Winds Of Freedom; Journey To The Heart Of The Storm

[Fate I]

The adventurers had traveled to depths of the seed prison, overcoming temptation and danger as they pursued the immediate liberation of their captured kin. The two men, bound by circumstance and friendship, embarked on this perilous quest without hesitation. Armed with determination and a shared resolve, they navigated through the labyrinthine corridors, their footsteps echoing in the dimly lit passages.

As they neared their destination, the silence was shattered by the clamor of approaching adversaries. A swarm of SEED's grunts, hopelessly cumbersome and disorganized guardians , were fleeing the pursuit of some manner of avian monstrosity. Unfazed, the two adventurers swiftly deployed an ingenious electrical net, crackling with potent energy, ensnaring most of the unsuspecting grunts in a web of incapacitation.

Amidst the chaos, Cass, avoiding being imprisoned alongside Seeds, grunts and seized the opportunity to join the fray. With the ferocity rivaling a resource starved beast and deadly precision, it swooped down upon the grunts, its talons lashing out in a flurry of strikes.
Caught between the relentless assault of the incarcerated liberator’s and the avian avenger, the grunts were helpless, left stunned by the surge of electricity and forced to wait for their swift demise. Their once-bold demeanor crumbling under the weight of overwhelming odds. The air crackled with tension as the prisoners rallied their defenders with cheers or pleas for help.

In a dazzling display of teamwork and mastery over their respective talents, the liberators and their returned avian ally emerged victorious against the beleaguered grunts. Yet, their triumph was short-lived as a foreboding presence loomed on the periphery of their awareness. A monstrous silhouette, obscured by the shadows, silently stalked its prey, its malevolent intent palpable in the oppressive atmosphere.

They stood as sentinels blocking the path to the liberator's shackled allies, but before the silence was drifted on, it was cut by a raspy voice over some manner of intercom.

Intercom:I see the rats aren't the only unwanted visitor. I'm a busy man, so I offer you one chance. Walk up to my buddy Kharl and let them rips your heads off and I'll overlook this whole invasion bullshit. Kharl’s , kill anything you see outside a cage.

The Kharl's stepped from the shadows, revealing their pasty and pale skin. Their arms were long, stretching well past their waist, all four of them. Slowly they took their approach, grabbing and beheading any seed grunts left alive after shabuto and haylin's assault. On a kharl, eager to get his hands wet, rushed towards Shabuto, while another two rushed Haylin. The three kharl's made up the bulk of the force, while the remaining two kharl's stood as a barricade to prevent the pair to reach the cages.

[Shabuto Venkage]

On a kharl, eager to get his hands wet, rushed towards Shabuto,

He hurriedly made his way to the cells still unable to quite see inside. He couldn’t confirm his friend were in them but nothing would forestall his efforts. As the pasty twisted creations emerged from the darkness Shabuto’s face faded from its copy half smirk to a grimace. He wasn’t sure what they would find here in the depths of this prison but each moment here they were presented with encounters that revealed more secrets about this forsaken place.

He shuddered at the thought that these heinous beast who would even slaughter their own might have well been humans. With how easily SEED discarded mortal lives he was sure they had done some twisted experiments on the people here. That one kids brazen display of rage also indicated something sister happening here.

“Tch, disgusting”

Just as the clawed fiend nearly made contact with him Shabuto seemed to vanish in a blur. The creature would not be stuck wondering for long as the barely lite cavern would soon be enveloped in a crimson glare accompanied by a growing feeling of heat from above. On the ceiling standing upside down, naten at his feet, would be Shabuto with an arrow ignited woth a blaze by the Ein

“Drill bow style: Searing Pierce!”

He would release the arrow and upon doing so it would begin to spin rapidly greatly increasing it's velocity and piercing power that and using a touch of gravity given his vantage point. The spiraling configuration aimed to pierce right through the monsters head if it hit hoping to obliterate the creature.

“This place is just crawling with all kinds said wild shit, Haylin you haven’t died on me yet have you?”

He called out, having seen him and Cass dis out their own damage he was none to worried. Cass had proven itself to be a tough bird.

