Kendal: As for our favorite professor Raine Sage, she's currently the object of a debate whether to send her back in time or not.
Me: (comes back) The verdict is…
Everyone: What?
Me: TO… SEND HER BACK IN TIME WITH THE VIDEO! MUAHAHAHA!
Genis: THAT'S IT!
Me: What?
Genis: I AM GOING TO PREFORM AN INDIGNATION JUDGEMENT ON YOU IF YOU DO THAT! I DARE YOU!
Kendal: Shall I take him out?
Genis: OH REALLY? I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY!
Kendal: (pokes in eye)
Genis: AHHHH!!! YOU SON OF A B$#!
Me: I don't own this little kid idiot, or Tales of Symphonia. But I DO own the actions of Genis Sage. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!
I had never been inside the Toize Valley Mine, carved directly from inside the southern mountains.
But I did know that it was owned, even now, by the world-famous (at least for Tethe'Alla) Lezareno Company, which was also the single-handed constructor of Altamira- What used to be a simple stretch of beach was now the second largest of cities in Tethe'Alla, a pretty amazing feat considering that the beach used to be the dumping grounds for all sorts of magitechnology-related waste. The island itself was a dump, until the Lezareno Company moved in.
The mine was large enough to ward off my claustrophobia, but that was because parts of it sharply dropped off to the side in cliffs. It didn't help that monsters were in here. Sure, the floor was packed hard enough, so no random slipping and sliding there, but to be sure, get close to the edge, and there was no telling where vertigo would take you.
For heaven's sake, I didn't even know if anyone in the group had a fear of heights!
Immediately the moment we walked into the mine past the door, there it was- A few monsters prowling around. Bats. A few golems. Basilisks. The same kinds that we had fought outside. At least there wasn't red mantises- They caused the biggest headaches, and besides, I still hadn't gotten treatment for the stab wounds on my left arm yet. That left me with a very bad feeling that anything could reopen them, but what could? Nothing by the looks of it in here had anything big (Except for the fists of the rock golems) or sharp enough to do it…
"Where's the ore?" I asked. Everywhere I looked, there was no sign of mining, unless you counted the huge gaping tunnel mouths that were too large to exist naturally. Only machines and monsters were here and great big piles of sand and gravel. "Are the ore deposits in those piles?" I asked, hoping desperately that I didn't have to deal with digging through them all.
To my relief, Regal shook his head. "The inhibitor ore mining area is deeper into the mine- About an hour's walk from here to there."
An hour. I could deal with that. The others? Maybe not. Poor impatient them.
Walking through the mines would be easy, if there just wasn't so damn many monsters. Oh look, here comes some basilisks and red bats.
Without a word, Lloyd rushed into the currently-non-existent fray swinging. That got the fray into existence. I sighed. Couldn't we have avoided this? But I got out my cleaver anyway, and started backing up Lloyd with some Aeroslicers.
The rest of the two hours passed with Lloyd pretty much fighting everything in his path. Two hours. That's how long it took to fight all of those idiots. Things. They definitely weren't people, were they?
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"Leave me alone," Genis grumbled to a red bat that just wouldn't- It had disrupted his spellcasting at least five times. Genis hated close ranged combat, but when everybody else was preoccupied with their own opponents, the half-elf had nobody to hide behind.
He swung his kendama, which made a weird "ba" sound as the ball slammed into one of the red bat's eyes. The bat screeched its displeasure as it wobbled in mid air, and therefore had no chance dodging the next kendama swing when it slammed into the wing instead. The Thunderbolt crackled as it transferred its almost never-ending supply of electricity into the body of the bat, which caused the red bat to looked quite dazed.
Taking the chance, Genis summoned all the mana that he possible could. Just as the red bat started to rise, he shouted "Spread!" and leaped back as the geyser blasted upwards and promptly imploded the bat into pieces from water pressure.
"Thank the gods," Genis gasped, exhausted.
That when a basilisk started slithering toward the young half-elf.
"Dammit," Genis swore, keenly aware that there wasn't enough space for him to launch even a fireball spell- He bet that even if he could, he might be petrified by the sound waves that basilisks could launch. In other words? No spellcasting at this range. Back to square one- Using a kendama.
"Damnation!"
Startled, both the basilisk and the half-elf turned around to witness Kendal leaping towards them both, cleaver ready for the cutting of any kind-
He did it, but it was weak ones he preformed. Not that they weren't effective- The final slash struck right in the eye, causing the basilisk to shriek with pain and wither around.
Without further ado, Genis quickly prepared another spell. "Lightning!" he called, sending a bolt of electricity fall from the middle of nowhere in the air and striking directly onto the basilisk.
This time, there was no cry- The basilisk just lay there, stunned. "Dammit, why did these things have to have skins of rock?" Genis heard Kendal say, and was amazed to see Kendal walk up and just stab through it- He could see just how fast and powerful they were, as they went straight through. Again and again at blurring speeds while blood spilled out.
Finally, it ended. There was only one word for it- Brutal. Deciding not to incur the wrath of the gold-eyed rouge, Genis hurried off to his sister for healing.
