Gentle Breeze [Apparantly Open]

[Jun]

(OOC: A cliche place to start, but it beats Traverse Town.)

Illyas had no idea to expect when he was told he would be going to another world.

And that's how he preferred it. There was no need for someone to ruin his curiosity after all.

"Perhaps it will be a world that is completely underground. Or maybe all in the sky!" Illyas exclaimed with an excitement not usually seen while he was on duty.

But he couldn't help it right now; he was going to another world! Just years ago he would have done anything to have had the chance to visit Castle Pandemonium and see the Heartless monsters who had found themselves a role in the war's best stories. Yet this would be even better! It would have been nicer if Illyas was among the first to go, but at least the first squad sent out hadn't returned.

Actually...that was a little worrying. Why hadn't they returned? They hadn't found a land they loved more than Flynn, had they?

It seemed impossible when he thought about, but Illyas knew more than a few people who weren't thankful for the great land they lived in.

Well, they would be able to find them and bring them back. It was as simple as that. And after an indescribable trip "through worlds", Illyas and his comrades had reached a new world.

Where the airship landed did not seem particularly other-worldly. It seemed to be more like a "beach", as the people in Flynn called them. Yeah...where the ocean meets the land in places with lots of sand and a generally hot climate. They tended to have peculiar trees with even more peculiar fruits on these "beaches".

Luckily, none of the inhabitants seemed to be monsters. They were humans. And not even humans with multiple limbs or anything; they were completely normal! Well, apart from an odd set of clothing.

"It doesn't appear we landed in a helpful place, hm?" a girl on the airship asked, the bow disappearing from her hands as she scooped up some sand. "Same texture as ours. But it seems cleaner. Nicer."

"I'm sure if Flynn had a beach it would be even nicer, Rhea. Maybe we can take this one..."

Before Rhea could respond, their commander called their attention. After a minor briefing that they were to keep Flynn's honour intact, they were allowed to go explore for the next two hours before meeting back here. It was supposed to be time to relax and understand this new world.

Though he initially started out with his brother Mikael, Rhea, and the soldier Kieran, Illyas eventually wondered off in his curiosity. The houses here were strange and simply made of wood, but it was the little damp caves in the corners of the beach that really captured the archer's attention.

"I wonder what kind of stones they have on this world..."

[Jun]

Though it wouldn't be considered an actual "swim", the short path from the beach to the nearest cave was covered in water up to Illyas' knees. Which was quite a problem for someone who was in armor and not particularly used to large bodies of water.

As the archer trudged through the water, he remembered the days of his youth when his parents took him to the mountains of Salamand. The war had eventually reached the mountain town though, just as it had affected their entire world.

Even these fairly low-height waters had their fair share of aquatic life, but they steered clear of his feet and kept on doing whatever it is they do. They certainly seemed a lot healthier and more colourful than the ones near Flynn. Actually, even the citizens of this world seemed rather healthy; they could be easily mistaken for soldiers had they been wearing armor.

A short while later, Illyas reached the shore of the cave inhabiting a single island. He wiped off his leg armor as best as he could, but didn't remove it. This cave was far enough from the beach that there may be monsters inside.

And with that in mind, Illyas' Quintessence bow was in his hands, ready for the worst.

[Clow]

Shin walked around the Shoreline, book in hand and little brother in toe. "Shhhhiiiiinnn can't you pull yourself away from that journal for five minute?" The ten your white haired boy whined a bit, wishing for more of his brother attention, especially when they were here on the Islands and all.

"Kon, odd thing have been happening, we've been having odd lapses in memory, that just clear up out of the blue, there's something going on and I'm going to get to the bottom of it." the teenager said, glancing at his brothers somewhat disappointed face bad sighed lightly "But... I suppose I can take a break, even if our memories have some kinda of replace I have everything pretty well documented" He said with a smile ruffling his brother spike hair.

Kon’s face came alive again, as he started tugging his brother along. “Great! Come on, I want to explore some of the other Island! It’ll be a lotta fun, I just know it!’ He said tugging his older brother along, the teen having an unsure look on his face. As the two marched along just better understanding the areas of there home, Kon couldn’t help but point at a boy by a cave. “Hey look brother, that guys dressed really funny!” The boy more or less carelessly blurted out.

