Author's Note: I do not own Final Fantasy X or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.
Ch. 9 Back-to-Back Battles
I charged forward, Selini in hand, against the trio of Sinscales aboard the ship. I slashed one sideways, flipped my sword over and cut another, and then stabbed another in the front. All three of the Sinscales were down, and now I looked at Sin's fin, intent on attacking. Before I could I heard something rush through the air, and three more Sinscales landed on deck. They opened and spread around me in complete circle around me so that when they attacked I wouldn't be able to hold off all of them.
They were still for a moment before jumping forward, and I braced myself for impact. Then I heard a smack of a ball and the crackle of electricity, and I opened my eyes to see that two of the fiends had fallen to the ground while the other stood in a daze. I killed it and looked back to see Wakka and Lulu standing there. "What, you think you can have all the fun?" Wakka asked.
I nodded my thanks and looked up to see a third set of Sinscales land on the ship. "How many of these are there?" I asked. "The fin! That's where they're coming from!" Lulu said. I looked to at the fin out in the water and saw that it was too far away. "We'll never be able to hit that thing!" I called. Wakka smirked at me and said "Oh really?" Then he pulled his arm back and threw his blitzball at the fin. It sailed threw the air, and I could almost hear the impact over the sound of the fiends and the waves. Then I saw it arc back through the air, and Wakka caught it with one hand.
"You take care of the little ones here, Lu and I'll deal with the fin!" Wakka said. I nodded, and began attacking the next trio of Sinscales. One of them skittered forward and tried to bite me, but I hit it with the butt of my sword and kicked it over the edge of the ship. Then I spun around and slashed the second fiend before bringing Selini down in an overhead on the last one.
The trio of Sinscales dissolved into light only to be replaced by yet another group of scales. Frowning in annoyance, I killed them all just as easily as the last pair, only they were replaced by yet another group of scales. Grunting, I looked over at Wakka and asked "How are things going with that fin?" He threw his ball at it again and said "Not so well. All the hits we're giving it aren't taking any effect!" I looked to see that Wakka was right; the fin looked the same as ever.
I groaned in mildly contained frustration, and at that moment not just three but a total of six Sinscales landed on the ground. Looking at them I charged forward and yelled before jumping up and spinning around, using my Whirlwind Blade. All six of them fell before the vicious attack only to be yet again replaced by a trio of scales.
For the next ten minutes I fought against the seemingly endless army of Sinscales, and Wakka and Lulu kept trying to deal any damage to the fin. However, as time passed I began to tire, and when I looked back I saw Wakka panting heavily whenever he threw his ball. Lulu didn't look exhausted, by I saw her eyes widened and she her spells seem to be getting weaker.
We can't last much longer like this, I thought. We need something big, big enough to do some real damage to that fin. But something that big would have to be really powerful, almost as strong as an... as an... Then it hit me, almost with the force of a train, and I had to wonder why I hadn't thought of it before. "Wakka, Lulu, you two stop going after the fin and worry about the scales! I've got an idea!" I called. They nodded, and I ran across the ship to where there were Tidus, Yuna and Kimahri.
The three of them didn't seem to be doing much better, and while Yuna constantly healed Tidus and Kimahri, they were both panting with exhaustion. "Yuna!" I called, and she looked at me. "I've got an idea and how to defeat that fin, but I need you to come with me!" She hesitated a moment before nodding, and she ran back across the ship with me.
"Both of you get back!" I told Wakka and Lulu. They did, and I led to the center of the deck before running to side and saying "Now summon Valefor!" She looked at, confused, and I said "Trust me!" She nodded, and moved into the pose of summoning her first aeon. A circle of light glowed around her and four beams shot into the sky. The met inside the clouds, which parted and the aeon Valefor soared down to land on the deck.
Yuna gave it a small pet before it rose back up on its wings, and she looked at to ask "Now what do I do?" I quickly recalled what I had learned about aeons before they left the island, and I called "Have it use its signature move!" She blinked in surprise before she smiled in understanding and turned to the aeon. "Valefor, please use your ultimate power!" It nodded and climbed higher into the skies before it opened its beak. A bright light glowed within, and Valefor pulled its head back before lunging toward the fin and firing its Energy Ray.
A beam of light landed straight on the fin and created a glowing trail, and a chain of explosions detonated across the fin. For a moment nothing happened, and their I heard Sin itself groan and swim forward. The ship actually rose out of the water for a second before harpoon attached to the ship snapped off and landed back on the water with a splash that sent a wave across the deck.
All was silent on the boat, and I smiled in victory as Kimahri walked back to the front of the ship. But Tidus hadn't, and both Wakka and I picked up on that fact. I looked around, but he was nowhere to be seen. He must have been swept off the boat! I ran over to the edge and dove into the water, Wakka beside me. Underwater Tidus was floating without moving, and I saw yet more Sinscales, these ones in fish form, attacking him.
Wakka threw his ball and it hit one scales before bouncing and hitting the others, sending them swimming away. I swam forward and stopped next to Tidus, where I took a Phoenix Down tossed it above him. It flashed in a bright light, and Tidus was surrounded in light before his eyes snapped open and he jerked upright. He looked at me and I nodded, but at that moment a pair of dolphins swan by us, trying to get away from something.
