"Begin, vile humans! Grand Torrent!" A massive wave created by Hydrax crashed into the enemy forces like a waterfall. "What is the keeper of the Aquarius zodiac crypt doing here? [FLASHBACK] After Krystal's and Hydrax's battle, the crew was ready to be beamed out of the crypt by the keeper. He handed Krystal a flute. "What's this?" "Use this whenever you need my aid; I shall come to your assistance." They all gasped at the words of the man. "Do keep in mind, young braves, you can only call for me three times and once every six months, then the flute will disintegrate and I can only stay for a minute. So make sure you know what you seek from me before playing the flute. Also, you cannot summon me inside another crypt." [FLASHBACK ENDS] That was the case; Hydrax had handed them a flute that could summon him from within his crypt, and although he could only stay for a minute, the havoc he was wreaking on their enemies was currently worth it. Upon his arrival, he had taken out
'Tck. Those bastards have exhausted all my clones.' Jester thought to himself as he looked at an exhausted Vladimir."Huff. Huff." Vladimir was bruised and battered and could barely stand. They have been fighting for over 15 minutes now, with Vladimir not being able to get a single hit.Jester, on the other hand,."Jester's Elbow!" He dodged a strike from Vladimir and hit him with a spinning elbow. He continued dancing around the large man while dodging all of his attacks. Vladimir had been on the receiving end of a terrible onslaught of attacks from the clown. This seems to have infuriated Vladimir even more. Vladimir swung his hammer once again, only to miss the clown, as he had sidestepped him. Losing his balance due to fatigue, Vladimir stumbled to regain balance."Jester's Kitchen Knife." With a swift movement, he slashed through the chest of Vladimir, and blood splattered all over his mask.Jester took a deep breath and said, "Mhmm, don't you just love the scent of blood
"Gantala! You bastard, what have you done!?" Gantala had stabbed Jacob in the back. He didn't pay heed to the voices of Yuri, Sasha, and Race, who were calling out to their friend. Krystal had just arrived. "What in the world is going on?" Gantala pushed Jacob with his foot to withdraw the sword as he scrambled back to the side of Yusaku Ona. Yuri glared at the two. "You two were in this together from the very beginning." "I'm afraid so, Yuyu. But you don't worry, not one bit. I'll have you and all your friends here. Follow Jakey soon enough." "Then, when you said that Axel and Mel betrayed you," "Those fools chose to die with their king. I chose to live with my emperor!" "Gantala!" Driven with rage, Yuri charged at the former general as their swords clashed. "Sasha, please give up. Surrender and all this will stop; if I say a word to my liege, he will show mercy." Sasha stood silently as Kira urged her to surrender. Kira might have been following the wrong leader, but she
'Krystal...' 'Do it!' "Why do you even fight? Why bother fighting for the likes of them?" "It's because I'm selfish! I don't quite care about what you go off doing with the rest of the world. Heck, kill whoever you want; I won't judge you. But... You sealed your faith the day you decided to harm my friends. I stood there silently as Vladimir and Justin wept and grieved the deaths of their loved ones. And Ona, that is your biggest crime against me. Touch my friends... and you shall face my wrath!" Krystal was tired and worn out, but he seemed to have gathered his strength from his sheer determination in defeating the opponent that stood triumphantly in front of him. Crack! Krystal smirked, noticing a dent in the armor. He swept his opponent off his feet and slammed him hard on the ground. "Your body might be shielded, but not your face!" He got on top of him and started pounding at him. With the crunch of knuckle against bone, Krystal didn't ease up on his assault as the Mad Kin
Clank! Boom! Boom! Swoosh! The location was the palace room within the Castle of Grim Grave Island. A large, muscular man standing seven feet tall was exchanging blows with Shambala. "Those two have been at it for five days now." Shambala uses his speed to his advantage, as he does not dodge a couple of straight jabs from the large man. "Neither side looks as if they are ready to cave in." "Shambala...win...for...vex." The man fighting Shambala was none other than Vagrant Varvartos. Shambala flips over Varvartos and kicks him in the face. Unfazed, Varvartos grabs the leg of the Sage and slams him hard on the ground, creating a man-sized hole in the process. "Hahahaha." Jester laughs as he pauses to slurp down the juice he was carrying. Shambala's broken bones healed almost instantly as he got back up. He was using the healing powers of the bird to rejuvenate. He pats Varvartos, who had turned away. As the large man turned his head, Shambala struck him with a palm imbued wi
It has been a couple of days since Yuri ascended the throne of Harijoh as its new king. Yuri is currently addressing the citizens as Sasha and the envoys are standing behind him. I, Yuri Ona, swear to serve you all with all my might! Through thick and thin, till I bring this nation back to its feet."He went silent to examine the expressions on the faces of all the people that had gathered around the castle. Yuri was nervous; he had never given a speech in his life. He coughs and continues... "I know that my ascendance to the throne was because of a coup that followed a dreadful reign from a tyrant who got into power due to a coup of his own." At first, the majority were skeptical about accepting Yuri as the new king. For some, it was since he was related to the man who took the throne from the former king and nearly destroyed the region. Others merely wanted to take the throne for themselves. They were the lords, nobles, or relatives of the royal family. A minority of those
