I would, by the way, greatly appreciate some reviews. I'm up to chapter 7 and I've got plenty of other things to do if no-one is actually reading this. I also would like to know if people like the way the story is going, and so on. So... PLEASE REVIEW!
And with that past us, on with the show...
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"Alright." said Godar once everyone was assembled. "We've just arrived at the first of the eight Nexus Points scattered around the globe. These are where Reya's ancestors apparently lived, and hopefully contained their secrets. They're arranged in a circular pattern with seven around the outer edge of the circle and one in the exact centre. Each one is numbered - we're starting with number one."
"What's in there?" asked Kenris. "Monsters, guardians?"
"To be honest," said Godar, "I have no real idea. I found each of the sites, but I haven't been inside any of them yet. Just close enough to determine that they were what I thought they were."
"Right." said Kenris. "So, we go in swords drawn." His tone left no room for considered argument.
"Alright." stated Godar. "Let's go."
--==[-Nexus-]==--
The Nexus Point appeared, from the outside, to be a small terracotta building. Once they opened the door, however, they soon discovered that it was much more. The door led directly to a steep, long stairwell. Cautiously, the made their way in.
At the bottom, they found a circular room. It was around thirty feet, both in diameter and ceiling height. No exits were visible beside the one they had used to arrive. In the exact centre was a pedestal, on which was a small, blue button.
"Looks pretty simple." said Narix, heading directly for the button.
"Wait." said Godar. "These Nexus people were powerful, and this was one of their sanctuaries. I doubt that one of us pressing the button just like that is going to be a good idea."
Narix peered at him. "Well, you want to turn around and leave? Or do you want to try it anyway?"
Godar thought for a moment. "Reya can press it." he said, at length.
Reya looked around at everyone. "Err... okay." she said. Slowly, she walked up to the pedestal. She paused, examined it for a moment, and then proceeded to press the button.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then there was a grinding noise and a large portion of wall slid away, revealing some kind of doorway leading further into the facility. A voice came from the walls as this occurred. "An'jeki Reya Nexus. Ekar toba'jeki kenter obi'ja."
"Cool." said Narix. "Let's go!"
Reya stared. "It... knew my name? How?"
Kenris pondered. "This is a pretty weird place. I'm guessing that this thing knowing your name is going to be the smallest surprise we get." The two of them looked up, noticing that Godar and Narix were already around the next corner and that Orca was now waiting there, glancing around it and back at the two of them. "Let's keep moving."
The next room the group came to was larger than the first. In the corners were several small door-like arrangements, and the far side present a barred door preventing further travel. "More cut-offs." said Narix. "You'd think they didn't want intruders to get in or something."
Godar glanced at her. "Right. And you know all about intruding."
"At least I... blah. Let's just do this." she replied.
The group of them began to examine things. "Uh, guys?" said Orca, after a moment.
"Not now, kid." said Godar. "We've gotta solve this."
"Um, it's kind of important." said Orca.
Reya glanced at him. As she did so, she took in the collection of monsters which had come from the once-closed door-type exits and were now advancing on the party. "He's right. Watch out!" she called.
Narix spun to see what was happening, rapidly taking in the situation and drawing her pair of daggers. Even as she did so, Godar drew his staff and turned, seeing a monster leaping directly at him. It was similar in appearance to a large cat, but with fur-less, purple skin. He reacted quickly, but not quickly enough. The creature slammed into him, knocking him to the ground in a single blow.
Kenris acted faster. A similar creature leapt at him, but, thinking rapidly, he called his wind powers into action and sent himself about three metres straight up, dodging the creature narrowly. His first concern upon reaching this altitude was to check on Reya, but it appeared that the things were completely ignoring her. His gaze then flickered to Orca, who was being beset by a trio of imp-like creatures. But as he was about to move to aid him, he looked up to see a large bat-like monster flying straight at him.
Narix, so far unendangered by the strike on her allies, decided to make a move. Seeing that the number of monsters targeting Godar had grown to three now, she leapt to his aid. Charging behind on of the creatures, she opened up with a three-stage slash attack with her daggers which sunk deep into the thing's skin. Spinning, she came around into another strike at the other pair of attackers, knocking them off of her relative's fallen form. Godar climbed up, glanced at her, grunted, and retrieved his staff.
Kenris called his wind powers into play and sent a stream of kinetically charged air at the bat-thing. To his dismay, it was largely unaffected, continuing to fly straight at him. Guess I'll have to do this the old-fashioned way, he thought, propelling himself straight at the monster and stabbing into it with his sword. The creature had more power than he thought, however, and he was soon entangled with it and the pair of them began spiralling about the room, out of control, as they struggled wildly for control.
