She chased after the wolf, weaving in and out of fiends and humans alike. She knew that he was close, and that's when she heard it. His voice.
"SHADOW! MERGE!"
She watched as the wolf started to glow an intense green and then, with a deafening howl it lunged at him.
"TIDUS!" she screamed in fear as the wolf dove into his body. She came to a halt, looking at the transformation that was taking place before her, not knowing completely what it was doing…
His muscles started to expand, a green glow slowly but surely becoming visible beneath the black sash that covered his eyes. He felt his senses increase ten fold and reveled in the feeling, the pain, and the pleasure. He let out a feral growl before sheathing Caladbolg, and let out a piercing howl into the air, startling all the nearby fiends.
Then, what no one around him expected to see started happening: an aura started to form around him. Tribal markings now visible on his face and glowing with power, the aura started to intensify, concentrating into a definite form until it surrounded his body completely. Now, all that was left was the green form and outline, of a werewolf.
With a vicious cry, the wolfish figure that was Tidus lunged for the nearest fiend and swiped at it with it's aura-claws. The fiend was easily cleaved in two before fading into multiple pyreflies. Again and again he made his way through the fiends, leaving none alive in his wake.
From the distance of the outer city, a figure stood, watching the battle before him.
"Hmm, looks like the spirit wolf can merge with the Son of Jecht. Now I begin to regret giving up my Banish spell," muttered the figure. "… oh well, no real loss. I'll find a way to take my revenge… not now… but soon… meanwhile, lets have some fun…"
The figure raised his arms as pyreflies started to take shape in the distance…
The wolfish Tidus was beginning to wear. It seemed that no matter how many fiends he killed, two more took their place. It was a never ending stream.
Finally, the strain became too much, and with a deafening howl, the glowing werewolf dissolved and revealed Tidus and Shadow in it's place. Shadow seemed to be fine, but Tidus was exhausted. Still, he could feel the fiends closing in. He took out Caladbolg and prepared for the fight of his life.
"Shadow! There was a girl following you earlier. Find her and protect her at all costs!" he commanded. He heard a whine and quickly said, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Now GO!"
Shadow barked and took off, zigzagging through the waves of fiends, trying to find the familiar girl.
Tidus now smirked as he waved Caladbolg around, allowing it to resonate in all it's glory. "All right guys," he mumbled, realizing that he was surrounded. "Lets see if you can take me on now that I ain't got nothing to lose…"
He gripped Caladbolg and charged.
Yuna collapsed after casting Holy yet again. She felt exhausted and depleted of magical energy. She quickly looked through her supplies for an elixir, but found none.
'Damn, that's it for that. Time to test out Rikku's new gift then,' she thought. She then proceeded to take out two hand guns and started to fire away. Any and all fiends who were unlucky to get near her suddenly found themselves riddled full of holes as they vanished into pyreflies. After a few minutes though, she started to run low on ammo. She needed more clips, but her stash was in her room though…
*HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWL!*
She jumped when she heard the feral cry. She also nearly feinted when she heard a piercing shriek behind her. She turned around to see the wolf from earlier attacking, clawing and biting a flying fiend that had managed to sneak behind her.
'The wolf's…. protecting me? Did Tidus tell it to do that?' she speculated, but didn't dwell on it long as she fired another round at another swarm of fiends before instructing the wolf to follow her and made a dash for the inn.
Quickly she made her way through the panicking crowd inside and to her room. Once inside, she shattered all the glass on the window and swept it away with the remainder of her magic. She then looked through her bag and drank one of the elixirs in there, restoring all her reserves.
'Ah, that's much better!' she thought as she took out tons of clips and attached them to the sockets in her belt. She then made her way to the window and observed what was going on outside… and nearly feinted at the site before her.
Tidus fell down to one knee, exhausted and low on reserves. Caladbolg now resonated more dully, covered in the blood of the fiends, yet even with the dull sounds, he could feel that he was surrounded.
'This is it…' he thought as he felt them closing in. 'It's now or never.'
He forced himself up and took his position. Swinging Caladbolg to bring it back to full resonance and to shake the blood off of it, the images around him became clearer, sharper. That's when he noticed it…
It was making it's way towards him and he knew it. A gigantic dragon-like creature. Although he couldn't tell colors, he could feel the white hot glow of it's eyes…
He dove out of the way as he felt the sudden change in temperature, just in time to avoid the jet of hot flames that had erupted from the creature's mouth.
