The reclusive Icarus, now rejoining this world of the living, departed the Void. He sensed the calling of desperation on the air, felt the cries for help as his essence seeped into the aether, connecting him throughout the world in a manner reminiscent of his time within the Void. The aether, or astral plane, as others referred it, was no more than a connecting point where singular points of life interacted. The manner in which the markers were presented revolved around the mind of the user as non-real space was subject to interpretation.

For Icarus, it appeared as a transparent construct of the reality he stood in, with large collections of light in any direction signifying the existence of life. It did not matter how far away it was, as the plane he stood on was flat and the lights shown brightly. He simply could not tell how far away it was, but given the sheer amount of light he saw, he could only determine that thousands of lives dwelt in that direction.

Knowledge from the Other flooded him as the previous incarnation of himself finished merging with his revived form. Icarus knew his destination and the means to arrive, but he felt there was perhaps some great reason he did not wish to use magic yet. Searching the skies, he reached out with his will to summon a means of transport that he had acquired previously. In seconds, a small, golden cloud departed from the heavens above and lowered itself to the ground, permitting him to step upon it.

Pointing toward the direction of Mamlak, Icarus ascended quickly into the clouds, his chariot of sorts speeding along through the sky. In mere minutes, he found himself above an extensive battlefield where the Rainforest of Laeto could be seen actively engaged in war as entire sections stood ablaze. Soaring past even that, Icarus eventually came to see the battlefields to the west, where a horde of enemies faced the war elephants of Mamlak and their weakened army. It was here that Icarus decided he would prove most useful.

Flying over the battlefield on his enchanted cloud, Icarus began to pool his mana. No longer connected to the Void, it proved slow at first. After several moments, he generated enough mana to summon spectral blades that remained floating around him. "Not enough… more…" he thought aloud as he realized this paltry half-dozen would do little to aid the Mamlak forces.

Icarus repeated the process, flying for several minutes over the battlefield and coming at last to a final tally of nearly three dozen blades before he found he could not control any more. without suffering immense headaches. For what he planned, he needed a clear mind. Blades crafted with extremely sharp points, almost like spearheads… rate of acceleration is 9.8 m/s^2… parallel trajectory… got it, he thought as he prepared to commit to his last step.
 
"Set height to ten thousand meters," he stated plainly as the cloud responded by accelerating rapidly upward. At such a height, breathing was difficult and he struggled to hold in his breath. With only his mental fortitude to guide him, he descended from the cloud and sent his array of spectral blades forth, accelerating at a rate even faster than himself.

The ground approached quickly and only seconds before impact, he opened a gate, permitting the blades to travel through first before he followed suit. Due to his calculations, the blades had reached a velocity greater than his own terminal velocity because they were magical and not bound by air friction. The results were instantaneous.

For those foes of Mamlak, insectoid in nature, it was as though dozens of ballistae had just been fired directly into their mass with a trajectory and speed that caused the fine magical blades to pierce line after line of their great host. They saw a man covered in a cloak and mask emerge from the same point, angelic wings emerging from his back through the use of magical adaptation to slow him down before touching the ground.

The magical wings faded away, melding back into his flesh. "Mortal!" they shouted as the began to charge toward him. "Not quite," his only reply.

"Holy hell."  His jaw dropped.  A young, raven and crimson-haired young man stared at the battlefield, watching the chaos unfold.  The insectoid army approached with a large variety of different troops, including soldier ants and fliers.  Then suddenly, a gust of wind swept through the battlefield, several dozen spectral weapons, shaped like blades, shot through the battlefield, exploding through the bodies of so many insects at blinding speed.  Sprays of green bug blood erupted as they were pierced by the mana spectral blades.  A man also appeared, apparently the man who attacked the insects with the rain of spectral blades.  The young man, Hiro Kouen, knew that this man would probably need help.

Hiro Kouen stood some distance away watching.  He was out of the fray, on a cliff edge overlooking the battle.  He closed his eyes, and focused his mana through his body and into his crimson plate mail.  A pair of fiery red, phoenix-like wings erupted from his back.  He took a leap off the edge, and flew through the air, propelled by his wings.  There was pandemonium as the insectoid army and the Mamlak army clashed in the rainforest.  Hiro aimed himself toward the spot where the mystery man dropped down from.  Hiro plummeted down, like a fireball, and landed with a fiery explosion, sending bugs flying from the blast.

