Setting
John instantly took advantage of this, using her stalled leg and complete loss of momentum to detach one of his legs from the ground to grab hers. His taloned foot closed around her ankle like an alligator's jaws around the neck of a zebra. He instantly took to the sky, an unworldly wind billowing upward towards his wings with titanic force. The acceleration alone meant it would be near impossible, for anyone dragged along, to even lift one's arms or legs towards the sky. At this point, Juri would be a rag-doll.
"Do you yield?" He yelled through the whistling wind, gaining altitude at a faster and faster pace.
The door to the back room clicked, and it swung open just a few small inches. It was dark inside. Slowly a pair of wide, pure-white eyes peered out from the crack. A single black tendril crept around the door frame and nudged the door open slightly more.
More worryingly, however, was the way he looked and dressed. His pale skin covered by a traditional, ceremonial clothing and a headdress stood atop his head to decorate his grey hair. His youthfulness was betrayed by his eyes, which held the taint of experience and a lust for power that could be matched by no usual man lest they had studied from one of the few dark manuscripts of the martial arts world. All students were warned away from those difficult-to-decipher symbols, and for good reason. Once you understood their true meaning, they changed you into something malevolent and greedy. An upset to the balance of Yin and Yang.
"May we help you?" One asked, as the stranger stopped at the top of the stairs and peered at them, one at a time.
"Yes, you may. I wish to speak to your master," Dark Sky replied, giving a slight bow of his head in respect.
"Our master is not present at this time. May I ask what it is you need of him so I can relay a message?"
"You may," the stranger answered with a nod. "Though as they say, actions speak louder than words."
".. How do you mean?" One asked, looking at the other.
"Well.. Leaving his students defeated, ashamed and dying is much more likely to get me a reply now, isn't it?"
They replied with their swords, suddenly drawing them from their hips and swinging out for the man who had clearly shown his intent to cause trouble. Their blades, however, would hit nothing but air as he deftly moved his form around, between and through each strike. He retaliated with blows of his own, fingers striking precisely at points across their body, then a sudden gust of Chi that resulted from him pushing out his arms knocking them aside and wincing.
As they scrambled to get up, Sky shook his head. "That technique is known as 'Restore The Balance of Yin and Yang'. You have roughly eight seconds to do as the title orders, or you will both immediately lose your lives."
With a sly smile, he stepped inside, where dozens of other opponents awaited him.
"Apologies are to be made. Forgive Dark Sky," Mei Fen said to the two students desperately attempting recover their balance.
"It is very important that we speak to Master," said Mei Fen. "Do us a favor and die please. It surely will grab Master's attention." The young woman opened her fan with a quick flick of her wrist and held it in front of her face.
Caofu robes dusted the face of one of the students as Mei Fen stepped over him. She hurried followed after Dark Sky and dainty shut the doors of the dojo behind her.
Mei Fen took off her shoes and wiggled her tiny, dainty, toes. Her feet were much smaller than was normal but Mei Fen was also much more petite than most ladies her age. She only stood a perfect five feet tall and could not have weighed more than ninty pounds. Most of that weight came from her hair which if not put up properly came down to the young woman's knees.
Mei Fen snapped her fan closed against her palm and looked around the dojo with curious excitement in her eyes. Her head tilted when she noticed something peculiar. There was a pair of eyes and a sliver of a black substance peeking out from a storage room.
Mei Fen opened her fan and walked toward the anomaly on her teeny feet.
Then the song came. Quiet at first, but steadily crescendoing in the minds of all present until it was clear as day. The melody was eerie and alien, but despite that, strangely comforting. The panicking students grew slowly calm, lulled from their fear and disharmony into a warm, dream-like state of peace. Many found themselves lost from their surroundings altogether, drawn into a vision of rolling fields and beautiful flowers, where a perfect summer day beat down on them from overhead.
Amongst the fields, there was one figure who was not of the students, a slight androgynous figure with pitch-black long hair and pale skin, wrapped in a robe of black where they sat amongst the flowers. They seemed distracted, like they were focused on another world entirely.
Whether it would have the same unnatural effect on Mei and Sky, however, was uncertain.
