IK vs PA (Round 2) 1v1

[Enigmatic Immortal]

This battle begins at Midnight Monday evening!

The following match up is:

Chibimon Blue vs Cydnar Yrene!

[Enigmatic Immortal]

You have two weeks, GOOD LUCK!

[Chibimon Blue]

“Look, I know you don’t like it, MysLight, but a friend in need is a friend indeed. Or, something like that,” Hsa’s voice reacted to the growling of his canine compatriot. The two had been contacted by Sei Orlouge to take part in a war for Corone’s independence. As far as Hsa knew, Corone had always been independent, but when a pal asked for assistance, Hsa was never one to resist a little ‘side quest’ as it were during his major goal of collecting all Chibimon.

Besides, given the simple instructions Sei had left the two with, Hsa had grown confident that he would indeed find some extra Chibimon here in Concordia forest. They had been told to search out any ambushes or scouts along the outskirts of Ixian Castle. Most of the actual soldiers had been rerouted to Gisela in order to concentrate efforts on Radasanth, so the mute had grown desperate in asking the eccentric Hsa for aid.

The melodies of the birds above were very deceptive. If there was a war going on, Hsa could not hear it. The again, MysLight was chosen as the boy’s companion for this journey because of his extra-sensory abilities. Wolves were natural hunters, able to sniff out and hear things normal people could not. Any raiding party hoping to hide from Hsa’s sight would surely be revealed by MysLight’s nose.

Each step on the soft grass slowly lulled the child into a false sense of security. He placed his hand upon the white fur of his companion, the beast responding by turning for just a moment to look at his master. Hsa smiled to the creature, stroking his soft hair as they walked along. Despite all the boasting of the importance of this mission from Sei, Hsa had expected a bit more action on his part.

“You would think with that decoy caravan being attacked earlier in the week, the enemy would have brought the fight to us,” Hsa spoke plainly, with only the simplicity that a young boy could posses. MysLight responded with a snort, the equivalent to agreeing with his owner. As they continued their walk, Hsa found himself taking breaks more frequently, to both rest and so that MysLight could relieve himself. To a dog, so many unmarked trees in this forest were like a piece of heaven on Althanas, though the lupine Chibimon seemed more focused on his mission than his trainer did.

Hsa leaned against yet another tree, waiting for his friend to once again mark his territory, when he heard MysLight’s rabid barking. The sudden noise jostled the youth, causing him to jump off of his temporary resting spot. The birds in the trees ended their song, replaced by the frantic flapping of their wings as they tried to escape imminent danger. There was a storm brewing, and it seemed that the only things that would stop this storm from turning into a hurricane were just a child and his pet.

Hsa looked around for his companion, the sudden rustling of bushes from all around startling the young boy. Either MysLight was playing some sort of terrible joke on the kid, or there was a legitimate danger nearby. “MysLight, come!” Hsa ordered, his child-like voice now finely tuned into the orders that an adult would bark at their children, “And whoever or whatever you are that spooked my Chibimon, you may as well come out too!”

[Cydnar]

In the moss-covered tomb of wood, long rotted by age, weather, and time, Cydnar sighed. He had been many things in his long life, but a scout had never been one of his limited talents. Though he wore only a light cloth robe, leather bracers, and a solitary sword cane on his right hip, he had still given the game away needlessly. He glanced down at the broken twig beneath the tip of his boot and imagined grinding it to dust between forefinger and thumb. He peered ahead through the slither of a crack at the clearing beyond, and put thoughts of his revenge to rest. The scent of mud, damp, and fungi had become so engrained in his nostrils, the prospect of a potential confrontation seemed almost preferable to the elf.

“Very well, good sir,” he declared in reply to the youth’s challenge. He rose out of the hollow stump and righted himself with a clicking together of the vertebrate in his spine. His violet left half was awash with the golden floral threads of his office in the ray of sunlight that penetrated the canopy overhead, and his abyssal right was silent, unlit, and embroidered with silver moons and carrion. “I did not mean to spook your,” he paused for thought as he began to advance through the undergrowth and out through the treeline into the clearing. “Companion.” He cocked his head slightly, a sign that he was entirely unsure what to call the strange, yet somehow familiar creature at the boy’s command. He doubted very much that he wanted to test the origin of its maw.

