The barren tundra which dominated the caps of the planet icer eradicated all life that was not strong enough to sustain itself, such a place made Hachi feel at home, as Hell had a similar way of dealing with its creatures. The flesh rending wind howled as the daemon slowly staggered through the cold and the hail to find the bitter old changeling who knew how to bend the very ice to his will, something that Hachi thought would come in handy very soon on the ice covered planet of icer.
It took weeks to traverse the hellish wasteland, but finally Hachi stumbled across a massive castle, nearly invisible from a distance thanks to the driving hail. As the daemon approached the frozen gates, a rather short and old changeling had taken place on the other side, asking in a harsh and cold tone “what do you want from me boy, I don’t intend to entertain a guest”
To this Hachi bowed lightly, knowing what he was looking for “not a guest, a pupil. Though you live all the way at icer’s end, word of mouth spreads well beyond” he looked to the changeling for any signs of change in his expression. Not a muscle moved on the bitter old man until he spoke “I didn’t ask for an explanation, but since your intentions are clear…” the being before him smiled cruelly “I have within these frigid halls a son, should you converse with him and still find it within your black heart to murder him in cold blood, I may consider trying to train you”
What an odd test the old man had given Hachi, though he found it was easily within his ‘morals’ to do so, there was always a chance the son could offer something more substantial in return for his life, or an even greater possibility was this old man’s son would prove to be impossible to kill. With all things considered, Hachi felt no other option than to agree, lest he be forced into the ever present cold “Alright, I will find your son and show you just how dark my heart is”
With those words, the frozen gate creaked and allowed Hachi to wander the frozen halls of Freezeflash’s castle and free to find the target in question. Every inch of the castle was pure and solid ice, harder than steel and etched with intricate designs. The frozen halls were numerous but it didn’t take long for Hachi to find the proper room, the door was well over ten feet tall and made of jet black ice. He pushed the door open slowly, the creaking sound and slowly the room was brought to light.
The room was made for a young changeling child, and such a child sat on a plush bed crying. The daemon moved over to the bed “what’s wrong?” he affected sympathy very well and let the child speak through his tears. “F-Freeze flash…he won’t l-let me leave…” the child stammered and wiped the tears from his face as he motioned for Hachi to pick him up “please…t-take me away from here…” the little changeling child looked up to him with large shining eyes.Added (02.16.2010, 12:23 Pm)
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Hachi picked the child up slowly, resting his small head against his shoulder and holding him up with one arm “you’ll not suffer more in this frozen palace, a far colder place awaits you in hell” he said calmly as the child stiffened up against Hachi’s touch, almost awaiting what was going to happen. Hachi was not acting in mercy, but rather in reservation when he reached his free hand around the child’s neck, closing off the airway. The child squirmed and writhed for a little while until he passed out, and then expired silently.
“Well done, without leaving a speck of blood…it takes an amoral person to just kill someone, it takes a true conniving and evil soul to hold an innocent child and slowly strangle the life from the pure body” Freeze flash spoke, obviously watching the spectacle the entire time and obviously pleased with the results. “Also, I knew you were coming and snatched that babe from one of the large changeling cities. Like I’d bring into this world such a weak and soft child” he added before walking off.
Hachi was shown to his training area; it was a freezing cold dome of a room, the light being brought in by a circular hole at the top of the dome, shedding light to the layers of blood frozen under and on the ice, giving it a sanguine color to it. Freeze flash stood across from the demon, dressed in what appeared to be a traditional form of dressing and he spoke in a more formal tone “You will learn to form ice around you and the best way to start that is to make you force the ice from your body” and in the blink of an eye, freeze flash was in front of Hachi and had manipulated the ice around them in order to trap Hachi from the hips down and forced him forward with his arms trapped to the elbows in the ice “and now…to create a need for you to escape” flash freeze with a cold smile.
