Where we left off:
Orgo couldn't believe it. How worthless they were! How pathetic! Defeated by.. by.. humans! His anger turned into rage. Rage boiled into a seething hatred. He would not fail! He would never be beaten by humans! He stepped forward into the portal.
He would do it himself.
Chapter 7
Squall surveyed the scene around him. Everyone seemed to have escaped with only some minor abrasions, except for Raijin who was still lying motionless on the ground. Fujin knelt above the injured man, trying to assess the severity of his wounds. She rolled him over onto his back, and a small gasp escaped her lips. Squall stepped forward to check Raijin's status, but Rinoa's terrified scream stopped him in his tracks. He turned just in time to recieve a massive blow to the side of his head, sending him flying through the air. He landed heavily on the ground roughly fifteen feet from where he had just been standing.
***
Orgo had watched the battle with his minions very closely and had planned his attack accordingly. The man wielding the sword, and the woman with the eyepatch were his most dangerous adversaries, and he planned to dispose of them before they could gather their wits about them.
***
The demon bore down on Fujin with such speed and ferocity that the young woman barely had time to stand up before the attack came. It swiped at her with glistening black claws. She managed to spin to the side, avoiding the brunt of the first attack, but the beast's second swipe caught her full-on, and she was sent hard to the ground, sliding to a stop several feet away.
***
Orgo was pleased with his progress so far. The two threats had been dealt with, and now, providing that there would be no surprises, he could rid himself of the others at his own pace. He looked around. Two of them were standing together, no doubt getting ready to counterattack. Another stood by herself, brandishing her pathetic weapon in a way that she intended to be menacing, but he found it rather amusing. The last of the four was attending to the man with the sword, who was trying to get to his feet, with little success.
***
Zell and Quistis stood beside each other, trying to put together a plan of attack. With Squall down, Quistis was the acting leader, but everyone was so spread out that there was no way she could regroup them in time. The demon began moving towards where Rinoa was attending to Squall, and Quistis took a quick moment to study her foe.
It was huge.. at least twelve feet tall, and stocky in it's build. It's wing's were curled up behind it for the moment. It's legs were very short and stout, with clawed feet that tore up the ground as it began to lumer forward. It's arm's were heavily muscled, and hung down to it's knees, making it look ape-like, but the talons on the end of each of the fingers dispelled that thought quickly. It's face was a hideous mask of torn flesh, with nothing but bone from it's forehead to it's lower jaw. A long, forked tounge darted in and out of it's grotesque visage, seemingly of it's own free will. She saw nothing that hinted at a weak spot, and decided to hope for the best and attack it head on.
"Zell, I want you to attack it's face if you can. I'm going to try to get it's attention, and hopefully I'll be able to contain at least one of it's arms. Are you ready?"
"You know it."
"Alright then, wait for my attack, then go."
Quistis attacked as the beast was walking past her, and managed to wrap her whip around it's right arm. She pulled with all her might, trying to immobilize the appendage and give Zell a chance to mount his attack.
The monster turned towards her as Zell was running towards it, and she cringed at the attack that she knew must be coming. But instead of swiping at Zell as she thought it would, the demon merely locked it's gaze directly on the instructor. No matter how hard she tried, Quisis could not tear her eyes away from the horrible image before her.
***
Orgo looked at the woman who was attacking him. She was truly a beauty in her own right, and he thought that she would make an entertaining plaything. He locked eyes with her and began to drive her into madness. No human could resist his gaze, and he enjoyed tormenting her immensely. He started to smile, and was caught off-guard when the first blow came.
***
Quistis shook her head to clear it, and saw what had saved her. Zell was on the demon's back, using it's wings as a foothold, and dealing blow after blow the side of his enemy's head.
The beast flailed at his attacker, tearing the whip out of Quistis's grip, but it was no use. The build of it's body wouldn't let it reach around to it's back where Zell was perched. It let out a might roar, extended it's wing outward, and gave one flap, sending both him and Zell high into the air.
