JASMINE stumbled into the summit hall as Ryan went at it with the two Ares ravager by the door.
She watched in frightened awe as he tore one of the ravagers apart with the shadowy blade tendrils of Draxonn.
She found Stephanie and ran for her, all the while yelling to the room, "We need to evacuate!"
"Jasmine, what happened? Why is Ryan like that?"
"It's… really hard to explain…"
… )]≥( …
Some Time Earlier
As the Basilisk plummeted below the clouds, Jasmine tried her best to steer the downed ship into position where they could crash safely… if that was possible.
"What good is that going to do?" Mac demanded, "The craft is falling apart."
"Well at least I'm doing something," Jasmine rebuffed
On instinct, Ryan placed his hands against the walls, as if bracing himself, and concentrated.
Unknown to the other occupants, the pieces of the splintering warbird were held in place by black energy, hidden amid the thick plumes of smoke that trailed after them.
"Can one of you oh-so-powerful purebloods actually do something useful?" Mac demanded,
Not even having the leeway to be offended, Angela held out her hands and a glyph glowed in bright yellow between her palms,
Gale type: Wind Sail!
Around them, the winds pushed against the belly of the craft, and turning their uncontrollable free-fall into a semi-controlled gliding crash.
"I don't think I can keep us aloft long enough to reach the city." She informed them, her voice straining from the stress,
"Enjin wa mada ugokimasu ka?" Mira qweried
"One is gone, but it looks like the other three are still in working condition, and it seems I can control the directional thrusters." Jasmine said,
[Hey. Fun fact; warbird frames were created by The Foundry, the eminent engineering guild in magus society. These frames are commissioned by various groups and entities, like ARGUS, with custom specs and other unique features. Isn't that interesting?]
"Are we close enough to the city" Angela queried, strain evident on her voice,
"Just a bit more," Jasmine urged
The barely together craft immediately began to rise with such great speed they burst through the cloud layer into one of the many bridges. Crashing through the bridge caused them to lose control and careen wildly to the left.
With the warbird crashing into almost everything in their path, the power keeping it together failed, and the warbird began falling apart all over again. Finally, the warbird came to a stop in a park.
"Is it over?" Angela asked as she peeked her head up from the fetal position.
"We're alive!" Ryan exclaimed, "That is impossibly lucky,"
"Lepashi must really like us right now." Ross comment.
"Alright, everybody out," Jasmine coughed.
Ryan used his wand to break the window, "Made an exit."
One by one, they all made their way out of the damaged warbird onto the damaged street. Already, security was arriving with emergency services and closing off the area.
"All of you on the ground!" one officer yelled pointing his wand at them.
"Alright, alright," Ryan said as he got on his knees and raised his hands, the others, reluctantly copied him as officers came to restrain them, "So much for that Lepashi thing,"
"So, who are you and why did you crash a warbird into our square?" The senior officer asked when the group was rounded up and away from the warbird
"Well, what happened is that you guys shot us out of the sky, we had to use magik just to keep that thing from completely falling apart." Jasmine said, gesturing to the warbird that was currently being moved.
"My name is Jasmine Sumner, I was under orders by my Keeper, Stephanie Fairchylde, to recover purebloods kidnapped by a madman for some illegal experiments. That madman is Keeper Crowley of Brach 0."
"That's a pretty big accusation right there, Keeper Crowley is in charge of security now after the fiasco of a few days ago."
"Look, we're not going to stay here and debate about what's possible, but I need to go and talk to my Keeper,"
"Sorry miss, but all the Keepers have gathered at the Great Hall, the summit is about to begin."
Jasmine swore, she couldn't wait, she needed to tell Stephanie what she had learned. The whole time, she had been working her way out of cuffs they had restrained her with.
"Sorry about this," Jasmine said, before she punched the man in the gut, then as he went down, she drew her crossbow and shot the three other officers around them in rapid succession with knockout bolts.
"Damn," Ryan whistled, "That was the quickest one-on-four takedown I've ever seen."
"C'mon," Jasmine said, releasing the others, "We need to move."
They fled the scene and made their way towards the Great Hall.
… )]≥( …
The closer they got to the Great Hall, the worse the pounding in Ryan's head got.
"I can feel them," Drake said in his head, "they're close."
What is this burning I'm feeling? Ryan asked him
"Rage? Hatred? Greed? Hunger? Take your pick." Drake informed, "You sense our magik coming from someone else and you feel an instinctual urge to destroy them. Magik is selfish like that."
How do I stop it?
He could hear Drake laugh mockingly at him, "You can't stop it, you'd have an easier time stopping the rain. This is instinct, an itch that won't go away until you scratch it and the only way to fulfill this is to let your bloodlust loose and destroy all those abominations."
Ryan tripped and stumbled.
"You fool," Drake sneered, "You wasted so much magik on saving these losers. If you go against those fake like you are now, you'd be the one getting destroyed."
"Ryan, are you alright?" Mac asked as she knelt down next to him.
He looked up at her and grinned, "Yeah, thanks," he lied
"Sure," she said uncertain.
As Ryan was about to get up, the impulse hit him again, ten times stronger than before.
"Tch, it happened faster than I expected," Drake audibly scowled
What is that?
"They've got corrupted by our magik," Drake said, "Enough of this, I'll handle it from here."
