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A Hero Tale {Complete}

"Shut up!"

Ada's platform lowered until she was finally at level with Oz, but by that time, the entire inside of his dome was coated by her ooze. The light was drowned out, leaving the two of them in absolute darkness. Ada's glowing eyes were the only thing visible at first, until, she closed those as well. A resounding explosion, something akin to a lightning storm, roared silently from outside the orb. Ada didn't acknowledge it, instead occupied by her sudden loneliness. "You don't know what we are. He loves us, we're his children. He tore us from our wretched realities and gave us immortality, the will and power to do as we please, and see to our ambitions. You are just a silly little boy, bent on destroying our happiness!" Ada's ooze began to drip from above, closing in on Oz from all directions. Droplets, tendrils, like quicksand from below... "We are his family!" Ada's goop quickly overflowed, pushing against Oz's barrier in all directions, expanding as much as it could possible manage, while also moving in on Oz directly.

"I'm going to squash you!"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Ada stood up, eyeing the dome around them directly. She couldn't see past it, despite her visual abilities. "This is your meta energy?" She muttered to herself. Her head snapped back towards Oswald. His question went unanswered, and she clenched both her hands. "What did you do!?"

Outside of the dome, every trace of Ada's magic was erased. The clouds above, any lingering ooze, and the liquid around the dome disappeared once she'd lost connection with it. Above all else, she couldn't see what was happening beyond the veil that Oz had created.

Ada paused, and looked back down at Oz angrily. She smirked, sinking into a state she'd rarely been privy to. She was serious. "I'm claustrophobic," She wimpered, "This bubble is making me anxious. I don't like this." The ooze that had crept its way around Oswald now surrounded the entirety of the dome's rim. It began to slowly climb up the walls, like candle-wax that melted towards the sky. She eyed it, and then looked back at Oz. She hadn't felt this way in quite a long while. The dome separated her from Yzeira, somehow. She couldn't see him, or feel his presence, despite her innate ability to do so, even between the fabric of reality. The anxiety, pressure, everything about it began to creep past her exterior and into her mind. Her voice echoed inside of Oz's head now. "I don't like this feeling. I don't like it- I hate it, take it down this instant." Ada rose one hand to her mask and felt underneath her right eye with three of her fingers, gently caressing her cheekbone, longingly. "He's not- I can't feel... Take it down, now! Take it down!"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Ada rose her head away from Oz's words, the glee in her posture fading away, replaced by a haughty curiosity, disdain clearly evident in her glare.

