Anastasia's Secondary Training [Solo]

"We meet again, Phoenix Mountains," Anastasia said as she made her way up the path she took while she was in the Blue Pegasus. Unlike last time, she still had quite a bit of energy remaining. She wasn't huffing and puffing like she was last time due to the necessity of running and doing some heavy lifting. She was no longer the wimpy bard that assisted others; she was now a bad-ass in training. She had no need to help others, letting them support her instead. Certainly, she will assist people by taking hits if she had to and completely demolishing her enemy when necessary. However, her current opponent was the Phoenix Mountain. The Mountain takes no prisoners and is not kind to those unworthy.

"You think I sat on my hands since the last time we met, Mountain?" she asked the large heap of stone she was on, staring up at the peak, and knew what she had to do. "If you thought that, then you are grossly wrong! I will conquer you!" she proclaimed as she pointed to the peak of the mountain. A big grin came across Anastasia's face before she continued to move her way up the mountain. She was dressed in a heavy winter coat to keep herself warm as she waded through the increasingly deeper snow as she continued her ascent up the mountain.

Footprints were left in the snow as Anastasia slowly trudged along; the only thing she could hear was the voice of the mountain calling out to her, accepting her challenge. The wind blew more ferociously and fervently as if to blow her off of the mountain. However, Anastasia kept her footing and pulled the large, fur-covered coat around her body and more tightly around her face. As the winds

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continued to blow, making the sounds of a pack of hungry wolves, she slowly began to doubt her ability to scale this mountain; ultimate declaring her victory over the crag.  As she continued her ascent, her footsteps grew slower and less frequent due to the snow growing deeper and the wind blowing even heavier.  While she does not wish to ascend the mountain with flight, she will take suit.  

With a white glow, her body started to glow a heavenly white before changing into her Chaser Armor.  The armor took a step upwards, finding itself standing directly on top of the snow.  She would have otherwise been up to her thighs in snow if she hadn't donned this armor.  As soon as she donned her armor, she turned her head to hear the sound of a loud roaring.  That wasn't the sound of the wind blowing with ferocity; it was something else.  It was something huge and terrifying.  

Had she stepped into the domain of a terrifying beast?  Was this what she could consider to be 'The Mountain's Guardian'?  Another loud roar resonated from a location just again.  Taking advantage of Chaser Armor's ability to ignore weather and natural hindrances to travel, she rushed ahead only to find the mouth of a massive cave opening.  Steam poured from the mouth of the cave only for another deafening roar to eminate from it.  A bone of another creature was thrown out towards her, causing Anastasia to recoil a bit.

Heavy thumps was heard before the creature reared it's ugly head.  A large white humanoid creature walked out, pulling meat off of a bone with it's teeth.  It stopped and looked at Anastasia for a moment before smashing the large femur it had in it's hands into the ground, holding it like

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a club. It roared once more before a light could be seen in Anastasia's right hand before her fingers disappeared only to be replaced by an orange tube. Anastasia aimed the arm cannon at the creature and fired off a shot, only to see the creature pull back for a moment. There was no actual damage upon the creature, causing Anastasia to take a step back in awe. Anastasia aimed and took another shot at the creature only for the creature to howl once more and begin it's charge towards her. With a quick swing, the club came inches from hitting her. Anastasia took a step back before the creature threw the bone at her, forcing her to dash out of the way.

After it forced her to dash to the right, it quickly jumped on her, pinning her to the floor. After pouncing on Anastasia, the two of them sunk down into the snow. She was capable of moving her hand up and shoot a couple blasts into the creature's gut, being enough to launch it off of her.

Flying upwards out of the snow hole, she landed firmly on her own two feet outside of the troll's range. With an explosion of white snow, the creature delivered a single fist directly into her face, causing her to fly backwards upon her back. She slid a good distance down the mountain before recovering; getting back on her own two feet after waking up from the moment of unconsciousness. Anastasia shook her head a bit as sirens blared through her armor indicating that it is in danger of breaking.

"Crap," she exclaimed before a white light surrounded her body, being replaced by another armor. This armor was pink with hardened plates upon her body. Shield Maiden Armor was designed to

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take blows for much longer than most other armors. While she could have easily repaired her armor, she decided to do that with this one; the armor that was meant for longevity. The booster pack upon her armor ignited, taking her back towards the troll cave. While flying there, she was being hindered by the wind and snow. Unlike her Chaser Armor, this armor wasn't meant for navigating through storms and heavy snowfall.