Orca watched, continually stepping back as the trio of critters advanced on him, gradually backing him into a corner. Finally he decided he would have to take action. "Can they hurt me through my fire? Flame Shield!" As he finished the incantation, a solid wall of fire formed around his body. One of the imp-creatures, trying to make an attack, jerked back as his hand was burnt in the attempt. Orca watched the pitiful strikes of the enemies and snickered.
Godar brought his staff around at one of the two creatures now consistently targeting him, the third having decided to focus on Narix. Its catlike form jerked back, but was almost unharmed. It leapt at him again, but he dodged to one side, narrowly evading it. Still, it was only a matter of time before he took another hit - perhaps fatal this time.
Kenris continued to stab and slash his Wind Sword at the bat-creature as it spiralled uncontrollably about the room. "Die, dammit!" he said, finally swinging his sword in a one-two strike at the bat-thing's neck. The creature screamed at the attack and slumped, spiralling towards the ground as it passed its final breath. Kenris ripped his sword out of the creature and brought the wind up to catch himself, lifting himself from the ground at the last moment.
Narix cartwheeled back, evading all but a quick clawing from the monster attacking her. She rolled to one side as a follow-up attack came, but this time she countered the strike with a triple slash from her dual daggers. The creature staggered back, and Narix immediately followed up with another series of rapid attacks. "Take this, kitty." she said as she began to pummel the creature into submission.
Godar narrowly dodged another attack, then ducked under a follow-up from the other cat-monster. He couldn't keep this up for long, he knew. Then he heard, from somewhere behind him, a female voice. "Images and reality, unite! Blink!" As the two creatures leapt at him, a pair of exact images of himself quickly dodged in two different directions. The two monsters dove after the images, leaving Godar to pick a target and strike at its weakest points. Not taking the time to pay attention to anything else, he smashed the nearest cat-creature in the head, crushing its skull and killing it instantly. With a grunt, he moved to the other and finished it in a similar manner.
Orca let his enemies creep a little closer, knowing himself as the imps assumed that his fire shield would collapse momentarily. Under his breath, he muttered the words of a spell - "Let them feel my full rage - Thunder Storm!" - and even as the fire shield collapsed, his extended hands became a mess of lightning energy, expanding out in every direction. Bolts of pure energy shot out, apparently uncontrolled, slamming over a several metre radius from Orca into every object and creating a sphere of destruction. By the time it calmed down, the imps were nowhere to be seen.
As Narix finished her opponent, the group came back to stand together. Reya, seeing that Kenris had taken a claw attack at his arm which had gone almost clean through, began to mutter the words of her Cure spell. Meanwhile, Godar returned to his examination of the door.
Again, though, it was Reya who spotted the next incoming creature. It had entered the room through some kind of hole in the roof, and was rather strange in appearance, being shaped effectively as two white balls, the top one slightly smaller than the lower one joined together, with a pair of tiny wings on its back. It also had a small ball on its... head? Yes, on closer examination it appeared that it was a head, and the other ball was a torso. It also had a pair of tiny arms and a smaller pair of legs and feet. It hovered down towards them, even as Kenris drew his sword and Godar his staff. And to their surprise, upon reaching their level, it began to speak.
"Hello there, kupo." Kenris glanced at Reya, but she showed no more understanding of the strange term than he held himself. The creature looked over at Reya. "You're Reya Nexus? Sorry about all these things. But why didn't you just say the code?"
Reya looked confused - more so than usual. "Code?"
The creature looked her over. "Your mother never taught you the code? There is a code to turn all the defences off so your friends will be safe."
"I don't know any code." said Reya. "Sorry..."
"No problem, kupo!" said the thing. "I can turn it all off from here anyway. But if you go to any other Nexus points you'll have to find my counterparts there to do the same."
Godar stared at the creature. "What in all the hells are you?" he said.
The thing turned to him. "Me?" it queried. "My name is Kupek. I'm the Moogle assigned to this Nexus point. We're sort of caretakers and assistants to the Nexus people, kupo. I can run the whole place and so on."
"Can you show us around the facility, then?" asked Godar, impatiently.
"If that is what Miss Reya Nexus would desire, kupo, then surely." said the Moogle. "But she's the one I take orders from."
Reya looked up. "Okay then," she said. "Take us for a tour."