Author's Note: Personally, ssp47, I agree with you. Which brings me to
something very important I would like to say. PLEASE don't take this the
wrong way or anything, but I would appreciate it if everyone would stop
bugging me about the whole romance thing. I'm trying to focus on the story
as it goes, and I will get to romance if and when it comes into play. OK?
Like I said, please don't take that the wrong way. I just don't respond
well to pressure. Pressure is bad. Like crispy shell tacos. Just like
crispy shell tacos. O_o Sorry, I've been watching too many commercials.
Moving on...
I know I could be doing a little more character development at some point in the story. Trust me, I've got a few chapters of that coming up very soon. A lot about Shade, but hey, give me a break. He's the angsty one, they're easy to develop. Plus he had ten years that were totally unaccounted for.
The Signet Spheres were destroyed so Lloyd and Diaz/Zeig could USE the power of the Moon Objects. Charle Frahma created them to thwart her brother's plot back during the Dragon Campaign.
Whee, I passed the 200-review mark! Spiffy! Thanks to everyone!
Chapter 42
The Dragoons were assembled in formation long before the Divine Dragoon came near the palace. He watched them organize with narrowed crimson eyes. He immediately ruled out use of the cannon. The cannon needed to be used as a surprise tactic, but they were undoubtedly prepared to dodge if he did fire the cannon, and using that spell would leave him open for an easy strike. The Ball would maybe work, but he needed to get closer. In any case he would need to engage at least some of them in close combat. The huge two- handed black sword appeared in his mailed hands, while the three pairs of gray wings beat faster. The distance shrank between the Divine Dragoon and the first pair, and he suddenly let loose. "Divine Dragon Ball!"
He was right. The Silver and Sea Dragoons had expected his first move, and instead of avoiding the swarm of projectiles, they merely conjured up shields of energy to block the bombardment. He charged in, swinging the massive blade in a vicious arc. The Silver Dragoon lifted her weapon, catching the sword between the half-moon-shaped blade and the wooden shaft. With a sudden twist of her weapon, she jerked the sword from the Divine Dragoon's hands and brought the butt end of the haft smashing against the side of his face in one stroke.
The Divine Dragoon pulled back, dazed. He had only engaged the Red-Eye in actual combat, and he had assumed that the others would not be much of a challenge, considering that they waited in pairs while the Fire Dragoon stood alone on a shimmering battlement. He had underestimated them. It would not happen again. He growled as he punched the Silver Dragoon in her exposed stomach and took back his weapon. Taking careful aim, he fired three short blasts from his cannon arm, thinking to eliminate this nuisance quickly. However, in his preoccupation with one irritation, he forgot about the other.
Aquaria's heavy warhammer connected with the back plates of the gray armor, causing the shots to arc off target, giving Dawn enough time to recover. Leveling her berdiche, she thrusted the weapon's splayed tip. It sunk into a gap between plates, and blood gushed forth. Dawn smiled. It was going even better than they had planned.
As if to punish Dawn for her optimism, irony took hold. With a vicious backhand from his cannon arm, the Divine Dragoon knocked Aquaria from the air. The Sea Dragoon fell to the city streets below, causing a great disruption in traffic. Her armor deactivated and she lay unconscious on the pavement. Dawn lifted her berdiche in defiance; ready to defend herself, but the Divine Dragoon merely sneered in contempt and lunged, blade poised in his hands.
The strike was so fast that Dawn had no time to defend. She felt white-hot pain shoot through her nerves, and she knew she was falling. She landed with a jolt, and she felt a huge gash along her stomach. She felt her strength slipping from her, but she summoned what little she had left and forced the wound closed. Her armor faded, and she closed her eyes. Her duty was finished, at least for now.
The Divine Dragoon moved on to the second group without missing a beat. There was no time to waste. The Jade and Golden Dragoons were waiting for him, their weapons at the ready.
Phil braced himself for the onrushing Dragoon. "Here comes Ugly!"
Oraeus gripped the fur-wrapped handle of his axe. "Indeed."
The Divine Dragoon was met with a sudden blast of wind that caught his wings in an updraft and tossed him to the side. Seeing he had gained an opportunity for an easy strike, Phil moved in quickly. For a reason the Jade Dragoon could not fathom, Oraeus did not follow. He swung the butt end of his spear, but the Divine Dragoon caught it in a mailed fist, then used Phil's own momentum against him.
As Phil was thrown backwards by a small blast from the cannon, he realized why Oraeus had hung back. The Divine Dragoon had allowed himself to be thrown by the gust on purpose, to lure him in and trap him. As he was recovering from the cannon shot, Phil heard the Divine Dragoon speak.
