Cornered (Closed/Completed)

[kaleb04]

Nokosu swiftly raised his sword; its blade was slowly reverting back to orange. He deflected several of the arrows with the hot blade, and loud sizzles filled the air. However, one arrow had managed to avoid his blade, and impaled itself a few centimeters into Nokosu's right upper-arm before shattering. It was painful, yes, but what pained Nokosu more was seeing the leather arm-band that he received on Krezzica snap off and be carried off in the breeze.

He then quickly raised his metal case behind him to ward off the holy orbs. The case deflected most of them, but the last orb had knocked the case out of his hand and down to the streets of Traverse Town. "Damn it all!" The blast not only knocked away his weapon case, but knocked him off his footing. He gripped Ciraph's hide tightly with one arm as the rest of his body dangled off the side of his torso. Increasing the muscle strength of his upper arms with mana, he quickly pulled himself back onto the dragons back and re-situated himself.

"Why yes little one. Giving into the darkness, this beautiful and graceful darkness, has indeed given me more power and abilities. Allow me to play a piece of it for you. Consider it your requiem!"[/b]

Nokosu looked back at the man, and his adrenaline started kicking from the new amounts of fear that had just unveiled itself. Kuja had undergone a transformation, and was about to pull off a powerful attack by the looks of it. Trying to stall in ignorance had been working against Nokosu from the start. The krezzican whipped his neck toward the back of Ciraph's head, and shouted against the wind.

"We need to get out of here! Qui-" Nokosu stopped himself and realized how selfish he just sounded. The heartless had said he was going to harm only Nokosu, as long as the dragon didn't do anything. Besides, it was Nokosu's play of unknowingness that was the most probable reason for Kuja to make this transformation. "Hold on a minute! Who's to say that the dangerous guy won't just go and turn the dragon into a heartless once he is done killing me?" With that thought in mind, Nokosu looked back at Ciraph's head. "I doubt that this is a fight that we can win! I think it would be in both our best interests if we made a hasty retreat!"

[sumdood]

Ciraph growled at Kuja. He was underestimating the white dragon and how ferocious he was. He wasn't going to back down to this black creature. No, he was of the ones who had killed his kinsmen, and submitting was not something he would do.

"I will not back down, young one," Ciraph growled, his eyes locked on Kuja as he charged toward them, covered in red feather-like appendages.

As he neared close enough to hit, Ciraph yelled,"hold on tight!" to Nokosu, and spun around, flaring his wings out wide, sweeping ygrm out at Kuja in such close proximity, it would be near impossible for him to dodge.

Of course, this was an attack meant to disrupt his momentum and interrupt his attack, not to injure, so it wouldn't do much to the heartless, but he would be batted down quite a ways to the ground before he'd be able to recover from it.

[lexaeus]

At the sight of the giant wing heading towards him Kuja stopped gathering power, but still keeping what power he HAD gathered, and cast Protect and Reflect on himself. The wing bounced off with a shing. Possibly hurting Ciraph in the process.

"Now, now Ciraph. Why must you fight against your future master? Your song still needs to be played and bashed into your head..." Kuja taunted as he rapidly gathered the needed energy for Flare Star.

With the glowing red orb in his palm the Genome-Heartless flew at Ciraph and Nokosu. When he was within five feet of the closest point of the dragon Kuja fired off the attack. Both the dragon and the one on it would be surrounded in a flurry of "fire like" orbs. Not wanting to get in to far, Kuja pulled back and fired off a Thundaga arrow.

[kaleb04]

Kuja charged them with a glowing orb in his hand. "He's within my range, I might as well give it a shot!" As the red creature flew within ten feet of Nokosu to fire his attack, Nokosu drew back his blade, preparing for his Shotgun Flare. Charging a large amount of his mana into it, he waved his blade at the heartless. In its wake a massive flame erupted forth, just after Kuja had casted Flare Orb. It didn't manage to stop his attack, but at least Nokosu might have gotten a hit on that heartless.

