Welcome to Gaia! ::

First attacks are rarely meant to hit. As his wispy hand was impaled he tugged Ankokuko back, the sword snapped its connection from the shadow and came to rest at his right side.

Projectiles. Ice, but projectiles, they reminded him a bit of arrows. Maximos always had great fun with arrows. But before he could slash, or duck or dodge Ryugi gave him a chance to save his energy. As well as his time, by dispensing such....information.

I see, this might have been useful information, before we fought a horde of lesser fiends!

Again not yelling, though his volume did pick up so that it could reach Ryugi across the distance. While all the while he thought...

I dont think respect will kill it...

Either way, Maximos skills when it came to fighting Greater Ice Fiends were lacking, he could probably fight a dragon with great success, but this thing was no dragon.

And so he did what Shadow's do, he mirrored Ryugi running in the opposite direction, so as to flank the creatures other side. Ryugi had flames, that was going to be a big asset. Probably the biggest. Either way, he would try his best to act as the Silver Dragon did. The posture with which he held Ankokuko almost mirroring his companion.

The ghastly and ephemeral Chaos Wyverns, whose existence in this world was questionable at best, relentlessly gazing forward with their single eye.

The ancient and forgotten Undead Dragons, with their massive and petrified bones, carrying the secrets of several millennia... and a seemingly random assortment of lower undead.

The tainted Black Dragon, whom could level an entire building with a single gust from its majestic and powerful wings, was the triumphant symbol of the legion's might.

The Death Knight, an Undead Shade with unspeakable power.

The incredible combined force of Argon's army charged straight towards the unseen continent, confident in their crushing power! But what of Angara's Barrier? Surely, with such powerful magic at work, the island would irrevocably be safe from all impending attacks?

Maybe it was a bad idea to sacrifice lives create a barrier that effectively protected nothing.

With Argon's previous knowledge of Angara, his entire force could pass without the slightest bit of trouble. First the dragons made the error of creating a mass concealment spell instead of an actual shield, then they let outsiders come and go as they please... effectively nullifying any advantage that the barrier might have given them.

However, this world-shattering sight would be one that no outsider would witness, as the raging storms made certain that no one could see inland... or vise versa.

How anti-climatic.

The Forgotten: 1
The Dragons: 0

Their biggest advantage today would be the time. Yes, the date of the invasion was the same as the scheduled date for Heaven or Hell's final round. Ironically, the event that had inavertedly caused Moonblade's fall would serve to stall his greatest enemies. While they were engrossed with the tournament and festivities, they wouldn't receive any news of Argon's assault.

No one would be coming to Angara's aid, not until it was too late.

There was still a major obstacle in their path that wasn't as feeble as the concealment barrier: The Storm. Even with Moonblade's memories at his disposal, Argon couldn't traverse the hurricane wins and expect the majority of his legion to escape unscathed. Though unnatural, the weather still shifted consistently enough for it to be impossible for the Death Knight to reliably navigate on long-term memory. He would need to scout it out first before he brought his main force in, otherwise this war would be over before it really started.

This storm is but a stepping stone...

Thusly a smaller expeditionary force would enter the intense storm with the Death Knight at point. At least the extreme weather still provided some visual cover.

The expeditionary force would begin to make themselves at home, dark clouds looming in the distance from where they'd just come, and some dark clouds moving in from farther inland. Wait... As they'd see the clouds moving in, a strange noise would begin to rise from the silence around them. It sounded like a hiss at first, until it grew louder, and louder, until it rose into a roaring buzzing sound as a massive horde of insectoid creatures nearly 1,000 strong blotted out the sun as they approached and swarmed around the newly arrived invaders. Something in the back of Argon's head would ring...

And suddenly, a rain of barbed stingers would pour down from the wasp-like creatures. A hail of death from above would pelt the newly arrived invaders, a toxic gas, acidic in nature eating away at whatever it came in contact with, working to dissolve tissue, bone, armor, anything as a noxious cloud of fumes began to rise before being carried away by the winds. And then, the cloud would retreat a ways, and a dark figure would emerge from the buzzing mass...



His hair was dark and silvery, he was dressed completely in black from head to toe, and peeking out from behind they hair were two blood red, glowing, eyes.



Ryudo Kazamaru would stare down the invading forces, but his gaze was focussed on the one who was obviously their leader. The Death Knight.

Ryudo didn't even need to move. As soon as the remaining troops would advance, the swirling hordes of Stinger Spawn would race forward, their sheer numbers guaranteeing strikes as poisoned acidic stingers flew towards the remaining troops, and the crushing mandibles of the creatures would clamp down onto any target they could grip, and would effectively work to TEAR the expeditionary force to pieces. They weren't playing any games...