[Haylin Gafren]

“We’re doing just great.” Haylin said, now that he had his urizen back.

Haylin and Cass reunited with a fist talon bump and happy coo from Cass, shaking off the previous harrowing moments before taking in the horrible sight of the Kharls before them. Hands down the ugliest sights they’d seen on the island so far. They looked so ugly in fact, that Haylin and Cass’s fists and talons and beak were engulfed in a bright red flame as they stared down their new opponents.

“Eagle…”

They wasted no time in getting synergistic and Haylin leaped above Cass who lifted a talon and caught Haylin’s crouched body on it. Cas’s leg had maximum contraction for a moment and exploded in the next, launching Haylin directly into the fray with one of the Kharls. The force made an explosive sound as Haylin’s flame cloaked fists grew in energy and engulfed his whole body by the time he reached his pallid target. His whole aura behind it, he threw a fierce punch that took its own falcon-like aura and applied a fierce flaming strike to the Kharl’s body.

“PAAAAWNCH!”

Cass dashed into the melee right behind his airborne urizen and gave a flurry of flaming beak strikes and talon punches to the other Kharl, looking to put it down before it could get a chance to put its extra limbs to good use.

[Fate I]

In the depths of the armory, just behind the warriors , where ancient weapons lay dormant beneath layers of frost and time, a peculiar phenomenon unfolded as the conflict with the formidable white beast, Kharl, erupted. The frozen weapons, untouched for eons, began to stir with an eerie vibration as if responding to the imminent threat. Blades encased in ice hummed with an otherworldly resonance, their icy sheaths cracking and splintering as the latent power within surged to life. Among the frozen arsenal, spears, swords, and axes glowed with a faint azure light, casting an ethereal glow upon the armory.

As the tremors reverberated through the armory, the air crackled with anticipation, each weapon seemingly awakening from a long slumber to answer the call of battle. It was as though the very essence of the ancient warriors imbued within these artifacts was ignited by the looming presence of Kharl, the pale white beast whose ferocity knew no bounds. In the midst of chaos, the frozen weapons stood as silent guardians, their icy exteriors masking the fiery determination within. Yet, the trimmers didn't last for long and upon inspection would find that kharl's presence alone didn't remove the dangerous frost.


The arrow pierced through the pasty devil's head, blowing a hole through his large skull. A gruesome feat that didn't stagger the beast's approach in the slightest, instead he came to a long sliding halt, with his torso twisting unnaturally fast, stopping just an arms length distance from shabuto, with its stomach twisted around like a towel being squeezed of its water. Without hesitation
it unleashed a a devastating and wild series of hooks, ones that fired off over and over again as his body unwound itself , allowing its long arms to thrash at its foe. Its feet tore at the flooring of the lair, kicking plumes of dirt and debris into the air as the creatures thrashed about. Leaving Shabuto's view of his allies and enemies distorted and at greater danger of getting hit by one of kharl's four arms.


The Kharl duo that rushed to Haylin were met with a ferocious display of teamwork that stunned the simple minded organism. One of the pair broke the stillness of contemplation by grabbing the other, using it's body as a shield to block the flaming avian carnage from striking him dead on.

amidst the scuffle a highpitch beep echoed through the cave. It was an abnoxious screech coming from the intercom system , the audio was muffled and distorted as if the speaker was covered Or submerged in water, yet despite the difficulties, plenty of audio made it's way into the ears of the liberating force.

Belif: Listen...I hear ya. You got rocked by a 12 year old and jumped by leviathan all day, not the best work shift- An unapologetically shitty day;But ...the kharl's aren't finished. Not to mention if HEee finds out what we're hiding he-hey!!! Get your ass off the table!!!! *The intercom suddenly shut of

The kharls duo and the lonely fighters wounds healed rapidly, nearly faster than the avian beast could tear their limbs off. They never flinched from pain and used their incredibly bulk and reach to throw wild and lethal punches that pulverized the environment whenever they missed their mark.