Quistis looked on, mouth agape, as the demon twisted and turned in the air. In the fiend's mad thrashing, one of it's wings caught Zell hard on the side of the head, and his grip faltered. Quistis could only watch as Zell fell the thirty feet to the unforgiving earth below. She saw the blood fly from his mouth as he hit the ground, and started to rush over to him, but Orgo would have none of it. He landed just in front of the woman, knocking her to the ground. He attacked her with the one feature that she hadn't seen when she had analyzed the creature. A long, wirery tail lashed out from behind him, and it's sharped point pierced the flesh of her shoulder like a needle pierces cloth.
She screamed in agony as the demon twisted it's tail back and forth, opening the wound further.
***
Orgo's rage subsided for the moment, and he remembered his plans for this one. He removed his tail from her shoulder, then grabbed her by the neck. He picked her up and brought her face up to his. His tounge slid from his mouth and licked the helpless woman's cheek. He licked her a second time, then gave out a howl as she bit down hard on his tounge. She defiantly spit the chunk of tounge she had removed into his face.
The demon's rage returned in full force. He held Quistis out at arm's length and reveled in the look on her face as his tail shot through her abdomen. As his began twisting his tail, he howled in agony as a lightning bolt seared the left side of his face. He threw Quistis to the ground at started towards this new threat. The woman who was attending the one they called Squall had use of magic! Not only that, but the man Squall was standing beside her.
The bitch had healed him!
***
Squall knew that it would take more than a simple lightning spell to stop this monster. The recovered man began running towards the demon, gunblade at the ready. The demon just stood there, watching him. "Your confidence will be your undoing," Squall thought to himself as he approached the smug looking fiend. He raised his gunblade high and swung.
***
Orgo laughed as the gunblade cut the air where he had just be standing. With a light flick of his wings, the demon had launched himself just above where Squall now stood. Before the man even had a chance to recover from his swing, Orgo had planted one of his massive feet on the unbalanced man's head, and landed. Squall buckled under the weight and the force that his face hit the ground with knocked him out cold.
***
Rinoa saw her love get crushed under the demon, and screamed. Her cry brought it's attention back her, and it started in her direction. She began to unleash a fira spell, but before she had a chance, Orgo backhanded her in the face, which sent her spinning to the ground. She did not stir.
***
Orgo once again surveyed the situation around him. Everyone was down. It was just a matter of dealing out the final blows. He was about to bring his foot down on Rinoa's skull when he saw Selphie. She was standing in the exact spot that she had been when she arrived. She held up her weapons as he moved towards her, but he knew that she was too frightened to use them against him. He reached down and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her off of her feet.
***
Tears welled up in Selphie's eyes as she felt the pressure around her throat increase. She knew she had only a brief moment before the demon snapped her neck. Her nanchaku slipped from her grasp. She was completely helpless. She looked into the fiend's eyes and saw that it was over. She couldn't breathe. Blood rushed into her head, deafening her. She closed her eyes and waited for the end.
It never came.
She felt something warm hit her face and the pressure on her neck reduced. She opened her eyes and saw why.
The demon's head had been split completely open. A gaping hole now resided where once there was a face. Her feet touched the ground as the dying creature sunk to it's knees. She removed it's claw from her throat and stepped back as it toppled forward, dead. She looked up from the monster's prone body and saw the cause of death.
Irvine was standing there smiling, smoke still coming out of the barrel of his gun.
"Did ya miss me?"
***
Selphie clung to Irvine's neck as Squall filled him in on the situation. Rinoa was finishing up administering healing spells to the wounded, and everyone was taking a much needed rest.
Fujin had given Raijin one of her extra eyepatches, a blue one, and the man was taking the loss of his eye as only he could.. totally in stride.
"Now I look like you, ya know? Birds of a feather, and all that."
"FASHIONABLE."
"Yeah. Maybe I should start TALKING LIKE THIS, YA KNOW? Ow! Ok, Ok.. I get the point, ya know."
