Familial Hunt (Zorolo)

Hydra seemed to tug itself forwards suddenly, which caused Elea to stop looking at her hands. What…? She unsheathed Hydra, only to have it nearly tug out of her hand. It seemed to be pulling her somewhere, or at least wanted her to head in that direction. The child looked at her sword, as water slowly spun around it, eventually forming into a straight line. Another tug made her stand up and start walking in that direction.

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A single light shield sprang up, which caught the impact of all the arrows. The blast made him move back slightly, but Deacon threw another light orb at him, only to watch the Quincy vanish before appearing in front of him. “Predictable.” A pillar of light quickly swallowed the two of them, the strength of the attack threw Monroe through a building which collapsed on itself.

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Elea heard the blast and quickly ran over to a window, peeking out of it. She only saw the rubble that was a building and her father standing there. The child quickly moved away from the window and huddled against a wall, shaking. Hydra tugged in her hand again, seeming to point at her father on the other side of the wall. I can’t… fight him, he’s too strong… Her sister decided to speak up finally, You can’t, just due to fear? Come on, you were afraid of the arrows, but you defended yourself well from them. Why do you think Monroe gave you Hydra, well before it became Hydra…?

To fight, I guess…You guess?! Fight back already! I would if I was able to Split again… still waiting for it… her sister sighed in her head, Just be cautious, ok? We’ve seen how fast Monroe is at least once… just be cautious of that.

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Ok… Elea slowly stood up and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself. Her father, however started to walk away from the rubble, before some of it started to move. He looked at it, not noticing that Elea had walked out of the building nearby.

“Dad!” The light warrior only had turned slightly to look at her, before her sword was blocked by his katana. He just chuckled at her.

“You weren’t able to beat me when I was going easy on you, why do you think it would suddenly change…?” The hunter vanished, only to appear behind her, slashing down onto her shoulder. She shifted Hydra to block the attack quickly, the clang of metal crashed loudly in her ears.

“Because, I know how to fight now!” With a single spin, she had turned to face him, and the whip of water that followed Hydra’s movement threw him back slightly. He smiled at her still and charged again, only to have her skid back when she blocked his strike, aimed at her neck.

Monroe forced himself to stand up a bit just long enough to look at Elea as she fought her father. She seemed to be holding her own, but the Quincy wasn't quite done yet. I'm not done yet. That bastard is gonna pay for destroying my jacket and mantle. That and my Ipod. He's gonna suffer something like he's never seen before, the dark clad man said as he quickly began to rush forwards.

"Take this!" Monroe said as he appeared in front of Deacon suddenly, with a smile. The dark clad man ducked and spun around as he kicked the demon hunter in the chest and kicked him into the air. Quickly, the dark clad man spun around and smiled as his bow formed. "Take this!" the archer said as he began to rapid fire arrows into Deacon.

After a few arrows, the dark clad man suddenly dashed forwards and skidded to a stop behind the man. "And this... will end it!" Monroe said as he began to build up photon energy in his bow and readied to fire. "Kraft-Schuss!" Monroe stated as he released the arrow. As soon as it struck the demon hunter that stared at him and pushed him higher in the air. In a few seconds, Deacon began his descent.

"Stay down... dammit!" Monroe yelled as he smiled and lowered his bow.

Noah began to stir and quickly open his eyes with a start, “Wh-where is she…?!”

Elea backed away when Monroe began his attack, and ran into an alley, across from her brother, who jumped up and charged at her “You!” She quickly jumped to the left of his vertical stab, and swung the blunt side of Hydra into his head. The young teen quickly fell limp to the ground again, a plume of dirt came up underneath him, before a puff moved away from his mouth.

The Union turned around when she heard two thuds.

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Deacon hit the ground hard enough to bounce up before landing again. Somehow, he managed to stand back up or at least he almost did, before a blur threw him into a wall. Monroe appeared in front of him again, his bow drawn back.

Elea noticed how hurt he was instantly, “Monroe!” She ran right towards him, before he fired another explosive arrow at him. A clone appeared and attempted to stab its katana through the Quincy, before she struck it with Snake. It exploded, but a wall of water came up to prevent it from hitting the dark clad man. “Monroe… let me fight him, you're hurt…” her voice sounded concerned about him.

