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Man vs. Nature; (Closed)
Topic Started: May 29 2008, 04:14 AM (270 Views)
Ryu
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YEAH-UH!
[ *  *  *  * ]
The sun was high in the sky, the day a perfect with not a cloud in the sky. A look at the calender showed that May was coming to an end and June was just a few short days away. To Ryu that meant one thing. His fight with Neo was near. His training had been coming along, but nowhere near what he was hoping. He wanted to perfect some new techniques, maybe bust out a new move or two. At the very least he wanted to grab some moves out of manga or an anime and half-assedly try 'em out in battle. Unfortunately the whole situation with the H-Block prisoners being at large had caused Ryu's focus to be drawn away from his upcoming battle. Now was the time to get back on track.

Ryu wasn't exactly sure when the fight would be, but he assumed that it would be occurring between the middle and end of June. Either way that gave him a few short weeks to get as fit for battle as possible with a short window of time to rest up. Now, you would expect Ryu to spend every waking hour in the El Rotundo Atheletic Complex, perfecting every element of his game so he would be ready for battle, however Ryu had decided to take another route. You see, Neo wasn't some upstart student trying to make a name for himself by challenging Ryu, no! Neo was a graduate dammit, and not just any graduate, he was easily one of the more highly regarded and respected members of his graduating class. Training for a fight against him would require more drastic measures. And that's where the Dark Forest came into play.

The thing very few people actually understand about the Dark Forest is how radically different it is from the normal Forest. The normal forest is pretty much just that, an ordinary mundane forest. It's main dangers stem from the monsters and werewolves and other kooky shit that lurk within it. In all honesty, it's not all that dangerous a place, your standard second year student can hold their own in there after all. However, the Dark Forest is pretty much the most hellish place on the entire AHS campus. It is not in the slightest bit hyperbole to say that the Dark Forest itself seems to hate life and does whatever it can to stomp it out. First there's the fact that it's mystical properties block anyone from using Meta-Powers, magic, special non-human abilities, etc. Basically, if you come in here, all you can rely on is your physical strength. However, there's more! As mentioned earlier, the Dark Forest seems to hate life, being quite harsh for things not used to it with the plant and animal-life that does happen to live there reflecting the harshness of the Dark Forest. Like the normal Forest, the Dark Forest has it's share of mundane forest animals like deer, raccoons, and rabbits in addition to it's own ecclectic supply of monsters, but that's where the similarities end. In the Dark Forest, the animals are mutated and deformed, corrupted into horrible (and sometimes dangerous) abominations seemingly by their surrondings. They, along with the monsters of the Dark Forest, are incredibly vicious, relentless, and generally unpleasent. Then when you combine all that with the various tribes of "demons", you start to see why even graduates avoid this place. So why the hell was Ryu here? Because he was going to train in there for the next several weeks of course.

Standing just outside of the invisible border of the Dark Forest, looking into the hellhole, Ryu started to mentally prepare to enter. While he had never done it himself, Ryu was a big fan of the idea of theory behind survival training, forcing you to live off the land, literally sparring against nature itself to better yourself. It forced you to discipline (or rediscipline) yourself in order to survive. It was the ultimate test of human adaptability. So Ryu thought if normal survival training could net decent gains, then doing it in a much harsher location and finding a way to thrive would allow him to improve significantly. In addition, by training in a location where his powers are blocked off Ryu assumed he would find his abilities at a higher level when he could use them again, kind of like working out while wearing weights. And that's what brought him here.

He took a deep breath then entered the Dark Forest, immediately feeling all the energy signatures of the students and graduates of the school disappear. This was not the first time Ryu had been without his powers, but this was a much different feeling. The last time he lost his powers, it was a feeling of them no longer being there, of emptiness. This time it was more of a feeling of his powers being surpressed. This was all pretty new for Ryu as he had never really gone into the Dark Forest before, it was not a very pleasent place after all.

Ryu:"Well, no point stalling here."

And with that, Ryu walked deeper into the Dark Forest, his training having now officially begun.
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Ryu
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YEAH-UH!
[ *  *  *  * ]
Day 15

Perched on a tree branch, Ryu was as silent as could be, bearly breathing, not moving even a hair, his eyes focused upon his prey. It was a mutated deer cautiously walking through the dangerous Dark Forest. Ryu had been tracking it for several minutes, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, his hand gripping a makeshift stone knife tightly. Hunting in general could be rather difficult, especially for a city-slicker Ryu, and when you add the complexities of hunting in the Dark Forest, it seemed pretty hopeless for a while. It took Ryu a while to get the hang of things, but neccesity had a way of speeding up the educational process.

Ryu's eyes did not leave the deer for even a moment, it's every move being registered by Ryu. The deer was skitish, moreso than your normal deer. Not like Ryu could blame it. Finally after what seemed like hours, but was closer to just a few minutes, the deer paused to graze on one of the few patches of grass that wasn't defiled or cursed or otherwise unediable. The opening Ryu had been waiting for had presented itself. Ryu did not fail to take advantage of it. He sprung from his perch, pouncing upon the unsuspecting doe, the primative blade in Ryu's hand quickly going to work. In just a few seconds, the deed was done and at Ryu's feet was his dinner.

