Welcome to Gaia! ::

Thank you Ryugi...

Maximos said, righting himself. His legs straightening, his feet securing against the cold. Something of a tough guy smirk on his face. Nothing like a smack to the chest to fill the lungs with fire and make welcome the new day!

...its really, nice of you, not to sound unappreciative but...

Ryugi shouted a warning, Max was ready. His right foot slid forward, his hands squeezed tightly on the hilt of the jet black long sword in his grip, and he lifted it up and to the side putting most of its power on his right arm as it rested over his right shoulder. The leathery grip squeaked as violet sparks danced gently across it.

Maximos had a thing about giving ground to anyone during a fight. He was going to stand here, he was going to take it! Or he was going to give it.

Grah!

The energy reflected off the pure violet snow, lighting up its path with a sparkling violet display. He brought the blade straight down. The blade was hopefully going to connect with something solid, and if it didnt then hopefully it'd split the blast around him. Otherwise, Max was comforted by the knowledge that cold snow felt good against fresh bruises and cuts.

...next time can we go with something less fatal!?

Maximos' eyes squinted, as he watched the energy divide around him. But no sooner than he had embraced that warm sense of success, was it being taken away by the realization that those arms and legs while not attached to a body persay, were still very much coming.

His eyes opened, wide, his body tensed. There wasnt much at all he could do. He had just swung down, and fiercely with both arms. A very strong, yet very risky attack.

He twist at the hip towards the oncoming slash, bringing both arms up. The black blade wrenched from the ground kicking a streak of white as it was brought straight up in front of the Shadow.

A clang filled the air. A streak of red stained the pure white snow.

Maximos blade was brought up only enough to impact with and stop the opposing blade late in its slash, it wasnt nearly enough to stop the cut entirely, just enough to save his arm from being severed or rendered useless. Violet sparks danced from Maximos' sword as the two blades connected and fought.

He gritted his teeth, more than a little upset at the shadowy thing now that it had drawn first blood. He stomped forward toward his attack, for as much footing as he could get on what was likely wet snow covered grass. Both hand shoved forward aiming to shove the opposing blade back. He needed room. Room enough for Maximos to violently swing his sword to the right, kicking up a row of sparks as it gridded along his attackers blade until it reached the hilt where it would make a sharp diagonal drop, aiming to slice the hand off the disembodied arm.

Well it is most certainly doing THAT!

Mistakes make a craft break, they arent supposed to make it break you!

Maximos said, and yet laced in his tone was not even a droplet of anger. Infact, he seemed to be laughing! Or at the very least chuckling through his words. Sure he had a bruise and a cut, but this was getting more interesting by the second.

The sword was still for a moment, and Maximos eyed it carefully. His eyebrow cocked as he took a step toward it. And then came a sputter, a jostle in the shadows as a hand poured through them reaching for the hilt once more.

Maximos grinned, a toothy grin. He had an idea. Ryugi said that, that was supposed to be for him...that left only one course of action.

He reached his left hand forward at the shadow creature, wincing as his cut was stretched and bent then waved it toward himself. A silent challenge. His right hand secured his grip on his sword, the blade having now been brought up to rest on his shoulder.

He could only hope that that....thing...was so easily provoked.

I'm sorry...

Maximos said with a grinned that screamed he that was entirely not. He had to wait for the precise moment. This was a do or die type of scenario as he was rather sure that that sword, would not be nearly as kind the second time around.

The creature burst forward and Maximos lowered his stance. He bent slightly at the knees, both hands out to either side, his left arm twitched as a stream of red rolled down his sleeve before dripping off his fingertips. His mismatched eyes were locked, analyzing...timing...

It had to be perfect. It chose a stab, a thrust, that was everything Max could possibly ask for. He could feel the shadowy essence lashing at him, the shadows around him shouted, screamed, in a thousand different voices, as he stood unmoving as the deadly force advanced.

