Disclaimer: I own nothing.
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Chapter Three (Reinforcements):
Jenna ran down the hall and out the door, almost slipping. She didn't notice as the adrenaline pumped into her like water in a holed up boat. She rushed into the battle scene and was surprised at what she found.
Garet stood at the center, standing next to Piers and Sheba, who were both downed and lying at his feet, while he tried to fend off the surrounding men. "Eruption!" He cried, "Flare Wall!" He tried again. "Fire!" He tried to conjure, but he was drained. "It's no use…" He said. "We're all dead."
Instantly, Jenna grabbed something from her tunic. She held the Tomegathericon in her sweaty hands and channeled her psyenergy at through it. Instantly, it melded into her, leaving a black diamond embedded onto her hand.
"Revive!" She cast at Piers. Garet jerked in surprise as he saw Jenna, but as he did, the forces of Lunpa finally got to him and carried him off in a tide that tried to engulf the adepts. However, with Piers awake, he managed to get to Sheba and use the Water of Life. All that was visible to Jenna were two Djinni that rose up and swept to the heart of the army's numbers. Garet charged out, revitalized, swinging his mighty Fire Brand around, daring anyone to come near. He ran to Piers and Sheba and they stood at a circle.
Jenna took a look around and finally spotted what she was looking for. She backed up and ran to the left, reaching a ledge. She didn't stop, however, and used the momentum to carry her into the air. She did a graceful somersault and landed on the ground like a cat with her staff on hand.
There were four of them, back to back, all with faces of grim determination. There was no doubt in their minds that they would win now. In fact, the only thing in their minds right now was the battle at hand. This was what Jenna craved for. The battle. The rush. The risk. And in that split second that she savored it all, all hell broke loose.
Five people rushed at her, swinging their maces wildly. Jenna leaped as she raised her staff over her head and swung downward. One of them was down. She leaped back to avoid getting her head impaled and backed into Garet, who was using Psyenergy to drive his opponents away. "Ready?" Jenna asked dangerously, having a killer idea.
"Tag team?" Garet grinned as Jenna laughed in approval. "You bet."
"On three, then." Jenna said under her breath as she raised her staff to deflect a blow. She swung the staff horizontally so that she hit two of them in one try. "Three!"
"METEOR!" They both shouted as they ducked out of the way. A barrage of flaming rocks tore from the skies, masking the sky into a color of dull red. Everyone stopped fighting to watch the sight, all frozen, not knowing what to do.
"THOR!" Ivan summoned from far away. A solitary lightning bolt flashed from the sky and struck the crowd. People were thrown back. The mighty god of thunder named Thor appeared with his hammer on hand. He raised the hammer and struck the ground. All at once, lightning came from the hammer and electrocuted a huge amount of people. The ones that survived could not evade both the lightning and flaming rocks at the same time. The chaos was too much even for the heroic four. As the screams of what remained of the army started to die out, the darkness started to creep into their vision, eventually taking them down altogether.
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Piers awoke to a huge throbbing on his head. He put his hand up and massaged his temples gingerly. "Ooohhh…" he groaned, "I'm too old for this…" He spotted an arm dressed in orange sticking out from the rubble. "Garet!" He yelled in alarm. The arm was bloodied up and the big lug was under the rocks. He struggled to move the rocks and his progress was slow, but effective. Soon, he uncovered his comrade who had fought so hard with him.
"Garet." Piers spoke loudly, "Earnest Ply." He cast. Garet still lay unmoving. "Dammit, Garet, wake up!" A snore came from Garet. Piers froze. "W-What?" He was thoroughly surprised. "Garet… you tard! Douse!" A storm cloud hovered over the sleeping pile of fat and rained down water on him.
Garet's face scrunched up. "Five more minutes…" He groaned as he twisted and turned. "Please mom, just five more…"
"I'm not your mother!" Piers said as he kicked Garet to the side. "Wake up! We have to get Jenna and Ivan out!" Garet woke up, finally remembering where he was. He blushed a bright crimson as he remembered what he just said, then felt a rush of anger as he realized that Piers had just kicked him.
"Hey, Piers! I don't understand what kicking me was supposed to—" He started, but Piers turned and snapped at him.
"I don't particularly care right now what it was supposed to solve. All I know is, you're awake and that's good enough for me!" Piers walked away, eyes scanning the ground. "Now help me find Ivan and Jenna. They could be dead for all we know."
"Don't be such a worry wart. I'm sure they're— Jenna!" He spotted his friend half crushed by a big boulder. "Piers!" He called unnecessarily as Piers had already ran at a sprint to him when he heard her name.
"Shit," Piers cursed, "This boulder's too big to carry ourselves."