Back at his rough little campsite, Ryu tried to relax as the meat of his hunt cooked over a fire, however every little noise had Ryu on edge. His first few nights were stressful as he was attacked by various members of the demons clans that inhabited the Dark Forest. Each attack saw more and more of the demons come to try and take down Ryu, surprisingly organized for monsters. Even though Ryu was able to fend them off, it was not easy. With full access to his powers, then yeah, Ryu would have easily annihilated the demons, but inside the Dark Forest all Ryu had was his physical abilities and his wits. Physical strength couldn't tell Ryu when an ambush was coming, just as his quick thinking couldn't blast a group of 20 angry, evil demons with bad intentions for Ryu away. As a result, Ryu hadn't had a full night of sleep since the day before he entered. His sleeplessness had caused Ryu to grow paranoid, reacting to every noise he heard. Though the training had done some good for Ryu, it was also taking a toll on Ryu's well-being. Thankfully this would be his last day in the Dark Forest.

Two weeks of eating sickly, mutated forests animals and drinking barely potable water was forcing Ryu's body to eat itself for the nutrients he needed to live that simply could not be found in this environment. As a result, Ryu slimmed down a bit, his normally bulky figure becoming a great deal more lean. Though he hadn't noticed it yet, Ryu would find that his less bulky size greatly helped with his manuverability, speed, and agility. Being forced to hunt for his food and everything it entailed had helped improve Ryu's focus and discipline, just like he thought it would.

Ryu:"Hopefully, my other assumption is right and powers will have jumped in strength as well..."

Ryu's thoughts suddenly skidded to a halt as he heard a noise, the rustling of leaves...followed by a growl. The tail end of some kind of communication between demons that was fortunately (for Ryu) caught by the wind. Ryu climbed to his feet and put all five senses to work, scanning the area, trying to determine just how many enemies he would have. He had no doubts they were there as Ryu could hear more rustling from the bushes all around him, either from the demons themselves or from forest animals that were fleeing the immediate area.

The seconds ticked by uncomfortably slowly as Ryu began wondering where the first attack would come from. Though Ryu wanted to stand and fight, he knew that his little campsite was not the best place for him to make a stand. He was too prone to ambushes here, just as this attack was proving. Indeed, Ryu would have to flee and draw his attackers into an area that benefitted Ryu. All Ryu needed to know was where his first attacker would be springing forth from. Suddenly, granting Ryu's wish, one of the demons pounced from out of hiding. The rest soon followed.

Now, Demons in the AHS world were not the super-cute bishies that teenage girls write slash fan-fiction or draw incest yaoi about, nope, not even close. Demons in the world of AHS were brutal, ugly, assholish little douchebag buggers that were beat unmercilessly with the ugly stick. Their size tended to vary, but before camping out in the Dark Forest, the tallest ones Ryu had ever seen were the ones in the regular forest which stood around 3 feet tall. Not too scary. However, in the Dark Forest, they were much, much taller. As in an inch or two shorter than Ryu. So, you could see why Ryu was a little unnerved by the frequent demon attacks, seeing ugly, vicious monsters almost as tall as you will do that to you.

Anyways, the first demon burst out from the bush cover, claws extended to try and rip the flesh from Ryu's body. Moments after the first one came out, it's comrades soon followed, the monsters' screeches filling the air. While most would have started screaming and freaking out, Ryu kept his composure. As soon as the first demon jumped out, Ryu dashed towards it, moving with all the speed he could build up in the cramped space. Ryu caught the demon completely off-guard, sending his fist into it's gut, knocking the breath out of the creature's lungs. However, Ryu was not done there. Without pausing for even a moment, Ryu continue to sprint forward, his fist still planted firmly in the demon's midsection, dragging it with him, his arm still cocked back. Now moving at nearly his full speed, Ryu then planted his foot into the ground, coming to a stop while at the same time sending his fist with the demon on it forward, sending it flying with much more force than he normally could have. Ryu could hear the screeches of confusion and rage from the demons, soon followed by the sound of their footsteps as the followed him.

The blood-lust of the demons and their desire to tear Ryu limb from limb was both a blessing and a curse for Ryu. A curse because of their frequent, unrelenting ambush attacks, but a blessing because Ryu could take advantage of them to lead them anywhere he wanted. And you better believe Ryu had a place he wanted to take them. It soon came into the view, a opening into a clearing. Not just any clearing though. You see, the demons chasing Ryu were but a group from one tribe. One of maybe a dozen that inhabited the Dark Forest. What Ryu was going to do was probably very stupid and might end up with more demons on his ass, but if it worked, he would have no demons chasing him. What Ryu was going to do was lead the demons into a rival tribe's village.

The denizens of the demon village were caught by surprise when the young Meta-Human suddenly burst out of the forest, running through the village before exiting through the other side of the village. Before any of them could do anything though, the demons that were originally chasing Ryu came into view. They tried to stop and flee, but it was too late for them. The villager demons' confusion was immediately transformed into rage as they attacked the chasing demons. Hundred of demons vs. 10 demons of a rival tribe. The resulting "battle" was not pretty.

Ryu didn't bother to look over his shoulder nor stop to see if his plan worked. When Ryu heard the screeches of demons and the sounds of battle far behind him, a grin spread across Ryu's face.

Ryu:"Heh, flawless victory..."

Still running, Ryu changed his direction slightly, however this time his destination was not another demon village. Ryu had spent long enough in the Dark Forest and now it was time for him to see if his training had paid off by returning to the school. The fight against Neo was growing closer and Ryu couldn't be more excited.
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