Cyrus's D to C Rank Exam

https://www.fairytail-rp.com/t6989-tea-time-with-granny-solo-mission
https://www.fairytail-rp.com/t7151-breaking-and-exiting-cyrus-kuma
https://www.fairytail-rp.com/t7159-the-rarest-flower-cyrus-kuma
https://www.fairytail-rp.com/t7185-a-wizard-s-grace-cyrus-kuma

150/150 exp

Approved. talk to Zuo Cii about whether you are skipping the exam or taking it =]

Cyrus would be waking up that day in the middle of a desert without a cloud in the sky. He would have a backpack next to him which had in it a bottle of water, a sharpened surgery scalpel and some meat jerky. It was just enough to last him a couple of hours if he rationed it. Inside was also a note written by Zuo Cii "Cyrus I have an important task for you. I seem to have misplaced you and if you could please find yourself and bring yourself back to the guild in Hargeon that would be most helpful.
P.S. If you could do some soul searching too that would be great." With that Cyrus was left to the rolling hills of sand.

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OOC:
10 posts each at least 150 words long of isolation walking through the desert. I'll post on occasion presenting you with new obstacles and to stop you from being bored out of your mind.

Wow. Cyrus had heard of his Guildmaster's eccentricity, but he never imagined anything like this. The mage placed the note back in the backpack that Master Zuo had left for him. Rummaging around, he took out the water bottle, and took a small sip, as his magic, a water based magic, would need some reserve moisture, not something that could be found in desert air, especially when the sky lacked any clouds.

So then bud, said Vulturnus, emerging from Cyrus's soul and resting on his shoulder, Any idea on how to get back to Hargeon?

I have an idea. I spent the nightly research session two nights ago studying the Fiore map. Besides, I've been all around this country as a nomad, getting back shouldn't be to tough. Unless he 'misplaced' me somewhere other than Fiore, we could only be in the Forgotten Desert, and Hargeon Town is directly south-east from here. We could stop by Magnolia on the way back, I doubt that Fairy Tail would mind, he said, carefully planning out his route. He plopped down into the sand, frustrated, the only problem is that I'm not sure what direction south-east would be.

Did you forget Cyrus? asked the little bald man, smirking.

Forget what? Cyrus said, answering his question with a question. Just then, a faint breeze blew across the sand dunes. Cyrus understood and began to stand up.

I'm the Venti of the East Wind, said the spirit, continuing to blow breezes from his directional domain.

Got it, he said, beginning to walk in the direction that would be southeast in accordance to Vulturnus's breeze, Here I come Master Cii.

Oh, I forgot to mention, brought up Vulturnus as they were walking, My little brother might show up today.

Your little brother? asked Cyrus, So another Venti? In other words, you're saying that I might improve my magic after today. Cyrus continued through the desert, Oh god, it just occurred to me what it would be like to be fighting with two yous yelling at me.

Tch, rude, said the spirit throwing his head to the side, But for your information he's nothing like me. I think he's my polar opposite in many ways in fact. He cares about everything and everyone, he dislikes fighting with brute force, and he wears shirts.

That last comment caught Cyrus off guard a little, but he continued on through the desert nevertheless. Hey, Vulturnus... did you... did you know that guy who we saw during our trip to Beanstalk Village?

Yes, although I'm sworn to secrecy about his identity, replied the spirit, more serious about this topic then the other one they were talking about.

There was silence for a while more. Cyrus spoke up again, Then did you know my mother?

Yes, I was well acquainted with Eden Heartsmith-Kuma, responded the Venti. Cyrus had never heard his mother's name before, so he let it ring in his head for a while.

Is she... alive?

I'm afraid I have no answer Cyrus.

Axil's lovely conversation would tragically be interrupted by a cry for help from over a nearby sand dune. If Axil followed the cry he would see at the bottom of a pit of sand was a small child hardly over 6 up to her waist in sand. The little girl was struggling to free herself from the sand feverishly clawing at the ground all around her. Anyone who would think Zuo would intentionally abandon a little girl in a desert just for the purpose of testing the ability of one of his guild members would be laughed at for the thought. Such a person would also have to posses a very corrupted and degraded view of the old man. They would be right though.

"Help me!" he heard a desperate high pitched voiced yell. He looked over, and sure enough, a young girl was sinking in the sand steadily. She appeared to be quite young, no older than seven, six maybe? Either way, Cyrus had to help this girl, as the sand crept up her small frame. It was apparent to the mage that there were more efficient ways of saving this girl than trying to run over and pull her out.

"Grab on, Cloud Make: Whip," Cyrus said to the girl who hadn't seen him yet. She jumped at the new voice and white rescue rope that struck the ground in front of her, but quickly took followed the mages orders and tightly held the whip. In a swift backwards motion, he had pulled the girl from the sand and stood there as she dusted herself off. Her name was Hana, she explained. She was a girl from the Desert Village, but for whatever reason. The Desert Village is north west of here, Cyrus thought to himself.

