The Transforming Partner

The Ryami turned to face the girls, its fangs dripping with its saliva. Donnie took that opportunity to grab the beast with his whip arm, since it was now occupied with his sister and Lufia. As the Ryami began to thrash about, Teefa and Lufia flew towards the monster. With the words "Inazuma" and "Takitsukeru", the powers of lightning and fire burned the Mihan Demon. But the Ryami wasn't dead, it only became madder.

"Miss Teefa!" called Rooks, "Look out!" For the Ryami had finally broken free of Donnie, and began to charge towards its new prey. Teefa, having the wings, grabbed her best friend and flew the two of them up into the air. The Ryami ran past where they were, and hit its head in a thick trunked tree. Amber giggled as it struggled to break free. When it finally did, a good portion of the trunk was ringed around its big neck.

Max and Rooks drew their swords. As their Princesses hovered above, they ran at the Ryami, and struck out at the vulnerable spot under its jaw. But the monster simply used the tree trunk as a shield, and the attack only broke the trap. Rooks then picked up a yellow card with the picture of a fairy on it, and threw it up into the air. Suddenly, lightning rained down on top of the Ryami. The Mihan Demon was down, but not out yet. It brought up its large claws, and struck down Rooks, Max, and Donnie for good measure.

"You Demon! Now you've got me mad!" screamed Lufia. She wriggled out of Teefa's grasp, and landed on her feet in front of Amber. Using the claws her tiger body had given her, she tried for the same vulnerable spot under his jaw. This time, the Ryami blocked with its arms, grabbed Lufia, and tossed her across the field. She landed under a tree, hitting her head on the trunk. Then, the girl lost consciousness.

Teefa flew down to the ground, and set her wings behind her back. She whispered, "Now I am mad. You should never mess with me if you can't help it. You're going to pay for hurting my brother and friends." She then turned to Sky. "Sky! Come here! We've got to show this monster what it gets as payback."

Sky ran over to Teefa. The girl raised her hands, and let her magic spill out into Sky. The small creature began to grow until she was about the size of a five year old child. Her fur turned yellow, and her stripes were black. But her golden hair and eyes remained the same. As she continued to grow, she reached the size of a young teenager, with the same features. A white tube top and skirt appeared on Sky at that time. Amber wondered what was going to happen next, how else could Teefa change the tiger?

Her answer came soon. Teefa raised her hands higher into the air. "Power of light, power of life," chanted Teefa, "Bring our two powers together as one. Sylph! Kaze no Tora!" Suddenly, Sky's body began to turn into pure lightning, and walked over towards Teefa. As the two touched hands, a flash of light lit up the dark forest. When it cleared, she could see a new creature appear. It looked just like how Sky had before Teefa spoke, but now the hair was longer and she had on a long white robe with a golden scarf to act as a belt. But the biggest difference was the yellow wings, looking as if they were made out of lightning, that adorned her back. Amber was shocked, how in the world could a Magic User merge with a Partner?

"I am Sylph, the Child of Lightning. Come, and try to take me out you Demon!" the new creature spoke. The voice that came sounded not like Teefa's, but not like Sky's either. Rather, it was as if both of them were speaking at the same time, to form a distorted voice. A staff appeared in her hand, not exactly like the one she used when invoking the Orb of Lightning. Sylph raised it high above her head, and began to concentrate, drawing in as much power as she could muster in order to take on the attacking Mihan Demon.

Amber pleaded, "Teefa! Sky! Please be careful!" She could see that the Ryami was getting ready to charge, finally over its initial reaction to the strange changes in the girl and her Partner. But as the Ryami got close, it found resistance. A barrier of lightning was around the girl, protecting her from any attack.

She looked at the monster, a gleam of anger in her eyes. "Staff of Lightning!" Suddenly, all of the power in the shield vanished, added to the power she'd already gathered. Rushing at the Mihan Demon, the lightning found its mark easily. As the Ryami felt the sting of the lightning, trying to break free, Slyph struck at it with her claws. Unlike the Ryami, lightning floated in the blood of the merged form. Thus, it had no effect on the girl as she entered the shield, and struck the Mihan Demon in the jaw, killing it that instant.

After coaxing Rooks awake, as he was the least injured out of the group, the Partner went to work. He and Max had a special talent, the ability to heal wounds. So after fixing his fellow Partner up, they began to work together on the others. Max healed Lufia, while Rooks helped Donnie. Then, they checked on the relatively uninjured Amber, Alan, Teefa, and Sky. Looking at her Partner, Teefa smiled. She always knew she could rely on Rooks. Sometimes, she wondered if there was something more than that going on.

"What in the name of the Throne of Yord?!" a female voice exclaimed, "What kind of monster is that thing? And why is it attacking people, my daughter included?" In came a frantic Sophie, with Kagetsu close behind. Instantly, a smile lit up Amber's face, and she ran to embrace her parents, tears in her eyes.

"It's called a Ryami, and the smaller ones are Ryukami. They are Mihan Demons, who have been attacking the world non-stop for twenty years. Well, they've been around for millennia, but their constant attacks began after my mother killed their general. With no direction, they blindly strike out at our home, instead of looking for opportune moments to plan a large scale attack against it," explained Teefa. She looked to Amber's parents, and began to formulate a hypothesis. After all, her mom had showed her a picture once of Kagetsu, and Amber's story about her father was similar. To intelligent Teefa, there was no way it could be just a coincidence. Hopefully, there would be no hard feelings and no fights breaking out.

Kagetsu stated, "I thank you for protecting my daughter. My name is Kagetsu, a Neutralizer, and this is my wife, Sophie. We are just moving back to my old hometown, since our mountain home is getting hard to farm in." One by one, everyone introduced themselves. But when they got to Donnie, who was last and terrified for no good reason, Kagetsu felt faint. After all, Donnie looked exactly like Graham did.

Amber looked at Donnie, hearts in her eyes. "He's so cool Dad! He doesn't really use his magic, but he can turn his right arm into a whip, and constrict enemies with it. Isn't that so amazing?" That was the last thing needed. The color drained from his face, and Kagetsu fell down faint on the forest floor.

- - - -

Teefa's Last Words…

The fusion of Teefa & Sky is again based on that Arcana parody I did; that was the ultimate form that Rika and Toranmon could reach. Except that there weren't such cool special effects. And yeah, Donnie's the scardy cat. He would think only of his father's death before his mother saved him, and not look into the emotions and reasons behind it. Thus, Kagetsu scares him. Of course, not when they get to know each other.

Kaze no Tora: tiger of wind, wind tiger