Brucenorris007

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce nursed his broken arm, the stab wound in his hand more or less healed, or at least not an issue to endure. He'd managed to activate his sage state briefly, concentrating so he could alter the bone in his arm while it was stone. The break would remain somewhat vulnerable, but his right hand wouldn't hang limp in a fight either.

He felt a tremor rock the tower. From where he sat, it felt diminished compared, but he hadn't forgotten how the structure was protected. Anything that could get through it, causing even a minor vibration, meant trouble.

"That cannot be good." he muttered.

Static drew his attention to the bag he still wore. Jeff's voice, distorted, came through, but only one word prompted Bruce to his feet.

Rajaka.

Bruce flew down the stairs the way he'd come up, skipping any pretense or foreplay and entering straight into his Sage state. Nexus' attack had disrupted his Ki, and he had no way to know if he'd reclaim Ascension again, but he'd find a way if he had to.

And, with only a cursory glance into the chamber below as the stairs ended, the sight of a massive, unfamiliar form looming over Jeff and someone else with a familiar aura, Bruce had a feeling he'd definitely need every edge he could get.

"Who the hell is that?"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce couldn't breathe, his chest heaving with rattled ribs and bones until he finally hacked and coughed violently, prostrate on his knees with his left arm out to support him.

He hissed and remained there, the pain, more pronounced in his soul than his arm, proving ample enough to render even him, with his practiced self-imposed suppression, temporarily immobile.

Nexus' words reached him, and out of respect for his opponent and temporary mentor, he craned his neck to watch his final moments.

The armored Order member, the storyteller, fell. Bruce kept his being still in deference to his role as witness of Nexus' blue soul poured out into the chamber.

"You," Bruce grit out, pushing his shaken form up, though he kept to his knees. "You will be heard now. Along with the other voices. Those who came before, and those who still live."

Bruce flipped his left wrist, retracting the blade from Nexus' skull with notable effort due to his sudden fatigue.

"Don't worry about Jenso, Nexus," Bruce spoke softly into the misty blue, his katana returning gently to his hand. "I promised you a proper ending."

He flipped the blade down and let it slide into its sheath, taking a cleansing breath.

"I intend to deliver."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce grimaced at the loss of strength and the ascended state he'd achieved. He knew now that his power's restrictions would be reflected in Nexus' own, but with such a direct blow aimed his way, that didn't matter too much. His position could have let him work on hyperextending and, against a lesser opponent, breaking Nexus' arm.

There wasn't time to think about disabling him piece by piece. Nexus had designs on his life, and with the grip he had on his wrist, Bruce wasn't getting away without making a drastic choice that would likely only postpone an unfavorable result.

So instead, he fell back onto what he knew, since the voices had been silenced. The hilt he'd dropped rose back up, and he caught it in his left hand. Focusing all of his own weight into the blade's apex, he thrust it for Nexus' eye.

"One stroke."

The blade shone, weak next to the light Bruce produced not seconds earlier, though like Nexus, backed by will, resolve and aimed for his weakest point.

"One life."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce winced at the pain in his left hand. He also bled, but he kept on. He weakened the folds of the sword at the point where it entered his hand, snapping it so the blade remained lodged in Nexus' thigh. He yanked his left hand back, rock scabbing over the flesh wound, though the pain and damage remained.

He let the hilt of the broken blade drop from his right hand before Nexus' left caught him by the wrist. He snapped his left hand up to catch Nexus' left wrist, moving around the appendage so his left arm was between him and Nexus' right arm. With two against one, Bruce had the advantage, hiking up his left shoulder to clamp Nexus left arm near his elbow.

Bruce's right wrist shone with Ki, the blast he'd just used concentrating again to expose his opponent's hand.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce didn't wait for the energy blast. His heat sped along one arched pillar behind Nexus before being vaporized. The power of the blast would have been fatal, even with the condensed mass of his Ki radiating off him.

Still, the echoes assured him. His resolve didn't waver.