The evil Freeze flash took a free hand to create a staff of ice, rearing it back and breaking it against Hachi’s back, creating a deep mark and chilling the demon to the bone “you must free yourself, or die, in either case it changes nothing for me” and with that, freeze flash slammed another staff into the helpless daemon. The minutes passed slowly into hours until the sun went down, through the first day Hachi nearly pulled free several times of his own strength but was quickly forced back into place.
Freeze flash stopped suddenly at sundown and smirked “alright boy, because you didn’t complete this part of your training in time, you now have to deal with…’down time’ where you will be stuck in this dome without light, without heat, without freedom for the entire night…and when I return you will get lashed again until you break out or you survive the day and spend the night the same way” and with that the light from the ceiling was cut off and Hachi was alone to slowly freeze in the night.
Added (02.16.2010, 12:23 Pm)
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The hours crept on, Hachi tried valiantly to feel his energy and force the ice away, but so far all he could feel was the frostbite creeping through his body. The ice around seemed to creep up his body and a thin layer of frost and ice while he slipped into an uneasy ‘sleep’. In the morning, light blinded him and woke him up along with a loud “morning boy, you better get ready” freeze flash called and stood behind him with a pillar of ice in his hand “good luck today, good to see you’re not dead” he smiled wide and slammed the pillar into Hachi and shattered the thin layer of ice around him.
Hachi’s back was a mass of lines of purple and red marks, and finally he snapped. Growling and pulling against his restraints, Hachi’s aura covered him and forced the ice away with the power of ice manipulation and let him climb up with some effort. Freeze flash smiled “well you didn’t die…like most of the people who come here” he chuckled and sat down “ready for the second phase of the training?”
Hachi caught his breath, trying to get feeling in his limbs again, not wanting to seem weak by asking for some warmth and in the back of his mind fearing freeze flash would refuse to train him further if he asked. The old man saw this in Hachi’s eyes and laughed “the next task actually requires you to be in extreme heat…and just to warn you, when you do have feeling again, it’ll only be pain” Freeze flash laughed and beckoned him to an iron room, this one significantly smaller and square. Before the door was locked, Freeze flash had typed something in near the terminal and walked in with him before explaining “this room will gradually become warm, then hot, the temperature will rise until either you are no more, or you physically create the ice. You see it’s one thing to work with what’s readily available, but it’s a whole new thing entirely when you have to produce it yourself”
The words were sinking in as Hachi felt relieving warmth from all sides, but quickly felt the temperature rise outside of his comfort zone and into the detrimental. Degree by degree, Hachi tried to form the ice and every time fell short to water vapor, there seemed to be no time to create it instantly, and for every moment he failed, it got tougher and tougher to survive. Freeze flash was considerably more comfortable than Hachi, having created a slowly thickening layer of ice to balance out whatever painful effects the heat would have, merely watching the demon struggle and steam before him without ever intending to move a muscle to help.
The heat was starting to scorch the skin, to Freeze flash it seemed another pupil failed his test and he spoke up as if to torment Hachi with this fact “Don’t worry kid, only real warriors can complete my training, I commend you for passing the first test, but this second place was designed both to weed out the week and thrive with the strong, but also helps keep this skill in the hands of the competent and not…frail warriors such as yourself” and with that sat back to watch the daemon expire.
Slowly Hachi’s skin steamed, becoming small vapors but quickly expanding across his body and obscuring him from sight “I’m no frail warrior…” he growled behind the steam “your technique thrives on the cold harbored in your heart…in your soul” Hachi said in a strained tone as steam began to fill the area “my soul may be black…but it does not burn with a passion, nor does it freeze with vengeance” through the steam the outline of a wolf was seen, Hachi on his hands and feet, slowly standing, his aura around him like the shadow of a wolf. “I survive!” with Hachi’s shout came a rush of cold air from his body “and I thrive!” the second shout sent a deep chill across the room for a few moments “and finally…I am anything but weak!” with the final shout the steam was gone, the heat was gone, and the canine outline was gone, leaving Hachi standing with a cold look and his limbs circled by small crystals of ice.