The bird song returned to the Concordia wilds in the ensuing, awkward, and warranted silence. Cydnar stared with a friendly but stern smile into the boy’s eyes. They were blue, cold as ice, and yet somehow full of promise. It was a promise of potential, a spark Cydnar saw all too often in the pupils of humans. They possessed something few elves did, they possessed a sense of hope, desperation, and determination that was almost intoxicating. The chorus of chaffinches, jays, and blackbirds formed a spiritual anthem to their crossing of paths. Nature itself seemed to herald this meeting.

“My name is Cydnar Yrene, of the Salthias temple.” He doubted he would make much sense to the boy, who could not have been older than seventeen. Tradition however was something that the diplomatically minded elf found hard to forget. He bowed politely, tucking his hand into the small of his stomach as he leant forwards. “I was stalking the buck with the white horns and crafted mane. It would appear, he gestured over his shoulder with a cupped palm to his sanctuary, “that I quite lost track of time.”

“Buck?” the boy said, suspicion seething between every syllable and breath. Cydnar was certain his eyes shone brighter when he spoke. Whoever he was, the elf would have to tread carefully if he was to survive with both their lives intact. He had no intention of killing here today. He took a deep breath.

“My people consider a Grand Hunt to be a rite of passage.” He gestured at his attire, “As you can see, I was never really the active sort. Books, academia, and the rhetoric of kings are my foray.” He furrowed his brow into a sheepish and embarrassed grin. He set his arms loosely to his side, but kept the hilt of his sword cane within easy and instinctual distance of his wavering digits. “What about you, kind sir?” he looked briefly up through the oak and conifer ceiling to the cracked view of the sky, before he looked back into this opalescent spheres. “What brings you out into the forests with such,” he gestured to the ‘chibimon’, “curious company?”

[Chibimon Blue]

“We were…” Hsa’s voice trailed off, his mind wandering back to the buck that this strange elf had mentioned, “….we were hunting ourselves.” Hsa had never been too good at lying, though the prospect of an animal the boy had yet to see seemed to motivate him into the deception. The war was important to Sei, so it was important to Hsa, but a new Chibimon would not only be good for the boy, but his friend as well. The more creatures under the trainer’s control, the more troops Sei would have at his disposal.

From the sounds of things, the buck could be Cariboom, or Buckshot, maybe even Dreery. Hsa’s mind filled with possible candidates that would fit the description provided by the odd man. The return of the singing birds put the youth more at ease, though the low growls coming from MysLight did not. The dog stalked out of some shrubbery to the east of the elf, rejoining his master’s side. It seemed as though the lupine Chibimon was comfortable with the stranger so long as his trainer was.

Had knelt down, his eyes zigzagging across the ground, attempting to find any traces of the animal. IF this was a bluff, the enemy was more well informed of Sei’s units that Hsa had been lead to believe. If what the being before the boy was genuine, however, it provided a good opportunity for him. After all, what were the chances that a hunter was part of the Phoenix Ascendant?

Hsa touched the ground with his fingers, lifting the dirt up to his face to investigate. The soil on the teen’s fingertips was still wet, though the actual ground had been dry for a few days now. In order for the dirt to be as moist as it was, something would have had to kick it up, and in a hurry. While he could not indentify any footprints, Hsa could easily deduce that something was scared off from this location rather recently.

Hsa looked to the man who had introduced himself as ‘Cydnar’, now feeling comfortable enough to trust the elf, albeit not very much. “Hsa,” the youth smiled to his new acquaintance, “Hsa Eulb. It is very nice to meet you Mister Cydnar. And this little guy right here,” the child’s hands reached down and petted the mane of his large wolf, causing the constant growling from the beast’s throat to lower just a little bit, “Is MysLight. We’re something of trackers in this part of the woods. If you would like some help, we would be more than willing to aide you in finding your prey. It is our fault that you lost it in the first place, right?”

