//------------------------------// // Magical Trio // Story: Undestined Friendship // by Boyzilla //------------------------------// Book 1: Magic Chapter 11: Magical Trio Ominous clouds trail over the sky, no where in sight, does the sunlight show through. The landscape, nothing but wasteland, darkened by the lack of light, and plant-life nonexistent. It was here, darkness resides within its conquered domain. A castle, standing tall, defiant against all odds, and decorated with the spikes of black stone. Towers, spread throughout the wasteland, acting as fear-inspiring displays of defensive force. Keeps, holding among specific points, containing terrifying creatures, and walls harder than steel. And, floating above the castle, an island made out of a grayish violet crystals levitated in the air through the use of unknown magics. It’s edges holding towers, containing large weapons of deadly capabilities. A wall, making a inner circle, which guarded a single temple. Within that temple, floating on a small pedestal surrounding by a sphere of dark energy, a small tiara with a red star-like gem upon it hovered endlessly. The sounds of footsteps echoed in the air, a humanoid figure, whom’s cloak held a tattered aged appearance, golden cloth showing around the section of the neck to make a runic formation down toward the middle of the back, whom’s hood covered its face, stepped forward until just an arm’s length from the pedestal. ”Element of Magic, how goes your soul’s imprisonment?” The gem encased within the floating tiara, glowed in answer. ’Not any better thanks to you! You’ll lose, the Princesses will stop you! A female voice rang out from the magical jewelry. ”And whom have the Princesses summoned to stop me? They themselves fall back on the legends left by humanity for hope.” ”I do not know, and wouldn’t tell you anyway!” ”Lies are quite a futile effort when confronting one such as myself, little girl.” ”Like you would know if I lied or not, Darkness.” ”The spell that your dear princesses have attempted has summoned something, girl, and it could be villains seeking to conquer the world.” The gem seemed to shine a bit brighter in its reply, ”No, they are heroes! They already saved one of my friends from your dreaded spell!” Suddenly the gem grew silent. ”So, the report from one of my captains reign true. They have summoned humans to this world. No matter,they will not change anything.Destiny has stated that I shall be victorious.” "Destiny? It was a false prophecy! It had to be! Good will always triumph over evil!" ”On the contrary, Element of Magic, good and evil is only an illusion to those who can't comprehend the universe's true nature.” The darkened figure turned around and began walking away from the ever floating jewel, ”Until we meet again, holder of Magic. I have work to do.” Within the domain of the fairies, at the edge of the Fae Forest, four human teens closed in on the constructed shack that no doubt held the prisoners. Of course they could see a few prisoners in cages, but Gohan sensed there was a large majority within the building itself. In fact, now that he had a good look at it, the shack appeared more like a barn then a small wooden construct. Although it appeared made out of some sort of dark wood, most likely that of the Fae Forest lumber the darkness forces managed to harvest before he and his companions dealt with them. Suddenly, his senses picked up something else. A violent energy that had finally shown itself, and it was powering up hastily. Gohan stopped, and surprised his fellow humans when his blue Ki aura erupted around him, flaring outward in a showcase of power. The hybrid Z-fighter was no longer taking chances when it came to these darkness forces. The Purple Scarred Demon showed that there were powerful adversaries, Gohan remembered that his power level appeared low, yet the demon utterly decimated them as a whole. He silently cursed himself for that, he should've known that strength and power isn't everything. His world held plenty of examples. Guldo could control time despite being very weak, and nearly killed both himself and Krillin. The Androids held no power levels, yet they took down Yamcha, whom was a formidable warrior himself, down in one blow. That's not to mention what he learned from the other Androids who defeated Vegeta in Super Saiyan state! And also... Cell... The bio-android was initially weak, but held the ability to absorb the life force of other beings, which is the reason he grew so strong in the first place. Yes, power isn't everything. There are abilities and techniques which can overcome strength alone. Luckily however, Gohan knew he had companions who have different methods of dealing with enemies. And diversity is always a great advantage. He inwardly suppressed his saiyan urge for battle, now was not the time to get lost in its instincts. "Everyone! There is something powering up from that barn, and whatever it can be is not friendly!" Gohan exclaimed as he slipped into a fighting stance, his legs bent evenly, firm on the ground, and his arms prepared both at his side and front. “We shall beat him up real good-ttebayo!” Naruto exclaimed loudly. “Hey, it’s my turn this time! You guys had all the previous enemies! Let me have a shot!” Korra exclaimed. They do not understand, this new opponent wasn’t just some other enemy out of the woodworks! His senses were alerting him of growing power, yet, once again his inner saiyan blood began to boil for the thrill of a challenge. ‘Not now, Gohan, focus!’ The hybrid saiyan scolded himself. “Move you imbeciles!” Jaina stated, snapping everyone to attention as they all rolled out of the way, Gohan flying into the air as a green wave of magical energy passed through their previous positions and destroyed a small section of trees. “Whoa, that was a close one!” Naruto said as he stood back up, facing the direction from which the attack came. The door of that shack had been completely blasted apart, creating a large hole on the building’s exterior. Within it, shockingly, stood on all fours a white furred pony. Specifically, a unicorn given the horn on its head and a female to boot due to the body figure. Gohan, Jaina, Naruto, and Korra blinked all simultaneously, was this their attacker? A small white furred unicorn that was only three-fourths the thirteen year old Naruto’s height? ‘Cute,’ Gohan couldn’t help but think. Yet at the same time, his saiyan side insisted to destroy the adorable menace, to be alert, for it was not as it seems. Not only that, but his companions seemed to have left their guard a bit as well, even Jaina, if only slightly. The pony, white furred it may be, tail included, held no mane of any kind. It’s oversized eyes seemed to look to them with a unknown innocence, before it changed drastically, oh so immensely did that facial expression shift. It’s rose red eyes took on a menacingly look as the mare’s form erupted forth with a flame-like darkish purple aura. ‘Dang it, I got to quickly-’ Gohan interrupted his own thoughts as he concentrated on his movements, dropping down to the ground his blue aura burst around him and then flared behind the saiyan as he practically rushed at the darkness corrupted unicorn. The now menacingly looking unicorn reared her head forward, and a large, most likely deadly, ball of unyielding silver arcane magic with a small outline of black shot at the incoming saiyan hybrid. Son Gohan stopped himself within his tracks, feet dragging across the dirt as he hastily put up his arms in defense. The ball of silver energy impacted quite harshly against him, an explosion racking the area as the Z-fighter was blown back. Gohan, with a burst of Ki, corrected his body and backflipped into standing position. “Man…” Gohan trailed in his words, getting back into his martial arts stance, “That stung pretty bad, but that won’t stop me!” The Z-fighter looked around him, already his fellow companions were springing into action. Naruto, as usual, had already summoned up some clones, while Jaina unsheathed a single blade and was bringing her magical energy within her free hand. Korra appeared to be charging into the fray, but whatever attack she has planned, the Son of Goku couldn’t tell. ‘If what I think is right,’ Gohan began in his head. ‘Then both Korra and Naruto will begin with close combat, while Jaina either uses her Fireball or Magic Missile technique-Spell, spell.’ He corrected himself. While the saiyan hybrid thought of an action to follow up, Naruto charged at the corrupted unicorn with his clones. The first clone tried to throw a punch alongside another clone, but the unicorn teleported with a flash of bright light, appeared behind them, and cut through them with a magical spell that created a curved slash. As per usual, the two clones dissipated in puffs of white chakra smoke. “Rasengan!” The original Naruto shouted as he came forth from the smoke, a spiraling sphere of blue chakra spinning in his right hand. The orange-clad ninja thrust his attack forward at the unicorn, only for the white colored equine too conjured a shield in defense. The Rasengan promptly drilled into the created defense and broke through it seconds later. But those seconds were enough for Naruto Uzumaki to get blasted back by a number of weak magic blasts. ‘Almost as effective as Piccolo’s Special Beam Cannon,’ Gohan thought of Naruto’s technique, before seeing his friend get blasted back. ‘Those blasts are similar to Ki blasts, though a weaker variation.’ Gohan began to float just above the ground, and circle around the combat scene as Korra started her own attack. The Avatar of the four elements moved with deadly speed, spewing forth heated red flames from her palms as she attacks quite offensively. Son Gohan couldn’t help but believe that her Firebending Style resolved around quick, ferocious combos designed to bring down the enemy as fast as possible. This type of fighting style seemed to put the enemy unicorn on edge, as if the mare didn’t anticipate flames to be used in such a matter. ‘Well,’ Gohan had a thoughtful expression as he hovered, watching. ‘From what I’ve seen so far, the magical variation in the usage of fire required the user to stand still. So, it would come to a surprise that someone like Korra, who has total control over the element, would have such a style that depends on quick movement and action.’ He finished. Gohan shook his head, ‘Pay attention Gohan! Okay, what do you know about your enemy? Teleportation for one, it’s instantaneous as well. Magical blasts similar to Ki, less kinetic force of course. A spell that is like a blade slashing horizontally, and then some sort of explosive spell that struck me earlier. Quite a variety, add a shield and it would give me trouble in my current state.’ The saiyan then smirked, ‘If she was double the strength she is now,’ he thought. Gohan’s body lit up as a blue aura of raw Ki energy burst into existence around him. The half human hybrid charged forward with great speed, catching the unicorn by surprised who had just teleported out of the way of Korra’s relentless flames. Gohan struck the darkness troop with his right elbow, sending the corrupted mare flying. With rapid movement, the saiyan seemingly vanished from sight and reappeared in his opponent’s collision course. He struck the soaring unicorn upward into the sky with a powerful uppercut; with another action of rapid movement, he appeared high in the sky and kicked the unicorn back down to the ground. The result was the unicorn crashing harshly as rocks broke up into the air, a crater forming from the position where she landed. “Holy ramen, I don’t know either to be scared or be in awe at how cool that was!” Naruto commented on Gohan’s combo. “You moved as fast as bushy brows, and he’s like super fast dattebayo!” The Z-fighter hovered back to the ground, sheepishly smiling as he scratched the back of his hair in embarrassment. “Well… I… Hehe…” Gohan attempted to reply. Korra couldn’t help but add, “W-When you said you weren’t as affected… I didn’t know how much strength you still had… But if you are this strong…” She trailed off as her imagination tried to imagine how much more powerful Gohan could be. But Gohan suddenly narrowed his eyes, looking back at the crater in which he created by the unicorn being hit onto the ground. “We’re not done yet,” He said in a serious tone. “You sure about that?” Naruto questioned, “Looks pretty much like you defeated her to me.” Our three heroes, at the ready for anything, hadn’t expected their opponent to go from one, to three! As the smoke cleared it revealed three copies of the white unicorn opponent. Only, the other two were without a horn. One appeared just like your average pony, while another had wings! “Pegasus?” Gohan said questioningly, “Wait, how did she do that? The power level hadn’t decreased, it’s like two whole new beings had just appeared.” “Perhaps it’s not a spell,” Jaina started, “But actually those two were also within the shack and were hiding their energy.” “Why is it so surprising?” Naruto started, “I do clones all the time.” Gohan scratched the back of his head, “Hehe… I guess you’re right.” He said with embarrassment. The apparently unicorn leader of the enemy group began to speak, “Did you honestly believe that I would be defeated so easily?” The normal pony spoke next, “Our strength goes beyond that of magic.” The winged finished it, “You will face what it is to fight against the three tribes.” Korra cracked her knuckles, “We defeated all the others here, you will be no different!” The four human heroes faced the direction of the three pony adversaries, prepared for combat at a moment’s notice. Gohan readied himself in a martial arts stance as he watched his opponents. Suddenly, the pegasus shot forward with lightning speed, a purplish aura of magic surrounding her form as she did so. ‘She’s fast!’ Gohan thought, as the pegasus opponent approached with great haste, lifting a hoof to deal a strike against him specifically. Gohan vanished just as the darkness corrupted pony struck, making his enemy miss. The hybrid saiyan reappeared above her, but she disappeared the exact same way he did! Gohan landed on the ground, quickly standing up as he tried to sense his opponent. “She knows that move, this means she’s experienced this type of fighting before…” The Z-fighter said to himself. Gohan blocked a side strike to him with his open palm, “Or, you just have fast opponents before?” He said to the mare. Using his other hand, he punched the pegasus with such strength that it sent her flying into the forest, trees breaking apart and falling as she crashed unto them. Gohan turned around quickly as he sensed an incoming attack, only to be blasted into the same forest by a powerful blast of magical energy. He twirled and spun as he broke through the forest’s foliage in an effort to correct himself back into the air. “Raaaaaah!” Gohan yelled as a burst of Ki energy blasted outward from him, stopping him from further crashing into the forest. He took a deep breath, and looked around for any foes, absently wondering if Jaina, Naruto, and Korra were doing alright. He reeled back, avoiding an incoming kick from the pegasus. The half saiyan rebounded by striking at the mare’s chin, and then kicking her away. “I’m sure they can handle it,” Gohan said. Jaina Draconis slashed at the equine in front of her, the earth pony jumping back from her blade’s length. She grasp the handle of her other blade with her free palm, drawing it from its sheath and entering a duel-wielding stance. ‘One-handed is not working, I should just stick to dual-wielding and follow through what I mentally know.’ The Dragon Knight thought as she slashed with her second blade, her opponent once again dodging it, but she anticipated this action and followed up with her right-hand sword. The pony before her got a cut right through the left shoulder, but it charged at Jaina, headbutted her in the chest and causing the teenage girl to stagger back. Jaina clenched her teeth, before the wind began to pick up around her, the Dragon Knight’s mana fueling her channeling speed. “Whirlwind!” The teenage knight’s body spun around with ferocious momentum, her blades trailing behind shortly thereafter, the tips of the enchanted weapons just barely scratching the enemy’s hide. The darkness corrupted creature staggered back only slightly, before revealing a great warhammer constructed from its own magical energy. Jaina Draconis did not expect this counterattack, her spell left her vulnerable only a split second after its use. ‘I really shouldn’t rely on Whirlwind’s knockback probability.’ She thought to herself as the warhammer bashed harshly against her nearly indestructible armor causing her to be sent into the air; before gravity took her and crashed Jaina back towards the ground. Jaina winced, her vision blurry for a split moment before it refocused just in time to see the incoming head of the warhammer. She rolled to her left, avoiding having her head split open, and leapt back to her feet. She pushed magic into her muscles, a small pain of protest from such an augmentation was promptly ignored as she parried another incoming blow with the side of her right-hand sword’s edge. Bright sparks lit open from the collision of metal against metal, Jaina’s quick action causing the pony’s massive weapon to miss its target all together. ‘How in the name of the Divine is this cursed equine so powerful?!’ Jaina thought to herself as she swung her blade, more sparks being generated from the parrying blows as both of them tried to gain an offensive advantage over the other. ‘It makes no sense, no logic at all, it doesn’t even have fingers, how is it even holding the warhammer?!’ “Hammer Smash!” The earth pony exclaimed as its chosen two-handed weapon spontaneously increased in speed. “Divine Damnit!” The Dragon Knight cursed loudly, she channeled her magic throughout her lower legs, a spell coming to her words in an effort to avoid the incoming attack. “Rush Attack!” It was ludicrous to use a technique designed to charge and critically slash at your opponent as a way to actually avoid an attack. Heck, normally a human wouldn’t be able to accomplish such a different way to using the spell. However, Jaina was a prodigy, and also a Dragon Knight, she could accomplish much more than a mere man would be able too. There was a clear difference between the Charge and Rush Attack spells, the former was used to get to a opponent and then be able to follow up with a spell of choice, while Rush Attack already had a preset follow up to it. The former is more difficult than the latter, but Rush Attack did cost next to nothing magical energy. The issue however is that Jaina's body did no longer have the muscle memory that's required to be innovative with it. Thus, the Dragon Knight found herself crashing into the ground only a few meters away, cursing up a storm to Rivellon's deity. Suffering from the cruel backlash of spell failure, a portion of her large mana reserves wasted in only a brief moment. "The number of times misfortune fell upon me in this new world could match the amount of my times in Broken Valley." Jaina said to herself, using a sword to press her weight against as she tried to stand back up on two feet. "And that includes the Lovis' Tower." The warhammer wielding foe of Jaina approached with malicious intent, step by step it came forward as Jaina stood back up with both of her blades in hand. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, Naruto Uzumaki with two other clones appeared forward. The clones conjured a spiraling sphere of blue chakra within their creator’s open hands, and the ninja struck the side of the surprised equine with a battle cry. “Double Rasengan!” Naruto shouts as the two chakra spheres are thrust right into the earth pony’s side with great strength, the two clones behind him dispersing into white smoke. The corrupted mare is sent spinning, warhammer and all, into a nearby tree which promptly gets destroyed and falls over her. Jaina turns her attention back to her ninja companion, and sees him going through a number of unidentifiable hand signs that she couldn’t understand. What she did know was that Naruto’s way of utilizing energy relied on the use of such methods. “Let’s see if this works!” Naruto said out loud, stopping at a certain hand sign. “Wind Style: Great Breakthrough Jutsu!” He finished, inhaling air before he exhaled quickly, the sheer pressure caused by the chakra augmented air blasted outward toward the equine, tearing flowers off their roots and serrating grass like a scythe would. This sizable gust of pressurized wind impacted against the tree where their opponent had collided upon, it crushed it, shattering pieces of barks into the air, the pony herself spinning out of control as she was pushed further back into the Fae Forest. Jaina, having now recovered, went over to the Konoha ninja. “Naruto, what about that magic-using equine?” Naruto looked to her with a grin plastered on his face, “Korra is kicking its ass.” ‘Korra? But how could she stand up to something that uses magic?’ Jaina thought to herself, having doubts. Korra spun around, dodging a bolt of magical energy that whipped past her, avoiding her side by a few centimeters. The Avatar of the four elements followed through the movements of the waterbending style, the liquid erupting forth from destroyed water-bearing barrels and into her hands, ready to do her very bidding. The young Avatar guided it across her midsection, flowing up to her arms and toward the tips of her left hand’s fingernails before it shot with blinding speed at the unicorn. It spirited across the air with little resistance, and grazes the opponent’s side from the sheer speed in which the water traveled when it had hit. “Ugh!” The magic-using equine grunted in pain as her horn lit up with arcane energies and she disappeared in a flash of bright light. Korra’s eyes winced slightly from the bright flash, but quickly she looked around for her opponent and spotted the unicorn reappeared in a similar display of light. Already the Avatar guided the still levitating waters toward her foe’s new position, the teenage girl’s entire body moving with a fluid grace. But her enemy also prepared an offensive attack, and three bolts of magic missiles shot forward toward the young bender. Korra’s attack connected as the water crashed harshly unto the mare. Then, quickly, she abandoned her waterbending and stepped out of the way of first bolt, her feet stopping abruptly before she leapt backward to avoid the second one. Once landing, the Avatar hastily rolled forward, the last missile traveling overhead harmlessly and dispersing on to the ground. Korra quickly got back on her feet, rushing at her opponent soon after she then dragged her feet along the dirt, an entire motion like the beginning of a dance starting up which caused the water surrounding the corrupted unicorn to lift and bring her into a sphere of water which the equine then struggle to free herself to breath. Korra froze the water right then and there, encasing the unicorn in a miniature pillar of ice. She awaited her opponent to somehow miraculously escape her solid prison, but after two full minutes, it appeared she couldn’t do anything. The Avatar released a held in breath, before stretching her arms after a somewhat exciting match, “Well that wasn’t too difficult.” She looked toward the direction of where both Jaina Draconis and Naruto Uzumaki had just defeated their own opponent, before looking toward the forest in which Son Gohan had brought his own into. Only to have said enemy, the pegasus, be shot right out of the Fae Forest and crashing onto the ground out cold. The Ki-using martial artist flying right after that before landing, glancing at the pony for a quick moment, before looking up to Korra herself with a smile. ‘He has such a nice smile,’ Korra unwittingly thought. Gohan lifted up the unconscious pegasus with one arm, before walking over to Korra and the ice-encased unicorn, and placed his own opponent next to the frozen prison. “Wow, that was a small work out! But I think they were over their heads a bit, we overwhelmed them.” Gohan said. “At first I thought that it would be difficult, but apparently the huge energy I sensed was just three smaller ones all together.” He explained. “Well, we all make mistakes,” Korra replied, not truly understanding of yet the full concept of Gohan’s sensing ability. Naruto and Jaina came over soon afterward, one of the orange ninja’s clones dropping the normal looking equine, whom was defeated, next to the other two. “Alright, we won!” Naruto cheerfully exclaimed, “Now let’s go save the trapped fairies!” Jaina nodded in agreement, “I’ll stay here in case one of them awaken,” the Dragon Knight stated. ‘Always the serious one,’ Korra thought to herself as she made her way, alongside Gohan and Naruto, toward the shack that held the fairies. Upon entering, the Avatar released a sigh of relief, the prisoners that were captured by the Darkness forces were still quite well in health, no doubt because they were only recently caught. She couldn’t help but wonder the possibility of if they were a few days later in rescuing them. ‘Thank goodness that never happened,’ Korra thought, before helping the caged and shackled fairies out of their prisons with her friends. Our heroes, with the released fairies and the newly captive three ponies, made their way back toward the Fairy Capital with due haste. Upon entering, the tiny but disciplined fairy military took control of the corrupted pony trio and imprisoned them somewhere else, after putting magical inhibitors on them to prevent the energy’s use. Oh, and Korra freeing the unicorn from the ice, that too. Gohan, Naruto, Jaina, and Korra were brought back toward the main political building of the capital once again, feeling the full blunt force that are the leaders of the nation… That is, the force of extreme over excessive gratitude. “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!” The energetic overall leader of the Fairy people shook Naruto Uzumaki’s hand up and down with much ferocity despite her size. “You’re welcome, you’re welcome!” Naruto exclaimed with equal cheerfulness, he turned his head toward his companions and was about to say- Jaina interrupted, “If you say we should eat ramen, I’ll drag you across the town and hang you on the tallest pole by the leg.” Naruto turned his head around back to the fairy. “No ramen in the town anyway…” Naruto grumbled, a chibi imaginary Naruto crossing his arms and crying bitterly. “Haha…” Gohan’s chuckle trailed off. Korra couldn’t help but have a large grin, “At least you have your priorities straight.” The Fairy leader stopped shaking Naruto’s hand, a serious expression on her face. “Now, follow me, I shall tell you all we know about this war.”