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Roleplay => Village Square => Topic started by: Eric on March 03, 2017, 01:52:08 PM

Title: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 03, 2017, 01:52:08 PM
http://forum.shinobilegends.com/index.php/topic,8773.0.html


Fiery plumes seemed to touch the sky and burn the ground, incinerating most life unfortunate enough to be caught in its embrace. Even metal grew bright and hot to the touch, as Fire Valley seemed to be the location, the volcanoes and seeming ash appropriately dotting the landscape.

But this was not just Fire Valley. No, this was Jigoku no Kubochi, otherwise known as Hell's Basin. It was obviously not named such by the original residents, though the name seems to have stuck. Normally even the air itself was hot enough to melt the flesh off of an ordinary man, but for some reason, the temperatures seemed cooler, though no doubt an ordinary man would still sweat from the intense heat. The sky was clouded, and it seemed that the lava was the only sources of light in the entire area.

It is here where A Dragon's Treasure picks back up, it is here where Pyro journeyed on a mission of his own, unaware that he would soon be having company. Half of which said company would be in quite the bad temperament.

Pyro winged downwards, searching the valley for any signs of his summoner. No, not Eric, the other summoner that had called him here. Native to the deserts of Sunagakure, the heat did not particularly both Pyro as it would some of the more aquatic sorts, but even for him the scenery lacked a certain friendly flare. Neither friend nor foe in sight, the desert dragon pressed on with some frustration evident in his wingbeats, flustered that he had been called out by ghosts.

Ghosts indeed, for after zooming past a certain crag, a bright light burst forth from a jagged set of rocks, startling Pyro. Before he could react, a very strong force knocked him from the sky, forcing him to crash into the ground, narrowly avoiding a small stream of lava.

Three dragons, garbed in metal armor and about the size of a man appeared, having previously been transformed as rocks. Their armor was of a ashen color, with seals inscribed all about them; they also had an insignia on their chestplates of what looked to be a dragon's head. Each dragon had ashen colored scales and horns that protruded from their head in a spire-like fashion, and spines that ran down their back in a fashion akin to spikes.

"Is this...?

"Looks like it. Her description was vague, but this is the first one to answer the chakra ping. Our Lord mentioned him already being sympathetic to our cause."

"So why all the secrecy?"

One of the dragons recieved a cuff from one of the other dragons.

"Idiot, we don't know for sure if it's Pyro until he is Identified by our Lord. We don't want him knowing how to get to the Checkpoint is."

The three dragons went to work, unsealing glowing chains from their armors and wrapping Pyro up in them. Just as they had finished restraining him, two of them hoisted him on their backs while the other's horns glowed. Surging chakra through these horns, a portal opened. The three promptly stepped through it, appearing on the other side to have simply moved a few feet. However, much of the land looked much the same, save for landmarks such as the large mountain before them. More of the armored dragons patrolled here, some with leathery wings and others with feathery bodies. They were varied, but all wore the same signature armor.

Before the dragons could get any further with their prize, from the shadow of Pyro's tail would emerge two men.

Eric Nara was not in the best of moods. Rita had not ocntacted him in what seemed to be forever, he had no way of summoning her, and she had apparently both gotten knocked up by Pyro and conveniently forgot to mention such to Eric. While Eric had left the Valley of the End mostly upset at Pyro, he could not help but feel some anger towards Rita. Why was this a big secret? After all they went through, she trusted a relative stranger more than she trusted him?

Eric did not have long to brood over thoughts of betrayal when suddenly he found himself and Jay standing in front of a mountain fortress of dragons, three of which were in close proximity and apparently hauling Pyro off like some prisoner. Eric's anger replaced with panic, the first reaction of the Nara was to leap backwards from Pyro and his captors.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 04, 2017, 05:06:25 AM
When the duo of Nara made that time-space jump from the Valley of the End, the younger Nara was concerned for the Dragon, Rita. He did not suspect any treachery or foul play from her, nor the other Dragon, Pyro. But, he did not know the full depth of the relationship shared between Eric and his Dragons, so he would not be able to come up with a decent analysis anyway.

So, when they went through the leap and he felt the heat surrounding him, he couldn't really understand the reason. From what he understood, Rita was a Wind Dragon and it was a different kind of heat when comparing it to the desert. Immediately, he would feel the heat from the lava. This type of heat was different from the heat he experienced in the world of the Phoenix. Where that heat was from the presence of it's three suns, this heat was definitely "in your face" about it. He would see why, lava was everywhere, on a much larger scale than the Fire Valley he's grown used to. He couldn't pinpoint the temperature, but figured his 6,500 degree resistance would help him out.

The temperature wouldn't be the only thing he'd notice, not counting Eric jumping away, he'd look on in surprise at the plethora of Dragons in their armors. While, he registered the only familiar Dragon, Pyro, being wrapped in chains, he couldn't really take his eyes away from the many Dragons around. "Wow..." Would be the only word to leave his lips as he looked on in wonder.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 06, 2017, 12:29:22 AM
For a brief moment, the dragons carrying Pyro were unaware of Eric and Jay's presence. A few dragons on the mountain volcano did notice the two, in particular Eric leaping backward and the awestruck man that accompanied him.


"Intruders! Human intruders!"

The soundoff alone may have been enough to snap Jay out of his temporary daze, but the simultaneous actions of the dragons and of Eric would no doubt bring the man back to reality. The dragons hauling off Pyro stopped moving, another watch dragon shouted something in an uninteligable tongue something to it comrades, and Eric performed a single familiar handsign.

The rat handseal by Eric caused the shadows beneath the three escort dragons to become solid and lift upwards, hurling them forcefully outward from Pyro. As he did this, he shouted, "Jay, get Pyro and move! These dragons are not friendly!"


As if Jay needed further reinforcement at this point, the dragons that were being lifted away were startled enough to be hurled off initially, but quickly lifted from the platforms and jumped upwards. All three of them flipped and landed in a triangle, with Pyro in the center.

"Halt you two! You have one warning!"

One warning was all Eric needed. Knowing that they were completely outnumbered, Eric broke his rat handseal at this point and reached back for the Blade of Shadows strapped to his back. Funneling chakra into the sword, depending on Jay's actions, Eric would proceed from here, his robe billowing slightly as the volcanic conditions began to make itself known with a gentle wind.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 06, 2017, 02:55:58 AM
When the Dragon lookout had yelled out in alarm, this would have been enough to snap the man out of his stupor. 'Did he just call me a human?' [Sure did.] "Hey, I am not a hum-" His shout would be cut off as the action took control of the battlefield.

Taking note of Eric's Shadow moving to push the three dragon's away, his would move forward towards Pyro, piggybacking of the trail Eric's shadow left. As he got ready as well, his shadow would break off into multiple tendrils and coil around the large chains around the dragon and the chakra inside them would tug on them to break the links. If the first tug wasn't successful, more chakra would course through the shadow to provide the necessary strength.

"Just what did we jump into?" He would direct the question towards Eric as the man readied himself with his blade and the younger Nara would look around them. More dragons were making their way over to their position, causing the triangle of three dragons to be outlined by an octagon of more dragons. "Well, I don't think we can diplomacy our way out of trouble, yeah?" He'd direct that to the audience around him, banking on that warning they gave them to be their opportunity.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 07, 2017, 06:57:01 AM
"That depends on if you surrender or not!"

CHINK!

The chains would not break on the first tug, but they would give on the third tug, snapping and vanishing into the ethereal nothingness where used chakra went.

It was around this time that Pyro would come to his senses. Seeing many of the armored dragons surrounding him, rather aggressively, the dragon would look around to see Jay and Eric in what could best be described as combatative stances. It did not take long for him to put two and two together. As tempting as it was to join in on the battle, Pyro understood that he had been attacked and forced to wherever he was now; casting his lot with the recruiters might not necessarily be a safer bet at this point.

"Eric Nara, Jay, stand down!" Pyro would attempt to raise to his feet but, presumably hindered by the shadow tendrils of Jay, would only find himself falling back down again.  "This is not what it looks like!"

Eric looked towards Pyro, still keeping his sword at the ready. "We are not being surrounded by murderous dragons with killing intent and dragon-napping tendencies?"

"Eric, Nara? Isn't he on the Contract?" A few of the dragons murmured among themselves, and though most of the dragons looked ready to breath a wide assortment of elemental breathes, a few looked pleasantly surprised. Around this time runes/seals on the mountain began to glow.

Eric felt a disconnect with Al and Jestar's shadow seals. Realizing that the mountain contained some sort of barrier jutsu that would hinder his shadow migration, Eric responded to both Jay and himself at the same time.

"It appears we have appeared in the middle of a misunderstanding. Whoever among you is in charge, tell your dragons to stand down and we will do the same. We have options."

Eric was only partially bluffing, but Pyro mentioning his full name for the maximum chance of recognition suggested that his dragon companion either wanted to get him killed or took the effort out to save his skin. Or, help save his skin anyways.

Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 08, 2017, 03:51:53 AM
Remained silent as he watched what was happening in front of him. He could feel the tension in the area, neither side really wanting to make the first move. Though, he'd see Pyro struggling with his shadow and he would pull it from around the mythical beast.

His eyes narrowed as they focused their surprise on Eric being named, his recognition being solely on his name in the contract. He could feel the Envious spirit inside of him bubbling in jealousy. He pushed it down to the best of his abilities, smirking as that meant that he was still mostly an unknown to them. If things did pop off, he'd fight for his life and do what he would need to do. Of course, as he thought of this, the barrier cut his connection off to the Manji Network, knowing that he wouldn't be able to teleport out of this. The golden hues of his Stealth Lenses continued to bounce from dragon to dragon. "Why exactly are you taking this dragon, Pyro, prisoner?" He knew that their arrival in their territory wasn't intentional, but since they were here, answers should at least be spoken. Was this even a different dimension or just a well secluded location in the realm? If so, they were stuck as long as the barrier was up. While he could break it, it'd have to be a precise strike, otherwise, he'd be swarmed.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 08, 2017, 04:32:31 PM
"Pyro, explain," Eric growled, stabbing his sword into the ground. Jay could probably tell that the sword was not discharged of its chakra, suggesting that the gesture only gave the illusion of Eric lowering his defenses. The ash clung to his robes like dust to a ceiling fan, and his tight grip on his sword lessened.

"Yes Pyro, explain at once! You were supposed to come ALONE."  One of the original captors growled, the same one who earlier had bopped his companion on the head. This same dragon would stink eye Jay before stating, "Prisoner, is a strong word. I suggest you be careful with your accusations-"

"However natural they may be,"  Eric retorted. After all, the only part of the story that they had so far seen was Pyro being carried off like some prize. What were they supposed to think?

Pyro heaved a mixture of a sigh and a growl in response to the various demands back and forth. "Listen, I am not a prisoner, and these two are, probably not here to interefere with your plans. Eric wants to see Rita-"

"You're damn straight I came to see Rita you desert bastard!" Eric released and gripped the hilt of his sword, as if barely restraining himself from exploding at this point.  " Why didn't you tell me that Rita was pregnant? Why didn't you tell me that she has gone missing? Why didn't you-"

"Shut up Eric!" Pyro's roar shook the ground a little, a few scorch release flares emitting from around him as his chakra soared and Jay's released grip finally produced very visible results.  "What do you think I am out here for? Sage's sake, Rita is a sage dragon, she has more responsibilities than being your caretaker."

"Caretaker? Caretaker?! Need I remind you who taught Rita shadow imitation? Need I remind you of our partnership these past 20 goddamn years?"

"Yeah, some partners you have guys have been for the past year and a half. You didn't summon her once even to check up on her-"

"I have already tried that numerous times, nothing!"

"And so what prompted you to finally come, huh?"

Eric scowled, uncharacteristically triggered by the general flow of the conversation. His usual composure greatly whittled, inhibition and the desire to not force himself and Jay to have to fight their way out of the dragon lands his motivations for not right now strangling Pyro until he listened to his entire rant.  

"I have given Rita much freedom over the years. She told me that she was going to be away for a little while. That's fine, I can live with that. But a little while became a long while, summons and calls went unanswered, and I got caught up in the Nara Order and fighting that fourth Hokage again. Until Jay here told me that Rita had given him an egg, I was content to let Rita come home of her own accord as she normally does."

Silence, save for the occasional distant blast of a volcano. If the rocks had ears then they preened towards the conversation. As the back and forth continued, the dragons surrounding Jay and Eric seemed to grow increasingly less hostile, less tense.

Eric and Pyro just stared at each other, for a few minutes, before Pyro looked away in concession. "You have changed since joining The Akuatsiki all those years ago. Changed for the worse. Neala saw it, Rita saw it. And I'm beginning to see it now-"

Eric's facial expression only hardened at the statement that sounded to him like an accusation.

"- Still, as you know, Yumei and Rares have been missing for some time now, and you still have nothing on them as far as malice and cruelty go. No dragon sage nor sage dragon leads the dragons of Hell's Basin, plunging this land into a state of orderly chaos. Had the heat of this place been like that of the past, I imagine all that would be left of you would be melted flesh by now. This reduced heat has made this land more accessible to intrusion, and the native dragons see it as a sign of the endtimes.

Rita's father and my father-in-law, Draco, is here trying to re-establish some sort of hierarchy, but there is fierce resistance from some dragons claiming that Yumei will return and execute any and all traitorous dragons. Nonsense he believes, but they are fanatical in their belief, and hold a large part of the Basin under their fear mongering grip."

Eric's face softened, even if the sound of Draco being here was anything but music to his ears.

"He requested that Rita use the knowledge that she has acquired to put down what he sees as a rebellion against his authority; he wants to become the next dragon king-"

"Wants to be unchallenged as the current dragon king," Some dragon from the tower piped up, much to Pyro's irritation. It seemed most of the assembly had similar thoughts.

Pyro paused, in case there were any more thoughts to add, before continuing. Rita came and brought our brood with her, minus the one that Jay has. draco ordered me here as well, and after some correspondence with Ragnar over there-" Pyro would gesture towards the dragon that earlier had seemed to be in charge of the capture trio that had taken Pyro "prisoner" earlier. "I found my way here. If anything, I am a conscript, but I am not a prisoner."
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 09, 2017, 04:11:24 AM
Sometime in mid argument, the younger Nara began to space out, the Nekomata drawing him inside his mind. "Well this is gonna go on forever. So, while they're arguing, how about we explore around?" The twin-tailed ball of blue fire spoke while resting in a field of blue roses. The blue roses would surround her, shifting into pink after ten meters.

Jay looked up at her, his hands lifting up to rest on his hips, a sigh escaping his lips. "I don't think that'd be a good idea, considering we're completely surrounded. I mean, afterwards, probably..." Matatabi groaned from his response and closed her green eye, still looking at him with her yellow optic. "Well, in any case, this would be the perfect time for you to get your name on the contract, at the very least. Maybe, if things align right, you may even get another dragon or so... I mean, there's a lot more than previously believed, no?"

She made a lot of sense in that regards. And as he was thinking of a way to make this a reality, he heard a name, Yumei. That was a name he'd encountered in his research of the dragons of legend. "Which Hokage was he?" He asked aloud as he pulled himself from his mind to return to reality, just so he could listen more intently. [Fifth, I believe... they had a lot throughout the years.] He heard in his mind and nodded his head for a moment. 'It does suck that I can't become a Dragon/Phoenix Sage on top of what I already have.' [You think, that'd be like five. Speaking of which, you're gonna have to get off your molasses and do the transition already.] 'I know, it's just frustrating, more than anything... damn it, Matatabi, why'd you have to remind me about that? Now, I'm more frustrated than before.' [Hahaha, my bad.] Her voice faded from his mind around the time Pyro mentioned that he wasn't a real prisoner.

He pulled himself from his stance and slipping his fingers through his hair. "Alright, not a prisoner. You should have led with that." The Manji Commander shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, taking a few more steps towards Pyro, to pat him on his leg, shoulder, area part. "Alright, I have a feeling that Draco-sama wants an audience with me, considering I have his grandson... well, he's not with me physically..." He furrowed his brow, once again thinking about the sleeping dragon, somewhere in the Forest of Wonders.

He turned his attention towards Ragnar, since this dragon had been named and recognized as the one in charge of the initial trio of dragons. "Also, Rags, do you know of Riri's current position, for Eric?" The young Nara would step towards that dragon, stopping short of the stream of lava, lest his bare feet slip inside the liquid fire. [I don't think he's gonna like that you called him, Rags... too late to apologize now.] 'It's alright, it's better than Narbar.'
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 10, 2017, 12:50:07 AM
Eric looked around at the gathered assembly. He sighed, pulled his sword from the rocky-ashen ground, and sheathed his sword via the sheathe on his back. Towards Jay Eric would store in the back of his mind what could only be assumed was a self-denoted nickname for Rita. It was not one that Eric particularly liked, but he had larger issues to address right now.