Hiro had landed in dramatic fashion, standing back up from his crouched position, he drew his blade from the scabbard on his side, a long ornate sword, with a silver blade, highlights of red, and a prismatic jewel in the center of the hilt.

"You sure know how to make an impact, I hope you are good at more than just surprise entrance surprise attacks," Hiro said with a smirk to the mystery man.  Hiro gripped his blade, Empyrean, channeling fire mana into it, swinging it at the enemies at they approached, unleashing an arc of powerful flame, setting alight insectoid soldiers left and right, carving into their ranks.  "Name's Hiro, Hiro Kouen, Phoenix Knight.  Who are you?"

Even before the first of his foes could close the gap, Icarus was joined by another. He didn't recall the boy that joined him as being some imposing warrior with a grand command of magic, so he was pleasantly surprised. He recalled the memories of the Other, remembering the young man beside him from a chance encounter in the Laeto Forest more than a year past. He also recalled how they had a brief exchange while he was overcome as the Beast and ripping apart the undead in some city or another.

With the question the other man posited, he couldn't help but feeling words spent on introductions rather than strategy were wasteful. In keeping with his estimates that the use of minor darkness magic would use little energy, he pulled the shadows under his clothing out and displayed the head of a wolf, the very same form he had last encountered the young man with.

It only lasted for a brief few seconds and he realized that he had actually used far more mana than he intended and it was affecting his physical stamina as well. He needed a means of recovering, and for that… yep, he'll do.

"I'll need you to keep them off me while I drain the fading mana from the dead and dying. It should be a few minutes, but I need an advantage," he declared. Truthfully, he knew he could best one or two with regular combat and weapons, but the strength of their carapaces ran the risk of deflecting weapons without deliberate targeting of joints and vulnerabilities. They were also so many in number that he would be incapable of discerning each one's vulnerabilities, attack patterns, and speed without incurring severe injury. Icarus had surpassed normal mortality, but he was more an ascetic than a true immortal.

Dashing forward, he immediately took cover behind a fresh corpse and parried a blow from a beetle while placing one hand on the deceased foe. Another swing came from the beetle, but it was too late. Icarus drove his blade through its open mandibles, causing it to shudder, seize, and collapse to the ground, dead from a precise stab of his katana. If Hiro could buy him five minutes at best, he could use Adaptation to establish a superior form to combat this army more effectively. It would be difficult, however, because if he lost focus, his adaptations could result in a permanent mutation that no amount of his own magic could reverse.

It was somewhat riskier than Polymorph, which established temporary transformations into a completely separate being at the cost of mana. Adaptation used mana to alter one's physical form permanently, though it was limited to substantially weaker individual alterations. If one forgot the precise measurements of their form, they wouldn't be able to properly use their own mana to return to their original form. Still, for a battle this grand in scale, it was a risk he deemed necessary to take.

Hiro looked at the man, who looked familiar, now that he had a good view of him.  Where did he meet him before?  Wait, was he the first guy he met when he arrived in Revaliir?  He also showed him a wolf head with shadow magic, did he meet him during the whole zombie thing too?  What was his name?

"We'll have to chat later then.  Do whatever you need to do, I'll hold them off," Hiro said, watching as the flame exploded into the swarm of insectoids, sending them burning and flying.  Hiro charged into the fray, his newly forged, shiny magic blade carving through insectoid carapaces, sending green slimy blood spraying with each slash.

"Oh, be careful, these things have a hive mind!  They can work together!" Hiro called out he stabbed one insect through the eye with his sword, and another came from behind, and attempted to stab Hiro with it's polearm.  Hiro saw it in the corner of his eye, and leaped backwards over the swing, unleashing a blast of flame from his mouth.  Hiro landed behind the now fiery insect soldier, and stabbed it in the back of its head.  More insectoid enemies started climbing over each other's bodies, attempting to swarm Hiro with sheer numbers.  Hiro swung his blade at the ground in a line, and summoned a large firewall out from the earth, expanding around in a circle around Hiro, and reaching higher than Hiro's head.  The enemies swarmed around him completely surrounding him and started climbing on top of each other to get around the firewall Hiro placed down upon the ground.

