Dael was still reluctant to admit it, although she was growing more "easier" about things like this, but that night was…fun.

She and Bahamut spent most of it working out, just as they said. After all, Bahamut was strong, but hardly a suitable sparring partner. And although Dael tried to focus more on the power he demonstrated on the boat, unless she wanted to ruin large portions of the training area, she could only do so much. Besides, she soon found getting it to come out "faster" was harder than it looked. He cautioned her saying that only by sustaining a lot of physical trauma and "building it up" would she be able to do it on command. That explained how Bahamut was able to pull off the move back with the three Elite Hounds, she realized. He had gotten just as badly beaten as the rest, after all. Yet just the fact that the two of them were working out side-by-side…kind of brought a smile to Dael's face. She soon found out she actually was working harder than normal, as if she was more energized even without eating. Part of it was probably that both of them encouraged each other to do more exercises, and when both finally quit…they felt like they had not only gotten more out of it, but were glad for each other's company when they both returned, showered, and went to bed.

The next day, they met with everyone again and explained the situation. Already, the group had been making preparations the day before, so there wasn't much to do that day other than continue to work out and prepare. Quaren had turned a few stares at the firing range when he was able to make a "smiley face" on a target from 200 yards, showing off the talent his Guardian Force had given him. However, Dael wasn't about to let a repeat of what happened with Ifrit happen with the upcoming ones. They'd all do it together. Cryder somehow managed to stir up an entire case of 20-year-old spirits, and Dael, in spite of her better judgment, decided to ask how. He only remarked that times of war had their "good sides". "So much easier to find contraband connections in the midst of a crisis, lass."

Taraketh wasn't to be seen for most of the day, other than the morning when they met for breakfast, and later that evening when they met again for dinner. Eager to be a help to Mianyl, he actually tried to get into the main city even if it only meant offering his help for a couple hours by the time he got there. Jalab was gone for most of it too. After all, leading a mostly solitary life as a monk who spent most of his time doing chores, he probably wasn't accustomed to the sheer lack of anything to do. However, he did check on Ceja more than once that day, a fact that made Dael a bit intrigued when she learned about it. As for Ceja herself, she tried to work out herself in the training area. Her injuries were gone by then, and she was eager to get back "in the swing of things". Nevertheless, she only reluctantly changed into workout attire when she started getting looks from her native wear. Even so, the massive axe was almost too much. Dael herself tried looking into some of the reports regarding Fuliet. Apparently, it had been cleared to allow the tribes to cross the international border, although they weren't allowed to move through the barrier fences yet. That seemed to suit the early-arriving tribes just fine.

Surprisingly, Cid got called off by the colonel himself fairly early on. Dael wondered about that. This was the first time she had heard of him wanting to talk to a Sorceress Knight without going through her or one of the Sorceresses. At any rate, inquiring about it was almost pointless. Getting a message through to the colonel would only mean another few hour delay before she got a response. Yet after only an hour or two, she saw Cid again, catching him as he ran back to his own room. When he came out, he looked like he had piled all the tools he had brought with him (and many he had made since then) on him, bursting out again. She tried calling out to him, but in mid-word, he called back.

"No time right now, Dael! You and the others are in for a big surprise tomorrow!"

Without another word, Cid ran off…and didn't appear again at dinner. Dael wondered what this was about, and could only figure that he was making something or modifying something. Considering the "improvements" he had made on their last ship, she could guess what he was up to…although if her assumption was correct, she was a bit surprised. Modifying a stolen ship was one thing, but presumably the boat they were going to get was government-made and issued. They were just letting him work on it?

At any rate, Dael worked out more that day as well. There wasn't much more success with her new ability. Again, she couldn't really cut loose. She also used the opportunity to read up more on Cactuars and Tonberries. What she found out wasn't encouraging, but in the end decided to go to Cactuar Island first not only because it was the closer of the two targets but likely the "easier" of the two. She wasn't sure she wanted to fight a Tonberry, let alone a super version of one… She ended up packing a bit better too. To her surprise, she ended up sticking with her civilian clothing. She found it a little less restrictive than her combat uniform…and more comfortable. Although she didn't plan on being gone longer, she packed a few other things, including some decent food. The taste of rations was sticking to the roof of her mouth, and even the mess hall quality food was superior to that. After that, she decided to turn in early. Her bed in her room might not have been "hotel quality", but before getting out on the ocean, it would be nice to sleep on a thicker mattress one more time.

Early the next morning, she was up early again, as was Bahamut, and after getting their already-packed bags and heading down to north gate, they found everyone waiting for them, except Cid. When a courier came along to give them all the proper identification and clearances for the new boat, she informed him about that, but he said not to worry. Cid was already at the designate dock waiting for them. With that in mind, they headed out to the train station with their luggage (Cryder struggling a bit, as he had looked like he had packed as much of the case as he could, if not all of it) and headed out.

When they were dropped off, Dael had more than a few bad memories. This was pretty much how the trip to Garrado had started, after all. And this was now the third ship she was picking up from Esthar. She seemed to burn through them fast enough… At any rate, this one was a bit more interesting than last time. It seemed the pier they directed them to was still the government-designate ones, but one of the larger piers. It was also a shorter walk from where they were dropped off, although it had more security to go through. In fact, when the group arrived at the pier, they found it was actually walled off with barbed-wire gates complete with steel-reinforced concrete, and it was set in such a spot that was well out of the public eye. In fact, when Dael arrived at the checkpoint and began to hand over her papers, she noticed there wasn't anyone there who seemed to be a civilian, and not just because of the times. The codes themselves that she passed along were so detailed that it took a while for them to check them and cross-reference Dael's own ID at a terminal near the front gates. As a result, the woman was actually left standing there for a moment with the others.

"Even the stolen ship didn't have this many guards…" Ceja remarked as she looked about.

"This is one of the larger piers too." Quaren pointed out. "It's a bit big if they're going to be handing us a ship like last time."

"Let's try to hang on to this one, mates." Cryder said, grunting a bit from beneath his load. "I'm still pretty broken up over losing the Artemis. Let's treat our vessels with a bit more respect, eh?"

Soon after, the codes went through. The security guard gave Dael a salute, which she returned, then moved to the controls and activated the gate. After a moment longer, the motors began to hum, chains started to crank, and the front was pulled aside. Not exactly "high tech" compared to most of the things in Esthar, but as flight was taking more prominence, the piers were suffering a bit for it. At any rate, once open, Dael and the others looked past to the end of the dock…and saw nothing but open ocean.

"It will be around shortly, ma'am." The guard stated, seeming to anticipate the question. "Orders were not to even dock the ship until you arrived to claim it."

This intrigued Dael a bit, enough to make her look back to the guard. However, she merely nodded after a moment, then looked forward and led on through the gate opening. The others quickly followed. As it turned out…they had all barely cleared the gate, which had still been fully opening, when the guard entered a few more codes and halted it abruptly before beginning to shut it again. This made a few of them look back behind them, then forward again.

"Security does seem to be a bit high…" Taraketh remarked.

"Um, Dael…I mean, commander?" Quaren called out. "Did Colonel Regalis happen to mention what kind of ship he was giving us?"

"He didn't say. He seemed almost intentionally vague." Dael responded. "But I'm starting to think it must be a fairly big deal… I'm a little surprised. I didn't think we'd get more than just a basic small cruising boat for a standard platoon."

"All the same to me." Ceja responded grimly. "Annoying, rocking things that confine you on a small space for an extended period. In my opinion, people of the 'civilized world' spend far too much time in enclosed areas."

The group continued to approach the end of the dock. Dael looked around a bit as they advanced. Sure enough, this place was "out of the way". She couldn't see anything of the road or surrounding port, especially when they moved into a space between warehouses up ahead that, for all she knew, were there just to conceal things and otherwise would have been torn down long ago. She saw grooves in the ground where the entire pier could be enclosed in case they were afraid of someone attacking or spotting individuals coming to and from whatever ships would be docked. However, she saw nothing until they were in the space…and then it happened. Abruptly, a ship began to come around the edge, and as it made itself fully visible…the group slowed and stared.

The ship was similar in make to the very first ship that Dael had taken out with the colonel himself. Sleak, silver, possessing supporting rails, and looking to be top of the line if not advanced in terms of weaponry. Yet as it continued to come forth, it soon proved to be of a different model, one that Dael had never seen before. And since she was familiar with every military model in service that was public knowledge throughout the world, she realized this had to be a new ship entirely. It was a bit larger than the one they had taken, ultimately, but still of the aerodynamic quality. There were two guns on it instead of one, one mounted on front and one on the rear. If that wasn't enough, it had a command tower of sorts that, in addition to multiple antenna, also had a missile battery. Only a small one, but it was there…something that stunned Dael. It was enough to make her stop all together as the ship came forth. This was definitely the largest ship she had ever seen employed by Esthar's Hawks…tied with the other larger models.

The ship was also moving very fast. But because of its design, it didn't need to bother slowing. It actually braked as it came up to the dock, slowing to almost a perfect halt. Not needing people to tie it, the advanced craft interacted with magnetic locks on the side of the pier and anchored itself in. Soon after, the side shifted and began to deploy a ramp automatically, which seemed to slough off the side of the ship and move down to the edge of the dock. By now, the others had stopped and were staring as well.

"…Wow." Was the only word that managed to escape Quaren's lips.

"What a beauty…" Cryder remarked. "And unlike most of these Esthar scows, this one actually has some ordinance. I didn't think they'd let Esthar's Hawks have something like this."

"They wouldn't." Dael responded. "Neither does the E.H.T. I've never seen a model like this before…"

Not long after landing, the door to the side of the main tower opened up. Soon, an officer of the E.H.T. emerged and began to come down the ramp. Five crew members began to descend as well. Finally, if that wasn't enough, by the time the officer was close enough for Dael to recognize as a captain, one final person emerged from the cabin…Cid. He looked rather enthused and excited, and rapidly waved to the group as soon as he emerged.

"Hey everyone! Check her out! Isn't she a beauty?"

Dael looked to Cid momentarily, but quickly snapped out of it and looked to the captain just as he arrived. He gave a salute, which Dael quickly returned, almost absent-mindedly considering her surprise. The captain, however, was all business. As soon as she did, he moved his hand away.

"Well commander…there you are. She's all yours. I trust you don't have any complaints to file about the condition of the ship you're receiving? You shouldn't, considering this is her maiden voyage."

Dael was forced to pause again, but soon responded. "…No sir, no complaints. Just…questions, is more appropriate, sir. I wasn't aware that Esthar's Hawks was producing a model ship like this one."

"They aren't, commander." The captain responded flatly. "A year ago, the prototype Longsword-Class All-Purpose Military Vessel was in production and was nearing completion when funding was cut to Esthar's Hawks and the design was scrapped. It was thought there wouldn't be the budget to mass produce it even if the ship lived up to all expectations. Following the change in orders to Esthar's Hawks, one of Colonel Regalis' first assignments was to complete production of the prototype and put it into service. It's a bit of a rush refitting, but the ship should perform perfectly well now. Although, as a precautionary measure, given his engineering background…" The captain turned slightly behind him. "Sir Boer has been briefed on all of the ship's advanced functions and he's picked them up rather well. All other necessary documentation and schematics are already on board. I was a bit skeptical myself, but after seeing how easily he took to everything, and after receiving assurances from the colonel himself, I'm confident that you should be able to carry out all of the ship's functions."

Dael again looked to the ship, staring at it a moment, and then back to the captain. "Sir, forgive me if I'm a little facetious…but this vessel appears to be designed for heavier combat."

"I'm not sure I would say that, commander, although you are correct in assuming that this vessel is the best suited for heavy combat of any vessel Esthar has produced in seventy years. Although, as a shipman, I'd say attempting to take it against any more than a single destroyer is suicide. As I said before, this is an APMV. It's built to maximize several attributes, of which offensive capability is only one of them, without sacrificing the others. In many ways you may think of it as a 'jack-of-all-trades' vessel. However, priority was given to speed, maneuverability, and stealth capabilities. You'll find that it can do everything the Broadsword-Class can do and much more, in spite of the larger size, armor, and armaments."

Again, the young officer paused. "Forgive me again, sir, but wouldn't this sort of vessel be more suited to the defense of the mainland?"

"Perhaps if we had a fleet of them rather than the one, commander." The captain responded. "But one ship can't fight a navy. Besides, I was led to believe that if an attack on the mainland was to occur, that you would be able to respond with this vessel long before any enemy crossed the long-range sensors. After all, this ship is merely being assigned to you. You are not its commanding officer. Or am I incorrect in assuming that?"

Immediately, Dael shook her head. "No sir."

"Then there is nothing further to discuss?"

Dael paused a bit longer, but then acquiesced. "No sir."

"Good. Carry on then, commander."

With that, the captain stepped around Dael and proceeded toward the gate, passing by the others as he did so. The other crewmen soon followed. The young officer was left standing in amazement. This must have been the 'surprise' that the colonel kept alluding to…but she had never expected this. A prototype ship of an advanced model? The thought nearly made her sweat. She must have had even more faith invested in her from the colonel than she had thought. This ship was actually powerful enough to provide some measure of defense, and he had made it pretty much her personal vessel?

Maybe it only looks like it can handle itself on the water… She eventually reasoned. I mean, it couldn't really have this firepower and still perform like a Broadsword-Class…right?

However, the original crew had no sooner gone a good distance away than Cid ran down the ramp, still beaming as he rushed down.

"Can you believe it?" He called out. "They were so impressed with the job I did on that Sybenian patrol boat, they wanted me to participate in refitting this one! They even complimented me on my modifications and let me add and take out whatever I wanted! Now I feel like this ship is mine, you know? But look at it! She'll outdo the speed of the Broadsword-Class by 30 knots, has the best scrambling and radio equipment, a stealth function, and the weaponry's nothing to sneeze at either! We actually have eight Thunderbird rockets on board!"

Now Dael and Quaren were really taken aback. "You mean the rocket launcher on this thing is actually armed?"

"And armed with Thunderbirds?" Quaren retorted. "I didn't know we had any combat vehicles that could fire those things!"

"Hell, mates." Cryder said with a whistle. "Even if I still had the Gungir, I'd think twice before I picked a fight with one of these. I might still be able to take it, but it doesn't mean it'd be worth it. Can't wait to get a look at this thing…"

With that, Cryder pushed on ahead, moving past Dael and Quaren, and immediately walking up to Cid, but more interested in the ramp behind him. "Sir Boer, I might just let you have an entire bottle of my stash for this." He said in a tone of quiet praise. "What's her name?"

"Well, since she was never commissioned, the E.H.T. never gave her a serial number, although Dael should have one in the documents." Cid responded.

"No, no, lad. Not that swallor. I mean a name." Cryder instantly responded. "Well…looks like I'll have to bail you lot out of a bout of bad luck again. Longsword-Class, you said? Alright…" He turned around and faced the group with a smile, gesturing behind him…as if he was the one giving them the ship. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard the Excalibur."

"Hey, wait a minute." Taraketh retorted. "How come you get to name the boats all the time?"

"You got a better name, mate?" The pirate simply asked.

Taraketh paused. "Um…well…"

"Time's up, lad. In this world, he who hesitates is lost. Excalibur it is." Cryder said with a shrug.

The High Child fumed, but in the end decided it wasn't worth getting into a fight over.

"Well, let's not stand out here all day stone-cold sober…" The pirate announced, turning around to start heading for the ship. "Let's break this maiden in."