Shin lightly bopped the careless boy on the head. “That’s rude Kon, and really none of our concern.” He said scolding his younger sibling, not all that interested in some person who dress strangely.

“No Shin, I mean he looks like he’s from a different world!” Kon said rubbing his head lightly, giving his brother a bit of a nasty look before pointing again. Shin’s eyebrow raised a bit as he glanced over, now quite interested.

“Okay then, I supposes we should go say hello, but be careful, you never know who may be hostile, at any sign of danger you run and let me take care of it, understood?” He sighed a bit as he trudged up, his brother excited, clapping a bit.

The two quietly crept up; the only indication of them being there was when the shoe’s finally splashed lightly in the shallow pull as Shin addressed the traveler. “Hello, I take it from you clothes you not from here, what is you business here on our Islands?” He said, in a at least somewhat friendly tone, though also quite cautious, Kon simply smiling and waving.

[Jun]

[OOC: Zomg, another person. Awesome.]

Before Illyas could take more than a step towards the cave, two islanders approached from behind him. He guessed they were regular civilians, perhaps worried that he had summoned his bow so openly. After all, this seemed like a rather peaceful place.

"Not from around here...that's one way of putting it. Allow me to introduce myself."

Realizing it was rude to have his weapon in hand while first meeting someone outside of battle, Illyas sent Quintessence back into wherever it is that weapons rest when not in battle. It was the taller boy who had addressed him first, so Illyas paid attention to him. Though...this boy was dressed strange even for the people of this world. I mean, what were those circles of glass around his eyes? Some type of magic amplifier? And his clothes were so baggy and light in comparison to Illyas' armor. At least that meant this boy could move fast if something happened.

But he didn't appear to be a fighter.

No, his eyes didn't have that certain blood lust. Every good soldier needed at least some blood lust.

"Illyas Aion, Vice-Captain of Flynn's 2nd Archery Squad. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

He held out his hand to the taller kid, waiting for a handshake.

[OOC: insert handshake or whatever Shin happens to respond with here]

"I'm here on behalf of my kingdom searching for a solution to a...certain problem we have back home. Have you by any chance heard of the 'Heartless'?"

[Clow]

(OOC: Heh heh pleasure to meet you )

Shin couldn’t help but eye the person bow, smiling a bit ‘That’s…. Interesting at least, I wonder how well he wields that thing… Fairly I would take it, he looks like he from some medieval type world, if that’s even a proper term, a bit of a rash generalization but… He looks more or less normal, I’ve seen much stranger looking people.’ Shin thought as he stared at the young man with those soft yellow eyes. Somehow he could even tell, as he was analyzing this off worlder, he was doing the same, something in the man’s eye seemed to give it away.

Shin nodded softly, taking the mans hand, his charm jingling as they shaked hands. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, I’m Shin, though I lack such a title as yourself, although you could call me…. A seeker of truth I suppose, and this is my younger brother Kon.” The raven haired boy said the younger sibling staying mostly quite for the time being.

Though when the man told of his reason for being here, the young boy could stay quite no longer. “Oh yah, ya mean those creepy shadow monsters? Yah they tore this place all up once, but they don’t bother us now, and if they do, Shin’s sure to take care of them.” The boy said with a smug grin on his face, happy to sing his older brother praises.

Shin simply rubbed his eyes a bit, a tad annoyed at his siblings loud mouth, but he couldn’t stay mad at him for to long. “Yes well, he’s right more or less, I’m not quite sure how our world was resorted, but as long as I’m here I don’t intended to let it happen again, once you get use to them, the little creature aren’t to much of a threat, unless your dealing with something truly monstrous.” Shin said adjusting his glasses a bit, still a bit curious what this would all lead up to.

[Jun]

[OOC: >< My character introduced himself and I didn't. Wow. But yeah, hello there and nice to meet you.]

"A seeker of truth? Interesting title. Perhaps he is a mage of some sort." Illyas thought as Shin introduced himself.

The younger boy, Kon, acted like a normal kid by Illyas' standards. Which was good in the sense that the archer could relate to him, but sad that it wasn't something new or different to ignite his curiousity.

Ah well. Shin here was interesting enough based on his clothing alone. And his little brother had great confidence in him if he expected Shin to defeat the Heartless.

