Okay, so my muse is working a little overtime so I decided to keep going and post this one up. Its like half 2 in the morning and I'm tired but, I think it turned out okay. :D
Hope you are all enjoying the story so far and please let me know what you think!
XX
Not one person had the heart to wake them up.
Vanille had finally cried herself to sleep still clutching Lightning as tight as she could, Lightning had stopped trying to resist and given up all attempt's at dislodging the girl, she had instead gotten into the most comfortable position she could with someone wrapped around her and found sleep herself. And in actual fact, she had slept well.
When Fang and the boys had come back, they all smiled at the sight before them. Fang could see that Vanille had been crying, the tears that were still wet on her cheeks told her that, and the way she was gripping Lighting as if she would simply disappear in a wisp of smoke, she knew this because that's the way she usually gripped her. And they all knew that Lightning herself hadn't been sleeping anyway. So she left the pair and went to take up her position for watch duty.
Vanille stirred slightly, feeling her friends presence, but she soon succumbed to slumber once again.
Unfortunately, what woke her up wasn't a person. She jerked upright at the growl.
Not again!
"Lightning, wake up!" She said urgently, shaking the young woman awake, for someone with ninja like skills, she sure was a heavy sleeper. She finally got a response…
Who was guarding? Two guesses!
"Fang!" She heard Lightning yell angrily. The rest of the group stirred at her yell.
Fang awoke with a start, her eyes immediately widened, mainly at the murderous look on Lighting's face. But the Ugallu could have had something to do with that.
He was huge, they had all seen them hanging about the plains, but had so far managed to avoid all confrontation with the big dogs, this one however had managed to find them.
Lightning scrambled to her feet, grabbing the hilt of her blade she charged forward, her attack power was incredible and they were stood for a moment in awe at the rhythm she had when she was fighting, every strike, every sword swing looked effortless. Unfortunately the rhythm was cut short by the animals huge paw. She felt the blow knock her backwards, she landed with a thud in front of Fang.
It wasn't long before she was on her feet, ignoring the twinge her shoulder gave her as she re-raised her blade. This time, her friends stood beside her. Ready to charge the beast.
She felt a soft glow engulf her body, and saw a pale blue light leave Vanille's hand as the spell washed over her, feeling instantly better she nodded her thanks, her attention returning to the task at hand. It wasn't as tough as some of the things they had fought but that wasn't a reason to let their guard down.
Fang raised her spear, protecting her body from the animal charging towards them. The blow it struck didn't even move her.
Lightning jumped up, landing a good few strikes with her blade. She spun round however when she heard Vanille give a high squeak.
'Oh no' She thought. There was more, two more in fact. They were blocking the way out of the camp. Advancing menacingly they let out low growls. Showing the bright whites of their teeth.
"We've got these sis" Snow yelled, raising his gloved fists. Hope joined him and Lightning felt her heart jump.
"Help them Fang!" She yelled over her shoulder to the brunette. "I've got this one!"
"You sure?" The woman's accented voice met her ears.
She nodded, she had to be sure. She felt Fang leave her side, leaving her to fight this battle by herself.
Wait…
"What are you doing?" She looked in awe at Vanille.
"I'm helping!" The young girl sounded stubborn, raising the Belladonna wand in front of her.
Lightning was about to argue when she had to duck and roll to avoid an attack.
"I can handle it!" She yelled, the anger in her voice rising.
"Doesn't look like it to me." Vanille sounded cheerful again, where did this girl get her optimism from?
Lightning just grunted and focused back at the creature.
"Ready yourself" She said.
Snow hated to admit it but he was struggling, this big dog just didn't want to give in. It wasn't like him to be out manned in a fight, but this was going some. He looked over at Fang. She seemed to be enjoying her battle, she must have been used to all of these creatures when she lived here. She knew just how to bring one to its knees. He however, was fighting blind.
With only Hope at his side he was an easy target. Looking after someone else, trying to keep both them and you alive, wasn't easy.
The main problem was avoiding the Ugallu's claws they were razor sharp and had cut through his skin more times now than he could count. It was a good thing for him that Hope was a good healer.
He could feel his body tiring, his muscles burning with the lack of oxygen. They would only be able to keep up this pace for a little while longer.
Fang was finding no difficulty whatsoever, this battle was like a dance to her. She was too nimble to let the beast land any blows, she could sense where his next attack was coming from and was dodging out of the way. Landing gracefully just out of reach every time. This seemed to be annoying the creature and it was getting clumsier and clumsier with each movement.