_{'What is he babbling about?'
'Why is he smiling?'
'What is wrong with him?'}

Ada's eyes narrowed after she turned her head sideways, as if to pull away from something disgusting. She suddenly smiled wide, her violet mouth visible through the fabric in her mask as she glared at Oz out of the corner of her right eye. "I suppose the answer your looking for is no?" Ada wretched, "Or, what, speechlessness? Confusion? Denial?" Ada's platform lowered slightly, and she knelt down onto one knee, still a ways above Oswald on her little perch. "Do you think me a monster with no grasp on the whims of mortality? Too arrogant to know what love is? Or the backlash of such feelings? Come now- Just because I possess such awesome power and kneel above you like some sort of soulless demon... Feh!" Ada's ooze began to wrap around the entire circumference of the dome's inner edge slowly as she spoke. "I sustain myself on that hurt. I crave it, mould it, build it to relive it- Any opportunity I can get, I'll take it. Men, women, children, stupid little boys who think they can play god, all just puppets to amuse me, their feelings are a circus for me to perform a wicked nostalgia- Oh, how I look forward to slitting that little archer's neck when this all over, even now... I want to feel his sadness, and my own, as tears run down these rosy cheeks relentlessly!.. It reminds me of mother." Ada paused and frowned, looking down at Oz, Curious, and eager. "What do you know of love, little boy? Speaking so highly?" Ada nodded and pouted with here eyes pointed downwards, mocking Oswald's comments.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Ada's wave of sludge trembled over the resounding impact, but the woman refused to lose her balance. The tail of her vehicle of choice was shredded, along with a fair amount of the ooze she'd left behind. At first, once she lowered the barrier and stood upright, high above Oz on her makeshift tower of sludge, she seemed barely phased. But when the barrier erected around them, giving both a limited amount of space, her face scrunched up angrily. "Oh, you..!" She smiled and rose a hand, only for it to fall down in a fearsome swing. Nothing happened at first. Ada winced as smoke caught her face, but swatted some of the debris away with her other hand. "hmm~hmm~hmm, of course! A confined space, close together, I can practically taste your sweat." Suddenly, the outer part of Oz's dome was under siege. Well, siege might've been an exaggeration. From the cloud above, drops of rain, purple liquid, began to descend upon the two of them. Of course, they couldn't get inside of the dome, but the thin layer of liquid violet changed the hue of the sunlight, and pooled around the outer perimeter of their new battle-arena. Ada's eyes fixated on Oz's arm, and she licked her lips. "You may have underestimated me just a little, hon. But I admire your confidence. One on one? With me? Hah!" Ada's sludge pillar lowered slightly, and she braced herself, placing one hand on the platform between her legs while it moved. "You and your silly little friends might pose a threat together, I'll concede to that much. But... Hoho, there's no way in hell that you can take me on..." Ada's eyes narrowed as she stared at Oz's injured arm even deeper, "...Single-handedly... Heeheehee~" From the bottom of her pillar, two tendrils of hardened ooze lashed outwards, coming at Oz from both his right, and his left.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Ada's ooze, missing Oswald in its head-on assault, began to plummet after him, unable to gain in on the heavy-handed tank despite its best efforts. The ooze was sluggish in comparison to Oz's gravity assisted descent, and without form, it was sluggish in general in such large quantities. Ada looked up, and released her control of the Ooze above Oz, letting it disperse into a cloud of thick smoke that began to overshadow the two of them as he came towards her. But she wasn't about to let him strike her with such a straight-forward attack. Here eyes flickered curiously. Was it really as simple as it looked? The goop below her lowered her body and pushed the woman's stance beyond the point of impact, leaving behind a long, thin slick of sludge where Oz was bound to land, while raising a low wall behind Adarine, which she took safety in ducking behind. He body faced away from Oz, but with her visual prowess, he was never truly out of her sight. With her preparations made, Ada braced for any sort of impacting force Oswald was about to make.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Ada's wave of ooze wobbled slightly as the majority of her army was consumed in a blast of Ki. Oz had sacrificed his titan to do away with all of it in one fell swoop, Leaving Ada somewhat irritated. But at the same time, unburdened by the massive concentration it took keep her Ozmone army active. "Fine then! We'll get a little more intimate." Ada called out, making a sharp turn with her wave, one hand pressed against the icky surface of the platform as she began speeding towards the ground beneath Oz. When the platform stabilised, she rose both hands towards Oz, and unleashed a torrent of purple go, headed his way. It took no specific shape or form, its purpose solely to trap Oz in a sludge that spelled imminent death.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

~ Chapter 179 ~

_{Dance Through The War zone, Ada V.S. Oswald}

Ada's army had gone completely sluggish. Everything ran to tackle Atlas head on with little to no plan, leaving Jenso and Jeff to Dacer, and Alvios to Vale. The clones began to lose their unique forms, instead becoming sludge-like drones that looked more and more like one another- And army of semi-sentient blobs. It was of course, related to Ada's new choice of combat. She rode around on a wave of her sludge, tapping the heel of her right shoe to a nonexistent beat as she watched the display, slowly rising higher and higher as she circled Atlas. Oswald was left behind, but he had his own issues to deal with as well. Some of the sludge monsters moved towards him as well, looking to cover him up entirely. As they moved in close, their bodies melted into small tidal waves of purple ooze, in a series of attempts to encompass him entirely. Ada smiled and laughed aloud.