They were now surrounded by a number of fiery orbs that encircled the young man and the dragon. Nokosu had a feeling these would hurt a lot more than the ones before. Turning back to Kuja who had already distanced himself, the krezzican could see him fire off a yellow magic arrow. "You're a real pain, you know that?" Nokosu did what he could to make sure fear hasn't shown, but now his annoyance was beginning to seep through. It was to be expected, Kuja is a heartless- and a powerful one at that. The krezzican casted Altered Reflera, which summoned a small magical barrier with a 3’ diamater. Putting a small crack in the newly-formed shield, the arrow bounced back as a glowing silver bullet of light, headed straight toward Kuja.

As for the fiery orbs that were going to collide and explode with them any minute, Nokosu braced himself and hoped Ciraph would think of something.

[sumdood]

Ciraph roared as his wing rebounded off of the heartless' magic shield, wrenching his wing shoulder a little, but causing no real injury. He quickly recovered and saw Nokosu using magic of his own against the heartless as Kuja sent a spread of fiery orbs around them.
With a roar, Ciraph sent a blast of flame breath at Kuja as Nokosu reflected the thundaga arrow back at him and cast protect around himself and Nokosu, hoping to protect them from the orbs around them. Now there was nothing to do but wait.....

[lexaeus]

Kuja laughed at the sight of the Dragon casting a protect spell around the two. Flare Star is a very unique attack that only Kuja has, it can negate the effect of even the spell Reflect. The only way to actually prevent some damage is to cast Shell, not protect. And this idiotic logic made Kuja smile

"You must do better then that Ciraph. Especially if you cast the wrong protect spell. Now go Flare Star. DESTROY THEM!!" Kuja screamed as he deflected his own Thundaga arrow that was shot back at him.

"Now for the finale. Fear not Cirpah, being a Heartless is truly wonderful gift to receive." Kuja thought as he charged up Ultima.

[kaleb04]

Nokosu's shotgun flare had missed, and Kuja reflected the arrow back at the krezzican. What was special about this "Altered Reflera" Nokosu had casted, was that it stayed up for a few seconds; instead of being instantaneous. The arrow bounced back off his shield and back at Kuja one last time before disappearing in a flash of white light.

"Nothing seems to be working. I want to run, but this dragon won't back down; and running on foot is probably suicide." Running wasn’t the only option though, was it? There is the option of continuing the fight with Kuja (which so far was proving to be ineffective). The long-haired creep had to have some sort of weakness that Nokosu and Ciraph could exploit. With this transformation, there seemed to be none. What made things even harder was the fact that this man was a heartless, which made the last-resort option of begging useless.

This entire confrontation just made Nokosu's hatred for the heartless grow. The thought of just sitting on the white beast's back, able to little to nothing now that his only two techniques was in a cool-down phase. The feeling of helplessness came back… the feeling of not being able to do anything but sit and wait as the minutes to his demise tick away.

The Flare Star attack had commenced. The red orbs flew in directly at the young man and the dragon. Nokosu tightened his grip on Ciraph, and braced himself for the oncoming attack.

((OOC: I would say Nokosu was hit, but since he is riding on Ciraph, whether or not he takes the hit depends on Ciraph’s actions in the next post.))

[sumdood]

(sorry for the wait. My blackberry kept insisting there were no new posts here. <.<)

Ciraph roared as Kuja mocked him, sending his attack at the white dragon. He had guessed that protect wouldn't work against the orbs Kuja had up. He hadn't cast protect for that reason.

He was planning on opening a light portal right on top of himself, which he hoped would have the same essential effect as teleportation. However, he couldn't be sure, as he'd never done it before. But, it was a do or die situation here, the possible outcome was better than the odds they faced if they took Kuja's attack head-on.

So, as Kuja sent his attack at Ciraph, he let out a massive, deafening roar that shattered nearby windows with its volume, and opened a light portal right on top of himself, the dragon and his passenger immediately winking out of existence as the fire orbs closed on thin air.

Then, they rematerialzed right behind Kuja, shooting from an exit portal, Ciraph's claws extended outward to rip the heartless to pieces....

(yeah. Didn't see that coming, did you? ;D)

[lexaeus]

(I actually did.....It wont be at all hard to dodge)

Kuja finished gathering the needed energy for Ultima. Now, it was finally going to be time to claim the prize.