'I don't stand a chance against this thing…' he thought desperately, trying to come up with some sort of plan. 'It seems to be after me only… I've got to lead it away from the city…'
He dove out of the way of yet another Fire Blast and made a mad dash for the cities edge, slicing and dicing any fiend that got in his way. He could hear and feel the thundering footsteps of the gigantic creature behind him. 'It's working!'
He finally started to smell the difference in the air and quickly swung Caladbolg around. The resonating sounds around him showed him wooded lands. He had made it out of the city. He sighed in relief, and searched himself to find his recently bought potions and elixirs had survived the ordeal. 'Well Kimahri, looks like you'll have to get my stuff from the inn after all… no way I can show my face in Luca again…' and then he remembered about his other friend.
"Shadow!" he suddenly yelled. "I leave you in Yuna's charge! Take care of her!"
And with that said, he sheathed Caladbolg and, bringing out his collapsible walking stick, he started on the path back to the Calm Lands.
The figure silently watched as Tidus shook off his creation. 'So… he has learned how to pick his fights… you surprise me every day son of Jecht…'
With a wave of his hand, the gigantic dragon burst into a heap of pyreflies and disappeared to the Farplane. The figure then smirked…
"I now have all the information I need Tidus… rest assured that we will meet again… and this time, I won't let you off so easily…"
Yuna sighed in relief as she saw the fiends clear out of the city. It had been a most unusual attack. They came out of nowhere and positively fled at the site of that black scaled dragon.
'I wonder what caused them to do this though… they normally stay away from populated areas…'
A sudden movement caught her eye. Shadow's head had popped up, almost as if he had heard something that she didn't. After a few moments, he started whining, and trotted up to her a licked her palms. Yuna practically melted at the sight of the sad wolf and sat down next to it. It then laid down next to her and laid it's head on her lap, showing its gratitude for the show of affection it was receiving.
"You're a good boy Shadow," mumbled Yuna, petting the wolf as if it were her own pet. "You're a really good boy."
She stayed like that for a few minutes before she heard a knock on her door.
"It's open!" she said. The door opened to reveal, much to her hazard, Rikku.
"Yunie, are you OH MY GOD IT'S SO CUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!"
She rushed up to the now aware wolf. It was about to growl, but wasn't even given the chance as Rikku rushed up to is and started ruffling it's fur. A snarl from it made her back off and finally notice what it really was.
"Oh sweet god, Yunie that's a WOLF! Get away from it, quick! I'll distract it!"
Yuna giggled at her cousins antics before saying "It's okay Rikku, he's my friend. He protected me during the attack. I guess it only likes me… Rikku, maybe you better go before he bites you."
Rikku paled as the words escaped Yuna's mouth, and rushed out off the room faster than you could say 'live and let live.'
Yuna grinned. "So… you're Tidus's friend, eh?" she asked. It barked it's response, making her grin grow wider. "You know… there's a lot of confusion going on right now outside… how about we pay you're friend a little visit…"
To Be Continued…
A/N: This one's just a tad bit longer than my other chapters, running slightly over 1500 words. At the request of many (mainly Dragoness Eve, who should be updating her own story soon… *hint, hint, nudge, nudge* ) I'll also try to make my chapters longer, but just take heed of this: if I make them longer, updates will take longer due to the time behind writing the extended chapters. I'll make them slightly longer at first, then gradually increase until I can more or less write at least 2000 words per chapter. Also, I'm starting college soon, so that might also hinder my updating, but just remember, this fic I WILL see through to the end.
I would also like to take this time to especially thank kingleby, for her promise to advertise my fic in the next chapter of her own story, a FF9 fic by the title of 'A new soul for the angel of death.' Although I myself can't read it (mostly cause I've yet to play FF9), the story itself sounds appeasing enough and would be worth a read. I would also like to thank Dragoness Eve for her moral support, and is also the genius author of the story Final Fantasy 8 Continued, a wonderful story taking place after the game, involving the kids of the FF8 gang! A must read for any FF8 fan out there!
Well… I think that's it for now. So keep reading, keep reviewing, and until next time, I'll be watching you…