As Hsa stroked the fur of his Chibimon, he noticed his hand having to force the hairs of the creature back down. Something about Cydnar was putting MysLight on edge, and just as the dog trusted his master, so did the Hsa trust his dog. The boy’s eyes shifted down to his friend, MysLight’s paws digging deeper into the dirt to secure a foothold in the ground.

“If you agree, I think we should probably separate. Don’t get me wrong, but MysLight doesn’t seem to like you very much. I’d rather not have to pull him off of your mangled body because of some sort of misunderstanding.” Hsa’s concerns were legitimate, knowing the temper and occasional rebellious streak that his pet sometimes had. Kneeling down once more, Hsa felt around until he grabbed a stick, marking several small x patterns on the ground.

“We’ll meet back up here in an hour. Best as I can guess, your animal was headed west, towards Bradbury River. If we just follow the stream, I have no doubt that we’ll find and capture your beast, maybe even find more like him.” Hsa bit his lip, his big mouth almost on the verge of revealing his own master plan to capture the stag should it register in the child’s mental Chibimon database. “Do we have a deal?”

[Cydnar]

Cydnar considered the likely outcome of all the options available to him. If he fought, he doubted his ability to disable his bestial opponent without over extending his strength and breaking his vow. If he ran, he doubted he could outwit the creature. The nose of a wolf was many more times stronger than that of a man, and this creature seemed to be a wolf, and so much more besides. If he remained where he stood, and played the boy at his own game of thrones, then perhaps he could escape this encounter unscathed.

“We have a deal,” he nodded. It was the logical course to take, given his purpose in the forest, and the importance of acquiring the horn of the creature. With the dense bone, which possessed magical properties, Elisdrasil of the Phoenix Ascendant could divine the future course of the war. Though Cydnar did not truly grasp the power behind divination, since his dreams and visions had returned, he had endeavoured to do all he could to expose himself to a blossoming talent within himself.

“Good,” the boy aid sourly. His contempt was fading, but the elf would have to work much harder to barter for his trust. “Remember to follow the river.” He pointed in the direction of the tributary he called the Bradbury, and Cydnar glanced in that arc to pick out a safe path through roils of brambles, decaying ferns, and dancing willow reeds.

“You have no need to help me, unless you want to?” he smiled. In the density of his train of thought, he had forgotten his manners. “Your help is appreciated but I do not want to intrude.” He tucked his hair behind his ears, and let his hand drift away from the hilt of his sword. The quartz on the pommel caught a ray of sunlight and garnered the wolf’s affections. It yapped as Cydnar turned towards the river. The elf smiled wearily, turned back, and relented. “In fact, please, do come. I am unfamiliar with these lands, and if you are a tracker, you will be the elder amongst us.”

It irked Cydnar gravely to be relegated to the side-lines in the confrontation. Whilst he accepted his failure to prevent the supply delivery to the castle would have much to do with his assignment, he was unable to put aside the thought that he was being wasted in the sodden heartland of this wretched kingdom. It would not be until later, when he returned with the buck’s horns and saw the providence of their supposed ally that he would be relinquished of his guilt, shame, and his self-pity.

He waved the boy towards him, scuffing his boots over the rotten blanket of leaves that covered the floor of the clearing. There were, even to the untrained eye, multiple trails running back and forth across the brown foliage. Some lead behind Hsa, others to the knotted tree trunk the elf had hidden in, and a third lead up to the Bradbury, and towards the sound of running water out of sight through the rugged bark palisade.

[Chibimon Blue]

Cydnar seemed confident in his abilities, despite Hsa’s warnings. Perhaps he was strong enough to withstand the brunt of the canine’s attacks and continue on, should such a situation occur. After thinking for a few moments, giving his mind time to let everything sink in, Hsa nodded to the man, his hand leaving the fur of his beloved beast.

The child walked forward, his eyes scanning the ground as he passed Cydnar’s body, felt the warmth emanating from his elven form. MysLight cautiously passed the warrior as well, his eyes never leaving the sword of the fellow hunter, its canine nose flaring up to catch a whiff of the air. While Hsa had been easy to gain the trust of, the boy’s Chibimon would be a far different story.