The eyes from the storage room watched Mei warily, tendrils retreating back around the frame, waiting to see if she and her companion were drawn into the dream like the students or not.
"What is it?" He asked, as he slid his sword back down into the scabbard by his side.
Mei Fen closed her fan and crouched down almost in a sit on the floor. She tilted her head the other way and blinked her big, beautiful, dark eyes. She could feel Dark Sky at her back without him even saying a word.
"A new friend, perhaps," Mei Fen said optomistically. She giggled in the back of her throat and held out a hand for the creature, inviting it to come out to say hello.
"I won't hurt you," promised Mei Fen. Of course it was never Mei that did the hurting. That was Dark Sky's role in their pairing.
The door of the storeroom was shoved fully open, and the being surged out into the open at surprisingly speed. Tendrils snaked outwards, carrying it along the ground as though it were riding a wave of black, before latching onto the wall and pulling it up into the upper corner of the room, on the ceiling.
The creature consisted of a mass of tentacles that twined with one another and extended outwards in all directions, originating from a more solid mass of black in the centre. From that same centre, what appeared to be its main body originated, a stretched and unnervingly flexible torso with another pair of tendrils in place of arms. Its face was dominated by a pair of large white eyes, lacking in any pupil or iris to diminish their hollow stare. What might have been a head of messy long hair hung around its shoulders, but given that like the rest of its body, it was pure black, it was hard to tell whether it was hair or just a further extension of its body.
"It smells the death on them." Zexal hissed, head rotating around to look between them.
He reached down to the ground, beginning to examine the wooden flooring with brushes of his fingers. It didn't feel particularly strange considering that the black thing had just 'slimed' it's way over that bit of floor, but he supposed there was no point lingering on it. Strange creatures were everywhere these days; apparently the Gods didn't feel fit to keep them separated from mortal kind anymore.
At least the powers that be had made an effort to stop Sky, even if it wasn't a personal endeavor. Now it was like they were just letting the things leave; guards too busy with their wine and concubines to care.
"Come, Mei," he called as he began to walk away.
"But such a pretty creature with such a pretty voice should be caged. It's just like a yellow birdie. I want to make it sing for me," Mei Fen said to Dark Sky. The small young lady sighed as if she was being denied a new toy. It was just like Dark Sky to keep her from being entertained. All he ever wanted to do was become the best.
"Shall we go into the city? There are many people there. I am sure we can find someone for you to defeat that will give you honor and renown," Mei commented as she came to Dark Sky's side.
"And I want some bubble tea."
"Hello folks of the inhabiting of this building place, is there anyone in the being here, yes yes?", he called out casually as he scratched his bulbous gut with his spare tentacle.
"Man...you look like hell. What happened to you?" She asked, reaching into her pocket to pull out a small, thin cigarette and quickly lit it with a snap of her fingers "Get hit by a truck or something?" She asked with a laugh as she levitated into the air and hovered just a few inches off the ground "Well...I certainly heard you talking so speak up tentacle man" She said while cracking her knuckles
The woman then addressed him rudely as she lit a cigarette with her bare fingers, insulting his appearance and hovering a few feet off the ground, to which the purple skinned clone looked up in fascination giving a childish "Oooooooooooooo!", his eye's changing more frequently in vibrant colours.
He then cleared his throat, despite being a creature without need for breath, and replied to her calmly, seemingly unphased by the insults. "Hello miss warrior, I am Xanth JR., I am of a race of arcane clones which wander abouts and such. I was searching around of the place for the people who do the punching, yes yes. You defeated that immobile statue very goodly indeed! I asks if possible, the task is, to be of the enrolling into this battle school." He then gave a flourishing bo, before adding; "Unless it turns out to be greatly of the boring variety, then I will leave, yes yes. "
"Enrolling into a Battle School? Umm....can you speak more sense about that tentacles?" She asked the creature, cracking her knuckles again loudly as well as her neck "Please try to use some better English if you don't mind. Be a pal" She said while tapping her cigarette with the end of her finger to let the ash fall to the ground
"I am Xanthodont JR., of the Purple Horde. We like to wander. You were impressive at the punching of the doll, yes yes. I would like to join this place of the fighting arts, goodly. Unless it is of the boring type.", the peculiar creature stammered out carefully, before giving a sigh of relief, quickly followed with an expression of satisfaction, flaring his nostrils in pride. He had a feeling the monkey woman understood him perfectly this time, and that the would hopefully never have to do anything so taxing again in his life.