Dael was soon even more overwhelmed once on board. The ship was completely new and every bit as sleek and advanced as the earlier transports she had been on…if not better. There was plenty of space on board for everyone…even room for a small galley and sickbay. There were enough rooms on board too where they could get by with only two to a room, and an officer's chamber that, compared to Dael's room back at the fort, might as well have been a royal suite. She was actually embarrassed to even take it before Quaren reminded her that as the commanding officer of the task force, it was rightfully hers. She let Bahamut move in with her despite the fact there was only one bed simply so she wouldn't have to feel like she was taking an unfair advantage of the luxury on the boat. Bahamut didn't mind. After all, the alternative, given the even number, was to have a room to himself, and the regular crew beds weren't much better than the cots anyway.

The bridge was actually a "bridge", and not just a room with controls where one could only stand. Because of that, the ship really required at least two people to man, but Cryder was more than willing to help Cid in doing so. If anything, he seemed even happier that he didn't have to "share" duty with him any longer. And the weapon's console was indeed active. Maybe they couldn't win in an all out fight, but Dael almost wondered what the look on a Sybenian naval officer's face would be if they got into one. One of the side benefits of the Excalibur is that it looked like it was a harmless transport from a distance. Not until an enemy ship got well within range of the rockets would they realize they could pound them with missiles. Still, Dael didn't want to chance it.

There was room to spare aboard the ship. Plenty of space to train and move around in. There was even a small ready room where they could gather, and it had displays where it could produce holograms of various charts, enabling one to easily see the ship's course and plot new ones in the midst of a meeting. She had still been looking over the ship when they took off, and she didn't even realize it. The ship was even smoother and quieter running than the Broadsword-Class. She realized now its stealth capabilities. Even without any special equipment, which it still had, the ship ran so gently that it would be hard to pick up on any sensors. About the only thing it lacked was a heavy amount of supplies, but as this trip, ideally, would only take a couple days, they didn't worry too much about it. All in all, she felt like she had just won the lottery.

Once they were in the water and cruising at only half speed, which was still faster than most ships, auto-pilot was engaged and the group all went to the ready room. There were only four actual seats in the room, so Dael, Cid, Cryder, and Taraketh all took them with the others standing around. There were plenty of places to lean and still get a good view. After all, it wasn't like it was the briefing room at Fort Morningstar. Dael herself, on arrival, didn't know a thing about the technology there, but Cid had already picked it up and quickly brought up a scaled map of their location in relation to Cactuar Island. He seemed to already know his way all around the ship, and Cryder was picking it up quickly. Soon, they all had a good view of their course.

Cid pointed out the map as they sat there. "As you can see, we're literally only a couple hours from Cactuar Island. It's practically at the shortest point between Esthar and Leuco. At the max speed that the Excalibur can pull off…two hours."

"That could be good, sir." Quaren commented as he looked to Dael. "We shouldn't have any problem with that. Even if Leuco spots us, they might think we're simply on patrol. Technically, Leuco hasn't declared war on us yet, and we haven't declared war on them…so there shouldn't be a dispute so long as we just slip in quickly."

"That leaves finding the Gigantuar." The young officer responded. "It might be a little difficult. The few people who've come back from this island never reported one. How do we fight Cactuars, anyway? I only really know they're deadly…"

"Like I mentioned earlier, even though none of them are around Fuliet, we've studied them. At least warriors like my uncle did." Ceja responded. "They're nimble, fast, and deceptively strong. They like to hide too. I heard all you usually see is a few quills sticking out of the sand, and if you try and attack it, one of them shows up…at least for a few minutes. Usually they run off, but not before doing their characteristic defense…shooting a storm of needles at you."

"Sarisba-intenta." Jalab remarked grimly on hearing this, causing everyone to look to him. He looked back and soon explained. "'A Thousand Needles'."

"That attack is legendary." Taraketh added. "The needles of a Cactuar are actually magically embued. They consciously look for weaknesses in whatever armor or protection you're wearing and jab there. Although it's possible to avoid them…it almost completely unlikely. And if they hit, they always hurt."

"Some say a Cactuar can actually see what you're going to do before you do it." Ceja continued. "Even when an attack is made against one, they're already dodging. It would take incredible speed just to inflict a glancing blow, but only a direct hit would kill one."

"In other words, something only a fool would fight." Cryder remarked. "Seems we make a lot of foolish moves lately…"

"Are there any weaknesses at all?" Dael asked.

The table was quiet momentarily in response, for no one knew of any. Yet after a moment or two, Bahamut spoke up. "All Cactuars are weak against water. If one gets struck by it, they absorb it and slow down. If they're hit with enough, they're practically immobile." He sighed again. "Now I really wish Leviathan was here…"

This gave the commander an idea, however. She turned to the engineer of the group. "Cid, you can make Mage Bullets. Any chance on making a Water one?"

The Sorceress Knight shifted a bit uncomfortably, reaching up and scratching the side of his head. "Technically, I can…but I've devoted almost all of the components that I have on hand to making Gravija bullets for the Tonberries. And those take a lot. I don't have much left…just enough for one."

Dael had hoped for a bit more than that, but it couldn't be helped. "Alright, just go ahead and make that then, if you please. How long will it take you?"

Cid shrugged. "Water bullets are fairly simple. If we keep on at our present speed, we'll get there in four hours and I should be finished by then."

"Well, don't forget, mate…you got to help me drive this ship." Cryder threw in.

"No problem. I can multi-task." He answered with a smile.

"I better brush up on my Cure magic…" Taraketh stated a bit grimly. "And we better bring all the medical supplies we can, too. Cactuars tend to wear people down quick, from what I've read…"

"And this is going to take all of us." Bahamut threw in. "For once, all I have to go on regarding the Gigantuar is what I read, not what I remember…but it's supposed to be just as agile as the little ones. If we want to have a chance, we're all going to have to attack together to outdo it." He turned to Dael. "That means no one stays behind."

The woman exhaled, but didn't dispute it this time. "Fine. Let's all get ready. We don't have the luxury of a lot of preparation time on this one."

Indeed, compared to how long it took to get to some places, the four hours flew by in no time at all. Dael could have used some of the time to practice, but she couldn't very well use her new technique without chopping up the ship. And she didn't think she could get a whole lot done in four hours anyway. Instead, she stuck to the bridge. Although Cid was monitoring the radar, there wasn't much to worry about. The long-range sensors only picked up a grand total of three boats over the course of the final hour of the journey, and none of them were headed their way. Just to be safe, they went clear of each one, for the Excalibur had advanced sensor equipment, at least, and Dael was pretty confident that they could see the potential enemy before vice versa.

Dael nearly missed the island itself, initially mistaking it for a sand bar or even just an illusion of the sun on the water. After all, it was still close to noon when they arrived. However, on drawing nearer, she soon saw that the land seemed to stretch for quite a distance, both into the horizon as well as to her right and left. On first appearances, it seemed to be nothing other than a great, endless beach. Yet as they continued to near, she eventually saw that the beach itself went seamlessly into desert, and a very old and fine one as well. It was nearly impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. It wasn't until she saw just a few rocks far on the horizon, mostly buried by sand, that she realized they were seeing land and not just some effect of receeded tide. As it turned out, the land did go "upward" a bit, but it was so gradual that even from the ship it was impossible to see. This made her slightly uneasy. On making landfall, they would no longer be picked up by sensors, but the land they were going to was so flat and featureless that one could easily pick up their ship from a considerable distance. Yet there was little to do about it. She only hoped that navies avoided the island as much as the Black Corsairs supposedly did. The place certainly looked uninhabited…

The Excalibur, as it turned out, was still a bit in the water when it docked, but that was no problem to the group. Once they were as close as they could get, Cid deployed the ramp, everyone loaded up with their things, and began to disembark. According to the charts, the island couldn't have been more than 50 square miles. Nevertheless, Dael made sure that they had more than one GPS with them. The place was so broad and void of detail that she wouldn't be surprised if they somehow managed to get lost none the less. After venturing forward a bit, they managed to clear the ocean water and touch down on the beach.

The commander, fully changed, armed with her sword and Mage Gun, which was already loaded with her one Water bullet, looked around a bit. Without the advantage of the elevation of the deck, it really did look like nothing more than a flat waste. It seemed almost ridiculous that any life would be there to begin with. For now, it just looked like an extended beach. Everyone else filled in behind her. Cryder once again had his cutlass and had taken "only two swigs" before stepping out. Bahamut had his new sword and buckler on his back. Quaren had loaded his rifle with special armor-piercers to ensure that whatever blow connected would hurt, and he had left off the scope to target more quickly. Ceja was still in her native attire with her axe behind her. Taraketh had removed his kusarigama but kept it wrapped. Jalab kept his staff balanced over his neck. Cid had brought about half of his tools, but kept his drill bit out at the moment.

After a few moments, Dael exhaled.

"Alright…I guess we need to get started. At first I thought finding quills sticking up from the ground would be hard, but considering where we are…it probably won't be a problem. Let's just hope this doesn't take a few days."

"If they're like the other Guardian Forces, they may sense our own Guardian Forces when we get near." Taraketh spoke up. "That might act to attract them…"

"One way to find out. Let's go." Dael responded, immediately leading the way. "We'll try to move out in a grid-like pattern…hit as much territory as possible."

The others soon followed behind. As they did, Cryder gave a look to Bahamut, and soon smiled.

"Well lad…after this little journey, looks like we may have Guardian Forces of our own. You want this one, or can I have it?"

"We can discuss what to do with it once we beat it…if we beat it." Bahamut responded, keeping his eyes forward. "Even some espers weren't stupid enough to attack Cactuars…let alone a big one like the one we're looking for."

"Ah…thanks for remindin' me how stupid I was to come along on this trip." Cryder sighed in response as he looked forward himself. "For a moment, I was almost thinking it wasn't so bad. Thanks for correcting me."

Bahamut said nothing, only kept walking.

A bit further ahead, and Dael soon stood fully corrected. Although the place remained sandy, and the sand was fine, indicating an ancient desert…the air also became quite dry and hot in the clear weather. The ground took a slightly different characteristic to it, incorporating a darker color from minerals more akin to inland rather than the ocean, and eventually even grew a bit coarser. She soon realized that this was, in fact, a desert, and not just a sandy beach. A few more rocks began to poke out, and a few small dunes formed as well, confirming it. Soon, she was glad she had decided to pack water as well. Everyone was taking drinks before long as the seashore gradually began to fade behind them.

"Desert." Jalab announced, looking about.

"Are you sure, Sir Tierras?" Ceja asked. "It seems like it's just a very long shore to me…"

"Feels like desert." The monk answered.

"Good place for Cactuars." Bahamut responded. "They're fierce, but they're also timid. They like old deserts far away from civilization. At least, that's what Leviathan told me once."

"Everyone keep your eyes peeled." Dael responded. "They may like to hide, but I don't want to step on one when we finally find it…"

The group continued to walk for about another twenty minutes or so. By that time, in spite of the flatness of the landscape, there was just enough gradation and the occasional dune to make them appear to be in the midst of an endless desert rather than on the small island. Dael continued to check the GPS, and soon realized that this wouldn't last long. In another thirty minutes or less, they'd start seeing the coast of the opposite side of the island. She had to admit…this being the place for "Nature" seemed just a bit ridiculous. It was nothing but a dried-out waste. She even found herself going for a sip of water after just this short distance from how dry it was, and she wasn't too happy that sand had somehow found its way into her boots. She figured she should stop long enough to empty them, but then reasoned that it would be simpler just to wait until she was on the other side of the island…

When, suddenly, Quaren called out in a loud whisper.

"Commander! Look!"

Immediately, Dael froze in her tracks. She looked behind her to the others. Almost immediately, Quaren stepped forward to her side, and then pointed out with his arm straight to indicate the direction clearly to her. Dael soon looked as well.

It was easy to miss. Even in the flat landscape, the creatures hid well. But Quaren was already very sharp-eyed, and with the help of a Guardian Force his sight was nearly that of an eagle. Dael herself, as well as the others, had to look for a moment, but then she spotted it…three quills only a couple inches apart from each other poking out of the sand.

"I don't see anything." Taraketh remarked.

"It's there. I see it." Ceja responded, beginning to pull out her axe.

Jalab himself looked a bit more, and then pointed. "There."

It took a bit longer, but eventually everyone saw it. In turn, each one got out their weapons and readied them. Dael herself stared at the quills, but they didn't move. They didn't look like anything other than three black needles protruding from the ground. If she didn't know that Cactuar's existed, she probably would have dismissed them as an odd form of vegetation. At any rate, everyone was soon at the ready, and she quickly gestured to them to fan out a bit. Once they had done so, forming a bit of an arc around the quills, Dael looked to Quaren.

"Corporal…you think you can hit it?"

He answered by raising his rifle. "If it's just below the surface, I think so."

The Esthar's Hawk soon raised the gun to eye level and aimed. From this distance, Dael wouldn't be surprised if he couldn't put a bullet through an Aegis Armor. Yet not having any familiarity with these creatures besides reports and others, she readied her own sword. Quaren zeroed in for a moment longer, and then squeezed the trigger.

Before Dael even heard the noise, or, at least it seemed that way, the ground erupted in a small cloud of sand. It wasn't from the bullet, however. Instead, a small green creature, a little over eighteen inches high, erupted from the ground with a strange noise that seemed like a cross between a whistle and a squeak. The bullet did hit after that, missing it entirely, before it landed on the ground soon afterward.

Dael had heard stories about the appearances of Cactuars, but even now she nearly lowered her guard. This thing was clearly the oddest creature she had ever seen, nothing more than what looked like a child's rendition of a "cactus-man". Even the way it moved, holding its limbs at right angles and slowly twisting them down, up…down, up…down, up. It didn't even seem to be moving them…but rather instantly turning them one way and another, like a cartoon almost. For a "face", it had nothing but three holes, two for eyes and one a bit larger for a mouth. It looked almost comical.

Quaren blinked a bit at it himself. "Um…I missed…but what exactly did I miss?"

"…I expected something a bit more…fearsome…from the tales…" Ceja remarked.

"Don't let your guards down." Bahamut cautioned, his voice turning firm. "These things aren't to be taken lightly. Kill it before it gets away."

"Don't worry. I got it this time." Quaren answered, reloading, taking aim again, this time at the body, and firing.

Again, the creature gave out a whistle-squeak, pivoted around on its one leg that was "posted" on the ground to nimbly dodge another bullet, and swung around to angle itself down and point its head straight at Quaren…like the end of a cannon.

"Oh boy…" Bahamut murmured in a worried tone.

"Corporal, get back!" Dael tried to shout in warning.

But the creature was too fast. Moments later, its arms began to rotate like some sort of gears…and a veritable "fire hose stream" of nothing but cactus quills erupted from its head and tore for Quaren.

The corporal managed to cover his eyes and face just in time…but an instant later and he was crying out in pain as hundreds of the tiny darts pierced him all over his body, seeming to only strike places where he skin was exposed rather than his uniform, gun, or anything else that would have absorbed the blow. The sheer level of tiny darts was enough to make him stagger back and collapse to the sand.

"I got him, mate!" Cryder immediately responded as the Cactuar cut off its assault and angled back. Rather than attack directly, however, the pirate waved his hand and performed a gesture. A moment later, and the sand directly beneath the Cactuar became soft and porous, and immediately collapsed, creating an instant sinkhole. The pirate really didn't plan to kill the odd creature with this move, more to trap it long enough to land a direct blow.

At any rate, it didn't work. The Cactuar gave another one of its whistle-squeaks, before leaping into the air and almost seeming to hover there momentarily as the geomancy ran its course beneath it. But even as it did so, it angled itself around and aimed at Cryder. In response, the pirate, realizing what it was doing, quickly summoned a wind slash to try and brush aside the needles. They were tiny enough, after all. However, it was for nothing. As the razor gale came forward, the Cactuar fired…and each and every needle seemed to find its way through the wind currents perfectly and pierce the pirate on the other side, once again in all the bare skin it could fine. Soon, he recoiled and slammed his eyes shut to avoid any of them hitting anything serious as well. Yet even he was forced to cry out at the onslaught.

