Unrelenting Motivation
Even with such odds, such wounds, such despair, neither Sryine nor Vwyx were going to give Riyxia a moment of rest. Even as she stood up once again, they both prepared their next attacks.
Sryine sent a volley of arrows streaming towards Riyxia from multiple directions, all originating from her smokey form. Riyxia dodged the series rapidly, only to be struck from behind by the massive hammer once again. Flying forwards suddenly, she found herself suddenly hunted by a smokey spike which Sryine had sent thrusting towards her. Riyxia struck the spike, the spike vanishing as a puff of smoke, only for her to be flattened again by the hammer, then chained to the ground with illusionary chains. She managed to break the chains, only for the hammer to strike yet again. This was going really poorly, she wasn’t even able to keep up with this onslaught. That was the cumulated cherry to this cake of despair, that even having lost all control, the two entities of destruction were actually working together to sow their own agendas, something that really didn’t actually make complete sense.
“Sryine, so why exactly are you working with Vwyx in this madness anyway?” “Madness, despair, enriching isn’t it? The look on your face, beautiful, a terror I could only dream of in my wildest nightmares. To think I had caused such, done such, like beautiful art.” Riyxia only got Sryine’s maddening laughter in reply, but she wasn’t done yet. Another slash from illusions, another strike from a hammer, she struggled back to her feet. “Really then. I guess you aren’t as skilled with terror as I had thought. I guess there are limits to such fear after all.” “What? Ridiculous, nonsense, impossible! What could…” “So while Vwyx is entranced like that, there is absolutely nothing you can do anymore to make her feel fear. You know that, and have surrendered to it. Look at her, not a care in the world, absolutely fearless, untouchable.” “No, no, no! So wrong, so wrong, this can’t be, so ugly, so wretched! Vwyx, so broken, invincible. But I know you are still in there somewhere, watching, waiting, struggling. You might think you have a chance, but there is none, no hope, no hope.” Riyxia dodged another hammer strike, this time finding Vwyx the one struck back by Sryine’s lashing blades, a moment of seeming betrayal.
“Vwyx, I can’t believe you would let her hurt you like that. What about your sense of vengeance and retribution?” Vwyx wasn’t even listening, but was clearly of like mind. The other standing before her was also deserving of sharing in her pain and anguish, none should in fact be spared. Vwyx spun around with her hammer, catching both Sryine and Riyxia in a single strike. Not exactly what she had in mind, but at least this was still more of a free for all than a two versus one, it gave her a bit more opportunity to make some progress of her own. Riyxia took advantage of Sryine’s close proximity and suplexed the collection of smoke into the hammer on it’s return movement. It might look like smoke, but Sryine was still in there somewhere, and Riyxia knew her own movement could force wind into motion. Face-planting into the hammer disrupted the illusion, causing her smoke form to fade. Sryine then turned to Vwyx, a series of spinning blades rotating around her. She rushed towards Vwyx guiding the blades to slash before her. The illusion suddenly turned to dust, Vwyx having dismantled the apparent pieces with her gift, an act which influenced the illusion itself. It was at this point that Sryine decided that physical attacks against Vwyx held a significant flaw, turning to her favourite fear instead. Her hand ignited again in illusionary flame, a flame she threw towards Vwyx, igniting Vwyx’s hammer in flame.
Vwyx wasn’t concerned about the injury however, it only made her hungrier, so she brought the hammer back down on Sryine. Sryine had yet another dramatic solution for the problem, using her flame in an explosive blast that sent both Vwyx and Riyxia flying, Riyxia having tried to take advantage of the opening. Sryine laughed at the humor of her own victory, and turned to throwing more explosive fireballs around, a blast connecting with Vwyx and knocking her back down, unable to counter. Sryine was revelling in her success, having found a way to force even Vwyx to her knees, standing beside Vwyx’s burning hammer in her triumph. Riyxia took the opportunity to strike the hammer again from the other side, sending shards and rubble smashing into Sryine and having her buried in a pile. Vwyx then promptly repaired the hammer, trapping Sryine inside the hammer as a result. Sryine unleashed her attacks blindly from within the hammer, trying to find a way to have the hammer break apart and set her free. Perfect, that was one down, at least partially.