[Shabuto Venkage]

The arrow pierced through the pasty devil's head, blowing a hole through his large skull. A gruesome feat that didn't stagger the beast's approach in the slightest, instead he came to a long sliding halt, with his torso twisting unnaturally fast, stopping just an arms length distance from Shabuto, with its stomach twisted around like a towel being squeezed of its water. Without hesitation it unleashed a a devastating and wild series of hooks, ones that fired off over and over again as his body unwound itself, allowing its long arms to thrash at its foe. Its feet tore at the flooring of the lair, kicking plumes of dirt and debris into the air as the creatures thrashed about. Leaving Shabuto's view of his allies and enemies distorted and in greater danger of getting hit by one of Kharl's four arms.

Shabuto had already drawn his next arrow to assist Cass and Haylyn when he was taken aback by these monsters' ridiculous regenerative factor and their simplicity. He couldn't fathom what would cause the creature to swing away so blindly making him wonder if they were more reaction-based rather than having individual thought. It was a harrowing hypothesis, to think what evil must've taken place to strip a creature of its sentience and its freedom and bind life to such a twisted perversion. Supposing it had ever been a person, to begin with. Its strength, however, the power with which it unleashed its whirling waling punches, could not be underestimated. The force of its swings was enough to rip apart the stone floors sending debris smashing into anything in its wild path. Not to mention the other enemies closing in on his team...he began to panic.

"Shit, they may be stupid but their strength is crazy, I...I don't have anything I can do on a scale that could handle these guys..."

Shabuto with his arrow trained on the twirling kharl shifted his aim between it and the others not sure which target to strike at next.

"If we don't think of something soon, we're goners"

remember...

"!!!"

Shabuto's ears pointed up hearing a voice so clear it cut through the sounds of battle like with a severing silence. It was accompanied by a brisk breeze with an aroma distinctly different than the carcass-ridden caverns they were in. A smell so foreign yet fleetingly familiar.

Remember

ReMEmBER

REMEMBER

The voice became legion as it grew louder into a roaring storm. He felt an aching pain in his head as the voices grew.

REMEMBER!!

The screaming squall came to a sudden halt with a single voice speaking those words. The same ones his cursed weapon haunts his dreams with but this was not that voice. This one he recognized immediately as the one that spoke out to him when he touched Azlan, this was the voice of the Great Spirit inside of it. The one that passed to him a vision and warning.

"Dammit!"

His mind began racing with images once more. He was no longer in the fray of battle but now standing in the middle of a massive expanse of water.

"Remember ye of the tempest, from the macrocosm from which you were sculpted."

The clear blue sky became like that of the starry sky planets and their respective moons galavating across its skies. The water beneath his feet thrummed like a heartbeat steadily on the rise.

"You are fae young one, life born from the many intersections of Vescrutia mystical wavelengths, so focused on escaping the storm, so fixated on that freedom you have cast your gaze from morality. Yet, as I recall, Venkage are known to chase the storms, their blood is its essence."

The starry skies began to bubble like a tar pit, the heat of an insufferable flame came from it. From the black pits, hundreds of black hand-like tendrils trekked across the babbling skies.

"I, though, cannot wait for ye to blossom no longer, for the black wolf has begun to sink its fangs into the Rudral, with no end to its unslakable thirst."

"The pact between a child that though born to a mortal man, gazed upon the world through the eyes of the divine, and the one whose soul has traveled the cosmos from the plane of Carna, the vessel of the Safyre Zephyr, Spark Of Imagination.... You must live, enfold, create, imagine..."

At that moment the realm became that of a roaring storm embellished by resplendent sapphire energy. It swayed around him like flowing water yet was light as air. As it coursed through and around him he could feel the mighty storm around Rudral, resonating with the great current his body empowered by the essence.

"This feeling...this power...Rudral..."