It drew closer, and closer...Maximos' fingers rolled and wrist rolled in place, loosening up for what was about to come. Then just as the blade was no more than a foot from him, he sprung into action. His right foot slid against the snow, shoving his body forward and yet to the side, allowing the blade to soar by him in a blur of black, cutting a long streak along the gut of his pajama's but missing his flesh as he came around beside it.

...I believe this...

His left hand flew forward, aiming to grab the hilt of the sword just above whatever grip currently held it. His fingers wrapping around and holding as tight as he possibly could.

...is mine!

His sword struck the ground with a crunch, sinking into th snow. Sparks danced up and down his right arm, he'd had the time to charge. Now was the time to strike. And with crushing force his right arm soared forward with crushing force aiming to impact and knock free whatever hand, hands, or construct that gripped the hilt. On impact there would be something of a a concussive explosion of deep purple and indigo as he released the Shadow Cannon shot held in his arm directly onto the hands that opposed him. That, even as he pulled the blade off course and away from the main charging form. With any luck, the actual force of the charge would carry the main body away, while Maximos kept the sword. And a smug grin. Violet glinting snow raining down around him as the explosion settled.

You cant have it...

There are some experience we remember for the whole of our lives. They mark us in ways we will never understand. A first breath, a first taste, the first time we feel true fear, true joy, true love, true sadness. For Maximos this sensation was as one of those.

For the majority of his life he had felt the shadows. They whispered and giggled, like distant friends playing around him, calling his name down dark hallways to which he could not follow. He lived by request, asking a shadow to form this, or that, stealing them up in loosely coiled bundles of essence for a blast here, a tendril there. And while they always felt as if they were a part of him, never were they truly close. Not here in the flesh.

As the twin energies, rippled and cascaded over each other bathing over him, blinding him in a sea of violets and indigos and purples, and then cascading backwards, Maximos felt them, all of them. Each individual voice soared through him as they joined one singular collective. It was overwhelming, his mind wanted to crack and fracture into a billion pieces if each shadow wasnt a small hand to help hold him together, glue to seal the pieces in place.

He gasped, like a man breaching the surface the ocean and reaching out for life, and in the shadows rushed. They filled his lungs, and his breath. The essence coursed through his veins, it slithered through his blood, and danced around his heart, gently running a thousand tiny fingers along his shadow stained soul. It was exhilaratingly and yet it shook him to his very core.

Just as his lips closed, taking the shadows in, the last waves of black essence were absorbed into the blade. Blade and Owner tasting there first breath.

It was a moment Maximos would never forget, not for as long as he lived.

No more did th shadows whisper or play at the back of his mind, they were an extension, an attachment, a part of him as close as his own arm. They were present...alive in him, even more than in his cursed shadow form. It was as if, while holding this sword, he held the shadows themselves. This sword, stood as the missing link between Maximos and the element he was so very close to although never able to actually reach. The blade was not a part of the night, in his hands it was the night. It was the shade. It was the spec of black beneath the fallen leaves.

The glow faded, and Maximos eyes opened to a new world of sight. For one with an eye such as Maximos the images before him made him double take. His eyes opened, then closed and opened again. Was this world always there, just beneath the surface? Had they always reached to him silently waiting for a hand to mold and use them.

He reached his hand out, running it through the nearest of streamers, the shadow of a large tree which stopped just before him. He truly felt a shadow for the first time. He felt as if something that had long been missing, was just found.

He exhaled in relief, a thin stream of black slipping from his lips as the shadows spiraled out from deep within his lungs. And so calmed as he was he heard it. Had the shadows always had but one chorus, one melodic voice caressing his ear that now beckoned to him like an old neglected friend, a voice that waited in the who waited decades to be found?

Maximos fell to his knees, shivering breaths slipping from him puffing tufts of black that slipped from pale, frozen lips into the air. He stood completely still, his new blade laid out across his lap as he settled into the snow. His left hand gently rested on the hilt, his right ran along the blade. He felt no taint from there dark father, but rather a weariness of there origin and a desire to be free of him. He trusted them. He understood them, and then him. They gave, they surrendered themselves in way he had never before known. The shadows said nothing, but in there silence they asked "What can we do? How many we serve?".