Hsa began to follow a beaten trail of dust, his eyes trying to find any sign of animal activity in the area. As he walked closer to the Bradbury River, the chorus of birds was drowned out by the constant rushing of water upon rocks. Hsa’s eyes left the ground to focus more on the stream itself. Despite there not being a storm in several days, there seemed to be a sense of urgency to the dancing liquids as they made their way around various obstacles. The Bradbury River ran through Concordia, almost parallel to its brother, the Firewiner River.

“Most people don’t realize this,” Hsa spoke with a new tone to his voice, a tone that made it clear that the youth was in his natural element, “but when hunting any large herbivore, they tend to head to the nearest body of water when startled. If you had even made the creature bleed, it would attempt to drown itself rather than let you take home its carcass.” He hoped that this would be enough of an explanation to let Cydnar realize what he was doing; scouting the river itself for antlers, fur, or any other clue that the beast had been slain.

“But I did---“

“You didn’t hurt the stag, did you?” Hsa cut Cydnar off before he could finish the statement. The youth ran his hand through his white tussles, his focus returning to the ground for any signs of their prey. A smile formed across the boy’s lips when he saw several green leaves on the ground, the breeze from the stream pushing the emerald foliage further down the river. The greens were quite a change of pace from the brown, deadened leaves that littered the floor, an obvious sign that someone or something had been picking them from the trees.

“It stopped here for water, and to eat,” Hsa turned to his makeshift partner for a moment to point towards the leaves. “MysLight’s nose can probably handle the situation from here, but there’s a good chance that the target may have crossed the river at some point. How good are you at swimming?” Hsa turned back to the flowing stream, the faint speckles of mist hitting his face and causing an air of refreshment to fill the boy’s lungs. Now if only he could convince Cydnar to go to the other side of the violent tides in front of them.

After all, Hsa had spent so much of his childhood obsessed with Chibimon; he never had the time to learn something as simple as swimming.

[Cydnar]

The brazen, boisterous, and lively attitude of the youth was endearing to Cydnar. If anything, his seemingly fearless approach to life was encouraging to the tired swordsman. Whilst he was disgruntled with his relegation to obscurity, the chance meeting seemed promising to the elf. He had not expected to find even remotely like minded company amongst the rotten fens, crumbling cairns, and druidic temples of Concordia’s sprawling density.

“I am sorry to say water and I do not get along.” This was a gentle way of expressing his reluctance to wade through the chilling flow. The expense of his boots aside, it would interfere with his geomantic potency. “It is however a remarkably astute observation of you.” He pointed a digit up the river bank, highlighting where the tracks continued on the far bank. The buck had forded the river where the crystalline waters ran over a shallow shingle bed that stretched the width of the river bed and formed a half-hearted dam and crossing. From the still swirling mud on either side, he guessed that the creature was ahead, but not impossibly so.

“If you spend most of your life here,” Has shrugged, and ruffled the wolf’s mane, “it starts to become instinctual.” From the boy’s tone, Cydnar drew the conclusion that tracking was second nature to Hsa. “What shall we do, then?” he ceased his show of affection and prodded a dirty stained finger at the river.

Cydnar looked at the waters, and a solution instantly sprang to mind. He concentrated for a few seconds on the strength in his heart, before he lifted some of the essence up into the lump in his throat. He opened his mouth, took a deep breath, and then clapped his palms together. He set them apart an inch, and began to pull them apart, slowly cupping his fingers into two brackets. In between them, a small sphere of quartz appeared. It materialised quite literally from nothing, slowly shaping itself under Cydnar’s will. It started to flatten into a disc, and slowly but surely, a transparent slab appeared, two feet wide, and no longer small enough to be contained in the elf’s grip.

Hsa stared. The wolf pined, dropping on its front looks and staring, as if a creature were looming that overheated even the wolf’s courage.

“What is that?” he said softly.

Cydnar pushed forwards with his palms, and let the disc fall a few feet, catching it with his telekinetic providence before it smashed against the mud and the rubble. He stepped onto it with a noiseless hop, and despite its fragile appearance, it held his slender form with ease.