"Divine Dragon Ball!"
The swarm of meteorites cascaded onto the Jade Dragoon, and he fell from the cloud of explosions, incapacitated. The Divine Dragoon turned to the Golden Dragoon, his face radiating cruel satisfaction. The half-Giganto's face remained impassive. He had seen friends fall in battle before, and besides, he knew Phil wasn't dead. He hefted his axe, and met the Divine Dragoon's first attack with ease.
His Giganto blood reduced his abilities with magic, and fighting airborne made his earth magic useless, but Oraeus was not worried. He had more experience with a weapon than anyone in the group. Being an outcast, he had practically been born with an axe in his hands. He lunged forward, nearly taking the Divine Dragoon's head off. The black sword nicked his arm, but the half-Giganto kept on coming.
The Divine Dragoon was awed, although he was loath to admit it, even to himself. He had never seen someone with so much combat prowess. The Red-Eye was a better fighter, of course, but he had used blade and magic in tandem. The Golden Dragoon was pure physical power, tempered by years of skill and experience. He handled his enormous battle-axe with deftness and agility, and the Divine Dragoon was hard-pressed to avoid all of the half-Giganto's strikes, even with his own very large weapon.
Oraeus swung his weapon to the right, and the Divine Dragoon parried the wooden haft of the axe with his own blade. As the half-Giganto smiled, he knew he had fallen into a trap. The Golden Dragoon spun his axe, chopping downwards. The Divine Dragoon's eyes widened in surprise as his sword was cleaved in two by the blow. For the first time, the Divine Dragoon felt a twinge of fear. He could mend the blade easily, but this half-Giganto was a dangerous threat to him, and he still had three more Dragoons to deal with.
"Divine Dragon Ball!" Again the shower of projectiles hurtled at the half- Giganto, but Oraeus had expected that tactic. What he didn't expect, however, is that the spell had just been a ploy, and the cannon was pointed right at where he would be after he dodged the spell. Oraeus had assumed the Divine Dragoon would not want to waste so much magical energy when he still had two opponents left. He thought wrong.
"Divine Dragon Cannon!"
The blue-white beam slammed into the half-Giganto's midriff, and he was hurled to the ground, strength sapped. The Divine Dragoon mended his sword with a flick of his wrist, then sped off towards the final pair standing between him and the castle, Rayen, and the Moon Mirror. Kyra and Shade were waiting for him, weapons at the ready. The Divine Dragoon prepared his spell once again.
Kyra studied the Divine Dragoon closely. She recognized him somehow, but that was impossible. Still, the Wingly could not shake the feeling she had seen him somewhere before...
Shade, however, was slightly more occupied with what his opponent was doing. "You've got to be kidding me... he wouldn't be stupid enough to use up all of his magic already..."
"Divine Dragon Ball!"
Kyra and Shade both rolled to the side, avoiding the flock of speeding missiles. Both Dragoons lunged forward, weapons poised to strike. The Divine Dragoon blocked Shade's swords, and then soared upwards to avoid the slashing claws headed for his throat. He paid for his costly maneuver, however, when a Wingly fireball connected with his back. He hissed, but darted back into the melee, and struck. Shade crossed his blades and cradled the blow, then kicked out with his legs, catching the Divine Dragoon's chest. The Divine Dragoon grunted in pain, but spun his blade in, feinting, and then chopped to the right, sending Shade's serrated blade falling to the city below, useless. Shade switched his longer sword to his good hand.
Kyra's magenta eyes narrowed, and she shot forward, seeking to sever her adversary's neck. She paid for her carelessness when the Divine Dragoon's heavy cannon arm landed a crashing blow on the side of her face. Reeling, she hissed in pain as her enemy's black sword slid through the plates of her armor. Although her magic was enhanced by the Dragoon armor, the Wingly was still no great shakes at healing, and she could merely shrink the wound and hope it wasn't fatal as conscious thought slipped away.
Shade was the only one left now, but they had all known that the Divine Dragoon would get past them. However, the Divine Dragoon had exhausted nearly all of his magic, and he was bleeding in no less than three places. He was panting as well, so the Dark Dragoon assumed that they had done their job well enough. He gripped the hilt of his remaining sword, and met the strike that came his way. He struck and parried, continually attempting to catch his opponent's weapon, but never quite managing.
Rayen watched the duel raging, then looked down at the two weapons at his side. Should he choose his sword, and risk failure in his last resort, or choose the Dragon Buster, and risk losing to the Divine Dragoon in hand-to- hand combat? There was a flash of black light. Shade was down. There was no time for indecision any longer. He swept up his sword in his hand, and plunged it into the crystal battlement. The blade sunk through the crystal like a hot knife through butter, and Rayen's armor burst into flame.
