Welcome to Gaia! ::

The energy surged around Ryugi's form as Joshua spoke, the interior of the cave being illuminated by the blue-white light of Ryugi's energy as it cast aside the shadows that had prevailed due to the light from the top of the cave. A small wind had picked up as the energy disturbed the air currents in the mostly enclosed space. The pressure from the energy was massive, more powerful than anything Ryugi had ever felt before. His body would be incapable of handling such a large amount without the assistance of Ragnarok's own energy and power. He felt stronger, faster, more prepared to fight, and his red glowing eyes locked onto Joshua's form across the expanse between them as he stood there with a bloodied wound and blood trails from previous wounds. Ryugi didn't know if what he was planning would work, but he'd give it everything he had.



The energy swirled around Ryugi's form as he swept Ragnarok forward, the weapon glowing with energy from both of them united, the green gem in the middle shimmering. Dust flew from the ground as the weapon moved up and around towards Joshua's body. Thoughts raced through Ryugi's mind. Would this do what he wanted? Was he strong enough to overcome the challenges that lay ahead in the dark times to come? Could he protect the world of the living from those that would seek to harm it? All of those things and more swarmed through his mind. But he shunted them to the side as he stared ahead towards Joshua. None of those things would matter if he couldn't overcome this challenge right here right now. If he couldn't defeat Joshua alone, then he was certain he could with Ragnarok and himself working together! He had to pass this final test! And he would do it no matter what!

Ragnarok swung into position pointing towards Ryugi's target as energy runes took up position behind Ryugi's body and along the length of Ragnarok within the next second or so. The energy that was swirling around Ryugi suddenly snapped into action and formed up along the runes that floated in position before a thunderous blast erupted from Ryugi's body as he and Ragnarok shunted every ounce of energy that the both of them had into a single massive attack. It was the quintessential final attack as the blast shot ahead towards the position of Joshua's form.



The energy blast would be so powerful that no amount of footing would allow Ryugi to stand against the force as his feet dug into the ground. The sheer magnitude of power released from the combined essence of Ryugi and Ragnarok sent Ryugi's feet digging into the rocky ground of the cave, and shot his feet back nearly thirty feet until they finally dug in enough to deal with the strain of holding the titanic amount of energy on course. The shock of the energy being released was such a strain on Ryugi's physical body that Ragnarok did everything that he could to prevent Ryugi's body from literally eroding itself away due to the energy released through it. Ryugi would live, but the pain was immense as his body fought to keep itself from being torn apart by the power of the very attack it had pulled together. Blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, and small cuts appeared on his face from the energy as his stamina dropped to dangerous levels.

What effect the blast would have on Joshua would be unknown. The man could survive a point blank limit release and come back by regenerating his own skin. This current attack was several times more powerful due to the energy released, and as it was a directed energy blast instead of simply a massive eruption in all directions, it had more power still. The heat just around Ryugi was so hot that even he was feeling the burn, his skin reddening slightly as the first stages of a burn set in, and some scorch marks would appear on his clothing, and he wasn't even on the receiving end where the blast would be many times more powerful, and much hotter. The blast, at that temperature, would easily melt straight through the opposite wall of the cave as it expanded, and flash-fried the water near the top of the lake, the sheer force blasting the top of the mesa open like a balloon that had been filled with too much hot air as it tried to release the energy from a small opening.

The blast would finally subside after nearly seven seconds of fire-storming hell and searing energy. The cave would be barely recognizable as a large section across the center had been blasted, carved, and melted out from the heat of the blast, showing out to a massive hole to the outside that had been blown into it. But everything to either side would be virtually unharmed other than some dark scorch marks and some light fires were the heat had combusted a few dried plants in the path. The skylight that had let in light before would be much much larger, and cast moonlight across the battlefield as Ryugi came out of his merged form, and Ragnarok returned to the blade. He panted, blood dripping from scorched skin, and blackened marks on his clothing showed what he'd just been through as he collapsed to on knee, Ragnarok stabbed into the earth for support. Dust and rock would cloud his view of Joshua, wherever he might be.

