"Nothing but... Kishin eggs and monsters out there..." (M for mature, open)

10:00 PM
7/1/2015

"Isn't it suppose to be summer?" Said Alexander, marching along through the cold with Terra to their destination. He rubbed his gloved hands and tightened the hood on his heavy black parka. The two had flown down here because in this area, a number of people had gone missing. Their body's never found. This was above the rate of the normal amount of people who go out in the cold and freeze to death in the woods. Alex knew, because it had made the papers a number of times. Why, when gearing up in the nearby town that was a mornings walk behind them, the old man who set them off said "Oh don't go out there! Whoever you think you are or what you think you need to do. It's winter just about twelve months a year and there aint nothing but... Kishin eggs and... monsters out there."

That was kind of the point, the two of them were there to kill them all. Still, while one of them was a weapon with the other intending on using her to kill them. The wrong party would be eating the souls, and they did not have any of the academy's reputation. He was looking to keep it that way. So he told the man they were visiting his grand father to help him move the hell out then they got out of there. "Ugg, I wish we could have brought Robin to fly us all the way here. Save us the air fare and the trip. But I don't want him missing any school without an emergency so I guess we are hiking... It's not all that bad. The sun is up, however piss poor it is." He said looking up at it and noticing as it got blocked by a tree. He looked down to see they had arrived to the cold, nameless forest which housed all those monsters. He was glad they brought several days of supply's. He would not want to be caught in there without atleast one person and way more food then they would need for the trip.

The forest

Spoiler:

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    Being from a hot dry climate, Terra had never experienced snow and since she had been here she had been enthralled. It was roughly how she had imagined it, but she never expected it to be so... uncomfortable. She was wearing a slightly over-sized coat that was obviously not her size the sleeves being just a little bit too long. She was extremely grateful that the people at border control at the airport had been so insistent that they wear heavy clothing. Another first for her were the snow boot she bought Terra had never worn them before, but found the experience so unpleasant that she had half a mind to leave them when the old man tried to dissuade them from coming into the forest.

    Terra could always have transformed into her large sword form and attempted to let Alex ride her here, but, like she told him, she had never flown nearly that far and especially not while carrying someone. Planes were also just faster. "Yeah it is. Cold is something else isn't it: This is a whole new type of pain. If I was confident I could have made it here we could have tried having you ride on my sword form, but we would have been worse off if it turned out I couldn't make it all the way." As they began to enter the forest Terra checked to see if she could manipulate the earth that was under the ice, but the permafrost prevented her from doing so. If she was going to have to manipulate she would have to first break through the think crust of ice. "Hey, Alexander... Nevermind' Terra was sure there was earth under her though she just figured that there was too much snow in the way. It was doubtful that that would be a problem.

"Oh the sword thing's alright Terra, I could not ask you to fly me all the way here. Besides we're fine." The Kishin egg kicked at the ground it was hard... Very hard... "Damn cold settled in the ground forever.... I wonder if my bombs could blow through it... That may be something to try later. At the moment, I don't think we should be drawing to much attention towards ourselves. There could be a few monsters here or we could walk in and find the odd's are too greatly against us to continue."

Alexander made a bomb in his coat, and was very pleased to find that it's energy made it radiate warmth. "Holy crap I'm going to have to show you something later if the holds up." He said putting his hands on the part of his jacket that felt down right hot. "How are you holding up in the cold?"

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    "I think your right. It would be much easier if we surprised the kishins since I doubt that they expect their food to bite them back." Terra pulled the weapons that she had hid in her luggage from her side and inspecting them making sure they were up to par. Once she clipped them back on her belt she responded to Alex. "I look forward to seeing it. I am fine though. It is quite cold, but I don't mind." Terra would slowly lower her voice just in case they were approaching any kishin eggs. They walked for a bit more before Terra heard a twig snap and she suddenly stopped and raised her hand. Only to release a disheartened sigh when she realized that it was just a small white fox.

