A Shattered Destiny?

[Ryan - Loki]

“It’s almost time…” “There is no escaping your destiny…Ryan, last of the Samurai!”

The words haunted his mind, those pale, almost lifeless looking lips that had spoke them. What had it all meant? Had it merely been JUST a dream or had it been much more than that as it had felt? It wouldn’t have been the first time that his dreams had shown him a brief segment of what the future held, after all he had dreamt of the destruction of his people a whole year before it came to pass, perhaps this was the same? If this were the case then this time he would not sit back and ignore this precognition of the future, he would do something about it to stop it from ever coming to pass. He would shatter his destiny.

The same thoughts constantly flooded Ryan’s mind as he made his way through a merciless blizzard across the artic tundra that was once the inhabited “The Stone Stronghold” known as Bedoe. A lone drifter, covered in midnight blue, with a cloak matching in colour flapping about violently behind him. The blizzard was truly unnatural, so much so that it caused Ryan to wonder if the country of Eliseia had ever seen such a blizzard when Dragonia was in it’s original state.

It almost seemed as if the blizzard was under the control of something, or someone, but Ryan hadn’t seen a single person other than the unnamed stranger who had laid unconscious nearby him when he awoke to the destroyed planet. It pained Ryan to leave him unconscious on his own when there was no telling what dangers resided upon the planets surface now, but he had made up his mind shortly after awaking to travel back to his homeland to look upon its fate with his own eyes. As the last of his kind it was his duty.

So onward he strode across the frozen surface of Bedoe, each footstep forcing him to drag his body from the stomach down through the depths of the snow, his final destination the Valley of the Samurai, his next destination barely visible on the horizon through the snow and hail, the capital city of Tristian.

[kihaku]

Not far from the warrior, only a few hundred feet to his right, through the wind and driving snow the sounds of something strange were barely audible. The snow, a blinding white cover over the frozen earth was disturbed as a sudden flash of indigo light ignited over its surface. Water melted and hissed before evaporating under the heat of the purple flame that danced in a circle over the fresh snow.

Within the circle, sudden shafts of flame gouted from within, creating the shape of a six-pointed star, along with a roar that could almost match the sounds of shrieking wind. After two seconds, there was a loud concussive burst that rattled the powder and halted the driving snow for a microsecond before all was calm again.

Where a circle of fire once danced, now stood a form, not very big, shivering in the cold. His small frame shook, exposed pale skin around his cheeks was already turning red from chill, and his hands slid under his arms to protect them from frostbite. On his back, the large metal ring was pushed violently this way and that, almost knocking him off balance. His dark-blue hair was ruffled in the gale, and his bright sapphire blue eyes darted in every direction, seeking protection from the cold.

"Oh no... gotta signal for help!" Instantly, he brought up his aura, blazing blue fire frolicked about his frame, though it brought no warmth. His power level skyrocketed, a signal to anyone in the area who could possibly help... or hinder.

[Ryan - Loki]

All of a sudden a strange sound was carried upon the wind, seemingly surrounding Ryan completely as the wind whirled around him, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. Reaching up towards his face with his hand, the hand attached to his good arm, Ryan pulled his cloak down from over his nose and mouth as he looked up into the air briefly, almost as if he was trying to track where the noise had come from, and then gone. Slowly he turned his vision towards the ground, more specifically into the distance in a circle around him, but alas he couldn’t see more than a good few feet away from his position thanks to the intensity of the blizzard.

The noise had most certainly been the sound of someone’s voice erupting from the very depths of their insides. Whether it was a shout to signify that they were in pain, or perhaps even in trouble, Ryan did not know, but he had to find out. Either someone was hurt, possibly badly, in the middle of this blizzard and was in dire need of assistance, or they were in trouble, and the assistance was just as dire. But how was he to find them when his natural senses, even those his were somewhat stronger than the average Dragonians, were useless in this harsh environment?

“Blast…” he could hardly even hear his own voice, this only emphasised the urgency of whomever had caused that shout. “The plant is in so much pain I cannot even decipher the difference between it’s cries and singular beings….this is an almost impossible task.” For minutes Ryan turned on the spot while looking for the owner of the voice, but to no avail. However, at that precise moment it seemed that the Elder Gods, luck, or even fate if you prefer it, shined down upon him.