Hiro thrust his sword into the ground, and channeled his magical power through it into the earth.  He had been practicing and training channeling different elements, and experimenting with combining them.

Focusing a control of earth into the firewall, the ground shook, as molten rock erupted out of the ground from where the firewall was formed, creating a lava dome, engulfing the enemies in molten rock and fire as it spilled over onto them.  As the rock started to cool, Hiro unleashed another spell.  An explosion rocked from the inside of the dome, sending molten rock and debris flying into the crowd.

"Come on, come at me!  Who else wants a piece of me?  I hope you're done doing whatever the hell you need to restore your magic!"  Hiro stabbed another insectoid soldier that charged at him, unimpeded by his display of power.  He grabbed the injured soldier, and set it on fire with his hand, before tossing the body at another group of monsters that approached him.

(OOC: Adaptation reference retconned to a partial polymorph rather than a full transformation)

Icarus heard the warnings Hiro gave him concerning the group consciousness of the invading force. Alas, with the sheer number of dead foes present, he had to focus his attention on gathering the mana quickly depleting from their corpses. He casually glanced toward Hiro as the other warrior did his best to stave off the enemy force. Still, one or two at a time were making it past him and at last, one approached Icarus.

Sufficient, he thought as his plan began to evolve. Consuming some of the precious mana he had just taken, he turned the flesh of his arm to stone and drove it through the outstretched mandibles of his foe. Digging around, he crushed the brain of the ant and began draining a significantly greater amount of mana from his dying adversary. Switching his focus back to those still on the ground, he increased his rate, draining one fallen enemy with each hand. He continued repeating the process until even his shadow was alive due to the mana simply exiting his form.

"One more minute!" he called out as Hiro yelled at him, clearly beginning to fight more defensively as the sprawling mass of insectoids charged onward. Adjusting muscular efficiency to junior simian variety. Adding prehensile tail, he focused as he began to alter his form with an incomplete Polymorph. The results were beyond his expectations.

The ascetic proved unable to limit his adjustments to only the muscular power of a man-sized spider monkey, and found fur growing along his arms and legs, making him thankful that he wore lighter leg garments. The bolstering in his strength was evident immediately, however, as the ratio of strength was 2-3 times a normal human when compared to a primative cousin of only 20 pounds. When increased in scale, that was potentially eight to nine times greater than the expectations. Needless to say, Icarus now was significantly more powerful than he previously was.

By his calculations, he could maintain this form indefinitely if he could drain others of mana while fighting, though additional mana consumption could alter that if he didn't carefull monitor it. Draining one final body, he summoned a mithril bo staff from the Void and topped off his magical power.

Given the thick carapaces of the creatures and the amount of precision required to take them down without magic, he found it vital to use a reinforced bludgeoning weapon that would not bend or break in combat. Testing the new form, Icarus jumped as high as his legs would carry him, ascending a full five meters into the air before he touched down lightly. With thought alone, he called his golden cloud back down from the heavens and leapt onto it, riding it quickly toward Hiro as the other warrior continued to face the horde. "Coming through with a big boot to squish the bad bugs!" he called out without realizing it, adding "hee-hees" and "ha-has" without intent.

The next display he made was a rapid spinning of his bo to clear a path forward, sending enemies flying in ichorous chunks as he went. Insects charged endlessly, slowing his staff to the point one took a firm swing at his legs, launching him from the cloud. The durable mithril of his weapon hummed as he planted one end of it down firmly and pushed off to carry his momentum forward. With the next bound, he slammed the weapon down and cast stone wall to establish the first twenty feet of a new perimeter for allied forces to develop a new front line further from the city.

Hiro had little time to see whatever this mysterious companion was doing, he had to focus his attention on holding off these insectoids for about another minute.  Their numbers seemed not to be declining, despite HIro having taken out as many as he did.  That meant more were swarming out from somewhere.  Hiro carved through another soldier ant, stabbing through a loose joint in its carapace.  He pointed his palm at another insect that approached from his side, unleashing a blast of flame from his hand, exploding the enemy, and showering the battlefield in bits and pieces of carapace.  Sweeping his blade back and forth, Hiro channeled the power of wind through his sword Empyrean, unleashing gusts of wind that sent the enemies flying backwards with great force.  He was just trying to buy some time at this point, while not using up all his magical power.