Akin to the feeling when he resonated with the minor storm sprits, small semi-sentient fae born from the residual naten of the ever-churning electromagnetic storm, he first encountered them near a root of Azlan just before they entered Erosia, now on a much grander scale. He could feel the push and pull of the great storm as if he was standing within its eye, its roaring waves, the twisting winds, the crackle of lightning, the boom of its thunder. The ethereal winds began to twist before him taking the form of four spirits They danced around him almost ceremoniously each movement adding to the growing turbulence of the cobalt tempest engulfing him. They began clashing into one merging their being to form a rune, one that was reminiscent of Venkage tongue he knew, the insignia though foreign, was simple for him to read. It crackled with power almost as if calling him to claim it.

"My...teacher once told me. Venkage, we, engrave our wishes upon the world around us. Each enchantment is another desire we want to see become reality. I've been trying so hard to run away from this place... I've been...so detached so dissociated for so long. I can't even remember the last time these hands created something...to save someone instead of...but...today. I. "

He reached for the rune and as he did so the realm around him dissolved placing him back in the fray of battle. His body is immersed in an oscillating coil of electromagnetic winds. His eyes shimmering with a deep sapphire glare. The swirling energy began to coalesce within the palm of his hand.

"I get to choose for myself how to wield this power. My hands, are mine to shape my destiny as I see fit!"

He could barely hold it, the awesome raw might in his right hand. They were in close quarters he wasn't sure what the aftermath of using this technique was going to be, but if they did nothing their chances of survival were going to be even lower. He was going to have to push his naten control to the brim to isolate the effect. If he used his silvern magic, the anthem of the venkage, he could then enfold this great source into a more stable conduit allowing him a much more precise control of the ambient energy. Which was exactly what he would do. But he would need a moment to attempt it.

"Haylin! Please, you guys, just buy me a little time. WE'RE GETTING THE FUCK OFF THIS ISLAND!!!"

As he said this the crystal on Shabuto's right hand began to shine with a bright white glow. From his palm bone would begin to emerge. Shabuto had the unique trait of manipulating his bones using the Mistral current within him, forging conduits for his rune magic. As the bone was emerging it began to crack into splinters each of those fragments crushed into sharpenel that became like ash. It spiraled in his palm becoming spherical. The force of Rudral storm in his right, the power of Mistral wind in his other. His goal was to enfold Rudral's electromagnetic current into his mistral resulting in an arbitor capable of getting them out of this hell hole. H from the brunt of the fray hoping to gain the few precious moments he needed to complete his spell.

[Haylin Gafren]

Cass and Haylin recoiled in sync with one another, dodging and parrying the kharl's wild strikes ripping chunks out of the bases foundation. Their bodies were steaming now, heated up and ready for action, the kharl'd appendages sizzled as they struck them and moved through their steamy aura.

"We're only starting to get fired up!" Haylin said, as Cass ducked away from the creature's front to leave Haylin still engaged, backing closer to the wall. He endured well enough to parry and block the strikes while his body temperature continued to rise, heating the air around him. His breathing grew deeper and more labored, sending oxygen to his body to weather this strike. The creature just endured his and Cass's fiery onslaught which could put down any wild animal they came across. Their settings and the tech that came to life as the intercom began barking orders led him to believe these monsters might need to be introduced to the next degree of their urizen martial arts, their lives depended on it.

Shabuto's naten surged and Haylin heard his cordial request, buy time. With the kharl in front of him very occupied, Cass caught a moment of opportunity and rushed down the other pale creature. While Haylin seethed with sweat, parrying and applying counter pressure with fiery, falcon-like punches and steam powered force, Cass took a tiny leap towards the white beast and sent a roundhouse kick with sonic force akin to an eagle's call. An arc of flame, bright and dense peeled off its talons to cut directly across the torso of the pale beast while Cass moved between it and the sphere charging Shabuto.

[Shabuto Venkage]

Shabuto's naten surged and Haylin heard his cordial request, buy time. With the kharl in front of him very occupied, Cass caught a moment of opportunity and rushed down the other pale creature. While Haylin seethed with sweat, parrying and applying counter pressure with fiery, falcon-like punches and steam powered force, Cass took a tiny leap towards the white beast and sent a roundhouse kick with sonic force akin to an eagle's call. An arc of flame, bright and dense peeled off its talons to cut directly across the torso of the pale beast while Cass moved between it and the sphere charging Shabuto.

