Gourmet World Island(Speed Demon Zack, Chaotic Rumble)

Ayeseru inspected the beast to find any openings it may reveal as it was attacked by the three birds whom they baited in place to fire at the crow; Zack and their companion managing to evade the blast at the final moment, remaining unscathed.  The power of the three birds combined was incredible, they dealt an enormous amount of damage to the mountain sized crow, easily slowing it down and puncturing some holes through it; now Ayeseru saw the results of what could've potentially happened to Zack - complete destruction.  Looking at their companion, Ayeseru wondered if he too could cause such a huge blast of destruction.  But, wait?  What was this?  As the enormous crow naturally let out a booming screech in pain, it stopped, turned around, and sent out some of its massive feathers towards the three birds, slicing them in half, instantly killing them off; luckily, Ayeseru's companion wasn't amongst them, since they all looked identical in appearance, still, though, that didn't stop Ayeseru from feeling a burning sensation in his stomach.

Apparently, Zack took it a lot worse than Ayeseru did.  Instantly, he went into a fury, which no one could break him out of.  He was attacking the giant crow relentlessly, and didn't care for any injuries or pains he received in the process.  Ayeseru sighed deeply, able to feel for his friend, but it was at that moment that Zack had planted an axe kick upon the giant crow, causing it to go down slightly and be dazed.

This was Ayeseru's chance.

He flicked out the lacrima that the blacksmith gave him, and had such will to fly, that the lacrima removed itself from Ayeseru's grasp, and placed itself on his back, forming magical energy in the form of wings, which allowed Ayeseru true and absolute flight, causing him to grin widely.  "You bastard...  You always try to save whatever and whoever you can...  You don't just go around killing your friends for an accidental miss fire...  So you better be prepared, 'cause soon, you'll be chasing after them!"  Ayeseru's grin vanished, and he was ready - ready to finish off the giant crow.  He crouched, and as he did so, wind appeared to gather around him, and his pressure was enough to crack the ground underneath his feet.  He carried on, gathering more speed and strength before he even launched himself up towards the crow, concentrating heavily as he did so.  He wanted to get this fight done with a single swoop, and once he gathered all of the required strength, he flew.

He dashed from the ground up to the sky in blinding speed, almost impossible to keep up with if you were a mere human. In less than a second, he was already exactly where the crow was, and entered through in to its body through one of the holes the birds created, smashing through every organ and vein he came across. It seemed like an eternity, though in fact was only a split second before Ayeseru reached its heart, pierced through it with his entire body, and then came out of another hole a different bird created, causing the crow to lose all movement in its body, allowing for it to fall slowly, and once it did, it seemed to generate an enormous shock wave across all of the island.

Meanwhile, Ayeseru was covered in blood, though, luckily, not his own; that didn't mean he wasn't hurt, however. He just rammed his entire body through the insides of a bird whose size easily rivaled a mountain, so he was quite banged up. His wings faded, and the lacrima turned back to becoming a regular lacrima, causing him to fall, though his companion quickly swooped under him, allowing him to land in a soft pile of feathers.

His companion flew next to Zack, and Ayeseru gave him a cheesy wink and thumbs up, before dropping his arm back to his side, and then allowing himself to rest.


OOC:
Magic/Spells:
Roar - Ready
Shadow Drive - Ready
Wings - 3 post CD
Magical Energy - 97.5% (natural regen in 4 posts)

They had received damage from this island, but not nearly as much as on the other two. Not even half as much as either. It seemed that, like Zack, Ayeseru had been quite pissed by the death of the birds at the hand of their boss. Perhaps because he had just made one of their species an ally. Or perhaps he treated what allies he had as precious treasures to protect like Zack. Either way their fury had been too much for the emperor crow and it had fallen. Zack with little effort removed the item they needed from the beast. It was quite large, but nothing he couldn't carry. "Lets get this back and then we'll head off for the next island. Which will be...that one" he said no sign of the rage he had just so recently used as he pointed to another island. Perhaps the reason his fury had been so effective is because Zack was instinct based and so entering the primal fury had improved his strength. It was possible.

He flew off carrying the item. It was a large beak. Two parts, the top and the bottom, one for each of them. He arrived swiftly and dumped the beak parts inside. He dumped the beaks into the cauldron and watched as the mixture began to become grey in colour. It looked almost metallic now, but lacked a distinctive sheen. So purple and orange made grey? No, there was a hint of brown too. Not a colour combination he had ever considered before.

He did not wait around to watch though, that wasn't his style. Instead he flew up towards the next island knowing Ayeseru, with his new lacrima, would be able to follow. He might of already gone ahead. Zack had pointed out the island after all. As he got closer he saw that this island was even larger, perhaps the largest. Yet....it also seemed the most advanced. he could see what appeared to be fortresses or perhaps cities. No, they weren't. They were moving. He could see magic auras from them. At least as strong as the ocpald. There were two nearby and as soon as he got close two small turrest, though still bigger than even Ayeseru's crow companion, turned on him and fired off with two large iron balls bigger than Zack.

Fortunately, they were slow and easily dodged, but still, quite an impressive feat of fire power. It was like they were living fortresses. Now he was closer he saw they were on the back of what appeared to be giant rhinoceros. He stared for a moment. These weren't the ruler yet they seemed so powerful and well armored. This was going to be tough...and because of that fun.

It was as he was considering this that he saw another cannon ball coming towards him, but on its back was a large ape-like creature striped like a zebra and with huge fangs. It was about three times the size of Zack. It wasn't even causing the ball to dip, but as it got close it swung out to punch Zack. The man grinned and caught the blow with his bare hand. The zebra kong roared out and fell from the sky. It almost fell off the island, but it grabbed the edge and pulled itself up. So...monkeys and rhinos. How interesting.