Dael realizing convential things weren't working, called out to the others. "Catch it in a vice, like with Shiva! Don't give it a chance to recover!"

Ceja immediately snapped into action. She was a bit too close to throw the axe, so instead she shifted her grip and darted forward, almost like a serpent strike, in a quick overhead blow. It was the fastest Dael had seen her move yet, but, once again, the creature gave a whistle and nimbly shot to one side. It nearly pelted her with needles, but before he could get the chance, it had to leap into the air to avoid Taraketh, who used the opportunity to throw his sickle at it. Again, it nearly managed to reposition itself and fire…but that's when Dael herself advanced, lunging at it and doing a passing slash at its head. Again, the creature seemed to have supernatural ability to dodge, as it appeared to bounce off of air to dodge her. Yet it wasn't so flawless this time, and her sword managed to just glance it…for all the good it did. When she felt her sword make contact, she realized, to her surprise, that the creature's tissue was like steel.

However, the blow was not without effect. The creature might have been durable and evasive, but it was still pretty much having the same mass and density of a piece of balsa wood roughly the same size. As a result, even a glancing blow knocked it awry…giving Cid, who, by now, was realizing what they were doing, a chance to quickly move in, drill blazing full speed. The expressionless creature seemed to give one last panicked squeak before its body moved right into the drill's path…and immediately it punctured through, skewering the creature on the end.

There was little, if any, blood involved. In fact, as Dael, Taraketh, and Ceja recovered from their blows and snapped to it, they weren't even sure it was dead. The only change was that it stopped moving abruptly, going still…and soon looking to be more of a strange doll on the end of the drill bit rather than a creature. Cid cut off the drill, but held the end up, half expecting the Cactuar to come off of it again. But it didn't move. They stared a bit longer, and finally Dael came forward and tapped it with her sword blade. No movement or reaction. She poked it with her tip. Still nothing.

"…I think it's dead." She finally stated.

"What an odd, and annoying, prey…" Ceja remarked, wiping her brow a bit, mostly in relief.

Dael only looked at it a bit longer. So long as it wasn't causing any more problems, she looked to the two who had been hit. Jalab was already at Cryder's side, while Bahamut had gone to Quaren. Both of them were still alert and had recovered from the initial pain…but neither looked terribly happy, namely because they had a few hundred quills stuck in either of them. Both Jalab and Bahamut were going about pulling them out, causing both to wince a bit in response, but it was clear it would take a while.

"Are you two alright?"

"No…" Quaren groaned. "I can't tell if I'm just blinded with pain, or if I've got quills in places I didn't know I had…"

"I think I'd feel a lot better, lass, if I burned every last cactus on the face of Gaia…" Cryder groaned himself.

"Glue works for quills." Jalab tried to suggest.

"I don't think we brought any." Bahamut answered.

Dael sighed. "Alright…while that may not have gone the way we planned, at least we have a better idea of what we're dealing with now. Hopefully we can be more prepared for it in the future. We need to work together and use something powerful and piercing. Cid's drill obviously does the trick." She turned to Quaren soon after. "And so long as you can hit it, one of your bullets should work." She looked to Jalab soon after. "Sir Tierras, can you manage a focused attack strong enough to take one of these things down in one hit?"

"Slice of pie." Jalab responded with a thumbs up gesture.

"Alright." The young officer responded. "In that case, let's get back to it as soon as we patch up Cryder and Quaren. Hopefully the next ones will go better. We need to save our energy for the big one…"

Six hours later, the sun was coming close to going down…and Dael was beginning to wonder if even the Elite Hounds would be stupid enough to do what she was doing. And even if they would, she was almost tempted to just let them have it.

By her count, they had killed 13 Cactuars, and had little to show for it other than a bit of dehydration and a lot of soreness. No matter the strategy employed, there was no foolproof method to killing the things. Each one employed a new tactic…like they were sentient rather than just instinct-hardwired monsters. As a result, none of the encounters had been "painless". Dael herself had been stuck only once and was tied with Bahamut for least amount of attacks, but once was quite enough and she had no idea how Quaren was able to deal with it, having been hit five times in all. Then again, he didn't look like he was dealing with it very well. He seemed to only limp along, afraid to move anything lest he find yet another quill he missed. Dael herself thought that was likely as she kept finding ones of her own. Although one needle alone wasn't enough to do much damage, being stabbed by around a thousand of them was far worse, and maddeningly painful. She was just glad none of them had gone under the skin, or they'd have had to break off this campaign a long time ago.

Everyone was sore at this point. The ones who had been hit more were limping along, and everyone else almost subconsciously feared an encounter with another Cactuar. Even Jalab shrank back slightly when they spotted the thirteenth one fifteen minutes ago. They had plenty of medical supplies on hand to deal with any lasting pain, but they were sore and tender all over from the constant assaults of spines. Dael believed they'd all have a phobia of cacti from now on after this little incident, and still they had no idea whether they were any closer or not to finding the Gigantuar.

At any rate, Dael was getting closer to wanting to call it quits for the day. She wanted to head back to the Excalibur anyway to make sure nothing had changed in Esthar, or that there wasn't any breaking attacks or the like. Even if that wasn't the case, she was tired after essentially hiking through a desert for seven hours and encountering one extremely pesky Cactuar after another. She thought that they might try one more day of this, and after that either call it quits or try and find a more intelligent way of finding the creature. Of course…she wasn't sure she could summon the will power to try again tomorrow.

In their current circuit, they were headed back to shore. They could already see their ship from a distance. With this in mind, Dael turned her head and looked back to the others.

"…If there's no objections…I'm ready to call it a day."

"I have no argument." Ceja answered as she pulled a quill out from her side with a grimace.

"Me neither." Taraketh groaned as he rubbed a bit of salve over his knuckles…a favorite target for the quills.

"I've long since gotten sober, and after getting stuck three times, I think I'm ready to swallow an entire bottle…" Cryder added.

"Alright then. We're heading back to the boat." Dael responded. "Maybe we can think of something tonight. This method doesn't seem to be working too well…but I'm willing to give it another shot tomorrow unless anyone can think of anything better."

No one responded positive or negative, but there was no small measure of unease that rippled through everyone at the thought of more Cactuars tomorrow. Dael tried to put that out of her head. She hadn't hardened herself to adjust to combat and wartime situations just to get thrown off by the prospect of dealing with more green creatures…although, she had to admit, she felt herself sweat a bit at the thought of having to deal with them again.

That's why she let out an almost audible whine when, walking forward only fifty feet more, she saw yet another set of quills poke up just ahead. It wasn't long before the others saw it too. Quaren actually whimpered.

"Terrific…" Taraketh sighed. "Another one. We spend all day looking for the things, and finally when we turn in…one pops out right in front of us."

"I don't know about the rest of you, lads…but I'm for going ahead and letting this one slide." Cryder said with a groan. "I've managed to keep these quills out of my eyes so far, but even I don't care to tempt fate too much in one day."

"Normally I never turn down a hunt…but even I am not feeling at my best…" Ceja added.

Dael, however, was experienced with self-discipline, which meant doing things even if you didn't want to do them any longer. Much as she was tempted to let it slide too, she called out again.

"Normally I'd agree…but if we don't get it now, then we may skip tomorrow. Sybenia has a few more resources available to it if it decides to go after the Gigantuar, and I don't think they'll accept 'being tired and sore' as an excuse. Besides…I still haven't been able to pull off the move that Bahamut showed me yet. I need the practice. And if we're giving up for some little green cactus man, then how are we going to do when we meet up with the Elite Hounds again?"

The group was silent in response…although Dael thought she caught a few moans. After a moment, however, Bahamut sighed and spoke up. "Dael's right. The only way anyone gets better is by pushing their limits. Besides, it's just one more."

The others were still reluctant, but finally some acquiescence came around.

"Very well… Punishing as these things are, I guess we should try for getting rid of one without getting hit…" Taraketh responded. "I guess I can use a quake to launch it out of the ground."

"We tried that on the seventh one, mate." Cryder responded. "Didn't work too well, as I recall. We had no idea who it was going for when it came down."

"Not sure that would have mattered…" Taraketh answered.

"Jalab, what about you?" Bahamut asked. "Want to try shooting it while it's in the ground?"

"Uh…not sensing high to it." The monk answered, almost swallowing.

Ceja turned to him and blinked. "…Excuse me, Sir Tierras?"

Cid wiped some sweat from his own brow. "I think he means, 'not feeling up to it'."

"I got an idea." Dael announced. "Ceja, get back a ways and get ready to use her axe. Quaren, flush it out."

"Uh…a..again?" The corporal said somewhat nervously. That was only natural. By now, he had to be developing an aversion to the monsters.

Dael, on her part, sighed and wiped her own brow. "…Back up and do it. Once it comes out and is still in midair, Ceja will throw her weapon and take it out."

"…Hopefully." Taraketh answered. "And if not, corporal DeSur gets his sixth needle shower today."

Quaren gave a rather uncharacteristic-of-Esthar's-Hawks whimper at that.

Ceja exhaled. "…I'm willing to give it a try. However, perhaps Sir Boer should use his nailgun. I don't think the thin-skinned one is up to it."

Bad as that comment was, Dael was glad for it. Quaren's fear suddenly evaporated, and immediately he stood up. "Now…just wait a second." He stated.

"I'm not even sure he can fire the gun at this point." Ceja went on.

That sunk it. "Hang on!" Quaren nearly snapped. "Alright, I'll admit I'm still in a little pain…but I'm a fully trained Esthar's Hawk! It's going to take more than some little green men to shake me up. I'll do it." To accent this, he raised his rifle and loaded the chamber. "Just…give me a little room."

Dael suppressed a smile and looked to the others. "Let's try backing up and spreading out a bit more. Although close-quarters work best, maybe we can avoid the first hit if it tries something."

No one had any argument with that. After all, the Cactuar was going to attack someone once it leapt out, and none of them were eager to be the one. As a result, all of them, not just Quaren and Ceja, moved back a good distance, at least enough to where Ceja could safely fling her axe with some build-up. Once that was done, all of them moved into position and readied their weapons. They focused on the tiny three quills poking out of the ground. Ceja reared her axe back, preparing to get some build-up, and Quaren took careful aim. After a moment, he cast a glance back to Ceja…some of his anxiety returning.

"…Ready?"

"When I say." Ceja answered. With that, holding her axe out, she performed one revolution. As she went into the second, she called. "Now!"

Quaren squeezed the trigger…

…And a moment later, Ceja nearly aborted her wind-up as Dael, and most of the others, even Bahamut, felt their eyes nearly drop out of their sockets.

Dael had known full well going into this that the Gigantuar was, essentially, a giant version of a Cactuar…but she wasn't prepared for the 50-foot tall, colossal, cartoonish, and astonishing green creature that burst out of the ground. She had assumed the whole time that, when they ran into the Gigantuar, everything would be proportional…that there'd be huge quills poking out of the ground. Yet as the colossal Guardian Force burst from the ground, giving a monstrous whistling squeak that echoed over all of the island, she nearly dropped her sword in astonishment. Its size seemed to not make any difference to it. It popped out of the ground just as easily as the others did, instantly scattering tons of sand to the four winds as it landed lightly on the ground. Just like its smaller relatives, it moved its right-angled limbs in only two positions, shifting so quickly that they seemed to simply alternate between the two shapes. Aside from the obvious fact that it was so massive, the only other thing of note was that it seemed to have additional cavities on its "face" to give it the look of a handlebar mustache.

"Great Aerith…" Taraketh murmured.

Jalab uttered a prayer in his native tongue.

Somehow, Dael managed to control her shock, and, frankly, fear, to call out. "Hit it, Ceja!"

The Fuliet warrior almost broke her throw, but then realized that now, more than ever, she needed to cast it, and this time she had a much easier target. She quickly snapped around two more times, and then let her axe fly. Once more, it was turned into a deadly cutter and sent sailing straight for the great, unusual-looking creature. Dael assumed that, given it's size, at the bare minimum they would have a much easier time hitting it.

No such luck. To everyone's astonishment, the giant one was just as nimble and lithe as the smaller ones. Very easily, it leapt over the cutter and let it sail harmlessly past, before touching down on the ground again. Soon afterward, to Dael's horror, the Gigantuar angled its body down and took aim at Ceja…much like one of the smaller ones would.

"Oh no…" Dael remarked. Somehow, she doubted the thing was going to stop at just one thousand needles. She was right.

Where before, one could have describe the attack of a Cactuar like a fire hose blast of needles…this one was more of a waterfall torrent. It was completely impossible to avoid. Given the size of the creature, the mere radius of the projected needles would be larger than any one of the group, so that they would be hit by the entire storm at once. Dael didn't even have time to shout a warning, as if it would have done any good, before Ceja, without even her axe for protection, vanished under a storm of needles. Dael couldn't even hear her cry out over the sounds of needles shooting through the air…but she did see a body ripped off of its feet and forced back by the sheer storm of needles.

"Ceja!" She heard Jalab yell. However, she didn't see his own shocked expression. She focused on the Fuliet warrior as the wave of needles cut off…revealing her lying on the sand, almost coated with the quills. Dael was horrified, especially on seeing her not moving. She heard stories before that Cactuars could actually kill either through direct damage or intense trauma from overloading the senses. The basic Cactuars had been agonizing enough. Dael realized that she must have passed out from the pain. At least…she hoped she had just passed out.

Abruptly, a strange cry was heard…something that Dael would usually expect from Ceja. However, it was a different tongue this time, and as she turned to the source, she saw it was Jalab. For once, the monk was livid with fury. He glared darkly, even hatefully, at the Gigantuar as his hands balled into fists at his sides, and as she and the others watched, a cloud of his mantra began to form around him, actually illuminating him for a moment. He was summoning his power. A moment later, he snapped behind him, yanked out his staff, and gave a yell as he drove his free fist forward and sent a very large, very powerful ball of cosmic energy sailing for the Gigantuar.

Unfortunately, the creature was still quite nimble, and immediately swung around in a circle, dodging it completely. Yet Jalab wasn't done. Giving another yell, he leaped off of the ground and lunged for the creature, swinging his staff around and then driving it forward for the Gigantuar, generating another one of his "cosmic rams". Yet the Gigantuar, in response, merely hopped over the attack, letting it sail harmlessly beneath it with another monstrous "whistle-squeak". While still sailing for it, though, Jalab launched yet another attack, something astonishing for Dael. She realized by now that using his mantra took a little out of him each time, and she had never seen him perform so many moves in a row. Of course, she had also never seen him so furious. Abruptly, he split into multiple images, each one wrapped in energy which blazed from blue to red, and began to attack the Gigantuar from multiple fronts at a time, spreading out around him. As the images descended, each one assaulted the beast at one, driving fists and kicks and staff swipes into it with sufficient power to puncture concrete. The Gigantuar continued to move nimbly…but it wasn't enough this time. At last, it took a few hits. But where one of those blows would have been sufficient to kill a smaller Cactuar, the Gigantuar only registered a slight bit of external damage from each blow.

Unfortunately, this seemed enough to make it angry. Jalab couldn't keep up the attack forever, especially not since it was his third mantra-based attack in a row. Eventually, he touched down, and the images returned to him. He was panting and sweating by now, but still had his staff. Immediately, the Gigantuar angled itself down and aimed at him. He snapped his head to it in response, and quickly rose up, crossed his staff before him, and began to twirl it. Quickly, Dael, as well as the others, pulled back more. If Jalab blocked these, they'd go everywhere.