All of a sudden, like a bomb had gone off, a wave of dark aura washed over them, causing everyone to shiver.
"That presence…" Mac gulped
"Iya… murida," Mira quivered
"It's finally gotten interesting." Ryan said, with a twisted smirk on his face
"Ryan?" Jasmine said as she looked at him.
To her dismay, her fears were confirmed, it wasn't Ryan, his eye were now blood red and his skin had turned pale, with dark veins visible beneath.
"You're the other one, aren't you?" Jasmine asked, trying to keep her fear in check.
He grinned and released a bone chilling cackle, "You got that right, sweetheart,"
They were just outside the Great Hall now and could hear the nightmarish screams coming from inside
"Sounds like they weren't careful with how much of me they used." Drake grinned, "You all might want to stay out here, it's going get from PG to R18 really quickly in there."
He held out his hand, and within a moment, Draxonn materialized from thin air… only it was different, the blade looked more jagged with a serrated edge and the length of chain at the bottom of the pommel was now spiked.
Jasmine stared at it in shock
"Beautiful, ain't it?" he grinned, and charged inside.
"What the hell was that?" Mac demanded, "It was like that time back at the arena, but much worse."
"Something's wrong with Ryan," Jasmine said as she pulled her compound bow from one of her belt pockets, "You guys should get ready; our troubles just got a whole lot worse."
… )]≥( …
Once inside, they fully realized just how disastrous the situation was. Ten people had undergone the Ares process, and now there were ten Ares ravagers.
Seven of those ravagers were right now wreaking havoc on the Great Hall. They were hulking monsters over ten feet tall with gray torn skin, bulging exposed muscles and murderous red eyes. They portrayed an assortment of mismatched magik stolen from the purebloods: from lightning to ink, and used them to attack everyone in sight. The security corps rangers and the Branch 0 crows both tried to fend off the onslaught, but they were powerless against the pureblood magik combination of the Ares ravagers. No matter what the rangers tried, the ravagers could counter everything.
Just when they seemed unbeatable, one was ripped apart in an instant. As he went down, Drake appeared. With Jasmine's eyes, she could see that the aura from the dead Ares ravager was absorbed into Ryan, causing his aura to grow even greater.
Drake was already after another by the time his first kill hit the ground. He charged after a female Ares ravager, but she backhanded him, catching him by surprise and sending him flying across the hall.
Drake shakes himself out of a daze, only for him to be buried by the ruble from another ravagers' rampage.
Not so easy being at the wheel is it? Ryan mocked from inside Drake's mind.
"Shut up, Ryan," Drake snarled, "No one likes a backseat driver."
That's rich, coming from a stowaway and habitual backseat driver.
"Shut up!" Drake screams as he releases a massive surge of power, throwing all the rubble off him in the process.
Watch it Drake, we don't have the magik to waste. Ryan cautioned.
Drake grinned menacingly, "That's why I prepared a little insurance,"
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an injector filled with zap.
Drake no, that stuff is poison, you said so yourself, Ryan warned
"Yeah, one man's poison is another monster's steroid." Drake said as he jammed the injector into his neck. As the zap emptied into his bloodstream, he registered the buzz as his magik tripled in quantity. His veins started to glow and the aura became thick and visible. Red and blue lightning crackled around his body and sparked whenever the two arcs made contact.
"AAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!" He screamed as he threw Draxonn at one of the ravagers.
The sword buried itself into the flesh of its chest and a second later, Drake was there grabbing the handle. He squeezed the trigger and the characters along the spine of the blade glowed bright red as the solid blade exploded into shadowy tendrils that tore apart the ravager's insides before being driven up its torso and ripping it in two, with the blood being absorbed by the tendrils.
As another ravager fell, two more charged him at the same time, but Drake beat them to it. He releases a massive storm of red lightning into one, overpowering its own lighting and turning it into a shriveled husk. He then tackled the other one, plunging his hand into the ravager's throat, then releases an inferno that caused the ravager to combust and explode, turning into ash on the spot.
Drake went after another ravager, knocking it over and pummels its face until it's a bloody mess, then continues until the skull of the ravager caves inward. As he still punches as the mush that was a head, he is grabbed from behind by one of the remaining ravagers. It starts to squeeze him, hoping to break him. Just as it seems like Drake is about to be crushed, the ravager is suddenly torn to ribbons by a swarm of black tendrils that condense into Draxonn.
Drake rose again just in time to get hit by a wind attack from the last ravager. As he was blown back, he threw Draxonn back at the ravager. The ravager dodged the incoming blade and let it pass by her head, only for Drake to appear by Draxonn and in one fluid motion, remove the ravagers head in one swing.
… )]≥( …
Jasmine had anticipated a tough fight with the ravager all with pureblood magik, but watching Ryan [Drake] go to war against the seven ravager solo was a sight to behold. With flawless brutality, he dispatched one ravager and immediately went after the next. To witness such a violent display as graceful as it was terrifying was like watching a dance of demons.
With every ravager he slaughtered he took their aura and got even stronger. And he used that added strength to its fullest potential.
The momentum from the last bout sent Ryan and the headless ravager tumbling into the summit chamber.
"WHO ELSE WANTS SOME?!" his frightening voice reverberated throughout the hall.
"I better get in there," Jasmine said to herself as she jogged in after him.