"So... Should we help him out?" Cidre asks, watching as Sydra gets chased around the valley by the tiny sheep.
"Nope, if he can't handle one single sheep all by himself, then what could we do?" Erich says, pulling a bag of meat out of his pocket and taking a portion out. "If he needs to get away, he can always use his wings,"
Nodding his head, Robert snatches some of the meat out of Erich's hands, devouring it in one gulp. "We need to be good friends, and let Sydra handle some things on his own. It's the only way he will grow," he says, trying to grab some more meat.
Sighing, Cidre slumps back against the ground, quietly watching as Sydra falls to the ground, before barely getting out of the way of the tiny sheep. 'Yeah, this is what good friends do,' he thinks.
Inside the valley, Sydra glances in the direction of the others, sweat dripping down his face, "Dang it, they're acting like this is a show," he wheezes, his lightning aura coming close to being gone. 'I can't keep this up much longer, but that sheep looks like it can go all day,' Sydra thinks, glancing back at the tiny sheep, who angrily stares at him.
Although the sheep are smaller than the rest, and every time it takes a step the ground tremors under its hooves, the sheep are more agile than Sydra first thought. For the last half hour, Sydra has been running around the valley, the golden sheep in his arms getting heavier by the second. On multiple occasions, Sydra attempted to grow his wings, but every time he did so, the tiny sheep would be right behind him.
"I don't even have the time to send this sheep into my Arbor Sanctum, and it's just dragging me down the longer I go on," Sydra says, trying once more to send the sheep into the Arbor Sanctum, but being forced to stop by the tiny sheep.
Sighing, Sydra tosses the sheep in his arms off to the side, hoping to use his now open arms to fight back against the tiny sheep. However, when Sydra turns around, a cold shiver goes down his spine as he sees the tiny sheep's golden eyes gleaming with malicious intent.
Backing away from the sheep, Sydra notices the golden eyes following him wherever he goes. "Why do I feel like I just did something I'll later regret," he says, watching the sheep get down on its stomach, a pure most emitting from the golden fleece on its back.
Back at the top of the valley, the group is watching all this unfold with laser focus. "I think Sydra is about to be in some serious trouble," Robert says, covering his eyes as the most coming from the sheep becomes brighter.
"Should we step in now?" Cidre asks, knowing he'll feel guilty if Sydra becomes injured because they didn't do anything to help. "No wait, he's motioning for us to stay away,"
"Doesn't Sydra have that Ancient Root Defense ability? I'm sure he'll be fine," Erich says, eagerly awaiting the outcome of the current situation. "And if that doesn't work, I'm sure he'll figure something else out,"
After making sure the others wouldn't approach, Sydra looked back towards the tiny sheep. By now, the mist above the sheep had thickened to the degree of becoming a cloud. Watching the cloud rise into the sky, Sydra notices small flashes of light coming from within along with the sound of thunder.
"There is no way to get out of attack range," Sydra says, the cloud above him covering the entirety of the valley, leaving nowhere safe for Sydra to run. Sterling his resolve, Sydra waited until the cloud began to swirl above his head before placing his palm against the dirt.
His body still, Sydra calls out with a calm voice to the ground below him, "Ancient Root Defense," he says, summoning the roots of an Ancient Tree to protect him from the tiny sheep's attack. The roots spring forth from the ground like a fountain, entangling with one another as they create a shield over Sydra's crouched body.
Once the roots had finished forming, Sydra activated the rest of his defensive abilities in case the first one wasn't sufficient. As he waited several minutes for the lightning to strike, Sydra began to feel the sweat drip down his cramping body.
"Why hasn't anything happened yet? I can't keep this up forever," Sydra says, wiping some of the sweat off his brow. Hesitant to leave the protection of his defenses, Sydra decides to wait until something happens on the outside.
'Boom' The sound of thunder cracking the sky causes Sydra to jump, as a large lightning bolt slams down into the top of the Ancient Root Defense. Unable to handle the full power of the lightning strike, the roots disintegrate within a second of contact.
Without the roots blocking its way, the lightning continues its path straight into Sydra's back, which is covered in his bone armor, enhanced by the pale flames. As the bone armor becomes torn apart by the lightning, Sydra activates his regeneration aura to its highest degree, reforming the armor along the way.
As time goes by, Sydra feels his aura start to run on fumes, as he has used up so much in such a short time. "Dang, it feels like this lightning bolt is neverending. It's already been thirty seconds," he says, dropping to his elbows. About to run out of aura, Sydra feels something strange stirring on his back.
"Is he still alive?! Crap, we should have helped him out," Erich says, grabbing onto Cidre's shoulder, who was using his Void Eyes to check on Sydra's condition.
"He is still alive, but something seems to be happening to him," Cidre says, noticing a black most leaving Sydra's back and fighting against the golden lightning. As the two contrasting lights fight against one another, the black one begins gaining the upper hand by absorbing the golden lightning crashing down.
Noticing its lightning bolt losing to the dark mist covering Sydra's back, the tiny sheep attempts to increases the power. Picking itself up off the ground, the tiny sheep jumps into the Golden cloud above, disappearing from everyone's view.
With the tiny sheep up in the clouds above, Sydra feels the golden lightning bolt intensify, pushing him further into the ground. Bending his bones slightly so they don't crack under the pressure, Sydra focuses the rest of his attention on the feeling in his back.
"Is there some way to increase its density?" Sydra wonders, sending his different auras to that spot on his back. After passing through the powers he obtained from others, Sydra tries to use the powers that are naturally his. Channeling his lightning aura through his back, Sydra feels a faint reaction occur, but the Golden lightning increases as well.
"Wait, what if I separate the two forms of lightning, and only send the black type through my back," Sydra says, directing his aura towards his core. There he begins to revolve it, forming an Ashgold sphere in his chest. Separating the two types of lightning, Sydra feels as though his body is being torn in two, straight down the scar he received the first time the black lightning appeared.
"Alright, now that they are separated, I'll spread the black lightning across my back, and keep the Golden lightning within my palms," Sydra says, sending the strands of lightning into different places. Now that his back was enhanced by the black lightning, the dark mist above it thickened, protecting Sydra from the onslaught of the sheep.
Seeing their leader work so hard, and come so close, only to be stopped caused the other sheep to become enraged. Stomping their hooves against the ground, the sheep began running in a wide circle around Sydra, creating golden static as they went. The Divine Cloud Sheep, in the sky above them, noticed what they were doing.
"Baa!" It said, causing the other sheep to run even faster, excited that their master spoke to them. Seeing this occur, Robert attempted to stop the sheep, but he was stopped by a golden barrier that went up to there clouds above.
Raising his hands, Robert places them against the golden barrier and activates his fire aura. "Stand back," he exclaims, directing all the fire aura through his palms. Increasing the heat as much as he can bear, Robert releases the pent-up aura into the barrier, but nothing happens.
Inside the barrier, Sydra notices what Robert is doing, but he can't move due to the lightning continuously pushing down on his back. "I... can't keep this up... much longer," he says, his face inching closer and closer to the ground. With the strenuous pressure keeping him down, Sydra feels his arms begin to weaken, and his vision becomes hazy.
Feeling the hopelessness of the situation, Sydra trembles as he calls out to anyone listening. "I needs help," he says, his vision going dark, along with the loss of all his other senses.