Suddenly, through all the energy Ryan could feel radiating from the planet, there was an abnormal spike only a few hundred feet west, and instantly Ryan’s head spun round to look in that general direction, despite knowing he wouldn’t be able to see anything. It had to be caused by the same person who had shouted out earlier. “I pray I am not too late.” and with that Ryan lifted slightly off of the ground, as flying in this blizzard didn’t seem like a safe idea, and shot through the snow towards the energy signal.

He had been, up until this moment, travelling normally across Dragonia, the reason why it had taken him so long to reach his current destination in comparison to how long it could have taken him using his powers. The truth was he hadn’t discovered anything to explain what had happened to the planet in the time he had remained unconscious, or in fact how long he had been unconscious, he could only assume it hadn’t been too long as he hadn’t seemed to age, so until he was sure there wasn’t any immediate threat he didn’t wish to draw too much attention to himself, but as a life could possibly be at steak for now he’d do everything in his power to get to whomever was in trouble as soon as Dragonianly possible.

Quickly he closed in on the position of the energy. Almost out of nowhere, thanks to the lack of visibility due to the blizzard, the surrounding area turned a hue of blue, this could signify nothing other than he had abruptly reached his destination. Slamming his feet back down upon the ground Ryan slide through the deep snow to a complete stop, however he showered whomever had been sustaining the blue aura in a blanket of snow as he did so.

It wasn’t until that exact moment, as his eyes briefly caught a glimpse of the person in front of him before they vanished beneath a layer of snow, he realised that not only did the energy that surrounded him feel familiar, but the person he had just laid eyes upon was none other than Kihaku, the Chaos Spirit; the naked Chaos Spirit it seemed.

Quite shocked by this sudden turn of events, yet quite pleased he had found not only someone else who lived but someone he trusted as a comrade in battle, Ryan reached over his shoulder and pulled free his thick, and long cloak, before throwing it around Kihaku to shelter him from the harshness this blizzard. “Kihaku?! It is you is it not?! Or do My eyes deceive me?!” Ryan had to shout as he spoke, the wind and snow had seemingly increased in quantity and speed over the last few minutes, even raising his voice in such a way he could still hardly hear himself speak.

[Garoten Reklor]

Hidden within the blizzard a mere twenty feet from the two characters stumbling about in the wind, still unable to find one another, a pair of twin blue lamps flashed to life, each appearing nearly seventy feet above the ground. Below the lights, which were in reality eyes, an enormous mouth twisted into an animal sneer. It was time...

Slowly, the wind and snow began to die down, until the air was, just for a moment, crystal clear, revaling three figures clearly outlined against the snow - two men, and towering over them so much that at first glance, it might be mistaken for another of Bedoe's famous peaks, one giant creature with the appearance of a wolf - the ancient Ice Elemental who had come to be known as Membertou. The beast snarled and lowered his massive head to look closer at the pathetic little men that had invaded his territory. They certainly weren't much to look at, but he well knew appearances could be deceiving. After a long moment, the air exploded back into a blizzard, and the creature disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. Intimidation and uncertainty were only the first two weapons in the monster's arsenal -and by far the mildest. Like any good hunter, Membertou enjoyed playing with his prey. His next move would be one of the most brutal he could muster:

False hope.

Surely the two men had felt despair at the sight of him a moment ago. Now he spawned a copy of himself, only half his size, and unleashed it on the two warriors. As the creature attacked, the two would perhaps feel a tinge of hope at the fact that their opponent wasn't nearly so big as he had first appeared. Once they felt that sense of the slightest hope, he would crush it. Then the real fight would begin.

The copy flashed across the snow and ice and flew upon its first victim, the samurai, with a flurry of teeth and claws.

[kihaku]

“Kihaku?! It is you is it not?! Or do My eyes deceive me?!”

"What? No, it's me, Reiaz!" His words were muffled by the gusting wind and the cloth suddenly being wrapped around him. He didn't know why the warrior did this, Reiaz was perfectly fine with his own clohtes and the cold now that someone was around. The only thing that disturbed him was that he was forced into being here on Dragonia, when he knew for a fact he was supposed to be in the OtherRealm with Elena.

When the wind suddenly died, he looked about wildly, slightly disoriented that the howling noise and driving cold were so unexpectedly stopped. When his eyes glimpsed the little of the beast he could take in, his heart quickened and his power level dropped as quickly as he had raised it. Perhaps his signal had been a double-edged sword, drawing in the samurai, but also this monster hidden in the blowing ice.