Yet that fear was soon unfounded…even if it meant bad news for Jalab. His staff moved fast enough to deflect bullets, but none of that mattered here. The needles shot right through and pierced the man himself. Dael was at just enough of an angle to see it. She gaped in shock. It was as if his staff wasn't even there. He didn't get forced off of his feet like Ceja did. Somehow, he stood up against it…but that only meant more pain for him. He cried out in agony as he was pierced much the same way that Ceja was. He looked like he was attempting to stand against it…but, in the end, he couldn't. When the latest storm of needles cut off, he too stood covered with them for a moment, before groaning and collapsing.

The others were horrified. In the span of a minute, the Gigantuar had overwhelmed…possibly worse…their two strongest fighters. After seeing Jalab in action back in Garrado, Dael didn't think anything could just take him down like that. Now there was only six left. And the Gigantuar, making the same gestures as its smaller breathren, turned to them.

"I think we're in just a wee bit over our heads, lads and lasses…" Cryder murmured aloud.

"Dael, shoot it with the Water shell!" Quaren called out.

The young officer was frozen for a moment longer, but then snapped out of it. She began to reach for her weapon, when Bahamut called out.

"No, don't! It'll just dodge it unless it's pinned first!"

Dael hesitated. The boy was right. It wasn't until Jalab had used a multiple image attack that he was even able to land a blow. And she only had one shot. But this thing was large, strong, and fast…every bit as much as the little ones and better. So far, they hadn't even been able to pin down one of the little ones… Yet even as she thought of this, the Gigantuar abruptly angled itself toward her and, to her horror, began to lean down to aim at her.

Yet it never got off the shot. It was forced to snap out of it a moment later as Taraketh's kusarigama shot out for it, and it had to hop back and out of the way. Immediately, the High Child followed up with a series of earth spells, and rocks began to burst out of the ground one after another in jagged pillars, trying to pierce the Guardian Force from below. Giving another whistle-squeak, it hopped back nimbly and easily over each one. More than once, it tried to counterattack, but each time, at the expense of considerable amounts of his energy, Taraketh managed to force it to break off.

"Just get ready to shoot it as soon as you get an opening, Dael!" Taraketh shouted. "Everyone else, attack it and try to force it to stay still a moment!"

The others hesitated a second longer, but only a second. Realizing this was their best bet, they went to work. As the Gigantuar evaded the latest rock pillar from the High Child, it seemed to finally have enough space to make a counterattack. Yet before it could, Quaren took aim at it and opened fire. The piercing bullets struck it dead on, causing small bits of damage to it and ripping out the other side of the massive cactus creature. Nevertheless, it seemed to willingly take these blows if it meant shooting Taraketh. Moments before it could, however, Cryder threw in one of his own wind slashes. This one would have been too much for it to try and endure, and so, instead, it hopped over the attack. Even so, it remained angled at Taraketh and would have fired…had not Ceja's axe returned around that time. It was forced to break off at last and pivot in the air to evade the attack. As it came down, it soon found a triple-assault coming at it in the form of Quaren's bullets, Taraketh's kusarigama, and additional wind slashes from Cryder.

Despite taking several rifle bullets, it was still painful to the creature, and it looked to take Quaren out instead next. Yet before it could, more of the others jumped in. Cid, running around behind, opened fire with its nailgun, and the Gigantuar took a few shots as it angled down…before abruptly pivoting around and aiming at Cid instead. Again, before it could fire, Bahamut, joining the fray despite not having much in the way of "special" moves, darted right in between its legs and slashed out. The creature was so preoccupied that it couldn't dodge properly, and took a few more cuts along the legs. Whistle-squeaking in what sounded like irritation, it pivoted down to fire at Bahamut instead, but he managed to evade it a bit longer by continuously running under its legs. He couldn't slash anymore, but he didn't need to. By focusing on Bahamut, the others were able to pummel it at will with their own attacks, although, again, they only seemed to be scraping the surface. Abruptly, however, it hopped out of the way, gaining some distance, and aimed down at Bahamut. Now having a target, it nearly fired…when Cid quickly ripped out a detonator and set it off. As it turned out, one of the nails had been attached to an explosive charge, and soon, like an oversized piece of balsa wood, an explosion literally sent the Gigantuar forward in a comic topple, rolling over itself.

The others were doing better than Dael had hoped, actually inflicting pain, however minor, on the Guardian Force. Yet in spite of all of this…the creature was still moving too fast for the relatively slow-moving mage bullet in Dael's gun. She knew she couldn't hit it and, to be honest, every time she thought it would stay still long enough, she hesitated and failed to fire. She never had to worry about landing a direct hit before… And, frankly, she kept getting distracted by Bahamut. She kept being afraid that he'd get blasted by the storm of needles… If even Jalab couldn't stand up to them, she had a feeling he couldn't.

Her fears were only compounded with time. The creature had to be sentient, or at least intelligent, because it was getting better at dodging. It stopped trying to shoot for a moment and focused entirely on bouncing around. As a result, it managed to avoid taking further damage from the group even as they all tried to intensify against it. And with it bouncing around like this, it was now quite impossible to target with the mage bullet. Worst of all, Dael realized that the five were only keeping it busy by all five of them going all out. If even one of them got too tired or drained and fell short, it would exploit it. She realized this wasn't good enough, and reached a decision. She had to get closer. Maybe from a shorter range, she could hope to hit it.

Yet she hardly took a step forward when the inevitable happened. Abruptly, while trying to shoot it in the side of the "eye" to distract it…Quaren went empty. Eyes widening, he looked down to his weapon and quickly ejected the current clip, and in a fluid motion had out a new one. Yet as fast as Quaren was at loading and reloading, he had made a bungle. He had been so overwhelmed he forget to count his shots, and as a result…he wasn't as fluid as he was normally. A hole was opened in the offense of the group, and the Gigantuar used it. As Cryder tried to hurry up and use another sinkhole move to try and catch a leg while using a wind slash as well, the giant cactus man snapped itself down, rapidly angled at Cryder, and unleashed a storm of needles.

Now Dael was indeed horrified. Unlike Ceja and Jalab, who were both incredibly durable and/or had the benefit of a Guardian Force, Cryder had no such advantage. He was still just his own flesh and blood, and not that armored. She realized that if Jalab and Ceja had been beaten by such a move, it could very well kill the pirate. Yet there was little else she could do as she saw him ripped off of his feet and flung down like a rag doll by the force of the quills. No doubt, tumbling about on the ground only drove them in deeper. When the monster cut off, he looked the worst yet as he lay motionlessly on the sand.

The remaining four were stunned, but Taraketh led the charge and renewed the assault. Yet with only four of them this time, the Gigantuar was once again at ease and dodging them easily. And now, it had time to reset. Sure enough, it soon began to move itself away as it continued to dodge, out of the range of the others so it could pick off another one.

Seeing this, Dael's shock suddenly gave way to fury. Even if this thing was only half-sentient, she was still enraged at it for how it was so easily picking them off. At once, she forgot about her gun. She quickly slammed it back into its holster, drew her sword, and then went charging for it. If it needed five people to keep it busy, she'd step in and be the fifth person. She only closed about half of the distance when the Gigantuar spotted her. It sped up slightly in response, but she was counting on that. She didn't think even this creature could evade her teleportation technique. She could land at least one hit on it. Even if it wouldn't do much good…she had to try. With that in mind, she focused up on its head, looking right at that comically mustached face…and prepared to teleport up there and try to slice it in the equivalent of its "skull". She hoped she could actually get it to target her. After all, it was at its most immobile when it was getting ready to attack or was in the process of doing so.

As she grew nearer, it seemed to work. Abruptly, the Gigantuar angled toward her, and readied its move. However, Dael was ready too. It was out of the range of the others. They couldn't stop it…but she didn't want them too. She wanted it occupied. As she called to mind the teleportation spell, she nearly used it…

When she realized something.

As she passed closer, she felt something radiating off of the Gigantuar. She knew what it was almost immediately. It was the power of its aura. After all, like all the Guardian Forces, it seemed to radiate a level of power. Yet this time…it triggered something…a memory from a few days ago. When she was on the ship, and seeing and feeling the power in everything…feeling it move and resonate…as if tuned to a cosmic clock. And when she recalled that, she suddenly thought of something…

The thought cost her, however. A moment later, and the limbs began to rotate on the Gigantuar, indicating it was firing. Immediately, she performed the teleport…but she did it wrong. Rather than land behind the Gigantuar on its head…she landed simply behind it, in front of one of its legs. On the bright side, teleporting seemed to indeed catch it off guard. It soon sent out a storm of needles at nothing but air, and seemed "locked" in that mode. Dael paused momentarily, and soon, her head swam a bit, as it always did after teleporting. The world dimmed a little as some of her consciousness slipped…

And then…it hit her.

Although it had taken her ten minutes before, it was different now. It wasn't as strong as last time. Perhaps it was a combination of the teleportation, the energy of her opponent, and just plain luck…but her mind clicked. Everything fell into place for a moment. While in a state of reduced consciousness, she could almost feel her own pent-up power from her toiling of that day and having been struck by the Cactuar earlier radiating out and resonating with that of the Gigantuar…feel the connection between the two. It was only a momentary thing. If she had hesitated even a second…she would have lost it. But something inside her told her to act and to use it so long as it was there. With that in mind, she used what of her consciousness she had to order her body to strike.

It wasn't as powerful or potent as last time. This time, Dael actually saw herself move, although she couldn't honestly tell if she was performing the move of her own volition or if some force was making her act the way she was. But abruptly, she snapped her blade up and down in a three directional slice, cutting in a Z-pattern.

While it may not have been as strong as before…the blow still resonated like a minor thunderclap. The sword cut as deep as Cid's own drill and, just as on the ship, the green "flesh" of the Gigantuar was seared like fire from the hit. If that wasn't enough, as soon as she made the last of the three slashes…it was as if her blade had suddenly grown explosive, for light and fire erupted from the wound on the Guardian Force.

As Dael regained her senses, the Gigantuar recovered from his attack only to give a loud, piercing squeal. That last blow had hurt it quite a bit. It was actually bleeding greenish "blood", and lots of it. It tried to rear up and stand from its attack, no doubt meaning to pivot around and attack who had hit it from behind…but soon faltered. Like a doll posted on a shelf that was tipped over, it was unable to support its weight on its bad leg and fell clean over, toppling on the ground in an almost comical fashion. The young officer was stunned only a moment. The others, meanwhile, gaped a bit at what she had done. After all, when even Jalab was powerless to do that much damage with a single strike, seeing Dael having done much better was almost overwhelming, especially with a previously unknown move. Taraketh, Quaren, and Cid had all gone slack-jawed. Dael, meanwhile, pressed her advantage. She quickly backed up from it as it struggled to rise again, shifting to its other foot. As she did, she yanked out her Mage Gun and aimed at it. A moment later, the trigger was squeezed, and with an eruption of smoke and light, the shell sailed out of the barrel and struck the creature in the back just as it finished standing again.

Immediately, the shell transformed into a torrent of water. It was like some sort of time-space gate had opened in the path of a waterfall as a mass of liquid ripped out of midair and smashed into the back of the Gigantuar. The force alone was another to rip it off of its feet again, but it still took most of the blow as it fell down. Dael knew full well, water or not, that much water being dropped on you at once might as well have been a ton of cement being slammed into you. What she didn't fully appreciate was just how painful this was to a Cactuar… She couldn't see much at first, simply the force knocking the Guardian Force to the ground and leaving it sprawled again.

Yet as the water attack cut off, she soon saw the Gigantuar was having a lot of difficulty. Parts of its body seemed swollen and oddly-shaped now from retaining so much water, and it was so unbalanced it barely looked capable of moving, and totally incapable of pushing itself up again. It wasn't just the added mass. The creature actually seemed to be in pain…and definitely not able to dodge again anytime soon.

In response to that, Dael suddenly heard a pair of motors blaring. She looked around to the source, and saw that Cid had deployed a pair of modified circular saws in either hand, and was gunning them. "Let's get it!" He shouted, almost in a child-like fashion, before barreling forward, shouting out loud. The remaining combatants, Tarkaeth, Quaren, and Bahamut were a bit taken aback by Cid's sudden change…but the Cactuars, and the Gigantuar, had pushed them all a bit over the edge, they reasoned. A moment later, they ran forward and began their assault as well.

The Gigantuar had hardly began to pull itself up with Cid arrived and immediately went at it, slicing deep into its sides. Although he ruined both blades, he opened deep cuts against it, causing it to "squeak" in agony. Bahamut arrived soon afterward and proceeded to drive his sword again and again into its "good" leg, trying to render it totally immobile. Despite his lack of junctioning, the "swelling" from the water actually seemed to render the outside of the creature less dense and more vulnerable to stabbing, and soon he was drawing blood as well. Taraketh moved in as it struggled to stagger away from the dual assailants, swinging his hammer around and smashing it against the most swollen and vulnerable part of the creature three times in rapid succession. Each blow had so much force that it actually knocked off some bits of the Gigantuar, and when it was done there was actually a rather sizable wound in it.

Still not finished, Taraketh's own aura flared before he shoved his arms forward in a gesture. The air of the desert abruptly cooled and condensed, and soon a large icicle, the biggest one Dael had ever seen him produce, erupted from his hands and sailed straight for the Gigantuar, nailing it in between the "eyes". Not only did the tip manage to pierce the green flesh of the creature, but the sheer force, not to mention that ice was frozen water, knocked it for another loop, sending it once more crashing to the ground. It was forced to lay there a moment after the onslaught…but that was when Quaren moved in. Using his own enhanced body for speed for once, he dashed up alongside the creature, running right past the wound that Taraketh had made in it. Dael was just able to catch the flash of an unpinned grenade go falling into it. The Gigantuar attempted to rise again, only to have another blast ring out from it, this time hitting it deep where it hurted. The creature actually went for a violent roll, toppling away from the five who were still standing, before, again, coming to a halt like an inanimate object.

The five weren't done. Quickly, they took only a moment to prepare themselves for another assault, this time with Dael joining them, and then prepared to charge at the Gigantuar and administer another beating. They already looked like they had done quite a bit. The external damage was bad enough, but now it have several large wounds on its body and it wasn't looking too good. Yet Dael was rather sore about the needle attacks herself, and was ready to keep pounding until it couldn't move anymore…

When, suddenly, somehow, the Gigantuar was able to spring up and land on its feet again. The five froze. For a moment, they thought it was going to renew the assault. They all braced themselves for a fatal storm of needles…

But they didn't come. Instead…in an odd display…the rigid creature seemed to partially go to the ground so that it could put its "knees" down…and then began to repeatedly bow the upper part of its body to the ground and up again. For a few moments, the five merely stared at this, rather puzzled.

"…What's it doing?" Cid asked.

The Guardian Force continued to do this for a bit longer, until Dael finally realized what was going on.

"…I think it's 'throwing in the towel'. It almost looks like its bowing in defeat."

In response, the giant green cactus man leaned up and bounced a couple times, as if happy that they understood. The five held a bit longer, but then began to ease up. One by one, their weapons lowered. Dael, on her part, was thanking her lucky stars. She barely knew how she had managed to pull off that move, but it had been a lifesaver. There was no doubt it had turned the tide of the fight, and now she was more eager than ever to master the ability. Yet she didn't think of that for much longer. After a few moments, she turned to the group.

"We need to check on the others, first thing."

"I think they'll be alright…though sore for a bit." Bahamut responded. "But still, we need to get them up to make sure they junction."

