Brucenorris007

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce kept his concentration on avoiding losing consciousness, remembering the last time Vale got a taste of blood not his own. The ground moved again, and the wrist of his hand holding his sword twisted until the blade came full circle down toward Vale's own hands.
Consciousness slipped further and further from him, but he refused to die here. The ground reformed again into a giant spike that shot out toward Vale, but it began crumbling almost as soon as it came into being.
The scene of the painting, Jenso's shoulders slumped in front of it, the other four bodies on the ground that it depicted. He saw one of them as his own, the other three people he hadn't even known yet.
His pulse pounded in his ears. Aching at first, making him hyperaware of all sources of pain he was in- then it became deeper, stronger, louder and resonating with his very being. The earth under him pulsated, trembling, sliding, cracking, eroding and rising all at once. He could hear everything that touched the ground within the temple and for miles outside of it.
'The planet,' he realized. 'I'm feeling its heartbeat.'

Bruce's drooping eyelids snapped up- the ki in his blade spiked anew, even as he was still moving it to cut Vale. The skin where Vale's blade had sunk into changed, hardening into rock that closed itself around the blade and simultaneously clotted the bleeding. Bruce's one free hand also changed, as if becoming the hardest materials of the natural world, closing around the Vale's sword, yet not getting cut. Words that were at once Bruce's and not his fell from his mouth, in a deep, reverberating voice that nearly whispered.

"Earth Sage-"

Bruce's feet shifted, aiming to heave Vale up over his back with his next motion.

"Resonance"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce grunted with the effort of the clash, but kept his focus. The ground beneath him broke down again into sand which erupted up between Vale and Bruce toward Vale's face. He split a bit of his ki into another chain, one of the links closed around one of the few spearheads he had left. At the same moment that he jumped backward, he whipped the chain such that it brought the spearhead off his waistband and snapped it back upward through the sand toward Vale's jaw.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce took an instant to inhale and exhale, set his stance wide, dig in his heels and concentrate the ki in his blade to the greatest degree possible. He raised his sword over his head horizontally, one hand on the hilt with the other palm pressed against the dull edge of the blade in anticipation of the clash.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce's brow furrowed, genuinely confused as to Vale's sudden retreat. He briefly glanced behind him, considering the option of deconstructing the wall that lay between him and Jenso, who had yet to emerge.
'No,' he thought, pressing the fingers of one hand hard against the wall and concentrating until veins throbbed on his forehead. 'I'll stand by him by putting my trust in his power.'
Bruce began to run after Vale into the next chamber, which, he noticed now, was much more expansive in scope than the last. Grunting with the effort, he completely reshaped the layout of the temple. Pillars ground against the floor, and the ground rumbled as full sections of walls perpendicular to the temple's exit reformed and stretched out, sliding in alternating order from either side of the room to create new walls between Vale and the exit. Pushing himself a bit further, he also broke down the floor immediately in front of Vale into sand to slow him down.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Before the whips could reach him, Bruce dissipated the part of his chain that was attached to him, maintaining the ki necessary to keep the chain the first tendril was intertwined with in existence. He returned to his reliable blade of ki, momentarily throwing caution to the wind and launching himself upward, once again, into the air with a burst from the floor beneath him, tapping his finger against the pillar on his way up. He took up one of his last spearheads with one hand to parry the two freely moving tendrils, aiming to cut through the first that was still twining through his chain.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce's own ki reformed again into an entirely new weapon, the oversized mace elongating into a chain that circled multiple times around his torso, waist and shoulders. Like the mace, the ki of the weapon occasionally sparked, but its strength was not to be questioned. He chose again to forgo trading useless banter with Vale, instead responding by whipping the chain out to its full length and meeting Vale's whip.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce flashed an unusual smirk at Vale, redirecting the mixture of sand and mud from where it lay toward him, specifically aiming for his hands and the grip on his blade. He also bent down, touching the floor under him just slightly, suddenly causing it to vanish beneath him and let him fall down into a deep new hole. In the next instant, he shifted his ki into the oversized mace he'd used in the fire temple. With a shout, he hefted it upward, blasting the floor immediately beneath Vale with a tremendous impact from the huge weapon.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce immediately reacted by making the ground just beneath him suddenly shoot upward at an angle to propel him to one side, toward one of the walls. As soon as his feet left the ground, he broke down the same material that had launched him into a viscous mixture of sand and mud, hoping that Vale's blade would get caught in it, if only for a moment. He also pulled out the spearhead he'd replaced on his waist again, thrusting it toward Vale, aiming for his face.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce straightened up to his fullest height, returning the spearhead in his hand back to waistband. He released more of his ki and flexed the fingers of his free hand, subtly sifting through the material in the room he had to work with. Once he'd released a good deal more ki, he maintained it at a certain output level, ready to form into a second weapon should he deem it necessary. The already concentrated energy in his sword condensed further, strengthening it.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce reformed a bit more of the floor, manipulating behind him as Vale flew toward him. He broke the material down into sand, taking another spearhead from his waist. At the penultimate moment before Vale's attack would strike, he raised his sword again to stand between his neck and Vale's blade, aimed the sand particles at Vale's eyes and stabbed forward again with the spearhead.