Riyxia turned her attention towards Vwyx, who had dropped the hammer as countless attacks assaulted her from it. With only one foe to face, Riyxia could bear the entirety of her gift on a single foe, without having to worry about balance or shifting focus, the only reason why her gift had remained mostly neglected thus far. In fact, with balance broken by her sudden advantage against Sryine, she needed to make a move to diminish Vwyx’s ability somehow. Vwyx held out her hand towards another pile of stone, a long handled hammer forming for her in the process. Right, it was almost impossible to deny Vwyx a weapon in a field of stone. Worse, she could make use of the very ground itself. Vwyx made a move with her new hammer, striking simply upon the ground in a very familiar move. It was the exact move Riyxia had been worrying about, the strike that reshapes the very ground, the one that had opened up a chasm before. Riyxia applied her gift against Vwyx’s speed, strength, and hand grip.. all before striking a rising somersault kick against the falling hammer, sending it flying from Vwyx’s grip. Vwyx dashed rapidly towards it, faster than possible for regular people, but not as fast as Riyxia while still suffering a speed reduction. Riyxia got there first, striking the weapon with a forceful punch that sent the weapon flying into tiny pieces off into the distance. Vwyx then turned to form a new weapon, the demand for repairing and recovering her old one not worth the effort, but found Riyxia striking into her arm when she tried to apply her gift in the construction of a new weapon, sending her sprawling. Three more times she tried this, and three more times she failed.
At this moment, absolutely unexpectedly, Vwyx’s original hammer shattered into pieces, freeing Sryine. Of course, while augmented like this, Sryine still had a dramatic increase to her strength, it was entirely possible for her to simply physically break her way out after a short while. Sryine was glad to be free, and eager to garnish a new opportunity, smashing an illusionary boulder down hard upon Vwyx as a form of ironic vengeance. Having been getting exhausted, this strike sapped the remainder of Vwyx’s consciousness, knocking her out. Sryine wasn’t done, not with that, she could have twice the justice here, dealing with the one who had bound her so unfairly and striking deep despair into Riyxia, all she had to do was to finish Vwyx off, once and for all. Drawing a large crescent blade, she advanced on Vwyx rapidly and brought the weapon down on her victim. Riyxia turned her gift on Sryine, which still managed to dramatically slow Sryine down in the process. With the added opportunity, she struck the illusionary blade hard with her fist, sending it flying into shards that vanished soon after. Sryine in turn drew back, forming multiple after-images of herself in the motion, all of which then drawing their own sword. Riyxia struck one of the illusions, which vanished completely, while another slashed at her with it’s blade, slicing her arm. Such illusions might prove easy to dismiss, but all of them could make the illusionary blade strike just as well as the original. The swarm of illusions all dashed towards their target, but Riyxia took an opportunity to watch carefully. One of the illusions would not be moving as fast as the others, as she had only affected a single person with her gift. She rushed that illusion, slamming her target’s face into the stone. On impact, all of the other illusions faded, the dropped swords fading soon after as well. The strike had also knocked Sryine unconscious, leaving both of her friends knocked out. Riyxia let her rage end, which also removed everything that was still keeping her going with her own level of exhaustion, resulting in her losing consciousness as well.
Riyxia’s spectre stood watch over all three girls, waiting for their awakening. She was mostly worried about her own body, wanting to make sure she was the first one up in case the others had still turned, or even if they had turned again in their sleep. That thought was alarming for her, even the concept that they could be controlled like this in their sleep. Even if the girls all woke up fine, this would still leave things even further escalated. If their sleep could lead to something like this, even going to sleep again was high risk, everything was. Training even was looking even more unsurmountable, not only with such a tight deadline, but also because of one of the toughest requirements. Take away all sources of pain and fear, just exactly how was she to do that? Sryine’s terror seemed to walk with her at this point, the most aggravating part of all, but even the slightest thing around them could also bring pain and fear, the night has succeeded in making that ever so obvious.
Fortunately, Riyxia was the first to wake up finally, but dawn had started to approach by the time that occured. She quickly set about with healing, putting priority on Vwyx so that she would not awaken with any injuries. While she attended to Sryine afterwards, Vwyx took her turn in waking up, seeming mostly in a daze, uncertain what had happened, what had been real after such horrendous dreams. Vwyx looked around, taking account of the surroundings, the destruction that was caused as a result. She rapidly turned back to Riyxia, still healing Sryine while suffering from injuries herself. It was becoming obvious, the memories of her losing control again in her battle with both of her friends, that was real, that had actually happened. Vwyx rushed to Riyxia, working hard to rapidly provide repairs while fighting through her own tears. The loud bawling brought Sryine to consciousness as well, who also took account of the situation and quickly came to the same conclusion.