"Now mighty dragon, welcome to the darkness!! It shall b-----" Kujas' words were cut off as Ciraph let out a roar that shattered many windows and cracked some buildings. It would seem that even Kuja knew not of this dragons powers.

Kuja was about to let out the attack when he witnessed both the dragon AND his tiny passenger dissipate into a portal of light. This, surprising enough to Kuja, made the Heartless very annoyed, the inner darkness was ranting about the light and its foolish users. This was made apparent by the look on Kujas face. He closed his eyes and focused, with his new powers surly he could sense the bending of light, albeit not as good as an actual light wielder.

"You played a good game Ciraph, but a fool will make foolish moves to save a soul he knows not. Now......Ultima!" Kuja laughed as he turned around to see the dragon emerging, claws and teeth at the ready. Kuja let out a sinister laugh as the ball of massive and destructive energy shot out in a sphere, rather then a beam, and would dissipate over Ciraph and the other on him the instant it would come in contact with ANY part of the dragon or Nokosu.

[kaleb04]

((Well I'll be a leopard seal's blind uncle. Anyways, here goes nothing. This will perhaps be, by far, one of the stupidest moves I had my character make.))

Ciraph's plan to come at Kuja from behind had failed! The red heartless turned to face them as soon as they had re-emerged from the portal of light. Damn it all! Nokosu was sure that they were going to hit him that time! Is this where it ends?

Maybe not.

As Kuja was talking about foolish moves, Nokosu thought up one of his own. "This is going to be incredibly idiotic, but I am not going to just sit here and take this attack head on." The young Krezzican stood up in the back of the dragon as Kuja took a short pause. As soon as the heartless shouted "Ultima!" Nokosu shot a burst of mana to his legs and raced up the length of Ciraph’s back. He stared into the dark sphere, and grimaced. Nokosu wanted to stop running, and leap off the dragon to one of the nearby roof-tops, but that wouldn’t help. What Nokosu was about to do now was completely against his own ideals when it comes to fighting, but he didn’t care at a time like this. There was time to chastise himself later… if there was going to be a later.

Nokosu gained momentum during his run, and leaped off Ciraph's snout, and charged at Kuja head on. His body soared over the Ultima spell, missing his foot only by a few inches. Nokosu was now rocketing at Kuja head on. There was no turning back now.

"Taste blade, you heartless bastard!" He cursed Kuja as he brought down his sword to strike the monstrosity's forehead. He had put a majority of his mana into that sword swing; no matter what part of Kuja the blade hit, the heartless wasn't going to go unscathed. Powerful force added with burning hot steel wasn’t the type of combination to leave a mere scratch. The young krezzican silently prayed to himself (eyes open, of course) that some benevolent force would guide his blade into the heartless' hide.

Nokosu didn't just swing at Kuja with no type of insurance. He would pull back his sword and use a Shotgun Flare immediately if the beastly heartless tried to avoid the blow or cast one of his own spells.

((*pokemon battle theme* Nokosu! Use your overhead sword swing on Kuja! Nooow! *Nokosu's attack missed* $#@%! Could of swapped out my pokemon, but I didn’t…))

[sumdood]

(XD hahaha. I like that thing about pokemon. Lol funny stuff, shotgun. Lol)

Ciraph was about to cast a last second shell spell over himself and Nokosu as he felt his smaller passenger run along his back, up his scaly neck, and leap off of his about, right over the ultima spell. He forgot about the shell spell for the moment and rolled to the side, a picture of aerial grace. A single projectile was easy for him to dodge, even at close range, since he'd had to dodge sheets of arrows back on his homeworld. Kuja would have to do better than that to take this dragon from the skies.

Roaring, Ciraph swooped around underneath Kuja, and then did a twirl in the air, bringing the spines of the end of his tail on a colision course for Kuja's back. He timed it so that as Nokosu started to fall, he would land on the white dragon's back.

[lexaeus]

Kuja laughed as the person jumped off of Ciraph for an attack. The fool, just because the attack missed doesn't mean that it is not gone. With a faint snap of his fingers the Ultima orb instantly went into reverse and toward Nokosu.

"Taste blade, you heartless bastard!"