Magic:

[/quote]

The member 'Speed Demon Zack' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Ayeseru sighed deeply, and still would lay on the back of his companion as Zack pointed out the next island they would go to; he also took the item required from the island master, which, in this case, was the beak of the giant crow - he took two, one for Ayeseru, and one for himself; obviously, since the reward was a crafted item out of the required ingredients, they needed one for both of them.  As Zach went to the blacksmith in order to give him the two parts of the beak, Ayeseru smiled at his companion, and requested of him to fly over to the next island, which he did.  Ayeseru stood up slowly, and brushed off any dirt and blood that was in his face.  He was a bit wobbly on his feet, though quickly regained his strength and was gazing up to the sky, smiling.  The two were going through the islands relatively quickly, which made Ayeseru both happy, and upset at the same time; he was having a great time with Zack, despite what events possibly took place.  Ayeseru's companion wasn't flying as fast as it could, but it had no reason to; they weren't in any rush.

Then, Ayeseru realized something - he didn't have a name!  Well, Ayeseru assumed it was a he, anyways, but that wasn't important - the companion needed a name.  Ayeseru climbed up to its head and then sat down on it in an Indian position, looking at the sky with his palms holding him as he would allow his back to fall backwards.  "Tell me...  Do you know how to speak?"  The bird simply squaked at Ayeseru's answer, which allowed him to conclude that his companion could not speak.  "Hmm...  That must mean you don't have a name, is that a correct assumption?"  Despite not being able to speak, Ayeseru's bird companion was able to understand what he was saying, and squaked once again, in a different tone, which allowed Ayeseru to assume it was his "Yes" response.  "Well, how about this, then - I'll give you a name once all is said and over with, deal?"  The nameless bird squaked multiple times, which allowed Ayeseru to assume that they were squaks of delight.

It was funny.  They began as enemies, but sooner rather than later, become good pals.  World works in mysterious ways, eh?  At any rate, Zack quickly exited the blacksmith's area before Ayeseru and his companion even got to the next island, causing the nameless bird to instantly hurry after Zack, and what they saw was incredible - two enormous rhinos which appeared at first to be moving cities.  They fired cannon balls at Zack which were even bigger than him, and one of them fired a strange ape-like creature, with big fangs and striped like a zebra.  As it was about to swing at Zack in the air, he simply caught the blow, and smiled at it, causing Ayeseru to sigh deeply.

Though, there was a major problem - how the hell were they going to take care of the enormous rhinos?

OOC:
Magic/Spells:
Wings - 2 post CD
Magical Energy - 97.5% (natural regen in 3 posts)

Two giant rhinos. Heavily armored. Heavily armed. He doubted swords would be much use against them and so he lifted his eye patch and the swords floated back into the green orb beneath. He dodged another two cannonballs almost idly and wondered what was the best move to make. Normally he didn't think of such things, but this was one of those rare times when the enemy was not one his instincts could tell him how to beat. Also, for once he was not tempted to headbutt it. It was not armored underneath but the skin looked almost like stone or at least a very thick leather. It would take a lot of momentum and force to pierce such a hide. What was worrying was that these were NOT the emperor of the island. From his knowledge there was only one emperor, or it was a creature that was obviously stronger than the others like the elder ocpald compared to the younger ones. These two looked equal in power. In fact, they could be twins.

Heavily armored and heavily armed. "I wonder." He murmured and flew like a rocket to inbetween them. The guns rotated, much as he had expected, and fired almost perfectly in sync. He quickly moved and hit the first one downwards, narrowly avoding being hit by the second. As such the second flew right at the first stronghold rhino. As it hit it exploded and Zack saw some damage to the towers on its back. There appeared to be no physical damage, to the beast itself, merely the armor. A larger cannon upon its back turned on its brethren and began to charge up with what looked like an energy blast. When it was fired it destroyed a similar structure on the other one's back but also caused it to roar out in agony Much to Zack's surprise and delight it had sheered off a large amount of the armor revealing the beneath was soft flesh. It was as he had expected. They were like turtles or snails. They used the hard city-like armor to protect their weak spots. That meant the only way to beat them was to effectively take the armor off. Getting them to hit eachother wouldn't work as easily a second time. The one that had been hit by the energy beam hadn't tried to lash out. Perhaps because it was in pain or because its own energy cannon had been destroyed. Or perhaps it was because it knew the reason and thought the reaction fair. Zack hovered between them. Neither stronghold rhino fired at him and he called out to Ayseru.

"Their weak spot is under the armor. We need to get it off...or maybe even get inside the buildings." he said and considered their bodies. Perhaps you could get inside the buildings and strike. How would they stop you? Or perhaps...that was where the monkey thing from earlier was from. It lived on the back of the stronghold rhino. That made sense. Which meant...was it possible that the weapons weren't controlled by the rhino?

Magic:

Ayeseru watched carefully to see any openings as Zack got the two rhinos to shoot each other, who, to Ayeseru looked like walking strongholds, leading him to call them Stronghold Rhinos.  Ayeseru was curious with what he saw; the two rhinos fired at each other, but for some reason, it didn't look calculated.  Could there be something else controlling the weapons that the stronghold rhinos had?  Could it possibly be that...  They were honestly just strongholds?  Ayeseru sighed deeply, and nodded as Zack spoke to him; he discovered useful information, as per usual, and gave Zack a thumbs up.  However, there was another one; another shake like and earthquake throughout the island, so powerful, that it even made the air vibrate.  The shaking air trembled as it rose to its feet - another stronghold rhino.  Quickly, before it realized exactly what was going on, Ayeseru decided to test his theory and Zack's, and made his bird companion charge towards it.  The other stronghold rhinos were able to put their differences aside temporarily in an attempt to shoot down Ayeseru, though to no avail.  As Ayeseru and his bird flew above the new found stronghold rhino, Ayeseru jumped, smiling as he did so.