An old passage came to mind. Ancient words that fit the moment perfectly. He spoke it in answer just above a whisper.

Conceal me what I am, and be my aid...

A smile crept on the Shadow's lips, simple, yet real. A rarity. This was a beckoning, the shadows gave of themselves freely, but a gentleman he was and asked one final time. A beckon from the Shadow to his Caller.

...For such disguise as haply shall become the form of my intent.

Resisting the suns light, his shadow pooled around him, black arms reached up, a chorus of hands, one to drape over the slice in his arm, bandaging it securely. The others to wrap around him like a blanket draping over his shoulders covering him in a long furry black cloak as they melded into one form. The bottom of the cloak pooling in his shadow. A deep hood formed with a fuzzy mouth and itself pulled over his head to shield his ears and face from the harsher winds.

It was all the answer he would ever need.

He stood, no longer cold. No longer shivering, and made his way toward Ryugi. While a shadow was cast over the top half of his face, nothing could hide his smile. His blade, something he felt he had known all his life though he had only just met, and as of yet had no name for...rested in his left hand. He stopped just beside Ryugi, pausing awkwardly, and then reached his right hand up and rested it on the dragons shoulder.

...You've given me more today, that I will ever be able to repay you for...thank you...

He paused again. The gentle white glow that was his right eye beneath the shade slid to the right and down a bit. Maximos smile grew to a wide smirk as he spoke again. His word slow and steady as if it here trying them out for the first time.

...we both thank you...

This blade...this item, this being he felt he knew so perfectly though, in the same breath he knew had only scratched the surface of...it rested in his left hand. It was held in a reverse grip, and he slowly raised it. He wanted, need, answers understanding...to not know so very much felt like an insult to something that had done him so very much.

It...let me call out to something I have been without, for a very long time...this astounding blade...whats its name?

Who better than its creator to know its name?

Ankokuko...

He said it with a deep resounding reverence. The name had weight, it had respect, it had power attached to it.

...Caller of Darkness...

The title and name rolled around in his mouth like a marble. They almost had an after-taste. The name was quirky and yet strong, it was odd and yet completely fitting. Different, and yet unique.

...A better name there could not be.

A grin would stretch across his pale lips. A grin they would both share before another voice entered the fray. Maximos felt the shadows tug, bend and buckle towards another shadow weaver. It wasnt that he was afraid Maximos, it was just that with his senses so very heightened to new tier, he didnt yet recognize what he was feeling. Ryudo felt....bigger...than he had earlier. Ankokuko was held with its tip toward the ground and so instinctively, smoothly, and quickly, it found itself gliding around his palm as he nimbly flipped his grip.

He turned to the sound of the voice, his face still covered by furry hood and a white ignition revealing only his right eye and the cold skin from the nose down.

A smile slipped back to his features when he recognized the gaunt shadow drake. Ryudo used cryptic wording, he mentioned its power and rarity with familiarity, and yet mystery. Maximos felt he knew the blade's every secret. And yet, the same breath felt that that knowledge was a lie covering the fact he knew next to nothing. And so he said, with respect, and curiousity.

...Can you explain, Mr. Ryudo?

Maximos was immediately and completely focused. The length of the words did not bother him, neither did there amount. Though he did take notice of how odd it was that this otherwise silent dragon chose to speak in such amounts at once.

About half way through when the conversations focus switched onto the blade itself Maximos lifted it so that it was parallel with the ground, and in front of him. His eyes combed over every inch, of it. He could only see the surface, he never used any magic to delve deeper, he just peered over its construction, endearing himself to it.

"However, your blade was left to bond for much longer than what is called for in the directions, mainly due to someone deciding a nap couldn't possibly hurt while they waited for the spell to do its job. Instead of the normal one to two hours, your blade sat and bonded for nearly a full night, becoming heavily attached to the shadows."

Maximos looked at his friend , the golden dragon with eye that just so jokingly said "You didnt...'. And grinned trying his best not to laugh at the sheepish look Ryudo had brought about. He just shook his head and turned back to Ryudo.