"GAH! Ryan, look out!" He barely had any time to say this as the creature came diving out of the white gloom, and even less to summon his three Inner Demons. The gargantuan forms towered over many men, but barely matched this creature that now came in for the attack. With sharp teeth, razor-like claws, and bulging muscles of Chaos Energy, they leaped at the beast with no regard for themselves.

"We gotta go, now!"

[Ryan - Loki]

For a brief moment Ryan fell surprised at the mistake he had made, and upon being corrected it seemed as if his senses came to the sudden, and same, conclusion too. In truth he hadn’t quite adjusted himself and his sense to clearly recognise the specific energy readings that these Chaos Spirits gave off, but at any rate he was glad that it had been Reiaz he had bumped into and not Kihaku, as although he had only know Reiaz an extremely short period of time that still worked out longer than he had known Kihaku, which was still hardly at all.

It was in this extremely brief moment, when Ryan was corrected, that suddenly everything became clear - not just his thoughts but also the surrounding environment of Bedoe. At that instant it even crossed Ryan’s mind if he had caused the blizzard to stop by calming and correcting his thoughts, but as the sun and the extremely surprising blue sky above almost blinded him as it shone in place of the blizzard that had held this land in an elemental headlock just moments before, but the sun never shone down upon Reiaz and Ryan as it had been blocked out as a gargantuan silhouette seemingly appeared out of nowhere as the blizzard vanished.

Slowly Ryan turned his head to look backwards over his shoulder at whatever was causing the shadow, however everything inside him knew that no good could come from the situation that the two young warriors had now found themselves within. As his head turned his eyes were met with that of two legs, seemingly covered in an silvery icy blue coat of fur. Slowly tilting his head backwards Ryan direct his vision upwards, slowly scanning up the creature, but just before he caught view of his face the blizzard picked up once more, causing the creature - which Ryan had been able to identify as a wolf in appearance - to instantly disappear once more.

Ryan knew only too well the many legends of Dragonia that his people passed down from generation-to-generation and the terrible mythical creatures within said legends, could this have been one of these creatures of myth? It sure seemed that way, and had this creature played a part, or even caused the destruction of the planet? It seemed that it was a possibility, at least as far as the icy tundra of Bedoe was concerned. All these thoughts were nothing more than ways of wasting what precious little time Ryan had to act, and the time was precious indeed, more so than he at first realised.

Before he knew what was happening a fur covered claw appeared from within the blizzard directly in front of him. Ryan had never actually mauled by a wild animal before, but he could only assume the process wasn’t a pleasant one and his body would end up with more scars upon its skin that previously; he wished to avoid that if possible.

With the blizzard as thick as it was Ryan was left with less than a second to deal with the sudden appearance and attack of the gigantic wolf. It looked somewhat hopeless at that second. Turning his body to the side Ryan did the only thing he knew wouldn’t hurt as much as taking the attack head on, and that was to allow the attacks to impact against his lifeless arm. It was clear this would only further damage his arm and only lengthen the healing process, if it would ever heal that was, but it was the only way he was to sustain the attack feeling the least amount of possible pain.

Ryan closed his eyes a millisecond before the attack was about to make contact with him, but opened them abruptly as he felt the coldness of the creatures razor-sharp claws shred through his flesh. At that instant he wasn’t sure if he was glad that his arm had some feeling in it again or not, either way the attack seemingly ceased as Reiaz unleashed three beings formed from Chaos energy upon the gigantic wolf before exclaiming the need for them to get out of there. He was right.

Unsheathing one of his Reavers Ryan turned in a full circle. He could no longer see, or sense the creature of the Chaos beings, but he could hear the battle continuing not too far in the distance. Glancing down at his feet briefly he noticed the crimson colour of the snow that partially surrounding him, quite obviously from the wounds his arm had just sustained. “You are right!” he bellowed through clenched teeth, as the pain from his arm had just reached his brain. “The beast is not as big as I first perceived,” which Ryan thought to be quite strange as his eye-sight wasn’t usually wrong. “but it is not within our capabilities to defeat it.”

[Garoten Reklor]

Membertou's eyes held a wicked glee at the sight of his copy's initial success. Then, much to his surprise, the more harmless appearing of his two victims unleashed a group of three warriors of his own. The three managed to rescue the first victim in time to let him think he could escape. Just the way the master of Ice liked it. With movements that were impossibly swift for such a massive beast, the monster circled around the area, leaving his clone to deal with the extra warriors.