Whilst in the air, Ayeseru inhales an inhumane amount of air, gathering shadows around his mouth and body as he does so.  His lungs and mouth seem to expand inhumanely, looking as though they're about to explode, and right before it looks like his body can take no longer, he released the shadows from his mouth, in a concentrated beam take destroy almost anything in its path, like a laser, and as he does this, the amazing roar of the Shadow Dragon, Sapphiron, could be heard all over the island.  "Roar of the Shadow Dragon!" could also be heard in the midst of the dragon-like shout.  As the beam traveled to its location, it hit the rhino's shell, cutting through it as though it was butter; since Ayeseru's roar was like a laser, he was able to direct it from top to bottom, allowing the shell to literally be cut in half and begin collapsing on itself, revealing the soft flesh of the rhino.  It roared out in agony, and was in so much pain from having part of itself destroyed that it fell to what Ayeseru thought were its knees.

However, it wasn't quite over yet.

The rhino was still alive, and Ayeseru was falling on to its stronghold; before he could get damaged, he transformed into a shadow, nulling any potential bone breaking falls.  On the ground, you could see the large carve in the back of the turtle; it looked as though someone grabbed a hot butter knife and sliced through it cleanly, and just was Ayeseru was about to dive into the soft flesh, before he was charged at by a mysterious elephant-like animal.  He got hit by its trunks for some blunt damage, but before he could be slammed against a building, transformed back to being a shadow, and scaled the top of the building, looking down below; there were two of these elephant-like creatures.

"Why am I no longer surprised?"

OOC:
Magic/Spells:
Wings - 1 post CD
Roar - 7 post CD
Magical Energy - 85%% (10% consumed from roar, 2.5% consumed from turning into a shadow, natural regen in 2 posts)

The member 'Chaotic Rumble' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

It seemed that the armor was indeed actual armor because when it was cut away it revealed tender flesh. Damage to such flesh appeared to cause it intense pain and not only that, but it caused it to fall to its knees. He was quite impressed with the power of the shadow dragon's roar that his partner had used. It was very good. He grinned to himself and flew towards the one that was the least heavily damaged. He would let Ayeseru deal with the two strange elephant like creatures that had appeared from buildings on the back of the stronghold rhino. It seemed they really were moving cities. That was quite impressive he had to admit.

He landed on the back of the least damaged rhino and began to walk about looking for an entrance to the laser cannon. If he could man that then he could use it to take down the other two rhinos and then they'd only have one to deal with. It was as he was walking along that the zebra kong from earlier turned up leaping down in front of him and roaring. He stood there for a moment and then assumed a fighting stance. It was time to play. A one on one fight against the giant monkey sounded fun.

Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be just a one on one fight. One of the strange elephant like creatures arrived and seemingly out of nowhere a gigantic being shimmered into existence. If he had to say its size...the stronghold rhino was probably up to its knee. It was taller than a mountain. How had they not sensed such a thing? It was huge. It was then he noticed something. The stronghold rhino's, four of them now, had fired a strange energy together. The centre of which was where this gigantic multi-trunked creatured had appeared. Had they teleported it here because they were getting so badly damaged. This was not good. It was H rank class at least and they still had so much to fight. Could he leave the stronghold rhino's to ayeseru and try to take this on? He didn't have much time to consider as the zebra kong swung its arm and this time it hit Zack and sent him flying into one of the structures. As he coughed and spluttered he knew what he had to do.

"Sky Emperor's mantle." he whispered activating his most powerful buff once more. He came tearing out of the hole at high speed. "Sky King's Heavenly Grace." this was his most powerful removal of air resistance. The combined two effects should be enough, he hoped. The speed overwhelmed the zebra kong as Zack's fist hit in the face sending it flying through buildings and taking it out of the fight. Fortunately, he hit it hard enough and at the right angle that it hit into one of the strange elephant bear things. He hadn't noticed that one, but it was prbably out of the fight now he hoped He wanted to take down the strong hold rhino's, but he was too worried about the ficasdaltonphant. He flew up and spotted Ayeseru and activated a D rank spell to speak to him.

"I'll try to deal with the big guy. Can you handle the rhinos? Speak and i'll hear." he said. That was the use of the spell. it was great for communication. Shame it didn't last very long. He got out his two best swords again. Against this his swords might work. He just hoped its hide wasn't too thick for him to pierce. It was time to take on the boss. He just hoped the stronghold rhino's wouldn't shoot at him. Wait, no he did want them to fire at him. They could potentially hit the boss.

Magic:

The member 'Speed Demon Zack' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Ayeseru gasped upon what he was seeing in front of him; something enormous, easily ten times the sizes of the rhino's at least seemed to have appeared in the center of four of the rhinos.  It had a strange resemblance to an elephant, though was extremely obvious that it was nothing of the sort.  Zack activated some of his most powerful spells and requested Ayeseru to somehow deal with all of the rhinos, to which, he agreed that he'd do.  "I'll take care of them.  I'll make sure that they somehow hit the big guy, too."  Before that, however, Ayeseru had to take care of two foes which stood on the same rhino that he did - two of the strange elephant creatures that he encountered earlier.  They charged towards him, but he grinned, knowing exactly how he could take care of them with a little bit of style.  He rose his arms, his eyes glowing a dark black, extending his arms out lightly, a massive black magical circle with a dragon's head in the middle spinning appeared around him, as he stood in the center, going out at least fifty meters in all directions; Shadow Dragon's Clones.  The black energy activated, allowing for shadows to appear within that area, and what happened next was that perfect clones of Ayeseru began appearing there, about eight of them.  Unfortunately they're just there to confuse, but that was more than enough.

The elephants attempted to mow through the clones, but they moved like Ayeseru did, so they were able to distract and evade them as Ayeseru did something clever.  Nearby, there was a massive building whose structure was half broken - perfect.  Shadow Dragon's Sniper Shots.  Ayeseru allowed shadows to consume his arms, cloaking them in darkness.  He fired volley after volley upon the weak structure at the bottom of the building, causing it to then fall upon the two mammoth-like creatures whilst they were contending with his clones; Ayeseru dismissed his spells, too.  Now that he had a clear moment to think, it was his window of opportunity - how could he defeat all of the rhinos at the same time whilst still causing them to damage what appeared to be their boss?  Ayeseru couldn't come up with an answer through all of the panic that transpired through his head, so, he took a seat on the ground, calmly thinking and debating, and that was when the most obvious idea came to him - shadows!