Monroe could feel it. His Ransoutengai was wearing out already. The Quincy hadn't realized how much damage he had taken after using the defensive technique, but as he slid along the wall of the building, he realized just how hurt he really was. The pain he felt suddenly surged back up as the strings of his defense rose and began to break. Suddenly, Monroe couldn't stand up any longer, and all he could do was stare at his foe.

"Elea... you can't... Let me... let me... protect you," he told her as his vision began to get blurry. It was just like with Alex... he had to protect them... they were the closest things to him besides Tracey. These were the people he'd die for. "Its supposed to be me dying for you... not the other way around... I can keep going..." Monroe said as he attempted to push himself up, only to fall back down again.

He would have to let her handle it for now.

Elea watched him try to get up, but to only fall back down. A sound made her look away from him, at her father, as he jumped out of the building. Deacon had heard what she had said earlier, despite the explosion soon afterwards, “You think you can fight me, daughter? Then please, try,” the light warrior stated as he smiled at her.

The child moved towards him slightly, but stayed in front of Monroe. “Split.” A white glow covered her for a moment, before her sister stood off to her left. The strange thing was, her sister looked just like Elea this time, but with black hair in front. She walked over to the Quincy, “You look awful…“ she muttered as a ring of water formed on the ground around him, the wounds slowly started to close up.

Deacon just stood there for a moment, gawking at what happened, “The demon can separate from you…?” The swords-girl just looked at him, with Hydra pointed directly at him.

“She’s a part of my mind, not a demon like you keep saying… So stop calling me that!” the now separated Union said as she charged at her father, only to have her sword connect with her father’s.

“Are you sure? It could be tricking…” that’s all Deacon managed to say, before she swept one of his legs from out underneath himself. He growled and attempted to run her through with his light weapon, but she was able to catch it with her left hand as it glowed white, sparks coming off of it. “You… have our magic…?”

Her father tugged his weapon out of her hands, and blocked her first downward strike, but didn’t see the upward slash. The blunt side of Hydra produced a crack sound from his lower chest, one of his ribs had broken. The light warrior glared at her, and formed an orb of light in his free, left hand. It connected with one of her water shields but threw the child backwards, skidding on the ground. “So, you finally managed to hit me… Good, but it doesn’t help you…”

Elea began to stand up, and held Hydra defensively as he walked towards her, anger in his eyes.

Monroe's eyes fluttered open as he felt energy returning. "I'm... okay," he whispered as he looked at Elea and Deacon fighting. As soon as chance arose, he looked to his side at the copy of Elea. His eyes went wide for a moment as he stared at her. "Elea? But aren't you-" he asked confused, just staring at her.

"Don't worry. I'm her sister. Don't worry about it. I'm just healing you, so you just stay still. We'll protect you," the sister said, cracking a devious smile.

Monroe smiled back at her as he watched the two. "Don't worry... help's on its way," the Quincy said as he looked into a tree. A figure wearing a dark blue cloak stood on the tree. He seemed to be smiling, but didn't move. "If you two need help, he's here to help us... kinda. Just be careful, he doesn't have a tendency to relax his way through battle."

The dark clad figure smiled as he looked at the hooded warrior not too far off. "Isn't that right?!" Monroe yelled out to this person he seemed to know.

The hooded figure simply nodded. Sorry it took me so long, Monroe. I know how you feel. The only reason I agreed to help you is because this is your student. Don't worry, so long as I'm here, neither of you will die. After all, you need to live so we can fight again.

(OoC: Done at college, during a break. Sorry if it's bad.)

Deacon instantly vanished, only to appear behind Elea, and slashed into her right shoulder. She cried out slightly, as the wound became visible on her sister’s right shoulder. The black eyed girl held her shoulder and growled, I hate the fact we mimic each other’s wounds… "…This skill I’m using… won’t last long. Can you stand up, yet?" Her voice was tinged with impatience and anger.