Ryudo was silent as he landed on the ground, nearly 75 feet away from the center of the battle. But then, something new would erupt from him. Moonblade would have never seen this. Tendrils of black shadow energy rose up from the ground around Ryudo's feet and rose into the air, nearly 100 feet, softly spinning around him and violet crackled around his form. His red eyes glowed blood red, his shoulder length silver hair would rise softly as a soft wind began to form up around him.

The only movement would be Ryudo's arms. His left would move to his side, the fingers of the left hand curling as if gripping an object. His right would move to his left side as well, the right hand hovering in the same curled position, violet sparks crackling up and down his form as the Stinger Spawn continued their onslaught of anything that moved on the battlefield other than Ryudo...

Negative energy drained life-force, the Stinger Spawn were incarnates of elemental energy and given mild intelligence to understand commands issued by Ryudo, and Ryudo alone. They had no "life-force" to be drained, and the negative energy barely scratched their tough outer shells. The retaliation would be in vain as the Stinger Spawn tore through the cones of negative energy and bore down on the retreating forces without mercy. Mandibles would attempt to physically dislocate and remove limbs, wings, eyes, tails, anything that could be gripped easily. The larger creatures would attack and bite as they pleased, but the swarm was unforgiving in its assault, and they were vastly outnumbered.

The massive cone of fire from the Tainted Dragon mount would take out a number of the swarm, others managing to zip out of the way like a wasp avoiding a hose of water, but the hard outer shells of the swarm would still act as protection to the searing heat, some of the hit Swarm surviving the blast to land on the ranks and self destruct, blasts with the power of a hand grenade detonating along the dark ranks. Unyielding as a swarm of killer bees, the Stinger Spawn would continue their assault until they were called back by Ryudo, or destroyed. Speaking of Ryudo...

The spiraling tendrils of shadowy energy would suddenly balloon upwards and outwards, nearly tripling in size and scope. The air around Ryudo's form would warble and twist, something invisible seeming to warp reality around the Shadow Dragon. Death Knight would no doubt be capable of feeling the energy from Ryudo, and it would be absolutely massive. If he could see it, the entire area within the anomaly would glow, twist, turn and bend back in upon itself as it seemed to SURGE about in seemingly chaotic and yet organized in the same actions. Ryudo's style before had been so...ordinary. But this style... This was something that Moonblade would have never seen the Dragon perform before. It was something far more commanded and controlled than the simple manipulation of the elements and his mental prowess that Ryudo had used before.

The air around the field would begin to quaver and warp, shaking as if reality itself was being shaken apart, the ground softly rumbling as bits of small rocks and debris began to rise from Ryudo's feet, being thrown into the turbulent mass of energy that seemed to have no distinct form or shape where they were split apart and shattered from the forces at work around Ryudo's form. Approaching the torrents flowing around him would result in heavy damage, as seen in the destruction of the debris.

The Swarm was built to handle most normal energy attacks without breaking a sweat. Their tough outer shells were thick and susceptible more to physical strikes than energy strikes, however, this burst of chaotic energy was far different than any other type of energy. Its chaotic nature simply destroyed, repaired, warped, and replaced the Shadow Spawn, all at once. Their tough outer shells couldn't take this kind of punishment. Stinger Spawn fell from the sky in pieces, their bodies simply dissolving into shadow energy, some attempting to rush the other troops in one last ditch effort, detonating with all their might in self destruction hoping to halt the incoming assault. Nearly eighty-five percent of the Swarm had been destroyed and annihilated in the Death Knight's attack, leaving only a few from what had been nearly one thousand before.

The remaining hundred and fifty or so would then move to attack the remaining troops with everything they had, biting, stinging, attacking with their acidic, poisonous mandibles. It was a suicide mission. But they didn't care. They were created only to serve the will of Ryudo. His mental direction was all they needed to seek and destroy, or assist. The assault troops would have their work cut out for them as the smaller number was even harder to destroy due to their sparseness. There was more room to maneuver.

But the remaining Swarm would soon be the least of the expeditionary force's worries...

A thunderous pulse from the direction of Ryudo would yank any magic sensing creature's attention within nearly twenty miles as something was set into motion. While the forces had been busy making paste out of the Stinger Spawn, Ryudo had been preparing something massive. The billowing shimmering clouds of black and violet tendrils would pulse once more as energy crackled down the length of Ryudo's arms, and off the back of his hands. Then, he'd move for the first time since the massive amount of energy had been gathered to his cause.

