The Guardian of Water threw himself at me, slinging blasts of flame and water. While the water did little but bruise my fragile humanoid figure, the fire singed away the darkness I controlled around me. I thrust back with a colossal mass of dark mass, knocking him to the ground.
Seemingly unconscious, I turn away from the feeble Guardian. As I do, however, see a glowing blade of liquid fire protrude from the front of my chest, while the recovering Guardian healed himself with water. Losing mind, losing matter, I begin to sink towards the ground, my vision blacking over.
The Water Guardian's triumph is short-lived, however, as my slight form melts into the shadow that has closed around him, and be sees me assume the blackened shadow form, a living nightmare. He takes a step back, steeling his will, but I don't have time for toil. Now sporting my original power, I have many more Guardians to dispatch, and this fool with his healing factor isn't worth the effort. I reach out, my ethereal form growing and fuming, and grab the struggling Guardian, before flinging him brutally into the fiery depths of the crater.
((And now for what
really happened. If you wouldn't mind, Jivvi, could you remove this post so future readers don't get confused?
and me when I eventually turn this into a book really long story.
--------
Ross charges at the opaque darkness with his trident, but when he would have struck the being, he meets no resistance. Instead, he is thrown off balance, and the darkness moved back a few feet and launched a large orb of solid, pulsing darkness at the Guardian of Water. Ross is sent flying, and is significantly wounded. He manages to stand and fling a portion of the flame emanating from his orb.
The fireball directly hits the silhouette, but neither the heat nor the impact have any effect. The light, however, is absorbed into the shadows of the figure, and it stumbles, partially out of pain but mostly because it was caught off guard.
Seeing the darkness' moment of weakness, Ross takes the opportunity to further reduce the the water in the mixture, leaving almost no water remaining in the flames. The fire burns intensely and the inferno spirals out of control, creating a brilliant flash. Exhausted and badly burned, Ross stumbles back in hopes to reach the water before the enemy can retaliate.
As the inferno reaches the dark figure, it hunches over, and seems to glow. The light radiating from the form is excruciating, and the being quickly pulls all of the darkness in the immediate area in around it to snuff out the light. Severely wounded and its powers temporarily inhibited, the darkness sulks back into the shadows to fight another day.
Ross sprints into the water. At first nothing, then excruciating pain.
Agh...What's going on...This should feel...good- AGH... <ragged breathing> ...It feels like I'm swim- ugh..in acid.... To ease the pain, Ross tried to create a bubble around himself. Tried. The spell had no effect, but the effort knocked him out.
Ross found himself once again in the endless ocean where he first met Poseidon. In front of him, suspended in the water, were two orbs. One he almost could not see, but he knew it to be the orb that he had originally received. The other was the polar opposite to the blue orb: Contained in a sphere were swirling shades of red, orange, yellow, and in the center, blue. This time, Poseidon did not show himself, he simply said one word: "Choose."
Ross took no action, only considered which element he want. He wanted both, but he could only have one; which he'd choose, he didn't know yet. Poseidon decided that further prodding was in order. "Ross....You know you can't wield another Guardian's element. Today you have showed not only that you were willing to wield it, but that you'd consider deserting your own aspect for it!"
Ross felt silly shouting at something he couldn't see, but he knew Poseidon would hear. "I did what I had to do! Light's lost his mind and is probably trying to kill Alouette. Pyro is dead. What else can deal with darkness? Surely not water alone! I was the only one there to fight it! Pyro's element had to have gone into the orb for a reason; a world without fire is a world without heat, and thus without life!" Ross was actually a bit surprised to find himself defending fire with such conviction, as if he'd already made up his mind.
Poseidon's voice rose in a fury. Not only had Ross considered leaving water for fire, but now he had the nerve to argue with him, the aspect himself! "Pyro was a menace! Do you even remember what he did to the last world!?"
"
He didn't do anything. It was a demon!" Ross' voice rose to match. He was so angry that he didn't care that there was nothing to see him. He wouldn't have cared if there was something.
"He just told you that to get you on his good side so he could kill you again!"
Ross voice fell, but his conviction remained. "No. He killed you. Not me. If he wasn't dead....I wouldn't need to talk to
you for guidance." Ross took an orb in each hand and slammed them together, creating the blue orb with orange flecks he'd had before. The moment he touched the flame orb, however, his entire body was once more consumed by the excruciating pain he'd felt before.
This must have been what Pyro felt any time he was in water... Ross swam up frantically, going as fast as he could using the orbs aid. He could see light above. He could feel the pressure decrease. He could see the waves. And when his head came above the water, he woke up, still covered in burns, on the shore.
((I hope I've gotten the point across that Ross' problems aren't with other Guardians, but with his own emotions (and Poseidon). And please, if there's anyone who doesn't want me to have use of fire at all, just say something. Though it is notable that Ross' most significant power, fast regeneration in water, is now negligible. He basically traded it for the use of 'raw frost fire' as Catco
<3 called it.))