As the dynamic duo unleashed their arbiters in compliance with Shabuto's request, he found himself smiling despite the intensity of the fray and all that was at stake. He was more than inevitable when he landed on Rudral; fate played another cruel joke on him. His life was stolen from him, enslaved into fighting a war he didn't even understand fully for a lord who could have cared less about him should he prove no longer of use. His life had been marred with one tragedy after the other. Still, as he stood here now in this present moment with an orb of sheer possibility in his hands, he had to acknowledge that the last thing he thought he would find on this hell rock prison were friends—people who kept their words but were even patient with his defensive nature. Mara and Zayne had become the closest thing to family he could ever recall having aside from his teacher.

"Mara, Zayne..."

The orb pulsated with vigor as if tandem with the one wediling it.

"Cass and Haylin"

Everyone has fought so hard to stay alive, to return to a chance at life taken from them. Reflecting on this, Shabuto remembered something Mara said when they first met.

As she spoke the winds rustled through the neighboring trees. Shabuto's deep sapphire eyes locked with his as he forced his face from the ground. Her hand extended as the light of vescrutia's sun gleamed off her armor.

"The winds of freedom are whispering to us."

The warmth of her words, the hope they inspired in a heart that had all but abandoned the notion of it. He held onto that feeling as he began to mold the orb. Though foreign to him, his hand started to move in a fashion that came as naturally as muscle memory. By the end of this sequence of ava, he would be seen holding a blue arrow of bone, emitting a powerful aura.

"TAKE COVER!"

He cried out in warning as his eyes blazed with the might of the storm coursing through him.

"Mystic Art"

His declaration of this phrase caused the air to vibrate vigorously, creating sparks of electricity to crackle around him. The essence of the ancient storm of the island was in the palm of his hands, a chance he would not waste. He vanished in a bright flash of cobalt energy, appearing a few feet from the giant monstrosity, which dwarfed him in size—unleashing his arbiter.

"STORM OF BONE; TWISTING SAFYRE!"

With a courageous cry, he fired the blazing arrow; it zipped through the air as it twisted around his allies before barreling into it, and though the force sent it tearing through the stone floor, it wasn't enough to kill it outright. Shabuto threw his hand towards the beast, the arrow explode, resulting in a massive tornado of Safyre. Enfolded with his mistral bone, the explosion resulted in mystic shrapnel being dispersed into the twister, the pull likely to draw in everything that wasn’t nailed down to the floor, eviscerating the flesh of anything unfortunate enough to find itself engaged in its chaos.

"GGGGGGRRRAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"

Pushing his naten control to the absolute brink to avoid the power consuming them all, he flung his hands directly above him, condensing the storm into something like a drill that dug through the cave, unleashing the zephyr out the other side. The storm power completely devoured the monsters, unable to stand against the sense of Rudral itself. As the falling winds died down, Shabuto fell to his knees. The technique took practically everything he had in him to release.

"Pant...pant...*

He looked over to where he assumed Cass and Haylin were alongside the cells of his friends.

"Not bad....right?"

He fell on his hands, panting as the Safye essence faded from him, returning him to normal.

[Haylin Gafren]

"TAKE COVER!"

He cried out in warning as his eyes blazed with the might of the storm coursing through him.

"Mystic Art"

His declaration of this phrase caused the air to vibrate vigorously, creating sparks of electricity to crackle around him. The essence of the ancient storm of the island was in the palm of his hands, a chance he would not waste. He vanished in a bright flash of cobalt energy, appearing a few feet from the giant monstrosity, which dwarfed him in size—unleashing his arbiter.

Haylin gave the kharl he engaged a swift, feather flamed punch to the gut, followed by an uppercut accompanied by a pillar of flame exploding from the ground beneath it, like magma breaching the corona of a volcano. Cass's flaming pecks pierced assailed his opponent again and again before an explosive foot stamp launched the kharl close to ground zero, where Haylin had already disengaged the enemy.