"Ohohoho! Can you feel it now? Ignorant little whelps, the lot of you!" She roared towards Atlas. Her eyes shifted towards Oswald and her smile shrank to a grin. "Show me a good time, hon. It's been so long since my last dance off."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Dacer grinned and stepped forwards, stumbling slightly before stamping both of his feet into the ground to strengthen his stance. "Pshaww, best friend. You're gonna make me blush, kiddo," Dacer mocked, brandishing his claws. His eyes looked back at the ongoing thunderstorm behind him. With Jenso stuck inside, he wouldn't be able to move until it was finished raging, if he could even move after that. He looked back at Jeff. "You were just the first guy with any potential for Ki control I came across. If it wasn't you, it could've been anyone else. Truth of the matter is, I found you pretty goddamn obnoxious. If I wasn't planning on using you, there's no way in hell I would've done anything to protect your stupid village." Dacer rubbed his thumb-claw together with his index-claw, producing a small pink spark. "'Course none of that crap matters now. Things have changed pretty significantly since then. I've got some new goals now. The first of which..." Dacer's body flickered and his royal amp fell apart, revealing Jenso, partly immobile nearby. Dacer disappeared, and reappeared in front of Jenso, pinning his body to the ground, neck-first, and holding him in place.

"...Involves taking this back!"

Suddenly, Jenso's body was overcome with a familiar warmth. A memory grasped to his consciousness, ripping away at the scene around him. Lark stood over a slightly younger Dacer, with his hand grasping the boy's shoulder firmly. He muttered something incoherent. Dacer slapped his hand away, and punched his father in the stomach as hard as he could manage. Then he ran, tears streaming down his cheeks as Lark watched quietly, clutching his abdomen with one hand. The memory faded, as did the warmth of his transformation. Pij squawked loudly, over and over, until her voice was squashed by darkness. The scene around Jenso returned. His wings faded, and the flames that encompassed him burned out. Dacer chuckled, and let go of Jenso's throat. In an instant, Pij had been stolen from him, along with all of the energy that Lark had gifted Jenso on his deathbed. Dacer stood over the still-paralysed Jenso and turned to Jeff, grinning confidently. In a single moment, one of the hero's most powerful weapons was taken away.

Jenso's one with nature transformation was no more.

---

~ End Of Chapter 178 ~

A Hero Tale {Complete}

The sudden transformation made Dacer Grin. "There she is," He muttered to himself, "This fight is over." Dacer didn't care what Jenso was doing, or what direction he planned on heading in. As soon as Pij emerged, he bent forwards and slammed both of his hands down against the ground. Suddenly, every point that he'd touched the ground began to light up, creating a wall of pink light around Jenso in a crooked circular pattern. Dacer's ears perked up, and he shifted his shoulders twice. The sniper shots headed for him, missed slightly, one grazing his left shoulder, and the other striking the ground in front of him. Fortunately, he wasn't midair, or moving. The feline Gaian looked up briefly to see Jenso charging him, and grasped the dirt beneath him tightly.

"Royal Amp"

Both of Dacer's hands sparked with electricity, sending small jolts into the area in front of him. In an instant, the elemental energy was amplified, and with a thunderous roar, every square inch of air within the amplification field was covered by a series of electrical surges that ripped up from the ground, all the way to the sky. Dacer stood up and stepped back, waiting for his ongoing lightning storm to subside, turning his sights on Jeff instead.

"That's gonna go on for a while," Dacer grunted, "How about we catch up in the meantime?" He looked down at the cut on his shoulder, and then shifted his eyes back towards Jeff with a smile.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Dacer's body didn't allow the nanobots to exist for long. When the slightest pain radiated through his chest, Dacer place a hand over his wound and sent a pulse of Ki through himself, exterminating the bots that lay inside. This didn't stop his bounding leaps, however. He continued to encircle Jeff and Jenso, cutting off the path they'd chosen to escape through. He was only able to get in front of Jenso, however, ignoring the ground's quake with his dexterity. Even further, as soon as Jenso's flame whip touched his foot, it began to curl up his leg like a snake, until it was yanked up from the ground, and launched back at Jenso as soon as Dacer cut off his possible escape route, overpowered by Dacer's Ki on contact. Dacer himself Swiped with his free hand, while still slashing at the ground with his other, firing a series of electrical claw-beams at Jenso.