*jaws music* Here it comes…

THE NEXT CHAPTER OF FINAL FANTASY: TIPA'S CRYSTAL CHRONICLES!

So yeah. In this chapter, Daemon's Court…interesting stuff happens there.

Uh…not much else to say. I mean, currently, we are watching the Marlboro and an Ahriman have a staring contest. We'll let you know who wins.

Note: This chapter contains switching from character POVS. It's still in third person, but it will switch from character to character.

Here we go!

Night had already fallen, as the Tipa caravan made its way into their final stop of the year: Daemon's Court, the home of the lizardmen.

Torches were alight, flickering around the fortress that lay in front of the eight travelers. It seemed to be a large, tent-like coliseum, with a dragon head on the single doorway inside. Surrounding this building were many catapults, bridges, and platforms.

"Alright, we've spent a day analyzing the lizardmen and there patterns," said Sam to his friends. They had decided to make a plan in advance when Lianora pointed out how smart the lizardmen were. It hadn't been easy, with the caravanners arguing, but they had made a successful plan.

"We know the way they guard," said Creston. "The movements they make. And we know that the entrance to that coliseum needs two keys to get in. The myrrh tree is definitely in there, because we haven't seen it anywhere else…so we move around quietly, killing each lizardmen silently so they don't make a ruckus. Any questions?"

Everyone shook their heads. Mog picked up the chalice, and the gang started to head in.

But they found a problem early in. They had only found one lizardman, and he had been drunk. Garrett killed him easily.

The next monster they found was a bomb. Ray shot it down quietly, and the monster hit the bridge it was standing over. The bomb let out a loud explosion, blowing the wooden bridge apart. The logs floated down the river, and disappeared from sight.

After encountering a single couerl and a killer bee, the caravanners had realized it: something was wrong.

"Something isn't right around here," said Ray, breaking the uneasy silence. "Something is very wrong."

"Speak for yourself, I'm just happy it's going easy," said Nieta.

"No…," said Star quietly. "It isn't right. Think about it. We have hardly seen any monsters in such an intimidating fortress…and yesterday, we saw so many lizardmen patrolling this place…where could they have all vanished off to?"

Garrett rolled his eyes. "Doesn't matter, they're not here. I think you're just making a big deal out of nothing."

"If there's nothing here, then we shouldn't worry so much," said Lianora, agreeing with the hotheaded Lilty.

"I don't know," said Sam, voicing his thoughts. "It's pretty weird…"

"Sam, look!" hissed Nieta, pointing. Over by the entrance of the coliseum were two lizardmen guards.

"They must have the keys!" said Mika. "There's no one else here!"

"They look familiar…have we seen those two before?" questioned Nieta.

Creston stared hard at them. "Veo Lu Sluice. I believe their names were Raust and Zesall…I thought they had dissolved in miasma, but it turns out I was wrong."

"Well, let's go take them out!" snarled Garrett dashing forward. "We'll get the keys in no time!"

"Garrett, no! We're supposed to do this sneakily!" whispered Sam harshly.

"Don't tell me what to do, farmer boy!" came the returning growl. Mika and Lia moved after him, to back him up just in case something went wrong.

But just as Garrett was about to make his move, one of the lizardmen lifted a torch. The fire shined a warm light on all of the caravanners.

The lizardman holding the torch grinned. "Well, well, well, isssn't thisss déjà vu?" he hissed. "Remember thessse foolsss, Zesssall?"

"Indeed I do, Raussst," said Zesall, eyes glittering. "How have you been."

"Enough small talk," said Sam, moving forward. Garrett had already gotten the caravanners caught anyway, so Sam could freely move towards the lizardmen. "We're here to take you out and take the myrrh from the tree. Give us your keys if you value your life."

Both lizardmen glanced at each other. Then they did the thing Sam expected the least: they laughed. It was shrill, sharp, mocking laughter, that made the hairs on Sam's neck stand on the end.

"Oh man…," snorted Raust, clutching his stomach. "That'sss rich! Can you believe it, Zesssall?"

"I know," responded his companion. "Exactly asss planned!"

"What do you mean?" asked Sam, confused.

"You picked the wrong kind of battle ssstrategy," said Raust. With a grin, Zesall blew into a trumpet. Star realized what was happening.

"No!" she shouted, stabbing the lizardmen in the heart. Zesall shuddered and stilled, but it was too late. As Raust snarled in rage, all the caravanners saw it.

Rising up, out of the shadows, was an almighty number of lizardmen, all armed to the teeth and bristling with weapons. Big lizardmen, small lizardmen, all covered in gleaming black armor. And they all wore the same facial expression: a grin that radiated bloodlust.