“It is a quartz disc. I am a magician of sorts, though it is strictly geomancy, driven by faith, not the arcane.” The sudden swell of hate threatened to drop him with a thud to the forest floor, but he restrained himself by digging his serpentine fang into his gum. “Let us go!” he boomed, urging the disc down over the muddy and broken bank and out over the water. It did not move excitingly quickly, but slowly and surely, Cydnar began to traverse the flow without damping his boots or risking a loss and careless footing. “We can share talents on the hunt, every second we dally, the buck eludes us!” he looked over his shoulder to the boy, who was now thirty or so feet behind him, and beamed a broad smile with his pallid, but illuminated smile.

[Chibimon Blue]

Hsa watched Cydnar’s impressive display of abilities with awe. At first, the child categorized him as some sort of psychic, until the elf’s explanation. It seemed as though Cydnar’s talents were earth based, sending a slight tinge of envy through Hsa. While the boy did not posses any unique abilities himself, he could command his Chibimon to use various elemental abilities, ranging from magic to psychic, to geomancy. Unfortunately, the only Chibimon the child currently had was MysLight (he had mistakenly left his ZomBee at a center to be cared for).

As Cydnar sailed across the river with impressive speed, Hsa found himself watching and only half listening to his elven partner’s words. Between the soft sensations of the mist, the magnificent show of skill, and the calming breeze of the rushing stream, the Chibimon trainer once again found himself relaxing. The low growls of MysLight seemed to subside the second Cydnar reached the opposite bank, believing his owner safe from harm for now.

The child looked down at the dog and smiled. He began to walk down the length of the river, whistling for his lupine companion to follow him. The dog obeyed, and Hsa could hear the faint sound of the dog’s fur rubbing against nearby brush. He would occasionally glance over to the far side, to check up on Cydnar and how he was fairing. “If you see any logs, large rocks, or anything that could shade a large animal, make sure to check them thoroughly. Deer are known to hide from hunters in places that would often be overlooked.”

Cydnar was an elf, so surely he would be able to hear the kid’s calm, normal tone over the sound of the creek between them. “Also, there’s a chance he turned around, made a J-like loop, meaning either one of us could find the creature at any time.” Hsa licked his lips as he thought about his potential new catch. Many Chibimon that resided in the forest had a tendency to be very powerful, to the point that Hsa questioned whether MysLight would be strong enough alone to capture the beast.

He looked back, found the wolf smelling the air, only to wind when he could not detect anything. He nodded to his friend, his head turning back to the path ahead. As they continued to walk, Hsa suddenly felt a blunt pain in his side, as if something had just hit his ribs with a club. The child sprawled onto the ground, groaning as the tips of his face hit the mud of the river back, his hair being tugged at by the flowing stream.

MysLight reacted by barking, jumping in front of his owner, and going absolutely crazy. Hsa looked across the way, to Cydnar’s shocked face. Apparently, whatever had struck the boy moved faster than the elf could see, though the leaves that had fallen off of nearby bushes indicated the existence of something, rather than some internal pain. Has held his left side, slowly raising up and trying to ignore the throbbing ache of his ribs.

“Cydnar…” the boy spoke each syllable of the man’s name longer than needed, a sign that he had been injured pretty bad, “I think we found our buck... and he’s not happy about it…”

[Cydnar]

Flexing his fingers, Cydnar spread his legs to stabilise his stance, and set his sights on the far bank. The eruption from the trees had been so violent and brazen he had not been able to decipher the information assaulting his senses until it was too late.

“Hsa!” he bellowed, lifting the quartz disc with a mental tug to his right hand. He took it into his confidence, brandishing it like a feeble shield as he hesitated between action and observation. “Are you okay?” he added, wishing he had the capacity to return to the far bank quicker than he had traversed the river the first time.

