Sand Chapter

Episode 1: The Capture

Location: Nalbina Fortress
Time: 9:45pm

It was a starry night over Nalbina Fortress, the soldiers waiting at the front entrance stood yawning as the merchants closed their shops and headed home for the night. Walking through the sand from the Dalmascan Estersands were two figures garbed in black leather coats lined with red and red zippers. On the back in red were crimson Archadia symbols.

The two visitors stepped up the soldiers their long black coats covering their entire bodies and their hoods casting shadows on their faces. The guards knew ecknoweldged both of them as Archadians and stepped aside quickly. They walked down the long entrance way past the merchant shops and made it to the central square where there were two archadian soldiers guarding the entrance to the main building.

The two cloaked figures walked up the stairs and the soldiers merely stepped to two sides letting them pass through into the fortress. Inside of Nalbina Fortress was a series of dungeons leading up a spiral staircase where the two mages made their way up. Up on the second floor was a single opened door leading into an office where a teenage boy was sitting staring out the window at the sky.

This teenage boy had long dark brown hair in downward spikes with ghost like gray eyes and pale skin. He wore a black cloth like uniform with a single sleeve on the right hand and a cloth covering the left half of his lowerbody and on his back was a gourd of sand covered in japanese characters for "Suna".

The two figures paused seeing the boy and said nothing.

There was an ackward silence in the air, breaking the tension was one of the cloaked figures the one standing on the right. "Phantom, you underground spill of intellegence to those filthy mavericks have gone unchecked for quite sometime. We know of how you left the passage way open for Balthier and those Sky Pirates. Have you forgotten your place here? Or do you really think you have a say in what goes on here?" The cloaked figure said.

"This fortress belongs to me..." Phantom said with his arms crossed staring out the window.

"Rubbish...we let you have this fortress. You run nothing, you own nothing...your only a figurehead. But seeing as though you overstepped those boundries. We have been sent to take care of you." The figure standing on the left said slowly taking off his cloak revealing long blonde hair in a ponytail wrapped behind him, he wore a pair of glasses over green eyes and his long bangs covered his forehead. He had a silver dragon shaped earring that hung from his left ear.

"Kyuzeh." Phantom said narrowing his eyes while turning around slightly.

The second took off his hood as well revealing black gas mask with red goggle like spectacules.

"And Exon." Phantom said again.

"You can come peacefully or you could resist...please do resist it is more fun that way." Kyuzeh said tipping up his glasses.

" The only one who will be having fun here is me when I scatter your blood across the desert sands." Phantom said as his eyes grew wide, with that the cork of his gourd popped off shooting into the ceiling like a bullet. And flowing out of the gourd floating along in the air was a gallon of sand.

" That's the infamous sand I heard about...hmmm doesn't seem too threatening." Kyuzeh shrugged.

" Hmm if you don't think it's so threatening then take a closer look." Phantom said with that an orange seal appeared under his feet as he conjured up a spell without any chants. "Suna no Shuriken." He said with that he shot over twenty sand balls at the two that flew like bullets, while traveling through the air the sand bullets instantly turned to razor sharp shuriken.

The sand shuriken that seemed evadeless flew at the two mages.

Kyuzeh smiled only slightly and snapped his fingers then pointed his index and middle fingers at Phantom. His sand shuriken split into two halves and flew in two different directions. Phantom's eyebrows slanted as he saw his wave get split in two and completely avoid his two targets. "A sand mage, you know I've defeated just about every mage out there except two...a Million Magister and...you guested it...a Sand Mage." Kyuzeh said holding up two fingers. "After tonight one of those goals will have been realized."

SACRED TOME TECHNIQUE GUIDE:

Suna no Shuriken: Literally means Sand Shuriken, the user consumes shoots out sand balls that form into bladed shuriken using MP. This spell is a quick projectile type technique and consumes little MP.

Telepathy: A mind technique that Pyschic Mages can use instantenously without any consumption of Magical Power. This technique uses the mind of the mage to control any spell or projectile technique fired at them. It is used as a counter fundamental measure.

Phantom attempted to work up another spell as a seal appeared at his feet. "Exon." Kyuzeh said tipping up his glasses onto the bridge of his nose. With that the masked silent mage beside him whipped his right hand out and flying at Phantom were three little black spheres. Phantom's sand rose up like a barrier and the three black spheres flew into the sand.

"Fool such petty attacks won't..."Before Phantom could finish.

BOOOOMMMM!!