Alexander nodded, and the two began to treck deeper into the forest. Following one of the many path's seemed to be the best choice. "We don't need to worry about getting lost. I packed a map and fricken two GPS devises. One as a spare. So that we can take whatever path we please and still get out. It's a good thing I was able to find that pilot huh? You should have seen me, looking around for someone with their own small plane to fly us to Alaska without checking our bag's to hard like a scrub. But we do have plenty of weapons..."

Alex reached down his hood and scratched his neck. Another gently warm explosive appeared next to the first like a heating pad. "So I wanted to ask you. About how you transform.... Well I'll just go on and ask. Is your human form even flesh and bone? Or is it sand?" This had been bothering him since the two of them had gotten smashed a while ago.

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    This question was long coming, and Terra knew it. If they were going to be working together than Alex might as well know. " In short yeah this body is basically sand. Although I go through a bunch of trouble harvesting the materials for this... form and a little bit of magic that goes into it, When it comes down to it, I am not flesh and blood anymore. If I try hard enough I can pretend to be, but it's not the same, y'know." Terra would continue down the path walking beside Alex and letting him lead. A bit of snow would fall of of a tree and hit Terra on the shoulder, and a small quick laugh would escape her mouth. She would grab the ball and form it into a sphere. "It's like ice; no matter how much you try to make it seem like glass, if you leave it outside to long it never holds up to your expectations." Terra would then lightly toss the snowball towards Alex.

Alex nodded as she explained how her body worked. He had suspected such from Terra and it really did mean something for this to honestly come out of her. He was glad she confided in him her trust. He giggled alongside her as the snow fell on her head. It was a nice reminder that, while there may be some bad no good thing's in this forest. You could never make the land evil no matter what you do. When Terra compared herself to ice he realized just how long she had been thinking about this. The more he thought about it he was reminded of how amazed he was that someone who had been locked up in that small room he had seen her in for so long held up so well. He thought that if he ever ended up like that he would turn into some mad babbling old man instead of a wise to his years poet.

Then the Kishin saw her form it into a snowball. "Oh no! Oh no!" He said playfully, shifting around his feet to try and get into position to hop away and dodge the ball of snow. He stumbled on a big tree root and got nailed lightly in the chest. He started laughing whole heartily. This entire thing reminded him of something. His laughter slowly cut off. "Ohh...." He said wiping the snow off his chest. "Reminds me of the good times I had with my sister... This entire camping thing, reminds me of my family a lot."

Some snow falls about sixty feet away and lands with a crunch.

    It might have been because of Terra's want to fill in the various holes in her life caused by her missing memory, but regardless she really appreciated Alex's company. As Alex stopped laughing the smile that rested on Terra's face slowly faded away. Terra walked over to Alex and placed her hands on his shoulders. and spoke to him softly. "Hey, I don't exactly know what it is like to have family, but I do know that it is ok to miss them. That being said you can't let your memories of them haunt you. Make sure you hold their names close to your heart because this sadness is a good thing. I think it is them that have made you able to stay human."

    "So we can't mourn them. We have to make sure we are thankful for how they have made us who we are." The smile from before would come back to try and cheer up Alex. "Now let's go take out some jerks that have forgotten what it means to be loved and those who taught that to them."

"How they made us who we are..." Said Alex leaning against a tree and gripping his chest so hard his knuckles went white. If he could have gripped his red soul right then he would have... It was because of them after all that he.... That he.... Alex shook his head. "I really should get around to telling you that story, since you told me yours and all. It's a fresher wound than I thought it seems..." He nodded as Terra finished. "Your right, whining about the past isn't going to do anything. Let's take some action Terra." He stood up, checked his pack and turned to go venture deep into the forest.

(you can do the first encounter I suppose, as far as setting it up and the monsters.)

What seems like a couple more piles of snow falling off of the various trees echo in the sound of silence.

