"So we're going. All four of us?" Wiseman asked, his gaze shifting between Kite and myself. We were waiting on BlackRose and she seemed to be taking her sweet time.
"It is a lot simpler than it seems," I replied, grabbing onto Kite's arm. "I just hold anyone's arm like this and I go with them. I don't have to deal with loading screens or anything."
Although he still seemed confused, Wiseman nodded. "I see," he probably lied.
"Hi! Hey – excuse me!" BlackRose called as she moved her way through a group of players. She wasn't the only one who noticed how annoyingly narrow the stone walkways were in Fort Ouph. "Have you all been waiting long?"
"Not particularly," Wiseman replied.
"You're coming too?"
"I've decided that it is time I experience this for myself. Rin and I have already worked out our battle strategy for duel Wavemasters."
While Kite put together the Virus Cores we needed to enter this area, Wiseman watched over the Twinblade's shoulder carefully. This type of area creation must have been entirely new to him. The way he watched Kite reminded me of children watching some dumb TV show.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" Helba's voice rang out around us as we arrived to Sigma: Turbulent, Distrusting, Ice Wall. I stared around at the falling snowflakes, but I couldn't see her.
"We can hear you," Kite answered her. His eyes were set directly ahead of us.
"All right," she replied. Somewhere in the distance, I think I heard the clacking of a keyboard. "The channel is good on this end, too. I would be severely annoyed if Lios caught on, so do hurry, won't you? I'll activate the jammer just before the battle."
The second her voice disappeared, Kite and Wiseman took off running. Confused and filled with questions, BlackRose and I followed.
"What's a jammer?" BlackRose asked before I could.
"If we assume that the source of this contamination is the 'abominable Wave' from the Epitaph, perhaps one way to keep the contamination from spreading is to run a jammer program to defend against growing viruses in areas where the Wave manifests itself," Wiseman replied.
Kite chuckled at the stunned expressions BlackRose and I wore. "In regular terms, a jammer is a program used to confuse the monster, if its here."
My heart dropped at the word "monster." I knew that meant another creature like Skeith or Cubia. Honestly, I wasn't sure which one I was hoping for more than the other.
As the snow crunched underneath my feet, images of Balmung popped into my head. For some unknown reason, areas with rain or snow reminded me of him. Maybe it was the color scheme, or the way I'd always felt so warm with him even when I knew I should be cold like the weather around us.
I shook my head, pushing him from my mind. This wasn't the time to reminisce on someone who was never truly there to begin with. Physically, he was, but emotionally…no.
"Rin, are you all right?" Wiseman asked, fortunately pulling me from my thoughts. I forced a smile and nodded.
As always, the dungeon contained what seemed like an endless amount of Magic Portals and rooms. Luckily, Wiseman had known to stock up on healing items because it took the two of us to help Kite and BlackRose with our attacking spells. Before we knew it, Wiseman had run out of SP and I was too busy trying to remember what monster was weak against a certain element to heal anyone.
"This must be it," Kite muttered as we arrived at the purple mist. Wiseman and I took the next few seconds casting strengthening spells on our teammates as well as ourselves.
"We don't really know how this thing will fight," I stated. "So, I suggest we move like how we did with Cubia. If it has a physical tolerance, Wiseman and I will attack while you two heal. If it has a magical tolerance, you two attack and we'll heal."
BlackRose chuckled and gave me a friendly push. "Look at you calling the shots."
Instantly, I felt my face heat up. "Oh, we don't have to," I replied quietly. "It was just a suggestion."
"I think it is a great strategy," Wiseman chimed in, casting his final spell. "You're a very talented Wavemaster, Rin, especially for someone in your condition."
I could've sworn my face was on fire at that point.
We pushed through, suddenly finding ourselves surrounded in darkness. The sound of static came in and out like waves. I covered my ears with my hands, closing my eyes tightly. This was always the worst part. I never knew what was going to come next.
"Rin."
I opened my eyes at the sound of Wiseman's voice, allowing my hands to drop to my side. We stood in the usual place we fought monsters like this: floating piece of earth surrounded by broken fragments of a cathedral of some sort.
On the other side of the rocky platform we stood on, a gigantic mask-like creature floated. It reminded me of an elephant, with an extension of it's body that curved like a trunk. Opposite of the trunk was a circular piece of it's body that haphazardly twisted in different directions.
"Launching program," Helba's voice rang out. "Audio and visual communication from this end will now cease functioning. The sound of static will signal the onset of battle. Good luck!"