Ragnar hissed angrily and snorted fire in Jay's general direction. "Have you lost your sense of respect? How dare you refer to me as 'Rags'! I can have you roasted in your own chakra if you insist on insulting us-"

"Pyro, what are the requirements for joining this, army that Draco has cooked up from the depths? Seems like the only way to find Rita." Eric walked towards Pyro, his earlier anger and hurt already brought back under wraps, though the spring in his step was still reminiscent of someone on edge.

"So it turned out to be a he huh..." Pyro trailed, hardly paying attention to the rest of Jay's statement. When Eric approached him he turned his attention towards his inquiry.  "Being a dragon would be a good start. And not being on the king's shitlist."

Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 10, 2017, 03:52:21 AM
[Told you so.] Matatabi smugly echoed in the young Nara's ears. The man's golden hues only stared into the enraged orbs of the fire snorting dragon, unfazed and unafraid. 'Hmm, roasting in one's own chakra... sounds like a good technique to develop. Through Blood Release... perhaps have the target's blood boil from within. I think I'd need direct contact to establish the control. Turning their blood against them...' The man thought, a hint of excitement bubbling within him, wanting to test the waters of this proposed technique. "Guess that's a raincheck."

He turned his gaze away from Ragnar, landing on Pyro, feeling a bit less than he previously was. As he was having the stare down with Ragnar, his primal instincts were growing more and more. He could feel that bloodlust wanting him to go along with the chaotic encounter. Perhaps he still had a bit of the God of Chaos within him? Though, now, he was back to normal and the desire to cause havoc had died down. He knew what had happened, but he would keep it to himself, not even tell the elder Nara. "Sounds like convincing him is gonna be quite the hassle. Jay sighed softly and nodded his head. Alright, might as well get this over with."
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 10, 2017, 08:02:36 PM
Ragnar did not growl, only flicked his tail towards his subordinates. He had nothing else to say, even as he heard Jay speak, as it was clear that verbal intimidation of this sort did not work on the man. Many of the dragons either returned to their posts or, if they were in the original triangle that had surrounded Eric, Pyro, and Jay remained behind. Whilst these dragons moved Ragnar addressed Eric and Pyro.

"The army is sieging the fortress of Mons even as we speak. Not that either of you would know where it is, but I can assure you, Pyro, that Draco will be anything but thrilled to have Eric Nara here. His wrath will be on your head, not mine. As for him -"

Ragnar made a not so subtle nod towards Jay.

"I suggest you get Eric to escort him out the same way he came in. The last thing that we need out here is another belligerent."

" I am not leaving without Rita," Eric turned towards Ragnar. "Either we get an audience directly with Draco or we find Rita on our own. You need Rita to help you win this fight, that much is clear, and if she finds out that you killed the two of us."

Eric chuckled and looked towards Jay with a smug smile before turning back towards Ragnar.  "No matter how many of you we take down with us in the process, you're cause is going to be damned far more than our souls as a direct result of her wrath. SO, as my clanmate said, we should get this over with so that you all can get back to fighting your real enemies."

Ragnar stood there for a few minutes, as if going through his options. He kept glancing towards Jay, that perhaps being the main reason for any indecision remaining. As he thought, his scales turned bright, illuminating the armor he wore and temporarily causing an eerie glow to appear around him. His eyes became unfocused, and his chakra seemed disturbed from its usual flow.

Eric stood still, at this point sensing the natural energy around him. Much to his surprise, there was a large amount of natural energy that seemed to be present, and if anything, the energy seemed exceedingly easy to gather.

Coming to the conclusion that entering sage mode here would be a cinch, Eric also came to the conclusion that if by some chance the strange occurrence was a long range communicative genjutsu of some sort, that anything negative would likely have to be solved by entering sage mode. To that end, Eric began gathering natural energy, siphoning off of the seemingly limitless source of natural energy in the surroundings.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 11, 2017, 03:38:33 AM
Gave the dragon a peace sign and a large smile as the dragon showed his discomfort in being around him. That meant he was doing a good job in gauging peeps' stress level. Though, he didn't feel that he was going to be torturing the dragon any time soon... well at least not physically. It was obvious he was doing it mentally... or at least getting on the dragon's nerves.

Oh yeah, speaking of Natural Energy, considering they were in a Natural Energy rich environment, every single dragon in the area, including Eric, would see an immense amount of Natural Energy pooling around him. Through Senninka, even with his movement, it would still pull towards him. The Aura of Natural Energy around him would be stacked around him thricefold, it's Shell immensely powerful in it's defensive qualities. The young Nara had been blissfully inattentive to this development since appearing in this dimension. Though, now that Ragnar, and moments later Eric, was actively gathering Natural Energy, his focus and senses broadened around him. He can feel the abundance of Natural Energy swirling around the dimension, once again thinking of the Phoenix dimension, Cibanhujy. The heat in the energy was more direct and sizzled at his skin, it wasn't uncomfortable for him, but he could feel the power it was imbued with. It was a stark contrast to the energy in the Shadow Dimension, which was cold, but no less empowering.

The man stayed quiet for a moment, simply letting the Energy do it's thing around him. 'Mons... I wonder where it really is. All I need is to pinpoint a location with a cluster of Dragons, right?' [Possibly. It depends on how many different locations they have in this dimension.] It made sense to the young man and he went along with the activation of his Mind's Eye. He reached up to clutch at the hem of his cloak with both of his hands and just let his senses stretch out a bit over 10 kilometers. He took a deep breath and silently exhaled. Every dimension has their enemies, war was a constant thing. Attempting something like peace would be a pointless task. As long as there were life in the world, conflict would follow. The Kages of old achieved very little when they made the villages. They only increased the level of war in that case.

The man shook his head and turned towards Eric. "So why don't you like Draco?" He bluntly asked the Grandmaster and crossed his arms.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 12, 2017, 03:58:32 AM
Mons was not within range of any reasonable sensory, not even the Eye's Mind Technique, albeit, Jay would have noticed an increased amount of activity inside of the nearby volcano/mountain fortress. The natural energy seemed to be a conductor of sorts, and through it even information seemed to travel, though to the untrained it was unintelligible and scrambled, similar to the various telepathic communication methods of the various shinobi nations.

"That is a question for another time." Ragnar's body returned to normal, and a very visible frown appeared on his face. His irritation had turned into something else entirely.  "Pyro, you have your first assignment. You need to help in securing Spyral Gate from the enemy. It is imperative in order for the siege of Mons to finally come to an end."

Eric entered sage mode, more quickly than his usual Eric noted. His skin turned into dragon scales, the area around his eyes grew darker as if painted purple, and brille came down over his eyes. He sprouted no wings, a detail that most of the assembly would likely not think of as weird since Pyro was the only one here who had seen Eric in sage mode prior.

Pyro seemed taken aback. "I don't understand, I thought the Spyral Gate is how we got here. How is it under enemy control?"

"The Spyral Gate is not a jutsu, it is a place, and there rests the first Dragon Lord, Ignitus Spyro Scalio," Ragnar explained, at last dismissing the rest of his crew back towards the mountain.  His body, eternally immortalized in chakra infused amber coffin, rests in the same place he declared he would conquer the entirety of the Basin; a victory there might despirit the garrison."

Eric gestured for Jay to walk with him towards Pyro, intending to board him. Eric had not ignored Jay, per say, but did not really want to answer the question here; there was no need to restart the earlier standoff by adding in a history lesson sure to rub Ragnar the wrong way. Instead he encouraged the conversation change.  "There is also the possibility that they might want to bring him back from the dead, to fight for them, using the dragon reincarnation technique."

Ragnar scoffed. "What good would that do them? Ignitus would be more likely to oppose them than fight with them."

"Considering the importance of this, I better take these two Nara with me." Pyro lowered the left side of his body so that Jay and Eric could get onto his back.   "After all, if this opposition army practically worship a man-god, then maybe having these two be visibly on our side might affect their morale. "

Ragnar noticed Pyro's body language and seemed to open his mouth to protest, but then closed it with a defeated sigh to accompany the gesture. What would be the point in delaying Pyro any longer at this point with what would have to be a fight?  "Since you are insistent on taking those two as backup against my better judgement, I am sure you will be fine going without any of my dragons then. I and the others will deal with the other half of the report. Once you take the Gate, hold it until given further instruction."

Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 13, 2017, 12:40:16 AM
Mentally sighed as his question was held off. He looked towards the elder Nara as he entered his dragonic Sage Mode, finding it intriguing that he'd slip into the state. He remained silent and just walked to the dragon and get on his back, cutting his Mind's Eye off for the moment.

He refrained from slipping into his own state and may only keep it with Shizenjutsu. Since the area was so potent, his control would be thrice as strong. He would be good for now, if he needed, he'd just use the Gates.  Settling himself on the dragon's back, he'd just wait for the action to happen.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 13, 2017, 02:47:12 AM
Pyro nodded and then took off with his passengers behind on his back. It did not take long for them to leave the mountain behind.


Of course, a pressing matter came to Eric's mind. Knowing that Pyro was from Wind Country and not a native of this land, it seemed strange that he so eagerly decided to set out for this landmark without knowing where it was.  "Pyro, how do you know where this Spyral Gate is? And how long have you been working with Draco?"

Pyro initially did not answer, for whatever reason. When the silence made it clear that something needed to be said, Pyro explained,  "Shortly after Draco heard word that you were looking for a second dragon companion and that you would be searching at the Dragon Oasis in Wind Country, Rita's old hangout spot, he was adamant about having a dragon that he trusted being around. After all, he was concerned about, well..."

"Concerned about what?"

"Concerned that you might try to mate with Rita."

Silence. A somewhat akward one, as Pyro seemed to kind of dive into his flying with a head bob as if to put any further commentary beyond his area of expertise.

Eric was simply, stunned. Mate? That was the big concern? Eric sat down on Pyro's back, seemingly baffled.  "You're lying."

"He might have lied to me, but that's the concern he voiced to me. He wanted a suitable male around to make sure Rita's important needs were taken care of. I figured if anything like that really warranted concern, Draco waited too long to do something about it anyways, but meh, I'm not complaining."

Eric crossed his legs and shook his head. "Well then, next time we see him, I will just have to ask the scaly bastard if that is what this is all about. In a roundabout way, unlike someone here," Eric playfully rolls his head towards Jay. "I am not going to go poking these dragons unless I need to."

Eric smiled and looked Jay up and down from his sitting position. "Speaking of which, what was all that about? Have you ever heard of Limited Zones?"
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 13, 2017, 03:57:51 AM
"Hmm?" Jay sounded as the attention turned on him. He had been looking out towards the scenery of Hell's Basin, his hair whipping freely in the heated breeze. Like a young lad on a train, the conversation between the two of them had become dulled to his ears. It wasn't until it became clear that he was being spoken to that he turned his gaze towards his companion. "Not at all."

He spoke plainly, with a bit confusion in his voice. 'Do you know what it means, Tabi?' [If you don't know, I'm not gonna tell you.] The young Nara would end up pouting a bit from this. 'Awww, that's messed up, why?' He'd only be met with silence, though it was clear she didn't know either because the man behind the screen didn't know, so she wasn't going to just flat out and say she knew.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 13, 2017, 05:04:01 AM
Chuckled and raised his hands as if he were holding a spherical object. "Ordinary zones can be traveled to without restriction, but Limited Zones have special requirements that have to be met in order to reach them. Though we were able to arrive here via shadow migration, it seems that even some distance from the mountain our ability to get back home is limited. If push comes to shove, one of these factions might be our only way to actually leave this land or, to a certain extent, survive it for a prolonged period of time."

The man lowered his hands, overlooking the volcanic scenery with a sense of dread.  "I'm sorry for dragging you into all this; I had no idea that Pyro was involved in this."
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 13, 2017, 07:21:49 AM
"Actually, that makes a lot of sense." He seemingly ignored the afterthought comment for the moment. He once again put his 'feelers' out and shook his head. "With this barrier they formed, using the Flying Thunder God to make a trip home is pretty impossible. So, one of us is going to have to appease the dragons to send us home... perhaps if we continue to poke at them, they'll kick us out..." He chuckled lightly as he reached for the hem of his cloak once again, gently grabbing onto the fabric.

"You don't have to worry about dragging me into this. If things play out well, I might get another dragon or two. There's no such thing as too many angry, fire breathing, dragons." He grinned widely, always up for a good challenge. Of course, he knew the chance of getting even one dragon to join him was slim to none, but maybe they respond well to assistance. "Not to mention it would help our cause in going back home." He was already wondering about the different time rates between the two worlds. If years passed in their world by the time they get back... ugh, so many missed birthdays. He just hoped it was similar to each other.

"Pyro, since you've been working for Draco for quite a long time, do you know of the general hierarchy of Hell's Basin? Positions, dragon's in those positions? Leader(s) of Draco's enemies? Stronghold locations? Number of Strongholds in total? And... general hunting grounds. I swear, I can eat an entire herd of cows, I'm so hungry." That was one thing that slipped his mind for the past while. He didn't know the last time he just sat down and ate something. He chuckled as he thought of something, speaking a little bit lower, turning to Eric as he did so. "So were you really gonna mate with Rita? Like, how would that have worked? Would you turn into a dragon, or would she assume a human form? Or, maybe, you'd just stay as you were..." He'd trail off, allowing the pictures to be painted. "I mean, Draco clearly lied to Pyro, right? Of course, right?" By this time, his tone was getting playful... if he hadn't been punched off the dragon by then, of course. But if he managed to survive, it would be obvious that he was poking the half-dragon, finding humor before a battle.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 13, 2017, 08:59:29 AM
Eric chuckled to himself. "Don't get too ahead of yourself, you would have to sign the dragon scroll contract before getting more than a private contract out of any of the dragons around here. Knowing Draco appeasement won't go as far as simple cooperation. Poke them too much and we'll have to fight our way out of here." For various reasons Eric was not particularly looking forward to that, albeit, he had come somewhat prepared for a short fight. A prolonged one was not what he had in mind.

Hunting grounds? There are some crag looking creatures scattered about, but you wouldn't want to eat anything out here not cooked right." All of Pyro's scales seemed to rattle at the idea, this being the first time either of the two likely witnessing this.  "My skin crawls at the idea of the burning bowels that would cause. You're better off leaving the Zone, getting food, then coming back, or raiding the stashes around here for something edible."

Pyro flew a little higher, the seemingly endless and unchanging sceneary making it difficult to keep track of exactly where they were going. From what he had gathered he was going in the right direction, but so many of the lava flows looked the same; maybe that crag there was the checkpoint?

"I have worked with Draco for some time. Originally there were a bunch of different dragons that lived here of various types, always a bunch of infighting. Various clans, you know, fight for survival. Place was hella hot then too, I have no idea how they lived here and stayed here. Guess they fed on nature or something."

Pyro wheeled about a particular crag, analyzed it, and then continued on.  "Then Ignitus made his famous declaration and took over as the first Dragon Lord. He introduced the dragon summoning contract and taught the first human dragon sage how to gather natural energy. Ever since then there has been a steady stream of dragon lords, dragon kings, the like. Alphas, Betas, Archbetas, dukes, the naming beyond the biggest and the baddest has changed so much it would be pointless to set it down. The dragon realm expanded out into the ninja world, which overall was more habitable for the less pyrophilic dragons."

In the distance a faint blue aura, a very standout color in the world of oranges, yellows, blacks, and greys, attracted Pyro's attention. He began flying towards it, the vague spiral shape likely being the target.

"The kingdom became more of a Federation or even Empire, dragon sages from many lands almost like an extension of the Dragon power. There came to be multiple dragon rulers at any one point, so large it all was. Many were considered legends, even in the isolated oasis nests. Some history later, and there came to be four primary rulers, known as the Shiryū (四竜, Four Dragon Kings). I don't know much about them, but according to Draco it was on their watch that the molten shit hit the fan around here-"

"Not to interrupt your history lesson Pyro, but what exactly is the plan for the Gate?" Eric could sense that they were approaching an area with strong and very numerous chakra signatures, some of which were already flared, perhaps in response to their closing distance. The man rose to his feet, using his chakra to maintain balance as he did so.  "How do we recognize friend from foe?"