    "Don't worry about it. I know that when the time comes you'll tell me. 'Til then I don't need to know." Terra would remove her hands from his shoulders so he would have enough space to get from leaning on the tree without her being in the way. Terra turned with him and once again began following his lead, but before they even made it five or so steps Terra places her hand on the back of Alex's shoulder. She whispers, "Did you hear that?" Terra would go still and snap her head around a few times to try to figure out what the source of the silence was, but there was nothing.
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     Five seconds would turn into ten, and those ten into twenty, until from three separate separate piles of snow three seemingly cloaked individuals with skull like masks and glowing stomachs would stand surrounding the pair. Upon closer inspection these creatures were hollow inside except for the glowing crystal in each of their exposed chests. In their hands they would form scythes form their focused wavelength one of these scythes made contact with a nearby tree causing a one inch radius around the point of contact to freeze over. Each of these kishin eggs were incredibly sturdy with almost diamond hard carapaces, making the only way for Terra and Alex to beat one would be to destroy the exposed crystal or be extremely creative. The crystal was surrounded by an inch thin layer of ice, but one of Alex's bombs would suffice to melt the layer, another and it would destroy the crystal."You will find an icy bed here, children"

Alex saw the Kishin eggs arrive, they had made themselves known very quickly. His hands clenched into fists and in a flurry of motion he took immediate action. The Kishin's hands darted inside of his jacket. He tossed one bomb, then two, then a third appeared in his hand. He chucked them all at the different Kishin eggs aiming for the glowing blue crystals within their torso's. Because in his experience, if you wanted to take out a Kishin you could not go for the arms, legs, or even sometimes the head. But if you destroyed the center the rest was sure to fall. Each Kishin got a different bomb. Still, he worried that they would be able to hurt the beasts who had seemed to have consumed many more souls than him. He smiled confedently and said. "Hey Terra, step back just a moment. I got this bout all on my own for now." He himself began to take some steps back. Trying to get the Kishin egg's close together in order to overwelm him with their numbers. He drew a sword in his main hand and his pistol in his off, ready to battle he raised his sword defencivly to perhaps knock aside the first few attacks.

What they would not know, he surmised. Was the closing in on him, or more rather each other with bombs attached nigh inseparably to their crystals. Was the last thing they wanted to do.

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    Terra's reactions were a bit slower than Alex's. By the time she pulled her sword and shield out Alex had already thrown his bombs at the kishin eggs. She minded Alex so that she could  avoid getting in the way of his bombs or their blast radii. Terra held onto her shield and sword tightly, and would wait to get Alex's back in case one of them got close some how before the bombs Alex threw at the kishin eggs exploded.
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    The first two kishin eggs that Alex threw the boxes at were completely surprised and the boxes landed more or less perfectly on the glowing area of their chests. The third however had witnessed the box's latch onto his comrades and we was not having any of that, so with a swing of his scythe he batted away the box. As the scythe got within inches of the box a thick layer of ice began to coat it preventing it from sticking on his scythe. The first two would panic and try to get the box off of them, dropping their scythes first, only for the box to get their hands stuck to the box also. One of them would call out with a raspy voice, "What is this!? What have you put on me?" The third would ignore the strife of his compatriot and charge at Alex. His scythe would pass right over the tree root from earlier and it would turn completely into ice. The Kishin egg would pull back on his scythe and was going to attempt to decapitate Alex as he ran towards him.

Alex's first instinct was to raise his sword in order to block the attack and not risk fumbling another dodge. But then he noticed the Kishins weapon go directly through the root he had tripped on prior. The root became ice. That's when it snapped in his head, these were no ordinary weapons that they were wielding. The were made of the ice cold wavelength. The Kishin saw his third bomb get knocked to the ground. It's warmth already weakening the ice around it. He had to go for it.

"BACK ME UP!" He yelled at Terra before he dove under the scythe, if it had been a lower swing it would have been very hard to dodge but as it was aiming for his neck he went clean under the blow. Then he would roll as far as he could before jumping prone to get his hands on the last box. Instinctively, he made yet another in his coat. Rushing to his feet from that position he eyed the one that spoke. "They're bombs." He said calmly, before tossing the third one in between the two of them. The bombs had a big blast range. 7.5 meters. Alex was immune to all effects of the blasts. He waited for it to get as in between them as possible before all three exploded at the same time. His reasoning being that if they were tough enough to take one. Two would probably hurt a lot more. He shielded his eyes from the fiery red explosions with his gun arm.