"Red-Eye Dragon, I beseech you! Come to me now!"
Rayen felt a surge of power, but it quickly died away, and he feared all was lost. But a gigantic portal opened, and the Grand Red-Eye Dragon emerged in all its flaming majesty. The Divine Dragoon's crimson eyes went wide, but there was no escape. Samovar let loose a bellowing roar, and plowed straight into the Divine Dragoon.
Then the sky exploded in flame.
When the smoke cleared, Rayen saw a huge crater just outside the city. Motioning to Nieva and Sean, who hopped on Balaeris' back, the trio soared over to the gigantic hole. The Divine Dragoon lay comatose in the center, or at least it was in the Divine Dragoon's armor. It was if the King of Dragoons had been formerly wrapped in a thin layer of darkness, but the Red- Eye Dragon had disintegrated it, allowing them to see the man underneath. Rayen recognized the face instantly. "It's the man who released the Dragons!"
Sean shrugged as he moved towards the unconscious Dragoon. "Who cares? He's dead, right? So let's take the Moon Dagger and Gem back and this is all over."
Rayen shook his head. "Something's not right here. Why was he black with red eyes earlier? How'd he know that he could use my blood to screw with my mind?"
As Sean reached for the two artifacts, a mailed fist shot up and caught hold of his arm. The darkness enveloped the man once again, and the Divine Dragoon smirked. "Because the fool lent his material body to me."
The Divine Dragoon wrenched the Moon Mirror from Sean's other hand, and there was a brilliant flash of blinding radiance. Everyone's eyes were on the Moon Mirror, where Sean's reflection was outlined in palpable luminescence. The Divine Dragoon sneered in satisfaction as he knocked the orphan out cold with a sweep of his cannon arm. "How fortunate that the final Moon Object AND the Moon Child fall into my hands at the same time! It saves me a great deal of searching."
With that, the Divine Dragoon took off, Sean's limp body clutched in one arm. Nieva turned to Rayen, frowning. "What now?"
Rayen's fists clenched, but his voice was calm. "Isn't it obvious? We wake up the others and go after him. He can't warp like we can, we can still catch up."
The Sacred Sister nodded in agreement.
The chase was on.
Author's Note: That's right, kiddies, Sean's the Moon Child! Didn't see THAT coming, didja? Mweehee, plot twists are fun! How can there be a Moon Child with no Moon? You'll have to keep reading and find out, won't you? In the meantime, REVIEW!
I know I could be doing a little more character development at some point in the story. Trust me, I've got a few chapters of that coming up very soon. A lot about Shade, but hey, give me a break. He's the angsty one, they're easy to develop. Plus he had ten years that were totally unaccounted for.
The Signet Spheres were destroyed so Lloyd and Diaz/Zeig could USE the power of the Moon Objects. Charle Frahma created them to thwart her brother's plot back during the Dragon Campaign.
Whee, I passed the 200-review mark! Spiffy! Thanks to everyone!
Chapter 42
The Dragoons were assembled in formation long before the Divine Dragoon came near the palace. He watched them organize with narrowed crimson eyes. He immediately ruled out use of the cannon. The cannon needed to be used as a surprise tactic, but they were undoubtedly prepared to dodge if he did fire the cannon, and using that spell would leave him open for an easy strike. The Ball would maybe work, but he needed to get closer. In any case he would need to engage at least some of them in close combat. The huge two- handed black sword appeared in his mailed hands, while the three pairs of gray wings beat faster. The distance shrank between the Divine Dragoon and the first pair, and he suddenly let loose. "Divine Dragon Ball!"
He was right. The Silver and Sea Dragoons had expected his first move, and instead of avoiding the swarm of projectiles, they merely conjured up shields of energy to block the bombardment. He charged in, swinging the massive blade in a vicious arc. The Silver Dragoon lifted her weapon, catching the sword between the half-moon-shaped blade and the wooden shaft. With a sudden twist of her weapon, she jerked the sword from the Divine Dragoon's hands and brought the butt end of the haft smashing against the side of his face in one stroke.
The Divine Dragoon pulled back, dazed. He had only engaged the Red-Eye in actual combat, and he had assumed that the others would not be much of a challenge, considering that they waited in pairs while the Fire Dragoon stood alone on a shimmering battlement. He had underestimated them. It would not happen again. He growled as he punched the Silver Dragoon in her exposed stomach and took back his weapon. Taking careful aim, he fired three short blasts from his cannon arm, thinking to eliminate this nuisance quickly. However, in his preoccupation with one irritation, he forgot about the other.