But it struck Illyas as odd that these two knew of the Heartless. No, "odd" wasn't the word...more like...hopeful? After all, if the inhabitants of such a peaceful world had encountered the Heartless and come out alright, maybe they weren't truly as dangerous as Flynn's reports had led on.

"These Heartless around my home are very dangerous. From what I've heard, they are resistant to all but our most potent weapons and spells. And they multiply at alarming rates."

Illyas decided to keep the fact that he hadn't encountered any Heartless personally to himself for now. Shin may not take him seriously otherwise, and the Vice-Captain couldn't have that.

"Am I to understand that you have some sort of weapon to combat them? Or is there perhaps some trick to their madness? It would be very helpful if you could show us how you got rid of them. They are becoming a real problem."

Maybe the people of this island had natural magic to fight the Heartless? After all, they seemed to talk about them as if they were normal monsters. But then maybe they didn't have normal monsters here to compare them to. Would they have considered the goblins and ahriman the Flynn army trained against to be weaklings? Or were the Heartless here much weaker than the ones in Castle Pandemonium?

Augh, so many questions. Illyas realized he couldn't expect a single person like Shin to be able to answer them all. No, he would have to locate this island's king sooner or later. But not without permission from his captains. He'd have to learn what he could for now. And maybe he would encounter some Heartless to see what they were really like.

He couldn't decide whether he was more afraid to fight the creatures, or more excited.

[OOC: Hey, if my character is approved soon, you want to test out some battle skills against some random invading Heartless?]

[Clow]

(OOC: Heh heh no worries we have plenty of time to get to know eachother like over PM :3 )

Shin pondered the mans words deeply, even drawing out his research journal and jotting something down, and making sure he references were sound. “Hhhmmm I see, well I can’t tell from that alone if they are to deadly of a breed, one thing I’ve noticed, is it’s not always the brute strength, but more what kinda of weapon you use. Though the resistance to magic is a bit more troubling, tell me are your people using light based attacks? The heartless are more often then not implemented with darkness. One thing to do is look them over, few heartless are unique and nearly all have a weakness.” Shin lectured a tad, hoping such information would be helpful, though if it wasn’t, then he would at least know his people knew what they were doing, which would make the chance of a deadly breed far more likely.

Kon only snickers at his brother lecturing, he himself already knew all this, Shin demanded it actually, if he was to follow him to other worlds, he had it know the ins and outs of the various dangers. “Well… I can’t really fight myself.. I’m trying to find away, I’m kinda hopin maybe someone can teach me some spells, till then I just practice with this..” He said showing a wooden sword to the seasoned archer, blushing a bit, feeling more childish then he would like.

Shin smiled and ruffled his brothers hair. “You’ll find your way, at least your practicing, now, as for how I destroy the creature, I suppose showing you my weapon is only fair.” He said with a slight smile, holding his arm out, an ebony bow, with golden edges appearing, looking to be more then met the eye, seeming to have a dark glow. Without a word he aimed at a tree, an arrow appearing in his hand as he strung the bow, firing it into a palm tree, a piece of fruit hitting the ground.

Shin walked up to it and picked it up, about to take a bite as he always did. But he stopped himself, realizing that was rude and handed it too Illyas “Here this is a Paopu fruit, there quite the commodity here, there flavor is good, and there all sort of legends about it entwining peoples fates, sort of a romantic thing I suppose, but that’s more a matter of how you view the legend, still most take it as a sweet gesture, feel free to pick some if you have someone back home that appreciates that sort of thing.” Shin said with a shrug, not really being on for love and what have you.

(sounds great, go for it whenever, your thread ^^ )

[Jun]

[OOC: Kon's ten, right?]

"He's an archer as well?"

The bow Shin had summoned was surprisingly beautiful to be held by a non-soldier. But as the boy fired off an arrow and shot down some tree, it became apparent that he had some battle experience. There was no way a normal person could have made that shot.

But it didn't seem to be enough to take down the mystical Heartless. He was at least the level of a soldier, but there were many soldiers trained in archery in Flynn. In fact, only the top archers had entered Castle Pandemonium and come back with horror stories.

"You're a good shot. Trust me, I have an eye for archery."