The hint of smoke on the horizon had bloomed into a series of individual streams of black smoke rising from a dozen or so chimneys. The settlement was small but certainly not primitive; a beautiful clay coated stone and wooden Wall protected the frontier trade town from fiends, and enemies alike. Dante trotted to the south gate of the town and dismounted in the presence of a totally disinterested town guardsman. He tied the Morgan horse to a hitching post outside the gate and walked through the south gate.

Inside he seemed to blend in quite well with the towns’ residents, though shawls and cloaks seemed to out number jackets, they were still all of some form of buckskin, and even Dante’s style hat was common here… His boots on the other hand, well they were a little too new, and in such a small community he caught the glances that almost screamed as if they were calling him a tourist. He didn’t really care he was here for a different reason than niceties, and due to the small nature of the town it didn’t take long to find the bazaar. Literally a bunch of adobe stalls with wooden covers that when closed sealed up the small shops but now mid morning were open and filled to the brim with fruits, and vegetables, some small livestock in wire cages, it truly was what most people would call a farmers market, but it was the life blood of this town, and for the settlements in the surrounding hills.

Dante expected such a large market to have several blacksmiths in attendance but he could only find a single stall selling knives and farm implements among the rows of vendors. He stopped at the stand to investigate, and though the majority were plain all were well crafted, the edged items all wonderfully clay tempered with some amazing patterns, not sloppy or disorganize like most clay tempering methods, no these showed a fine, almost artistic control over the clay, small circles of hardened and softened steeled, some looking as if they were covered in millions of fine bubbles of hard and soft metal, the fine white martensite lines that marked the edge of demarcation in the steel showed the stress such a change incurred in the steel through the heat treating process.

None of the items were astounding, but all had an elegant grace about them, simple and well made they were the usual frontier fair, hunting knives, small daggers for protection, spearheads and the sort. One thing that caught is eye were a trio of drilled and tapped arrowheads. More specifically the file work was so fine, it seemed as if the edge were floating above the shaft, seeming as if it was held there by only a few strands of metal, he assumed they were some sort of Votive Form of the usual hunting arrows, his next thought was spoken aloud, though not intentionally.

“Why would they have Votive Arrow heads out here…”

He hadn’t been paying any attention to the stall keeper who had been at first paying more attention to the other customers but when Dante spoke out the shop keep reached down and picked up on of the arrowheads and handed it to him.

“Ah a connoisseur I see! You are mistaken my friend though these are fine grade hunting arrows, light, fast and sharp, they wont give your pray a chance to dodge!”

The shops keep could almost smell the tourist on him, even through the three days of horse small that had accumulated in his jacket. Dante could smell the merchant in the man, and something else he couldn’t explain, certainly without any bulls meandering around.

“I’m sorry, I just can’t believe these are for hunting, the metal is too fine, the attachment too thin to survive such use.”

The merchant smiled broader at his response, and Dante wasn’t sure that was because the merchant was about to spin Dante’s world into a spiraling dive of confusion and change, or if he was about to lay it on thicker and heavier as he went.

“An educated man I see, but you are quite wrong. Superior craftsmanship can make superior arrows and these come from just such a smith! I’ll tell you what I will sell you a bow, three arrows, and the heads for two-hundred gold, and you can see for yourself, if I am wrong I will buy the broken arrows from you for two-hundred and fifty gold… You wont get that deal from just anyone…”

Dante never enjoyed being told he was wrong, especially on matters of steel, but he was here to learn new things not smash the brains out of a poor frontier merchant.

“Your word as Bond then?”

The merchant shook his head, he knew better you never took a merchants word for anything, but this one was obviously smart enough and well traveled enough to know this.

“No, my steel as my bond…”

Dante couldn’t say no to that, perhaps the merchant was just too clever and could guess by Dante’s comments that he had dealt with such merchants before he could not tell, but considering he had little to loose Dante accepted.

“I will take your steel then, and call you friend if your bond holds true.”

Dante looked over the table of items and pointed to a small tempered steel hunting knife probably less than eight inches long, small and handy, just what he needed.

“I’ll take that Hunting knife too, the one with the burled grip.”