Aquaria's heavy warhammer connected with the back plates of the gray armor, causing the shots to arc off target, giving Dawn enough time to recover. Leveling her berdiche, she thrusted the weapon's splayed tip. It sunk into a gap between plates, and blood gushed forth. Dawn smiled. It was going even better than they had planned.
As if to punish Dawn for her optimism, irony took hold. With a vicious backhand from his cannon arm, the Divine Dragoon knocked Aquaria from the air. The Sea Dragoon fell to the city streets below, causing a great disruption in traffic. Her armor deactivated and she lay unconscious on the pavement. Dawn lifted her berdiche in defiance; ready to defend herself, but the Divine Dragoon merely sneered in contempt and lunged, blade poised in his hands.
The strike was so fast that Dawn had no time to defend. She felt white-hot pain shoot through her nerves, and she knew she was falling. She landed with a jolt, and she felt a huge gash along her stomach. She felt her strength slipping from her, but she summoned what little she had left and forced the wound closed. Her armor faded, and she closed her eyes. Her duty was finished, at least for now.
The Divine Dragoon moved on to the second group without missing a beat. There was no time to waste. The Jade and Golden Dragoons were waiting for him, their weapons at the ready.
Phil braced himself for the onrushing Dragoon. "Here comes Ugly!"
Oraeus gripped the fur-wrapped handle of his axe. "Indeed."
The Divine Dragoon was met with a sudden blast of wind that caught his wings in an updraft and tossed him to the side. Seeing he had gained an opportunity for an easy strike, Phil moved in quickly. For a reason the Jade Dragoon could not fathom, Oraeus did not follow. He swung the butt end of his spear, but the Divine Dragoon caught it in a mailed fist, then used Phil's own momentum against him.
As Phil was thrown backwards by a small blast from the cannon, he realized why Oraeus had hung back. The Divine Dragoon had allowed himself to be thrown by the gust on purpose, to lure him in and trap him. As he was recovering from the cannon shot, Phil heard the Divine Dragoon speak.
"Divine Dragon Ball!"
The swarm of meteorites cascaded onto the Jade Dragoon, and he fell from the cloud of explosions, incapacitated. The Divine Dragoon turned to the Golden Dragoon, his face radiating cruel satisfaction. The half-Giganto's face remained impassive. He had seen friends fall in battle before, and besides, he knew Phil wasn't dead. He hefted his axe, and met the Divine Dragoon's first attack with ease.
His Giganto blood reduced his abilities with magic, and fighting airborne made his earth magic useless, but Oraeus was not worried. He had more experience with a weapon than anyone in the group. Being an outcast, he had practically been born with an axe in his hands. He lunged forward, nearly taking the Divine Dragoon's head off. The black sword nicked his arm, but the half-Giganto kept on coming.
The Divine Dragoon was awed, although he was loath to admit it, even to himself. He had never seen someone with so much combat prowess. The Red-Eye was a better fighter, of course, but he had used blade and magic in tandem. The Golden Dragoon was pure physical power, tempered by years of skill and experience. He handled his enormous battle-axe with deftness and agility, and the Divine Dragoon was hard-pressed to avoid all of the half-Giganto's strikes, even with his own very large weapon.
Oraeus swung his weapon to the right, and the Divine Dragoon parried the wooden haft of the axe with his own blade. As the half-Giganto smiled, he knew he had fallen into a trap. The Golden Dragoon spun his axe, chopping downwards. The Divine Dragoon's eyes widened in surprise as his sword was cleaved in two by the blow. For the first time, the Divine Dragoon felt a twinge of fear. He could mend the blade easily, but this half-Giganto was a dangerous threat to him, and he still had three more Dragoons to deal with.
"Divine Dragon Ball!" Again the shower of projectiles hurtled at the half- Giganto, but Oraeus had expected that tactic. What he didn't expect, however, is that the spell had just been a ploy, and the cannon was pointed right at where he would be after he dodged the spell. Oraeus had assumed the Divine Dragoon would not want to waste so much magical energy when he still had two opponents left. He thought wrong.
"Divine Dragon Cannon!"
The blue-white beam slammed into the half-Giganto's midriff, and he was hurled to the ground, strength sapped. The Divine Dragoon mended his sword with a flick of his wrist, then sped off towards the final pair standing between him and the castle, Rayen, and the Moon Mirror. Kyra and Shade were waiting for him, weapons at the ready. The Divine Dragoon prepared his spell once again.
Kyra studied the Divine Dragoon closely. She recognized him somehow, but that was impossible. Still, the Wingly could not shake the feeling she had seen him somewhere before...
