[SP-F6] <<Calming the Soul>> (Completed)

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius had been at the 'supposed' location of the waterfall. He had the coordinates right, but there was nothing here but more jungle. He had been searching for hours and came up with nothing. He was now tired, covered in sweat, mud, and god-knows what else was in the jungle. Bugs swarmed him and constantly pestered him as he swatted at them. He had been pissed off for most of the search; now though; he was too tired to be mad. He slouched down onto the ground, a defeated look to his face. He sighed heavily, calming down and letting the bugs land on him biting him. He didn't care anymore. It was too draining to be pissed off at everything so he put his head in his hands and closed his eyes into his palms, sitting there and resting.

[Darius Verand 0]

After a short while, Darius sighed again and took his head out of his hands to look at the jungle that had led him in circles for hours, only to jolt back in shock. Before him was no longer the harsh jungle that was there before, but a peaceful waterfall and cliff. There were no bugs. No annoying sounds. Nothing but the waterfall. Darius stood, looking skeptically at the entire ordeal. This certainly was crazy. A randomly appearing waterfall. Darius laughed aloud to himself.

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius then approached the waterfall, seeing the large, flat stones in front of it. He was told that if he could clear his mind while on those stones, he would face a reflection of himself. He tried just that. He went and sat on the stones, closing his eyes as he rested his tower shield beside him. He tried clearing his mind, but it was a impossible cause. His mind was always restless, always thinking, and always curious. It came with the slight insanity. He sighed again, his etched with lines of stress and sadness. How could he conquer a reflection of himself if he couldn't conquer his own mind?

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius then realized his flaw. He had nothing true to concentrate on to clear his mind. He nodded to himself, smirking while doing so and laughing hysterically as he opened his menu and brought out his honey. He had so few uses left, but they would be put to good use. He took a spoonful and put it in his mouth, savoring the sweet flavor and closing his eyes in bliss. He returned the honey to his inventory and let the honey sit on his tongue. He concentrated slowly onto the taste of the honey, until it wore off and left his mind blank. He opened his eyes and before him stood his reflection.

[Darius Verand 0]

The reflection wasn't exactly him though. Its hair was jet black and its eyes were a deep crimson. It wore no armor, just a simlpe pair of brown shorts and a simple longsword. It tilted its head at him slightly, seemingly amused at Darius' startled state. Darius stood, picking up his shield and drawing his sword. His face was scrunched with confusion. It was supposed to be his reflection of his fears and insecurities, but it was the exact opposite as him. He just noticed, too, that it was standing on the water. It slowly walked off of it over to the flat ground next to the rocky cliff that the waterfall fell from. Darius followed and stood across the small patch of flat rock, staring himself down.

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius stood before his reflection, growing angrier by the second. He hated the look of himself, or the reflection of himself. His alter ego. His demon. The rage boiled deep inside of him and sent a wave of heat rushing through his body. Technically, the reflection was still a monster and not a player, even though it looked like it; therefore, abilities would work on it. He smirked wolfishly to himself. He would beat this reflection like he beat everything else. He took in a deep breath and roared at his reflection, every once of hatred inside him boiling to be let loose.

[Darius Verand 0]

'Howl' seemed to work on the reflection because it charged at Darius, taking the sword in a two-handed grip. Its face was completely clear though. It didn't seem angry, or enraged. It puzzled Darius because 'Howl' was supposed to raise the 'Hate' status on enemies effected by howl, but then he remembered that he was in a fight and couldn't stand about contemplating the world. He scowled and held his tower shield out in front of him, ready to drop down into a crouch and hide behind it as the reflection swung at him.

[Darius Verand 0]

As the reflection got close to Darius, it pulled its arms back to its right, readying a horizontal swing. Darius smirked to himself. A horizontal swing would never work against the bulk of the tower shield. As Darius started to drop to one knee, he saw his own reflection smirk, as if it knew something he didn't..... "Shut it!," Darius said to himself angrily. he needed to concentrate. As he waited for the impact of the blade on shield so he could counter-attack, the most bizzare thing happened.

[Darius Verand 0]

He watched as the blade of a sword phased through the left side of his shield, sliding through it without resistance. He was too shocked to move or dodge and the blade kept going, right across his chest in a massive blow dealing three damage. He fell backwards onto his back and looked up, eyes wide as his reflection let out a chain of laughter. Darius understood now. It wasn't supposed to be a reflection of his fears and insecurities, it was supposed to reveal them to him. His first was not being able to block or rely on his armor... which explained why the blade phased through and his armor didn't reduce any damage from the critical. He scrambled to his feet, seething with rage at how he was humiliated; an insecurity of his. His face was nothing but lines of rage.

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius took deep, heavy breaths. He would show this reflection of his. He growled, charging 'Sonic Leap' as his blade glowed crimson. He pulled his hand back, charging at his reflection, and the last few steps he launched at it, roaring in pure hate as he slashed downwards. As Darius had charged his reflection, it had charged an ability of its own, its blade glowing a bright blue. As Darius used his ability, it used its ability.