Illyas knelt down to face Kon and his wooden sword, smiling as he did so.

"I'm sure you'll make a fine warrior some day as well, Kon."

It really was a pleasure seeing children interested in the art of fighting. Presuming they wanted to learn it to protect others, of course. And Illyas seriously doubted Kon wanted to learn fighting skills to oppress people. Although the archer admitted he would have been even happier if the kid was interested in archery instead of swordsmanship. But both warriors were of equal importance on the battlefield.

The Paopu fruit, as Shin called it, was quite a wonder to behold itself. It almost resembled a star, as if to symbolize the many new worlds he was discovering. Maybe each of those stars in the sky was another world. If that was the case, than there were a truly countless amount out there.

But more importantly, this was the first gift he was receiving from the citizen of another world. A token of friendship, as Shin seemed to describe it.

"It's a very kind gesture, Shin. I'll gladly accept."

Unsure of just how to eat such a uniquely shaped fruit, Illyas broke in two halves. It seemed to come apart quite easily, so he took a chance and broke his piece into half again, making two small pieces and one large one total. He gave the large one (that Shin had bitten out of) to Shin while giving one of the other ones out to Kon.

"You should have some as well."

With the small piece that was left, Illyas just decided to pop the whole thing in his mouth. It wasn't the most...respectful thing to do, but there didn't seem to be any ways he could eat this small final piece in less than one bite.

And moreso than that, his curiousity was getting the better of him: what would such a strangely shaped fruit taste like? Was it magically created to be nice on the eyes? And if so, did it sacrifice taste for appearance?

There was always questions.

Always way too many questions.

But these questions were answered in a second as Illyas bit down on the fruit. It had a good texture; not too hard or too soft. And it turned out to be surprisingly tasty. A truly remarkable fruit. Certainly not the tastiest fruit, but it was amazing that it could hold such a high level in taste and appearance.

"I wonder if we could grow these back home. After we've stopped the monsters of course, or the trees shall never last long enough to bear fruit. Are the Heartless the only monsters you see in this...area?"

[Clow]

(OOC: That he is)

Shin couldn’t help but smile at the complement, after all this was from some kinda of solider, he at least did know a thing or too, though it was true a lot of worlds had many mindless soldiers that were more of a quantity over quality rescores , Illyas didn’t seem to be that kind. “Thank you, I’ve been practicing for many years…. On my world, and many others like it, archery and fencing are the things of hobbyists, though I do have to give credit to much of my skill to the past year of battling heartless and the like, the greatest experience for battle is on the battle field no?” He said, more or less enjoying the time with this interesting individual, he was far less boring then some others within his life, and an a ally is never something to scoff at.

Kon smiled a bit and nodded “Yah, I know… But I’m hoping it’ll be sooner rather then later, I mean I jus know there a way for even a someone as young as me to fight, and get strong I just have to find to.” He said full of zealous eager to help his brother, not to mention he was the type eager for adventure, and while meeting people was more prominent to him then fighting monster, he knew it was needed.

Both Kon and Shin looked a bit questionable at Illyas’s, but took it none the less, Kon nearly thoughtlessly popping it in, and Shin taking some further bites. “Hey… maybe we should share some of this with everyone we meet.” Kon said with a bit of a chuckle.

“Eager to bond are fates with others are you? Well not a bad idea, although you never know, we may end up sharing one with someone….undesirable, might be annoying to bound are selves to some great evil that wants’ our blood.” Shin said with a snicker, obviously teasing his brother slightly. “Well.. It’s an interesting idea, feel free to try, although these are a tropical plant. As for the heartless, more or less, heartless are almost everywhere really, although there some odd white creatures ever seen, a bit harder to destroy, and they don’t seem to be implemented with darkness or any element I’ve seen.” Shin said, finishing the rest of his fruit, placing a few seeds inside his pocket.

[Jun]

So Shin had been battling Heartless for a year now? Did that mean they had only been here one year, or that he had only tried to fight them recently? Perhaps the truly dangerous Heartless the knights of Flynn encountered hadn't reached this island yet. Maybe the ones here were simply recon?

More importantly, were the dangerous Heartless still here? Because that was truly the main thing Illyas wished to know at this point. Although the Heartless they had learned about were not white like the ones Shin believed were more powerful.

