Oh, good to hear that you're still slive, man. Happy birthday and condolences for your flu.
Awaiting for Chapter 52 as usual.
Longer periods of absence from this forum are almost always rooted in Real Life issues that go beyond the usual stuff.
Thanks, I've now finally get rid of it, right before Christmas arrives.
Chapter's coming. ^__^
Ah, okay.
Glad to know that you're still alive and well.
Happy birthday to you, Sephiroth!
May you have a good one and enjoy it greatly!
Like Zero said: We'll be waiting on your post of Chapter 52 of Kingdom Hearts: Hearts in Union!
That was really more annoying and unpleasant than hurtful. It just sucks when you cannot really concentrate on anything because of feeling like you're in delirium, lol.
Thanks, luckily I got the cold
after my birthday so it wasn't impeded.
Speaking of it, here is the next chapter, with one week delay, but making up for that we'll get two chapters in a row, the next one already due next week:
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LII. The Dragon King
"Think what you want silvermane, but I prefer to not judge an action before its been fully done."
Bringing up his free hand Zidane gave Ansem a punch right across the face from left to right while simultaneously releasing his tail from the chandelier.
It didn't faze the Heartless much and he answered by increasing the pressure of his hand around the boy's throat.
"Not very impressing." He mocked.
"Ghh...this was..only the beginning." Zidane answered in a faltering manner, between some more gasps for air.
As he swung the arm back Ansem suddenly realized that it held one of the short swords that was aimed at directly cutting his head off, the young thief blocking his double-bladed Soul Eater with only the other one right now.
Despite being in such a bad situation, this guy actually remains calm enough to disconnect his weapon back into two and try to go for a killing blow!
Having no choice but to back off, he released Zidane from his grip and floated a bit away just enough so the sword won't hit him.
"Impressive, but it won't work nonetheless."
Zidane's grin even widened at this while he adjusted his position on the chandelier.
"You've no idea, silvermane. Getting this near to you certainly wasn't just for this. Nope, you actually have a date."
"What?" Ansem tilted his head in slight confusion.
"Of course not with me, as you're
really not my type, " the young blond continued while mockingly twinkling one eye, " but with
this: Free energy!"
A rune of blue energy suddenly appeared between them that almost immediately exploded, catapulting Ansem away.
"Ugh...insolent BRAT."
"Bye, bye, silvermane." Zidane stuck out his tongue after him before jumping from the chandelier and continuing his assault with another volley of Solution 9.
Ansem crashed into one of the walls, but could catch himself fast enough to avoid the barrage of orange energy runes by just letting himself fall down to the floor.
"Free Energy" had burned a clearly visible hole in his overcoat a tad left below the Heartless emblem and an open wound was located below, although it didn't release any blood but darkness.
"Hmph...you actually managed to hurt me, brat." He grunted with a slight vibe of admiration while dismissing his weapon.
Yuffie and Leon had meanwhile managed to wear the Zip Slashers slowly down and surround them.
"These guys are real pests. I'm more exhausted fighting one of these than a whole legion of the normal shadow-like critters." Yuffie complained while panting heavily.
"You're right, these must be of a more elite species, created from hearts that had very much darkness." Leon agreed as he slashed his enemy another time, causing it to bump into the other Zip Slasher.
Fang and the Guardian had exchanged plenty of blows up to now, but were nearly completely evenly matched, although stamina seemed to be of no concern to the Guardian.
This is bad,
its going to wear me down to nothing if this goes on. We have to abandon the fight.
Fang raised her spear again as the Guardian suddenly backed away, releasing a weird, gurgling sound before it punched the floor.
"What the...ieh."
Several dark tendrils shot out from the ground and entangled her like a bunch of vines.
To her great surprise, she felt the shard in her pocket moving by itself, slowly moving towards one of the tendrils.
Seeing that he actually managed to damage Ansem, Zidane quickly dashed towards him to continue the assault.
Noticing it, Ansem smirked another time.
"Again so predictable."
The sphere-like energyfield expanded around him again.
"Nope!" Zidane countered as this time he stopped his dash early enough and performed an upwards flip in the air instead.
"Like I said, predictable." Ansem mocked as he reached out more quickly than any eye could see and got a hold of Zidane's tail, pulling harshly in an instant.
"Uwaaah."
The following scream was unnaturally high-pitched indicating severe pain as Zidane dropped his swords.
"How convenient."
Ansem swung his opponent around by his tail, slamming him first into the wall, then against the staircase and finally another bookshelf.
"Ououou, let go of me, you bastard!" Zidane yelped as he fruitlessly tried to break free of Ansem's grip.
Instead of an answer Ansem simply laughed as he continued with brutally slamming Zidane against the floor, followed by a harsh kick to the stomach.
In desperation, the young thief grabbed one of the books spread around on the floor and tossed it towards his tormentor.
The Heartless used his free hand to swat the flying book aside and retaliated with another kick that made Zidane wince before placing one foot directly on his head while pulling on the tail even stronger.
"Aaagh, do you want to rip it out, you idiot?" He screeched.
The high sensation of pain made Zidane's eyes watery, although part of it was also anger at being placed in such a humiliating position.
Ansem displayed another cynical grin. "Thanks for the suggestion, but I actually thought about something else."
He summoned his double-bladed Soul Eater again, placing it like a sword of Damocles over the boy's twitching form beneath him, ready to stab him right through the heart from behind.
"One nuisance less to worry about. You were an entertaining opponent, ape-brat."
Sensing the immediate danger Zidane began to flinch and struggle with way more ferocity in order to get free, the growing fear getting a hold of him.
Just as Ansem was revelling at this sight, a triumphant howl of the Guardian distracted him for a moment as he noticed the monster holding up the shard surrounded by many of the dark tendrils protruding from one of his hands.
