tex

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"Bluh, will not allow Jeff to study me, or any others for.. Baba.. Any reason! Blup! I am fully capable of answering questions!" Mikey shrugged immediately. "Mikey! Mikey! Blahh..Bluh, Chances of my creation, 1 in 4'890'231'432'123'040. Your luck was fortunate! I will be a great asset for everyone! Blup!"

"I assume you have a name?.." Luke asked, from the edge of the war table. The little creature turned around and moved towards him slowly, like a little slug

"Blup? No. I exist by chance, and only to serve Mikey!" Blup blooped.

"You sure like to say that a lot.. Jenso, I think it's good, don't you?" Mikey said, nodding, "We'll call you Blup."

"Blup!" Ross called out, slamming his fist against his palm. "Excellent name!"

"This may change things. Before I address the rest of today's agenda, Blup, what can you do, exactly?" Mikey asked. The little blob of opaque glowing goop moved back towards him and nodded its eyes.

"Analysis of arcane energy, and Ki! Deconstruction of attacks! Body split, up to 5 of myself! Communication between copies, up to 20 kilometers! Strategic processing, almost as efficient as your own, Blaaa, beee.. And I can mass produce new nano-bots to keep my body alive, up to the size you see currently!" Mikey smiled and nodded.

"I'll address Blup's presence tomorrow. For now, he is to be treated as an ally."

"Blup!"

"Now, our agenda. Today will be strictly for individual training. Each of your will be meeting with one of us to hone your skill and review your progress," Mikey announced, "Jenso, you'll be with me. Jeff, you are to train with Luke. Bruce, you and Ross shall be together. And Oz, Geode has been tasked with addressing your... Precious Ki, as he put it earlier." Mikey scratched his head. "We'll be going over everything, specifics, mostly. New magical usage, strategies, individual proficiency over teamwork. Any questions?" As Mikey waited, Blup began dividing himself into several smaller versions of himself, and guiding each tiny blob towards each person.

"I will monitor everything you do, for Mikey! And for future analysis! Blup! Pleased to meet you!" His clones said in unison.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"Affirmative," The creature sputtered, "A freak accident! Bluh.. I exist only to serve the wishes of mister Mikey, and all of-Bababoo.. You!" Mikey blinked at the small blob and tilted his head sideways. He was still taken aback a bit by the situation. Did this make him a... Father?

"Jeff, uh... Any thoughts?" Mikey asked as Blup glared at him quietly.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

~ Chapter 149 ~

_{A New... Ally?}

The small blue goo... Thing, sat in the middle of the war table, and moved around inspecting every single member of Mikey's team carefully, with its pair of blinking eyes. Mikey looked down at it in astonishment. He called the meeting to discuss the final steps of training, as well as to address the uh... Blop in the room. It approached Mikey, finally, and looked up at him from a few feet away.

"...Can I help you, little guy?" Mikey asked.

"Blup," It responded. Mike face palmed.

"Jeff, what the hell happened to your nano bots?" He asked, irritated and confused. Before Jeff had a chance to respond, the little blob spoke in his place.

"Biomechanical Life, created by a sudden surge of Arki that found shelter in these strange creatures. Bluh.. Capable of processing fifteen Quintilian Yottabytes of information in four seconds. Purpose, scan and react, split and communicate, bluh.. babababa! Bee... Put order to data. Blup!" Mikey looked down at the little creature in surprise.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Luke was about to step in and reflect on his student's thoughts, but before he could, something began to stir. His mouth froze while open, and he tilted his head downwards to a series of gentle bubbling noises. The last word to escape his mouth was 'what'

"Bl..Bloo..Bleep..Bee..Bahh..Bah, ba ba ba...Zzzz, Boot!" The little glob of blue goop began to make a series of noises, similar to speech. And then, out of nowhere, it grew a pair of two, shadowy eyes within its goopy mass, looking up at the four men with a hint of innocence and fear.

"...Blup?"

---

~ End Of Chapter 148 ~

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Luke nodded slowly. "Close enough, Jenso," He said with a light smile. He looked over at Jeff for a moment and sighed. The battle seemed to be affecting him negatively. The man had an issue with his confidence, and hid behind his boastful demeanour, most of the time. At least, it seemed that way. Luke nodded again. "But, why didn't you listen? You seemed intent on cornering him, but it became obvious very quickly that Mikey's phenomenal agility wasn't going to let him get cornered by straight forward attacks. You should have read the fight and reacted accordingly. There were some points in the fight were you pulled off some really good combinations and techniques, but never tried a new style of attack, the styles I taught you. Mikey couldn't fight back, that much was true, but he could take advantage of your attack lag pretty efficiently, and was looking for an opening that entire fight to end one of you in a single strike." Luke paused and shrugged. "Truth is, you didn't do a bad job. Not as bad as Mikey makes it seem. But against the Order, you'll need to be perfect. Dedicating yourself to one style will get you killed pretty quickly. Mikey is frustrated. We're on day 4 of 7, and the amount of progress being made seems relatively minimal, to him. Just... Try to understand his perspective. Don't take it personally."

"You'll all be getting training specific to where you're lacking, but for now..." Luke pointed to Jenso.

"Jenso, don't rely on force style. You need to learn patience. You need to stand back, and analyse, more often. If you don't use your mind, you'll never stand a chance against the Order."

"Jeff, use your techniques differently. You have a great deal of control. Lay traps, use your clones, keep moving, and never put yourself into a position where you'll be hit."

"Oz... Well, I don't have much to say about you. You acted and reacted pretty efficiently in that fight. But you also made a crucial mistake that gave Mikey a sudden, massive advantage."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

~ Chapter 148 ~

_{A Strategic Review}

After Oz restored the gravity and everyone was allowed to group up, Mikey and Luke stood before the three trumps confidently. Neither of them seemed especially impressed with how they performed.