You mean its the opposite direction of where we're going? Then we should let her handle herself, it would be a waste of time trying to help her, Vulturnus decided coldly.

No Vulturnus. She was left to handle herself the last time, and she ended up in quicksand. We're taking her back to the village. Besides, we could refill on supplies there to get us back to Hargeon, he said, receiving an expected snort from his little red pal. He took the water bottle from his backpack and gave it to the girl, "Drink up, you're probably thirsty."

As the girl began to slurp down the water, Cyrus heard an unfamiliar voice. How nice of you Cyrus. I guess it's time for me to step in. A blue man emerged from his spirit. Cyrus wasn't particularly surprised due to Vulturnus's warning, but it was still interesting to see another Venti show up. Sure enough, as the other had said, this one wore a shirt. In fact, he wore armor all over his body. His hair was long and luxurious and he had a long curly beard. The name is Favonius, the gentle wind of the West, it's a pleasure to meet you.

As they were walking, his new blue friend gave him escort advice. You should start a conversation with her, it should pass the time quicker.

You should leave her here and let nature do it's job, morbidly suggested Vulturnus. Favonius swooped over to Cyrus's right shoulder where the other Venti was sitting and gave him a noogie.

Big bro, why are you always so mean to the humans? he inquired jestingly to his older brother.

While the two spirits bickered, Cyrus took Favonius's advice. "So Hana, what is the Desert Village like?"

"Sandy, lonely, in the middle of a desert," said Hana. It didn't appear that she was too bright, but then again, she was only six or seven.

Cyrus smiled as his little buddies continued to bicker, "I kind of expected that, I was more asking what the people are like."

Hana blinked, "Well in that case let me see, there's me, and then there's my mommy, who's a very nice lady, and the elder of our village, who's really scary, and then there's..."

Well great, it looks like I set her off on her entire villages roll call. I just hope all this talking doesn't make her thirsty, I need to conserve the water, He then looked at his spirit friends who were still bickering about ethics. He supposed that walking was all he could do.

For the first time in a while it would seem luck was on Cyrus's side. For as he was at the foot of a large dune that looks painful to climb a great blast of wind blew the sand aside to reveal directly behind it was the Desert Village. Back in Hargeon Zuo felt a disturbance, as if somehow one of his exams wasn't being as hard as it could possibly be. The notion worried him gravely.

Wow, Cyrus thought to himself, there has been no problems so far as far as traveling has gone. Besides the slight hitch of Hana coming along, nothing's gone wrong, therefore something's bound to go wrong.

You're such a pessimist number five, stated Favorius.

Well it's not like he's wrong. Knowing Zuo, he has something planned, Vulturnus retorted.

A couple things: First off, you know Master Cii?, secondly why is my name suddenly number five? questioned the mage.

To answer your first question, yes I know of Zuo, as he is the earth's chosen champion. We're the embodiment of the winds, so of course we know him, replied the red colored spirit.

To answer your second question, I called you number five because you are the fifth wielder of cloud-make magic, added the blue spirit.

The fifth? Who were the other fo--- his thought was cut short by a tug on his trench coat.

"We're here," said the girl pointing to the village in front of her.

Cyrus had heard of this village's hospitality, but it didn't appear to be showing right now. Whereas he had heard that it was a busy little village who was always happy to help visitors, it now seemed to be an empty village with very little activity. The wind blew through the narrow spaces in between the rocks around the village border, kicking up sand. Cyrus couldn't gawk for long however as Hana pulled him along towards a larger house on the far end of the village.

"Come on Cyrus," said the girl, "Come meet my family."

When they walked into the house Cyrus saw a young woman and an old one sitting to together. Upon the visitors' entrance, the young woman immediately ran up and hugged the girl, lifting her into the air. "Oh Hana! I was so worried! What happened? Is this the man who brought you back here?..." the hysterical woman, evidently Hana's mother, continued to ask questions, which the white haired boy answered with occasional chip ins by Hana. Soon enough the whole story had been explained.

"So you're a mage," finally said the old woman. The ancient lady appeared to be the village leader. The frail old woman raised herself off the ground and grabbed Cyrus by the arm, "Then it's a good thing that you showed up at this time." The mage wondered what she meant.

Somewhere far away Zuo violently sneezed. "Ah it seems someone is talking about me." Blaming the situation on Cyrus he stomped the ground and in responce Cyrus's dorm would flip upside down. The old man then sat down to enjoy some tea "That should teach him not to gossip about me behind my back."

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OOC: Sorry for the pointless post but I'm kinda curious about where you are going with this so feel free to do your own thing.