Added (02.16.2010, 12:24 Pm)
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Frost began to creep across the walls and floor of the metallic room as Freeze flash began to slowly clap, smirking casually “very well, maybe you’re not going to die here like most others who grace these halls…but you know you won’t get any rest right? The final task is to face me and show me truly you can thrive and fight with this talent like you so boldly state” the old man stated and walked him out of the inferno room, leading him to the courtyard of his ice palace where the entire area was constantly exposed to icer’s eternal winter with the words “abandon all hope, boy, you’ll wish you died in that furnace”
The old changeling readied himself and sent a shockwave of ice towards the daemon even before he had a chance to ready himself properly and sent him into one of the massive walls of ice around the courtyard. Hachi got up, watching what Freeze flash was doing, though many probably didn’t realize it, freeze flash was teaching through action and demanded a mimic or an adapted form of what he was doing to survive to fight ice with ice. Attack after attack Hachi defended or got blind-sided, each time being slammed harshly against the walls of the courtyard and followed by harsh taunts from the old trainer “what happened to that brash will of yours mutt? You can still die here you know, so keep on your feet!” the old man wanted to get Hachi to react, to act in the heat of the moment, and die.
Spikes, walls, pillars, fists, needles, all made of ice and every one of them Hachi took, the wear of the battle evident all across his body; a bleeding cut across his cheek, a puncture wound on his side, even gashes on his back, and still he persisted in watching and learning from the punishing blows until Freeze flash spoke. “if you’re not going to strike back, I should end this now…but I’ll give you a chance kid, one….free….strike” the last words baiting the daemon on more than any of the taunts prior, and Hachi took the challenge.
“I was not staying my hand out of fear or lack of skill Freeze…I was staying my hand to watch…to learn” Hachi said as he closed the gap to ten feet and pointed “I had to be sure before striking, to prove you wrong!”. A powerful stomp from Hachi raised the snow and ice from the ground to form the head of a wolf and in a moment the ice attack closed the small gap and bit into Freeze flashes shoulder, something that should have forced the bitter old man to accept Hachi had learned well.
Hachi’s attack disbursed and the only thing left was Freeze flash’s chuckling “so that’s what you did? You made an impressive attack, I suppose” the old man brushed a bit of snow from his shoulder, bearing not a single mark. The old man saw anger and disbelief in the daemons eyes and smiled cruelly “you thought I’d be bested by a technique I created? More so, you thought I could be bested by someone as weak as you?” Freeze flash was taunting but his words held a ring of truth to them “ you may have mastered the attack to the best of your meager abilities, but I’m the one who created it…it’s useless on me boy” the old changeling moved forward and folded his arms before Hachi with a smirk “but it wouldn’t shame me if you were allowed to live and bear my symbol”
Talk like Freeze flash used to try and get Hachi to react was common in hell and amongst the people he usually dealt with, and the daemon was far beyond caring what the old warrior had to say as long as he was left alive and to thrive with the new found skill. The changeling spoke again, as if noting a minor detail “This is not my true home…I wander, and leave such hovels to be taken by the winds of icer as they see fit and your coming signals my time to depart from this place…you may stay here if you wish and also, if you wish you can find a sauna to relax the body and soul” the old man pointed to an iron door beside the entrance to the courtyard.
Freeze flash walked to the gates and shrugged “goodbye, pupil, you will find a proper Gi in the main room along with the necessities to survive here…aside from the sauna you will find no other luxury or comfort” and with that he stepped into the white abyss and disappeared without a trace, leaving Hachi to do anything he wanted. The first thing the daemon did was relax in the sauna, letting the ordeal of the day sweat out of him and let his body slowly relax from the torture the wretched old changeling had inflicted on him and when he found the main bedroom and the promised Gi, he had burned it where he found it, wanting nothing but the skill to remind him of his time with the old changeling.
OOC: 2,560 pl
demon advantage doubles word gains, so words=pl, X1.25 for sauna use
total pl game= 3,313