We all exhaled at the same time when the sound of static hit us. Without saying anything to each other, we started running toward the monster.
"Oracle: Devil Quake," a deep and raspy voice said. It seemed to have come from the monster itself.
"It talked?!" BlackRose yelled, stopping in her tracks. It seemed to catch her off-guard.
"This is Fidchell: The Prophet," Wiseman explained, staring Fidchell down carefully.
"All will tremble under my terrible will," Fidchell bellowed.
As soon as it was finished speaking, the ground we stood on began to shake violently, throwing me to the ground. I landed hard on my side and watched as the ground cracked and quivered like the ocean. Over the sound of the trembles, I heard the constant beeping of low HP.
I grabbed for my staff to cast a healing spell, but as soon as I had a firm grip, a piece of earth shot up, bending my arm in a grotesque fashion. It suddenly felt as if my arm had been engulfed in flames. It had broken my arm.
Between my screams, hysterical giggles broke through. I had never broken a bone before. How ironic that my first time happened in a game?
"Pha Repth!" Wiseman's voice chanted.
The fire in my arm receded and was forced to bend back to it's normal posture. I scrambled to my feet grabbing my staff as I ran toward my party.
"Okay, okay!" I shouted, talking so quickly that I wasn't sure how they understood. "We need to distance ourselves from each other! Kite, BlackRose, you two go directly attack it. Wiseman and I will stand on opposite ends of each other and attack from a distance!"
Without asking any questions, we ran off in different directions. I think it may have confused Fidchell because it spun it's back around, trying to focus on only one of us at a time.
Roaring in frustration, it turned to Wiseman. The three of us watched in horror as a neon blue hexagonal shape appeared in front of the circle, raising Wiseman into the air.
"Rin, prepare healing spells!" Wiseman ordered, his voice lacking any sound of fear.
"R-Right!" I stuttered, holding on tightly to my staff. Not able to watch the attack, I turned my head as a data stream shot through Wiseman's body. With a heavy thud, his body hit the ground and I laid into him with every healing spell I could think of.
"You have my thanks," he told me, casting an ice spell on Fidchell.
We spent the next ten minutes running about, making sure to stay far from each other, as we attacked Fidchell. It never seemed to attack, until suddenly, it stopped moving and it's body shook slowly.
"Oracle: Ice Storm," it roared.
"Run!" BlackRose screamed, separating herself from Kite.
But before we could get far enough, Fidchell chanted, "All will freeze by the biting chills of my wrath."
Ice grabbed at my ankles. Losing my balance, I fell to the ground, watching as the painful element crawled it's way up my legs and my waist. I couldn't do anything except scream in pain and terror, slamming the tip of my staff against it in an attempt to break it away.
As I searched in desperation, I saw that my teammates were in the same position I was in: trapped in excruciating shackles of frost.
My plan had failed.
So much for being a great Wavemaster.
"Flame Vortex!" Kite shouted, being close enough to Fidchell to attack. The sound of shattering glass echoed around us at the same exact time that the ice broke from around us.
"Now!" BlackRose yelled.
With a quick raise of his wrist, Kite's bracelet appeared, the light forcing my eyes shut. Standing in Fidchell's place after the attack was another rock formation with frayed pieces of cloth flapping from it.
Wiseman let out a sigh of amazement. "That's Data Drain…"
"We can't stop now!" I told him, unleashing fireballs onto Fidchell.
By the time we'd whittled Fidchell's HP down to 0, all four of us were panting. I was sweaty and dizzy, trying my hardest not to stumble as I ran toward Kite, avoiding stepping anywhere fear Fidchell's crumbling body. He seemed to be staring at his open palm.
"Kite?" I whispered, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I got a segment."
"A segment of Aura?"
"I think so."
The ground shook again with the same intensity as Fidchell's first attack. I yelped and grabbed onto Kite's arm, not wanting to be separated from him.
Louder than before, Fidchell's voice called from an unknown source, "Like a frenzied horse that is driven, an unseen wind of plague shrieks across the border. Pandemonium, wailing, and stench of carnage fills the air. There is no place to run, no hope of escape. Those who are mourned will never return. The hands of time cannot be turned back."
"A passage of the Epitaph," Wiseman murmured to himself.
"But what does it mean?" I asked. Instead of answering me, he shook his head in silence.
We returned to Fort Ouph in a hurry, eagerly looking around for any changes to the town because of our actions. However, everything seemed to stay the same.
"Nothing's changed, right?" BlackRose asked, touching one of the broken codes on the side of a shop. "Doesn't that mean we pulled it off?"
"I hope so…"