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"Dammit!" I growled as the boulder missed the bacura for yet the fifth time.
We were stuck trying to mow down the bacura that just wouldn't get out of the way- We had used the mana bombs from the Sorcerer's Ring, and I had even tried to blow it up with a "snap" explosion- All had failed. We were now trying to mow down the damned bacura, but it wouldn't stay still and let us hit it with a boulder- It kept going back around the corner the moment the boulder was due to hit it.
Lloyd, huffing from his turns as being the decoy, as the bacura came at us if we tried to go near it (Zelos had experienced getting slapped in the face painfully by it), gasped "What… now? Nothing… can hurt it…"
"We just need to lure it more," I said, frustrated, "But with that?" We already tried to do it with rocks, so we know it has to be a living, breathing thing…" Definitely no chance of getting one of the monsters here to help- None of them even came here, which meant that they were just plain scared of the thing.
So, we were on our own. What to do now? We had been stuck here for the past fifteen minutes, and therefore was getting impatient to move on- The problem was, just how were we going to be able to do that? Jump over it? I almost laughed aloud at the idea. And get bashed to pieces directly afterwards? And what if your foot snagged the edge of the spinning block of highly-concentrated mana? Would you get bashed a million times in your crotch?
And so, the only way was to lure the damned thing and hope that the boulder could actually be rolling fast enough for it to hit the damned thing.
"Can we rest for lunch?" Genis complained, clutching his side. Well, I guess he'd just love to do that, since he was the physically weakest of us all. But hey, we hadn't eaten anything since our oh-so long battle at the door of this damned mine, so all of us said a resounding "yes."
To be exact, Sheena now was the one cooking, since she claimed that she "wanted practice."
Oh well. Her meat stew was great, anyway.
"What do we do now?" Lloyd said between mouthfuls. Regal was busy eating quite gracefully with a shackled pair of hands, I observed. Swallowing, the "kid in red" continued. "What can destroy that bacura thingie?"
"I've got no spells that can do it," Zelos, Raine, and Genis said at the same time. "And if I did," Genis added, "the spell might destroy the entire path, so then what could we do?"
Damn. The bacura just had to be on a narrow path, huh…
A narrow path.
That's when I got the idea.
I stood up suddenly, not caring for the fact that I had full stomach of meat stew. Because, I was going to bet there was only one way to get that damned bacura to stay in the path of the boulder, and most likely the only, and riskiest way.
"I'm going to do it next. You guys hit the switch, but I won't be on that ledge, okay?"
They turned to stare at me. "How… will you dodge the boulder?" Regal said finally, looking doubtfully at me.
I grinning an evil grin. "Just watch."
With that, I took off, hopping over the switch. "Don't hit it until I say so!" I yelled, as I rounded the corner and disappeared from their sight.
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Not exactly sure of what to do, Regal stood by the switch, anyway, ready to push it at a moment's notice.
It didn't take long. Kendal came slowly walking around the corner, luring the bacura slowly, ever so slowly so the bacura didn't lose interest in him and therefore would go back to the end of the path., waiting to repeat the-would-be endless cycle.
He kept walking, doing what all the others had done- Luring the bacura to where it would lose interest and therefore go back.
"Step on it!" Kendal yelled, then headed backwards toward the bacura.
The floating, spinning block immediately came back at him, as the rest of the group ran to the nearby ledge that was the only was to dodge the boulder- Or, of course, go down the pathway around the bend, but how were they going to go faster than a boulder? And besides, right now, the path was blocked by both a bacura and a human.
That's when Regal saw something that made the usually-surefooted president stumble.
The rouge leaped right off the ledge, arching his back to the point where his back was a perfect mirror of the whirling surface of the boulder from Regal's point of view. Incredibly, the rouge seemed to hover there, until he started to fall.
By then, huge crunch was echoing through the cavern, which Regal took for the destruction of the bacura.
Suddenly, Regal realized the Kendal, who had thrown himself aside in an arc over the edge of the path that winded around the rock face, was going to fall into one of the many pits that dotted the mine, which was at least fifty feet deep from where they were now. In horror, Regal watched as suddenly-
Skreeeeeee.
Suddenly, Regal realized that Kendal had, amazingly, kept a cool head and had used the most unlikely tool possible in the situation- His cleaver, He had sunk his cleaver into the rock, which was now screeching as the diamond edge (Regal had seen and felt it for himself) serrated the rock like a hot knife through butter.
Finally, halfway down, he stopped moving downwards. Suddenly realizing that he was stranded in midair against the wall, Regal wasn't prepared for Kendal ripping out his knives, throwing on in his mouth, and jamming his cleaver back in to its sheath on his back (Somehow) and then scrambling up the wall, his arms a blur.
In forty seconds, some twenty-five feet had been climbed- The wall was now littered with slivers and a thin, long scar, which were barely visible but the only proof that somebody had leaped off, slowed himself down with a damned broadsword of all things, and had then climbed back up with a pair of freakin' daggers, for all anyone knew.
"Is the bacura destroyed?" Kendal asked. Nobody responded, but Raine, still managing to keep her wits about her through the entire episode, nodded. Nervously, of course.