"You see Cyrus, many many years ago there was a plague upon our village," began the elder, taking Cyrus into an underground passageway, "It was not a literal disease, no, but rather an infestation of monsters. They were horrifying man-eaters with wide mouths that flapped about, allowing them to tunnel through the sand. Their worm like bodies were odd looking in contrast to their wide heads. We were in no condition to fight, so we hid whenever a group of them would appear. For the safety of passing mages, we wouldn't tell them, but sometimes they found out on their own. It was the former Lamia Scale guild, the one that existed before your master's reform, that led the campaign to destroy the worms. The mages fought valiantly, and, seeing as the monsters stopped appearing, the guild left. It wasn't until many years later that they returned. It wasn't a large group however. It was a singular gigantic variant of the monster. Luckily, before it caused too much trouble, a sealing mage came along. She created a large hole, then layered it with an odd white substance. Trapping the beast inside, she created this." Stopping, the old woman pointed to a large white circle on the ground. "She filled the hole with the white substance, trapping the monster, preventing it from escaping. However---" the woman was cut off by a rumbling underground. The white spot began to shake and churn.

"It's breaking out and you want me to be here to stop it?" he asked, the elder of the village nodded, "Sure then."

Cyrus walked up to the spot. It was fluffy and appeared wet. Clouds? Cyrus thought, How did they get here?

Vulturnus and Favorius came up behind him. This is definitely a cloud based sealing spell, said Favorius.

But you definitely didn't do this, assured Vulturnus. Cyrus reached for the spot, Wait! Don't--- the spirit tried to warn, but it was too late. When Cyrus touched the clouds they disappeared in a puff of smoke. All four parties present in the underground room froze in fear as they heard a tired roar come from the now unsealed hole. A large tan head began to rise from the large hole, and following it was a long brown body. It flew upwards and began tunneling to the surface, leaving a hole in the ceiling. Luckily the part of town he tunneled through was solid rock, not sand, so the people in the underground room were not crushed by a flood of sand. Unluckily, the beast was now flying around the Desert Village. Cyrus drew his sword as he rushed up the stairs to the surface.

"Cyrus what was that noi---" Cyrus passed right past Hana. He didn't have time to talk to her, he had a monster to slay. Jumping into the air, he swung the blunt edge of his sword into the beast, knocking it back slightly and causing it to start soaring away from the village. It then spun around, shooting blasts of sand from it's odd mouth. A few of the sandy spit projectiles made contact with Cyrus tearing up his clothing a bit. This wasn't a problem, as Favorius could fix it later, but more importantly Cyrus realized how powerful this beast was. Even a couple projectiles caused quite a bit of damage to the mage. The battle had begun.

Zuo however sitting calmly at home was completely unaware of this turn of events. If he was aware he would certainly do something to help Cyrus. He could never leave him in such a dangerous situation. Never. It should go without saying that Zuo does not intentionally put his guild members in mortal peril on a regular basis and when it does happen he does try to do something about it. This politically enhanced explanation is brought to you by Lamia Scale Public Relations to clarify any misconceptions about the guild master's concern for his students. Remember while Zuo takes full responsibility, he takes none of the blame.

This enemy's fairly large kid, Vulturnus pointed out. The spirit was right about that. Cyrus estimated that from head to tail the worm was at least 800 meters long. It flew around the village spitting sand at nothing in particular. Cyrus leapt onto a sand blast and propelled himself off it. He slashed across the beasts hide with his sword, but the gash was quickly filled with sand and healed as the mage fell to the ground and was hit by another sand blast.

And it appears that your sword isn't doing much to it either, pointed out the other spirit. Cyrus thought a while trying to figure out something.

I think I figured out how to beat this guy, he said, launching himself into the air to land on another sand blast. While he climbed his way from , he began to think about what led him here. The old woman who taught him determination. He thought of the bandits who he stopped and the wolf who he dueled. He thought of when he met Vulturnus. He wondered what his friend Antoninus was doing. All these people he met and events that happened, and all because he joined a guild. His guildmates and his guildmaster had lead him to this point, he wasn't going to fail them now. His necklace glinted in the desert sun. "Everything has it's weakness, including beings made of sand," he said, "Cloud Make: Whip, he said. As the attack struck the beast's head it darkened. Cyrus brought his sword down on the beasts head. "Perish!" he said, as the being exploded into sand, the particles flying everywhere.

Cyrus was making the trek back to Hargeon while Vulturnus and Favonius bickered behind him. When asked how he defeated the beast so easily, he had told the elder that he had an elemental advantage against it, being a water mage and all. After he gathered some more supplies, he said farewell to the villagers, and left the desert village. Although what he said was true about elemental advantages, he knew that he wouldn't have previously been able to jump from sand blast to sand blast, nor had the endurance or finesse to fight something like the worm. He had improved tremendously, and would only get stronger with his new Venti and some training. I wonder if Master Cii would think, he thought as he crossed the desert, ready for a new adventure. Whatever the answer was, Cyrus had started on his path of becoming a valuable member of Lamia Scale.

On returning to Hargeon Cyrus would be immediately asked to go fetch some donuts for the whole guild to celebrate his rank up. Naturally he would be paying of course.


Rank Up Exam Complete.