The beasts were very large, and were definitely extremely heavy, which gave him the idea.  Whistling to call his bird companion, she flew over to him, and Ayeseru quickly jumped on her back and commanded it to fly towards the massive shadows that the rhinos produced.  Shadow Merge.  Ayeseru's hand became enveloped in shadows, and each time he and his bird companion passed by one of the rhino's shadows, he simply touched it; he did the same to the enormous elephant-like creature that appeared out of nowhere. Then, Ayeseru flew around all of the rhinos, taunting them as they missed cannon fire after cannon fire, luring them to the giant elephant-like creatures shadow, and once they stepped on it, the elephant-like creature let out a loud roar, and as the rhinos stepped on anothers shadow, they did the same thing.

Ayeseru merged their existence to their shadow, so whatever damage or hits were dealt to the shadow were also done to the original body.

It was all up to Zack, at this point.

OOC:
Magic/Spells:
Wings - Ready
Roar - 6 post CD
Clones - 7 post CD
Sniper - 5 post CD
Merge - 4 post Duration
Magical Energy - 70%% (15% consumed from the combo of clones, sniper shots, and merge spell, natural regen in 1 posts)

It seemed from his response that Ayeseru felt he could deal with the four rhinos. That alone was an impressive accomplishment. Zack circled the gigantic beast building up speed. He was actually using the gravity that a large body such as this generated in order to build up speed. He just had to time it right with a teleport and use the momentum built up to slingshot himself into it. The interesting thing was that whilst he was circling it all five gigantic creatures roared out in pain as they stood on one another's shadows. Now that was an interesting application of magic power. Ayeseru had used his magic to apply some sort of spell to the shadows of the creatures so that when the shadows were damaged so were the main creatures. As Zack circled gradually building up speed he considered the best way he could use this. It was then he remmbered the old addage the bigger they are they harder they fall. If he could hit this creature in such a way to knock it over onto its own shadow, or that of the rhinos, then he could cause major damage. The fall alone due to its size would do damage if he could get it so it landed on its own shadow it would be like it was falling on itself. It would be tricky, but with the strength and momentum Zack could generate he could do it. He was sure.

He flung off seeming to be flying away from it, but then vanished and actually appeared coming in the direction opposite its shadow straight at it at a high point. He needed to strike it hard and fast whilst it was distracted by the pain from the rhinos stepping on its shadow. It seemed confused and disorientated by where the pain was coming from. "Sky King's Sword." he yelled boosting his speed by a further 25% and adding some extra damage to the blow. He hit it hard and fast with all the strength he could. It didn't appear to be enough though. It merely teetered from the blow and began to recover. Unfortunately for it Zack had a second teleport and thus teleported and struck it again at an ever so slightly different angle to make it follow with the fall. The blow was enough to push it over and make it fall. It let out a horrified yell as it fell unable to recover enough to stop it.


Zack however kept going due to the momentum he had generated. He swung himself from the slight dive into an upwards momentum and essentially a loop allowing him to sweep down and strike the falling creature. Its fall was slow due to its massive size but it was accelerated by Zack hitting it again. It hit its own shadow and the ground hard causing it to roar out in pain. Fortunately, it also fell atop one of the rhino's squashing it flat and one of its flailing arms hit the shadow of another rhino. It had received massive damage itself, taken out a rhino and practically taken out a second one.

There was also the benefit that hitting it again had slowed him down enough to stop. He'd hurt himself a bit in the process, but the ficasdaltonphant was down for a while. It looked like it was struglgling to get up and it was highly possible that some of its bones had been broken from the fall.

Magic:

Ayeseru smiled broadly; Zack took complete and full advantage of Ayeseru's spell, and now, the enormous elephant-like creature was down, but not fully out.  Zack appeared to have exhausted quite some powerful spells, thus leaving Ayeseru to the conclusion that he should be the one to finish the strange elephant-like creature.  The creature, along with the now defeated rhinos, had dealt an unimaginable amount of damage to themselves.  It was time to finish it off, however, as it was just on the brink of death, and Ayeseru felt it would only be appropriate to end its suffering.  Ayeseru used his lacrima to fly right above the creature, with a slight frown upon his face - death was always something upsetting to him.  He allowed for a dark magical circle with a spinning dragons head in the center to appear right below the creature, so its shadow and actual body would be damaged at the same time.  His hand began pulsing a dark shadow, and when he clenched it, the blast erupted from underneath, damaging the creature both through its shadow and body, as calculated.

The blast remained for several seconds to ensure its final breath, and once it did, Ayeseru flew down and landed gently on where its face was, or what he presumed to be its face, and sat down.  He called upon his bird companion whom responded immediately, and flew right next toward Ayeseru, and took her seat as well.  Ayeseru sighed deeply, and counted with his fingers how many islands remained for both the Demon Slayer and the Dragon Slayer to do together.  Only one more island...  That's when we break apart, and our contest begins...  Man, though, I'm both excited and nervous for it.  What a strange feeling...  Ayeseru assumed that Zack would follow him and the bird to where they sat on the now dead elephant-like creature, however, in the case he didn't, Ayeseru stood up, took a deep breath, and shouted out, "ZACK!  COME ON OVER HERE!  THE THING IS DEAD!"  Taking several deep breaths afterwards because he had exhausted them all, Ayeseru noticed the slight hunger and weakness his body had.