The merchant wrapped the bow, the arrows, and arrows heads in doeskin and handed the knife and a nice leather sheath to Dante, it felt odd purchasing items he could have made on his own but he still had to uncover the secret of the tempering process on this frontier, and he couldn’t do that till he examined a few of the pieces they had available.

He paid the merchant his asking price, knowing he could perhaps haggle down the price, but satisfied by the craftsmanship alone to feel satisfied with the purchase. Before he released the last handful of gold coins he clasped his left hand around the merchant’s wrist and leaned in close.

“Should I find these Arrows as superb as you claim, where would I go in search of this smith?”

The merchant was a bit taken back by this but when Dante had finished his question and no ill intent seemed to surface he relaxed. Dante loosened his grip and the merchant slipped his hand back with the gold now in his possession, he felt the weight and knew Dante had intentionally overpaid.

“He goes by the name of Aseron, he and his many have made a due west, about a day and half ride from here, just beyond the old mines. I shouldn’t be expecting you to be my competition from now on should I?”

Dante shook his head; “My business is with steel yes, but I seek enlightenment, not profit. I think you for your time, and information, perhaps one day we will meet again.”

The merchant bowed politely, before returning to the maters of his shop. Dante continued browsing the stalls of the bazaar, restocking his supplies for the coming journey. First though he had test the new steel he had encounter, and in this environment there really was only one prey worth testing it against… Giant Rock Snakes.

===

“Snakes, why did it have to be Snakes…”

Though it probably would have been better to ask why they had to GAINT, some things were plainly obvious. In the case of the Barthavos Giant Rock Snake, the GIANT part was obvious… Did I mention it was a really ******** big? Could have sworn I did…

Dante had stalked one of the rock snakes to the south of the trading town less than day after purchasing the bow, he had be able to practice for a few hours but he had yet to be able to test the arrows durability against anything but the frozen clay that made up the hills. Now he laid on his belly his chest against the powdered snow as he pulled himself up over the crest of the hill peering into the valley below. He could already smell the death and blood that filled the valley before him, earlier that morning Dante had observed the snake fighting with a wild boar and had taken the opportunity of such a distraction to sneak up on the pair. The boar now lay dead, though Dante did not know if it was due to blood loss or venom. Blood was everywhere the dark reddish brown fluid tainting the virgin snow around the fallen fighter.

The snake must have been around ten meters long and about as thick around as decent sized pine tree. A shimmering pattern of hexagonal forms danced across its scaly skin the light color of its skin a boon in the summer time to reflect he suns warmth, was now ideal camouflage in the winter hills, though it meant the snakes were forced to be more aggressive to fuel their body temperature. It was during this time of year that such snakes were to be more than ever rightly feared.

As the snake began to dislocate its jaw to begin to consume the boar Dante could hear the sickening popping of bones as it slowly enlarged its gaping maw ready to set on its finished meal. Dante rose to kneel on top of the hill less than the snakes body distance away and quickly knocked an arrow. The snake was not focusing on its surrounding, the smell of blood so think in the air its Jacobs organ could not even taste the man readying to take it down. Dante draw and the bow hissed as it stretched, the fine compound bow rapped in some form of animal sinew was quiet and strong, requiring quite a bit of strength to draw before finally his thumb tapped his cheek just below his eye, he felt his hand tremble under the strain of holding the bow, then let the string come forward an inch the trembling stopping, his aim now true the waited till the snake had stooped over his planned meal before he let the first arrow fly…

A deafening ‘Srrrrrlank!’ filled the air as the bowstring and bow both protested the sudden release returning to their state of rest in barely an instant, the torque of the bow made Dante lose site of his prey the instant after the arrows release, but the bow quieted Dante hear silence, and he saw that the arrow had pierced the side of the snakes neck just behind the neck joint only the flights sticking out of the snakes scaly skin. It had pierced through the bony neck joint and though Dante could not tell if the snake was dead was certainly stunned and laying next to its intended meal their blood intermingling on the valley floor.

Dante cautiously knocked another of the arrows and made his way bow down the slope, the bow drawn at a quarter length incase the snake decided to prove his guess wrong, the short had been exceedingly fast, usually he was able to catch the last few seconds before the impact but at the short ranges, and the speed of the arrow it had left the bow, erased the distance between the two and sunk deep into the snakes bony neck, the bloodied flights were all that were visible now. The eyes of the snake rolled back in its head from when it had began its eating ritual were stuck closed cinched shut by the brutality of the attack.