Sazh however was panting as he raised his dual pistols. This was no way for a man of his age to be spending his time, fighting feral creatures. He grunted as he released the bullets from the guns chambers. Hitting the animal directly in the chest. This just seemed to be making it even madder. Its hide was too thick for simple bullets to be of much good. This was going to be a long drawn out process.
Lighting thought she was getting on fairly well. The creature had to be tiring, and due to the large amount of sleep she had had, her energy stores were still full to brimming. She was glad that being a soldier had kept her fit. In fact her and Fang were probably the only two who weren't out of breath.
Leaping backwards in a graceful back-flip she shot another round from her gun blade. It whizzed into the dogs leg, making it stumble down onto its knees. She saw, the rods from Vanille's wand hit it across the base of its shoulder, leaving scrape marks.
She had to hand it to the girl, she could hold her own in a fight.
In fact, if Lightning's attentions were completely on the creature she could have had the battle finished by now. But the truth was she had to keep glancing over at Hope, her worry becoming more and more of a disadvantage. She knew she had to look out for them all, but there was just something about him. They had been through too much of a journey together for her to let him get hurt now.
The beast turned this time towards Vanille. Her legs were slightly shaking as the initial adrenaline of the battle was starting to turn to fatigue, her scrapes and cuts were still laced across her skin. She was too focused on healing Lightning to take care of herself, and Lighting was too absorbed in the battle to heal.
She too lightly jumped sideward as the creature charged her, her poise becoming more defensive as she dodged the huge front claws, she was caught off guard however by its tail.
The strike got her across the shoulders, knocking her backwards and to the ground. Her eyes opened wide as the creature bore down on her for another strike, she saw Lightning running but knew she was too far away to help. Closing her eyes she braced for impact. Nothing came, no pain, nothing.
She opened one eye slowly. The familiar form of Fang stood over her, her spear lodged in the creatures mouth. It was biting down, furiously trying to throw the woman off balance.
Fang stood her ground, hanging onto the spear she cast it upwards, through the roof of the Ugallu's mouth and into its head.
It roared in pain before rolling onto its side, completely motionless.
Fang stood for a moment, her victory brought a smile to her face. She had forgotten what it was like to be out fighting on pulse, although now she had a little more power.
She turned to her friend helping her off the floor.
Wincing, Vanille gladly took her hand, allowing herself to be half lifted off the floor.
"Are you hurt?" Fang asked in a worried voice.
"Ill live" Vanille replied, her voice shaky.
"Go" she whispered. Fang nodded. She still needed to help out Snow and Hope, who seemed at this moment to be losing to their attacker.
Lightning too charged past joining Fang in her headlong battle.
"Where do you two get the energy?" Snow panted. Fang grinned back at him.
"Its okay hero she emphasised. If you need to go and lay down us girls have it from here"
She could've sworn she heard a faint snigger from Lightning. Snow could feel his face go slightly red.
"Lets do this!" He yelled, not wanting to look a fool .
"Two down" Lightning thought to herself, this place really was relentless.
It didn't take long before they had the third and final creature brought down, what should have been a relatively hard fight was made slightly easier by Fangs expertise on the monsters.
Fang, Lightning and Snow made their way back to the others. Sazh was laid flat on his back. Breathing heavily, just wanting to rest. Hope meanwhile was tending to Vanille.
"There" the young boy said. "Feel any better?"
Vanille nodded.
"Thanks Hope"
"Not a problem" he looked away, going slightly red himself, he had always had a soft spot for Vanille, he was sure everyone but her knew it too.
"Hey" Fang said as she reached her friend. "You put up quite a fight" she sat down next to her and rustled her hair. Vanille shrugged her shoulders.
"So did you" she added. Fang smiled.
"Yeah, from what I saw, you basically took out all three of them things by yourself" Sazh had sat up again joining in on the conversation.
"No way, we weakened it first" Snow argued. "Right Hope?"
"Errr…." Hope didn't know what to say.
"See even he agrees that you guys were bad!" Sazh laughed.
The fight had lifted everyone's spirits up. They realised that they were fighting to help each other stay alive, and that was the mission at the moment. Survival.
Unfortunately, that was proving to be harder than they expected.
A/N.
Okay so I know this one is a little shorter than the rest, but I tried to cram a little bit of action into it :D
I hope you enjoyed It and if you did , leave me a review :D