Hydra fell to the ground, as the swords-girl collapsed to her knees. A swift side kick forced her into a wall, nearly knocking her out. Her sister changed back to how she normally looked; with snake slit eyes, black skin, with claws instead of fingers as well as fangs. Still holding her shoulder, the demon-like sister half turned to her father, glaring at him.

Despite her head spinning, she managed to turn around and formed three triangles of water in her left hand, and threw them at him. All three quickly blurred in mid-air, and dug into his left shoulder and arm. The light warrior quickly looked over at her, almost gawking, before he launched a light crescent at her.

Monroe forced himself into a more upright position as he smiled at the girl and watched. "Hey, you, aren't you gonna do something?"

The cloaked man smiled as he leapt from the tree and landed on the ground. He could see the dark girl moving forwards, but figured it'd be better to wait this out. "I'll do something... soon. After all, I'm only human... part. Anyway, that little girl should have her turn. You've had yours, the other girl had hers, and now this one should have at least a little time to fight this guy. After that, I'll take my crack at him."

"Well make sure it's a good one. This guy isn't a push over, ya know. As you can see, he even beat me and Elea."

"Yeah... and? So he beat you two. I saw how he beat you, and it’s your own damn fault. Having volatile weapons in your jacket isn't going to backfire obviously," the hooded man said, clearly smirking. "Anyway, that little girl still has some fight left in her. Kick his ass, little girl."

Monroe nodded and looked at Elea's sister. "He's right. Do your best!"

The Union easily blocked the attack with a flick of her wrist, and a large translucent light shield sprang up in front of her. “Pathetic.” She actually vanished into thin air, before Hydra did as well. Deacon tried to track her, but kept turning around, not noticing a light ring underneath of him.

The pillar of light came up quickly, sending him into the air, before the demon-looking child appeared above him when the light warrior began to fall. “I know your moves too,” she muttered before swinging her sword in a huge, downwards strike. Water came out of mid-air and followed the slash, hitting her father square in the chest. That water was at a force of a small tidal wave, which smashed him into the ground in a second, while the girl just landed on the ground like a feather.

The water that absorbed her impact gathered around her sword, as she noticed him starting to come out of the depression he had made. A single slash formed a blade of water, which actually howled towards him, and tore him out of the hole, skidding along the ground. The other half of Elea sighed, “…Time’s up,” with that the black-skinned child walked over to the swords-girl and a flash later had vanished entirely.

Deacon, however laid wounded and bloody on the ground, before he started to get up slowly.

Zachary smiled as he looked at the man begin to push himself through the slushy, mud ridden ground. The Replicator smiled as he threw off his cloak to reveal his red and white hair and cloak beneath it. Suddenly, his hands, along with his whole arms, became covered by an odd kind of metallic ice. It was his turn... finally.

The ice innate slammed his hands together and smiled as he neared the swordsman, who still pressed on through the mucky ground. "There are too mistakes a person can make while fighting in mud. The first distinctly belongs to traction. You can't keep your feet in place while move or have a hard time moving, like you are. The other... is the fact that water saturated ground makes a lovely conductor of liquefaction, turning clay in the ground into liquid, or freezing. Although I'm sure you're wondering why I bring up the second one, right?"

Zachary smiled as he lowered himself and rested his hands on the ground. Suddenly, an oozy, odd, plastic-like ice began to flow from his hands. Suddenly, it flowed like water and froze the ground, and the man who moved forwards, solid in the ground. "The mud was the best conductor of ice. My ice isn't normal ice, though."

A sudden wave of magic completely froze the ground and the man suddenly. "My ice is magical in nature. I don't normally use it for this... but she made it too easy," the Replicator stated as he rushed forwards and Metalloid Ice flowed into his hands and quickly formed his short swords. "Fight me when you can't move!" Zachary yelled, leaping into the air and swinging his swords down towards

Deacon just smiled, as four clones popped up around the ice field that Zachary made. The crescents they threw mostly missed, before the ice mage’s swords hit him square in the head. A moment later, the trapped light hunter exploded, showing that it was a clone. The remaining clones, and Deacon vanished from view, a small flash of light was easily seen against the darkening sky.