His body would turn to the left so that his right side was facing the oncoming horde, his hands still stuck to his side in that strange gripping pose. His left leg would slide back behind him, his body twisting to follow the curve as his body then leaned back on his left leg to support his weight. Energy surged around him, debris were sent flying from the sheer magnitude of the power that Ryudo had amassed, and violet sparks coursed across his arms. His blood red eyes glowed with power and his silvery hair blew about his face and head from the energies at work within hims body, mind, and the area around him. His black coat billowed and whipped about in the tumultuous currents that spun across the field as his gaze centered on his targets. Then, he'd move once more, and the battle would be over...



With a snap, Ryudo's right arm would swipe across his form, as if he'd just drawn a sword from its sheath... The raging torrent of energy above would pulse and then surge towards Death Knight and his remaining troops, before slowly dissipating into the air, as if nothing had been there in the first place. The wind stopped, the energy ceased, and a strange calm settled over the battlefield. But still, Ryudo held his pose, his "sword" off to his right side, his eyes still gazing upon the troops, a deathly silence creeping across the battlefield.

Death Knight was right about one thing. Ryudo hadn't used all of that energy and power for nothing. It would start small at first, roughly three seconds after the dissipation, the air seeming to waver slightly around Ryudo's form, and a soft wind would begin to blow, almost like a soft breeze. Nothing to be worried about for someone as powerful as Death Knight. However, that would soon change. The waver in the air began to increase and rise in the fracturing effect, the ground beneath the invader's feet beginning to shake and seem to rise and fall as if Gaia itself was shaking and awakening from a millenniums rest. The air itself would waver and force the invaders from side to side as reality itself seemed to be shaking itself apart!



A rift would suddenly open in front of Ryudo, spanning nearly thirty feet. It looked like a thin black line floating about ten feet in front of Ryudo, and would open like a gash into reality itself. The thin line was only about one inch wide at its largest point, and narrowed smaller and smaller until it closed at either end. It was a dimensional rift. It was a literal slice into the fabric between the prime material plane and the elemental shadow plane. All that energy, focus, and time to open this tiny cut between planes. But why? Why, when Ryudo could have used a massive attack of his own with all that energy? The answer would soon make itself known.

Violet crackled along the length of the tiny dimensional tear before it unleashed an unspeakable amount of power directly towards the invading forces. Shadow energy shot from the tear like water being held back by a titanic dam with a crack, the surge of energy darkening the skies as the shadow flooded into the material plane at an unchecked rate and sped towards the forces with titanic force. The ground would crack, and then shatter as chunks of rock were gouged from the earth below and sent flying towards the enemy forces, breaking apart from the shearing forces of the wave of power. The air in front of the cutting force would warp and twist, blurring from the massive amount of energy released.

From its point of entry into the physical realm the energy would erupt outward in a wide "V" formation at terrible speed, and reach the enemy forces within two seconds. But it would not stop there. The cliff face where the enemy forces had landed would shatter, casting debris from it out into the storm clouds as the energy from the shadow realm expanded farther out into the clouds themselves, and nearly half a mile beyond the shattered cliff face, the energy dissipating at that extreme distance.

The onslaught of shearing energy and massive hunks of debris would continue for a full eight seconds after initial contact was made, before the dimensional rip would seal itself back up, as such things were incredibly difficult to maintain for long periods of time, even for one such as Ryudo. As time would pass, the battlefield would change as a last pulse of energy would erupt as the rift sealed, a puff of energy marking the end of the surge, and the wind blowing across the field.

The area would be completely changed. The cliff face would be decimated, looking nearly like half of a crater from the shattering force of the attack. Bare rock would show where grass had once been, and the areas would brighten once more as the shadow faded. Ryudo would still be there, standing, and panting. But his eyes would be locked on to any remaining threats, his senses feeling out for anything that had survived his maelstrom. The troops and Death Knight had survived the Stinger Spawn, but would they be capable of surviving and weathering the might of an entire elemental plane bearing down on them with terrible searing forces? If even for eight seconds?

The Greater Ice Fiend was not as foolish as it looked. As Ryugi was sent back, and would move to strike with his stab, the beast would spin around, heaving its large torso about to turn its heavy shielding arm to deflect the stabbing weapon to the right side of the creature, and cause Ryugi to miss his target.

But what of the mighty weapon and the strike of Maximos?

Maximos would likely be partially effected by the pulse of energy from the creature, and as the creature turned, it shielded arm would whip around to face Ryugi, which meant that its mighty frozen weapon would whip around as well, aiming to collide with Maximos and Ankokuko in another mighty clash!

At this time, Ryugi would speed off to the beast's side, slipping and skidding in the snow as he attempted to turn around and regain his bearings on the fiend, and on Maximos, hoping that the shadowy warrior would be alright after he'd missed his stab...