The other leftover tendrils were still wrapped around Fang, which the Guardian proceeded to use to toss her across the room. Two further slashing sounds made Ansem also aware of the fact that Leon and Yuffie had finally defeated the two Zip Slashers.
Letting out a scream at noticing Zidane's situation, Yuffie immediately summoned a giant glowing Shuriken while Leon started to dash towards Ansem.
One nod of the Heartless later the Guardian intercepted Leon with a heavy punch, the shard still entangled in some of the energy tendrils connected to its other hand.
This short distraction however was what in the end prevented him from performing the death blow to his fallen opponent. Just as Ansem was about to stab Zidane, Yuffie's shuriken blasted the double-bladed Soul Eater out of his hand as she had thrown it the very second his attention was turned towards directing the Guardian against Leon.
"Alright, then have it the other way." He snarled as he removed his foot from Zidane's head and yanked him up into the air by again pulling harshly on his tail, causing more pained outcries.
Fang had recovered by now as well and noticed with an expression of horror on her face that was shared with Yuffie and Leon that Ansem was actually swirling Zidane around like someone would do with a lasso.
The Guardian disengaged from Leon and appeared behind Ansem, the shard still in the provisional "cage" of dark energy tendrils.
With a furious growl Fang advanced on him, spear hoisted high.
Leon joined her just a second later.
"Time to end this folly." Ansem declared with utter calmness as he used the screaming Zidane like a swinging club and swatted Fang away by slamming him into her, following that by zapping the poor thief with a load of dark energy unleashed from his arm before throwing him directly into Leon, causing both to topple over and land on the floor with the dark energy ravaging through their bodies with crackling sounds.
Satisfied, Ansem mockingly crossed his arms again as the Guardian prepared another flurry of dark energy discs to finish them off.
Groaning, Leon slowly got up while Zidane struggled to do the same, all the while making a huge effort to hold back some sobbing from the immense pain, his tear-stained face showing defiance and a burning anger.
"Don't overdo it!" Yuffie shouted as she jumped beside him to help him stand.
"He's going to pay...to pay dearly." The young thief replied with a shaky voice.
"Watch out!" Leon interrupted as he shoved both Zidane and Yuffie aside, the Guardian's energy discs hitting him full force.
"Leon!" Yuffie and Zidane screamed in unison, it being the first time the thief actually used the chosen name of his old comrade.
Ansem hovered a tad away, smirking calmly but inside he was clearly enjoying the moment as Leon was blasted several metres away and crashed into another bookshelf, the whole library a total mess already from the battle.
Sensing a movement in the corner of one eye Ansem's smile vanished as an unfamiliar feeling of pain roared through his form.
What the...
With some surprise he noticed Fang's spear stuck through his abdomen, the woman looking him straight into the eyes with an expression of fury, the black hair partly falling messily in her face.
"I'm going to wipe that smirk right off of you, freakish' monster."
"Enough of the insolence!" Ansem yelled in a mix of anger and sheer disbelief of having been damaged like that.
Using it's free hand the Guardian punched Fang straight in the face as Ansem grabbed her by the collar.
"You're going to fix that damage youself!" He snarled as he casted the spell Drainra, absorbing some of Fang's energy to replenish his own.
"And now perish!" He continued as he flung her around and tossed her out of one of the stained glass windows of the library, the shattering glass flying outwards as well.
Yuffie was just about to work some healing magic on both Leon and Zidane as she noticed the new development. Before she could act on anything or even express her shock, the Neoshadows that Ansem had summoned to guard the portal to the Lanes Between advanced on her and the other two, intent on swallowing their hearts.
"Damn youuuu..." She prepared to use a Limit as she felt Leon's hand on her shoulder.
"Don't. Use your healing limit for Zidane and me...
I destroy those Heartless. Renzokuken!"
Clad in a glowing red aura, Leon charged forward and began a wild slashing frenzy with his Gunblade, destroying Neoshadows left and right.
"Alright, let's go then: Clear Tranquil!" Yuffie summoned up her healing special technique, causing the badly battered Zidane to sigh in relief as the effect set in.
While all this transpired, Ansem simply shrugged and let the Guardian hand the shard over to him.
My job is done, should I just return or take the opportunity to finish them off?
He heard a low voice in his head that was undoubtly his original self, Xehanort.
Don't bother with them, bring back the shard!
That of course settled the matter and Ansem turned around summoning a Corridor of Darkness.
Just as Leon had defeated all the Neoshadows and Zidane managed to shakily get into something that resembled a battle stance again, the whole window-front of the library with all remaining stained glass-windows exploded, debris raining into the room.
"What the hell???" Leon shouted.
Slightly surprised, Ansem turned around as well.
Outside, Fang was sitting on a giant floating dragon that had a slight metallic look to it, her face determined and spiteful despite her tattered appearance.
"I told you I would wipe that smirk off of you. Shorty! Leon! Yuffie! Get out of there!"
Holy Kingdom Hearts, that's a version of Bahamut, the King of Dragons...
Yuffie gasped in surprise.
Realizing what she was about to do, Zidane yelped shortly.
"Oh no, oh no, not good. Leon, Yuffie, we need to get out of this room, quickly!"
Leon also realized in an instant and seeing that Zidane was barely able to walk despite the help of Yuffie's healing magic, he simply picked the thief up under his arm as he started into a run alongside Yuffie.
Ansem meanwhile didn't lose his mocking smile. "Oh yeah? Let's see what you've got! Come, Guardian!"
The Guardian teleported in front of Ansem as Fang swung her spear around on the dragon's back.
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Throwing her out of the window might not have been Ansem's best idea, was it? *ggg*