But, of course!  It was the fact that he had exhausted a fair amount of magical energy this time around; this island, for some reason, forced him to do that.  It was presumably because he had to hit the enemies harder here, due to their size, yet, he was still surprised.  Ayeseru decided that it was a perfect time for him to regain back the lost energy; it was a small break they had in between islands which allowed him to do so, and this was definitely it. He sighed deeply, and walked slightly to the edge of the elephant-like creatures face, as he looked down at the massive amount of shadows it produced; everything produced an infinite amount of shadows, so long as there was light present, however, the bigger the object was, the faster he could gain it. "Sorry for having to do this to you... Especially because you're dead." Ayeseru opened his mouth and sucked the shadows in like a dark hole; that's how people described his shadow consumption, as the shadows twisted and made their way to his mouth.

He would wait for Zack as he did this.

OOC:
Magic/Spells:
Eruption - 6 post CD
Roar - 5 post CD
Clones - 6 post CD
Sniper - 4 post CD
Merge - 4 post CD
Magical Energy - 100%% 5% consumed from Eruption, regained magical energy back to 100% due to a limitless supply of shadows.)

They had won. The gigantic beasts had fallen. It was their own selves that had done most of the damage though. It was a very useful ability that Ayeseru possessed. "Enough to almost make someone afraid of the dark." Zack commented as with his swords he sliced off two of the many trunks of the ficasdaltonphant and tossed one to Ayeseru. "Just one island to go before we split. Let's get to it."

With that he flew off with both trunks and headed back to the cave where the man was waiting stirring the giant pot of strange magical stuff with a gigantic spoon. Zack had to raised his eyes at that. To his surprise though when he tossed the trunks towards the vat the man spun and used the spoon to somehow twirl the trunks around it and wring out some goop rather than putting the trunks in themselves. Zack couldn't tell exactly why, but the man seemed stronger, more confident and more active. He was getting incredibly suspicious of this man, but didn't know why. Perhaps it was because he couldn't see a magical aura for him and yet he sensed one. Very strange indeed. He did not wait around though and flew up going for the next island. He hoped Ayeseru would of headed there himself either on the back of his stone bird or using the lacrima.

The final island before they split up. An island of reptiles ruled over by the legendary Mother Snake. That was what the man had said. A gigantic snake almost sounded like a dragon to him and he wondered if Ayeseru would have an advantage on this island against the reptiles. It would certainly be interesting to see what happened next.

Zack appeared to be in an even bigger rush than usual and that was true. Why? Because he knew his mantle would only last a short while and without its power he might not be able to handle the Mother Snake. He needed to bring down as many of these enemies as possible whilst he still had the chance. Otherwise his body might get too beat up for him to be of any use and he wasn't certain if the blacksmith would heal them again using his strange lacrima chairs.


The isle of reptiles was not mountainous. Nor was anything on it particularly gigantic apart from a huge lake in the middle and a huge tree that seemed to grow from the lake. It as actually quite beautiful. The lake itself was surrounded in dense tropical rainforest. The ideal hiding place for reptiles of all sorts. He guessed the tree would be the most likely place to find the mother snake and headed off in that direction. However, as the flew over the forest something leapt out at him striking him from the air. It was a strange serpentine creature with three eyes. Quite powerful looking, probably about the same as the rock condors. As he crashed to the ground he noticed that there was another one waiting. It seemed the two had ganged up on him, but not for themselves. There was a strange reptilian shelled creature that looked more suited for the water than land. However, it looked injured. They were going to feed him to it was his guess. It made sense. It wasn't going to happen though.

Magic:

The member 'Speed Demon Zack' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Two large serpentine creatures. Not the biggest things he'd fought in the past. Not even the biggest things he'd fought today. In fact, if he rated them based on what he had fought today they were actually pretty damn small. Still, they were a potential threat. Well, they would be if not for him being in his enhanced state. He moved like a blur dodging them again and again. He didn't go for major attacks, but merely dodged in odd ways and nicked them slightly to keep them angry. Why? So that eventually exactly what happened would happen. The two serpents became entangled with one another. What happened next though was something he did not expect. A third one rumbled out of the ground somehow tearing the two of them apart so he was now facing all three. That was quite irritating. Yet what was potentially worrying was that they weren't attacking. No instead, they were glowing and making some weird noise. That was then dozens of serpentine heads rose up from the ground followed by a large body. The magic that radiated from it was at least equal to an ocpald or the lightning phoenix. Seemed like every island had four levels of beasts. A weak thing that was barely a threat, a normal level creature that was a threat, a strong creature that was a challenge and a big threat and then the king of the island who dwarfed the others in power. The strong creature was generally a good indication of how strong the boss would be.

By the looks of these creatures the boss would be big, but fast with it. Likely relying on crushing and binding. That was interesting. So far they'd had a beast that relied on speed with cutting and biting, a bird that relied on rotation and size, an elephant-like creature that relied on raw power and a giant fish monster that relied on magic. So a beast that relied on binding would be an interesting opponent. Yet it would also likely have magic to provide itself some boost. Perhaps these creatures would give him an indication of how the magic of the boss would work.

"So my slithery friends. Seems like your buddy the dragon turtle got his ass handed to him by Ayeseru. Which one of you wants to go visit him first?" he said and then charged forward anyway. He moved at high speed a mere blur and sliced one of the snakes he had tangled right down the middle. The mild damage he had done earlier, the strength of his blade, the buffs he possessed and his natural strength was enough to bring it down. Unfortunately, it brought him into range of the tornagragon who launched a huge barrage of air blasts at Zack. Well, it would have been unfortunate if he'd been another type of slayer. As it was...this was food for him. He inhaled deeply taking in all of the air and felt it recharge his magic all the way to full. Seeing its air attack fail its eyes changed from the strange white they were to a crimson colour. This time it let out several blasts of fire instead. He grimaced and flew upwards dodging out of the way of the blows.One caught his leg however and due to the way his aura worked the damage was amplified. He wouldn't be using that leg for a while, or at least until he could heal it. It hurt like hell though. "Can't get hit by that again."