They had been so focused on not being seen, they had completely overlooked the fact that the lizardmen hadn't been seen as well!

They had been ambushed. They had fallen into a trap.

Raust, smirk back in place, snapped his fingers. "ATTACK!" he roared.

The lizardmen surged into battle like a mighty wave, only focusing on one thing: the death of the Tipa caravan.

Star was surrounded by lizardmen, but every time she managed to defeat, or even hit one, another would stab her in the back. Blood stained her nice clothes as she struggled to defend herself. She saw Nieta and Sam nearby, fighting side by side. She glanced to the left, seeing a lizardman holding a spear lunge for her. She was hit in the shoulder, and let out a cry, before stabbing the lizardman furiously.

Star looked around wildly, and saw Creston, struggling with his hammer, as he didn't have time to cast spells in this hoard of foes.

"Creston!" gasped Star, struck by a sword again. "Come on…help me…cast a magic around us."

"What are you, insane?!" asked the Yuke, viciously crushing a large lizardman's skull. "In this mob? We'd both get killed!"

"But-" said Star.

"Don't tell me what to do!" interrupted Creston, as his staff and a lizardman's mace met with a loud CRACK! "Acting like everyone knows what's best got us into this- GAH!"

Star looked over from her opponent, to see Creston's body lit aflame by a fire spell. The lizardman that had been fighting him previously knocked the Yuke over. The Yuke was trampled by the vicious reptilian creatures.

"Creston!" shrieked Star. "I'm coming- AAH!"

She hadn't seen it coming, but a lizardman had clonked her on the head. Star's last vision was a swirl of chaos and blood. Then, everything went black.

Mika grunted at the effort of pushing another lizardman off her. She leaped over towards another one of the beasts and broke its neck with her racket. But she couldn't keep it up. Her body was starting to covered in bruises and cuts, and she had one part where she had been hit by a blizzard spell.

She had just witnessed Creston going down under all the creatures, but Mika couldn't go over and help him now. She was too busy with her own opponents.

She shot an aura blast at a lizardman, hitting it square in the eye. It screeched at the pain and keeled over, screaming.

Mika vaguely wondered how Ray, Star, and the rest were doing. She had only seen Garrett at the beginning of the battle, who had viciously told her to not bother him, and that she wasn't the leader, so she didn't need to worry about him.

As she knocked over another monster, Mika noticed that this wasn't only a battle with the lizardmen, but a battle with the caravanners themselves.

"All this leadership crap is gonna get us killed," she hissed to herself under her breath. "It has to stop!"

Before she could think about anything else, however, she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. She looked down, her eyes widening to see a spear sticking out of it. She looked up and saw a gold lizardman laughing cruelly at her, another spear in its hand.

Gold?

As she dropped to her knees, Mika wondered why this lizardman had been a different color. But it didn't matter anymore…

Garrett was fighting like 10 men. He had probably killed more of these accursed things then all the others combined. The heat of battle was starting to get to him.

Glancing down, he saw that Mog was still beneath him. The little moogle had been hit by a lizardman's mace, and had fallen down. With the chalice beneath him, Garrett had to still fight and maneuver well while protecting his fallen companion.

He stabbed one lizardman, he shattered the jaw of another. But then a giant lizardman loomed before him. Their eyes met. And Garrett knew.

"You!" he exclaimed, pointing. "You were at Selepation Cave!"

"Yesss…," crooned Snair in a mocking tone. "You remember me? It took me a long time to find my way out of the cave after you and your companions knocked me over a cliff. My two companionsss didn't sssurvive. I needed the food," explained Snair in a wretched voice.

Garrett almost gagged. "You're sick!" he shouted. "Just you wait, this time I'll make sure your dead."

"Wow…I wasss jussst about to sssay the sssame thing," said Snair, letting out a croaky chuckle. Garrett stared in confusion.

"What do you-" he began, but a stabbing pain in his back stopped him from completing his sentence. Groaning, Garrett gave one last glare to the lizardman, before falling to the ground and vanishing under the swarm of lizardmen.

Nieta and Sam were fighting side by side. They had agreed to forget their differences and work together- for now anyway.

Nieta wondered why Creston or anyone else hadn't foreseen this. Maybe it was because the arguments they had had affected everyone more than each caravanner though.

Sam moved forward and helped Nieta fend off a large foe.

"We'll make it through this," assured Sam. "We always have and we always will." Nieta nodded, and let out a small, determined smile.

But all the while, while Sam spoke, Raust had crept up behind him.

"Thisss isss for Zesssall," growled the lizardman. He drew his cutlass and thrust it forward.

