The Blue Rose Blooms (Rory tier up)

It was a nice sunny day in the Bloomfield's lands. The area seemed to have perked up a bit since he was last here. Still, despite being entitled to staying at the manor, Rory chose to stay with his sister near the outskirts. With his report and what happened to him trying to deliver it, his superior thought it best to just give him some time off. Which was fine by him! Luckily his sis didn't mind at all. Actually, she was quite ecstatic to have him around. Her place had a spare bedroom on the second floor that he could use. It wasn't much, but he was used to a small room by now. Lilian and her father had both rebuilt his arm-mounted crossbow and decoupled and recoupled his enchantments on it. Though he still left it in his room for now. Rory was outside, in a small forested area. He'd been running around and slicing various things. He needed to get stronger.

Problem was, he didn't know how. There was only so much training can do. And all he felt like he was doing was scaring some poor rodents. Rory laid down on the grass...unsure of exactly what to do. The thought did occur to him to call it a day and visit the rest of his family...but his brother and mother were not in his good graces. His father was alright, but seemed a little...insecure? Or unsure? Of something. He couldn't place it. Breathing in deeply and slowly exhaling, the blue clad boy rose up and picked up his trusty Blue Rose sword. He was the first in a few generations to be able to activate and use just one of its enchantments...supposedly, it did have three. But who knows what the other two were. Rory was about to sheath it when he heard something. Keeping it out and at his side, he looked around...trying to pinpoint the sound...

They watched from the shadows as the boy trained. He had been through much, and it pleased them to see his resolve had bolstered instead of shattered in the face of trials. But to soft. To easily frightened. Fear would eventually destroy him. So fear they would confront him with. As they began to move they couldn't quite settle on a form. Let it shift. Let it add to the fear of the  unknown. A strange beast they would appear to him. As the boy looked up, they stepped forth from the trees. Black horns sprouted from their head but were quickly replaced by smaller ones. Their weapon formed into long knives, their clothing shifting constantly as their phyiscal body maintained a height similar to his.

"Weakling. Coward. Failure." They uttered as they approached. Without warning They lunged, their form never settling on a single appearance, though it did begin to shift mostly between heanta. With long knives raised, they slashed several times at the boy's chest and arms. Most of the cuts would be shallow, as they didn't intend on killing but testing. But he didn't know that of course. Following the initial onsluaght they would throw a ball of fire at him.

The creature stepped out, constantly changing form, but looking an awful lot like different heanta. Rory's eyes widened as the form shifted and changed, forming long knives. The only good thing was that the creature appeared to be around his height. Rory was already starting to sweat and pant...he was already afraid. Afraid of the unknown or of the forms this thing was taking? He didn't know. It spoke. Weakling. Coward. Failure.

Rory almost calmed down, hair hiding his eyes as he listened and repeated. The monster lunged at him, and Rory quickly parried the strikes with his sword and cartwheeled then backflipped away. Then he had to lean back to avoid the fire ball at his chest. Feeling the heat on his body and face as the ball went over him and smacked a tree, the words still echoed in his mind. Moving back to stand straight up, he stared into the creature's eyes. "Weakling...yeah, I am. Coward...half right, I can admit that. Failure? Failed to woo the girl of my dreams, failed to properly support her in her times of need, failed to stop myself from being captured, failed to stop my brother from being like my mother to play games with dishonest and disgusting people, failed from seeing Vala for who she was instead of what...anything else? What else did I fail at? I don't feel like a failure...everyone fails. Eventually or all the time. But it's how they move on from those...what they learn from those...trying to break me with those words? How dare you! You want me...then let's go!"

He wasn't a combative person by nature. But damn it, that pissed him off. Rory was a lot of things...but a failure? His eyes glowed with resolve as he lunged himself, starting with a stab to the chest, going into a horizontal swing, then a wide swing to take the legs, swiftly going back up to take the head, and then two light slashes at the chest. He stabbed again before taking a few steps back, then pounced again with another light barrage of slashes towards the chest.

The young man deftly dealt with the stranger's opening salvo, parrying the strikes expertly before acrobatically retreating and dodging the fireball. But it was not going to be that simple. Rory spoke defiantly, answering insult with eloquence, though he was definitely rattled despite his bravado. He attacked with vigor not usual for him, eyes glowing with intensity. Just before Rory reached his target, the stranger's form shifted again, this time coalescing into a not-inaccurate representation of Valatrix of Clan Hornless, though the edges were still blurry. The longknives retracted and molded over the stranger's hands to create facsimiles of Vala's drakna, and the stranger used them to defend themselves. They sidestepped the opening thrust, before backhanding the horizontal away. They backflipped over the leg swing, ducked the headshot, then parried the two light strikes with a gauntlet each. A beatific smile crossed the stranger's face as they spoke in a echoey and distorted rendition of Vala's voice. "ThAt's WhAt I wAnTeD tO sEe! I wAnTeD tHiS rOrY wHeN wE LaSt MeT."