[Darius Verand 0]

As Darius swung downwards, his reflection swung diagonally upwards to the right while using 'Parry'. His reflection's blade caught Darius' in the wedge where the crosspiece met the blade, gaining leverage and flinging it out of Darius' grasp into the waters under the waterfall. Darius gaped in shock at what just happened. It had disarmed him easily with one move. It had used his anger against him. Anger brought power, but recklessness. It used that against him. It thought rather than did. Darius found yet another flaw: his rage.

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius had been gaping at the ground in astonishment at how fast his world had come crashing down around him because of this reflection. He looked up to his reflection, only to see it wear a neutral face as it observed the way he acted. He started to visibly shake. The reflection's sword was stalled in the air, where it had stopped after disarming Darius. The reflection looked him in the eye before bringing it down diagonally the way it came, slashing across Darius' chest again, doing three more damage. He stumbled backwards, letting a out a weak moan. He stumbled backwards more, shaking violently. He had just discovered a few new fears: being helpless and facing utter defeat without getting to prove to himself what he was worth. He turned. Then ran.

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius returned nearly a week later to the same spot he was before. He had a different air about him. An air that was never existent in him before. He had changed. He had driven all insecurities and fear from himself. His beliefs would NOT allow weakness. He stood in the same spot he sat before finding the waterfall and closed his eyes. Almost instantly he opened his eyes, being transported to the waterfall area he had been in before. Now he was ready to truly face and defeat his reflection.

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius went and stood on the flat stones in front of the rushing waterfall. Before he faced himself, he must be equal. There could be no advantages given other than the mind working better. Darius opened his menu, a truly neutral and stoic expression on his face as he unequipped everything, down to his underwear. He then sat down on the stones and closed his eyes. He opened them a few seconds later to find his reflection standing before him, only in its underwear too. It nodded, whether in approval of Darius stepping closer to beating his fears and insecurities, or for whatever reason it wanted, before walking over onto the rocky patch next to the waterfall. Darius followed.

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius and his reflection took the same stance at the same time after they locked eyes. Feet spread apart, hands up in front of their face in a boxer stance, but their hands were held loose, not bunched into fists. They stared each other down for what seemed like eternity before moving in unison, stepping foot in front of foot towards each other to cover the three yard gap between them. Darius wondered how the fight would turn out. He was fighting something that knew his every move. Something that acted exactly like he did. He took a deep breath, exhaling loudly. He dismissed all thoughts from his head. His mind was clear and he now concentrated solely on the fight.

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius would test it. He needed to know whether it expected him to fight the way he normally did, or that if the knowledge that it will know everything he does will influence it to believe Darius will act unnaturally. But... it would be doing the same thing. It would have the same thought process as Darius. To analyze what strategy he would use. A wisp of anger flared within Darius, but died as fast as it came. His face was nothing but a stoic state. It would need to be to defeat himself. Enough thinking thought. Enough of it all. They were within striking distance. Darius stared into his own eyes, then made the first move.

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius stepped forward with his left foot, reeling his right arm back, still leaving his fingers loose, while slightly extending his left arm towards his reflection. It looked as if Darius would go for the Haymaker right away. His reflection knew better though. As Darius feigned with the Haymaker, he shot his left arm forward the extra foot, trying to catch his reflection off guard with a light, but shocking strike to face; Darius' fingers clenching together into a fist that spun at the last second to gain extra momentum and pack more of a punch; since most didn't expect an attack from the left arm since it acted as a stabilizer for the heavy hit. It was a clever tactic and one Darius always thought of, so his reflection knew it too. What his reflection didn't know, was that the attack was simply a ploy to leave its lower regions open. Darius followed through with the momentum of his left handed punch, spinning in a 360 degree turn to his right on his left foot as he pulled his right leg up to prep for the kick that was to come.

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius lashed out with his right leg, adding extra momentum and force to it from the spin. He was aiming for the inside of his reflection's left thigh. If he could hit it, his reflection would be unbalanced. Darius did hit his reflection's thigh. His reflection's face had been covered to block the blow with Darius' left fist, so it didn't see the kick coming. As his reflection was hit, its face cringed it pain as its midsection was pushed to the left, creating a sideways 'V' shape with its body. It's block on its face had faltered, creating an opening. It couldn't do much since it was unbalanced and still had to recover. Darius swung in a left hook around the block going to hit his defenseless reflection in the face, all after a split second after the kick went through.

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius' left hook was semi-blocked by the reflection. It raised its arm, taking the force of the hit, but its forearm smashed into its own face and the momentum made him stumble to the side to its left. Darius stepped forward, his face being inhumanely stoic the entire time, as he brought a kick with is right leg up to go into the right side of his reflection while exhaling to make the strike harder.

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius' reflection took the kick in the side of its ribs, exhaling to cushion some of the blow. His reflection then grabbed his right leg with its left arm, hooking up under it and pulled, turning its body to the left and pulling Darius off his feet. He was then swung to his reflection's left, who let go, tossing Darius down to the ground. Darius got to his hands and knees and started to stand up, but not before his reflection had stumbled over and kicked him in the right side of the head with its right leg. Darius fell over onto his left side from the force, but went with it and rolled away from his reflection, quickly getting to his feet. Both him and his reflection were decently battered. The early signs of bruises appearing on both.