"Eventually, the chaotic and mischievous nature of the element was strong enough to take hold of it and break free of the containment apparatus that Ryugi had created for it. "

Maximos rubbed a spot on his arm where black dressing had been tied, idly and continued to listen. He looked up to see Ryudo grin, a sight that caught him off guard at first, though he warned up to it quickly enough, and returned a matching ear to ear grin.

"However, that kind of power comes with its own weaknesses. In strong light your blade will be weakened by roughly 35% as it tries to fight the light's effects on it, but in darkness, it will be increased by that same variable, and so will its command over the shadows. But those abilities essentially allow your attacks to be as varied as your swordplay, and, in time, will allow you to craft things the likes of which you have never seen or imagined... "

So what your saying is...

He moved the blade left and then right, in and the out of the shadow of a nearby tree just to feel the pull weakened and strengthed by the presence of light. It had been quite some time since he had felt light's burn. In the flesh and blood he had forgotten what it was like to live as shadow. He sympathized and respected the creation that much more.

...Ryugi burned the cake.

He smiled, trying his best not to laugh.

...but it tastes better this way?

He patted Ryugi's shoulder with his opposite arm as he broke into laughter.

A man after my own heart!

There was a reason Walter didnt let Maximos in the kitchen any longer...

Anyway, I have other matters to attend to. It was a pleasure to meet you Mr. Maximos, and its always good to see you, Ryugi. Until next time...

Maximos bowed his head, his smile ever present.

Indeed, and likewise Mr. Ryudo. I look forward to that next time...

Max was just about to turn away, when Ryudo's voice stopped him, his head turned just slightly toward the sound of the voice without turning around.

His grip tightened, and he looked down at the blade one more time in silent reverence before turning fully to face Ryugi. His more serious look melting into a wide grin. He wouldnt follow or attempt to follow where Ryudo went, that was the Shadow Dragon's business and he would leave him to it.

"He may not talk much, but when he does, its a sermon..."

Maximos smirked.

"He gets it from my father."

The shadow chuckled, it was a good honest laugh to take the edge off of how this morning had begun. His right arm twitched, his left arm sparked just a bit, sparks dancing down the blade and back up his arm.

There must not have been a quiet moment in that house.

He said, chuckling a bit to himself. He would turn, and take a first step toward Mr. Saint's house. While the shadows had provided him a lovely cloak and coated his feet in ichor to keep them somewhat warm, his normal clothes were still preferable.

He wasnt sure what to do about the blade itself. Which is to say, was it alright to just hold it open like this? He considered attaching a long ribbon or sash like length of shadow to the hilt and then tying that around the blade like a sheath...and yet that felt a bit overdone. And so he simply held it in hand, though inreverse. He wouldnt continue walking into the house unless Ryugi was following and so he'd look back to make sure the dragon was, and would open, but hold the door open for him to enter first.

How a house could be quiet, and yet full of epic level talkers like Ryugi, and family was just...well it was mind boggling. Maximos smirked from ear to ear, even letting out something of a chuckle.

You dragons...

He said, shaking his head and entering the house behind Ryugi. It wasnt mocking, but lets face it, as similar as they were, at there core the two civilizations were entirely different. And well, it was funny!

Max found himself fooled by the form in front of him so many times, completely lost to fact that 200ft beast of mythical power and origin sat dirty and sooty in front of him. Noting said grime and such Max titled his head to the side and commented with a boyishly innocent smile.

You know, Dad used to say the same thing all the time.


He sort of half grimaced sympathetically and half, smiled.

I stuck with Mom working on the post weapon effects. Thanks for getting dirty for me Ryu, it must have been quite some work.

He lifted the sword up, as if presenting it and weighing it at the same time.

It came out beautifully! Now...I think I'd best get changed before I catch my death of cold.

And with that Maximos trotted his wet bare feet up the stairs and to his room, and a few moments later the door was shut and ruffling and such was heard from inside of it.