"A tropical plant? True, that may make it difficult to grow back home. Though I'm sure there are spells to aid with that. Though the mages are no doubt busy with other things...perhaps I can work on it personally. I'm not too bad with magic."

A light wind began to swirl around Illyas as he held his right hand out towards the cave. Papou seeds mixed with a cloud of sand and were soon caught in the wind as it picked up in speed and seemed to close in a tighter circle around Illyas' feet. The mini-twister rose up the archers legs, dropping the seeds and grains of sand before becoming a small twisting orb in his hand. The sphere flattened and altered it's shape to become something longer. Something sharper.

An arrow of wind.

"Wind magic. I always thought it was one of the more interesting elements. It can be so calm one second, and yet so powerful another. And being clear makes it great for arrows. Although I should learn how to create light-based arrows as well to combat the Heartless."

The arrow seemed almost invisible, yet its shape was clearly there. Illyas summoned his Quintessence on his left hand and loaded the arrow, assuming a light open stance towards the cave. The archer raised the bow a little higher before launching the arrow. Though hidden from sight, it sounded as if a physical arrow had been fired. But in motion, it was even more difficult to spot, though Illyas had been using them long enough to see their entire flight.

Well, until it disappeared into the darkness of the cave.

"They can be a little hard to load since they're not as solid as normal arrows, but they strike harder when fired corre-"

An eerie sound - almost a scream - interrupted the archer from within the cave. The first thing that came to Illyas' mind was that he had struck an innocent civilian by mistake. But as the howl continued, the Flynn soldier realized this wasn't a human sound. It sounded somewhat like those Death Flowers that had appeared near the end of the war...

"Monsters? Or perhaps...Heartless?!"

Well this was perfect. A monster was invading. Maybe even a Heartless. And now Illyas could save the town by taking it out and gather information from a direct battle at the same time. And being regarded as a hero in this world would increase his chances of getting some good information from the people around him.

"We should look into this. Since you've experience fighting the Heartless, you should come along Shin."

Without looking to see if the boys followed, Illyas summoned another wind arrow and ventured into the cave. The screaming had stopped, but that didn't change the fact that something was in there. There wasn't much of a chance that a single wind arrow could defeat a Heartless, right?

It didn't take more than a few steps before something struck Illyas' bow arm. He managed to keep the grip on his bow though; it wasn't a piercing attack. But it was an attack nonetheless, and not with normal human power. There was clearly some sort of monster in here.

A little more aware now, he dodged two more projectiles before reaching a wider "room" in the cave where he found his opponents. Five of them, to be specific.



"Monster plants? I was hoping for something new..."

[OOC: Heartless time. I know these Creeper Plants are fairly weak, but try not to destroy them all in one post ^_^]

[Clow]

(OOC: interesting fun fact, all the new heartless introduced in CoM all appear on Destiny Islands )

Shin had the distinct feeling Illyas wasn’t quite understanding the heartless, which was understandable, most people within there world are set in there own ways, creatures of habit and what not. After all if a world was to have monsters with any resembles to the heartless they would naturally relate them to one another. Luckily heartless were the only monsters here, so Shin never made such an error.

“hhmm a fair idea, magic is helpful for such things… Though be careful, introducing a new plant could be a tad dangerous, it could suck up all the nurturance in your soil, kill other plants around it and such, different worlds are a tad complex, still as long as your willing to burn it down if need be, it’s an experiment worth investing in.” Shin said, a good but curious about the prospects of planting other worldly plants.

Shin watch, Kon looking quite impressed and entranced at the display. “Wow, wind magic is cool! Can ya cut stuff with it? That’s what I heard, blades of wind sound awesome and super deadly!” Kon said a good bit exited bouncing a bit wanting to know more. “Well for most heartless that’ll certainly do some damage, though If I’m not mistaken Ice based heartless will have a resistant’s although…” Shin said pausing looking through his research journal . “Elemental weakness and strengths do get a bit muddled, other then Light hurts darkness, fire hurts ice, the obvious.” Shin said closing his book and putting it back.