The stranger surged forward, aiming a savage right hook at Rory's head, before rapidly changing direction and following with a brutal left uppercut. They cackled unnervingly at the young man. "FiGhT mE! DoN't LeT mE dOwN nOw!" The pseudo-Vala offered a stream of rapid body shots, before spinning into a low sweep and then launched themselves up with a thundering right uppercut that transitioned into a backflip to create distance.

The creature molded to more of a definite form...Vala's to be more precise. Still, it dealt with his flurry of blows expertly. It spoke to him like it was Vala. Clearly, it wasn't...it was just trying to rattle him. Rory ducked underneath the hook and moved to the side, forced to put up his sword to deflect the uppercut that pushed him back. It closed the distance, and Rory met it. Using rapid swings of his sword, he matched fist with blade.

The blond jumped back to avoid the sweep, and backflipped away from the uppercut as she transitioned into one herself. He walked towards her, then swung his sword, firing eight ice rose vines towards it. Three were directed more towards the creature, while the other five latched themselves into the trees behind it, and pulled himself towards it into a short jump. He went into a roundhouse kick, then a stab downwards. If he missed, he'd kick at her, then swing diagonal at it. Followed by another swing back down and just stayed close with a flurry of quick attacks in close range.

The Appararition of Vala watched as the boy walked towards her before launching several ice whips. She weaved around them but got caught out, not realising he'd grappled to a tree behind her, and as he shot it he connected with the spin kick. Letting the blow throw her back, she fell into a roll and dodged out of the way as he stabbed down. He followed up with a swing down that she sidestepped, and finished off with a flurry of slashes. The stranger retreated, blocking with her gauntlets, before springing forward and jumping into a rising knee aimed for the chin. If the knee connected she would follow up with a flurry of slashes with her claws towards the boy's head before leaping away. If the knee missed, she would instead swing her hands around and clap them together, unleashing a blast of wind that would force him back if it hit. Since she was currently in the air, it would also force her back, allowing her to back flip into an elegant landing.

Eitherway, she would then follow up with by raising a hand and firing out a barrage of twenty small magical bolts of energy in a spread pattern, each dealing very weak damage. She waiting for Rory to deal with it, before following it up with a ball of fire that she lobbed at the second, hoping to catch him out with it as he avoided the mana bolts. Then she gained a bit more distance, watching him carefully as she prepared for the follow up.

The Apparition got smacked and got thrown back, but avoided both his stab and flip slash. The gauntlets blocked his flurry of strikes, with her matching him every step of the way. She retreated, only to spring forward with a knee aimed at his chin. Rory ducked and moved to the left with a spin swing to take her head. Only for her to duck and clap her hands with such strength that it created a shockwave of sorts, blasting him back in a slide, though apparently she hadn't quite landed yet, and was blown back herself.

Then she rose her hand and fired a barrage of small magical bolts of energy in a spread. Rory darted forward, sword at the ready. He slashed away two bolts in the spread in a jump fashion to avoid most of them, but he did get nicked in the left side, making him stumble on the landing and cringe in pain. But he still moved forward, if a bit low to the ground. Then she fired a ball fire. Again, he moved to the left, though only slightly. Due to the short distance, it almost hit him, with the ball of flame coming within four inches of his nose and frame. It forced him into a cartwheel to keep going. But she still decided on distance.

Fine. From him, a thick mist started to fill up the area around them. He could see fine. But she could see only shadows at five feet. Rory stood still, calming his breath. And started to carefully stalk towards her. Once he was at the tree she was at, he did a spinning slash to cut it down. Then jumped to meet her mid air with a spinning vertical slash. Upon landing, whether it hit or miss, he would take a small kneel, panting a little bit as he kept watch.

The young man dealt with the Apparition's opening salvo well, ducking and weaving around the attacks with preternatural skill. The barrage of magic bolts caused him bother however, one bolt catching him in the side and causing him to wince in pain. But to his credit he kept on keeping on, acrobatically evading the Apparition's fireball, the attack missing him by a whisker, and he kept coming. The Apparition readied herself, a look of intense focus crossing the replicated features of Valatrix Hornless. However, a thick fog began to eminate from her young opponent, obscuring her vision greatly. The Apparition estimated that she had about five feet of vision to work with, and began to concentrate on her hearing. She turned rapidly as a tree was violently severed nearby, and found the young man emerging from the fog cover with a lightning-quick mid-air spinning attack.