Dante took another few cautious steps forward now standing amid the blood of the two fallen former adversaries now commiserated laying in pools of their own intermingled blood, Dante couldn’t help but feel the poetic setting the three of them now created; the hunter, the hunted, and the bait. Dante was looking at the boars’ tusks considering the kill when the snakes’ eyes slowly opened, the head reared back as Dante was distracted the smooth serpent made very little sound as it slowly lifted its head above the valley floor blood and snow dripping slowly off its dislocated now broken jaw ready to sink its fangs into Dante in an act of vengeance.

Dante was oblivious to the snakes rising form even in such close proximity, his eyes were elsewhere, a bad mistake. When a large clump of coagulating blood and snow finally slipped free of the loosely hanging bottom jaw of the snake Dante stumbled backwards his bow sideways against his chest and now falling he could only draw it halfway back, he brought it up and fired from the hip, the lightweight arrow accelerating astoundingly quickly in such a short time. The Snake ignorant of mans weapons did not expect such a sharp sting, and the arrow caught it just forward of its eyes on its snout. The blade of the arrowhead passing through the snakes’ snout, into the snakes broken jaw and now its flights sticking from the snakes snout, the blade passed into the same bony area of the neck, and severed the spinal column before the barbs hooked onto the first arrows reed shaft.

The snakes’ head jerked down suddenly and collided with the ground in front of Dante less than a two feet away. The eyes after a few seconds rolled up into the head for the last time and stayed that way Dante was out of breath, and stunned horribly by the encounter. He had earned his kill and thought he hadn’t been able to investigate the arrowheads themselves for damage, Dante was more than satisfied with their performance.

Dante closed his eyes and tried to catch his breath as the sun slowly began to set Dante knew he would get only a brief respite before the actual work began.

===

It was now fully nighttime, and Dante was feasting on snake meat seasoned with what few herbs he had purchased at the bazaar. Sitting around the fire over a kilometer away from the kill site, he had brought very little with him back to his campsite. The boars tusks were now fully cleaned of flesh and stowed in his saddle bag, the snakes fangs, and a whiskey bottle worth of its blood, as well as a good portion of its skin stripped and rolled into a large roll all thirty feet of length of the smooth scaly stuff was valuable, and he felt it only fitting to take it with him, though it was quite heavy burden to hike back with.

The fires warmth kept the nighttime freeze at bay and he was glad he was consuming the last of the snakes’ flesh, so as to not draw predators’ attention while he slept. The arrows were in remarkably good condition, the arrowheads at least; the shafts being in too deep to recover, the only damage the tips had endured was a slight chipping on the first arrows tip as it had struck the neck bones of the snake. With his trophies stored away Dante made a decision, he would seek out this smith, thank him for his fine work and see if he could not learn his methods of clay tempering.

“Perhaps this will not be as boring as others think..”

" ********' desert with it's ********' heat and it's ********' ******** ******** ******** had hit new levels of aggrevation with the world, having spent the last 2 weeks treking half the continent with a rock. But not just any rock, it was a ******** space rock!

" So what do you think Wilson? Hot enough for ya?"

The rock, of course, was silent.

For you see on the edges of the desert, it was still a desert, and thus the sand was scorching the sand covered land like a brush fire. This put any wandering critter, or islander, in a very dangerous position indeed. And Damion would have known this, if he had any inkling of what a desert really was to be honest.

Now he knew.

" ******** Sun's gonna kill me I swear..." The islander said, shading his eyes with the hand not holding the meteroid so that he could look out over the blasted landscape. " Dude....this place is all sorts of ******** up..."

Damion turned to look at his trailing footsteps, wondering at how they disappeared over the dunes. It was...well kinda cool. Too bad he hadn't seen any other tracks, like say...oh....a snakes trails or something? Didn't snakes leave trails? Weren't they supposed to? Dmned if he didn't know! Didn't mean he wasn't going to keep looking though, still had to kill one after all for Dante's job right?