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Elea held her right shoulder still, trying not to scream from the pain. She formed a small ring of water around the wound, and let it heal for a while. Hydra seemed to float up into the air for a moment, before the water around it turned an opaque blue. The water settled into a figure of a person, clad in metal armor. It just stood there however, looking around with lighter blue eyes that glowed from the visor.

"Well that's annoying," Zachary muttered as he looked around. Gone... that guy was simply gone. The ice innate assumed that meant he fled in terror, but that really wasn't important right now. The white haired warrior moved towards Monroe and Elea. "You two are lucky. That guy grabbed that little boy and ran. Now then, there is some time to regroup and recover before tomorrow, so we should take advantage of that."

"I'd love to Zachary, but there is one minor problem... Elea and I can still barely move," the Quincy stated as he tried to move a little bit, but pain swept over him. If the two of them were having trouble moving, that'd make fighting back right now rather interesting, but still, the Replicator didn't really care too much. It could have been worse.

The red haired warrior sighed as he bent down and began to flow healing magic into the two, watching their wounds slowly heal. "Healing is an easy task," the mage stated as he continued to heal their wounds. "There's a building out there that we can use to rest in. It's the best idea."

Monroe nodded as he stood up, still a bit shaky, and picked up Elea. "Okay then..." he stated as the two of them started hopping through the forest to the small house to rest. After all, it was their best hope at that moment in time. They had to recover, since odds are the fight would continue tomorrow.

(OoC: Not sure where Monroe or Zachary would be during this, so I left them out...)

As the sun rose again the dim sound of an argument rang out in a cave, not far from the ruins, but far enough. “I can’t believe you let her knock you out! You are worthless!” Noah just winced during all of this, before his father stormed out of the cave, almost fully recovered and headed towards the town.

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Hydra turned into a large hawk in the middle of the night, the sword vanished, helping to solidify the water better. It sat on the edge of a roof, away from the building where the three went to, to try and confuse Elea’s father and brother of where they were at.

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Elea quickly woke up lying on her right side, before she slowly stood up. Her sister spoke up all of a sudden, You need to fight back more. I can help you with that, since you saw how I fought against your brother. You just don’t have to be so frightened… The child tried to speak up mentally, but her sister shut her out. …It is alright to be cautious, just not so much…

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As Deacon entered the water hawk's view, Hydra let out an ear piercing shriek, before flying away from the building. It landed on a windowsill nearby, and watched as the light warrior followed it, heading away from the three.

The two warriors watched at the large bird lead the demon hunter away and looked at each other. Monroe then returned to open fire he had started where he found himself smelting silver down into tubes. As the Quincy looked at each of the tubes, a green light covered the tube for a few seconds while he charged it with photon energy. The glow faded and the weapon was finished being charged. The dark clad man placed the filled tubes down and watched as the rest of the extra silver Zachary had brought slowly smelted down into a molten liquid.

"I'm not even going to ask how you knew you'd need extra silver. I'm just gonna leave it at the fact I brought you your silver. Anyway, aside from making weapons, what're you doing right now? Like, if that guy comes back, what're we gonna do about him?" Zachary asked as he pulled his returned cloak closer to himself as he looked into the distance. "After all, the only reason I came here is because you said you might want me to help you train that little girl."

"Yeah, that was the original plan, however... stuff happened. That guy... that's Elea's father. He's a skilled demon hunter, as you can tell. Elea seems to have special magic that doesn't run in her family, but still; she's not yet skilled enough to defeat him on her own. It'll take all of us... and even that seems a bit iffy, as you noticed."

"So what about that thing that looked kinda like her? What was that?"

"That, as far as I can tell, is part of Elea. Probably some kind of inner spirit that can somehow take physical form. I honestly can't say thought, but I know it’s a much better fighter than Elea, and much more skilled with her powers. Still, Elea needs to stand up for herself. And I'm here to help her with that."

Monroe still looked at the flame as he finished shaping another silver tube. He seemed to drift off into the fire as he continued to finish up his weapons. Quickly, the dark clad man put on a new undershirt, jacket and mantle and looked at Zachary. "Zachary... after we finish here, are you gonna deal with the problems that have started occurring back home?" the Quincy asked the Replicator.