Finally, Hiro sensed a great magical power coming from behind him.  It seems his companion had transformed into a his giant monkey . . . form.  He had grown fur across his body, and was wielding a mythril staff, as he flew around on a magical cloud, smashing the insecoids to pieces.  With great force, he swatted them with his staff, sending insect blood and gore flying everywhere.  He even managed to slam his staff through the ground, summoning up stone walls to channel the enemies through, so they could be taken down more easily, making a perimeter for the allied forces.  It seemed, all they would have to do is find where the enemy was popping up from, and destroy the tunnels' entrance.  The numbers were starting to decrease already.

"Impressive.  Wait, what's that sound?"  Hiro heard a loud buzzing sound.  Looking up, a unit of flying, wasp-like insectoid enemies could be seen flying through the sky.  "Fliers!  Incoming!"  Hiro summoned his Phoenix Armor's wings,crouching down, then leaping up into the sky to do battle with the flying enemies, swinging his blade to clash with one of these wasp-like, spear-armed enemies that were swarming around them.

Icarus panted heavily at the effort he had just used. Although he was certainly far above the limitations of normal human flesh, he still had to bear the fact he was mortal and mortals had limits. There was still much smashing of bad bugs and he had just the right type of boot for them. Using magic, he animated his staff and sent it defend him from attacks as he collected energy again.
This time, the feeling was different than it had been when he was initially increasing his power. With the vast amount of magical essence that had been flowing within his body, he was now beginning to feel the scorch of mana burn. While this form could suppress the negative effects for a time, if he did not revert to his human form, within perhaps an hour or two, he faced severe repercussions that ranged from crippling physical conditions or petrification as the mana scourged his body. Taking it slower would help for a time, but this form he was using was taking far too great a toll on him and the wince of pain on his simian features made it apparent.

Even once he finished using the form, he likely wouldn't be capable of using magic without detriment until he could adjust his body's attunement to mana. He had spent years hiding within the Void and aligning his power to use available darkness to fuel his abilities. Such focus was against the very nature of mortals and it severely reduced his ability to perform other arts beyond necromantic, umbral, and fortification magics.

He glanced back as Hiro made a mention of flying enemies. The man known once as the Black Swordsman had yet another trick up his sleeve. He forsook the potential ramifications and gathered each drained foe's essence into direct fuel for his final spell, one which he could not complete himself. He ran to join Hiro but could not catch up to him before the other fighter set off without him to engage the flying adversaries. I might be able to adjust this appropriately, he thought to himself as he formed a dozen spectral blades that he left hollowed to absorb magical input as a combination ability.

"Catch, boy!" he called out as he sent the blades flying through the air toward Hiro, hoping he would infuse some measure of magic before sending them off to burst in some glorious display of visceral carnage. His monkey-human hybrid form painfully cracked back into place as the last of his magic was drained and the allied elephant cavalry approached. His last thought was that this battle was a splendid return to who he had been.

Hiro noticed that the Black Swordsman must have run out of mana/strength to sustain his transformation.  He must have used the last of his strength to summon several ethereal blades his way.  Hiro slammed his feet into the gut of the nearest insectoid soldier he was clashing with to put some distance between them.  With that distance, Hiro exerted control of those dozen ethereal blades, summoning magic to his free hand.  Flame and lightning combined in his hand, creating what was known as plasma.  A purplish energy surrounded his hand, with jolts of electricity, and the rippling flame combined.  He channeled that element into the ethereal blades, creating powerful blades engulfed with the same plasma mana he had summoned to his hand.  He waved his hand in the direction of the dozen flying enemies sending those blades like energized missiles shooting forth, skewering through the flying wasps.  They carved a swathe of destruction through them, cutting them into pieces that dropped toward the ground in a bloody mess.

The ground troops had arrived, including giant elephants.  Any remaining flying troops were pelleted by arrows, and the ground troops started to retreat.  Hiro lowered himself to the ground, sheathing his blade.  He went to the mysterious man's side, the man he aided.

"Someone!  Get this man a healer!  Maybe some potions!  He's tapped himself out of his magical strength!" Hiro called out for assistance.  He looked to be in rough shape, mainly because he drained himself so much, he pushed himself to the limit, and maybe beyond that.