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    As the kishin was watching Alex roll under the scythe Terra threw her shield full force. "Where are you looking!" Terra began running towards the kishin egg after her now spinning, bladed shield. Terra wasn't sure if the shield would hit, but its main purpose was to distract the egg while she tried to pierce it. if she saw that the creatures carapace-like armor was too tough to pierce then her shield would spin back around and try to pierce through again while she .

    The kishin egg swinging its scythe moved just enough out of the way of Terr's shield to have it avoid hitting his exposed weak spot, and he went blocked Terra's blade with the staff part of his scythe. "Nice try sugar lips." Terra's blade began to become translucent as the scythe turned it into ice. The kishin egg was surprised when Terra disengaged and then came back at her with her sword again he easily blocked the sword but didn't notice the shield which cracked the barrier enough that another good blow like that would kill him. The other two kishin eggs went wide-eyed when Alex said that the boxes were bombs. When the explosions settle all that would be left was slightly scuffed armor and two red souls floating above their respective set.

Alex peeled back, satisfied once he saw that the Kishin egg's had died and not layed a single hand on them. A second bomb appearing underneath his jacket, he rushed forward to help Terra finish the last blighter off. He holstered his weapons, seeing that she had more than damaged the protective layer of ice over the last Kishin egg's weak point. The Kishin was not facing him or else he would have done the job himself. While he had more than enough firepower the idea of harming Terra now that the battle was so close to victory for them. He grabbed the Kishin from behind, trying to pull his freezing, raspy arms behind the mans back in a full nelson. He just had to hold it there for a few seconds he reasoned. He gritted his teeth and waited for Terra to finish the job. "Goodbye." He grunted through his teeth in the skulls ear.

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    As Alex rushed forward, Terra knocked the egg's weapon away with her now mostly ice sword, and as Alex pins the kishin eggs arms behind him Terra grabs her shield which starts spinning once she has the handle until it breaks out of the ice it was lodged in. She then, as she slides her left foot back, pulls her right hand back and then punches through the kishin's weak spot with one of the blades of the shield. The kishin's armor went limp and a its soul fell out of its mouth.

Alex tossed the hollow armor to the side and took several breaths, before he said. "Good job... If we find about four, maybe six groups like that and we can go home... Are you hurt? Did you get winged?" He said running his hands down his form and checking for blood. He knew that his bombs did not make any shrapnel but for a few meters out of it's normal range. But it had picked up something else as shrapnel... Well it could have done plenty of damage with an explosion that big. It would be like getting shot with a prop gun.

The very light crunching of snow can be heard off in the distance.

    Terra looked over at Alex's shoulder and her eyes widened in surprise for a quick moment. "I am fine, but I don't think we will be needing to go find more kishin eggs just yet."She got back into a fighting stance as 10 kishin eggs began approaching the duo. They too seemed to be shocked at what they were seeing. They were not as well equipped as the three kishin eggs that had just been defeated, but they had numbers on their side. They were in three almost even clusters with the middle group being the largest.

Alexander had three bombs in his jacket. He looked at the new oncoming enemy, he dug the bombs out of his jacket. Holding them in one big bunch in his clenched fist. He had a look on his face that did not give any indication he was about to tolerate their shit for even a moment. Kishin eggs, when it came down to it. Were like animals. You had to establish who was the boss or they were going to walk al- walk all over you eat your soul whatever. He just knew he had to let them know that they were not about to win this fight. He drew his gun with his left hand.