He and the kharl almost swapped places, coming to a flaming screech at the side of his fowl fellow, shaking embers off of his plumage. Haylin's hands still glowed with a righteous heat, a renewed resolve he knew could light the way home for him and Cass.

Shabuto's mystic arrow was poised and primed to let fly and Haylin couldn't wait to see it.

"STORM OF BONE; TWISTING SAFYRE!"

With a courageous cry, he fired the blazing arrow; it zipped through the air as it twisted around his allies before barreling into it, and though the force sent it tearing through the stone floor, it wasn't enough to kill it outright. Shabuto threw his hand towards the beast, the arrow explode, resulting in a massive tornado of Safyre. Enfolded with his mistral bone, the explosion resulted in mystic shrapnel being dispersed into the twister, the pull likely to draw in everything that wasn’t nailed down to the floor, eviscerating the flesh of anything unfortunate enough to find itself engaged in its chaos.

Their hair and plumage were whipping through the room's atmosphere, changing dynamically from hot to cold in the wake of their Arbiter exchanges. They retained enough energy to withstand the vortex, but were still impressed by this newcomer's resolve and resourcefulness. He was reminded of his days hardening his will in The Crucible, eager to weather the challenges to become the next legend of his people. a hero like the Great Defender, Garland Gafren. Haylin and Cass leapt away from the encroaching vortex to Shabuto's side, the twister ripping the odd creatures to magic shreds. They looked on to the growing tower of shimmering blue and chuckled.

"So, you do have some real gas in the tank. Glad you're on our side."

The decade on this god forsaken island was enough time for Haylin to forget what an exhilarating rush it was to flex his Arbiters, most conflicts he avoided as they resulted in so much unwanted carnage, and usually involved strangers he'd rather not be involved with. SEED always had operatives lurking outside of Erosia, and rarely he was approached by name by some of the officers. Every step, every breath was a calculated choice on Rudral, but in the depths of this SEED stronghold, he was reminded of the exhilaration of a good, satisfying bout.

[Fate III]

The Venkage's arrow, crafted from the essence of the island's great storm, succeeded in demolishing the Kharls, reducing the obelisk of might to dust scattered through the winds; the dense electromagnetic currents from the mystic art overloaded the mechanism of the cells holding his friends. They were poorly wounded but alive, no doubt tortured by the SEED, as had their other prisoners. Ethically, SHabuto and his companions placed his battered buddies onto Cass. In the back of his mind, Shabuto was concerned about the Storm Gods Jewel, the treasure Beneva said would lead them off the island; however, worried about his friend's wellbeing and the general that no doubt was privy to their explosive escape, Shabuto begrudge willing to suffer this island longer, their chance at freedom gone and watched as Haylin grabbed an axe and shield from amongst the rubble.

Just then, Zane, the mage of their guild, woke! He had gained just enough strength to open his eyes. Shabuto grabbed his hand, inquiring about his well-being. Wishing to maximize his fleeting strength, Zane went into his pocket and retrieved a baseball-sized sphere. It sparkled with mystic presence, Shabuto's eyes gleamed with its reflection, and upon reaching for the ring he wore, the artifact Beneva helped him craft to use the jewel's power responded to being near its counterpart. Zane smirked before falling unconscious once more. Shabuto thanked his friend for the hours he must have endured to keep the treasure safe. Shabuto proudly displayed their salvation before Haylin and Cass, affirming that the mission was complete and the job was well done. All of them had lived, none indeed worse for wear....but nothing ebbs into this world without a response; what transpired next was an effect of their cause...

She kneaded her intention into it until it became a wisp of living shadow within her hands. "Bring me the boy...." It was off to achieve its directive with a light kiss, bringing Shabuto and his demonic item to her.

From the tunnel created by Shabuto's arbitor, a lone wisp of shadow entered; it circled Shabuto before tapping his demonic object, and the slumbering malice within the sealed item roared into the unseen. Shabuto's living scar grew bright, burning with a green flare as dread took him over. Before he could react, the wisp became a portal that engulfed them all, leaving the SEED base in shambles...