The explosion was so huge it destroyed almost all of the second floor in Nalbina Fortress. Phantom went flying out of the fortress and slammed down in the market place below with the closed down merchant shops. There was a puddle of sand under him that broke his fall, Phantom looked up to already see Kyuzeh and Exon standing before him. "Now I see why Vayne picked us for this mission...Because he knew there was no way in hell you could defeat us." Kyuzeh laughed abit. "You see I'm a Psychic Mage and my colleague Exon here is a Chemist Mage...when combined a Sand Mage like yourself stands no chance."

"I beg to differ when it comes to experience such things do not matter." Phantom said as his body glen with a yellowish orange aura, he slammed his palm down on the ground and a seal appeared under his palm along the ground. "Suna no Typhoon." The sand from his gourd spiralled out like a beam from the mouth of the gourd flying at the two.

Kyuzeh raised both his index and middle fingers with his right hand and with his held he put his fingers on his forehead. The spiralling beam of sand curled upward and turned into the mouth of a dragon flying down at Phantom who was in complete shock. He quickly gathered himself and covered himself in a dome of sand with a quick spell cast. BOOM!! He was overtaken by his own sand and all that remained was the dome he covered himself in.

Exon clapped his hands together forming a dark purple seal under his feet casting a spell. Without saying anything at all he parted his hands revealing a C4 bomb floating in between his palms. He threw it overhand and it latched onto the side of the sand dome, Kyuzeh snapped his fingers and with that...BOOM!! The sand dome exploded sending Phantom flying off into the air.

SACRED TOME MAGE GUIDE:

Sand Mage: Mages with the ability to control, create and absorb sand. Sand mages are considered elemental even if 90 percent of their spells come from Earth. When placed in a desert they can be nearly unbeatable depending on their magical potential.

Psychic Mage: Is on the top ten most deadly mages list. When converted to a full fledged Psychic Mage, they cannot use magic abilities. They give up using magic for psychic based moves such as pyrokinesis, telepathy and foresight. They are still considered mages because they use MP and still possess magical ability. They are considered one of the top 10 most deadly mages because of ability to control the spells of other mages. (Example: If a mage casts fire on a psychic mage they can turn it right back on them. Or if a mage casts cure on themself the psychic mage can transfer the cure spell onto themselves leaving the mage still uncured.)

Chemist Mage: A chemist mage is also on the top ten most deadly mages list. Chemist mages have the ability to convert nearly all of their spells into bombs. Fire becomes Napalm or Ice becomes a Freeze Grenade. The Chemist mage like the Psychic cannot cast any other type of magic all of their spells come out as bombs even their healing magic. They can explode a cure bomb and heal everything within the explosion radius. The reason that their so dangerous is because they can explode effect ANY spell including Death, Ultima, Bio(Poison), Stop, Doom, Petrify. (INFO: Ultima turned to a bomb would be close to an atom bomb.)

INFO: The reason Psychic and Chemist Mages make a deadly combo is the Psychic mages are able to set off the Chemist Mages bombs with pyrokinesis causing the bomb to explode prematurely and more quicker. This combination is quite deadly and even more so dangerous if their both experienced mages.

Phantom flipped backwards through mid air and landed down landed on his feet sliding back at high speed, he slammed into a wall and pulled himself up with a spicket of blood running from his right temple. 'It seems I'll have to fight them more seriously...they seem like highly skilled mages.' Phantom thought clapping both of his hands together making the sound of a shutting door. Appearing under him was a sand seal and his body glen with yellowish orange aura.

"Hmhmhmhm...come Phantom...show us the skills that you used to take over Nalbina Prison!" Kyuzeh shouted as he and Exon floated high in the air on a form of rubble which Kyuzeh manipulated with his mind.

"Gladly..." Phantom said without wasting his breath yelling. "Suna no Tsunami!"

BOOM!!

Firing up through cracks in the ground around all of Nalbina were geysers of sand that that crushed the city under, a huge wave of sand washed up like a tidal wave over Nalbina covering it completely in sand. "Now...witness my true power!" Phantom said standing on the surface of Nalbina which was nothing but a sandy desert on it's own. Phantom raised his right hand causing a huge demonic hand made completely of sand to fly up at Kyuzeh and Exon in an attempt to crush them.

"Not bad." Phantom said. 'Since all of this sand was created using his Magical Power, he can manipulate it without conjuring up another spell...not bad at all.'

Exon clapped his hands together as a seal appeared under his body and his aura showed itself. He was chanting unknown scriptures under his mask and when he pulled apart his palm appearing in between them levitating was an black sphere with alittle flame mark on it. Exon grabbed it and raised his right leg up while jerking his body back he leaned forward like a baseball pitcher tossing it at the huge sand hand and the black sphere struck into the center of the palm.

After merely 3 seconds the hand exploded before it could reach the two with a large chunky explosion causing the sand to fall down towards the desert again. "Shit..." Phantom cursed.