They both looked on at Illyas demonstration. “Oh yes, I understand, I can create special arrows myself, they can be quite effec-“ Shin grow silent as he heard the hollow, he know it all to well. ‘appears something creeps from the darkness, perhaps something to do with Illyas being on offworlder? Oh will irrelevant, I’ll send it back to the dark.’ Shin thought and nodded a bit, following, Kon staying close, knowing he was allowed as long as he didn’t get in the way of any danger.

Being behind Illyas, Shin didn’t take any of the projectile seeds, and when catching up, knew exactly what he was dealing with. “Don’t fear these little weeds Illays, think of the heads as big targets, they don’t even move, and if you can mange to, block there seed balls rather then dodging.” Shin said, giving some advise, these heartless being native and rather easy to hand. Shin strung his bow with a normal arrow, firing it dead center. After all, there was no need to exert himself on such small fries as these.

[Jun]

[OOC: Hm...haven't seen any new Heartless yet in Chain of Memories (that's what CoM is?). But then I stopped at Wonderland due to being distracted by Dissidia, so I guess I'll see. Do you get to fight on Destiny Islands in it as a non-final-boss area?]

Shin and Kon seemed unsurprised by these flower creatures. Apparently they had encountered them before and had information on them. And yet they were Heartless. The legendary creatures Illyas had heard so much about.

Too bad he had only encountered what seemed to be grunts of the Heartless army.

"If they fight at long range and don't move they should prove to be a perfect opponent for an archer."

The five plants fired projectile seeds all at once towards the three humans. Well, four plants. The fifth was struck in the face with an arrow from Shin.

Still, four projectile seeds. Realizing they weren't particularly strong attacks, Illyas dodged one and let another bounce off his chest place. Not completely harmlessly, but not particularly painful either. The other two were heading for the bows, but Illyas had his hands full by now with the wind arrow loaded in Quintessence.

"This is the start of a new chapter for Flynn's history; Illyas Aion battles a Heartless on another world. And wins."

Quintessence sung as the arrow nailed another Heartless in the face, splitting it in two. These were truly some pathetic creatures; the Death Flowers back home were much more dangerous. A single arrow wouldn't defeat them.

But monsters were monsters, however weak they may be. They had to be eliminated. For the sake of the people.

Requiring some time to recharge his magic, Illyas instead reached for a normal arrow in his quiver. He had made sure to fill it with as many arrows as possible (which only amounted to 60 - ten more than usual), so he could afford to spare one this early in the trip. And hopefully he could stock up on arrows later. Shin seemed to have arrows after all, so there had to be a seller around here somewhere.

Another flower fell at Illyas' hands. Only two remained now. Somehow this all just seemed anti-climactic. If only stronger Heartless had shown up...

[OOC: Bet you can't guess what I'm planning from that last sentence.]

[Clow]

(Yes you do walk around a memory version of DI with AT LEASTY Riku, though I know this from video, and Wikia only, haven’t play CoM as of yet)

“that they are, though they can be take on up close without to much trouble, they usually group with other verities, which make them a bit more troublesome…” Shin said noticing the seeds. One was heading for Shin, while the other for Kon. Without hardly an instant of hesitation, Shin dodged his seed, while dashing over, trilling his bow to effectively block the creeping plants seed, sending it back, and destroying it. (OOC: Not sure how this worked in other games, But in Day, blocking seeds sent them back and killed the plant so…)

In a Smooth motion, Shin then summoned an arrow, and sent it between the heartlesses eyes. With Illyas’ victory, this cleared the cave. “Heh nice going there bowmen, but don’t get to full of yourself, these things are hardly a nuisance, since they can be easily run from, we more often then not don’t bother, heck Kon’s killed on before by blocking with that wooden sword.” Shin said ruffling the boys hair, the young brother swatting at the offending hand with a chuckle.

“It was scary, but pretty cool, still, I REALLY want to find a way to take them out myself, but no rush, got plenty of years ahead of me.” The somewhat small boy said with a toothy grin, resting his hands behind his back, cheerful as ever.

“Well, Now that that venture is over, perhaps we can leave this dreary place, I admit I have an affinity for the dark, but the dampness is a bit…. Uncomfortable, if there’s going to be water I prefer to be emerged in it, not dripped on.” He said water droplet lightly splashing him on the head. Though he had to admit, it was a bit odd, such weak heartless on there own, still it wasn’t unheard of, it seems heartless were a bit down lately, he would have to look into why.