Shade, however, was slightly more occupied with what his opponent was doing. "You've got to be kidding me... he wouldn't be stupid enough to use up all of his magic already..."
"Divine Dragon Ball!"
Kyra and Shade both rolled to the side, avoiding the flock of speeding missiles. Both Dragoons lunged forward, weapons poised to strike. The Divine Dragoon blocked Shade's swords, and then soared upwards to avoid the slashing claws headed for his throat. He paid for his costly maneuver, however, when a Wingly fireball connected with his back. He hissed, but darted back into the melee, and struck. Shade crossed his blades and cradled the blow, then kicked out with his legs, catching the Divine Dragoon's chest. The Divine Dragoon grunted in pain, but spun his blade in, feinting, and then chopped to the right, sending Shade's serrated blade falling to the city below, useless. Shade switched his longer sword to his good hand.
Kyra's magenta eyes narrowed, and she shot forward, seeking to sever her adversary's neck. She paid for her carelessness when the Divine Dragoon's heavy cannon arm landed a crashing blow on the side of her face. Reeling, she hissed in pain as her enemy's black sword slid through the plates of her armor. Although her magic was enhanced by the Dragoon armor, the Wingly was still no great shakes at healing, and she could merely shrink the wound and hope it wasn't fatal as conscious thought slipped away.
Shade was the only one left now, but they had all known that the Divine Dragoon would get past them. However, the Divine Dragoon had exhausted nearly all of his magic, and he was bleeding in no less than three places. He was panting as well, so the Dark Dragoon assumed that they had done their job well enough. He gripped the hilt of his remaining sword, and met the strike that came his way. He struck and parried, continually attempting to catch his opponent's weapon, but never quite managing.
Rayen watched the duel raging, then looked down at the two weapons at his side. Should he choose his sword, and risk failure in his last resort, or choose the Dragon Buster, and risk losing to the Divine Dragoon in hand-to- hand combat? There was a flash of black light. Shade was down. There was no time for indecision any longer. He swept up his sword in his hand, and plunged it into the crystal battlement. The blade sunk through the crystal like a hot knife through butter, and Rayen's armor burst into flame.
"Red-Eye Dragon, I beseech you! Come to me now!"
Rayen felt a surge of power, but it quickly died away, and he feared all was lost. But a gigantic portal opened, and the Grand Red-Eye Dragon emerged in all its flaming majesty. The Divine Dragoon's crimson eyes went wide, but there was no escape. Samovar let loose a bellowing roar, and plowed straight into the Divine Dragoon.
Then the sky exploded in flame.
When the smoke cleared, Rayen saw a huge crater just outside the city. Motioning to Nieva and Sean, who hopped on Balaeris' back, the trio soared over to the gigantic hole. The Divine Dragoon lay comatose in the center, or at least it was in the Divine Dragoon's armor. It was if the King of Dragoons had been formerly wrapped in a thin layer of darkness, but the Red- Eye Dragon had disintegrated it, allowing them to see the man underneath. Rayen recognized the face instantly. "It's the man who released the Dragons!"
Sean shrugged as he moved towards the unconscious Dragoon. "Who cares? He's dead, right? So let's take the Moon Dagger and Gem back and this is all over."
Rayen shook his head. "Something's not right here. Why was he black with red eyes earlier? How'd he know that he could use my blood to screw with my mind?"
As Sean reached for the two artifacts, a mailed fist shot up and caught hold of his arm. The darkness enveloped the man once again, and the Divine Dragoon smirked. "Because the fool lent his material body to me."
The Divine Dragoon wrenched the Moon Mirror from Sean's other hand, and there was a brilliant flash of blinding radiance. Everyone's eyes were on the Moon Mirror, where Sean's reflection was outlined in palpable luminescence. The Divine Dragoon sneered in satisfaction as he knocked the orphan out cold with a sweep of his cannon arm. "How fortunate that the final Moon Object AND the Moon Child fall into my hands at the same time! It saves me a great deal of searching."
With that, the Divine Dragoon took off, Sean's limp body clutched in one arm. Nieva turned to Rayen, frowning. "What now?"
Rayen's fists clenched, but his voice was calm. "Isn't it obvious? We wake up the others and go after him. He can't warp like we can, we can still catch up."
The Sacred Sister nodded in agreement.
The chase was on.
Author's Note: That's right, kiddies, Sean's the Moon Child! Didn't see THAT coming, didja? Mweehee, plot twists are fun! How can there be a Moon Child with no Moon? You'll have to keep reading and find out, won't you? In the meantime, REVIEW!