Zell finished wrapping Quistis's wounds and the woman looked at Death. "Why didn't you try to help us?"
"I Couldn't. I Can Only Guide You. You Must Face The Perils Of The Trek Alone."
Selphie overheard this and stook her tounge out at Death before telling Irvine all the important things he missed. "First he was mean to me and said that he didn't want to know my name, then he stole your coat, and then he distracted me and I almost drowned you, then that big guy dropped you all the ground and stuff, and oh, I'm so happy you're back Irvy, you saved me, you know, I thought I was gonna die, and then BOOM! You're so cool!!"
Irvine answered with an, "I know," and promptly got slapped for it.
Death handed Irvine back his jacket. "It's A Very Nice Coat. Thank You For Letting Me Borrow It."
Selphie scowled at Death, but Irvine interrupted her before she could say anything. "Why don't you go ahead and keep it. I can always get another one when we get back home. Besides, I look good with or without a coat."
Death grinned. "Thank You. You Are Too Kind."
"Don't mention it."
Squall looked at Death as he put the coat back on. "How far do we have left to go before we reach our destination?"
"That Depends On The Path You Choose."
Squall looked around. "Left or Right?"
Quistis looked at the paths. "I say right."
Selphie jumped up. "Yeah! I wanna go right, too!!"
"I think we should play spin the bottle to choose, and.. OUCH!! Damn, Selphie, relax.. I"m just saying.. OW!! OK, OK.. right"
"LEFT."
"I think we should go ri..Ow! left, ya know?"
Zell punched the air a few times. "I was kinda thinkin' left."
Rinoa looked at Squall. "I'm OK with whatever you choose."
Squall tallied the votes in his head. Three for left and three for right.. of course.
"Alright, then.. we'll go..."
*notes* well, for those of you who have been reading this, if you really care in the slightest, you can now officially interact in the story. just leave a review telling me which way they should go, and i'll take it from there. I'll give the results of the voting in the next chapter, thought I have a strange feeling that it'll look something like this: Left:0 Right:1 until next time... whatever.
Orgo couldn't believe it. How worthless they were! How pathetic! Defeated by.. by.. humans! His anger turned into rage. Rage boiled into a seething hatred. He would not fail! He would never be beaten by humans! He stepped forward into the portal.
He would do it himself.
Chapter 7
Squall surveyed the scene around him. Everyone seemed to have escaped with only some minor abrasions, except for Raijin who was still lying motionless on the ground. Fujin knelt above the injured man, trying to assess the severity of his wounds. She rolled him over onto his back, and a small gasp escaped her lips. Squall stepped forward to check Raijin's status, but Rinoa's terrified scream stopped him in his tracks. He turned just in time to recieve a massive blow to the side of his head, sending him flying through the air. He landed heavily on the ground roughly fifteen feet from where he had just been standing.
***
Orgo had watched the battle with his minions very closely and had planned his attack accordingly. The man wielding the sword, and the woman with the eyepatch were his most dangerous adversaries, and he planned to dispose of them before they could gather their wits about them.
***
The demon bore down on Fujin with such speed and ferocity that the young woman barely had time to stand up before the attack came. It swiped at her with glistening black claws. She managed to spin to the side, avoiding the brunt of the first attack, but the beast's second swipe caught her full-on, and she was sent hard to the ground, sliding to a stop several feet away.
***
Orgo was pleased with his progress so far. The two threats had been dealt with, and now, providing that there would be no surprises, he could rid himself of the others at his own pace. He looked around. Two of them were standing together, no doubt getting ready to counterattack. Another stood by herself, brandishing her pathetic weapon in a way that she intended to be menacing, but he found it rather amusing. The last of the four was attending to the man with the sword, who was trying to get to his feet, with little success.
***
Zell and Quistis stood beside each other, trying to put together a plan of attack. With Squall down, Quistis was the acting leader, but everyone was so spread out that there was no way she could regroup them in time. The demon began moving towards where Rinoa was attending to Squall, and Quistis took a quick moment to study her foe.