I looked to see a huge fiend rise out of the depths. It had four long gray tentacles and a purple head, with a pair of red eyes and a huge red maw. Two Sinscales were on either side. I frowned and tightened my grip on Selini, while Tidus pulled out Brotherhood and Wakka got his ball. Two of the scales shot forward like missiles, and while I was able to dodge one the other nicked me in the side. I glared at the huge fiend and gathered my strength before I threw Selini at it.
The water took a lot of force out of my blow, my sword successfully lodge itself in the fiend's right eye. It writhed in pain and swung its tentacles around, accidentally killing the other two scales in the process. I swam forward, dodging the tentacles and took firm hold of Selini. The monster thrashed around, and I twisted the blade inside the wound. It thrashed around harder, but I held on, not giving the beast any degree of mercy.
Eventually a tentacle swung up and was about to knock me aside, but I quickly pulled Selini out and pushed against the head, propelling me back and out of the tentacle's path. It glared at me, but before it could attack Wakka threw his ball at it and it eyes were suddenly covered by clouds of darkness. It hissed like a crab and tried to swung at where Wakka, but it missed by a huge amount.
I looked over and him and nodded my thanks; having the fiend blinded would help things out by a huge amount. Tidus swam forward and gave it a cut on its face, and it tried to hit him but it missed again. I smiled and swam in to cut off one of its tentacles, but at that moment four more Sinscales appeared and two of them shot toward me.
They both hit on the side, and it ripped the side of my shirt and gave me a pair of cuts. They weren't deep, but they did sting something fierce, and I glared at the fiend in rage. I swan toward one of its tentacles and swung savagely, cutting it off. Although the sound was distorted by the water, the fiend screeched in pain and swan back. It spun its remaining three tentacles and the stump of its fourth one in a circle, creating a swirling whirlpool that enveloped Tidus, Wakka and I and tossed us around threw the air.
When it stopped I was severely disoriented, and the clouds in front of the fiend's eye s were gone. It didn't know which one of us cut its tentacle, so it glared at all of us. It swung a tentacle at each of us, and while Tidus were able to block with it with our swords, Wakka was hit full on the chest. He was sent a few feet back in the water, and I looked at him, concerned. He gave me a thumbs up, and I nodded before turning back to the fiend.
It tried to take a swing at Tidus, but he pedaled back and then swan forward, spiraling threw the water and hitting it with a Spiral Cut. It glared at him and tried to hit him again, but then Wakka used Dark Attack a second time, blinding it. It hissed and decided that while it was blind the best way to hit us was by flailing its tentacles around.
I dodged one as it came towards me, only to have to swim out of the path of another. Frowning in annoyance, I purposefully swam next to the path of a tentacle and held Selini out, and as the tentacle came down it was sliced clean off. The fiend once again screeched in pain and rage, and another four Sinscales fired towards me. I managed to dodge them all, but then one of the last two tentacles hit me in the side and knocked me away through the water.
Tidus looked back at me before swimming forward and trying to cut off the third tentacle, but the clouds in front of the fiend's eyes cleared once again and it blocked the attack. Wakka was about to hit it with a third Dark Attack, but this time it anticipated the move. As Wakka threw the ball toward the fiend it blocked the ball and sent it back toward him, hitting him the stomach and blinding him instead.
Knowing that Wakka was out of commission for a moment, I looked at Tidus and told him to come next to me. He did, and I waved to catch the fiend attention, where once I had it I held my hand up and gave it a very rude gesture involving one of my fingers. It didn't know what the gesture meant, but it understood the point behind it enough to screech in outrage and use another Blender attack.
The whirlpool of water captured me and Tidus again and sent us around in the water. When it cleared I was once again thrown off-balance, but this time I wasn't given the chance to recover. The fiend kept on me, swinging with either one of its tentacles. I managed to fend off the assault, but with my still being off-balance that was all I could do.
Then Tidus came up from behind and gave a wide cut on the back of its head, and it stopped to look back at him. This gave me the opportunity to regain my sense of balance and strike back, cutting off the third of its tentacles. It turned back around to attack me, but Tidus hit it again it turned around yet again. We kept up this tactic, effectively keeping it from attacking without leaving itself open to attack, until Wakka was able to see again and threw his blitzball.
The fiend turned to look at him, and that gave Tidus and I the chance to cut off its last tentacle. Without anyway to attack it screeched in anguish, and the three of us silently agreed to put it out of its misery. I swan forward and used Whirlwind Blade to give the fiend a total of seven more gashes to the face before Tidus used Spiral Cut to knock it farther back into the water. Then Wakka's ball crackled with electricity and he kicks it to hit the fiend straight in the face.
It shuddered for a second before exploding and turning to an orb of bright energy. The orb shrunk smaller and smaller until it exploded into a burst of fireflies.
xxx
Whew, two boss fights down and out, and one my favorite parts of the game is soon to come!
Please review! (Flames will be ignored)