"You really shouldn't call a false gambit my dear. Especially when you know not of my power. Now, Reflect!" Kuja chuckled as the mirror of energy surrounded Kuja and would repel any attack that was in close time. Without a second thought the Genome used a low Holy spell and made a blinding flash of light and flew out of the top of a hole he made in his shield on the very top.

"You call me Heartless, but think of your own actions. Killing innocent beings that only wish to liberate you from your pathetic life. You should be grateful that we would allow this luxury. But it seems that you need some teaching little one." Kuja said with much scorn as he saw that the Ultima orb was very close to Nokosu, he turned his head and saw that some strange thing was going in Ciraphs heart. Could it be? A speck.....of darkness? This would require further inquiry.

(Me and Sumdood talked about the darkness Shotgun.)

[kaleb04]

((Ah, something that happened in an earlier thread?))

The sword swing bounced off the shield, sending a strong, painful vibration throughout his left arm and torso. He glanced back to see that he had become dangerously close to the Ultima sphere, and might just fall right into it. There was a light flash of light within the sphere, and their foe now reappeared higher in the sky. "I thought I was going to hit him! It feels like this guy is always one step ahead of us." Needless to say it had gotten on Nokosu's nerves. He didn’t mine losing, but in this fight, losing meant dying.
"You call me Heartless, but think of your own actions. Killing innocent beings that only wish to liberate you from your pathetic life. You should be grateful that we would allow this luxury. But it seems that you need some teaching little one."

Nokosu slashed his sword in the direction opposite of Kuja, mere feet away from the Ultima sphere and beginning to fall. A vicious fire gushed out of the blade and rocketed Nokosu, at the cost of his remaining mana, back up to Kuja. Another foolish move, which may easily be countered by some trick or another, but the krezzican wasn't going to give up.

"Heartless destroy worlds!" He wanted to say more, but wouldn't have the time. The force of the propulsion left Nokosu unable to turn his back, so he merely extended his elbow, aiming for Kuja's bare gut.

((I'm starting to wing things here, as Nokosu has only two actual attacks... should of made him with more, but that is where future character development comes in.))

[sumdood]

(I'll help!
And, no, it didn't happen in an earlier thread, shotgun. Lol its the fact that the heartless destroyed ciraph's world, and this his tribe-brothers. He has a small speck of intense darkness which is his hatred of the heartless)

Ciraph roared loudly again as his tail was bounced off of Kuja's shield again. This black beast was beginning to anger him.

And an angry dragon was not pretty. Not in the least.

If only he could call on the power of the elder dragons. He could summon their spirits to him, to possess him, and give him strength this heartless wouldn't be able to stop. It was power that Ciraph had seen used to level entire cities, nothing but a smoking crater left to attest to their former existence.
However, that power had been lost when the heartles had destroyed his homeworld. The knowledge of how to do it must be passed down, and he hadn't been taught how to do it. That mean the power was now lost forever.

However, that did not mean he was powerless. It just meant he had nobody to rely on but himself and the young one. That would have to do for now.

So, he abruptly wheeled back the way he'd come, running headlong into the Ultima attack. If he didn't get rid of it, neither he nor the little one would survive.

As he barrelled into it, the ball exploded with tremendous fury, the shock wave from the explosion knocking out what remaining windows there were, shaking the foundations of houses.

And as the center of it all cleared, Ciraph was nowhere to be found.

[lexaeus]

Kuja smirked at the sight of Nokosu trying yet again to attack. Such simple creatures humans are when their lives depend on it. Thus, Kuja, making a sword from a Blizzaga spell, met the boy in a sword deadlock. The ice and fire meeting with a force that would normally go against the Genomes favor. But he had no intention to stay in this dead lock forever, as soon as the ice had connected with the fire blade, Kuja gave a sweep kick to the legs of Nokosu. Once the legs made contact, Kuja would bounce back a little and fire off a barrage of thunder needles.

"Now child, prepare to....NO! Ciraph! Ultima will destroy you!" A fake plea from the Genome would make Nokosu look back and try and save the dragon. With a smirk and an urge to laugh insanely, Kuja opened a dark portal around himself and Nokosu. The portal that surrounded Nokosu would drag him off to wherever the darkness wished.