As it turned out, Bahamut was right. Although the three had been badly injured, it wasn't beyond the capability they had on hand, between the medical supplies and a bit of magic, to treat…especially with the new junction. Although the Gigantuar didn't have any elixirs on hand, it knew a bit of restoration magic much as Shiva did. So after the initial revival, which took pretty much all of their remaining medical supplies, they were able to use their own powers once the Gigantuar gave its power to the group as a whole. In the end, Cryder decided to take the Guardian Force junction this time. It was a good choice. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to walk back to the ship. The walk took longer than ever now, but once on board, everyone took the opportunity to go to their separate rooms in pairs and pick out each and every last needle, doctor themselves with painkillers, and then declare a "holiday" tomorrow devoted to recovery.

Dael was quite possibly the least hurt out of everyone, so she got up only after a few hours to tune in on the radio. No changes, fortunately. Sybenia was staying where it was for the time being. She thought of sending a coded message to inform the colonel they were making good (albeit painful) progress, but in the end decided against it. The coding equipment on the Excalibur was the top of the line, but no sense in sending out signals that would warrant attention. They were close not only to Leuco but to the Black Corsair's favorite hunting grounds. She decided to stick by it while they idled although, to be on the safe side, early the next morning they moved back to Esthar's waters.

During the day off, Dael continued to work on her magic. She tried to use more healing and support, realizing that was far more her forte than attack spells. Cryder, once he was up, was soon in a much better mood, flaunting his new powers and able to generate far more potent geomancy as a result. She almost thought that Bahamut and Cid were the only ones who had yet to junction…when she remembered Jalab. The thought was almost dizzying. What would Jalab be like after a junction? The thought was a bit stunning…but she admitted it would be nice if they were going to fight against the Elite Hounds again. On that note, what she really wanted to do was attempt to pull off the move she had done yesterday. Even not "fully powered", she had done quite a bit of damage. Unfortunately, without something to practice on, she wasn't sure if she could pull that off again. She needed somewhere else besides the boat. On that note, she almost wished they were back on Cactuar Island…

Late the next day, when everyone was starting to feel better, they reassembled in the ready room again. They were all still finding the occasional quill, but everyone was a lot less sore. After taking the same seats as last time, they went over their next target.

"The Centra Ruins aren't exactly as 'forbidden' as we'd like." Cryder cautioned. "Not enough to generate enough ghost stories to keep people away, even if the place is as bizarre as hell…"

"It looks like some sort of octahedron on the outside." Cid threw in. "The going theory is that when the Centra empire tried reproducing some of their technology, they wanted to use the original structure as the foundation for some sort of large antenna. Can't really say much more than that, though. It's non-operational and no one knows what it was for, including the modern Centrans."

"The archipelago does get a bit thin around there, though." Cryder went on. "The Excalibur is the biggest military ship I've seen out of Esthar yet, but she's still a lot smaller than the basic warship. We should be able to get up to the island by going through channels no other ship can go through. We'll definitely have to cross through the perimeter of the Southern Continent to get there…but a lot of those islands are corporal holdings or holdings by city states. The defenses shouldn't be as tight, provided Cid can sneak past patrols like last time."

"I guess that means the bigger issue is what happens when we get there." Taraketh sighed. "Cactuars are one thing…but Tonberries are much worse."

"My uncle learned about them from Sir Kite." Ceja threw in. "Supposedly their skin is soft but thicker than most reptilian hides. They're very slow and can think at least partially like humans. I'm not really sure how they work, but supposedly they have some sort of magic about them too…"

"Well, not too many people have really had the chance to research them…" Quaren responded. "But the going theory is that they create some sort of gravitational field around them to keep people from running away easily if they go to one."

"They can take a seemingly impossible amount of damage because of their skin, at any rate." Ceja went on. "Even a deep cut rarely draws blood, and it absorbs blunt attacks. I also heard that their organs seal themselves off as soon as they're pierced. That means even if you run one through, it will seal closed and the Tonberry will continue to move as if nothing happened. And because they can think, they're somehow smart enough to see the ka'h within a human."

"Ka'h?" Dael inquired.

"That is our word for the path of the spirit through a human." Ceja explained. "The blood is the source of life, but there is also a vein of Ka'h. If one strikes it, their opponent is hurt severely even by a minor blow. That's what Tonberries do. They wield small, special knives and stab a person in the Ka'h. Only the strongest warriors would survive more than one or two such stabs."

"That's true, from what I know." Bahamut responded. "Although it's possible to dodge a stab, if they hit you…it's all over. I'm not sure if it's their nature or some sort of magic, but they can always pierce a weak point."

"And, just like with our new mate, the Gigantuar, we can assume that this one will be bigger and nastier than the little ones." Cryder answered with a frown. "Lovely."

"Unlike our strategy here," Dael responded. "I think it's best if we try to avoid as many Tonberries as possible and focus on finding the Tonberry King. Now…once we get there, how do we beat it?"

"Tonberries can't dodge that well." Bahamut suggested. "But they can take a lot of punishment, just as Ceja said. Even if you mastered those new moves, Dael, it wouldn't be enough."

"And Lady Cybus warned me that all Tonberries negate or absorb elemental magic through some surface layer trait of their skin." Taraketh added. "So even our greatest spells won't do much to them, other than possibly the Gigantuar if we can summon him…though I'm not sure even ten thousand needles would be enough."

"I may have something again…" Cid responded as he reached to his side. A moment later, he pulled out four more mage bullets and set them on the table. Dael looked to them, and saw that they were all marked with the Gravija symbol.

Taraketh looked with disapproval. "These may be powerful, but gravity is an element too. It will negate these as well."

"These are actually a special blend of my own creation." Cid responded. "They still work effectively like Gravija bullets, but I incorporated some aspects of Death bullets into them. Similar to how Diablos used his own technique."

This, of course, made Taraketh go a bit wide-eyed. Forgetting his propriety in regards to the Sorceress Knights, he actually gaped a bit. "You actually replicated some of that fiend's foul magic…?"

Cid gave a shrug. "What's the problem? Lady Faerio always tells me it's not the technique you use, but what you use it for."

Taraketh fumed for a moment here. Before he could say anything, Bahamut interjected.

"While I don't necessarily agree with that…in this case, I think it makes sense. Black magic, by definition, calls on powers of destruction and death, and yet countless people have used it for good purposes throughout the ages. And so long as Diablos brought that kind of power into the world, it might as well be used for something good."

This made Taraketh calm a bit, although he still looked disagreeable.

"Now there are some complications…" Cid cautioned. "These shells have powerful magic…enough to cause an actual drain on one's own spiritual energy. Plus…it's not too good of an idea to generate that much gravity at once. You could…at least, in theory…cause some sort of massive time-space distortion that would, you know…erase us all from existence or something. So to be safe…you should probably wait a full minute in between shots."

"So assuming the best case scenario," Cryder answered. "We've got to keep this bastard busy for three full minutes?"

"Pretty much." Cid answered.

"And if this is a much tougher version of a real Tonberry," Bahamut threw in. "There's no guarantee it won't still be standing even after all four shots."

"Terrific…" Quaren said with a gulp.

"Nothing else for it." Dael finally stated. "We're going to have to go after it regardless. Besides…if we can't beat this Guardian Force, then we won't be able to take out the Elite Hounds. We need the experience."

That wasn't exactly the most encouraging thing everyone wanted to hear, and after the incident with the Gigantuar, Dael herself was having a hard time being motivated. However, she knew this had to be done. She wasn't willing on taking the chance of letting Sybenia get this Guardian Force as well. No one else was either.

"Tomorrow morning, and soon as first light, let's set a course for that island."

The journey to the Centra Ruins was a bit more eventful, but not much. It took longer to get to, for one thing. There was another full day for training as a result. A few of the new spells were experimented with, and Dael, at the minimum, tried to at least summon the same power she had used the day before if not outright use it. Unfortunately, it was no good. Apparently, to pull this off, it was like Bahamut said…she had to have endured pain, built up some unseen "threshold" inside herself. With enough concentration, she managed to start seeing the connections again…but she couldn't do anything with them. She could't feel herself resonate with it. That meant unless she was willing to get smacked around by the Tonberry King, she wouldn't be able to pull off a move like the one against the Gigantuar again. Instead, she decided to stick with her Gravija bullets.

At the end of the first day, they were nearing the archipelago already thanks to the speed of the Excalibur. They dropped speed and stuck to the sensors then. They picked up a number of patrol boats. Some of them were Sybenian. After all, this was closer to the Western Continent than the port at Leuco. Cid and Cryder's skill was brought to bear. It took a bit of work, and waiting for just the right opportunity, but eventually they found a big enough gap in the defenses where they could sail close enough to one of the islands to blend in. After that, it was a matter of "island hopping" in between sweeps. Soon, even that wasn't a concern any longer as they moved more into the tightly-knit archipelago.

The ship continued to move that night. While Leuco may not have had a presence, there was the occasional village or outpost here. Dael wasn't eager to tip them off, even if they weren't aligned with Leuco or Sybenia. The cover of darkness made moving about much easier, and the stealth running systems on board the Excalibur were more advanced than anything a smaller city-state could produce. Plus, they were going slow enough that should a ship move to intercept, they would see them coming. As dawn broke, they still hadn't picked up and "shadows". Moving to another uninhabited island with enough elevation to keep them secluded, they paused until the sun went down again.

Once night fell, the Excalibur went into motion more quickly. They soon left the last of the settlements behind, going into purely "restricted" territory. The islands they passed were mostly rocky, barren, and uninhabited. With the radars showing clear seas all around, they actually turned the lights on enough to look on a few of them, although this wasn't entirely necessary as the moon was out and casting enough of a glow to look about. The waters grew unusually quiet as the ship began to go through the narrow passes that Cryder had been promising, and what creatures leapt out of the water were rather fearsome and primordial looking to Dael. This was a place that obviously was still rather void of human activity.

Finally, Dael saw it.

The woman had never even heard about the Centra Ruins until they had their meeting in the mess hall. Now that she saw it, she had to admit…it was unsettling. She tried to keep thinking of it as an antenna and not some bizarre otherworldly structure with who knew what purpose.

Indeed, there seemed to be some sort of frame around it that looked like a giant metal octahedron, at least skyscraper sized. But aside from that, the inner structure that the octahedron supported was equally bizarre. Rather than having any foundation, the base of the structure seemed to be a cage-like arrangement of pillars built right into the octahedron edges. Stalactite-like columns were on top of this, balancing a much more solid-looking tower that had an arrangement of rails and platforms coming out from it. It didn't even look stable. It seemed to be more like some strange, perfectly-balanced art-sculpture just hovering there. Initially, Dael couldn't even believe it was real. She thought it was some trick of the light or she was too distant. She didn't even see any way to get into it, after all.

At any rate, they didn't see it long. To disembark, they had to go along the shore further before they could find a place to land, and when they did the trees and hills of the island blocked out any further view of the structure. They'd have to walk closer in order to see it again. After touring a bit longer to find a good place out the way, the ship finally stopped and deployed its ramp, anchoring at the same time.

In minutes, the group unloaded. Everyone was fully recovered, resupplied, and armed. Cryder, on his part, was eager to try out his new powers, and Dael, frankly, hoped they would help. She herself had already loaded the first Gravija bullet and had the others at her side. Once there, she began to lead the others up the hill before them, back toward the ruins.

Bahamut was nearby most of the walk, and as they went along, she decided to ask him a question.

"Do you think you could perform any technique like the one you used back with the Elite Hounds?"

The boy shook his head with a frown. "I don't know where that came from, but the power for it was building for days…under all the torment and abuse I went through. Yet even if the same thing happened again…I'm not sure I could pull it off."

Dael exhaled. One less advantage open to us… She thought.

A few of them, Dael included, had flashlights, and she decided to use them in spite of the moonlight as they approached. She was a bit skeptical, but the terrain, although it still had some vegetation, was rocky and uneven in many parts. It was clear this had been a volcanic bit of rock not too long ago in geologic history and was only now developing a layer of soil. Although she knew from training that her eyes would adjust better to the dark if she left the light off, she kept it on so she wouldn't stumble the whole way there, especially when they crossed through a stand of trees where both roots and rocky terrain came into play. However, on passing through to the other side, the silhouette of the Centra Ruins was again visible against the moonlit sky, and the group paused again to look at it.

It was more eerie than ever. This close, it was clear that it wasn't some unreal optical illusion but, honestly and truly, a bizarre and impossible structure. There was a set of columns on the ground leading to a stairway that led up to the base, but based on the construction it looked as if the stairs were suspended over nothing. Now the place truly did look otherworldly. As yet another unsettling fact…the upper levels seemed to have some sort of illumination: orange lights.

"…That's an antenna?" Quaren asked incredulously. "Looks more like something out of a modern age sci-fi horror story…"

"To be honest…I really don't know what it is, now that I'm seeing it in front of me…" Cid said, almost gulping as he did so. "And those lights… There isn't any power source operating in there that I know of or anyone else knows of. That much I know from investigating engineers."

"Not good place." Jalab remarked as he narrowed his gaze at it. "Attracts…something not of Gaia."

"I have to agree with Sir Tierras… I don't feel comfortable going there." Ceja threw in.

Dael, for a split second, nearly agreed…when instead she let out a sigh.

"Come on. Forget about the structure itself. It's what's inside we should be freaked out about…" Immediately, she groaned and shook her head. "I mean don't get freaked out. We have a job to do. Now come on."

The young officer immediately made her way toward the structure. The others followed, but even Bahamut was hesitant before going after her. For a boy who supposedly knew and had seen everything, even this place unsettled him. But Dael ignored that. After all…she had to focus on keeping her own feet moving closer to it.

Getting actually into the structure was a little better, so long as Dael focused on the area around her rather than where she was. It took longer than she thought, probably because they were all subconsciously dragging their feet, but they made it to the staircase and climbed a distance of four stories into the "base" of the structure. Once there, looking out through the octahedron and the columns rather than looking in from the outside, things were more bearable. After all, on the "small" scale, the structure was just ruins. Now that she was here, Dael saw that while there was a metal skeleton poking out of a few places, most of the place was stone. It was even done up in an older style, with frescos and mosaics depicting ancient events. For one familiar with science fiction, it gave the whole place the feel of an "out-of-place" artifact. Nevertheless, at least in short range, it appeared "normal" enough. And so far, they hadn't encountered anything.

But then again…all the lights were on the "upper" floors.

Dael let them about halfway through the columns and the various monstrous and epic images depicted on them before halting. Here, she looked behind her. "From here on in," She stated quietly. "Probably best we kill the lights unless we hear something coming. We may not see what's up there, but it shouldn't be able to see us either."

"I thought Tonberries lived in caves where it was always dark?" Quaren asked, his tone showing his own growing anxiety.

"They also always carry lanterns." Bahamut reassured. "They may see better than us in the dark…but they're still blind without a light source."

After a moment of pause, everyone killed their lights. Dael and Quaren kept theirs out, but everyone else shifted to their weapons. The young officer paused for a few minutes afterward. She wanted to let her eyes grow accustomed to the darkness a bit. She didn't wait as long as possible, but just enough to see the next set of stairs up ahead in the pale moonlight. That done, she began to lead them onward again.

Again, this set of stairs seemed to be hovering over nothingness, and with no rails it was a little nerve wracking and gave them all a sense of vertigo. Yet Dael kept leading them on, and did so quietly, listening for anything that might be waiting for them ahead. She heard nothing, however. After a minute or two of climbing up another three stories, they reached what looked like the base of the main structure. Just up ahead was an opening that was more "conventional", looking like a gateway that one would find on a castle. What more, the structure itself, this up close, was more like a keep than anything. Dael slowed again as she neared the top of the steps. She paused there and let the others gather behind her, and then looked inside for a moment to see what was there.