"Though if your looking to spar, I wouldn't mind something that can move and fight back. A little challenge but I doubt you have much of a spine. You and those fancy words of yours...you sound like an egghead" She laughed a little at her own words and proceeded to float on her back while tapping her foot in mid air "You like to fight? Or are you just an egghead tentacle man?" She asked him, waiting for his answer with a sneer on her face
He then seemed somewhat taken off guard by the woman's request for a battle, declaring him to be spineless and an egghead, sneering at him as Vasha floated on her back. Xanth JR. put down his suitcase a moment before clapping his tentacles in excitement. "You are of the mistaken i'm afraid, yes yes. I have the spine in back, as do many of the Xanthodont JRs. do. I do not think my bounce is an egg. As for fighting, I have not done much, since I am of the three years of aging and not of the greatly strong, so this will be fun time, yes yes."
He then quickly picked up his suitcase before suddenly stretching out the tentacle holding and attempting to strike Vasha down with it, much like with a hammer, and proclaiming loudly; "Here we are of the going into the violence, with this Yellow Toothed One starting, goodly."
He then proceeded to begin hammering at her with one tentacle clasping the suitcase, while whipping at her legs with the other spare tentacle, flailing with both in a messy barrage of sloppy attacks.
"I apologize for the fruit throwing, suitcase didn't seem to be of wanting to make a spear or shooty thing, yes yes.", he told her sulkily, annoyed at his own device's random tendencies.
He then looked quizzically as she suddenly flew up higher and pointed her palm at him, mentioning something about dancing.
"Dance? I was of thinking that we were doing the punching kind of things, not the prancey variety," he babbled in bewilderment; "I am not of the every good in the dancing though so- oh I see you meant the words of the taunting, yes yes."
His last comment expressing his realisation when Vasha began firing energy ball towards him, and curiously made no effort to move. Each blast landed with an explosion dead on the mark, knocking the purple creature back a number of feet, causing a great amount of smoke.
As the air began to clear, Xanth JR. began clambering to his feet and dusting himself off, announcing to Vasha; "Those were of the special blasts, yes? They must do a stinging of the great hurt on the weaker ones, yes yes. We Xanthodont JRs. are lucky in the not getting hurt by things department. Mother says because we are her brave little soldiers, goodly."
He then stretched out his neck high enough to be face to face with Vasha, and attempted to headbutt her in the face.
Strolling over to the site, he entered, glancing around. The details his contacts had given on this latest approach had been vague, to say the least, prompting him to ask the attendant where he might locate the man known as Skaarj Volantis.
Skaarj hammered the punching bag like a blacksmith at a forge, his bandaged fists leaving little craters in the red bag of filling. The alien jabbed forward, his ponytail flying as he threw out left hooks and right gutshots. Skaarj had spent his entire life perfecting his close combat skills, and he still had much to learn.
That'd why he'd come to this city more than ten years ago to find the perfect challenge. The challenge hadn't found him though, even though he'd been born in the system. Skaarj turned around and took a breather, holding his knees as he noticed the stranger. Skaarj grunted in greeting.
"Looks to me like you'd take down just about anything that came within arms reach, if you wanted to." Remarking offhandedly, the magi looked over the alien's mask, glancing to take in the slowly fading craters of the punching bag. "Ever thought of putting those skills to use, in anything like a job?"
The man didn't even need to see that even using his prescient sight, Skaarj could beat him into a bloody pulp with just how excellent his hand to hand skills were. Max could think of a few places that the alien would have a place without a bit of trouble, and that made gears turn. "Name's Max, Max Dirge."
He extended a hand for a handshake.
"You sound like you're hiring, Max. I don't work for money, I work for experience. Do you have any payment plans like those?"