Because Nexus had made a bold exaggeration. Every inch? Perhaps a suicide bomber could make such a claim, but Bruce doubted Nexus' "reflection" of abilities extended to Prisma's self-regeneration. And for all the Arcano's power, after the initial blast, it moved like the titan had- slowly, best evidenced by the visible effort Nexus put into the attack.

With another thought, concrete materialized about Nexus' feet. Bruce's Ki made a leap as the Order member heaved. His left hand, shining like it had when he first donned his Ki to turn his body into a weapon, shot up first from the ground, gripping Nexus' armor at the hip.

"Manifest. Echo."

The souls of the past Ascended bore their weight into the attack once again.

The moment the weight of his Ki moved from his palm to Nexus' armor, the glow receded from his left hand, leaving the dark hue of stone skin behind. Bruce pulled up his torso, the Ki that receded from his planted hand transferring to a blade in his right, which he stabbed toward his hand, aiming to pierce it and Nexus' hip once his armor broke.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce blinked. Twice. Nexus' techniques, or rather, his versions of the techniques others possessed, became a bit clearer. He remembered that Nexus had not, in fact, been the first member of the Order to nullify his arcane and Ki-based abilities.

Yzeira was.

'He was being literal.' Bruce thought, recalling Nexus' claim that he had infinitely more experience than he.

Bruce called on his predecessors, creating more new Earthen material. Pillars and archways, many with cracks and gaping holes in their design, appeared as if out of thin air. Yet the Earth remembered those who'd fought with her power. Bruce's form seemed to fold into nothingness, his Ki and heat once again vanishing into the walls. He manipulated the network of chains again, snaking them up and wrapping around the constructions he'd summoned.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce bent slightly at the hip with the first blow. The next struck true, yet the impact didn't hurt to a significant degree, at least not like he would have expected. The increase in speed and the previous use of Jenso's attacks tipped him off a moment before Nexus gave away his imitation of Jeff's technique.

The blows were well-placed, attacking Bruce's shoulders, even if lacking the strength to cause crippling damage, made it difficult to raise an appropriate guard.

"Gaian Guardian"

So instead, he went offensive.

Each new appendage, each face that overlapped with his, every leg that bent at the knee for stability, all possessed one soul, echoing countless. On his left side, six arms that extended out past the area Nexus targeted hooked toward his face. Bruce twisted his hip into the blows, each hand wielding a mace to crack into Nexus' armor.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce unfolded a brace of Ki around his right arm with a grip for his fist. Seven blades, attached to bars, appeared parallel to his forearm. They spun around his appendage rapidly, the blade edges outward.

He spread the core from his arm of his Ki to the head of his mace in his other hand and with the resonance of his soul, struck the fiery saw. In the same motion, he twisted his hips and stepped into the thrust of his right arm toward Nexus' face.

"Excavation."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce's Ki laced into his chains reacted to the new strands- from those on the floor threads, thin enough to thread through the links, flew up toward the oncoming chains. Upon threading through one link, the threads would expand and merge with Bruce's ceiling chains.

His lengths of chain between himself and the saw bearing for him grew new strands, connecting with those on the floor, yet they held considerable slack, the intent not on outright stopping the attack but slowing it down.

Bruce charged forward, mace still in hand. Without preamble or pomp, he summoned his new power created a giant circular slab of stone to stand between him and Nexus. With a heave, he smashed the mace into it's flat side and sent it toward his opponent.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce twisted to face Nexus. Hearing the mimicry of Jenso's technique surprised him a little, but the voices kept his mind clear, paradoxically. He drove his blade psychically into a link of his chains and lunged onward, his mace forming into his left hand.

"Manifest"

Bruce dove forward. His Ki, the heat he'd condensed beneath his skin, burbled to the surface, draping his form in a molten gold that glowed like the Earth's core. He pressed his right palm outward to meet Nexus' armored chest- to leave an imprint of the weight of a million lives multiplied by a million moments granted by Gaia.