The source of the lights soon became obvious. Orbs of light were suspended from iron cages hanging from the ceiling like chandeliers. Dael couldn't tell if they were electric or fire in nature, though. The hall itself was lined with stone statues arranged like guardians. Aside from that, it looked like a hall one would see in any ancient castle. Old stonework and more frescos and mosaics…but nothing else incredible. The lights were a bit eerie, but they didn't look entirely supernatural.

She looked back down below. "Looks clear." She stated quietly. "Let's-"

A moment later, however, she cut herself off. She heard something. It was only small, but it sounded like thick pads rhythmically slapping against the ground. It was quiet, indicating it was distant…but it was coming from inside the chamber up ahead. Hearing this, Dael immediately lowered herself on the stairs. The others followed suit, and all effectively dropped from sight. The noise got louder afterward, but only very, very slowly. What more, it never quite reached the threshold of being a "big monster". It seemed more light and subdued. Dael and the others held for a minute, but all they saw was the faint glow of a fiery light fluttering overhead.

After another minute, Dael decided to have a look. Reaching into her belt, she emerged with a hand mirror, and angled it up to look up above the top of the stairs and to whatever was there. On doing so, she soon received her first look at one of the infamous Tonberries.

All in all, it looked thoroughly unimpressive. But even if Dael hadn't interacted with the Cactuars the other day and received a reminder that appearances could be very deceiving, she had heard reports on Tonberries during her academy training. They were one of the monsters that received special attention, after all. By all appearances, it was nothing more than a small, dull, green, reptilian creature. It didn't look intimidating in the least, being only around four feet tall. In fact, it looked almost…cute, or at least comical. Much like Carbuncle, it had a virturally expressionless face. The only thing that stood out were two pale yellow orbs for eyes, which glowed slightly. It had a thick tail that nevertheless was useless for physical combat and a bifurcated tip. Its feet were little more than pads that it waddled along with at a very slow rate. Most of its body, which seemed more potato-shaped than anything, was enclosed by a brown, leather-like robe that looked like a cassock with the hood pulled back. It had been mended with patches a few times too. In one hand, it held a simple iron lantern with a single candle inside, and it held it before it, illuminating the way.

In its other hand…it held the only thing that was genuinely unsettling about it. A sharp knife that looked like a butcher's knife…stained with old blood.

Dael saw the Tonberry look around a moment, and then begin to waddle forward. She quickly pulled back the mirror, lest it reflect the lantern, and hid. She waited for a few moments. If it spotted them, they had to get away in a hurry. And they were almost to the top of the steps. Getting too close to the edge would expose them, and so she realized the chance was high. She lay in wait. The padded sound grew nearer, but stopped from time to time, indicating the Tonberry pausing. The light from the lantern got closer too, and Dael grew more nervous. Already…she could almost feel her movements growing more sluggish, as if she was being drawn to the ground. Apparently, the magic they held about them worked…

Yet just as Dael began to fear the Tonberry would come upon them, the flickering of the lantern abruptly dimmed, and the padding noise began to quiet. She realized the creature had turned its back on them.

The young woman waited there for a few moments, hearing the padding noises occasionally only slowly going away. Eventually, however, she risked pulling herself up a bit despite the fact it still seemed relatively close, and looked over the edge. The Tonberry had its back to her, and was very, very slowly walking away. After a few more steps, it paused. Dael feared she had been heard for a moment, but the Tonberry merely looked around in front of it for a moment, and then resumed walking. She paused a bit longer, then raised herself up higher. In the process of doing so, however, she upset her flashlight, and knocked it down a step…letting out a sharp echo. She paled momentarily…

…But the Tonberry didn't react. It didn't even look like it heard. It merely continued to waddle a bit farther, pause, look around, and then resumed.

Dael blinked, and then picked up her flashlight, making sure to make a loud scrape against the stone stairs as she did so. No reaction. She rose a bit more, until her head was clearly visible. No change. A moment later, she actually stood up, making more noise as she did so. Still no change. Clearly, the Tonberries had another weakness…their senses were pathetic. They couldn't see or hear that well.

The woman paused a bit longer, but then decided to chance something. She hoped this would work, because she could do without the unnecessary fight. Turning back below, she motioned for the others to rise and follow her. After that, she brandished her sword, put her flashlight away all together, and began to climb the stairs again. Soon she reached the top and went forward just enough for the others to follow behind her. As they did, one by one, they all reacted to seeing a Tonberry, but its back remained to them. It didn't seem to notice them at all…merely continued to walk away. Dael soon looked to the ground and told them to follow her. Although some had strong reservations, they soon found themselves following after the Tonberry, staying behind it.

They continued to follow it for almost five minutes. That's how long the slow-moving creature took to get to the other side of the chamber. Once there, it looked around one more time, before making a left turn to go to the rows of statues, looking to move behind them. As it did, Dael quickly led the group to the side to dive for cover behind the statues on the opposite side, but the Tonberry didn't seem to mind. Apparently, it had no peripheral vision either. Eventually, it passed in between two statues…leaving the way to the staircase beyond clear. Dael quickly sprang back out and ran for it, and the others fell in behind and followed. Soon they left the green creature behind and were on a new set of stairs.

Once clear, Dael paused and looked back to them for a moment. "Well…that was a lot easier than I thought."

"Alright, so we can sneak by them without much trouble…or at least this one." Taraketh responded. "But there's no telling how many more there are, or how far through this place we'll have to go in order to find the Tonberry King."

"We'll just have to look through all of it until we do." Dael responded. "Let's go."

This search ended up being far less painful and dramatic than the one for the Gigantuar, but about as fruitful as well. The first floor was fairly easy compared to the next floors. All of them had at least two Tonberries moving about, and some more than that. But the creatures were so dull that it was all but impossible to alert one. She could have sworn, on more than one occasion, one of the creatures was looking right at them and yet kept up its toddling pace and mannerisms. Dael was pretty much of the opinion that unless you went right up to the creatures and smacked them, they wouldn't even notice you. That made it a bit easier to get around them even when they went into one floor chamber that had five. They also seemed incapable of going up or down stairs, which made sense. Their legs were so small they probably couldn't step up or down. It also made it easier to evade them. Even if they couldn't get by without being seen (which wasn't a problem anyway), by the time they reached the stairs they were effectively in the clear.

However, as their lack of encounters went by over the hours it took to sneak to the top of the ruins, Dael was growing progressively less nervous and more annoyed. The sun, by now, was beginning to rise, removing the last traces of gloom and mystery that still shrouded the ruins and making everything seem more "mundane" and "normal". As it became clear that evading the Tonberries was hardly much of a challenge, and as each new floor turned up empty, the woman began to almost be eager for the Tonberry King to show himself so they could be done with this.

At last, there was only one chamber left, the uppermost room, which Taraketh said, based on legends, was the throne room that King Odin had made for himself. Dael figured that was as good a place as any for a Tonberry King to be hanging out. Getting to the last set of stairs leading up to it was a bit of a problem. There was an outdoor platform adjoined to the main building that may have even been a side chamber at some point, but was missing walls on two sides. There had been a grand total of five Tonberries walking around on a very small space, and, for some time, Dael had puzzled over how they were going to get by. At this point, they were nearly to the top of the structure, and hundreds of feet in the air, so trying to inch around wasn't the preferred course of action. Fighting their way through didn't seem to be a good idea either if one Tonberry really would be a challenge for all of them, let alone five. Eventually, Cid got an idea, to use some of his explosive compound to lay a trap to blow one or more of the Tonberries over the edge. Although Dael didn't like the idea of causing any real damage to the structure, fearful that, if so much as a good sized rock was knocked off of it, the result would be the entire structure would grow unbalanced and fall over (despite the fact it hadn't even trembled the entire time they had been on it), she agreed.

Cid brought out his modified caulking gun and, as soon as the Tonberry backs were turned, began to squirt out a stream in a good spot near the edge. However, it had an interesting effect. The nearest Tonberry almost immediately turned to it. Dael feared their cover was blown, but only a moment before the Tonberry waddled over to the explosive compound and, to her surprise, leaned down and began to lick it with a tiny tongue. Cid was as befuddled as the rest, but admitted that a lot of fruit-based thiols and organic compounds were present in the substance that he had harvested from the jungle on Lamb. Apparently, many of the intermediate steps had a very fruity smell, although he had never been foolish enough to taste the finished product. It seemed the Tonberries were fond of it, however. Over the next minute, the scent seemed to attract another one. On that note, Cid squirted more of the explosive near the edge, and eventually all five of them came up to it and began to lick it, completely focused on the substance. However, "licking" obviously wasn't enough of an impact to cause it to go off. Dael thought of having Quaren set it off with a bullet, but in the end decided against it. Instead, while they were baited, they might as well move on by. And so they did. Not one of the five Tonberries ever looked up to them.

On the last set of stairs, Dael went ahead and got her gun out in one hand and her sword in the other. The rest of the group quickly readied their weapons as well. This was the last chamber…it had to be where it was. Ascending the stairs just a bit slower to make sure they were all ready, she neared the top. She almost called out to tell Bahamut to stay back. After all, he was the one person there who didn't have any enhanced physiology…but eventually she decided against it. The boy knew how to make himself useful even without a 'limit break'. Finally, at the top, another opening loomed, leading into another chamber. Dael quickly ascended the last few steps, rounded the top, and began to charge inside with her Mage Gun aimed forward.

She barely cleared the threshold, however, before she slowed to a halt.

The place looked like a throne chamber, alright. A very old, cruel-looking throne was mounted in the back against an accompanying fresco, radiating intimidation and power. The rest of the chamber, however…was empty. There wasn't even a Tonberry sentry in there. One by one, the others came up behind her and halted as well. She lowered her weapons and stepped in a bit more to look around better, but the chamber was circular and there were no corners to hide in. Nothing was there except the throne and décor.

"This is a bit unexpected…" Taraketh remarked after about a minute of silence.

"It's not here…" Quaren stated.

Cid swallowed a bit. "Well, technically, there was never a guarantee it would be here. We only assumed it would have come here."

Dael let out a frown at that, putting her gun away. "I suppose you're right, but that doesn't make me feel too much better. We wasted a few days getting here and hours climbing the tower."

"This still strikes me as odd." Ceja responded. "If there's no Tonberry King here, why are there so many Tonberries living here?"

"Perhaps they all like the element 'Steel', and that drew them here…" Taraketh suggested. "At any rate, no sense staying. It'll take long enough to get back out of here past those Tonberries as it is."

"Well, we did spend a lot of effort getting here." Cryder suggested with a shrug. "Sure we shouldn't have a bit of a look around first, lads? I mean, if we turn out to be wrong, we don't want to have to come back here, eh?"

Dael considered that for a few seconds. "…I guess you're right. This place might have all sorts of hidden chambers in it. I mean, it's not like it matches-"

Dael was cut off and almost leapt when a rather loud and potent explosion went off from outside, down the stairs. It caused her and the others to all snap around. Ceja, being closest to the opening, ran over to it and looked outside and down the stairs.

"What happened?" The Esthar's Hawk called.

Ceja looked a moment, then turned back. "You know that edge where the five Tonberries were? Well…now all I see is a bit of smoke and carbon scoring where the material that Cid laid down went off."

None of them had known it, but, eventually, one of the Tonberries had gotten tired with just licking and had attempted to actually take a bite of the compound. The rest was history when a chain reaction resulted. The five Tonberries had been flung off the building all together. Whether the fall would be fatal or not was anyone's guess.

"Seems the trap worked after all." Taraketh mused.

"Well, five less of those things to worry about on the way back." Cryder threw in.

Dael was about to say something else, before she was cut off yet again. Abruptly, the room began to have a rather loud tremor move through it, creating the sound of grinding stone. It seemed as if something very large was moving. She looked around only a moment for the source, when Bahamut suddenly exclaimed. "Look!"

Immediately, the young officer and the others snapped around, and found themselves looking to the mounted throne. Yet it only stood as is for a moment before Dael realized there was a fissure forming right down the middle. After a few more moments, she realized they were getting larger, and were attached to larger panels beyond which were also forming fissures. She realized it was a false wall, concealing a set of large doors which were now opening up, revealing the blackness of an unlit chamber on the other side. However, it didn't stay black for long. Soon the group saw the light of another lantern on the other side, and as they opened fully up…they saw who was beyond in all of its "glory".

This Tonberry was much, much larger than its brethren. It stood around ten feet tall all together, although, given its almost circular body, it had the appearance of being much larger. Aside from that, it was almost the same as the little ones. It wore the same color, fabric, and style cloak, and it had the same padded feet, green, thick skin, and small yellow orbs for eyes, although proportionately larger. It also had a blood-stained knife and a simple lantern…although, in almost a comical fashion, Dael saw that they weren't proportionally larger, and the knife, in particular, almost looked like a splinter compared to the rest of it. Aside from that…there was only one other thing. A crown, partially lopsided, and looking so ridiculously simple it seemed like a prop from a child's dress-up set, was on its head.

Despite the fact that Dael was determined to take the dangers of Tonberries seriously, she had to wonder…was this for real? She tried to focus less on the pathetic crown and even more pathetic knife and lantern, and instead considered the fact there was a ten-foot Tonberry in the room. A moment later, it began to waddle toward them.

"…I think it's mad that we knocked those five over the edge." Quaren murmured.

"This is it!" Dael called to everyone else as she quickly got her gun out again. She quickly took aim at it. "Everyone, get ready to fight!"

Quickly, everyone snapped to attention. But as they raised their weapons, Dael already aimed right for the Tonberry King and fired off her first Gravija bullet. It was a little too big of a target to miss, but even so, these things had a tendancy to fail from time to time. This wasn't one of those times, however. The shot hit it dead on…and immediately erupted. Much as it had back with the mechanical warrior in Garrado, the shell erupted into a thick, black orb. At once, it began to form a dark, shimmering sphere of blackness…which expanded rapidly and completely enveloped the Tonberry King. Despite the shot, everyone moved out as they heard a cosmic ripping sound, as if time and space was being compressed. The light and reality itself seemed to warp around it, drawn in like the world was painted on a sheet and bent inward. Everyone else didn't wait for it to finish, however. They quickly spread out and began to take aim at the creature. Slowly, the orb stopped expanding. It held a bit longer…and then vanished, shrinking back into nothing. For a brief moment, Dael thought she saw the entire Tonberry King distorted and compressed, almost down to half of its original size. Yet as the orb went away, it once more expanded to full height, and gave some sort of chirping gurgle. Whether it was anger or a laugh was impossible to tell, as the creature's face remained fully expressionless. A moment later, however, it began to waddle forward again.

Dael quickly went for her second shell even as she started to count. 60…59…58…

Meanwhile, everyone else quickly went into action. Jalab opened by swirling his staff in front of him for a moment before swinging it around and aiming it forward, sending out a powerful blast of force that ripped into the Tonberry King and past it, slamming the doors shut again and ripping the cloak it wore. Quaren quickly aimed for its head and began to fire off rapidly, switching his rifle to semi-automatic mode as he did so to unload multiple bullets in the creature's face. Cid did much the same with his own nailgun. His aim wasn't as good, but it managed to hit it with every shot. Taraketh performed a gesture with his hands to literally make two monstrous slabs of rock rip up from the ground and slam together, catching the giant Tonberry in a "sandwich". As the slabs broke apart from the force of their own impact, Cryder rounded things up by blasting it with a Will of the Wisp technique. He was rather surprised at his own result. What used to be small, spectral flames ignited in a massive, bright blaze that enveloped the entire creature momentarily in eerie blue fire. The only two who did not attack were Ceja and Bahamut. Ceja didn't have enough room in the chamber to properly use her "Flying Axe". Initially, that didn't stop her. She nearly darted out…before Bahamut shot out his blade and used it to bar her way. For a moment, she was surprised, and then looked to Bahamut in anger for halting her…but it abated quickly. So long as they could attack the creature from a distance, they had better.

