Thead.
At the request of Larxene/Maurelle.

[Yukimura]

The fabric of space around Yukimura and all the others, who had made their way to the final battlefield. They seemed to have approached the very center of worlds, where the Light and Darkness rested. The Heartless leader, Stroud, had undertaken a form that, to Yukimura, was unfitting for an entity of Darkness. Black and white splashed elegantly on to heavy armor. The silver hair of the Heartless, along with the its facial paintings, made it seem like some tribal person. The only 'dark' aspect to Yukimura were the Heartless's bright amber eyes. The creature seemed to be born out of something from the Light, rather than the darkness... and it spoke as if it was the embodiment of darkness. It made Yukimura cringe in disappointment!

It sent waves of raging fires, fueled by winds at anything that was in front of it, after giving a speech about how the worlds would all fall to the darkness provided by the Heartless. Yukimura was reaching his limit with the disgrace that he felt the Heartless was giving the darkness. The heroes of Light went and began to engage the fully charged Heartless, seemingly avoiding the fires and winds that were being sent out. Yukimura quickly charged his energy into his feet and sprinted at incredible speeds towards the right side of the Heartless. He used all the steps he could and stood in an area that seemed to have been safe from combat.

The warrior of Light with the darkness in his heart had conjured up a massive flame, while the other fighters had made their way to using different attacks. A woman of nothing conjured up a few Nobodies, that became her weapons. Felix, the man who could change his weight for situations, had done what he did best and went in, to stab Stroud in what seemed to have been a million times in a few seconds.

An angelic being, whom caught Yukimura's attention, had summoned a weapon to her hand and flew quickly and stabbed at the massive Seraph-like Heartless... However, something was amiss. Despite its massive size, the Heartless had somehow managed to vanish and leave behind an image of itself! Yukimura cursed!

"You idiots! Move now or else you're going to be swallowed in this disgraceful entity's abilities," Yukimura shouted, as he began to sprint from his location to move the blonde haired girl out of the way of the cesspool developing near her. He couldn't move fast, though, so even if he got close to her, they'd have issues getting out. However, Yukimura had a plan for that. A corridor of darkness had opened next to the girl.

Yukimura slipped his sword on his back and brought both hands out and made an attempt to grab and move the Nobody girl out of the way. He roared out, as he came with in grappling range, "Come with me!"

[Thunder Burst Used. Most wait 1 post.
Corridor of Darkness Opened for a small bit. Not being used to exit the thread.]

[stroud]

(EDIT: Post has been re-modified and updated.)

let you drown in your despair,

now nothing can saveyou, I will fight until the end

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,460,true][atrb=style, background: url(http://i53.tinypic.com/a2vuas.png); padding: 5px; text-align: justify; color: #202020;] (OOC: The first round is over and will be going at least one more round, but if you don't wish to continue another round and wish to finish this, please PM me.) Two dark presences had left the battlefield, and the Seraphim Heartless smirked coldly to himself. The cowardly Remnants going to kill Maurelle and Valerius would save him the trouble and the minions he'd have to use to dispatch them himself. Then all he'd have to do was step in at the last minute and asborb their powers, and crush Jenova's pathetic excuses for children for himself. Although, that would have to be after he defeated these annoying Warriors of Light and add their hearts - or souls, in the case of Namine - to Kingdom Hearts. Only one Horseman was going to rule the new world of the Heartless, and that was going to be himself, and knowing of Maurelle's thoughts of betrayal they would either join under his rule or die. A forest of dark tendrils snapped up after a moving warrior advancing towards him, and he almost had gotten lost in thoughts at the boring attempts these warriors of Light were bringing. He spun around to face the blue-haired woman known as Aqua and moved his massive broadsword to block the upward arc, only for the girl to pull the same trick on him with an after-image of her own. She had warped behind him and delivered several stinging blows with her keyblade, and while they were not as devastating as he would truthfully admit to himself that Terra's keyblade wrought or as burning as the winged Keybarer, the power of the Keyblade against his Heartless self still corroded his flesh like acid. He felt his health sap away, and amused the insects had finally provided a challenge, felt Aqua had earned a challenge in the form of negating her death. While she was still in the air after finishing her combo, he twisted around with the Piercer and slammed the gargantuan sword into her, attempting Obliterate to slam her into the floor of Kingdom Hearts and break her bones for massive wall rush damage. The tentacles from the previous Dark Void attack ensnared around Naminé, but Yukimura had saved her in time from being sucked into the Abyss. Unfortunately for everyone else besides Aqua, they may not have been so lucky with the pools of darkness covering the entire floor. Those pools were now fading, but they had at least provided enough of a distraction for them to watch as one of their comrades was about to die. "You'll only prolong the pain... by resisting." he told them all, as dark energy pooled around his hands at a horrific rate. The same dark energy made a massive ring on the ground, and suddenly the floor shook with tremors as giant rocks were torn out from the very earth of Kingdom Hearts beneath their feet. "Why do you bother fighting against the inevidable when your worlds are already lost? Now you can watch the first of you to lose their hearts to Kingdom Hearts. Have a taste of my darkness!" The chucks of transparent rock that were the size of buildings moved immediately as if hit by a frieght train and travelling at the same speed, and if the first attack had somehow been negated by Aqua the largest of the boulders had come flying in her direction to ensure she should get slammed against a soild surface as Telekinesis threw the rest of the asteroids in the directions of the remaining fighters. The worlds shook as they grew ever closer to Kingdom Hearts, descending on the great heart. Soon, the Heartless would have their homeworld. FINAL BOSS THEME: Escape from UB - For theThird Birthday --- Obliterate: Stroud slams his sword down on a single opponent, a powerful blow which will send them flying into the nearest surface such as a wall/floor/ceiling and potentially stunning/cornering them from the recoil as well as extra damage. Two-turn cooldown. Telekinesis: Stroud throws his sword forward like a spear, enabling him to hit flying/floating targets that are far away from him. He can also move objects other than his sword this way, but the more powerful the exertion the larger and heavier and object is, the more it drains his magic power. One-turn cooldown, four-turn cooldown moving an object heavier or larger in length than his sword. Damage Control: One-post cooldown. MP Rage: A passive ability with no cooldown, every time Stroud is successfully damaged, all spell cooldowns are reduced by one turn/post. (For Dark Void.) Dark Void: One post. (Down from two posts due to MP Rage.)