"I might want to take you up on your flying sword offer." He hinted at Terra before he walked forward. Trying to keep her out of the range of his bombs. "ALL OF YOU! LISTEN UP!" He said, staggering forward. "I'M HOLDING IN MY HAND, ENOUGH EXPLOSIVES TO BLOW ALL OF US UP!" He let the words sit. "So before any one of you think's you have the balls to come, and try to take my soul," He gestured behind him to Terra . "Our souls... Terra, who do you think is stronger? THEM or US!? THEEEM!!!" He yelled pounding his chest with his gun, safety off. "OR MEEE! THEEEM!?" His gun went off, firing a shot into a random stone. "OR F*****G MEEEEEEE!" He was psyching them out, and doing a damn good job of acting. Was he acting? He could not tell. Perhaps it was a mix of both, or perhaps not. He wanted to buy time for Terra to transform and for him to make as many bombs as he could. Knowing that he would need them all.

(OOC: Late post, sry)
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    Terra could see what Alex was hoping to accomplish with this. She let a small grin cross her face before she said, "Oh definitely Us." Terra's body burst from her coat as she began to spiral around into a few tornadoes of sand while Alex was talking adding to the fear he was trying to instill into the kishin eggs as after he fired a shot the Terran Regalia would form and land right beside of him with a small rumble. Terra would then launch herself at the smaller group of kishin eggs and attempt to cleave one of them in two,

Alex twirled his pack of bombs attaching a fourth one to it's side, one bomb was just as wide as three together. Then he stock them onto his back out of the way. He then armed himself, sword rapidly drawn from his main hand. Alex hopped on the very large Terran Regalia form right on time as it slammed lightly into the ground. He crouched low and prepared for the attack, the only thing he would be able to hold for support would be her hilt, which was behind him. He slid his pistol into it's holster and braced himself with his off hand. When Terra would aim for the smaller group he would leap off attempting to impale the strongest one he saw directly by his crystal with an all out lunging attack.

(OOC: I can't Tell you how excited I am that you did the thing without me asking you to do the thing!)
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    Terra sliced through the unprepared kishin on the outer most part of the cluster before heading towards another that was between her and and the middle group. She would stab into it and push it towards the larger group for it to get a taste of what Alex had in store for it, confident her granite hard, regenerating sword form could withstand one blow before moving on to the last group which was beginning to disperse. Terra's shield which was still where the duo had started flew towards the last kishin left in the group she had originally gone after to lodge itself into the last her back as the egg tried to run away.

Alex snapped a fifth bomb onto the clutch of them on his back. While not heavy, it was beginning to get bulky. He knew that when the opportunity presented itself he was going to use all of them in one colossal attack. After Alex pulled his sword from the first Kishin the others immediately bore down on him. Wrenching his sword agonizingly slowly out of the fallen Kishin's armor he began to loose ground as they used their numbers against him. They were more than competent fighters. Hopping back as three of them assaulted him with a lunging offensive he began reflexively blocking their blows with his sword. The short sword was not reinforced by soul wavelength however, and their weapons were. His sword began to grow incredibly cold, even with gloves on he had to fight to clutch onto it and continue his defense. He was not the greatest swordsman in the world, but he had been practicing and training for well over a year and he was competent. With every step he kept up his fighting spirit, even as a forth Kishin looked like it was about to join. He knew that if he had to deal with any more attackers then he would be reduced to flat out running away, But the Kishin had pushed him back where he wanted to go.

Away from Terra, close to them, and with a big bundle of bombs on his back. He called out. "Warned ya!" As a warning to Terra in particular then with his left hand he reached for the big bundle of bombs on his back.

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     Terra realized that he had bombs on his back as Alex reached backwards. He has been saving for one big explosion. Terra was surprised, but reacted with the instincts of a veteran. She came to a sudden stop to fling the dying kishin she had stabbed at one of the ones who were attacking Alex then began to make her way around a much larger than necessary radius around Alex to get to the now fleeing kishin. Her shield not far behind her.

Alexander chucked the bundle just over the heads of the Kishin who were attacking him. They would land just a bit behind them all, terrified skull looks exchanged through them all. Alexander raised his arm to shield his eyes from the explosion and let it rip.

The black bundle went off like a tiny hydrogen bomb. It's range standing somewhere at about twenty five meters. Alex heard the explosion go off and felt a light breeze as the fires of his mad, mad soul wavelength shot right by him. He raised his gun. popping off shot's at anyone who was still standing. Anyone who looked hostile of course.