As if to answer the elf’s query, something in the bushes to the boy’s left hand side strode out of the hawthorn thicket. The beast knocked aside the spiked branches and blooms with a puffed chest, thick white mane, and a prong of horns that were as entrancing as they were deadly. Though Elisdrasil had described the creature in detail, Cydnar had not dared to imagine something he had to kill could ever be so beautiful. Its fur shone with the fresh fall of Salvarian snow. Its eyes sparkled with the fire of ages. Its six legs, two hind, four muscular fore moved with a time and precision that only nature could produce.

“Be careful, Cydnar…do not make any sudden movements…” Hsa groaned. The wolf next to Hsa moved slowly, head low, tail swaying, and teeth snarling between supple gums towards the buck.

“I do not intend to,” he replied, his voice soft and springy and forceful. It was loud enough to penetrate the barrier of running water that divided them, and yet not loud enough to startle their prey. He moved his hand, a skeletal frame covered in soft, sweating, and mud covered skin to the hilt of his sword cane. An image of blood, shattered horn, and perforated skin flashed in the elf’s mind, causing him to jolt. His morality was coming undone, and the Concordia forest was the backdrop to his ultimate betrayal.

“What are you doing?” the boy pleaded, his rugged voice increasing in pitch and broken tempo as his pleading eyes realised what the elf was doing. “Cydnar, wait!” his voice went too high, and the buck reared up on its hind legs.

The cry pierced the world.

“You have been judged,” Cydnar said, with the conviction of a judge. He unsheathed his sword cane with a soft ring of haematite, a crystalline ore, slipping from its scabbard.

“You have to kill it with honour!”

The words were drowned from existence as the front legs of the buck ploughed into the soft mulch of the river bank. The heavy impacts seemed to incite rebellion in the fabric of the river, and troughs, waves, and miniature tsunamis rolled out sideway from the bank towards Cydnar. Before the purple, fuchsia, and vermillion tainted blade could spin through a single flourish, the buck leapt through time and space and collided head first with the hauberk of the elf. There was a crack, a snap, and an echo.

“Ugh,” was all Cydnar could muster before he was knocked clean off his feet backwards. His sword flailed, his hair swayed, and the neatly arranged folds of his expertly tailored silk flapped in the backdraft. He slammed into the moss peat of the rise and the back of his skull cracked against the compacted earth without grace or virtue. The world span and the sound of the buck as it cried in defiance against something it clearly viewed as a threat raked the elf’s senses, penetrated his soul, and sent a chill down the elf’s spine that would remain embedded in his being for an age of dark nights, nightmares, and haunted dreams.

Cydnar squirmed in the rotting blanket of the forest floor, rapidly becoming damp, drab, and cold. His sword remained faithfully in his hand, his expertise with the blade and the sword style of his people too strong in his mind to be so easily, readily, and haphazardly undone. The quartz shield he had held on to so readily to defend himself with rested at his hip, splintered, but still intact. It, or so Cydnar feared, would offer him no resistance against a second bum rush.

He craned his neck and caught the distant shape of the strange youth, and thought how ironic it would be if he died so innocently alongside this boy. He had survived wars and cataclysms, and fought forgotten ones and Thayne’s pawns, yet here he was, undone by the king of the forest.

“Hsa,” he whispered, “Hsa!” he said a second time, with more pitch and vibrancy. “Set your companion against the buck, buy us time!” he clenched his fist, pushed down, and righted himself with a drunken stumble. If the wolf attacked, then the buck would have to turn on its many legs and expose its hind to the piercing blade of the serpentine elf. He snarled, extended his fangs, and drank deep of the magical ambiance of the world he had come to hate so much. As he half vomited at the nausea atmosphere, Cydnar Yrene was swift becoming tired of his fake allegiance with the high elf.

He would take the horns for himself, and end this war on terms the Hummel could benefit from.

“The folly of fools has gone on too long…” he thought to himself, using his defiance as a tool to steel his muscles, nerves, and senses against the battle he and Hsa had only just begun to fight.