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words Mwabwahahaha~ tags Terra, Aqua, Selena, Namine, Yazoo, Kadaj, Felix notes Selena, the worlds aren't 'spinning', but they are if you want them to be. |D credits rinne

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[Deleted]

Namine has been removed from the Raid for not posting within four days.

Felix is next to post in thread. He has four days.

[Felix]

As the freelancer had put all his might into his blow, he noticed it effortlessly pass through the image of the monster he was facing, a scowl curving against his lips as he did so for he had already begun running back. While he had experienced this type of technique before, it made little difference in what he could do against it since he was sure that the creature he fought was already behind him. Noting that, he did the only thing he could do in this situation, gritting his teeth as he took the blow to the back. It stung immensely, the burns received earlier only making matters worse as he was easily flung across the battlefield in the direction of the rather peculiar female keybearer. He wasn’t sure if he had crashed into her or not, the counter having thrown him across the battlefield at a speed much too fast for him to try and keep up. Whether he did or not, the collision would hurt all the same and rack his body with immense pain. Fortunately enough, humans had a convenient biological mechanism for situations of extreme stress and pain called adrenaline and this certainly qualified for its use. With that noted, the freelancer ignored the pain as best he could, pushing himself up as he lifted his head, noticing that Stroud began taunting once more, tapping his head as he did so. Perhaps the monster had hoped this would get under the freelancer’s skin, but unfortunately for him, said freelancer was made of much sterner stuff. He picked himself up completely, spitting some blood to the ground as he cracked his neck and stretched himself out a bit,

“So you read minds now too huh? At least that’s what I assume you were alluding to but it doesn’t matter much to me. No, what does matter is the fact that you dodged my attack instead of simply blocking or taking it head on. Considering how powerful you are, I’m shocked that you’re scared of a weak, insignificant human’s attack that you’d go to such lengths to dodge it. Hell I don’t even have a keyblade like half of these other shmucks and you’re afraid of me?! I’m flattered really,” the freelancer spat back, a smirk curved against his lips the entire time. The red-head took a deep breath afterwards; his eyes focused as he got ready to attack once more despite the staggering odd. Yet once again, his foe preempted him by attacking with another strange ability that made pools of darkness spread across the ground beneath all still present.

‘This sure as hell isn’t good,’ the freelancer thought, having no hesitation as he jumped high into the air with his reduced mass. As he reached the height of his jump, he decided to relax a bit until he got back down, using this eagle’s eye view to watch everything that was going on. It was quite a spectacle really, everyone was doing their own thing as he had imagined would happen, his head shaking as his palm reached for his forehead,

“Honestly these keybearers are such morons. All they do is rely on the power they received by mere chance and put no thought into actually forming any plan of attack. He even admitted that my idea was good but of course they ignore it cause they’re probably too busy thinking up some lame arse speech about friendship to give after one successful attack. I really wish this guy had just stuck with “Darkness” so I could have beat down every one of them,” he spieled in mid-air, his descent now beginning. It was during that time in the air that the pools of darkness had begun to fade away, and landing on the ground was becoming a readily viable option. Yet again though, Stroud sent another attack to preempt such thoughts, easily spotted from the red-heads advantageous position in the air.