SACRED TOME TECHNIQUE GUIDE:

Suna no Tsunami: Means Sand Tsunami, this magic terrain technique is used when a Sand Mage wishes to be surrounded by sand to use for his spells and manipulation. It turns the entire battlefield into a desert temporarily, the sand disappears after acouple of hours. The sand is magically created which means the Sand Mage can use the sand for techniques without the cost of MP.

Napalm Bomb: Made when a Firaga Spell is turned into a bomb like state.

"Hmm.." Phantom raised both of hands up causing a huge golem made completely of sand to raise up from the sand behind him. It was huge and only it's upper half was sticking out of the sand. The golem held a huge club made of hardened sand in it's right hand.

"Well would ya look at that." Kyuzeh said as the golem raised it's clumb and swung downward. Kyuzeh and Exon split up jumping into two different directions. The golem swung it's club down shattering the platform they were levitating on. From the broken tiles of the chunk of land Kyuzeh quickly manipulated four tiles for both he and Exon to stay levitated on two each.

The rest of the shattered rubble sunk into the sand faster than it fell in. "Super quick sand I see..." Kyuzeh said not losing his cool.

"I'm not finished yet!" Phantom said clapping his hands together again. With that the Sand Golem got the message and raised it's huge left hand shooting from it's palms were millions upon millions of sand shuriken. Using the two tiles like two skaters both of the mages flew upward higher dodging the shuriken but the golem followed them firing the shuriken more in their directions still.

While flying around dodging the shuriken off of two leviatating tiles Exon clapped his hands together conjuring up another spell. His body glen with a dark purplish aura and behind his back appeared a seal. He spread apart both of his hands and appearing before him was a white sphere. He grabbed the bomb and crushed it with his palm...BOOM!!

With that the entire area filled with a thick misty fog.

SACRED TOME TECHNIQUE GUIDE:

Haze Bomb: A technique combining the status spells Blind and Confuse to make a thicket of mist that causes hallucination within anyone caught in it without a gas mask. (One of the reasons Exon wears a mask)

"Dammit..." Phantom said looking around left and right. "Wha...what is this mist?"

He looked up and spotted Exon and Kyuzeh floating right infront of him. "Suna no Shuriken!" He said flying up were hundreds of shuriken, the shuriken cut right through the two beings and they disappeared into mist. "What? A copy?" Appearing above him were Exon and Kyuzeh and behind him the two appeared as well. The both of them appeared by the thousands around Phantom.

Meanwhile above the thick cloud of fog was the real Exon and Kyuzeh. "Hmhmhm...looks like the illusions are gettin' to em." Kyuzeh said with a grin. "Let em have it Exon. I'll keep em still..." With that Kyuzeh held both of his hands down as if he were grabbing two balls. Down with Phantom, his sand raised up wrapping around his body.

"Wh-What my...my own sand?" Phantom struggled trying to free himself but it was no use.

Exon clapped his hands together and an even bigger seal at his feet spread out at a wider radius. Appearing in the air like a sway of bees were hundreds of missiles with shark like faces and red eyes. Exon looked down appearing over his goggles was a guided target ring that looked past the fog and locked onto Phantom whom was trapped in his own sand. With that Exon pointed his fingers at him and the missiles recieving the orders flew down leaving trails of fog behind them.

Kyuzeh spread apart his hands and the thicket cloud over the sand had spread. Phantom's eyes widened as he seen the sky filled with missiles fly down at him. The missiles hit him one at a time then all at once in one huge explosion. When the fiery explosion passed flying out of the smoke was Phantom, he hit the sand hard and went spinning and tumbling along until his body stopped with Exon pressing his foot down on his back.

SACRED TOME TECHNIQUE GUIDE:

Flare Missile: A technique of compacting the Blk.Magic spell Flare into a bomb like state, it becomes a missile. Using Libra with this technique. Exon is able to program the techniques to strike whatever he locks onto.

Phantom laid there with his body charcoaled and his eyes dilated. "Well that's all for the Sand Mage...let's get goin, we can't kill him just yet...we need the information he gave those mavericks the Resistance first..." Phantom said with a smile. With that Exon grabbed Phantom by the back of his collar and dragged him along as both he and Kyuzeh flipped their hoods up walking off into the distance leaving Nalbina behind them.

Author's Note: About the over abundance of Fire mages...IT FREAKED ME OUT TOO!! Unfortunately with all of them being the same types I can't use them. And since Blaze is muh main homey, it looks like he's gonna take that spot. Munchin in your review or PM or whatever that was...I think it was review...listen send all 4 of those mages you created...NOT THROUGH PM!

Now time for some Chapter Trivia:


Why Shouldn't Psychic and Chemist Mages be on a team together?