The Apparition leapt back out of the reach of the attack, and though this meant she lost sight of the young man in the fog, she did hear the thud of her opponent's weapon on the ground. The Apparition smiled wickedly as her throat began to glow with a spectrum of colors, before opening her mouth wide and firing off her Tempest Breath ability, sending a cascade of random elemental energies surging out in a 35ft long and 15ft wide cone that reached for Rory and dispersed fog along its path. The stranger looked at her opponent with a raised eyebrow of appreciation, and walked towards him. "GoOd... GoOd... NoW iT's TiMe To PlAy A dIfFeReNt GaMe!"

The Apparition laughed a drawn-out and heavily distorted laugh as new fog began to billow out from her body, an exact replication of Rory's own illusory fog. Just before the fog fully obscured her from Rory's sight, the Apparition of Vala changed, growing slightly taller and her face and outfit morphing until an Apparition of Fayla Shor gazed at Rory, a look of madness in her normally amicable green eyes. Pseudo-Fayla drew her sword and grinned manically. "LiLiAn SaYs YoU'rE a SoFtIe! LeT's SeE iF sHe'S rIgHt!" Fog fully formed, pseudo-Fayla leapt towards Rory with Eldari grace, aiming a thrust towards the young man's chest. Hit or miss, the Apparition then parted with a trio of slashes aimed for Rory's torso before sweeping at knee-height and then retreating into the fog. A broken facsimile of Fayla's voice echoed eerily. "SoFtIe! SoFtIe!"

The creature leapt out of his range. Rory stood slowly back up and twirled his sword around him a little bit. Then he saw that her throat started to glow with a wide range of colors. That wasn't good...what was she? Was it even a she? He ran towards a tree, and jumped once, then jumped off of the tree to avoid the blast. Then it walked towards him, now that the fog was cleared. Just as it started to laugh, he darted towards her, aiming for two quick thrusts at the heart and a spin slash at the head.

It had mimicked his own ability and billowed out the same kind of fog. Rory stopped and waited, as he noticed her voice changed again, this time something similar, but still obviously not her's, echoey. Though he did make a face at the comment. Was he a softie? He complained a lot during his adventures. If he took any adventures, though he mainly just stuck with whatever mission he was given. He didn't have much time to contemplate as he was attacked again. He slashed away the first thrust and matched the other three slashes, and had to backflip to avoid getting his leg cut off.

He tried to follow her into the fog, but soon lost track as she mocked him. He was focused on the fight...but she wasn't. The blond stood straight up, putting his left arm out in front of him and raised his other arm so his sword was behind back, almost doing an exaggerated downward swing. But he kept it there. He focused on his hearing, seeing if he could pinpoint where she was with his enhanced hearing. All he did was listen and wait...

The Stranger seen the boy coming as he lept at her and aimed two thrusts towards her heart and a slash towards her head. She had to smile at the direct killing blows. He didn't hold back. She moved through several graceful counter menouvers to divert the strikes as her own fog began to settle over the area and and the boy backed off. As she shifted into Fayla, she watched him carefully to see how he would react to his ability being used against him. She continued with her attacks and he defended well, backflipping out of range.

She watched him as he changed stance and seemed to close his eyes. He was listening for her. She smiled as she began to move, and her gentle footsteps circled him. She wasn't sure if he could here as they became heavier, and the ground began to tremble under Their increasing bulk. But if he couldn't hear that, he would certainly hear the sound of chainmail, as they took the form of Korroth. The Stranger did not know if the boy knew of Korroth, but there was no truer test of fear than facing against the massive man.

The stranger moved, a bardiche forming as he closed on Rory and brought the massive weapon down over head to cut him in half. Or so it would seem, though he would miss on purpose should Rory fail to move, since he didn't actually want to kill Rory. Eitherway he did follow up with a horizontal slash aiming to graze, and then smashed the ground with his foot, causing a shockwave to speed towards Rory. He backed off slightly, using the fog to conceal himself again.

He waited and listened. Soon, he heard the footsteps. And they gradually got bigger, heavier. She was transforming again, and he soon heard chainmail. Great. But she was coming from behind him. Opening his eyes, he spun, arm glowing blue as he aimed at the weapon that was being aimed over him. Once, twice, thrice, and four times so called light hits clashed with the blade of the bardiche. No matter how slight the strike, each one would cause weak damage, plus the weapon itself. Even against larger or stronger opponents, after using that ability, he often had an opening due to the swift consecutive strikes.