"SAM!" screamed Nieta, as he fell to the ground, bleeding heavily from his back and shoulder. Raust cackled at his handiwork, and disappeared into the growing mass of lizardmen.

Nieta looked around desperately, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around in alarm.

Lia was standing right next to her, with Creston's limp body draped over her shoulder. Mog was tied messily to her coat, and she held the chalice in her hand.

Nieta's eyes widened in dismay. 'Not Mog and Creston, too!'

"Help me get them out of here!" exclaimed Lia. "We're not going to win this battle. We've already lost."

Nieta nodded, swallowing her fear. She picked up Sam, and carried him out of the mob, as fast as her stubby little legs could carry her.

She met Lia out there. They looked desperately at the battle as Lia cured them all. What about the others? Now that they were out of the battle, their friends were no longer under the chalice's protection, as Lia had the chalice with her.

"Where are Star, Mika, Garrett, and Ray?" asked Nieta fearfully. Then she heard Lia gasped, and the Yuke pointed.

Ray emerged, carrying Garrett in his arms, with Star on his back. Both of them were out cold. Ray's body was covered with slashes and bruises. Lia spotted a BITE MARK on him.

He set down both of his comrades. "I've got them. Take care of them. They still haven't noticed that we've left the battle." The Selkie stared down at his fallen friends. Then he gasped.

"Where's Mika?" he demanded. Lia looked at him fearfully.

"She's not with you?" asked the Yuke. Ray's eyes widened and he looked back at the hoard of lizardmen.

He started to run, but Lia grabbed him.

"There's barely any chance that she's still alive in there, with all those monsters and no chalice protection!" shouted Lia, pointing to the holder of the myrrh. "I care for her too, but this is not the time to be reckless!"

Ray shook her off. "I was supposed to be dead too, but I'm still here, aren't I?! Even if she is dead," he swallowed fearfully, "she'll get a proper funeral. And besides, I'm a Selkie! We're made to be reckless!"

Lia watched as Ray dashed into the battle once more.

"Oh god…why did this have to happen?" she asked herself in dismay.

As Ray dashed through the onslaught of weapons, he wondered what the hell he was doing.

The Selkie code flashed through his mind: Always put yourself first.

Then why the hell was he risking his own life to rescue Mika's?

She was just another friend. It's not like she mattered a lot. But when Ray thought about it, would he have done this for any other of the caravanners?

Probably not. Maybe, but probably not.

Ray weaved through the sea of reptiles, and then he caught sight of something: a flash of silvery-grey hair.

Ray dodged through the crowd and found Mika, lying under a group of lizardmen. One of them was grinning and reaching down towards her.

Ray grabbed it by the throat, and hurled the creature into its bloodthirsty companions. He scooped up Mika, and ran.

As he moved quickly through the beasts, he listened closely. His eyes brightened: he could still hear and feel her heartbeat.

Determined, Ray felt all exhaustion vanish and moved even faster. All that mattered now was getting Mika out safely.

Lia gasped as Ray emerged, carrying Mika. She made to help him, but he ran right past her.

"Come on, let's go! We need to get out of here!" shouted Ray.

Nieta grabbed the chalice and Sam, and began to run, while Lia grabbed Creston and followed her. Ray threw Star over his shoulder and picked up Garrett by the Lilty's hair tuft with his teeth. As they ran out of the bloody battlefield, Lianora stole a glance backwards.

Then she saw it. There was a large figure in the shadows, on a platform above, watching as the chaotic battle took place. She knew that this was the creature who made the plan. This was the creature who had known they were coming. This was the creature that wanted them dead.

The lizardman king

And as Lia looked back, their eyes met. And Lia understood.

They had managed to escape, but with heavy casualties. And although they were free from the fiendish monsters, they had not won at all. The king had let them escape. He knew they would probably die anyway.

In their third year, at Daemon's Court, the Tipa caravan was defeated.

OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS CHAPTER SO MUCH! DONE!

Favorite Parts: I loved the entire chapter, but my favorites were Garrett and Snair, Ray saving Mika, and the moment between the lizardman king and Lianora.

Okay, first of all, this is NOT the end. But I loved adding this plot twist/ cliffhanger.

This just goes to prove the saying: United we stand, but divided we fall.

More returning monsters! The lizardmen have returned. So they'll die off soon. :P

And so, down go the caravanners. Hope you enjoyed this special chapter

Next Chapter: After the disaster at Daemon's Court, the Tipa caravanners are left to lick their wounds in shame. Realizing that the only way to solve their problem is to talk, the caravanners try to understand each other. But will they be able to regroup, take the myrrh from Daemon's Court, and return to Tipa in time?