" I Hunger....." words no human ears could hear issued forth from a mouth no human being wanted to picture. Black beady eyes slowly rose from the sand, taking in all around it. And what was there to see but one very irritated, and sunburned, Islander wandering the dunes searching for a creature that was now watching him with eyes of hunger. Sand shifted and slid as 9 meters of scaly flesh rose up out of the sand, the dune colored body quite obvious with it's sudden movement, slithering sideways behind the wandering Damion.

Now then, Damion wasn't completely stupid, and like most people he go the same sensation of being watched that everyone else did. His only problem? The sun was making him half blind and shifting sand wasn't exactly the best teller for his Earth Sense ability, and so he was literally walking blind out there. Really, his only saving grace nowaday's was the fact that everything came to him before he got to far into danger, considering he had basically no supplies out here and was now being stalked by a large snake who had the potential to eat him, and easily.

A rock.

" Well that's....that's...you know I don't think I have the words to describe that." Damion said, his eyes locked on the giant rock that seemed to spring to his vision the moment he had reached the top of his current dune.

Now anywhere else, a rock wouldn't be so suprising, but rocks don't last long in deserts. They last well in Steppe's and Plateau's and such, but a rock like that? Nuh-huh, shouldn't exist. And thus....well, humans were such curious creatures after all, and Damion wasn't one to question what was good luck for him. After all, the sun made shade with that thing!

And this was definately a good thing, it was still ungodly hot out, with heat waves rising in almost every direction, the sand ready to soak up the sweat that dripped from the mans face as he started down the incline towards Scarker's rock, intent on investigation and exploration and all that other good noise!

after all....it's a rock.

"It's too hot out for this." The hunter had decided as Damion crested the dune and went down it, causing him to disappear from view. With hardly a sound, it buried itself in the sand again, to come out when the blasted sun went down.

Damion would probably agree with the sense of humor one in regards to the Fate's.

Damn noisy rocks and all.

Nothing like a noisy rock, after all, to stop one dead in one's tracks. But then again, this was Gaia, and such oddities were becoming a daily occurance for the landlocked Islander. That didn't stop the humor of the situation from occuring to an otherwise sometimes slow individual.

I mean really, someone falling out of a rock in the desert, twitching and screaming and bleeding all over the place? To those with the right sense of humor, like Damions, that was pretty damn funny!

" Um.....you ok over there mate?" He asked, voice breathy with restrained laughter as he got alittle closer, probably ten feet away by now. No sense in getting to close after all...

" Well I can see that...." He said slowly, one eyebrow lifting as a quizical expression became plastered onto his face. He was just getting used to all the madness too.....and now this guy was apparently hailing a car or something.

Damion started to look around, half expecting some giant beard or something to fly down and pick the man up.

....OH! he was talking!

" Um, I guess it is kinda hot." He hadn't noticed outside of sweating and such, but he was getting alittle uncomfortable in the heat.

" Not that I'm against getting into odd Rock doors with strange wanderer's, but...who exactly are you?" Damion asked, feeling it a rather justified question, even as he moved alittle further forward, shifting his rock so that it was cradled in his left arm.

"Hmm? Oh, who am I? My name's Scarker, though I highly doubt that tells you anything about me. Please, rest assured that I'm the only one my swords are going to hurt for the moment..."

He stopped to consider something for a moment and then tentatively reached up to his left shoulder.

"Blood? Oh, right, that's the reason I woke up at all, isn't it... Should take care of that..."

The shirt then riped itself off, with the help of a little energy from Scarker (his hands are moving so that it wouldn't seem too unnatural for the shirt to move like it is, but they aren't applying any force) and started tearing the un-bloodied portions of itself into one long strip that the mage then started wrapping around his shoulder to hold on the sock that he used to stop the bleeding. He then reached into the black mass of his coat and pulled out a fresh shirt that he put on. After that, he tossed the blood-soaked section of shirt out of the rock and let whatever wind there was blow it away.

"Much better. Now, since you know my name, could I know yours?"

If Scarker noticed Dale, he was pretending not to. After all, there was very little that you could see from inside a rock, and he didn't want to seem weird by seeing something that his angle of vision wouldn't allow him to.