It was huge.. at least twelve feet tall, and stocky in it's build. It's wing's were curled up behind it for the moment. It's legs were very short and stout, with clawed feet that tore up the ground as it began to lumer forward. It's arm's were heavily muscled, and hung down to it's knees, making it look ape-like, but the talons on the end of each of the fingers dispelled that thought quickly. It's face was a hideous mask of torn flesh, with nothing but bone from it's forehead to it's lower jaw. A long, forked tounge darted in and out of it's grotesque visage, seemingly of it's own free will. She saw nothing that hinted at a weak spot, and decided to hope for the best and attack it head on.
"Zell, I want you to attack it's face if you can. I'm going to try to get it's attention, and hopefully I'll be able to contain at least one of it's arms. Are you ready?"
"You know it."
"Alright then, wait for my attack, then go."
Quistis attacked as the beast was walking past her, and managed to wrap her whip around it's right arm. She pulled with all her might, trying to immobilize the appendage and give Zell a chance to mount his attack.
The monster turned towards her as Zell was running towards it, and she cringed at the attack that she knew must be coming. But instead of swiping at Zell as she thought it would, the demon merely locked it's gaze directly on the instructor. No matter how hard she tried, Quisis could not tear her eyes away from the horrible image before her.
***
Orgo looked at the woman who was attacking him. She was truly a beauty in her own right, and he thought that she would make an entertaining plaything. He locked eyes with her and began to drive her into madness. No human could resist his gaze, and he enjoyed tormenting her immensely. He started to smile, and was caught off-guard when the first blow came.
***
Quistis shook her head to clear it, and saw what had saved her. Zell was on the demon's back, using it's wings as a foothold, and dealing blow after blow the side of his enemy's head.
The beast flailed at his attacker, tearing the whip out of Quistis's grip, but it was no use. The build of it's body wouldn't let it reach around to it's back where Zell was perched. It let out a might roar, extended it's wing outward, and gave one flap, sending both him and Zell high into the air.
Quistis looked on, mouth agape, as the demon twisted and turned in the air. In the fiend's mad thrashing, one of it's wings caught Zell hard on the side of the head, and his grip faltered. Quistis could only watch as Zell fell the thirty feet to the unforgiving earth below. She saw the blood fly from his mouth as he hit the ground, and started to rush over to him, but Orgo would have none of it. He landed just in front of the woman, knocking her to the ground. He attacked her with the one feature that she hadn't seen when she had analyzed the creature. A long, wirery tail lashed out from behind him, and it's sharped point pierced the flesh of her shoulder like a needle pierces cloth.
She screamed in agony as the demon twisted it's tail back and forth, opening the wound further.
***
Orgo's rage subsided for the moment, and he remembered his plans for this one. He removed his tail from her shoulder, then grabbed her by the neck. He picked her up and brought her face up to his. His tounge slid from his mouth and licked the helpless woman's cheek. He licked her a second time, then gave out a howl as she bit down hard on his tounge. She defiantly spit the chunk of tounge she had removed into his face.
The demon's rage returned in full force. He held Quistis out at arm's length and reveled in the look on her face as his tail shot through her abdomen. As his began twisting his tail, he howled in agony as a lightning bolt seared the left side of his face. He threw Quistis to the ground at started towards this new threat. The woman who was attending the one they called Squall had use of magic! Not only that, but the man Squall was standing beside her.
The bitch had healed him!
***
Squall knew that it would take more than a simple lightning spell to stop this monster. The recovered man began running towards the demon, gunblade at the ready. The demon just stood there, watching him. "Your confidence will be your undoing," Squall thought to himself as he approached the smug looking fiend. He raised his gunblade high and swung.
***
Orgo laughed as the gunblade cut the air where he had just be standing. With a light flick of his wings, the demon had launched himself just above where Squall now stood. Before the man even had a chance to recover from his swing, Orgo had planted one of his massive feet on the unbalanced man's head, and landed. Squall buckled under the weight and the force that his face hit the ground with knocked him out cold.