"I'd like to say good job," Mikey started, "But that was uh... That was extremely sloppy." Luke hesitated before nodding, one hand rising to scratch the back of his head. Mikey glanced at the ground between them, where the goopy blue slop that used to be Jeff's nano-bots was not sitting. "I'll make a long story short and leave the rest to Luke. You never once changed your attack style. Not one of you. That made it extremely easy for me to dodge and block everything you threw at me. Oz was the only one who didn't dedicate himself to a constant stream of aggression. That's why I ignored him for the most part. I have to acknowledge that he was making me rather cautious. And, Jeff, that clone ability was very clever. But I tore it apart in a manner of seconds. If you'd used it more efficiently, and carefully, you may have been able to completely corner me with it. But, you and Jenso, once again, had dedicated yourself to a purely offensive style." Mikey clenched his shoulder. "I was willing to take a hit to teach you a lesson, here, Jeff. If I didn't hold back on that attack that struck you, you'd likely be incapacitated from the waist down for a fully day, without the aid of Alvios." He stopped and looked down at his destroyed nano bots. "It was a good fight, though. Good fight.." Luke stepped in and pushed Mikey aside slowly.

"Go get that checked out, you 'aint Jenso," He insisted. Mikey nodded and began walking off the platform, clutching his shoulder. Luke glared at the three trumps and sighed. "Before anything, can any of you tell me how many times Mikey changed his attack style during that fight? And what styles he 'was usin'?"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Mikey's body shifted against the shockwave that Jenso sent towards him, and he quickly began to fall towards the roof, as Oz changed the orientation of up and down. Part of him was irritated as his eyes set on Jeff. The inventor looked as if he was preparing several attacks at once.

Mikey clenched his fists, putting every shred of effort into dealing with Jeff's next attack. With one of Jeff's legs offset by his earlier attack sealing a portion of his arcane network, his wind-burst couldn't send him in a completely straight line. But the distance between them made the veer almost negligible. Well, negligible to a normal person, anyways. Mikey landed on the roof just before Jeff came into range to strike him, landing on his feet, and swinging his right arm around towards Jeff's blade while coated in another sea-serpent-strike. A fierce determination flashed in the boy's eyes as his Arki-coated attacked crashed against the back edge of Jeff's blade, while only the tip was allowed to embed itself in his left shoulder due to Mikey's interference. Of course he wasn't fast enough. Oz's point-blank momentum gate made sure of that. But Mikey wasn't a pushover either. Mikey changed the flow of energy in his attack, and the result exploded outwards, Launched both Mikey and Jeff in opposite directions across the roof. Jeff went through the momentum gate once again, while Mikey tumbled onto his side, eventually raising back onto one knee. The result of the two attacks colliding left the nano bots that made of Jeff's sword, apparently destroyed, and mixed into a watery blue substance where the explosion occurred. Mikey glared at the explosion site. "It.. Exploded?" He grunted. Mikey then shrugged of the thought and waved to Oz. "Let us down!" he shouted, pointing at his shoulder, "You got it!"

---

~ End Of Chapter 147 ~

A Hero Tale {Complete}

It was a good effort, but Mikey's reaction speed was too precise. The tip of the improved attack struck Jeff's lower left abdomen as he tried to fling himself away, sending him off course, and towards one end of the room. Jenso's impact punch slammed against Mikey, but his outer shell of spinning Arki didn't allow it to impact him very much. After the attacks struck, Mikey's attack faded, and his body's spinning came to a stop slowly as he began to tumble down from above. A few flips angled his body so that he could control his landing, but he fell none-the-less.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Mikey's grin tightened, and his trajectory suddenly curved downwards, below where Jeff was standing, as he bent his sharpened attack towards the ground. It was like his Sea Serpent Strike was pulling his entire body with it! His boot dissolved, and he landed on the tip of his right foot. With his right arm, he curved his entire body to the left, and began to spin around. His movement was fluid, and before anything could strike him, his body shot upwards like a cork-screw. Then, his empowered punch released several streams of Arki that encompassed his entire body in a bubble of water, except it was less rounded, and more oval shaped, like a bullet. Jeff's wind scythes smashed against the side of his rotating shield harmlessly, causing water to splash away from it, but doing little to stop him. Jenso's flame wave missed, and his whip was deflected by the rotating force of Mikey's attack. Following Jeff towards the ceiling was an easy task now. With the Wind sage directly in his path, Mikey kicked his new technique into maximum drive. His entire body began to glow a blueish white as it spun towards Jeff, only moments after he himself had reached the ceiling.

"Supreme!"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Mikey looked up and smirked as Oz redirected his attack. The entire arena was now saturated with his element. Water that he'd already injected with his own Arcane energy, no less. First, and foremost, Mikey made sure that the water from above fell much faster with a flick of his left foot, forcing a sudden downpour of rain, which wouldn't last any more than a few seconds. It was enough though. Both Jenso and Oz felt the water around them, condense until it was pushing back on all of their limbs, hard enough to slow them both to a crawl. With both of them delayed, Jeff was his only worry. While controlling the way around Oz and Jenso, Mikey did the unthinkable, and charged direct towards Jeff with a bounding leap, using his bubble shoes, allowing Jeff's scythes to collide where he had just been standing. Of course, just as it'd affected Oz and Jenso, Jeff was now weighed down by several globs of water that clung to his arms and legs. Mikey pulled his right arm back, and his gauntlet took the shape of a sea-serpent's head

"Sea Serpent strike!"