“You know I really wish I had that super-human strength that those monster have right now… although,” the freelancer began, lamenting his inability to simply cut the giant rock that was headed his way. Indeed, it would have been much easier to do that as opposed to what he planned to do. As the rock approached him, the freelancer would use his blade to stab into it with his arms extended to reach it before it collided. Upon doing so, his hands would be in a position to use it as an impromptu pole-vault, flinging his extremely light body upward and over the rock. As he swung over it, he would increase his mass twenty times, using the force of gravity to pull him back down to earth while using that same force to lift the rock over his head and fling it toward Stroud. Needless to say, the speed that it was sent back far exceeded its original speed and would probably be impossible to throw back.

“I wouldn’t be doing crafty stuff like that if I had that kind of stupid strength to rely on,” the freelancer finished his previous statement, a grin curved against his lips. His attack was quite creative, and something he was rather certain Stroud would take this time around even if he could read minds. Assuming he could read the thoughts of all the warriors present at once, surely that many conflicting thoughts had to be hard to manage and being able to deal with each individual attack would be even more tiresome. Furthermore, the freelancer had been behind Stroud when this attack was launched which would also be in the freelancer’s favor. Regardless, after landing upon the ground, Felix would then release his Mass Manipulator, now covering his body with the rock beneath him as he activated his Earth Manipulator. He proceeded to take a quick gander at himself, this being the first time he had gotten to use the ability in actual combat as opposed to training.

“Just a shame it covers up my good looks,” he complained before sprinting toward Stroud not entirely sure if his attack had succeeded as well as he had hoped. Regardless of its success, Felix would make a mad dash toward Stroud, his sword having been sheathed and his fists ready to do the talking. If he made it to the monster fine without any other interruption, he would proceed to attack his mid-section as planned, unleashing a four hit combo consisting of a right cross, a left hook, a right elbow, and finishing with a spinning left back kick. It was a risky combo to go with but with the armor of earth around him Felix wasn’t afraid to trade blows with Stroud if he turned around to deal with him.

OOC:

Mass Manipulator – Over/4 switches used/2 post cooldown begins

Earth Manipulator – 2 Post duration begins

[Deleted]

As her attack hit home, the dark keybearer was shocked that her attack had even made contact with the Horseman at all and quickly lets go to prevent what had happened. She landed gracefully into a crouch and stood up only to be collided into by the red-haired mercenary. The landing itself wasn't pretty as she painfully landed underneath Felix. Fortunately, he picked himself up before the winged keybearer could react which would have been a swift knee in the spine. 'Artemis' quickly stood back up and glanced over her shoulder in time to see Kadaj leave.

The winged woman was smirking either in response to the Remnant's inquiry or from the fact she had succeeded in poisoning the Horseman. He's definitely going to feel it soon... The adrenaline in her system gave her enough energy to react to the Dark Void by jumping into the air and spreading her wings out to take flight. 'Artemis' quickly summoned the Heartsickness keyblade to her hand and glanced down at the ground to note that Namine and the other Remnant brother were gone. The possible loss of these strong warriors (Though Selena strongly suspected that Namine was a mage.) sent an icy-cold shiver down her spine but shook her head as Death wasn't a subject foreign to her.

"Just have to make do without them and if I shall live, mourn later..."mutters Selena under her breath, with the images of her mother's murder flashing through her mind for mere moments. She turned her gaze at Stroud in time to witness Aqua possibly getting hit by Stroud's blade. Shocked into temporary silence, 'Artemis' listened Felix's remarks about keybearers so she turned her attention to the poor mercenary, "OI! NOT EVERY KEYBEARER IS LIKE THAT!" Her eyes flashed dangerously gold as the dark keybearer glared at Felix.

Fortunately, Felix didn't provide enough of a distraction to not pay attention to the asteroid heading her way. She quickly flew higher than the giant rock but not fast enough as it hit the shins of both legs that resulted in a "mid-air face-plant". Grimacing from the pain, 'Artemis' quickly recovered then sent a blood-red Wolf's Fang towards the Horseman. "Ugh..."grimaces Selena and she glances towards Aqua, thoughtful expression. I may not be able to hit him again like I did just then... realized the winged woman as a plan slowly formed inside her mind.

The next thing 'Artemis' did which should shock everyone threw her keyblade to the ground near Aqua as if she was going to call it quits. "I give up. There's just no way we can beat him..."started Selena, with fear painted on her face and shook her head only to stare at Aqua with the same expression but her golden eyes slowly switched to the "normal" cold silver ones. Those who has met this dark keybearer should know her well enough to be aware of two things. One, Selena's a pretty little liar that's too stubborn to give up and two, the dark keybearer would never show fear to her opponent. 'Artemis' silently hoped that Aqua would take advantage of the distraction (And her strange form of 'encouragement' with a 'prove me wrong' message.) she hopefully just provided and use her Heartsickness keyblade.

~~~~~
Wolf's Fang: a silver/blood-red wolf out of Heart's Blood comes out of her keyblade and attacks the opponent.
[Cool Down: 3 Posts] [Duration: 2 Posts]