As the trio approached, one with proper sensory powers could determine that a large group of dragons had indeed gathered around the two spiral structures that marked the "gate", the tomb of the first Dragon Lord. For the most part making a burial tomb in these lands was a task worthy of commending, but the minor fortifications that had been built into the igneous rock were visibly sharp with pointed edges. Likely made of obsidian, these structures, despite there beign mostly dragons involved in this conflict, seemed to be jutted upward and outward, but in a tiered fashion that suggested that they were for preventing a ground assault rather than an aerial one.

No, dragons flying overhead the Spyral Gate most likely served as defense against the air. So far none had many any moves to attack the trio, but they were still approaching. Of notice also for sensory was livestock, kept belating and coralled within the center of the ground fortifications. The structures were to prevent the terrestrial beasts, mutant sized sheep and cows seemingly from hell itself, from making any escapes. Large containers near them occasionally dripped water in order to water the beasts.

Of course, none of this was visible to the non-byakugan-like enhanced eye, and even sage sensory would only give a general idea of the life here, but Jay's Minds Eye could probably gain these details even if they were at the edge of the 10km at this current moment in time.

http://narutoprofile.wikia.com/wiki/Y%C5%ABmei_Kok%C5%ABz%C5%8D#Bonds_of_Scales

[Reference, borrowed information regarding inclusion of the "Four Dragon Kings". While I'm doing this kind of footnote thing, I have borrowed Hell's Basin basic concept and such from the narutoprofile wikia page on Dragons and word of mouth. Not much information on it was set on stone so I am overall taking some creative liberties with it. In general, a Japanese name for a location or individual is not one of my making. In general, if I directly incorporate stuff not mine into this RP, I will make sure to give credit/reference it, especially from this point forward now that I've started borrowing character information more directly.]
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 14, 2017, 10:45:00 AM
The young Nara could only pout as he heard that he would have to sign the contract before getting more dragons. It made sense, but he was still sulking from the premature shutdown to his desire. "Alright, then the plan is to get on their good side." More than bred for a long fight on any occasion.

The young Nara turned his head towards the dragon they were riding on, making a side note of how fast they were flying and how long they were in the air. Geez, for as big as their world (Hell's Basin) was, he was sure it equaled about 3 of ours (Earth)... or everything was just monstrously spaced out. Because of the long mental note, he only caught the more important part, cook it wrong and you got fire butt. A shiver ran up his spine at this, his body shaking just a bit. "Yeah, I think I'll just dip into my rations for my sustenance. I'll share with you Eric." He glanced towards the Grandmaster for a moment, before looking back to Pyro as he continued to talk.

He listened intently to the words of the dragon, literally leaning forward a bit as he was severely captivated by each word that was spoken. He loved learning and seeing as how this wasn't written down, or simply perhaps not currently available to him, he had to do with Pyro's speech. When he mentioned something like the Four Dragon Kings, he nearly lost his shit, because Eric interrupted at the most important part. Barely holding himself back from physically lashing out, he groaned loudly and sat back once again. He looked ahead, having noticed the blue hues from his periphery, and saw the blue spiral more detailed. He could see how it got it's name, but what did it mean? He activated his Mind's Eye Technique once again to get a look of their destination.

Immediately, he noticed the large amount of dragons and whistled lightly from the sensation tingling at the back of his mind. While he also wondered of the distinction of friend and foe, he couldn't really voice the desire since Eric just asked it himself. "The best bet is for Pyro to drop down towards the leader of the good guys... err dragons.. well, there could be good guys too."
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 15, 2017, 06:32:39 PM
A trio of the dragons near the Spyral Gate flew up into the air and began approaching rapidly to intercept.

Pyro had to estimate that the Spyral Gates were only 5km away at this point, and being airoborne, that really was not a very far distant. He could see the dragon forces mobilizing, awaiting the response of their sentries.  "First, we talk."

The sentries hovered in the air as Pyro came within a few meters of them. These scouts did not have any armor on, but they did have what looked to be some sort of seals running along their entire bodies, their arms, their legs, their necks, even their wings bore the strange technqiue. They were all colored gray, but a few patches of bright blue on one and yellow or another suggested that that was not their natural scale color.

"Halt! Before you proceed, you must solve God's riddle!" One of the dragons declared.  "Answer correctly, and you may join us. Answer incorrectly, and you will die before sunrise."

So it is nighttime here, Eric mused. He also found it somewhat humorous that the dragons did not per say intend on killing them immediately; unless the unseen sunrise already crowned the horizon. It would not be easy to tell considering the smoke-like clouds seemed to blanket the sky.

"Give me the riddle."

"He is the bright and morning star, the founder of all things shinobi. He molded Jashin whilst still in the womb and birthed the beasts from his mate's husk. His reincarnations are all Gods among Men, and only he has Yumei ever bowed to. Who is this God among lesser gods?"

Pyro's face became despirited. What kind of riddle was this? This was no dragon riddle or a pet phoenix riddle. It sounded more like a history question on a pop quiz, with failure resulting in expulsion from the mortal classroom. Permanently.

"Any time you guys want to chip in."

Eric would have guessed the Sage of Six paths, but to have molded Jashin was not on his generally passed around resume. Molded Jashin? There may have been such an entity, the man with the gold flying throne who went by such a name that served Yumei. Or was that man's name Angra Mainyu? Did a reincarnation count as the original?

Eric began considering the odds of simply skipping the riddle and getting straight to the fighting. With both himself and Jay primed and ready with senjutsu, the trio of dragons in the air would be hard pressed to deal with them. The gorund forces would have more time and numbers directly supporting them, but there were perhaps a few dozen down below. Even without space-time ninjutsu Eric had ways of making his shadow work to his advantage, not to mention a few dragon techniques he could employ.

Still, even if they did take all the dragons down by force, who was to say that these were really all of the dragons? And then their only other order was to hold the position until backup arrived. That could take awhile, or worst yet, only end in the death of all three of them.

Decisions, decisions.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 18, 2017, 01:56:36 AM
The young Nara mentally groaned at the turn of events. He was ready, all gung-ho, and they get hit with a riddle. He was the absolute worst at riddles. He couldn’t even hop on a phone and check Google either, it was absolutely the worst situation he could have been in. From the sounds of it, Pyro didn’t know the answer, otherwise he would have said it already. Eric, looked to be searching for a way around it, possibly making them public enemy number one? He hated how he didn’t know the answer to this, because he could have earned some points with the dragons if he blurted it out.

With the way things were going now, they were going to be waist deep in dragon fire and it wasn’t going to be pretty. Knowing the end was near for the immortal Nara, he lifted his hand to garner the dragon’s attention. ”Um, excuse me? I’m new to this whole dragon thing. I’ve never met Yumei, barely read about him. All I know was that he was the Godaime Hokage. Can I get like… a free pass?” He asked, feeling sheepish already, but hoped that the dragon would show leniency. I mean, he knew the mythical creature wouldn’t, but perhaps it would throw him for a loop, possibly enough for him to connect their eyes. Despite his own eyes being golden, he still held his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan underneath and, if his plan managed to succeed, the dragon’s eyes would turn into a blood red and the design of his EMS would glow in it’s sockets. The powerful [Genjutsu: Sharingan] was capable of controlling Kurama. A dragon, possibly a middle tier dragon, would be easy peasy.

Of course, if he was successful, he would further use that eye connection to probe it’s mind for the answer. The [Eye Mind Reading] technique would allow him to do this without the dragon, or pretty much any of the other spectators the knowledge of what he was doing. So, it wouldn’t, shouldn’t take long for him to find the answer to the riddle. Of course, being possessed by the Sin of Greed, caused the Nara to lose sight of the objective and attempt to grab hold of every piece of information the dragon had in his mind. Of course, having been used with his EMS to reinforce the technique, the dragon would be unable to break out of the connection.

If he was successful, the dragon wouldn’t suffer from any adverse affects from the mind reading and the Nara would put his hand down to skim through the information. More than used to things of the nature, through his Blood Release, he wouldn’t take long before he would blurt out the answer to the riddle, whatever it might have been.

If he was unsuccessful, nothing would have really happened. His eyes were still golden and the eye contact wouldn’t have been made to grant success. But, darn, would he try to establish that initial eye contact. Who knows, maybe one or both of the other dragons looked into his eyes? It could have easily worked on them. Perhaps all three of them looked into his eyes. Of course, for Eric to know what he was up to, it would have had to have been successful, otherwise his EMS wouldn’t appear in neither of their eyes. ‘’Oh damn, hopefully, Eric wasn’t looking directly into my eyes as well.’ He was sitting slightly behind the man, so he could catch his Grandmaster in the Genjutsu as well. [Now, you’re just over thinking things. You need to stop freaking out.] He hated to wonder just what he'd uncover if he was to delve within the mind of the elder Nara.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 19, 2017, 02:15:07 AM
Seriously Jay?

Eric almost facepalmed at Jay's first sentence, wincing instead. But, rather than attacking them for demonstrating such untimely behavior, the dragons instead seemed, oddly non-attacky.

The changed eyecolor and chakra disruption of the riddler dragon did not go unnoticed by Eric as he attempted to predict the beast's next moves. Indeed, rather than getting hostile, the non-genjutsued other dragons flying along with their companion seemed to get, excited at this development. This perplexed Eric, puzzled him really, as he would think that one of their comrades being subjected to sharingan:genjutsu would set them off. Eric did not understand at all until Jay again spoke.

"Yumei."

Of course! These dragons, each and every one of them, was a fanatic of some sort to the previous dragon sage master, Yumei. The vast majority of them, particularly the leadership, would view Yumei in a light that placed him on a pedestal next to God itself. And what was Yumei more than anything else?

A filthy Uchiha-Senju hybrid with all of his blessings grafted into his very DNA. A crooked smile spread across Eric's lips as he moved to put a hand on Jay's shoulder, a plan coming to mind.

"The blood of the Almighty runs through this young man's veins. Here, he is, to aide you all in once again having dominion over all dragons. Hail, the son of god!"

Eric took to his right knee, hand on Jay's shoulder if he so permitted it. Otherwise he would refrain from that part of the gesture. "I am the perfect human-dragon hybrid, created by our dear lord, and I have accompanied him to aide in his quest!"

In Eric's infinite wisdom, he had forgotten one little detail about his plan. It was almost completely impromptu, and while Jay may piece together what it meant, Pyro would be very unlikely to go along with the story.

"Whaaaaaat?!" Pyro roared at near the top of his lungs, his wings outstretched in outrage. "You, you TRAITOR!"

Knowing that Pyro surging scorch release into Jay and he would make for a quick end to the charade, Eric mentally intoned, "Shadow Manipulation Curse, Level 2!"

Pyro convulsed as the juinjutsu, still resting in his stomach from that ages-ago confrontation between Pyro and Eric, activated, temporarily disconnecting Pyro from his physical energy. Naturally with this came a seizure-like freeze as his body locked into place, causing him to begin plummeting towards the ground.

The three dragons rushed to support Pyro, getting underneath him in order to prop him up. While not entirely sold, yet, on Eric's claims (particularly depending on Jay's reaction) the dragons did not per say want to take any unnecessary risks. Besides, their new prisoner was of more use to them alive than dead.

"Even with his mind, the saviour and conqueror subjects the trash of his foes!"

At this point, presuming that Jay went along with things up until Pyro's flight disruption, Eric would wink in Jay's direction, the three dragons occupied with keeping Pyro from falling to the ground. Chances are he could tell, through some chakra sensory means, that Pyro was not acting this way on his own, and would likely need some reassurance that all was well.

Presuming that Jay did not intervene, all that would come to pass. However, if Jay decided to do something to interrupt this then the story would be quite different, depending on his response.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 21, 2017, 07:34:21 AM
Was rather pleased at the fact that he managed to get a dragon under his control. Despite his intentions, it was a good plan. So, when he spoke the answer, he broke the dragon from the control, only to find the taste of excitement floating through the air. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, until Eric made his way over to him and spoke the proclamation of his supposed divinity. Of course, he managed to piece things together as soon as he said the words, Son of God.

This development, while obviously false, quickly went to his head, quite dangerously so. A sinister smirk began to contort the features of his face, the next words nearly being blocked out by the constant echoes of God, filling his mind. [Did you just become a Demigod!?] Matatabi exclaimed in amusement as Jay spoke to her, 'Never in my life have I needed something so much and never known until I received it.' [Oh, God, why?] She groaned in embarrassment, putting a paw over her own face to hide herself from him.

Throughout the duration of his inner thoughts, he didn't pay a lick of attention to the other dragons. It wasn't until Pyro's actual yell did his instincts take over. With his Mind's Eye Technique still active, he would have felt the beginnings of chakra manipulation inside of Pyro, to go along with his outstretched wings. But, before he could do the same and completely freeze the dragon underneath him, Eric did something to the dragon and stopped it. It was a true testament to Eric's own reaction time as Jay had to actively reel in his own chakra, but this was only for a moment.

It would be obviously that the Sins of Lust and Pride were the real ones in control as the young Nara remained in the air through the Flight Technique. Even as he was growing arrogant, he knew he would have to play the part, for as long as it was necessary. So, as the excess of his cloak fluttered in the breeze of the winds from their wings, the blood red visage of his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan dramatically revealed themselves in his eyes as his Stealth Lenses melted away. A trail of blood would be seen actually leaking from his right eye, (Suguwara no Michizane), the control he had over liquid waning for the moment. For dramatic effect, he would remain quite and floating as he digested all the knowledge. He lifted a finger and wiped the blood from below his eye and popped it onto his tongue, tasting the copper in the liquid. He didn't need anybody having his DNA... other than his own children of course.

With his previous digging, it would have been like he had just read the wikia on dragons, as well as gaining a strong grasp on the dragon's natural tongue, depending on how much this single dragon knew from it's very long life. He would, possibly, show this with the next words that left his mouth."Correct you are, to say that I subject the trash of my foes. For you see, unlike my father, I aim to be a true monster." Despite his cloak, his power was being exerted throughout the area, unaided by Matatabi. Dark Chakra fueled this burst of energy, wisps of Chaotic Chakra, the mixture of Dark and Natural Energies, began to flare into existence around him, despite not entering said Corrupted Form of Sage Mode. "I do not appreciate being betrayed, do you hear me?" Perhaps the Sin of Wrath was backseat driving, because he spoke with such force behind his words, so much Killer Intent, that, if they were in the regular world, the air would have grown so thick with tension that it would be immensely difficult to breath. Here, he did not know how it would affect the area or the dragons in them. Eric, himself, would have to be careful as the Corrupted Energy would give him extreme pain if he was to either, stay in contact with him for too long, or take in another ounce of the surrounding energy to maintain his Sage Mode.

Of course, he wasn't finished and he would vanish from the spot in the air and reappear in front of Pyro with a burst of pure speed. Depending on where Eric was when Jay had decided to remain airborne, the three of them would be reunited nonetheless. Also, depending on whether or not he was actually speaking dragontongue, he would switch to the common tongue of mere humans. "Think back to the forest, Pyro..." Knowing that Pyro needed to be filled in to the plan, while also remaining in character to fool the other dragons, he had to think on the fly as well. He would lift his hand and lay it on Pyro's snout, staring into his enraged orbs. "I am still that same man, do not forget it."

To the other dragons, and even Eric, this could be interpreted as a time where the two of them fought and Jay decided to spare his life. But to Pyro, and the absent Rita, this would be the obviousness of saying that, I have not changed from the same man you trusted your child to. The color of his eyes would even flash back to the gentle golden hues everyone was so fond of. Of course, they would flash right back, because he was still in character and he didn't need to be found out just yet. Hopefully, Pyro calmed down after this and played along as well. At this moment, they needed to stay in these characters until they were in front of Draco. Because, as soon as that happened, the trust was going to come out in full force. Though, he hoped that he was speaking dragontongue, because that would be sooo cool.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 22, 2017, 07:56:11 PM
Pyro was unsure of how to take even Jay's words at this point. However, he had mustered by this point that continuing to resist would cause a decline in his well-being, so he growled in a low tone. That burning pain, he recognized it acutely, the question of course being why it was still there. Eric hadn't removed it that's why; he said that he had, and Pyro had believed him.

Like a fool. And that was before he had even joined The Akatsuki! Pyro's rage  boiled his blood, but he continued to restrain himself, knowing that he was in no position for payback for the time being.

The three dragons nodded to themselves, and began flying the duo then trio towards the camp. "Commander Reibi will be most pleased to have you all on our side."

Now, the totality of the information Jay had acquired would not be that in the language department; these dragons only had a single tongue, the common one, and that seemed consistent for their ranking. However, the more valuable insight that Jay would have acquired would have been the general history of these fanatics, known to Jay to call themselves the Disciples of Yumei, cropping up even before Yumei had made off with the Hokage Building and much of Konoha. That his disappearance had caused considerable distress, allowing their current enemies to break their hold on Hell's Basin.

Their forces were mostly concentrated at Devil's Eden, a fortress city that had once served as the capital city of the Basin and now served as the most secure foothold that the Disciples possessed.  Fortified with the land's natural energy, the aforementioned technique that Jay had earlier been threatened with apparently could be automatically triggered by anything that entered the radius of a special barrier, igniting the very chakra of the victim, burning them from the inside out. A special seal apparently gave permitted forces the ability to enter.

The seal worked by utilizing natural energy, understandable since the energy was so abundant here. In fact, much of what the beasts used here had natural energy power derivations.

Jay would also come across the interesting detail that apparently these Disciples thought themselves holy warriors to be rewarded upon Yumei's return from taming Shinigami in the Land of Shades. To Jay, his character background in mind here, this would come off as a bit, ludicrous.

As for Eric, he would remove his hand from Jay shortly after, feeling a sharp but localized burning sensation. He could sense it in the very air as well, and for a split moment, Eric thought that his charade might not have worked. However, Jay's words encouraged Eric to look towards the approaching fortification and fold his arms.


Hssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!

Eric looked around, curious as to the source of the sound. Thinking it only his imagination, Eric would focus on making sure Pyro did not get any bright ideas about attacking and retaliating.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 24, 2017, 12:12:14 AM
Noooooo, Jay really wanted the language of dragons to be a thing, but it seemed the odds just wasn't in his favor. Well, he learned other things about the dragons, especially these specific pack of dragons that caused him to mentally sweatdrop. While, something like the whole holy warrior/Yumei taming the Shinigami seemed impossible to fathom, he couldn't deny how these crazy thoughts could be made. Crazy people thought crazy things, there was logic in that. When he encountered the information about the seal that allowed the igniting of the chakra, he thought of the Incineration Technique and whether it was just for this. Aware of this being wrong, he knew would begin thinking of a counter-seal that would keep the specific seal to a temperature that he was actually used to.

Any further thoughts on the matter would be pushed to the back of his mind as he remained in flight and followed the dragons to Spyral Gate. As he flew, he would calm himself down considerably, enough to pick up the faint hissing. Immediately thinking of an ambush, he focused his attentions on his Mind's Eye and his sense of hearing to pinpoint the location. Holding onto the hem of his cloak, ready to seal it within his right hand, he made sure that he wasn't flying too quickly, so that the actual wind wasn't whipping past his ears.

He was sure that if it was Genjutsu, his Psionic Membrane would protect him from the attack, depending on the brutality of the attack and his Mind's Eye would pick up the chakra signature of the one responsible. If it was a warning of the impending ambush, his readiness would make it harder to catch him off guard and bring down the success rate of said ambush. Either way, his acute sense of hearing would be just enough to pinpoint the general direction of the hissing, with his Mind's Eye working to further point out the culprit. Of course, being that dragons were reptilian, hissing would not be so farfetched to hear in a dimension filled with dragons. 'Ugh, my head hurts.' He thought to himself as if he found trying to find a reason for the hissing to be full of speculations and just simply wanted to write it off at this point. [As long as you flaunt your power for the dragons, enough for them to revere you just as much as Yumei, then you wont have to worry about things like ambushes... though Pyro is hotheaded so... you may have to blow his head up or something...] 'Whoa, that was dark Matatabi... I mean, I get it, but I'm not gonna live here. Plus, Eric isn't gonna like that, considering that's his dragon... neither will Rita... I'm sure.' His head was only hurting more at this point and he just wanted to find Rita and get a few more dragons to raise. Plus, he knew that there were stronger dragons out there with crazy powerful abilities, like the aforementioned, Four Dragon Kings.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 25, 2017, 03:58:46 AM
The trio would be flown down to Spyral Gate, where Jay and Eric both would notice that a large amount of attention seemed to be towards them. It was safe to say that their antics had not gone entirely unnoticed, but the oncoming dragons, all about the same size as the other three (or for easier reference about the same size as Pyro, 20 feet long with 22 foot wingspans) all with ashen colorations. Bits of glittering pinks, blues, and so on could be seen beneath the ash, presumably the natural scale colors of the dragons. It would be obvious that these dragons had covered themselves partly in ash in order to stand out less in this environment.

One dragon seemed to stand out among them, if only because many of the dragons cleared a path for him. This dragon, much smaller at only 6 feet tall and without any wings, walked on twos and visibly had ninja pouches strung about a belt on his waist. The anthropomorphic dragon bore a large chestplate that had a strange yin-yang symbol on the front  and two inverted leaf symbols on the back. The dragon had eyes of bright purple and while not a great amount of chakra, a consistent amount of chakra flowing through his body and his scales.

This, Jay would know from his earlier probing, would be Commander Reibi, and the scowl that his mouth seemed to be shaped in (hard to tell from atop Pyro and Reibi having a snout) suggested that he was not in the best of moods.

"Who are they?" His voice seemed mellow for an angry dragon, meaning that maybe his facial expression was that of curiosity instead of anger.

"The big one here is one of the enemy, the smaller one is a guardian to this man, a son of Lord Yumei." The three dragons gestured towards the respective individuals, much to the shock and awe of the crowd.

"Really?"

"Didn't know Yumei had a son..."

"The Chosen One has finally arrived!"

"Oh yeah?! Prove it."

Calmly Reibi looked out towards the excited dragons. He raised one of his arms and sent out a pulse of chakra, and just like that, the crowd grew more docile and quiet, though if thier attention had not been on Jay, Eric and Pyro before, they were now. Reibi looked towards Jay with an inquisitive eye, his eyes noticeably darkening as he did so. Reibi then looked towards Eric, and then towards Pyro.

"Lock the big one in the tomb. 'My Lord', 'Guardian', follow me. There is an important task that needs to be done." Reibi turned and walked towards the center of the Spyral gate, likely assuming that his statement would follow through. He did not seem entirely convinced.

"Just give a sign and we will do what we must," Eric states as he disembarks,  "And likewise."
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 25, 2017, 04:38:39 AM
When the group arrived at the gate, the young Nara's descent would appear regal. Slow and steady, he would cast his eyes over the other dragons, despite them being bigger than him by several feet. This wasn't part of the act, as he was still concerned with the hissing from beforehand. The ramblings of the other dragons, along with the words of the humanoid dragon, fell on uncaring ears. Jay was looking, scoping out the ranks and determining their strengths. He would doing this through his assortment of sensory techniques, before landing on the Commander. Commander of Dragons and the Commander of Manji, a fitting meeting for the two of them.

It would be around the time the Commander released his pulse of energy, that the young Nara finally touched down onto the ashen ground of the stronghold, his feet bare as always. The eyes of the two Commanders locked for a moment, Jay's not backing down and the Eternal design of his Sharingan slowly spinning hypnotically. The Dragon Commander wouldn't have to worry about any Genjutsu attempts, only to beware about how he chose to treat the young Nara.

He would remain silent, the transformed design in his Sharingan stilling and the coloration of the red hues, darkening as well into a clear blood red. A single step was all it took for him to show how he was going to proceed. His gait was calm, collected, depicting of true royalty and flair he mostly mimicked from one, Ryoji Uzumaki. 'I gotta thank senpai next time I see him.' [What if he tries to kill you.] '... why you always gotta be negative?' [I'm just saying.] He mentally groaned as he continued to follow the Dragon Commander.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 25, 2017, 04:57:24 AM
"Groooaaaaar!" Bright fireballs went ballistic as, in the split moment that it seemed that Eric and Jay had their backs to him, Pyro lit up his scorch release in preparation for steaming murder.

Before he could pull this off, however, the balls of light seemed to be whisked away, and the great desert dragon dropped to the ground. Jay and Eric both would be able to sense the crowd surrounding Pyro literally suck the chakra from both him and the attack; he was left with at best 10 chakra, just enough to live on, and without further ado the dragons got to work restraining him with ordinary chains and hauling him off. The stolen chakra seemed to be be stored in the dragons' at first, but then vanish, as if it had been transported, the chakra like a wave heading out Eastward to some unknown destination.

"As you two may  be aware of, there is currently a war going on in this land." It did not seem that Reibi really cared or at any point felt threatened by Pyro, the reason by now fairly obvious. "The power of Ignitus unfortunately went with his death, but if he can be revived, then his power can be reattaind for our purposes. I imagine that the Rinnegan is among your arsenal, my young Lord?"

Reibi continued to lead the crew towards a path up a gently sloped mound, the Spyral gates towering above. How high they went was up for grabs, but the grooves made the two spires look oddly enough like horns, chakra seemingly still flowing through them despite the odd occurences of the land. Reibi stopped a few feet from the center, looking up to admire the view.

"They say that Yumei was brought here to conduct his training, to have symmery with the very first dragon sage. While I doubt that to be true, there is no doubt that reviving the dragon, even if successful, is a wasteful endeavor. As a result, I have prepared a team to salvage the relic's parts so that they can be processed and used to improve our gear back Home."

Eric did not seem to bat an eye to Pyro's rapid shutdown, but even he, walking on twos could sense that there was some logic to the plan. The spires, more likely than not, were the dragon's horns, Eric surmrised, and the fact that they radiated chakra even after all this time was a testament to the power of the deceased. Or the power of someone who came after who placed the chakra there in the first place.

"What I need from you, 'Guardian', is a name, for starters."

Reibi turned, flicking his tail irritably in Eric's direction.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 26, 2017, 04:26:21 AM
Jay didn't pay much mind to Pyro's rage induced roar, though the air around him did grow immensely hotter in his preparation. On the off chance that Pyro's attack was going to make it, he was going to burst into flames in his defense. But, something, i.e. Commander Reibi's complete calmness, told him that worrying wouldn't have been necessary. It seemed that holding the reigns back on his instincts proved to be right. But, he was extremely disappointed in Pyro's behavior and told himself that he would need to do something about it.

[I told you so. Now, blow his head up the next time you see him. Don't give him the opportunity to cross you again.] Matatabi Roared in annoyance at the disrespect the dragon showed towards her container. Jay ignored her rage and listened to Reibi speak, mentally groaning from one key reminder. While it was possible for him to simply devour someone with the qualities for him to obtain the Rinnegan, he would not be able to actually claim the Dojutsu due to magical restrictions in the realm. While he did have another way, One's Own Resurrection Technique, without the excess of souls he once held before gaining his immortality, he didn't see himself using it anytime soon. Though, speaking of the Rinnegan, he knew he would have to speak to Kisuke about the progress of his Project when he returned home. Unknowingly, like Yumei, he was working on creating another lifeform... though it was more akin to the process of Genesis, even though he wasn't aware of the process the man went through either. Of course, in the avenue of abilities, he had to halt the progress because he had yet to go through the training to get Dust and Decay like he was begging his sensei for, for quite a while. So, of course, he would have to hold on to his Steel and Explosion until then.

Of course, he didn't want to tell the Commander the details of why he didn't have it, so he shook his head in the negative. "I do not, at the moment." He spoke firmly, inwardly annoyed at the fact of the matter. But, even he could sense how much power was within the horns of this creature. If the horns were this large, the dragon must have been even larger. He had to finish his Project soon. Keeping his gaze towards the sky for a bit longer, he resisted the urge to whistle in amazement.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 27, 2017, 02:22:11 AM
A name? What did he need a name for? "Strythio."

"Strythio, hm? Well then, Strythio, son of Genesis, the two of you should have more than enough power between the two of you to help raise the rest of the behemoth from the ground without igniting all of the natural energy about us?"

Reibi seemed almost, playful, in his response, as if he fully expected the two to take offense at the relative ease of the task.

The mighty Spyral Gates, the horns of the previous dragon, had ash over them, but strangely enough, were not rotted; to be made of bone they had quite the durability in this environment. 

"Such labor seems a bit, below him, don't you think?" Whilst Eric suggested this, his mind began running through the most efficient way to make this work without using shadow imitation. Not that he had ever met this dragon before, but Eric suspected that him using his own shadow imitation might tip him off as a faker as far as "Guardian made by a technique" goes. The man was so accustomed to using shadow imitation that it took more effort trying to think of a way not to use it than it did think of a way to use his shadow to get the job done.

"Below him? Should be rather easy and quick then."
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 27, 2017, 03:02:54 AM
"That's it?" Jay simply asked the dragon, making sure to mentally instill the name Strythio under Eric's name for, alias. Taking another look towards the large horns, he turned his attention back to the Commanding Dragon. "You just want us to pull the dragon from the dirt, all archeology style?" The tone of his voice held a hint of disbelief to it. As if, he couldn't believe that this dragon had the nerve to ask such a thing to a supposed Lord.

In truth, he was looking towards the Dragon Commander with a newfound respect, seeing that while it might seem like he was showing respect to royalty, he wasn't afraid to treat them any differently from the norm. The two were alike in that aspect, as he worked on a, 'Give me a reason to respect you' philosophy. Until the reason was presented, he would be polite, but he would not feel remorse if he had to kill them later on. So far, only Matatabi and his own children held his true respect. [Awww, you're such a softie!] 'Dang it, Matatabi, I was having a moment.' [Okay, okay, I'll be quiet now.. you big ol' softie.] After that, she cut the connection between them, causing the young Nara to mentally growl.

Contemplating the answer to be yes, he started to think of the way immediately. His Mind's Eye was providing the layout beneath them and focusing more on the actual size of the dragon. He spoke of doing it in a way that didn't ignite the Natural Energy and that seemed to make sense. Of course, with his Senninka, he was growing worried with how it would affect the Energy around the skeletal remains of the great dragon.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 27, 2017, 03:21:49 AM
With their respective sensories, the Naras could clearly see that the horns were literally the tip of the iceberg. The fortifications were literally sitting on top of what was once the skull, the vast majority of the skeleton noteably missing scales. The spires towered a good 200 feet in the air, but the skull itself once had enough space for several Hokage Mansions or a similarly sized building to fit comfortably in just the remains of the eye sockets. Much of the body was decrypt, but what the Naras would notice would be the very center of the large skeleton that radiated energy.

Jay, his background again in mind here, could faintly determine that there very well may be a spirit or two bound to that center point. It was within the decrypt ribcage, and based on the limbs (including the wings) the entire structure had to weigh several dozen tonnes. How such a beast could get off the ground with that kind of weight, plus muscle, fat, scales, etc. would make a great feature on Ancient Aliens, or even Modern Marvels. Interestingly, the horns seemed connected somehow to the earlier mentioned Point.

Reibi chuckled. "We want the parts, ALL of the parts, in good condition, so I would not advise planetary destruction. Plus, we still have our Fortifications here to think about."

This, then, was going to be a pain in the ass to do without shadows, Eric concluded to himself. He could dig his shadows beneath the ground and literally migrate the thing to the surface, and if Jay did not suggest anything, that was precisely what he intended on doing. 

"I have an idea for getting all of these pieces to the surface, but, my Lord, if you have any ideas, I am all ears."
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on March 27, 2017, 05:35:21 AM
While the young Nara was unaware of how much the deceased dragon weighed, he didn't have to really worry about lifting it. While that was his first thought, he had kept the fortifications in his mind. Smoothly, he had dropped to a crouch, his tattooed hand (right) gently sweeping itself against the swelteringly hot soil. "If dear old Ignitus knew you had built a structure atop his remains, he would be most unpleased at the disrespect... well, I know I would be." He added after a while. He gathered a bit of the dirt into his hand and familiarized himself with the texture and finding it rather similar to the soil of their home realm. This, ultimately, didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but it was still good to know.

But, having good ideas must be a Nara trait, because Jay had been thinking of doing the same thing, but in a single trip. But, the dragon was surely massive, more so than he could have imagined. Did dragons really get this gigantic? So humungous that the Hokage Mountain could snuggle up in one of it's eye sockets? Talk about, bigger than life. "Let me handle it, Stry... just hold onto my cloak." As if by that voice command, a white thin line began to run down the front of his Manji Cloak, the Triskelion symbol on the back of the garment glowing a slightly brighter white as it did so. The pretend Demigod stood back to his full height, his hand reaching up to separate the, now, two sections of his cloak so that he could take it off.

Once it was open, the chakra that was being held back rushed out like a wave. Luckily, he had reined in the brunt of it so that it wouldn't disrupt the Natural Energy below them. Slowly, but surely, he too was losing interest in keeping his chakra actively suppressed, hence the reason why he was constantly wearing his cloak nowadays, so them and generally any and every dragon in the area would be able to sense his and Matatabi's large pool of chakra broiling inside of him. Though, after the initial wave, any further outward influences wouldn't occur.

His attire beneath the cloak was that of the white karate styled Gi he'd been seen wearing for the past few times he's been seen in public, most notably the Iwa trip. Usually, he would be like his sensei and be without the top portion of the attire, but he was feeling like stepping out of that shadow and being his own man, like before his integration into the Uzumaki Clan those precious two years ago... or near two years... he wasn't even sure anymore.. it felt like forever really. Where was I, he forgot his train of thought. Well, anyway, he would of course hand off the cloak to his Grandmaster, forgetting about the whole 500 pound seal that he had on it at all times. Though, with his Sage Mode active, it wouldn't be a problem to him, so, it was a good thing.

[You really plan on eating the entire thing with just your shadow? You know it's going to be impossible by yourself right?] Matatabi returned with a mental bonk on the Nara's head. 'Not with that attitude. With all this Natural Energy and your power, I can.' The Nekomata grumbled in her own mind, finding that it he was in the right position, it could surely be possible. [Picking it out of the ground would be easier, in my opinion.]

Jay cracked his neck for a moment, shaking his head in the negative to Matatabi's words while loosening himself up at the same time. 'Not with those souls in there. One wrong move and they could either end up ascending to the Pure Land or flying off to possess another dragon and we do not need more Sereans... Plus, these two horns are going to be all the assistance I need.' Of course, the shadows cast by the 200 feet tall horns would more than lengthen his natural shadow's length and provide it with more than enough yield to cover the entirety of the dragon. "Commander Reibi, did Ignitus eat anybody before he perished? I'm sensing another lingering soul mixed in with his."
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 31, 2017, 05:55:16 AM
Eric assumed that it was an expression, but understanding the roleplaying stance he had played himself into, he grabbed onto Jay's Manji cloak with some hesitance, presuming this was allowed to be done. When Jay proceeded to remove it and hand it to him, Eric audibly grunted from the 500 pounds of weight that suddenly found itself upon his right arm. Not normally a heavy lifter type, Eric attempted to play it off by using two arms, yang chakra coursing through his body as he focused on enhancing his strength to at least keep from breaking himself from the unwarranted weight of the cloak.

What in Spyral's name was the reason for a cloak this HEAVY? Eric might could suspect for training purposes, but truth be told, at this point in time, his primary desire was to hand back the weight as soon as physically able. Of course, with the mix of senjutsu and yang release chakras in his body, Eric's nails grew into claws and his barely audible grunts came out more as a hiss.

 He continued to sense the pent up energies of his fellow Nara Order member, and found himself reassured that the Inner Beast Spirit Transformation would have been an unecessary addition to the man's bits and pieces.
 

Reibi seemed to take note of Eric's apparent effort, at least initially, to lift the cloak. He turned his attention back to Jay upon hearing his commentary regarding the fort, to which the dragon mentally noted that dead dragons raze no towns. He frowned when Jay asked regarding the matter of souls.

"Maybe, but the dragon's last meal is hardly of any concern to me. Ignitus possessed incredible chakra, even by dragon standards. Just make sure that you do not severely damage the structure. No doubt those chakras mixed with the natural energy around here would send off an energy burst great enough to alert our enemies to our presence.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on April 01, 2017, 02:10:34 AM
Jay was almost tempted to do just that, throw caution to the wind and destroy pretty the fort to get the dragon from beneath it. And surely, if he was still an Agent of Chaos, he would have done just that. He was wrong to say Mountain before and replacing it with Mansion now makes a whole lot more sense. Though, it would have been absolutely amazing to have such a creature as an ally, he believed that a dragon that size would be far more dangerous if it turned out to be too evil. Fortunately, he was working with smaller dimensions now and that made him all the more confident that he would most likely succeed.

The young Nara wasn't paying much attention to his Grandmaster, but managed to sense an increase in the man's physical energies. He knew the man was experienced enough to not have the slight imbalance disturb his Sage Transformation too much, and if he was to look, he would see the difference in the man's claws. The hiss sounded like the hissing from before, which only reminded him of it. Jay turned his attention towards Reibi, shrugging lightly. For a Commander, wanting to remain covert to the knowledge of one's enemies made the most sense. It was pretty much Being a Ninja 101. "Right... one moment." He spoke calmly before walking over to submerge himself in the shadow of the closest protruding horn.

When he got there, he smoothly dropped into a crouch, once again resting his hand in the dirt. Because he was in the shadow, he would be connected to the beast beneath, in a manner. "Let's bind you real quick, after all... what's yours is mine..." He said, refraining from speaking the rest of the command, as the shadow of the horn slowly grew darker. He gave the shadow a smile as it began to wriggle and pull away from its previous position to pool around him as if it was painted on the ground. Because of this, the horn lost its shadow, standing alone as it's companion was temporarily stolen by the young Nara.

The Sinful  power of Snatch from the lovely Sin of Greed, Zeroh, coursed through his being. Feeling the power of the Sins always felt invigorating for him, nearly intoxicating at times, but he's gotten a better hold of their power recently. Of course, recently, when he trained with their power, he's be unable to manifest their original forms on the outside as they were originally intended. Meaning, he would first have to replenish their souls inside of him, before he could do it. Because of this, they've turned into near split-personalities, piggy-backing off of the power of his soul. It was okay, because it was tied into his chakra, and he had a lot of that, so he didn't have to worry too much on overuse. [Aww, what happened to using me? It would have been fun.] [Sorry, Matatabi, but Jay's all mine now.] [Your lucky you're connected to Jay, otherwise I-] 'Can you two hush, I'm trying to concentrate.'

The exchange lasted but a moment, in that time, the shadow began to burrow underground, completely silent. Despite the fact that it was as physical as either one of them, it was moving through the ground, leaving the ground completely undisturbed in the process. Of course, this was due to the slow and steady speeds it was moving with. Just because he was connected to the energy below, didn't account for that second source. It was still it's own entity and could release that pulse Reibi spoke of if it was disturbed. Of course, this was going to take at least two more turns to safely remove the dragon. He just hoped he would have the time to prevent any mishaps. Perhaps this second soul was just what they needed to revive the ancient dragon with no drawbacks?
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on April 01, 2017, 02:33:47 AM
"Humans never cease to surprise me." Reibi blinked, seeing the shadow of the horns being stripped from their place. "Not the power of an Uchiha does he use, but that of a shadow manipulator. How, odd."

Sensing what could best be described as a deep rooting, Eric had to admit that Jay's shadow imitation was greater than he had expected it to be; usually when he ran into other strong Naras they tended to focus on their other attributes more. To say the least, the Grandmaster was only surprised long enough to take note of the last sentence of Reibi. What was so odd about it?

Well, Yumei not ever using shadow imitation, maybe. But surely Reibi had not expected Jay to use the preta path, with its more destructive show of force? What had he expected if something like this was odd?

"Strythio, do you know the story of Felix the Shade?"

Eric shook his head.

"Figures, probably not a story that someone like Yumei would confess to having heard and believed. Felix was a powerful creature who ensured that dragon worship would never be the same. Half dragon, half phoenix, all burning terror."

"Sounds like he should have been a Dragon King."

Reibi chuckled darkly, walking forward a few steps from Eric.

"He was an enforcer who firmly believed that dragons and humans should never come together. He and his kind sought to destroy any harmony between humans and dragons out of fear that one day, dragons would become tainted by them. Truly inspiring how the act of accepting worship can change a culture. Wouldn't you say?"

"Yes, you know what they say about absolute power."

Reibi chuckled again, this time in a much lighter tone.

 Yes well, Felix the Shade slaughtered and destroyed entire villages upon command, until he lost all command. All he knew was slaugther, and so he continued, turning the image of the dragon from a god to that of a demon. No land has quite had an odd connection to dragons as Fire Country."

Reibi turned towards the great horns, and then looked towards Jay.

 "All the powers to destroy, and yet, still brought low by that which worshiped him and his kind as gods. Draco wants to bring that kind of dragon back to power, one that will not tolerate mankind's advances, and instead return to a period of isolation and superiority."

Eric did not respond. How could he? He didn't want to risk confirming something that was not true and give away another falsehood, but his interest had been piqued at this point.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on April 01, 2017, 03:26:32 AM
Jay tried to not pay too much attention to the words being spoken not very far from him. He wasn't entirely human, but ehh, what else was the dragon to assume? He knew this would be suspicious, but he could always chalk it up to training, since his sensei managed to learn it, despite not being a Nara. Plus, his Sharingan techniques were fighting tools and he wasn't in a scrap. He could use Suguwara no Michizane once again, but it wasn't yet the time for it. He did plan to use it, to better understand the dragon's energies when he completely submerged it with his shadow.

[This, Felix the Shade, sounds like a badass! Imagine the power you can get if you had him under your control. Hell, imagine it if you ate him instead.] It was obviously Zeroh was possibly too intoxicated with the idea of assimilating the power of either of these dragons into Jay's control. With her Greed filling Jay's motives, he too was beginning to desire the power more than the possible companionship. [Cool it down, Jay, don't let her warp your thoughts... there's no way I'm gonna have you become stronger than me.] [Someone's starting to act like Kur-] [I am not envious of my container's growth!] 'Seriously, shut up!' Jay began to grow irritated at their bickering, because they were right in his mind and he could not ignore something like that. [-n't yell at me...] The soft mutterings of Matatabi drifted along the rivers of his mind.

When she said this, he felt his shadow reaching the dragon, slowly spilling over it. It was a slow wrapping process, but the Nara was thinking of it like a Christmas gift, the careful OCD-like precision of the manipulations were making it easy to prevent any outwards effects from occurring.

Perhaps it was a good thing they were bickering, because it kept him from blurting out, "I have those." when the Dragon Commander mentioned both a dragon and a phoenix. The wings of the mighty beasts were present on his back, which was covered by his Gi.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on April 02, 2017, 06:38:38 AM
"How would you sleep at night, knowing that the dragon that ordered the murder of your family was trying to take control of your world?"

Reibi's eyes shifted to a bright azure, as if looking at some image that could not be seen with the naked eye. Expectant silence suggested that the question had not been intended as rhetorical, but Eric did not respond, effectively turning it to one. He turned his gaze towards the forts still abuzz with dragon and sheep activity.

"Not well, I imagine. Are you hungry, Strythio?"

"Half-starved."

"A dragon modelled after my brother all right."  

Reibi stared towards Jay.

As Jay's shadow encompassed more of the dragon's physical frame, the bright centerpiece that had so caught his attention earlier flickered. It flickered again, and then, like a candle, it seemed to go out, only to flare back again before flickering and then going out. More quickly it continued this repetition, until it seemed to go out for an extended duration of time. From what could be sensed, the spiritual energy had not dissipated. However, assuming that Jay, being a Nara, had a tactile connection with his shadow even without something to enhance it like the Shadow Seal that Eric bore, he could finally determine that there seemed to be a physical crystal-like object that contained the spiritual energy.

It seemed responsive to the nearness of chakra, as if it drew back its energies as a result of Jay's actions. Concerns over the energy being mass released, then, could be hypothesized to be only a result of somehow shattering or inappropriately disturbing the crystal. Even then, just how sturdy it was was hard to put down.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on April 03, 2017, 04:46:08 AM
By this part of their conversation, it was falling on deaf ears as Jay focused solely on the happenings below him. There was a lot of concerning activity with the energy inside the dragon that it was putting the young Nara on edge. 'Oh boy, I don't like the looks of this.' His shadow slowed more and gave the dragon a bit more slack, about a full foot of slack. [How about employing a contingency plan... like that one seal you have in your cloak.]

It was a good idea, using the Four Black Fogs Formation to prevent the enemy dragons from detecting what they were doing. But, it would also keep all but him from detecting the energy inside, only because it would be through his shadow. [Or, switch out your chakra for Natural Energy. It's been resting easily inside of the Natural Energy all this time and hasn't been acting up.] Another good idea, ideas he was sure to employ.

With the control he had over Natural Energy, through Shizenjutsu, he would slowly imbue his shadow with the energy and pull away his own chakra. As he was pulling his chakra away, it began to pulse in rapid succession. His shadow began to produce black and purple smoke, only to return to his shadow and swirl around the dragon along with the Natural Energy filled shadow. 'This is feeling less like a soul and more like something more primordial. Surely this must be because it was the first Dragon King.' He wasn't even sure if that was true or not, but he was feeling anxious in whether he should bring this dragon back to life or not? Or whether he would be able to in the first place?
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on April 08, 2017, 02:36:25 PM
Jay slowing his chakra did not cause the spiritual energy to spring back into the forefront of sensory; it remained shelled in within its crystal, even as natural energy was added to Jay's shadow. At this point Jay could surmise that the presence of foreign chakra in general seemed to affect the crystal. No doubt actually touching it with chakra directly might would cause something interesting to happen, albeit since the shadow imitation itself was a yin release, what the possible effects could be ranged greatly.

Well, not that greatly, actually, if a few things were considered.

It was a crystal with spiritual energy stored within it. Buried underneath the ash and in some places igneous rock of the land, the crystal itself probably acted as a container of sorts, meaning that it would take more than a touch with shadow imitation to shatter it. Truth be told, at worst the crystal's contained energies would, without a specific technique or method, do nothing but act within the crystal itself. While spiritual energies naturally have been associated with spirits and souls in the past, the powers of imagination were not necessary for a living being to possess a spirit or a soul, nor was it necessary to have a soul or spirit with retention of imaginative powers.

Enough posturing, though, Jay could probably gamble at this point that he could finish taking the entire lot out of its place without causing a great disturbance of sorts, despite Reibi's warnings, as long as he removed everything as a single unit and not in pieces.

"Why don't you go try some of our stock? A little roasting with some of our secret sauce and you will never eat cattle the same way again."

"What's in the sauce?"

"A secret."

Eric stared at Reibi with an incredulous expression. Well no duh, that was why it was called "secret" sauce! Eric wanted to know what the secret ingredient was.

Reibi turned his head to stare at Eric blankly, his eyes shifting to a yellow-orange coloration.

Eric's stomach protested Eric's continued resistance to leave with a very loud growl. Eric frowned sheepishly and averted his eyes towards the fortress. The charade had its perks, but maybe it was a good time to start checking on Pyro. After all, Jay was, so far, in their good graces, but Pyro was considered the enemy. Eric needed to make sure they were not interrogating him or something, lest he give them any damaging information.

Still, leaving Jay by himself seemed unwise.

"Once the Lord is done, then I will dine, and taste test this, secret sauce, for his sake. Then I would like to see the enemy that he subjugated-"

"No need, as Yumei's offspring I have no doubt that he will recall the taste. Besides, the enemy is locked within the tomb, he will not be leaving anywhere anytime soon."

Wait, tombs were supposed to contain corpses right? If they locked him in the tomb that was nowhere near where Jay, Reibi, and Eric was, then what in the world were they unearthing? Or maybe the better question was, was the dragon definition of a tomb different than the human definition of one?

Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on April 16, 2017, 03:50:30 AM
(Apologizes for the late reply)

It was simple from this point onwards. Still giving the dragon a foot of slack, the Natural Energy filled shadow proceeded to wrap around the dragon and each of its individual limbs, including, its wings, tail, and it even stretched upwards to cover the two large horns. From this action, the horns would slowly turn black, like a crawling goop was devouring the two structures in its entirety.

The horns were the most pressing part of the process, considering the shadow had to make direct contact with it. The young Nara was on his highest alert as this happened, causing him to make it fast. With the pace having been picked up for the horns, he would pulse his chakra, regardless if the energy with grew sporadic for any reason. This pulsing of his chakra would be the completion of his Devouring Shadow Technique, in which that within the shadow would seemingly implode upon itself. This would send the contained skeletal structure to the Shadow Dimension. His control over the construct was still in full force, for the next thirty seconds, luckily he was already pulling it back out in front of him.

The horns would be gone from where they once were, but what would be replaced, would be a large earthen cocoon. The dragon would have been perfectly preserved within the Earthen hive that surrounded it. The Nara stood to his feet, barring no negative happenings between him and the energy, he would close the distance with the deceased being with a steady walk, before ascending into the air once more. He would slowly flow to where the snout would be and gently touched the earthen prison. `"Soon, my friend, I will feed you the world."
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on April 22, 2017, 07:55:57 PM
(Sorry for the really late reply)


"Excellent!"

Reibi clapped with only a hint of sarcasm present.

"We will take it from here."

Reibi sent out a pulse of chakra. This pulse was then followed by a small force of incredibly burly dragons; they were of various colors and types, but all shared a muscular physique that suggested that they were here to physically transport the entire construct. Quite a daring task, these dragons realized, once they actually saw just how massive the cocooon was. However, teh cocoon did make it easier to keep everything together, at least, so after calling for backup, there being about 60 of these particular dragons in total now, presuming they were not interrupted nor interfered with by Jay, would begin lifting the large construct from where it lay.

"Come, Lord Jay, I imagine you are ready for a tour of the facility, and some dining after your journey here today. Come on."

Reibi would turn to leave.

Eric yet still gawked at the size of the cocoon construct. He whistled, imagining the amount of strength required to move it physically, although a question came to mind.

"Where are they taking this, thing?"

"That is not really any concern of yours, Strythio."
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on April 25, 2017, 10:58:28 PM
Jay turned his gaze towards Reibi for a moment, before looking back to the earthen cocoon of the deceased dragon. He would mark the earth with his Hiraishin, that of a miniscule black dot, before descending towards the ground. He didn't have a problem with the amount of dragons that were needed to lift the construct, so he simply moved to follow the Dragon Commander. "Let's go Stry." He sounded as he easily lifted his cloak from the man's possession and draped it back around him, locking it once more.

"So, where exactly are you taking Ignitus' remains?" He decided to ask the same question as Eric, to sate both of their curiosities.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on May 10, 2017, 02:21:19 AM
Eric grunted, having by this point gotten somewhat accustomed to the extra weight. Well, accustomed in that he did not have to walk around with it now that he had been relieved of coat rack duties.

"Someplace useful."

Reibi would not elaborate more than that as he lead the way back to the entrance to the entrenchment. The large construct would be lifted by the earlier mentioned team of dragons and flown off in a northerly direction, certainly not the same direction that the trio had come from.

 Eric, recalling at this point their original objective was to take the Spyral Gate in order to help hasten the Siege of Mons, made a silent guess that whatever it was in truth, it was likely headed to Mons to reinforce the garrison members, Eric, Jay, and Pyro's technical opposition. This meant that taking the corpse might would be a measure that would raise the spirits of the garisson, and make them much harder to conquer.

With this conclusion, Eric determined that, while it was important to get back on track, they needed to refuel with food and get their bearings for this whole conflict before blindly following orders any further. So when it became clear that Reibi had no intentions on elaboration, he took it as a cue that they might not be as trusted, or fooled rather, than they initially let on. For all intents and purposes, Pyro was a liability thanks to Eric's plan.

Smooth thinking, Eric chided himself, even as the smell of roasted meat seasoned with tingling spices reached his nose, chow mein noodles in boiling water, even vegatables roasting over an open fire by the smell of it. Eric followed Reibi through the twisting and turning trenches, taking note of the obsidian that yet still lined every inch of it. The edges were sharp, and while the floors were smooth, it was apparent that carving out the fort had been a matter of caution as it had been great craftsmanship.

Into the dining chambers he would walk, noticing the large doorway. He sensed a greater presence of dragons here, calmly chatting and going about their business. A surprisingly large number of them seemed to ignore the newcomers, and as they tore into the large mutton chops and beef steaks and what looked to be, lemon cake?  Ramen noodles? Fish? He had not smelled any trace of that last one, even with his enhanced smell sensitivity in his current state.

"Seems that my nose has deceived me, Reibi. You all have quite the assortment of food."

Reibi stopped, gesturing outwards to the large mess hall with outstretched arms. The loitering dragons did not respond, the glassy walls reflecting enough light around to make a better distraction to their dining.

Indeed, several small sections each with their own small kitchens held fairly human sized dragons serving dragons of many sizes and shapes; one looked like a ramen or dango shop, another a bistro, yet another some sort of bakery. The aromas were so conflicting at points that it was obvious why the most overpowering of them, the meats, seemed to dominate. At each of the booths was also the aforementioned sauce, some of which some of the dragons seemed to heartily take their mashing of.

"We try to limit the smells areas of travel, but cooking for so many requires a jutsu to be of use. Not that that is important. Eat, drink, and be merry; if you need me I will be in the Strategic Room across the trench."

Reibi gestured back towards the entrance, a depressed but guarded entryway sitting tucked across the trench. The entrance merely had some sort of privacy cloth over it, so chances were they were not expecting any real intruders. With his statement, Reibi turned to take his leave, unless of course stopped by Jay at some point.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on May 14, 2017, 06:58:30 AM
While the large assortments of smells wafting from the mess hall had been diminished to an extent, the young Nara was more than capable of sniffing out a few key options that had his stomach rumbling in desire. It grew to the point that he had to focus on his enhanced sense of smell and cancel out the canine-level sense of smell to a normal, human, degree. Still, his regular senses had been sharpened considerably, which caused him to lightly groan in frustration. "Strategic Room? If we are to be assisting in this battle, I'll join in to get a better understanding of what you and your allies are up against."

He didn't let it be taken as a question or possible suggestion, and instead continued to walk in the direction the Commander was originally heading in. And unless, across the trench, came along with various amounts of twists and turns, then he was sure he'd find it with very little difficulty. But, to be on the safe side, he called out to the dragon, who would now be behind him at this time. "No dilly dallying, Commander. There's a lot that must be done, before I can meet with His Majesty, Draco."

He hadn't been paying much attention to it, but since grabbing actual hold of the Natural Energy, his pull had strengthened and more and more was swirling around him. He was sure that, to the attuned eye, i.e. Eric's, the mass of energy would resemble a maelstrom, with that closer to him wrapped around him like a haori that stemmed from his Manji Cloak. The Triskelion Symbol of the Organization, seemingly reacting to the massive amount of energy around it, by hypnotically pulsing. Of course, this would be a play on the eyes, made to not really be happening, but the glow would make it seem so.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on May 18, 2017, 06:08:40 PM
Sorry for the really long delay, I should be back to more regular posting now. Again, sorry for the really long delay.


Reibi stopped, his chakra visibly bristling with his apparent distaste.  "That, will not be necessary. We have all that we require to win with ease. You have no reason to trouble yourself."

Accompanying the assertive tone was a shift in the dining room atmosphere, as if a foul breeze had stunk up the place and caused most of the occupants to reel in disgust from their meals and stare at Reibi and Jay.

Eric, without attempting to hide, grabbed a tub of the strange colored drink that smelled of honey, milk, and syrup, and a few bowls of the ramen sort with some strange sauce. After sniffing the bowls to come to the conclusion that it was spicy, Eric rapidly began to dig in, coming to the understanding that this might be his last chance to eat and drink before a tussle.

Why was this important to the man? Well other than not wanting to fight on an empty stomach, Eric had not really intended on directly pressing the issue until he knew where Pyro was; still, with Jay reasonably pressing on with the mission, Eric still needed to have food in his stomach. Yang release did not work very well with an empty stomach.

"Of course, by your tone, I am under the impression that you think Draco is worthy of being referred to as "Majesty", despite him being both a pretender and our enemy. Is there something you would like to share with us, Lord Nara?"

Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on May 24, 2017, 04:37:00 AM
Jay grew angry from the tone of someone who wasn't his commanding officer, attempting to be assertive to him. The young Nara had stopped in his tracks, the temperature around him dropping several thousand degrees, due to how hot the realm was. The chill could easily be around negative 5 degrees, before he grew confused at the next part of the dragon's speech. He was growing tired of playing this little game of what's what? But, they were literally smack dab in supposed enemy territory.

The temperature began to return to normal by the time the young Nara began to turn his head around to look over at the Dragon Commander. "Apologies, I'm simply trying to get a better understanding of this fiery realm.. unless there's something you wish to get off your chest?" By the time he finished talking the temperature around him, i.e. the air and the ground, would be finished defrosting and he would completely turn around to face Reibi.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on May 26, 2017, 12:26:00 AM
Reibi narrowed his eye at Jay, lashing his tail just twice at the change in temperature. From the very beginning Reibi had been skeptical of Jay's flare, from the very beginning he had not particularly taken to the awe and curiosity that he inspired among his forces. Had the dragon had some sort of bone to pick with Jay, why yes, he did.

But, unlike Eric and possibly like Jay, Reibi was fully aware that most of the attention was on his reaction, not Jay's; Jay's identity meant that most of the dragons expected him to be assertive, and they wondered at Reibi's reaction to this. Reibi calculated the risks in his next move, knowing that he had face to save and asserts to preserve.

"Yes, actually. You come from the horizon and, having hardly been here a day, make demands to see into our operations. You have proven yourself powerful, but not trustworthy. I personally am not interested in sharing anything more with you than necessary. If you have a problem with that-"

Reibi's chakra flared, as if the dragon were preparing to set himself ablalze with his chakra alone.

"- Then we can settle this matter with a Dragon Ball Duel."

Eric audibly seemed to choke on his food in amusement at the name. After a brief bit of gagging, Eric cleared his throat and attempted to return to a more calm demeanor. That had to have been the most ridiculous sounding thing he had ever heard of, much less something to challenge Jay on. However, to be fair, Reibi was far less knowledgeable of Jay then Eric - which was not saying much, he did not really know Jay's full capabilities either - and a duel of this sort did sound more, friendly, than a straight up brawl.

Maybe Yumei's effects on these dragons had not been all bad after all, depending on the history of what sounded like some sort of gamey contest.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on May 27, 2017, 11:40:16 PM
The look on the young Nara's features grew bland as he watched the humanoid dragon speak. The Eternal Design of his Mangekyo Sharingan gently spun within their pools of blood red optic juice. He blinked at the end of the Commander's mini rant, while Matatabi chuckled inside his mind. The natural glow of his EMS grew dimmer as he stared into the dragon's eyes, as if to see how serious he was from proposing a challenge. His stare would be as soul piercing as it would appear, the only thing keeping the dragon from backing down from the stare would be his own sense of courage.

Jay would remain silent for quite a while, simply staring at the dragon, paying very little mind to the fit of coughing from the transformed Eric. The mind that did decide to pay attention to Eric wondered if it would be wise to get into a battle with one of their, supposed, allies. Though, this thought was quickly discarded due to the small amount of attention it had been getting. "Sure... He said with the smoothest of shrugs to go along with it. I guess having a small snack wouldn't be so bad. As long as you don't promise to give me indigestion." He added on with the straightest of faces, completely serious with what he said. "It wasn't the way I wanted to learn about your world, but it'll be just as effective."
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on May 28, 2017, 03:09:50 AM
Reibi blinked, quite unfazed by Jay staring at him. The dragon lashed his tail and smirked upon hearing Jay's verbal response.

"Gather 'round, we are going to have a Dragon Ball Duel!"

From the many crevices of the fortress, news spread faster than wildfare; one would swear that the entire place had been on standby for such a thing. The dragons whooped, roared and seemed to aggressively begin stomping out, violently swarming Eric with claws, talons, tails, whatever some of them could grab him with.


Eric swallowed his latest bite and would have flailed, but the grip was much tighter and more varied than he expected.

"How does this crazy game woooorkaaaah!"

Reibi turned and led the dragons out, a rather loud stomping accompanying him as presumably Jay followed. The massive dragon entourage seemed to march towards the fields where the Spyral Towers once were.

"Just a bit of restraint, Guardian, just to make sure you do not provide any support. Having been in the ninja world for so long, I imagine you have forgotten this age old tradition. The duel rules are very simple-"

At this point the noise had reached uproar levels, and Reibi now used chakra in order to project his voice. Many of the dragons previously seen were eagerly gathering in a square crowd, with Reibi and presumably Jay stepping before them to where the Spires once were.

"- There shall be three rounds, each round consisting of a single display of great breath from each of us. The roar of my subordinates shall determine the winner of each round. Best of three, wins."

Eric blinked. So, it was that arbitrary? Who even judged the howling and whooping anyways? Eric attempted to struggle some more physically, but the grip was strong.

"Why do I have to be restrained again? How in the world am I supposed to intervene here?"

"Age old tradition, ever since the upstart Grievous had his human sage aide him against the human sage Sulphor of the Burning Bridge during the reign of the Second Dragon King in order to settle the matter of land rights in the Land of Lightning."

Reibi turned towards his Jay, still smirking smugness.

"Would 'his majesty' like to go first? Immerse himseful fully in our ways?"
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on June 17, 2017, 12:49:03 AM
(Super sorry, I swear I thought I had responded to this.)

The young Nara had to hold in his groan, as it was made painfully clear that it was not going to be a fight of any sort. He did take a deep breath as he followed the Commander to the arena. Alright, he could roll with it. "That's alright, lets have you show us how it's done. After all, I have come from the horizon and hasn't been here for a day." He could feel his stomach rumbling in his hunger, but he ignored it for the time being.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on June 18, 2017, 08:39:31 PM
Reibi chuckled, as if Jay's response was some sort of affirmation of something for him. Facing towards the grey-ish black sky, Reibi closed his eyes for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. Picturing in his mind the demonstrative fireball of his choice, Reibi flexed his arms, cracked his neck, and somewhat comically spread his legs outward as if bracing himself. With a tail thump signalling the end to his preparations, Reibi took in a deep breath, his torso almost unnaturally expanding outward as he took in air.

When it seemed that he might pop his lungs like a balloon overfilled with hydrogen, the dragon exhaled fiery bursts into the air in a fashion akin to fireworks. Vibrant oranges, greens, and even reds lit up the otherwise depressing sky as the traditional bursted outwards like rapidly budding flowers, the resounding thunder akin to mini artillery shells bursting in midair. And not just in one place either, Reibi turned his head a few degrees here and there and shot them in a roughly 60 degree arc, creating a sort of tapestry with his work.

Now there were reds and blues and even some purples as the shapes changed to something more distinct, like fiery tendrils reaching out from the centerpiece of the explosion to grasp at the imaginary purple twinkles that might were supposed to represent stars.

The entire audience seemed quiet, even Eric, as the breath of the dragon seemed to slowly wane as he came upon his finale. A noticeably larger fireball, comparable to the Uchiha's signature great fireball technique. When it burst into the air, the shockwave rippled throughout the air, a blaslt that would have rocked windows and startled unsuspecting beasts from their foraging. A bright orange-red that shimmered as it faded.

Reibi, though out of breath, calmly caught his breath before stepping back, all applause seemingly held for the end. It was Jay's turn now, and with such an open display, there was no doubt that he could glean that the nature of the competition involved showing off an intricate understanding of katon and the artistic vision of an explosion from mere fire.

Uchiha-style Katon alone did not tend to create that bursting effect, though. Gunpowder-like substances could be created with Katon chakra, and upon observation with the special eyes of the sharingan it could be safely assumed that such manipulation of katon chakra could be the culrpit for the very diverse coloration. Such precise control of Katon, of course, would suggest that non-fire breathing dragons by default had trouble with this competition in the past.

Maybe why it was more of a "tradition" than anything else, but the land itself showed clear signs of overall not being too friendly to say water-borne dragons or dragons more accustomed to a wintry climate.

Anyways, the odd silence of the dragons, despite that being the first part of round one, seemed odd. The roars were supposed to determine the winner of each round, right? Maybe it would be a shouting match after the conclusion of each? Or was this first display considered so demonstrative that it would not be counted? While Jay had little indication towards one or the other, Reibi had started with this with one purpose in mind.

To start the bar high for the seeming newcomer.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on July 03, 2017, 11:02:25 PM
The young Nara looked at the spectacle of flames, finding it rather amusing in a sense. He was glad to know that his suspicions proved correct, having previously assumed "great breath" meant breathing fire. It's so obvious now that it's been confirmed, a revelation that caused him to lightly shake his head at the simplicity of it all.

He was mildly interested in how he would play out his display of great breath. It came to him as the end of Reibi's display died down, the heat still strong around him. He waited until it was clear that it was his turn to act, as he set his chakra to purpose. "I'm going to need a lot of space, so, just a bit more space, please." He would also take a few steps backwards, refining the idea in his mind.

Assuming, Reibi had given him the space he desired he would take a few easy breaths. Dramatically, he would take a wide stance, the dust kicking up as he took a longer, deeper, breath. As he was doing this, he was getting a proper control over the flames that were brewing inside of him and when it was beginning to burn the inside of his lungs, he let loose. Bright blue flames spewed from his mouth, nearly like molten slag with how much had been condensed. When the flames hit the floor 20ft away, he lifted his head as fast as safely possible, causing the blue flames to shoot up into the air, as if it was a growing tree. The chakra was working to keep the form of the trunk, causing the flames to swirl around to keep it in place. When the Nara reached the apex of his head tilt, the trunk of the tree would top off at 25ft, before bits of black surged into the flames. These black specks would ignite and swirl in colors of bright white, orange, red and lastly black. These colors would form together to form a canopy of flaming leaves. The tree would be in full bloom and the Nara was beginning to run low on breath, so he couldn't hold it for as long as he desired and couldn't really do what he wanted, like add multiple branches and stuff. So, instead, he ended the display of great breath, by mimicking the season of fall, causing the flaming leaves to fall from the dying tree of fire. Each individual ember began to turn black, completely snuffing out as they hit the ground. As he officially ran out of breath, the blue tree trunk would begin turning black as well, expanding just a bit before it died out.

He coughed a bit, more for show, as he hit his chest a few times, puffs of dark smoke leaving his throat. He smirked, thinking of what his next breath would be. "Now that, was art." Sure, it was impressive, but was it enough to sate the desires of this duel? That was up to the dragons around him.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on July 05, 2017, 07:23:07 PM
Reibi stepped back, giving his opponent the space he so requested. Upon seeing Jay's display visibly creating form right off the bat it was clear to Reibi that he had underestimated Jay. Still, his face showed no discouragement, no surprise or startling at all, and he licked his lips.

"Not bad. I was expecting something more-"

Another fireball lit up the sky, though it was quite obvious that no one on the grounds was responsible for the input. The dragon crowd did not just disperse, it scattered, as more warning fireballs were set off.

Reibi took a moment to rationalize the reason for the signalling before shouting, "Secure the prisoner, get our fighters into the air!" Reibi looked towards Jay and Eric, " We will have to suspend our competition for the time being. The enemy is inbound from the East."

No further instructions were given as Reibi, unless intercepted, dashed off towards the strategy room again. The entire base was in a frenzy as roaring, shouting, and the occassional bleat replaced the previously dull silence of the area.

Eric for one was not complaining about the change of pace; he was getting sick of being tossed and thrown around like a toy anyways. The dragon man rushed to Jay's side.

"So, 'oh great one', what's your idea? I'm thinking that whoever is attacking is probably not foe. I'll go get Pyro if you go get Reibi, or the other way around; whichever or neither, I need to know what's on your mind Jay."
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on July 06, 2017, 03:04:34 AM
Naturally, the fireball being shot into the air, didn't seem like something that would warrant much of a reaction. Considering the fact that they were in a middle of a contest that was centered around doing such a thing, he took it as a random dragon really liking his display of great breath. He had been wrong when it was made apparent that said ball of fire was simply too far away to be from any of the dragons currently watching. This would be backed by the others scattering into positions, the Dragon Commander howling out his orders. 'Not my enemy.' He'd think to himself as he watched the man retreat towards the strategy room.

He remained in his position, getting himself ready for a fight, as Eric approached him. "Do not worry, Grandmaster, we're on the same wavelength. Explain the situation to Pyro when you find him. I'll deal with Reibi and the rest of the dragons, until you two can meet back up with me." It was obvious that he'd dropped the charade they'd been playing, chakra pulsing into the seal on the inseam of his cloak, to erase those 500 pounds from the fabric. He didn't want to be hampered in any sort of way, knowing the Dragon Commander was not someone to be trifled with. "Quickly, we don't have time to lollygag anymore." He'd tell the older Nara as he made his way towards the Strategic Room, opting to use the ruckus to gain himself entry, whether he was or not, he wasn't sure, but he was ready for any scenario.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on July 08, 2017, 11:15:11 PM
Eric dived into the trenches after Jay, but instead of following him into the Strategy Room, he continued on to where they were keeping Pyro. How did he know that he was going in the right direction? Well, still in sage mode (reply 12) he was able to pick Pyro's signature out from among the few dragons struggling to keep him pinned. Upon entering the chamber, Eric took a brief moment to take in the surroundings.

As the trench had functionally been built into obsidian, the prisoner holding area had had plenty of jagged points to discourage blindfolded dragons from wandering about aimlessly; additionally, heat was not going to bring down the walls, and cleverly enough, simply bashing the walls would only lead to more broken shards, more cuts, and more pain.


Not that any of that was really putting a stop to Pyro; though scorch release was not accessible to him and the chains made it difficult to really move about, the enraged Wind Country dragon still lashed out with his tail and natural fire breath. He swept his claws and tail about the ground, throwing the sharp shards everywhere his intended captors tried to jump to. Just being around him was a danger, but Pyro also had noticeably bleeding cuts all over him, particularly his hands and feet.

Could he feel the pain? Of course. Could he smell freedom? Maybe, the incoming reinforcements could be repelled. But he did not care; he could feel that the only thing keeping him bound to the floor were the chakra chains, and even they seemed to grow weaker the more he struggled. He could not see the dragons near him, but he could hear them, feel their presence. He shot another bit of dragon breath in one direction.

Three of them, all lightly armored. Well, one stunned and backing off from a spout of fire to the face, that was helpful. As they were distracted with Pyro, Eric withdrew his sword again, the Blade of Shadows, still charged with chakra (from reply 2) and pointed it in succession at the two dragons still engaging Pyro, firing two black beams of chakra at them.

Shadow Burst: Uverworld Kage

Since neither dragon got the full blast, all that immediately happened was them being pushed into the walls behind them, though this left them more accessible to Pyro. While Pyro sunk his claws into the exposed neck of the one to his right and bashed the other to his left with his tail, Eric, using his shadow to avoid damaging his feet on the obsidian floors, dashed towards the third one, who seemed to recover from the earlier fire treatment and noticed Eric.


Meanwhile, the bleating had long stopped, and the ash-stricken air was filled with dragons, some armored, some not, engaging each other in the air. Firestreams, blasts of wind, and even a streak of highly pressurized water cut through the air. Claws, teeth, and tails thrashed slashed and bashed, adding blood and some amputated gore to the chaos above. Had Pyro and company attacked earlier, now with the full buzz of the force present and in serious mode, it was likely that they would have either died or destroyed the entire area in an attempt at survival.

The dragons that were coming to reinforce did not entirely expect to catch their enemy all but sleeping, but were also not expecting there to be just this many of them; because of the nature of the fight, it was hard to tell friend from foe in the flurry of the air, though a sensor could pick up on subtle differences in techniques that facilitated communication.

Back on the ground, most dragons that could fly were either already airborne or were just now getting there; those that could not fly tended to the wounded, helped to organize anti-air fire, or observed the unfolding situation for tactical reasons. Thinking that Eric and Jay were on their side, most of the dragons paid little mind to the fact that neither of them had immeidately hurled themselves into the fray.

Reibi was not among this crowd. In the Strategic Room, a map in the center of the room the most definitive landmark, the one dragon commander could be found by Jay pressing and sliding and enscribing on the far wall, which stood out for not being made of obsidian. In fact, the Strategy Room seemed to have some sort of earthen interior, with a floor of stone. Glowing rocks provided illumination above, and Reibi's chakra continuously went out in surges as he tried to both direct his forces through telepathy and what looked to be physically. There was also a particularly large set of scrolls stacked neatly in the far right corner (if one were looking with the entrance to his or her back) that looked important.

But for Jay, who by this point would have entered unopposed, the most important thing in the room was Reibi.

Reibi was a sensor, and knowing that Jay might would follow him, had already donned a chestplate, perhaps in the combative mood now. Being under attack, after all, had a tendency to do that.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on January 09, 2018, 11:30:32 PM
It had been entirely too long for the young Nara to get back into such a primitive (In his mind) role of the past. While it was difficult to get back into the mindset of this point in time, it wasn't hard for him to do, since he had been so caught up in attempting to rid himself of the abilities of this current him. But, there was a certain thrill in it as well.

Thus, when he suddenly found himself following Reibi into the Strategic Room, it would seem as if he had been forced into his younger body... if only by half a year. He could immediately tell how handicapped he felt, but smirked as his intentions of the past crept back into his mind, along with the memories of what was transpiring. 'Ahh... of course. Well, Matatabi, lets get back to work.' He spoke to the feline inside him, ever the constant figure so far. [Sounds like a plan. Hopefully, Eric doesn't run into too much trouble getting Pyro.] Matatabi's words echoed in the man's mind, causing him to return to reality.

The Dragon Commander was busy with his job, but the young Nara still felt it necessary to proceed with stealth. His shadow stirred to life, merging with the other shadows, but ultimately blending in with the obsidian of the walls. His EMS studied the dragons as they moved about, having positioned himself into a location where he was hardly in their path. He had spied the scrolls, so he sent his shadow to collect them and send them into his personal little section in the Shadow Dimension for later. His hand would be pressed against the wall behind him, waiting for the attention to fall on him, knowing it wouldn't be long now. How many pieces of information would he be able to gather from the shadows? How much of his Explosive Chakra would go unnoticed in the wall behind him, masked by the large surge of chakra being thrown around in the Strategic Room? It wouldn't be long until things popped off, and if push came to shove, he would swallow the entirety of the scrolls in one go. He wanted Eric to have, at least, reigned in Pyro and proceed towards the exit, before his own situation grew hotter. All in all, he would remain quiet, watching, his red gaze glowing as his EMS spun in his pent up excitement.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on January 11, 2020, 04:04:53 PM
[Apologies for the long long long delay in posting.]

Jay would be able to move his shadows into position with relative ease, for most of the dragons in the room seemed less concerned with him and more concerned with the battle raging on outside. Roars and shouts were hardly muffled by the location of the strategic room. Initial panic had begun to give way to organized resistance, and the different sides began to become more clearly defined as battle lines were drawn. Draco's forces, the aggressors here, had been forced to remain in the air above, with the ground fortifications and the raised dragon corpse of Ignitus, still covered in the earthen exterior, the focal point for most of the defending dragons under Reibi's command.

A circle of the defending dragons had gathered about the corpse, hissing out a chant in a tongue very different than before, their chakras flared and beginning to interact with the centerpiece. Natural energy was being funnelled towards it, and almost as if in response, the horns of the massive dragon also began to glow, the remainder of the skeleton becoming riddled with tendrils of chakra.

Back to the metaphorical Situation Room, these activities seemed to consume much of Reibi's attention, until he noticed the scrolls beginning to slip from their resting place and into Jay's shadow. They would not be taken immediately in this fashion, as standard space-time travel was limited in this area (see Reply 16. I didn't explicitly marker a point where it would be impossible to use space-time to leave so entering things into the pocket dimension is still reasonable), giving enough time for Reibi to spin towards Jay with a mixture of surprise and anger, wings flaring outward and chakra raging.

"What do you think you are doing?! Those scrolls contain information vital to to the defense of Mons! Release them at once!"

At this point the other dragons still in the Strategic Room (totaling about 7 excluding Reibi) would momentarily stop, their own alarm prompting them to pay more attention to Jay. For the first time their impression that Jay was on their side began to waver. Commander Reibi drawing attention to the fact that Jay was trying to make off with one of the scrolls factored in greatly to their wavering trust, in addition to this, by this point 2 of them (being chakra sensors) had also noticed explosive release chakra forming in the wall behind Jay.

The stunned but free from Pyro's clutches dragon's put two and two together in Eric's appearance and the worsened condition of its comrades.

"You are going to pay for that!"

As the words spilled from his mouth and his breath collected in preparation for releasing a stream of fire, Eric already had begun collecting chakra in his own body, mixing it with his special "sticky spit" and expelling it in the form of a bright, adhesive, and senjutsu-enhanced bullet of liquid fire. (Ryūkan: Nento Endan; Dragon Fire Release: Sticking Spit Fire Bullet)

When the burst of fire and the bullet of liquid fire clashed, the bullet of liquid fire would preveal, splattering all over the dragon and knocking the dragon off of its feet. While the dragon howled in surprise and some pain as it was literally on fire, Eric physically returned to a more human look, his sage mode inconveniently peetering out at this point. The side-effect of leaving sage mode, the tiredness that accompanied, disrupted Eric's maintaining of the walking on shadow technique, causing him to make true connection with the floor. His feet pierced by the sharp glass-like floor he had taken note of earlier, Eric howled in pain and reflexively jumped backwards, only to find that he was simply jumping onto more sharps.

Pyro slashed open the neck of the dragon he had managed to get into his claw; the other that had been bashed by his tail rolled along the ground away from Pyro, slightly cutting itself along the way back to its feet. Enraged at Pyro's mortal wounding of the other dragon, this dragon howled in anger and, for the time being ignoring Eric, lunged towards Pyro. Pyro might would have gotten in another tail strike, but the swiftly bleeding out dragon, in a final act, clamped its jaws in a death grip onto one of Pyro's arms, immobilizing him just enough to allow him to be pinned. As light began to fade from one dragon's eyes, another made a final lunge towards Pyro's neck, intending on retaliating in a fairly karmic fashion.

*Edit, Reibi doesn't have wings
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on January 14, 2020, 12:39:50 AM
[That's quite alright, no worries.]

Jay continued to watch the reaction of the eight dragons in the Strategic Room. Part of him wanted to let loose and fight, but another part of him wanted to see if he could successfully finesse the situation into his favor. The wheels in his head continued to spin, but couldn't find a scenario that would allow him to.. Wait... A sudden thought clicked in his mind of a possible course of action and the progress of filling the room with his Explosive Chakra and siphoning the scrolls were each around 40%. He wouldn't finish at the pace he was going, so it seemed like the only course he could follow for what he had in mind.

"That's exactly why I'm doing it!" He yelled back to the Dragon Commander, keeping his hand on the wall to continue feeding it his Explosive Chakra. His EMS would sense the minute little details in the eyes of two of the dragons, making him aware of their added wariness. He wouldn't be wholly aware of their knowledge of his ExC, but he didn't dismiss that possibility. He thrust his free hand forward, as if to preemptively stop the dragons from acting before he could explain himself, 55% "What I mean is, this place is on the verge of being overrun with the enemy. This single room is bound to be targeted by the smarter dragons. Cut the head off the snake and the body will die, that's war 101." He wouldn't stop sinking the scrolls into his shadow, remembering that he wouldn't be able to FTG out because of the mass barrier. At least, not to his home, but maybe the marker he put on the big boi? He searched for that marker, though he was aware that it was a long shot and continued to speak in the meantime.

"Valuable information such as this needs to preserved and kept out of enemy hands. And if we were to get overrun, that would spell the end for us all." He had a feeling that he wouldn't be allowed to hit the 100% mark, so he decided to spread his chakra out in a fashion more akin to a spider web. If he designed it right, it would still be just as effective, perhaps even more so. As long as he spread it out he could blow it at 75%, just a minute or so would be all that he would need to gather most of it around Reibi's location. If his plans were set to fail, Matatabi, feed your chakra into the shadow to swallow up scrolls and I'll body flicker out. He made sure to tell his partner the plan to get out of this sticky situation.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on January 16, 2020, 01:14:36 PM
Reibi's chakra would fluctuate as his attention was divided between what Jay was saying, what he was doing, and the overall battle. Sure, Jay had a point in that the information had to be protected, but Draco's forces were still relegated to the air while his forces had all the ground control. It was at this point that he would also take into account an apparent breach near where Pyro was being kept, having lost communication with some of the dragons left to guard him.

All of this summed up to the decision that Reibi would make next as the scrolls slipped from the current plane and into the shadows. His chakra flow very briefly stopped before resuming normal flow again; the forces outside had their orders and their chain of command. Right now, for Reibi, the greatest threat in the area was Jay.

Reibi shouted as an order, "Drain him of his chakra and seize him! We cannot allow him to escape!"

While leaving the Limited Zone would be a task, Jay would have no trouble sensing his marker on the ever brightening corpse of the deceased dragon. His window for taking advantage of it without risk was dwindling though, as the ever convoluted signs of a jutsu began to take place, funneling all of the earlier chakra and technique formulae into the massive spire-like horns. The previous earthen cover around the horns would begin to crumble away, revealing a near blinding light that would temporairly blind and startle Draco's forces.

 No doubt still having his Mind's Eye active, Jay's familiarity with space-time ninjutsu (having employed two different but conceptually related ones) would suggest to him that Spyral Gate was the horns, and that whatever jutsu was required to trigger it had been, well, triggered.

In the meantime, the 7 other dragons in the Strategic Room had their orders; while by this point it would be too late to stop the shadow jutsu using their chakra consumption abilities [Reference reply #28 for the last time this ability was utilized], they would be able to deal with Jay's explosive release chakra. Just as the scorch release fireballs had been quickly extinguished by this move, so too would the webbing out tendrils of explosive release chakra; assuming Jay did not do anything, he would find his own strength begin to rapidly drain, though with Jay's likely sizeable chakra pool at this stage of his life it would take far more than a few moments (IE, more than 2 turns) for his chakra to be drained to the levels that Pyro had been drained to earlier. Not to mention there weren't as many dragons engaged in the technique this time.

However, the chakra consumption would limit his options for counterattack, as standard ninjutsu attacks would just have their chakra rapidly consumed.

Meanwhile, despite being in great pain, Eric noticed the other dragon going for Pyro. Eric once again utilized the walking on shadow tehcnique, but rather than on his own shadow, he instead used it on the conjoined shadow of Pyro and his dragon attackers, particularly areas of contact. After all, the shadow curse allowed Eric to manipulate the cursed shadows (a level of the curse was noted to have been on Pyro back in reply 22), and though there was a dragon on fire in the room, the close proximity of Pyro to his attackers mean it was highly likely that their shadows were connected at some point. While this wouldn't have much of an effect on the dying dragon's grip, it would keep the attacking dragon from piercing Pyro's skin with his teeth as the shadow would remain solid despite the great pressure.

It was a stopgat measure at best though; Eric restored the walking on shadow technique on his now bleeding feet as well. Still holding onto his sword, Eric had to take a moment to gather himself and focus on his next plan of action. After all, he had intended the walking on shadow technique to only be used on himself in a fashion akin to walking on water; the forceful and rather determined attempt by the other dragon to pierce Pyro added odd variables to the jutsu's maintenance. 

Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on January 21, 2020, 08:24:08 AM
The young Nara was more than grateful for the abilities of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, because he was able to use it's precognition ability to read the dragon's lips mere moments before he was finished. He wouldn't use that to his advantage by mimicking Reibi's words, but he would use it to prepare for the fight, setting his shadow to devour as many of the scrolls in one go before the lightshow.

Still with his hand on the wall, he would use his immense strength, Strongest Shield and sharp speed to set his attack into motion. As soon as Reibi was finished speaking, he was digging his fingers into the wall, ripped his hand from the stone wall in a wide swipe that would cover the entire area. As he did so, the rock burst from the wall and followed his hand in a screen of debris. In the midst of his arc, he would ignite the room in the boom, the swipe of his hand would angle the resulting explosion inwards, the majority of the attention being focused on Reibi. He was aware that it wasn't going to outright kill the dragons, but with their intentions being to drain his chakra, it would soften the blow to their senses.

Fortunately for him, he was closest to the threshold of the doorway, so he would us his speed to swiftly Body Flicker out of the room. He would eventually reappear in the midst of his previous location, the residue of his chakra tree still strong to his senses. [Find Eric and Pyro or eat Reibi to gain more knowledge of dragons and their lore? Choose?] Matatabi would bellow in his mind as he made his reappearance, already coursing her chakra through his being for the choice she knew he was aching to take.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on January 28, 2020, 06:11:00 AM
The dragons would be able to deal with the explosive release chakra using their collective chakra absorption technique; as previously mentioned, counterattacking with standard ninjutsu would be rather limited due to the chakra absorption abilities of the dragons. This meant that Jay's attempt to wound/startle Reibi and the dragons would be unsuccessful as the chakra would be drained from the explosive release attack.

Reibi in particular paid notice to Jay's relatively impressive speed using the body flicker technique; knowing that he would require considerable reinforcement to sap Jay of enough chakra quickly enough to disable him that way, Reibi sent out a warning via chakra communication that Jay, and by extension his assistant Strythio, were enemies. Once done with this, Reibi would turn to the other dragons in the Strateg

"Of the strategic blunders that I have made today, failing to resecure this fort will not be one of them! Head to the prisoner's room and ensure that his companions do not escape. Remain on guard; he is extremely fast."

Meanwhile outside, Draco's forces had been completely driven towards the Spyral Gates. Between the horns, chakra was concentrated and stabilized into a large portal, with tendrils reaching out and grabbing Draco's forces by the 3's and pulling them in. The portal led to outside of the Zone, but Draco's forces defiantly attempted a breakthrough towards the ground. This would be halted in no small part by the physical presence of the larger Reibi force. Realizing that they had enemies in the camp, the army decided that dealing with Draco and his dragons had top priority; once done with them (2 turns) they could then turn their full attention to supporting Reibi.

They would not immediately notice Jay body flickering back out into the open.

Since Jay had appeared near the Spyral Gate, he would be capable of seeing the tide of the overarching battle turn against Draco's forces. As the Spyral Gate led to the outside world, Jay would probably be able to sense any space-time markers from outside of the realm as well.

Pyro could feel the deathly grip of his bleeding quarry begin to slip, just enough for him to forcefully wrestle himself free. Though it would leave a wide gash along his afflicted arm, now freed from that, Pyro could maneuver to attempt to restrain the other dragon, though he only succeeded at this point in moving his neck out of the killzone.

That was quite fine from Eric's perspective; no longer having to maintain the walking on shadow technique remotely, he could focus on putting an end to the engagement. Eric could also sense a temporary reconnection to the shadow seals back in the ninja world, a consequence of the Spyral Gate's opening. Funneling shadow imitation chakra to his sword, Eric leapt forward and stabbed downward, seemingly going for the last opposing dragon's body when in fact he aimed for his shadow in an attempt to bind him (Kagemane Shuriken no Jutsu; Shadow Imitation Shuriken Technique).

The dragon of course would not just sit there and allow itself to be attacked twice; seeing plainly that Pyro was now free, the dragon would sink its claws into Pyro's body and hurl him towards Eric. The dragon would then follow this up with a blast of its fire breath, by now having deduced that Eric had the ability to use shadows as a sort of physical defense against his attacks.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on January 31, 2020, 06:42:31 AM
The man was torn between the two options and could not come up with any decision on how to proceed. He absolutely wanted to do both, but knew that it would be quite a difficult task. We may have to.. His thoughts would be ultimately drawn towards the sensation of his plethora of FTG markers in the human world. The Limited Zone had developed a hole in it and he immediately knew this was the invitation to retreat from the world, lest he truly become stuck here.

He could sense, while he hadn't been noticed by the fighting dragons around him, as of yet, the explosion from earlier did not result in any casualties and was mostly being absorbed. He wanted that draconic power of absorption and tried to use his Mind's Eye to focus on the flow of chakra of the ability. Based on his ability of Pulse Shaping, he was finely attuned with the flow of chakra and how techniques were constructed through them. The anatomy of a dragon was much different from the standard humanoid's though, so it would take many trials to succeed in replicating the ability. Finding Eric and Pyro is a must right now. He told his partner and quickly located the Grandmaster's chakra signature, noting that it was just as 'in use' as his own. Pyro's was still barely a blip on his radar, making a mental note that he might get bit for allowing him to get captured.

He would act swiftly, vanishing from his spot once again. This time, he was in pursuit of Eric and Pyro. As long as the bridge between their worlds remained open, he would be able to get both of them home, already know exactly which location he wanted to escape to.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on February 15, 2020, 08:17:30 PM
The dragon's counterattack was, a bit inconvenient to say the least. Now his sword was pointed at Pyro rather than at the opposing dragon. However, Pyro was relatively fire proof while Eric was not; knowing that he would strike Pyro first, Eric altered the chakra in his blade to alter his original plan by akwardly making the rat handseal with his sword still in hand; the sword, upon contact with Pyro's elongated shadow (thanks to the follow-up fire attack) would be sealed into Pyro's shadow instead of stabbing into him.

(Fūinjutsu: Kage Naraku Rō; Sealing Technique: Shadow Hell Prison)

Having no time at this point to perform any further handsigns, Eric would crash into Pyro, and though the breath would be knocked from Eric, the body of his dragon companion would be more than enough to shield him from the flames. Still it was a 20 foot dragon, and what goes up must come down, and if Pyro were to land on the glass ground below with Eric beneath him, then fire or no fire Eric would be toast.

Pyro, now definitely having been freed from all of his previous bonds by the throw of the dragon, saw an opportunity for the duo to escape. Timing his aerial doozy so that he would right himself, Pyro outstretched his wings and used his foward momentum to kill two birds with one stone; he would "catch" Eric with his chest and arms while making a mad glide towards the exit. Luckily for Eric, Pyro was not interested in simply crashing into the ground and flattening him. Running more off of adrenaline than willpower at this point, Pyro closed his wings and rolled into a bowl, landing at the entrance of the tunnel and physically barreling through the tunnel. To Jay and anyone who might be in the trenches headed in that direction, Pyro would resemble a giant slightly warped bowling ball quickly moving through the lane that was the tunnel, with Eric semi-safely wrapped in the center. The speed at which he moved would make him a flattening hazard for anyone human-size, though for larger beings like dragons it could still very well knock them aside.

Indeed, shortly after Reibi had given the orders, the dragons from the Strategic Room had begun making thier move towards the prison area. However, rather than having to go all the way to the dungeon, the prison came rolling towards them. Knowing that Pyro was fireproof and that he would still have been largely drained from his earliest encounter with them, the dragons confidently charged towards him, intent on stopping him from rolling, physically restrain him, and then torch the human-like companion to Jay within the dragon ball.

Draco's forces would have dwindled considerably at this point, the few who remained being thrown into the Spyral Gate like trash bags blown by a strong gust (1 turn till these dragons are intervention capable).
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on February 25, 2020, 07:52:54 AM
Wouldn't have to travel for long, and once he spotted a ball of rolling fire, his senses would tell him that it would be Pyro and Eric seemed to be inside as well. With the amount of chakra in the flames, sensing Eric inside was just a tad chore, but it was successful by the time the younger Nara had to go to work.

Blue aura surrounded him and as Matatabi's chakra infused with his, he extended a flush of chakra arms out to catch and safely stop the flaming Pyro, while seemingly smothering the flames inside. He had to act quickly as he was now face to face with the flameproof dragon ball and surrounded by many others out for their delicious blood. "See ya, Losers!!" He would comically goad as the trio would vanish in a flash of light, leaving the flaming realm behind while the portal remained open.

The location of the barrier could be up to speculation, but the reappearance of the fleeing trio would be in an nearly empty field, where their reappearance would result in the near destruction of the tree the marker was placed on. Jay powered down moments later and looked around at his old 'neighborhood' The area that previously held his home looked devoid of life and the small river that acted as his pool still looked the same though. Lightning Country, his home country, definitely held a beauty to him that would never change. "That feels better, I'm definitely gonna wanna go back there when I'm properly prepared though." He would smile brightly as he would make space between him and the dragon, so that he could unfurl and also prepare himself for Pyro to lash out at him.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on February 26, 2020, 05:38:02 AM
In a flash of light their quarries vanished all at once. The dragons were, initially at least, perplexed by this turn in events. After a brief search of the vicinity, they concluded that it was not shunshin, but rather, a space-time ninjutsu that had allowed their targets to escape. By this point Draco's forces would have been completely expelled.

Reibi half-scowled as he sensed the escape of his quarry's. Taking a mental note to be more careful next time, Reibi paced about the Strategic Room in thought. The scrolls that Jay had taken, if they were to get into Draco's possession, the next stage of their operation would become quite complicated. Assuming that their quarries would shortly turn the scrolls over to Draco, Reibi sent out a pulse of chakra and a signal to the other dragons.

They needed to move their timeline for attack up. Operation Crowne Jewel would need to commence without further delay...

---------------------------------------------

"What's this?" Pyro felt a cool chill all around him as they went from Hell's Basin to their final destination very quickly. Pyro unfurled and rolled, allowing Eric to drop to the ground and himself to go onto his feet, albeit, somewhat shakily. Still on high alert, he did a brief scan of the area until he noticed that, save for Jay and Eric, he was alone.

And no longer in Hell's Basin. "Where are we? Why are we here? We need to go back now!" Despite his shout, Pyro did not have much fight left in him, as any chakra sensor would be able to tell by this point.

Eric landed on the ground with a slight thud, groaning as he attempted to come to his knees, only to plop down to the ground. The reassuring presence of not being surrounded by dragon shadows allowed him to sigh in relief and exasperation. He then looked up to see Jay standing some distance away, from Eric's perspective, likely to avoid getting inadvertently rolled onto by Pyro.

"Thanks Jay. Was starting to think that maybe we should have just fought those dragons while we were all at full strength."

Pyro's eyes snapped to Eric. "You!"Then they snapped towards Jay. "And you too! You two not only interfered with my mission and handed me over to the enemy, you almost got me killed! I have to get back NOW!"

Eric shot to his feet, still aching mind you from his earlier feats, and visibly grimaced.  "Go back for what? We are in no shape to fight; besides, even if we did want to go back, we would probably be attacked on sight this time. Besides, Jay spent some time with the enemy, I"m sure he learned a thing or two that might satisfy 'King Draco'."

Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: JayJay on February 28, 2020, 12:44:50 AM
Jay was rather pleased with himself about predicting Pyro's anger and he greatly understood it as it was completely justified. Though, that could have very well been his fault as well, not informing the duo of Nara about what that mission was in the first place. He was about to retort on that matter when Eric shot back with the point that he hadn't even thought about. It made sense, they were definitely on the Wanted List and only them getting stronger would make it possible for them to overcome such a large mob of intelligent dragons.

Again, the young Nara was pressed to make his response when he realized something. It was faint, immensely so, but he was still able to sense that particular marker he placed on the earthen cocoon that housed the ancient dragon. He let his chakra flare, activating his Corrupted Sage Mode and leaped into the air, away from the others. His demonic aura was stifling to the Sage Dragon and uncomfortable to the elder Nara as he left the Natural Energy around them diseased for the time being. Jay acted quickly and with an outstretch of his hands, palms outwards, he let out a guttural roar as he proceeded to call upon the large coffin of dragon remains to him, every single piece that was connected to the chakra he'd inadvertently left behind.

With the large amount of chakra he was he offering towards the recall, it would be surprising if his plan failed. Of course, even if the Gate would then be in the process of closing, considering their was no explanation of why it ripped open in the first place. So, Jay was immensely banking on it remaining open for just that split second so that he could be successful in his endeavor. If he was successful, the large coffin would appear in the clearing with a thunderous boom, destroying an unprecedented amount of the landscape with its larger than life structure. Its appearance would vanish almost nearly as quickly as it would appear, because in the very next instance, Jay planned to seal the structure in one of his many tattoos that were lining his fingers. If he was successful, not only would his chakra be drained because of how large the remains were, but because he was high in the air, he would proceed to fall down and crash onto the ground which would knock him out of Sage Mode and leave him drained from his activities.
Title: Re: Burdens of the Sage [ Eric and Jay RP]
Post by: Eric on March 28, 2020, 07:46:05 PM
As Draco's forces had been fully expelled and the dragons' enemies would have been Eric, Jay, and Pyro, Jay had timed it fairly well in recalling his tagged treasure from earlier, as the Gate would begin closing shortly after their departure.  However, said closure would be interrupted by the hiraishin disappearance of the entire earthen coffin. Though no one possessed such sight on that side of things, one with the sharingan would speculate that the entire thing had been sucked into its own horns (paradoxal considering they were inside the coffin that Jay had made earlier, but for continuity sake, let's make the point that the gate itself manifested partially outside of the coffin).

The disappearance of the corpse startled all of the dragons into stunned silence. Even Reibi was at a loss of communication, whether telepathic or verbal, upon sensing what had occured.

Meanwhile on the other side, in the ninja world:


Jay's sudden move towards the sky confused both Eric and Pyro, the latter of whom had not exactly came down off of his anger as of yet. When the large corpse appeared in the landscape, it can be assumed that Jay's movement away from Eric and Pyro had been intended to make sure the crushed landscape did not include them. The appearance of the corpse caused Eric to temporarily re-enter fight-or-flight mode, only for it to vanish again. By this point he picked up on the disturbance of the surrounding natural energy.

 Seeing Jay drop towards the ground, the Nara connected the disturbance with the appearance of the corpse and its subsequent disappearance. Summoning air and wind style chakra about his person, Eric created a sizeable collection of Futon and air that he then re-shaped into a large claw of wind, reaching out with its Futon palm to slow Jay's descent to the ground until he more gently hit the ground.

Jūha Reppū Shō no Yoroi; Beast Tearing Gale Palm Armor

As his standard beast tearing gale palm would not have had the range to catch Jay in a timely fashion to slow his descent, Eric had relied on creating the armor version and extending the range with the increased volume (after all, he didn't need much of that extra for defense at the time being). Assuming Jay did not resist or anything of the sort, Jay's landing would resemble a thud more than a crash, though he would likely still be knocked out of sage mode from his exertions.

Much like his dragon counterparts, Pyro was initially stunned at Jay's feat and thievery; his anger shifted into urgency, hardly waiting for the younger Nara to reach the ground before exclaiming, "Wherever you put the Spyral Gate, you must hand it over to Draco at once!"

Pyro, though still quite drained, finally shifted to weary excitement as he walked up towards Jay who, by this point, would have been dropped off to the ground by Eric's technique (assuming Jay went along for the whole ride down).  "Yes, Draco will be quite pleased with this..."