tex

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Ross followed Bruce's movements, pulling his sword from the ground. Sand? Good move against an immobile target, but the spires near Ross began to spin once again. The resulting wind pushed away a fair amount of sand the rose from the ground, and Ross hardened his current position by turning the ground beneath him into a solid form of granite, raising him half a foot higher and preventing Bruce from directly tapping into the ground beneath him with his own flux of arcane energy. Ross pulled his sword to one side and scanned his surroundings, waiting for Bruce to show himself again. When he did, the massive man released his left hand from the hilt of his blade, and rose the entirety of his massive weapon into a large swing, aimed to collide with Bruce as he passed overhead. His left hand sook to call upon more defensive measures if Bruce tried using those chains of his again. The Gaian giant was confident that he could break those chains if he dedicated enough strength to the task, but if they were numerous enough, it may have been a different story.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Ross' spire shield rotated quickly, picking up a surprising amount of speed to deflect the incoming shards like a stone-crafted hollow turbine. Ross, within, glanced at the walls on either side of him, left and right. His arms reached up, and summoned the Earth-render great sword once more, pushing it into the ground below with a great deal of force. Two walls sprung from the ground on either side of him, matching Bruce's own walls head-on, and smashing against them until the masses of stone and concrete were ground together into two singular mounds of compact rubble. The spires around him slowed down, and Ross rose his sword overheard, pointing it towards Bruce. Three of his six spires propelled themselves towards him, getting slower as they left Ross' immediate domain, but maintaining enough speed to inflict damage on Bruce if they hit. Of course, they were angled to collide with Bruce if he maintained his current trajectory. Ross, as per his usual core strategy, did not move from where he stood. He had an iron clad rule for battle that disregarded his most glaring weakness.

Don't move unless absolutely necessary.

After all, if someone had the brute strength to uproot him, or K.O. him to begin with, and happened to also possess a severe speed advantage, he just wouldn't be able to win if they knew what they were doing! Not unless he was able to protect his Alamo stance with both his elemental affinity, and titanic strength.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Ross Shrugged and with a light smile. "Heh, a lot o' things coulda' worked. I'm not too agile myself. If I don't rely on reaction, I'm not too good at hitting much of anything, really," Ross admitted, "'Course, you haven't seen me fight before, have you? I think you may need to read the field a bit more before making rash decisions. That's what we're here for, though! Me an' the other boys might not be as strong as you guys overall, but our battle experience spans quite a damn bit! And that Mikey kid's a fuckin' genius, makes me- Ah, well whatever..." Ross twisted his torso a couple of times and sighed. "Alright, you've died once. If you die again, I'm calling it for today. There's only so much damage I can take with Alvios out of commission, wooo..." Ross backed away slightly and rose his fists. "You've learned a little more about me. If there's anyone I'm most like, it's likely to be that big yellow dude, uh.. Ray'jo'ku?" The earth around Ross began to rumble, and several small spires of stone rose up, surrounding him. With 6 crystal-like shards, all roughly the same size of his sword, surrounding him, Ross swapped up his style a little more and waited for Bruce to approach him. "I'm gonna try and keep things fresh, so that you can get some better practice in."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Ross released his side, and the wound crumbled over. Although it didn't heal, Bruce's sword missed his vital organs, thankfully. Ross stretched upwards, cringing in pain. "Do you think I uh... Was it a good idea to follow through while I was so close to you? My stature is a tad overbearing, and my physical strength is..." Ross flexed his arm a couple times and shook his head, "Well, I'm not exactly fast, but my arms pack a wallop. How much effort would it take me to crush a windpipe?"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Ross clutched Bruce's neck tightly as his blade flew through his abdomen. The skin around where Bruce's blade struck cracked and crumbled, and Ross lifted the Swordsman right off the ground by his throat before the chains could stop it. Although both his arms were now somewhat restrained, Ross's vastly superior raw strength made it borderline impossible to keep him from moving freely. His Stone-skin technique didn't make it any easier on Bruce, either. Ross smiled and shifted his left foot slightly, causing the earth below Bruce to rise and safely holy him. "Pause," Ross spat, dropping Bruce and backing away, with one hand clutching his wound. "Gimme a second.."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Ross immediately struck the tip of his titanic blade two feet into the ground at Bruce's feet, grinding it against the breadth of his opponent's blade and releasing the handle as it dug deep below. Shards of rock kept it in place, and Ross pivoted his body to face the incoming mace. With his bare hands, he clutched the mace, and stopped it mid-swing, allowing the force to shoot down his legs and push him slightly, but as the momentum stopped, one of his hands darted towards the handle of the mace, and grasped it firmly, while his opposite, the left, pressed against the length of his sword. The earth below Bruce's right foot shifted upwards quickly, and Ross's blade disappeared, at which point, he pulled Bruce's mace away from him, and heaved his left arm towards the man's neck, open-palm, fully prepared to take his sword strike to the gut if he chose to follow through after Ross' sword disappeared. Ross was never one for fancy gimmicks, or clear cut strategy. But he was no idiot. If he was leaving his guard open, then a single strike wasn't going to do much. The question was, how much punishment could Bruce deal and receive? When would it be worth striking him if he could exchange blows at close range with his overbearing stature?

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Ross slammed the tip of his broadsword into the ground between Bruce's blade and his broad abdomen. The resulting noise resounded through the hall, but no harm befell the Gaian Giant. The point where Bruce's blade struck felt the pressure, where a slight discoloration noted a small amount of damage getting through its first layer of green steel. But the injury repaired itself, as Ki-based weapons would often do if they sustained any damage. Ross himself, didn't budge.

"That was a pretty strong swing, but Jenso's punch was a lot tougher!" Ross commented, "Come to think of it, I probably shouldn't have let him just hit me back then... Ah, well. I react a little differently to blades." Ross hefted his great sword forwards with a bump of his left knee, pushing the massive blade towards Bruce in an upward swatting motion, while also tearing up a patch of earth as its tip dug out of the ground.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"Mikey's got us on a strict new regimen specifically adapting to each of you," Ross started out, sounding a little tense, "Looks like he's trying to target everyone's weaknesses, with Blup's help." The massive man pointed up at his head, where the tiny blob of blue goop was nestled carefully above his left ear. High pitched and happy, both the Blup on Ross' head, and the one on Bruce's, spoke in unison.

"Blup!"

Quite detailed analysis, as usual.

"We're gonna fight, and I'm gonna see what I can do to help you out. Blup's gonna help in that department too. But, to be clear, we're limiting ourselves to a certain extent, here. I brought ya to the terrain arena so that we don't end up crushin' the courtyard. Jeff set it to an earthly theme for us too." Ross summoned his blade and nodded. "First step's pretty simple, I don't think I need'ta tell ya much there!"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

~ Chapter 150 ~

_{Bruce's Midterm}

Ross was waiting in the battle arena that Bruce and Mikey fought in a while back, stretching thoroughly while he awaited Bruce's arrival.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"You played a very little part in this, bababa!" Blup beeped, "Your robots were.. Bzzzt, only a host. I am entirely composed of Mikey's energy, and may have come to be under any other circumstance involving a host with the capability to store my energy. As usual, you have made a broad speculation on something you do not understand!" Blup bleeped. "BaaBabababa!"

"Ahaha.." Mikey chuckled to himself and nodded. "If that's all, I'll be seeing you together again tomorrow. Dismissed!"

---

~ End Of Chapter 149 ~