[Chibimon Blue]

Storm Stomp, Jump, from the way he surprised me, I’ve gotta assume that it was using Hide-Butt. Hsa’s mind ran through all of the attacks he witnessed the buck using so effectively. The list of attacks only added up to one Chibimon in the mental index of the child. “MysLight, we’re dealing with a Spideer…”

Spideer was a forest Chibimon that used attacks based on its powerful legs, as well as its insect like abilities. The list of attacks that the animal possessed hinted that the beast had fought its way to the top of the food chain. Hsa looked to his companion, a low groan still escaping the boy’s lips. If one blow was hard enough to injure the Chibimon trainer, there was a slim chance that MysLight would do much good against the stag.

But MysLight was not alone, and Cydnar had a plan to subdue the animal. Hsa used his free hand to point at the creature. He knew that MysLight’s roar was powerful, and if facing the wolf, would cause its prey to run away. However, the Spideer was not facing MysLight; it was facing Cydnar. Hsa’s thinking was that if the roar would cause an untrained Chibimon to run away from its fight, then surely it could turn attention back to them.

“MysLight, use roar now!” Hsa shouted with confidence, though there was still a tinge of ache in his words. The wolf obeyed, gathering up a huge amount of air, and releasing a roar that would make the mightiest lion envious. Birds scattered out of trees once more, leaves were shaken off of nearby bushes from the vibrations, and the Bradbury River seemed like a gentle whisper amongst the prideful declaration of the Chibimon.

Hsa covered one of his ears with his spare hand (his ribs hurt too much to not hold). As predicted, however, the Spideer turned, as if answering a challenge that the wolf had just issued to him. Raising up its front legs once more, Spideer responded with a thunderous stomp, five small tsunamis spiraling atop the water’s surface. Has noticed the excessive amount of debris gathered in the tornados force, and jumped back. The sudden jolt of pain in his ribs caused the boy to suck in air through gritted teeth, a sure sign that at very least the child suffered a few bruised ribs.

“MysLight,” Hsa squeezed his side harder, trying to ignore the new pains, “Try Mystic Protection!”

The lupine Chibimon jumped in front of his owner, his head lowering as the water tornados slammed against the dog at the same time. Rather than harm the creature however, the form of the wolf began to crack, and shatter into a dozen glass shards. The floating shards seemed to absorb the trickling rays of sunlight dabbling in through Concordia’s canopy. Within a couple of seconds, the twelve shards all released tiny blasts of solar powered chaos towards the Spideer. All twelve lasers found their mark, causing blackened fur to appear all around the stag’s beautiful fur.

The beast let out an odd snorting sound and trampled it’s hooves a few time, obviously hurt by the after-effects of the attack as well.

“Spideer is burned, it should take damage!” Hsa hollered across the horizon of water towards his Hummel helper. “Try to know it out now, Cydnar!” The youth hoped his achy voice carried over the stream, or that Cydnar would have at least had enough time to take the buck down.

[Cydnar]

Cydnar smiled.

Death was all too becoming for those who deserved it.

For those that did not, nature had a way of making the bitter defeat sweeter. With a curl of his lip, the elf turned to the boy, and cast him a glimmer of doubt – a flicker of pain, a sarcastic retort without words.

“I am sorry,” he said. His voice was quivering, tender, and remorseful. His grand scheme, part of the council of the Hummel’s edict to their master, had come to fruition. “I cannot slay those innocent in volition with my own hand,” he bowed his knees, bent his head, and paid his respects to the injured member of the beleaguered Ixian Knights. “Nature, however, is not so forgiving.” He flexed his wrist and gestured with royal ascent to the shimmering white buck and the falling leaves from the trembling boughs.

“It remembers,” the buck said. Its voice pierced the heavens, and sent shards of ether scattering to the winds. “It feels.” The thunder rolled. “It does not forgive.” With a flash of light as bright as the stars, the buck transformed into something remarkably similar to the elf that had pretended, danced, and lured Hsa to the grand hunt.

“Tell your master, that no matter the outcome,” the two elves crowed in unison, unafraid of the boy’s puppet creatures, and untethered by their illusion, “the Hummel will suffer no transgressions against the Mother, against Althanas.”