[FLASHBACK: LAST NIGHT'S PARTY]Everyone was enjoying themselves as they had organized a city-wide banquet over their triumphant success.Grover had a dance-off with Race.Riley listened to the other envoys as they shared their own adventures as a guild.Vladimir had passed out after entering a beer-drinking contest against Justin.They each chugged twelve cups of beer as Justin remained unfazed by the surplus amount of beer he had consumed."Guess the big man can't hold down his bear."Kazami and Krystal were having a conversation from the balcony of a building as they watched everyone have a good time."Haha. Justin's going for his thirteenth cup; heh, he might give Ernie a run for his money."The two shared a drink as well."..." A brief silence overcame the place as Krystal decided to break the silence."So... when are you leaving?"Kazami raised an eyebrow. "You knew?""I'm the captain. Of course, I knew you wouldn't be staying with us for long.""The base is almost done. The Eas
Kazami had made his way back to the carriage given to him by Vladimir.He made a stop at Nohland Market to clarify certain things about Jester."Honestly though. How strong are the vagrants? If we had faced the original Jester...""Oy! Where do you think you're going?""I can ask you the same thing."Kazami looked at Agnus Reigns, who was carrying his luggage around his back."I meant, where do you think you're going without me?"Kazami tilted his head."Huh?""You're returning to the Eastern Continent, are you not?"Kazami nods."Good, take me with you.""As much as I hate going there, I have to report my findings to those old fossils."The two rode off.Meanwhile..."Ahhhh!""Sir Krystal, do something!""Guys, hold on!"The Dragon Heart was descended at a fastening rate as a red alarm beebs on the deck."Brace yourselves!"Grover was chewing his fingers as Riley and Justin clutched each other in fright. Krystal was struggling to steer the Ark to a safe spot for a crash landing.Boom
Grover sat meditating in the house of shadows. One of the most unlikeliest places that he thought he would be at this time. Not quite surprisingly, it had been a year since their adventures with the members of the guild and the Ore organization. He smiled gently because, at least, that was something to smile about now—because those were terrible days. Days in which they lived for months on the brink of the end of all humanity, only one step away from one wrong move. Beside him, Shambala was levitating. It seemed as though both of them were communicating through telepathic means without even saying any words. Not too far away from them, Vladimir and Krystal had just finished dueling that morning, and while Vladimir had stopped to clean the perspiration from his face, Krystal, who had won the match, was feeling a bit more excited and was walking away with a smile on his face.On Krystal’s side, it seems like after everything, their lives went back to normal. But, of course, he knows th
Krystal, in getting out of his stance, quickly lunged at the man, whom he quickly identified as a member of the organization. He remembered the horrible things this particular individual had done to him in the past few hours and was not only going to pay back, but was also going to take the opportunity to punish him for his offenses against mankind.The man quickly realized that he was in a dire situation with three of them facing him, but being a typical member of the organization, it did not even occur to him that there was any other way out of this. He was possessed by the kind of pride that could not ask for mercy. He braced himself for battle and began to fight ceaselessly, even as they attacked him mercilessly on every side.Several times in the short period, they would look at each other’s faces and, without saying a word, deploy the strategy on how to teach this fellow lesson. All he knew was that he bore the brunt of this skill technique, but he did not know how they arrived,
As Grover and Vladimir fought with the guard, Krystal simply looked on without saying anything. Grover realized that, at that point, he was unstable and also very vulnerable. It could easily be tilted in any direction if he stayed in that trance, so even as he fought, he thought of the scheme to get them out of this situation.“Krystal! Krystal, we’re here.” He yelled, but there was no response.Seeing this, they immediately continued to fight with the man once again while they kept trying to use physics on Krystal so he would awaken.Krystal remained where he was standing and didn’t quite pay attention to them, but the man they were fighting with did not like the idea that they were trying to wake Krystal up. The man was annoyed with the way things were going. It was his fault, but there was nothing he was going to be able to do about it. He had caused it. In that moment, he thought of a number of things. The first of which was the reason why he did not call for backup as soon as he