"Good," he said cheerfully, and started walking down the pathway oh-so recently occupied by an indestructible floating and spinning block.
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Amazingly, the mine somehow had a large enough underground source that created a underground water source that had had a flow that rivaled even the River Alumandian that ran by Meltokio.
And so, we marched straight by the roaring, definitely out-of-place waterfall. I mean, how often did stuff like this occur in mines that were, like, half a mile down?
Okay, but it was nice to have the spray of water on your face anyway. Besides, at least the water seemed pure- I tasted the air with my tongue, and it actually seemed the purest water I ever tasted.
The going seemed well for five minutes afterwards until of all things possible, we just had to see a…
"Shit," I said, stopping instantly.
A bacura. Apparently, there were more than just one in the mines, but this one wasn't in our path- It was on a second one that we hadn't gone on yet- We were actually going above that pathway. Besides, Regal had already pointed out that the mining area for the inhibitor ore was on the path we were taking, so…
"Why's a bacura there?" I asked, pointing to it. Regal, taking one glance, said "It was an accident- No more than two should have been created when the mine owners created the bacuras. One of them is now wandering around away from its original duties, the others was the one we just destroyed. Perhaps that is the second one…"
"Did you just say more than two bacuras?" I asked, wondering (And desperately hoping) whether the answer would be no.
"Yes, there are more. I spotted a few while we were going through the main mining area."
Damn. Oh well. At least we didn't have to be forced to destroy them. Forced. That was the magic word.
We marched on. Well no, Lloyd and his dog took the oh-so cruel liberty of Lloyd riding on Noishe's back while the rest of us tromped further and further into the mine. Not that I wanted to ride Lloyd's dog- I really, really preferred to walk. It helped that I was a pretty damned good thief- I could pick up replacement boots at anytime and any where, and besides, there's no sense of accomplishment running miles after miles to your destination.
Finally, we found a bunch of boxes. And even better, no monsters.
"This is the inhibitor ore mining area," Regal announced.
"Aw, are we going to have to go through every one of these!?" Lloyd complained loudly.
"We can just blow them up, nitwit," I said, rolling my eyes.
"Alright!" Lloyd shouted, his eyes gleaming. "We'll just use the Sorcerer's Ring bombs to do it!" Immediately, he ran to the first group of boxes and started dropping (Literally) the bomb.
I groaned, cradling my head with one arm. "Must our unofficial leader be so recklessly stupid?" I moaned as Lloyd ran to here and here, oblivious to the expatriated insults being thrown at him.
Pretty soon, no matter how disorganized or reckless Lloyd's method of finding the ore was, we somehow managed to find a stack of undisturbed crates that when opened displayed…
"This is the inhibitor ore," Regal announced. No duh. What else could replace the gold-ish luster that only inhibitor ore could be capable of producing?
"Okay." Lloyd declared. "It'll take me a while to finish carving the charm, but I can make it."
"Good," I grumbled. "Make it quick, will you?"
The entire process took an hour. We were forced to constantly keep guard for whatever marauding golem or basilisk that might come and stumble on us. Unlucky for them, by the time they actually managed to get close enough, we had already primed five spells and one very painful series of kicks.
Lucky there was plenty, because Lloyd seemed antagonizing slow. Even if he was a nitwit.
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"Done!" Lloyd said brightly, and jumped to his feet.
Only then did he notice that his crew was sitting down, looking incredibly bored and listless. Genis was playing tag with Colette, the only two that were having fun- The rest? Oh no. They were sitting around, twiddling their thumbs and sharpening their weapons or polishing them.
"What's going on?" Lloyd said, puzzled.
"God," Kendal growled, jumping to his feet, "you just had to take your sweet, sweet time, didn't you?"
"What?" Lloyd asked, confused, as other jumped up, with annoyed looks on their faces. "How long did I work?"
"Lemme guess," Kendal purred venomously, my voice dripping with sarcasm, "Does the figure of an hour ring a bell?"
"An hour?" Lloyd asked, gaping.
Kendal slapped his forehead in frustration. "Is he really this much of a nitwit?" he moaned, directing the question at the others without even looking at them.
Simultaneously, they all nodded. Lloyd felt a blush beginning to creep onto his cheeks, but he held it down. "Um, let's go back to Ozette then!" he said brightly, and ran for the exit. Which was at least a mile away.
I sprinted after him, hoping desperately that he wasn't that much of a nitwit enough to get lost.
Genis: DAMMIT!
Me: What?
Genis: WHY ARE TORTURING MY SISTER SO FREAKIN' MUCH!
Me: It's fun.And stop screaming. It's bad for everyone, man.
Genis: NEVER! IN FACT, IF YOU DON'T STOP IT I'LL START SCREAMING TILL YOU GO DEAF AND YOU'LL HAVE TO SEND MY SISTER BACK THROUGH TIME-
Me: I recommend you check the parameters for the game theory matrix you will need to estimate when you can stop screaming. So, shut up.
Genis: ALRIGHT! FINE! (starts doing the matrix)
Me: Smart-ass.
Kendal: How long will it take?
Me: The last time I estimated, infinity.