The words echoed through the clearing, danced over the crystalline flow, and spiralled upwards through the tri-colour canopy of Concordia long after the Hummel melted, slithered, and vanished into the peaty earth. By the providence of geomancy, an art form lost to the races of the surface world, they retreated into their geode cities, stalagmite throne rooms, and quartz bedecked galleries. In their Thayne’s eyes, they had been successful. With the power of the Lexicon of Manira, Cydnar had conjured an alliance of artisans to weave a simulacrum of a buck from air, stone, and light, and with it, he had inspired a young boy to strive for more than he had been offered.

As darkness consumed Cydnar, and victory overwhelmed him, he only hoped his brother had been equally as successful in delivering his message to an altogether more threatening target.

The deception of the Under Dark’s kin was over.

The True War for Corone was only just beginning.

By the riverside, in the buck’s wake, white dust flocked into a single sphere, and formed a small white ball that beaded with the soul of something long desired by the plucky boy who dared to be great.

Within the sphere, there grew a creature.

In that sphere, grew a Servapour.


Spoils: I would like to gift a small serpentine Chibimon to Chibimon Blue.

It is three foot in length, and has a watery body with a crystalline head. It can bite, slither, and move like a water python in water, and like an adder on land. Once per thread, it can emit a powerful jet of water from it's mouth, that hits like an iron arrow, up to thirty feet. The specifications of this Chibimon will of course be required to go through ROG approval, where Chibimon Blue can further discuss it's abilities, suitable for level and score.

I waver my gold for this battle in support of it's husbandry costs.

[Chibimon Blue]

Hsa was at a loss for words at everything that had happened. The deer that had assaulted the trio had become a doppelganger of Cydnar. Then, the elf left a cryptic message the boy did not entirely understand, and left with his clone. Finally, appearing in front of the youth was a small, scaly creature, curled up into a ball. Has reached towards the thing, only for the reptile to raise its head, its dark blue eyes resembling that of a river, its face and hood possessing glass-like qualities. While this animal was nowhere near as powerful as a Spideer, it was definitely a Chibimon, and a rare one at that.

“Servapour, the crystal snake Chibimon,” Hsa spoke to nobody in particular, his voice being drowned out by the sounds of the rushing water, “While beautiful to look at, this poisonous water snake packs a mean bite. Can evolve into Rockison, followed by Levithanos.” The Chibimon appeared to be docile, its crystalline hood not raised in defense, and his water-like rattle not shaking its warning at the youth.

Despite his better judgment, Hsa touched the snake, feeling the smooth scales of its water-colored body. This helped Servapour blend in to its natural environment in order to catch food. The cobra responded by slithering around Hsa’s arm, spiraling the length of the limb, and coming to rest in a curled ball upon the boy’s shoulder. Hsa looked down at MysLight who was looking at the creature with curiosity, and not hostility.

“Well, it was not what I expected,” Hsa spoke to his friend, his eyes glancing back at the lazy creature on his shoulder, “but we –did- wind up catching a Chibimon. But what did Cydnar about my master and the Hummel?” Hsa did not understand anything the elf said, which was nothing odd really. The warrior spoke much too flowery for the boy to grasp nearly anything he said. It was as if they had come from different countries, and by proxy, different worlds.

MysLight responded by looking back in the direction of Ixian Castle and growling. This simple gesture caused the boy’s eyes to widen in fear. He had been sent to scout for the Ixian Knights, and he had become too wrapped up in his Chibimon mission to focus on the task Sei had assigned him. He had, for the past hour or so, been distracted by a man who was clearly a member of Phoenix Ascendant. Without another word, Hsa turned around and began to run, the lazy Servapour on his shoulder, MysLight keeping stride with the boy. He had a single thought as his body broke through the various limbs and brush that made up the density of Concordia Forest, his ribs still aching with the pain that the illusory buck had caused him.

He still had a scouting mission to do, and now he had an extra set of eyes to help him search. He had to continue the mission, because who knew what snuck by the boy and his wolf in the time it took them to find a Spideer that didn’t exist.

[Enigmatic Immortal]

I have talked to both players, due to a crash on my computer earlier in the day, this judgment was lost. It must be retyped, but instead of holding up the entire process, I told both players their scores and notes I had. I will post judgment later.

Chibimon Blue is the Winner!