Yet as Cryder's attack died down and they saw the result…none of them were too happy. Aside from ruining its clothes a bit, even less than expected, it was continuing to toddle forward at the same pace. It hadn't even flinched in the way of those attacks.

Dael, on her part, was only in the "40s".

The group hesitated a moment, before they began to open fire again. Jalab, putting his staff aside for a moment, drew his hands together and began to concentrate, soon igniting in a mystic aura. A moment later, he gathered the energy into his palms, and then aimed forward for the Tonberry and blasted, sending out a potent beam of burning energy that slammed right into its chest. Yet the Tonberry's slow, gradual pace wasn't even stalled. It walked into the beam as if it wasn't even there. Everyone saw this…and began to realize just how durable the thing was. Even Jalab gaped a bit in surprise. In response, Cid pulled out one of his explosive charges, mounted it onto the nailgun, and fired…soon attaching it directly to the Tonberry King's forehead. He quickly yanked out his detonator, armed it, and pulled the trigger. The bomb went off, and in the enclosed room, everyone had to pull back and cover their ears. Yet when the fire and smoke cleared…it was still coming.

"That was a drilling charge…" Cid said incredulously, eyes bulging at the creature.

"Let me." Taraketh announced. Quickly, he shifted his hands together and performed another gesture, his aura flashing even brighter than it did for his last attack. A moment later, a gigantic spiked column of rock, this one horizontal, ripped out of the ground and charged for the Tonberry King like a freight train. It was so close at this point in the moderate-sized chamber that the group had to move to one side to avoid being hit by it…and the huge rock column connected with the creature.

To everyone's shock, not the least of which was Taraketh, it was like driving a terra-cotta ram into a tank. It shattered and peeled off of it although it was doing nothing more than toddling forward.

"Impossible…!" Taraketh called breathlessly. "That attack would have tripped a Red Dragon!"

"I think you were right, Sir Sabian…" Bahamut stated a bit nervously. "This is a Tonberry…only bigger and much worse."

Quaren lowered his rifle for a moment, gaping considerably at the creature that was still incoming. After a moment, he exhaled as he reached for his side. "I've got an adhesive grenade… Not sure it will do much good, but I better give it a shot. It does more than my bullets, at any rate…" With that, he took off for the creature.

Dael went wide-eyed at that. "Wait! Don't get closer to it!"

It was too late, however. Quaren deployed the adhesive and ran right up to the Tonberry King. A moment later, he threw his arm out to make sure it would paste to its head. But he had forgotten…with his enhanced body, he could have thrown an accurate lob from a greater distance. He got too close. He thought he was out of range, but the Tonberry King had longer arms that he realized. Abruptly, the arm with the knife shot out and went straight for Quaren even as the grenade stuck and he turned back to run.

One of the oddest sounds Dael had ever heard rang out in reply. She hadn't expected to hear much of anything. It was a knife, after all. However, to her surprise, the knife made a very odd sound…seeming almost like a strange "doink" noise. The result, however, was anything but humorous.

One would think someone just slammed a battering ram into Quaren. Dael couldn't be certain, but it didn't even look as if the knife had been aimed for a vital spot, but the corporal was ripped off of his feet and flung backward. He connected with the ground a moment later and went into a topple, rolling back toward the others. He headed straight for Taraketh, who quickly lowered to his knees to stop him from going any farther. The young man was soon stopped by him and rolled to sprawl out on his back. Everyone looked to him, Dael included, and was shocked at what they saw.

The blade had only seemed to stab into his lower side…but blood was everywhere. A good portion of his uniform was already soaked with it, and it was still flowing. Quaren's eyes were wide in shock, as he both gaped and writhed at the same time, like he was not only recoiling from the stab wound but also had severe inner trauma. Abruptly, he coughed, and blood splattered from his mouth. Taraketh froze for only a moment, before his own knowledge of field medicine kicked in, and he dove over Quaren and covered the wound with both hands. He quickly concentrated and lit up his aura to begin to generate a healing spell.

As for the Tonberry King, the grenade went off, sending another loud bang rocketing through the chamber…and the creature didn't even shift its head. It kept coming forward. By now, it was almost halfway across the room. And Dael was still counting mentally.

A few seconds later, and a green aura began to come over Quaren. He stiffened a bit, and his face remained tight and rigid with pain, but he did relax just a little. After that, Taraketh looked up with a frown. "The best I can do is seal the wound. The damage is too great. He's not getting back into this fight."

Cid, meanwhile, raised his gun at the closer Tonberry King and began to discharge more shots. Yet from this range, he could now see clearly. Most of the nails were bouncing off as if the creature's skin was made of bullet-proof material. Even a shot he managed to land against its eye bounced off harmlessly, blunted and compressed. He swallowed a bit. "We may be in trouble… Hasn't it been a minute yet?"

"Almost…" Dael responded, forcing her own voice to remain calm. She soon raised her weapon and counted off five more seconds…five seconds that seemed to take an eternity. After that, she squeezed the trigger and fired off another shot. The shell sailed through the air, impacted it again, and once more expanded into a black, inky sphere. This time, Dael looked at its feet as it fired. As one good side…she noticed that the creature stopped walking. Right before it vanished, she saw it try to lift a leg, but it couldn't. The increase in gravity seemed to immobilize it.

The sphere enveloped it for a few precious moments, although they didn't seem nearly long enough. The one time she needed time to be slow…and it seemed to go by in a blink. When the sphere abated…the Tonberry King was still standing and still looking totally unaffected. Without missing a beat, it began to walk forward again.

Dael angrily began to count as she opened her barrel and went for another shell. After loading it, she called out to the others. "The least we can do is make ourselves less of a target. Let's spread around the room. Taraketh, can you get Quaren?"

The High Child only paused for a fraction of a second before he withdrew his hands and began to curve them underneath the corporal. Although Taraketh didn't look terribly strong, all of the ones who had been junctioned in their group were matches for heavyweight lifters, and he easily got up carrying him. Quaren, on his part, had managed to cling to consciousness, but he was staying quiet and still, not trying to agitate his wound. "I'll take him. Don't worry."

"Alright…Cryder, Jalab, Bahamut, and I will go left…everyone else goes right. Now!"

The eight immediately broke…and Dael soon got a rather bad surprise.

Attempting to get away from the Tonberry King...attempting, in any way, to increase the distance between themselves and it, was useless. To her shock, they looked like they were suddenly embedded in mud, their feet barely moving as they attempted to move away. On her own part, she found she had to exert almost all of her enhanced power to take a step forward…and a little one, at that. It seemed as if the air had turned viscous and was exerting a force to push her back, oppose any move that moved her farther away. She realized that their fears had to be correct. That creature was somehow warping space and time to keep them from escaping it. And there was no telling how far the influence reached. One thing was certain, however. Even its toddling pace would catch them long before they could even get through the door to the chamber.

Cryder was the first to give up, turning back and fuming. "Blimey…this is a fine bucket of fish. Only way out of here now is through that green nightmare." With that, he brandished his sword again, and soon began to perform some gestures. "Then let's get at it!" A moment later, he aimed his blade forward. A solid column of wind immediately formed, seeming to be made a deadly whirling blades, and it shot forward and slammed into the creature. The robe was shredded a bit more…but just like with everything else, the Tonberry King wasn't even stalled. "Jolly green bastard seems to have a center of gravity as flat as a continent." The pirate grumbled on seeing his latest move fail.

Jalab himself focused his power. Once more, his aura blazed, a moment later he aimed his hands forward and sent out another blast of energy at it…even larger than before. It slammed into the monster just as hard…but it didn't buckle or tremble in the least. It continued to walk forward. Jalab actually focused the beam for a moment, continuing to direct it at the monster and put even more into it…but it did nothing other than burn more of its robe. In the end, he exhaled and let the beam falter.

"All stronger moves of mine…need hand-to-hand contact." He admitted grimly.

Taraketh, realizing he wasn't getting far with Quaren, went to the nearest wall and set him down against it, before turning back. "Let me try mine." He stated. "This is a bit close, so everyone be careful…" With that, he performed a gesture, and then concentrated. His aura didn't immediately flare, and, as a result, Dael knew what was coming. Immediately, she tried to back away…for all the good it did. After all, doing so meant putting more distance between herself and the Tonberry King, and it wouldn't have any of that. Moments later, reality began to distort before them as the lights both inside and outside the room grew dimmer.

A second later, and the Minotaur Brothers leapt out of the portal. At once, they charged forward and straight for the Tonberry King. They soon performed a move similar to last time. The smaller one came first, reached the base of it, and grabbed the pavement. With one mighty heave, he ripped off a large section of the floor, thick and stone, upward…and Dael expected the Tonberry King to finally be jarred back in the process. Yet to her shock…nothing happened. The Tonberry King looked like he might as well have weighed a thousand tons, for the earth simply broke past it. The larger one soon charged, just as before, and collided head on with the Tonberry King…and simply bounced off like a ball thrown against a brick wall. It soon roared in a mixture of anger, pain, and misery. The smaller one looked to the big one and seemed to shake his head at him…before both vanished again into thin air and the lights came back on at full strength. The Tonberry King, on his part, had never slowed or paused. He was getting past half of the room and still coming.

"…Times like this that it's very hard to abide by the Order of Hyne code of 'no swearing'." Taraketh grumbled.

"How long before you can shoot again?" Cryder asked.

"About another half a minute…but it doesn't really matter, for all the good it's been doing." Dael responded.

"Maybe we can move next time you fire." Ceja responded. "It seems like it can't move itself…maybe it's immobilized."

"I hope so…" Dael responded. "Because whether or not these shells are having an effect, if we're stuck here when I fire the fourth one, we'll be caught in the blast…"

Cid began to get out his caulking gun. "I'll coat it with this stuff." He said. "Then set it off. That's got to knock it back…"

"Don't." Bahamut immediately retorted. "From this close range, if that compound goes off, we'd all feel the blast and there's no way for us to get clear."

However, an idea sprang to mind in Dael's own head. "Wait a minute… Cid! Shoot just a bit behind it!"

The engineer looked to her along with the others. "Huh? Why?"

"The Tonberries like the compound! Maybe the big one does too! It can act like bait!"

The Sorceress Knight paused, then lit up. "…Yeah! That might work!" Quickly, he lifted up the weapon, attached the pneumatics, and aimed around and behind the Tonberry King. A moment later, he fired off a steady stream, and soon squirted a good sized amount around it from the side and behind it.

At long last…the creature actually paused. For a moment, it actually stopped walking forward. It stared at the group for a moment, then, slowly, shifted its shoulders and looked behind it, back to the paste now on the ground. It looked forward again, and then back, and then forward again.

The group was astonished.

"I can't believe that worked…" Taraketh stated aloud.

"It's already seen us." Ceja stated. "So it won't go after it…but it looks confused."

Dael finished counting during the interim, and soon raised her Mage Gun again. "Alright, I'm ready…"

"Wait, lass!" Cryder suddenly called out. "Shouldn't we see if it backs up first? After this shot, it's going to keep coming after us, bait or no bait, I'd wager."

The Tonberry King continued to look, but eventually seemed to focus more on the group. It still hadn't started walking in either direction yet, but Dael had to make a judgment call. She stared at it a few moments longer, wondering and watching. If she waited and it didn't come…then they just wasted more time. But if she fired when it was going to go for the bait…then they'd miss out on their chance to hit it one last time. In the end, she finally had to decide…and her decision was to pull the trigger.

The shell once again snaked out…and Cryder wasn't the only one who grimaced a bit at it as once more a black sphere erupted around the Tonberry King. The explosives were set off by the pressure, removing the bait…but the eruption was immediately sucked into the oblivion. Dael didn't give them all long to mope, however. She called out. "Everyone move!"

Immediately, the group broke in either direction, in the same way as before. Unfortunately…Dael found it to be mostly just as sluggish as before. However, it wasn't completely. They were able to move just a bit more freely. The two on the ends, Cryder and Taraketh (who had quickly taken up Quaren again) managed to get the farthest, actually able to gain a bit of distance on the Tonberry King. But the others…they couldn't really do more other than spread equidistantly around it. Once the orb faded again, and the Tonberry King, once again not looking the slightest bit worse for wear and moving forward again, further escape was impossible. Perhaps, when it got closer to those in the front, who it was still headed toward…and happened to be Dael and Cid…they would be far enough away to break for it. For now, however, there was no chance. The young officer also realized as she loaded her last bullet…there was no way to dodge it herself. Both she and Cid would be in the wake of the blast.

"I never met a horror so resilient…" Ceja remarked. "Even a Rock Dragon would be dead by now!"

"Doesn't this chap ever give up?" Cryder asked in exasperation.

Quaren, by now, had bit back enough of his pain to look up. "Maybe…it's on…it's last legs…?" He suggested weakly.

True enough, Gravija was powerful…but not enough to kill on its own. What it did was siphon away the stamina and vitality so much that the slightest follow up blow would normally drop an opponent. However, the spell, as Dael understood, was originally made with humans in mind, who had long been confirmed by ages of analysis and study to not be capable of growing stronger than a certain point. Monsters, on the other hand, could get much stronger, and the spell could be all but useless again them if they had sufficient durability. Sure, it would do a lot of damage…but they'd have plenty of constitution to spare. Dael tried to consider what would be a decent test, but she didn't get the chance. Ceja, perhaps tired of being forced to sit on the sidelines and be all but useless this fight, went ahead and wound up with her axe a bit before letting it fly. It wasn't too great of a cast…nothing like her traditional blows that could lop the heads off of the deadliest monsters, but it still had a bit of power to it…enough to at least embed in flesh. At least, it should have normally. But this blow merely cleaved into the soft outer flesh of the Tonberry King, eventually stopped moving, and then simply fell out again and clattered to the ground. Although a cut had clearly been made, the nature of the creature's physicality sealed it up again with pressure before dropping any blood, and it continued to come in.

"So much for 'last legs'…" Cryder said with a sigh.

"I only got one thing left, and this is going to have to be it for me." Taraketh said with a sigh. "I've been casting too much magic in a short time period…"

Dael didn't argue, and neither did anyone else. As for Taraketh, he folded his hands and began to summon his power again. Once more, he was doing a summoning. This one took a bit more effort though. Dael wasn't sure if it was the nature of the Guardian Force, or if Taraketh was merely growing too tired from his constant exertion. However, the strain, and even sweat, was visible…and Dael had a feeling she knew who it was. A moment later, the sky grew dark again, and once more reality warped and shifted…only bigger this time.

The large portal finally completed, and based on the side, Dael had her suspicions all but confirmed. There was only one Guardian Force she knew who could come through there. The room was high-ceilinged, she realized, but she wondered if it would be able to fit… That too was confirmed a bit later, as the massive, "mustached" Cactuar that they had met only a few days earlier suddenly squeezed itself into the chamber, giving another one of its monstrous whistle-squeaks. It was even more comical before, as it had to shift itself downward and try and squeeze itself into the chamber in order to fit. However, it worked out. Now it was already angled downward. It only had to do so a bit more to shove its massive green head in the direction of the Tonberry King, and soon began to rotate its limbs as it opened fire on the reptilian creature.