Anastasia landed inside of the lair. While it was extremely dark, she didn't have to deal with the weather or the cold as much. Here, it's a more level playing field. Her passing caught the Troll's attention and the troll shouted once again in it's never-ending rage and frustration. It wasn't hungry as it was finished eating and Anastasia doesn't recall Trolls being THIS territorial. Perhaps the Mountain was testing her or the Mountain made this troll, in particular, a bit more difficult to deal with.

While she took the time for the creature to come towards her; it having to fight through the wind and snow as much as she had to, Anastasia began to charge energy into her arm, pointing the barrel of the weapon towards the troll. A humming sound could be heard which got more and more high pitched while it collected energy. The creature was blown over by a large gust of wind, buying her more time to charge up her weapon.

"You putting this thing in my way, Mountain, isn't funny," she said out loud to the mountain. Her voice escalated due to the loudening as well as the high pitched noise of her weapon gathering energy.

The creature stood back up and got on all fours and began to charge after Anastasia. The creature started to quickly close the gap

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between itself and Anastasia. Once the creature got to 10 meters away from Anastasia, it lept into the air and opened up it's body in order to take a full swing at Anastasia. Before the creature got within arm's reach, her charger sent a notification to her heads up display telling her that it was complete. Anastasia let the energized blast go, quickly plunging itself into the creature's gut, launching it away from her, out of the cave. Once the creature fell outside, Anastasia took a sigh outwards in relief only for the creature to come back and charge at her once again. This time, it's eyes glowed a blood red color.

The barrel of her weapon smoked briefly before vanishing. Anastasia began to panic before strange green particles began to gather around her, quickly spreading outward. Wondering what this is, she summoned the Blade of Typhon and with a quick burst of speed, she went towards the creature, cutting it in the gut and slicing it in half. Afterward, she turned around to notice strange after-images following behind her.

"What the hell was that?" she asked before the Blade of Typhon was desummoned in a glowing white light. The green particles continued to surround her body. She looked down to glance at her hands, seeing after images of her hands and arms move. "What the hell is this?" she asked as an indicator on her heads up display popped up. A picture of a nano-droid appeared in her heads up display.

"Nano-droids?" she asked inquisitively to herself. "Since when could I summon nano-droids?" she asked to herself. Clearing her throat, she de-summoned her armor and held her hand out to summon her observational droid, the CC-9 Destructo Tron (also known as Kevin). The robot appeared and rolled around a

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bit.   "CC-9, analyze these green nano-droids.  See if you can find out it's point of origin."  The robot bleeped and blooped a few times before it began it's scan of Anastasia's body and then began to scan the green glow, itself.  After a moment, the droid stopped and a strange data sound could be heard coming from the bot instead of it's usual bleeps and bloops.   Once it was done computing the data, it spun a few times before uprighting itself.

"ThEsE nAnOd-RoIdS oRiGiNaTe FrOm WiThIn YoUr ReQuIp ArMoR.  tHeY wErE cReAtEd By PrOfeSsOr IvAn IsAyEv.  ThErE aRe SiX tOtAl TyPeS oF nAnO-dRoIdS iNsTaLlEd InTo EaCh Of YoUr ArMoRs.  YoU hAvE oNlY uNlOcKeD cLeArAnCe FoR tHe UsE oF tWo Of ThE sIx.  ThEy ArE tHe KeY cOmPoNeNtS oF tHe 'OvErDrIvE sYsTeM' iNsTaLlEd By PrOfEsSoR iVaN iSaYeV.  yOu MuSt SpEaK tO pRoFeSsOr IvAn IsAyEv In OrDeR tO uNlOcK tHe ReMaInInG oVeRdRiVeS," the robot stated uninterrupted.  After it finished it's piece, it went back to speaking in bleeps and bloops.  It was, as if, the nano-droids had a message encoded within them for Anastasia to find out.  This caused Anastasia to ponder for a moment, not knowing exactly what's going on.  