Magic:

The member 'Speed Demon Zack' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Ayeseru wanted to help Zack.  He really, really, really would've liked to do so.  Normally, Ayeseru would've dived in to the fray, dishing out punishment whilst taking little to none in these situations, especially when a comrade like Zack was involved in the fray against the enemy, however, one of the strange multi-eyed snakes came out of nowhere, leaping into the air towards Ayeseru and his bird companion, striking the majestic bird.  The hit caused the unnamed bird to squak, and flap its wings madly as it would lift itself upwards, like a horse would when it stands on its hind legs.  This, naturally, caused Ayeseru to fall off of his companion, and because it was so focused and angry towards the strange snake critter, it did not notice Ayeseru falling, and was battling the three eyed snake toe to toe.  Quite frankly, Ayeseru didn't mind, in fact, he had preferred it in this situation, mostly because there were three powers, equal to the strange, multi-headed creature that had popped up on Zack, and, with hardly any surprise at all to Ayeseru, that was, in fact, what had popped out next from the ground.  Ayeseru was still about halfway during his fall before he could actually come close to their chomping range, so he should be safe...  Right?

Ayeseru was debating his next move before, suddenly...  Eh?  One of the multi-headed creatures had suddenly jumped up high, in a flash, right up to Ayeseru; the beasts did not appear to be agile, so it caught Ayeseru by surprise.  If it wasn't for his quick reaction time speed, a massive chunk, if not, all of his torso would've been chomped off; he had transformed into a shadow in the nick of time, sighing in relief as he passed through and landed as a shadow where the beast previously stood.  The other two monsters noticed, and began charging beams in each of their mouths; Fire, ice, water, earth, light, and darkness.  Ayeseru used his Dark Step ability in order to move out of the blasts way, else there would be no remains of him.  Ayeseru then transported back to the shadow of the beast who went up in the air, who was now rapidly descending.  Before it had an opportunity to actually harm Ayeseru with the fall, however, Ayeseru activated Shadow Dragon's Shifting Shadows.  He rapidly turned himself into a spinning saw, moving directly up one of the creatures body, slicing every head in half with much more efficiency than expected.  In fact, by the time Ayeseru reached the top, because of the constant damage and strange effectiveness he had on the creature, it was already dead.

Ayeseru jumped up into the air as the beast was collapsing, grinning widely.  So...  I can hurt these things more than the others I've faced so far of equal power?  That must mean they're some form of dragon...  Heh...  Ayeseru rapidly descended, though was quickly caught on his bird companions back; it had bites, bruises, and pain written all over it, however, the opponent he was facing was in a much worse state; death.  Ayeseru called out for his bird to move at top speed; an amazing, general speed.  The creatures could not catch them as Ayeseru laughed and devised another plan.

OOC:
Magic/Spells:
Eruption - 4 post CD
Roar - 4 post CD
Clones - 4 post CD
Sniper - 2 post CD
Merge - 2 post CD
Shifting Shadows - 3 post DR
Dark Step - 4 post DR
Magical Energy - 92.5% (5% consumed from step, 2.5% consumed from shadow form, natural regen in 4 posts.)

The member 'Chaotic Rumble' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Judging by his reaction and how the beasts were harmed it seemed that his partner for this job had discovered an inherent weakness in the strongest of their foes. They seemed to be reptilian in nature. No not just reptilian. They were dragon-like. Hence as a dragon slayer he was doing extra damage. Yet he was not alone in that respect for as Zack had risen up into the sky to recover briefly from the intense fire storm that had hit his leg he noticed something about one of the remaining devil serpents that had hit him earlier. Its skin was damage on the area it hit Zack with. His aura provided a thick defensive layer, but not enough to damage. Or at least not in most cases. Was it a one off? He couldn't tell and so quickly flew down dodging another fire blast narrowly. The corpse of the one he had sliced in two also seemed to have similar markings. So it seemed these serpents were demonic in some way. That was the only reason they would receive damage from just touching his aura. He decided to name them devil serpents. It was unfortunate that the tornagragon was not also demonic in nature. It seemed that Ayeseru had the edge there.

"Hey Ayeseru. You want to deal with the big ones whilst I deal with the stragglers?" he suggested. There were two devil serpents to deal with and one of the weird turtle things. There were also three tornagragons. They needed to deal with this as quickly as possible and find the head of this island whilst they were still at fighting strength. On top of that they then had another two islands to deal with. Things were challenging that was for certain.

He flew at one of the devil serpents like a bullet and it opened its mouth wide as if going to bite him, but he quickly spun swords held at his sides and flew right into its mouth and straight through it slicing it into tiny pieces. "Devil serpent sashimi anyone?" he joked and then with a flick of his foot booted a piece of the devil serpent at the other devil serpent hitting it in its stalk like eye and causing it teeter and fall into the other turtle lizard thing. He grinned and flew swiftly at it whilst he had a chance.

At least he thought he had a chance. However when he got close he was suddenly struck out of nowhere by two devil serpents. They had to of come from the ground otherwise he would of sensed them coming. They hit him from both sides and despite the damage the aura was causing held on with fangs. The third one, the one had been planning to attack lunged forward and began to wrap itself around him. What were they doing?

It was then he saw movement in the trees and suddenly out of nowhere a huge magical pressure was felt. Easily equal to that of any of the other emperors. From the lake slithered out a gigantic snake. Its departure from the lake caused it to subcede quite a bit revealing cave-like formations. The whole island must have underwater caverns that these beasts could travel through. The snake itself though had to be at least 20 miles long. It rose up straining its muscles and went to bite down on Zack. The devil serpents didn't even try to move. They were willing to sacrifice themselves to feed the mother snake what they saw as a prime delicacy.