Dael and the others couldn't believe their eyes. They knew full well, no matter how strong or durable the monster, the needles would always sink in and hurt. The experience with Jalab, Cryder, and Ceja had taught more than that, though. It seemed, no matter how strong you were, they always seemed to "hurt" just as much. And sure enough, the needles seeped right through the thick flesh of the creature and pierced the "meat" inside. Dael had to imagine the creature would be in pain forever from such a move, as there was no way she could see it getting the quills out again. Yet for all of what happened, the Tonberry King never halted and never slowed. The powerful attack didn't make it pause in the least. And after letting out its deluge of needles, giving another whistle-squeak, and vanishing…they were right back where they started.

"Is this horror invincible?!" Ceja exclaimed in shock.

Dael grit her teeth in frustration. She was still counting down for her final shot, but not long after that…the creature would be in striking range, and she realized it had a longer reach than her. She might be able to get in another hit with her sword, but good would it do? She called out to Cryder and Taraketh. "Can you two run any easier yet?"

"Wouldn't matter if we could, lass!" Cryder shouted back, even as he ineffectually tried yet another wind slash. At this point, being angled a bit behind it, he didn't want to really give it his best shot. After all, if it worked…it would shove the monster closer to Dael and Cid. "We're in the chamber now! Only way past it would be through it!"

Bahamut was gearing up to attack as well, even though the ever-closing monster seemed more focused on Dael and Cid. "We might get in one stab…but that's it. Then we'll be down when it counterattacks. Might as well prepare for it…"

Cid tried shooting it further with his nailgun, and while it was close enough to hit easily in vital spots as it had passed the last quarter of the room…still there was no reaction. Eventually, he put it down and got out his drill instead. He looked to Dael. "Can you fire again yet?"

"Even if I do manage to fire this last shot, that'd be suicide." Dael sighed in response. "We'll be caught in the orb as well. That knife it has will kill us with the follow-up stab."

The engineer considered that for a moment, but then finally spoke up. "…In that case, I'm going to go up and attack it now."

The Esthar's Hawk looked to him in surprise. "What?!"

"Look…if it stabs me, then the force will knock me out of the entrance and down the stairs, and I'll be clear." Cid responded. "That way, it can't finish me off and I'll be out of the range of your bullet. If I wait until after you fire…then it will get me with the next stab."

"What if you don't survive this stab?" Dael shot back. "You're not junctioned like Quaren!"

Cid paused. It seemed he hadn't considered that. Apparently, while he was great at thinking of mechanical solutions, sometimes common sense escaped him. Or perhaps it didn't, because a moment later he gave a shrug.

"…I guess I'll chance it."

With that, he shot forward for the Tonberry King with his drill aimed forward.

"Cid!"

The engineer didn't stop. He soon reached the green creature, which was still moving slow, at least for a moment, and he aimed his drill at its chest and drove forward right for, Dael presumed, where it's heart would be. She supposed she should have been concerned that if they actually killed the Tonberry King, that wouldn't help them that much in the junctioning department. However, no one was thinking too clearly at the moment. At any rate, the drill plunged in, and he drove it all the way to the end of the machine…until the drill erupted right through the other side of the creature. And despite its best efforts, the drilling action kept the wound from closing. Blood, thick and greenish, oozed out as the creature sustained a real blow…and actually stopped moving.

Everyone looked up at that. Had Cid actually done it?

The Tonberry King gave one of its garbled noises…and then, a bit more forcefully, brought its knife around and swung it for Cid. He couldn't move. He was stuck in his position of driving his drill into its chest. As the steel went down…there was a small spurt of blood…

…Before both Dael and Cid, the latter in the former's grip, collapsed back near the doorway in a flash of light. For anyone who hadn't been watching carefully, they could have easily missed what happened. Right as the knife came down…Dael had teleported and landed next to Cid. She hadn't been in time to save him from the knife all together, but she had immediately teleported again to take them away from the creature. However…she was now regretting it.

It felt like loudspeakers were blaring in Dael's head. Her body felt like a rock, and none of her nerves worked properly. Cid had still taken a bad stab. Not bad enough to be crippling like Quaren's, but he was soon writhing and groaning as he released his drill, which had unfortunately teleported with them, and grasped a bloody wound on his own chest. Although it flowed freely…it wasn't terribly deep. Still, it was enough to render Cid almost as inert as Quaren was. He barely managed to sit up, and look to Dael, who was struggling to recover…and having much luck. The loudspeaker in her head switched to a sledgehammer that was beating away at her consciousness.

"Uhn…" She groaned after a moment. "That was…horrible…"

Dael knew that teleporting twice in a row was a bad move at the best of times, but now she began to realize just how much of her energy had been siphoned by three Gravija bullets in a row. If that wasn't enough…her body felt like it had been pulled like a giant piece of taffy. Everything was sore, inside and out.

Cid blinked a few times, but then managed to speak. However, he was hesitant, and he bowed his head regretfully…now that he realized just how stupid that move just was. "Thanks…Dael…" He croaked. "That stab…hurt a lot more than I thought…I think the full thing would have killed me… But why didn't you teleport yourself away from it?"

Dael, by now, in spite of her pain and weakness, began to rise, forcing her feet underneath her. "…I was saving it as a last resort." She groaned. "I wanted it to get as close as possible first. And I couldn't decide whether to teleport across the room or out…and even if I did, I knew I could only get a couple of you out in the process…"

The engineer, hearing this, was alarmed, and soon more anxious than ever. He had to realize that he had just caused Dael to play her trump card. The result made him forget his pain and simply bow his head in unease. "I'm…I'm sorry…"

"Forget it…" Dael said as, with a strain, she pushed herself to her feet. "I just proved it wouldn't work anyway… I tried to teleport us outside just now…but that thing's pull is too strong. None of us are getting out of here unless we take it down first."

By now, the Tonberry King was nearly to them. In ten seconds, it would be in striking range, but it was already time to fire another shell. With that, she loaded the last Gravija bullet and sighed.

"We only have one chance now…" She told the engineer. "If it's weak enough now where this shot will effect it like a true Gravija attack would…then it'll be just as ready to collapse after this as we are. So let's pray that happens…"

It was too close for the attack to activate now, so Dael did something alternate. Adjusting the projection of the bullet, she aimed it slightly in the air and fired. As a result, it arched upward, and on the way down artificially reached the "minimum" distance as it came down right in their midst and ignited. A moment later, and a massive black orb swallowed Dael as well as the Tonberry King.

In one of her discussions with Quaren many years ago, during which he showed off his love for astronomy, the corporal had excitedly told her that if one was ever to fall into a black hole, the result would be that the individual would be "spaghettified". Dael had wondered if that meant they would die instantly or if they would actually feel it. She soon got her answer. Her entire body…ever muscle…every nerve…every single individual cell…was put into an ungodly, unworldly level of pain that it defied comprehension. She later would think that what had happened was her nerves had been overloaded with the sensation. She couldn't remember anything else. The nature of the attack robbed her of every last sense she had. The truth of the matter was her pain probably would have been a lot worse had her ability to feel pain not been cut off as well. All she ended up feeling was the 'build-up' to it. It also would have most certainly been fatal too…had another side effect of such gravity not taken place. While the attack lasted a few seconds to the rest of the world, it was barely a fraction of a second to Dael. Time dilation, and all that.

The orb cut off…and Dael fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Every ounce of energy she had left had been drained from her body. She couldn't even feel her head strike the ground. Her eyes were wide open, but all she saw was darkness. Nothing worked. Her body was still overloaded from the pain. Amazingly, this only lasted a moment or two. After that, she was able to lift her head again and even start sitting up…but she was as weak as an infant. It seemed like a gust of reasonably light wind would be enough to knock her unconscious. Her entire body felt like it was made of thin porcelain. Somehow, in the midst of this, she thought of the Tonberry King. How in the name of anything had this thing taken three of these so far?

Yet her thinking soon shifted into a darker direction…as she realized it had taken four. Without even slowing, the Tonberry King was still walking forward…and was almost in range to stab.

Dael gaped a bit. Somehow, she managed to get her feet around and tried to stand. It wasn't easy. In the end, the reason she succeeded was because she tried to push herself away from the Tonberry King. Its magic was still in effect, and it forced her back, so she used that force to push herself up. But once standing, she wobbled and wavered. She could barely keep her feet beneath her, and she knew she couldn't draw her sword. And the Tonberry King didn't look the slightest bit weaker. Even if she could give a final blow, she doubted it would do any good. But that soon didn't matter. She saw it change ever so slightly in its knife-wielding arm, still dripping with Cid and Quaren's blood, and prepare to stab her…

Yet it didn't come.

A blur shot in front of her abruptly, and she looked down to it. By now, her senses had recovered enough to see that it was Bahamut. As the knife came forward, his shield went up. He wouldn't have been able to protect himself, but as it was aimed for Dael…the blade was deflected. In response, he drove his own sword forward into the Tonberry King's gut.

It was like Bahamut had triggered an off switch. Abruptly, the Tonberry King froze, still extended in its stabbing position. It held that way a moment, but didn't try to walk forward anymore. Bahamut held his own blade in it for a few seconds, but then drew it out again. Everyone had gone quiet by now, and simply watched. The Tonberry King remained still even without the blade in it.

Then, its knife hand faltered and fell back to its side. The weapon clattered to the ground, as did the lantern…and the Tonberry King, sounding almost like a falling tree, slowly spilled backward and landed on its rear, impacting so loud that all of the Centra Ruins gave a violent tremor when it did. After that, it just sat there with a…for lack of a better word…dazzled look on its face, or lack thereof. It hung its head a little and stared blankly at the ground with its pale yellow eyes.

Dael blinked in astonishment. Bahamut himself, she soon realized, was panting, and he backed up to Dael's side immediately. The mere fact that he could back up to Dael should have told her something immediately, but she was still so dazzled at what had happened that she had to wait a bit longer to believe it. Yet it seemed to be true…the Guardian Force was defeated. That last shot had indeed taken the last of its strength out of it.

One by one, the others around the room sighed in relief. Even Jalab leaned on his staff and exhaled. Dael felt like her gun-using arm was numb and the rest of her felt ready to pass out. Yet they had won. Before she could think about doing anything so far as junctioning, however, she looked down to Bahamut. Just like the rest of them, he seemed terribly relieved. Apparently he had his doubts too.

As she put her gun away and ran a hand through her hair, she spoke out to him. "…How'd you know that he was about to collapse?"

Bahamut took a moment to inhale, then turned and looked to Dael.

"I didn't." He simply answered.

Dael went a bit wide-eyed in response to that. A moment later, a frown began to form across her expression. Yet before it could get too far, Bahamut began to clean off his own sword and looked to her more intently.

"Dael…if you're going to let me tag along from now on…you better plan on me pulling some acts of insanity, such as risking myself for my friends. You don't think I'm going to let you outdo me, do you?"

The Esthar's Hawk stared at the boy for a bit, but Bahamut didn't relent. After a few more seconds, she simply frowned.

"…You're lucky I'm so tired, or I'd think of a biting retort and I'd let you have it for being so dumb again. Let's just hurry up with the junction and get out of here."

After some debate, Cid ended up taking the junction this time. It was a bit unusual. He wasn't entirely comfortable with it, and he was a bit worried about what Faerio would think. However, both Jalab and Taraketh reassured him that she'd be happy if he was more effective. Even so, Bahamut was the next likely candidate on the proverbial list. Dael herself wanted that. After all, if he was going to be sticking with them from now on, she wanted him to be capable of taking on any normal to above-average adult. However, Bahamut refused. While he said he was eager to take a junction of his own, he admitted that he would prefer to "wait on it a bit", and hold out for a different one. Pressed a bit, he admitted he hoped they would still find Leviathan.

"Even if…he ends up telling me something I don't want to hear…" He admitted. "I would like to have him as my junction." He smiled wistfully. "…I've wanted to fight alongside my brother again for years now."

Cid ended up taking it, and didn't adjust terribly well. Whereas everyone had pretty much grown accustomed to their new Guardian Forces quickly, Cid seemed to be more like one of those awkward teenagers going through a growth spurt: clumsy, stumbling, and using too much strength on everything, wrecking some of his own tools. Dael had no idea if it was the nature of the Tonberry King, or if it was simply due to Cid's own nature, but he obviously had a lot of catching up to do. She didn't want him accidentally ripping apart the controls of the Excalibur. Luckily, by the time they got back to the ship, he seemed to have adjusted at least enough to do that.

Taraketh was even able to get them out of the Centra Ruins using a spell he picked up from the Gigantuar. None of them relished the idea of walking back through several flights of Tonberries. While the little ones may have been much easier to manage than the big ones, none of them cared to see another Tonberry as long as they lived. Luckily, the High Child implemented a time magic spell to teleport them out of the building with one go. There were various time-space magics in existence. In general, using such spells was a very confusing and cumbersome affair. One could easily wind up in an uninhabitable dimension or 100 years in the future…and, in the early days, that's exactly what happened to those who experimented with it. But a fairly common spell that, through repetition, could be mastered was the ability to teleport a group of people out of a structure. It was so common, in fact, that it had long become commonplace for all modern structures to have dampeners for that spell in particular. After all, although magic was mostly confined to the Order of Hyne, there was no need to make a building that susceptible to thieves for the purposes of escaping. But the Centra Ruins were no such place, and teleporting out was simple.

Within one hour after doing so, the Excalibur was looming ahead, and the group began to make their way up the deployed ramp. As Dael touched on it and quickly went up to the deck, she turned to the others behind her as she suppressed her dizziness. Even healing magic had only given her a small measure of her stamina back.

"Well, this was quite the trip…but it's all done now. Two more Guardian Forces that can't be used against us or Esthar."

"And to think…I thought this trip would easier than a real mission…" Quaren murmured. After repeated healings, he was well enough to walk, but he still didn't look too much better. "I think I'm going to have nightmares about little green men with lanterns…"

"I didn't even get a trophy out of the hunt…" Ceja said with a sigh of her own.

"At least we have our lives…" Taraketh responded. "That's award enough for me."

"I'm headed for the bridge." Dael stated as she turned a corner and began to move toward the bulkhead. "I need to check the radio transmissions…see what the situation in Esthar is. Cryder…Cid…you think we can take off soon?"

"No problem on my end, lass." Cryder answered with a smile. "Just so long as I can get a fresh bottle and enjoy my victory cigar first."

"Uh…give me about ten minutes first, Dael…" Cid remarked on seeing that he had bent the handle on one of his wrenches just from holding it.

"Whenever you're ready." Dael answered as she went to the bulkhead and opened it up, soon disappearing inside.

Soon, the young officer found herself on the larger bridge of the Excalibur. She wasted little time, but immediately looked to the radio console and began to make for it. Yet she only went a few steps before she saw that the light was blinking on it…indicating not only a transmission had come in, but was currently in progress. Seeing this, she quickly picked up speed and rushed over to it. In a moment, the headset was on and she switched the receiver to start sending audio. Soon after, she caught the tail end of the latest transmission.

"-ease respond. Repeat, this is E.H.T. Command with an emergency order. Excalibur, please respond."

Dael stiffened a bit on hearing the 'emergency order' part, yet she forgot about that and quickly switched on the radio. "This is Excalibur, acknowledging. Sending clearance code." Immediately, she moved over to the console and switched a few icons to begin to transmit the proper sequence. "Ready to receive orders."

"Contact acknowledged. Sending verification codes." The voice on the other end responded. After a few moments, the console lit up, indicating that the message was authentic, and the transmission came through. "Direct order from Colonel Morrick Regalis to all available units…deploy to the Lamb Archipelago immediately to respond to a Class 8-C situation. Over and out."

The radio clicked off…but Dael remained frozen. She stared blankly ahead, her jaw loosening and her eyes wideneing.

Class 8-C situation.

Invasion with enemy possessing overwhelming numbers.

Sybenia was making its move on Lamb.

To be continued...