Zachary crossed his arms and looked into the fire. "Yeah, but we have one person we should talk to before we do that. After all, I still don't fully trust you... but since you seem to know too, might as well ask her about what's true and what's not. Once we find out if what you're telling me is true... we'll move from there. Anyway, this is what Z would have wanted for us... to put aside our fight to deal with other things. Even though I don't think this was what he meant, it’s better than us never ending our battle. Just like you and 'denza."

"Whatever... just because I'm the legal guardian of her niece doesn't mean she and I will ever stop hating each other. Anyway... I'm gonna make sure that Elea's getting some rest and sleep myself. Anyway, wake me up when my shift starts," Monroe said as he walked back towards the building with his silver tubes ready to go. He would be ready this time.

Footsteps rang out against the hard ground, making Deacon stop and turn around, before he glared at the approaching person. “Leave boy, you’re too pathetic to fight back.”

“I’m not leaving you alone Dad, I’m worried about you…” Noah was cut off however.

“I don’t care. Leave!”

“Dad, I…”

“I said leave, boy. I have no problem killing you if you don’t, despite you being my son.”

The young swordsman just looked at his father, before walking away, his right hand clutching the hilt of his sword. The light warrior, however, continued to follow the water hawk.

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Sis, why don‘t we try to fight him again…?

Dad? No, he‘s too… Elea drooped her head slightly, before her sister became visible again, against her back.

“Why do you keep being afraid of things? You saw how I fight, and I’m you…” she whispered, but it was loud enough for the child to hear.

“I know…”

The demon-looking child sighed, “Split.” A flash of light sprang up, but wasn’t able to be seen due to the rising sun glowing out of the window to their left. She appeared standing in front of her sister this time. “You need help.”

The swords-girl didn’t say anything, just walked over to the wall on her right and sat against it.

The dark clad man and the ice mage entered into the building and sat down. "We have to plan for tomorrow," Monroe said as he rolled out a map of the area. The Quincy had several markers placed on the map indicating important areas that had suffered some damage in the battle, most of them involving the ruins of the city, that was all but mostly leveled after the battle.

Zachary looked at the map and quirked an eyebrow. "You have no life, did you know that?" the Replicator asked as he crossed his arms and continued to look at the map.

Monroe narrowed his eyes as he looked at the ice warrior and returned to his map, looking over spaces. "The first rule of battle is to know your setting before heading off into a fight. If you don't know what's around you, you're an easy ambush."

Zachary crossed his arms and scoffed a little bit. "I doubt that. After all, its just one guy..." the ice mage said as he thought back about the battle. "Although, he did have that annoying trick... the one where he created exploding versions of himself."

"Yeah, exactly. Exploding clones... not the easiest of things to fight against. Anyway, the time has come to set up some traps that'll help in the long run. Although I doubt that would work... What we're gonna need to do is wear him down slowly. Some way that he can't fight back against... but fighting him all three of us at once would be foolish. He'd resist using annoying and cowardly things. So... we need to do something."

"That's a stupid fact to point out. We fight him one-on-one in intervals until he can't fight anymore. Duh!"

Monroe looked at Zachary again and then cast his glance to Elea. "I don't think that would work too well. After all, with the way this guy fights, he'd wear down us at different rates... we need to work together... but discretely. That's our best option... unless. Elea, want to add something?" the Quincy asked the girl with a smile.

“I don’t know of anything, since I never really saw him use his skills before this, except with his weapon.” Elea lowered her head a bit, her tri-colored hair was catching the light now as it came into the building.

A new voice rose up, “I know his skills a bit, but I don’t know any tactics. Hit and run is kind of hard to counter, at least in my opinion.” It was her sister, since she had split from Elea earlier in the morning.

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The sun continued to climb, the land was now mostly visible in the light. Deacon stopped and watched Hydra, as a water hawk, fly off. “It’s leading me somewhere else, not to her…” he muttered, almost growling under his breath. “Now, where are they?

The light warrior walked away, tracing where he had come from, and eventually got to where he first saw the hawk. Now, which way…?

Monroe looked at Elea's sister and smiled at her. "Thanks, but don't worry about it. I've got a pretty good idea about his skills from fighting him first had. He doesn't have many tricks, so its all a matter of trapping him after he uses one of his skills, ya know? All we need to do now is figure it out... how we're going to fight him, I mean."