He couldn't let that happen. The problem was that his easiest ways to deal with the situation were not possible to do. His sky doorway was not quite ready yet. His vortex required movement. His other offensive spells required movement. No wait, there was one. He inhaled deeply, which was difficult with the snake trying to crush him. "SKY KING'S HOWL." he shouted, but didn't launch it upwards at the mother snake. No instead he launched it downwards at the devil serpent cutting into him. The force of the breath force him up into the air and the explosion generated blasted off the serpents and destroyed them. The mother snake also got a face full of it, but it didn't seem that phazed. That was irritating and worrying as it was one of his strongest attacks. "Change of plan Ayeseru. You deal with those and i'll hold off the Mother."

[spoiler=Enemies remaining]
0/5 Devil serpents
2/3 Tornagragons
1/2 Crush turtles
1/1 Mother Snake

Magic:

[/quote]

The member 'Speed Demon Zack' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Ayeseru smiled when he saw saw Zack deal with the strange snake-like creatures with relative ease; he left strange burn marks behind with his magic, just as Ayeseru had with the strange multi-headed creature which he presumed to be partially dragon, seeing as it appeared to be more effective; naturally, this lead to Ayeseru presuming that the snakes were partially demonic, hence why Zack was able to deal additional, or what appeared to be, damage. However, something was off. Suddenly, all of the snakes had piled on to Zack... Even though his aura would clearly harm them, yet, they did not budge. Why? Ayeseru got his answer only moments later; a giant, pink snake, easily equal to all of the other emperor island's power scale, which meant that this was probably the big bad boss of that island. They were binding Zack for her. Fortunately enough, Zack was able to escape, and took down some of the island creatures down as he did so, too, however, there were still a few more remaining, and Ayeseru enjoyed a battle against the bosses with no external problems.

As the strange multi-headed dragon-like creatures appeared to be celebrating the entrance of their leader, Ayeseru took it as an opportunity to strike and take them both down at the same time. While they were distracted, Ayeseru used Dark Step in order to move to one of their shadows, transforming himself into a spear, and driving himself inside of the body of the strange creature. It roared in agony; its insides were being fried whilst they were being impaled. Ayeseru decided to roam about his insides for a good two minutes, destroying everything he could, before finally, judged it to be dead after he felt its body vibrate, and exited the opposite side of where he entered. His friend, clearly noticed this, and was preparing to lunge itself for an attack. Normally, Ayeseru would've been able to easily take on the enraged dragon-like creature, however, the strange land turtle had come into play, and slammed itself against Ayeseru, taking itself out of the equation, but more importantly, causing Ayeseru to flinch, due to the pain, and have one of the dragon-like creatures teeth sink deep into his shoulder.

Fortunately, the creature couldn't take a proper chomp on him, seeing as Ayeseru instantly broke its tooth upon it hitting his shoulder, though, now he was in severe pain; the tooth had easily gone in 3 inches deep. That arm was practically useless at this point, and as he forced the tooth out of his shoulder, blood gushed out in seemingly all directions. He had to admit, he underestimated the creatures, hence why he never went into his shadow transformation. When Ayeseru broke its tooth, the beast retreated in pain, and once again, Ayeseru took it as an opportunity; he jumped up to one of its mouths, and literally went inside of it, his shadow aura activated to burn its throat, causing the head to shrivel up. He did this multiple times, till the beast was defeated, and fortunately was able to avoid getting chomped on, though there were some close calls.

When he was done, he was bloodied and bruised once again; he'd like to say there were guts on him, but his aura had caused them to fry before they had a chance to land on him.

It was time to take on the boss.

OOC:
Magic/Spells:
Eruption - 3 post CD
Roar - 3 post CD
Clones - 3 post CD
Sniper - 1 post CD
Merge - 1 post CD
Shifting Shadows - 2 post DR
Dark Step - 3 post DR
Magical Energy - 92.5% (natural regen in 3 posts.)

It seemed that Ayeseru had managed to use his dragon slaying advantage to great effect and had wiped out the remaining opponents. Not it was just the two S-rank slayers battling it out for their lives against the giant snake. Well, it would be a battle, but the snake had not yet moved. It stood there silently observing the pair seemingly unfazed by the blast it had received from Zack nor by the death of its comrades. Its tongue flickered once and then suddenly Zack was sent flying. He managed to flip round in mid air to see that the emperor had seemingly not moved He stared at it in confusion. He hadn't seen in move at all. One minute it was upright showing off its height, or at least what was out of the lake, and the next moment he'd been sent flying. It was almost as if it had hit him just by flickering its tongue, but that couldn't be right. He hadn't felt any change in the air nor seen it with his eyes, scented it with his nose or heard it. Surely he would of sensed something if it had launched an attack?

He observed its magic aura, but couldn't identify it. It was as if it was an everchanging shape. Not one that he had encountered before and seemingly non-elemental though he thought he caught a glimpse of poison or acid. Then it hit him. If its magic aura changed shapes then it likely meant it could alter something. And if it could alter something why couldn't it generate an illusion. It had struck him somehow, but hidden the blow perfectly. An illusionist that could effect sight, smell and hearing? That seemed powerful. However, if it was an illusionist then how did he know this was its full body. Perhaps that was why it had seemed unfazed. He hadn't actually hit it. Or perhaps he had and it was hiding the damage.

"Ayeseru...I think it uses illusions and powerful ones at that." he said warning his friend. He assumed a ready stance and then suddenly launched forward going for the part of it nearer the ground. As he moved he began to weave side to side at such speed he seemed to be in multiple places at once. If it was going to use illusions then so would he. Well, as close as he could towards illusions anyway. In order to hit him he'd need speed or some big attack. It was quite a large target, but Zack honestly felt instinctively that its size was an illusion. He'd seen giant enemies on this island, but this snake's size seemed unreal, even when compared to the other emperors.