"No it's not." Garet argued, "Lift!" Two translucent white gloves gripped the rock and lifted it off the ground. "Quickly, Piers! Get her out!" Piers did not have a witty remark, for this was not the time. He grabbed Jenna by the arms and dragged her out as the boulder came down with a loud boom. "Heal her." Garet ordered. "I'll find Ivan!" He scurried off looking for any signs of his friend. Finally, he managed to find him piled under a man and a boulder. The man had taken most of the damage, but Ivan was still unconscious. Out but thoroughly unharmed. He'd been lucky.
Garet lifted Ivan off the ground and hurried to Jenna and Piers. "Hey, Piers! I found him!" He turned around the bend to find Piers healing Jenna. Her breathing went back into rhythm an Piers stopped. He wiped the beads of sweat and lay on the hot, murky ground.
"I'm drained." Piers announced. "Jenna…?"
Jenna's eyes fluttered open and darted to her hand where she held… the Tomegathericon! She smiled, satisfied, and pocketed it. "That's okay, Piers. I could take it from here." She sat up and stood on her feet shakily. She got on her knees beside Ivan's limp body and placed her hands on his chest. "Cool Aura…" She muttered under her breath as golden orange dots of light raced down her arms and into Ivan's chest. Her eyes glowed with fire as she healed him. Ivan gasped for air, unconscious. Finally, instead of bursts, his breathing became regular and he opened his eyes lazily. It had not been hard for Ivan had not been injured much. "Are you okay, Piers?" She finally turned to ask the blue-haired adept.
"Yes, I'm fine. Just tired, that's all." He struggled to make his breathing regular.
"Oh, I think you have more need of this than I do." Ivan smiled as he took out a golden star from his pouch. It was a Psycrystal.
"No, Ivan. I couldn't impose." Piers said casually, trying to push Ivan's hands back.
"It's not imposing if we're friends!" Ivan insisted. "We're friends, aren't we?"
Piers paused, not really knowing what to say. Finally, conceding defeat he took the Psycrystal from Ivan's dry hands. "Of course we're friends, Ivan." He used the psycrystal to replenish his energy.
"Jenna." Garet spoke as he finished watching the exchange between Ivan and Piers. "Where are Felix and Isaac?" The question hadn't really dawned upon him since he had bigger things to worry about before… like staying alive for example.
"Yeah," Ivan said slowly. "I didn't see them during the fight. Usually I see a few stray Judgments here and there…"
"Thank God there were none this time!" Piers laughed. "I don't think our beating could've used an extra summon. Two Meteors and a Thor were bad enough… but now that we're on the subject… Where are Felix and Isaac?"
"It looks like you missed out on a lot." Jenna said to the confused adepts. "Felix and Isaac borrowed a ship from Dodonpa."
"Dodonpa? The same guy that kidnapped Master Hammet?" Ivan asked incredulously.
"Duh." Garet rolled his eyes, "How many guys walk around flashing the name 'Dodonpa' on them?"
"Yeah, well… it seems we have a common enemy. Alex. He wanted us to bring Alex back and lock him up here in exchange for a boat to pursue him with."
"Why use one of Dodonpa's boats?" Piers inquired. "I'm sure our boat is much faster."
"Yeah, but we wouldn't know where to go…" Jenna answered, "Felix told us to meet him in Gondowan Passage."
"Impossible!" Piers declared immediately. "Without the access to the Wings of Anemos, we could never make it. Not only have we wasted time on this battle, but our ship is literally stranded right outside of this town. Felix has the Hover Jade, and without it, we can't get to Gondowan Passage in time."
"Correction…" Jenna smiled mischievously. "Felix had the Hover Jade. He gave it to me before I came back." She took out the shining ruby and handed it carefully to Piers. "Careful. You hold the only thing that hasn't made us fail yet."
"Felix gave you the Hover Jade, huh?" Garet thought to himself out loud… "So the bloke's got a brain after all…"
"Yeah well," Jenna struck back annoyed that this simpleton had enough nerve to insult her brother, "Not everyone can be as dumb as you… otherwise, we wouldn't have gotten so far."
"Hey…" Garet grumbled, "That was uncalled for…"
"Don't mention it." Jenna said as she headed to the ship at a full sprint. Piers, Ivan, and Garet followed her shortly, with Piers quickly catching up and Ivan leveling to Jenna. After all, Piers had longer legs, Jenna was quick, Ivan was light, and Garet… well, he let himself go over time and he came last. You can't be the biggest man in Vale and still have a good track record now, could you?
They came upon the ship with an eerie smell, which Piers refused to accept as musty. It seemed Garet had an accident after his first try of hard liquor. Apparently, the big man can't handle it. They boarded the ship quickly. "All aboard!" Piers bellowed, "Next stop! Gondowan Passage!"