The cold wind howled once again, forcing Anastsia to put the fluffy hoody upon her coat back over her head and grasped the coat tighter towards her.  She turned and looked to Kevin for a moment and smiled to the robot before causing it to disappear in the same white light as everything else she summons from her pocket space.  

"Nano-droids and 'Overdrive System' huh, father?" she asked non-rhetorically with a big smile upon her face.  "Well, looks like we are going to have a little chat after I finish off this mountain."  Pulling the fluffy coat in tighter against her,

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she walked out of the cave and back upon the trail.  The trail seemed to have already been traversed once before.  There was a narrow passage way with metal rods stuck to the passage way with chains going through loops within the metal rods.  It made a make-shift safety rail for fellow travelers in the future.  Even with that make-shift safety rail, she didn't have much armor to use for the time being, so she either has to wait it out or she could cross right now.  Turning her eyes upwards to notice the sun starting to go down, Ana turned her head back towards the cave and sigh outwardly.  She returned to the cave.

After a while, Anastasia is seen with a fire built and she was lightly singing a song to herself.  She thought the song was beautiful in it's own way, even though most people wouldn't want to hear a capella.  She would have had music playing over the nyanplifiers, however, due to her not having worn them due to the nature of this expedition, she had to settle for a capella.  While she was singing, many smaller creatures came into the cave and snuggled up next to the fire by her.  These animals were harmless and generally herbivorous; like rabbits and squirrels, and other creatures you wouldn't expect to find this high up on the mountain.  It wasn't until a pair of pure white snow foxes appeared next to the fire did she become alarmed for the other creatures.

However, strangely enough, the small herbivores didn't mind the pair of white foxes to snuggle up to the fire with them.  Maybe her songs still had magic within them, even though she decided to switch her focus to something else other than song magic.  Maybe it wasn't

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magic. Maybe the pure emotion and love she puts into her song could be felt by others; feeling the song with their emotions instead of being forcefully manipulated through magic. Regardless of how much she missed song magic, she doesn't regret letting it go to the way-side. It was an inferior magic compared to the hard work and strength of her requip. Now she has a place in Team Four Star as the offensive tank. Never again will she feel inferior or weak when it comes to being with her teammates.

Nao had the observational skills, Ashe had the support skills, and Almyra; well, Ana doesn't really know much about Almyra's magic skill. With the way Almyra conducts herself, however, it doesn't lend her to being too offensive in the slightest. Maybe support driven? Either way, she didn't really have a place in her team that wasn't already saturated with support abilities.

Ana reached over and placed her hands upon the animals gathered around, petting each and every one of the animals. A light chill came across Anastasia before snuggling up towards the fire. The other animals gathered around her, giving her not only warmth but also security in this frigid tundra. To defeat a mountain, one must have support. In Anastasia's case, her only support during this expedition are the animals gathered around her. Even if they are only here for a brief moment, the temporary reprieve from thinking of her isolation helped her immensely.

Her eyes drifted closed before hearing a gentle lullaby in the background. A little smile came across Anastasia's face as the gentle lullaby was comforting to her; a memory from when times were simpler and she felt more love than she does now. Something about this song reminded her of her mother and father.

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Unlike most mages, she had a beautiful and privileged childhood; something that most children in this world couldn't say.  Her eyes drifted closed, slowly swinging her into slumberland.  "Good night, my friends.  I'll see you tomorrow," she said before letting herself get taken by the sandman.  

Anastasia awakened to find herself in a strange land; a land that she had never seen before filled with bright, exuberant colors and pleasant ambiant noises.  The air smells of licorice and the temperature is nice and cool.  A kind of paradise for Anastasia.  At first, she was struck with confusion only to come to a realization that where she was seemed pleasant.  She laughed and giggled and began to run around, jumping over rocks made of chocolate, seeing flying whales soaring overhead.  

Beautiful music could be heard in Anastasia's ears as she stopped by a creek filled with soda flowing everywhere.  Ana's eyes lit up before she sat upon her knees and leaned over to get two palms full of the orange soda and brought it up to her lips.  The taste was crisp and the soda didn't go flat.  The flavor was magnificent!

"I could live here for hte rest of my life!" she shouted before laying back, finding herself laying upon a fluffy bit of cotton candy. While she was laid back, she started flapping her arms and legs to make a cotton candy angel.  She laughed and giggled while doing all of this.  She stood up and examined her work, nodding her head as she returned to frolicking and playing in the land of make-believe.  