“By the divine, I did it again. Why? Why is this happening? I can’t take it anymore.” “Sryine, calm down, relax, you’re going to lose yourself again at this rate.” “No, please no. That’s it, no more, someone just kill me please and make this end.” Sryine started flowing endless tears as well, pleading for a final reprieve from Riyxia. Vwyx stopped at the same moment, realizing that Sryine might have a really good solution to their problem right now. “Hells no!” Riyxia smashed her fist into the ground, splintering wide the ground in a giant hole, startling the other girls. “No one is giving up here, we are all getting through this. So just sit there, relax, and shut the hells up! Thinking you both can’t do this is so bloody ridiculous, I’ve seen just how much you two can do, how amazing you both are. Even without control, you both had endured a million times more than I could have ever hoped. I swear, even with all of my rage-induced power, that time in that stupid bloody water trap had left me feeling crippled with bloody pain and shaking with a hellish fear, I would have lost to either of your hells of a struggle twice over in the same bloody circumstances. Hells, you are both so bloody incredible, so bloody amazing, I have no bloody idea how the hells I managed to gain control somehow at all anywhere before either of you did. It makes no bloody sense.” Riyxia growled her frustration, howling her fury, leaving the others speechless. Riyxia was even aware that her own anger had taken her in that moment, her own personal source of destructive impulses, and yet she was still in control. Luck, that was the only difference at play here, she had been lucky enough to have found control much sooner than those whose natural ability warranted belief that if all factors of luck were equal, she would have been last, leaving the other two to tend to her feral wrath as it tore up the mountain side.
“I hope you both understand, I’ll do whatever it takes. Turn as many times as you need while figuring this out, I’ll bring you both back every time. Whatever it takes, I’ll deal with it, as long as I get to keep my dear friends. Think about it, how much have the both of you gone through, never giving up on me. Right from my awakening, a blumbering fool who couldn’t even sit up correctly, and yet you two were there for me. This whole time after reaching the city, I’ve honestly been nothing but a useless burden, not being able to keep up with anything at all, and yet you two have let me stay around anyway. Though all of this fighting, I’m still so stupid that I can’t even use a stupid weapon either, and yet not a single complaint, not even before this whole rage thing came up. To this bitter moment, I’m still the stupid moron who failed to understand what affects were possible for either of you even in sleep, failing to predict this sort of thing could even happen. And yet you both think it should be me giving up on you?! That’s ridiculous, complete nonsense! No, no, and no, no one is giving up today, today or any day after. I will find a way to make this work.” Riyxia took a deep breath, herself trying to relax and let the rage leave her.
“Neither of you seem to realize how awesome you really are, so I’m going to prove it. Let’s spend the entire day, maybe even the entire night too if we have to, working almost endlessly on discovering how to bring the both of you your control. I know you can both do it, we’ll be done before you even know it. Then you will both go around being really cool and amazing, Sryine coming up with her own illusionary forms putting that stupid ‘smoke form’ to shame, while Vwyx will spin the ground itself into a considerable artistic craft using her own brilliant mind. All while I just keep kicking things.. all while just speeding stuff up, slowing stuff up, maybe even punching stuff up. Seriously, having faced you both twice, I’m still in amazement just what the two of you are capable of, the promise you both have, it’s remarkable, really. Both your aspect of life and your aspect of death, both of these sides of you are really awesome. So no more talk about giving up, okay? Neither of you, I know you were also thinking about it Vwyx. Both of you matter to me far too much.” Riyxia was leaving both of the girls rather stunned, as she took them both up in a soft hug. That spree of endless compliments, it was leaving their faces red in embarrassment. Hearing such strong, inspiring confidence, they felt compelled to believe her words too. If she was going to work so hard in making sure things work out, it would be shameful to do any less. They could tell how seriously troubled Riyxia had been all this time, on matters they hadn’t even considered for themselves, they really did truly just accept her the way she was, and it seems she in turn did the same for them. Knowing this, there was no way they would be willing to let her down.
Vwyx called Dhyinze to have breakfast brought to them, they could eat during their training a safe distance away. Sryine, following the same line of thought, called Jwyexzn to have him bring them some camping supplies, it was going to be another long day after all. Neither of them were willing to return to the shelter, not after the events of last night, not until they were both successful in today’s training. Riyxia smiled at her friends, knowing the perfect place to hold their training, the same rocky place she had first resolved her own control. There was some concern that the place could simply once again be attacked, but all of their options were filled with places they either didn’t want damaged in their training, or places where there were already threats, but between the bastion of life and the tides of death, it would be better to find their sanctuary among the tides of death. Riyxia had managed to defend herself easily in such an environment, only barely tapping into her rage at the time, there was no better place they could possibly pick from.
Food and supplies arrived shortly after, giving the girls an opportunity to pass on their plans and farewells. When the guys took account of the surrounding, the girls made sure they knew that there was quite a battle that had occurred here last night, something the girls were looking into, something Ayzherie would understand. Dhyinze decided not to pry, but Jwyexzn couldn’t help but worry, so much was going on that he still didn’t understand, he would have to ask Ayzherie about it in that case, to make sure things really were alright for the girls. Both guys returned at that, leaving room for the girls to continue their special training on their own, Dhyinze just asking for Vwyx to remember to keep a bit of focus on her cell in the meanwhile.
The two girls gathered up the food and supplies and set off for their chosen training location, following Riyxia’s leadership once again. Driven by Riyxia’s speech from earlier, they would let nothing get in their way of success, of earning control over the destructive impulses that were a part of them.
Luminaeris 