"There's a lot to figure out in this fight, isn't there?" Zachary asked as he looked at Monroe. "After all, we've spent the last few hours planning as the sun has been rising instead of making up a trap and luring that idiot into. So why don't we just fight him the easy way: rush off and fight him one-on-one."

"Because, as I've said before, that's almost suicide. Mostly since he, himself doesn't fight fair. Although... you do have a good point." Monroe smiled at Elea and moved towards her, sitting down next to her and looking at her sister. "I need your two help with this. When he draws near, I've got a plan."

Elea and her sister moved closer and smiled as Monroe placed his fingers on the map, explaining exactly what their strategy would be. It didn't seem to complex to Zachary, and the girls seemed to understand fine. Now, it was all a matter of implementing.

"Everyone ready? Break!" Monroe yelled as he smiled at Elea. Quickly, the Replicator and the Quincy left their house and headed away from the house. That just left Elea to do her bit: give them time.

Elea’s sister was the first to move, followed by the child’s real half. Hydra dived into view, before seeing the two run down separate paths in the town. The hawk flew away as well, while it kept it’s eye on one of them.

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Deacon continued to wander around, before he spotted Elea running past an alley. “Bad move daughter…” He darted after her, and was easily gaining ground, until something pounced on his head and laughed. The light warrior turned to see the demon-looking half as she just grinned at him, before blurring away as he took off after her. “Get back here, demon!”

His speed seemed to be cut in half, the only thing that hadn’t healed over night, before the swordsman stopped in an alley. “Dad!” Turning around, he saw Elea, before an orb of water hit him. Darting towards her, he raised his glowing weapon and attempted to slash at her, but she actually vanished into thin air before the sword hit her.

Ok… that was a bit too fast… the swords-girl thought as she appeared again, close to her sister now. The other half laughed a bit, “That was good actually, you’re learning… stay alert though,” with that the two took off again and ran towards the forest.

Hydra, meanwhile, dive-bombed Deacon once before heading into trees as well, the man cursing behind it as he ran after it. “Get back here!” Elea and her sister stopped for a moment, and her sister had vanished in a flash of light, before the hawk hovered in front of her. It turned back into her sword, and she sheathed it before she ran off once more, hearing her father closing in again.

"Ready... and... NOW!" Monroe said as he pulled his right hand back and stretched the strings along a tree. As quickly as Deacon was moving, the Quincy knew there was no way he would see it coming. The man ran quickly into the wires of photon energy and slammed hard into them, being stopped in an instant. The swordsman stepped back and turned quickly as the dark clad man smiled and slid to his other side and spun around.

Monroe pulled the wires tightly around the two trees and pulled them tightly together, narrowly not trapping Deacon. In reality, this was all only part of the set up anyway. The swordsman looked at the dark man and narrowed his eyes. "What are you doing? Clearly I'm not trapped, so what kind of lame idea is this?"

"Its actually a very good one, you're just not smart enough to figure out what I'm doing!" the archer said as he formed his bow and drew the strings into the bow and fired off a series of arrows. The arrows traveled quickly along their carrying device and suddenly struck two small things that had been jammed into the tree.

A powerful blast rang out on both sides of the trap, causing the trees to slowly fall towards where Deacon had been trapped moments before. "You're too slow!" the demon hunter said as he rolled away from the falling trees and looked at Monroe, smiling. "After all, why would a lame trick like that work on me?"

"It's not that trick that was meant to take you out. It was mostly meant to distract you."

"Distract me... from what?" he asked, looking at Monroe.

A sudden clash of blades began as Zachary leapt from the tree he had been hiding in and crossed swords with the man. The two stood face to face, Zachary's short swords held tightly as he began to push the swordsman back.

"You're lame attempts to defeat us won't work!" Deacon said as light engulfed his sword and exploded, shattering Zach's swords and tossing the Replicator back slightly.

"Still," Monroe stated as he, Zachary and Elea stood in a triangle around the swordsman, "we've surrounded you. So, are you going to give up now?" Monroe asked with a smile.