Certainly, a place like this doesn't exist in the real world.  Then again, Anastasia has no idea about the world named Meshi.  But if she ever does, she will certainly gain a bunch of weight.

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Anastasia continued to roll around in the cotton candy for a little while longer before the sky grew dark within the paradise that she found herself in.  This caused Anastasia to stop and look around for a moment, noticing all of the candy was beginning to rot around her.  Standing up, Anastasia noticed the world beginning to crumble around her, starting from the chocolate pond to her north.  With a sense of urgency, she began to run as fast as her legs would take her.  

A bunch of small, spider-like creatures began to fall from the sky like drops of rain with many landing on her and most upon the remains of the paradise that she once 'inhabited' for a short while.  Anastasia could sense the flow of electricity going through these small creatures; they were large nano-machines.  The creatures simply looked towards Anastasia, noticing this small creature had 6 little beedy eyes.  After noticing what these little creatures looked like, she began to frantically try to dust them off of her body.  She didn't like the idea of creepy crawlies, let alone having them crawling around on her body.  

She couldn't spend too much time messing around with them, however as the world was still crumbling behind her.  Her urge to live was stronger than whatever fear she had of small creepy crawlies.  She continued to run, however, the land gave out from under her feet and she began to fall, reaching upwards before everything went into darkness.  It was while in the darkness, she saw thousands of pairs of little red eyes looking at her before a massive metallic spider-like creature's silhouette could be seen as it constantly approached closer and closer.  

It spread out it's massive spider-like legs and quickly grabbed Anastasia from her fall with a

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quick jerking motion.  As soon as the massive spider grabbed a hold of Anastasia, smaller nano-machines began to crawl over Anastasia, eventually enveloping her completely.


Anastasia abruptly woke up from what appeared to be a dream, sitting up and screaming out loud, scaring away her little animal friends that she gathered.  She looked upon her body, not seeing anything creepy crawling all over her.  Looking outside, the storm seemed to have stopped for now, however it was much colder than it was the previous day.  The snap of the cold was temporarily avoided from the ever-burning flame that warmed the cave.  However, the very thought of going back out there chilled her to the bone.

Anastasia shivered for a brief moment and began to put her heavy clothing back on.  After a moment, she looked back over her equipment to make sure she had everything before walking out into the tundra that is the peaks of the Phoenix Mountain.  She will defeat this mountain!  She won't be stopped by herself nor nature!  By scaling this mountain, she will prove to herself that she was better than what she was while she was in the Blue Pegasus; someone not worthy of 'sitting back while the big kids have all the fun'.  

No, she isn't a background character that isn't worthy of attention.  She is going to be in the foreground and she will take the spot-light from everyone else.  This wasn't meant as a slight against her team as they are just as responsible for her strengths as she is for theirs, but she no longer wants to be in anyone's shadow any more.  She will carve her own path and defeating the mountain that laughed at her the first time she stepped foot

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upon it is the first step to doing just that. She has to destroy the demons of her past in order to carve out her own path. She could easily just fly up to the top, but she wouldn't have learned nor accomplished anything by doing that. If she NEEDED to fly as a means of saving her own life, then that is a completely different story.

Anastasia stepped foot into the cold, letting the frigid air enter her lungs before exhaling steam from between her lips. Anastasia took a few steps away from the cave and turned to look up towards the peak. She didn't have very far to go, maybe another 2 kilometers left to go upwards. However, the climb will be arduous and climbing up directly without the use of her Requip will be nigh impossible to do. She will see just how far she is able to go without using her Requip.

Anastasia continued up the path from when she had to fight the troll earlier, only for it to come to a very narrow path hugging the mountain. Anastasia stopped for a moment to peak out and down the mountain. At this elevation, she sees clouds beneath her, obscuring her vision to the bottom. She knew for a fact that she was up there very high and that a single slip would mean certain death. Swallowing hard, she took a step forward only to feel her legs grow weak and begin to quiver in fear.

~Calm down, Anastasia! You can do it!~ she thought to herself, but no amount of a pep-talk would help her conjure enough courage to take the step upon that ledge. The ledge was far too narrow for her to put on any of her Requip armors, relying on only her

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