It didn't seem to strike or move again. He thought he saw a little twinkle in its eye and suddenly he was thrown upwards into the air as if hit from below. He flipped around and glanced down trying to focus. He thought he saw a flicker of something retracted into the ground. Could that have been it instead? Had it hit him from below? No....it hadn't flexed a single muscle. Surely he'd be able to see that. He growled and flew at it once more and began to blur again then flipped forward constantly forming a giant buzzsaw. It was dizzying as hell, but now it would be harder to get near him. To his surprise the beast barely even moved. It just altered a fraction so Zack missed despite the fact it was incredibly hard to tell exactly where he was. Could it keep up with his speed? That was...disconcerting. The battle wolf had outsped him to some extent, but this seemed different. It was barely having to try and he was going almost all out. He had to hit it soon before he lost the buff from Sky Emperor's mantle.

Enemies remaining:

Magic:

[/quote]

Ayeseru half squinted as he laid eyes on what took place before him, and was somewhat intimidated, as it was quite bizarre.  It was somehow...  As big as the island?  No, even bigger!  But...  That wasn't correct, either.  It was as though it was everywhere, and nowhere at the same time.  It was definitely an enormous creature, there was no doubting that much, else its entire scent wouldn't be covering the island, yet, Ayeseru got the impression that it wasn't as big as his eyes perceived it to be.  It was problematic.  Ayeseru couldn't quite detect it with sight, nor could he with sound.  Touch and taste were both out of the question, and just as he thought of before...  "Scent!", he bellowed out without thinking; thinking out loud could sometimes be a bad habit, but Ayeseru was hoping that Zack would understand from the single word what he was getting at.  In order to combat an enemy they cannot see, hear, or even touch properly, they would have to rely on their senses of smell, and seeing as it gave a powerful odor, it wouldn't be the biggest problem to figure out exactly where it was.  If that wasn't enough, they were both Slayers, so they had that going for them, too.

However, there were still problems with all of this; one of his shoulders was basically useless, which meant that his entire arm was useless, too.  An ultimate result to this would be that, because he was feeling out of breath and tired, and because of that unable to cast any spells effectively, he would have to do the next best thing - work as a decoy.  Zack was more than capable of dealing enough damage to the creature, or so he had hoped, but at the state the two were in, he doubted that even a man of his calibur would be able to take down the Mother Snake alone.  Sprouting his draconic wings made of eternal shadow, Ayeseru gained the ability to take flight once more!  Using his nose to carefully sniff out where the Mother Snake was positioned in, Ayeseru was able to fly to where hopefully was the great being at top speeds, leg prepared to land a powerful blow, and so...  He did.  Whilst it was invisible where Mother Snake was located at, he landed the blow; evident from the fact he actually crashed into something and the creature letting out a grunt.  Ayeseru had obviously not hurt it much, if at all, but he finally caught the attention of the creature, and now, it was chasing him.

Ayeseru flew in the opposite direction of where the Mother Snake was, it chasing him furiously, finding Ayeseru to be nuisance - one to be consumed. Ayeseru had to fly through trees, rocks, mountains, and more to even slow down the fast reptile, however, combined with his wings and the obstacles, he was able to evade it... For the most part. There came a time where there was a relatively open field, and enough distance between the last two obstacles that Ayeseru would be unable to keep on escaping. Mother Snake knew this, increasing her speed for the killing blow, launching her own body at him, though at the last second, Ayeseru was able to use his Dark Step ability in order to transport himself away, but... He was bouncing, crashing, and flying with extreme, uncontrollable force into trees, rocks, and finally came to a stop when he hit the base of a mountain, falling on the ground face first, and a few rocks dropping on top of him.

He wasn't knocked out, but he might as well have been; he wasn't able to move, and his spells instantly ended.

It was all Zack.

OOC:
Magic/Spells:
Eruption - 2 post CD
Roar - 2 post CD
Clones - 2 post CD
Sniper - ready
Merge - ready
Shifting Shadows - 4 post cd
Dark Step - 4 post cd
Wings - 4 post cd
Magical Energy - 92.5% (natural regen in 2 posts.)

The mother snake was powerful and its illusions, if that is what it was using, was easily stopping them from doing any real damage. They could not rely on sight, sound, touch or taste. Even his air sense seemed to not be working in this situation. However, Ayeseru had given a highly valid suggestion on a way to identify the true location of the mother snake. Smell. OR as he had put it scent. It seemed unlikely it could deal with every sense. It had to have a flaw somewhere. In this case it had to be the sense of smell.

He flew after the two as fast as he could thinking about the best way to deal with this. He had to think. Even his instincts, normally sharp and able to deal with almost any situation, were not able to deal witt this situation. He actually had to think and he had to think fast as his Sky Emperor's mantle would not last much longer.

He saw Chaotic go down and he saw the Mother Snake's form flicker slightly as it went in for a final blow. Zack didn't have to think. He knew what to do he flew over and landed over the top of Chaotic and used his entire strength to hold open the mouth of the mother snake and prevent it biting down on Chaotic. He could probably hold it for a little while, but not much longer. The thing was though he didn't need his hands to use his swords. As he had flown over he had got out all three swords and now had them positioned ready to strike. "Let's see how you like being hit from the inside. "

Each of his swords began to glow with magical energy. The black one with fire, the green one with cold and the silver one with electricity. "DEATH BY LACERATIONS" he shouted and each of the three blades, in the space of one second struck the mother snake's insides a full fifteen times with each blade. The beast screamed out in agony and pulled back. As it did so its form flickered once more revealing its true form. It was a lot smaller than it had seemed, but its magic power was still huge. Its body was pretty cut up as Zack's swords floated back towards him surrounding him.

"So you brokkkkee through my defensssse" the snaked hissed. "Ssssshame your friend had to die to let you do it." Zack just smiled and exhaled. Instantly a glow began to surround Ayeseru and his wounds began to heal. He had combined two of his healing spells in order to heal the man. Hopefully, it would be enough because even in its heavily damaged state and with the buffs on his swords, he doubted he had enough energy left to beat this creature. His aura faded away and not he was back at base strength.

"Up ya get buddy. We got a giant snake to beat before we start our competition." Zack said with a grin assuming an offensive stance as he rose up into the air readying himself for the combat to come.

Enemies remaining:

Magic: