Cold as Ice

[Xaldius]

The thorned knight stalked his way through the alleys of the second district, watching a variety of strange creatures go about their business from a distance.  They were like dark shadows and evoked a strange sensation in him that he didn't fully comprehend.
How strange...
The knight walked out of his alley and onto the edge of the street and made his way down the road, still keeping his distance from the creatures.
These things could not have made these constructs... where are the world's TRUE inhabitants?

[Kotta Shi]

"What's this?" Kotta shi said, sitting on a nearby bench. Upon looking, Xaldius would see that the question was not aimed at him, but rather at a shadow to the human's side. "I said bring me a soda. So-da. This is a popsicle. How about I turn you into one so that the rest of you useless bastards know what I'm looking for?" Kotta shi asks, motioning to the twin blue nocturnes above him to come closer. "Oi, you follow him this time and make sure he brings back a soda. And that it's ice-cold." Kotta says with a relaxed smile. "god, guard duty is boring!

[Xaldius]

The metal figure paused and turned to face Kotta as he berated the heartless. He remained aloof, simply watching and listening to what he said.
What are these things?
He brooded over the man sitting before him.
Is he their master?

[Kotta Shi]

"Tch." Kotta Shi said, looking around. "Now I don't have anyone to help me scout. This is ridiculous. Stupid Florian. Stupid Xerj." Kotta whined, before yawning.
"I should have just flash-frozen that whole district, and that stupid girl, too. See who calls me "frosty" then."

[Xaldius]

The knight pondered what to do for a few moments, watching the man's behavior.
Something about that man... I..
Xaldius began walking tensely toward the man.  He took the shield off his back with his left hand and drew his sword with his right as he took his first few strides toward the man.
I must silence him!
Xaldius raised the sword over his left shoulder and swung the blade as hard as he could. A flurry of six thorns detached from the sword and pierced one of the nocturnes levitating near Kotta Shi. Xaldius then put his shield arm forward and a chain flew out from under his gauntlet and wrapped around the other. The chain rapidly retracted and he grasped the nocturne in his hand. He looked over the creature for a few moments. He tightened his grip. So much so, that his hand began to quiver. He kept tightening his grip until the creature exploded in his hand and became nothing more than black smoke that quickly faded away.

[Kotta Shi]

Kotta shi watched, as Xaldius grabbed and crushed the nocturne. "Hey, those can be hard to summon... Hmm, what kind of heartless are you?" Kotta asked, a grin never leaving his face as he cocked his head at the new arrival. "Never seen a heartless-killing heartless before. But you'll serve." Kotta said, standing up straight as he made a crushing gesture with his hands towards Xaldius that would cause no effect. "Alright, you're going to join my group now. Go get me my soda, chainy."

[Xaldius]

The knight grasped his own head as Kotta Shi spoke again and groaned.  He started to rise up into the air and hung suspended a few inches off the ground.
With one hand on his faceplate still, he raised his sword and pointed it at the other.
"You..."  He growled in a low tone.  "You must be silenced..."

[Kotta Shi]

Kotta Shi seemed a little surprised by this, flexing his han several more times in unsuccessful attempts to make Xaldius move as he wanted. "Not a heartless, then... And Bossy to boot... some might say you have..." Kotta Grinned "A cold personality!"
With that, Kotta immediately fired a combo of three different blizzard spells towards Xaldius, using concentrated shotgun blasts of ice, before also summoning the shadow and blue nocturne back to his side.

[Xaldius]

The eerie figure quickly flew behind a lamp post and the body stretched upward to match a similar shape to avoid the incoming flurry.  After the blasts had gone by, he returned to his normal proportions and continued levitating on his way, doing a quick half-spin to face Kotta again.  He fired a pair of chains in a V-shape past Kota.  They embedded themselves into the bench.  Xaldius then ripped it out of the ground in order to strike him from behind with it.
"Your voice makes every bit of me tense..." Xaldius grumbled at him.

[Kotta Shi]

"You dodged that..." Kotta said with some shock, noticing Xaldius's decision, before the lamp-post shattered a little while after, made brittle by the ice. Kotta moved to dodge Xaldius's chains, but stopped when they went past him, grinning. "Hey, looks like your aim's not...Urk!" Kotta was cut off as the bench shattered on his head, knocking him forward as the bench itself shattered.
Winded, Kotta stopped talking but went to grab the hilt of the scimitar on his belt.

[Xaldius]

The eerie figure quickly raised his sword once more and swung in a wide arc as he had earlier, this time launching eight thorns at Kotta as he went for his weapon.  In the same motion, he used his other hand to raise the shield behind the swing in preparation for the inevitable counter-attack.

[Kotta Shi]

Kotta dodged underneath the thorns just as they were about to reach him, ducking and rolling underneath. "I'm sick of you! Freeze!" Kotta yelled, firing another trio of Blizzard spells at Xaldius, using his scimitar as a point of focus.

[Xaldius]

Xaldius braced himself for the incoming blasts of frost magic. The first one slammed against the shield hard. He held his ground. The second time, he staggered slightly when it hit the shield. A bit of the ice spread to his arm and shoulder. With a split-second decision, he fired a chain from his right arm toward Kotta's legs as he stretch his upper body to the side to evade the third bolt. He followed through with his motion, and "morphed" his way through the air, still not letting himself touch the ground even once.

[Kotta Shi]

Kotta's eyes widened as he saw the chain coming, barely parrying the weapon with his own scimitar. the clash of the metal could be heard by any nearby, and Kotta felt his arm numb slightly just from deflecting the chain. "Not bad for a doll. Artillery!" Kotta yelled, the blue nocturnes firing from either side of Xaldius.
The shadow chose to morph towards Xaldius, only unflattening when it was in melee range.
Kotta, for his part, appeared to begin chanting something.

[Xaldius]

Xaldius let out a low groan as his whole body violently convulsed for a moment, though the ice bolts did not strike him until after he did so.  His body froze up for a few moments.
"Your voice!"  He growled in a sudden fit.  "It makes every bit of my being ache!"  He shattered himself free of the ice, though a few plates on his body exploded into pieces along with the ice around his form.  A few broken chains in the mail also hung out of him.
He quickly threw a quick, and very hard, kick to the Shadow's head, hoping to punt it directly at Kotta.  He placed weapons on his back and fired four chains in both directions into the ground.  He then pulled hard and ripped two massive chunks of the road up, both had to be at least the size of a car each, and began spinning them like two morning stars while marching at Kotta and the Nocturnes.

[Kotta Shi]

"Your stupid accent does the same for me." Kotta replied with what he at least thought was an excellent comeback. Seeing the shadow coming for him, he grabbed the creature, and, having an idea, frosted over the creature into a spiky ball of ice before throwing it back at Xaldius.
"That's some absurd physical strength! Tch..." Kotta groaned, seeing the building coming towards him. An icy blue glow came over his frame as he pointed at one of the pieces. "Blizzara!" Kotta yelled, a blast of ice coming out capable of freezing over the roof-piece if it struck, followed by two more, one aimed at Xaldius's other weapon and the third at Xaldius himself.

[Xaldius]

Xaldius' smashed one of the improvised morningstars down onto the incoming spike ball.  However, one of the incoming blizzaras froze that one to the ground.  Xaldius struggled for a moment before quickly turning and hurling the other chunk of rock at Kotta.  His chains were frozen just after they released the boulder.  The ice spread down the chains, leaving them towering above him at an awkward angle.
He took the third blast head-on.  His whole body froze instantly and he found himself unable to move.
No... I cannot fall now...
He struggled, but the layer of ice around him did not even crackle.

[Kotta Shi]

"huff... I hate using that spell, it's draining." Kotta Shi whined, before looking at Xaldius, "But I bet you hate it a lot more, huh? How about I teach you some manners." Kotta said, coming closer to Xaldius, before throwing a large roundhouse at his frozen form. "That's for thinking you could fight me. No one can Frickin fight me and win. You got it?"

[Xaldius]

The ice shattered and the suit of armor toppled into many pieces. Chains scattered everywhere. Each piece quickly exploded into bits of colorless aura that seemed to just hang in the air as if time itself had stopped.
I cannot fall now...
The energy began slowly converging into the spot where the ice block had once been and began sinking into the ground like water.

[Kotta Shi]

"As easy as I'd hoped. what a waste of my time." Kotta shi said, sheathing his scimitar before walking away from my battle. "I should probably check in with Florian and Xerj soon, there's no telling what other weird things are about if there might be more of these not-heartless about.

[Xaldius]

The energy disappeared completely into the ground. An eerie silence fell over the streets.
I will not die here...
An ancient, worn suit of armor beneath the ground began to awaken and change form slightly.
This shall not be my grave!
The silence was broken as a metal gauntlet shot up out of the ground, sending small pebbles flying about a short distance in front of Kotta. The hand grabbed a bit of the ground and began pulling the rest of itself up. A new suit of armor emerged. This one, while far more worn than the last, looked like it had been finer crafted back in the days it was used in. It had a rather large shield in its left hand, a spear on its back, and an estoc on its left hip. It hovered up out of its hole and settled on the ground slightly hunched over.
"I'm not finished with you yet..." A familiar voice said with great strain and effort apparent in its tone.
A few plates of metal and handfuls of dirt fell off of him as he reached to his hip and drew the estoc.

[Kotta Shi]

Kotta shi looked back with obvious surprise. "Blizzard!" he yelled in a slightly panicked tone, firing off a trio of blasts and pointing his attacks to fire at Xaldius in a slightly staggered pattern.

[Xaldius]

Xaldius hopped to the side to evade the first blast of ice.  He shot a chain out of both shoulders and they flew past Kotta and embedded themselves into the ground behind him.
Xaldius floated up off the ground and curled himself behind his shield and began retracting the chains, which caused him to catapult forward at Kotta.  The other two ice blasts impacted against the face of the shield and created a thin layer of ice over its face.  The surface reflected an image of Kotta as the metal man rocketed at him.

[Kotta Shi]

Kotta looked with alarm at the chains around him. "No way... no way this is happening!" Kotta yelled, before drawing his scimitar. As Xaldius rocketed towards Kotta, Kotta made a quick motion over his scimitar, the blade seeming to gain a frosty energy, before swipin upward at Xaldius. "Blizzard Edge!" He yelled.

[Xaldius]

The impact against the shield shattered the ice on the surface, and the inertia carried little shards forward along the path Xaldius had been going on. A bit of ice formed on Xaldius' arm behind the shield and crept up through one of the chains in his mail. He retracted the one from his right shoulder, but the left remained extended, as he found it impossible to bring it back.
Xaldius hovered in his position for a moment before thrusting the estoc's blade forward into Kotta with the shield still raised.

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