[Jun]

[OOC:Alright then, so I'm going to up the difficulty. Just a bit.]

Shin managed to take out the Heartless with ease, but when he explained what low grade monsters these plants were, Illyas began to get disappointing. He was hoping these were average strength at least, and that him defeating them so easily was a testament to his skill. Even Kon had taken these out before? Really? A Goblin back home probably packed more power than these Heartless. Truly a shame, and not at all helpful in his quest.

"I suppose we should leave. I'll probably have to regroup with the others soon as well. Although I wish they were a bit more of a challenge...they didn't even require me to use any spells."

Illyas quickly realized the error of his words. First because he didn't want the boys to think he was battle-hungry.

And secondly because something else was coming. Something...not human.

"This feeling...it's similar to how our airship felt during travel. Is something traveling between worlds nearby?"

The waves of magic echoed throughout the cave, invisible and untouchable, but clearly there. It was as if Illyas could sense a ripple in the magic energies in the air.

Three figures appeared as the waves stopped, circling the humans.



These didn't seem to be as run-of-the-mill monsters as the plants. They were armored top-to-bottom, and armed with swords. These were some real soldiers.

"Are they a scout party sent by the Heartless? They at least appear stronger than the last."

The Heartless seemed confused at first, searching their surroundings. It took a good few seconds for them to notice the humans, but by that point Illyas had already fired off an arrow and was loading another one in an open stance.

The arrow pierced the arm of one of the soldiers. The arm it held its sword with, forcing it to drop the weapon. But it wasn't happy about the turn of events, and began a charge at Illyas while the other two hung back.

"This is really not a good area for an archer to battle, but I can't let them outside to attack the town. I have to succeed somehow. For Flynn's honour."

He rolled to the side to avoid the soldiers charge and nailed it in the back with another arrow. And it still had the energy to move! Now these were some real monsters.

"Those were to test you. I won't hesitate to kill you with this one."

Illyas loaded another arrow as the soldier pulled the arrow out. Chucking it to the ground, he once again began a charge at the Flynn soldier. The other two Heartless also decided to jump in, and begun to advance on the humans.

[OOC: Yeah, still fairly weak Heartless. But Illyas isn't supposed to be crazy strong, so they won't go down too easily. And they're more like soldiers.]

[Clow]

“I would have to say… While theses heartless are far from strong, there true weakness is there easily reflected seeds, because of those almost anyone can dispatch them without any trouble, as long as one has focus, anyone can fight these.” Shin explained. Though not in any kind of condescending tone. After all, Shin was a seeker of knowledge in the end; it was a good way to stay ahead of those would wish him harm . the only reason to withhold knowledge was if it was valuable of course, and one could get something in return for it. And this was naturally no such case.

“Be thankful, you wouldn’t wish for such a challenge when you’ve lost all of your mana would you? If you wish for a better battle I know plenty of places steaming with darkness.” Shin said with a somewhat devious smirk, Kon giggling lightly, this being more of a mischievous side rather than anything truly, and the young brother found it a bit refreshing.

Shin could feel the darkness start to grow and looked around a bit glancing at Illyas. “Well heartless come from a realm of their own, they my more or less smell some taste hearts for them to devour.” Shin said noticing the soldiers appear. “The heartless aren’t of that kind of intellect, at least from what I’ve seen, I don’t think there the kind to scout, just hunt and kill..”


Shin glanced at Illyas, rubbing his head, seeming a bit over dramatic, as if the heartless would leak through and raid the town. They honestly, for the time being didn’t seem to have that kind of number, not that Shin would allow that in the first place. But Shin was being too much of an observer. The other two were now becoming more aggressive.

Shin Swiftly fired an arrow, but oddly, perhaps from watching it’s brethren, was prepared and dodged. “Well aren’t you a bright little..” He said, his eyes growing wide as they headed for each of them, Kon blocking as best he could. Darkness seemed to leak from Shin, as His bows string vanished and he charged, both blades striking either side of the bow turned sword. “You, will not, touch my brother! Worthless insects! “ He growled pushing hard, in an effort to disarm them, striking after, aiming to take off arms, not wanting to take any such chance, not matter how weak they were.