He dived forward, about to shove the blade into the being's heart. Only for it to spun into a horizontal strike, making the Knight duck, barely avoiding the strike. Well, okay then, guess he'll for taking a leg. Only for it lift, making him miss completely and zooming past him. Spinning on his heel, Rory barely managed to put up any kind of defense against the shockwave. It blew back, first landing on his upper back and head, then slamming into a tree. He gasped as he cried out in pain, tears already forming and his vision swimming. He coughed some as he looked at his legs.

Nothing was broken...that he could tell. But he might have to see  someone about his back. Assuming he even lived at least. Rory still had his sword in his hand...he never let it go. But also...what would happen if he let this thing go? Would it terrorize the people? Rory started to move, only to go still again because of the pain. He panted as he attempted, and largely fail, to control his pain level. But his body wasn't having it. He slowly started to move again, barely able to get his feet underneath him. Then he used his sword to prop himself up, then get up the rest of the way. He stumbled to the left a little, but leaned back and just stood there, leaning against the tree as more tears drifted down the corners of his eyes down to his jaw and then onto the ground.

I wanna go home. Except...he was home. Pushing himself off of the tree, and stumbling forward, he looked around, seeing if the apparition was going to take advantage of this...

The menacing form of Korroth trudged forward, armor clanking with each thunderous step. Despite whatever fear Rory may have felt in that moment, the young man still faced the giant Heanta, much to his credit. He used a series of rapid sword attacks to defend against the massive downward swing, each attack designed to deflect the weapon further and further away from its intended trajectory. Though it was unclear if the attacks themselves would have enough power to work on their own, the Stranger's desire to avoid actually hitting Rory meant that it would at least seem to the boy himself that he had succeeded. The young man tried to follow with a thrust to the heart, though he was forced to divert at the last second by the Stranger's own horizontal attack. The modified attack from Rory aimed for the leg instead, but the Stranger had already set his next attack in motion, the target limb raising over the attack before slamming into the ground to create a shockwave that knocked the young man flying and cleared the area immediately around the Stranger of the illusory fog.

Rory hit a tree and slumped to the floor, and the Stranger retreated into the nearest area of fog. Once in cover, he used the remaining fog to cover his latest transformation. He shrunk to the approximately the same size as Rory. His armor disappeared, his eyes turned blue-green and his cherubic face became framed by honey-blond hair. When the fog dissipated fully, a perfect replica of Rory stepped forward, sword drawn and eyes locked onto his still struggling opponent. When the Stranger spoke, it was another replicated voice, but this time it was devoid of distortion or mania. "Rory Bloomfield? Why do you cry?" The Stranger stepped forward, sword raised in traditional Mondolin combat stance. "Does it hurt? Should people die because you are in pain?" The Stranger waited patiently for the young man's response, his gaze unwavering and his expression stony.

What he saw shocked him again. The stranger mimicked his looks exactly. And his voice wasn't distorted or anything. It was a perfect copy save for the combat stance. It was a traditional stance, not the personal style that Rory himself favored. Why did he cry? It was because he was in pain! Of course it hurt! The last question caught him off guard, and made Rory grit his teeth. His sister came to his mind. Then Lilian. The rest of the Torals. Fayla. Umbra. Valatrix. Others did as well. And yet...most of those could easily defend themselves. Even better than him. But if they were knocked down...

Even through the tears and pain, he grimaced. He had been in pain before, had to keep going and rest. Throughout most of his escape from Kyias, he was in pain, and still kept going. Even fought someone. He also made a vow to the Knights. And promise to himself. Even if the reason for the goal changed from see herself with him to be someone she could admire. Although...how much longer could he last? With a fury of a blizzard, he gave an odd backhanded, diagonal swing, then depending on what his copy did/counter, go either right into a downward chop or spin into a horizontal one. Either way, he'd use his sword's enchantment, spiked ice vines emerging from the guard of the sword towards the strange, aiming at the legs, arms, and torso. All ten of them. He didn't know the answer to the question...but he was going to do what he can. And that was all anyone really could do.

The stranger watched as Rory tried to come to terms with the question he had asked. After a moment, the blonde did not respond, but instead he pushed through the pain and resumed the assault. The Stranger bobbed and weaved around the attacks, taking a slash to the torso before Rory followed up with a barrage of ice whips that speared the stranger all over its shifting body. The stranger swept the weapon through the air, breaking the tendrils in a fluid motion before lowering his sword.

The likeness of Rory watched the boy closely. He smiled, his face and form shifting backwards through all of the various forms held until it settled on the one closest to Rory's heart. "You have done well. You may not think you know the answer, but you still faught through fear and pain. You may be skittish, but only a fool would think you a coward." The stranger bowed to Rory, and vanished, leaving no trace behind.

(Yeah you done did it. Rory is R-1)