The copy whirled and snapped its jaws, narrowly evading an attack from the thing behind it. Three enemies at once were bad enough, and these were not the usual low-level summons. One came in for the kill, but the copy had only been playing with his food for a moment. As the first demon came diving for his face, the wolf twisted its head sideways and caught the attacker in its jaws as it sailed past. Typical of its form, the wolf-like monster shook and tore at the Chaos demon before hurling it sideways toward one of its allies and leaping for the third with claws extended. This would be over quickly...

Meanwhile, the original crouched as low to the ground as its massive form would go, waiting patiently for the wounded one to come closer. He could smell blood and a little fear moving in his direction. When he felt the two were close enough, he leaped forward, jaws wide, planning to grab both and crush them between his teeth.

[kihaku]

This wasn't going to be a graceful exit. Ryan and Reiaz stumbling along, practically blind in the snow, with a monster bigger than they were tearing the bejeezis out of his Inner Demons. That in itself wasn't something to sniff at, his Demons made of pure Chaos Energy, the manifested energy that powered many laws of physics, such as the tendency of all things to move towards a state of highest entropy, the highest point of chaos.

Reiaz was just about to suggest that they use his technique that allows for quick travel, when a creature bigger than life itself lunged at them from the pure white gloom. Thinking quickly, or perhaps not thinking at all, Reiaz shoved his hands forward, every finger directed straight for the beast's face. From each tip fired a needle of Chaos Energy, razor sharp, and clustered close together. Then, he raked his hands through the air outwards, sending ten thin slashes of additional Chaos Energy in an "x" pattern, again for the vulnerable spots of the ice demon.

"C'mon ugly!"

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: Sorry it's taken me so long guys, and that it's not anything very special, but i've had a lot on my plate and i've been struggling a tiny bit. Anyways, here it is!)

Out from within the depths of the snow the creature once again pounced, it’s enormously large jaw gaping wide in an attempt to seemingly crush both warriors in-between it’s jagged teeth. Ryan, still somewhat startled by the whole situation was once again caught somewhat off guard, something that until this battle was an extremely rare occurrence, but thankfully Reiaz was once again ready for anything and immediately went on the attack. So far it had been Reiaz who had kept them alive with his quick thinking, and even quicker actions, but now it was Ryan’s turn to help.

Driven on pure instinct Ryan pulled back his arm and threw his twin reaver off towards the gigantic wolf, whom actually seemed to have almost double in size from a few moments ago when Ryan had first caught sight of him. Impossible. Nevertheless, this wasn’t the time to let ones mind wonder like that, it was similar reasons that led to him being caught off-guard twice in the space of a few minutes.

At any rate the reaver had been sent flying through the blizzard filled air, directed at the wolfs left eye; it was Ryan’s belief that a half blinded foe would make this entire situation a lot easier. With the attacks, from both warriors, now launched Ryan grabbed hold of Reiaz by his collar, with his now free good hand, and pounced to the right, out of the way of any instant harm, allowing the attacked to bolt forwards towards their colossal opponent.

[Garoten Reklor]

Membertou was suddenly surprised by the tenacity of these two particular morsels. Instead of the feeling of prey filling his jaws, the monstrous creature received something far less pleasant for his efforts. Nearly a dozen needle-sharp pains tore into the Elemental’s face, followed quickly by multiple cutting sensations. The massive wolf skidded to a halt and threw its head back into a howl that was a mixture of pain, anger, and surprise. Suddenly another sharp pointy jammed into the monster’s front left leg, where his eye had been only moments ago. The feeling pushed Membertou over the edge. The ‘playful’ instincts he had been following before were replaced with the baser drives of hunger and rage. The two pitifully small creatures were running again, clearly searching for a way of escape, and the three creatures that had come to their defence were mounting a second attack. It was time to end this.

Dispelling his clones, Membertou turned his full fury on the prey. Whatever attacks the three others might unleash would be easily deflected by a large, gleaming disk of ice which he left hovering behind him like a giant shield. Meanwhile, he took to pursuing the men and in three giant strides was nearly upon them again. Enraged, he opened his mouth and howled again, this time unleashing a giant beam from his mouth which hurtled toward the fleeing men. Another leap carried him over their heads, and he skidded as soon as his feet hit the ground to face them. With a shake of his whole body, thousands pieces of his ‘fur’ were sent flying through the air, most bound for the forms clawing their way through the snow. Another roar and another blast from the creature’s mouth meant to finish the men off. Whatever was left, he would devour.