***
Rinoa saw her love get crushed under the demon, and screamed. Her cry brought it's attention back her, and it started in her direction. She began to unleash a fira spell, but before she had a chance, Orgo backhanded her in the face, which sent her spinning to the ground. She did not stir.
***
Orgo once again surveyed the situation around him. Everyone was down. It was just a matter of dealing out the final blows. He was about to bring his foot down on Rinoa's skull when he saw Selphie. She was standing in the exact spot that she had been when she arrived. She held up her weapons as he moved towards her, but he knew that she was too frightened to use them against him. He reached down and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her off of her feet.
***
Tears welled up in Selphie's eyes as she felt the pressure around her throat increase. She knew she had only a brief moment before the demon snapped her neck. Her nanchaku slipped from her grasp. She was completely helpless. She looked into the fiend's eyes and saw that it was over. She couldn't breathe. Blood rushed into her head, deafening her. She closed her eyes and waited for the end.
It never came.
She felt something warm hit her face and the pressure on her neck reduced. She opened her eyes and saw why.
The demon's head had been split completely open. A gaping hole now resided where once there was a face. Her feet touched the ground as the dying creature sunk to it's knees. She removed it's claw from her throat and stepped back as it toppled forward, dead. She looked up from the monster's prone body and saw the cause of death.
Irvine was standing there smiling, smoke still coming out of the barrel of his gun.
"Did ya miss me?"
***
Selphie clung to Irvine's neck as Squall filled him in on the situation. Rinoa was finishing up administering healing spells to the wounded, and everyone was taking a much needed rest.
Fujin had given Raijin one of her extra eyepatches, a blue one, and the man was taking the loss of his eye as only he could.. totally in stride.
"Now I look like you, ya know? Birds of a feather, and all that."
"FASHIONABLE."
"Yeah. Maybe I should start TALKING LIKE THIS, YA KNOW? Ow! Ok, Ok.. I get the point, ya know."
Zell finished wrapping Quistis's wounds and the woman looked at Death. "Why didn't you try to help us?"
"I Couldn't. I Can Only Guide You. You Must Face The Perils Of The Trek Alone."
Selphie overheard this and stook her tounge out at Death before telling Irvine all the important things he missed. "First he was mean to me and said that he didn't want to know my name, then he stole your coat, and then he distracted me and I almost drowned you, then that big guy dropped you all the ground and stuff, and oh, I'm so happy you're back Irvy, you saved me, you know, I thought I was gonna die, and then BOOM! You're so cool!!"
Irvine answered with an, "I know," and promptly got slapped for it.
Death handed Irvine back his jacket. "It's A Very Nice Coat. Thank You For Letting Me Borrow It."
Selphie scowled at Death, but Irvine interrupted her before she could say anything. "Why don't you go ahead and keep it. I can always get another one when we get back home. Besides, I look good with or without a coat."
Death grinned. "Thank You. You Are Too Kind."
"Don't mention it."
Squall looked at Death as he put the coat back on. "How far do we have left to go before we reach our destination?"
"That Depends On The Path You Choose."
Squall looked around. "Left or Right?"
Quistis looked at the paths. "I say right."
Selphie jumped up. "Yeah! I wanna go right, too!!"
"I think we should play spin the bottle to choose, and.. OUCH!! Damn, Selphie, relax.. I"m just saying.. OW!! OK, OK.. right"
"LEFT."
"I think we should go ri..Ow! left, ya know?"
Zell punched the air a few times. "I was kinda thinkin' left."
Rinoa looked at Squall. "I'm OK with whatever you choose."
Squall tallied the votes in his head. Three for left and three for right.. of course.
"Alright, then.. we'll go..."
*notes* well, for those of you who have been reading this, if you really care in the slightest, you can now officially interact in the story. just leave a review telling me which way they should go, and i'll take it from there. I'll give the results of the voting in the next chapter, thought I have a strange feeling that it'll look something like this: Left:0 Right:1 until next time... whatever.