Grover lay on his side, thinking about how he had probably broken a few ribs and how tired he felt. This fight had gone on seemingly forever. He knew they could not give up. But he had to admit that he was getting tired. He looked to Vladimir, who was unmoving with his face in the dust, and did not like the silence, which was only interrupted by the heavy breathing of the guard. If there was any consolation in this situation, it was the fact that the heavy breathing was an indication that the guard himself found them a worthy challenge and was also tired.Just as they finished fighting, as they lay in the dust, they heard a mighty sound as the wall behind them cracked. Grover mustered all his energy in time to see what had made that sound, and he noticed Vladimir also tried to do that, regardless of how tired he was. Not knowing what was beyond the wall, he did not like it that the man behind it had been fighting. He was excited about whoever was coming behind it and looked at it with
Grover and Vladimir had been fighting the security person they had seen by the gate to the cave, and it looked like he was getting the better of them. In fact, he had begun gloating, teasing, and making fun of them about how weak they were despite being two and coming against him as a single person.Just as he thought that he had defeated the two, a loud yell came from deep inside the structure. When Grover heard it, it took a minute to sink in, and he then became excited because he would know this voice. Anyway, this was Krystal’s voice. Krystal was yelling that he was not going to agree to be used.“ Arggg!!! Leave me alone! I will win! I have already won! I will always win.“ He kept shouting these over and over again, warding off whatever entity it was that he was fighting, saying that he wouldn’t give up and he'd keep fighting. The more they listened to the exchange, the more they realized that he wasn’t fighting with someone outside of himself but with something on his inside. It
Grover and Vladimir have been deployed by Shambala to go find Krystal and his father, rescue them, and bring them to safety while he and the rest of the guild had a face-off with the members of the organization at the gate. Aside from the unfortunate fellow who had seen them attempting to escape and had paid for it dealing with his life, no other person had seen or been accosted so far because of the chaos they had left at the gate. Grover did not think that they would intentionally make such a stupid decision as to drain the entire facility of its fighting force to only one location to fight an enemy.He thought that the decision to concentrate their entire fighting force in one location was born out of the mindset that they had never been attacked here and, with the exception of the members of the guild, might never have even been discovered at this location. Grover also thought of how it was such a good feeling. Nobody was lunging at him to take his life or were trying to fight wit
As soon as Grover noticed that the portal and the gates had started shutting them in, he quickly shouted, “Fight for the freedom of the five continents, oh ye men! This is a fight for the earth!”This charge, as innocuous as it sounded, was just the right encouragement that his comrades needed as they warded off their enemies with physical strength and artifact strength. They fought as though recharged by an invisible force.While he was fighting, Shambala found a way to distance his mind from the fight and then his thoughts. And as he did so, he realized something. That one, when the bell was rung earlier, had a code to it. One strike alone would have been a major indication that the barrier had been reached. Two strikes would have been a call for reinforcement, being that the intruders would be too strong. Three strikes were a summons for every possible fighting person in the structure to come out and join the reinforcement. And if that was the situation, it means that every single
Open, open, mother of horror, and let the children come in. Kin or foe, you shall decide. For to kin your cleave and on foe you will feast. These words reverberated in Grover’s mind as he heard the crack of the opening of the Gates of Doom, and indeed, as they opened, he understood why they were known as the gates of hell. The others have been clearly amazed that the poem he heard in the atmosphere turned out to be the key, and as Shambala said the words, the gate opened. However, before they could jubilate, some figures flew out of the building, looking at them angrily; they did not look like they were pleased to see them.Obviously, since no one knew the location of the gates of doom, it was understandable that they had not had guests in a long time. Not like a place called the Gates of Doom would have many visitors at any rate. In Vladimir’s mind, as he looked at these figures, he quickly realized that this was where the battle was to begin. He only hoped that their fate did not e
Following the suggestion by one of them, they fired at the barrier until a building started to reveal itself in bits as they hit it. And as they persisted, the whole building was shown to be a gate. At some point, no matter how hard they hit, the building wouldn’t budge but continued to reflect their energy against them. It’s only made him get tired faster.Shambala had come to the front of the company and was able, after some time, to interpret the inscription on the door. He voiced out the words in the old tongue and then translated them into their language as “the gates of doom." As if the literal meaning of the words was not terrifying enough, the horror on his face as he said those words made a chill run down the spines of his men. Some of them, who had invariably been to close the door, moved further away from it.Of course, they knew that they had no choice but to go in knowing that Krystal was in there, and they would not leave without him. Seeing these things only made them he